First Communications

As it flew, it looked around, taking in more of the Nature. It was warm, but only somewhat more than the metal tunnels it had come from. It had never seen anything in the world above, but even it could tell that something was wrong. Everything looked…broken, like something fundamental was fragmented. Some areas were missing color, some were floating, with holes beneath them. Was this what things were supposed to be like? Something told it no.
Images, memories that were not its own, flashed before it…
A world whole, bursting with life. It was flying, singing to itself, reveling in the joy of life. The sky was a brilliant blue, the sun a shining orange, the trees a verdant green. It flew down into the foliage, bouncing on plants, laughing in amusement. It went over to a river, looking into the crystal-clear water.
A pink face met its gaze…
Its eyes snapped open. What was that? Those were not its memories, not its thoughts. Terms, names for things, came into its mind. It looked down at its hands. They were gray, not the pink in the images. The world around it was gray, not the vibrancy of the images. It furrowed its brow in confusion, nothing made sense. Where was it, WHO was it? Answers must be with the face it saw; that little pink face. It was in the forest, maybe it was there now?
It flew down into the canopy.
It touched down in a wooded area. There were signs of others, beings that were vaguely in the memories. Creatures that looked like living plants. Names came to him: Budew, Sunkern, Oddish. Their species. In the memory, they had been happy, smiling at it. These ones looked mad, rabid. Almost as one, they screamed and charged it. Leaves flew at it, cutting it. Powders filled the air, making it cough. It did not like this. A blue aura surrounded it; psychic power flowed from within. The plants never stood a chance, their minds ripped apart from the force.
It did not understand what it did, the action had come unbidden. It had beaten them, potentially killed them. Killed? One of the terms from the memory, a thought of whatever, whoever, was the owner of that pink face.
It continued traveling through the woods. There were more of the rabid Pokémon, all of which fell before it. More species emerged, some walking on all fours, others flying with wings. Their names entering its mind: Rattata, Pidgey, Spearow. No matter, they were just as easy to defeat as the plants.
As it proceeded down through the winding paths, more and more fell before it. They were weak, it took less and less effort for it to take them out. Barely a flick was needed, then hardly a gaze. it was so easy, it started to find the fighting fun, it began making a similar sound to the one in the memories. It made a game out of the whole spectacle: for every leafy foe, it tried to beat a furry or feathery one. It found the counting fun.
After a while, it needed some more feathery or furry ones to keep the tally. It could sense a group of them ahead, more than enough to make the tally equal. There was another type as well, something it hadn’t encountered yet. It moved toward the cluster.

Marble ran as fast as he could, cursing his hubris and negligence. It was just a quick run to gather some Oran berries after a run on them for the pie making competition, it wasn’t supposed to go like this! He hadn’t sealed his bag properly, and the scent had attracted a couple of Pidgeys and Spearows. They had made such a noise chasing him, that more had joined the hunt, and before he knew it, he was outnumbered and on the verge of passing out. He couldn’t let that happen; he had grown up in this world, he knew the consequences. If he passed out, alone in the deep forest, then his odds of ever seeing home again were the same as his odds of seeing another Legendary Pokémon like that titan!
He had tried to fight them; he wasn’t bad in a fight after all, being speedy and tough for a Riolu, but they were flying types, he didn’t have coverage for them, and their beaks hurt! He broke into a clearing, chest burning from running, before tripping over a dang rock!

Marble rolled with the fall, it wasn’t the first time he had tripped, but as he got up, he saw his situation had gotten worse. The birds had spread out, cutting off any avenue of escape. He was surrounded!
There was a tension in the air; Marble’s eyes darted around, while the birds waited for some kind of signal to charge. He prepared himself mentally for what was to come.
A branch behind him broke.
The birds dove for him.
Marble braced himself.
Then an avalanche of rocks crushed them.
Marble was stunned. What just happened? He was preparing himself to meet his maker, then his attackers just…what?! He turned around to see what could have done that.
He had never seen a Pokémon like the one in front of him. It was tall, well over a metre taller than him, and lithe, with a large tail flicking behind it. It was glowing blue, especially its eyes, though its natural color seemed to be gray. Marble gulped. Whatever this Pokémon was, it was strong, and if it was psychic as he suspected, it would be even worse for him as a fighting type!

It was satisfied with its attack. Those feathered ones that it crushed bought the balance back to its count. But there was something new. It looked down at it, a small thing with wide eyes staring at it. The name for these entered its mind: Riolu. There was something different about it from the others it had encountered thus far, and not simply its species. All the others had a look in their eye and a shadow over their minds. They had attacked heedless of the risk. This little thing though, was just staring at it. Reaching out and touching its mind, it was not planning to attack it, if anything it was scared. Scared of it.

Marble gulped again. The Pokémon was not attacking him. It was just…staring at him. Was it friendly? There were still Pokémon in the wild areas that hadn’t lost their minds, or were they from another village perhaps? If it hadn’t attacked him already, then could he talk to them? He slowly got to his feet, doing his utmost to be as nonthreatening as possible. He was small and cute; he was a natural at that. The Pokémon eyed him with what he hoped was curiosity, as he carefully began to speak.
“Um, H-hello. Thank you very much for helping me.”

It heard a voice for the first time. The meaning of the words came to its mind. A greeting and a declaration of gratitude. It approached the small being.
Before Marble could blink, the unknown Pokémon was in front of him, looking down at him. His flight instincts screamed to run, but with that speed and his current health, that was a death sentence. All he could do was to look down at his feet and mumble.
“uum, I-I re-really app-ppreciate your…”
He was suddenly in the air, not a foot from its face, being forced to look into its eyes.
It did not like looking down at the Riolu, it seemed scared of it. More knowledge of interaction entered its mind, coming as it required. Eye-to-eye contact seemed to build trust, something useful for social interaction. It bought the tiny being to eye level.
This seemed to have the opposite of the desired effect; instead of being more expressive, the Riolu seemed close to passing out, either from hyperventilation or heart rate. It took a moment to think about how to proceed. Perhaps it wanted to be on the ground? It did not seem to possess the same capabilities as it did, after all. It gently lowered it back to the ground, before lowering itself down to their eye level.
It took all Marble had to not scream as he found himself staring into those feline eyes. His eyes were bugging out of his head, his breath was ragged, and his chest felt like it was about to explode. This is it, he thought, it’s going to crush me like it did to those Spearow and Pidgey. Then he felt himself floating back down. He landed on his butt, the shockwave reminding how injured he was, before looking up and seeing the being crouching down to look at him. What was this thing?

“YOU…ARE INJURED?”

The words smashed against Marble’s mind, making his eyes shake and teeth rattle. He grabbed his head, hoping that he wouldn’t remove his paws and see blood. He stuttered out a plea.
“P-please be quieter!”
It cocked its head to the side. Communicating seemed to cause the Riolu pain. It tried again, but lighter, as light as it could.
“You Are Injured?”
The voice was powerful and deep. Marble was able to hear it without feeling like his head was being ripped apart.
“Y-yes. Those Pidgey and Spearow, they- “
The being raised a hand. Water droplets from all around seemed to be summoned, circling the pair. Before Marble could comment, the droplets made contact with his skin, and instantly he felt better. It had healed him. If it had healed him, and saved him earlier, then it couldn’t be a bad guy, right?
“T-Thank You! Thank you so much!”
Marble was nearly in tears from relief. Not two minutes ago he thought he was dead, now this clearly powerful Pokémon had saved him! He had to show his gratitude!
“Here, please, have a berry! These are my favorite ones, they’re Pecha!”

The small being was grateful for its actions and seemed to be offering a payment of sorts. It was a food item. It had never eaten before, but it could see others in the visions doing so. They bit down and then swallowed. Simple enough to emulate, so It bit down (once) and tried to swallow. Then it found itself unable to breath.
(Marble uses Choking Hazard! It’s Super Effective!)
Marble was incredulous as he saw the Pokémon that had saved his life, demonstrated an incredible level of power, and even healed his injuries, was choking from trying to swallow a simple berry whole. It was turning blue, not from its psychic power, but from lack of air!
Marble had seen this before and knew what to do. There was something called the “Hem-lick” manoeuvre, Musashi had taught him how to do it; make a paw into a fist, place it about halfway up the belly, and quickly squeeze up and in. Marble clambered up its back, just barely able to reach around to form the grip. He pulled with all his diminutive might! Once, twice, a third! The berry, scarcely with a bitemark, popped out from its mouth.
Its eyes re-opened, its vision blurry and unfocused. As it stood up, shaking his head clear, it looked down at the Riolu. Had it tried to injure it? It reached into the baby’s mind to investigate but found there was no need; the waves of apology were emanating off of it.

“I- I- I- I - I didn’t mean to hurt you! I’m sorry!”

It was nearly in tears. Seeing the crying infant caused another vision to flash before its eyes…
It was back in the peaceful place, when bright color was in the world. It was looking at a different small Pokémon. This one was yellow with black highlights, with big ears and pink cheeks. It was floating alongside it as it walked along, sniffling, and wiping tears from its eyes.
“PIKA!”
In front of them, a pair of Pokémon came running forward. They were similar to the baby, but larger, with red cheeks and lightning tails, though one had a heart shape at the end while the others was flat. The baby suddenly perked up and responded.
“PICH!”
The trio ran into an embrace, comforting each other, hugging, with tears in their eyes from happiness rather than sorrow. They looked up to it, nodding and waving. A small pink hand waved back, before it flew up into the bright sky.
It was back in front of the Riolu. It was crying now, snot dribbling from its nose. It reached out to communicate with it once again.
“Where Do You Live?”
Marble was shocked out of his tears by the return of the voice. Stuttering a response, he managed to respond:
“Um, I l-live in Eon Town. It’s over there.” He pointed in the direction of the village established by Aeona the Latias. He hoped he wouldn’t be in trouble with anyone letting this being know their location, but he felt compelled to obey the much stronger Pokémon. Its eyes glowed a bright blue, before the pair were hurtling through the air.
Marble closed his eyes on pure instinct. While he could feel the speed of the flight, he was a Riolu, not a Flying type! He just kept his eyes shut and hoped it would be OK, or at least over soon.

“Is This It?”

He opened his eyes. He was in the town centre! His jubilation was hampered by the staring.

Everyone was in shock. There had been a whooshing noise, then Marble appeared with an unknown Pokémon right in the middle of everything. Mismagius and Milton stopped their fierce haggling. Hyginus and Torterra paused their conversation about better days. Even Crest just stood there, latest edition of “The Sunspeed News” falling from his grip. What was going on caught everyone off guard, and in the current state of the world, that often meant bad news.

“MARBLE!” THANK GOODNESS YOU’RE SAFE!”

A Pokémon, blue and silver, hopped over to the Riolu. The species entered its mind: Wobbuffet. It began hugging the Riolu, alternating between gladness for safety and admonishment for danger. It turned and looked at it, before bowing and speaking.
“Thank you, kind stranger, thank you!”
Then back to the Riolu.
Its tirade broke the silence. The other pokemon began speaking, asking each other if they’d ever seen anything like that before, was it a threat, etc.
“What’s going on?”
The voice was strong, melodic, and warm. A red and white pokemon appeared, the others seeming to defer to it. The species entered its mind:

Latias.

Then a question.

Why was the psychic outline of this Latias shaped so differently?