It took a while of walking but we eventually made it there. The walk there was tense, and we were going as fast as we could without overtaking Marill. Eventually Marill stopped right in front of a mountain. The mountain range was huge, but this particular mountain was dwarfed by the others. That was the fortunate part, but it was obvious that the climb would not be simple. We were all concerned for his safety, but not our own. Pyre quickly asked the question I was going to say.
"You think Azurill and Drowzee went this way, Marill?" Pyre asked.
"Yes..." Marill said.
"Oh, Alex, the place you saw Azurill and Drowzee... was on a mountain, right?" Alex nodded. It was a decently large mountain, but it wasn't big enough for us to be too wary. We had a mission to do and we would not stop until it was completed.
"I get the feeling they are up ahead, let's go!" I said.
"Stay here at the entrance. We don't want you getting hurt." Pyre said to Marill.
"O-okay." Marill said.
Floor 1
The walls were huge, towering above us. They seemed taller than the mountain! It seemed intimidating, but we were too focused to be frightened. We had a rescue to do, and fear wasn't going to stop us. We ended up in a small room by dungeon standards. The only exit to the room was to the east. We headed that way, and found ourselves in another room. There was only one other path besides the way we came, to the south. We took the path and found the stairs. We charged forward to the next floor.
Floor 2
Instantly, there was a weird brown bird like creature. It looked mad, and somewhat strong. It flew into Alex with its wings out. Alex was hit, but it didn't seem to hurt him much. He fried it with electricity, and it disappeared. We exited to the north, and found a new room. It had a seed of some kind. Pyre said it was a reviver seed. He explained what it did. The three of us exited to a decently wide corridor and we found another creature. This one looked more like a living rock than the others. It had two big and rocky arms but no legs. Alex tried to shock it, but it didn't do anything. It didn't even flinch! Pyre charged, attempting to tackle it. However, all Pyre seemed to do was bruise his own head. It was incredibly tough, or at least tougher than the other living rocks. The rock punched Alex, causing pain and a bruise the next day. The rock was not going down. Alex could do nothing, and pyre was not strong enough to hurt it. I was worried that we wouldn't be able to defeat it. I was thinking of a way around it. While I was lost in thought, the rock charged me.
"Allen!" Pyre shouted. His shout pulled me back into the moment. I saw it slowly charging. The creature was about to tackle me. It would hurt pretty badly, even though it was slow, if I didn't do anything. I didn't know what I could do besides brace myself. I took a deep breath and braced for the impact. As soon as I took the breath, something felt weird. It was the strangest feeling. It felt like something was building up in my chest, and I couldn't hold it in. I exhaled and released a bunch of large bubbles. They hit the rock and made it disappear instantly.
"What was that!" I shouted in confusion.
"That was bubble." Pyre explained.
"I can create water?" I wondered.
"Yeah. You must have just learned the move. This will help us fight rock, ground and fire types." Pyre explained. I shook my head, trying to focus.
"Let's get going." Alex stated. We found a room and walked out to the north. Another room, and there was no other exit from the room besides to the east. We walked through a hallway to another room and found the stairs. We hurried up the stairs as fast as possible.
Floor 3
The stairs were to the southwest in the same room. However, there was a weird candy like thing. It was a white candy, and looked tasty.
"Oh, this is a gummie. You eat these and you get smarter."
"How?" I asked.
"The juice in the candy gives us nutrients that build our brain matter. It takes some time to build up our brain, and the different colors of gummies affect different types. The more the type enjoys it, the more their brain grows, due to the gummie being compatible with their brain." Pyre explained.
"Compatible?" I asked.
"Water types squirt water. Fire types shoot fire. Electric types blast energy. They all have the same brain type, the brain type of each Pokemon can do things their types can do.
"Pokémon?"
"You're kidding, right?" Pyre asked.
"I lost my memories, remember? I barely knew what I became." I said.
"Do you even know what we have been facing?" Pyre wondered.
"Not at all." I admitted.
He seemed worried, but I suppose I would be also if the only thing stopping a rock from tackling you was an amnesiac guy who just learned what a Pokémon was. "Well, I will explain later." Pyre said. I nodded. Alex looked at Pyre, who looked at me.
"This will make you smarter. All gummies build intelligence, no matter the type, so eat this." He said.
I did, and said, "I know you are calling me stupid."
"You don't know what a Pokémon is." Alex responded.
"Fair point but do you?." I agreed and asked.
"Somewhat." Alex admitted.
Pyre seemed genuinely surprised at that. "My friends are stupid. Great." Pyre laughed.
"We may be dumb but at least we have courage." I said. "I-uh, uh, uh..." Pyre stumbled with his words. He couldn't think of many arguments against it. We exited the floor, Alex and myself smiling.
It may have taken a while, but we made it to floor 8 after a few near defeats. Pyre explained to us what a Pokémon is on floor 7.
Floor 8
We were getting stronger because the Pokémon were stronger here than in the other areas. We exited to the west. Alex zapped a two legged bird, and I soaked another living rock. Pyre fried what looked like a blue-grey human with ridges on it's head, but it was obviously a Pokémon. We then entered another room, where we went to the south exit. We entered a room with some money, picked it up. It was 34 Poke. We exited to the west quickly. There was another green bug like the one we encountered on floor 6, which Alex fried quickly. We exited west again, and finished another small brown bird. We headed south at a fork. and then east. I knew we were south of a previous room. The stairs were there.
"We took a long way to get here, we could have headed south from the other room." I said.
"Yeah." Alex agreed. We headed up the stairs. There was a small corridor, which we followed.
After a very short time, we heard "If you keep being difficult, it will mean big trouble for you."
Then we heard "H-HELP!" We rushed forward and saw Azurill and Drowzee, exactly as Alex had described to us.
"Stop!" I yelled.
"Wha- who are you!" Drowzee asked.
"We're team Explore. We won't lose to criminals like you! We haven't failed a mission yet!" Alex shouted.
"What! You're an exploration team, and you're here to apprehend..." He trailed off, as he noticed Pyre shivering.
"Huh? Oh, I get it. You're an exploration team, but you're total rookies. You probably haven't even been on five missions yet." He stated. Pyre squirmed with that comment. "Do you think you have what it takes to take me down? I have faced many exploration teams in my day, but never have I seen such a pathetic group. What makes you think you can win?" Drowzee laughed. Pyre clenched up and shouted
"We... We won't lose to a criminal like you!"
"Alright, let's see what you can do." He laughed again. He stepped closer, and I launched a bubble at him. He took the attack. The look on his face told me the bubble was stronger than he expected. He hit Alex with some kind of pink psychic energy. He suddenly looked confused, and was walking around randomly, attacking the walls with electricity. Pyre hit him with an ember, and he staggered slightly. His skin was scorched a bit. I realized he had been burnt. This was our chance. Pyre charge at him, but Drowzee turned to face him. He launched some kind of dark pink circles at Pyre. As soon as they touched Pyre, he fell asleep very quickly. Alex ran full force into a wall. He then shook his head, seemingly recovered from the confusion. Drowzee slapped me, and knocked me down. I got back up as fast as I could and hit him with another bubble. He tried charging me, but this time he slipped on it's froth and fell over. Alex zapped him. Drowzee quickly got up and launched the weird circles at Alex, who fell asleep.
"Now it's just you and..." He started. I launched a bubble at him, charging at the same time. Jumping in the air, I hit him with my hand as hard as I could. His face was contorted into a weird look of pain. He shook his head an was about to pummel me. He shouted in pain and then collapsed in front of me. He fainted from the burn. Suddenly, he disappeared. Before I could wonder what happened to him, I had to check on my friends. Pyre woke up quickly, and Alex a short while after Pyre. I was tired, but I had to make sure Azurill was not hurt.
"Are you okay?" I asked. Azurill replied with a scared "Yep."
"Let's get going, we need to head down the mountain, your brother is waiting." Alex said, sounding tired as well. We headed to the base of the mountain, and found Marill waiting for us. There were 3 other Pokémon who were waiting with him. They had Drowzee in the middle of them.
"Hello. I am Mangezone, we heard that you had defeated an outlaw, so we hurried here. Drowzee has been wanted for a quite a few years now for various crimes including theft, assault, and more. This was his first kidnapping offense, and that seemed to be his downfall. If you defeat an outlaw, we will be there to take them to prison for reformation or other sentences. There are also rewards for capturing outlaws, similar to missions. The reward usually comes from the one who sent the request. However, as this was an odd circumstance and you didn't actually accept the mission, we will send the reward to the guild. He was an A rank outlaw, so we will reward you with the usual monetary reward." Magnezone explained. He then thanked us and left. Drowzee looked sad, like he regretted what he did. Marill saw azurill and they started crying.
"I thought you were... you were..." Marill looked very close to crying.
"I'm fine, thanks to Team Explore."
"T-thank you... Come on, let's go home." Marill said.
On the way home, Pyre said "I'm sorry for not helping much in the fight."
"You actually finished him off. Your ember burned him, and I would have fainted and waisted the reviver seed if it didn't." I explained.
"R-really!" He wondered loudly. "Yeah." I said. Alex smiled at him. Once we got home, we got the reward, and chatot took some of our money.
"What? After all that hard work?" Pyre complained.
"Yes. I expect you to work just as hard tomorrow as well." Chatot said, leaving. We all mumbled about it being unfair. It was then that my belly grumbled, and Alex's did as well.
"Well, I guess we need to eat." Pyre said, and his grumbled as well. We laughed and went to eat. After eating, we went to bed. I was tired, but Pyre seemed chatty.
"I'm sad we didn't get to keep more money, but the reunion of those two was great. Alex, you can see the future. How cool! I don't know how it works, but it will be awesome if we figure out how to use it. Just think of how many uses it could have! Solving puzzles by looking to when they are solved, preventing fires, finding the location of criminals, and more! I knew you were special, but this is beyond awesome! Let's do our best tomorrow as well." I fell asleep then, too tired to listen anymore. I assume Alex and Pyre fell asleep then, as well.
/
Well... I can't fix typos as my computer is being stupid at this time. I will fix them later. Anyway, it's been a while! I hope you enjoy this chapter. I can't work on this a lot as I lack motivation. I get inspired sometimes, and write. I have been working on a new fiction, so expect things to happen sometimes within a few years. See you next chapter!
