Forum Thread

Before you proceed, might i warn, this might get a bit feels-y. Yes, it was meant to be that way because I write best that way.
Prolouge
Echoes. I hear them every day. I mean, not every day... just... Echoes. Like you're seeing into the past. Remembering an old memory, and reliving it at the same time. I don't know how but... There's been this strange Pokemon in these memories. I've never seen him... Her? No, it. I've never seen it before. She... It introduced itself as a special kind of Pokemon. I think he... it introduced itself as a Mirage Musharna. Whatever that means. I mean, I know what a Musharna is, but a mirage? Doesn't that mean... fake? Is it all a figment of my... Im...agin...a...tion?
The last words in my dream stuttered as I woke into consciousness. I couldn't make heads or tails of what I had just dreamed, like a really deep thought. The weird part was, all of it was true. I did meet this fabled "Mirage Musharna," and it described these "Echoes" pretty well too. But it wasn't my voice. I didn't recognize the voice at all. And I never called anything an "it." I always made up a gender for them in my mind, and to me that Musharna was a definite she. I didn't have anymore time to dwell on it, so i kicked off the covers and sat at the edge of my bed for a minute. "You're gonna be late little sis. C'mon." I heard my big brother's comforting voice from the doorway. I told him everything. In fact, I learned we even shared the same "echoes" thing, and we shared the whole "Mirage Musharna" ordeal. My brother was the only family in Unova I had left. Our parent's bodies were never discovered from that accident. I never quite understood how my brother was so much older than me, even though I overheard that we were apparently born in the same month, only about 2 years apart. At least, that's what it said on his legal birth certificate. I never did dwell on it much though, because he was of course the best brother ever. I cleared my head a little bit, and got off the bed to get dressed for work. He and I ran a Pokemon orphanage together. "Say, Landon..." Landon was my big brother's name. "Did you ever think that we could read the Pokemon's memories? To, like, see what their life was like before we found them and they came to the orphanage?" Landon grinned at me. "You still say 'like' too much. You need to work on that." "Oh, shut up."
By the end of our brotherly-sisterly bickering, I was dressed and ready to go. I grabbed my Leavanny's pokeball from my desk. I grabbed Landon's hand as we walked through our house, out the front door, and down to his car. I climbed in the passenger seat as Landon started the ignition. "Alright, off to the Beginnings Pokemon Orphanage!" He said, pulling out of the driveway.

Chapter 1: The Gift of Life
The gift of life is something everyone is born with, something that most of us ignore, and something that we really don't appreciate until it's too late.
Landon and I pulled up to the orphanage. I waited and looked at the nice patterns in the stone pavement as Landon unlocked the back door. I identified three designs before I decided to head inside. One looked like a leaf, one looked like a fire, and one looked like a water droplet. I noticed they were something to do with the types grass, fire, and water. I stepped inside and looked for the Pokemon we would be showing off today in the playpen, and I noticed them sleeping peacefully on nicely folded blankets near the door. I carefully opened their roomy cages, which awoke some of the light sleepers, and others I had to lift into the large playpen Landon and I had set up behind the front counter. Those small 15 feet were some of the heaviest lifting I had to do all day.
After I had set the ten Pokemon in the pen, I went around and sat on the counter. I carefully spun around to the front door, and leaped off the counter to change the sign from "Closed" to "Open!" I repeated the process of getting over the counter to get back over behind the desk. After I caught my breath for a few seconds, I heard a pitiful sobbing from the back room, or rather, the room that I hated the most. The back room was the treatment room for sick and injured Pokemon to rest in our orphanage. I knew my brother had recently gotten attached to a small Tyrunt, and I could only assume the worst as I opened the door a small bit. As I peeked in, I saw Landon in front of a cage, his face in his hands. I opened the door just enough to get into the room, and I could see the still, lifeless tail drained of color when it had previously been a nice, clay brown. I quietly tiptoed across the room until I was standing next to Landon. I got on my knees and wrapped my arm around his slightly shaking shoulders. I honestly thought I would cry too if I didn't remind myself that we really didn't need two of us being sad.
"... Landon, I think that he will remember you very well. I think he'll get a little lonely wherever Pokemon spirits go but I know he'll have fun there. Think about it Landon, he won't be in pain anymore." I tried my hand at comforting him.
"...I know but--"
"Shh. I understand. I'll go tend to the ready to adopt Pokemon. Don't worry about it."
"...I have my job to do too you know. Just... Just give me a minute."
"You could stay there for an hour for all I care."
"...You know what I meant Erin."
"No need to get all serious with me, you know."
"...Yeah sure, whatever." I thought I heard some kind of chuckle between smaller, and somewhat less pitiful sobs. Well, if I couldn't exactly "comfort" Landon, the least I could do would be to make him laugh every once in a while. I knew him better than I knew myself almost, and I knew that Landon would be over this in a day or two, at most three. I was placing all my bets on two and a half for that one, in my mind. I don't know why Landon got over things like this so quickly, but I had a feeling he knew something I didn't. And I had a deep feeling that I didn't want to know that secret.