Chapter Text
“...ver… Oliver…”
Called out by the sound of a distant voice, Oliver’s consciousness woke up.
He felt very sleepy and his body simply refused to move. It was as though he had no strength to resist the call of slumber, no matter how hard he tried. His vision would fade in and out constantly, showing an image for a mere instant and then becoming dark once again.
Oliver saw glimpses of a red, clouded sky, cracked by lightning bolts that would fall one after the other. Leaves flew madly in the air, taken by relentless wind. He couldn’t even tell whether the things he saw were real or a dream. The sounds would also come and go along with the visions, and Oliver could hear winds howling wildly and thunders that could easily pass for explosions.
Even then, amid all that unnerving noise, Oliver could also hear the voice speaking to him. Nearly every word was unintelligible due to his fading consciousness, and he was only able to discern parts of it.
“...orry… I’m so sor…”
“Please… You have to…”
“Oliver… I… ways… you…”
The voice would speak between pained gasps and hastened breathing. And even the thought that the voice’s owner seemed to be in pain caused him to feel dread and fear.
I have to… help…
Please… Don’t leave me…
…Ro… bin…
Fighting against his numb mind, Oliver once again tried to move, to keep his eyes open and to get out of wherever he was. He couldn’t tell what was happening, or for what reason, and the memories that could answer that were nowhere to be found. Yet Oliver still struggled and fought as hard as he could.
At some point, the sounds of rain and thunder soon grew distant. The voice no longer could be heard, and Oliver shortly found himself being pulled in by sleep once again. The visions eventually came to an end, as his restless consciousness faded away with them.
…Robin…
Normally, the woods south of Westalt City had a peaceful, somewhat organized beauty to it, in which nothing felt out of place. Trees standing not too far from each other, allowing sunlight to come through and give it a vibrant look. A wide path of clear solid earth divided two sides of the forest, as the perfect pathway for Pokémon to stroll by. A balance that had been crafted by nature, after years of being left untouched.
Yet it was by the hands of nature itself that that same image of the woods had been disturbed.
The storm that began last night was long gone by then, but its results remained to be seen by whoever walked by. That included a little Oshawott named Glenn, who was standing by the road at the time. He eyed the trees around him, finding many of them had been stripped of their leaves, or even of whole branches. Those remains would be found on the road, scattered all around. Even unlucky berries, that couldn’t hold on to their trees, had been reduced to watered down stains on the ground. Such a waste of good food.
“...Glenn… Hey, Glenn!”
A familiar voice made the Oshawott gasp, as if he had just snapped out of a trance. He turned around hurriedly, shifting his focus back to the friend who was accompanying him. Matt, the Raboot, had his paws tucked in his fur and a serious look on his face, just like usual.
“Yeah, Matt? Did you find something?” Glenn asked.
“Nope, just dirt.” Matt said while kicking a tiny rock out of his way. “Any luck on your side?”
Glenn shook his head apologetically, and Matt sighed.
“Figures… Guess we’ll have to go a bit further to find those herbs.”
“It’s okay, I’m sure we’ll find them soon!” Glenn replied cheerfully. “Come on, let’s keep looking!”
The Oshawott hurried along and ventured deeper into the forest, going off the road’s carved path. Matt was right behind him, following from a small distance. The sound of their steps could be heard clearly, since they had no choice but to walk over the fallen leaves and branches. Parts of the ground still hadn’t dried off the water from last night’s rain, and felt a bit slippery under their feet. It demanded the duo to be a bit more careful as they moved, but that was fine. They had no reason to hurry, after all.
“So…” Matt said at some point. “Wanna tell me what’s on your mind?”
“Huh?” Glenn turned to him, caught by surprise. “W-What do you mean?”
“I mean, you were staring at thin air for like a whole minute or two. And I’m pretty sure you weren’t just admiring the landscape, buddy…”
Feeling his face warm up from embarrassment, Glenn quickly turned away. He had hoped that Matt hadn’t noticed him zoning out minutes earlier, but of course that wasn’t the case.
“I was just… Thinking about the storm.” The Oshawott explained. “It’s a good thing it never made it to the city, right?”
“Oh, you can say that again.” Matt replied. “Man, can you imagine having to spend the whole morning fixing the House’s roof again? Yeah, thanks, but I’ll pass.”
Glenn chuckled at his friend’s grumpy comment. He knew that, if the need came to be, Matt would not hesitate to work on the roofs all over again. Likely with plenty of groans and complaints along the way, but he would do it regardless.
“Anyway, about the storm…” Glenn continued. “I was just wondering… Do you think there might be someone out here who needs help right now?”
“Huh? Where did that come from?”
“Well… You know there are some Pokémon who don’t live in the city, right? I mean, some bug and bird Pokémon who prefer to make their nests in the woods… Do you think they managed to get out of the storm in time?”
The question actually got Matt thinking for a few moments, to the point he’d mutter and scratch his head.
“I mean, I hope so…” He said. “There’s no way we can know for sure, though… And it’s not like we can check the whole forest to confirm.”
“...Yeah…” Glenn mumbled. “You’re right… I know you’re right, but… I just wish there was something more we could do, you know?”
Matt remained silent for a few seconds, before letting out a sigh then and patting the Oshawott’s back.
“Yeah, I know how you feel… But if we just walked randomly around the woods, odds are we’d just get lost. Then we would be the ones needing help.”
“I don’t think we’d get lost…” Glenn objected.
“Besides…” Matt continued, ignoring the comment. “You noticed there were some folks from the Pearl checking things in the city today, right? They must be looking around the forest too. Let’s just leave this to the professionals, yeah?”
While Glenn wasn’t exactly pleased with his friend’s response, he eventually nodded in agreement.
“Hey… Cheer up, buddy.” Matt told him. “The selection test is right around the corner. Just give it some time. And when the next storm comes around, maybe you’ll be the one leading the search-and-rescue squads. How would you like that, huh, Mr. Hero?”
Glenn chuckled, slightly cheered up from Matt’s chipper tone. He thought about arguing that having no storm at all would be more preferable, but decided to just take the Raboot’s words to heart.
“Anyway, how about we focus on our own mission and find those herbs for Granny?” Matt suggested.
“Yeah!” Glenn promptly nodded.
“Alrighty. That being said…”
Matt stopped walking at that moment, just as the two of them arrived at the edge of a slope. It was a large inclination on the ground, resembling malformed stairs made out of earth, separating different floors of the forest.
“We’re really out of luck this time, huh?” Matt mentioned while glancing around. “We never had to go this far before.”
While Matt began to ponder out loud if they should go a different direction, Glenn got his attention caught by something else. Looking over the slope, he saw something, some sort of glimmer far off in the woods. The Oshawott couldn’t quite tell what it was, though, even as he stepped a bit closer to the edge.
Suddenly, as he was taking another step forward, Glenn felt the earthy ground crumbling under his foot. He heard Matt shouting his name, but that too was muffled by his own screaming voice as he lost balance and began rolling downhill.
Luckily, it wasn’t a long way down, and Glenn hit the lower ground after only a few seconds. It didn’t hurt him as much as it got him dirty, and the Oshawott shortly lifted himself up, feeling just a little sore. He barely had time to get a grip of his surroundings before Matt came down after him, aptly making use of his large feet to slide his way down the slope.
“Hey! Glenn, you okay?!”
“Y-Yeah, I’m alright. Sorry about that… I was just looking at something and then… I guess I stepped in the wrong place.”
“Geez…” Matt sighed. “See, dude? That’s why I keep telling you to stop zoning out! You were lucky this time, but what if you got hurt? What if I wasn’t here?”
“...I’m sorry…” Glenn lowered his head apologetically.
Matt’s aggressive attitude was shortly disarmed by Glenn, who lowered his head apologetically. Clearly the Raboot was feeling a bit regretful over his words, yet he didn’t say anything about it. Instead, as if searching for something else to put the blame on, he turned his head back to the edge of the slope, now above them.
“Stupid rain must have made the ground weak… We’re probably gonna have to go the way around to get back up.”
While Matt began to look around to find a way they could follow, Glenn turned his eyes back to the direction he was facing a bit earlier. He had lost sight of it for a moment, but quickly found it again: The same sparkling point in the distance. Once again, curiosity took the best of the little Oshawott, and he just couldn’t ignore it.
“Matt, hang on… I think there’s something over there. Look, that way.”
The Raboot squinted a little as he focused at the direction pointed by Glenn.
“...Oh, yeah, I see it. What is it, though?”
“Well, let’s go find out!” Glenn happily suggested. “Maybe it’s some kind of treasure!”
“In the middle of a forest? I don’t know if that’s how it works, dude…”
Matt tried to argue how unlikely it was, but Glenn wasn’t even listening anymore. Charmed by the thought of finding something special and unexpected, the Oshawott ran off towards the glimmer. He heard his friend call out for him a couple times, before eventually giving up and coming after him.
It didn’t take long for the duo to reach the origin of the mysterious glint. But even before they found it, their attention had already been grasped by an astonishing sight that caused them to gape in awe.
The area they walked in was more open compared to the rest of the forest, with plenty of sunlight coming down and illuminating it. And the reason for that was most likely because a tree - easily the biggest they had ever seen - had fallen down and was lying heavily on the ground.
The roots were shattered and pointing upwards, leaving a large, malformed hole of dirt in their place. It was as if the trunk had been pushed down by a superior force. Surely it would have been an amazing sight to behold in earlier days. At that moment, however, it was much more akin to the image of misfortune itself.
“Whoa…” Glenn gasped in amazement. “It’s so huge…!”
“Yeah, for real…” Matt agreed. “It must’ve been pretty old if it grew this big… Maybe that’s why it went down too. I guess it couldn’t handle all the wind and rain from last night.”
Unable to take his eyes off the tree, Glenn ventured a little closer. It was then that he gasped once again, as he noticed there was something stuck between the roots.
“Matt! Over there!”
At first glance, that something had the appearance of a ball, slightly bigger than an apple. A thick black line divided it in half, one side colored in a dark shade of red and the other in gray. There were multiple thin lines carved all around it in some sort of pattern. The sphere also seemed to have a smooth, metallic surface, and Glenn realized that the glimmer they had seen before was sunlight reflecting on it.
“That’s a treasure?” Matt said. “Not gonna lie, buddy, I was kinda expecting something more than just a weird ball.”
“Oh, come on, Matt, we don’t even know what it is.” Glenn retorted.
In order to bring down the curious sphere, the Oshawott had to put strength on his feet and jump as high as he could. He managed to reach it with his little arms, but just barely. Glenn soon found himself stuck in mid air while holding on to the stuck sphere, as the roots refused to let go of it at first. They were unable to sustain his weight for too long, though, and shortly snapped, dropping the Oshawott on his back, but with the sphere secured.
“Nice catch.” Matt chuckled while looking down at him. “You okay there, dude?”
“Uh… Yes, but… I do think I would like a little help getting up…”
Matt sighed playfully, before promptly reaching down and pushing the Oshawott back up to his feet. He even patted Glenn’s back a little, dusting off some dirt from his blue fur.
“So, any clues on what that thing is?” The Raboot inquired.
Glenn shook his head while inspecting the sphere in his paws. It didn’t feel heavy, but it was cold to the touch. There were some stains of earth on its surface, but they could be cleaned away without much effort. What really had Glenn’s attention, though, was something he found in the middle section, right over the black line. A small circle that was sticking out from the item and standing out too because of its lighter gray color.
Out of sheer curiosity, Glenn touched the bulge and found out he could actually push it down. And as soon as he did, the Oshawott felt the sphere vibrate briefly. His eyes widened as its colors slowly began to grow brighter, as if something had lit itself up inside it. For a second, Glenn thought it was only his imagination, but then Matt gasped, confirming he was seeing it too.
“Dude, what the hell-”
Before Matt had a chance to finish talking, the sphere suddenly opened up with a loud click sound and blinding light came out from inside it. Glenn yelled in surprise and dropped the object by reflex, at the same time Matt grabbed him and jumped backwards to get away from it.
Everything happened really fast. The dazzling light was gone as quickly as it had appeared, followed by the sound of something falling on the ground. As soon as Glenn and Matt recovered from the flash that struck their eyes, they found the sphere lying on the ground. It was closed again, looking as harmless as it did seconds ago. And right next to it, there was a Pokémon, who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere.
The strange Pokémon seemed to be asleep, for it had eyes closed and remained on the ground, not moving an inch. It had a bright yellow fur, as well as black on the legs and upper body. It also had a sharp tail and pointy ears atop its canine head.
“Is that… A Riolu?” Glenn whispered. “Weren’t they supposed to be blue?”
“I… guess?” Matt muttered, still quite fazed. “No, hang on, more important than that… Where did this guy even come from?”
“Or girl… We don’t know yet.”
“Glenn, that’s not the issue right now.”
“Oh, you’re right! Maybe he’s hurt! We need to help him!”
“Wait, don’t-”
Matt tried to stop him, but Glenn slipped away from his friend and hurriedly approached the fallen Riolu.
“Hey… Hey, are you okay? Wake up!”
He called out while gently nudging the unconscious pup. The gesture made the Riolu stir on the ground and moan softly. His eyelids quivered before opening up a little, revealing a pair of red eyes that hazily turned to Glenn.
“Mm… Wh… Who…?” He spoke with a weak voice.
“You’re awake…! C-Can you hear me? My name is Glenn!”
“...Where…?”
“Oh, right now you’re in a forest close to Westalt and-”
“No… W-Where… Where’s… Ro… bin…?”
“Huh? I’m sorry, I don’t understand…”
The Riolu’s expression turned more tense as he shifted in place and tried to push himself up. His efforts were short lived, though, for his arms quickly gave in and made him slump back on the ground.
“H-Hey, don’t force yourself!” Glenn told him. “It’s okay, we can help you!”
“I… I have to… find her…!”
Any strength left in the Riolu left him at that moment, and his eyes shut down at the same time his body went limp. Glenn nudged and called for him again, but there was no response that time.
“Oh, no… Matt!” He cried out, turning to his friend. “We have to take him to the House!”
“Wait, what? Glenn, we have no idea who this guy is or where he came from! We can’t just bring a total stranger to Granny’s place like this!”
“Well, we can’t just leave him here either!” Glenn retorted impatiently. “Come on, we need to do something!”
“...Ugh, fine!”
Despite clearly not being even a little bit on board with the idea, the Raboot came closer. He turned his back to Glenn and then lowered himself to one knee on the ground while opening his arms.
“Come on, put him on my back.”
“Huh? Are you sure?”
“I mean, it’s not like you can carry him, right?” Matt replied. “And I know you’re not leaving without him, so hurry up and let’s see what Granny can do to help.”
“R-Right!” Glenn said, smiling at his friend. “Thanks, Matt!”
Despite struggling a bit due to the difference in height, Glenn managed to pull up the Riolu just enough so that he could be laid on Matt’s back. The Raboot held the pup’s legs and stood back up, careful to keep the balance of their piggy back. Once he was ready, Matt began walking away from the fallen tree and back to the path they had come from.
Glenn followed him for a few moments, but shortly stopped and turned back. Feeling like he couldn’t just leave it behind, the Oshawott picked up the sphere and brought it with him. Making sure to keep his paws away from the center, he hurried off to catch up to Matt.
Thus, taking with them the sleeping Riolu and a strange souvenir, the pair soon made their way back home, in the city of Westalt.