Desolate [Pokémon Arven x Protagonist]

When Everyone Knows

"Lugosi, are you alive?"

"She's a light sleeper. Like, she'll wake up whenever I text her."

"Huh?" I opened my eyes, and everyone was kneeling around me as if I were a dying animal.

"Gee, Lugosi, we thought we lost you," Penny sighed, relieved.

"I've never seen you sleep so good," Nemona stated. "You looked like—" She pulled a gruesome face, mouth open and arms up and bent at weird angles. "You were drooling, too."

I felt my mouth and felt wetness that I wiped away. "Last night was..." I looked around. The world seemed so much quieter and calm. "Different."

Arven placed his hands on his hips. "Yeah, the Pokémon around here kept me up, too."

"We got the camp cleaned up," Nemona said. "We were just waiting for you to wake up."

Penny handed me something wrapped in aluminum foil. "We saved you some breakfast." I opened it up. It was some sort of egg omelet.

I got up and stretched, eggs carefully balanced above my head. "I'm awake. I'll just roll up my bag, and we could get going." I pulled out my backpack and opened the largest compartment. Nemona was already folding my sleeping bag as small as possible and fitting it in my backpack as I held it open. I swung it over my shoulder and we all started heading down the path towards the center of the crater while I ate my meal. A looming cave started to materialize further below, and we stared at it as we walked along. We'd eventually have to go through it, and who knew what was lurking inside? We passed Pokémon as we followed the path. Some were familiar; some were vaguely recognizable. The further we went down, the more our lovable, friendly Pokémon morphed into these 'Monsters of Area Zero'. There were jigglypuff with long, flowing manes; donphan like the previous titan, and magneton that were confined to the ground with the weight of spikey, black material fixed to its magnet arms. They all watched us with undefined intent.

I finished the last bite of my breakfast before Nemona pointed out the outline of the third research station. "Found it! Last one there is a bad egg!"

"Nemona!" Penny reached out to her new friend, but she was already racing down the slope. She turned to us and shrugged. "I guess the bad egg will be one of you." She followed suit, shouting her friend's name and she stumbled along. Arven and I shared a glance before rushing forward.

Nemona disappeared into the station, giggling, Penny almost catching her arm on the closing door. I looked down into the crater, sparkles catching in the darkness. "A time machine, huh?" I asked. "Now what would your mom be using that for?"

Arven shrugged. "Beats me. I don't understand why she does anything."

I suddenly noticed the muted tapping of my Pokéballs on my belt. "How did your mom... get Koraidon?"

He held open the door for me and we met the two girls inside. "He was found by my mom when she was working on her time machine," he answered.

"Who?" Nemona perked.

"I believe it would be best for me to take over the explanations at this point," Professor Sada's voice echoed."

"Seriously...?" Arven hissed.

She continued, "Koraidon, which I entrusted to Arven, was the first Pokémon that was successfully retrieved from the past by the time machine."

Woah, Nemona mouthed.

"Through analysis of its genetic makeup, as well as its behavioral patterns, I came to realize that what I had discovered was in fact an ancient form of cyclizar, the Pokémon still commonly ridden in this region."