Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Reflecting Balance

[DarkerShining]

Hi! It's me, EeveeandKirliafan (or DarkerShining, as my username will be changed to sometime next month). Remember me? The girl who kept talking about how she had so many ideas for fanfics? Well, after several years of trying to write something, only to get stuck on various small details, I. Have. Finally. Done. It.

I'm really excited about finally getting to do this, and also kind of nervous. I began working on this fanfic several months ago, and after working on developing the idea, writing up the first draft of the first chapter, and then rewriting and editing it a few times, I feel I have finally made something worthy of sharing with people. I really hope you will enjoy this fanfic. I know there are some areas where I could improve, but I'm sure you guys can help me with that.

Before we begin, I would like to dedicate this story to my friends over at TV Tropes, that are all part of this Pokémon RP I participate in. They gave me the inspiration for this story, and helped me work on developing my ideas. Thank you guys, I love you all!

Well, let's get started, then. Read, review, give constructive criticism and all that.

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Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Reflecting Balance

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Chapter 1: Just because one can’t see something, it doesn’t mean that it is not there.

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It was a dark and stormy night, as cliché as that sounds. Dark clouds filling the sky, rain pouring down, lightning flashing in the distance. One wouldn’t think anyone would be out on a stormy night like this, and yet there was a strange flying Pokémon resembling a big orb with a fork like tail, fork like talons and wings also vaguely similar to forks, flying above a forest. The bizarre flying Pokémon looked down at the forest below it with its one eye, looking for another Pokémon that was hiding from it.

“Where are you, little one?” the strange Pokémon asked, trying to use psychic powers it possessed to locate the other Pokémon. “I will find you, and then I will take that crystal from you!”

In the forest below, a small Pokémon wearing a gray cloak to protect it from the rain heard the Sigilyph flying above the forest calling out to it. The little Pokémon was hiding in some bushes, but knew that it was only a matter of time before the Sigilyph managed to find its hiding spot. The Pokémon in the gray cloak looked down at the transparent crystal it was holding, having tried its best to prevent the Sigilyph from stealing it. But what could a small Pokémon like itself do? There was no way it was strong enough to fight back against the thief, and it has already used up most of its energy when it had taken the crystal away before the Sigilyph could steal it.

Suddenly, a pitch black ball of energy from above flew towards the bushes where the Pokémon in the gray cloak was hiding, forcing the smaller Pokémon to jump out of the way to avoid the attack, dropping the crystal it had been protecting on the ground in the process. While it managed to avoid being hit with the Shadow Ball attack, it had also been forced out from the bushes it had been hiding in, and was now laying on the ground in plain sight of the Sigilyph hovering above the forest.

“There you are…” the Sigilyph began ominously hovering down towards the Pokémon in the gray cloak.

The Pokémon in the gray cloak got up to its feet, nervously backing away as it saw the Sigilyph floating down towards it, until it tripped over something on the ground. It tried to get back up quickly, only to suddenly find gravity’s pull intensifying and holding it down. It managed to glance up to the see the two eyes on the Sigilyph’s orb like body and the third one on what resembled a black beak on top of its head glowing, the Sigilyph clearly being the one who was causing gravity to become much harsher like this. The smaller Pokémon helplessly lay there as the bizarre bird Pokémon was now hovering directly above it, three ominously glowing eyes staring it down.

“Well, this was a fun little chase, wasn’t it?” the Sigilyph closed in on the Pokémon in the gray cloak. “But I’m guessing making you pay for trying to interfere with my plan can be fun too…”

---

The sun was slowly rising in the distance, and in a small town with buildings made at least partially from stone, several Pokémon had already gotten up, having work to do before the warm rays of sunlight told everyone it was morning. The various Pokémon in charge of the different shops removed the cover that had kept their stand safe from the rain during the storm the previous night, and were busy setting up before the Pokémon requiring their services, mainly rescue teams, showed up. Some Pokémon were checking some wooden poles that had a gemstone tied to the top of them, making sure the pole had not been damaged in any way by the storm and that nothing was blocking the crystal on top from absorbing sunlight.

As the sun rose higher up into the sky, spreading its light over more and more of the area as the Pokémon working at the shops finished getting things ready, it didn’t take long before various Pokémon that were part of rescue teams were up and headed into the town to get ready before heading out on a mission. Some of the leaders of the teams were discussing which missions they were going to handle that day while getting themselves ready:

“Hmm… Seems I do not have enough money, so I’ll have to put this Reviver Seed back,” a Pokémon resembling a giant wasp said as he looked over the items he had purchased. A nearby dark furred fox overheard.

“Don’t you hate it when that happens?” the fox inquired. “I mean, why don’t you take missions where there’s a higher reward?”

“Because being a rescue team is about helping others, not about receiving great rewards,” the Beedrill buzzed.

“So, wait… Didn’t you get anything yesterday from helping that Armaldo?” the Zoroark asked, tilting her head slightly.

“No, I did not, but I’m fine with that, just knowing I helped someone,” the Beedrill responded. “The Armaldo felt kind of bad about not having any reward for me, but I told him not to worry about it.”

“Sting sure has the right attitude about being on a rescue team, doesn’t he?” another dark furred Pokémon commented as he walked over to the other two rescue team leaders.

“Well, sure, that’s nice and all, but I only do missions that I know I can make a good profit from!” The Zoroark stated, smirking as she looked at a piece of paper. “Like this mission here; some Glaceon is paying good money if I can help him find a present for some Espeon that I assume is his girlfriend!”

“Ooh! A mission of love!” the Umbreon exclaimed, excitedly wagging his tail. “Those are my favorite missions!”

“So, let me guess… You’re escorting some Pokémon to meet with the one they love again today?” the Zoroark inquired with a slight smirk across her face.

“I sure am!” the Umbreon nodded, blushing somewhat with a dreamy look on his face. “Today I’m escorting a Dunsparce into the Lush Valley so he can meet with his beloved Purrloin! Isn’t it romantic? Young love is so wonderful.”

“What’s this about young love?” a young female voice inquired, the three rescue team leaders looked over to see two young Pokémon, a brown furred Pokémon with long pointy ears and a fluffy tail, and a lion cub Pokémon with blue fur on the upper half of his body, and black fur on the lower half.

“We weren’t talking about you or anything like that,” the Zoroark commented with a slight smirk.

“What do you mean by that?” the blue lion cub inquired, finding this to be a very strange thing to say.

“Relax, I’m just kidding!” the Zoroark said, petting the young Shinx on the head. “We were just talking about what missions we’ve done recently.”

“Oh…” the Shinx said, awkwardly rubbing the yellow rings on his forelegs against each other, creating blue sparks of electricity between them. He still didn’t understand why the Zoroark said this. Maybe she was just trying to see what kind of reactions she’d get?

“What mission are you two kids taking on today?” Sting asked.

“Don’t know yet!” the brown furred Pokémon replied, the Eevee happily wagging her fluffy tail. “Before we do head out on a mission, though, we first have an errand to run for Stella.”

“Ooh, the town oracle?” the Zoroark inquired, before leaning down and pulling the two young Pokémon as if to whisper something to them. “Say, could you do me a favor and ask her if I’ll find any big treasures in the future? Like gold, or coins, or gold coins…”

“Forget that!” the Umbreon blurted out. “Ask her about love! Find out which Pokémon will get together in the near future!”

“Is that all you two care about?” Sting asked, giving the two a quizzical look.

“Hey, Mirage may only think about herself and money, but everyone needs love!” the Umbreon responded.

“What’s that supposed to mean!?”

As the two Pokémon started arguing, while Sting tried to keep the two dark types from starting a full on fight in the middle of town, the Eevee took this opportunity while the three were distracted to lean over and whisper to her teammate:

“Hey, Blitz, let’s get out of here,” she whispered, the Shinx nodded in agreement.

“Okay, Sera.”

The two then quietly slipped away, and continued heading towards the east exit of town, so they could go see Stella and finish that errand they had promised.

---

Stella’s home was just a short walk away from the town, and like the buildings in the town, it was built from stone. It was bigger than most of the buildings in town, even having a second floor; it had likely taken a lot of time and effort for whoever built it. One of the features that really stood out was that the stone building had a hole in the roof, from which stars could be seen at night without going outside. Said hole would of course be covered up if it was raining, like during that storm the previous night. Stella the Gothitelle was currently having a talk with her young daughter, a young Gothorita that had started having visions of the future herself.

“Bow, for many generations now, a member of our family has been in the position of town oracle,” Stella explained, the white ribbon like feelers on each of the four layers of the black dress-like layers on her body, and the one on the back of her head began glowing.

Bow the Gothorita nodded her head slightly, moving the fingerless tip of her arms towards the two buns on each of her head resembling pigtails, which each had two of the ribbon like feelers attached to them, as well as two on the dress like part of her mostly black body. She tried not to lose her concentration on what her mother was saying as she touched one of the white ribbon shaped feelers on one of her pigtails, it felt kind of warm to the touch. Maybe it was because she had recently been using her psychic powers? Or did they always feel warm? Bow hadn’t really thought much about it.

Stella noticed that her daughter was starting to lose her concentration, and figured it was best to catch her attention once again. Stella’s blue eyes began to glow, as did the bow like feelers on her own body. This caught Bow’s attention once again, as Stella began to levitate and made a projection of a starry sky appear around them.

“Our powers comes from the stars, by looking up at them, we receive our visions. This information we can share with the Pokémon that seek our advice, our wisdom.” And with that, Stella abruptly made the illusion vanish, startling her daughter somewhat.

“Bow,” Stella said, floating back down to the floor. “Someday, you will take my place as the oracle, and Pokémon will come to seek your wisdom.”

“They will?” Bow tilted her head slightly.

“Of course,” Stella nodded, looking into her daughter’s eyes, which were blue just like her own.

“I… find that kind of hard to believe,” Bow said, looking down at her legs. “I mean, I’m not very wise, or anything…”

“Well, you might not be ready yet, but some day, you will be,” Stella replied, placing her light purple hand on her daughter’s shoulder, giving her a reassuring smile.

“But… I’m also very forgetful… What good would I be as an oracle if I can’t even remember my visions?”

“You could write them down?” Stella suggested.

“I tried that, but I forgot where I wrote it down, and where I put the thing I wrote them down on,” Bow responded, looking down sheepishly.

Stella couldn’t help but chuckle a little bit, only to stop as she noticed her daughter’s embarrassment over the whole thing. Before Stella could offer her daughter anymore advice, or do anything else for that matter, Stella felt a presence from downstairs, two presences actually.

“Ah, we have visitors,” Stella said, and began walking down the stone stairs, Bow following closely behind.

“Stella?” Sera called out as she and Blitz entered the house, pushing away the curtain covering a hole in the stone wall that was essentially the front door. It didn’t take long before Stella and Bow came down the stairs.

“Ah, hello there, Serafina,” Stella said, addressing the Eevee by her full name. “Oh, and you too, Blitz.”

“Hi there,” Blitz said, awkwardly looking around. There were a few slots carved out in the walls, with some purple crystals in them, which were capable of glowing in the dark. Blitz guessed they were probably either powered by starlight, or the psychic energy from Stella. There were a few empty slots in the wall, but what he and Sera were delivering would take care of that.

“Here are the purple light crystals you requested!” Sera said, sticking her face into a bag she was carrying, and pulling out a smaller bag with her mouth, placing it on a table. Stella then opened it and examined the purple crystals inside.

“Excellent, these are exactly the crystals I requested. Well done you two!”

“Oh, it was no big deal; anyone could’ve done that, really…” Blitz commented, awkwardly rubbing his forelegs against each other, creating more little sparks between them.

“Well, yes, anyone could, but that doesn’t guarantee that anyone would,” Stella explained, wagging her finger. “Everyone is different. They may have different tastes, different priorities. Some rescue teams have different motives, and may not accept just any mission.”

“You mean like Mirage, and how she only does missions she knows she can get a big profit from?” Sera asked, tilting her head slightly to the left.

“Yes. There are indeed some rescue teams who only do it for the rewards, while some are just out to find the biggest adventures they can.” The Gothitelle smiled as she looked at the two young Pokémon. “While they’re all good, I like to believe that the best rescue teams are often the ones who remember that rescue teams exist to help others.”

“Well, that’s nice and all, but, Sera and I have only been a rescue team for just a little over a week.” Blitz said. “We can’t really call ourselves a great rescue team…”

“Well, maybe not now, but someday,” Stella said, smiling. “I certainly see a lot of potential in you two, and I believe you two have the capability to become a really great rescue team in the future.”

“Do you really think so?” Sera exclaimed, her ears perking up in excitement.

“Yeah, do you mean it, or is this something you say to any young rescue team to make them feel better about themselves? Not that I’m questioning your judgment or something, I… I just…” Blitz awkwardly looked down at his paws. “I just don’t see what you mean… I’m just like every other Shinx, there’s nothing special about me.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that, everyone is special in some way, even if they don’t always see it.” The Gothitelle kneeled down, petting the young Shinx. “Just because one can’t see something, it doesn’t mean that it is not there.”

“What do you mean?” Blitz asked, tilting his head sideways in confusion.

“Oh, that’s something you’ll have to figure out on your own, dear,” Stella said, giving the young electric lion cub a reassuring smile.

“I’ll… take your word for it, then?” Blitz really wasn’t sure how to respond to this, or what it was he was supposed to look for.

“So, we’re really going to become an amazing rescue team?” Sera asked again, still excited.

“You certainly will,” Stella said to the excited little Eevee. “Of course, you do have to work for it.”

“Don’t worry, we will definitely work hard!”

Stella then noticed that her daughter had just been standing around in the background this whole time, unsure how to contribute to the conversation in any way.

“Hey, Bow? Why don’t you pick out two Oran berries for Blitz and Sera as their reward for taking the time to run this little errand for us?”

“Oh!” the young Gothorita instantly perked up. “Sure! I can definitely do that!”

The young psychic type walked over to a basket full of berries, telekinetically lifting two blues ones out of the basket and levitating them across the room to Sera.

“Wow! You’re really giving us two Oran berries?” she asked as she looked up at the two blue berries floating in front of her.

“You didn’t really have to…” Blitz added, awkwardly rubbing the yellow rings on his forelegs together again.

“Oh, it is no problem at all! I want you to have them!” Stella said, smiling sweetly.

“Thanks! I promise we’ll use them wisely!” Sera said as she accepted the two berries and placed them inside the bag she was carrying.

“Well, I guess you two should get going now, and take care of some missions?” Stella reminded the two.

“Oh, that’s right! Come on, Blitz! Let’s get to it!”

“Okay.”

And with that, the two young Pokémon left Stella’s house and began heading back to the town. Before heading out to a mystery dungeon, the two were going to head over to the rescue team HQ to check what missions were available for them. Little did they know, that the adventure they would go on today would be the beginning of an even bigger adventure.

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End of chapter one

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[solovino]

Hey, future Darker Shining. And congratulations for publishing the fic.

Was expecting to read this for a while, and while it opened quite different than what I had expected, it definitively did not disappoint. I like how as soon as they are introduced several characters are given a distinct trait that helps identify them, both in-universe and out; Beedrill and Shinx come to mind, though Zoroark is not bad either. It helps a lot when characters are not given names yet, and it helps remind us that they are not (hopefully!) the only characters of their species around.

I think the middle part of the chapter lacks much in description when compared to the first and the last, but this is offset by having actual life and action beyond the characters taking place, which helps one get a mental image of the town; it also means that the setting is not abandoned into the background when conversation happens, which is what makes fics turn towards the dreaded path of all dialogue.

This story manages to catch attention the right way in my opinion - you point to a central plot that is going to happen, but you also start putting it in scope of the encompassing world. Having the oracle give certain specific pieces of talk (in particular the "you'll have to work for it" part) reinforces the relation.

I want to see more of that Zoroark and Umbreon, and eventually find out if that Dunsparce and Purrloin got together and raised a Purrloinsparce....♥ Also, nice selection of title, let's see how it pays out.

Anyway, a good work so far. Can't comment on grammar and that kind of stuff because, honestly, haven't looked for it. Would have commented before, but life has got me busy. Oh and I'm subscribing to this.

Good luck in your endeavor.

[Earth Wolf-Howl]

Great fic so far, mate. It's extremely intoxicating, and I think it's well-written. Definitely an ace idea, and love the Umbreon's enthusiasm of PurrSparce.

[DarkerShining]

Hi again! Thanks to those of you who read the first chapter, and I'm glad you liked it. I'll try to keep the advice I'm given in mind as I continue working on this story.

Anyways, the second chapter is ready, and I hope it will be a good follow-up to the first chapter.

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Chapter 2: What happened to you?

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Blitz quietly wondered what Stella had meant as he and Sera were headed in the direction of the rescue team HQ. What was it that he couldn’t see? Meanwhile, Sera was just cheerfully skipping down the path just a little bit ahead of him, not seeming to have a worry in the world. Blitz couldn’t help but smile at seeing how cheery and playful his friend was. Sera’s good mood could be contagious at times, and he really enjoyed being on a rescue team with her.

“So… I’m guessing you didn’t get any new missions in the mail today?” Blitz asked.

“Nope,” Sera replied, turning to look at Blitz with her big brown eyes. “My oldest sister told me she found no new missions for us when she checked the mail today.”

“Oh,” Blitz nodded his head slightly, the two Pokémon continuing heading towards the rescue team HQ.

The rescue team HQ stood out a bit from other buildings in the area, as it unlike the stone buildings in the town, this building was built out of wood. Apparently, most of the wood it was built from came from a tree that once stood in the spot where the rescue team HQ now stood. Above the entrance was a painted wooden carving in the shape of a rescue team badge, a sphere with small white decorative wings attached to it. The bottom half of the sphere was painted white, while the upper half was painted red, just like on the badge for those of the rescue teams that had just started out and hadn’t risen in rank yet. Blitz and Sera themselves were only still a normal rank rescue team, but were only a few more points away from rising in rank.

As the two young Pokémon entered, they saw that a few rescue teams were already inside, checking the two boards for missions. One of the two wooden boards had missions involving helping Pokémon obtain an item, or rescue someone, or escort them to someone inside a dungeon, while the other had missions that involved catching outlaws posted on them. Sera and Blitz approached the former, which was currently being checked out by a humanoid Pokémon with dark green blade like arms, and a red Pokémon which looked similar to a spider.

“Excuse me, but are you two done? My partner and I would like to look at some missions,” Sera asked sweetly.

“Ah, we were just going to check on the other board for outlaws to catch, so you two are free to check out this one now!” the Gallade said, before looking down at his Ariados partner. “Come on; let’s go find some foul Pokémon to arrest!”

“Yeah, yeah, just try not to use up all your energy before we actually reach the bad guy this time,” the Ariados replied dryly, the bug type not seeming particularly enthusiastic.

Sera glanced at the two Pokémon as they walked over to check the outlaw board, before suggesting: “Hey, maybe we should check out the other board and try catching an outlaw?”

“Uh… I don’t think we’re really ready to handle that kind of mission yet…” Blitz replied, nervously rubbing his forelegs together.

“Are you sure?” Sera asked. “I feel like we’re getting better at this.”

“Well, I guess it’s up to you, since you’re the team leader and all… I just-”

“Don’t worry; if you don’t think you’re ready, we can just stick to one of the missions on this board here and let other rescue teams deal with catching outlaws.”

“Are you sure?” Blitz looked up at Sera with his golden eyes.

“Of course I am! After all, a good leader must take her teammate’s feelings into consideration.”

And with that, the two young rescue team members turned their attention towards the mission board that held rescue, escort, delivery and other non-outlaw related missions, trying to figure out if there was anything they could add to their job-list.

Reading the job description on the missions, he noted that some Pokémon seemed to get lost in very weird places. Such as when a fire type got lost inside a water dungeon, he couldn’t help but wonder why it chose to enter a dungeon full of Pokémon with a type advantage over it in the first place. Or, how a seemingly strong Pokémon, even one that did have a type advantage over the Pokémon in the dungeon it entered, would still manage to get stuck in there.

In general, there were a lot of weird scenarios like this the rescue teams would have to deal with on their missions. But, their job was to help these Pokémon, not question how they got themselves into trouble in the first place.

“Oh! Check this out!” Sera suddenly shouted, excitedly pointing her paw at one of the missions posted up on the board. “From this mission, we could receive a pair of X-Ray Specs as a reward! That would make missions a lot easier, don’t you think?”

Blitz examined the mission, frowning a little. “That would be nice, but…”

“What is it?”

“Didn’t you see the description of the mission?” Blitz asked, pointing his paw to the location written on the mission poster. “We’d have to go into the Meridian Forest, and the Pokémon in that dungeon are way too strong for us to handle!”

“The mushroom agrees with the Shinx, that mission is too much for you two!” a strange monotone voice called out to them.

Blitz and Sera turned to see that an orange bug Pokémon with a large mushroom growing on its back was the one who had just spoken to them, the Parasect staring at the two with its blank white eyes.

“Hey, I think I’ve seen you around here before,” Blitz said. “You’re Mirage’s teammate, aren’t you? Or do I have you confused with another Parasect?”

“You are correct, I am indeed Mirage’s teammate,” the Parasect clarified, speaking in an almost robotic way. “My name is Cordyceps, by the way.”

“But didn’t Mirage already have a mission she intended to do today?” Sera asked.

“Indeed, but the mushroom thought it might be a good idea to check what other missions are available, in case we find something Mirage might be interested in,” Cordyceps explained.

“Well, I think there are some missions with a high reward on here,” Blitz said, gesturing to some missions on the board with his paw. “They look kind of difficult, but I guess that is why they pay off so well…”

“The mushroom thanks you for making this observation, this pleases the mushroom,” Cordyceps replied, picking off a mission from the board with his orange claw. “Mirage will be pleased as well.”

“You’re welcome?” Blitz felt a bit creeped out by the orange bug that was apparently being controlled by the mushroom on his back.

“I will be taking this as well,” Cordyceps picked off the mission Sera had been looking at. “The mushroom thinks it would be better for an experienced rescue team to handle this, and that you kids should handle something easier.”

“Hey! Who are you calling a kid!?” Sera seemed a bit offended by the Parasect’s remark.

“The mushroom is merely making the observation that you two are too inexperienced for a mission like this,” he responded.

“Cordy? You coming?” a somewhat deep, but still feminine voice called out. The Pokémon turned to see what appeared to be a large duck like creature with flame like patterns on her body. “Mirage is waiting.”

“The mushroom apologizes for being late,” Cordyceps responded as he crawled over to the Magmar. “However, I found some missions that I think Mirage will be interested in.”

“What kind of missions?” the Magmar asked as she and Cordyceps exited the building to go catch up to their leader.

“Calling me a kid and saying I can’t handle this… How rude!” Sera said, before leaving the building, without even looking at some of the other missions available on the board.

“Sera! Wait up!” Blitz shouted, running after his rescue team partner. Some other rescue teams in the building glanced over in their direction for a moment, before deciding the two could sort things out on their own, and went to check what missions were on the board.

---

“I hate it when other Pokémon don’t take me seriously…” an annoyed Sera sat near a wooden sign pointing to the paths leading out of town and to various mystery dungeons.

“Sera, he did have a point, though,” Blitz said, standing nearby while awkwardly rubbing his forelegs together. “You and I are not experienced enough to handle Meridian Forest.”

“Still, does he think I’m some kid who can’t handle big missions?” Sera shook her head, looking down at her red and white rescue badge. “I don’t see why we can’t go into Meridian Forest, I mean, if we avoid fighting any Pokémon in there, there won’t be any trouble.”

“Sera, you’re not actually thinking of going in there, are you?” Blitz asked.

“Well, I don’t see any reason why we can’t take a little look at what first few floors are like…”

“Don’t do it, Sera. It’s too dangerous!” Blitz could tell what she was thinking, and had to try to talk her out of it before she got herself into trouble.

“But, if I’m extra careful, make sure all our rescue team money is safely in the bank, and take the items to the item warehouse and have Lionel store them for us, only bringing along an Escape Orb, then there’s nothing to lose, right?” Sera smirked, as she was slowly convincing herself to do this.

At this point, Blitz realized it was probably no point in trying to talk her out of it. Sera would probably decide to go into the Meridian Forest regardless of what he said to her. He was pretty sure if he tried to talk her out of it now; it would only lead to a long argument between the two, and he certainly didn’t want to argue with his rescue team leader. Besides, she had said she should be extra careful, and surely she would be, right?

“Well, okay… I'll come with you, then,” Blitz briefly couldn’t believe he’d really said that.

“You will?” Sera’s ears perked up, seeming excited that her partner was willing to come along.

“Y-Yeah… We’re a rescue team, aren’t we? We stick together…” Blitz managed a smile, even if one could clearly tell that he was very nervous.

“Great! I’ll go make the preparations for our exploration, and then I’ll meet you at the entrance to the dungeon?” Sera happily wagged her tail.

“I suppose…” Blitz nodded his head slightly, nervously rubbing the rings on his forelegs together.

“All right, I’ll see you there!”

And with that Sera ran off to make the preparations, while Blitz sighed and began slowly walking down the path that would lead to the Meridian Forest. As he slowly moved down the path, he kept his gaze on the dirt road under his feet, not feeling confident about this at all. Hopefully, Sera would be satisfied after only a quick look into the dungeon, so that they could leave quickly, assuming no wild Pokémon showed up and knocked them unconscious the moment they entered.

---

Soon, the two Pokémon were standing in front of the entrance to the Meridian Forest. Blitz was really nervous, but tried as hard as he could not to show it. Sera seemed a bit unnerved as well as she noticed how tall some of the trees were, making her feel much smaller. However, she quickly pushed her fear aside, confidently marching into the forest. Blitz took a deep breath, before following Sera into the mystery dungeon.

The ground they were walking on was still wet from the rainstorm the previous night, and drops of water could be seen dripping down from dew drop covered leaves. He thought back at the storm for a moment as he looked around at the dew drops on the various plants and on the grass, sparkling somewhat in the sunlight. While he was not afraid of lightning due to being an electric type, nights like those made him think that living alone had its disadvantages.

His thoughts were interrupted as he felt something cool and wet on his foreleg, realizing that he had just stepped in a puddle. The young Shinx sighed as he lifted his paw out of the puddle, an expression seeming like a mix between annoyance and slight disgust as he tried to shake off the dirty water on the paw.

“Hey, I think I see the stairs to the next floor over there!” Sera called to Blitz, gesturing with her paw towards some grayish stairs, which looked a bit out of place in the forest. That was just how mystery dungeons worked, though.

Blitz nodded his head and followed his friend over to the stairs, feeling grateful that no Pokémon living in the dungeon had shown up yet. However, he had to stay on the alert, because they might not have this good luck for much longer. If they were to come across trouble, though, he did have a way to at least buy the two of them some time to escape.

They ended up in sort of a room, with trees standing around like walls and two paths to follow, one going north and one heading east.

“Um… Which way?” Blitz asked, looking around nervously.

“Hmm… I’m not sure…” Sera said, pressing her paw to her cheek in sort of a thinking pose as she tried to figure out which path to take.

Blitz walked around the room a little, looking around for anything of interest on the ground. There didn’t seem to be anything there, though. Also, the stairs that led up there appeared to have vanished. That was also an odd thing about mystery dungeons; they seemed to be constantly changing. When you went into a mystery dungeon you had visited before, it would most likely be completely different from the last time you were there. At least this made things a bit more exciting, since there was always something different to explore when you went back that way.

Suddenly, Blitz thought he heard voices, and the sound of something moving through the wet grass. Realizing that something was moving towards the room the two were currently in, Blitz realized he had to get himself and Sera out of there fast.

“Sera, I hear something coming…” he whispered to her, pointing towards the east path.

“Oh! Well, let’s hurry up that path there, then!” she whispered back, and so the two quickly moved up the other path.

They arrived in another “room”, but no stairs in sight. However, Sera did notice something lying on the ground and walked over to investigate.

“What is it?” Blitz asked, watching the Eevee examine a small seed at the ground by looking at it and sniffing it.

“A Sleep Seed,” Sera said, picking it up with a paw and placing it into the bag which only contained the Escape orb they had brought along. “That could come in handy later!”

“Yeah, it probably could,” Blitz said, looking around nervously. “Shouldn’t we keep moving?”

“Oh, right! Let’s go!”

The two continued following another path, which lead them to the room with the stairs leading to the next floor. There was also an object resembling a small blue ball lying on the ground, which Blitz went over to pick up before they moved on to the next floor.

“I think it’s a Switcher Orb,” Blitz explained as he put it into the bag. “Think it’ll come in handy?”

“You never know!” Sera said optimistically as she began walking up the stairs, Blitz following closely behind.

The two reached the next floor, where there were two items that immediately caught Sera’s attention, a pink berry and another seed.

“Ooh! A Pecha berry!” Sera exclaimed as she excitedly ran over to pick up the berry.

Blitz suddenly felt a strange feeling of dread that was different from his nervousness about this dungeon. Something about the atmosphere felt different somehow, but he couldn’t really place his paw on it. If he were a psychic type, it might’ve been easier to tell, but he was not.

“Ooh! A Reviver Seed! It’s a Reviver Seed!” Sera exclaimed as she picked up the seed and put it inside the bag.

“Are you sure about that?” Blitz asked, as a cool wind blew over the area, carrying with it a few stray leaves.

“Yes, it’s definitely a Reviver Seed and not one of those silly Reviser Seeds!” Sera responded excitedly.

“Okay…” Blitz said, and followed Sera as she began moving down another path.

He wasn’t sure how they had managed to get through this maze-like area so far without running into any Pokémon in here, but he figured they had just been very lucky so far. Still, the strange feeling he was having was telling him it was best to get out of this dungeon fast. They entered yet another room, a somewhat big, but seemingly empty one.

“Hmm… You’d think a room this big would have something in it…” Sera observed, while looking around, noticing some bushes. “Maybe there’s something in here we can’t see because it’s inside those bushes?”

“Maybe…” Blitz began walking over to the bushes, maybe if he found a good item in there, Sera would be satisfied and they could leave the dungeon.

The young blue lion cub Pokémon began checking through the bushes, pushing away some of the leafy branches, but as far as he could tell, there was nothing there. He continued looking through the wet bushes, not really finding anything. As he was about to conclude there was nothing in these bushes and that it was best to move on, he noticed out of the corner of his eye something red and yellow. He moved over to investigate, gasping once he realized it was an unconscious Mienfoo laying there in the wet grass.

He cautiously approached the yellow and red weasel-like Pokémon laying there, examining its unconscious form. There were no signs of the Mienfoo having suffered any injury, and if there had been a battle there, the traces of it had been erased by the storm. There was no way to tell what had happened to it, if anything. Blitz frowned, unsure what to do about this. He carefully began reaching out his paw, gently pushing the Mienfoo with his paw, being careful not to accidentally give it an electric shock from his paw in the process, especially since the Mienfoo’s fur was a bit wet.

All of a sudden, the Mienfoo’s eyes shot open, giving a startled yell upon seeing Blitz and trying to hit him with one of his paws. Acting on his instincts, Blitz dodged the attack, stepping back as the bipedal weasel charged at him. However, before it could attack again, Blitz reflexively made his fur give off an intense glow, blinding the Mienfoo. The weasel Pokémon cried out again, before covering his eyes with his paw.

“What’s going on?” Sera ran over to them, having seen the light and heard the noises from the fight.

The Mienfoo kept rubbing his eyes, only to suddenly feel a paw being gently placed on his shoulder. He opened his red eyes again, to see the young Eevee trying to comfort him, and seemed to calm down a little as he realized these two Pokémon weren’t going to hurt him. As he seemed to come to his senses, the Mienfoo looked around in confusion at his surroundings.

“Are you okay?” Blitz asked, taking a few steps closer. “Sorry about the light, you just startled me, and I did it without really thinking… It’s sort of a defense mechanism.”

“Oh, it’s okay… I did kind of attack you for no reason… Sorry about that…” the Mienfoo’s apology was sincere, but he seemed a bit distracted. He continued to stare at everything around him, as another gust of wind blew over them, carrying more leaves with it.

“What happened to you?” Sera asked, gently rubbing the Mienfoo’s back with her paw.

“I… don’t remember…” the Mienfoo said, glancing down at his own paws.

“How’d you get here?” Sera tried again.

“I… don’t know…” the Mienfoo said, rubbing the back of his head with a paw.

“Wait… you don’t remember anything?” Blitz asked, tilting his head slightly.

“No, I don’t… Heh, that’s weird,” the Mienfoo said, a small confused smile crossing his face.

“So… You don’t remember who you are, how you got here, or what happened to you?”

“Nope! Not at all!” the Mienfoo replied, seeming oddly amused by the strangeness of the situation he found himself in.

“That… doesn’t sound good…” Sera said, looking somewhat concerned.

“Maybe we should ask nurse Giselle over at the rescue team HQ if she can take a look at him?” Blitz asked.

“Sounds like a good idea,” Sera responded, before turning to the Mienfoo. “What do you say? Want to come with us?”

“Sure!” the Mienfoo replied enthusiastically. “It’s not like I have anything better to do, or at least, not that I know of!”

The wind suddenly began to pick up much more, more and more leaves getting caught in it. Blitz glanced around nervously, as he realized what was happening there.

“Uh… Guys? I think we should get out of here, now!” Blitz called out.

“Why? What’s happening?” the Mienfoo asked, tilting his head to the side.

“There’s this mysterious force that forces rescue team out of dungeons if they stay around too long,” Sera explained, as she pulled an Escape Orb she had brought along out of the bag. “No one is sure exactly what it is, but due to the constantly changing nature of the mystery dungeons, we believe it is there to make sure no one disappears when the entire floor suddenly changes. Now, get close to me, both of you!”

Blitz didn’t waste any time getting as close to Sera as he possibly could without invading her personal space. The still cheerful and unconcerned Mienfoo shrugged and quickly moved over to them as well. Sera carefully held the Escape Orb between her paws, before pressing her paw down on a certain spot on the blue orb, activating it. A blue light from the orb enveloped the three Pokémon, and before they knew it, they had been teleported back to the entrance of the dungeon.

“Whoa! That was awesome! Let’s do it again!” the Mienfoo shouted, waving his paw in the air.

“Well… Let’s head back to town,” Sera said, her ears perking up a bit. “I can’t wait to tell some of the other rescue teams that we went to the Meridian Forest!”

“I don’t really know if that’s such a good idea…” Blitz responded, rubbing his forelegs together. “Besides, that is not really our main concern at the moment…”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Sera said, glancing at the Mienfoo. “So, let’s all head back to town, and then we’ll get more things done tomorrow!”

---

As they were walking back to town, the Mienfoo thought of something.

“Hey, guys? You haven’t told me your names yet.”

“Huh?” Blitz found it strange that this was one of the Mienfoo’s main concerns, but on the other hand, it would’ve been polite of them to introduce themselves. “Oh, I’m Blitz.”

“And I’m Sera! It’s short for Serafina!”

“Wow, those are really nice names!” the Mienfoo responded. “Hey, since you two have such great names, maybe you can think of a name for me?”

“You want us to think of a name for you?” Blitz asked, not really sure what the Mienfoo meant about him having a great name. Wasn’t Blitz a fairly common name for electric types?

“Well, I guess it might be convenient to have a name to call him by,” Sera commented. “But what should we call him?”

Both Sera and the Mienfoo looked over at Blitz expectantly, neither of them having any ideas of their own. However, neither did Blitz, which caused him to quietly panic somewhat as he wondered why the two of them would think he had any names in mind for a Pokémon they had just met.

“Um… How about… we call him… Chiaki?” Blitz nervously blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

“Chiaki? You mean after the heroic Mienshao from that set of short stories that used to be in the newspaper?”

“Y-Yeah… It was just the first thing that came to mind…” Blitz said, looking somewhat embarrassed. “I can try to think of something better, but I’m not really good with names.”

“Oh, no need to do so!” the Mienfoo responded. “I think Chiaki is a great name!”

“You really think so?” Blitz tilted his head slightly.

“Uh-huh! I can be Chiaki!” the Mienfoo happily replied.

“All right, then. From now on, you shall be known as “Chiaki”!” Sera announced.

“Yay!” the Mienfoo now known as Chiaki responded.

“Well, that’s one thing taken care of, but I think there’s another thing we need to figure out here.” Blitz said.

“Huh?” Sera and Chiaki looked over at Blitz curiously.

“Where is he supposed to stay tonight?” the Shinx asked.

“Ooh, good question…” Sera responded.

“Can’t I just stay with one of you?” Chiaki asked.

“Oh, I’m afraid there wouldn’t be room for you over at my home,” Sera explained. “You see, I have a lot of siblings, and sometimes it feels as if there’s barely enough room for all of us as it is.”

“Oh, okay,” Chiaki nodded his head in understanding, before turning his attention to Blitz. “How about you, Blitz?”

“Hmm… Actually, I wouldn’t mind a roommate. I’ve been living by myself ever since my mother sent me here to train, and it can get kind of lonely sometimes,” Blitz responded. “It’s not very big, but big enough for two small Pokémon like us. We just have to make an extra bed for you, that’s all.”

“Really?” Chiaki seemed excited. “It’s no problem at all?”

“Not as long as you help keeping things tidy and don’t make too much noise.” Blitz stated.

“Oh, thank you!” Chiaki excitedly jumped around the two other Pokémon. “I’ll be a good roommate, I promise!”

“Well, I guess that’s sorted out, then!” Sera commented as the stone buildings of the town were coming into view, the sun slowly going down in the distance. “Whoa, is it sunset already? I better hurry home, bye guys! See you tomorrow!”

“Bye, Sera!”

“Bye!”

Blitz and Chiaki waved good-bye as the Eevee ran ahead of them to get home to her family, before Blitz decided to show Chiaki where he lived. He led the Mienfoo to a small stone hut, with holes carved in it as a front door and a few windows. The “front door” was surprisingly big for a house a small Pokémon like Blitz lived in, but Chiaki realized the reason for this was likely so bigger Pokémon could come to visit. Chiaki followed Blitz inside, and looked around. There wasn’t really much to see in there, apart from a large map of the continent hanging on a wall, a big pile of straw that presumably was Blitz’s bed, a small wooden table, a vase filled with fresh water standing in a corner, and a basket of berries next to it.

“Well, here it is. It’s not much, but it has everything I need.”

“I think this place looks really nice!” Chiaki responded, smiling at the young Shinx.

“You really think so?” Blitz asked.

“Uh-huh! Thanks for letting me stay with you!”

“You’re welcome,” Blitz responded, smiling back at Chiaki. “Come on; help me prepare your bed.”

The two Pokémon began dividing up the pile of straw into two smaller ones, both of them making sure that both beds would get an equal amount of straw and that both beds would be comfortable enough. After all, they would have to get a good night’s sleep so they could have the energy to get a lot accomplished tomorrow. Blitz hoped that Sera wouldn’t drag him into another dungeon above their level of experience anytime soon, even if they had managed to avoid getting into a fight this time. And at least they did get some useful items out of it, and they also met a new friend. While they hadn’t actually gotten any missions done, it had still been a good day.

---

End of chapter 2

---

[sixthhokage1]

Wow, this is really good DS.

[Agent Tectonic]

So, as promised, here's my review. All criticism is open for second thoughts and isn't necessarily anything that needs to be changed. Just suggestions upon possible future revising.

Criticism first:

“Where are you, little one?” the strange Pokémon asked, trying to use psychic powers it possessed to locate the other Pokémon. “I will find you, and then I will take that crystal from you!”

Bold 1: There are times that wording like this helps, but I find myself stumbling over this part just because it feels jumbled. Rewording it to “its psychic power to locate. . .” reads much less awkwardly to me.

Bold 2: This doesn't read wrong; it just doesn't feel natural. Remove the comma and the “then I will” part is much more natural.

Bold 3: Two things. Take the from you out as you already established that the crystal is in possession of the little guy through syntax and inference. Second, unless the Sigilyph is talking with a high amount of emotion, the exclamation should be a period to show its imperative. Again, it depends on how you want the emotion to come across.

The Pokémon in the gray cloak looked down at the transparent crystal it was holding, having tried its best to prevent the Sigilyph from stealing it.

Don't be afraid to use pronouns. It/He/She works just find as you have pretty much described the figure as “The Pokemon” three times in a row which gets repetitive. Another suggestion is to switch to a completely different descriptive such as “the cowering figure” or something like that.

But what could a small Pokémon like itself do?

I'm left trying to figure out if this is supposed to be a thought from the guy or just narrative. Whatever the case, I strongly suggest making it clear that it is a thought process. The way it reads, it gets the “story-teller” feel to it where some fictional narrator is telling the story to an audience around him, and I don't think that's the narration you're going for.

“There you are…” the Sigilyph began ominously hovering down towards the Pokémon in the gray cloak.

Missing some guide of “voice” verb like cackled, cried, shrieked, etc.

“Well, this was a fun little chase, wasn’t it?” the Sigilyph closed in on the Pokémon in the gray cloak. “But I’m guessing making you pay for trying to interfere with my plan can be fun too…”

Same thing here.

“Oh…” the Shinx said, awkwardly rubbing the yellow rings on his forelegs against each other, creating blue sparks of electricity between them.

Awkward just doesn't seem like the right adverb to use. I'm trying to figure out what kind of emotion you're going for he as I don't think that rubbing his forelegs seems like an awkward action. Maybe nervously? Also, I'm confused over if you're saying that he felt awkward in asking his question or drawing more attention to his response to Mirage's answer through his actions. Is he second-guessing asking his question or is his movement awkward or whatever?

“Don’t know yet!” the brown furred Pokémon replied, the Eevee happily wagging her fluffy tail.

Repace the “brown furred Pokemon” description with Eevee as you already introduced it as such, so it reads more like “'Don't know yet!' the Eevee replied, happily wagging her fluffy tail.” This will clean up the sentence much better. If you don't plan on changing it, that's alright too, just make sure that the comma is replaced with a semi-colon as the second half is considered a sentence on it's own.

As the two Pokémon started arguing, while Sting tried to keep the two dark types from starting a full on fight in the middle of town, the Eevee took this opportunity while the three were distracted to lean over and whisper to her teammate:

“Hey, Blitz, let’s get out of here,” she whispered, the Shinx nodded in agreement.

Remove “while” and place a period after town OR remove as in the beginning and place a period or semi-colon after town. Right now, it the while and the prepositional phrase at the beginning makes this read rather awkwardly.

Also, remove the she whispered part as it is redundant to say.

The two then quietly slipped away, and continued heading towards the east exit of town, so they could go see Stella and finish that errand they had promised.

I'd recommend removing the bolded part as you already mentioned what their plans were after their meeting. Don't worry, we haven't forgotten where they're going, so there is no need to repeat it.

Said hole would of course be covered up if it was raining, like during that storm the previous night. Stella the Gothitelle was currently having a talk with her young daughter, a young Gothorita that had started having visions of the future herself.

Careful not to jump from point to point without some kind of transition. Give us a shift in focus from the description of the house to what is currently going on inside. For instance, and this is purely for example but still open for use:

Said hole would of course be covered up if it was raining, like during that storm the previous night. Sitting under the now open ceiling, Stella the Gothitelle was currently having a talk with her young daughter, a young Gothorita that had started having visions of the future herself.

With this, we shift from a particular aspect of the house and focus it to the inhabitants.

“Bow, for many generations now, a member of our family has been in the position of town oracle,” Stella explained, the white ribbon like feelers on each of the four layers of the black dress-like layers on her body, and the one on the back of her head began glowing.

Remove the commas after “her body.” I took a few rereads over this to realize that you were saying all of her feelers were glowing. Also the “layers” part of that sentence is rather jumbled. I know what you're trying to say, but the wording of it is really cluttered and awkward.

She tried not to lose her concentration on what her mother was saying as she touched one of the white ribbon shaped feelers on one of her pigtails, it felt kind of warm to the touch.

COMMA SPLICE. Not good. Either change to a period or use a semi-colon as this is a run-on sentence.

“Our powers comes from the stars, by looking up at them, we receive our visions.

First comma= comma splice. Same as previous solution.

“Hi there,” Blitz said, awkwardly looking around.

Back to the awkward thing. I tend to think awkward as not right. Like an arm bent into an awkward position or landing awkwardly. Just right click on the word in whatever writing program you use (Word, Open Office, whatever, and go under synonyms and check to see if any of those fit what you're saying. If it doesn't look right with those words, it may not be the best word to use. Just a suggestion.

There were a few empty slots in the wall, but what he and Sera were delivering would take care of that.

Two sentences ago, your opening for the sentence is exactly the same: not good. Maybe transition Blitz's thoughts about how the crystals are used to what the delivery is like you say in the last part of the sentence instead of repeating that line.

“Yes. There are indeed some rescue teams who only do it for the rewards, while some are just out to find the biggest adventures they can.” The Gothitelle smiled as she looked at the two young Pokémon.

Remove the period from the dialogue and use a comma. Since there is no question or explanation, a comma is necessary. Only time that doesn't happen is when the dialogue as no narrative after it. This is one particular example and there are others after and before this case.

“Well, I guess you two should get going now, and take care of some missions?” Stella reminded the two.

Change the question mark into a period. Stella's remark isn't a question.

Little did they know, that the adventure they would go on today would be the beginning of an even bigger adventure.

Just remove this. I say this because you wouldn't be writing this story if they didn't have some grand adventure of triumph and tragedy. Also, this goes back to the narrator-disguised-as-a-story-teller approach which isn't the way the rest of the chapter is written.

Now, I am going to end the review here for now. It's getting late on my end, and I don't want to have this sit in my save file for any more days than it should. I don't want to sound like I'm ripping apart your writing. Like I said in my VM to you, I really do like what you're writing, so I'll make sure that my review of chapter 2 contains the good parts of chapter 1, too.

I will leave with a few closing statements that summarize my thoughts.

Good:

1) You have a really good knack for developing characters. While your wording can be off in places, I know what kind of emotion or personality a character is showing or representing which is good. I will caution, however, to not stereotype characters as this can lead to cliches. For instance, Mirage is shaping up to be a rather sarcastic and trickster type of character which is stereotypical for her species and type. I'm not going to “force” you to reconsider her personality or change the character entirely, but I do want to caution you to steer clear of this in the future.

2) Necessary description: You also are rather proficient in knowing when to elaborate on a scene and when to glance over a detail. I've been told that it can be hard to not fall into the trap of over explaining a scene when it doesn't need it, but for you, I never once thought that I was getting bored from lack of or too much description.

To consider:

I have noticed your preference for commas which is a common trap for writers. The only time commas are used is when linking multiple things together in list (nouns, adjectives, etc.), linking sentences with a coordinating conjunction, and appositives (breaks in a sentence or beginning prepositional phrases). I feel like I'm missing another reason, but I can't seem to recall it if I have missed one. Anyways, my point is that you frequently use commas where there shouldn't be. I know I'm being rather vague here, so if you would like, in my second review, I'll point out any and all places where there shouldn't be unless of course, you feel that you can find them.

2) You also tend to overuse certain words. The double use of the word whispering comes to mind for this one; however, the main point for this is the overuse and misuse of the word awkward. It is clear that you're setting up Blitz as a rather skittish Shinx; however, the word “awkward” does not fit this category of personality. I know awkward is a often used word in daily life; however, I encourage you to actually look up the definition, so you can see the real meaning behind the word. I know many times for myself, and you too, that we think we know a word's meaning, but when asked to actually define it, we say something along the lines of “well, uh, actually, I can't seem to find the right words to define it. It means something like. . .”

So, this officially ends my critique of chapter 1. Like promised, I'll highlight the good parts in this chapter in my review for chapter 2, so expect that soon. I hope your planning for chapter 3 is going well, and I can't wait to read more.

~Agent T.

[DarkerShining]

Thanks for your review.

So, too many commas, huh? I'll try to keep that in mind for future chapters, as well as try to not overuse certain words. I've already finished chapter 3 at this point, but I did notice that it seems to have at least one word showing up a lot through it, so I may try to do a few more tweaks and edits to it before I put it up.

As for some other things, yeah, maybe I did use the description of the Pokemon in the gray cloak a bit too much, the reason I didn't use much of any pronouns being that I was trying to hide the character's identity for now, as it is not supposed to be revealed until later in the story. I suppose I could've used "it" though, and still kept the character's idenity concealed.

Mirage isn't really going to be one of the important characters, but seeing as I will have her as a fairly recurring character anyways, I will keep that in mind.

And yeah, I do realize my narration probably has several flaws at this point, not being very consistant and so on. I'll see if I can eventually figure out what I can do about that, at the very least how to get it to flow more naturally in some parts.

Again, thanks for your review. I will try to keep these things in mind for future chapters. I would try to do some tweaks to chapter one to correct a few of the things you pointed out, as well as at least one typo I know slipped by me, if it weren't for this weird glitch I've encountered while trying to edit things. Anyone else notice that?

So, yeah. I'll take another look at the third chapter, and see what little things I can change before I put it up.

[DarkerShining]

So, after working on it for a while, doing several little changes here and there and so on, chapter 3 is finally ready. I know it's probably not perfect, but I think it is good enough to share with you guys.

I am considering getting a beta reader, and I have at least one friend who has offered to do it, but for now I've done this on my own, just to see how it goes.

Anyways, here you go. Read and review, and thanks to those who are following the story so far!

---

Chapter 3: There’s a lot of magic in this world.

---

Warm rays of sunlight shone through the window holes in the stone hut, letting the young Shinx and Mienfoo inside know it was morning. Blitz yawned and stretched, blue sparks of electricity rippling through his fur. Chiaki still lay in his bed, having a difficult time deciding whether to get up now, or to rest for a few more minutes. On one hand, he did want to get things done, but the bed was just so comfortable he wasn’t sure if he wanted to get out of it yet.

“You awake yet, Chiaki?” Blitz asked, looking over at the dozing Mienfoo.

“Uh-huh,” Chiaki responded, rubbing his eyes.

“Did you sleep well?” Blitz asked.

“Yeah, very well,” Chiaki replied, sitting up. As comfortable as the bed was, he couldn’t stay in it all day, so he figured he might as well get up now.

“Good to hear!” Blitz smiled at his new roommate. “So, are you ready to head out?”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Chiaki smiled back, as he got onto his feet. “Let’s go!”

The two Pokémon went outside, and headed east from Blitz’s house, there was only a short walk into the town plaza from there, where most of the shops and other rescue team services were located. Chiaki excitedly looked around at the various stalls, curious about what each of them was for. At the item shop, were two shopkeepers, a Lombre and a Nuzleaf. Chiaki watched the Lombre juggle three red apples, the green Pokémon tossing them into the air and catching them in the dish-like lily pad on his head.

“Ooh!” Chiaki said, clapping his paws at the display.

The Lombre smiled and waved at the young Mienfoo. The Nuzleaf next to him just quietly polished one of those small blue orbs, the brown Pokémon with the pointy nose occasionally lifting the orb up to see how it looked in the daylight, only to shrug and continue polishing it, seemingly not paying attention to anything else.

“That’s the item shop,” Blitz explained to Chiaki, having noticed that the Mienfoo seemed a bit distracted. “The Lombre, Wade, is in charge of food, healing and throwing items, while the Nuzleaf, Vic, sells orbs and TMs.”

“A pleasure to meet you!” the Lombre said, nodding his head.

“It is nice to meet you too!” Chiaki responded.

“Hi Wade. Has Sera been here?” Blitz asked.

“Ah, yes. She stopped by to buy some apples from me earlier,” Wade responded, before pointing to the distracted Nuzleaf next to him. “She also bought an Escape Orb from Vic.”

“Oh, okay.” Blitz turned to face Chiaki. “Come on, let’s keep going.”

After a quick good-bye to the two shopkeepers, the two continued moving along. However, Chiaki’s attention was soon caught by another building nearby, in which a white ferret-like Pokémon with brown lines on its body was busy drawing up an organization plan of some sort. The Linoone seemed to be rather immersed in making this organization plan, even having sort of a smirk on his face that wouldn’t look out of place on someone who had just come up with a brilliant master plan to take over the world.

“That’s Lionel, he runs the item warehouse where rescue teams store their items so they don’t risk losing them,” Blitz explained. “Lately, he’s been working on this plan to reorganize things to make it more convenient and better organized, so that he can faster find items rescue teams have stored with him when they need them.”

“That’s nice of him!” Chiaki commented.

“Yeah, he is making an effort to make things more convenient for the rescue teams that use his services,” Blitz said, chuckling a little as he saw the sheer look of determination on the Linoone’s face as he continued to work on the plan. “Of course, the fact that he really seems to like organizing things may also factor into why he is doing it.”

“Well, at least it makes plenty of Pokémon happy!” Chiaki replied with a smile on his face.

The two kept moving through the town, walking past another stall where a purple cobra was talking to a red bipedal ladybug working at the stall, asking the Ledian some questions about opening an account at the bank.

“That’s the bank,” Blitz explained. “Rescue teams get to open a special account there where they can keep the money they earn from their missions, so that it won’t be lost.”

“Lost?” Chiaki inquired.

“Yeah, money and items may disappear if a rescue team is defeated inside a dungeon before they can finish a mission,” Blitz responded. “No one really knows why that happens. It might have something to do with how the mystery dungeons are constantly changing, but I’m guessing there’s no way to really find out, and that it will remain a mystery.”

As Blitz finished his brief explanation, he and Chiaki walked past another stall which seemed to be run by an odd orange Pokémon with blue lightning bolts for arms.

“That is where we can go to have two or more of our attacks linked together, meaning we can use them both in one move,” Blitz explained. “I’m not really sure how that works, but that is what Zap says he does, for a price, of course.”

“Cool!” Chiaki responded, like Blitz, he didn’t fully understand it, but he thought it sounded really awesome.

The two continued moving, walking past another stall. Looking at it, Chiaki saw that the Pokémon working behind it, a small purple Pokémon with gem stones for eyes, was casually eating a rock while waiting for customers.

“If we find treasure boxes that we can’t open on our own during missions, that is where we can go to get them opened,” Blitz commented, suddenly wondering if any Sableye had ever chipped any of their sharp teeth with their diet of rocks and gem stones, but then figured that their species probably had really strong teeth specifically to prevent that.

The two walked past a stall that was painted white with blue and red triangle patterns. A white fairy like Pokémon with similar blue and red triangle markings on his body was currently looking after a blue egg with orange spots on it.

“That’s the babysitter service, they look after eggs for rescue teams that are too busy to look after them on their own,” Blitz explained.

After walking past that last stall, Blitz led Chiaki a bit to the South-East, where a bigger building that looked as if it was partially build from concrete stood out, a sign on top reading: “Find your true strengths here at Heracross Dojo”.

“This place is where most rescue teams come to train, and actually one of the main reasons why I’m here,” Blitz explained, before he and Chiaki continued moving along. “You see, since she thought I wasn’t getting any proper training back home, my mother sent me here, so I could receive proper training at the dojo.”

“Wow, there’s a lot of great things in this town!” Chiaki exclaimed.

“Oh, you haven’t even seen the best part, yet!” Blitz said, smirking a bit. “Come on, before we head to the rescue team HQ, I’ll show you the most popular spot in town!”

Chiaki followed Blitz to another building, a rather nice looking café built from wood rather than stone. Inside, were several small wooden tables, a wooden counter and a large spider web on the ceiling with several light crystals in it. Standing behind the counter was a blue rabbit-like Pokémon, talking to another Pokémon resembling a red bipedal crocodile Pokémon.

“You ever wonder why they call it a sandwich when there’s no sand in them?” the Krookodile wondered out loud, the Azumarill behind the counter just giving him a weird look.

At one of the tables, there were two other Pokémon sitting, one resembling a giant blue turtle, the other resembling a colorful bird with a bit of a saurian head. The bird was reading a newspaper, shaking his head slightly at the news he read.

“There certainly are some nasty Pokémon out there,” the Archeops commented, showing the newspaper page to the Carracosta. “I swear, if any Pokémon like that were to come around these parts, they should be burned on the stake!”

“Dude, they stopped doing that a long time ago,” the Carracosta commented.

“… They did?” the Archeops paused for a moment to think, to which the Carracosta just stared at him in confusion for a moment.

“We’re not that old, dude.”

“Well, Chiaki, this is the local hang-out spot around town, and a popular place for rescue teams to come and have something to drink after a long day of missions!” Blitz explained.

“Ooh, sounds nice!” Chiaki responded. “Do you and Sera come here a lot?”

“Yeah, we've been here a few times,” Blitz replied. “Well, I guess we should head over to the rescue team HQ now. It wouldn’t be nice to keep Sera waiting for too long.”

“Okay! Let’s go!” Chiaki agreed, and so the two headed out of the café, just as a small blue mouse Pokémon bounced into the building.

“Hey, mother! Guess what?” the little Pokémon exclaimed as she ran up to the Azumarill at the counter, who was apparently her mother. Seeing as they were just leaving the area, Blitz and Chiaki didn’t get to hear what the little Azurill had to tell her.

---

After a short walk, the two of them reached the rescue team HQ. After letting Chiaki stare in awe at the wooden rescue team badge sculpture over the entrance for a few seconds, Blitz lead the young Mienfoo inside. Chiaki eagerly looked around at the other rescue teams in there, and at the other things inside the building, as Sera walked over, already having been there for several minutes.

“Hey guys!” Sera happily greeted the two, the two Pokémon greeting her back.

“Sorry we kept you waiting,” Blitz said, rubbing his forelegs together.

“Oh, it’s all right!” Sera said. “All the missions on the rescue board had already been taken when I got here, so I’ve sort of just been waiting for them to update it.”

“Hey, what exactly is it that rescue teams do?” Chiaki asked. “From the name, I’m guessing you rescue other Pokémon?”

“Well, that just one of the things a rescue team does,” Sera explained. “We also explore mystery dungeons, help Pokémon find lost items, help escort Pokémon through dungeons so they can meet with their friends and we catch outlaws! Basically, a rescue team’s job is to help others!”

“That is so cool!” Chiaki exclaimed. “I wish I could be in a rescue team!”

Blitz and Sera followed the excited fighting type over to another room, in which a pink and cream colored, somewhat plump rabbit like Pokémon wearing a white headband with a small pink cross on it, was examining the very long tongue of a chubby pink Pokémon.

“Hmm… Good, it seems there won’t be any lasting damage, although your tongue might be a little numb for the next few days,” the Audino said to the Lickitung with a reassuring smile. “It’s a good thing your teammate reacted as quickly as he did. Hopefully, you’ll be a bit careful about what you do with your tongue the next time you explore an ice dungeon!”

The Lickitung nodded and thanked the Audino, although his speech was somewhat mumbled since his tongue was still numb, before exiting the room to go find his teammates.

“Hi Giselle!” Blitz greeted the Audino.

“Oh, hello there, Blitz!” Giselle responded, smiling sweetly. “How may I help you? Is there a thorn stuck in your paw?”

“Not this time,” Blitz responded, before pointing a paw at Chiaki. “We found this Mienfoo unconscious in the Meridian Forest yesterday.”

“He doesn’t remember anything about who he is, or how he got there, so we were wondering if you could take a look at him.” Sera added.

“Oh, is that so?” the Audino nurse inquired. “But why were you two in the Meridian Forest? That place is too dangerous for two young Pokémon like you.”

“Don’t worry, I had everything under control!” Sera stated confidently. “We didn’t get into any trouble at all!”

“Well, that’s nice, but a responsible team leader should know better than to go into a dungeon above their team’s experience level.” Sera’s ears drooped down a bit as Giselle said that. “Well, anyways, let me take a look at your friend here…”

As Giselle began to check up on Chiaki and ask him a few questions, Sera exited the room, seeming a little bit upset. Blitz followed her to make sure she was okay; letting Chiaki and nurse Giselle talk alone for a bit.

---

After a while, Giselle exited her office along with Chiaki, to tell Blitz and Sera what little she had managed to find out.

“Well, I’m afraid I don’t know what might’ve caused your friend’s memory loss,” Giselle said. “He appears to have suffered no physical damage, and I can’t really tell if anything has been done to his mind.”

“Oh, is that so?” Sera asked.

“Yes,” the Audino responded. “I recommend having a psychic type Pokémon take a look at him.”

“Okay, we’ll try that, I guess…” Blitz responded.

“I’m really sorry that I couldn’t do anymore to help,” Giselle said, adjusting her headband. “Well, I hope you sort things out. Let me know if anything else comes up!”

And with that, Giselle went back to her office, and the three young Pokémon wandered back over to the rescue boards which had just been updated. Sera began to look at what new missions were available, while Blitz tried to figure out who they could ask to examine Chiaki.

“Hmm… Perhaps Stella could help?”

“Who’s Stella?” Chiaki asked.

“She’s the town oracle,” Blitz explained to him. “She can predict the future, and she gives pretty good advice.”

“Oh, she sounds nice!” Chiaki responded.

“Oh, come on!” Sera shouted, catching Blitz and Chiaki’s attention as she stomped her feet in frustration. “All of these missions are above our current skill level! That’s so not fair!”

“Um… Maybe we can wait for them to update the board again…?” Blitz suggested.

“I don’t wanna wait!” Sera whined, before noticing the stares some of the other rescue teams in the room were giving her. “Uh… I mean, maybe we could look around and see if someone in town has something they need help with?”

Just seconds after she said that, the blue little mouse Pokémon from earlier bounced into the room. The Azurill glanced around at all the Pokémon, smirking a bit as she saw that there were plenty of rescue teams there at the moment. She jumped onto her tail, and tried to get a rescue team’s attention: “Hello? I’m looking for a rescue team to take me on an adventure!”

“Oh!” the Azurill quickly caught Sera’s attention, and she quickly ran over to the little blue mouse with Blitz and Chiaki. “You need the assistance of a rescue team?”

“Yep!” the Azurill responded. “Just a few moments ago, I saw something falling out of the sky, and I think it might’ve been a Pokémon! I think it landed in the Lush Valley, so I wanted to go check it out, but my mother won’t let me go unless I get a rescue team to go with me.”

“A Pokémon fell out of the sky?” Sera tilted her head slightly.

“Probably a flying type, or something,” Blitz said. “If it fell, I’m guessing it must’ve suffered a wing injury, or something. And I’m guessing hitting the ground can’t be pleasant either.”

“Oh my, we better go find that Pokémon fast!” Sera responded.

“Yes! Let’s go!” Chiaki said, nodding his head.

“Wait, you want to come too?” Blitz asked.

“Well, yeah. It’s not like I have anything better to do today,” Chiaki responded. “Besides, I want to help others like you do!”

“Is that so?” Sera inquired, an idea coming to her mind.

“Well, yeah. In fact, I would love to be on a rescue team!”

“Well… That can be arranged!” Sera said, grinning.

“It can?” Chiaki asked.

“Yeah! Blitz and I could use some more members on our team!” Sera looked over at Blitz. “Would you be okay with that?”

“Um… I guess so…” Blitz thought about this for a moment. “But he’s not familiar with how missions work.”

“Hmm… Good point,” Sera responded. “Maybe we should take him along on a mission, so he can see for himself what it’s like, and then decide if he wants to join or not?”

“That sounds good to me!” Chiaki responded, seeming delighted.

“Um… So, are you going to help me, or not?” the Azurill asked, noting that the three had gotten a bit sidetracked.

“Oh! We hadn’t forgotten about you, miss…” Blitz paused for a moment, realizing that the Azurill hadn’t yet told them her name.

“Azure,” the Azurill said. “My name is Azure.”

“So, you said you think the flying type landed in the Lush Valley?” Sera asked, her ears perking up with excitement. “That dungeon isn’t too difficult for us!”

“Does that mean you’ll go with me, then?” Azure asked, bouncing impatiently on top of her tail.

“We’re in!” Sera responded, nodding to the Azurill.

“Yes!” Azure shouted out, now bouncing around in excitement. “Let’s go on an adventure!”

“Hold on, first we need to double-check to make sure we have all the items we need for…” Blitz realized that the other three Pokémon had already run out the door before he could even finish the sentence, and were already heading off towards the dungeon. “Hey, guys! Wait! Don’t leave me behind!”

---

Blitz managed to catch up to the rest of the group before they got too far, and did remind Sera to double-check their supplies before they went off on their adventure. Once everything was ready, the four Pokémon began heading over to the entrance to the dungeon. As they were walking, Blitz remembered something.

“Oh! We forgot to take Chiaki to see Stella!”

“Huh?” Chiaki looked over at the blue lion cub Pokémon. “Oh, don’t worry about that! I’m not in a hurry to find out who I am!”

“Are you sure?” Blitz asked.

“Yeah,” Chiaki nodded his head. “It can wait. Right now, let’s focus on this mission!”

“If you say so…?”

“Okay, we’re here,” Sera spoke up, the four Pokémon now standing at the entrance to the mystery dungeon. “The Lush Valley is a mystery dungeon that has… eight floors?”

She glanced over at Blitz, who nodded his head to confirm that she was correct.

“Right, there’s eight floors,” Sera said, keeping her eyes on Blitz for him to confirm that she was remembering the details correctly. “If the Pokémon you saw landed at the very end of the dungeon, we’ll be finding it on the eighth floor.”

“Well, what are waiting for? Let’s go in!” Azure shouted, bouncing on her tail impatiently.

“Yeah, let’s go rescue that Pokémon!” Chiaki shouted out.

“Right, let’s get to it!” Sera said, and so the four Pokémon entered the mystery dungeon.

---

The four found themselves on the first floor of the dungeon, the entrance seemingly vanishing behind them. Did it disappear? Or was it still there, but only visible from the other side? Chiaki quickly took note of such oddities of the dungeon, but didn’t think too much of it because he was just so excited about getting to see what a rescue team mission was like.

“So, when going on a mission, always make sure to bring the necessary items,” Sera explained, pointing to the bag she was carrying. “Which items you need may vary depending on the mission, but there are a few basic items that are always good to have with you.”

Sera opened the lid for a moment, giving Chiaki a quick glimpse of what was inside of the bag.

“As you can see, I brought along some apples, some Oran berries and a Reviver Seed, just in case,” Sera continued explaining. “You may also have noticed that our treasure bag is kind of small and can only keep a limited amount of stuff, but don’t worry about that! As we reach higher ranks, we’ll get a bigger one!”

“Excuse me,” Azure spoke up. “But, since I’m here for the adventure, do you think you could walk and explain at the same time?”

“Hey, no need to be rude about it!” Sera responded. “But you’re right; we should get going, since we do have a mission to take care of.”

Sera took a few steps forward, glancing around to see if there was anything of interest in the section of the dungeon they were in before motioning for the other three Pokémon to follow her down a path to another room. By pure luck, the first room they entered was the room in which the stairs to the next floor were located. However, there was also a small, light blue elephant in the room, as well as a brown bird with red wings. The four Pokémon that entered their room naturally caught the attention of those two Pokémon.

“Oh, we’ve caught the attention of two wilds!” Azure shouted out. “Can I fight one?”

“Wilds?” Chiaki tilted his head quizzically.

“A term we use for the Pokémon that live in mystery dungeons,” Blitz explained. “They’re not like the Pokémon outside of dungeons; they appear to be bound by a set of unwritten rules of the dungeons.”

“There are rules?” Chiaki asked, curiously looking over at the Spearow and the Phanpy, the two wilds still standing in the same positions, as if waiting for the four visitors to the dungeon to move first.

“Well, we believe that’s the case, but no one knows for sure,” Blitz continued explaining. “Their behavior does suggest something like that. When they join a rescue team, they act just like any other Pokémon, which we believe may be part of the rules.”

“So, they’re bound by this set of rules no one else knows about, until they join a rescue team?” Chiaki suggested.

“Yeah, something like that, we think,” Blitz said. “However, none of the Pokémon that have joined a rescue team has confirmed the existence of these rules.”

“So, it’s against the rules to reveal the existence of the rules?” Chiaki asked once again.

“Sorry to interrupt, but can we please just fight these guys?” Azure asked, seeming rather impatient and itching for a fight.

“Relax, we are going to fight them, you know, to show Chiaki how it’s done,” Sera said, motioning with her paw for the Azurill to calm down, before turning her attention to Blitz. “Blitz, you want to fight the Spearow? You’ve got the type advantage, after all.”

“Me? Um… Okay, I’ll fight the Spearow,” Blitz responded, looking over at the two wild Pokémon. “What about the Phanpy, though?”

“I’ll take care of that!” Azure shouted out, bouncing over to the blue little elephant in question.

With a gleeful look on her face, the Azurill proceeded to swing her tail around, before smacking the blue ball on the tip of her long black tail into the Phanpy with enough force to send the little ground type Pokémon flying. Blitz, Sera and Chiaki just stared as the little elephant went flying out of sight.

“And that is how I do it!” Azure proudly proclaimed.

Blitz briefly forgot about the Spearow he was supposed to fight after seeing Azure’s little demonstration, only to hear a screeching sound as the Spearow was flying at him. The bird Pokémon was preparing to hit the Shinx with an attack of its sharp beak, only to be blinded by a bright light, causing the bird to stop in its tracks. Once the light cleared, the blue lion cub was nowhere in sight. The bird glanced around, trying to figure out where his opponent disappeared to.

Blitz had managed to slip away, and was now crawling through some tall grass, staying low to the ground so the Spearow wouldn’t see him coming before he made his move. Blitz crept closer to the bird, waiting for just the right moment. Just as the Spearow gave up on finding the electric lion cub and began turning its attention to the other three Pokémon nearby, it was knocked to the ground as Blitz tackled it. Blitz quickly leaped at the bird again before it had time to get back up, holding it down.

The Spearow struggled under the electric lion cub, trying to free itself. Blitz simply finished off the battle by pressing one of his paws against the Spearow and zapping him with his electricity, being careful not to overdo it.

“There, it’s fainted,” Blitz commented, as his teammates walked over. “We’ll probably already have left this dungeon by the time it regains consciousness.”

With the two battles done, the four Pokémon headed up the stairs to the next floor, with Chiaki complimenting Azure and Blitz on their battle styles as they moved along.

The second floor was mostly spent walking around, occasionally stopping to pick up an item from the ground, while Sera and Blitz explained to Chiaki how most Pokémon tend to have different battle styles, depending on their type, abilities and attacks they were capable of. As they moved onto the third floor, they came across a small purple rabbit-like Pokémon with several spikes on its back. The male Nidoran smirked as it saw the four Pokémon show up, apparently ready for a battle.

“Maybe you’d like to try to fight that one, Chiaki?” Sera suggested. “Careful, though. Those spikes on his back are poisonous.”

Chiaki began approaching the Nidoran, figuring that attacking from behind would probably be a bad idea since the Nidoran had those toxic spikes on its back. The Nidoran also had a small horn on its forehead, which Chiaki correctly assumed also was poisonous.

“Uh… How do I fight it without touching the pointy parts?” Chiaki asked, looking to Sera for answers.

“Hold on…” Sera took a quick look into the treasure bag, before picking up a small seed she found on the previous floor, and using her tail to fling it to Chiaki. “You can use this!”

Chiaki caught the seed in his paw, and curiously examined it. He wondered how a small seed like this was supposed to help him defeat the Nidoran. He sniffed the seed, only sensing a faint spicy aroma. Figuring it couldn’t do any harm, the curious Mienfoo decided to find out what the seed tasted like, putting it into his mouth. He soon felt a strong heat build inside his mouth, causing him to spit the seed out and watching as it exploded on impact with the Nidoran.

“What was that!?” Chiaki shouted, waving his paws in front of his mouth in an attempt to cool it down.

“That was a Blast Seed! It can be thrown at enemies or eaten to make it explode and damage the enemy!” Sera explained, wagging her tail.

“The latter does more damage, for some reason,” Blitz added.

“Well, it’s certainly a cool item, don’t you think?” Azure asked, bouncing on her tail. “After all, who doesn’t think it would be cool to spit explosions?”

Before Chiaki could really respond to this, the Nidoran pecked his shoulder with his horn, seeming understandably angry with Chiaki for spitting the exploding seed at him. Chiaki found the Peck attack rather painful, since it was a flying type based attack. Chiaki braced himself for another attack, but it didn’t come. It seemed as if the Nidoran was waiting for him to make his next move first, although it also gave the impression that it might attack again if Chiaki took too long to decide his next move. Perhaps this was part of the rules, or was the Nidoran just doing this because it wanted to?

“Don’t worry, you can do this!” Sera cheered. “Here, let me give you a Helping Hand!”

Sera jumped up into the air, doing a flip before landing back on the ground, releasing a white wave of energy as her feet touched the ground. The glowing wave reached to her teammates, giving them some extra energy. With the power boost granted from Sera’s Helping Hand move, Chiaki pounded the Nidoran with his paw. With the damage it had already taken from the Blast Seed in addition to the Pound attack, the Nidoran fainted.

“Yay! I did it!” Chiaki said, doing a little victory dance.

“Well done, Chiaki!” Sera commented, walking up to him. “And as we all gain more experience, we’ll eventually learn to use even more attacks! Oh, and there are also other items besides the Blast Seed that we can use to give us an edge in battles!”

“Walk while you explain!” Azure said, bouncing past the two.

The four Pokémon continued walking through the dungeon, Sera and Blitz explaining various items that could aid in battle to Chiaki, and Azure gleefully sending the occasional wild Pokémon they came across flying with a strike from her tail. As they moved onto the fourth floor, they came across a female Nidoran. The female Nidoran looked a bit different from the males; it had fewer toxic spikes on its back, rounder ears and was blue instead of purple.

“Here I go!” Azure shouted, as she bounced right over to the Nidoran and gave the poison type the same treatment as the other Pokémon she had fought. However, after launching the poor poison type into the sky with her tail, Azure suddenly felt somewhat dizzy.

“Azure? Are you okay?” Chiaki asked, noticing that the Azurill seemed to be stumbling a bit.

“Anyone have a Pecha berry?” Azure asked, seeming to be in pain.

“Guess she forgot what we said about being careful when attacking a Nidoran physically,” Blitz commented, while Sera looked through the bag. “If you’re not careful, you might be in for a nasty surprise from the Nidoran’s Poison Point.”

“Luckily, there are items that can cure poisoning,” Sera explained, pulling out a pink berry from her bag that they had also picked up on a previous floor. “Pecha berries cure poisoning, so they can be good to have with you!”

Sera used her tail to fling the berry over to Azure, who caught the berry in her mouth. Azure seemed to perk up a bit again once she had swallowed the pink sweet tasting berry.

“Higher ranked rescue teams might prefer to carry around Heal Seeds instead, since they also work on other things,” Blitz commented, taking some time to explain the various things wild Pokémon could inflict on them and which berries could cure them as they continued walking.

---

As they progressed through the fourth and fifth floors, Chiaki thought about the various things Sera and Blitz had been explaining to him so far, wondering if he would be able to remember it all. There was certainly a lot to keep in mind, and being on a rescue team probably wasn’t as easy as it sounded, but Chiaki still wanted to be on a rescue team. In fact, seeing what it was really like, hearing about the things Sera and Blitz had to teach him was making him even more excited than he was to begin with.

“Hey, how am I doing so far?” Chiaki asked.

“You’ve been doing very well,” Blitz responded, noticing a reddish bipedal cricket like Pokémon sleeping nearby, and pointing it out to Sera so they could make their way around it without necessarily having to wake it up.

“Yeah, you have!” Sera added, making sure to keep some distance between their group and the sleeping Kricketot as they moved along. Azure looked as if she wanted to march up to the Kricketot and challenge it to a fight, but managed to resist the urge to do so.

Chiaki smiled to himself as the four Pokémon quietly walked past the Kricketot so they could get to the stairs, the bug Pokémon staying asleep the whole time, its antennae occasionally knocking into each other, producing a xylophone-like sound. The four Pokémon soon reached the stairs, and moved onto the sixth floor of the dungeon.

“All right! We’re getting near the end!” Sera said, happily wagging her tail. “That poor flying Pokémon won’t have to wait for too much longer.”

“I hope it’s not too badly hurt…” Blitz commented, glancing around to see if he could figure out which way they would go next.

“Hey, Azure?” Chiaki looked over at the young Azurill that was happily bouncing along right behind him. “That Pokémon you saw, what did it look like?”

“Huh? Oh, I didn’t get a very good look at it…” Azure tried to remember what she saw. “I think it might’ve been a dragon, but I don’t know for sure.”

“Ooh, a dragon?” Chiaki seemed to like the idea of the rescue team potentially saving a dragon type Pokémon.

“Well, it must’ve been a pretty big Pokémon since I was able to see it from that distance,” Azure responded, still trying her best to remember the small glimpse she caught of the falling Pokémon. “Like I said, I don’t know for sure.”

“Hope it doesn’t mind walking all the way back to town when we find it,” Chiaki said, thinking for a moment. “Unless Sera brought another one of those blue things she used to teleport us out of that forest yesterday?”

“Oh, we don’t need an Escape Orb this time around!” Sera chimed in. “We can just use our rescue team badge to teleport ourselves and the injured Pokémon out!”

“Really?” Chiaki asked. “How does it do that?”

“Magic,” Sera responded, picking up some coins she found on the ground. “Rescue team badges contain a special kind of magic, that when we finish a mission, allows us to teleport right back to town!”

“Whoa! That is so cool!” Chiaki exclaimed.

“Oh, it’s really nothing out of the ordinary,” Sera responded. “All rescue teams have one of those, after all.”

“Hey, are those blue orbs magical too?” Chiaki asked.

“Um… I’m not sure how those work, actually,” Sera admitted.

“So, they might be magical?” Chiaki suggested.

“I don’t see why not,” Sera commented. “There’s a lot of magic in this world.”

The four Pokémon entered another room, in which there were three Nidoran, two of them male and one female. On second glance, they realized that one of the two males was asleep right in front of the stairs to the next floor.

“We have to fight more of these?” Azure seemed a bit annoyed, as she didn’t want to risk being poisoned again. “Well, let’s get it over with.”

Azure took a few steps forward, keeping some distance between herself and one of the Nidoran. Her body tensed up a bit as she prepared to use an attack, but only a bit of foam came out of her mouth.

“Oh, come on!” Azure shouted as the foam just harmlessly dripped down from her mouth.

“What were you trying to do?” Chiaki asked, wiping the foam away from her mouth with the baggy skin on his arm, seeing as the Azurill species did not have hands until it evolved.

“That was supposed to be a Bubble attack, but I still haven’t figured out how to get it right,” Azure explained. “I’m sure I’ll figure it out eventually, but it’s just so frustrating when it won’t work…”

“Of course you’ll figure it out!” Chiaki responded. “You certainly seem pretty strong!”

“Strength isn’t everything,” Blitz commented, as he dodged the attacks from the female Nidoran that was trying to strike him with her claws. “You also need to keep your head cool, and think before you act.”

“Yeah,” Sera responded, using Helping Hand to power up her teammates yet again. “And know when to use your items.”

“I’ll definitely keep that in mind!” Chiaki said as he used Pound on the male Nidoran, weakening it quite a bit, Azure proceeding to finish it off with a strike from her tail.

Blitz continued dodging the female Nidoran’s Scratch attacks, ducking from the swipes of her claws and occasionally jumping back. He soon ended up standing against a tree, with the Nidoran smirking, believing she had the Shinx where she wanted him. She raised her paw to attack, only to receive a nasty surprise as Blitz caught her paw, holding it between his front paws and delivered an electric shock to the poison type, knocking her out.

“Two down, one more to go!” Azure shouted, glancing over at the male Nidoran that was still asleep near the stairs.

The four of them slowly approached the sleeping poison type. Sera almost felt bad about having to wake it up, seeing as the Nidoran seemed rather content. She wondered what the Nidoran was dreaming about. Her best guess was that it probably involved a giant pink gummi. After all, who hadn’t had a dream like that? Sera was pretty certain each of her five older siblings had had a dream involving their favorite type of gummi at one point.

Sera led her team over to the Nidoran, the poison type slowly opening his red eyes as the rescue team got close. The Nidoran quickly got to his feet and prepared to fight, even if he was likely aware of it was going to be a one-sided one, seeing as there was only one of him against four of them. And it was indeed a one-sided fight, as it just took being tackled by Sera, followed by being zapped by Blitz to bring it down. The rescue team than moved onto the seventh floor, now only having to find one last set of stairs before they reached the end.

---

After a fairly uneventful floor of just wandering, fighting off a few Pokémon and finding some items that would likely not be of any use to them until later, the four Pokémon finally reached the end of the dungeon.

“I-Is someone there?” a voice called out.

As the rescue team quickly moved over to the injured Pokémon, they discovered that it wasn’t a dragon that Azure had seen, but it could easily be mistaken for one at a distance. It was a large gray Pokémon, with big bat-like wings. The Aerodactyl raised his head, looking over the four small Pokémon that were approaching him.

“Did you come to rescue me?” the Aerodactyl asked, looking over at his injured right wing.

“Yeah,” Sera responded, walking up to the Aerodactyl. “The Azurill here saw you fall out of the sky, so she asked us to go investigate!”

“Thank you…” the Aerodactyl responded, looking over at Azure. “I was practicing for the annual flying tournament on Wyvern Island, but something went horribly wrong…”

“Don’t worry; I’m sure nurse Giselle can fix that wing for you!” Sera responded, trying to give the Aerodactyl a reassuring smile.

“Well, at least the tournament is still a few months away,” the Aerodactyl glanced at his injured wing again. “Hopefully, I’ll still have enough time to practice after my wing heals…”

“Then we better get out of this dungeon,” Sera said, holding up the rescue badge. “The sooner we get you to Giselle, the better!”

Chiaki watched in awe as the rescue team badge began to glow with a golden light, and the wings on the sides of it began to flutter and carry it up into the air above the five Pokémon. The golden light soon enveloped the five Pokémon, and before he knew it, they were back at the rescue team HQ. With its job done, the badge floated back down into Sera’s paws. Chiaki found it pretty amazing to see this magic in action, even though it was probably a common sight to the rescue teams.

---

Once Sera came running into her office and explained what had happened, Giselle did not waste any time in heading outside to check on the Aerodactyl’s wing. Blitz, Sera, Chiaki and Azure watched the Audino carefully examining the wing.

“My, you sure seem to have suffered a pretty nasty injury, Mr. Aeron,” she commented.

“Will he be okay?” Azure asked, seeming a bit concerned about the Aerodactyl.

“Oh, don’t worry,” Giselle responded, smiling to the other Pokémon. “Just leave it to me, and that wing will eventually be as good as new!”

“Thanks, to all of you,” Aeron the Aerodactyl responded, managing a smile despite still clearly being in a bit of a gray mood due to what had happened to his wing. “If there is anything I can ever do to repay you, let me know.”

---

The four young Pokémon headed back into town, so Giselle could have some time alone to work on Aeron’s wing. All four of them seemed pretty satisfied to know that they had managed to help someone, as well as getting to go on an adventure and see what being a rescue team is about in Azure and Chiaki’s cases.

“Well, I better go now, my mother is probably waiting for me,” Azure said, happily bouncing on top of her tail. “Thanks for taking me on an adventure!”

“You’re welcome!” Sera responded. “Maybe we should do it again sometime?”

“Sure! I’ll go on another adventure with you guys anytime!” Azure replied. “See you later!”

The remaining three Pokémon waved good-bye to Azure as she bounced away, before turning their attention to another matter at hand.

“So, do you still wish to join our rescue team, Chiaki?” Sera asked.

“Of course I do!” Chiaki responded. “Sure, there’s a lot to remember about fighting and items and stuff, but it’s all so awesome! I want to see more! I want to learn more! I want it all!”

“Okay then!” Sera giggled a little at Chiaki’s enthusiasm. “Welcome to our rescue team!”

“Thanks!” Chiaki grabbed one of Sera’s forelegs and excitedly shook it. “I promise I’ll be the best teammate I can be!”

“I know you will,” Sera responded, smiling at her new teammate.

“Yeah, you seem to be picking up on this pretty quickly,” Blitz added. “Probably won’t take long before you’ve learned everything you need to know.”

Chiaki smiled, happy to be on a rescue team. He was happy to know that he would get to go on adventures, go on missions with Blitz and Sera and help Pokémon in need. Perhaps he would even discover who he was that way?

“Should we take Chiaki to see Stella now?” Blitz asked.

“Hmm… I don’t know, it’s nearly evening,” Sera commented. “I’ll have to go home soon so that I won't be late for dinner.”

“Oh, good point… We’ll do it tomorrow, then?” Blitz suggested.

“Yeah, we’ll do it tomorrow morning, before we head over to the HQ to find a new mission,” Sera decided.

While he did look forward to meeting Stella, all Chiaki could really think about was that the mission they went on tomorrow, would be his first official mission as part of a rescue team. He wondered what kind of mission it would be, or if he would meet any new friends, or learn something new. Oh, he was just so excited, he couldn’t wait for tomorrow to come!

---

End of chapter 3.

---

[Ugliduck99]

Woooooop!!!!!!
LUV IT



Wob-wobbuffet!

[DarkerShining]

And so, chapter 4 is finally ready. Took a while to get it done, and it's probably not perfect, but I guess it's good enough. Hope you guys like it.

Read, review and so on.

---

Chapter 4: Okay, I may not be the smartest claw, but I certainly know how to fight!

---

The sun was slowly going down in the distance on what seemed to be quite a nice and quiet evening, and most rescue teams had already returned from their missions by now. This didn’t include Sting and his rescue team, who had taken on a mission to track down an outlaw who had stolen several expensive TMs, but while the mission had taken a while, they were now at the very least getting close to finishing their mission.

After a lot of walking and climbing, Sting and his two teammates had finally reached the floor where the description of the mission had said the outlaw would be found.

“Are you two doing okay?” Sting asked his two teammates, a pink Pokémon with an oval body and rabbit-like ears and another Pokémon resembling a polar bear with an icicle beard.

“No need to worry about us, Sting,” the polar bear responded, the Beartic somewhat enviously glancing up at Sting’s wings. “You’re lucky you can fly, though…”

“I suppose we can think of this as exercise, though,” the pink Pokémon commented, bouncing her way up the cliffs.

Sting, the Beartic and the Wigglytuff moved onto the tallest cliff in the area, and from there spotted something moving down below. It was a big bipedal Pokémon with yellow fur with black lines and electricity related patterns. It also had two long black tails with red tips, and was carrying a sack.

“That’s the outlaw described in the mission!” Sting buzzed, and began flying down to the Electivire at a high speed.

“Sting, wait up!” the Beartic shouted, before looking over at the Wigglytuff. “How are we supposed to follow him?”

“We start climbing down,” she replied, and carefully began making her away down.

“More climbing, of course,” the Beartic responded, following the Wigglytuff’s lead.

Sting flew towards the Electivire, preparing to strike him with the poison stingers on his arms. However, the Electivire managed to step to the side and avoid his attack, much to Sting’s surprise. He soon realized that the outlaw must’ve heard the buzzing sound of his wings as he was flying at him.

“So… What do we have here?” the Electivire asked, smirking. “Some rescue team leader who came to arrest me?”

“You got that right!” Sting buzzed, pointing a stinger at the outlaw. “Return those TMs!”

“Oh, you mean these TMs?” the Electivire said, holding up the sack.

The Electivire put the sack containing the stolen TMs on the ground, and began walking towards Sting, who was still hovering in the air a short distance away and pointing a stinger at him.

“Yeah, that’s not going to happen,” the Electivire said, not seeming intimidated at all by the Beedrill. “So, why don’t you just buzz off so I don’t have to beat you up? Or are you really going to fight me, insect?”

Sting prepared to strike at the Electivire with a Poison Jab attack, only to be electrocuted by the Electivire’s wire-like tails before he could make his move. Sting fell to the ground, his wings twitching somewhat in pain. Sting’s teammates saw this while still trying to make their way down the cliff wall.

“Oh no, Sting’s in trouble!” the Beartic exclaimed. “What do we do, Melody? We’ve got to get down there fast! This guy is too tough for him to handle alone!”

“Hang on, Frosty…” the Wigglytuff replied, having noticed one particular cliff above the two Pokémon that was fighting below them. “I think I have an idea!”

Melody quickly climbed down to said cliff, Frosty following her down to it. He cast a worried glance down at Sting, who was trying to get back up, while the outlaw was slowly approaching him with a sinister smile on his face.

“So, what’s the plan?” Frosty asked.

“Well, first of all, you need to step back for a moment,” Melody said, before taking a deep breath. She continued to inhale, her rubbery, flexible body expanding as it filled with air. She quickly grew bigger and rounder, her body taking on a more spherical shape.

As Melody finished inflating herself, Frosty noticed a flash of light from below and heard Sting buzzing in pain as the Electivire electrocuted him again.

“Frosty! Quick, give me a push!” Melody shouted, gesturing towards the end of the cliff.

Below, Sting was once again trying to get back up, but found that he was unable to move. He had no intention of giving up, even if things were not going well for him.

“Surrender yet?” the Electivire asked, smirking at his opponent, who was almost completely helpless at this point.

“N-No…” Sting muttered. “Besides, even if… you do defeat me… Someone else will come after you and…”

Sting trailed off, as he noticed something above them. Before the Electivire had time to react, he was knocked into the ground as a certain inflated Wigglytuff hit him from above. Melody bounced back up a bit after the impact, before body slamming the Electivire again as he tried to get back up, the second impact knocking the Electivire out.

“You okay, Sting?” Melody asked as she rolled down from the now unconscious Electivire’s back.

“I will be,” Sting responded, seeming rather worn out and relieved that the battle was over. “Thanks, Melody. I owe you one.”

“You’re welcome!” Melody cheerfully responded, lightly bouncing a little. “Besides, no one treats my friends that way and gets away with it!”

Frosty finally made his way down to his teammates, and walked over to the sack containing the TMs and picked it up.

“We did it, guys!” he said as he held up the bag. “Now we can return these TMs to their rightful owners, and hand the bad guy over to the police!”

“Yeah,” Sting responded as he tried to get back onto his feet. “Thanks to us, things will be a little safer now as there will be one less outlaw to worry about!”

“This was a tough mission, though,” Melody commented while deflating her body back to its normal size.

“You got that right…” Frosty replied. “Will be nice to get back to town and get some sleep…”

“Well, let’s head back then,” Sting commented, as he pulled out their team’s rescue team badge, the top half of his team’s badge was gold-colored. “So, let’s just deliver the things, pick up the reward and call it a day!”

The rescue team badge released its golden glow, enveloping Sting, his teammates and the outlaw and teleporting them out of the dungeon. And so another day had ended, and it was going to be a quiet and peaceful night for the Pokémon of Fenix Town.

---

The night was followed by another bright and sunny morning. A red and white bird was going around town, delivering newspapers and letters it kept inside what appeared to be a white sack, but was really its tail. Every morning, the Delibird had to deliver mail to all the Pokémon around town. There were many Pokémon and a lot of work to do, but he didn’t mind at all. He really liked his job, as he had gotten to know a lot of Pokémon because of it and also because it made him feel kind of important, since those newspapers, letters and the occasional rescue mission addressed to a particular team wouldn’t make it to their recipient without him.

The Delibird pulled out a list of deliveries he had to make, and smiled to himself upon realizing he was already ahead of schedule. The Delibird walked down the path leading outside of town and to where Stella the Gothitelle lived. He walked up the stone building, and was about to put a newspaper down in front of their door, when Stella happened to poke her head out, having sensed his presence with her psychic powers.

“Ah, hello Santos,” she said, smiling sweetly at the Delibird.

“Oh, good morning, Stella!” he responded, before noticing the Gothitelle was holding an envelope in her hand.

“I’m glad you showed up, as I just finished this letter for my friend,” she explained, handing Santos the envelope. “Can you deliver this to my friend in Silver Woods?”

“Sure! I’ll add to my list and deliver it as soon as possible!” Santos replied, storing the letter inside his tail.

“Thank you so much,” Stella responded.

“Just doing my job!” he replied, saluting Stella before flying off. Shortly after he left, Blitz, Sera and Chiaki walked up to Stella.

“Oh! Hello there!” Stella greeted them. “I had a feeling I would get visitors today, but I didn’t know it would be you.”

“It’s nice to see you too, Stella!” Sera responded. “We’re not just here to say hi, though. We kind of need your help with something.”

“Oh? Well then, come in and let’s talk,” Stella responded, pulling the curtain aside with telekinesis and motioning for the three Pokémon to enter. Upon entering, the three of them noticed that Bow was standing in a corner, seeming to be deep in thought.

“What was that vision?” Bow muttered to herself, trying to remember a vision she had last night. The Gothorita was soon distracted from her thoughts as she noticed the visiting Pokémon. “Oh! Hey guys!”

“Hi Bow,” Blitz said. “How are you?”

“Fine, I guess,” Bow responded. “Had this vision last night, but I can’t remember what it was… Hey, who’s your new friend?”

“Oh, this is Chiaki,” Blitz explained. “He’s kind of the reason why we’re here.”

“Yeah, we found him in Meridian Forest a couple of days ago,” Sera added. “He doesn’t remember anything about who he is.”

“Is that so?” Stella asked, watching Chiaki curiously.

“Uh-huh, and nurse Giselle tried to help, but couldn’t, so we came to you!” Sera explained.

“I see…” Stella responded.

“Can you help us?” Blitz asked, looking up at the Gothitelle with his golden eyes.

“I’ll see what I can do…” Stella said, leaning down and placing her hands on the sides of Chiaki’s head. “Don’t worry, this won’t hurt at all.”

Chiaki closed his eyes, and let Stella take a look into his mind. The white ribbon-like feelers on Stella’s body began to glow as she established the psychic link between herself and Chiaki. She began examining the Mienfoo’s mind, but couldn’t find any traces of anything would suggest someone else had done something to his mind. His only memories were the ones from the last two days. However, there was one thing that caught Stella’s attention.

“You said you found him in Meridian Forest, correct?” Stella asked.

“Yeah, that’s right,” Blitz responded.

“Hmm… This reminds me of a vision I had not long ago…” Stella said. “I don’t know if there’s any connection, but it might still be worth bringing up…”

“What kind of vision was it?” Sera asked.

“I saw a small Pokémon fleeing from another Pokémon,” Stella said. “I think I saw the Axis Tower faintly in the distance at one point during the vision, which suggests that those Pokémon were in the Meridian Forest.”

“Really?” Blitz asked. “What kind of Pokémon?”

“Unfortunately, I couldn’t see the two Pokémon clearly in my vision,” Stella explained.

“Oh…” Blitz responded, rubbing his forelegs together.

“Hey, what if he’s a human?” Bow suggested.

“What’s a human?” Chiaki asked.

“Strange creatures that live in another dimension,” Sera explained. “They’ve visited our world a few times, and apparently there are even some types of Pokémon that first came to this world by tagging along with some of those humans.”

“Uh-huh! And there were also at least two instances where a human came to this world, and became a Pokémon and saved the world!” Bow added. “Both of those humans also lost their memories, so I thought it might be worth bringing up!”

“Well, that is a good theory, but I’m afraid there’s no evidence to it,” Stella replied. “If he were a human, the previous events suggest that he’d at least remember his name and that he was a former human, but Chiaki seems to have no such memories…”

“Oh, okay,” Bow said. “Now where was I? Oh, right… Trying to remember that vision…”

“So, I guess you don’t know anything else?” Sera asked.

“No, but I will try to get more answers for you,” Stella said to the rescue team. “If I have any visions that might give us some more clues, I’ll let you know.”

“Thanks, Stella!” Sera responded.

“I knew we could count on you!” Blitz added.

---

After saying good-bye to Stella and Bow, the three Pokémon headed up to the rescue team HQ to find a new mission. As the three of them arrived, they noticed Sting and his rescue team looking up missions on the rescue board.

“Ooh, how about this mission over at the Boiling Alcove?” Melody suggested, pointing to a mission posted on the board.

“No way, that place is way too hot!” Frosty protested. “Don’t you remember? The last time we were there, my epic icicle beard almost melted!”

“Hey guys!” Sera greeted the other rescue team.

“Oh, hello there, Sera,” Sting responded.

“I see you’re looking for missions too,” Blitz commented. “What are you planning on doing?”

“We haven’t decided yet,” Melody responded. “We had a pretty tough mission yesterday, so we’re definitely going to take on something a bit easier today.”

“Oh, what kind of mission was it?” Chiaki asked.

“Had to track down this outlaw who stole a bunch of expensive TMs,” Melody responded, reading another mission on the board. “He was pretty tough, and gave Sting some nasty electric shocks.”

“Ooh, sounds kind of scary…” Blitz commented.

“But don’t worry, we managed to beat him and get those TMs back!” Melody said with a smirk. “Body slamming that guy into the ground felt so good!”

“Ah, I think I found our mission for today!” Sting buzzed, pointing one of his stingers at a mission put up by an Ampharos that was asking someone to help her find her missing abacus. While Sting and his teammates read through the mission, Chiaki glanced over at the outlaw board.

“Hey, maybe we should try catching an outlaw too?” Chiaki suggested.

“Huh? Y-You’re suggesting we go after an outlaw?” Blitz asked.

“Well, why not?” Chiaki asked. “It would probably be a good experience for me.”

“But… You only just joined our team,” Blitz said, nervously rubbing his forelegs together. “And Sera and I haven’t actually taken any outlaw missions yet…”

“Oh, you haven’t?” Chiaki inquired. “Well, I suppose sometime has got to be the first, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, he does have a point there,” Sera responded.

“But… do you really think we’re ready?” Blitz asked, clearly still nervous about it.

“Don’t worry, Blitz!” Sera said, patting the Shinx on the back with her paw. “We’ll choose some outlaw that doesn’t look too tough for us to begin with. I’m sure there’s at least one of these guys that we can easily take down.”

“Well… Okay then…” Blitz reluctantly agreed.

“All right then! Let’s find us an outlaw to catch!” Chiaki beamed, and so the three Pokémon moved over to the outlaw board.

They began reading through some of the missions, which included such missions as one from the local police force requesting assistance in catching a trio of kleptomaniac Ducklett, or a mission from a Kadabra asking for someone to go get his spoon back from a Murkrow. There was also another mission from the local police force promising a large bounty for an Emolga that had apparently stolen many unusual things, the list even claiming she had stolen the moon at some point.

“Whoa, how’d she steal the moon?” Chiaki asked.

“Don’t you think they’re just exaggerating a little…?” Blitz asked.

“Um… Excuse me?” a voice called out, the rescue team turning to see a certain blue rabbit-like Pokémon. “Oh! Aren’t you the rescue team that took my daughter on an adventure yesterday?”

“Oh, you’re Azure’s mother!” Sera responded. “What brings you here?”

“Well, I was working in the café as usual, when I heard some noises from the kitchen,” the Azumarill explained. “So, I went to investigate, and saw one of the cooks chasing a Deino that had managed to sneak in through the back.”

“A Deino?” Sera asked.

“Yes, a Deino,” the Azumarill responded. “I’m guessing he must’ve found his way in by following the scent of freshly baked cupcakes, and he managed to eat almost an entire tray of cupcakes before he was caught and ran off.”

“I see,” Sera responded.

“The impression I got is that he didn’t mean to do anything bad, but also didn’t try hard enough to stop himself,” the Azumarill said. “So, I think I only need someone to go after him and bring him back to me so I can have a little talk with him.”

“We could do that!” Sera said, looking over at Chiaki and Blitz. “Right, guys?”

“I suppose…” Blitz responded. “It doesn’t sound that difficult…”

“Cool!” Chiaki exclaimed. “Yesterday, we helped Azure with a mission, and today we’re helping her mother with a mission!”

“Huh, you’re right,” Blitz pointed out. “What a strange coincidence…”

“Well, I better get back to the café, so I wish you luck in finding the Deino,” the Azumarill commented. “Unfortunately, I don’t know where he ran off to, so you may have to ask a few Pokémon around town if they’ve seen him.”

---

After receiving their mission, the three began taking a walk around town, looking for Pokémon that might know something. They began by asking the Pokémon running the various services, and it turned out the Togetic running the daycare had caught a glimpse of the Deino running towards the path leading to most of the mystery dungeons, but he couldn’t offer any direction beyond that. They headed down the path, hoping to run into someone who might have seen which dungeon the Deino went into. They soon came across a blue bipedal Pokémon with webbed hands and feet, and a pointy duck bill.

“Excuse me, sir?” Blitz asked. “Have you seen a Deino anywhere around here?”

“Quack?” The Golduck responded.

“We’re looking for a Deino that was apparently headed in this direction,” Sera explained. “Did you by any chance see which dungeon he went into?”

“Quack!” the Golduck replied, nodding his head.

“Oh, you did?” Sera asked. “Well, where did he go?”

“Quack!” the Golduck responded.

“Um… What?” Sera asked.

“Quack!” the Golduck said yet again.

“Uh… Sorry, sir, but we don’t understand your accent…” Blitz said, rubbing his forelegs together.

“Quack?” the Golduck thoughtfully held a webbed hand to his chin for a moment, before having an idea and pointing a claw at Sera’s bag. “Quack!”

“Huh?” Sera responded, before realizing what the Golduck was getting at. “Oh! I get it!”

Sera pulled out the map and rolled it out on the ground, the Golduck then pointing a claw at a cave highlighted as a mystery dungeon on the map.

“So, he went into the Granite Grotto?” Blitz inquired.

“Quack!” the Golduck responded, nodding his head.

“Okay, got it,” Sera said, rolling the map up again. “Thanks for your help, mister Golduck.”

“Quack!” the Golduck cheerfully responded, waving good-bye to the rescue team as they headed off for Granite Grotto.

---

At the entrance to the cave the three Pokémon took a quick look at the supplies they had brought along.

“Hmm… This should be enough, shouldn’t it?” Sera asked.

“I suppose,” Blitz responded. “We don’t really have any items that can cure confusion, though. Since this is a cave, I’m guessing there will likely be Zubat inside…”

“Well, we’ll probably be okay,” Sera said, closing the lid. “After all, how hard can it be to dodge a few sound wave attacks?”

“Depends on the situation, I think…” Blitz commented as the three of them entered the cave.

The three of them found themselves on the first floor of the cave, Blitz deciding to provide them with some light inside the dark cave by making his fur glow. They began walking down the rocky path, the walls of the maze also pretty much just consisting of rocks.

“So… How many floors is this place, again?” Sera asked as she led her team into one of the rooms.

“Ten,” Blitz responded. “How far in do you think the Deino went?”

“There’s only one way to find out!” Chiaki shouted, picking up some coins from the ground.

“Yeah, let’s keep going,” Sera replied.

The three of them kept on moving, Blitz serving as their living flashlight and illuminating their path to the stairs. Moving onto the next floor, they found a few more useful items on the ground, and added them to their supplies, the three continued heading over to another room, only to come across two blue bats with pointy ears and no eyes.

“Of course there had to be Zubat,” Sera commented.

“Shame my Flash attack won’t work on these guys,” Blitz commented. “I don’t really feel like fighting them, but I guess we have to…”

“Well, let’s just finish them off quickly so that it won’t be a long fight, then!” Sera commented, using her Helping Hand attack to give Blitz and Chiaki a power boost.

“If only they’d come a little closer to the ground…” Blitz muttered while waving his electrified paw at one of the two bats flying just out of his reach.

“Do we have any Blast Seeds?” Chiaki asked. “I bet if we threw one of those at them, they’d come tumbling right down so we could hit them with an attack!”

“Ooh, good idea, Chiaki!” Sera responded, looking through the bag. “Except we don’t have any Blast Seeds with us at the moment…”

One of the Zubat screeched and swooped down, preparing to sink its fangs into Chiaki. Chiaki quickly knocked the Zubat to the ground with his paw, and then placed one of his feet onto one of the dazed Zubat’s long thin legs to hold it down.

“Guess we’ll just have to do it like this, then!” Chiaki responded, knocking the Zubat out.

Following Chiaki’s lead, Blitz waited for the other Zubat to swoop down, before knocking it out with his paw. The three of them continued exploring, the rest of the second floor being mostly uneventful apart from finding a few items and fighting a couple of more Zubat. On the third floor, the three of them began talking about how they would handle the Deino.

“While he may not be that bad of a Pokémon, he’ll probably get frightened and start up a fight with us anyways…” Blitz commented. “Do you think we can use any of the items we have with us to make things easier?”

“I suppose the Sleep Seed we picked up earlier can be helpful,” Sera replied. “Hey, Blitz? Don’t you like; know an attack that works pretty well against dragons?”

“Huh? You mean my Ice Fang attack?” Blitz asked.

“Yes! That’s the one!” Sera responded. “If I remember correctly, you also know how to use Fire Fang, right?”

“Whoa! That sounds awesome!” Chiaki chimed in. “Could you show me those attacks sometime?”

“Um… I guess I could…” Blitz responded. "I don't like using them in battle, though..."

“Why not?” Chiaki asked.

“… I’d rather not talk about it, if that’s okay with you,” Blitz replied.

“Oh, that’s okay!” Chiaki responded. “You can tell me about it later!”

Blitz sighed, not really having anything to comment on Chiaki’s obliviousness. Chiaki clearly didn’t understand that Blitz had no intention of revealing why he refused to use his Ice and Fire Fang attacks on other Pokémon. There was only one Pokémon in all of Fenix Town that knew, and that was Hercules, the Heracross running the local dojo. Blitz’s mother had apparently known Hercules when she was younger, and had sent Hercules a letter explaining the events that had lead to her deciding to send him to Fenix Town to train.

“Ooh, there’s the stairs!” Sera called out, bringing Blitz’s attention back to the mission.

After getting to the stairs and moving onto the fourth floor, the three Pokémon came across another Pokémon resembling a rock with arms. While the Geodude was a bit difficult to take out without any attacks that were effective against rock types, the rescue team was at least glad to have some variety after all the Zubat. Not that this meant that there weren’t even more Zubat to fight just around the corner.

“Still no sign of that Deino…” Sera commented, looking around. “Did he manage to get all the way to the end of the dungeon?”

“He might have…” Blitz responded while hitting another Zubat with his electrified paw as it swooped down at them.

“Well, at least we’re almost halfway through this dungeon!” Chiaki optimistically replied.

“Right, so let’s just keep on moving!” Sera said.

---

The fifth and sixth floors went by, more items found, a few wilds fought and not much else happening. Sera continued to lead her teammates through the seventh floor, keeping an eye out for any other items that would be useful in a battle against an outlaw, even if they had probably already picked up enough items for the fight. Maybe she too was a little nervous about the upcoming fight? Not as much as Blitz was earlier that day, but maybe just a little? Well, even if a tiny bit nervous, she still felt fairly confident and didn’t have any doubts that her team could handle this little mission.

As they entered another room, they noticed a yellow snake-like creature with tiny wings on its back and a drill-like tail sleeping in a corner. The rescue team quietly snuck past the sleeping Dunsparce without much difficulty, and after quickly checking the room for items, moved onto the next room where they found the stairs leading to the next floor. Upon walking up to the eighth floor, they came across a small round Pokémon with metal armor covering most of its body except for its dark gray underbelly.

“Huh, didn’t know there were Aron in here,” Sera commented, as the small steel type walked closer.

“I think they only appear on the seventh-to-ninth floors of this dungeon, but I could be wrong,” Blitz responded, blue sparks of electricity rippling through his fur as he began charging electricity for his next attack. The electricity building up causing his fur to stand up, as his body’s glow gained an electric bluish tint to it.

“Do I have any other attacks I can use?” Chiaki wondered out loud while looking at his paws. “Just using Pound gets kind of repetitive…”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if you did know another move or two that could be used to give you an energy boost or something like that,” Blitz responded while zapping the Aron with an electrified paw charged with the extra electricity.

“Well, how do I use it?” Chiaki asked.

“Um… I doubt it would be a move I can use, so you’ll have to figure that out on your own,” Blitz responded.

“Oh, okay! I’ll see what I can do!” Chiaki replied, knocking out the Aron with his Pound attack.

They continued moving through the eighth floor, Chiaki occasionally stopping to see if he could figure out how to use another one of his attacks. However, his attempts, which mostly consisted of grunting and making silly poses, didn’t really do anything at all. He wasn’t really sure how he would know what he was supposed to do to use an attack. Hadn’t Blitz said something about a place in town where rescue teams could train? Chiaki made a mental note to ask Blitz about that later as they headed towards the stairs.

They moved onto the ninth floor, and there was only one more set of stairs to find before they reached the end of the dungeon. The long walk through the dungeon had given the three of them plenty of time to mentally prepare themselves for the battle that was probably ahead of them, but were they really ready?

---

At the end of the mystery dungeon, a small blue skinned dragon with black fur concealing most of his face except his mouth was trying to find his way out. Unfortunately for the Deino, there was nothing but walls in the direction he had been trying to go. The dragon Pokémon kept pushing his head against a wall as he tried to walk on, but eventually figured he wasn’t going to be able to get anywhere.

“Yep… This is definitely a dead end,” the Deino said to himself.

The young dragon attempted to move in another direction, only to end up bumping into another wall. He tried to walk a bit further while pushing his head against the wall, but still no progress.

“Another one?” he muttered, tilting his head in confusion.

He kept pacing around the cave, continuing to bump into the rocky cave walls. He eventually realized that he wouldn’t be finding an exit this way, and laid down on the cave floor, unsure what to do.

“I’m really lost, aren’t I?” the Deino muttered. “Is this how it ends for me? Stuck in a cave, forever alone?”

The Deino moved his head around, thinking he faintly heard something. Unbeknownst to him, Sera and her rescue team had just made it to the last floor.

“Oh, there you are!” Sera said.

“Ah! Who’s there?” the Deino exclaimed, startled at the sudden sound of another Pokémon’s voice. “Are you a ghost? Please don’t eat me…”

“Huh?” Sera said, tilting her head in confusion. “No, I’m not a ghost…”

“Are you sure?” the Deino asked.

“Of course I’m sure!” Sera responded, taking a step forward along with the rest of the rescue team. “I’m the leader of a rescue team, which River sent to find you!”

“River?” Chiaki inquired.

“Yeah, that’s Azure’s mother’s name,” Blitz explained.

“Huh?” the Deino responded, before realizing what was going on. “Oh! Is this because of the cupcakes? Are you here to punish me!?”

“Hey, relax,” Sera said, trying to keep the dragon calm. “We just-“

“Don’t hurt me!” the Deino shouted, spitting a purple fireball at the rescue team. The three Pokémon quickly leaped out of the way, Blitz accidentally intensifying the glow of his body for a moment. However, the Flash attack failed to affect the Deino in any way, seeing as the dragon did not have very well developed eyes under the black fur and therefore was blind in his current form.

“Looks like your Flash attack won’t have any effect,” Chiaki commented, stating the obvious.

“Hey, where are you?” the Deino asked, firing another Dragon Rage attack in their general direction. Blitz and Chiaki managed to dodge the attack again.

“Well, it looks like we do have to fight…” Blitz commented. “So, let’s all try attacking from different angles!”

“Okay!” Sera responded, as the three of them began moving closer to the Deino.

“Which angles will you be attacking from?” the Deino asked.

“Why would we tell you that?” Chiaki asked, while Sera used Helping Hand to power up him and Blitz.

“I don’t know…” the Deino responded, sniffing the air in an attempt to pick up on the three Pokémon’s scent and figure out their current positions that way.

Sera ran past the Deino, her tail brushing against the little dragon. He tried to hit her with another Dragon Rage, only to be tackled from the side by Blitz. Even though the attacks hadn’t done that much damage, the Deino knew he was in a tough spot. The young dragon type Pokémon took a deep breath, taking a moment to concentrate, even as Chiaki hit him with his Pound attack. The Deino took a moment to listen in order to get a better idea of his surroundings and where his opponents were.

“Okay, I may not be the smartest claw, but I certainly know how to fight!” the Deino shouted, before exhaling a Focus Energy-boosted Dragonbreath attack which managed to hit and instantly knock Blitz out, much to Sera and Chiaki’s surprise. With Blitz knocked out, he could no longer provide the light for his team and the cave went dark.

“No, Blitz!” Sera shouted. “This is really bad!”

“Don’t we have an item that could provide some light, or something?” Chiaki asked.

“No, we don’t…” Sera responded.

“Oh, I actually hit one of them?” the Deino asked himself. “Cool.”

The Deino fired another Dragon Rage, which Chiaki managed to avoid by jumping out of the way and letting the ball of purple fire hit a wall. The purple flare of the fireball suddenly gave Chiaki an idea.

“You missed me! Try again!” Chiaki shouted.

“Oh, okay…” the Deino fired another fireball in the direction of Chiaki’s voice, but Chiaki managed to dodge the attack yet again.

“Keep trying!” Chiaki shouted.

The Deino kept firing more purple fireballs at Chiaki, who kept evading the attacks and then telling the Deino to try again. After a few moments, Sera realized what Chiaki was doing and what she was supposed to do while he kept the Deino distracted. During the brief purple flashes where it was possible for her to see her surroundings, Sera ran over to Blitz’s unconscious form and gave him a Reviver Seed.

“Blitz, wake up!” Sera whispered to him, hoping the Deino wouldn’t hear her and figure out that Chiaki was just distracting him. The Shinx slowly opened his golden eyes, groaning a bit.

“Ugh… I think he got that phrase wrong…” the dazed Shinx muttered. “It’s “sharpest claw”, not “smartest”…”

“Blitz, are you okay?” Sera asked, still whispering as to not draw the Deino’s attention away from Chiaki. “Come on, we need some light…”

“Just a moment…” Blitz said, before closing his eyes and letting his fur shine again.

The Deino didn’t realize that Blitz’s glowing fur was now lighting up the cave again, and that the rescue team now had regained a bit of an advantage. Chiaki grinned as he saw that his plan had worked perfectly. He continued keeping up his distracting of the dragon type while giving Blitz and Sera some time to quietly plan out their next move. Sera pulled a small seed out from the bag, showing it to Blitz.

“If we can just fling this into the Deino’s mouth, then the battle should end pretty quickly,” Sera said.

“Agreed,” Blitz responded. “We may need Chiaki for that, though.”

Sera nodded and waved her paw for Chiaki to come over. Chiaki quietly moved over to his teammates, letting the Deino fire a few fireballs at a random cave wall for a few moments.

“Chiaki, do you think you can throw this Vile Seed into the Deino’s mouth?” Sera asked.

“Sure! Just leave it to me!” Chiaki responded, taking the seed.

“Hey, where’d you go?” the Deino asked, realizing the voices weren’t coming from the direction he had been randomly firing in.

“Oh, I’m over here! Just turn around!” Chiaki shouted while Blitz and Sera moved out of the way.

The Deino turned around, and now Chiaki just had to wait for the right moment. The Deino soon opened his mouth to inhale in preparation for another attack, and at that point Chiaki quickly flung the seed right into the Deino’s open mouth.

“Urk!” the Deino accidentally swallowed the seed. “What just flew into my mouth?”

“Now, attack!” Sera shouted, as she ran towards the Deino and tackled him, followed by Blitz doing the same and then finally Chiaki running up and hitting the Deino with his paw.

The Deino was knocked onto his back, and he realized that their attacks were now doing more damage to him than they had done earlier in the fight. It took a few seconds to realize the seed he had swallowed had to have been a Vile Seed, which had lowered his defenses as low as they could go.

“Maybe you’d like to give up now?” Chiaki asked, giving the Deino a friendly smile, even though the dragon could not see him. “We’d be fine with that.”

The Deino considered his options for a moment. He could keep fighting, seeing as even though they had an advantage now, he was still stronger than they were. However, then it occurred to him that if he did defeat the rescue team, then how would he get out of the cave? Would he be trapped there forever, alone and with nothing to eat but rocks?

“… Okay, I surrender,” the Deino said, turning over onto his stomach and sadly laying his head down on the rocky cave floor. “I guess you can go ahead and take me to jail… It’s nicer than being stuck in a cave with nothing but rocks, I suppose. It’ll be an awkward conversation with my mother though, since she works there as a psychiatrist…”

“Hey, relax!” Sera said. “We’re not going to arrest you!”

“Oh, you’re not?” the Deino asked. “Thanks, that’s really nice of you…”

“Of course, we’re not going to just let you off the hook either,” Sera commented. “You’ll have to come with us, and have a talk with River.”

“Yeah, I guess…” the Deino replied. “I did something wrong, and have to make up for it…”

“Why’d you do it in the first place?” Blitz asked.

“Oh, you see… There were these Pokémon who wanted to find this treasure, but couldn’t because it was like, hidden and stuff,” the Deino explained. “So, they asked me to help them sniff out the treasure, but I kind of got distracted and ended up getting all of us chased out of a cave by an angry Ursaring who thought we were trying to steal her supply of delicious honey.”

“Oh… I’m guessing those Pokémon weren’t too happy about that, huh?” Sera asked.

“You got that right…” the Deino replied. “They got mad and yelled at me for messing it up, and that made me feel bad… I tend to eat when I’m upset…”

“Oh, I see…” Sera said, comfortingly patting the Deino’s back.

“Can we head back now? I’m tired of this cave…” the Deino commented.

“Okay, let’s head back!” Sera said, as the rescue team badge began hovering above them.

“Thanks for finding me, whoever you guys are,” the Deino said, smiling at the three Pokémon. “My name’s Frederick, by the way.”

“Oh, you’re welcome!” Sera responded. “My name is Sera, and I’m an Eevee! And my teammates are Blitz the Shinx and Chiaki the Mienfoo.”

“It’s nice to meet you!” Blitz said.

“What they said!” Chiaki added, shaking the Deino’s paw.

“It’s nice to meet you too!” Frederick cheerfully responded.

The floating rescue team badge soon released its magical golden light, teleporting the four Pokémon out of the dark cave.

---

In the meantime, at the café, River had just taken a few customers’ orders, when Bow suddenly came running into the building.

“River!” the Gothorita shouted, leaning on the counter and taking a moment to catch her breath.

“What is it?” the Azumarill asked.

“I had a vision last night!” Bow explained. “I saw a Pokémon sneak into the back and steal some cupcakes, so I thought I’d come over here and warn you!”

“Oh, um… I appreciate the thought, but you’re a bit late,” River responded. “That’s already happened.”

“Oh…” Bow said, sighing. “I did all that running for nothing, huh? If only I’d remembered sooner…”

“It’s okay, Bow,” River said. “Sera and her teammates are already out dealing with it for me.”

“Oh, okay…” the Gothorita responded. “Well, that was all I came for, so… guess I’ll head back home now. Bye!”

And with that, Bow left the café. Only a few moments after the Gothorita left, Sera, her teammates and Frederick stepped through the door.

“We’re back!” Sera announced as they entered the café.

“Oh, welcome back!” River greeted them. “I see your mission was a success.”

“Uh-huh!” Sera replied. “We found Frederick and brought him back here, just like you asked!”

“Well done!” River said, before looking over at the Deino in question. “So, your name is Frederick, huh?”

“Yeah…” he responded, nodding his head slightly. “Sorry about eating those cupcakes… You’re not going to send me to jail, are you?”

“Oh, of course not!” River replied, petting the Deino on the head. “However, we do need to sort out what to do now, since you do owe me a bit of money for those cupcakes.”

“Oh! I could work here to work off the debt!” Frederick suggested.

“Ah, so we had the same idea,” River commented. “So, I'm guessing that’s okay with you?”

“Sure, and even if it weren’t, my parents would probably tell me to do it anyways,” Frederick replied. “Hey, if I do a good job, do I get free dessert?”

“Hmm… We’ll see about that,” River responded, giving a small chuckle.

“Hey, where’s Azure?” Chiaki asked, having noticed that the Azurill wasn’t there at the moment.

“Oh, she went to buy some White Gummis, after she realized how much money she had saved up from her allowance,” River explained. “Oh, and speaking of money…”

River picked up a small bag and produced 300 coins from it. She then handed those coins to Sera, since she was the leader of the rescue team.

“Here’s your reward for finishing my mission!” River said.

“Wow, thanks River!” Sera responded, happily wagging her tail.

“We’ll try to spend it wisely,” Blitz added.

“Hey… Our rescue team badge looks different!” Chiaki exclaimed, pointing to the rescue team badge. The top half of it had changed color, and was now bronze colored.

“Hey, you’re right… It does look different!” Sera responded. “Wow, does that mean what I think it does?”

“Yeah, with that last mission, we must’ve gotten enough experience to advance to Bronze rank!” Blitz said.

“Awesome!” Sera shouted out, happily bouncing around.

“Sounds good, but what exactly does it mean for us?” Chiaki asked.

“It means we can do tougher missions now!” Sera said, smiling proudly. “Also, we’ll get a bigger treasure bag!”

“Ooh! Let’s go pick that up right now!” Chiaki shouted excitedly.

And so, after saying good-bye to River and Frederick, the three of them headed back to the rescue team HQ to pick up their new treasure bag. With their new rank, bigger challenges were sure to come their way soon.

---

End of chapter 4.

---

[Strawberryflavored]

That last chapter was pretty good, DS. I liked those WAAPT references with the outlaws.

[DarkerShining]

It took a while, but I think chapter 5 is ready now. Hope you like it!

---

Chapter 5: Sand Attack has officially become a lot more complicated than it has any right to be.

---

The sun was slowly starting to rise in the distance, and a small Pokémon had just made it to Fenix Town, making sure to arrive at a time where no one in town would be awake yet. The small Pokémon was looking for someone, and she was pretty certain that Pokémon would be somewhere in town. However, she hadn’t really slept well these last few days, and so would need to get some rest before she could find the one she needed to find and then figure out what to do about the current situation. Since no one else was even awake yet, it couldn’t hurt to just get some rest now and worry about what to do later in the day.

She decided to crawl into some bushes, as she didn’t want anyone to notice her and disturb her sleep. She had a lot to think about, but surely that could wait until after she had gotten some rest…

---

Sera smiled as she polished the bronze colored top of the rescue badge with her paw, before putting it onto the bigger treasure bag they had traded in the old one for and picking up the bag and carrying it on her shoulders. She was feeling pretty confident, and couldn’t wait to get another mission done. She quickly headed outside after saying good-bye to her family and promising to be back in time for dinner, and went to meet up with her teammates.

“Sera!” Chiaki’s voice called out, and Sera smiled as she saw her two teammates just ahead.

“Hey guys!” she responded, excitedly running over to the other two. “So, should we head straight to the HQ and find ourselves a mission? I’m ready for anything!”

“Actually, Blitz and I had a little talk, and we thought that maybe we should all head over to the dojo to train instead of going on a mission today!” Chiaki said in his usual cheerful voice.

“Huh?” Sera responded.

“Well, I wanted to learn some new attacks, so I asked Blitz if I might be able to learn some new things by training at the dojo,” Chiaki explained. “And Blitz thought it was a good idea, and suggested that we all go!”

“Yeah, since we’re a bronze rank team now, I figured it might be a good idea to train, you know, so we could be better prepared for tougher missions…” Blitz said, while rubbing his forelegs together. “I hope you don’t mind.”

“Oh! Of course I don’t mind!” Sera responded, smiling at the two. “You’re absolutely right; we should totally go do that!”

And so, the three Pokémon began quickly moving over to the dojo. Chiaki was curious about what the dojo looked like on the inside, and was excited since he was soon going to find out.

---

The rescue team entered the building, where they were greeted by a large bipedal dark blue beetle with a big horn. The Heracross smiled as he saw Blitz.

“Hey, Blitz! Good to see you!” Hercules said. “How are you today?”

“Oh, I’m fine,” Blitz responded, not seeming as skittish as usual. “Our team is doing pretty well.”

“That’s good,” Hercules responded. “I see you have a new teammate as well?”

“Yeah, this is Chiaki,” Blitz explained. “He joined our team a couple of days ago.”

“Ah, I see,” Hercules responded. “Nice to meet you, kid.”

“It’s nice to meet you too!” Chiaki replied, excitedly shaking one of Hercules’ hands.

“Wow, you seem to have a lot of energy, don’t you?” Hercules responded, before noticing the color of the rescue team badge on the treasure bag Sera was carrying. “Oh, I see you’ve advanced to Bronze rank! Congratulations!”

“Thanks!” Sera responded, happily wagging her tail. “We reached Bronze rank just yesterday, so we thought we should train so we can handle tougher missions and stuff!”

“Say no more,” Hercules responded, gesturing for the three of them to follow him down some stairs. “This way.”

The rescue team followed Hercules down the stone stairs, leading them to a large underground complex. There were multiple training exercises and obstacle courses set up within for the Pokémon who came there to train, focusing on different things that were important for rescue teams to be able to do. There were also several other Pokémon working at the dojo as Hercules’ assistants, helping the Pokémon to train and overlooking some of the training exercises.

“Cool…” Chiaki commented, looking around at the underground training facility.

“I know, right?” Blitz responded.

“So, where would you like to start?” Hercules asked.

“Huh? Oh, I’d like to learn how to use some more attacks, please!” Chiaki said. “Just using Pound all the time gets kind of boring.”

“Ah, I see,” Hercules replied. “I think Lotus could help you with that.”

Hercules gestured for a small blue humanoid Pokémon with a white onion shaped head to come over to them, the Meditite quickly floating over to them.

“The Meditite species happen to be able to learn several attacks that Mienfoo can also learn, so she can probably help you figure out the technique for a few of your moves,” Hercules explained.

“Neat,” Chiaki commented. “So, you’ll teach me some moves?”

“Yes,” Lotus responded. “So, let’s just get started right away, shall we?”

“Sure!” Chiaki replied, following the Meditite to another part of the training facility.

“So, what should we do?” Sera asked.

“I guess it couldn’t hurt for us to learn some new moves either,” Blitz suggested. “I think I’ve finally grown strong enough to be able to properly learn the technique for Spark, so I’d like to work on that.”

“Ah, well, we should do that, then,” Hercules responded, before turning to Sera. “Which attacks do you know?”

“Oh! Well, I know Tackle, Tail Whip, Helping Hand and Sand Attack!” Sera responded. “The basic Eevee stuff, even if I never seem to actually hit anything with that last one, though.”

“I see,” Hercules responded. “Perhaps you should work on improving your technique for Sand Attack, then.”

“Isn’t it just kicking sand in someone’s face?” Sera asked, tilting her head in confusion. “How can that possibly require much?”

“Even simple attacks can have their techniques modified to make them more effective and work better depending on the situation,” Hercules explained. “Sometimes, one has to be creative and think of new ways to use one’s attacks.”

“Oh, so it’s one of those thinking outside the box things?” Sera asked.

“Yeah, pretty much,” Hercules responded. “I think Riley might be able to teach you something there.”

Hercules gestured to a small blue furred bipedal jackal Pokémon that was currently talking to a small brown owl like Pokémon that was keeping track of how much time it took the Pokémon training there to get through certain obstacle courses. The Riolu seemed to be pretty amazed by how well the owl was able to keep track of time like that, even though he knew the Hoothoot species was known for their great sense of time.

“Are you sure?” Sera asked. “Riolu can’t learn Sand Attack, can they?”

“No, technically they can’t,” Hercules responded. “But that doesn’t mean they can’t help you improve on your Sand Attack technique.”

“If you say so,” Sera replied, walking over to the Riolu.

“Well, we should get started on your training as well,” Hercules said to Blitz. “I think I know just the right training exercise for you to practice your Spark attack. Follow me.”

---

Hercules lead Blitz over to what appeared to be a small running course with a small wooden target set up in the center. Near the start line was a chubby yellow Pokémon that seemed to be the one currently in charge of the course. The Makuhita seemed to be adjusting what appeared to be strange knot-like thing at the top of his head, when he noticed Hercules coming over.

“Oh, hey Hercules,” the Makuhita said. “Are you taking over here for now?”

“Might as well,” Hercules responded, with a friendly smile. “If you want to take a short break, feel free to do so.”

“Thanks, Hercules,” the Makuhita responded, smiling back.

While the Makuhita walked away to go take a short break from work, Hercules decided to go over the course with Blitz.

“So, as you can see, it’s not really a difficult course,” Hercules explained. “Some twists and turns, and a target at the end which you’ll have to hit with Spark.”

“I see,” Blitz responded. “So, is there anything in particular I need to do to get the technique just right?”

“It doesn’t have to be perfect, but for the best result there are indeed some things you should keep in mind,” Hercules responded.

“Like what?” Blitz asked.

“Well, I think, for now at least, that you need to get the timing right on when you begin charging up the electricity before you tackle the opponent,” Hercules explained. “You need to charge up the electricity while running towards the target, but try not to begin too soon or you might use up your energy faster, or too late and not charge up enough electricity to make the attack as effective as possible.”

“Oh, I see,” Blitz commented, while looking over at the course and trying to get a basic idea of how he’d have to go through it.

“Considering how your species builds up electricity through extending and contracting your muscles, I don't know if it would really be that much of a problem for you,” Hercules commented. “But keep it in mind for now anyways.”

“Okay,” Blitz said, nodding his head.

“And when you get stronger, you’ll be able to build up more electricity faster and keep the charge for longer,” Hercules said, smiling at Blitz. “So, naturally it gets easier the stronger you get.”

“Right,” Blitz responded. “But even the strongest Pokémon aren’t invincible, so you can’t underestimate your opponent even if you do have the advantage.”

“That’s true,” Hercules replied. “And it’s good to see that you’ve paid attention to what I have taught you in previous training sessions.”

Hercules called over a Hoothoot to assist as a living stopwatch for Blitz when he would make his way through the training course. The brown owl Pokémon flew over, before landing next to them, hopping from one leg to the other.

“Well, let’s get to it,” Hercules said. “Begin on the Hoothoot’s signal.”

Blitz moved over to the start line, waiting for the Hoothoot to give the signal to start. The owl Pokémon continued tilting its head and rhythmically hopping from one leg to the other, before giving Blitz the signal to start running. Blitz quickly began making his way through the training course, slowly beginning to build up electricity as he reached the halfway point and increasing the charge as he kept getting closer to the target. He hit the wooden target with an electrified tackle, and heard the Hoothoot hooting to signaling for him to stop.

“How’d I do?” Blitz asked.

“Hmm… Not bad,” Hercules said. “But, I know you can do even better. Want to give it another go?”

“Sure,” Blitz responded, moving back to the start line and waiting for the Hoothoot’s start signal again.

---

Meanwhile, Lotus was trying to teach Chiaki how to use Meditate, which was proving somewhat difficult as the Mienfoo wouldn’t stay still. Chiaki kept looking around at all the other obstacle courses and training exercises around them, curiously trying to get a closer look, only for Lotus to stop him and try to get him to sit down and meditate with her.

“Wow, look at all those Pokémon running around!” Chiaki said, pointing to one of the obstacle courses. “It looks like so much fun! Can we go train over there?”

“Right now, we are trying to teach you how to use a move known as Meditate,” Lotus responded. “It will temporarily increase physical attack power slightly.”

“Do we have to sit still, though?” Chiaki asked. “I want to run around!”

“It’s not the time for that,” Lotus responded. “Now, sit down, and do what I do.”

“Oh, okay!” Chiaki responded, sitting down and assuming the same position as the Meditite. “Can we go run around after this?”

“You sure have a lot of energy, don’t you?” Lotus commented.

“Uh-huh!” Chiaki responded, nodding his head.

“Well, that’s… cute, but right now focus on learning this new move, okay?” Lotus asked.

“You think I’m cute?” Chiaki asked, with his usual cheerful smile.

Lotus sighed and hit the palm of her hand against her forehead. It seemed like this could possibly take a while.

---

Sera looked at the sand pit in front of her, waiting for Riley the Riolu to tell her to begin. The small blue jackal-like Pokémon walked to the center of the sand pit, feeling the sand between his dark gray furred toes.

“Okay, show me what you’ve got,” Riley said, assuming a battle position.

“Um… Okay…” Sera responded, moving onto the sand and getting into battle position as well. “Here I go!”

Sera attempted to kick some sand into Riley’s face with her hind legs, but the sand failed to hit its target.

“Hmm… Not bad for a beginner, I suppose,” Riley commented. “But, you’ll have to do better than that.”

“Isn’t that why we’re doing this, so I can do better?” Sera asked.

“Of course,” Riley responded, smirking. “First of all, you need to use more force if you’re going to kick the sand that way.”

“Okay, anything else?” Sera asked.

“Well, there is something that is probably more important than that,” Riley responded.

“Oh? And what’s that?” Sera asked.

Without warning, Riley suddenly kicked some sand into Sera’s face.

“Hey!” Sera exclaimed, while trying to get some of the sand out of her fur.

“The element of surprise,” Riley commented, smirking.

“Very funny,” Sera responded, wiping some sand off her face. “What else can you do? I was kind of expecting something… a bit more impressive, maybe?”

“Oh, well in that case…” Riley said, pressing the palms of his paws together and concentrating. A blue aura began emanating from his body, and soon started lifting some of the sand up into the air. A small whirlwind of sand began to take form, and soon began moving in Sera’s direction.

“Uh-oh,” Sera said, as she realized what was going to happen next. She managed to take a breath and close her eyes, just before the sand came crashing down on her, leaving only her ears sticking out from under a small pile of sand.

“Was that impressive enough for you?” Riley asked, while Sera just gave the Riolu an annoyed look from inside the pile of sand.

---

Blitz rushed at the target yet again, blue sparks of electricity rippling through his fur as he charged at the wooden target. He rammed into the target again, while Hercules and the Hoothoot looked on. After the Hoothoot gave the signal to stop, Hercules checked with the owl Pokémon on how Blitz had done this time.

“Well done, Blitz,” Hercules said to him. “You managed to do it a lot faster this time.”

“Thanks,” Blitz responded, smiling at Hercules while trying to catch his breath.

“Guess you could use a short break, huh?” Hercules asked, petting Blitz on the head.

“Yeah, sure,” Blitz responded, sitting down on the floor.

The Hoothoot decided to take a break as well, hopping away to another part of the dojo. Looking around to make sure no one else was within earshot, Hercules decided to take this opportunity to have a little conversation with Blitz.

“So, good to hear that things have been going well lately,” Hercules said.

“Yeah, Chiaki may still be inexperienced, but he seems to be picking up on things fast,” Blitz commented. “He’s a good addition to the team, and the fact that we’ve advanced to Bronze Rank is pretty neat too.”

“I see,” Hercules responded, again taking a quick look around to make sure no one else was listening, since he knew Blitz didn't feel comfortable talking to anyone but him about this. “Have you received any news from Lightning Plateau recently?”

“Huh?” Blitz responded. “Why do you ask?”

“I’m just curious,” Hercules replied.

“Oh, well… No, I haven’t received any letters from home recently,” Blitz responded. “I’m guessing that means nothing out of the ordinary has happened recently.”

“Ah, I see,” Hercules replied.

“So, I guess my mother is still waiting for my father to return to the tribe, while embarrassing Lita with her antics as usual…” Blitz commented.

Hercules continued petting the Shinx, trying to be reassuring. Hercules knew that Blitz looked up to him, and so felt the need to be supportive and a good role model to the Shinx. Blitz would often come to the dojo, but sometimes would just be there to ask Hercules for advice and not really train. Blitz had had a pretty tough time after his father disappeared, and Hercules hoped he was doing a good enough job helping Blitz find the strength to stand on his own and trust his instincts.

“I think I’m ready to continue training,” Blitz said, looking up at Hercules.

“Okay,” Hercules said, getting another Hoothoot to come over to take the time. Blitz had been making progress fast, and Hercules was certain the young Shinx would probably have mastered the attack well enough by the end of the day.

---

Lotus smiled as she had finally gotten Chiaki to pay attention to her, and successfully taught the Mienfoo how to use his Meditate move. Since Chiaki had proven to be a pretty fast learned once he stopped being distracted by everything else, Lotus decided she could try to teach him another attack he would probably find useful.

“Okay, you seem to have gotten Meditate down, so now I’ll teach you another attack,” Lotus said.

“Do I get to run around?” Chiaki asked excitedly.

“… No,” Lotus responded. “While this move will require some movement, it mostly relies on sharp senses.”

“Oh,” Chiaki said. “What is it?”

“Detect,” Lotus responded. “It will allow you to foresee your opponents next move, so may quickly move out of the way to avoid being hit.”

“Oh,” Chiaki replied. “But why can’t I just avoid attacks by running around?”

Lotus hit the palm of her hand against her forehead once again. Hopefully this time it would be easier to get the Mienfoo to stop getting distracted and pay attention.

---

Sera was getting increasingly annoyed as each of her attempts to take the Riolu by surprised failed, and only got the sand thrown back at her.

“Sand Attack has officially become a lot more complicated than it has any right to be.” Sera muttered to herself, while kicking the sand with her paw.

“So, have you at least learned something about the importance of the element of surprise?” Riley asked.

Sera looked up at him, before smirking and shaking the sand out of her fur so that it got all over Riley, finally succeeding in catching him off guard. Sera smirked and felt pretty satisfied with this.

“… I’ll take that as a yes,” Riley commented, while trying to wipe some sand off his face.

---

Hercules led Blitz over to another section of the dojo, where a blue otter-like Pokémon waited. The Dewott held up its two shells and assumed a battle pose.

“Now I’d like you to fight this Dewott here in a short practice battle,” Hercules explained. “The purpose is to test your Spark attack in battle.”

“Um… Okay,” Blitz responded, getting into a battle position himself.

“You get to make the first move, so begin when you’re ready,” Hercules said.

Blitz still had plenty of energy left even after all the training he’d already done today, and blue sparks began rippling through his fur as he built up his electricity for the attack. Blitz then began charging at the Dewott, who swiftly knocked Blitz aside with his shells, but not without taking some damage from the electricity in the process. Blitz quickly got back up, and observed his opponent for a moment.

As far as Blitz could tell, this Dewott was stronger than him, but not as strong as Frederick was. Based on how the Dewott knocked him aside suggested that the otter Pokémon didn’t know any good methods of blocking an electric attack, so it wouldn’t be too difficult of a battle.

Blitz used Flash to make his body glow brightly enough to blind the Dewott for a moment, long enough for him to deliver an electrified tackle to it and knock it down.

“Well done,” Hercules commented, smiling at Blitz. “I think you can continue working on improving the technique without my help from here.”

“Thanks,” Blitz responded, smiling back at the Heracross.

---

Lotus eventually got Chiaki to pay attention again, so she could teach him how to use Detect. He did listen to each of Lotus’ instructions, even if he did interrupt her a few times to ask her some questions. She did her best to answer the questions, and eventually managed to explain all Chiaki needed to know about Detect.

Although, even though Chiaki did listen to and say he that he did understand everything, Lotus still wanted to make sure he would be able to use the attack.

“Okay, if you really understood everything, then I guess you won’t mind using Detect right now to dodge one of my attacks?” Lotus asked.

“Sounds like fun!” Chiaki said, with a cheerful smile.

“All right, then,” Lotus responded. “I shall unleash my Hidden Power!”

Lotus calmly closed her eyes and pressed the palms of her hands together, while Chiaki tried to focus on foreseeing Lotus’ attack as instructed. Lotus’ body began shining with a green glow as she called upon the Hidden Power inside her, and soon orbs of green light imbued with grass type energy floated in circles around Lotus. Opening her eyes, Lotus sent the green orbs flying at Chiaki.

Chiaki’s eyes glowed for a moment, before the Mienfoo jumped out of the way so that the attack missed him and only hit the floor.

“Excellent,” Lotus said with a smile.

"Yay! I did it!" Chiaki said, cheerfully jumping up and down. "Thank you for teaching me those two moves, Lotus!"

"You're welcome," Lotus responded, smiling at the Mienfoo. "There's probably more I can teach you as well, if you're interested in training with me again sometime."

"Really?" Chiaki asked, seeming very excited at this offer. "There's more you can teach me?"

"Yes," Lotus responded. "However, promise me that if you do come back for more training, that you will pay attention right from the start, okay?"

"I promise!" Chiaki said, eagerly shaking Lotus' hand. "Thank you!"

"You're welcome," Lotus responded, smiling somewhat awkwardly as Chiaki continued shaking her hand. "... You can let go of my hand now."

---

Somehow, Sera’s training session with Riley eventually degenerated into just playing around in the sand. At least the two of them seemed to have a lot of fun while running around and tackling each other into the sand.

---

As the day was nearing its end, Hercules congratulated Blitz, Chiaki and Sera on how well they did during their training sessions. The three thanked him and his assistants for their help, and said good-bye before heading back outside. The sun was starting to go down in the distance.

“So, now that we’ve got some new moves, I guess we’re ready for our first mission as a Bronze rank team tomorrow?” Sera said, smiling confidently.

“Uh-huh!” Chiaki said, cheerfully nodding his head.

“I guess so,” Blitz responded, before he suddenly noticed another Pokémon standing a short distance away, curiously looking their way. “Hey, who’s that?”

Sera and Chiaki looked over at the other Pokémon in confusion; it was a small green humanoid Pokémon with a big head. It had two small green oval eyes and three differently colored fingers on each of its hands, one green, one yellow and one red. The Elgyem just curiously looked at the three Pokémon, not saying or doing anything. For some reason, it seemed particularly interested in Chiaki, staring at him for a few moments.

Chiaki wasn’t sure why, but the way the little green Pokémon was looking at him suddenly made him feel... strange. Before Chiaki had a chance to say anything to it, though, the Elgyem turned around and floated away, taking one last look over its shoulder at Chiaki before leaving.

“… That was weird,” Sera said.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen her around town before,” Blitz commented. “At least I think it might be a “her”.”

“How can you tell?” Sera asked, tilting her head.

“He’s right, she’s female…” Chiaki somewhat distractedly responded, nodding his head slightly.

“Are you okay, Chiaki?” Sera asked, noting that the Mienfoo seemed a bit zoned out.

“I… don’t know,” Chiaki replied, rubbing his head with a paw.

“Maybe you’re just tired from all the training you did today,” Sera said, patting the Mienfoo on the back with her paw.

“Let’s go home and get some rest,” Blitz said.

“Okay…” Chiaki responded.

After the usual good-byes and “see you tomorrows”, Sera went home to her family, while Blitz and Chiaki headed back to their house. As they walked home, Chiaki couldn’t get that Elgyem off his mind. Why was she looking at him like that earlier, and why did he feel so strange when she did it? Was there some sort of connection between them?

---

End of chapter 5.

---

[Strawberryflavored]

That was pretty good. My only issue is that some sentences containing descriptions of the Pokemon end up being run ons. For example,

"Hercules gestured to a small blue furred bipedal jackal Pokémon that was currently talking to a small brown owl like Pokémon that was keeping track of how much time it took the Pokémon training there to get through certain obstacle courses."

This sentence could use commas between some of the descriptive words. It would also probably flow better if the sentence was split after the description of the Hoot Hoot.

[Agent Tectonic]

I'll edit this post accordingly once I've read this chapter and write up my review for the previous chapters, but I did want to comment Strawberry above me:

The sentence in question is not actually a run-on; it is grammatically correct. However, I do agree that it is rather verbose for being only one sentence. Break it up a bit. Have one sentence describe the guy then have the follow-up describe what he/she is doing.

[DarkerShining]

Yeah, I know some of my sentences tend to be a little longer than necessary. Don't worry, I am working on trying to get better at dividing up sentences a bit.

[DarkerShining]

Well, this took quite a while to finish, but I think it's finally ready. I'll admit that it's probably not my best chapter, but it's not bad either. Probably because part of it is a bit different from what I've written so far. The next one will probably be closer to how I usually write the story, and so that will hopefully be a bit easier to write. Anyways, I hope you do enjoy this chapter.

---

Chapter 6: Have you and I met before?

---

It was another bright and sunny day in Fenix town, and the rescue teams were already busy making their preparations for their missions today. Wade had already sold a lot of items today, and there were still plenty of rescue teams wanting to buy something from him. Too bad he just didn’t have enough items for everyone.

“Sorry ladies, but I’m all out of Reviver Seeds,” Wade the Lombre said apologetically to a green snake like Pokémon with leaves on her backside and a chinchilla like Pokémon with light gray fur.

“Oh, that’s too bad,” the Servine responded, while her Minccino teammate used her fluffy tail to clean some dust off the leaves on her leader's back.

“I’ll try to get more,” Wade said. “So, come back tomorrow, I might have some in stock then. No promises, though!”

“Okay, we’ll stop by again tomorrow,” the Servine said, before turning her attention to Vic. “By the way; we need something from you too.”

“Eh?” Vic responded, looking up from polishing an orb. “Oh, what do you need?”

“Well, we’re going on a rescue mission today, and we’d like some orbs that can change the weather,” the Servine said. “Some of the Pokémon in the dungeon we’re headed to can whip up some pretty nasty sandstorms, so we’d like something to counter that.”

“Ah, I see,” Vic responded. “Lucky for you, I happen to have several Sunny and Rainy Orbs in stock right now.”

“Excellent, we’ll take a few of each,” the Servine replied.

Sera and her teammates had overheard the conversation between the shopkeepers and the Servine and Minccino duo. Sera seemed a bit disappointed to hear that the Reviver Seeds were already sold out, but Chiaki assured her they would probably do just fine with what items they did currently have. The three decided to go check on some other things before heading to the rescue team HQ, when Chiaki suddenly noticed something and stopped in his tracks.

“Chiaki, what is it?” Blitz asked. “Is something wrong?”

“It’s her again!” Chiaki said, pointing to the Elgyem that they had met outside the dojo yesterday. The green little Pokémon seemed to be looking in Chiaki’s direction, before floating away.

“Strange,” Blitz commented. “Why does she seem so interested in Chiaki?”

“Maybe she has a crush on him?” Sera said teasingly, but Chiaki didn’t seem to notice.

“I don’t know…” Chiaki responded. “I have a strange feeling about this… I felt this way when she was looking at me yesterday too…”

“Maybe it has something to do with your memory loss?” Sera suggested. “I hear Elgyem can use their powers to mess with the memories of others!”

“Yikes!” Blitz responded. “Y-You really think that Elgyem might’ve done something to make Chiaki lose his memories?”

“No, I don’t think she did…” Chiaki replied, seeming to be in deep thought. “There’s something else, something I can’t quite place a paw on…”

“Wow, this is the first time I’ve seen you be this serious!” Sera said. “It’s kind of weird, actually.”

“So… Was there anything we needed to do before heading to the rescue team HQ?” Blitz asked.

“Hmm… I forgot,” Sera responded. “But hey, no reason we can’t do it after stopping by the HQ!”

The three of them began heading over to the rescue team HQ, but as he followed shortly behind his teammates, Chiaki just couldn’t stop thinking about that Elgyem. The way she looked at him with those small green eyes, before just leaving like that. What did it mean? What was it about the Elgyem that made him feel so strange? He closed his eyes halfway, staring down at the ground as he followed Blitz and Sera, still deep in thought about the Elgyem.

“Elina…” Chiaki muttered under his breath, before suddenly stopping again.

“Huh?” Sera said, before she and Blitz turned to see Chiaki. “What was that?”

“Elina…” Chiaki said again, having some sort of strange epiphany. “That’s her name! That Elgyem’s name is Elina!”

“Wait, what?” Sera responded. “How do you know that? She never told us her name.”

“I don’t know…” Chiaki replied. “It sort of just came to me…”

“Okay, this just keeps getting weirder,” Sera said. “Blitz, do you have any idea what’s going on?”

“Well… Maybe Chiaki knew her before he lost his memory?” Blitz suggested, while rubbing the rings on his forelegs together.

“Whoa, you really think so?” Chiaki asked.

“I don’t know, but it might be possible,” Blitz responded. “And perhaps she had left such a strong impression, that your subconscious still somehow remembered her?”

“Whoa, maybe you’re right!” Chiaki replied. “I mean, it’s not like I didn’t exist or something before I lost my memory, so I guess I must’ve known some other Pokémon before.”

Chiaki seemed to be getting pretty excited at this possibility, starting to act a bit more like the energetic and curious Mienfoo he normally was.

“Maybe I did know her! And if I did, maybe she might be able to give me some answers?” Chiaki grinned and his eyes seemed to be sparkling with excitement. “Maybe she can help me find out who I am?”

“Maybe,” Sera responded, shrugging slightly. “Well, let’s get to the HQ and find ourselves a mission!”

---

Sera excitedly looked over the rescue team board, trying to decide on what mission they would take today. There still seemed to be plenty of missions available for rescue teams at their level of experience.

“So, what will be our first mission as a Bronze rank team?” Sera cheerfully asked as she looked over the board. “Help some Bidoof gather wood to repair their dam? Or head into the Thorny Hollow to save this Drifloon? Or how about searching for a Dragon Scale for some Seadra that wants to evolve?”

“That last one looks a bit difficult,” Blitz commented.

“Hmm, I guess,” Sera responded, before looking over at Chiaki, who didn’t really seem to be paying attention. “What do you think, Chiaki?”

“Huh?” Chiaki replied. “Oh, um… Actually, can you do this mission without me today?”

“What? You don’t want to come along?” Sera asked.

“I need to speak to Elina,” Chiaki responded. “So, you two can handle this on your own, right?”

“Well, I suppose that’s okay,” Blitz replied.

“Thanks!” Chiaki said, and ran off. “I’ll see you later!”

“… So, guess we’re on our own today,” Sera said, looking back up at the board. “So, Blitz? Did you have any opinions on which of these missions here we should take?”

---

Chiaki quickly ran back into the main part of the town, his excitement building as he thought about the possibility of Elina being able to answer some of his questions. It was strange, until now he hadn’t cared all that much for learning his true identity, but right at this moment it was the only thing he could really think about. That and barely avoiding running into annoyed Pokémon yelling at him to watch where he’s going.

Perhaps it would’ve been wise to slow down, at least that way it might be easier to avoid crashing into someone. However, Chiaki ended up running into someone before this even occurred to him.

“Oh, I’m so sorry…” Chiaki said as he dusted himself off, only to realize the Pokémon he’d just crashed into was none other than Elina! “Oh, it’s you!”

The Elgyem got back up, looking up at Chiaki while shyly backing away from the somewhat hyper Mienfoo.

“Hey, I need to talk to you!” Chiaki said, excitedly approaching the Elgyem, who kept moving backwards to keep some distance between herself and the Mienfoo. “You see, I’ve lost my memories, and I was wondering if you might…”

The Elgyem suddenly turned around and began quickly floating away from Chiaki, much to the Mienfoo’s confusion.

“Wait, where are you going?” Chiaki asked. “You didn’t even let me finish my question! Come back!”

The Elgyem glanced over her shoulder at the Mienfoo, but continued moving further away from him.

“Wait up!” Chiaki shouted, and began running after the Elgyem. “I just want to talk!”

The Elgyem seemed didn’t know how to deal with the situation and tried to get away, but Chiaki wasn’t going to just give up on getting some answers from her.

---

Mirage and her two teammates had just finished depositing the money they had earned from their missions the previous day into the bank, and were now having a talk amongst themselves, trying to decide on what they would do today.

“I hope all the high-profit missions haven’t been taken yet,” Mirage commented.

“The mushroom hopes we don’t have to deal with angry fire types this time,” Cordyceps commented, before briefly shooting a glance at their Magmar teammate.

“Hey! Why are you looking at me like that!?” the fire duck shouted, waving a clenched fist at her Parasect teammate.

“Well, no offense, Megara, but you are kind of hot headed at times,” Mirage commented.

Before Megara had a chance to respond to Mirage, a certain Elgyem suddenly floated right over them in a bit of a hurry, followed by a certain Mienfoo running after it, jumping off the mushroom on Cordyceps back in an attempt to catch up to her. Being suddenly jumped on like that caused the mushroom to involuntarily release a cloud of spores, causing Mirage and Megara to break into a coughing fit.

“Hey, come back!” Cordyceps shouted at Chiaki, angrily shaking one of his orange claws. “The mushroom is not a springboard!”

However, Chiaki was already out of the Parasect’s earshot, and continued chasing after Elina, hoping to get her to stop and listen to him. They continued running, suddenly coming across a line of Pokémon delivering wares to the café. Elina just floated right over them, while Chiaki attempted to follow by jumping over them. However, despite his best effort, one of his legs happened to hit the top of a bottle of milk on top of several other bottles being carried by a Carnivine.

The green hovering venus flytrap-like Pokémon attempted to grab the falling bottle with a vine, but failed and it shattered against the ground.

“Oh, no!” the Carnivine exclaimed as he looked down at the broken glass bottle and the small puddle of milk.

“Sorry!” Chiaki shouted back to the Carnivine as he continued his pursuit of Elina.

The Carnivine continued to stare at the small puddle for a moment, to which the Pokémon behind him in the line, a muscular humanoid Pokémon with purple skin, suddenly spoke up.

“Dude, just hurry up and get the rest of the bottles safely inside,” the Machoke said. “It was just one bottle, so don’t cry over spilled milk.”

“You just had to say it, didn’t you?” a brown bear Pokémon behind the Machoke in the line said.

“Well, I couldn’t just pass up the opportunity, could I?” the Machoke said with a smile.

“Yes, yes you could’ve,” the Ursaring responded.

While the Pokémon continued delivering their wares, Chiaki had in the meantime nearly caught up to Elina. He made another impressive jump into the air, and managed to grab the floating Elgyem.

“I’ve got you!” Chiaki said as he landed on his feet, while Elina tried to wriggle out of his grip as he pulled her down with him. “Hey, relax; there’s just something I’d like to know.”

However, Elina suddenly vanished in a burst of light, having teleported herself out of Chiaki’s arms, much to the Mienfoo’s confusion.

“Hey, where did you go?” Chiaki asked, looking around for her. “Come back!”

---

Chiaki went back to the main part of Fenix town, and soon caught up with the little green alien-like Pokémon. The chase began once again, and Chiaki kept getting close to catching her. However, the alien decided to try a different strategy this time, by teleporting Chiaki away.

“Hey!” Chiaki shouted, as he suddenly found himself reappearing on a shelf containing the weather changing orbs Vic was selling.

“Huh?” Vic said upon hearing Chiaki’s voice, looking up at the shelf with the startled Mienfoo on it. “How’d you get up there?”

Chiaki quickly jumped down from the shelf so he could follow Elina before she got too far away, accidentally knocking over and activating a Rainy Orb in the process. Chiaki ran off as a rain cloud appeared above the shop and began raining on the two shopkeepers.

“Hey!” Vic shouted. “Get back here!”

“Relax, it’s just a little rain,” Wade responded. “I don’t think it’ll damage the merchandise.”

Vic gave the Lombre an annoyed look.

“Relax? When that weasel just used up one of my orbs without paying for it? I don’t think so!” Vic said, jumping over the counter. “You can handle the shop on your own for a few minutes, right?”

“Vic, you can’t just…” before Wade could even finish the sentence, the Nuzleaf had already run off in pursuit of Chiaki. “… Well, tomorrow’s newspaper headlines should be interesting.”

---

Chiaki continued running after Elina, before a certain Zoroark and her two teammates spotted him.

“You!” Cordyceps said, suddenly moving into Chiaki’s path, forcing him to stop in his tracks. “The mushroom demands an apology!”

“Why are you running around like a crazed Tauros, anyways?” Mirage asked, grabbing the Mienfoo by the back of his neck and lifting him up.

“Um… I…” Chiaki wasn’t entirely sure how to explain the situation, and looked around to realize he’d lost track of Elina, who had probably taken the opportunity to teleport herself away. Before he had time to think of anything else, he suddenly heard another voice getting closer.

“There you are!” Vic shouted, as he ran towards them. The Nuzleaf jumped at and attempted to grab the Mienfoo, but ended up missing and accidentally landing on Mirage’s face instead.

The Zoroark gave a startled yell before dropping Chiaki, who ran off as fast as he could. Mirage managed to shake Vic off while her confused teammates watched on, and before she had the chance to ask Vic about what he was doing and why he wasn’t at work, the Nuzleaf had already run off in pursuit of Chiaki, much to her annoyance.

“Okay, I don’t know what is going on here, but I am going to find out!” Mirage shouted, giving chase.

“You punish the shopkeeper; the mushroom will punish the weasel!” Cordyceps said, before joining his leader.

“Oh, boy…” Megara said, before chasing after her two teammates. “I bet we’ll be reading something about this in tomorrow’s newspaper...”

---

Over at the café, River was feeling a bit unnerved by a customer resembling a cross between a cactus and a scarecrow that had been standing at the counter for a while. He wasn’t saying or doing anything, just standing there and staring. At least there wasn’t a line of increasingly impatient Pokémon behind him or anything, but still.

“… Aren’t you going to order anything?” she asked. The Cacturne just continued to stare.

“Hey, mom!” Azure shouted out, while standing on Frederick’s head and looking out of a window. “You have got to see this!”

“What is it?” River asked, joining her daughter over at the window, while the Cacturne just continued to stare. “What is going on out there?”

“I’m not sure, but it’s looking pretty crazy!” the Azurill commented excitedly, watching Chiaki being chased by Vic, who in turn was being chased by Mirage and her teammates.

"A rescue team member being chased by an angry shopkeeper, being chased by another rescue team..." River said, watching the strange scene going on outside. "I'm guessing it all makes sense in context, somehow."

“Do we have any popcorn?” Frederick asked, trying not to move around too much so that Azure wouldn’t fall off his head. “Even though I can’t actually see what’s going on, it would be nice to have some popcorn.”

---

Chiaki continued to run, even though he wasn’t sure where to go, as he couldn’t see Elina anywhere. Before he could resume his search, he probably had to figure out how to get away from the Pokémon chasing after him. But where would he go? Everything was suddenly so chaotic.

“I hope Blitz and Sera have had better luck than me today…” Chiaki muttered to himself, before suddenly tripping on a rock and falling. “Ah!”

Unbeknownst to Chiaki, Elina was currently sitting on the roof of the rescue team HQ building, watching him. She wasn’t entirely sure about what to do. She looked down to see that Vic, Mirage, Cordyceps and Megara were getting close to reaching the Mienfoo on the ground as he tried to get back up. Elina wasn’t really intending to intervene, but she also knew that this mess was sort of her fault…

In only a matter of seconds, the little green Pokémon teleported down from the roof, grabbed the Mienfoo in a tight embrace, and teleported away with him before the four Pokémon could get to him, much to their confusion.

“Hey! Where’d he go?” Vic said, looking around.

“This displeases the mushroom!” Cordyceps commented.

“Can somebody just explain what the heck is going on!?” Mirage asked, rubbing her head. “I’m so confused!”

---

Elina and Chiaki reappeared in a quiet area outside of Fenix town, where no one was likely to disturb them. Elina felt she needed some rest after using so much of her energy, and soon realized she was still embracing Chiaki, and the Mienfoo suddenly wrapped his arms around her and hugged back.

“Thanks, Elina,” he said as he hugged her. “I owe you one.”

He pulled back slightly from the hug, to see that the Elgyem was staring at him in confusion. Elina didn’t understand how the Mienfoo knew her name, and tried to express that by pointing to herself with one hand quizzically.

“How I know your name?” Chiaki asked. “It sort of just came to me, which is why I wanted to know if perhaps we knew each other, or something.”

Elina blinked a few times, before tilting her head slightly. Chiaki seemed a bit confused at her reaction.

“Yes, that is what I wanted to ask,” he said. “What did you think I was trying to say?”

The Elgyem awkwardly glanced at the ground for a moment, before briefly touching Chiaki’s head with her hand. Chiaki had to think for a moment before he realized what the Elgyem was trying to communicate to him.

“Oh! No, I wasn’t accusing you of anything!” Chiaki quickly clarified. “I didn’t think you had anything to do with my memory loss!”

Elina blinked, before pointing to herself again and shaking her head, before looking up at Chiaki quizzically again.

“Of course I didn’t,” Chiaki said, holding Elina’s hands and gazing into her eyes. “You don’t seem like the kind of Pokémon that would do such a thing at all!”

Elina felt flattered that Chiaki would think of highly of her, even though he didn’t actually know anything about her. Elina and Chiaki continued to gaze into each other’s eyes for a few moments, before Chiaki began talking again.

“So, can you give me any answers?” Chiaki asked. “Have you and I met before?”

Elina looked away for a moment, unsure how to respond to this. Chiaki sighed, and redirected her gaze back to him.

“Although… I guess it might be a little difficult for you to tell me anything about that,” Chiaki said. “I mean, I can make guesses about some of your questions and stuff, but this would be a little different, and I’m guessing you won’t be able to really explain this very well this way, am I right?”

Elina nodded her head slightly, gazing up at the slightly disappointed Mienfoo.

“I thought so…” he replied, before looking into her eyes again. “But, you do know me, right? You know who I really am?”

Elina thought about it for a moment, before nodding her head again.

“Well, then I guess for now, that’s good enough for me,” Chiaki said, smiling and giving the Elgyem another hug. “It’s good to meet a friend I had from before I lost my memory.”

Elina blinked for a moment, before returning the hug.

“Don’t worry, even if I don’t remember you, we’re still friends,” Chiaki said, patting the Elgyem on the back.

The two stayed that way for a moment, before pulling apart and wondering what to do next.

“… You think it’s safe to go back to town, yet?”

---

Blitz and Sera eventually returned from a successful mission, and picked up their reward from the rescue team HQ. The two were now looking for Chiaki, so they could tell him all about it. Sera was pretty proud of her and Blitz’s performance today.

“We sure did great today!” Sera said, happily wagging her tail. “Well, except when I got stuck in the Ariados web, twice. Thanks for getting me out of that, by the way.”

“You’re welcome,” Blitz responded. “At least there’s something I can use my Fire and Ice Fang attacks for, even if I don’t use them in battle.”

“Yeah,” Sera responded. “I bet Chiaki would’ve liked to see that.”

“Speaking of Chiaki, do you see him anywhere?” Blitz asked.

“Hmm… No,” Sera replied, looking around. “You’d think he would’ve shown up by now...”

“I’m over here!” Chiaki called, waving from behind his hiding spot in some bushes.

“Chiaki?” Sera said as she walked up to him. “Why are you hiding in a bush?”

“Is everything okay?” Blitz asked.

“Well, yeah,” Chiaki responded, crawling out from the bushes. “Except, I have a couple of Pokémon I need to apologize to, and you guys might have to help me pay Vic for an orb I accidentally used up.”

“… Chiaki, what exactly have you been doing all day?” Blitz asked.

“It’s a long story,” Chiaki replied, joining his two teammates as they were walking back to the main part of town. “You’ll probably be reading something about it in tomorrow’s newspaper.”

As the three walked off, Elina secretly watched from a distance. She thought about how this whole mess could’ve been avoided if she only knew how to properly use telepathy, so that she could’ve read Chiaki’s mind and known what he wanted to ask her instead of jumping to conclusions. However, at the same time, she was also a bit relieved that she couldn’t communicate that way yet, and so could keep the truth about Chiaki a secret for now.

She wasn’t sure how Chiaki would react, if he ever learned that truth…

---

In a forest near a large tower called the Axis Tower, there were several Pokémon gathering, all looking rather concerned.

“From the looks of your faces… I’m guessing you couldn’t find anything either?” a light purple weasel like Pokémon with long sleeve like fur on its arms asked the other Pokémon that had gathered.

“I’m afraid not,” a blue bird with white cloud-like wings responded.

“We can’t find them on our own!” a chandelier like Pokémon with purple flames said. “We have no choice but to inform everyone!”

“You’re right,” the weasel replied. “We need all the help we can get.”

The Mienshao looked around at the gathered Pokémon, who nodded in agreement. They decided to inform the Pokémon of Fenix town tomorrow.

---

End of chapter 6.

---

[Knightfall]

Why hello, I do believe I've found myself an excellent Mystery Dungeon story.

Anyways, I read this recently, and it is very, very good.
Characters, even the minor ones are well written and mostly fleshed out. Chiaki (loving the name), is my favorite character, his overall innocent personality and eagerness to learn, explore, and find out his past are just wonderfully portrayed in his dialogue and actions. Great job.

I love the way you've built the town and surrounding areas and dungeons, maybe I should take a few notes on that for my own story.

But what floors me the most if the surprising lack of proper reviews and comments this has gotten, there's simply no reason for it. There are no obvious grammar or spelling errors, the plot is interesting, and the characters are memorable, no reason for the dryspell of comments.

I don't see a PM list, but if you ever decide to create one, I'd like to reserve my spot on the top of it.

Wonderful story, I hope to see more soon. The only reason I can't leave a proper reivew is a crunch of time I'm currently experiancing, so I may be back with that one day.

Knightfall signing off ...

[Frost471]

If you are gonna start a PM list you should definitely put me on it as well. It's a pretty good story, to bad its getting so little attention

[DarkerShining]

Thanks for your replies! I'm glad you enjoy the story.

Hmm, I hadn't thought of making a PM list. I guess I might consider making one in the future, if enough people are interested, or something.

[SeekerofLight]

I've just read through your fanfic and it is amazing! The attention to detail and developement of characters is outstanding, I can't wait for the next part.
I'm in the process of writing my own Fanfic of Mystery Dungeon (one of the main reasons why I've signed up) and your work is just inspiring. My work feels inferior...
I would thouroughly enjoy writing a review for you.

Keep on Writing

Seekeroflight

P.S. I'd be happy to let anybody read my W.I.P fanfic if they wish.

[Chingchar]

Wow. Wow this is a very well written story and it keeps getting better with each chapter! The descriptions of the characters and the surroundings that they are in are very good thought it was clever how you got Lombre and Nuzleaf as the shopkeepers. Hope that the next chapter is as good as the rest.

[DarkerShining]

Wow, thanks for the positive replies!

So, glad you enjoy the story so far. Chapter 7 is ready, and I hope you will enjoy it.

---

Chapter 7: Do you think we can make a difference?

---

It was already morning, and Blitz was waiting for Chiaki to wake up. He was trying to be patient, knowing that the Mienfoo had used a lot of energy running around after Elina yesterday, but he also knew that Sera might already be waiting for them to show up at this point. It was a bit of a dilemma for the young Shinx, since he didn’t want to bother his sleeping teammate, yet also didn’t want to keep Sera waiting. He thought about it for a moment, before deciding it was better to wake Chiaki up now.

After all, if they waited too long, the shops would be sold out of the best items and most of the missions might already have been taken. Besides, Chiaki would probably not be too bothered being woken up now anyways.

“Hey, Chiaki?” Blitz said, carefully nudging the Mienfoo with his paw. “Wake up!”

“Hmm?” Chiaki opened his eyes slightly.

“You’ve kind of overslept a little…” Blitz said, rubbing the rings on his forelegs together. “Let’s hurry up and go meet with Sera, she’s probably waiting for us.”

“Oh, okay,” the Mienfoo said, rubbing his eyes.

---

As Blitz and Chiaki entered the main part of the town, they were surprised to find that a large crowd of Pokémon was gathered in the town plaza.

“Huh? What’s going on here?” Blitz asked, looking around. “It looks like every Pokémon in town is here…”

“Blitz, Chiaki! Over here!” Sera shouted, waving a paw at her teammates.

“Hi Sera!” Chiaki said, happily waving to her as he and Blitz approached.

“Do you know what’s going on here?” Blitz asked.

“No, not really,” Sera responded. “I think everyone is waiting for some kind of important news, or something.”

“Oh?” Blitz asked. “What could it be?”

“Wow, Fenix town sure has a lot of Pokémon…” Chiaki commented, looking around at the many Pokémon in the crowd, trying to see if he could see anyone he recognized.

“You!” a certain Parasect’s voice called out. Cordyceps, Mirage and Megara walked over, Cordyceps angrily poking Chiaki in the chest with his orange claw as he spoke. “The mushroom is still waiting for an apology for yesterday!”

“Yeah, I’m really sorry about that…” Chiaki sheepishly responded. “I guess I got a bit carried away…”

“The mushroom accepts your apology,” Cordyceps replied. “Just don’t let it happen again.”

“You know, I still don’t quite understand what yesterday was about,” Mirage commented.

“Well, you see…” Chiaki was about to explain, when suddenly, a Mienshao stepped up to address the crowd of Pokémon.

“Hello, everyone,” the Mienshao said, clearing his throat. “You’re probably wondering why you’re all gathered here.”

There were a few murmurs from the crowd, the Pokémon were indeed wondering what was going on.

“Well… There’s a very serious situation on hand here, and at this point, we need all the help we can get,” the Mienshao explained.

“What is he talking about?” Megara asked.

“This doesn’t sound good…” Blitz commented.

“I guess I should just go ahead and say it…” the Mienshao said, taking a deep breath before continuing. “The Axis Tower crystals have been stolen.”

This statement seemed to be followed by a collective gasp from the crowd before the Pokémon began voicing their reactions to this unthinkable thing having happened.

“The crystals… were stolen?”

“It can’t be!”

“How is that even possible!?”

“The mushroom is appalled!”

“This is horrible!”

“What kind of Pokémon would be crazy enough to do such a thing!?”

“Everyone, calm down,” the Mienshao said, motioning with his arms for them to quiet down.

The Pokémon continued to speak amongst themselves for a few more seconds, before stopping and letting the Mienshao continue his explanation.

“We’re not quite sure how the thief was able to steal the crystals,” the Mienshao said. “It… did something that knocked all of us out, and when we regained consciousness, all eight crystals were gone!”

More gasps and worried mumbling from the crowd. Chiaki felt really confused since he had no idea what was so important about these crystals and why everyone was freaking out like this. He assumed it was probably something he would’ve known had it not been for his amnesia. He continued to look up at the Mienshao, who continued speaking to the crowd.

“We’ve tried to search for them on our own, but we haven’t had any luck,” the Mienshao explained. “That’s why we need everyone’s help now, to find the eight crystals and bring them back to Axis Tower!”

“Say no more,” Sting buzzed from within the crowd, flying up so that other Pokémon could see him. “The rescue teams of Fenix town will do everything they can to find those crystals and ensure they are brought back to their rightful place!”

“Yeah!” Mirage spoke up, raising a paw. “We’ll definitely get those crystals back, and punish whoever thought it was okay to steal those things!”

More rescue teams joined in, shouting out how they would help search for and make sure the crystals were found as soon as possible. The Mienshao smiled at seeing how many rescue teams were promising to do their part to find the crystals.

“Thank you, everyone,” the Mienshao said. “If we all work together, there’s no doubt that the crystals will be found and safely returned to Axis Tower!”

The Pokémon in the crowd cheered, before the Mienshao and the other Axis Tower guards decided to take their leave, and let the Pokémon of Fenix town return to their regular business, as well as begin the search for the missing crystals.

---

The Pokémon of Fenix town returned to their regular business for the day, aside from the rescue teams beginning to attempt to plan out how they would search for the crystals. However, Chiaki still didn’t understand what was going on.

“So… Why are these crystals so important?” Chiaki asked.

“Oh, right,” Sera said, looking over at Chiaki. “You don’t know anything about this due to your memory loss, right?”

“Yeah…” Chiaki responded. “I have a feeling I should know this, though…”

“Well, its pretty common knowledge,” Mirage said, walking over along with Megara and Cordyceps. “The crystals serve a very important purpose.”

“Yes,” Sting buzzed, flying over to them along with his teammates, Melody and Frosty. “They help maintain the balance in this part of the world.”

“Maintain the balance?” Chiaki inquired. “What balance?”

“Well, you see, there are many, many worlds aside from this one,” Melody said. “And some believe that new worlds are always being created when certain things happen.”

“Oh, yeah, the elder of this ice Pokémon village where I grew up once told me something about that,” Frosty said. “She said that since so many universes exist, some of them were bound to be “incomplete” in some ways.”

“Incomplete?” Chiaki said, tilting his head slightly.

“Well, incomplete isn’t the right word, but…” Frosty said, stroking his icicle beard in thought.

“What he means is that in this world, the fabric of space has always been kind of… unstable,” Megara said. “And in order to correct that, the legendary Pokémon created special artifacts around the world, to keep things stable!”

“What are legendary Pokémon?” Chiaki asked.

“They’re powerful Pokémon that are responsible for watching over our world,” Sera said, wagging her tail. “Some watch over time and space, others have been said to have created continents, and there are several legendaries said to watch over the sea…”

“Different Pokémon tend to pray to legendaries that they feel closest to their hearts,” Blitz commented. “For example, back at my old home, the Luxray pride heard many tales of the legendary Pokémon Raikou, the legendary Pokémon of thunder.”

“At the village where I lived, we all listened to stories about the legendary Articuno,” Frosty said. “A majestic legendary ice bird that was said to appear to Pokémon lost in snowy mountains during blizzards.”

“I used to live in a volcano,” Megara spoke up. “For us, it was Entei, a legendary Pokémon believed to embody the passion of magma.”

“Cool…” Chiaki commented.

“It is said that Palkia, the legendary Pokémon in charge of the fabric of space created the crystals to keep space stable in this part of the world,” Mirage said. “It also made the Axis Tower, to keep the crystals safe.”

“Disciples of Palkia came to live in the tower, and keep the crystals safe,” Sting buzzed in. “Many of the current guards are likely descended from the original ones.”

“Okay… So, the crystals being taken away from the tower is a really bad thing,” Chiaki commented. “What exactly is going to happen?”

“We’re not sure,” Sting buzzed. “Normally, we only have to deal with minor distortions, in form of the constantly changing mystery dungeons, but who knows what will happen if the crystals are missing and the distortions start to get bigger…”

“Will we get more mystery dungeons, then?” Chiaki asked. “Or, will other places start behaving like a mystery dungeon?”

“Like Sting said, no one knows what might happen,” Mirage responded. “For all we know, things from other worlds might start leaking into our world, or something crazy like that.”

“Oh, I think Stella mentioned something about that,” Chiaki said. “She said something about creatures not native to our world coming here?”

“Yeah, some Pokémon were brought into this world along with human visitors, and stayed behind when the humans were returned home, or something,” Megara commented.

“The mushroom wonders how mushrooms in other worlds live their lives,” Cordyceps wondered.

“So, I guess what we do know is that anything might happen if the distortions grow too big and we don’t get those crystals back,” Melody commented.

“And to be on the safe side, we need to get them back as soon as possible,” Blitz said, while nervously rubbing his forelegs together.

“Yeah, we should probably get on that,” Mirage said.

“So should we,” Sting commented. “We’ll talk to you later, kids.”

And with that, Sting and Mirage went off along with their teammates to resume planning out the search for the eight missing crystals. The young rescue team was unsure what to do now.

“Are we going to help search for the crystals?” Chiaki asked.

“Well, we’re a rescue team, so I’m guessing we should help,” Sera responded.

“I doubt we’d really be able to do much help, with all those other more experienced rescue teams,” Blitz commented. “Still, I suppose we should do whatever we can…”

“Where do we begin, though?” Chiaki asked.

“I have no idea,” Sera responded.

“Me neither…” Blitz said. “Maybe we should just find ourselves a mission to do for now? Pokémon still need our help, even if searching for the crystals must also be a priority.”

“Good point,” Sera replied. “Let’s go find a mission!”

---

After stopping by the rescue team HQ and they picked up a mission put up by a Pokémon requesting someone to go into a river dungeon and retrieve an item. Said dungeon was known as the Tadpole River, named for the Poliwag and Tympole living in it. There were also other Pokémon living in it, but the two tadpole species were usually the most common sight within the dungeon.

“So, we need to go to the sixth floor, and retrieve a big apple for a Munchlax, right?” Sera asked. “That doesn’t seem too difficult.”

The rescue team began exploring the first floor, Blitz hoping that the water on the dungeon floor wouldn’t give him any difficulty with his electricity. The three explored as usual, picking up items and fighting wilds while trying to find the stairs leading to the next floor. However, due to the current situation, the mood wasn’t quite the same as usual.

Mystery dungeons were connected to distortions in space, and if the crystals weren’t found, what would become of them? Chiaki couldn’t help but worry about the mystery dungeons, and especially what would happen to the wild Pokémon living in them. Blitz and Sera were worried too. Not knowing what would happen, or what to do about it…

But as worrying as the situation was, they had to keep going on as usual. Like Blitz had said, the situation didn’t change that Pokémon were still in need of help from rescue teams. Even if finding the crystals was important, they couldn’t leave other missions alone.

“Do you think we can make a difference?” Chiaki asked. “I mean, wouldn’t it be awesome if we could help find those missing crystals?”

“It certainly would,” Sera responded. “If I could do something like that, then there’s no way others wouldn’t take me seriously.”

“Still, there will be plenty of experienced, high-ranked teams out searching,” Blitz commented. “Even with us helping out, we’d have to be very lucky to even find any clues as to where they might be.”

“Oh, don’t say that,” Sera responded. “Every little bit counts. And we have just as much of a chance at finding something about it as anyone else, don’t we?”

“I guess…” Blitz replied.

The three moved on the next floor, where they fought some blue Pokémon with a black and white spiral pattern on their bellies and a white tadpole tail. The Poliwag went down easily to Blitz’s Spark attack, even if he still felt a little uncertain about using it in an area like this.

Chiaki found himself enjoying the feeling of the cool river water on his feet as they continued making their way through the dungeon. He glanced around at the deeper parts of the river, wondering just how deep it was. Could one bathe in it? Or would the wilds not like that? And how come none of the items seemed to be in those deeper parts of the water, unless a water type living in the dungeon had dropped it when being knocked out?

Chiaki continued following his teammates onto the next floor, deciding it was best to focus on the mission for now instead of being distracted by such random things.

“I wonder why the Munchlax wanted us to retrieve a Big Apple from this particular dungeon,” Chiaki wondered out loud. “I mean, wouldn’t it make more sense to search in a forest, or something?”

“Good question,” Blitz commented. “But like with so many other strange missions I’ve seen, I guess we’re just supposed to do it and not question it.”

“Also, why is he so sure we’ll find one on the sixth floor?” Chiaki asked. “Isn’t that kind of suspicious?”

“I don’t know…” Blitz responded.

“And why didn’t he just buy a big apple?” Chiaki wondered. “Didn’t he have enough money? Or did Wade not have any in stock?”

“Hey, quiet,” Sera said, pointing a paw at a blue amphibian Pokémon with no arms and two pinkish gray antennas on the sides of its oval head that was sleeping next to the stairs leading to the next floor.

“Huh, a Wooper,” Blitz commented. “Since those are part ground type, my electricity won’t be very useful…”

“Hmm… Maybe we don’t have to fight it,” Sera whispered. “I think there’s plenty of room for us to just sneak around it, and quickly make it up the stairs before it can wake up and attack us.”

The three tried not to make much noise as they moved towards the stairs, which was a bit more complicated than usual due to the watery floor. However, the Wooper didn’t seem to hear them, giggling a bit in its sleep and mumbling something about bubbles. The rescue team managed to quietly move up the stairs, without waking up the Wooper. As they moved onto the next floor, Chiaki suddenly stepped on something, causing some chestnuts to fall on him.

“Ow!” Chiaki shouted, the spiky shells of the chest nuts being particularly pleasant.

“Huh, didn’t know there were traps in this dungeon,” Blitz commented.

“Oh?” Chiaki asked.

“Yeah, some dungeons tend to have traps randomly appear in them,” Sera responded.

“What kind of traps?” Chiaki asked.

“Well, there’s a lot of different ones,” Blitz replied. “That chestnut trap you triggered is one of the most harmless ones.”

“It is?” Chiaki commented, dusting himself off.

“Yeah,” Sera commented. “I hear there are some pretty annoying traps, like one that confuses or puts you to sleep for a little while.”

“There are also traps that explode when you step on them, or causes some of the food you have with you to go bad,” Blitz added. “Or one that poisons you, or prevents you from using one of your attacks…”

“I hear there’s even a trap that turns items laying on the ground into Pokémon!” Sera said. “Isn’t that like, the strangest thing ever?”

“Wow, really?” Chiaki asked. “How is something like that even possible?”

“Who knows?” Sera said, as she continued walking. “It’s a weird trap.”

The rescue team continued moving on, exploring until they finally reached the sixth floor, where there was supposed to be a big apple lying around somewhere. Chiaki still wondered how the Munchlax could’ve been so sure that it would be on this particular floor on this particular dungeon, but figured it was best not to dwell on it too much.

“So, where is the apple?” Chiaki asked.

“Well, not in this part of the floor,” Sera said. “Guess we better keep looking around for it.”

The three moved down another path, moving on to another room. They picked up some coins, but there was no big apple in sight. They continued exploring the rest of the floor, but even after they had checked every part of the floor, they still couldn’t find the big apple that was apparently supposed to be there, much to their confusion.

“Where is it?” Chiaki asked. “This is the sixth floor, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it is,” Sera said.

“Then why isn’t it here?” Chiaki asked. “Did the Munchlax get it wrong, or something?”

“Maybe a wild took it?” Blitz suggested. “They do sometimes pick up items lying around.”

“Oh, good point,” Sera responded. “So, if we just find the wild that took it, and knock it out, we can get the big apple!”

“How do we know which wild took it, though?” Chiaki asked.

“Well, I’m guessing it was that Tympole over there,” Blitz said, pointing a paw to another tadpole-like Pokémon that was carrying a big apple in its mouth. The tadpole, which unlike Poliwag did not have legs, was swimming some distance away in the deeper parts of the water.

“Oh, that makes sense,” Chiaki commented.

“So, what are we waiting for?” Sera asked. “Let’s take that apple from it!”

The three Pokémon chased after the small tadpole Pokémon with the two bumps on the sides of its face, the tadpole moving away from the rescue team since they could not reach it. Normally, Pokémon tended to just approach the rescue teams, but this situation was slightly different as the Tympole was moving on a part of the dungeon that the rescue team couldn’t reach due to the water being too deep.

“Okay, we should probably make sure Blitz is the one to fight this thing when we get close enough,” Sera commented. “His Spark attack should make quick work of it.”

“Good thing Tympole don’t gain the ground type as a second type before they evolve,” Blitz said.

They continued following the Tympole, waiting until the Tympole was close enough to make their move. However, Blitz suddenly noticed a slight flaw in the plan.

“Hold on,” Blitz said. “If we attack now, the apple might fall into the deeper parts of the water that we can’t reach!”

“Oh,” Sera responded. “Well, that would suck.”

“Why don’t we just do this?” Chiaki said, grabbing the Tympole and lifting it out the water.

The Tympole seemed very surprised and confused at suddenly being picked up like that.

“Do you mind if I take this?” Chiaki asked, taking the apple from the Tympole’s mouth.

The Tympole gave Chiaki an annoyed look, and spit out a stream of bubbles at him to get him to let go of him. Chiaki didn’t take much damage from the attack, but was certainly startled and dropped both the apple and the Tympole on the wet floor. The Tympole turned its attention to Blitz and Sera, watching them and waiting for them to make their move.

“Hungry?” Sera asked, using her tail to pick up a seed from the treasure bag. “Try eating this!”

Sera flung the seed at the Tympole, and the tadpole Pokémon caught the seed in its mouth, only to immediately be teleported away to another part of the dungeon.

“Whoa, that was cool!” Chiaki said. “What kind of seed was that?”

“It’s a Warp seed,” Sera responded, wagging her tail happily. “Can be used to teleport yourself or your opponent to another part of the dungeon at random.”

Blitz picked up the big apple lying on the ground, and handed it to Sera. Sera carefully dried it off with her paw before putting it into the treasure bag.

“Mission complete, I guess,” Sera said, watching the rescue team badge flutter into the air and hover above them. “Well, let’s not keep that Munchlax waiting any longer! Let’s go deliver that big apple!”

And so, the magical golden light spread from the badge, and the three Pokémon were sent back to Fenix town.

---

The rescue team returned to the rescue team HQ, where they delivered the big apple to the Munchlax. They rewarded with a few items, which could probably be useful later. Afterwards, the three Pokémon began walking back into town, where they came across a certain Gothorita.

“Hi!” Bow said, waving to the rescue team.

“Oh, hello there, Bow!” Sera responded. “How are you?”

“I’m fine,” Bow said. “I just went to the shop to see if they had a certain TM I wanted, but they didn’t have it in stock.”

“What TM?” Chiaki asked.

“Oh, um… What was it again?” Bow asked, putting her hand to her cheek thoughtfully as she tried to remember. “Oh, right! Shadow Ball!”

“Ooh, my big sisters say that’s a pretty good move,” Sera commented.

“I guess I can go see if they have it tomorrow,” Bow said, only to frown as something occurred to her. “But knowing me, I’ll probably forget to check…”

“We could check it out for you!” Chiaki said.

“You will?” Bow asked, smiling at the Mienfoo.

“Sure!” Chiaki responded, smiling back.

“Oh, that’s so nice of you!” Bow replied.

“Hey, no problem,” Sera said. “It won’t take us too long to check the shop for the Shadow Ball TM, and then stop by your house to tell you if they have it or not.”

“Well, I’ll see you tomorrow, then!” Bow said, and began walking away, only to stop and turn around as she remembered something. “Oh, I almost forgot!”

“What is it?” Blitz asked.

“I had a vision a few days ago in which Chiaki met this mysterious Elgyem,” Bow replied. “I get the impression she might know something about you, so when you meet this Elgyem, you should ask her if she might be able to help you solve the mystery about your memory loss!”

“Uh… Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind…” Chiaki responded, as Bow happily skipped back home.

“Didn't that already happen yesterday?” Sera asked.

“She seemed to be in a good mood,” Chiaki commented, smiling to Sera. “I didn’t want to risk ruining it.”

“Hello,” a certain voice buzzed, the rescue team turned to see Sting and his teammates come over.

“Any luck finding anything about the crystals?” Blitz asked.

“I’m afraid not,” Sting responded. “We did eventually handle some rescue missions, but we didn’t learn anything regarding the crystals.”

“Doesn’t look like anyone else did either,” Mirage commented as she and her teammates walked over to the other two rescue teams.

“Maybe we’ll have better luck tomorrow?” Melody said. “After all, if all the rescue teams keep working hard, we’re bound to learn something about the crystals eventually! Just like that Mienshao said!”
“The mushroom agrees with Melody,” Cordyceps replied. “Surely we will solve the mystery behind those missing crystals!”

“I know we will!” Chiaki joined in. “There’s no doubt about it!”

“Now, that’s the right attitude!” Mirage said. “But for now, let’s call it a day and get some rest.”

“Yeah,” Sting responded. “We’ll need our energy for continuing our search tomorrow!”

And so, the rescue teams went home to rest up, so they could be ready for tomorrow. Even though they were worried and didn’t know what would happen, they decided to hope for the best.

---

Bow was lying in her bed, a big purple pillow filled with fluff shed from Whimsicott. She looked up at the stars from the hole in the ceiling, smiling at the stars sparkling in the sky.

“The stars sure are beautiful tonight,” Bow commented.

Stella however, didn’t seem to hear her daughter. She was currently floating a few feet off the floor, the white ribbon-like feelers and her eyes glowing as she gazed up at the stars. She was currently having a vision, and was trying to understand what exactly she was seeing in it.

“Roots… are spreading fast…” she muttered. “That plant… isn’t native to the forest… Where did it come from?”

---

End of chapter 7.

---

[SeekerofLight]

Wow! Excellent Story!

I love how each character has personalities and backstories that work wonders. Description is brilliant and I just can't wait for the next Chapter!

[DarkerShining]

Thanks for your response.

Anyways, chapter 8 is done. I really enjoyed writing this one, and I hope you'll enjoy reading it.

---

Chapter 8: And remember, this is just a hypothetical question.

---

The night seemed almost longer than usual, at least for the rescue teams just waiting for the morning to come so they could go out and search for the crystals. Chiaki was having a dream, in which he was exploring the Meridian Forest at night. As he continued running past several trees that looked a lot alike, he suddenly spotted a tower in the distance. Deciding to get a closer look, Chiaki began running towards it. However, no matter how much he ran, he didn’t seem to be getting any closer to the tower.

“Huh, that’s strange…” Chiaki commented, as he realized this.

He looked at the tower in the distance, and tried taking a few steps backwards. However, he didn’t seem to be getting any further away from the tower either, much to his confusion. He kept walking backwards for a few more moments, before bumping into something fuzzy behind him. Chiaki nervously looked over his shoulder, to see a large brown bear with a yellow ring on its chest.

“Oh, you startled me…” Chiaki said, turning around and taking a few steps back.

As Chiaki put some distance between him and the Ursaring, he soon noticed that there was something very wrong with the bear Pokémon. The Ursaring seemed to be breathing heavily, and its eyes seemed to be glowing with yellow light.

“What is going on?” Chiaki muttered, nervously backing away from the Ursaring.

Suddenly, the Ursaring gave a terrifying roar, as if it was crying out in pain. Chiaki quickly began running away as the bear Pokémon clutched its head, the Ursaring’s roars echoing through the forest. Chiaki continued running until he could no longer hear the roars, taking a moment to stop and catch his breath. He soon realized he wasn’t safe yet, as he heard growls from somewhere near him.

Looking around, he soon spotted a pack of gray and black wolf-like Pokémon emerging from shadows. The pack of Mightyena had the same glowing eyes as the Ursaring, and they seemed to be foaming at the mouth as they continued growling. Chiaki quickly started running again, figuring it was best to get as far away from them as possible. However, the forest around him was starting to get distorted and seemed to be rearranging itself around him.

“What’s happening?” Chiaki muttered under his breath as he stopped running for a moment to look at the forest changing itself around him.

It looked like the trees were getting twisted, bending and changing sizes. Some parts of the ground appeared to be floating in mid-air, and some parts of the area seemed to be flickering in and out of existence at random. Chiaki looked around nervously at the strange surroundings, half-expecting the sky to fall down any moment. The sky seemed mostly unchanged, until a sudden gust of wind blew all the stars away.

While watching the stars being carried off by the wind, Chiaki suddenly heard a hiss and turned to see several beige cats with purple ears seeming to be emerging from the trees, literally walking through them as if they weren’t even there. The Delcatty also had the same glowing eyes and seemed to be in the same feral state as the Ursaring and the Mightyena.

“Okay…” Chiaki said, taking a few steps back. “Can this get any stranger?”

As if on cue, a pair of gray tentacles emerged from the ground and wrapped themselves around Chiaki’s leg, that particular part of the grass feeling like it had been replaced with water despite it looking exactly the same as the rest of the grass. Chiaki struggled to free himself as the feral Delcatty began slowly moving closer to him while hissing and glaring at him. Chiaki knew there was no way he could handle this on his own, he needed help.

“I need my friends, but where are they?” Chiaki asked himself, the tentacles holding him turning out to belong to a blue jellyfish-like Pokémon with something resembling red gems on its bell.

As Chiaki continued trying to free himself from the Tentacool, he suddenly heard an evil laughter from somewhere above him. He looked up to see what appeared to be a bird-like Pokémon composed of an orb like body with fork-like wings, talons and a fork-like tail, held up by strings that seemed to be just hanging down from the sky…

---

“Chiaki, wake up!” Blitz said, shaking Chiaki’s arm with his paw.

Chiaki opened his eyes, looking up at his concerned friend. Chiaki realized he must’ve been tossing and turning in his sleep, waking up Blitz.

“Oh, hey Blitz…” Chiaki mumbled, rubbing his head.

“You okay?” Blitz asked. “It sounded like you were having a bad dream.”

“Yeah…” Chiaki responded, nodding his head slightly. “It was crazy… There was like, never ending forest, demonic Delcatty and this flying… thing that was laughing at me!”

“Well, it was just a dream,” Blitz said, comfortingly rubbing Chiaki’s back with his paw, careful not to accidentally zap him with his electricity in the process. “Try to go back to sleep now.”

“Okay,” Chiaki responded. “Sorry if I woke you up.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Blitz replied, curling back up onto his bed and going back to sleep.

Chiaki lay back down on his bed, thinking about that crazy nightmare he had. He figured it was probably just concern about what might happen if those crystals weren’t found and returned. Hopefully someone would be able to find them soon…

---

The next morning, Chiaki and Blitz went into town and met with Sera, noticing several rescue teams standing about discussing the current situation with the missing crystals. It didn’t seem like anyone had been able to find anything, but they were going to continue searching until they did.

“Looks like other rescue teams have the searching covered,” Sera commented. “So, anything we should do before stopping by the HQ to find a mission?”

“We promised Bow we’d check if Vic had any Shadow Ball TMs in stock, didn’t we?” Blitz asked.

“Oh, right,” Sera replied. “So, we’ll stop by the shop first.”

They walked up to the shop, and asked Vic about the TM.

“A Shadow Ball TM? Let me check…” Vic quickly looked over the TMs he had in stock. “… Nope, don’t have any in stock.”

“Oh, okay,” Sera replied.

“Anything else interest you?” Vic asked.

“No, we’re good,” Sera responded. “Thanks, anyways!”

And so, the rescue team decided to head over to Stella’s house, to let Bow know that there were no Shadow Ball TMs for sale at the shop today.

---

The three Pokémon walked up to Stella’s house. Sera peeked in through the door, looking around for Bow. The Gothorita was wandering around the room holding a notebook in her hand; she seemed to be looking for something.

“Hmm… I can’t find it…” Bow muttered, before noticing Sera and her teammates at the door. “Oh! Hey guys!”

“Hi Bow!” Sera replied.

“Hey, could you guys help me out? I can’t find my notebook, and…” before Bow could finish her sentence, she looked down at her hand and realized what she had been carrying the whole time. “… Never mind, I found it!”

“That’s great!” Chiaki responded, giving the Gothorita a friendly smile.

“Hey, Bow?” Blitz said. “We stopped by the shop to see if they had any Shadow Ball TMs in stock today, just like we said we would yesterday.”

“Thanks!” Bow responded. “Did they have any?”

“… No,” Blitz replied, rubbing his forelegs together.

“Oh,” Bow said, shrugging her shoulders. “Well, I suppose it can wait.”

Suddenly, Stella came walking down the stairs, yawning and looking like she had just woken up. She rubbed her eyes for a moment, before noticing the visitors.

“Oh, hello there,” Stella said. “Didn’t realize it was already this late… I was up for longer than I had intended last night, because I had a vision I just had to try to understand.”

“What kind of vision?” Chiaki asked.

“Well…” Stella said, rubbing her eyes. “I think I know where one of the eight missing crystals is.”

“You do!?” the rescue team exclaimed in unison.

“Yes,” Stella responded. “The vision revealed to me the current location of it.”

“So, where is it?” Sera asked.

“It is hidden somewhere in the Harmony Forest,” Stella replied, looking a bit concerned. “However… There was something else in the vision that concerns me…”

“Oh?” Blitz inquired.

“A strange plant… One not native to the forest…” Stella explained. “I wonder if there might be a connection between it and the crystal…”

“Hmm, we’d better tell the other rescue teams about this,” Blitz commented.

“Yeah, I guess we should get going,” Sera responded. “Bye!”

“Bye-bye!” Bow said, waving good-bye to the rescue team as they left the house.

---

Blitz, Sera and Chiaki began walking up to the rescue team HQ; however, on the way there Sera suddenly stopped walking. Blitz and Chiaki stopped too, wondering what the young Eevee had in mind.

“Aren’t you coming with us, Sera?” Chiaki asked.

“I was just thinking…” Sera responded, a slight smirk on her face. “Should we really tell the other rescue teams about this?”

“Huh?” Blitz replied. “But, everyone’s looking for the crystals! We have to tell them!”

“I suppose that would be the right thing to do,” Sera commented. “But you have to admit, this is one heck of an opportunity for us.”

“What are you talking about?” Blitz asked.

“Don’t you see it?” Sera responded. “If we get that crystal back ourselves, there’s no doubt we’d earn some serious respect from the other rescue teams!”

“Get it back ourselves?” Blitz asked. “I don’t know… Sounds risky…”

“Oh, don’t be like that!” Sera said, wagging her tail. “I’m pretty sure rescue teams at our level can handle Harmony Forest.”

“What’s the Harmony Forest?” Chiaki spoke up.

“Oh, it’s a forest where the Pokémon live in harmony,” Sera responded.

Chiaki wasn’t really sure how to respond to that.

“What if the other Pokémon get mad that we kept the information from them?” Blitz asked.

“As long as one of the crystals is brought back, does it really matter?” Sera responded.

“I don’t know…” Blitz replied, rubbing his forelegs together. “I still think it’s a bad idea to do this on our own.”

“Blitz, other Pokémon would be more likely to take me seriously if we did this!” Sera responded.

“Isn’t that kind of… selfish?” Blitz responded, looking down nervously.

“You think I’m selfish!?” Sera exclaimed, her ears folding back in shock.

“Well, um…” Blitz wasn’t sure what to say.

“Besides, it’s not like you and Chiaki wouldn’t benefit from it,” Sera added. “Not to mention that the crystal would be brought back. Is that really so selfish!?”

“Um…” Blitz began to nervously back away from Sera, worried he had made her mad. Worried that a fight was about to break out between his teammates, Chiaki decided to intervene.

“Don’t fight!” Chiaki shouted, causing them to stop and turn their attention to him. “Please, don’t fight each other! You two are so great together!”

“Huh!?” Blitz and Sera exclaimed in unison, staring at the Mienfoo.

“You’re such a great team,” Chiaki said. “You shouldn’t be fighting.”

“Oh, right,” Blitz responded, rubbing his forelegs together. “Teammates…”

“Yeah…” Sera replied, glancing around. “I totally knew that was what he meant.”

“So… How about we forget this for now, and go find a mission?” Chiaki suggested.

“… Sure,” Sera responded. “Let’s go.”

---

The three Pokémon went up to the rescue team HQ, and found themselves a mission to search for a Starly that had gone off to explore the Granite Grotto by herself. The mission request that had been put up by the Starly’s father, making Blitz wonder why the Staraptor hadn’t just gone off to search for his daughter himself. Regardless, the rescue team went into the Granite Grotto to find the missing bird Pokémon. However, despite Chiaki’s suggestion that they stop worrying about it for now, they couldn’t help but spend most of the mission thinking about what to with the knowledge about the location of one of the missing crystals.

“So… What will it be?” Sera asked. “Tell the other rescue teams, or keep it to ourselves?”

“I don’t know…” Blitz responded, keeping his gaze on the cave floor.

“What about you, Chiaki?” Sera asked. “What do you think we should do?”

“Well, both of you have really good points,” Chiaki said, not wanting to take sides. “Blitz has a good point about telling the other rescue teams probably being the right thing to do, but Sera also has a good point about this being a great opportunity for us.”

The rescue team continued exploring the dungeon, unable to figure out how to make their choice. They eventually came across the Starly, finding her repeatedly pecking a very annoyed wild Aron. They teleported out of the dungeon with her and returned her to her father. After receiving their reward, the three of them headed outside, still thinking about the crystal that only they knew the whereabouts of.

“Okay… How about this,” Sera said. “We’ll think about this until tomorrow, and make our decision on what we’ll do then, okay?”

“Okay…” Blitz responded, rubbing his forelegs together.

“Fine with me,” Chiaki replied.

“All right…” Sera said. “I’m heading home now. See you guys tomorrow.”

“Bye Sera,” Blitz and Chiaki said, waving good-bye to their teammate as she walked home.

“So… What should we do now?” Chiaki asked. “Head home, or do you want to go hang out somewhere?”

“I don’t know…” Blitz responded. “I think I’ll head down to the dojo and do some training.”

“You’re going to go train now?” Chiaki asked, tilting his head slightly.

“Yeah…” Blitz said. “I’ll meet you back home when I’m done, okay?”

“Okay, I guess…” Chiaki responded as Blitz walked over to the dojo. “… Guess I’m on my own. What do I do now?”

Chiaki decided to head over to the café, and maybe get something to drink. On the way there, he happened to come across a certain Elgyem.

“Oh, hi Elina,” Chiaki said, smiling at the green Pokémon.

Elina waved her hand in response, her different colored fingers flashing for a moment.

“Hey, do you want to go to the café with me?” Chiaki asked. “I kind of need someone to talk to, and you do seem like someone who is good at keeping secrets…”

---

While Sera was eating dinner, she kept thinking about the crystal that only she and her teammates knew the whereabouts of. She glanced up at her five older siblings and their parents, who were also eating their dinner. Her father, a yellow fox-like Pokémon with green leaf-like ears and a leaf-like tail was talking to Sera’s oldest sister, a purple cat like Pokémon with a tail that had a forked tip. Sera’s other older sister, a blue quadruped Pokémon with a mermaid like tail and three blue fins on her head seemed to be jealous of the attention her older sister was getting, and kept trying to get her parents to focus on her instead.

One of Sera’s brothers, a dark furred Pokémon with red eyes kept skeptically looking at some of the berries on his plate. His mother, another fox-like Pokémon with light blue fur looked over at him.

“Don’t be so skeptical,” she said. “Those berries are full of vitamins, they’re good for you.”

“I don’t know, they're green and green berries are usually kind of bitter...” the Umbreon responded.

"They're not that bad," the Leafeon father said to his son. "You can't say you don't like them if you haven't even tasted them, you know."

“You’re the second oldest of your siblings,” the Glaceon mother said. “You should be setting a good example for them.”

“Yeah,” one of Sera’s other brothers, a yellow dog-like Pokémon with spiky fur responded with a mouthful of berries. “Set a good example by eating food you don’t like!”

“Volt, don’t talk with your mouth full like that,” the Glaceon said to her Jolteon son. “And don’t eat so fast. I know you have a high metabolism, but at least take the time to finish chewing before you swallow.”

Sera wondered if she should ask any of her siblings or her parents for advice on figuring out whether her rescue team should find the crystal themselves, or inform the other rescue teams and let someone else handle it. Of course, she didn’t want to tell them exactly what she was considering doing, as that way they’d tell her she was too young to do so for sure. She hated being told she was too young to do anything.

“Just because I’m the youngest it doesn’t mean I can’t have any good ideas…” she muttered to herself. “If only they would realize that and start taking me seriously…”

“Hey, it’s not like our parents don’t take the time to listen to you,” one of Sera’s brothers, a red furred fox-like Pokémon with a yellow fluffy tail said to her, having been just quietly eating his dinner until now. “At least you’re not completely invisible.”

“Volt, paws off the table,” the Glaceon mother said to her youngest son, the Jolteon sighing in annoyance.

“You say that like being invisible is a bad thing,” Volt commented in response to his Flareon brother.

“Hey, guys?” Sera said, looking to her Flareon and Jolteon brothers. “Say you came across this great opportunity, but there might be other Pokémon that should know about it and regardless of whether you do it yourself or leave it to someone else, everyone would benefit from it…”

“… What is this about?” the Flareon asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Oh, it’s just a hypothetical question,” Sera said, hoping to keep her brother from getting suspicious. “That’s all, really.”

“Is it?” the Flareon responded, not entirely convinced.

“Yes, that is all it is,” Sera replied, nodding her head. “So, what would you do, hypothetically?”

“Is “hypothetical” another word you got Amethyst to teach you so you could sound smarter?” Volt asked, smirking at his younger sister.

“I didn’t ask you!” Sera responded, giving Volt an annoyed look.

“I know smart words too!” the Vaporeon chimed in. “Like sesquipedalian!”

“No one cares, Sirena,” Volt responded. “Besides, I bet you don’t even know what that word means.”

“Volt, don’t bother your sisters,” the Glaceon said, much to the Jolteon’s annoyance.

So, what would you do?” Sera asked her Flareon brother. “And remember, this is just a hypothetical question.”

“Very well,” the Flareon responded, deciding to just go along with it. “But I’m afraid I can’t really answer that.”

“Oh,” Sera replied.

“The only advice I can really give you is to do whatever you feel is the best option,” the Flareon said, smiling to his little sister. “I believe in you.”

“Thanks, Flare,” Sera replied, smiling back. “At least you take me seriously.”

“You’re welcome,” Flare responded.

Sera continued eating her dinner, feeling a bit more confident knowing that she had her brother’s support. She just hoped it would make the decision easier to take when she had to bring it up to her teammates tomorrow…

---

Blitz was making his way through one of the obstacle courses in the dojo while Hercules looked on. While Blitz was doing okay on the obstacle course, Hercules couldn’t help but notice that the young Shinx seemed to have something on his mind. As Blitz finished the course, Hercules walked over to him.

“Not bad,” Hercules said. “But I noticed your aim was a bit off at a few points.”

“Oh,” Blitz responded, sitting down and taking a moment to catch his breath.

“Is something bothering you?” Hercules asked, petting the Shinx on the head.

“You can tell?” Blitz asked.

“Blitz, you didn’t come here just to train, did you?” Hercules asked, giving a reassuring smile. “If you wanted advice, you could’ve just said so right away.”

“Okay,” Blitz responded. “I’m not sure how to explain it, though…”

“Just try,” Hercules said.

“Well… I guess you could say we found a potential mission,” Blitz said. “And I personally think it would be better to let another rescue team handle this one, while Sera feels that this is too big of an opportunity for us to pass up.”

“I see,” Hercules responded.

“And regardless of whether we do it or not, the result would be the same,” Blitz explained. “So, that might be making it even more difficult for us to decide what to do…”

“And you also don’t want to disappoint Sera, right?” Hercules responded.

“Of course not,” Blitz replied.

“Blitz, I know you don’t want to oppose your team leader, and more importantly, your friend,” Hercules said. “But you shouldn’t be afraid to speak up when you know what the right thing to do is.”

“I don’t really know if there’s a right or a wrong thing to do here, though,” Blitz replied. “A lot of Pokémon would benefit from it regardless of who handles the mission…”

“I see…” Hercules responded. “If that’s the case, then I guess this is something you need to figure out on your own.”

“Oh…” Blitz replied, rubbing the yellow rings on his forelegs together.

“Actually… I think there’s still some advice I can give,” Hercules said, after taking a moment to think more about it.

“Go on,” Blitz replied.

“During our lives, we will likely come across situations we’re not ready for, situations we’d rather not deal with,” Hercules explained. “As much as we don’t want to, we sometimes have to face up to them.”

“So… Are you saying I should go on the mission?” Blitz asked.

“No, I’m just saying that having to deal with things we’re not prepared for is a part of life,” Hercules said, petting the young Shinx. “However, in this case, you and your teammates do have the choice of whether to deal with it on your own, or leave it to someone else.”

“I’m confused…” Blitz said.

“Well, just remember that you do get to choose whether to do it or not,” Hercules said, giving another friendly smile. “You might not have that privilege another time, so don’t feel bad if you do back out of it this time.”

“Okay, I guess…” Blitz responded, still not entirely sure what to make of this.

“Whatever you decide to do, know that you always have my support,” Hercules said. “And if you need any more advice, or you just need someone to talk to, you can always come to me.”

“Thanks, Hercules,” Blitz replied, smiling at the Heracross.

“No problem,” Hercules responded. “Is there anything else I can do?”

“No, I’m good,” Blitz replied.

Blitz felt more confident after the talk with Hercules, but he still hadn’t been able to make up his mind on which choice to make. Face a challenge he wasn’t sure if he was ready for, or let someone else handle it?

---

There were few customers in the café this evening, seeing as most of the regular customers were rescue teams and most of the rescue teams were still busy searching for any leads on the missing crystals. While this meant less business, River didn’t mind. It was nice to have some quiet days once in a while, as not having as many customers to tend to made things a little less stressful. The kitchen staff probably felt the same way.

River looked around at the customers sitting at the tables, which included two or three rescue teams, and a few lone customers. There was also a certain Mienfoo and Elgyem sitting at a table in a quiet spot where they could talk privately. Well, Chiaki was doing the talking, explaining the situation to Elina.

“And, that’s about it,” Chiaki said, finishing his explanation.

Elina nodded her head, to signal that she had listened to every word of Chiaki’s explanation and understood the situation. She had a concerned look in her eyes, but Chiaki couldn’t figure out what was on her mind. He figured it was best not to bother her about it, and focus on sorting out his own dilemma.

“What do you think, Elina?” Chiaki asked. “Do it ourselves, or let someone else handle it?”

The Elgyem thought about it, unsure how to respond. She had to take a few moments to think about it, before finally reaching a decision. She pointed a hand at Chiaki, much to his surprise.

“… You think we should do it ourselves?” Chiaki asked, to which Elina nodded in response. “Are you sure?”

Chiaki took a sip of the berry juice he had ordered, while Elina just watched him, not having ordered anything. It occurred to Chiaki that he couldn’t really tell where Elina’s mouth was, if she even had one. Perhaps she didn’t need to eat? Or did she eat something other than food? Or she just had different tastes in food that no one really understood? Chiaki realized that he was getting distracted again.

“It’s not that I don’t trust your good judgment or something,” Chiaki said. “I just don’t want to risk starting a fight by choosing one or the other… Do you understand?”

Elina nodded her head.

“But you still think we should do it ourselves?” Chiaki asked again. “You’re really, definitely, absolutely, one-hundred percent sure about that?”

Elina nodded her head again.

“Oh, okay then…” Chiaki responded. “Thanks, Elina.”

Chiaki hoped that following Elina’s advice wouldn’t start a fight, but surely he and his friends would reach an agreement, wouldn’t they? He decided it was best to have faith in his friends, both his two teammates and Elina.

---

Later in the night, Chiaki laid in his bed thinking, as Blitz finally came home after having spent a few hours at the dojo. The Shinx quickly walked over to his bed, and crawled into it, lying down. He then looked over at Chiaki, the two just looking at each other while they both waited for the other to speak. Chiaki was the one to finally break the silence.

“So… What do you think we should do?”

“I don’t know…” Blitz responded, taking a few seconds to think about it. “… We probably won’t be seeing an opportunity as big as this again anytime soon, right?”

“Does that mean we’ll go for it?” Chiaki asked, surprised at hearing Blitz say that.

“I guess,” Blitz replied.

“Cool,” Chiaki responded, smiling at Blitz. “Sera will probably be happy to hear that.”

“Yeah, probably,” Blitz replied. “… Good night, Chiaki.”

“Good night,” Chiaki responded, closing his eyes and trying to sleep.

He felt very relieved now that Blitz was willing to go along with taking the mission, and was looking forward to tomorrow. He wondered what the Harmony Forest was like, but figured it was best not to get too excited right now as he was supposed to be sleeping. He needed his energy for tomorrow, after all.

---

End of chapter 8.

---

[Knightfall]

Very well done! This was a good chapter.

My favorite part would have to be Chiaki's twisted dream, I'm somewhat partial to those as they're in my story quite a bit. They're so fun to write since nothing has to make sense.

Oh, the decision. Will the team choose to scout out Harmony Forest on their own, or will they get help? I'm impressed at how you handled their disagreements, very believeable. And at how you wrote out what each of them was doing and how they got advice as they contemplated it.

Well, that's about all I have to say about this one. Again, very good. I look forward to the next chapter.

Knightfall signing off...