The Mask Maker

The Mind's Eye

"Where is she?!" a gruff voice called in the distance. 

She, Morai, had found herself leaning against a tree in a dense forest. The frigid wind cut through her clothes, and the heavy rain soaked through to her bones. There was mud up to her knees and she was covered in scrapes and cuts that had torn holes in whatever she was wearing. Her lungs felt tight and her head was pounding in rhythm with her heart. There was a slight ringing in her ears, yet it felt like the sound was filling the entire forest. 

Morai had no memory of what had gotten her here, but she knew she was being chased. Hunted, even. She had no Pokéballs and she realized she was wearing her mask on her face. She wanted to take it off to see what it looked like, but had this strange feeling that she shouldn't. It felt different than the others, and whatever it was, it had technology that allowed her to see at least a little better in this dark and rainy forest. 

The exhausted trainer saw the streaks of light from flashlights waving around and started to walk in the opposite direction. Even the adrenaline coursing through her veins wasn't enough to help her run. There was a faint pain in her leg, but she felt that whatever was behind her was worse than walking on it. 

The adrenaline must be numbing the pain.

"I see something! This way!" 

Morai heard the terrifying echoes of growls and barks, and pushed herself to walk even just a little faster. Everything felt heavy. She was terribly out of breath and her head was splitting. 

I...I can't go much further. I can't....

Not being able to bear it anymore, Morai tore the mask off of her face. Everything became blurry, and icy rain began to drip down her face. 

This one...this one is new....I haven't seen it before....

She was too weak to move now. The trainer managed to drag herself to the base of a tree stump but after that, all she could do was lie there. The yells and barks became louder and louder, but though the fugitive so desperately wanted to move, she couldn't. Suddenly, she came face to face with an Arcanine. It, too, was soaked from the icy rain, and the vest it was wearing didn't offer much help. 

What does it say?....Oh...INTERPOL. Of course.

Indeed, the bold letters emblazoned across the creature's vest showed who was hunting Morai down. The canine let out a howl that made Morai cover her ears and squint her eyes. It bared its teeth and growled, as if ordering her not to move. It's not like she could anyway. 

"Over here!"

Morai watched weakly from her resting place as human silhouettes appeared in her view, joined by the silhouettes of various Pokémon. She heard shouts and orders coming from every direction, but she couldn't understand them. She was surrounded by figures almost impossibly bigger and stronger than her and she couldn't even move. One last vicious bark echoed through her subconscious. 

The real Morai shot up with a gasp, frantically looking around her cave home. It took a second for her to ground herself in the real world. 

Another one...I can add that one to the long list of dreams that don't end well. 

Meanwhile, in the Battle Subway...

"Ha! Checkmate! It looks like you're buying dinner tonight, brother!" Emmet proclaimed.

Ingo and Emmet were sitting in their office playing a game of chess. They did this most nights in order to decide who would be buying dinner, which they also ate together. Chess was the one thing between these two that often had a definite winner. They were equally matched in everything else. Even in chess, quite a few games ended in a draw, though Ingo was slightly better than his brother. Emmet had secretly been hoping for a win just so he could defeat his slightly older brother in something.