Hello. It's been a long time, hasn't it? Have you all been? I'm still around, but hopefully this will help get back in the swing of things by putting up a new Pokemon oneshot, this one about the Mystery Gift feature in the games. I apologize if the mystery I came up with for this is absurd but otherwise I hope you enjoy it.

Mystery Gift

It's a normal day. Or at least it starts out like one.

She had been running low on health items needed to take care of her Pokemon, so after a particularly fierce battle with an Ace Trainer on the previous route (but it's not too difficult to secure a win-she was the current Pokemon champion of Sinnoh now after all), Dawn had made a quick detour to the Poke'Mart in town first. It's quiet with few people shopping today, pretty normal for this small town. It was as she was putting her purchased items in her bag when a voice spoke up right next to her.

"Good morning, you must be Dawn."

She's suddenly startled as she turns from the counter of the Poke'Mart, facing a man in green. He looks almost like a delivery man, or perhaps a doorman due to the style of his green uniform. He's smiling at her politely, watching her for a few seconds as if waiting for conformation that she was indeed this "Dawn" person he was looking for. It takes her a moment to respond, as she tries to figure out how she had not noticed this person standing by the counter a moment ago.

"Ah, I'm-"

He doesn't even let her finish her sentence, as if her just speaking was enough to confirm it for him as he and reaches somewhere on his person, pulling out an envelope.

"I've received a gift for you. Here you go!"

He takes and places the envelope into her hand for her before he lightly curls her fingers around it, as if making sure she won't be able to refuse the object. Dawn finds herself staring dumbfounded at the envelope now forcibly put in her hand for a moment, flipping it over once to see that it was marked as being from "Anonymous" as she looks back up at the odd deliveryman, who is still smiling at her expectantly. She isn't sure what she's supposed to say at first, until she figures that she should at least thank him for delivering her mail to her.

"Um, thank you then..."

He nods once, still smiling that polite businessman-like smile that doesn't quite reach his eyes (or maybe she's imagining it due to how creepy his sudden appearance was) as she pockets the envelope. (Is it just her, or does his eyes follow the movement?)

Dawn picks up her purchases from off the counter, giving an awkward smile as she thanks him again, to which he just nods and smiles at her again. It's probably in his contract to always be smiling to people he has to deliver stuff to., she thinks to herself, thinking how forced she'd probably feel if she had to smile like that all the time.

It's as the Poke'Mart door chimes and slides open for her when the deliveryman suddenly speaks up from his spot where he's standing at the counter, still smiling as he calls politely behind her as the door slides shut.

"We look forward to your next visit."

We...? But Dawn doesn't dwell on it for too long, figuring that he's referring to himself and the people at the Poke'Mart, which would make sense. It was the polite thing a store-worker would usually say, after-all.

The next time she sees the deliveryman is a month or two later, after having opened the envelope to discover a key to some hidden room in an old familiar Galactic building with appliances for Rotom in the room, and this time Dawn actually does spot him before he spots her, from where he's standing next to the counter, and she can't help but wonder how he knew that she would be arriving to this particular Poke'Mart to pick up a delivery.

It doesn't take very long to spot her, as he breaks out into a smile and this time waves cheerfully in addition to his beaming smile.

"Good evening, you must be Dawn!"

Eh? Isn't this the same deliveryman as before?

The man doesn't notice her confusion, and again like before, he starts reaching around on his person looking for something, but as he's about to speak, Dawn manages to speak over him this time.

"I'm sorry, but aren't you the deliveryman from before?"

He pauses, smile falling ever so slightly, (did his eyes seem to change?) before he suddenly grins again. "A lot of my family works in this business. Maybe you met my brother?"

...Like the Nurse Joys that are at the Pokemon Center? Dawn is not sure how to respond to that as, just like before, he's found an envelope, marked "Anonymous", and is once again slipping it into her hand and curling her fingers around the object before she can refuse.

"Anyway, I've received this gift for you. Here you go!"

"Ah, thank you..."

"Don't mention it! It's part of my job, you know?"

He suddenly laughs after that as if having made a joke, but instead it sends a shiver down her spine even though she can't explain why, especially since this deliveryman seemed much more animate than the previous one, but he seemed to be watching just as expectantly as she pockets the envelope.

"Hey, can I ask you something? Do you guys have a name?"

"A name...?"

"You know, like the Nurse Joys that work at the Pokemon Center. Is there a name I can greet you by?"

For the briefest of seconds there's an odd look that passes over his face (did she imagine it, but did the deliveryman look...unnerved?) before he suddenly goes right back to smiling, albeit a little sheepishly.

"Ahaha, I'm just a deliveryman. It's really not that important for you to make the effort to learn all of our names, Miss Dawn."

He flashes his perfect white teeth at her as she leaves, chirping "We look forward to your next visit!" just like the previous deliveryman. This time, however, she had a feeling he was referring to himself and the other deliverymen like him and this 'Anonymous' person, not to the people in the Poke'Mart.

Dawn doesn't see another deliveryman until a few months later, after she thinks she had recovered from the nightmarish ordeal of going to that strange old motel in Canalave and gaining access thanks to the Member Card inside the envelope, winding up on that island and being forced to catch Darkrai, the nightmare Pokemon of the island in order to escape from the dream.

She's wary as she takes a slow step towards the deliveryman, who catches the movement out of the corner of his eye as he turns to look at her, breaking out in that unnerving smile like the others before him.

"Good afternoon, you must be Dawn. I have received a gift for you."

Another one of his brothers, it seemed. He's still smiling as he reaches inside his jacket and pulls out another envelope, once again not waiting for her to answer as he goes to put the envelope in her hand, causing her to flinch from the touch of his gloved hands as this time she snatches it from his hand for him before he can force it in hers, causing him to tilt his head curiously at her, smile faltering.

"...I'm sorry Miss, is there something wrong?"

"Yeah, who are you guys and whose this 'Anonymous' person who keeps sending me things?"

"...Beg pardon? This is from a Professor Oak, not someone listed as 'Anonymous', Miss." The deliveryman blinks in confusion at her as he points to the sender's name, and she sees that he's right, it's addressed from Professor Oak, the professor from Kanto she met sometime ago.

"O-oh...sorry about that, I'm just a little confused from all these envelopes I keep getting from you guys..." Dawn apologizes, scratching her cheek sheepishly. Geez, what is with me all of a sudden, getting paranoid around these guys...

For a moment the deliveryman still looks confused, as if he's not sure what she's talking about, before a look of comprehension passes over his face and he smiles again.

"That's alright, there's no need to apologize. Sometimes we get the odd letter or two from people, but it's our duty to make sure they are delivered to the right person."

He smiles that polite, plastic smile of his at her, almost expectantly as if waiting for something before she remembers. "Ah, thank you for getting this to me."

"Of course. It's our pleasure to be of service to all humans alike and our goal is to make sure that everyone is happy."

And then he gives her a knowing smile, as if they had just shared a secret between the two of them.

Dawn just quickly nods and gives a polite wave as she pockets the envelope and leaves to his parroted end speech of "We look forward to your next visit.", but there is an odd feeling that creeps into the back of her mind from something he said, but she can't quite put her finger on it.

It's a few more months that pass after Dawn's trip to the meadow with Professor Oak, where she got to befriend an adorable rare Pokemon named Shaymin there. Wearing the grass hat that is the gratitude Pokemon on her head, feeling just as grateful for having met such a cute Pokemon, she almost misses the deliveryman at the Poke'Mart until she practically walks right into him from where he's standing by his usual spot. He just smiles at her like the others before despite almost having been knocked down.

"Good morning, you must be Dawn!"

"Yeah, that's me..." Dawn laughs, seeing that she had once again met yet another brother of the family of deliverymen. He glances up at the Shaymin on her head, blinking once before beaming brightly at it (did she imagine it or did Shaymin suddenly twitch ever so slightly from it's spot on her head?) as he reaches into his jacket, once again a repeat action of the others before him.

Dawn holds her hand out expecting yet another envelope, when to her surprise she is presented with a small box as he parrots, "I have received this gift for you. Here you go!" before placing it in her expecting hand. Dawn spies that it is from the mysterious 'Anonymous' person from the first two deliveries.

"Oh, thank you...heh, to be honest, I was practically expecting another envelope.", Dawn jokes to the deliveryman, figuring he would know what she meant if having possibly talked to his brothers recently.

There's a slight pause before the deliveryman answers, his usual plastic smile in place.

"We felt that you were ready to receive more interesting gifts than the ones you received before. Don't worry...", his smile broadens, showing his perfect white teeth, "We have the utmost confidence in you."

What is that supposed to mean?

But he doesn't elaborate, just smiling at her as always as he once again states "We look forward to your next visit" like his brothers before him, and it's as she's just stepped outside the door that, with some gentle nudging from the Pokemon on her head, she remembers she had forgotten to buy her items, and as she steps back in, to her shock, he's no longer standing there by the counter, as if he had never been there to begin with.

A whole year passes by before Dawn sees a deliveryman again.

And a lot has indeed happened in that year.

The box given to her had continued an odd flute inside of it, and after doing some research, it seemed that the idea was to play it at Spear Pillar, back where everything happened with Galactic and the Reverse World. Figuring something eventful was to happen, Dawn makes sure to spend several months training her Pokemon in preparation, in case something did happen, before finally climbing Spear Pillar again and reaching the top.

After some hesitation, she brought the flute to her lips and plays a short tune, watching with amazement as a golden stairway seems to descend from the heavens before her, beckoning her to come climb to the top. Shaking, Dawn managed to walk up the stairway, before she soon reached what could only be described as God, a Pokemon that was before her that she had never seen before and yet seemed to have a divine air to it. It nods once, as if having summoned her there to battle it and prove herself, to which she does.

And she wins.

Dawn, as she stood before what seemed to be the God of all Pokemon, bowed once as it seemed pleased by this result. It had not seemed opposed to being caught, but Dawn decided to let it be, deciding that it was better for it to be able to reign from its place at the top of the heavens. As she had traveled back down the stairs, after having made a promise to visit often, she suddenly felt a second pair of eyes on her back, watching her, but when she turned, there was no one there and the feeling was gone as quickly as it came.

So it was almost a surprise to her when, exactly one year after the events at the Hall of Origin, she stepped into the Poke'Mart and was greeted by the familiar sight of a deliveryman in green standing by the counter. He smiles that smile that was practically a trademark of all the deliverymen as he speaks.

"Good morning, you must be Dawn."

She freezes ever so slightly, wondering where they've been in this past year. Ever since the last time she had seen one, she had regarded every Poke'Mart with caution, peeking inside the windows as if checking to see if a deliveryman was waiting for, but after a few months of nothing, she had given up and nearly forgotten about them.

Nearly.

"I have received a gift for you. Here you go!"

Instead of an envelope or a box though, this time he actually pulls out from his jacket a pokeball, his constant smile in place as he gently puts the pokeball in her hand, gloved fingers curling her fingers slightly around it in her momentary daze at seeing him again. But the cold feeling of his gloved hands and the metal pokeball manage to snap her out of it as she looks at it and then back to the deliveryman.

"A Pokemon? What kind?"

"Well, why don't you open it and find out?"

At first, she's a little hesitant, hoping the Pokemon wouldn't be a large one that would possibly break something in the store, but after a few seconds of feeling the man's eyes boring into her (or at least it feels like that, anyway) she opens the pokeball and-

There are evil, blue eyes staring at her, staring right down into her very soul as if about to rip her entire being to shreds as-

-the light fades and in it's place is a dark-colored Pichu that looks up at her sleepily from where it's sitting on the floor.

"What do you know? Looks like it's a very rare Pikachu-colored Pichu that someone generously gave. You must have very good friends in high places." The man says, smiling down at the odd-colored Pichu who tilts its head at him.

Dawn blinks in shock, looking between the Pichu and the deliveryman as she put a hand to her head, feeling a bad headache coming on. W-what was that just now?

After a moment she manages to find her voice again, looking anywhere but at that damned smile of his. "Um, not that I don't appreciate a free Pokemon, but whose it from?"

"An anonymous benefactor."

And that's all the deliveryman offers to the unknown sender's identity once again, still smiling as she reluctantly recalls the Pichu. As she's putting the pokeball away, the deliveryman suddenly speaks up again.

"Also, we feel it important to mention that it seems that there won't be any more gifts for a long while-my brothers and I have to be called over to the Kanto region for some important duties and deliveries to be made there for the anonymous benefactor. My apologies about that, but we will be sure to get any more deliveries there might be sent to you."

As he waves goodbye to her, smile fixed in place and his usual "We look forward to your next visit" nearly cut off by the door sliding shut behind her, Dawn makes a decision.

She was going to find this "anonymous benefactor", no matter what. Free gifts were nice and all, but there was still something suspicious about it, from items that seemed connected to rare legendary Pokemon to the strange deliverymen and their near never-wavering smiles.

Looks like I'm going to Kanto.

After a few days on a boat, Dawn soon arrives in the Kanto region, legs shaking slightly as she takes her first few steps in the new region. The air here is different, a different kind of cold than what she was used to. As if there were ghosts passing through her.

But, being the determined champion she was, she stuck to her goal, traveling through the cities and questioning locals she met about any deliverymen that passed through the area, peeking into every Poke'Mart she came across for any sign of them. But so far, after a month or two of traveling through Kanto, she was coming up with no clues. No one had seen any deliverymen in green traveling around nor did she see any hanging out in the Poke'Marts of this region.

That is, until she one day reaches Cerulean City and hears rumors of a cave that was guarded and blocked off from ordinary people being allowed to go in. At first, Dawn didn't think much of it, figuring that it had been blocked off due to cave-ins or what-not, until she was walking on the bridge toward Cerulean Cape and glanced curiously over to the cave...and spotted a familiar green uniform.

One of the deliverymen was hanging out right outside the cave, almost acting like a guard to the cave more than acting like the friendly doorman attire look that he usually had. Dawn couldn't tell from here, but she wouldn't of been surprised if he had that constant smile even when guarding a cave. Why would their base be at a cave? Is that where this Anonymous person hangs out at?

After some thought, deciding that she wanted to slip in without too much problems, she quietly surfed over to the little island the cave sat on from the back, creeping around to the side before trying to think of how to draw the guard's attention away.

But it seemed as if luck was on her side, as the guard suddenly looked away as if having heard something before going inside, as if perhaps having heard someone calling for him. (Which was odd, considering Dawn could of sworn that she didn't hear anything)

She waited a few seconds before following, slipping inside the cave, and as she expected, from the inside it looked like your regular cave. It was dark and there were Golbats hanging from the ceiling and Gravelers sitting around that casted her weary looks to the sudden intrusion of a new person in their dwelling.

Why would they be hanging out here in this place?

Suddenly, she heard what sounded like footsteps at first coming towards her, and then walking away from her.

"W-wait!"

But the footsteps preceded to leave, causing Dawn to have to chase after them into the dark, following the unknown footsteps deeper and deeper into the cave. No matter how much she called out, they didn't answer her and just kept leading her deeper and deeper. Despite the creepy sensation she was getting, she followed, as if a haze had temporarily clouded her judgement in order to find out what she wanted to know. Is someone taking me to where Anonymous is...?

Finally, after what felt like hours of stumbling around after the footsteps in the dark, the steps suddenly came to a halt.

Dead silence.

"H-hello? Who are you?"

There was a chill creeping up her spine now, and she thought she could feel not one, but now several pairs of eyes staring at her, even though she couldn't see them in the dark. Finally, as if the fog had lifted from her mind, she thought to search for a Pokemon that could use flash, taking out the pokeball that contained the Pichu she had gotten before.

"P-Pichu, use Flash!"

She didn't see the Pokemon in the dark, but she heard it's "Chu~" in the dark (why did it sound so scared and yet...so sad?) as it sparked and lit up the area.

And greeted her to a rather horrifying sight.

A large machine sat before her, large tubes coming out and attached to the ground and floors. Inside the tubes were what looked like rare Pokemon she recognized-Shaymin, Darkrai, Arceus...even another oddly-colored Pichu and what appeared to be several copies of a Pokemon with a star-shaped head were sitting in some of the tubes. An odd greenish-red liquid bubbled up around them, but the Pokemon inside seemed unaware.

But that wasn't the worst of it.

Inside the tubes were people, too. She recognized a few copies of the deliverymen nestled within the tubes, as well as what appeared to be several copies of a brunette girl and a blue-haired girl, some with their eyes closed, some open. But unlike the ones she had seen before, these ones were grotesque, something wrong with them. Extra limbs, missing limbs, colored wrong, parts of their bodies that swelled or were inhuman with things like tentacles or horns coming out of parts of their body.

These things couldn't possibly be human, they had to be something of this world...like...like...

"Like clones?"

There was a sudden, icy cold chill that went right through her brain, freezing her to the spot. She tried to will her legs to move, but found that she couldn't run. Couldn't even scream, as she tried to shout.

As if something had a psychic hold over her.

"Humans and their curiosity...such pitiful creatures. But of course, that's why I'm working to replace them, once my cloning technology has been perfected. There's been a few that have been made successfully, but not yet...Pokemon, however, have become as easy as ever. I've even made clones of my own original..."

She can't help herself as she turns her head slightly and notices more tubes around them, some filled with what appeared to be little pink cats, floating in the green liquid of the tube and oblivious to what was going on around them.

"It's almost a shame...you seemed like a worthy human to have test my clones of the legendary Pokemon I gained access to thanks to the..."gifts" I sent...as well as testing the humans I cloned...but it looks like you'll just meet the same fate as the humans who came before you."

Dawn suddenly feels hands grabbing her, and as she manages to look to her sides, she sees the deliverymen, the perfect non-mutated ones, grabbing and holding her and her Pichu in place as they stare blankly at her, perfect cheshire grins etched into their faces even though the situation is grim, as she forces herself to look back, even though the psychic and physic holds keeps her from reaching her pokeballs at her waist. She had to know...

"Who...who are you?"

Dawn is then greeted with cold, glowing blue eyes staring right into her own. There is a pause that feels like years passing before the owner of the eyes sounds amused.

"An anonymous benefactor."

Then the eyes flash and suddenly Dawn is falling

falling

falling

into the darkness.

The last thing she thinks of, strangely enough, as she's asking herself why her, why was she the one chosen to have something like this happen to her is something one of the deliverymen had said to her so long ago.

"It's our pleasure to be of service to all humans alike and our goal is to make sure that everyone is happy."

Humans...gah, why hadn't she realized from the get-go that they weren't human with a comment like that?

But no...no, it was something else that he had said that bothered her.

"-and our goal is to make sure that-"

She suddenly remembers being at the TV studio in Jubilife City one day almost years ago, when she was just starting out as a trainer, remembers two reporters that had approached her on one of the floors when she was leaving the studio, business-like smiles in place as one of them held a clipboard out to her.

"Hey there! How's it going? I'm a TV Producer here. Are you watching TV? Good! So let me ask you something, will you tell me your opinion on TV? We could really use some feedback here for our special Mystery Gift program!"

She remembers having circled something labled as "wifi" since that looked "techy enough" and scrawling something in a hurry, wanting to hurry on to the next city, not really listening as he's talking.

"Oh, so you know about wifi? Hmm...interesting choice of words...well, you seem like a smart gal so I think I can pull some strings for you and get your answers sent to Mr. Two that runs the program..."

And then Dawn's mind blanks over except for a final, choppy fragment of a sentence that passes through her mind-

"-everyone is happy."

"Good evening, you must be Ethan."

"Oh, hello! Can I help you?"

"Yes, you see, we received a gift for you. Here you go!"

"Thanks...o-oh wow! I-Is this what I think it is?"

"It is."

"But...aren't Mew considered incredibly rare?"

"Normally yes, but it seems that this one was found and caught. Looks like whoever wanted you to have it believes that you will treat it quite well."

"W-wow...a Mew...I can't believe it...thank you, thank you so much. And tell whoever sent it that I said thank you, too!"

The deliveryman smiles at the boy.

"You're welcome. We look forward to your next visit."