An Unpredictable Future

Pt. 1: How Do You Start?

Bright sun, a light breeze, and vibrant nature. These things normally would bring tranquillity and bliss to the Pokemon of this area, but to a lone Gothitelle, it fills her only with anxiety as she stands in front of a message board in the middle of a large town. Upon the board she sees various pages posted by the townsfolk containing newsletters, job listings, and team requests. She looks down at the piece of paper in her hands and reads it to herself.

"Hello. My name is Vladi the Gothitelle, and I just arrived here at Lively Town. I am interested in looking for a team to join; I am new to this area and I would like someone to partner up with. I do not know how much I can provide to a team, but I will try my hardest. Please come find me if you are interested."

Vladi looks back up at the board with worry in her eyes, "I hope this sounds good enough to get someone's attention," she says to herself. "I don't even know if I'm doing this right. Should I just ask around instead?"

She tenses up a bit after she says that, "No no no no, I can't do that. I'll mess it up then for sure." She looks back down at her note, fidgeting with it slightly, "What's everyone going to think when they see this though?"

She tries to remain positive, but her imagination gets the better of her, showing her pessimistic outlook on what could happen...

"Who even is this?" asks a Pokemon, staring at Vladi's imaginary note.

"They don't sound very tough," says another. "Why would they even think about joining a team if they're this helpless?"

One Pokemon rips off the note from the board, "Let's just get rid of this and save others the trouble of talking to this loser."

Vladi finally comes to her senses and puts her hands on her face, shaking her head rapidly.

"This is so frustrating! They're all gonna think I'm worthless!"

As she calms herself down she takes one last look at the board and then back down at her note as she crumbles it into a ball, "I'm really not cut out for this," she says to herself as she throws the paper into the waste bin filled to the brim with old notes next to the board and walks off.

As Vladi leaves, another Pokemon walks up to the notice board to take a look. The breeze pushes Vladi's note off the waste bin and to the Pokemon's feet. Catching their attention, they pick up the note, uncrumple it and read it to themselves.

Vladi walks down the road looking at all the townsfolk. Everyone looks to be in high spirits, shopping for food, making conversation, and playing with each other. Yet Vladi can't help but feel alone.

"If only I wasn't so scared of talking to others, I probably would have finally gotten some answers," she sighs to herself, contemplating her situation. As far as she remembers it's been a few days since she woke up as a Gothatelle. She doesn't remember much of her old life, but one thing is certain, she used to be a human. She feels that she has a vague understanding of the world that she's in, although the last four days of wandering through the forest and foraging for food hasn't given her much of a clue. Vladi stops for a moment and sits under a large tree in the shade.

"Everyone looks to be nice at first glance, but I'm sure if I tell them my situation they'll all think I'm insane," she mumbles to herself, observing the other Pokemon. She wraps her arms around her legs and lays her face in her knees. She's glad to be able to get this far. Hearing word of mouth from a day of eavesdropping brought her to the message board, but now... She can't seem to muster the courage to go any further. She thinks being a part of a team could be the answer, but her fears are getting to her. It's like something inside is holding her back from putting a note up.

Just then, a sweet aroma wafts over Vladi's nose. As she breathes it in, she begins to feel a lot more calm and warm inside, almost as if all of her worries just faded away. She perks her head up, looking around for where that aroma is coming from, only to find another Pokemon standing beside her. A Steenee with a big smile on her face staring down at her.

"Hiya!" the Steenee says to her with a slight pep in her voice. Vladi starts to realize what's happening, and quickly reels back a bit.

"Oh, um... h-hi," She stammers to the smiling Pokemon.

"You wouldn't happen to be Vladi would you?" the Steenee asks.

"Y-yes, that's me," Vladi says turning her gaze away, "Um... can I help you?"

The Steenee's eyes light up as they pull out Vladi's request note and shows it to her. "Actually I wanted to see if you were still looking to join a team? You're note was all crumpled up so I didn't know if you found one already, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask."

Vladi stands there silent trying to think of a response. Despite this being exactly what she wanted, the Steenee's perky energy was overflowing her with emotions to where she felt she would pass out at any moment.

"Oh, my name's Marle by the way," the Steenee says extending her hand to Vladi.

Vladi nervously shakes Marle's hand trying not to shiver too much, "N-n-nice to meet you."

"Sooooooo, are you still available?" Marle leans herself forward closer to Vladi, making her sweat profusely.

"W-w-w-well um... you see... I um... about that I..." Vladi stands there petrified as she struggles to get the words out.

"Come on girl, just say yes already!" she yells at herself in her head.

After a moment of silence, Marle's smile slowly turns into a frown and the sweet aroma around then fades away, "Oh, I guess you're not interested?" A look of disappointment falls over Marle's face as she looks down at the ground, "Well, that's okay. Sorry for the intrusion. I didn't mean to startle you." Marle hands back Vladi's note and begins to leave.

With Vladi starting to snap back to reality again, she realizes that the opportunity she's been looking for is slipping through her fingers, and without a second thought she tries to catch up to Marle, "W-wait!" she yells to her, only to trip herself on a tree root and falling face first into the ground with a THUD.

Marle turns around seeing Vladi with her face in the grass, "Oh no, are you okay?" she asks running back over to her.

Vladi makes a low grunt, her body feeling sore from the fall, and lifts her head up to face Marle, "Yes I am interested," she finally spits the words out, what little confidence she had spent on that single line.

Marle quickly grabs Vladi's arms and helps her to her feet, brushing the loose grass and dirt from her body.

"Sorry, I'm... not very good at talking to new people," Vladi says as her face is red with embarrassment, "I've never put a note up on the message board before, truth be told, this is my first time in town at all. It was just too scary." Vladi goes to sit back under the tree, "I've heard that it would be beneficial to join a team, but I don't even know what teams do; I don't want to end up joining a team, only to be completely useless. I just don't know what else to do."

Marle's face changes from disappointment to empathy as she uses magical leaf to cut and catch an apple from the tree above them. Marle sits down and hands the apple to Vladi, "Hey, if you're struggling, I don't mind helping you out. I've like to help others and since teams do that all the time, I've been wanting to start my own," she says as Vladi takes the apple from her, "It doesn't really matter to me what you can and can't do. I'm sure we can help each other out regardless." Marle's smile begins to form back.

The aroma starts to form again, and all of Vladi's worries start to fade away once more as she looks at Marle's warm smile. It was at this moment that Vladi had suddenly felt comfortable around someone, a feeling that seemed a bit to foreign to her. She looks down at the apple and takes a bite out of it, "I don't know how much I can offer, but I hope we can be good friends." she says.

Marle's face then lights up with excitement as she leans in to hug Vladi, "Oh thank you thank you thank you! I'm so excited for all of the fun adventures we'll have!" she says to Vladi who tenses up again.

"Well, she's very eager, and probably a bit tiring, but she seems nice. I guess I wouldn't mind working with her," Vladi thinks to herself as she slowly relaxes when Marle releases her from her arms, "So um... what do we do from here?" she asks.

"Oh it's simple really, all we need to do now, is go to the guild, and make our new team official! From there, it's all about helping others, whether it's finding a lost item, or saving someone from a mystery dungeon filled with meanies!" She says with a light and airy giggle.

Vladi's stomach sinks as the thought of getting into a fight plays through her head. "Fighting? That sounds dangerous."

"Don't worry," Marle responds, "With these, We'll be protected." Marle points to the sepals on her head, and performing a spin, smacking the tree they're sitting under with a loud THWAP, causing some loose apples to tumble to the ground and bounce off her head, shielding her from harm.

Vladi stares at Marle in awe after witnessing her moves, "Wow. That looks like it hurts," she says, "Can you use any grass moves?"

"Yep!" Marle says as she summons a bundle of leaves and fires then at the tree branches. One of the leaves cuts a branch clean off, dropping another apple in her hand.

"That's so cool! I wonder if I can do stuff like that," Vladi says with amazement in her eyes.

"Since Gothitelles are known to have psychic powers, I'm sure you can use psychic moves," Marle says, taking a bite out of the apple, "Let me see what you've got."

Vladi's mood grows sour once Marle says that, "I... I don't know how to use psychic moves."

"I'm sure you can," Marle assures her. She holds the half eaten apple in front of Vladi, "Here. Try taking this apple from me using you mind."

"Um... how do I do that?" Vladi asks.

"I dunno. Just... imagine it coming towards you or something," Marle says with a shrug.

Despite Vladi having a hard time understanding any of what she just witnessed, she was determined to make an example of herself to her new friend. "Here goes nothing," she says and she closes her eyes and points her hand to the apple. As Vladi tries desperately to do what she thinks is the impossible, her eyes begin to glow as she opens them, and a purple essence forms around her hand and the apple. Marle looks on in amazement as the apple slowly lifts from her hand and floats towards Vladi's palm. Just as the apple was about to reach it's destination, the glow in her eyes fades away and the apple falls to the ground. Vladi lets out a hard grunt and starts to pant, "It's really hard to concentrate," she says.

Marle picks up the apple and tries to cheer her up, "It's alright. I'm sure with enough practice you'll be able to pull it off like it's nothing."

Vladi looks down at her hands, thinking about what she just did, "Still, I almost can't believe that I can pull off something like that," she says.

"That'll really come in handy if we get into a fight," Marle says.

"Fight? Oh, right," Vladi asks, quickly changing her expression, remembering Marle's mention of fighting from before.

"Only if we come across any feral Pokemon in dungeons though," Marle assures Vladi, "Most of the Pokemon here are very civilized, but we might still get into some combat outside of town."

Vladi starts getting nervous again thinking about the danger that she could get into.

Marle notices Vladi's change in expression, "Hey, let's not think about that right now. We'll deal with it when we get there. For now, let's go make this team official," Marle assures Vladi again, grabbing her hand and leading her down the street.

"W-wait. Where are we going again?" Vladi asks.

"To the guild hall," Marle says excitedly, "We'll officially be a team when we sign up there."

Vladi's nervousness shifts away from thinking about potential battles to who she might encounter at the guild. Despite Marle being so nice to her, she still doesn't know how the other teams will think of her at first glance. But knowing her new powers, at least she has something to show off.

Marle and Vladi make their way through town, coming up to a large building with a sign that says 'Lively Town Guild.' There is a smaller sign next to the door that says 'Please do not battle inside the guild hall.'

"Here we are," Marle says with a smile, "C'mon. Let's get signed up."

Vladi hesitates for a second but starts following Marle into the guild hall. The room is huge with a very tall ceiling, seemingly tall enough to fit a Steelix. The hall is packed with all sorts of Pokemon, sitting together, eating and having a good time. Vladi slows her pace a bit, looking around at all the other Pokemon, wondering just how strong everyone is.

Marle catches Vladi's attention back to her, "C'mon. The registration booth is up here."

Just as the two of them were making their way, Vladi notices a group of Pokemon arguing with each other.

"That's it! I'm through with you holding us back!" a Stunky yells to a visibly upset Goomy, "You just can't seem to stop screwing things up for us!"

"I'm sorry," the Goomy says with a quiver in his voice, "I'm just trying to help."

"Well your 'help' has cost us our last few jobs. We're fresh out of items, and on our last few poke now because of you," the Stunky says getting more heated.

The Haunter next to them pipes up into the argument, "Hey don't be so hard on him. Goomys aren't known to be that strong. That, and we still have some money saved at the bank."

"Shut it!" the Stunky yells at the Haunter, "Need I remind you that it was your idea to let him on the team in the first place? You're lucky that you're actually useful."

The Haunter goes quiet and floats behind Stunky.

"You're officially off the team." the Stunky says to the Goomy, "If you can't handle yourself out there then don't even bother joining a team."

Stunky then makes their way out of the guild hall. "I'm sorry man," Haunter says to Goomy before catching up with Stunky.

Left all alone, the Goomy melts to the floor with tears rolling down his eyes. Vladi, who watched the whole ordeal, starts feeling compelled to go and comfort the poor Goomy. Remembering the thoughts going through her head earlier that day, she can't help but empathize with the Goomy. But, as she goes to console the Pokemon, she stops herself, wondering if all she'll be doing is bothering him.

"Vladi! Are you coming?" Marle asks, making her way back her new friend. Vladi's attention stays over to the crying Goomy. As Marle reaches her friend, she notices him as well, "What happened?" she asks Vladi.

"I think that Pokemon just got kicked out of their team," Vladi says.

"Oh no. That's awful," Marle says with a shocked look. Without any hesitation, Marle walks over to the Goomy while Vladi tries to get her to wait. Though Vladi's attempt was futile, as Marle wanted to see if she could help the sad Pokemon.

"Hey," Marle says to the crying Goomy, "Are you okay?"

"No... no I'm not," the Goomy says whimpering, "I just can't seem to pull my weight in fights. It's not my fault that I'm not strong enough." Goomy then melts further into the floor, almost becoming a puddle.

Marle tries to help the Goomy form back into shape, using her tiny hands to pull the goomy out of the ground, reforming him like pottery, but to no avail. "Hey come on. Don't say that! Everybody's capable of being in a team. I'm sure you're just as qualified as everyone else."

Vladi walks up next to Marle, trying to come up with something to say to make the Goomy feel better.

"I just... sniff... wanted to go out and see the world. But it's so hard when everything tries to get in your way," the Goomy says, "And you're not able to defend yourself from any oncoming dangers. It's even worse when you're with Pokemon you think you can trust, but really they don't care about you at all and only see you as a nuisance."

The Goomy's words made Vladi stop and remember something; a faint memory from her past life. It's a bit blurry, but she remembers people talking down on her, people who she thought liked and accepted her. She remembers them walking away, her yelling that she's sorry, but never seeing them again. All of a sudden, the memory fades away and Vladi comes back to reality, looking down at Marle trying to stop the Goomy from melting through the floorboards.

"W-what's your name?" Vladi asks.

The Goomy looks up at Vladi, "sniff... Sven."

"Would you... wanna join our team?" Vladi asks Sven.

Marle looks to Vladi for a second and back to Sven, her smile coming back, "Hey, that's a great idea. Three Pokemon is better than two." she coos, nudging Vladi, "And I assure you that you'll feel a lot better working with us than with whatever jerks you were with before."

Sven's tears begin to seep into his body and he slowly reforms back to his old self, "Would you guys really have me join you?" he asks them.

"Sure! Let's go have some adventures." Marle says extending her hand to Sven. Vladi also does the same with slight hesitation.

Sven shakes both of their hands with his antennas, "Thank you so much. I'll make sure to be the best partner I can be," he says with confidence in his voice.

"That's what I like to hear," Marle says, "Oh, my name is Marle and this is Vladi."

Marle points over to Vladi who's trying to wave the slime from Sven's body off of her hand, "N-nice to meet you."

Sven looks very eager to start adventuring with the two, "I know some pretty powerful moves that could be useful..." Sven stops himself, before clarifying. "They aren't that powerful right now since I haven't evolved yet but that won't stop me from trying," he says holding his head up high.

"We'd love to see you in action," Marle says to Sven. "Alright guys. To the reception desk." Marle points over at the direction of the front desk and makes her way over.

Sven slides by Vladi's side and gets her attention, "Thank you so much. This really does mean a lot to me."

Vladi looks down at Sven and gives him a light smile, "Of course. I... I think I know what it's like to be in your situation," she says to him, "It's really tough to go through. So, I don't want you to suffer like I did."

Sven gives a big smile as the two of them catch up to Marle, who's already at the front desk.

On the other side, a Mienshao in a work vest and hat greets them, "Hello, what can I help you with?"

"We'd like to form a team, please," Marle says.

"Okay. Can I get your names, please?" the Mienshao asks.

They each give their names to the receptionist.

"Would you like to be a rescue team or an exploration team?" the Mienshao asks.

The three of them look at each other and Vladi asks, "What's the difference?"

"A rescue team predominantly takes on jobs to help Pokemon in need. Exploration teams, primarily takes jobs in exploring the world and smaller tasks like retrieving items," the Mienshao explains, "You can still take jobs of the other variety. It's just the type of jobs you'll be doing most often."

"I like the idea of an exploration team," Sven says.

"Yeah, me too," says Vladi.

"Then exploration it is," Marle exclaims.

"Okay. Now have you guys came up with a team name?" the mienshao asks.

The three of them look at each other again, "Shoot. I haven't thought of a name at all," Marle says.

As the three try to think of a name, Vladi starts to remember something again. A song, heavy and fast, yet uplifting. Dark, yet bright at the same time, but what was the name?

"Dream House," Vladi says out loud as she remembers.

Marle and Sven both look at her, "Hey, I like that name," says Sven.

"Me too. It has a nice ring to it," Marle agrees.

Vladi comes back to her senses and thinks about what she said, "You know, I think I like that name too."

"We are Team Dreamhouse," Marle says to the receptionist.

"Okay that's all the information I need," the Mienshao says, "Let me get everything set up for you."

After a few minutes the Mienshao comes back, "Here is your treasure bag," they say as they hand the bag to Marle, "And here are your team badges to signify that you're an official team. Welcome to the guild."

"Thank you so much," Marle says.

Vladi looks down at her new badge. Her nerves are still there, but there's a driving sense of excitement. She looks back up to Marle and Sven who both give her a smile, "Let's do our best," she says to them.

Marle gives her a hug and Sven leans on Vladi's side.

"Maybe I'll wait to tell them about who I really am," Vladi thinks to herself, "I think I'm gonna enjoy being a Pokemon."

Vladi may not know what the future will hold for her and her new friends, but something tells her that her new life is going to get a bit more interesting.