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PMD: The Twilight Brigade Chronicles Chapter One: -- Uncertainty

_"Just trust me, I'll set things right... I swear it."

"Don't go! Oh please, don't do it!"

"...I'm sorry... but I have to do this... I will always..."

"NO! ARTOMIS!"_

A bright blue flash. That's all that he could see, and hell, he didn't even have his eyes open. His body felt stiff, every muscle burned, and he could hardly even get a breath in at times. He felt something poke at him a couple of times from his side, but couldn't tell what was going on.

"...Hello?"

...ugh... who...?

"Hey, are you okay?"

...Where... am I...?

"What's this? Oh, it moved! its eyes are..."

... I'm gonna need to try harder... at least find out who these people are... Using all the energy he could gather, Artomis opened his eyes a little. He could see a gold blur and a yellow blur above him, but could make no sense on who or even what they were.

"He doesn't look hurt... I wonder why he's out..."

"I think he was hit by a sleep seed. Would that do it?"

"...No, not like this..."

...Damn... I must hold on... I feel... Ohh...

"Damn! He's out again! We need to help him! get him to the base!"

-

"...NO! ARTOMIS!"

With a start, Artomis sat up from where he lay, his eyes open wide. He couldn't see anything but a blue light and his head hurt severely, but nothing that would prevent him from figuring out what had just happened to him. He felt a hard dizzy spell and fell back over on the bed, but only a little too hard and completely rolled off the side, hitting his head on the wooden frame. After coping with every burning sensation in his body, he finally could hear something rouse from the corner. Artomis crouched low and waited for whatever it was to reveal itself. Quite the day I'm having already... Now if only I could remember how I got into this mess in the first place...

"It's alright. I won't hurt you. Just so you know, you might want to take it easy for a while... You've been out for nearly two weeks."

Artomis regained his footing and stood up straight. He was in no shape to do anything right now... He felt like he just went to hell and back three times over. Wait... TWO WEEKS?!

"...Why yes, but I find it odd, you had no injuries and it seems you had no toxins from seeds or poison... What could have done this to you?"

Taking a step back, Artomis began searching the room for the source of the voice frantically. He can read my mind! What the hell?! ...Wait... hmm... no... I can't remember anything... What happened to me...? Why can't I... AGH! Artomis fell on his knees and wrapped his hands around his head as a blue flash hit his conscious again. He fell on his hands and knees and began panting heavily as the pain started to dissipate almost as suddenly as it had came. For some reason, the blue blur seemed to stay fresh in his mind, though weaker than what had just happened.

"...Are you okay?! Can you hear me?!"

Looking up, Artomis could see what looked to be a green Pikachu, but he figured it was truly yellow thanks to his new painful "blue-vision" he had. ...Wait... did that Pikachu... Just talk...?

"Yeah, he did. It's not a surprise you understand him, most Pokémon speak the same form of dialect. Now, are you alright?"

Recovering to where he at least had his body upright, Artomis looked at the Pikachu and gave a fake smile. "...Yeah... I'm fine..."

"Good. I'm glad, but worried. Do you remember who you are?"

Artomis could finally pin-point where the voice was coming from. He looked up on the bed he was leaning against and saw a Kadabra laying on it, its hand lying on the bed just above his head. "Yeah, I'm Artomis... Now may I ask who you two are and how I can understand the two of you Pokémon?"

The Kadabra and Pikachu looked at each other funny, but then looked back at Artomis. He felt like he had said something wrong, but he didn't know why. "Well..." Kadabra started, "Pokémon can usually talk with other Pokémon, correct? So what reason is there not for you to speak it?"

"Well, for starters, I'm not a Pokémon."

Pikachu let out a gasp and looked up at Kadabra. Kadabra returned his glance and shook his head. "Well, I don't know what knocked your head funny, but you should really look at yourself and see what we mean..." With a flick of his wrist, Kadabra held out his spoon to Artomis.

With a sigh, Artomis reached out to grab the shiny object, but even on his reach he could tell. For one thing, he didn't have a thumb anymore and his arm was all blue and furry with a white plate on his forearm. Slowly, he grabbed the spoon, fearing on what he would see. He shined the spoon in front of his face and stared at the Riolu starring back at him. "...This... is me...?"

"Who else could it be? It's not like I have the power to do illusions"

The Pikachu turned to him with a slight frown. "...but you can do that..." "Hush now... Well, now that you know what you truly are, you know the reason to our speech. As for your other question, my name is Cyrus. The Pikachu to your right is Zaphiel." Artomis smiled at Zaphiel, who returned the kind gesture. "Now, what can you remember?"

Thinking hard for a moment, Artomis could vaguely remember a voice, but not what it had said... "Well... I heard a... ugh... a voice..." Artomis could feel it building again. His head began to throb lightly and the blur vision began to return.

"Well?" Cyrus asked. Artomis looked at him, fully missing the question. "What did it say?"

"...I... I don't know... I'm sorry... but you'll have to excuse me..." Artomis said, standing up. He stood for a moment, regaining his ground as he noticed the two Pokemon staring at him. He looked at the door way and decided just to go. He began jogging to it and once he hit the hallway, he burst into a dash. He didn't know where he was going or why, all he knew was he wanted to figure everything out and get rid of this damn headache.

"Artomis!" Zaphiel called out as he ran to the doorway.

"...Let him go, Zaph... Let him find his own path right now... I'll have Whirlwind keep an eye on him for me if he leaves here."

"...Are you sure? He might pass out again..."

"If he does, we'll go rescue him. It'll be the first mission since we built this base."

Zaphiel gave a small nod. "Alright... I trust you... I hope he finds an answer..."

It took him a while, but he finally found the exit to that confusing place. It was pretty big despite its small castle appearance from outside. Artomis only took a second to rest his feet when another spike hit. He grabbed his head in agony as the pain built. What the hell is wrong with me?! After a few more moments of terror, the pain started to dissipate again. Artomis didn't move for a few minutes after that, first for not having the energy right away to heave his limb body off the ground again and second, for fear of the blue-vision to return. After about five minutes, he sat up and looked ahead. He was sitting at the edge of a wide forest. ...What to do, what to do... Who knows what I'll find here... but it will at least give me time alone to sort things out...

The outer edge of the forest seemed quite nice really. He could hear the occasional Pidgey and Weedle every now and again, but it was calm. Wow... your perspective in nature really changes when you're on a Pokemon's point of view... Actually being able to hear what the Pokémon were saying instead of just their call was still quite new to him.

"AHH! HELP!"

"What...? That was close by..."

"GET AWAY! OUCH! LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Turning sharply to his left, he saw down a tunnel was a cornered bird against a big snake. A Seviper attacking a Starly? Why is it doing that...? Art dashed ahead and entered the room, poking the snake. "What do you think you're doing?" The Starly turned towards Art, a look of fear in its eyes. He felt that it wasn't about the snake-villain, though... there was another reason for the look...

"Think fassst, pipssssqueak!" Lashing its tail out, the Seviper knocked Art against the rocky wall. He let out a yelp of pain as he fell to the ground, stunned. "That'ssss it? What a shhhhame..."

Looking up dazed, Art saw the foe raise his tail and ready his final blow when Art began to feel the pressure build in his head. No... not right now... I've... I've got to fight back... A spike of pain shot through his head and this time, he couldn't take it, he let out a yell, causing both the Seviper and Starly to flinch. He felt his arms move to his side, but couldn't really control them or even see them. All the blue-vision allowed him to see was the outlines of the other two in the room. His arms thrust foreword, and at that same moment, the blue haze seemed to dissipate rapidly from his body. As his vision cleared, he saw a motionless snake about 5 feet from where it had originally stood and a shocked Starly, staring at him with its beak wide open.

"Well... I guess you didn't need us after all..."

Artomis jumped slightly as he finally realized whose voice that was. "...Cyrus... Zaphiel... Hi..." He said, just before falling onto the ground, face first.

"On second thought, maybe he did." Zaphiel sighed and ran up next to him, making sure the fall didn't break his muzzle or anything. Once Cyrus made it in front of Artomis, Zaphiel burst out into laughter. Cyrus gave him a questioning look, so Zaphiel tried to calm down. "Sorry... it's just that we never got to say hello back to him before he already grows tired of us!"

Cyrus started at Zaphiel blankly for a moment, and then rolled his eyes. "Just help me get him back to the base, we need to figure things out... Plus, I need to check on the latest from the Explorer Guilds nearby to see if we can get assistance in our... financial matter..."

Zaphiel's expression turned a little grim as he spoke up, "...I understand. You just take care of that, I'll take care of Art and Whirlwind here."

"You have my thanks. I will return by dusk to check on his condition." Cyrus said. Zaphiel gave him a nod, and he gave a weak smile. "Don't worry, he's not out like he was before. He'll wake up much sooner this round. Farewell." In an instant, the Kadabra's form faded, leaving no trace behind that he was even there.

Zaphiel sighed and turned towards Whirlwind, who was just sitting there watching Artomis. "...Let's get going. I'll use my badge to get us out of here and back home." Whirlwind showed a weak smile at her friend. "Yeah, that sounds like a plan... He saved me, and yet Cyrus says he's only been conscious as a Pokémon for six hours... How's that even possible?"

Zaphiel shrugged his shoulders, "I have no clue... I'm surprised you believe the story, though."

Whirlwind cocked her head. "You don't believe him?"

"No, it's not that... it's just really hard to believe a story like that... I mean, how many occurrences have Pokémon turned human or human to Pokémon? I can never remember such a story."

Whirlwind nodded. "Alright, I see your reasoning, but that shouldn't stop you from trusting him. At least give him a little faith. After all, all he can remember is his name and a voice with no words. He's having trouble figuring things out for himself. After what I saw him do before... I say you talk to him."

Zaphiel nodded. "Yeah, sure. Let's head back now, though, there could be more lurking around here." Whirlwind nodded and smiled as Zaphiel placed the stone on her head and she warped back to the base. He then turned to the downed Artomis and smiled. "Let's go back home and get you fixed up."