Author's Note: I'm back, and just in time for Christmas Blitz. I'm updating ALL of my stories, in case you follow those, too! Merry Christmas, everyone!
Dawn of Day 1 / 20
"WHAT!?" everyone had said back at Wesali Palace. When Carlos and Diancie returned to the palace, it was already morning so the king and queen were awake. Just now, they had assembled Carlos' allies, Kelvin, Gears' father, and even Team Infinity to hear what happened. And they were all shocked.
"All the legendaries in the council were kidnapped!?" Herb asked again in disbelief.
Diancie nodded. "But I plan to find the legendary Hoopa to get them back. Carlos has agreed to help me, but you can choose not to."
Everyone immediately protested to the idea of not helping her. "Don't be silly. This affects us as much as it affects you," Sally told her.
"Yeah, so don't worry. You've got our help for sure," Blake said, agreeing with Sally's statement. The others nodded
Diancie smiled. "Thank you all. Your help means much to me." She then turned to Garrison. "I have already filled you in on why I needed you here. Have you brought it?"
Garrison nodded and handed Diancie a yellow, star-shaped device. It had a hole on each of its ends, including one large hole in the center. Diancie grasped it firmly and closed her eyes. Light began flowing from her crystalline hair and into a device. Suddenly, the center hole flashed and revealed a number. Also, one of the star's points shone light towards the east.
"Whoa, what was that?" Carlos asked in wonder.
Diancie opened her eyes. "I had Garrison make a device that can channel crystal energy. You see, in order to find Hoopa, we are going to need six ancient treasures: the ruby, sapphire, emerald, gold and amethyst crystals."
"So what does that star do?" Vixi asked.
"The crystals, in a way, are connected to me, so with this device, we can pinpoint the location of the crystals," Diancie explained to her.
"Cool. So where are they?" Anubis asked.
"Hmm... According to these results, there is a huge energy reading towards the east," Diancie observed.
"Ah, it must be pointing towards Easlic," Ivy mused.
Ruby tensed up when she heard the name of the capital that constantly gave her a sense of dread. "U-Um... Easlic?" Carlos, Vixi, Anubis and Sally instantly gave her pitying looks, knowing fully what caused Ruby to act so nervous.
Diancie nodded. "Yes, the ancient capital. With an energy reading this big, I'm assuming that most of the crystals are there."
Ruby turned around and headed to a vacant guest room, where she closed the door.
"... Did I say something to upset her?" Diancie asked.
"We'd better check on her," Carlos said to the other three. They nodded and the four of them went into the room as well.
Diancie turned to Team Infinity. "I appreciate how you helped Carlos when he was framed. If we need your help, I'll let you know. For now, I would like you to try and find the whereabouts of the other crystals. The device isn't picking up any more readings, for some reason."
Blake nodded. "Okay, then." He looked at the rest of his team. "Come on, guys," he said as they all left the palace.
"Ruby... are you alright?" Carlos asked, concerned for the glameow. She did nothing but look at the ground sadly.
"Ruby, if you don't want to go, then you can stay here with the king and queen," Sally suggested.
"... No. It's okay," Ruby said, slowly getting up with a look of determination on her face. "I've been scared of going to Easlic for a long time, and I think it's tormented me for long enough. I'm going with you guys."
"... If you're sure," Sally said. "But let's regroup with the others for now." The five of them headed back to the center of the palace, where everyone seemed to be discussing something.
"Hey, where'd Team Infinity go?" Anubis asked, noticing that Blake, Hailey, Kevin and Felix weren't present.
"I asked them to snoop around for whereabouts on the other crystals," Diancie replied. "As for us, we decided that it would be best if we were to split up in groups. What do you say, Carlos?"
"Good idea. I don't think they'll be too thrilled with outsiders," Carlos said. "How do you want to divide the groups?"
Diancie thought to herself for a moment. "Hmm... Perhaps two large groups?"
"Sounds good to me," Carlos said. "How about I go with Darkfang, Anubis, Vixi, Ruby, Sally, Lily and Nova, while you go with Piplup, Chimchar, Lulu, Paul, Raptor and Gears?"
Diancie nodded. "Agreed. Let us take some time to prepare for our journey."
"All right. I'm gonna go organize my items," Carlos said. As he left to go to his room, however, Ivy stopped him.
"Before you do, be sure to place your items in this new bag," she told him, holding out a brand new bag that appeared to be made of fine brown leather.
"Thank you, Queen Ivy!" Carlos said, admiring the new bag's qualities.
Ivy smiled. "Consider it as my final act of apology."
Carlos' item capacity has increased from 24 to 30!
"Speak with me when you are ready to go," Diancie told Carlos. He nodded and went to his room, where he emptied out the guild treasure bag and took a look at his items.
"Okay, let's see..." Carlos mused to himself. "Seven geo pebbles, a pecha berry, three apples, a big apple, two oran berries, a max elixir, two blast seeds, a health orb, a foe-fear orb, a reviver seed, nine iron thorns, a stun seed, a dough seed, a violent seed, a yellow gummi, a blue gummi, a grass gummi, two pure seeds, and a link cable.
"All right, then," he nodded to himself, placing the link cable, iron thorns, reviver seed, max elixir, apples, health orb, violent seed and dough seed in the guild treasure bag, and put all the other items in his new bag.
He then grew a bit worried. "I really hope this is fake leather," he thought, but he quickly refocused on his current task. He picked up both bags and left the room.
"I'm gonna go deposit some items," Carlos said as he left the room and headed for the palace gates. Some of the others had business to attend to, the only ones remaining in the main room were Sally, Ruby, Darkfang, Diancie and Lily, who perked up at what Carlos said.
"Wait. I should go with you, so you don't get lost," Lily said, leading Carlos outside.
Now that he was no longer considered a murderer, Carlos took the time to admire the town square. It appeared to have the same facilities as Treasure Town, along with a few others.
"Wow... I never really noticed how big this town is," Carlos said in awe.
"Well, it is the capital of this region," Lily told him.
"Good point," Carlos replied. "So, where are the shop and storage areas in this town?"
"They're just up ahead," Lily said, pointing forward. Carlos looked and was shocked by the familiar sight.
"Kecleon!? Kangaskhan!?" he shouted in utter disbelief, seeing the two shop owners, who simply smiled and waved back at him in reply.
"W-What are you guys doing here?" Carlos asked confusedly, walking up to them.
They, however, looked confused. "Um... Do we know you?" Kecleon asked.
Carlos was even more shocked by this. "Yes! Do you already not remember Treasure Town?"
That's when it dawned on the two. "Ohh... You mean our coworkers? There are plenty of us all around the world. You must be talking about them," Kangaskhan explained.
"Oh," Carlos said simply. "Well, first of all, I'd like to deposit some items."
"Gladly!" Kangaskhan said happily.
Lily sweatdropped. "Wow, he sure got over that quickly."
"Put this under Team Destiny," Carlos said, emptying the guild treasure bag. Kangaskhan took the items and placed them in storage.
"Oh, I almost forgot - can you delete Dusty, Katty and Hazel from the account?" Carlos asked. Kangaskhan seemed confused, but nodded and did what he said.
"Thanks," Carlos said.
"Anytime. Come again soon!" Kangaskhan said.
Carlos then turned to look at Kecleon. "What are you selling today?"
"Well, I happen to have some extra stock, so you're in luck!" Kecleon said gleefully. "I've got x-eye seeds for 125 poké, luminous orbs for 200 poké, a Shadow Ball TM for 3,000 poké, reviver seeds for 800 poké, big apples for 150 poké, and a black gummi for 500 poké."
"Hmm... This might be a good time to binge on reviver seeds a bit," Carlos thought. "Okay, I'll take six reviver seeds, two x-eye seeds, four luminous orbs and a big apple."
Kecleon put the items on the table as Carlos was reciting them. "Here you go. That'll be 6,000 poké." Carlos handed him the money and put one of each item in his bag. He deposited the rest in storage.
"Wow, you've certainly gained a lot of money," Lily marveled. "Perhaps you should create a bank account."
"A bank account?" Carlos asked. Lily nodded and motioned towards another shop, which was run by an eelektross. "Over there is Eelektross Bank. She can store your money, so you won't have to worry about losing it in a dungeon."
"Well... Okay," Carlos said, walking to the store with Lily. "Hello. I'd like to make an account, please."
"Of course! Anything for our hero!" Eelektross said happily. She had a high-pitched and spunky voice.
"Uh... Okay," Carlos said, feeling a bit awkward that he was now apparently a local celebrity. "Well, I'd like to deposit 4,035 poké." He put the poké on the counter, and Eelektross placed it all in a jug with Carlos' name on it. He noticed that there were a lot of jugs like that one behind the store.
"Wow..." he thought awkwardly.
"Will that be all?" Eelektross asked. Carlos and Lily nodded. "Come again soon," she said, waving goodbye as the two Pokémon made their way back to the castle.
"We're back," Carlos said when he and Lily entered the palace.
"Have you made your preparations?" Diancie asked him.
"Yeah. We should get going now. Are the others ready?" Carlos asked. Just as he finished talking, the pokémon in his group all gathered around him.
"We always are," Nova said, latching herself onto Carlos, as usual.
"Good to know," Carlos said with a smile. He looked at Ruby. "Are you sure you're ready, Ruby?"
The glameow nodded triumphantly. "Yes. I'm done being scared."
"Wait, I almost forgot!" Diancie said, startling everyone. She pulled out a white pad from seemingly nowhere and gave it to Carlos. "Garrison has been making these for a while and selling them everywhere, and so he figured that it would help you have one."
Carlos stared at the device curiously. "What is this thing?"
"It's called the U-Chat. You can use it to communicate with others from far away," Diancie said. "You can send written or voice mail."
"Um... It kind of looks like a Wii U game pad," Carlos remarked.
"No, it's U-Chat!" Diancie said loudly in protest.
Carlos was confused by her reaction. "... But it really looks like a-"
"Just go to the dungeon already!" Diancie said, shoving Carlos and his team out of the palace before the matter could be discussed any further.
Easlic Ruins
"Gee, I guess Diancie didn't want copyright or something," Carlos muttered as the team of eight arrived at the mystery dungeon entrance.
"Wow... I've heard of these ruins, but they're amazing up close..." Nova said, looking at the scenery. It was a forest area with more than a few rock formations.
"Yeah... Let's just hope this dungeon is all we have to deal with," Sally said. They all made their way into the ruins.
B1F - The inside of the dungeon was also quite a sight to behold. There were a good amount of trees and rocks, most of them slightly covered in moss. Even through the warm sun, it was still very shady in the ruins, thanks to the towering trees.
"Well, let's get going," Darkfang said. The others nodded and, led by Carlos, walked to the next room, only to instantly find the stairs there.
"Oh..." Carlos said.
"Well, that was anticlimactic..." Anubis remarked as they descended the stairs.
B2F - On the second floor, they had the misfortune of spawning with a fearow.
"Take this!" Carlos said, leaping at the foe, biting them hard with Thunder Fang. However, the bird got back up and violently pecked him with a Fury Attack.
"Owowowowowow!" Carlos yelled in pain by getting pecked by such a large beak.
"I've got it!" Sally said, firing an Icy Wind at the fearow, knocking it out. Sally then helped Carlos up. "You okay."
"Yeah... Thanks for the help," Carlos said as the team got back on track and went to the next room, where they found 138 poké. Carlos picked it up and led his team forward, where they saw the stairs being blocked by a lileep. Unfortunately, it saw them and began advancing towards Vixi.
"Stay away, ya creep!" Anubis said, hitting the lileep with Force Palm, which knocked it out cold. With that done, they all went down the stairs.
B3F - Much to their relief, the stairs were in the chamber they spawned in, along with a black gummi and a geodude.
The geodude took note of them and angrily picked up a rock, throwing it at them. They all scattered to avoid the impact.
"Watch out for its Rock Throw!" Ruby said, dodging another one and hitting the geodude with Fury Swipes. It didn't do much, though.
"Hold on!" Sally shouted, running over and slamming the geodude with Metal Claw.
Ruby sighed and wiped the sweat from her head. "Phew... Thanks, Sally," she said gratefully.
"No prob," Sally replied. They all regrouped, and Carlos picked up the black gummi and led everyone to the stairs.
B4F - "Wow, this trap scarf is actually kind of hot," Carlos remarked, taking it off his neck and stuffing it in the bag.
"Um, are you sure you should take it off?" Vixi asked shyly. "You don't really have a good history with traps..."
"Don't worry, I'll be fine," Carlos said, stepping forward pridefully.
And triggering a pitfall trap in the process.
"DAMMIIIIIIIIT!" Carlos exclaimed as he fell to the next floor.
"Well, at least it was convenient..." Lily remarked as the other seven felt the sensation of being teleported to the next floor.
B5F - Carlos was in a daze by the time they arrived.
"Ow..." Carlos said, hurt by the impact of his landing.
Vixi shook her head slightly and walked slowly to Carlos. "... See? You need to be more-" She paused and felt something under her paws. She looked down.
A pitfall trap.
"You were saying?" Carlos said with a slightly smug expression.
"EEEEEEEEEEP!" Vixi cried as she fell. The rest of the group was then teleported to the next floor.
B6F - Okay, this is not coming off," Carlos said as he tied the trap scarf around his neck once more.
"Ooh, the stairs are already here!" Anubis said, seeing the stairs a few paces beside him.
B7F - The eight of them spawned in a room with 79 poké and a gold ribbon.
Carlos picked the items up and noticed that the bag was starting to get full. He turned to his friends, holding the yellow, grass, black, and blue gummi.
"I think we should all eat," he said. The others were in agreement, and so they took a gummi and shared. Carlos shared the yellow gummi with Nova, Lily shared the grass gummi with Sally, Darkfang shared the black gummi with Vixi, and Ruby shared the blue gummi with Anubis.
Once they were all filled by the snack, they headed to the next room, where they saw a sleeping nosepass.
Anubis quickly dashed up to it and hit it with a very effective Rock Smash, which was able to knock it out. In the next chamber, they found the stairs, along with a white gummi that was given to Ruby.
B8F - The team was walking through a chamber, when Anubis felt something beneath him. Scared that it might've been a pitfall trap, jumped back in fright.
"Whoa. Anubis, I think you found the hidden bazaar," Sally said. Anubis looked in front of him and, sure enough, there was a set of stairs.
Hidden Bazaar - Upon entering the bazaar and being greeted by kirlia again, the eight explorers went over to mime jr. to restore their health, PP and belly.
B10F - As soon as they spawned in the chamber, Darkfang set off an explosion trap that ended up damaging everyone in the way.
When the smoke cleared, everyone was glaring at Darkfang.
"What!? I'm sorry!" Darkfang shouted defensively. They all just groaned and headed for the next chamber, which would thankfully house the stairs.
"Touchy," Darkfang muttered before following.
B11F - "This should be the last floor, I believe," Lily said. They had spawned in the same room as an exeggcute and a spearow.
"Split up!" Sally shouted as everyone dove out of the range of the Peck and Confusion. Carlos hit the spearow with Thunder Fang, and Sally used her Icy Wind to knock it out. Meanwhile, Darkfang and Vixi effortlessly endured another Confusion thrown by the exeggcute. When it was over, they both need it with a Bite and Feint Attack combo.
"Alright, let's get to finding the stairs," Anubis said.
"Nah, I'm kind of tired of walking," Carlos remarked as he pulled a pure seed out of his bag and ate it, teleporting away.
His friends were not amused.
"Cheater," Sally said, shaking her head before they were all teleported with Carlos descending the stairs.
To the eight's relief, the eleventh floor was the last one of the dungeon, and they had made it to a clearing. They could see a city in the distance.
"That must be Easlic. We're almost there," Lily said.
"Hm... You're a l-lot earlier than I t-thought!" a voice said from out of nowhere.
"That voice..." Anubis said, seeming to remember it. Everyone else slowly realized who the voice belonged to.
"Evan?" Carlos called out. Almost immediately, the zoroark jumped from one of the trees and landed on the ground.
Everyone thought they'd be reassured to see him again, since he wasn't exactly a violent antagonist-type...
But something was off.
Evan was breathing very raggedly, as if he had just run a marathon. Upon closer inspection, they could see that Evan's eyes were much more read than normal, and that he had an extremely sadistic grin, letting his sharp teeth show. He was known to be a bit crazy, but it seemed a bit over-the-top this time.
And he stuttered. Being the calm, collected individual he was, Evan never stuttered.
"I w-was wond-daring when you s-sc-sc-scumbags would c-c-c-come by here," Evan said, his sadistic smile never faltering.
That was when they all understood. He wasn't stuttering out of fear. His craziness must have overwhelmed him.
"Um... So, have you got any intel for us?" Carlos asked nervously, hoping to break the ice.
"... Yesss... I do," Evan said darkly. He was rolling the letter 's', much to the others' nervousness, which instantly turned to terror once Evan pulled out a katana and pointed it's sharp end right at Carlos' throat.
"Damn kid..." Darkfang muttered, preparing to give Evan a piece of his mind. Ruby noticed his resolve, however, and outstretched her paw to stop him.
"Wait... If he wanted to kill us, he would've done it already," she reminded him. Darkfang sighed and backed off.
"Anyways..." Evan said, his attention clearly fixated on Carlos, "I'm only h-here t-to let you off with a w-warning. St-Stay out of master Yveltal's way, unless y-you really d-do have a death wish..."
With that said, Evan backed away and took a stance that looked like he would charge at them, prompting Carlos and the others to take stances. Suddenly, the world flashed white around them, and they were forced to shut their eyes.
"Everyone! Don't let your guard down!" Carlos prompted.
When the light faded, they all uncovered their eyes.
Evan was nowhere to be seen.
"What...?" Vixi said, looking around.
"Where did that zoroark go?" Lily asked, searching as well.
"... I guess it really was a warning," Carlos said. "In any case, we should head to Easlic. Diancie said that she and the others will meet us there soon. They all nodded and headed for the rural-looking city. All the while, Ruby couldn't stop thinking about what would happen. Would the citizens have forgotten about her? Or would they try to kill her? It was unsettling to think about...
Her gaze wandered to a small satchel she had on. It had the money to compensate for everything she stole in Easlic. She was once again grateful that the king and queen gave it to her. She would feel a lot better repenting for her actions.
"Right... I can't give up! Not now! There's no going back," she thought triumphantly with a nod.
Finally, after about 30 minutes of walking, Carlos, Nova, Lily, Darkfang, Anubis, Vixi, Sally and Ruby had all arrived in Easlic. It wasn't a relatively large city. All of its houses were made of wood, including the shop stalls. There were streams of water running down its borders. There was a brick palace in the city's center, as well.
"Wow. This town is definitely as rural as I heard," Nova said, admiring the sights around her.
Ruby and Sally, however, felt uneasy due to the stares they were receiving from the villagers. There were a variety of shocked expressions and fearful glances, but there were mostly glares full of hate.
"Guys, just ignore them," Carlos said, noticing the slowly escalating tension.
"Yeah, he's right. These morons don't know who you really are," Darkfang added.
They smiled. It looked like they were feeling better about the situation.
"You eight! Stop where you are this instant!"
Having a strong feeling that the call was referring to them, they stopped, unknowing of who the regal and authoritative voice could've belonged to.
Ruby, as she feared, had a good guess of who the voice belonged to.
When they turned around to look, her fears were confirmed.
Three furret and three linoone guards had surrounded them, holding spears and pointing them towards them. In front of them, a glaceon walked forward. She wore purple and white robes of silk.
"So this must be the queen that never even gave Ruby a chance," Darkfang thought, suppressing his anger. He glanced at Carlos, who glanced back. It seemed that they were having similar thoughts. Ruby and Sally stood there uneasily, and the other four felt very uncomfortable in their situation.
The queen's gazed drifted towards every one of them. She stared at Sally for a bit longer, until her gaze finally rested on Ruby, who stared back fearfully.
The queen began to walk towards Ruby in a calm manner with a stern look in her eyes. That was enough for Carlos and Darkfang to leap in between Ruby and the glaceon.
"You're not laying a paw on her!" Darkfang shouted. That statement spoke for the both of them as they bared their fangs, Carlos' glowing with electricity.
The guards immediately tensed up and gripped their spears tightly, but the queen merely raised an eyebrow at the threat.
The queen took a deep breath. Darkfang became less tense, believing that the queen was ready to talk reasonably.
Instead, she fired a powerful Icy Wind at Darkfang, causing him to lose his balance and fall to the ground.
"Darkfang!" Vixi screams as she and Sally rush over to see if he's okay. Unfortunately, it looked as if he was knocked unconscious.
Carlos cast a worried glance over to the unconscious poochyena before glaring at the queen. "What's your deal!? You could've killed him!"
The queen let out a light chuckle. "Kill him? No... My Icy Wind is meant to knock pokémon out. Like this." As soon as she finished talking, she unleashed an Icy Wind that knocked out all of Carlos' friends, save for Ruby, who was trembling uncontrollably.
That was the last straw for Carlos. "You piece of-" was all he could say when he attempted to Tackle the queen. Before he could make contact, her tail glowed silver before she slammed it into him, knocking him away.
"Guards. Tie up his friends and lock them in the dungeon," the queen said. The six guards nodded and grabbed the unconscious pokémon and took them somewhere.
Carlos was quickly fading due to the nasty impact the queen's iron tail. She walked over to him and kneeled down to look at him eye-to-eye. "You and that child murderer are coming with me." Carlos had one more thought before blacking out.
"Every... freaking... queen... wants me... dead. Damn."
Author's Note: Well, there goes part 1 of Christmas Blitz. Oh, in case you don't know, Christmas Blitz is a time between Christmas and New Years where I update each of my stories. By the way, here's my update schedule. Yep, I finally made one-
Jan. 1 - 15: Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: My Guardian Angel
Jan. 16 - 31: Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Warriors of Destiny
Feb. 1 - 15: MLP: Defenders of Equestria
Feb. 16 - 29: Hybrid Mystery Dungeon: The Spectrum Gates
Mar. 1 - 15: Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Warriors of Destiny
Mar. 16 - 31: Total Drama Kalos Island
Apr. 1 - 15: Legend of Spyro: Boundaries of Life
Apr. 16 - 30: Writing Break
May 1 - 15: MLP: Defenders of Equestria
May 16 - 31: Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: My Guardian Angel
Jun. 1 - 15: Hybrid Mystery Dungeon: The Spectrum Gates
Jun. 16 - 30: Writing Break
Jul. 1 - 15: Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Warriors of Destiny
Jul. 16 - 31: Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Warriors of Destiny
Aug. 1 - 15: Hybrid Mystery Dungeon: The Spectrum Gates
Aug. 16 - 31: Total Drama Kalos Island
Sep. 1 - 15: Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: My Guardian Angel
Sep. 16 - 30: MLP: Defenders of Equestria
Oct. 1 - 15: Legend of Spyro: Boundaries of Life
Oct. 16 - 31: Total Drama Kalos Island
Nov. 1 - 15: Writing Break
Nov. 16 - 30: Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: My Guardian Angel
Dec. 1 - 15: Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Warriors of Destiny
Dec. 16 - 31: MLP: Defenders of Equestria
In case you're wondering, PMD: My Guardian Angel is a story I plan to have up by New Years Day. I hope you all get the chance to read it. Anyways, next up on Christmas Blitz will be Legend of Spyro, which will be either updated tomorrow or the day after. See ya, and Merry Christmas!