The rest of the night goes by peacefully, with no Pokémon trying to disturb us and no other convoys or vehicles moving through the night's cover from Route 22. It's relatively quiet aside from movements and cries at the foot of the hill. I feed more wood to the pit and allow the flames to grow stronger in hopes of keeping up a deterrent for any that might decide to wander closer to us.

Becca continues to sleep on my shoulder while I allow Champ to rest inside the pokeball limbo… pokeball stasis? I think it's called Resonance Suspension. It's a weird thing to know that all Pokémon enter a form of suspended animation inside their balls that slowly allows them to rest. If the companies could create that, why couldn't they take it a step further and allow the balls to heal the damage done to them? The idea of corporate conspiracy crosses my mind, and I shake it off. It couldn't be that simple, could it?

I force the idea out of my head since there isn't a point in thinking about it. I have a few potions, and I could use one on Champ… I want to let him rest, but… I can't sleep, and the company would be nice.

"I'll always need you, ______. " A gentle voice whispers in my head from a faraway memory of a lake and the feel of a woman's touch -

Forget it. I push the button and let Champ out. He appears in a ray of red light sitting down on the ground with his legs crossed, eyes closed, and his hands in the center of his lap.

He sits in a state of meditation, his posture relaxed. Observing him more closely in the gentle flicker of the firelight, I became aware of the extent of his injuries. Bruises, cuts, and scratches mark his body like a map of his struggles. Some of these wounds seem more substantial, likely the result of fierce Pecks and relentless Wing Attacks. Well, nothing a potion can't fix. I rummage through the bag with the help of the Rotom phone, pull out the potion, and start spraying it on his wounds.

As the solution comes out of the purple bottle, the wounds on Champ begin to heal. He doesn't stir or move as they heal; on the contrary, his body posture slackens until I can hear the faint sounds of deep sleep.

Poor guy must have seriously tired himself out, he deserves the rest.

"You can't rely on him forever," a gentle, feminine voice whispers into my ear like a song, lifting my heart.

Goosebumps crawl across my skin, and the scents of lavender and vanilla fill my nostrils. I try to fight it. Something in me tells me I don't want to relive it.

I find myself sitting in a chair facing a beautiful moonlit lake surrounded by pine trees on all sides. I can see the stars dancing in the ripples of the gentle waves.

A tiny bundle is held in my arms as a woman sits to my left. Beautiful, thick red hair covers her body, hiding most of her away. Smoke fills the air as torches burn away in front of us. It feels comfortable. It feels like home.

"You always work him to the bone. It's time you let him rest and rely on the others."

"I don't want to go," I feel myself saying. My hands tremble. No matter how warm and peaceful it is here at this very moment, I can feel a harsh, cold anxiety fill my core.

"______, you have to go. It's time. We'll always be here, but remember, you must let him rest."

She says my name, but it's not my name. It's a garbled mess of static and white noise. The bundle in my arms coos as I hand it to this woman cloaked in crimson hair. I can see her deep gray eyes looking back at me full of life, warmth, and love. It dawns on me at this precise moment. This woman is the embodiment of all that I want and desire. I need to come back to her. I don't want to leave. My hand reaches out to her and pulls back her curtain of hair to reveal a beaming smile as she affectionately carries the bundle in her arms. A tear streams down her left eye as she whispers to me.

"Good luck, my Luvdisc. I'll see you on the other side."

The memory shatters, and I find myself breathing heavily. I've been holding it in for so long, but finally, the dams break, and I weep. I've been trying to keep it all in, but I can't anymore. I begin to cry, forcing myself to do it as quietly as possible. All of it feels wrong - this body, this mind, this place.

I look at my hands, and they aren't calloused like I remember them to be. I built a cabin with them, yet these hands remain smooth and untouched by the hands of labor or time.

I start to hyperventilate. This isn't me. This isn't me. Who am I? What am I? This isn't me!

"Too much. Too soon. Hush now, child, and be at ease. I'll make it go away. Now sleep." A thought whispers through my mind.

"Who are y-"

----------------------------------------

I wake up to the feeling of the first few rays of sunlight hitting my face and the sounds of Champ going through his morning training routine. I open my eye and see the sky tinged blue with fluffy clouds gently moving by.

I guess I must have fallen asleep after spraying Champ down with the potion. Maybe subconsciously, I had been worried about his wounds, and that was keeping me awake.

I lie there for a while, looking up at the sky, simply listening and existing. I can't place it, but I feel lethargic. Like a heavy burden has been placed on my shoulders.

"It shouldn't matter at this point," I tell myself as I stretch and sit up. My Rotom phone flies up to my face, showing the time and weather. It's eight in the morning, and it's expected to be slightly cloudy for the whole day.

Champ stops mid-routine and jogs over to me with a look of concern on his face before it melts into a smile and a thumbs-up.

"It's good to see you're doing well, Champ." I notice that Beca isn't on my shoulder anymore. "Where's Beca? Do you know?"

He shakes his head while sighing as he points down to a tree close to the base of the hill then pantomimes eating. I guess that means she was feeling hungry when she woke up.

"How about you, buddy? Are you feeling hungry yet?”

Champ shakes his head no and then goes back to doing his routine, which is cardio running up and down the hillside. I'm beginning to feel a little jealous of the amount of energy he's displaying. Time for some coffee, then, as I pull out the coffee pot, small burner stove, and coffee grinds. The coffee is known as Owl-eyes java with a Noctowl painted on it - A medium roast blend with hints of chocolate and caramel.

The fire pit has burned itself out, leaving nothing but ashes. Damn it, I wonder how far into the night it burned out. We're lucky nothing decided to come for us.

"Champ! Can you get me some firewood?"

He stops in the middle of his run and shouts out a yes in his speech before running downhill into one of the small forests nearby.

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I sit there and listen to the ambience while watching the clouds travel across the sky. I can tell, it's a feeling in my bones as a smile creeps on my face.

Today is going to be a good day, I think to myself as I see Champ running back up the hill with Beca on his shoulder and her carrying a ball of silk in her mouth.

----------------------------------------

It is, in fact, not a good day. We are sitting on the paved road near the entrance to Viridian City, panting and breathing heavily, having raced over here and left our camping gear behind.

"What did we learn, Becca?" I ask my little troublemaker, who now has her face covered by her leaves. She mumbles something that is barely audible and tries to shrink into herself as much as she can.

I let out a frustrated sigh, run a hand through my hair, and then look over at Meredith. She looks haggard and exhausted from running the best she could on that messed-up ankle, but kudos to her for managing to keep up.

Champ has the silken bundle in his hands while he's shaking his head in Beca's direction. Some of the silk has fallen off to reveal several Pidgey eggs inside. Champ pantomimes to me that Beca had taken it upon herself to secure these poor abandoned eggs and raise them as her own, or at least that's what I believe he's trying to convey.

Either she collected them to raise them or eat them; that's where the translation is lost. Ugh, I didn't think this was going to be an issue.

"Why did this have to happen?" I mumble to myself. My Rotom phone decides it's an opportune moment to appear and show me an entry sharing the details of how the Sewaddle line is known for being caregivers, especially their final evolution. They are known for taking eggs or small children that they believe have been abandoned.

I stare at the entry and blink a few times before running my hand down my face.

Is this going to happen every time she is out of her ball? I'm going to have to keep her on a short leash.

But on the bright side… At least we made it to the city relatively ahead of schedule.

A couple of guards start to come out of the guard house to greet us, dressed in green camo slacks with several Pokeballs on their belts. They also wear heavily reinforced vests and leg guards with the acronym V. C. P. E. spray-painted across them. I try to get a good look at their faces, but the dark shades and berets they wear obscure any kind of distinct details.

"Jane, take a look at them. I'm gonna look ahead."

The one who spoke up walks past us, his voice gruff and deep as he scopes out the path we took with his hand on one of the Pokeballs on his waist.

"Are you kids alright? Were you guys bit or stung?"

Jane speaks up as she kneels by us, taking a look at us to make sure we're okay.

"I'm alright, but Meredith has a sprained ankle that needs to be looked at. We got chased over here after my Sewaddle grabbed some Pidgey eggs she thought had been abandoned."

I point over to the clutch in Champ's hands while I can hear Becca make an embarrassed sound as she crawls into the nook of my back.

Jane doesn't say much, but I notice her body seems to relax after I finish telling her our story.

"Okay. I'm going to take those eggs from your Tyrogue and see if I can find the -"

Several loud squawks can be heard from behind us as a Pidgeotto leading a flock of Pidgeys fills the air above us.

"Tch, you kids really pissed off some persistent ones," I hear the other guy say, followed by the telltale sound of a Pokeball opening.

I look back to see a Graveler facing off with the Pidgeotto and see how massive the actual bird is as it dives down to attack. It's six feet tall and has a wingspan of nine feet as it collides with Graveler, hitting it with an iron-coated wing, causing the air to erupt with the sound of metal on rock contact as the wing carves out a large gash in Graveler's side. But not before Graveler grabs the massive bird's wing with its smaller, secondary arms and pulls out two large chunks of earth from the ground with its primary arms and proceeds to slam them down onto Pidgeotto's back. Before Graveler can do anything else, Pidgeotto lets out a powerful screech of pain as its body begins to glow a brilliant white and its body mass doubles in size. The wings double to a whopping eighteen feet in length before it begins to flap its free wing repeatedly, creating a powerful twister around the two of them. I have to quickly return both Beca and Champ before I start moving away from the ever-increasing and growing tornado of raw force before it can swallow me up.

----------------------------------------

There was a frustrated chortle that sang through the air as the dark passenger within Erembour could not comprehend the impossibly horrendous luck his host was currently having. It was like the world itself was manifesting a physical will to kill him.

The passenger did the only thing that it could do, which was search for the most optimal outcome.

----------------------------------------

I find myself staring at Pidgeotto's unconscious form as Graveler buries it under a mountain of boulders. It had been a masterfully done attack as the first set of boulders landed just right and clipped its wings before the rest of the boulders slammed into it. The rest of the Pidgeys flew away in fear shortly after, leaving us all to relax and be able to catch our breaths.

It was a decent enough end to a bad time. Eventually, Jane's partner, William, captures the Pidgeotto and then escorts us into the guardhouse to be situated. When we enter, what we see is more of a garrison than a guardhouse. The interior is filled with military-style cots, supplies, and a plethora of equipment laid out in stockpiles. There is also a soft hustle and bustle of other V.C.P.E. agents moving around, conversing, and getting their gear together.

"What's going on?" Meredith asks Jane as we keep moving past everything into a side room. When we enter, it's a quickly put-together triage/infirmary area with several hospital beds, IV bags, and medical equipment. Already some of the beds are occupied by people who are tossing and turning while groaning in pain. Nurses are moving around busily, not paying any attention to us.

William goes off to flag a nurse down while Jane brings us over to an empty bed. "What's going on is an invasive species of Venipedes have surfaced inside of Viridian Forest, taking us by surprise and injuring several dozens of trainers and even more civilians."

She has Meredith sit down on the bed while I sit on a small plastic visitor's chair that's next to it. We try to pry more info from her, but there isn't much else she would say on the matter. Shortly after, William comes back with a nurse who takes a look at Meredith's ankle and tells her that she'll have to stay the rest of the day for a proper check-up.

William and Jane both say their goodbyes and leave us so they can return the eggs and the Pidgeotto back to their flock. Jane warns us to be more careful with our Pokémon as well as informing us that Viridian Forest is going to be off-limits to trainers who don't have three badges or more. The Venipede nest is supposed to be tough, and the Alpha of their pack is even more so. They don't know how long it will take to clear the forest, so we can either wait until the Enforcers give the all-clear or we can go through the Diglett Labyrinth.

Once they leave us, the air between me and Meredith changes to one of silent awkwardness. A sense of restlessness takes hold of me, and I need to get out. I give Meredith my contact number, telling her to send me a message once she is given the clear to leave so we can meet up, and then I leave before she can say a word.

I ask for directions to the nearest practice field and am escorted out. I hadn't wanted to leave Meredith like that, but something deep inside of me is gnawing to leave. I need to move, to practice, to get stronger. My team as a whole needs to do so. We have to walk into the city outskirts to head to the field, which is near the enormous lake I had seen last night. I can see a bunch of trainers of all ages here, sharing information, doing mock trainer battles, or just relaxing with their Pokémon. I can't be bothered to pay attention to any of it and force myself to head towards a small area of the lake that hasn’t been occupied by anyone yet.

Feeling like I am far enough away from anyone, I release both Champ and Beca, who both immediately look relieved to see me alive and well and that the Pidgeotto is nowhere to be seen.

“Alright, Beca,” I say in my sternest voice, and she begins to look down, already expecting the reprimand.

“You put us in a seriously bad spot by pulling that stunt with the eggs. If you’re hungry, please come to me or let Champ know so I can feed you. If you thought those eggs had been abandoned, let me or Champ know so I can report it to the rangers, and they’ll take care of them. I’m not mad…”

I pause and think about it. Am I being honest with myself? Am I genuinely not mad about what she had done? No, that would have been a lie. I may not be mad, but I am upset.

“Alright, I am a little mad, mostly upset, truth be told. So, we’re going to be handing down a punishment to you.”

Her cute little eyes widen in horror as her face looks up into mine. My heart skips a beat, but I have to stay strong and true to my lessons, or else she’ll continue with her bad behavior.

“You’re going to be sparring and training with Champ religiously. He’s going to be your instructor, and whatever he says goes.”

I can practically hear Champ let out a satisfied grunt as he steps forward with a wicked grin. A soft series of clicking noises that continue to fall in volume are all Beca says before she resigns herself to her fate. A small smile comes back to my face as I watch both of them interact. Sure, we might have had a hiccup earlier, but today seems like it’ll turn out to be a good day afterall.