Dawn had not yet come. The blue-gray color of the sky peaked through the gaps forest canopy, giving a faint, gray light to the forest floor.
A Squirtle lay on the dirt, half hidden under a bush. With a faint movement, he opened his eyes and sat up.
"W-where am I?" he asked quietly, his voice croaking.
There was no answer. Not that he was expecting one, but still... the forest seemed unusually quiet. Shouldn't there be some Pokemon in the forest? Anywhere?
With a thumping head, the Squirtle got to his feet. His knees wobbled and he took a step, immediately tumbling back onto the ground. Grunting noisily, he picked himself back up and took a small step. And another. And a third. He leaned against a tree for momentary support, and then let go and started to walk, slowly, forward.
"Let's see," he said after a minute. "Why am I..." He didn't even need to finish the sentence to realize he didn't know what he was doing in the forest. Blinking, he searched in his mind to think what he had been doing before he'd woken up.
But his mind was eerily empty.
The Squirtle's eyes widened and he gasped. "I-I don't remember anything! Who am I? What's my name? Where am I?"
The shock would have been much more severe if the Squirtle hadn't stopped before he could say anymore. A bush behind him rattled and he spun around. A flash of orange caught his eye and he warily took a step backwards. A second later, the head of an angry-looking Charmeleon rose from the leaves, staring at the Squirtle with narrowed eyes.
"What do you think you're doing?" he hissed. "Get off the road!"
At first, he did nothing, wanting to know why the Charmeleon was in the bush. But when the Charmeleon flicked his arm forward, beckoning the Squirtle to hide, he slunk in a bunch of ferns behind him and noticed that he had, in fact, been walking on a road. A uneven but clear dirt path wound through the trees.
The ferns brushed at his face as the Squirtle crawled into a concealed position under him and he raised an arm to brush them out of the way, but then he heard a voice and stopped.
"I'm telling you, I saw something moving!" came an irritated, gruff voice.
"Cube, you always see things," replied a second Pokemon, the pitch suggesting that it was a female.
"Shut up, both of you," growled a third on, this Pokemon appearing to be the leader. "Ratti, Cube might have seen something, so stop being annoying about it."
"I'll look ahead," a fourth voice said eagerly. A few seconds later, the Squirtle heard pawsteps and a sniffing noise.
A dog Pokemon, he said to himself.
The sniffing stopped, as did the footsteps of the three other Pokemon.
"What is it, Pooch?" said the leader.
"I...I smell something," he replied. "Some thing almost like...fire."
Squirtle looked through the fronds and saw the Charmeleon's eyes widen from across the road.
"Check the bushes," commanded the deep voice.
"Yes, sir!" said Cube. Squirtle saw two orange-brown feet appear in front of Charmeleon's bush and tried not to gasp.
Charmeleon roared and leaped out of the bush, blasting a mouthful of fire in Cube's face. He kicked the Pokemon over and then screamed, "Squirtle, run!"
Without thinking about it, Squirtle jumped up from the ferns and sprinted after Charmeleon, catching a glimpse of a Cubone, a Ratticate, a Mightyena, and a Poochyena. Then he turned around and focused on what was in front of him.
"Get the Squirtle!" screamed the Mightyena.
At the sound of his name, Squirtle ran even faster, catching up with Charmeleon, who was flying through the trees.
"Off the road!" yelled the fire Pokemon, veering into the undergrowth. Squirtle skidded to a stop and then bolted after his accomplice.
A spurt of fire brushed past Squirtle's head and he looked over his shoulder, seeing a trail of smoke floating over the running Poochyena. A strangle sensation started to form in Squirtle's stomach but quickly moved up into his throat. Not knowing what he was doing, Squirtle opened his mouth and watched in surprise as a ball of water shot out of it and struck the Ratticate in the face.
"Don't stop!" informed the Charmeleon, ducking under a branch.
Confused yet impressed, Squirtle dodged another one of Pooch's attacks and slid under a fallen tree. Behind him, the Poochyena tried to stop but its momentum made it keep on moving. With a loud thud, it rammed into the wood.
Squirtle jumped over a rock and started to run down a hill. As he ran through tangling ivy, his foot slipped under one of the tendrils and he fell forward, skidding down the hill and crumpling into a heap at the bottom of the slope.
Charmeleon whipped around and ran over to him. "Come on," he urged, a worried town in his voice. "Get up!"
As Squirtle clambered to his feet, his back and arms aching, there was a loud bark and he momentarily froze in fear before turning around to see the Mightyena leaping down the hill. The Ratticate scurried behind him with the Cubone right behind her. Lastly, the Poochyena came limping down the slope.
Charmeleon started to open his mouth, but the Mightyena growled. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," he muttered. "Four Pokemon against you and a companion who can't even control his own powers. Where do you think that battle will go?"
Suddenly, Squirtle felt very small and guilty. If anything happened to this Charmeleon, it was his fault. After all, the Charmeleon was only trying to help him out and Squirtle had nothing to give in return, seeing as he had no clue how to fight. "I'm sorry," he whispered.
"It's fine," replied the Charmeleon, but Squirtle could tell it wasn't.
"Seize them," ordered the Mightyena. Cubone and Ratticate began to move forward and Squirtle braced himself for the worse.
Then, much to his shock, a voice whispered, "Need some help?"