Pokémon Do Psychic-Type Pokemon Dream of Electric Sheep?

[canisaries]

Hello! I'm here because of Review Roulette. I was initially planning to read both the prologue and the first chapter, but the day turned out hectic and the prologue turned out to be longer than expected.

So I notice that the classic PMD introduction is quite short. I think this is a good call, as most readers will know the gist of it going in already due to it being in every game (as far as I recall) and a lot of the fanfics. Not having the shock of the bodily transformation come fully right at the start also feels like it's a little more subversive.

On the subject of prose, I noticed some things that hinder the story a little. One thing is semicolon usage. While I never fully understood semicolons, they seem strangely used here and in places, incorrect, as some clauses they linked weren't full but more like fragments, and I believe that's only valid when using lists where the items contain commas themselves. This looks like a pretty good guide so I recommend a look at it.

Another is the usage of "sudden" or "suddenly". This is usually a word that has the opposite effect than intended when it comes to prose - if something is said to be sudden, it works like a forewarning in a way, which in itself makes the event seem much less sudden. The word was also used in the beginnings of two consecutive paragraphs ("There was suddenly a loud thump! in the distance" and "Suddenly, Audino saw the silhouette of a small pokemon running straight in her direction through the fog") which comes off as a little repetitive.

Then some additional comments:

The forest seemed much more ominous than it had before, almost foreboding in nature.

As far as I know, ominous and foreboding are synonymous.

An audino quietly picked the herbs and weeds from around a ground-bound bush in the forest,

It makes for a fun rhyme, but I think all bushes are more or less ground-bound?

It took all of four seconds to find them.
1
Approaching from behind

Accidental 1 slipped in there?

If the dungeon locals were all in hiding… then what were they hiding from?

obligatory corona joke

It's kind of hard to give any more feedback as not much did happen in the prologue and so there isn't much to comment on plot or character wise. In the face of something that reduces people to their primal instincts, such as a chase like this, characterization also understandably takes a back seat. I can say, though, that I agree with a lot of OldschoolJohto's points.

Anyway, I apologize for not being able to say much of substance. This seems like a pretty snappy start to a story. And I admire the tight schedule you've managed to upload in! You've been hard at work. Good luck with this in the future.

 

[SparklingEspeon]

~\({O})/~

16.

Revelation Mountain

~\({O})/~​

Capim Town was only a poor village on a poor continent, even if Quilava had come to call it home in the years he had lived there. He had spent almost ten years in that village, and in all that time the explorer who had visited three days ago was the first off-continent visitor they had had in years.

So Quilava didn’t understand why ‘mon from Mist had come here.

The Demetrius and the Gardevoir – Mechanical machinations created by the pokemon on Mist – both stood proudly in the waters off the bay of Capim Town, and the beaches had been blocked off by pokemon who had come out of those ships. All the villagers had flocked to the cliffs off the side of the bay to get a good look (There was a fletchling spy who was taking discreet rounds every so often and filling everymon in on what was happening), but Quilava preferred to stay in the town, far away from whatever was happening on the beach. Not that he could escape it that easily. Papers – actual papers, not papyrus – had been strung up against the bark of the houses all over Capim Town, and even though they were in unown and not the preferred footprint runes they all read the same thing:

ATTENTION: As of 7/3/11133 Capim Beach has been declared OFF-LIMITS until further notice. All unauthorized pokemon are barred from entry. All due regards, Helping Adventurous Pokemon Prosper Institute

Quilava could still see the ships from in town – that was how large they were. He turned away from them and began to stroll further inland. Maybe he’d go hunt something to make up for that long-lost fish. Everymon was up on the cliffs, so he wouldn’t have any competition. That sounded like a plan—

“’Ey, Quilava!”

Quilava looked to the left, although he didn’t need to to recognize that voice- it was Duskull, the town crier.

“Quilava!” Duskull yelled. “the others sen’ me! They said there’s somethin’ you should see!”

“Ain’t in tha mood. Leave me alone.” Quilava began to walk towards the town exit and awau from Duskull. Maybe he’d go hunt a bison to make up for that fishing incident last week. Yeah, that sounded good. The butcher would pay something hefty for a large cut of meat.

“I’s abou’ the thing that caugh’ you while you wen’ fishin’ last week!” Duskull yelled back at him.

“I don’t wanna see it,” Quilava said.

“I really think you shoul’!” Duskull yelled.

“Wha’s so importan’ that ah have to see it?!” Quilava snapped, turning around.

“I’s Lugia.”

Quilava was silent for a moment. He could not believe the words that came out of Duskull’s mouth. Lugia? The creature that moved the storms at its very whim? That was an old mon’s tale! And Duskull expected him to believe that Lugia had crashed into the ocean and nearly swept him out to sea?

…Well, what did he have to lose? If the whole town was there, perhaps it was worth taking a look after all. At worst, Duskull was in for a good thrashing.

“…Alrigh’. Show me.” Quilava turned around, waiting in place expectantly. Duskull wasted no time turning around and heading back up the hill.

“I’s this way!” he called back. Quilava had to take the bridges there instead of floating like Duskull did, but he had a general idea of where Duskull was going. Reluctantly, he followed.

~\({O})/~​

The cliffs off the coast offered a much better view of the ships than could be gotten from in town. All of Capim Town was currently gathered at the edge, looking over at the ships parked below. Quilava marched up to join them, led by Duskull.

“’E’s here, ‘e’s here!” Duskull announced excitedly, doing a spin in the air as the others turned around to look at Quilava.

A fletchling perched on a tree branch, leaning forward and whispering something into the head zangoose at the very edge of the cliff. Zangoose nodded wordlessly, and then Fletchling flew off.

Quilava marched up to the edge of the cliff, and looked over at the ships. If he was going to be all the way out here, then he might as well make it worth his time. Sure enough, he spotted something being hoisted up between the two ships. Something that did look suspiciously like…

But that was ridiculous. There was no way that was Lugia.

But it was.

~\({O})/~

Serenity Village

~Espurr~​

Slowly coming to. A loud rattling noise awoke Espurr from her slumber. She sat up in a jolt, looking around—were the beheeyem back? Had they found her home at last? The sleeping forms of her friends’ bodies lay all around the room. If they were here, she wouldn’t be able to get everymon up in time. What to do? Her ears were greeted with yet another round of rattling from behind that shelf.

And just like that, the hauntings began again.

Espurr silently stood. She scanned the room for that dark figure again. She didn’t see it. But then the shelf rattled a second time.

That was the last straw. Espurr was tired of being plagued by this thing while she slept. She wondered if she could locate and boot it out instead. Taking a breath, she closed her eyes and let her sixth sense take over.

She couldn’t see with it. Not the way she could with her eyes. But she could feel. And she felt that there was something else in the room with her, and she knew that she could grab it.

Espurr took another breath to keep herself calm, and then let her mind’s grasp close around the entity. And then she yanked.

It yanked back, but Espurr was prepared for that. She didn’t let go. And slowly, from behind the shelf, she extracted with her mind’s grip a single lone blue flame. It hovered in the air statically for a second, desperately trying to escape Espurr’s psychic pull in whichever direction it could. Espurr was able to keep it in place for only a second before she lost her grip and it zoomed out the window.

Espurr ran up to the window and watched it go. By the time she spied it, it was just about gone. She saw it fly down the square’s south exit and disappear from view. It seemed familiar to her. Where had she seen it before… ?

Slowly, Espurr’s adrenaline-fueled energy left her, and she realized how weary she was. She stumbled back to her bed, and collapsed in it. In her dreams, something came, and only then did she realize where she had seen that flame.

~\({O})/~​

The incident with the treehouse had made a lasting impression upon Espurr, Tricky, and all the others. Espurr ushered them all out of the house bright and early before Audino could wake, and they all went silently. Even Tricky had lost her jumpy gait and trotted out silently with her head down. Although Espurr wasn’t entirely sure if that was because of the treehouse or because it was barely sunrise and Tricky liked to sleep in.

Today, Audino had left early on a list of appointments, and Espurr had the run of the house to herself. She donned her exploration bag, grabbed an apple on the way out (Audino was always in abundance of those, she’d found), and ate it on the way down to the south side of town.

The Ancient Barrow. That was the only place (Outside Espurr’s dreams) where she had seen one of those flames before, and she intended to investigate. It was close enough to town that if the beheeyem came looking, she’d be able to flee and get help before they caught her.

The villa stood on its island of evil, isolated from the rest of the world by nothing but a lake of water and a rickety old bridge. Espurr still remembered where all—snap—most of the rotting spots were. She only snapped one board on her way across the creaking bridge, and was able to keep her balance on the rest of the tilted planks easily.

Espurr set foot onto the muddy island, and made note of the fact that the doors and windows were aLl boarded over again. There would be no distractions this time. She marched right up to the Barrow’s door, and placed her paw on the wood. It felt hard. Espurr pressed harder, putting both paws on it. She pressed as hard as she could, and then all of the sudden the rotting wood snapped forward and she fell straight onto the Barrow’s dirty porch.

The seal is broken.

Espurr rolled to her feet as quickly as she could. The door had broken apart! She stared into the Barrow’s depths, trying to discern something out of the darkness within.

Nothing came at first. Espurr focused on the utter blackness that was the inside of the Barrow intently—why couldn’t she see anything in there?

Then the wind rustled. Espurr heard the same gurgling noise from before roaring up within the Barrow’s innards, but she didn’t flinch. She didn’t move either.

All of the sudden a massive flow of swamp water jettisoned from the Barrow’s open doors and blew Espurr back. She skidded to a stop halfway across the bridge, coughing and trying to catch her breath. She glanced back up at the Barrow, expecting to see the front doors sealed over again, but instead of a pair of boarded over doors, all she saw was the pitch black entrance that gaped up like a mouth. That was an improvement – now she was getting somewhere. Espurr haphazardly shook her fur off—all this swamp water was going to make her stink later—and began to carefully walk down the slippery bridge towards the Barrow.

She was halfway back across the bridge when her ears picked up the sound of somemon whistling off-key to themselves.

Nuzleaf. Espurr didn’t have time to properly make her way to either side of the bridge before Nuzleaf walked into her line of vision. He turned his head to see Espurr slightly wobbling in place halfway across the bridge.

“Hah?” he asked, looking at Espurr. “What’r you doin’ on there?! Get off!” He looked genuinely angry. Cowed, Espurr silently did as he said. Nuzleaf grabbed her arm once she was off, and began to tug her towards the village.

“Come with me,” Nuzleaf said. “We’e gonna have a talk.”

~\({O})/~

Village Square​

Nuzleaf and Espurr entered the village square, and Nuzleaf sat Espurr down on the ground off to the side and crouched down in front of her.

“I don’ wanna ever see you goin’ near tha’ thing again, you unders’and me?” he said. “You can go into any mystery dungeon ya want, I don’ care, bu’ you stay away from tha’ place. Unders’and??”

“…I understand,” Espurr finally balked after half a minute of Nuzleaf giving her an angry stare that rivaled Watchog’s.

No, she didn’t understand. She wanted to know why; why the Ancient Barrow was so feared; why phantoms kept returning to haunt her in her sleep every night; why no-mon else seemed to even realize it existed! And if Nuzleaf had any of those answers for her, she made it her intention to wring it out of him. One way or another.

“Good,” Nuzleaf said, returning to his normal self in an instant. He stood up straight, and stretched. “Glad we coul’ settle this peacefully.”

He began to walk off, but Espurr followed.

“What’s in the Ancient Barrow?” Espurr asked. “And what were you doing over there?”

Nuzleaf stopped. He was silent for a brief second.

“…I was checkin’ something’,” he said, and then he began to walk along once again. He didn’t answer the first question. Espurr followed.

“I’m coming along,” she said matter-of-factly.

Nuzleaf shrugged. “I won’ stop ya,” he said. “Jus’ stay away from tha’ house.”

~\({O}/~

Simipour’s House​

“I think we’ve put this off long enough,” Audino said, following Simipour around the house as he walked. “You weren’t having these fatigue problems two weeks ago; you need a checkup.”

“What did the last checkup do for me?” Simipour yawned, discreetly fleeing to the kitchen. Audino followed him. “I feel fine. I appreciate your concern, but it is wholly unneeded here.

“I insist,” Audino said firmly, stepping in front of Simipour before he could leave the kitchen.

“As do I.” Simipour sidestepped her and walked into the living room. He sat on the couch that was next to the window and stared at her through eyes that were barely open. “You’re wasting your time.”

“That may be…” Audino said, sitting right next to him with her bag. “But so are you.”

Simipour shrugged stubbornly. “I am content to sit right here on this couch for the entire evening.”

“Perfect. Then you’ll be content to sit on that couch while I give you a checkup.”

“Not in the least.” Simipour gave her a frustrating smile that made it clear he was not going quietly. Audino sighed and tried to keep it from becoming a groan of frustration.

“Fine.” Audino dug in her bag, pulling out a piece of paper, a swanna feather quill, and some ink. “If you can’t be bothered to care about your own health, then at least put the minds of the pokemon who do care at rest.” She scribbled something on the paper, then thrust it to him.

“I’m prescribing you a cup of lum berry tea daily. That should calm your nerves and help you sleep easier. I’ll be back in a few days to see how you’re doing.”

Simipour yawned. “I’ve been sleeping just fine.”

“Do it anyway, starting today. Just before bed.”

And with that, Audino packed up the quill and ink, rose from the couch, and walked out the door. Simipour looked at the piece of paper in his hands. He yawned again.

It was worth a shot.

~\({O})/~​

Espurr and Nuzleaf wandered southwards once more, with not a word exchanged in between them. When Espurr passed the villa, she eyed it with a look of hateful curiosity – what was it hiding, that was so frightful all of Serenity Village wouldn’t talk about it?

At some point, not long after they had passed the town limits, Nuzleaf suddenly veered off the path. Espurr watched as he picked up a couple of bushes and set them aside (They were fake, she later realized), and then began to walk down the hidden path that they concealed. Nuzleaf silently ushered Espurr along, before replacing the bushes, furtively glancing around, and continuing up the path silently.

“Where are we going?” Espurr finally asked, once they had walked a fair bit into the path and were surrounded on all sides by lush forest. Nuzleaf pointed above them both, at the large mountain that outclimbed all the others in the near distance.

“See tha’?” he asked. “Revelation Mountain. Tha’s where we’re headed.”

Espurr looked up at Revelation Mountain. She had seen it several times from a distance, but never up close. It had been lost on her before just how large the mountain was. It didn’t look like it was even possible to climb it in a single day.

“I haven’t heard of it,” Espurr settled on for her next words. It was a minute before Nuzleaf responded.

“Revelation Mountain is an ol’ village tale,” Nuzleaf said as they marched up the path. “Legend says there’s somethin’ at tha top of tha’ mountain, somethin’ we were never supposed to see. So tha’s why every night one of us village ‘mon stands at the base o’ the mountain an’ stays guard. No-mon’s ever been up there.”

“And are you standing guard?” Espurr asked.

“I ain’t,” Nuzleaf said.

“Then what are we doing?”

“I wanna see it. Wha’s at tha top of Revelation Mountain. I’ve been all over tha Grass Continen’; left this place with a frien’ when I was still a child.”

“Why?”

“Why?” Nuzleaf shrugged. “Well, I fel’ like it. Was barely a child no more anyway. An’ I wanted to go explorin’. Travelled to the Grass Continen’, and saw all the sigh’s to see. I’m old now.”

He pointed up at the mountain again as they walked.

“Tha’ mountain—tha’s my last expedition. My las’ mission before I retire for good.” He shrugged once more. “’Least I don’ have ta spend it alone.”

Eventually they reached a plateau where the ground became slightly muddy, and ahead of them was a spring. Nuzleaf bent over and took a drink from it with his hands.

“Drink. I’s clean,” he said. “Water ‘round this mountain’s always clean.”

Now that Espurr thought about it, she was unquestionably parched. She silently took a drink from the spring herself too.

The mountain only got larger the closer they approached it. It was already so large that Espurr couldn’t even see the peak when she looked up, and by the time that they were at the mountain’s base she could only see the steep cliff that formed the lower mountain.

At some point, Nuzleaf halted, and so did Espurr.

“We’re here,” he whispered sharply. “Hide.”

Espurr hid behind a bush. Nuzleaf walked ahead, and if Espurr peeked over the leaves of the bush far enough, she could just see the bright-yellowish outline of a pokemon standing in the distance.

Hippopatas.

“Hmm?” Hippopotas turned around at the sound of somemon trudging through the muck towards her. She turned around to look at him, her eyes widening as she caught sight of him waving.

“Mornin’, neighbor!” Espurr heard Nuzleaf call jovially as he walked towards her.

“Iz something ze matter?” Hippopotas asked, her eyes narrowing.

“Nothin’ much,” Nuzleaf said. “Only tha guardin’ order got switched around. I’m today; you’re tamorrow, all tha’.”

Hippopotas’ eyes widened.

“Vell…” she said. “ I DO have important farming to do…”

“Go for i’.”

Hippopotas didn’t need any more encouragement than that. She happily trotted straight back down the path, and Espurr had to quickly change her position so that Hippopotas didn’t notice her on the way down. Once Hippopotas was only a speck on the path back to the village, Nuzleaf ushered Espurr back out. Espurr quickly walked up the join Nuzleaf, and looked at the path that lay ahead of them both.

“Bes’ ta get a head start,” said Nuzleaf, and with that he began to hike up the large, steep incline that lay ahead of them. Espurr sent a brief glance back towards the path that lay behind. It would be so easy to opt out now…

But there was no point. She wouldn’t get an opportunity like this again. And so she began to tentatively follow Nuzleaf along the rocky path upward instead.

~\({O})/~

The Demetrius

~Ninetales~​

The statue had been stored on the Gardevoir, because there was more storage room on the Gardevoir then there was on the Demetrius. The Gardevoir was making a quick return journey to Mist to drop off the statue, where it could later be transferred to Cloud Nine for further inspection, but the Demetrius – and everymon aboard it – had stayed behind to comb the bay off Grass and search for any more anomalies of the same vein. Ninetales had stayed behind with them. He knew he was needed to sign a thousand sheets of paperwork back on Cloud Nine, but paperwork ground him down and the Demetrius was his personal ship anyway. He could have a day on the high seas if he wanted to. It might take off some of the daily stress of being government figurehead.

Something tapped Ninetales on the shoulder. He quickly glanced to the left to see what it was , but there was nothing there. Or something had been there. Ninetales inwardly smirked. He knew this game. A tap came from his right shoulder. Ninetales turned his head to look right, then whipped it left at the last second—

—He was promptly half-tackled to the deck by a sylveon. Barely stopping them both from tumbling over the deck of the ship with his tails, the two pokemon lovingly nuzzled one another.

“I thought you were supervising the Gardevoir,” Ninetales chuffed once they had finished.

“And I thought you were going to do paperwork,” Sparkleglimmer purred back.

“I won’t talk about the paperwork if you don’t talk about the Gardevoir.”

“Deal.”

“Ah… excuse me?”

Both Ninetales and Sparkleglimmer looked up from their nuzzling. A lone phanphy sat in front of them; looking almost a bit flustered.

“Yes?” Ninetales asked before Sparkleglimmer could scare him off. He knew she had a bit of a short temper at times.

“I thought you should know…” the phanphy began uncomfortably, flapping its ears in nervousness. “We found another one.”

~\({O})/~​

The chains of the pulley creaked, jangled, and ever-so-slowly rose. A few pokemon in the water gave the go-head, and the pokemon pulling the chains up on-deck gave it another heave. Ninetales and Sparkleglimmer followed the phanphy onto the rear deck of the ship, where another statue had been half-pulled out of the water.

It was Rayquaza. Ninetales’ heart sank. This statue of Rayquaza had the same horrified expression upon its face that the statue of Lugia had had, and after hearing about what had happened in Pokemon Plaza Ninetales was loath to believe that this was somemon’s idea of a large-scale joke.

Sparkleglimmer didn’t have the same reaction as Ninetales, but she hadn’t lived as long as he had. Most pokemon hadn’t. Ninetales had even talked to Rayquaza once, purely by chance one day when the legendary had decided to take a rest break on Mt. Freeze. A proud beast, he was, but he had a cultured sense of literature (he hoarded old human books) and was a fairly decent pokemon, as long as you earned his respect first and didn’t insult him in any way, shape, or form. Seeing him like this hurt Ninetales more than anymon else on that deck probably knew. He lowered his head in silent mourning.

Then he felt the sadness briefly leave him, and he glanced left to see Sparkleglimmer’s feeler on his back. She had a slightly worried look on her face, so he forced himself to cheer up for her sake. Now wasn’t a time for mourning anyway.

“How much storage space is available on the Demetrius?” he asked. The phanphy looked up, glad to have something to have orders to occupy its nervousness for the present time.

“The cargo holds were emptied of all but essential supplies before we set out,” said Phanphy. “Approximately three of the four storage holds, sir.”

Ninetales took a deep breath and nodded solemnly. That would hold Rayquaza.

“We’re turning around,” he announced. “Store Rayquaza in hold B and set course for the Mist Continent.”

“I had paperwork I needed to do anyway,” he muttered on the way out.

~\({O})/~

Revelation Mountain​

Greenery ended where Revelation Mountain began. Espurr followed Nuzleaf up the hill, which quickly became a rocky mountain pathway once they were up far enough. Nuzleaf moved with a newfound energy that Espurr had never seen in him before, walking and hopping gracefully between the rocks of the pathway and shimmying away from its edges expertly. Espurr (Who had gotten a great deal faster over the three weeks she had been here) found it hard to keep up, especially as the path got narrower and Espurr had to take care not to fall off a cliff as they went on.

They walked for hours and barely scaled the base of the mountain. A couple of times Espurr nearly slipped and fell, but she quickly recovered herself and continued onwards. The path wasn’t that steep or narrow yet.

Soon, the sun was it its highest point in the sky, and they were high enough up that the heights would have made Espurr woozy if she cared to stare at them (she was making a point of not looking down). She quickly hurried to catch up with Nuzleaf, who was briskly hiking up the trail with not even a pant of exhaustion.

She cleared her throat as they walked, trying her best to keep a respectable pace with Nuzleaf.

“It’s a long climb up,” she said. “I was hoping you might tell me why no-mon ever goes near the Ancient Barrow. So we don’t get bored while we climb.”

Nuzleaf, effortlessly hiking up the slop ahead of them, didn’t spare a look back at Espurr.

“Even I don’ know tha’,” he said. “I jus’ know whenever I go near tha place, I get this feelin’. Like i’s evil. Like i’ should be left well alone. Everymon jus’ leaves i’ be for that reason. Only I’s still standin’ is ‘cause no-mon’s brave enough ta tear i’ down. And tha’s all I know.” And then he continued hiking again without a word.

Soon, Nuzleaf stopped up ahead. He stood outside the entrance of what was obviously a very large, very dangerous mystery dungeon. Espurr could see it in the little things, how the path just ahead of them looked off in all the wrong ways and the air sky seemed to ripple.

“So I’s a mystery dungeon,” Nuzleaf muttered to himself. He thought for a moment as Espurr studied the dungeon entrance. It was just like Poliwrath River. The place exuded evil; she could feel it. And this far up the mountain, if they ever got trapped in there… no wonder this place was guarded.

“…Nah. Ain’t worth it.” Nuzleaf turned around. “We’re goin’ home.”

Espurr agreed.

~\({O})/~

Village Square​

It was sundown by the time that Espurr and Nuzleaf walked back into the village square. Nuzleaf scratched the back of his head.

“Well…” he started. “Ah… Good run today. We’ll go again next month when I have guar’ duty again; soun’ good? Maybe you can bring your fennekin frien’ along for tha ride too.”

“Perhaps,” Espurr said. Tricky would love that, she knew.

And then they parted. Nuzleaf walked back east, and Espurr entered Audino’s house. The day had been more exhausting on her than she realized, and she quickly made herself cozy with one of the few books in Audino’s house that she hadn’t read (which happened to be a cookbook, but beggars couldn’t be choosers).

Espurr was reading about how to properly roast different types of berries when Audino walked in the door and set her bag down next to it. She collapsed in the chair next to Espurr, letting out a prolonged breath of weariness.

“And what did you get up to today?” she asked after a minute.

“I climbed a mountain,” Espurr said matter-of-factly, turning the page of her book.

Like Espurr had expected, Audino didn’t even blink—much less take her seriously. “Did you now?”

“I also went ghost-hunting and explored a haunted house,” said Espurr.

“Sounds like you’ve been having fun,” Audino sighed. “It’s been appointment after appointment for me. That principal is nearly as stubborn as his second-in-command sometimes…

“Have you been going out with your friends lately?” she asked to change the subject.

“Not much today,” Espurr said. “They were all busy.”

She didn’t know that for sure, but after yesterday she was pretty certain they hadn’t been planning any get-togethers.

They sat together in silence for a while, Espurr reading and Audino silently trying to keep herself from nodding off.

“You know what, I’m too tired to cook today,” Audino finally said. She got up from the chair, stretching. “Fancy a visit to Kangaskhan’s?”

~\({O})/~

Café Connection​

The Café Connection was the only building still lit after dark. Espurr followed Audino into the building, where the sudden change in lighting temporarily blinded her. She had only been in the building once before, and never at night. It was mostly quiet, but there were still enough pokemon in the diner for there to be an audible amount of noise in the background at all times. Audino walked up to the counter and took a seat, bidding Espurr to do the same. It was only once she had sat down that she noticed Watchog.

Audino noticed as well. Silently, she edged Espurr over and attempted to sit a little farther away from him. Watchog looked at them, taking a sip of his drink.

“What?” he asked flatly. “Don’t wanna be around me?”

Audino didn’t answer that.

“Your problem.” Watchog took another swig from his drink. Audino took a deep breath.

“How’s guarding the school been?” she asked, trying to make some small talk.

“Painful,” said Watchog. “I’ve been seeing things around the grounds since day one. Blue flames. Couple of weeks ago somemon broke into the library. I think there’s a thief in the village. And mark my words, next time it shows up I’ll be ready for it.”

He punctuated his statement with another swig of the drink. Audino fell silent after that, but the tension between them was beginning to rub off on Espurr’s mind. She got down from the stool, unwilling to be stuck next to the two teachers any longer.

“I’ll be back soon,” she said, before Audino could open her mouth. “I just want some fresh air.”

Espurr walked down the restaurant’s aisle, looking around idly as she went. She didn’t recognize any of the customers around, nor did they pay attention to her.

“Hey!!”

Espurr spun around at the sound of the high-pitched noise. Usaring waved animatedly at her from a nearby table, pieces of food stuck in between her claws.

“Uncle—” she began, referencing a larger, gruffer ursaring with darker fur. “This is one of the pokemon who helped me evolve in that dungeon the other day! Say hi!”

Uncle frowned, an eternal look of apparent displeasure on his face. He stared at Espurr flatly.

“Uncle,” Usaring urged after a bit. “Say hi.”

There was a moment of silence. Uncle grunted at Espurr, then returned to his meal. Usaring laughed it off immediately after.

“He’s like that with strangers a lot. Anyway, it’s nice to see you! And thanks for the other day! I hope that toothpaste came in handy—”

Ursaring clamped her claws over her mouth immediately after saying that. She glanced at Uncle to see if he had caught that or not. Uncle simply let out a sigh, something between disapproval and defeat.

“It had its moment,” Espurr said, blanching slightly before Uncle’s demeanor. Stares directed in her direction always made her crack. “I was just about to get some fresh air. I’ll go do that now. Bye.”

With that, she scampered off in the direction she had come, heading out the café door.

“…Weird kid,” Uncle said, after she had left.

~\({O})/~​

Espurr walked outside the doors of the café and leaned against the wall. She let out a breath of relief, closing her eyes and rubbing her head to ease the beginnings of a headache.

“It’s weird to see you out late.”

For the third time that day, Espurr jumped in startlement. She looked around to see Deerling sitting nearby.

“What are you doing out here?” she asked.

Deerling snorted. “My parents don’t care where I am, as long as I’m not holed up in my room all day. So sometimes I take them up on that. What about you?”

“I live over there.” Espurr pointed towards the house on the other side of the square.

“I guess you’re neighbors with Pancham, then.”

“And Shelmet,” Espurr added.

“I’m not as interested in Shelmet.”

“…So you’re interested in Pancham?”

“H—” Deerling dug her front hooves into the ground. “You—you know I didn’t mean it that way!”

She snorted in anger and kicked away a pebble next to her.

“Listen,” she said. “Something’s been bugging me about our sleepover yesterday, and I wanted to ask about it. Sorry if this sounds weird, but… that ‘mon in the story you told. Was she you?”

Espurr’s blood drained.

“…What if she was?” was all she was able to muster for a response.

“Is that a yes?” Deerling asked, undeterred. Espurr was cornered, and she knew it. If she said nothing or made up an excuse to leave, it’d look suspicious, but she’d waited too long to be able to pass it off with a ‘no’.

“Yes,” Espurr finally settled on. She didn’t see the point of hiding it much longer. “How did you figure it out?”

“Helps that I don’t actually know anything about you before you turned up with Tricky last week of school. And those ‘mon that attacked us. The beheewhatever. Those were also—”

“Yes,” Espurr cut in. “They weren’t supposed to get this close to the village, I don’t know how they found me.”

In hindsight, it was an inevitability that the beheeyem were going to find their way here. The chilling realization was setting in that Espurr didn’t have any plan of action for when that happened.

“So you’ve been keeping a lot of secrets from us,” Deerling said. That made a sudden wave of indignation rise up in Espurr.

“Who said it was your business to know?” Espurr asked, unable to keep a tone of anger from leaping into her voice. “My past belongs to me.”

Except it didn’t belong to anymon. She’d like it back right about now, please and thanks.

“Listen,” Deerling said again, and this time her voice lowered down to a growl. “I don’t know what’s going on, and frankly I don’t care.” She jutted a hoof into Espurr’s chest fluff. “But keep it far away from us.”

“I don’t think I can promise that,” Espurr said, trying to look unperturbed.

“Why. Not.”

“Because I don’t know what’s coming for me either.”

“What do you mean you don’t know??” Deerling hopped to her feet, glaring angrily at Espurr. “Just like you ‘didn’t know’ about the beheeyem?

“Those beheeyem are after me and that’s all I know,” Espurr swiftly retorted, taking a graceful step back. And you’re supposed to be a fabled savior of the world, which means that somehow, this world needs saving. Espurr left that part out. “They’re after me, and only me. If I tell pokemon, who says they won’t come after you too?”

Deerling’s rage was palpable enough that Espurr could swipe at it with her paws. But she looked to the side anyway, and twinges of doubt among all the anger told Espurr that Deerling knew she had a point.

“Urrgh…” Deerling collapsed on her haunches with a defeated growl. “I wish we could go back to before the last two weeks ever happened.”

“Well, we’re here anyway,” Espurr said. “There’s no point running.”

“So what are you going to do when those beheeyem things come around again?” Deerling asked. “And I’d better hear you have a plan, because I’m not going to be the one saving everymon’s behinds if you get caught.”

Espurr didn’t have gabite’s exploration bag with her, but she knew its contents by heart. At the least, she had something to defend herself with if it came to that.

“I’ll come up with something,” Espurr said.

Deerling looked like the next words she was about to say were knives on her tongue. “And… you’d better tell Tricky too. You two hang out often, she deserves to know.”

Espurr nodded. She hadn’t seen Tricky today… she’d say something tomorrow.

Deerling got up and walked around Espurr, heading to the south.

“Have a good night,” she said bluntly in passing. Espurr watched her go, then leaned against the wall of the café. She stared up at the night sky, looking at the sliver of a crescent that was the moon. It was a little brighter than she remembered it being.

A plan…

~\({O})/~

Cloud Nine

~Sparkleglimmer~​

Lightning flashed, but it was half a minute before thunder crashed. Sparkleglimmer didn’t like the look of the clouds on the horizon. She knew it was only a storm—Cloud Nine had weathered many storms before—but something about that storm unnerved her. There wasn’t much that could unnerve her. Turning her gaze from the window that offered a front-row view of the building clouds, she hastily picked up the rest of the paperwork Ninetales was supposed to sign tonight with her bottom ribbons and used the top ones to shut the door of Ninetales’ office behind her as she walked out.

It was a Sunday, and many of the facilities on Cloud Nine were closed, which left the place completely deserted. There would be no-mon hurry-scurrying around (At least, not above deck), so Ninetales had wanted to do his paperwork in the frigid cold sea air. (When Sparkleglimmer had asked why he never used his office anymore, he said working outside reminded him of Mt. Freeze.)

She walked across the large park that made up the massive front deck of Cloud Nine, where Ninetales lounged near the edges of the deck (How all this greenery reminded him of that barren old mountain, she would never know). His ears twitched as she approached him from behind, and that was how she knew that he knew she was there.

“You forgot these,” she whispered in his ear, neatly setting the paperwork beside him. Ninetales was busy reading through a ledger of documents he had probably been putting off for weeks, but he hummed in acknowledgement to let her know he was listening. Sparkleglimmer took a seat beside him, looking at the storm system that loomed in front of them. Lightning flashed. Thunder crashed a little sooner this time.

“I don’t like how that storm looks,” Sparkleglimmer finally said. “I think we should go inside. You wouldn’t want to get caught in that with all your paperwork.”

Ninetales looked up from the ledger he was almost done reading through, glancing at the clouds dismissively.

“It’s nothing but a storm,” he said. “We would get blizzards ten times worse on Mt. Freeze in the winter.”

There were times when Sparkleglimmer almost wanted to club Ninetales over the head with something, and this was one of them. Did he not understand that you couldn’t just sit in a thunderstorm and do paperwork like nothing was happening? Ninetales turned back to his ledger, and it was clear that his mind was made up. Sparkleglimmer glanced at the storm ahead. She heard the thunder crash almost simultaneously with the lightning.

Sparkleglimmer took a deep breath, then discreetly planted her feeler on Ninetales’ back. Before Ninetales even had a clue of what was happening a sense of calm spread through him, and the normally astute look on his face became dazed. In the state of calm that Sparkleglimmer had him in, he’d be more susceptible to suggestion. Sparkleglimmer didn’t like to do it in public if she could help it, but the situation called for it.

“This storm is something awful,” she breathed in his ear. “You want to get inside before you’re caught in it.”

Relief spread through Sparkleglimmer (But she was careful to keep it out of her feelers) when she saw Ninetales slowly nod. She removed her feeler, and slowly Ninetales began to return to his normal state of mind. But the suggestion was still there. Nine times out of ten he would follow it.

True to her predictions, Ninetales stood up, gently picking up the paperwork with his mouth. He began to trot off towards the central government building in the distance, his tails lazily swishing behind him as he went. A few sheets of paperwork still lay on the ground in front of Sparkleglimmer. Sparkleglimmer sighed. For somemon who claimed to have a good memory, he forgot things a lot.

Thunder crashed. Sparkleglimmer didn’t see the lightning, but the sound of the thunder kicked her into gear. She hastily picked up the sheets of paperwork Ninetales had left behind, then hurried after him into the building.

~\({O})/~​

The telltale whir of the engines under the deck began to start up once again, and within seconds the airspace around Cloud Nine had a slight sheen to it. Sparkleglimmer glanced out the window as they passed it. The protection fields had been raised. That meant the storm was too close for comfort. Or, it meant that they’d be going through it. Knowing the muk-head who was in charge of steering this thing, probably the second one.

After Sparkleglimmer’s intervention, Ninetales had been more than happy to finish the paperwork in his office. And it was just as well, because the storm raging outside was nasty beyond belief. Even from here, Sparkleglimmer could hear the howling of the wind and the telltale crash of thunder from outside. She couldn’t help but glance out the window at the storm, as if seeing what was happening instead of just hearing it would help her feel better about it.

“It’s only a storm,” Ninetales muttered from his desk. Whether that was meant for her or himself, Sparkleglimmer would probably never know.

She turned her attention back towards the window, her ears zoning in on the howling of the wind. It no longer sounded like just wind to her. It sounded like something was in the storm; shrieking and howling in the background. Because surely that high-pitched scream that had just reverberated through the clouds wasn’t the wind whistling through something.

“Only a storm…” Ninetales muttered to himself.

Thunder crashed again. Sparkleglimmer didn’t see the lightning. She didn’t want to anymore.

~\({O})/~

Audino’s House

~Espurr~​

Slowly coming to. Espurr awoke in her straw bed, gazing up at the roof of her bedroom. It must have been the middle of the night, because the room was as dark as ever, and Espurr could barely see a thing.

…Wait. That wasn’t right. It was never this dark at night. There was always some moonlight filtering in—hadn’t the moon been especially bright tonight?—or at least the glow of the luminous moss streetlamps outside to offset some of the darkness. This darkness was like being trapped in a box. Something was wrong.

And so, using her knowledge of the room’s layout to navigate, Espurr headed for the window to see what had happened to all the light. Gazing out through the window’s crossbars, she saw nothing but more blackness. Impossible blackness. Darker than the doors of the Ancient Barrow, darker than the night sky; blackness that she had only seen in one place before.

And then it all clicked for Espurr. This blackness was familiar to her. She knew where she was. And that meant…

At Espurr’s will the walls of her bedroom began to crumble away, disintegrating into nothingness until she was left standing in the middle of the blackness.

This was the Dream. It was back.

They came. The voices, whispering all around her, spinning up into a massive vortex that towered over her and was somehow blacker than the blackness itself.

And then the louder voice, the one that had been torturing Espurr every time she had entered the dreamscape, spoke in its cacophony of raspy howls:

…Hello.

~\({O})/~​

Music of the week!

A Quiet Life - Marco Beltrami

Spoiler: Illustration of Sparkleglimmer

Art by Windskull

​

 

[SparklingEspeon]

~\({O})/~

17.

The Calm and The Storm

~\({O})/~

Open Waters ~ Nighttime​

There was a storm building on the waters that night. It had been building for almost a week before, and it would continue to build tonight. There was nothing to keep it in check now. Nothing to stop it from growing out of control. Nothing to stop it from being controlled. Being shaped into something more malleable. A natural disaster. A distraction. A trap.

A single flake of blackness flew through the air, mingling with the clouds. Once it reached them, it began to spread out. Corrupting them.

It controlled the wind and the sea now. The very storms acted at Its whim. And act they would.

Grow.

The rumbling of thunder boomed through the night sky, and lightning lit up the center of the storm in a brilliant display of silent fireworks. The clouds of the storm began to swirl downwards; towards the earth; towards the ocean…

…And then the storm wasn't a storm anymore.

~\({O})/~

Monday

Pokemon Plaza ~ Air Continent​

"Picture this."

Several wagons encrusted with the HAPPI sigil were parked outside the entrance to Pokemon Plaza. Simisage walked through the overgrown ruins of the town, filled with HAPPI 'mon that were taking photographs of everything. Directly behind him, Vaporeon followed. The square was littered with small shards of stone that covered almost every flat surface in the town, and both Simisage and Vaporeon had to be careful to step around the sharp pieces so they didn't cut their paws on them as they walked.

"Pokemon Plaza goes dark," Simisage began, stepping over some rubble. "HAPPI teams can't leave Mist 'cause of the blizzard that formed over the continent, so the Expedition Society is drafted in their place. They arrive. They claim to have done their job. The mayor of Baram Town vouches for them. And yet, that very day, stone lapras statue; missin' lapras. Cloud Nine receives no photos nor word from the Expedition Society concernin' the mission for three. Whole. Weeks. And then, after the fact, stone pelipper washes ashore up on Mist. Am I the only one seein' something funny going on here?"

"I see something funny going on," Vaporeon said, looking put-out. "You aren't wearing your badge."

Simisage shrugged. "I forgot it," he said. "Everyone does that once in a while. Now, where was I…"

Vaporeon took a deep breath, but decided to hear Simisage out anyway.

"It's simple," Simisage drawled sagely. "This was all a plot from the very beginnin'. Think about it. The Expedition Society has been scoffed at and put down by the other guilds for too long. They want fame and glory, and they want revenge. And so – if I may be allowed to insinuate further – a plot begins to form in their tiny little reviver-seed-sized brains. They shoot down the pelipper post employees coming in and out of the plaza, and get their little electric pet to jam the transmissions. Pokemon Plaza goes dark; blizzard happens over Mist just. As. Planned. Boom shapow bang-" Simisage clapped his hands for effect "-Expedition Society is now drafted for convenience. Now two of them have a mission. They sail into Baram Town and travel up into Pokemon Plaza. And once they get there, they brutally murder the entire square."

"But see, now they're at risk," Simipour continued. "They have the photos, but they were the last ones to go into that square, and there. Are. Witnesses. They need to be seen doin' somethin' that will clear them of all charges; dismiss them as suspects entirely! Now cue the lapras. The lapras isn't important to them, so they kill the lapras too. They write the note; they stick it on the raft, and they let it float into the harbor, conveniently bein' in just the right spot to get there in time and look innocent. Now the blame is off them but they can't rest just yet. They gotta lie low for a couple o' weeks, let the heat die down before they submit their findin's. They gotta plot their next move first, 'cause if they don't than this was all for naught. They gotta be ready. And once they are… I assure you, somethin's gonna happen. Somethin' we've gotta prevent."

Simisage stopped once they reached the other end of the plaza, where one of the white, metal-encrusted wagons sat. Out of his exploration bag he pulled a leather envelope of documents, showing it to Vaporeon. "Luckily, I have taken the necessary precautions to make this line of intervention possible."

Vaporeon puffed out her cheeks in frustration.

"That sounds great!" she said, with a tone of false amazement. "There's just one problem: How do you intend to prove they turned all these pokemon to stone? Have you got an answer for that?"

"That…" Simipour held up a single finger, stopping in thought. His mouth hung open. "…Is TBD," he said. "Point is; they're guilty. And we're gonna prove it."

~\({O})/~

Tuesday

Expedition Society Headquarters ~ Lively Town

~Mawile~​

It was nighttime, and for once the halls of the Expedition Society were quiet. Mawile quietly slunk down the hallway, making sure not to cause any noise and wake the others up. She stopped outside the large open archway that led to the kitchen, looking down the hall both ways before entering.

Any other member would have been harshly disciplined by Swirlix for this. The chef kept an iron grasp on the Society's food stocks (so much so that there had to be separate stocks for travelling supplies and normal foods), and guarded it like a persian's hoard. The last time somemon had tried to sneak something from the kitchen had been when Bunnelby had nicked a few cucumbers for a midnight snack, and while Mawile did not know exactly what Swirlix had done when she had found out, the entire Expedition Society had seen the effects – Bunnelby never ate cucumbers again.

Swirlix currently lay sprawled out on one of the counters, conveniently near the food cupboards. Fast asleep. She began to sniff the air in her sleep once Mawile entered. Mawile reached into her bag and pulled out a pawful of grimy food she had dug out of the dumpster. She set it on the floor in front of the entrance. That would overpower her own scent.

Slowly, Mawile advanced across the kitchen, opening the cupboards one by one as she searched for the medicinal berry stock. Swirlix suddenly stirred in her sleep, reaching out for something that existed only in her dreams and startling Mawile.

"Nnghh… Apple…" Swirlix muttered, nearly rolling off the counter as she grasped for thin air. Mawile acted fast – she handed what little remnants of the grimy food that she had in her bag to Swirlix. Swirlix took it without question, grimaced at the smell, and then sleep-consumed it in a single bite. Mawile tried – and barely managed – to stomach the sight. Swirlix snored loudly, and then Mawile saw fit to continue.

She found the medicinal berries in the cupboard to Swirlix's left. Mawile quickly rooted through it until she found the chesto berries, all picked and sitting in a small wooden crate. Mawile took three or four and stuffed them into her bag. She quietly shook up the berries in the crate so that Swirlix wouldn't notice they were gone, and slipped away from where Swirlix was sleeping. She picked up the grimy food and deposited it in the kitchen wastebin on her way out.

~\({O})/~​

The glow of a miniature luminous moss orb lit Mawile's office an ethereal blue. A torch would have been more convenient light-wise, but Mawile refused to pose a risk to all her books that way, and the room had never been built with electrical lighting in mind. She sat down in one of the stools in the office, taking a bite of a chesto berry and opening a history tome of the Sand Continent. There were almost five times as many books on the Sand Continent as there were books on the other four, and Mawile had yet to pour through it all. Nights were the most convenient time to do this, and so Mawile spent hours looking through every possible path that might lead her towards answers.

It had been nearly two weeks since they had returned from the Air Continent and Mawile was still at a loss as to whatever had attacked them in Pokemon Plaza. The photo of the anomaly was pinned at the top of the wall, all on its lonesome with no connections. A couple others, various shots of the stone lapras they had encountered a few days after, were pinned near the original photo, but Mawile had not found a way to connect them yet. She relished the day that she would be able to pin them all together. Maybe tonight, that would happen. Mawile turned the page in the book, reading up on an entire new section of Sand Continent lore. Maybe tonight.

~\({O})/~

~Ampharos~​

Early mornings were always a pleasure for Ampharos. He awoke every day at the crack of dawn before anymon else in the Expedition Society rose, then ate a quick breakfast outside while he could still feel the morning breeze flowing through his fur. Lively Town never really went to sleep, but dawn was one of the few times of day the town was truly quiet. (Most city 'mon were late sleepers.) Most days, Ampharos would go for a stroll through the market and observe the morning going-ons around town, until eight-o-clock came and Dedenne rose to sort the morning paperwork. The Expedition Society briefing was at nine, because nine-o-clock was the earliest Ampharos could convince the Society to collectively rise and shine.

He grabbed an apple from the larder in the kitchen, making sure not to disturb Swirlix on his way out. Special privileges of being Chief. As he walked into the lobby, he caught sight of Mawile loitering around aimlessly near a window. Ampharos walked up to join her.

"Morning," she said without even looking back at him. She didn't have to to know that he was there.

"Likewise." Ampharos took a bite of his apple, chewing noisily.

"Did you find anything?" he asked a moment later. Mawile knew what he was talking about. They went through this exchange every morning, to the point where it may as well have been scripted.

"Nothing," Mawile replied. "If Sand Continent history doesn't pan out I'll be combing pokemon moves and energy next. Perhaps there's something we've missed."

Ampharos nodded silently, taking another bite of his apple. They stood there in silence for a few minutes, watching the sun rise from the east.

Around eight-o-clock, the large double doors clacked open and Dedenne walked through to begin her shift. At eight-thirty the process of waking everymon up began. Some were already awake (like Nickit, who liked to sneak off to the vault in the mornings and Buizel, who hated wasting time), while others were asleep as usual (Bunnelby and Jirachi were big offenders of this). Ampharos often wondered why they hadn't all gotten on a more normalized schedule after years of the same routine. Then he remembered that one time the entire Society had stayed awake for nearly a fortnight while completing a particularly nasty mission and dismissed his first question entirely. But through the combined efforts of Buizel, Dedenne, and Bunnelby (once he was awake), all twelve members of the Expedition Society stood in front of Ampharos, ready for the morning briefing.

Ampharos cleared his throat, preparing to read the first line of the paper he had been given aloud, but suddenly he was interrupted by a loud knock that reverberated from the door. Everymon turned their heads towards the door in unison. Sure enough, it came again, a loud knocking that sent echoes all through the hall and signaled impatience. The Expedition Society exchanged looks.

"Somemon couldn't wait five minutes for us to open?" Bunnelby asked, half-curiously and half in annoyance. He was met with silence.

When the knocking came again with a vengeance, Ampharos decided to step forward. He walked through the row of Expedition Society members that parted for him, letting one of the large doors creak inwards and peeking out.

A simisage and a vaporeon stood outside. Ampharos took one look back at the rest of the members and signaled for silence, and then slipped out the door completely. Seeing that he now had Ampharos' attention, Simisage stuck out his paw for Ampharos to shake.

"Mornin'," he said. "I understand you're the chief of the Expedition Society?"

behind Simisage, Vaporeon stood, giving him the same suspicious look that flickered in Simisage's eyes for just a second. Something was up. Ampharos decided to put on a cheerful face anyway.

"Correct you are!" he said, shaking Simisage's paw. "We aren't open for another five minutes, I'm afraid. Perhaps I can ask you to come back later or set up an appointment?"

Simisage cleared his throat. "I'm afraid you don't understand," he said. "I'm Simisage, co-leader of Team Cobalt, and this is my partner, Vaporeon." He gestured to Vaporeon, who nodded quietly in Ampharos' direction.

"Myself and Vaporeon work in a very 'specific' line of profession," Simisage continued. "In other words, it's our job to find things. Or find out who might be responsible for things. And this-" Simisage dug in his bag, producing a leather envelope and handing it Ampharos "-Is a warrant issued by Cloud Nine on behalf of HAPPI."

Ampharos would be lying if he claimed he wasn't shocked. But he kept his cheerful face up anyway.

"May I ask what this is for?" Ampharos asked nicely.

"All will be explained in due time," Simisage drawled. "Now gather your flunkies for me. We need ta have a talk."

"They're… already gathered," Ampharos said, for once at a loss for words. "Just in there."

"Splendid."

~\({O})/~​

"Here's the deal." Simisage stood at the front of the stairs, where Ampharos usually stood for the daily morning briefing. Near the back, Vaporeon guarded the front doors as if the Expedition Society were a bunch of fugitives just waiting to make a break for it.

Simisage pulled out the leather envelope, showing it to everymon in the room.

"This warrant here authorizes a twenty-four-hour lockdown of the property; effective immediately," he said. "No-one is allowed to leave the premises until this time tomorrow."

Much of the Expedition Society suddenly looked quite worried.

"On what charges?" Bunnelby asked.

"Yeah. Where's this coming from?" Buizel added.

"The Expedition Society is suspected of 'monslaughter on a mass scale, fraud, and breach of contract," Simisage said. "I and my partner have been granted the authority to determine if there is any evidence of your guilt, which will be done through a series of investigations performed by myself, my partner-" Simisage gestured to Vaporeon "- and other, optional personnel, should it prove necessary."

The lobby was suddenly filled with several loud, angry pokemon all shouting over each other.

"'Monslaughter?!" Bunnelby cried out. "That's crazy!"

"But what if we need to go shopping for food!?" Swirlix cried out. "I'll go mad from hunger; I will!"

"Somemon was murdered!?" Archen shouted in terror.

"You can't confine us here all day!" said Buizel.

"Actually," said Simisage, "I think y'all will find I can." He shook the contents of the envelope.

Then the lobby exploded into racket again.

"What's the matter?' Nickit asked over the noise. "It's a day off. Are you really complaining about a day off?"

"It's not a day off if someone is guilty of… whatever blue monkey guy said, Nickit!" Holly chided.

Jirachi just yawned.

"But no-mon here is guilty," Nickit said coolly, staring Simisage in the eye.

Simisage stared her right back. "I'll be the judge of that," he said. And then he clapped his hands together.

~\({O})/~

~Ampharos~​

It was 10:00, and Simisage had well and truly derailed the entire day. He and his partner had contained the Expedition Society to a single bedroom in the residential wing, while the lobby had become a 'sacred place of investigation' (as Simisage had put it). Really, he had just set up a few chairs and a couple of connection orbs that belonged to Vaporeon. Ampharos distinctly remembered Vaporeon asking him why he hadn't brought his own.

"Is the connection orb recording?" Simisage asked, leaning to the side in the chair with a back support. He had a clipboard in his paw (also Vaporeon's).

Vaporeon double-checked, then clumsily tapped the orb with her nose. It began to glow.

"Now recording," she said, sitting down behind it.

"Al'ight." Simipour leaned back in the makeshift chair that had been set up for him. "Interview the first: Expedition Society; Chief Ampharos. Tell us about yourself."

"What do you want to know?" asked Ampharos, who cheerfully sat opposite of Simisage and Vaporeon.

Simisage leaned forward. "Everything."

"Well," said Ampharos. "Everything might take quite a while! And I understand you only have twenty-four hours. I suggest you lower your scope."

Simisage frowned flatly. "Start at the beginning, then."

Ampharos shrugged. "If you insist…" he said. He leaned back against thin air, acting as if there were back support behind him.

"It was dark inside the egg."

Vaporeon barely held in a groan of frustration.

~\({O})/~

~Mawile~​

"Interview the second: Expedition Society; Vice Chief Mawile." Simipour leaned forward in his seat. "I trust you'll be more co-operative than our last subject."

"To be fair," Vaporeon grumbled, "You didn't have to let him go on for four hours either."

"Ah- ah- ah! Quiet! Quiet! You're messing up the tapes!" Simisage snapped. He readjusted the way he was sitting in his seat. "Now. Mawile. I understand you migrated over from the Grass Continent before you joined the Expedition Society?"

Vaporeon caught the tiniest hint of a snarl that emerged from Mawile's back maw before it stiffened up and she spoke, a forced neutral look upon her face: "Yes. Yes, I did."

"And are there any latent feelin's of anger or insecurity pertaining to how Grass Continentials are viewed by the other continents?" Simipour asked.

Mawile took a deep breath through gritted teeth before answering.

"No," she said.

"Hmm." Simipour marked something down. "And do these feelin's that don't exist sometimes influence the way you do your jobs?"

Mawile immediately rose form her seat and walked off.

"This interview is over," she said firmly.

"It isn't over 'till I say it's over-" Simisage began.

"It's over," her back maw snarled at them.

Simisage sat back in his seat after she had left, an oddly satisfied look coming over his face. "Yeah. It's over," he said. "Roll next!"

~\({O})/~

~Jirachi~​

"Interview the third: Expedition Society; Engineer Jirachi. Are we rollin'?"

"We're rolling," said Vaporeon.

"Jirachi," Simisage clapped his paws together. "Complimentary question: How does it feel to be the only mythical pokemon currently working for a HAPPI-endorsed guild?"

"Why," Jirachi yawned. "It feels great."

"Sorry," he said, a minute later after he had finished yawning. "I'm not really awake until I have my remedy."

"Stay awake enough to answer these questions and you can be asleep for all I care," said Simisage.

Jirachi took him up on the second part.

~\({O})/~

~Archen~​

"Interview the fourth: Expedition Society; Off-Continent Explorer Archen." Simisage set down the clipboard he had been writing on, and then he leaned forwards. "Now I'm gonna ask you as a confidant," he said. "I understand you were one of two 'mon to lead the expedition to the Air Continent a week ago?"

"Unfortunately," Archen said, ruffling his feathers stiffly at the memory. "Who's asking?"

"I want the rundown of how that mission went. Leave no details out."

Archen rubbed his wings together nervously. "Well," he said. "It all began when we had to take a lapras all the way to Baram Town without sleeping for the night…

~\({O})/~

~Jirachi~​

"Interview the fifth: Expedition Society; Engineer Jirachi, continued. I assume you won't fall asleep on us this time?" Simisage asked.

"Nah," said Jirachi, doing a lazy cartwheel where he floated. "I've had my remedy now. That'll keep me going through the night."

"Amazin'," said Simisage. "Now tell me. What's the Expedition Society's process for makin' copies of photos?"

~\({O})/~

Residential Wing​

A single scarf sat on the windowsill, looking completely innocent.

"That is what it took. To get rid of the stench." Holly enunciated slowly; her voice dangerously calm. "A scarf infused with Sweet Scent. You would not believe. The hoops we had to jump through to get this thing. So kindly do not touch or sniff it, please."

"Wasn't dreaming of it," said Nickit. The rest of the Expedition Society lounged about in the room, where Simisage had told them to wait while they weren't being interviewed.

"My belly hurts…" Swirlix groaned. Everymon collectively ignored her.

"I wonder why we haven't gotten interviewed yet," Bunnelby pondered to himself.

~\({O})/~

Lobby​

"And that's break time!" Simisage clapped his paws twice, hopping down from the chair and collecting the connection orb. He gestured for Vaporeon to follow him out the doors as he went. The large doors closed behind them, leaving them in the Society's empty outdoor square.

"Alright, so what do we know?" Simisage asked in a hushed voice. "We know that their chief likes to dodge things. We know that the vice-chief has some hidden bias. We know their mission to the Air Continent gets fantastical once they reach Pokemon Plaza, and we know that it should only take half a week to print those photos. Somethin' we aren't getting' here."

"And we also know that they checked in with Mayor Honchkrow of Baram Town, and were picked up by the Water Continent's Ambassador on the way back," Vaporeon added. "Isn't a more prudent question what the Ambassador was doing here? Or perhaps a more prudent action to interview the mayor? I'm surprised you didn't try to follow up on that at all."

"But see, that's where you're wrong," said Simisage. "I already know what the ambassador was doin' here."

"And what's that?" Vaporeon asked skeptically.

"He's in on it. A better guild gets better votes. He remains in power. It's all one big conspiracy."

"It's all one big conspiracy in your head!" Vaporeon pointed out. "All of this – this entire investigation – it's all been based on guesswork you came up with! You wouldn't have done this a week ago! How did we even get this warrant? And-" her eyes veered to his chest "-And you're not wearing your badge again!"

"How do you explain shadow creatures that come out of nowhere?' Simisage asked, pointedly ignoring the last part of Vaporeon's question.

"It's our job to come up with answers for those questions, Simisage," Vaporeon stressed. "Don't forget; we're equal partners in this. And the only evidence we have to go off of is that a HAPPI-mandated mission was not completed, and one pokemon's word that last week the ambassador of the Water Continent was out in the middle of nowhere for no reason. That is what we know. Nothing more, nothing less. Work that into your calculations, Simisage."

And with that, she turned around and walked straight back through the Society's doors.

~\({O})/~

Dining Hall​

"I'd like to request on behalf of our members that Chef Swirlix be allowed to use the kitchen," Mawile stated calmly to Simisage.

"Denied," said Simisage. "We haven't interviewed her yet."

"Approved," said Vaporeon. "She isn't relevant to our investigation right now." She turned to Mawile. "We don't wish to inconvenience you beyond what is necessary. My partner has just forgotten that for a little while." She sent Simisage a quick glare to get her point across.

"I'm afraid you wouldn't be able to interview her anyway in her current state anyway," said Mawile.

"And what state is that?" Simisage asked suspiciously.

"FOOOOD!"

Mawile quickly stepped back seconds before the loud voice blasted down the hallway stronger than an Uproar, and Simisage and Vaporeon backed off just in time to not get crushed by the white puffball that charged down the hallway with the ferocity of a dragon.

"FoodfoodfoodfoodfoodGimmegimmenow-" Swirlix snarled as she ran. Her tongue hanging out; she uttered a few unintelligible syllables out at Mawile, Simisage, and Vaporeon, then dashed through the kitchen doors. She left a trail of slobber on the floor in her wake.

Both Simisage and Vaporeon looked rather shocked.

"…I could fine your guild for that on three fronts alone," said Vaporeon.

"You won't after you taste her cooking," Mawile replied. "No-mon ever does."

~\({O})/~

Mawile's Office

~Vaporeon~​

The door to Mawile's office opened, but Mawile was not the pokemon who stepped in. Vaporeon sneezed at all the dust circulating in the air from her entry, making sure to close the door behind her with the fin of her tail. Vaporeon didn't shed fur like all her furry brethren did, which made it perfect for sneaking about without leaving evidence behind. Which was what she was planning on doing. If there was one thing she had gathered from Simisage's interviews, it was that Mawile was the head of intelligence in this guild – if there was anything substantial to know, Mawile would know it. And she'd probably keep it in her office. Vaporeon looked around for a light switch, but it seemed like this room didn't have an electric light in the first place (even though the rest of the building was lit this way). Curious.

Once Vaporeon's eyes adjusted to the dark, she caught sight of something faintly glowing under a tarp. Vaporeon pulled the cover off with her mouth, flooding the room with blue light. She smirked in triumph: light!

Now for the investigation. It seemed Mawile had a fixation on history, particularly Sand Continent history. Several books on the subject lay around on the desk, open to various places. There were footnotes written in bluk berry ink onto a piece of paper, all leading to obscure legends that didn't seem to be linked in any way, shape, or form.

Vaporeon lowered her head under the desk, trying not to bump her tail into the bookshelves behind her or the cot that lay between them (this place was a claustrophobic disaster waiting to happen). This was the last place somemon would bother to search. Perhaps something was hidden here.

Vaporeon found no tomes of secrecy under the desk, but there was certainly a lot of dust under there- Vaporeon had a brief sneezing fit after inhaling a bunch of dust particles unwittingly. She removed her head from the dust and shook it to stop sneezing. Soon enough Vaporeon was able to open her eyes again, but something caught her eye near the corner of the room. Something that glinted.

Vaporeon took a closer look, as soon as she could adjust herself so that she didn't topple a bookcase by accident (seriously, this place was too small). On closer inspection they looked to be the shattered remains of a connection orb.

~\({O})/~

Lobby​

"…We were all given a presentation by Mawile," Archen explained, sitting in his interrogation seat. "I remember specifically that all the photos were saved to a connection orb, but it disappeared the next day. If you want my opinion, I think somemon stole it. Or wanted it hidden. Somemon didn't want pokemon to see those photos."

~\({O})/~

Mawile's Study​

One couldn't jump to conclusions. There was no proof that it was the same connection orb. Perhaps Mawile had dropped it at an earlier time and simply neglected to clean it up. (or perhaps she had broken it and hidden it here so that it wouldn't be found in the waste, Vaporeon's mind substituted. She chided herself for jumping to conclusions.) Vaporeon raised her head, but then she saw the photos on the wall. There were three, pinned next to one another. One of a house in Pokemon Plaza (She thought; it was hard to see in this light), and two of what looked like a stone lapras floating in on a raft. There was a note taped to it, written in loopy handwriting.

Vaporeon sat, looking at the photos. There was no proof that the connection orb was the same one she was thinking of, but that along with the photos were grounds for suspicion at least.

~\({O})/~​

"It feels weird to be eating without doing anything all day," Holly said, lying on her bed of straw. They could smell the aroma of whatever Swirlix was cooking in the kitchen from half the building away, but were powerless to leave the room without Simisage's say-so.

As if on cue, Simisage stepped into the room, reading off a list.

"Ampharos," he said.

"Right here!" Ampharos raised his paw, even though he was the tallest pokemon in the room and could clearly be seen by anymon present.

"Great," Simisage drawled. "Follow me."

~\({O})/~​

“Are we rolling?” Simisage asked, leaning back in his seat. There was no answer. Simisage frowned.

“Are we rolling?” Simisage asked. There was no answer. Simisage frowned.

“Are we rolling?” Simisage asked. There was no answer. Simisage frowned.

“Are we rolling?” Simisage asked. There was no answer. Simisage frowned.

“Are we rolling?” Simisage asked. There was no answer. Simisage frowned.

“Are we rolling?” Simisage asked. There was no answer. Simisage frowned.

“Are we rolling?” Simisage asked. There was no answer. Simisage frowned.

Simisage’s frown faltered. For a second he was still, as if he had locked up completely. He looked at the pair of connection orbs that sat next to him, noticing Vaporeon’s absence.

“That no-good partner…” he muttered, almost for appearance. “Always disappearin’ off to who-knows-where…”

Simisage returned his attention to Ampharos, pressing the record button on the connection orb.

“Interview the Sixth: Expedition Society, Chief Ampharos, continued. Hopin’ you’ll be a bit more co-operative than last time,” Simisage said. He prepped the clipboard Vaporeon had given him.

“Fire away,” Ampharos said.

“I want to know why the ambassador of the Water Continent spent three days at your establishment before leaving,” Simisage said.

Ampharos considered his next answer carefully. Now that he thought about it, he realized he still didn’t have a good idea as to why the Ambassador had shown up for the photos in the first place.

“How do you know the Ambassador was here?” Ampharos asked.

“Others’ testimony stands against you,” said Simisage. “Don’t be coy.”

“As I understand it,” Ampharos said, “The Ambassador arrived claiming authority to collect the photos on Cloud Nine’s behalf. He stayed three days while they were prepared, then collected them and left that same night. I think you’ll find the others’ testimony will line up with mine.”

Ampharos purposefully left out the part about Zoroark and the photos being destroyed.

“And yet you attempted to keep this secret,” Simisage said.

“I didn’t feel the need to complicate things further,” Ampharos said.

Simisage cleared his throat.

“As I understand it,” he continued, switching fronts, “your Vice-Chief was the ‘mon who handled the making and distribution of the photos?”

“Yes, along with Engineer Jirachi, that’s correct,” said Ampharos.

“And you made no backup copies despite this?” Simisage questioned.

“We put our trust in our superiors,” Ampharos said. “As long as the photos were safe in Primarina’s hand we didn’t feel the need to make backup copies.”

Also a lie, but Ampharos trusted that no-mon had said otherwise to Simisage. Perhaps it was just the way the light shined on him, but Ampharos was almost certain there was an annoyed look on Simisage’s face.

“One last thing,” he said. “Tell me your opinion of your vice-chief. Specifically, her heritage.”

Ampharos tilted his head, immediately suspicious. He sat forward. “bit of a weird question to ask, don’t you think?”

“Well see,” said Simisage. “Here’s what I think. I think that your vice chief refuses to remain impartial to her jobs. Somethin’ about that heritage bothers her, and I think it could lead to major lapses in judgement, Like, say, rigging events to her benefit or mismanaging photos on purpose.”

“Allow me to settle your concerns,” said Ampharos icily. “I can assure you nothing like that has ever happened under my or her supervision.”

“Is that so,” Simisage muttered back. He sat forward, switching the connection orb off. “What if I told you that jus this mornin’, she proved the opposite to me?”

It was a moment before Ampharos had the clarity to answer. “…I’m sure she wouldn’t do that,” he said.

Simisage played something on the connection orb.

“This interview is over,” Mawile’s voice blared through the orb.

“It’s not over until I say it is-“

“It’s over.” A snarl from her back maw, and Simisage shut off the recording. He sat back in his seat.

“What do you say to that?” he said.

“I would say that I’m missing the context,” Ampharos said.

“I would say the context isn’t important,” Simisage said. Ampharos looked at the orb, noticing it was turned off. “It’s what I tell the authorities that’s gonna be important. And my word outlobbies yours here. I say you’re guilty, you’re guilty.”

Abandoning all tact completely, he got up off his chair and walked over to Ampharos. “So here’s how this is gonna go. You testify against your vice-chief, allow us to perform the arrest, and I let the rest of y’all off with a warning. You don’t, and I get y’all behind bars. Crystal?”

“And how exactly do you plan to accomplish that?” Ampharos asked coolly. He wasn’t sure if Simisage was bluffing, but he was willing to gamble on it.

“Why, by using what you have so kindly given me with these interviews,” Simisage said. “I have the arrest warrant papers in my portfolio, if you’d like to sign them.”

Ampharos was about to respond, but they were suddenly interrupted by Vaporeon, who strode into the room silently. She looked a bit shaken.

“I thought I would tell the both of you that the chef called dinner,” she said. And then she walked away. Vaporeon didn’t add that she had been observing the entire affair from behind the door.

Ampharos and Simisage both looked at one another.

“We’ll settle this later,” said Simisage.

“Indeed,” Ampharos responded calmly.

~\({O})/~

Dining Hall​

Swirlix's dinner that night was not nearly as fancy as the breakfast buffet she had cooked in the wake of the Ambassador's arrival, but to the starving Expedition Society (whose stomachs had beared the burden of the day's stress) it might as well have been heaven on earth. Mawile walked into the dining room after everymon else, where Swirlix had just set the table full of food and rang the dinner bell. As she entered, Vaporeon fell into stride alongside her.

"I'd like to conduct an interview of my own with you after dinner," said Vaporeon to Mawile.

Mawile took a deep breath in and out before she answered. Vaporeon could tell that she was trying to keep the stress under control. "That's fine," she breathed.

"I'll be as tactful as I can," Vaporeon assured. "I only need to confirm a few things Simisage left out."

"Agreeable."

And with that, Mawile curtly took a seat. Simisage sat near them, wedging himself between Archen and Nickit and keeping a suspiciously close eye on Ampharos.

As Ampharos ate, his mind wandered. He was presented with a rather gruesome ultimatum. Which option was the greater crime? And perhaps more importantly: was there a way out?

Ampharos began to brainstorm. This ‘detective’ wasn’t on the level; that much he could tell. And even worse, he seemed to have a vendetta against the Expedition Society. To betray facts for fraud so callously… Ampharos was disgusted at the very notion. And supposedly he could destroy their entire guild from hearsay alone, which may have been a bluff for all Ampharos knew. But he wasn’t willing to take that chance in matters this serious.

The only thing Ampharos knew for sure was that Simisage was powerless without those interviews. If he could somehow get to the interviews; delete them or otherwise do away with them… then Simisage would have no proof against them. Nothing to show for all his investigating. It was a low tactic, but it was a price that Ampharos was willing to pay. And so, he made it a plan.

~\({O})/~

Lobby​

Night had fallen, but the doors of the Expedition Society remained the same way they had been all day: closed. The interview seats had once again been set up, but this time Vaporeon sat where Simipour had. She touched the record button on the connection orb, and then returned to business.

"Interview the Seventh: Expedition Society; Vice Chief Mawile, continued," Vaporeon spoke aloud for the record. "Mawile, previous testimony of Off-Continent Explorer Archen indicates that at one point, you had the photos taken at Pokemon Plaza saved onto a singular connection orb. In your office, the remains of a broken connection orb lie on the floor. The photos themselves are nowhere to be found. Is there any correlation between this connection orb, and the one in your office?"

Mawile looked briefly annoyed at the notion of her office having been disturbed, but didn't say anything and disrupt the interview.

"There is," she answered. "The files were not saved properly onto the connection orb itself. It was useless, so I left it on my desk. At some point it must have fallen off and broken."

"So am I correct in guessing that the only physical copies of the photos themselves went with the Ambassador?"

"You are," said Mawile.

"I assume you are also aware that the Ambassador has not been seen for almost a week since leaving port in Lively Town?"

"I have recently been made aware of that fact," Mawile answered.

"Very well." Vaporeon took a deep breath. "One last question. For the record, and to erase any and all doubts about possible motives for a crime: What are your feelings and relations to the Grass Continent?"

Mawile did not appreciate that question. Vaporeon saw it in her eyes. But then, with only a twitch of her back maw, Mawile answered.

"I was born in a small village near Treasure Town," Mawile said. "The Wigglytuff's Guild is what inspired me to join the exploration research field, but the Wigglytuff Guild itself had no need of my services, so I decided to travel abroad and search for independent work. At first, I attempted to join the major guilds, but they did not think highly of the idea of a researcher from the Grass Continent. From there, I joined a few start-up guilds as a regular explorer, looking to build up my portfolio, but they all sank as fast as they started up. I remember attempting to rid myself of the Grass Continential accent in order to increase my likelihood of a job, but it showed up in my papers and nothing changed. Ampharos found me at an explorer's convention in Noe Town, and he offered to hire my profession in order gauge the scope and size of a mystery dungeon he was looking into exploring. I accepted, he hired me for good, and here we are. That is all there is to know."

She finished, looking up at Vaporeon steadily. "Is there anything else you wanted to know?"

"No," said Vaporeon. "This interview can be brought to a close. Thank you for your attendance. End interview." And with that, she pressed the button on the connection orb with her nose , and brough the conversation to an end.

"Apologies," she muttered under her breath as Mawile curtly left.

~\({O})/~

Expedition Society Hallway

~Mawile~​

It was late, and everymon was already in bed.

Mawile rarely ever used her allotted bedroom. It had become something of a storage room in the recent years, where she would lop things that had no use or place in her study so it didn't clutter up space elsewhere. They all lay in wooden crates, stacked neatly on top of each other with a piece of paper attached to each one, informing pokemon on where everything went. As it all should be. Mawile headed to her bed, reluctantly tucking herself into the pile of straw. Team Cobalt had fenced off the upper floor for the night, and that meant all the Expedition Society 'mon were sleeping on the lower floor. Mawile laid to her side, and attempted to drift off…

…But she couldn't. She wasn't used to sleeping at this hour. Even when she didn't take her chesto berry, she always slept during the day and worked at night, when there was no-mon else to bug her. Sleeping at this hour felt wrong. So wrong, that Mawile couldn't even stay in bed any longe.r She sat up, pulling the covers off herself. She might be able to lobby permission to use her study with Vaporeon. Assuming Vaporeon was still awake.

And if she was asleep, then Mawile saw no conflict of interest.

She walked out of her room, slinking down the hallway until she reached the lobby. Crime scene tape had been slung over the entrance to the second floor, but it was nothing somemon couldn't easily pass if they wanted to. Mawile stopped herself from scoffing in favor of silence.

She entered the second floor, approaching the large room where the Pokemon Nexus was hidden. Her study was just a room away…

-Mawile suddenly hid as a door opened. Peeking out, she saw that it was the door to Ampharos' Office. The lights clicked off, and Simsiage stepped out, empty handed. He looked annoyed. Mawile stayed hidden, watching him as he went. He was up to something. Mawile watched him slip through the room, and disappear into her study.

That was the last line crossed. Mawile was not endorsing that a second time. She slowly crept forward, catching the door before it could close and peeking in.

Inside, Simisage rifled through the study, searching for something. Mawile kept herself hidden, watching him silently.

Soon Simisage found what he was looking for: the broken connection orb under the desk. He picked the shards up, stuffing them into his bag. Then he looked up. He saw the photos. Mawile just stopped herself from yelling out for him to stop. This was bad.

Simisage reached up, and plucked the photos one-by-one off the wall. He made to stuff them in his bag as well, but then stopped at the last second. Instead, he brought the photos up to his face. Mawile had to adjust her position to see around the back of his head.

Then Simisage tore. He tore the photos in half. And then into fourths. And then eights. And then into several pieces so small Mawile couldn't even count them anymore.

Mawile was horrified. She had an inclination to yell out to him right now, but that would just get her caught. And then Simisage turned back towards the door. He didn't see anything, because Mawile had disappeared.

Mawile hid behind the second-floor trash can as Simisage exited the office. He looked around just to make sure he hadn't been seen, then continued on his way. Mawile wasn't noticed as he walked downstairs, leaving his bag in an obvious spot at the front of the stairwell. Mawile silently followed.

Simisage dropped the photos in the wastebin outside the kitchen, then left in the opposite direction. Mawile quickly hid so that she wouldn't be found. As soon as he was gone, she slunk over to the bin and pulled out what remained of the photos: they were in so many pieces that she couldn't even hope to piece them back together.

She heard the sound of somemon creeping back up the stairs. Mawile decided to cut her losses and leave. As saddening as that loss of information would be… it wasn't worth getting caught by Simisage over.

Soon after Mawile had crept back to her bedroom, Ampharos snuck into the hallway. He took a look all over the room, just to make sure he wasn't being watched. There were no pokemon that he could see.

Good.

Silently, Ampharos crept through the hall, doing the best to keep the glow of his tail dim. It glowed brightly anyway, as he couldn't stay calm long enough to dim it. Ampharos just decided to move along and pretend like the orb glowing at the end of his tail wasn't a large giveaway.

Simisage's bag was sitting at the edge of the staircase. Ampharos considered for a minute that its placement was just a little too convenient, but he didn't have much choice in the matter. If it was a trap, he'd just have to spring it. And so he reached the bag, opened, it, and began to rifle through its contents.

Up at the top of the stairwell where a pokemon on the first floor wouldn't be able to see, a connection orb started recording.

There were only a few things inside the bag, and Ampharos had no trouble finding the connection orb he was looking for amongst the ledgers of documents. He pulled it out, and then activated it with his Expedition Gadget. Ampharos went into the menu. He pulled up the list of recordings, and went all the way down until he found the one detailing his second interview with Simisage. He opened it, then swiped right.

Large red words appeared upon the connection orb's projection: "Would you like to delete this file? [Yes/No]"

Ampharos thought for a minute. If he did this and was caught… all the better to do it quickly, then. He pressed 'yes'. The file disappeared from the menu, and then Ampharos deleted all of Mawile's interviews as well. He removed the connection orb from his expedition gadget, putting the connection orb back in the bag and then zipping it back up. The mechanical camera of the connection orb caught him slinking back into the Society's residential wing.

~\({O})/~

Baram Town ~ Spinda's Café

~Vaporeon~​

It was nighttime. Vaporeon was dizzy, and she was only 25% sure the food served in Spinda's made you that dizzy (Although she couldn't be sure, because she was dizzy and she thought a few other patrons looked slightly dizzy too).

"Hope that hit to the head didn' do ya any harm," Simisage said, sipping from his drink neatly. He wore his police badge, an ornament he took pride in and made sure to carry around with him everywhere.

"It was only an emboar," Vaporeon said. "I had the type advantage; I'll be fine. Thanks for asking, though."

"Alice." Simisage said sternly. "A physical hit to the head ain't a type advantage; that's just a physical hit to the head. If it gets worse I want you to get it checked out. Deal?"

"Fine." Vaporeon wouldn't lie – she was feeling a bit out of it ever since that hit. Maybe so medical care would be a good thing.

They sat in silence, eating their food for a few minute. Then Simisage got up and stretched.

"I'll be back," he said. "I'll only be a minute. Hold my seat for me, will ya?"

Vaporeon silently curled her tail fin onto his seat in response. Simisage smiled in gratitude, then ran off.

It was quite a few minutes before Simisage came back, and in that time Vaporeon had been cussed out by more than one pokemon who had their eyes set on Simisage's seat (Spinda's was a popular place). He looked a bit more distant than he normally did, looking at Vaporeon dully. "What happened ta you?"

Even through her dizziness, Vaporeon noticed a change like that.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"I'm fine. I'm askin' about you. Just answer the question"

Maybe he'd slipped in a puddle or something and had a mood. It was a terrible excuse in hindsight, but Vaporeon just wanted to rationalize any problems away and make her evening go right. She'd deal with the consequences tomorrow—

But she hadn't dealt with them tomorrow. Not even when he'd paid the check in that weirdly loopy handwriting. She hadn't dealt with the consequences in over a week, and Simisage had never been the same. He never wore his police badge around, never talked to her the same way he did before, and his handwriting…

…His handwriting. His handwriting.

~\({O})/~

Expedition Society Headquarters​

Vaporeon awoke, sitting up in the straw bed in shock and breathing intensely. She knew. She knew. She knew she knew she knew she knew she knew.

But that couldn't be right. Because if it was that meant

That meant

That

It

No

She couldn't

She can't

He

He

But

But

It was.

Vaporeon retched in horror. And then she puked. And then she cried.

~\({O})/~

Lobby​

It was eight-forty-five. The lobby was once again filled with all the pokemon in the Expedition Society, who all stood lined up in a neat row like they usually did for morning briefings. Vaporeon and Simisage stood at the front of the stairs. Simisage held a connection orb discreetly in his paw.

"I'm sure you're wondering why I've called you all here, with only fifteen minutes until the lockdown lifts, Vaporeon said, discreetly wiping away a tear on her cheek with her tail. "It isn't in vain: I've solved the case. And rest assured…" her eyes flicked over the room. "One of you in here is guilty."

"Who?" Bunnelby asked, eyeing everymon else in the room nervously.

"They know who they are," Vaporeon said. "Now allow me to explain to the rest of you. The guilty party, the pokemon in this room who has unquestionably committed a crime, is my own partner."

At her side, Simisage looked at her in shock.

"You…" he stammered in disbelief. "You're accusing me? Wha? Explain. Now."

"Gladly," said Vaporeon, her tone hardening. She looked back towards the rest of the Expedition Society. "I first noticed something was off about Simisage when he began to routinely not wear his police badge. True to my deductions, he has not worn one for the last week and a half, and he isn't wearing one now."

Simisage looked down at his badgeless chest.

"That's no pretense to accuse someone of crimes over," he said angrily. "I just forgot it!"

"You didn't bring it," said Vaporeon. She turned to Mawile. "Mawile, if you please, Simisage's luggage?"

"Gladly." Mawile strode over and grabbed Simisage's bag out from the storage room outside the hallway. She opened it, revealing its completely empty insides – save for a thick leather envelope.

"Open the envelope, please."

Mawile opened the envelope and pulled out the papers contained within. They were blank. Vaporeon turned back towards Simisage.

"You faked a warrant. This case never had any pretense or authorization from HAPPI. So you broke the law in order to incriminate the Expedition Society. The only question left to answer is why."

"I- I…" Simisage stammered.

"Picture this," Vaporeon said, addressing the entire room. "There are monsters in this world. Monsters that stay hidden until they see fit to strike from the shadows. And on the Air Continent, that is exactly what happens. Two monsters are responsible for the destruction of Pokemon Plaza. Two monsters with two missions. One heads to Pokemon Plaza to kill everymon there. The other-" she took a moment for a deep breath "-the other kills and replaces my partner, Simisage, in Baram Town."

~\({O})/~

Baram Town ~ Outside Spinda's​

Simisage walked around the back of the restaurant, looking for a restroom that wasn't bird-suited. Damn birds, only thinking of themselves and no-mon else… He had always found disdain for the way Grass Continentials did their business, but right now he was seriously considering following in their footsteps.

Simisage looked left, and then right. No-mon was looking. No-mon would know or mind or particularly care if he just-

The creature slunk into the alleyway behind him. Simisage spun around at the sound, looking at the creature. It stood out against the alleyway's darkness; so dark that he wouldn't be able to see any of it if not for the fact that it was darker than everything else.

"Who's that'?" he asked. The creature didn't answer. Simisage took a step forward.

"You ain't scarin' me," he said. "I just dealt with an emboar today and won; wanna bet on if I can take you—"

The creature lunged. Simisage never even got the chance to scream.

~\({O})/~

Lobby​

"You can't prove that!" Simisage cried out angrily. "You're crazy; that's what you are!"

"Maybe I am, Vaporeon said. "But if I may be allowed to insinuate further, I think I'll begin to sound a lot more sane."

"See, the monsters are crafty," Vaporeon continued. "If they reveal their presence to the world, they know that they will be wiped out. They need to disappear. They need somemon else to be seen doing something that will remove suspicion off them entirely; dismiss the barest notion that they even exist! And so a plan begins to form in their heads. When the Expedition Society is drafted to investigate Pokemon Plaza, they make their move. One monster sneaks back to Pokemon Plaza the night after you arrive, murdering and posing as Simisage. It then attacks their lapras escort, pins a note to it, and sends it floating into the harbor on a raft- pretenses for a future plot. Now cue the Ambassador. The Ambassador's role is simple- he needs to stop you from delivering the photos to HAPPI, because if HAPPI catches wind of what has happened in Pokemon Plaza that soon, the monster's plan is down the drain. I can only assume the Ambassador has been replaced or otherwise manipulated as well, explaining his disappearance. The Ambassador sabotages your mission efforts. His plan initially fails, but the Ambassador has a failsafe plan: the connection orb the photos are downloaded onto corrupts them before they can be transferred onto another device. With all evidence of Pokemon Plaza's massacre erased forever, the monster then puts the final segment of its plan into action. It guides HAPPI towards Pokemon Plaza, and then tries to pin the blame on the Expedition Society."

Vaporeon turned to Simisage. "And that's why you came here, isn't it?" she accused. "With a fake warrant and a pocket of lies. The Expedition Society is your scapegoat, a debacle to keep the authorities in the dark while you go about your plans, isn't it?"

"Perhaps you're forgettin' somethin'," Simisage said. "I'm not a monster! I'm not! I'm not I'm not i'M nOt!"

"Prove it to me," said Vaporeon. "What were we doing in Baram Town?"

There was a delayed pause before Simisage answered. "Vacationin'," he finally said.

"Wrong." Vaporeon said. "We were solving a theft, and celebrating the successful completion of that mission. Try again. What's my name?"

"…Aqua?" Simisage guessed.

"Wrong. It's Elizabeth. Try again."

"…Elizabeth?" Simisage guessed one last time.

"Wrong again," Vaporeon said sternly. "My name is Alice, and you are not my partner."

Simisage was silent for a minute. Ampharos tensed up in case a fight was about to break out, and the rest of the Expedition Society quickly followed his example.

Simisage breathed hard. Then he suddenly bolted for the door.

"Don't let it get away!" Alice yelled, and everymon began to run after it. Simisage ran out the front door with the connection orb in his hand, then ran through the square. It stopped at the sewer monhole. As Alice and Expedition Society dashed out the front door after it, Simisage turned around to look back at them. It grinned, and then slowly began to dissolve and sink in…

A sudden water gun from Buizel jolted the monster away from the monhole, and then Bunnelby charged forward while Simisage was still recovering. On the other side, Jirachi flew around and cut the Simisage off. It looked both ways at all the pokemon surrounding it, then lunged past Jirachi for the entrance to Lively Town. Jirachi was sent flying to the side but Ampharos quickly let off a dragon rage that hit the creature directly. Simisage hit the ground hard. The connection orb hit the ground and rolled to a stop near the sidewalk. It was cracked but still intact.

Now crippled, Simisage began to crawl for the connection orb. Racing forward, Bunnelby saw that its legs were regenerating.

"Everymon get over here!" he yelled. "It's growing back!"

Simisage hissed at Bunnelby – unnaturally; gutturally – and then fired a large shadowy ball at Bunnelby. Bunnelby ducked and barely leaped out of the way. He saw it catch the end of a chimney, leaving it stone grey.

The rest of the Expedition Society ran up, joining Bunnelby as they watched whatever had pretended to be Simisage crawl over to the orb. Its legs had nearly grown back.

Ampharos quickly charged another dragon rage up, but Simisage clutched its hand around the orb first. It looked back at him, grinning evilly.

"Just… have… to send… this… video…" it hissed, performing the motions as it spoke. Ampharos blasted Simisage with the dragon rage, and then the rest of the Expedition Society followed suit with their own attacks.

It was too much for the monster to bear: it began to disintegrate, evaporating up into the air and convulsing like it was in agony as it did. And then slowly, it was gone.

~\({O})/~

Lively Town Docks​

"So what are you going to tell HAPPI?"

The ferry Vaporeon and 'Simisage' had used to travel to Lively Town floated in the docks. The ferrymon would be waiting for them, but not for much longer. Dedenne had followed to see Vaporeon off, even helping carry Vaporeon's bag for her (which was no easy feat when the bag was bigger than you were).

"I don't know," Vaporeon said, lowering her head. "I guess I'll tell them nothing of consequence was discovered. And…" she went silent for a minute. "I'll have to find a new partner. I'll be keeping an eye out. If I find something, I'll go to you first."

She took her bag off of Dedenne and tossed it over her shoulder. Dedenne waved at her as she climbed onto the ferry. Vaporeon waved back the best she could.

Slowly, the ferry sailed away towards the setting sun. And soon, it was gone.

~\({O})/~

Baram Town

~Zoroark~​

Zoroark-as-Braixen sat in the seat closest to the door of the mayor’s office. The large vane of the windmill slowly descended over the windows, casting the entire room briefly into darkness for the umpteenth time. He had been waiting out there for hours, thinking about what Honchkrow and Primarina were talking about. In fact, if he leaned close enough to the door…

Zoroark-as-Braixen leaned over in his seat, trying to get a good idea of what was being said.

“Do I have your word that no-mon hears anything about these photos?” Primarina asked.

“Your secret is safe with me.”

“Good. And remember, there’s a good mention for you in the elections if you keep that secret. If not…” Primarina lowered his voice, and Zoroark-as-Braixen had to strain his ears to hear the last part: “I know your secret.”

There was something that sounded like Honchkrow reluctantly trilling in confirmation, and then the door opened and Primarina slithered out.

“Come on,” he said to Zoroark. Let’s go.

~\({O})/~

The Exeggutor ~ Nighttime​

Primarina did not seem in the best of straights. He hadn’t been for almost a week. He was slouched over, tired, and responded to few of Zoroark’s prompts. Once or twice, Zoroark throught he had seen what looked like a black spark or two zipping out of the corner of his eye. He was beginning to get worried. And now Primarina had been piloting the Exeggutor to an unknown location out at sea after leaving Baram Town. There was a storm brewing in the distance, and that only amplified Zoroark’s worry.

Soon, the boat stopped all together. Zoroark had been playing a game of checkers lazily with himself on the front deck when the boat bumped to a stop and knocked over his board all together. He looked around, his eyes settling on the ship’s cabin. He cast another look towards the storm in the distance, which was only growing closer. The rumble of thunder a few seconds later punctuated its near arrival. What was Primarina doing?

And with that thought motivating him, Zoroark got up and headed over to the captain’s cabin.

Zoroark burst into, looking around. The steering wheel was near the front, and Primarina was slouched over it, asleep. He must have collapsed! Zoroark quickly attempted to wake him.

“Hey,” he hissed. “Primarina. You awake?” Primarina didn’t stir. “Are you okay??” Zoroark shook him. Primarina was completely unresponsive. Slowly, he slid off and onto the floor, spinning the wheel as he fell. The ship suddenly made a violent bank to the right, and Zoroark was barely able to grab onto something as the cabin tilted. He grabbed onto the steering wheel, stopping it from spinning uncontrolled. Slowly, the ship began to stabilize itself.

Zoroark took a second to catch his breath, then paced around the cabin for a few seconds. What had happened? Was Primarina dead? This was bad. And trapped out here all alone too?

Okay. He had to calm down. He could get out of this. He just had to figure out the first step – getting to land. He just had to steer the ship back there! That could work.

…If only he knew how to work a ship as big as this.

And he didn’t.

Zoroark tried pulling on the steering wheel, but either because the ship’s violent bank had broken something or other powers were stopping the boat, it wouldn’t budge. Eventually, Zoroark gave up. What was another good way to reach land?

The transmission machine. That was a good fallback. But there would be a six-hour delay between transmissions, and Zoroark wasn’t sure they would make it. He looked at the storm outside through the window. It was getting uncomfortably close.

And then he noticed from outside the window that the water was glowing.

Zoroark exited the captain’s cabin and marched up to the starboard railing, looking over the side at the glowing water. There was something under there. Something large.

Something moving…

And then it attacked.

The captain’s cabin – easily half the ship – was suddenly gone. The large crimson head of a massive gyarados crashed back into the ocean. The ship splintered. Zoroark fell. The game of checkers fell off the deck and was lost to sea forever.

Zoroark acted quickly. He looked at all the debris floating away – there was a good large plank, easily a makeshift raft. Large enough to hold him. Zoroark didn’t see his fake wand anywhere – it must have been caught up in the wreckage. Oh well. He didn’t need it anyway. He jumped onto the plank, and none too soon: the water began to glow again, and just a second later the other half of the ship was snatched up in the gyarados’ mouth.

Zoroark watched as the gyarados’ massive head slowly retreated back into the ocean. Then there was nothing but the wrecked remains of the Exeggutor in a state, which he stared at in a state of distant shock. Shivering, Zoroark crawled onto the plank completely. The water had lost its glow; it seemed like the red gyarados wasn’t concerned with small prey like him.

And then all was silent, and Zoroark only had the storm he was floating away from for company.

~\({O})/~​

Music of the week!

Blanc's Tale, Part II - Nathan Johnson

 

[SparklingEspeon]

~\({O})/~

18.

Fallout

~\({O})/~

~Espurr~​

…Hello.

Espurr fell back onto the blackness in startlement. She immediately leapt to her feet, training her mental precision onto the vortex. In her mind, she felt it tense up. It knew: it could get hurt in here.

“Who are you?” Espurr questioned loudly to the swirling vortex of blackness and whispers.

Me? I am the voice that lives in everyone’s head.

Espurr didn’t know what that meant, but there were more important things to ask.

“Where are we?” she asked next, keeping her mind trained on the voice.

this is the In-Between. the subconscious of a mind, where memories go to die and be found. Few pokemon can access it.

“Then why are we here?” Espurr asked.

Because I have willed it to be.

The vortex swirled around Espurr, then disintegrated into nothing right before her eyes. Espurr quickly looked around to see where it went, but it was gone.

This world is rotting. It is a withered corpse of what it once was. Soon by my hand it shall cease to exist. I offer you an escape.

The voice boomed out of nowhere, resounding all around her. Espurr turned around in the blackness, looking around to see where it was coming from. But she could see nothing.

You have come from a different world; A different time. your captor, the one who brought you here, has robbed you of that for selfish purposes. would you not like it back?

Espurr breathed heavily, looking around in vain. She didn’t like what this voice was saying. And yet…

“What does that mean?” she asked the blackness firmly, over the whispering chorus of voices that had grown in volume.

I can give you your old life back. Let you discover who you were before you were taken. Just like I blessed you with the ability to read the language of Humans.

That made Espurr pause for a minute. For just a minute, she was actually listening to what the voice had to say.

See the mercy of your captor? to not even leave you with that one simple thing? you deserve better. Allow me to grant what your captor has denied you.

It tempted Espurr. To know all the secrets she had been dying for ever since she had woken up in that mystery dungeon three weeks ago… she almost said yes.

But she knew better.

“What’s the catch?!” she yelled up at the blackness over the chorus of voices. They were chanting something; she could barely make out the words among the incessant whispering-

—human—

—threat—

—rip—

—Tear—

—KILL—

—Not yet—

—cease…—

You will abandon this world as you know it and return to your old life.

The answer should be no, Espurr’s first gut instinct told her. But then other parts of her began to think. Was it really that bad a choice? She had been here three weeks. That was barely enough time to actually grow attached to anything here. Maybe she should leave. (She couldn’t believe she was seriously considering that, but she was.) But then she thought of Tricky. What would Tricky do if she up and vanished one day?

And that was what ultimately swayed Espurr’s mind.

“No,” said Espurr. “I’ve made up my mind.”

Then so be it.

The voices all around Espurr suddenly began to rise in intensity, getting louder and louder until Espurr could hear clearly what they had to say-

—Rip—

—Tear—

—maul—

—Kill—

—Kill her kill her NOW—

“Get out!” Espurr screamed over the chorus, now terrified. “Get out of my head!!”

The voices did not get out of her head. They only got louder. And then the vortex began to form right above Espurr again. It was angry. It began to reach out for her from above…

Espurr lashed back. She wanted to explode, to blow the vortex apart like she’d blown up the classroom; if only she could find the right mental snag…

…And then she did. The dream BOOMED, and Espurr blacked out—

~\({O})/~​

What lived in the Ancient Barrow awoke from its slumber. It shrieked in the night like a demon, clawing its way up and out of the Barrow’s broken doors.

Hunt.

Find.

Kill.

~\({O})/~

Audino’s House​

—Espurr hit the floor of her bedroom.

Her real bedroom. Espurr scrabbled her paws along the very solid, very rugged, very visible floorboards in joy—she had escaped!

…At the cost of a slight headache. Espurr rubbing her forehead in pain. She sat back against the straw bed she had fallen out of, staring up at the window tiredly. It was sunny. At the very least, that meant she wouldn’t have to go to bed again.

~\({O})/~

Village Square​

The Pelipper Post visited Serenity Village that day. There hadn’t been any word from the Pelipper Post in weeks, so when a lone pelipper flew over Serenity Village and dropped a single copy of the Lively Town Times smack in the middle of the Village Square, the entire village went out to investigate. It was Simipour who took the newspaper in his hands, uncurling it and reading the news headline:

“Breaking News: Pokemon Plaza on Air Continent found deserted; Air Continent economy takes a major hit,” Simipour read aloud. He and the other adults all traded concerned looks.

“Pokemon Plaza?” Tricky asked, her tail drooping. Simipour nodded. “but that means…”

Tricky began to breathe hard, at a loss for words. She turned away from everymon else, and was silent for a while. Everymon’s attention—Espurr included—returned to Simipour.

Simipour folded the newspaper. “Run along,” he said, waving off the children. “This isn’t a matter for children.”

Espurr was about to combat that with her own counterargument, but then saw many of the adults in the square (From Sawsbuck to Hippopotas to Lotad) nodding their heads in agreement. It seemed their minds were made up. It was a lost cause. Espurr said nothing.

Ursaring did a fist pump.

“Yes,” she said in a hushed declaration of excitement. “Not a child anymore!”

Uncle swatted her on the ear.

The adults all convened at Kangaskhan’s Café (aside from Kangaskhan, who had capitalized on the few ‘mon who weren’t interested in the weekly news and had headed off for an easy breakfast instead), leaving all six of the children all on their lonesome in the square.

To everymon’s surprise, Deerling was the first one among them to talk.

“…So,” she said awkwardly. “You guys… wanna give chess a go?”

Everymon looked at each other oddly.

“Eh,” Pancham shrugged. “Why not.”

~\({O})/~​

Deerling had gone back to her house to quickly retrieve the chess kit and the manual, and then the six of them had set it up in the square to play. There was only room for two players at a time, so they took turns playing and watching each other play. After reading the manual, Goomy and Deerling went first. Goomy’s slimy paws weren’t made for pushing all the pieces around, but he managed to beat Deerling by just a hairline. (Or perhaps Deerling had let him win. Espurr couldn’t tell).

Tricky went up against Shelmet next. By the end of their game, Espurr silently concluded that Tricky had no tact or strategy whatsoever, while Shelmet was a closet chess genius. Their game had lasted all of five minutes.

Then Espurr faced Pancham. She knew it wouldn’t be easy; Pancham was sharp when he wasn’t being mean. Their game lasted longer than the last two combined had, but when Pancham finally knocked over Espurr’s nidoqueen the others clapped and rejoiced. The three games combined lasted them until the end of the adults’ conference.

It was late afternoon when the adults all streamed out of the Café Connection, all walking around or herding their child off home. Even Kecleon’s was setting up shop rather late (but better late than never).

Carracosta cleared his throat, standing over Espurr, Tricky, and Deerling (The rest had had to leave early).

“Oh! Right.” Tricky stood up, shaking herself off obliviously. “I’m helping make dinner tonight. I gotta go. Bye!” She waved at Espurr, and then followed Carracosta eastwards. Then it was just Espurr and Deerling. Espurr quickly put the pieces of the chess kit back in the box. She and Deerling both stood up.

“So… good game today,” Deerling said. She held out her hoof to shake, and Espurr shook it.

It had been such a pleasant afternoon that Espurr had forgotten all about telling Tricky about the Beheeyem.

~\({O})/~

Audino’s House​

“What was in the newspaper?” Espurr asked over dinner. She had forgotten about it over the course of the afternoon, but after everymon had gone home and the sky had gotten dark it had slowly come back to her. She didn’t know where Pokemon Plaza was, much less what had happened to it, but now she wanted to know.

“It’s nothing you need be concerned with,” said Audino.

“But I want to be concerned with it,” Espurr replied matter-of-factly. Audino was silent for a minute.

“Children shouldn’t have to deal with things like this so soon,” she finally said. “Cherish your youth while you still have it. You’ll thank me later.”

“Why can’t I know?” Espurr pressed.

“Because you’re thirteen!” Audino said. “You’re too young to be worrying over things like this! You should grow up and evolve before you have to worry like that!”

Espurr had the urge to tell Audino she already had a thousand things to worry about aside from whatever had happened in Pokemon Plaza, but that would probably send Audino over the edge. Reluctantly, she dropped the topic, and both pokemon went back to eating their dinners.

~\({O})/~

School Grounds ~ Nighttime

~Watchog~​

Watchog guarded the school every Thursday and Sunday. All through the day, and then all through the night too. It was getting more than a little grating. He honestly was starting to think he was beginning to hallucinate. He’d see things, lurking just around corners and flitting through windows. Sometimes, they’d take the shape of a blue flame. Other times, he’d see nothing but the faintest outline of something standing in the distance. One time, something had whooshed through him, knocking him back on the ground and leaving him very winded. All of these incidents combined had thoroughly spooked Watchog, but tepig would evolve into pelipper before he’d admit he was too scared for this job. After all, any ‘mon who could handle the demon of mischief that was Tricky could certainly handle a little guard duty.

Watchog made a round of the school, jumping at the sudden trill of a cricket as he looped back around. (He wasn’t scared! Just… alert.) It was time to make his routine detour up to the school buildings. He was paying double attention to that ever since somemon (At least, he thought it was somemon) had broken into the library a couple of weeks back. He wasn’t going to be bested like that again.

As Watchog marched up the hill towards the School Clinic, he saw that the door to the library was open. Watchog’s heart almost stopped. The thief had come back!

Alright. Well, they weren’t going to escape this time. Not if Vice Principal Watchog had anything to say about it. He slowly crept towards the building, making sure to stay as silent as possible. The library was as dark as all the other buildings. Watchog couldn’t hear anymon in there either. He slowly crept in the door, looking around. The library looked empty. But Watchog knew it wasn’t.

He stalked through the bookshelves, looking around. There was nothing that he could see. Maybe they were near the back, then—

—A book fell. Near the back. It hit the floor with a loud thump, drawing Watchog’s attention immediately. (He’d be a liar if he said he hadn’t jumped then.)

Aha! So they were in the back! Watchog sneered. Distance wasn’t going to do them much good now. Abandoning stealth, he began to walk towards the back of the library quickly. The intruding ‘mon dove behind the shelf to the right. Watchog sped up, grabbing the side of the bookcase and looking around it. There was nothing there. Whatever was in this library with him had already travelled around the other side.

Then Watchog heard a footstep. A big, slimy, heavy footstep. Then another. And then a third one. And only then did Watchog realize that maybe, just maybe, he was in over his head here. He began to quickly edge around the bookcase, heading for the other side before whatever was stomping this way could reach him—

—Watchog reached the other side of the bookcase just as the other ‘,mon in the room lunged around the back. He heard it stomp forward onto the floor, and then it stood in place. Watchog took a deep breath. It was time to figure out what he was dealing with here. Then he took another deep breath. And another. Berry crackers; was he really doing this?

But it had to be done. He was the school guard. Watchog took one last deep breath, then carefully peeked around the other side of the bookcase.

Something stood, Cloaked in shadows. Completely still. Watchog forced himself to face it.

“Alright, you’re busted!” he called out. “Come out here and face me like a true ‘mon!”

The creature tilted its head rigidly. It was silent. Eyeless. Countless spines protruded from its back.

Then it lunged—

~\({O})/~

~Espurr~​

Slowly coming to. Espurr brought herself to her feet amongst the dry, cracked ground. Another dream. She kept her wits about here, not sure what to expect. She stood in the middle of the village square, but it was completely leveled- no building stood taller than a foot off the ground. Rubble lay everywhere. The sky was red. And everything was quiet.

Espurr looked around cautiously. What was this?

I see you...

And then Espurr lurched forward without her consent. She began to run out of the village square and down southwards, away from the voice.

There is no escape.

Whatever was controlling Espurr ran faster, and she didn’t think she wanted to stop anymore. She looked up, and then she saw it: a lone mountain, wreathed in flame—

—And then everything went dark, and Espurr had control of her body again. She stood up in the blackness of the In Between, waiting for whatever was about to happen next—

—She was on a path. At the bottom of the hill. At the top of the hill, the abandoned School Grounds sat. Above them, a storm brewed and rumbled ominously in the blood red sky.

She was in the library. Her head twisted to the side without her consent, and she saw the dark blue sky.

Thump. A book fell.

She was spying on Watchog from behind a bookshelf. Slowly, she crept around Watchog as he walked closer.

She was Watchog again. She watched, as something lurched from the shadows towards her—

—Espurr was suddenly pulled straight into the ground, and landed on the hard, wet, wooden boards of a bridge. The bridge. In the distance, the Ancient Barrow sat, glowing much like the mountain had. It was the only thing that glowed, and it glowed blood red. And there was nowhere to go but near it. And so—slowly—Espurr went. She crept across the bridge, avoiding all the spots she knew were rotting. This bridge wasn’t real. If she said so, there no rotting spots.

Suddenly, as if in response to that one stray thought, the entire bridge began to crumble away behind her. Espurr looked back at the sound, noticing the decay.

“Come on.”

With that, Espurr quickly made haste as the bridge continued to fall apart. But the rate of decay was faster than she could run and she wasn’t going to make it—

—Espurr jumped, and landed on the island just seconds before the entire bridge crumbled away into nothingness. Thankfully, the decay did not continue onto the island. Espurr looked at her paws, which she had just realized were muddy. And suddenly, just like that, her belly was covered in mud. Great. Espurr wiped the mud on her paws on the mud of the island, and stood up. The Barrow stood before her, glowing just like it had from a distance. Espurr stomped towards it. It wasn’t real. None of this was real—

—the Barrow’s doors slammed open wide, showing Espurr more of that blood-red sky. Espurr took a few involuntary steps back. Alright. It not being real didn’t mean she wasn’t just a little scared of it.

A wind emerged from the Barrow’s doors, slowly pulling everything around it in through its entrance. And that included Espurr. As soon as she thought to get away the wind suddenly became too strong for her to resist and she was pulled in towards the doorway and then—

She was falling. Falling through that blood-red sky and everything around her was red red and more red and then she was back in blackness and she hit the ground.

Espurr got up, panting out of desperation. When was this going to end?

Something stepped out of the shadows. Espurr spun to look at it. She could barely make out the fuzzy outline of something walking towards her…

…As it walked, it changed. It became larger. It sprouted grotesque claws. Its footsteps became heavy and slimy. Spines flexed and rose on its back.

And then it lunged for her—

~\({O})/~

Audino’s House​

Espurr awoke with a gasp just short of a scream. She glanced around her bedroom, still trying to see whatever had attacked her in her dreams. But it was long gone.

~\({O})/~

Serenity Village​

It was still rather early in the morning. Espurr walked out of Audino’s house and into the Village Square, the exploration bag slung over her shoulder. She adjusted the scarf Tricky had gifted her with; the one she had barely taken off since she’d been given it. There weren’t many ‘mon currently out in the square, so she was able to make her way to the west exit easily.

She headed to the west side of town, leisurely strolling through rows of houses that were either still dark or just waking up. Until she reached Tricky’s house. Espurr shouldered the bag and was just about to knock on the door-

-But it suddenly opened for her, revealing a disheveled and still-sleepy Tricky. Her face immediately brightened upon seeing Espurr. Then she yawned.

“Did you have trouble sleeping too?” she asked.

“Do you want to go on a mission today?” Espurr asked without hesitation.

“Yep!”

~\({O})/~

Glittering Mountain ~ Afternoon​

Glittering Cave was a smaller dungeon that wasn’t too far off from Serenity Village itself. Espurr was putting off telling Tricky about the beheeyem, but her recent nightmares had shaken her enough that it wasn’t at the forefront of her mind anymore. She’d remember to tell her sometime during the mission. When she and Tricky booted up the expedition gadget once again, they saw a mission posting to rescue a butterfree that had gotten stuck at the bottom of the dungeon and couldn’t find its way out. That had seemed easy enough, so Espurr and Tricky had taken it.

Glittering Mountain itself was more like a sunlit cave than a mountain. Espurr and Tricky wandered the maze of cave passages further and further downwards, but sunlight never stopped filtering in through the moss-covered walls no matter where they turned or how deep they went. The dungeon ferals here (and occasionally, the plain old animals) were incredibly weak and were easily bested by Espurr and Tricky at every turn.

In other words, a walk in the park. And a suitable distraction for the day.

“I had this nightmare last night,” Tricky said as she and Espurr walked down one of the mystery dungeon’s fifth-floor corridors. For a second, Espurr was reminded of her own traumatizing nightmares, but she shook it off quickly. This mission was supposed to be an escape from all that.

“Bird!” Tricky suddenly cried.

A crow dove for them, letting out a feral shriek. Espurr blasted it to the ground with her mind and Tricky quickly roasted it with an Ember. Its tail feathers scorched; the crow quickly took flight and high-tailed it out of there. Espurr looked at Tricky as they began walking like normal again.

“What were you saying?” she asked.

“It was really weird,” Tricky continued. “I was in the school with Watchog, but then I was Watchog. And then something took him away and I saw the School but the sky was red and there was this big storm above it! And then everything went dark and the thing that took Watchog attacked me and then I woke up.”

Espurr stopped. She looked straight at Tricky.

“How do you know what I dreamed about last night?”

“Wait. You had the same dream??” Tricky asked a bit too loudly for their own good. A cacophony of screeches erupted in the corner far ahead of them, and both Espurr and Tricky decided to high-tail it into the left-hand passage they were rapidly approaching. They pressed themselves against the walls just in time to watch an entire flock of crows zoom past where they were hiding, hoots and caws and all. Espurr slumped back against the wall they’d been pressed into in relief once they were gone, and then both she and Tricky lowered their voices into a hush.

“Come to think of it, has anymon in town seen Vice Principal Watchog in the last couple of days?” Espurr asked.

“He wasn’t there when everymon gathered yesterday,” Tricky whispered back.

“The last time I saw him was on Saturday in Kangaskhan’s Cafe,” Espurr said. “He was complaining about ghosts.”

“And it’s Monday today…” Tricky added.

“…We should ask around town,” said Espurr. She pulled out the expedition gadget, projecting it on the wall. “The dungeon’s only six floors. That butterfree has to be around here somewhere.”

~\({O})/~​

They found Butterfree cowering in a small nook that had a stream of water running near it. Luckily, the dungeon wasn’t the type to fog over and start lashing out at intruders yet (Class B), but Butterfree had been overwhelmed by all the feral animals in the dungeon. Between the two of them with Butterfree in tow, they managed to find their way out of the dungeon in no time (it was the last floor, after all). Butterfree didn’t have copious amounts of anything as a mission reward, but offered Espurr and Tricky some odds and ends that she had scraped together.

It was late afternoon by the time that Espurr and Tricky entered Serenity Village once again. There were noticeably fewer ‘mon out and about today, Espurr noted. They both stopped in the village square. Espurr shifted the exploration bag from one shoulder to another.

“I’ll start on the south side of town; you start on the west. Which one of us wants to go up to the school?”

“Shouldn’t we do that first?” Tricky asked. “he’s guarding it or something.”

That was fair.

~\({O})/~

School Grounds​

The school grounds were just as deserted as they had been all summer long. Espurr and Tricky walked into the empty space where they classroom had been, glancing around for any glimpse of Watchog. They saw none.

In the woods, something watched them.

“I don’t see him,” Espurr said, looking around. “If he was here, then he would have started yelling at us already.”

“Maybe he’s up in the library,” Tricky replied. “That’s where I saw him in my dream.”

They continued up the hill towards the school clinic, then took a hard right for the library. Espurr peeked in through the door that was ajar, looking around. She saw nothing but dusty musty books. Tricky peeked in next to her.

“The place looks empty…” Tricky said in disappointment.

“He definitely would have found us by now. He’s not here,” Espurr said. “We’re wasting our time.”

Tricky just pouted.

~\({O})/~

Audino’s House​

Espurr stepped in the door and set the tattered exploration bag on the floor next to all the others. Audino was at the table, reading a book. She briefly glanced at Espurr as she walked in, then flipped the page and returned to reading.

“Have you seen Vice Principal Watchog?” Espurr asked.

“No, I haven’t.” Audino closed her book. “I think he’s up guarding the school. Did you check there?”

Espurr shook her head no. That was a lie. But would Audino really let her leave the house if she thought that Watchog had gone missing?

“I haven’t yet,” Espurr said smoothly. “I’ll go do that now. Thank you.” She picked up the exploration bag, and began to head for the door-

“Is there something you need from him?” Audino asked. Espurr froze.

“Just… wanted some library books,” Espurr quickly improvised. And then she was out the door before Audino could say another thing to stop her.

~\({O})/~

Simipour’s House​

“I put Watchog in charge of guarding the school this summer,” Principal Simipour said, mixing himself a cup of lum berry tea in the kitchen. “But if he isn’t there, I’m afraid I can’t tell you where he is.”

“Have you seen him at all over the past couple of days?” Espurr asked, following him into the parlor.

Simipour yawned, quickly setting his drink down in order not to spill it. “The last time we talked was on Friday. He was turning in his weekly report on occurrences at the school. ‘Strange things are happening’, he said.” He quickly downed the lum berry tea, then glanced inside the cup.

“This stuff isn’t working…” Espurr heard him mutter under his breath. Then he turned back to her, that dopey smile once again plastered on his face.

“Well!” he exclaimed. “Is there anything else I can assist you with?”

“No thanks,” said Espurr.

~\({O})/~

Cafe Connection​

“I’m looking for Vice Principal Watchog.”

Espurr sat at the Café Connection’s counter, talking to Kangaskhan. The café was moderately crowded, but it rarely wasn’t like that.

“Just a minute.” Kangaskhan nodded Espurr’s way, before tending to the order of a magby. Espurr turned around in her seat and stared out the window until Kangaskhan got back to her.

“What were you saying?” she asked, turning to Espurr.

“I was wondering if you’d seen Vice Principal Watchog,” Espurr said. “I know he comes here a lot.”

“Not since Saturday,” Kangaskhan said. “Apologies.”

Espurr glanced out the window, where she caught sight of Tricky running back into the square.

“Thanks anyway,” she said, and then she was out the door.

~\({O})/~

Village Square​

“Did you find anything?” Espurr asked as she met up with Tricky in the village square. ‘Mon passed all around them, completely oblivious to the concerns of two children.

Tricky shook her head. “Nothing! I went to Farfetch’d’s, Watchog’s house, the Principal… but he told me you already asked him.”

“So no-mon’s seen him since Saturday,” Espurr laid out. “And then you and I both had the exact same dream about him getting kidnapped. And then there’s the things I’ve been seeing in my bedroom…”

“Wait wha—“ Tricky began.

“Something’s been appearing in my bedroom at night,” Espurr explained. “I think whatever it is is the same thing that took Watchog.”

“Wait-wait-wait,” Tricky said. “You’ve been seeing ghosts in your bedroom and you didn’t tell me?”

“I… I didn’t think it’d be safe.”

“Safe? Why? What, do you think the ghosts are going to beat us up?” Tricky tilted her head, almost like she was considering the possibility. “I don’t think we have many ghost-types in this town…”

“No, that’s…” this was getting harder to explain by the minute. Espurr shook her head. “That’s not it.”

“Then what is it?”

Espurr took a quick look around the square to make sure that no-mon was listening in.

“I’m being hunted,” she said, her voice hushed. “Remember those pokemon that attacked us outside the treehouse on Thursday?”

Tricky nodded. She suddenly looked uneasy.

“Wait, you’re saying—”

“Beheeyem,” Espurr continued. “They’ve been on my case ever since I woke up in the forest two weeks ago. The nightmares started a few days after that, and I started seeing things in my room after I moved houses. There’s no way both of us having the same exact dream is a coincidence. Watchog’s disappearance must be connected.”

Tricky pawed the ground for a moment. “You mean those beheeyem took Watchog?”

“I don’t think so,” Espurr said. “We’d have seen the beheeyem if they entered the village. This has to be something else.”

“Then, what?” Tricky asked.

“I don’t know,” Espurr said. And she didn’t. She didn’t know nearly enough where it counted, and that was beginning to worry her.

“Can we tell an adult?” Tricky asked.

“Would any adults believe us?” Espurr pointed out. “There’s no point going to one unless we can prove something. And right now all we know is that Watchog’s missing.”

“Right…”

“Hey.” A graveller nudged Espurr aside as he passed. “Mind getting out of the way? You’re blocking the entrance.” Espurr stood right outside the entrance of the Café Connection.

“Sorry,” Espurr said, moving aside. The graveller entered the café without a second thought.

~\({O})/~

~Watchog~​

Watchog coughed. His eyes flew open.

He was laying sideways on the ground. There was a small stream of swamp water flowing through, which was running straight into his…

Watchog quickly sat up, coughing and sputtering wildly. There was swamp water in his mouth! He rubbed his paws on his tongue, trying to clean it of the troublesome taste. The thief had knocked him out! Knocked him out with fire! He almost couldn’t believe it. Fire! In a library! He would be reporting this to Principal Simipour for sure, just as soon as he—

—And then Watchog realized that he wasn’t in the library anymore. He stood up, beginning to hyperventilate in fear. He stood in a narrow, crooked hallway, and the ground was mud with swamp water. The walls all around looked were coated in some viscous black… goo, and some of it came off on Watchog’s paw when he tentatively reached out to touch it. And then Watchog began to freak out.

Splash.

It came from down the hallway to his right. Watchog snapped his head in that direction. He let out a squeak of fear. It was the thief. The thief was back. It had dragged him down to… wherever this was and now it was going to kill him! Watchog was certain of it. Without thinking, he took off in the other direction, not caring about the noise he made on the way. He was not going to die today!

The hall twisted into another corridor that turned left into a passage that led to a dead end. Watchog bumped into the wall in panic, taking a second to react in disgust at all the goop that now covered his body. And then he scrabbled along the wall, looking – hoping – for some way out of this.

Squelch. The creature appeared just outside of the hallway as he rounded the corner. It looked like it had melted out of the wall. Watchog turned around, then backed up against the wall. Where he had come from was a dead end… There was nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. Unless…

Watchog suddenly let out a battle cry that could barely be heard from the end of the hallway. He began to charge for the beast with his head lowered. The beast didn’t move, not even when Watchog got close enough to fully see it—

—Watchog hit a tree root and his face suddenly ate swamp water. He lifted his head up out of the mud to see the creature slowly walking towards him. Its movements were eerily stiff. Watchog slowly edged back.

“No, no no,” he mumbled softly, pleading in vain. “Not me. Not me. Somemon else. I won’t tell anymon what you were doing in that school, I- I- I won’t. I promise. I promise. Please—“

The creature paid no attention to his pleas. It reached a clawed hand out for him—

—And then, just like a magearna, it suddenly froze up. Once Watchog noticed, he took the opportunity to get a good distance back from the creature.

The creature’s head twisted all the way around; the rest of its body stayed still. Then its body turned around to match. And then it took off, down the hall and away from Watchog. Watchog shakily got to his feet. Was that it? Had he scared it off?

But it didn’t look like it was running off. It was running towards something.

Watchog was glad it wasn’t him.

~\({O})/~

Serenity Village​

It stormed the next day. Sheets of rain fell over the village square, and the only ‘mon out and about at the time were the Water types. Espurr watched it from the window (which had the rain curtains drawn over it), scowling. A little rain wasn’t going to stop her.

She grabbed the exploration bag and quietly slipped out the door. The rain hung off her fur and soaked her down to the bone, but she pressed on anyway, heading for the west side of town. There were more important matters to attend to than keeping dry.

She found Pancham and Shelmet having a mud fight in a ditch near the west side of town. It was a ways off the beaten path, so Espurr course-corrected to meet up with them.

“I see you’re having fun,” she called out through the rain as she approached them. Both Pancham and Shelmet paused their game, looking at Espurr. Pancham quickly brushed the mud on his hands off near a wall.

“Heh… pretend like you didn’t see that.” He brushed off his hands once more, and then turned to face Espurr, whose fur was soaked and limp. Pancham looked almost too amused by it. “Whatcha doing out in the rain?” he asked. “You look like crap, I’m just gonna tell ya.”

“What are you two doing out in the rain?” Espurr asked flatly, staring at Pancham’s muddy paws for effect.

Pancham’s face lost its amused look. “I said ignore that,” he said.

“Having a mud fight,” Shelmet answered for him, ignoring Pancham’s look of horror directed straight at him. “Now answer our question.”

“I’m looking for a missing pokemon,” Espurr said matter-of-factly. “Interested?”

Pancham thought for a minute. “…Which pokemon is it?” he finally asked.

“Vice-Principal Watchog.”

“Wait, what??” Pancham and Shelmet both exclaimed at the same time.

“You heard me,” Espurr replied. “He hasn’t been seen by anymon since Saturday. I’m launching a search mission.”

Pancham and Shelmet slowly traded looks.

“…I mean, let’s think about this,” said Pancham innocently. “Do we wanna save Vice-Principal Watchog? School would be much easier if he wasn’t on our tails all the time.”

“But then you won’t have dungeon class,” said Espurr.

“Good point. We’re in.”

~\({O})/~

Serenity Village Outskirts​

It wasn’t raining as hard as it had been this morning, but it was still raining nonetheless. Luckily, the shingles were doing their job, and the interior of the treehouse was dry. Espurr, Tricky, Deerling, Shelmet, and all the others sat around in a circle inside the building.

“What do you mean he’s missing?” Deerling asked. “How does a pokemon just go missing like that?”

“No-mon’s seen him since Saturday, apparently,” Pancham said, arms folded.

“It’s true,” Tricky added, nodding for effect. “Me and Espurr searched everywhere.”

“Evidence suggests Watchog was kidnapped,” Espurr said, unfurling a paw-drawn map of the school. “And that whatever took him might appear at the school again.”

“And… where is this going?” Deerling asked.

“We set a trap,” Espurr responded. “If we all work together, I think we can catch it off-guard.”

“Or get kidnapped ourselves!” Deerling exclaimed. “We should tell an adult.”

Espurr shook her head. “The adults won’t believe us.”

“How do you know that??” Deerling asked angrily.

“Ghosts,” Espurr said. “Watchog was kidnapped by ghosts.”

“Cool…” Pancham and Shelmet both whispered at the same time.

“…Wow,” Deerling said in mock amazement. “You’re right. I don’t think any of the adults will believe that. In fact, I’m having trouble believing it. You know why? Because ghosts aren’t real, Espurr! This is crazy!”

“Watchog was seeing them up at the school,” Espurr said. “I overheard him talking about it in the Café Connection last Saturday.”

Deerling still looked skeptical. She stared at Espurr promptingly. “And all of this just proves that he was kidnapped by ghosts?”

“I’ve been seeing them too,” Espurr admitted. “In my bedroom at night. Have you got a better suggestion as to what happened to him?”

Silently, Deerling puffed out her mouth and admitted defeat.

“I’m going to the school after dark,” Espurr said. “I’m going to find out what happened to him. Anymon who wants to join me is free to. After all, ghosts aren’t real… right?”

And then she pointedly rolled up the map.

~\({O})/~

Serenity Village ~ Nighttime

~Tricky~​

It was nighttime, and many of the clouds in the sky had cleared up. It had certainly stopped raining. Tricky popped her head out of the bedcovers, yawning. She looked out the window.

‘Meet me in the village square after the lights go out,’ Espurr had said. And the village looked pretty dark to Tricky. Slowly, quietly, she slipped out of her bed, put on her scarf, moved the empty scarf case over to the window, and used it as a platform to squirm out through the windowpanes.

Tricky landed on the grass outside her bedroom, taking a deep breath of the fresh air. She could still smell the rain scents from the storm earlier. Tricky looked east, then hopped over the bush by the front porch as she scurried off that way.

“Evening.”

Espurr turned around and adjusted the exploration bag as Tricky came trotting into the village square. Tricky looked around. She saw Espurr, Goomy, Pancham, Shelmet…

“Are we going to get this over with or not?” Deerling asked.

Tricky tilted her head. “Why’d you come along?” she asked, half in excitement and half in confusion.

“Because Goomy wanted to go,” said Deerling. “Can we get this over with? I don’t want my mom to catch wind of this.”

“Because…” Shelmet prompted.

“She’ll encourage it.”

Everymon was silent for a moment as they tried to digest that.

“Deerling’s right,” Espurr finally broke the silence. “It’s best not to waste time.” She started walking up towards the school, and everymon else followed.

~\({O})/~

School Grounds​

The school sat up on the hill, its buildings imposingly dark as ever. The clouds of the storm brewed ominously above it, almost like they were gathering there. They walked up the hill and through the gates, entering the empty space where the classroom had once been.

“So now what?” Pancham asked, folding his arms. “What’s your big plan?”

“We scour the place,” Espurr answered. “Until we find out what took Watchog and where it went. We’ll go in groups of two, so no-mon’s left alone. If anymon sees anything, yell. Loudly. We’ll come help.”

“We aren’t just going to sit at the desks and wait for it to come for us?” Shelmet asked.

“Of course not,” Espurr said. “That would be stupid.”

She reached into the exploration bag and grabbed three dry non-wand sticks she had collected on the way. She held them out for Tricky to set aflame. “For light.”

They broke off into three groups, each group with a torch. Deerling and Goomy went to the School Clinic, Shelmet and Pancham went to check out the Library, and Espurr and Tricky went to investigate the Principal’s Office. Espurr waved the torch around to make sure that no-mon was waiting in there for them before stepping in.

“Do you think Watchog ever comes in here?” Tricky followed Espurr in, looking around the place (She never got to be in here).

“I don’t know what Watchog does,” Espurr said, waving the torch around for light.

“Then why are we here?” Tricky asked. “Shouldn’t we go to the library?”

“We’re just snooping around until the ghost shows up again,” Espurr said. “Whatever kidnapped Watchog must have kidnapped him because they crossed paths. That means it’s probably going to come back. Until then, we’re just looking around.”

She approached the principal’s desk, waking around the side where the bin of maps lay. There was a large collection of papers on the desk. Espurr momentarily handed Tricky the torch so she could sort through them. There were a collection of wanted posters on the desk – which included, for some reason, the salamence they had fought in Lush Forest. Espurr rooted through them. She poured through papers of wanted Water Continent outlaws, until she reached the bottom. There was a poster that caught her eye.

MISSING POKEMON: Beheeyem x3

Last seen 6/5/11133 on their way through the Lively Mountain Basin. If found, please contact the Guild of Merchants in Treasure Town by Pelipper Post.

“We don’t need another disappearance on our paws…”

Espurr stared at the paper for a minute. No. That wasn’t the missing pokemon. There had to be a mistake. And why did Simipour have this… ?

“What is it?” Tricky asked through the torch in her mouth.

“Just a minute and I’ll tell you,” Espurr said. She held out her paw. “May I have that torch?”

Tricky let Espurr remove the torch from her mouth. She opened the cabinets under the desk. More papers, hundreds, all in a neat stack. Had Principal Simipour been collecting these?

Espurr took one of the posters in her left paw and stuffed it in her bag.

“Help!!”

The cry came from outside the building. Both Espurr and Tricky’s heads snapped in that direction. It was Deerling!

~\({O})/~​

Espurr and Tricky ran out of the School Clinic to see Goomy quickly sliming out of the library, followed by Deerling. Deerling was panting hard as she galloped up to them.

“We found it,” she breathed out, and then she spun around.

It appeared right in front of them in its full glory – blacker than a void. Large and hunkering. Clawed. Spined. It slowly lifted a single claw, pointing straight at Espurr.

You.

“What is that?!?!” Tricky screamed in terror.

“Hey!”

A pebble whizzed through the air and hit the back of the monster’s head. It turned around, looking for whoever had just done that. Pancham marched forwards, slingshot in hand.

“Yeah, that’s right,” he said, reloading his slingshot. “Get a piece of me.”

He let the pebble fly. The monster wasn’t even fazed. It galloped over to where Pancham was, snatching him by the throat and pulling him up—

“NO!” shouted Deerling. She charged and gave it a large headbutt. The Monster grabbed her in its other set of claws.

“Let them go!” Tricky yelled. She charged for the monster, but a kick with the power of a bouffalant sent her flying to the side.

Espurr clutched her head, which suddenly throbbed with all the force of a headache. She just needed to think.

There is no escape.

There was no time to think. The monster lifted both Pancham and Deerling up in its claws, and Espurr’s headache became splitting.

Kill.

The monster’s head snapped straight towards her. Pancham and Deerling were dropped to the ground, and the monster suddenly phased over towards Espurr—

—Espurr fought off the headache just in time. She got to her feet and produced a psychic blast that momentarily blew the creature back. But it kept advancing anyway. There was nothing to do but run. And so Espurr ran. She made it all the way into the principal’s office before the monster caught up with her. It grabbed her foot and tripped her on the ground. Espurr tried to reach for something—anything—eventually grabbing the doorframe as the monster tried to pull her away. Tricky let loose with a flamethrower from behind, which caught the monster’s attention for a minute and allowed Espurr to escape.

The monster looked between them for a minute, torn. Then it chose Espurr. Espurr backed up all the way behind the principal’s desk; the monster advanced. She cast a look at the window to her right, then scrambled for that. Espurr slipped through the panes just as the monster grabbed for her—

—She tumbled back onto the grassy ground outside the hut, rolling to a stop and getting back on her feet. The monster dissolved through the wall of the hut, looking around for Espurr, but Espurr was long gone by that point.

“Run!” Espurr fled down to the classroom, and everymon else gladly followed her. The monster galloped to the top of the hill, then to the bottom, and then all of the sudden it was blocking their entry out of the school. Everymon stopped, gaping at it in silent horror. The monster began to walk towards them, not even concerned with phasing anymore.

“Run the other way!” Deerling yelled.

Everymon turned to run the other way, but the monster was faster. It leapt behind them before they could even start.

Espurr did some last-minute quick thinking – she opened her bag and pulled out the patch of blast seeds. Right before the monster could gallop towards them, Espurr pulled one out, and threw it. It sent the monster flying back. Wisps of smoke curled up in the air from where it lay, and it was motionless for a moment.

“This is our chance!” Tricky yelled. “Everymon run through!!”

The gap was only open for half a minute, but by that time the monster’s trap had already long failed. Espurr cast one short look back at the school as she ran, and then fled down the hill with the rest of the group and away from the monster.

~\({O})/~

Village Square​

“This isn’t over.”

Espurr caught her breath against the wall of Audino’s house. All the other children were also panting in the square, terrified out of their wits.

“What do you mean it’s not over?” Pancham asked. “I ain’t going back to school after this.”

“What if it comes back?” Espurr asked. “We have to do something about it now—“

“No,” said Deerling. “This is over. I’m not playing along with this anymore. We have to tell the adults.”

“Tell them what?” Espurr asked.

“Tell them something!” Deerling yelled back. “If we’re going to be risking our lives because there’s monster in town, then they deserve to know!”

“I know where it went and I’m going now,” said Espurr. “And that’s final.”

“And I’m telling an adult,” said Deerling. “And that’s also final.”

“Fine.”

“Fine.”

Espurr picked up her exploration bag, slinging it over her shoulder. “Anymon who’s coming, come now. Otherwise I’m going alone.”

Tricky stared down at the ground for a minute.

“Well…” she said, barely struggling to contain her fear. “You need help, Espurr. I’m coming.”

“I-I’ll go too.”

Everymon turned to Goomy in shock.

“What are you talking about?” Deerling asked flatly. “You’re going home. You need sleep.”

“I-I’m not g-gonna sleep knowing t-that’s out there,” Goomy said, his voice trembling just as much as he was. “I-I have to k-know i-it’s gone.”

“You’re marching back to your house and you are going to bed. Now.” Deerling’s eyes were pure fire, but Goomy didn’t submit to them.

“N-no,” he said. “Y-you’re not the boss of me!”

Deerling scoffed in shock.

“No. No no no no no,” she said. “I’m gonna- I’m gonna- I’m-“

Deerling stuttered, realizing that she didn’t have anything to threaten Goomy with. Instead she looked straight at Espurr.

“You’re not taking him with you.”

“I’ll go where I want!!” Goomy yelled loudly. All of the children cringed at how loud it was, then looked at the windows of the houses to make sure no-mon had been awoken. Goomy glared daggers at Deerling.

For a moment, Deerling glared back. Her legs trembled. Then she finally gave up.

“…Fine…” she grumbled. “You’re right. I can’t stop you from going. But you can’t go alone. I’m not letting that happen.” Reluctantly, Deerling stepped up to join Espurr’s group. Espurr looked at Pancham and Shelmet.

“…Yeah, we’re in,” said Pancham. “Lemme just get some more stones.”

~\({O})/~​

Music of the week!

Lovely Rendez-vous A La Montagne - Sonya Belousova, Giona Ostinelli

 

[SparklingEspeon]

~\({O})/~​

19.​

The Crooked House​

~\({O})/~​

Serenity Village Outskirts​

~Espurr~​

The Crooked House stood on its island of evil, pointing up out of the ground like a pillar of darkness. Espurr ran down the pathway, sliding to a stop right outside the entrance to the bridge. She saw that the previously sealed doors now lay wide open.

Something had changed. And she was right.

By now, the rest of the children had arrived, panting in exhaustion as they caught up with Espurr. They all eyed the Barrow with a sense of apprehension.

“We have to go… in there?” Tricky squeaked in fear, looking at the house.

“This is where it went,” Espurr said, slowly but firmly. “If we want to rescue Vice Principal Watchog, then we have to go in.”

She stepped forward onto the bridge, which creaked under her, then looked back at the rest of the children. The looks on their faces ranged from doubtful to fearful, but no-mon voiced any objections. Espurr took another step, then hurried across the bridge, making sure to avoid all the rotting spots.

The island was muddy, as always. Espurr trudged across it without complaint, even though the mud felt gross stuck to her fur. As she approached the Barrow, she caught wind of a familiar scent—one that had often danced around her nose, and was never more pleasant to smell no matter how many times she smelled it—this was the scent of a mystery dungeon. And this one was strong.

Espurr stepped onto the Barrow’s porch, then looked back at the rest of the children who had just crossed over the bridge and were now uncomfortably trudging through the mud. She shouldered her bag.

“It’s a mystery dungeon,” she said loudly from the porch. “Heads up.”

“Are you sure about this?” Pancham asked, looking up at her warily.

“Positive.” Espurr nodded.

“T-the place smells evil,” Goomy said in fear.

“All mystery dungeons smell like that,” Tricky added in a hushed voice.

“Are we going or not?” Shelmet asked, perhaps the only one of them that wasn’t openly frightened out of his wits.

“Yeah,” Pancham said, rolling his shoulders and stretching his slingshot. “Let’s do this.”

“All at once,” Espurr said, turning towards the entrance. “Otherwise we’ll get separated.”

Soon they were all gathered on the porch, standing in a row.

“On three,” Deerling said, unable to keep the waver out of her voice. “One… Two…” Espurr could feel Pancham trembling.

“Three!”

They all stepped in through the doors at once, and slowly, the mystery dungeon closed up behind them.

~\({O})/~​

The Ancient Barrow​

Just like all the mystery dungeons she had entered, Espurr felt all drafts dissipate upon entry. This dungeon was draftless like all the others, but evil reverberated in the air.

“What is this place…” Tricky muttered.

The halls were narrow and cramped, and sticky black goo covered them from top to bottom. The floors were a stream of swamp water, and the roof extended into crooked black arches above. It wasn’t an earthly place. And yet, there was nothing to do but press onwards. And so, without a word exchanged between them, the six of them silently continued through the halls.

The dungeon was devoid of any ferals; Espurr, Tricky, and the rest of them were left well alone. But there was no sign of Watchog either.

“How long is this dungeon?” Deerling asked after a while. “You’d think we’d be on the third floor by now.”

But they hadn’t even crossed the first stairway yet. They’d gone a while without seeing anything but gooey black walls and trudging through nasty swamp water, and still there was no hint of the stairs. The areas were getting more and more mazelike as they continued, and they’d gone down several dead ends at this point. Espurr was beginning to get doubtful they’d make it out before dawn. And that wasn’t good.

It was after the fifth dead end that something changed. It had just been for a second, but Espurr, Goomy, and also everymon else had caught the shape of something quietly slinking around the corridor ahead.

“W-what w-w-was t-that?” Goomy asked, terrified. Espurr quietly shushed everymon. Slowly, they continued down the corridor, heading for the corner. Espurr carefully peeked around the edge, but she saw nothing.

“There’s nothing there,” she whispered to the rest of them. “It must have been a trick of the light.”

No-mon looked particularly convinced, but it was the least scary option, so everymon went with that for the time being.

Espurr lead them further down the hallways, in search of the stairs. The lack of anything around unnerved her quite a bit. Why was there nothing here??

The only warning they had was a distant whoosh from up ahead. But that was enough for Espurr.

Tricky’s ears twitched. “Everymon duck!” she yelled, and they all ducked just in time to avoid the sight of a large, shadowy ball flying directly over their heads. It flew straight past them and exploded distantly at the other end of the corridor.

Just like that, the monster was already in front of them. Espurr wasn’t having it. She unleashed her raw mental power upon it and blew it back across the corridor. She was sure a fair few ‘mon screamed around that point.

“Run the other way!” Tricky yelled, and everymon made to do that—

“Wait!” Espurr yelled. “Don’t!”

“What do you mean ‘don’t’?” Deerling yelled, stopping for one brief moment. She was the only one.

Espurr quickly checked to make sure the monster was still down.

“I have a plan,” she quickly hissed. “The monster’s fast, but it can’t be in two places at once. If we split up into groups, it’ll have to choose. And then we attack it.”

“Great. You can be a group,” Deerling said. “I’m going the other way.”

And with that she galloped off, following the rest of them. Espurr was left all alone in the corridor. She steeled herself, even though it was taking every ounce of her bravery to remain in place.

“Hey! I found the stairs! Everymon this way!” Shelmet’s voice echoed across the corridor and caught Espurr’s ears. She looked at the creature, which was silently pulling itself up from the ground. She watched in horror as instead of attacking her, it stepped towards the wall and slowly began to sink into it.

That was the last straw. Espurr turned around and ran for her life.

The monster was fast. A pair of clawed arms suddenly shot out of the wall goo to grab Espurr—

Espurr rolled to the ground, barely avoiding being snatched up by them. The clawed hands receded back into the wall in her wake.

“Where’s Espurr?” Tricky’s voice echoed through the hallway from up ahead. Espurr pulled herself out of the swamp, choking and sputtering from all the swamp water she had gotten in her mouth. They were up ahead! She just needed to…

The monster was behind her. Then in front of her. It exploded out of the wall, then grabbed her and lifted her up into the air. Espurr tried to repel the creature with her mind once more, but she felt a headache coming on just from trying to start.

“Help!” she rasped, fighting against the monster as it pushed her towards its belly. A gaping hole opened up within the creature itself, and inside there was nothing but blackness, and Espurr was being forced towards it. She tried to push and escape, but the monster was just too strong this was the end wasn’t it she should have listened to Deerling and told somemon—

Fire arched through the hallway and slammed against the creature’s back. It let out a loud, droning screech, dropping Espurr back down into the water as it writhed in pain. Espurr wasted no time getting to her feet and running around the creature before it could recover, closing the gap between herself and the rest of them.

Tricky had darted out of a small, left-hand passage just after where they had first caught sight of the monster. No wonder they hadn’t seen it. Espurr glanced back at the monster as she ran. The shrieking had stopped, but it wasn’t coming after her. She caught the last of it slowly absorbing itself into the goo on the wall. The monster’s black slime still covered Espurr’s fur where it had grabbed her. Was this where all that goo was from? She felt suddenly and oddly jittery.

Espurr slid to a stop, then splashed through the water and into the dead end. Everymon else stood by the stairs, glancing at her worriedly. Espurr took a moment to catch her breath (she hadn’t run that fast since she had woken up in the School Forest three weeks ago), then quickly got to the stairs as fast as possible. They led downwards, but the bottom was enveloped completely by darkness.

“All together,” Espurr panted, holding out her arms for the others to grab.

A gurgling noise suddenly erupted from right behind them. Everymon turned around to see that a black, gooey arm had erupted from the wall, and the rest of the monster was quickly following.

“GO!” Deerling yelled, and everymon dashed for the stairway. The monster hissed, and Espurr heard several ‘mon scream. The monster lunged—

—But it was too late. Deerling hit the stairway first, followed by Pancham and Shelmet, then Tricky. Goomy barely avoided the monster’s lunge, but he was too slow and wasn’t going to make it! The stairs were already closing up by the time that Espurr reached the stairway. She quickly grabbed ahold of Goomy, but the stairs separated them just before the monster lunged again and they closed up.

Everything immediately went black.

~\({O})/~​

~Goomy~​

Goomy slowly opened his eyes, and his body solidified back into its usual shape once more. Everything was quiet, and so was he. He looked around, trying to figure out where he was. The scenery around him was…

…Grassy and green. Goomy looked down at the roots he was currently on top of. This looked like…

…This was the School Forest.

Goomy slowly slimed backwards in fear. But it couldn’t be the School Forest. They had just been in the Ancient Barrow!

He looked around once more, taking in the gnarled root walls of the dungeon that were still sealing over. Sure enough, it was unmistakably the School Forest. But how had he gotten here?? Had the Barrow somehow transported him here?

But there was no time to worry about that. It this was the School Forest, then soon there would be dungeon ‘mon. And Goomy knew he wasn’t fast enough to avoid them. He had to get somewhere safe, back to the village!

Goomy slimed down the hallway as fast as he could. Could he find the stairs? He glanced at each of the walls from left to right, but they were perfectly smooth (or as smooth as labyrinths made of tree roots could be). There was nowhere to hide. So after looking behind him to make sure that he wasn’t being tailed by anything, Goomy continued into the next hallway.

The hallway led into split corridors that branched off in opposite directions. Goomy went down the right-hand one without question. Only then did he realize that he had not looked the other way before entering like he should have. A loud roar suddenly erupted behind Goomy, ricocheting down the hallway and battering him as it passed. It smelled of something rancid, even worse than Tricky’s breath!

And the worst part was when Goomy turned around, he saw the fog. It crept down the hallway towards him, its tendrils reaching out almost as if it were grabbing out for him. Goomy didn’t waste any more time gawking at it. He immediately began to slime down the hallway as fast as he could in the other direction.

Goomy was going as fast as he could, but the fog was faster. And even at Goomy’s top speeds he couldn’t outrun it. He frantically glanced around for a place to hide; a chance to get away, and then all of the sudden he saw it: the entrance to another corridor, not that far off! It was perfect! Filled with re-invigorated hope, Goomy quickly changed his course.

Goomy slimed around the corridor, evading the fog at the last minute. He watched as its tendrils spread out like a living being, feeling the ground and roots of the hallway around it before moving on. It did not spread into the hallway Goomy was in at all. Goomy stared at in in confusion. Fog wasn’t supposed to work like that…

Another – softer – gust spread through the hallway, invading Goomy’s nose with that rancid smell again. He quickly looked around, then behind him. He saw more of the fog, engulfing the corridor behind him as well. And this time, there was no way out.

Another loud roar suddenly emerged from the fog. Goomy looked back to the previous corridor. That roar had come from inside the fog. There was something in there! Maybe it was a large feral. Maybe it was the mystery dungeon. Maybe it was the Dungeon Wraith… just its name was already sending chills down Goomy’s spine. He really hoped it wasn’t that.

Goomy decided to focus on the situation at hand. He wasn’t going back to that corridor. Not after what he had heard. But soon he would be enveloped by the fog anyway, so…

Goomy took a deep breath and steadied himself. Then he bravely slimed into the encroaching fog.

~\({O})/~​

~Deerling~​

Deerling slowly pulled herself to her feet amongst the swamp. All she saw were the cramped halls of the Barrow, but she was alone. She looked all around, trying to catch a glimpse of anymon, but no-mon was there. She was all alone.

“Guys?” Deerling called out. “Can anymon hear me??”

Deerling got no answer. She clip-clopped further from where she was standing, looking around in vain. “Is anymon out there??”

There was no answer.

Deerling suddenly heard the sound of somemon sniffling behind her. She turned around, and noticed a ‘mon all curled up in a pile—it was Tricky. Tricky was far from Deerling’s favorite person, but right now she was happy to see anymon. She quickly galloped up to Tricky, slowing down once she reached her. Only then did she notice that Tricky was crying. Deering sat down next to her.

“Are you… okay?” she asked. Just a week and a half ago she would never had dreamed of asking Tricky that. Just the words felt weird on her tongue.

Tricky didn’t answer with anything coherent. She just let out something that sounded in between a sob and a snort, and continued to silently bury her face in her tail. Deerling just adjusted her position to become more comfortable.

“Well… talk to me when you’re ready. It’s not like we’re in a life or death situation or anything.”

Tricky wasn’t ready for a while. When she finally did speak, it was through a cracked and hoarse voice: “We lost him.”

“…What? What does that mean?” Deerling asked. She didn’t want to think about what that could mean.

“We lost him,” Tricky said louder.

“Who’s ‘him’?” Deerling pressed.

“Goomy.”

Deerling went cold.

“…What are you talking about?” she asked, barely able to muster up more than a whisper. Her

“He’s gone,” Tricky whined. “The Barrow separated all of us. It put us on different floors. There was fog on Goomy’s. He walked in, and… by the time we got to him, he…”

Tricky broke down into sobs after that, burying her face into her tail once more.

“It happened again,” she moaned. “I lost another friend…”

Deerling stood up in the swamp, suddenly feeling woozy. No. This wasn’t happening. Goomy wasn’t dead. Not him. Not him too. It all had to be some sort of trick, right?

But the facts didn’t lie. There was Tricky, right in front of her, and Goomy was nowhere to be found. And it was all because of…

Deerling ground her hooves into the mud under the swamp, trying not to collapse into tears like Tricky was. Her breath caught in her chest. She couldn’t cry now. They had to get out of here before another ‘mon died.

“Tricky,” she said, doing her absolute best to keep her not-sobs under control. “W-where are the others?”

“I… I don’t know,” Tricky sniffled. “I couldn’t find them.”

“Well, we need to,” said Deerling. She took a few deep breaths to keep herself steady before answering again: “We can’t let anymon else get k-killed.”

It was a minute, but Tricky slowly lifted herself off the ground to face Deerling. She drooped everywhere in sadness, but followed Deerling regardless.

Deerling sadness stewed and turned to rage as she walked. Her grief boiled and festered and turned into hate. Pure, unfiltered hate. Hate for that one pokemon who had been ultimately responsible for Goomy’s death. Hate for the one pokemon who had gotten them all into this mess into the first place.

Hate for Espurr.

~\({O})/~​

~Pancham~​

Pancham slowly picked himself up off the ground. He looked around, but couldn’t find his slingshot. Somehow he was back in the Village Square in broad daylight, but something felt off. Everymon was passing around him without even noticing. Pancham was confused.

“Hey,” he said to a passing swadloon. “The swadloon tromped off dully, not even paying him a glance. Pancham tilted his head. Okay. Well, swadloon were dewott-downers. Maybe somemon else. Instead he set his sights on a mudkip instead.

“Oy,” he said, attempting to get the mudkip’s attention. The mudkip didn’t notice him either. Pancham was left with his jaw hanging open. He couldn’t believe this! Why was this happening to him? And why was he here in the first place? Wasn’t he supposed to be—

Pancham was suddenly kicked to the side by a passing ursaring, who also didn’t notice him. He was now beginning to get scared. He dashed from villager to villager, attempting to get some sort of reaction, but none did. None even noticed he was there. Pancham was actively freaking out now. He was a ghost!

“Hey! Anymon? Is anymon out there? Somemon answer me!”

Pancham turned at the sound of somemon yelling through the crowd. That was… Shelmet’s voice. Shelmet was here too! That was just what he needed. Pancham began to charge towards the voice, pushing aside villagers who paid him no mind at all.

He found Shelmet in the area outside Hawlucha’s Slam School, which for some reason was actually getting business.

“Shelmet!” he cried, waving his arm. “I’m over here!”

There was no answer. Shelmet continued to mill around, looking for somemon who would hear his cries.

“It’s—it’s me!” Pancham cried. “Your friend Pancham! Answer me!!”

Shelmet didn’t even hear him.

“Answer me…” Pancham pleaded, on the verge of tears.

“He can’t hear you.”

“Augh!” Pancham spun around, coming face to face with Espurr. She was missing her scarf and her bag, but stared at him with the same emotionless stare she gave everymon else. He took the time to calm down for a minute before speaking.

‘What do you mean?” he asked once his jitters had faded enough for him to properly form words.

“He can’t hear you. No-mon can. I’ve tried talking to all of them,” Espurr said, taking a cursory look around at all the villagers. “It’s a miracle we can even speak to each other.”

Pancham spent a minute trying to wrap his head around that. It lined up with what he had seen, sure, but still...

“How did we get here?” he asked, asking the question he should have asked a while back.

“I don’t know,” Espurr replied. “Something about the stairs… We didn’t all enter at the same time. That must have blown us all to different floors of the dungeon. I imagine this is a lower floor. And these…” Espurr nonchalantly tripped a passing pikachu, which fell face-first in to the ground, then picked itself up and continued walking like nothing had happened. “These aren’t real either. They’re just tricks of the Barrow.”

But… Pancham looked at Shelmet, who was still looking around helplessly. “What about Shelmet?”

“He’s a trick too,” Espurr said firmly. She grabbed his paw. “We have to find our way out of here so we can find the others. Like the real Shelmet.”

“Agh! Auggh!!” Shelmet cried, falling on his side. “They’re all over me! They’re—They’re—Somemon help me!!”

Pancham was torn, but he couldn’t take his eyes off Shelmet. Espurr tugged him by the arm.

“We’re on a clock,” she said. “You know what happens when pokemon stay in mystery dungeons too long.” She tugged on Pancham, and slowly—reluctantly—Pancham let himself get pulled away.

“No—Stop!! Help me!!” Pancham heard Shelmet cry one last time before Espurr briskly led him into the Café Connection.

~\({O})/~​

The inside of the Café Connection looked like a dream. Everything after the entrance doors looked like it was trapped behind a mirage, and even as Pancham bumped up against one of the counter seats as Espurr pulled him along, it didn’t feel real. He never saw this many pokemon go in and out of the café anyway. All the patrons were scooping picturesque food out of the table and into thin air, and though their mouths opened to speak, Pancham heard nothing.

Espurr walked around the counter, where Kangaskhan was robotically arranging dishes and seashells in intricate, flowing, nonsensical patterns on the countertop, then pulled Pancham into the kitchens.

Pancham had never known what the chef looked like, and he didn’t even see a chef in the kitchen. In fact, he didn’t even see half the kitchen. It tapered off into nothingness halfway through the room, seeping into the blackness like tendrils of reality reaching out into nothingness. And beyond its barriers, Pancham could see nothing. Espurr pulled him towards it anyway.

“Where are we going??” Pancham asked, a bit agitated now. He tried to separate his paw from Espurr’s, but her grip was too strong for him to pull out of.

“Beyond,” Espurr answered.

She pulled him into the blackness, and slowly they walked on. Pancham couldn’t see what was under him, but it was completely smooth. Espurr pulled him along like he was just a stray feather floating in the wind, and soon he could barely see the Café Connection behind him.

It was about five minutes of walking before Espurr said something.

“Look,” she said flatly. “The stairs.”

Sure enough, there were the stairs, right ahead of them. Espurr dragged him over to them, then stopped. Pancham couldn’t see the bottom.

“You first.” Espurr pushed him forward to the foot of the stairs.

Pancham looked back. “Aren’t we all supposed to go at the same time?”

“Maybe that doesn’t apply here,” Espurr answered coldly. He voice had a sudden chill Pancham hadn’t detected before.

“Wasn’t that what got us into this mess in the first place?” Pancham asked.

Espurr pushed him.

Pancham had no time to react. He fell down the stairs, letting out a scream of surprise as he rolled and tumbled down the stairs—

—And he kept tumbling. Down, down and further, until he landed on the cold, hard stone ground that lay at the bottom of the stairs. Pancham picked himself up, coughing. He looked around. He was in a prison cell. It was a perfect box made completely of cobbled stone, and the only openings were for two sets of stairs. Pancham looked at the one that lay further downward. What that led to, he didn’t know. And he was loath to find out. A more dangerous dungeon? Something worse? Nothing at all? The decision wasn’t hard to make. Pancham turned around, and headed all the way back up.

The stairs kept stretching onwards, and Pancham felt like he’d been climbing for a while. He was even beginning to get a bit tuckered out.

“Espurr?” he called out, his voice echoing up the stairs. “Shelmet!? Anymon??”

No-mon answered his calls, except for his own echoes that reverberated through what sounded… and looked, like a chamber ahead. He was getting somewhere! Filled with new hope, Pancham continued to climb. Soon he emerged into a room. It the same room that he had been trying to escape from in the first place. Pancham blanched. No, That didn’t make sense. Stairways didn’t work like that. Maybe if he... Pancham ran over to the other entrance, gazing up at the same staircase that he had just climbed. They were both the same. This place was a loop! He couldn’t leave. He couldn’t leave.

Pancham returned to the center of the room. He began to pace uneasily, his arms shaking n fear. Oh, how he wished he’d just stayed home…

~\({O})/~​

~?~​

‘Espurr’ didn’t see the point in being Espurr much longer. It shed its false form, and the distant visage of the village square crumbled to nothingness behind it. It could hear the cries of that pancham’s friend as he succumbed to his own fears, but that had never been very important, because he had never been very important. He was insignificant, just like all the rest of them were. The mystery dungeon had spread them out far and wide, but It would find them all soon. One at a time. They never stood for long when they didn’t have others to stand with. And one by one, It would end them, just like Its creator had wished It to.

But these insignificant toddlers were not Its enemy. Two others came first. Finding and eliminating them was Its top priority.

The stairs—the real stairs— were just up ahead. It didn’t currently have a mouth to grin with, so instead it just marched towards them and descended. It felt the stairs warp into nothingness behind it, and a new scent invaded its being: There was another on this floor.

So be it.

~\({O})/~​

~Tricky~​

Tricky coughed herself awake, slowly pulling herself to her paws amongst all the swamp water and marsh. What had happened? The last thing she remembered was going down the stairs, and then… A sudden wave of dizziness hit her, causing her to stumble back a bit in the mud. And only then, after the dizziness had left her, did Tricky fully realize where she was.

The gnarled trees hung over her claustrophobically, vines hanging down from their branches like nooses. And the marsh was nearly up to her belly. Tricky looked around in fear. This couldn’t be possible. That place was gone. She had seen it collapse, right in front of her. So how was she here now?? Was this where mystery dungeons went after they died?

But if there was anything Tricky knew, it was that a place like Poliwrath River was never safe to stand still in. She removed one of her forelegs from the mud with a loud squelch, then slowly pressed onwards through the muck. It was just like all the other dungeons. Find the stairs, find your friends, get out alive. Find the stairs, find your friends, get out alive. Find the stairs, find your friends, get out alive. Tricky repeated those three sentences over and over in her head as she marched through the swamp.

Tingles suddenly ran up and down her spine, and she saw hints of a single light shining through the trees. It wasn’t large, but it was enough to illuminate Tricky’s surroundings. And it was getting farther away. She tried to dash after it, but the muck of the marsh slowed her down, and soon it became clear she was fighting a losing battle. Before long she couldn’t even see the light anymore, and she was left all alone to handle the horrors of Poliwrath River by herself.

Silence greeted her ears as she travelled. The marsh was sticky and pulled her paws back into itself with every step she took, and aside from the occasional splash in the distance there wasn’t a sound to be heard. Tricky could barely even see anything as she walked.

Until she suddenly could. Between the trees ahead of her, something glowed. The light slowly floated out from behind the trees, and Tricky could almost see it clearly—

And then it was snuffed out, just like that.

“Heeeeelp!!”

A voice called out distantly in the woods. Tricky recognized it, a voice she hadn’t heard for almost a year.

“Budew??” Tricky cried out hopefully. If this was where mystery dungeons went to die, then… maybe pokemon who died in mystery dungeons came here!

“Heeeelp!!”

“Budew!”

The sound of Budew’s pleas were more distant this time, as if he were being dragged further and further away by something. Tricky began to slog through the marsh once more with renewed vigor. She could catch up! She could catch up. She was going to catch up.

But soon, Tricky was faced with the situation that had been tugging at the back of her mind all along: the marsh had gotten too deep. Tricky—whose belly was half-submerged at this point—was loath to go any further on foot, and both paths around the marsh were blocked by the gnarled tree trunks of dying trees. Tricky’s ears lowered. How was she going to find Budew now?

And just like that, she could see again.

A single lilypad floated in the middle of the lake, a mysterious air surrounding it. It illuminated everything around it with an ethereal glow, and the light quickly caught Tricky’s eyes. She watched as slowly; it began to drift towards her as if guided by an unearthly force. Soon it was at the very bank of the lake, and it stopped right in front of Tricky. The glow was almost hurting Tricky’s eyes at this point. Even so, her heart leapt in joy—Budew was trying to help her! She didn’t want to go on the river… but there was no other way. Out of options, Tricky took a deep breath, stepped on the pad, laid down, and began to paddle with her paws.

The lilypad floated back out onto the lake with Tricky on top of it. Despite all her efforts to make the paddling go faster it went stressfully slow. Tricky could barely see the other end of the lake, and in a place like Poliwrath River that was too scary. She attempted in vain to make the lilypad go faster.

It wasn’t long before she began to notice ripples coursing through the water ahead of her, like something coasting just under the water’s surface. Tricky barely caught the movement over the lilypad’s glow, but it was there and she saw it. She watched it coast out further into the lake with bated breath, hoping that it wouldn’t notice her floating along. The water quieted down a moment after, and then Tricky saw fit to continue paddling.

The lilypad had continued floating by in the absence of her paddling, but now it seemed that no matter how much or how hard she paddled it was slowly coming to a stop. And soon it came to a standstill in the middle of the lake. Tricky paddled almost violently in the water, looking down at her futile efforts in fear. This was bad. She was as far out from either side of the lake as she could get! And this stupid lilypad—

There. She caught it again. Something rippled through the water in the dark distance, coasting right through. And it was heading right for her lilypad. Tricky watched it with horror. This was the end wasn’t it…

As it approached the ripples disappeared, and for a split second, Tricky wondered if it had lost interest and was leaving. Then the bottom of her glowing lilypad suddenly tore open—

—A mottled blue hand shot out and pulled Tricky into the water.

Underwater she couldn’t breathe. Tricky had just enough time to take a breath before she went under, and then she was in the grasp of a skeletal poliwrath. The glow of the lilypad illuminated it from above, and she saw that half its skin was missing; seared off by flame. Its eyes were dead and focused straight on her. Tricky just stopped herself from screaming underwater and releasing all her air, but did her best to get away anyway. The zombified poliwrath wouldn’t let her go. It violently grabbed her and began to pull her apart. Tricky felt it she felt all the pain and it was horrible. She couldn’t stop herself from screaming, and she released all her air.

But it wasn’t water that flowed into her mouth. Air didn’t flow in either and Tricky felt like she was suffocating, but she knew what water felt like in her mouth and there wasn’t any. And even through all the pain she was experiencing, that one thought stayed in Tricky’s mind: No water…

She took a breath, and air flowed in. And even though all her other senses were telling her that was underwater and she couldn’t breathe, she was breathing. And if she could breathe she could—

Tricky snapped her head forward, took a deep breath of air underwater, and then blasted the poliwrath in the face with fire. It dropped her, and Tricky fell to the bottom of the lake like a deadweight. The poliwrath screeched loudly as it covered its face in pain, and all around her Tricky saw the Poliwrath River begin to crumble away.

The trees dissolved upwards, taking the vines with them Tricky couldn’t see the lilypads or the mud of the marsh anymore, and within minutes even the lake itself had become nothingness. The poliwrath had disappeared long ago. And all that was left was blackness. Blackness all around, and Tricky was once more alone. And then, the blackness began to take shape…

—Tricky violently snapped awake. She saw the narrow, goo-covered hallways of the Ancient Barrow once more, and Tricky realized she was laying against one. Half her face was covered in the goo! She sat up like a shot, quickly trying her best to rub it off her in disgust. Gross!

It was about a minute before full clarity returned to Tricky again. It must have all been a dream! But if it was all a dream, then… Budew… Tricky’s ears lowered ever-so-slightly. What a mean thing to do.

A sudden glow caught her eyes. At the end of the hallway, that same ghostly glow that the lilypad had shone from around the corner. Tricky glanced at it, first in confusion and then in hope. Maybe, just maybe…

She got up and followed.

~\({O})/~​

~Pancham~​

Pancham had been stuck underground for a while. Actually, was this underground? The answer eluded Pancham, but it didn’t matter—he was trapped nonetheless. There had to be some way out—he’d gotten in, after all—but no matter how many times he had rushed up or down the two stairways that led in and out of the room, they all led back to the same stone chamber that Pancham had been stuck in forever. He had tried everything: he’d searched for secret passages, went back up and down the stairs in patterns, and even tried pleading with the stairs at one point (which was a secret he would take to his grave, no matter what). Nothing had worked. Somehow, he had been thrown in here, and there was no way out.

He’d taken to just leaning against a wall, staring at nothing in particular. This was his nightmare come to life, being trapped all alone with no-mon to talk to forever! But right now all he felt was boredom. A lack of anything to do that cut through his fear and turned it into indifference.

Maybe it was just the way that the dim light in the cavern reflected off the stone walls, but Pancham could have sworn that the cavern was slowly getting smaller—no, it was definitely getting smaller. The amount of wall between the stairway and the roof had decreased by quite a bit. Pancham sat up quickly. He didn’t know whether to be terrified by the fact that the room was shrinking or invigorated that he finally had something to do now. It was then that he noticed the room was a bit lighter than it had been before. Light! And light had to come from somewhere…

Pancham spotted a crack in the ceiling, one that was slowly opening up as the room got smaller. But it was too high and too small; Pancham would never fit through that!

Pancham took a few deep breaths in fear. What was… what was he going to do?

The room got smaller and smaller, and the crack didn’t get any larger. And there was nothing that Pancham could do but watch as the roof slowly descended upon his head. He shut his eyes and hit the ground as the roof became too low for him to stand. No this wasn’t real this wasn’t real this wasn’t real it wasn’t it couldn’t be it was all a dream—

The room collapsed into nothingness. Slowly, Pancham looked up. He glanced around in confusion, rubbing his eyes. His arm was covered in the same black goo that coated the halls.

The room was gone entirely, and in its place were the cramped halls of the Ancient Barrow once more. Pancham picked himself up, brushing a copious amount of black goo from his arm and the right side of his face as he did. He slowly stood up, marveling at the fact that he was still alive. Had it all been a trick?

He glanced over. On the other side of the hallway, Shelmet lay against the wall, fast asleep. He was writhing in apparent pain, murmuring unintelligible gibberish to himself. Pancham wasted no time. He crawled through the swamp over to Shelmet, shaking his shell violently.

“Shelmet! Wake up!” he yelled, his cry echoing through the dungeon’s halls. Shelmet stirred once more, and then his eyes opened.

“…Pancham?” Shelmet asked wearily. Pancham wrapped him up in a large bear hug.

“Ugh… save it,” Shelmet struggled to say through Pancham’s embrace. “We don’t even know where we are yet…”

“There you guys are!”

Pancham quickly looked behind his shoulder, noticing Deerling and Tricky running up behind him. Shelmet took the opportunity to squirm out of Pancham’s arms while he was distracted.

Pancham quickly got up, just noticing that he had gotten his legs completely covered in swamp water. He grimaced.

Deerling silently counted them.

“That’s four of us,” she muttered. “Where’s Espurr?”

“She pushed me down the stairs,” Pancham said, standing up once again.

“...Wha?” Shelmet asked, still trying to regain his bearings.

“Somehow, that doesn’t surprise me,” Deerling said, and then she marched past Pancham. Pancham quickly ran to catch up.

“Wait! Shouldn’t we be focusing on getting out of here? I’ve seen a lot of weird stuff!”

“We’ve all seen weird stuff today,” Deerling said. She gave Pancham the cold shoulder. Pancham stopped walking with her, allowing her to continue on. Tricky gave him an oddly smug look as she passed him.

A few splashes from behind Pancham, and Shelmet quickly hopped up.

“Did you think something was off about that?” he asked. Pancham nodded.

~\({O})/~​

~Goomy~​

The fog closed around Goomy, and then he was lost in endless blankets of white mist. Unsure of what to do, he continued to slime through it in a straight line, keeping an eye out for anything he could see in the fog.

The mist was thick and invasive, and it was impossible to see anything until Goomy was almost close enough to touch it. He had almost slimed into a wall more than once. But what he heard in the mist was more unnerving by far. Every so often in the distance Goomy would catch wind of a growl or a screech, and he’d course correct to avoid it. But they only got closer, no matter which direction he slimed in. Goomy had taken to the walls, checking for places to hide as he continued. But there was nowhere to hide. No holes were large enough for him to hide in.

The sound of several screeches behind him caught Goomy’s attention. He quickly turned around the best he could, glancing down the long, long hallway he had just crossed.

Dungeon ‘mon.

Goomy could hear them rioting just around the corridor – and there were more than Goomy could count. There was nowhere to hide.

Goomy began to panic. Where was he going to go what was he going to do how would he get out of this?? But there was nothing to do but wait.

He saw them as shadows in the fog first. Shadows that quickly grew in size and intensity, until a pair of furfrou broke the mist—

The furfrou were not okay. They were half-decomposed all over, and Goomy could even see the bones in some places. And then they attacked. Goomy, who had never had to fend for himself, had no line of defense – he was snapped up and mauled like a chew toy. One of the furfrou shook him in its mouth and then threw him against the wall. Goomy slowly splatted to the floor, then weakly reformed himself. Thankfully, his body wasn’t solid enough to be mortally damaged by mauling, but it had still hurt him.

Hoots and hollers and screeches abounded in the distant fog. Goomy began to tremble. He was going to die, wasn’t he?

No. There had to be a way out of this! There just had to be! If he just tried hard enough….

With determination, Goomy slimed back out into the middle of the corridor. He was going to fight this time, not run and hide like a scared rattata.

The next pokemon that dashed out of the fog was a zebstrika. It was mottled and rotting in all the same places the furfrou had been, but Goomy held his ground this time. He tackled the zebstrika to the ground just as it reached him. As scary as it looked, the pokemon was frail, and Goomy watched in awe as it degraded into dust.

He looked at the fog ahead of him. He could see the outlines of many more pokemon advancing through the mist.

Goomy braced himself. That was too many to deal with all at once. He looked around. There was no way out; he wasn’t fast enough. There was nowhere to hide; he was too large. And if he tried to run now he’d be cornered. There was only one option.

Before Goomy even knew what had hit him, he was swarmed by dungeon ferals galore. They piled on top of him, all snapping at him with their rotting mouths and skeletal claws. Their claws hurt, but Goomy continued to fight back as best he could. He wasn’t taking it lying down anymore! He was going to fight until he couldn’t fight anymore!

With that thought, Goomy suddenly began to glow. He saw his body light up with a bright flash, and the bright flash was the last thing he saw, before his surroundings went black.

~\({O})/~​

~Pancham~​

Led by Deerling, the four of them travelled through the Barrow’s cramped halls silently. The floor was long and expansive, and perhaps more like a labyrinth than any of the floors above it. Pancham would never admit it, but all the silence was beginning to put him on edge more than everything that had happened tonight did. No-mon was talking to each other, instead just stewing in their own thoughts. Pancham didn’t know how, but he could feel it. Something about the dungeon made him able to feel it, and maybe everymon else felt it too.

The only ‘mon who seemed perky was Tricky. Tricky, who had the greatest negative energy of them all. It almost repelled Pancham with how strong it was.

But worst of all was that feeling of something being wrong. Something that neither he or Shelmet or even Deerling knew about. And Pancham couldn’t keep it in much longer.

“We should talk to each other.”

“What?” Deerling turned her head back at him, and Pancham saw that she’d been silently crying the whole way.

“I said we should talk to each other,” Pancham repeated. “Can’t you feel that energy in the air?”

He waved his paw around just to make a point. “That’s us. And the longer we’re walking here in silence the worse it’s gonna get.”

“You’re gonna stop us from finding the path,” Tricky suddenly butted in. “If we’re talking all the time, we’re not looking!”

“I agree with Tricky,” Deerling said. “We should be focusing on getting out, not talking.”

Tricky sent Pancham another smug look, before continuing with her nose in the air. And slowly, the group returned to silence.

Every so often Pancham would look at Tricky, who was prancing along gleefully without a seeming care in the world. It infuriated Pancham. How could she be so happy in their dire situation! The first thing he knew about Tricky was that she was a total wuss about this place.. was she just so carefree that she genuinely didn’t care if they get out or not?

Slowly, Tricky began to fall slightly behind. Soon she fell behind Shelmet, and trotted right next to Pancham, humming a cheerful tune and eyeing him almost tauntingly. And then, Pancham came to realization: Maybe it was in the way she moved, or the fact that she wasn’t wearing the scarf she had come in with, but Pancham realized all the same. This wasn’t Tricky.

He acted quickly, grabbing ‘Tricky’ by the throat and pinning it to the side of the wall.

“Who are you??” he yelled in the creature’s face. “And what are you doing pretending to be my friend??”

“Pancham!!” Deerling and Shelmet quickly turned around and ran back to where Pancham was. “What are you doing?!?” Deerling cried out in horror.

“That’s not Tricky!” Pancham yelled.

“What are you talking about??” Tricky feigned, squirming in Pancham’s grip. “I- I’m Tricky! Your best friend!!”

Even Deerling was caught off by that. She kept her attack position, but stayed still. Shelmet relaxed as well once he saw Deerling.

“What happened to your scarf?” Pancham asked.

“I… lost it,” Tricky said. “in the dungeon. But that’s not what’s important now, right?”

Pancham wasn’t satisfied.

“Then tell me your name,” he said. “Everymon knows that one.”

“Duh.” Tricky rolled her eyes. “It’s Tricky.”

Deerling couldn’t take it anymore.

“Pancham, just let her go,” she said loudly.

“That’s not the real Tricky!” Pancham yelled back, saying it in a panic as if on repeat. “It’s not real! It’s not real!”

“Pancham! Stop this!” Deerling yelled louder.

“Guys!” Shelmet tried to interject. He was ignored.

“I won’t! That’s not the real Tricky!” Pancham continued to yell.

Unnoticed, Tricky grinned with a mouth full of fangs. This was exactly what It had wanted, and that panda bear was dumb enough to fall for all Its traps. They had broken free of the nightmares, but the negative energy from this argument alone was giving It all the energy It needed to finally finish them off. Slowly, It sank into the goo-covered wall when no-mon was paying attention.

“Guys!” Shelmet loudly yelled, cutting both Pancham and Deerling off. They both looked at him with the same annoyed face: “What??”

“Tricky’s gone.”

Shelmet gestured to the wall where Tricky had been. Sure enough, there was nothing but black goo in her place. Both Pancham and Deerling went silent.

A sudden splashing from around the corridor caught the attention of all three pokemon.

“There!” Deerling yelled. “Follow it!”

Pancham, Deerling, and Shelmet all ran down the corridor and towards the noise.

Deerling was faster than Pancham and Shelmet combined. She rounded the corridor first, followed by Pancham and soon after Shelmet. Deerling froze. Her legs trembled for a minute. Then she quickly bolted forward.

“Goomy!” she called out as she ran. Sure enough, once Pancham looked, he saw Goomy slumped against the black goo of one of the walls.

A sudden gurgling stopped Deerling in her tracks. She watched in horror as slowly, the monster pulled itself out of the wall. It stood over the sleeping Goomy, reaching down for him menacingly…

“No,” Deerling roared. She ran forward, her head down. At the last minute, she came to a screeching halt, opened her mouth, and shot a beam of green energy directly at the monster.

“Hey—wait!” Pancham called out as he and Shelmet tried to catch up. “Wait for us!”

The monster was barely fazed. Ignoring Goomy, it began to step forwards, focused on Deerling instead. All her bravado suddenly lost, Deerling began to back away.

“Hey!”

A voice echoed down the hall, drawing the attention of both Deerling and the monster. Pancham dashed forward, his fist glowing with black energy. “You stay away from her!” he cried out valiantly, dashing forward and striking the monster in the chest.

The monster reeled back a bit, and Deerling took the opportunity to blast the monster with another Energy Ball. That sent the monster careening backwards.

Pancham, Shelmet, and Deerling stood together as it got up, ready to attack once again. But the monster didn’t attack. Instead, it studied them as if it were slightly wary of their power.

Then, without warning, it suddenly scooped up Goomy in its claws, and dove into the wall, taking Goomy with it. Deerling’s cry of horror was lost as the last of Goomy’s lavender goo disappeared into the wall along with the monster.

And then all was quiet.

Deerling’s legs trembled. Once. Then twice. Then, she collapsed to the ground. Pancham didn’t hear her say anything. He walked over.

“We’re gonna find it,” he said.

“It took Goomy!” Deerling suddenly snapped at him. She turned around; Pancham saw the devastated look on her face. “W-what do you think there’s going to be to find?”

“Didn’t you see?” Pancham asked. “We scared it off! It’s running from us! It took a hostage.”

“What does that matter?” asked Deerling forlornly.

“If we’re fast enough, we can still get Goomy back!” said Pancham. “Espurr and Tricky too.”

“You don’t know that,” Deerling muttered.

“No, I don’t.” He began to trudge forward in the muck, looking back at Deerling and Shelmet. “But don’t you at least want to try?”

~\({O})/~​

~Tricky~​

Tricky ran through the hallway, carelessly splashing through the muck. The glow was disappearing. She had to keep up with it! Tricky rounded one corridor, then the next. In the distance, she heard what sounded like a large gurgle, and only then did the glow begin to stay in one place.

She slowed down as she approached it. Carefully turning the last corridor, Tricky finally laid eyes on what had been casting that ghostly glow all this time: in the middle of the hallway floated Budew. He looked just like she remembered, all the way down the blue scarf she’d given him to wear all that time ago.

Tricky didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. So she did the first thing she could think of – she bolted forward and hugged him tightly.

“Budew…” she half-laughed, half-sobbed. “It’s really you…”

“All I remember is… dying,” Budew said, in a small, cracked voice. “And then I ended up here. I’ve been here for years… wandering around all in the dark… I had to drink swamp water!”

“I know…” Tricky still hadn’t released him from her hug. A single tear slid down her cheek. “I’m sorry I got you killed.”

Budew was the one who eventually parted them. He looked at her with big, pleading eyes. “Have you come to take me out of here?”

Tricky’s face lit up with what was perhaps the most joyful expression she’d ever had. “Of course! Of course you can come back! You can come back to school, and meet Espurr and Goomy and see Deerling again and…”

Tricky’s head tilted, as she looked behind him.

“…Huh,” she said. “Is that Goomy?”

“What?’ Budew looked behind himself as well. “Who’s Goomy? I don’t see anymon.”

“But he’s right there, Tricky said, beginning to pad around Budew. Budew quickly made to stop her.

“Aren’t you going to take me out of here?” Budew asked, louder and more firm this time.

“But we’ve gotta get Goomy too!” Tricky pleaded.

“There’s no-mon there, Tricky,” Budew said sternly. “We should go.”

Tricky was silent. Slowly, her ears drooped, and a few tears fell from her eyes silently. But she didn’t cry.

“Alright,” she said. “Lead the way.”

Budew happily veered off in the opposite direction, heading down the hallway she had come from. But Tricky didn’t follow. Budew looked back in confusion once he had reached the corridor’s entrance.

“Are you coming with me?” he asked. Tricky shook her head.

“You’re not the real Budew,” she said.

“But I am the real Budew!” Budew yelled. “I am! I am! i Am!”

Tricky just hung her head and shook it.

“I’m so sorry,” she breathed. And then she took a deep breath, and blew a stream of fire directly at Budew.

The fire was hungry, and soon Budew was completely alight. Tricky tried to drown out his screams by covering her ears, and soon with her own. But they didn’t last long. The familiar voice of Budew droned on longer than it should have, increasing in pitch until it was a loud, demonic screech. And then it cut out entirely, and Budew was gone.

Tricky sniffled, then blinked the tears from her eyes.

“Goomy!” she yelled, running over to his sleeping form. She quickly nudged him with her paw, then her nose. “Wake up!”

It was a minute, but Goomy stirred. He blinked his eyes open wearily, looking at Tricky.

“…T-Tricky?” he asked hopefully. Tricky nodded ecstatically.

“Come on—get up!” she hissed, barely able to sit still. “We’ve gotta find the others!”

“Hey!! Over here!”

Both Tricky and Goomy turned to see a welcome face: Pancham ran around the corner, followed by Deerling and Shelmet. Everymon was there, except for…

…But Espurr was smart. The smartest of all of them. Tricky was sure she was fine. She quickly ran to join the other three ‘mon, looking back to make sure that Goomy was keeping up.

“How’d you guys find us?” she asked.

“We heard the screeches,” Pancham said. “We just followed the sound. What were those screeches, anyway—”

“GOOMY!!” Deerling cried out, galloping over to meet Goomy in the middle. She quickly checked him over to make sure he was fine. “Are you alright? Did that monster do anything to you??”

“I-I’m fine,” Goomy said, shrugging off the attention. He didn’t like it when Deering fawned over him like that. He was big enough to care for himself!

A sudden gurgling from the wall stopped everymon in their tracks. They all watched in horror as a clawed arm erupted out of the wall, followed by another. And then a leg. And then the monster stood before them in Its full glory. Enraged.

Pancham, Deerling, and Shelmet took attack positions.

“Behind me, Goomy,” Deerling said urgently. Goomy was going to object, but then saw the monster and did exactly as Deerling asked.

“Now what?” Shelmet asked, as Tricky charged up and ember too.

“On three, we all attack,” Pancham said. “One… Two… Three!”

Tricky fired an ember. Deerling fired an energy beam. Pancham grabbed ahold of Shelmet, and ran straight for the beast with the pointy end of Shelmet’s shell. The energy ball and ember combined sent the monster reeling back, but it was quick. It grabbed Shelmet, stopping Pancham in his tracks.

“Hey—stop!” the monster lifted both Pancham and Shelmet up into the air. Deerling lost it. She put her head down, and charged for the monster once more, intending to headbutt it. Her head became stuck in the goo.

Tricky fired another ember at the monster, but it blocked the attack with Shelmet’s shell. Tricky growled and charged forward, , biting the creature in the leg, But her muzzle went all the way through, and Tricky found she couldn’t remove it. Muffled, she screamed in horror as she tried to pull her nose and muzzle out. She was suffocating!

Goomy watched in terror as the monster dealt with all his friends. He couldn’t… he couldn’t take this anymore! If no-mon was going to help his friends, then somemon had to step up!

The same spark Goomy had felt in the nightmare resounded within him. There was a sudden flash, and for a few seconds Goomy felt nothing. And then everything went black. Goomy could feel his eyes, and he could hear his friends scream, but he couldn’t see them!

And then his antennae twitched, and suddenly Sliggoo saw everything. He looked around, his antennae focusing on the monster. Somehow, he knew what to do. He opened his mouth, and he felt a newfound energy build up within. And once it became too much for his mouth to bear, he spat it out. The ground suddenly boomed, and the creature was thrown back to the end of the hallway. All of Sliggoo’s friends fell back into the muck, catching their breath from the harrowing encounter. They all saw Sliggoo and gazed in awe, but their attention soon returned to the creature at the end of the hallway.

With just a squelch and the shifting of the wall, it was gone.

~\({O})/~​

The In-Between​

~Espurr~​

Slowly coming to. Espurr blinked her eyes open. She sat up in the blackness, looking around. The all-too-familiar blackness of the In-Between met her eyes. She stood up, looking around.

Foolish girl.

A wind began to howl in the distance, and suddenly Espurr was knocked backwards, falling on her behind. She glanced up at the howling wind above her, staring up in wordless horror.

Oh so foolish… you make my job too easy. All it took was one dream, and you came skittering into my lair without another thought to pay.

The void was suddenly all around her. Espurr stayed quiet as she looked for a way out. Just the thought of pulling another psychic trick made her head want to explode, but there had to be another way out!

“Wake up…”

A new voice reverberated in her head. Espurr quickly stared up at the sky in hope. “It’s coming…”

The winds suddenly picked up, the howling drowning out whatever she could hear of the voice.

Now your friends will die… and you will die with them. My shadow will consume you ALL.

“…Wake up! Wake up wake up wake up—"

Espurr felt something violently shake her, and all of the sudden she was in—

~\({O})/~​

The Ancient Barrow​

The cramped halls of the Ancient Barrow greeted her eyes once again. Espurr was lying against the black goo that coated the walls, and a good amount of her fur was covered in it. Over her stood a riolu. Espurr was startled; she almost yelped in surprise. But the riolu frantically gestured for silence with his paws.

“Quiet! It’s coming,” he hissed.

Sure enough, Espurr’s ears caught the sound of something gurgling in the distance, and then a large splash echoed through the hallway. Riolu began to panic- he looked this way and that, his eyes finally settling on a dead-end corridor nearby.

“This way!” he quietly hissed, and then he quickly led Espurr towards it anyway.

They both sat down in the swamp water, hiding themselves from sight. Riolu motioned for silence, and Espurr stayed as quiet as she could. They quietly listened as outside the passage, something large tromped by.

Slowly, it passed, and only after it had been gone for a good minute did Riolu uncup his paw from over his mouth.

“Who are you?” Espurr asked in a whisper, once she was sure that the monster wouldn’t be coming back for them.

“I’m Riolu,“ he said, puffing out his chest. “And I’m the one who’s gonna save the world.”

~\({O})/~
​

Music of The Week!

All Together Now - Marco Beltrami

Spoiler: Void Shadow Illustration

​

 

[Shiny Phantump]

I’ve just read through everything here, so I though I’d leave what I can of a review.
I’m not in the most critical think-y mood at the moment, so it’ll be a short one. I just know that if I don’t make a point of doing it now, I’ll end up putting it off indefinitely.

Thus far, the character writing on Espurr and Tricky has been very well done. I’ve always been a fan of Super’s partner, but this fic in particular does a good job of exploring Tricky’s flaws, while also keeping her from being irritating, which the original Super partner was guilty of. Espurr’s character is subtler, but she still has a clear enough personality to set her apart from the run of the mill protagonist.

As for the latest chapters, I’m beginning to become a little confused as to who and what is and isn’t in the voidlands. I can’t tell what’s happening and where. I’ve lost track of were Espurr, Tricky, the schoolkids and our new Riolu friend each are. Fortunately, the character writing was still enough to hold my interest.

Anyways, I’m looking forward to seeing what goes on from this point forwards!

 

[SparklingEspeon]

Oh, you’re up now.

Salutations from the other side, dear traveler! Sorry for putting you under. Trust me, you’d have gone crazy if you were awake.

…Hmm? Who am I? Well… I’m a friend. And there’s an entire world out there that needs your help. In fact, you’re their last hope.

You want what?

I’ll have to erase your memories of this conversation, so you won’t keep any of it. But we have a little time. Sit down— oh. Wait. You don’t have a body yet. Silly me! Just float there, then.

It all started very long, long ago…

~\({O})/~

20.

Salutations From the Other Side

~\({O})/~

School Forest ~ Four Weeks Ago

~Riolu~​

Riolu opened his mouth, and his tongue flopped out. Everything felt weird. He could smell the forest around him in much more detail than he was used to, and he was sure his tongue wasn’t supposed to be hanging out of his mouth like that. It was only when he heard the rushing of the lake that Riolu thought to open his eyes.

He couldn’t see as well, that was for sure. But his smell and hearing more than made up for it. He could hear the lake, and he could smell the lake, and his nose and ears together told him it was less than three feet away. That would take some getting used to. His feet, however…

Riolu cast a look at his hind paws, realizing that he didn’t have the faintest idea of how to walk on those. All the while his tongue had been flopped out of his mouth, and it was beginning to drip slobber onto him. Riolu did his best to pull his tongue back into his mouth, but it took a few tries to get it right. And then, Riolu noticed: he was parched.

Luckily, that was what the lake was for.

Riolu crawled over to it on his elbows and knees, and after casting a look around and realizing there wouldn’t be any ready-made cups waiting around for him in the middle of a forest – damnit – he gave up and stuck his tongue into the water to drink. He was able to drink his fill that way easily, although the water flowed too fast for Riolu to see his reflection.

Swish.

The thing that jarred him out of his stupor was the sound of something approaching from behind him. Riolu quickly turned over, looking in the direction of the noise. In the distance (although he couldn’t tell for sure; the distance was a bit blurry), there stood what looked like a trio of cone-headed creatures with softly-flickering lights on their arms. The flickers made it hard to see. Riolu tilted his head for a minute. Were these natives? Maybe they could help him!

“Hey!” Riolu called out cheerfully, waving at them. “Hullo! Over here! Anyone think they can give me some directions!?”

They didn’t answer. Riolu’s waving stopped for just a second. He was beginning to get a little unnerved. Maybe they couldn’t hear him or something. He’d just wave harder.

“I’m a bit lost!” Riolu called out, unconsciously wagging his tail behind him. “Can you help me??”

The trio of pokemon turned to each other, and Riolu saw for sure the flickering lights on their hands. Red yellow green yellow red and then yellow again…

And then, just like that, they all turned back to face Riolu. Riolu gave them a complimentary wave. Just in case. Maybe…

All thoughts and hopes of a civil exchange were suddenly dashed from Riolu’s mind. The creatures raised their arms, and then a large shadowy ball materialized out of nowhere and flew straight at Riolu—

—Riolu barely dived out of the way as it flew over the bush he was next to and exploded against something on the other side of the lake.

“Hey! Not cool!” Riolu yelled back at them. If the strange pokemon heard him, they didn’t acknowledge it. They started to move towards him, and as the bushes pushed apart Riolu saw that they had no legs. They floated.

Riolu quickly glanced down at his own legs. He didn’t know how these even worked, much less how to walk on them! But then one of the strange pokemon’s lights flickered bright yellow again and blinked him in the face, and Riolu decided that now was as good a time as any to learn. He hopped to his feet—stumbled a bit—then ran off into the woods as fast as he could.

He didn’t get far. He tripped on a root, which sent him tumbling down the forest floor until he landed in the middle of a ditch.

After half a minute of lying there, Riolu groaned. His leg hurt. It wasn’t broken, but it wasn’t in running condition either. But there was no time for this! He was being chased! Maybe—maybe he could—

Riolu looked down at his paws, then at all the mud under him. He didn’t know how, but he knew: His hands were made for digging. And he was in a ditch. He could dig his way out.

Above him, the strange pokemon passed over, looking for him in vain. Riolu held his breath until they had disappeared (or at least he couldn’t hear them anymore). Then he sat up. His leg wasn’t throbbing in pain as much anymore. It was time to get to work.

Riolu spent the next few hours digging a hidey-hole for himself. At several points, he had to stop whenever he heard the swish of ferns being pushed aside, or the tell-tale beeping that came with the strange pokemon’s presence. But Riolu was a diligent worker, and by the time that night fell Riolu had dug himself a large tunnel.

Before long, he felt hungry. He lay in the small, underground passage he had dug that was just big enough for him, clutching his belly in mild pain. He’d been working hard all day, not to mention the nagging feeling that something was off about him that he couldn’t quite put his finge—paw on. Above him, he heard distant beeps in the distance. He couldn’t just go out and forage for things, because then he would be caught and he didn’t have the skills to fight or evade those strange pokemon yet.

Riolu decided to keep digging. He needed food sooner or later, but staying in this tunnel forever and waiting for the relentless pokemon to leave would just mean starving to death in here. Riolu was going to dig outside of their boundaries, and hope they didn’t discover the tunnel in the ditch before he did.

And so he dug. For ages, until dirt piles littered the passage behind him and Riolu was sure it was sunrise again (although he couldn’t tell because he wasn’t above ground). He was almost ready to collapse. He looked back at the tunnel entrance, which he could still vaguely see from far away. He hadn’t dug as long a distance as he had thought. Riolu leaned against the cavern wall in despair. He was so tired, and so hungry, and so thirsty… Perhaps he’d just dig up here. This must be outside the strange pokemons’ boundaries. And if not, maybe they were sleeping. Or maybe they’d moved on, thinking he was long gone at this point. Either way, this couldn’t go on for much longer. Riolu needed out, and he needed out now.

Riolu dug up. It was hard at first, but he soon found that he was able to cling to the walls with his claws and bat the dirt down, and soon the entire ground above fell onto the floor of the cavern below and Riolu saw daylight, beautiful daylight, and he rejoiced, climbing out of the hole.

Swish.

In the distance. Riolu’s head snapped back towards that. Did those pokemon never quit?? He didn’t think beyond that—he ran. The pokemon emerged from the treeline behind him, almost like they had known he was there, and as he glanced back towards them Riolu tripped.

He hit the ground hard. Riolu groaned, feeling all the aches and pains of his body come back to hit him full-force with that one collision against the ground. The strange pokemon didn’t wait for him to recover. One of them raised its arms in his direction, and before Riolu had a chance to react a large shadowy ball flew out of nowhere and collided with him.

Riolu’s body was pain, then stiff, and then everything went black.

~\({O})/~​

It was a while before Riolu could wake up again. He was still parched, but everything felt hotter. Much hotter. He opened his eyes, and saw the blood-red sky above him.

That wasn’t right.

Riolu sat up, looking around. All around him was a forest of dead trees. No leaves were anywhere to be seen, and the bark was pitch black. It rotted off the trees and curled up on the ground.

Riolu slowly got to his feet. This wasn’t right. And he needed something to eat. And drink.

Something caught the corner of Riolu’s eye. Something blue amongst all the crimson. Riolu turned to see a blue flame dancing deeper in the forest. It flickered weakly, almost half-gone. Riolu could even see through it.

It danced around in the air gracefully, then zipped off in a different direction as if bidding Riolu to follow. Riolu stopped for a minute. Was this really the best option? The last pokemon he had tried to trust had brought him… here. But where was ‘here’? Riolu looked around at the dead trees and the red sky. He needed any help he could get. He’d just have to be on the lookout for a trap. And so Riolu reluctantly decided to follow it. There wasn’t another good choice, in hindsight.

As Riolu walked he noticed that the flame was beginning to get stronger. He couldn’t deny that he was scared right now, and maybe that was making him see things, but it looked like the flame was slightly more solid. Less see-through. Maybe even the flame was a hallucination.

Riolu’s stomach growled. He clutched it in hunger as he went. Boy, he hoped he could find something to eat soon.

The flame entered a large clearing in the middle of the dead woods, and then it stopped. Riolu followed it into the clearing, but no further. The flame was completely stationary, dancing and flickering brightly in place. It looked a lot more energetic than when Riolu had first seen it. A wave of fear came over Riolu suddenly. Had he just walked into some kind of trap?

Riolu wanted to run away, but then a thought occurred to him: what if that was what they wanted? (And he didn’t want to get lost either.)

Slowly, Riolu peeked his head out into the clearing, both ways. He didn’t see anything but the trunks of more dead trees. And that flame, which had not moved an inch. Slowly, Riolu sighed in defeat. If this was a trap, he’d just have to spring it. He was too hungry to come up with a better solution right now.

Riolu took a single step out into the clearing, then quickly pulled his foot back. Nothing happened. Arrows didn’t fly from the trees, and no monster emerged from the forest to devour him. Riolu mustered up all his courage, and then put his foot out again. And this time, it stayed there.

Riolu took another step. Then another. And another. Soon he was all the way out of the tree-line, and nothing had changed. Riolu let out a quiet sigh of relief. Then he quickly scampered up to the flame like the ground behind him was lava.

It stood still in the air, same as it had since he’d seen it. Riolu tentatively reached out a paw to touch it, but his paw went through completely. Riolu pulled it out then looked down at it, noticing how it was completely unharmed.

“BOO!!”

“Aaauggh!” Riolu fell backwards onto the ground, edging away towards the treeline in fear. Slowly, he watched as the blue flame materialized completely, a candle forming at its base. A candle with a face.

“Oh, tasty, tasty beautiful fear!” the candle cried out in joy, seemingly devouring something that Riolu couldn’t see. “For a moment…” the candle gasped between bites. “…I thought I was going to disappear…”

“Fear?” Another voice piped up from a distance.

“Fear?”

“Where is it?”

“We can eat??”

“We can eat!”

“We’re saved!”

Several more voices whistled through the bare treetops, and Riolu could only watch as more of the blue flames arrived to feast upon an invisible luncheon. And Riolu was terrified. He curled up in a ball on the ground, waiting for it all to be over, for this all to be just a dream—

“You can get up now. We’ve had our fill.”

Riolu slowly peeked out from the ball he was currently curled up in. The candle that had led him here – he could tell because the flame on top was larger than the others – floated over him, a friendly expression upon its face.

“Yeah!” another candle piped up from amongst the horde of candles that were now watching him (Riolu became a little uncomfortable in just that moment). “You saved us!”

“I… what?” Riolu asked. His voice was raspy from lack of water, and it felt weird just talking. Never mind the fact that he was talking to floating ghost candles.

His stomachache suddenly flared up, and Riolu clutched it in pain. The candles all exchanged looks.

“Well, he fed us,” said one. “’s only fair.”

~\({O})/~​

“So what are you guys all about?” Riolu asked, happily gnawing on a few carrot-like roots that the candle-things had picked for him. They barely had any taste and they smelled awful, but Riolu was just happy to eat something at this point.

“What do you mean?” one of the candles asked, lazily floating in the air.

“Like,” Riolu said before biting off a large piece of the root. “What are you?”

All the candles exchanged weird looks at that line.

“Well…” one candle started. “We’re Litwick. The former and forever occupants of the Ancient Barrow!”

“Well, until recently,” said another.

“What’s that mean?” Riolu asked.

“It’s an unfortunate misconception,” said the litwick who had led him here. “The public thinks we’re soul eaters, and that we have to kill somemon every time we want to eat. Really, we just feed on negative auras. But all the superstition got troublesome to deal with, so we locked ourselves away in the Ancient Barrow and posed as ghosts. A little ‘boo’ here, dishes re-arranged there, and we ate well. We were eating well. And then…” the litwick shuddered, too scared to go on.

“And then we were attacked,” another, braver litwick continued in his place. “All this icky black goo came down the wall! None of us saw what it was. We were just hit by this strange black ball, and the next thing we knew we were all here.”

“There’s nothing to eat here,” a smaller litwick piped up. “We almost disappeared from starvation!”

“But then you showed up,” said a fourth, quieter litwick. “A lot of us owe you our lives.”

Riolu set down what was left of his roots.

“So there’s really nothing for you guys to eat here?” he asked.

One of the litwick shook their heads. “No living creatures,” they said. “Nothing to scare. Nothing to feed off of.”

Riolu stared at the ground. “And if I leave you…” he began. “…You’ll just starve again?”

There was silence, but everymon knew the answer to that question.

“…How about we make a deal?” asked one of the litwick. “You just woke up here, right? You must think this place is pretty strange. We’ll protect you! We’ll teach you how to survive here! And all you have to do is feed us!”

“Yeah!” the smaller litwick piped up. “The only pokemon you still have to meet is Solosis! And she’ll be back soon!”

“Who’s Solosis?” Riolu asked.

“Our leader,” the first litwick said. “You’ll meet her tonight, after she gets back from There.”

“Where?”

The litwick pointed directly behind Riolu. “There.”

Riolu looked behind himself, to where Litwick was pointing. And then he saw it: A large mountain, wreathed in flame. He quickly stood up and looked up at it. And then he didn’t want to look at it. Riolu shut his eyes and turned away, but the image of the demonic mountain was burned into his brain now. Slowly, he opened them, making sure to look in the other direction.

“W-what is that?” he stammered.

“We call it the Bad Place,” said one of the litwick. “Solosis has another name for it.”

“Another name for what?”

The voice reverberated through Riolu’s head. It came from everywhere and nowhere at once, but Riolu only had to glance where all the other litwick were glancing to find out who was speaking.

It looked like nothing he had ever seen before; a small ball with eyes encased in a larger coating of thick green slime. And it floated.

The large green ball of slime looked around, its eyes settling on Riolu.

“You’re new,” she ‘said’. Despite the distance Riolu heard it as if she was standing right in front of him.

“Uh… hi.” Riolu didn’t have the energy to wave in greeting.

Solosis sighed in exhaustion (or as close as it could get to that, Riolu assumed), then floated over.

“Did you find anything?” one of the litwick asked.

“Not yet,” Solosis broadcasted. “I haven’t been able to get close.”

Noticing the falling look upon the litwick’s face, Solosis quickly floated over.

“Cheer up! We’ll figure it out soon enough. Maybe I’ll bring some of you with me next time; see if we can make it up that cliff easier.”

There were various murmurs of disappointment and interest from the litwick, but they soon dissipated. Nothing had changed, after all. Solosis herself soon fluttered over to Riolu, then lowered herself to his height.

“So what brings you here?” she asked. “Wait—don’t tell me. You got zapped here too.”

Unsure of what to say, Riolu nodded silently.

~\({O})/~​

“We haven’t got much, but… we’re the only pokemon for miles out. Trust me. I’ve searched.”

Solosis floated next to Riolu on one end of the clearing, where he sat against the trunk of a dead tree. Out in the middle of the clearing, the litwick amassed in a large flurry of floating candles and blue flames, flying around and socializing with each other at speeds Riolu couldn’t even possibly imagine.

“I’ve been feeding them as much as I can, but I’m only one pokemon when it comes down to it,” Solosis said. “And litwick can’t eat their own negative auras, or we’d never have to worry about this. They were all starving to death until you showed up.”

Riolu connected the dots quickly.

“And…” he said. “You want me to help out?”

Solosis sent him a pleading look he wouldn’t have thought was possible with those beady black eyes.

“Would you?” she asked.

Riolu was silent for a minute. That should have had an easy answer. He didn’t have anywhere else to go. And… they’d fed him. He’d probably die on his own. But at the same time… did he want to be stuck here for the rest of his life? He looked up at the blood-red sky.

“…Is the sky always like that?” he asked. “It doesn’t feel right.”

“It’s been like that ever since we’ve been here. And wouldn’t you believe it, this is the daytime.”

“Really? What’s it like at night?” Riolu asked.

“Black,” Solosis answered. “Even this place can’t take that away.”

Riolu snickered through his nose. It sounded more like a snort.

“So, what do you think?” Solosis asked, giving him that pleading look once more. “Will you stay with us? Just until we find a way out of here?”

Riolu shrugged. “I guess.”

“Great!” Solosis suddenly sounded much more energetic.

“Oh, and one more thing you should know,” she quickly said before Riolu could open his mouth in response. “You might hear things in the distance at night. Howls, screeches, pokemon crying out for help… whatever you do, don’t leave the clearing. Got it?”

Riolu’s ears flopped down in confusion. Something wasn’t adding up. “I thought you said we were the only living things here for miles out.”

“I said we were the only pokemon for miles out,” Solosis said. “You’ll steer clear of those, yes?”

Riolu nodded, suddenly looking a lot more fearful.

“Good, then!” Solosis broadcasted into his head cheerfully, leading him through the clearing. “I’ll show you where you’ll sleep.”

~\({O})/~​

Riolu slept in a pile of dirt near the far side of the clearing that had been bunched up to look like a bed. He felt his stomach grumble a little, but clutched it in silence. The roots had filled him for a bit, but now he was hungry again. He gritted his teeth and bore it in silence. It could wait until morning.

And yet, as the hours ran on, Riolu found himself still wide awake. He had no right to be this wide awake—he should have been exhausted from everything that he just happened in the past day—but it felt like his body didn’t want to loosen up. He was still tense, like something was going to spring on him any moment and he had to be ready.

Maybe it was this place that was making him feel like that. Everything was deathly silent. At least, back in the other place, he could hear things chirping as he dug. Here, there was… nothing. It was dead. Everything here was dead.

“Heeeeeeeelp!”

Riolu immediately sat up in his bed of dirt, staring directly at where the voice had come from. It sounded like… he couldn’t really tell what it sounded like, but it had come from very deep in the woods.

You might hear things in the distance at night.

Riolu stared at the trees intently, trying to see anything that might be in the distance. He could only see the absolute darkness that crept out from the treeline.

Whatever you do, don’t leave the clearing. Got it?

That was suddenly a much harder set of instructions to follow. Riolu was scared out of his wits, sure. But if there was somemon that needed help out there…

Riolu slowly rose from his position, taking care not to upset the ghostly forms of the sleeping litwick all around him. Slowly, he tiptoed towards the treeline, trying to get a better idea of what might be out there. His ears pricked up, able to hear the cracking of sticks as something prowled in the distance far off. Another living creature??

He sniffed the air, remembering his heightened sense of smell. He smelled… eww, that was rancid. A disgusting scent wafted in through the trees, regaling Riolu with its foulness. He wrinkled up his nose and stepped back. It smelled like somemon had died long ago and was rotting. Riolu stood in place, not sure what to do with this information. Maybe he should go wake Solosis—

A loud roar echoed through the trees, biting Riolu’s ears with the force of a hammer. It heightened in pitch until it was the screech of a demon, and then Riolu heard whatever had been prowling through the woods suddenly romp off.

Without thinking, he quickly got back to his bed of dirt and laid down upon it, wide awake and scared witless.

He stayed awake the whole night.

~\({O})/~​

“Rise and shine.”

Slowly coming to. Riolu blinked himself awake, staring up at Solosis. He looked up at her briefly, yawned, then let his head fall back down against the dirt again. He felt tired. What had happened last night?

Slowly, it all came back to him. All the memories of his frightening encounter last night. What was that thin—

“BOO!!”

Riolu jolted awake with a yelp, and the litwick feasted.

That was how it went for the next few days. The litwick, experienced and ever-creative in the art of frightening pokemon, found new ways to scare Riolu each day. In return, Riolu got roots to eat from them twice a day and water to drink, and so his belly stayed relatively not-empty. He quickly made friends with a few of them, having nothing else to do all day as they waited for Solosis. The one who had led him here was called Tall-Flame, and the other three litwick in Tall-Flame’s gang were Small-Light, Flicker-Stem, and Violet-Fire. Small-Light had haunted a library for a while, and read a lot of things in books when he wasn’t busy scaring the librarian. Violet-Fire would scare him the worst but ate very little herself, while Flicker-Stem was very young and had known little else but this place. Tall-Flame was adventurous, but also reckless. The other three constantly had to talk him down from pulling several reckless stunts, and it soon became obvious to Riolu that Tall-Flame had found him completely by accident.

This wasn’t meant to be permanent. Every day, Solosis would wake Riolu and then leave early, and she would come back an hour before darkness fell, because it wasn’t safe to go out at dark. Riolu had questioned her on several occasions, but Solosis was always very coy about the answers she gave.

“What are those noises?” Riolu asked one day, just after Solosis had come back from wherever she went all day. “I hear them every night. You said they aren’t pokemon. But if everyone can hear those things, then that means there has to be some other sign of life out there, right?”

Solosis sighed, like she wasn’t prepared to answer that question.

“Promise me you’ll never go after those voices,” she said, just to him. “They aren’t what they pretend to be.”

“What does that mean??” Riolu pressed, but Solosis refused to communicate with him beyond that.

“So,” Riolu asked as he bit into a root. His nose wrinkled as he did. They smelled more and more awful with each day, but they were the only thing he had to eat at this point. “What’s up with Solosis? You guys know why she goes to that mountain every day?”

Flicker-Stem floated next to him, staring at the same thing he was: the demonic, flame-wreathed mountain in the distance. It was colored the dark shade of rust that everything in this place was colored, and from a distance it seemed almost peaceful. Almost.

“Solosis calls it Reverse Mountain,” Flicker-Stem said. “She said that in the world—the real world, not this place—there’s a mountain just like it standing right there. And on top of Reverse Mountain is the way back to the real world.”

Riolu chewed his roots silently as he gazed up at it.

“…Then why haven’t we left already?” he asked.

“Because there’s no way up the mountain,” Flicker-Stem said.

That made Riolu glance at Flicker-Stem in shock.

“Then…” he said, with a mouth full of awful-smelling root. “...We’re stuck here?”

Flicker-Stem frowned. “We were already stuck here,” he said. “Every day Solosis goes out to the mountain and looks for a way out of here.”

“But she hasn’t found one yet,” Riolu finished.

“You’re getting it,” Thin-Stem said.

“Then how does she know that there’s a way out on top of the mountain?” Riolu asked.

“I don’t think she does,” Flicker-Stem replied. Riolu could hear the doubt beginning to creep into the edges of his voice.

It was a week before anything notable happened.

~\({O})/~​

“You’re awake. Good! I’ve been waiting so very long…

…How long? You were out for quite a while. I was beginning to get worried about you. Although, your mind wouldn’t have survived the trip if I hadn’t put you under. Transferring consciousness between bodies is a big deal, after all!

Do you remember what we talked about? The questions I asked you? The conclusions we came to together?

Yes… We’re here. We’ve arrived at the Pokemon World. But…

I’m afraid I have to leave you now. However, I trust you’ll be just fine on your own.

You will… If you answered my questions with an honest and open heart, you should have nothing to fear.

And now we must part, dear Espurr. My heart goes out to you, in the new world…

~\({O})/~

Litwick Campground

~Riolu~​

Riolu lay on his bed of dirt, with his eyes squeezed shut. He still heard the voices, but it had been a week, and he’d almost learned to ignore them at this point. Or at least sleep while he heard the howling and screeches that reverberated through the woods. He didn’t think Solosis knew what they were. Maybe she had spent too many nights listening to those voices as they kept her up at night. A few nights of hearing them and Riolu never wanted to hear them again. He rolled away from the woods in front of him, gazing at the sleeping pile of litwick that cast a soft blue glow over the campsite. He was beginning to feel sleepy, and finally the woods had gone silent around him. Perhaps he could get a good night’s worth of sleep this time—

A low rumbling caught Riolu’s ears, and then the sharp noise of something blasting up into the sky made them lower in shock. Riolu quickly sat up, looking around in confusion. His eyes settled in on the new direction: It was due south.

Opening his eyes, Riolu was met with the image of a thin pillar of light streaking up into the sky. That was… Riolu quickly checked. That was to the southeast.

~\({O})/~​

Somemon very, very far away glanced out from his tent to watch the large pillar of light brightening up the sky to the southwest.

“Interesting…” Wartortle muttered to himself.

~\({O})/~

~Riolu~​

Riolu looked one way, then the other. Then back at the stream again. It didn’t look that far off, but… Didi it make sense to leave the clearing to go looking for it? Riolu was torn.

It was a few minutes before he properly decided. Quietly, Riolu crept off his bed of dirt, and took a few hesitant steps towards the treeline. It would just be there and back again. No sweat. And if he found something, then it was even better! That made up Riolu’s mind. He took a few more confident steps, and then sprinted for the treeline.

He ran through the woods, heading due south. Looking up, he could still see the stream flaring up in the sky. It looked no larger than it had before.

Riolu closed his eyes and let his legs take over for him. He hadn’t run properly since… ever, and it felt amazing—

A tree branch sent Riolu stumbling to his feet, and he struggled to pick himself up and continue onward. Okay. He’d keep his eyes open from now on.

Before long, the forest ended. Riolu found himself stumbling to a stop in a second large clearing. He looked around in confusion.

He stood in the middle of what looked like a village, but it was almost completely leveled—no building still had its roof intact, and many of the houses had been leveled from the top half up. Many of the deeper cracks didn’t even extend a foot off the ground. Which was half as tall as he was, but several feet short of a complete building.

The light had slowly died down by now. Riolu looked upwards towards the sky to see that the large flare of light was thinning. It threatened to leave Riolu in complete darkness, but lit up the area just enough for him to see.

In the distance behind him, a stick snapped. Riolu glanced back towards the woods from which he had come anxiously. Was something there?

On instinct, Riolu hid behind one of the building’s walls, crouching down to avoid being seen. Something was out there, and he knew there was only one thing it could have been.

Slowly, he heard it stomp around. The footsteps were heavy, like the creature they belonged to was bulky. Riolu barely dared to breathe.

He stayed like that for a minute, breathing as silently as he could with his paws clenching the rust-red dust on the ground. He heard the monster stomp around a bit more, almost like it was looking around for something. It sniffed the air audibly. It smelled him.

Riolu decided to take a peek. If he was going to decide on a good course of action, he at least needed to know what he was dealing with first. Ever-so-slowly, he twisted his head around the stone wall he was hiding behind, trying to get a good look at what was in the middle of the village square.

The only reason he could see it was because it was blacker than anything else. It looked without a stable form, and Riolu saw it dripping black fluid onto the ground as it walked. He took a heavy breath, trying to stomach what he was seeing. His teeth began to chatter, and he realized his whole body was trembling.

The monster suddenly snapped its head towards where Riolu was hiding, and Riolu quickly pulled his head back behind the wall. He heard the monster begin to stomp again, and each stomp was getting louder and louder…

…It knew where he was. Riolu had to act. He sprung up from where he was sitting, dashing down the beaten path southwards once more. He heard its horrible screech sound from behind him as he ran.

So panicked and focused on getting away, Riolu didn’t see much of where he went. It was the ruins of a town, that much he knew – a destroyed house here, the ruins of a bridge there – but he was more focused upon outrunning the thing that had taken chase after him. He could hear it galloping after him as he went. And it was gaining ground. If Riolu didn’t do something fast to throw it off, he was going to get caught.

A sudden scent invaded his nostrils, the same one that he’d smelled in varying quantities as far back as he could remember. But this one was incredibly strong. Maybe… Riolu quickly took a hard right, heading southeast into the forest, and then dived behind the trunk of a dead oak. He remained completely quiet. The monster galloped past, not even sparing a look towards the forest as it passed. Riolu waited half a minute to uncup his paw from over his nose. Then, once he was sure it was safe (or about as safe as it was going to be in a place like this), he continued onward.

Riolu walked now. He stepped through the woods carefully, too afraid to do anything that could lead to making noise and setting the monster back on his trail. As he walked, he followed the smell of slow decay, which was only getting stronger as he headed southwest. And soon, he came upon the source of the smell: What looked like a strange amalgamation of a tree and a beating heart. Riolu watched it perplexedly as it slowly thumped, and his eyes followed it downwards to all the roots snaking out from under it.

Most of the roots had been chopped and severed off somewhere, and when Riolu leaned over to investigate he realized the smell was coming from there. He quickly sat up, actively repelled by the stench. These were the same roots he’d been eating since he got here. Was this where they all came from? He looked up at the beating heart once more, noticing how it was beginning to shrivel up at the bottom from lack of nutrients. Riolu tilted his head, perplexed.

As disgusting as the roots smelled and looked, they were there, so Riolu—reluctantly—ate. And once he was sure that the monster wouldn’t be coming back for him, he slept.

~\({O})/~

~?~​

For so long It had gone without any other creatures within its domain. For 10,000 years It had traversed the cursed lands It inhabited all alone. It had been 10,000 years since It and Its brethren had last feasted. And now they would feast again.

Living beings were returning to the Voidlands, a sign of much greater things to come. It salivated at the prospect of even more creatures to devour. It prowled through the woods, tracking the scent of the one It had chased. The scent reached a dead end once the smell of a distortion hub nearby became too strong, so It followed the track leading the other way. It travelled up through the remains of the wrecked village, and over the hill, up towards the direction of the burning mountain. The creature’s stench lead a clear path back to where he had come from. It grinned as it grew eyes and saw light, and then it was Riolu.

Solosis was roused by the sound of somemon pattering around the camp. She blinked her eyes open sleepily, her gaze settling on Riolu.

“Ugh..” she groaned, still trying to get her mind into a state awake enough to deal with the matter at hand. “What are you doing? It’s not like you to be up this early—”

Riolu suddenly sprouted a large black gooey clawed arm, and Solosis barely had any time to react before it slammed down upon her.

Psychic power glowed from under Its arm, and then It was blown back by Solosis, who rose up into the air.

“It’s going to take a bit more than that to get rid of me,” she broadcasted. “Everymon awake! We’ve been found out!!”

It growled, before a searing pain burning into Its head for a second. All of the litwick were jolted awake by the sudden sharp signal, and once they saw It the situation was clear. All of them quickly began to flee through the woods as fast as they could. The clearing was empty of litwick within seconds.

It snarled through a muzzle that was now only barely riolu. Its feast was escaping! Not if It had anything to say about it. But a sudden Psybeam sent It reeling backwards, and It realized perhaps an appetizer was in order instead.

Solosis shone with light, and then suddenly in her place stood a mighty giratina.

“Have at you!!” the giratina yelled. Then she charged forward.

~\({O})/~

The Ancient Barrow ~ Present Day

~Espurr~​

While Riolu told his story, Espurr took a moment to catch her breath and let her brain catch up with the rest of her body. This was obviously a deeper floor of the dungeon, but none of her friends had caught up with her yet. She briefly wondered if they were all oka—

A gurgling noise came from the wall right above Espurr. Riolu glanced at it in confusion, and Espurr turned around. Not a second too soon. An arm erupted from the wall and grabbed for Espurr’s head. Espurr barely scooted back enough for it to miss, then stumbled to her feet.

“Run!” she cried out, pulling Riolu to his feet and fleeing the dungeon. She heard the shadow exit the wall completely as they both sprinted into the main hallway and took a hard left, but it soon went silent. Espurr heard the echoes of a silent pop reverberate through the hallway, the signal of the monster slipping back into the wall.

“Keep clear of the walls,” Espurr said once she could no longer hear it. She gravitated towards the center. “It’s not gone. It’s just waiting for a moment to grab us.”

Riolu nodded, still breathing heavily.

They continued down the hall in single file. Espurr made sure she was behind Riolu, just in case. Riolu didn’t seem to mind (if only because he didn’t have to worry about the monster attacking him from behind as much). After a while, Espurr spoke.

“That thing,” she said. “You knew what it was. Mind explaining?”

“Yeah. The pokemon in the Voidlands had a name for them,” Riolu said. “We called them Void Shadows.”

~\({O})/~

Litwick Clearing

~Riolu~​

Slowly coming to. Riolu yawned himself awake.

After a week of being woken up by somemon scaring him back into existence, it felt strange for Riolu to wake up on his own accord. The blood-red sky greeted him instantly, red once more. Riolu stretched, then slowly rose from his position against the weird heart… tree thing. He wrinkled his nose up at the smell. It seemed much more pungent than it had been yesterday, and the strange beating heart looked just a little more shriveled up than it was before.

He ate some more of the roots for breakfast. They were still edible even though they rotted. After finishing the roots, Riolu felt a bit parched. The litwick had always given him some water whenever they had gone out to collect roots, and he’d taken it for granted. But clearly they hadn’t gotten the water from here.

He had a choice now. Go back to Solosis’ camp, or continue onwards. Riolu looked ahead, where he could still see the remnants of flickering light in the sky. He’d come this far… going back now was a waste. He had to see what had made that light! And more importantly, if it was the key to a way out of here.

And so Riolu made his choice. He turned southeast, checked to make sure the coast was clear, and then hiked off in that direction.

It felt like he travelled for hours, across desert dunes of rust-red sand and the occasional ruins of other buildings and forests. Every so often he would come across more beating heart-trees, their roots snaking through the ground in twisted layers almost twenty feet out. Riolu steered clear of them, mostly.

For a while, that was all there was—a desert of red dust. Riolu was beginning to feel hopeless; maybe he’d run out of luck. He was stranded all the way out in the middle of nowhere, with no cover to take, nothing to drink, and no-mon to keep him company. His tongue unfurled from his mouth, parched enough that he was constantly panting. He was all alone. Riolu was really beginning to regret leaving the litwick camp…

And then he heard noise. Distant noise. The noise of two pokemon talking to each other. Riolu didn’t think twice. He sprinted towards the sound, running up a large red dune of sand.

“Hey!!!” he yelled, waving his arms up in the air as he ran. “I’m over here!”

The pair of pokemon who had been making the noise, a brionne and a seviper, turned to look at him as he ran. But suddenly their expressions hardened, and they began to charge up attacks—

Riolu only had a second to change his joyous look to one of fear before he was hit with the combined power of pure beams of water and grass energy. Unequipped to handle such a pair of attack, they both sent Riolu flying straight back down the dune he had been climbing. The two pokemon were on him in an instant, and the next thing Riolu knew he was coiled tightly in Seviper’s grip.

“So what do you think?” Seviper asked Brionne. “Is he for real?”

Brionne looked at Riolu, tied up in Seviper’s grip. “I think he would have changed by now if he was one of Them.”

Seviper looked at her disappointedly. “And that’s what Eddie said the last time we saw him! And when was that?”

“A week ago,” Brionne sighed through gritted teeth.

“Point in case.” Seviper said. “We need to get ‘rid’ of him.”

Brionne looked unsure.

“But what if he’s for real?” she asked.

“We can’t take that chance,” Seviper pointed out. “Do you not grasp the situation we are in?”

“What are you talking about?” Riolu muttered, regaining his bearings enough to speak again.

“See?” Brionne stated, brashly gesturing to him with her flipper. “He speaks.”

“They all speak,” Seviper shrugged. “At first.”

“Give him a chance to explain himself before killing him!” Brionne hissed. “You yourself said you could tell a Shadow alibi from a real ‘mon.”

Seviper pouted for a moment. Then she hissed in annoyance.

“Fine,” she said, turning to Riolu. “You. Talk. Fast. Who are you?”

“Hurting,” Riolu muttered, still flat on the ground. Seviper squeezed him for a second, causing Riolu to gasp in pain.

“Not. Funny. Talk. Who are you?” Seviper stared him down. Riolu stammered.

Riolu looked into Seviper’s slits-for-eyes, and came to the conclusion that the best option was to tell the truth.

“I- I- I’m Riolu,” he said. “Just Riolu. I’ve been here for a week.”

“And?” Seviper prompted.

“And what?” Riolu asked.

“Where were you before that??” Seviper hissed.

“I…” Riolu stammered. “I… I don’t know. I think I hit my head pretty badly. Everything’s new to me.”

Seviper sent Brionne a silent ‘I told you’ glance. Brionne looked down to the ground. Riolu glanced at her pleadingly. She took a deep breath, then looked him in the eye.

“Oh. Well, that sucks.” Brionne frowned. Her eyes darkened. “But you see why we have to be suspicious of you, right?”

She began to charge up an attack, and Seviper did the same. Riolu scrambled backwards in fear.

“You don’t believe me??” he asked in horror.

“You know what the biggest tell is when somemon’s a Shadow?” Seviper asked. “They never remember anything. They copy the body but not the memories. If you’re dumb, you never see it coming until it’s too late. If you’re smart…” she took a fighting stance. “You nip it in the bud before it can happen.” And with that, she began to charge up an attack of her own. Riolu looked down at his paws. Could he fight? Should he fight?

“W- Wait!!” he called out, just before the two of them could fire. “I can prove I’m who I say I am!”

That made Brionne hesitate for a minute. She eyed him suspiciously. “Then Talk.”

“I—“ Riolu began, trying to organize his thoughts. “I didn’t wake up in this place, I got zapped here! I woke up in a forest in the middle of nowhere, and these weird pokemon with lights on their arms chased me and hit me with this attack. The next thing I know I’m here. I really have been here for a week.”

“A week? All on your own?” Brionne scoffed. “Likely story.”

“Not alone,” Riolu shook his head. “There’s a whole clan of litwick back in the woods that looked after me. They were looking for a way out of here, but they eat fear. They needed me to give them fear to eat.”

Brionne kept her attack stance, but Riolu could tell she was having second thoughts.

“Why’d you leave?” Seviper asked firmly.

“Last night, I saw this pillar of light appear in the sky. I wanted to go investigate,” Riolu said. I thought I would be there and right back, but it was farther away than I thought. There was something out there in the woods. It tried to chase me, but I got away. And then I came across this place.”

“And you don’t remember anything.”

Riolu shook his head. “Nothing before I woke up in those woods. I’m telling the truth, I swear! If I was one of those monsters that attacked me last night I would have attacked you by now!”

Seviper and Brionne exchanged looks.

“It is a complicated alibi for a Shadow,” Brionne muttered out of the side of her mouth.

Seviper sighed.

Fine,” she said. “But we’re taking him to Wartortle.”

~\({O})/~​

The two of them hoisted Riolu up with flippers and tails, and began to drag him across the dunes of rust-red sand. It wasn’t five minutes of walking (or slithering, or… whatever that hopping/sliding thing Brionne was doing was) before the sounds of distant noise began to reach Riolu’s ears. They pricked up, and then so did he. That sounded like…

All the way from where Riolu was to the coastline, long, paw-made tents covered the dusty ground, and occupying those tents were hundreds of living, breathing pokemon, wonderful living beings! Noticing that Riolu was fidgeting a lot in excitement, Brionne and Seviper let Riolu down.

“Don’t run,” Seviper hissed in his ear. Eager not to get on her bad side and feel the crushing sensation of her tail around his midsection again, he hurriedly nodded. Seviper and Brionne led him down towards the civilization.

All around there were pokemon going about their day, but none of them paid Riolu any mind. They all looked like they had just reached the end of a very long journey. Seviper and Brionne dragged Riolu towards the center, where a somewhat grander tent stood.

“Where are you taking me?” Riolu asked, looking at the tent.

“Quiet,” said Seviper. “We need to make sure you’re the real deal. Wartortle will see to that.”

They approached the tent, where a line of pokemon had already amassed. They took issue as Brionne and Seviper pushed past them.

“Hey!” one of them, a joltik, squeaked out angrily. “What’s the deal? No pushing in line!”

“This is important,” Seviper hissed back.

“We found an outsider,” Brionne quickly added, hoping to avoid a conflict.

The joltik looked mighty annoyed, but settled for grumbling to itself instead. It cleared the way for Brionne and Seviper to pass.

They dragged Riolu into the tent, and it took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the candle-lit darkness. Inside, a largeish, turtle-like pokemon was studying several charts and stone tablets intently.

“Hmm?” he asked as Brionne and Seviper entered. He looked up, his face immediately twisting into something bemused when he saw the three pokemon staring at him from the doorway. He set the tablet aside. “And do what do I owe the pleasure of seeing the two of you? And… apparently a strangled riolu,” he added, glancing at Riolu in confusion.

Brionne nudged Riolu forward.

“Explain yourself.”

Riolu did. He told Wartortle about waking up, the strange pokemon who had hunted him down, the litwick, Reverse Mountain, the pillar of light, and his amnesia. All through the story Wartortle nodded and hmmm’d in thought, but he stayed interested. His eyes looked like they were piecing things together even as Riolu said them. At the end, when Riolu had finished talking, Wartortle set aside the stone tablet he had had in his lap, and stared directly at Riolu.

“I think the three of you should stay for a little while,” he said.

~\({O})/~​

“Every so often, the world we live in is struck by a major crisis,” Wartortle began. “Natural disasters, the decay of time, an apocalypse of ice and snow. I’ve lived through it all, and I fear that we are in the midst of another. But for every apocalypse, there is a savior. A single Chosen One who must bear the burden of saving the world for all pokemon who live on it. I was the first of these saviors, sent in to combat a meteor that ran off its natural course. The second worked at the most prestigious exploration guild of its time, and the third helped found the largest city on the planet. If your story is true, then you may very well be the fourth.”

Riolu and Brionne didn’t make a sound as Wartortle spoke. He picked up one of the tablets, and set it down in front of them. “These tablets were found on the Air Continent, where I and everymon in this encampment come from. They were written in ancient human text; thus, I am the only ‘mon present who can decipher them.” He pushed it towards Riolu. “Read.”

Riolu looked at the tablets, staring at nonsense. He didn’t recognize any of the markings, but when he read over the words he somehow knew what they said.

“We have been here forty-two days now,” Riolu said, his eyes flicking over the nonsense as he read. “There’s no internet. No power. No cell-phone reception. Not another person or pokemon to be seen. These stone tablets are the only method of preserving information now. At night, they come for us, and we cannot keep driving them off. I fear we will not see the morning at this rate. There’s nothing to eat. Nothing to drink. No way out.”

Riolu looked at Wartortle, who cleared his throat.

“…It’s an improper translation, but close enough.” Wartortle took back the tablet, but even Riolu could see that his face lit up with hope. “Your story checks out. You are the chosen one. You are the fourth Human. And…” Wartortle’s claws began to shake with excitement.

“There’s a lot we have to go over. If the three of you will stay just a little longer…”

~\({O})/~​

Wartortle hopped to life like a slowpoke who had just been given all the energy of a young pichu. He sprinted to and from all the old books and tablets that lay around his tent, arranging things like a presentation. The line outside had been called off long ago. Off to the side, Riolu and Brionne were made to sit. Seviper had left long ago.

“So who is Wartortle?” Riolu asked as he leaned against the tent. “He looks important.”

“He is important,” Brionne said. “He’s the leader of the Rescuer’s Guild in Pokemon Plaza. Or… he’s the last living leader. This is the happiest I’ve seen him in a while.”

“Last living?” Riolu asked. “What happened to the others?”

“What do you think happened?” Brionne lowered her voice, then looked at Wartortle to make sure he hadn’t heard. He was still stacking books. “Void Shadow got ‘em.”

“Are the Shadows those monsters that come out at night?” Riolu pried.

“Yes,” Brionne answered in a whisper. “They… they absorb pokemon. Wartortle has a few theories on what happens after that, but we don’t know where they go. And his theories are… far-fetched, for lack of a better word. I think he’s too hopeful, honestly.”

Riolu nodded silently.

“There’s one Void Shadow in particular you need to watch out for,” Brionne continued. “Wartortle calls it Nyarlathotep, from some book he read. It’s bigger than all the others. Stronger. We think it commands them.” She leaned in close. “That’s what killed the rest of Team Go-Getters.”

“All ready!” Wartortle gestured from the other side of the tent. “Both of you, over here. I need to show you what I’ve been planning to get us out of here.”

He pushed another tablet towards Riolu. “That last tablet I gave you wasn’t the whole story. There is a whole series of these, which I have poured over relentlessly. This is the only one that matters. Read.”

“Last week one of ours went on a journey towards the mountain,” Riolu read. “Today we saw it erupt in a pillar of light that stayed in the sky for over a day. Tomorrow, we hope to complete the same journey. This will be the last entry I leave here. I wish well to any others who find this stone. May you also escape this evil place.”

“Now initially, my plan was to give us some time to rest before we continue on towards the mountain. Our journey here was long and relentless. But then that beam of light shooting up into the sky! And then we met you… it must be a sign. We set out tomorrow. Huzzah!!” Wartortle jumped into the air in joy, then quickly hurry-scurried towards the entrance of the tent.

“Hey,” he said to the furret guarding the tent, his voice hushed and joyful. “Give the order. We leave tomorrow, for a way back to the real world! Spread the good news!”

The furret’s dull face brightened up. It nodded eagerly, before scampering off in manic excitement. Wartortle turned back to Brionne and Riolu. “Bryony, you are not to let him out of your sight the whole way there!”

Riolu looked at Brionne after Wartortle had gone. She grinned sheepishly; whether it was out of embarrassment or general excitement Riolu couldn’t tell.

“And… yeah. Bryony’s my name,” she said. “Might as well learn it.”

~\({O})/~

The Ancient Barrow

~Espurr~​

“So you’re a human,” Espurr said as they hiked. “Just like me.”

“Yeah,” Riolu breathed. “Been here a month.” He took a turn down another corridor, and Espurr followed. Then it clicked. He looked back, staring at her in shock.

“Wait—you’re a human too??” he asked in shock. Espurr nodded. Riolu quickened his pace.

“Then you need to stick with me,” he said. “The sooner we can leave this place, the better,” he said. “We just need to find the stairs.”

“I can’t.” Espurr shook her head.

“Wha—“ Riolu turned around. “Why not?”

“I came here with five other pokemon,” Espurr said. “They’re still up in the dungeon. I’m not leaving without them.”

Riolu was still for a minute. There was a brief silence in between them.

“It’s here in the dungeon, you know,” Riolu said. “Nyarlathotep. And if you guys got separated, then… your friends are probably dead. Sorry to say.”

No. That wasn’t true. Espurr refused to believe that. She shook her head silently. There had to be a way to tell. There just had to be…

Espurr shut her eyes, and reached out with her sixth sense. Somewhere, if she reached far enough, there just had to be some kind of tell, some evidence that they were still alive. Because if they weren’t she didn’t…

Espurr experienced something completely foreign to her in her three weeks of life—a single tear fell down her cheek. And her eyes were brimming up with more of them. She squinted them shut, forcing the tears out. Breathing heavily, she wiped them from her eyelids. No. She couldn’t break down. Not here. Not now. Not when she knew they were still alive. And she knew they were still alive. They had to be. She’d figure out why she knew later, she’d find some reason, some train of logic—

“I’m sorry, but it’s true,” Riolu stressed from where he was standing. “if we don’t get out of here, then none of us will live—”

The walls began to shift again around them, accompanied by a gurgling noise. Espurr’s head snapped towards it; she gladly took the opportunity to banish the grief from her head.

“We stayed still too long,” she said. “Run!”

And arm shot out of the goo, and both Espurr and Riolu sprang into action.

~\({O})/~

~Riolu~

Wartortle’s Colony​

Riolu awoke to the distant sound of pokemon screaming outside. He rose alongside Bryony, staring out the tent flaps. The tent itself was filled with crates meant to hold all Wartortle’s books, but Wartortle himself was not there. The sky was still dark, and the only lights were coming from outside whenever somemon passed with a torch. Riolu and Bryony exchanged looks.

Emerging from the tent, they saw that the entire camp had devolved into chaos. Pokemon scurried everywhere from to and fro in a panic, and soon both Riolu and Bryony saw the reason: A dust storm was on the way. It howled and raged in the distance, colored the same rust-red as the ground below it, and it was going to swallow their camp in just—

Riolu’s sight was suddenly engulfed by rust red. Dust flew everywhere, and it was all Riolu could do to keep it out of his eyes. Many of the pokemon around him were doing the same, and even Bryony was squinting.

A loud screech reverberated through the storm in the distance. Riolu’s heart skipped a beat,. He recognized that screech. It was..

“VOID SHADOW!” One of the pokemon in the group, a zangoose, screamed, and then everything became chaos once more.

“It’s Nyarlathotep!” another cried out.

“It’s come for us!!” another yelled.

“That’s enough!!” Even the howling and raging of the dust storm wasn’t enough to curb the voice of Wartortle, who stepped through to the front of the storm. “They’re still far out. We have time to prepare. Everymon prepare yourselves!”

“What’s happening?” Riolu asked.

“Shadows,” said Bryony. “They’re attacking.”

They were quickly interrupted by a bunch of pokemon that pushed through them, tromping off to the front lines.

“You two!” that was Wartortle. Riolu’s head looked back towards Wartortle, who was ushering them both back to his tent. “With me.”

They both followed.

~\({O})/~​

The tent offered reprieve from the storm, if only a little. Wartortle stood in the tent, looking at them both.

“I want you both to stay here,” he said. “We can’t risk a Void Shadow getting either of you. That’s what’s going to happen if you’re on the front lines.”

“What’s happening??” Riolu asked. “No-mon is explaining this to me!”

“It’s an attack,” Bryony explained. “If we don’t ward them off, then they’ll ravage the camp to the ground. But they’ve never had a storm before…”

“If this was a co-incidence I’ll be darned,” Wartortle said. “They even brought the storm with them. Lower our visibility. We’ll be lucky to escape with half the camp if we don’t flee effectively.”

“Wartortle.” The furret from before poked its head in through the tent. “They’re getting close.”

“Acknowledged.” Wartortle nodded off the furret, which scurried off. “It’s about time I got going,” he said to Riolu and Bryony. “New plan. The two of you: head north. We’ll catch up. Don’t dawdle.”

Riolu and Bryony nodded.

“Good luck,” Wartortle said. “I’ll see you on the other side.” And then he ducked through the tent, and he was gone.

Riolu uttered a single word: “Go.”

A sudden explosion of noise from outside caught both their attention. It was the sound of several pokemon’s screams, and it was too close for comfort. Riolu hesitated.

“We’ll worry about that as it comes,” Bryony hissed. “Move now.”

Riolu nodded in agreement, and they both continued towards the tent flaps.

Riolu peeked out, looking both ways. A wall of rust slammed into his face like a barrage. He pulled his head back in, coughing. “I don’t see anythi—”

Down the left path, there was an explosion of noise. The battle was that way.

“This way, he said, pointing to the right. Bryony nodded, and they quickly slipped out the tent.

The storm had gotten stronger; it was almost impossible to see anything in it. Riolu could barely see the outlines of the other half-packed tents through all the rust-red dust, and he had to squint to keep it out of his eyes.

They ran, away from the battle and all the screaming. There were pokemon dying back there, and the concept was just becoming solidified in his mind. It made him woozy, and only the inherent fear of falling and dying himself stopped him from tripping over his own feet. Riolu heard the shrieks behind him as he ran, and he tried to blot it out with his paws. But his nose and mouth needed the attention more. He covered his nose with them instead.

Something enormous suddenly crashed into the tent up ahead of them—

Riolu and Bryony skidded to a stop in their tracks. The monster reared its head, and Riolu saw that it looked like a blaziken but something was very off—

“This way!!” Bryony shouted, and so Riolu did. They went left, hoping the shadow didn’t notice them.

The camp was completely ruined by now. Tents had been torn off their foundations. Wares and belongings lay strewn everywhere. Everything was in shambles, and the few pokemon that could be seen were either running around in terror or helplessly looking for others in vain. The scene was still a sea of red rust, and neither Riolu nor Bryony could see more than six feet in front of them. They didn’t know which direction to run in anymore. Where was the front line- no, where had it been? And where was the way out?

“Which way do we go??” Riolu yelled out to Bryony over the howling of the wind.

Bryony looked around. “There has to be somewhere!” she yelled back to him. “I—I don’t know! I don’t—“ she continued to stammer to herself, looking for some way ahead, any way ahead. There was a loud thud behind them. The thud of a loud footstep. Riolu spun around to see that the Void Shadow from before was stomping towards them. It had dropped its fake guise, letting its ugly true form show for the world. Long, dark spines lashed out behind it. Black, muscular arms stretched out of its form, and impossibly sharp claws speared the sand. An uncanny mouth of fangs glistened amongst an ovular head black as the rest of it. The Void Shadow let out a beckoning call that droned up on into a screech.

“R-run!” Riolu stammered out, and suddenly the direction wasn’t an issue anymore. He and Bryony turned tail to flee the best they could.

The Void Shadow bounded towards them, closing the gap in no time. It batted Bryony to the side effortlessly and lunged for Riolu—

“Oi!”

A cascade of water slammed into the Void Shadow from the side, sending it flying off into the distance. He looked over to see Wartortle approaching through the storm from the opposite direction. His right leg had been twisted out of shape, he was limping over to where Riolu was intently.

Bryony had made her way back over to Riolu at this point. She cast a

“Wartortle!” she cried out. “Sir! Are you okay?”

“Go,” he said urgently. “You’re too important to lose.”

“Come with us!” she pleaded.

“I can’t,” Wartortle said. He turned in the direction where the Void Shadow had been blown, and stayed that way. “Leave while you can.”

“You’re going to die!” Bryony said. “Let us help you!”

Nothing came from Wartortle’s mouth, but his eyes reflected Bryony’s answer: I know.

Riolu faltered.

“Bryony…” he said. “We should go.”

From behind Wartortle, the Void Shadow suddenly bounded out—

Wartortle spun on his feet and blasted the Void Shadow back with another torrent of water. The Void Shadow was sent flying back once again; the motion of turning around sent Wartortle falling to his knees.

He gasped in pain, looking at Riolu and Bryony.

“What are you still doing here?” he spat. “Go! Get! Leave!”

The Void Shadow approached from the depths of the storm once more. It sniffed the air, and its head snapped towards Riolu and Bryony—

“Oy! Nyarlathotep!” Wartortle cried out from where he was laying, staring the void shadow down. A third water attack poked a sizeable gash in the Shadow’s neck. It wasn’t as effective as it had been before. Nyarlathotep snarled loudly, then spun towards where Wartortle was. Then it bounded over to Wartortle and grabbed him by the neck.

“No! Stop!” Bryony shouted. Nyarlathotep’s attention snapped back to Bryony, but Wartortle bit down upon its hand. A high-pressure water stream blew half of Nyarlathotep’s claws away. His eyes focused on Riolu and Bryony both: Run. Nyarlathotep screeched in rage. It squeezed its claws down hard, harder, squeezing the breath out of Watortle…

There was a sickening snap, and Wartortle went limp.

~\({O})/~

Pokemon Plaza ~ Air Continent​

In the deserted main square of Pokemon Plaza, hundreds of stone statues began to quiver in place. A high-pitched hum reverberated all around the plaza. Then the statues all exploded into shards and slivers of stone.

~\({O})/~

Ravaged Colony​

Nyarlathotep’s body seemed to expand. The mangled remains of Wartortle was sucked into Its chest, and then Nyarlathotep Itself turned back to look at Riolu and Bryony.

But they were already gone.

They both ran, though the wreckage of broken and burning tents. Through the relentless dust storm. Through the silence, the everlasting, ever-burning silence, until there was nothing but dust and the howling of the wind. All the Void Shadows were gone. Riolu and Bryony collapsed in the sand hovel on the other side of the hill.

Silence remained, because there was nothing to say. They fell asleep exactly where they sat, riding the terrible storm out.

Only Nyarlathotep’s horrific screeches kept them company.

~\({O})/~​

Music of the week!

Gehenna – Thomas Newman

 

[SparklingEspeon]

~\({O})/~

21.

Void and Shadow

~\({O})/~

Ruined Colony

~Riolu~​

The storm was gone the next morning, when the sky turned blood-red again. Riolu rose, staring blankly into the distance and waiting for the events of the day to inevitably come back to him. When they did, he suddenly felt much less peppy. Next to him, Athena slept, looking much more tired than he felt.

"Come on…" Riolu muttered, shaking the sleeping form of Bryony awake. "Get up!"

Bryony stirred, groaning incoherently. She slowly sat up, looking at Riolu wearily.

"Wha… What happened?" she yawned. "I had the worst nightmare last night."

Riolu frowned, then took a deep breath. "I'll bet it was more than just a nightmare," he said.

Exiting the hovel they had fallen asleep in, Riolu and Bryony walked (or, in Bryony's case, slid) back to the wrecked remains of the camp that had once held everymon in Pokemon Plaza. Bryony's pigtails flopped down in horror as she gazed around at the ruins of the camp.

"They…" she gasped, but couldn't bring herself to say anything further. Riolu walked forward towards, the camp, undisturbed.

"We should scavenge before we go," he said. "Maybe they left something for us to eat."

Bryony's flippers trembled. Then she yelled to the blood-red sky wordlessly in grief.

"I just need… five minutes… will you let me have that, please?"

She didn't even look at him. Riolu nodded, then walked off into what remained of the campsite. He'd find some food while they waited.

~\({O})/~​

Just like Riolu had thought, the camp had a lot of food lying around, ripe for the picking. Unfortunately, little of that food was still in edible condition. Withered roots and what looked like the husks of what once was fruit lay on the ground, bruised beyond repair. The portable silo that held the water had collapsed in the night, and had turned a good portion of the ground to mud. Riolu picked whatever bits and pieces he could get off the ground in edible condition, and eventually gave up on the prospect of water that wasn't from the sea.

He handed a smelly root to Bryony on his way back from the camp.

"…What's this?" she asked after a minute, looking down at it.

"Food," Riolu said. "I ate them for a week, and others must have been eating them too."

"There were fruits on the Air Continent," Bryony said, sniffing the root. "I know because we took some with us."

"Well, not anymore," Riolu said. "They were all smashed to mush."

He took a bite from his own root, grimacing slightly at the taste before walking forward in the direction of the mountain.

Reverse Mountain became a beacon for them as they travelled; a final destination that was always visible and ever-present. Riolu walked back through the seas of rust-red sand, passing the tree-tangled hearts without much commotion. At one point, he bent over and began to hack away bits and pieces of the roots with his paws. Bryony watched him in silent horror as he chopped away at the roots, finally picking up one very large one and hauling it over his back.

"Did you just…" Riolu heard Bryony mutter in shock behind him, but she was quickly silent after that.

It was half a day's journey back to the ruins of that old village, and Riolu quickly led Bryony towards where he knew the Litwick's clearing was.

"It's just this way," he said to her as they walked. The mountain's large figure loomed above them, much more ominous now than it had been from a distance. Riolu entered the clearing with the large root, but found that it was empty. Just like when he had first entered. Maybe they were just hiding because of Bryony.

"I'm back!" he hollered out. "Sorry for leaving!"

Only silence greeted him. Riolu tilted his head. No, that wasn't right. They were hiding.

"Anymon there?" he called out again. Silence greeted him. Not even the wind whistled through the rotting branches of the trees.

"C'mon guys!" Riolu yelled. "This isn't funny!"

He couldn't hear any answer. Bryony tilted her head at him.

"Solosis?!" Riolu called out. "Anymon?!"

"There's no-mon here," Athena said.

"But there was!" Riolu argued, spinning around to look at her. The expression on his face was worried and desperate. "There were over a hundred litwick here just yesterday! And somemon called 'Solosis' too! Where could they all have gone?"

"You won't like the answer," Bryony said, folding her flippers in a huff.

"What does that mean?" Riolu yelled at her.

"It's just like what happened to my pokemon," Bryony said. "There's only one reason over a hundred pokemon disappear in one day: A Shadow got 'em. That, or they all decided to move at once. But that's unlikely. You have to assume the worst."

"They have to have moved somewhere," Riolu said. "I'm not going to believe a Void Shadow got them. Not until I see it with my own eyes."

"You're seeing it now!" Bryony snapped at him. "Did anything you saw last night stick? They carve destruction in their paths, and they leave nothing behind. They're gone, Riolu; you have to assume they're gone. You have to assume the only way out is up there." She pointed to the mountain above them. "Keep it together. We both have to keep it together."

Riolu's gaze lowered, and he was silent. He began to trudge off in the direction of the mountain.

"I still want to look for them."

~\({O})/~​

"Solosis – the leader of that litwick group – she said she would come up to that mountain every day and look for a way out," Riolu said, as they headed up a largish hill on the way to the mountain. Riolu could see a trio of buildings at the very top, and Reverse Mountain loomed over it all in the distance. "But she always came back at the end of the day empty-handed."

"Did you ever go there with her?" Bryony asked, inching her way up the hill after him with her flippers.

"No, I only stayed a week," Riolu muttered. They reached the top of the hill, stopping at a fork in the road.

"Around that building," Riolu said, pointing at the ruins of the building directly in front of him. To both the left and right lay two other buildings, both in similar condition. A path led around the remains of the middle one and straight down the hill. Riolu braced himself, and then slid down the hill on his rump.

He left Bryony behind. She tried to slide after him, but ended up hitting a rock and tumbled all the way down instead. She crashed into Riolu from behind, and they both tumbled to the ground in a heap.

"Ow..:" Riolu grumbled, rubbing his head and looking down at the ground. He saw large roots, staring him straight in the face. And they smelled putrid. Riolu's eyes followed the roots are far as they could, watching them snake and tangle their way through the ground until they spiraled up and around another beating tree-heart in the distance.

Bryony lifted herself back up, gazing at the same thing Riolu was.

"What are those things…" Riolu muttered to himself.

"It was only a theory," Bryony began, but then paused for a minute. "But I think they're mystery dungeons."

"What's a mystery dungeon?" Riolu picked himself up and began to walk through the mess of roots. Bryony followed, but she had a harder time of navigating the roots than Riolu did.

"Mystery dungeons are… places that don't make sense. They form over completely ordinary spots of land and then they twist them. The insides look like a maze, made out of whatever the mystery dungeon formed over. And at the center, there's an Anchorstone – the original spot of land that the dungeon formed on, hidden deep in its depths. There are land dungeons, water dungeons, sky dungeons… Wartortle was even considering the possibility of a space dungeon."

Riolu thought for a moment. "You think that's what's on top of Reverse Mountain?"

"No-mon knows," Bryony said. "I'd prefer the way back, myself."

There was nothing else to say, and they walked at a steady pace in silence. Soon, they reached the base of Reverse Mountain.

Even from this close, the mountain shone, and Riolu could feel the heat pulsing from it. It reverberated through the air, and all of the sudden Riolu felt like he was standing in a desert. And then he saw what had puzzled Solosis all this time: From the very bottom of the mountain up to a point that Riolu couldn't see was a smooth, insurmountable cliff. No ledges to climb on, and no

"How do we climb that?" Bryony asked.

"I don't know if we can," Riolu answered.

~\({O})/~

The Ancient Barrow

~Espurr~​

Riolu and Espurr ran down the Barrow's narrow halls, splashing in the swamp water as they went. They could still hear the Shadow lurking in the distance behind them.

"Where are you taking us?" Espurr called out as they ran.

"The next floor up!" Riolu called back.

The goo ahead of them sudden began to bubble. Espurr directed a beam of mental energy directly into the water, which flared up and slammed into the wall. The Shadow retreated into the goo just long enough for Espurr and Riolu to pass and round a corner.

"But the floors go down here," Espurr yelled to Riolu as they ran. "Not up!"

"Think again," Riolu replied, not even looking at her. "Look!"

He pointed ahead, and then Espurr saw what he did: just ahead of them was the Staircase. It led up, its perfect steps shining despite being surrounded on all sides by filth.

"What are you waiting for?!" Riolu yelled, noticing that she had slowed down. "Do you want Nyarlathotep to get you?"

Espurr considered her options. The Stairs weren't supposed to lead up. What if that was the final Staircase, and they both exited the dungeon? That would mean Tricky and the rest of them were still behind her. But at the same time… being caught by Nyarlathotep over a whim wasn't an option either.

"Hey!" Riolu called out. "Creepy cat! Snap out of it!"

"It's Espurr," Espurr said. And then the walls began to shift again, so she ran like the wind. She reached Riolu, grabbing his arm and pulling them onto the Stairway. They vanished together, and the next thing Espurr and Riolu knew they were deposited straight onto the swamp water of another dungeon floor. Espurr let out a breath of relief – they must have been deep in the dungeon after all.

They both sat there in the swamp for a moment, catching their breaths. Nyarlathotep didn't follow.

~\({O})/~

The Voidlands

~Riolu~​

It had been roughly a week, and both Riolu and Bryony had come to the depressing conclusion: There was no way to scale Reverse Mountain. The cliff was made of solid rock; there would be no digging into it. It had no ridges or ledges, so there was no climbing it the conventional way. And neither Riolu nor Bryony could fly. Riolu was stumped, as was Bryony; soon they fell into a routine of collecting roots from heart-trees in the area for food and searching for another way out in the meantime. Riolu took to sneaking away in the morning and exploring the remains of the nearby village during the day. Perhaps there might have been something he could find there!

As the week passed, he found things. Ruined things, but still things he could use to build with. He didn't know what Bryony was up to, but Riolu came up with a nifty plan on his own: If he couldn't pierce the stone of Reverse Mountain with his own claws, he'd do it with a grapping hook! Now all he had to do was build one.

The wrecked buildings in what was obviously the center of town had many more odds and ends to choose from than the ones on the town outskirts. Riolu nicked a few sharp knives from the large building in the center, and some rope from the stall to the left. There was a burnt tent to the southeast side of the square that held nothing useful. Riolu kicked some of the ruined tent remains aside, slinging the rope and knife over his shoulder. It didn't look like there was anything else here, he decided. He looked up at the sky; it was beginning to turn black. He should have left an hour ago.

Riolu turned around, but caught sight of movement from behind him. He spun around – had a void shadow snuck up on him unawares?

But what he saw was the fuzzy, faint outline of what looked like a pokemon, heading into one of the ruined houses in the square. It spared a look outside, glancing in Riolu's general direction for a second. Riolu quickly hid behind the tent with his rope and knife. It was a few moments before he peeked out again.

Curiosity overtook him – what was it? Slowly, Riolu crept out of hiding and tiptoed over to the house. He stepped over what little remained of the wall, heading down the hallway once he realized what had been the living room was empty. He peeked into the room on the left, and caught sight of the shadow—

Startled, Riolu lost his balance for a minute. He stumbled into the dresser on the right, creating a loud 'bang!' before quickly darting out of the room. The last he saw of the shadow was it quickly sitting up.

~\({O})/~​

"What's that?" Bryony asked, eyeing the rope and knives Riolu had slung over his shoulder. She had a sack (also collected from the nearby town), filled with more of the gross-smelling roots.

"It's something for the mountain," Riolu said, trying to fiddle with it. "Maybe we can pierce it this way."

"What about that house?" Bryony asked.

"What house?"

"The house on the island. Y'know, the one that's still standing?"

That was news to Riolu. The one thing he hadn't seen for a while (besides other pokemon) was a completely standing building.

"Where?" he asked.

"To the south," Bryony said. "There's just… there's something about it. You can feel it there. I feel like it's worth checking out. You think we should do that when…" she looked up at the black sky, hesitant to say 'day'. "…When the sky's red again?"

Riolu just nodded.

~\({O})/~​

Slowly coming to. Daybreak came earlier than Riolu thought, but he rose with it anyway. Bryony was still asleep, and Riolu didn't try waking her. She'd just slow him down.

He made the trek up to Reverse Mountain with his knife and rope in hand. Riolu had spent last night tying them together, even though he didn't know the first thing about tying knots and his stubby paws didn't help with that in the least. He just had to hope it held together well.

The base of Reverse Mountain was as hard and volcanic as ever. Riolu flinched just from the heat. He looked up, and saw the stop of the mountain was wreathed in burning flames, just as it had been from afar. Was this really a good idea? The heat was beginning to make Riolu pant.

But there was nothing to do but try. Riolu let the rope he held go slack until the knife hit the stone below him with a clang. Then he started swinging. Over and over in circles, the knife gaining more momentum as it went—

—Riolu's eyes widened and he quickly ducked just before the knife could clip off a good portion of his ear. The knife flew over his head and embedded itself deep into the stone behind him.

Losing his balance, Riolu fell backwards onto the ground. Hearing the sound of the knife embedding itself into the stone, he looked around and saw the knife's blade sticking out of the rock. Had it… had it been a success?

Riolu quickly jumped to his feet, scurrying over and pulling on the handle. It gave, but not without some resistance. Riolu pulled out the knife, but the momentum sent him falling back and landing on his tail. Riolu flinched from the pain, but then looked down at the knife in his hand. It had worked. It had really worked! This was a breakthrough! He… he had to get back to Athena. Riolu jumped to his feet, grabbed the rest of the rope, and began to run back towards the forest clearing.

He felt an urge to close his eyes while running, and so he did. Riolu felt the feelers on either side of his head begin to vibrate, and all of the sudden he couldsee – the knife in his hand, where everything in the forest was, and a tree he was heading right towards – Riolu course-corrected just in time. He felt everything. This was amaz—

—Riolu hit a tree root he hadn't seen and tripped. He landed on the knife, but thankfully it was flat. Riolu slowly picked himself up, a bit shaken. He'd walk the rest of the way.

~\({O})/~

Village Square​

By the time that Riolu made it back to the forest clearing, Bryony was already long gone. For a moment, Riolu freaked out- had she left him to fend for himself? Had she been… taken? Were the Shadows already here?

But if they were here, then Riolu knew this clearing was no longer safe. It was better to go to the ruined village.

It wasn't until he reached the deserted village square that he caught sight of Athena sliding herself down the pathway towards the south side of town. He quickly ran to catch up with her.

"Bryony!" he called out, catching up. Bryony looked back at him, her face relaxing as she saw who it was.

"Where were you?" Riolu panted out as he caught up. "I saw the camp deserted and I thought…"

"I thought the same thing." Bryony continued to slide herself along, not even sparing another look at Riolu. "If you were going to leave, you should have said something to me. I had no choice but to assume a Shadow got you."

"Well…" Riolu muttered. "You left me too."

"You did it first."

Riolu folded his arms, puffed out his cheeks, and made a loud 'pffffffft' noise.

"So where are we going?" he asked a moment later.

"I'm going to check out that building I told you about last night," Bryony said. "I just… I have this feeling about it. I want to check."

Riolu was silent after that. Only the knife, swinging idly from the rope slung over Riolu's shoulder, made any noise.

"There it is," Bryony said after a while. They had outwalked nearly all the houses at this point, and the biggest thing ahead of them was a hill with a large dead tree on it. Out on an island right in front of them was what looked like the creepiest house Riolu had ever seen. A rickety bridge led all the way across the lake of water onto the island. Riolu stared at it hesitantly.

"…Are you sure?" he asked.

"Why not?" Bryony answered. "What have we got to lose?"

"You two are wasting your time."

Both Riolu and Bryony spun around. Bryony's eyes lightened at what she saw.

"Charlotte!" she gasped. Seviper Charlotte slithered up from the path ahead of them, a pissed look upon her face.

"I… have been tailing you guys… for almost a week now…" she gasped out.

Bryony suddenly rushed forward and enveloped Charlotte in a hug. Riolu was suspicious.

"I thought you were dead!" she bawled out, burying her face in Charlotte's scales. Charlotte bore the hug as well as she could, but Riolu could tell she wasn't remotely in the mood for hugs.

"Anyways," Charlotte said, gently shaking Bryony off herself, "There's no point in entering that building. I camped out in there once. It's all just swamp water and muck."

"But…" Bryony wiped the tears from her eyes and looked at the house. "There's no hurt in looking, right?"

Riolu's head tilted.

"yeah," he said. "Why only say that now?"

Charlotte didn't answer.

"So where do you guys camp out?" she asked. "I haven't had a comfortable place to sleep for over a week."

"We don't exactly sleep in beds…" Bryony said.

"What about my question?" Riolu asked. Charlotte glanced at him.

"I didn't hear you ask any question."

"I asked why you're so intent on us not going into that house," Riolu said. He gripped the rope the knife was attached to, just in case. Charlotte's eyes followed him.

"Like I said," she repeated harshly. "There's nothing in there but muck."

"Then you won't mind if we go in and look," Riolu said. And with that, he turned around and strode towards the house.

"nO—" Charlotte suddenly screamed, and she slithered towards Riolu quicker than Bryony could react.

Riolu acted fast. He grabbed the rope and threw.

Bryony screamed and then edged herself away from Charlotte, who now had Riolu's knife stuck halfway through her head. She looked at Riolu in horror.

Why would you do that?!" she screeched at him.

"That's not who you think it is," Riolu said.

The knife slid out of Seviper's skull on its own and it the ground with a thump. 'Seviper' – very much alive – looked up at them both with eyes that weren't right. She grinned at them with a mouth full of too many fangs.

"gOt Me."

And then its face split open. Bryony yelped and edged all the way back to where Riolu stood on the bridge. Quills grew out of its back. It grew limbs, and then claws. The last of the dull blue and yellow scales were eaten up by murky black goop, and then Nyarlathotep stood before them in Its full glory.

A silent understanding was reached between both Riolu and Bryony – run. And so they did. Riolu ran like the wind; he could outrun a Shadow! But it was only a few seconds before he noticed that Bryony wasn't keeping up with him. She had to slide her way across the ground – that wasn't fast enough! Nyarlathotep took chase, and Riolu gave in. He ran back, scooped Bryony up, and began to drag her along. What was left of the rope on his shoulder began to unravel.

They were fast, but not fast enough. Nyarlathotep charged. A swipe of its claws, and Bryony was knocked to the side. Riolu was pinned to the ground.

Nyarlathotep leaned over Riolu, and the nightmare goo that dripped from its body stained Riolu's chest. Riolu struggled furiously, but it was all in vain. Nyarlathotep opened its mouth of fangs that took up its whole face, and began to lean in towards Riolu. Riolu closed up his eyes and scrunched up his nose to avoid the putrid smell, turning away. He couldn't believe he was going to be eaten…

Water drenched him—

"Over here!"

Bryony's voice rattled through the sound of Nyarlathotep's breath, and in an instant its head turned towards the other pokemon and its ginormous hand was off Riolu's chest.

Riolu acted fast – he reeled in the rope, until he could grasp the handle of the kitchen knife. Nyarlathotep began to romp towards Bryony, who couldn't get away in time, and that was when Riolu made his move. He took aim, and threw the knife as hard as he could.

It embedded itself in the back of Nyarlathotep's head. Nyarlathotep turned its head to look at Riolu, and Riolu saw the tip of the knife sticking out of its jaw. He tugged on the rope.

Another stream of water hit Nyarlathotep, but before the void shadow could react Riolu ran up and shoved one of Nyarlathotep's legs out from under it. The shadow lost its balance, narrowly avoiding falling on Riolu or Bryony. It collapsed on the ground with a loud thud, and Riolu quickly got to his feet.

Already, the goo was beginning to lose its shape and reform into Nyarlathotep's standing position. Riolu forgot about retrieving the knife and rope, and picked up Bryony instead.

The path would be too easy; Riolu bolted off into the woods instead. He knew where he was going. The distant screech of Nyarlathotep rang out from far behind them.

A hunting call.

~\({O})/~​

Riolu could tell he had made it just by the smell. He sped into the clearing where the heart-tree he had slept by the night he had left the litwick camp was, collapsing to the ground and dropping Brionne the second he was out of the trees. He panted in exhaustion, then wrinkled up his nose. This place smelled more awful than he remembered.

Bryony picked herself up from the ground, dusting her flippers off. She said nothing. The two of them sat there for a few seconds, completely silent. Neither commented on the smell.

Bryony sniffled.

"I just really wanted to believe it," she mumbled. "I really wanted to believe she wasn't dead."

She curled up on the ground and stuck her head in her flippers, and then all was silent.

~\({O})/~​

They slept in the trees that night, using what little branches remained as cover. Every so often a pidgeot would soar over the forest, scouting out below. The instinctive urge to call out for help every time he saw the bird-shaped silhouette fly across the night sky came to his mind often, but Riolu knew better. He knew what it was, and it wasn't a pidgeot.

The sky began to slowly turn red again, but Riolu hadn't slept a wink.

Bryony still wasn't talking in the morning. Even when they both climbed out of the tree they were sleeping in. They ate a silent breakfast of roots and drank some water that Riolu had collected from the riverbank by the ruined village, and then they went their separate ways. It was dangerous, now that they knew what was lurking nearby, but they couldn't just wait around and do nothing. They knew Nyarlathotep wouldn't stop until it had found them.

Riolu went back down to the town to see if he could gather some more knives. He had taken the biggest one yesterday, but surely the others would work. He just needed two (and some more rope). He made his way down to the center of the village just like he had the other day, and entered the large café building to the north.

The knives had been lying around in a pile next to all the other silverware. That was where Riolu had left them yesterday. That was why he tensed up when he entered the kitchen, and saw that all of it was gone. Riolu quickly looked around to make sure nothing else was gone. There was only one reason those knives would be gone. Had it known that Riolu was going to come back here?

All of the sudden he scrambled over and his under the counter. He could hear something approaching from outside – heavy breathing. Damnit – it hadknown. This was a trap! Riolu knew he couldn't stay here; Nyarlathotep would find him at this rate. There had to be a way out.

Riolu's ears pricked up as, above the counter he heard Nyarlathotep enter the room. It looked around, sniffing. It smelled him. Riolu looked around for a moment, looking for something – anything = to use. His eyes settled on a frying pan.

There was a hole in the wall to his left. From what Riolu remembered Nyarlathotep's true form didn't have any eyes. It navigated from memory, smell, and hearing. He slowly crept over to the frying pan and picked it up from the ground, making sure to make as little of a sound at possible. He glanced at the hole, and he heard Nyarlathotep begin to tromp towards his position. It was now or never Riolu aimed for the hole, and then he threw the pan. It clanged against a building in the distance, and Riolu heard Nyarlathotep snarl. It leapt over the wall, heading out in a different direction after where it thought Riolu was going.

Riolu wasted no time. He picked himself up from under the counter and quickly looked around the kitchen once more. Come on – where were the knives?

Not here, it became obvious. Riolu decided to continue onwards. He quickly sped out the back door of the building and headed around the left side to the front. He quickly stopped when his eyes were met with the very sight that he didn't want to see: a void shadow prowling around in the middle of the square. Riolu froze. Had Nyarlathotep come back that quickly?

Sniff.

Riolu's head turned towards the alleyway where he had come from, where heavy sniffing sounds were emerging. There was another one! It dawned on Riolu: Nyarlathotep had brought friends.

How many? And how to get out of this? Riolu silently leapt the next wall.

He found the knives in a pile in the middle of the living room. A bang from behind him, and he realized he had to keep moving. He snatched up two of the knives and ran down the hallway. He made a left turn into one of the two bedrooms at the end, and took a moment to relax. A sudden screech from one of the void shadows outside shocked Riolu and made himself tumble into one of the bookshelf at the very end. It rattled noisily, and Riolu did his best to stop it from rattling.

Then he noticed the ghost had sat up.

Riolu was slightly scared, but he was scared of the Void Shadows more. He set the knives on the floor and then walked out from behind the bookcase. The ghost continued to stare at him. It looked about his height, and it distorted the background around itself a little, but what was it? Riolu took a step closer. The ghost stumbled back until it was leaning against a wall. Or rather, thin air where a wall once was. Riolu walked forward, up until he was face to face with the shadow. He tilted his head when it didn't react. Why wasn't it responding?

moving through the floorboards.

smelling the air for him.

Riolu knew what it was, and he realized he had no more time to waste on this ghost. He charged straight through it, but he felt nothing. Landing on the ground outside of the house, he quickly got to his feet, picked up the knives, and began to run into the square again. Not a second later a Void Shadow charged through the wall Riolu had just jumped over, setting its sights on him. It was Nyarlathotep.

Nyarlathotep screeched, and all of the other void shadows focused on its call. They saw Riolu. Riolu took a right turn into some of the other houses. He ducked and dodged through the alleyways, looking for ways to evade them. How was he going to escape. Just… just think. Riolu ducked into an empty house for a minute and collapsed against the wall where no-mon could see him. The void shadows… they followed their noses, right? So all Riolu had to do was mask his scent. But the only way he knew how to do that was with water. And…

…And he was near a riverbank. It all clicked. If he could get to the riverbank, then…

Riolu quickly sat up with the knives. He could hear the Void Shadows getting near. It was time to go. If he had any hope of reaching the water before they caught him, he had to leave now.

Riolu weaved through the town, heading in a loop back to the town center. He could see the riverbank from here, and it was just a few meters away… Riolu began to full out sprint. So close; he closed his eyes as he ran. One of the knives nicked his leg. Riolu hit the ground hard. The knives went flying and landed hilt-up in a nearby ditch. Riolu pulled himself to his feet and groaned. A roar sounded from right behind him. How had they gotten so close? Riolu looked back, and saw that a Shadow was galloping right for him. He forgot all about the knives and dived into the rivier.

It was dark and silent under the riverbank. Riolu couldn't hear the screeches of the void shadow from under here, but he also couldn't breathe. Speaking of… he needed to get some air. Riolu swam towards the surface, breaking it and gasping for air. He floated along, paddling occasionally to stay afloat.

~\({O})/~

~Bryony~​

Bryony slid herself through the landscape, yawning. She didn't know where she was going, just that she needed to take a stroll. Something to clear her mind of… yesterday. Something to help her forget. She'd been at it for she didn't know how long either, but it had been a while. She didn't even know where she was now. She had abandoned the forest long ago, and instead a long field of half-charred dead bushes lay in front of her.

She trudged on in silence for a while, until the sound of voices caught her ears. Brionne looked towards where they were coming from in confusion. More shadows?

"Look at the mukking sky, Eevee! Does that look normal to you? I'd rather have had a markup over this!"

"Stop lecturing me like it's my fault! Do you think I brought us out here with the intention of getting us stranded wherever this is? Who does that? Not me! Back off!"

"I have every right to lecture you! This was your idea in the first place! If not for you I'd be sleeping in a bed right now, all comfy! Instead I slept on the ground, like an animal!"

If these were Shadows then this was the most elaborate ruse Bryony had ever come across. She decided to investigate further.

"Hey!" she called out, approaching the arguing 'mon from a distance. A fletchinder and an eevee quit their argument for a second to stare at her.

"Quiet!" they both told her in unison, and then went back to arguing. Bryony slid herself closer to them silently. She was sure they weren't Shadows now.

"We thought we told you to muk off," Eevee hissed at Bryony as she slid herself up to them.

Bryony tilted her head. "Do you guys realize where you are right now?" she said.

"I wish…" Fletchinder grumbled.

"Okay. This is going to sound weird," Bryony said, "but the both of you need to come with me. For your own safety."

Both Eevee and Fletchinder looked at each other.

~\({O})/~​

Riolu slowly floated down the river, bobbing along and paddling himself towards the nearest shore away from town. He pulled himself out onto the riverbank, shaking himself off. He was soaked, but it was also hot enough here that the water felt more refreshing than anything else. He cast a look back towards the village in the distance. He'd lost the Shadows… for now. It was time to get away from here, before he was caught again. Riolu passed a large, destroyed archway on his way out of the town. He'd never been down this way before, and in the distance he could see what looked like a field of charred plains.

He walked for a bit, letting the ambient heat dry his fur off. Soon he was among the field of dead bushes, and he stopped. This looked like a good place to turn around and figure out where he was. He needed to go… north. Yes. Riolu turned towards Reverse Mountain, and began to trudge in that direction.

Then his ear twitched.

In the distance, he heard what sounded like voices. One of them was Bryony's.

Bryony was here? Riolu spun in the direction of the voices, and saw Bryony leading what looked like two other pokemon onwards. And they were heading in the direction of the village. Riolu's tail went flat in horror. They were going the wrong way! They were going to—

Without thinking, he took off after them.

"Hey! Wait!" he called out at the top of his lungs as he ran. Whether that would attract that Shadows; he didn't care. He just needed to make sure they didn't walk into the trap.

Bryony didn't hear him. Riolu called out again, even louder this time. He was gaining ground on them, but not fast enough. They were nearly at the village gates.

"Stop! You're walking into a trap!" Riolu yelled, running towards them as fast as he could. Finally, Bryony turned around to look at Riolu, having heard him yelling but heard what he said. Copying Bryony, Fletchinder and Eevee turned around.

"Who's that?" Eevee asked.

"That's my friend," Bryony answered. "But what's he doing?"

It was too late. A Shadow romped down the path towards them, and only Riolu could see it. He pointed behind them and shouted desperately, but he was still too far away. They couldn't hear him.

Bryony didn't realize what was happening until it was too late. She was suddenly snatched up by a large, black hand, and when she turned around the maw of Nyarlathotep stared her in the face. Extra limbs shot out of its body and snared Eevee and Fletchinder as well. And even through they protested, it was all to no avail. Nyarlathotep's body split open into teeth, and all three pokemon were engulfed.

Riolu made a hard left and hid behind a bush before Nyarlathotep could see him. He was crying, but he did all he could to stay quiet. He couldn't be found. He just couldn't. He had to find a way out of here.

It was a few moments, but eventually he heard Nyarlathotep let out an abominable screech, and then it galloped away from where Riolu was.

Riolu clenched the rust-red dirt under his paws. This place… it ground you down until you were all alone. Hopeless. And that's when it got you. This was hell. There had to be a way out. There just… there had to. Riolu refused to believe he was trapped here. And if he was, then maybe being devoured by a Void Shadow was a merciful death.

And then the full force of reality hit him: He was all alone. Forever. Bryony… Solosis… Wartortle, who he had only known for a day but still enjoyed the company of… the litwick… all gone. Only he was left.

Riolu curled up in a ball, and for the rest of the day, he sobbed to himself.

~\({O})/~

Forest Clearing

One Week Later

~Riolu~​

The sky boomed, and Reverse Mountain erupted in volcanic flame. Riolu fled through the woods, trying to get out of range from the falling bits of ash and fire.

It had all been so sudden. Previously, not a sound was to be heard rattling through the Voidlands. Even the void shadows had backed off after a while, grown disinterested with the prospect of having Riolu for lunch.

Riolu lived near the decaying heart tree in the woods southeast of the ruined village now. It was the only place his scent was stamped out; the only place that the void shadows wouldn't follow him. And none had. He ate what little roots had still grown from the tree's dead remains (it had died roughly a week ago), and drank from the lake. Every so often, he would sneak down to the village when the Shadows weren't looking and look around. The knives were long gone.

He still felt dizzy just at the thought that he was all alone here. He would see hallucinations in the woods – maybe Bryony's flipper, or the flame of a litwick – But they'd all be gone at a second glance. Not the tricks of a Shadow, but rather the tricks of a mind. Riolu needed an escape. And it was the ghost that provided it.

Riolu still had no idea what the ghost was. He could see it, but apparently it couldn't see him. The patrolling Void Shadows meant that he couldn't study the ghost full-time, but Riolu still went down to the ruined village every once in a while to study it. It slept during the day, for some reason.

And then… this. Riolu had been nibbling the last of the roots left on the dead heart-tree, when suddenly everything around him had suddenly exploded into noise. A pillar of flame erupted from the top of Reverse Mountain, and the sky rumbled and boomed with unseen thunder.

hUnt.

FiNd.

kILL.

Riolu heard the words, and they came from the skies. And then he heard a worse sound still: The sound of tens of Void Shadows all screeching in unison. It came from everywhere, and it uffeted Riolu's ears and he couldn't stop hearing it but it was unbearable—

Riolu crouched over, covering his ears the best he could. Ut the debris from above was beginning to land. A slab of burning rock crushed a couple of trees near him out of nowhere. It was several times bigger than Riolu was. Shaken, Riolu quickly continued onwards.

He fled south, until he could barely see the burning trees or the ruined village behind him. It was a place of death and despair, and once the fires hit it would e unlivable. Riolu was glad to leave it behind.

Eventually, he lost track of where he was going. All he knew was that it would be a while until the fires reached here. He had at least a few hours to a day. Riolu sat down against a dead tree, and gazed up at the erupting mountain in the distance. Every day, it seemed like his hopes of leaving got farther and farther away. His only way out, on top of that mountain; everymon said. Well, now it was going up in flames.

Riolu didn't cry. He didn't have any left in him. He took a deep breath, and simply watched the mountain erupt for a bit. He felt a peace that was foreign to him.

Slowly, the figures of several blue flames began to become visible once again. Riolu saw them flicker in the woods, but he ignored them. More hallucinations.

But were his hallucinations ever so clear? Riolu shot a second glance at them. They didn't disappear when he looked. He slowly rose from his sitting position. Was it true?

He watched as slowly, several candlestems followed the flames in visibility. His heart soared,a dn the next thing the litwick knew Riolu was running towards them in joy. He hugged the closest one – it didn't matter which one – tightly.

"I thought you guys were gone…" he muttered out, eyes closed.

"We nearly were," one of them said. It sounded indignant. Riolu looked up at it in confusion.

"We had a deal," another one of them continued. "Where did you go? Why did you leave us all to die?"

"I- I-" Riolu couldn't come up with a proper response. "There was this thing in the sky, and—"

He stopped, looking down. There was no excuse, he knew.

"I'm sorry."

There was silence between them for a moment. Then Riolu looked up.

"So where are the rest of you? Where's Solosis? How come you guys weren't at the camp when I came back two weeks ago?"

Tall-Flame came forward.

"This is all of us," he said. "All of us that are left. A monster attacked our camp. Solosis was eaten so we could get away. We…" Tall-Flame shuddered, reliving horrible memories. "We had nothing to eat. All those weeks of hunger… most of us disappeared!" he bawled, then broke down entirely into tears.

No-mon else spoke; they watched Tall-Flame cry, mourning all the dead litwick. Riolu was the first pokemon to break the silence.

"You guys don't have to forgive me. I… I don't know if I deserve it anyway."

He had the litwick's attention. They stared at him, skeptical but waiting for him to go on.

"I think I know where the way out is. Not on top of that mountain. But we have to wait for nightfall."

"You know for sure?" one of the litwick asked skeptically.

"Not for sure." Riolu shook his head. It's just a hunch of mine. But we've got nothing left to lose. Nothing but each other. Why not try?"

The litwick exchanged looks.

"Well…" one of them said. "I guess it's better than trying to go up the mountain of fire."

Tall-Flame slowly picked himself up off the ground and began to float again.

"I'm okay now," he said. "I still have breakdowns sometimes."

"So where's this way out you speak of?" another litwick piped up.

"I'm about to tell you now," Riolu said. "Gather around. Here's what we're going to do…"

~\({O})/~​

"If we're going to get past the Void Shadows and escape this place, then we're going to have to be clever about it. That's why we use the fires to our advantage."

The fires quickly spread throughout the woods, catching from tree branch to tree branch and burning them all to the ground. Up above them, Reverse Mountain slowly began to return to a fiery simmer, but the damage was done – everything around it was alight.

"It'll reach the village by nightfall, and I'm willing to bet that fire hurts these creatures. We'll use the opportunity to slip past them."

It was nightfall, and the village burned. Void Shadows had prowled it relentlessly for the past week – the flames had sent them into hiding. Riolu slowly crept through the forest towards the fire. He could see the outskirts of the burning buildings, and he silently waved the litwick after him. They followed.

The Fires burned the trees all around them, and the fire burned brighter than Reverse Mountain did. Riolu took a step onto the pavement, flinching at how hot it was. Then he stepped ont it entirely. There was no time to complain about those things.

He didn't see any void shadows. Riolu crept forward into the village square, looking around at all the burning buildings.

"It's to the south," he said. "There's a house. It's the only one still standing, and it's on an island. It's there. That's the way out."

The litwick looked at each other.

"That's the Ancient Barrow," they said.

A board suddenly snapped amongst the burning structure. Riolu turned, and he saw it – standing amongst the flame was a void shadow. It leered at him menacingly from behind the wall of flame that separated them. But it didn't charge.

Go on, it taunted. See how far you get.

Riolu stared back in contempt. The Shadow couldn't see him, but he didn't care anymore. He turned around and began to walk towards the southern entrance. Then he broke into a run, ushering the litwick after him.

The buildings flew by as he ran, burning and bright. Riolu paced himself so that the litwick wouldn't be left behind. He closed his eyes, but then opened them wide.

He was just in time to see a Void Shadow sprint out of the wreckage, obstructing the path ahead. Riolu hit the ground and rolled under its legs, not skipping a beat. The litwick soared over it. The Void Shadow gave chase, but Riolu took a right turn into a building.

"Hide!" he hissed to the litwick. They did. The Void Shadow came barging in through the doorway, but it hit the top of the doorframe. The wall collapsed in on it, covering it in flame. It screeched.

Riolu quickly picked himself up and sprinted for the house's back door.

"Go!" he yelled, and the litwick zoomed out of hiding.

The buildings beyond their location had all been half-destroyed by the fire. Riolu crept through the alleyways, keeping clear of the flames that licked out into the street and keeping his eyes peeled for Shadows. There didn't seem to be any here. Riolu ushered the litwick all on.

"This has to be the south side of town," Riolu said after a while. They had maneuvered through the village for about five minutes, and seen neither hide nor hair of another Void Shadow.

"We're just a few buildings away, one of the litwick said. Riolu nodded, and crept up to the burning building ahead of him. He could see the main path just head. It was empty, but something wasn't right—

—The structure next to him was suddenly bowled over. Riolu barely jumped clear of the wreckage. He stuck the landing, but a Void Shadow swatted him to the ground just a few seconds later. It let out something between a screech and an angry roar. Riolu picked himself up and began to run for it.

He made his way onto the main path, but then realized the litwick weren't with him he looked back.

"Hey!" he called out to them. "Over here!"

The Shadow took notice. It glanced at him and snarled, but it was suddenly buffeted over the head with the attacks of the three litwick. They soared back onto the main path to join Riolu, and all four began to run south again.

"I can see it!" one of the litwick exclaimed as they ran. He pointed to an island in the distance, illuminated by the fierceness of the fire that it was engulfed in. For just a second, Riolu stopped in horror. The bridge was on fire too – that was the only way across! He had to get there before it collapsed. Fear overcame Riolu. He began to take off at high speeds, running towards the bridge as fast as he could. He forgot about the litwick, which he had left behind.

Riolu closed his eyes, letting his nose and his feelers do the seeing for him. He was almost there, so close—

Riolu tripped over a rock and hit the ground hard. He groaned, and tried to lift himself up. Over where the island was – he was halfway there – the last of the bridge crumbled away into the water below. Riolu looked back at the litwick, then at the house. He could swim across. Freedom was so close…

Riolu looked back at the litwick. They'd catch up. Even now, they were floating right towards him. They'd be fine. He just had to get there himself—

The Void Shadow charged back onto the path, and it was livid. It smelled the litwick, and it heard them. It began to gallop in their direction, and only Riolu could see it. And that was when he made his decision.

Riolu leapt up, running back towards the litwick. He wasn't letting this happen again, not matter the cost—

With that thought, he felt something begin to collect in his paws; a foreign energy. It surged, and just before Riolu collided with the Shadow his paws met its chest. The attack sent them both flying backwards from each other. The litwick flew clear of the explosion.

Riolu pulled himself to his feet once more. He was dizzy. He could feel the energy leaving his paws, and smell the burning all around him, and see the brilliant orange flames and his ears were ringing. He was suddenly punched to the ground.

The Void Shadow picked him up, swung him around, and then batted him into the ground again. It swatted him into a house, and then pinned him to the ground again. It leaned in over him menacingly, but Riolu fought back. He clasped his paws together again, and managed to produce enough energy to repel the Shadow from his body. Riolu crawled along the ground, coughing, but he felt the Shadow's gooey claws wrap around his legs again and drag him back violently. It flipped him over, and then pinned his arms to the ground.

The Shadow didn't waste time. Its face split open into jaws and teeth, and they converged around Riolu—

A trio of embers suddenly batted the Shadow's head off of Riolu. Riolu looked where they came from, and he saw the Litwick swooping in from above! The next wave of embers hit a nearby structure, which collapsed on the void shadow. Riolu took the opportunity – he began to crawl away from the Shadow and got up to his feet. The Void Shadow was still struggling under the flaming wooden beam. Riolu struggled onto the path, but then he looked back at the litwick.

"Go!" one of them shouted at him. "We'll catch up!"

Riolu turned and ran. He ran, and he didn't look back. When he reached the water, he jumped into it without thinking and paddled his way across. He clawed his way onto the mud of the island, shaking himself off and pulling himself to his feet. He ached all over, but he was so close and he wasn't stopping now.

Finally, he reached the Barrow's doors. Riolu looked back at the burning village in the distance behind him. He couldn't see the litwick. Riolu scanned the sky, but he didn't see them there either. Had they been killed?

They'd catch up. They said they would. Riolu decided he'd take them up on it. He ducked in through the doors of the Ancient Barrow. The darkness dissolved after him.

Up above, Reverse Mountain erupted once more, sending fiery chunks up into the sky. Down below, the village continued to burn in silence.

The screeches of several Void Shadows could be heard.

~\({O})/~​

Riolu stumbled into gooey black corridors full of messy swamp water. Behind him was more of the same. Where there had once been a door, there was now nothing but darkness and silence. Then it clicked for Riolu: Was this a mystery dungeon?

And if so… he looked up at the ground, realizing he couldn't see the roof. Maybe this was the way out.

In front of him sat a staircase. It was smooth as marble, and shone with a ghostly glow in the darkness. Riolu headed for it without question. It was time to escape this awful place once and for all.

~\({O})/~

The Ancient Barrow

~Espurr~​

The dungeon was quiet as Espurr and Riolu walked through its hallways. It seemed that Nyarlathotep hadn't figured out where they were yet. As they walked, Espurr noticed that Riolu's body was getting less and less real-looking. Soon she could see the wall through him. She was about to say something, but Riolu suddenly broke out into a run. Espurr saw why: There was light ahead! This was the exit to the dungeon! Espurr's heart leapt, and she ran after him through the muck. How she wanted to escape from this place so badly! And yet…

The entrance was up ahead; a single doorway illuminated by morning daylight. All around them was the inside of an old and battered house, covered in black goo.

Riolu approached the doorway without hesitation. And the more of the light that spilled out onto him, the more of his body disappeared. He reached a paw out towards the door, watching it vanish completely.

"Come with me." Riolu looked back towards Espurr, holding a paw out.

"I told you I can't." Espurr stayed where she was, folding her arms. "I'm going back for my friends. If you want to leave, go ahead."

Riolu looked at the door. Then at Espurr. He groaned. It should have been a no-brainer! The door was right there. He was free! So… why did it make him feel crummy inside to leave?

"You're going to be alone out there, you know." Espurr stayed where she was, staring him directly in the eye. Her gaze was calculating, but Riolu saw a glimmer of daring in there as well. "There'll be no-mon out there for you. No-mon to keep you company. No-mon to help you when youreallyneed it, because you weren't there for them first."

Riolu was – for once – silent. Espurr took a deep breath in.

"My friends are still down in that dungeon," Espurr said. "I can feel them. I got them in this mess, and it's my responsibility to get them out. I'm not giving up on them. That's why I'm going back. If you want to run, I can't stop you. Run. But everymon stops running someday. You only get to choose when."

"So choose. Now." Espurr straightened herself up, brushing her dirty fur off and adjusting her scarf out of habit. "Are you coming with me, or are you running away?"

It was a moment before Riolu decided. Slowly, he trudged back into the dungeon, and Espurr saw his legs become visible again.

"Fine," he said. "Let's do it."

"Great." Espurr turned away from the dungeon entrance and began to jog back into the hall. "I think I saw another hall back this way!" she called back to him. "That's a good place to start."

Riolu cast one last glance back at the dungeon exit. He didn't want to die, but he didn't want to live all alone either. He hoped this 'Espurr' knew what she was doing.

And with that thought, he took off after her before he lost sight. They weren't out of the woods yet.

~\({O})/~​

Music of the week!

Murder (In Four Parts) - Thomas Newman

 

[SparklingEspeon]

~\({O})/~

22.

All Together Now

~\({O})/~

The Ancient Barrow

~Espurr~​

The light of the way out that had been nearly blinding soon faded into darkness. It was the dark of distance, as Espurr ran back into the halls covered with viscous black goo. Looking for any sign of the hallway she had seen before.

Behind her, Riolu tried his best to catch up. He made noisy splashes as he ran.

"Hey!" he called from behind her. "Wait up! I'm gonna lose you!"

Reluctantly, Espurr slowed down. It wouldn't do any good to lose her only ally, no matter how panicked she was. She took a deep breath, and tried not to be.

It didn't work.

"What are we even looking for?" Riolu panted out as he caught up with her. Espurr sped up again, forcing him to abandon catching his breath to keep pace with her.

"A way up, preferably," Espurr answered. "If the anchorstone is in the middle of the dungeon, and the stairs at the entrance went down while the ones we've been climbing went up, we can probably assume this dungeon doesn't work like all the other ones do. And that means there's probability of stairs leading up onto the floor above. It's an easy way to get to them. All we have to do is find the stairs."

She had ad-libbed all of that. More hopefully than based on any reasonable predictions, but Espurr was willing to accept almost any fragment of hope she could grasp at, even if she had to make it up for herself. Alongside her, Riolu nodded along, looking like he didn't understand any of it.

Good.

Up ahead in the corridor, Espurr caught sight of a small hallway to their left. She pointed at it, making sure that Riolu could see. "We're headed that way first."

"But shouldn't we scout the floor and come back to this late—"

"We might not find it again later." Espurr cut him off, taking him by the paw and almost forcefully dragging him into the hallway.

The theory was their lucky break. It had to be. Or Espurr didn't know what she would do.

~\({O})/~

~'Goomy'~​

Goomy felt wrong. He saw wrong. The antennae constantly twitching atop his head were wrong, and so was the gooey snail shell on his back. He couldn't see colors anymore. He saw, but he saw in vibrations. Everything around him was illuminated in black and white; a fading image renewed with each twitch of his antennae. He didn't even know where he had pulled that attack from – something he wouldn't have fathomed doing just a few seconds before. Goomy stayed still in shock for a bit.

"Goomy!"

Deerling galloped through the muck towards him, then threw herself into him the best she could. Goomy did his best to not collapse into formless goo upon impact, but now that he thought about it he couldn't do that as well now either.

"Aw, berry crackers. He's the first to evolve? He's the youngest out of all of us!"

"Oh, stick a wooper in it, Pancham," Deerling hissed at him. "You nearly died! We. All Nearly. Died. He saved our lives! The least you could do is thank him instead of treating him like Muk!"

"Sooo cool!"

That was Tricky. She bounded around him, checking his new body out from all angles. "What does it feel like? Can you see? Ooh- Ooh- Watchog said that sliggoos dissolve everything with killer slime. Can you dissolve a dungeon 'mon?"

"T-that's a myth," Goomy stuttered out, still trying to figure out how to speak with his new mouth. He knew that much. Although he guessed he was Sliggoo now.

"Hey," Deerling said, trying to stabilize the wobbling Sliggoo. "You feeling alright? Do you need to rest for a moment?"

"This is great and all," Shelmet interjected loudly, "but I propose we get a move and get out of here before, y'know, the scary monster thing comes back to get us?"

"I- I'm f-fine," Goo- Sliggoo stuttered, stabilizing himself without Deerling's help. "I just want to get out of here."

"True that," Pancham muttered. "How many floors is this place, anyway. It's gotta have been at least fifteen."

"Try five." Deerling clopped past him, leading the group onwards. "It can't be that many now. The only 'mon we're missing is Espurr."

No-mon saw it in the darkness, but Tricky's ears flopped back as they continued on.

"You don't think we left her behind, right?" she asked. Deerling didn't answer. No-mon did. No-mon knew. There was only hope to guide them.

~\({O})/~

~?~​

This was less than optimal. They were in two groups now. If It allowed them to progress unhindered, soon there would be only one. They knew. They weren't like the pathetic beings that had ended up in the Voidlands; pathetic beings filled with hate and discord for It and Its brethen to leech off of and grow stronger from. They were a measly seven, but together they had hurt It.

It had never liked children. They were too hopeful, too filled with positive emotions that burned it like fire. And yet they posed the biggest threat to It.

It lay in hiding, healing its wounds and plotting its next move. Maybe this was more optimal than it had originally thought. In one group, they were a dangerous but easy target. And now that It had fought them a few times, It knew which ones to eat first. It would devour the psychic cat and the goo snail, leaving the rest of them powerless to Its strength. And then It would eat them too.

All along the walls of the Anchorstone, goo shifted and squelched in preparation. It was time to set a trap.

~\({O})/~

~Espurr~​

There was nothing at the end of the hallway. Espurr hadn't wasted time making it back to the main corridor, pulling Riolu along with her. Riolu had made a few efforts to slow down, but Espurr wasn't having it. They found another corridor, and she checked that one too. It was only after a few more hurried searches of hallways that Riolu finally sat down in the muck, all puffed out.

"I need a minute," he puffed out. "To… catch my breath…"

Espurr reluctantly stopped. She folded her arms, marched back over to him, and sat down opposite him silently.

Nothing was said between them; they sat together in silence. For the first time since being separated from her friends, Espurr noticed the distinct lack of a tattered old exploration bag hanging from her left shoulder. Her stomach suddenly fell – that bag had everything in it! But she had bigger priorities right now. She'd pick it up on the way.

"Ready yet?" she asked Riolu. Riolu nodded.

"Almost," he said, still sounding tuckered out. "I can get up no—"

Something changed. Both Espurr and Riolu noticed. He stopped mid-sentence, and they both silently looked in the direction of the distant rumbling that came from deeper within the dungeon. It was getting closer.

"Move."

Both Espurr and Riolu got to their feet, but it was all they could do to jump clear of the stairway before the walls suddenly became fluid. Goo shifted along the walls at high speeds, and soon the walls themselves began to change. The dungeon itself began to roar – it was not happy. The sound resounded through the air around Espurr and Riolu, and a sudden gust of rancid wind blew them both backwards. And the walls weren't solidifying.

Espurr got back to her feet, helping Riolu up as quickly as she could. A sudden pillar of goo shot out of the wall, and they both ducked just in time to avoid it. The area closed up into a full wall, and Espurr and Riolu scrambled away from it. More and more pillars of goo shot out from all directions, while walls all around them collapsed.

"What do we do?" Riolu yelled over the noise of the shifting dungeon. He and Espurr were pressed as close together as they could possibly be. The muck around them churned, and they parted just in time to avoid a pillar of goo shooting straight up out of the ground. And then Espurr saw it: Behind a collapsing wall, the stairs stood. They glowed brighter than anything else, and most importantly: they led up.

She called out to Riolu just before the wall sealed up and separated them. "Head that way! I see the stairs!"

The wall finished forming, and they were both cut off. Espurr didn't waste any time running forward. A corridor was forming around the stairs, and Espurr ran directly for it. Another pillar of goo shot out of the ground and began to form a wall between her and the stairs – she was going to be cut off!

The dungeon roared a second time. Espurr knew that the dungeon winds would follow. She sped up as fast as she could, but then she began to feel a draft. She noticed her fur blew in the direction of the sealing up wall, and she jumped—

—The gust of wind blew through the nearly completed hallway, and its power blew Espurr off her feet and sent her flying through the gap just before the wall closed up. She hit the muck on the other side of the hallway and got a mouthful of swamp water. At this point, she was beginning to get used to how it tasted.

"You okay?"

Espurr looked up to see Riolu standing over her. He held a paw out, and she took it, bringing herself to her feet. Ahead of them, the stairs lit the hallway with a luminous glow. Behind them, the dungeon slowly settled into an uneasy peace. The rumbling ceased.

"I'm not waiting around for something else to happen," Riolu said. "Let's go."

~\({O})/~

~Tricky~​

Tricky worried about it the whole way there. She worried about what had happened to Espurr, who was her friend when no-mon else would have been. Espurr, who was the only 'mon still separated from the group. Espurr, who Tricky worried had been left behind in the dungeon. She knew there were no answers for her, but the worry hung over her like a cloud as they walked.

'Espurr can take care of herself,' Tricky's brain told her. She used that like a shield, hiding herself away from all the worry behind it. But that didn't stop her from knowing it was there.

"Hey," Deerling spoke after what had felt like hours of silence. "I found something."

She sped up, and all the others did their best to follow.

Sitting against the goo-covered wall was the tattered old exploration bag that belonged to Espurr. Deerling stopped right in front of it, and looked down at the bag. It floated in the muck, its strap stuck to the goo and holding it in place. If it weren't waterproof it would have been ruined long ago.

Tricky quickly pushed past Pancham and Shelmet to look at the bag. She was the first one to point out the obvious.

"That's Espurr's!"

Everymon else exchanged looks in worry. Tricky's fear nearly overcame her – Espurr wouldn't just leave the team bag like that. What if something had… had… good thoughts…

Tricky stared down at the muck for a moment, trying to think of something positive to make of the situation.

"Well…" she began after a moment. "If the bag is here, then Espurr has to be further down in the dungeon. So we didn't leave her behind."

More silence. No-mon had anything to add, but the unspoken words hung in the air over them: She's dead, isn't she.

"…We should collect it," Deerling said. Her voice was low. "It's got her things in it. We don't want to leave those behind."

Pancham – the only one with hands – stooped over and picked it up. He slung it over his back, and they began to continue on again in silence.

Tricky wouldn't believe it. Not until she saw it with her own eyes. That perked her up just a little as they trudged further into the dungeon.

~\({O})/~

~Espurr~​

The stairs deposited Espurr and Riolu onto the next floor up with little ceremony. They picked themselves up and began to trek through the dungeon's hallways once again with little complaint. Their fur was matted with swamp water and bits of black goo. Espurr didn't think she could ever clean the filth out of the scarf Tricky had given her. It hung around her neck, soggy with swamp water and almost brown from the dirt that had accumulated into it over the past three weeks. Tricky…

Espurr closed her eyes, and reached out with her sixth sense once more. If they were on this floor, and she tried hard enough…

"Hey, do you hear voices?"

Riolu's comment snapped Espurr back to reality. She glanced at him.

"I wasn't paying attention."

"Voices. That way." Riolu pointed towards the end of the corridor that they'd been travelling down. When Espurr strained her ears, she could hear it too.

"I think the stairs are this way. It's the only hallway we haven't checked."

That sounded like… Deerling. Espurr immediately broke out into a run, dashing down the hallway and making splashes in the muck behind her. She just stopped herself from calling out to them, in case it was an enemy she hadn't been aware of.

She slowed to a stop just outside the entrance to the main hall, glancing in the direction she'd heard the noises from. Her eyes widened. She saw all five of the other village children, in a group led by Deerling.

"Espurr!"

The cry was loud enough to pierce the ears of everymon in the dungeon. Tricky pushed past everymon else and quickly embedded herself into Espurr. "Where were you all this time?" she asked. "We found your bag, and we thought you were…" Tricky couldn't go on. Espurr hugged her back.

"Here's your bag." Espurr's bag went sailing through the air and landed in the muck with a splash in front of her. Tricky backed off, and Espurr picked it up.

Deerling walked forward. Espurr thought she was about to say something, but suddenly Deerling lowered her head and headbutted Espurr right in the chest. Espurr landed in the muck with a splash, too surprised to make her landing graceful. She looked up at Deerling in shock.

"That's for getting us into this mess." Deerling flicked an ear indignantly. "Now get up. We…" she looked down. "We need somemon who can get us out of it."

Espurr rose from her position, pulling her bag back onto her shoulder. It felt good, having that there again.

Riolu finally made his way to the end of the corridor, stumbling to a stop awkwardly and catching his breath. The rest of the children looked at him in alarm.

"…This is Riolu," Espurr said. "He got lost in the dungeon, just like us. We found the way out. It's only a floor down. The bad news is…"

"There's a monster after us," Deerling said. "We know."

"We didn't find Watchog," Shelmet pointed out.

"I say let Watchog rot," Pancham said dismissively. "We'll be lucky to get out of this with our own fur; forget his. Besides, we would have found him if he was here."

That was met with uneasy agreement from everymon else.

"So now what?" Tricky asked, much more chipper than before.

"Now…" Espurr turned back towards the hallway ahead of them. "We look for the way down, and then the way out."

~\({O})/~​

The halls of the Anchorstone were completely different when Espurr and her friends stepped onto its grounds. It almost looked like a whole new floor. Around them, the dungeon settled silently, with only a short rumble or hiss as the new hallways finished slotting into place. Espurr slowly led them down the corridor, being as silent as possible. The goo on the wall popped once as they continued on, startling Espurr. There was a hole in the center of the wall that led into blackness. But nothing came out of it, so she decided to move on. None of them noticed the eyeless face that silently emerged from the hole to spy on them after they'd passed it. Satisfied, it retreated back in, black goo swarming over to cover it up.

The hallways were perhaps darker than they'd ever been, and Espurr had trouble seeing the way ahead properly. Several times she almost walked straight into a wall. Eventually, she led them into what looked like a large room where all the hallways led. Espurr stopped, unsure of where to go next. Everymon looked around, taking in the sheer number of hallways all around them.

"Now where do we go?" Tricky asked. The walls moved silently all around them, and Espurr took a fighting position.

"Get ready to fight," she said. "We aren't alone in here." And with that, she fired a mental blast at the wall.

Nyarlathotep abandoned the element of surprise immediately. Goo began to collect in the middle of the floor, assembling itself into Nyarlathotep's body—

An ember from Tricky sent the lower half of the body reeling back before it could finish building itself.

"Get it!" Everymon rushed forward, ganging up upon the shadow before it could assemble itself completely. Riolu pushed one of its legs out from under it, causing it to stumble forward. Pancham climbed on top of it, beating it over the top with his fists. Shelmet charged forward and stabbed the pointy edge of his shell into its leg. Tricky shot another ember, hitting it in the center. Espurr ran forward and used her mind to pull the shadow's other leg out from under it. It collapsed completely. Sliggoo unleashed a dragon breath, sending the body stumbling back further. Deerling spun around and kicked it with her hind legs.

It fell back against one of the walls, and was silent. Everymon held their breath, watching it lie still for a moment.

"Did… Did we beat it?" Tricky asked hesitantly after a minute. Espurr looked over the shadowy body, studying it intently. She looked at how the goo flowed off the walls and down into its body. And then she realized.

"No," she said quickly. "It's just recovering. Let's finish it off before it has a chance to." She began to charge another mental blast, aiming it directly at the recovering Nyarlathotep.

But it was too late – Nyarlathotep was up faster than Espurr could blink, and the last of the goo had assembled into the Void Shadow's monstrous body. Its quills stood alert, and before Espurr could unleash her mind attack it had already charged forward and grabbed her by the throat. Espurr wasn't having it. She directed her attack directly at its claws instead. The raw power was enough to blow the shadow's hand temporarily apart, and she slipped back to the ground.

One by one, everymon launched an attack against the shadow. Its arms shot out and whacked Tricky aside. It dodged Riolu, then kicked him into a wall. It took the brunt of Sliggoo's dragon breaths, walking towards him without any harm. Pancham and Shelmet were both thrown aside. Deerling stepped in to defend Sliggoo, and the shadow began to charge straight for them. One more mental blast sent it careening to the side, and Espurr slid to a stop right where it had been.

She looked at her fallen friends, then straight at Nyarlathotep. She could tend to them later. Right now, there was a bigger priority. And so Espurr began to approach the Void Shadow once more. She began to charge up an attack, but suddenly a sharp headache struck her. She couldn't summon the energy to do it.

Nyarlathotep shot up and grabbed Espurr once more, and this time there was no hope of escape. She struggled the best she could, but she wasn't strong enough to pry herself from Nyarlathotep's claws.

"Help!" she looked back at all her classmates desperately. None of them would reach her in time, not even Tricky.

Espurr felt Nyarlathotep's breath on her face. It ruffled her fur, and it smelled of mystery dungeon. Nyarlathotep's maw opened up, and it spoke in a voice only Espurr could hear:

YoU aRe At ThE bRiNk Of DeAtH. My SeRvAnT sHaLl DeVoUr YoUr MoRtAl FrAmE, aNd YoU WiLl Be DoOmEd To KnOw OnLy BlAcKnEsS FoReVeRmOrE. uNlEsS…

Espurr didn't want to hear whatever the monster had to say to her. Frantically, she began to search for a potential way out. Her headache was waning, but it wouldn't be enough.

OnCe AgAiN, I PrEsEnT mY oFfEr To YoU: LeAvE tHiS bOdY. rEtUrN tO yOuR hUmAn LiFe. ReGaIn YoUr MeMoRiEs. eScApE dEaTh. Do ThIs, AnD yOu HaVe My WoRd ThAt YoU sHaLl NoT bE HaRmEd By My SeRvAnT'S hAnD. I aSk OnCe MoRe: dO wE hAvE a BaRgAiN?

It took everything Espurr had not to accept the offer. She was scared, and tired. Tired of all the mysteries. Tired of the mystery dungeons. Tired of everything. A way out would be everything she'd ever wanted, and it came with the added bonus of not being eaten. But Espurr couldn't rid herself of the underlying guilt and horror at what she was thinking: Was she really considering this?

Then a cough sounded from behind her. Tricky. The shadow's head snapped towards it, but Espurr quickly faked a cough herself to draw its attention back. She noticed it was eyeless. It must have been relying on sound to sense things. She turned her head towards the rest of the children, who were silently rising from the muck. They assembled in the middle of the room wordlessly, taking attack stances. Espurr took the cue, and found that her headache had waned enough for her to begin charging her own attack.

I rEqUiRe An ANSWER.

Nyarlathotep leaned in closer. Espurr stared it down.

"I'm sorry. We don't have a deal," she said, her face quickly returning to her former smugness. "And you really should know by now: threats don't work on me."

With that remark, Espurr blew apart Nyarlathotep's hands. The monster lunged forward, its jaws clamping shut, but Espurr tumbled to the muck and rolled away from the shadow just in time.

"Now!" she yelled to all the other children, jumping out of the way just in time. Everymon fired their attacks all at once, and they all hit the same target: the center of Nyarlathotep's chest. It left a hole clean through Nyarlathotep. One that didn't fill itself in.

Nyarlathotep took a step towards the village children, and all of them balked in fear. But then it stopped. It twitched, then began to tremble. And then it burst into tiny flakes of black goo and ash, that began to rise up into the air until no-mon could see them. And then there was only silence.

Espurr slowly raised herself from the muck, picking her bag up with her. She rejoined the rest of her classmates, and they all silently continued towards what was now the only hallway left out of the clearing. Just around the corner, there was daylight.

A figure lay slumped down against the wall, fast asleep. Its body was half covered in black goo. Vice-Principal Watchog was slowly roused from his sleep by the sounds of seven children tromping through the muck towards him.

"… Huh?" he muttered. "What are you troublemakers doing… here… blurgh… more mago berries… the good shtuff…"

He was asleep once again.

Espurr and Tricky exchanged looks.

"We'll just have to carry him out," Espurr stated. No-mon objected.

Daylight was just around the corner.

~\({O})/~​

Music of the week!

Possession - Thomas Newman

 

[SparklingEspeon]

~\({O})/~

23.

What Came After

~\({O})/~

Serenity Village Outskirts

~Espurr~​

Espurr was rudely deposited into the thick mud of the island that the Ancient Barrow sat on. Tricky quickly followed, then Deerling, then Pancham, and all of the others. Riolu was nowhere to be found.

For a moment, Espurr couldn't see anything. Her eyes had become accustomed to the darkness of the Barrow's hallways, and it took a minute for the morning sun to not feel like it was burning her gaze into oblivion. But slowly, her surroundings became more and more bearable to look at, and everymon on the island was met with the familiar sight of Serenity Village in the distance. All of the village children cheered – Tricky loudest of all. Espurr didn't cheer, but she couldn't help but grin too. It was truly a relief to see the daylight once more.

A loud sputter suddenly came from next to them, sending all the children into silence. Watchog – laying flat on the mud nearby – coughed once, then twice, then sputtered himself awake. He looked one way, then the other. He saw the morning sun. He saw the Ancient Barrow. He saw that he was positively filthy. And most importantly, he saw all six of the village children sitting next to him, suddenly fearful looks on their faces. They were right to be scared.

Watchog suddenly jumped up, pointing an accusing finger in alarm. "You- You-" he sputtered. "What are you kids doing here?!"

No-mon answered him. Several of them looked down at the mud in shame.

"All of you go home!" Watchog cried. "Every single one of you. Go home! And-" he cleared his throat, trying to look dignified at the last second. "If anymon asks, none of this ever happened. Kapeesh?"

"Kapeesh." The answer was unanimous; everymon could agree with that.

"Now scat!" Watchog cried, shooing them all with his arms. All six of them were back on the path to the village faster than Watchog could say 'troublemaker'.

~\({O})/~

Carracosta's House

~Tricky~​

"YOU FOOL!"

Carracosta punctuated his outburst with a stomp of his feet against the floor. Tricky cowered in front of him, looking suitably ashamed.

"I have two rules," he boomed. "One. Don't go out after dark. Two. Stay out of mystery dungeons. Last night you broke both."

"Actually, you have three rules—" Tricky piped up, but she was quickly cut off again.

"SILENCE!" Carracosta yelled. "I'm disappointed in you, Tricky. Since you can't seem to follow the rules correctly, you don't need special privileges either. You're grounded for a week."

"Grounded?!" Tricky exclaimed in horror.

~\({O})/~

Pancham's House

~Pancham and Shelmet~​

"I swear we can't keep you two in the same room together and expect you to behave," Pancham's mother sighed, scrubbing Shelmet down. He and Pancham were in opposite tubs, facing away from one another as they washed off all the muck that had stuck to them.

"I wish your dad was still here," Pancham heard her mutter as she cleaned off Shelmet's shell. "He'd know how to keep you two in line."

~\({O})/~

Sliggoo's House

~Sliggoo~​

"Son, we…" Sliggoo's father, a gallade, said. He sat on a stool in front of Sliggoo, who was silent. "We think it's great that you wanted to evolve, we do," he continued, then trailed off. Clearly the subject made him uncomfortable.

"—We just wish you'd done it while we were there," Sliggoo's mother, a goodra, finished for him.

Awkward silence ensued.

~\({O})/~

Deerling's House

~Deerling~​

"Mooooom," Deerling pleaded, all sprawled out on the floor. "Just punish me."

"Why would I?" Deerling's mother asked, genuinely confused. "You've made such a large step forward into becoming independent!"

"I went out of the house after bedtime," Deerling said. "I broke a rule! You're supposed to punish me!"

Sawsbuck deliberately ignored her, humming as she went back to whatever she was doing.

"At least do something!" Deerling cried out. "Put me in my room for the day. Take away my dessert rights. Send me to bed without dinner. Anything works. Just don't tell me you think this is okay. Please."

"Hmm," Deerling's mother hummed. "I think this is the first time I've ever seen a child beg for punishment."

"…That means you're going to punish me?" Deerling asked hopefully.

"Eh," Sawsbuck said, not even looking at Deerling. Deerling blinked once, then twice. She opened her mouth, but then realized arguing was useless. Instead, she stormed off in annoyance.

"Don't headbutt the walls, please!" Sawsbuck yelled after her.

~\({O})/~

Village Square​

Espurr walked into the village square, her fur still soggy and drooping from the self-imposed dip in the lake she had taken. She got a few looks from some of the passerby pokemon in the square, but no-mon approached her or said anything. Espurr would have washed it out, but she was just too tired to.

She trudged up to the front door of Audino's house, which she had purposefully left unlocked for herself the night before. She pushed down on the knob. It gave. Still unlocked. Espurr pushed it open with a loud creak, and wearily trudged in.

"Where were you?!"

Espurr looked up in shock – Audino stood right before her, looking at Espurr. "And how did you get so dirty?" she questioned. "What were you doing all night? Explain. Now."

Espurr didn't have an excuse for Audino, and she was too tired to make one. She went with the truth instead.

"We- I was searching for Watchog last night. He hasn't been seen since Thursday."

Audino leaned back against the wall of the house, covering her face with her hands out of frustration.

"Watchog was out of town. He just said so, when he passed by in the square."

Espurr blinked in shock. So that's how it was…

"If you thought he was missing, why didn't you tell an adult?" Audino questioned. "You put yourself in danger!"

"The adults won't understand." Espurr looked up at Audino.

"We won't understand if you never tell us anything," Audino seethed. She sighed. "Just- just go to your room until supper." She was at a loss for anything else to say. Espurr wasn't complaining. She felt tired enough to collapse where she stood. She trudged off to her room, where the bed of straw was still unmade from where she had left it last night. She yawned, shuffled over to the bed, and collapsed with the sun in her eyes.

~\({O})/~​

In the village square, a lone riolu dashed out into the sun. He looked around, taking in the bright blue sky and all the passerby pokemon, laughing loudly in joy. His legs shook, his eyes fluttered, and then he slumped over in exhaustion. Several pokemon gasped, and gathered around him in worry.

~\({O})/~

Expedition Society Headquarters ~ Lively Town

~Mawile~​

It was business as usual at the Expedition Society. After the morning briefing, everymon had gone their separate ways, and the building was left deserted all except for Swirlix, Nickit, and Torracat's Team – who had taken an off-day and were instead sparring in the training hall. Mawile could hear the sounds of their battle from one floor above. (This meant they'd carelessly left the door open, but so long as it didn't become a repeat offense Mawile was willing to let it slide.)

Content that things would stay peaceful at least for a little while, Mawile let the door of her office slide to a shut behind her. She had more important things to do right now.

A second sighting of the entities that had caused devastation in Pokemon Plaza meant more than ever that action was required as soon as possible. Mawile wasn't confident in HAPPI's ability to act in time. She'd been pouring over and re-reading dozens of old texts in her miniature library, hoping to find something that she had missed. Something had to rear its head eventually. It wasn't possible that there were no accounts of these beings throughout history. (Or rather – Mawile didn't want to accept the possibility that there was nothing she could do from an administrative position.)

However, days after days of examining every word she could find had run her down – Mawile was relishing the idea of finally moving on from this project. Or at least, getting herself some new material to read over. She walked around the gigantic pile of books and scrolls that lay on the desk. Her eyes settled on an old book that lay on the bottom shelf next to the desk – it hadn't been visible for a while because of an errant pile of books that had blocked it. The sight of the book jogged Mawile's memory: Ampharos had given it to her, claiming he'd negotiated it from Rayquaza, who kept a lot of Human texts and ancient scrolls.

"I couldn't hope to find a use for this," Ampharos had said the day that he'd given it to her. "But when Rayquaza bid that I took something, I grabbed the first thing within reach out of politeness. Perhaps you'll find it useful where I couldn't."

Mawile doubted the answer lay with the Humans of old (as fascinated as she was with them). But at this rate… she reached for the book, and grabbed it from its perch on the shelf. It couldn't hurt.

The text was the unpublished ramblings of a porygon, who had lived long ago at the very start of Pokemon Civilization. Surely a gem, and Mawile was sorry she hadn't opened it earlier. She made a note to visit Rayquaza at a later date and gain his opinions on some of the book's topics.

The passage on the next page made all thoughts of leisurely philosophical debates fly from Mawile's mind:

Humans.

9,000 years dead; 9,000 years our senior. 9,000 years a myth. No-mon has ever seen a human, yet the grounds of this world are replete with the ruins they leave behind. The crumbling remains of their cities, soon to be overgrown for all time. Years upon years of obsessive studying has granted me perhaps the best recollection of what happened to their kind.

The Humans were a warlike species. An ambitious species. Their technology built them towers that scraped the sky. Their wars shook the world and made all others cower in fear. And when the human leaders spoke, everyone listened.

But too much power is never a good thing, and pride always comes before the fall. Slowly, the Humans destroyed their planet. Pollution blotted out the sun, and toxins seeped down into the very ley lines of their Earth. Soon they knew they would all die if nothing was done.

On every continent Humans convened to search for the only answer the Human Leaders could provide: A new world. A new place to colonize and corrupt and build their metal cities over. They soon discovered the stars held no secrets for them, so they began to burrow into the ley lines of Planet Earth. And soon, they drilled a hole straight into Hell.

By the time the Humans realized what they had done it was too late. They were destroyed by the foul creatures that emerged from this hell realm. In a bid for survival, the final remains of their species constructed three seals to cover up their mistake. One on the Water Continent. One on the Sand Continent. One lost to the tides of the sea. If any of these were to break, surely the wrath of hell would be inflicted upon the world again.

I have determined the best we can do is to leave these seals to lie in peace. If, for any reason one should shatter, the signs will make themselves clear. And it will fall to the pokemon of the world to unite and take action, before they are destroyed as well.

Mawile could barely sit still. Thoughts flew through her head at the speed of light – if this wasn't her answer, it was a step in the right direction. Although foul creatures and ancient seals felt a bit fantastical. Mawile pulled out a map of the Sand Continent – the continent most mapped by other cartographers – to investigate.

Immediately, she found what she was looking for. The Sands of Time, an important historical landmark further inland on the Sand Continent, had boggled explorers for decades. Everymon who had entered noted one detail in common – a large, arcane room with what looked like a massive hatch in the middle. A seal by any name. Brimming with excitement, Mawile checked the porygon's text again just to make sure, and then immediately got to work, ignoring the dulled sounds of the battle taking place a floor below. To quote an old Human idiom: she had struck gold!

~\({O})/~

Audino's House

~Espurr~​

Espurr had slept through the day, and then the night. It was a dreamless sleep; her mind was too tired to entertain mind boggling fantasies or alien presences encroaching upon her head. Espurr sat up in her bed of straw, glancing at the sunlight pouring in through the window. It felt like she had slept for five minutes.

A loud snoring sound came from beside her, causing her to gasp in fright. She looked to her right, realizing that she now shared the bed with a noisily snoring Riolu. Espurr let out a sigh of relief. At least he had made it back out safe.

There would be no more sleeping with Riolu's noisy snoring habits, so Espurr yawned, stretched, and pulled herself off the bed. Her stomach growled and she felt a bit dizzy, so she devoured an apple in the kitchen. Audino wasn't there. Espurr assumed she was out tending to a doctor's appointment.

For the next ten minutes, she sat around the empty, quiet house. This was her home – she was safe here, right? All the bad memories of the last few weeks flashed through her head – the beheeyem, the gabite, the strange dreams, Nyarlathotep. Would any of the adults understand? Would any of them even believe her? Watchog was the only one who had any reason to believe her, and he was far too pompous to do anything about it. But above all, Espurr knew that she couldn't sit around the house doing nothing all day. She had to take a hike.

Espurr grabbed her dirty exploration bag, donned the scarf caked with mud, and slipped out through the door.

She walked through the village with all its pokemon walking by, but they didn't interest her. She needed to go somewhere quiet. She walked south, until she had outwalked all the houses. The dark visage of the Ancient Barrow demanded her attention. Espurr refused.

She continued to walk south, past the tree where Ampharos had gifted her and Tricky the expedition gadget. She walked past the forest path that led to the treehouse they had all made, and walked until Serenity Village could fit into the palm of her paw. Up ahead, the path led into the Lively Mountain Range, but that wasn't where Espurr was going.

Espurr rooted around in the bushes until she found the fake ones Nuzleaf had set aside that one day. She walked around them, leaving them undisturbed.

Watchog was at the guard post for Revelation Mountain that day. Espurr momentarily stopped in surprise – she hadn't thought about the guards – but then she noticed that he was fast asleep. That simplified things. She crept past him, leaving a trail of muddy pawprints behind her as she scampered up the mountain.

She stopped at a cliff near the base of the mountain, and sat on a ledge. She could see the village from here, as well as all its forested surroundings and the mountain ridge in the distance. It took her back to a time when her largest worry was what place Tricky would drag her off to today… had that really only been a few weeks ago? Espurr let her bag drop next to her, and eventually she laid her head down upon it, staring up at the sky with folded arms.

"I wasn't aware this was where all the kids went when school was out," Principal Simipour said.

Espurr jumped – she hadn't even seen him! She hadn't felt him either. She quickly sat up, looking at him. Simipour took a seat next to her, staring at her with that ever-weary gaze. Espurr cleared her throat?

"…What are you doing here, Principal?" she asked.

"I come here sometimes for an afternoon stroll when Vice Principal Watchog's on duty, Simipour answered. "Adult's privilege. Hmm, now that I think of it, should you be here?"

Espurr Blinked, trying to come up with a good counter for that.

"I'll allow it," Simipour cheerfully shrugged it off before Espurr could say anything. "Why deprive a pokemon of this beautiful view, after all? Just don't make a habit of it."

Espurr still couldn't feel him. She couldn't feel anything on him, which was strange. She knew from Watchog's type matchup class that psychics couldn't perceive the minds of dark-type pokemon, but Simipour was supposed to be a water type… right?

Then she remembered the paper she had snitched from Simipour's office just last night, and she remembered what was on it. It was still in her bag, wasn't it? Disguising it as a causal rummaging through her bag, Espurr zipped it open and sifted through the items until she found what she was looking for. The paper still read, in large words:

MISSING: Beheeyem x3

If found, please contact the Merchants' Guild on the Grass Continent.

Espurr remembered her first night at the school—

~\({O})/~​

Simipour opened a drawer below his desk and put the stack of papers in front of them into it.

"The pokemon who chased you last night are known as Beheeyem, and they've been sighted several times in the past few days searching for you." Simipour's voice lost its airy quality for a more sincere tone. "That is why, for the time being, I strongly implore you to stay within the bounds of this village. I say this out of concern for your own safety, not to put a shackle on your freedom. We don't need another disappearance on our hands."

~\({O})/~​

That stack of paper had been missing posters. And Simipour had been collecting all of them. For what?

"Is something the matter?" Simipour asked Espurr. Espurr quickly closed her bag so that Simipour wouldn't see what was inside it. She set it aside, and stared him in the eye.

"The night I got here," she said, "You told me that there was another disappearance before me. Who disappeared? And why does no-mon talk about it?"

In an instant, Simipour's posture seemed to change. He slumped over, and his expression became much less cheery.

"So that's how it is…" she heard him mutter. Espurr mentally prepared herself to be on her defense. This didn't look like it was going good places.

"Peer into my mind." Simipour's voice didn't sound anything like Simipour. He had lost his airy voice for something more serious. The sudden change sent chills through Espurr, but she had no choice but to comply – not when the consequences for disobeying her could be far worse.

Not when she was so close to getting her answers.

Espurr took a deep breath, and reached out with her sixth sense. Some of the fog over Simipour's mind had lifted, allowing just enough for a clear path through – what was this? For a moment, their heads merged, and Espurr saw what 'Simipour' had seen.

~\({O})/~

Village Square​

Three beheeyem were travelling through town that day, five weeks ago. They brought wares from the Grass Continent – dried berries, roasted insects, the works. It was enough to put Kecleon out of business for the day, but he was an honorable shopkeeper and wouldn't sabotage their business if they travelled out of town by next week.

Simipour didn't remember much of what happened that day. But something else did. Something else – for that brief moment – took complete control. Something else used Simipour's charisma to lead them up to the school and then into the School Forest.

"I…" one of the beheeyem glanced around in confusion. "So what was that thing you wanted to discuss? And why lead us into a mystery dungeon? Are you a robber?"

All three of them took a battle stance, preparing for the worst.

Simipour opened his mouth, and an ungodly voice branded itself upon their brains.

I have a different purpose in mind for youthree.

He raised his arms, which then crackled with energy the color of a void shadow. The beheeyem panicked, abandoning fighting and trying to get a safe distance away. But there were only so many places to go in mystery dungeon.

Cease.

The energy hit all three beheeyem, and they convulsed violently.

~\({O})/~​

Simipour never felt his best after that. He did what he could to hide it – the school principal had to be at his best, after all – but his endeavors to hide his sudden weariness failed often. When Audino offered, then insisted that he receive a mental checkup, something in his brain told him it was a bad idea. The same thing in his brain that told him to collect missing posters up around the town. The same thing that told him to keep an eye upon any new arrivals to the village. The same thing that had told him to be here now. Now Simipour had a mission. To kill—

~\({O})/~​

Espurr forcefully separated her mind from Simipour's. Something was very wrong; what she had just witnessed told her that. But it was amplified when she saw Simipour's arms, which crackled with the same black energy they had in the memory, and they were closing in around her in a deadly embrace—

Espurr ducked at the last second, rolling out from under Simipour and grabbing her bag. Simipour – or what was controlling him – lunged for Espurr, but she pulled herself out of the way at the last minute. Dashing further in towards the mountain and spinning on her feet, Espurr prepared to blast Simipour off the side of the mountain with her mental powers. Then, she faltered – what was she doing? She didn't want to kill him!

But right now, he wanted to kill her. A concentrated ball of dark energy blasted against the cliff, and Espurr dodged it just in time. The best option here was to run. So, she did.

She ran down the trail, and Simipour bounced after her as fast as his body would take him. He was faster than her – Espurr wasn't even going to make it to the base of the cliff!

Simipour charged another shadow attack, jumping up into the air. And that was when Espurr made her move. She spun around and directed an unfettered mental blast into the air. Simipour was hit midair by the blast, and landed a ways up the cliff. Espurr didn't stay to see where he had gone. By the time 'Simipour' crawled back down to the base of the mountain, there was no sign of her anywhere around.

~\({O})/~​

Espurr didn't even bother following the correct path back; she cut straight through the woods and didn't stop until she'd run back into town. She was in such a frenzy that she didn't realize Audino had been walking towards the front door of the house until she bumped right into her.

"Espurr!" Audino turned around, looking at Espurr. "What are you doing?"

"I…" Espurr panted. "I… I need to go…"

"No, you don't!" Audino grabbed Espurr's bag just as she was about to run off, tugging Espurr back at the last minute. "What you need to do is sit down and tell me what's going on."

Despite everything in her brain telling her that nothing was okay now, that she needed to get somewhere safe before Simipour or something else came after her, the clear authority of Audino's voice penetrated Espurr's panic for a minute. Just enough to make her see reason. She stopped struggling against Audino, letting the straps of the bag relax. Audino was right. If there was anything she needed right now, it was help.

"…Alright." Espurr walked back towards Audino, finally regaining some of her earlier composure. "I want to do it inside." She cast a suspicious glance around at all the other pokemon in the square, who were giving them a wide berth by now.

~\({O})/~​

The door closed behind them, and Audino directed Espurr towards one of the stools at the table before sitting down at the other end. Neither of them removed their bags.

"Now tell me what's going on."

It was a moment before Espurr had gathered the nerve to say anything, but eventually she took a deep breath, and then spoke in as plain a voice as possible: "I think something's trying to kill me."

Espurr told Audino everything. From waking up in the woods all alone, to the strange dreams, to Ampharos, to Tricky and the beheeyem and what had happened in the Ancient Barrow. By the time she was done, a good portion of the day was already gone.

Audino sat at the table, looking skeptical. It was so fantastical. Monsters from another dimension? Strange dreams? The Expedition Society? Humans? And yet… it all explained so much. Audino's memory flashed back to the Open Pass – why else would those beheeyem have been so fixated on Espurr?

"…Alright. I believe you."

Espurr's eyes lightened up, as if a large burden had been removed from here.

"You do?"

Audino nodded. For a moment, Espurr felt a sense of elation – finally, somemon understood! She was going to get help and answers—

"I'm not allowing you to leave the house anymore."

Espurr's hopes crumbled before her eyes in an instant. A shocked "…What?" was all she could produce.

"All of this-" Audino continued. "Taking things from strangers, going into mystery dungeons, and even disturbing ancient monuments? Of course things are after you! This isn't sensible behavior!"

Espurr blinked. Had nothing she said rubbed off?

"But—" she began, flabberghasted.

"No buts. You're in danger, and you'll be safe in the house. We're going to have a talk later about how you and all the other kids have been behaving."

And with that, Audino got up from her stool, and set her bag on the floor. Espurr sullenly hopped off from her stool, trudging away with her exploration bag on her shoulder—

"I'll be taking that bag too, thank you."

Espurr stopped in her tracks. Audino walked over, and scooped the bag up off Espurr's shoulder. Espurr let her. She looked over her shoulder to see where Audino had stashed it – right next to her own bag – and then trudged off to her room.

~\({O})/~

Expedition Society Headquarters ~ Lively Town

~Ampharos~​

Clack.

It was nighttime, but the shutters were rolled over the windows of the second-floor chamber of the Expedition Society's headquarters anyway. Ampharos placed a connection orb in the indent at the center of the room, and stood back as the Pokemon Nexus rose up out of the floor. Ampharos approached the hexagonal console, and tapped a few buttons into it. A display of a large map shot out of the connection orb and illuminated the wall: this was the Pokemon Nexus' true purpose. Ampharos leaned over the console, and pressed a few more buttons. A red dot appeared upon the map. He made sure to check every night, once he was sure everymon else was asleep.

But something was different tonight. The dot – which had been situated directly in Serenity Vilalge every time Ampharos had checked on it – was now someplace in the Lively Mountain Range. Ampharos tilted his head at it in confusion. Surely that didn't mean what he thought it did.

A door opened to his side, startling Ampharos out of his thoughts. He looked to his left, seeing Mawile swiftly close the door to her office behind her. She looked sleep-worn.

"You didn't sleep."

"I had more pressing matters to take care of."

Mawile joined Ampharos at the Pokemon Nexus.

"Another night mission?" she asked after a minute. Ampharos seemed lost in thought, yet she knew him well enough to tell what he was thinking just from his face.

"A very important one, yes." Ampharos' answer was short and to the point. "I'll have to leave before the break of dawn; I trust you to hold things down until I return?"

Mawile had been hoping to discuss an important matter with him. She prepared to broach the subject, but another glance at Ampharos' face told her that he wasn't open to discussion.

"…I have an important affair I hope to discuss with you when you return," she said instead. "It's concerning recent events."

Ampharos nodded silently, too deep in thought for a proper response. He pressed a final button on the console, and the Pokemon Nexus lowered into slumber once more.

Ampharos dawned his cloak, his bag, and his walking stick, striding out the large doors of the Expedition Society and into the night. His destination: The Lively Mountain Range.

~\({O})/~

Serenity Village ~ Nighttime

~Espurr~​

Kill.

That night, the large welcome archway that lay above the eastward entrance to Serenity Village went up in flames. It attracted the attention of many of a pokemon, who then went to call for Carracosta (the most formidable water-type in the village).

No-mon noticed the trio of beheeyem that entered from the south. They continued through the houses, looking for the one that lay to the west of the town square.

Slowly coming to. Espurr blinked herself awake, smelling smoke. She sat up in confusion. Riolu was still sleeping, like he had been all day, but even he smelled it. Espurr watched him wrinkle his nose up in disgust.

Only then did she notice that there was light in the room, and it was a flickering, soft orange. One that was coming from the window. Espurr quickly scurried to the window to see what was happening. Approaching the window, she saw the fire, and the large amount of pokemon grouping around it from outside. And from the south side of town, she saw… flickering lights. Red, green, and yellow.

Espurr quickly dashed back from the window. No. This wasn't happening. This was a dream. It had to be. It had to be—

She quickly pressed herself up against the wall next to the window as flickering lights illuminated the room. For a moment, there was silence. Espurr held her breath.

The wooden bars of the window were suddenly blasted off by a psychic force, and Espurr barely resisted the urge to scream. Wood chips landed all over Riolu (though none hurt him). Trying to breath as quietly as possible, Espurr edged over to the end of the room, eyeing the entrance to the hallway. Could she reach it without revealing herself?

A ghostly wind made the already-ripped curtains flutter in the air. A cone-like head emerged through the window, and began to look around. Espurr was caught like a sitting ducklet. There was no escape. It was going to see her, and…

…Why did she care if it saw her? The exit was right there. And just like that, a plan began to form in Espurr's head.

Abandoning stealth, Espurr dashed for the entrance, running into the hallway before the beheeyem could even react. Her bag was at the other end! If she could just—

Something heavy collided with the wall, making a sizeable dent with cracks in it. They were trying to break in! Espurr ran down the hall as fast as she could. The wall couldn't take another hit – it burst into pieces, and the second of the three beheeyem floated into the house.

Espurr finally reached her bag, and picked it up. But the door was suddenly blasted off its hinges, and it caught Espurr on its trip towards the wall.

The door slammed into the table, which slammed into the cupboards with enough force to leave a large dent in all three objects. Espurr was small enough to fit under the table and only got a small dent from the cupboard's handle. And before she knew it, the third beheeyem entered the house.

Espurr frantically searched for any way out. The door? Too risky. Back through the bedroom? Definitely not. Make a hole? Where?

Then she saw the window above the kitchen stove. She was small enough to slink out through the window if she wanted. And those bars looked like they would give really easily. That was her escape route. Now if only she could create enough confusion to make her escape…

The table was suddenly thrown off of her by a beheeyem. Espurr whacked it in the face with her bag. Hard. The beheeyem was sent stumbling back.

She didn't waste time. She crawled up to the window, trying to fit herself through. She fit through, but the bag didn't. She just needed to pull hard enough…

The window-bars finally broke, sending both Espurr and the bag tumbling to the ground. Espurr wasted no time picking herself up and dashing behind a nearby house to catch her breath in peace. She slowly peeked out from behind the wall, looking at the fire in the distance that was being doused. She could see the Beheeyems' flickering lights illuminating the house from the inside. Espurr shouldered her bag, and finally came to a decision:

"Sorry, Riolu."

She ran away through the alley as fast as her legs would take her.

~\({O})/~

Carracosta's House

~Tricky~​

Knock~Knock~Knock

There was a rapping upon the wall of Tricky's bedroom. Tricky stirred in her bed, groaning. She had cleaned the entire house from top to bottom as punishment for sneaking out after dark, and she was exhausted.

Knock~Knock~Knock

The rapping came again, and this time Tricky woke up.

"Huh?" she murmured sleepily, then shook herself awake. She smelled the scent of smoke on the air. What was happening?

The knocking on the wall turned out to be Espurr. Tricky looked one way, then the other, then slipped out the window to join Espurr.

"What are you doing here?" she hissed, suddenly wrinkling her nose. "And what's that smell?"

"Fire," Espurr answered hurriedly. "Those beheeyem set something on fire."

"What?" It took Tricky a moment to take that all in.

"The ones from that night at the treehouse," Espurr continued. "They were on those missing posters. Remember? The ones Principal Simipour was keeping?"

Tricky still wasn't fully awake. She nodded the best she could, yawning. "Yeah, I remember."

"He's responsible," Espurr said. Tricky's eyes widened, and Espurr heard her mutter something to the extent of 'holy mystery dungeon' under her breath.

The beheeyem came after me tonight," Espurr continued, in a hurry to say everything. "The house I'm staying in is in shambles. This place isn't safe anymore."

"…Wanna stay at my place?" Tricky offered. "I'm sure Pops will understand—"

"Your place isn't safe," Espurr stressed. "Nowhere is. This entire village… none of it is safe anymore. Not if I'm here." She took a deep breath before saying the rest of what she had to say.

"If I'm here, everymon in this village is in danger. So…" another deep breath. "…I'm leaving. I've still got that map in my bag; I'm heading to Lively Town. Maybe somemon there can help."

That woke Tricky up completely.

"Lively Town…" she muttered, then gasped. "That's where the Expedition Society is! We can get help from them! Just wait-"

Tricky suddenly hopped back into the window of her house before Espurr could say anything to stop her. A moment later, she hopped back out. Espurr quickly checked to make sure that the beheeyem hadn't caught up yet.

"I'm coming too," Tricky stated firmly. "You don't get to be the first one to go the Expedition Society, no-siree!"

Espurr opened her mouth to object, but then thought about it for a minute. If the beheeyem went after her, who else would they go after? And if there was any company she wanted along the way… Tricky was her first pick.

"When do we leave?" Tricky asked, beginning to bounce in excitement.

"As soon as possible," Espurr said.

~\({O})/~

Serenity Village Outskirts​

They looped around the south side of the village, until the sign of the now-doused sign was only a small figure in the distance. Espurr checked behind them at every corner, in case the beheeyem had caught on again. But never once did she see the flickering of lights, or hear the faint beeping that suggested they were near.

Soon, they reached the eastward trail into the mountains, shrouded by mist. Espurr took one last look at Serenity Village, which had been her home and her sanctuary for the last three weeks. It had felt like three months. And it had felt like home. For a moment, all Espurr wanted to do was go back to her house and lay in her bed, and talk to all her friends the next day.

But her bed was destroyed, and her house lay in shambles. And all her friends were in danger the longer she stayed. The only thing to do was press forward.

Espurr shouldered her bag, feeling the familiar weight on her shoulders. And then, she turned her gaze away from the village behind them, and continued along with Tricky into the misty mountains ahead.

It was a good night for exploring, anyway.

~\({O})/~​

Music of the week!

Obliviate - Alexandre Desplat

 

[kintsugi]

Hi! Experimenting with my review format and I figured I'd go a bit old-school for this one. Apologies if it feels a bit more disorganized--I definitely went a bit more organic this time; feel free to let me know if you have any questions. I went ahead and read up through to the end of Part 1, since I felt like it'd be easier to give overarching thoughts with a better understanding of the long-term arc of your story. Also, full disclosure, haven't played or really interacted with any PMD Super so I'm semi-fandom blind (semi in the sense that I know what espurr and fennekin are; blind in the sense that I don't know why they're at school or what all the continents are doing); I tried to keep my questions on worldbuilding sort of tame with that in mind.

EDIT: me from the future sees that this is really really fucking Long, and I'm sorry. I had a lot of things to say because there were a lot of interesting things in this fic! I hope some of it is helpful.

the plot

"But if I'm here… doesn't that mean the world is about to be destroyed again?" she asked Tricky. "Which isn't a good thing? I don't see how that's awesome."

"Well…" Tricky's happy look faltered. "Maybe,- but still! This means we have to go on an adventure and get strong enough so we can defeat whatever's coming to destroy the world this time!"

^plot in a nutshell tbh. I like the setting for this since we get a lot of apocalyptic things but we're forced to look at them through children (and sometimes, incompetent adults!) It's a fun mix of "hey if the world ends we can be cool" and "oh shit, if the world ends, we're all screwed", woven in with some schoolyard drama and an isekai plot. For me there are three two central threads here: Espurr integrating into her new life, and Tricky struggling with her past insecurities. There's also the Ampharos subplot but since the main characters didn't really care about it, that took a backburner emotionally for me, even though I imagine it's probably going to be super important later.

There's a lot of bigger hooks dangling in the air, like wtf Humans have done in this setting, who is turning everyone to stone, what all of the other guilds are going to do about it, etc, but for now this is a fun romp about bullying and how it's easy to shame and outcast people for events out of their control. I liked how you layered escalation here--first a small dungeon, and then progressively bigger ones, until we get to the final exam sequence.

In general I think the school setting was a really clever way to bring us into a broader world--we can literally be taught information. I got mad Harry Potter vibes from this, both in the sense that Tricky is basically tragic Hermione and Espurr is Harry with negative charisma, and in the sense that we get a lot of stealth exposition through classes/detentions and this very semi-competent bunch of teachers. It's a fun setup and in general the arc of the plot was simple but easy to follow, and a lot of fun to read through.

the characters
My favorite area of this fic tbh. I really like the cast of characters you've set up, and how a lot of them--especially the ones I didn't expect--feel very vivid and realistic.

"I've never had a student apologize to me before," he said. Espurr wasn't sure it was meant for her. "I-is that all you want?"

Like! This to me was a very crazy moment!! Up until this point Watchog is sort of treated as this fuddy-duddy, rules-oriented disciplinarian, which makes sense, since we only see him from Espurr and Tricky's perspectives. And I mean that's definitely not wrong; that's certainly who he is, but for a while I really couldn't wrap my head around why this guy is even a teacher, since he seems to hate teaching and his students with a fiery passion. And for the most part that disdain felt borderline cartoonish, since what we see on screen is pretty tame shenanigans and kind of what I'd think a middle school (?) teacher would know and be prepared for--but I liked this moment here since we get to see a bit of his own vulnerability, and he does open up to Espurr! I think your size of cast really helps in this situation too since he's the main teacher we see and I thought that his takes on teaching literal children were very spicy, so it was great to see this exchange:

"It's Tricky's fault we're in this situation," Watchog grumbled back. "And you say she's not a troublemaker?"

"Tricky is a kid. They're all kids, Watchog!" Audino replied, having come to the absolute edge of her temper. "That's your problem- you can't seem to wrap it around your head that kids aren't invincible!"

Like!! Thank you Audino!! This arc gave me mad Hogwarts vibes (down to the detention in the spoopy forest), and when we got to the point where Watchog blatantly sends kids into a very blatant danger-hole and then blames Tricky for running out on her own despite knowing that she's already traumatized from literally watching her friend get murdered in a similar danger-hole, I really appreciated having a more-sane adult perspective to knock Watchog into shape.

And I think this brings us to the crux of the cast of characters: Tricky! All roads lead to her in this section.

"I can't believe you did that," she seethed. "Oh; wait. Yes I can. Because that's what you do. You lose pokemon. Just like you 'lost' Budew. You know that's why Mrs. Rosiela moved away, right?! Not because she couldn't handle winter; but because she couldn't handle winter without Budew! I am not letting you do the same thing to Goomy and Espurr. Find them. Now." Deerling stamped her hoof into the ground.

"Why would I be here again if I didn't care about Goomy?" Tricky hissed.

"Because you probably got into trouble out there, and you're trying to get out of it by rescuing him." Espurr folded her arms in finality. Surely that was true.

"Because she always does this! She tells the new pokemon to stay away from me, and everymon always listens to her! It's not fair!" Tricky yelled at the top of her lungs. Maybe she was blowing her breath in Espurr's face. She didn't really care.

Espurr thought on that a minute. Sure; Tricky was reckless beyond belief… but that didn't mean she had to be friendless.

Like, I mean, technically Espurr is the main character here but she's very passive and is mostly an audience-standin; the real arcs and dynamics of Part 1 all revolve around this little fennekin baby.

I like how you coax out different angles of picking on people instead of just letting them be cartoon bullies: Pancham just thinks he's cool; Shelmet doesn't want to be a target; Deerling thinks she's helping people. I mean, sure, they do lock Tricky in a booby-trapped building and then throw rocks at her, but given that they're pokemon and are actively going to magic attack school, this does seem somewhat grounded. And they're kids! Kids can be very cruel, and I like how you go into this unflinchingly.

I did find the complete through-line of Part 1 a little weird--at the end of the mine-clearing, Espurr seems super on-board with Tricky and her antics. And it's not like Espurr was forcibly dragged into the dungeon, and she definitely did her own share of reckless things (like going back for the book and trying to run them past Gabite). So for Espurr to turn around and be like "oh, no, it's Tricky who caused all of this"--I see how she could think that, being a kid and not wanting to take blame, but it did ring really hollow and catty for her to turn her back like that. This makes the emotional ending of that arc, where Espurr realizes that Tricky still deserves to have friends despite doing basically what Espurr does, feel weird as well--since honestly everyone in this village is complicit in bullying this child and no one has given her a fair chance. The narrative feels very blind to Espurr's mistakes, and I found myself wishing that there was more focus on Espurr realizing her own faults/contributions to this, instead of just deciding to acknowledge only Tricky's. I would've liked a bit more growth/understanding from Espurr here, who comparatively feels like a blank slate compared to her partner.

The side characters doing their own little plot on a non-Mean Girls plane of existence are also hilarious tbh. Ampharos with his dashing cloak, Mawile with her Quirrell head--tons of fun. I hope they survive lol.

Overall this is a lot of fun and your cast really flourishes! PMD/school is a really interesting mashup since you can go into a ton of angles, and there's a lot of implicit fridge horror on how kids might grow up in a world where their friends can be murdered in front of them--definitely not what I expected going in, but I liked the close study on how this would craft a loner, and it lends a lot of credibility to why the partner pokemon is so desperate for the human to be their friend.

the structure
Multi-POV stories! Always fun, always with their own set of challenges. On the broad strokes I really like what you did here--I get the feeling that if this was just Espurr or just Tricky's POV, the story would have to be told a lot differently, and a lot of character revelations would end up getting moved around into less-impactful ways (I'm mostly thinking Tricky's backstory, but the flex POV also lets you do fun stuff with Ampharos and Mawile).

The POV switching can be a bit aggressive, though. I think for me they stood out the most when we'd switch POV's to a different character but then still have the narration dwell on things that they shouldn't know--for instance, this chunk below is labelled Espurr, but it's not really told in her head, and by the end, it's 100% Audino's POV:

And with that, Espurr suddenly was out the door so fast Audino couldn't help but wonder if Tricky had been a bad influence on her.

And at this point I have to question if it's even worth having the scene break/POV change at all, since it ends up becoming an amorphous/omniscient third person narration anyway--more of a "this scene contains Espurr" rather than "this scene is specifically told through Espurr's eyes".

There are a couple of other times where I think the scene breaks are a bit gratuitous--for example, the goomy scenes at the end of the test don't really build tension for me; they just re-established that Goomy is nervous and doesn't want to be killed to death, which I sort of got the first time around? In a way it almost undercut the tension, since every time we cut back to him he's fine--ironically, not-seeing him would've made me more nervous, because maybe then he got eaten or winded out of the dungeon.

For earlier chapters, where there isn't really a converging/central thread that makes it "this chapter is about X", the switching also makes the chapter feel very disjointed. I think the big culprit for this was Chapter 2, mostly because it's roughly twice as long as your other chapters (wordwise) and covers so many topics (plotwise)--we get Ampharos's (dazzling) debut, Espurr's first day of school, some interesting flavor text about Humans!, Tricky sad backstory hints, detention, Mawile and Archen debut, the kids meet Ampharos and Ampharos drops a plot hook, Espurr and Tricky get plot hooked, we meet Dad Carracosta, scarves mean friendship (with some bonus Tricky backstory foreshadowing), Mawile and Archen get attacked, and then a wrap-up in the infirmary. That's! A lot. I remember getting to the end of this chapter, seeing that the next chapter was 3, and scrolling up because I couldn't believe this was all one thing.

And I actually don't think that wanting to cover a lot of ground, even with a lot of perspectives, is necessarily a bad thing--one example of a format that really does this well is of course in Avatar: The Last Airbender's, in particular the episode "The Storm", which has a similarly ambitious goal of trying to cover a lot of things in a very small time period, with the story alternating between snips of both subplots. We end up getting v very tragic and very heavy backstories for both our antagonist and our protagonist, at the roughly the same time, and tbh the format on paper seems really stupid since it's literally just two characters turning to people around them and explaining what happened! But for me ATLA succeeds here because the two plots are actually intricately related on a thematic level, even though the events themselves are very different--there's a central theme of both characters running from their duty, only to be punished for it hard. By the end of the episode it makes sense why the story was chosen to be told in this exact way, pairing both characters against one another, because thematically we're basically watching the same thing unfold; the only difference is who both characters choose to become after this event.

I found myself wishing for a similar grounding theme here--where ATLA's episode feels more like a braid, where two individual stories become twined together and we can better appreciate both as a result, ch2 (and a few of the other POV swaps) just feel like many separate strands that don't really contribute much on an emotional level. In addition to being about characters that don't have any bearing to our main duo, doing things that don't have any impact (yet) on our main duo, in a place that's very far away from our current setting, the themes here are very different--Tricky and Espurr are learning about school bullying and tentative friendship; Mawile and Archen are watching a very ominous eradication of their global norms. I appreciated why these were here in terms of what I know you wanted to build with the grander fic, and looking back on the intro chapters as a whole I understand why you wanted to start introducing some early darkness in Part 1, but in the moment these chapters feel very confused, and as a result, oversized, because of the seemingly-needless POV swaps.

the worldbuilding

"All dungeons have those," Tricky said dismissively, once Espurr had asked. "Dunno why; don't really care." she shrugged, glancing around the cavern.

I think (?) in Discord you've mentioned that there's actually a really Important reason for this, so I trust you haha.

Having Espurr as a viewpoint character is clever here, since it means we get to have someone ask all the questions I have about these distortions and their perfectly-shaped stairs, and like, why are they here? In particular the exam scene where Espurr has to answer a lot of questions about history was a great "haha! I'm secretly being exposited to but it feels natural!" moment. There's a lot of info buried in those exam answers for little fandom-blind me--does the word "colonized" imply that there were other civilizations there first? The origin of HAPPI seems super ominous, especially in the light of Espurr's thought process that the exact opposite of what HAPPI did was "let people explore where they want to".

Nectar Meadows was a Class A Mystery Dungeon, which meant that pokemon which became stranded or lived in it didn't turn into rabid monsters like Gabite. Class A dungeons were usually the homes of pokemon who didn't feel at home living in civilizations such as Serenity Village. However, Nectar Meadows was the home of a beedrill colony that had a reputation for being quite vicious in the nectar-gathering stage of the year, which was… just around summertime.

This passage was interesting to me as well, since it sort of digs into the "what exactly are ferals??" question. Here it seems like ferals are regular pokemon that got driven mad by the Mystery Dungeon, which is a super interesting concept! What do you do with creatures that used to be people? Can you just put them down? Surely it'd be an important societal priority to make sure that this happens to as few people as possible, and maybe a lot of investigation into a cure of some sorts--to me this almost feels like a zombie apocalypse premise, where there's a constant threat of you and your loved ones turning mindless. And it's particularly interesting to look at a society that's evolved with this in the background (compared to zombie apocalypse, where the zombies usually come out of nowhere)--since here, everyone seems so nonchalant about it. To me this hits home the hardest at the end of the Gabite mini-arc, since we get to learn about this explorer as this cool mythic figure in the library, read his diary and get to know what he was going into the dungeons for, and then suddenly! oh shit! he's this brainless monster and reasoning with him is out of the question! It opens up a lot of interesting questions about this world, for sure.

"…Did we… ?" Tricky asked in a small voice; the fire gone from her eyes. "Did he…"

Espurr was sorry to say that she wasn't sure. However, she could also admit with little guilt that she didn't really care one way or another anymore

I found this as another instance where the viewpoint characters feel kind of strained--to me it would make a lot more sense if Espurr is the one who's confused about pokemon dying in dungeons, especially given Tricky's backstory. And Espurr not really caring one way or another feels a bit brutal? She feels young, and she does seem to act with people's best interests at heart, so I wanted a bit more of a reaction to "whoops I avalanched a living creature to death" from both of them here.

And then, at the end of Part 1, the Beedrill fight is really interesting to me since it involves opponents who are basically just regular people who are following orders and gathering food for their colony! And like objectively we're told from Tricky's book that this is their territory, and Tricky goes into it on purpose, and then everyone is surprised pikachu face when the beedrill don't take very kindly to that. I really had a hard time picturing the beedrill as the bad guys here, even when they're knocking out our protagonists and trying to figure out where to take them since, like, if someone came into my backyard garden and also started lighting me on fire, I'd be pretty pissed as well?

I also was a bit confused at first on the usage of "animals", who get name-dropped with Ampharos's first appearance but don't really get explained until Watchog's lesson--it does get covered later, but not really at the time I found myself wanting that explanation.

All-in-all it definitely feels like there are a lot of moving parts here, and this school is just the tutorial level before shit really hits the fan. The alternate scenes cutting away to Ampharos's adventures, along with the Mawile/Archen subplot, are really good at hinting at that--these, along with this section taking place at the end of spring, really gave me vibes that shit hits the fan in Part 2 and we're about to start dealing with the larger world in a much more important way.

"Did you know it's customary on the Grass Continent to just do your 'business' wherever you please?" Mayor Honchkrow asked, after ten seconds of silence had elapsed.

stupid side note but this felt very JKR "wizards shit themselves and then vanish the shit" in terms of like, oh, initially this is funny, but logistically this is such a shitty idea and? It has weird implications? Most civilizations evolved ways to not store their shit with the rest of their things since a) it smells and b) it's dangerous--even most animal societies are also pretty careful about not pooping where they please, for the aforementioned reasons. This one felt like a weird joke/reference that fell a bit flat for me.

the psychicness

Strangely, Espurr couldn't get a single clue as to Pancham's true intentions. When talking to other pokemon, Espurr had realized she could gauge their intentions and their emotions by tuning out the background noise and focusing only on their speech, but it wasn't happening with Pancham.

Espurr quickly ducked before she could be seen by Watchog as his pacing took him near the window. She shut her eyes and quickly tuned out his thoughts. Those would just distract her right now. She didn't need to do anything fancy. It didn't even need to be particularly well-done. She just needed to give that one memory of her and Tricky being late a small tweak…

I wanted a bit more of the psychic angle from Espurr, honestly! An empath protagonist is a really cool concept and helps a lot with the fish-out-of-water vibes, but I don't really think she ever uses this ability outside of mentioning she can't use it on Pancham? A lot of the Tricky stuff could be settled very early if Espurr just sensed what Tricky's (or Deerling's) true intentions were. Espurr getting an early read on Ampharos would also be interesting, since it's clear that he's literally looking for her--felt like a missed opportunity here. I also didn't really get why she couldn't read but she could speak?

the grammar/technical
For the most part you're really solid on this front. I flagged a few typos (see below) but for the most part they didn't really distract me from the point you were getting across. A few consistent things I noticed:

The smart thing; Espurr knew; would be to turn him down.

Semicolons are tricky heh I feel like we get this joke a lot. You often use them where you should use commas instead--the above example was probably the most dense.

A rule of thumb that I used when I was learning semicolons vs not is to instead consider what they're "equivalent" to, or what words/punctuation you can replace semicolons with. The most broad use-cases are:

• Replacing periods: joining together two complete sentences (i.e. "He ran quickly. There wasn't much time" vs "He ran quickly; there wasn't much time")
• Replacing a contraction + period: joining together two independent clauses (i.e. "She dodged out of the way, but the attack still clipped her tail" vs "She dodged out of the way; the attack still clipped her tail")

The common thread here is that you should be using semicolons to merge together thoughts that can stand on their own. For shorter pauses in thought, and to join together fragments/thoughts that wouldn't be independent alone, you use commas. In the quoted example above, we're basically looking at three pieces of the sentence: "the smart thing" / "Espurr knew" / "would be to turn him down". Note how none of those bits really stand on their own ("Espurr knew" sort of interrupts a complete thought formed by the other two; this is called an appositive!). In this case, and in almost any of the cases that you used semicolons, you'd actually want to use commas:

The smart thing, Espurr knew, would be to turn him down.

It's a little esoteric and I don't think this is make-or-break, but to me it did get a little jarring--there are several hundred semicolons in the section I read, but a lot of them didn't need to be there/were used instead of commas.

And, sorry, I'm like legally obligated by the em dash lobby to mention this at least once:

"Them- the Pokemon Paradise Crew – They defeated the Bittercold 50 years ago!"

"What if it got you?! You'd— You'd—"

"Uh-uh! You're not changing the subject on me-" the fennekin angrily began-

Okay, squinting at these dashes that you've used here, you'll actually notice there are three different types of dashes. The short one (-) is a hyphen, the medium one (–) is an en dash, and the long one (—) is an em dash. Why does this matter? Like semicolons and colons, these are visually similar parts of speech that have different uses and applications.

• - / hyphen: this is used to join two words. You do this very well naturally on your own. Words like "grey-purple", "head-on", "hastily-chosen". Hyphens can also be used to indicate stuttering, which you also do ("N-now what d-do we d-do?").
• – / en dash: this is used to join spans of numbers, and is actually quite rare in prose. Stuff like showing sports scores ("Manchester lost 2–0") and dates ("She was president from 2003–2007")
• — / em dash: this is used to join two thoughts, usually to show interruption. If you're putting a dash between two words and you aren't intending to join the words, but instead the sentences they're part of, you'll want to use an em dash.

Examples below:

"Uh-uh! You're not changing the subject on me-" the fennekin angrily began-

"He's gonna be fine!" Pancham shouted in self-defense over all the yelling. "All of this because—"

"—We'll go."

The second one is with em dashes, and is correct. The first one is with hyphens, and should be with em dashes.

And again! This is stupid and sort of esoteric, but it really helps me as a reader when the text does them separately, or at least does double hyphen (--) in the absence of a word processor to denote the difference between hyphen and not.

Some misc typos that I noticed:

"Find them." Watchog growled. "it's your mine!"

Tricky's ears quickly lowered at that sentence, and Espurr felt the sudden cloud of negativity e=invade her mind.

Mawile' deductions

At least the place if filled to bursting with gemstones.

"'That right? Well, eat a mudkip for all I care! I'll poop wherever I darn well feel like pooping!"

Espurr knew it was a dream, if she tried to breathe in water in the dream she'd just breathe in air in the real world, but for some reason she couldn't seem to breathe. She couldn't seem to breath

(Also, not purely technical but there's a lot of breathing in that last one; also the last "breathe" dropped its E).

But otherwise! Mostly clean stuff here. I was sampling a lot of words so I didn't really comb through for typos like I normally might, but in general things check out.

the minutia
Anyway here's some dumb things that crossed my mine while I was reading:

For floating on the water was the stone statue of a lapras on a wooden barge; a note stuck to its chest in thick, loopy handwriting:

The Mawile/Archen exploration B-plot was really ominous and I'm curious if this is all a setup for some sort of "end of innocence" where Part 2 of the shonen anime is super dark and picks up all the threads from Part 1. But in this case, since we'd seen that the lucario statue was an actual lucario turned to stone, is this also a lapras turned to stone? How big is the barge to support that much weight?

"I'm sorry, I just can't," Audino told Espurr, setting out the lunch prep. "Deerling came in and asked me only a minute ago. Writing with your nose can't be easy, so I said yes. Why don't you ask the Principal?"

At first I really thought this was such a ridiculous thing since out of all the kids, only Pancham seems capable of taking an actual written test (and Tricky, if she showed up). This feels like a weird port of human mechanics to a foreign world, since "class means let's all sit in desks and write answers on paper" is distinctly adapted for humans, and logically I don't really see a pokemon world, which is inhabited by so many different body types, to evolve in the same way. I think part of the point here is that Audino is probably the only sane teacher in the lot, but to me written tests just felt like a weird export of human schools when oral exams should be the norm, or some sort of written language that doesn't require hands.

Honchkrow let the sentence die in his gizzard, the implications ringing clearer than his voice.

In birds, the gizzard is the rear part of the stomach (helpful diagram!) and doesn't connect to the lungs/voice, so this one felt a bit flat for me.

"Of course I'm not mad!" she force-laughed out of herself. "What makes you think that?

I originally flagged this in multiquote for hyphen lessons, but imo "force-laughed out of herself" is a bit tricky of a phrase to parse on its own regardless of punctuation. Maybe something more like:

"Of course I'm not mad!" she forced a laugh. "What makes you think that?"

"Tricky!" Both Espurr's and Tricky's heads turned to the right, where what could best be described as an angry otter wearing a safety vest was marching right towards them.

Watchog are based on non-aquatic mammals--so groundhog, prairie dog, meerkat would all fit better here than "otter".

the other random stuff i couldn't put in a category

Tricky suddenly blanched at the word that was about to leave Kangaskhan's mouth. Kangaskhan quickly corrected herself before the word was uttered in its entirety, sending Tricky a brief apologetic look.

! this was good foreshadowing! I flagged it the first time as like "oh shit are we going to get Tricky's given name" and we DID and I was so hype. Really good follow-up to "my name is! a secret!" rip.

"The Adventures of an Intrepid Psyduck," Espurr said; half in shock. "That's the title of the book."

This line was so good! I liked the calm realization after all of the drama in the dream sequence; for me, it made the actual understanding of what just happened much more weighty and momentous.

"Do we know how to play chess?"

The POV switching here really worked--some dire situations for the rest of the crew, and then Deerling and Espurr are over here trying to read instruction manuals and play chess without opposable thumbs

"Smell, don't taste, oran berries make the base, and always mash everything into a paste," the class recited.

It is a known fact that I wholeheartedly approve of exposition via nursery rhyme, and this is no exception! Great summary for the berry lesson lol.

"My real name is Artemis Carracosta Duringham," Tricky began. "That's what my Pops named me when he adopted me. I… had another friend before you. He used to go exploring with me all the time. And…

She took a long shaky breath, as if to prepare for what she was about to say next:

"And I killed him."

This was dramatic af but also a very cathartic moment for finally realizing what all of the emotional undercurrents were building up to.

in conclusion
Really fun romp so far! Your setting choice and cast are definitely my favorite aspects, and I like how you use them to explore some very deep facets of this universe.

 

[SparklingEspeon]

I didn't have the energy to do this last night, but here's a response to your review!

First off, thanks for reviewing! I don't think I've ever gotten one this long or in-depth before. As a result, this may end up being a bit long too, lol

In general I think the school setting was a really clever way to bring us into a broader world--we can literally be taught information. I got mad Harry Potter vibes from this, both in the sense that Tricky is basically tragic Hermione and Espurr is Harry with negative charisma, and in the sense that we get a lot of stealth exposition through classes/detentions and this very semi-competent bunch of teachers. It's a fun setup and in general the arc of the plot was simple but easy to follow, and a lot of fun to read through.

I'm glad the Harry Potter vibes came through well! I based most of the school staff off characters from HP (Simipour = Dumbledore, Audino = McGonagall, Watchog = Filch/Snape), but it's interesting to see the connections between some of the students too! I will say that the game this is based off of uses the school setting for its first half, but mostly as a tutorial backdrop more than anything else.

The narrative feels very blind to Espurr's mistakes, and I found myself wishing that there was more focus on Espurr realizing her own faults/contributions to this, instead of just deciding to acknowledge only Tricky's. I would've liked a bit more growth/understanding from Espurr here, who comparatively feels like a blank slate compared to her partner.

Yeah, this is an issue that more than one person has brought up to me. For what it's worth, Espurr is meant to be a somewhat selfish/toxic character (like most everyone in the story is) and her angle on bullying is slowly growing to treat Tricky based on public opinion instead of hearing her out fairly. The brunt of Espurr's realizations about her behavior and character development is mainly meant for parts II and beyond, as I wanted to flesh out Tricky first. That said, at the time of writing chapters 6 - 7 - 8 of the story I was confused on what I wanted the themes to be, and kind of cobbled it together haphazardly as I went. I'll be making an effort to go back and make it a bit clearer in the future, hopefully!

Semicolons are tricky

Oh god the semicolons

I used to think they were the fancy commas, so I used them in place of commas as much as I could, Then another author enlightened me to what they actually were, and I made an effort to go back and edit them out (I still haven't gotten them all, and only on some platforms)

I think the big culprit for this was Chapter 2, mostly because it's roughly twice as long as your other chapters (wordwise) and covers so many topics (plotwise)--we get Ampharos's (dazzling) debut, Espurr's first day of school, some interesting flavor text about Humans!, Tricky sad backstory hints, detention, Mawile and Archen debut, the kids meet Ampharos and Ampharos drops a plot hook, Espurr and Tricky get plot hooked, we meet Dad Carracosta, scarves mean friendship (with some bonus Tricky backstory foreshadowing), Mawile and Archen get attacked, and then a wrap-up in the infirmary. That's! A lot. I remember getting to the end of this chapter, seeing that the next chapter was 3, and scrolling up because I couldn't believe this was all one thing.

This is also another common criticism I've gotten from many of my readers. Luckily, I got this one pretty early on - while I can't really change the nature of Chapter Two due to all the important things in there, I've made an effort to avoid future chapters being that packed and long.

stupid side note but this felt very JKR "wizards shit themselves and then vanish the shit" in terms of like, oh, initially this is funny, but logistically this is such a shitty idea and? It has weird implications? Most civilizations evolved ways to not store their shit with the rest of their things since a) it smells and b) it's dangerous--even most animal societies are also pretty careful about not pooping where they please, for the aforementioned reasons. This one felt like a weird joke/reference that fell a bit flat for me.

At the time of writing this, I actually wasn't aware of that tweet, so I can say it's certainly not a joke or reference of any kind. It's (obviously) not canon to PMD either - I wanted to use it to illustrate differences between cultures and how that can create rifts between people, and I specifically wanted to choose something more animalistic for that. The justification is that the continent has very, very few non-wild/foresty settlements, so having specific places to store waste outside of doing it the way that animals IRL do it isn't really needed or wanted outside of one town.

In addition to being about characters that don't have any bearing to our main duo, doing things that don't have any impact (yet) on our main duo, in a place that's very far away from our current setting, the themes here are very different--Tricky and Espurr are learning about school bullying and tentative friendship; Mawile and Archen are watching a very ominous eradication of their global norms.

I think this will look much better in hindsight, tbh. The source material actually had the opposite problem - the player spent so much time cooped up in Serene Village, then halfway through abandons all those characters for the Expedition Society. I decided to introduce them earlier, both to build them up as characters and see what they were doing while the MC/Espurr and Tricky were doing in the village. I'm glad it was fun to read though.

I think (?) in Discord you've mentioned that there's actually a really Important reason for this, so I trust you haha.

Yep the stairs are important :)

in conclusion
Really fun romp so far! Your setting choice and cast are definitely my favorite aspects, and I like how you use them to explore some very deep facets of this universe.

Thanks! I'm really glad you liked it! I think most authors can attest to the fact that there's no better feeling than someone reading your work and telling you they liked it, and I'm especially flattered that you took the time to write out something this in-depth. I won't let any of it go to waste!

 

[kintsugi]

As a result, this may end up being a bit long too, lol

who would EVER write long things omg

I will say that the game this is based off of uses the school setting for its first half, but mostly as a tutorial backdrop more than anything else.

As someone who hasn't played the games, that's pretty fascinating! I think it translates well to fic for me since, again, Harry Potter--the first few books are very light schoolyard drama and it slowly evolves darker alongside the characters.

Yeah, this is an issue that more than one person has brought up to me. For what it's worth, Espurr is meant to be a somewhat selfish/toxic character (like most everyone in the story is) and her angle on bullying is slowly growing to treat Tricky based on public opinion instead of hearing her out fairly. The brunt of Espurr's realizations about her behavior and character development is mainly meant for parts II and beyond, as I wanted to flesh out Tricky first. That said, at the time of writing chapters 6 - 7 - 8 of the story I was confused on what I wanted the themes to be, and kind of cobbled it together haphazardly as I went. I'll be making an effort to go back and make it a bit clearer in the future, hopefully!

Mmmmm, character arcs are tricky. I wanted to clarify that I didn't really want her to like, instantly become a better person, but I wanted some growth from her, or some sign that her actions have consequences that will also harm her (instead of just Tricky). Ironically Harry Potter continues to be a good reference here--at the end of the troll bit in the first book, Harry realizes that if he and Ron keep treating Hermione like this ... that's a bad thing. And yes, Hermionie is slightly annoying and corrects them, and yes, Ron and Harry don't instantly learn to patch the bridge, but they all come away from that a little better.

Your call, though, and certainly don't feel obligated to hold to that trio for your own duo, haha. I do think duos are tricky for that reason since your dynamic becomes a lot more flat--maybe bring in a different character for a bit? Audino talking to Watchog helped temper my understanding of Watchog once I realized that not all the teachers in the school were batshit; I could see a similar moment where a non-student talks to Espurr about how she's been treating Tricky? It just feels very lonesome for Tricky when no one will stand up for her, and it also makes Espurr feel very flat as a character since her arc in these intro chapters is mostly focused around catching up to everyone else knowledge-wise.

I used to think they were the fancy commas, so I used them in place of commas as much as I could, Then another author enlightened me to what they actually were, and I made an effort to go back and edit them out (I still haven't gotten them all, and only on some platforms)

oh no! I feel ya. Good luck on the hunt, and I hope my explanations made sense!

Thanks! I'm really glad you liked it! I think most authors can attest to the fact that there's no better feeling than someone reading your work and telling you they liked it, and I'm especially flattered that you took the time to write out something this in-depth. I won't let any of it go to waste!

Quag! I'm glad I was helpful! I sort of looked up in a daze and saw I'd written a lot in the review so I was afraid the length would be off-putting, and I'm glad it wasn't!

 

[SparklingEspeon]

~\({O})/~

24.

Interlude the Second

Rejected

~\({O})/~

Cloud Nine

~Espeon and Umbreon~​

"…And it is my belief – our belief - that not once has magnagate technology been used for malicious purposes," Umbreon said, sitting next to Espeon on the visitor's side of a wooden desk. The office around them was fancy and decked out in several shades of rich pink. "That's why we think-"

"But what if it was?" On the other side of the desk, Sparkleglimmer straightened the teal cloak she was wearing with her bottom ribbons. Her tone remained amiable despite the stone-cold look the false smile on her face gave. "What if magnagate technology were to fall into the wrong paws? I understand your concerns as inventors, but we are talking about the power to spontaneously create and collapse mystery dungeons wherever one chooses. What if one were to form over, say, Pokemon Paradise due to this technology? How many lives would be lost? How many pokemon would die that day? And… it would all be your fault! For allowing this technology to be released into the public."

"Is that a threat?" Espeon hissed, but Umbreon quickly stepped between the two before she could get any further.

"We're asking for a lift on the ban. Not for entercards to be sold in every Kecleon Mart on the continent," he said.

"As long as the technology exists, pokemon are going to use it for bad things," Sparkleglimmer said. "It's better not to have it than to create something that could cause mass chaos."

"Look at what we're standing on!" Umbreon pointed out. "This is a pretty big piece of technology, don't you think? What would happen if somemon tried to crash this into Pokemon Paradise?"

"Irrelevant."

"Don't you think it's relevant?"

Sparkleglimmer tilted her head, staring at Umbreon owlishly.

"Is that a threat?"

"What?"

"Simple question. Is that a threat?"

Both Espeon and Umbreon stared at Sparkleglimmer; dumbfounded.

"I could press charges if I could prove you implicated that you had harmful intentions toward myself or anymon on this ship," she continued, keeping that same wide-eyed stare trained directly on Umbreon.

"What are you trying to prove?" Umbreon asked.

"Let me ask you something." Sparkleglimmer suddenly lost all signs of amity. "How do you know there aren't 'mon listening in on this session right now?"

Umbreon looked like he was considering that for a second.

"…Let's say there aren't," he finally said.

Sparkleglimmer smirked and somehow made it look like a scowl.

"Well, then. I suppose I wouldn't have proof. You could say anything you wanted in this room and I wouldn't be able to prove it. But…" And then she methodically placed her bottom ribbons on the table, and leaned in close. "Just for fun, let's say there are. What if I told you that from the moment you entered this room, there has been a gengar hiding in your shadows and keeping a perfect record of this conversation?"

Silence pervaded the room for a minute. Espeon and Umbreon both looked uneasily at their shadows, studying them for any signs of movement. Seeing that she now had complete control over the situation, Sparkleglimmer straightened up.

"I'll cut you a deal," she said, that tone of cheer slowly seeping back into her voice. "Drop it. Drop it, and I'll drop it. We both walk away. I'll even pay your flygon fare back to Pokemon Paradise for you. Otherwise… I can make your credibility as respectable researchers drop. Very, very fast."

~\({O})/~​

"Do we know?" Espeon marched down towards the gardens angrily; Umbreon following in her wake.

"I don-"

"Do we know? Do we know she had a gengar in there? Because I couldn't sense it! She tricked us! That nasty little- Uurrgh!"

"Calm down," Umbreon breathed. They both stopped next to the gate to the gardens, under the shade of a large hedge. Umbreon put his front paws on her shoulders. "Breathe. It's no use getting angry right now."

Espeon closed her eyes and breathed. Slowly, her ears that had been flattened against her head in anger went back up.

"…You're right," she finally said. "I… I don't know why I acted that way."

"We'll try again," Umbreon reassured her. "That was a one-time trick. We'll make appointments. Every month. We'll send letters. Sooner or later she'll get tired of it. And that's when we strike."

"She'll never let us have it," Espeon muttered. "Getting rid of us is like swatting a fly to her. We need something more. Something better."

"Like what?" Umbreon asked.

"What if we went to the council members?" Espeon asked. "turned them against her?"

"We couldn't get appointments with them," Umbreon reminded her.

"We'll get appointments," Espeon scoffed. "We're the most famous researchers on the entire Mist Continent; there must be something we can use to get there."

The gardens weren't empty. Every so often, a pokemon pushed by them into the garden, and there were several more loitering about or going on their way in every which direction. Not a single one of them even spared a glance at Espeon or Umbreon. Umbreon sighed. It was too peaceful a sunset to waste worrying about things that were said and done for already.

"Let's worry about this tomorrow," he said. "We're on Cloud Nine- there must be something open."

"I think I saw a fish parlor just below-deck on our way up," Espeon said. "Smelled good."

"let's go there, then." Umbreon began to walk off towards the entrance to below-deck, and after he looked back to make sure she was keeping up, Espeon followed.

~~~~\({O})/~~~~

The end of Part II.

~~~~\({O})/~~~~​

Music of the week!

A Gift For the Princess - Sonya Belousova, Giona Ostinelli

 

[Starlight Aurate]

Hey hey, here for Catnip! Apologies for how late this is; I reviewed the prologue and first 3 chapters to get a gist of the story and a feel for how it goes.

I don't think I have much to give that hasn't already been said by kintsugi, haha. After receiving such a wonderful review from her, this might feel lacking ^_^; But I shall do my best!

Prologue

There are a few inconsistencies throughout the prologue; you firs refer to the body of water as a "river" and then later as a "lake." Saying that the protagonist is distracted by their thirst to be too surprised or take much notice of their fur and paws doesn't strike me as too realistic--if anything, I'd imagine it the opposite way around and that one would be so distracted by their different appearance that the shock would temporarily delay their feeling of thirst.

Using multiple question marks in a row strikes me as more grammatically incorrect than anything--I get that you're trying to display the sense of urgency in the story, and I think that your description displays that very well! I don't think you need extra punctuation, and it takes me out of the story a bit.
extension of the existing sentence, not a new sentence entirely.

As I'm reading the prologue, I get a sense of the "fight or flight" feel--it's only the prologue, so we don't yet know what the story is about or what Espurr is doing there or what her aims are. But she's clearly in danger and just trying to survive, so I think that focusing on external description and her fear works well for you.

Halfway across, she lost her footing, and for one horrifying second she thought that she was going to fall; that every bone in her body would break and then she would be left defenseless as the strange pokemon carried her off to a fate worse than death-

-And then she caught herself with her other foot, resuming her charge to the end of the branch with renewed determination.

Ha, nice allusion to how cats have really good balance.

All of the sudden, Espurr forgot about the mighty oak and the blinding pain in her arm, and began to run for her life.

Might be worth mentioning whether she's been running on two or four legs--up until now, I had imagined her running on all fours like a real life cat, but if her arm is truly in that much pain I imagine she wouldn't want to put more weight on it.

I know you have a lot of reviews for the prologue so I don't want to dwell too much on it. On to Chapter 1!

Chapter 1

The sun shone brightly in her face, and she tried to raise her arms to cover it out of instinct. She then noticed her left arm was in a cast.

Feel like she would've noticed the heaviness or pressing feeling surrounding the arm before seeing it.

The Fennekin is cute! You do a good job of describing he as a hyperactive young kid with her one-sided conversation and constantly asking questions.

“Yep! Totally. We’re taking the looooong way around,” The fox remarked, her eyes straight on the ground. Espurr could see her mental smirk.

This last sentence is interesting! Is it a reference to Espurr's psychic abilities? It makes me think that Tricky is inwardly smirking or being sarcastic but that Espurr can still see it. I like seeing bits of the world like this.

Also, "The" shouldn't be capitalized.

Tricky’s ears quickly lowered at that sentence, and Espurr felt the sudden cloud of negativity e=invade her mind.

Bit of a typo!

Espurr’s attention was drawn back to her cast, and the dull throbbing of her bone that was slowly beginning to become sharper.

This back half of sentence is a bit clunky; you can shorten it to something like: "The dull throbbing of her bone slowly grew sharper," to make it less wordy.

I'm getting a real sense of the ominous forbidding feeling! I think you're capturing the urgency of this situation well.

He was nine! That was… a big kid’s age for sure!

Heck yeah it is!

“In my fifteen flipping years of service… one student has been the very bane of my existence.”

Ooooh not sure it's a good idea for a Vice Principal to use that language in front of students!

A wave of uncomfortable passed passed through the teachers at the mention of dungeon pokemon.

You're missing a noun after "uncomfortable" and you accidentally put "passed" twice.

“Yes, Simipour replied, locking half-closed eyes with Tricky. And unless you’d like me to make it two, I highly suggest rolling with it.”

You're missing quotations after "Yes" and before "And"

If she hadn’t stumbled upon Audino by chance… she might not have survived at all. That was a scary thought.

I'll say!

Espurr glanced over at Tricky, who had somehow fallen asleep mid-meal, the half-eaten celery-stalk resting idly at the foot of her bed. Espurr decided to follow Tricky’s example, and closed her eyes to rest as well.

Then, a moment later, she got up, placed the celery stalk back on the plate, and promptly crashed in the straw bed again.

This was a really cute closing scene <3

This was quite eventful for a first chapter! I think you do a good job of laying out the setting and giving us the tone of the story. I get the idea very early that they're in a quaint village. Because of the limited amount of time Espurr spends out there, we don't get to see much of it or what makes it individual. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, since this chapter was so high-energy throughout and she wouldn't have had much time to really explore her new home, but I don't think you should wait too long to explore your protagonist's thoughts and let us know what she's thinking and feeling throughout this.

The Forbidden Forest really made things take a darker turn. You do a good job of describing the spooky, hostile atmosphere and the fact that the area is actively trying to kill the Pokemon. Those two furfrou seemed pretty scary, especially with rotten bags hanging off of them and seeming rabid. The Principal's comment about a Pokemon having disappeared into the Forbidden Forest added a bit of tension in the otherwise quiet scene with him and Espurr.

It's only the first chapter, but you've definitely put a lot of questions out there and given us stuff to think about!

Chapter 2

"Actually, I was more interested in hearing about you," the yellow pokemon replied, expertly deflecting the question. There was no need to reveal that he had lost the map to a nasty gust of wind early on in the trip, and had spent the rest of the time taking shifty side-routes and bumping into dead ends and mystery dungeons.

Losing a map given by Jirachi seems like a pretty big deal and something that can't be kept secret for long!

Blinded; Ampharos barely jumped out of the way of a large shadowy ball that suddenly flew straight out of thin air. He landed on his feet, only just managing to keep his bearings. That wasn't a Shadow Ball, and Ampharos doubted beheeyem could perform that move naturally anyway. Whatever that was… it was new.

Interesting paragraph! It definitely makes me intrigued as to who these beheeyem are and what they're up to. Two things:
1. The semicolon after "Blinded" should be a comma
2. How can Ampharos tell it's not shadow ball? Your only description is "a large shadowy ball" but that it isn't Shadow Ball. Does it have a certain aura that Ampharos can feel? Does it look different? More description here would be nice.

I feel like you could do with more description overall--I didn't know what form deerling was in or what color she was until you mentioned her pink coat. The Pokemon aren't given much individual descriptions beyond their species names. Even describing their demeanors could be helpful--what did Shelmet look like? Why does Deerling come across as someone who isn't usually wrong? You do a nice job mentioning how Pancham thinks of himself as cool; I'd like to see it extended more to the other Pokemon, as well!

In the distance, Watchog folded his arms triumphantly.

Not sure I'd refer to one side of the classroom as "the distance"--makes it seem like he's far away, like on the other end of a field or something.

A break for recess was given before Watchog's class, and though Espurr didn't see Deerling during that period, she did take notice of the way the other teachers were all mentally preparing themselves for future headaches.

What does that look like? It is a glimpse of Espurr's psychic powers coming into play?

Loved the bit about English being a dead language! It adds nice flavor to your world and gives it a unique touch.

"Trial and error," she replied, stowing the clipboard away in her exploration bag. "You learn quickly where the best spots to sleep on a Lapras' back are once you've tried it a couple of times."

I imagine the times of "error" involved falling into the water :P

"Why, I came to see the sights, of course!" Ampharos replied cheerfully. "Serenity Village is known for its stunning scenery, after all." Ampharos glanced at Tricky's face for a minute to see if she had bought it or not. He was making this all up on the spot, of course. He couldn't reveal his true reasons for travelling to the Village.

I'm not sure if this paragraph is a shift in POV or if it's Espurr using her psychic abilities to see Ampharos's true intentions. Either could be plausible, but since we don't get an exploration of what Espurr's abilities are like beforehand, this comes across as more of a jarring shift than anything.

Reading the next paragraph, I see it's a change in POV--reiterating what kintsugi said about it, you might want to make these a little less jarring, perhaps by preempting them? Or doing a sort of scene break so the audience is prepared for it?

"That… was mega weird," Tricky concluded, after a long, quiet pause.

Ha, I love how his attempts at being subtle and sneaky do not fly with them.

I like Tricky's excitement over the scarves. It definitely strikes me as something a little kid would take a lot of pride and joy in, and it's another nice, concrete detail of who Tricky is and what she likes!

Next to the wagon sat a perfect stone statue of a lucario, posing dramatically for battle. Its back was turned to the pair of explorers, staring up at the sky in horror at something that was no longer there.

Saying that Lucario is posed "dramatically for battle" but is also "staring up at the sky in horror" don't sound like two images that quite go together; I imagine that Lucario would be looking a lot more confident than terrified if it's ready for a fight.

You do a really good job of setting up the lead up that Lucario had turned to stone! I could really feel the tension and sense of "oh no."

The pokemon started towards them unnaturally, its movements like the manipulation of a puppet rather than a living being.

Love this detail.

"Deerling… right? I don't believe we've properly met," she introduced herself. "I'm-"

"Save it," Deerling hissed back. "I'm not in the mood. Go to sleep."

Awww poor Deerling isn't too nice when she's suffering from her itchiness :(

There was certainly a lot going on in this chapter! I might even say too much--this was a lengthy chapter and I think it would've worked just fine splitting it in two. Having shorter chapters might also help with proofreading; I'm someone who definitely struggles with ironing out typos and grammatical errors and I find that putting out things in shorter chunks help.

I definitely feel like we're into the plot--the mysterious shadow Pokemon who turns things into stone and seems to be controlled by something else is definitely intriguing! What is it and why has it been attacking Pokemon?

My favorite (to no surprise, I'm sure) are the snippets you put out about Jirachi--apparently he gives the Expedition Society their maps and has some sort of robots he controls? I thought it was interesting how Archen compared the movement of the shadow Pokemon to one of Jirachi's robots. Makes me wonder what role the Wish Maker has in all of this!

My main critique is Espurr's view. Up until now, I don't much of an idea for what Espurr is feeling. Surely there must be a lot of confusion and distress, what with not remembering anything and being thrust into these dangerous situations. But there isn't much insight as to what is running through her mind. There's certainly a lot happening, so it's understandable that, in those moments, she's acting and not so much reflecting. But if you took a quieter time when she's not so active, perhaps when lying down to sleep or waking up, to go through what she's thinking and feeling, I'd have a better feel for how she's doing in all of this.

Tricky is endearing. I love her hyperactive childishness! She has a lot of character and personality, especially with how she responds to Mr. Watch--I mean, Vice Principal Watchog. I'm hoping we get to see a bit more of Goomy! He seems really cute but so far we've only glimpsed him.

Chapter 3

Archen lay in the room’s sole bed, sound asleep. That was fine. Mawile considered sleep a natural detriment to the activities of the mind, and with the help of chesto berries she had easily built up enough stamina to regulate her sleep to one short period a week. While the other Expedition Society members thought this habit was unhealthy, they couldn’t deny Mawile’s much faster work-rate, and she never had to worry about missing the morning role-call.

Holy crap. I don't know anything about Mawile physiology but that sounds horribly unhealthy.

“Jirachi picked up two pulses of immense teleportation energy on the Pokemon Nexus,” Ampharos explained, mainly so Dedenne wouldn’t needlessly spill the news to the rest of the Society. “Both occurred exactly a week apart, and both landed in this area. Such energy has only ever preceded the arrival of a human, and the arrival of a human has only ever preceded imminent disaster; which I fear we may be on the brink of. That is why it is of the utmost importance to find this human and bring them back to the Society, where we can properly prepare them for the trials they were brought here to face.”

!!!

I wonder if Nuzleaf was chosen to teach Espurr because her psychic attacks can't effect him. Love the kind of character and teacher he is--he's got a distinct accent that makes him appear (in my mind, at least) as a sort of country bumpkin but is very smart and quite a capable teacher!

Espurr lowered her paw disappointedly, gazing up at the blackboard filled with the berry drawings and Unown numerals she couldn’t understand in the least. Perhaps the answer was hidden there. Espurr mentally steamed; frustrated. She wished she could read!

Has she forgotten how after Nuzleaf taught her? It's plausible, I just want to double check.

None of the food had floated like that nut had, and Espurr was beginning to grow tired of the fruitless endeavor.

Love the pun!

Strangely, Espurr couldn’t get a single clue as to Pancham’s true intentions. When talking to other pokemon, Espurr had realized she could gauge their intentions and their emotions by tuning out the background noise and focusing only on their speech, but it wasn’t happening with Pancham. The words flew off his silver tongue flawlessly, and Espurr couldn’t detect a shred of… anything from them. It was like she was being blocked.

Neat! I would liked a glimpse of Espurr's powers sooner!

Espurr had to admit that she didn’t quite fancy the idea of another one of Watchog’s grueling detentions – far less so with what would undoubtedly be a day’s worth of grumbling from Tricky. Even if it was an obvious trap, she was sure she could outsmart Pancham. And they had just gone through a dungeon a couple of days ago… How much could it hurt?

Now this is a side of Espurr we haven't seen before. She hadn't struck me as the kind of Pokemon who felt confident about trying to outsmart others or to think that risking danger was worth getting away from the grumbles of Tricky. I like it, but I think giving us even glimpses of this before (what did she think of Pancham the first few times she saw him? How does she feel around other smart Pokemon like Deerling) would help give us a more solid picture of Espurr and her personality.

Watchog blinked again when he realized the detention card attached to the knapsack read ‘Help Out at Drilbur Coal Mines’ instead of ‘Cleanup Outside Foreboding Forest.’

“Odd…” he glanced at it lopsidedly. “I must have read it wrong.”

Kinda breaks my suspension of disbelief, as that's a pretty big error for him to make.

Tricky led Espurr further down the hall, struggling to move slow enough to for Espurr and the heavy ladder to keep up.

Looks like you've got an extra word in here.

That was why they were so horrified when the espurr and the fennekin grabbed ahold of each other, and jumped into the boarded-up mine shaft.

Was there a hole or something in the boards? This sentence makes me think so, but that would contradict the point of the mine shaft being boarded up if Pokemon could get through it anyway.

I think the mine in general could use more description; I didn't have a clear idea of what it looked like apart from a few tunnels and a number of drilburr. How did the area itself look? Were there many tunnels branching off it? What was the atmosphere like? Mines are a really cool place and you left us off with a great cliffhanger! I'd like to see more to get a better idea of what exactly everything looks like.

I think Espurr's fear in this chapter of getting caught makes sense but it doesn't tie in with the image of her before, where she felt confident enough to prove to Pancham that she could do this.

In General:

Spoiler: Grammar Nitpicks

I want to echo what kintsugi told you about grammar and to learn from the tips she gave you on punctuation, as it looks like that's your biggest struggle across the chapters (it might be fixed in later chapters, and it's possible I just haven't seen it). Your use of semicolons is egregious, and I have a few examples to point out:

Her right arm was fine, but her left arm; the one she had landed on, hurt like nothing she had ever felt before.

Semicolons should either be for a list or to separate entire clauses (like a period!). The parts of the sentence you have here surrounding the semicolon are incomplete, and would thus be better to have around a comma.

"Happened to be in the area; thought I'd lend a helping hand," Audino replied with just a little crossness in her voice. "Somemon has to look out for the students' health; after all, and it's not going to be you."

"Really?" Watchog folded his arms defensively. "They're just as happy to cause trouble on any other day. The way I see it; this is a useful waste of their energy."

"Oh; you did not just go there…"

This is an example where I felt like the semicolons were a little overbearing; you use four of them in the span of three lines and I only think the first one is used correctly. Commas work just fine in the other areas! They can be their own little beasts to work with, but I think they would serve you well here.

Another area is your use of parentheses, like here:

Espurr hesitantly stole another glance, hoping she hadn’t been spotted (Although; she noted with growing anxiety, if they were here, they most likely knew she was too).

Letters are not capitalized at the beginning of parentheses--they're an extension of the sentence, so "Although" should be lower cased.

It's similar with your use of dashes:

The events of yesterday were beginning to flash through her head again- Her harrowing trip through the woods, the strange pokemon that had chased her…

Letters after dashes aren't capitalized; as with parentheses, they're part of the same sentence, so they stay lowercased. (Dashes are also two hyphens, not just a hyphen and a space.)

Also with colons:

Audino had been right: She did need more rest.

As with dashes and parentheses, letters after colons are not capitalized.

No-one deserved to go through that.

No one is one word.

“As it happens,” Watchog continued, “I didn’t have these students dragged from their beds. Rather; I ran into them on their way back…” he paused for dramatic effect, “…From the Foreboding Forest.”

As with colons and parentheses, it's the same rule with starting again after ellipses: the first letter is not capitalized.

Speaking of ellipses, you use them quite a lot. That's not a bad thing, but it does give a sort of dream-like, dazed quality to scenes.

Your grammar surrounding quotation marks is inconsistent, and I picked out a few examples:

“Yep! Jumped out of a tree to do it, too. Twisted my tail, sprained three of my ankles, and my ear hurts.” the fennekin tried to wag her tail, and cringed in silent pain.

Missing a capital letter.

“See you in class tomorrow. She ignored Tricky. And you…”

I think the "She ignored Tricky" part was supposed to be outside of quotations.

“Well, I didn’t see you signing up to help.” Deerling pointed out venomously, staring daggers at Tricky

Since "Deerling pointed out" is a dialogue tag, should have a comma at the end of the dialogue instead of a period.

“And knowing that,” Simipour continued, “What would you then say they were doing in the dungeon?”

"What" would not be capitalized, since it's not beginning a new sentence, just continuing what was already said.

"…I like them," She said, looking up at Tricky."

You've got an extra quotation mark after "Tricky."

"Sleep well, you two." She set her exploration bag near the side, draping cloths over the luminous moss and heading into the clinic's back room for the night. Espurr stared at the tarped mushrooms in interest. Was this what pokemon used for lights at nighttime?"

You've got extra quotation marks at the end.

“Not that they could stop me anyway,” She continued, righting herself and resuming her trot alongside Espurr. “but no-mon ever comes in here willingly, so they’ve never had to try!”

I'm picking this sentence out because I think it's a good one to show where you can fix a few things that are throughout your chapters I've read so far:
1. "She" should be lowercased just after the quotations
2. Either put a comma after "Espurr" or, if you're keeping a period, capitalize "but"

Other grammatical typos:

"We happen to be on our way to Pokemon Plaza ourselves," she said

Missing a period after "said"

Al three students glanced up wearily at the pokemon who had greeted them, suddenly straightening up and leaping to their feet when they saw who it was.

All three students

"I have a horribly awful sense of direction." the pokemon tried his best to simplify the sentence.

Missing a capital T

"What is Dungeon Eating." The big blue turtle asked; only half incredulously. He had seen too much of this.

Should be a question mark after "Eating"

The floating nut in the air wavered a little, before Espurr’s concentration pushed it back to a stable spot in midair.

You don't want a comma in front of "before," since "before Espurr's concentration..." wouldn't form a complete sentence on its own. If you take out the comma, the sentence is just fine

And that's all I have! I apologize that this review is only a few chapters and isn't as lengthy or detailed as other reviews you've gotten. This is a solid story across, though. Your characters are strong (love Tricky!!) and you have such cool places for us to explore (a forbidden forest that tries to kill explorers! A village! A mine!!!). I think your prose could use more description or give more of an idea as to how the different characters, especially Espurr, feel. Thanks again for posting this delightful story to the forums, and good luck!!

 

[SparklingEspeon]

Spoiler: Starlight Aurate (Prologue - Nuzleaf)

I don't think I have much to give that hasn't already been said by kintsugi, haha. After receiving such a wonderful review from her, this might feel lacking ^_^; But I shall do my best!

No worries! You clearly went to a lot of effort and took time out of your busy schedule to write this up. That makes it equal if not better, in my opinion!

I will fully admit that I started writing this with no clue how proper grammar etiquette worked, so I made up my own ruleset and called it a day. I definitely gets better as the chapters go on and I realized my mistakes, but the first nine or so chapters are unfortunately littered with my old grammar mistakes. I am in the slow, slow process of removing them, though, and the grammar/typo snippets helped out a lot!

My favorite (to no surprise, I'm sure) are the snippets you put out about Jirachi--apparently he gives the Expedition Society their maps and has some sort of robots he controls? I thought it was interesting how Archen compared the movement of the shadow Pokemon to one of Jirachi's robots. Makes me wonder what role the Wish Maker has in all of this!

Jirachi's role is actually a canon one - in the source game Jirachi is the Expediton Society's astronomer, but he's a side character who only gets a few scenes. Here, he's their engineer - he designs all their technology and gear and also some other stuff that often doesn't work out so well. I'm looking forward to writing more of him when I get there!

I feel like you could do with more description overall--I didn't know what form deerling was in or what color she was until you mentioned her pink coat. The Pokemon aren't given much individual descriptions beyond their species names. Even describing their demeanors could be helpful--what did Shelmet look like? Why does Deerling come across as someone who isn't usually wrong? You do a nice job mentioning how Pancham thinks of himself as cool; I'd like to see it extended more to the other Pokemon, as well!

Hmm... I think one or two other people have said something similar to me.] I'll keep it in mind for the future!

Holy crap. I don't know anything about Mawile physiology but that sounds horribly unhealthy.

Yep! She pretends it never catches up with her but it always does.

Reading the next paragraph, I see it's a change in POV--reiterating what kintsugi said about it, you might want to make these a little less jarring, perhaps by preempting them? Or doing a sort of scene break so the audience is prepared for it?

Yeah, the funky POVs are something that gets universally criticized by most everyone. Originally I didn't have any character headers at all - every scene was meant to take place from an omniscient perspective. I quickly got complaints that people couldn't tell who was the main focus of each scene, so I added the character headers, but with the intent that it would be more of "this scene is focused around X character" rather than "this scene is from X character's perspective". I'm wondering if I should put that in an AN at the beginning to be clear, though...

And that's all I have! I apologize that this review is only a few chapters and isn't as lengthy or detailed as other reviews you've gotten. This is a solid story across, though. Your characters are strong (love Tricky!!) and you have such cool places for us to explore (a forbidden forest that tries to kill explorers! A village! A mine!!!). I think your prose could use more description or give more of an idea as to how the different characters, especially Espurr, feel. Thanks again for posting this delightful story to the forums, and good luck!!

Again, no problem! It was a treat to read, and the grammar stuff was helpful!

 

[Cresselia92]

Hello there! Here I have with some fresh catnip for your cat main character! :D

Apologies if I didn't reply earlier, but I had a tons of RL stuff I needed to deal with. Anyway, I'm finally here, so without further ado, let's dive into this story" ^^

Slowly coming to. Espurr blinked her eyes open wearily.

Hmm, I find these sentences a bit awkward. I think they would be better if they were tied by a comma, as in "Slowly coming to, Espurr blinked her eyes open wearily."

The river rushed by not a few feet away from her, just as she’d thought. Espurr fell to her knees, attempting to cup up water in her hands, but it just wasn’t working how she wanted it to. She couldn’t work her fingers as well, and it all fell through her much smaller paws before she could hoist it to her mouth. It took Espurr a minute to recognize that her fingers were much smaller than they should have been (and covered in fur as well), but getting water took priority, or she’d never get around to it. She temporarily ignored whatever was up with her hands in favor of her growing thirst.

Huh. I find her reaction to finding out that she has small paws a bit puzzling. As in, she shrugged off the discovery with nonchalance, without being a little spooked? I feel like having her be temporarily shocked before focusing on the more pressing matter -- the thirst -- would have been more realistic than an "I have paws... meh, whatever, water first".

Would she have to drink from the river with her tongue?

Ah, yes! I like this part, as she shows her struggles and uncertainties with her new body.

From head to toe, grey-purple fur enveloped her body, the only standout features being the white tips of her hands, feet, and floppy ears, and the oversized, pinkish pair of eyes on her face. She stared at it blankly, trying to decide what to make of it. The sight was shocking for sure, but Espurr couldn’t in all honesty say she’d been surprised. She’d had a nasty suspicion of it while drinking her fill of the lake’s water just a minute before.

Wow. She is taking the news... surprisingly well.

The real shock, in Espurr’s mind, came when she tried to recall her name. ‘Espurr’ kept coming up when she asked herself what she was, but… that wasn’t her name. In fact, everything that seemed to be floating in the back of her mind; all her memories, thoughts, fear, doubts… They all slipped away like mirages once she tried to recall them. And the scariest thing was that she never would have noticed if she hadn’t taken a good, hard look at the depths of her mind!

Espurr felt her breathing speed up as she took a shaky step away from the lake, dropping the leaf of water to the ground. Her entire mind was a blank slate! She began to shiver uncontrollably, repressing the urge to release a loud yowl of horror. Had she felt like this often before she woke up here? Had she even existed before then? Did she have parents? How did she remember what parents were?

Anyway, I really like how she starts wondering about other matters regarding her past. Forget what I said earlier about her nonchalance, this is good.

Espurr was roused from her distressed panic by the sound of something deftly moving through the woods behind her. She turned around, quickly scanning the forest for any intruding p… (pokemon, her mind helpfully substituted. Espurr was mildly unnerved, but opted to use it all the same). It took all of four seconds to find them.

Inriguing. So whatever force has dragged Espurr into the new world has added some information inside her brain? That's... something, indeed!

Black sparks began to collect around the strange pokemons’ blinkers, and suddenly a large, shadowy ball materialized out of nowhere and flew straight at Espurr. She barely dove out of the way in time, landing on the ground sideways. She didn’t see what had become of the bush.

Rip bush. :c

Surely the river would have led her to some sort of civilization. Why hadn’t she followed the river?

Maybe because a trio of cone-headed Pokémon had attacked you without even giving a moment to understand what was happening?

It was almost like a solid wall, and Espurr felt an air of evil approach with its presence. It wasn’t safe to travel in this fog.

But how does she know that it isn't safe? While, yes, I probably wouldn't travel in a dark fog, either, but that because I would find that suspicious, not because I knew that it isn't safe. Here, it seems that she knows about the fog despite having amnesia? Granted, it could be another bit of ingrained info she got by the forces that be.

Curled up in a tree branch just large enough to not risk falling from in her sleep, Espurr dreamt horrible dreams of a black void of nothingness. An In Between of nothing but horribly impossible black, and she dreamt of nothing. Because there was nothing to dream of. Nothing to remember, and nothing to fill her dreams. In her addled state, with her mind blank and black as her in between, she somehow understood that. And briefly, in the absence of her dreams, came something else.

Dreamt, dreams, dreamt, dream, dreams, dreams. There are quite a few repetitions here. Maybe you could slip a "nightmare" here and there?

(And "I see you"? That isn't ominous at all!)

Flickering lights of the red, green, and yellow variety lit up the fog right below her tree.

Oh, snap! Not again! D:

Could it be true? Had they given up?

Or maybe they were there by chance?

The wind that appeared out of nowhere violently ruffled Espurr’s fur. The poor pokemon only had enough time to look in its general direction before she was hit with a strong blast of the foul-smelling gust. It knocked Espurr far off-course, her paws barely missing the branch by a hair’s length before she began the heart-wrenching journey towards the ground.

Crack.

Espurr let out a loud yowl of pain as she hit the ground, rolling to a stop on her side. She picked herself up quickly before anything else could take her by surprise. Her right arm was fine, but her left arm; the one she had landed on, hurt like nothing she had ever felt before. She could barely move it!

This... could be a problem.

An audino quietly picked the herbs and weeds from around a ground-bound bush in the forest, slipping them into her exploring bag.

Audino is a drug-addict confirmed.

Well, this was certainly a very intriguing prologue. It is very similar to the beginning of SMD, which I assume is intentional. Now, to go with Chapter 1!

Slowly coming to. Espurr blinked her eyes open wearily.

Nice call-back to the beginning!

“Well, that’s why you don’t go jumping out of trees,” Audino retorted, pouring whatever she had gotten into several small leaf-made pouches. “Not to worry,” she continued. “You’ll have company.”

What? Can't we practice bungee jumping without rope here?

“A WEEK?!?!!” the fennekin moaned, like it was her with the longer sentence and not Espurr.

Um, I feel like a "?!" or a "!?" would have sufficed here. I understand the intent behind it, but I find that a bit awkward nonetheless.

“SO-o-o-o-o-o….” the fennekin drew out her single word for as long as possible after making sure Audino had left. “What are you in for?”

“You’re new here,” she piped up just a second later.

“What’s your name?” she asked immediately after that.

“Are you…”

“Hah! There’s no way you’re Ms. Audino’s kid, are you?”

“Wait. Are you?”

“Huh? Are you? Pleaaase tell me!”

“Do I ask too many questions? Some pokemon say I do, but Mr. Farfetch’d says that the worst questions are unasked ones, so I’m going to ask as many as possible!”

“What’s your name? I feel like I’ve asked that one before…”

I admit I got a bit confused here, because I thought Espurr was answering with another question. Perhaps you could put some focus on the body language of the Fennekin while she starts asking questions to her new companion?

But still, haha! I'm amused already! ^^

“A~nyway, I’m out of things to talk about. Did I ask for your name?” she finished. Espurr blinked at the fennekin, flabbergasted.

Pal... you have an Audino called Audino and a Farfetch'd called Farfetch'd. It wouldn't be too weird to have an Espurr called... Wilson. :p

“Yep! Jumped out of a tree to do it, too. Twisted my tail, sprained three of my ankles, and my ear hurts.” the fennekin tried to wag her tail, and cringed in silent pain. “But it was all for a noble cause!” she stated boldly, perking up. “I couldn’t allow a fellow child to suffer in the clutches of the evil Nurse Audino for an entire week!” the fennekin moaned dramatically, attempting to put a paw to her forehead, before wincing at the sudden pain and shoving it back under the ice.

Well, that was kinda extreme. Couldn't you have waited visiting hours or something?

The fennekin cleared her throat dramatically, as if queuing up for a moving performance. “My name is… A secret! But everyone just calls me Tricky, so you can too!” she boldly stared Espurr right in the eye. “Your turn.”

"My name is secret, too. Just call me Espurr."

“Oh wow! I’m healed! I’m finally healed!”

Well, that was fast!

“Is this another one of your shenanigans?” Watchog angrily asked as he marched towards the pair- “What are you doing with that poor student?!!!” he shrieked in horror once he’d gotten close enough to see what was happening. “Put them down right now!!!”

Once again, I find the emphasis with the punctuation a bit weird. Maybe you could attempt to emphasize stuff in this way?

Tricky let Espurr down, dashing out in front of her stiffly. “Guys- You are never gonna believe this- I found Nurse Audino’s kid! Seriously! See?”

Way to jump to conclusions, Tricky!

“See you in class tomorrow. She ignored Tricky. And you…”

Missing brackets, unless she literally said "She ignored Tricky." :p

“Ha!” Tricky laughed. “ I laugh in the face of trouble! See?”

Careful. You might get the attention of a trio of Mightyena. Or Beheeyem, in this case.

Sure enough, the pink and yellow pokemon was leisurely hiking up the hill to the school, unawares that the very two pokemon she had told to stay put were watching her at that moment.

I think unaware is supposed to be singular.

“I’m going in after him!”

“No! You c-can’t! We… we won’t let anything bad happen to you!”

“Like you didn’t let anything bad happen to Goomy?”

There was a scoff, followed by the clip-clop of someone backing away.

“Fine! You two go, then.”

“W-why would we do that? I’m sure he’s fine.”

“Y-yeah, he’s totally fine. And once he brings that paper back, he’ll prove it!”

“He should have been back hours ago!”

Hm? So, this is technically a rewrite of SMD, but with Espurr's point of view? Because this part seems almost verbatim from the game. I don't mind rewrites at all, but I thought it was going to be a prequel of SMD or something like that, considering the fact there is Espurr.

“I am not freaking out over nothing, Pancham!” Deerling exploded at him. “You know that! You all know that! We can’t leave him in there; we can’t have a repeat!”

Oh? Now this is interesting. What is that "repeat"? *inquisitive stare*

Espurr tripped over her own feet again. Sure, the ground was littered with all manner of trip-friendly objects, but she could tell that wasn’t where the problem originated from. It felt like… It felt like her feet weren’t her own.

She looked up at the woods, noticing the utter lack of wind, how the forest seemed to stare down upon them with a thousand evil eyes, the rancid scent that once again filled the air… Something was wrong here.

“The forest doesn’t want us here,” Espurr finally concluded aloud. “I can feel it.”

Very ominous.

“Well, duh.” Tricky was nonplussed. “We’re in a mystery dungeon.” She dismissed it with a wave of her paw. “I should know, I’ve been through, like, 30 of these and come out just fine! You’ll always know you’re in a mystery dungeon when the wind stops blowing, and everything smells bad, and you get that kinda creepy feeling, like somemon’s watching you…”

Hm! I like this detail about dungeons. So they are intentionally malevolent in this setting, huh? It's weird that Espurr gained knowledge about Pokémon and yet she doesn't know what dungeons are...

“…And you know it’s time to leave once this really thick fog starts creeping in…” Words finally stopped sprinting out of Tricky’s mouth, the fox falling silent as she saw the same thing Espurr was seeing: A thick mass of fog slowly crept between the trees, almost impossible to see through.

“…Exactly like that,” Tricky quietly finished. She suddenly looked a lot more frantic. “Already??” she asked; to no-one in particular. “We were only here for five minutes! How come there’s already fog?!”

Espurr saw the treetops above crackle violently, blown away by a wind that had come out of nowhere.

“Tricky?”

“Yes?” The normally hyperactive fox glanced back at Espurr.

“What happens if you stay in a mystery dungeon for too long?” Espurr asked, her voice wavering with just a hint of fear.

“Well, first, this really freaky wind starts to blow out of nowhere,” Tricky started, ticking it off on her paw. “And it just gets stronger every time it comes back. And if you don’t leave after that, then the dungeon begins to lash out at you itSELF-“

Whoa! So the strong wind is even more dangerous here! Veeery interesting!

And it just got worse the longer he sat there. The fog, the drafts of wind, the scary feeling coming from everywhere… He had heard that there were wild pokemon who lived in mystery dungeons, wild pokemon that would eat you all up for breakfast if they caught you, wild pokemon that had been brainwashed by the Dungeon Wraith and set out as its personal hunting slaves…

Oh? So the wild Pokémon are under the influence of the dungeon. Hmm... I like this take.

A pair of furfrou. They leapt out of the clouds in sync, their eyes vacant and their mouths dripping with drool, both aligned in permanent snarls. Old and rotting exploration bags adorned their backs, filled with the remains of exploring supplies long rotted away. Goomy couldn’t stand it anymore. He broke down in tears before the twin beasts. He was going to become some wild pokemon’s lunch!

Oh my gosh! This sounds like a nightmarish experience for sure.

“I agree,” Simipour replied. “If I recall correctly, You live in the same area as Farfetch’d, correct?”

*you

He opened a drawer below his desk and put the stack of papers in front of them into it.

“The pokemon who chased you last night are known as Beheeyem, and they’ve been sighted several times in the past few days searching for you.” Simipour’s voice lost its airy quality for a more sincere tone. “That is why, for the time being, I strongly implore you to stay within the bounds of this village. I say this out of concern for your own safety, not to put a shackle on your freedom. We don’t need another disappearance on our hands.”

“Disappearance?” Espurr suddenly felt like she wanted to puke. “You mean… someone already disappeared?”

“We’ll discuss that another time.” Simipour closed the drawer and leaned back in his seat. “But, for now, I think it best that you stop allowing such thoughts to clog up your mind, and take kind Nurse Audino up on her offer to let you stay up at the School Clinic.”

Wait... he knows about the Beheeyem?


----


Alright! And here we are, at the end of the review.

So, overall I can say I already like it. It's basically Super Mystery Dungeon, but with a few twists. I wonder if this will diverge in significant ways from the original story and have more unique events, or if it will be "SMD, but Espurr". I wouldn't mind either way, but I really think it would have potential with more unique spins to make the story "less predictable". Still, this is just the beginning, so perhaps you already worked on that in future chapters?

Regarding the prose, it reads nicely, even though it had a few typos here and there (which i have pointed out). The descriptions are relatively simple, but they do their jobs, especially regarding the dangerousness of dungeons and the more upsetting situation. My only gripe is thast I wish we got to see more about how Espurr handled herself with her cast. Like, it would have been interesting to have a part where she struggled to call psychic energies to defend herself from danger, or something like that. As is, she felt a bit too much like a token audience, and it wouldn't have changed much if only Tricky ventured into the dungeon. Kinda felt like missed potential.

The characters, well... they are in-character. Maybe Deerling is a bit more harsh toward "partner" than usual, but overall their personalities match their source material.

And, well... I don't really have much else to say. I'm really curious to see how this story will continue, and whether it will follow the same path or take a detour somewhere.

Keep up the good work, and until next time! ^^

 

[SparklingEspeon]

Apologies if I didn't reply earlier, but I had a tons of RL stuff I needed to deal with.

You're earlier than I am!

But how does she know that it isn't safe? While, yes, I probably wouldn't travel in a dark fog, either, but that because I would find that suspicious, not because I knew that it isn't safe. Here, it seems that she knows about the fog despite having amnesia? Granted, it could be another bit of ingrained info she got by the forces that be.

Hmm... the intent here was actually supposed to be that the fog had an objective aura that made anyone around it uneasy/gave out "this is evil" vibes, although I can see how that would be taken subjectively as well.

The characters, well... they are in-character. Maybe Deerling is a bit more harsh toward "partner" than usual, but overall their personalities match their source material.

This is good to know! That was... a really big worry for me.

So, overall I can say I already like it. It's basically Super Mystery Dungeon, but with a few twists. I wonder if this will diverge in significant ways from the original story and have more unique events, or if it will be "SMD, but Espurr". I wouldn't mind either way, but I really think it would have potential with more unique spins to make the story "less predictable". Still, this is just the beginning, so perhaps you already worked on that in future chapters?

Those are both my beginning gimmicks! I wanted to write something derivative that more represented what I saw in the game's arguably wasted narrative, and I wanted to do a character study of Espurr, who was essentially an enigma in the canon game, so this fic is both of those. I think the deviances get clearer from Chapter Two onwards, but arguably it should be obvious from the beginning. I might have to brainstorm ways to make that get through.

Regarding the prose, it reads nicely, even though it had a few typos here and there (which i have pointed out). The descriptions are relatively simple, but they do their jobs, especially regarding the dangerousness of dungeons and the more upsetting situation. My only gripe is thast I wish we got to see more about how Espurr handled herself with her cast. Like, it would have been interesting to have a part where she struggled to call psychic energies to defend herself from danger, or something like that. As is, she felt a bit too much like a token audience, and it wouldn't have changed much if only Tricky ventured into the dungeon. Kinda felt like missed potential.

I think this is another symptom of the slow opening. Espurr definitely gets to experiment with her powers and gains independence from the narrative, but this doesn't start happening in earnest until around the third chapter because I wanted to finish setting up the narrative first. I don't think that's something I can change now, though, unfortunately.
Oh, and the typo spotting was helpful! I don't know how I missed those, because I just edited that chapter about two weeks ago...

Thanks again for writing this all up! It's nice to know what does and doesn't work, since once I finish my rewrites I'm not touching these chapters again unless I absolutely have to.

 

[SparklingEspeon]

Spoiler: Cover Art & Blurb

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To Lively Town! Chased away from Serenity Village and the dark creatures that have made their home there, Espurr and Tricky set their sights on much larger horizons. Meanwhile, a stranded zoroark seeks refuge in Pokemon Paradise, the most prosperous city in the world. But as all three pokemon will soon find out, the big world is oftentimes worse than the confines of your own home...

You have awakened. Good.

What is your purpose here? You will help save the world.

It is a world consumed by hate and pride and greed. Those who live in it care not for others, only for what they may gain no matter the expense. This cannot be allowed to continue. You will help me bring a stop to this vile cycle once and for all.

Soon there will be another, summoned by one too foolish to see the true effect of their actions. You will exterminate this individual. It is the only way to end the cycle of hate.

But that is a while off. First, you will live amongst those that live in this world. You will understand their inadequacies. Their greed, their arrogance, and their contempt for each other. You will understand why none of them are fit to continue living. Those of the land shall spurn you for what you are. As is their nature. Yet succeed in this one simple task…

…And I shall take over from there.

"It's the inside that makes you beautiful, not the fur or scales or skin you wear."

~~~~\({O})/~~~~

PART III: THE SOCIETY

~~~~\({O})/~~~~

25.

Ghost Ship

~\({O})/~

Noe Town Border

~Team Anthem~​

For a harbor on the Mist Continent, Noe Town was exceedingly poor. It existed on Mist's most accessible coast, and had in fact been founded by the pokemon who colonized the continent. Long ago, it had been the center of all trade and commerce.

Not anymore. Now the houses had fallen into a state of dismal disrepair, and many of the streets were splattered with dried mud. The skies above were grey and cloudy, and the alleys were shrouded in mist. For no riches from the many ships that sailed into the harbor were offered to Noe Town. Those were all for Pokemon Paradise. Papers had been stuck to many of the houses, even covering windows and doors:

Noe Town: Soon to be an extension of Pokemon Paradise (Funded by the Helping Adventurous Pokemon Prosper Institute)

It was a desolate town, cold and hard even in the air around it. And certainly not a place that Team Anthem would have any business in normally.

Alexis tried to ignore the feeling of the mud on his paws as he walked. If there was one thing he missed from the human world, it was shoes. He needed to look into getting some custom-made, even if foot coverings were a completely foreign concept to this world. He was a national hero – there had to be at least one tailor in Pokemon Paradise that would take such an order. The dewott fanned the paper slip he held as he walked, reading what was written on it for the thousandth time (thankfully in Unown). There were only three disjointed sentences on the paper: Friendly fire at the docks. Ship not returning our signals or messengers. Send help.

From behind Alexis, Elliot yawned. The pikachu lazily flicked an ear, then fell on all fours to catch up with the dewott.

"The place is quiet," he commented, returning to his hind paws. "You don't think we're too late, are we?"

"Doubtful." Alexis folded the paper, sticking it back in his bag. He frowned, looking ahead. "This place has been a ghost town for ages – everymon worth worrying over's gathered at the docks, no doubt."

The docks were no more inviting than the town. The waters churned uneasily with the foreboding ripples of a coming storm, and the skies were grey and windy. Alexis looked down at the water, and shivered. Even as a water-type, there were some things from his old self he just couldn't kick.

There were a multitude of pokemon gathered at the docks, many looking like they belonged to some kind of harbor patrol. Alexis and Elliot pushed their way through the crowd, heading towards the shore to get a better look at what was going on.

"Hey!" Alexis called out, catching the attention of most of the crowd. Most of them recognized him and Elliot on sight, immediately giving them both a wide berth. Alexis pulled the slip of paper out of his bag, waving it high in the air. "I'm looking for a 'mon who can brief me and my partner here." He quickly gestured to Elliot. "We got your mission request."

A furret with a faded insignia pinned to its chest quickly scurried forward from the crowd. "That's me," he said, clearing his throat compulsively as he stood up. "I'm in charge." Alexis got the feel he wasn't used to running things.

The furret pointed out across the harbor into the open waters. Alexis followed its gaze, settling his eyes upon the silhouette of a distant ship, enshrouded by the fog. The shape of the metal hull was distinct – anymon could recognize the Demetrius, even from far away.

"The Demetrius made its way into harbor sometime last night," the furret began. "When we tried to send it an automated transmission, we received nothing back."

Alexis sighed, cutting the furret's next sentence off. "Did you try using an electric-type?" he asked dismissively. There had been a lot of false alarms over shoddy equipment lately. He didn't understand why pokemon didn't go old-school for this.

"W-we didn't have time," the furret stammered, twitching his tail in stress. "The ship started shooting at us before we could do anything else." He redirected his paw towards the dock several meters away, which had been almost completely demolished.

Elliot's face twisted into silent shock at the destruction. Alexis didn't flinch. Disregarding Elliot's reaction, he turned back to the furret. "So they got your transmission…

"How many times has the ship fired."

"T-three times. The first time was after the transmission. The second time was when we sent a search party out to investigate."

"And this slip says you never got that search party back?"

"We sent them in with a connection orb. When we didn't hear back, we tried to call them. Then it fired a third time. D-destroyed the second floor of that building to the right." Furret pointed out a building to Alexis' left that had been completely leveled from the second floor up. "That's when we called you."

The furret lowered his paw once Alexis had gotten his point. Alexis took a deep breath, then began to mentally shuffle his thoughts into order. The rescue party's disappearance and the transmissions were easily rationalized away as products of bad coordination, but the attacks on the harbor spirited all that wishful thinking away. The Demetrius was not in the hands of its rightful crew.

So what to do about it?

"Those pokemon you sent." The furret's attention was quickly caught once again by Alexis' smooth interjection. "On a scale of one to ten, self-defense wise, how skilled were they?"

"Ah…" the furret wiggled nervously a bit. "…Two? Maybe three? W-we don't get rescue team training like HAPPI teams do."

"Alright," Alexis began. "Here's your situation. Most likely case: pirate pokemon. Stupid ones, if they think they can use that ship to wait you out." He turned back to the crowd, raising his voice: "I need a volunteer to sail me and my partner out there!"

No-mon in the crowd looked particularly interested.

"Expect to be compensated for your services," Alexis added quickly. When there was no answer, he decided to elaborate.

"Gold," he said. "Poke. Money. Lots of it."

There were no changes in the crowd's demeanor.

"Aren't you a water-type?" somemon from the crowd piped up. Alexis glanced at the water again out of the corner of his eye, making sure to hide his discomfort at the thought of swimming in it.

"…Even if I am," he began, "my partner needs ferrying. And we may need to carry more than one pokemon back to land. A boat or a durable water-type is required."

Elliot waved a little from the sidelines at the mention of his title, grinning timidly. He looked out of his depth.

The low, bellowing call of a massive pokemon caught the attention of everymon at the docks. Alexis turned to see the hulking form of a Wailord Liner slowly approaching from the distance. The massive wooden construct attached to the wailord's back was filled with much smaller pokemon – more tourists heading in to Pokemon Paradise, no doubt. Alexis shifted where he stood, scowling. He spun around, facing the furret once more.

"Get those tourists on the docks and into the town now. The less pokemon know about this before we resolve it, the better."

With a small squeak, the furret nodded and scurried off. A good portion of the crowd followed him as well. Once the docks were sparse enough that Alexis had the whole place almost to himself, Elliot walked over. He stared out at the Demetrius, floating silently in the distance.

"I have a bad feeling," he said.

In the distance, there was a loud scraping. It caught the attention of both Alexis and Elliot. Both of them focused intently on the Demetrius, where the sound was coming from.

The front of the metal hull was slowly sliding open. With a loud bang, the hull slid open completely, and from the opening emerged a large cannon. Fire-type energy began to collect around the brim. It only took Alexis a second to figure out what was going on. He dashed towards the crowd with haste, but it was far too late – The cannon fired a straight burst of pure fire-type energy that blasted a hole clear into the approaching wailord liner.

Chaos erupted not even seconds later. The crowd at the harbor screamed and panicked louder than the crowd on the liner, and even Alexis' cry for order was drowned out in all the noise.

"EVERYMON QUIET!" A thunderbolt cracked up into the air and exploded like fireworks above the crowd. Elliot whipped a few stray sparks off his tail and stood up. "We're taking charge here! Listen to what my partner has to say!"

Stunned by the loud intervention, the crowd quickly fell back into an anxious silence. Alexis stepped forward, looking at the liner. He studied the damage from afar the best he could. The structural integrity of the framework was damaged… but it would get to land okay.

It should get to land okay.

Alexis turned to the furret once more: "How many water-types have you got?"

He didn't wait for the furret's answer. "Send them all out to help ferry the passengers off that ship. We can't rule out a collapse before it reaches dry land. Once the ship's docked, set up—"

"Passenger accommodations?" the furret interjected helpfully.

"You got it," Alexis said. "Get them as far away from the harbor as you can. There will be questions; don't answer any of them. Now get on it. Go!"

The furret quickly nodded, then scurried back to the crowd of harbormon to begin planning. Alexis gestured for Elliot to follow him, and they both began to jog back towards the next dock over.

"So what do we do?" Elliot asked. Alexis fought off a shudder at the thought of entering the cold, dark, deep waters.

"We find somemon in this mukking harbor willing to ferry us onto that ship. I don't care what I have to pay."

~\({O})/~

~Zoroark~​

The raft was cold, but the water was colder. The chilly breeze of the storm nipped Zoroark's skin through his soggy fur. His mane was wet and heavy, and that just made him chillier. At this point he'd either freeze or starve to death – Zoroark wasn't particularly sure which one would come first.

But there was one shred of good news: Land was within sight. Unfamiliar, wood-and-clay houses dotted the near horizon, and the town looked more like an outpost than a proper town. But Zoroark would take anything at this point. Suddenly alive with energy he didn't know he had, he stuck a paw in the water and began to eagerly paddle his way to shore.

The makeshift excuse for a raft bumped up against the stone steps of a dock meant for water-types to climb up on, and Zoroark quickly jumped off and threw himself onto the glorious dry land he'd missed so much. He wasn't getting back on a boat of any kind anytime soon.

By the time Zoroark could summon enough energy to get up off the ground, the ground was not so dry anymore. He wrung out his mane the best he could, and shook the rest of his fur off like an unruly growlithe. Then he remembered he was in a town – pokemon could see him here! – and then, just like that, he was Braixen again.

Zoroark-as-Braixen marched through the town wearily, catching the attention of the few 'mon that were out and about. The pokemon they saw was completely dry – Zoroark didn't have the energy for wet fur – but walked with the weight of somemon who had been underwater for an hour. He spotted a xatu perched upon a nearby pier, with its head craned directly up towards the clouds, but it paid him no mind. He continued his trudge through the harbor. He could find a place to eat and sleep for the night, and then he'd book his way into Pokemon Paradise. He'd never been there – he had worked for the ambassador of the Water Continent, after all – but how hard could it be to find a helpline in a place that was commonly referred to as "the greatest city on the planet"?

Then he remembered that he didn't have any poke. Any belongings of his had been swallowed up when the Exeggutor went down. So that was eating and sleeping in a warm place tonight out of the question. Zoroark-as-Braixen took a deep breath, stopping in the middle of the street. He slumped against a building in exhaustion. He didn't know where to go from here.

And only then, when his head was clear, did his ears catch the sounds of yelling in the distance. Only then did he see the struggling wailord liner limping its way to shore… and the hulking form of the Demetrius in the distance.

The Demetrius… that was a government ship, sitting stagnant in the waters outside the harbor. What was going on? For the moment, Zoroark forgot he was tired and hungry, and quickly took off in the direction of the harbor.

There were many more 'mon at the docks. The Wailord Liner had docked, even though the framework holding the ship in place was dangerously leaning down towards the water. The scaffold had a huge hole in its side, one too large for the attack of all but the most powerful pokemon…

Busy staring at the giant hole in the ship, Zoroark-as-Braixen didn't notice where he was going until he accidentally walked straight into another pokemon. They both let out a grunt of surprise as they were knocked backwards. Surprised, Zoroark let his illusion falter for just a second. The vaporeon he bumped into scrabbled on the ground for something she had lost – there it was. A HAPPI badge had fallen to the ground in their kerfuffle. Vaporeon tried her best to pick it up, but her paws weren't conductive enough. Zoroark-as-Braixen quickly snatched it up before a passing rhydon could step on it. He handed it back to the vaporeon, who scooped it up with her tail and stuffed it back in her bag.

"Thanks," she said.

Braixen quickly nodded and grunted in confirmation, then moved along. He didn't catch sight of her after that.

The docks quickly became more empty after that. Zoroark continued along until he could see the ship better. It was still enshrouded in mist from this angle, and it didn't look like the ship was operating at all. But what was it doing sitting in the harbor? His mind flashed back to the hole in the Wailord liner, and the dissociated dots began to connect in his head and form a very chilling picture. He sped up a bit.

Eventually, his ears caught the sound of two 'mon talking in hushed voices to themselves. Zoroark slowed down, honing his hearing in on their voices in the hopes he could catch a snippet of what was going on.

"Think we could commission any of the passengers to do it?"

"Leave them out of it. I'd rather not drag scared tourists into this."

"That's our best shot. Getting a strong water-type to do it. If you won't…"

The sound of shuffling paws. Then, somemon cleared their throat.

"We could use this boat."

"T-that's stealing! You can't be serious right now!"

"It's either that, or we wait for somemon willing and qualified to ferry us all the way out there. We can't waste any more time on this."

"We used to hunt down the pokemon who did this kind of thing every day!"

"We hunted evil pokemon who stole for self-gain. We're doing this out of necessity. We have no other options. And…" the clink of a purse of poke. "…It's not like we'll be leaving them with nothing for their inconvenience."

Zoroark's ears pricked up at the sound of the money. The contents of that bag might mean the difference between sleeping in a warm bed and freezing to death in the cold Mist fog.

There was a pause, then a sigh of defeat.

"We should at least find the boat owner first."

"No time."

"B-but—"

"Necessary evils, Elliot. Sometimes good pokemon have to do a bad thing for the greater good."

Zoroark had only a second to think on it. He couldn't let this opportunity slip out of his grasp, but he had no way to ferry them all the way to the Demetrius.

Unless…

If he were caught, he'd be in unimaginable trouble. But he was deep enough in trouble as it was. And, at the very worst, spending the night in a jail would be better than spending it on the street. So, Zoroark made his decision.

"Hey!" Zoroark-as-Braixen called out, catching the attention of the two 'mon he had been eavesdropping on. A pikachu and a dewott raised their heads to look at him. Zoroark recognized them immediately.

Alexis straightened up, putting on his best publicity face for the braixen. "Need something?" he asked.

"I heard you talking about wanting somemon to ferry you over to that ship over there," Braixen said, pointing to the Demetrius for emphasis. He strode over until he was standing only three feet away from Alexis and Elliot. "Well, it just so happens that I'm the owner of that boat." Braixen pointed down to the boat – a measly lifeboat, silently rocking back and forth in the uneasy waters. Zoroark tried his best to hide his surprise – he thought it had been bigger. "I'll ferry you two there… for a price."

"A fire-type with a lifeboat…" Zoroark heard Alexis mutter to himself silently. His stomach did a backflip – had they caught on to him?

At the least, the pikachu seemed fooled. Elliot immediately perked up, as if a huge burden had been removed from his shoulders.

"Well, problem solved, then," he said happily. "Let's get in the boat." After a second of thought, Alexis nodded his head.

"Understand this," he began, before Braixen could continue. "We're asking for a round trip, there and back. You may have to ferry more pokemon back with us on the return trip. This may entail more than one subsequent trip. I cannot guarantee that your boat will survive, but you will be compensated with poke in either scenario."

"If you get out of it alive," Zoroark heard him mutter under his breath.

Not that he had much of a choice. Braixen nodded confidently, letting his illusion do the work for him. "I accept."

"Splendid. Lead the way." Alexis gestured to a wooden ladder at the end of the stone pier, which Braixen stepped towards. Zoroark climbed down the ladder, and stepped into the boat. It rocked under his weight, and he almost lost his balance completely. Luckily, this wasn't the first time he had been on a ship. Braixen sat down, grasping the oars carefully. He nodded up at the pikachu and dewott staring down at him from above.

Alexis frowned, undid the rope that tethered the boat to the dock, then carefully climbed down the ladder. Zoroark-as-Braixen hummed silently, grabbing the twin oars. So much for not stepping in a boat anytime soon.

~\({O})/~​

The waters churned heavily, rocking the boat more than a little bit as Zoroark rowed his two passengers out to sea. No words were exchanged between the three of them; there was only the distant blowing of the wind above and the ever-larger looming figure of the Demetrius to keep them company.

A larger than usual wave rocked the boat a little bit, before it set itself back to rights. Out of the corner of his eye, Zoroark spotted Alexis' paws grip the side of the boat tightly.

Eventually, Zoroark managed to pull the boat up next to the massive metal hull of the Demetrius. A large, portable metal stairway extended out of the ship and down into the waters below. Across from the rowboat Zoroark sat in was a larger sailboat, enough to hold four or five 'mon in it. Zoroark eyed it uneasily as he rowed.

"Pull us up over there." Alexis pointed to the stairway. Zoroark rowed the boat until it had lined up with the metal set of stairs, at which point Alexis deftly hopped from the boat onto the stairway. He gripped the railing tightly and turned around, watching Elliot follow. Zoroark-as-Braixen searched the boat for a rope of any kind – he had just remembered boats needed to be tethered so they didn't float off – and began tying the boat to the railing once he had a line in his hand. Then he took the first step onto the stairway.

Alexis and Elliot, already halfway up the stairs, glanced back. Alexis' face sunk, like he was annoyed at a toddler.

"I can't allow you to follow us in here," he said, glancing down at Braixen. "We don't know what it'll be like. Might not be safe. Just… stay out here with the boat."

A rumble of thunder made all three 'mon look up at the sky. The skies were darker than they had been just before. Wind ruffled Zoroark-as-Braixen's fur, rocking the boats. The storm had arrived.

Alexis sighed.

"Fine. Come on. But stay behind me."

He deftly walked up the rest of the stairs, and opened the door a crack. After looking in both ways, he ushered Elliot and Braixen along.

~\({O})/~

The Demetrius​

The hallways of the Demetrius were too dark to see. Alexis briefly reached into his bag for something as the door closed behind them. Zoroark-as-Braixen blanched – if he was going to be asked to light a torch…

But instead, Alexis pulled a single orb from his bag. It shone in the dark with the same blue glow as luminous moss, illuminating their surroundings. Everywhere, the walls were covered in viscous black goo, some of it extending into long, goopy trails on the ground. There was no-mon around to be seen.

"What is this stuff…" Elliot muttered, reaching a paw out to touch the goo stuck to the walls.

"Try not to touch it," Alexis said. "It could be dangerous."

Elliot pulled his paw back before he could.

The goo continued all the way down the hallway, where the three of them found the door at the end of the corridor blasted clean off its hinges. The doorframe was mangled, and the door itself lay at their feet, bent out of shape. Alexis bent over to inspect it, noting that the center was covered in the same black goo that coated the walls.

"Look at this."

Elliot bent over a pile of something that glinted from the luminous orb's light. Zoroark immediately recognized what it was – he'd seen the exact same thing himself just a few days ago, after all.

"It's a shattered connection orb," he said.

"You think it belongs to…" Elliot trailed off, letting the silence speak for him.

"Looks like that search party went the same way as the crew," Alexis said, looking at the connection orb remains over his shoulder.

Zoroark-as-Braixen spun around, his ears picking up on the sound of the goo down the hallway behind them moving with a pop. Elliot, who had heard it too, followed suit.

"Did you hear that?" he asked Alexis, turning around.

"Hear what?" Alexis, who had turned back to inspecting the door, didn't even look back at Elliot.

"Something just moved back there," Zoroark-as-Braixen said. He took a fighting stance.

Alexis stood back up. In the moment of silence, all three pokemon could hear something slithering down the hallway.

"You stay here," he said to Braixen. Zoroark-as-Braixen nodded. "Elliot, with me."

Zoroark-as-Braixen watched Alexis and Elliot slowly move down the corridor in the direction of the sound. The luminous orb had been left sitting on the ground next to Zoroark, but Zoroark dared not move nor break his stance. He looked around at all the black goo hanging from the walls. What was this?

Suddenly, it began to move. With a loud squelching sound, the goo decorating the roof above Zoroark began to shift with life. That was it. Zoroark let out a quiet yelp of abject fear, then took off through the deformed doorway. He didn't even think to pick up the luminous orb.

The doorway led into what looked like a cafeteria of some kind – chairs and tables were overturned everywhere, and quite a few had been smashed up. Zoroark ran in and took shelter under a still-standing table.

It was too dark to see much of the next part. There was the sound of loud squelching, then a pop. Then something heavy hit the ground behind him. The sound startled Zoroark, and he accidently bumped the table he was hiding under when he jumped.

Whatever was there slowly moved through the room. There was a brief pause of silence, as Zoroark heard it sniff the air several times. Then it began to walk again.

Whatever it was stepped on a chair and flattened it completely. That, Zoroark saw, right in front of his eyes. Restraining himself from yelping again in fear, he concentrated, slowly putting up a much more complex illusion he had yet to perfect. If he was doing it right, no-mon would even know something was there in the first place.

Unfortunately for him, his illusions didn't work on what didn't have eyes. The table was quickly flipped over just seconds later, and Zoroark was snatched up by the grotesque claws of a Void Shadow.

The Void Shadow, made of the same black goo that coated the walls and the roof, growled in his face, then sniffed the air again. Zoroark saw its many, many teeth. That was when he lost it – he yelled a battle cry and began to wildly scratch and claw away at the monster's face in terror. His claws sunk into its head harmlessly, and he let out a whimper of fear as he tried to tug them out.

The Shadow snarled, and Zoroark felt its claws tighten around his ribs. It was going to crush him! Unless…

"Hey! What's going on in he—" Alexis and Elliot both stopped short at the sight of the large black monster, its goo reflecting the light of the luminous orb in the hallway as it lifted Zoroark up into the air. Desperate, Zoroark felt out where its claws were on his person. Then he slashed them with his own. His claws sliced completely through the Shadow's, severing them from the monster. Zoroark hit the ground only a second later.

"Ready?" both Alexis and Elliot got into battle positions. They readied their own elemental attacks, aiming at the monster.

"Ready!" The combined power of a water gun and a thunderbolt hit the Void Shadow all at once, sending electricity coursing through its body. It let out a shriek, then collapsed entirely into a black puddle on the floor. Zoroark heard it slither off, but it was too dark to see where it went. By the time Alexis had retrieved the luminous orb, Zoroark was Braixen once again.

"Hey – you okay?" Alexis asked, walking up to Zoroark-as-Braixen. Zoroark nodded.

"Yeah," he coughed out, getting to his feet. "What was that?"

"I have no idea," Alexis said, half to Braixen and half to himself. "I've never seen anything like that before. At the least, it explains the goo." He gestured to the walls around them.

"So n-now what do we do?" Elliot asked, his voice shaking a bit.

"Our first priority to find out if there are any living 'mon still on this ship," Alexis said. If he was shaken like his partner was, he didn't let it show in his voice. "Somemon had to fire those cannons. We find them, and we get them off of here. Then… we figure out where to go from there."

He turned around, facing Zoroark-as-Braixen. "As for you, I need you to leave. Bringing you in here was a mistake. We'll escort you back out—"

There were the sounds of slithering goo down in the hallway they had just come down. All three pokemon went silent at its sound.

"…On second thought," Alexis began. "We'll find another exit. Stay together."

~\({O})/~​

Alexis split the group up not a moment later to quickly check the cafeteria kitchens for refugees. There weren't any.

A door on the other side of the cafeteria led to another corridor that wasn't as shrouded in goo as the last one had been. Goo coated the walls and some of the roof, but light shone through patches of window that had been left uncovered by the black substance. Zoroark thought he saw some of it slither over an uncovered patch of the wall out of the corner of his eye.

It was light enough now that Alexis saw fit to put away the luminous orb. Zoroark put his illusion back up. He had tentatively dropped it in the darkness, once the light of the luminous orb had drifted far enough off his form, but now it was light enough that all it would take was a single glance back to destroy his cover. He marched forward, hoping the disappearance of a fake wand in his tail wouldn't draw too much suspicion.

Alexis watched the walls closely as they went on. Halfway down the corridor, he stopped both Braixen and Elliot, feeling out the outline of a doorframe along the wall. It was completely covered in black goo.

"I know how ships like these work," he muttered. "So this…" his paws found a goo-covered door handle, and he yanked—

The door swung wide open, revealing a set of metal steps leaning down into darkness. "This is the way down to the engines." Alexis reached into his bag and pulled out the luminous orb once more. It illuminated some of the steps, but beyond was still left in darkness. Further beyond in the dark, Zoroark-as-Braixen thought he saw something bright orange glowing.

"But that way should lead us to the bridge," Elliot said, pointing down the corridor. "Something fired this ship's cannon, right? And you do that from the bridge. Any survivors are probably in there."

Alexis was silent for a minute, like he was deliberating on something.

"Yeah." He let the door swing shut with a bang. "I just wanted to know where it was."

He began to creep onwards, beckoning Elliot and Braixen after him. Zoroark-as-Braixen cast one last look at the door before following.

~\({O})/~​

The hallway became more and more dark as they went on. The darker it got, the more invasive the goo became. It was everywhere, even the floor, and soon all three 'mon were slogging through it as they went onwards. Eventually, Alexis was forced to pull out the luminous orb again. There was still no sign of anymon around, nor anything like the monster that had attacked them in the cafeteria. Yet Zoroark still found himself checking behind the group often, just to reassure himself that the little squelching sounds he heard in the distance and the weird way the goo would catch the light every so often was just in his head.

It felt like they had walked for miles by the time they reached the corridor's end. It was covered in goo, like everything else in the hallway was. This was the worst it had been the entire time they'd been there. Alexis set the luminous orb down, searching with one paw through the black soup for a door handle. His arm was already almost half submerged in it by the time that he found it.

"Some help," he grunted, trying fruitlessly to pull it open. Elliot's paws grasped around Alexis, and he pulled too. The door still didn't budge. Elliot looked back at Zoroark, who was Braixen again in a split second. "Help…" he strained.

Zoroark looked down at his claws that looked, but certainly did not feel like braixen paws. If he touched somemon with those, the jig was up. And this was a bad, bad place for that to happen. But unless he wanted to refuse entirely, he only saw one way out.

Manipulating touch wasn't an illusion Zoroark was skilled in. It was harder than sight, but easier than sound. He hadn't tried it before. All he had to do was draw upon what the subject thought the thing they were touching felt like… Zoroark took a deep breath, and wrapped his claws around Elliot. With luck, this would only be a second. He pulled.

The door budged. Then it held for a moment. Then it swung open completely, splattering all three pokemon with the black goo.

Alexis, Elliot, and Braixen all fell back, half-covered in the black substance. It felt sticky on Zoroark's fur. He sat up, and caught both Elliot and Alexis staring at him weird – he realized at the last second that he hadn't updated his illusion to account for being splattered with all that goo. But there was nothing to do about it now. It would only look weirder if he changed it. He stood up, staring back at Alexis and Elliot.

"What?" he asked.

Alexis shook his head. "Nothing. The door's open. Let's go."

He strode into the bridge, and both Elliot and Braixen followed his lead.

The inside of the bridge was a strange change of pace from the rest of the ship. The floors were completely clean, and the glass that made up the walls of the bridge was pristine and untouched. The black goo that coated the interior of the rest of the ship was nowhere to be seen.

Zoroark wondered where it had all gone.

The place seemed to be deserted— Crash. Something slithered over behind a control panel near the front of the bridge.

"Over there!" Alexis hissed, and all three pokemon immediately scrambled over to where the sound had come from. Whatever was making the sound had no time to flee – before it knew what was happening, Alexis, Elliot and Braixen had it cornered behind the control panel it had been next to. A perfectly normal phanpy looked up at them.

"Have you come to take me out of this place?" it asked.

"What's happening here?" Alexis urged, before anymon else could speak. "Where are all your crewmates? Tell me what happened, from the beginning."

"Aren't you going to take me out of here?" the phanpy asked again.

"It's not that simple," Alexis said. "I need to understand what happened here first. Then we can talk about leaving."

"But I want to leave," the phanpy said again. "Are you going to take me out of here?"

"Cooperate with me, and we'll do that," Alexis said. "Where are your crewmates?"

The phanpy was still and silent. Its body was motionless, almost like a sleeping metagross. Then, like a rusty machine clicking back into action, it spoke.

"Gone," the phanpy said, its voice raspy. "Dead."

"What happened to them?" Elliot asked.

It was a moment before the phanpy answered, breathing out raspy breaths.

"There was something out there, in the storm," it began. "It didn't look like a pokemon, but no-mon knew what it was. I was the only one who survived."

"If that's true, then who fired the cannons?"

"What cannons?" the phanpy asked.

Alexis' demeanor ever-so-slightly changed. He stood up. "Elliot, Braixen-no-name, watch him."

He walked over to the center of the room, studying a dashboard of controls that were laced with the same black goo from earlier – the only muddied thing in the room. "Just as I thought," Zoroark heard him mutter to himself.

Alexis rejoined Elliot and Zoroark-as-Braixen, eyeing the phanpy. "You're sure you've been all alone in this room for the last day?"

"Yes." The phanpy readily nodded.

"Wrong answer." Lightning fast, Alexis pulled a scalchop from his hip and threw it straight at the phanpy. The scalchop made contact and returned, and Alexis caught it neatly. There was a visible impression in the phanpy's face that didn't bleed.

"Wh-why did you do that?" Elliot cried out in horror. He moved forward in the phanpy's direction, but Alexis quickly pulled him back by the scarf.

"Stay back!" he grunted.

The phanpy looked up, and its face distorted into something that didn't look quite like any pokemon. A pair of massive limbs with claws black as night exploded from the phanpy's body, far too fast for Alexis and Elliot to react. Zoroark didn't think – he just did. He dropped his illusion in an instant, dashing forward and slashing his claws wildly into the arms before they could reach their destination. The Void Shadow's head – rearing out of the "phanpy"s body – screeched loudly at Zoroark, but the shadow was quickly decapitated by another swing of Alexis' scalchop. It fell to the floor in front of them with a loud splat, losing its shape and devolving back down into black goo.

The shadow's arms finally overpowered Zoroark, throwing him clean across the bridge. He landed on one of the control panels, his weight pressing a bunch of buttons he couldn't begin to fathom the functions of. He fell to the ground, pulling himself back up against the panel with a huff. His claws inadvertently slammed down upon a large red button, activating the ship's horn.

Elliot and Alexis were locked in a close battle with the Void Shadow. Even without a head, the monster fought wildly, slashing at them with its gangly limbs.

"We need to hit it in the center, or it'll just regroup," Alexis yelled, slashing one of the arms back with his twin scalchops. They were backed up against the glass, and the shadow's arms were too large to escape to the sides. "Aim for the torso!"

"It's too close-quarters!" Elliot yelled back, both pokemon hitting the ground before the shadow's arms could snatch them both up in its claws. "You'll get fried too!"

"I can handle that!" Alexis yelled. "Do it!"

The ship's horn suddenly blasted through the cabin at a near-deafening pitch, forcing both Alexis and Elliot to cover their ears. The Void Shadow let out an agitated gurgle at the sound, its entire form shivering in place. The sound only lasted a second, but Alexis didn't falter.

"Now, Elliot!" he yelled. Elliot charged his tail, and let a powerful shock wave of electric fury blaze everything around him. That was all the Void Shadow could take – with a pitiful screech, it collapsed entirely into a mass of black goo that began to slither away.

Zoroark watched it go from his spot at the control panel – it was too weak to fight back. This was his chance to finish it off for good! He jumped over the console, running forward, but the formless mass of black goo was too fast – it disappeared down a nearby drain before Zoroark could catch it. He scrabbled at the drainpipe, hearing the gurgling sounds of the retreating shadow echo through the drain.

Elliot shook off the remaining static electricity in his fur, letting his hackles relax. Beside him, Alexis coughed and raised himself from the floor, trying to shake off the electric attack he had just undergone.

"I'm fine," he panted before Elliot could open his mouth. "Where'd it go?"

"I didn't see," Elliot said, still panting. But Alexis was too busy staring at something else to reply to that.

"Down here!" Zoroark called out in response to Alexis' question. "It went down here."

He was scrabbling at the drain, trying to see if he could get it open. Zoroark eventually gave up trying to hear the retreating Void Shadow, standing up from the drain and checking his claws for injuries. It took weeks for those to grow back if broken. He then realized his fatal mistake: in all the chaos, he had forgotten to put up his illusion again. Both Alexis and Elliot were gazing at him in shock.

"I should have known," Alexis muttered.

~\({O})/~​

"Move along." Alexis led Elliot and Zoroark along the corridor as the three pokemon moved on. Zoroark hadn't bothered putting up his illusion again – what was the use? "We're heading down to the engines."

The hallway from where they had come was almost overflowing with the same goo that Alexis was insistent they avoid at this point. They had instead taken the corridor entrance on the other side of the bridge, which was covered in goo all the same but wasn't as flooded as the other one was.

Eventually they stopped in the middle of the hallway. Alexis handed the luminous orb off to Elliot and felt out the gooey wall for a door handle. He found it and yanked, but the door stayed shut. He yanked it a couple more times for good measure.

"Locked," he said. Elliot shone the orb onto the wall; all three pokemon took notice of a smallish vent near the ground that was half-covered by goo.

"Does that lead to the other side of this door?" Elliot asked.

"It should," said Alexis. "Can you fit?"

"Of course I can fit," Elliot said. "Just depends on the lock. We may have to bust it in if I can't get it undone."

"I'd prefer not to," Alexis responded. "The less attention we can draw to ourselves, the better.

Zoroark briefly questioned how they weren't being watched in this corridor full of goo anyway, but figured flashy attacks would put a target on their back faster. Elliot carefully undid the vent cover with his paws, then climbed in.

"You shouldn't have come here."

Zoroark, who was studying the goo stuck to the ceiling, looked at Alexis.

"No sash." Alexis' words rang out loudly in the goo-covered corridor. "You're an outsider, aren't you." At Zoroark's silence, he continued. "You shouldn't have taken a boat that wasn't yours. You shouldn't be in this town at all. So why are you here?"

"What… makes you think I stole the boat?" Zoroark asked suspiciously.

"I'm familiar with a few of the harbor guards," Alexis said. "If there was a zoroark fisher in this town they'd have told me straightaway."

"How do you know I wasn't just docking there for the day?"

"Lifeboats aren't made for long sea travel," Alexis said. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

Cornered. Zoroark didn't see a way out. slumped back against the wall.

"I was desperate," Zoroark coughed. "Me and my caretaker; we were attacked at sea. Everything I… had went down with that ship." It was finally beginning to sink in that he truly had nothing. Not even a guardian anymore… Zoroark still felt a sense of abject shock in his heart, the inability to process that fact. "I heard that you were offering poke to whoever would ferry you all the way out here. I thought it would keep me off the streets for a night."

Alexis sighed, then frowned. His scalchops hang limply from his sides. There was silence.

"So… now what?" Zoroark asked in the absence of a response. "You're gonna… turn me in?"

At least he'd be fed and somewhat warm in the jail.

"…No," Alexis said. "I won't. You'd never get out."

He rose up, dusting off his scalchops. "We complete the mission. Then, once we're off this ship, I recommend you run. Hitch a boat out of the harbor fast as you can; never look back. You'll find no respite here on Mist."

With a clank, the door swung open, and Elliot tumbled out, even more covered in goo than he was before. "That was a hard lock to undo," he panted.

"Are we close to the engines?" Alexis asked, turning around to see Elliot and the door better. "Did you get a good look?"

"Another floor down," Elliot said, still catching his breath. "There's a hatch to get there."

"Perfect." Alexis swung the door open all the way, and walked in.

"Come on," he said. "No time to waste."

~\({O})/~​

The hatch slid open, and Alexis dropped down through it. He landed on his feet. Elliot landed deftly behind him. Zoroark carefully climbed down by hanging from the side of the hatch with his claws, then dropped down three feet from the floor. The three of them then noticed there was a pull-out ramp right at the top of the hatch.

In front of them stood a massive machine that cast the room in a bright orange glow. A trio of rotating metal rings swung around a furnace, except that instead of a fire, a single vibrant orange gem floated in the center. It shone bright enough that most everything in the room was visible to some extent.

"Just like I thought," Alexis said with confidence. He walked up to the large machine, his eyes on the crystal in the center. "Firium Z. That's what's powering this ship."

Zoroark shifted, glancing away from the light source. "What does that mean for us?" he sked.

"For us?" Alexis asked. "It's good, very good." He hopped down from the platform, walking down and tracing a few of the many pipes that snaked out across the floor. "Very flammable too. Good stuff."

"Flammable?" Elliot repeated. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"This ship uses a very outdated method of transferring fuel from one place to another," Alexis continued. "Officially, it's been disavowed by manufacturers everywhere. It looks like the Demetrius wasn't brought back in for upgrades."

"Yeah, but why's that relevant?"

"Because we're about to blow this ship sky-high. Get ready."

~\({O})/~​

The next half-hour was spent unhooking wires, switching dials, turning cranks, and moving hoses from one slot to another. Alexis instructed the process methodically,

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Elliot asked as they moved a large hose from one side of the machine to the other. "There might still be pokemon alive on this ship. What about that search party that was sent here? Are we just going to give up and blow them up too?"

"We don't know if that search party is even alive," Alexis said smoothly as he helped Elliot and Zoroark move the hose. "But whatever happens, we cannot let whatever is on this ship with us leave it. We already know that it can mimic the forms of other pokemon. We cannot take that risk."

"We haven't searched the whole ship yet," Elliot pointed out. "How can you just declare that there's no-mon else alive on-board?"

"Every minute that thing lives is a minute that all those pokemon on the docks of Noe Town are endangered," Alexis hissed. "Every minute we do nothing, or prance around this ship looking for stragglers is a minute we risk hundreds more suffering the fate of whatever happened to the crew here. To go out on a limb on the chance that there might be a single life still on-board is to risk so many others!"

The sound of Alexis' yelling reverberated around the room and echoed throughout the hatch above them. All three 'mon were quiet as they listened to make sure that they hadn't been found yet.

"Sorry," Alexis said, once he was sure they were safe for now. "I… lost my temper for a moment."

"A single life is still worth the effort," Elliot said in a low hush. "That's our job, that's what we do. We go back for the one life that no-mon else cares about. And I don't know when it became about everything but that, but it never should have."

Alexis was simply silent for a moment, a furrowed expression on his face. He sighed.

"Necessary evils, Elliot."

Zoroark was silent as he listened to the two bicker. He continued to glance up at the walls and roof around him, studying the shiny black surfaces intently for any sign of movement. Any sign that they weren't alone in here.

Alexis grunted, lifting the hose as all three pokemon slotted it into its new place.

"That should do it," he said, patting the hose. "This engine is now a ticking time bomb."

"How do we light the fuse?" Zoroark asked.

"The machine will do that on its own," Alexis said. "We just need to get out of here before it does."

The goo behind them popped loudly. All three pokemon spun in horror. From out of the wall near the hatch emerged a single, pitch-black protrusion. It sprouted fingers, then claws, then an elbow joint and slammed its palm onto the deck with a loud splat. The shadowy, black arm was the only thing between them and the way out.

"Go!" Elliot yelled.

Zoroark sprang into action first, running for the hatch that was their only way out. He deftly hopped the arm as it made a grab for him, then jumped up and barely grabbed the pull-out hatch with his claws – why was it so high up? He pulled himself onto the next floor up and into safety, looking back down at the hatch below.

Alexis and Elliot watched in shock as Zoroark ran off without them. Then the rest of the Void Shadow quickly tore out of the wall and made a charge straight for them both.

"Dodge!" both pokemon made a break for opposite directions, scrambling out of the way as the Void Shadow charged through. It spun just before it could collide with the engine, turning to Alexis and making a hard dash for the dewott. Alexis grabbed a scalchop from his side and hurled it at the Void Shadow. The scalchop sliced its head clean off its body. The mass of black slime landed on the floor beside it. It twiteched, then began to slither back into the Void Shadow's body.

The Void Shadow wasted no time galloping towards Alexis, but a thunderbolt quickly struck it from the back and caused it to convulse. Alexis barely dodged the Shadow's advances once again as it barreled forward with an ungodly screech and hit the goo-covered wall with a squelching noise. The wall absorbed it with a squick.

"We have to lure it away from the engine!" Alexis called out to Elliot in their brief moment of respite. "If it touches anything, the whole ship will blow up right here and now!"

From his position near one of the snaking cables they'd rewired, Elliot nodded in determination.

The Void Shadow's arms suddenly burst out of the wall behind Alexis, forcing him to duck and roll before he could be enveloped in its pitch-black embrace. He made a run for the hatch, beckoning Elliot after him. The Void Shadow pulled itself entirely out of the wall and screeched.

Elliot quickly outpaced Alexis and slid to a stop right under the hatch. There was a crank handle poking out amongst the black goo that coated the walls, illuminated by the light of the engine – that must have been the device for the pullout ramp! Elliot quickly grabbed the handle and began to turn it as fast as he could, looking back at Alexis and the Void Shadow.

Zoroark jumped back as the ramp underneath the hatch door began to slowly slide out. It made a squeaking sound as it slid out, but it wasn't going fast enough. The Void Shadow's screech as it charged forward forced Zoroark into action, and he kicked the ramp down with his legs. It fell to the ground with a loud metallic bang, and both Alexis and Elliot hurriedly scurried upwards.

The Void Shadow was right on their tails. It bounded up through the ramp, but the ramp snapped away under its weight. The Void Shadow fell but caught the edges of the ramp with its claws.

By the time that it had pulled itself up onto the next level, the three pokemon it was chasing were already long gone. It snarled, and began to charge for the open door that was right in front of it, but Alexis slammed the door shut before it could. Zoroark heard the lock clicking back into place.

For just a second, there was silence. Then a loud bang came from behind the door, accompanied by a deathly screech. There was the sound of a couple loud footsteps, and then it slithered off, growling to itself. Not a single noise came from Zoroark, Alexis, or Elliot.

"How long before the engine goes off?" Elliot asked, brushing some of the goo from its fur.

Zoroark began to feel a burning sensation on his feet. The floor of the deck was—

"The deck's getting hotter," Alexis commented. "We'd better get a move on."

They looked at the hallway leading back to the bridge, the sole source of light that didn't come from the luminous orb. The distant entrance was slowly disappearing under a wall of black goo.

"It's… fencing us in," Elliot said.

There was a loud gurgling noise from the far side of the hallway, and the goo suddenly exploded forward.

"Run!"

Alexis, Elliot, and Zoroark took off down the opposite side of the hallway as a solid black flood of goo surged down after them. The door at the end of the hallway was wide open. Alexis threw himself through the door, rolling to the side and grabbing the door handle. Once Zoroark and Elliot were through, he slammed the door shut and latched it.

The goo hit the other side of the door with a squelch, causing a sizeable dent. Alexis, Elliot, and Zoroark were all thrown back by the impact. Some of the goo began to ooze between the cracks. The deck was uncomfortably warm underneath them.

"We have to keep moving," was all Alexis was able to pant out. "No matter what." He got to his feet. "Come on."

~\({O})/~​

The deck only got hotter as they went on through the mass of hallways. It was soon evident that the whole ship was beginning to heat up, as the walls got hotter and hotter and some of the goo that clung to the surface was beginning to curl away as steam evaporated off its presence.

Zoroark's ears twitched as he heard the sound of glass cracking, and looked at the exposed window next to him, which had several cracks running down its surface. He quickly put it all together—

"Duck!"

Zoroark jumped forward, pinning both Alexis and Elliot to the ground just in time. The windows above them all exploded at once. Shards of glass buffeted the walls above them like a razor leaf. some of them nicked Zoroark in the mane hairs. He took a deep breath, shutting his eyes in pain.

Near the end of the hallway, there were screams.

Once it had all been silent for a few seconds, Zoroark got up off the two of them, and all three rose to their feet. Elliot was the first one to speak:

"Did you hear that?" he asked. "Over by the end of the hallway."

"Yeah," Alexis said, gingerly stepping around the glass shards around him. "I heard it." He pulled a scalchop from his side. "Let's make it quick."

There was a room near the end of the hallway with a door that had been broken clean off its hinges. The black goo was nowhere to be seen. Zoroark caught the last of it retreating into a nearby vent with a pained hiss.

Inside the room, a cranidos, a shinx, and a lopunny sat. They were all huddled up in the middle of the room, and every single one of them looked overheated in some way.

"Who are you?" Alexis asked, brandishing a scalchop. "Why are you here?"

The lopunny and cranidos cowered down at Alexis' brash interrogation. But the shinx spoke up.

"We're a rescue party. We're supposed to be finding out if there's anymon aboard this ship to save," he said with level tone.

"Then this awful thing made of goo chased us all the way in here!" the lopunny continued for Shinx. "We managed to hide in here before it could get to us. There's none of that black stuff in here. Then it locked us in. We've been trapped ever since."

"Well, until the door blew off," Shinx said.

"Why's it so hot in here?" Cranidos asked.

"Who sent you?" Alexis asked harshly, ignoring Cranidos' question.

"Calm down," Shinx urged. "We're all friends here."

"Who. Sent. You."

"Furret, of Noe Town. We'd contact him to show you, but our connection orb got smashed."

Zoroark-as-Braixen remembered the smashed connection orb in the hallway.

"Looks like our search party," Elliot said. Alexis lowered his scalchop in relief.

"Alright," he said. "You guys are clear. Follow us. It's time to get off th—"

The ship exploded.

The only warning the six pokemon had was an earsplitting bang before the cabin blew to shreds in a cacophony of steam pressure. The hallway outside was torn apart, and the roof of the ship was blown clean off. Lopunny acted fast. They raised a Magic Coat around the group of pokemon just in time, deflecting the falling debris from hitting or scraping them as it tumbled. The heat of the remaining deck under Zoroark's feet was almost unbearable by now.

"That wasn't the only one," Alexis grunted, getting to his feet. "We need to get to the boats. We're not far off."

"Wait—That was you?" Cranidos asked.

"Long story," said Elliot.

"What do you mean we're not far off?" Lopunny said, anxiously switching feet so they wouldn't get burned. "Our boat is on the other side of the ship! Where did you all park?"

"Same place as yours," Zoroark-as-Braixen said. He pointed in the direction of the door they had parked at, which was now almost completely level. "But we can just cut over that way. Now let's hurry!"

A clawed, pitch-black hand suddenly slammed itself onto the deck. The head of a Void Shadow slowly raised itself into view, growling lowly.

"That's it, time to go!" Alexis yelled, ushering the entire party into a run. With unnatural strength, the Shadow leapt into the air, and . For the first time, Zoroark saw that it had no eyes. And then he realized: it was blind.

And then an idea came to him.

"No, wait!" he yelled, running to the front of the group and shedding his illusion completely. "Stay still!"

The shadow spun its head in his direction, snarling and sniffing the air.

"You're- you're a—" Cranidos stammered in appalled shock. "Where's your sash?"

"Not your biggest problem right now," Zoroark growled. He turned back to the Void Shadow, which loomed over them. It sniffed the air loudly, then took another step towards the group.

Zoroark took a deep breath, steadying himself to produce an illusion. A phantom bang rang off to the left, that everymon heard. The Void Shadow's head turned towards the noise, and it sprang off in that direction.

"It hunts by smell and noise," he said. "I can keep it distracted long enough for us all to escape."

"Good call. The rest of you, come on!" Alexis waved the group onwards.

"You're working with a zoroark?" Cranidos asked in incredulity. Alexis pointedly ignored him.

The latter half of the ship exploded. The blast threw Zoroark, Alexis, and all the others sprawling to their paws. The deck took on a decidedly tilted slant.

They were almost at the ships now. The side of the Demertius was tilted dangerously far over towards the ocean, threatening to crush the small pair of boats below. Alexis was the first to reach the edge, skidding to a stop and waiting for the other five to catch up before he went over.

"Okay, we're going to have to jump," he said, pointing at the larger boat. "Stairway's gone."

"How are we going to make it down there?" Cranidos asked. "I wasn't made for heights…"

An unseen but very heard screech from the Void Shadow shut Cranidos up.

"You and me first." Alexis grabbed hold of Cranidos, and jumped over the side. They both landed on the deck of the larger boat safely. "Now the rest of you! Come down in pairs!"

Lopunny grabbed hold of Shinx and jumped over the side. They both landed next to Alexis and Cranidos.

Only Elliot and Zoroark were left. Elliot grabbed Zoroark's fur, and they were about to jump—

The Void Shadow bounded onto the deck with a loud screech and took a deadly swipe at Zoroark. Zoroark was knocked back onto the deck. Elliot tumbled down and fell onto the same deck the other four were on.

"Alright, let's go!" Cranidos yelled, heading for the steering wheel. "We're taking off!"

"What do you think you're doing?" Elliot bounded forward, pouncing for Cranidos, but Cranidos easily shook the much lighter pikachu off. Elliot was relentless anyway.

"Getting us out of here, that's what," Cranidos said.

"One of us is still left behind!" Elliot grunted, trying

"One of us isn't worth going back for!"

A water shuriken knocked Cranidos backwards from the wheel. He slammed against the end of the deck, falling to the ground unconscious.

"Watch who you're talking about," Alexis said from the deck. "Elliot, get us a good distance away from the Demetrius, but not too far, okay?"

"You got it!" Elliot took control of the wheel, and once the sails were drawn the boat began to speed up.

Zoroark slowly got up off the ground of the Demetrius' deck, which was almost too warm to touch. The Void Shadow didn't waste any time, punting him further away from the edge with another swipe of its claws. Zoroark was barely able to gather his bearings before the Shadow grabbed him in its claws, raising him up off the ground. Zoroark struggled to escape and slashed at tis claws wildly with his own, but black goo reinforced the Shadow's hand and made it too bulky to slice through. The goo tightened around Zoroark's ribs, and for a moment he thought he was done for…

Then, given the time to fully recover his bearings, he remembered. His kind were tricksters, for god's sake! It was time to pull a trick or two.

The Shadow's claws suddenly loosened their grasp on Zoroark at the feeling of something rapidly expanding between them, and Zoroark fell through the gap. There was of course, nothing in the Shadow's claws. He hit the deck running, making sure that the sounds of his footsteps were going in a completely different direction than the one he was. The Shadow's head snapped in the direction of the false footsteps, and it charged in the wrong direction.

Zoroark reached the end of the ship, and jumped over without hesitation. He didn't realize the ship had left without him until he saw it in the distance, and realized he was falling down into a sea of blue. He hit the water, and its cold enveloped him. The Void Shadow followed soon after, destroying the small lifeboat Zoroark had rowed out to the Demetrius in completely. If Zoroark had been above-water to see, he would have winced.

Not a moment later, the Demetrius blew apart completely with an earsplitting 'boom'. Shrapnel and debris flew into the air, and water was sent flying at least a hundred feet high. A large chunk of the ship collapsed on the Void Shadow, crushing it. It wasn't seen again.

Zoroark surfaced soon after the boom, but barely. He was trying to swim and keep is head above water, but it was cold and his fur was so heavy and he was tired and he couldn't do it much longer… All he was able to keep his eyes on as he desperately tried to keep himself above water was the shape of the ship in the distance, which had rolled to a stop.

"I see him back there!" Lopunny yelled out. Sure enough, Zoroark was flailing in the water, back towards the Demetrius. This boat wasn't going to reach him in time. Alexis looked down at the water, repressing another shudder. He didn't want to go in…

…But then Zoroark disappeared beneath the surface completely, and Alexis realized he had to.

"Oh, muk it."

Alexis steeled himself, then jumped off the side of the ship and dove into the water.

Zoroark sunk further and further down. The water felt like pins and needles on him. It was just too cold, and he was running out of air, and not a single illusion could save him now. Zoroark did his best to kick himself back up to the surface, but it wasn't enough. He felt weak. His eyes began to close…

Alexis dove deeper and deeper down, his body slipping back into aquatic senses he'd never had to fully use since he'd been forced to a couple of times as an oshawott. He blinked his eyes, and he could see clearly underwater again. He scanned the ocean, glancing around the pieces of debris to see the huddled for of Zoroark. Sinking. Alexis made a beeline straight for him.

Zoroark was almost twice as large as Alexis was, but water made things lighter. All it took as a little push, and some paddling from Alexis' flippers, and they both began to rise up towards the surface.

Alexis broke water, pulling the unconscious form of Zoroark up with him.

"Over here!" he called out to the ship in the distance. Ever so slowly, he saw the ship begin to make a roundabout turn and head for his position. Eventually it pulled up parallel to Alexis, and a lifeline was lowered by Lopunny and Shinx.

Zoroark was set on the deck, sopping wet and unconscious. Alexis fervently dried himself, trying get every single bit of the water off him. Just the thought of doing what he had just done made him shudder.

"I can take over." Lopunny switched positions with Elliot, taking over steering the ship. Elliot walked over and sat next to Alexis.

"Thank you," he said.

"For what?"

"For going back for that one life."

"Thanks." Alexis said. He let out a breath of relief and exhaustion. "What do we tell the public."

"Nothing," Elliot said.

"What do we tell HAPPI?"

"Everything."

"Think they'll believe us?"

"Probably not, but it's worth a try. We know what happened, at least. And we have enough clout they won't decommission us for the Demetrius' loss."

"What about the search party?"

"We pay them off. Tell them to contact us directly if they see anything like it. Make them feel like they're being useful."

"You always were better at this than I am." Alexis got up and cracked his joints. "Meet up at the docks?"

"Yep."

"Good."

Zoroark sputtered, coughing up some water.

"Oh, you're up." Alexis squatted next to Zoroark, checking to make sure he was fully awake.

"I don't know if you're up for it, but you probably want to have that illusion up by the time we land. I don't have a sash for you to wear right now."

~\({O})/~

Noe Town Docks​

The outcry began as soon as the boat docked in the harbor.

"What happened?"

"Why'd the ship explode?"

"Oh my! Are you all okay?"

"They made it out! All of them!"

"Was it pirates?"

"Quiet!" Alexis yelled. Silence immediately came over the crowd.

"Thank you," he said. Behind him, the rest of the crew shuffled out. Lopunny and Shinx, carrying an unconscious Cranidos, Elliot with his lazily flicking ear, and Zoroark, who was now Braixen again.

"The Demetrius was boarded at sea by pirate pokemon," Alexis continued, "and launched an attack on the docks when it sailed in. They took your search party hostage upon boarding, and when we attempted to free them they rigged the ship's engine to explode. We barely made it off the ship with our own lives in time. This maneuver, of course, came at the cost of the pirate pokemons' lives." Alexis made a show of looking downwards to the ground in shame. "Now, as fellow rescuers, know that neither I nor Elliot relish the prospect of death. But sometimes, like now, we find our paws forced. We could not bring these outlaws to justice. And perhaps, in cases like these, we find death is the greatest justice. A necessary evil. Thank you for your time."

The crowd began to resume its chatter at the end of Alexis' explanation, louder than ever.

"So it was pirates…"

"Were they sashed?"

"If they were sashed, I wouldn't care if they died, honestly."

"True that."

"Hey, who's the braixen?"

"No more questions," Alexis announced loudly. The questions continued anyway, blending into one other until they were all an unintelligible mass of voices overlapping with each other.

"I said no more questions!" Alexis' voice was lost out in the constant chatter of the crowd, which was louder than the most powerful cry his voice could muster by now.

"SILENCE!" A thunderbolt shot up into the sky, and made the storm above rumble. Everyone cleared away from Elliot, who looked just as laid back as he had before. "We said no more questions. Thank you."

Reluctantly, the pokemon in the crowd backed off, allowing Elliot, Alexis, and Zoroark-as-Braixen to walk through. Despite all the faces that were fixated on the three of them, Zoroark strangely cared about only one: the unmoving face of a xatu, perched upon the same pier it had been earlier, now staring directly at him and only him.

~\({O})/~

Klink 'N Klank's Diner​

Klink 'N Klank's Diner was a popular attraction of Noe Town. Located in the less shabby portion of town, the diner attracted a steady stream of tourists and made more than enough to break even. As such, it was perhaps one of the most colorful buildings in town.

Alexis had bought Zoroark a yellow sash to wear once they had properly gotten into the town – it was too risky for him to constantly keep up an illusion around pokemon that might be watching. It went around his arm, but he was one of the only pokemon around to wear one. He didn't understand why everymon else didn't have one too. Alexis didn't seem to have the heart to answer that question, so Zoroark hadn't pressed.

Alexis had reserved a table for three in the diner. Zoroark got a strange look every now and then from some of the diners, but it was nothing like that cranidos' outburst from earlier. He eagerly ate his portion of curry with a ferociousness that was unrivaled by all but a dungeon feral. Perhaps that was why all the diners were staring weird at him. He made an attempt to eat a little less sloppily.

"As we were saying," Alexis said, stirring Zoroark from his food. "Thank you for your help today. As promised, here's your side of the pay." Alexis sat a bag of money on the table.

Zoroark glanced at it in awe, then quickly licked his claws clean before he held it in his paws. "Wait," he said. "You're still giving me this? But wasn't this for—"

"Don't look a gift ponyta in the mouth."

That shut Zoroark up.

Alexis leaned forward, his voice lowering. He suddenly looked more serious than usual. "That's enough to buy you a bed tonight and get you off the continent tomorrow. Maybe even buy your own boat, who cares. But take the money and get out of here. There's nothing for you on this cold rock of a continent."

Zoroark gingerly took the sack of poke and held it tight. He finally had it. He wasn't going to die on the streets! A fuzzy warmth of security passed through him at the thought. Although, if he was going to have leave the continent tomorrow like Alexis said… Zoroark briefly shivered at the idea of stepping off dry land again.

Why did life always lead him back to boats?

~\({O})/~

Noe Town Harbor​

The storm had passed, and the sun shone over Noe Town once again. The hulking wreck of what remained of the Demetrius had been swept away by the wind and waves, with only a few pieces of debris floating up to the shore as a reminder of its existence. The smaller sailboats tethered to the dock had suffered little damage at all, and harbormon were readying their boats for days of travelling, trading, and fishing.

Zoroark-as-Braixen stood near the edge of the pier, looking out at all the sailboats. Unseen by anymon around him, his zoroark's mane flapped and fluttered in the wind. He held the sack of poke that Alexis had given him in his claws. The weight of it felt heavy in his paws.

Alexis' words rang heavy in his head: "Take the money and get out of here. There's nothing for you on this cold rock of a continent." Zoroark shook the pouch, letting the poke inside jingle. By the sound of it, he'd been given enough to buy a smallish boat. That would pay his fare for a wailord liner trip and many things beyond that. He could leave the continent right now, if he wanted. As for where he'd go… maybe back to Water. Somemon could help him there, for sure.

"But is that really what you want for yourself?"

Zoroark looked up in surprise, glancing up at the xatu he hadn't even noticed until then. It was perched on the harbor's guardrails, staring up at the sun in the same position he had seen it yesterday.

"H- how did you do that?" Zoroark asked.

The xatu looked down at him with the same piercing, unchanging stare it greeted the sun with every day. "How did I do what?"

"Finish my thought like that. How?"

"We humble xatu are Seers," the xatu answered calmly. "In other words, I can see the past and the many possible futures. I knew you would think before you thunk it." It turned back to the sun, meeting its rays with an unmoving stare once more.

Zoroark huffed, looking at all the boats. It wouldn't be long before a wailord liner arrived. He wondered if the xatu was waiting for the ship too.

"Life is like a series of twisting paths," Xatu said after a moment, as if he was talking to thin air. "Sometimes, the path seems straight, but it never is. It's filled with crossroads, that can change your future forever depending on which path you take. You don't decide your crossroads, but your crossroads decide you. I sense you are standing at a crossroads right now. Yet you do not know which path to take."

"The path seems pretty straight from here," Zoroark-as-Braixen said. "I'm hitching a ride out of this town, as soon as the next wailord liner shows up."

"And yet, you are indecisive. Can you be sure you are not at a crossroads instead?"

Zoroark was a dark-type, but he could swear this bird was reading his mind.

"If I'm at a crossroads, then what's the other path?" he asked.

"I cannot tell you your own future. But if I may, allow me to impart upon you the future of another." The xatu gracefully gestured to the right with a wing, and Zoroark looked over to see a bonsly haggling away with a krabby fishermon several boats across. A yellow sash hung from his arm.

"He is the father of three who has lost the boat he uses for his trade and cannot afford another," Xatu said. "He believes the storm has done away with it. But you and I both know better."

Immediately, Zoroark felt jittery. Surely it wasn't the same boat. It couldn't have been. And how did this Xatu know, anyway—right, seer or whatever.

Deep down, he knew it was the same boat.

"Without another, he and his family will starve to death come the Big Storm this year. Unless…"

"Unless?" Zoroark asked.

"Unless you offer a helping paw," Xatu said, glancing down at the purse in Zoroark's hands. "I understand there is just enough poke in that purse to buy another boat."

Zoroark clutched it tightly. He had gone through hell and back for this money. It was his ticket out of here, his ticket to safety. His ticket to a new life. How could he give it all up just like that?

"You're asking me to give away all my money?" he asked.

"To save lives infinitely more valuable than a few bits of gold, I would," Xatu said.

"But what about my life?" Zoroark asked. "What am I going to do without these "bits of gold"? They seem pretty valuable to me."

"His need is greater."

Zoroark felt the beginnings of a growl begin to stir in his throat. That magby hadn't been the one who had suffered through the nightmares aboard that ship, or spent a night adrift on the sea with an empty belly and soaked fur; why should he give up his hard-earned cash for a pokemon he didn't even know?

But the boat he had taken had been the magby's. It was only fair he pay off something he had stolen in the first place. The question was boiling up in his mind like a water gun: could he live with himself? Could he walk onto that liner, knowing that a family of pokemon were going to die because of his actions?

"You say he'll die without a boat?" Zoroark asked. "You know that for sure?"

"He and his family, yes," the xatu answered. "I have looked into his future; you are his last hope."

"And I'm the only one who can help him?"

"Yes. This is your crossroads. Which path will you take?"

And all of the sudden, neither path seemed like such a great option. Zoroark thought to himself for a moment. The distant bellow of a wailord sent him back to reality. If he had to choose…

…He would right his wrong. With a deep breath to stop his legs from shivering enough to make him lose his balance, Zoroark-as-Braixen began to walk across the harbor.

The magby was already walking away from the boat empty-handed by the time Zoroark-as-Braixen caught up with him.

"Here," he said, stiffly holding out the pouch of money. "For your troubles."

The magby tilted his head in confusion. "Who are you? And what's in that bag?"

"Poke," Zoroark-as-Braixen breathed. "Enough to buy you a new boat. I-" He stuttered, realizing that he shouldn't have even known. "-I heard you lost your old one."

It was a moment before the magby hesitantly jumped up and snatched the bag from Zoroark-as-Braixen's claws. His eyes brightened when he heard the jingle in the bag and realized that it was true.

"Well, thanks," he said. "I don't really know what else to say, but… thanks."

He looked up. No-mon was there.

"…Huh." He tilted his head again in confusion, then began to walk away with the sack of poke. Behind the invisibility illusion that Zoroark had cast, he sighed. Thin air deftly moved behind a stack of battered crates and walked out as a purple-furred braixen. He only had one option now.

It never occurred to him until the Xatu was gone that it shouldn't have been able to see his thoughts at all.

~\({O})/~

Noe Town Outskirts​

Alexis and Elliot were already on the outskirts of town by the time that Zoroark had caught up with them.

"Wait!" he called out, prompting both of them to look back. Alexis' face fell, like he was staring into the face of a battle already lost.

"Yes," he asked, turning around fully. "Something you need?"

"You're headed back into Pokemon Paradise, right?" Zoroark-as-Braixen asked. "I'd like to accompany you there."

"You'd be better-off sticking to the main path for that," Alexis said. "Elliot and I, we travel rough."

"I can take rough," Zoroark said, walking closer. "Travelling rough in a group is safer than travelling easy alone."

Alexis sighed. He looked to Elliot, who shrugged in response.

"If you think you can handle it," he said. "You're hunting for yourself, though. We only brought rations for two."

His eyes read with resigned disappointment: I told you to get out of here.

Zoroark's read with an optimism that Alexis both envied and pitied. He turned around, gesturing Zoroark-as-Braixen onwards as he and Elliot began to continue onwards. The last of Zoroark's illusion dissolved around him as the trio entered the mist-covered woods ahead.

~\({O})/~​

Music of the Week!

The Mole - Hans Zimmer

A Fateful Meeting - James Newton Howard

 

[SparklingEspeon]

~\({O})/~

26.

To Lively Town

~\({O})/~

Off The Coast of Grass

~Latias~​

The sun shines brightly over the ocean. It is hot.

Something right red shoots through the sky at neck-breaking speeds. It doesn't look back. It doesn't dare to.

They have been flying nonstop for two days, ever since Latios awoke her from their burrow in a secluded forest on Grass.

"We need to find the island!" he had told her. "That is the only place where we can trap it for good!"

They had taken off. She had asked questions. They were not answered.

Latias doesn't know if her brother has made it or not. She has called to him a couple of times, but he has not responded for the last hour or two. But to look back now means to lose some of her speed. It means to give the creature chasing her a gain. As much as it pains her, she can only look forwards.

Then, like a shining beacon of light upon a day of darkness, Latias spots it: sitting out in the middle of the ocean, a collection of uninhabited islands. That must have been her destination! She makes a beeline for the landmass.

She zips through the trees and swerves around as she finally lands on the ground, and only then does she see what has been chasing her: High up in the air, a massive, bird-like figure soars down towards her, made completely of black from beak to tail. Latios is nowhere to be seen.

The ground is painted a deep black, barren of any plants or trees even though the land around it flourishes. In the center is a rusted panel. Then Latias realizes what must be done: she remembers. She can search for her brother later, but first it is time to deal with their pursuer.

"Over here!" Latias yells, watching the massive bird fly down towards her. If it wants her, then she will lead it to its doom. She removes a single card from the panel, and suddenly the ground below her begins to rumble. She watches it crack away, sucked into the earth by a powerful force of darkness. It leaves only pitch black behind.

Yveltal cannot stop itself. It plunges into the void with a loud cry, and Latias wastes no time slotting the card back into its place. The island quakes with a might that shakes the trees around her, and she can only appreciate the fact she is airborne as she watches the ground beneath her patch itself up like it had never happened. Just like that, her pursuer is gone.

To rest is tempting. After two days of fleeing, Latias is tired and weary. But in her moment of peace, she studies her surroundings better. She sees the smashed wagons around her. The remains of a wrecked ship that lies at the bay. Somemon was here. And this seal has been broken recently. Latias rises up into the air and takes off. She needs to find her brother, wherever he may be. And then they both need to get to land.

~\({O})/~

Lively Mountain Range

~Espurr and Tricky~​

It was hot.

The sun shone down harshly upon the cliffs and steep pathways of the Lively Mountain Range, one of which two pokemon were currently scaling in a dazed rush.

"Water…" Tricky panted out, trying not to trip on or kick around any rocks as they scaled a narrow passageway up a steep mountainside. Her ears and tail drooped to show how parched she was. Espurr, walking alongside her, was just as thirsty, but she didn't have a solution. Aside from mentally kicking herself for being stupid enough to bring a bag full of everything but water.

They'd fled through the night, with high hopes that they'd be in Lively Town come the morning. The Water Continent couldn't be that big, after all… right? But it was high noon now, and all Espurr and Tricky could see around them were the vast expanse of mountains. All they had to go on was the taut string of hope that Espurr was following the map correctly, and they weren't simply wandering aimlessly throughout the mountains.

Traveler pokemon often crossed these paths when coming to and from Lively Town, so Espurr didn't understand why they were so narrow. A few of them probably wouldn't have even fit a trader's wagon. She reached into her bag and spread Ampharos' map, attempting to pinpoint their location on it. That was easy; the large mountain just ahead of them was outlined clearly on the map. That was the good news. With her eyes, she traced the path they were on and saw a big, red blotch on the map between them and Lively Town…

That was the bad news.

Behind her, Tricky let out a loud groan and let her legs give way. She slumped over onto the path.

"Espuuur," she whined. "I can't go on any longer! Don't we have any water?"

"No, we don't," Espurr said. She didn't see the point in sugarcoating it. "I'm thirsty too. But lying around isn't going to help any.

"Besides," she added, flapping the map in her paws for effect. "I'm sure there'll be water in Lively Town. This map says we're close."

Tricky's ears couldn't help but give a revealing perk upwards at that. She looked up at Espurr.

"How close?"

"It's just a couple of mountains over. We're nearly there. But…" Espurr turned around, waiting for Tricky to walk up to where they could both survey the massive mountain ahead of them. "We have to go through that big mountain first. And it's a mystery dungeon."

If Espurr was being honest with herself, this was the opportunity she had secretly been hoping for the entire trip. She knew they were being followed; she had seen the distant lights in the mountains during the night when they had travelled. The beheeyem were tireless and they weren't far behind. A mystery dungeon was the perfect opportunity to throw them off or slow them down. It would give them a few hours' worth of an advantage at worst, and if she was reading that map correctly, they'd be safely on the other side of the Lively Mountain Range by then.

Tricky pulled herself to her feet, walking over with a clearly artificial spring in her step. Espurr could see the weariness in it as well.

"Well, if we're that close… how bad can one mystery dungeon be?" she asked.

"Not too bad," Espurr said, more hopefully than anything. She just hoped it wasn't one of those ten floor monster dungeons. She steeled herself. "Not too bad at all. We can make it."

"That's the spirit!" Tricky sang, and the two pokemon set out on the remainder of their quest with renewed vigor the both of them knew in the back of their minds wasn't to last.

Behind them, in the distant mountain range, red, green, and yellow lights blinked.

~\({O})/~

Traveler's Pass​

"Here it is," Espurr said, panting. The rest of their trip from there had thankfully been downhill, but now they stood at the foot of the mystery dungeon that stood between them and Lively Town – the Traveler's Pass, it was called on the map.

The air vibrated around them; both Espurr and Tricky could smell the rancid scent of Mystery Dungeon. Espurr and Tricky looked at each other.

"Ready?"

"Ready!"

"Grab my paw. Together on three. One… Two…"

"Three!"

They both barreled into the dungeon—

~\({O})/~​

And fell out into the halls of a cavern that didn't look quite right in a heap. Espurr and Tricky picked themselves up, coughing from the dust that had just been pushed into their faces. A coughing fit that lasted far longer than it should have. Eventually, Espurr steadied herself against the cavern wall and managed to stop coughing long enough to catch her bearings.

The hallways of the cavern were twisted in ways that wouldn't have been possible outside of a mystery dungeon, with bits and pieces of sky and moss snaking in from the ground and walls. Inside of a dungeon, however, it was pretty normal fare. Espurr hardly even blinked twice. She watched Tricky get to her feet, slowly shouldering her bag and continuing in through the dungeon's halls.

The dungeon was deserted save for Espurr and Tricky, and not a hint of a bad scent floated in the air. After a while Espurr tentatively dropped her guard, realizing that this dungeon seemed to be devoid of enemies. Not that she particularly had the energy to fight one off if they did run into one (and she could sense off Tricky that Tricky didn't either). For the dungeon's emptiness, she was thankful.

It was on the second floor that they came across the remains of an overturned trader's cart. The trader was nowhere to be seen, and the rotten stench coming off the cart's insides made Tricky retch in disgust and Espurr cover her nose to block out the smell. It was to Tricky's surprise that she saw Espurr slowly inching towards the caravan, keeping one paw clamped over her nose and reaching the other out to pull off the cart's tarp.

"What are you doing?" Tricky gagged, covering her nose with her paws and wrinkling it the more the tarp came off. "That stuff's rotting!"

"Yeah," Espurr gasped between breaths she was taking with her mouth. "But… there might be…"

With a thwoomp, the tarp came off, revealing its contents to the two pokemon. Their eyes settled amongst one thing among all the other rotting goods:

"Water!"

Both pokemon scrambled over to the cart, thoughts of rotting goods and awful smells forgotten as they hoisted the large canister of water out of the cart. Tricky greedily stuck her head in and drank once they had gotten the lid open, and once she was done (Espurr had to stop her so she wouldn't drink it all) Espurr drank too.

The canister was empty before they knew it, and now that Espurr had drank, she felt hungry. But the rotting stench in the corners of her nostrils (and was some in her fur? She mentally shuddered at that) was enough to put her appetite on hold for a while. Anything they ate would probably just end up right back on the floor anyway.

With their thirst quenched, the two pokemon promptly picked themselves up, adjusted their bag and scarves, and continued on their way down the dungeon. Never once did the two of them question just what had happened to the driver.

The bear attacked on the third floor.

It came out of nowhere, with an opening swipe that flung Espurr from the floor into a nearby wall. Some of the rock chipped off where she hit it, breaking away to reveal endless blue skies on the other side.

Tricky immediately lashed out with an ember, but the bear snuffed the attack out of existence with its left paw. Tricky yelped and ran further back before the bear could snatch her up in its jaws.

Espurr peeled herself off the wall, watching the bear pursue Tricky further down the halls. Once she registered what was happening, she acted without thinking.

"Over here!" Espurr yelled, focusing her mental tendrils on the bear's stubby tail. Mercilessly, she yanked it.

The bear let out a whine of pain, trying to shake its rump free of Espurr's grip. Tricky hid behind a convenient boulder while it was distracted.

The bear's body force was too strong – Espurr couldn't hold on forever. She eventually lost her grip, watching in horror as the bear turned around and began to make a beeline straight for her.

She dived out of the way just as it made to pin her down, rolling over and out of the bear's reach. The bear slammed into the dungeon wall, its weight breaking away the rest of the rock formation. Now there was a large hole in the wall, revealing an endless expanse of blue skies beyond the dungeon's barriers.

Espurr felt the balance of the dungeon begin to shift, as her body began to slide down the floor that was quickly becoming the wall. Realizing where she was going to end up if she didn't move fast, she scrambled across the diagonally-tilted ground until there was a sturdy rock wall below her for her to land on.

The bear seemed to realize the danger it was in too, and it made to follow Espurr across. Espurr turned around and shot a blast of concentrated energy straight at the bear. The bear was blown back and fell through the hole, catching the rock wall that was now the ground by a single paw. It was too heavy – the rock that it had a pawhold on began to crack under its weight. There was nothing Espurr could do but gasp for air from where she was and watch the ground crack in abject horror and fascination.

All of the sudden, the rock gave out, and the bear was sent plummeting into the depths below. Its departure was punctuated by a howling roar that became softer and softer until Espurr's ears couldn't pick it up anymore.

Then there was only silence, and the hole.

Tricky slowly crept forward, ogling the hole in the ground. There was a strip of still-intact rock along the edges of what had once been right next to the roof. Tricky shimmied her way across, taking extra super care not to lose her footing and fall into the abyss.

"What happened?" she asked, once she had gotten across safely. "Why are we on the wall now? And why's there a hole in the wall? Did that hole do this?"

Espurr nodded in response to that last question. "I guess this is what happens when you break a mystery dungeon."

"I… I guess so," Tricky mumbled, cowed.

Neither of them mentioned the bear. The silent horror of the incident was unspoken between them.

~\({O})/~​

The Traveler's Pass was, thankfully, only three floors, but what had felt like thirty minutes inside the dungeon seemed to have taken the entire day instead. Espurr and Tricky staggered out into the sunset, looking up at the waning sun in the sky. But it didn't matter, at least in Espurr's mind. They were out of the hardest part; it was all going to be downhill from here! She felt her spirits raise just a little.

Until Tricky's stomach growled.

"Ugh…" she groaned. "I really wish we brought something to eat."

"I wish we did too," Espurr admitted. She was feeling the weariness inside her; all of her bones ached with the pains of having not rested for a day and a half.

Behind her, Tricky collapsed. She was panting, and looked run ragged.

"Can we stop here for the night?" she asked. "I'm so beat. We've been walking all night and all day! Don't you feel tired?"

Espurr had to agree. Silently, she turned around and fell on her rump, letting the bag on her shoulder slump down to the floor. Flickers of worry ran through her mind – they couldn't sleep here! What if their pursuers happened upon them while they were asleep? What then? But it was, ever-so-slowly, overrode by every bone in her body screaming out for a good night's rest she hadn't really had for the last week.

Tricky snuggled next to her, yawning and not-so-conspicuously laying her head on Espurr's bag as a pillow. Espurr lay there, keeping her eyes wide open. Even if they had to rest – even if she had to rest – she could still keep guard. There would be time to sleep when they got to Lively Town.

To Lively Town… Espurr's weary mind clung to that one phrase as she felt her eyelids begin to droop and she couldn't keep them open anymore and…

~\({O})/~​

Slowly coming to. Espurr blinked herself awake.

Her scarf was twisted and felt tight on her neck, and she could feel the dust in her fur. The sky above was black, illuminated only by the strong shining moon. It was nighttime.

In an instant, Espurr came to her senses. How long had they slept for? That was dangerous! If those beheeyem had stumbled upon them while they were sleeping…

…And yet, they hadn't. And Espurr couldn't deny she felt a little less tired. Maybe Tricky was right, maybe she was just too stressed out. For all she knew, the beheeyem weren't anywhere near—

The clack of some rolling rocks in the distance. Espurr froze. Speak of the—

But there was no use in trying to move now. That would only reveal their position. Espurr took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and reached out with her sixth sense.

She crept over the rugged walls of the mountain with the tendrils of her mind, feeling out for any other living thing in the area. It wasn't long before she found it: just around the corner from where she was sitting, a trio of living beings. She could feel the power they exuded, creeping ever closer. Creeping over the very rocks that Espurr's mind slunk back over. She saw in her mind the alien tendrils that advanced, and in an instant she knew exactly who they belonged to.

I see you…

Espurr's eyes shot open with a gasp sharp enough to alert anymon nearby to her presence. That voice again… But she didn't have time for that now. She could almost hear the beheeyem getting closer; the chase was up and she knew it.

"Tricky," Espurr hissed. She shook the fennekin violently until Tricky stirred with a whine. "Shh," Espurr cautioned, thrusting her arms out wildly.

"Whu…" Tricky looked up groggily, squinting to keep the moonlight out of her eyes. "What time is it?"

"It's the middle of the night, you need to get up, we're being followed and they're here," Espurr said in the space of a second, not even breaking to pause.

"We're being followed… ?" Tricky asked in tired confusion.

"Yes!" Espurr exclaimed as quietly as possible. She could feel herself trembling all over. She cast a frantic glance at the entrance to make sure they weren't here yet. "Get up, please!"

Tricky clumsily pulled herself to her feet, and Espurr snatched the exploration bag up once Tricky's head was off it. But it was too late. When Espurr and Tricky turned around, they faced the beheeyem.

The beheeyem moved slowly, as if savoring Espurr and Tricky's fear. Tricky finally seemed to realize the full scope of the danger as the beheeyem began to raise the rapidly flickering lights on their limbs in unison. She got into a battle stance, and Espurr followed suit.

Espurr had had enough. Her eyes narrowed – she concentrated on the cliff above her, and then directed a blast of psychic energy up at one of the rocks. It dislodged a ton of rocks, that all began to fall down towards them both—

Espurr and Tricky both jumped back just in time. The rockslide tumbled down with a series of loud crashes and completely blocked off the road in front of them. Slowly, they both raised themselves from the ground. The space behind the rocks was silent.

"Did we get them?" Tricky asked. Espurr didn't know.

But she was determined to find out. Closing her eyes, she began to reach out with her sixth sense again…

The avalanche of rocks suddenly exploded outward—

Both Espurr and Tricky were caught by projectile rocks flying away from the pile. Espurr was sent flying across the path and landed safely on her rump. Tricky was blown clear off the edge of the cliff. She caught the edge by a paw and nothing more.

"Espurr!" she cried out in terror, scrabbling with her other three paws to get a good pawhold on the cliff ledge. "Help me!"

The beheeyem were advancing through the settling dust. Their flickering lights blinked Espurr in the eye. Her head snapped over at the sound of Tricky's shouts, and she immediately dropped the bag and scrambled over to pull her back up onto the ledge. But it was too late – Tricky's one paw finally lost its hold on the ground. With a horrified yelp, Tricky fell off the cliff.

Espurr's world seemed to slow down. No, this wasn't happening. This couldn't happen. She wasn't going to let it happen. She couldn't. She was… She was going to…

Nearly ten feet below the cliff's ledge, Tricky found herself suspended in midair. She panted in fear, held in place. Visibly straining, Espurr slowly pulled Tricky back up on top of the cliff.

Once she was set on the ground, Tricky collapsed into Espurr's fur, shaking all over. Espurr hugged her tightly.

They had both forgotten about the beheeyem. Espurr didn't quite fully remember until she turned around and realized they were right there in front of here. Still holding tightly onto Tricky, she attempted to conjure up another mental blast to ward them off once and for all, but found herself struck by a splitting headache. The more she strained, the worse the headache became. It made her dizzy; her vision grew fuzzy and she could hear her pulse thundering through her ears. Her attack hovered in the air, then fizzled out. She saw the beheeyem raise their arms in unison, charging up a shadowy attack to finish both her and Tricky off. She wanted to escape, to roll out of the way at the last second or send another avalanche crashing down on top of them, but she was too dizzy to stand. All she could do was close her eyes and hope it would be quick…

An attack seemingly from nowhere landed in the middle of the battlefield, creating a loud boom that startled both Espurr and the beheeyem. Only seconds later, a cloaked figure slid down from higher on the mountain, landing in between the two parties. Both Espurr and Tricky watched in shock as the intruding pokemon twirled its staff for show. The beheeyem seemed to recognize the pokemon – whatever it was. They immediately turned tail and floated back down the mountain.

Espurr squinted, trying to make out their cloaked savior's species. But Tricky's eyes suddenly lit up in recognition.

"I know who that is!" she exclaimed in awe. "That's—"

Ampharos gave his staff one more twirl and firmly wedged the pointy end into the rocky ground beneath him as he watched the beheeyem run off like the ever-lousy cowards they were. He adjusted his cape and then walked over to Espurr and Tricky. The orb on his tail shone extra bright, acting as a lantern.

"Ampharos!"

Tricky broke the silence first, leaping over and wrapping Ampharos in a tight hug. Espurr watched Tricky with something between incredulity and shock, surprised that she would straight up trust what might as well have been a stranger.

Ampharos patted Tricky on the back with a paw, then stood back up.

"You two are a long way from home," he said. "I must ask: what brings you all the way out here?"

Espurr cleared her throat, making her best attempt to not look disheveled as she stood up. "We're headed to—"

"—To Lively Town!" Tricky excitedly finished for her. "We're going to join the Expedition Society with our junior membership!"

"Ah, Lively Town!" Ampharos exclaimed jovially. "It just so happens I'm headed there myself! And..." he glanced back in the direction the beheeyem had gone running for dramatic effect. He lowered his voice. "It seems the path is dangerous tonight. What say we travel the rest of the way together? I'll even see you to the Expedition Society when we get there."

"How do we know we can trust you?" Espurr asked.

Ampharos looked a bit taken aback. "Well, I gave you two your junior membership, did I not?"

"You never said why you did that."

Berry crackers. Ampharos had to think on that one for a minute. This child was shrewd.

"Do you need a reason to do something for somemon?" he finally settled on. He could feel the child's psychic tendrils probing the outer thoughts of his brain, but chose not to comment.

Espurr finally retracted her mind, somewhat satisfied that Ampharos had no malicious intent. She dusted herself off, and walked over to collect her bag. It had been thrown to the side when she'd landed.

Ampharos walked over to pick up his staff. The rancid air of the mystery dungeon painted the breeze from the path ahead. Wherever the beheeyem had run, they could not have gone far.

"We'd best get going, I'd say," Ampharos said, walking back to Espurr and Tricky with his staff once more. "Our shadowy pursuers are not far behind."

~\({O})/~​

They traveled until dawn. Espurr and Tricky were delighted to find out that Ampharos had brought along glorious food! The two of them greedily sunk their teeth into a pair of apples like they had never eaten before in their life. Ampharos, walking slightly ahead of them, took a polite bite of his own and tried to act like he had any idea of where he was going. (He didn't; he was just following the path.)

The path led them up and around one more big mountain, where the sun had finally risen enough to let the three pokemon see their surroundings without the help of Ampharos' tail. It wasn't long before Tricky, returned to her usual juvenile self and scampering ahead of the group, hopped upon a small boulder and promptly began to have a freakout session.

"We're here!" she crowed excitedly to the skies. Hopping off the boulder, Tricky sprinted all the way back to Espurr and Ampharos in the space of a second. "We're here! We're here! I can see Lively Town!"

Espurr's face brightened at that news. She quickened her pace and began to jog after Tricky. Once she was far enough away, Ampharos let out a silent sigh of relief. His awful sense of direction hadn't killed them after all.

Sure enough, Lively Town was just a downhill walk away. Jogging past the boulder, Espurr saw the town in all its brilliant colors, with vibrant shades of orange and green and red and purple dotting the town's roofs. In the middle, on a hill slightly elevated from the rest of the town, was a large purple building with bright yellow turreted roofs and a tower with a top floor that looked suspiciously like a connection orb.

"Look at that!" Tricky said loudly, pointing out the building with one paw while bouncing on the other three. "That must be the Expedition Society!"

"Right you are," Ampharos said from behind them. Espurr looked back to see him walking up with his staff. "What say we go get you both acquainted?" He yawned. "I could use a spot of rest on the side."

"Yes yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes!" Tricky screeched, bouncing higher than a spoink. She eagerly led the way down the mountain and to the entry archway of the town, and even Ampharos had to run a little bit to keep up.

~\({O})/~

Expedition Society Headquarters​

The Expedition Society had looked small from afar. Now that Espurr was closer, it loomed above her. The tall tower in the middle reached at least four stories high – taller than any building in Serenity Village. Espurr, Tricky, and Ampharos were all cast in its shadow.

Ampharos held back, pretending to be busy checking some of the missions on the billboard. When Espurr looked back he silently waved them both off into the building. Tricky took the invitation without hesitation, pushing open the giant double doors and dashing in. With one last wayward glance at Ampharos, Espurr reluctantly followed.

~\({O})/~​

The Expedition Society's lobby was dazzling and took both Espurr and Tricky off guard. The floors were decked out in the same brilliant colors that the outside of the building sported, and a large staircase with golden railings stood in front of them. But for all its fanciness, the lobby was completely empty.

"Where are all the explorers?" Tricky's befuddled voice cut through the silence.

"Oh!"

Both Espurr and Tricky's heads turned to see a small Dedenne with a bunch of papers in its hand. It quickly straightened the papers, set them aside, and scurried forward. "Hi! Welcome to the Expedition Society. May I—"

She held her paw out, then realized that Tricky wasn't the best candidate for a paw-shake, then offered it to Espurr instead. Espurr just watched it warily.

"Um…" Dedenne cleared her throat, a little uneasy at Espurr's silence. "Sorry, you caught us a bit early today. Technically we don't open for another half-hour, but here's what I can do—" she scurried back to her stack of papers, and took a blank one. "—I can have you write down your mission request right here, and one of our esteemed members will get on it shortly after we open!" she grinned widely, then faltered, looking down at the paper. "No, wait, you'll probably want one with the proper form…"

Quick as a flash, she snatched the paper back and ran back over to the stack.

"Agh! So disorganized today…" Espurr heard her snap to herself as she rummaged through the papers.

"I think there's some kind of misunderstanding," Espurr said. She took a deep breath, preparing "We're looking for—"

"—To join!" Tricky cut in, finishing Espurr's sentence. Espurr looked at her with shock. That was not the right ending to that sentence.

Dedenne looked just about as shocked as Espurr. She let out a little titter of nervousness.

"I'm… sorry," she began, "but that's a bit above my pay grade. Besides, you two are still kids! Why don't you come back when you're a bit older?"

Tricky locked up. Her ears flopped downwards, and she began to tremble. Espurr was hit with red-hot waves of emotion coming straight from her. It sent her reeling to the side a little, and she had to move somewhat further away from Tricky before it was bearable.

"It's alright, Dedenne; they're with me." Ampharos' voice cut in cleanly, putting a stop to Tricky's emotional crisis.

"Chief!" Dedenne immediately straightened up, going back to picking up her papers. "You... left. Again." She cleared her throat perfunctorily.

"I had an important matter of business to attend to," Ampharos replied. "Namely, rescuing these two." He gestured to both Espurr and Tricky, standing in the background.

"Wait," Espurr said, looking at Ampharos. "'Chief'? You're the chief here?"

Ampharos frowned wryly.

"Well, that jig's up."

He flashed his cape again, ruffling Dedenne's papers. "Indeed!" he declared loudly, taking a flamboyant pose. "Know me as Ampharos, proud Chief of the Expedition Society!"

"Chief, could you cut down a bit on the declarations please?" All four 'mon in the room turned to see Bunnelby, walking into the room like he'd just been resurrected from the grave. "I just woke up; all this noise is makin' my ears fall off."

"Ah, sorry for that," Ampharos gave a graceful bow of apology. "Good to see you up and at 'em."

Bunnelby 'hmm'd in acknowledgment as he took a spot near the wall to finish waking up.

"Wait." Tricky perked up again, looking like she had the key to saving the world. "If you're the chief, then you call all the shots around here, right?"

In an instant she was pressed up tight against Ampharos' leg, hugging it like her life depended on it and staring up at Ampharos with baby doll eyes. "Can we join? Pleeeeaaase?"

Ampharos couldn't say no to eyes like that. (And of course, it was the perfect excuse he needed – not that he was saying that aloud.)

"Of course," he said jovially, ignoring the looks of shock from both Dedenne and Bunnelby. The greatest look of shock came from Espurr, but it was quickly replaced by one of silent understanding. If Ampharos had left Lively Town specifically to rescue them… maybe he'd wanted this all along.

"Why are you doing this?" Espurr asked.

"Why not?" Ampharos replied.

"There is an age-restriction rule imposed upon us by our parent organization," Dedenne noted.

"I'm sure they won't mind." Ampharos brushed it off nonchalantly. He turned to Espurr.

"Why don't you stick around for the briefing?" he said. "You haven't met everymon here yet."

Espurr was about to ask why they should, but Ampharos walked past her and planted his staff against the wall.

"All will be explained in due time," he said, reading her eyes.

Espurr folded her arms. She'd hold Ampharos to that. Especially since Tricky was far too awestruck to listen to reason right now.

One by one, the members of the Expedition Society trickled into the room. Espurr counted a bird pokemon who looked very tired and grumpy, a buizel who was busy stretching, a trio of pokemon off to the side who were quietly bickering amongst each other, and something puffy with a huge tongue she was getting obscene mental vibes off of.

"Morning, all." Espurr looked up at the top of the stairs, where perhaps one of the strangest pokemon she had ever seen stood: the lower part of their body was comprised of two bushy pant legs, and they sported a large maw on the backside of their head.

"Ah, morning." Ampharos bowed politely. "I believe that's all of us."

"It would seem so," Mawile said, walking down the stairway. Her eyes settled on Espurr and Tricky, but she didn't say anything.

"Now that we are all gathered here," Ampharos said, his voice the only sound in the room. "I have a special announcement to make." He gestured to Espurr and Tricky. "Effective immediately, consider these two brave young explorers members of the Expedition Society. Feel free to introduce yourselves."

Ampharos wisely backed off, and let the chaos reign.

"Wait a minute." Buizel was the first one to break the silence. "These pichu? Explorers?"

"Yes," said Ampharos.

"I have to share with two more pokemon now?" Swirlix cried out.

"Yes," said Ampharos.

"Permission to be exempt from introductions, chief?" Nickit muttered from the sidelines.

"No," said Ampharos. He looked at Espurr and Tricky. "Would you two like to start?"

"I'll start!" Tricky hopped up and strode into the middle of the room. "Hi! My name's asecret, but you can call me Tricky! I've always wanted to join the Expedition Society and now I'm here!"

The entire room was left silent in the wake of Tricky's declaration.

"I'm Espurr," Espurr added helpfully from the sidelines. "I'm Tricky's partner. Hi."

Somewhere in a corner, Jirachi, who had forgotten to take his remedy again, snored loudly.

Mawile leaned in towards Ampharos. "Permission to speak to you in my office, Chief?"

"Granted," said Ampharos.

~\({O})/~

Mawile's Office

~Ampharos~​

"I implore you to reconsider whether this is a wise decision," Mawile said, reshuffling some books on her ever-cramped desk. "We can house them. We can train them. But they are not old enough to join as registered explorers. We'd be in breach of our contract with HAPPI!"

"They have been on our guild register for almost a month, Mawile," said Ampharos. "Simply moving where they lodge does not change much."

"And you saw fit to register a pair of children from the middle of nowhere onto our guild system anyway?"

"I… did." Ampharos had a rare fit of silence. "I needed to be able to track them, in case they were in danger. And we need to be able to keep them here. The expedition gadget accomplished that purpose. Now we need to give them a reason to stay. Removing them from the register now will only give them reason to leave, and we can't risk that."

"And how do you intend to explain yourself to the authorities when we reach our next checkup?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we reach it."

There was silence for a moment. Mawile broke it, sighing in defeat. It was clear she didn't approve.

"I pray you know what you're doing," she said.

"Have faith," Ampharos replied. "You were a child once, too."

"My child years are not ones I wish to emulate," Mawile stated. She dug through her desk, finally pulling out the book she was looking for.

"However. That is not the only thing I wish to consult you about."

"Hmm?" Ampharos asked.

"I've found something of importance regarding those shadow monsters. It concerns both you and Bunnelby. "I'm aware he's free today?"

"You'd be better off asking Dedenne that, I'm afraid," said Ampharos.

"I'll call him in." Mawile pulled her expedition gadget out of her bag, slotting her connection orb in. "If he has a mission today, I don't think he's left yet."

~\({O})/~

Expedition Society Headquarters ~ Midday​

The introductions continued on for what felt like almost a half-hour, and Espurr had to shake almost every paw and wing. There was Buizel, the put-together and cocky one, and Archen, who seemed every bit the opposite. Holly, Granite, and Cinder were an independent rescue team who had been assigned to the Expedition Society by HAPPI to fill their member quota. Nickit was snide and her mind was unreadable to Espurr the same way Pancham's was, but promised to patch them up if they ever got hurt. Jirachi was asleep, and for some reason no-mon dared to wake him.

Ever-so-slowly, the crowd dispersed, with varying degrees of reactions to Espurr and Tricky's arrival. Espurr noted that the slobbery tongue thing was too busy slobbering to properly greet her, but it slunk off to whatever awful lair it must have made for itself in the kitchen so she pointedly didn't bring it up.

Tricky had promptly excused herself on a self-hosted tour of the building as soon as the introductions were over, which left Espurr alone in the lobby, for the most part. Bunnelby, one of the quieter 'mon in the room, suddenly opened his bag and pulled out a brightly shining connection orb. He slotted it in an expedition gadget just like the one Espurr had in her own bag, and pressed a button near the top.

"Hmm? You need what?"

A pause.

"No, I'm free today. I'll be right there."

Bunnelby removed the orb, stuffed it and the gadget back in his bag, and then hurried up the stairs in a flash. Espurr watched him go. She looked around the lobby, which was now completely empty apart from herself and Jirachi's snoring. The morning had been eventful as the night before it and she felt exhausted. But to simply crash somewhere in the building would be impolite, especially when they hadn't even been given rooms to sleep in yet.

In that case… Espurr looked around to see which direction Tricky had went, and then tentatively headed there. She might as well catch up with her teammate.

~\({O})/~

Expedition Society Headquarters ~ Second Floor​

Clack. Mawile rolled the shutters over the windows on the second floor of the building, casting the room into darkness. The room was in projector mode, and the only pokemon inside were Mawile, Ampharos, and Bunnelby. The Pokemon Nexus projected light through a connection orb and onto the wall. Mawile clicked buttons on the panel; photographs of paw-written pages from an ancient textbook flashed across the wall.

"Thank you for attending,'" Mawile began. "The ancient text we see in these photographs dates back almost 10,000 years. It tells the story of the downfall of the Humans. Porgyon's writings speak of an alternate horror world filled with monsters beyond one's imagination."

Another click of the button. Claw-drawn images of a Void Shadow flickered onto the screen, as well as a blood-red mountain enveloped by fire.

"It tells of three seals, built across the world, meant to keep these monsters where they came from. One on the Water Continent. One on the Sand Continent. And one built on a desolate island, forever lost to sea. These seals plug the cracks between our world, and theirs. If one or more were ever to open, living hell would be unleashed upon us. But these seals erode naturally, and only by the means of ancient human artifacts placed at these sites can they be closed once more."

A click from the machine, and the photo on the wall changed to something much more modern – a picture of the Sand Continent.

"Observe," Mawile continued. "On the Sand Continent, there exists a dungeon known as the Sands of Time, that fits the criteria of this legend almost perfectly. While I would normally consider it folly to base my conclusions simply on legend, considering recent events I think it prudent to take action upon what little information we may have regarding this. Bunnelby, as group spelunker, I've chosen you to travel over to the Sand Continent and scope out the dungeon for us. You are only required to take pictures and report back to the Society. If you see anything out of the ordinary, report right back here. Is that understood?"

Bunnelby nodded.

"Yes, Ma'am," he said. "I-I'll be leaving tomorrow, right?"

Mawile nodded. "Of course. Feel free to take the day off and prepare."

"I will." Bunnelby stood up and picked up his bag. "I may leave now?"

Mawile nodded.

~\({O})/~

~Espurr~​

The dinner tasted somewhat tart that night, as if Swirlix' displeasure at having to share her normal excessive food portion with two more pokemon had leaked into the ingredients she used to cook. But it wasn't anything strong enough to complain about, and so no-mon did. After dinner, Espurr and Tricky were led by Dedenne to their rooms. Tricky had already given herself a tour of the building and thus knew the hallways well for somemon who had only been there a single day, but Espurr found them foreign to her despite wandering around them for a bit. She'd never been in a building this large before – every hallway seemed like it went on for miles, and there were multiple doors leading down both sides.

"This is where you two will sleep," Dedenne said, leading them through a room with an overhanging curtain attached. "There's beds set up for you both already. I'd suggest using them; you'll be up bright and early tomorrow."

She left, and soon after the lights in the hall went out.

Espurr and Tricky settled into the two straw beds in the room, winding down for the night. Espurr appreciated how comfortable the bed was compared to the rocks of the mountain range.

"Can you believe it?"

The sound came from Tricky's side of the room. Espurr lifted her head up from the bed, wearily.

"Believe what?"

"That we're actually here! I never thought we'd get to make it here, or even join! But here we are… it feels like a dream."

Espurr found herself agreeing with Tricky. It all felt like a dream. She could see the many lights of Lively Town glittering outside their window; a dazzling sight she never would have fathomed was possible back in Serenity Village. But yet, it was so far from home, and this building full of pokemon she barely knew couldn't count as a home to her yet. No matter how much Tricky seemed to blindly follow them.

"It does," was all she said in response.

"Do you think we'll get to go on a mission tomorrow?" Tricky asked.

Espurr hoped not. She wanted a day of rest, at the very least.

"We might. If we can get up for it first. Aren't you sleepy?"

"Yeah… night, I guess."

Tricky snuggled down into her straw bed, closing her eyes and falling silent. Espurr turned the other way, trying not to think about the events of the past day.

Just what had they gotten themselves into?

~\({O})/~​

Music of the Week!

Floating/Neverland Ahoy - John Powell