[IC] Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of the Void

[Riddles]

[Josh]
Daniel jokingly suggested that Kamina should Splash across the gap, which gave Anthony the idea of getting him to use Bounce. Josh wasn't sure whether or not Kamina would be able to clear the gap with that attack. Now that Anthony had given him that idea, though, there was no stopping him.
"Well, there's a chance that he might make it." Josh said. "He's got enough jumping power. Probably."

---

[Dexter]
"Sounds like Tauros shit to me. I was out here looking for you two all day yesterday. Never saw anything bigger than a Furfrou." Dexter said. "I think if there was something like that out here, I would've seen it. Or at least heard of it."
He wasn't going to believe their story until he saw this thing for himself. It sounded like they just made it up because they were embarrassed by what really happened.

After walking through the plains for a while, they came across a Lopunny who had a badge from the other guild. Nina approached her and tried to start a conversation, but she just ran away without saying anything. Dexter didn't know why she would just run away. It probably had something to do with the rivalry between the guilds.

[Evanist]

Celes looked and then heard what the others were sudgesting to get Kamina to the other side. She stared for a bit, unsure if that could work. She looked at Kamina for a bit.
"Kamina, with how much energy you got, I think you can do this! Use your fiery spirit to bounce across the bridge with fiery might!" Celes then says, smiling. Knowing how Kamina was, he would probably take this literally and could ACTUALLY do it. Or he could go and end up breaking the bridge while trying that... That would probably be bad. She breath deeply and prayed that Kamina could do it... or just use bounce or something to get to the other side. At least we didn't have a digglet with us... talking of which... how does a digglet even pass a dang bridge or stand on it? That is a mystery she didn't even know. She breath deeply and look at Kamina, hoping.

---

Eralion fallowed as much as he could near Bonnie as she ran, although he then passed another group that consisted of a ralt, a nidoran and a growlith. They greeted Bonnie, but she just ran away without saying anything. He looked at her go and sighed. He move forwards.
"Sorry about my friend, we are off to a mission and we kinda need to hurry." he then says before running off soon after, trying to get to Bonnie. He did see that the others were from another guild... but he didn't really care about the relations between the 2 guilds. Sure there might be tensions, but that didn't mean people couldn't be friendly. He keep moving, getting near Bonnie. He breath deeply.
"Well.... I guess you didn't feel like talking to them uhm? Well, they didn't really look like mean people." he then says

[KaBling]

"Heh... I'm already across? That's a relief." I said weakly, surprised to see how much closer I was to the tower. Seemed as if the heat was playing with me, the hot air filled my insides with malaise. Considering the warmth, it was definitely making me rather loopy and on the edge - well, I ended up floating erratically in the air and almost exposing myself to the chasm below, the abyss staring into me... and I stared back, slapping my head and trying to get my head straight. It was blowing hot air straight at me, and I had to move towards Spruce again on the dry crisp land to avoid making myself even more sick. I felt pained all over, but sooner or later I would end up forgetting about it. You know, you're exposed to the same thing then over time you'll get used to it. It was only partially true, but it was certainly better than constantly moaning. I just had to be quiet when Spruce had to bring some bad news when it came to food, hoping the tower would have some pots or... just about any containers that we could loot. They do exist right? Davis always told me about those things...

Just probably the heat getting to me. So parched, hostile and dry that a cactus would probably cringe here and die. In fact, up ahead towards the tower, it seemed as if the cacti around were all browned and decayed. Some tried to grow under the rotting piles of plant matter, but it seemed as if it was a repeating cycle here. Meanwhile, it seemed as if the horizon was just one single plane line, the flatness of the land being straighter than the Sunswept Plains. In fact, if you thought about it, this place was Sunswept Plains 2.0. How horrifying. At least the Plains didn't make me suffer the effects of a heatstroke, despite how murky the sun seemed in the sky. My metallic skin was dulled from our adventures together with the group, scratched up and producing blurred reflections of the world.

...

That didn't even have anything to do with what I was talking about. Like I said, almost everywhere hurt and I was barely able to catch any words being exchanged by the group.

"So, Spruce..." I asked, realising I still didn't even know much about our group about a week into our adventures. "What's your history? You know, before we had to find some Legendary... fight a screwed-up Pokemon... confront Anthony. Just asking 'cause it seems as if I'm not gonna last much longer without help."

[Card Captor]

Kamina

Looking back on it, the idea seemed so painfully obvious. He had spent far more time honing his skill with Splash then anyone should spend training a skill. His knowledge of that one technique approached levels of transcendent insight, the kind needed to reach true enlightenment and achieve oneness with all that is and ever will be. He had more skill and experience with that technique then anyone had with any single technique they knew

...Maybe. It can be hard to tell with Kamina sometimes. Regardless, he was indeed very skilled in the use of Splash. After all, he had managed to devise a way to move about on land using it, which was proof enough of his mastery of it. So taking it to the next level; teaching himself a move that could very well be considered a useful version of Splash, seemed like it should have been the first thing he should have done upon evolving. "Yeah...you're right" whether he was talking to Anthony, Celes, or the voices in his head, it was impossible to tell. "Why didn't I think of this earlier!? Yeah, let's do this!!!" Kamina then proceeded to wrap himself around Celes, Anthony, and anyone else he could find on his side of the bridge "alright, time to fly!!!" The pile of Pokemon then bounced up into the air. Over the bottomless gorge (or maybe it did have a bottom? Eh, it doesn't matter) and straight to the other side, where they all landed unharmed "that was AWESOME!!! Who wan't to go again!?"

---
Tini

Tini was excited. Not that this was anything terribly new or interesting to those who knew him, but still worth noting. "Gasp of excited surprise!" No, that wasn't a sound effect; he did in fact say that "we get to reunite a lost couple!? SQUEE! Ah, I love love, it's just so great...you know? This is going to be just like in those old love stories; Samson and Delilah, Romeo and Juliet, Cleopatra and Marc Anthony. Wonderful tales about true love conquering all" he spoke without a hint of irony "and now we get to play a part in one of those stories. It's just so exciting! Oh, does anyone have a fake mustache or two on hand? Because I might need them...although if no one has one, I guess I could improvise something" So distracted with his mustache themed thoughts, that he didn't notice the other team that they came across.

[Kamen Evie]

“Yeah, that is kind of weir-” Rebecca started to say, before a Pancham on the Lopunny’s team appeared to explain the issue, “Ah, well that explains a lot, actually. Well, good luck on that mission, I guess.” She kind of wished every question in life would be so easily answered, but she supposed that this would take a lot of the fun out of the issue. Dexter seemed intent on not being conducive to… just about any kind of fun, actually. With the Lopunny out of the way, she decided to address the issue.

“Ok,” Rebecca started, “First off, I’m pretty sure you weren’t gone “all day”, unless teleporting is a lot slower than it sounds. We just sort of shooed away a Geodude and sat down and then you were there. Secondly, ground control to Major Tom; we’re a team. I understand if you don’t believe us, because it’s kind of crazy, but you don’t have to be rude about it. We can’t be a good team if we’re always being all distrustful and sardonic towards each other.” She continued walking for a moment before realizing why she was getting so worked up about the dispute and let out a deep sigh.

“I’m sorry,” The Ralts apologized. “I guess that hit a raw nerve... Either way, though, we’ll probably run into that thing again at some point down the road whether we want to or not. Let’s just try and focus on the mission, I think that’s what’s most important at the moment.”

[Lugia]

[Spruce]

Kamina almost flew up into the sky, landing right next to us, but, before that, M asked me a serious question... one I couldn't really ignore. He asked me what my life was like up until I got to where I was. "Well... to be honest... I was actually an explorer for years and years, but before that, I was just an ordinary wild snivy living in some tree house in Birchwood forest, you know, before that as a mystery dungeon... I ended up in that now-famous team, The Wildvines, heck, I was their first member besides the leader, my brother, Vine. Seems great, right? Fame, money... yeah, I never had that. Heck, my brother, with his... let's call them... differences, always got in the way of attacks, and always stopped me from attacking so he could attack, instead. To be blunt, he never let me do a single thing, so I never got any stronger... soon enough, he forgot that I even existed. He took the stronger members of that team, often forgetting that yes, I still exist. I'm still a member. An entire year passed, and I continually tried to start my own exploration team, where everyone who's a member will get to go on all the missions, no matter how strong they were. Where nobody would try to steal the spotlight, so we wouldn't have any forgotten members... we would all get stronger together, you know? It... never happened. The guild leaders always just assumed I was joking, as, in their eyes, I had it all, and wanted to get rid of it for no reason. Then came that fateful day... the day where Vine disappeared. Somehow, for some reason, they listened to me, then... they let me make my own exploration team on that day... but, then came the constant questions 'Where's Vine?' 'have you seen Vine anywhere, Vine's brother?' 'You haven't seen Vine around, have you?'... these questions kinda got to me, and I'd always answer them pretty much in the same way, honestly. I haven't seen Vine for a few years at that point, let alone lately... funny... in a way, I guess I wanted to find my big brother... of course... all of that led me to take on my first mission, to save a magikarp in birchwood forest, my old home," I then took a few steps into the boiling hot tower, but not before helping M back into the air using vine whips, and on that first step, I could feel a burn. This wasn't going to be easy.

---

[Anthony]

Kamina listened to me, and used Splash until it turned into the move 'Bounce', which he quickly used to get right over the bridge. Is THIS what it's like to fly!? If so, then I'm GLAD I'll never grow wings! I thought as myself, as well as Kamina, and a few others were jumping up into the sky, and then landing with a speed that I thought would kill at least someone. Spruce seemed to be talking M's non-existent ear off before helping him back into the air with his vines, and taking his first... obviously painful step into the tower. "Okay... how the heck did you get SPRUCE to not only wait for something, but also talk your ear off without yelling at you? He's NEVER this patient," I commented as I made my way into the tower. The heat... actually felt really nice considering what I've been through lately, of course, that could also just be my dragon typing coming in, as well. A vulpix stood in my path, and I used dragonbreath to hit the thing before it could hit me. Oddly, even though there wasn't much ACTUAL sunlight, the place was bright enough, and warm enough to have pretty much the same effect as, say, sunny day, or drought. I just had to wonder if this applied to only this floor, or if it actually applied to the entire tower. The reason for that thought was the fact that, on rare occasions, vulpix, as well as ninetales might actually have the ability drought... the ability to bring this heat, and light into places such as a dark cave, or the ocean floor... of course, I could only assume that the ability was easier to use while they were outdoors, but apparently it was still usable indoors, as well.

---

[Bonnie]

Eralion asked me if I didn't want to talk to them, and I answered with "It's not really that... it's just... I didn't want to hurt that poor ralts. You heard what those psychic types back at the board said, they couldn't bear to be near me due to some sort of corruption, or evil. She was innocent, she didn't deserve to be hurt, so I had to stay away," I then hopped along, towards Scale City, passing by several pokemon that just didn't want to bother me, at all... as well as... something disturbing. A dead buneary... what made it worse was the fact that there was some weird, unidentifiable substance that seemed to be made out of small squares kept changing colors between black, pink, red, grey, and white leaking out of it, and as if it were gas, it was leaking into the air rather than all over the ground. Sure, there was the usual blood mixed in there, as well but... what the heck could have caused that? "I think we should just keep moving on before I freak out," I announced, trying to not stay near that weird corpse for too long. Why do I get the odd feeling that if I stayed here for much longer... that could have been me? I thought as I kept moving. Whether or not my teammates were at this point wasn't much of a concern to me. I was just going to wait at Scale City, however, I didn't go too quickly, as to lose them, just enough so we'd make it there in some decent amount of time. Whatever happened to that buneary, I wanted to stay as far away from it as I could... the last thing I wanted to do was die, let alone in... whatever fashion THAT was...

---

[Nina]

"Well... fine, then... I guess. Right, maybe Ms. Bunny just isn't that talkative, today," I then heard my other two teammates talking about whether or not we were just ashamed of what really happened here, and I had to interject "I think that's enough for now... if you don't believe us, that's fine enough, you will eventually... it's kind of... a part of our guild work, in a way. You'll be right next to evidence of that event before you know it," I then continued onward, running into the lopunny again, though, she seemed to be running away from something that wasn't us, this time. I walked over to it... and remembered who that was... "She took a sky attack for us... but... that doesn't look like it was any ordinary move... I mean... what's this weird stuff?" I said to nobody in particular as I approached the buneary corpse that seemed to have parts from that horrible pokemon that attacked us leaking out of her body where the Sky Attack hit her. There really wasn't much blood leaking out, and whatever did during the short time it was alive during the attack already dried, but this stuff... not only did it rise up from the leaking point, as if it were gas, or some other thing less dense than air, but it didn't really look like anything from this world... well, okay, it looked like exactly ONE thing from this world... THAT thing. I decided to take another step towards the formerly alive bunery... and the thing sprung to life, its eyes weren't really visible behind what I could only describe as static, and worse, the thing decided to attack me with a weird variant of the move 'Pound', knocking me backwards a couple feet. I had no words. This was literally a pokemon come back from the dead just to attack us. I could only hope that Dexter saw all of this, and knew what was going on, 'cause if he saw this, and STILL didn't believe us, I don't know what would get him to believe.

[Evanist]

Celes listened to what was being said by Spruce then, hearing his story, how he got to go and create his own team, cause his brother was taking all the fame and not letting him train. She looked down a bit. It made her think a bit about her own family when she did want to train. They were almost always the ones taking the hits, with her not being able to do much. That is why she was asked to evolve back there. So that she could be stronger, but she was not interested in those forms anyway. She breath deeply as she looks back at the tower. Everyone was in the other side now, so soon they would go in the tower to try to get to Reshiram. Seeing a legendary up close like that will be interesting. She looked at everyone.
"Hope everyone is ready." she says.

---

As Eralion saw the dead buneary as he fallowed Bonnie, he felt like sometihng was wrong with it. He looked towards Bonnie worried.
"Wait up!" he says before running off to fallow her. He did not want to stay there. He move forwards hoping for god that whatever that weird gas thing was wasen't contagious or something. He did not want to stay there at all right now.
"What the heck was that... thing spewing out of there... ugh.... I... have a very bad feeling about what that was." he says, not wanting to head back, feeling like it would be a bad idea to even head back.

[Riddles]

[Josh]
Thankfully, Kamina was able to clear the gap. He also brought several of the others with him, which made things a whole lot easier since they didn't have to worry about the bridge collapsing under anyone's weight.
"Well then, let's keep going, shall we?" Josh said. He honestly didn't think that would work.

There were some mixed reactions as the group took their first steps into the tower. Anthony seemed unaffected by the heat, as opposed to Spruce, who looked like he was in pain. Josh assumed that it had something to do with type advantages, or more specifically, how resistant they were to fire attacks. Obviously, this was going to be a problem, but there was an easy solution.
"Spruce, I'm sure Kamina wouldn't mind if you ride on his head." Josh said. "It might make things a little easier for you."

---

[Dexter]
They encountered the same Lopunny again, this time running away from something else. They went to have a closer look, only to see a dead Buneary lying on the ground. Apparently, she took a Sky Attack so Nina and Rebecca could escape.
"What the hel-" Dexter began to say, but was cut off when the Buneary somehow rose from the dead and attacked.
The undead Buneary used Pound on Nina, which knocked her back quite a bit. In response, Dexter ran forward, and blew a few Embers at the Buneary. With all three of them attacking, it was sure to go down quickly.

[KaBling]

That was the closest I had come to death, at least until now. Spruce told me his side of the story the first time I was crippled. The second and my last is now, is it not? Don't worry, we'll get there. We'll get there alright. You just gotta be patient and... need to know the entire story.

So, I rolled around and got comfortable on the ground, preferring to rest against the warmth of the ground as it poured into me. It was certainly painful but I couldn't complain forever, and I had to suck it up like any other Pokemon in this world. There were all sorts of injustices around us, but it was better to shut up about it because every solution took time. Maybe my suffering would be ended by another fire attack. Maybe I'd find some food in there to get me properly healed up. Right now I was starving and... if Davis were to scan me, he'd be horrified at the slither of life I still had. He also probably wouldn't expect the appearance of feathers and other interesting developments on my body - although in all honesty, they seemed a lot less pronounced and noticeable than before. Maybe they had something to do with my mindset or emotions...

"Go on Spruce." I rasped, smothering myself on the baked dirt and pretending I was at home with Davis. All the stories he'd read in my sleep, about heroes and ancient history... just thinking about them made me sleepy. To be polite though, I let my thoughts run and avoided sleep to listen to Spruce, hearing out what he had to say for himself as the leader of our group. He went on about having a brother who always overshadowed him and made him feel unworthy, how he never had the chance to prove himself...

I listened to him as I coughed and my breath became dry. All the way to the end, I absorbed his words and realised what this was about: this Pokemon never got the chance to be a real adventurer until now. Problem was, it seemed as if we were caught up in something that was no longer about fame. Me? I didn't really care for anything. I would've be a drifter if it weren't for Spruce, aimlessly wandering the world for meaning. Now, here we are... risking our lives to save some village. Certainly better than plotting against a missing Pokemon, am I correct? "Spruce..." I cleared my voice with a heavy cough, spitting out dust as my magnets (though at this point they were barely magnets) spun in reaction. Must've blown into my mouth or something whilst listening to Spruce. "You did the right thing. If it weren't for you, I'd just be a loner without a purpose. Yet he we are: we're gonna overturn the wraith of a legendary, and stop the world from witnessing an old horror. Even if it doesn't mean I'll..." I frowned and looked away from Spruce, rolling my back to him. "My name's Miles." I dropped, preferring to entrust my respect for someone for once. "I used to have a peaceful life until my guardian left me. I really did think I wouldn't be any different to the Pokemon we're fighting until I joined you. Sure I got a nasty scar and you got greyed, but it really do think it was worth it."

Spruce didn't want me to mark out my own grave just yet, lifting me out of the dirt and into the air. Initially I almost slammed back into the dirt, until I kicked in my levitation (with great pain) and stabilised myself. I felt somewhat dizzy from the experience of being thrown into the air, but now was the time to act and not die. "Alright... let's go out with a bang, I guess." I said, grinning for the first time in a while. Maybe this was my resting place (a thought that remains true now as I lie bleeding), but I sure as hell wanted to know I wouldn't fall without a fight. The tower ahead of us was certainly tall and intimidating, a stark contrast to the relative flatness of the hot lands around us. This certainly seemed like Reshiram's place, a tower of various welded scrap metals and tied together with pipes. I could identify bikes, cars... and disturbingly a few Steel Pokemon in there. Steam billowed out of dark holes of the tower in a randomised loop that sometimes collided with other streams, and many ramparts of mashed metals surrounding the tower like . It certainly shone with a clean glare, with rust in a few places disrupting the painful view. Yes, the whole tower was made of ancient human artefacts, but it seemed as if someone had the time to layer the outside with bronze as to cover up any imperfections. Sunlight wasn't going to stop me now, however.

"Kamina, I don't appreciate being dragged off, alright? Also, apologies." I felt as if making amends was my next step. Wasn't fair to take my anger out on someone who had suffered as dearly as ourselves. Besides, he's helped us on many things, from tanking hits to leaping impossible distances with others. Speaking of which, I pretended to ignore a large gust of air that nearly threw me off-balance, knowing it was just a certain Pokemon's antics (that also saved the day). Stupidly though, he ended up drawing a fight already, something I was admittedly willing to staying away from. "Yes, I'm ready. Question is who isn't?" I asked, pointing to a fight ahead of us in the tower.

[Card Captor]

Kamina

Kamina was still riding the mental high of having just jumped over the big hole in the ground, so all felt right with the world to him (besides of course, the whole village that was frozen. But they were going to fix that soon enough, so no worries). "This is going to be so amazing! Getting to fight a Legendary...or were we going to ask one for help...or was it both? Bah, that doesn't matter! I'll figure out the minor details later. Either way, this is going to be so amazing...wait, didn't I already say that? Eh, whatever." After his rambling, he noticed that M was apologizing to him for something. "ah, don't worry about it little buddy. I forgive you for whatever it is your sorry for." It was kind of cute, Kamina thought, that he was remorseful enough about something that Kamina didn't bother to remember. However the time for contemplation was over, for now was the time for action. "My body is ready. Let us charge into the gates of hell!!!...Or this place."

---
Tini

Seeing a dead body on the road was rather depressing, even to the bundle of sunshine that mintyness that is Tini. However he recovered quickly enough, since as mentioned already; this was Tini. After saying a quick pray for the poor departed Bunny, he suddenly realized something; 'wait...this is a Bunny! Bonnie used to be a Bunny.' The gears in his little brain kicked into overdrive processing this information 'that fact had to make her more sad about this poor Bunny. I must comfort her...with hugs!' Tightening his hold on Bonnie (although not to a level that would cause discomfort) he spoke "it's okay Bonnie, you're still alive. That wasn't you, and it won't be you. We won't let anything happen to you, cuz we both love you a lot." Then turning his head to Eralion, he added "Eralion, quick, get up here! I need to add your fuzzyness to this hug to help Bonnie!"

[Kamen Evie]

“I don’t know,” Rebecca said to Nina as she investigated the “strange stuff,” “but don’t get so close to it-” She didn’t get to finish telling her about how dangerous and straight up gross she thought that would be before her advice was disregarded and the body rose off the ground and started attacking her friend. Dexter saw it fit to use Ember on the abomination, and she was thankful that at least someone was sensible enough to look at that thing and immediately decide the best course of action is to kill it with fire. Again. She wasn’t really sure how the terminology for this sort of thing should go, and she didn’t really care at the moment.

“Oh,” The Ralts said indignantly, her blue eyes glowing faintly beneath her hair, “Of course it has to be zombies. And not even the dumb regular kind of zombies, it has to be the kind that’s actually creepy. But you know what? It’s always zombies, I’m still sick of zombies, and I am going to be a rotting corpse myself before I let one ruin my day!” She concluded her rant by using Confusion, picking up the reanimated buneary and slamming it into the ground before throwing it a short distance away from Nina. It was situations like this where Rebecca was very glad that she was a psychic.

[Lugia]

[Spruce]

I heard what Miles told me, first off, his name, and secondly about how, without me, he would have just been some drifter. I smiled as I recalled that fateful day. "We're going to make it through this, I promise. I won't leave you behind, Miles, we WILL make it to the top of this tower, both of us," I then heard Josh suggest something that I probably should have thought of, and I took Anthony's spot on Kamina's head. A flamethrower attack headed right for Anthony, who took it like a champion, and finished the thing who shot him off with his own breath attack, a dragon breath attack, to be more precise. I then used my vantage point to scan for any sort of food item that Miles could use, and, off to my left, I found one, an oran berry that looked a little cooked, but... he probably wasn't too picky at this point, even if he preferred the cold to the heat. "Miles, over there! An oran berry!" I pointed out to him before realizing that he might not have the strength to get there, himself. I then brought him the berry using my vine whips, even if it hurt me, a little bit, just due to the fact that they had to touch the floor. I then waited for Kamina to continue on, knowing that I'd still be able to attack from up here, if I needed to, at least. Vine whip is actually getting kinda strong... weird... isn't it usually the weakest grass type move that doesn't drain life? I thought to myself as I recalled the fact that I never forgot vine whip, how that, somehow, was one of my go-to moves for both utility and battle... it just didn't make sense, though, that a MOVE, of all things, could be trained.

---

[Anthony]

Spruce and M seemed to have some sort of conversation about not giving up or something while I finished off this vulpix. I then tried to run over towards an oran berry that I might need later, however, Spruce got to it first, and he gave it directly to the very beaten up looking magnemite on the team. I thought about saying something rude or snarky, but decided against it, and just continued on, with Spruce taking my place on Kamina's head, and me taking his place at the front of the team. "At this rate, Kamina, your head will never go naked again," I joked as I tried to look for the stairs, all the while, trying to make sure nobody spots me. It wasn't all that easy, however, and a dratini noticed me, and used its own dragon breath on me. Thanks to the tough helmet, I didn't take nearly as much damage as I should have, and I retaliated by using the same move against it... though, somehow, it dodged, and stuck its tongue out at me, as if mocking me for missing, or something. I had a feeling that someone else might be able to handle this fight. Someone like... a steel type, or something. Even if I had that helmet, I wasn't getting anywhere with that thing dodging my attacks somehow. If only M wasn't out of order right now, he'd be able to KO that dratini... I thought as I headed back to my team, where the dratini can't attack me, thankfully. A steam vent almost blew my helmet off, but thankfully, I managed to catch it before anything really happened with that, and I took a look at the walls, wondering just what, exactly those things that made up the wall were... M seemed to recognize him, maybe I could ask him?

---

[Bonnie]

Eralion and Tini thankfully had the right idea, and they both ran as far away as they could from the corpse. Tini, being Tini, wrapped himself around me and tried to comfort me. I... guess he's right... but, still... no, I should just focus on the mission, bringing that nirorina to her lost boyfriend. I thought before eventually answering with "Y...you're right, Tini, we should focus on the mission, huh?" I then gave him a possibly fake smile and just continued onward, wondering what might have become of that other team... they seemed to be heading in the same direction we were heading in, so, clearly they would have run into the corpse, as well, right? Eralion expressed that he had a bad feeling about the weird stuff coming out of the corpse, and I nodded in agreement. "Whatever that was, it sure as heck wasn't natural..." I explained as I continued on, making it all the way to Scale City without any issues, whatsoever... that is, until I remembered just how lost I can become in that place. "How about we... go around this place, huh? I'd rather not end up lost again," I asked the team, remembering what happened on our last mission, the one involving a keckleon, and some stupid gang or something, and more importantly THIS city. I then started heading around the city, itself, which was pretty much the only way I could make it past this place without getting hopelessly lost at least three times, unfortunately. I then looked up to see our goal, that mountain that looked suspiciously like a dragon's head, teeth and all, and from that, as well as from what I know of Scale City, I assumed that I would run into a wide variety of dragon types, and pretty much ONLY dragon types on this mountain.

---

[Nina]

Rebecca expressed her frustration with zombies, and the undead in general while Dexter decided to kill the thing with fire, which seemed thankfully effective. Rebecca also used her confusion attack to send the thing away, which seemed at least moderately effective, and, since I had no attacks that could hit from a distance, I decided to run up to the thing, and use double kick... which didn't do much at all considering the fact that this was supposedly a normal type pokemon. "What the heck...?" I asked myself before the thing ignored me to try to use Frustration on Rebecca. I tried to get in the way, but I wasn't fast enough, so, the attack was still aimed at Rebecca. Why in the world didn't Double Kick do anything? This is a NORMAL type pokemon, right? As in... fighting super-effects it, right? No, something isn't right... at all. This THING, whatever it is now, is no normal pokemon. I thought as I tried to think of another move to use. Maybe the thing could still be poisoned, despite the fact that it's technically dead? It was at least worth a try, though, right? The other team had the right idea about this thing... running as far away from it as they could, and I would have done the same by now if my team wasn't in danger. Dexter's fire was oddly effective, again, given that it's supposed to be a normal type, but, clearly, as my double kick attack showed, it wasn't just any ordinary normal type, at least, not anymore. If I thought there was even a shred of that buneary who helped us back there, I might have been more hesitant to attack, however, I knew that wasn't the case from how it moved, and how it attacked... it might very well have been just a corpse puppet rather than an actual undead pokemon.

[Riddles]

[Josh]
As soon as the Dratini appeared, Matt began putting his screens up. Anthony was up at the front of the group, but after taking an attack from the Dratini, he retreated. Josh would've tried to finish the Dratini off, but he was weak to Dragon-type moves, and didn't have any super-effective moves to fight back with. That was better off left to someone with an advantage, like Celes or M.

In the corner of his eye, Josh noticed something moving. He turned around to see a Growlithe trying to sneak up behind them. Josh used Hydro Pump on it, which wasn't nearly as effective as he hoped it would be. Sure, the Growlithe took a lot of damage, but it was still standing. The heat of the tower must have weakened the attack, or something.

---

[Dexter]
Nina's attack seemed to do next to nothing, while Dexter's was much more effective. Dexter didn't exactly have all of the type advantages memorized, but he knew that wasn't right. It was weak to fire, though, which was good.
"Alright, I got this." Dexter said. He kept using Ember, hoping that it would be enough to re-kill this thing.

[Kamen Evie]

Rebecca watched as Nina double-kicked the undead to little effect, beginning to calm down now that she’d taken her frustrations out on the target. The Buneary reared up to attack the Ralts, but with the distance she’d set between them, she had more than enough time to react by teleporting further away from it. Her knowledge of type effectiveness was shakier than it probably should have been, but she did know that the Buneary’s weaknesses were as strange as the Buneary itself. This was a situation that called for playing it safe.

“Hold on,” Rebecca said, “I think I can help out with this.” She stood in place and began to chant, saying a variety of words that would seem to be of a mystical quality to the uninitiated, but in actuality were nonsense that she was coming up with as she went. Nevertheless, just before Dexter released another fire attack, the air around Team Crescendo began to glow an incredibly faint blue under her Lucky Chant. They were now incredibly lucky, an attribute which was probably terribly undervalued.

[Evanist]

Celes hears M who then said his name. Miles... well, that was a interesting name. It was about time we knew his full name. Although... now that they were here.... with a tower that felt like they were in a sauna... Lets just say it was hard a bit for her to move normally after having gotten out of the cold like this. She moved forwards, looking up at Miles.
"Well, we are glad to have you with us Miles." she smiles before looking at the dratini, and looked a bit annoyed. She then used moonblast onto the thing, trying to maybe finish it off in one hit. She won't be able to use that move to any fire types here anyway. She hoped that would be enough.
"I hope we don't have too much trouble here, and we possibly find lot of food maybe, cause I think the journey was really too long for us..." she says, not too hungry right now, but still feeling it. If this would continue longer, the group might end up being too hungry to continue on, which would be bad.

---

Eralion fallowed Bonnie as they travelled toward what seemed to be a dragon head shaped mountain. He stared at it for a bit. Well this was going to be different to say the least. The job was suppose to be simple, but seeing how they were going to a dragon mountain... Just then a though went in his head. Tini.... Tini would probably be able to really hurt those other dragon's and if they attacked him, they probably would be in for a surprised cause of his... well... let's just say he was a fairy type also which was abnormal, but hey, he himself was able to use bullet punch and counter which pancham was not suppose to be able to use, so there was that. He breath deeply as he fallows.
"I think Tini won't have too much difficulty there to say the least." he comments to Bonnie.

[Card Captor]

Kamina

Kamina was initially a little confused why Spruce and Anthony swapped places, but he quickly chocked it up to Spruce being a Grass Type entering a place with a lot of Fire Types 'then again; it really doesn't matter that much' he shrugged off the unspoken question (or at least he would have, if he had any shoulders in the first place) 'come to think of it; what's it like to have arms and hands? It must be really nice, being able to pick up things so easily. Not only that, but you can pick up even more things at once, and even do it while talking. Sure, my new tail helps a lot, but it's still kind of cumbersome to lift things with it. I wonder what it feels like, having finger that you can flex? Gah, there's just so many questions. Oh well, best not to get greedy. I'm more than fine with the body I have...even if it doesn't have any hands. Kamina was quiet, as he pondered this. "Hey Spruce; what's it like to have hands?" he asked his passenger, completely unaware of how odd that question sounded.

---
Tini

Bonnie was starting to feel better, and that made Tini happy "yay!" Adventures were supposed to be fun bonding time with people you cared about, not a time to be sad. 'And to think; not all the long ago, Bonnie was afraid of hugs. Well not anymore, for the power of warm hugs will triumph over bad people!' there was fire in his eyes as he thought that (which was either a trick of the light, or his pupils really were on fire. It was hard to tell). He was brought back to the real world (or as close as he ever got) by Eralion's comment "hey...you're right!" Tini replied, quickly catching on to what his friend meant "I'll make friends with everyone on the mountain, and together we'll search for the lost lover as we sing campfire songs!"...or getting it completely wrong, that's also a possibility. "This is going to be so amazing! An entire mountain, joined in song as we reunite two lost lovers...it'll be just like in the storybooks!"

[KaBling]

I took Spruce's words to heart, though I had my doubts that the rest of this journey would get any easier. We went from fending off a bird against Kamina to popping through dangerous and confusing voids. There was still the problem of Desia and that devilish formula, alongside further grey voids popping up in populated areas. Even then, we'd probably have to figure out as to why there are mystery dungeons... assuming we all live to see that day. "Okay, I guess I'll have to tell Yveltal I'm not ready yet." I rasped out, almost snickering as I applied my feathers to my forehead and started brushing away the remaining dust. I watched as Spruce took over Anthony's spot and - I will admit, watching Spruce crawling up Kamina's head like an obstacle was cute - otherwise swapped out of an attack that would've burned Spruce badly.

Huh, we were fighting already. Anthony bravely took the hit as battle-lines were drawn, Celes blasting a sly Dratini with a brilliant flash of pink light. I covered my eyes briefly as I started hovering over towards the fight, red glowing lava light embalming everyone including myself. Red seemed to fit me well actually. It wasn't long until more attacks started bombarding the field, missing us all but still intent on causing a serious disruption. Funnily enough, it knocked over what appeared to be an oven and popped out a berry, something I immediately desired for and latched my attention onto Spruce - why? He was busy plucking the berry and knew who to pass it to, zipping it upwards with abnormal strength (for a plant).

I briefly spied Anthony seemingly frowning at Spruce when he snatched the berry and passed it towards me, having little to say in the manner. I couldn't really see why he'd be like that, since I could actually feel my health bar edging closer towards critical failure. Didn't help I actually visualised it, being as analytical as I usually am.

...never-mind, there was a berry in the air. I almost dozed off, but unusually quick reactions and a series of fast magnets managed to grasp the rather bouncy berry. I looked at it oddly, unsure whether or not eating a cooked Oran berry would exactly be beneficial towards the user. Either way we didn't have anymore time to waste, quickly letting a red mist seep into me as the berry turned to hot ashes. (Yes, that just happened; let's not talk about it.) Within seconds I felt invigorated and ready to break bones again, cackling and commenting on how long it had been since I felt this good. I probably wouldn't 'eat' another cooked berry again though.

[Lugia]

[Spruce]

I smiled at Miles, and said "You do that, Miles. You do that," after his remark about him telling Yveltal that he's not ready for death yet, and decided to not ask him about the whole weird... red mist thing that happened when he used that berry. After its use, Miles seemed much more energetic, ready to take anything down... just as well, after Celes finished off that dratini with her moonblast, we were apparently about to get ambushed by a growlithe. Matt put up his screens, and Josh used hydro pump on the thing... which was somehow still standing. Oh, right, this place, in general counts as 'harsh sunlight'... I thought as I tried to think about what move to use. I would have used vine whip, but then I remembered that obviously, that won't do much damage, so, instead, I used void whip against the growlithe... who took that as an opportunity to use ember on me, damaging me quite a bit just due to the heat and type effectiveness alone. Anthony then barged in with muddy water... though, that didn't seem to do as much as he probably thought it would. "Huh... so this place DOES replicate the effects of harsh sunlight..." Anthony said after noticing the fact that both his, and Josh's attacks were almost resisted by the growlithe. I simply responded with "Well, yeah, I could have told you that one, Anthony," was he trying to sound smart there? All he really did was figure out, and then blurt out the obvious after everyone else already figured it out. Anthony seemed annoyed by my response, though, he didn't say anything else for some reason. I then answered Kamina's awkward question with "Er... it's nice to be able to pick stuff up with them...?" I really didn't know what else to say to a weird question like that.

---

[Anthony]

After I essentially tagged out of battle, only to have Celes easily finish off the dratini with a single moonblast, and have her start complaining about our food situation. "Yeah, I agree... I mean, it was tough enough just getting here, right?" I would have continued talking to her, but Josh noticed something, and used hydro pump on it as soon as he could, and almost as soon as someone else put up a couple of defensive screens. Something was trying to ambush us, and I ran as fast as I could to get to the intruder, and use muddy water on what was quickly revealed to be a growlithe... who somehow took the attack, and was still standing. That's odd... I thought that only really happened because of the vulpix, not just because of this place in general. I thought as I ended up blurting out "Huh... so this place DOES replicate the effects of harsh sunlight..." to which, Spruce rudely responded with "Well, yeah, I could have told you that one, Anthony," and for a moment, I thought about telling him to stop being so rude to me... but then I just figured that would start another fight, and decided against it just because I didn't wan the team to end up split up. Sure, we were less likely to get lost here than when we were split up in the Northern Forest, but the enemies seemed tougher, and this place had a gimmick that helped out pretty much all of its inhabitants, while hindering a few of us. Breaking my thoughts, Daniel finished off the growlithe with a shadow tackle, which seemed to be stronger than it used to be for some reason. "There, now we can keep moving forwards, right?" Daniel asked, and I just nodded, and continued forwards now that the way was clear.

---

[Bonnie]

Tini just ran ahead, and past a trio of dratini who all tried to use twister against him, though, due to his... er... unique typing, I doubt that he even noticed. "Tini, wait up!" I shouted as I tried to catch the quick pink snake pokemon, and, thankfully, once I did, I found the client, a nidorina who didn't seem to actually know that we took the mission for some reason. "Who are you?" she asked us, and I answered with "We're Team Green... we're the ones who took your mission," she then responded with "Huh. I thought you'd be more... green," though, she still joined us, taking her place at the back of the line, behind Eralion. I wasn't paying too much attention, but as we headed up the mountain, I overheard her saying things like 'cute' and 'teddy bear', probably to or about Eralion, given his size and shape. I also overheard something slithering behind us, and look back only to see a familiar dratini trio. I jumped over both Eralion and the client just to make sure they can't get to her, and I take three... rather weak twister attacks. I retaliated with a frustration, which was enough to knock out one of them, and I started to feel a little bad about this... they seemed to be very young children, rather than something that actually posed a threat to us... then again, our client didn't seem too strong, and they might get to her if I didn't do that. They broke my thought process by hissing, and making me remember when Nate, and the others from Sunswept plains regressed into, well, that. Thankfully, I got out of there in time, as did my friends... but the others... Nate, in particular seemed so smart before that, and for him to be reduced to that... whatever was making these mystery dungeons, it had to be powerful, and corrupting.

---

[Nina]

The ember, just like last time, seemed to deal some serious damage to the thing, and the thing having missed Rebecca, headed right for Dexter with a frustration attack, and once that was done, the thing tried to target me. I had a thought, though, and braced myself for attack, all the while, trying to make absolute sure that the thing hits the spike on my head. Its attack hits, and, while it hurt just like I expected, I also managed to poke the thing with my venomous horn, a clear ooze having made its way both into an open 'wound', and onto the palm of its hand. Now let's see if this thing can get poisoned... I thought as I just waited there for a bit. The thing stumbled around, and seemed to take some damage from an unknown source. That was weird... usually, when things were poisoned, they threw up, coughed, moaned, groaned, and generally got sick... they normally didn't just 'take damage' like this thing did. After that oddity, I decided to use flash tackle on the thing, covering myself in a bright light before ramming into it, and honestly hoping not to surprise or blind our newest teammate. My line of thought was that if this thing was such an unholy abomination, then surely some sort of holy-esque attack would actually hurt the thing, and, sure, it did... it just didn't hurt it as much as I thought it would, unfortunately. The thing was knocked back from my attack, but it didn't seem particularly effected by it for some reason. That's odd... then again I could count the 'normal' things about this, er, mockery with a single hand... and I don't even have five fingers. I thought as the thing tried attacking Dexter again.

[Riddles]

[Josh]
Both the Dratini and the Growlithe were taken care of by Celes and Daniel. Now they could keep moving, at least until another wild Pokemon shows up. Honestly, the chances of that were pretty high, so Josh wasn't letting his guard down yet. He took a quick look around to make sure they weren't about to get ambushed again, and thankfully there were no wild Pokemon nearby, or at least none that he could see.

Josh noticed that Spruce and Anthony still weren't getting along. Anthony was at least doing what he could to avoid starting an argument, but it was clear that Spruce was making that difficult.
"Spruce. Can we talk for a moment?" He didn't really care what Spruce's answer was. He was talking to him anyway. "I've seen the way you've been treating Anthony. You clearly have a problem with him, and I want to know why."

---

[Dexter]
Rebecca said something in some kind of foreign language, which made the entire team glow slightly. The Buneary then tried and failed to attack her, and went for Dexter next. He was pretty close at that point, so he ended up taking a hit. It knocked him back a little, but he was still standing. He retaliated with yet another Ember, and for some reason this still wasn't enough to kill it.
"This shit's getting old fast." He growled. This thing was awfully resilient.

Nina managed to poison it, then used some kind of weird light tackle. It stumbled backwards, then turned towards Dexter. This time, he saw the attack coming. He was able to jump out of the way before it hit him, and used this as an opportunity to Ember it once again. Hopefully, this would be enough, because Dexter's patience was really starting to wear thin.

[KaBling]

As invigorating as it was to suddenly feel young again, I somehow spent all that time doing nothing as everyone else took care of the Dratini and Growlithe. That was easy. That thought came to mind, while I felt ready to avoid fire and tank dragon attacks in this rather unfamiliar dungeon. It was strange enough that they'd use scrap to build up the place, considering how it was almost a beacon in this parched wasteland. Either way, more wild Pokemon here to fight, I guess. Hopefully that didn't come with the more... stranger types - the Sunswept Plains felt alien enough with traces of mysterious footprints and odd patterns, but only Arceus knew what was here though. Aside from a legendary we hopefully wouldn't fight (you know it's probably gonna happen).

I darted around the room with my new energy, eventually settling back into my old annoyed attitude. Someone definitely mishandled that berry and left me energetic for a while, and not the electrical type mind you. Eventually it was only my eyes moving, shifting around to see Spruce and Josh starting to talk. Though, they didn't exactly sound friendly with one-another, something we didn't need in our new party. I'll be honest, I still don't know much about the other team. Even as I froth my own blood on this floor and call out silently for the others, I wasn't familiar with the party we involved ourselves in. We knew who Anthony was, being some villainous bodyguard of sorts before turning to the good side.