[IC] Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of the Void

[Noire]

"Yeah, haven't been feeling it." Hex said, shrugging. "But I'm glad you found your friends." Connor arrived at the top of the waterfall, and a camp was laid out before them. Several tents were partially submerged underwater, and various gear and equipment was inside them. It seemed to be pretty well hidden, if they had somehow been able to hide from Zane for so long. The camp was very well organized. She was surprised that it was all put together by pokemon with fins.

Hex watched as the Josh reacquainted himself with all of the pokemon around him. Most of them seemed to know each other very well, and at the very least had to have known each other. But still, Josh seemed to be looking for one pokemon who must've been absent from this camp. Must've had someone missing, maybe. All and all, the water types seemed to be holding out well in that little camp above the waterfall. Then Josh met Brace, and they began bickering.

Hex was very used to bickering. It happened quite a lot around her hive. Two Combees arguing over a bit of honey, or some brutish Beedrill showing off their muscles(?) to each other. Josh and Brace seemed to genuinely hate each other. Brace was going hard on Josh about not showing up to assist the water types in setting up the camp and helping them, while Josh didn't want Brace on his back. "You guys, try not to kill each other. We just came here! c'mon." Hex said, rolling her eyes.

[KaBling]

I didn't feel very well after that little blunder, 'which left me feeling more than a little drained.'

A bit dizzy, somewhat toned down vision... well, that was usual. Any time there's a fight, that would probably come up. "Of course we need rest. Those bastards didn't seem to care about their own safety, and already we're nearly dead." Instead of nearly turning upside down, I sank by controlling my bubble in ways I preferred not to dwell on. Apparently I now needed oxygen and some food.

Bouncing on the sea floor a few times, I was quite amazed at the amount of sunlight that came through. I thought if there were other Pokemon out there, living in lands we still haven't even bothered to think about...

Then, an unmistakable colour, out at the corner of my eye. Who sees black and white underwater, excluding the colourblind? It's practically a rainbow down here. "What was that, a racing flag?" I asked, unable to identify not only what it was, but where it came from. Naturally, I took a quick and slightly intimidating glance at Celes, hoping for a reaction. Of course, there'd be more blunders to come. For example, that soup... I quickly changed my attitude. "How did you... run out of a whole bottle of soup so quickly? What, you spilled some during your training? Got empty and decided to feast?" I let out a hearty chuckle, grabbing of my soups through the big bubble that could be considered a dome/air tent for all of us. I was annoyed at how it was wooden, since it meant I couldn't grab it. But... well, I wish I'd been happy to not be able to grab it.

As soon as a little bit touched my face, I ended up crying. The pain of a thousand degrees will never be forgotten. I screamed so painfully as I just dropped the bowl, rubbing my eyes and face frantically like I had just consumed humanity's bath salts. (Davis has got a disturbing amount of documentaries, telling future species about the human race. Not that he's shown anyone else.) "ARRRGGHHRAAARRRRGGGHHHARRGGGHHHHH- WHAT IN THE BLAZING STAKES OF ALL DAMNED MOTHERS OF ARCEUS WAS IN THAT MONSTROSITY OF A 'SOUP'?! MAKE IT STOP! IT BURNS LIKE HELL'S OWN FLAMES!" Well, actually I'd been pretty... dramatic to chili beforehand. Spicy things in my little community...

Anyway, the soup stained the ground which had been damp and pretty muddy from all the seawater on top of it. I was still letting out blood-curdling screams as I went from rubbing my face onto the ground (which made things worse, since I was practically earthing myself - not a good thing) to just leaving my teammate's bubble, waving my magnets and 'hand' like some giant crazy inflatable balloon, crossing boulders and passing neutral fish Pokemon. Damned bubble would follow me around...

...crucial when meeting lady Desia again in some wrecked nuclear submarine, on rather unconditional terms.

Here's a little preview of what was ahead, one of my only times of peace with Desia: "ARRRGGGHHAARGGHHHH! WHO'RE YA?! MY EYES STILL BURN YOU CRAZY IDIOT!"

[ZombieMagikarp]

"A Nosepass with a problem with some fellas who don't pay him back...huh, that's gotta get him all stuffy 'bout somethin'. Not worth the money, to be honest. Not even enough danger to try and get by with anythin' FUN..." Page flip. Next advertisement. "Now we got an asshole who's all about fuckin' people over with his trashy guild - bring 'em in, make 'em do work, and in the end, they take the profits - a whopping 90%." The Mudkip peers over his comic, looking back and forth, before bringing it back up to his eye-level, his 3-D glasses firmly set on his eyes. "Sounds like a teeny bit worse version of this place...haha!"

Breen Torrents, just as busy as always, sets himself apart from everyone else in the guild - quite literally, actually, he's in the Janitor's closet, hiding from the guild assistant, reading mercenary ads out of his comic books. No shit. I couldn't make this any more simply put than it already is.

"Now looky here! A guy who's crime consists of promising writin' shit for the guild, ends up delaying it and delaying it, but still keeps his credibility for his job! Arceus, these are the worst of the scum here...smells of rotten Magikarp..."

[Lugia]

[Spruce]

Celes handed me a bowl of soup... which seemed to look familiar, somehow. I then tried it, and it tasted extremely familiar. It also had that unmistakable energizing quality about it. I noticed some black and white cloth from the corner of my eye while I was chugging the soup, and while M was shouting in pain as if someone had attacked him rather than fed him. So she was Shadowlight? Weird, why did she sound like a man back there? I think as I finish my soup, and get back up ready to continue onwards. I then decide to mess around "Hey, Shadowlight, have you seen Celes anywhere?" I ask Celes before continuing on, and taking in more of the sights that the ocean floor had to offer. I soon ran into someone else... a sneasel who was accompanied by a zubat and a koffing... wait, I knew these idiots. "Sean!" The sneasel starts off, as though we've never met. The zubat then adds "Bart!" With the koffing saying "And me... um... Carl!" Sean then finished with "We're Team Zan, and we're unbeatable when we..." he then looks right at me, and flinches, with Carl asking "Uh... isn't that the squirt that stomped us back at Birchwood Forest?" Sean then shakily says "Y-y-yeah... we can't run, though, we've already made our entrance, we'd look like cowards if we ran," I then look back towards Celes and M, and Bart adds "Sean, he's even got friends this time! We have to get out of here," Sean shakes his head, and says "No, we, of Team Zan never run from a fight, no matter how difficult it is!" He then attacks me with scratch, which seemed weaker than the last time he used it. I held in my laughter, and decided to wait for the others to attack... and both of them did, with tackle. Of course, I couldn't even really tell if they were attacking or not, so I just waited for the rest of my team to get here.

---

[Anthony]

I was amazed that these pokemon were even able to build a camp, let alone a fairly decent one to hide away from Zane. Josh introduced us to the entire camp, and I said hello to everyone, explaining how I led Zane's small army over to Beach Cave, and tried to stay interested as I had to repeat my introduction every time Josh introduced me to another camp member. Then, Brace happened. He seemed so sure of himself, and he seemed to not trust anyone in Josh's party... that is, including Josh. As soon as he said that he couldn't trust me, I said "Well, I wouldn't tell anyone, no matter what. Josh here told me about Zane, and what he's doing is completely wrong. He shouldn't get away with this, and I've made it a personal mission of mine to turn him in to the authorities... as soon as I get strong enough to actually beat him," I didn't care if Brace believed me, because at least I knew it was true, of course, the way I said it may have gotten others to believe in the truth, as well... particularly Josh, though, I was sure he trusted me to begin with. At that point, I kinda remembered something... "Oh, um, Josh, we kinda have something to take care of... I'd rather Terra not explode in anger from us keeping her waiting for so long," I then whisper to Josh, remembering the reason why we were even able to get over here. I then looked around for any spare wood planks that we might be able to construct a bridge out of for Terra... even if I didn't feel all to welcome here thanks to Brace.

---

[Bonnie]

"Well, I think we should go on a mission, I mean, after sleepyhead wakes up," I respond to William who seemed torn as to whether we should go on this mission or not. Samuel fell asleep, and while the view was hypnotic, I felt as though we should be out and about doing things instead of just sitting here. Yeah, today wasn't all that great thanks to that horrible dream, but the best way to get that out of my head that I could think of was heading off on a mission and possibly getting into some danger... at least that way I'd be focused on that danger and forget about the imaginary danger that my dream presented to me. I then looked at the mission, and headed off to Birchwood Forest, or, at least, where I thought that place was. I never really ventured out of my house before running away, and couldn't thanks to my dad always blocking the way, and then knocking me out with his slash attack, so, I had to guess at where this forest was, and if this wasn't the right direction, I was sure that my teammates would correct me... I just hoped that this wouldn't blow my 'wild pokemon' cover. Maybe I'll just say that I have a bad sense of direction, or that I never left Sunswept Plains until I joined the guild. The second part was kinda true, but it wasn't the actual reason as to why I was most likely heading in the wrong direction. They'd believe me right? After all, I've given them no reason not to believe me... I haven't lied to them, or, more accurately, they haven't caught me lying to them yet.

[Sumable]

-Will-
I watch as Bonnie starts walking... in the wrong way. I wake Samuel up and we walk with Bonnie, and say "Er, Bonnie! Birchwood Forest isn't that way," as I turn her in the right direction. We begin walking, and I rub my nose again. "Lets just hope that we don't need to fight. Mind if I stop by Bob and Ed's before we leave? Just to get an escape orb, in case something happens. Never know, there could be someone from the other guild there that's strong, and is really hard about that rivalry," I say. I then ask for some of Samuel's money and then I head over into Allure and take off my badge. I go to Bob and Ed's stall and look at them both. " 'Ey!" Bob says. "How are you?" he says. Ed looks over the counter and sees my badge. "Welcome, friend!" he says, smiling. "What, what's going on? Ooooh, I see..." Bob snarls. I edge over to Ed, and say "Hey, I just need an Escape Orb..." and he rolls it up on the table. "200 Poke, please," he says. I put up all the money I had. Just enough.

I come back to the group, and hold it up. "Ta-da!" I say, putting it in my bag. I walk eastwards, and eventually get to Birchwood Forest. I walk around, keeping my eyes peeled for a doll. "I wonder what it looks like," I say, tapping my fingers. I find a fainted pansage, with a caterpie slowly crawling towards it. I kick the caterpie away and walk past the Pansage.

[Evanist]

Celes, hearing what M was saying, and then hearing everything that Spruce said, stares at him, and cough a lot. She stares at him.
"Wait what? I....who you talking about?" she says, before sweating a bit.... before team Zan arrived. God... that timing.... But this was awkward.... Spruce seemed to have figured it out. She should have not have gave him soup this time but.... God.... And how the heck did M even go and eat that soup? Wasen't he a steal type magnemite? Wasen't he like a machine or something? Too confusing.... but one thing for sure, he would probably be mad at her after all that. She looked at Bart, before jumping up and then letting out a swift attack quickly, attempting to knock him out of the sky with this attack. Enough with god dang poison types.... there are so many of them lately. She looked at Spruce, and cough a bit.
"I will explain later after this..." she says blushing a bit, before getting hit by a tackle attack. She shrug at this, not feeling the damage that much. She then finishes off the koffing with a swift attack again.

[Riddles]

"You're saying that now, but just wait a while and you'll see." Brace said. "Zane's made some of the toughest guys I know have completely break down."
Josh glared at Brace as he swam away. He was about to go after him, but then Anthony reminded him of the mission. "Oh! Almost forgot about that." He turned to Eddie. "Look, as much as I'd like to stay, we've got a couple more friends who are stranded on the other side of a pit back there."
"Well, we've got some planks of wood in that tent there." Eddie said, pointing to a large tent near the waterfall.
"That's good news." Matt said, heading over to the tent. "I'll go get one."
"What's this mission of yours, anyway?" Eddie said.
"We're headed to the top of Mt. Dragoncoil." Josh said.
"Well, if that's the case, I've got good news and bad news. The good news is, there's a tunnel up ahead that I think leads to the top of the mountain. Or close to it, anyway."
"And, the bad news?"
"It's crawling with wild wild Pokemon. I went up there a while back to see what I could find, and I barely made it out."
"Shouldn't be too hard for us to get through. We've got a Fairy-type with us."
Matt came out of the tent, dragging a long wooden plank behind him. "It's a little heavy. I may need assistance." He looked at Josh, Hex, and Anthony, none of which had any arms. "Nevermind."

Just as they were about to leave, Josh stayed back for a moment. "Where's Keira?"
"Um...Well, you see..."
"Where is she, Eddie?"
"I...don't know. We got separated."
"What?"
"Marty's search team found us while we were headed through Birchwood Forest. The current was strong, and there was a fork in the river. Keira went one way, and the rest of us went the other way. Marty went after her, and the rest of the search team went after us. We don't know where she ended up."
Josh looked at the ground for a moment. Zane had shown them a picture of Keira, so he was probably still looking for her. Still, she could be anywhere. He hoped that he'd find her soon.

Once they'd gotten back to where Terra and Blaze were, Matt put the plank over the gap. "That should get you across." He said.
Josh turned to Anthony. "So, what do you think about the tunnel Eddie was telling us about? Do you think we'll be able to handle all of those wild Pokemon?" He said.

[KaBling]

"Hello, Mi-"

"OH SHUT THE FUCK UP!" I swore blindly at the feminine voice, banging against various walls of the submarine and not realising how strong my bubble was. Evidently, that soup was going to get me killed. After sinking down a hole and sleeping on a bed of seaweed for a second, a lone Pokemon who was now sharing the bubble with me had held me against the steel walls of the submarine. I didn't expect her to elbow my eye, cleaning it out of the remaining spice. I was blind for a few seconds, thanking the Pokemon more than once until I suddenly got the urge to kill.

I gasped. "Desia..." She was unimpressed, staring at me while the shadowy aura around her was giving her an unnatural contrast. "...what the HELL are you doing?! Coaxing me by spicing the soup and trying to guilt-trip me, after rubbing my eyes and the... experience of unnatural pleasures of being organic and not just a steel Pokemon anymore, and... er... you're still bullshitting!"

"I could do much, much better than that, you pathetic ball of scrap. I could've ended you, right here, right now." I sniffed, hard. Maybe that was the remaining spice, maybe that was poking me in a soft spot. Which she somehow knew. "But, instead, I'm coating my limb in that spice you say belongs to me. How ironic. You're so stupid by blaming everything on me, and I prefer not to know how you've gotten so ugly within a day or two." I would've used a pun for ironic. Maybe 'iron-ic.'

"Oh you. Being all fancy by calling me all of the above." I whacked her clean limb away, getting three claws out of my face. She took it as a threat and prepared to lunge at me until I started to talk. The eeriness of the submarine was disturbed by creaking. "What is it? You're not here to kill me, yet you're going to once we meet again." By talking to her, I was risking everything. I could've at least tried to shock her, but at the moment I was doing the opposite of making sure I didn't. What a fateful mistake... I think the glowing purple scar on my face influenced me, but I would never know.

"I've got a proposition: you help kill Davis, I'll let you live for now. Otherwise you've got 'goons' right outside that creaking door you just glanced at." She chillingly said, wiping her arm on the algae-covered surfaces of the submarine.

It terrified me how much she knew about me, so much so as plucking words from my narration. "...what the hell, BAN HER!" "...excuse me? Davis is dead, and now you expect me to excavate his remains and overkill them? Seems legit."

She face-clawed, sighing to the point where it disturbed her thorax. "No, you idiot. He's alive, and I could care less. I know you wouldn't, though. You spent all your young life near that deceptive bastard... looking for him too." I was trembling (with excitement), although I couldn't let that show. I zapped my magnets together, just to warn her to get to the good stuff already. "Oh, fine, since you're in a hurry and I just cannot wait to tell you. He's on an island relaxing with Milloon, the REAL one. You're just a weak clone to fill in for his pet." I shut my eyelid.

"...can I kill you now, for shaming a friend of mine as if his death wasn't already painful enough? You dare use this time of peace to continuously INSULT US?!" I was holding back tears, inhaling deeply so my own thorax wouldn't collapse from despair. "You, despicable-"

"Bitch? I've heard that word more than any other woman should. I'm just smiling at how you would react to finding out you've been replaced... by the real you. The island's not that far from here, being a far distance from you and your friends if you go far enough ahead..." She was chuckling, looking away at me as she somehow didn't feel odd for spending such close time near me. I felt as if this conversation was beginning to end. "Oh, you can go tell all your little friends about this. Maybe they won't think you're my accomplice. Your choice. Now go, before those 'goons' get mad for calling them that." She 'goons' loudly. I was almost dead from not properly breathing as I escaped her cackle and 'goons' while I escaped the submarine.

...

Here I was now. Further ahead would lie Davis' supposed residence. She could've been right, not killing me until the last minute... maybe she was just trying to get into my head. Either way, if I solved my piece of this journey, then at least I would have one less thing to worry about. For now, it was happy times, just owning the trio of Pokemon. "You his friends? Oh good, I was hoping for an introduction." Oddly enough, I retained her voice, or at least the style Desia talked like for a second.

[Lugia]

[Spruce]

The rest of my team gets here, though, there seemed to be something wrong with M... the way he spoke just now unsettled me, somehow. Sean tried another scratch attack on me, yet, I couldn't even really feel it... yeah, it was that weak. I then decided to finally counter with a vine whip, knocking him backwards several feet, as well as knocking him out. Bart, the zubat then flew over to M and seemed to be trying to use leech life on him in some sort of vain attempt at possible damaging someone. I didn't even really have to watch, as I already knew how pathetic these guys were. I almost felt bad for them, but they insisted on fighting us. I knew that M could handle Bart, heck, he could probably easily take down the entire team if we let him... of course, that's not really saying much at this point, given that any one of us could easily knock out the entire team. Heck, these guys were among the first pokemon I've ever knocked out. Odd, considering the fact that each one of them has a type advantage against me. I wonder, though, are they actually a rescue team, or do they just like calling themselves a 'team'. I mean, for all I know, they could be a team of criminals, or something. Carl, the koffing then struggles to get up, and only really manages to say one strange thing before passing out again, "Hey, boss, remember when we used to be cool?" That sentence confused me on so many levels... they were around before I was here? They were cool at one point? They ACTUALLY know that they're not cool anymore? That sentence started more questions than it answered, that much was for sure.

---

[Bonnie]

My plan seemed to work perfectly, as William corrected my path, and we headed off to Birchwood Forest, with me following behind William this time. I kinda wondered why he didn't think that I wasn't a wild pokemon, but I didn't want to question that right now, and especially not out loud. Once we got there, I noticed something a little strange, a knocked out pokemon, and another approaching him. William knocked away the caterpie, which was the one approaching the knocked out pokemon (in this case, a pansage), but, something about that seemed odd... normally, wild pokemon didn't attack one another... I mean, sure, there was that one time when a dratini from Mt. Dragoncoil attacked a group of mareep from Sunswept Plains, but other than that, they typically got along. Maybe whoever did this was from another dungeon? Hm... I think as I continue looking for anything that might be a stuffed doll. I then kind of wondered what kind of pokemon or strange creature the doll might be. Common ones were teddiursa, and that strange creature called a 'bear' that resembles a teddiursa. I only know this from the occasional traveler that used to visit Sunswept Plains while I was there, and teddiursa wasn't really native to these parts, and so that might be a good place to start. "I think it would look like a teddiursa. Those dolls are common among young pokemon, so that's probably a good place to start," I say in response to William's wondering what the doll might look like. I didn't explain the 'bear' thing because it seemed a little dumb at this point. Maybe if we didn't find any teddiursa dolls, then I'd explain, but we should probably focus on one thing at a time.

[Sumable]

-William-
"Yeah... probably," I say, looking around. I see something brown. Although, it was a very washed out brown. It moves, and I shrug. "Guess that wasn't it," I say, thinking about the shades of brown that a teddiursa was. I continue walking around, and I see a tiny teddiursa doll. I grab it, and yell "Found it!" as Samuel catches up with me, looking at the leaves as if he was about to set fire to ANOTHER place. "I wonder if that's still going," I say, glaring at Samuel. He shrugs, and I say "If they ever find out it was you, you're gonna have to go up in court and make up some crap on why you did it. Although, what about that Litleo we took back? He'd probably tattle on you," as I scratch my chin.
...
*Boom! Boom! Boom!*
...
"Hey, what was that?" I ask, feeling the ground shake. "Sounds like some big pokemon. Maybe an Onyx..." I say, and Samuel laughs at me. "I'd take care of that Onyx so quickly that he wouldn't know what hit him!" he gloats. "Yeah, by setting him on fire," I say, walking westwards, toward the guild.
...
*BOOM! Snap! Wham!*
...
"Is someone chopping down trees?" I ask, freaked out a little. My grip tightens on the doll, as I get anxious of whatever was making so much noise. I see a couple wilds bolting away through some trees. Something's going on. "Well, I think we should go!" I say, getting my badge out. Before I could though, I saw a giant stone pillar heading my direction. I get hit in the arm, just barely. It made a loud cracking noise, also throwing my badge into a tree and breaking it. "What in Arceus' name was that for?!" I say, turning towards the being, whilst grabbing my arm. It was the conkeldurr again. I gasp and freak out. I look at it in the eyes and it stares back at me, dumbfounded. It was mesmerized for some reason, and I look down. I was shifting colors so quickly, it hurt my own eyes. I look at the beast and say "You dumb buffoon! You're just a moving rock! Go back home, you freak!" I yell at it, and I look back at my team. "Unzip my bag and break the escape orb on the ground! HURRY!" I whisper, seeing the conkeldurr start to move again.

[Noire]

Surprisingly, Anthony pumped out a strong retort to Brace's harassment. She didn't know that the little dragon slug had it in him. Sure, he may seem a bit dopey at times, but he held a good argument. Brace seemed to back down after that, sneaking in a couple of good last words before retreating. "Almost forgot he had a mission, too. Huh." Hex said, shaking her head out of it. "You know, with the whole "Josh finds his long lost best friends and allies," I guess I forgot."

As the group began to continue along, Josh stood back for a moment, speaking with one of the pokemon at the camp. He clearly had great trust in them. She caught a bit of the conversation between the two. Josh mentioned something about a pokemon named Kiera, who Josh seemed to have great interest in. It must've been one of the pokemon who was missing from the camp. Maybe she was a close friend of Josh before he left the sea.

Hex attempted to shrug, only to realize she had no shoulders. "Yeah.. sorry, Matt." She said, watching as the amoeba lugged the plank around with his slimy fingers. "Maybe when I evolve." Matt continued to carry the plank down the waterfall, slowly hovering down, trying to balance with the long strip of wood, until he arrived at the pit. He laid it across, allowing Terra a safe entrance. She wouldn't be surprised if a Terra spat some insults for them taking so long. Or pounced on one of them.

"I think we could take on the cave." Hex intervened. "I mean, most fairy types could easily badly hurt a dragon type without a lot of struggling too badly. And with us standing behind her, I doubt there's a pokemon in that cave that could take all of us on at once." This was, of course, assuming there were no sentient pokemon within that cave. A sentient dragon type might have more of a battle plan than attack, attack, defend, attack. But what were the chances of that?

[Evanist]

Celes just stares at the other team and shakes her head at this. She looks at the zubat and sneasle, and then breath deeply. She then lets out a swift attack and finishes off the sneazle. She looks at Spruce.
"Seriously... Why the heck fight us if they know how strong we are and how we can beat them easy. We would have just let them pass if they were not to attack us..." she says a bit annoyed. She then notices how M was acting a bit weird now.... What the heck happen, she did not know.... something she would need to find out about probably.
"Can we just get this over with and move on? This is seriously a joke." she says a bit annoyed at the moment. A bit normal, considering the fact that they wanted to fight, even if they were scared. Probably one last attack would finish this off, but was it really worth wasting her energy on that? It was as if they stayed a low level all their life... as if they never got stronger or anything. As if something made them just level lock or something.... It was pathetic

[KaBling]

As for me, my only weakness was echoing Desia's words in my head. Sure, I was happy he was alive, but saying I was really a clone did make it bittersweet. Maybe, everything she said was just an attempt to make an attack on his life. He probably was really dead. Then again...

I felt a light tickle as I saw a little green stream traveling from me to the annoying Zubat. I shouldn't have felt it at all, although I hadn't really been a true steel Pokemon lately. "What are you trying to do, go on a suicide mission?" I said, loud and clear despite the currents of the sea. I flew over some sea rocks and an oddly-shaped (U-shaped) steel rod on the sea floor, which was clearly rusting and growing all sorts of sea life. By the time I got to the Zubat, he was desperately trying to suck the life out of me - yet, he couldn't even prick me. "Uh, no."

I simply swatted the Zubat away to my left, letting it drift off before sinking and bouncing on some rocks. "I don't even want to know how they're able to survive the dungeon Pokemon down here."

[Lugia]

[Spruce]

I looked back for a moment and noticed that M has finished off Bart, and therefore Team Zan. He then brought up a decent point, as in, how the heck did they actually get here without anything attacking them. I shrugged, and said "Maybe they annoyed the wild pokemon to death, or something," I honestly didn't know, but I think it was possible that the wild pokemon never even bothered to attack them... but then... why? It seems to completely contradict their seemingly random behavior, as in, they'd attack almost anything or anyone else that tries to trespass on 'their' territory, and above that, how the heck did these low-ranking, constantly failing, so-called 'thugs' even get access to a dive HM? Of course, knowing them, they could have just tripped over one, and had to use their only reviver seed from the damage caused from their leader tripping and falling over something. I almost laughed at thinking about how that might have played out, and continue forwards until I come across an area that reminded me of that altar in Foggy Plains. It had the same color difference, and that same grey crystal sitting in the middle of that same stone structure, and just like last time, I was nearly hypnotized by it. My thought process was interrupted by someone rushing past me, and nearly hitting me with dragon rush... a rare and powerful move that was thankfully somewhat inaccurate. I turned to see Vine, yet, something was wrong with him... was it that smile that I've never seen him make before, or was it the fact that he was charging up some sort of weird, shadow-based attack? I couldn't even really move at this point, unfortunately. I was conflicted about attacking my brother, someone who hasn't actually done anything wrong, and wasn't a wild pokemon, but I knew that I couldn't just rely on evading attacks this whole fight.

---

[Anthony]

When Matt and the rest of us finally made it back to the spot where we left Terra, she looked more like a fire type than a fairy type, and Blaze was out of the backpack, looking up at her, scared. The bridge was made, and she instantly ran over to me, of all pokemon, and shouted "You just thought you could DITCH ME back there!? What, is your brain made of the same goop that the REST of you is made of? I mean, it took you THIS LONG to find a plank of wood?" She then started saying words that I probably shouldn't repeat or remember, until Blaze walked up to her and said "Terra, that's enough yelling. They did the best that they could, let's just be happy that we were able to get across," thankfully, that calmed her down before she decided to move on to the rest of the group, and after taking a deep breath, and counting to one hundred for some reason, she asked "Okay, so, do we have another plan of attack, or are we just heading up this mountain the slow way?" I then added "Well, Josh's friends found a secret passage that leade right up to the top of the mountain... um... but you'll have to find a way of climbing up a waterfall to get there..." I then prepared for another voice-based beating but it never came, she simply calmly said "Alright, lead the way, bucket man," though what she said was somewhat rude to Josh, for some reason, she sounded as if she was just messing around with him... which struck me as completely strange.

---

[Bonnie]

I frantically dig around in William's bag, finding an escape orb, only to get it knocked out of my hand by that exact conkeldurr. "Um... looks like we're not going to be leaving this fight any time soon," I say as I try to look around for where the orb might have bounced or rolled off to. The conkeldurr then uses rock throw, aiming at William, I, however, take the attack... even if it hurt like heck. He then said some garbled grunting noises, which I could only assumed meant he was trying to communicate with us, but I didn't make any effort to try to understand, after all, what would someone like him even try to say at a time like this, 'Ha, ha, you're puny!' or some other stupid thing? I use frustration on him, however, for some odd reason, he seems to resist the attack, making it a complete waste of time at this point. I then decide to quickly use attract on him before he could attack again, just to try to make this somewhat winnable. I would have used my badge, but for some reason, it went back into 'emergency' mode, rather than 'mission completed' mode, which means that we'd lose several items, and all of our money if we tried to teleport back. I then wondered for a moment, why, exactly, the badges even did that, I mean, were they controlled by someone, or a group of pokemon that just sort of keep tabs on every explorer out there that has one of these badges? Why wouldn't they just keep it in 'mission completed' mode all the time, then? Was it that it actually takes longer that way, or does it cost more power from those who are controlling the badges? Maybe... I'm just looking too far into this.

[Sumable]

-William-
I see the orb get hit out of bonnie's hands. "Damn, we're in a tight spot!" I say as he aims up Rock Throw, but Bonnie takes the blow for me. I see Samuel gathering sticks and twigs and all that again. He tries setting them on fire again, but it just doesn't work. I see Bonnie and Sam's badges change into a different mode. I say "Damn! We're in a tight spot!" as I get up and run around him in circles, planning to get him dizzy. He lets go of one of the pillars and snatches me from the ground and laughs, snorting a lot, too. I scream, and begin kicking around. Samuel jumps on the brute's back and when it looks back, uses Thunder Shock directly in its eye, and it drops me. It roars, letting go of both pillars, and holding its eye, which also means dropping me. I land on my feet and shift back to my normal color, and Samuel tries getting his other eye, too. He misses, and I grab him. I then put him in my backpack, and run to wherever Bonnie was.

*CRASH!*

I flip back and he directs a barrage of attacks on me. He oddly didn't try to kill me... Samuel jumps back out of the bag and uses Absorb. Didn't do too much. He uses Thundershock again, and again, and again until he can't use it any more. He hurt the Conkeldurr a little bit. He attacked enough to paralyze it, and he drags me deeper into the dungeon. He finds a Sleep Seed and runs back, throwing it into the Conkeldurr's mouth. It quickly slumps onto the ground, and he sighs greatly. He looks around for the escape orb and rests.
-Samuel-
"We should probably hide. I mean, dumbo over here might not give up on attacking Will. Why is he attacking William anyways?" I ask, popping my arms and neck. I take out my badge, and get ready to teleport back to the guild. I look at the flashing red and ask "What does that mean?" as I show it to Bonnie. I hear some groaning from over where I put William, and decide he might be awake. I walk back over to check on him, and his whole torso has marks from all the rocks. I help him up, and he rubs his eyes.
-William-
I look for the doll again, and find it where the pillars were. I pick it up and walk back over to the group. "Wow... I think we should just stop searching for the orb and slip away the long way," I say, sore all over. I begin walking west again, hugging the doll. It was softer and not as scaly as my hands and arms. I feel Samuel hop into my bag as we walk back.

[KaBling]

"I think they didn't even bother with them. Too weak for those Pokemon." And then, Vine (although at the time I was unaware of his name), as soon as we found the second alter. Would this be a running gag? Probably, but I did have hopes that it wasn't.

...

Remember that submarine, full of algae and inert missiles and torpedoes? One of the goons had a striking resemblance to Spruce, but since pretty much every Pokemon looked the same, I didn't bother to bring it up. I was practically chased out of there by him and another shadow Pokemon. Should've at least tried to arm those things - Davis shared me a few relics from the past, including a hasty scribble of launch codes.

If that wasn't disturbing enough, then it appeared I hadn't lost him. Oh, and my wound was glowing purple again. I didn't expect it to be too much of any help. "Erm... my Arceus, didn't I lose you already?!" That wasn't supposed to come out of my mouth. Regardless, we had bigger problems. Out in the distance, I could see Desia swimming to shore with that other goon. She had already tried to backstab me, right after that period of peace. It didn't seem quite fair, but we were dealing with something that could be counted as an infection... which made me worried, since that wound could infect me any second now. Damn dream traumatising me to the point where it actually begins to happen.

Thankfully, I wasn't fully organic yet. At least, according to my typing. I got smacked with a Dragon Rush move, whirling around and taking more damage from that, rather than the actual attack. I wasn't immune though, so you can tell how painful it was to not only take such a powerful move and only resist it, but also suffer the aftershock of it. "Argh-argh-argh-" Somehow, I managed to regain my balance, with my bubble being intact as my second miracle. I was about a few metres higher up than normal, being now the eye in the sky. "Ar... woah. Spruce, why are fighting a shadow twin?!" Contradictory to previous saying, but it was supposed to be limited to my thoughts. I was trying to brush away any association with Desia by pretty much forgetting I said something about losing the Snivy.

Being rather pissed, I would've attacked the twin. Unfortunately, I was more or less drained from before, so another one of my attacks would probably put me into submission. Not a good thing, and already the bubble around me was my only protection.

[Riddles]

Terra seemed pretty angry at first, but eventually she managed to calm down. She told Josh to lead the way, calling him "bucket man".
"Uh..." Josh couldn't tell if she was insulting him or just joking around. He decided that it didn't matter too much. "It's not far. Just up ahead here."
Once they had gotten to the waterfall, Eddie and Pinky were waiting for them at the top. "Yeah, it looks like we'll need the ropes." Eddie said. Pinky nodded, and went back to the camp.
"That's Eddie and Pinky up there. They're going to help you get up the waterfall." Josh said. "It might take a while, though. We'll be waiting up at the top."
Matt and Josh then headed up to the camp. Pinky was headed back to the coil of rope. They were probably going to get Terra and Blaze up the same way they got Eddie up earlier.

[Evanist]

Celes looked at Vine, angry, as she rushes in front of Spruce to take a hit of a dragon rush that Vine was attacking with, before being pushed back hard. Just then though, something inside seemed to spark.
"Spruce.... you need to fight..." she says, before getting hit again, this time getting hit by thunder bolt attack. She growled as she feels the pain from the attacks. That guy... that guy that seemed like Spruce... Who was he? She then suddenly lets out a swift attack, which hits the strange snivy, only to make meager damage.
"What in the..." she says before getting hit back again, though not fainting, feeling something in her sparking more and more... Something strange.... Something she never felt before. It was as if her senses were starting to get more and more intense in the moment, feeling energy starting to flow inside her... But she did not know how to let it out... She looked at Spruce, sad as the Snivy started to move towards him, getting ready to attack .She felt a deep hopelessness in her.... but she then she got up, looking straight at the Snivy, walking towards it. The snivy suddenly lets strange shadowy rush attack towards her as she was moving forwards, only to hit and not push her back, making her move forwards, anger starting to build in her eyes. The snivy looked confused by this, trying to hit her again, with the same result.

[ZombieMagikarp]

[i] Hoooool-ey cuhrap, wouldja get a load of this friggin' guy...[i] Breen taps his foot. Impatient. Breen crosses his arms. More impatient. This line of Pokemon in front of him? He'd have better luck at the Department of friggin' Motor Vehicles. Only, that would involve something worthwhile in the end; you see, at least after a good amount of time you'd get a decent used car or something. Here? Just waiting between a bunch of dudes that smell like curdled milk and then a cruddy job at the end.

Well, hey! There's also that chance for death! ...only, not really. The whole badge and faintin' thing helps out a bunch. Regardless, our one and only hero Breen is at an impasse here - waiting for the line to proceed. What fiendish place would offer some sort of dangerous job to such a person? The Guild, of course! Where the hell else? The Pokemon in line with him practically dwarf the Mudkip, especially considering he's standing between a Machamp and a Salamence. [i]shudder[i] Dragons...

[Lugia]

[Spruce]

M said some weird things about Vine, including calling him a twin. Was he colorblind or something? I was grey, and Vine was always a blue color... that is, until today, thanks to some sort of shadowy corruption, his scales had weird purple splotches all over them, but he certainly didn't look grey, at all. Of course, it could be due to the poor lighting in this place. Either way, something that worried me was how much he was attacking Celes, and he was using shadow moves, which I knew I could take, no problem. I rush in between him and Celes before another shadow rush could come into contact with her. I then try to use void whip, but fail. "V-Vine... what happened?" I ask him. Vine doesn't respond, and tries to use shadow rush on M, though, I manage to interrupt the attack once more. "Big brother, why are you trying to hurt me and my friends?" I then ask, though, I get no response from him. Instead, he decides to put us all in jeopardy by using thunderbolt underwater, electrifying the entire area, and somehow hurting me quite a bit... and I was resistant to it. I then try and fail to use a new move, leaf tornado. "Ugh... why can't I attack?" I then ask my teammates, wiping away a tear that formed in my eye. Vine... who or what caused this? Why are you so evil right now? I think as I try to gather the courage to use tackle on Vine. It fails, as expected, and he looks over towards M, preparing a dragon rush attack, as if he were trying to finish him off.

---

[Bonnie]

I notice all the chaos that happened after I took that rock throw for William, and manage to sneak in another attract, which seemed to work, this time. Paralyzed and infatuated? He won't be able to move for another week. I think as everyone around me started attacking and getting flung everywhere. Samuel then showed me his badge, which was also in 'emergency' mode. He then asked me what that meant, and I respond with "It means that we'll lose everything we have if we try to teleport using our badges at this time," they then start to say something about escaping, and I add "No... we all have to face our fears at some point. If we flee now, he'll just keep tailing us, and we all know that he'll crash our next mission if we don't finish him off right here, and now. He's paralyzed, and infatuated... he won't be able to move, let alone attack for quite some time," I explain to the rest of the team... it was weird, but, I wasn't too afraid of him anymore, and if I can take him down... maybe, just maybe I'd have a shot at taking down my own father. That thought filled me with courage and determination... I wasn't about to lose, no, not yet, and if I am supposed to lose, then I'm not going down without a fight. I use frustration on the conkeldurr, aiming right for his big, red, nose, and manage to actually deal some damage... sure, it wasn't much, but it was a start. He tried to do something, but one look at me seemed to be enough for him to stop, completely. Now... if only one of us could confuse, then we'd have this fight in the bag. I'd give them some advice, but it was probably obvious by now, just let him sit there and take damage from the best moves we could use at this point.