"Ash?"

"Yeah?" Ash looked up from the grass. He was sitting cross-legged beside Misty, picking at the blades of green in front of him while the two of them waited for Brock to finish cooking.

"Do you ever wonder what happens to the wild Pokemon that we beat up?"

The dark-haired trainer blinked. "Not really. Why?"

"Well, they faint, right?"

"Yeah, so...?"

"And then we leave them there."

"Yeah, so...?"

"Then why is it that whenever we look back at where they were lying before, they're gone?"

Ash thought. He made a good attempt at it, which isn't saying much due to the fact that he didn't think very often.

"Well," he said slowly, "what if when they faint they're immediately transported through a time-and-space-rending warp hole to the nearest Pokemon Center, and when they're healed they're be sent back to where they were before."

His carrot-haired friend mulled it over. "Then we'd have wild Pokemon popping out all over the place."

"Yeah."

"Rattata's and Weedles and little Spearows..."

They both burst into simultaneous laughter.

"Ha, oh god, that would be so hilarious!"

"And then... and then all the Nurse Joys would...!"

"I know, right?"

More laughter. Then Brock called them to dinner.

Neither of them suspected that just behind them, a Rattata was emerging from an oddly-shaped hole that, to the naked eye, seemed to lead nowhere. As the rat Pokemon fell to the ground, an eerily cheerful, disembodied voice said, "Here you go. We hope to see you again!"

The Rattata blinked. And then it slowly walked away.