Super Awesome Betas: Infamous Storm, To Mockingbird, GwendolynStacy, Igornerd, Monster Cat Music Girl, Sage Thrasher, Duesal Bladesinger, and Serrith.

Chapter title courtesy of To Mockingbird.

Chapter Three: Bumbling About

It took less than an hour to figure out that her happy little fire lizard of hugs and cuddles wasn't entirely made of cuteness and cheer. Which, she supposed belatedly, was a good thing since their current situation called for a significantly tougher approach. That being said, Mira was still very proud of herself for not completely freaking out when a humongous bee nearly half her size jumped out of the bushes at them.

And then again when her little companion leapt forward, mouth open with a roar, and shot a jet of flame out of its mouth to practically incinerate the offending insect.

Nope. Nope. Mira was done freaking out. She may have frozen just a little, but she didn't go running when the fiery monster turned to hug her leg happily. It chirped questioningly in a 'did-you-see-what-I-did?' manner up at her. Behind him, the now-flaming bug was zooming off as fast as it could in the opposite direction. Honestly, Mira was surprised it could still fly.

She forced a smile on her face and pat its head in praise. He did a good thing, she had to tell herself. As horrific as the whole scene had been, she was glad she hadn't had to take on that huge bee on her own. It'd had three giant stingers. Three. What even was this place?!

She took a moment to steady her breathing. In. Out. In. Out. This was twice now an animal of unusual size had appeared in front of her with some unbelievable aspect like fire on its tail, or an extra set of stingers on its front legs. She was sensing a pattern here.

After regaining a semblance of composure, she turned to Charmander. "Are... all of the creatures here big like that?"

The little lizard blinked up at her before nodding hesitantly, then making another so-so motion.

Huh. She wasn't sure what that was supposed to mean. Mostly yes? Better off just... rolling with it, she supposed.

"Okay. That's... something. Er, are you alright? That thing didn't didn't hurt you or anything?"

"Charmander!" he answered cheerfully, holding his arms out and turning around for inspection. That probably meant he was fine, the bee hadn't come that close to him at all.

"Good. That's good." Mira shook her head and turned back to their northward heading. "Let's keep moving. You let me know if you sense anymore of those, okay? Or if you think you've figured out where we are."

"Char char!"

With that, they set off again. Mira was far more suspicious of whatever the local flora was hiding and couldn't help but nervously scan their surroundings for more of those giant bees.

Night fell, and they'd come across two other new creatures and one more of those bees before it grew too dark and Mira decided they were probably good to stop for the night. Well, mostly. She didn't really have any proper camping supplies, but she figured Charmander wouldn't have any trouble lighting a fire if they gathered the wood.

She spent that night sleeping under a tree and, unsurprisingly, an orange fiery lizard curled up happily against her to provide warmth. Thankfully, it didn't rain, and she really hoped the weather held until she could get back to civilization and find a proper sleeping bag or tent.

It did rain the next day, and Mira was grateful for the emergency poncho that had been packed in her bag for her. Even if she eventually had to cave and share it with Charmander by carrying him in her arms underneath it.

He really hadn't liked the rain. Which probably made some sort of strange sense since he was a fire dinosaur.

Secretly, Mira was grateful for the extra warmth. Though she was still trying to figure out how she hadn't managed to burn herself on the open flame at the tip of Charmander's tail.

It was about mid morning when Mira came across the first sign of civilization. A path.

Stepping onto that well worn dirt path was like regaining a portion of her sanity. Even if the current precipitation had turned it a little muddy. This world had given her a good solid pair of hiking boots that were surprisingly good at keeping water out, a little wetness wasn't going to dampen her new good mood.

The rain had stopped, less than an hour or so earlier, when a dark figure became visible on the path ahead of them. It was closing the distance between them quickly, and Mira scrambled hastily back when the giant black wolf came to an abrupt stop next to them.

It was only then that she noticed the dark haired teen riding on its back. His eyes lit up upon seeing her and he leaned down to stick a hand out to her.

"You have a charmander! That's perfect! Quick, get on. They need us to help make sure the beedrill swarm doesn't kick back up again now that the rain has stopped."

A lifetime of taking action during crisis had Mira's hand taking his without her even realizing it. His tone just triggered her reflexive do-something-now response. It was only as she was being swung up and behind him into the large canine that she came to her senses; nearly fumbling her landing and falling off.

"Wait, wha—"

"Nyx, let's go!"

She yelped in surprise as the beast beneath them surged forward and resumed running along the path at its previous break neck speed. It was fortunate Charmander was still tucked securely into her jacket, or he might have been left behind. It did mean that the poor little dinosaur was practically squished between the two humans. Mira was clinging pretty tightly to this strange guy's back.

There wasn't much chance for conversation, not with how fast they were going, but after a short while, the wolf veered off the road and into the foliage and slowed down some.

Mira was just trying to pick the first of her oh-so-many questions, when they came to a stop.

"Hey, Keith!" a voice called out, interrupting her before she could get a word out.

"Ranger Clark!" the boy—Keith?—returned, swinging a leg over to dismount from his wolf. "How are things looking?"

"Much better, now that you're here. Oh hey, is that a charmander? That'll help immensely!" A man stepped into view from the nearby foliage. "Brock's keeping them back for now, but his rock types aren't much for subduing them without eradicating the entire nest."

Just what was so special about Charmander? Mira wondered. Besides the fact that it was a flaming dinosaur that breathed fire, she amended. Her near-kidnapper turned around to offer a hand to help her dismount and she took it fixing him with a reproachful look as she reached the ground.

He blinked and his eyebrows knit together in that look boys got when they suspected they'd done something wrong but really had no idea what it was. "Uhm. Miss? I, uh, never got your name?" he tried.

"No. You didn't," she replied dryly before turning away from him to study her companion instead. She peered down at the orange lizard in her arms. "You okay there, Charmander? That was a bit of a rough ride, huh?"

Charmander smiled up at her reassuringly and chirped a quick, "Char!"

"Okay, okay!" Keith spoke up with a tinge of exasperation. "I'm sorry, but we're really in a hurry here. Brock's pokemon can only keep them contained for so long! We need to subdue the beedrill so they can be relocated farther into the forest. Please tell me your charmander knows smokescreen?"

Mira stared at him blankly before quickly glancing down at the dinosaur in her arms in confusion. "Uhm..."

Charmander seemed to comprehend the question a lot faster than her because he was quick to nod enthusiastically. "Char! Char char!"

Well, it seemed like he knew what he was doing more than she did, so she set Charmander down on the ground to let him do his own thing. Except Keith was still talking to her about it. For some reason.

"That's a relief!" he sighed happily. "Can you get your charmander to mix its smoke with my oddish's sleep powder? Then we can have Fearow waft it over into the nest. Together, the coverage should be enough to knock out all of them."

Mira stared at him blankly before nodding slowly. "I suppose that should work?" It didn't sound like a bad idea at least. You know, other than signing up to face a swarm of giant drill bees. Beedrill. Drill bee. Oh, that was just terrible. Who came up with these names?

At least Charmander's made sense, Charmander literally said his own name every time he talked. Which did bring up the strange thought of whether Charmander said 'Charmander' because it was his name, or if he was called 'Charmander' because that was what he said?

Either way, this world made like... zero sense.

Setting those thoughts aside, Mira focused on following instructions as Keith began organizing their giant bee removal efforts. Or actually, Charmander focused on following instructions and Mira followed along pretending like she knew what was going on.

At least she learned a lot just from watching. Like how humans and pokemon were supposed to interact. It wasn't that Keith mistreated his pokemon, but he definitely didn't treat them like sapient creatures. Well, not entirely anyway. He did ask them questions and listen to their answers, but generally he just made all the decisions and ordered them around.

And they listened to him. It didn't seem to bother them at all, and she wondered if that was because this world had always lived with coexisting sapience and, therefore, didn't find it as special or unique as her world did?

She wasn't sure what field of study this sort of thing fell under, but it definitely wasn't her field of study. She just had to live in this world, not understand every bit of it. She planned on returning home as soon as possible.

She also learned one other very important fact. What an 'onix' was.

There was some other guy there helping them and they'd been too busy for introductions, but Mira had heard Keith call the man 'Brock'. He had an onix, and was using it to keep any of the bees from straying from their nest.

An 'onix', as it turned out to be, was a humongous snake made out of boulders. Like, that thing was larger than a house.

Mira took back everything she'd ever said about Charmander being big, she was now very glad the lizard was only the size of your average dog.

There was also another creature called a 'Geodude' (this name was even more ridiculous than Beedrill, in her opinion) and it was a floating rock. With arms. And no legs. It just... floated there.

She didn't know if that was more or less strange than the giant boulder snake. At least this one was only slightly bigger than her Charmander.

Eventually Keith had gotten them into position upwind of the hive and unhooked two of the red and white colored spheres from his belt (similar in design, but different colored than the ones she had on her own belt, she wondered what that meant).

"Okay," Keith spoke, "I'm going to let out Oddish and Fearow. Just make sure to have your Charmander use smokescreen right as Oddish uses sleep powder, then Fearow will use gust to blow it into the nest. Are you ready?"

She wasn't, but a quick questioning glance at Charmander had him responding with an eager "Char!" so she nodded her agreement.

She then watched in utter fascination as the boy tossed the two red and white spheres to the ground and they exploded with a strange red energy. She could only stare in disbelief as two creatures, one tiny and one large just... appeared out of that energy.

The tiny one was a... an onion? A blue onion with little feet. And a face on it. It was equal parts adorable and creepy.

The large one was a significantly more normal looking bird. Only taller than she was and had a wickedly sharp looking beak. Two enormous talons scratched at the ground as the large avian took in its surroundings. It did not look friendly.

"Oddish!" the small onion called out and went over to rub its head (body?) affectionately against Keith's leg.

"Haha, good to see you too, Oddish," he replied, reaching down to run his fingers through its leaves. "You up to help subdue some beedrill?"

"Oddish!"

"Good!" He glanced over at Mira. "You guys good to go?"

Mira blinked out of her thoughts on storing sapient creatures in little balls like that and glanced down to Charmander.

"Char!" he barked, and Mira could already see smoke beginning to rise from the flame on his tail in anticipation.

"Okay, then," Keith reached over and grabbed Mira's arm to pull her back away from the pokemon. "We don't want to get caught in their attacks, trust me. Sleep powder hangovers are no joke."

Bemused, Mira allowed herself to be pulled away, noting how Charmander watched her go a little anxiously. He stayed where he was though, so he probably understood the logic behind it.

"Oddish, sleep powder! Fearow, gust!" At once the little onion seemed to straighten as it began waving its fronds back and forth through the air. Mira could barely make out something building in the air around it before the bird began flapping its wings and blowing it out over the beedrill nest.

There was a pause before Keith turned to stare at her expectantly.

"Uh... oh, right. Charmander, smokescreen?" she tried. Keith seemed a little confused at the question in her tone, but the little dinosaur did not disappoint. A dark smog billowed out from him that quickly obscured him from her view even with the bird-made breeze carrying it out and away from them.

Mira jumped slightly at the low whistle Keith suddenly let out. "Nice. That's a very well trained Charmander."

She shifted awkwardly at his misplaced praise. She'd literally done nothing except stand here. Whatever impressive display Charmander had done was all on him.

They stood there for about a minute before Keith frowned and motioned for them to move. "The wind's changing, we need to keep up with it for just a few more minutes to allow it to take full effect."

Mira followed Keith's example as he instructed his pokemon on where to go and where to direct their attacks to better cover the small copse of trees the beedrill had claimed for their nest. Keith would look her way whenever she was probably supposed to be directing her own pokemon and she attempted to give something of an order in spite of how awkward it felt.

It was a good thing Charmander was so intelligent all on his own to understand what was going on, because Mira was all but certain her 'orders' were useless. Not that Charmander didn't do his very best to fulfill each and every one of them.

The idea of giving someone orders still didn't sit well with her, but if she made the comparison that the trainer was a general and their pokemon were their soldiers, it made a bit more sense. This was an emergency and the pokemon were helping to abate it. At least, a swarm of giant bees near a populated area sounded like a fairly urgent emergency to her.

The fact that these bees might be sapient crossed her mind, but she couldn't dwell on the complications that brought up since cohabitation with other sapient creatures was new to her. Better to leave it to the locals to hash out, they'd been living with it much longer than she had.

Besides, they weren't killing the (possibly sapient) bees. Just moving them. Yes, there were a lot of ways 'just moving them' could be bad as well, but Mira had to be content with that for now. She had her own problems to deal with.

Keith held up a hand and the pokemon, including Charmander, took that as a sign to stop. "Okay, that should be good. We can go let Ranger Clark know they can move the nest now. They should be getting their reinforcements from the other ranger outposts soon, they'll be able to find a new place for them."

Charmander came back to hug Mira's leg again with a happy yelp. She struggled not to choke on the lingering smell of smoke wafting off him. Was it possible to give a fire lizard a bath? Because he really needed one.

She reached down against the watery eyes and suffocating scent to pet Charmander on the head. She may not have known much about this 'training' business, but even she knew the value of positive reinforcement. As well as the value of showing gratitude. "You did good, Charmander," she spoke, her tone tight from trying not to inhale.

"Here," Keith interrupted. Mira looked up to see him holding out one of those face masks things people use when in a hospital or quarantine zone. "I keep extra for Oddish's stun spore and sleep powder. It's unused. Er, not that I would hand it to you if it were used, that'd be gross and highly unsanitary... and I'm going to stop talking now. Sorry. I'm awkward with people."

He finished up with a facepalm and Mira bit back a laugh.

"Thanks," she said instead, accepting it with a small reassuring smile.

Then turned her head to cough violently because she could no longer suppress the urge. She backed up away from Charmander and pulled out a water bottle to soak the mask with. It worked better when wet.

Mask in place and an idea of a plan formed in her mind, Mira stepped back up to Keith. She held out a hand to shake. "Hi, we didn't get properly introduced. I'm Mira."

She didn't bother giving her full name, it was a mouthful, and she hated it. She only did it for Charmander because that seemed like the sort of thing you'd do when meeting an alien species for the first time. Though, technically, Keith here was an alien too.

Actually... now that she was really thinking about it...

She was the alien. Huh. Weird.

She forced her thoughts back on track when the boy in front of her took her hand and shook it.

"I'm Keith. Sorry about... ya know..."

"Practically abducting me?" Mira supplied helpfully.

"What? No, you grabbed my hand! You didn't protest or anything!" he argued, dropping their grip to run a hand through his hair in irritation.

"You didn't exactly give me a chance to," she rebuked lightly. "But aren't we supposed to be reporting back to some rangers? That sounded a little time sensitive."

He narrowed his eyes at her, but could do nothing to stop the subject change because Mira was right. "Yeah, we are."

He turned back to his Pokemon, unhooking one of those red and white spheres from his belt. Mira watched with fascination as he pressed the white circle in the middle (oh, it was a button?) and it expanded from the size of a golf ball to about the size of a baseball. He then pointed it at his pokemon, "Oddish, return!" and a red beam of light shot out of the ball. It connected with the blue onion, and the creature (plant?) dissolved into more red energy before being drawn back into the orb in Keith's hand.

So that was that. How did the whole expanding sphere work? Did the pokemon stay as energy once inside? Did it maybe work like a teleporter and there was just a holding facility somewhere else that held them until called again? Or was it more like a shrink ray and a little version of the pokemon lived on inside that tiny ball? Could it be used on a human? Or like, say, an inanimate object?

So many questions to ask but she wasn't sure which ones we're safe to speak without sounding like... well, an alien. If science fiction had taught her anything, it was that she definitely didn't want to out herself as an alien until she knew more information.

These thoughts continued to process as she followed Keith over to where his large bird pokemon sat.

"Fearow, go let the rangers know we're done here, alright?" The bird crowed its name loudly before taking off.

Then Keith turned back to her with a frown, "Alright, we should head back as well."

He set a brisk pace back toward where the rangers had set up a base camp and Mira followed after him. She looked back to make sure Charmander was keeping up with this faster pace; but if he had any trouble, he wasn't showing it.

"Do you always keep your charmander outside of its pokeball?" Keith asked, drawing her attention back to him.

Pokeball? Really? That was what they called those little red and white balls? Or black and yellow in her case. She still didn't know what the different colors meant. That seemed like something a not-alien would already know though.

She realized he'd asked her a question and she frowned. Huh. What was a good not-alien way to answer?

"... is that a bad thing?" she asked, hoping it didn't sound too out of place.

"Oh, no, not at all. Lots of trainers keep their pokemon out and about walking with them, though usually not fire-types as they tend to... set fires to things accidentally. Or on purpose. Not that I think your charmander would, he's clearly very well trained, I didn't mean to make it sound like you were a bad trainer! I was just... er, sorry. I'm rambling again. I was just curious."

"I don't mind rambling," Mira replied with a shrug. In fact, she liked that he rambled. It meant that he was dumping a whole lot more information than her original questions would normally get. Information that she sorely needed. Granted, not all of it was useful information.

"I'd keep one of mine out but Nyx and Fearow are a bit too big and Oddish doesn't really like walking, or being carried, or cities... she's generally happier in her pokeball, really," Keith went on to explain. "Is Charmander your only pokemon?"

"Yeah."

He turned to look at her with a concerned frown. "You're not planning on challenging Brock with only a charmander, are you?"

"Uh... no?" she answered, baffled. What? Where had that question come from?! Why would she challenge the guy with the giant boulder snake?! That sounded like a terrible idea. For that matter, why would she challenge anyone at all?! Was that a thing that was common here? And shouldn't it be Charmander's decision to fight?

"Okay, good." He sighed in relief. "I know it should be obvious not to pit a fire-type solo against the rock gym leader, but I've seen some pretty dumb trainers in the past. Not that I'm calling you dumb! Just, you seem kinda new so, I mean... Gah! Point is, if you're going to challenge Brock for the boulder badge, I recommend picking up a grass-type pokemon in the forest first. Or train your charmander up until he evolves into a charmeleon, but that would take forever."

Mira did not even know where to begin analyzing all that information he'd just dumped on her. Gym leader? Boulder badge? Charmander evolves into a what?!

She must have heard him wrong. Evolution wasn't something you 'trained up to'! It was a natural process that took thousands or even millions of years and usually many generations of the creature in question. Why had he said it like it was a viable strategy? Like it was something that wouldn't take many times longer than Mira's own lifetime?

Instead of voicing these questions, Mira nodded and replied, "I'll, uh, take that into consideration. Thank you."

They reached the clearing where they had left the rangers. Four other trainers joined them, including that boulder snake 'gym leader' guy, Brock. They had been part of the other teams keeping the beedrill in place.

Once everyone had gathered, Ranger Clark began speaking to all of them. "First off, I'd like to tell you all thank you, you did an amazing job out there. The Viridian Post rangers have arrived to the South and begun gathering up the nest for relocation. As an added bonus, you all may pick up one beedrill each on your way out."

Mira felt a soft elbow in her side as Keith leaned down to whisper. "You may want to take that up. Bugs are no good against Brock, but Ericka and Sabrina aren't that far and it'll help with those. Heck, Misty's starmie is part psychic and she's just in Cerulean, the next town over."

Mira nodded mechanically as she tried to imagine having a giant bee with drill/stinger arms as a companion. Hard pass. The fiery orange lizard at her side was enough.

She could also have sworn he'd said something about a pokemon being 'psychic' but she might have misheard him? Hopefully. It probably wasn't important anyway, so she tuned back in to Ranger Clark.

"... now I already know most of you from previous PSR posts, but I'll need those that are new to come here and give me your trainer ID's so I can deposit your pay into your account."

Wait. They were getting paid?

Oh, but they'd also said something about a trainer ID. Did she have one of those? Ah! The annoying red machine voice thing! It had an ID on it! Maybe that was the same thing?

She pulled the little pocket computer out of her jeans and flipped it open. Big mistake.

*Ping* "Welcome to your new Pokedex version 12.8.42. Would you like to run the setup wizard?"

Mira cringed as the very loud and distinct voice drew everyone's attention to her. She mouthed a quick 'Sorry!' at the irritated looks she was receiving and glared at the offending machine. It had responded to her voice before, so maybe it would do it again? She'd used the little voice activated assistant on her phone before, maybe it was like that?

She was about to try when Keith spoke up from beside her.

"You have a pokedex?!"

Mira froze up as she tried to figure out what exactly about this situation surprised him. Was having one of these that unusual? "... Yes?" she tried, hesitantly.

"Man, your parents must have really helped you out. Most trainers can't afford to get a pokedex until much later in their journey. They're crazy expensive. I mean, I saw the ultraballs on your belt, but a pokedex? Is your family rich or something?"

There was a heavy pause as Mira struggled to figure out how to react to that. Keith seemed to realize what he'd just said and slapped a palm to his face with a groan.

"I am so sorry. That was really rude of me, wasn't it? I'm, uh, not very good at talking... to people. Just forget I said that, alright? Though, for the record, I'm super jealous and wish I could afford one."

She gave him a wry look. "I'll forget it if you show me how to turn the volume down on this stupid thing."

"Oh, sure! You just tell it 'volume down' or 'volume level' then you say a number between zero and ten. Though really any voice command that sounds vaguely like a 'be quiet' works. They're not that picky."

"Great! So just... Pokedex, volume level three?"

*Ping* "Volume level turned down to level three."

Mira sighed in relief, that had been a much quieter robot voice. "Awesome, thank you!"

*Ping* "You're welcome!"

She shot the machine in her hands a glare. "I wasn't talking to you!"

Keith laughed, but then nudged her with an elbow. "You should go get in line to give the Rangers your trainer ID. I'm pretty sure this is your first time, at least, I've never seen you on a PSR before."

"Right... uhm... just, dumb question, I'm not sure where to find my trainer ID?" she told him, trying to look innocent and sheepish.

It must have worked because he sighed and shook his head in exasperation. "Your pokedex should have your trainer information on it, just open it up and press the top button on the right."

Mira nodded and followed his instructions. It worked! Now to take that over to the Ranger guy, right? "Thanks, Keith!"

Getting her information to the ranger didn't take too long and when she came back, the other trainer had his giant black wolf out.

"Good, glad that got sorted out. It usually takes a day or two for the funds to deposit. I'm going to head back to Pewter City now. Later, Mira, it was nice meeting you!"

Mira jolted in surprise. He was leaving? No, no, no... "Wait, what?" she asked, rushing forward. "Don't just leave me out here, you're the one who hauled me all the way out to the middle of nowhere!"

Keith paused in the act of mounting his wolf. "Oh. Uh, sorry, usually Kanto folk don't like dark types. I'm surprised you rode Nyx here. Did you want a ride back to town?"

Mira had no idea what he meant by 'Kanto' or 'dark types', but if she could get a free ride straight to civilization, she was going to take it. Then maybe lock herself in a library for a week or something. Maybe she'd get lucky and they'd have some form of online tutorial for 'trainers'? The pokedex implied a fairly advanced grasp of computers. That thing had to be hooked up to some sort of wireless network.

... Did she ever think to check and see if it had a GPS?

Whoops.

"Yes. A ride would be nice," she replied.

He shrugged and leaned down to give her a hand up. Which was good because this dog thing didn't have stirrups.

She leaned down to her little orange companion. "Do you want to ride between us like last time, or... someway else?"

"Char!"

She didn't understand what he said, but the lifted arms gesture in her direction was a pretty universal sign of asking to be picked up. So... he was okay with being squished between them, she guessed?

She tucked Charmander back under her jacket like before, freeing her hands so she could mount without too much difficulty.

Once situated, Keith gave his pokemon a pat. "Let's go, Nyx."

Nyx, the possibly sapient black dog beneath them, took off at a somewhat slower pace than the one she'd used earlier. It didn't stop Mira from having to cling to the boy's back to stay in place. She tried to keep from crushing the fire lizard between them, but she was starting to think he was much more durable than she thought.

She wasn't sure what she was going to find when they got to the city, but it had to be better than this monster infested wilderness. At the very least, she could start gathering information on this new world she'd found herself in.

Then she could worry about how to get home.

A/N: There's chapter three. A monster of a chapter that's nearly twice as long as the previous one. I just couldn't find a better place to break it up so here it is. Enjoy. :)

-Py