"But that makes no sense!" I exclaimed as Skid opened the door to the house. "How are Bug type moves super effective against Psychic type Pokemon? It just sounds wrong!"

"That's just the way it is, I suppose," replied Skid as he closed and locked the door behind us. "We can talk more about that later. For now, let's eat!"

Skid practically sprinted to the baskets of berries and picked out a few choice varieties, including a red berry with spikes and an exceptionally round yellow berry. Ivy and Skid, having stayed home, seemed to be just finishing up their own meals.

My stomach growled. "I guess I should eat, considering I literally don't know when I last ate."

Ivy stared at me. "You didn't eat anything when you got here last night?"

I shrugged. "I guess I forgot to. I was dealing with some more pressing matters, anyways."

Ivy looked back to her food. "Fair enough."

I picked up a spiky red berry, one of the same variety that Skid had picked out.

"Wait!"

The berry was an inch away from my mouth before I turned to look at Skid, who had interrupted. "What?"

"That's a Tamato berry," said Skid. "They're really spicy. I only eat them because I'm used to them, and I know my first was painful."

Vine turned to Skid, smirking. "If that's the case, just let him eat it. Better to try it once than not at all, right?"

Skid took a bite of his own Tamato berry, flinching slightly from the spice. "I'm not stopping him, but everyone deserves a warning before eating these for the first time."

I looked down at the berry. There's no way it can be that bad. I took a bite and prepared for the worst, but got nothing but some mild tang.

Vine and Skid, who were now staring at me, looked dumbfounded.

"You're fine?" Vine asked.

"Yeah," I answered, a bit disappointed. "I was really expecting more spice, but this is mild at best. Maybe I got a dud?"

Skid shook his head. "There's no such thing as a dud Tamato berry."

"It's probably because you're a Fire type," Ivy pointed out. "Fire types have a history of dealing with spicy food much better than the rest of us can."

"I can't believe I forgot that!" Skid exclaimed. "And right after we were talking about type matchups, too..."

"Well, to be fair, type matchups have nothing to do with what food we like," I stated, taking another bite of the berry.

After we had all finished eating, a thought came to my mind.

"So, what exactly do you guys do to pass the time? We've done a lot today, but it's still morning."

Skid sighed. "Well, before things got nasty, we usually went to town. There was lots to do there, but when the negativity started flowing freely, it all got ruined by bad Pokemon. The only thing left to do there now is shop, and even then there's not much incentive to go. It's pretty likely you'll leave with less items than you came in with."

"This town... That's Honeywood, right?"

"Right."

"Is there any other place to go around here?"

"Well, beyond Groovy Pecha Forest to the north is Newdenn. That's where Vine, Ivy, and I grew up. We haven't been back since we left to go make something of ourselves."

"To make something of yourselves? How'd that turn out?"

Vine gestured around him. "Well, this is the product of that venture. We made this little hideaway and have been living a relaxed life here ever since then."

"Really? Skid made it sound like you guys had bigger plans."

Skid looked downtrodden. "We did. We wanted to form a rescue team."

"A what?"

"A rescue team. A small team of Pokemon that does rescues and other jobs for those that need it."

"What happened?"

Skid looked at the floor, seeming uncomfortable. "It was our first job. Some Heracross said he lost something very important to him in a cave."

Vine nodded solemnly. "When we got to the cave, we were ambushed. Knocked out before we could even begin to fight back. When we came to, all of our stuff was gone, including our bandanas."

"Bandanas we were given in Newdenn before we left," Skid added. "Our caretaker, Audino, made them herself. They meant- they meant a lot to us."

"So you went and got them back, right?" I asked.

Vine shook his head. "No. We never even saw our attackers, so our only lead was that Heracross. Unfortunately, we never saw him again."

"It was then we decided to give up on the rescue team business. We couldn't trust anyone, not even those that said they needed our help," Skid muttered. "We started work on this hideaway and lived by foraging. At least that went well. We've been living like this ever since."

I scoffed. "I can't believe how easily you all just gave up! I understand what you lost meant everything to you, but you had a dream!"

Vine laughed, his voice full of mirth. "Yeah, the keyword there being had."

I crossed my arms. "Well, in my opinion, that's simply not the way to think. Anyways, if you guys don't have a better way to help pass the time, I can find one myself. I'm going for a walk."

Before anyone could stop me, I was out the door.