The trio weren't moving for long before they reached an abrupt turn in the direction of the cave floor. The less straight and linear the path became, the more it worried Alesia, who wasn't quite one hundred percent convinced these two talking Pokémon could get her out, but was still willing to hold onto that possibility. "So what exactly are you guys doing in here anyhow?" asked Alesia, out of a mix of piqued curiosity and a desire to break the tension. "You just doing this for fun?"

"Yeah!" agreed Popplio excitedly.

"Suppose you could put it like that," Riolu answered, not turning his vision away from directly in front of him as he lead them onward. "See, my friend here and I wanted to form a R.E.E.D. team – Rescue, Exploration, Enforcement, and Delivery – and we were checking this cave for anyone in need of help. We were just getting ready to go home when we heard you."

"You need any help getting home after we get out of here?" asked Popplio, intent on making Alesia's escort as pleasant as possible.

"Well…" Something clicked in Alesia's memory, and she took note of Riolu's status as a Sinnoh-native Pokémon. Popplio did not meet this criterion, but there was still no reason not to ask her next question when it could potentially be of assistance. Her home and some of its connections were all she could currently remember. "Do you know where Canalave City is?"

"Where what now is?"

"Canalave City! In the Sinnoh region! It runs a ferry service to go to Iron Island, or the Almia region, or–"

"No such regions," Riolu affirmed.

Popplio thought it helpful to go through a list of places in the world. "But we do have the Ice Continent, which is where we are now! And there's the Air Continent!"

"Popplio…"

"And the Water Continent!"

"Popplio…"

"And the Grass Continent!"

"Popplio…"

"And the Mist Continent!"

Riolu stopped walking and whirled around in place to face the Pokémon's name he had just said three times in a row already. "POPPLIO!"

Popplio seemed startled and remained silent, at which Riolu resumed his chat. "Honestly, lady, go see your therapist once you're out."

"What for?! I'm telling you the truth, I'm actually a human being!" Alesia snapped, veins pulsating at her temple with anger.

"Yeah, right, and I'm the king of GOLBAT!"

Alesia looked behind her at that name. But there was nothing except the rest of the cave that grew ever darker the deeper one looked into it. "What was with the emphasis on 'Golbat'? You made it sound like some were heading straight for us mid-sentence."

Riolu was wincing in pain as he lifted up his bottom right paw to reveal a small, brown, thorn-like object. "Stepped on something," he clarified as he opened Popplio's satchel and dropped the item in.

Searching for the exit, Popplio peered into a hole in the wall… but then pulled his head back. "Ow!" he cried as he yanked his head back out to reveal a Golbat had tightly bitten his nose and now wouldn't let go.

Riolu wasn't having any of that treatment toward his friend. He fired a Focus Blast, knocking the Golbat off. "Come on!" he yelled at both of the Pokémon beside him. Alesia ran after him and Popplio used his fins to scoot across the cave floor as fast as he could; which was, Alesia was surprised to discover, surprisingly fast, marginally faster than she could run.

"I see light!" Riolu called as they approached the end, signified by white light shining through. The closer they got to the end, the brighter the inside of the cave became, until they finally made it outside, feeling the hard, smooth surface beneath them come to a stop to make way for the grass of the lush plains outside.

The trees were densely-arranged, with a gap indicated by a pale orange pathway that led into said gap, with the other end directly in front of Alesia's front paws. "What is this place?"

Riolu shook his torch to put out the flame. "That's Izolo Village," he replied, applying a band-aid to Popplio's nose. "We found it and decided to set up our team base in it."

"Team base?"

"Remember what I was telling you about our R.E.E.D. team?" Riolu reminded Alesia. "Rescue, Exploration, Enforcement, and Delivery? In that order, we rescue Pokémon, explore uncharted lands, apprehend criminals, and deliver items to Pokémon waiting for them."

"Wait a sec, are you saying there are MORE Pokémon just like you?"

"Actually, we haven't found any more Riolu or Popplio here. No Eevee, either," Popplio said.

Alesia groaned and hung her head in frustration. "That's not what I meant. I meant more Pokémon that can talk just like you."

Riolu did not reply to her as promptly as he had to her previous objections to the idea of Pokémon talking and having a sapient society of their own comparable to humans, despite the fact that she herself was a talking Pokémon (who claimed that she was formerly a human, creatures that hadn't existed for tens of centuries as far as Riolu was aware). Instead, he took the time to silently craft his response.

"Alesia," he began, and took a pause of a few seconds before continuing. "I don't think you should tell anyone you used to be a human," he finished the sentence with, wording it in a way that didn't strictly imply Alesia was lying. "We don't want you getting dragged to an asylum."

Alesia might have replied with something along the lines of "There are no asylums for Pokémon!", but she considered it a fruitless exercise at this point.

"It's a scary place where they do terrible things to you!" Popplio added.

"Yeah." Riolu nodded with a hint of uncertainty in his voice. He didn't believe all asylums were necessarily as bad as Popplio's short, vague testimonial implied, but he also didn't believe they were all totally safe for those with the mental disorders necessary for admittance. If something happened to Alesia in there because Riolu had told about her claim, he'd never forgive himself. "Humans haven't existed for years now. Saying you used to be one would be a great way for everyone to think you're cuckoo."

"I wish I could tell you more about myself before this happened," Alesia said. "But what I've already said is about all I can remember."

"Let's show you around!" Popplio suggested as he pulled himself along the pathway that led into the trees, separated with just enough space for passers-through.

"Might as well," Riolu decided. Usually it was he who took the role of leader, but Popplio appeared so eager to get Alesia settled in that it seemed only right for him to have it for now. He followed the pathway his partner had taken, and Alesia again went at the back of the group.

Inside the expanse of trees was a large near-perfect circle of land, but even that wasn't the most striking feature. It wasn't a single thing that claimed that title, but rather they all formed what gave Alesia such a surprise. There were several Pokémon all together peacefully, in this area consisting of bizarre structures, most of which were made to look like the head of the Pokémon that was standing inside it for some reason, one such example being the Kangaskhan inside a booth underneath a huge Kangaskhan head sculpted into a boulder, which had also been made to look like front paws at either side. There were small, archaic-looking houses, but only barely more than the odd buildings. Another structure was made to look like the head of a Wobbuffet, but it had a hole hollowed into it to make a doorway. Still, presumably there was a Wobbuffet inside. A Kecleon-looking building with a Kecleon inside it, and a grey lump of mass detailed to look like a Ferrothorn, complete with a green-painted spike on top, and beneath that was none other than the aforementioned Grass/Steel-type… it truly was surreal.

"What are all these things for?" asked Alesia.

"That's the Kecleon shop!" Popplio pointed at the structure made in the image of its owner. "They sell items that help you in dungeons." He continued rattling off names. "That's Kangaskhan Storage, where you keep your items when they won't all fit in your bag… that's Ferrothorn Bank where you keep money–"

"YOU! THIEF!"

The gruff voice that had yelled out across the unique enclosure these Pokémon called Izolo Village caught the three of them by surprise. Alesia sharply turned around and was greeted by a Trevenant angrily approaching her. He reached her and pointed a claw at her, about five inches away from her understandably-confused and frightened expression. "YOU'RE the scoundrel who stole from my bookstore!"

"Huh? What exactly are you talking about?" Alesia couldn't have even entered his bookstore, much less stolen from it, but it wasn't like he was in any mood to hear her explanation as to why.

"Don't play dumb! You know what you did!"

Riolu scoffed. "Oh, please. As if you have any proof, you stingy old miser. What're you gonna do, take her to court?"