The first thing that made itself known to Vincent as he awoke was an unusual scent. For the past fifteen years of his life, all he ever smelled was the scent of clean. Disinfectant, soap, water, polish...everything in that lab had been the same, except for the food. That just smelled like 'bleh'. It theoretically had all the nutrients a growing body needed without sacrificing on the taste. Of course, it would be hard to sacrifice something you didn't have...

The next thing to come through to his mind was touch. Namely, the idea that something that wasn't his standard-issue cot was what he was resting on. It was...smooth, composed of many parts, yet at the same time, there was a grainy, rough surface underneath it.

Hearing kicked in next, the sound of air moving past at a leisurely pace also different from what he was used to. When the air conditioning came on in the facility, everyone knew it was on by the sound of so many moving parts. This...this was the air wanting to move, and making a gentle breeze while doing so.

Memory activated then, and Vincent recalled the night previous. Same as it ever was, get tested to see which particular portions of his genetic code were changed from the norm, converse with Lucy and Sam, the Riolu and Scyther that father was also testing, and then be escorted back to his room. But just as his head hit his pillow, there had been a voice in his head.

Not unusual. The headaches came and went and carried all sorts of voices. Sometimes they made sense. Sometimes they didn't. This one was one he'd never heard before, though. It sounded...old, powerful. Caring. Vincent tried to recall what it had said, and was surprised that he could do so without any difficulty.

Rest now my children, for when you awake a whole new world shall be your home.

The idea thrilled Vincent, but he swiftly shot it down. How many escape attempts had the trio thought of? And every time, father or one of the staff would find out and put a stop to their plans. Still, the amount of unusual sensations...

And that was when Vincent opened his eyes, and saw the blue sky above him.

Blue! For so long the ceiling had been white, perforated by the occasional air vent and light housing. To see an actual blue sky with white fluffy clouds could mean only one thing.

I'm outside!

"Ha! We're outside! Lucy, Sam, we're out..."

Vincent had picked himself up and looked around to find that he and his friends were indeed outside, on a grassy plain. Grass, he realized. I was sleeping on the grass and dirt. Which means somebody carried me here! And if they're asleep as well, then it means that somebody carried us all out of there, and left us here...wherever here is.

And then Vincent looked down at himself, blinked twice as he moved the yellow thing that had taken the place of his hand, and started to scream.

Lucy had been having a good dream. Which surprised her, honestly. Most of her dreams were about her days in the facility, seeing as how it'd been all she'd ever really known. But this dream had been good.

It had involved her and two Lucario playing with her, teaching her, and generally caring for her like a family should. And near the end, the adult male had said a simple phrase.

Rest now my children, for when you awake a whole new world shall be your home.

What had really awoken her hadn't been the dream ending, but the screaming starting. She jolted up and looked around, stunned by what she saw.

The outside world! Sam had told them repeatedly that there was one, and that one day, he would take them both to it. Speaking of Sam, there he was, waking up as well, probably due to that Abra screaming his head off. Sam walked up to the Abra and gingerly took a hold of it, placing just enough pressure on its shoulders to let it know that it really needed to stop flailing and screaming.

"Why are you screaming? Who are you? Do you have a name, even?"

The Abra took a few deep breaths before it said a simple, world-shattering set of phrases.

"Hey Sam, it's Vincent. So how about this outside world, huh?"

To say that Sam was surprised would be an understatement. He'd been taken when he was young and brought to the facility, where he'd met and rapidly befriended not only a Riolu, but a young human boy as well. The human was an oddity, because he could understand them both when they were talking. Sam had regaled them with tales of the outside world, and when he found out that neither of them had any idea what he was talking about, the Scyther vowed then and there to get them out one day.

Apparently, today was that day. At least, if what the Abra had said was true.

"How can you be Vincent? Vincent is a human, you're an Abra!"

The Abra rolled its eyes before returning to examining himself. "Gee, tell me something I don't know. Like where we are, or where we're going."

Sam shook his head. "This is all very, very strange." The Scyther then raised his head and looked around the plain before noticing something that the other pokemon had missed until now. "Hey, a road!"

The other two looked over and saw what Sam had pointed out. Indeed, a dirt road wound its way past them, from one horizon to the other. The Riolu and the Abra looked at each other, then at the Scyther. The Scyther looked from the Riolu to the Abra, and eventually the Riolu joined in the Abra-stare-fest. After a few moments, the Abra caught on and sighed.

"Okay, so you all don't trust that I'm who I say I am, I get that. But we're friends! Poke-friends forever, PFF's, right?"

The term got an immediate reaction. Sam relaxed his stance, whereas Lucy rushed forward and hugged the young psychic fox. Taken aback, the Abra could only pat her on the back a few times while his mind rebooted.

"Anyways..." He coughed a few times, which eventually caused Lucy to notice what she was doing and let go. "We're outside. Let's see where that road goes."

Sam nodded once at the sentiment. "Roads imply civilization. Which implies a town at one end or another. Which implies authorities that will be able to do something about your father. We can worry about the whole," and here Sam gestured at Vincent's new form with one long claw sweep, "You being an Abra bit later. Right now, I just want to see that man behind bars."

Vincent nodded, then yawned. "D'you think I could get a lift while I take a nap? I'm suddenly very tired."

Sam nodded and gingerly picked up the small psychic type before setting him on one shoulder. After a second's hesitation, Lucy was placed on the other one, and the bedecked Scyther made his way down the dirt road, not caring where it went.

It was far better than where they had been, after all, and that's all that mattered.

It had taken Sam a good two hours of walking, but the Scyther had eventually located a group of buildings on the horizon. Taking them to be a town, he quickened his pace, only to find himself confused by what he saw.

Ponyta. A veritable horde of Ponyta and what looked like minature Rapidashes. And that wasn't to mention the ones that had wings! It all seemed highly unlikely if not downright impossible, and that was before the impossible coat and mane colors, or the mark on their flanks.

Sam sighed and jostled Vincent slightly, waking the psychic from his rest. The fox yawned while stretching before looking around, taking note of the odd Ponyta. "Well...okay, suddenly I'm thinking this is some sort of massive shared dream or hallucination. I mean, being outside was bad enough. Being an Abra nearly tipped the scales, but things that aren't, can't be real, tears it."

Sam thought for a moment, then shook his head. "I feel tired from carrying you, and Lucy's still asleep. If it were something like what you describe, things would be even more unbelievable in one way or the other. Let's just treat things as real for now."

Lucy yawned, then roused herself more fully and looked at the city and inhabitants, her eyes widening in surprise. "Where are we, and why are all the Ponyta shaped and colored funny?"

Vincent shook his head. "I don't know. Isn't there some sort of sign? That's how things usually work, right? Cities have signs telling others the name of the place?"

A moment of looking showed the trio a sign off to the side of the road. A rather simple one, truth be told.

Welcome to Los Pegasus!

It was then they realized the trouble they were in. Because none of them had heard of that name before.

They had, quite carefully, snuck into this town, and found an alleyway to hide in. Said alleyway was, thankfully, devoid of other presences. They were thankful for this because they needed to hash out how they were going to live here.

"Okay, so, to recap. We're in a place we've never heard of, where the dominant life seems to be ponyta-shaped creatures. Said creatures don't understand us, based on observation of their interactions with other pokemon." Vincent paced as he worked out what had happened to the best of his ability.

"We also," Sam interjected, "Have no food and very little local money, and what little we have is based on pure luck. Apparently one dropped coin is not a cause for concern, and so they overlook it. But that's good for us, and so we have a small pile of twenty coins now."

Lucy looked up from the pile of coins she'd been stacking and nodded. "Yeah-huh. Real shiny, but they aren't tasty."

Vincent nodded and smiled at her before looking at the coins. "The questions are, how do we turn this small pile of coins into food, what can we do to get more, and where will we get shelter? The locals don't seem to like pokemon."

Sam shook his head, but something caught his eye, and he turned to look. Slowly, he started to grin, before turning to look at Vincent. "Well, what we're going to do is scavenge while we try to get you trained in your psychic capabilities. After all, if you're really an Abra now, this town is just a pile of money waiting to happen."

Down the road, a neon sign blinked, slowly spelling out the word CASINO...