The Absolite Chronicles: Book 2: The Challenger

by Hyperjade

There is one week before the tournament that occurs only once a decade. With Caleb back in action and joined by friends, new and newer, team Edge, team Rush, team Ivy, and team Amber train to compete. But why isn't team Raider in town? What other adventures are in store for everyone? ( A pokemon mystery dungeon story, and sequel to Book One: Change")

21. Chapter Twenty-One

Hello, once again my dear readers.

Jango: Hey, look at this! Hyper got over his laziness enough to actually put the symbols next to the POV changes this time! See, this lazy bugger stopped bothering, which must have seemed strange.

Me: They don't cross over from google docs to well... Except for Amber's. Her POV symbols make the cut. I guess it was weird to see, so this time I made the effort to include the symbols again.

Jango: His laziness aside, I gotta say, this chapter is all sorts of weird and fluctuate-y.

Me: Admittedly, yes. The setup was difficult. I have to make the second challenge a bit shorter in terms of storytime. It would normally be a huge time spending situation... I'm sure I could have worded that more eloquently.

Jango: Yep.

Me: Anyways, there are probably going to be more time skips during this part of the story, as well as the POV shifts being more common and sporadic. I felt the need to warn you all.

Jango: That's cuz you're a sap.

Me: Shut up, Jango. Anyways, let's start reviews with West. Caleb... Isn't meant to be the best character. He has good intentions, yes, but... As you pointed out... I don't know how properly to answer that concern. I suppose we can simply assume he is good enough for that.

Nerdy Retard, I apologize for making you angry. The events of that conversation are brought about by Caleb, and he is certainly in character in this case. His comments about truly losing, well, I have a feeling that most of us, myself included, can disagree with him. His friends simply do not know how to help him understand their point of view. Interestingly enough, I almost left Gengar's conversation with Amber out of the picture by accident as I was writing... But I got it, don't worry.

Oh no, What Lies Beyond. The sky confrontation was actually pure coincidence. It is essentially obligatory at this point to remind the readers how common random occurrences seem to happen to the characters in this story. Thanks to our conversations via PM, I learned what that mission was and it helped me decide how to run that particular discussion in the story.

Jango: I have no regrets. Trapping Frost is fun.

Me: ...Anyways, Calvire, you will have to live without knowing anything more about Jango until he comes up. For one, that's spoilerific, and two, Jango would paralyze me if I started because he's concerned about his big intro. We agreed that I can tell you that he has yellow eyes.

...What's this about Phase Shift in pokken tournament? Did those universe jumping little rascals invade the game? I hope they're not messing with the players too much... Anyways, Phillip Harbindinger, I will take a look at the 'literally' section of your review and see if I should fix it based on your thoughts. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.

Never thought you were dead, LucarioKing1008. Well, yes. I can say that I will not forget about the Crystal Community. This chapter actually should inadvertently address when we might next see it, if you can spot it.

Finally, thank you GGuy12345 for informing me about the mistake on chapter eighteen. I have fixed the issue now. Thank you for your compliments and I hope you will continue to enjoy it from here on out.

Anyways, let's go ahead with chapter twenty-one of TAC2!

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Chapter Twenty-One: Second Challenge

❊ Amber's POV ❊

"G-Gengar!" I exclaimed, shuddering.

Gengar held his arms up in a surrendering gesture, his eyes calmly closed. "Calm down, kid. I'm not gonna attack you." he proclaimed "Mostly because there's no point, and admittedly, just an eensy bit because you'd kick my spectral ass from here to next Friday if you thought you honestly had to to protect yourself."

I flinched. "I didn't mean to hit you that hard that one time…" I whispered "I keep saying that. I just… Put a bit too much power into my spark attack, and…" I broke off, looking away.

Gardevoir remained between the two of us, her glare causing Gengar to—I'm pretty sure I was hallucinating—seemingly wilt a bit. His back hunched over. What on earth was happening? "It's fine, kid." he dismissed my worry "Seriously. It's pretty much common knowledge nowadays that you're not to be held accountable when you accidentally overpower your strikes. You owe a lot to your human absol friend, actually."

"...I know…" I looked away. "But Caleb keeps insisting that I shouldn't do anything for him."

"Eh, as far as I can tell, he just isn't concerned about his own health." Gengar shrugged, promptly sitting down and giving up on getting anywhere nearer to me. "But that's not what I came to talk about in the slightest."

I looked up at him, trying to shove down what seemed to be irrational fear right now. "Then w-what did you want to talk about?" I asked, failing not to stutter.

Gengar just gestured to Gardevoir. "Her," he said simply. Gardevoir blinked. I blinked. That was not what I thought I was going to hear. The guy was acting totally different today! And it was weird!

"Explain," Gardevoir told him flatly.

"See, I've happened across something interesting." he started, reaching out to his side and in a flash of darkness, a piece of paper appeared. A request. "Something I've been wondering about for a long time."

He set the page, likely brought into the dream by his own power, down onto the ground in front of me. I, hesitating, stepped forward to look at it.

It was a request by a ninetales It did not specify which, but as I read, my eyes widened a little. I looked at the image in the center of the page; it looked like a circular plate built out of nine swirling tails that were probably representations of a ninetales' tails. Those surrounded an emblem of a fire with a swirl in the origin of the flame.

"The 'nine tail crest'," Gengar explained. "Said to be a legendary item that a ninetales can use to boost the power of one, and only one, of their curses."

"But… What does this have to do with us?" I asked.

"I'll show you." Gengar got to his feet, stepping away and spreading his arms towards the opposite wall of my dream, implementing his power over dreams. The invisible wall shimmered and changed colors, showing a screen. It showed Ninetales, our ninetales, sitting alone in a field of flowers surrounded by trees and a cliff overlooking the grasslands.

It showed Gengar stepping straight out of the shadows. "Ninetales." the memory Gengar said in a more gruff manner than the one in front of Gardevoir and myself was acting.

"Hello, Gengar." the pokemon responded evenly, turning her head.

The memory continued to play out, with Gengar stepping forward and sticking the same piece of paper in Ninetales' face. "You put this job on the board." he accused "Made sure it would still be around by the time I got there."

"Indeed."

"Why."

Ninetales tilted her head. "Pardon?" she seemed to be pretending not to understand what he meant.

"What are you going to do with an enormously powerful curse?" Gengar asked. "Believe me, I remember the last one."

"The curse is not for me," Ninetales explained promptly. "Tell me, what is the one thing that you have desired all of these years?"

I blinked as I watched the memory of Gengar step away from her. "What the heck do ya' mean?" Gengar demanded.

Ninetales stood up and walked up to him. "I mean." she said, "That it is about time that you have the power to make the choice you have wanted to make from square one."

Gengar let the memory screen go away, replaced by the multicolored aurora that was the rest of my dream. He turned back to us. "Ninetales told me to be honest," he said, crossing his arms. "About what I've wanted for ages."

He tilted his head somewhat. "Now, to tell you the truth, I was kinda confused at first," he admitted. "Mostly because what I wanted was a more… Recent thing, or so I thought. I guess Ninetales was just going on one of her existential rants or something, about how I've always wanted it but never realized it or some other poetic message that I don't understand."

He shook his head and looked at Gardevoir. "Simply put, Ninetales' curse forced Gardevoir into the spirit world even though she was-... Is still alive. The job…" he looked at me now. "Is to fix that."

I had stopped shivering by this point, completely nonplussed. I just kind of stared at the ghost type for a long time.

"Apparently, the seal is in the Murky Cave back home." Gengar continued. "And once this tournament is over, and we go back home, we can go there and get her that nine tail crest. We can bring Gardevoir back to the physical world."

...Whaaaaat!?

Gardevoir stared openly at Gengar just as I was doing. Was this guy really talking about helping Gardevoir? But.. He'd been nothing but someone who wanted to annoy me or scare me from day one! Only occasionally had he acted weird, but here, he was completely flip-flopping on me and Gardevoir, and as a last thought, I didn't have the slightest impulse of thought that he was bluffing or trying to confuse me. He had that request, after all.

"Wait a second, what are you asking me?" I asked.

Gengar looked away sheepishly. "Ah… My team and I tried to get through the Murky Cave once," he told me. "It uh… Didn't go well. Because you know Gardevoir, I figured you'd be able to help, and probably willing to too."

"Um…" I murmured uncertainly "Shouldn't you be asking Gardevoir?" I asked timidly.

"...Eh?"

"Me," Gardevoir spoke up. "This is my future you are talking about, after all."

Gengar blinked. "Well." he said, crossing his arms "I don't see any reason for you not to want to get back to the world of the living."

"What about Amber?" Gardevoir asked.

"...Eh?" Gengar asked for a second time.

"It is most likely that my presence here prevents nightmares by giving Amber this area to find herself in when she sleeps," Gardevoir explained tersely. "And I greatly enjoy speaking with her every night, listening to her talk about everything she experiences. I give her council, and I do my best to help her. I happen to enjoy being here very much."

She leaned towards Gengar slowly. "What gives you the impression that I want to leave?" she asked.

Gengar showed an expression of surprise. "Eh…" He frowned. "..."

"I decided long ago to remain and protect Amber from her own nightmares and fears right here." Gardevoir reiterated. "I've given up my place in the physical world. And I am happy with that decision. Now, if there is nothing else…"

"...One more thing." Gengar seemed to give up on his earlier topic, as he dismissed the request he had. "Listen, I'm done getting my ass kicked every time I pick a fight."

"So don't pick a fight," Gardevoir growled, even as my ears perked up as I got his meaning.

He turned and walked away, but before he reached the wall of my dream, he turned and sent a smirk our way. "Exactly."

He warped out of my dream then, leaving Gardevoir and me in silence.

"...Woah." I muttered.

"..." Gardevoir said nothing.

"Uh… Gardevoir?" I asked, prodding her with my paw.

"Gengar…" she murmured "It as been many years since I saw such a sincere smile from you."

"Whoa, what?" I asked.

She continued looking at the spot where Gengar had vanished. "Did I ever tell you about the reason why he became a pokemon after he eventually died from old age?" she asked.

⽯ Caleb's POV ⽯

"Goldeneye." I greeted the bipedal fox pokemon as I stepped forward. I was in a clearing, looking at the many symbols on the ground and the trees, the many magic circles carved into everything around me. I had not brought anyone with me, although everyone knew I was here. Erza and Daemyn were currently… Occupying Sarah, who had gotten particularly jumpy this morning when she learned what I was doing, everything she wanted was hanging on my instincts right now, and Sarah feared that she would not be able to contain herself as her 'chances' disappeared.

"Hello, Caleb." she replied kindly, gesturing to the center, open ring. "There are some things you need to know about this."

"I am listening." I stepped up and sat down in the middle of the center ring.

"If we are going to simply do this, I must warn you that you may experience a slight headache after this." she started "This is not entirely removing your instincts. It is removing the emotional aspect of your instincts. This means that the magic is tearing a part of your instincts out instead of cleanly removing it. It may… Hurt."

"I will endure," I said simply.

"I have no doubt." she nodded. "This is a process that would be next to completely impossible to reverse without a long period of time spent creating another, much more complicated array."

"I understand."

"Because you are an absol, and I am technically injuring you in a sense, it is likely that your horn will alert you that you are in danger. You will feel the impulse to get out of the way, to bolt."

"If fighting my remaining instincts gives me a headache, I will persevere," I replied calmly.

"And please, try not to move. I do not know how much it will hurt, or how much danger you will sense, but I suspect that much of each will be involved. If you move, I cannot guarantee a successful attempt."

"Still like a stone," I muttered.

"Precisely." Goldeneye drew her wand and pointed it at me. "Are you ready for this?"

"I have been ready to be rid of these emotion-based instincts since the day I learned of them."

"Fair enough." Goldeneye began chanting. Golden light began shining as the magic circles became much more apparent, releasing a glow that spread away from them. The light beams seemed to refract off of one another, sailing around me in a dome of light. Eventually, the light beams formed magic symbols in mid-air. It seemed that the fox had layered these enchantments to act one after the other by forming new symbols with the light.

Those symbols emitted light as well that once again refracted around each other in small beams, creating another incomplete dome of light around me, much closer to me. I looked to my left, and saw that the beams interlocked with the beams behind it in my vision. From the side, they meant nothing, but from my angle, I was looking at another symbol created from the two meter-apart layers of light. Ahead of me, to my right, and likely behind me the same was occurring, and those symbols too emitted light in my direction.

The light pushed into me, feeling physical to an extent. It was stored magical power I was feeling being pushed into my body. The light was still refracting in different places very close to me, collecting into small golden symbols that circled my body in many places. This is why the procedure to create this thing took so very long, I imagined.

And finally, those symbols glowed and I felt a pulling sensation from all of them. My fur was rustling as it moved towards and then away from the symbols over and over. For the first (and last) time, I opened my mind to be edited by another intentionally.

Then my absol senses did just what Goldeneye said they would do. It was almost like hearing my own voice try out: 'This is dangerous! Get away now! The damage could be permanent!'.

It is not damage. It is permanent. I will stay.

With my absol senses trying to turn my thoughts around and feeling a slight headache building, I stood my ground without so much as changing my expression. I searched my mind, and I could feel the poisonous emotion-based instincts being torn from my mind. It hurt, but I felt nothing else changing. Good. Very good.

It lasted five entire minutes. It was clearly a very delicate procedure, and my head was ringing with pain. However, it was a wonderful sort of pain that I relished in. It was a pain that meant I was finally going to be free from emotions that weighed on me unnaturally. Or Naturally, all things considered.

At this point, my absol senses were screaming out at me intensely, telling me to stop tearing a part of my instincts out like this. It was like having a mental argument with myself. Again. Although in this case, the one was a rambling, incoherent bundle of fear while I remained rational and firm in my position. I would not lose today.

No. Today I was going to actually win something. My own mind back. I felt happiness drown out the fear elicited by 'danger'. I allowed myself a broader smile than usual as I felt that aspect of me disappear forever, and the golden glow began to die away.

"Don't move yet," Goldeneye ordered. I obediently remained still, calmly watching the magic user scramble about, waving her wand around and doing… Something. I do not know precisely what she was trying to accomplish this time, but I imagined she was simply making certain there were no negative effects to be found in the near environment as a result of the large amount of magic power. Negative effects that might harm me. Finally, she stilled and lowered her wand. "...It is over," she announced.

I stood up from my sitting position and stretched like a cat, before balancing myself and stretching my forelegs somewhat. I was almost as limber as Sarah was by this point, which was very good. If I kept up this stretching, I could make appropriate gestures with my paws like Sarah does.

At some point, I would have to discover why I started off without being very flexible at all. It was an odd situation I was in, actually. I knew that I could not study that without extensively looking into the cells of my body, which required equipment. It was something I might have to put off for many years, and then it may simply be completely irrelevant to me.

I quit stretching and turned to Goldeneye. "Thank you." I bowed my head to her. "I owe you a great debt."

"Nonsense." she twirled her wand within her claws. "It was enough to be provided with a challenge for my magical knowledge, and what a challenge it was, I must say."

I had expected that response, of course, but I had been making the attempt to be polite. "Very well," I said, turning away. "I suggest you prepare yourself, for tomorrow we all will be rushing for the guildmasters and their treasures."

"I wish you luck."

"As do I."

"And Caleb?"

"Yes?"

"I have not seen Braixen for many days. Considering how she attempts to learn from me by proxy… Do you have any insight?"

"Yes." I nodded. "Braixen has been very busy these past few days. Like you, she seems not to know what rest is."

Goldeneye raised a brow. "Something cryptic? Is that not your friend Absol's territory?"

"This is strategy, Goldeneye," I replied, beginning to walk away. "Not typical criticism."

"Fair enough, I suppose. Good luck tomorrow."

"Thank you."

⻤ Shedinja's POV ⻤

"This puzzle is irritating."

"Caleb, are you losing it? This is the third time you have said that within the last ten minutes." "Shedinja," I said, a tad worried. It had been several days now, and the tournament was about to begin again.

"I have been at this for days," Caleb muttered, spinning the rings. "Days, Shedinja. It is incredible. I actually have found something to challenge me. I am irritated, yet immensely excited about this. Perhaps I am 'losing it', as you say, but in the end, when I achieve this, it will honestly feel like I have accomplished something."

His smile was great to see. All he needed was some mental stimuli and he transformed from gloomsville into someone much brighter and happier.

"It comes down to this one single ring," Caleb explained to me as he reached it. Every other ring was the same color except for that one. It was very small, with only four points and stuck between two very large rings. "After nearly a full day of looking at this one, it is confusing me. Not due to its complexity, but by the apparent sheer impossibility of it."

"What do you mean?" "Shedinja," I asked.

"Unlike every single other ring in this system." Caleb circled areas of the puzzle with his paw "This single, minuscule star is directly between two of the sections and not in the way of where they connect. Furthermore, the ring is impossible because one section requirement is to change the color twice, which I was only able to solve after advancing on the section from two angles. The other section, unfortunately enough, is a section in which I am only allowed to turn each ring once."

He frowned. "I have to change the color of this ring twice and yet can only turn it once. I refuse to believe that this puzzle is impossible, but the extremely roundabout way of solving this puzzle is eluding me yet. There must be something immensely complicated that I am missing."

I mentally frowned. "Did you think to just move the ring?" "Shedinja."

He stared at me. "Pardon?" he asked.

"Maybe you could shift the physical position of the ring so that it isn't in between the zones at all," I suggested. "Shedinja."

Caleb looked at the puzzle again. "I can't." he refuted, pushing on the device with his paw without spinning any of the stars. "Observe. The device completely fails to react to the force of my paw. Either I need far more power to shift it, or-..."

"Caleb?" "Shedinja."

"Hmm." he hummed as he looked at me. "Say, this treasure is something of yours, after all. Perhaps you would be willing to help finish it? I cannot apply enough force to complete the puzzle, if that is how I am supposed to defeat it and not some other way…" he shook his head. "I will leave the decision up to you."

I was confused. He was letting me choose whether to finish the puzzle now? I didn't even know if it would work that way. He was making it my choice because it was my treasure in the first place. He had stated multiple times in the last few days that he was surprised that I was so generous by giving it to him. However, it was like he failed to consider it to be ultimately his. He was telling me that if I wanted to, I could solve the puzzle right now by pushing the rings out of their normal position and letting Caleb spin the ring and change the color, finishing the puzzle.

"Well… I know you wouldn't want to get rid of your chance to have the satisfaction of solving it." I thought worriedly "I mean, it's nice to see you being happy, so…" "Shedinja."

Caleb looked into the glowing puzzle with his eyes calm and collected. "Hmm." He hummed. "Unfortunately, I have attempted every mix of turns and options in this puzzle. And once I realized I had followed every reasonable path to this point, a total of sixty-two possible paths starting from a dozen different points, reaching the same result. It has just occurred to me that this is a magical puzzle, and it may have been designed to be at least finished by you. Considering your body fails to take 'no' for an answer, I believe that the puzzle is designed for you to complete."

He looked at me. "Because I have no doubt that of the many conveniences of magic include identifying who comes into contact with something first." he finished.

I hesitated for a moment, not entirely certain, but eventually I nodded and floated closer to the magic puzzle. Carefully shifting one part of my 'wing' into the mess of rings and stars, I pushed it against the one that Caleb specified. Unlike what Caleb described its actions against him, my body shifted it easily, until that ring was in a single region.

Caleb's paw darted in as he spun the star one single time and that star attained the same coloring as all the rest. Puzzle complete. The rings started to glow a brilliant blue as Caleb closed his eyes instinctively. I couldn't close my eyes, nor did I need to.

The glow fled from the rings in an inwards motion, coalescing in the center of the object. Then, the set of rings collapsed onto the ground, their color going gray. The leftover light glowed in a little energy sphere that just… Hovered there.

Caleb opened his eyes. "Intriguing." he murmured immediately. "The reward for solving the puzzle is the energy from the puzzle itself extracted in a sphere." He suddenly frowned. "I have not yet built any way to contain this kind of energy… It makes me wonder what we must do with this orb of magic power."

Before I could even begin to think about Caleb's words, Sarah barged in. "Caleb, Shedinja," she said. "In a few hours, everybody's going to start on the second challenge at once, so… Hey, that thing's like what Wigglytuff did!"

Caleb blinked. "Sarah, you have seen this phenomenon before?" he asked, then blinked once more. "Are you certain?"

"Yep." Sarah nodded as she padded forward. "It's blue, but it's just like that. When Wigglytuff did it, I learned heal pulse." she demonstrated by blowing a small pink vortex for a moment and then cutting the energy off.

"I had suspected that Wigglytuff had used magic to accomplish that, but I had not been certain," Caleb admitted, looking at the glowing sphere. "We have several hours. I shall keep an eye on this thing, while you two… Would you please bring Wigglytuff here?"

"Sure thing, Caleb." Sarah nodded, stepping towards Caleb for a moment. She stopped herself, balking, and then whirled around and walked quickly out the door. I mentally frowned. Sarah had been trying this for several days, and it was getting more difficult for her by the day. I swore that it was starting to cause her actual pain.

But the last time I expressed these concerns, Sarah had been kind of dismissive about it. "If I succumb because of pain, then I won't get anywhere. If it causes my heart to tear up, then I have to deal with it until it breaks, because then it'll be over. If I… Indulge myself at any point, every ounce of progress I've made will have amounted to absolutely nothing." She had said.

It was a reasonable thought, but seeing her have a serious mental struggle at the mere sight of Caleb was difficult to watch.

But I followed her and floated up to Wigglytuff's room. "I'll wake him up so that you don't get annihilated by that hyper voice again." "Shedinja." I offered.

"Thank you~" Sarah stepped aside, smiling as I pushed the door open with my body and floated inside.

Wigglytuff was, predictably, taking a nap again. I got up close to the pink pokemon. "We need your assistance, Wigglytuff." I decided to go with. "Shedinja."

After tanking the hyper voice (And getting a pile of earth from the ceiling dumped on me), Wigglytuff was up and cheerfully waving at me. "Hiya friend!" he exclaimed, "What did you need help with?"

"Well, we've managed to find this thing that looks a lot like the magic trick you pulled to teach Sarah heal pulse." I explained, "And we hoped you might be able to recognize what it does." "Shedinja."

"Of course, friend!" Wigglytuff didn't even ask me to lead the way. He trundled right past me and out the door, making a beeline for our room.

"That was easy," Sarah commented as she padded after the eccentric guildmaster.

"Truth." "Shedinja," I replied shortly.

"I'd help you get that dirt off with the wind from my razor wind attack, but that's a flying type move, so…" Sarah trailed off. I nodded and picked up my pace.

By the time we got to the room, Wigglytuff was prancing about the little magic light that glowed. "So this is the treasure your puzzle gave you?" he asked me as he stopped in front of me.

"I guess so. Do you know what it does?" "Shedinja."

Wigglytuff stopped shifting about. "Well, it's like a magical package. Kinda," he explained a little unhelpfully. "You touch it, and whatever is inside does what it's supposed to do. Items appear from the light, or a move is taught, or something."

Sarah and Caleb blinked, and I definitely wanted to join them in that action. That had been rather unspecific, but…

"If it teaches a technique, or is a gift of sorts, I would suggest that Shedinja uses it immediately." Caleb commented "...However, I do not know how it will work for Shedinja, as he is entirely immune to magic."

"Not entirely." Wigglytuff said dismissively "He can't be hurt by magic, or negatively affected in any way, but something like this would probably be kind of like how he can affect himself with swords dance."

This was probably the most coherent the guildmaster had ever been around us, which was a bit strange. I made a mental note that when he talked about magic, he got a bit more serious. Caleb had also noted this, evidently.

"I understand," Caleb said just as I nodded.

Sarah looked at the guildmaster. "Uh… By the way, I don't know for sure, but… You didn't get rid of your ability to use heal pulse by giving it to me, did you?" she asked.

"Nope!" Wigglytuff smiled. "I can still use it."

Sarah sighed with relief.

"Now, It's been fun hanging with you, friends!" Wigglytuff walked straight out the door "But there's a competition to be ready for!"

"He has several hours," Sarah muttered confusedly.

"He has to get to the hiding place where he will be waiting for the duration of the second portion of the tournament." Caleb reminded us promptly.

"...Whoops." Sarah muttered sheepishly.

I was looking at the magic package-thing and thinking about what it might do for me, or anyone who touched it.

Caleb saw this, and stepped back. "The gift is yours, not mine." He claimed, lying down on the ground. "Having battled through a powerful dungeon with a companion who needed support and claimed the treasure yourself, it does not matter how much effort I put into solving the puzzle."

I took this to mean 'use it, darn it, because otherwise it'll float there forever because I am not touching that thing', and mentally smiled. I floated up to it and gingerly tapped it with my body. It flashed and broke into particles of light that flowed into my body, although I felt nothing.

I tried to find some sort of knowledge, but… Nothing. I couldn't feel or remember any fantastic trick. "Well, that was anti-climatic," I muttered in my mind. "Hey, at least you got to get through that puzzle, I guess."

I turned to Caleb, who had his brow raised. "What?" I asked.

Sarah walked into my field of view, both her brows raised.

"...What?"

⽛ Daemyn's POV ⽛

"I don't believe this," Erza complained, crossing her arms. "Caleb is late. He's never late!"

"Actually, we're not off for another ten minutes." I corrected her.

"Hush." she reprimanded me good-naturedly.

I grinned. "Make me." I challenged.

Clang!

"Hey, he told me to." Erza shrugged, facing my parents as they watched me get pounded into the ground.

"That he did." dad grinned. I got up with a groan, bringing my paw up to rub my head only to find Mom doing it for me.

"Mother!" I complained.

She chuckled and backed down while I, morbidly embarrassed once more, looked around. We were in this huge crowd again; of course there were people watching. My 'cool' factor was dying a quick and painful death with my parents around.

I wouldn't have traded their presence for anything.

"Everyone!" we all heard. The voice was echo-ey and kind of like an agitated ghost, dark and what could be confused for anger, but probably wasn't. It rang in my head rather than in my ears, which was strange.

We turned in the direction I knew it came from, and saw Caleb and Sarah and Shedinja moving up to us. "Good morning." Caleb greeted us with his calm smile. "How are you all today?"

"Waiting on you, slowpoke," Erza commented immediately.

"For good reason." Caleb's smile actually rose somewhat.

"Guys, I can talk now!" Shedinja echoed, bobbing up and down. We all jumped.

"Telepathy!" Erza exclaimed, shocked. "Shedinja, that's great!"

"How on earth did you manage that!?" I wondered.

"Why does it sound like a ghostly voice if it's telepathy?" Machoke wondered. We ignored him.

"Caleb solved that puzzle, and after he solved it, it lost its energy and one of those magic package things that Sarah learned heal pulse from was there. So I got telepathy, I guess!" was Shedinja's excited reply. We all smiled at him as we took that in, happy for the shell of a pokemon.

"Finally got that puzzle done, hm?" Bastiodon rumbled. "We hardly saw much of you these past few days unless you were giving speeches or at the cafe."

"Indeed." Caleb nodded. "I was unable to separate myself from the puzzle for very long."

"You're obsessed with things that make you think," I commented. Instead of a snappy comeback, he just nodded to me.

An exploud stepped onto a platform as it rose from the earth, courtesy of King and Queen, the nidoking and nidoqueen and their earth power trick. "EVERYONE!" he shouted, much louder than Shedinja had been. "SOME GROUND RULES WILL BE SET IN PLACE BEFORE WE TURN YOU LOOSE!"

"Excellent." Caleb nodded. Charizard landed behind the lot of us, startling everybody but Caleb, who didn't even look around. "And good morning, team Amber. How has your morning been?"

"Fine," Charizard grunted as he set Amber down on the ground.

"I believe we came at the right time," Absol commented as he dropped down from Magnezone right next to Caleb, both intellectuals watching the exploud carefully, despite the large distance between them and him.

"W-we probably should be listening, yes-s" Magnezone warbled, lowering in front of us.

Machoke frowned. "He is pausing for a remarkably convenient amount of time," he commented. We ignored him again.

"Hello, Absol." Ninetales appeared the group, having moved silently.

I lowered my head. "For a moment, I mistook you for the queen," I admitted.

"Is that wishful thinking I hear?" she asked, a small smirk appearing on her face.

My mother blinked, and I knew she had drawn a conclusion. "Don't think about it," I warned her. She broke out in a smile instead of blurting it out, and dad caught on quickly.

"Well, I think it is about time we cleared out," Dad said, smiling at me as he led my mother out of the group that we had gathered. I guess they weren't taking part in the tournament. Oh well, they'd probably find a way to keep tabs on me.

"FIRST AND FOREMOST, TREASURE TOWN, INCLUDING THE EXPANDED PORTIONS OF THE TOWN, IS TO BE FREE OF ANY TYPE BASED ATTACKS!" the exploud screamed "SECOND: THERE ARE NO RESTRICTIONS ON COMBAT OUTSIDE OF THE TOWN! FINALLY, THE POINT OF ALL THIS IN CASE SOME OF YOU FORGOT! EACH GUILDMASTER HAS HOLD OF ONE UNIQUE TREASURE! THE FIRST POKEMON TO ACQUIRE ALL OF THESE TREASURES IN ONE PLACE AND BRING THEM TO AN ALTAR THAT WILL BE CONSTRUCTED RIGHT HERE AFTER YOU LEAVE WILL BE VICTORIOUS! FURTHERMORE, IF YOU ARE DEFEATED, YOU MUST HAND THE TREASURES YOU HAVE OVER TO YOUR OPPONENT, OR IF YOU ARE UNCONSCIOUS, THEY MAY TAKE IT FROM YOU!"

Cheering. Everyone was incredibly excited to get involved in this. I flinched at a thought. "This is gonna turn into a messy beginning," I commented.

"Not so." Caleb reminded me. "In two different speeches in the past few days, I advised all who would listen that to start something in the middle of the crowd would likely simply get them trampled. Those who listened to me would likely wait until many of the people have dispersed to attack somebody else."

"I recall that you worked on educating everyone on strategy." Absol commented "Attempting to even the playing field?"

"I was struck by a rare urge to make things interesting." Caleb explained, "And after the incident back when I was attempting to get home…"

"When you were struck by headaches because your human side clashed with your absol side." I supplied automatically. Caleb smiled.

"Yes, that." He nodded "I learned to listen to my impulses occasionally so as to avoid another incident."

"Hey, at least we suffered together," I said cheerfully, totally ignoring the loud countdown that the exploud was roaring out. Who starts from twenty, anyways? Seriously.

"Hm." Sarah said, lifting her paw and turning it over as if weighing things. "Instinct issues or… Malevolent dark energy."

"What are you implying?" I asked.

"That you can't really equate the two," Sarah smirked.

"Say that again." I challenged.

"None of that argument actually made sense," Erza commented.

"I suggest we split up into smaller groups, or even move alone." Caleb spoke up suddenly just before-"

"GO!"

All of us, startled, bolted. Caleb was telling Sarah something about separating so that she could more easily use that to help her with her issue. She reluctantly nodded and purposefully fell back, staying at Shedinja's pace while Absol kept up with Caleb for a moment, before he saw Ninetales getting away and moved to join her, letting Caleb off on his own. I turned to Erza, only to find a blinking green outline in her place. Gone.

I looked back, finding my team running behind me, and I smiled. We'd be just fine.

❊ Amber's POV ❊

Charizard had me in his claws. We had agreed that Magnezone and Absol could go off on their own. I suspected that Absol and Ninetales had a conversation they needed to have. I frowned slightly as I saw a shadow racing after them. What was Gengar doing following them? I hadn't seen him since my dream days ago.

But Charizard and I wouldn't ever separate. No way. "Where to first?" my flying friend asked as we lifted off above the ground like every flying type was doing at once in a large flock. Some headstrong spearow had attacked a pidgeotto, but a skarmory had, as Caleb had predicted, flattened the three before they could actually do much. The skarmory and pidgeotto flew off together right afterward, apparently having decided to team up for now.

But there would only be one winner in the end. I honestly didn't care much about this tournament enough to go around beating other people up for it. "So." I said as we flew "Do you want to win this game?"

"Eh." Charizard shrugged. "Going against a guildmaster might be a challenge."

"What do you mean 'might be'?" I asked "They're guildmasters. They're tough."

Charizard grinned. "I'll try to beat one, and if I can manage it, we can fly around with the artifact until somebody comes and confronts us."

"Until you need sleep," I muttered.

"...Right." Charizard rubbed his neck sheepishly with his free claw. He brought his arms up and let me hop onto his back as he flew. "Yeah, okay. Sleep is always a nice thing to have."

"And please be careful of magical traps. Remember what Daemyn described?"

"Yep. Stuff of nightmares, that encounter. He says Darkrai saved him from that one."

I shivered. "It's great that he's a good guy at this point, but…" I murmured "It's tough. I know what he tried to do, so there's always that burst of fear…"

"You're fine, Amber."

"But I can't defend against something like sleep." I refuted "If I get sent into an unending dream, what the heck am I supposed to do then?"

"You've got Gardevoir to protect your dreams, and your body's gonna be just fine no matter how much it takes." Charizard continued to explain to me, smiling. "C'mon. You're gonna be fine."

I smiled slightly, dropping it. "...Thanks, Charizard."

"Welcome. Hey, let's go as far as we can to the southeast." Charizard recommended. I shrugged, and he tilted his wings to change his direction.

⽯ Caleb's POV ⽯

Hm. For a moment, I had thought that Absol was going to join me impromptu. I hadn't expected him to stick around even for as long as he did. He likely knew that being around me was not the correct way to win, as we all agreed that in the end, we would have to turn on one another. Certainly, we could both knock each other out in one hit each, but he knew that I would have thoroughly planned the situation out.

So I was running alone. It had been a while since I was alone for longer than a few hours, and I cannot be honest with myself unless I was thinking that it was a little overdue.

My first stop was Mt. Bristle. The mountain had a very good open, flat area directly at the top with a cliff on one side that rose in a spike. A perfect arena of sorts. Granted, I was not able to tell precisely where the guildmasters were, but with several around the area, I was giving Mt. Bristle a forty-percent for at least, which was quite good considering how many dungeons were around.

As long as none of them managed to use the core dungeons, I would find one eventually, defeated or not. As I ran, I looked at some of the pokemon that were following me, attempting to be sneaky or quiet. My absol senses outlined them quite well. I would have to shake them, meaning I would have to detour through this grassland area for at least an hour to fully shake them, or perhaps even wait in the tall grass hidden until several hours had passed.

I dove into the tall grass like a good hundred other pokemon were doing right now and began a furious zigzag motion that spanned fifteen meters wide and started to twist, turn, and loop. If any pokemon managed to track me, they had to use something other than their eyes or ears as the noise I made mingled with that of other pokemon, so there was no way that I could be distinguished from most others.

Once I was safely separated from the pokemon that had hoped to trail after me because they believed that I would lead them straight to something they could use, I quickly traveled through the grass, hidden, until I was not in anyone's line of travel and laid down in the grass. Safe and hidden.

I waited thirty minutes, and most of the pokemon in the fields around me were moving at slower paces, so I stood up and slipped through the grass again.

Much later, when I stepped to the edge of the grass as it thinned, I found no trace of other pokemon around. They had scattered in the direction of other dungeons that might hold the guildmasters, or, if they learned anything from me, they would be waiting at the entrance for the stronger teams to get the item and then pull an ambush and cause a battle royale, resulting in the tougher team being defeated by numbers, and the sneakiest team, the team with the best ploy, would be able to sneak off during the brawl with the item already in their possession.

Mt Bristle was only a little ways into the mountain range. It was a relatively simple dungeon without much difficulty. That lowered the chances of a guildmaster waiting there, but I felt that the appearance and structure of the top of the mountain made it worth the effort.

My pace was slow, and so it was several hours before I found the mountain looming over me. My uncaring attitude had built up over time. I hardly cared about this challenge. The first challenge had done plenty to elevate Amber and I. However, I needed to do something significant in this challenge at some point.

"Oh, hey." I heard, and turned around. I saw a zigzagoon, a farfetch'd, and a ledyba. The bird with the stick had been the one to speak earlier.

"So you three decided to approach a challenge at your skill level?" I asked calmly, sitting down.

"Well… It'll be challenging for us, mostly because the stairs take forever and a half to find. All the time." Farell the farfetch'd muttered "But hey, we've got you around. Mind helping us get to the top?"

I smiled and nodded. "Follow me," I said, walking towards the mountain. "I care very little for actually emerging victorious in this game." I continued, feigning a conversational tendency. "But I intend to give it my best effort. Granted, I doubt I can defeat any of the guildmaster in a one-on-one unless I have advance preparation for the battlefield, and I am unaware of which guildmasters are where."

I hadn't told them that I had certainly planned for each guildmaster in each location I had detailed knowledge of, but that was something for me to keep to myself. Perhaps this was an opportunity to do one of the outstanding things I needed to do in this portion of the tournament.

It was, after all, for me, a political thing. I must always portray myself as someone who would go out of their way to do something impressive and good even if there are not many witnesses. The fact that I was willing to do it and wanted to help people… That just made it easier for me.

I entered the dungeon, finding enemies immediately. They were relatively easy to dispatch, because they were such low-level dungeon pokemon it was easy to accomplish. The three of the weaker team trailed behind me, not really attacking anything other than a single normal type that they ganged up on. They had very little experience, so by the time we were on the fifth floor, I had decided to change that.

"You three," I said, stopping before them. "Under my guidance, you three will battle through this dungeon yourselves."

"Hang on, what!?" Farell asked.

"Er…" Zoom muttered.

"You three intend on becoming a decent, respectable team, yes?" I asked.

"Of course!" Farell replied quickly and earnestly.

"Then you must learn." I said "And you must grow stronger. This dungeon has many rock types, but I do know for a fact that you can handle each one with relative ease if you employ strategy and speed to back up your strength. Tell me what additional advantages you have?"

They stared at me blankly until the ledyba slowly waved one of her legs. "Erm…" she muttered "We're… Small?"

Her teammates looked at her like that was a foolish thing to say, but before she could become discouraged, I stepped forward. "Precisely," I said, shocking the normal types that accompanied the ledyba. "You are small enough to slip directly between the fingers of larger enemies. A diminutive size coupled with excellent or even average speed to be detrimental to your opponent's easily if they cannot even touch you."

"...Diminutive? Detrimental?" Zoom asked.

"Particularly small, and potentially causing harm." I clarified quickly. "Yes. Layla is absolutely correct." This caused the bug type's teammates to look at her with surprise and a bit of appreciation. "What else?"

There was a silence. Layla had the answer, I could see it in her expression, but she was graciously giving her teammates the option to answer. "Er…" Farell muttered "You said once when you were talking about dungeons that the pokemon there were not like us in the sense that they do not strategize, that they are hardly awake. They'll just randomly attack with random moves while we can do other things?"

"Precisely," I smiled. "Zoom? Would you like to add something to his statement?"

"We can team up on one enemy at a time." he cheerfully got the answer correct.

"Perfect." I nodded, and walked to the middle of the room. "Here is your challenge. You will defend me."

"Uh… What?" Farell asked.

"I will sit here, and do nothing. Your task is to prevent any hits from landing on me." I elaborated "I suggest gathering the items in this room together so that they can be used. At a moment's notice."

Zoom… Zoomed around immediately and snatched up an oran berry, setting it directly next to me, and then bolted off again. I waited. In fact, Farell and Layla also waited, unwilling to get in the way of the zigzagoon as he barreled from one direction to another, creating a nearly dizzying pattern with his erratic movements.

Once the two oran berries, cheri berry, and a pile of twenty small rocks were gathered, the young pokemon were running around me and trying to speak to one another, deciding exactly how to go about this challenge. They were making the mistake of failing to ask me further questions regarding what they should do; I would have answered freely. Information should always be sought after if available.

And yet they still looked plenty determined.

"Twenty minutes," I said in a monotonous voice. "Begin."

They looked at each other, somewhat bewildered. They did not know what to make of my prompt order, but I had chosen my timing based on my absol senses. The same senses that told me that there were two enemies coming from one of the two entrances to the large room we were within.

I knew their fighting style. I had seen it multiple times during the first part of the tournament, and memorized it. However, then, they had teamwork, but not… Adequate teamwork. It seemed to me that they had taken some of the things I said in my speeches to heart.

And to think Farell had been one of those to accuse me of not knowing what I was talking about because I was new to this world. Impulsive, and not thought out clearly enough, but I cannot expect every person I meet to understand what it means to be experienced when they see it .

Watching the group focus on the non-rock type first and then start distracting and pounding away at the rock type, I gave a small smile. Priorities, dodging skills, everything. They certainly had gotten better.

Even though Farell insisted on hitting the geodude over and over with that stick of his instead of using an actual attack. On the other hand, he seemed to have gotten rather decent at using the weapon… With his wings somehow. I could see him holding the weapon, the wing curved around the leek in a way that made me wonder how the bones in a farfetch'd's wings are shaped like to be so easy to move at the extended half of each wing? It was almost as if the finger bones that were normally present in a bird's skeleton still had additional muscles, and there was less preventing those parts of the wing from moving. A very interesting species indeed.

Perhaps I would work on learning about that when I was done discovering exactly how an absol senses everything. All I knew about that right now was that my horn had something to do with it. Certainly, feeling vibrations had something to do with the disaster sense, but as for the other senses… What about Sarah's heartbeat sensing only working when the person is near death? Or my mental map? There was clearly a lot to it.

I watched with a raised brow as Farell bashed his leek against the unconscious geodude's head twice more and then walk away proudly. "Well done so far, you three." I complimented the lot of them, being rewarded with happy smiles. "I would suggest looking alive." I continued, nodding to another pokemon walking in. Pokemon rates were low in this dungeon, but staying in one place was a surefire way to find some of them.

I waited fifteen more minutes, and the moment those twenty minutes had passed, I unleashed a night slash and blasted the remaining fully healthy enemy straight out of the room, where the geodude bounced unconscious into the hallway. This naturally stunned the three small members of their team.

"Constant vigilance." I quoted "Imagine, for a moment. What if I had been an enemy rather than an ally? What if you had ignored me because I had not bothered to move? While you were battling other things, if I was an enemy, I could have struck two of you before you turned around and the third before they registered the threat."

They continued staring at me, so I elaborated further: "Because you were not paying any attention to me whatsoever at that time, if I was an enemy, you would have been defeated."

"...Oh."

"So that is why I quote the term 'constant vigilance' from the fictional character Alastor Moody." I explained "And I may tell that fiction story some other time. The point is that it means to constantly be aware of everything when in a serious situation and be ready for anything."

"Okay."

"That was a good twenty-minute exercise for you, I suppose." I mused "Very well. Let us continue on in this short journey."

"Yes sir, Caleb!"

I could not help it. For the slightest moment, I almost failed to squash the slight burst of a feeling of premature self-importance. That would not do at this point. I needed to remain professional. Pride must be squashed.

"Then let us be on our way." I stood and walked out of the room. The stairs, as I had predicted because I had purposely traveled in a way that would land us in every room but the stairs room because I had glimpsed the stairs through a short corridor. The reason was that so this training room would be directly next to the staircase.

Multiple floor layers later, and quite suddenly the dungeon was gone. We had made it out and approached the summit.

I stopped as I crested over the ridge and onto the mostly flat peak of the mountain, and stopped. "Who's that?" Farell asked.

I silently took in the thinner black fur on her leg, the thick yellow fur starting at her waist and reaching upwards. I took in the white fur collar and the fox ears, and the large fluffy tail with a stick stuck in it. Her arms were crossed, and she had a smirk on her face.

"You three…" I muttered. "Turn around and retreat."

"What!?" Farell squawked.

"Yo." Braixen raised a paw in greeting.

"Why?" Zoom asked.

My eyes shadowed over. "Because she would defeat you. There is no guildmaster up here. In a tournament-related sense, the peak of this mountain is useless to you." I explained in a monotonous voice. "I, however, will now speak with her.

"Okay." This from Layla, and she turned away from the fire type and retreated, her team walking alongside each other.

When they were gone, I finished searching the floor. As I had suspected, there were magic circles everywhere. And they certainly were just the circles that were hiding the actual traps from both view and my absol senses. "Braixen." I greeted her stoically. "How were you aware of my primary destination?"

She smirked at me. "Trade secret," she said, shrugging in a careless gesture. My eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly.

"You have been outside the town before the tournament started up again." I realized "While the rest of us were resting, you were drawing magical traps, enchanted rings and circles over this mountaintop… Multiple mountain tops, I would wager, as well as some other random places."

"So far so good, genius." Braixen waved for me to continue with that irritating, haughty smirk on her face.

"I would wager that you first enabled the trap to hold the enemy for a period of time long enough for you to get to them and defeat them with spells from a distance, and I assume that you would edit the spells to cause them to alert your mind when activated. If someone was caught right now, would you bolt right now?"

"Oh no." Braixen gave a smirk that set me very much on edge. "I've got you."

I whirled to flee. I was not going to deal with magic today.

Or, perhaps, I was. As I spun, my horn alerted me to a huge surge of power all around me. Two lines of magic symbols glowed into existence, and every single circle copied themselves and appeared on my other side. She had reflected the trap and completely surrounded me by magic circles.

Braixen had trapped me. Me. Magic was beginning to irritate me.

"Right where I want you." Braixen freely stepped through the magic circles. They must have been keyed directly to me. I did not doubt it was possible.

"You are legitimately beginning to be irritating. Mind explaining what these circles do?"

Braixen smirked and spun her wand out of her tail. "It binds your position to my wand. Basically, it's a levitation spell. So I'm going to point this at you now before you activate one and get your face pressed against the floor and dragged to my feet. That would be unfortunate."

I gave her a deadpan stare. "Indeed."

"So. Are we gonna do this now, or are you going to stall?" she asked, gesturing to the magic circles with her wand.

I threw a night slash at her. I was not willing to play her game.

Braixen nimbly stepped aside and let it fly straight past her face. "None of that." she reprimanded me. "Warient!"

Her curse whined as it flew at me. I stepped aside, watching it land on the ground nearby me. Thorn-covered vines grew in a meter radius on the ground and they looked generally uncomfortable. I would want to avoid stepping on them.

I frowned. Braixen was keeping plenty of space between myself and her, so she could dodge my attacks. Trying to do so would be pointless. It would waste energy that I needed to have for later. She cast the curse several more times until I no longer had the room to move without injuring myself on these plants. Yes, my body was durable, but like with my attacks, it would be pointless to waste energy on avoiding the inevitable.

So when her next curse, a blue bolt of energy that lifted me up and threw me back hit me, I did not really bother to dodge it. I only flew back three meters before I promptly stopped in mid air and righted myself. I looked underneath me, seeing the glowing circle of magic symbols. I hovered there for a moment, but then Braixen pulled her wand back while it was pointed at me, and I felt myself being quickly pulled slightly closer to her.

"So let's do this. You've obviously figured out by now that I can't do anything about the guildmasters here. So here's the thing. See that little hole in the rock there?"

I did, and I remembered Jake and Swampert retelling the story in which Marill's brother, Azurill, was almost forced by Drowzee to try and enter. I could see right here that the hole was barely as large as my face. Not even Azurill could have fit in there.

"Thing is, nobody's ever been able to check until now." Braixen continued cheerily "But that's about to change. See, I've invented a wonderful little spell. Thing is, I can't use it on myself. Nor do I really trust anybody to help out if it goes wrong, so I needed a guinea pig."

I frowned. "Are you aware of what a guinea pig is?" I asked.

"Nope. It's just one of those phrases." she shrugged.

It took me thirty seconds to tell her exactly what a guinea pig was, after which she shrugged carelessly and brought me over to the hole in the ground. "I do not approve of you attempting to cram me into this place. You have no reason to believe there is actually any treasure in this place, and I cannot fit."

She grinned at me. "Not yet," she said.

I suddenly began to struggle. "You will not be shrinking me again!" I exclaimed.

Braixen blinked. "I totally didn't think of that option at all," she admitted, but her smile returned. "My way is more entertaining anyways."

More entertaining. I am somehow going to hate this more than being turned pint-sized.

She turned her wand on me, and helpless, I listened to her say 'guma tijelo'. The spell was pink colored, and it struck me dead on. I felt my body shiver as something happened to it, but I did not feel myself shrinking or anything else.

I frowned. I tried to move my legs, but something very strange happened. They reacted properly, but not… Perfectly. It was like they wobbled in place when I moved. I attempted to attack, but for some reason my night slash went very wide and struck the ground a full two meters to the irritating bipedal fox's left.

She caused me to hover closer, and grinned as she brought her unoccupied hand to my horn. I watched her warily, wondering exactly what she was going to be doing.

Then she pulled. My head didn't move. I felt a pull, but it was not very harsh. My senses started to violently fluctuate as I recognized just what the heck I was feeling. She pulled my horn in front of my eyes, easily bent into place.

I stared at it for a bit. Had she turned my body into a rubbery substance of some sort? Or was it simply that my body acted like rubber?

She let it go, and it literally wobbled back into place at the side of my head. I was mortified inside, but not badly enough that it showed on my face.

"Are you trying to tell me…" I growled, "That instead of doing the intelligent thing and making me small to do what you need me to do, along with asking politely, you decided to make my body malleable and just cram me into the opening?"

"Yep." she walked over to the hole with me floating behind her, my body's position in space still bound to her wand.

"This is ridiculous."

"No, this is hilarious." Braixen argued, pointing over to a set of little orange screens that had appeared. "Look, I'm even recording it so I can show it off later."

"Is this a game to you?" I asked.

She looked me in the eye. "Yeah." she nodded. "You do realize that this whole tournament is a game, right? That didn't escape our resident genius?"

"...I focus on many aspects of the tournament, and I have things I need to manage. Taking an active role in the future means abandoning the concept of fun." I claimed.

She rolled her eyes. "Your friends are right; You are the densest genius on the planet," she decided, positioning me somehow so that I was low to the ground and facing the hole. "So here's what we're gonna do. I'm going to stuff you in there until some extra magic I placed on you—don't ask how—tells me that you're at the end and lets me hear you. You're going to tell me what's in there, and then possibly grab whatever's in there, and finally, I'm going to pull you back out of there."

I knew I had zero choice in the matter now, so I settled down and wondered how exactly this would feel. There was no pain when she pulled at my horn, merely a tugging sensation. It was likely this would be reflective of everything I would feel here.

"Off you get." Braixen waved her wand and slammed me face first into the hole in the wall. The first thing I felt was my face being stretched as the sides of my head met the wall and I was squeezed into the small tunnel. Then my shoulders met it, and I started to feel myself stretching as my body tried to force its way in.

Feeling it occur in my legs was perhaps the strangest part. They were certainly not meant to bend that way. As they got squashed into my belly as I was pulled further inwards, I recognized that I did not need to be bothered about it. It was doing me no harm.

What on earth am I saying? This is me trying to act as normal and calm as I can, but I am being packed into this ridiculous tunnel like a sardine! When she drags me out of here I am going to wait until I can move properly and I am going to attack.

Goodness, there was a legitimate anger burning in my chest. Perhaps it was the absol side of me.

The odd feeling of being treated like rubber was not one I would forget. Being stretched out in unnatural angles was not great. I wondered how well my muscles would respond while the curse was in effect. If I had to guess, I would say they would work, but I would have to teach myself to move properly again just as I did when I was cursed by Ninetales.

As an afterthought, I tried to summon a swords dance, manipulating the energy just as I have done several times over. I felt my aura energies shift as they do when I use the technique. I felt a burst of power. Hm. I suppose that I did not need the swords to have physical space to move.

I felt with my absol senses that I was approaching a small, semicircular opening in the tunnel, followed by nothing. I was finally pushed far enough that my face emerged into the open space. It snapped back into place for the most part, although the right side of my face was still in disarray due to my horn being pressed back.

Then my horn was released from the tunnel and flew back into position, wobbling as it was straightened. I searched the small room for items, and gave a long, dangerous growl.

"All for nothing, huh?" Braixen's faint voice asked. It was very muffled, but I could hear it. I growled louder. She decided it was probably safer for her to just drag me back out.

With my body unnaturally crumpled from being forced both forward and back, When she gave a final yank and drew me out of the stone opening, I popped rather suddenly back into my proper body shape. So suddenly, actually, that I popped up in the air about a foot as my legs snapped back to being straight. I turned to Braixen slowly.

"No good." She crossed her arms, looking at the hole. I tested my leg by pushing it. It gave in the wrong direction when I did so, my knee bending backward without any real pain. I wobbled on my legs for a bit, and then I started walking towards her. "Seems it was just some stupid rumor." she continued, turning to me and finding that I was free of her wand grip spell and that my face was about a foot from hers, even though I was shorter than she was.

She must have caught the look in my eye, because the moment she turned her head, she froze and started shivering. Were this any sort of animated show, I could imagine her vision of me with a slightly darkened environment and glowing red eyes that signified anger or threat.

"Uh… No hard feelings, right?" she said "I mean, you're not hurt or anything, haha…" she trailed off. I stepped closer. "Buddy? Pal?" she pleaded. My eyes glinted. She hadn't thought this entirely through, had she.

Boom-boom-boom!

She stammered. "Oh-ho-kay, that looks like a stone edge. Since when have you had stone edge?"

I stepped closer.

"Got it, running now!" Braixen turned, but she would not escape me.

BOOM!

I struck her right in the back with the large, curved blade made of rock attached to my horn, striking upwards with as much physical power as I could muster. She wailed as she sailed skywards: "I'm blasting off again!"

She disappeared in a glimmer of white light in the blue sky. I hardly cared where she would land. I turned away from the girl, shaking my head, and finding a low spot in the rocky surface. I then spit out my prize that I had been holding in my mouth.

It was essentially nothing, just a spherical chunk of silver with interesting markings on it. Hardly anything impressive, but it was a treasure nonetheless. I looked over at my bags, which I had brought with me and had fallen off when I was crammed into the opening. They were in such disarray, yet I still opened a pocket and plunked the item into the bag and then spent a good five minutes putting the set of packs on my back again.

As I turned to leave, I paused and glanced up at the sky again. What on earth had the girl meant by 'again'?

Θ Omniscient POV Θ

"Hahaha!" the golden girl laughed loudly as she watched the braixen go flying in one of her odd magical windows. "It's funny every time!"

She whirled on the boy in silver clothing, who had the easily identifiable Phase and Shift in his arms and seemed to be cuddling them like a parent would; gently yet protectively. He looked at her, slightly startled "Play the other two clips!" Angelica exclaimed.

"Angelica, they aren't clips, or tapes, or-"

"Play. The. Clips!" Angelica interrupted, eagerly waiting. The boy hesitated before Phase and Shift in his arms floated out of them and circled him.

"Pretty-"

"-Please!?"

Hearing the two speak, he smiled softly and waved his arm, opening two rectangular windows in the air that showed two scenes. One of Braixen getting a monstrous mega punch uppercut from a rhydon and sent sky-high, and the other of Braixen being blasted by a dozen water pulses fired from an apparently aggravated group of water types. The first showed her sailing straight into the air. The second showed her blasting into the sky at a forty-five-degree angle.

"That's three for the count!" Angelica cheered, pumping her fist in the air. She then chuckled as she lowered her hand. "It's so funny watching magic people underestimate non-magic people."

"You are the Guardian of Magic." Kaigetsu reminded her, smiling. "Shouldn't you be rooting for your people?"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Angelica rolled her eyes. "This is entertaining! Let's keep watching!"

⽕ Sarah's POV ⽕

"I still can't believe I can talk again!"

"I'm happy for you, Shedinja." I told him with a smile "but I am totally going to go deaf if you keep saying the same thing over and over."

"Ah! Sorry… I just got excited…"

"You're fine." I patted his shell comfortingly. "So where do we want to go first? We just kind of wandered out here."

"...North?"

"Works for me."

I got up and we started to move north. We had managed to 'wander' somewhere between the oran woods and the grasslands; We really had no plan whatsoever. So instead, Shedinja had been testing his new telepathy for the past few hours and saying lots of things he had failed to say before.

I was happy for the guy. It was just that it was hard to be excited with my heart yearning for Caleb's presence. Shedinja managed to bump me out of his trajectory when I found myself wanting to follow him, so I did not know where he ended up. And so we had been walking, but I hadn't been able to get my mind off of Caleb.

Things really seemed to be getting worse for me. And being obsessed before wasn't good for Caleb. Now, even fighting it, I was in a similar situation. It was hard to even recognize it as bad anymore. I needed this thing to go ahead and break apart before I lost it completely, and with the way it was accelerating, I didn't doubt that I would eventually.

I waited for ten minutes just reiterating the same thoughts over and over in my head until I stopped and looked around. My absol senses detected no other pokemon hiding behind the nearby things. I turned to the ghost type. "Honestly, Shedinja, I'm scared," I admitted.

He turned to me. "Why?"

"I'm losing control over this enchantment thing," I told him, confiding in him. "And the rate at which I'm losing it is accelerating. Pretty soon, I'm afraid I'm going to waste away all the work we've put in to try and naturally break this spell…"

Shedinja didn't answer for a bit. I assumed that despite his natural lack of expression, he was deep in thought.

"Well…" he replied, his echoing, dark voice sending shivers down my spine for no other reason that my body had a reaction to the ghostly aura he seemed to be emitting when he spoke. "As far as I understand it, we keep saying that it will keep getting worse until it can't physically get worse. Then, you'll likely break free."

His body nodded. "So at some point, we may have to restrain you for a while to see if that can help, if it gets too bad. Unfortunately, we can't do that because this tournament is going on. That means…"

Then his voice seemed much more excited. "I've got it. All we need to do is avoid Caleb in this tournament. We both know that this tournament will take ages to complete, at least this bit, so we should just stay as far away as we can from Caleb during the second part of the tournament."

"That… Sounds like it will work…" I responded slowly, "But how am I supposed to stop myself from trying to find him?"

"I can help you with that," Shedinja suggested. I smiled at him, but the expression broke as I flinched.

"But out of everyone we've met, I'm the most qualified to beat you. If I lose control and try to get past you, can you stop me?" I pointed out, worried.

"I think I can manage," Shedinja replied, his tone closer to the kind of tone people wear smirks while using. "I can't tell you how, because that'd make it easier for you to deal with it."

I smiled. "Fair enough." I nodded. "And… Thank you, because I don't think I'll be thanking you later."

"I understand, Sarah."

Some of my worries alleviated, I worked hard to force my mind to go back to where we were going next. "North, we said?"

"Memory issues, we thought?"

"Oof…" I mimed being struck in the heart with my paw. "How long has your sense of humor been so…" I trailed off.

"I occasionally make jokes to myself." Shedinja admitted, "Besides, I joked around before I became a Shedinja."

"Oh yeah." I remembered, "There was that time when we were about to meet Jake and Swampert and I was ready to go in mouth blazing, right?"

"I think I tried to be funny at that point." Shedinja agreed as he began to move forward. I started following him. I figured that the desert would be an excellent place to find a guildmaster, as Quicksand Cave was difficult and I figured either guildmaster Flygon would be there, or Guildmaster Ninetales.

Now, we had needed Caleb to figure out how the guildmasters ticked and how to defeat them. But, he wasn't here, much as I wanted him to be. No, I was going to have to do the plotting and calculating myself.

I smiled to myself. I was capable. I was sure I was capable. I was getting better at chess, which was an intuitive game. If I treated this tournament like a game, chess or otherwise, the pieces would follow the rules and I would just have to make the rules go into my favor.

Then something occurred to me. Was that the right way to think of things? Thinking of everyone else like pieces wasn't doing them justice. They were living creatures, sentient and alive. I recognized that it wouldn't be kind of me to treat someone else like a tool for my success…

So why did Caleb do it? My heart was telling me that Caleb's way of thinking was… Was… I shook my head violently.

No. Caleb is perfect. Perfect for me, perfect for everybody he tries to help. I just wish he didn't hurt himself so much in the process…

So what was I to do? Wrong or not, Caleb's way of thinking seemed to be very efficient. Extremely efficient. So efficient, after all, that he was advancing incredibly fast in society and getting exactly what he needed when he needed it.

Could I find a balance? Could I play this game in a calculative way and avoid ignoring what others feel about it? All of the moral things I was thinking of… They were restrictions to success. If I wanted to succeed while considering the feelings of others, which I wanted to do, I would have to be good enough to do it or accept defeat when I can't.

I hate accepting defeat. Unless, of course, Caleb was the one defeating me, because he's just so cool when he does it. So calm and collected, constantly and smoothly accomplishing what he needs to accomplish…

Focus.

So if I wanted to be 'moral', I would have to accept limitations to any success. Wonderful open doors would slam shut, and I would have to take more roundabout paths, and I wouldn't even be able to accomplish everything…

I wondered if I could get ahold of a guildmaster's treasure by asking politely.

I envisioned guildmaster Wigglytuff happily handing it to me. If we found Wigglytuff, that'd be easy enough.

I then envisioned Ninetales and any of the dragon type guildmasters hitting me with such an explosive technique that I was sent sailing into the sky and out of sight. I would have to get super lucky to meet Wigglytuff, and I figured that Flygon would be in the quicksand cavern.

So my next question was: What would fighting Flygon be like? I had watched some of his battles beforehand. He had activated Sandstorm almost immediately on multiple occasions, making it hard to even so much as see him. Then there'd been a hyper beam and an explosion…

But how had he lost? A team with a kingdra kept turning the sandstorm into a freaking mud storm with his rain dance, and then proceeded to use a powered up hydro pump into the ground and dragon type, which was basically unavoidable. After all the mud, it was the equivalent of Swampert's muddy water attack.

Because of Flygon's dual typing, water attacks would do normal damage to it. Still, water pulse was probably my best bet.

Then again, I hadn't seen that particular guildmaster use any attacks that Shedinja had used…

Holy cow, we probably had that fight in the bag if we met him. Shedinja would have to revive my physically weak self afterward, but Shedinja could beat that guildmaster down.

As Shedinja and I walked north, I wondered how Caleb was doing once again.

---

⽊ Erza's POV ⽊

"What a freaking day…" I muttered, leaning against a rock. The sun was setting. "So the meadow was obviously a bust, and so was the forest. Why oh why did I allow you two to drag me off to the easy places?"

My tangelo teammates gave me eye smiles underneath all of their vines, not bothering to answer.

"So maybe we got to deal with an ambush, that was fun," I admitted, before muttering: "Rhydon prick."

"You were so excited to fight something worth your time that you hurled yourself right at him!" The tangela said in unison, remembering the incident.

"You guys remember his eyes?" I asked, curling my leaf-like arm around my eyes to resemble larger circles. "That 'oh my god this was a mistake!' Expression?"

"Yeah!"

"That was before I jumped away from him, and he was barely standing, and then a freaking Braixen falls from the sky and onto his head!" I exclaimed, "both were suddenly out cold, and we suddenly feel awkward…"

Yeah, we hadn't known what to do about that, so we just kind of left them there to wake up. Then we did nothing of importance for the rest of the day other than walk for hours. I had figured that the lake trio girls would likely have a guildmaster at at least one of their lakes, so I was en route to the crystal cave. I would ask around at the crystal community.

The tangelo agreed with my words and plopped down on the ground to rest like I was doing now. Despite the massive KO steal from Braixen's unconscious skydiving that defied all explanation, I wasn't going to slow down on my path to the crystal cave. So what if like a third of the teams would be there? I'd fight through a third of the world's population, why the heck not.

But for now, sleep.

Or maybe I could attack the fool doing a terrible job of sneaking up on us, that might be a good idea. I summoned my weapons and snapped awake, vaulting over the nearest rock concealiing my newest foe.

Boing!

My flail smashed into someone, who had approached from a more concealed location. That was probably an overreaction on my part, but come on. There were so many ways to come from right here that to walk up from over there had to be some sort of sneak.

But that was the wrong sound effect for me smashing someone in the side with a flail. I watched the absol literally bounce right off of the rock and land without so much as a yell at my feet. Wait… Absol?

Oh. Welp.

"Sorry about that," I told Caleb as I helped him up. "Try not sneaking up on me next time."

He got up rather easily and looked me in the eyes. "I have been searching out various pokemon and asking for a certain braixen's whereabouts," he explained. "This curse she cast on me has not worn off yet, and it has been several hours. I intend to force her to fix the spell."

"What curse? You look fine to me." I said, patting him on the head. I then blinked. My hand had bounced up almost as much as his head had gone down! "Uh… What?"

I leaned closer to Caleb's face, studying it. There wasn't any visible change, but…

"Erza." Caleb deadpanned.

I reached out and pushed my hand against his face. It gave, like some kind of stretchy material. I pulled my arm back, and his face pushed back into shape. "Well if that isn't the freakiest thing I've ever seen…" I muttered.

"Erza."

I patted the piece on his head, feeling it give rather easily. "Wow. No wonder my flail didn't hurt you. Wait." I crouched down and pushed against his chestplate. It too gave like some sort of stretchy material. "That is extremely freaky." I continued, circling around him.

"Erza."

I grabbed and bent his tail. "Hey, look! You've complained about the unnaturally stiff tail, as you called it." I commented, letting it go and watching it actually wobble back into position. I circled back around him and frowned at him contemplatively.

Then I grabbed his cheeks and pulled outwards and stretched his face out with total ease. "Erza." his voice contained a hint of a growl now. I let him go and watched his face snap back into place. "Focus. I need to get this curse nullified."

"Uncomfortable?" I asked teasingly as I continued testing the extent of this elasticity by pushing on his knee, watching his leg bend backward without Caleb making a single noise of pain.

"Yes." He answered honestly. "And if I find Braixen and learn that she has invented this technique without developing a proper counter curse before use…" his eyes shadowed over, and I couldn't help but shiver. Yikes, that wasn't a happy expression.

"Wait, was it you that sent her flying?" I asked. He nodded and raised a brow at me. "You KOstealing little bugger!" I accused promptly. "I was kicking some Rhydon's arse and suddenly an unconscious braixen falls from the sky and onto his head, and they're both down! I haven't gotten to defeat any decent foes all day!"

His deadpan expression told me exactly how he felt about my need to have a good fight. I grumbled and absently whirled my flail around in my left hand while I was thinking. "Anyways, it happened somewhere over there." I pointed with my free hand over to the southwest. "Need me to take a good swing and send you flying over there?"

"As much as my body's condition is amusing to you, I feel that you are taking it too far," Caleb muttered as he started walking off.

"Shouldn't you be getting some sleep?" I asked as he walked. I noticed he was coping with his legs not properly hitting the ground as his knees were bending wrong on impact.

"That, I imagine, is exactly what Braixen is thinking," he replied over his shoulder. I lowered my hand and stopped spinning my flail.

"So… That was a thing." I commented to my teammates. Then I sweatdropped. The two of them had slept through it all. Just typical. They'd have wanted a part of messing with Caleb's weird elastic affliction in some way. I'd tell them the story in the morning.

I did hope he would get it fixed, though. My flail had done basically nothing to him. If he was going to throw away an obvious combat advantage, who was I to complain?

---

⽛ Daemyn's POV ⽛

I could have sworn I was being followed.

Seriously, I kept smelling something, and then I would interrupt my traveling for an in-depth search of the surroundings, but finding zero eavesdroppers. And the smell would just be gone the moment after I sensed it. This was ridiculous. I haven't found any trace of my followers, and it was the second day already.

So I had a plan this time around. Because the presence left, the best thing to do was to set a trap for them. Enlisting Machoke's help, as he had managed to locate me amidst the mess of running pokemon before, we got to work. It was a forest, so we used some rope and made little nets near the ground and hid them between trees that had tall grass in between them. They would make perfect tripwires.

Sure enough, when we started moving again, we hurt vile cursing from behind us and bolted to the source. We got to the ropes, but… There was nobody there. The ropes had definitely been hit, as they were no longer attached to the tree as tightly, but the only thing left of the sneak was a patch of compressed grass where he had fallen.

I sniffed the patch of grass. Yes, that was a familiar scent. I had wondered when I would find out why Gallade seemed to be resenting me. "Well, it's Gallade all right," I said for Machoke's benefit.

"What should we do?" he asked.

"I think we should check someplace like Brine cave to the west. Stay closer to Treasure Town." I figured "I bet at least one of the closer dungeons has a guildmaster in there, expecting the strong teams to fan out far and wide."

"Sounds like a plan. So why did we start off in the Apple woods?" Machoke asked.

"Because it has trees with tall grass in between them for tripwires and I hate being followed without at least knowing the person."

"...Point." Machoke nodded. "Did you manage to see where Bastiodon went?"

"No. Remember, this tournament is only going to be won by one person…" I trailed off "Although I'm pretty sure teams aren't exactly going to be prevented from sharing the winnings if they so choose. It's remarkably lax."

"Wait, are we doing it as a team or as individuals?" Machoke rubbed his head confusedly, probably wondering if he was supposed to be pummeling me right now, and he clearly didn't like the thought.

"Honestly? I have no idea. We're winging it this time."

"That sounds like a terrible idea."

"This tournament is basically for fun, so why not?" I rationalized "Heck, not even Caleb cared very much about the winner of this part of the tournament, other than a few private agendas he has. You know how he is."

"Actually, you know how he is. He and I speak perhaps once a week." Machoke corrected me.

"You undersell yourself." I insisted, before smirking. "At least two times a week."

He snorted. "Then again, a good seismic toss might do you some good." He grunted jokingly.

"Please spare me." I mock-pleaded, and the both of us chuckled. A seismic toss would hurt like hell for me.

"So…" Machoke changed the subject. "What are you going to do about Gallade?"

"I have no idea." I admitted, "He's seemed angry with me since sometime after I met my parents, which is weird because he doesn't show any resentment towards Shedinja, who he looked plenty mad at after his defeat."

"Maybe he's just weird," Machoke suggested.

"Weird and after me." I muttered, "If it wasn't anger on his face, he'd progress to 'creepy'."

"Honestly, I thought you'd have just told him off by now." Machoke shrugged "You've been acting way differently since Caleb and Sarah showed up, so I guess it's not that surprising…"

I nodded as he trailed off. "You're right. I should have done that already." I agreed. "And I will… The next time I actually see him."

We walked on in silence for a while. I didn't catch a scent again for the next short while, which was somewhat relieving. Finally, Machoke couldn't take the silence anymore.

"It was fun watching Shedinja kick that guy's arse." he commented, "I always felt like there was something off about Gallade."

"Really?" I asked "I didn't feel anything off until Shedinja beat him, when he suddenly got pretty angry. And speaking of Shedinja, I never thought that guy would wind up being a badass in fights when I first met him."

Machoke looked at me. "Did you already forget how he saved the lot of us from defeat from an entire clan of electric types?" he asked.

I blinked. "Kind of?" I tried to salvage my situation, but instead found myself hanging my head in something resembling shame. "We just got done being separated from the world for a month, after all…"

"You are terrible at excuses." Machoke deadpanned.

"I know…"

"Like, awful. You need practice."

"I know…"

He chuckled, and I followed suit moments afterward. It was always so awkward trying to find conversation to make in the middle of a traveling trip unless something really spectacular had happened. I think part of the problem was that the first part of the tournament wasn't really that up in the air. Everybody knew Amber was going to win, and it wasn't much of a surprise that Caleb had not lost until he came across Amber in battle.

So something incredible would have to happen here. And I knew it would. Each and every team would probably have some interesting experience to talk about. On their trip. I'll bet Erza got to beat up massive pokemon, Caleb would somehow manage to outsmart the rules of the entire game, and Amber would probably do something ultra-spectacular. At this rate, my story would be being stalked by a mysteriously vengeful Gallade. Wonderful.

I found myself thinking of one of the many horrible things that Caleb had said when he was confused. Tuning him out was nigh impossible because my ears were awesome. Something about predators keeping an eye on future prey.

Bad Daemyn. This isn't the human world.

I shook my head and we both moved on, putting our destination at the forefront of our minds. Perhaps it would be interesting to find someone there.

---

❊ Amber's POV ❊

We landed next to a cavern entrance, and I dropped off and looked from side to side. "Just us, Charizard…" I muttered.

"It's about time Absol and Ninetales had some time alone," Charizard smirked.

"Magnezone followed them." I piped up.

Charizard facepalmed. "Of course, he did." he grunted, "I wonder how many times the two of them are going to nearly admit their blossoming feelings for each other only to get a light electric shock."

"I wonder how long until the two of them find a way to ditch him after he does it the first time," I added, and then shuddered. "I hope he'll be all right…" I murmured in a quieter tone. "I mean, it's not likely he'll get lost, right?"

"The guy's got an internal compass like nobody else, other than a nosepass," Charizard assured me. "And if anything else, Magnezone's tough. Like, really tough."

I nodded slowly. "I guess I'm just worried for no good reason again." I supplied myself. Charizard reached down and patted me on the back reassuringly before he proceeded to join me in walking into the cavern.

"Geez, what the heck happened here?" Charizard asked aloud, looking at the destroyed ceiling and walls of the small cavern, along with the obvious rubble everywhere. There was a tunnel off to the side. I hopped up on one of the boulders and looked around the room.

"Someone went crazy here…" I whispered, jumping to a bare spot on the ground and looked around the rubble. Something caught my eye quickly as I stared into the boulders piled up nearby me.

"No kidding," Charizard muttered, and then he turned to smirk at me. "Well, it wasn't you and it wasn't me," he added in a joking tone.

"You aren't a crime scene investigator." I reminded him, putting my paw under one of the boulders four times my size and flipping it off the pile, looking down at the glimmer that had caught my eye.

"Neither are you." Charizard shot back "What are you looking for, anyway?"

"Just thought I saw something…" I muttered, pushing aside more boulders without effort and pretty much dropping into the pile of boulders that precariously stacked on top of one another, making a sort of mini-cavern that I could barely fit into. If it collapsed on me, it would be frightening, but I wouldn't be hurt.

I reached a paw out to the glinting object and slid it out from under a rock. It immediately lit up the instant I touched it, and I scrambled back in surprise. This caused me to bump against one of the boulders and to knock it aside with my tail.

I was then immediately pressed to the ground by a bunch of boulders falling on me. I shrieked out with immediate fear, curling up on pure instinct despite how invulnerable I was. Charizard rumbled in surprise and started shifting away rocks for about thirty seconds until he had totally uncovered me.

"Come on, Amber, it's all right." He picked me out of the hole and set me down gently. "You're safe. What on earth possessed you to go in there?"

"Th-that glinting object there…" I stammered. He leaned over the hole and reached his claw down, emerging with a small crystal between two of his claws. It had a soft blue glow to it. "It… Didn't look like that before." I added.

He frowned. "What did it look like to you?" he asked.

I shook my head. "I-I don't know… I only saw it for a moment and got startled…" I looked down at my forepaws. Charizard leaned over to hold out the crystal to me, his eyes promising safety and kindness as they always did. I gingerly took the crystal, holding it in my upturned paw. When it was touching Charizard, it had been blue. When it touched me, it went nuts. The colors on it changed rapidly, always sharing a dozen different colors at a time and generally flashing madly when I touched it. Everything but colors like red and black; those colors did not show in the mad flashing of the crystal. Instead, the color red was a minuscule glow directly in the center of the crystal. And black… Was nowhere to be seen.

"Oh no…" I murmured "I recognize this thing."

I looked around the room, echoes of battle sounding my ears courtesy of my imagination. "This must be where Caleb and Daemyn got infested by that dark aura… But Caleb ordered all of the crystal shards destroyed."

"This one must have escaped detection." Charizard grunted, "I don't like the way it's flashing around you."

"Me neither…" I agreed, dropping it. "We can put the tournament on hold for us. We need to find officer Magnezone, not our teammate, and turn it over. It'll probably be locked away with the rest of the remnants of the thing, or destroyed, but that's for the best…"

Charizard picked it up, watching it become a calm blue again, and sealed it in one of the pouches. "He should still be on duty. We'll head back to treasure town," he said assertively, and started to walk out of the cave.

"...Could I check on something first?" I asked. Charizard looked surprised, but I slowly walked over to the tunnel that led deeper inwards. The corridor opened into shadows, but had a light at the end of it. The entrance was heavily damaged from something slamming into it. I stepped through the rubble slowly while Charizard followed.

I came out in a very dimly lit room with an opening that faced where the sun would set. It was a very beautiful sight. At sunset, this entire cavern would be illuminated.

I shifted into my umbreon form to see better in the dark, and stilled. There was a small scorch mark on the ground. Miniscule, actually. Maybe where Palkia's portal had been?

There was an odd heaviness in the air. I realized it was just me, not the actual air, but… This had been the source of a lot of pain and regret. One little scorch mark on the ground marked a choice that, while good for the rest of us, was something that Caleb wouldn't let go.

And why wouldn't he let it go? Was it just sheer stubbornness? No, it was the need in his mind to remain human. To keep everything that had to do with his past in his mind.

And I realized then that someone would have to make him let it go. I wondered who possibly could change his mind. I doubted I could do it. Caleb would rather fix everything else and leave himself broken.

I shook my head. I've been thinking the same sort of thing about Caleb over and over when it became clear that he was hurting himself. Literally, it just kept popping into my mind whenever something around me had to do with him. I suspected the same was true for Erza and Daemyn and Sarah and everyone else. Caleb forced himself into the spotlight, the center point for every event that has occurred recently, and now he was all a lot of us could think about.

I felt myself calming down somewhat. I had Identified why Caleb was always on my mind, and I felt like I could maybe stop reiterating it in my head all the time. I would have to share that with the others. They would appreciate something to help reduce the stress.

"Okay." I nodded. "Let's go back to Treasure Town."

---

So all of that happened.

I am going to put this out there: I regret NOTHING about making Braixen say 'I'm blasting off again'. I have been looking forward to that rubber scene since day one of TAC one. Seriously, I love messing with Caleb. Particularly because he's so easy to mess with.

And when I wanted to make Erza a part of the situation, I just decided 'Heck, why not. Braixen's going to interrupt her fight. Caleb is indirectly a KOstealer now. It's one of those immortal titles that never goes away. And Caleb finally gets to use stone edge.

Overall, despite the very odd spread of POVs and everything, I am happy with this chapter. Please tell me what you thought about the chapter in your review. Thank you for reading, and have a nice day.