Almond was just about ready to jump into fray. He had a thing for animals and couldn't stand to see them fighting one another. It was like whenever his dogs went at it. He'd be right in the middle pulling them apart. Of course, this was slightly different as getting in the middle would mean burns or worst. Still he had to do something. "Alright Walnut. Back off. His attention is going to focus on you now!" Which sure enough was the case as the dog pokemon moved back after the successful attack to start throwing his burning embers at the grass type pokemon.

"Okay Walnut. It's okay. Don't worry about attack. Just run in circles. Eventually you'll give your chum a chance to attack. Just keep him busy." He stopped and blinked when he heard Haruki call over to him. "Oh yeah! That's a good idea. A few more tackles and he should be good to go. You want him or should I have a go?"

Haruki thought about it and she answered Almond, "I got us into this, let me try and take responsibility," She had a feeling that training Growlithe was not going to be as easy as training Squirtle. She then called to Squirtle, and told him to get a few more tackles in. After the third tackle, when the Fire Pokemon seemed to be weakened enough, Haruki threw the pokeball at the Growlithe. She watched in anxiety as the ball turned Growlithe into red light before having it recede back into the ball. She watched with bated breath as the ball wiggled as the pokemon tried to struggle, hoping that the ball won't open up and let the Growlithe escaped.

Haruki let out a sigh when the ball stopped wiggling after a few moments and she wiped the sweat away from her brows, before going to pick up the Pokeball. The Squirtle went up to Haruki's side again, and called to her. She smiled at the Squirtle and she bent down to her knees, and patted the Squirtle on the head, "Hey there. Thank you so much, you did a great job!" The Squirtle let out a happy response. She then said to the Squirtle, "My name is Haruki. This is Almond, and Walnut," The Squirtle looked to Almond and Walnut respectively before looking back to her, and she told the Squirtle, "I think I'll call you Tsunami. How does that sound?" The Squirtle seemed to think it over before giving an approving "Squirtle,"

"Well" Almond said as he let his legs fold up underneath him. "That was a close one. I came this close to a heart attack. Which may or may not have worked. Hopefully it would've confused the growlith enough to make it run away. Luckily though you caught him and I didn't have to play the hero." He shuddered at the thought. "Oh god I'm not build for heroics. I'm built for lounging and mass aborbtion, period." He turned his attention to Walnut, smiling, gave the green pokemon a friendly pat. "You did go Walnut. You did good. I'm glad one of us is ready to save the universe." Again, that strange vacant look, but at least the bulbasaur's mouth was turned up at a slight smile.

"Tsunami is a good name. It reminds me of this harem anime I used to watch. I think the character was a goddess or some future version of a child, something along those lines. What're you going to name your growlith?" Almond got to his feet and stretched. HIs back popped. "Ouch." He made a face like someone who just licked lemmon juice mixed with mustard and enough salt to kill a snail army. "Oh god ouch." He shook his head and looked around. "Hey, do you see that over there, or it just me?"

He pointed in the distance where what looked like the entrance to a forest waited.

Haruki looked to Almond in slight concern when he fell to the ground, and she couldn't help but roll her eyes somewhat about the heroics comment, and she dryly added, "Just as I'm not built for being a damsel in distress," She noticed that Bulbasaur seemed somewhat confused after Almond's comment. She chuckled at his comment about the name she gave to Squirtle, before she looked at the Pokeball that held Growlithe and answering "Hmmm...I think Spitfire would be a good name for the Growlithe," When he let out a remark of pain, she looked to him and she asked "Are you okay?" She raised an eyebrow at his next question and she looked to see where he was pointing. She narrowed her gaze and adjusted her glasses, trying to focus her vision and pick up on any details that she may not be seeing.

She answered him, "I see the entrance to a forest if that's what you're talking about..." Was he looking at a rift? Or was there another pokemon coming their way? What was he looking at specifically?

"Spitfire is a good name. It lets people know what's in store if they try to mess with him. It's almost as good as naming him Tiny, but maybe that name works a different way. I know it always made me not want to meet someone if their called Tiny. Maybe it's just me?"

"Yeah" Almond said stretching out on the ground. "I'll be fine, eventually, in a little bit, hopefully. Ugh. It's this adrenaline. How did the trainers do it in show/ game? I'm more exhausted than Walnut! Which is weird because Walnut did everything. I mean, not everything but I didn't do anything, but panic." He sighed and scratched the top of his head. "But everyone is okay. Let's focus on that. Uh. Everyone will be okay after a breather. I'll just breath for a moment."

"Okay. Good. I was scared I was just seeing things." He frowned as he got to his feet. "Well I guess there's no reason why we shouldn't go through it. I mean, its on the way right?" He motioned with his hand and started walking towards the portal that would lead them into the dark woods. "The sooner we go the quicker we'll get out."

Haruki laughed as she answered his comment about the name, "It's not just you. I think the name Tiny would best fit a Snorlax in this case," She sighed after calming down a bit, and she muttered "Hopefully, Spitfire won't be too angry with us though..."

When he started walking towards the portal (now seeing the black lines around the rift and that it was hovering in mid air by a few inches), she rushed over to him, and she placed a hand on his shoulder, gently getting him to stop. She answered him, "Woah! Wait a minute, Almond!" She explained her reasoning once he stopped, "Firstly, we don't know for sure where that leads exactly. For all we know, it could lead to another world completely, and the portal could close behind us after we go through, considering the last portal. Secondly, Pewter City is very close to Pallet Town, according to the map, so this portal is much more likely to be the exact opposite of a shortcut. Thirdly, if that does lead to another world, then what will happen to Tsunami, Walnut, and Spitfire?"

She then got to her point, "I think we should continue down the path to Pewter City. I'll mark this place on the Pokegear, so we can come back to the portal, when we're done with those shadows here,"

"Ooh. I hope we run into a snorlax. I've always wanted one of those. They seem to me like good napping buddies." He paused. "Why would he be angry? Aren't most pokemon jealous of those with trainers? I think I read that somewhere in one of the books, or maybe it was in the game." Another pause. "Then again, spitfire is a fire type pokemon and their harder to handle, that is if Ash's charizard was anything to go on."

Almond stopped. Haruki made a good point. "Oh yeah! Your probably right." His eyes narrowed and he rubbed his chin. There was a bit of stubble because of the length of time since the last time he put a blade to his face. "But that's odd, don't you think? In the games and in the anime wasn't there a city before pewter? It was where Giovanni's gym was located, wasn't it?" He shrugged. "Either way your right. Even if that's somewhere we need to go, we'll just have to come back. There's still the stuff going on in this dimension we need to fix, or at least figure out."

Almond took a last moment to stare at the strange forest before starting in the direction towards the Pewter City, and probably the gym. For awhile he walked in silence. Before he knew it the sun was starting hitting the high point in the sky. "Hey." He stopped and looked around. "You know what's weird? Well, I mean besides the fact neither of us thought to ask Professor Oak for something to eat before we started on our trip? I haven't seen any other trainers around here. In the anime and even more so in the games there's always plenty of them wondering about but not so much here. Also, wild pokemon are supposed to attack frequently, aren't they, but that hasn't really happened since we got here. I mean there were the pidgeys yeah, but that was it. Remember Growlith only attacked because we ran towards him." He paused. "Why do you think any of this is?"

Haruki shrugged at his question about why Spitfire would be angry. She raised an eyebrow at his question about the town before Pewter city, and she shook her head answering, "I don't remember a town before Pewter City, other than Pallet Town."

She smiled at his comment after his question, and she followed after him (calling Tsunami and Walnut to follow them) after making sure this area was marked with a star on the map. She used the map to help guide their way to Pewter City. Soon enough, he stopped and posed his next question. She widened her eyes slightly at his point. After thinking about it for a moment, she answered "Hmmm...Maybe the trainers heard about the events in Pewter City and are staying clear, and maybe the wild Pokemon can sense the shadows somehow and are also trying to stay clear?"

Haruki narrowed her gaze and she commented "I think I see Pewter City up ahead,"

"Yeah, I guess that could be why." Almond said in response to Haruki's point regarding other trainers not being around. "But people in the anime always rushed towards danger to see what they could do." He laughed, and scratched his nose. "Of course, I'm probably just romanticizing things. Its a bad habit, but one that's hard to break."

"Oh yeah! There it is. I guess you were right about there not being one before it." The city wasn't anything like Almond imagined. He always figured it for a quaint little down, surrounded by a bit of rough patches, but instead there were massive mines, and excavations going on everywhere he looked. There were more trainers too. They didn't have the friendly looks everyone on the show had, most kept their eyes down while they walked, but occasionally one would look back and give him a nervous smile.

"So where do you think we should start? Usually, the gym, in the games, is the best place to go for information but...." He paused and stepped in front of a random passer by. "Uh. Excuse me sir, but do you know what's going on? Why does everyone look so terrified."

The man blinked at Almond before looking away. "Its the murders. There's been so many of them. There were another four bodies found just now towards the northern edge of town."

Haruki smiled a bit at his romanticizing comment, and she shrugged commenting "At least I'm not the only one who tends to romanticize things sometimes," She then added, thinking out loud, "Speaking of Pokemon, we should probably warn Walnut, Tsunami, and Spitfire about the shadows when we get the chance," Tsunami, who was still walking with the both of them, tilted his head at the mention of warning them, and asked "Squirtle...?"

Haruki looked around the town as they walked through, and she couldn't help but feel somewhat disheartened at how everyone seemed to be afraid. "Well...we should probably get to the Pokemon center to heal up our Pokemon first and then we could...never mind," She mumbled when she saw that he gone up to a passerby and asked his question. She listened to his answer and she raised her eyebrows. She mumbled "That's horrible," Well, she knew now that they should check the Northern Border now...Hopefully they can put an end to this reign of terror.

Another passerby added "Not to mention I heard one of the Officer Jenny's among the deceased. At least her Growlithe wasn't there...she must've set it free before she passed on..."
Another passerby snapped quietly "Hey, hey! Watch what you say! We don't even know that for certain. The other Officer Jennys won't let us go to the Northern Border, and won't say anything about the matter!"
Haruki gasped silently, her eyes had widened, her skin paled, and she felt her heart drop to her stomach. So that was why the Growlithe was where they found it...! She couldn't help but draw out the Pokeball that held Spitfire, and look at it in horror and sadness. Spitfire may have been Officer Jenny's Growlithe...He may have seen his own friend die right in front of his own eyes...! The horrible thoughts swirled within Haruki's mind.

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. They seemed exhausted after the battle so maybe we should go to a pokemon center first. No telling what kind of dangers we could find out there." He looked around and pointed at a large glowing red and white ball that was raised towards the sky like the statue of Liberty's torch. "I think that's it over there. Let's go over and see what they can. Plus, that's the second best place to be for information."

"Deep breaths Haruki. Take deep breaths. If its true then at least one of them made it out alive." Almond saw how Haruki reacted to the news of Officer Jenny and put a hand on her shoulder. He wasn't sure if that would do any good, but he couldn't see how it would hurt. Well, he could, but decided to ignore those possibilities because sometimes you just had to let someone know you were there for them. "But if that was Spitfire, what was he doing all the way over there? I mean, wouldn't he have stayed close Officer Jenny to defend her to the end. YOu know how loyal the dog pokemon are always made out to be."

Almond stopped walking. His mouth always dropped off his face which turned white and ashy. He swallowed hard and turned fear filled eyes towards Haruki. "The only thing that would make sense would be if Spitfire was chasing whatever it was that attacked his trainer, but then that would make." He turned back the way they came. "It would mean that whatever might be over there, near Pallet town." He turned and started running towards the pokemon center. "Come on. Let's get our pokemon healed and then try and call Oak to see if he's alright."

Haruki followed Almond's directions and she took in deep breaths in order to calm herself down. After she felt herself calm down, she nodded and breathed "Okay....Okay...." After he asked the question, she was about to answer, until he stopped and became horrified himself. She gasped at his answer, recalled Squirtle back into the empty Pokeball, and she hurried after him towards the Pokemon center. As she ran, she recalled where exactly they found Spitfire: There had been a portal there. There was a chance that whatever Spitfire had been chasing could have gone through there, just as it could have gone to Pallet Town. But she didn't protest against the idea, considering that it was generally better to be safe then sorry.

While she was lost in her thoughts, she passed Almond and reached the Pokemon Center first. The Pokemon Center was almost empty except for Nurse Joy and a Chansey behind the counter. Haruki huffed as she walked up to the counter and placed the two pokeballs she had on the counter and she panted as she caught her breath again, "Could you...please heal them, and my friend's Bulbasaur?" Nurse Joy nodded and answered "Of course, please wait over there," Haruki nodded her breathing back to normal, "OK. Thank you," She then walked over to the chairs and pulled out her Pokegear and she called up Professor Oak.

Haruki's pokegear displayed a picture of Professor Oak as it started the call. There was a small pause as it loaded things up but it was calling him or no time, or at least trying to. There was the usual calling sound Bring... Bring.... that was followed quickly but how phones sounded back home when they were picked up, but instead of professor Oak saying hello, a strange voice said "Possessor Oak is either unavailable for communication or is away from his pokegear. Please leave a message after the beep and he'll reply as soon as possible."

That's not good." Almond said, panting. He had arrived just after Walnut, who had gone to heal up in the back immediately after arrival, and took a stand behind Haruki so he could watch the call. "I was hoping that it was just my imagination getting the better of me, and once we tried contacting him it would be revealed there wasn't any reason to worry." He shook his head. "I hope he's just busy or something, anything but one of those shadow things getting to him."

"Excuse!" Nurse Joy said with bringing back Almond and Haruki's Pokeballs. "Your pokemon are all healed up and ready to go." She tilted her head in a friendly smile and chansey pipped in with a cheerful "Chansey." She opened her mouth to say something else but stopped when she saw the look on her patient's faces. "Oh dear. There hasn't been another murder has there?"

Almond blinked and shook his head. "No. I don't know. Maybe. We're just worried about our friend." He stopped and looked at the nurse. "I'm sorry ma'am if this would be considered an inappropriate question to ask or if it would go against confidentiality for you to answer, but have you seen any strange or particular violent cases around here, especially anything originating from the northern edges of the town?"

The nurse thought for awhile before nodding. "Normally I wouldn't say anything but with the way things have been going I guess its better I tell you than you two going to the northern areas to explore on your own." She paused. "Yes, there's been odd cases coming in, pokemon shredded to bits. That in itself isn't as odd as anyone makes it out to be, but what is odd is that none of the bodies we've been examining have been eaten. Its like someone, or maybe some kind of crazed pokemon, is just going around killing without any reason." She looked at the clock. It was four thirty PM "The killings usually start at around six or so." She sighed. "I don't know why I told you two that. I guess I'm just exhausted." She laughed. It was small and sad. Chansey put a hand on her partner's hand, worry plain on her face.

Haruki watched the screen of her Pokegear anxiously, only to sigh through her nose at the automated message. She looked over her shoulder to see Almond was the one who spoke. She nodded in agreement after he finished, and she mumbled "I hope so as well...We'll have to try calling him again later," When the beep came, she left a message for Professor Oak, letting him know that she and Almond were the ones who called him, they made it to Pewter City, and that she'll call him later (she didn't want to say anything about the dangers in front of Nurse Joy and her Chansey). After leaving the message, she hung up and turned her attention to Nurse Joy when she called to them.

She walked up to the counter with Almond, and after Nurse Joy told them that their Pokemon were healed, Haruki thanked her as she accepted Tsunami and Spitfire's pokeballs, "Thank you so much," She blinked at her question and she looked to Almond when he answered hesitantly, and she raised an eyebrow when he asked Nurse Joy about what was going on at the Northern Borders. She listened to Joy carefully as she talked about the murders. She blinked in confusion at Nurse Joy's comment about the time. After Nurse Joy mentioned she didn't know why she brought up the time, she commented in response "Well...this certainly is a stressful time. I can't blame you for being exhausted..."

She couldn't help but think to herself with her hand on her chin. The mention of the time really bugged her. How would Nurse Joy know when exactly the murders started? Even if the Officer Jennys weren't able to keep some details to themselves (as inferred from the bystanders' statements earlier), it would still be quite difficult to determine when the perpetrator started their crime exactly...unless...

Haruki shook her head rapidly. There was no way Nurse Joy could be a murderer! Could she...?
She thought about the Pokemon series and another possibility came to mind. Maybe a certain Psychic Pokemon got involved. Now that she thought about it...some parts of their visit here so far seemed a little convenient so far...

She looked outside trying to see if she could spot anything weird outside or in the sky, but she found nothing, and she started doubting that mental hypothesis. She shook her head and she suggested to Almond, "Well...we should probably get going..."

"Yeah." Almond agreed, walking to the door and holding it open for Haruki. "There's probably a lot more out there we need to check up on." He stepped outside and looked around. There were still people walking around, but their heads seemed to have gotten heavier as if suddenly everyone was starting to get sleepy. "This is too weird." Almond said as he started walking away from the pokecenter. "I could get a few people looking odd, because those would have to be the ones who have even a slight idea of what's going on, but for everyone to suddenly look so much like walking corpses." He shook his head. "It's too much."

He started walking and rubbed his chin as he did so. "Ugh. I could really use a shave. I don't mind a beard, or being smooth like a freshly born bottom but this stubble annoys me to no end." His eyes darted around as they walked. "Hey, if Spitfire belonged to Officer Jenny and had at least a single encounter with those shadow things, maybe it still has their scents and can take us to them?" He paused for a moment as he continued walking. "I mean, maybe it could lead us to the shadow things before they start attacking." Another pause. "That is of course is if nurse Joy was telling us the true about the time. I could just be paranoid but that whole time of day murders starting seemed too much for me? "

There was a gurgling sound from his stomach. He frowned and then looked at Walnut. The bulbasaur was looking up at him in what was clearly an expectation for a meal. "Hey, Haruki, this might be a stupid question but do you have any poke dollars for a meal? I'm starving!"

Haruki thanked Almond politely for holding the door open, before she walked out. She looked around to see how the people seemed really tired all of a sudden. She nodded and mumbled in response to his comment about them, "I know..." She thought to herself silently, her mind wandering back to the psychic Pokemon hypothesis and trying to figure everything out. Her mind was now mainly focused on why such a Pokemon would interfere. At first she was thinking that said Psychic Pokemon was trying to get them to intercept the shadows before they struck, (in short: they were helping), but now she wondered how putting the townspeople of Pewter City to sleep would help them. If they were asleep, and the shadows ran from her and Almond and attacked Pewter City, they would be left defenseless! Then a horrifying thought came to mind: What if the shadows were mimicking psychic pokemon?! Her complexion had paled at the thought.

She snapped out her thoughts when Almond spoke up about the stubble, and she couldn't help but face palm and groaned. She calmed down a bit when he brought up Spitfire. She answered him, "Oh yeah! He would!" After he mentioned the time, she answered him, "It's not just you. I thought the exact time was a weird thing to mention as well," She blinked at the noise coming from Almond and she noticed how Walnut seemed to expect something. She sighed at the mention of money for a meal, and she answered with a sigh, "I highly doubt it, unfortunately..." She took out her wallet from her jacket pocket and looked through to see the currency from their world, dollars and cents, and she sighed "All I have are the money from our world, and I don't think Pewter City would accept dollars and cents,"

Almond looked around as people past them by. None of them looked like their eyelids weighed any less than a metric ton. "They've got a place to go though." He noted. "I mean, as tired as everyone looks none of them are stopping to rest. They've got places to be." A thought occurred to him. If there was something doing this, manipulating people, and changing them so they were too tired to do anything then what was to stop them from making him and Haruki evening zombies? Was whatever they had that was special enough to protect them from whatever was going on? "Hey?" He turned to Haruki. "Come on. I don't know where we're going but I don't want to be out in the open right now. I really don't." He started walking and Walnut hurried behind him.

The young man nodded. "So maybe we should keep him out, you know as a sort of warning system?" He paused to watch Haruki checked her wallet, fingers crossed that maybe they'd get lucky and whatever she had would be just what she needed. Of course this didn't turn out to be the case. It never was, but he decided to cast his dice anyways. What could it hurt, possible muggings aside because he suddenly found himself to be rich in this world. He frowned. "Yeah, mine too." Almond said looking at his own wallet. It was a holy AC/DC thing with tears along every edge, and an open space in the fabric so big it made it impossible to keep anything but dollars and coupons inside. He had neither. "I guess its going to be like in the games, and we're only going to be able to survive by either battling or eating what we find in other people's trash cans." He made a face.

"Hey, you know what? Let's try going to the gym." He pointed at towering symbol with the boulder badge on it. "Maybe we can find someone to battle there. If nothing else it would be an experience"

Haruki nodded in agreement to Almond's suggestion to leave and she answered "Yeah, let's go," When he asked about Bulbasaur she nodded and said "That sounds good. Maybe I should let Spitfire out as well, just in case any shadows are nearby," She didn't say anything in response to his comment about surviving, but she she did raise an eyebrow at his suggestion about the gym. She took out the Pokegear and looked at the time (cursing silently at the fact that she didn't have a watch), and she answered, after considering the time, and how long it may take for them to finish a battle, "Alright. Let's give it a try. But we'll want to head for that area around 5. So we can prevent any more deaths,"

She then walked towards the gym with Almond and she walked inside and took in the scenery. Now that she thought about it, she couldn't help but feel somewhat excited and nervous, and she mumbled "I'm actually inside a Pokemon gym...Holy crow...!"

He nodded. "Definitely. Wouldn't miss it for the world, near five it is."

Almond put his hands on his hips and scratched the tip of his nose. Walnut, sat down besides him, sniffing the air and looking around. "I know, right? Who would've thought we'd end up here? I mean, I know I did, because when I used to play those games, I'd really go into fantasy world." He popped his back and stepped further inside.

The front of the building is what many would consider to be misleading. Outside the building looked like every other buildings in sight, but inside was a whole different animal. Instead of a large simple room, with rocks all around the battle area, there was a single space that looked something like an elevator. Not waiting for a response from Haruki, Almond stepped in and scanned the buttons. "There's three buttons." He said, pointing at the little control case. "Oh wait. There's four, but I'm not touching that one. You never touch the red button, at least if cartoons are anything to go by, and I'm starting to worry that they really are. Let's see here. There's a button for up, one for down, and another that says call."

He turned at looked at his partner. "So, should we just go down and see what we find, or maybe try call first? I want to push up, if only because I'm nearly certain nothing will happen."

Haruki looked around the gym as they entered with awe. She followed after Almond when he stepped up to the elevator and looked at the buttons. She listened to his reasoning and she shrugged at his comment about the red button. She guessed that the red button was much more likely to be an emergency button that called for police or medics, than a self destruct button. She answered Almond, "I say let's try the up button first. If that does nothing, then let's try the down button," She then looked to Walnut and she asked Almond, "Do you think Walnut, Tsunami, and Spitfire would be up for a Gym Battle to begin with?" She was a bit worried that the pokemon may be less receptive to them, because they didn't have the money to feed the pokemon or themselves.