Laughter rang out and filled the woods to the brim. The laughter contained a huge mix of positive emotions that couldn't be kept still and needed to be released out somehow. The source of that voice and the cause for the criminal's distrust was the very same boy they had written off earlier, determined to be naive and seen as an easy job.

And thus it perplexed both Hazel and Chestnut completetly how this weak-minded and inexperienced boy could laugh in such desperate times. Did he go crazy from all the stress?

That was the only possible explanation both could think of at this moment. It wasn't far-fetched for a young child to lose his sanity and become delusional after going through all the hardships they had thrown at him until now.

It didn't matter either way for them. His time remaining alive was running low, his fate sealed and carved into a solid stone. Heck, even a miracle was too late to save him now, only if a god-like personaly descended onto earth they might consider a retreat and call the the day off. But fat chance this was going to happen!

.....

The Fire Spin gradually cooled down and only small dancing fire snakes remained of the previous confinement of blazing heat. Houndour couldn't keep up the attack for prolonged amounts of time and simultaneously fight a difficult enemy like that Sniebel!

Even though it had been weakend greatly and kept firmly in check by Zubat it wasn't on the level that Houndour could become carefree and let down its guards. The Sniebel's claws were just as dangerous as they had been when finishing the Bellsprout earlier in the battle.

Both Zubat and Houndour had witnessed the swift end of their comrade and knew to fear those claws and not let them make any sort of contact if possible. The Zubat was fairly safe, high up in the air, it was the Houndour that had suffered more than once under those deadly claws that were like the scythes of the reaper himself! Several bloodly wounds on its body being proof of their oppoents strenght and power!

That's why it needed to let go of the area created by Fire Spin to recharge its energy and keep the Sniebel busy while maintaining a safe distance.

This lightened the burden on the boy and the Sniebel for a little but it didn't change the stalemate they were currently in. Sniebel couldn't keep fighting forever, while their enemies only stalled for time and deliberately elongated the fight and kept avoiding attacks instead of counter-attacking much.

It was a clear plot targeting Sniebel's stamina!

The Sniebel knew the situation wasn't in their favour at all and looked back at the young human child it had tried to protect all this while. Should he have to left him up to his own fate and saved its own skin instead? It wasn't too late, the strength he had left inside his body which it had conserved quitely was more than enough for a quick escape. Why put more risk on itself than necessary?

Doubts flashed through its head but it couldn't come to a real decision yet.

It was in that moment that something unexpected happened. A huge change fell upon the boy's body, whereafter the child suddenly started laughing madly without any obvious reason.

The Sniebel wasn't knowledgable about humans, but considering the grave situation both of them were currently stuck in, was there really any reason to laugh at all? Or did that child just go mad?

Whatever it was, the Sniebel instinctively knew something major had happened to the boy. It's senses were very sharp, sharper than most Pokemon it had ever crossed paths with. His senses had never betrayed him before, and right now they told him a big transformation had taken place inside that boy, for good or for worse.

However, right now was a very bad for having any useless stray thought and quickly focused on the enemies it needed to deal with first.

...

"HAHAHA hahahaha, hahahaha, hahaha, ha ha ... ha, huh ... huh!!!!", the boy kneeling on the ground spent all the breath in his lungs to laugh as much as he could, give a vent to all the pent up feelings he wasn't able to unleash in any physical way possible before. He did it for as long as possible, savouring every breath in and out as if they could be his last ones on this earth.

And damn was it refreshing!

"Finally, I am out ... huhhhh!", he let out a long and satisfying sigh and made a wide grinning expression, resembling a prisoner that got out of jail and finally had a date with the outside world again, the air, the sunlight, his senses of touch, smell, hearing and sight.

Even the fricking pain assaulting every inch of his body just reminded him of how good it felt to be alive! Had he turned into fetishist or what?!

The image people would compare this boy with would be ... a mad man!

His sigh slowly took on a more reserved tone, and in addition to the rather positive feelings, another pack of emotions formed up. At first slight confusion, then a little bit of anger and then even more resignation and helplessness.

His wide smile curved up wrly, a far cry from the initial festive mood demonstrated by him.

"Just how did everything turn out like this? Is this a joke, god?", he asked silently, not expecting an answer anyway.

Memories flashed by in his mind, memories that Arthur shouldn't possess and which he could never have dreamed of even in his wildest dreams!

They couldn't be experiences from a 12 year old child, no, they weren't his to begin with!

These memories belonged to a young man, born to spanish and german parents, raised in the big metropole city known as Frankfurt in Germany, west of Europe.

He grew up loved by his family and with no desires at all, as all of them had been fulfilled already. He spent most of his time playing his super super super favourite ultimate game, the best game in the world you could say ... srsly, it's the best, no doubt.

But all this came to an abrupt end when a mysterious man with silver long hair appeared in his apartment, narrating a crazy story to him and presenting him with a wristband that got him into an even crazier situation, something he still couldn't get over with easily.

He set forth on a journey, or rather he was set on it forcefully, that began with him losing his flesh and ended with entering another persons dying body instead!

He had stepped over the bridge of the endless void to cross into a completely different world filled with unbelievable fantastical creatures that people in his old world saw as fairy tales and characters of children's fantasies!

*Sighhhh*

Atiqo had somehow made his way into the Pokemon World!

"It really is ... the Pokemon World ...", he raised his head to look at the battle unfolding in front of his eyes. He recognised all of the creatures instantly, even though their plasticity and the realistic dimensions clashed with the images he was raised with, they still resembled the Pokemon he so dearly loved!!!

"Zubat, Sniebel, Houndour ... they are real, they are really real, hahaha, I can't believe it even if it happens right in front of my own eyes ... oh, no, not my eyes ...", his rising excitement took a turn for the worse because he was reminded of the state he was currently unwillingly stuck in.

His own body was gone, and he had occupied another person's body instead somehow. As ridiculous as it sounded, that was the inflexible reality for Atiqo right now!

Atiqo's mind was still in shambles, his memories all over the place, gradually coming back into the right order.

After entering the vast dark space various forces snapped and bit at his body until nothing was left. And yet he still survived somehow and guided by yet another mysterious force he was put to sleep inside this child's crippled and severely injured body!

It was a deep slumber, and one that continuously kept his mind numb and still.

After some time glimpses of the real world got sent into his consciousness somehow, his awareness redeveloped little by little. Pictures of a hospital, a huge city and a mansion filled his thoughts, but the things that truly made his spirit shiver with passion and excitement were these creatures everyone else seemingly took for granted!

Heresy! Ungrateful bastards! Why don't you kneel down and worship these incredible cute beings and offer your lives to them!?!?

This and many other thoughts swirled through his mind space all this while.

But the mysterious laws governing his sleep kept him from gaining more energy and he fell from his awakened state time and time again. Restraining him from fully awakening.

It was only recently that this suppression weakened significantly and his self was able to gather enough strength to manifest itself more and more.

It wasn't long for Atiqo to realize that his strengthening stood in direct correlation with the weakening of this body's main host consciousness, the young boy Arthur McNeal.

Atiqo's mind was slowly influencing Arthur's behaviour and personality in several subtle ways, and vice verca.

Even now Atiqo could still feel the emotional pain that this poor young child had been through. The loss of Arthur's father hurting deeply in his heart as if these feeling belonged to Atiqo himself, it was very similar to his own experiences when losing his grandfather who had played a huge part in Atiqo's live before.

It was thanks to these experiences that Atiao wasn't overwhelmed and swept up by the torrents of emotions barraging his heart.

He could only feel sympathetic and great admiration for that young boy who shouldered so many burdens and troubles on his own.

But it was ironically thanks to these negative struggles and traumas in Arthur's psyche that Atiqo could gain more strength and influence over the command center.

And finally it was Arthur himself who pleaded for help after not being able to handle the situation alone any longer. He literally granted Atiqo the permission to save him and take care of this mess, even though it happened unknowingly.

Too many thoughts and ideas built up in Atiqo's mind. Hundreds of questions arose but sadly there was no one to answer them. He could only faintly remember a message that that guy ... Cornelius was his name?

Cornelius left a message, something that shouldn't even be possible as Atiqo definitely didn't forget him turning into light-dust right in front of his eyes!

Anyway, a lot of crazy things occurred till now, what was a man's ability to turn into luminous radiant particles even worth nowadays?

"The message, urgh, what was it about again ...?", his head started hurting, throbbing every second since his reawakening now.

He hadn't recovered at all, all his senses were out of control and this made him feel very confused and sick.

The problem was - Atiqo observed his surroundings with a worried expression - the situation at hand didn't allow him any comfort or time to recuperate!

The battle was getting very risky in this moment, Atiqo had watched all the events happening right through Arthur's young eyes.

One opponent down, two new appeared and put even more pressure on them.

The Sniebel was evading the attacks from Zubat when possible and tried defeating the Houndour first. Smart plan, yet the enemies teamwork was flawless and drove the Sniebel into a tight corner.

But Atiqo wasn't worried about that, somehow he got the feeling that the Sniebel hadn't yet gone all out, waiting for some fortunate opportunity maybe?

That was the mistake!

"L-listen ...ehrrrm...", Atiqo wasn't used to this new body yet, even controlling his voice to speak felt very unfamiliar, even alien to him.

"Am I still a human?", he silently wondered.

"Cough cough! Ehrm, listen up Sniebel! You have to stop playing around and finish that Houndour already!", Atiqo reminded the fighting Sniebel urgently.

The Snibel looked at that weird human child, what did it want now? It was the first time they communicated, so it looked back and threw confused glances at Atiqo.

Yet Atiqo didn't have the time and leisure to question wether communication with Pokemon was possible or not. He repeated with more strength to his words:

"I don't know if you realised it yet but Houndour is a damn Fire-Type Pokemon! You're Ice/Dark! If that Houndour has recharged its battery you will be burned to a crisp, so hurry up and finish it!", he also didn't have the time to coat his words in sugar and candy, every second was precious and couldn't be wasted.

His long years of playing Pokemon taught him that it was never a good omen or start when a Pokemon battled against another Pokemon with a type advantage.

Of course things weren't 'Black' and 'White' in the games

(A/N: Pun not intended ^^)

but continuing this battle for any longer would definitely play against them, and shove them deeper into the enemy's trap!

"Don't worry! The Houndour is just a Paper Tiger! It's base defense is only at a pitiful 35 points! Just dodge its fire attacks and finish it quickly!", he shouted out his tips and recommendations in case Sniebel didn't hear him properly.

Atiqo admitted it, he was a huge nerd when it came to Pokemon and was aware of a lot of important stats of most Pokemon in the game. Or at least of those he liked, like Houndour for example.

The Houndour at this time looked confused in Atiqo's direction. Did it just got insulted?

Of course Atiqo's analysis was deeply flawed, as several other factors also came into play determining the base stat values of Pokemon in the games.

Maybe the Houndour had a higher level, was trained into a tank and might be able to battle for several more hours non-stop.

Another problem was that his knowledge was only limited to the Pokemon world of the games! Yet this was reality!

He wasn't naive enough to believe he got stuck in some kind of Game World where mysterious attribute points and fantastical systems played any sort of role. Or he at least couldn't be sure of that yet.

(A/N: lolol)

He had no shred of doubt that not all if not any mechanics and information from the games could be applied to this foreign Pokemon-like world.

The Sniebel heard the human child speak, it didn't fully comprehend the words but got the gist of it. He felt indignant for a second and screamed back at Atiqo:

"Kriiiiier!", do you think I am a fledgling that just crawled out of its egg!? OF COURSE I know fire is dangerous, dumbass!, it seemed to say.

Its anger subsided quickly though and it pointed at the air above them, and Arthur instantly noticed the problem Sniebel faced.

The Zubat flapped carefully in the air and stalked the Sniebel like a predator did to its prey. It was fully focused on every of the Sniebel's movements and grabbed any chance available to attack with a sting or sonic wave attack!

Sniebel got a few lucky strikes at the Houndour in the beginning, but that was just because Zubat and Houndour required some time to get used to the terrain and match their tactics with one another. After that both worked like well-oiled machines and kept Sniebel under close control without needing further instructions from their master.

Atiqo saw how their tandem tactics worked seamlessly without any openings and weak spots!

It was a well trained duo, and no matter how much Atiqo loathed these criminals that even attacked small children for some quick money, he couldn't find any faults in their Pokemon's teamwork and chemistry.

"Sniebel could have easily beaten down the Houndour, I see. The only way to break out of this stalemate is by an offensive from the outside!", Atiqo analysed the situation and as a pseudo-veteran of the 'Battlefield' he also immediately prepared a solution for this issue.

Sadly he wasn't a real Pokemon Trainer with a Pokemon to summon, nor did he possess his countless Lv.100 Pokemon from his gaming accounts. That meant there was only way left to go ...

But then a mocking voice interrupted his train of thought unpolitely:

"Kyakakaka, you really went mad, child. Discussing battle plans right in front of your enemy, as if you had any chance left, kyakakaak. Ignorance is a bliss, truly, espcially for small weaklings such as yourselves. And what's all this talk about points and stats??? Do you still think this is a game!

Hmph, Hunter, show him that playtime is over!", Hazel ordered the Houndour.

The Houndour let out a sneer and opened its mouth, fire energy gathering in the center of its jaws and it shot out another ring of fire! The Fire Spin had successfully recharged and was used promptly after!

"Kyakakakaka, tell me boy, how does it feel, being roasted alive and turned into a juicy meaty dish! When we're finished I am gonna feet your remains to my Pokemon so be sure to rotate properly, kyakakaka, do you hear me? KYAKAKAKAKA!!!", Hazel let out a mad cackeling laughter, amused by his own brilliant humour.

"Ehhh, Haze, ... I think you should have a look on the place again.", Chestnut told him nervously.

"Why? The mission is resolved, all that's left is ...", Hazel was annoyed to get interrupted during his sweet moment but as his eyes swept over the fight scene, his expression grew dumbfounded all of a sudden,

"W-where, where is ... WHERE IS THAT BOY?!"