I jumped up with a cry, pushing myself away from the ground, from the shadows, stumbling back and gasping for air. Panicked and bewildered, it took me a second to realize that I wasn’t where I’d been just moments before. Looking around, stepping back from things that looked like shade, revealed a lack of any of the features of the place I’d been walking through. Instead, there was a semi dense forest around me, and I found myself in a clearing shot through with a path, lit with the silvery light of the moon.

I stumbled towards the center of the clearing, desperately gasping for air, trying to get my wind back. The shadows had… grabbed me, for lack of a better term. I’d stepped on a shadow, and I’d fallen in like there had been nothing there, felt ribbons of cold wrap themselves around me as I passed through some kind of… place, with no air or light to speak of. I shivered, wrapping my arms around myself, regretting that I’d worn only the Umbreon hoodie I’d made. There was fog among the trees, and it was colder here than the place I’d left.

“Okay, okay, take stock…” I murmured to myself.

I had to focus, because losing it in a completely unfamiliar place was a death sentence. I was out here, alone, and though the path I was standing on was pretty well outlined, that didn’t mean much. This wasn’t any place I recognized, and I couldn’t hear any of the sounds of machines or distant human activity, which probably meant I’d somehow found myself far from any help.

I shuddered again, hugging myself tightly, then forced myself to relax my arms and go into the right leg pocket of my surplus BDU’s. I fumbled for a moment, then closed my fingers around the brick within, drawing it out and holding down a button on one side. After a moment, the bright LEDs came to life, and I waved the power bank and its built-in flashlight around at my surroundings.

Additional light didn’t really help, the full moon above me provided enough to see by, but it made me feel better and that made all the difference. As I pointed the beam of light between the trees, however, I noted that the forest that I found myself in was… unsettlingly quiet. I strained to listen for something, anything, bug noises or the sound of animals moving through the trees, but there was nothing.

“Maybe it’s just the fog dampening the noise.” I muttered. I didn’t think it was.

Usually, a forest like this was filled with noises, a sort of continual ambience of creatures going about their lives, trees creaking, the occasional branch being snapped by a larger animal. Here, however, there was dead silence between the trunks, obscured by the deep fog that prevented me from seeing more than a few lines of trees deep. I made a full circle, scanning over the treeline with the circle of light, then paused.

There, along the side of the path and near to the treeline, stood a sign, a silver pole holding up a blue and white sign that simply said VINEWOOD TOWN, 2KM. I felt my muscles slacken with relief, then focused on the unit of measurement. Kilometers? Alright, so I was… that didn’t narrow locations down much, honestly, but at least it was something. I didn’t remember any places called ‘Vinewood’ in the area around where I lived, but that was a problem to be solved when I was surrounded by human structures in a human town and could figure things out with more information. I swept the light across the trees one last-

Something moved.

I’d caught it for just a moment, at the edge of the flashlight beam, just a shadow moving behind the tree, but it had been there. I froze, highlighting the tree in the beam, as I felt my heart pick up slightly in my chest. I stared at the trunk, my light fixed on it for long minutes, until I began to relax. I chuckled weakly.

“Must’ve been the shadow of the tree.”

And then, something white leaned out slightly from behind the wood.

I was gone. My breath came in rapid pants as I sprinted down the path, bobbing light pointed out in front of me, desperate to get away from whatever the HELL that had been. The fog around the path rolled and swam amongst the trees, my rapid footsteps against the packed dirt and my frantic breathing the only sounds in the fog and the dark. The moon’s light was lesser now, the fog diffusing it and highlighting the darkness of the forest around me.

It was a while before I slowed down any, my breaths hard and fast as I leaned on my knees. I’d been exercising, sure, but I hadn’t been running, thanks to something I half-remembered about running not really having the desired effect. I was cursing it now, when the additional stamina could’ve helped me out. I recovered there for a long moment, then forced myself to stand up straight and walk on. Whatever that… thing behind the tree had been, I had some distance, though I nervously pointed the light behind and to the sides periodically, anxiously.

I felt like I was being watched.

After a time, the path stopped being dirt, swapping out for baked bricks laid out in a narrow road. I took this as a sign that I was slowly getting closer to the town- Vinewood. This graduated as a possibility to a certainty when the hulking figure of a building, squat and low and made of brownish brick not dissimilar to that of the road, loomed out of the fog. There were lights, out in the fog bank, and I felt my hackles begin to go down. Whatever was out there in those woods, I was now among the trappings of civilization.

This lasted about until I heard the first scream.

I went rigid, casting my light into the dense and opaque air, but the sound only lasted for a second before it cut off. I tightened my grip around my light- clearly, whatever had been following me out there either hadn’t stopped at the tree line, or it had been from here the entire time. Behind me, I heard the softest giggle, carried on nonexistent wind, and I immediately began moving as fast as I could further into the town.

I hesitated every time I heard a scream, a noise, a sound of distress or laughter or… something else, drifting through the fog and dark. I wavered, every time, but there were obviously things happening that I didn’t- couldn’t- understand. As much as some part of me hysterically insisted that this couldn’t be happening, I knew very well that it was. That I was in danger, was most likely being hunted even now by something I couldn’t see, couldn’t perceive. Anything I heard through the thick banks was a trap, one way or the other. I drew on half-remembered stories of the Fey, lures and traps and deceptions. I hated it, hated every moment of it, but I ran.

I nearly ran smack into the building. I spun, watching what seemed to be a figure in the fog until it dissolved into nothing with a cackle, and nearly stumbled against the outer wall. My palm slapped against the brick building, and I drew air in desperately, looking up.

The red and white of the sign was clearly visible through the fog, brightness cutting through despite the thickness. Two halves of a circle, the top red and the bottom white, surrounding a white circle in the center.

That looks like a Pokeball, some part of me noted absently.

I grit my teeth and pushed it aside, looking back down. There, farther along the wall, was a window, casting bright light out and illuminating the thick mists. I crawled my way along the brick, nervous of walking away, and poked my head forwards and around the edge of the window, looking in through the glass… and sighing in relief. Because there, on the other side, were people, throngs of them.

I glanced down the wall, to where I saw a door with a steel handle. I made my way down, noting how the heads of some of the people inside snapped to me, and grasped the handle, pulling the door opening and stumbling inside. Several of the people around the door froze for a brief moment, regarding me with something that looked like fear, scanning me first and then around me. After a few moments, however, they seemed to relax, going back to what they’d been doing.

I shuffled out of the way of the door, pressing myself up against the outer wall, the density of the crowd inside the building making me anxious. Now that I was getting a good look at it, it wasn’t that large a room, more like a small reception area. The throngs I’d thought I’d seen were mostly from about fifteen or so people being packed into a space that wasn’t very large. Here and there, I picked out weird things about them- one lady was carrying what appeared to be a plant, for some reason, cradling it in her arms and looking panicked. Another had a strangely coiffed dog by her feet, who was looking decidedly anxious. In the far corner, in what appeared to be a window seat, a black and white dog of an indeterminate breed sat completely alone and untethered. I frowned, making to step further into the room, maybe find somebody who knew what was going on.

“Hey! You!”

I jumped in place, whipping around. There, looking just short of panicked, stood a woman, hair sticking out at odd angles under what appeared to be a pair of safety goggles, rumpled medical coat with a white ID on the front, emblazoned with the same symbol that had been above the door. I took this in at a glance, but didn’t even have a chance to read the ID before she marched up to me.

“Are you a Dark trainer!?”

I blinked at her, hands awkwardly held up in front of my chest, unsure how to take that. What did she mean by dark- what? Trainer? I…

she grit her teeth. “Look, I need to know, and I need to know now. You’re wearing an Umbreon hoodie, or whatever- are you a Dark-type trainer or not!?”

“I, um… t-trainer? I don’t…”

She frowned, looking closer, then said a very short string of shockingly ugly words, the nature of which I didn’t even catch beyond their inflection, so surprised was I by them.

“Another one with addled memories.” She scrubbed a hand across her face, and, for the first time, I noticed how exhausted she looked under the panicked determination. “Look, I’m sorry, I’d just assumed that you were a Dark specialist from the…” she waved at my hoodie, prompting me to look down at it, where the little Pokeball symbol and Umbreon dex number patch I’d sewn to the front were. “If you feel- okay, you’re probably disoriented. I can’t really answer your questions right now, alright? If you don’t have your team, or if you lost them or something, just…”

“... Team?” I repeated, bewildered.

“Your Pokemon team…?” her expression was now worried, and she drew what looked like a penlight out of her coat’s pocket, flashing it in my eyes. “Arceus, they must’ve gotten you good.”

“P-!?” I snapped my jaw shut, flinching away from the light. And this time, I really looked at the room.

At where a woman was carrying a Bellsprout, not a plant.

At where an anxious Rockruff was following a pacing guy with two small red and white balls clipped to a belt at his waist.

At where a Poochyena sat, blankly staring out into the fog.

“No…” I said, the blood draining from my face. My stomach clenched in a tiny ball, and I felt like I was going to throw up, vague memories of the body diverting blood flow from the digestive tract as a fear response flickering in the back of my head. “No, that’s…”

“Arceus, just- come here, sit down, you look like you’re going to pass out.”

The woman grabbed my shoulder roughly, leading me to a bench along one of the walls, and I went numbly. I didn’t resist when she manhandled me onto the bench, practically collapsing onto it. She flashed the penlight at one eye, then the other, drawing out my arm and placing her thumb on my pulse.

“Response is good. Heart rate’s very high, but that’s to be expected. They must’ve given you a right spook, after futzing with your brain.” She snapped her fingers in my face, and I jumped, focusing on her again. “You’re not drifting so hard that you’re completely dissociating, so whatever they did, they didn’t do more than mess with your memory.” She grimaced. “Probably.”

“I’m sorry, I…” I kept glancing at the people in the room. Now that I knew to look for them, I was seeing them everywhere- Pokeballs. Pokemon. Symbols representing them. “I don’t- what’s happening? What’s with…?” shakily, I waved at the windows, at the fog outside.

At what was in the fog.

“I don’t know. All I know is that Vinewood’s under attack, probably by a herd of wild Ghost-types, but who even knows what they’re after or why they’re here.” She dropped into the seat opposite me, looking something like how I felt. “I’ve been trying to find some way out of this, but there’s nobody with a Dark-type, and the lines are down. Can’t call out, can’t get an Ace or a Ranger this way, can’t do anything.”

This was… I wasn’t… I felt my insides freeze. The shadow, the one that eaten me, it had… fuck, I’d read stories like this, people being dragged into other worlds by a Legendary or an Ultra Wormhole, or what have you. I just- who reads an Isekai, and expects it to happen to them? To actually happen to anybody? I…

Something hardened in me. There were screams outside, and this was a town. Fifteen or twenty people weren’t the whole population, which meant that the rest… were out there. In the fog. They hadn’t been as lucky as I had been, to stumble across the… the Pokemon Center, I supposed. They were out there, with the ghosts in the mist.

“What about the Poochyena? They’re Dark types.” She blinked at me, and I hesitated uncertainly. “They, um, are Dark-type, right?”

She craned her head around, getting up a little to stare across the room at the Poochyena, who hadn’t moved from its seat by the window, hadn’t even reacted to anything that was going on. Now that I was looking at it, I could see that nobody was taking the seats to either side, that they were all giving the canine a wide berth with slightly nervous expressions. The woman stared for a moment, then flopped back down in her seat.

“No good. He’s been there for… a month, I think. Just sitting there. If he was going to help-” she grimaced, shaking her head. “Look. Just stay here, okay? You- augh, memory alteration. The Center has seals written into the foundations, alright? You’re safe from the Ghosts, so long as you stay. Here.” she leaned forwards, trying to catch my eyes as my gaze skittered over her nose and forehead. “Got it? I don’t have the Pokemon or the people to go after you, if you go out there.”

“Y… yeah, I get it.”

She nodded, then jerked her head to the front door as it opened, letting through a group of people with wild expressions. She forced herself to her feet and walked over quickly, barking questions to them that I wasn’t processing and didn’t really hear.

Because, fuck, I was in the world of Pokemon.

I rested my elbows on my knees, leaning forwards to cup my hands against my face. There were Pokemon in the room with me, and Pokeballs, and the whole town was under assault by Ghost types. I had difficulty absorbing it, processing it, so totally counter to my thought process as it was.

More people slowly trickled in, in varying states. Some were fine, but others looked panicked or wild. Some looked at everything with uncomprehending expressions. Some were so injured that they didn’t come in under their own power. Eventually, the woman in the coat began shepherding the worst of them into the back, presumably to get them away from the crowd and get them some kind of medical attention. I supposed that Centers could serve as hospitals for humans in a pinch as well as Pokemon. I let out a little giggle, then pressed my fingers into my eyes, shuddering.

The part of me that’d hardened, that part of my soul that acknowledged the people outside, hadn’t faded. Hell, I was in a world with destiny and fate, and mostly benevolent and active gods. There might even be a protagonist, of one of the animes or the games, on their way here at this very moment to solve the issue. They’d stumble into the fog or upon somebody wandering through it, and they’d solve this whole thing.

Except… this wasn’t a game.

I tracked where blood had dripped from one of the people being dragged in, from the arm that they’d clutched against their chest, claw marks cutting straight through their jacket and into their flesh. If they hadn’t held up their arm, they might have been dead. And there were people out there right now, struggling, running, dying. Only the lucky few were finding their way to this safe harbour in the storm.

I didn’t consider myself brave. I didn’t think I was a coward, precisely, but not brave. I was scared of getting hurt. But, here, now, I was faced with something, with people suffering, and… that feeling, when you saw somebody on the side of the road and pulled over, when you noticed somebody looking panicked and stopped. It swirled in my gut, then crawled up my throat.

I had to do something. I stood, unsteady, getting my feet under me. Okay, so, I was going to do something, right? Then what was I going to do? Me, squishy human that I was, was I going to go out there and declare my lack of fear for ghouls and start punching them? Yes, exactly, if I went out and purposefully committed suicide by Pokemon, that would really get them. They wouldn’t have a counter to that move.

I grimaced and started pacing.

What did I remember about Ghost-types? Well, not… much? It wasn’t a typing that I’d ever really used. I hadn’t even really used any Ghost-type moves, let alone actually had one on my team for any of the games I’d played. They were weak to Dark-types, right? That would fit with the woman looking for a Dark-type trainer. Normal-types had some really weird interactions with them, but all I could remember was Normal-type moves auto whiffing on Ghost-types. This all led me right back to where I started- a lack of Dark types.

I stopped pacing, standing in place, then turned and stared across the room at the one visible Dark type. Sitting there in the window seat, the Poochyena didn’t seem to acknowledge anything in the rest of the room, and hadn’t moved a single muscle since I’d first seen… him, right? Lab coat had said that the canine was a him, anyway. Catatonic. For a month, she’d said.

I sat down, clenched and unclenched my fists. Here I was, trapped in this building, the single Dark type here being one that belonged to nobody and was totally unresponsive. If I recalled correctly, Ghosts could futz with Psychics as well, so even if someone had, say, an Abra… ultimately, we were all stuck here. Those of us who even made it were trapped in this building, until the Ghosts got bored and wandered off, or until a strong trainer or a Ranger or an Ace happened to stumble in. Abandoned to the winds of fate, without a way of calling for assistance.

I shoved myself to my feet, shaking slightly. I… I refused to believe that it was down to chance and nothing else, that there was nothing I could do. Maybe, in my old world, I’d have accepted that there was no way I could really help- but here? This was the world of Pokemon, Impossible things happened all the time, I told myself in my head. I desperately wanted to believe it.

I started across the room, my sights set on that corner window seat.

The people in the room blithely moved out of my way. Many of them had settled down, huddling into clumps, whispering to each other and staying far away from the windows, which they kept glancing at in fear. One or two were sleeping, albeit fitfully, twitching and mumbling in their sleep. Others would glance up as I approach, then look back down, exhausted and scared. I tried to move through as unobtrusively as I could, before finally reaching the corner, looking the Poochyena over as I settled into the bench.

He didn’t even look over as I sat, allowing me to get a good look at him. His dark and gray fur was dull and matted in places, despite where it looked like people had tried to brush him at various points. His eyes were blank and empty, and he didn’t make a sound, the only motion the slow inflating and deflating of his chest and the occasional blink.

I sat there for a long moment, watching him, glancing occasionally out the window and into the shifting mists. Every once in a while, I’d catch something moving outside in the dark, but whenever I looked, I didn’t see anything. Somehow, that was almost worse than something being out there, staring at me. At least if I could see it, I could know what and where it was.

I shivered and refocused on the Poochyena.

He hadn’t noted my presence, hadn’t turned to me, hadn’t even glanced my way. His unbroken stare out into the dark gave nothing away, and, privately, I thought that he wasn’t even seeing what he was looking at. A Haunter could press itself to the other side of the glass- I glanced out nervously, worried I’d make it come to pass just by thinking about it- and I doubted he would even twitch. Still, if I tried, I was at least doing something, not just sitting here helplessly like everyone else here.

“Hey.” I waved my hand in front of his face.

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The ‘yena didn’t react. Not surprising, I supposed, but disappointing all the same. I considered grabbing his muzzle and turning his head, but then remembered that, instead of being canines, the ‘yena evolutions were closer to hyenas than dogs- obviously, given their names. This, of course, translated to fantastic bite strength, and I wasn’t particularly eager to lose a finger if this went poorly.

Still, that didn’t stop me from poking and prodding at the little creature. Some of the nearby people- and Pokemon- looked at me like I was stupid, but they didn’t stop me, and quickly turned their attention back to whatever they’d been involved in. I kept poking, upgrading to little pushes as well, trying to get the Poke to respond in some way- any way, as long as it wasn’t just blank staring.

I don’t know how long it took. I hadn’t been counting, hadn’t been tracking the passage of time, but eventually I went for broke. I didn’t care about the risk anymore, and so I did the stupidest thing that I could think of, the thing that I had already dismissed as being suicidal for my fingers: I grabbed his little muzzle and forced his head to turn towards me.

Finally, this was what provoked a reaction. The Poochyena blinked once, slowly, then again, faster this time, flicking up and down. His eyes twitched, then focused on me, gazing at my face. Usually I avoided eye contact with anybody, given how uncomfortable it was, but I didn’t feel discomforted, staring into the Pokemon’s red eyes. What that meant, I had no idea- I just hoped that I had his attention.

“Hey.” He blinked again, and there was a flicker of something, deep in those eyes. So quick that I couldn’t even make it out, but I’d seen it nonetheless. “Look, I… I don’t know what your deal is. I heard- that is, she told me-”

I grimaced, cutting myself off. I didn’t know what I was doing, not in the slightest. I didn’t even know if this was going to accomplish anything, or if I was just wasting time… not that I could be spending that time on anything else, besides maybe huddling in a corner, waiting for all this to be over.

“It… it doesn’t matter. What does is that- mn. People are… in trouble.” For the first time, Poochyena's eyes flicked towards the interior of the Center, to where people huddled and talked in whispers. “I don’t know what I can do. Nobody does. We’re trapped here, by the things outside. No way to call for help.”

His gaze slid back to me, half-lidded, neutral, almost as if he was asking why he should care, why he should break his vigil at the window for such a paltry reason.

“We’re just stuck here. We’re waiting, nothing else to do. But I can’t… there has to be something.” I wavered, then straightened. “You- you’re a Dark type. I don’t… maybe you could fight those things out there. But…”

Oh. This was what I’d intended. I hadn’t actually connected the dots, not until this moment, a thousand little scampering ideas lining up all at once. It was insane, absolutely out of any rational thought, but here I was, in the world of Pokemon, pleading with a Poochyena. I think logic went out the window when a shadow swallowed me. There wasn’t any reason not to try. I straightened, staring straight into his eyes, demanding his continued attention.

“I need to find help. I can’t just sit here and wait, I need to go out there. And, I don’t know, maybe you can help. Maybe you can’t. But if you’d rather just sit here, I think…” I swallowed. “I-I’ll go back out there. On my own. Try and find… somebody.” I paused for a moment. “No, I think it was… stupid to ask.” I let out a little laugh. And then I looked back at his eyes, and I stopped.

There was something other than blankness, there. The four-legged creature stared back into my eyes, and I could sense that, maybe for the first time, he was really looking at me, not just through me. I saw something in those depths, maybe a few sparks or an emotion, but whatever it was, it vanished when he closed his eyes. I slumped, thinking for a moment that I actually had failed, but that thought was put down as the ‘yena got to his paws, turned and leaped to the floor. His claws clicked softly against the tile, and his head half turned, as if to ask if I was coming. I simply stood and followed him towards the exit.

No one tried to stop us, as we made our way to the door. Most didn’t notice us, huddled as they were, many of them trying to rest in one way or another. The few that noted us, glanced at me, but focused on the Poochyena that led me, wary and uncertain as he passed by. When he reached the door, he paused, and I reached over him to open it. Just before I opened it, I felt something touch me, and I jumped and spun.

There was the lady in the coat, glancing between myself and Poochyena, a mix of curiosity, wonder, and concern written all over her face.

“You got him to listen.” I simply nodded. “Knew you were a Dark-type trainer.” I hesitated at that, but she let out a breath, focusing her gaze on me. “You’re going out there to bring help?” I nodded again, and she looked away.

After a moment of indecision, she started sorting through her coat’s pockets, finally drawing out a small purple spray bottle and pressing it into my hand. I glanced at it, then at her, and she shrugged.

“It’s what I can spare. It’s not much, but it’s better than nothing, especially because I doubt the Ghosts will let either of you come back here to get stitched up.”

I closed my hand around it, tucking the potion into my hoodie pocket and muttering. “Thanks. Seriously.”

She waved a hand. “I’m just sorry I couldn’t do more.” Her eyes went to the ‘yena, then back to me. “Just… good luck. Don’t…” She pursed her lips, but I got her drift. “There’s a temporary Ranger station up the main road. Ten, maybe fifteen kilometers. I don’t know if they’ve noticed what’s happening yet- probably not. I doubt the Ghosts are letting anybody go in that direction. Still, if you can make it there…”

I nodded. “I’ll do my best.”

I turned back, pulling open the front door, Poochyena walking out into the mists. I took a deep breath, nodded to her one last time, and then I followed.

Poochyena waited for me, just outside the doors. As I stepped up to him, he began padding into the mist, following the brick path away. After a moment of hesitation, scanning the thick fog and drawing out my power block to click the light on again, I followed right behind. The one foot tall Pokemon never strayed too far from me, never got too far ahead, and while I felt like I was being watched just as much as before. Still, it felt as if they were farther away, wary- something about the Dark type kept them at bay, at least a little bit.

“I think we should pick up the pace,” I whispered to the ‘yena. “I don’t know how many there are, but they might decide that they can overwhelm us.” His eyes, almost a deep purple in the bluish light of my flashlight, flicked to me, and he nodded silently.

We increased our speed, nearly jogging through the town. Shadows flickered in the mist, something laughed, but the ‘yena flicked a glare directly at it, and it screeched and vanished. Had that been… Intimidate, maybe? Mean Look? I shivered; I had no idea. I didn’t even know if I wanted to know. Now that I was out here, my decision seemed incredibly rash, and I wondered if I should’ve stayed longer, found some other way to help.

I shook my head, banishing those thoughts. What else would there have been to do, other than sit there, wait for rescue? A rescue that might not come, that might take days- who knew. No, even as I wrapped my arms around myself, hugging my hoodie closer for warmth, I knew that there wasn’t another option. Even if I could convince the ‘yena to turn back, I found that I didn’t want to. I'm committed.

Which is about when Poochyena made the first sound, as something tackled him out of the gloom.

I stumbled back, looking frantically around- there! I flicked my flashlight, and there the little four legged hyena was, struggling with… I stared at it, the beam of my power bank’s light pointed straight at it. A zippered mouth, black arms that looked like hanging sleeves- a Banette. Poochyena bared his fangs at it, trying to kick it off, but it just chuckled, a noise that sent pins of cold down my spine. I panicked for a moment, gripping my light, staring as Poochyena struggled, trying to kick at it, to push it off. What could I do? What-? Inspiration struck.

“Poochyena!” His eyes flickered to me, his legs giving out just that little bit more with the distraction. “BITE!”

Tendrils of dark- no, Dark energy, flowed around Poochyena, focusing around his jaws. With a snap, his head lunged forwards, and his Dark-shrouded teeth sank themselves into the shoulder of the Banette. Its zipper burst open, and it SCREAMED. I clapped my hands over my ears and yelled, my eyes shut tight- and, instantly, the sound was over like it had never begun. I snapped my hands away from my ears, pointing the flashlight, only to find Poochyena getting back to his feet and scanning, the Ghost-type that had attacked him nowhere to be found.

“We need to hurry.” I muttered to the little hyena, and he bobbed his head in response, turning towards the road out and picking up his pace, only slowing to make sure I was following right behind.

I huffed, spritzing a little bit of the potion onto a cut that went straight through Poochyena’s fur and into the flesh beneath.

We’d made it out of the town and down much of the path, but the further we went, the more frequent the attacks became. Ghosts of all types and descriptions assaulted us, mostly focusing on the Poochyena; as a Dark type, he was their anathema, and I could tell that while they regarded me as food at worst and a potential plaything at best, they HATED him. While they would occasionally make a pass at me, and I’d gathered my share of small wounds, they vastly preferred to make attempts on Poochyena.

I shook the little spray bottle, grimacing at the sloshing sound that came from inside, the bottle sounding emptier every time I shook it. Still, I put it back in my pocket, and we turned back to the road. There wasn’t much else to do but move, as fast as we could. We’d passed the clearing that I’d woken up in a while back, but that meant we were only two kilometers out- maybe eight, maybe thirteen left to go. I grimaced.

“They’re wearing us down.” I muttered to the hyena.

He nodded silently, scanning the forest as we started moving again down the path. Really, we could acknowledge that the Ghosts were winning the war of attrition, such that it was, but it didn’t change the facts. Poochyena was slowly tiring, and we were running out of potion. But we couldn’t give up- there was no way we’d make it back to town, even if we wanted to turn back.

A hiss was all the warning I got, but it was enough.

“Dodge!” I barked. Poochyena jumped, barely dodging a shadow ball, which splashed against the brick, staining it with dark gray.

After I’d gotten the bite out of him, Poochyena had been following my orders. For his part, it had been reluctant- for my part, it was somewhat obvious that I was working off of guessing, going off of what scraps I remembered of training a Poochyena into a Mightyena in Emerald. Despite that, however, he followed an order when I gave it, when I saw something he didn’t, or reacted to something he hadn’t.

The newest assailant materialized out of the fog, a Gourgeist charging another shadow ball between its vine-like arms. I grit my teeth- Poochyena had taken a couple of shadow balls already, and every time, the Dark energy had mostly washed off of him: a result, I assumed, of his innate Dark nature. Still, I could tell that it hurt, that he fought a flinch every time he was struck. It was just a little bit of attrition that we couldn’t afford, not with everything else that had stacked up. My thoughts were interrupted as the Gourgeist released the ball with a crack, the orb of shadow speeding towards Poochyena. He grit his teeth, ready to meet it head on, to tank it and push through, but I could see his legs tremble the slightest bit.

“Tackle left!” I shouted.

Poochyena obeyed, looking slightly surprised at himself as he did, as he did every time he obeyed a command I gave. The shadow ball splashed itself against the ground, but I didn’t have time for relief.

“Close in and bite! We need to finish this!”

Poochyena bared his teeth for a slim second, darting forwards. Gourgeist’s grin vanished, replaced by something that looked like panic, vine-arms coming up to form another shadow ball- then hesitating, as it no doubt realized that it would be too late, that any attempt at forming one would just leave it defenseless when Poochyena slammed into it at speed. Of course, that indecision doomed it anyway, as Poochyena came in close and sank his teeth in. Gourgeist shrieked, and slashed a vine arm in a vine whip- which went over Poochyena’s head, the hyena too low and too close for it to hit, merely brushing over his back as he savaged Gourgeist’s side.

Finally, the Dark-type energy faded from Poochyena’s teeth, and Gourgeist phased through his jaw, darting away into the forest, keening and leaking from holes in its side. Poochyena huffed silently, then wobbled slightly in place. I sprinted up, scooping the hyena up in my arms and running forwards. He let out a very soft growl, and I frowned down at him in my arms.

“No, none of that. You’re exhausted, and they’re still following us. That… that should’ve driven them off, for a moment, and we need to move at speed. If I collapse… you can at least keep moving, yeah? But I can’t do the same, without you. Understand?”

I looked down. It was clear from the look in Poochyena’s eyes that he understood, even if he hated it, hated being carried. Still, he didn’t wriggle in my arms as my shoes tapped against the brick, shaky adrenaline and the weight of the eyes of Ghosts on my back driving me forwards, even as my legs started to burn and my breath started to come in pants.

The first time I stumbled on a brick, I swallowed heavily. I could feel the exhaustion in me, the tiredness. I’d moved quickly when I went to Vinewood the first time, and now, I’d come all this way, and was carrying the weight of Poochyena with me. I could see the masked worry in his eyes when I looked down, but I ignored it, pushing past my fatigue. I couldn’t count the kilometers that we’d crossed, but I knew that every step in the direction of the road was another towards the camp, towards safety, towards the people that could save everyone in Vinewood.

I was so focused on the burn in my limbs and chest, that I didn’t notice that the mist had begun to thin until Poochyena wiggled in my arms. I slowed to a walk, looking up for the first time in a while. I slowed to a walking speed, breathing heavily, and looked up, blinking and glancing back and forth, realizing that I could actually see between the trees, looking up to see the twinkling of the brightest stars through what was left of the cover. I felt a spark of hope blossom in my chest- we might just make it after all.

“Keheheh…”

“Shit.” I swore, leaning down and setting Poochyena back on his paws, scanning the forest.

It didn’t take long for it to appear. It phased up through the ground, lazy and slow, and I felt myself go rigid at its deep red eyes, marred only by black pupils. Its huge face was split by a smile that stretched from one side of its body to the other, and I instinctively took a step back, my insides clenching in fear. It looked… wrong, like nothing alive should, and it seemed to sense my reaction, leering at me.

Poochyena growled, the sound ringing out in the silence, and I glanced at him in surprise. Whatever the Gengar had been doing, it stopped, narrowing its eyes slightly at the little hyena- only a quarter its height, Poochyena still stood, brave and grounded, ready for a fight. Then, suddenly, the Gengar’s clawed hand snapped up, and a pink beam shot out, striking Poochyena between the eyes. The hyena stumbled, shaking his head, and I watched in apprehension for a moment, before it clicked.

“Confuse ray. That motherf- Poochyena! Throw it off!”

Poochyena half turned towards me, tracking something I couldn’t see. The Gengar sauntered up, uncaring and inattentive, actually scratching its side and letting out a yawn. It held up its other claw carelessly, flickers of ghost energy swirling around it as it prepared an attack. It stepped up to Poochyena, who was snapping at the air, and shook itself in disappointment- before its arm snapped out.

And missed.

At the last second, Poochyena flattened himself against the ground, the confusion in his eyes gone in an instant. Gengar’s eyes widened as we both realized at the same time- he’d been faking it, had shaken off the confusion at some point, and used it to lure Gengar close. Poochyena’s head slammed into Gengar’s face, wreathed in Dark TE, and I realized that this must be sucker punch. A Dark-empowered blow, completely surprising the enemy- or, at least, a rudimentary version of it.

Gengar hissed in displeasure and pain, blown into the air and flipping a couple times before righting itself. Poochyena stared up at it defiantly, but I wasn’t sure how he was going to win this. He might have gotten a good blow in, but Gengar were rare, powerful. A single good blow wasn’t a fraction of what we needed to win this fight, and now Gengar would avoid being in closer proximity, and I doubted that Poochyena knew any ranged moves.

Ghost TE gathered around Gengar, then fired forwards in a wave. Poochyena shoved himself to the side, the attack slamming into the brick, scoring as I watched with anxiety. Gengar laughed to itself as it fired wave after wave, Poochyena dodging each one by slimmer and slimmer margins as I desperately tried to think of a way out of this. I glanced here, and there, and… wait.

“Poochyena!”

The hyena leaped out of the way of another blast, looking my way, and I pointed. He glanced, then bared his teeth in something of a grin. He zig-zagged his way closer, then, suddenly slapped the ground, a splash of mud leaping up from it to fly at Gengar, shockingly accurate for what it was. Poochyena knew mud slap, at least- and I assumed that the accuracy was due to a little Ground TE mixed with the mud, homing it to a target. Gengar huffed, audible even across the distance between it and where I stood, then easily floated around the clump of mud, glancing back down to where Poochyena used to be.

Used to be, because he’d darted to the side, then up a tree in the most agile climbing I’d ever seen a four-legged creature do, before running along a branch and making a flying leap at the Gengar in midair. By the time the Ghost realized what Poochyena was up to, it was too late, and the little hyena was sinking his teeth into the Gengar’s arm, biting as deep and as hard as he could manage.

The Gengar howled in rage and pain, Ghost energy fluttering around it as it tried to form attack after attack, only to be met by a burst of Dark TE from Poochyena, interrupting it and preventing it from properly structuring itself. It flew and floated and tried to bash Poochyena against things, but the little Dark-type held on with a tenacity that frankly shocked me. Still, it wasn’t enough to follow it through solid objects: the Gengar seemed to realize this, and dove for the brick of the road. Just before they would’ve hit, Poochyena let go, pushing off the Gengar and skidding to a halt, before sweeping his paws and sending sand into the Ghost’s eyes, causing it to hiss with displeasure. It stopped just before entering the ground, no longer smiling, its eyes narrowed in rage and hatred at Poochyena- and at me. It pointed to the both of us, then drew a single claw across itself.

I gulped. The message there was perfectly clear.

With that sent, the Gengar vanished into the ground. The both of us sat there for several long moments, waiting, but whatever threats it had leveled against us, it didn’t seem willing to carry out with huge holes in its arm.

Poochyena wavered a moment, then flopped down on his rear, panting heavily. Repeatedly drawing on Dark TE, keeping his fangs deep in the Gengar even despite its attempt to shake him off… I had to admire the little hyena’s tenacity.

“You know a few techniques.” I muttered to him, edging up and keeping my eyes on the forest.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him nod tiredly, then force himself to his paws with a grimace and start walking back down the road. I hesitated for a moment, sweeping the trees with my light one last time, then following along.

We weren’t troubled again. I didn’t know if we’d technically beaten the strongest Ghost following us or they’d simply decided that we weren’t worth bothering when there was an entire town of humans to harass that were a lot more defenseless, but we weren’t harassed by another Ghost as we walked down the road.

As we walked away from the fight and the scars that it had left, the adrenaline slowly wore off for both of us. For me, it just meant that I felt even more tired than I had earlier, a weariness that made me droop slightly, before I drew myself back up with a deep inhale. I could rest once I was at the Ranger camp, where I could at least be sure that I was safe.

For Poochyena, however, it was much worse. He’d been fighting ghosts of varying strength the entire walk from Vinewood, and though Gengar had no doubt been the strongest of them, the various wounds he’d taken in the process and the energy he’d expended fighting took their toll more and more. Eventually, he wavered and collapsed right there on the road, huffing rapid breaths, and not even the pathetic couple of squirts left in the potion bottle did more than perk him up slightly.

I sighed through my nose, my muscles complaining in a chorus of aches as I leaned down and lifted Poochyena in my arms again. He was surprisingly heavy, for something only a foot tall, and I guessed that it was mostly due to the incredibly dense muscle mass that I guessed Pokemon were made of. Still, it didn’t look like I’d have much choice but to carry him, though he huffed about the entire process as I set him over my shoulder in order to give my tired arms a break.

“Didn’t… notice how heavy you were the first time I picked you up. Adrenaline and panic working wonders, hey?” I muttered to him. He didn’t reply.

The last of the mist faded from the woods around us as we walked on, and we stopped hearing the laughs and whispers of the Ghosts. The stars above us twinkled in the firmament, and for a moment, I could almost forget what we left behind… but, in the end, we owed it to every person back in the town to send help back their way.

I saw the Ranger camp long before they saw me, the firelight flickering through the trees from the side of the route. I blinked when I saw it, then closed my eyes and shook my head, but the light was still there when I opened them. The trees were lit from behind, casting long shadows over the dirt path, and I could see tents and people and Pokemon. I could even hear them from here, chatting and laughing, one playing a guitar by the fire. I felt an overwhelming sense of relief, picking up my pace in a stumbling sort of manner.

The moment I crossed the treeline, their eyes were on me. I suspected that I’d been detected farther out, but that they’d not really deigned to go looking for somebody in the woods at night. Still, when I broke the edge of the forest and stepped directly into the light of their campfire, they reacted. The one with the guitar put it aside and stood, looking concerned, while others fanned out or watched the treeline.

For my part, I merely stumbled up to the one that had been holding the guitar, basking in the warmth of the fire a little after the cold and damp of the mist, which had soaked into all my clothes and, it felt, even my very soul.

“Hey. Can you look at me?” I turned my head back to the Ranger, for that’s what he had to be. He cast a concerned look over me, focusing on Poochyena on my shoulder, and the wounds that marred his fur. “Can you tell me what happened?”

“Um…” I wavered for a moment, then plopped myself heavily down onto one of the logs around the firepit being used as impromptu benches. I slid Poochyena into my lap, where he lay without protest, barely conscious. “G… Ghosts. Whole horde of them, attacking Vinewood. We… we barely made it.”

The Ranger crouched next to us, eyes serious and searching.

“How many? What types? Any information you give us could help.”

“I, um…” I struggled against my foggy and exhausted brain to recall anything that I thought could help. “We, uh, kinda left a trail of injured Ghosts all the way back to Vinewood. Think… we beat one of the stronger ones? But there were so many of them. They were swarming in the fog, think they called it up themselves.” I made the effort to look up at him, though I couldn’t quite meet his piercing gaze. “There were a few people, bunkered up in the Center. We went to get help- nobody else with Dark types, or anything that could effectively fight the Ghosts, I guess.”

“Hey.” The Ranger put his hand on my shoulder, giving it a squeeze. “You did good, alright? We’ll handle it from here.”

Already, I could hear and feel people moving around me, shouting to each other, Pokemon darting here and there among the tents and supplies, preparing to move out. I smiled gratefully at him, but suddenly found myself too exhausted to speak, my head drooping towards Poochyena, lying in my lap, just focused on running my fingers through his fur.

At some point, I realized that somebody had draped something over me, and I vaguely recognized it as one of those trauma blankets EMT’s put on shock victims. I felt a twinge of resentment at the implication, but I couldn’t particularly argue it. Blearily looking up and away from the fire, I realized that most of the Rangers had gone, including the guitar guy, leaving just a few patrolling the edge of the forest, staring between the trees. Somehow, this is what finally clicked with me, made me realize that I was safe, that it was over.

I chuckled softly, trying not to jostle Poochyena too much from where he slept in my lap as I slid down so I was sitting on top of the blanket, the log I’d been sitting on now against my back.

I was in the Pokemon world. I hadn’t fully absorbed it yet, despite- or maybe because of- everything that happened. Here I was, in a Pokemon Ranger camp, having just survived a constant Ghost assault, with a Poochyena in my lap, and I was still iffy on actually integrating that information. I stroked one of Poochyena’s ears, causing him to shift in his sleep.

I blinked slowly at the fire. Every bit of strain and push that I’d gone through on the road that I’d taken to get here was piling in all at once, and I felt well and truly drained, and I doubted that was much compared to how Poochyena felt. After all, I hadn’t been calling on different kinds of energy for hours, fighting and winning against all comers, and somehow still remained standing.

“You’re a little determinator, aren’t you?” I said to his sleeping form. He merely twitched his paws.

Now, though, was the question of… what next? I’d passed off responsibility to the Rangers, and they were trained for this sort of thing. They could handle it, and I could just sit here for the moment, warming myself by the fire. I had no illusions, however, that this wasn’t something that I would have to deal with, probably in the morning, when the sheer shock of the entire situation had worn off a little and I stopped being able to put these things aside.

At some point, I must’ve closed my eyes and fallen asleep. I jerked awake when somebody shook me, Poochyena, twitching awake in my lap, wary but not alert. I craned my head back, wincing at what I realized was the pre-dawn light, the barest hint of a sunrise poking over the horizon and lighting the tops of the trees. Standing above me, leaning down some, was the guitar Ranger.

“Good morning.” he said levelly. “How are you feeling?”

I gave a slow blink as I considered this for a moment. “Like I’m missing chunks of myself?” He grimaced.

“Yeah, that’s not uncommon after a Ghost attack, particularly one of this level. Do you feel any inconsistencies in your memory? Illogical events, strange emotions, the feeling of loss?”

Illogical events. Yeah, because every single event up to this point had been perfectly logical in nature. Ah, attacked by a horde of Ghost-type Pokemon? Yeah, I know, slow Tuesday, right? I realized that he was waiting for an answer, and started thinking.

“I think…” I swallowed. “The woman in the Center, she said I might’ve been a Dark trainer?”

His grimace deepened.

“Yeah, that would track… you’re certainly dressed like one, and we found a few of the Ghosts that you tangled with, passed out to either side of the road or injured. You certainly handled that Poochyena well enough.” He leaned closer. “Do you not remember for sure?”

I shrugged, avoiding his gaze. “I don’t remember being a trainer at all.”

He swore softly, under his breath, then straightened up.

“Okay, so you’ve been hit pretty hard, then. I don’t suppose you remember if you have a team, or have any ID? Do you have anyone we can call?”

I blinked, then shuffled a little, extracting my leather walled clipped to its chain from my pocket. I opened it up, then stared at the contents, which were certainly not what I’d had in there before the shadow ate me.

My driver’s license, previously proudly displayed in the windowed compartment of the tri-fold wallet, was gone entirely, along with my various cards- my debit cards, my OSHA cert, hell, even my ancient and nonfunctional theme park pass was gone. The money that I’d had tucked in the bills area was still there, but I stared in bewilderment at the collection of completely different bills, totally unrecognizable, covered in completely different numbers and with totally different materials and faces on them. At a glance, it was a mix of what appeared to be Champions and Legendaries. I looked up at the Ranger helplessly, the totally different mix of things on display, and he sighed.

“Yeah, I suppose that was a bit much to hope for. Do you have a Pokenav?”

I put my wallet away, reaching into my right hand pocket, and drawing out my phone. Except, instead of an Android device, it was now a completely different configuration, with a red and black case. I stared at it for a solid few moments, then shakily pressed the power button, bringing up a wallpaper I… didn’t recognize. I swiped upwards, drew the patter of my password, then hit contacts, only to be met with a blank menu. No recent calls, in or out, and no contacts saved. The Ranger grumbled in annoyance, mixed with a bit of sympathy.

“Ghosts are known to do this, sometimes. Some of them can get into electronic devices, play hell with them. Without an ID or any information, it’s impossible to know who you were…” He stood up to his full height, squinting at the encroaching dawn with a fully irritated expression. “I’ll make some calls, see if I can do anything. Hopefully, we’ll be able to figure out where you come from, maybe line up a Psychic type to recover your memories. If we’re lucky, they’re just buried and can be brought back to the surface.”

He stood up, clapping the dust off his gloves, and walked away, rummaging in his pocket. I noted to myself that he hadn’t mentioned the other possibility, which was, I guessed, that the Ghost type that had supposedly done this to me had wiped my memory completely, just deleted the whole thing out of my head. Which was an undoubtedly terrifying thing to think about, and made me realize how amazingly lucky I’d been, getting all the way to the Center and then here intact. I buried my fingers in the fur of the one I’d have to thank for that, when he woke up. I had absolutely no doubt that if it wasn’t for the Poochyena sitting in my lap, I would’ve been absolutely screwed, or would’ve just sat in that Center, unable to do a thing and waiting for the Rangers to swoop in and save me along with everybody else.

I leaned against the log at my back, tilting my head towards the sky and considering. Did this make me the protagonist of this little incident? As far as I remembered, they tended to solve the whole issue themselves, or at least be directly involved in the solving. I was pretty sure that Ash or Red would’ve been involved in a whole Scooby-Doo mystery, chasing down why the Ghosts were attacking this particular town, and probably solved it with a Pokemon battle against whatever caused them to do this, and everybody would’ve parted as friends. Instead, I’d stumbled into a Pokemon center, convinced a Poochyena to punch a hole through them with me, and left a mess all the way back to the Ranger camp. I huffed- some protagonist I was.

Poochyena shifted in my lap, ears twitching and swiveling, settling down as I rested my hand between them and started stroking. Even in his sleep, he was almost totally silent, not making a single noise as he dozed contentedly in my lap. Come to think of it, we’d fought quite a lot of things, trying to get out of Vinewood, and I should probably hand him off to someone that could properly look him over, ensure that he wasn’t hurt in any serious or lasting way. I ran my fingers over the wounds that the potion had already closed, marveling at the miracle of the Pokemon world’s medicine. Still, even the magical mystery cure of regeneration in a spray bottle couldn’t fix deeper things, I didn’t think, and if Poochyena had deeper hurts than that, I didn’t think I could forgive myself. Not after how much I owed him, for keeping me alive.

I settled back, watching the sun slowly begin to peek over the trees, smiling at the early morning light. More than anything, I was glad the ordeal was over, if only for the moment, and that the both of us were safe. Anything else, I could deal with as it came.