I woke up to someone gently shaking my arm.

"It's time to get up, we're here." I opened my eyes at this with a start, then saw I was still in the truck and relaxed. There was nothing to fear here. I then looked over to the person who woke me.

He was of average height, perhaps five foot four or five foot five, and had brown almost curly hair. His eyes were brown as well, and the face they rested in wore a constant very slight smile. His skin was pale, like someone who rarely came outside, but had seen the sun at least once a week.

"Who are you?" I asked. "I don't mean to be rude, but we haven't introduced ourselves properly yet. By the way, my names Chris, and thanks for saving me." I said this last part with a smile of my own.

"You're welcome, and my name as you heard is Agent Tappainer, but you can call me Kyle. Now, I think it's time we get out of this cramped truck, don't you?" He said this seriously, but not unkindly.

I was exhausted and didn't really want to move right then, but I figured I probably didn't have a choice, so I agreed with him to at least create the illusion that I had the slightest bit of control.

We got out of the truck and were next to an enormous building. We were in the middle of the woods, and jutting from the ground was this huge five story complex! Needless to say, it definitely looked out of place.

"Welcome to The Order's HQ," Kyle said with a smile. "You should be safe here. Not one of our enemies has been able to find us yet. Oh, and speaking of that, we did find a small tracker on your backpack, but don't worry; we destroyed it."

That explained how they knew where to find me back in Verdanturf, they put a tracker on me! Anyways, in the time we took talking, we had entered the building. Kyle verified his identity with a relatively large guard bot that greeted us at the door.

As we walked down the hallways Kyle filled me in on exactly what was going on. He explained to me exactly why I was brought here, and what I was to do next. He told me that they knew who and what I was, and all they wanted to do was help me to reach my potential. At this I started to get jumpy, but he told me to relax and that nothing like what happened at the Rocket base would happen here. I, for the moment, would only be required to talk to the head of The Order, nothing more, nothing less.

As he said this, he walked me up to a door labeled 'Conference Room'. "Go on in," he said with a reassuring smile. "The head of The Order, Dr. Maynard, is waiting. Don't worry he won't bite."

"Okay," I replied a bit nervously. As he walked away I steeled my nerves and opened the door. I walked inside and sat down in a rather comfy office chair. At the other side of the desk was a somewhat portly man. He was wearing a smile when he looked at me, but I could only tell that by how his cheeks were drawn up. His actual mouth was covered by a grey mustache with a silky sheen.

"Why hello young man, I am Doctor Maynard. There's no need to be so tense. Everyone here only wants to help you." When he said this I realized I had been holding my breath. I released it with a sigh before asking him my first question.

"Why did you call me here? I keep being told what I am, and discovering strange abilities, but I can't seem to make heads or tails of it. I feel as if I've been thrust into a strange new world and no one will tell me the rules."

"I can help you with that. I trust by now you have been told you are the elemental of light, even if you haven't actually remembered that yet. I only called you in here today to reassure you that we will do everything in our power to help you achieve this. Also, although I believe you will need your rest today, tomorrow we will begin your training. If we can help you to regain your abilities, you may just begin to remember who you are as well."

I began to protest, but thought better of it. What if they really could help me to use my abilities? I instead asked something else that was on my mind. "What about my partners? Will I be allowed to stay with them?" I inquired, hoping the answer was yes.

"Yes, I feel their companionship may be necessary. Losing one's parents can be an awful thing to do alone..."

"What?!" I practically screamed. "What are you talking about? My parents are just fine, aren't they?" Tears began to well up in my eyes, but I looked hopefully at the Doctor.

"I'm sorry, I thought you knew, but I guess that would be pretty difficult now that I think about it. Your parents were murdered three days ago. All that was found was a note from that accursed Cassidy next to their bodies. She has always been a constant thorn in our sides. I originally thought this was just because you were one of the many children we have monitored, but when I was told what you were, I knew why it was done."

At this I lost it. I began to cry. I wept and wept, heedless to the now speechless man across the desk from me. At some point in time when this was happening Rena must have broken out of her pokeball, because she was sitting on my lap nuzzling me close and trying to comfort myself.

She said something quietly to the Doctor, who didn't seem at all surprised in her ability to talk, and he gave her a brief set of directions. She nudged me and asked me to follow her, so I slowly got up. She led me out of the room while the Doctor called out a brief apology. I followed her blindly, heedless to the many people who walked by with their 'it's an honor to finally see you' speeches and the like. They stopped short every time when they saw I was holding back tears.

She finally stopped in front of a door which I opened for her, and then she led me to a chair. I sat down again while she explained that this is where we would be staying.

"Chris, I know that whatever that man said had to be hard, but whatever it was, please know you can always talk to me about it. I love you, and there's nothing that can change that."

I sniffled and wiped the tears from my eyes. "My parents are dead Rena, Dead! I thank you for your kindness, but I don't want to talk about this right now. I'm sorry."

She really didn't expect for me to say that, and was speechless, so she decided to do the best she could in another way. She jumped up into my lap, placed her front paws on my shoulders, and pressed her lips to mine in a passionate kiss.

I didn't want it to end ever. It felt so amazing to do this while looking into Rena's deep crimson eyes, those bright wide pools of understanding. It was as if while I looked into her eyes my pain simply melted away. Her lips parted from mine, but her eyes never left me. We sat like this for a long time, lost in each other.

"Thank you Rena," I said quietly after a very long time. "I don't know what I would do without you."

She began to reply, but then her stomach interrupted her.

"A little hungry, Rena?" I laughed halfheartedly, while she just blushed and looked away. "Don't worry; I'm sure I can find you something. Oh, and we should probably call out the others so they can get some food as well."

She agreed happily, and we released the others. The first thing Neo did when he came out was run up to give me a quick hug, then back off fast as if to retain a hold on his masculinity. When Dylan came out he walked over and began talking to me, but, unfortunately, I did not speak Golbat.

Neo was nice enough to translate it to me as, "I apologize for being such a bother before, I hope you can forgive me."

"That's alright," I replied with a weak smile. "That's in the past now, and you did come to rescue me anyway. Now, who wants me to go find us some grub?" I asked this and looked around my small ragtag group. A small cheer came from the group that I interpreted as a yes. "Okay, follow me." I said,beginning to cheer up a little myself. I was still very upset, but lets face it; joy is contagious.

I led my group down the hall in a somewhat happier mood. I stopped the first person we came across, a young man with blond hair and blue eyes, and asked him if there was a place I could go to get some food for myself and my companions. I could tell he recognized me, but rather than bore me with the annoying greetings of high praise he just pointed out where the mess hall was. I thanked him and brought my Pokémon that way.

When we entered, quite a few heads turned in our direction. I heard whispers all over the cafeteria but had chosen to ignore them. Instead, I went up to the lady serving the food and asked her for four plates of the day's special. I was not about to make my Pokémon eat generic Pokechow if I could help it. The lady understood and gave me four plates while saying it was such an honor to finally meet me. I balanced the four plates and sat down at a table with my Pokémon friends.

When we were finished we returned to my room, talking for hours and catching up on what we had missed. I also took the opportunity to get to know Dylan better. Minutes passed into hours, and soon the whole day had gone by. My Pokémon offered to sleep in their pokeballs, but I said they didn't have to if they didn't want to. I looked around to find better sleeping arrangements. It ended up with Neo and Dylan getting the couch at the far side of the room, with Rena and I in the bed. I didn't really mind this, and Rena wasn't being inappropriate or anything. She just gave me a small kiss before crawling in behind me and draping her foreleg over my side. After awhile of just laying like this, I fell asleep.

The next day, I woke up to someone gently licking my face. I slowly opened my eyes to see Rena in front of me, and surprised her by grabbing her face and quickly pulling her in for a quick kiss. She gave a surprised yip, followed by a small fit of laughter once I had finished. I ruffled her head fur for a second, and then went over to wake up the others. We all went to the mess hall together and ate our breakfast. Right about when I was done eating, a rather frail young man with blue hair, thick glasses, a clipboard, and a white lab coat ran up to me.

"Excuse me sir, but you are to report with me to the research department. your partners can go to the exercise area if they wish," he quickly explained while greedily gulping in air. Man that guy was out of shape for being so thin.

I agreed and we led my Pokémon to the exercise room, where I noticed other Pokémon as well. There was a Mighteyena on the treadmill, as well as a Hariyama doing squats and a Machoke lifting heavy weights. We got my team situated with their own activities then the man led me to the research department.

After he opened the door for me he left and I was once again in an unfamiliar room with another unfamiliar face. The first thing I noticed about the man in the room was that this doctor wore a bright blue lab coat, quite in contrast to the normal attire. Other than that though, he still had the classic stethoscope. He also had wild red hair, which looked like it hadn't seen a comb in weeks, but didn't really look that bad either.

"Hello, my name is Doctor Brander. Don't be afraid, we're just going to run a few tests today if you don't mind." He said this with an honest smile, and I instantly knew I could trust him. I then introduced myself, and said I was ready for what he needed me to do. The procedures actually just seemed like a normal physical, so it really wasn't all that bad. He also tried a couple things to try to invoke my abilities, as well as a therapist to try to help me remember my true identity, but to no avail. The therapist also talked to me about the loss of my parents, but I didn't have muc I could say. What could I really have said anyway? I lost my parents, and I wasn't ready to talk yet.

The days went on like this for three months. I would eat breakfast with my Pokémon, then report to the research department. I would then go through fitness tests, and once again be tested on my abilities. The therapist would then come in and try to help me with my emotional baggage, helping me to slowly get over the loss of my parents while trying to get a crack at my real identity.

After this, I was free to spend the afternoons with my Pokémon, getting to know Dylan and Neo quite well and Rena even better. These were probably some of the happiest months of my life. Everyone at the facility knew and respected me, and I was allowed to have a close relationship with my love, Rena. This routine continued on for a long time, until one day I walked into the research department to find a large machine in the back.

"What's this Dr. Brander?" I asked casually. He had brought in some pretty fun machines from time to time, and we had always had a blast during these tests. One time, he even got a machine that allowed me to transform into a Pokémon for a period of time! He thought that particular machine would help me to gain my abilities back, but it was another goose egg.

Anyway, Doctor Brander explained to me what this machine would do. "This machine is very special. It is usually used to dispel ghost Pokémon from possessed humans, but in order to do that it needs to pass a lot of light energy through the patient. I thought it might just help you if you could harness its power. So, do you want to give it a try? It's up to you."

"Sure, what do we have to lose?!" I responded enthusiastically. His explanation had made sense, and I was eager to see if it would work, so I readily agreed.

"I thought you might say that. Let's strap you in." With that, he began the laborious task of strapping me in securely so I wouldn't move or be burned by the intense bulbs. Once he was finished, he told me to close my eyes and wait for the machine to do its magic.

I complied, and before long saw an intense white light through the back of my eyelids.

I heard Doctor Brander call from outside the machine, "Okay, it's done and I'm powering down the machine now. You can come out the moment you no longer see the bright lights." He said this, and I noticed he sounded a little nervous.

Wait, he didn't sound nervous, he felt nervous. It was working! The moment he let me out I decided to see just how well it had worked. I concentrated and was able to float, much to the delight and exclamations of my good friend. With a little more effort, I was able to concentrate a small golden sphere of light into my hand. After that though I started to feel tired and a little dizzy, so I decided to stop.

The doctor exclaimed I had done great that day and that I should go take a break and have the rest of the day off. I wasn't about to complain about that, so I thanked him and ran to find my team. When I told them the news they seemed excited, although Dylan was a little nervous. I couldn't really blame him though, I had knocked him unconscious before with my abilities.

For the rest of the day I hung out with my Pokémon friends, and we had a real good time. They showed me what they usually did when I was away, and I even got to try out some of the exercises they did. When it was time for bed, we kept the same sleeping arrangements as we usually did. I lay down with Rena, while Dylan and Neo took the couch. I fell asleep, perfectly content with myself and the world around me, for once not dwelling at all about my parents.

*Conversation between Doctor Brander and Doctor Maynard*

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to me, a conversation was going on that would affect me quite seriously in times to come.

"You don't say... Very interesting, so you mean the machine we got actually worked?" Doctor Maynard asked Brander with a hint of incredulity in his voice.

"Yes it did, very well, I may add. You know this means I will need to do more rigorous testing now, correct?" he questioned, already knowing the answer.

"While it pains me to make a mere boy go through with these tests, I know it is necessary. I trust you will make sure not to hurt the boy?"

"Chris's safety is of the utmost importance in my mind. I will make sure nothing happens to him," Brander replied with conviction.

"Good, he must be given a chance to grow; it would not be wise to cut him off at the roots. You may go now. Tomorrow you have a busy day ahead of you."

"Thank you Charles, good night."Chapter End Notes:Well, tell me what you think. I appreciate all comments whether negative or positive. Oh, and I would also appreciate if someone would go back to review my unreviewed chapters. I want to know what people think on them and where my mistakes were made. To anyone who noticed before that Chris went from really happy to really sad, he is not bipolar. I edited it so the transition was more gradual so if you didn't notice then you just came in after the fix