Her eyes squeezed shut- her teeth gritted. This was the end. She knew it was. She had just been turned to a pokemon, and she would be dead in the water, no answers, no one to remember who she was, no one to think of in her last moments. This isn't fair.

The beast lifted its foot high up into the air. She could hear the ice breaking off from its leg and splashing into the water. The shadow of the Abomasnow's raised foot fell upon her. She could feel the cold water lapping at her feet, draining into her little indent
and splashing painfully up onto her underbelly.

Abomasnow roared and brought down its foot. Nona gulped.

Before she knew it, she heard the crunch of ice, the spray of water, the cry of the beast, but she was still alive, hearing the noise slowly get further and further away as the light returned to her eyelids. The Mudkip opened her eyes and saw she shore getting closer and closer to her, or rather, she was getting closer to the shore.

Nona looked up to see a large bluish purple creature wrapping its arms around her underbelly, carrying her through the air as it flew. Just as she recognized them as a Gengar, they looked down at her and gave her a meek, yet reassuring smile.

"S-Sorry to grab you like that- um, are you okay?" The Gengar asked, setting Nona down gently on the floor of pine needles at the bank.

Nona simply nodded. She wanted to tell them how grateful she was, but terror still held her voice hostage.

Gengar smiled and turned back towards the Abomasnow. The beast was staring at them, partly in anger and partly in confusion. Its prey had just been pulled out right from under its nose, and it did not take well to being stolen from. It roared once more, its powerful lungs blowing out a blizzard of ice and snow heading straight for Nona and Gengar, enough to easily knock out a weak Mudkip such as Nona.

Just as it was about to strike, the wind was split, sending chunks of ice and sleet ricocheting off to the side, spraying the once untouched snow around the two pokemon. Once the powdered snow had cleared, Nona looked up and saw Gengar floating a few feet in front of her, their arms outstretched and a sea-blue forcefield sprawling out what looked to be twelve feet wide. It was easily recognizable to her as protect despite her amnesia.

Raising its head again, Abomasnow drew in another large breath, preparing to blast them once more. It lowered its head to roar, but its cry was interrupted when a ball of fire blasted out through the woods, careening into the Abomasnow's gut. The beast fell backwards with the weight of a skyscraper, splashing down and sending a wall of water and ice chunks into the air behind it.

In the air where the Abomasnow once stood moments before, a Blaziken was falling towards the ice. In sending out his powerful kick, he had put himself in a vulnerable spot and was plummeting towards the freezing water. Despite this, the Blaziken didn't look afraid- he stared hungrily down at the Abomasnow, fire in his eyes- as if all he wanted to do was strike it again.

Just as he was about to land, a powerful gust of wind blew up from beneath him, sending him twirling in an arc through the air, which ended with him rolling to a stop on the pond's shore, a few meters away from Nona and Gengar.

Her eyes wide with amazement, Nona turned back to the water to see another pokemon running on top of the ice, a Shiftry with her mane tied behind her head in a ponytail. With a steely and unfeeling expression, she gracefully danced upon the shattered ice, her light steps only slightly disturbing it as she ran. Nona quickly realized that the blast of wind had come from her. The Shiftry had brought her fans together to send a gust of wind that Blaziken could ride to shore on.

The mysterious grass pokemon sprinted to shore, landing with a flip onto solid ground next to Blaziken. The fire pokemon turned to her and nodded approvingly.

As the group landed together on the shore, the blizzard grew more powerful, covering the Abomsnow completely before fading a few moments later. Where the fallen giant had once laid, there was nothing but a gaping hole in the ice, its path of escape nowhere to be seen as the blizzard upturned any and all snow tracks it may have left. It was gone.

"Dammit!" The Blaziken swore, kicking at the ground and sending chunks of dirt flying, "fucker got away!"

Gengar raised their hand to try to comfort Blaziken, but quickly put it back down again, instead lowering himself down to tend to Nona.

"Hey, are you alright?" The Gengar asked. Their anxious eyes darted over Nona's body.

Nona whimpered, nodding her head. She tried to speak her thanks, but her voice was still too weak to make anything more than a squeak. A gentle "thanks" was all she could squeeze out, though she tried her best to make it show her gratitude.

Shiftry raised an eyebrow. "Thank you for your gratitude. You're alright, and that's what matters." Her voice was flat and indifferent.

Blaziken grumbled something inaudible under his breath. Nona could see him pacing, fire smouldering on his arm bands as anger welled up inside of him. She turned back to look at the indent that was left in the ice. Whatever they were doing here, she assumed it had something to do with the Abomasnow's presence.

"Mudkip!"

Cinder and Ronan ran along the side of the pond towards the group, Ronan's bag flapping in the wind behind him.

"Mudkip, we're so glad you're alright!" Ronan panted, "we got so scared when the Abomasnow showed up! We're so glad that these guys came to-"

The Cubone looked up at the trio of rescuers, his face growing whiter with each second he held eye contact. He turned back to his sister, who shared the same expression, one of fear. Whatever they were afraid of, Nona couldn't see it, but her heart began to pound regardless.

Cinder spoke up. "W-Well, at least now that you're on solid ground, we can introduce ourselves. I'm Cinder-"

"Hey, don't you guys have some mail to deliver or something?" Blaziken jeered, swaggering forward and leaning down to get in Cinder's face, "wouldn't want you guys to be late for whatever job you gotta get done, would ya?"

Cinder gulped, grabbing Ronan's arm tightly.

The Cyndaquil's eyes met her brother's, fear beginning to boil in her stomach as Blaziken's gaze bore a hole through her. "We should go" was all she could muster.

Ronan looked at her with horror. Was she really going to leave this Mudkip behind? He wanted to argue, but her hushed tone and fearful gaze was enough to bid him to let it go. Cinder looked terrified, like she wanted to be anywhere but here.

"T-Thank you," Nona breathed, "for trying to save me, I mean."

The Cubone beamed with pride, pulling his sister forward as well.

"Don't mention it! It's what heroes do!"

Blaziken snickered, swinging his leg down gently to idly kick at the dirt. "Yeah, sure, a hero would definitely stand at the edge of a pond and cry. I'm sure you guys would make a great rescue team one day!"

Cinder deflated, pulling her brother even closer, her grip on his arm starting to sting. Ronan felt his confidence waver for a moment before he resumed his cheery expression.

"W-Well, uh, you can call me Ronan!" The Cubone held up his bone club next to Nona and gave her an expecting look.

The Mudkip felt a strange awkwardness from how quickly the Cubone shrugged off Blaziken's comment, and it only swelled when she was met with the large club being held in front of her face. She put her hand against it, unsure of what to do, and the Cubone just laughed and shrugged. Whatever she did, it probably wasn't what she was supposed to do, but it worked anyway.

"And this-" Ronan pulled himself away from his sister, allowing her to stand alone, "-is Cinder. She's my sister!"

Cinder met eyes with Nona, but the Cyndaquil didn't smile, only giving a small wave. Nona tilted her head, unsure of why they were acting so strangely, but she wasn't able to dwell on it much before Blaziken stepped forward.

He slicked back his mane and crouched down next to Nona, obviously trying to appear friendly. "My name's Crasher, but you can call me Blaziken. That ghost over there is Gengar, but he doesn't like people knowin' his real name."
Gengar waved, a hint of dark purple blush on his cheeks.

"And she's Shiftry- come to think of it, she's not a big fan of people knowing her name either," Blaziken laughed, elbowing Nona enough to make Nona flinch. Shiftry hardly reacted, looking over Nona with a guarded expression and nodding.

The fiery pokemon stood up, stepping back to form a sort of formation with his teammates that Nona assumed was their regular marching order. "And we're Team Eviscerate- we hunt bad guys like that Abomasnow back there. We were- heh- just about to catch him until we ended up finding you there." Nona felt a hint of annoyance in his laugh.

"It's water under the bridge though. You know, the reason I bring it up is because we were about to keep going with our hunt after we camped for the night, and we were wondering if you'd be interested in traveling with us?"

Nona blinked a few times, trying to process what they were asking her. Follow them? This group of absolute strangers? She could feel there was something off about them, perhaps something she wasn't seeing, which angered her to no end, and yet- they did save her. They did rescue her from certain death. If they wanted her gone, they would have left her there, and if they wanted something from her, she could only assume they would have asked it of her, since she owed them her life.

"Why?" Was all she could come to ask.

Gengar interrupted, floating forward. "Well, um, you see, you're all alone out here, I assume, and we just don't want you to be left in the cold without help, you know?- Once you're done, we could always just take you back home- wherever that may be."

Nona thought about it, keeping her eyes trained on Blaziken, who inhaled deeply, not looking too happy with being talked over, even if it was from his own team member.

As strange as the request was, what other choice did she have? She was out in the middle of nowhere, no memories, no one who knew her, just her name and the fact that she definitely was not a Mudkip. As much as she didn't want to be going off alone with a group of people- er- pokemon she didn't know, she didn't want to be alone and at risk of that Abomasnow coming back either.

She nodded, though when she did, she still couldn't shake the feeling that it was a bad idea. Nona stepped cautiously past Team Eviscerate to stand before the other two rescuers, who still appeared to be cowering back.

"Thanks again," Nona whispered, bowing her head in gratitude, the only way she knew how to in her new quadrupedal body.

Ronan chuckled, a bit of a blush being visible through the eyeholes of his skull. "Don't mention it, Mudkip. Just glad you're safe."

"Y-Yeah," Cinder stuttered, mustering the best smile she could as she began to straighten her back.

Nona let a smile linger on her face as she walked back to resume her spot with Team Eviscerate. With a triumphant look back at the siblings, Blaziken turned and guided the group into the woods, the line order being Blaziken, Gengar, Nona, and Shiftry, with Blaziken taking the lead.

The group walked for a few minutes, most of which were spent with Shiftry splitting off from the group to search for a suitable camping ground. Gengar, all the while, was trying to spark up whatever conversation he could, though most of it was short, as Nona wasn't able to speak anything more than a few words at a time.

That was the one thing Nona hadn't thought of now that she had lost her memories, the fact that she didn't have a voice either. When she was out on the ice, she always assumed it was fear choking up her throat, but even now, she felt almost completely mute, her throat becoming raspy and scratchy whenever she tried to speak. It didn't take a genius for her to realize that this was more than just a temporary thing. She was partially mute.

"Here." Shiftry whistled, standing a few meters in front of the team and pointing a fan towards a clearing in the pine trees, mostly free of pine needles, with a great view of the pinkish sky above, blushing with the setting of the sun.

Blaziken ran up to meet her, taking a moment to inspect the area before grinning in agreement. Without another word, he opened his mouth and released a stream of fire, scorching a small patch of dirt in the center of the clearing and making Nona jump.

Shiftry grabbed his shoulder. "We make a firepit before we make the fire, Crasher- what, do you pour your soup before you get the bowl? Honestly. . ." the grass pokemon scolded, walking into the center of the clearing and brushing away the sand, pine needles- and now ash- away from their soon-to-be camp.

"They'll prepare camp for us in a bit," Gengar said, rubbing the fur behind his head sheepishly.

Nona saw that Crasher mostly ignored Shiftry's scolding, instead going to begrudgingly pull out a large sheet from the bag slung over his shoulder and throwing it over a jutted out branch to make a makeshift tent. The entire time he did, he taunted Shiftry, telling her that she was setting up the firepit too slowly, and she only ignored him, continuing her work as if he had said nothing at all.

Before they knew it, the camp was set up, and Crasher was finally able to unleash his flamethrower, this time on a prepared fire pit with actual kindling and wood rather than just indiscriminately blasting pine needles. Nona snuggled up close to the now roaring fire, enough for her face to sting a bit with the heat. As it grew, she could slowly tell that the feeling was coming back into her legs, lost earlier to the freezing water. It felt amazing to finally be warm again, and she found herself enacting her first pokemon mannerism that day by wrapping herself into a ball and allowing her legs to jut out, warming themselves against the crackling warmth of the fire.

After finally having finished the camp, Shiftry excused herself, jumping from tree trunk to tree trunk, eventually finding herself a comfortable spot in the center of a pine tree's height nearby. Nona figured that since she acted as a sort of scout earlier, she must have been the lookout too. Crasher was content with lying down in his tent. In minutes, he was already snoring, or at least, that's what Nona thought it sounded like.

"Are you feeling comfortable?" Gengar whispered, walking on all fours to sit down next to Nona. He grinned at her, which seemed to be a regular expression for a pokemon of his species.

Nona nodded, sighing gratefully as she felt the tips of her toes sting slightly in the heat, but she didn't care.

"You remember what Crasher said earlier about us hunting bad guys, right?"

Turning away from her comfortable activity, Nona nodded once more, this time a bit slower. What was he trying to tell her about?

"Well," Gengar began, straightening himself into a cross-legged sit, "that's kind of our job. I mean, you never really asked, so I just assumed you didn't know- but we're hunters. We track down outlaws and, uh. . . we catch 'em."

Nona rolled over fully, facing her entire body towards the ghost type, her eyes squinting in curiosity. "Catch?"

Gengar hummed. "Mhm, we arrest them, and then we get paid for it."

"Well. . . why is it that you were sent to apprehend Abomasnow? What did they do?" Nona asked, tilting her head to the side, allowing it to rest on the ground warmed by the fire.

"Doesn't really matter why." Shiftry's voice interrupted the conversation, echoing through the clearing with cold and unfeeling inflection.

Nona turned back towards the fire, seeing Shiftry's body still up in the tree through the flames. The grass type was laying on a branch, her back resting against its trunk.

Shiftry tilted her head towards the dimming sky. "People pay us to apprehend outlaws, and we don't ask questions. There isn't a reason that we care about for why we do what we do. All we care about is the paycheck."

"-Well, that doesn't mean that the outlaws we catch don't deserve it!" Gengar sputtered, "that Abomasnow was trying to hurt you. They're a bad pokemon- they deserve to be caught."

That made sense to Nona. if there was a maddened Abomasnow out and about, she would certainly want it gone, but why wouldn't they ask questions? Was it that they cared that little about their work?

She wanted to ask more questions, but her throat was starting to hurt. Speaking as much as she did was starting to do a number on her, and she couldn't keep getting her questions out comfortably. Lucky for her, Shiftry, in her boredom seemed to have no problem continuing to explain things to her.

"Pokemon give us jobs to hunt down other pokemon, we turn them into the law, and then we get the money. There's a pretty big bounty on this Abomasnow's head, even before he turned into a Drifter. . ." Shiftry explained.

Drifter. The word was familiar to Nona. She had heard the Cyndaquil from earlier say something similar, saying that the Abomasnow had something called "the Drift", and she assumed they had something to do with each other.

"We've been hunting this Abomasnow for a week now." Shiftry leapt off of her perch, landing silently on the packed dirt below. She stood tall on the side of the fire opposite to Nona. "They're elusive things for the most part. Have you ever met one before today?"

Nona shook her head. Perhaps she did at one point, but she couldn't be sure.

"Well, they're hard to track. Wherever they go, they strike up a blizzard, masking themselves in a blanket of hail and snow. Using the trees on their backs, they lower themselves into the snow to hide from pursuers like us. It makes them incredibly hard to hunt." Shiftry swiped her fans against each other. "Not hard enough though. I'll find it soon."

The Shiftry's display was certainly intimidating, but it didn't appear to be directed at Nona, or anyone in particular.

"Have you tried bait?" Nona asked.

Shiftry turned to her, locking eyes for a moment before shaking her head. "Abomasnow photosynthesize, which is when they let down their blizzards. They don't care for bait. The only time they do eat is if there's any easy prey they can freeze and pick off, which is why it wanted to reach you."

"It's growing desperate. We've been hunting it for so long that it hasn't felt safe enough to lower its blizzard and photosynthesize. It's beginning to starve, and in its hunger, it's become willing to attack and eat other, smaller pokemon," Shiftry explained, looking over to Gengar.

"All the more reason why we gotta stop it," Gengar agreed, nodding his head.

Nona went even quieter for another moment, looking between the other two pokemon before she found the strength in her voice to speak. "So bait would work then?"

Now it was the tracker's turn to go silent.

"Well. . . we wouldn't want any pokemon getting hurt, that's all." Gengar paused and shifted on his spot, looking thoughtfully into the fire. "Bait's way too dangerous. You saw how close it got to reaching you back there, and even then it wasn't enough for us to catch it. Letting it get any closer is a risk we aren't willing to take, and I doubt you are either."

"Abomasnow only truly let their guard down enough to strike when they are eating their prey. Their bodies are not suited to eat physical food, so it takes great concentration. Our other bet is to let it starve, which is our plan currently. We can keep the pace well enough, and we can stop at night to avoid it photosynthesizing, only to resume come sunrise. We have it on the ropes."

Nona went silent again, almost feeling like she had been scolded. At the very least, she was even more thankful to be saved. It was clear to her now that if it weren't for Team Eviscerate, she wouldn't have been standing there that night at all.

"Ide, to your post," Crasher snapped from his tent.

Shiftry turned away from the fire, anger evident in her glare and leapt back up into the tree with a gust of wind. Gengar turned back to Nona.

"We should be getting some rest. . . we'll be hunting again tomorrow," Gengar yawned, floating upwards and leaving to find a spot to sleep.

"Wait-" Nona tried to stop him, but her voice was too weak for Gengar to hear, and the ghost type floated off towards the treeline to find a comfortable sleeping spot.

Nona sighed in resignation before deciding to give it a rest and move closer to the fire, which had lost most of its flame, instead leaving the logs to glow a vibrant sunset vermillion. As her eyes slowly began to close, Nona stared up into the sky, now fading into a deep purple and allowed herself to fall into a deep, exhausted sleep.