Deep in the Tiny Woods a small bundle of white and brown fur lay unmoving on the forest floor. A humming sound echoed through the nearby trees, as a small yellow-furred rodent entered the clearing.
"Huh?" the Pikachu said, noticing the furry bundle, "What's this? A pokèmon in need of help?" He walked over to the cat-like pokèmon.
"Excuse me." The Pikachu began softly. The other pokèmon didn't move.
"Please wake up." The Pikachu said, slightly louder. The other pokèmon still didn't move.
"Come on, wake up!" The Pikachu yelled at the top of its lungs. The other pokèmon jerked into consciousness.
"Wha-!" It grunted as it sat bolt upright.
"Oh good! You're finally awake! Great!" The Pikachu said, smiling happily, "But what's a Meowth like you doing so far away from the Energetic Forest?"
'When did Pikachus learn to talk human?' Wondered the Meowth, sleepily.
"Meowth?" the Meowth asked, sounding groggy, "'M not a Meowth." The Pikachu gave him a weird look.
"Yeah, you are. Unless you're a Ditto. But I don't think so." The Pikachu said, concerned about the odd Meowth, "Come and see for yourself." The Pikachu led the Meowth to a nearby stream. Leaning over, the crystal clear water, the Meowth saw his reflection and froze, staring for a good few minutes before yowling loudly and leaping backwards.
"I'm a MEOWTH!!" He shrieked, "How? I...wait...the voice!"
"What voice?" The Pikachu asked, giving the Meowth an odd look.
"Before you woke me up I had a dream! There was a voice and it was asking me questions! It said I was a Quirky Type, whatever that means, and then told me I should be a Meowth!" The Meowth explained, frantic.
"Oh..." The Pikachu said, a little confused by this, "So, what were you before your dream?" The Meowth paused, thinking hard. An image flashed into his mind of a young boy, in his early teens, with pale skin and white and brown hair.
"I think..." The Meowth started, "I think I was human!"
"Wow!" The Pikachu cried, "That would be so cool, being human. Were you really human?"
"I think so..." The Meowth said, unsure of where the Pikachu was going with this. The Pikachu noticed the odd look the Meowth was giving him, and cleared his throat, calming down.
"Anyway, allow me to introduce myself." He said, extending a paw, "My name's Chuchino. I'm a Pikachu, as you can see." The Meowth took Chuchino's paw, shaking it slowly, still unsure.
"M' name's Felix. I guess I'm a Meowth now." He replied.
"A pleasure to meet you, Felix." Chuchino replied, smiling wide. His smile was disarming, and Felix relaxed, smiling back.
"A pleasure to meet you as well."
"HELP!" echoed a voice through the woods, "PLEASE SOMEONE HELP!" Both Chuchino and Felix jumped at the loud voice.
"Someone's in trouble!" Chuchino said, "We should help!" He began to run in the direction of the cry. Felix tried to follow behind on his hind legs, but found running too difficult on only two legs, switching to four. Soon he caught up with Chuchino in another clearing.
"What's the problem?" Chuchino was asking a large Butterfree female.
"My baby!" she cried, compound eyes welling up with tears somehow, "He fell in that hole, and when I tried to get him out some pokèmon attacked me!"
"Attacked you?!" Felix cried, "Why?"
"I don't know, there was a small earthquake an hour or two ago, it might have riled them up." The Butterfree sniffled, "Please save my baby Caterpie!"
"We will." Chuchino replied, voice full of determination, "Come on Felix, you want to help?"
"Sure." Felix said, eyes narrowed in the same determination as Chuchino. The two walked to the edge of the rift, nodded to each other, and then jumped. They fell for a few seconds. Felix was the first to land, on all four feet as cats normally do. Unfortunately, Chuchino landed on top of him, knocking Felix to the ground.
"Oof!" Chuchino grunted, quickly getting off his friend, "Sorry Felix, I misjudged my trajectory."
"Urgh." Felix groaned, cracking his back loudly, "I never thought getting hit by a Pikachu would hurt so much."
"Let's get going." Chuchino said, looking to a set of stair-like rocks nearby, "We should be able to use those to go down to the next level. Caterpie is probably at the lowest level. Especially if he fell down that." Chuchino pointed to the large rift that stretched like a mouth next to the two. Suddenly, behind Chuchino a pokèmon appeared. A Pidgey, which opened its beak and lunged at Chuchino.
"Look out!" Felix cried, shoving Chuchino out of the way and meeting the Pidgey's face with his unsheathed claws. Three narrow but deep slices opened on the brown bird's face, and it flapped squawking off into the darkness.
"Hey thanks!" Chuchino said, heading towards the stairs, "We should keep our eyes open for wild pokèmon attacks like that as we keep going." Felix nodded, looking at his claws, sheathing and unsheathing them. It was a very odd feeling.
The two headed down level after level, running into a few Wurmples and a Pidgey or two. They were able to scare most of them off with one hit. They had found Oran Berries, Pecha Berries, and Blast Seeds galore. However, still no Caterpie.
"Wait." Felix said, stopping Chuchino with one paw, ears twitching, "Do you hear that?" Chuchino stopped and listened.
"Yeah, it sounds like someone crying!" Chuchino cried, "It's coming from the stairs, I think Caterpie is one level down!" The two rushed for the stairs, and after much pushing, shoving, and falling down stairs, they were laying in a heap in front of a bawling Caterpie.
"DON'T HURT ME!" The Caterpie cried loudly, bawling even harder.
"Relax!" Chuchino said, "We're not here to hurt you, we're here to get you out of here."
"Yeah, your mother Butterfree sent us." Felix added, desperately trying to calm down the distraught insect.
"Really?" Caterpie said, sniffling, "Momma sent you?"
"Yeah, she said that her baby fell down here and she couldn't get down to come and get you." Chuchino explained, "So we volunteered. Come on, let's get you out of here." The two older pokèmon led the still sniffling Caterpie out of the hole, and into the arms of his overjoyed mother.
"I can't thank you enough!" Butterfree cried, leading Caterpie back home.
"It's getting late, we'd better head to the town." Chuchino said wearily, looking up through the trees at the purple, sunset sky.
"You have a town?" Felix asked.
"Yeah, I'll show you." Chuchino said, taking Felix's paw and leading him off out of the forest. Soon they arrived in a small, quaint village that seemed to be made entirely out of leaves, vines, stones, and mud.
"Wow!" Felix breathed, watching with great interest as pokèmon went along the streets, doing jobs and errands that you would normally picture humans doing.
"Hey." Chuchino said softly, "D'you think...d'you think you'd want to...um...start a Pokèmon Rescue Team with me?"
"A Pokèmon Rescue Team?" Felix asked, confused.
"Yeah, we'd go around helping Pokèmon in trouble, rescuing them or escorting them or delivering items. Like we did with Caterpie." Chuchino explained.
"Sure!" Felix replied, smiling wide, "Why not?"
"Really!?" Chuchino cried happily. Felix nodded.
"I'll help. Sounds like fun!" Felix added. Chuchino grabbed him by the paw.
"Alright!" the yellow rodent cried, "You can come stay with me, at my house. You have nowhere else, and it'll be our Rescue Team Base, so we should both be there once the mail starts pouring in and such." And with that, the hyperactive electric mouse dragged Felix off by the paw to a small house just outside the village, where they talked well into the night about nothing in particular and fell asleep, dreaming of the adventures they'd have.