Tran looked around him. His wonderful hometown had vanished within the vortex of ebon shadows, leaving him in this desolate, barren wasteland. It was all foreign to him, and he was greatly confused. Something strange had happened, he knew that. Wait a minute. Could this be... that land called the Oracle Zone? If so, then that meant he had a lot of work to do if he was ever to protect the world from this unknown evil. But he had to be careful. He knew all too well what could happen if he let his guard down, even if only for a second. As these thoughts soared through his head, he winced, remembering the scars that made their place above his eye.

Looking down, he suddenly realized he was not alone. The adolescent crouched down, staring at the small Pokèmon that he had been given. It was a light pink with large ears and holes under said floppy protrusions. It whimpered softly, looking up at the child with large, trusting eyes. "Whismur!" The animal seemed happy with Tran, repeating the same word over and over again. Knowing what he did about the beasts, he understood that they could only repeat the short name they had been given. However, the message still got to him and made him feel a little happy inside. Of course, when he felt happy, it always meant he was about to feel angry.

The small pink animal wasn't ready to make this boy feel like he held all the power. She jumped into the air, stuck her tongue out, and ran off accross the lifeless land. Tran's eyes opened wide. "Hey! Get back here, you little idiotic rascal! It's dangerous!" From across the wasteland he could hear a mimicking, insulting noise. Running faster, he caught up to the small devil and restrained it. He slowly turned around. Now they were lost. Not that they were really anywhere special in the first place, but... he kept holding on to the feeble belief that there was some way home. Unlike him, sure, but anybody would want a way back to the place they were born and lived their whole life.

"Well, you little troublemaker, you need a name." Once again, he heard the repetitive noise, although it was suddenly much louder. It was the Whismur that was doing the copycatting! "Stop that right now!" "Whismur mur whis!" Okay, she needed an attitued adjustment. Of course, most people could say that he himself needed one too. Scratching his head, he suddenly came up with a great idea. "As Hera's punishment to Echo, she had to repeat everything she said. But she twisted it a little each time. You like to echo me, huh? Well then, Echo, looks like you've found yourself your own little identity." He was growing slightly accustomed to the small puffball's repition.

At that moment, he remembered something. There was that strange Masquerain that he had to thank for being stuck here. Huh. Wizard of Oz, anyone? A tornado comes up out of nowhere and sends him to some far off land. Well, it sure wasn't Munchkinville, but it was close enough. He would find some way to survive. The Oracle Guide had been following him mindlessly until now, and he examined it with interest. The Whismur, bored that nobody was talking to her, headbutted his back and jumped onto his fallen body. Well, random, but, hey, that's what beginnings generally were.

[Ack, sorry for shortishness TT.TT]

[ Sorry for the wait D: ]

You fell flat on your face and Echo here started to play her act as an annoying Pokèmon partner. "Whismur, whismur, whismur~" She cooed repeatedly like an echo should be. She was still on top of you like a wrestling champion.

The mechanism above you paid no heed either way. It really was just a sort of contraption. Black and white like the old color in the TV with only the lime light around the tip of its horn. Echo had seen this light and was slightly fascinated, looking up at the hovering Masquerain whose wings did not even flutter. She finally got off you, jumping out and looking at the Pokèmon. You stood back up. It wasn't really comforting to remain on the ground anymore.

The Whismur got bored instantly. She couldn't stick to just one thing. "Whis..." she uttered before suddenly breaking in a run as if she was in trouble. Her small, pink figure was disappearing fast as she had randomly fled somewhere else. For being a whisper Pokèmon, she sure was loud. You can hear her laughing, crazy Uproar echoing. For a moment there, even the Oracle Guide responded to the powerful, insane feeling it felt.

[Aww, np tanz ^^ You were busy.]

Tran just stared after his Pokèmon. The small pink beast had taken it upon herself to start a game of follow the leader, and she was sure a fast little bugger. Being a little inathletic himself, he found a slight challenge in trying to follow her. Uttering a soft curse, he tried to pick up his speed, still chasing after the Whismur as she attempted to get as far away from him as possible.

"Alright, Echo, GET BACK HERE NOW OR ELSE! I mean it too, y'know! I won't hesitate to grab you and put you in a headlock and keep you under lock and key until I decide that you can actually behave in a civilised manner! And don't you even think about ignoring me and continuing on in that absurd marathon you've started!" Now the boy was getting angry instead of his initial fear.

You see, he still was convinced that Zangoose could hide anywhere and pop out of anything and bite and claw and tear at any little Pokèmon or human they found. Well, it was worth a shot to try and convince him otherwise, but those thoughts wouldn't go away easily, even if there was someone else to get them out of his head. Tran pushed his head further forwards, dashing as quickly as he could. This game would end now.

[Really shortish post TT_TT]

The Whismur was running and running and running, and so you followed and followed and followed. Little Oracle Guide had simply tailed you obediently, hovering fast and maybe faster if it would decide to chase the Whismur instead. Echo was chortling insanely, flailing two arms as she ran like a madman. She was jumping over boulders and boulders, looking like she was bouncing and flying. Echo was giggling madly, her face filled with so much joy. What is wrong with this Whismur?

For some odd reason then she did not hit the breaks when a passing rock Pokèmon came by. She might have done it intentionally, or she is just stupid or/and insane.

There was a sudden banging sound and you gradually stopped your legs from running. The Oracle Guide hit your head by accident, unable to pull the breaks properly too but Echo has been stupider. Her eyes were spinning and the Geodude she crashed against with looked like it fainted. Echo fell on her back, laughing incoherently with gibberish. The Geodude shook his head, finally waking up, rubbing his head. It was made out of stone but the impact made his head ache quite bad.

Tran froze. The Geodude was probably going to be pretty peeved at Echo for running into it, and the little Whismur was probably experiencing quite a large headache from the collision with the tiny boulder Pokèmon, and maybe it wasn't as much of a pacifist as some others. A Geodude wasn't a Zangoose, but they were both pretty powerful Pokèmon.

"Uhh... Geodude, I'm really sorry about the whole impact thing, so if you could just forgive us we'll be on our way..." The sentence trailed off as the pessimistic novice realised how stupid it sounded. Which was REALLY stupid. "Err, what I meant was... uhh... Echo, RUN!"

Turning around without looking back that his partner was following, he set off in a burst of speed. He slowly slowed down considerably, though. It took him twelve minutes just to run a mile, and running from an angry Pokèmon wasn't helping his situation out at all.

Slowing down, you noticed that only the Oracle Guide had followed you. Echo was not behind you, and so was the Geodude. Could they be engrossed in a fight already? And you, the Trainer of the Whismur, just shamefully abandoned your Pokèmon? Sure, the Whismur was odd and against an angry Geodude, the chances are low but where is the courage of a Trainer? Where is the bond shared by the Trainer and Pokèmon, the faith and trust to one another that by working together, nothing is impossible? Where was the Trainer in you? Are you really a Trainer?

But ah, your answer came upon you, literally. You saw dust in the air on the distance. Something was running fast to you and you can see the pink Whismur running so fast that the wind brought pebbles and dust on its trail. She went passed you and you tiny specks of dusts got in your eyes and mouth. Echo was running away, abandoning you. You can hear her laughter echoing just like how her name explained. If you open your eyes, you can see that the angry Geodude was rolling his way to you; a spinning wheel of doom. The Oracle Guide's horn blinked. Danger, danger! Well, you don't have to be told twice about that.

What could have happened that angered the Geodude like this aside from the impact?

~~~~~

The Geodude stared at Echo, frowning. The rock Pokèmon was cracking its knuckles. "Geo, geodude... (You're dead meat)."

"Whismur, whis (at least I'm meat, rockhead)."

They stared at each other with a fixed eye contact.

"Whismur, whis, whis, mur, whismur...whish...(I'm also pink, and soft, and cute, and pinchable. You're ew brown, ew hard, ew ugly, and ouch-pinchable....uh-oh.)"

The Geodude was carrying a large boulder. Immediately, Echo fled.