Y/N desperately waited for her friend to appear, having not seen the woman for years now. The last time she had seen the fiery blonde was when she had become Champion almost four years ago, and even then it was just a quick drop by to congratulate her before she left again.
Jesse whined, nudging his trainer's hand with his snout. Y/N looked down to the Boltund, and she scratched behind his ears. Finally, she saw the boat on the horizon, and Jesse immediately ran into the ocean, jumping excitedly.
"Jesse, get back here!" Y/N scolded halfheartedly, chuckling at her Boltund's antics. Jesse got back onto the shore and shook himself off before running back to Y/N. "You're excited to see her, too, huh?" She chuckled. "Or perhaps you're just excited to see Razzle and Dazzle."
Her Boltund yipped and licked his trainer's hand. He and Felice's pair of Lycanroc had always been close, considering they had practically grown up together.
Finally the boat docked, and Y/N rushed to greet her friend, who did the same. The blonde still looked pretty much the same, with her flowing white sun dress and flower-print handfan. The only thing difference was that now her blonde hair was cut to a little above her shoulders, and the beach curls were more defined than usual.
They embraced in a hug, and Y/N finally relaxed. Felice had become like the big sister or parental figure of their little runaway group, and it felt comforting to be back in her arms.
"How are the rest of you guys doing?" Felice asked. Y/N grinned.
"Better," she responded. "The money from me being Champion has been enough to keep us comfortable, and Vin really enjoys the rescue work she's been doing. There's a lot of injured Pokemon being found in the Wild Area all the time, so she's been keeping busy."
"And Thorn?" Felice asked. Y/N grimaced and Felice seemed to pick up on the meaning behind her actions.
"He's been settling in... less than perfectly. Still," she said the last words with a sigh. "But he's slowly getting used to it. He likes the Toxtricity he found. Both Valkyrie and Volt have been helping him a lot."
"That good to hear, at least," Felice replied. She pulled away, and began leading the young Champion away, not missing the flashes of cameras around them. Everyone knew that Felice was basically a mother figure to the Champion and her friends, and so they all gave her plenty of respect and admiration, as if she didn't already have that being a famous performer.
Once they got away from the prying eyes, Y/N began leading the way to the wild area, where Vin's secluded little area was. It was rather hard to spot if you didn't know where it was, as Vin was always rather reclusive and preferred to be left alone, not to mention the fact that the hurt, wild Pokemon would freak out if they had people constantly going by.
But thankfully, Y/N knew exactly where to go. Felice didn't, but that was because she had been off trying to make money to support them back at Galar most of the time.
After a bit of walking, they came across a small cottage, sheltered beneath a large tree, and tucked away in a large cove that didn't get much foot traffic, and had enough room for all of the injured and weak Pokemon to roam around. Felice seemed impressed, and as they drew nearer she could see Vin's Ribombee, who often helped with the healing process.
They entered the cottage, and were immediately greeted by Vin, who was wrapping a bandage around a Goodra's bloodied tail.
Vin had always been more caring than the others, which made her more suited to this type of work. Thorn and Y/N had always been more fighters than anything, and while Felice did enjoy a good battle, she was always more interested in performing more than anything.
Felice picked up an Espeon who had her tail cut off, and she began petting it. "Hello, Vin," she said, greeting the younger girl. "I hope you've been holding up well these past years."
Vin nodded. "I've been really enjoying the work I've been doing, too. It makes me feel... complete, almost."
"That's good to hear."
Vin stood up and patted the Goodra's head quick before wiping the slime from the dragon-type off on her apron. "Are you joining us to dinner?" she asked.
"Yes, I am. I have nothing scheduled for the next year, actually, so I'm staying here until my next show," Felice admitted. Y/N perked up immediately, and Jesse did the same next to her.
"That's good! We've really been missing you. Thorn has sort of closed himself off since you left," Vin to the older woman, sighing. "He's still having a hard time trusting anyone..."
Felice grunted in response, and Vin began leading them out to the back, where all of the healing Pokemon were kept. As soon as they got through the door, they saw Thorn, with both of his Toxtricity wrestling in the background, and his Salandit perched on his shoulder.
"Hey, Thorn," Vin greeted him. "You ready to go? Felice is here."
Thorn stood up and recalled all of his Pokemon before turning around, giving all three of them a mock salute. "Yeah, sure," was all that he said.
-☆-☆-☆-
After a nice dinner, the group was walking around in some of the more unexplored parts of the region, as both Thorn and Felice loved to explore new places. If it weren't for both Y/N and Vin, he probably would have gone off to explore new regions as Felice had done.
It wasn't truly until they got into the deeper part of the forest they were exploring that they began to see new sights. Multiple Pokemon crowded the forests, and it reminded Y/N of the Glimwood Tangle.
A roar unlike anything any of them had ever heard sounded out, and Y/N's head turned in the direction it came from. The others didn't seem to notice it, so she turned back and continued to follow them.
She heard it again, and turned in the direction it was coming from again.
"Are you guys hearing that?" she asked after the third time she heard the roar. The others all looked to her, slightly confused.
"Hear what...?" Vin asked, stepping up to Y/N.
"I don't know," she muttered, looking at the others before beginning to go in the direction she heard the Pokemon's cry in. The other glanced at each other before following.
She found where the crying was loudest, but nothing was there. She glanced around, confused, and the others began looking around, too.
"I hear it now," Felice said. "It faint, but there."
"Maybe we should leave," Vin suggested, backing away.
"Wait," Thorn said. His eyes darted around, seemingly looking for where it was coming from, and his eyes locked onto open air.
"What-"
"Maybe we should go," Y/N said, cutting off Vin. Her gut was screaming at her to run, and she pulled out her Dragapult to protect them from whatever seemed to be getting closer.
Her eyes widened as a glowing purple hole opened in front of them, and she almost bolted when a giant, pitch-black, misty claw reached through, digging into the ground behind them.
Whatever was on the other side began to pull its claws back into the rift, causing the ground to shake so hard that it could no doubt be felt in Wyndon and possibly Circhester.
Y/N was caught by one of the claws, and began to be dragged into the rift with it, so she quickly ran out of the way, leaving the claws to drag dirt through.
"What is that thing?!" Thorn yelled. A rift opened in the ground, and a giant, black Druddigon-esque head busted through it, taking a couple Pokemon in its maw.
"Amzi, Phantom Force!"
The Dragon-type sunk into the shadows, and jumped back out, attacking the strange creature when it appeared again, but it didn't do much other than just make the mist break up a but before it reformed.
The phantom creature roared in outrage, and it pulled back, only for another rift to open and pull Amzi back with the claw that came out.
"Help!"
Y/N looked over to where Vin was, watching as she was dragged into the rift, and Thorn growled.
"Vin!" he yelled, rushing over to help her. He caught her hand and began to pull her back out, but a rift opened directly behind them and the head of the creature poked through, roared and causing Thorn to stumble back until he tripped into the portal.
"Thorn!" Y/N began to run after him, but Felice caught her. The blonde looked unnaturally scared, as if she had seen a ghost.
"Y/N, we can't!" she said. Y/N struggled against her hold.
"We have to! We can't just leave them, they're our family!" she yelled back.
A rift opened behind them, and a tail swing out this time, hitting multiple trees before it pulled back. On the way back, the spikes on the tail caught on Felice and pulled her with it. Y/N watched as she was swallowed, too.
Y/N was left alone, and the silence in the woods was now deafening. She looked around, defeated.
Her Dragapult, Amzi, the first Pokemon she'd ever had, was now gone. As if that wasn't bad enough, her entire family had been taken away, too.
She fell to the ground on her knees, mourning the loss of those closest to her.
She heard a noise, and her head snapped up. Another rift had opened up, but this time there were just giant, glowing white eyes staring at her from it. She and the phantom stared at each other for a moment, and Y/N couldn't breath in that moment.
The creature let out a soft growl.
Then, a claw shot out, and Y/N was dragged through the rift.
-☆-☆-☆-
Okay, so here's the prologue. I would first like to say that the giant phantom dragon will be appearing in a Pokemon book that's still a wip, I just thought it would be fun to bring it over into this book. It will have another major roll to play in that book, so you'll get more backstory/lore on it in there once that book is out, but it probably still won't be out for a while.
Also, Thorn's Toxtricity, Valkyrie, is actually based off of/is my own low-ley form Toxtricity in Sword, and Volt is the name of my amped form Toxtricity. I love them both, but I don't use them much because I already have an electric type. You'll find out more about the teams as the book goes on.
That's all I wanted to say. Enjoy!