Pokemon Madness!

"Oh right. No public universities in America. I had no idea summer classes where a thing." Artemis nodded as Lizzy explained why she still carried around schoolwork. When the question was reversed though, that was the time her stomach chose to rumble and Artemis could feel her ears turning red. "I really love horse riding, but my parents can't afford to pay for lessons. So I am volunteering at the stables in exchange for them. I was about to return home when I woke up in the forest. I was really looking forward to a shower and a nice meal, but I guess I will have to suck it up." She explained and got up, dusting her shorts to get rid of any sand that was stuck on them.

"I just gave my University entry exams. I am waiting for the results hoping that the nightmare of two years of cramming will be finally passed me. So now I do zero reading and I'm focusing on getting my athlete's license instead." She added and looked at Totodile. "What do you think buddy? Can you show us a spot we can drink water and eat something?"

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OOC:
Any grammar mistakes when Artemis is talking are purposefully there. Her spoken English are not all that perfect.
 
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Public universities were a thing in America, but she got the impression that they were very different things, and thought explaining it would be more trouble than it was worth when they had bigger problems to worry about. "Oh." Lizzy said. "Nice. I didn't know you needed a license to ride horses. I've always wanted to ride a horse..." She said, jealously. The Totodile seemed perfectly pleased to oblige Artemis. It made a sort of gurgling noise and tottled towards the jungle. She hefted her wet backpack back onto her back and the two of them started following the creature into the jungle. Lizzy wanted to question the wisdom of following a blue crocodile goodness only knew where, but Artemis seemed to think it was trustworthy and she was the expert. As she went, she made sure to crack as much stuff as possible, so that it might be easier to find her way backwards. Unbeknownst to either of them, it was leading them to a large freshwater lake near the center of the island, at the edge of which was a small, abandoned shack.
 
"Oh you only need it to compete in events or prove to others that you truly know how to ride. Otherwise anyone can ride." She explained and followed Totodile who was more than happy to oblige them and took off into the thicket. While Lizzy was being busy with trying to mark their trail, Artemis was busy taking in the types of trees and bushes they passed by, looking for anything and everything edible as well as for any pokemons.

She quickly diverted slightly from the path Totodile seemed to have taken to pick up a rather long and nicely straight tree branch, as straight as natural branches could be. It would be very useful and she felt very lucky she had decided to sharpen her knife just yesterday. That way she will be able to turn this branch into something more useful easier. She could make the shapes of several Bug pokemon and she could hear the rustling of leaves from larger pokemons. She could swear she saw a Mankey zipping through the trees passed them. "Don't break too much stuff. We might anger some of the pokemons." Artemis suggested at Lizzy and followed Totodile out of the thicket into a beautiful fresh water lake.

"Perfect!" She exclaimed more upbeat now that she saw the lake. She scanned the area and her eye was caught by a couple of leaping Magicarps.
 
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"A-anger some of them?" Lizzy was now regretting doing a bit of stamping, which had also probably got them a little attention. Still, it was better than being TOTALLY lost. The trees cleared and the lake came into view, stopping her cold. "Woah." She breathed. It was gorgeous, and put several of the... pokemon on full display. "I guess following the blue crocodile wasn't a terrible idea after all." She said out loud. The Totodile seemed to recognize what she said and danced around happily in a little circle again. She scanned the shore of the lake and saw the small cabin on the far left side of the shore. "Hey!" She called, pointing. "There's a house there. Thank heavens, civilization."
 
Artemis chuckled and sat at the ball of her feet to scratch Totodile under the chin. "Thanks buddy, you really came through." She said to the pokemon. "There's a house there. Thank heavens, civilization." Artemis snapped her attention to Lizzy and where she was pointing.

True enough there was a small cabin by the lakeshore. "I thought you said there were no humans around. I guess my body language needs more practise." She said to Totodile and gave it a gentle pat on the head. "Let's go check it out. Maybe we can get some answers and a quick ride to the nearest town if we are lucky enough." Artemis told Lizzy more upbeat now and started to make her way over to the cabin.
 
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The two (or.. three?) of them picked their way over to the cabin. It was slow going, and the closer they got, the more nervous Lizzy got. What if it wasn't a person's house? What if it belonged to a zombie or a talking bear that wanted to eat them or what if it had been abandoned and was structurally unsound or had skeletons in the basement, or-

They made it to the cabin safely and Lizzy gently pushed the door open. It was a cozy little building, lit by a lamp burning on the night stand next to the bed. There was only one room to it, and it encompassed most everything, with a rudimentary kitchen and table and bed. It seemed nice, but there was nobody there. "Hello?" Lizzy croaked anxiously, inspecting the floor and ceiling to make sure there wasn't an invisible pokemon hiding there or something. "Is anybody here?" The Totodile walked right past her and began rummaging cheerfully through one of the bottom cabinets. "Wait, don't-!" She hissed at it, but it ignored her. "We don't know who lives here..." she said, anxiously.
 
Artemis took a deep breath to calm her own nerves as Lizzy practically radiated nervousness. She couldn't blame her. Artemis would've probably be in the same state if she knew nothing of pokemon and hadn't had that tendency of keeping it together to avoid sticky situations when she was on her own. Yes she wouldn't deny it. She was more prone to panic when she had someone she knew she could rely on. Call it her lazy side taking over maybe.

Totodile seemed perfectly fine with everything, so Artemis assumed that it was safe, unless the little pokemon had a sinister trainer and was luring them into a trap. Which she highly doubted, but her grip on the Mega stone inside her pocket tightened as they opened the door. Honestly Artemis was surprised it was unlocked. Either someone had left in a hurry, or they never thought they would need to lock the door. Both were strong possibilities as, at least in the anime, the human communities in pokemon were rather peaceful and law abiding. Like all good kids' shows should be.

She stepped inside the hut right after Totodile did. Lizzy, as nervous as she was, stayed behind voicing some very possible but not really immenent fears and possibillities. "This looks like a hunting hut or vacation home of some sort Lizzy." Artemis told her as Lizzy hissed at the rowdy Totodile to stop snooping around the cupboard. "I don't think anyone has been here in a long time, but the structure seems safe enough." She assured the other girl as she took note of the dust covering everything and how there seemed to be no visible hints of damage anywhere.

"Let's see what we can find. It's important to keep track of our inventory." She pointed out as she went to rummage through the upper shelves. She snooped around and exclaimed in triumph. "Aha! Found us a first aid kit! Aand something I have no idea what might be...." Taking the large metalic box with the cross on it out of the cupboard she placed it on the dusty table and then took another large box out. She proceeded to open it and she gawked at the various colored spray bottles. "Pokemon potions. Healing items. Whoever stayed here had pokemons with them. I wish I could remember what color healed what kind of damage." She sighed as she wished she had paid more attention at the graphics of the items whenever she played pokemon. It didn't really matter at this point, but it would've proven useful if they had pokemon on their own. As far as she could tell, they were not getting back home anytime soon.

"Let's see if we can find a map or something too." She mumbled and opened the First Aid box to take a quick look on its contents.

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"Right. Yes. A map." Lizzy said, trying to focus on the specific things she could do so she didn't start spiraling into thinking about how INSANE this all was. Gingerly stepping past the Totodile, who had happily flung the contents of the bottom drawer onto the floor and was now taking residence in the little cabinet, Lizzy began rummaging through the rest of the cabin. She found silverware, fishing supplies, and a pair of fingerless gloves, but it wasn't until she checked the drawer above where the Totodile was happily rolling about that she found a map.

"I've found one!" She breathed excitedly. "I've found a map." She skipped over to where her new friend/companion was and showed Artemis the unfurled map. It was enormous, depicting a series of four islands arranged approximately in the shape of a circle. "There's no way to tell where we are on this map, though."
 
Artemis was currently going through the contents of the cabinet Totodile had emptied and had promptly turned into a nest, when Lizzy exclaimed in delight that she had found a map. Giggling at the silly antics of the pokemon, Artemis stood up, absentmindedly holding a diving mask in her hand and went over to look at the Map in curiosity. She didn't remember tropical islands in the previous games, but perhaps her memory wasn't as good as she wanted on that front. "Well done Lizzy!"

One look at the map got her both excited and slightly scared. She frowned as she passed a finger over the various Islands. "Oh boy! This is Alola Region. We have a lot of exploring to do." She breathed as she took in the various landmarks of the islands trying to see if she could identify their location. No such luck however. They would have to find a high spot tomorrow to be able to take a better look at their surroundings, but for now it was late for that. It would've been best to settle in for the night, set up a base and then figure out what else was there on their island. With any luck, the owner of the cabin would show up sometime soon. Those were exactly the thoughts she voiced.

"This is the region for the latest game. I've yet to play it, so I know very few things about it. We should settle in for today and then search for high ground tomorrow. We should be able to figure out where we are then." Her eyes were still trained on the map. Trying to memorize the locations of cities on the map.
 
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"I've yet to play it." The words were like a death knoll. Lizzy groaned audibly, hoping new pokemon games weren't all that different from older ones and they wouldn't be too handicapped by this lack of knowledge. The weird thing was that Artemis seemed a bit excited by the prospect of going around and exploring. Well, it wasn't all that weird she supposed, because the girl had admitted to being a fan. If this was just a game, she wouldn't have minded, but this was real life... as far as Lizzy knew. These pokemon could be dangerous. They attacked people, didn't they? Wasn't that the point of pokemon, that they fought each other for their handlers? What if they really got hurt? And what were their parents going to think? Unless there was some sort of "separate time line" shenanigans going on and they were spending no time at all in this world. Then again, the reverse might be true.

Lizzy banished the horrible thought from her mind. "Alright." She said, "if you think it's best to hunker down for today, I guess. Should we sleep here...?"
 
The deathly silence from Lizzy went completely over Artemis' head as she was too occupied with studying the map infront of her. When Lizzy agreed to with her plans for the day, Artemis looked up again. "I mean, I don't know what time it gets dark here and wondering about unknown land in the dark can be dangerous. The building seems safe enough, there's a bed, kitchen, clean clothes, even though they are a bit on the large side, and we have a roof over our heads in case it starts raining or it gets too windy and stuff." She explained and went over to pick up the clothes that were thrown in a heap in the middle of the floor. She took note of a couple of jeans and cargo pants, T-shirts, raincoat and underwear that were on the larger side. No doubt they belonged to a man. Amongst them were a few towels and a couple of blankets as well as a sleeping bag.

"Problem is we only have one bed and sleeping bag. We could use the bed cover to maybe make another mattress from leaves, but to be honest for now I would like to find something to eat and then take a swim. I could really use a bath. What do you think?" She spoke as she folded the clothes and placed them on the kitchen counter, after quickly dusting it off. She gave a quick glance to Totodile, to see it had very much settled in that cupboard. It honestly surprised Artemis how he seemed to be getting ready to stay with them instead of returning to the beach they had found him. But the question was directed to Lizzy and that's where Artemis' glance settled onto.
 
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What did she think? Quite the question. "Well, we also don't know what time it is, so even if we knew what time it got dark...." That begged too many questions, like did time move completely differently here, too? "Anyways. I guess you're right. I... I don't know, I'd rather not take a bath in a lake. It might have parasites or something. And do you know what's safe to eat here...? I mean, also do we need more than a bed and a sleeping bag?" The questions were coming out in a disorganized fashion. As she glanced at the bed, she noticed a strange book that she didn't think had been there a moment earlier.

She walked over and picked it up. "Hey, was this here before?" When she flipped it open, she realized that although it was a large book, it was completely blank except for the first page, which had a small blurb about Totodiles and some information about its attributes.
 
Lizzy began throwing questions to her questions in a rapidfire manner. Artemis wasn't sure she had managed to catch all of it. "Ei slow down. English is not my mother tongue." She said as she decided to search some more and see if she could find some sewing supplies. All plans to make an extra mattress were good, but she couldn't really make one unless she had thread and needle. She didn't want to use the fishing thread to replace normal thread.

She failed to find a sewing kit, but found a keychain as Lizzy caught her attention once more. She saw her new friend with a large book. "What's that?" She asked curious as she came over and peered at the book. She skimmed over the information. "A book pokedex? This is weird...." She trailed off in thought, but then remembered how Lizzy had scolded her about assuming she knew what Artemis was talking about, so she decided to elaborate. "Usually pokedexs are machines, kind off like tablets or smarthphones. They get updated with information whenever you met a new pokemon species. I think that's why there's info on Totodile in there and everything else is blank. But it doesn't make sense...?" She sighed as her stomach growled again.

"What I do know is that there's plenty of fruit out there. We have fishing supplies and as far as I remember there was no problem with the heroes jumping in streams and lakes. What I will do though is to go for a swimm at the other side of the lake. That way we won't have problem with having drinking water nearby. What do you think Totodile? Wanna go for a swimm with me?" She asked the pokemon. While she understood that Lizzy was scared, Artemis didn't really want to think about it. So it was a way for her to relax and cool her head off before she did anything stupid.

"Oh, I'll also check for any storage room outside. There's an extra key I found here. Maybe we can find more useful stuff there." She added as she showed her the keys.

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The Totodile seemed delighted with the idea of a swim, hopping out of its drawer and racing a circle around Artemis before racing out of the door, all excitement.

Lizzy, on the other hand, wasn't liking the sound of any of this. She didn't like being lost in pokemon world, or having to take baths by swimming in a potentially parasite-infested lake, or eating potentially poisonous strange fruit, or following the advice of an over-excited blue crocodile, none of it. But the more logical portion of her brain was finally starting to kick in, drowning out her more naturally hysterical tendencies. If she didn't get over her fear of one thing or another, she was going to starve to death or get seriously ill. "Just... don't pick any fruit that looks too suspicious." She mumbled, before clearing her throat and reminding herself to have mercy on the Greek girl. "You want me to search for the room this key opens while you take a swim? I think I'll hold off on the bath for a bit." Popping out of the waves wasn't an experience she was looking forward to repeating, and she wasn't ready to go skinny dipping with a girl she'd just met.
 
Artemis laughed as Totodile was up and running as soon as swimming was mentioned. She knew that might be the case and if she were to leave Lizzy alone it would be best if she didn't have Totodile around. The American girl was obviously afraid of pokemons and she was still in a panicky state. So the less stressed she was while alone, the better. "Uh, sure! There might be a storehouse on the back or something. Hopefully a toilet too." She mused as she set her backpack down on one of the kitchen chairs.

"Are you sure you don't want to come? You don't have to swim if you don't want to." She asked Lizzy as she gave her the keys and proceeded to empty her pockets. She was going to leave her clothes out, so the less items they had in pockets the less they risked losing if her clothes were lost.

Once that was done, she grabbed the mask, snorkel and flippers and decided to get going. With or without Lizzy, that bath needed to happen and who knew? Maybe she could make more pokemon friends or discover more useful items. Food also was an immediate concern, but Artemis was feeling all sticky and that wasn't a nice feeling to have while looking for food. So after a nice cleanup, Artemis would enlist the help of Totodile to find edible fruit. She didn't feel like going fishing or attempting to kill anything for food just yet.

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"Oh, I'm sure." Lizzy said, with a slightly nervous laugh. "It's more efficient for us to split up, and if I'm close to the cabin and it suddenly gets dark, I can turn on a lamp so you know where to go. You should probably take the flashlight with you, though." She was also about to suggest Artemis take the fishing pole, but the idea of pokeworms living in the guts of the fish here convinced her not to.

Picking up the key, she popped out of the house and began looking around. It forced her to take a few more steps away from the relative safety of the cabin, but eventually she found a couple of small sheds. The first had no key lock, and was an outhouse. It was pretty much a deep hole dug in the ground and was not the most pleasant-smelling of dwellings, so she was actually relieved it wasn't too close. The other housed camping supplies such as a tent, portable stove, flint, water purifier, and freeze-dried foods.

It also was home to a small off-road vehicle that looked a bit like a golf cart with heavier wheels. It was covered with a layer of dust, and Lizzy wasn't sure if it was still able to work, but it was the only thing that the key could be for, since the shed was also secured with nothing more than a bear lock. This was a good discovery, and Lizzy returned to the cabin with lifted spirits.
 
"Nah, I'll be fine. I'll be back in.... say two hours from now" She said as she took a look at her wristwatch, still in Greek time. It didn't really matter if the time on her watch didn't correspond with the actual time of their current place. It still served as a chronometer. "Best keep the flashlight here. No snooping pokemon to steal or break it." And with that out of the way, Artemis left the cabin to pursue Totodile that was already a bit further down the lakeside, waving at her impatiently like an excited toddler."I'm coming silly. Don't worry." She called out to the pokemon and jogged up to catch it, an act that Totodile perceived as a game of tag and promptly run away further down the lakeshore.

This game continued for a few minutes until they were almost oposite of the cabin and Artemis found a fallen log she could use to hang her clothes at. "Hey this looks like a good spot to dive don't you think?" She told Totodile as she halted her jog. Totodile agreed and immediately disappeared in the water, leaving a trail of bubbles behind it. Artemis shook her head at the pokemon's antics and quickly began undressing, remaining only in her underwear and sports bra.

The water was cool to the touch and it made Artemis smile and sigh in relief as she entered fully and did a couple of quick paddle strokes just to get warmed up a bit. Taking a deep breath she dived under, eyes closed. No matter how much she had tried, she had never been able to keep her eyes open in the water. It stung too much for that. A stream of pressurized water hit her straight in the face as soon as she resurfaced and Totodile's laughter made her groan. Wiping the water from her face and smoothing her wet brown hair back, she glared at Totodile mischievously. The pokemon floated just a few inches away from her, grinning ear to ear with sharp fangs glinting in the sunlight. "Oh is that how you want to play?" She demanded as she splashed as much water as she could at the blue crocodile, who laughed and retaliated with another stream of what Artemis assumed to be a Water Gun attack at its weakest.

The waterfight took a good few minutes and allowed Artemis to completely relax and feel clean and refreshed. Now she felt ready to worry about how they could get back home and what they ought to do until then. Totodile whined as Artemis started to swim towards the shore, but she smiled at him. "I'm going to grab the mask. Then we can take a longer dive." She explained and that was enough for Totodile that followed her suit.

The dive took around fifteen minutes with the much needed breaks for air, but Artemis had been able to find spots where many pokemon fish she couldn't for the life of her remember their names were gathered. It was quite the experience. Totodile had been swimming next to her, showing her spots or doing little dances around her as she was slower than him. His smooth skin was incredible in the water as Artemis touched it once or twice as he passed her by. At the end of her dive, Artemis had found nothing they could immediately use, but it was good to know what the bottom of the lake was like and where fish pokemon usually gathered.

Artemis felt like a completely different person when she finally got out of the lake, short on breath but in awe at what she had just experienced. She sat at the log, catching her breath before deciding it was time to go again. She had to search for some food and she still had a good long while before she needed to get back to the cabin like she had promised she would. So she did a quick washing of her shirt and socks in the lake, doing nothing more than rub the fabric with itself while it was wet and then followed Totodile to a nearby field with a large array of wild berries.

It was feeding grounds for many a pokemon and Artemis was thrilled to see Tropius there. She remembered that the fruit on the pokemon's neck were edible. With some help from Totodile and the fact the pokemon had never seen a human in a long while, if ever before, they eventually allowed her to pick about a dozen of their neck fruit. Artemis made a point to emphasize how grateful she was and she used her shirt as a basket to keep the fruit and some extra berries she knew pokemon normally ate but wanted to test for herself. She didn't exactly remember what the berries' names were, but she knew they were not poisonous. No berry in the game ever was poisonous. She doubted the game developers would change that now. Still, just to be on the safe side, she picked only a few berries whose shape and color remembered in passing from the previous games.

Thus, she and Totodile returned in the cabin as the two hours expired with armfulls of freshly picked berries and Tropius fruit that suspiciously looked like bananas. Artemis didn't really like bananas, but she was hungry and her options were limited. Who knew, maybe Tropius fruit were actually more tasty than bananas. "We're back! Any news?" She announced as she entered the cabin bear-foot, combat boots hanging from her neck with their laces tied together and her shirt serving as a basket, leaving only her sports bra to cover her more private areas.

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Artemis returned like a barbarian, stomping in with her shoes around her neck and her shirt off, voice a cheerful bellow. Lizzy herself, was in no bad mood. "There is, indeed!" She said, a twinkle in her eyes, also excited to see some semblance of food. "I found a cart! And not one of those supply-pushing ones, either, a proper, motorized vehicle. I think the key is for that, though I don't know if it runs just yet. I found some freeze-dried food and other supplies, too, if these berries don't pan out." She sat down quickly at the little table, perfectly ready to have a dinner of berries.
 
Artemis was more than happily surprised to see that Lizzy was a lot calmer and happier than when she had left her alone. Making her way over to the table, which was luckily cleaned up. "That's great! We can check it out once we're done eating then! Let's hope it works. But uh..... pan out?" She asked confused as she placed her berry filled T-shirt on the table.

"Sorry I didn't get anything to make an extra bed by the way. We'll just have to figure out sleeping for tonight." She added as she smoothed her semi-dried hair into a ponytail, getting her shoes off her neck and at the feet of the table before removing her back pack from the only other available seat in the room.

She promptly sat down then and picked one of the banana shaped Tropius fruit. "Bon Appetit!" She said, raising the fruit as if it was a glass of water in cheers and proceeded to peel it and took a generous bite. She paused for a moment and sighed in delight. The fruit was so refreshing and sweet that Artemis could swear she would be able to live only with it for quite some time.

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"Sorry, it's an English phrase." Lizzy clarified. "Means for something to go the way you want it to. So the berries "panning out" means they're fit to eat and taste good in this case. And don't worry about the bed. I'm fine sleeping on the floor with the sleeping bag. Makes more sense to me than making a second sleeping place."

She bit into one of the berries and her face lit up at once. "These are delicious. If I start growing purple spots or something, though, let me know." She was only half-joking about that, but continued to eat fearlessly. It might not have been the most healthy of meals, but it was food and it tasted wonderful. "If you think there's still some time before it gets dark, too, we can go look for trails or something. You didn't see any on your swim, did you?"