Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon or Poképersonalites, those wonderful rights belong to…well, I'm not exactly sure who owns Pokémon, but the wonderful, all-powerful, creative-genious Lizzie Thompson owns Poképersonalities.
Poképersonalities: Shades of Gray Part One: Dreams and Reality
Kae took a deep breath of the cool, early morning air and sighed contentedly. She loved this time of day more than anything else. Darkness hung in the air and everything was still and quiet. The world was hers and she could do anything, be anything…be free… The first rays of sunlight spilled over the hill lighting up the day and bringing her crashing back to reality. She sighed again, this time in frustration. Today wasn't gonna be good, she could tell. School was an annoyance any day, but today she knew she was in for it. For a moment she thought of trying to get all that homework done…or not. She'd never have time and besides, it wasn't just the homework. There was always something else, something she forgot about. Things never seemed to go her way.Oh well. "Kae, the bus is gonna be here soon! You'd better hurry up!" Her sister Emma called from the house. Great, just wonderful. Kae ran back inside and in record time changed from the clothes she had worn the day before and slept in (much to her mother's disapproval) to a clean, oversized, gray and blue shirt and a pair of baggy guy jeans (again, her mother hated the fact that she wore guys clothes, but it was so much more comfortable than the tight styles girls were supposed to wear). Dressed, if not a bit sloppily, she rushed out the door, grabbing her backpack on the way, just in time to see the bus pulling away. Her heart sank. "No!" She screamed, chucking her heavy backpack at a nearby tree. "Why must this always happen to me? Will it ever stop?" "Probably not." Kae's best friend Lisbeth was suddenly beside her, patting her shoulder. "Hey, it's not so bad. You can ride with me, my mom'll take us." "Thanks Beth, don't know what I'd do with you." Kae half-heartedly smiled. "So, this is the twenty-eighth time you saved my butt?" "Twenty-ninth since kindergarten. "Lisbeth laughed. "C'mon, let's get going or you'll make me late too." "Oh horror of horrors! You're perfect reputation marred by being late? What a terrible thought!" "Shuddup! You want a ride or not?" "What do you think?" "No?" "Right. Let's go." Kae reached down for her backpack and grunted as she hefted it on her back. "Tell me, what's the point of homework again?" "Teachers give it to us to ruin our social lives and break our backs." "Oh yeah, forgot."
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"Chiyo. The time is close, very close. Wait, the time is close."
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"Kae, would you please tell us whether this is a single displacement problem or a double displacement problem." The words shattered her daydream, but didn't wake her up totally. She blinked at the science teacher for a moment. "What's close?" Before she could check herself she had blurted the question out loud. Silence. Everything focused suddenly and Kae realized what she had just said. Oh great, this was wonderful. Everyone in the classroom stared at her, some puzzled, most laughing their heads off. "I don't appreciate you dozing off in my class young lady. This is the third time this week. I'll have to call your parents." The teacher scolded, writing a reminder to call her house later.
"All right class, please get out your homework." There was a momentary scramble for papers. "Kae, where is yours?" "I don't have it ma'am." "That's another zero." The teacher shook her head. "Kae, you have to get with it, your grade is going down the drain."
Kae glanced outside impatiently, wishing— no, longing for the day to be over. She was exhausted and wanted more than anything to go home to just relax and forget about everything. Her guess had been right, this day had been horrible. Not including the fact that she had fallen asleep in class twice, forgotten three homework assignments and left her lunch at home, she had also been having strange…vision-like things all day. It was starting to really work her nerves. Maybe she was going crazy. "What's wrong?" A tall, willowy girl with waist-length blond hair plopped down beside her a propped her head on her hands. "Huh?" Kae looked up and blinked at her friend, surprised. "Earth to Kae, do you hear me in there?" Saila grinned. "What's up? You seem really out of it." "Probably cause I am." She shrugged slightly. "I had a pretty bad day." "Yeah, I kinda noticed. Nothing seems to be going your way, huh?" "Nope." "I know how that is." Saila replied nodding. Kae seriously doubted she had any idea what it was like. The other girl seemed to have everything going for her, looks, grades, friends, everything. Sometimes she felt so drab next to her, boring and not worth anyone's time. The bell rang and the students filed out of the room, Saila following after saying a hurried goodbye. With a heavy sigh Kae plodded to her next class, hoping it wouldn't hold yet more embarrassment or punishment.
Five…four…three…two…one…BRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING! Everyone in the class suddenly came to life in the mad rush to leave the room as the teacher called out some last-minute instructions that no one paid attention to. They were free! After seven-hours of cramming their brains with useless information they were finally free! As quickly as she could Kae gathered her things and headed for the buses, ready for a nice long break before starting in on homework. She shuddered at the thought of returning to this terrible place again tomorrow.
When the bus dropped her off at her house an hour later she dumped her stuff inside the door, scribbled a note to her sister and headed for the park. Once in a secluded area Kae reached for the Pokéballs she wore around her neck and released her five Pokémon. Aru, her Arcainine, Zette, her Rapidash, Dyke, her Pidgyot, Tego, her Jolteon and Ryme, her Vulpix appeared, happy to see her and thrilled to finally have some exercise. All of them were well trained, she had been working with them since she was ten and now, four years later, they made a formable team. They were all loyal friends and Kae wasn't sure what she'd do without them. "Hey you!" A voice startled her from her thoughts. "I challenge you to a match!" She rolled her eyes slightly and shrugged. Backing down would only be interpreted as cowardice; she never gave up a battle. Besides, this kid didn't look like anything to worry about. "Fine, you're on." She agreed nodding. "The name's Kae." "Zac. Let's go!" He tossed a Pokéball onto the grass and it erupted in a flash of light releasing a Poliwag. "Aru, you take this one." Kae turned to the Arcainine, ignoring the type difference. He had battled stronger water-types than this before and won, why couldn't he do it now? It'd be good practice. "Ha, this'll be easy." The kid sounded sure of an easy victory that Kae knew wouldn't come. She had not intention of losing. "Poliwag, water gun!" "Fire blast Aru." Fire met the blast of water, but instead of the water extinguishing the fire it was pushed aside as the powerful fire attack hit home, sending the charred Poliwag flying backwards. "What the…?" The kid, Zac, looked shocked. Kae enjoyed his expression and decided against warning him about the major level disadvantage. If he was anything like she had been at his age he wouldn't listen anyway. "Fine then, Pikachu go!" "Pika!" The small electric mouse appeared from it's Pokéball, ready for action. "Good job Aru." Kae patted her Pokémon's thick fur and scratched him behind the ears as she decided who to use for the next part of the battle. For a moment she thought of using Tego for an interesting electric versus electric match but decided against it after realizing that the Pikachu and the baby of her group, Ryme, were about the same level. "Ryme, think you can do it?" She consulted the fire fox. "Vul." Her baby nodded confidently, standing perched on her shoulder and ready to rumble. "All right then, give it all you've got. But be careful." Kae told him. She had raised him from an egg that she had found in the parking lot of a nearby mall and it drove her crazy to think something might happen to him while in a battle. "Ready Pikachu?" Zac called to his Pokémon as Ryme jumped from Kae's shoulder to the ground. "Ember and tackle it!" Kae commanded quickly, taking advantage of the slight pause and getting the first attack. Ryme shot flaming embers at the Pikachu and when it was still surprised he tackled him to the ground and held him, pinned. "Thundershock!" The boy shouted, surprized and panicking a little. His Pikachu wiggled under the weight of the Vulpix but could do nothing. "Use fire blast like I taught you!" Ryme leaped away from the Pikachu and sent a large blast of fire at it before it could regain it's feet. Feebly, the electric mouse attempted to get up nonetheless, but it was too weak and collapsed. The battle was over. "Pikachu!" Zac gasped rushing over to his fallen Pokémon and scooping him up. "C'mon buddy, let's get you to a Pokémon center." He looked at Kae, accepting that she had won but not that he couldn't still become the best trainer in the world. "Next time I'll win." He stated simply, smiling at her. She nodded. "Keep at it." At these words the boy nodded in return and hurried off, his injured Pikachu hugged gently to his chest. That taken care of, Kae looked down at Ryme who had been sitting at her feet as proud as could be. She laughed and bent down to ruffle his fur. "You did a wonderful job Ryme. I'm so proud of you! You're really getting stronger." "Vulpix!" He replied leaning in to her petting. Laughing again she scooped him up and sat him on her shoulder where he perched blinking haughtily down at the other Pokémon. "Let's go for a ride." Kae muttered aloud to herself as she looked around the clearing for Zette. Spotting him she whistled shrilly and he pricked up his ears and trotted over, kneeling down a little to let her on. "Up ya go." She lifted Ryme onto the horse Pokémon's back first then jumped lightly on behind him and settled up by his withers allowing him to move easier. "All right everybody, move out!" At this command her Pidgyot took flight and her Arcainine and Jolteon followed. They galloped away through the woods, then the fields, stopping every time they saw something interesting or felt like looking around. Kae jogged beside her Pokémon when they decided to slow to a manageable pace; she felt that she should train just as hard as her Pokémon did. It was their favorite time of day and they simply enjoyed being free and in the company of one another, friends to the end. Kae had never really gotten along with people so the few people she even could consider friends, like Beth and Saila and maybe a few others were great to hang out with but they just couldn't go outside and appreciate the beauty of everything around them. Her five Pokémon were the ones she could really talk to and though she couldn't understand their responses she knew they understood. Lying sprawled out on a grassy hill with her Pokémon relaxing around her Kae suddenly realized the sun was setting. She groaned, how could time fly like that? She had so much homework to do… "Who cares about the homework anyway? It's pointless." At her voice five heads looked up at her, surprised. Kae grinned at them. "Well, it's true." She continued. "What's the point of life, all there is to it is being born, going through a childhood you hardly remember and halfway through it going to school which takes away half of your free time enjoying the world so you can go to a good collage so you can get a good job so you can make lots of money so you can buy things you don't really need anyway." As she said this an emptiness took over and she lay there in silence, wishing for something, anything, to give her a reason for living each day out. It wasn't suicidal thinking, more like simply wondering why she really didn't care. Each day the same thing for…what? Just because she had to? It didn't make sense and the more she though the more empty she felt. "Just sleep Chiyo Kae." A voice spoke then, softly and gently from nowhere in particular. It was surprisingly comforting though and seemed to ease the feeling of emptiness. Kae was suddenly overcome with weariness, the feeling of being made of lead and only wanting to drag yourself to a warm, soft bed and collapse into a neverending sleep. "But…what about…my…mom? She'll be…worried." She managed to get out, though her body now seemed to heavy to bother moving anymore. "You've spent the night outside before without telling her. She'll understand." It was true, she had done that before. But how did the voice know…? She felt something warm and fuzzy beside her and realized it was Ryme, looking just as tired as she felt. Looking around she noticed all her Pokémon were on the ground either fast asleep or halfway there. "Sleep Chiyo." Before she could even bother to worry, Kae had fallen into a deep sleep full of magnificent, free dreams, the darkness wrapped around her like a thick, warm blanket.
There was dark everywhere, it surrounded her, everywhere, there was nothing more. It was around her on every side and it was inside of her. Not evil, just dark. It was comforting, and she wasn't afraid. There was no reason to be afraid, the dark was…protecting her. "Chiyo Kae, are you willing to give up your life?" A voice from…somewhere…asked suddenly. "M-my life?" Kae whispered, her throat suddenly dry. Could this be a dream? It seemed so real… "Are you willing to give up everything you now have in order to help more than just yourself? Speak from your heart, don't think. Don't let your feelings or thoughts get in the way, do what you think is right. I warn you now, if you choose this new path set in front of you your life will change forever and you can never go back. Are you willing to do this?" She thought. School, all the pointless things she could be doing. Now there was a chance of doing something different, helping others? But her family, her mom and little brother and sister…the few people she called friends, the fun times they had together despite everything… "Yes. I will do it." What did she just say? Did she really say it? Inside a feeling welled up like one she never felt before. Contentment and happiness mixed together with things she couldn't explaine to form a feeling of rightness, once in her life belonging. Yes, she had said it and she had meant it. It was from her heart. "Welcome Chiyo Kae, we're glad to have you."
A light, bright and piercing, woke her, somehow shining through the fog of sleep and bringing her back to real life. Real life, she thought slowly, something so different from the wonderful dreams she had been dreaming, where she was free, had found a reason and something to live for. Ah, what a wonderful dream it had been! Yawning and stretching she sat up rather reluctantly, not quite wanting to face yet another day of everything she hated the most, even with a few of the good things tossed in. Not after such a wonderful afternoon yesterday and those dreams…yes, they were only dreams, they couldn't have been more than that no matter how good they may have felt. They just made normal things, everyday things, seem even worse. "Vul! Vulpix!" Ryme jumped on her happily seeing she was awake and proceeded to give her face a good washing. Kae laughed and gently pushed him off when she noticed him sniffing at something on the ground beside her. "What is it Ryme?" She asked quietly, not wanting to wake the others quite yet as it was still early. "Vul vul." He whined in reply, still staring at the object. Curious, Kae moved closer to get a better look. "What the…" She muttered at the sight of the object which could now be identified as a flat, black piece of stone on a cord that seemed to be made of black silk. The stone was the deep, dark color of onyx and gleamed in the light of the early morning sun. It was almost beckoning her to pick it up. Slowly Kae reached out her hand to pick up the necklace that she could have sworn wasn't there yesterday. As her fingers touched it a cool, relaxed feeling flowed through her and one thought came to mind. The dream. Looking closer she realized that the stone wasn't plain, it had a delicate carving of something on it, done in a bright yellow color. Kae froze. She knew what the picture was now, this strange amulet, all black save the carving in yellow…Umbreon. The Pokémon had always intrigued her though she had never seen one in person. An Eevee that liked it's trainer enough to evolve into one of the two creatures, Espeon or Umbreon, was usually trained during the day so more often than not it became an Espeon. Umbreon were rare and often feared for their strange newly discovered and categorized type, dark, but Kae had always had the sneaking suspicion that the dark types weren't really evil or to be feared at all, they were just there to keep the powerful psychic types in check. She was truly proud to have this beautiful amulet and slowly, almost reverently slipped over her head and around her neck. Something struck her as she was putting it on; it had no clasp. In fact, the cord seemed to be a complete circle though it seemed impossible. Shrugging the feeling off she let go of it so it now hung freely around her neck. "Well, finally!" A voice muttered cheerfully as soon as she had it on. Kae's eyes widened. "Who said that?" She whispered loudly, looking around warily. "Me. Come on Chiyo Kae, I know you're not stupid. Get with the program." "Who are you? Where are you?" "Look down dearie." Kae looked down to the ground, expecting to see something but instead a light caught her eye. The amulet was glowing with light the same yellow color the carving was in. With the black at the center and the yellow lighting it up the amulet seemed to be a strange ball of energy or something you'd see in a science-fiction movie. "You're…talking?" "I'm not skipping around am I?" A laugh seemed to bubble through her from the amulet making her smile despite herself. "There you go. The bearer of the Umbreon amulet can't be too serious. It just wouldn't be any fun. Besides, it'd make a bad name for all dark-types since Umbreon is the only pure dark. People'd think we're all creepy freaks who like to lurk in dark corners for the sake of lurking." "So, are dark-types really evil like everyone says they are?" "You kidding? Of course not. They're basically just jokesters. They like hanging out in the dark because it's just easier to keep out of people's way and scare the ones who come too close. More like shadows you could say. Like keeping to themselves or playing jokes with a bunch of friends. They're perfectly harmless if you don't mess with 'em, but if you do, look out." 'Boy, it sure does talk a lot.' Kae thought to herself amusedly. "I heard that." "You can read my thoughts?!?" "Yups." "Wait, wait, wait. I'm confused. Do you have anything to do with the dream I had last night?" "Dream?" A second laugh rippled though her, the amulet obviously knew something she didn't. "Look Chiyo Kae, firstly, it wasn't a dream. Secondly, yes I do have something to do with what happened last night and thirdly, everything will be explained when the time is right." "Well, why do you keep calling me Chiyo?" "Oh that. It's because your new name is Chiyo." "Bu-but I like my old name!" Kae protested. "Why do you think I'm calling you Chiyo Kae? Trust me here, you're much more of a Chiyo than a Kae anyway. So chill. Besides, it'll probably come in handy somewhere along the line." There was a brief pause. "Don't you like it?" Kae thought hard for a moment and finally sighed. "Well…yeah." She admitted. "But still!" "Great! Then Chiyo Kae it is!" The amulet ignored her last comment and glowed brighter than before. "Now, we'd better be off. I'll explain on the way." "Way?" Panic was suddenly a very real issue for her at these words. "Where are we going?" "Like I said before, I'll explain on the way. Let's roll! Oh, and you'd better call all your Pokémon back except for your Rapidash. You can ride him and it'll take about half the time to get there. I'm sure you'll want plenty of time to look around." "I'm still confused…" "Just do it!" "Sheesh, alright, alright." "Better." "But can't I say goodbye to my family?" "Sorry, but not now. You'll get your chance to say goodbye. We have to get going now though. Pack up and move out Chiyo Kae!" Kae rolled her eyes and groaned. "Grrrr…"
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She had been riding for at least five hours non-stop since early morning and she was surprised Zette had been able to hold out this long. He had been trained for stamina but even still Kae had figured he would tire out by now, but he was still trotting along easily despite her added weight. Her amulet still hadn't explained what was going on yet or where they were going but right now she was so tired and hungry she didn't care. "Are we soon there?" She asked wearily, leaning forward onto the horse Pokémon's neck to ease the pressure on her now sore rear. "Nope." The amulet replied shortly. "Can we take a break?" "Nope." "Cane we get something to eat?" "Nope." "Are elephants gray?" "Nice try. Look, at the rate we're going we've still got another six hours to go. Until then we can't stop." "Even for bathroom breaks?" "You know what I meant." "You're no fun." "I know." They trotted along across fields for another ten minutes in silence. Kae's stomach growled loudly and Zette pricked his ears and swiveled them around humorously. The girl groaned. She was getting a major headache, no breakfast and now no lunch! Adventures and danger was what she had been prepared for, not starving to death. There had to be a way to get her mind off her stomach until they got wherever they were going for whatever reason they were going there. "Wait a minute!" She blurted suddenly. "What's up?" The amulet answered immediately as if it had been waiting for her to speak up. "You never told me where we're going. Or why. Or what this is all about." "Ah, you're right there Chiyo Kae. I forgot." "So…" "Well, it's a little hard to explain. I'm not sure where to start…" "Why not at the beginning?" Kae asked impatiently. "Yes, yes, that's a good point. At the beginning…let's see." There was a pause as the light the amulet was giving off dimmed as though it was thinking. Then it brightened to twice what it had been as it continued. "Years and years ago, I'm not sure exactly how many but quite a long time, a divine being, not human, not Pokémon but something…powerful, decided to create the world we know. It started with a ball of clay and cracked it four times releasing the four main elements of today: fire, water, plant and rock. Then it brought forth a wind that blew across the newly formed world chilling the water and creating ice. A layer of rock formed all across the earth and the wind and water wore it down to create ground. Some of the water that wasn't frozen by the wind was instead tossed into the air and became a violent storm with lightning and electricity was created. "Once the elements were created the being decided to make creatures from himself and so it took a little from it's brain and created the psychic-type and a little from it's heart to create the normal-types. And so the world and it's creatures were created and things went well for quite awhile. But then the psychic-types began to take over thinking they were the most powerful. Along with that new breeds and half-breeds started showing up. Interbreeding produced the mixed types and soon there were totally new types. Flying-types showed up to soar with the winds, poison showed up after they figured out how to take advantage of dangerous substances their bodies produced, the ones who loved to fight formed the fighting-type, the bugs became a new type and the ones who built up a strong armor became the steel-type. Before long some started to die and they became the ghost-types. But then a huge war started up and the dark-types were created to whip some sense into the ghost and psychic-types, the ones cause the biggest problems. Unfourtunatly, it didn't work, things were too far out of hand. "The creator didn't want all it's hard work to go to waste so it decided to fix it up by creating a single most powerful Pokémon. Everything went into the making of this one; it was perfect. Even though it had the power to wipe out all other races it was peaceful and only used it's power to a minimum. Nothing could oppose it, not the psychics or the ghosts, it was far stronger than they. The darks may have been some of a challenge for it if they gathered together, but they had no interest in it, they preferred to stay in the shadows and whatch rather than fight, and even had they attempted, it wasn't sure even they could defeat this creature anyway. "But then, once things settled the creator decided to create a whole new race, this time not Pokémon, a race that could keep war from breaking out again. Humans. But this just threw everything out-of-whack again and the humans easily took total control of the world and soon Pokémon were their slaves." At this Kae prepared to protest but before she could utter a sound the amulet cut her off and continued. "Granted, some humans treat their Pokémon like friends and many Pokémon enjoy their lives, but that wasn't what was originally intended." Kae nodded in understanding. "So is this where I come in?" She asked chewing her bottom lip thoughtfully. "Well…" The amulet seemed to consider this. "Not quite. A little later. "Anyway, now the creator had a problem. The humans had taken control of everything; they had become worse than the psychic-types. There was only one thing to do, find something to overcome the humans and keep them in check. But Pokémon couldn't do it, only other humans could. And so after thinking it over it decided to have a single person who protected a single breed of Pokémon. They created an amulet for each breed that existed and the person who held that amulet was the one to represent and protect that breed." "But that's only a few hundred people!" Kae objected. "How are they supposed to stand up against the armies of thousands if it came to that?" "You see," The amulet explained patiently. "With some of the people comes high social class or wealth. And along with all of them able to perform Pokémon attacks it can amount to quite a formidable force." "Whoa, I can do attacks?!? Why didn't you say so?" "Chill out, you'll learn all about that later. Let's see, where was I? Ah yes, while our bearers were alive we were powerful, but like all humans they eventually passed away, including my first bearer." The amulet's voice softened at this mention. "The creator refined us and we were given to new bearers. All the best people for the jobs were picked, smartest, strongest, bravest, the very best. This is where you come in Chiyo Kae. You were picked because you are one of these, to carry out a mission of great importance. You're going to leave your old life behind to help more than you may ever realize." "Wow, I've always dreamed…" Kae whispered, mixed feeling welling up inside her. She was getting the chance she'd always wanted, to do something, to leave all the things she hated…but at what cost? Would it be worth it to leave everything she'd ever loved as well? "Don't worry, it will be. I promise, it will be." Her amulet assured her in a voice almost uncharacteristically serious. Kae nodded mutely as a single tear streamed down her cheek, her first and last she hoped. Clearing her throat she asked another question. "So," She began rather hoarsely. "Where exactly are we headed?" "Oh yes, we're going to the convention. It's a place where all the amulet-bearers are going to meet. There you'll find all you're going to be doing and the new powers you'll be receiving." "How long till we get there?" "About four hours yet. Get some sleep, you'll need it." "But I'm not ti—" Before she could get the words out of her mouth an overwhelming weariness took over and she leaned forward, wrapping her arms around Zette's neck and fell asleep as the horse Pokémon slowed to a quick, yet easy walk so as not to jar her. "Sleep well Chiyo Kae, things will be far different when you wake." The amulet muttered softly, tenderness touching it's voice. In her sleep Kae smiled contentedly, dreaming of the things she soon would face, that which was left behind momentarily forgotten.
