Opening my eyes, I was on my side in a strange room. This was a dream, one that felt so real. Too real. I had all five senses, something that shouldn't have been right. So wrong it felt as though I was awake, and I sensed the strangeness from my stay on J's ship. Not feeling like I was in my own body, I looked down at myself, only to see I was a Pokémon: a Staraptor by the look of my wings and feather patterns. Looking up at my surroundings, I noticed I was surrounded ironically by cat Pokémon: Delcatty, Persian, Glameow, Liepard. Three of each.

    "Great," I muttered, getting up and watching the feline Pokémon with my sharp, predator eyes.

    Then someone laughed, distracting me from my foes. "How do you like the simulation, 'Staraptor'? Do you like it?" A mystery man said. Giovanni. Hearing the smirk on his face, I turned around and faced a speaker.

    "What have you done to me? What is this?!" I demanded, now staring at the camera hanging from the celling protected by an energy shield, like Protect. He laughed again before the reply came in an arrogant voice.

    "As I said, its a simulation. Since you escaped, I had to resort to plan B. Now, face these Pokémon, little bird." As he finished, the fight was on. Not wanting to show him how capable I was or wasn't, I dodged in the large room. It reminded me of a Gym battle field, however everything screamed of technology. The walls, celling, and floor changed terrain, making everything disorienting and myself dizzy. Thirty seconds. Dreams last only thirty seconds.

    I then woke up, panting and sweating. I still had adrenaline running through my veins, and my heart was still thumping. When I checked my clock, I noticed it's only 4:00am. Muttering to myself, I got up to see if I couldn't get my Pokémon now and leave. Grabbing my PokéBag, I left the room. Anything that was related to electronics was making my senses buzz and my mind wary.

    "So that's what let him into my dream," I muttered as I approached the Pokémon Center counter. "The tech." Not seeing Nurse Joy, I pulled out a blank piece of paper and wrote:

    Thank you for healing my Pokémon and letting me stay the night, along with the bandages. I couldn't sleep, so I'm heading off. Don't worry about me or my Pokémon missing, we got a head start into the Survival Area.

    Since she didn't know my name, I didn't sign it. "Hopefully no one will freak about a possible Pokémon thief." I murmured quietly, walking into the back where they heal the Pokémon. Knowing my way from being in so many Pokémon Centers, I located the room full of Pokéballs. I searched for my Pokémon with their Pokéballs with my custom marks on them, I picked them up and clipped them all on my PokéBag, all except for Lucario. Tapping on his Pokéball twice then bringing him out, he stayed silent. I pointed to the exit of the medical part of the Pokémon Center and into the lobby, we got a move on. Both of us moving like shadows to not wake anyone else in the Pokémon Center, we exited and started on the tough path ahead to the Survival Area. When I glances at my watch, I noted it was now 4:30am. We had an hour or so until dawn, but we'll be deep into the forests before then.

    "Let's go, Lucario," I whispered as we exit, before we started running. I made sure to not step on twigs or crunch leaves, we moved fairly quickly and silent through the trees.

✦ ✦ ❦ ✦ ✦

    After and hour of on and off running, we got to a nice clearing that was covered by long and tall branches overhead, and had a small pond. "This is a perfect spot to live for the time being."

    When everyone else was out of their Pokéballs, I started to set up a simple tent and a sleeping bag for the undefined time we would be residing there. Making sure everything was good, I looked around the clearing. Seadra in her pond, Charizard laying on his bed of now-warmed rocks, Serperior in a very branchy tree, Venusaur's and Lucario's beds of soft moss, and Persian on a high, thick branch with his tail curled around it. Everything was just the way we all needed it to be to live out here. The canopy above would hide most smoke for fires, which we would do at night only anyway. At the edge of the clearing was a perfect spot to grow berries for meals. Sunlight got to it without uncovering us living here.

~ ~ ~

    Walking up to the counter late into the day, the man and his two men approached Nurse Joy of the Survival Area, the first man holding up a picture of a girl along with some of her Pokémon: a Charizard, Venusuar, and Persian. His face hidden by the shadow of his hat and collar of his coat, he asked, "Have you seen this girl?"

    Nurse Joy looked at him strangely and replied, "Yes I have, she was just here. But this morning she left long before anyone was awake, heading into the Survival Area." She handed him the girl's note, and added, "And you are looking for her why, mister?"

    Taking the note, the man replied simply, and seemingly kindly, "She is missed by her family, having run away. Her mother wishes for her to return home. We were hired and sent to find her."

    Nurse Joy relaxed, remembering the girl as being a bit anxious and on edge. This is probably why, so she even pointed them to her room which had not been touched due to the amount of Pokémon who needed healing. The man thanked her and left the Pokémon Center, leading his two other men. "Let's see what she wrote in this note then."

    When he read the note the girl had written, he scowled and crumpled it in his fist. "This shows us nothing!" He cursed. Looking to his men, he said, "Tell the boss that we know we can confirm what Area she is in, and to call more men from the rest of Sinnoh. We need all the men we can muster to corner her and flush her out of the forests of the Survival Area. We aren't taking any chances."

~ ~ ~

    As the days pass, we all got complacent. No one has come for days, weeks, so we thought we'd be safe. Time went on, we stopped being so careful and quiet. Fires during the days, swimming in the pond and splashing. That was now the third week we were there, and no trainers have come by. Why do we need to be silent? No one is here anyway. No one knew.

✦ ✦ ❦ ✦ ✦

    Having had taken down my tent to watch the star-filled sky, my thoughts wondered among the stars. Not worried of being found soon, I got up, roll up my sleeping bag and put it on my PokéBag on Charizard's shoulders near the tent and hook both to my bag, I go for a walk in the forest. That way nothing will get into my sleeping bag and we probably should leave in the morning, anyway. Listening to the nocturnal Pokémon sounds, I heard people. Deep voices, not normal Ace trainers who sounded younger than these men. No. These men were looking for something...

    Eavesdropping for a short time, I heard parts of their conversation.

    "This is pointless! She knows we are looking for her, she'll be careful. Maybe even not here anymore. We lost her about a month ago." The man who said it had blonde hair.

    "Just keep quiet, Steve!" I heard a slap. "She'll be here, we've been seeing smoke both day and night. We'll get her." The other guy had brown hair. As if what they said didn't already say who they were, I saw their Rocket uniforms.

    Changing to a Starley, I flew back to the clearing, changed back to myself, and grabbed the Pokéballs off my PokéBag and returned everyone but Charizard and Serperior. When they woke up, they sensed the panic just under my skin and were standing immediately.

    "Serperior, get on Charizard!" I hissed urgently. "Serperior, someone is out here looking for us. You need to keep them at bay with Razor Leaf." Serperior nodded, wrapping himself around Charizard's neck ready to attack. "And Charizard, you cannot attack. Got it? Your flame on your tail is going to be hard enough to cover up without you using flame attacks." Changing to Staraptor, I followed closely under Charizard's flame to hide the light once we all lifted off. I felt the heat uncomfortably on my back, but I was not going to falter, I was not going to let his flame show where we were.

~ ~ ~

    Steve looked up, having heard a rustle in the upper levels of the trees. He saw the sky and all those stars... Vanishing? A shape covered the stars as it passed by, a shape of a Pokémon. "Hey, Brandon. Look at that," Steve said, pointing at the shadow in the sky.

    Brandon looked up, eyes wide. "It's her, Steve!" Pulling out a walkie talkie he says quietly, "Everyone, over above Steve's and my location, there is a shadow of a Pokémon. She may be on the move, so we're going up." He put the walkie talkie on his belt, and Brandon pulled out a Pokéball and called out his Pokémon. "Come out, Pidgeot!" he whispered. "C'mon Steve, let's get her!"

    Steve proceeded to pull out a Pokéball of his own, and called out his Pokémon. "C'mon out, Braviary!" Mounting his Pokémon, Steve pulled out a dart gun. Brandon did the same. They went after the strange shadow, hoping this was their target.

~ ~ ~

    Hearing wingbeats, I whispered "Serperior!" and he used Razor Leaf, aiming at the wingbeats hidden by the darkness. Hearing a Pidgeot grunt, I whispered to Charizard to keep moving. He grumbled quietly but obeyed. Moving away from his tail I headed straight for the flying Pokémon, and realized who was riding them. "Staraptor!" I called before attacking with Brave Bird.

    Right before I was able to hit the Pideot, I was rammed to the side by another Pokémon, a Braviary by the sound of it. Now taking recoil damage and the Braviary taking half the damage intended for the Pidgeot and its owner, I looked back to see the Braviary rider point a gun-shaped shadow at me. Changing to a Starley to become a smaller target, I dodged the "bullet" and he hit his friend in the arm.

    "Steve you half wit!" The Pidgeot rider yelled before falling off his mount, unconsious. Braviary started to try to follow, but the rider pulled him back. "Leave Brandon, Braviary. Pidgeot has him." The guy named Steve once more aimed at me, only to see a small outline of a Starley flying after the fire glow from the Charizard's tail.

~ ~ ~

    Steve landed next to Brandon who was unconscious. "Great, just great. How am I going to explain this?" Patting Bravery, the Pokémon cawed loudly and woke up Brandon. Waking up, Brandon stared daggers at Steve, knowing they had failed.

    "We will get that girl and her Pokémon. We just hit a, er, bump in the road—" Steve said, being cut off by Brandon uppercutting Steve's chin.

    "Yes we will, after cutting the fat from our field operatives. However, we can still track her with signals..." he trailed off, pulling out a GPS and a blip on said screen. "We have you now."

~ ~ ~

    Flying away was harder than I thought. I was a Staraptor again, needing the powerful wings.

    "We need to rest." I said between breaths. Charizard was flying just fine, though his powerful wings and my using him to fly around Kanto helped him there.

    "Let's head to..." I faltered. Where could we go now? My secret base in the tunnels was most likely found. The clearing in the Survival Area is definitely out of the question. Kanto? Johto? Unova?

    "Let's just get away from here, Charizard." He grunted in response. We had to find a new base, and this time not let our guard down. This uncertainty gave me new energy that I used to fly unfalteringly to where we are going.

✎ ❦
Edit: Bravery is now fixed to be spelled Braviary. Wish I could blame autocorrect for that one.