Chapter Two - A Meeting of the Buns

Buneary watched the edge of the pit. It looked like--from the little light coming in from the holes punched into the ceiling--there was a floor below this one. All of its walls were collapsed though, and the space was filled with loose rocks and rubble.

He snuck his way closer to the edge of the pit, stretching his neck out to look into it, when, out of nowhere, the figure that had spoken popped the head out of the hole.

A human!

"Bun!" No! He shouted before unfurling an ear with a flick.

The human fell back, pressing a hand to their forehead even as they stumbled away from the edge of the hole. "Owie! What was that for?"

"Bun, buneary!" No, not another human! Why are you so annoying?

"I'm not annoying... most of the time," the human said.

Buneary blinked, he was already halfway to the door into this room, ready to squeeze past the rubble and run the other way. "Bun, bun buneary?" Can you understand me? He asked.

That wasn't supposed to be possible. Humans couldn't understand pokemon. Well, that wasn't entirely true. Some of his siblings, the more adventurous sort, had told him that humans with pokemon could understand their pokemon. It made some sense, he supposed. But this?

Squinting, Buneary inspected the human. It, because he wasn't sure if it was a boy human or a girl human, looked relatively young, with blue clothes and... metal over and around their chest. What caught his eyes the most, though, were their ears. Two long ears that stuck out from atop their head. One, the one to his left, was kinked in the middle. They were brown on the outside, like a buneary's ears, but thinner and longer, and their ear floof was closer to their head instead of on the tips.

"B-bun, buneary?" Are you a buneary? He asked.

The human blinked, then squinted back at him. "No, I'm a bun," the human said.

"Bun, bun bun, buneary," he replied. You look human. What's a bun?

"Well, a bun's kinda like a human, but I've got these," they explained with a wiggle of their ears.

"Bun... bun?" Are you boy... or girl?

The human giggled. "I'm a girl bun," she said. "Ah... by the way, where are we?"

Buneary shrugged with shoulder and ears.

"Well, this is a little strange. I was on the Beaver, and I had to pee before changing for bed, so I went to the washroom and then I was here. Was there an explosion?" He nodded. "I thought so! Well, this is strange. Did you do any strange magic to bring me here?"

Buneary froze. Had he? No, all he did was bounce on those pedestals and ignore the raising power in the room. This wasn't his fault... right. Sweating a little, Buneary shook his head in a negative while refusing to meet the human's eyes.

"Uh-huh," she said. "Well, okay then. This is a bit of a pickle." With a grunt, she grabbed onto the edge of the pit she was in and pulled herself up so that she was laying on her tummy across the floor. He noticed that she wasn't wearing pants, but rather a thick skirt, one with a little hole for a floofy tail cut into it. She kicked a leg up over the edge, then rolled onto the floor on the same level as Buneary.

He bounced back a few hops, keeping some distance between himself and the weird human.

"So, do you have a name?" she asked.

"Buneary," he replied.

"Buneary, huh? That's a cute name! I've never met a talking rabbit before. Well... no, wait, I think I did. Anyway! My name's Broccoli Bunch!"

What a weird name.

"So, Buneary, is there a way out of here?" she asked.

He pointed to the ceiling. There was a bit of light coming in through some cracks up there. It was growing fainter, though, the light taking on that bluish tint that meant that night was falling.

"Well, that's going to be a little complicated," she said. "I bet I can blow up the ceiling if I work at it."

"Bun?" How?

The girl nodded, then raised a hand. A small puff later, and there was a fireball hovering over her palm. It wasn't large, no bigger than his paw, but it burned brightly in the dimly lit room all the same. She was a fire-type? Could humans use fire-type moves? He wasn't sure.

With a flick, she tossed the fireball up, and it crashed into the roof of the room with a dull thump and a small burst of fire.

Dirt came loose and fell down, then a single one of the stones shook enough that it came crashing into the pit. The hole above was just a smidge bigger now.

"Hmm, it's gonna take a few," she said, then she smiled down at him. "How about you tell me about yourself while I figure this out?"

He blinked.

What?

The human, Broccoli, nodded, her ears bouncing a little as she did.

Why would she ask that? Weren't humans supposed to be mean and capture pokemon for their own ends? His family had taught him to run away from humans whenever they were around. Actually, the lessons had mostly been about running away from anything bigger than a caterpie, and even those were kind of suspect.

"Bun... buneary bun," he started.

Broccoli listened, nodding along, as he explained his situation. She continued summoning fireballs and flicking them at the ceiling, breaking down rocks and widening the opening above. He explained about his family, the red-coats and the pokemon-stealing, and his escape into the ruins.

He admitted that he was worried, that it had been a long day, that he saw his mom captured by the red coats, and that he was afraid that they were all dead. Buneary was a brave buneary... but he still found himself choking up a little as he tried to explain everything.

The human stopped casting spells and crouched down in front of him, her hands on her knees, and her ears flopped forward a little. "Do you want a hug?" she asked. Her own eyes were teary too, and she was rubbing at her nose with a wrist.

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"B-bun?" he asked.

She nodded, her ears bobbing a little. The next thing he knew, the human was crouching down in front of him, her arms around his furry body.

She was warm and soft, and her hug felt very nice. He didn't think it was appropriate to be hugged by a human, but he couldn't help but hug her back and then the tears he'd been trying to keep down came out in a torrent.

His ears pressed tight against his face, he cried into the human's shoulder, and she held him close and rubbed a hand down his back.

"You're a brave bun," she said. "It's okay. Everything will be okay. We'll get you home, and we'll stop those bad, bad people."

"B-bun," he mumbled.

She squeezed him tighter, then lifted him up and placed him on her lap. "It's okay, it's okay," she muttered. He felt a tingle as she did something, and when he looked down, there was a fading glow across his fluffy legs, dirt whisked away by some sort of ability, leaving him all clean and neat on the human's lap. "I think we can get out of here, now," she said. "Do you want me to come with you? I'm sure we can find your family!

Buneary sniffled. "Bun," he said in agreement after thinking about it for a while. He did want to see his family again, and while he wouldn't trust a human to help, Broccoli was a bun. She had ears like his, so she had to be trustworthy, right? Besides, she gave good hugs and didn't make fun of him for crying.

Broccoli gave him a final squeeze so hard that his ears popped out to their full length, then she placed him on the ground. "There, no more tears for now, okay? I think we can slip out of here, and then we can figure out what to do from there. But first, we need to get out of here... hey, are you good at landing on your feet?"

"Bun, buneary, bun," he said. I'm not a meowth.

"I have no idea what that is," Broccoli said. "But I'm guessing it's cat-like?"

"Bun," he said with a nod.

"Right! If I throw you out of the hole up there, do you think you'd be able to find something to help me get out of here? I don't know who built this place, but they liked tall ceilings."

Buneary looked up and out of the hole in the ceiling. Going outside... he shivered a little, but then narrowed his eyes and gave her a serious nod.

He could do this. He was a brave bun, and Broccoli needed his help.

Broccoli grinned as she picked him up again, then with a swing, flung him up and out of the hole. Buneary clamped an ear over his mouth to muffle a surprised shout, but managed to land on his feet, the throw had only barely been enough to get him up the hole.

There was almost no light out here. It was late in the evening, and the only illumination was from the moon and a bit of starlight. Buneary glanced around, trying to figure out where he was.

There were old buildings all around, stone covered in ivy and roots. How to get someone out of a hole...

Buneary glanced further in. There were always a few humans around this place, with little metal tools, poking at the stone. They must have had something that could help!

"Buneary!" I'm going to get something to help, he shouted into the hole.

"Okie dokie!" came Broccoli's reply.

He scampered off into the deeper parts of the ruins, ears out as he listened for anyone.

No one was out here. Not a sound. The humans that worked here didn't stay outside after dark. They stayed in small metal homes built on wheels at the far end of the ruins.

Buneary snuck around the side of a large stone building and found what he was looking for. There was a pile of human tools, ones they used to dig and poke and prod at things. He found a coil of sturdy rope, one with a big loop tied at the end. With a grunt, he threw the loop over his shoulder and started to drag it off towards the hole.

He made it a few steps, then heard the sound of voices.

"--just got the call from the station. We've got a few days off and some new orders."

"That's good. I was worried we were going to have to keep running around and chasing after one dumb bunny."

"If it's really the last one left, then it's not an issue, but if there's even one breeding pair, we're going to have the same issue again in a season. Come on, let's call it a night." Familiar forms were moving on the edge of the ruins, a growlithe moving between them, sniffing the earth.

Buneary felt cold. His ears twitched as he listened, then, once the voices had faded off, he scurried back the way he'd come, rope dragging behind him.

Humans and growlithe, the ones in red coats, the ones that had caught his family. And they were after him. He dragged the rope off, heart pounding, and made it all the way back to the hole Broccoli was still in.

"Oh, you're back!" she called up. "And you have rope!"

"Bun, bun," he said. Yeah, and there's bad guys coming.

"Oh, that's not good," she said. "Can you tie the rope to something solid?"

Buneary nodded, and with a quick look around, he spotted something that would do. An ancient, weather-worn statue. He uncoiled the rope, then bounced around the statue a few times, trailing the end behind him. Once, twice, three times, he wrapped the rope around the base of the statue. Then, with a quick kick, he sent the remaining length of rope into the air and towards the hole.

"Nice, that's a great job," Broccoli said.

"Bun," he replied. Just hurry.

Broccoli grabbed the rope and pulled on it a few times. Then the human girl started to climb out of the hole. He was worried for a moment, when the statue groaned, but it held steady, and soon a pair of ears, then the rest of the girl, came out of the hole.

"Wha!" Broccoli said as she sat on the edge, then pulled herself to standing. "Free! Okay, let's go see these mean thugs about your family," she said.

Buneary blinked. Wait, she meant right now?

***