The place where the Butterfree had come to Alti and Cannon from was a small forest, not too thick, with many tall grasses and small trees. There was no path through the forest, nor any indicator of where the crevasse where the Caterpie had supposedly fallen into was. At Cannon's suggestion, the two Pokémon just decided to head to the deepest part of the woods in the hopes that they'd run into the crevasse.

"Where are we, anyway?" Alti asked as she followed Cannon under some overhanging branches.

"Really? You really don't remember much about anything, do you?" Cannon replied, amusement coloring his voice. "It's a mystery dungeon."

"Not what I meant," Alti said dryly, glaring at Cannon's back. "I meant, what's the name of these woods?" She hoped that maybe if she knew the name of the woods, it would help jog her memory, or at the very least give her some idea of where in the world she'd ended up. "… And, for that matter, what continent or region are we in?"

She heard a grumbling noise, and felt a slight burst of satisfaction as she realized that Cannon had been looking for a chance to act slightly superior for knowing what a mystery dungeon – whatever that was – was, only to be shot down as Alti informed him he'd completely misunderstood her. She could hear the annoyance in his voice as he glanced briefly at her over his shoulder before telling her, "It's the Tiny Woods. I'm not really sure what you mean by continent or region, though. This is just a continent.."

Alti wasn't actually sure she knew herself what she meant, seeing as how she couldn't really remember which region she had been in before waking up this morning. Before she could find another way to phrase it, Cannon told her, "It is interesting that you claim to be a human, though, because there aren't any humans here."

Alti stopped in her tracks. Cannon, unaware, continued to climb through the undergrowth. "No humans?" she said softly. "Cannon – wait!" She got down on all fours and began running after the Squirtle. "What do you mean, no humans?" she panted when she'd reached him.

"It's one of the Eastern Continents, specifically the Stonelands," Cannon said. "So named because of all the mountains and caves that are all over this continent. You… you know that, right?"

"Actually, yeah," Alti responded, a little bit surprised with her own ability to remember. "Right, there's no humans here. I know that. I just wasn't expecting to be the only thing with some semblance of humanity in this region. That's why it took me by surprise."

"Gotcha," Cannon replied. Before he or Alti could continue the conversation, though, he and Alti stepped out into a small clearing in the woods. At the roots of a tree on the opposite side of the clearing, a small bird Pokémon – a Pidgey, Alti realized – was pecking around. At about the same time that Alti noticed it, though, it seemed to notice her and Cannon. Letting out a screeching cry, it flapped its wings, rising into the air, and hovered, staring menacingly – though warily – at the two intruding Pokémon.

"That Pidgey looks hostile," Alti mumbled, looking at Cannon with an expression of concern. "This is what the Butterfree meant by being attacked, wasn't it? Pokémon like this?"

"It is a mystery dungeon," Cannon said, so matter-of-factly that Alti felt a slight surge of annoyance that he wasn't paying attention to her concern. "Hostile Pokémon are pretty commonplace. Most of the time, it's impossible to avoid them, and you have to fight. They'll run away when they're too weary to battle, though."

"But… that means we do have to fight," Alti confirmed, glancing back to where the Pidgey was still staring them down from its vantage point in the air. All her bravado and whimsical 'Pokémon-are-invincible' thoughts fled as she realized that not only would she have to fight, she'd have to sustain damage, too. And she didn't know how to fight.

"Cannon… I –" Alti broke off as the Pidgey let out another cry and started flying toward her and Cannon. Alti focused her attention on the Pidgey as her heart started beating faster. She was a Pikachu, right? A user of Electric-type moves? Shouldn't she be able to attack this Pidgey easily? But she had no idea what functions she needed to use to use her actual Pokémon attacks. Her attempt to electrocute the Pidgey failed, and instead, the Pidgey dive-bombed her and rammed its beak right into her soft belly.

"Oof!" Alti gasped, reeling backwards as a result. The peck had been painful, but – and she didn't know if it was the result of being an Electric-type, or just a result of the legendary stamina that Pokémon possessed – but it didn't really hurt enough. That didn't make any sense in Alti's mind, but she knew what she felt, and it was very different from being hurt as a human.

"What are you doing?" Cannon said incredulously. "Attack it!" As if to illustrate his own point, Cannon turned toward the Pidgey and lunged at it, hitting it with a full-body tackle. The Pidgey was sent careening backwards a few feet away. It must have been a weak Pidgey, Alti reasoned, for it let out a caw that sounded a bit like a whine and flew away into the trees, flapping its wings more erratically than before. Alti noticed that Cannon's tackle had caused it to lose a few feathers, which were scattered on the ground near Alti.

"… I'm sorry," Alti said, still in a state of mild shock. "I tried to electrocute it. I did, I promise, I just – have no idea how."

All Cannon could do was stare at Alti. "You really are a human, aren't you?" he mused. Alti felt equally indignant and upset, and had opened her mouth to respond when Cannon said, "Never mind. We beat it, so no harm done. But… even if you can't use electric attacks, you can attack Pokémon, you know? Just tackle it like I did, or hit it, or something. Anything works."

"… Okay," Alti said. The statement had surprised her slightly, though. Pokémon had to use actual attacks to attack, didn't they? So why did the option exist to just do damage without having to use a true Pokémon attack?

"Are you okay?" Cannon asked. The slightest hint of worry crept into his voice, and for all her annoyance at the Squirtle, Alti couldn't help but crack a small smile. The responsibility of caring for her had caused the Squirtle to do just that – care – it seemed.

"Yeah," Alti told him. There was still a throbbing pain in her stomach, but – and perhaps this was another part of her newly-gained stamina – she didn't feel it would impede her ability to continue through the woods any. "Yeah, I'm fine. Let's get going."

Cannon nodded curtly, and the two of them crossed the clearing. Alti had pushed some branches up with one paw and was about to start back into the woods when Cannon let out a gasp. "Alti, I found an Oran Berry!"

"You found what now?" Alti exclaimed, turning back to Cannon.

"An Oran Berry," Cannon repeated. "Great for healing! This will be a good thing to hang on to."

"Wait," Alti replied. A thought was forming in her head. "If there's one berry, doesn't that mean there's a berry bush around here somewhere? Should we explore?"

Cannon shook his head. "You would think so, wouldn't you?" he said. "That's another quirk of this place being a mystery dungeon."

He neglected to explain further, but his face told Alti he was clearly waiting for her to respond. Alti sighed inwardly and asked, not bothering to keep the slightly uninterested tone out of her voice, "And what is a mystery dungeon?"

"Well," Cannon began, with a confident tone of voice that told Alti he really was excited to explain it (though Alti had no idea why he would be), "lately, in the Eastern Continents and particularly here in the Stonelands, there have been a lot of natural disasters."

"Why's that?" Alti asked. Cannon looked at her with a slight expression of annoyance.

"I was getting there," he mumbled. "Anyway, no Pokémon knows why they're happening, and we don't know if there's anything we can do about it. It's all we can do to deal with them as they happen. In some areas of the continent, though, the natural disasters are far more common than they really should be. In places like the Tiny Woods we're in now, that manifests in the form of lots of thunderstorms with strong winds, small earthquakes, and fires. They seem to be constricted to small areas, and they're ferocious enough that every bout of new disasters seems to change the entire layout of the area. That's why we can't find an Oran Berry bush near here, it very well could be gone by now."

Alti was slightly taken aback. She didn't think she'd ever heard of anything even remotely similar to that happening in the human world. Natural disasters that affected only one place and were strong enough to completely change them?

"So, even though we're finding our way through the woods now, we could easily come back tomorrow and some storm last night could have flooded parts of it, or knocked down trees, or caused seeds to be planted and saplings to sprout. That's another thing – it seems like things happen much quicker in mystery dungeons than they do outside them. Many Pokémon see it as some sort of corruption of time itself."

This was even harder for Alti to fathom. How can time itself be corrupted anywhere, let alone in a specific area?!

"That's not all," Cannon continued, surprising Alti further. "The natural disasters are really messing up the lives of the native Pokémon. That's why they're so aggressive nowadays: it's one thing they can control – getting rid of the intruders into their domain. Because of that, many Pokémon are having trouble leaving mystery dungeons. A whole new profession has popped up in Pokémon Square, in Dune City to the south, in the Frost Highlands villages to the northeast, and in every major hub in between… the profession of the rescue team: Pokémon teams with expertise and supplies, who go into mystery dungeons to rescue Pokémon who have not returned or serve as guides for Pokémon wishing to meet others in or beyond mystery dungeons. Pokémon Square is booming now with business from rescue teams, due to its strategic port location."

"So that's what the Butterfree was going to find," Alti said. The Butterfree's earlier statement about going to Pokémon Square to find a rescue team suddenly made sense to her. "And we're doing the job of a rescue team now, I suppose?"

"Basically," Cannon told her. "I've never been on a rescue team or anything myself, never really wanted to. Besides, I just moved to Pokémon Square not long ago. I'm still trying to figure out what I'd like to do, but rescuing just wasn't something I thought much about. It's not like Tiny Woods is really a hard mystery dungeon to work through, though, so I figured it wasn't that much of a problem."

"Okay," Alti answered, nodding. "If that's the case, let's hurry up so we can find this Caterpie before it gets dark." She had noticed sunlight angling through the woods in such a way that she could tell the sun was approaching the horizon. Cannon, she figured, had been too busy talking to notice it. But when she spoke, Cannon started slightly, and Alti could tell he was subtly picking up his pace.

"You're right," he agreed, a tense note creeping into his voice. "We'd better get going."

Fortunately, it was not long after that that Cannon and Alti ran across the crevasse where Caterpie had fallen. The ground fell away in front of them, allowing them to go down into the space between the two walls and move back until they could hear the echoing cry of a Caterpie. His voice was hoarse and weak, wavering with fear and sadness. "Mommy… please come find me… where are you?"

"We're here to take you to your mother," Alti said. Though the shadows fell into the crevasse in such a way that she could barely see the space in front of her, a rustling sound alerted Alti to the fact that the Caterpie was turning around.

"Y-you are?" he said, sniffling. "Wh-where's Mommy and why couldn't she get me herself?"

"Wild Pokémon were attacking her, and she couldn't get through them," Cannon told him. "She's waiting outside. We can take you back. You're not hurt, are you?"

"No," the Caterpie told them, his voice sounding stronger now. "I can go with you."

"Alright, then," Alti said, turning away. "Stay close to us. We'll lead you out."

On their way back, Cannon told Alti about a shortcut commonly used in mystery dungeons: once you find what you're looking for, you can skirt the edges as you leave, and avoid the risk of running into aggressive Pokémon. Indeed, though Alti and Cannon spotted a few far-off Pokémon as they hugged the edge of the forest, they didn't have to fight any Pokémon and didn't have to wind through any maze-like paths. Getting back to the mother Butterfree was far easier than leaving her to find the Caterpie had been. Though the sky was growing dark and sunlight no longer lit up the woods, the Butterfree's bright white wings were easily visible as the small party approached the clearing. As soon as she spotted them, she began to fly over and immediately grabbed her young son off the ground, eliciting a small cry of protest from him. Alti just giggled.

"Thank you," the Butterfree said more seriously, looking to Alti and Cannon (and ignoring her wriggling son). "You saved Caterpie. I'm not sure I could ever properly repay you."

"It's okay," Alti said. "It wasn't like finding him was particularly difficult."

"That may be so, but you still found my son," said the Butterfree. "You may not understand if you're not a parent, but… Well, suffice it to say I can't not repay you. Here you go." Putting Caterpie down on the ground, she reached into a small pack slung around her and pulled out three small objects that Alti couldn't identify. She floated over to Alti and handed them to her, and Alti realized that they were berries: one was an Oran Berry like she and Cannon had found earlier, and she was pretty sure the others were Rawst and Pecha Berries.

"I always keep medicine on me in case myself or Caterpie gets hurt," the Butterfree explained. "The least I can do is give you some medicine for your troubles."

Alti didn't quite know to respond. Thankfully, Cannon saved her from having to by saying, "Thanks. They'll definitely come in handy!"

The Butterfree simply nodded. She looked over to Caterpie, and the two Pokémon moved away from Cannon and Alti. They had only gone a little ways when Caterpie stopped and turned around, his face positively glowing with happiness and awe, and looked at Alti and Cannon with nothing short of adoration before the Butterfree nudged him with her foot and the two continued on.

"That wasn't so bad," Alti said, turning to Cannon once the Butterfree and Caterpie had disappeared into the distance.

"No, it wasn't," agreed Cannon, who was still staring off after them. "Anyway, Alti, what are you going to do now?"

Alti was slightly confused. "What am I… what?" she repeated.

Cannon rolled his eyes. "Where are you going to go? You woke up here, a former human in the human-less Stonelands, with no memory of anything. You don't know what anything is around these parts, and I'm betting you're not going to want to stick around here after seeing those hostile Pokémon. Do you have any idea of what to do?"

Alti was silent. She hadn't quite thought about that. Where could she go? Cannon had mentioned the names of a few populated areas, with Pokémon Square being close by. But could she really just wander in and try to find a home? Surely with all the disasters and hostile Pokémon, the townspeople (townsPokémon, she supposed now that she thought about it a little) wouldn't exactly be thrilled to have a strange Pokémon appearing in their midst? She didn't really want to risk anything, especially when she could barely fight. But what other options were there? Beginning to panic again, she looked quickly over at Cannon, who was standing with his arms crossed.

Upon seeing Alti's panicked gaze, he got an expression that reminded Alti of when he had been insistent on sharing the workings of mystery dungeons with her, and Alti had an idea of what was about to happen before he said it. "I have a house outside Pokémon Square," he told her. "It's fairly roomy. You're welcome to come share it with me."

"A-are you sure about that?" Alti gasped. She'd only just met this Squirtle, and she didn't expect Cannon had woken up that morning expecting to take in a confused, amnesiac human-Pikachu, either. She didn't want to be a burden. "I mean –"

"So you're suggesting you don't want it?" Cannon interrupted. He turned away, heading off away from the Tiny Woods. "Suit yourself," he said over his shoulder.

Alti didn't hesitate in her next move. "No – wait!" she called, chasing after Cannon, who stopped and waited. "No, I'll – I'll take you up on that offer." She had a suspicion that Cannon really was a little worried about her outcome, just that he didn't want to express it very forwardly, and his dismissive words had just been proving that Alti would chase him, having nowhere else to go.

Cannon shot Alti the briefest of glances before continuing on.

Coming out of the clearing in the woods, Alti and Cannon emerged onto a small gravel path that Alti could see expanded into stone pavement in the distance. On her left, in another small grassy plain, there was a small, thatched-looking, circular building whose roof reminded her of the texture of a berry. It didn't have a door blocking its entrance, only a square hole leading to the interior. Alti could see two small windows adorning either side of the house. Bushes lined what Alti supposed was the front yard, and a small mailbox stood next to the gravel path where Alti and Cannon were presently standing. It was really unlike any building Alti had ever seen – though, she supposed, that probably had something to do with the fact that either this was a Pokémon house where she had only experienced the human world, or her status as an amnesiac.

Nonetheless, Alti couldn't help but feel a little amused at the sight of it. She had absolutely no idea why, but this small, cute little hut was inspiring a rush of happiness in her. She supposed, though, that more likely than not just happiness that she had somewhere to stay? That didn't seem to be the whole answer, but Alti couldn't think of any other explanation.

"Since you'll be staying with me a while," Cannon said, "we're gonna need to get some sort of job and make money somehow. I just moved here and was trying to get a steady life before I really looked into my own desires as far as what to do here, but buying supplies for two is gonna cost a little more, and I'm pretty sure you don't have any money." He looked questioningly at Alti, who shook her head, feeling a little guilty. "We'll have to go to Pokémon Square tomorrow and ask around, then," Cannon said.

"How about we form a rescue team?" Alti offered. "That seems like a pretty lucrative thing to do, if the rewards we got from the Butterfree are any indication." She held out her paws and showed Cannon the three berries the Butterfree had given her. "We could do that. It'd be a good way to make money, certainly." It would also help me get stronger, Alti mused. Then I might be able to talk to more people and explore more cities, and see if anyone knows anything about why I became a Pokémon. I don't feel that I'm here purely by accident.

Cannon looked pensive. "I never really did think about rescuing," he said, sounding to Alti as though he was thinking aloud. "I just never cared about other Pokémon enough to bother, especially when new rescue teams have been popping up literally overnight. But… rescuing Caterpie was a little bit fun. I just never tried it before."

"So do you want to do it?" Alti cut in, slightly impatiently. She hoped strongly he'd say yes. She wouldn't mind a rational Pokémon helping her adjust to this world, and if everything Cannon had said about the aggressive Pokémon, mystery dungeons, and rescue team profession was true, it wasn't a good idea to be a loner trying to find herself among such a wide, unfamiliar world.

Cannon shrugged. "Nothing better to do, I guess," he agreed. "Sure, let's start a rescue team. I'll go down to Pelipper Post Office tonight and register our team. You can stay here and get accustomed to the building, and get some rest." He turned away from Alti without waiting for a response, but turned back a mere second later, looking sheepish.

"Uh… all rescue teams have names," he said, rubbing his paw behind his head. "You know. Team Shifty, Rumblerock, Ember, stuff like that. What should we be?"

Alti thought for a second. She was absolutely horrible at coming up with names on the spot. The only thing I can really think is something that defines both of us, she thought. Like… I dunno, maybe the fact that we're Electric and Water types? That seems pretty dumb, but maybe…

"… What about Hydrospark?" she offered. "You know. Hydro like water, spark like electricity. Shows both of us and kind of gives off a sense of power. How's that sound?"

Cannon shrugged. "Eh, I've heard better. But I can't think of anything better." He turned away again. "Hydrospark it is, I guess. Sure. Maybe it'll grow on me." He began walking down the gravel path toward where it widened. Alti stared after him for a brief second before heading into the hut.

The inside was fairly roomy, as Cannon had stated, though Alti supposed that meant it necessarily had thinner walls. In the wake of the knowledge that natural disasters were far more common now, Alti couldn't help but wonder if that was smart.

On the far side of the building, a soft-looking pile of hay with a noticeable depression in it. It looked soft to Alti, but at the same time, she knew that it was not the kind of thing humans slept on, and she couldn't help wondering if she would find it comfortable now that she was a Pokémon… or if she'd still have her human expectations of it.

Heading across the building, she noticed as well that there were several windows around the back of the building. There was no sunlight to stream in through the windows, nor had the moon risen yet, so the building was filled with a dusky shade. Alti supposed that, with little artificial lighting, diurnal Pokémon like Cannon and herself would wake and sleep with the sun's movements. Indeed, the lack of light affected Alti, and she found herself growing drowsy. She headed for the hay bed, and after tucking the berries in the hay to the side and finding some position that was marginally comfortable – dealing with her tail and her ears was a new experience, and in lieu of a pillow she found herself fluffing up some of the hay to rest her head on – she found herself drifting off into a restless sleep.