ARC 1, CHAPTER 2

…

No! I can’t lose you!

Come on, stay with us!

Larei!

…

“Hey! Wake up!”

“Are you okay? Please wake up…”

Upon hearing voices, finally, he forced his eyes open. Grudgingly, he sat up and observed his surroundings. He appeared to be in a clearing in a forest, but that’s not all. There were two pokémon by his side: a Vulpix and a Hatenna. They both looked concerned, but smiled when he sat up.

“O-Oh! You’re awake!” the Hatenna said, greatly relieved.

“Are you okay?” the Vulpix said, a hint of concern still in her eyes.

He rubbed his head, still trying to get his bearings. He didn’t know these people, but it was clear they were friendly, so he wasn’t too alarmed. “Y-Yeah… Just a little headache,” he answered after a moment.

“O-Oh, thank goodness…” the Hatenna said with a sigh.

“You really had us worried,” the Vulpix added. Frankly, he had no idea what had happened that made him pass out, but there was another thing that he decided to vocalize.

“Where… am I?” he asked, looking around once more. He realized that the area he was in did not look familiar at all. Maybe he could get a sense of where he was after asking.

“We’re near the edge of the forest in Anonami.” the Hatenna answered. “We were just heading to the city.” Well, that didn’t help at all. He had never heard of a place called ‘Anonami’, but at least he knew now that it wasn’t remote, and that there was a city nearby.

“My name is Stella, by the way,” the Vulpix said, hoping introductions would make him more comfortable.

“O-Oh! And I’m Zari,” the Hatenna followed up. “What’s your name?” He hadn’t thought about it before, but that’s when it hit him.

He had no memories prior to him waking up just now. That’s why this place wasn’t familiar! He wasn’t even sure he always lived here. Or what he was. He slowly examined himself, and he appeared to be a Froakie. That didn’t jostle any memories. He tried to think back, but nothing came to him. He couldn’t even remember his name.

However, he didn’t want to further concern his new allies with that. So, he did the quickest, and easiest thing to prevent that. He made up a name.

“My name… is uhh…” the Froakie thought quickly. “Irima,”

“It’s nice to meet you, Irima,” Stella said, not noticing the slight haste in his voice. Zari noticed it, however.

“Uhh, which way is the city you mentioned?” Irima asked. He knew his best bet right now would be the city.

“Oh, we were just heading there,” Stella said.

“Irima?” Zari asked quietly, “Would you… like to come with us?”

“Excuse me?” Irima said after a brief moment of silence. He wasn’t expecting a question like that at all.

“W-Well, we’re making a new rescue team,” Zari explained. “A-And if you want to, we’d love for you to join us. You uh… seem really nice, and we could use some extra help!” Zari knew the Froakie was an outcast like her and Stella. She could tell from the way he spoke.

Irima thought about Zari’s offer. He didn’t know these pokémon at all, and he had more pressing matters to figure out. But the question was how? He had no way of figuring this out, at least not yet. Not only that, but he had nowhere to go. He planned on heading to the city, but hadn’t actually thought of what he’d do when he got there. With no clear goal in mind, Irima liked the idea of joining a team. It would give him something to do, and a way to get through. Plus it’s always a good idea to have partners, rather than go alone, and his partners in question seemed to be very kind people! For now, there wouldn’t be much of a reason not to join them. After all, what does he have to lose? He doesn’t have anything to begin with.

“Alright,” Irima said after a tense silence. “I’ll come with you.”

Zari smiled brightly. “Thank you, Irima. I promise you won’t regret this!”

“I suppose it’s hard to when you’re being so nice to me,” he said with a chuckle.

“Come on, we’re almost to town,” Stella said. With that, the group took off

---

It didn’t take long to make it to the city. It was midday, which wasn’t the busiest time of day, but far from the calmest.

“L-Let’s be careful. The city can be really dangerous,” Zari warned. She spoke from experience. It was the main reason why she chose to live in the woods. Stella and Irima were a little unnerved by this statement, but pressed on regardless.

The city was the self-proclaimed Capital of Rescue Teams. The center of town was where the rescue team hub was located. In addition to the billboard of jobs, there was also the guild. However, no bases were located here, the guild was merely the place to check in jobs, report back results, and of course, sign up.

Surprisingly, despite being in the center of town, the hub was completely empty of pokémon currently. Usually, rescue teams would come early in the day to pick up the jobs they wanted, and people not in rescue teams had no reason to come here. However, soon the emptiness was filled by the three person aspiring rescue team.

As they walked to the guild, Zari glanced at the wanted poster she was looking at earlier. A chill went up her antenna as she thought about it, but she quickly shook herself out of these thoughts. This wasn’t about that. Right now, Zari was going into a better life. And it started with going into the guild.

---

“Alright, everything is in order,” the receptionist, a Tsareena said, scribbling on some paper. “Now you need a team name.”

Zari blinked under her bangs. “A… team name?”

“Well, of course,” the Tsareena said in a slightly annoyed tone. “Every rescue team has a name. So you need a name, or else you can’t sign up.”

The three looked at each other. They had completely forgotten to come up with a team name! This was not good. The receptionist looked very impatient, so they would have to come up with a name fast, else they could kiss their ultimate goal goodbye.

After a little thinking, Zari thought of something. All three of them were here for a similar reason. They weren’t in it for attention or money like most other rescue teams were. They simply wanted to help people so they wouldn’t end up like they did. And that’s when it hit her. The perfect team name.

“I’ve got it!” Zari exclaimed, a little louder than her companions expected. “How about Team Dreamsavers?”

“Dreamsavers?” Irima reiterated.

Stella thought for a moment. “I… I like it,” she said.

“Yeah!” Irima said in agreement. “That’s a really good name.”

“Okay!” Zari confidently said. “That’s our team name!”

“Dreamsavers it is,” the Tsareena said, jotting it down on the paper. She then handed the paper to them. “There, you go. Welcome to the rescue teams. Now I’ve got other things to do. Jobs are posted outside, take whatever and go.” With that, the Tsareena turned to go.

“W-Wait,” Stella said before she left. “Aren’t we supposed to get a supply bag and badge?”

The Tsareena paused, just for a moment. “Oh yeah, that,” she said dismissively. “You’ll get that later. Now run along.” The Tsareena left without another word. The three companions looked at each other for a moment. They were all thinking the same thing about the receptionist, but they shrugged it off and left.

The three left the guild as an official rescue team. They all couldn’t be happier

“Well, I guess that’s that,” Irima said once they were outside.

“All we need now is a base,” Stella said.

That’s when they all slowly frowned. There was a tense silence as the team were all clearly thinking the same exact thing. It was Irima who voiced their thoughts.

“Where are we going to set up a base?” he said. And for a long moment, no answer came. If they had no base, they couldn’t store their items, or receive any requests by mail. This was arguably more important than a team name, and unlike a name, they couldn’t come up with one on the spot. Where could they go?

Well, Zari knew somewhere they could settle. She was hoping she wouldn’t even have to think about it again, but she knew she had no choice.

“I-I know a place,” she said. She was so quiet, had there been any background noise, she would not have been heard by her companions. Both of them turned to Zari, as if waiting for her to continue. Zari got the message. “Follow me,” she said dryly.

---

Zari led them to the edge of the forest, close enough to the city that it could be seen from here. Nothing out of the ordinary really stood out. That is, until Zari pointed it out.

“We’re here,” she said. Now they could see it. It was a tree stump, but it was much larger than any of the other trees. It didn’t seem like much, however, there was also a hole in the side, just big enough that they could fit through. It didn’t take a genius to know that this was an entrance.

Without another word, Zari reluctantly entered the stump. Irima and Stella paused for a moment, but soon followed in after Zari. Inside, there was a ladder-like rope that led underground. Inside at the bottom, was a surprisingly large room. It was lined with wood planks, and the light from the hole in the stump lit the room surprisingly well. It actually looked quite cozy. There was also a rug in the middle, as well as hammocks, but oddly enough, there were two hammocks, not one.

“Welcome to… my old home…” Zari said after her companions took in their surroundings.

“You lived here?” Stella asked. “How come you’ve never told us about this place?”

“O-Oh…” Zari meekly answered, “This place… just gives me memories…” Stella and Irima looked at Zari with concern, but before they could voice it, Zari spoke again. “B-But that doesn’t matter. We can use this as our base!”

“You’re really okay with that?” Stella asked. She didn’t let her previous statement slide, but felt the need not to push it.

“Of course,” Zari said, forcing a small smile. “My home is yours.”

“Well, that’s real kind of you, Zari,” Irima said. “Now what should we do?”

“Well, the day isn’t over yet,” Stella said. “If you guys want, we can go try our first rescue mission.”

“I’m okay with that,” Irima said.

“O-Okay! Let’s do it…” Zari said. A rescue mission would distract her from these bad memories buzzing around her head.

Hopefully she wouldn’t have to relive them.