DarkFoxKit: *Blows her nose in a tissue* Ugh… in case you were wondering, no, I'm not sick. I just have pollen allergies. I've had this since I was little, and I hate it.

Traveling Master: Most of my siblings all have the same allergies, except for me. I guess I got the lucky end of the stick.

DarkFoxKit: Yes, yes you are very lucky. I remember when I was in high school. It was torture, not just high school, but any grade I was in, I had to bring boxes of tissues with me. I was constantly blowing my nose, and it didn't help we had to go outside a lot to switch between classes, where the trees with heavy amounts of pollen were spewing. People got annoyed with how often I had to blow my nose, but how do they think I feel about having to keep doing it over and over again? I once ran out of tissues, and I wasn't allowed to leave the classroom until the end of class to go to the bathroom to get more. Spring is my least favorite season due to this. That and all the bees come out, I don't like being around bees or wasps.

Traveling Master: Never really had to worry about bees, but wasps can… ARE jerks. They see you and make it their life goal to torture you.

Dust: You two have some very weird insects in your world, the only time I had to worry about bee-like Pokemon was when I borrowed some honey from a hive of wild Combee. Now that was chaotic, I can still hear all the screaming guild members. Mine included, but that was after my mother caught me and gave me a very harsh punishment.

DarkFoxKit: Honestly, I rather deal with Beedrill and Combee over real life wasps. At least Beedrill and Combee can be reasoned with. Oh, and don't even get me started on what happens when wasps decides to stay near the mailbox. I can never get any mail! How does the mailman do it?

Traveling Master: One time when I was a kid, I was mowing the backyard when I suddenly hit something strange. Next thing I knew I see bees starting to fly out, turns out I just mowed over their hive. Luckily I made it inside without getting stung, but that lawnmower was covered with bees.

DarkFoxKit: Yeah… I also don't like being hot. So as soon as spring comes, I immediately miss winter. No bugs, it's nice and cold, no mowing the backyard, it's just nice~

Traveling Master: While it was weird when I was in the UK, one thing I did appreciate was that surprisingly, there were hardly any bugs. Don't know what's up with that, but wasn't complaining.

DarkFoxKit: Lucky. There are bees, mostiqos, and wasps EVERYWHERE here. I rather stay holed up indoors all day.

Dust: Shouldn't you two get the story started?

Traveling Master: Right… Weird how it's Dust reminding us to do our jobs.

DarkFoxKit: Not really, this is his story, so of course he wants us to focus on it. XP *Grabs another tissue and blows into it*


Chapter 16: The Harshness of Phoenix Desert

Phoenix Desert 1F

As soon as Dust entered the dungeon, he could already feel the blazing hot sun on him. Dust was thankful his fur was white, otherwise he would be twice as hot if he had darker colored fur. Berry's body also kept parts of his back cool as well. Regardless, he wasn't looking forward to coming back to another desert-like dungeon anytime soon. As the trio continue through the dungeon, not too many Pokemon seemed to bother them too much. Though Dust was surprised when the ground in front of him suddenly shifted and a Trapinch burst from the ground. Dust was about to fire an Ice Beam but Brody beat him to it by delivering a swift kick to the side of the Pokemon, knocking it away.

"Remember, let me handle the Pokemon, you two need to save your energy," Brody explained once more before taking the lead again.

"R-right…" Dust answered, feeling too hot to really say much other than that.

Brody was looking around, and closed his eyes, trying to use his aura to sense where the Snubbull could be. Unfortunately, the generation dull had hit his kind hard. While Brody could still sense with aura, he couldn't spread out his senses very far. Brody only knew that the Snubbull and Chloe weren't on this floor.

Dust saw a brown ball coming up from the sand, at first he thought he was delirious, but then the ball suddenly uncurled, revealing it to be a Sandshrew. The Sandshrew jumped at Dust quickly, slashing his front fur with a Scratch attack.

"Gah!" Dust shouted as he fired an Ice Beam attack without thinking.

The Sandshrew got hit with the ice attack and promptly became frozen. Dust looked down to see that some of his fur was cut off, but besides that he hadn't taken too much damage.

"Careful! Don't use up all your Ice Beam so quickly," Brody warned. "If you need to attack, use your less draining attacks like Bite."

"Very well," Dust obliged, even though he disliked using Bite.

The two continued on through the desert. Dust was trying his best to avoid as many enemies as possible since he didn't want to use Bite if he didn't have to. Brody was doing a good job at taking out most of the wild Pokemon anyways.


Phoenix Desert 3F

They had managed to get through 2 floors of Phoenix Desert, but things were getting harder from there. Trapinch kept making sand pits that were too easy to fall into. Brody had to either pull Dust out or fire an Aura Sphere at the Trapinch before it could take a bite out of Dust's legs.

Dust noticed that Berry had been quiet since they entered the dungeon, and he was starting to get a little worried.

"Berry?" Dust called out. "Is everything alright? You don't sense some dangerous Pokemon nearby, do you?"

"Too… hot… can't… focus…" Berry answered in a strained tone.

"Let me see." Brody walked towards Dust and Berry to check on them. He noticed how exhausted Berry was despite Dust carrying her the whole time. "Looks like the heat is having a stronger effect on her...You two should go back. I can go after the Snubbull on my own."

"But… but… Chloe…" Berry tried to argue.

"I'm afraid he's right, Berry," Dust spoke up with concern. "You might risk dehydration if we keep going further. Can't really rescue Chloe if our bodies end up collapsing from exhaustion."

"It'll be okay, fair maiden Berry," Brody spoke up with chivalry. "I promise I will find Chloe and bring her back to safety. You just get out of this desert. This is clearly not a very good environment for you."

Berry didn't look too happy about that, but she didn't argue anymore, though Dust wasn't sure if it was because she understood Brody's logic, or she just didn't have the strength to argue. Dust did notice, however, that his back didn't have a lot of goo on it, meaning Berry's body was drying up quickly.

"Sorry Berry, but I'm sure Brody will bring Chloe back. For now, let's focus on getting you back so you can recover." Dust apologetically said before reaching for his badge.

"I will see you two later at the guild," Brody said before he rushed on ahead, moving much faster now that he didn't have to wait for Dust, it was clear the desert's heat didn't bother the Lucario much.

Dust waited until he could no longer see Brody. He looked back at Berry and was surprised to see how pale she was. Not wanting to endanger his partner again, the Absol held his badge, preparing to teleport out of the dungeon with Berry. But just as Dust was about to use the badge, he felt the ground shake beneath him. He tried to keep his footing, but the sand gave away faster than Dust could recover. Next thing Dust knew, the ground had fallen in, with both him and Berry falling with it.

There wasn't just a Trapinch at the bottom, but there were three of them. They created this massive sandpit, and Dust knew he had to do something before he and Berry became Trapinch chow. Berry, despite being mostly out of it, realized they were in danger as well. She opened her mouth to shoot out a Water Gun, and nothing but sprinkles of water came out of her mouth. The sprinkles just ended up dripping on Dust's fur and the sand.

Before, Dust would have been reluctant to use Ice Beam, wanting to save up his energy. But seeing the situation they are currently in, Dust didn't hesitate to fire his ice attack at the bottom. One of the Trapinch saw what was coming and managed to dig away before Dust could fire his Ice Beam, the other two were to slow to react and ended up getting hit by the attack, promptly fainting from the super effective Ice Beam.

The sandpit stopped due to this, and Dust was trying to climb out of it. However, the Trapinch that got away, wasn't too happy that two of its friends were down. It began to climb up towards Dust itself. Since Dust wasn't used to climbing up sand, he kept slipping down, but the Trapinch had no such problems. It came up to Dust and opened its big mouth before clamping it on Dust's back leg. The Trapinch had used Bite, and the only thing that kept Dust from losing his leg right then and there was his type resistant to Bite.

Dust let out a yelp of pain. Berry weakly glared at the Trapinch, since her Water Gun wasn't working, she decided to use Absorb. Ground type like Trapinch was weak to Absorb, and Berry desperately needed the energy. Berry's body glowed green, and since the Trapinch was close enough, its body glowed green as well. Dust could feel the Trapinch's tight hold was starting to loosen.

Dust noticed the parts that got wet from Berry's weakened Water Gun were a lot easier to climb than the dry ones. While still focusing on trying to climb out and withstand the pain in his leg, he managed to call out to Berry.

"Sorry to ask this of you, but if you can, use Water Gun! I'll be able to climb out if the sand is soaked with water!" Dust shouted.

Berry managed to gain back some energy from the Trapinch, and she turned around. Berry took a deep breath and managed to shoot out a more proper Water Gun this time, but it was very small and weak. She soaked up as much sand in front of Dust as she could before her Water Gun turned into sprinkles again.

With the Trapinch weakened from Berry's earlier attack, and the now muddied sand, Dust was able to shake loose the Trapinch and climb out the sandpit. Seeing that Dust and Berry were too much of a struggle, the Trapinch decided not to bother going after them, especially since they had managed to climb out of their trap. Dust was more than happy to see the Trapinch leaving them. He was about to lay on the ground to rest, but remembered Berry's condition and how it was worse than his.

Moving away from the sandpit, just in case the Trapinch decided to come back, Dust took a moment to check on Berry. "How are you doing?"

"Dry…" Berry looked at Dust. "We're… in a very… dry… dry desert… maybe you could… lick me?"

"Lick?!" Dust asked in shock. "I mean, using Bite is one thing, but lick? But we are in a desert...but we have our badges!"

Dust then reached to where he thought is badge was, only to find it missing. He looked around, seeing no traces of it. He checked his bag, just in case but to no avail. A thought then occurred to him and he looked to where the sandpit use to be. He walked towards it, hoping to see any signs of his badge, but the pit itself was gone, already being covered by the desert sand.

"Well this isn't good. Berry, by chance do you have your badge with you?" Dust asked, hoping that she would.

"... No… I left it… in our room… because I thought… we were done with… missions for the day…" Berry answered.

"That is...unfortunate," Dust mumbled to himself.

"Looks like… we'll have to… traverse the dungeon… until we… find an… Escape Orb… or Brody…" Berry weakly stated.

"Looks like it," Dust nodded. But before going, he checked his bag again and was glad to see that their berries managed to survive the encounter with the Trapinch. He grabbed two Oran Berries, putting on in his mouth before holding the other near Berry for her to eat.

Berry didn't even grab the Oran Berry, she just opened her mouth and closed it onto the Berry, and some of Dust's claws. Dust pulled his claws out of Berry's mouth before she quickly swallowed the Oran Berry. She looked a little better, but her body was still dry and pale.

Berry lifted up her head and shot out a stronger looking Water Gun, and let the water sprinkle on both of them. The sprinkles of water allowed Berry's body to get some moist back, and it helped cool Dust down a bit too.

When Berry stopped using Water Gun, she did look a little better. "This should… buy us some time. Now hurry, let's get… to the next floor."

Dust nodded and started forward, hoping to either find an Escape Orb, or Brody.


Phoenix Desert 4F

Despite just being on the 4th floor, Dust already hated the Phoenix Desert. The winds were picking up, that was not a good sign. Brody warned them when the winds began to pick up, a sandstorm was on the way.

"Berry, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if we don't find the next floor or shelter, we might be in some serious danger," Dust pointed out.

Dust waited for a reply but when he got none he looked back to see Berry was once again exhausted, most likely trying to conserve her energy. Dust was about to speak up again when he noticed behind them, in the distance the wind had gotten stronger and there was a sandstorm heading towards them. Without wasting another second, Dust started running away from the oncoming sand.

Dust, however, stopped when he saw a few large Hippopotas in his way. They gave a lazy yawn at him. It was then Dust remembered that Hippopotas had the ability Sand Stream, which summoned sandstorms. It clicked in Dust's head why there was a sandstorm on this floor now. The sandstorm soon caught up with Dust and Berry, limiting their vision, and making it hard for them to breathe.

"Berry!" Dust managed to shout. "Quick, get in the bag!"

Berry, despite being weakened, and the sandstorm buffeting her, managed to move her antennae. "Move… forward!"

Dust barely caught what Berry had said, but understood enough. Despite having to squint his eyes, Dust managed to keep moving forward, trying to ignore the constant sand flying everywhere, buffeted his body every second.

Then, for a split second, Dust felt something dangerous ahead. Unfortunately, Dust didn't sense it in time before he couldn't move. Gasping, and inhaling some sand, Dust choked a bit, before looking down to see his body was sinking. His heart started racing as he tried to climb out, but the more he struggled, the faster his body sank into the quicksand. He looked back to check on Berry, but the sandstorm made it even difficult to see her. He tried calling out to her, but ended up choking up on more sand.

Dust shut his eyes and held his breath, waiting for the inevitable. But he fell on something that jolted his eyes open. He was still able to breathe. It was dark, wherever they were, but Dust could see fine in the dark. There was sand down here, falling sand from the ceiling. Dust blinked, realizing there was a ceiling. He looked up, seeing that he was under sand. It was also cooler down here, no sandstorm, no sunlight beating down on them.

"Heh… looks like… my hunch was right… there was an underground in this desert…" Berry spoke up from behind Dust.

Dust took a moment to cough out any sand still left in his mouth. "Good thinking too...To think that quicksand...would end up saving us. But how did you know...there was an underground in the quicksand?...It could've easily ended us."

"I sensed life underneath us… during the sandstorm. I was desperate… so I told you to run… towards the nearest quicksand… praying to Lady Mew herself that it would take us underground," Berry explained.

"I must say, I never thought we would end up underground in the middle of a Mystery Dungeon," Dust noted as he started to take in his surroundings.

"The underground is a part of the Mystery Dungeon, at least I think it is, so that means there should also be stairs around here," Berry guessed, recovering a bit from being out of the sun and in a cooler place. "We'll… have to use the stairs… to climb back up to the surface, but… we should also… still be on the same floor."

"Fascinating, it always amazes me on how Mystery Dungeons works. You think you learned all you can about them after exploring them for a month, then suddenly they can still surprise you in a pinch," Dust replied. "If we are lucky, perhaps we might find some water source too."

Dust began to move through Under Phoenix Desert, he hoped that he'll be able to find a water source soon, he was pretty dang parched, but he was mostly worried for Berry since her body felt unnaturally dry on his back. Dust may not know that much about Goomy, but he had learned more about them since he became partners with one, and being this dry was not healthy for her. He could barely feel any goo coming from Berry.

"Dust… I'll be fine," Berry assured, likely noticing the Absol's worry. "Just focus on the mission… saving Chloe should be our top priority."

Dust was surprised to hear that from Berry. "But Brody said that he would handle saving Chloe and that we should focus on getting you out of here."

"... It was… never my intention to leave…" Berry admitted. "But I was… too tired to argue at the time… it was my fault that Chloe got kidnapped… and it's my responsibility."

Dust remained silent for a moment. He understood what Berry said and how she truly wants to rescue Chloe, but he was still worried about his partner. If it wasn't for the fact that he had lost his badge, they would've already been out of the dungeon. Dust sighed before giving his partner a friendly smile.

"Well seeing as we are currently stuck in this dungeon, we can only keep moving forward. And if that means finding Chloe, then so be it," Dust said. "But for now, at least focus on resting, we don't know how long we'll be here underground, or if the next staircase will take us directly back to the surface. Better to recover your energy now while we still have the chance."

Berry didn't say anything, but Dust didn't need her too, he knew that talking would require more energy, and the Goomy didn't need to say anything to acknowledge what her partner said. Dust was thankful he found the stairs leading to the next floor without running into any wild Pokemon.


Under Phoenix Desert 5 BF

Dust had noticed that the stairs lead down instead of up. That meant they were getting deeper underground, rather than going up to the surface. He was a bit concerned that they may not even get back to the surface, but just as how the quicksand from above had saved them earlier, he was sure that this dungeon would still hold some surprises for them.

As Dust and Berry continued through the dungeon floor, Dust would occasionally spot some wild Pokemon in the distance. Luckily they hadn't paid them too much attention, though Dust didn't want to take chances so he made sure to avoid them.

Dust found a few items, but none of them were an Escape Orb, not that Berry would want them to leave without finding Chloe, but he would like one just in case they needed to get out. And Dust was also hoping to find a Rainy Orb, or at least some kind of water source, even desert dwelling Pokemon couldn't live without water forever.

Thankfully for Dust, the wild Pokemon Under Phoenix Desert didn't seem as hostile as the Pokemon above. It was likely they were just too relaxed to care about Dust and Berry.


Under Phoenix Desert 7 BF

The dungeon wasn't too terribly big, which Dust was grateful for, however, when he made it to the 7th bottom floor, there was a sudden maze. The Mystery Dungeon was always a maze, but this felt beyond that. There were holes that lead to different tunnels, several holes, dozens, maybe hundreds of them.

"D-Dust…" Berry whispered. "There… are… a lot of Trapinch… a lot…"

"I think...we came across a colony of Trapinch," Dust whispered back. "If we weren't in the middle of a mission, I would take this chance to record all of this!"

"Just don't get them mad… we'll be Trapinch food if they see us as intruders…" Berry hissed.

Dust didn't see much activity among the Trapinch, maybe they were resting from the recent sandstorm. "Well let's just hope that they won't be too bothered by us."

As Dust quickly and quietly moved, the Trapinch lazily moved or laid around. Some of them were yawning, while others were bringing some meat, from their unlucky prey, for their young. Dust had never seen baby Trapinch before, they were pretty small, but they had big bites seeing how they were eating up the meat so quickly.

Berry's sense were weakened from being dehydrated, but she was still able to guide Dust through the tunnels, which Dust was thankful for since he didn't want to have to go through the maze and end up in a dead end or in a family of Trapinch. Though Dust wasn't sure if Berry could sense the stairs, she was likely just leading him away from a lot of Trapinch.

Then, Dust ran into a surprising discovery. There was one Trapinch among the many that looked different. Instead of orange, this Trapinch was a gray-ish green color. Dust would have been impressed to come across this unique Trapinch, but something about this different colored Pokemon gave him an uneasy feeling. He couldn't quite place it, but as he continued staring at the Trapinch, a nagging thought kept coming to his mind, as though he's seen this Trapinch before.

While Dust still kept his eyes on the Pokemon, he hoped that he could walk around it to avoid any confrontation. But as Dust moved to avoid the Trapinch, it suddenly moved to block his path. Dust was caught off guard by the sudden movement.

Perhaps this Trapinch is blocking us from their nest or something. Best to avoid it then. Dust thought to himself as he slowly backed away from the Trapinch. When he felt he was a good safe distance, he turned around to take a different path. But shortly after turning, he was surprised to see the Trapinch rush up to block his path once more.

"Where do you think you're going, Absol?" The gray-green Trapinch hissed, which shocked Dust and Berry.

"Did… that Trapinch… just talk?" Berry questioned.

"I think it just did," Dust answered.

"Excuse me, I am not an 'it', I am a 'she'!" The Trapinch huffed. "And I didn't appreciate you freezing my two friends up there."

"Friends?" Dust asked. He then recalled the two Trapinch he had frozen from the sandpit and how the third Trapinch had gotten away. But this couldn't possibly be the same Trapinch, they were all the same color.

"Maybe you'll recognize me after I do this…" The Trapinch dug into the ground for a second, Dust blinked as he and Berry looked at each other for a moment, before the Trapinch dug her way back up again, looking to be the same color as everyone else; orange and white. "There. Do you recognize me now?"

"It's you!" Dust exclaimed as he recognized the Trapinch as the third one from earlier. "You're civilized?"

"No… at least, I wasn't born civilized," The Trapinch answered. "I was taught, by a Crusader long ago. And I'm grateful, because now that I've learned how to be civilized, I can now hide my true colors and be like everyone else. No longer will I be the odd one out, the one who's different from the rest. I can finally make friends now, instead of having the others look at me funny."

After hearing the Trapinch, Dust was looking at the Pokemon with wide eyes as he took in a deep breath, already preparing all the questions that were popping in his mind. Berry had sensed this, and not wanting to cause any more tension between them and the Trapinch, acted quickly before Dust could speak.

Berry, despite her exhaustion, hopped onto Dust's head to stop him from patronizing the Trapinch. "We're sorry, we're not trying to cause trouble. We just had to defend ourselves. We're Crusaders too, and we're on a mission."

"You two are Crusaders?" The Trapinch asked. "Prove it then, show me your badges."

Dust gulped at the request. "About that...We don't have our badges. I lost mine during our fight with you and your friends."

"And… I left mine… at the guild…" Berry frowned, sliding back onto Dust's back.

The Trapinch glared before a few other Trapinch began to gather around. The unique Trapinch looked around her kin before she started speaking in the ancient language. "Trapinch! Trap, Trapinch, pinch!"

"Trapinch!"

"Trapinch!"

"... I don't like how they're all looking at us, Dust…" Berry frowned, seeing the other Trapinch now glaring at them.

"Okay, well it seems that we are not wanted here," Dust spoke up as he slowly backed away from the group of Trapinch. "So we'll just leave you all be and won't bother you anymore."

The Trapinch launched at them. Dust yelped as he jumped away from the Trapinch and began to run in a random direction. But as Dust ran, he kept running into more Trapinch, and the Trapinch got angry that he intruded on them, and started to chase after him.

Then as more began to chase them, Dust yelped when his legs got caught up in a Sand Tomb attack. Berry gasped as she hopped off of Dust's back to try to figure out how to get him out of the Sand Tomb, but then another Trapinch slammed into Berry, which sent her flying through another tunnel.

"Berry!" Dust shouted.

"So…" Dust heard that Trapinch speak up as she walked towards him. "You say you're a Crusader, but have no badge to prove it. For all I know, you could just be bandits pretending to be Crusaders. Not that there's anything worth stealing here for civilized Pokemon. But I can't just ignore that you did freeze two of my friends. However, it would be unfair for me to condemn you without giving you a chance, right? I was taught that much."

"Look, I'm sorry that I froze two of your friends, but I promise you that was only in self defence. And I promise you that neither of us are bandits. Please, at least let me get my friend back, she's already having a difficult time just being in this dungeon. If it wasn't for that quicksand, I...I don't think either of us would've made it." Dust pleaded.

"Enough with your sentiments. I am not here to feel sorry for a couple of Pokemon who came here of their own volition. If you are a Crusader, then prove it. Battle me, one on one," The Trapinch challenged. "Wild Pokemon respect the strong. If you win, we will let you and your friend go."

Dust grew nervous at the challenge. Battling wild Pokemon was something he had grown accustomed to since joining the Guild, but fighting a civilized Pokemon was a different story. Crimson came to mind as he thought of the last time he fought a civilized Pokemon one on one. Of how outclassed he was compared to the Zoroark. He had trained ever since then, but now that he was about to face another civilized Pokemon, he began to hesitate. But then he remembered his partner, how Berry might be in danger, and how Chloe was still in danger.

Dust took a deep breath, though still feeling nervous, he glared back at the Trapinch. "I accept your challenge."

The Trapinch nodded before she spoke to the other Trapinch in their ancient language. The other Trapinch began to back away, and Dust was freed from the Sand Tomb.

"Now… show me what you can do, Absol," The Trapinch challenged.

Dust took a deep breath, wanting to use Ice Beam since he knew Trapinch was weak to Ice, however, the Trapinch suspected he would, because she immediately used Sand-Attack, kicking up sand in Dust's face, blinding him. Dust took a step back while trying to shake sand of his face, giving the Trapinch the opportunity to attack.

The Trapinch jumped forward, mouth fully open as she bit hard on Dust's right foreleg. Dust yelped in pain, despite being the same type as the attack, the Crunch attack was much more powerful than a Bite attack. Dust tried shaking the Trapinch off, but she held a firm grip. Despite not seeing well, Dust sensed where the Trapinch was biting him and prepared to fire an Ice Beam at her, but the Trapinch was well prepared. She ceased her attack and jumped away just as Dust fired his Ice Beam. Dust managed to shake away the remaining sand of his face and was hoping to see a frozen Trapinch, but to his disappointment, he saw that she had dodged his attack.

The Trapinch was not only clever but fast for a Trapinch. She was pretty strong for a Trapinch too, which made Dust briefly wonder if she was at a high level, perhaps enough to evolve if she wanted to.

The Trapinch then dug underground. Dust frowned, trying to find where the Trapinch went, and she came up under him, slamming into his stomach. Dust fell on his back, groaning a bit.

"This is the best you can do?" Trapinch stated. "Come on, stand up, I know you can do better if you are a Crusader!"

Dust ignored her as he slowly got up, frustrated with how the battle was going. Why must it always be the strong respect the strong? Why does it always end up like this?

When Dust got up, Trapinch used Dig to burrow under once more. Dust quickly began to run all over the place to try to throw the Trapinch off, when he tripped over a rock all of a sudden.

"Of course this would happen," Dust mumbled to himself. He would've gotten up but the rock he tripped on earlier caught his eye. "Hello? I never seen a rock like you before."

Despite being in the middle of a battle, Dust seemed to have forgotten about it as he examined the rock. The rock itself looked smooth and a bit round. He noticed that most of the rock was green except for the occasional dark green squares on the side. He picked up the rock and was surprised to see the rock have a weirdly orange-red stripe underneath it. As he held the rock, he noticed how warm it felt, despite being underground. He would've examined it more but then felt the ground shaking beneath him.

Jumping on instinct, Dust managed to dodge the Trapinch just as she burst from the ground. He held the rock close to the chest, breathing a bit hard at barely dodging the attack.

"Careful! I was in the middle of studying this rock!" Dust shouted.

"Are you seriously getting distracted by our battle by some stupid rock!?" The Trapinch snapped. "You are annoying and hopeless!"

The Trapinch let out a shout as sand started to kick up around her. There was sudden heavy winds despite being underground, and sand buffeting Dust. It took a moment for Dust to realize that the Trapinch just used Sandstorm to summon… well, a sandstorm.

"Really? We just got out of a sandstorm!" Dust shouted only for sand to get in his mouth. He coughed a bit before looking at the rock once more. "Better keep you safe, already lost my badge in the sand, don't want to lose you too."

He tucked the rock away in his bag before facing the Trapinch once more, though he was having a difficult time due to the sand flying everywhere. Squinting his eyes, Dust was able to at least spot the Trapinch, it at least helped that her colors were somewhat easy to spot. But the Trapinch thrived in the sandstorm. She was able to run up to Dust with another Crunch attack, this time on his side instead of one of his legs. Dust cried out in pain as he bucked around.

Berry managed to slowly slither her way out of the tunnel she was knocked back into, and came up into the sandstorm area. She coughed from the sudden intake of sand. What's going on…? How is there a sandstorm underground?

Berry straighten up when she heard Dust screaming out in pain. Oh no… Dust! I can't see… I can hardly move… too much sand… if only there was water… rain...

The Goomy shut her eyes. Rain… water… give me water!

Berry let out a loud cry.

Dust managed to get the Trapinch off of him when he heard the sudden loud cry. The sandstorm started to dissipate.

"What? What's going on? The sandstorm shouldn't have dissipated already!" Trapinch asked in confusion.

Dark clouds started to form on the ceiling above them. Dust would have questioned the strange phenomenon but he was still wincing from the pain. For the moment he just assumed it had to do with the Mystery Dungeon. He wanted to take this chance to fire an Ice Beam but he was still coughing from the all the sand.

As he continued to cough, he tried to figure out what attack to use. If I could stop coughing for a second, I could use Ice Beam, but it looks like that won't be the case. I could try Bite, but I don't think that will be enough.

The dark clouds began to drip rain, then there was a sudden downpour, soaking everything around them. Trapinch let out a hiss, not liking the rain. The color on the Trapinch melted off of her, showing her gray-green colors once more. Dust was even more surprised there was such heavy rain, underneath a desert.

"Dust!" Dust jumped at suddenly hearing Berry's voice calling out to him.

Looking over at where he heard the voice, the Absol saw Berry. Berry looked moist again thanks to the rain. "Dust, don't think about it. Just fight with your instinct! Also, Trapinch doesn't like water. And what happens if you mix ice with water?"

Dust took a moment to breath as he was finally able to clear his throat before replying back to his partner. "Well you see, when ice comes into contact with water, with ice being at a much lower temperature than water, a heat transfer will occur. The result usually will be where the water itself will change its temperature due to the surrounding ice."

"Darn it, Dust! That wasn't meant to have an answer!" Berry groaned. "Just use your Ice Beam while it's raining!"

Dust chuckled a bit at realizing what Berry meant. "Right, sorry about that."

Turning his attention back to Trapinch, he prepared to fire an Ice Beam attack. As he charged the attack, he noticed the temperature started to drop, most likely due to rain. He then fired the ice attack at the Trapinch, causing any rain droplets to get frozen as they came into contact with the Trapinch tried to use Dig to get away, but the cold temperature, and the rain becoming frozen from the Ice Beam, severely slowed the Trapinch down, enough that she was hit directly by the Ice Beam. Despite how high level the Trapinch was, she couldn't stay conscious after getting soaked by rain, hit by frozen rain, and had a direct hit from the Ice Beam itself. Her torso, where she was hit, was frozen, though the rest of her body wasn't, surprisingly enough.

"You did it!" Berry smiled as she slithered over to Dust. "Also, ahhhh, glorious water. I missed water so, so much!"

"Guess it was fortunate that it started raining, though never knew Mystery Dungeons to suddenly change the weather like that." Dust noted while glad to have most of the sand washed off his body.

"Underground Mystery Dungeons aren't known for changing weathers on their own," Berry remarked. "... I'm like… uh… 70% sure this rain might have something to do with me. I was really wishing for it when I got caught up in the sandstorm."

"Oh, well the only way you could have made it rain is if you knew Rain Dance," Dust commented. "That would explain the sudden rain in the middle of a sandstorm."

"Ugh…" The shiny Trapinch groaned as she regained consciousness.

The rain finally stopped, and the dark clouds dissipated. Berry and Dust turned their attention on the shiny Trapinch.

"It… would seem… I was defeated," The shiny Trapinch mumbled.

Dust was about to reply when he winced from the pain that he received during their fight. He checked in his bag and was satisfied to see both the rock he found and the berries were still intact. He grabbed an Oran Berry and began eating it, already feeling his body recover. After finishing his berry, he walked up to the Trapinch and reached for another Oran Berry in the bag. He held it between his claws, waiting for the Trapinch to take it.

The Trapinch looked a bit hesitant, and for a moment, Dust was a bit worried that the Trapinch would let pride keep her from eating it. But eventually, the Trapinch opened her mouth and chomped down on the berry in Dust's paw. The ice on her shattered off and she was able to stand again.

"Good as new," Dust gave a friendly smile. "And seeing how the battle is now over and I won...Are we good to go now?"

"I will admit, I don't like admitting defeat, but yes, you two are free to go," The Trapinch said. "You may call me Jade. That was the name I was given by the last Crusader who found me."

"Thank you," Dust replied but then a new thought came to his mind. "If you don't mind me asking, who was the Crusader who met you last time? Were they the ones who also taught you? And were you taught back at a guild? Or did they teach you here? And if here, have you been able to pass on those teachings to your other kin? And that does bring up the question, can wild Pokemon teach other wild Pokemon? I would theorize that-"

"Uh, Dust…" Berry spoke up. "I think she stopped listening."

Indeed, Jade was just digging around through the dirt now, not seeming to be listening to Dust anymore.

"...Oh," Dust gave a Woolooish smile. "So it seems."

Jade seemed to be putting something on her that covered her shiny color with her kind's original orange color. Then she had a small, shiny thing on her head. "I will only answer one of your questions. The Crusader I met last time was a Vibrava, but this was quite a few years ago, so they could be a Flygon now for all I know. His name was Gale, and I believe he said he was a member of the Unity Guild. Ask him the rest of your questions. Oh, and here."

Jade flicked her head at Dust, throwing the shiny things at him.

Dust barely had time to catch the shiny object. "Oh! What's this?"

Dust looked at it and saw it was his badge.

"I believe that's yours. I saw it had fallen down here when I came down here after our little scuffle on the surface," Jade answered. "If you're a Crusader like you claimed to be, and you lost your badge in our sand pit, then it must be yours, am I right?"

"Indeed, you are right," Dust attached the badge back to his satchel, glad to have it back once more. "Thank you for returning it."

"Yeah, that was nice of you…" The Goomy added.

"Just be more careful with it," Jade said. "Now if you're looking to get out, go through only the single tunnel holes. The ones with multiple holes are family colonies."

"That does make things a lot more simpler. Sorry for trespassing, we'll make sure to avoid your family colonies," Dust apologized.

Dust lowered himself to the ground, letting Berry climb onto his back, before he stood back up.

He started walking towards where Jade had pointed the exit for them when he suddenly stopped. He turned to look at Berry with a concerned look on his face.

"You know, the only reason why we originally kept on going was because we had no means of getting out of this dungeon...Now that I have my badge back, we can teleport out of here." Dust explained.

"Are you kidding? I'm not leaving now. That rain helped keep me from dehydrating, so I'll be fine," Berry assured.

"Are you sure? We've been underground but the moment we managed to get back to the surface, things might turn out like last time." Dust was still having some doubts about going further.

"Yeah. I'll be fine, Dust. I'm not leaving until I know Chloe is safe," Berry stubbornly answered.

Knowing that Berry was too determined to take no for an answer, Dust doesn't reply but instead gave her a firm nod of approval. With that he continued on the path, following the direction Jade had given them earlier. It was easy for Dust to find the stairs as it was pretty straight forward from there, the other Trapinch left them alone. They weren't very hostile down here, likely because the Trapinch only went to the surface to catch prey.


Phoenix Desert 7F

Dust finally made it up to the surface. The stairs finally took them out of the underground, and they were back in the sunny, hot desert. Already Dust missed the cool temperature from underground, but there was no point in turning back now. Once they left the stairs, they had already vanished, something Dust has wondered about for some time, but now wasn't the time for it.

Berry was silent again. Though the rain had helped her get some much needed moist, she was drying up again quickly in the desert's the sun. Dust wondered how worse this must be for Berry, someone who needed to have water almost constantly.

The Absol plowed on through, he avoided as many wild Pokemon as he could. He did have to fight with a few of them that tried to cause him trouble though. Ice Beam easily took care of these Pokemon since most of them were Ground type, though there were a few Cacnea, they were Grass types, but they were also desert dwellers, thankfully for Dust, Cacnea shared the same weakness to Ice.

But Dust knew he was going to run out of Ice Beam eventually, so he would need to save it up for when they reached the Snubbull. Dust took out an apple, seeing it was already drying up, and gave it to Berry, hoping some of its juices will help her. Berry didn't waste time scarfing the apple down.

Dust was glad when he found the stairs to the next floor.


Phoenix Desert 8F

There were some sandpits that the Trapinch were causing, but they seemed to ignore Dust for the most part, likely due to the fact Jade told them to leave the Absol alone. Which Dust was grateful for, it was one less problem to worry about for the rest of the mission.

Unfortunately, not everything could go right. More Hippopotas were on this floor, and their ability, Sand Stream, summoned another sandstorm on this floor. Dust had to squint his eyes just to barely see in front of him, sand was flying everywhere and he could feel his body occasionally being pelted by the sand.

"Berry?" Dust covered his mouth with his forearm to prevent the sand from coming in. "You wouldn't happen to sense another secret underground quicksand, would you?"

"Mm-mmm…" Berry shook her head, not wanting to open her mouth to get sand in it.

There was a group of Hippopotas that appeared to be sand bathing, they were enjoying the sandstorm, and were even singing. Dust didn't even know Hippopotas sang. Dust then remembered how Berry had, likely, summoned rain during his battle with Jade.

"Berry...is it possible you could make it rain again, like last time?" Dust had to cover even more of his face as the sandstorm was getting stronger now.

Berry didn't give a direct answer, but she gave a shake of her head. It was likely the first time she summoned rain, it was by accident, so she didn't know how to willingly activate Rain Dance.

Dust groaned, he hated having to trek through this desert while in a sandstorm. The sand was feeling heavier and heavier the more he tried to walk through it. By this point, Dust had only one Oran Berry left in his pouch, he had used a lot of it to keep Berry from collapsing before. The idea of teleporting out of the dungeon and getting back to the guild was becoming more and more tempting the longer he had to walk through the sandstorm.

"You're… close…" Berry spoke up as Dust was considering using his badge to teleport them out. "Keep… moving…"

Dust almost jumped at hearing Berry, he was used to her mostly keeping quiet due to the surface. But trusting her words, he kept moving forward, but if this went on for too long he would use the badge as a last resort.

Berry managed to open her eyes and give a glare. I remember that Snubbull's feeling anywhere.

The Absol was relieved to see stairs up ahead, they could finally get out of this sandstorm, and hopefully the next floor wouldn't have any Hippopotas or another Pokemon that has Sand Stream. Dust never felt relieved to have his claws on a mon made thing like stairs until now, anything to get away from having to step on sand again for another second.


GUEST #1: Traveling Master: No need to apologize, you're all good. I'm always glad to see your review, so again, no need to apologize.

Greatest Guy: DarkFoxKit: Yeah, poor Chloe. And also, poor Berry and Brody if they don't get Chloe back unscathed. You don't want to deal with an angry mama Kangaskhan.

Chihiro: You are right, this is a Berry serious situation they are in. I can only imagine after this ordeal all the Dust and sand they will be shaking off. But even during the darkest of times, a pun and a smile can do many wonders.

Traveling Master: Uh...thanks for the advice. Also, we felt that we should focus on Berry since it was her's and Brody's job to babysit. But yeah, I can understand, things tend to get a lot calmer when Dust isn't around.

FoxyKhai0209: DarkFoxKit: Yeah, there's gonna be quite a few of those. We really need a beta reader, we sometimes get certain words confused, and our grammar is average at best.

You'll see what the Snubull wants. This was a tough dungeon to do, especially for Berry.

Ooh, I hope things will get better for you.

Solar Kisses: Traveling Master: Well that's the best and worst thing about cliffhangers, so much suspense, and only time will provide the answers.

Scarlet Harmony: Traveling Master: Hopefully they do, as my good friend mentioned before, you don't want to deal with an angry mama Kangaskhan. You're basically signing your death will.

Rainbow Dawn: DarkFoxKit: Thanks, but it's not that bad here, it's just the lockdown that the government is hammering down on. The only 'sickness' I'm worried about is my pollen allergies.

Snowy Blossom: Traveling Master: Thanks for the advice, and same goes for you. Make sure to stay safe.

Sandy Star: DarkFoxKit: We're all fine here, just mostly dealing with pollen allergies. I just hope you guys are all okay.

Jewel moonstone: Travelling Master: ...Oh yes! The suspense, the high risks, the climax! So… Yes.

Orchid Diamond: DarkFoxKit: Yes, everyone is definitely anxious about the Coronavirus. So much so that everyone keeps reviewing about it. We appreciate your guys' concerns, but please, if you're going to review, at least say something about the story or chapter itself.

Lucy Wing971: Traveling Master: Thank you for the five stars, will keep them in a safe place. And thanks for your concern, really appreciate it.

ArcherAmpharos: Traveling Master: Thanks for the advice. And Dust does have some suspicions, or at least questions concerning Syzygy itself. But with time Dust will surely find what it truly is. And as the story progresses, you will see things change from the normal, day-to-day missions, but only time will tell. Glad you enjoyed the story, and promise you that you'll enjoy the next to come. And yes, I've been enjoying Animal Crossing so far. Really glad I got it.

DarkFoxKit: Animal Crossing is awesome. Though it does look like they took out a lot of features, like the ability to swim. I mean I still don't know if you can't swim, but so far it looks like you can't.

The Moonfox Collective: DarkFoxKit: Heh, Team Destruct are quite the characters. They are very destructive and hot headed, they definitely live up to their team name.

Yes, 'don't bring them' also means 'don't tell them'. Though it still would've been wise for Berry to tell Chihiro at least. The Snubull would have no way of knowing that Berry told the guild master, especially since Chihiro is part Ghost type, she can go while invisible.

Dust: The Precog Absol… I like the sound of that-

Traveling Master: Look, you're bad with names, I don't think you should try to come up with your own or borrow others. But yes, the two abilities really do work well with one another if you think about it. And there will be times where we will focus on Berry, other times on Dust, or normally just have the two together, depending on what is happening in the story.

I would never kill a theory… At least not at first, cause you never know, your theory may be right. There is some mystery behind the Syzygy itself, but that may or may not be further explained as the story progresses.

First characters I've ever made were actually Team Destruct, and I tried making a story about them, but didn't work out so well. But I love these guys too much to just let their potential go to waste. Really glad that we were able to work something out with them in this story.

And I'm sure your hope in them is greatly appreciated.

lonelyboi69: DarkFoxKit: Heh, well we never confirmed that Goodra was Berry's mother, but you're right about it being an interesting idea.

Well… The Child of Mew isn't being focused on right now, I do apologize for that. But I will throw you a bone here and say that Leo and Luna may see Ash again during the sequel.

InfernalzRush: DarkFoxKit: Author chuckles in amusement.

Author's amusement went up.

Author is happy that Reader is pumped.
Author's morality went up!

DarkFoxKit: Personally, I don't rely on notifications, I usually check manually for stuff. It's a lot of work, and I don't always remember to check, but… you know how it is. And yes, Team Destruct are a bit inspirational from Fairy Tail. XD

Traveling Master: It's true, Fairy Tail does play a big role in their destructive natures, I'm sure any other Guild Master would go crazy at seeing how chaotic the guild could get. I mean, look what happened at Dust's old guild, he got kicked out.

DarkFoxKit: Now, before we sign off, we do want to speak up about the reviews concerning the viruses. We do appreciate everyone's concerns, we really do, but it was filling up all our reviews. We wanted to read about your guys' thoughts about the story or chapter itself, in a way, your comments about those are our 'payment' for the story. So while we are appreciative of your concerns, we would like it more if you would comment about the chapter or story as well as the comment about the virus if you still want to tell us to be careful.

Traveling Master: Couldn't have said it better, and we know you guys mean well, and we also wish for your safety too during these times. So be safe, wash your hands, and keep looking forward to the next well as the comment about the virus if you still want to tell us to be careful.

Traveling Master: Couldn't have said it better, and we know you guys mean well, and we also wish for your safety too during these times. So be safe, wash your hands, and keep looking forward to the next chapter.