"The child was there one moment then just," Mrs. McCarthy paused, searching for the correct wording, "Vanished. It sounds crazy, but I swear to the Lord Arceus that he was just gone. I'm not sure how and I don't want to know how, but it's true."

Looker furiously scribbled down notes as the lady continued to speak. It was almost too much for the detective to take in; almost, but he had practice writing down the important bits of what people had to say. So far, Looker had notes about a boy going missing in the middle of Jubilife city. Normally, such a case wouldn't have warranted a detective's work. A simple cop or two would have sufficed. That's the protocol for only one child though; this is the sixth time within a month that a child had gone missing from the exact same location.

Looking over his notes, Looker came up with a question about something Mrs. McCarthy had said earlier. "You said the child 'appeared to be having a seizure, ran into a tree, then disappeared.' Were any medical personnel involved in this? Someone that can maybe help me understand what happened to this child after he ran into the tree then ran away."

She shook her head downwards towards the floor, "No, there was no body to investigate. The boy actually disappeared without a trace." She had to repeat the last part of her sentence after she sniffed a few times into a tissue. She then brought the tissue up to her eyes and wiped away the forming tears. "He didn't have a chance to run away, he was just gone from existence."

The facts didn't add up, No one just disappears without a trace. Looker furrowed his eyebrows, scratched the back of his head, then moved his hand down to the base of his neck. He looked up at the ceiling while rubbing his shoulders with his hand. None of this makes sense. "Could the boy have ran off somewhere and you all just didn't notice." Looker knew this was impossible, Mrs. McCarthy was the seventh and last witness he was interviewing. She was a secretary at the Poketch Company who had seen the event unfurling out the front doors of the company's building.

The others were the odd pedestrian off of the street that just happened to witness a possible death. Every single account of the story matched up except for a few irrelevant details, which only validated the story even further. No two people usually saw the same event in the exact same way.

Again, Mrs. McCarthy shook her head, "That's what I had assumed happened. Except that when I talked to the other people standing around the scene, we all said that we saw him vanish without a trace. I'm an older woman Mr. Looker, so it would have been very easy for me to miss a boy run away. But seven people? That's highly unlikely, don't you think?"

"It is, and that's what confuses me about this situation. Now, it's not entirely impossible, so I will not rule out the possibility that you all missed it happen. Maybe the sun was in your eyes or something similar to that effect." It wasn't, the event had occurred in the morning. The sun was on the other side of the sky from where they would have observed the scene.

"Mr. Looker, you know that's not the case." She looked towards the one way window where she knew other detectives and the police were watching. Her lip quivered at her reflection in the mirror. "What is causing our children to go missing? I'm incredibly worried and honestly downright terrified, I have a grandchild around this age in town. My daughter is considering moving just to keep the boy safe. I can't lose my grandson, not like this."

Looker also looked towards the window. He knew he should probably wrap this up soon. The witnesses were probably getting tired, and Looker himself wasn't going to get any further it seemed. He sighed and made an empty promise, "We will find the reason for all of this." He felt bad about it, but it was the only thing he could do to reassure the woman. He wasn't sure how he was going to get to the bottom of this one.

She nodded her thanks at Looker through teary eyes. He smiled, then waved at the people behind the window to open the door for Mrs. McCarthy. "We'll be in touch. Until then, I hope you can rest a bit easier knowing that we are on it." he said.

A guard held open the door for Mrs. McCarthy and escorted her out. Before shutting the door again, the guard asked, "Do you need to see any of the other witnesses again? Or are they free to go?"

With a wave of his hand, Looker responded, "They can go, just tell them that I might need to ask them more questions at another point in time. I think I have something to look into, but I can always use whatever else they can tell me."

The guard nodded and made his way out of the room. Another figure stepped in to intercept Looker before he could gather his notes and leave. It was Chief Jones. "How much were you able to gather from all of those witnesses?"

Looker opened his notebook to a page with the words "Possible Leads" on the top. He plopped it down on the table to reveal it only had a giant question mark scribbled with a circle drawn around it. "Not a damn thing."

-----

The next logical step was to go investigate the scene where it had all occurred, so that's exactly what Looker did. He took Chief Jones and some of his detectives to the spot outside Poketch Co. where it all went down. Looker walked up to the door of the company and looked out into the street. Usually the sliding doors would open automatically, but it was past business hours. The doors remained lifeless in their closed position.

"According to Mrs. McCarthy, she said she saw the boy have his seizure right about," Looker walked out from the doors to the spot just outside of Poketch's property line. It was easy to find due to the well kept bushes, "here." He bent down and marked the location with an "X" using chalk.

Then, he paced a few feet towards the street and down further from Poketch, knelt down, and marked another "X." "However, another witness noticed the boy having his seizure here." Once more, he paced across the street and made another "X." "And finally, another person said it was here.

"Now, the onlookers that were here for longer said they saw the boy have multiple seizures. Their accounts match up to these approximate locations. No one intervened because the boy moved too fast to keep track of; some say he was moving 'as fast as a bike.'"

"No one is capable of moving that quickly," Chief Jones said, pointing out the obvious.

Looker nodded to this, then continued walking away from the site. "I know that, and I'm ignoring that fact for now. We will pick that up here in a moment, but first, I need to track the boy's movements." Looker began to walk away, then whipped himself back around to the Chief, "You wouldn't happen to have any other detailed files about the other children that had the same thing happen to them, would you? Any other cases that might say something about this erratic behavior as well?"

"Course we do! They're back at the station. If you want, I can run back and grab them." The Chief stuck his thumb towards the direction of the station.

Looker motioned slightly with the hand that he had on his chin, "Please do." His hand went back to being glued to his chin while all three police personnel walked away. Looker remained stuck in his position as the police car roared to life, then hummed away behind him down the road.

Moving his hand from his chin to his pocket, he continued moving down the street. The darkness of night usually bothered most people, but not Looker; he welcomed it as a way to get in touch with the obscure facts that usually surrounded a case. Like darkness, obscurity shrouded the unknown in a detective's work. Jogging slightly now in an attempt to mimic what onlookers said had happened, Looker approached the tree that the boy supposedly vanished into.

Now, he slowed to a halt to examine the tree. It was a younger oak tree, it would grow to be exactly like the hundreds of thousands that covered the rest of Sinnoh. He paced around it, scrutinizing every detail of the trunk to see if anything looked amiss. He knocked on it, gave it a nudge with his foot, and even shook the sturdy trunk to no avail. But still, nothing.

Sighing, he crossed his arms and leaned against the trunk with all of his weight. "Nothing about this makes sense. Usually by now I would have notice something: a gang's symbol, claw marks, even a note from the kid saying he ran away." He leaned his head against the tree now and looked off into the woods surrounding the city. The dark of the woods contrasted greatly with the lights of the city. The darkness calmed him, and almost called to him. Like a voice in the back of his head. Come to me Looker, come, come, come...

Looker's eyes began to dull as he slumped more of his body weight against the tree. "Go join you, go, go, go..." His words began to lull off too, and as he began to stand up to walk into the woods, a pair of pitch black arms lashed out from the trunk he was leaning on. A void portal now gaping where trunk once was.

The arms wrapped tightly around Looker's body, startling him out of his trance. He tried to scream, but as he opened his mouth to cry, the black arm lashed up to wrap around his mouth, suffocating any noise that Looker tried to make. He began to squirm in an attempt to free his arms, but the tentacle-like appendages squeezed tighter, rendering any struggle impossible. Then, Looker felt his worst fears become reality: the creature from the portal was beginning to pull him back towards the tree. He turned to see his fate; the gaping hole stared into his soul and sucked away any hope of escape.

The cold of the void penetrated Looker's overcoat now and seeped into the deepest part of his core. This is it, this is how I die. He continued trying to free himself, but then gave up his struggle. There was nothing he could do now, this was the end. The monster was too strong to overcome.

Suddenly, a bright light appeared from the sky, as if descending from the full moon itself. Its light cleared away the black stains of the void, allowing Looker to free himself. He stumbled forward, falling to the ground on his face. He turned over onto his back and sat up to look at what savior had just swooped out of nowhere to save him. Nothing was there, no portal, no monster, no savior. Whatever it was had vanished almost as quickly as the witnesses from earlier that day had described the boy's disappearance.

Standing up and straightening himself out, Looker began to form a pretty good idea of what happened to the children of Jubilife. Whatever that thing was, it was supernatural, he thought to himself. "Croagunk, come here please!" he commanded his Pokemon from his ball. The Pokemon materialized from light and trotted over to him with its cheeks bubbling out and in like it was panting. It cocked its head at Looker, who in return squatted down next to the poison type.

"I need your help, I have a theory," Looker began. The poison type sat down next to its master and listened. Looker knew the creature didn't understand a word of what he was saying, but it still helped to talk to something about his hypothesis. Programmers used the same technique with their Pokemon in their line of work, and Looker had taken the theory and transferred it to his.

"These children are getting sucked in by that thing. I have no clue what it is, but I bet you that those onlookers couldn't see it. That thing didn't want them to. It only speaks to and is visible to its victims, so that means that--"

His sentence was cut off by the police car pulling up. The Chief stepped out and plopped the files next to Looker. He raised his eyebrow at Looker and said, "Thinking it through with your Croagunk?"

Looker nodded, stood up and began to explain the encounter he had just had with the monster. He explained the trance, the strangling arms, and the light. He then launched in to a detailed description of how he believed that the monster was dragging these children in using this same method for some still unknown reason. After he finished, Chief Jones looked at him with a blank expression. Looker asked, "Well? What do you think, is this logical?"

Chief Jones opened his jaw slightly, tiled his head towards Looker, and raised his eyebrows. "Are you insane man? You are trying to tell me that in the span of," he looked at his watch, "not even ten minutes you got put in a trance by a monster, almost killed by said monster, and then saved by some angel of Arceus?" He was counting off the point with his fingers. "What the hell is wrong with you? Go home and get some rest, you've been working too hard today."

"But sir--" Looker started.

"No, no, no, no! No buts," Cheif Jones didn't even let him get a word in. "We will drive you home since you obviously can't be left alone to walk the city right now. We will continue this in the morning."

Looker didn't get to protest as the two other cops steadied him on either side as they walked towards the car. He pulled out Croagunk's Poke Ball and recalled his companion. I will get to the bottom of this. As he got into the car, he noticed that the full moon had become almost completely covered by a shadow: a lunar eclipse.

-----

"Looker,"

Looker turned over in his sleep, ignoring the voice in his head.

"Looker, come here," the voice said again. Instead, he buried himself further into his pillows.

"Looker, you have to help, please!" The voice was that of a young boy's.

"No, let me sleep," Looker said in response.

"Looker, come find me, you have to," the voice commanded. "Come find me in the woods. You know where to look. You almost got me tonight."

Then it came over him, a trance much like the one earlier in the night. He sat up straight; his back stiff, and his movements as he got out of bed were robotic. He slipped on his trench coat over his pajamas and put on the closest pair of shoes. He trudged through the hall with his feet dragging like a zombie's would in a bad horror movie.

He walked through the empty city. Only the street lights remained awake, blinking on and off rapidly and in need of repair. The stoplights continued their routine cycle for no one. Looker continued down the road towards the Poketch Company, towards the spots he had marked earlier in the night. As he approached, he began running faster and faster, until he was in a full out sprint. Once his foot touched the "X," he begun to spin very rapidly. The world appeared as a blur to Looker's glazed over eyes. His mind registered it only as a nightmare.

After spinning, then reversing his rotation, then spinning again, Looker moved on to the next "X," then the next, and the next. After returning to the original spot, he sprinted away from the town and towards the tree where the void had appeared earlier. The black hole opened again with a screaming sound, like nails on a chalkboard. It called to him now, and black arms erupted from it once again like they were preparing to embrace him in a frightening hug. Looker had no intentions of stopping, and neither did the bright light that soared above his head. They both entered the portal at the same moment.

Inside was dark, pitch black. Looker awoke from his trance to this darkness, believing it was still a dream. Something inside of him wanted that to be the case, but he knew that was too good of an outcome for the situation he now found himself in. He called out, "Hello?" The sound echoed. "Is anyone there?" Only more echos answered.

He looked around with confusion painted on his face. A one-eighty turn revealed the he was in front of Poketch again. Only now, the building was incorrect to reality in so many disturbing ways. The front half was missing, sheared right off. People milled around inside, stepping in and out of the void pieces of the rooms like nothing was happening. Whenever one did fall off of the structure, he would plummet through the nothingness eternally, but then appear right where he had been only moments before; nonchalantly continuing his work as if he hadn't just plummeted into death itself.

Looker peered down after one such businessman. His form tumbling lifelessly like a doll that had been knocked off the table. When he was too far out of sight, Looker then snapped his view upwards and saw the very same man sitting calmly back at his desk. He then cast his view down to the front room where Mrs. McCarthy sat typing. Her head was cocked at an impossible angle, like it was broken, and her eyes and cheeks were wet with tears.

Looker ran over to her and heard her muttering under her breath, "My grandson, my boy, my Alex, my boy, my Alex, my grandson, my..." she continued the pattern without any sign of stopping soon. Looker then looked to her computer and noticed she was typing the same saying over and over again. Her fingers dashed over the keyboard at lightning speeds.

He began to reach out with his hand to touch her shoulder, then pulled away again before making contact with her. This isn't real, don't let it get to you. He stepped away gingerly and back into the darkness which he had no issues standing on, unlike the other nightmarish figures on the floors above. Turning to hopefully find more clues about his current situation, Looker came face to face with a Pokemon he had only heard about in legends before: Cresselia.

He screamed, but soon found himself becoming oddly calm while staring at the creature. It cast a glow that illuminated the entire area, making the void seem less harsh. Follow me, it said into Looker's mind, I will help you seek the answers you need.

Instantly, he knew he could trust this thing. "You're Cresselia, the lunar Pokemon." He began to formulate a new theory about the recent disappearances, now including his own he realized. The fact that Cresselia was here to intervene meant that the situation could have only be caused by one other Pokemon. "That thing from the portal is Darkrai, isn't it? He's been hunting children because," Looker thought for a moment while snapping his fingers, "Ah, it has something to do with nightmares. He feeds off of them. That's why he brought me here while I was asleep."

Yes, Cresselia said, Good observation, you are very bright. She began to float away, her light moving with her. But not as bright as me. Her tone in Looker's mind almost had a slight laugh to it.

Following, Looker said, "Was that a joke? I didn't know Pokemon understood what jokes were." The two walked through the darkness together.

Yes, Cresselia said again, That was a joke. Without skipping a beat between her lighthearted comment and business, she continued, If we keep moving, Darkrai will have to appear before us eventually. He uses this place as his domain and as quick travel from your world to Newmoon Island.

"Do you think that's where the missing children will be?" Looker asked hypothetically. He knew it had to be, after all, that island was supposedly where the dark type reigned.

Cresselia shook her head, I don't think, I know. It is where he will be. We need to be moving quicker than this. Hop on my back and we'll fly until we find it. Looker did as commanded, and the pair took off.

They soared at speeds Looker couldn't imagine possible. The glitched terrain of Sinnoh flew by, letting Looker take momentary glances at what was going on in the nightmarish hell they were trapped in. Pokemon and their trainers appeared to be having never ending battles with each other. The creatures scratched each other relentlessly, letting blood fly without stopping to consider the harm they were doing to each other. He could see bones and muscle under the torn skin and fur. Some creatures had entire limbs missing, and some were missing faces.

A losing trainer in a battle kept pulling his hair out. The strands regrew only for him to rip them out again. His scalp was a mess of hair and missing skin. The winning trainer was laughing as he looked on. At another scene, a man stood outside a woman's house with discarded flowers and a box by his feet. He was banging his head into the brick wall over and over again, blood pouring down the siding while he laughed maniacally. The man snapped his head around backwards, seeming like he was able to look directly at Looker overhead as he continued to beat his head into the wall. His smile widened as he looked at the detective. Looker was beginning to feel sick.

Don't pay too much of a mind to it all. Darkrai is feeding off of your fear. Cresselia commanded. He takes the world around us and distorts it to create frightening images. That's probably what he is doing on Newmoon Island. He flies the kids around this world and eats the horror emanating from them.

"Huh, nice guy," Looker said sarcastically. He was beginning to feel better after tearing his vision away from the messed up void world. "What exactly is your plan once we get there? How do you plan to stop him?"

Simple, I stun him and then open the portal to the real world. There is no real way for me to beat him, unfortunately. We were created to balance each other out, so I will only be able to knock him out temporarily and allow for us to escape. He can create portals to this place whereas I can create portals back to your home realm. Cresselia responded. We're almost there, stay on me until I say so, then I want you to help the children run through the portal I will create.

Looker nodded, then looked off into the distance. An isolated patch of water was now visible, and a darkened island resided in the center. The place gave off a frighteningly dreadful atmosphere. That's it, that's where Darkrai and the missing children have to be, Looker thought.

Cresselia swooped down at an uncomfortably fast speed. Her wings becoming more and more blinding the faster they moved, so bright that Looker was forced to close his eyes. The motion stopped and Cresselia let out a screeching battle cry. Go! she commanded through telepathy while still screaming. She began to hurl attacks at her unprepared foe.

Leaping into action, Looker took no time to stop and take in the scenery. He went for the nearest child, only to notice that it was passed out. The girl had cuts all over her body, and her frame was thin; her ribs were visible and her arms were so small that Looker could've put his entire hand around it. Looker recoiled slightly at the child's condition, but powered through his shock. He hoisted the girl up into his arms. She couldn't have weight much more than a feather, and her faint breathing was the only thing confirming that she was alive. Looker moved to the next two children and told them to follow him. One was dribbling water into the other's mouth, forcing him to stay hydrated and fed. It was impossible to tell if the one on the ground was even alive.

Then, he made a fatal mistake: he looked at the fight between Cresselia and Darkrai to see how much time he had left. The image of the dark type was horrifying. Long hanging tendrils floated from the creature's thin waste and then evaporated into nothing. Its thin arms ended with long sharp claws that looked like they could cut through steel. His single blue eye pierced any remaining calmness that Looker had maintained. The monster took a moment to peer down at Looker over its heavy blood red collar. The sight froze the detective to his very core. It was the same feeling he had experienced in Jubilife while investigating the scene. Looker found himself unable to move under the monster's power.

He dropped like a boulder to his knees and wept. He saw images of all the horrible things he had seen in the void flashing in front of his eyes. "Stop," he begged, but he knew the pictures wouldn't stop. Darkrai would never let his new prey escape. Looker realized that he should never have interfered with this monster's habits with his investigation, the dark type would never allow him to leave now.

Suddenly, a mighty gust of wind knocked Looker and the children towards the trees lined around the edges of the forest. Get out of here! Cresselia shouted in his mind. By the pain on the children's faces, he knew they had heard her roaring command too.

Another powerful gust from Cresselia forced the crowd of victims into the white portal that radiated hope and warmth in the middle of such a hopeless situation. Looker heard Cresselia's voice again, but couldn't comprehend what she was saying. He felt himself hit a wooden floor, and his body let unconsciousness overtake it.

-----

Morning's light flooded through the window, greeting Looker with a massive headache. He reached up and touched his forehead, only to feel a damp bandage covering it. A nurse was walking up and down an aisle of patients that Looker resided in. The rest of the beds appeared to be occupied with smaller patients that required more attention.

She noticed him wake up and scurried over. "Looker, right?" she asked. He nodded slightly in response. Even that small amount of movement caused the pain to flare up. "Someone wants to see you downstairs. Take your time, but he said it's urgent and needs to speak with you the second you're up to it. I believe he said that his name is Chief Jones."

Pushing himself up to his elbows, Looker began to search for his coat. It was located at the base of his bed on the post. He sat up further and then began to reach for it. While fishing through the pockets, he requested that the nurse bring him some water. He grabbed Croagunk's Poke Ball and called out his friend.

"Hey there little buddy," he whispered. The Pokemon hopped up on the bed and promptly began to nuzzle Looker's face with its cheek. "Easy, easy," he gently forced the excited poison type away, "I'm still hurting, but I just needed a reminder of the real world. I had one crazy nightmare last night."

The nurse returned with his glass and set it on his nightstand. He drank the liquid slowly, savoring every bit. His feverish adventure in the nightmare fueled world had taken its toll, despite him being there for only a night. He couldn't even begin image the pain that the children that were there for a month were feeling. Eventually, after working up a bit of strength, Looker swung his legs over the side of the bed and pushed his feet into the slippers at the side. He looked down and smiled at his happy looking Lopunny slippers sitting on the ground.

He moved down the steps with Croagunk supporting him on one side and the banister supporting him on the other. "Please don't tell me they found me after my trip to hell in these." Looker asked Chief Jones while pointing at his slippers. "If so, that is awfully embarrassing."

Laughing, Chief Jones ran over to hug Looker. "It's great to have you back, Looker. You were only gone for a night, but hearing the condition that they found you and the missing kids in was terrifying. I'm glad a fisherman was traveling out of the dock to Newmoon today. Or else, who knows how long it could have been before they found you all."

The police chief paused, not wanting to admit the next part of what he had to say, "Apparently you weren't insane, and some crazy supernatural stuff was actually going on. They brought you here to the Harbor Inn since they've dealt with this kind of situation before. Apparently, that damn ghost or whatever they said it was has done this before." He shook his head, unable to make eye contact with Looker, "I'm sorry I doubted you."

"It's okay, I'm sure my encounter with Darkrai sounded crazy to someone who hadn't been there to see it," said Looker. "Also, that's the name of the creature: Darkrai. That was the monster from the portal. It was feeding off of the fears of young children, but I intervened and it wanted me too. Wait," Looker said before finishing his story, "Are the kids okay? I saw them lying up there in the beds next to me, but I didn't even think to check and see if they were okay."

Nodding, the Chief replied, "Yes, they are all fine, albeit a bit beat up like you are. Nothing that a little rest can't take care of. Which, they should be able to sleep soundly now that Darkrai has been defeated. The nurse said that the townspeople think it tried such a bold move because of the eclipse, and probably won't think to do something like that again for a while. Normally, it wouldn't have dared come out during Cresselia's moon."

The Chielf was about to launch into more explanations and theories until he noticed just how beat up and exhausted Looker's was. Grabbing the detective's shoulders and moving him back towards the steps, he continued, "Looker, I think you need to get back up there and get some more rest. We can finish this talk later." He continued guiding Looker up the steps with Croagunk helping again.

"You know what, I think I will take you up on that offer. Some nice, peaceful sleep seems real nice right about now." Without fighting it, Looker slunk back up the steps and back into his bed. He fell asleep quickly knowing that he and the missing kids could rest easy now.