Chapter Text
The sun beat heavily down on a verdant landscape dominated by thick forest. Beneath this lush canopy, all manner of life found its refuge in the mottled shade formed by the overbrush. The ecosystem here was less fierce than those found in other regions across the small continent. Most creatures were herbivores or scavengers, with very few predators of a sort that might make quick work of so much small prey. And yet thrust into this delicate system there lay two smallish predators who simply did not belong.
They were sleeping. The first predator's ear twitched and he opened his eyes. He was a young orange cat, and his name was Nubbins.
Nubbins meowed in confusion. His surroundings were unfamiliar to him. All around the small clearing he occupied, the thick dark forest called out, with hooting and chirping and less familiar noises. Writhing in the dirt before Nubbins was a considerably large and thick-bodied green caterpillar. Nubbins took a curious swipe at it, and it rolled a small distance on the ground before righting itself and jumping up and down angrily.
"Hey!" squeaked the tiny bug, "What are you doing?"
Nubbins meowed again. "Meoooowry," he said.
"Huh?" asked the bug.
"Sorry," said Nubbins.
"Whatever."
Nubbins got to his feet and toed his way around the caterpillar to the other side of the clearing. There, an old mottled gray cat was sleeping. It was a regular cat, not some freakish caricature like the caterpillar, and in this strange place that fact was comforting. But beyond the mere regular-ness of the other cat there was a familiarity that struck Nubbins. It took a moment of examining the resting creature, but then Nubbins finally placed it.
"Mr Kitters!" he shouted.
"Mrrrow?" meowed Mr Kitters.
"It's really you!" said Nubbins "Wow! I love your internet content! My humans do, too."
"Meow. My internet content. Right. Always nice to meet a fan."
"Wow, you're so down to earth! You're just like a regular cat."
"Uh-huh. Yep. Hey, kid, where the hell are we?"
Both cats looked around. Nubbins saw that the caterpillar was gone from the clearing, which was now nothing but shaded dirt with a rock or two. All around them in the forest, the hooting, chirping, and squeaking persisted. Then, miraculously, some parts of the dense uproar began to shift in pitch and tone, and broke into a language that the two cats could comprehend.
"...a normal cat?" rang the voice, high and gravelly, "What, like a Skitty or a Meowth? Which way did you say it was?"
"Did you hear that?" whispered Mr Kitters.
"I did!" Nubbins said excitedly, crouching low and shaking his butt. He leaped forward on to a rock to see if he could get a look at where the voice had come from. No sooner had he found purchase on the small outcropping, though, than he felt it shift beneath him.
Nubbins yelped and jumped off the rock. It grumbled and shifted around, sprouting two long rocky appendages that pounded into the ground and lifted the main body off of the dirt. The strange rock creature revealed two angry white eyes which blinked at the animals before it.
"I was napping, god damn it!" the rock creature rumbled, "What, were you jumping on me? Who the hell just jumps on someone when he's napping?"
"I-I'm sorry!" said Nubbins, "I thought you were a rock!"
"Oh, like I've never heard that one before!" said the creature, "Let me guess, you've never seen a Geodude before?"
"I haven't!" Nubbins insisted.
"Look, Mr. Rock, my name is Mr Kitters and this cat here is my friend. I'm sure you know of me. Now if you could please stop accosting us, I won't have to make a callout vid for my socials."
"What the hell are you talking about?" asked Mr. Rock, "I've never heard of you. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen your like before. I don't even know what kind of Pokémon you are!"
"Pokémon?" asked Nubbins.
"Yeah, Pokémon. Hey, you must be rare! Maybe even a legendary!"
"Look," said Mr Kitters, "I was joking about calling you out, okay? We'll just be on our way."
"Not so fast! You're not going anywhere, my rare friends. There's gotta be folks who'd pay a pretty penny for the likes of you!"
"You're talking about selling us?" said Mr. Kitters, "Jesus Christ!"
"Oy," said Nubbins.
"This guy is out of his mind," said Mr Kitters, "C'mon, kid, let's get outta here."
Mr Kitters started for the trees and Nubbins turned to follow when a stone thudded against his side. The young cat yelped in pain and Mr Kitters snapped his head back with a worried expression. Both cats fixed their eyes firmly on the rock creature, and Mr Kitters stepped forward to stand between it and Nubbins.
"I said you're not going anywhere," said the rock, "Now get in the bag." It had procured a burlap sack from someplace.
Mr Kitters looked into Nubbins' watery eyes and then reluctantly bowed his head to walk into the sack, thinking all the while that he would surely be vigorously wrested from the ground by the unusually strong creature as soon as he was inside. His head was just under the first fold when Mr Kitters heard a sharp sound, like metal scraping on stone. He cautiously snapped his head back from the bag to see a fierce-looking purple rat standing over an unconscious pile of rocks.
"Are you guys alright?" asked the rat.
"I'm okay," said Nubbins, "...Kinda freaked out, though."
"We're fine." said Mr Kitters.
"Okay, good," said the rat.
"You're a rat," said Nubbins.
"A Rattata. But yeah. What about you guys?"
"I kinda' wanna chase this guy, Mr Kitters."
"Not so loud, kid," said Mr Kitters, "Sorry for my friend's rudeness. Thank you for saving us. You're quite a formidable rat."
"Rattata. So you're Mr Kitters? Any relation to Mr. Mime? I know everybody, so it's kinda' wild for me, seeing... someone like you."
"Well. Likewise."
"So, you're both Mr Kitters then? Or is this your smaller form?"
"Smaller form?" asked Nubbins, "Like a kitten? 'Cause he's not my dad... I'm Nubbins."
"Nubbins and Mr Kitters, huh? Alright then. You two better come with me."
"Oy," Nubbins said, "You're not gonna... sell us, are you?"
"Of course not!" said Rattata.
"Then where are you taking us?" asked Mr Kitters.
"Just a little place I know," said the rat, "Us Pokémon, we gotta stick together. Am I right?"
"There's that word again," said Nubbins.
"You'll see," Rattata said, ignoring him, "We got a cozy little setup just past the forest. A commune, if you will. A gorgeous, Marxist-style paradise, full of the most colorful little characters you ever will meet!"
"Jesus Christ," said Mr Kitters, "That sounds amazing."