[Part 1]

Calm.

This darkness was calm.

She did not know for how long she was in here. Could be a couple of minutes, could be years. There was no sense of time in this place. There was almost no sense of self either. It was akin to falling into a deep, dreamless sleep after a long, painful couple of days. Except, she was relatively conscious.

It could not compare to a single night of normal sleep, but… When was the last time she slept normally?

Months ago?

Years?

Not exactly willing to remember, she allowed her mind to relax, to take in the calm that enveloped it.

Allowed herself to try to forget as much as she could.

Until suddenly, the calm darkness was pierced by blinding light, carelessly throwing her body out into the elements, as all of her being was flooded with the sights, the smells, the sounds of the outside world. Forcing her dulled senses to adapt to the surrounding mindless cacophony.

AND IT. WAS. HORRIBLE.

Her eyes burned, still unable to see a thing despite the light receding. Her ears hurt at the explosion of sounds around her. Her skin burned and froze over at the same time, despite her thick fur coat. Her nose was assaulted by a million of small scents of everything surrounding her.

It was overwhelming.

It was painful.

After what felt like an eternity, she managed to somewhat acclimate to the horribleness of everything, her mind finally taking in what was actually happening.

It was night. It was cold, but not to the point of seeing her breath, despite how she felt. She was in a forest clearing, and it was empty, safe for one humanoid figure. Wait, she knew this one. It was the not-human that saved her, standing a few meters away, with worry in their eyes.

Barely managing to stop herself from dry heaving at the previous sensory hell, she looked at the not-human and nodded.

"You're fine now?.."

Another nod.

"Okay, so long story short: we're out of the city, but also out of money. Given that we'll need funds for travel, healing items and the like, I took a route job"

As questioning of a look as she could muster.

"Route job is basically me standing around and sending weak Pokemon out to battle young trainers"

She shook her head abruptly.

"Ah, not you, obviously. Can't show you to anyone cuz… You know"

A short nod.

"I was approached by a Caterpie on the way here. He wanted to travel, so I took him in. If he asks, I'll release him. Either way, let's get you something to eat and drink, shall we?"

The not-human put down an empty bowl, and took something out of their bag.

"You okay with drinking this?"

She looked at the transparent bottle full of clear liquid, and felt a dreadful shiver down her spine. Only now did she realise that she was parched beyond any belief, and yet… She could not even imagine herself trying to drink even a sip of that water. Her throat threatening to close at the mere thought of it.

Even approaching was out of question.

Why?

Why was she like this?

"Ah, okay. I've had a feeling this could be the case," the not-human nodded, putting the bottle away, before putting something else into the bowl, "Here. Those might not be as good, but see if you can eat those at least?"

The bowl was set on the ground, with several berries in it. A few blue ones, and a couple of orange ones, each fairly large and inviting. Approaching the food, she took a careful bite into the blue berry. It had this strange, complex flavour, and was very juicy. Yet she felt like she could at least force it down without choking. Not liquid enough for that, luckily.

Biting into the other berry, she found that it was very soft, and very sweet. She did not dislike it, and once again, it at least partially sated her thirst.

"Glad you liked these. I'm not sure if your condition counts as Poisoning, but eating some Oran and Pecha berries can't be bad for you, can it?" the not-human smiled, sitting on a log a few meters away.

She shortly nodded in return, before going back to the food.

At the end, she ate two blue berries, and one orange, before walking away from the bowl, sitting down, and trying to wipe away the juice stains off her white-ish fur. The not-human put the bowl with the remaining berries back into their backpack, before eyeing her.

"I have some wet wipes in the bag, though using them might be difficult without opposable thumbs or telekinesis. I've also got Owari's grooming kit. Pretty sure he won't mind sharing, and it should be good enough for your fur"

Thinking about it for a second, she shook her head. The last thing she wanted was to hurt the not-human because she panicked or something.

"Okay, got it. Want to meet Owari and Caterpie then?"

Thinking about it for a second, she nodded.

The not-human took a Pokeball out of their pocket, and activated it, releasing a small, four-legged, brown-furred foxlike creature. Quickly looking around, they turned to her and smiled widely.

"Oh, hi!" they nearly dashed to her, before not-trainer softly put a hand on their head.

"Now, Owari, please be mindful. This Absol has been through some difficult stuff, so don't crowd her. If she asks you not to do so something, listen to her, okay?"

"Sure, mom!"

"This is Owari, he's my pet. That means he doesn't battle," his 'mom' explained, then lifting her hand, prompting this kit - Eevee, right? - to waddle over to her. He clearly wanted to run, but refrained from doing so, that unspent energy leaking out in unnecessarily fidgety movement.

"Hi, I'm Owari!"

"H-hello, Owari," she managed to speak coarsely, giving the kid a shaky smile.

"Are you also with us to travel, auntie?"

'Auntie', huh… She did not hate it.

"S-something like t-that. Your m-mom saved me, and i-is now hel-helping me with something"

He sagely nodded in the 'my mom really is the best' way, before something else caught his attention.

"Ooh, you've got a really big horn! Do you use it to fight?"

"Ah, n-no. It allows me to p-predict fu-future"

"You can predict future?!" Owari's eyes widened, and he even jumped in place, "Can you see what we're going to have for dinner?!"

"Uh… Maybe?.." she offered, then trying to concentrate. Of course, that did absolutely nothing - those damn visions never came in as requested, nor did they show something so mundane and pleasant. Shoot. Still, seeing the anticipation in Eevee's bright eyes, she could not really find it in herself to let him down, "I think it will be… Something delicious."

"Awesome!" the kit shouted, causing her to flinch. Not that he noticed, as he began jumping around, "Did you hear that, mom?! She just predicted the dinner! She's really amazing!"

"Okay, Owari, your dinner's ready. It's inside. Why don't you go eat it?"

"Dinner's ready! It's gonna be delicious!" the Eevee ran into the tent that was set up, leaving her with the not-human.

"Sorry about that, he really can be a bundle of energy," the not-human smiled, "I assume you'd rather meet Caterpie later?"

Still feeling under the weather, she nodded, then pointing to not-human's belt.

"You… Want back into your Pokeball?"

She nodded.

As much as she hated being released from this contraption, she really needed to rest.

Just like the first time, the light enveloped her, and then plunged her being into the calm darkness.


[Part 2]

"Caterpie, use String Shot!"

"Pikachu, Quick Attack!"

The yellow rodent blurred into motion, covering the distance to their opponent in less, than half a second, ramming into the Worm Pokemon, and sending him flying backwards. The Bug Type, however, was not done in yet, and managed to thwip a handful of sticky substance at Pikachu's front paws, effectively tying them together. With this, the Electric Type would've been greatly hindered, effectively making them about as slow (or even slower than) the caterpillar.

This was going to be a great teaching moment.

"Caterpie, your opponent is slowed down! Use Tackle!"

"Quick Attack again!"

Despite the strings still slowing Pikachu down, the rodent once again reached Caterpie in record time, causing the Bug Type to faint with a powerful slam.

"Wait, Priority Moves still hit first even with reduced Speed?!" she pretended to be surprised.

As she returned Caterpie, the kid with the Pikachu approached her with his trainer card.

"Wow, your Pikachu sure is something," she noted, sending him the supposed sum.

"You forgot to double it," the kid smirked, pointing at the rodent's neck.

"Oooh, you've got an Amulet Coin! Lucky!" she sent the kid another sum, at which he just recalled the Pikachu, sat on his bike, and went further down the route without acknowledging her any further. Well, the kid might not have appreciated it all that much, but she was still glad to help. Getting badges was difficult, and novice trainers needed all the tips and extra training they could get.

With a sigh, she pulled out a specific item, and called the Caterpie again.

"Pie!" the bug weakly cried, looking at her accusingly.

"I'm sorry, little one," she smiled guiltily, offering the bug a Revival Herb, "We have no money for anything better, but what we're doing right now is a job. If we do it right, we'll have enough to at least buy some tasty food, and we should be able to move to another route in a few days. Think you can put up with this?"

"Cater…" the Worm Pokemon muttered, then biting into the herb. The thing tasted absolutely horribly, and it showed - but at least, eating those allowed the poor critter to be in a good enough shape to face several trainers in a short succession.

Yeah, the herbs were certainly not endearing Caterpie to her. And neither was the fact that they lost all of their battles against trainers. Given Bug Type's movepool of just String Shot and Tackle, it was a balancing act of using the combination of the two in order to guarantee a loss, but not making it too obvious. She could try to train the Caterpie on the local wildlife in-between dealing with young trainers, since the Pokemon was already powerful enough to rush through evolution stages, but losing with a Butterfree would've been much, much more difficult against beginner trainers.

Maybe once they are cleared to go to a 'higher level' route, this could be remedied.

"Working hard, I see," a boring-looking guy in his mid-thirties approached from behind the treeline, eyeing her and the Caterpie lazily, while chewing on a simple sandwich. He was another person manning this route, just a few minutes down the road. His name was… Uhh… Hiro?..

"Yep. Caterpie's doing a great job teaching these kids," she smiled. The bug eyed her with a tinge of visible annoyance, "Are you on a break?"

"Yup. Got about twenty minutes before the next spoiled brat comes through here"

'Spoiled brat'? The kids were roughly the same as from her time in Alola. Well, maybe a little bit less talkative and friendly, but she previously brushed it off as a regional thing.

"Didn't like this bunch much, huh…" she tried carefully.

"About the same as the last. And the one before that. All from well-off families, the entire lot," he sneered, seemingly forgetting about the sandwich for a bit, "Got a kid of my own, you know? Just old enough to be a trainer, but you won't see her running around the countryside and collecting badges. Not yet. I offered, but my girl's too damn smart to go for it. Knows that just Healthcare for one Type would put us in the red"

Oh. So that's what was the deal with that Healthcare thing. Typed plans made that twisted kind of sense, since most Pokemon of the same type had at least some similarities in their biology. But to think that even the locals could not easily afford one…

"But she still wants to become a trainer?"

"Don't we all?" the man sighed, "But it's mostly those damn rich brats getting to do that. Mommy and daddy work for a big-off company, or the League, so they get the Generalist Healthcare plan, free stay at the Centers, Potions instead of these blasted herbs, and enough Pokeballs to crush an Onix to death," rolling his eyes, Hiro discovered the rest of the sandwich still in his hand, and scarfed the thing down before he could forget about it again, leaving her a few seconds to think.

"Yeah… Buying a Typed Healthcare plan, and then going into the wild with a handful of Pokeballs is a big risk. Gyms aren't going to lower their difficulty just because you could only afford a Bidoof," she nodded, "Just getting past the first badge weeds out what, half of the trainers?"

"Two-thirds," he replied grimly. Damn, this sounded bad, "Still, gonna give her a chance at this. Just one more full route job, and I'll have enough to buy her a lower-tier Type plan, plus supplies. My girl's smart, she'll figure how to make it work somehow"

"I'm sure she will," she smiled. Not that it was very noticeable under the face mask.

At this point, Hiro checked the time and had to head off, on account of the next kid bound to arrive in less than five minutes. Meaning she'd have to deal with that same kid in about ten.

She gently brushed Caterpie's head, at which the Bug Type just released a cloud of nauseatingly foul odour, causing her to back away, hastily apologise, and recall him. Yeah, those herbs were not a good idea in the long run.

And neither was practically everything she heard about the state of things in this world. Compared to her time in Alola, it felt like nearly everything just went to shit, though she still was not sure how. Making a mental note to check on this later, she straightened her clothes, checked the two Pokeballs hidden in her pockets, and then eyed the next 'rich brat' leisurely rolling down the road on a dirt bike.

She still intended to do her best at aiding these kids.