Welcome to Gaia! ::

Atra groaned as he opened his eyes, and immediately shut them again. The light was bright -too bright!- and it was painful. Shivering, the Flareon curled up into a tight ball, his fur flaring with fire. He was still cold, and a new sensation was added atop it; pain. His magical conduits throbbed with the small exertion of supplying the fire, and he cringed, letting go of the magic. Fire still burned around him, dying as the flames fought through the fire-resistant cloth that made up Atra's bedding.

"Young Master Eclipse! Are you awake?" Came a voice, and the sound was painfully loud. He let out a muffled "Go away". He felt horrible. He heard a loud Crack! and he felt the bed shift as a new weight dropped on top of it.

"Oh thank god you're awake! Atra, I've prepared some stew for you. Please eat some." Atra's eyes cracked open a slit as he saw Lilium sitting expectantly in front of him, holding a steaming bowl.

"Ugh...what happened?" Atra asked, trying to remember. He was on the battlefield, and that cursed Teacher has shown up...

"You pushed yourself too far! So soon after use His power you ran off to fight a war! You've been out for more than a week!" Lilium was nearly in tears. "I thought I was going to lose you. I could barely get enough food and water into you."

Atra blinked, wincing as he opened his eyes fully. His head swam, he ached all over, physically and magically. He was not in good shape.

"I was...it's been...a week...?" He mumbled. Before he knew it, the shiny Cyndaquil put down the stew and jumped forward, wrapping him in a hug.

"Oh gods Atra, please don't do that again. What would I do without you?" Lilium started sobbing, her tears evaporating immediately from the heat coming off of both her and Atra. The Flareon really didn't know how to respond to this. He wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug, trying to calm her down.

Out on the battlefield, he had somehow completely ignored his Judgment-induced injuries, and had fought as he normally would have fought. He really pushed it too far. He had been out for an entire week...

Pluto grimaced as he hopped off the ground, landing on all fours, wobbling slightly. Goddamn, why does this kid have such a large tail? He hopped forward, trying his best to keep his balance with the giant fluff on his butt, getting more and more annoyed with it. Especially when it dipped down to rest on his head.

"Arc'dammnit...when I get out of here..." Pluto grumbled, slowly heading towards the door as he did his best to keep his balance. He understood the nature of what happened enough to know that whoever this Buneary he's in the body of is, he's probably in Pluto's body.

Gods knows what a young kid would do to his body. Just thinking of the stress on his heart makes him wince. Even though he hasn't felt so good in years, he is not taking this. He is getting back to his body, and he is going to find a way back.

He is not staying a Buneary. And what if he accidentally evolves? Oh the horror.

Minerva reached the door and looked at the "Team Azalea" header. She knew where it was, of course. It was her son's team. How could she not? It would certainly be amusing if the two had swapped places... though it was unlikely. Had it been Atra inside of the body, he would have recognized her immediately.

Minerva decided to discount courtesy as a necessary function, if only for today. She opened the door (locked or not, she had the key) and let the door swing open seamlessly. She stepped into the room slightly; not so far as to be deeply inside of the house, but far enough that she could observe the room in it's entirety. "Pluto, are you here?"

Spade burst into the door, cradling a dark blue and light tan egg that was almost the size of him. There was a note taped to it, and the Buneary had a look of utter confusion on his face.

Lilium was in the Living room, curled up on the Sofa. Sherman was draped over the other half of the piece of furniture, while Atra took over the Recliner. Everybody looked rather downcast, more than likely from the recent death of a teammate.

Atra barely looked up at Spade's entrance, but Lilium certainly did. Her eyes were unfocused at first, her grieving process not yet finished, but her attention snapped to the egg the moment she saw it.

"Where did that come from?" She asked sharply, hopping off the sofa.

"I-I don't know!" Spade wailed. "I found some weird machinery down th' hall and I handed it ta the higher-ups. And they gave me th' egg!"

Lilium quickly ran over, closing the door behind Spade before quickly looking over the egg. She carefully removed the piece of tape that stuck a note onto it. The ink was brown and badly smudged, places in the paper torn where letters ended, making it eligible; Lilium had the impression that was was scribbled in blood with a claw.

I --ve n-- much time. T--e my so-, keep -im safe. His --me -s Repede. L--b--t. A bloody paw print was visible at the side of the paper, a long smear behind is as if it had been dragged across and off the paper.

Lilium stared at Spade, and the Buneary only shrugged in response.

"Apparently an exploration Team found'it out in th'boundary lands and brought it in ta the guild."

"And they- they're just handing them out to Exploration Teams? Exploration Teams that are in constant danger!? With risk of death, disability, or worse?! They're handing out CHILDREN AS REWARDS?" Her voice was getting steadily higher pitched and building in volume. Nobody else in the room really seemed to care, leaving Spade to calm down the hysterical Cyndaquil, who very quickly burst into tears. She wasn't completely emotionally stable right now.

---

A few days later...



The team stared at the newly hatched puppy.

"So...what the hell is it?" Atra asked, examining the puppy (whom was named Repede apparently, from what they could tell from the note). It had to be some sort of canine Pokemon, what it was hard to tell exactly what it was was.

"I'd say he is a Poochyena." Lilium commented, coming into the room holding a towel behind her with psychic powers. Repede sneezed, and Lilium quickly got to his side, wiping off the remains of the egg contents and warming the baby up. "He's not giving off heat like a growlithe or houndour might."

"Shot-not babysitting!" Spade called out.

"Me neither!" Responded Sherman.

"Well don't look at me! I'm not doing it!" Atra growled, backing up a step. The thought of watching over the baby, ugh. How did they end up with this thing again?

Lilium stared angrily at the three of them one by one.

"I-I'll do it." Katara spoke up, and Lilium turned to her, nodding in approval.

"Thank you Kat dear. I'll be sure to help you along the way, and I'm sure the rest of the team will pitch in."

Panic and chaos ensued when Melissa and her two passengers appeared in the Team room. Zora was not amused to be somewhere so unfamiliar and immediately got aggressive. Sparks leaped from her fur and the Bulbasaur withdrew her vines with a yelp. Atra, who was curled up on the sofa, woke with a start.

Zora tried to stand up and promptly crashed to the ground. The Flareon got up onto his feet, his fur bristling in anger.

"Ok, what the hell is-" He began, but his voice was lost as Zora let out a vicious howl and disappeared in a cloud of darkness. Atra recognized the move and cursed. That damned Umbreon was going to blow up their room!

In a similar puff of darkness the Flareon vanished.

"What's with all the noise here?" A shiny Cyndaquil asked, walking into the room. She spotted Melissa and the Tirtouga, regarding the latter with considerable interest. She wasn't rude enough to ask 'what are you' though, and continued as if she wasn't convinced there was a poor mutant Squirtle in her presence. "Where did Atra go?"

She was answered a split second later as both canines shot out of seemingly nowhere to crash into the middle of the room. Lilium screamed, Melissa flinched, and Randel looked extremely uncomfortable with witnessing the event.

Atra wasn't as physically large or strong as the Umbreon, who had quite a large variety of moves. Electricity and fire flowed freely from her mouth and fur, and dark tendrils lashed out and grabbed at him, trying to ease him into sleep.

Atra was the magically stronger one though, not to mention she was injured, and with some powders thrown carefully from Melissa the two finally subdued Zora after destroying half the room. Lilium was hiding behind the remains of the upturned coffee table.

"I'm so sorry. She was hurt and separated from the guild, so I thought I'd take her back with my badge." Melissa apologized, eyes wide as she stared at the semi-conscious Umbreon, who was now under the effect of a large dose of sleep power reinforced by a slumber orb.

"Goddamn, Mel. At least warn me next time before you bring a psychotic killer into the room. And who the hell's the mutant Turtwig there?"

"His name is Randel, and he's a Tirtouga. I'll explain later though, we should get her back to her team." Melissa was concerned about the huge Umbreon lying in the middle of the room.

Atra went to Zora and fished a paw through her bag. It was mostly empty, but what he did find was incredibly interesting. It was an Explorer's Badge, and on it was the crest of a yellow triangle within a blue diamond, on a background of green. He would recognize it anywhere.

"Holy hell. She must be Zero's kid." The emblem was that of Team Absolute Indignation's, and he knew that one of their children had evolved into an Umbreon. He just didn't expect her to be so...monstrous. Melissa was rather shocked as well, familiar with the famous team herself.

"I'll go find her parents." Melissa offered, but Atra was at the door before she is. Team Absolute Indignation was his idol team, even if they've been a wreck recently.

"Clean this mess up, I'll get Zosee."

When he came to the first thing he knew was comfort. Wherever he was, he was perfectly content to just stay there under the warmth of the blankets, enjoying its softness that padded against his fur so well. And-

Wait.

Atra's eyes opened as he considered the inconsistency here. It was warm. With how out of control his internal temperature usually was, he had been used to the feeling constantly having a high fever. but...he was just simply warm, and comfortable, and not feeling his body's heat being drained into its surroundings with every passing second.

And now that he thought about it, he felt amazing. It was as if he'd been sick all his life and had finally been cured. He didn't know it was possible to feel so much energy and vitality coursing through him.

The Flareon turned to sit up and something rolled off of him. Atra blinked at the sight of the small Jirachi curled up next to him.

She doesn't look so small anymore... The Flareon crawled out of the bed, doing his best not to disturb the small legendary. He was parched, and helped himself to the beaker of water set on his bedside table.

God, what time is it...? I feel like I've slept through the entire day. When did he even go to bed last? It felt like such a long time ago since he had crawled into bed for the night and-

"Please stop fighting, please..." "I don't understand...why...so much hate...so much suffering...pain...this shouldn't be...it's not right..." "Hope! Get him somewhere safe!" "No, no...Anna...no more...NO MORE." "Leave!"

Atra groaned as the memories returned, and he found himself sitting on his rump, pressing his forehead against the wall. What had happened?

The Raikou. With a relic. Atra had tried to use Judgement, and the Raikou killed him before he could. No, he didn't get killed, he alive, right here. But...but the legendary definitely had him pinned down. He had felt paws crush his ribs, claws tearing his organs. There's no way he could have survived that...

"Hope saved you."

Atra started at the voice in his mind, sitting up to stare at the Jirachi now sitting upright on the bed.

"Hope?"

"No, I am the Original. I had to intervene on her behalf in order to heal you. She did not have the strength to save you. Let her rest, she is still young and had used a great amount of power." The jirachi sighed, hopping off the bed and floating over to Atra.

"You know, I would not have taken your case. It was too much energy to expend, when other could have been helped. But I did it for her sake. She can not accomplish her task if she is broken with despair. Please, remember that." She closed her eyes, curling up against the Flareon's side. "Because of what I made her to be, she is fragile. Too empathetic, too idealistic. But she must if she is to bring happiness to others. You and the others who had taken her from me are dear to her. Do not cause her any more suffering than necessary. She is my daughter. Take good care of her." Her voice began to drift away, as if she was falling asleep. And indeed moments later the rhythmic rise and fall of her breathing seemed to suggest that she was.

"Wait- what?" Atra was confused. By the sounds of it, Jirachi had taken over Hope and was telling him that they had reconstructed him from whatever bits must have been left over from the Raikou-mauling. Then...he was right? He should have died, but Hope saved him?

The sheer amount of healing power that would have taken...the danger it would have been for Hope to use...

"Melissa! Lilium!" Time to go figure out what the hell happened.