*Nathan's POV*

"Are you Nathan?" the Riolu half-asks me, half-tells me, and Looker closes the door, intent on letting us talk in privacy, whether either of us want it or not. I turn to watch him leave, but, once he's gone, I gradually turn my gaze back to the Riolu. His green eyes are practically glowing with anticipation.

At first I really don't know what to say, so I just simply tell him,
"That's correct. I'm Nathan."

I don't really know what else to say to the Pokemon, but he nods anyway.

"Yep, I've heard lots about you, and about your partners. My name is Risk," he says,

"Looker found me wandering near where that massive explosion happened, and I was looking at this at the time."
He holds out his paw and shows me a small, black box that he had been secretly holding onto this entire time. I recognize the device instantly- the red-tipped needle pointing "what appears to be "North" reveals the identity of the object to me.

"You know what this is, right?" Risk asks, as if to make absolutely sure.

I nod and shift my grip on Riku's Pokeball in my hand. Pretty soon, I could just tell that he'd start asking about the Shaymin, and I want Risk to know that I have him with me.

"It's a compass," I confirm,

"But what does it point to? Does it have something to do with Riku?"

I look down at the Shaymin's purple Pokeball and the gears in the back of my mind begin to turn.

I wonder...

I trace the path of the needle with my eye, and, to my amazement, it seems to be pointing directly towards where Riku would be inside the capsule.

That's not facing North... Then, does that mean it's actually pointing to...

To think that someone had made a device that tracks a specific Pokemon is just astounding to me. Yet, if I'm right, that's exactly what the Riolu is holding.

He nods, seemingly able to follow my train of thought.
"Yep. It has everything to do with Riku. It's hard to explain, but, where I came from, there used to be an evil Ghost Pokemon, a Banette, named Von Spectre. He authored something called the Dark Arts, and he had a few henchmen that experimented with the spells that one could conjure while using it. One of them was this compass. It was given to me after that Banette was finally stopped by a few Ghosts who had their eyes opened, along with this message: 'This compass was the very same one I used to track you down during all of our previous encounters. As Mismagius said before, after a Pokemon is haunted by a Ghost, their position is visible to the Ghost ethereally. This compass will give you that ethereal vision. It will lead you to Riku, and I wish you good luck in restoring his memory. I regret that things had to end in this way, but I'm glad I could leave with a clear conscience.'"

I look at Risk with a mixture of curiosity and awe.

"Ethereal... Vision? Restoring his memory?" I question him, trying to make as much headway as I can in this situation,

"What happened to his memory? Did he his head or something?"

I want to be able to help him with everything that I can before the S.S. Lucy docks in Kalos, but the attempt just brings a tear to Risk's eye.

"It's more complicated than that," he replies sadly,

"I'll spare you the details of exactly how it happened, but the important part is that he lost his memory when he was separated from our team and possessed as a puppet by an evil Dusknoir and follower of Von Spectre. When we found him after the battle to stop those Ghosts, he took to the skies, going who-knows-where; I was then given that compass, and I just knew that I had to put two-and-two together to find him. I knew that I needed to restore his memory, and help him remember everything. We were... the best of friends..."

He couldn't continue because he had started to cry, and he wraps his paws around me.

"I don't really know how to restore a Pokemon's memory, but can I... Can I at least see him again?" he stifles, and I pass one of my own arms around Risk to comfort him, while my other presses the button on Riku's Pokeball, releasing the Shaymin onto the cot behind Risk in a brilliant flash of light.

...

Riku yawns and stretches, his brilliant teal-green fur contrasting with the dullness of the room, and making the place feel more like my apartment than a ship's innards, set sail for Kalos. I can tell that seeing the Shaymin is comforting for the both of us. More so Risk than me, however; as soon as he sees Riku sitting on the bed, he immediately wrenches himself free from under my arm and wraps both of his arms around Riku like a long-lost friend. The emotion makes sense, as that's exactly what Riku is to him- a friend without a memory of their friendship. The reunion almost brings a tear to my own eyes.

"Riku... I never thought I'd see you again!" he cries, freely letting his tears flow down his face.

Riku laughs when Risk hugs him.

"Too tight!" he groans, trying to break free. Then, his voice quivers a bit.

"Wait... Aren't you that same Riolu that I saw before? The one named Risk?" he asks.

Risk nods, but the gesture is more begrudging than anything else. He, through a short glance back at me, implies that Riku doesn't really remember him, but, this close to the Shaymin, I can tell that he doesn't want to accept it.

The Riolu looks at the Pokeball in my hand and nods. I already know what he wants, so I press the button on the ball's purple frame and recall Riku.

As the Shaymin disappears in a burst of light, Risk closes his eyes and stiffens himself against my side, whimpering through tears.

"Please, Nathan, is there a way that we can bring him back? Restore to his memory to what it was before?!" he pleads.

I'm just as clueless as he is about this... I know quite a bit about a Pokemon's psychology, but I wouldn't have the faintest idea about restoring memories...

Nevertheless, I don't want the poor Riolu to continue to cry for his friend, so I place my hand on his shoulder, coupled with an ultimatum.

"Risk, I'll do everything in my power to help Riku. He means just as much at me as he does to you, and, if what you're saying is the truth, I won't stop helping until he remembers who you are," I find myself telling Risk before I can stop it. A courageous smile marks its way across my face, but, in the back of my mind, I can't help thinking,

How am I going to manage this one? Voltflare thinks I'm a miracle worker, but can I really get lucky enough to save Riku, too?...

The sharp sound of someone blaring over the S.S. Lucy's PA system echoes through the room with tremendous force. I swear that I can feel the noise with every fibre of my being, but I don't pay much attention to the strength of it, only the words.
"Hold onto your hats- we're setting 'er down at the makeshift port near Geosenge!" the speaker, now clearly identifiable as the ship's captain, shouts, seemingly all around me. Although I'm used to hearing PA's from my own voyages, Risk whips his head around the room with a worried look on his face.

"Where did that come from?!" he asks me, slightly afraid of the sound's abrasive nature,

"There's no one else in the room... Otherwise, they'd give off at least some semblance of an Aura..."

I give Risk a knowing smile, which helps him to stop panicking, and I stifle a short laugh.

"Risk, it's just this ship's PA system. Basically, whenever the captain- that's the one who makes this thing move- wants to communicate with everyone else in the ship, he talks through the PA system, which carries his voice from one place to another, so that he can still focus on piloting the ship. If he walked away from the controls to send a message... I don't think it would be pretty if there happened to be some sort of obstacle in front of us."

Risk sighs when I'm done with my explanation.

"Well," he replies plainly, hiding a slight chuckle, himself,

"At least it's not a Ghost... That was my first thought when I heard a voice coming from nowhere. I'll keep that in mind if I'm ever riding something like this again."

A sharp knock at the door cuts off any further opportunity for conversation about the PA system, although, I have a feeling that it would have ended soon, anyway.

"I'll get it," Risk nods to me, and he wipes the latent tears from his eyes before leaping off the cot to the door and turning the doorknob. As soon as Risk's paw clasps the knob, however, it opens from the other side, and a pale-faced Looker steps into the room with a manila folder in his hand. The sides of his beige trenchcoat are matted with nervous sweat, something quite unusual for him, and my stomach turns.

I've got a bad feeling that I'm not going to like what he says about that folder... Or anything else he's that concerned about, for that matter. Looker's never this worried...

Looker sighs heavily, and he gives me a glance that Risk and I can both understand.

"We've got our work cut out for us, now..." he sighs,

"Our specialists down at the blast site have pinpointed exactly what caused the blast- that of a remote Explosion, most likely caused by an Electrode."

An Electrode, hm...? Something tells me that this wasn't just a torqued Pokemon letting out its anger...

The police officer confirms what I'm already thinking, but it doesn't make the revelation sit any better in my mind.

"The Explosion was controlled incredibly well. There's a small metal passage that leads into the ground. From what I saw while I was there before I called in others with more demolitions experience than me, it used to lead into a laboratory of sorts."

"A lab? For what?" I ask quickly.

The more of this situation I can piece together in my mind, the better... I've got to find out everything that I can, both from Looker and from the scene, itself, assuming that he takes me there.

"That's the thing. We haven't quite figured out what it could have been used for, as the foundation down there is too dangerous to send even Pokemon into to look for salvageable materials. The blast formed an enormous crater that must have snapped most, if not all, of the supports in the alleged building. Some of our best officers are working to comb through the wreckage, but it'll take quite a bit of time before we can even get close enough to get inside without what's left of whatever's down there collapsing on us. But we're working, and the entire place is slowly being strengthened by a dozen or so burly Fighting-type Pokemon and their Trainers chipping away at all the heavy lifting. But we can talk more later once we're safely on shore- I've used up enough of this fine sailor's precious seafaring time. He's helped us enough as it is... Besides, my presence is requested at the blast site, anyway- why don't you come along? You can take Risk with you, too."

I nod in recognition before turning back to Risk, who's still quivering for his friend, and Looker walks out of the room and disappears, probably to thank the captain of the ship for his time.

"Risk?" I prod him, stroking the blue fur on his head with my hand in an attempt to calm him,

"I promise. We'll recover Riku's memory, and we'll bring whoever caused this explosion to justice, too."

In the back of my mind, I could already tell that what I had promised today would be directing what I'm planning to do for a long time.

Something tells me that all of this is going to be a quest that I'll never forget. Risk being here, him knowing about Riku before I did... All of this is just one giant puzzle, and now I've promised to solve it for the world... But, for Risk's sake, for Looker's, and for my own, I'm going to decipher this tangled mess until I can get to the bottom of this. Everyone's counting on me to help them. I'm not about to let them down!

With those thoughts ringing, clearly, in my conscience, I walk out of the cabin, Risk tagging along behind me. I could still see the small indentation in his scarf, but I figured that this would be the wrong time to ask him about it.

As soon as the two of us step outside of the ship's interior, I'm practically blown away by how different the atmosphere is from the Johto that I was used to. I gasp in amazement and Iook around at the entirely new world I had been thrust into with the awe of a child. The mid-day sun, here, looks completely different from the view I can garner back in Johto- almost as if it's more inviting, more promising, here. As opposed to the structured roads and well-defined boundaries between city and wildlife in Johto, the architecture of Kalos seemed to have an entirely different philosophy. I gaze over the deck of the ship, back into the water we had sailed here in, and a large Seaking leaps out of the water, its red-and-white head flicking like it's suspended in time, until it falls back into the water, spraying the side of the ship with foam. Next, I turn my attention to the wooden port that our captain had anchored the S.S. Lucy to, so that we could return to land. Already, there's a flock of some kind of bird Pokemon that I've never even seen before, with a red-orange head, a white torso, and a single, black-fitted tail feather, nesting on a few of the posts. Their chirping is music to my ears as I continue to take in my surroundings.

"Fletch... Fletch!" one of the larger birds warbles, and the entire host of feathers takes to the skies in an explosion of auburn and white.

While I'm still sightseeing back on the deck, Looker calls to me from the mainland,

"Come on, we didn't come here to be tourists! We've got to head to Geosenge Town!"

This place really is beautiful... It's a nice change of pace from Johto, and the Pokemon here seem to be a lot friendlier in terms of being near humans... I wish the entire world was like this...

"Nathan! Now's not the time for sightseeing!" Looker calls to me again, snapping me out of my daydreams.

"Right. To Geosenge," I assure him, climbing down the iron ladder affixed to the side of the ship with Risk following right behind me. Looker laughs slightly when he sees me, plucking a feather, which must have come from one of those bird Pokemon, off of my blue lab coat and casting it aside.

"You'll have plenty of time to be a tourist after we solve this case," he sighs,

"Now, let's get going! Geosenge is just a dozen minutes' trek this way."

He points down a path that leads into the forest, most likely into the heart of Kalos, and the three of us begin to walk. I turn and wave, "Goodbye," to the captain of the S.S. Lucy, while he hoists the anchor to his beloved vessel and speeds off into the water once again, before I nod and follow after Looker and Risk.

...

While we head in the direction of Geosenge Town, Looker continues to catch me up on other details regarding the explosion- its calculated power, the damaged area, and a few other factors of the blast's potency that, as I listen, begins to implant a thought into the back of my mind:

Only a Scientist who works with explosives on a daily basis should know all of this, and to calculate it just perfectly enough that the surroundings outside of the area weren't affected... Something tells me that we're not up against your average demolitionist...

The thought sparks an idea that, looking back on it, may have turned this entire mystery on its head.

"Looker, are there any major groups of Scientists that research in Kalos?" I interrupt him and ask, bluntly,

"Ones that would be familiar with how to control an explosion to that degree of perfection?"

Immediately, his face pales, and he turns to me with a worried look in his eyes.

"There is one that I know of," he states,

"Or rather, used to know of. You see, a few years ago, there used to be an organization known as the Cosmos forerunning the Kalos region's sciences and technologies. For as long as I can remember, the Cosmos had done nothing but help Kalos grow in those fields. But, when their leader's prized Pokemon began to grow weary from old age, he left the Cosmos to care for his Pokemon, and the group was never heard from again. No discoveries- no nothing. They used to have a lab in Lumiose City, but it's long since torn down and renovated. The last official record we have of their research there was three months before they disappeared completely."

I narrow my gaze in consternation, mulling over everything Looker had just told me about the Cosmos.

If the Cosmos were bright enough to forerun this entire region's entire spectrum of science, there's no way that they would abandon their cause, just like that... There's got to be another explanation as to what happened to the Cosmos. Perhaps the other members are still out there, somewhere? Maybe if we find the organization's leader, we can get some answers...

"Looker, who led the Cosmos to all of this success, exactly?" I ask him, trying to piece more of the sudden disappearance together. Half of me wants to say that the Cosmos are the cause of this sudden attack, but the other half of me is still looking for a motive.

What, exactly, would create such a strong desire to blow something up that severely... I don't have the faintest idea. But, it's at least a start- if I'm right about this, we could be one step close to solving this mystery.

"His name was Percival," the officer replies,

"And Kalos loved him just as much as they did his Espeon, Esper. But, even for a Pokemon like that, she was getting quite old in his later days of research. Thus, like I said before, he left the Cosmos in order to care for her."

Something about this "Percival" character is rubbing me the wrong way... If he cared that much for Esper, what stopped him from leaving earlier? And so suddenly? And you'd think that Cosmos group would have said something- a formal declaration of their disbanding, maybe.

"Percival..." I mull over the name, thinking out loud,

"Do you know where Percival would be? Maybe we could figure out what happened to the Cosmos from him?"

Looker shakes his head and absentmindedly looks up at the mid-day sun, beating through the canopy of trees around us. For some reason, when I stare at it, myself, it feels darker than when I had seen it from the harbor, like an evil is suppressing its light. But, eventually, I chalk it up to my own nervousness about the Cosmos making me see things.

"That's the problem," he sighs,

"We've searched everywhere for even a single member of the Cosmos, but we've come up empty-handed every time. Not a trace..."

He puts his hand to his chin, lost in thought, when I begin to hear a muffled buzzing sound from one of the pockets of Looker's trenchcoat. His eyes instantly haze over, and he quickly undoes the pocket and reaches inside, pulling out a small walkie-talkie and holding it to his ear. Immediately upon seeing the device, memories of my time in Team Rocket, having to use a walkie-talkie, myself, come flooding back to me- some good, and some bad. But all of that vanishes when he begins to talk into it.

Although I can't hear the other side's half of the conservation, Looker seems quite concerned about it, and his face shows it.

"Something's happened at the blast site?"

...
"A Flareon? What do you mean?!"

...

"Yes, Nathan's right here with me. I'm sure he'd be able to..."

...

"The Flareon did what?!"

...

"Understood. We'll be headed there as quickly as we can."

He presses a button on the walkie-talkie to silence it and puts it back in the pocket of his trenchcoat.

"Change of plans," Looker tells me,

"We're headed deeper into the forest, immediately. We don't have time to stop at Geosenge Town and ask the townsfolk about what they saw. There's something serious going on at the blast site, and they think you're the best chance we've got of fixing it."

"Me?" I ask, a mixture of curiosity and terror welling up inside me.

I mean... I'm confident in my abilities, but, out of all the trained International Police officers they've got down there, they need, specifically, me? What even could have happened?!

"What happened?! I heard you mention a Flareon, but..."

Looker cuts me off before I can finish, taking me by the arm and leading me, quickly, off the path towards to Geosenge Town and further into uncharted territory.

"There's a Flareon that attacked a few of our officers' Pokemon while they were working. It was shouting something, but nobody present could translate or calm it down. It's already been incapacitated, but we think there might be something wrong with it. You're the best person I know that can help."

I nod in recognition, trying my best to keep pace with Looker without tripping over any overhanging tree roots and other miscellaneous forested fauna on the way.

"You want me to talk to it, right?" I ask, already knowing the answer, but I just want to reinforce the idea.

"Exactly. If a Pokemon is that angry, specifically around the blast site, that makes me think it knows something that we don't... But we made it. The explosion happened just ahead."

He parts another few branches in front of us, and the magnitude of the scene hits me in the chest with the force of a truck.

I know he said "explosion," but I wasn't expecting THIS!

In the middle of this peaceful forest, completely and utterly out of place, is a massive crater, probably as least forty feet wide, and about half as deep. While I could look in to see a mangled metal archway- the entrance to something- I couldn't really make out how we could use it. All I could see inside that hole is bits and pieces of forestry, metallurgy, and, judging by a few red stains on some of the pieces, probably a few unfortunate fauna that had been caught in the blast. My heart sinks, knowing that they never saw what happened to them...

About twenty feet away, in front of the crater I could see a small camp of five International Police officers huddled around a large metal cage. I couldn't really make out what was inside, besides a streak of reddish-orange fur, frantically struggling to break free from the makeshift prison. I don't need to get any closer to tell that the creature inside is probably the Flareon that Looker had talked about.

I take a few steps towards the cage and kneel down in front of it. One of the nearby officers looks up at me with a grim smile.

"Hey, would you look at that, it's Nathan, himself. Right place in the right time, I reckon."

He gestures warmly towards the Flareon's cage, and Looker sighs.

"Fall back, and give him some space. We need to know what that Flareon has to say, just as badly as she wants an audience," he commands, and the host of police follows Looker away from me. Risk also lets me be; although he could probably help talking to another Pokemon, it looks like he trusts me to accomplish the task.

I turn my undivided attention to the cage, and I gently hold out my hand towards the exterior of it. The Pokemon inside, however, has a different agenda, and she throws itself against the bars of the cage once again.

"Sombra! I've got to... To find him! Why won't you let me?!" the Flareon mews piteously.

Sombra?

I take a deep breath, and make my Eevee dialect as gentle as I possibly can. Perhaps I can reach the Flareon if I'm calm enough.

"Pardon me for not knowing..." I start, slowly at first, just so the Pokemon can get over the initial reaction of a human speaking Eevee,

"But who is 'Sombra'?"

The Flareon freezes in its tracks, immediately when I say the name. She looks at me with her black eyes and blinks for a moment.

"You can... You can talk to me?!... Do you... Do you know where he is?!" she asks desperately, forcing a paw through the bars in my direction,

"I... I promised him... I promised him that I would help! I followed his scent here, but when I got here... There were humans everywhere, and their Pokemon wouldn't let me down there..."

She points towards the crater, its innards still covered in metallic, enigmatic rubble, and I follow her gaze, perplexed.

"Down there? But there's nothing there besides rubble...! What do you mean, 'down there'?" I prod the Flareon,

"Are you sure that Sombra is down there? I don't see him anywhere..."

I still don't know the identity of this 'Sombra,' but it will be far better for this Pokemon's psyche if I act like I already know until she tells me.

"But... But I told him that I'd find him again, and that I would help him again!" she stammers, relinquishing her paw throwing herself against the bars,

"I've got to find him! He's in grave danger!"

"Hey, calm down. No need to injure yourself over this," I smile warmly, sticking my hand through the bars and stroking the Flareon's fluffy mane,

I'll... I'll help you find him!"

Immediately, the Pokemon looks at me with a renewed hope in her eyes, and I can tell that she's holding back tears of joy.

"You will?!" she mews in both awe and slight disbelief, hiking her temperature a few dozen degrees in the process. Her fur is now quite hot to the touch, but I don't withdraw my hand from the sharp pain- I need to make sure that she's settled, first.

I nod my head, making sure that the Flareon sees the gesture for what I mean it to be- a promise.

Another promise to work a miracle... Soon, the entire world's going to be wanting me to do the impossible...

Although I have my own doubts about the situation, I don't let them supersede the warm smile on my face.

"Oh, thank you... Thank you so much!" she practically bawls, nuzzling my hand with her head. I could feel the sweat evaporating from the intense heat inside the Flareon, but I could tell that she isn't going to have enough external heat to really damage me beyond a small burn mark.

...
Once she's done thanking me, I slowly pull my hand back, slightly numb, and I call out to Looker, repeating the phrase against in Eevee so that the Flareon understands my intentions.

"Please let her go. I've learned quite a bit from this Flareon, including what she's so worried about. It might even help us figure out what that lab was used for."

While I didn't exactly know if Sombra's identity had even remotely anything to do with this blast, I couldn't bear watching this Flareon suffer in that cage any longer; and I figure that relating any of the information I had just acquired back to this case would make everyone's lives much easier if it proves to be useful in the end.

At Looker's command, one of the officers next to him walks over to the cage and undoes the lock. The Flareon snarls as he approaches, although she stops when she sees the iron door swing open, and immediately loses herself in curling around my legs like a protective housecat.

I couldn't help but smile at her gesture of friendship, but, at the same time, the back of my mind gnaws at my conscience.

I've got to find a way to accurately relate Sombra to the Cosmos and this explosion, and... Wait a minute...
Looker walks up to me, while the Flareon begins to harmlessly play with the bottom of my lab coat. Risk is behind him, a smile on his face- perhaps for moral support for the Flareon. One of his paws was glowing slightly blue, but I didn't ask about it.

"Well," Looker asks,

"What did she tell you? I'm quite curious, myself."

Although I can tell that he just wants information for the same reason I do- to piece together the situation- I still need to legitimize my claim before I can present it to him.

"Hold on one moment," I stall, before leaning down and petting the Flareon behind the ears, switching back to her native language for her.

"So, can you tell me a little more about Sombra? For instance, why did he suddenly go missing?"

I ask the question, knowing that it's definitely quite important to her, although she immediately begins to cower in fear, tightly squeezing my leg with her paws.

"P... Perc..." she stutters,

"He came, and..."

She displays a small indentation in her skin, behind a patch of torn fur, like an area from which a sample of blood was taken. I take a closer look and realize that the wound hadn't even been properly treated afterwards, like the operation had been quite hasty and rushed.

Something tells me that her wound definitely was used to take blood from her... But why...?

"Percival... He wanted Sombra..." she begins to sob,

"But I wouldn't tell him where he went!... I told him that he could kill me... and I still wouldn't tell him! He laughed... Telling me that in due time, he'd find Sombra... and his research would come to fruition... And all these other things that I don't understand...! He's an evil man... And I think he wants to kill Sombra!"

Her tears don't let her utter another word, but she's already told me more than I could have ever asked for.

"Thank you so much. You've told me so much, that I'm sure we'll find Sombra before Percival does."

I was right?! Sombra's identity doesn't just have a semblance of relation to Percival... It has everything to do with him! And I'm willing to bet it has everything to do with this explosion, too!

"Looker, I know why she came here, now," I stand up and slowly untangle my leg from the Flareon's fur, careful not to disturb her.

"She's looking for a Pokemon named Sombra. And Percival's after that same Sombra."

Looker stares me straight in the eyes, his gaze narrower than the smallest glint of light on a starry night.

"Did you say 'Percival' is after a Pokemon that this Flareon cares about?" he inquires, his voice low and restless.

I nervously nod, greatly disturbed by Looker's sudden bout of curiosity in the name.

"The Cosmos..." he mumbles to himself, pacing a few feet in front of me,

"So they really aren't gone... But something tells me that this Sombra means something to Percival. Something very significant... Nathan, did that Flareon say anything else about where we could find 'Sombra'?"

I kneel down to the Flareon, shaking my head, when she suddenly opens her eyes with an odd smile on her face, as if her body doesn't know what to do with all the emotions that must be running through her mind.

"The wreckage... He's there! I just know it! Let me in!"

Before I can stop her, the distraught Flareon uncurls her tail from around my leg and recklessly bounds into the crater. She takes a horrendous fall on the way down, landing directly on the side of one her legs in her haste. I can hear the snapping sound, most likely of something important, even from the top of the crater, but the Flareon doesn't stop running. With a cry of pain and a fresh set of tears streaking down her face, she squeezes into a small hole in the broken metallic passage that led to who knows where.
...

Immediately following the Flareon's sudden outburst, the entire camp turns into chaos; while a few officers attempt to find a way into the broken structure large enough for a human to fit through, while their Pokemon work on widening an entryway for a human to pass through. Meanwhile, Risk turns to me with a smile.

"Your Metagross would be able to find us a way in after her, without a doubt," he says slowly, and I freeze up in surprise.

"How did you... How did you know I owned a Metagross?" I falter, taking the Iron Leg Pokemon's Pokeball from my belt and holding it out for Risk to see. He eyes the object for a moment.

"That's where its Aura was coming from... But where is it?" he surveys every possible aspect of the capsule, even taking it from my outstretched hand and palming it over for a few seconds.

I open my mouth to explain the concept of a Pokeball to him, as I hadn't exactly told him how Riku had appeared on the S.S. Lucy in front of him before disappearing just as quickly, until he accidentally presses the button on the red-and-white ball's surface. A brilliant white light shines directly in his face, releasing my Pokemon directly behind the Riolu, and he backs up in shock, conveniently into the massive metallic Pokemon.

"Metaaa?" it roars, questioningly. I could tell that it was quite curious about Risk, but he didn't seem as inquisitive in that moment; as the sudden shout scares him half to death, he jumps a few feet into the air in surprise, his eyes wide.

"What was..." he falters, but he shuts his eyes for a moment and calms down, turning to my Pokemon with a renewed bout of courage.

"So that's the Metagross I sensed," he sighs, still catching his breath from his momentary panic attack.

Sensed? The thought appears just as quickly as my own mind answers it.

Right. Riolu can sense the Aura's of others nearby. Something tells me that this particular one is quite adept at it, which would explain how he knew that I had Riku, and that Metagross with me. I wonder what he'll say if he sees Voltflare...

A short smile crosses my face, and I can't help but laugh a little bit.

"Well, you did just tell me that it was there," I remind him, and he stifles his own laugh.

"I wasn't expecting it to be directly behind me right after I felt coming inside from that little ball you showed me," he replies, handing the Pokeball back to me,

"By the way, what is that device that your Metagross came out of? I don't think I've ever seen one before..."

I smile slightly- this moment feels almost like talking to my past self, before I met Voltflare, when I couldn't even accurately tell the difference between Pokemon.

"This?" I ask rhetorically, holding up the Pokeball again,

"This is a Pokeball. It's a common device used across many nearby Regions, such as this very one- Kalos. Essentially, it's a portable home for a Pokemon that a Pokemon's human friend, or Trainer, carries around with them. Some Pokemon prefer to walk around outside their Pokeball, and their Trainer usually works with them in that regard."

"But isn't that cruel?! What if the Pokemon doesn't want to be stuck in a Pokeball like that?" he asks, an expression of fear on his face.

I dip my head knowingly.

I had a feeling that this question was going to come up sometime while talking to Risk. But I already know how to answer it.

"Well," I start to explain,

"There are some Trainers that would prefer nothing more than to cage Pokemon in Pokeballs, using them as little prisons to hold them until they're needed. But I can't agree with that approach, not ever... I've already seen the fruits of Trainers like that, and I don't want to ever be a part of them again."

The Riolu nods, and, to my relief, didn't press the subject any farther. I take the opportunity to gauge the area that the Flareon had fled into, and my Metagross follows my gaze. A few seconds later, its red eyes flash, and it motions for me to position myself on top of it. Risk doesn't seem to understand the gesture, at first, but once he sees me sit down on the Pokemon's metallic top, he nods and climbs up after me.

"Metaaa!" the Iron Leg Pokemon bellows, triumphantly floating down the sides of the crater like a war horse charging into battle. Although the drop to the ground is about thirty feet or so from the top, taking the brunt of that fall by one's lonesome would definitely fracture something, or worse.

"That Flareon..." I deadpan, the image of her leaping into the crater- and the horrible snapping sound that followed- still fresh in my mind.

"She's still alright, although her Aura is a bit unstable- I would assume she's crying somewhere. Come on, we need to help her!"

...

Nothing else of note transpires while my Metagross slowly finishes its descent towards the decrepit lab, and the two of us calmly dismount from the makeshift stannic carriage. Meanwhile my Metagross immediately walks over to the broken metal archway, looks at it for a moment, and pounds it off its hinges with a single punch. While the sudden clanging noise comes as as surprise to me at first, I soon gasp at what the attack had revealed- just as Looker had said, a large metal stairway looms below us, leading down into an abyss of twilight that just felt unsettling to look at. Risk exchanges a nervous glance with me- he seems about as happy with the idea of going in there as I am.

"Well," he begins to say,

"It's now or never. Let's go."I nod, and the two of us descend into the blackened remains of the laboratory, my Metagross waving to us as we disappear into the gloomy darkness.