(AN: Welcome to a small little experiment of mine, a little look at the Rescue Team player-character with a twist.)

The first thing he felt was the pleasant breeze that blew past him while a bed of grass tickled his feet, but the second thing he noted was that he had not gone to sleep on some patch of grass, or at least so he thought. His head hurt like hell and he realized that nothing of his body felt right to what he thought was true ... wait, what did he think was "true" again? He tried to focus his thoughts, of which he realized were few, and the only thing that surfaced was that he was a human; two arms and legs each, and all that entailed. So why did his limbs feel like nothing fit that identity?

He tried to open his eyes to get his bearings and then shut them immediately; oww! The sun was right above him! He would have to stand up first then if he wanted to avoid burning his eyes out, but in trying to do so, his legs immediately buckled and he fell back down, and to add insult to injury, his butt hurt from that too, but in a way that didn't seem right either. What was wrong with him? He couldn't stand up, his arms felt like they were something just short of numb, and he had a migraine.

Just then, a voice called out, "Excuse me, are you okay? You are awake right?" Were they talking to him? His ears were ringing, even if only thanks to his migraine, so he wasn't really sure if they were. As if to answer that question, a shadow grew above him; a cloud? No, he opened his eyes and was met with a confused looking lizard; they had light-blue scales, red spikes running down their back, and a frown creasing their snout, "Good, you are awake. You look like you're in pain, do you need help?"

He blinked in utter confusion, "What are you?" ... Or at least, that was what he wanted to say, he could barely get out that "what" before he realized that something was wrong with his mouth too. It came out more like a chirp; oh come on! What else was wrong with his body!?

"Oh dear, here let me pick you up." This creature, a female, he guessed based on her voice, replied. Pick him up? What, was he something tiny, or what? Well, it wasn't like he had a voice to protest with anymore. He was powerless as she grasped him in her claws, of which she was surprisingly gentle with his feathers. Wait wait wait, what!? Since when did he have feathers!? "So, what's a Torchic like you doing out here alone?"

A Torchic? That brought back a memory; it was a creature called a Pokémon, and it was a bird specifically, but that was absurd, he was no bird. How did he even know what a Pokémon was? Nothing else in his faint memory gave him any clues as to where or how he learned this, and to make matters worse, he still wasn't sure how to respond, his mouth refused to even work properly. He couldn't even articulate a simple "who are you?" so all he did was shake his head a little.

She tilted her head, "Wait, are you mute? I mean its obvious you're trying to say something, but you're only chirping like a feral. Oh! Nod your head if yes."

Wait, what if he was this so-called feral? No, that didn't make any sense, he clearly remembered being human before, so he had to guess that he was a mute, or at least temporarily so. He nodded his head, bobbing it up and down.

"Splendid, now we're getting somewhere. Do you remember where you are or how you got here?" She responded gleefully, finding her way to getting answers from him.

He shook his head; he could barely remember anything beyond his humanity and the few crumbs that were "Pokémon".

"Drat. Do you at least remember who you are?"

A pause ... he remembered what he was, but his actual past seemed to elude him, did he answer no? Another shake followed.

"Oh dear, sounds like amnesia, or at least a concussion. We'd better get you over to Pokémon Square as soon as possible, someone there should be able to help recover your memories." She replied with audible concern, already turning to what he presumed was this Pokémon Square.

However, before she could take him anywhere, a new voice cried out, "Somebody! Please help me!"

He blinked in surprise as his new carrier jumped and looked around for the source of the cry; over in the distance, coming from the treeline was some sort butterfly, albeit one that was much larger than he felt was normal, though that could just be due to his own change in size.

"Oh, Miss Butterfree, what's wrong?"

"Oh it's horrible, my Caterpie fell into a cavern! My poor baby!" She cried out, wings fluttering frantically.

"Oh no! Tell me more, maybe I can help."

"He's too young to crawl out of there himself, and when I went to rescue him, other Pokémon attacked me! I think its a Mystery Dungeon, and I'm not strong enough to fend off ferals. Ohhhh, what will become of my baby!? What do I do!?" Miss Butterfree sobbed.

He wished he could speak, to calm her down, but he couldn't, he felt just as powerless. However ... "We'll do it, we'll save your baby." He blinked in surprise again, they would? What was this lizard thinking? He couldn't even move, so how how was he supposed to help someone else? Or did she .. no, surely she didn't believe she could save this Caterpie and take care of him at the same time, right? That would be insane.

"Oh! You will? Yes, a torchic and a totodile ('so that's what she was called', he thought), you can definitely make it through those woods. If you can save my Caterpie, I will surely repay you."

"Don't you worry, I'm just here to help in any way I can. We'll be back soon with your baby, just keep an eye out for me, Laguna." Said Totodile flashed a confident smile, and began to run in the direction of the woods, still holding him in her claws.

He wanted to gulp in dismay, this Laguna really was going to do this without his input or help, he'd be along for the ride and there was nothing he could do about it. If he wanted to do literally anything at all, he first needed to understand his new legs and mouth, and so he started to focus his senses on the feelings in his legs. He looked down at these three strange talons and began to wiggle them, and there was a fourth talon he could feel on the other side of his not-feet, and then there was the matter of his knees ... something inside him told him that human knees weren't supposed to bend that way, and yet his did. Why did he have the legs of a bird?

This felt so very alien, as though his brain and body were at war about what he was supposed to be; wait, what if his brain was the problem? He had to admit that there was only so much that he could do to deny what his senses were telling him, so what if something was wrong with his mind? Was that even possible though; amnesia aside, was it possible to screw with how he perceived the world or how he thought of himself? No, surely not. There was no way that someone or something could do things like that ... right? And yet, this all still only led him to more confusion; if his mind was sound, then that meant his body was the issue, but then what did that mean for his humanity? He began to tremble.

Laguna noticed his ruminations, holding him tightly, cupped in her claws, "Don't worry fella, I can keep you safe and rescue Caterpie, I know I can! So yeah, just sit tight and watch me in action, I'll show you there's nothing to fear."

He was brought back to the present matter at this, noticing what seemed to be an undercurrent of insistence in Laguna's voice; was she trying to psyche herself up, or did she feel she had something to prove? She certainly seemed to think he was scared from whatever this Mystery Dungeon thing was, but he had no opinions on that, he was more focused on his body. Admittedly, he was only barely paying attention as his totodile companion began explaining a bunch of things about the space-warped environment they had just entered; he'd just get a recap whenever he cared about anything more than the confusion he was going through.

Maybe he should have actually payed more attention than he did though, for a few minutes later Laguna stopped and set him down on the ground; there was some manner of yellow worm ahead, a large gray horn sticking out of its head. "A Weedle, stay back and let me handle this." Laguna announced, stepping forward with more confidence than he had expected, maybe she really was as capable as she claimed.

He could only nod and watch as Laguna approached the weedle cautiously; unlike anyone else he had met so far, this Pokémon displayed no signs of being friendly. Though it could only crawl forward, he saw its horn glow purple, while Laguna got down on all fours, raised her tail, and .. began waving it? Was this some sort of combat ritual, or was he missing something? The weedle seemed confused in its own way, hesitating for a second before continuing its slow charge forward. Laguna swiftly dashed off to the side, fangs glowing ice-blue, and grabbed the weedle's midsection in her maw before tossing it at the right side of the rocky hallway they were in, and it did not get back up.

He blinked, finally taking the environment in, when had they entered this corridor, wasn't this supposed to be a forest? He really should have been paying attention, but it was too late for that, at least until he could form proper sentences again. Until then, he stared at the unconscious weedle, seeing frost coat the poor creature's body; did Laguna's bite freeze it too?

She turned around after a few more seconds and approached him, "Bleh, bug-types always leave a bad aftertaste .. oh, are you concerned about that weedle? Don't worry, it can't hurt us now, it fainted and my Ice Fang will keep it there for even longer. Oh wait, are you wondering why we even fought? Thats one of the ferals I was talking about, they don't even try to speak at all, and they're incredibly territorial, just entering the vicinity of one is enough to cause them to attack you." She proceeded to pick him back up and carried onwards.

He still had plenty of questions but no way to get them out still; he needed to get his vocal cords back in working order next. He had to wonder though, why didn't she think he wasn't a feral if he couldn't talk either? Was it because he couldn't fight, let alone control his body at all? Hopefully that was the case, he didn't want whatever was going on with him to cause Laguna to turn on him, he couldn't handle being alone like this. While Laguna carried him onwards, he decided to focus inwards on finding his voice, he seriously needed that if he was to do anything more than be a burden, and he could apologize for not paying attention to Laguna's explanations and ramblings later.

.

.

.

"What do I look like?" It had taken him so long into their trek (several "floors" and fights that he had continued to sit through) for him to get his first question out, and even then he was pretty sure he still butchered that sentence somehow.

"Oh! You do speak! Do you want a puddle? I think I can find one somewhere in this place." Laguna replied eagerly, still cupping him in her claws.

"Ye-yes. Th-thank." He chirped out; he still felt awkward about whatever this was preventing him from speaking properly. Fortunately, he didn't have to wait long and Laguna slowly set him down next to a small puddle in the dirt, and he trembled on his weird new talons as he stood over the water. His reflection felt unreal, seeing this orange and yellow feathered bird staring back at him; he blinked one eye and it did too, he opened his mouth and its beak opened in response, he lifted an arm and the torchic's corresponding wing lifted too.

No! This wasn't right, this wasn't him! He wasn't this small bird, he was a human! He had to be! He only realized he was sobbing and shaking when he felt Laguna pick him up, cradling him against her scales, "There there, I don't know what's going on with you, but you're safe with me."

She didn't understand, and he couldn't tell her, not right now at least, he had yet to understand his new ... ugh, beak. He hated this, he wanted this nightmare to end, and that's why every minute further made it worse, it was feeling more and more real by the second. And yet, for all he wanted to deny it, the truth was right here in front of him, he just wasn't human anymore, this was his new reality.

Minutes passed as Laguna continued onwards through the woods and its weird stone hallways, "Soooo .. uh, tell me about yourself? I'm sure you've been wanting to say something, right?"

A minute more of silence followed; it wasn't that he didn't want to reply, he just needed to figure out what to say in as few syllables as possible, "Talk ... hard. Sss-wrong with me." That was the best he could come up with given his control over his beak.

"Oh ... oh. Sorry. Wait, maybe a psychic did something to you, I hope not though, that'd be so horrible, that there'd be someone out there willing to destroy your brain like this. Ohh I swear, if someone did, and we catch them ... grrr."

He felt her bristle and growl in anger, it was almost kind of touching that she was getting angry on his behalf, but wait, so it actually was possible for someone to have messed with his brain, to turn him into this near-mute mess? That actually was scary and he shuddered in response, "Psy ... kick?"

"Yeah, psychic-types are capable of doing all kinds of mind-based things, but it is dangerous to interact with ones that have gone bad. This is the first time I've heard of this happening though, meeting someone who's been so thoroughly broken like this. We're going to need an experts help to fix you, someone like Alakazam, but ... ugh, getting an audience with Team A.C.T. is going to be tough, I don't think they're even in town at the moment, to say nothing of all the other requests they get."

This line of thought began to worry him, she had just said that his situation wasn't common, but how would someone actually know if some psychic had screwed with their head? He wouldn't have even known if he hadn't just been told. And could he actually trust another psychic to help him? What if they just made things worse? Apparently it was easy for one to get into his head and do all of this to him. He let out a sigh, almost wishing he didn't know this.

"Awww, I want to tell you to cheer up, but I can't imagine how tough this is for you. I swear I'll help you uncover the truth about what happened to you ... ... oh, I don't know your name, do you even have one with your amnesia?"

He blinked, his wings ruffling, that wasn't something he had thought of yet. Did he have a name, something to call himself? "... N-no."

"Oh geez, do you mind if I give you one then? I've got a few ideas I had been thinking of, since you couldn't give me one earlier."

Actually, that would do, he didn't even have any ideas himself, "Oh-kay."

"Well, top of my mind is Flame, the feathers on the top of your head makes me think of one, and you are a fire-type. What do you think?"

Well it was better than nothing, he had to guess, Flame did sound like a nice name, "Th-thank .. you."

He felt Laguna squeeze him slightly, "Ah don't mention it buddy, I'm just glad I'm here to help you."

It wasn't much longer before they came across a worm similar in shape to that first weedle, but this one of green and much more frightened than it counterpart, crying out, "Wahhhhh! Mommy, where are you!?"

The newly christened Flame felt a twinge of concern grow in his gut, a desire to console the child, now if only he could actually do anything about this feeling; he had to guess this was Caterpie.

"Great, we found you at last. Your mommy sent us to rescue you, so let's get you out of here." Laguna announced, stepping forward confidently with a friendly smile.

Caterpie looked up at them with wide, adoring eyes, and the next thing Flame knew, he had a new passenger in the form of Caterpie crawling up Laguna's tail onto her head. The journey back ended soon after, as Laguna found something she called an Escape Orb in a nearby clearing and the three of them were teleported back to the field where Flame had first woken up at.

Butterfree was fluttering about, pacing around when she noticed them, "Oh my baby! You've saved him, I don't know how I could ever thank you properly.

Laguna smiled in response, "Oh it's alright, it's been so dangerous lately, what with the recent earthquakes and fissures like that one. It's just great we found your little boy unharmed."

"Oh thank you two. What are your names again?" She gave a little floating bow.

Flame looked to Laguna, expecting her to speak for him, and so she did, announcing them. He also noticed that Caterpie was looking at them worshippingly, and began thanking them too. He had to admit, there was something great about seeing the mother and son so happy, but he had done nothing to earn any of this praise, this was all Laguna's work, he didn't deserve any of this. This was when he started to notice a feeling growing within him ... self-loathing, as great as helping Butterfree and Caterpie was, he wasn't the one who did the helping, Laguna was the only who deserved the praise, he only made things harder for her. He was a burden, plain and simple.

He barely payed any attention as Butterfree handed a couple things to Laguna and then flew off with her child in tow, and Laguna turned around to him with pure glee plastered on her snout, though that quickly morphed into a frown as she noticed his mood, "What's wrong?"

How should he respond? Tell her that he thought himself to be useless? That he didn't know what to do with himself in this body? "Did no th-thing, no help."

Laguna blinked, first in confusion, then concern, "You ... feel bad about being carried around the whole way through?"

Flame nodded his head, barely meeting her gaze as he looked down at his talons, "Worth .. less, want nor-normal ah-again. I ... I can no help. Just tr-tru-trouble for you." He had started crying again; ugh oh how he wished he could tear his beak off, as if that could restore his ability to speak regular sentences again.

Laguna said nothing until she picked him back up, this time embracing him in a hug, "Don't say that, you're more than what you can or can't do on your first day. You are a victim of circumstances outside of your control, not some sort of instant hero that has to be able to save someone after waking up changed. Look, I know I did all the work, but that doesn't matter to me, I said I want to help you, and I meant it. I just don't want you to feel like you owe me, I did this because I care about helping you, helping Miss Butterfree and Caterpie, and others too. I'm not doing any of this for rewards, and I don't care if you couldn't help, because what matters to me is seeing people smile."

"Still did no thing. Want to, just no can." He mumbled sadly; he understood what she was saying, but it didn't change that he wished he could help, but couldn't.

Laguna let out a rare sigh of her own, "I guess I get it, but this isn't something you can fix in a single day. If it helps, I do have an idea; we can form a Rescue Team ... I would've done so already, but the Federation doesn't allow solo teams. We form a team together and I can get us official gear, and you can get the opportunity to relearn about your body more. You can tell me no if you want, won't matter, I'll still find a way to help you, no matter how long it takes or what we have to do. The important thing is that I'm here to help you."

Flame continued crying but now he was moved by Laguna's selflessness, her dedication to helping him was so ... so ... admirable. She may not have wanted him to feel like he owed her, but now he felt like it even more. If this Rescue Team thing was something that could help him and give him the chance to make it up to her, then he'd just have to agree, "I say yes, do it."

He felt Laguna shift her weight as she nodded, "Alright, it's a deal then. Any time you need anything at all, just ask ... oh wait, you don't know where you live right?"

"Rah-right. No mem-ry." He chirped out, though he had the extra thought of being annoyed by just how birdlike he sounded.

"In that case, you could live with me. I just bought this new house nearby from a Wigglytuff, kinda big for me right now, it could totally hold the both of us. This way you can get help whenever you need it, cause we'll be living together." Laguna replied eagerly.

He really couldn't say no to an offer like that, he didn't trust himself to do anything on his own, heck what could he do even if he knew what he was doing? His wings clearly weren't picking anything up after all, was he supposed to use his mouth/beak, or stand on a single leg and use the other? Both options did not sound appealing to him. "Thank you ... fuh-fur-fruh ... friend."

Flame almost started to gasp as he felt Laguna squeeze him even harder, "Awww ... and see, your vocabulary is increasing by the minute. Oh, speaking of words, haha .. well, I'm going to have to fill out an application for our rescue team tomorrow, and we're going to need a Team Name. I've got a few ideas, but none of them really work with you on the team, think you could help me brainstorm something new?" She had begun walking now, presumably heading in the direction of said home, not that Flame could tell, he was still nestled in Laguna's grasp with his face still looking at her scaled chest.

How was he supposed to do that? He could barely even talk, let alone come up with a descriptive name for the team, "How?"

"Hmmm, okay, maybe too much of a task for you yet. What if I just rambled some options, and you can tell me which one you like the best." She mused.

"Okay."

And so Laguna began listing out all sorts of different names and phrases they could use, stuff like Pokepals and Team Heroes and moved onto themes like Steam, Hot Springs, Bubbleblast, Aquablaze, and more than what Flame could count. They eventually settled on Team Horizons after the ideas of Sunrise and Sunset; he liked those ideas best. Laguna had turned him around at some point so he could look at the sky and see the setting sun during this ... sheesh, how had a whole day passed already?

It was bizarre to think of, that as far as his memories could say, this singular day was all he knew of his life, and what had it left him with? Fears and confusion and loathing and .. a friend. He really hoped this rescue team plan would work out, because he didn't know what else he could do but follow along with whatever Laguna did, but at least he knew he could trust her to stay by his side, however much he felt like he would just become a burden along the way. Maybe he could yet hope for things to get better for him, all he had to do was take it one day at a time, right? Just like the sun rising and setting upon the horizon ... yeah, Team Horizons, that was a good name, he felt.

(AN: And that's the end currently for what I've got for Flame and Laguna. I wanted to upload this as a one-shot as a kind of proof-of-concept of their characters, cause I don't particularly plan to write out their whole journey, I'm sure theres plenty of other Rescue Team stories out there after all. There's only a few noteworthy moments that I could probably use, like the Fugitive Arc is going to be rough for Flame, he could really believe this would be his punishment due to the legend and prophecy. It's not the end of what I want to make for this duo, but I've got a bunch of other projects to continue.)