Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Reflecting Balance

[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.

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Chapter 7: Do you think we can make a difference?

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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.

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[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...

[SeekerofLight]

Again, utterly Spectacular.

The twisted dream was brilliant. I love how it seems to link with the Prologue... Does this mean that the Orb with Fork wings is the Sigilyph and that Chiaki was the Grey Cloaked Pokémon?

Brilliant Brillaint Brilliant. Can't wait for the next adventure and the continuation of this amazing story.

Keep on writing DarkerShining

Seekeroflight

[sixthhokage1]

If any of DS's readers are Tropers, the TvTropes article for this fic could use more love!

[DarkerShining]

Thanks for the positive response, guys! Glad you enjoyed the chapter. I'm working on the first draft on chapter 9, but I'm not sure how long it'll take. I'll try not to keep you guys waiting for too long, though.

Remember, if there is anything about my writing you see that I can work on improving for later chapters, just let me know. I keep it in mind and become a better write that way, you know.

And I am still considering putting up a PM list. Since this is the first time I will have done that, though, I'm not entirely sure on how I'd keep track of everyone on it. I see some authors have a list on the first page of their fic that they edit or something along those lines, but due to a weird glitch that occurs when I try editing or previewing posts, that probably isn't the best option since I don't want the text to get messed up. (has anyone else had problems with this glitch?) Then again, I suppose it is just as simple as keeping a list somewhere else.

[DarkerShining]

Hey everyone! Chapter 9 is ready!

Hope you all enjoy it!

---

Chapter 9: So, you need some help with this plant problem?

---

Another new day had begun, and rescue teams were getting ready for another day of work. Blitz, Sera and Chiaki had already met up in a quiet spot where they could talk privately, and were now discussing the situation and the decision they were about to make. After several minutes of talking, it seemed the three of them had reached an agreement.

“So… We’re really going to do this, then?” Sera asked.

“I guess so…” Blitz responded, nervously rubbing his forelegs together.

“All right then…” Sera replied. “Let’s go make our preparations, then.”

The rescue team spent several minutes going around town making the necessary preparations, trying to figure out which supplies to bring along and rearranging the treasure bag several times before they were satisfied with the selection of items. After stopping by the bank to deposit the leftover money after they had bought some extra supplies at the shop, the three of them began heading up to the rescue team HQ.

Before reaching the HQ, Sera decided to fill Chiaki in on some more details about Harmony Forest, and pulled out the map.

“The Harmony Forest is there,” Sera said, pointing her paw at the map. “As you can see, it’s a little further away from here than the dungeons we’ve been to so far.”

“It is a somewhat unique place in that there are multiple small mystery dungeons within the forest, connecting the different areas of the forest,” Blitz explained. “We enter the forest through a regular mystery dungeon.”

“I see,” Chiaki said, looking at the map. “Are we going to walk all the way there? Because it looks like it would take a while to get there, even if we walked really fast...”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Sera said, winking. “There is another, much faster way to get there.”

“Ooh, what is it?” Chiaki asked. “Can you show me?”

“You’ll get to see once we get to the HQ,” Sera said, wagging her tail.

“Okay!” Chiaki replied.

The three continued heading up to the HQ, when Blitz suddenly noticed a certain Elgyem floating over in their direction.

“Chiaki, your friend is here,” Blitz said, pointing to the Elgyem.

“Oh, hi Elina!” Chiaki said, walking over to her. “Did you come to wish us good luck?”

The Elgyem shook her head, before pointing to herself with both hands, and then pointing to the rescue team.

“You want to come along?” Chiaki asked, tilting his head slightly. “Oh, that’s nice, but I don’t think that’s really necessary.”

Elina looked down at the ground, seeming a bit disappointed.

“Hey, don’t worry,” Chiaki said, comfortingly patting the Elgyem’s shoulder. “We can handle this! So, you can just stay here and relax, and then I’ll tell you all about how it went when we get back, okay?”

Elina looked up at the Mienfoo, unsure how to respond.

“See you later, Elina!” Chiaki said, waving good-bye to her as he ran over to join his two teammates, as they walked into the wooden building.

Elina looked up at the rescue team HQ for a few moments, before floating back into the main part of town so she could make some preparations…

---

Blitz and Sera led Chiaki over to a purple curtain, and into a room behind said curtain. The first thing Chiaki noticed inside the room was a large map painted on the wall in the back of the room, with mystery dungeons marked on it similar to the smaller maps rescue teams carried. There was also a wooden desk in the room, but Chiaki couldn’t see anyone behind the counter. However, he could hear a light snoring, and Sera led him over to show him what was behind the desk.

And behind it was a yellow humanoid Pokémon with small pointy ears, sleeping on a somewhat worn-out looking dark green pillow. Sera carefully poked the brown armor-like pad covering the Abra’s shoulder, causing the psychic type to sleepily open her eyes and sit up.

“What day is it…?” the Abra sleepily mumbled while rubbing her eyes.

“Chiaki, this is Kala,” Sera said, pointing her paw at the Abra. “She can use her teleportation powers to help rescue teams reach destinations that are too far away to walk to when we need to get there fast!”

“Cool!” Chiaki responded.

“So, where do you want to go today…?” Kala muttered, yawning and stretching.

“Harmony Forest,” Sera replied, smiling and wagging her tail. “Can you send us there?”

“Sure, no problem…” Kala responded, closing her eyes and hovering in mid-air as she concentrated on sending the rescue team to their desired destination.

Soon the rescue team were enveloped by a green light, and disappeared from the room. With her job done, Kala lay back down onto her pillow, going back to sleep.

---

The rescue team materialized in front of the entrance to the Harmony Forest in a green orb of light, Chiaki looked around in awe at the sudden change of surroundings. As far as he could tell, there were many tall trees ahead. He wondered how different this forest was from Meridian Forest.

“Well, here we are!” Sera announced, wagging her tail happily. “So, should we just go ahead and get this search started?”

“I suppose…” Blitz replied, nervously rubbing his legs together. “Are you absolutely sure we have everything we need?”

“Nervous?” Sera asked, grabbing one of Blitz’s front paws with her front paws. “It’s okay; you’re not the only one.”

“Sera…” Blitz looked up at his teammate.

“I’m a little nervous too,” Sera said, giving a reassuring smile. “But as long as I’ve got you and Chiaki by my side, nothing will stop me!”

“Yeah, we’re in this together!” Chiaki responded, grinning. “Just think of this as another mission!”

“… You’re right,” Blitz responded, smiling back at his teammates. “Let’s do this.”

“That’s more like it!” Sera said, before entering the mystery dungeon with Blitz and Chiaki following closely behind.

Trees made up the walls of the maze; while the floor was mostly grass with occasional wild flowers visible. Sera noticed some coins lying in the grass, and picked them up, before leading Blitz and Chiaki down one of the paths leading to another room within the same floor. The Harmony Forest was a pretty big place, so finding the crystal probably wouldn’t be easy. Where within the forest could it be hidden?

And that wasn’t even the only question related to this strange situation. How and why had the crystal ended up here? Why had the Pokémon that stole the crystals not just kept it? But it was probably better to just focus on finding the crystal now, and ask questions later. Finding the stairs, and moving onto the next floor, the rescue team had to fight a small Pokémon covered in cotton, with two green leaves at the sides of its body.

They had to fight another one on the way to the stairs, and soon found themselves on the third floor. The third and fourth floors were fairly uneventful, only a few more items to be found and a few more battles. However, on the fifth floor, the rescue team came across a strange sight. Several strange, thick vines were blocking one of the paths out of the room they had just arrived in.

“Huh?” Sera said, tilting her head and poking the vine with her paw. “What’s this?”

“I don’t know…” Blitz replied. “There usually aren’t any obstacles like this one in mystery dungeons…”

“Can’t we just climb over it?” Chiaki asked.

“Nah, let’s just take the other path over there,” Sera responded, moving over to another path which wasn’t blocked off.

There didn’t seem to be anything else out of the ordinary on that floor, and the rescue team moved onto the sixth floor, where they had to fight off some round ladybug like Pokémon and some yellow green-spotted mushroom-like Pokémon. Chiaki discovered he could make an opponent flinch by striking it quickly. However, it seemed the attack only worked as long as he caught the opponent off-guard. According to Blitz, this attack was called Fake Out.

“Wow, I figured out a new attack all on my own!” Chiaki exclaimed happily.

“Congratulations,” Blitz replied. “It should be a useful move once you’re mastered it. Maybe we should head back to the dojo so you can practice once we’re done here?”

“Hey, how many floors is this dungeon, again?” Sera asked, looking around.

“Fifteen, I think,” Blitz responded. “And I think the smaller ones within the forest itself are at five floors, or so.”

“Okay…” Sera said, realizing that they might have quite a bit of walking around to do today. “How many of the smaller dungeons are there?”

“At least three,” Blitz responded. “I’m not entirely sure if that’s the exact number.”

“Oh,” Sera replied. “So, we might have to walk through at least thirty floors?”

“Possibly,” Blitz said. “Depends on where the crystal is.”

“Yeah…” Sera responded. “Good thing we brought a few apples in case we get hungry from all that walking.”

The rescue team continued travelling through the dungeon, Chiaki practicing his Fake Out attack more as they went along. On the tenth floor of the dungeon, they noticed several strange vines sprouting from the ground near the walls, similar to the ones blocking the path back at the fifth floor.

“Strange…” Blitz commented. “What’s up with these vines?”

“I don’t know…” Sera responded. “At least they’re not in our way this time.”

The rescue team continued heading through the floor, until they found the stairs and moved onto the next floor. Blitz was getting the feeling that these vines didn’t belong in the forest, and wondered where they might’ve come from. There was definitely something strange about it…

---

Back in town, Wade and Vic were going about their usual business. Mirage had just sold a Gold Ribbon to Wade, and gotten 2000 coins in return. The Zoroark briefly looked through the items in her treasure bag to see if there was anything else she could sell.

“Hmm… I guess there’s nothing else here really worth selling,” Mirage said, closing the bag. “Well, better go find myself some missions. I’ve still got to make some money even with the whole crystal crisis going on. I can’t let my family down, after all.”

And with that, Mirage and her teammates left the stall, just as a certain Elgyem hovered up to the shop, waving to get Vic’s attention. The Nuzleaf, however, seemed to be too busy polishing an orb to notice. Wade gave Elina a friendly smile, and then lightly shook Vic’s shoulder to get his attention.

“Hey, Vic,” Wade said. “I think you have a customer.”

“Oh,” Vic replied, putting the orb down on the counter. “Well, hello there. How may I help you?”

Elina pointed a hand to the orb on the counter.

“You want to buy that Blowback Orb?” Vic asked.

Elina shook her head in response.

“No?” Vic replied, thinking for a moment. “Oh, you want to see what other orbs we have for sale today?”

Elina nodded her head in the affirmative, and Vic brought out a selection of different orbs. Not that one could really tell the difference between them at first glance, since they all looked the same.

“As you can see, we have a nice selection of orbs today,” the Nuzleaf said. “See anything you like?”

Elina carefully looked over the orbs, until she saw something that caught her interest. She pointed her hand to one of the orbs displayed, and Vic took a look at it.

“Ah, you want this Mobile Orb?” he asked, picking it up. “That’ll be 150 coins.”

Elina produced a small bag, and telekinetically picked up the coins she had brought with her, hoping she had enough coins to afford the orb…

---

Sera, Blitz and Chiaki had reached the final floor of the mystery dungeon, and were getting close to the stairs. There was only one problem: Strange vines were blocking the path leading to the room with the stairs.

“Not this again!” Sera exclaimed. “How are we going to get to the stairs?”

“Is there another path?” Chiaki asked.

“I don’t think there is this time…” Blitz said, thinking for a moment. “But, maybe I can use my Fire Fang attack to burn these?”

“I thought you didn’t like using that attack?” Sera asked.

“Not on other Pokémon,” Blitz replied. “However, I’m okay with using it to get rid of this obstacle.”

“Go for it, then!” Sera said, wagging her tail enthusiastically.

Blitz walked up to the blocked path, getting onto his hind legs while holding onto the vines with his forelegs. He then opened his mouth, and his fangs began glowing with an orange light. Blitz felt heat quickly building up in his fangs, and bit down on the plant. To his surprise, the attack barely had any effect.

“It didn’t work?” Sera asked, tilting her head in confusion. “Why didn’t it work? Isn’t fire usually super effective on plants?”

“Yes, it is,” Blitz replied, examining the bite marks he’d left on the plant. “This plant, however, seems to have some sort of resistance to fire…”

“Cool,” Chiaki said. “You know, except the part about it being in our way, and all…”

“Hey, what about your Ice Fang attack?” Sera asked. “Ice is also super effective on plants, right?”

“It’s worth a try,” Blitz replied, and once again prepared to sink his fangs into the vine.

This time, his fangs began to glow with an icy blue glow, and there was visible mist from Blitz’s breath as his fangs got colder. Blitz bit down on the vine once again, and part of the vine quickly became coated in ice.

“I think its working!” Sera said, her ears perking up in excitement.

“Yeah, but they’re still in our way,” Chiaki pointed out.

“Not for long!” Sera replied, getting three Blast Seeds out of the treasure bag. “Here, let’s take one each, and then we’ll use them to break these vines apart!”

“Good idea, Sera,” Blitz said, as he and Chiaki each took one of the three seeds. “We’ll probably do the most damage if we use them all at the same time. Ready?”

The three of them walked up the frozen vines, popped the Blast seeds into their mouths and at the same time, spit the exploding seeds at the frozen vines. The explosion managed to break them apart to make an opening big enough for the three of them to walk through.

“We did it!” Sera said, happily wagging her tail as she ran over to the stairs along with her two teammates. “Now, let’s get moving and start looking for that crystal!”

The three Pokémon then walked up the stairs, exiting the dungeon and entering the deeper parts of Harmony Forest. However, they were surprised at what they saw as they entered the area, as several strange vines similar to the ones they came across inside the mystery dungeon appeared to be laying on the ground, with some of them seeming to have wrapped themselves around trees.

“What is with these vines?” Sera asked, poking at one with her paw.

“I don’t know…” Blitz replied, looking around. “This is really strange…”

The rescue team began looking around, not knowing that they were being watched from the trees. A trio of monkeys with green and yellow bodies and a small green bush like growth on their heads curiously watched the rescue team, before exchanging glances.

“Rescue team!” one of the three Pansage said, excitedly pointing to the three Pokémon below.

“Think they can help us?” asked one of the other two, scratching its head.

“Yes, they might be able to help us!” responded the third one, excitedly swinging on the branch it was holding. “We should take them to see the leader of our tribe!”

“Ooh, good idea!” the first Pansage replied, clapping its hands. “Let’s follow them!”

The three Pansage playfully started following the rescue team exploring the forest below by moving from tree to tree; by extending their green tails into long whip-like vines and using them grab onto branches and swing to the next tree. Blitz soon noticed the shadows of the three Pokémon above them, and stopped to look up at the three Pansage. Sera and Chiaki soon noticed as well, and the Pansage began making their way down to the rescue team.

“What’s up with them?” Sera wondered.

“Maybe they can help us find the crystal?” Chiaki suggested, smiling as the three Pansage made their way down from the trees.

“I suppose we should find out what they want…” Blitz said, as the monkeys reached the ground and approached the rescue team.

“Hi!” one of the three Pansage said, waving to the other three Pokémon. “You’re a rescue team, right?”

“Yes, we are,” Sera responded, tilting her head slightly. “What can we do for you?”

“A strange plant showed up in the forest a few days ago!” the Pansage said, jumping up and down.

“And its vines are like, growing and going all over the place!” one of the other two said, pointing to some strange vines that seemed to be slowly crawling up a tree.

“And they’re getting in our way, and that’s really annoying!” the third one said, stomping on the ground. “We can’t get to the Pansear and Panpour tribes or the place where we grow berries without taking a lot of detours, even having to go through mini-dungeons and have to deal with wild Pokémon slowing us down!”

“What can we do to help?” Chiaki asked, immediately jumping at the opportunity to help the Pokémon of Harmony Forest.

“Oh, you will help us?” one of the Pansage asked, happy at the Mienfoo’s eagerness to help.

“Thank you so much!” one of the other two Pansage said, clapping her hands.

“Come with us!” the third one said, motioning with his hand for them to follow. “You should come meet our tribe’s leader, and help us work out how to get rid of the plant with him!”

“Okay!” Chiaki replied, smiling at the trio of grass monkeys.

“Hold on a minute,” Sera said, looking over at her teammate. “Chiaki, we were supposed to be searching for the crystal, remember?”

“But these Pokémon need our help!” Chiaki replied. “And since we’re a rescue team, we should help them!”

“Well, I guess you have a point there…” Sera responded.

“And besides, if we help them, maybe they will help us?” Chiaki pointed out.

“I suppose having some Pokémon that know the forest help us search would make things a lot easier,” Blitz commented.

“Okay, then,” Sera said, smiling to her teammates. “Let’s help these Pansage sort out this plant problem!”

“All right, let’s go!” Chiaki said, and followed the Pansage trio.

---

The Pansage trio led the rescue team further into the forest, explaining that they were going to bring them to their village. There, they would meet with the Pansage tribe leader and try to come up with a way to get rid of the mysterious plant. On the way, the rescue team saw more vines laying across the ground, or wrapping themselves around trees. After a while, the Pansage trio stopped walking.

“We’re here!” one of the three Pansage said, grinning at the somewhat confused rescue team.

“Uh… What?” Sera responded, looking around. “I don’t see any village here.”

“Silly Eevee!” one of the other two Pansage said, pointing up towards the treetops above. “Our village is up there!”

“Your village is in the top of those trees?” Chiaki asked.

“Yep!” the third Pansage replied, nodding her head.

“Um… How exactly are we supposed to get up there?” Blitz asked, rubbing his forelegs together. “I don’t think we’re as good at climbing as you Pansage are…”

“Oh, don’t worry!” one of the Pansage responded. “We have another way to get you up there!”

“Just wait right here,” one of the other two said, and started climbing up a tree along with the other two Pansage. “We’ll be right back!”

The monkey Pokémon quickly made their way up the trees, while the rescue team waited for them to return, curious about how the Pansage were going to get them up there. Soon, the rescue team saw the three Pansage slowly making their way down to them by lowering what appeared to be a wooden cage-like structure held up by vines.

“What’s that?” Chiaki asked, as the bottom of the wooden cage-like structure touched the ground.

“Like it?” one of the Pansage asked, opening the wooden door. “We use this to bring visitors up to our village!”

“Assuming they’re around the same size as us,” one of the other two Pansage added, while holding onto one of two rotating levers on the sides of the wooden structure, which were used to make the vines pull it up. “We can’t really bring bigger, heavier Pokémon up there.”

“And even if we could, it would probably not be a good idea,” the third Pansage commented, giggling a little. “Well, get in, will you?”

“Um… Okay…” Blitz responded, and got onto the cart with Sera and Chiaki.

Once all three were on board, the Pansage shut the door and the other two began rotating the levers to pull the cart up. Blitz looked down at the ground, feeling more nervous the higher up they got. Chiaki on the other hand seemed to find this experience rather exciting, and found it pretty awesome that the Pansage had been able to build the contraption that was bringing them up to the treetop village out of things found in the forest.

Soon, they reached the village, with several small wooden huts built on thick branches, and several rope bridges connecting the village.

“Awesome!” Chiaki exclaimed upon seeing the village.

“Welcome to our village!” one of the Pansage said, opening the wooden door on the cart to let the rescue team out. “Follow us; we’ll take you to our leader!”

The six Pokémon stepped onto one of the rope bridges, the Pansage trio leading the way. Blitz couldn’t help but feel a bit nervous as he looked down and saw just how far away from the ground they were. The slight swaying of the bridge didn’t help, even though the rope bridge was secure. After walking across a few rope bridges, they finally found the tribe leader. He looked like a bigger Pansage, with a much bigger bush-like growth on his head.

“Ooh, is that a rescue team?” the Simisage asked, smirking.

“You must be the Pansage tribe leader,” Blitz said, still a bit nervous.

“That’s right,” the Simisage responded, giving the rescue team a thumbs-up. “The name’s Haru and it is your pleasure to meet me!”

“Right…” Sera replied, not particularly impressed. “So, you need some help with this plant problem?”

“Ah, seems the Pansage there have filled you in on some of the details,” Haru responded, the three Pansage covering their mouths with their hands and giggling. “Normally, such a situation wouldn’t be a problem for me, but the way this plant is spreading just isn’t natural.”

“Yeah, we saw,” Sera commented. “It even got into the mystery dungeon.”

“We’ve been at a loss of how to deal with the thing,” Haru said. “However, thanks to me, we may now have found the root of the problem!”

“This tribe sure is lucky to have a leader as humble as you,” Sera replied, rolling her eyes.

“Why, thank you!” Haru responded, not noticing the sarcasm in Sera’s voice. “Anyways, as I was saying, I sent a team of Pansage to search for the plant that all these freaky vines spread from, and not long ago, they found it in the middle of the forest!”

“So, what is the plan?” Blitz asked, rubbing his forelegs together.

“We’re still working on it,” Haru replied. “What we do have so far, is that we need to find a way to destroy the roots of that thing.”

“Hey, weren’t the vines we came across in the dungeon weak to ice?” Chiaki asked, looking over at Blitz.

“Ice, you say?” Haru responded, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

“Uh-huh!” Chiaki replied, nodding his head. “Blitz here used his Ice Fang to help us break through some vines blocking our path!”

“Well, seems you kids may just have stumbled onto the solution to our problems!” Haru responded, snapping his fingers. “Thank you so much!”

“Ooh, really?” Chiaki asked.

“We need to use ice to break those roots, but surely that will be easier said than done,” Haru said. “First, let’s all head over to where the plant is.”

“Uh… Okay?” Sera replied.

“As long as that lets us go back down to the ground, I’m fine with that,” Blitz said, knowing he would feel less nervous once they got down from the tree.

---

Once the rescue team, Haru and the trio of Pansage got down from the tree, they began heading for the center of the forest. To get there, they would first have to walk through a mini dungeon with five floors. Haru decided to lead the way through the dungeon, which Sera only agreed to because he was more familiar with the forest than she was.

“So, what brings you guys into the forest, anyways?” Haru asked.

“Well, we are searching for something very important,” Sera replied. “And according to the town oracle, it might be hidden somewhere within this forest.”

“Oh, is that so?” Haru responded. “And what would this important item be?”

“One of the eight missing crystals of the Axis Tower,” Sera replied, causing Haru to stop in his tracks for a moment.

“Wait, what!?” Haru exclaimed. “The Axis Tower crystals are missing!?”

“Yeah,” Blitz replied, keeping his gaze on the ground as they walked. “Apparently some Pokémon stole them a few days ago…”

“Who would do such a crazy thing!?” Haru asked, clenching his fists. “I swear, if that Pokémon were to show itself around this forest, I would give it a piece of my mind!”

“Yeah, whatever,” Sera responded. “Anyways, maybe you and your tribe could, you know, help us search?”

“Of course,” Haru replied, grinning. “Once we’ve dealt with this plant, I’ll assist you guys in finding this crystal, and with my help, you’ll find it in no time!”

“I’ll help too!” one of the Pansage said.

“Me too!” one of the other two responded.

“Me three!” the third one said.

“Thanks!” Sera replied, wagging her tail. “Searching will be much easier with the help of Pokémon that know the forest like you guys do!”

“Yeah,” Haru responded. “I don’t like to brag, but I do know the forest pretty well.”

The other six Pokémon started snickering a bit at that statement, although Haru didn’t understand what it was they found so amusing. The Simisage did do a good job leading the group through the dungeon, knocking out some of the Pokémon they came across on the way with a kick or a strike from his thorny tail. He then proceeded to talk about the Acrobatics attack afterwards and how it was only one of the many attacks he had mastered.

“A tribe leader has got to know many different attacks to be able to defend his tribe, you know!” Haru said, confidently stepping up the stairs to the next floor.

“Is he always like that?” Chiaki asked one of the three Pansage, seeming a bit amused at the Simisage’s behavior.

“Oh, yes,” the Pansage responded. “But he’s still a very good leader.”

“Yeah,” another Pansage replied. “He really does care about our well-being, even if he does sometimes talk about himself too much.”

“The tribe elected him to be our leader for a reason, after all,” the third one added.

“All right, we’re here!” Haru said, pointing to the final set of stairs in the dungeon.

---

Haru led the Pansage and the rescue team up the stairs, where they found themselves in front of the large parasitic plant growing in the center of the forest. The rescue team was surprised at just how large the plant was. It almost looked like a huge green tree, except it had many vines sprouting from the top of it, and slowly growing longer and seeming to be crawling through the forest.

“What is that thing?” Sera asked, staring up at it.

“We have no idea,” Haru replied. “We’re not even entirely sure if it’s a real plant.”

“So, we need to destroy this thing before it spreads its vines any further, right?” Blitz asked, looking a bit discouraged. “How are we going to do that?”

“Don’t worry, kid,” Haru responded, smirking. “You see, I came up with a plan while we were walking through that dungeon!”

“Of course you did,” Sera replied, rolling her eyes slightly. “So, what’s your great idea?”

“I haven’t worked out all the details yet, but that is why I want you three to head over to the Pansear and Panpour tribes, and bring their leaders here!” Haru said, smiling at the rescue team. “I hope you don’t mind me asking this?”

“I guess not,” Sera responded.

“Of course, I could do this without their help, but things will go a lot faster if those two and a few members of their tribes help out,” Haru said, his eyes darting back and forth while a nervous smile seemed to cross his face for a brief moment. “Y-Yeah… That’s right…”

"That, and you can't use any ice type attacks," one of the Pansage pointed out.

"Yeah, that too," Haru responded, glancing around.

“Just give us some directions, and we’ll be on our way!” Chiaki said with his usual cheerful smile.

“All right,” Haru responded, pointing in a direction. “If you head that way, you will after a short walk come across another mini dungeon. And after clearing it, just keep walking straight ahead, and you should eventually reach the Pansear tribe’s village.”

“Okay, thanks,” Sera replied, before turning to her teammates. “Let’s go find this Pansear village!”

And so, the rescue team headed off to find and ask the leaders of the Pansear and Panpour tribes for help, while Haru and the Pansage stayed behind to bounce around a few ideas on how to deal with the plant while they waited for the rescue team to return. The rescue team had not come any closer to finding the crystal, and it remained to see if they would be able to help the tribes find a solution to the plant problem. It was now clear that their mission in Harmony Forest had only just begun.

---

End of chapter 9.

---

[Knightfall]

Ah, another lovely chapter. Peaceful, in a sense.
Though I have to wonder why Elina needed to buy that Mobile Orb, is she planning on interferring in the Forest somehow?

Anyways, I liked the self glorifying Simisage, Heru. Fun minor characters are the best to write, in my opinion. If I may state the obvious, but what could plant be? I was thinking Carnivine in the beginning, but now I'm not sure. Whatever it is, I hope it gets "resolved" in the next chapter, I hate weeds.

Well, I hope the next chapter is out soon. I get the sense that the plot will be moving forward with these crystals.

Knightfall signing off...

[SeekerofLight]

Spectacular as Always Darkershining.

I am loving the story so much, and also the obvious fatc you have spent SO much effort developing your characters. Even the most minor of minor Pokémon has a personality, and a personal favourite feature of mine is how you are cutting back to other Exploration Teams, not just focusing on the Main Character.

My only niggle really is... I'm incredibly impatient! I can't wait for the next chapter!

Best of Luck

Seeker of Light

[DarkerShining]

Thanks for the replies! Glad to see you enjoyed the chapter, and I promise to have chapter 10 ready as soon as I can. The first draft of the chapter should be finished soon at the very least. I got somewhat delayed because something's wrong with my laptop, though. But at least I've been able to borrow my mother's computer, and I was able to take a back-up copy of the most recent version of the fanfic chapter on a USB drive before the laptop stopped co-operating, so I've been able to keep working on it.

[DarkerShining]

All right! As promised, here is chapter 10! Enjoy!

---

Chapter 10: Think we should be concerned about the fact that she apparently has a collection of weapons?

---

At the rescue team HQ, a certain Elgyem was quietly checking the items she had gathered, before heading inside the room where Kala the Abra was enjoying her nap. However, contrary to what the Abra may have had assumed, she wasn’t finished with today’s work. Elina lightly shook the Abra’s shoulder, until Kala drowsily sat up and rubbed her eyes.

“What is it now…?” the Abra mumbled groggily, before noticing Elina. “Oh, hi there… Weren’t you the Elgyem who came in here last night…?”

Elina just waved in response.

“So… What may I do for you…?” Kala asked.

Elina floated over to the large map painted on the wall, and pointed her hand to a certain forest on the map.

“Harmony Forest again…?” Kala asked, to which Elina nodded in response. “Okay, I guess… Seems to be a popular place to explore all of a sudden…”

---

Sera, Blitz and Chiaki were making their way through one of the five floor mini mystery dungeons within the Harmony Forest, which according to Haru the Simisage would lead towards the Pansear village. More of the vines could be seen inside the dungeon, some proving to be a bit of an obstacle due to blocking off some of the paths. It was a little hard to believe these were all connected to the same plant, which was definitely not something that belonged in the forest. And the rescue team still hadn’t come any closer to finding the crystal which was supposed to be hidden somewhere within the forest.

“Okay, we’re almost through this dungeon,” Sera said, looking around. “And once we get out, we just have to keep walking straight ahead until we reach the Pansear village, right?”

“Yes, that is what Haru said,” Blitz replied.

“What do you guys think the other two tribe leaders are like?” Chiaki asked.

“I’m sure they’re as nice as Haru,” Sera replied. “I just hope they don’t talk as much as him…”

“I just hope these guys built their villages on the ground…” Blitz commented.

“Well, we’re going to find out very soon,” Sera said, pointing to the stairs.

The three of them walked up the stairs one by one, exiting the mini dungeon and entering another part of the forest. In the distance, they spotted what appeared to be several small stone huts built in a fairly open area.

“That must be the Pansear village,” Chiaki said.

“Guess they must’ve built it over there to reduce the risk of accidentally burning the forest down,” Blitz commented.

“Well, let’s go see them.” Sera said.

The three of them began walking towards the village, when Blitz suddenly heard the sounds of leaves rustling in the bushes nearby. He also caught a brief glimpse of something with red fur hiding within the bushes. He cautiously crept up the bushes to investigate, carefully pushing part of it aside with his paw, revealing a trio of red and yellow monkeys with a fire shaped tuft on their heads.

“We’ve been spotted!” one of them said, before it and the other two Pansear ducked down and covered their ears.

“Hey, relax,” Blitz said. “We’re not going to hurt you.”

“You three must be from the Pansear tribe, right?” Sera asked. “The leader of the Pansage tribe sent us here.”

“What?” one of the Pansear said and took his hands off his ears. “I’m sorry, could you repeat that?”

“The leader of the Pansage tribe sent us here,” Sera explained. “He wants the leader of your tribe and the Panpour tribe to help with the plant problem this forest is having.”

“Ah, Haru sent you!” the Pansear responded, excitedly clapping his hands.

“And he wants help with the plant problem?” one of the other two Pansear asked, scratching her head. “Does that mean they’ve found a way to get rid of it?”

“Ooh, we can take you to our leader!” the third one said, jumping up and down in excitement.

The trio of Pansear ran ahead of the rescue team, leading the way into the village. While walking through the village to where the tribe leader was, the group saw several Pansear doing their jobs within the village. Some Pansear were busy forging weapons, others were using berries they had received from the Pansage tribe to make medicines.

The Pansear trio explained more about how each of the three tribes worked together, each providing something different. The Pansage were in charge of berries, the Pansear tribe made weapons and medicines, and the Panpour tribe was in charge of providing the tribes with fresh water.

“Our tribes work pretty well together,” one of the Pansear commented. “So, it is very frustrating for us to not be able to reach each other easily because our fastest, safest travel routes are blocked off!”

“Yeah, we understand,” Blitz responded.

“So, what can you tell us about your tribe leader?” Sera asked.

“Ooh, he’s a good leader,” one of the Pansear responded. “He’s very nice.”

“He tends to have us make weapons just so he can give those to Mizu, the leader of the Panpour tribe,” one of the other two Pansear commented, snickering a little. “We think he has a crush on her.”

“Luckily he isn’t the kind of guy who often gets distracted from his job while thinking about his crush,” the third one added.

The six Pokémon walked up to where a Pokémon looking like a bigger Pansear with a fire-shaped tail and a few fire shaped tufts of hair on his head was standing, looking a bit concerned.

“I sure hope we find a way to get rid of all those vines before they spread any further,” the Simisear said, holding a hand to his chin in a thoughtful way. “This can’t be good for any of the Pokémon living in the forest.”

“Kojin!” one of the Pansear called out. “Haru sent this rescue team to find you!”

“Oh, is that so?” the Simisear responded, walking over and giving the rescue team a friendly smile. “Welcome, rescue team.”

“Hi,” Sera replied, waving her paw.

“So, what brings you to our village?” Kojin asked. “Haru had a favor to ask of me?”

“Pretty much,” Sera responded. “He’s working on a way to get rid of the plant problem, and he wants the help of you, the Panpour tribe leader and a few members of your tribes to help him with it.”

“Ah, he’s working on a solution?” Kojin asked. “Excellent! Of course I will do all I can to help!”

“All right,” Blitz said. “You just have to head over to the center of the forest with some of the Pansear, as well as tell us how we can get to the Panpour tribe.”

“Of course,” Kojin responded, pointing out a direction to them. “There may be some vines blocking off some paths, but if you can get past those, there’s a mini dungeon over in that direction.”

“And that leads to the Panpour tribe’s village?” Chiaki asked.

“Yes,” Kojin responded. “The Panpour village is built close to a big lake, a few of the buildings floating on the lake itself.”

“Okay, got it,” Sera replied. “Is there anything else?”

“Well, perhaps you could do me a favor?” Kojin asked, picking up a spear. “Could you deliver this to the leader of the Panpour tribe?”

Sera and her teammates just stared at Kojin for a moment.

“Actually, I think I’ll just deliver it to her in person!” Kojin said, and happily headed off with a few Pansear, taking the spear with him. “See you guys later!”

Kojin and the Pansear headed off towards the center of the forest, hoping the vines wouldn’t be too big an obstacle for them. The rescue team had to head off as well, and find the Panpour village. First they would have to find that mini-dungeon Kojin brought up.

“So, what do you think the Panpour tribe leader is like?” Chiaki asked.

“I don’t know…” Blitz replied. “Think we should be concerned about the fact that she apparently has a collection of weapons?”

“Nah, I’m sure there’s nothing to be afraid of,” Sera responded, keeping an eye out for the entrance to the mini-dungeon as they walked.

---

The rescue team wandered around for a while, still looking for the entrance to the mini-dungeon. Sera was starting to feel hungry, though, and was getting a bit tired from all the walking. She looked over her shoulder at her two teammates, but wasn’t sure whether or not they were getting tired as well. Chiaki was still as cheerful as normal; while Blitz had a thoughtful looked on his face, occasionally glancing around at vines clinging to trees and such. Eventually, she just had to stop and sit down on the grass.

“Whew, does anyone else need a short break?” Sera asked.

“Sure,” Blitz responded, sitting down. “I’m guessing the dungeon entrance shouldn’t be too far away from here.”

“The Harmony Forest sure is big,” Chiaki said. “If it has been able to spread to cover as much of the forest in vines after just a few days, I wonder what would happen if it was just allowed to keep spreading…”

“Hey, let’s not think about that, okay?” Sera responded, getting two apples out of the treasure bag and giving them to her teammates before taking out a third apple for herself. “We’re going to help those monkeys solve this mess, and then they’ll help us find the crystal!”

“Of course,” Chiaki said, taking a bite out of his apple. “I have no doubt we’ll succeed!”

“I don’t know…” Blitz responded, glancing around nervously at some vines. “Chiaki has a point about the plant having covered a lot of the forest in just a few days… What if that’s not the only thing that plant is capable of?”

“Blitz, it’s a plant we’re talking about here,” Sera replied, taking a few bites out of her apple. “It’s not like it can actually fight back, or anything.”

“Hey, is that the entrance to the dungeon we were looking for?” Chiaki asked, pointing to a mystery dungeon entrance with several vines blocking it.

“Huh, how’d I not notice that?” Sera said, before looking over at Blitz. “Well, you know what to do.”

“I’m on it,” Blitz replied, finishing eating his apple before walking up to deal with the vines blocking the entrance.

---

A few minutes later, after freezing the vines with Ice Fang and shattering them, the rescue team began exploring the mini dungeon. Sera confidently led the team, imagining how proud her family and the Pokémon of Fenix town would be once she returned with one of the missing crystals. She would earn the respect of all the other rescue teams in town, and no one would treat her like a little kid anymore.

Blitz on the other hand, felt nervous for several reasons. Even if Sera said there was no reason to worry, he still couldn’t help but worry that one of those vines was going to suddenly grab him and carry him away. He also worried about what would happen once they returned to Fenix town with the crystal.

They had told Stella they would tell the other rescue teams about the location of the crystal, but they hadn’t. Would Stella be mad at them for not having done something they had said they would do for her? Not to mention that the possibility of the other rescue teams getting mad for withholding such important information was still a major concern of his.

And Chiaki was just happy to be on an adventure and to have made some new friends from the Pansage and Pansear tribe, and felt excited about getting to the Panpour tribe so they could make even more new friends. He then thought about Elina, hoping she wasn’t feeling too bad about not getting to come along to Harmony Forest with them.

---

Unbeknownst to Chiaki and his teammates, Elina was currently making her way through the dungeon leading into Harmony Forest. After Chiaki last night had told her where one of the missing crystals were, she had secretly gone off to Harmony Forest after Chiaki went home to sleep. However, because of the vines and because it was dark at the time, she hadn’t gotten very far. Things seemed to be going better this time, and hopefully she would catch up to Chiaki and the others soon. She had to be careful since there were wild Pokémon around, though. Especially with the bug types, that had a type advantage against her.

She wasn’t the bravest or strongest of Pokémon, but there was something only she could do…

---

The rescue team managed to get through the last floor of the mini dungeon, and began looking around for the lake where the Panpour village was supposed to be. They hadn’t gotten very far, when they suddenly heard a cry for help!

“What was that!?” Sera exclaimed, looking around for the source of the scream.

“It came from over there!” Blitz said, and started running in the direction the scream came from. “We have to hurry!”

Chiaki and Sera quickly went after Blitz, and soon saw a blue and yellow monkey with a blue tuft on its head that had been tied to a tree by some of the vines. Two other Panpour were pulling on the vine, trying to free their friend. However, the two of them weren’t strong enough to pull the vines off.

“Stupid plant!” one of the two Panpour said. “Release our friend!”

“Should one of us head back to the village and find Mizu?” the other one asked, before noticing the three Pokémon moving in their direction. “Is that a rescue team?”

Blitz didn’t even hesitate to run up to, and use his Ice Fang to freeze part of the vine. As it froze, the part of the vine which had been holding the Panpour trapped began to loosen its grip.

“Ooh, I can move!” the trapped Panpour exclaimed, and tried to free herself now that the vines holding her had loosened up a bit.

“Grab our hands!” one of the other two Panpour said, holding out her hand for the one held by the vines to grab.

“We can probably pull you out now!” the other one said, also holding his hands out.

The Panpour managed to get her arms loose from the plant’s grip, and grabbed onto the hands of her comrades. It didn’t take long before the two Panpour successfully helped their friend free herself.

“I’m free!” the Panpour exclaimed, before running over and hugging Blitz. “You’re my hero!”

Blitz was clearly surprised at the sudden hug, and didn’t even have the time to figure out how to respond before the other two Panpour suddenly ran up and hugged him as well.

“Thanks for loosening those vines for us!” one of the Panpour said.

“Yeah, that really helped a lot,” the other one replied.

“Y-You’re welcome…” Blitz responded, somewhat flustered at this.

“Is there anything we can do repay you?” asked the Panpour that had been rescued.

“Oh, um… My friends and I kind of need to get to your village and see the leader of your tribe…” Blitz responded, rubbing his forelegs together.

“No problem! We can guide you there!” the Panpour replied. “It’s not far from here! So, let’s go!”

---

The Panpour village had wooden huts similar to the Pansage village in it, with some of them even being placed upon floating platforms on the lake itself. One on the floating platforms on the lake, the tribe leader, resembling a bigger Panpour with dreadlocks, was currently polishing a blade. The Simipour was hoping to find a way to use it to get rid of those vines that was bothering the Pokémon living in the forest.

She soon heard the sounds of a trio of Panpour, as well as three other Pokémon making their way across a bridge leading to the platform she was on.

“Mizu!” one of the Panpour called out. “This rescue team here wishes to speak to you!”

“A rescue team, huh?” Mizu inquired, taking a look at the three Pokémon the Panpour had brought. “Hmm… I see from your badge that you’re a bronze rank team?”

“Is that a problem?” Sera asked, sounding a bit annoyed. “I’ll have you know we can handle stuff just as well as any other rescue team!”

“Hey, relax,” Mizu replied, chuckling. “I’m not saying we don’t want your help.”

“You know why we’re here?” Blitz asked.

“I assume it has something to do with getting rid of that huge plant that has been getting in everyone’s way?” Mizu responded.

“That’s right!” Chiaki said. “Haru and Kojin sent us to find you!”

“Ah, you’ve already spoken to the other two tribe leaders?” Mizu asked. “This is sounding promising.”

“The main part of the plant is located in the center of the forest,” Blitz explained. “Haru thinks we can get rid of it if we can destroy the roots.”

“Ooh, sounds good!” Mizu said, holding up the blade she had been polishing. “Sounds like the perfect job for this here!”

Blitz and Sera backed away a little as the Simipour picked up the weapon, while the Panpour just shyly covered their eyes and giggled.

“Is that a sword?” Chiaki asked, curious about the weapon.

“Oh, do you like it?” Mizu responded. “The blade is a Skarmory feather. I got it one day when I was out exploring, and came across a Skarmory who had one its wings stuck under a rock. I felt bad for the metal bird, so I helped him out.”

"Ooh, really?” Chiaki asked.

“Yes,” Mizu replied, nodding. “One of his feathers came off in the process, though, so he let me keep it as a reward for saving him.”

“That’s awesome!” Chiaki responded.

“Oh, it was no big deal,” Mizu replied. “Anyways, you were saying something about destroying the roots?”

“Yeah,” Blitz responded, nodding his head. “On our way into the forest, we discovered that the plants’ weakness seems to be ice.”

“Is that it?” Mizu asked. “How come I didn’t think of that? I even know an ice type attack I could’ve used against it!”

“Well, you can use your ice attack all you want when we destroy that plant!” Sera responded.

“Right,” Mizu replied, picking up her Skarmory feather blade. “Let’s go!”

---

Several minutes later, the rescue team, Mizu and a few of the Panpour finally made it to the center of the forest where Haru, Kojin and a few Pansage and Pansear had already gathered.

“All right, you made it!” Haru said, grinning at the rescue team.

“Hi Mizu!” Kojin said, holding up the spear. “I brought you a new spear!”
“Ooh, that nice spear is for me?” Mizu asked, smiling at the Simisear. “Thank you, Kojin! You always give me the best gifts!”

Kojin smiled and blushed at the Simipour, although the blushing wasn’t visible through his fur.

“So, now that everyone is here, it is time to deal with this plant!” Haru said. “We need to destroy the roots, but to do that; we first need to be able to reach the roots, right?”

“Right,” Mizu responded. “Better start digging.”

And so, the rescue team, the tribe leaders and the Pansage, Pansear and Panpour all began digging near the plant in hopes of reaching down to the roots. However, this task wasn’t going to be as simple as they had hoped. While helping the others dig, Blitz suddenly heard a strange sound from somewhere above them. Looking up, he saw that the vines growing out of the top of the strange plant had started moving around, and one of them was about to attack Sera.

“Sera! Watch out!” Blitz shouted, before pushing his teammate out of the way before the vine could strike her.

“Whoa, what was that!?” Sera asked, seeing the vine that nearly hit her.

The rest of the Pokémon present had also noticed the moving vines now, and quickly moved out of the way as more of them attempted to strike them.

“Well, this is new,” Mizu commented, while slicing off one of the vines with her blade. “Must have realized what we were doing, and is trying to defend itself.”

“It can do that!?” Haru exclaimed.

“Apparently,” Mizu replied casually, while slicing up more vines, only for more vines to grow back out. “… A little help here would be nice.”

“Don’t worry, Mizu!” Kojin said, trying to use the spear he had brought for her to cut up some of the vines. “I’ll help you!”

“I should help too,” Haru commented, looking up at the plant thoughtfully. “But how should I go about it?”

“You said you know a lot of attacks, right?” Chiaki asked. “Surely there must be at least one of those attacks you can use for this?”

“Oh, of course!” Haru responded, clenching his fist. “My Shadow Claw attack will surely be able to tear these vines apart!”

A shadowy aura surrounded the Simisage’s clenched fist, and Haru then started slashing at the vines with the dark energies surroundings his hands. Working together, the three tribe leaders and the other members of their tribes cut their way through several vines. However, not long after being cut, the vines would grow back out.

“We should help them!” Chiaki said, watching the monkeys try to cut through the vines.

“How are we supposed to do that?” Sera asked. “Those vines just keep growing back out, and Blitz is the only one of us three who actually knows some attacks that would be effective against that thing!”

“If only we could reach the roots…” Blitz said, while rubbing the yellow rings on his forelegs together. "But to get to the roots, we must defeat the plant, and we can't do that unless we get to the roots..."

“So, we need another way to reach the roots…” Chiaki muttered, trying to think of a possible way to get down to the roots. His train of thought didn’t get very far before he suddenly felt a tap on his shoulder, and turned to see a certain Elgyem having arrived. “Elina?”

“Elina is here?” Sera asked, tilting her head. “When did she get here?”

Elina looked up at the plant, and the elemental monkeys currently fighting it.

“Did you come all the way out here to help us?” Chiaki asked, putting a paw on Elina’s shoulder. “While that’s really nice of you, I already told you that you didn’t have to go through all this trouble.”

“But since you’re here, maybe you could help us figure out what to do with that giant plant thing-y?” Sera asked. “We could really use some ideas, here.”

Elina touched a hand to her chin in a thoughtful way, while looking up at the plant and trying to think of a way to help the rescue team destroy it. It only took a few seconds before an idea popped into her head. She reached into the bag she had brought along, and pulled out an orb.

“Ooh, what’s that?” Chiaki asked, staring curiously at the blue sphere.

“I think it’s a Mobile Orb,” Blitz said, examining the orb closely. “It allows the user to walk right through walls, like certain ghost type Pokémon are capable of.”

“Cool!” Chiaki responded.

“What exactly are we supposed to do with it, though?” Sera asked.

The rescue team glanced over at the battle between the plant and the monkeys, both sides still seeming evenly matched the elemental monkeys tearing the vines of and the plant growing the vines back out.

“Oh, for the love of Virizion!” Haru exclaimed. “What does it take to beat this thing?”

“I don’t know,” Mizu replied, slicing off another vine and quickly using Ice Beam to freeze the part of the plant before it could grow back to slow it down a bit. “But I hope we think of something before I run out of energy for my Ice Beam attack!”

Elina placed the orb on the ground, pointing to the plant. The rescue team exchanged glances, before Chiaki realized what it was Elina suggesting.

“Oh, you think we can use this orb to get to the roots?” Chiaki asked, to which Elina nodded in response.

“Hey, that’s a pretty good idea!” Sera responded, wagging her tail. “Blitz, you ready to destroy those roots?”

“Huh?” Blitz asked. “You want me to use the orb?”

“Didn’t you hear me earlier when I said you were the only one who knew an attack that would be effective against this plant?” Sera responded.

“She’s right, you know,” Chiaki said. “You have to be the one to destroy those roots!”

“I-I don’t know if I can…” Blitz responded, rubbing his forelegs together. “And besides, how am I even supposed to get close enough without being attacked by that thing?”

“Leave that to us,” Sera said, winking at her teammate. “We’ll keep it busy.”

Blitz glanced down at the blue orb on the ground in front of him, and then looked up at his two teammates and Elina, as well as the elemental monkeys that were still trying to fight the plant. It looked like the three tribe leaders were starting to get tired, but they weren’t going to give up. And if they weren’t going to give up, Blitz knew he also had to do what had to be done to destroy the giant plant.

Blitz took a deep breath, before confidently pressing his paw onto the orb, activating it. The orb emitted a light which enveloped Blitz’s body, the glow briefly making him look transparent before the light faded.

“Okay, I’m ready,” Blitz said, looking up at the plant. “You guys just need to keep it distracted so I can get to it.”

“We’re on it!” Sera responded, running up the plant along with Chiaki and Elina. “Hey, Haru!”

“What is it?” Haru asked, while still slashing his way through the vines.

“We have a plan for how to get to the roots, but we need to keep the plant distracted,” Sera replied. “Can you and the other tribe leaders keep it busy for a little longer?”

“Well, it’s certainly not a problem for me!” Haru responded, grinning.

“I can keep fighting too,” Mizu said, using her Ice Beam to freeze over parts of the plant. “I’m not sure how many Ice Beam attacks I have the energy left for, though.”

“I should still have enough energy left to handle this,” Kojin said, trying his best to keep up with Haru and Mizu.

“All right, let’s do this!” Sera said, as she, Chiaki and Elina joined the monkeys in keeping the plant busy.

The Pokémon dealing with the plant worked together to keep the plant busy fighting them, while trying to make a big enough opening for Blitz to reach the plant. Blitz stayed close to the ground, slowly creeping up on the plant. With the path cleared of vines for him, he pounced at the plant. Thanks to the effects of the Mobile Orb, the young Shinx soon disappeared into the plant.

---

Blitz blinked a few times, realizing he was now inside of the plant. Making his body glow so he could see more clearly, he was surprised to see that the plant looked even stranger on the inside than it did on the outside. It vaguely resembled a green tunnel, with an unusual dark energy travelling through plant-like veins.

“What… is this thing?” Blitz said, staring at the strange sight around him. “I better hurry up and get to the roots…”

Blitz looked down at the ground, wondering if he could really get to the roots from there. He had to at least give it a try, and pressed his paw against the ground until it phased right through it. He pulled his paw back, before pressing it against the ground and letting it phase through again. At least now he knew he could indeed go through the floor, but how was he supposed to get his whole body through?

He thought about it for a moment, before an idea popped into his head. He took a few steps back, before jumping and diving right through the ground. Blitz now found himself floating underground, with the plant right above him.

“Whoa…” Blitz said, surprised at finding himself remaining still rather than falling or sinking further down.

Blitz wondered how he was supposed to move further down, and decided to experiment a little by flailing his paws around. Managing accidentally to turn himself upside-down, Blitz slowly started getting an idea about how to move around in his current position. He began moving further down toward the roots, as if swimming. As he made his way down, he briefly spotted something shiny out the corner of his eye. He made his way down to one of the roots, and made his fangs glow with an icy glow before biting down on it…

---

Meanwhile, in the forest above, the other Pokémon were still fighting against the plant. Elina was proving to be a good distraction as she was able to float around and hit the vines from a distance with multicolored beams from her eyes. The Psybeam attacks didn’t do much to the plant itself, but did keep it distracted so that one of the tribe leaders could jump in and slice the vine off.

“You think Blitz is doing okay?” Chiaki asked, jumping across the vines.

“I hope so…” Sera replied, seeming a bit concerned. “I thought we would’ve seen some results by now…”

They continued fighting the plant, until the vines on the plant abruptly started breaking off and falling to the ground. It didn’t take long for the main part of the plant to begin breaking down as well. The Pokémon that had been climbing or jumping on the vines quickly made their way back to the ground, except Chiaki who lost his balance, but was caught by Elina before he hit the ground.

“It’s falling apart!” one of the Pansage shouted.

“The Shinx must’ve successfully destroyed the roots!” one of the Pansear said, grinning as the main part of the plant collapsed and started dissolving.

“I knew he could do it!” one of the Panpour said, clapping her hands.

A few moments later a blue paw emerged from the ground, reaching for something to grab onto so he could pull himself up. Chiaki and Sera quickly ran over to help their teammate up.

“Blitz, you did it!” Sera said, hugging the Shinx.

“You’re so awesome!” Chiaki shouted, joining the hug between his teammates. “What was it like down there, and inside that plant thing?”

“Guys, calm down!” Blitz exclaimed. “I-I only just got back up!”

In the meantime, Elina was hovering above the remains of the plant, and seemed fascinated by something green and sparkly that was sticking out of the ground where the plant had been. The tribe leaders noticed Elina examining the mysterious object, and decided to go investigate.

“What’s that?” Kojin asked, tilting his head slightly.

“I don’t have a clue,” Mizu responded.

“Well, don’t just stand there, then!” Haru said. “Let’s dig it up!”

The tribe leaders called over the Pansage, Pansear and Panpour, who immediately started digging up the mysterious shiny object. Once they had dug it up, Kojin and Mizu were surprised to see what it was, while Elina seemed delighted.

“Hey, rescue team!” Haru said, motioning for the rescue team to come see what they had found. “I think we just found what you came here for!”

Sera, Blitz and Chiaki walked up, and saw that the elemental monkeys had indeed just dug up the crystal they had come to Harmony Forest to find. Chiaki stared in awe at the green crystal that had lain hidden under the giant plant.

“So, this is… an Axis Tower crystal?” Chiaki asked, reaching out to touch the crystal. As he touched it, he briefly felt an odd sensation of energy flowing through his body, while Elina watched him out of the corner of her eye.

“We did it… We really did it!” Sera exclaimed, ears perking up in excitement. “We really, really did it!”

“Yeah… I guess we did!” Blitz responded, a smile crossing his face.

“Well, on behalf of the Pokémon of Harmony Forest, we would like to thank the four of you for helping us get rid of that plant,” Haru said, grinning. “And as promised, we helped you get that crystal you were looking for.”

“No problem, Haru,” Sera responded, walking up and letting the Simisage shake her paw. “And thanks for all your help, as well, all of you.”

“Hey, it was the least we could do,” Mizu responded.

“Thanks to you guys, we’ll be able to easily get to and from our tribes again,” Kojin said, putting his arm around Mizu’s shoulders. “And we no longer have to worry about that plant consuming our forest.”

“Well, I guess you guys should head back home with that crystal now, and find somewhere safe to put it so it doesn’t go missing again before it can be returned to the tower,” Haru said.

“Put it somewhere safe, huh?” Sera responded, looking over at her teammates. “You guys got any ideas?”

All three members of the rescue team thought about for a few moments, before Blitz spoke up:

“I think I know of a good place…”

---

Sera, Blitz, Chiaki and Elina returned to Fenix town, Elina deciding to separate from the group before they reached Stella’s house. As Elina prepared to leave, Chiaki ran up to her and gave her a hug.

“Thanks for helping us out today,” Chiaki said, smiling at the Elgyem. “If you hadn’t had a Mobile Orb with you, I’m not sure how we would’ve destroyed those roots!”

Elina returned the hug, before floating away, waving good-bye at the rescue team as she left. The rescue team then continued on their way to Stella’s house.

---

Once at Stella’s house, the rescue team presented the Gothitelle with the green crystal, and told her the whole story about what had happened at Harmony Forest. Stella just listened to what the three of them had to say with an unreadable look on her face, occasionally asking a few questions.

“We thought you might be the best Pokémon to look after the crystal for us,” Sera explained, before giggling a little and wagging her tail. “You should’ve seen the looks on some of the rescue teams we passed by on the way back to town when they saw us with it!”

“So, that’s one of the eight crystals?” Bow asked, staring in awe at the crystal. “It’s so pretty…”

“Well, I will certainly make sure the crystal you brought back is kept safe,” Stella said, seeming to have something on her mind. “That plant… Is there anything else you can tell me about it?”

“Huh?” Sera responded. “I can’t think of anything we haven’t already told you… but Blitz did bring back a sample of what was left of it.”

“Do you want to take a look at it?” Blitz asked.

“Yes, I would very much like to see it,” Stella replied.

Sera found the plant sample in the treasure bag, and gave it to Stella.

“You can keep it if you want…” Blitz said, rubbing his forelegs together. “We probably don’t have much use for it, anyways…”

“Thank you,” Stella responded absent-mindedly, examining the sample.

“Is something wrong?” Chiaki asked, tilting his head slightly.

“Oh, nothing you need to be concerned about,” Stella responded. “You three should probably head home now, I have work to do.”

“… If you say so,” Sera replied. “Well, bye for now.”

“Bye Stella! Bye Bow!” Chiaki said, waving to the two as he walked out the door.

“See you later,” Blitz said, before following his teammates out the door.

Bow felt a bit concerned by the way her mother was acting, and could tell that something was clearly worrying the Gothitelle.

“Mommy, what’s wrong?” Bow asked.

“I’m sensing residue of a strange dark power from this sample…” Stella said, using her psychic powers to get a deeper look into the plant sample. “It would take some powerful dark magic to create such a plant with properties like that…”

“What do you mean?” Bow asked, unsure of what her mother was talking about.

“It’s almost like… but… that can’t be possible…” Stella muttered. “Or…? Could it really be...?”

“What’s not possible?” Bow asked. “What do you think it is?”

“… Bow, can you go look for Santos?” Stella said.

“You mean that Delibird that delivers our mail?” Bow asked.

“Yes, I need to have a letter sent to a friend of mine,” Stella responded. “And I need to have it done as soon as possible.”

“Oh, okay,” Bow said, heading outside. “I’ll be back as soon as I find him!”

“Thanks, sweetie,” Stella responded, smiling at her daughter.

However, the smile faded fast, and Stella quickly used her telekinesis to move the materials she needed to write a letter to her desk. She took a quill in her hand, dipped it in the vial of Octillery ink and started writing out the message to her friend on the paper. She also telekinetically placed the plant sample inside the envelope while still composing the message. She knew her friend was the only one who could confirm her suspicions…

---

End of chapter 10.

---

[SeekerofLight]

Aaaaaaannnnd... CLIFFHANGER!

Again, the story is going fantastically. I am constantly being surprised by your writing prowess.

Darkershining, you are doing brilliantly with this story. The description, characters and story itself are way above several over Fanfics I've read... Although I havent read many myself...

Keep up the great work

Seekeroflight

[Knightfall]

So it seems Elina was only helping the cause, making my suspicions about her wrong. I apologize to her, but I'm still keeping a close eye on her.

Anyways, this was a delightful chapter. I enjoyed how you explained the relationships between the various Pan-tribes. and of course more minor characters.

As SeekerofLight said above me, your description of the dungeon and characters is very well done. Though I did find this segment:

Unbeknownst to Chiaki and his teammates, Elina was currently making her way through the dungeon leading into Harmony Forest. After Chiaki last night had told her where one of the missing crystals were, she had secretly gone off to Harmony Forest after Chiaki went home to sleep. However, because of the vines and because it was dark at the time, she hadn’t gotten very far. Things seemed to be going better this time, and hopefully she would catch up to Chiaki and the others soon. She had to be careful since there were wild Pokémon around, though. Especially with the bug types, that had a type advantage against her.

She wasn’t the bravest or strongest of Pokémon, but there was something only she could do…

This part just seemed to jar the narration completely. The flow of the chapter was messed up by this. I just did not like how it was handled. I suggest editing this so that the narration doesn't change as much.

Well, other than that, the chapter was fine. I hope to see more of this soon.

Knightfall signing off...

[InsaneTyranitar]

Hey, DarkerShining. It's me, Umbra. Yes, I revived this old fossil of an account just so I could comment on your fic. :P

Unfortunately, it's late, and I have a hard time reading on this phone, so will edit in a proper review later.

[DarkerShining]

Hello everyone! Thanks for your comments, reviews, constructive critiscm and such. I hope everyone has been having a nice holiday. Now, this took me a lot longer than I expected, but I finally finished up chapter 11!

Hope you guys enjoy it!

----

Chapter 11: It had to take a lot more than just luck to do what you did!

----

Sera smiled as she woke up, still feeling rather proud of herself for helping retrieve one of the missing crystals just yesterday. Her parents and siblings had been pretty surprised to hear of what she had done, and weren’t even sure if she was telling the truth until she had let her oldest sister, Amethyst, look into her mind and confirm that she was indeed telling the truth.

The young Eevee happily stepped into the dining room, where her siblings were already eating breakfast.

“Good morning!” Sera said, taking her seat at the table.

“Oh, good morning, Sera,” Amethyst responded, telekinetically pouring herself some tea. “Did you sleep well, little sister?”

“Pretty well,” Sera replied, happily eating some berries off her plate. “One probably does tend to have a good night’s sleep after finding a missing artifact and bringing it back to town.”

“Ah, yes,” Amethyst said, taking a sip of her tea. “It is really great that one of the crystals has been found, even if there are still seven more out there.”

“Yeah,” Sera replied, looking around and noticing that their parents weren’t present. “Mom and dad already went off to work?”

“Yes, they did,” Amethyst responded. “They did tell me to tell you that they’re very proud of you before they left, though.”

“Really?” Sera asked, wagging her tail. “Well, I suppose that’s only natural after finding and bringing back such an important item.”

“Oh, big deal!” Volt said, with his fur bristling and giving off sparks of electricity. “You and your rescue team just got lucky!”

“Excuse me?” Sera responded, glaring at her Jolteon brother.

“He does have a point,” Sirena commented, waiting for Amethyst to refill her bowl of water. “It was only luck that you were in just the right place at the right time to learn the location of that one crystal.”

“Still, we still did retrieve the thing,” Sera said, feeling rather annoyed at the Jolteon and Vaporeon’s comments. “You can’t deny that.”

“I got the impression from your story that it was Blitz who did most of the work,” the Umbreon responded.

“Yeah, if anything, Blitz deserves most of the credit for being the one to deal with the plant,” Volt said, smirking at Sera. “Maybe he should be the rescue team leader instead of you?”

“Do you really want to mess with me?” Sera asked, growling at her brother. “I swear, if I had had a Silence Orb on me right now-“

Before the fight could escalate any further, both Sera and Volt found their ears telekinetically being pulled at by Amethyst.

“Sera, don’t threaten to muzzle your brother,” Amethyst said, before turning to Volt. “And Volt, stop bothering your little sister.”

She then let go of their ears, before refilling Sirena’s water bowl a third time.

“Fine, whatever,” Volt responded, resuming eating his breakfast.

“Amethyst, you think it’s pretty cool that my rescue team found one of the crystals, don’t you?” Sera asked, looking over at her oldest sister.

“Well…” Amethyst said, trying to think of how to respond to the question. “There was a certain element of luck involved; I can’t really deny that…”

Sera sighed and finished eating her breakfast, before deciding to head out. Surely the other rescue teams would treat her with the respect she deserved. As she prepared to head out, Flare, who had been quietly watching the whole scene during breakfast, walked up to her.

“Heading out, I see,” Flare said. “Good luck today, sis.”

“Thanks…” Sera replied, looking up at the Flareon.

“Oh and… don’t be too disappointed if things don’t go your way,” Flare said. “Okay?”

“Okay, I guess,” Sera responded, unsure what exactly her brother was referring to. “See you later!”

----

Sera’s mood lightened a bit as she entered the main part of town, feeling that the other rescue teams would probably treat her the way she felt she deserved to be treated. She told herself that her older siblings were probably just jealous, and that she would eventually show them that she was so much more than just their little kid sister. She smiled as she saw her two teammates just ahead.

“Good morning, guys!” Sera said, cheerfully walking up to Blitz and Chiaki.
“Hi Sera,” Blitz responded.

“Sera, look!” Chiaki said, holding up a newspaper. “We’re in today’s newspaper!”

“Ooh, really?” Sera asked, grinning. “Let me see! Let me see!”

Chiaki laid down the newspaper on the ground, and the three of them all looked at the relevant page while Blitz read the article out loud for them.

“For the last few days, the rescue teams of Fenix town have been putting in their best efforts to find and recover the stolen crystals of Axis Tower, but it was not until now that one of the crystals was found by a local bronze rank rescue team, following a tip from Fenix town’s own town oracle. And with a bit of luck, and the help of the local Pansage, Pansear and Panpour tribes, the crystal was retrieved from Harmony Forest, while at the same time also dealing with a mysterious plant that was threatening to destroy the balance of the forest. The origins of the mysterious plant and the location of the other seven crystals remain unknown. The Axis Tower guards will further investigate the case with the help of the local rescue teams. Until then, a big thanks to the bronze rank team that brought the crystal back. Keep up the good work!”

“… That’s it?” Sera asked, ears drooping down slightly in disappointment.

“What do you mean?” Chiaki responded. “I thought it was a nice article.”

“… Never mind,” Sera said. “So, what are we doing today?”

“Chiaki and I are heading down to the dojo for some training,” Blitz explained. “Chiaki wants to practice his Fake Out attack some more. Do you want to come along as well?”

“… I’ll catch up with you guys later, okay?” Sera replied. “I feel like taking a walk around town.”

“Um… Sure,” Blitz responded. “Let’s go, Chiaki, and see you later, Sera.”

“Bye, Sera!” Chiaki said, waving to Sera as he and Blitz headed off to the dojo.

Sera waved back, before she started wandering around town. She figured the Pokémon that wrote the article hadn’t had all the details when they had to write the story, and did their best with what they had to work with. She wanted to hear what the other rescue teams thought.

There were several rescue teams near the various stalls, some just going about their business, while others were talking about how one of the crystals had been retrieved. Sera smiled and confidently walked up to Mirage and her two teammates, who were depositing some money into their team bank account.

“Oh, hey there, Sera,” Megara said as she noticed the Eevee approaching them.

“Hi!” Sera responded, wagging her tail.

“Hello, Sera,” Mirage said, smiling at the Eevee. “So, we heard you and your friends brought one of the missing crystals back from Harmony Forest yesterday?”

“We certainly did!” Sera replied, feeling rather proud of herself.

“Well, congratulations on being the first rescue team to get one of those crystals back!” Mirage said. “Not bad for a bronze rank team.”

“Why, thank you!” Sera responded, grinning.

“Yeah, didn’t expect a rescue team at your rank to beat us to the punch,” Megara commented, winking. “You were lucky this time, but next time, we’re going to be the ones to get there first!”

“The mushroom would like to point out to Megara that we have just the same chance of finding a crystal as anyone else in town,” Cordyceps said. “So the mushroom thinks you shouldn’t have too high expectations, because we are very likely to be beaten to the punch again by a different rescue team.”

“… You’re no fun,” Megara responded, crossing her arms.

“Why does everyone keep saying that?” Sera asked.

“There are other Pokémon saying Cordy is no fun?” Mirage responded, looking a bit puzzled.

“No, I meant the part about our rescue team being lucky,” Sera replied. “I mean, it took more than luck to retrieve that crystal.”

“Of course it did,” Mirage said. “But still, you did have luck on your side, and that’s good for you!”

“The mushroom would like to object to the claim of not being any fun,” Cordyceps said. “The mushroom can in fact be quite the fun guy.”

The other three Pokémon stared in complete silence for a few seconds.

“Get it?” Cordyceps asked. “It’s funny because it sounds like fungi.”

“… Let’s go find some missions,” Megara said.

“Good idea,” Mirage responded. “Bye Sera.”

“Where are you going?” Cordyceps asked as his two teammates started heading off without him, before crawling after them. “Wait up, the mushroom doesn’t want to be left behind.”

Sera watched the other rescue team leave, and continued her walk.

“… If having luck with this was a good thing, then why does everyone make it sound like a bad thing?” Sera muttered to herself. “Maybe I’m taking this the wrong way…”

While her annoying siblings had certainly meant it in a bad way, maybe the other rescue teams didn’t see it as such.

----

At the dojo, Blitz and Hercules watched Chiaki sparring against Lotus, practicing his Fake Out attack. While he was having difficulty catching Lotus off-guard, he seemed to otherwise have gotten the technique right.

“Not bad,” Lotus said. “You seem to be more focused than last time you visited here.”

“Thanks!” Chiaki replied, trying to charge at Lotus, only for the Meditite to sidestep him.

“Seems Chiaki has his new attack under control,” Hercules commented.

“Yeah,” Blitz responded. “He figured out how to do it during our last mission.”

“Ah, yes,” Hercules said. “I heard about how you and your teammates found one of the eight missing crystals in Harmony Forest.”

“Oh…” Blitz responded, rubbing his forelegs together. “You heard about that?”

“Yes, I did,” Hercules replied. “You know, if I had known all the details about what you were asking about the other night, I probably would’ve told you not to do it.”

“Oh… Is that so?” Blitz asked, looking down at the floor.

Hercules smiled, and gently petted the young Shinx.

“I don’t really know if you and your teammates made the right choice,” Hercules said, getting Blitz to look up at him. “But hey, you did bring back an important artifact, and that’s pretty good.”

“Thanks,” Blitz responded, smiling at his mentor.

“So, how is Sera today?” Hercules asked. “I noticed she’s not here with you and Chiaki.”

“I’m not sure,” Blitz replied. “It kind of seemed like she had something on her mind, but she didn’t seem upset or anything…”

“I guess everyone has those days once in a while,” Hercules said.

“I suppose…” Blitz responded, continuing to watch the sparring match between Chiaki and Lotus. “Should I go check on her?”

“For now, I’d say just give her some time to herself,” Hercules replied. “If she hadn’t wanted some time to herself to think, she probably wouldn’t have gone off on her own.”

“If you say so…” Blitz replied, rubbing his forelegs together.

“You can talk to her later,” Hercules said, smiling at the young Shinx. “For now, how about we do some training?”

“Sure!” Blitz responded, following the Heracross to another part of the dojo, while Chiaki and Lotus was left by themselves to continue their training.

----

After walking around town for a bit, Sera had decided to head over to the café for something to drink. On the way there, she had passed by Sting and his rescue team. They did compliment her for having helped bring back a crystal, but they hadn’t had the time to talk because they had decided to help the Axis Tower guards with their investigation.

“Hey, Sera!” a familiar voice called out, and Sera turned to see Azure bouncing over to her.

“Oh, hey Azure,” Sera responded.

“We read about you and your rescue team did in the newspaper today,” Azure said, grinning at Sera. “It’s totally awesome that you were able to get that crystal back!”

“Oh, thanks!” Sera replied, smiling at the excited Azurill. “We were pretty lucky with that one.”

“It had to take a lot more than just luck to do what you did!” Azure said, bouncing a little.

“I know, right?” Sera responded, sitting down at a table. “For some reason almost everyone seems focused on the luck part, though.”

“Let me guess, the grown-ups not giving you the respect you deserve?” Azure asked, sitting down next to Sera. “The grown-ups are always like that, treating us like we’re too young to do anything awesome!”

“I guess…” Sera replied, ears drooping down slightly.

“And that’s why I’ve been eating a lot of gummis and drinking juice made from gummis to increase my IQ skill!” Azure said, bouncing happily. “Because the sooner I get that IQ skill up high enough, the sooner I can evolve!”

“You really think evolving will make the adults take you more seriously?” Sera asked.

“Well, I know mom will let me go on adventures on my own when I’ve evolved!” Azure responded. “What about you? Have you thought about evolving?”

“… Not really,” Sera replied. “And in my case, I haven’t really thought about what I would want to evolve into.”

“Well, if you had to choose right now, what would you become?” Azure asked.

“Hmm… I’m not sure,” Sera replied, thinking about it. “Maybe I’d become an Espeon, like my oldest sister Amethyst?”

“Any particular reason why?” Azure asked.

“Well… Amethyst has always been like the perfect sister,” Sera explained. “She’s my role model.”

“Good for you, I guess,” Azure responded. “I imagine living up to your sister’s perfect image would be pretty difficult, though.”

“What about you?” Sera asked. “Do you have any role models?”

“Not really,” Azure responded. “I don’t need to be anyone else. I’m me, and I’m proud of that!”

Sera couldn’t help but smile at Azure’s statement, finding it quite admirable. While most adult Pokémon probably thought Azure was perhaps a bit too overconfident, there was still the fact that Azure seemed to have complete faith in herself. Sera thought it had to be nice to have that kind of self-confidence.

“We should go on another adventure together sometime,” Sera said.

“Yeah, we should definitely do that!” Azure responded, bouncing excitedly. “If you ever need my help, I’ll be there!”

“Thanks, Azure,” Sera replied, wagging her tail.

“So, did you come here to get yourself something to drink?” Azure asked.

“Oh, right,” Sera responded. “I’d like some Oran berry juice.”

“Okay,” Azure said. “I’ll ask Frederick to get us some juice when he’s done serving those customers over there.”

The two female Pokémon glanced over at the Deino in question, as he tried to find the customers he was supposed to serve the drinks he was currently carrying on a tray he was holding in his mouth. At the table were the Servine and Minccino rescue team, and this time they had a third team member with them. The new member was a blue Pokémon that appeared to have long ear-like arms and a big smile on its face.

“You’re getting warmer,” the Servine said, the grass snake trying to help guide the dragon Pokémon. “It’s just a little bit further now!”

Frederick nodded his head slightly, only to remember what he was doing and stopping himself before the drinks spilled out.

“Be more careful!” the Minccino said, watching the Deino while dusting off the table with her tail. “If you drop those drinks, I will smack you with my tail!”

“Relax, he’s doing fine,” the Servine said to the chinchilla Pokémon, trying to calm her.

“Relax? One wrong move and those drinks will spill all over the floor!” the Minccino responded. “There’s no way I can just relax in a situation like that!”

At that point, Frederick gently set down the tray of drinks on their table without spilling a single drop.

“Here you go!” Frederick said, giving a friendly smile. “That’s one Leppa berry juice, one Rawst and Nanab berry smoothie and one iced Pecha tea!”

“See?” the Servine said, picking up the glass of Leppa berry juice with one of her vines. “I told you there was nothing to be concerned about.”

“Well, I suppose there weren’t any disasters this time…” the Minccino responded, picking up her smoothie. “Now I just need a straw so I can drink this without worrying about spilling anything all over my fur…”

“I’m on it!” Frederick said, and started making his way back to the counter, while Sera and Azure were still observing him.

“So, how is Frederick doing?” Sera asked. “Is he anywhere close to paying off his debt?”

“I have no idea,” Azure responded. “I know he’s been doing a good job, but I haven’t really been keeping track.”

“Oh,” Sera replied, scratching behind her ear with one of her hind legs.

“Hey, I just thought of something!” Azure said, bouncing on her tail. “You want the grown-ups to take you seriously, right?”

“Of course I do,” Sera replied.

“Well, your team was able to track down one of the crystals, which got you some compliments and stuff,” Azure said, smirking. “But to truly prove yourself, you should try to find the other seven crystals as well!”

“Whoa! That’s a really great idea!” Sera responded. “How would I pull that off, though?”

“Ask Stella if she has anymore visions of the other crystals, of course!” Azure said. “Oh, and you could help out the Pokémon investigating the case too!”

“I guess,” Sera replied, thinking for a moment. “Not sure if I’d be able to get Blitz to go along with that, though.”

“You’re the team leader, right?” Azure asked. “Your teammates have to do what you want?”

“It’s not that simple,” Sera responded. “According to other rescue teams, and big sister Amethyst, a good leader needs to listen to and always take their teammates’ opinions into consideration.”

“Well, if that’s what the grown-ups do…” Azure said, balancing on her tail.

“I wonder how those investigations are going,” Sera wondered, resting her head on the table, while Azure called Frederick over to take their drink orders. "Wait... Azure, why don't you just go get us some drinks? You help out in the café sometimes too, right?"

"It wouldn't be polite to just leave in the middle of a conversation, would it?" Azure responded, winking at Sera. "So, what were you saying about the investigations?"

----

In Harmony Forest, the Mienshao guard from Axis Tower was asking the leaders of the elemental monkey tribes some questions, while a rescue team duo consisting of a large four legged Pokémon seeming to be composed of blue metal and a silver colored X on its face and a yellow humanoid Pokémon with a long mustache and a spoon in each hand were examining the spot where the mysterious plant had been.

“Hmm, very interesting,” the Mienshao commented, taking a few notes. “Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions.”

“So, do you think this will really help you guys find some clues as to the location of the other crystals?” Mizu asked, while polishing her Skarmory feather sword.

“We hope so,” the Mienshao responded. “We haven’t yet come across any distortions caused by the crystals’ disappearance, but we still need to aim to find those crystals as fast as possible.”

“Of course,” Kojin replied. “At least there’s no reason to panic just yet, since there hasn’t been any apparent distortions anywhere yet.”

“And you can count on us to help out in any way we can!” Haru said, grinning. “Of course, due to our tribe leader duties, we can’t really help much outside of the forest.”

“I understand,” the Mienshao responded, before turning his attention to the Metagross and the Alakazam duo. “What about you two?”

“There seems to be traces of some kind of dark energy left in this plant,” the Alakazam said while focusing psychic energy through his two spoons to analyze the plant. “We haven’t been able to identify just what it is, though.”

“I don’t think we’ve ever come across anything like this before,” the Metagross added. “But it is very likely that this energy is what caused the plant to grow so fast.”

“So, we still don’t know anything about where it came from, or who planted it here?” Mizu asked.

“I’m afraid not,” the Metagross responded. “However, we intend to find out.”

“There are many rescue teams helping investigate this case, so one would expect more clues to be found fairly soon,” the Alakazam said. “For some reason I get the feeling that we have may have overlooked something…”

“Well, I suppose we should just keep an eye out for anything unusual,” the Mienshao suggested.

The Pokémon gathered in the area continued looking for whatever information they could find, before eventually deciding to call it a day. The tribe leaders went back to their tribes, while the Mienshao and the assisting rescue team decided to go find the other guards and rescue teams investigating the case so they could compare notes.

----

On her way home, Sera again thought about the idea of evolving. If she became an Espeon, would she be anywhere as amazing as her big sister? She then thought about the other options she had, considering what the benefits of the other possible forms she could take might have.

Umbreon were pretty cool looking, but she wasn’t entirely sure what benefits she would want from that form. The first thing that came to mind was to be able to illuminate dark places, and Blitz already had that covered when it came to rescue team missions. The only other thing Sera could really think of that she would consider a benefit was to get to stay up longer at night.

As for Vaporeon, Sera knew that Sirena had some pretty cool abilities that she showed off whenever she wanted to take the attention away from Amethyst. Vaporeon were able to breathe underwater, use several strong water moves and could even make their own bodies melt into water. Sera imagined there had to be some pretty cool ways to travel that way, but also found the idea of being able to change her body like that somewhat scary.

She thought Glaceon were pretty, but hadn’t really seen much of what her mother was capable of doing with her ice powers. While freezing stuff was probably a neat power, Sera didn’t particularly like the cold. She preferred being warm and fuzzy.

With that in mind, maybe Flareon was a better option? Flare did sometimes let Sera sleep next to him and use his tail as a blanket on cold nights, and that always felt really nice and cozy. Then again, she also didn’t like getting too warm.

As for Leafeon and Jolteon, she wasn’t too sure she would want to be either of those. Sure, her father could use photosynthesis and use cool grass type attacks, but she couldn’t really think of anything she would want to do in that form. And sure, Volt could run pretty fast and zap other Pokémon with lightning, but she just couldn’t imagine herself as a Jolteon.

Evolution seemed like something one had to put a lot of thought into, especially as an Eevee. She wondered if her siblings had gone through the same routine when deciding on what they wanted to evolve into back when they were Eevee. For now, she figured it was better not to worry too much about it.

As Sera finally made it home and stepped inside, she noticed Amethyst lying on the floor. From what she could tell, Amethyst looked very tired and almost a little… sad. Sera had never seen her big sister in such a state before.

“Amethyst, is something wrong?” Sera asked.

Amethyst’s ears perked up in surprise at Sera’s voice, and the Espeon quickly got up. She seemed rather tense as she turned to face her younger sister.

“Oh, Sera,” she said, putting on a smile. “I was just… meditating.”

“Meditating?” Sera responded, skeptically tilting her head.

“Yes, when I had finished up all the chores, I realized I was ahead of schedule, and I thought I’d meditate a little before mom and dad comes home,” Amethyst replied, although Sera noticed that she seemed to be hesitating to make eye contact.

“You didn’t look like you were meditating,” Sera responded.

“Don’t worry about it,” Amethyst said, trying to remain calm. “There’s nothing to be concerned about.”

“Are you sure?” Sera asked. “You don’t sound sure.”

“I’m sure; there is nothing to be concerned about,” Amethyst responded, before hastily leaving the room.

“… What’s wrong with her? Why is she lying to me?” Sera wondered out loud, before noticing Flare peeking out from behind another doorway.

“I’ve seen Amethyst a few times when she thinks no one is watching,” Flare said.

“Do you know why she was acting so weird?” Sera asked.

“Well, have you ever thought about how much it must take to be the perfect daughter?” Flare responded. “Or how much effort it must take to maintain that perfect image all the time?”

“I… never really thought about that…” Sera replied, her ears drooping down slightly. “But, why doesn’t she just ask for help if that’s the case?”

“I guess she’s afraid of letting us know how she really feels,” Flare responded. “While she may feel overwhelmed by everything that is expected of her, she doesn’t want us to worry about her and keeps it to herself.”

“Isn’t there anything we can do for her?” Sera asked. “It’s not right for Amethyst to be so sad!”

“I don’t know, Sera,” Flare responded, petting the Eevee with his paw. “Maybe the two of us can think of something, but try not to worry about it too much. I have a feeling Amethyst wouldn’t want that.”

“Okay, I’ll try…” Sera said.

“Also, I think Amethyst would probably want you to enjoy being a kid while you can,” Flare added. “She probably misses the days where she could just be a kid, and not have to worry about what everyone expected of her.”

“Hold on, you’re saying Amethyst might be jealous of me?” Sera asked, tilting her head.

“Well, it’s possible,” Flare replied. “I wouldn’t know anything for sure, though.”

“… I’m going to go to our room,” Sera said. “I have some thinking to do.”

Sera walked up to the bedroom she and her siblings shared, unsure what to think about everything. She still thought that Amethyst was better than her in many ways, so even if she had a bit too much work on her paws, there was just no way that her big sister could be jealous of her. How else did this possibly affect their relationship? Was it possible that Amethyst didn’t want to be Sera’s role model? Would Amethyst stop giving her advice?

Sera hoped that wasn’t the case. While she would still have other rescue teams to ask for advice, she still wanted to have Amethyst as a role model too.

“Maybe it’s enough to just not ask her for advice for a few days…” Sera said to herself. “That at least gives her one less thing to worry about until I can think of something more to do for her…”

Sera thought about what Azure had said at the café earlier, and once again wished she had that kind of confidence that the young Azurill had. She then thought about Azure’s suggestion that her rescue team help search for the remaining seven crystals. Technically, they were already involved with the crystal search, even if all they could do was gather information, if anything at all.

After all, with other rescue teams on the case, the odds weren’t too good for them to find more of the eight crystals. But who knew? Maybe luck would be on their side again.

----

End of chapter 11.

----

[SeekerofLight]

...
...
Seriously, how can you be such a brilliant writer?

This just goes to show that action does not make a great story. The way you have crafted not only the main characters, but also the minor, support characters in to lovable personalities. Fantastic.

The only niggle I could find with it is that certain phrases and actions are repeated in a short amount of text, a particular example would be Blitz' s habit of 'rubbing his forelegs together' was used a few times in one short paragraph.

Other than that, keep up the good work, I cannot wait for the next chapter, as always.

Best Regards

SeekerofLight

EDIT: DarkerShining, do you actually know how many words you've written? I copied the chapters into Word for keeps (it's that good), and the word count is something like OVER FIFTY-FIVE THOUSAAANNND!

*a-hem* Anyway, keep up the good work.

[DarkerShining]

Thanks! I'm glad you're enjoying the story so far!

I believe that I have had pointed out to me before that certain words have been a bit repetive. I've been trying to make it less so, but I guess there are still some instances. I'll keep working on that.

Anyways, I've been working on the first draft of chapter 12, but I've been having some problems with getting it done. Partially due to still not being very good with battle scenes, and partially due to stress and having been busy and such due to school having started back up. Hope you guys don't mind having to wait a little longer. I do want to get new chapters up as much as you guys want to see them, so I assure you I'll try to get it done as soon as possible.

And wow, that's a lot of words. Wonder how high that word count will be by the end of the story?

So, that's pretty much all I have to say for now. See you guys later, and when I do, I'll hopefully have chapter 12 ready for you guys.

[DarkerShining]

Hey guys! It's me again, and as promised, I have a new chapter this time!

Yeah, I finally managed to get it done. It took a while, but I finally managed to finish it. I hope you'll enjoy it!

Also, I think I'm finally going to start a PM list, so if you want to be on that, let me know. One question, though; do I have to keep the list on the first page of my fanfic like I believe some other fanfic writers do or can I have it written down somewhere else? Due to this glitch I've been encountering when I try editing something, I'm worried editing it into the first page of my fanfic might mess up the formatting of it.

Anyways, here's the 12th chapter!

----

Chapter 12: It doesn’t specify what the reward is, but since it’s from a queen, I bet it’s something good!

----

At some point during the night, while the Pokémon of Fenix town were asleep, a Sigilyph appeared, observing the town from a distance. The Sigilyph snickered to himself, having heard the news about one of the missing crystals having been found by a rescue team.

“So… They found one of the crystals and destroyed that plant, huh?” the Sigilyph said to himself, snickering some more. “Well, I guess that’ll just make things more interesting.”

The Sigilyph’s fork-like wings fluttered as it hovered back and forth while thinking about what exactly he had heard about how the crystal was found.

“Apparently, the town oracle helped that rescue team locate the crystal,” the Sigilyph said, thinking for a moment. “Cassandra’s great, great granddaughter, I presume.”

The Sigilyph snickered some more, his eye flashing with purple light for a moment.

“I should definitly think of a way to punish her…”

The strange bird Pokémon seemed to feel something, as it glanced down at the town below.

“What’s this? I feel a familiar presence… Is that little brat that prevented me from getting all eight crystals in this town too?”

The Sigilyph glared at the town below for a moment, before snickering some more.

“Well, I guess I’ll also have to think of a way to get back at that one as well for meddling in my plans…”

----

The next day, it was raining in Fenix town. The rain seemed to put the water type Pokémon of town in high spirits, while the fire types weren’t as happy. Mirage and her two teammates were at River’s café, getting something to drink while reading today’s newspaper. Megara was looking out a window with a rather annoyed look on her face.

“Stupid rain…” Megara muttered.

“The mushroom does not mind the rain,” Cordyceps said, causing Megara to turn her head to look at him. “Besides, you did bring an umbrella. The mushroom advices you not to set it on fire like you did with the last one.”

“As if this cheap thing will protect me from the rain,” Megara said, holding up an umbrella made of a stick and some big leaves. “You really should’ve given me enough money to buy a better one, Mirage!”

“Well, maybe if you were a little better at saving up your share of the money from our missions or you hadn't burned up your last one, you wouldn’t have this problem,” Mirage replied.

“What’s that supposed to mean!?” Megara asked, sounding rather annoyed.

“Whoa, relax,” Mirage responded, offering Megara the newspaper. “Here, maybe reading this will help you get your mind off the rain. There are some interesting things here today.”

“Have they made any progress with the crystal search?” Megara asked.

“Not much,” Mirage replied. “But check this out; it’s an article about a Salamence that was raised by Purrloin.”

“How is that supposed to get me in a better mood?” Megara asked, as Sera, Blitz and Chiaki stepped inside the café. “Oh, look. More rescue teams trying to escape the rain.”

“Hi,” Sera said, as she shook the rain water out of her wet fur.

“Hey, don’t do that!” Megara shouted. “You’ll get water all over the place!”

“Sorry,” Sera replied, her fur having puffed up from being shaken dry. “I guess another advantage to being a Vaporeon would be that you never have to worry about wet fur.”

“You look even fluffier than usual now!” Chiaki commented, chuckling a bit.

“I hope it doesn’t rain for too long,” Blitz said, glancing at the rain outside. “We should be trying to get some missions done today.”

“Hey, at least it’s just a little rain,” Mirage responded, showing the younger rescue team the newspaper. “According to this, there have been some very harsh sandstorms over in Clarion Desert for several days now.”

“Is that so?” Megara asked in a somewhat bored tone.

“Yeah,” Mirage replied, pointing to the article. “Says here the sandstorms are so rough, that it’s pretty much impossible to get through them.”

“Meh, they'll have to stop eventually,” Megara responded, resting her head on her arms.

“Mirage has a point, the weather could’ve been much worse,” Sera commented, glancing over at Blitz. “So why should we let this rain delay us?”

“Yeah, it’s not even raining that much!” Azure said, having overheard the conversation.

“I guess if none of us minds getting our fur wet…” Blitz responded, rubbing his forelegs together. “Then there’s no reason we can’t head out right away.”

“Well, what are we waiting for, then?” Sera said, grinning. “Let’s go!”

“Ooh, can I come too?” Azure asked, bouncing over to the rescue team. “The rain has put me in an adventuring mood!”

“But Azure, you promised to help out in the café today,” River said, looking over at her daughter. “Did you forget about that?”

“Oh, I’ll come back and help out later!” Azure responded. “Please let me go adventuring with Sera and her team!”

“I probably shouldn’t be encouraging this,” River replied, sighing. “But, okay. I’ll let you go.”

“Thank you!” Azure responded, happily bouncing on her tail.

“Well, let’s go!” Sera said, and so the four Pokémon headed out.

“Azure sure takes after her father,” River commented, as she resumed her work.

Mirage glanced out the window as Sera, Blitz, Chiaki and Azure were starting to head over to the rescue team HQ, before turning back to her teammates.

“Come on, Megara,” she said, looking over at the still annoyed Magmar. “Surely we shouldn’t let the rain stop us from getting our job done? Let’s follow that other rescue team’s example, and head out!”

“No,” Megara responded.

“But odds are that it’s not even raining inside the mystery dungeons!”

“The answer is still no.”

----

At the rescue team HQ, Sera, Blitz, Chiaki and Azure began checking out the available missions on the boards. However, while the rescue team considered several of the missions, Azure didn’t seem particularly interested in any of them and instead wandered over to the board with the outlaw missions.

“Hmm… I bet we could easily beat one of these guys,” Azure commented while looking over the wanted posters.

“Azure, I don’t think your mother would approve of us taking you on that kind of mission,” Blitz said, rubbing his forelegs together nervously. “Plus, this rescue team has only done one outlaw mission, and the outlaw in question wasn’t even really an outlaw!”

“Then isn’t it about time you guys go on another one of these missions?” Azure asked, winking at the three.

“When she says it like that, it does seem like a good point,” Chiaki cheerfully replied.

“I guess we can take a look at the missions, at least,” Sera said, and walked up to Azure along with Chiaki.

“Oh, o-okay…” Blitz said, walking over to the others. “But if you have to do an outlaw mission, at least pick one that doesn’t look too strong…”

“What about that one at the top right corner?” Azure asked, glancing up at a wanted poster depicting a Pokémon resembling a large purple scorpion. “He doesn’t look too tough.”

“You mean that Drapion up there!?” Blitz responded, seeming rather intimidated by the appearance of the scorpion outlaw. “We can’t fight that!”

“You’re really scared of him?” Azure asked, glancing up at the wanted poster with a confident smirk. “He’s just a big purple accordion! There’s nothing to be afraid of!”

“Azure, I think Blitz is right,” Sera responded, reading the mission rank on the poster. “This guy is way too tough for a Bronze rank team like us.”

“Oh, fine,” Azure replied. “But I still think we could’ve taken him.”

“What about this one?” Chiaki asked, pointing to a mission on the lower left corner of the board. “Apparently someone called Queen Miele from a place called Nectar Woods needs help dealing with some honey thieves!”

“Isn’t Nectar Woods where the honey we use at the café is from?” Azure said, looking over at the mission. “This queen must be the one in charge of the Combee that makes that honey.”

“This mission looks good to me,” Sera commented, looking over the mission. “It doesn’t specify what the reward is, but since it’s from a queen, I bet it’s something good!”

“I guess this mission doesn’t look too difficult for a rescue team at our level…” Blitz said.

“So, we’re all in!” Azure shouted, bouncing happily. “Let’s go, everyone!”

And so the four Pokémon headed into Kala’s room to teleport over to Nectar Woods, as a certain Beedrill who had been waiting for one of his teammates outside nurse Giselle’s office glanced over at them, having overheard part of their conversation.

“Queen Miele?” Sting said to himself, glancing down and twiddling the stingers on his arms. “I wonder how she’s been…”

----

In a flash of light, the four Pokémon appeared in Nectar Woods. According to the map, it was smaller than some of the other forests they had explored and it was mostly populated by bug type Pokémon. Some spider webs were visible in trees, which had a lot of berries growing on them as well. Some of the trees also had sap leaking out of them, which several of the bug Pokémon probably enjoyed.

“Whoa, this place is pretty!” Chiaki exclaimed, grinning.

“So, where do we begin?” Sera asked, looking around.

“I guess we should find that Vespiquen…” Blitz said, glancing around.

“Oh, right!” Sera responded.

“Where do we find her, though?” Azure asked, standing on top of the ball at the tip of her tail, looking around.

“Maybe we can ask them?” Chiaki said, pointing to some green spider Pokémon that were busy making a new web. “Hello, Spinarak?”

“What do you want?” one of the Spinarak asked. “Can’t you see we’re busy?”

“We are trying to make this new design more fabulous than any spider web you've ever seen!” one of the other Spinarak said, crawling around the web. “This’ll certainly show those Joltik who makes the best spider webs around here!”

“Oh, okay,” Chiaki responded, giving the spider Pokémon a friendly smile. “Good luck!”

“I wonder if there’s anyone else we can ask…” Blitz wondered out loud, before picking up on a sound which seemed to be getting closer to them. “Uh, guys? Do any of you hear a buzzing sound?”

The other three glanced around, before two Beedrill appeared and hovered over to them. Both Beedrill were wearing hats made from leaves with holes for their antennae to stick out, and matching shawls. Chiaki couldn’t help but stare at the hats, and quietly thought about how he wanted to try on one of those hats.

“Oh, hello,” Sera said, looking up at the two Beedrill. “May I help you?”

“We are royal guard Beedrill working for Queen Miele,” one of the two Beedrill said, curiously examining the four Pokémon. “Are you a rescue team?”

“Oh, yes we are!” Sera responded. “We saw the mission your queen sent, and came to help deal with the honey thieves!”

“Excellent,” the Beedrill said. “Follow us; we’ll escort you to her.”

----

The two royal guard Beedrill lead the rescue team to a large tree with an opening in it. Inside was the honeycomb where Queen Miele and many Combee lived. The rescue team could see many of the Combee flying around, the wings on each side of their honeycomb-like bodies giving off a buzzing sound as they fluttered. Each was focused on the tasks they had been assigned, and so they didn’t pay much attention to the visitors.

“Whoa, this place is awesome!” Chiaki said, grinning as he stared in awe.

A slightly different buzzing sound was heard, as a large queen bee with a dress-like body, including a honeycomb-shaped skirt around her abdomen.

“You must be the rescue team that accepted the mission I sent out,” the Vespiquen said, looking at them with her red eyes. “I am Queen Miele; it is a pleasure to meet you.”

“Hi!” Chiaki responded, happily waving at the Vespiquen. “I’m Chiaki!”

“H-Hi…” Sera said, nervously smiling. “My name is Serafina, but most people just call me Sera…”

“It is an honor to meet you,” Blitz said, bowing down to the Vespiquen. “I am Blitz.”

“And I’m Azure,” Azure said, glancing around. “So, um… You’re like, the queen of this forest?”

“Why, yes,” Queen Miele responded, nodding her head slightly. “While my main duty is to lead the Combee, I also try to find ways to make sure the Pokémon of Nectar Woods are happy.”

“It is admirable that you care for the wellbeing of all Pokémon in your territory,” Blitz said, still bowing down to the Vespiquen. “I bet your pride, I mean, swarm, all look up to you.”

“Why, thank you for the compliment!” Queen Miele responded, seeming flattered. “And yes, I can tell through the hive mind I’ve formed with the Combee that they love me very much.”

“Hive mind?” Sera inquired. “As in, you’re connected to and can control what they think?”

“Not exactly,” Queen Miele responded. “Yes, we are connected, but I wouldn’t go as far as to decide for them what they should think and feel. They’re all individuals, after all.”

“Yes! We are all individuals!” replied every single Combee in the hive in unison.

“Plus, it has some advantages, such as being able to receive information faster,” Queen Miele explained. “In fact one of the Combee has identified one of the honey thieves as a Butterfree, a female one judging by the black spots on the lower part of its wings.”

“So, we need to keep an eye out for a female Butterfree?” Sera asked.

“Yes,” Queen Miele responded. “She was pretty fast too, as she managed to flee before any of the Combee could stop her.”

“Okay, we’ll keep that in mind,” Sera replied. “Shame we didn’t bring any Quick Orbs or anything for this, though…”

“Well, at least we now have at least one lead to go on,” Azure commented, bouncing a little.

“There’s a mystery dungeon in this forest, right?” Blitz asked, looking up at the queen.

“Why, yes,” Queen Miele responded. “It is not far from here, actually.”

“Okay, we’ll go investigate there,” Blitz replied, looking over at this teammates. “Odds are the Butterfree and anyone working with her are hiding somewhere within.”

----

The four Pokémon walked up to the entrance of the dungeon, where they believed the honey thieves might be hiding. After quickly checking their inventory, they headed inside the mystery dungeon. A maze of berry trees appeared before them, Chiaki staring in awe at the different colors of the leaves of the different types of berry tree.

“So, how far into the dungeon do you think these guys went?” Azure asked, balancing on one foot on top of her tail.

“I’d assume we’ll find them at the very end of the dungeon,” Sera responded, glancing over at Blitz to make sure they were following the same line of thought. “Don’t you think?”

“Yeah, most likely,” Blitz replied.

“All right,” Sera said, looking around to see which path to follow. “Let’s get going, then!”

Sera began walking down on of the paths, followed by Blitz, Chiaki and Azure. The dungeon was at ten floors, and mostly inhabited by bug type Pokémon. There seemed to be more berries than usual to be found on the ground within the dungeon, possibly due to the presence of the berry trees.

“So, what kind of Pokémon do you think is working with the Butterfree?” Azure asked, looking around for wild Pokémon to fight.

“Pokémon that like honey, I guess,” Sera responded, sniffing the air.

“Teddiursa like honey,” Blitz said, glancing around. “Another bug or a grass type Pokémon may also be involved.”

“I like this place,” Chiaki commented. “It’s so pretty!”

“Yeah, I don’t think I’ve ever seen this many different berry trees in one place,” Azure said, looking around. “I wonder if the café has berries imported from here too.”

“I’m not sure if there’s enough space in our treasure bag to gather all these berries,” Sera commented, checking the current contents of the bag.

“Guess we’ll just do this, then!” Chiaki said, picking up a Pecha berry from the ground and popping it into his mouth.

“Or we can just leave them there on the ground,” Sera responded, giggling a little. “But your method works too.”

----

The four Pokémon made their way through the dungeon, exploring, fighting some bug Pokémon along the way and so on, until they finally reached the stairs leading up to the final floor. So far, they hadn’t seen any signs of the honey thieves. Blitz just hoped that his feeling about the thieves hiding out at the end of the dungeon was correct, or else they’d have gone all that way for nothing. As he followed behind Sera as she walked up the stairs, Blitz thought he could faintly hear some voices coming from the floor above.

“Anyone else hear that?” Blitz asked, looking around as they walked up to the floor at the end of the dungeon.

“Yeah, I do,” Sera responded. “Think it’s the honey thieves?”

“Let’s find out,” Blitz said, slowly starting to make his way down the path. “The voices seem to be coming from further in.”

The rescue team and Azure quietly moved ahead, hoping the honey thieves wouldn’t hear them and run away. They soon spotted the white butterfly wings of a Butterfree, with black spots on the lower wings as Queen Miele described. There were two other Pokémon with her; a light brown bear cub with a crescent shaped spot on its forehead and a Pokémon with pink cherry blossom petals seeming to form a dress covering its body and five cherry blossom petals on its head.

“This honey is really great!” the Teddiursa said, happily licking some honey of his paws.

“Won’t we get in trouble with the queen for taking honey without permission?” the Cherrim asked, sipping some honey.

“Relax, there’s plenty of honey there,” the Butterfree responded. “Besides, we won’t get in trouble if we don’t get caught.”

“That’s what you think!” Azure shouted, getting the attention of the three honey thieves.

“Azure, what are you doing?” Blitz asked, looking a bit startled. “We were trying to sneak up on them!”

“… Okay, now we’re in trouble,” the Butterfree said.

“A rescue team!” the Cherrim exclaimed, looking rather frightened. “Oh, this can’t end well!”

“Now, let’s not panic…” the Butterfree responded, trying to think of a solution. “They don’t look too tough… We could probably beat them in a battle.”

“A battle?” the Teddiursa asked, exchanging concerned glances with the Cherrim.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” the Cherrim asked.

“We accept your challenge!” Azure shouted, pounding her tail against the ground. “You are going down!”

“Azure, you’re not really a member of our rescue team, so you shouldn’t really be the one accepting challenges on our behalf…” Blitz said, rubbing his forelegs together.

“Well, if we’re going to fight, let’s get ready!” Sera shouted, while using her Helping Hand move to power up her teammates.

“So, you’re powering up?” the Cherrim asked, smirking. “Well, two can play at that game!”

The Cherrim twirled around, a ball of light forming between her hands. She spun around once more before releasing the ball of light and letting it fly up into the air. The sun’s rays intensified, making the petals on the Cherrim’s body glow with a soft pink glow.

“So, your Flower Gift ability is giving us a power boost now?” the Butterfree asked.

“Yes,” the Cherrim responded. “Want me to add my own Helping Hand to that?”

“Nah, I don’t think that’ll be necessary,” the Butterfree replied, while dodging a spray of bubbles aimed at her by Azure.

“Fury Swipes!” the Teddiursa shouted, charging at Azure and attempting to strike her with his paws. However, Azure simply swung her tail around and knocked the Teddiursa aside.

“You know, saying what attacks you’re going to use out loud kind of makes it easier for the opponent to avoid it,” Azure commented, looking unimpressed.

“Well, you can’t dodge this!” the Cherrim shouted, twirling around and sending several glowing multicolored leaves flying at Azure.

Azure attempted to bounce away from the leaves, but found that the leaves kept following her. Quickly figuring out that she couldn’t avoid the Cherrim’s Magical Leaf attack, Azure settled for swinging the ball on her tail into the path of the attack and letting it take the hit so she’d at least take as little damage from the attack as possible.

The Teddiursa had gotten back on his feet, and was now fighting against Chiaki. While Chiaki seemed to be able to dodge the Teddiursa’s attacks without much difficulty, the Teddiursa wasn’t as good at paying attention to the opponent’s movements.

Sera and Blitz were charging at the Butterfree, hoping to hit her with their combined attacks, but the butterfly Pokémon simply moved out of the way. Sera and Blitz made another attempt, but the Butterfree dodged their attack again.

“She really is fast…” Sera commented, looking over at Blitz. “What do we do?”

“Hmm… I’ll try to think of something,” Blitz responded. “For now, let’s focus on the other two.”

The Cherrim continued using her Magical Leaf attack on her opponents, not doing much else. Since it was an attack that would always hit opponents and she could keep using it from a distance, why use anything else? That way, her opponents that seemed to mostly rely on physical attacks that required them to get up close to attack couldn’t reach her. It certainly seemed like a good idea to her.

The Teddiursa wasn’t having as much luck as his teammates, as he himself only knew attacks that he had to get up close to use. The Teddiursa nervously took a few steps back from Chiaki, unsure of what to do. Before he could decide on his next move, Azure slammed her tail against him with enough force to send him flying through the air for a few moments.

“Ah, I give up!” the Teddiursa shouted as he hit the ground, whimpering a little as he looked up at the rescue team. “I won’t steal honey anymore! Tell the queen I’m sorry!”

“Well, that’s one down,” Azure said, using her tail to take another Magical Leaf attack from the Cherrim. “We’ve still got to do something about those other two, though.”

Blitz and Sera ran as a Magical Leaf attack followed them, trying to figure out how to get the Cherrim to stop her attacks so they could get close enough to fight back.

“Blitz, can’t you use your Ice or Fire Fang attacks against her?” Sera asked.

“You know I can’t do that,” Blitz responded, charging up electricity to power up his electricity and build up his special defense against the Cherrim’s and Butterfree’s attacks.

“Not even just this once?” Sera asked, nervously glancing at the glowing leaves following them.

Seeing as the two were too occupied running from the Magical Leaf attack while they at the same time were having a conversation, the Butterfree decided to take this opportunity to whip up a gust of wind by flapping her wings hard enough. The wind attack quickly tripped up Sera and Blitz, and allowed the Magical Leaf attack from the Cherrim to connect.

“Oh, you’re not getting away with that!” Azure shouted as she and Chiaki charged at the Butterfree, but the butterfly Pokémon simply turned around and whipped up another Gust to slow them down.

“Sera, you okay?” Blitz asked, looking over at his teammate as he got back onto his feet.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” Sera responded, getting up and shaking some dust out of her fur. “Blitz, if you won’t use your Ice or Fire Fang to directly attack, can’t you use it some other way? They’re our only moves that will be super effective against that Cherrim, you know.”

“Use them some other way…?” Blitz replied, taking a moment to think about it.

Chiaki and Azure did their best to guard against the Magical Leaf and Gust attacks thrown at them. While the Magical Leaf didn’t bother him too much, the Gust attacks were quickly wearing Chiaki out as the flying attacks were super effective against him.

“You’d better think of something fast,” Sera said, watching their teammates. “I’m not sure how long Chiaki can stand up against those Gust attacks.”

“I think I have an idea…” Blitz responded, looking around for something. “I just have to find something I can use…”

Blitz glanced around, until he spotted a branch with a few dead leaves still on it lying on the ground. He quickly ran over to and picked up the branch with his mouth, and began moving towards the Cherrim, waiting for just the right moment to make his move.

The Cherrim continued throwing her Magical Leaf attack around; until Chiaki realized that he did have a way of dodging her attacks, and caught the Cherrim off-guard by using Detect to successfully avoid the glowing leaves. Blitz took this opportunity to use Fire Fang to set the branch he was holding on fire, and fling it at the Cherrim, making sure it would land where there weren’t anything the fire could spread through around it.

The Cherrim gave a startled yell, and tried to back away from the branch, at which point she got hit by Chiaki’s Fake Out attack, followed by Azure using Slam to send her flying in the direction of Blitz and Sera, so they could follow it up with their combined Tackle attacks.

“Okay, I give up…” the Cherrim said, dazed from all the attacks she had just taken.

With the Cherrim and Teddiursa having surrendered, there was now just the Butterfree left to deal with. While she was still faster than the four of them, the butterfly Pokémon was starting to look rather nervous, realizing her opponents had the upper hand now. However, she quickly regained her composure.

“Perhaps I underestimated you…” the Butterfree said, before flapping her wings fast enough to blow her opponents away. “But you still won’t be able to catch me!”

As the Whirlwind attack pushed the rescue team back quite a bit, the Butterfree attempted to flee, flying towards the nearest exit to the mystery dungeon. Once the winds calmed down, the rescue team chased after the Butterfree. The Butterfree made it out of the dungeon with the rescue team still in pursuit, but she was feeling pretty certain that she would be able to escape them now, as she still had a good lead.

She glanced back for just a moment to make sure they were too far behind to catch up, only to suddenly find herself colliding with and getting stuck in a large spider web.

“Hey! What was that just now?” a tiny yellow spider Pokémon said, feeling the spider web it was working on with the other Joltik shaking. “Is someone messing with our art?”

“Strange, some Butterfree appears to have gotten stuck in our web,” another Joltik said, watching the struggling butterfly Pokémon with its four blue eyes.

“Well, she’s not part of our masterpiece; get her out she breaks it!” one of the other Joltik shouted.

With that, several of the Joltik crawled on over and surrounded the Butterfree trapped at the center of the web, before hitting the strings of the web with a bolt of electricity, zapping the trapped butterfly Pokémon for super effective damage. The Butterfree was knocked out by the attack, her wings twitching slightly from the electricity. The Joltik then carefully made it so she’d fall out of the web without damaging their work of art.

The rescue team was quick to pick up the unconscious butterfly Pokémon as she hit the ground, and the Joltik resumed working on the spider web, talking about how their newest design would surely beat whatever the Spinarak were going to come up with and prove once and for all that the Joltik were the greatest artists in Nectar Woods.

“Well, guess that’s mission accomplished!” Sera said, wagging her tail happily. “Let’s take the honey thieves back to the queen.”

“Thanks, Joltik!” Chiaki said, cheerfully waving at the Joltik as he helped his teammates carry the unconscious Butterfree away.

The Joltik didn’t seem to hear Chiaki, nor did they care what he had to say as they were all too focused on their spider web.

----

The rescue team brought the honey thieves back to the honeycomb, where Queen Miele gave the honey thieves a chance to explain themselves, before taking a few moments to try to think of a punishment for them. After discussing it with some Combee, she finally thought of something.

“I want the three of you to gather some flowers for us,” Queen Miele said, while motioning for a Combee to bring her something.

“Is that it?” the Butterfree asked, tilting her head slightly. “That doesn’t sound too difficult.”

“However, the flowers we want you to get for us are ones not normally found in Nectar Woods,” Queen Miele responded, as the Combee returned with some paper and something she could write with. “I’ll give you a list of which flowers we want, and where they can be found.”

Queen Miele quietly wrote something down, before handing the directions to the Teddiursa, who held it up for his teammates to see.

“Some of the names of the places these flowers can be found sound kind of scary…” the Cherrim commented. “And what is this about a Venusaur?”

“Oh, there’s a kind of old and grumpy Venusaur in one of the areas that doesn’t particularly like sharing the flowers in that meadow with others,” Queen Miele explained, to which the honey thieves exchanged concerned glances. “… Good luck with that!”

“… Well, let’s get going,” the Butterfree said to her teammates, and so the three headed out.

“You sure I didn’t go too hard on them?” Queen Miele asked one of the Combee. “Should we ask some of the royal guard Beedrill to follow them and make sure they don’t get into too much trouble?”

“They’ll probably do fine!” Chiaki said with a cheerful smile. “They were pretty tough to beat during the battle we had earlier!”

“If you say so,” Queen Miele responded, giving Chiaki a friendly look. “Anyways, I would like to thank the four of you for dealing with my problem, and for your reward, you will each receive a week’s supply of honey!”

“Uh, thanks…” Sera responded, seeming a bit unsure what exactly she would do with this reward.

“Ooh, I bet Hercules would like that,” Blitz commented. “I should share that with him.”

“We can probably use this at the café!” Azure said, bouncing a little.

While Chiaki tried to think of something fun he could do with a week’s supply of honey, a familiar buzzing sound suddenly caught his attention.

“Queen, there’s a visitor here for you,” one of the royal guard Beedrill said, as a certain other Beedrill stepped forward.

“Sting, is that you?” Miele asked, seeming pleasantly surprised.

“Hi,” Sting responded, shyly twiddling the stingers on his arms. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

“Huh? You two know each other?” Sera asked, looking back and forth between the queen and the rescue team leader.

“I grew up here in Nectar Woods,” Sting explained. “Miele and I were really good friends when we were younger.”

“Wow, never knew you were friends with royalty,” Sera commented. “I’m impressed.”

“Oh, it’s no big deal…” Sting responded, still twiddling his stingers. “So, you helped Miele out with a problem today?”

“We certainly did!” Sera replied, wagging her tail happily. “But, I guess it’s time the four of us head back to town. Plus, that way you and Miele can talk privately.”

“Uh, thanks…” Sting responded, watching as the rescue team began heading out.

“Have fun!” Azure said, turning back and winking at the Beedrill, before bouncing after the rescue team.

“What was that all about…?” Sting muttered, seeming a bit embarrassed. Queen Miele seemed mildly amused, though.

“I’ll ask the Combee to prepare some pollen punch for us,” Miele said, flying over to Sting and carefully held the stingers on his arms. “And perhaps you could tell me about your experiences as the leader of a rescue team?”

“Oh, sure,” Sting replied, buzzing happily. “I’d like that.”

----

As Sera, Blitz, Chiaki and Azure began heading back to town, some royal guard Beedrill following behind to help carry the honey Queen Miele had rewarded them with, they came across the artistic Spinarak once more. The Spinarak seemed rather frustrated about something.

“It’s no use, it won’t stick!” one of the Spinarak shouted. “We can’t complete our design like this!”

“Let’s move to another part of the forest and start over!” one of the other Spinarak replied.

“We can’t just do that!” another Spinarak shouted. “There’s no way we’ll find another location ideal for our design at such short notice!”

“Do we come up with another design?” another Spinarak asked uncertainly.

“Um, excuse me?” Sera said, getting the Spinarak’s attention. “What’s going on here?”

“We can’t finish our design because that branch up there won’t co-operate with us!” a Spinarak explained, glancing towards the branch in question.

Sera, Blitz, Chiaki and Azure looked up at the branch, and were shocked to see that part of the branch seemed to be rapidly flickering in and out of existence.

“What is that? Chiaki asked, tilting his head slightly.

“I think we might be looking at a distortion caused by the crystals’ absence at Axis Tower…” Blitz responded, shivering a little.

“That can’t be good…” Sera commented, her ears drooping down a bit. “I hope those other crystals are found soon…”

----

After the rescue team made their way back to town and went home for the evening, Sting still remained at the honeycomb, telling Miele about the missions he and his teammates had been on during the past few months.

“... And that’s when Melody had the idea of basically turning herself into an improvised raft by inflating herself and letting the kids ride her down the river, while Frosty and I followed behind and helped keep the wild Pokémon chasing after us away from them,” Sting explained.

“My, it sounds like you have a lot of exciting adventures, don’t you?” Miele asked.

“Yeah,” Sting responded. “It comes with being a rescue team leader.”

“And you get to help so many Pokémon,” Miele said, gazing into Sting’s eyes. “It is nice to hear that you’ve been doing so well in Fenix town.”

“Thanks,” Sting responded, meeting her gaze. “I’m glad to see that you’re doing well too.”

“Hey, Sting? Do you ever think about that offer I once gave you?” Miele asked. “You know, about becoming one of my royal guards?”

“Oh, well… Kind of,” Sting responded, twiddling the stingers on his arms.

“But I assume you haven’t changed your mind?” Miele asked, placing her hand on his arm-stinger.

“Yeah,” Sting responded. “While you may belong here in Nectar Woods, I have found my place in Fenix town, as a rescue team leader.”

“I understand,” Miele replied, nodding slightly. “I just miss you, you know. You were my first true friend, after all.”

“I’ve missed you too,” Sting said. “I remember the time I was a Kakuna, waiting to evolve and emerge a Beedrill. Even though you had to learn many things in preparation of your own evolution and coronation, you still took the time to come see me whenever you could.”

“Of course I did,” Miele replied. “No one else understood me the way you did.”

The two bug Pokémon gazed fondly into each other’s eyes for a moment, before looking away, noticing it was getting dark outside.

“It’s getting late,” Miele said, letting go of the stinger on Sting’s arm. “You should probably be heading back to town, right?”

“Yeah…” Sting responded, getting up. “It was nice to see you again.”

“We should do this again sometime soon,” Miele replied. “I’d love to hear more about your adventures with your rescue team.”

“Oh, sure,” Sting said, buzzing happily. “Maybe next time, I’ll bring my teammates so you can meet them.”

“That would be nice,” Miele responded. “I’ll look forward to it.”

“All right, then,” Sting said, heading outside. “Until then, take care.”

Sting began flying back to town, looking down at the forest below as he did so. Once it was out of sight, he started flying a little faster. He figured he would go to bed early this night, so he would have energy for whatever missions were waiting for him tomorrow. Perhaps he would even have a good story to tell the next time he saw Miele from whatever adventures awaited him and his teammates tomorrow?

----

Chiaki lay awake in bed and wasn't able to sleep until late that night, as he kept thinking about what was happening. Was everything going to vanish if the crystals weren’t returned to their rightful place in time? One crystal had already been found, so surely the other crystals would be found in time? While he was pretty certain that things would work out, it still made him feel uneasy for some reason…

----

End of chapter 12.

----