Of all the years of being a mercenary, nothing I've done could have been compared to being teleported to a world that was thought to be fictional. Even so, a part of me was excited to be able to explore a world that none would think was real. Many other feelings were also passing through my mind, but I had to suppress them to keep my thinking straight. I went over to the dresser to check the things I still had. My watch was still intact, but when I tried to access its memory, it couldn't load and it would have to take a few days to recover it. Putting on the jacket, I felt around in the pockets and brought out a few pieces of metal from inside. They were the remnants of my guns that had not been turned to goop, but they still had a faint blue tint to them. Suddenly, they began to float out of my hand and suspended themselves in the air a few inches away from my hand. Touching them, they moved in a straight line just like as if they were defying gravity. Then they all zipped towards my sword, sticking to it while their glow intensified a little. I tried to pull them off, but nothing I did would budge them, and the only thing that moved was the sword itself. After a while, they were absorbed one by one into the sword, and when they were all gone, the sword had a slight blue tint to the blade. When I picked it up, I felt a slight surge of energy, making me feel more alert than before. The sheath for it was leaning against the dresser, so I picked it up and put the sword inside before slinging it on my back. My foot kicked something, and when I looked down, I saw the boots from the base still on my feet, and the security bot was rolling away from them. I picked it up and examined it closely. The lens for the laser was broken, but there was no matching hole on the other side, so the bullet was still inside. I put it back into my pocket right as I heard Kristine walk in the door.

"Here you go, Drake." She was holding a tray with a plate of spaghetti and a glass of water. My mouth instantly watered at the sight, and I had to resist the urge to tackle her for the food.

"Thanks!" I said as I took the tray from her. Sitting down on the bed, I immediately started digging in. The taste was so exotic that I had to stop myself from stuffing my face with the spaghetti. After finishing the plate, I swiftly downed the glass of water before setting the tray aside.

"Man, that was the best spaghetti I've ever had!"

"Thanks!" She said with a bright smile.

"So, where did I end up?"

"You're in Altomare, Drake." I faintly remember the name since it sounded familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it. "Well Drake, I have to help my grandpa, so I'll be in his shop. It's downstairs behind the only door in this house."

"All right then." I handed her the tray as she left the room, leaving me to think to myself. I didn't have anything else to do, so I left my room and headed down the stairs, coming into a living room with the TV on. It was tuned to a news station, and it was discussing the weather at the moment. It was only 75 degrees out, but the wind from the ocean was much cooler, making it feel around five degrees cooler. The sun was not too high in the sky, so it was still morning. The news then switched to a developing story, and this really caught my attention.

"There has been some strange sightings in the past few days from Pokemon Trainers who have been out in the wild of 'Shadow Pokemon.' As some may know, these Pokemon have the same shape of various species of all known Pokemon, but they look completely black with glowing white eyes. They normally fled at the sight of Trainers, but today, one was attacked. We head over to his interview." The station then switched to a man who was shaking far too much to be ordinary fear.

"This... thing! It attacked me!"

"What thing? Was it a Shadow Pokemon?"

"No no no, i-i-it was a living shadow. A breathing shadow! I could hear its voice in my head, it wanted to take me!"

"Take you? Where?"

"I-I don't know, all I know is that my Charizard started roaring, a-a-and it breathed fire on it, but the th-thing didn't stop! It t-t-took over my Charizard, and I had to run cause he was bellowing out of pain. I-I-I had no other Pokemon, see! See!" The man was starting to go into incomprehensible gibberish, so the news reporter backed down.

"Well, I think that's all he can tell us folks. Stay tuned with us for this developing story. And remember, if you see a Shadow Pokemon, report it to the authorities." That really set me to thinking. If there were Pokemon being taken over by shadows, then there might be something about to happen. I normally wouldn't take jobs without pay, but this was a special case scenario. The only thing my watch could do was write, so I brought up its holographic interface to write down the things I had to do.

---

Mission Details

Primary Objective:

Find source of Shadow Pokemon and stop it.

Secondary Objectives:

Find portal back to Earth.

Find a way to save Pokemon infected by shadows.

Pay: None

Additional information: None so far.

---

It wasn't much, but it was better than not having something to refer to. I shut off the watch to conserve its power so it can repair, then went outside to explore the city a little. The streets at a glance were pretty straightforward, with bridges over the waterways and many branches that went into various alleyways. I looked up to the sky to watch the various Pokemon fly around when something caught my eye. It was very, very small, but I could barely see a distortion in the air that was flying closer to the ground. It then disappeared behind a few buildings to my left, so I tried to follow it to the best of my abilities. The alleyways turned out to be a far bigger mess than they originally were, and I could only catch glimpses of the distortion before I completely lost it.

"Damn." Right after I said it, a man and a lady passed me up. They both remarked about me being in the way as they walked away, and then they went into a nearby alley. At first I wasn't going to follow them because they looked like business officials, but then thought again since most would take a direct route to a business. I looked around the corner they had rounded to see them take another corner. I followed them silently, and soon they looked up and broke into a run. I looked up as well, and saw that same distortion as before, so I ran after them, trying my best to be quiet as their footsteps echoed in the alleyway. A few minutes of chasing them around corners, and they had finally stopped and drew two red-and-white spheres. I could barely hear them from where I was standing, but some of it was loud enough to make out.

"...Bessie, your first legendary..."

"...training for this... accuracy is important."

They then walked around the corner while taking something out of their pockets and simultaneously throwing the spheres. I tried to run after them, but I tripped over something and fell. I quickly stood up again, but felt something tightening around my foot. Looking down, it was a very thin wire that had wrapped around my foot, and I did not have the time to unravel it. I unsheathed my sword and swiftly cut both sides before running around the corner. They were a good distance away with Pokemon at their side, one looking like a spider and the other an odd sort of ghost. I ran at full speed to catch up, but something caught me off guard. I heard a high-pitched mechanical whine coming from the boots, and I felt a field coming up from them starting to cover my body, the sound getting more intense as the field rose. As soon as the field covered me completely, I heard a loud thud and everything sped past me as I started to run faster, feeling no resistance from anything. As I ran to the couple, I saw them point at something, to which their Pokemon looked up at and took action. The spider-like Pokemon released a white string from its mouth while the ghost released a shadowy orb from its gut. I jumped, turning around and bringing my sword up to block their attacks, or at least one of them. I was expecting the string to catch my sword, so I gripped it even harder to brace for the pull. However, when the string came into contact with the blade, the string was instantly vaporized with a stream of energy, which also hit the spider Pokemon, causing it to fall over. The shadow orb reflected right back at the ghost, and hit it right in the stomach, which had a mouth-like appearance. The ghost recoiled and fell to the ground as well. A second later, I landed on the ground in a crouching position facing the couple. Both of their faces had scowls, but the man was filled with rage as a red light shot out from the sphere and drew back the ghost, the woman doing the same with the spider.

"You bastard! You're gonna pay!" Before he could take a step towards me, the woman stopped him.

"Now wait a minute, sweet. We wouldn't want to mess with him. After all, who knows what he could do to us!" He was still seething with anger, but he had regained his senses.

"You might be right, but I'll find a way to make him miserable!"

"Well, I think it's time we took our leave." She threw something on the ground, and the air was suddenly filled with a thick, black smoke. I held my breath as I waved it away, trying to see where they were. I had to run through it after a second because my eyes were starting to water from the dense smoke. I finally made it out of the smoke, but there was no trace of them anywhere.

"Dammit!" Looking up into the sky, I had realized that it was close to nighttime, the sky being purple from the sunset behind the buildings. I hurried through the alleyways, but they were confusing and did not have any signs. Soon enough, the sky was black and filled with twinkling stars. One archway, however, caught my attention; the lights revealed the presence of plants growing all over it and quite a few Pokemon were sleeping on top of it. Walking through it quietly, the various snores of the Pokemon were the only thing I heard apart from the flowing water. At the end, I was disappointed to find yet another junction of the alley. Looking to the right, the wall changed direction to the left, but something was odd about the wall. Closing my right eye, I could see that the wall was semi-transparent, with an echoing image that combined to form the appearance of a solid wall. Walking up to it, I reached out my hand to touch it only for it to go right through with ripples around my arm. I pulled it back quickly and looked around, wondering if it was a security system. Nothing happened after a few minutes, so I started to think about it.

'If this has a path on the other side, I might be able to find my way back to Kristine's house...' With my luck at the moment, I highly doubted that thought, but I was going to try anyway. Tentavely taking a step into the wall, the lights disappeared when my head went inside and surrounded me with complete darkness. There was a bit of reflected moonlight up ahead, so I continued to walk towards it. Coming closer to the source, I could see grass and a small portion of a tree. The arch of a doorway passed over me as I entered a garden, hidden from everything that went on in the city. Looking around, I could see a second tree close to a small building that was not unlike that of a wedding altar. There was a small stream of water coming from a pedestal, which had a shiny orb being held in the center. There was also a swing set and a few benches scattered around, and I was becoming aware of my body's exhaustion from the day's events as well as only having a single meal. I made my way over to the nearest bench, taking off my sword and placing it underneath the bench along with the security bot. I laid down on the bench, and although it wasn't nearly as comfortable as a bed, I was too tired to think of comfort. My eyes closed as the bliss of dreams came over me.

---

<i> Looking down the scope of my rifle, I waited for the General to appear as it was getting close to the time specified in the contract. There were quite a few guards in the building, but none of them had the red hat the general wore. I shifted a little, checking the bipod of the rifle before aiming down the scope again. Another scan revealed still no evidence of the general, despite the sheer amount of military vehicles coming and going from the complex. After a few minutes, I felt the wind change slightly, so I had to look at the wind gauge to see how fast it was going and what direction it was going in. Adjusting the scope accordingly, I looked down it again to see something promising. A line of soldiers was forming in front of the entrance, and a jeep was slowly making its way through the jam of vehicles. It came close to the line of soldiers before stopping, and as I watched, the door opened and out stepped a man with the red hat. This was the only chance I had, so I took a deep breath before aiming ahead of his walk, waiting for the right moment when there was a gap between the soldiers. Suddenly, I felt someone flip me over, and I looked up into the face of a grizzled general, who was also wearing a red hat. "Surprise, Drake." The shock of the ruse was enough to put me off guard as his hand came down to my face, holding a knife that was pointed right at my eye. </i>