Chapter Two

Joy-Joy

I gather the scattered pages into a single pile, as best as I can, and begin to flip through them. The pages are all out of order, and I can't manage to sort them back to the order they were in before. It's just one big jumbled mess! Even worse, the pages are rubbing against each other as I pick them up, and smearing the letters further. It's a lucky occurence to find a halfway readable page.
Loppily comes over to help after a minute. We work in silence, trying to find decipherable pages and sort them by date. After a little bit of futile work, Loppily speaks. Usually, she would be talking non-stop, but I guess she's a bit overwhelmed by what has happened today.
"Joy-joy?" she begins.
"Yes, Lopy?"
"Is Bright going to be alright?" Her ears twitch in agitation, and she stares at me with pleading eyes.
I consider the question. As of the current moment, I have no idea what is happening with Bright and Psycho and everyone else. Chewing my lip, I inspect a page for intact letters and decide upon the best answer.
"I don't really know, but I hope so. You shouldn't worry too much, Lopy. Spark's out there looking, and you know how strong she is. If there's anyone who can help him, it's her."
Loppily breathes deeply and appears to be trying to force herself to relax.
Queenie buzzes back into the room, jolting Lopy back into a state of agitation. "Dazzzher out theeere, only one cooonciouzzz, otherzzz knocked out, Bright there, Pzzzychooo there, bad baaad bad! Neeed heeelp Joy-joy. Heeelp!" She looks down at what's left of the journal. "YOU RUUUIIINED IT! BAD BAAAD BAD!"
"Forget that Queenie! Lets go see what needs to be done out there." Twirla glances back over the back of the computer chair. "Whats going on?"
"Nothing Twirla, you continue looking." She shrugs and gives me a funny look before going back to the computer. "Okey-doke. If you need help with anything else, I'm there."

Me, Loppily, and Queenie hastily pile up the papers in the center of the table, since they're all useles anyways. We make a quick exit to the back yard, where I am greeted by a jittery, perhaps even excited Dasher and unconcious Psycho, Sparkle, Roku, Bright, and Spark.
"How did this happen Dasher?" I question as I walk over to Psycho. He has a leaf bandage on his arm, but it's coming off. There are various tears in the wrap, and it's wrinkled together in some spots. From close inspection, it appears to have been pummeled by a strong, perhaps-close range move.
Dasher shrugs and gives a nervous chuckle. "Would you believe me if I said I have awesome battle skills?"
I examine Psycho for other injuries. He seems fine, other than that nasty-looking arm. His head lolls limply when I pick him up to carry him inside. "Uh, no, not really."
"Pfft. Ok, you're right not to believe me. It's a really long story though, Joy. You sure you want to hear it right now?"
I turn my gaze to the rest of the injured pokemon. Queenie is carrying Roku into the house, and Loppily is frantically searching Bright for injury. Sparkle is rolling and shivering. Spark breathes slowly in and out. Her fur is singed, and I can see a black streak of soot on the metal of her tail-tip.
"I think we got time, Dasher. Lots of it."

Dasher

"You say WHAT now?!?"
Joy-joy grills me for details, wants me to tell her all about the encounter with Psycho and the battle with Bright, blow for blow. She herself ties a fresh bandage onto Psycho's arm. Luckily for him, he's unconcious, so he doesn't feel a thing. You know, I never knew Joy was that good at patching up injuries. I suppose if she had traveled the world and challenged everyone she could, that she would need the skill. What surprises me, is how quickly her hands move to postion and tie the bandage up. It's a curt, brisk motion, like she's used to it.

"Dasher! Please pay attention! I just asked you what happened after Bright knocked Psy out... twice."
Oh. Oops.
I shrug apolegetically, and lavish upon her the final details. "Sparkle lost her head, and used a Dream Eater on Bright. Somehow, they both conked out, and I was the only one left up. That's that."
As I wait for Joy to ask for more detail, I turn my gaze about the living room. Hasty sickbeds have been prepared for the others from tablecloths spread on the floor. Psycho's propped up against the couch, looking worse than I've ever seen him before, not to mention covered in dirt. It rather makes me regret dragging him instead of using Psychic, but using Psychic was more werrisome in his case. Sparkle and Bright seem fine, snoozing away the hour. Well, except that it seems more like Sparkle is trapped in a nightmare than snoozing. I notice Loppily hasn't budged an inch since we've brought Bright in. She's just sat and stared at him. For some reason, it occurs to me that she might want to be more than friends with Bright...
The ones we're really worried about are Spark and Roku. Spark's got some bad burns, and some of her fluffy mane is burned away. It's almost hilarious, how lopsided her head looks with shortened, charred hair on her left side, and normal mane on the other. She's sort of almost sleeping otherwise. Probably just passed out. Queenie's putting ice on the burns.
Roku's harder to judge. I'm not sure what kind of damage a single Aura Sphere can do, but he isn't waking up anytime soon. I wonder if he's just clean knocked out cold, or if Bright might have broken something, since that Aura Sphere looked pretty nasty. Lotus and Rascal tend to him. Lotus holds a Pecha berry in each vine, and is insisting to Rascal that Pecha berries ought to work. Rascal patiently tries to convince Lotus that he is mistaken, and Oran berries will help. Obviously, Pecha berries cure poison, not help with strength. Thus, Lotus is wrong.

"Dasher! Why do you keep spacing off all of a sudden?"
"What?"
"I just said, since you're done telling me what happened, can you check on Twirla, see if she's found anything new on Full Moon?"
"Sure, I guess. But Joy..."
She ties the final knot of the bandage and looks up at me. An impatient huff escapes her as she stands up. Sharp glares from her seem to cut through me, which means she's really at the end of her rope, because she almost never gives dirty looks.
I chuckle nervously and point in Sparkle's direction. "Twirla abandoned the computer in favor of Sleepy." And, she had. Twirla kneels down and holds Sparkle's hand, even though Sparkle's sleeping and not in any danger of dieing.
Joy looks sympatheticly over at them. "It's kind of hard on all of us, isn't it?'

This takes me by surprise. Joy's never mean to me, and doesn't harbor any ill-will, but she's never really bothered with me, Sparkle, or Psycho since we evolved. She's always talking to the Five like that, like adults who understand what needs to be understood. Even Lotus, and he's like a little kid at heart. I can't help but wonder if coming home in one piece when two of the Five didn't has given her a higher opinion of me. Maybe, maybe not.
"Yeah, it's hard." I reply, surprisingly without sarcasm. Sarsam's too hard to summon, when I look back at Psycho.
"It's hard."

Spark

I'm a li-i-i-ittle bit confused right now. I was hot, and now I'm cold. Will whoever's in charge of the pain in the world just stick with one thing? 'Cause I really hate these Dialga-be-darned temperature changes.
Finally I have enought feeling in me to know that someone's piling cold stuff on me with similarly cold hands. I wrinkle my my nose at the twinge the feeling sends up my spine. Maybe numbness was better.
The selfsame someone reacts to the twitch of my fur I give when that blasted cold startes to sink in. "Icezzz helped, icezzz helpzzz!" they warble. The voice buzzes like a chainsaw. Or like a vespiquen speaking.
I pry open my cool eyes and see Queenie towering over me. "Queenie!" I yelp. "You the one putting the cold stuff on?"
"Icezzz helped Zzzpark!" She vibrates her wings and pulls her mandibles apart in what pases for a buggy smile. "It workzzz!"
"Great Queenie. But look here, it's getting too cold fo me. Mind taking it off?"

"But Zzzpark, Joy zzaid-"
Joy-joy appears from behind Queenie's frantic hovering figure. "Spark! You're ok!" I smile up at her. Dasher also steps out from behind Queenie. I scowl at him in my most menacing way. "Great to see you, Joy. DASHER, YOU COWARD, YOU AND YOUR NO-GOOD SIBLINGS BETTER HAVE AN EXPLANATION FOR THIS!"
To my satisfation, the rotten scaredy-pants flinches and takes a step back. "Auntie Spark-"
"DON'T YOU AUNTIE SPARK ME! YOU COWARDS DIDN'T EVEN ATTEMPT TO FIGHT! WHY, YOU JUST LET ROKU GET HIS BRAINS BASHED OUT!" In a lower tone, I say, "I saw that Sparkle didn't hesitate to Protect YOU two. Why not help me and Roku out? I bet you just hid and let Bright wander off again."

Dasher's shaking by this point. I feel no pity whatsoever for him and his siblings. All of them are just obnoxious scoundrels who are too uppity to bother battling, except a defensive Protect or fleeting Teleport every now-and-then. None of them even want to get stronger, and on top of it, they think I'm some evil loony or something.

"Spark. Calm. Down. We have Bright right here. Sparkle knocked him out with a Dream Eater." Joy assures me.
Oh, so now they steal my credit? Did poor old Auntie Spark just faint, and they supposedly do all the work?
"They didn't do hardly nothing. I-"
Joy shushes me, holding a finger to her mouth. She steps back and guestures around the room. When I bother to look around, what I see tells me a different story from what I first assumed.
Sparkle is lying beside me on a tablecloth spread on the floor. She doesn't look so hot, shuddering a little and shivering. I'd almost take her for a sweet, innocent little thing.
On my other side, Roku and Bright lay. Roku is curled up around his stomach, and Bright's just snoring. Lotus, Loppily, and Rascal give a little wave at me. Silly Lotus is holding Pecha berries. He must have gotten mixed, as is typical. Never really did bother to learn his berries.
When I look past Joy and Dasher to the couch, I do a double-take. I'd figured that both Psycho and Dasher would be cowards still standing. Of course, Dasher's still fine, but Psy's dirtyed up and his arm looks rather sorry. I wonder if I was too quick to judge him after all.

Sparkle

"Wake up Sparkle. It's only a bad dream. I won't leave you."

I suck in my breath and sit up. Mom's sitting on the floor beside me, holding my hand. She's smiling at me. "You're awake. I heard you put up a good fight."
I shake my head. "I was freaking out," I whisper. "I used Dream Eater. It doesn't work when the opponent's awake. Did Bright get me?"
Twirla shakes her head. "Dream Eater worked somehow. Both you and Bright fell asleep."
Weird. "That's just not logical. Are you sure?"
"Dasher said so. If he had knocked out Bright himself, You know that he would be boasting so loud, it would be heard in Kanto." I give a smile at the thought.

At this sentiment, I roll over and look at the rest of the room. Short description; Unusual scene. Everyone present at the battle is laid out on tablecloths besides me, except Psy and Dasher. Most everyone is clustered around Spark, who is also awake. Kinda charred-looking, but well enough to demand answers of everyone.
"You're sure you didn't run off like a lilly-livered Lillypup Dasher?"
Dasher looked kind of harrassed. Spark's the only one who can really shake him up, mostly because she's the only one who wouldn't care if a good Thunder would be painful to him or not. "Of course I didn't run off! If Sparkle could try to battle, so could I!"
Which was why he clutched me like a lifeline in-battle?
"I was too nervous to attack though. You all know I'm no battler."
No kidding.
"Unlike me, Sparkle did a good knockout. Don't tell her I said that, because she'll get a swelled head."
I burst out laughing. "MWAHAHAHA! You just admitted that I'm a better battler than you!"
Dasher jumps back. "I SAID NOTHING OF THE SORT! You're supposed to be asleep!"
"She's certainly outta Dreamland now Dashy-boy." Spark remarks with dry humor.
Joy hops over to me. "Great! You seem to be OK too now. I wasn't sure if you would wake up or not, with the strange circumstance to which you fell asleep."

Bright moans and sits up. Lotus makes a funny squeak and Vine-whips himself onto the chandelier. "Oh no!"
But Bright doesn't seem to want to kill anyone or anything. He just stares at his feet, and sighs. "Joy, I had such a stange dream. I met Dasher, and told him something someone didn't want me to tell, like a secret, but not a secret, just something personal. I wandered the forest, looking for someone. Then, I had an awful battle with Spark, and maybe some other pokemon. I'm not sure."
Lotus jumps off of the chandelier and lands in front of Bright. He's sort of giggling to himself... "Not the greatest dream Bright. It's an even worse reality."
Bright looks at him. "Worse reality?"
"Oh, it kind of really happened."
This comment shakes Bright into comprehension. "What Lotus?"
Bright turns his head to the side, at Roku, Spark, and me. Spark gives a halfhearted try at a grin. "Heh."
Fairly close to feaking out, he glances at the couch. Psycho's slumped there, clean bandage on his arm and covered in dirt and leaves. Bright presses his hands to his eyes, as if not seeing it will make it all go away. "I did this?" he moans.
Lotus coughs. "Not quite. Psycho went crazy too. Well, actually, he didn't get the chance to hurt anyone, but he still went crazy." I get the feeling that Lotus is genuinely attempting to be helpful. If so, he's rather failing.
Bright just shakes his head and moans.

Joy-joy

So, there's this "Boo-hoo, what a mess" scene that this turns into. It's the boring and repetative portion of this day, where everyone reunites for a bit and discusses what happened without bringing up anything new. So, I'm going to skip ahead a couple of hours. Psycho and Roku come-to. Psycho's arm is painful, most likely broken. I'm going to have to take him to a Pokemon Center tomorrow for that, since my healing skills only go so far. Roku too, because he complains of slight chest pain. He doesn't seem to have broken anything though, which is good.
Some of us go back to doing our usual stuff. Well, mostly. Spark and Rascal may have decided to get back to their usual unguided training, since the mess seems to be over, but some of the rest of us are less sure that the storm's blown over.
Me, Bright, Dasher, and Twirla cluster around the computer to try to find who and what this "Full Moon" chap could be. We've just finished looking throught the Hoen files, and still no pokemon matching Full Moon's description could be found. Psycho, Sparkle, and Loppily pour through the other three journals for information, but this too proves futile. Everyone else has wandered off for various reasons.

Dasher paces behind the computer chair, which I'm sitting in. "Tell us what this shadow looked like again, you three." He has assumed an inquisitive role, asking Psycho, Bright, and Sparkle about what they've seen of Full Moon. Sparkle thinks she saw him in her dreams or something, which is why she is included in this.
Sparkle sighs and flips through a couple pages in the journal she's searching. "A blob of darkness, Dash. No DUH."
Psycho looks up from his journal and thinks deeply for a minute. "Uh... It sort of looked... like fabric blowing in the wind? I guess?"
"Oh yes, I suppose he was wearing a dress!" What a poor attempt at sarcasm, coming from Dasher.
"I suppose you know all about dresses Dasher, being a Gardevior and all." Sparkle remarks. Like a Tamato berry, Dasher turns bright red. "If you're saying I'm girly-"
Before an argument starts, Bright interrupts him. "I saw it's eye once. It was hard to think at the time, but they looked... blue." That comment gives me an idea. "Blue." Not many Dark types have blue eyes.
"Yes, blue, light blue. Desperate too, once I think about it."
I scroll down the Sinnoh Pokedex and click the link to my Hidden Files. I flip through Giratina, dismiss Dialga, ignore Aceus, (The hidden files aren't in any particular order) and click Darkrai.
Several pictures pop up. Several of them are shadows, a figure who's hair blows like fabric on a windy day. In the pictures that show Darkrai himself, his eyes are startlingly blue, and melancoly.
There's more than one Darkrai, but still so very few. I once met a trainer named Tobias who had one. His said nothing, needed to. They are loyal creatures, and their constant loneliness depresses them, giving them nightmares in which they inflict upon others in self-defense. Having a companion made Tobias's Darkrai feel less lonely, and prevented this little atribute, or so Lotus told me when I met Tobias. But that was a long, long time ago...
Several texts pop up, describing Darkrai.
It can lull people to sleep and make them dream. It is active on nights of the new moon.
Folklore has it, that on moonless nights, this Pokemon will make people see horrific nightmares.
To protect itself, it afflicts those around it with nightmares. However, it means no harm.

Dasher stops dead in his tracks, and stares at the computer screen. "Full Moon's a Darkrai?"
"I think so."
"But that makes no sense! Darkrai are active on the NEW moon, according to your files, and I remember last night as a half-moon. The pokemon who's afflicting us is probably FULL Moon from that journal, which also doesn't make sense. Then, there's also the fact that Darkrai give people nightmares, not possess them. Just as well, Darkrai aren't from Unova."
"Well, the possession came off with Dream Eater, didn't it? That would suggest that Bright was sleeping. Plus, Paul's journal said it was a foreign pokemon."
"But not that it was, by Mew, a legendary!"
Twirla snaps her fingers. "Watch the language Dasher." She huffs and runs her fingers down her hair. "You got any better ideas?"
Dasher mutters something about Psycho talking like that all the time, and no, he didn't have any other theorys.
"We'll have to go with this one." I delare. "Has anyone seen that Lunar Wing?"

Dasher

Really, I don't think that "by Mew" is bad language, do you? Why is Mum so nit-picky about that? She doesn't even notice Psycho say things like that... maybe because he doesn't say it around her. He says even worse stuff as well, like Dialga-be-darned. And he got that off of Spark.

Anyways, I choose to bug Joy-joy the whole rest of the day about this Darkrai thing. I just don't think it's Darkrai, because Darkrai don't possess people. And they just don't come out of Sinnoh. AND they would not be named for the full moon. Would they? It seems doubtful, at the least.
"Give it a rest, Dasher." Joy tells me. She's searching through the basement for a Lunar Wing, you know, from Cresselia. She has the idea it'll keep away Darkrai. After all, she says, everyone inside the house wasn't affected. I point out Bright, but she informs me that Lotus admitted that Bright had trouble sleeping, and went outside for a walk.
"What about Sparkle and Rascal? They sleep outside too. Others do as well."
Her only answer is a shrug.
I had wondered where Lotus had walked off to earlier, while we were at the computer. We found him in the basement, rummaging through some old Props chest. He had scattered them throught the basement, so I was cleaning them up, with (no) help from Lotus as Joy scoured some old boxes for that feather.
Lotus pretty much just sits on the floor as I use Psychic to float the loose props into the chest. It's somewhat easier than bending over and grabbing them. "Don't you want to wear a Turtwig mask?" Lotus inquires.
"No. I'll look rideculous!" I scoff.
"Spark thinks you're rideculous anyways, and that you didn't fight."
I roll my eyes. "Spark suffers from severe megalomania, and has the impression that I and my siblings never battle."
"You don't."
There's not really an argument to that. "Yeah well... we have our reasons, Lotus."
"Like? Does it have anything to do with your evolution? That's when you stopped battling." It so innocent sounding, how he says it. Even so, that latter question is a bit ticking bomb for me.
Lotus asks too many personal questions! With a slight yell, I throw up my arms in frustration. This causes two things; the props I has so carefully gathered to fly towards the ceiling by my Psychic, and me losing my concentration on the aforementioned Psychic so that they fall back scattered to the floor. "Now look at what you've done. I have to clean this up all over agin Lotus!"
In one swift motion, Lotus flicks out his vines. Vine Whip Scoops them up in a pile, and dumps them less-than cerimoniously into the chest within a couple of seconds. Compared to my five-minute Psychic routine, it's like using an elevator instead of stairs. "Battles helps you with lots of skills, Dasher," he remarks. "And it tends to be impossible to escape them all your life." In usual Lotus fashion, he leaps to his feet and skips out the door.
Great, just what I need. Another Lvl 100 lecturing me on the importance of battle participation. Who needs Lotus when Spark does it as often as she can?
Joy chooses this moment to peek out behind a stack of boxes. "I found it!" she declares, and waves a crescent-shaped yellowish-green feather in the air. In my displeased disposition, I decide that it is ugly and that I hate it. A bit of a biased view, but I feel like being biased for the moment.
"Great," I comment moodily. "What will you do with it?"
She sort of stares at it a moment. "I'm not entirely sure."

Psycho

I feel a little sad. Most of the other pokemon had gone off after Joy decided that Darkrai was our problem. It seems that they are avoiding me, and I can't blame them for it, after I went crazy earlier. Only Sparkle sticks around. Lopy probably would too since she's fairly conpationate, but she's with Bright, and he's kind of keeping a distance from me too. How lonesome for me.
As I sit on the windowsill and twiddle my thumbs, Sparkle continues reading the last journal. Funny, how none of the previous ones mention Full Moon, and how the last seems to be deliberately skirting around the topic.
Lotus skips slowly up the basement steps, singing a silly nonsensical tune. It goes something like;

Magical karp, and feeble Feebas, and Slowpokeing Slowbro Kings,
Tired Vigoroth, and flightless Archeops, and beauteous Duxtox wings,
Oh what Anti-semi-contradictory things!

It goes on a couple more verses, making less and less sense. Eventually, he gets to part about speedy Snorlax, at the same time making an appearance at the base of the stairs.
"Oh, hullo you two. Where's everyone else run off to?"
Sparkle sets the journal aside. "Various things. Most off to train in private. Roku's taking a nap. Bright didn't even tell us, and Lopy came with. What are you up to?"

He looks up at the ceiling for a bit, as if it holds something interesting. "I've taken an intrest in secrets. Some looking around has shown me that there's maybe three hidden in the general area. I wondered if you had anything to say about this."
Me and Sparkle look at each other, a knowing glance. Something's a bit off about this. Lotus almost never speaks bluntly. He enjoys being indirect, and having you take a wild guess at what he means. Up and telling us that he wants to learn about secrets could be bad news. Then again, maybe I'm misjudging him.
"What kind of secrets Uncle Lotus?" Sparkle inquires.
"Oh, things no one ever wants to hear about."
"Like?"
"We could do a secret-trade? One of the secrets I wanna dig up is something you two happen to know. And the one I got should be one you'd want to know..."

Dasher storms up the stairs then, causing Lotus to swing up onto the chandelier again, to hide from him mayhaps? Joy is right behind Dasher, and she has a funny yellow feather in her hands.
"Nuh-uh Joy. It won't work because its not a Darkrai."
It ought to Dash, I know my stuff."
"Bah, you've never seen a legendary in your life!"
"Most Champions of any sort have at one point or another. Perhaps I am no exception."
"Whatever. Setting that on the table won't do any good. How do you know there isn't some spell or something that you need to do to, to activate the protection or something anyways?"
"It works well enough just being in the general area, according to everthing I know."

Joy walks over to the coffee table and sets it in the middle. While she has her back turned, Dasher uses a slight Psychic to make it float off the table. She sighs and picks it up once she glances back at it. It floats back off when she sets it back down. "Dasher, stop it. It'll work."
"Never."
Sparkle stands up and walks over to Dasher. "Will you quit messing around? Prove your point when someone cares. Don't jinx this, because we could have something worse happen if this Lunar Wing doesn't do the trick. What if more than one of the Five is possessed next time? No one can beat them."
Oh, I never though of that. If Bright did that much damage, how much could the other Five do under Full Moon's power?
Dasher laughs. "I know what we'd do. Get pasted to a tree. And it will happen.
I know it."

Sparkle

"Pessimistic psychopath." I mutter under my breath as I lean back on the sofa. Really, can Dasher be cheerful for more than five minutes? The world won't end anytime soon, so I'd like to enjoy my existence. Siblings make it hard to do that, unfortunately.

Joy rolls her eyes at Dasher. "OK, Dash. Keep predicting Doomsday. Meanwhile, me and Lotus are going to be looking up more information on Darkrai, and we can't forget about Moon Shadow, can we?" She replaces the Lunar Wing at the center of the table and looks up at the chandelier. Lotus swings gently on it. He doesn't seem to care that Joy's called his bluff on his hiding place. Dasher seems mind for some reason, and he scowls slightly at Lotus.
"Hullo there, Dasher. Why don't you and your siblings go off and have fun somewhere? I have REAL work to do!" It's almost comical, how important Lotus seems to feel at that sentiment. Of course, he turns right back to me and Psycho and tells us, "I'd like to talk to you two later though. Remember what I said." And he drags a slightly bewildered Joy to the computer chair.

Dasher's still scowling slightly. Psy doesn't seem to sense the tension between him and Lotus, because he says, "Why don't we do what Lotus said, and take a walk? Better than hanging out here with nothing to do."
Dasher's scowl widens slightly, but he doesn't argue. Sure, why not? I think. Nothing better to do right now.
We walk out the door and into the backyard. There are any number of paths to choose from, that lead to any number of places in the forest, but we take the one we usually go to; the rocky clearing. It's sort of been a meeting place for us three. If there's anything we wish to say, without being overheard by some snoop like Lotus, we just head over there and talk. Not that my siblings tell me secrets, or have anything interesting to say most of the time.

Dasher perks up for some reason, and breaks the silence. "Sooo, Psy, I'd like to hear more about this girl who patched up you're arm."
Psycho blushes a little, and rubs his cleanly bandaged left arm self-consciously. "I told you earlier, Dash. It's not like I'll see her again. The forest is so big, and she could be anywhere."
"Aw, come on. you can trust me with a secret. Is it really that embarrassing? Well, I suppose it would be if it was someone ugly, like Garbodor."
"Said she wasn't Garbodor. Waaaaaay too cute for that..."
A peal of laughter escapes Dasher. "Now we're getting somewhere!"
It isn't very nice of Dasher to tease Psy like that, but I do think Psycho should just come clean and tell us about her. Like Dasher said, what could be so humiliating? Then again, Psycho's Bashful at heart. Maybe that's a part of this innate shyness. "It's alright Psycho. We won't say a word to anyone else, if that's what you want."

Psycho chews his lip in thought a moment. "This once. I guess there's no harm in it, but I will be sad if you tell people."
Really Psycho? 'I will be sad?' Does he ever get angry? On the other side of the coin, will Dasher ever be happy? Such enigmatic questions.
"I woke up in a cave... she was there." Uh-huh. Do continue, I think.
"She was kind of nice." I follow that.
"By Mew, she was pretty too." Is that all?
Instantly, Psycho turns from a leaking faucet of of information, to a blasting Hydro Cannon.
"ShewasaLeavannyMatrifolreallyniceaqueenorsomethingandshefixedupmyarmshehadSewaddleguardsandItalkedtohersomeand-"
Dasher gestures slightly, indicating that Psycho should stop. It manages to shut Psy up for a minute. "Slower. That was too fast, and I need to hear details, man, details.
"She was a Leavanny, real nice, a Queen or something, about my age. Her name was Matrifol, and she bandaged my arm with leaves. We talked... about stuff."
Me and Dasher stop dead in our tracks. "You fell in love. With a Dialga-be-darned. Bug, queen?" Dasher gawps.
"Heh, um, yes. Is that OK?"
A mischievous grin slides across Dasher's face. "You have a royal in your love interests. This'll be great!" I can hear a slight snarky tone to his voice. I'm a little shocked myself, about this. I once had a crush on a Mawhile, back when I was Kirlia, and I know how tough love can be. But a Queen? Royalty of any sort? Way out of my zone of comprehension.
Psy takes Dashers enthusiasm seriously. "You really think it'll work out?" He's practically dancing in excitement.
A scoff from Dasher. "Of course not. You'll chase after her all you're life, but your dream shall never be fulfilled. That's what always happens in the love stories between royals and commoners. There'll be forest Pokemon standing between you and her, and you shall always be apart and lonely, starved for the other's company. Or at least, you'll be missing her. HA!" He puts his hands behind his head in a relaxed pose, and strolls past Psycho without another word, leaving him brokenhearted in the middle of the path.

Psycho sniffles pitifully behind us. Ouch, that comment must have bit. "Dasher!" I begin, sympathetic to poor Psycho, "You've never loved in your life. You can't say for sure it'll end that way. That was just plain mean!"
Psycho shuffles dejectedly behind us. Dasher shrugs. "Eh. He'll get over it in a few minutes. He'll just forget what I said entirely, and waste his life going after her anyways. You'll see."
And Psycho forgot it, of course, just when we came to the Clearing. Who do we find there, other than infamous Bright and Loppily?

Loppily

The gray-speckled rocks shine dully in the afternoon sun. Like a ball-wrecker, Bright smashes though them. Punch, Shatter. I try my best to keep up with his pace, but my Dizzy-Punch and Bounce are no match for his Aura Sphere and Close Combats. I count the rocks I smash, one, two, three, four... Bright keeps track of his rocks, and the timer we set on a flat boulder shrieks at the 2-minute mark. We stop punching, and Bright shuts the timer off.
I breathe harshly, sucking in air. Bright hasn't broken a sweat, as usual. It's to be suspected that he doesn't try his hardest, to make me feel better. Despite that, he always wins.
"How many did you smash, Lopy?" he casually asks as he leans on an unbroken boulder.
"14. You?" I gasp.
"21."
A smile twitches on my lips. "You win, as usual."
Shaking his head, he remarks, "Nonsense. You're improving. That ought to get you some extra points." It's sweet of him to offer, but I can't take it. "No Bright, you win fair and square. The only points awarded are for smashing rocks, no bonuses handed out." If I ever beat Bright at this, I want to do it for real. Settling for the mediocre pace I'm at would be no better than giving up training altogether.

Sweat has beaded up in my ears, and I carefully shake them dry. Sensitive as they are, I like having them clean. They come in handy a lot, like now. I hear footsteps on the path heading towards the clearing. Light, definitely not Empoleon or Luxray feet. Can't be Queenie, or any of the fliers, because there's no flapping for quivering of wings. The steps aren't padded like Roku's either.
I twitch my ears up a little, so I can hear better. Bright is mindful of the posture, and whispers, "What is it? Do you hear someone?" I whisper back, "Yes. Hush, while I listen."
Alternately, I raise and lower my ears to get the best scoop on the sound. Someone is talking too, as well as walking. I detect the wide thud of a Gallade and the tip-toe of Gardevoir. It's obviously those three younger ones, Dasher, Sparkle, and Psycho. I can't pick up what they're saying, and it sounds like they don't want to be overheard. Since I don't like to snoop, I lay my ears down and turn back to Bright. "It's just those three kids. You know, Twirla's, your technical niece and nephews."
Bright nods. He mulls over the information a bit, and asks me, "Do you want us to invite them to a Rock Smash contest?"
"Sure. I'm not sure that they'll accept though. They get kind of cagey about battling, you know?"
Bright fiddles with the timer's options some and glances at the area where the path leads to the clearing. "I know. Perhaps it would help them if they did try to battle more often. It would improve the way some of us think of them, certainly."
I continue to groom my fur and dry the sweat from me. "Spark doesn't like them. Behind their and Twirla's back, she's always going on about what cowards they are, and how all they need a good few KO's to set them straight. It would most likely just make them hate battles more though. Personally, I don't see why anyone would hate to battle. Battles help test your mind and body's limits and capabilities."

Sagely, Bright nods again. Just now, the kids walk into the clearing. Sparkle chats to Dasher, slightly scolding him. Psycho sniffles a little in the rear of them, looking quite dejected. If I'd had to guess, Dasher was antagonizing him again. It's almost impossible to guess that the two would be twins, what with their polar personalities. It's also a wonder why Psycho even sticks around with him, Dasher pushes him around so much. Sparkle's less gullible, but it's not like she sticks up for Psycho either.
I can only hope they'll be up for a good challenge today.

Sparkle

"You really ought to be nicer to Psy though, Dash. Even if he forgets two minutes later, it's still mean. You're such a dream crusher."
Dasher doesn't take me seriously. "Heh, heh. I may be a dream crusher, but you're the Dream Eater. I still don't see how it's bad, if he never cares afterward. If you sleep through a day, and don't know you missed it after you wake up, does it really matter? Really, you are such a drama queen!"
"Ugh! I-"

Before I finish my sentence, Lopy bounds into view. "Hey you three!"
Psycho perks up and waves to her. "Hi Lopy! What are ya doing?"

She fluffs her fur some and walks us to us. "Training with Bright." Bright proceeds to walk out from behind a boulder. "Would you like to join us?" she continues, "Please, it's really fun. We're doing a Rock Smash contest! It would be great if you could join in."
Psycho rubs his chin in consideration. "Maybe."
Dasher laughs. "I'm in a good mood now. I'll do it, if I'm not against Bright. He always wins."
Bright waves his hand dismissively. "Agreed. I suppose, you have a certain point to that statement."
"Great! Then it'll be me and you three competing!" Loppily does a little dance in-place. You have to give her points for enthusiasm. "Sorry Lopy," I tell her. "I can't. Protect, Hypnosis, Dream Eater, and Teleport are no good for smashing rocks." She pouts a little. "Aw... Hey, at least I can have a good go against you other two!"

Bright and I clamber up onto a tall boulder, to get a good view on the clearing. You can't really go two steps without running into a rock on this side of the clearing. The other side is more clear of rocks, and it's where we battled Bright. I can see the scorch marks on the grass, and uprooted turf I suspect came from Spark's Iron Tails. There's also a section full of smashed rocks I can assume Loppily and Bright were training in earlier.
Lopy, Dasher, and Psycho each position themselves into separate corners of the clearing. They each stand at ready by a rock, ready to begin the breaking. Bright fiddles with the timer for a few seconds, setting it to two minutes. "Ready,"
"Set..."
"Go!" he pushes down in the start button, and the contest begins.
I have to say, it was spectacular. Well, the the way an epic fail is spectacular...
Lopy hits the ground running. Three Dizzy punches, and the boulder explodes in fragments. Meanwhile, Psycho alternates awkwardly between Ice Punch and Drain Punch, chipping at the boulder slowly with his good arm. Dasher isn't so hot either. It takes him, maybe ten seconds to materialize an Energy Ball. He holds it for another three seconds to enlargen it. Smash! The nearest boulder is a pile of rubble. Impressive, but Lopy took down three in the same amount of time. She alternates between Bounce and Dizzy Punch. Bounce takes out two rocks, one that she Bounces off of, and one that she Bounces onto. I never realized the the initial takeoff of Bounce could be just as powerful as the smash-down.
Psy's still chipping away at his rock...
Dasher keeps glancing over at Lopy's progress, wasting more time. In a fit of rage, he manages to conjure both Energy Ball, and Focus Blast at once, one with his left hand, and one with his right. The opposite entities gravitate together and explode brilliantly in his face. He seems ok, and the resulting explosion did break the two nearest boulders, so it wasn't too bad for him.
Psy's still chipping away at his rock...

The timer blares, and Bright shouts, "TIME!"

Lopy Bounces over to us, almost, but not quite showing off. Psycho's rock finally breaks, and he bounces cheerfully over as well. A foul mood has beset Dasher, and kicks a pebble, muttering to himself all the while. "Dasher, get over here! Now!" I shout with a grin. Yes, that contest was simply spectacular!

"So," Lopy breathes out, "I got 16, a new record for me! How many did you guy's get?" She's out of breath, but somehow smiling all the same.
Psy shrugs apologetically. "One."
"One? Just one?" An incredulous stare from her makes Psycho a little nervous. "Just one." he confirms.
Dasher stomps his way over. "Five. Better that Psycho at any rate."
Patiently, Bright shakes his head. "It's not about being better that anyone, Dasher. This exercise is only meant to improve your battle skills." Lopy interjects on that thought. "Right! It's also about having fun, and doing your best!" She punctuates the word 'best' by tossing her arms in the air and twirling.

"I don't need a lecture about battling. Lotus gave me one earlier, and none is enough for me." Dasher turns away rebelliously, and crosses his arms. "I think I did WONDERFUL Bright. So do keep your opinions to yourself."
You can just taste the sarcasm in that sentence, it's that thickly slathered on. Way too thickly slathered on.

Bright shakes his head again. Is it just me, or is he frowning? "All right then. If that's the way you feel." He takes Loppily's hand and walks away. Loppily follows obediently, with an apologetic glace over her shoulder. "Come on Lopy. I don't like playing with poor sports." It's a bit harsh for Calm Bright to say. That's as close as you can get to outright calling Dasher a poor sport. And believe me, Dasher doesn't like being called names...

Psycho

Lopy and Bright, really Bright leading Loppily, stalks off the clearing and onto on of the paths. It's a path that leads to the cliff, if I remember it correctly.
I'm not entirely sure what's going on here, but Dasher just sort of stands there stiffly, red creeping up his cheeks. He sputters a little, trying to say something back, but not prepared for verbal retaliation yet. Really, us Gardevoir and Gallade blush like ladies in Victorian novels. Or, the ones I know do.
Sparkle sidles up to me quietly. "Here we go again." she whispers. "Just wait for it. He's going to blow his top." I nod and reply, "I know. Why exactly did Bright mean by don't like playing with poor sports?" Sparkle chuckles, a little bitterly. "He doesn't like Dasher's attitude."

Soon as Bright actually gets to the path, Dasher stops sputtering and makes an effort to calm down. Then he gets worked up again. "Oh, what the heck!"
he bursts out before teleporting away.

"Where did he go?" I ask Sparkle. It wasn't quite clear to me what was going on with everyone. "Why's he so mad?"
Sparkle sighs and shakes her head hopelessly. "To a normal person, it would be obvious that Bright has insulted Dasher's pride, and Dasher is getting worked up over it. Either Dasher went off somewhere to blow off steam, or he's going to yell at Bright. Either way, I don't want to be around when it happens."
We both start walking back down the path towards the house. "It seem everyone is blowing off their top today. First Dasher at Joy, then spark at Dasher, now Bright and Dasher... On second thought, Dasher' blowing off everyone's tops."
"It's tense around here. Probably with this whole, takeover-possession by Darkrai thing. I wonder why Full Moon would do this."
Sparkle gives me a blank look. "Why do you wonder?"
"Well, it just isn't something you would do for no reason. Messing with people's minds like that... There's got to be a cause for it. And from what I've heard, it ties in with Moon Shadow."
There's got to be a reason for it...

Loppily

"Bright," I begin, "Don't you think that was a little harsh?"
"No Lopy. I'm thinking it wasn't harsh enough. Dasher is just as stuck-up as Spark claims him to be."
I sigh softly to myself. We walk briskly on the pathway, and I'm not sure where, or why. "Where are we going Bright?"
Bright glances back at me for a second. "To the cliffs. I need to battle, and let off steam. Spark will be willing to oblige."
"You could battle me."
He shakes his head feverently. "You know I could never do that. You know even better why."
"You could go easy on me?"
"There is no easy at Level 100."
"Why can't Joy just train me to Level 100? She did it easily enough with you guys."
Bright is about to say something back, until Dasher teleports in front of me. I startle some, and jerk my hand out of Brights grasp. Bright turns to look at Dasher, and his eyes harden. "You again. What do you want?"
Dasher stands there with his mouth open a minute. He doesn't seem entirely sure what to say. "What you said was rather snarky."
A scoff escapes Bright, and he clasps my hand and continues walking. "Like what you say is any nicer? I know you were teasing your brother before you came to the field."
Dasher teleports right in Bright's path this time. "Can I have an apology or something? I'm tired of you all beating on me about battling and stuff. I'm not a good battler, and that's what this is all about, isn't it?"
Grinding his teeth together slightly, Bright appears to be trying not to get upset. "No, this is not about battle skills. It's about you attitude, towards battling and everyone else. I'm getting sick of your excuses for your weaknesses, and your complaints about our strengths. Now please let me pass."
"No."
"If a fight's what you want, battle Spark. She's more willing to beat up a novice."
"I just want you to say sorry for harping on me about battling!"
Bright holds up one hand and pinches two fingers together, emphasizing a small distance. "You are this close to, quote, 'becoming a pulp smashed against a tree.'"

The conversation takes me aback. This is the most ticked off I have ever seen mellow, Calm Bright, and I wonder if it has to do with his possession earlier. I think attacking others, particularly Spark and Roku has shaken him up a lot.

Dasher is visibly angry now too. "You wouldn't dare! You would never!" he shouts at the top of his lungs. His voice is shrill, and hurts my sensitive ears. I draw them around me, both to block out the sound, comfort myself, and afford protection if the altercation breaks out into a fight.
They yell at each other for a while more, but I can't hear a thing. I don't want to. So it comes as a shock when Bright lets go of my hand and lunges for Dasher. Dasher pales, and Teleports away just before Bright tackles him. Bright manages to right himself with a roll, but Dasher is gone.
I uncurl my ears from around myself. Bright seems to remember I was there. "Oh gosh, Lopy," he blusters. "I'm sorry you had to see that. I just..." He is slightly speechless at his abnormal outburst at Dasher.
My fur is ruffled, and I smooth it back out. "I get it. Dasher is impossible, and you were mad." I didn't really get it, but I had to comfort him, didn't I?

He plops down in the dirt dourly. "I shouldn't have gotten so upset though. I wish I could just explain to Dasher that he's the one causing his own anguish, not us. He's blaming us for all his problems, and I can't do a thing about it."

Dasher

I'm freaking out. There is no way I would ever get myself into a mess like THIS, normally, even if I get upset. I tend to yell once and teleport away right after. So, the one time I get really ticked, and make the person I'm arguing with even more ticked, it just has to be one of the Five, doesn't it? I can't annoy someone who I may be able to actually stand against in battle, like Psy or maybe one of the other obscure Pokemon who live with Joy, but never get trained. Bright never wants to harm anyone, but now I've gotten him to the point that I wonder if he'll actually murder me.

Yep, life is great.

I Teleported back to my room when Bright got really, really upset. I'm not quite sure what we were yelling about anymore. For some reason, I think I was saying something about no one ever paying attention to me because of my weak skills, so I have to grab it somehow, usually through sarcasm, and Bright, he told me that attention-grabbing is a sigh of weak character, blah blah blah. I called him an Ambipom, and that's when he tried to get me. The world was nuts, I decided. Everyone went crazy a long time ago, and I'm stuck as the only one who sees things for what they really are.

It's barely dinner time at the Mansion. I can hear a murmur of voices in the living room. Lotus, Joy-Joy, and Gli, one of the aforementioned obscure Pokemon (an Altaria to be exact), are discussing something exuberantly. Great for them.
Since there's not much else to do, since I'm avoiding my siblings, and trying not to get seen by Bright (who may want to kill me even without being possessed), I wonder if I should take a nap. That's what Rascal does most of the time. But wait, I think Rascal's semi-crazy too.
Two more voices join the conversation outside. Identifiable as Mother and Gallant (Twirla's mate, therefore our technical father through adoption). I press my ear to the door, and listen closer. Useful, having a room right next to the the staircase leading central hub of where everything goes on in the house. The staircase carries sound up to my room very well.

They are talking about what Pokemon Moon Shadow could be. This reminds me of the possession that happened earlier, and I'm in no mood to think about that. It reminds me of some arguments that I had with other people as well today. Why can't everyone just leave me be?

I open my window and feel the breeze. Perhaps I can have a little adventure of my own, just to make me feel better. The height from the second floor to the ground is kind of high, but when you can manipulate your own gravity (Gardevoir wouldn't even be able to stand if we couldn't), floating out is a cinch. Then again, I can also teleport to the ground, but I save teleportation for when I need to make a point.

My first destination is the kitchens. I'll just pick up a Bitter poffin or two, and be on my way. Our 'chef', Golly Gothitelle, can really make a good poffin. And unlike most Pokemon here, she's friendly and doesn't ask a lot of questions. If I ask for a poffin, I'll get one from her without a problem.

But before I jump out my window, I overhear yet another conversation. The room two window's down from me is where Roku stays. He's supposed to be sleeping, so it mildly surprises me when I hear low chatter from his open window.
"Spark, I'll be fine. A little beating isn't enough to bring me down," I barely catch. The next words are lower, and I can't hear them. My curiosity is definitely whetted. Roku's supposed to be napping, and Spark's supposedly off training. This makes for a suspicious conversation.
I carefully pull myself out of my window, and hang on to the frame edge. They talk quieter now, so I need to get closer to hear more. Gripping the top of the frame with my hands, I scoot along the windowsill toward the next. Luckily, the room next to mine is Lopy's, and she's got a flower box. It's not to difficult to leap onto it from the edge of my windowsill. This is close enough to hear what they say without being revealed myself.

"I can't stand this, Roku. Do you know what it's like for something to take your sibling like that? It's like something slathered my soul in ice. It only makes the cold worse, that it might happen again."
What? The possession topic again? Leaving is a viable option, but maybe they'll say something more interesting if I keep listening.
"It would... be awful if something happened to you. Fighting Bright was like tearing my heart out with my own claws." Graphic image. "Battling you... I can't do it! One blow, and you're out. Maybe for good. I know you want to be strong too, but this strong? Sometimes, it hurts." What? Spark? Pugnacious Spark, afraid of her own strength? She never thinks like that if I'm the subject of her tyranny, which is often.

"I love you Roku. Promise that you won't get taken. I trust in that Lunar Wing of Joy's, but only so far. Promise me."
"I... I promise to try for you. That's as far as I can."
And with that, I almost fall out of the window box.

Gli

"But she can't be Ditto Lotus. Ditto isn't Dark type, and Queenie said she was."
Lotus glares up at me from the floor. My perch on the chandelier doesn't feel Particularly safe anymore. That flower could beat me any day, even with my type advantages, and he can swing up here whenever he wishes.
"I think she's a Ditto that transforms into a Dark type to please Full Moon."
Me and Joy groan at this. We've gone over it a hundred times, and he still insists on his little theory, ignoring the fact that it's a Dark type, and OBVIOUSLY NOT DITTO. Lotus never learns, as far as I can tell. Of course, I typically stay out of the way of the Five, so I'm not an accurate judge of them in any case. Ask that one Lucario, Roli or Rocky or something, if you want to know about them. Personally, they weird me out.

Twirla shrugs jokingly at Lotus. "It's a mystery. There's no other pokemon that transforms but Ditto, and Ditto aren't Dark. What you're saying is possible Lo, but I doubt it. We've exhausted what little options we had before we even began. Why don't we relax for now? I need a break."
Gallant agrees. "I could go for some dinner. How about you guys?" He even looks up to aknowledge me. In the precense of two of the Five. Gasp.
Lotus jumps up at that idea immediately. "Yes! I want one of every berry we got! What's the advantage in a Quirky nature if you don't apply the natural love of every flavor that comes with it?"
"You'll stuff yourself Lotus," Joy reasons as she shuts down the computer. "Just have a few of each flavor."
Everyone else files out of the room to the kitchen hallway. Gallant gives me a wave as he walks out. Nice chap. Can't imagine for the life of me what he's doing with someone as intimidating as Twirla. Then again, that's the sole reason Joy is his trainer. I've been told that he used to be Lutician's, but he fell hard for Twirla. Opportunely, Joy had an unnamed Gallade who liked Lutician better than her, so they traded. It goes to show that human things, like Pokeballs and trading machines can have some uses after all.
Humming softly, I glide my way out the window. It was too akward in there, being near by those two Five. I'm not particularly hungry anyways.
A little fly over the forest would be welcome. The day's been just so strange for me. First, pokemon panic over disappearances, then possession of the disappeared Pokemon, now Darkrai and cryptic riddles. Then, I also was in the same room as some of the Five. Weird, weird day.
I notice Dasher standing in a window box as I fly past. He doesn't see me, and I pretend not to see him. There is something seriously wrong with those three kids of Twirla's.

The weirdness of the day isn't quite over yet. I skim the treetops, and see a flash of blue, red, and tan. I do a double-take, and there is Loppily, Bright, and Rascal. The Infernape looks surprised, and I hear him ask Rascal if Spark really wasn't out training. The Empoleon says no, she wasn't, and that's all I hear before the wind takes the sound away. Since it doesn't concern me, I pretend I didn't hear anything at all...

Dasher

Oh. Great. Giratina. Spark loves Roku, and he loves her back.
How come no one else knows about this? Why do they keep this secret?
It's not like it would hurt for people to know this. Public knowledge isn't generally harmful. Then again...

I hang on to the edge of Lopy's window box, carefully balancing by keeping hold of the window frame with both my hands. If I wasn't even slightly more careful, I would have fallen off. Ouch. The ground looks a little far from me now, and since the lovebirds have fallen silent, I think I'll just teleport down.

Whew. Once I have the backyard grass under my feet, I feel a little better. I still have plenty of things to process through. Suddenly, I know a secret that Spark might murder me for knowing, and for all I know, other may kill to know. On the other hand, it doesn't strike me as right for them to hide this from some Pokemon they ought to trust, like Lotus and the rest of the Five. What bugs me is why they would hide it in the first place. Now, I have the very uncomfortable choice of revealing their secret to the rest of the Five, or keeping silent. Which choice is more moral in the long run? The rest of the Five probably deserve to know this, but Spark and Roku probably have their own reasons for keeping this quiet. Even demonic Spark must have a heart hidden somewhere on her.

At this point in my annoying moral dilemma, Mother slips out of the Mansion and head straight to me. What does she want? Can she not see that I am having a private conversation with myself? Ok, I'm willing to bet she can't.
"Dasher dear, it's almost 6:00," she states. "Joy wants all of us to come to the living room. She has something important or something that she need to tell everyone." With a small gesture, Mother becons me inside.
"Alright." I say, and follow her compliantly. I don't feel up to arguing at the moment. As we head to the door, I look back at the rest of the backyard. With a small shock, I realize that Rascal, Bright, and Lopy are coming walking out of the one of the forest paths. There's three that connect to the mansion, and I'm not sure where that one goes to. Some training area or something I guess. Bright is watching me, and talking to the other two, but he doesn't seem nearly as upset as he did earlier. I sigh inwardly with relief, and close the door behind me.

The living room is fairly full. Most of Joy's Pokemon are in here, and there's a lot of small conversations going on. Joy herself is sitting at the computer chair, facing the crowd. Everyone has their own little place to be, with their companions. Lotus is sitting on the chandelier, next to Gli. Gli looks a little nervous, to be honest, eying Lotus warily. I spy Spark and Roku at the edge of the stairs. Mother has gone over to sit at the couch with Father. There are a lot more Pokemon with specific places, sitting with specific Pokemon, but I stop noticing when I look at the small window near the door I just walked in from. Of course, that's where my siblings are, Psy on the windowsill and Sparkle standing next to him. I walk over to mill around by them, and wonder where they've been off to. No doubt they wonder where I've been.

"Is everyone here?" Joy asks loudly. There is a general murmur of assessment from around the room.
"Lets get started then."

Joy-Joy

I'm rather nervous. Everyone is staring at me, and there's no guarantee that they'll all like what I have to say. Still, since it should keep them safe, it's best to be out with it. For a minute, my mind hovers over Dasher's previous ratiocination that the Lunar Wing would fail, pretty much amounting to us all dieing, but I dismiss the thought. It had to work, or we might be in big trouble.
I stand up and take a deep breath. Here goes nothing.
"You all know we've had an issue today."
"Hardly call it an 'issue'." Spark mutters.
I plead silence from her with a pointed look. "I'm just going to lay out what's going to happen here because of it. For the moment, no one is to go outside at night. If it's true, and this is a Darkrai, they'll be able to influence you outside the Mansion." Grumbled discontents come from various places throughout the room, but no protests yet. "Furthermore, none of you is allowed to sleep outside until this matter is resolved for certain. You should be protected by the Lunar Wing as long as you sleep in the mansion." This is the part I was somewhat afraid of. A clamor of groans and "No fair!" come from the crowd. To my surprise, it's not just outside sleepers like Rascal and Sparkle who protest, but some of the insider sleepers as well. I catch a murmur from somewhere off to my left about sharing sleeping space. Oh gosh, I'd forgotten about that! "All of you who typically sleep outside will stay in the living room, unless you have something arranged with someone else." The clamor dies down some, but not all the way. "That's all for now. Go ahead and go back to what you where doing."
As most everyone files out of the room, Rascal comes up to me. It is obvious that he is severely irritated, by the way lifts his head and straightens to his full height instead of crouching over like the crotchety old Empoleon he is. "I denounce this proposition! What do you think you're doing, having me sleep inside?" He vociferously protests sleeping anywhere but under his tree, and I stop paying attention about three sentences in. There's something more important to focus on, and Rascal's going to sleep inside regardless of his issues with it.

As Rascal rambles on, I watch an interesting conversation out of the corner of my eye.
Bright is talking to Spark. Lopy and Roku stand a little bit off to the side, but they are definitely in on the conversation. "So, Spark, I thought you were out training this afternoon?" Bright begins the conversation. To my surprise, Spark has fixated her gaze on something in the background, instead of a typical full-on-and-unnerving stare. "Eh. I changed my mind."
"You don't do that very often."
"I did this time. 'Sides, how would you know I wasn't there? You were off somewhere with flop-ears over there." Loppily giggles lightheartedly at the jest, perhaps a little too zealously. Something's gotten her unusually tense, and I can see her ears a-quiver with nervousness. Why?
"I know, Spark, because I was looking to train with you to let of a little steam. Rascal said you weren't at you're usual training spot, and I trust his judgment."
"Bah. I love Rascal as much as you do, but he's a fuddy-duddy senile at times. You know how he sometimes thinks he's still with Joy's mother."
"He was clear-minded today. What I find strange, is your absence at training. You love training."
"That's nice. Well, it doesn't matter where I was anyways, and no one can train all the time. What I want to know, is why'd you wanted to let off steam anyways."
It's Brights turn to get cross-examined. Unlike Spark, he's much more ready to oblige. "I admit, I had a problem with Dasher. We had an argument, and I got frustrated." Speaking of Dasher, he's off by the window, looking very interested in this conversation indeed. Something's definitely going on, and it's not about Full Moon.
I go back to listening to Rascal, and file away this conversation for later notice...

Sparkle

After a while of milling around the living room, us three head down to the kitchen on an unanimous vote that we have dinner. Golly's there, and she gives us a big smile. I like Golly. She makes me feel welcome, au contraire many other Pokemon I know.
"How are you three right now? Are you alright?" she begins loquaciously. "It's been a rough day for us all, and you in particular could probably use some cheering up." Psycho nods, but he seems more cheerful than in need of cheering up. Dasher makes no move to respond to her. "It has been tough," I agree. "and I could use something nice." A smile slides onto my lips.
Golly give a silly wink. "Well, I have some special poffins right up. Sweet, Dry, and Bitter, as you like 'em. Eat them while they're hot!" With a graceful slide, she moves over to the oven and takes out three small trays with a few poffins on them each, among a good deal of pans and pots. She places them over on the kitchen island, and goes bustling about, cleaning up some flour from a counter. "Aw, thanks Golly!" Psy says.
"You're welcome," she intones bashfully, and continues her work.
We take the poffins and leave the trays in the sink. There's no particular destination in our minds as we wander through the mansion, and we end up in the backyard. The evening is cool, and we ought to not be out so late, what with what's happened, but it's just so nice outside. Besides, we'll go in before the sun fully sets, and it gets completely dark. Sitting under Rascal's favorite tree and eating poffins sounds good to me.
Dasher bores his gaze forlornly into the house. There is nothing of obvious interest on the wall, so I can assume something's wrong. I remember how fixated he was on a conversation Spark and Bright were having. He looks aghast by something, and that's not an emotion I see often from him. This was the reason we didn't go to the kitchen straight after Joy's little talk.

"Dasher," I say quietly. He's still stuck in his thoughts. "Dasher!" I say louder, and poke his shoulder a couple of times. Startled, he gives me a funny look. "What its it now Sparkle?"
"Something's wrong. You're pensive. Does it have something to do with Bright? You were fighting earlier."
"Not completely. But yeah, I kind of acted stupid and yelled at him, so that wasn't great either."
"Hff, Mmmm fft Pfft mm mmft?" Psycho mumbles around a mouthful of icky Sweet poffin. Sugar powders the corners of his mouth, and he looks kind of funny. "Don't talk with your mouth full Psy, it's not a good habit. I didn't understand a word you said. Oh, and you got sugar all over your face."
He swallows, and says, "I said, 'Well, what's the problem then?'" He wipes the sugar off with his good hand. "If your conflict with Bright isn't what you're worried about, what is?"
Dasher huffs. "It's a moral dilemma. I've overheard a secret, and I think some people ought to know it, but I don't know if the person kept it for a good reason. Plus, they would paste me to a tree if then knew I know. That's all."
"Oh. That sounds bad." Psycho doesn't quite sound sincere about it. He's paying minimal attention to the conversation.
"Do you want to talk about it?" I ask quietly. "Not right now," he circumvents. "Maybe another time." I take a bite of a nice Dry poffin and shrug. If it's important, Dasher'll get around to it when he's up to it. If I rush him to spill his guts, there's going to be yet another major fight before the day's over. And the day is almost over. Time has flown by so fast since the morning, yet everything scarey and unreal seems like it happened ages ago.
I finish the last of my poffin, and stand up, brushing dirt off my gown. "Come on, I think we should just try to get a good night's rest now." I tell them.
Dasher agrees. "Who know how much real sleep we'll get tonight anyways?"

Dasher

The other two stay in the living room and get situated. My room's not big enough to share, so of course I don't offer them to spend the night there. Plus, I'd not invite my sister up anyways. That's just awkward.
I lay in my bed, and think of last night. I couldn't sleep, and I felt tense. The same thing is starting to happen again, because I feel twitchy and restless all over again. Great, another night of missed sleep. Despite my earlier premonitions of doom, I rather hope that Joy's Lunar Wing works. I don't want to be awakened by something in the middle of the night again, if I can even get to sleep in the first place.

My digital alarm clock is annoying, with it's glowing green light. So I don't do the same thing as last night, and constantly glance at it, I turn it face-down, and unplug it to dissipate further temptation.
Time still passes very slowly. I lazily watch the sun set over the treetops, and next to the cliff. It's kind of pretty, I must admit. An eye for beauty isn't something I possess, but even I have to be in awe of some of nature's events.
Someone must have changed my ability from Synchronize to Insomnia or something. The sun is far below the horizon before I feel even remotely tired. But soon, I begin to doze lightly, almost sleeping. Laying sedately helps with my restlessness, if I don't move at all in any way.

I jar back to consciousness when a sharp wind blows through the trees, rustling the leaves. Oh great, now I have to try to get back to sleep all over again. Why me? Why can't I sleep lately? Why does everything annoying and useless and-
A shadow covers my window and interrupts my pity party. I sit stock-still, and stare at it a moment. None of us moves for a time. Then, with no warning, it turns forward more, and glides right through my window as if it weren't there! If that isn't frightening enough, I catch a glimpse of sky-blue eyes in the moonlight, and the shadow ripples as if buffeted by gusts of wind. The shadow is a foot from my face before I even understand what's going on. My cognitive processes are in slow-motion, and I haven't the foggiest notion of what I'm supposed to do.

The shadow hovers in the air, and I know it's Full Moon. The Lunar Wing didn't work! There's no mistaking that he's a Darkrai, so what went wrong there? A small black void of darkness materializes in Full Moon's palm, and he makes a motion to force it upon me. Something in me clicks and goes berserk at the unprovoked attack. Quicker than I ever have before, I sit up and summon a Focus Blast in my bare hand, letting it loose at the apparition in front of me. Full Moon shifts slightly to the left, and it obliterates my window. Uh-oh.
I duck under the covers to avoid stray glass shards hitting me. Full Moon must have dodged too, because I don't think he got hit either. Immediately, I roll off the side of my bed from under my sheets, and head to the door. I have to warn everyone! There's no way I can fend off a Dialga-be-darned legendary alone.

To my dismay, I locked my door when I came in last night, forgetting that the lock tends to stick. It is hesitant to open when I twist it, and I can't get out! Full Moon drifts leisurely over to me, like he's sleepwalking. Sleep-floating might be a more accurate term, then again. There's no way I can get out in time, so I do the only thing I can to warn the others in the mansion: I yell as loud as I can. It tears through the silence like a sword through cloth. Full Moon summons another void of dark energy, a Dark Void, I realize, and the world seems to shatter upon it's impact with my head.

Joy-Joy

My dream is pleasant enough, at first. I am at a battle stadium, ready for a mysterious challenger whom is to battle me for my title as Grand World Champion. There is no doubt on my mind that I cannot, and will not fail to win. I haven't for seven years, and I was not about to break that streak.
I step out into the harsh light of the stadium battlefield, and prepare to make my spectacular entrance. What I'm expecting is one of the usual, serious grown types who have been training for years to conquer challenges such as myself. Instead, a shorts-wearing youngster with an outrageous attitude of arrogance is in the spotlight on the other side of the arena. He has but a singular Pokeball on his belt, and it looks shiny new. You would think he had just began his journey.

"My name is Joey!" he shouts fiercely. There's something about him that grates up against my nerves. "Go home kid," I say, not unkindly. "there's no way you're ready to face a Gym Leader yet, let alone a Champion. Try when both you and your Pokemon have more experience."
He contorts his face into a frightful scowl. "My Rattata is the top percentage of Rattata!" bellows the boy, and he tosses his Pokeball onto the arena. A Rattata emerges from the red light of the Pokeball, and it looks no different from any other Rattata. "Rattata!" it cries. "You will never beat us, Champion Joy-Joy! I and Rattata have been training long and hard to reach our dream of being champion, and not even you will stand in our way!"

"Lets get this over with." I declare. With an expert flick of my wrist, I toss Lotus's Pokeball out onto the field. He is conjured from the Pokeball with an eloquent twirl, and a striking pose characteristic of him. How can I lose this?
"Three, Two, One, and GO!" Shouts the referee, and we begin.
I switch to speaking telepathically from this point on. The greatest advantage I have over any opponent, is that they never know what we will do next. The downside is that I can only do this with the Five, whom I love more than anyone else.
I am ready. Lotus tells me. So am I, I reply. Don't hold back on this kid, because this novice is in need of a lesson in humility. Even I don't declaim so to my opponents, and especially not with a neophyte Rattata of all things.
Agreed. He is much more serious in battle than real life. Battles are fun, Lotus know, but they are not games.
And so the battle starts. Rattata makes a few tackles for Lotus, and misses. Lotus leaps aside with ease. Gracefully as he executes this, I instruct him to use Energy Ball to finish Rattata off.
The second Lotus slows down, the Rattata digs in and really leaps to Lotus in an astounding blur of speed. "Rattata, use Bite!" screams the youngster, and Rattata sinks it's teeth into Lotus's shoulder. With a gasp, my Roserade falls to the ground unconscious. The instantaneous knockout shocks me out of my air of confidence.
"ROUND ONE GOES TO JOEY!" announces the judge.
I begin to tremble, and fumble for Lotus's pokeball. "You did your best Lotus."

"MY RATTATA IS THE TOP PERCENTAGE OF RATTATA!" declares Joey arrogantly. "YOU CANNOT BEAT IT!"
And so it seems. One after another, my Five succumb to the freaky mouse. Spark missed her Iron Tail and walloped her self rather well, inducing a self-inflicted KO. Bright's Close Combat is aimed poorly, and Rattata takes advantage of his lowered defense with a risky Tackle that looks more like a Giga Impact. Rascal is bested by a Hyper Fang, despite being strong against Normal Type moves.
I am down to Twirla. My breathing is harsh. I haven't gotten schooled like this since my rival Gavin evolved his Empoleon. The crowd only makes this worse, jeering and laughing at my incompetence. My world seems to be spinning around and around. How could this happen? I have failed the Five, whom devote every cell in their body to me, and whom I devote upon in turn.
Twirla spins to avoid a Hyper Fang, but just barely. Perhaps I can turn this around still... but then Rattata makes a spectacular u-turn mid-jump and dives right for Twirla, who has materialized right behind it. Just as the sharp teeth are about to close in on her delicate arm-

A shattering sound in the air wakes me up from my troubled dream, and I sit up in bed. Spark wakes up with me, and looks for the source of the noise frightfully.

Then, a horrible scream pierces my ears.

Spark

"WHAT IN MEW'S LAME NAME IS GOING ON!?!" My voice resounds through the air. Dialga-darn-it! Another early-wake-up? If anyone wasn't awakened by the previous smash of a window, my roar probably did the trick.
Severe irritation causes me to look in the direction from which the noise originated from. I flinch inwardly as someone screams sharply. Now I'm on-edge, switching on my X-ray capability to look straight through the corner of the room into one of the upstairs ones. With a gasp, I see Dasher laying prone on the floor of his room. His window has broken outwards, and there's a Darkrai hovering over him. I continue to stare in confusion as the Darkrai seems to... I'm not sure what he's doing, but he grabs Dasher by his horn. I faintly recall Twirla saying something about a Gardevoir's horn amplifying their psychic power, but that's not relevant now. Transfixed, I watch as the Darkrai grips onto his horn, and pulls him to his feet. Dasher seems to regain consciousness. He looks kind of like a zombie though, not really comprehending of what's going on. The Darkrai floats out of the window, and Dasher jumps out behind him.
"Oh my Giratina," I whisper to myself. Joy is breathing hard at the head of the bed. She says nothing as I watch this scene, just watches me. She can probably guess that I saw something happen. Her face is blanched white, I see.
Her face turns red with the light that comes from Twirla's pokeball when it opens up. "What's wrong, who's getting attacked?" she vocalizes in a tone of barely-suppressed panic. For once, this isn't an overreaction.
Joy reaches over and turns on the lamp on her night table. She rubs the sleep from her eyes and shakes her head. "I don't know Twi-" Perplexed, she halts in the middle of her sentence.
"Lotus?" she calls. I look over on the other side of the bed, where Lotus ought to be sleeping. His pile of cushions is abandoned, barely dented. There's no way he slept very long in that. Twirla peeks over the bed as well. With a cool composure, she reaches out to touch Bright's pokeball. "They're gone."
"We gotta see what's going on the the rest of the place!" I declare hotly, leaping off the bed. What if something happened to Roku as well? It sickens me enough to realize that dear Lotus and Bright have been spirited away. Not him too! "Your Lunar Wing failed Joy. Dasher's been taken by a Darkrai, and I'm willing to guess that Psycho has too, if he, Lotus, and Bright have."
Right on cue, another window smashes. We all run to the door, and Joy-Joy yanks it open, smacking my tail aside in the process. We are greeted by another strange sight tonight. Sparkle leans incredulously out of the living room window, that one she and her siblings make mischief by. This one has been broken as well, and I see just in time that someone, a Gallade, is running off into the forest. Several other Pokemon swoop from over her head to follow him, and Sparkle ducks from the buffering wind they create. It was definitely Psycho out there, but I'm not sure who the other three who followed him were.
The Pokemon who were originally sleeping in the room woke up, and no one's happy. Lopy and to my relief, Roku, run from upstairs to see the commotion. Sparkle still stands at the window. Twirla and Joy are off asking the other Pokemon how this could have, and did, happen.
Roku and Lopy dash up to me. "Oh, Spark, something's gone and spirited away Dasher!" Lopy exclaims. "He's gone, and his window-"
"I saw, Lopy. You two alright?"
Roku nods, and the mildly annoying bunny speaks once more. "Is Bright fine, is what I'm wondering. If Dasher was taken-"
"He's gone too, along with Psycho and Lotus."
"Lotus?" Roku gasps. "He's gone?"
"Great Giratina, yes. I want my brothers back, and I want them now! Who's this Darkrai to take them from me?"
Twirla and Joy walk in and join the conversation. I notice Sparkle look back and listen in as well. "I don't know who this Darkrai thinks he is," my dear Twirla is almost bursting into tears, "But I want my mate, children, and my brothers back too."
"Gallant's gone too?"
"Along with Gust the Driffloon, Gli, and that one Staravia, Cosmo."
My jaw drops in surprise. "My Mew, that's a lot more Pokemon possessed than last time. Like, ten? Dasher, Psy, Gallant, those three you said, Bright and Lotus? There's no way anyone can walk out of the house without getting attacked at this rate. Even I would be hard pressed to take on all of them at once."

Sparkle gasps, and she steps onto the windowsill. "That's too bad. It's not like fighting any them would be safe anyways..." I barely catch her say. Then, she jumps out the window, and teleports into the night.

Loppily

Joy flops sullenly into the armchair. "How could this have gone so wrong?" She looks tormented. I can almost hear her telling herself she has failed. You see, Joy has this idea, that as a Champion, she's not allowed to fail. Maybe part of the reason she's done so well is that she never blames anything on her Pokemon, or even her opponent. It's always pinned on herself.
Spark nudges her arm. "I don't know. Didn't you say that feather's supposed to keep away Darkrai?" Delicately, Spark scoops the Lunar Wing off of the table and onto the star of her tail. "Wow, that's pretty shiny for a feather."
Roku leans in closer, to inspect the feather. "Let me see that for a second..."
"It's all yours, Roku."
He picks it up, and peers at it intently. What's he supposed to see about it?
"This isn't a Lunar Wing."
"It's not?" I question. It certainly looks like a Lunar Wing, curved and yellow and glossy.
"When I look at it's aura, I can tell it doesn't belong to a legendary of any sort. It's just not that... well, it's hard to describe. Brilliant? Radiant? Powerful probably best describes it. But anyways, it didn't come from a Cresselia. This, is a Pidgey feather."
Joy sighs. "Just our luck. Why in the world would someone try to imitate a Lunar Wing with a Pidgey feather?"
Twirla goes encyclopedia on us. That girl is like a super computer, I tell ya. She even knows what the word, sesquipedilian means. I would know, because she described her own vocabulary like that once. "There was a famous scam about ten years ago, back in Canalave city, Sinnoh. People were suffering from bad dreams inflicted by a Darkrai, and bought fake Lunar Wings to try and stop them. A police officer and some kids stopped the criminals behind the scheme, and a Darkrai that popped up afterwards too, but the fake Lunar Wings continued to circulate. It wouldn't surprise me if some less ingenuous people took theirs and sold them to others whom hadn't heard about this event as, "genuine Lunar Wings". Effectively, that's most likely where this one comes from. What surprises me, is that it managed to come all the way to Unova."
A pensive mood settles in the air. We know what we're facing now, sort of, and now we don't have any way to counteract it.
I remember the funny rhyme that Bright gave Dasher:

Five days of searching have just begun.

"Hey," I start, "This probably won't last more than three more days. Remember that poem Bright gave Dasher? Maybe we'll just have to wait this out." My idea sound hopelessly optimistic, even to myself.
"What will happen to everyone after the five days?" Twirla asks. "We could still have a problem on our hands. They might be put into a sleep forever, die, or who knows what by the end of this. For all we know, a nonsequireous thing like abduction into the Distortion World may occur." I'm not sure what nonsequireous means, but it sounds like Twirla's got a point. A pang of coldness takes my heart at the thought of Bright trapped forever with only Giratina for company, as unlikely as that is. Twirla turns to Joy-Joy. "What should we do?"
"I don't know. There's just..." trailing off miserably, she looks around the room. Perhaps she's hoping someone else will know what to do, or offer her consolation. Whatever the reason was, her gaze halts at the broken window.
"Hey, where's Sparkle?"
"Where's Rascal and everyone?" Spark points out. "Why not ask after them?"
"I know they went into the kitchen. Crisis or not, we need to eat. Sparkle on the other hand has magically disappeared on us."
"She teleported away," Spark says. "I'd assumed that she'd gone to cry in a corner or something."
"She did WHAT?!" Twirla yells.
"Teleported."
Their faces blanched, Twirla and Joy give Spark a shocked look. "You might want to know," Twirla say, "That Sparkle is a lot more like Dasher than you might think."
I consider what Dasher might do in a situation like this. Most likely go off into the forest without a though as to the consequences. He'd end up killing himself, because he can't keep his emotions in check. Dialga-darn the danger, he'd think. I'd better go in after my siblings..."Oh my Giratina." I gasp. "She's gone out after her brothers, hasn't she?."

Secretly, I wish I was brave enough to go after Bright like that...

Sparkle

You're nuts, the little voice in my head that must be my consciousness rambles on, You'll just get pasted to a tree. For all you know, you might even end up killing someone else with you.

Can it. Dream Eater worked on Bright last time, I can probably save my brothers if I use it on them, I snarl to myself as I pick my way through the undergrowth.
You're a goner. Remember what happened when you used it on Bright? A terrible nightmare overtook you, and Bright too. Meanwhile, something might come along and get you while you sleep.
My dress catches on a thicket, and I wince as it scratches when I pull away.
I'll figure something out.

You can't even teleport right now. Teleportation doesn't work when you're lost, because you need to know where you are, related to where you want to go. You got lost, just like Dasher. Dasher's not someone you want to be like, right?

I said CAN IT, consciousness. Shouldn't you be telling me that going after my siblings is the right thing to do?

I would, if you had a chance of surviving.
A yell of frustration escapes my throat. It's small, but still cuts through the silence. Like yesterday, the forest is totally abandoned.
To my relief, I come across a small dirt path. Maybe I can figure out where I am! My relief vanishes when I realize it's not a path I recognize. Dialga-darn-it! Why didn't I learn how to navigate the forest better like Psycho?
And why did you pick up his habit of using such ungainly terms, like Dialga-darn-it? He certainly didn't teach you that. Not directly, in any case.

CAN. IT.
The sky is still very dark. One side of the sky is a lighter purplish, because of the impending sunrise, but still very dark. Oh why couldn't Darkrai pick a nicer time to terrorize us?
I hear a twisted note above me, like a badly-out-of-tune Altaria. I haven't ever heard any Altaria sing out of tune...
I duck and run back into the trees as a shadow passes overhead. It is faint in the darkness, but the fluffy cloud-like lining is definitely an Altaria.
"Gallant's gone as well?"
"Along with Gust the Driffloon, Gli, and that one Staravia, Cosmo." flashes through my head. This is bad.

There's another mangled shriek. I look out from behind a bush. My eyes are greeted by Gli swooping down. Wide and glassy, his eyes are on me.
Forgetting any previous annoyances about the shrubs, I run in the opposite way through the undergrowth. Brambles and branches tear at me. I can hear Gli trying noisily to follow, but the branches and closeness of the trees hamper his movement, and he can't fly very well because of it.
The night lights up behind me, tinted blue. In a panic, I duck and roll right through a few bushes. Just barely afterwards, a Dragon Pulse beams out, felling branches and making charcoal spots on any tree it touches. I crouch under a bush, and Gli passes overhead with yet another shriek. Thank goodness he can't see me, hidden as I am.
My heart is pounding away at my chest, and it doesn't stop until the night is once more completely still, and I am certain Gli is gone. That was close.
Weren't you warned?

Ignoring myself, I stand up and brush the dirt off of me. It occurs to me that I could have used Dream Eater on Gli. Too late now. With my luck, the next Pokemon I come across won't be any of my brother either, and I have to save my Dream Eater for them. Spark would be upset that I don't want to help the others as much, though.
My brothers are annoying, I muse as I set off in a random direction, but they're practically all I have. Twirla's mostly just adopted us in name. She has other things to pay attention to. None of the rest of the Five are very fond of us. To the contrary, I have the idea that Spark really dislikes us. Lotus isn't very good company anyways. Entertaining, but not great. All of the other Pokemon feel neutrally towards us, and some avoid us because we're just as weird as the Five. We have literally no friends, except each other.

At this point in my thoughts, I run into the cliffs.

Dasher

For some reason, I'm standing in a forest.
Great, I think, just great. This must be some alternate realitity or something, because the trees are tall and thin like spaggetti. It's certainly not the forest by the mansion. Why me?
I walk through the spread-out trees, following a random path I found. It twists and turns and even loops without a cause. The only reason I'm actually following it, is because there's not really much else to do. Huh, would you look at that. The leaves on the trees are tinted purple. This place is extremely weird.
Even with the trees parted widely, it's impossible to see more than five feet away because of a fog hanging over the place. There's not very much to look at either way. I start to wonder if it's possible to be bored to death. With a bitter irony, I note that that would make an interesting gravestone. "Here lies Dasher the Sarcastic. He died of boredom, how fantastic." Yep, if I die here, that what I want on my headstone.
It surprises me, how I have difficulty staying focused. Normally, I would have devised an escape plan hours ago, and tried to get back home. But for some reason, I just feel too relaxed to get worked up over that.
Something rustles in the trees. A figure leaps from one branch to another above my head, then sits quietly to study me. Oh, it's Lotus. I wonder if Full Moon sent him here too.
Neither of us say anything. We don't move either, just study each other. After a while, Lotus speaks. "What are you doing here?"
"I dunno. Full Moon sent me here. Do you know where the mansion is, Lotus?"
He gives me a haughty glare, which looks strange on him. "You shouldn't be here. We don't want you here. No one really wants you."
"Uh... What?"
"You should have taken our advice and battled more. Perhaps you'd be less slow-witted then."
I stare in surprise as Lotus bounds off into the trees once more. Why would he ever say anything like that? That's just not Lotus. I feel rather annoyed, and wish I knew where he went off to. I'd give him a piece of my mind.
My previous numbness of emotion starts to wear off. I at least feel annoyance now. Since I still don't know where to go, or what to do, I coninue to follow the path. It started out as dirt, but grows more pebbley as I continue down it. Now it's all gravel. Nothing about this is usual. A disjointed feeling permeates the air.
There's padded footfalls to my left. I turn to expect Lotus again, but it's Spark and Roku. With no discernable cause, Spark glares distainfully at me, and gives a grimace. Roku is void of emotion.
As twisted as this place is, I'm not sure what to expect of them. So, I wait for them to speak first. I sort of regret it. Spark hisses out, "It's the snoop. He know more than he should, and less than he ought." She nudges Roku with her tail. "Lets leave." Synchronically, they both turn away into the mist.
Again, I am left stunned by the encounter. What's happening here? I've certainly never been liked, but neither has anyone had open hate for me. For the first time, I feel alone. Then and there, I know that I need to find my siblings. They would understand me, or at least tolerate my faults. Though, I wonder if I would ever encounter them in this place...

Spark

"Dialga-darn that girl! Why do those-" My rant falters slightly when I remember that Twirla's in the same room. She dotes too much on those three, never really insists on getting rid of their bad habits and straightening them out. "-kids act so headstrong? Now we gotta go and fish her outta the woods. Can't leave her to the mercy of the Possessed, can we?" My heart flutters when no one answers me. Dear Twirla is stiff and sullen. Everyone else avoids my gaze. "Can we?" I ask again.
"I don't know." It's a simple statement from Joy, but it implies plenty. "There's too many taken. If we send anyone out in there, it likely that we'll get attacked long before we find Sparkle. And, I've been thinking a little bit about the possession, the way it works. Dasher and Psycho and some of the others aren't good battlers, but remember how fierce Psy was when he attacked Roku?" I nod stiffly. "That wasn't him, of course. Maybe Dasher doesn't know how to battle, but who's to say Full Moon doesn't?"
I suppose that's a valid point. "So, you say that all the weak battlers might end up really, really stronger when possessed?"
Joy fingers the false Lunar Wing absent-mindedly. "I think so."
"That's lovely. No wonder Bright beat me like that yesterday. If the weak ones become strong, so must the strong get stronger. I suppose anyone of them could beat a normal pokemon in their current state. Ah, that doesn't bode well for Miss Overreacting out alone in the wild." Remorse for my statement washes over me when Twirla tears up. I suppose what I've said is no better than announcing a death sentence for Sparkle.
"But Sparkle ought to be fine," I ammend. "Rash or not, she has a portion of brains. She should know better than openly facing any of the possessed. She'll probably hide in some bushes or something if any of them come by, and not get hurt." Twirla wipes away her impending tears, and tries for a smile. It looks more like a grimace, but it's an effort.

Lopy and Roku stand silent. Lopy stares out the broken window. My dear Roku slumped over on the couch about half an hour back, and hasn't gotten up. A closer inspection reveals that he's asleep. Let him be, he could use it.
"So, we will go in after her, won't we?" I question Joy again. She gives me her Please-Don't-Bug-Me-I've-Had-Enough-Today look. "I just said, I don't know. We should go after her, make sure she's alright, but sending anyone else out is potentially handing them a death sentence as well. Is it right to risk the safety of many for the sake of one?" There's no real answer for that. She's got a point, per se usual, but that doesn't mean I like it. Staying home and twiddling our thumbs feels like cowardice to me, even if it's only one of those three we'd be going after.
Lopy's still staring at the window. I get the feeling that she might jump out and go after Bright at any minute, so I make sure to watch her carefully. This is complicated enough without losing someone else to the madness within the forest.

Sparkle

I've decided that I really hate being lost. Wandering around, looking for home, not being able to have breakfast... Worst of all, this case of getting lost included that fact that about, oh, ten possessed pokemon could pop out of nowhere and attack me at anytime. Wonderful morning, huh?
You sound like Dasher.
Ah, it seems I've forgotten the nagging voice in the back of my head. While I'm at it, I'd better try to quash it. It's just annoying.
Common sense tends to be.
Can it, I say. Do as you're told.
My conciousness shuts up, at least temporarily. I'm still at the base of the cliffs, trying to guess which way will bring me back home. There's no path in sight, though I've been told there's a couple leading back to the mansion. Maybe if I walk around the cliffs some, I'll find one. It's worth a shot. The cliffs loom over my in a foreboding manner, tall and proud. I feel even more insignificant than I normally do. Is there any marvel of nature than makes one feel important? Probably not.
Suddenly, there's a purple dot in the darken distance of the sky. I squint at it, trying to make it out, but it's rather far away. There are what looks to be four strings or is it ribbons hanging off of it? Yellow and purple ones? What is this? Wait a minute... that's a Drifblim. Didn't someone say something about a Drifloon being possessed? Drifblim don't just happen in Unova.
Either way, I deem it best to stay away from it. Unfortunately, it's floating in the direction I was heading. Oh well. I'll just have to try the other direction for paths. This will mean some back tracking, but it's easy, since I'm just following the monolithic wall of rock besides me.
So far, there's no more incidents with Possessed Pokemon since Gli. On the bright side, this means I'm not yet dead. Sadly, this also means I haven't found my brothers yet either. The chances of finding them are so slim, I've practically given up hope. I just need to get home, where nothing will get me. Surely, Joy and the others will have a plan by now.
The trees rustle in an unexpected draft. Cool air kisses my skin, and I give a shiver. Who knew the forest was this eerie at night? A voice carries on the wind, and I freeze in place. It is so very quiet, and so very familiar. Should I go check it out, and risk a battle? My curiousity gets the better of me. If it's someone possessed, I'll just run away.
In your dreams, sister. You'll die.
I step lightly and slowly back into the trees. Once more, I hear the voice, sobbing almost. There's no answer, so I can assume there's just one person. The voice I identify is rather moaning than speaking. It's almost certain that I've heard it before.
Through the bushes I traverse, following the moaning to it's source. Wet sobs replace the moans. Someone must be really upset. As much closer as I've gotten to it, it's still soft in my ears.
I wind up entering an area where the trees disperse somewhat, another one of the rare clearings in the thick trees. A clear pond is at the center of the space, it's surface distorted by ripples created by breezes. Lillypads dot the surface, and cattails lean in the shallows. It is quite beautiful. The muffled crying comes from my left, so that's where I look.
I recoil to see a large tree, broken almost at the roots and splayed across the clearing. Inside of it, where one expects pale bark, is a mess of slimy, gray rot and splintered wood. Branches on the top-half are missing a good deal of their leaves, and the ones with leaves have but sickly slivers. That tree must have been sick for a while, and finally gave in to the disease overtaking it, snapping and crashing to the ground uncerimoniously.
But what I actually notice, is Lotus pinned by the legs underneath it.