The cave at first is dark, and as soon as I step in, my eyes adjust just a bit and suddenly in every direction, sparkling stones as far as the eye can see. I grasp Bronze's hand, and then I feel it move to his side. Suddenly, with a burst of red light, Bronze's team is suddenly by his side. Taking the cue, I let my team come out. Mimsy blinks her beady black eyes, looking in awe at the cave and the sparkling stones.

The twelve of us, my six Pokemon and Bronze's four, along with the two of us, stand awestruck at the beauty of the cave.

Crystals. Blue, red, purple, green... pink swirling stone and deep black obsidian that shouldn't even be in a cave like this. "Wonder who could've made it? This can't all be natural." mutters Bronze.

"Sableye." says a voice, and I see a Machamp wander down the cave, holding a small gem in his left hand, tossing it lazily in the air.

"What?" I ask, half surprised at it's bravery and half at just how ridiculously out of character it is for a Pokemon to stride up to a human with a full team. It's obviously not looking for a fight, like most wild Pokemon are.

"Sableye live here. A whole hoard of them. I don't really understand why, but I guess it's because of the Mega Stone." he sighs. "Mega Stones fetch a fancy price around here, even among the Pokemon. I recommend you don't bring that-" He points to Chrona, "any further in."

"What?" Chrona presses the precious necklace to her throat. "That's mine. Don't even think about taking it off."

"We're not going to." I say, "I'm sure we can handle it."

Bronze looks at me, raising an eyebrow, but he shrugs it off. "If you say so, Lilly. Keep in mind I'm blaming anything that goes wrong on you."

I shove him playfully. "Oh, come on."

He laughs, his voice echoing through the cave.

"Nice vocals, master!" Pyro chirps. Bronze nuzzles him.

"I told you not to call me that."

"Right, master!"

We continue through the cave, which winds in different ways. No one bothers to explain why the Machop is still following us- we decide to just accept his presence.

The cave is also, for some reason, completely devoid of anything. It's sort of creepy in that regard. There are no Pokemon, no humans... until we come out into a huge cavern. It's lit by different Pokemon, some more vicious than others.

"Give them up!"

An almost terrifyingly familiar boy is clinging on to some huge stone slabs while some red-haired dude uses his Pokemon to fight him off. He, too, owns an Espurr, but unlike Pacifica, this one is vicious. It has it's ears up, and blasts of psychic energy erupt from them.

"I recognize him." Bronze says.

"You don't think?" I ask, but Bronze nods without hesitation. "Absolutely."

We rush towards him, but another red haired girl blocks our way. Her hairdo is ridiculous- like she tried to attach braids to the side of her head and failed miserably.

"Screw off!" Bronze yells, but wordlessly she sends out a Houndoom. It bays, lunging for the Machop, who looks around, terrified, but then Shruikan is on it with a water blast to the head. Suddenly, all the people in the room, now visible in the dull light as they approach, send out Pokemon.

"Alright team, let's go!"

Rune does some lightsaber voodoo stuff, with Pich at his side, the terrifying bird of prey that she is. She dodges falling rocks and sparks of electricity, with Chrona on the ground level poisoning and Leech Seeding foes as fast as possible. Mimsy, my newest team member, just grabs my shoulders. I feel numb, like my whole body is devoid of feeling. I think at first it must be her, but then against my will my eyes are gold and suddenly I'm Chrona.

What are you doing?! I think.

I needed to get to you somehow. She replies angrily, as we dodge a quick Ember. The top of our flower is singed.

With our Vine Whip, we pull up a body. It's a Fletchinder, but it's not one of Team Flare's. It's fluffy feathers and blue-black eyes are unmistakable.

We pulse outwards, hoping somehow to transfer some energy into it as Grass-types are often capable of doing, but it remains motionless. The fiery-haired people, who now seem familiar to me- (are they grunts of a sort?) continue to retreat.

"Pyro!" Bronze turns to us, and I flash back.

My team clusters around, alive and well. Juliet is fierce, and I watch her glow. Is she going to evolve. The glow falters and switches off like an old lightbulb.

"Juliet, are you okay?" I ask, diverting my attention from Pyro's brutally limp form.

"I have- to stay like this. Beautiful. For Shin." She mutters, bracing for something that never comes.

The wail from the Machop is next. His entire arm is bleeding, and around his stomach someone's burned him badly. The patch of skin is black. He doesn't cry for himself. Bronze and I look helplessly around, hating the blindness that could once be remedied by a glowing flame or tail. Rune sees us and sets his wand (you know what, it's a wand now) ablaze.

Littered around us are the bodies of so many Pokemon.

The Machop runs to some others of his kind, and a Machoke or two. "Aruki?"

"Do you know them?"

He nods. "That's my brother. They... they killed him."

"He's not the only one lost today." Chrona gestures towards Bronze, who's holding Pyro's bloody body in his hands. He brushes the feathers back and forth.

"I'll help dig the graves." The Machop says, looking up thoughtfully. The cocky little Pokemon who first escorted us into the cave is gone.

We all pitch in, but so does the boy with purple hair. He's not holding stone plates, they're fossils- and he has a stone similar to Chrona's to boot.

"I'm Chompers. It's... a nickname. Real name's-" he pronounces this as if it's foreign, "-Chris."

"Bronze. It's me. You don't have to hide it around us."

He blinks. "Oh." He adjusts his glasses, and smiles, his buckteeth showing. "Nice to meet you. This is my research crew, Everfree, Glade, and Destiny." Along the Espurr from earlier, he also has a Dratini and a Ralts. They all wave, trying to smile through the solemn mood.

It falls flat.

"Do you know who did this?" I ask. "Do you think you can heal this Machop? He needs medical help."

"Kimiko." corrects the Machop.

"Well for starters, of course I can. I'm trained in medical sciences." he squints, "More or less. It's not that hard when all you have to do is apply potions. Point being. The first question is a bit harder. They're a sort of... terrorist organization who wants to eliminate almost all humans excepting themselves, and all Pokemon. They have a special hatred for those like us. The Goldeneyes... aren't exactly liked here either." He sighs in frustration, "You go from being bottom of the food chain to basically a wanted criminal, bottom of society. No matter who I am or where I am, I will always be a rat."

Bronze pats him on the back. "Nice team, though. Pokemon will always be there to help us, just like how we helped Ashley."

"Helped? Why aren't you with her?" He gasps. "Are you dead too?"

"The world blew up. Well, some crazy insane guy named Red 'deleted the save' or some bullshit. First, Ashley got in a kiss with Morty."

"So she's dead?"

"Ashley isn't dead. She's got Celebi on her side, remember? If we're not dead, she is not dead. Period."

"Oh. Alright. Anyways, my team's all psychic-types, so they all knew my intentions were pure. Only managed to flash with Everfree, but works in progress. Point being, these are two fossils and a Mega Stone. It's a completely new one, a Sableyeite. At least that's the name for now. I was sent to-"

Kimiko yells, "Can you just explain why the hell they killed my family?!"

Chompers blinks and adjusts his glasses. "Anyways, they were after the Mega Stone. The Pokemon of this cave defended it. Put two and two together. The organization is filled with idiots who want to be spared. The real mastermind is Lysandre. He's a well-known inventor, loved and feared by many. It's said he and the champion, Diantha, were friends when they were little. See, it's kind of hilarious that he wants to persecute the Goldeneyes. Ironic."

I remember the red-haired man talking to the woman in the puffy dress, and her headshake as she walked away. She knew. She knew the whole time we were there and we were like her.

"Why so ironic?" Bronze asks.

"Well, there's extremely strong evidence among so called 'crackpot conspiracy theorists', in other words, the people who aren't brainwashed by the media... that he's one of us."