"Meow," Meowth called out from nearby and Whitney, trusting her Pokemon wouldn't trick her again, immediately went over to where he was to see what was up. She went through several shrubs and cleared a small path from branches and other plants to reach Meowth but when she did, she couldn't help but feel that all of the effort she spent to get here had been worth it because standing right in front of her is a berry bush full of Pecha Berries.

"good job!" she complimented, running over to the bipedal feline. Oh, how she just wanted to lift him up and hug him. But she held herself back and made her way towards the berry bush and after a small check, she managed to count around 6 Pechas on the plant. Fermening all of these was more than enough to give her a head start on healing items against her classmates, who would only be stuck with using Orans and Sitruses - if they're lucky, - but she didn't want to turn them into juice just yet.

Status conditions were another problem present around here that trainers in the wild needed to account for and because of that, they were specifically told to only bring a capped amount of status ailment items so that they would not only know how to manage their supply, but when they do run out, then isn't that just an opportunity for them to learn how to properly scavenge and distinguish the types of berries inside Ilex Forest?

Of course it was! and as thanks, Whitney couldn't help but feel hateful towards the person that decided this entire thing is a good idea. And it would stay that way until she dies of old age.

Stuffing the berries into her backpack, Whitney mumbled curses that would've made her parents reprimand her right there and then.

"thanks Meowth," she thanked her Pokemon genuinely despite her bitter thoughts once she was done picking the berries. And the feline, feeling prideful as always, simply huffed and turned away before running someplace else.

Whitney smiled as she watched him go, he'd call her when he found something interesting. Hopefully.

The next two hours or so were spent on going around the forest and finding berries, with Whitney occasionally finding a Berry Bush or two that had been emptied up. Most of their yield came from both her Pokemon's finds and Whitney thought that she couldn't have done it better. By the time they came back to their spot, they had gathered around 10 Pecha berries, - a common type in this forest apparently, either that, or they're her Meowth's favorite - 4 Cheri Berries, 3 Chestos, and finally, a small number of recovery capable Orans ranging in 5.

That was a lot, enough to get Whitney surprised at just how many of them she and her Pokemon found because even for her, she never actually held this many berries all her life. When it comes to recovering the health of her Pokemon, she had always been using man made items and she thought that they were effecient but seeing just how many status ailment berries she gathered in such a short amount of time, Whitney thought that maybe considering using berries in the near future wasn't so bad.

"maybe I should ask Lionel to help me search around or something?" she couldn't help but muse, the guy did go around this forest in the regular after all, he probably knows the best spots for finding them by now right? And his Dad's a ranger, that's a bonus point if she's seen any.

"Meow?" / "Pee!" she looked at her two pokemon happily talking to one another and frowned, their smug faces made her feel as if she was missing something. A context from the two of them would help? maybe? She thought about it for a while but eventually just let it be, understanding Pokemon was hard, and if you don't know their intent (or in some cases, don't approve of it,) or are outright ignorant of them meant that you won't really know what they're talking about most of the time.

In this case, Whitney was either completely oblivious to what they were saying or she didn't know anything about what they were talking about. She thought it was the latter since she trusted her bond with her Pokemon that much and the two probably had a small joke shared between them that she wasn't privy to.

Whitney got up from where she was sitting, wearing her bag, she tightened the strap by pulling their ends and once she knew the straps were tightly secured and her bag wouldn't bounce uncomfortably during her uphill climb, she went ahead and started moving. The time was around six by now and even though she made sure that she didn't stray far from the clearing's general area, she counted that night will catch up to them before they go back to their camp.

And it did, unsurprisingly. The sounds of Pokemon had gotten stronger during this time and from the loud hoots of Noctowls and their pre-evolutions to the flapping wings of Zubats to even the occasional crackle of Mareeps, Whitney couldn't help but feel anxious at the thought of Pokemon ambushing her in the dark. Her Meowth would know if one did get near so she didn't need to worry that much but Ekans don't make any sounds while slithering and a Spinarak waiting in ambush on top of a tree didn't need to move, just wait.

What's even more concerning to her would be the fact that Mareeps shouldn't be in this forest at all... they like to live in plains and the sound of crackling electricity followed by loud bleats meant that either her classmates were near or, what she hoped is the case; Rangers who have Mareeps are currently around patrolling the area and doing a general sweep of it to make sure that there aren't any fully evolved Pokemons roaming around the outskirts of the forest.

She really hoped it was the latter.

Going back to her clearing, Whitney loosened her backpack and let it drop right next to her tent, opening it, she pulled out a lighter and a small canteen of gasoline, started a fire, and then went ahead and took out a pot along with her food for the night. Their dinner started cooking and as she waited for it to be done, Whitney pulled out two bottles of Medium Repels (which should last her around a week right as long as it didn't rain around the clearing,) and started spraying the area around her camp.

After that, she had nothing left to do other than wait for her food to cook. And while it did, Whitney decided to lay down on the grass and observe the sky; purely black with hints of blue and dots of white, she thought that staying up there wouldn't be so bad... though she also knew that her thoughts of wanting to be there are childish and that they came from a small sense of freedom that started to well up in her mind, and what she didn't actually mind staying in forever was this moment.

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Frowning, her eyes went over to the pot, the steam coming out of the holes on the lid meant that the food was starting to boil and the stew would probably be done in about a few more minutes.

That checked, she went back to staring at the star-filled sky and thought that maybe, thinking cheesy thinks wasn't so bad. With a smirk, her hand tried to search for her Meowth and found nothing, she turned to see that he was already inside the tent, his cream-colored tail peeking out from the mouth, swaying idly. So he was most likely sleeping.

Whitney sighed, she wanted to play with him. And that was fine, it was childish, and that was fine.

...

"Fake out!"

Meowth bent low and lunged, moving forward faster and faster until he turned into a barely traceable blur. With the finesse that showed the mastery of his high speed, her Pokemon stopped directly in front of the wild Weepinbell, claws already elongated and ready to strike, and strike they did, catching the grass type by surprise from the fact that the feline moved across 20 feet worth of undergrowth in the span of a single second.

The claws met their mark, slicing the tough hide of the Weepinbell who didn't at all look phased as Meowth leaped back. He continued to move backward until he had a small distance of 10 feet from the wild Pokemon, good enough for him to continue razing it with attacks as well as far enough to make sure that his vulnerable trainer wouldn't get hit by anything that strayed from their battle. Wild Grass Types were known to be effectively destructive with their moves after all.

"Meow~~~" Meowth taunted, his voice adopting a high pitched edge to it that made the Weepinbell's eyebrows furrow but had no other effect.

Then, a small silence ensued as Whitney started reconsidering that attacking a Pokemon on their second stage of evolution was a good idea, even if their initial first strike of the ambush had succeeded.

Compared to her, the Weepinbell didn't think for a second longer after the surprise attack and already started summoning leaves around it, some are shaped like crescent moons while the others looked like regular old leaves, just with sharpened edges that glowed an eerie green.

The leaves fired.

Whitney's eyes widened but she quickly composed herself, "use Screech!"

And Meowth followed, sending out a loud "Mew~~" that was barely audible to Whitney and yet had clearly affected the Weepinbell in some way as some of the flying leave's trajectory flailed, causing the weaponized greenery to hit things that isn't her Meowth; tree barks got cut up, branches chopped off, and the canopy had small holes by the end of the attack.

Whitney was fine, and so was her Meowth, who merely dodged the attack without any prompting from his trainer.

"Screech again!"

The move struck and in reply, the Weepinbell shook its body and threw out a few tons of bright orange spores that clouded the surrounding area. Despite being far enough to be safe, Whitney covered her mouth with her sleeve, "Dodge it Meowth! Hypnosis!"

Leaping back, her Meowth's eyes glowed, met the Weepinbell's eyes who then closed shortly right after. Now asleep, the Grass Type was unable to use any of its moves and Whitney didn't waste the oppurtunity, "Fury Swipes!"

Her Meowth struck once,

twice,

thrice,

The Weepinbell unfortunately woke up before the fourth and upon realizing what happened, adopted and angry expression and had its body glow sickly green as it used Growth. Whitney asked her Pokemon to get away but a quick Constrict prevented him from moving further.

"Fury Swipes! Now!" Whitney issued, "Take it out!" she said in panic.

She could see that small tendrils of vines were growing around the Weepinbell. And unlike Meowth, she didn't need to look up to see that a few sharpened leaves were starting to manifest in the air above the Weepinbell, if both the Vine Whip and the Razor Leaf simultaneously struck, she might very much get her very first faint on the second day of their expedition and she didn't know how long it would take for Meowth to recover enough that it can heal itself back to full health with the help of berries.

"it's using two moves!" as those words came out of her mouth, she had an epiphany, can't her Meowth do that as well? "Fury Swipes and Bite Meowth! end it quickly!"

Her yell made her Meowth flinch but he quickly did as ordered- three blades of white slowly grew out of his hands as his mouth started to darken. He sluggishly used both of its moves just as the leaves and vines started to grow considerably dangerous and when the Weepinbell realized what was about to happen, its eyes gleamed green and the leaves grew faster than the vines, outpacing the now slowing green tendrils by a large margin.

Meowth Struck once, more leaves manifested,

Meowth Struck twice, followed by using Bite, the leaves sharpened,

Meowth Struck thrice, the Weepinbell started to look weak but the leaves now had a green glow on their edges,

Meowth Struck four times in a row, the leaves were released from their telekinetic hold and started bombarding the meowth,

Meowth struck five times and the Weepinbell thankfully fainted, the vines stopped growing, and the Razor Leaf lost its power halfway through and simply went limp. The leaves fell to the ground.

Now victorious, Meowth turned around and met Whitney's eyes, she looked at the tired look of her Pokemon and ran over, bent down, took out a Cheri berry, and fed it to him. She didn't know the spore had paralyzed him just now...

"sorry," she said to her Meowth, who looked like he didn't care about the apology or about Whitney's incompetence and was more concerned on what he was eating. Continuing to chew on the berry while looking disgusted.

"at least you apologized," Whitney whipped her head to where the sound came from and met the eyes of an old man with a Charmeleon, he was carrying a stack of wood on his back as if it weighed nothing. She took a step back and glared, her hands already on Pidgey's Pokeball, "who are you?" she asked the most sensible question to be asked right now in what she hoped was a reasonable voice.

If her voice did have a wary edge, the old man didn't let it show and he smiled, "eh, heard the sounds of battle and thought that some brat needed saving, with it being that time of the year again and all that," he merely shrugged as he pat the Charmeleon, "but I guess ya didn't need any help so good for you,"

"I didn't need help no," Whitney stared at the Charmeleon as she reassured his trainer, why did these two feel so familiar?..

She tried to dig for anything in her most recent memories but came back empty handed.

"by the way, I know that I can't help these kids and out all that, Rangers orders," he shrugged again, treating the wood on his back as if it was nothing, "but a berry or two wouldn't hurt yeah?" he threw her a Sitrus berry and Whitney grabbed it in surprise, "use it to heal your Pokemon or whatever," and then he walked away,

"you didn't say your name still," she said to him, handing the Sitrus berry to her Meowth, who happily gobbled it up,

"ah, Kurt," he replied and Whitney remembered as she clicked her fingers,

"you're that guy Lionel mentioned!" she said, eyes widening in realization. He had an Ursaring didn't he?

"oh so you know that brat eh?" he chuckled, "real handful, that one, thought that he was just some upstart trainer when he helped me with those Rocket Grunts but who would've thought that he was actually hunting them down?!" Kurt's chuckle turned into laughter, as if he found his words that talked about a kid fighting against criminals amusing. Whitney didn't but he continued before she can correct him, "after that whole Union Cave debacle, there's been rumors going around of him deliberately going to an executive's meeting twice, the only one's I heard was the one about the cafe but if it was that hilarious then I'm sure the other one also got that executive screamed at by their boss!" his laughter got louder and Whitney was dumbstruck enough to just watch him leave.

what?

WHAT?!

What the hell did Lionel get himself into?!