Trying to search the web for Pokémon powers related to sleep or memories brought me into a deep rabbit hole of weirdness and ugly stuff that no god or goddess should ever allow to exist.

There was a news article about a Jigglypuff running around with a very powerful voice that could put almost anyone to sleep instantly.

She had a tendency to prank whoever fell victim to her sleep-inducing songs which made her somewhat likable. She had a small fanbase that kept tracking her movement and the latest places she had gone to. According to the website she had been spotted in Goldenrod city not too long ago.

For my meta-knowledge, it was interesting to see that the small pink ball of fluff still exists, like in the anime. That wasn't the weird shit I was talking about.

Haha, not even close.

I read a news article about a Hypno and Drowzee in Kanto who created psychic waves that caused human children to sleepwalk and believe they were some kind of Pokémon. The pair had an extremely big range together which had turned into a small crisis situation.

I personally thought that to be really terrifying.

The rabbit hole continued even further.

There was a castle in Galar called ‘Sleeping Beauty's Castle’, the name was pretty self explanatory and it apparently drifted through the seas and popped up at random times and disappeared without a notice.

The authorities in Galar don't really care about it since it was too far off the mainland and people and Pokémon couldn't realistically enter the castle without falling asleep anyway so they just accepted it as another thing that exists in Galar.

Another weird thing I found on the web and in the 'past-threat-list' was a guy who had the power to make Pokémon forget moves-yes I shit you not.

Just like Sabrina who was known for being a psychic, this person was known for removing Pokémon moves with just once glance. Apparently, he made them forget the technique rather than removing the physical requirements to perform a move. Like, he could make a Pidgey forget how to fly by dabbling into muscle memory or something.

He was called ‘The Deleter’ and had been very famous before he got arrested and thrown into some special prison hellhole.

Something about criminal activities, regarding Legendary Pokémon.

The most famous was the New Island incident in which an entire island in Kanto’s shoreline disappeared overnight alongside everyone within a 20 kilometer radius swearing that said island had never existed in the first place.

So, I guess that Mewtwo was hanging around somewhere in the world. Not the most comforting thought.

As you can guess it was really hard to find out more about the weird encounter I might have had last night but couldn’t remember a single thing about.

There are too many possibilities when you have an X amount of Pokémon, all with different and overlapping, terrifying abilities.

So, the entire internet didn't provide me any answers regarding that mystery.

Although I did find a small news article about a couple in Canalave City who claimed that their son was cursed by Darkrai.

I had been wondering if that side quest from the Platinum games would exist in this weird universe.

In the games, you had to do something with a Lunar Wing and Creselia. A neat side quest back in the days but now, it was a possibility and maybe even an opportunity.

Though Canalave City was quite off the road and although I could travel there by boat and train, I preferred to keep close to Ash's and the original game protagonist's route.

I did order the DiScavenger program to keep me updated about that couple and their son. I just hoped he wouldn't die before I could start that side quest.

"Hey," I suddenly said, "did you know that there's a person in Kalos who literally is unable to sleep?"

Fay lost her balance and fell down on her butt, luckily she fell on soft grass.

She had been practicing her balance and she managed to stand on one paw for 30 minutes straight. Something about aura helps her find balance if she concentrates.

It was very cute to see her fall and struggle back to her feet.

"What?" Fay scowled.

"I am reading this story about a guy-" I began.

"I heard you the first time," she cut me off.

"Ay," I nodded, "Well, isn't that weird?"

"I guess," she shot me a weird look. "You are still trying to figure it out?"

I sighed, "There are just too many variables, I can't figure out what happened and I feel like I should be able to do it."

"Maybe it's nothing, I mean nothing happened last night." Fay shrugged, "And neither I, nor Luna can find anything so we are safe for now."

"Not an option," I rubbed my eyes that had gone dry from staring at the screen. I opened a document with possible explanations for what the fuck happened.

I had managed to cross off most Legendaries from the list. Darkrai would have given me nightmares and the Lake Trio were also off that list because we were too far away from the lakes to be within their working range.

Other Legendaries had either no powers related to sleep and amnesia, were asleep or simply had no business in Sinnoh whatsoever.

The options that remained were not pleasant.

Fay sighed, "Remember what I said about paranoia?" She said it without mirth.

{She has a point.}

I turned around and saw Luna standing behind me, holding a chess board in front of her, all the while giving me a cute smile.

She tilted her head. {Let's play.}

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

I shook my head, "I can't, I need to do more research."

My eyes shot towards the laptop. "There's so much going on right now, the Fang are terrorizing Lydic Town for example. I need to have a back-"

The laptop disappeared with a white Flash.

Luna sat down in front of me and placed the chess board between us on the grass.

The box with chess pieces appeared next to us and she opened it. She took the white king and handed me all the black pieces. I didn't really care, playing black is way cooler anyway.

I was aware of what Luna was doing though, trying to put my mind off the mystery that kept nagging my mind and just wouldn't let me be.

Being a psychic she must have noticed that I was stressed about it.

I already know that fuzzing about everything wrong in the world wasn't healthy. I did it a lot and to come to the same realization that it's broken, every single time, it's kind of depressing.

I closed my eyes, maybe I should put my mind to it. There's nothing I could do realistically. And until new evidence popped up I might as well drop it, after all; shit was bound to come anyway.

Smiled at Luna.

"Fine, let's play a game."

Luna grinned at me and moved the king’s pawn to the center.

I answered by moving my knight forward, attacking the pawn.

Fay gave me one last look before closing her eyes and continued training her balance.

I kept playing with Luna the whole afternoon and it was fun.

Well mostly.

"God this game sucks!"

"Ralts." She stuck out her tongue at me and hit the enter key on the keyboard.

I shook my head, "This game is blasphemy to everything I know."

Luna selected a Pidgey on the computer screen and I, once again, chose the Rapidash.

Somehow this world had its own crappy version of Mario Kart but with Pokémon instead of the red plumber.

And it was playable on a PC.

Actually there were a lot of differences between my world's Mario Kart and this one but the most frustrating part was that, somehow, Rainbow Road still managed to be in the game. It had a different name and design but a simple texture change doesn't fool me. It was essentially the same.

Arceus truly must be cruel.

Also, Luna was kicking my ass in this stupid game for no reason at all.

"You lost again?" Fay asked with a small smile.

"Shut up." I rolled my eyes, "Unless you want to play you have no right to scold me."

"I politely deny," Fay shook her head, "Though I am surprised that you're losing so often."

"Ugh, Rainbow Road, bad RNG, lag and a shitload of misinputs."

Fay stared at me. "I don't even understand a single word of what you just said."

I smiled.

Luna stuck out her tongue at me again.

My eyes narrowed. "And why are you so good at this game? You don't even have five fingers."

A simple smile was the only answer I received.

While I was shaking my head I patted Luna on the head.

"Next time we're doing no items, Fox only, Final Destination. You never beat me at that." I grinned evilly.

Especially since that game doesn't exist in this universe.

"Screeeee!"

A dark figure suddenly jumped out of the bushes and shot towards us.

"Oh shit." I muttered as I straggled away from whatever it was.

Fay suddenly jumped in front of me and readied her claws, taking a pose that allowed her to either go on the defensive or to lash out at a moment's notice. Luna got up and turned her head to face the new threat.

This all happened within a span of a second.

My hand found a sheathed knife and I unsheathed it without looking or stabbing myself in the finger. I was ready to face anything at that moment, mentally ofcourse.

You can imagine my surprise when I was only met with a small black-red bird creature.

"A Taillow?" Fay muttered surprised as well and her stance relaxed a bit.

"Don't let your guard down," I said as I got up, my voice wasn’t as steady as I wanted. "It might be an illusion or a trap."

"N-no, this is it, there's nothing else," Fay analyzed, actually sounding surprised.

{Confirmed, it's angry though.} Luna seconded Fay's statement.

The Taillow in question was actually very small too, smaller than the ones I had seen in the wild.

"Tail!" It chirped out aggressively, which wasn't very scary to be honest. Almost cute even.

Fay turned one eye at me. "He says he's going to kill you for what you did."

I frowned. "You can extract that much information from only that?-Scratch that, ask him what the fuck he's talking about."

Taillow clumsily flapped his wings and flew towards us, reminding me of a Torpedo or something.

A purple ray hit him before he even crossed half the distance and he was tossed back to the ground.

With great effort the Taillow got back to his two feet. There was a pain present on his face that belonged to someone who had lost everything.

With the most accusing gaze a bird could have it spat, "Low."

I looked at Fay.

"He claims you stole his father."

I blinked, "I did what?"

'Taillow!" The bird turned his eyes on me, anger etched into his face.

Fay frowned hard. "Are you stupid? That's ridiculous."

{Don't you dare!} Luna's eyes flared red and a beam hit him square in the face.

He dropped and his eyes closed, all the energy in his body was suddenly gone.

"Okay...is he dead? second question. What the fuck?"

"He appears to be alive," Fay said darkly, "And I think I know what happened."

She relaxed. "He's stupid. His father was abducted 2 days ago and he thought it was you." She rolled her eyes. "Like I said, he was clearly out of his mind."

{Obviously.} Luna sneered.

"We're moving now." I said suddenly.

"Now?" Fay asked surprised, "Why?"

I shook my head, I was not even going to bother asking why Fay was still so relaxed.

{We're leaving.} Luna shrugged, as if the fact I said so was enough of an explanation.

"I'll explain along the way. Leave the Taillow alone, he'll live and keeping him around would bring more trouble than he's worth."

Both my Pokémon seemed to be really pleased by that.

"Are we in danger?" Fay asked as I began packing my stuff.

"I think I know what must have happened that night. We should be relatively safe but I'm not taking any chances. We're heading towards the nearest Pokémon Center. Right now."

Without needing any more persuasion Fay and Luna helped me pack my stuff.

----------------------------------------

"Dust."

My eyes snapped open and immediately, I searched for the gun with my left hand and immediately found it. I realized I was no longer camping in my tent and instead inside a building, so shooting blindly wouldn't be the smartest thing.

Fay was standing next to my bed, paws hanging in front of her belly in a timid manner.

"Something wrong?" I asked her, mentally preparing myself for the worst option possible.

Fay rapidly shook her head, "N-no-no, nothing at all."

Phew, at least we won't be having a battle royale inside a Pokémon Center.

"Okay…" I let out a sigh, "Is there something I can do for you?"

I really wanted to go back to sleep. Being awake sucks and I was having a trippy dream I wanted to return to.

You know that feeling.

"...Canisleephere..."

I yawned, "Sorry, didn't catch that."

Fay avoided my gaze. "Can I sleep on your bed tonight? I am…"

She whispered the last part, "a bit scared."

I blinked. "Sure…"

My eyes drifted towards Luna who was embracing a pillow in her sleep. I had skillfully managed to move her to the other bed while she was sleeping.

"Just don't drool on the bed." I replied sleepily.

I closed my eyes and fell asleep while Fay was making herself comfortable somewhere on the bed.

The last thing I heard was Fay whispering; "Thank you."