The Lost World

Chapter 1- The Time before Time

Long ago, there was a meteorite. This giant mass of rock and ore traveled aimlessly through the black voids of space, wandering for a time beyond measure. Along the way, this meteorite would occasionally graze, or even collide dead on with other meteorites in its path. Due to the meteorite's abnormally large size, the other space rocks were always either sent spiraling in another direction, or shattered altogether. Then, there came one such meteor that was in this meteorite's path. Unlike many previous meteors the large meteorite had encountered, this one contained a large reserve of hydrogen inside it. When the larger meteorite dashed it to pieces, much of its hydrogen was captured and miraculously stored in one of the larger's empty natural chambers, quite by accident. And so, time continued on. The meteorite continued its journey without a destination for several more eons with relatively little activity. Fate, however, had bigger plans for this chunk of rock in particular.

There was, as by chance as the one with hydrogen, another large chunk of rock floating in the meteorite's path. In the violent collision that ensued, this rock too, like its predecessors, was completely destroyed by the unstoppable force of the huge meteorite. As the larger sifted through its remains, a large supply of oxygen wafted through its pores from the destroyed meteorite, seeping into the same large chamber that the hydrogen slept in.

The meteorite tossed in turned for a little while after that, allowing the hydrogen and the oxygen the needed movement to meet each other and combine. By the time that the meteorite had regained its course, the chamber that had stored the two gaseous elements was now full of the seed of all life: water.

Again, time went on, and the meteorite wandered aimlessly through the dark, budding universe. Deep within its belly, however, life quickly began to flourish. The tiniest of microorganisms spawned, and so it began. Those who were able to find energy, usually by way of consuming their competition, were able to grow and flourish. In the desperate struggle for survival, the strong evolved while the weak were killed off. Life went on this way for eons, the organisms growing bigger, stronger, and more deadly with each cycle of natural selection. After countless years, nature felt that they were perfect, for it granted all the survivors what they desired most: life. They grew legs with which to walk, mouths for which to create sounds and consume food, senses to be aware of their surroundings, flexible DNA to adapt to their environments, and far larger brains to be capable of complex actions and thoughts. In return, all but one were forced to leave their watery womb, unable to survive with their new gifts. For the sake of safety, all, even those that did not need to, left the great underground chamber to see what lay beyond.

The newly evolved organisms gazed up at the endless abyss of light and color with their newfound eyes, unable to begin to comprehend what they saw. In the beginning, there was peace. The organisms grouped together with those that looked like each other, and life flourished. All that was required to sustain them were trips to the underground sea, where they fed on the waters that birthed them. For a few years, prosperity ensued. The groups slowly began to intermingle, and it was discovered that all crossbreeding bred the same kind of young, but that young could develop into any kind of adult that best suited its liking. However, the peace was not to last.

As the organisms continued to evolve, they found that trips to consume the water, though still vital, were no longer enough. Confused and scared, they began to starve. Some attempted to consume various rocks or minerals, but it was all in vain. One day, the first poor organism simply couldn't take the hunger anymore, and gave up and died. It was from him that the others learned what death was. When confirmed that he was no longer functioning, in desperation, one of the younger organisms tried to consume his flesh. To his astonishment, the more bits of the body he took, the more the ravenous emptiness of hunger left him, and his former strength returned. Word of the first discovery spread rapidly among the others. By then, several more poor heroes had given up their struggle against famine. Their sacrifice allowed the others to consume enough flesh to sustain themselves. Luckily, early in the evolution, the organisms did not need to depend on flesh much.

And so time went on. The young ones grew and reproduced, obtaining food from the elders who had been fortunate enough to live their lives and die of age. During this time, their brains evolved more than their bodies. Their cries took on new forms, and each type of organism developed its own language, though all languages were understood by all organisms, resulting from their identical origins. The organisms slowly began to become self-aware. They began to think and speak rationally, such as "I am hungry," or, "my skin is the color blue." They developed emotions, such as strong feelings of attractions for their mates and families, sadness at the passing of parents, but pride and joy for the sacrifice the parents had made of their bodies to sustain the newer generations. Names were given to the young to help them identify as who they were. This time of prosperity and life was not to last, however.

Soon enough, their bodies evolved even more. The organisms became more and more reliant on flesh, even to the point where it was needed almost as much as water. Chaos ensued. The evolution granted those powers to aid with survival, powers unique to the tribes. The tribe of Jolteon fought with stinging electricity, that of Flareon burning fire, Vaporeon with crushing water, and so on for all 8 tribes. They found themselves constantly needed to kill each other for flesh, and again natural selection took its course. Their attacks were honed deadlier and more advanced as they evolved, and there was a great sense of unrest among the once peaceful and prosperous tribes.

There came a day when a youngling from the Jolteon tribe found himself alone with various members of the other tribes. The practice of finding mates since times long forgotten had been for males and females of the tribes to gather alone in a ring, and choose who they found to their liking. More and more organisms found that they preferred to simply choose a mate from their own tribe, and the practice was beginning to grow uncommon. This ring had distanced itself from the others more than most others had, but none of them paid it any heed; they were far too excited for what was about to happen. However, the young Jolteon quickly discovered that while they had members from every tribe, he and the youngling from the Umbreon tribe were the only males. "Well, do we wait for any other males to show up?" one of the two Flareon asked, but the Leafeon shook her head. "May as well get on with it, they would have shown up by now if they were coming." The others silently nodded, then mingled a little before they would initiate the ceremony. "Man, it's been getting so hot recently…" the Glaceon remarked as she wiped her brow. Indeed it had. Unbenounced to any of them, their home's time was finally up: at that very moment, it was spiraling straight for a star. The Jolteon noticed that Aquilla, a Vaporeon, had been shyly looking at him from afar. He decided he would talk with her, since she and he were the only ones not talking to another. The only hope for their race was barreling towards them at lightning speed at that very moment. Soon, it would impact.

"Hi there!" the Jolteon greeted her, accompanied by a friendly smile. For a moment, the Vaporeon seemed terrified, and a rosy blush began to form on her cheeks. "H-Hello…" she replied, her soft voice barely above a whisper. She had always been shy, and incredibly nervous about finding a mate, but now one of the two males, from the tribe she actually wanted a mate from, was talking to her alone. Aquilla couldn't believe it. The meteor barreled toward them, picking up speed. There was a 1 in a million chance that it would hit them, but fate had been generous in allowing their race to survive. None of the poor, brave youth that were destined with the task to rebuild their race had any idea that they would never see their families and tribes ever again when they left. The Jolteon couldn't help but chuckle at her reaction. Right from the start, he liked her in particular.

It began with a low buzzing sound. Then, an odd wind washed over them. Finally, a low roar began. One by one, all of the organisms stopped talking, looking around for the source of the disturbance. The Espeon was the first to notice it, and when she did, the scream she wanted to give off died in her throat. "M-Meteor…" she croaked, then sprang to her feet and pointed wildly at it. As one, they gazed up in horror. It was heading straight for their home. They were done for.

Someone screamed, then another, then a third as the panicked organisms looked for cover. Aquilla looked at the Jolteon with a mixture of fear and hopelessness on her face. Those feelings were only intensified when he looked back at her with the same look. So, she did the only thing she could: she threw her arms around him and they fell to the ground, waiting for the end that would hit them in mere seconds. Aquilla thought of all the things she would never get to do or see again, her chief regret being her family. Her one comfort was the Jolteon wrapped her in his embrace and pulled her towards him. Being held by a boy felt oddly comforting to her, and served to take away some of her fear. Aquilla drew a final breath, then shut her eyes. She heard an explosion, then the rock beneath her shot forward, when in reality they were all pushed back against it. "Aquilla…" the Jolteon whispered gently in her ear, hoping to calm her. Perhaps they would not die. Then, Aquilla's head was slammed against the rock from the force of the impact, and she blacked out.

The Jolteon awoke with Aquilla in his arms, sleeping soundly. Around him, all the others from the ceremony were lying on the small expanse of rock that had come from their home. He sat up, taking great care not to wake up the Vaporeon, and looked around. All about him were these odd brown things, with green things poking out of them. Below was even more green, but when he got off the hard rock to touch it, it was soft. Nearby, to his astonishment, was a small expanse of water. Making sure the meteor chunk was in sight at all times, the Jolteon walked over and experimentally took a sip. The water tasted cold, crisp, and very refreshing. It was arguably better than that which gave his ancestors rise, he concluded, and with that, plunged his head into the pool and began to drink.

With thirst taken care of, the Jolteon felt a slight hunger begin to gnaw at his belly. At first, he was concerned he might need to eat one of his companions, but he quickly discounted the idea. If he was on some alien planet, maybe there were other sources of food. No sooner had he thought that that he spotted a large clump of green mass, with blue things sprouting out of it. The Jolteon walked over, and gave one of the blue things a sniff. It smelled sweet, almost like the water, so he took a small, experimental nibble. The blue thing tasted so sweet and exotic and wonderful and amazing that he ate the entire thing right then and there. Instantly a rush of energy coursed through him, and he wanted to shout and run around. Best of all, his hunger was subdued. The thought that their cannibalistic tendencies were at an end made the Jolteon almost want to sit down and cry with joy right there. He had lost too many friends and tribe mates to other hungry organisms.

The Jolteon gathered up as many of the blue things as he could carry, and took them back to where the others were. On his way, he passed a very odd stone with even stranger glyphs inscribed on it. It read "P-A-R-A-L-Y-S-I-S." Of course, the Jolteon couldn't understand any of it, so he assigned the name "Paralysis" to it. "Kinda catchy…" he muttered to himself. Having never been issued an actual name, the Jolteon figured that he would start calling himself that. "Paralysis…" he whispered with a smile as he continued back to the others.

Later that day, all the others but one had awoken and were off exploring this new land after the Jolteon's joyful explanation of the few wonders he had discovered. He held Aquilla in his arms as he rested up against a brown thing that they had named "tree" by the water. Paralysis gently began to rub her head, and she stirred from the contact. Slowly, she opened her eyes to discover that 1: She was not dead and 2: The cute boy from before was not only looking at her, but holding her in him arms. #2 Made her blush cherry red in a matter of seconds as she laid in his arms, paralyzed. Paralysis chuckled again at her reaction, but when he guessed as to what it meant, he stopped, feeling his own faint blush seep across his face. Paralysis shook himself back into focus, then picked up a blue thing that they had named "berry," and put it to her mouth. Aquilla looked up at him uncertainly, as if deciding whether or not she should eat this foreign substance. "It's okay, it's really good…" Paralysis assured her, so she slowly opened her mouth. He gently fed it to her, and her reaction was no less than what his was. "Holy crap!" she exclaimed. "That's delicious!" Paralysis couldn't help but laugh happily as he fed her another and another, and the two had a happy moment on the beach.

Later, when everyone else had returned, they had a feast to celebrate their survival of the crash, and to try to stay happy that they had been fortunate enough to survive, even though it was likely their families were all dead. "We don't know for sure that they died…" Nova, the Espeon, said. Everyone nodded in agreement, mostly because that was easier to accept than the death of everyone they had ever known. After that, they feasted on the many different colored berried that they found, each with their own unique taste, but all delicious. After that, the group went around sharing their names and stories with one another. Skull was the Umbreon, Nova the Espeon, Snowy the Glaceon, Dewdrop the Leafeon, Silver the Sylveon, Sola and Willow the Flareon sisters, and Aquilla the Vaporeon. "You know, I never did catch your name," Aquilla said as she laid her head down in Paralysis' lap. "Well, I was never given a name, but… Paralysis. Call me Paralysis." Everyone nodded their heads in agreement.

Paralysis had been the one to awaken and make discoveries first, and so he stepped up to take charge, mainly because the others didn't really want to. They had enough emotion stress to deal with without the burden of leadership, even if strictly democratic and only temporary. "Alright guys, we need trees to make shelter with, since I have a feeling this environment isn't like what we're used to." Paralysis had said it, and everyone went to act out on it, Paralysis staying behind to receive the lumber and actually construct the shelter. By nightfall, it was done. The Eevees, as the group had named themselves, looked upon their labors with exhausted satisfaction. They were so tired that hardly a word was said as they cleaned themselves off in the cold water. They took several long droughts of it, shook themselves dry, and then went off to relieve themselves before heading into the shelter and quickly falling asleep.

"Paralysis?" He looked up to see Aquilla coming over. "I, uh… can I sleep with y-you?" Even the cover of darkness couldn't conceal her blush, nor could it Paralysis' when he said, "Oh. Uh, I… I mean yeah! S-sure! Of course." Aquilla happily curled up next to him, her head laying on his shoulder, and together the two happily fell asleep.