Chapter 1

In that same forest, a Squirtle with a red scarf was whistling a tune, looking around for berries. Picking a particularly large Sitrus Berry, the Squirtle headed deeper into the wood and came upon a clearing.  With a battered Pokemon sitting in the middle of it.

The tiny turtle was of course alarmed by the discovery, letting out a noise of surprise.  Cautiously, it approached, picking up a stick and poking the unconscious Pokemon with it.

“Uh… you’re okay, right?  Not… dead?  C’mon, wake up!  What the heck happened to you?” Finally, the injured Pokemon opened up their eyes and stood up shakily.  “Whew!  That’s a relief!” The Squirtle sighed.

The other blinked to get used to the bright sun shining down on them, but at least the pain was getting weaker.  “Where… am I…?”

“This is Tiny Woods.  You were just passed out here.  Did you get into a fight or something?”

Finally, they noticed the Squirtle.  The talking Squirtle.  Talking to them.  …They guessed they would just have to roll with it.

They tried to remember what had happened before, but all they ended up getting were waves of pain.  They rubbed their head to try and alleviate it.  The Water-type flinched in what they hoped was sympathy.

“I… don’t really remember,” they replied.

“I guess you got conked pretty good, huh?”

“Yeah…”

The Squirtle suddenly had an epiphany. “…Wait.  Who are you?  I’ve never seen you around here before.”

Well luckily, that was one thing they did remember. “That’s because I’ve never been around here before.  I’m Clare, and I’m…” She bit her lip.  Would this Squirtle believe it?  It wouldn’t hurt to try. “…a human,” she finished.

The tiny turtle stared blankly at her. “But you’re a Chikorita.”

Clare hadn’t noticed earlier, but the “hand” she was using to rub her head was actually a small, pointy foot with a nail at the end.  Her body proportions felt all wrong; her head was too big compared to everything else.  And there were weird feeling lumps on her neck.  A sudden gust of wind blew behind her, sending a chill down her back and a giant leaf to smack her in the face.  A leaf that was definitely attached to her head.  

She was too hurt to have a giant reaction, but there was no denying it.  She was a Pokemon and definitely not a human.  But… why?

“Well… I was a human.  But now, for some reason, I’m not,” she said, blowing the leaf off her face.

The Squirtle “uh-huh”-ed with much suspicion.

The silence that ensued would have been uncomfortable, if not for the shout that came from behind.  “Somebody!  Please!  Help me!” The two of them whirled around to see a Butterfree fluttering around madly with bruises on its body.

Clare hurried up to the Butterfree, injuries all forgotten. “What happened?”

“It’s horrible!  My Caterpie fell into a cavern!  My poor baby!”

“Fell into a cavern?” The Squirtle asked, quickly joining Clare’s side.

“A huge fissure opened in the ground, and my Caterpie fell in!” The Bug-Flying type explained. “He’s too young to crawl out by himself!  When I went to get my baby, Pokemon suddenly attacked me!”

“You got attacked by other Pokemon?!” The Water-type parroted with a twinge of nervousness.  A knot started to curl around in Clare’s stomach.  

“They must be enraged by the fissure… and out of control!  That’s what I think.  I’m not strong enough to fend off those wild Pokemon… What will become of my baby?”

Without another word, the Chikorita charged to where the Butterfree came from: into the cavern.

“H-Hey!  Where are you going?!” The Squirtle’s question fell on deaf ears.  With a sigh, it hurried after the Grass-type.  

Standing at the beginning of the dungeon, Clare started to plot a course when she heard hurried footsteps behind her.

“Don’t you know mystery dungeons are dangerous?!” The Squirtle chided her when it caught up. “It’s full of angry Pokemon and the layouts are super confusing!  It’s easy to get lost and tired and-”

As the tiny turtle was talking, the entrance of the dungeon closed behind them.  The Water-type started to panic.  “Great!  Just GREAT!  Now I’m stuck in a mystery dungeon with angry Pokemon and a crazy Chikorita!”

“And if you don’t want to stay stuck in here, you’d better follow me,” the Leaf Pokemon sassed as she walked away into one of the narrow corridors.

Well, that left it pressed for options.  It decided to follow.  

The two of them walked in silence for a bit, Clare in front, Squirtle behind.

“…You know, you never told me your name,” the Grass-type said, trying to get a conversation rolling. There was a new twinge of nervousness in her voice; the bluster from before seemed to have disappeared.

“Giovanni.”

“What were you doing out in the woods if you knew there was a dangerous ‘mystery dungeon’?”

“Well, I wasn’t going to go into the dungeon!  I was just trying to find some berries!”

“Oh.”

They continued for a little while in silence until Giovanni perked up.

“Hey… Why did you run into here?”

“…I dunno, I just… couldn’t bear thinking about that kid being lost in here with no one to help them.”

The Water-type nodded.

They continued exploring the dungeon, fighting off wild Pokemon until they came to a dead end… and a Caterpie.  The poor kid was crying. “Mommy… Where are you?” The little one sniffled.

Clare approached the Caterpie carefully. “Hey, we came to rescue you.”

The Bug type turned around with tears in his eyes. “Huh?”

“Your mother’s waiting right outside here.  Let’s get you home.”

Instantly, that picked up his mood. “Ok.” He crawled onto Clare’s back, and within a few minutes, the three found an exit and brought the Caterpie back to his worried mother.

“My baby’s safe… I’m sorry, I don’t know how I could ever thank you properly…” The Butterfree sputtered.

“With praise and HPM-” Clare cut Giovanni off by whipping her leaf in his face.

“We don’t need anything, ma’am.  We’re just glad he’s ok.”

“Yeah, yeah, of course, that comes first,” Giovanni backtracked hurriedly.

“Please, could I at least have your names?” The mother asked.

“Well, I’m Giovanni-” The Squirtle puffed out his chest before Clare could say a word. “-and this cool kid is Clare.”

“…He thinks I’m a “cool kid” after I accidentally dragged him into a mystery dungeon?” Clare thought.

The little Caterpie stared at them with big shiny eyes. “… … … Cool…”  Clare looked a bit embarrassed by the adoring look, while Giovanni lapped it up. “Thank you!  Giovanni and Clare!”

“I know it really isn’t much, but this is a token of our thanks.  Please accept it.” The Butterfree handed the Squirtle an Oran Berry, a Pecha Berry, and a Tiny Reviver Seed.  Giovanni put them in the basket he had been using to pick berries earlier. “Thank you so much again.  Goodbye.”

“Bye!  Stay out of trouble, Caterpie!” Clare bade them farewell as the mother and son went off, and it felt a fluffy feeling in the Grass-type’s chest.

“Where did you learn to fight like that?!” Giovanni sprung the question once the two were gone.

“Huh?”

“You were just taking out those guys left and right!  It was AWESOME!”

“…Instinct?”

“Well, it’s good instinct then!  …But what are you going to do now?  Do you have somewhere to go?”

She did not!  And the look on her face confirmed it.  Giovanni hummed in thought.  “Well, if you don’t have a place to stay… then follow me!”

…

The house in front of the two of them looked like it had seen better days.  The grass out front was brown and wilted in big patches, and big bushes grew over nearly the entire perimeter.  The house itself looked like it had been battered by storms and had never been properly fixed with holes in the walls and roof.

“At least it’s pretty green…?” Giovanni weakly noted.

“You’ve got to be kidding me…”

“Hey, I never said the place was going to be five-star!  The town was going to tear this place down!”

The Leaf Pokemon quirked an eyebrow. “But they lent it out to you?”

“Yeah… but…”

“But… what?”

“…There was a condition.  I needed to make it a rescue team base.”

“A what?”

“You know that fissure Caterpie fell into?  Lots of disasters like that have been happening recently, and it’s been riling Pokemon up like crazy!” Giovanni explained. “And a whole lot more are getting hurt, or worse.  With the high-ranking rescue teams being sent out to solve big problems, they need as many teams as they can get!”

“And you were going to be one of those teams?”

The tiny turtle scratched the back of his head. “Well… not, originally… I was just going to make it a place for me and my buddies to live. We used to run around town and do whatever, but we never had a place together. This was finally our chance to strike it out on our own, y’know?” Clare nodded.

“But, after this little adventure… after seeing you jump into action to help that Butterfree, even when you didn’t have a clue where you were, who you were… It made me think.  Do I want to be the person who needs help, or gives it?

So… why not you and me… make a rescue team together?  I mean, at the very least, if we do jobs, we can get money to fix the house.”

Clare stared down at the ground in deep thought.  She didn’t have a clue how she had gotten here.  She was a human-turned-Pokemon in a strange new world.  From how it sounded, rescue teams traveled the world, solving problems for others.  …Maybe seeing the world would help her with her memory.  And helping people was never a bad thing, right?

“…I think you have yourself a deal, Giovanni.”

The Squirtle broke into a giant grin before whooping and cheering. “Alright!!!  As of today, we’re a rescue team!  We’re gonna take the world by storm!!!”

…The wind blew some stray leaves around.

“…So… now what?”

“Oh.  Right.  Well, every rescue team has a name to differentiate each other.” The tiny turtle put his hand to his chin in thought.  “We could be……… CG!  Clare + Giovanni!” 

She shook her head.

“Yeah, mashing names together is pretty unoriginal.  Uh…… Something to do with our elements!  Leaf Water!  No, Tree-luge!  Maybeee-”

“…What about Soup?”

Giovanni squinted “Soup?”

“Yeah, ‘cause there’s the broth— that’s the water— and then there’s the vegetables— that’s the grass…ish.  …You know what soup is, right?”

“‘Course I know what soup is!  But, do you really think Rescue Team Soup will be taken seriously?”

“Do you have any better ideas?”

“………………..No.”

“Then Rescue Team Soup it is!  It’s already rolling off the tongue for me!”

“It’s really going to have to grow on me.” Giovanni suddenly perked up though. “Oh, wait!  One more thing!” He pulled out a yellow scarf that was lining his basket.

“Here!  We don’t have to match, but since I’m always wearing my scarf, it makes sense that you should wear one too.” He wrapped it right above the buds around Clare’s neck, tying it in the front. “Heyyy, not bad!  I was thinking, ‘We should probably both have red,’ but that yellow looks good on you!” 

The Chikorita looked down (as much as she could manage).  The colors worked together surprisingly well.