The moon shone bright over the mountain valley as a car stopped next to a sandy beach. While few were around to see it, the sound of laughter echoed loud across the water as the occupants stumbled out from the car. “Quick, let’s go, before anyone sees us,” a brunette woman giggled, her gait erratic. She led her partner down the grassy hill to the beach and pulled him onto the sand.

As the two came close together for an embrace, a calloused hand pressed against her shoulder. “C’mon. How about we go for a quick splash?” he suggested, his voice sending shivers down her spine. While the man was quick to start removing his shirt, the brunette kicked her shoes off before the two ran towards the shore barefoot. However, the brunette barely pulled ahead before she suddenly tripped over something and fell on her face.

Despite the momentary pain and faint tingling, she couldn’t help giggling at the accident. Pushing herself up slightly, the brunette turned back to look at her partner. Her amusement turned to confusion at the sight of his paling, frightened face. When he pointed a shaky hand at her legs, she glanced down only to scream in terror.

Take a quick jump, duck under the blow, start mining-

“Gotcha!” Marcus exclaimed, snapping Derek out of his focus. With a quick combo, the bulbous plant snapped out of its pot to slam into a blocky being.

“Goddamnit!” Derek cursed when Marcus’s Piranha Plant crashed into Steve, sending him flying off-screen and taking the last stock. Despite the harsh loss though, Derek couldn’t help but laugh as Marcus treated the KO with a series of teabags. As the victory screen declared his friend a winner, Derek tossed his controller down. “Well, I think that’s enough of my ass getting handed to me like a short-order cook,” he commented, earning chuckles from Marcus.

With the match now over, Derek hoisted himself out of the couch. His back bent backwards as he stretched, before he finally stood back up. As his stomach faintly rumbled, Derek tapped his leg then asked, “Well, I’m hungry. What do you want for snacking?”

“Tacos sound good,” Marcus commented, momentarily distracted with closing the game. With a quick phone call, Derek was left waiting. As Marcus put his Switch away, he seemed to pause before he asked, “By the way, Derek, have you seen the recent Pokemon vids?”

“No, not really,” Derek asked, sitting up in intrigue, “Did they finally reveal some details about the new Unite update?” If they actually ended up choosing Clefable over Arcanine, he was going to be pissed…

“Oh, it’s not about that,” Marcus commented, and pulled his phone out, “It’s a new trend going on in the found footage style.” At that comment, alarms began to faintly ring in the back of Derek’s head. As he sat up in worry, Marcus didn’t seem to notice while scrolling on his phone. After several seconds, he finally made a noise and said, “Here, check out this vid! It came out earlier today.”

Taking the offered phone, Derek watched with trepidation as the video began to play. At first, the video seemed harmless, overlooking a large span of farmland. While the panoramic view continued for a few seconds, a sudden cry made the camera shift hard. After a swift blur, the video soon focused on a bird resting on a fencepost. At first glance, it looked like an oversized barn swallow, the bird’s figure easily covering the fence top. As the two began to call it all sorts of names though, ranging from ‘flying blue chicken’ to ‘plump pole poultry’, any sense of normality dropped when the bird glared at them. With unnaturally sharp eyes, it let out a sharp shriek before it flew away into the foliage. While the video quality made it seem like a crappy ‘found footage’, Derek’s gut told him that it wasn’t fabricated…

As the video ended, Derek hissed through his teeth. If that video was taken, how many others had seen it? How many had encountered something like that? His curiosity and worry now peaked, Derek exited the video and began to scroll through the comments. Maybe there was a comment that said where they spotted it…

“So, what did you think?” Marcus suddenly commented, making Derek start, “It sure was super-realistic, wasn’t it?”

After a few minutes of panting, Derek eventually handed the phone back to his friend. “Well, it sure seemed real, though I don’t know if it was completely accurate. The eyes seemed a bit… off,” he commented, trying to hide his anxiety, “I think it could be touched up a bit, really.” Marcus gave him a look at that, but just shrugged and pocketed his phone.

The following hour passed surprisingly fast after the tacos arrived. Granted, ordering some ‘ass-blaster enchiladas’ probably hadn’t been the best decision, let alone ordering some of the house’s ‘reaper’s devil sauce’. After he finally pulled his ass out of the bathrooms, Derek sped out of the campus and towards Titania’s research lab. With some careful drifting and rapid gear-shifting, Derek managed to hit the dirt roads in the rural area in less than fifteen minutes.

When he finally squealed to a halt near the building, Derek hopped out of the car and ran towards the lab. He pushed the door open hard and ran through the rooms. After looking in the main room, the kitchen, and the surveillance room, he finally pushed one door open to find Titania and Ashley standing over Sparkplug’s still-new boxy form. “Guys, I’ve got some bad news,” he exclaimed, causing both to look up.

The two glanced at each other, and Ashley held up Sparkplug, the Charjabug covered in electrical patches. “Go ahead, he’s listening,” Ashley told him, the Bug-type squirming in her grip.

Derek gave Ashley a deadpan stare, then eventually shook his head. “Never mind the terminology for now,” Derek commented and pulled his phone out, “I was hanging out with my friend, with the exams over, but he showed me some videos I think are rather important to what goes on here.” Once he opened the page, Derek projected it to a screen in the room before he pointed at the ‘presentation’. “Long story short, it seems that our friendly visitors haven’t been limited to only around here,” Derek commented as the video began to play.

While the professor and Ashley didn’t see what he was talking about at first, they began to grow concerned when the Taillow appeared on-screen. “Was this the only one that was posted online?” Ashley asked, tapping her hands on the counter.

“It doesn’t seem like it, though there doesn’t seem to be too many,” Derek commented. Pausing the video, Derek began to scroll through the Reddit page for other videos. “A Lillipup in Ohio, some Krabby in Spain, a couple videos about Diglett in Mexico. The oldest one seems to be some shaky footage of a fish Pokemon school out in the Indian Ocean five months back, but I can’t tell the species.”

Titania hummed in thought and stepped over to the desktop. “That is worrisome, though I suppose it does make sense,” she mused as she opened the page on the computer, “Then again, I suppose it does make some sense they slipped under the radar. It’s not like I’m working with a global satellite system here. Or even state-wide…” As she began to study the videos, downloading them and seemingly checking their site, a thought seemed to hit her.

Before the professor could vocalize it, a sudden alert made her open an email. While the angle meant Derek couldn’t see the email, Titania’s hardening expression confirmed the subject wasn’t a light-heartened greeting. “However, it seems that we’ll have to put it off until later. We’ve got a problem that needs to be dealt with immediately,” Titania commented, grabbing her research bag.

Derek was about to ask her what the problem was, but he was cut off when she ran to grab her Pokeballs. “Apparently, there was an incident last night at the public section of Glenson Lake over in Lincoln, near the main public beach,” she commented as she checked her supplies, “While the details are left vague, the city issued a biohazard quarantine around the area. The campus has sent out emails to the staff to let them know to avoid it, but the injuries suggest the Pokemon is far too aggressive to leave out.”

Derek winced hard at the comment. However, when Titania began to grab bottles of water, worry began to fill him. “What… what kind of injuries caused them to block the area off as a ‘biohazard contamination’?” Ashley asked, voicing the question that had been building in Derek’s mind.

Titania glanced at the two, a gallon-jug of drinking water in hand, and let out a sigh. “I’ll admit, with how little they shared, I’ll admit the details are left for imagination,” she commented. Attaching the water bottle to her bag, she gravely told them, “However, when a limb is nearly amputated from how dehydrated it became, I think it’s best we take careful steps out there.”

Derek gulped at the comment and recalled Sparkplug before he grabbed some items from the ‘community bin’. As he pocketed some Revives, a thought struck him, and he glanced at the professor. “Wait, if a Pokemon popped up at the lake, why didn’t you detect it?”

Titania paused at the question, her hand on a bag. “Now that I think about it, it likely did detect it about two or three days ago,” she answered, looking frustrated at the idea, “However, with it being finals week, I’ve been swamped with correcting papers. And I will likely be stuck looking at them until next Thursday.” While Derek soured at the answer, the comment seemed to rile her up, and she added, “Now, come on, let’s find this issue! The sooner it’s done, the sooner I can get finished with this backlog of student printed messes!”

Derek grew affronted at the comment, but the rush led them all out the door. Within a few minutes, the trio of vehicles were driving down the road, barely above the speed limit. With the sun already setting deep behind the mountains, the massive shadows seemed to cloak them as they drove through Iron Springs and past the town of Lincoln. As they drove down the state highway, Derek hummed to himself as he looked up details on his phone…

Glenson Lake. A normally placid lake, it was originally formed when the county power plant was built in 1934. With the area quickly swelling from rainfall and meltwater, the landscape was eventually transformed by the National Park Service to become a public park. It was refurbished to be a wildlife preservation area in 2003, but some banks were still off-limits to the public. However, the general comments said it was highly valued for birdwatching and hunting for loose gems.

With his mind focused on the details, the red blinker was the only warning Derek got before Titania took a sharp left. Soon realizing he had missed the turn; Derek dropped his phone and took a sharp u-turn back around. After he drove back to the drive-in, he pulled up behind Ashley’s car. As he stepped outside, he looked around with cautious trepidation. It only took him a few seconds to spot the group by the blocked off area, and he quietly rushed over to them.

With the sun nearly set, he quickly walked up to them and warily asked, “So, where do you think the Pokemon might be hiding?”

Ashley gave him a look at the comment but glanced around the beach with concern. “Well, from what Titania said in the comment, I believe it was most likely a draining move, like Mega Drain or Giga Drain,” she pondered, looking around before she stared at the nearby bushes, “As such, I’m willing to bet good money the Pokemon’s hiding in the bushes or grasses.” Derek nodded in agreement at the assessment, but Ashley hummed before she added, “However, it could be a Water-type hiding in the waterfront, too. God knows how many of them know Absorb or Leech Life.”

Seeing the two become indecisive over it all, Titania eventually let out a huff and pulled out a Pokeball. “You know what? We’ll just do a wide-range search,” she declared as she let out her Bronzor, “I’ll take the forest side, since Bronzor can resist any Grass-type and Poison-type moves. Ashley, you can use your Grass-types to deal with any Water-types in the water. Derek… You can be the literal middleman in case they ambush one of us.”

While Derek let out a snort at the comment, there was little protest as they spread out. Ashley let out her squad of Exeggcute, and the sextet quickly bounced along the side of the tide. With the others already hunting for the Pokemon, Derek let out the ever-reliable Indy and knelt down. “Alright Indy, I need you to be on top of your sniffing skills today,” he told the Zigzagoon, faint worry tingeing his voice, “The Pokemon we’re hunting today has already maimed someone, so we need to be very careful.”

Indy whined at the risk, but he lowered his head and began to sniff around the ground. The human and Pokemon slowly walked down the beachside, the Pokemon’s nose dragging across the ground. As a cold wind blew across the beach, Derek slowed when he spotted something out of place in the quarantined area. Bending down again, Derek could only let out a ‘huh’ at the red plastic shovel left carelessly in the sand. As the sand began to shift in the wind, Derek leaned closer to look at it…

“Derek! Get away from that!” Ashley finally called out, causing Derek to look away from the shovel, “That’s a Sandygast!” Derek stared blankly at her for a few seconds, only for his eyes to go wide when realization hit him. Scrambling to action, Derek grabbed Indy and stumbled back in a panic. As his shoes kicked up sand, the beach seemed to erupt upwards in front of him. Piles of sand built up rapidly, forming a large dome, before two large pillars arose on the sides. With the pile forming the rough shape of a structure a story tall, the plastic shovel rose to the top before it slowly spun like a satellite.

“Palossss…” the living sand castle finally moaned, staring with sunken sockets into the distance. Derek gulped at the sight of the Pokemon looming over him, and tried to back away. However, when Indy let out a growl, the Palossand’s gaze locked onto them. The Pokemon’s moan grew in intensity, and Derek could barely move a few more feet back before the sand started to spin under him. In seconds, the velocity turned it into a dust devil around him and Indy.

As the flying grit scratched Derek’s skin, he scrambled to pull out another Pokeball. When his fingers ran over the raised pattern of a leaf, he yanked the ball out and threw it high. “Bramble, use Vine Whip!” he shouted as the ball opened, only to quickly regret it when he inhaled a mouthful of loose sand. While the Tangela’s body was blurred when it landed outside the sandy whirlwind, Derek could hear it cry out before glowing tendrils began to assault the Palossand.

As the sandy Ghost-type moaned from the barrage, Derek could see green bullets start bombarding the living beast. With the specter distracted, the speed of the sandstorm seemed to die down. Derek took the opportunity and rushed towards the far side of the storm. Cradling Indy close to his chest, the winds nearly knocked Derek over as he pushed his way through. With deep steps, Derek finally jumped through the ring of sand and landed outside it.

Now out of the arena trap, Indy jumped out of Derek’s grip and the two turned back to the battle. As he saw Titania let out her Bronzor and attack with a Dark-type move, Derek hissed before he began to hum in thought. “Shit, what’s it weak to, again?” he asked, trying to think it over. Palossand’s a Ghost and Ground-type, so it’s immune to Electric, Fighting and Normal-type attacks. However, it’s weak to Dark, Ghost, Ice, Water, and Grass-types, sooo…

After a few frantic seconds, he glanced over at Ashley and called out, “Ashley, have Gala and the Exeggcute use Grass-type moves to soften him up. Titania, have your Bronzor and Munna try to knock him out with Hypnosis! I’ll try to weaken the body with you, Ashley!” While Titania didn’t seem to hear his words, using what seemed to be a Dark-type move to hammer holes in the Pokemon’s loosely formed body, Ashley soon let her Appletun out and the Grass-types soon began to fire a storm of Bullet Seeds at the Ghost-type.

While the Palossand didn’t seem to react heavily to the attacks, the impacts quickly punched holes in the sandy body while it only sent waves of sand towards the Pokemon. When Indy slammed into the Ghost-type’s body, causing a noticeable dent, it finally noticed what was happening and let out a low howl of pain. The waves of sand died down momentarily, only for the sand to now funnel back into the Palossand.

With the body starting to repair itself, the Palossand reached down and snatched Bramble up in its column of an arm. While shocked at first, Derek was soon horrified when a green glow enveloped Tangela. The bundle of vines began to shrivel up, crying out in pain as the Palossand seemed to drain its vitality. Derek looked around frantically to find Bramble’s Pokeball, trying to save Tangela. He soon spotted it hidden between two small hills of sand.

As Bramble’s cries weakened, he sprinted over and snatched it up. “Bramble, return!” he exclaimed, recalling the Grass-type before it became a dried bundle of vines. As the red glow overtook the green drain, the Palossand let out a disappointed moan. However, when it began to look around, a wild glare now filled its eyes. Derek gulped before he grabbed another Pokeball. If it grabbed at Indy or the other Pokemon, it was too risky to let it grab them…

The Palossand’s arm rose as it prepared to grab someone. However, before it could lash out again, a deluge of water suddenly struck it from the side. With the water blasting the Pokemon’s body, Derek stared in shock before he turned towards the source of the water blasts. The streams seemed to shoot out of the lake at first glance, the water shooting straight from the lake’s surface. But as one sandy limb came crumbling down, smooth heads began to emerge from the lake and draw closer.

“Quag, Quagsire!” a large blue, bipedal amphibian declared as it lumbered out of the water. While it was commonly known for being dopey in the game, the sheer anger its beady eyes had made Derek shiver. Thankfully, the Quagsire’s ire wasn’t directed at the humans, and it drew back before it fired a new deluge at the Palossand. As the living sandcastle crumbled under the flow, several Wooper hopped out of the water and fired Water Guns at any patches. Within seconds, the Palossand’s body had collapsed in, turning into a wet pile that barely held together.

Now that the Palossand reduced to a moaning pile of silt, Derek grabbed a Great Ball from his bag. “Alright, and here comes the pitch!” Derek shouted and threw it at the insensate Ghost-type. The Great Ball easily landed, and the Ghost-type was sucked up in the capsule. Derek watched with bated breath as it shook once, twice, three times, four times… five times…

When the Palossand popped out again, Derek cursed before he grabbed another Pokeball. Thankfully, Titania was on top of the ball, and as Derek expanded the UltraBall, she threw another Great Ball at the Ghost-type. With the second capsule easily enveloping the Palossand, it only took a few shakes before the Great Ball dinged in success. As Indiana let out a cry in victory, Derek let out a hard breath before he finally fell on his butt.

“Thank god it finished so quickly,” he muttered, now feeling the adrenaline and sweat running down his back. Looking around at the destruction the Palossand had caused, Derek soon winced at how much damage the Palossand had caused. When he heard something walk over, he looked up to find the Quagsire giving him a dopey grin. “Hey, thanks for helping out with that,” he told the slick Water-type, offering a hand for a handshake. The Quagsire gave a dopey cheer at that and shook the offered hand eagerly. While he squirmed in the Pokemon’s damp, two-handed grip, Derek gave the Quagsire an easy grin and said, “Anyways, I’m afraid that this isn’t the safest place for you and your buddies. Could you let us catch you for easy transport?”

“Come on, don’t leave so soon. That’s quite the interesting posse you’ve got there,” a voice commented out of the blue. Derek and the Quagsire let out cries of surprise at the voice, the Pokemon falling over in shock. Fearing a possible ambush, Ashley and the professor began looking around for where the voice came from. Before the three could form a battle strategy, bright floodlights suddenly lit up the area and made the Quagsire and Wooper flee back to the water.

Holding his hands up for shade, Derek squinted uphill at the lightsource. As his eyes worked to adjust, he soon let out an audible gulp at the vehicle directly facing them.

“Oh, please explain in detail, Mr. Wattson,” Officer Henderson said next to his cop car, the headlights catching the three trainers dead in the spotlight, “I think there’d be plenty of folks who would like to hear it back at the police station.”