Once again, I have taken what NSGG wrote and transformed it into a horrible parody of itself for his birthday (sorry it's late). He does not know I took his work, but I claim no credit for it. All I did was change some words. :p Go read his story, it's really good. It's called PMD: Radiant Darkness. Enjoy, and happy birthday, Will.

Up With Hugs!

The two of us ended up exploring the first floor of Brine Cave for… a happily long time. I guessed that we had looked through every room on this level without finding a path downwards, or at least the next closest thing, but we had a wonderful time doing so!

To my bad luck, however, we hadn't encountered a single pokemon in that time either. It made me so sad, not being able to find a new friend. As we finally caught sight of the stairs, I felt like I was bursting to meet someone new!

"One floor down…" I said sadly, making my way over as Wycliffe timidly trotted along beside me. "One floor less to find a new friend..."

Suddenly, I was knocked to the damp cave floor, tasting dirt as I tried to recover. Wycliffe was the culprit, and he was hovering over me, worry on his face.

"I'm soooooo sorry, Ezra! I didn't mean to knock you down! Please forgive me! Let me take you on an Oran Berry Picnic to make it up to you!"

I laughed my wind chimes-in-the-breeze laugh, got up and hugged my friend, calming him. Then I ecstatically pointed over Wy-wy's shoulder.

Towards a Kingler that was following us.

"Finally! I can make a new friend!"I thought, inspecting the pokemon. My contemplation was shattered, however, when the Kingler (now about a yard or two) grabbed at me.

My knee-jerk reaction was leaping forward and hugging the crab, and thanks to the my bubbly personality, it soothed the wild Pokemon.

"That's it, Ezzy! Keep hugging him!" Wycliffe shouted cheerfully, as happy as I was that we had found a new friend..

I felt the throbbing of my arms reach a peak as they struggled to fit even partway around the Kingler, but I couldn't let go. This was the start of a wonderful new friendship! I felt the other pokemon try to wrap its huge claws around me, but they were too awkward. It was sooooooo happy, though, I could tell. It was doing a little happy dance! And it was trying to kiss me!

"Rrrrah!" was my instinctive cry as I continued my hug. When the Kingler stopped doing his little dance and slumped to the ground, exhausted from the effort, I guess, I let go.

I glanced back at Wycliffe, and he was beaming at me. "How do you feel?"

"Great! Wonderful!" I replied, not even needing to take a mental inventory of thoughts. "A bit strange… like a little bit of me wants to go and do that again and again."

"Good! Now let's let him sleep and just keep ourselves going, kk?" he said, still with the grin on his face as he turned towards the trail to the second level. "No need for overkill; the other pokemon might start getting jealous."

Happily, I looked at the Kingler again. "Nighty-night, new friend~"

"Now let's go, we have a lot more pokemon to go hug~" Wycliffe exclaimed as we finally headed down.

2F:
As soon as we reached level ground again, a Gastrodon turned to us, thrilled with the two of us impeding on his free time.

"Here, I'll hug him!" Wycliffe told me, and within seconds he'd hugged the slug.

"I want you to hug the next guy though, Ezra," he said as we ran off, looking for another new friend in the making. "I still don't have the knack for it, not having arms and all," he informed me, and I nodded with a sigh.

"Understandable…" I replied quietly. As we advanced a room, another Gastrodon approached.

"Place is crawling with them!" Wycliffe noted as I inhaled deeply. I took a couple steps forward as the pokemon came towards me in specific.

Before I could leap on it and brighten its life, Wycliffe gave me a tip. "Try telling it that it's beautiful!"

I didn't reply, just closed my eyes as I was about to pounce.

And got blasted by a Water Gun.

"Thank you!" I called to her, because I could just tell that she was a girl. "I haven't bathed in soooooooo long!"

I immediately jumped on it and wrapped my arms around its neck, and this time the connection between me and the pokemon felt even more powerful. The Gastrodon squirmed a bit, but eventually hung his head forward in a pseudo-hug.

"It must be hard to try to hug with no arms or legs," I told it when I finally backed off. "But you're beautiful and did a great job anyways! So get that rest that you deserve!"

I hugged him again. Twice, actually, before Wycliffe stepped past him.

"All right, let's go," he said.

"But..."

"There are a lot more sad and lonely Pokemon out there, Ezzy. You can't hug every slug."

Wycliffe grinned; he knew he'd gotten me there.

"I can't hug every slug..." I moaned, following him as we found the way to 3F.

3F:
3F was great, I hugged everyone on the floor. But they were a tired bunch, and they all went to sleep after squirming and dancing.

Curious, but that's a mystery dungeon for you, I guess. Not that I'd actually been in one.

5F:
As we made our way out to traverse this level of the cave, I could have sworn I heard sobbing.

Sensing my concern, Wycliffe turned to me as he spoke. "Remember? The poor Solosis is on this level. And not too far away by the sound of it. We better get a move on, we need to hug it, too" he advised.

He took a second to listen, then broke into a run to the path headed right. I trailed him as closely as I could as he followed the presumed sound of the young pokemon in need of hugging. Puddles splashed us every few steps as we darted around, and the humidity plus the workout had me sweating a tad bit after a while.

As we rushed through the corridors, the crying grew more frantic, more desperate-sounding. As we ducked into the room, the two of us saw the reason why: a trio of Kinglers had cornered the small green blob.

Before the crabs could notice that we had arrived, Wy-wy pounced on one and hugged it tight, then leaped back to my side.

"Hey, what's going on here?" Wycliffe asked happily, his voice as energetic as I'd ever heard it. As his plan hit me, I painted a super-huge happy grin on my face to match that of my cohort's.

As Solosis shrunk further into the corner with a whimper, the Kinglers turned around.

"A-an Absol? In here?" the one who seemed to be a leader questioned.

"Yes, I'm here! I'm not an illusion…" Wycliffe replied eagerly.

"Wait a second…" another one said, drawing all our eyes.

"What?" the leader snapped as the younger one scrutinized us.

"I've seen this guy before, he's The Hugger!" he announced after a few seconds.

"The Absol?" asked the leader, pointing a jagged pincer at Wycliffe.

"No no, the Sneasel. The manic one."

Just a couple seconds elapsed before Wycliffe spoke up again, his friendship skills obviously up to par.

"Looks like we're getting some fame, Ezzy," he told me, easily loud enough for them to hear. "Yeah, he's sure as unicorns he's a hugger! And a darn good one I'd say, though I'm biased. The best happy hugger ever, we like to say. And it looks to us like we've found what we wanted!"

"Well, what does he want then?" the leader questioned, sounding hesitant now.

Happily, I trained my eyes on Solosis, and pointed at him, then at each of the Kingler.

"B-but we were-"

I opened my arms wide, shouting, "C'mere, you!"

I didn't even get a chance to hug them, as they had turned and fled.

Wycliffe and I shared a sad look after the Kingler were away for good, but as we approached the young psychic-type the Absol gave him an earnest smile.

"Are you okay?" he asked quietly, making sure he didn't get so close as to frighten Solosis further.

"Umm… sorta… I just want my mommy… wait, but you're, you're…"

"Don't worry, we can hug you! We're professional huggers, you cute lil' blob of jelly! Not only are we actually a rescue team…" He pulled out his badge for proof. "But Ezra here can hug better than me!"

"It's true," I chimed in.

"Wh-… uh… really?" His fear didn't seemed to be dissipating, and both of us nodded.

"Wow…"

The Solosis looked to be in awe of us, and very, very grateful. Tears of joy were coming out of his eyes, and he was quaking in anticipation of a hug.

"Now, let's get you safely out of here…" Wycliffe said, still holding his badge. With a shrug he flashed it at Solosis, and at that the gelled pokemon vanished.

"Well, that was fun… and seeing the little guy finally saved, that actually went a lot better than I thought," Wycliffe noted thoughtfully, looking at the spot where the psychic pokemon had been a moment ago.

"But I didn't get to hug him," I wailed, and Wycliffe nodded slowly.

"Now now, saving the Solosis was important too…" he replied, and he hugged me as we began backtracking towards the way to 6F.

"I've got a blind date with destiny, and I'm hoping she lets me hug her" he then said, which had us both laughing.

"Haven't heard that one before…" I said to myself, letting what lay ahead sink in a bit.

Wycliffe suddenly snapped me out of my thoughts, telling me "Pick up the pace, would ya? Me and Reaper need to make up, and I've told you how hard it is to hug without arms." With a shake of my head, I ran over as he descended another level, and from then on the only thing on our minds was the encounter to come.

7F:
With every floor traversed, the anticipation got more palpable, and I could tell Wycliffe was overthinking a bit.

"You okay?" I asked, and he seemed to awaken from a spell as I questioned him.

"Oh, me? I'm fine… just anxious. I mean, I know I can do it, but it's been sooooooooooooooooooooooo" he paused for breath, "oooooooooooooooooo long since I've seen my bff..."

He looked down at me now. "By the way, if he does run away crying, hug him for me, would you?"

"Got it," I simply replied, and he nodded as he stomped in a puddle, giggling to himself as the water splashed up onto his fur.

"Good. Now let's actually get there."

9F:
"Hey, I've been wondering… why were those guys chasing you back when I first saw you…?" I asked hesitantly.

"Oh, the guys? Simply because they saw and recognized me, and their delusions of me being able to hug them for the rest of the day kicked in," he replied nonchalantly, not breaking stride. His mind was obviously in a different place, though.

"I guess I'm at the point where those who recognize me either are hesitant of hugs, because I don't have arms, or they want me to be with them forever..."

"What kinds of things did you do to get such a reputation?" I added.

Wycliffe sighed, an indicator that he wanted off the subject. He answered me, though, saying "A lot, a lot of hugs… sort of like what you did. I hugged all the energy out of them, and they went to sleep. I never did see the same one twice, though..."

I made the easy decision to hug my sweet, sensitive friend. Before awkward silence could arrive long enough to grab hold of us like I had grabbed hold of him, Wycliffe told me "If we see Reaper, please help me... I can't do this on my own, Ezzy... He's real hurt… and if he charges you, he just wants to hug you, so open your arms and prepare for a hug tackle."

The end was near, and hopefully the reunion would end up triumphant.

Now seriously, go read his story. Going back on hiatus now, don't expect anything from me until at least mid-April. Pika~