FSE

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Many Beginnings Derek is an average tall fourteen year old guy with pitch

black hair and eyes to match, traits he got from his father, James, who works

as a construction worker two towns over. Even though James is away most of the

time of the week, the time he have at home, he spends with him and his younger brother

Mark, teaching them to live of the wild, basic survival skills such as making a

fire, tracking, finding water, in the nearby forest. While he finds the

experience interesting enough to listen and play along with James and his

brother, his real interests is being indoors and play games, especially the

fast paced shooters. Though Mark is the exact opposite, loving the outdoors and

everything James teaches them, he naturally became the favourite even though

James have never explicitly said it, but both of them knew that it was so.   Derek's mother, Alice, is sadly not among them

anymore since three years ago, when all four of them were in a horrible car

crash. While he and Mark came out of it with some severe bruises and minor

scars, James and Alice took the worst hit with internal bleeding and fractures

in several places. But ultimately Alice was the unlucky one and didn't make it

through the first night at the hospital. After three years, the pain of her

departure was still present, but the boys did their best to comfort each other,

hoping it would make her proud of them.   For quite a

while now, Derek and Mark have been nagging their dad to allow them to go

camping for a weekend without him, to really try the stuff he have taught them

for real. Having lost his wife, James have been reluctant to have his boys

camping alone in the woods inhabited by bears, wolfs and other predators. But

seeing his boys doing the sad puppy face he caved in, but on several

conditions. Firstly, Mark needed to have turned twelve, which was about a month

and a half away and would give them time to prepare for the trip. Secondly,

James would accompany them a few days before the trip, so that they could pick

a suitable spot to make camp. That was mostly for James to know where they

approximately would be in case the worst would happened. But the boys had a

counter-condition themselves, he would not be doing any decision making in the

camp spot, they made that clear.   Time flew by and

Marks birthday was tomorrow and Derek had yet bought him a present and since he

and James agreed to give their presents today, this is bad. Realizing this in

the morning, he took the bus to the city to find something at the mall. While

camping items would be a no-brainer, he knew that his dad had bought him a survival

kit and a new knife, it is a folding knife with a black tint and a small dark

blue stripe from the tip down the middle of the blade and ends in a slot in the

leather clad handle where it spells out "Mark", he had the knife custom made

from an old friend. So he decided to go in the game shop and see what was

there. Even though Mark's interests lied mainly in outdoor activities, he is

still the biggest Pokémon nerd he knows, so he decided to buy the newest Pokémon

game for his handheld game. He took the game from the shelf and went over to

the clerk at the counter.   "I would like to

buy this please." Derek said while giving the clerk the game.   "You're lucky,

that is the last one on stock, and would that be all?" Answered the clerk with

a courteous smile while taking the game.   "Yeah, it's a

present for my brother."   "Is that so,

then would you like me to wrap this in?" The clerk asked with the same smile on

his face. Derek thought about it, it would look more like it was thought

through if it was wrapped.    "Yes please,

that would be great." Spending a few moments wrapping the game the clerk put

the game in a bag and gave it to Derek. With his present ready he took the bus

back home before noon, just in time for helping James with the lunch Mark had

chosen the day before, namely pancakes.   "Please tell me,

that this is something other than your present for Mark." James said with a

slight hint of sarcasm, pointing to the bag, knowing full well that his eldest

son would have forgotten to buy a present.   "It's something

other than my present for Mark." Derek answered with a goofy grin plastered on

his face. James smiled, which to Derek was something of a rare thing since his

mom.    "Alright

smartass, you go make the table and call your brother down while I finish this

up."    When everyone

was settled and started eating, Derek and James could only laugh at Mark as he

ate pancake after pancake, barely chewing any of them. After lunch they gave

Mark his presents and watched him jumping up and down of joy unwrapping James'

gift. When Mark unwrapped Derek's game, he stood absolutely still, staring at

it with his mouth open, and James noticed a little drool by the corner of his

mouth.   "Is there

something wrong?" Derek asked, concerned that he already had it. But to his

surprise Mark leapt into him hugging him tightly and to Derek's dismay James

had the camera in hand and took several pictures of this extremely rare moment

where his boys hugged each other, or at least one hugged the other. After what

felt like an eternity he finally let go, said thanks and ran to his room to

start play his new game, leaving James laughing at Derek for the look on his face

which said, what the hell just happened, of which he had taken a picture of.    When they

finished cleaning up James and Derek started to prepare for their adventure

tomorrow, they tried to get Mark to do something as well, but he couldn't take

his eyes away from the game, though they did manage to make him pack his bag

with the stuff he would be needing.   When nightfall

came the three of them spent a couple of hours watching some movies James

rented earlier and then it was off to bed, they needed to start early to get

plenty of time to set up camp properly before it got dark.    Derek was lying

in bed thinking about tomorrow, about the excitement of finally trying the

stuff his dad had taught him, but he was also concerned, not for himself but

for Mark and his dad. This would be the first time his dad would be alone for a

weekend since his mom died and Mark, as prepared and knowledgeable as he was on

this matter, he couldn't let anything happen to him, even if his own health

would be in danger. He started to think about the day they got home from the

hospital after the accident, about how he forced himself to be strong for both

his dad and his little brother, taking care for them during the first few

months before they slowly returned to their lives. Tears started to form in his

eyes when he thought about the times during the nights when Mark had sneaked in

to his room telling him he had nightmares, how he let his brother sleep in his

bed and stayed by his side until he fell asleep.   He shook his head

and wiped the tears from his eyes, this was not the time to feel sad. He and

his brother is going camping tomorrow morning and it is going to be fun. With

these last thoughts he finally fell asleep. Derek woke up before the alarm rang, which is something

that had never happened before, usually the alarm would ring for several

minutes before his dad came in and woke him up by holding his nose until he

started flailing his arms or, the more popular choice of rudely waking your

son, splashing a glass of ice cold water on him. He got up and took a shower

before going in to the kitchen seeing his dad preparing a great breakfast for

them, as if trying to bribe them to stay home.   "Morning dad."   "Morning, ready

for your camping?" James asked flipping the bacon and eggs.   "Yeah, I

rechecked the list of things we needed, at least what would go into my bag.

Have Mark gotten up yet?"   "I don't know,

go and check will you, while I set the plates." Derek turned walked down the

hall to Mark's door and knocked.   "Mark, are you up yet, dad have finished the

breakfast?" opening slowly to find him checking his bag.   "I'm just

checking so I have everything, I'll be out in a second." With that Derek turned

and walked back the kitchen and sat down and true enough Mark came as he was

pouring himself a glass of milk.   "Morning dad."   "Morning,

alright boys, dig in and when you've finished you can just leave the plates on

the counter and meet me in the living-room." With that, he left. The brothers

looked at each other in bewilderment for a moment before the smell of the

delicious food took their worries away. Derek and Mark had a typical sibling

relationship where they annoy each other with practical jokes, so naturally

Mark saw his chance for revenge when Derek went to the bathroom, for when he

switched his blue shampoo with blue paint, dyeing him blue until his father

pointed it out, unfortunately when he got home several hours later. So he grabbed

the curry spice from the shelf and poured some of it in his milk, and the rest

of it on his food, he put it back on the shelf and sat down and continued

eating. Derek came back and started eating.   James heard

Derek yell from inside the kitchen and rushed back in only to find Mark lying

on the floor laughing uncontrollably while Derek was drinking from the faucet.

Remembering Derek's stunt on Mark a couple of months ago he figured it was just

payback.   "Mark, what did

you do?" Although he had an idea of what he did, he was merely curious. But

Mark was laughing so hard he could barely talk in complete sentences.   "Hahaha... I... put

curry... ahaha... in his... food and... milk." James started to laugh now, while Derek

still drank from the faucet.   "Well Derek, you

asked for it for your paint stunt a couple of months ago." Still chuckling he

returned to the living room.    When Derek's mouth wasn't on fire anymore he

help Mark up from the floor, cleaned the table and walk into the living room,

to find their dad holding two wrapped boxes.   "Years ago, when

your... mother was alive, she and I had these made for you for Christmas. But

with the accident and all, I didn't think it would be a good idea to give them

to you while grieving. But enough time have passed and, well, here you go." The

brothers were stood silent in the doorway watching the matching boxes. Turning

their gaze to their dad sitting on the couch smiling at them with traces of

tears on his cheeks. They took the boxes, unwrapped them, opened the box and

literally dropped their jaws. Inside the boxes was matching knives, black

tinted, leather handle but the décor was out of this world. Along the blade,

three silver stripes wrapped around each other, almost playfully so, and a dark

silver-grey stripe moved along the edge of it. The sheath was black coloured

leather with dark grey letters spelling "Family

Is Where Life Begins & Love Never Ends".   "We wanted you

to have it for when we thought you were old enough to go out in the forest by

yourselves." The Brothers looked at each other both coming to the same

conclusion, they were too beautiful to be used and precious to be used,

especially after that story. But James insisted on it, arguing that it is what

their mother would have wanted. With that they strapped their knives on their

belts hugging James.   About an hour

later they stood at the edge of the forest with their backpacks trying to

venture of into the wild, but James had a little hard time letting go of his

sons, but he came to his senses and let them go. After a couple of hours of walking they arrived at the

designated campsite and started to set up the camp. Mark set up the tent while Derek

collected dry wood for fire, when that was done they went off together to

explore the area a bit more. The sun went down rather fast and they went back

to the camp and started a fire, which Derek struggle a bit with so Mark took

over and much to Derek's jealousy managed to start it within a few seconds,

which made Mark grin from ear to ear.    When they

finished eating and cleaning up, Mark took the knife he got from his dad

yesterday and inspected it, when he grew bored with it he fished up the game

from his backpack and started to play.   "Are you really

going to play your game while in the woods camping?"   "Why not, we've

finished the necessary chores for today and it's too dark to do anything else

but sleep."   "Whatever, I'm

going to take a leak." With that Derek went to their designated 'bathroom' and

relieved himself, but when he finished he heard a scream coming from the

direction of the camp. Derek sprinted back the camp fearing the worst only to

see it in chaos, with his heart pounding, he ran about looking for Mark but he

was nowhere to be seen. With hands shaking with panic he took the flashlight

and looked around the camp and saw a trail of broken twigs heading deeper in to

the woods. With his knife in hand he set of to find his little brother.    Following the

trail he heard some faint noises further in, when nearing it he could hear

music. Derek rushed towards the music and entered a small clearing and found

the game along with the knife in the middle of it, but no sign of Mark. He

picked up the game and the knife and put them in the pocket and tried to find a

trail. But the flashlight was giving up, so he started to shout Mark's name

out, hoping he would be close enough to hear and answer it. With his heart

running hundreds of miles an hour the time felt like years, but sure enough he

heard Mark call for him and he set of running towards it. He ran through the

forest thinking only of finding his little brother and soon enough he ran to a

clearing with a single tree in the middle, and on a branch was his brother

clinging for his dear life with a large bear trying to climb up. Thinking of

his feet he sheathed his knife and picked up a nearby rock and threw it at the

bear while screaming at it, trying to get its attention. It worked, for the

bear now turned to him and rushed towards him, which made Derek run back into

the forest hoping to lose it in the darkness.    Derek had been

running for quite some time now and had managed too loose the bear, but now he

had another problem to deal with, he did not know where he was. As it was in

the middle of the night and chances of stumble upon the camp while aimlessly

walking around being almost nonexistence, Derek decided he needed to find

somewhere safe enough to set up a camp and try to get back tomorrow. Looking

around trying to find a spot, through some trees he saw something with

structure and moving closer he saw what looked like a temple made of stone.

Briefly thinking it to be odd to find a temple in the middle of the woods, he

walked inside to search for any dangers before he called it for the night.

Using Mark's game as a light source he noticed the walls being filled with

inscriptions, some he recognised as Egyptian hieroglyphs, some Greek and Latin

letters but most of them where unknown to him. Following the wall he came to a

large square room with an elevated plateau in the middle with a small stone pedestal

at the centre of it, in the corners were curved tablets standing on the ground

with more unrecognised scripture pointing at the pedestal in the middle.

Looking around some more it appears that this room was the end of it, so Derek

went to the farthest corner from the exit and fell asleep.   Waking up

feeling tense due to the running and sleeping on a stone floor, he noticed that

the roof had a small opening right above the tablet letting the sunlight

illuminate the room. After some stretching he explored the room more closely,

looking at the tablet closest to him he noticed that there was a highly polished

metal plate in the centre and was fastened by a metal rod horizontally giving

you the option of redirecting the light. Above the metal was a picture of the pedestal

in the room with four straight lines pointing towards the top of it and

surrounding the picture were more scripture. Derek went to another tablet and

saw the exact same thing, the polished metal in the centre with the picture of

the pedestal above it and with an opening in the roof. Feeling the curiosity

taking over he walked to each of the four tablets and adjusted the metal plates

and directing the sunlight to the pedestal in the middle. Seeing that nothing

happened when he adjusted the last one he walked over to the pedestal and saw

an imprint of a hand on it. Placing his right hand on it some music suddenly

started to play, coming from his pocket, which he recognised as the soundtrack

from Mark's Pokémon game, but it was odd for Derek had turned the game off when

he went to sleep. Fishing it out he tried to turn it off but he couldn't, so he

placed the game on the pedestal and placed his hand back on the imprint.   As soon as his

hand made contact he could feel something grabbing hold of it and keeping it in

place, meanwhile the room had turned pitch black, despite it being morning.

Trying to take his hand away from the pedestal he started to panic, he tried to

use his other hand to pull it away but it wouldn't budge. Looking around he

could see figures consisting of light walking around not noticing him. Some of

them resembled people while others were walking on four legs, he saw a group of

people-like figures standing in the corner talking amongst themselves. The

figures kept coming and going for a while until it got pitch black once again.

His panic increased and he frantically tried to remove his hand, not noticing

the figure appearing in front of him, staring at him. The figure walked slowly

towards Derek as if it had all the time in the world, while Derek tried to set

his foot at the side of the pedestal and push. When it stood right in front of

him did he notice it and looked up at the face, what he saw almost made him faint.   Right in front

of him stood Alice, his mother who passed away a couple of years ago, looking

just like she did before the accident. All panic receded from his mind, though

he was a little spooked and surprised, he was in peace and serenity, as if all

his worries and problems had suddenly washed away. She just stood there looking

into his eyes, smiling. They stared at each other for quite a while before

Alice placed her hand on Derek's, which was still on the pedestal, and when she

had placed it he could feel the warmth flowing into his cold hand and to

Derek's surprise she lifted his hand, pulled him towards her and hugged him as

hard as her real mother did when he was little. Derek didn't know how to react,

in front of him was his long dead mother, hugging him. Despite all thoughts in

his head trying to explain the situation, he let himself go with the moment and

hugged her back.   "I can't tell

you how much I've missed this feeling." Her voice sounded as if she was talking

in a great hall, as if the sound echoed from the walls around them.   "How is this

possible?" They let go each other and stared into each other's eyes, he could

see her making the same face when he asked for help with his homework, she was

thinking very hard.   "Everything and

everyone is connected to each other, every living thing's consciousness is

bound to a greater plane where thoughts and dreams rule. When someone dies,

only their bodies dies, their spirit still lives on in this plane and, unless

they are completely forgotten, they can still watch those who carry their

memories." Around them shimmering figures continued to appear and disappear,

people celebrating and animals playing. Amidst all the commotion, Derek saw an

image of himself, Mark, James and Alice playing on the beach.   "Whenever I'm

not watch over you, I'm reliving my memories, both good and bad, so that I

might find wisdom and further guide you in whatever way I can from here. That

time on the beach was the one time we all were truly happy." Her face became

sterner and sadder.   "Ever since I

died, despite it being a long time ago, none of you have felt that same joy

again, especially you. I've seen you trying to carry everyone's burden, being

strong for both your brother and father. I can see you, about to break from the

immense pressure you have put on yourself." Tears started to flow from both

Alice's and Derek's eyes and the lights were once again starting to fade into darkness.

Every word she spoke was like a stab in the soul, everything was true.   "This force that

connects us all, this life force, is what keeps me at this state. It's a

powerful force that put in the wrong hands, could destroy everything." She

looked deeper into his eyes, meaning every word she said.    "I can't see how

you will be able to move on from my death, you have always been the one who

shoulders every ones problems, you need someone outside the family who you will

be able to trust no matter what would happen. There is a world where people and

creatures help each other to become stronger." Her radiant smile once again

shone the room with brilliant light.    "I know there

will be someone there that will be able to share the burden you have placed

upon yourself, but it will take all the energy, along with some of our

ancestors, to get you there." Looking around he saw people, just as radiant as

Alice, staring right at him with the same kind of smile as his mother. Derek

recognised only a few of them, his grandparents and an uncle, the rest was

dressed in older looking clothes, but were just the same smiling at him.   "You haven't

meet or even heard of most of them, but they are all here to try and give you

the life you deserve, even if it means that they will cease to exist." The last

sentence made Derek come back from the shock and thoughts of being

hallucinating, cease to exist?    "Wait, you mean

that I won't be able to see you again, yet again" It's one thing to lose one of

your loved ones once, it is an inevitable part of life, but too lose your

mother twice?    "After all those

years of mourning your death, all the pain, you expect me to just let you go

again?" Despite him being upset, she kept smiling at him, looking into his eyes

with all the love a mother could have for her son. She may have left him at a

too young age, but she could see through him to the very bones, she knew that

this was just all the emotion he had kept stored from the moment of her death,

all the emotions finally getting out. Derek kept on talking almost to the point

he was yelling, but Alice kept on smiling, patiently waiting for him to finish.   "I will not let

you do it." Was the last thing he said before he stopped, waiting for an

answer.    "Still the

stubborn little hero, not letting anyone going in the way of harm. But this is

needed, honey, not only for your own sake, but for James and Mark as well, they

are suffering at home. Your attempts of trying to carry both of them will crush

you later on. I know you all will find peace in this world." He would be able

to deter her from doing whatever she was going to do, especially in the tone

she had. He remembered all the time he tried to convince her to let him go to

the cinema without his father and mother and every time she said no in that

same tone, even James would not be able to change her mind.    "Once you arrive

you have to find a way to contact James as soon as possible, he will not stop

looking for you, even if he levelled the entire forest. There is a similar

temple somewhere in the other world." She stepped back while the others around

him came closer, forming a circle around Derek. The room was pitch black aside

from the light radiating from the figures around Derek, but above him was a small

orb of pure light, shining very weakly. It descended to Derek's eyelevel where

it hovered, one by one the persons approached the orb and merge themselves with

it, making the orb shine brighter each time. By the end it was shining so

strong he had to avert his eyes from it. The last person to approach was Alice,

and before she too merged herself with the shining orb, she said,   "I will always

be with you, looking after you, James and Mark, for "family is where life begins & love never ends". With those last

words she disappeared and the light from the orb blinded Derek, before he felt

himself getting lifted from the ground.  In the midst of Santalune Forest, a vast and green

forest, a happy little female Riolu was walking around trying to find some food.

She had been searching for quite a while and with the persistent humans running

around only made it harder to find anything of substance without being caught. After

a while the Riolu could see a human which she trusted enough not be scared of

him, one of those friendly persons who do not capture other Pokémons but merely

observes them. The Riolu sniffed the air, sensing the smell of delicious

berries doming form the direction of the professor. But she was reluctant to

approach, but the growling stomach and the trust she had for the professor made

up for the possibility of being caught, so with one last look at the

surroundings of other people, she walked over making enough noise to announce

her approach, so as to not scare the professor. The professor reacted to the

noise and smiled when he saw what had made it, it was his little furry blue

friend.   "Ah, nice to see

you again Riolu, I take its food you are after again?" She barked her name

happily as a response, although she felt shame for mooching of him for food

every time they met, but then again her hunger told her not to be too picky.   "Hahaha,

alright, let us see what we have in the bag then for you." He laughed while

rooting around in his bag and pulled out some berries and gave them to her. She

happily took them from him and with a happy bark as thanks she sat down and

started to eat. The professor sat down as well opposite her and started to eat

a sandwich. They enjoyed each other's company well enough but with a language

barrier as that of Pokémons and humans, the conversations held between them was

rather short yes and no statements. With their lunch all eaten up the Riolu

made a happy bark again and waved goodbye as she walked away.    With her stomach

full, she thought she would return home to her hole in a tree to get some sleep

before she started to train. Her mom and dad could not stress enough about the

training, saying that if she didn't train hard enough she would become

vulnerable to other predators. But they did need to try and push her into

training, she would have done it anyway as she thinks its fun and exhilarating

training, especially when she was sparring, the heat of battle was something

she couldn't get enough of. Her father saw her enthusiasm to fight others and

had a long talk about not looking for trouble, but to only use her fighting

skills in defence when not sparring.    Thinking back to

her time with her parents irrevocably led her thoughts to the day when they

were both captured by some people in dark uniforms with a big R in the front.

Her dad carried her while her mom shot balls of energy at them to try and slow

them down enough for them to escape, but some of them had guns, and managed to

hit her dad in the leg, falling to the ground with his child in his arms. He looked

at his mate, who was exhausted from the running and use of energy attacks. The Riolu

couldn't hear what they said between each other, but her mom didn't like it for

she growled angrily at him while he remained calm. The sound of footsteps came

closer and closer, and with tears in her eyes, she took the Riolu in her arm

and help him up, and then ran away, leaving him to be captured or killed by the

humans. The Riolu was flailing wildly, yelling for her dad. But her mother

didn't return to get him, but kept on running, until a loud bang could be heard.

She stopped dead in her tracks, looking behind her before she looked at her

little child.   "You need to get

away from here and hide, you hear me, run away and don't look back." She said

while putting her down. But she didn't run, how could she, how could she run

from her mother and father.    "RUN!!" She

yelled at her while shooting small balls of energy in front of her to make her

move. With that she burst out in tears, turned around and ran, she ran as fast

as she could, not looking back once. Even if she couldn't see what was going on

behind her, she could still hear everything clearly. The humans had caught up

with her who was sending energy balls at them while trying to dodge their

counterattacks from their own Pokémon's. Suddenly she could hear the same bang

from before that made her mother stop running, but she kept on running and

running until she could not run anymore. Franticly trying to find a place to

hide before they found her, she managed to find a hole in the ground covered by

a fallen log and bushes. She dived inside and covered the hole as best she

could from inside and lied there for what seemed like hours, until she finally

fell asleep from exhaustion.   That horrible

day still haunted her to this day, and it took a long time for her to not

unprovoked attack every human she saw. She found, through other Pokémon, that

some humans are friendly and take good care of them. When she saw this

first-hand, she let go of the hatred of the entire human race, and reserved it

for the people who are mean and cruel to their own and other Pokémons.   Suddenly a burst

of light further down the path, behind the trees, interrupted her train of

thought and curiosity kicked in. She silently moved forward with her paws

raised, prepared to attack if any threat showed itself. She approached a

clearing and in the middle of it, lied a boy, not moving. The high grass

surrounding him had been turned into ashes, leaving him seemingly untouched.

She sneaked up to the boy to get a closer look. She saw an average looking boy

with black hair and a light complexion, there was blood on his face and shirt

and there was three cuts across his eye. She laid her head on his chest and

heard his heart still beating, but something strange happened as soon as she

touched him.    She saw a flash

of light and in the same moment she was inside a house, in the living room, it

was brightly lit. By the window she saw a mother holding her crying child,

talking to him, while looking out the window on the horrible destruction that

ravaged the countryside. The Riolu walked to the window to get a closer look

and gasped when she saw where they were, it was the town closest to her home.

The human mother looked down and stared directly in her eyes and said,   "Take care of

him and make sure he finds his way in your world" With that, darkness fell.    With a sudden

gasp for air, as if she had been holding her breath for a long time, she woke

up, still by the unconscious teenager. She looked around, hoping to find

someone who could help her, but there was no one around, so with no other idea

coming to mind she ran back to the clearing she found the professor, hoping he

would be still be there. In no time at all she arrived and found the professor

packing up to head home and when he saw the Riolu running towards him with

panic in her face he readied himself to defend himself and her. But when she

came to his side she barked urgently while tugging his sleeve, showing him to

follow her. He quickly got the message and ran after her, of which he barely

managed as she was rather fast. When she led him to the clearing she came from,

he could see why see wanted him to follow her.    He ran to the

boy still lying on the ground, noting the surrounding area quickly before

returning his attention to the boy. He checked the pulse while inspecting the

wounds on his face, to Riolu's surprise since nothing seems to have happened to

him, and found it to be dangerously low, he needed to get him to the nearest

medical facility, which in this case was the Pokémon centre in Santalune City.

The smeared blood was dry and the cuts seems to be healing well enough,

thinking it did not happen recently. He need to get him to his car by the

trail, but it would take too long time to just carry the boy, and if any

hostile Pokémon chose to attack, they would be defenceless. He took out the

pokeball from his belt and threw it into the air and out came his Venusaur.

Quickly explaining his plan the Venusaur grabbed the boy with his vines and

placed him on the Pokémon's neck, in the meantime the professor turned to the Riolu

still standing nearby and said,   "Riolu, I need

you to help and defend us if any hostile Pokémon or trainers attacks, at least

until we get to my car just outside the forest. With the vision still clear in her mind she nodded,

agreeing to protect them. Mark saw Derek take the bears attention and lead it away

from himself, and run into the forest without any light. When the bear had

disappeared in the forest Mark climbed down and ran towards the camp, hoping

Derek would lose the bear and find his way back. He arrived to the thrashed and

empty camp and waited impatiently for Derek to show up. After what seemed like

hours, but was more like twenty minutes, he started to shout Derek's name into

the night hoping it would lead Derek to him, but shouting for ten minutes

yielded nothing. With nothing else coming to mind he started to run home to get

his dad, if anyone would be able to find Derek and, if necessary fight of that

bear, it would be him. While running he was suddenly pushed forward by a strong

force, making him loose his balance and trip. Looking around he only saw leaves

falling from the trees but couldn't see anything that would have caused it.

Pushing those thoughts to the side he continued his way home. James felt a little sad to see his two boys walk into the

forest without him, but underneath all the feelings of worry and fear, he felt

pride, he was proud to see them explore the forest that had almost been like a

second home to all three of them. He couldn't help to think about Alice, about

how she hated the wild. A single tear fell down his cheek, but he was smiling,

knowing that even if she wasn't by his side anymore, he still had his memories

of her. Wiping away the tear he turned around and went back inside.   After a day of

doing chores around the house, including cleaning up the mess in Derek's and

Mark's rooms, despite having old them to clean up before they left, he took out

some beers from the fridge, a bowl of snacks and put in an old western movie

with Clint Eastwood, it was an old favourite of his from when he was younger.    Following the

movie from the beginning to the end with the same eagerness as the first time

he saw it, he started to reminisce about the first time he made Alice sit down

and watch it with him, remembering how she hated it. Looking over at the shelf

with old movies he saw an old home movie and decided to watch it. He put the

movie in and hit play and as soon as he saw Alice, Mark and Derek on the screen

he smiled, feeling a sense of peace washing away all worries. Watching the

seemingly unimportant events he started to remember what they were doing, it

was the time they all went to a cabin they borrowed from a friend of Alice, it

was a horrible day, it was raining all day so they decided to roost

marshmallows in the fireplace.    But all of a

sudden he heard the front door burst open and Mark's calling for him, he rushed

out to the hall and found him sweaty, dirty and with his cloths torn, but he

could not see Derek anywhere.   "Mark, what

happened?!" Panic started to rise, but for the sake of Mark he tried to keep it

under control. Mark started to recall the events about the bear and how Derek

ran off with it further into the forest. When he finished James lead him into

the kitchen and said,   "I want you to

stay here while I go and look for him, in case he returns home. I will be back

in the morning" swallowing hard "... and if I haven't found him by then, I call

the police while you go door to door asking for help in the search, alright?"

He didn't wait for a reply but went to the closet in the bedroom to get some

things he needed, a flashlight, a knife and gun, in case any bears would show

up again. With the knife and the gun strapped to the belt he went outside,

leaving Mark still in the kitchen, to search for Derek.  The professor, Venusaur and Riolu hurried down the trail,

only being stopped by a couple of trainers wanting to battle, but Riolu punched

them of the trail before they had a chance to react. Soon enough they arrived

at the car and with Venusaur's help the professor put the boy in the backseat

and put on the seatbelt. He recalled his old friend after thanking him for the

help and sat in the car ready to drive to the Pokémon Centre, but what

surprised him was that the otherwise reserved Riolu sat in the back with the

boy, inspecting the seatbelt with an odd fascination, smiling inwardly he drove

away as fast as he could out of the forest and straight for Santalune City.    About halfway

there the professor called ahead to make sure there was someone to meet them

when they arrived and gave them as much information as he could to help them

prepare. He looked in the rear-view mirror and saw the boy still being

unconscious with Riolu keeping a watchful eye on him. About twenty minutes

later they arrived at the centre and just outside the front entrance was one of

the Nurse Joys standing with a Chansey and a stretcher, ready to take the boy.

The professor stopped by the medical personnel, got out and helped them get the

boy on the stretcher, in the meantime Riolu was carefully looking around with her

muzzle slightly ajar as she's never been in a city before. Snapping back to

reality Riolu saw the humans roll the boy inside the giant building so she

followed, but still on guard in case someone made a move towards her or the

boy. They rolled him past the reception and further down the corridor until the

end of it when Nurse Joy stopped them saying they couldn't go any further and

had to wait in the lobby. Riolu was not pleased by that and started to bark

angry at her, while in her own tongue throwing curses at them, but they

wouldn't know about that. The professor pulled her back trying to calm her and

eventually she saw no meaning in continuing as the Nurse Joy went with the boy.   An hour and a

half later Nurse Joy came out with a smile on her face.   "Everything seems to be okay, he is still

unconscious but his condition seems stable and the wound across his eye seems

to have healed up very nicely, though there was some anomalies in his

brainwaves, it appears that his brain activity is several times greater than

normal" Nurse Joy continued by telling them that there doesn't seem to be any

other physical trauma of any kind that would explain his current state.   "Now that we

know he's stable, is he the Riolu's trainer?" Asked Nurse Joy seeing the professor

and Riolu look at each other.   "I don't know, Riolu

here seemed to have found him in a clearing in the forest, as far as I could

tell he is not a trainer as he had no balls on his belt or had any belongings

beside whatever he had on him." While the professor and Nurse Joy kept talking,

Riolu was fidgeting with her paws, she wanted to see him, to make sure he was

okay.    During their

discussion one of the Chanseys came bursting through the door with an alarmed

expression while flailing her arms around. She called for Nurse Joy to come

with her and all four of them ran through the corridors and open the door to

the, up until now, unconscious boy was placed.  Derek woke up in a surprisingly comfortable bed when the

sun was about to set, but when he opened his eyes he did not recognised the

room he was in. At first he thought he was in a hospital room, but there were

some elements that did not make any sense. To start with, he could not see his

brother and father in the room, despite there being a couch against the far

wall for visitors to rest, secondly some of the posters on the wall depicted

Pokémons and what seemed to be their anatomy, very much like the posters in a

doctor's office. Lastly, the machine in the room had a logo that reminded him

of those hospitals in the games.    He put those

thoughts to the side and sat up, some of the wires connected to him by some

sticky substance came loose but as nothing seemed to happen he did not care

about it. He got of the bed carefully standing up so that he wouldn't fall to

the floor and walked over to the window. What he first noticed was the height,

from it he thought he was on the third or fourth floor. In the distant he saw a

large forest stretching for miles in every directions and the edge of it was a

large road going straight for him until it forks to the sides. Along the road

was small buildings which looked like small shops and private houses, here

there was some second and third story buildings but other than the height there

was nothing special about them. What did catch his eye was the people and what

was walking, in some cases floating, along with them. Derek squinted his eyes

hoping to see more details but he was too far up to see anything but the bright

colours.    Derek turned

away from the window and went to one of the posters of a Pokémon's anatomy.

During his reading of how cannons, which shot water, were attached to a giant

blue turtles back, someone opened the door to his room and when he turned, he

dropped his jaw. Before him was a very bright pink, round little creature with

a nursing outfit and a giant egg in a pouch on its stomach. It seemed like ages

before any of them made a move or sound before she said,   "Chansey!" she

looked rather happy and friendly and was carrying a fresh bouquet of wild

flowers to replace those standing on the nightstand, a custom of the centre.

Unfortunately Derek did not see that, for as soon as she spoke he panicked and

started to throw whatever small loose things that was within his range, though

the most dangerous thing he managed to throw was a clipboard, mostly it was

stuffed Pokémons but Chansey used her small arms to cover herself nonetheless

while she backed away and ran. Derek went to the door opening and looked around,

seeing no one he turned the opposite direction which Chansey went and ran

through various corridors hoping to find the exit. The group arrived at the boy's room but was stunned to

see it empty and in a mess with the stuffed Pokémons and miscellaneous things

scattered on the floor, suddenly someone screamed further down corridor and

they all went in that direction, but on the way there the boy came running

towards them before he made a sharp turn towards the stairway, as if trying to

avoid us. While Nurse Joy and Chansey continued to where the scream was heard,

the professor and Riolu followed the boy down the stairs. Even with the speed Riolu

possessed they couldn't catch up with him, he was unnaturally fast for a human,

when he ran through the doorway at the bottom of the stairs she thought he

would get away, but they heard a thud and as if someone fell hard on the floor.

When they reached the same doorway they saw an Alakazam looking very pissed at

the boy cowering beneath him.   "Easy boy, he

did not mean it." The Alakazam's trainer tried to calm it down and to some

degree it worked, for all he did was whack him on the head with one of his

spoons. With that the boy darted past them towards the exit, surprising both

the trainer and the Pokémon of how fast he was. But the professor and Riolu had

caught up with him and screamed for him to stop.    "Alakazam, use

Psychic on him" with that the boy was suspended in the air, just a couple of

metres away from the exit. Both the trainer and Alakazam moved in front of the

boy, but what happened next surprised them all, especially Alakazam, for when

Alakazam came into view of the boy he managed to break his arm free of his

bonds and punched him square in the face, sending the poor Pokémon flying

across the lobby and hitting the opposite wall, knocking him unconscious. When

the boy fell on his butt he looked more confused and surprised than any of

them.   "What happened?"

the trainer asked, but before the boy could answer Nurse Joy had crept up

behind him and injected him with a powerful sedative which knocked him out

within seconds. A Chansey came running with a stretcher to them while the

professor and Nurse Joy lifted him up and put him down on it, strapping his

ankles and wrists in case something would happen, and rolled him away to a more

secure room, leaving the trainer and Chansey to tend to his unconscious

Pokémon. When Derek, once again, woke up he couldn't move that

very much, but that didn't really bother him at this point, for his thoughts

went back to when he knocked that creature across the room, which was much

bigger than him. Letting his thoughts continue to move backwards to when he saw

a ghost in the hallway, to the pink thing in the doorway and finally to his

brother. That last thought made a lump in his throat, he didn't even know if

Mark made it back home. He had to get back home, so he looked around the room

and by the looks of it, it seems to be an identical room from the one he was in

before, but everything was nailed to walls and floors and the construction of

everything seems to be more, solid. He looked down on his body and saw that his

hands and legs were bound as well as his torso. Feeling claustrophobia creeping

up he tried to get his arms loose, but the sedative was still in his body making

him feel groggy and weak.   "Please calm

down, there is no one here who want you or anyone else hurt" the voice startled

Derek who thought he was alone. But to his left a middle aged man with a lab

coat, dark blue and wave hair was sitting in a chair watching him closely.    "My name is

Sycamore, I'm a professor mainly studying evolution here in Kalos. Who are you

and how did you end up in that field wounded and unconscious?" The man seemed

honest and nice enough so Derek answered him.   "I'm Derek and I

was attacked by a bear before I woke up in the other room."   "What is a

bear?" That question baffled Derek.   "What kind of

professor who studies evolution don't know what a bear is?" Before Sycamore

could reply Riolu jumped up on the bed to get a closer look at Derek and when

Derek saw her he panicked and thrashed around, trying to get her of, but the

straps would budge.   "Derek calm

down, it's just Riolu, she found you in the field and help bring you here to

the centre." Derek stopped thrashing around as he realised he couldn't get her

off, but where was he?   "Where am I,

what centre?"   "The Pokémon

Centre in Santalune City." Derek did not know what to do, either he was

dreaming of this man who had him tied to a bed was insane, saying Pokémon as it

were anything else beside a children's cartoon show. Looking at Riolu again, he

did remember seeing something like it in one of Mark's games, but how would

that even be possible?    "You are not

from around here, are you?" Derek could only chuckle at that question, if he

only knew how right he was. He wanted to get home but, how would that even be

an option, he has somehow travelled to a video game. Maybe going back to the

field he was found could reveal something as to how he got here.   "Where is this

field you found me on?" Sycamore was a little reluctant to answer him, not for

selfish reasons, on the contrary, the boy does not seems to be equipped,

mentally or otherwise, to be on the road. He could get himself and others hurt

or worse.   "I don't think

you going out on your own would be a good idea, especially after your reactions

to Pokémons, for they're everywhere. I will take you there and when you're

finished there, I would like you to follow me back to my lab just outside Aquacorde

Town, I would like to ask you some questions, about you and about the, incident

with the Alakazam in the lobby. Do we have a deal?" Derek thought that would

come sooner, but nonetheless, he seems to be trustworthy, and he did make a

point, he wouldn't know what to do when more of them showed up.   "Fine, but one

more question, where's my clothes?" when Derek was running around the hospital,

he noticed he was wearing a set of pyjamas, hopefully courtesy of the hospital.

Sycamore merely chuckled.   "I'll see where Nurse Joy have placed them,

but we will stay here until she tells otherwise." With that he left looking for

his clothes.   Riolu had been

watching silently while they talked, thinking about the dream she had in the

field, but when Sycamore left she crept closer until their noses almost

touched. She could feel his panicked breath on her, she couldn't identify it,

but whatever he ate, it smelled wonderful. She woke up from her small trance

and saw him eying her with a sense of confusion, probably because she seemed to

have drooled a little while in trance. She felt she could have died from the

embarrassment alone, her cheeks became tomato red and could actually be seen by

others.    When growing up,

Derek never really got into the Pokémon frenzy that had taken most of his

class-mates and what little he did know about it was whatever others had said.

He didn't see the cartoon show with his brother, except for those times when he

was forced to because Mark had the TV-privileges due to illness, he haven't

played the games at all, though he had seen some of it from time to time when

Mark was playing. This huge disadvantage made Derek very uncertain how to react

to the curious little Riolu exploring her surroundings, deep down he still

thought this was a dream, so he slowly reached out and poked Riolu on the

chest. Riolu looked back at him with a confused and after some time had passed,

annoyed look for he held it there for quite a while until Riolu pushed his hand

away. Now they simply stared at each other, Derek trying to come to terms of

been trapped in a cartoon and Riolu trying to figure out what Derek is thinking

about.   A couple of

minutes later Sycamore came back with his things in a plastic box and following

him was Nurse Joy, smiling as always.   "Nurse Joy here

will make a thorough physical examination and depending on what she says we can

leave within the hour." Said Sycamore while placing the box on the nightstand.    "While she does

that, why don't we go and explore the town?" Sycamore directed the question to

Riolu who got very excited and leapt from the bed to the doorway where she

urged him to hurry up.   "I will send for

you when we are done here, it should take more than an hour." With that

Sycamore left and she turned to Derek who was about to get out of the bed and

see if everything was there. When he had looked through everything he started

to panic, because his knife was not among it, only his brothers.    "Where is my

knife?"    "Everything you

had on you when professor Sycamore brought you here is in that box, from what

I've heard they found you on a field, unconscious, you might have dropped it

there. Now, the examination consists mostly of scans and so I would like you to

follow me please." Through her explanation she had the same smile from when she

came in, which to some degree calmed Derek down, but he really wanted his knife

back. She helped him up from the bed and had him lean on her while he tried to

walk, the sedative she had injected him with was very powerful, and it took a

minute or two before he could walk by himself. They went down the corridors to

a large room with machines and screens along the walls and in the middle was an

elevated platform which she directed him to. She walked over to the control

panel and turned the machine on, it started to hum and lights switched on

everywhere, the platform started glow blue underneath him.   "Three arms will

come down and surround you, these will slowly rotates around you and make some

noise. They will be scanning your body for the next half an hour and in the

meantime you need to stand perfectly still so the results will be as accurate

as possible." Sure enough the arms came down and rotated around him.    After an

excruciating thirty minutes of standing still, the machine started to slow down

and the arms retracted back, clearing the way for Derek to step down.    "Alright, this

part is now done, the professor requested to have a copy of the data sent to

him for further analysis. The last part is merely answering some questions"

Derek noticed her puzzled look while he was scanned, could it really had been

that bad? She led him out of the room back to his room, where she had him

seated on the bed.   "What were you

doing on the field?"   "I don't know, I

don't even know how I got there or that I was there at all, I woke up in the

other room you had me placed" The puzzled look returned for a fraction of a

second before it returned to her deep-thinking expression.   "What is the

last thing you remember?"   "Running from a

bear in the forest in the middle of the night, leading it away from my brother."

She reacted when he said bear, just as the professor did.   "Where is your

brother now?"   "I don't know"   "Your reaction

to Chansey and the other Pokémons, both in the corridor where you ran into a

Chesnaught and the Alakazam in the lobby, why where running from them?" Derek

thought long and hard on how he should answer that question, he wanted this to

be over but he didn't want to lie to her either, she seems nice.   "Because I

haven't seen a live Pokémon before" that was true enough.   "That knife in

your box, where did you get it?" That questioned surprised him, aside from the

sentimental value of it, there's nothing special about it.   "It's my

brothers, he dropped it when running from the bear." She gazed at him for a

seemingly long time before her smile returned and said,   "Okay, my

examination is done, I will contact the professor to come and pick you up." She

lowered her voice,   "For your own

sake, stay with the professor for the time being. If harmless Pokémon scare you

like they did earlier today I don't want to see your reaction to the wild

Pokémons, I would stay and learn from him as much as I can, and besides, I

think the Riolu likes you." At the end she smiled and winked at him before

leaving him to change his clothes.    When Derek was

fully dressed and with his brother's knife secured to the belt, he walked out

of the room and down the hall to explore. After some aimless wandering and

meeting some Pokémon with their trainers, he wound up in the lobby and there he

turned towards the exit, but before he could take another step someone grabbed

hold off his shoulder. Turning around he saw a boy about his own age and

height, but with brown hair and sky-blue eyes, wearing a red and white cap with

a weird logo in front, a blue jacket and black pants. Derek recognised him as

the boy who had his Pokémon stop him from escaping earlier, but to his surprise

he didn't seem mad as one would have thought he would be after he had his

strongest Pokémon knocked out by a human boy, instead he had a friendly smile

on his face.   "Hi, my name is

Bruce, I'm the trainer of the Alakazam you knocked out earlier today." Derek

was not sure how to respond, he had never been in a fight before and he was

pretty sure this was not the normal reaction to the one who knocked out one of

your friends.    "I'm Derek,

sorry about that." To his surprise he started to laugh.   "Don't worry

about that he's just fine, Chansey is looking him over and besides, this might

take him down a peg, lately he's become rather cocky about his strength." Having

said that his expression turned serious.   "All that aside,

how did you do it, how were you able to knock a Pokémon bigger than you across

the room?" Derek was trying to come up with an answer, but how could he. He had

no clue to what happened when he punched that thing, nor how he actually got

here.   "I..."   "Derek! Should

we be on our way, it won't take long before the sun sets." Sycamore just came

through the front entrance before Derek could even start to try and explain,

but he had other priorities, he wanted to go home, so he simply nodded, shook Bruce's

hand goodbye and went with Sycamore to travel to the field where they found

him.    Riolu saw the

professor looking worried at Derek while he was talking to the other trainer

and was a little confused when he suddenly burst out. But she didn't think anything

of it when Derek made his way towards them, instead she was thinking about all

she had seen, smelled, heard and tasted. While all three were walking towards

Sycamore's car she saw an ice cream shop and after her adventure with Sycamore,

she needed a cone. Riolu barked to get their attention and burst of in the

direction of the shop. The others followed as fast as their legs could carry

them and when they realised where she was headed they slowed down to walking,

previously thinking something had happened. They all went inside and Sycamore

bought them all an ice cream cone which made Riolu very happy and started to

lick it way too fast for her own good, she dropped her cone and held her paws

to her temples while grimacing with pain. Derek thought something serious had

happen but Sycamore only laughed.   "I warned you

before Riolu, if you kept eating your ice cream like that you would get brain

freeze." She just glared at him for laughing, but he did say something like

that when they went out to explore the city, but she didn't really listen him

when she first tasted the ice cream. 

With their ice cream eaten they walked to the car and drove off to the

field where they found Derek.    It took them

almost an hour to get to the field, but once they had arrived they were met by

a group of people wearing matching cloths, with a big R on the front of their

shirts. They were using machines all around the field, it looks like they are

measuring something, one of them yelled to the others saying he found something

and to Derek's dismay, it was his knife. Before he could storm over there and

take back the knife, Sycamore grabbed shoulder and shook his head, indicating

not to burst out. Sycamore turned to Riolu, whispered something and she was

off, Sycamore led Derek back a bit so they could speak without being heard.   "Those people

are dangerous, if you had burst out of hiding they would have either captured

you or killed you. I have a plan to scare them away but you will have to stay

behind for a while, I asked Riolu to go to the other side and when I've given

the signal she will start attack from the rear." He took out four pokeballs and

let his Pokémon out, Charizard, Blastoise, Venusaur and Sylveon and explained

the situation and the plan. When everyone was up to speed and understood their

orders Charizard took air waiting for Sycamore, the rest went back to the edge

of the field.    "Now." That was

all Sycamore said before everyone launched their strongest attack at them.

Being completely unprepared, the attack had a great effect for they all

panicked, trying to figure out where the blasts came from, Derek panicked as he

saw the destruction, not for the sake of the people but for his belongings and

possible clues to how he got here but he did managed to see the person who had

his knife dropping the knife as he was hit dead on by a powerful spray of water.

Sycamore ordered a full attack again and this time Riolu and Charizard did

their share as well, which resulted in knocking some of them out while the rest

of them scrambled to get everyone out of there. When the last of them had

disappeared, they all waited for a couple of minutes to be sure, then Derek

went over to pick up his knife while Sycamore called his Pokémon back to their

balls. He inspected the blade and it hadn't received any damage, though the

edge was a little dull but it was barely noticeable. Happy with his intact

knife he sheathed it and went over to a spot where the grass had been burned

badly.   "Who were those

people?"   "Evil men and

women who want nothing but power and money, I will tell you about them when

we're at the lab. In the middle of this dead grass was where we found you."

Derek moved around the spot hoping to find something, but if there was, it had

either been turned to ashes or stolen.    Riolu walked

over to them to see if the boy could explain something, but to her

disappointment he could not. Recalling how she found him, she did see a flash

of light that was strong enough to burst through the forest in the middle of

the day.    Suddenly the

little canine-like creature started to gesture with her arms and bark, as if

trying to say something. Both Derek and Sycamore stared at her until she had

stopped and then Derek leaned closer to Sycamore,   "What is it

doing?" But unfortunately for Derek, Riolu heard his question and did not like

the way he had referred her as it and for that she slapped him with an open paw

hard enough so he could feel it.   "HEY! What was

that for!?"   "I think she

heard you call her 'it'"   "It... She can

understand us?" He almost made the same mistake again but luckily he caught

himself from finishing the sentence without changing it, avoiding another slap.   "Of course,

Pokémon are highly intelligent, though some more than others, but they can

understand us, even if they can't speak themselves." Sycamore said, a little

bit stunned over Derek's ignorance.    "Alright, then

what was she doing before she hit me?"   "Trying to tell

us something, she was the one who found you first so she could have seen

something I didn't when she came for me." Again Riolu tried to tell them about

the light through gestures but how would one go about showing light? After

about half an hour they hadn't guessed even close to right so she gave up,

falling on her butt exhausted.   "The sun is

about to set, we should leave before it gets to dark." With that, all three of

them headed towards the car, but as they got closer Riolu started to slow down

and fiddling with her paws anxiously. She have had an unusual adventure today

where she have tried a lot of exciting new things and eaten strange, yet

delicious, food, but was she ready to leave her home for a confusing dream. She

had hated humans in general, with some exceptions, ever since her parents were

killed and now someone or something have told her to protect this boy who have

no clue as to where he is or how to interact with her.    Derek, just as

Riolu, was in deep thoughts, mostly trying to come to terms with the notion of

Pokémon being real, through most of the day he had doubts about this being

real, at least until Riolu had slapped him across the cheek. He recalled the

battle that the professor had started with those people and thought about the

power the Pokémons possessed, why would they choose to be trapped in a ball

when they easily could overpower him.    Sycamore saw

both Riolu and Derek slowing down while they both had a gloomy expression. He

could understand the reaction from Riolu, having known her for quite a while he

had seen her being very reserved about going too far from her home and being

cautious to strangers. When it came to Derek he could only guess what was going

on in his head, from what he had learned from talking to him, he seemed to have

little to no knowledge about Pokémon, his clothes were not from around here and

his knives looked like they were of military nature. He walked over to Riolu

and talked in a low voice.   "Riolu, if you

feel uncomfortable leaving your home you don't have to come with us, you have

done much more than I asked you to do. Though I would be very happy if you

would, by the looks of it, Derek might need someone like you around to get him

out of trouble." As if on cue Derek tripped over a root and fell face first in

a mud puddle, making a sound of surprise followed by annoyance, all the while

both the professor and Riolu tried their hardest not to laugh.   "See." Riolu

felt her insecurity about leaving disappear as she saw Derek scrambling up to

his feet and wiping of mud from his face, so she turned her head to Sycamore

and with a smile she nodded, agreeing on following them to his lab. Returning

the smile Sycamore went over to Derek to see if he was alright, but probably

due to embarrassment he just said he was fine and increased the pace. Derek was

something of a puzzle to Sycamore, not only did he show up unconscious on a

field surrounded by burnt grass but his reactions to Pokémons were, not

ordinary, nor was his physical strength. He wasn't sure what to make of him, he

seems to have been honest when he answered the questions earlier in the centre,

though he never did answer him where he was from. He let go of his train of

thoughts when they reached the car, of which everyone stepped in and Sycamore

drove off in the now dark forest to his lab in Aquacorde Town. Mark sat in the same chair his father had placed him in,

staring at the front door hoping James would burst through with Derek behind

him, but the hours went by and the sun was about to rise. He couldn't let go

the feeling of guilt, if he had done something differently, if he hadn't

climbed up that tree but instead continued to run towards home, maybe none of

this would have happened. While his thoughts continued to run through the event

over and over again, trying to find the one thing he could have done

differently, James came through the front door, alone. Mark looked up only to

have his wishful thinking destroyed, he could see the desperation in James'

eyes as he walked in to the kitchen.    "Have you found

anything?" James only shook his head.   "I'll make the

call to the police, you go door-to-door rounding up any volunteers for a search

party. We need to get this organized fast while we have the daylight." With

that Mark went outside, running from one neighbour to the next asking for help,

luckily everyone he asked offered their help and would meet up at their house.   Meanwhile, James

called the police and when he explained the situation to the operator she would

send for any unassigned officer to their location to help with the search, they

would then take the necessary actions. He thanked the man and hung up, he then

made calls to everyone he knew in the nearby towns, at work and whatever

friends of Derek to ask for their help of which everyone volunteered.   An hour later

every volunteer had arrived and the police officers had order for search dogs

to help and had organized the search party by splitting everyone into smaller

groups, but they all ventured together to the camp Mark and Derek had put up.    Late

that afternoon when the sun had started to set they called of the search for

the day, despite James' objections. While everyone was leaving, James and Mark

continued the search until late that night, but couldn't find anything nor

could Mark recall where he had run. So they headed home, disappointed and sad,

but hoping that some sleep, despite the inevitable difficulty it may possess,

would clear their minds and increasing their chances of finding their lost son

and brother.