Celes let out a sighed of relief as the charizard was down and out of the battle. He was the real problem here for her. And seeing how Spruce actually knocked that charizard out... she breath deeply as she then saw the salamence going quickly to try to dragon claw Kamina. This was her chance. She quickly moved and... actually got in front of Kamina and took the attack for him.... while sticking her tongue out, taunting the salamance.
"What, though I would be scared of the big mean dragon? Oh please... I am not scared of you at all!" she said, but actually was getting ready for his next attack. If the team was not going to knock him out, she was going to, preparing a large moonblast attack right now. She just hoped that the team could actually do it before the thing attacked her with something else then a dragon type move... considering what the charizard did to her, she hoped everyone else would be fast to knock it out.

---

Eralion moved forwards as Tini gone and then freed them.... only to have a nidoran from before walk up and say "Hey!" to them... and Bonnie darted off. He breath deeply.
"Sorry... Not sure why she is even doing that right now." he end up saying before darting up to fallow. Soon he got to Bonnie and heard her explanation. He looked at her... and shook her head.
"Bonnie, if that was the case, then that ralt would have had the same issue with me now... considering I changed into a dark type and all." he then says to her. He shake his head.
"And I don't think it would be true, cause those guys before just disliked dark types. They don't understand us. And anyway, that ralt back there was also a fairy type, remember? Meaning dark types might not affect her... or him as much as you think Bonnie." he then end up saying to Bonnie, rather calm right now

Kamina

Kamina had readied himself to both, take the Dragon Type attack, and lay down some more water for Spruce. However, once Celes jumped in front of him to take the attack, he was briefly distracted 'Celes, no! Why would you jump in front of that attack for me!? I could...oh, she's fine. Huh, I'll have to ask about that later' That entire mental monologue took place within a few seconds, so Kamina wasn't distracted for too long. That taken care of, he threw all of his attention into spraying down some more water for Spruce. Making sure, once again, to focus of the ground between him and his target. 'This is all just so strange. It's always been me out there on the front lines. Taking hits and giving them back. Yet now everything's backwards. Spruce is the one attacking, and Celes took a hit for me. Meanwhile, my contribution is just making the floor safe for Spruce.' While the battlefield wasn't the place for introspective thinking, Kamina found himself with strange amount of clarity, due to the absence of adrenaline pumping through him. 'It's really bizarre; I feel like...I'm not really here. Like there's some kind of disconnect between me, and everything around me. Wait...is this that 'enlightenment' thing that Wingull was talking about? That's odd, I though you needed funny smelling smoke to for that. Or...maybe any kind of smoke would work. Yeah...this is going to bug me. I'll have to ask the others about it after the fight'

---
Tini

Tini's mild disappointment at having to end the hug early was quickly ended when new people came 'yay! New people that don't want to murder us violently!' However once again, he was met with disappointment when Bonnie quickly left. Before he left to catch up with Bonnie, he quickly addressed the new people "hey, don't worry too much if someone comes to murder you violently...no, wait, you should still worry about that. But it's not some kind of sign, as far as I can tell. The people in here all are really rude. So it's not you, it's them." Having said his piece, he left to find Bonnie. When he found her, Eralion was already with her. Not sure why she was acting this way, he went with his gut instinct "Bonnie...did they make you sad?"

'bURN THE INFIDELS! mAKE THEM SUFFER IN WAYS THEY CAN NOT COMPREHEND!'

'That's not good; I'm hearing voices in my head again. Now what was it that Mr. Lopes said to do with strange voices inside of your head again'

***
"Now Tini, this is very important; if you ever hear strange voices inside of your head, you have to act fast. You need to smother those voices to death! Just mentally put a mental pillow over their mental face until the stop mentally breathing. However, if that voice is your ex-wife, then your right fucked. The amount of alcohol you'd need to drink to drown out that voice is likely to kill someone as small as you"
***

'Oh yeah! Now I remember.' Tini then followed the instructions left to him by the drunken idiot wise old man Lopes

'wHAT ARE YOU DOING! bUAH! yOU...CAN'T...DO...THIS. nOOOOOOOO! eVERYTHINGS...FADING. i'M SCARED DAVE...WILL i DREAM?' and with that, the voice was silenced.

'Silly voice in my head; Dave doesn't know about you'

[Josh]
Spruce's plan worked, and he was somehow able to not only knock out the Charizard, but also take an Ice Fang like it was nothing. Josh figured that he'd been using some kind of boosting move for most of the fight. If that was the case, he should be able to hold his own for the rest of the fight, unless the Salamence managed to lucky.

The Salamence posed much more of a threat to Josh than the Charizard did. Celes could block Dragon Claw without harming herself, but that wouldn't be the case with Ice Fang. He retreated too the back of the group and began to launch Sludge Bombs at the Salamence from a distance, hoping that he wouldn't draw too much attention to himself by doing this.

---

[Dexter]
Dexter didn't think that Ember would be enough to knock the Swablu out, but apparently it was weaker than he thought. Now that that was over, they could focus on their mission, at least until another wild Pokemon attacked. Fortunately, this didn't happen for quite some time, and when they did run into another group of Pokemon, it was another team. It was the same one they ran into earlier, and once again the Lopunny ran away. "The fuck is her problem?" Dexter asked. She obviously had some reason for avoiding them.

Nina then suggested that they take a break, since one of them was starting to get tired. Dexter didn't really expect them to make it all the way to the top without a break. They probably weren't raised in the mountains like he was, and would tire out faster than he would. "Alright, we'll take a break for a few minutes. I don't want either of to pass out from-"
He cut his sentence short when he heard the sound of rustling behind them, which was followed by the sound of someone laughing. He began to slowly approach the source of the sound, ready to attack if something jumped out at him.

[Spruce]

The salamence seemed to ignore Celes, as if he knew that she was immune to his more powerful attacks, and opted to attack me, instead, this time, with a fire fang... again, not doing much. The rest of the party attacked the salamence with various moves of various types, and the thing ended up poisoned from Josh's attack, and hurt from Miles' attack as a result. I waited for Kamina to create more water, and as soon as he did, I smashed the salamence with another void whip, nearly knocking him out with that. "He's almost down, just one more attack should do it," I said to my team as I jumped back onto Kamina's head. Anthony tried to finish the thing off, himself, even trying to use dragon breath on him, but, Daniel was quicker, and he ended up finishing the salamence off with a shadow rush. Anthony seemed disappointed that he couldn't land the finishing blow, but ended up saying "Good job, Daniel," anyways. The heat was intense, again, even if I wasn't on the ground. "We should probably get moving, again before I melt, huh?" I said to the rest of the group, as the heat started effecting my mind, again. Thankfully, it didn't get to the point where I was hallucinating, but, my plans might start getting even dumber if I don't cool off, again. I wonder if I'm the only one who's actually effected by this heat... I mean, I AM a grass type, so, fire usually does a good job of destroying me, maybe that's all... nobody else here is a grass type, and Miles, the only other guy who doesn't like fire, is also a robot... or something... I think... I thought as I tried to keep a lookout for the stairs.

---

[Anthony]

I was almost too shocked to do anything as Spruce smashed the salamence, nearly knocking it out. His plan worked, somehow, and may have just turned the tide of the battle. Everyone else was contributing, with Celes getting in the way of an attack, Miles shocking the thing, and Josh poisoning him with sludge bomb. Somehow, the salamence even survived the poison damage, but, even I could tell that he was on his last legs. I snapped out of it, and tried to finish him off with dragon breath, however, Daniel was faster, and he defeated the thing with a shadow rush, and, while I wanted to do that, myself, I guess it didn't really matter who got the last attack, so, I simply ended up saying "Good job, Daniel," as Spruce jumped back onto Kamina's head. He pointed out that we should get moving again, and even pointed out that the heat was already starting to get to him, again. I just nodded at that, as if he could see me, and headed to where I was almost certain the stairs were. Of course, it was just a guess at this point, given that we had no idea where the stairs actually were, yet. Daniel decided to land on my 'shell', again and he seemed to smile at me, at least, I assumed that he did, as it's impossible to tell due to the fact that he's a bird.

---

[Bonnie]

I listened to what the others had to say, and, while I wanted to tell them that ralts was known for being overly sensitive to others' emotions, I decided, instead to simply state "Yeah, I guess you're right. On the other hand, we can't just stay behind when we've got a mission to do, right?" That, again was a subtle hint that we shouldn't linger here for too long, and should try to make our way up the mountain. Maybe I should stick around if I see them again... maybe I'm actually wrong, and maybe those psychic types at the mission board were just jerks... I thought as I continued up the mountain... strangely enough, as I did so, I heard a roar coming from the top of the place... one that didn't quite sound like any of the local dragons, either. "Did... anyone else hear that?" I asked my team, wondering if I was going crazy, or if it was just my giant ears that let me hear that. The client answered pretty quickly with "Yes, and I hope whoever that was doesn't have my beloved!" She then darted ahead of us, and I had to dart after her, just to make sure she didn't get hurt, injured, or worse just from leaving the group. It was fairly obvious that she couldn't handle what was normally up here, let alone another dragonite, or, say, the golurk we both ended up bumping into. It still seems weird that yes, we both bumped into a ghost type, but that's what happened. "Quick, get behind me! That thing will mess you up if you don't!" I shouted to the client, who still seemed stunned at the comparative height of the thing. Thankfully, she heard me, and I ended up taking a shadow punch... which actually hurt, even if it wasn't very effective, due to my, er, different typing. I then noticed a strange, shadowy aura around the golurk... though, I also made the assumption that said aura wouldn't have any effect in the fight.

---

[Nina]

Thankfully, Dexter confirmed that I wasn't the only one who heard that noise, and he inspected the bushes as well, however, whoever or whatever WAS there seemed to be long gone by the time we looked for them. "Great... they're too fast for us to catch up to them. How are we going to fight them if we can't catch them?" I said as I took my spot for our break. It didn't take too long for a loud, yet distant roar to be heard, and I nearly jumped from that. "What the heck!? Oh, wait, dragons... ugh, why do dragons always have to roar like that, huh? Why can't they just talk, like every OTHER pokemon?" I said that, but, somehow, I felt like that roar didn't belong to any dragon on this mountain, at least, not any dragon that's usually here. Obviously, I could be wrong, as I didn't know too much about dragon types, save for the fact that pink wasn't a normal color for them, and the fact that they didn't usually smell like mint. After resting up, a bit, I continued on, making sure that Dexter, and even Rebecca could follow me, and soon enough, I encountered a golett, certainly NOT a dragon, and most likely not the source of that weird roar. A ghost type... something I couldn't really hit with most of my moves... poison sting wouldn't do much, let alone scratch or double kick, but, thankfully, I still had access to at least one move that can damage a ghost type, flash tackle, and, even if I hesitated just a bit, that was still the first thing I did. My body was cloaked in a mysterious light as I rushed towards the ghostly golem, and, probably just due to the light of the move, I actually hit the thing with that, and had it stumble, a little bit.

Celes nodded as she walked near Kamina as the fight was over. At least now the group could move on.
"With this heat, I think you are right Spruce. I just hope we will find Reshiram real soon and be able to get out of this place, cause considering the party..." she says looking at Miles then Spruce.
"We will have more and more trouble the longer we stay here." she ends up saying as she moved forwards. She breath in deeply and looked worried right now. Spruce did get hit a good amount of times here, but his plan actually worked for him to not get knocked out.
"I just hope we don't end up fighting more charizards near windows, cause if I would have fell...." she says shivering a bit.

---

Eralion fallowed quickly Bonnie and the client as they started rushing forwards, going up the mountain.... only to end up with a golurk with a strange shadowy aura around him blocking the way. He frowned at this. Golurk were known to be able to punch quite hard, and considering he and Bonnie were dark types... Tini would not have any trouble with fighting type moves at least. He quickly moved forwards, before going to attack the Golurk, actually using Crunch on him to damage him a lot because of his typing. He couldn't use fighting types move here unfortunately for him, so he guessed his only dark type move would do the trick here.
"Guard the client, Tini, I think you can take on any fighting type moves he may use, so get ready please!" he then says to him

Kamina

Now that the fight was over, Kamina felt the time was right to ask the others something. "Hey guys, is it true that you need funny smelling smoke to achieve enlightenment, or does it just help? A Wingull I used to know back when I lived in the ocean always had a lot of that funny smelling smoke, and he always looked like his mind was in more than one place. He never mentioned it, but he sounded like one who's mind had touched the center of the cosmos, which is what I've always considered enlightenment to be. You know, now that I think about it...I never did find out just what made that smoke. I think he was burning some kind of plant...but I'm not sure."

---
Tini

Tini gave Eralion a salute (which looked super adorable) "roger!" Positing himself between the client and the fight, he was forced to simply watch 'I can't use Fairy Wind, since I might hit the others. All I can do is sit here and look menacing' for the record; is attempts at looking menacing only looked adorable (he had a really hard time looking anything but cute). He soon noticed the strange aura the Golurk (not that he knew what it was) had "um...is he supposed to have that funny looking...stuff around him? I've never seen whatever this is, so I'm not sure if it's normal for his race...but it gives me the willies, and I don't like the willies."

Well, that took a long time And then, we finished off the Salamence, leaving him and the Charizard sprawled together on the oven-like floor. They would likely be fine, but moving quickly would definitely avoid the revenge afterwards. By the time the fight finished I felt somewhat tired and drowsy, if not a bit... thirsty? Well, that's how most people described it. I really did have a nagging feeling for water now, probably to do with the fact that I was becoming more... alive. Something like that anyway. It was probably something to do with evolving, which was strange because no one seemed to mention it; likely because I didn't even change forms. At least my black feathers and other weird avian features seemed to vanish, and I don't think anyone got hurt that badly from the fight. Heck, my body seemed more polished, free of any nicks or scratches. My scar? Just gone. Seemed like I was back at day one, where I was essentially born or something. I still miss Davis, more or less.

As I was still flipping magnets around and inspecting myself, Celes highlighted the reason why we were here, and it certainly wasn't to lope around and continue fighting. We had to get to Reshiram to unfreeze the accursed town, considering how the climate was off and the lukewarm temperatures couldn't free anyone. I did wonder why the town was frozen over by outside forces; maybe it wasn't malicious intent, considering very few legendaries would go and disrupt people's lives without enduring the wrath of Arceus. Perhaps there was a disease spreading around the town, and they had little choice but to contain everything.

Until we had further context, we had only one place to go. Upstairs, up the levels, and to beg for Reshiram's assistance. Funny how life seems to direct you around the place, only to have you slammed by the might of a deity. At least this place is warm, and the ground even seems to be heated for Arceus' benefit. Alas, that just reminds me of how sweltering the tower was, with thick heated air making breathing feel like eating fire.

[Josh]
The Salamence had taken a lot of attacks at this point, and clearly couldn't take that much more. After the poison from Josh's Sludge Bomb, all it took to knock it out was one more Shadow Rush from Daniel. With that out of the way, they were free to keep climbing the tower, at least until another wild Pokemon showed up.
"We've got to be close to the top by now, right?" Josh said, peering out of one of the holes in the wall. They were pretty high up at this point, but he couldn't really tell how much higher they'd have to climb. For all he knew, they might be nowhere near the top.

---

[Dexter]
Whatever was over by the bushes was already gone by the time Dexter went over to investigate. He looked around for any sign of him, but to no avail.
"Fuck it. Let him run." Dexter said. "Keep your guard up, though. Just in case he decides to attack."
A roar then echoed through the mountains, which seemed to startle Nina a little. Dexter couldn't understand why. That was the kind of thing you'd expect to hear all the time on Mt. Dragoncoil.

After taking a quick moment to rest, the team continued along the path. They didn't make it far before their path was blocked by yet another wild Pokemon. This time, it was a Golett. Nina attacked first, by cloaking her body in some kind of light, then slamming into it. Dexter hadn't seen an attack like that before, but decided that it was best not to ask her about it in the middle of a fight. He got up close, and bit into the Golett's shoulder. Considering that it was made of stone, his teeth sunk in surprisingly easily. This may have been because of type advantages or something, but Dexter wasn't really an expert on this sort of thing.

Rebecca watched as whatever was in the bushes fled into the distance. She probably could have done something about that, but she didn’t get the chance to for whatever reason. It would most certainly show up later, whatever it was. She turned to face the Golett and attempted to throw it forwards with Confusion, but only ended up moving it’s foot slightly, the wild Pokemon stubbing it’s toe ineffectually against a rock. Thankfully, with Dexter currently biting into the Golett’s shoulder, the small shift in stance thankfully managed to bring it crashing down onto it’s back.

“I meant to do that.” Rebecca said quickly, pointing halfheartedly at the destruction.

[Spruce]

We simply continued on for a while, making it to the stairs before getting into any more conflict, however, just before we actually started climbing them, I heard a familiar voice... "Hey! WAIT FOR US!" I decided to turn around to try to see who it was, and the answer surprised me. It was the same charizard and salamence that we just got done beating up. [i]What in the heck? Why are they talking to us? Are they just going to try to trick us, and try to beat us up, again? Either way, they caught up with us, and the charizard continued talking with "Th...thanks. I don't know what came over us, but we were sent to explore this place years ago... is ol' Wigglytuff still around?" I answered with "Er... I think he goes by 'Wally', now..." the salamence then said "Doesn't matter, the point is, we want to repay you for making us come to our senses... hm... you seem rather light... now, were you sent here to explore, and figure out all you can about this place, or were you just sent here to get to the top?" I was amazed at this... were they really just offering to fly us to the top of this place? How would they carry Kamina, though? He weighed more than the rest of us combined. The salamence then asked "Well? Which was it?" and Anthony spoke up with "We weren't really sent by a guildmaster, but our goal is, in fact, to get to the top of this place. We need to meet with Reshiram," the charizard then asked "Well, would you like us to fly you there before we head back to our guild? It'll be free of charge," both Anthony and I looked at the rest of the group, wondering what their response might be to this.

---

[Anthony]

And with that, the battle was over, and we could continue on our merry way. Spruce looked like he was wilting, or something... plant pokemon were always kind of weird, they don't like the hot, they don't like the cold... I mean, at least dragon types like one of those two things, right? We made it to the next set of stairs, and before we could continue on to the next floor, no doubt filled with challenges, and other wild pokemon, a familiar voice shouted at us "Hey! WAIT FOR US!" Spruce turned around, and apparently just let them approach us, despite the fact that I already knew it was the two pokemon we just knocked out. They started asking Spruce about where we need to go, and who sent us, and I had no idea why until they said something about 'Wigglytuff'... which reminded me about the rival guild... they were run by A wigglytuff, but he went by the name 'Wally', and Spruce decided to explain that to the duo, after which I finally explained to them, thinking that it won't do any harm "We weren't really sent by a guildmaster, but our goal is, in fact, to get to the top of this place. We need to meet with Reshiram," the two smiled at that, as if it made their job that much easier, and they then asked if we wanted to be flown to the top of this place. Honestly, that would be a gift straight from Arceus at this point, but, the rest of my team, and Spruce's might not actually trust these two, after all, they DID just fight us, not too long ago. Spruce and I both turned to our teammates, as if expecting a response.

---

[Bonnie]

The golurk seemed to just barely hold on after those attacks, and, seemed to cloak its fist in that shadowy energy to punch Eralion, not fearing a counter-attack mainly due to the fact that it was a ghost type, and said counter-attack would just pass right through it. Eralion told Tini to guard the client, and after a salute that made me want to hug the giant snake pokemon, he did exactly that... all while trying and failing to look intimidating. Oh, if only our enemies knew... if only they knew exactly why an angry Tini SHOULD be intimidating... even if he still doesn't look it. I had some time to think, since the thing wasn't attacking me at the moment, and eventually figured out that the only move I have that can hit him is frustration, and even then, it's not typically supposed to. I wonder if this will even surprise the thing... I mean, it IS a robot, and a wild pokemon, those things typically don't have emotions, right? I thought as I decided to use frustration on the golurk, dealing enough damage to finally get it to faint... however, that doesn't mean that his attack that was aimed at Eralion didn't hit, it just meant that the golurk fainted afterwards. "Whew... that was close. Onwards?" the client said to us as soon as the giant clay and stone pokemon fell backwards from my attack. I simply nodded, and continued the mission, heading up towards the top of the mountain, all while keeping a sharp eye out for any nidorino that might be here.

---

[Nina]

Dexter bit the golett, and Rebecca made it trip with her psychic powers. I was just about to finish the thing off with another flash tackle, when... something else actually decided to knock it backwards with some other tackling move... more specifically, whatever it was used Dragon Rush on the golett to finish it off. Now, where have I seen that move, before? I asked myself as I looked around for who did it, only seeing a tiny, and familiar swablu. "Er... hi?" I said to her in an almost questioning tone of voice. She responded with "Hello. I... um... I'm sorry for attacking you, earlier... I wasn't really in control of my own actions, but that's no excuse, right? I... I want to help, at least for a little bit. What are you three doing here, anyways? You look like city pokemon," I looked at my team wondering if they'd answer before answering, myself with "Er... we're here, looking for someone's missing friend abra, have you seen them?" the swablu seemed to have to think about that, and she shook her head, unfortunately. "Oh... er..." I tried to change the subject, eventually asking, almost out of the blue "So, what's your name?" this caused the swablu to look down, and away from us, and said "I never had one... my momma never gave me a name after I hatched, and... I... I never gave myself one 'cause of that weird thing," I had an idea of what she meant by 'weird thing', and decided to try to change the subject, again with "Thanks for helping us back there," she smiled, and asked "Do you guys have any ideas for a name?" why she changed the subject back to that, I had no idea, but I was never that great at coming up with names... heck, when I heard that this team already had a name, I was relieved since that meant I didn't have to come up with one, myself.

Celes was surprised when both the charizard and the salamence got up. She though it was going to be a round 2 here, so she got into battle position, before hearing what they had to say. She calmed down, but felt... suspicious about it. She looked towards the 2, unsure right now. She shook her head a bit.
"Considering I almost fell to my death cause of one of you... I am unsure about that. And bringing everyone up there might be a lot." she says as she looks at Spruce.
"You sure we can trust them? I mean.. it might be a trick." she then says, unsure right now about this.
"And anyway.... I don't think a charizard and a salamance can bring a gyrados up there... unless they work together for this, but even then I am unsure about it. Unless Kamina then just.... bounce and break over the ceiling and get up there." she says, the last part joking around about this.

---

Eralion saw the attack coming, but instead of going to counter, he tried his best to take the hit and tank it. As the hit connected with his arms as he blocked, he was pushed back a couple of feet. He was then goign to attack again, but the fight was already over. He shook his arms around a bit.
"Ouch, that kinda hurt a bit." he says before looking at the group and breathing deeply.
"Now that this thing is down... I think we have the way clear to continue and search." he says calmly, looking at the client, smiling a bit.
"I guess it is a good thing we are a trained team... any other small teams would have gotten difficulty in a place like this." he then says to the client as he looked at Bonnie.
"Ya... let's get going." he says

[Josh]
All of the hostility that the Charizard and Salamence had toward the group seemed to instantly vanish. They had even offered to fly them all to the top of the tower. Even though Josh found this suspicious, it would allow them to finish this mission much sooner. Besides, they'd already knocked them out once. If these two tried anything, they could easily knock them out again.
"It can't hurt to at least consider it." Josh said. "If their offer really is genuine, then we can get to the top and meet Reshiram right now. I'd say that's worth the risk."

Of course, they still had to find a way to get Kamina up there. There was no way the dragons would be able to carry him, and there was no way for him to get up there himself. Celes suggested that he break through the ceiling to get up there, and even though it was a joke, Kamina would probably take it seriously.
"Kamina, no!" Josh said. "You have Spruce on your head. You could seriously injure him if you try that."
Matt, who had been silent for a while now, decided to chime in. "That won't be a problem. Spruce can simply fly up with the Charizard or Salamence."
This plan was crazy, but Josh couldn't see any other way of getting him to the top. Plus, now that Kamina knew Spruce wouldn't get hurt, there was no stopping him.

---

[Dexter]
The Golett completely lost its balance after Rebecca's attack, and toppled over. Because of this, Dexter lost the grip he had on its shoulder, and ended up falling over with it. As he tried to regain his footing, he saw something flying towards them out of the corner of his eye. It was the Swablu from earlier. Dexter could see that it was flying right at him, so he got into a defensive stance and braced himself for the incoming attack. Apparently, though, the Swablu wasn't aiming for Dexter, and instead finished off the Golett lying beside him.

The Swablu seemed like she was freed from that thing's influence, at least for now. Dexter was cautious, since they had no idea how long it would take for it to take over again. According to her, she had never been given a name or anything due to being controlled by it.
Nina didn't seem to have any ideas, and Dexter didn't have any either, so he turned to Rebecca. "I got nothing. This is all you."

Kamina

Nodding to himself, Kamina said "yeah...that could work. Once I no longer have to worry about Spruce, I can blast by way to the top. Although...we cut our adventure time down by a rather large amount if we do it like this. Bah, what am I thinking? There are people counting on us, this is no time for fun and games...or at least it's not as good a time for fun and games. Anyway, we need to climb this tower as fast as we can, for their sake." Having just finished his conversation to himself, he reached a decision. "Alright, I'm in. Once you guys get Spruce off of me, I'll make my way up Kamina style."

---
Tini

As Tini was still in adorably serious mode, he simply responded with another "roger!" as he followed the others. His mind however was a different story 'Wait; did Eralion just say we were a trained team? That's odd, I thought we weren't. I mean sure, I got training before joining the team...but we never really got training as a team. While I'm sure Eralion had some kind combat training, I don't think Bonny did. I mean, her dad didn't seem like the kind of guy who would be okay with his daughter learning to defend herself. So doesn't that mean that we're an untrained team? Should I ask Eralion about it? Gah, no! I have to be serious now! Stay focused! With his internal monolog finished, Tini remained marching in silence.

I was looking around as the group questioned as to go upstairs or not, when I spotted the enemy pair we knocked earlier coming back to life. It was definitely surprising to see Pokemon be revived so quickly, and I assumed we just had more fighting on our hands against the Pokemon around here. Before I could even raise my magnets towards them, they were already crying out for us to wait, sailing in the air briefly before stomping against the floor. The force of their landing pushed me back as I felt twitching in my magnets, a nagging feeling of betrayal stuck at the back of my mind along with other memories.

I remained silent as they actually started thanking us for kicking their arses. They were speaking normally, were more composed and definitely seemed more upright than before. I laid rest to my fears once they started speaking about the Guild, seemingly confirming their alibis. Either they got defeated here or they just overheard some other adventurers talking about the guild, but it was enough to let me relax a bit. (They probably would've attacked us by now.) I half-heartedly expected Kamina to ask us to lighten up behind the stern expression in my eye/face, while the rest of the group seemed just was suspicious as letting these guys help us.

By that, I mean they wanted to fly us up the tower. Celes voiced her concerns to Spruce and expected him to do something, and Josh was quite amiable to the offer. I remained as still as a rock floating in mid-air, wind whistling through our discussions and rustling whatever was hanging off our bodies. Spruce and Anthony seemed to share the same opinion of letting us all talk it about, but I had a feeling that we'd come to a stalemate. Certainly, they still weren't attacking us... but if they did attack us later (and I wasn't ruling that out), then I'd be a gullible idiot. Even more so than a Bidoof who thought my former home was a tree, instead chipping his teeth on fake walls. (Let's just say the neighbours didn't like growing new homes for outsiders.)

Anyway, I only had the nerve to move my eye around the group. I listened to the chiming of voices as I expected someone to yell out 'can we go up the stairs yet?' Celes funnily suggested breaking the ceiling as opposed to having a pair of dragons lift the world's... er, ambiguously heaviest fish to the top floor. I ended up joining the laughter that ensured, a little chuckle if anything. Everything seemed pretty friendly for a dungeon, after all.

Ultimately, Kamina made the decision to just destroy the ceiling, a deep voice that actually intimidated the likes of me. I was supposed to say 'how's that gonna convince Reshiram to unfreeze the town?!'

Instead, I went with: "Let's see you fly, big fish."

It took a moment for Rebecca to realize that Nina’s attacks were far more illuminating than the Dragon Rush that had actually occurred. She waved hello to the Swablu and listened to her speak, eager to both potentially make a new friend as well as gather more information about their elusive enemy.

“Well,” Rebecca said slowly. “Would Mariah work?” She admittedly had a bit of trouble coming up with a name, but she thought it was nice. She had to wonder if this sort of thing was common among wild Pokemon, even though such thoughts struck her as somewhat depressing.

“Oh, and my name’s Rebecca, by the way.” The Ralts added.

[Spruce]

As much as I wanted to agree with Celes, she was, unfortunately, outvoted. It seemed like everyone other than her and I were quick to trust these guys, and Anthony seemed slightly hesitant, as well, for some reason, but, either way, I ended up saying "Alright, sounds like a plan," to the duo, both of whom tried to pick up as many of us as possible, with the salamence picking up Celes, Matt, and I, and the charizard picking up Miles, Josh, and Anthony. Daniel simply flew with them, and Kamina... I can only assume was finding his OWN way to the top that involved bouncing, breaking things, and fire... I don't know where the fire fit in, but I'm sure he found out some way to include fire into the mix. The salamence decided to actually talk while he was flying me up, asking "So, how long have you guys been in the guild, anyways?" I tried to actually remember... it seemed like the days were stretched out for some reason, as if a few moments passed by in a week's time... was it an actual week? Were we only in the guild for a handful of days, and ALREADY we're a part of some huge quest, the success of which will determine the fate of this planet? Apparently, I spaced out for a while, as he ended up asking "Er... little dude, are you okay? You see a little out of it," that, of course, snapped me back into reality, and I answered with "Yeah, and... I think I might have been in the guild for a week, maybe?" the salamence seemed confused about this and kept questioning me with "How are you unsure if it's been a week, or not?" I shrugged, not wanting to share the strange, almost existential crisis I just had over how long time seemed to stretch for no apparent reason.

---

[Anthony]

Somehow, it seemed like the majority of our team wanted to take their help, and, even though I was a little hesitant about it, I tried my best to look enthusiastic... though, looking at Spruce, apparently even he can see right through my act. The two dragons, nonetheless, picked us up, with the charizard apparently picking myself, Miles, and Josh. It seemed to take a while, and the charizard was humming to himself, so, I decided to ask Miles "Hey, Miles, why are you so... I dunno, down all the time? You're usually so pessimistic, but, why? What happened to you that made you that way?" granted I had a few problems of my own, not the least of which was the fact that my mother probably depended on whatever money I could scrounge together from guild missions to live, but even I tried to see the best in any situation. I'm sure that whatever was bothering Miles that made him like this was worse than what I've been through, but, perhaps talking about it would actually prove to be helpful to him... maybe, someday, he'll see the best in pokemon, and the best in whatever situation he's thrown in next... or he could just naturally be this way, and not change due to me asking this question. I then remembered that Miles could float, and wondered why, exactly he didn't do that... of course, I only had to take a look at him, and how poorly he handled the heat, and how much effort it took for him to float over the bridge to figure out why this might be a better solution. Thankfully, since he somehow kept his magnemite form, he was actually pretty lightweight, so, the charizard had no problem holding him.

---

[Bonnie]

It seemed like we were getting pretty high up the mountain, as the air was getting thin, and it was getting somewhat harder to breathe, as a result. I tried to keep going, and thankfully, I managed to do so, at least until we came across a ledge with a flimsy, rotten, moldy plank of wood serving as a makeshift bridge. "Seems... like someone... was here... before..." I pointed out, my words being broken up by it being difficult to breathe right now... I probably looked like a weakling to the rest of my team, right now, especially with the fact that the nidorina seemed just fine with this, heck, she almost seemed to be enjoying it, for some reason. "Ah... so THIS is why teams like you explore places like this. I mean, I've heard of the term 'fresh mountain air', but I didn't know what it meant until now," that only served to hammer in my embarrassment even more. The CLIENT, of all pokemon, was doing better than I was in a wilderness setting... something that I'm PAID to go through on a daily basis. I'm sure if Samuel were still here, he'd just laugh at me, and use his ability to climb to cross the ledge on his own... or maybe he'd just set the entire place on fire, again. 'Hey! that was ONE TIME!' I could almost hear his voice, again... then again, this thin air was probably just getting to my brain, and I'm certain I didn't just say that he'd set the place on fire, so, why would he respond to a thought, right? "Guys... that bridge... doesn't... look safe..." I managed to say, as well, though, considering who my team consisted of, I might have been too late with that warning.

---

[Nina]

It seemed like Dexter didn't have any ideas later, however, Rebecca, as usual, came up with something, in this case, she came up with the idea to name her 'Mariah', to which, the newly-named swablu almost chirped out "Yay! I have a name now! Yes, that works Ms. Rebecca... it's... so nice to be around pokemon that I don't have the urge to attack... oh... sorry, I shouldn't have said that last part," that was weird, she didn't seem as young as she acted, but, either way, that prompted me to ask "So... which city do you live in? I mean, before you got controlled," Mariah shook her head, and said, almost sadly "I was actually hatched here... I never really had a home... and my parents are almost never around... the thing, the voice kept telling me to attack low-ranking city pokemon, while my parents were apparently told to attack high-level guild pokemon," that was... a bit more information than I asked for, to be honest. "So whatever this thing is actually separates high-level and low-level pokemon? Why?" I ended up saying, rather than thinking as I started heading up the mountain path. A golurk, apparently recently knocked out wakes up, and seems confused, as well. "WHERE AM I?" the giant ghost-type pokemon asked either us, or just anyone who was listening. "Er... on Mt. Dragoncoil. A mountain-based mystery dungeon," that didn't seem to do anything other than confuse the thing before, and it continued with "WHAT IS A MYSTERY DUNGEON... WHERE IS MT. DRAGONCOIL?" how old WAS this thing if a MOUNTAIN is younger than it is!?

Celes looked worried a bit. It seemed everyone wanted to have a ride here... She still didn't trust those guys.... but if something were to happen, she would tell the group that she told them so... She just hoped she would not be falling to her death cause of those guys. It was already hard enough that she didn't trust those guys... Although there was one thing: If they did try to actually throw her, she would use her ribbons to hold onto him and throw him down towards the ground, and actually use the salamance to lessen the fall for her. It would probably damage him really a lot, that is for sure. She just stayed there, waiting to be brought to the top floor, worried.

---

Eralion was moving forwards then, seeing the bridge. Considering his size... The bridge was probably not the safest for him. When he heard waht Bonnie said, he looked at her and then the bridge.
"Either we go around it, or we take a risk and move one person at a time over the bridge and get to the other side." he says before looking down, seeing that there was somewhat of a large hole. He frowned, thinking.
"Unless we can end up like catapulting people to the other side.... That though would surprise me..." he says... then remembering Tini. He sure hope he would not take that last part seriously and try to do that...

Kamina

Everything had been taken care off, he was now free to let loose. "This is going to be so awesome!" Coiling his body up, he mentally prepared for the jump 'now!' Quick as a whip, he sprung upwards, rocketing towards the ceiling. However, instead of breaking through, he crashed, and fell back down. "Gah!!! Well...that didn't go as planned. No...I'm not letting this get me down. Ceiling, I will break through you!" As he shouted his challenge to the ceiling, his body started to catch on fire "my inner flame will not be put out so easily. It shall burn brighter and consume you!!!!!!1!" Kamina shot up in the air once again, this time while spinning (and still on fire). Somehow, he managed to break through.

"THE FUCK!?" A nearby Fire Type cried out at the sight of Kamina emerging from what was now the floor. However, our intrepid explorer didn't have the time to respond to him.

"AHHH!!! We're being invaded by Water Types!!" Cried out a nearby Fire Type on the next floor

"It's happening again!" Cried out a nearby Fire Type on the next floot

"Wow, I am wasted"

"They've finally come for me!!!"

"Please, I'll have the money in a week!"

"PERVERT!"

There wasn't anyone on the current floor close enough to Kamina's point of entry to see him. So he took a few seconds to ponder what he had seen on the floor below "...why did she have a hole in her body there, and just what was she doing with it?" However when his brain failed to come up with an answer fast enough, he simply shrugged and contiouned on his way.

---
Tini

Hearing Eralion's idea, Tini gave it some thought "...Catapult. No, that would never work. We don't have the materials to make one sturdy enough. Not only that, but someone would need to operate it. I don't have hands, so it would either have to be Bonnie or Eralion, and I doubt either of them have enough experience with a catapult to fire it from the sling. If I had arms, I could do it. But alas, I am arm-less. Not only that, but catapult is a blanket term. There are a lot of different kind of siege engines that qualify as a catapult. Honestly, our best bet is a Trebuchet. A Ballista is basically a huge crossbow so none of us are the right shape, and we I don't even know where we'd get springs big enough to make Da Vinchi's design. If I could just evolve, then I'd have the hands needed to operate a Trebuchet from the sling. Yeah, it was a nice idea Eralion, but it's not feasible. Unless...can either of you fire a Trebuchet while sitting in the sling?"

The moment those words left my mouth/whatever that let me talk, I got slapped by instant regret. Kamina somehow broke through a floor of poorly smelted metals and ceramic. Hell, I tried to stay as neutral as possible, but ultimately it probably counted as some 'yes' vote. I was lifted up onto the Charizard I knocked out earlier, leaving me somewhat uncomfortable since: a) I nearly killed him earlier. b) He was a fire type. Even if I did try to say no, I probably wouldn't risk the floors between here and the top.

Before I was nearly forced onto the Charizard, I heard a few words coming from Anthony. I turned around and just shrugged, telling him "bad stuff happened."

Anyway, I figured out Kamina actually did punch a hole in the tower once we were in the air, mainly because the tower seemed to shake and shrapnel flew out its openings. I was going to chuckle, but nothing came out of myself; I just stared on and expected ourselves to land soon.

“Ms. Rebecca?” The Ralts said thoughtfully. “I could definitely get used to that.” She took out her notebook and began taking notes on the more noteworthy parts of the conversation about their mysterious target, with the part about Pokemon being made to attack other Pokemon of a sufficient level being a detail of particular interest. She walked with Nina until the Golurk awakened, startling her to a slightly embarrassing degree.

“Well,” Rebecca stammered, searching for a good answer to the Pokemon’s question. “Dexter, can you please take this one?”