I have finally decided what Pokemon I should be searching for.

  A wooper.

  Goggles weaknesses are almost perfectly covered by a water and ground type, immunity to pesky electric types, extreme resistance to fire and above average resistance to rock TE even for a ground type, besides being able to learn ice beam and rock slide to fight any flier more capable of using TE (Because I am pretty sure the only flying types that could cause trouble are the ones with ranged capabilities or much above our level, a yanma's air mobility is no joke).

  I thought very hard about becoming a type specialist, but most champions were not type specialists. To my memory the only ones that managed to achieve the title while not deviating at all from the types they decided to dedicate themselves to were Wallace from Hoenn and Brunhilde from Sverigga. Sure, there were probably more considering the league system is about 800 years old, but the only monotype champion from the past I remember from the top of my head was Maito Blacktorn, and the only reason I remember him is the fact he became champion using 6 dragonites.

  So, while most gym leaders and E4 members are specialists, generalists are generally (heh) accepted to have a higher potential ceiling.

  So, generalist I must be if I want to be like Leon.

  I want my ground/water type to be a wooper in particular because while seismitoad are better at distributing pain (as proved by Leon's own frog Pokemon), I had already interacted with plenty of wooper back home, and mama quagsire did let her young be captured by promising trainers once they got old enough, so it shouldn't be that hard to convince a wooper to be my friend.

  So, following the river should probably have me stumbling into a quagsire nest. Or whatever cool water type I stumble into, gotta keep tempering my expectations.

  I am keeping Goggles close to me instead of having him scout head, without the rest of the gang I don't want to stay away from him or tire him out with training.

  I still have my makeshift spear from yesterday, I been walking for barely an hour and I have already impaled 3 tin cans and a chips bag someone dumped in the river and were washed up in the bank.

  Its calming. The fact that the local Pokemon are not hiding anymore is supremely relaxing. Seeing actual butterfree flying overhead for the first time was such a treat! They were as graceful in the flight as the books told they would be. I do wonder why they didn't show up beforehand? They were definitely there, just hiding for some reason. Something to research later.

  The only problematic thing was the band of zigzagoon drinking the fresh water from the river, thankfully they were in the opposite margin to me. Even if they are dark types fighting 5 to 1 is not really good odds for me and Goggles.

  Took about half an hour of walking before I spotted something actually intriguing.

  And useful too!

  A very large rock, in fact. It was a unusual cone shape with a flat top, towering above the treeline and probably giving a nice overview of the surrounding area. The massive boulder did clash with it's surroundings, and in a place where Pokemon suddenly becoming gigantic landscaping is a weekly occurrence, the most reasonable explanation for the strange geological formation was a Pokemon move.

  After all, humans aren't the only species capable of changing the land to suit their needs. Pokemon just tended to be a lot less ambitious in their pursuits, or do it accidentally, sometimes recently evolved and misjudge how strong their earthquakes or rock slides are, and other times they are having anger issues, a rampaging gyrados can bend the course of rivers and it is exactly not uncommon for newly evolved wild hydreigons to clear vast amounts of land in a mindless rampage.

  Of course, zweilos evolving into hydreigon in the wild is a very rare occurrence, otherwise Unova would be a pile of ash.

  Well, no way to know if this is a Pokemon made den, the remnants of a G-max attack or just a really weird rock without checking it out, if it looks like a den I can probably run away before I piss off whatever owns it.

  I thanked the legendaries as I cautiosly approached it, there was no signs of territory markings around, no damage on the nearby trees, no strong scents and no more rocks scattered about. So, probably not a den. Good! I let out a huge sigh of relief I did not realize I was holding and begun walking with a lot more pep in my step.

  Normally I would send Goggles to scout the rock before climbing it, but I was a bit scared to be around the WA without a Pokemon at my side.

  I really hoped the height advantage would let me spot a wooper nest.

  --- ??? ---

  Feed. Hide. Feed. Sleep. Repeat.

  Feed. Hide. Feed. Sleep. Repeat.

  Feed. Hide. Feed. Sleep. Repeat?

  Feed. Hide. Feed. Sleep. Repeat.

  Why Feed Hide Feed Sleep Repeat?

  Eat soft green. Hide from birds. Eat more. Sleep for energy. But why? Seeking strenght? Achieve metamorphosis?

  Feed. Hide. Feed. Sleep. Repeat.

  Metamorphosis for the purpose of procreating. Why? Offspring would just repeat feed hide feed sleep.

  Feed. Hide. Feed. Sleep. Repeat.

  Avian almost catches me. Need to hide better.

  Feed. Hide. Feed. Sleep. Repeat.

  Why bother hiding better?

  Feed. Hide. Feed. Sleep. Repeat.

  This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Need something different. No more repeat.

  Feed. Hide. Feed. Sleep. Repeat.

  Just move. Go somewhere. Its becoming nauseating. Endless meaningless repetition in the name of survival. Madness.

  I move. Somewhere else. Anywhere else. But its all the same green green green-

  Feed. Hide. Feed. Sleep. Repeat.

  I find some Grey. Grey, smooth grey, not the comforting green. Its wrong not where I should be, but its different- there is no repeating there. Feels wrong but safe, no madness here.

  I stay in the gray. I do not know how long for. My mind is split. There is a certain peace and comfort here. Safe from the endless cycle that generates only despair.

  But something screams to me. Screams that I return to repetition. The avians circle me. Assessing. Wondering why I am not where they expect me to. There is not green in the grey. No food to sustain the cycle. My instincts urge me to return.

  Between the twin thoughts, lied the indecision easily hurt the most.

  A voice broke me from thoughts.

  "Hey there little guy! What are you doing on this rock?" I have never seem something like that before, but it somehow felt like a friend, I recognize the expression on his face as a warm and welcoming one, even If I never saw one like it before... It had two arms and two legs, too little appendages.

  In a nest of fur above it's head, a fellow bug talked to me. "Yo! Whatchu doin' buddy?"

  I stared. I never seen other bugs before.

  "Uh... I mean, you are a bit young... your size tells me you are probably just under a few weeks old, takes blipbug about two months to get all their cognitive functions in order."

  The tall creature was weird. The words it speaks are utterly alien to me, but they convey a clear intent. That is not how a Pokemon should speak. Is this thing even a Pokemon?

  Even then, it did not feel like a predator. I craved to be further from the mindless survival and my instincts did not tell me to run.

  He was safe.

  "Why?" I asked.

  "Huh?" He responded.

  "Why does that happen to my species?" I wanted to know. I needed to know why this madness was pushed onto me and my kin.

  He did not respond immediately. Avoiding meeting my eyes with his while his face contorted in surprise. But his gaze upon me was analytical.

  "Goggles. Did he just ask me to explain a rare physiological phenomena in his species or am I over complicating things?" The not-a-Pokemon said.

  "I think he did man. You should probably nerd at him." The actual Pokemon said.

  "Huh. Cool? Its a thing about autosomic DNA changes between evolutionary stages and neuron activation and it's relation to-" the Pokemon atop him poked at him slightly, he then paused for a second and took a breath. " The normal way of putting it's that using your brain requires energy, and psychic types use a lot of brain, so blipbug only start developing higher brain functions when they are close to evolving to spare energy during their first stage and to prepare for the jump in IQ from one form to another, since most Pokemon don't experience that jump, they are just born with most of what they need to function."

  Metamorphosis. This is a sign I am close? I don't feel close to achieving it. Isn't strength also a great factor in achieving it? I feel weak. Never have I felt like I could defeat another Pokemon, even the ones I thought would be weak to bugs like myself.

  Dejection. This is the feeling of metamorphosis? My expectations were low but this is even worse than I imagined.

  "... You good there? You look very sad."

  I have no words for the not-pokemon thing. I gain nothing confirming his suspicions. He sits down besides me, crossing his obscenely long legs.

  "Hey dude it's fine! Trent is totally chill! You can talk to us!"

  Not a threat. They are not a threat. Why don't I want to admit my weakness to them? I won't. But why?

  "Don't you think it's beautiful?" The not-pokemon says. I turn my head to look at him with a quizzical look.

  "The view from this stone! Look at that!"

  I look. It's green with a splash of the blue. There is nothing special about it.

  "Its so expansive! How many Pokemon do you think live in just this part of the wild area?" Probably many. Of many species as well.

  "Probably not so impressive to you huh? You live here after all." Not an incorrect statement.

  "... have you ever seen a human city? I think you would enjoy it." Human. I heard about humans before, mostly overheard conversations. But there is conflicting information about the weird creatures, but is this thing a human? Humans seem nice then.

  "Ooh! I think he would enjoy it! Circhester and Wedgehurst were so cool!" The bug atop the human says. "You should totally catch him Trent."

  'Catch' me? The fae circle sometimes will tell and sing tales of humans snatching Pokemon from the wild, make them grow strong to fight battles for them. Maybe if I was part of a brood they would confirm the stories for me.

  But it sounds like a break. Away from my madness. A one way deal to safety and sanity.

  "... I mean, do you want to travel around the region buddy? I don't have to battle you if you don't want to." He places an odd red and white sphere in between the two of us, like it's some kind of offering.

  Travel. Go away. See new things. Yes, I not so much want that as I desperately need it.

  Of course I have to battle. Battling is a simple matter of survival.

  "Yes." I simply say. Crawling towards the offering, I feel my body disappear in a flash of light.

  --- Trent ---

  I caught another bug type.

  I let out a big sigh atop the rock.

  I mean, blipbug eventually evolve into psychic types. And yanmega are flying types. It's kinda like I am generalist.

  Yeah. That makes sense.

  "Yan?" Goggles asks from my hair.

  "Nah, Im glad to have caught the little guy. His mind is clearly more developed than it should be for his age, and did you see his eyes? I never seen a blipbug looking like that, matured or not, I think he needed a friend."

  So. I need to brush up on the orbeetle line. Figure out an optimal diet for whatever exercise routine I end up making for the little guy, figure out how to train actual psychic powers, does the little guy know struggle bug? If he does he might be able to teach it to Goggles and we can skip the whole "force your Pokemon to struggle for hours" tried and true method of teaching that move and a few others in particular. Little guy also needs a nickname. Little guy is not a very good name, two words and more characters than blipbug-

  All of sudden everything felt wrong.

  I had no time to understand why the world felt like Arceus stubbed his pinky toe, I quickly realized what was happening when I saw the pillar of soft red light illuminating the sky.

  It was mesmerizing.

  Most regions in the archipelago have their own weird thing going on, most noticeably we have Sinnoh, a place where sometimes time distorting bubbles open up, Alola sometimes is besieged by wormholes to different dimensions, Wild Pokemon in Paldea sometimes have different typing and funky hats, sometimes Galar faces kaiju sized Pokemon.

  In Sinnoh and Alola sometimes is like, once every six months to decades.

  In Paldea and Galar, sometimes is six to seven times a week.

  So we got to be prepared to deal with it six to seven times a week.

  I pull out my phone, this is just standard procedure, nothing to worry about, everything is going to be fine.

  I keep telling myself that as I open the LTC, the satellites probably already picked on the energy spike. I should be getting notified about this soon.

  It appeared on my screen with a 'Ding!'. Only one star. A rookidee. I let out a sigh of relief, I wouldn't want to be anywhere near a 4 star raid at all. Those things always require a team of specialized trainers from Motostoke or Hammerlocke.

  But it's one star here, it's fine. One badge trainers can handle one star raids. A single ranger coming should be enough to handle it.

  Another ding on my phone.

  I swear loudly as I read the message in the pop-up icon above the raid information

  "Trainer Hop Taylor is on their way!"

  Arceus damn it Hop! We don't even have our first badges yet! Just wait for a ranger to solve it! If Gloria sees Hop glory-seeking like this she will-

  "Trainer Gloria Reedes is on their way!"

  Fuck fuck fuuuuck if Victor sees his sister jumping straight into danger like this he might-

  "Trainer Victor Reedes is on their way!"

  Ok. Ok! I don't want them to die, and I am the only one who knows first aid in the group. Please don't die before I get there we barely got to know each other please don't die-

  With a trembling finger, I send a message to the league system as I run as fast as my legs take me towards the fight.

  "Trainer Trent Crawler is on their way!"

  Trent: I reject logic and reasoning for I must befriend this creature.