Is it fair for a Pokémon created to be violent…

To be blamed for that violence?

I felt myself falling. There was no wind nor cold anymore. I felt weightless and directionless. A blank void encapsulated my flailing limbs.

This is the part where I’ll likely lose a lot of readers. For what I am about to describe is simply impossible. But it happened. I’m telling you it happened.

My memory of what occured next was shaky. My vision was a blur and I don’t remember if I heard anything strange. But I remember the intense cold. It was a far-cry from the frostbite-inducing chill atop Mount Coronet, but it was still intensely frigid nonetheless.

And then, a bone-breaking impact.

My vision blacked.

I think I passed out at that moment. Or maybe my memory is failing me. What exactly happened still eludes me to this day. It all happened so fast.

When I came to, I was lying face first in sand. An intense retch wracked my body and I coughed up what felt like gallons of water before my body finally let me be. Pain radiated like fire from my right leg and I found I could no longer move it. I painstakingly lifted my head.

A picturesque scenery met my bloodshot eyes. A small bank of sand rose out of the water in what was a tiny beach nestled between small but steep hills. Lush green grass expanded around me like a blanket, complimented by specks of yellow and white flowers bundled together like buildings in small cities. The odd tree rose rigidly from the earth with a multitude of dark green leaves adorning their branches. I could see a pond in the distance. But what immediately caught my eye was the small wooden shed to my left. The wood was darkened and had been eaten away somewhat by the salty air, but I hardly cared. It was a sign of civilisation.

The sight of Giratina’s portal glowing ominously above Mount Coronet gave me strength. I needed to get the police involved before Team Galactic destroyed the world. With three legendary Pokémon under their control, the damage they could do would wipe out the continent.

My leg was useless, so I had to grasp desperately at the pale-yellow sand and pull myself further up the shore. I was so horribly cold. The air was embracingly warm, but I had been on the verge of hypothermia atop Mount Coronet and my entire body was now soaked in freezing water.

I had never stopped to think about what had happened to my bindings. They had broken at some point during my fall… but I can’t remember when. I remember flailing around in that strange void, meaning they had broken off as early as when I had entered the crack in the sky, but the rest of my clothing and body were fine save for my broken leg.

I screamed for help, but nobody came. I managed to drag myself to the wooden shed and banged mercilessly on the door, but nobody was in. “Help!” I yelled out once more. “Help!”

I collapsed on the grassy earth. I had stopped shivering at this point. A very bad sign in retrospect. But I had hardly noticed. My eyes felt heavy and my limbs sagged of their own accord. Before I blanked out again, I recall the curious black eyes of a Drifloon staring at me from behind a lonely wooden wheelbarrow placed outside of the shed…

I next awoke with a start in a strange beige room atop a thin bed. Thick blankets were splayed over my body and I instinctively shivered underneath unfamiliar and scratchy clothing. I heard a slight chirp and jolted upright to see a small Chansey tending to my right leg. Her stubby little hands were outstretched and a pink wafting aura emanated around the limb. It felt comfortingly hot and itchy. My leg was set in place as if it had never even sustained damage. I tried to speak but could only let out a croak. The Chansey yelped at the noise and turned tail before immediately bolting from the room.

“Ah, you’re awake,” a shockingly light voice had come from behind the thin wooden privacy screen placed near the foot of my bed. A nurse with bright eyes and strangely styled pink hair bobbed over to my side. She was tall and wore all white. A box-shaped hat sat atop her hair. “Don’t worry about Chansey. She always flees if a patient surprises her.”

She graciously offered me a glass of water. My arms had felt wooden as I gulped down its contents. I felt the refreshingly cold liquid soothe its way down my throat. “The police…” I rasped out. “I need you to get the police.”

“The police?” the nurse cocked her head inquisitively. “What’s that? A Pokémon?”

“Team Galactic,” I continued heedless of her words. “They’re going to…”

“Oh!” understanding lit up her pink eyes. “The Galaxy Team! I’ll get them right away.”

I remember panic flooding my heart. “No!” I raised my arm at the nurse’s retreating form. “No!”

But she was already out of the distant doorframe. “Chansey, now!” I heard her scold in a motherly tone, somewhere outside. “What have I told you about running away from patients!”

Chansey’s screech reached my ears and I heard the nurse laugh. Now, you’ll have to cut my past self some slack, here. I was still dazed from being unconscious and was terribly confused and, quite admittedly, scared at this point. I didn’t register the nurse’s confusion. Nor did I fully comprehend the difference between Team Galactic and The Galaxy Team. I panicked and I stand by it. I bet most of you would, too.

Regardless, I had wrenched myself out of bed and momentarily stopped to inspect my new clothes. I had been changed into a weird brown kimono and featureless grey pants at some point. I quickly brushed away all thought of my new attire, however, and made straight for the empty doorway.

Only to fall when my right leg buckled beneath me. I felt my bones shift awkwardly and pain shot straight through my torso. I barely managed to catch myself on the floor.

Bounding footfalls approached and I looked up to see the Chansey that had been tending to my leg standing over me. She was a pink ovoid thing with stubby limbs and weird hair-like protrusions jutting from her head. Two black eyes brimmed with kindness emphasised by her warming smile. A large pouch containing a rather sizeable white egg adorned her belly.

Chansey are rare in Sinnoh. They had been captured incessantly by trainers to sell to Pokémon Centres and, as you all probably know, less than a hundred wild Chansey currently exist in the wild. I had only seen them on TV up until this point, not being a trainer myself…

Regardless, the Chansey chirped again and retrieved the egg from her belly pouch. It cupped the egg with both of its tiny arms and held it out to me like it would solve all of my problems. “No thanks,” I told her, confident she could understand. All Pokémon were smart enough to get a grip on human speech- though some were smarter than others…

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I sat up and used my hands to support my weight. “I need to get out of here,” I whispered to her. “I need to escape Team Galactic.”

Chansey made a pouting face and placed her egg back into her pouch. I don’t think she understood what I was saying. In hindsight, I don’t blame her.

“Chansey!” that same scolding voice from the nurse wrenched my gaze above the Pokémon to where the nurse stood, having strode back into the room at some point. “What happened?”

The Chansey turned, slapping her little feet on the featureless beige carpet. “Are you okay?” the nurse brushed past the egg-shaped Pokémon and knelt besides me. Taking my chance, I lashed out with my arm and grabbed at her sleeve. She gasped loud.

“Get me out of here!” I demanded. “Take me to the police right now. Please!”

The nurse looked horrified. She tugged her arm away and yelped, but I held on tight. “Let go of me!”

Before I could reply, two men in strange kimonos and conical straw hats had rushed in and wrenched me off of the nurse. I watched the pink-haired lady fall back in fright and barely avoid tumbling into Chansey. “Settle down!” one of the two men was commanding me. The other aided him in keeping me still. “Calm it, man!”

“Help!” I screamed as loud as I could. I thrashed and thrashed as hard as possible, but their hold on me was too tight.

I then caught a glimpse of the insignia printed just above their rolled-up sleeves. It was shockingly similar to Team Galactic’s. It was the same colour. The same black outline. The same graffiti-like font. But instead of a single ‘G’, theirs had been morphed into some sort of amalgam of semi-recognisable letters. Call me a coward, but the sole sight of a logo so similar to that of those terrorists had quelled me instantly. “Please…” I had whimpered to them. “Please don’t hurt me. Please don’t feed me to Giratina…”

The nurse stared with wide eyes, still crumpled on the floor. The two men holding me, however, had exchanged perplexed glances with each other. “What? We’re not going to hurt you.”

“You’re safe here,” the other man soothed.

It must have taken me more than ten minutes to calm down enough to speak coherently. In the meanwhile, the two men had helped the nurse back to her feet and were eyeing me cautiously from a distance. Ironically, despite her initial fear of me, the clueless Chansey was the only one in the room unafraid enough to approach. She was working on my leg again and I sighed in relief when the pain started to throb its way out of my leg.

“I think we should introduce ourselves,” one of the straw-hat men begun. I can still picture his bright blue eyes and blonde hair to this day. “My name is Baeuregard. And my companion here is called Yojiro. We’re both part of the Security Corps in the Galaxy Team.”

It was then that I cottoned onto the different name. It might have been obvious in hindsight, but please don’t forget that I was pretty freaked out at the time. “G-Galaxy Team?”

Baeuregard nodded. “Yes. The Galaxy Team.”

My eyes were likely the size of saucers at that point. “So, you’re not Team Galactic?”

Yojiro frowned and cocked his head. “No…”

I collapsed flat onto my back on the floor in relief. “Oh, thank goodness! Thank goodness…”

“Who are these Team Galactic people?” the nurse’s light voice was cause to raise my head.

My stomach had lurched. “Right!” I sat up. “Atop of Mount Coronet, right now. There are these people called Team Galactic. You’ve probably heard of them on TV. Anyways, they’re up there right now! With Palkia, Dialga, and Giratina. I think… I think they’re going to destroy the world! We need to send the League up there right now!”

I waited for their response. For a moment, nobody moved.

Then, Yojiro shot me a completely bemused scowl. “What are you talking about?”

“Oh, please believe me!” I gasped. “Team Galactic is up there with Giratina. It's under their control! We need to get help to stop them!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Baeuregard held up his hands calmingly, but I hadn’t missed the disbelieving look he threw at his partner. “First of all. Who are these Palkia, Dialga, and Giratina people?”

The frustration of stumbling across people utterly uninformed of Team Galactic combined with my panic had melded into a frenzy that coursed through my body. “Not who!” I hissed almost desperately. “They’re Pokémon! Palkia is the Lord of space, and Dialga is the Lord of time.”

“And TV?” Yojiro interjected. “Is that a Pokémon, too?”

All of my panic instantly stopped. Like a wire that had been fervently cut. I was so dumbfounded at that question that I simply stared. My mouth was probably agape like a Magikarp out of water. It was at that moment, I recall, that I started to figure out something had gone horribly wrong. “Where…” I swallowed heavily. “Where are we?”

“We’re in the Galaxy Hall in Jubilife village.” Baeuregard’s reply was immediate.

That had filled me with relief. I had never been to Jubilife, but I knew it was a bustling city littered with security guards. These weirdos may not know about what’s going on, but it wouldn’t have taken me long to find someone who did. “I need to go outside.”

Chansey had been silently healing up my leg throughout this whole ordeal, but my sudden movements elicited a squawk of protest. “Don’t move!” the nurse suddenly lurched forward and outstretched her arm at me. “Your leg is broken and you need to let it heal.”

“No,” I immediately refused. “You don’t understand. I…”

“Can someone please inform me why I can hear so much yelling from my office?” a new, sarcastically feminine voice came from somewhere out of sight.

The three strangers around me jumped as if shocked and whirled around. I craned my neck to see who it was.

Worst mistake, looking back. But maybe it was better that the metaphorical Glameow was let out of the bag this early.

I had almost fainted right there. It was Cyrus. His cold dead eyes staring at me. That cackling, howling laugh filled my ears. A snake-like vision of Giratina flashed past my eyes. I gritted my teeth and let out a whimper. But nobody heard me. “Oh! Cyllene!” the nurse sounded breathless. Did she know she was in mortal peril, too? “Our apologies!”

The unexpected name had brought me back to my senses. Emotionless blue eyes. Short blue hair. That same stern frown. Cyllene looked as though someone had remade the Galactic Boss as a female. I saw her look past the two Security Corps men and peer towards me. “Well?” her eyes slid back from me to the nurse and she arched a brow. Her attitude was equal tones abrasive and peeved.

The two Security Corps men dutifully explained the situation and it became very clear that they had genuinely no clue what I had been saying. Dread had prickled up my spine. I gulped. Chansey noticed and sent a friendly smile my way. I remember it doing little to allay my fears, but I still appreciated the small gesture.

After they had finished, Cyllene turned to Baeuregard. “You.”

The man snapped to attention. “Boss?”

“Where is your post?”

Baeuregard suddenly looked nervous. “It’s just outside the Galaxy Hall, boss. I entered the building when I heard a commotion. The door was opened for another member, you see.”

Cyllene stared disapprovingly for a second. Looking back, I have to laugh at how she had let him stew for a little bit before replying. But at the time I wasn’t very focused on the funny side. “Get out where you belong.”

“Yes, boss!”

“You too,” she snapped at Yojiro. “Go.”

“Yes, boss!”

After they had practically sprinted out of the room, Cyllene turned to the nurse. “Pesselle. Thank you for handling this maniac. I’ll take it from here.”

Pesselle bowed slightly. “Of course. May Chansey stay?”

Two blue eyes drilled deep into the Pokémon, but Chansey didn’t seem to notice- busy as she was on my leg. “Fine.”

Pesselle nodded and bid her leave in silence. Cyllene closed the distance between me and crouched down with bent legs. She opened her mouth to speak.

“Do you know a man called Cyrus?” I beat her to it.

Cyllene scowled. She hadn’t looked pleased at all that I interrupted her. But I could still see confusion in her eyes. “Who?”

I let out a deep breath. “Nevermind.”

“Tell me, stranger. Where are you?”

I had taken a moment to respond. “What?”

Cyllene leaned in just a little closer. “The earth we stand on right now. What do you call it?”

I pulled a face that let her know I thought she was insane. “Sinnoh?”

The Galaxy Team Boss stared for a spell. “You are mistaken, boy. We currently walk the earth of Hisui. Sinnoh is the name that Hisui’s native clans use to refer to the Lord of Space and the Lord of Time, depending on which you’re asking. Now, care to explain to me how you ended up here?”

That had confirmed something had gone horribly wrong. The Lord of Space and the Lord of Time had been messing with reality to summon Giratina from another world. Their pained cries had echoed through my ears- a signal they had lost control. My last memories of that encounter were me being sent whirling through the same tear in the sky that Giratina had emerged from, while Dialga and Palkia’s time and space powers were spiralling out of control. Which could mean…

Yes, dear reader. It is as I describe. I had entered the crack in the sky from Sinnoh, and emerged in Hisui. Only Dialga could know how far back into the past I had been sent.

I didn't know much back then. But I knew my life was going to change. A lot.