I really don't have an excuse for this. OC Form and other miscellanous things at the bottom.

Help… us!

Help us!

O Great God, send us your blessing!

Save us from this unholy demise!

…

You are… our future.

Please… save us.

"– Ah!"

She wakes up in a start, jolting up to a sitting position. Looking back, she sees that she had been lying on the rough ground. Slowly, she stood up, and observed her surroundings.

She was… in a field, yes? There were a few clumps of grass here and there, but the rocky surface she had previously been lying on took up most of the area in the field. Trees were scattered here and there, most of them having lost their leaves and looking sad and barren.

"Where… am I?" she asked aloud.

What did she know? Those were the first things she needed to confirm so that she could use those to answer her questions.

Technically… she knew she was in a field. But she needed to know specifically where she was if she wanted to go to somewhere she knew…

That's right… but… somewhere I know? Is there any place I know that might be close to a field?

No. There wasn't. Nothing automatically came to mind.

… Nor did she know her own name, or her identity…

She didn't know herself… had she lost her memory?

She realized she looked quite dumb simply standing there and staring at the area in front of her, so she quickly started looking around more. Firstly, she needed to recover her lost memories… if she didn't know herself, there would be no hope in trying to find out where she was or how she had gotten here.

But no matter how much she racked her brain, nothing came to mind. Not a name, a place, even a number or some vague clue she could use to answer even one question…

Future.

One word. The only thing she could identify as being worth thinking about was the word 'future'.

Is there something remotely interesting about the word 'future'? Maybe I need to go to a fortune-telling booth and have my future laid out before my eyes… then again, I do know I never believed in those things…

… Hold on.

She remembered something unconsciously. In her life, she didn't like her fortune told, was it? How come? And how did she know that?

… Nothing…

Once again, her mind refused to tell her anything else. Maybe she just needed to think about the word 'future' once more… perhaps it could help her remember more from her wiped memories.

"Huh…? I didn't think anyone would be here. … Who are you?"

"– Ah!"

Instinctively, she turned around and tried to swing her fist at the offending person behind her. However, instead of punching him, her nails glowed split seconds before impacting with the person's face. Her palm opened forcibly, and she suddenly felt her fingernails scratching against skin, drawing thin lines of blood.

"Oww!" Stumbling backwards, the green-haired boy clutched his face, trying to slow the flow of blood. "What'd you do that for?! I was just asking you a question!"

She narrowed her eyes at the boy for a moment, before backing away. "You snuck up on me."

"That doesn't give you the excuse to scratch me!" He retorted, before sighing and wiped the rest of the blood off his face. "Whatever. Who are you?"

"I should be asking the same to you," she replied.

He rolled his eyes. "Sheesh… are these how all axews act…?" he muttered to himself. A word in there caused her ears to perk up, however, and she hesitantly neared him.

"What… did you just call me?" she asked slowly, speaking to him as if he were a child.

The boy crossed his arms. "An axew… please don't tell me you don't even know what pokemon you are?"

"P… Pokemon?" There were so many unfamiliar terms he was using it made her drop her guard for a moment. "What's that?"

"What?!" He exclaimed, stepping backwards in surprise. "You don't even know what you are?! Do you have some kind of super-extreme amnesia or what?"

"I… I think so," she responded. "I can't remember my own name, or even any real details about myself… you just called me a pokemon, right? An axew… what are those?"

The boy shrugged. "Well… I don't really know much about them either. You're the first axew I've ever really met… I've heard rumors about what they look like, though, and that they're really rare and stronger than what one would expect from a Grade One evolutionary stage."

"Grade One… evolutionary stage?" she repeated slowly, twisting the words in her tongue as if tasting them. They were so… foreign.

"Yeah." He nodded. "Most pokemon have evolutions, see… they, like, evolve into different pokemon once certain conditions are met. Some have one, while others have two. The rest don't evolve at all. I'm a snivy, and you're an axew, so we're both at our first evolutionary stage. Um…" he hesitated. "… I think axews evolve into a fraxure. That's what one calls a Grade Two evolutionary stage, since that's an axew's first evolution."

"I see…"

There was a silence between the two of them as they both tried to digest the new information they had learned; the boy meeting a super-amnesiac for the first time, and the girl learning about of the pokemon world.

"Oh, yeah." The boy lifted his head slightly. "Uh, I guess we have to introduce ourselves. I'm Shido, by the way. I think I told you earlier, but I'm a snivy." He paused, and then smirked, crossing his arms. "… The strongest snivy ever, just so you know."

She rolled her eyes. "Keep dreaming, punk. I don't remember my name, so… I don't really have something to call myself. You did tell me I'm an axew, so…"

"I'm not calling you axew all the time," Shido replied instantly. "That would be weird. Don't you have anything you remember?"

The axew remained quiet for some time, before the word came to mind once again. "Hm… 'future'. That's the only word that I can remember, for some reason… anything else just doesn't have a 'ring' to it. Like… it's not familiar. Or… it doesn't have any real meaning to me… just 'future'."

"Interesting…" Shido tapped his chin. "What about we call you Mirai? It sounds good on you, doesn't it? Mirai the super-amnesiac axew… even though you forgot your past, you have a bright future ahead of you!" He grinned, spreading his arms to emphasize the point. "Like you're the shining beacon to guide everyone from the depths of despair towards the bright future… you'll become the concept of the future itself!"

When he saw the axew's surprised expression, he quickly recomposed himself and cleared his throat, clearly embarrassed by his out-of-character moment. "… Well, it was just a suggestion. If you have something better, we could–"

"No, uh…" she fiddled with her thumbs nervously. "I… I like it. Mirai, huh… the concept of the future, the super-amnesiac axew… I guess it does sound kinda nice." She gave a small smile, like she wasn't used to the idea of smiling, and extended her hand for a greeting. "Then, I'm Mirai, an axew. The first and best axew you'll ever see."

Shido stared at the outstretched hand for a moment, before returning the smile with a smirk. "Nice to meet you, Mirai."

They sat around and talked a bit, but once Shido saw the position of the sun after some time, he jolted up and started freaking out.

"I-It's almost time! I have to go!" he shouted, looking almost stressed. Mirai raised an eyebrow.

"What's wrong?"

"The meeting!" he yelled. "I have an appointment to make with a pokemon from ahead of here… and I have twenty minutes to get there!" he winced. "Then again, we're not too far from where I need to go… but the path ahead looks pretty dangerous…" he sighed. "I guess I'll just have to brave it… thanks for chatting with me today, Mirai. It was real fun."

"Hah? What are you talking about? It's like I'm not going with you," the axew exclaimed, standing up and dusting her plaid green skirt. "Whether you like it or not, I'm coming with you, punk. Actually, you should like it. Be honored the great Mirai even bothered to– gah!"

Before she could finish her overly long holier-than-thou speech, Mirai was scooped up in a hug by the snivy, Shido squeezing her with every ounce of strength he had. The axew started kicking Shido's midsection, but the green-haired boy didn't seem to even care.

"Thank you thank you thank you thank you!" he yelled in a single breath. "I owe you my life, Mirai! Now let's go, no time to waste!"

"Hey, w-wait! S-Shido– ah, dammit!"

Ragged Mountain – Western Entrance

"There's a bridge not too far from here, we can make it from there if we're quiet– EHH?!"

Shido jumped upwards in shock as he stared at the broken bridge in front of him. Carefully, Mirai circled him and took a look at the rocks below the former bridge. "Looks like a rock slide just happened… that's probably what broke the bridge." She turned to look back at the mortified snivy. "Guess we'll have to take the caves to get to the other side, huh?"

The boy remained shock-still for a while, before taking a deep breath and letting it out in a sigh. "… Looks like it. Umm, Mirai, do you know about Mystery Dungeons?"

"Those are?"

"… Oh, no…" Shido sighed. "I'll tell you about them while we travel. Follow me."

The snivy led Mirai inside one of the entrances to the cave. The moment she stepped inside, the axew felt a buzzing sound in her head, followed by a hazy vision. Dizzy, she took a few stumbling strides, and eventually, the buzz faded and her vision went back to normal. When she looked around, she saw that Shido was patiently waiting for her beside her.

"W-What was that?" she asked. "Maybe this place is dangerous… let's get out of here." Saying that, Mirai turned around to go back to the entrance, but…

"I-It's not there?" she exclaimed in surprise. "H-How…? But I was sure…" No matter how many times or which direction she looked, she couldn't find the entrance she was certain had been near her before. "What happened?"

"This, Mirai, is a Mystery Dungeon." Shido turned back, observing the twisting paths ahead of him. "Mystery Dungeons used to be pretty rare way before the pokemon world was like this. Now, with more and more Mystery Dungeons showing up, pokemon are becoming more restless and more pokemon are turning evil. Mystery Dungeons emit this kind of negativity from them that causes all pokemon that enter them to lose hope…" he paused. "Since you felt the dizziness, you're qualified to be a Team Pokemon, I guess."

"Team… Pokemon?"

"Mhm. Hey, over here." As Shido and Mirai walked, the snivy continued explaining. "Four or more pokemon can form a team to take on Mystery Dungeons and have adventures in them and the like. Those pokemon are special and are often called 'Team Pokemon', since they can enter a Mystery Dungeon without feeling like their very life is being sapped away from them."

"Other pokemon that aren't Team Pokemon are called Wild Pokemon. They live in Mystery Dungeons and, since they have been fully consumed by the despair Mystery Dungeons give out, they attack any pokemon they see, Wild Pokemon or Team Pokemon. Although… there's this rumor that certain Team Pokemon have a special ability to emit hope and 'cleanse' Wild Pokemon from their despair, enabling those Wild Pokemon to become Team Pokemon. Cool, huh? Then, those newly-changed Team Pokemon can join the other pokemon's Team."

"Another thing about Mystery Dungeons is that, well, they're really unpredictable. Whenever you enter one, the layout, items and money you find, and sometimes even the Wild Pokemon that dwell in there, change. For example, you're exploring a Mystery Dungeon, yeah? And it has so few paths that it's so easy to find the exit. But the next time you go in it, there may be a thousand different paths to take that it'll take more than a day to get through it!"

"Speaking of…" Shido paused in his explanation for a while, and drawing a sword with a leaf-shaped handle out of thin air. Mirai jumped in surprise, causing her to hit her head on the rocky ceiling. Focusing on his target, the snivy then stabbed the tip of his sword in the middle of the large boulder in front of him. It took ten whole seconds, but spiderweb-like cracks came from the center and eventually caused the boulder to crumble into dust, revealing an exit. Shido turned around to smirk proudly at the gaping axew. "C'mon! We can get out this way."

Ragged Mountain – Western Plateau

"We were really lucky to not run into any Wild Pokemon there, but it's probably because of the rock slide a while ago…" Shido said, raising a hand to shield his eyes from the sun. "Wild Pokemon can't really differentiate sounds as well as other pokemon. That's why it's easy to scare them away with loud noises." He glanced at the sun's position once more, before crying out in surprise. "I-It's almost the meeting time! Pick up the pace, Mirai; the Wild Pokemon are definitely gonna start coming now!"

The axew did as told, rushing out of the cave and feeling the familiar dizzy sensation, but less serious than before. Once it faded, she took a look around and found that they were on a plateau just above the area they had been in earlier. To the east, there was a similar plateau, and an entrance to another cave that probably went downwards, but there seemed to be no way across it…

"… What are…? What are you doing, punk?" Mirai asked as she neared the snivy. He was pushing hard against a tall tree trunk at the edge of the plateau to the right.

"I'm trying to make this fall so we can cross on it to the other side!" he replied, grunting as he pushed harder against the rough bark.

Mirai sighed, rolling her eyes. "Oh, for the love of… get out of the way, punk." Saying so, she pushed Shido away from the trunk and eyed the offending object with annoyance.

Concentrate… concentrate on it, she told herself, although the voice in her head didn't sound like hers. Feel the anger building in you. This tree trunk, this stupid tree trunk prevents you and Shido from letting you cross to the other side. How dare it, huh? How dare it defy you? You are the one and only, the great Mirai! How dare it!

And then all of a sudden, she felt white hot flames boiling in her throat, threatening to spill out of her mouth, burning her throat, but she didn't. She didn't let them out and she gathered every shred of anger she held against the tree and–

Let it burn.

She shut her eyes and opened her mouth as big as possible, and a torrent of aqua blue flames rushed out of her mouth like a tidal wave. The flames slammed against the tree, and it toppled over ridiculously easy. Surprisingly, the torrent of fire did not completely engulf the tree; it stopped where it was and disappeared into thin air, leaving only a few flickers of blue fire behind as those, too, faded away into nothingness.

Mirai took a deep breath and let it out, closing her mouth and breathing heavily. She had no idea what she had just done, but it looked like it had worked perfectly.

"W… Whoa."

Oh, yes. She had forgotten she had an audience.

"I… I never knew you actually knew how to fight!" Shido exclaimed. "That Dragon Rage move you just used… damn, it was awesome."

She raised an eyebrow, still panting. "… Thanks." Shido? Complimenting her? Blasphemy.

He seemed to have realized his mistake as well, as his face flushed and he quickly crossed his arms, looking away. "I-I mean… it was nothing! I bet any other Dragon-type could do the same. Huh. You're just showing off." He strutted sassily on the tree trunk, crossing over to the other side easily. "Hurry up, Mirai! No time to lose!"

The axew smirked. "Impressed, aren't you?"

"K-Keep quiet! Now come over already, would you?"

Ragged Mountain – Eastern Plateau

As Shido led the way, with Mirai quietly following from behind, a soft noise could be heard from all around them. Shido abruptly stopped, causing the axew to bump into his back. Mirai opened her mouth to ask, but Shido raised a finger to his mouth, indicating silence.

The sound wasn't very soft by now; in fact, it was getting louder and louder. It sounded like an intense beating of wings – flap, flap, flap – and it unnerved Mirai, who wasn't used to it.

"It's gotta be a Flying-type pokemon," Shido muttered. "This sound is…"

"– HNYAAAAH!"

As if summoned from the very depths of an abyss, a blue-and-white blur zoomed towards them, slamming straight on Shido. The snivy yelled, toppling over from its sheer force, causing Mirai to fall backwards as well. The mysterious pokemon snarled, saliva dribbling down its chin as the bat-like wings sprouting from its back beat loudly. It rose into the air – flap, flap, flap went its wings – and narrowed its eyes at the both of them as Mirai pushed the disconcerted snivy off of her.

"What the hell is that?!" she shouted. Shido struggled back to his feet, obviously pained from the sudden impact.

He remained silent for a while, simply eyeing the flying pokemon, then replied, "… A Wild Pokemon… a woobat, to be more specific… ugh, no wonder that thing hits hard." He gritted his teeth. "Mirai, think you can handle this? You probably need some practice against a moving target, anyway…"

The axew hesitated, before nodding and turning her gaze back to the woobat. It had short and poofy blue hair, and a simple one-piece blue dress. Normal, she supposed. The one thing that stood out (besides its wings, of course) was the strange circular item she was holding; it looked like a mask, with a black heart on it, but…

Before Mirai could think about it any longer, the woobat had swooped downwards and slammed its entire body against the axew. She yelped in pain and hurriedly pushed the Wild Pokemon off of her, before backing away so that her back was against the rock wall.

I need a weapon, she thought. Like Shido's sword. But… how do I get one?

She looked down at her pale, thin arms, thinking that if she thought about it really hard, the weapons would be summoned or something. However, nothing happened, and she could already see the woobat growing more and more agitated in the air, its beating wings getting even louder. Gritting her teeth, Mirai tried to summon the fires in her throat again, but the familiar heat didn't come either.

The woobat let out a loud, angry cry, before diving straight towards Mirai, her wings glowing brightly. The axew dove out of the way just in time, rolling to the right just as the woobat crashed onto the area she had been standing on seconds before. Mirai steadied herself on her feet and, frustrated that her tactics weren't working, simply dashed towards the woobat and attempted to punch her, since her back was exposed.

However, like before, her palm forcibly opened and her nails glowed white, before they slashed against the woobat's back. The sound of cloth tearing echoed in the cave chamber, and the woobat screeched in pain. It flew back up, hissing and spitting at her, before the Wild Pokemon's heart mask suddenly started glowing a light purple. Mirai felt a vibration in her head; soft, but there. She winced but shook it off and jumped up to the woobat, about to scratch it once more, but then –

"Mirai! To your right!"

Shido's warning caused the axew to instinctively change directions and she ended up doing a messy backflip and crashing onto the ground behind her. When her vision cleared, she saw another Wild Pokemon; this one looked a lot more ladylike than the woobat, albeit, it still had a crazed look in its eyes. Growling, it advanced on Mirai steadily, and took the axew by surprise as it slammed into her all of a sudden and clamped its teeth on her arm, sinking its teeth into her flesh.

Mirai screamed – I am taking a bath after this for the love of all that is holy – and kicked the pokemon off, wiping the blood off of her arm and standing back up unsteadily. Beside her, Shido was armed with his sword and eyeing the two pokemon carefully.

"I'll take care of the minccino," he whispered. "The woobat's all yours."

She nodded; the minccino was probably the new Wild Pokemon that had appeared. Readying herself, she observed her surroundings for a bit – the chamber they were in was rocky and craggy, with several rocks jutting upwards from the ground. Along with that, the chamber wasn't very big; it was less a chamber than simply a slightly wider path.

But… this was good enough for the inexperienced axew. She eyed the woobat carefully and tried predicting its movements from her past experience – she knew it was impatient and was prone to dive-bombing attacks. That heart mask of its probably had some secret ability hidden in it; otherwise, why would it carry the mask around everywhere? She had to be cautious around it as well.

Mirai leapt on one of the rocks and used that as leverage, taking off and latching on to the woobat. It screeched and tried kicking the axew off, but Mirai held on tight, biting onto the Wild Pokemon's arm and scratching at the woobat's face as violently as possible. Its wings flapped intensely, desperately trying to keep their user in the air, but the both of them plummeted down to the bottom anyway.

The woobat flipped the both of them over so Mirai would hit the ground first; its wings now limp and only beating weakly, tired from so much activity. The axew gritted her teeth, and all of a sudden, jabbed her two fingers in the woobat's stomach. With a howl of pain, it dropped its guard, allowing Mirai to re-flip them and use the Wild Pokemon's body as leverage and jump towards the nearest rock, landing unsteadily and having to grasp the tip of it to keep from falling over.

When the bat pokemon crashed to the ground, it created an average sized cloud of smoke that obscured vision amongst the other fighters; Shido and the minccino. Obviously, the minccino wasn't used to navigating without a clear vision, so it growled and stumbled through the smoke, attempting to feel its way towards its enemy.

Shido, on the other hand, wasn't used to the sudden block of vision as well. However, he knew better than to try and stumble blindly through the dust and lithely jumped up, landing on a jutting rock higher than normal. There, he could clearly see a disturbance in the cloud of smoke – must be the minccino – and, clutching his sword, traced its probable path and leapt.

He felt a rush of air as he fell into the cloud of smoke, and then colliding with something. There was a loud, offended howl, and he felt something crash onto his side. The smoke had relatively cleared by now, so Shido could see the panting minccino as it started charging for another tackle attack. The snivy quickly jumped over it with surprising agility and, shocked, the Wild Pokemon's focus was lost. It swiveled around to try charging once again, but Shido intercepted its dash and stabbed the tip of his sword right next to its stomach, near the liver. The minccino cried out in pain, and Shido pulled his sword out of its body. Doubling over, it howled and convulsed for a moment in a pool of its own blood, before going still.

Nearby, Mirai winced at the bloody sight. "Does this… really happen often?" she asked as Shido's sword dissipated into thin air.

He nodded reluctantly. "For some reason, Wild Pokemon are getting more and more aggressive than the norm… it probably has something to do with the Mystery Dungeons popping up all over as well." He looked away with a reminiscing look in his eyes, before shaking his head. "Let's go. We're nearly there. Oh and… you… were kinda good back there."

"H… Huh?"

The snivy covered his face with both hands, clearly embarrassed. "N-Nothing! Now, come on! Let's go already!"

"Alright, alright… don't get your panties in a twist, punk."

Ragged Mountain – Eastern Entrance

"Ahh! Sunlight…!" Shido cried out in joy, collapsing on the sandy ground at the same time. "I'm so tired and hungry… ahh, I want to sleep on a soft bed…"

Mirai let out a tired sigh of relief as well as she leaned on the cave wall. "Finally… I thought it'd never end…"

The snivy nodded in agreement, before his eyes slowly drifted upwards. The sun had already started to set, something that caused his eyes to snap open and his body to regain all energy he had lost. Jumping up, he grabbed Mirai's wrist and dragged her along with him as he dashed forward, running on adrenaline alone. "We gotta go! Oh, man, it's five minutes past the meeting time! I'm dead! Dead!"

"H-Hey! I can run by myself, you know!" Mirai protested, attempting to pull away, but Shido had an iron grip.

With that, the snivy led his new friend into one of the strangest, most bizarre, and mind-wrecking adventures ever.

Huh. Thanks for reading until the end! A total of 4k words this chapter, and while I can't promise anything, I hope it continues that way.

So. OCs. By submitting an OC (via PM, preferably), please make sure you're alright with me controlling them in every possible way, because I can and I probably will. I'll make sure to ask for your consent first, of course, but I can't guarantee it. They'll be introduced as early as I can, though I can't promise anything, once more.

MANDATORY:

Name (no need for a last name, although you can put one in if you feel the need to do so):

Age (preferably around 15-18; if you have a reason they should be older or younger, put it in!):

Gender:

Species (first or second evolutionary stage here! But if they're a super-successful pokemon from another Team, I guess anything goes. No legendaries, by the way!):

Level:

Moveset:

Ability:

Physical Appearance (hair color/length/style, eye color, skin color, etc):

Any defining features (scars, birthmarks, wings, etc)?:

Clothing:

Weapon/s:

Battle Style (be as descriptive as possible!):

Personality:

Backstory:

Speech Pattern (something they would say; two or more, please!):

Story Role (plot-relevant? Only there for one chapter? Part of the main Team? Anything, you name it!):

Are you okay with me killing them off? (There's a 50/50 chance I will and will not kill them. Cross your fingers. Also, note that this is here because, well, plot!):

OPTIONAL (fill this in if you feel like it! uwu):

Likes:

Dislikes:

Fears:

Any secrets?:

Hobbies:

Strengths (besides their type advantage and disadvantages):

Weaknesses (same from above):

Other (something else I forgot?):

I look forward to seeing all your OCs, everyone! Also, if they're part of a Team, send in around 2-4 members so I won't get too overloaded. Besides that, you can write as much as you want; I love reading your OC submissions! :3

PS: Merry Christmas, everyone! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday!

Marei,12/24/13