Author's Note: Well, we've reached the point where this is the last side story I've got planned. I won't rule out adding more at some point, but it won't be on nearly as regular a basis as it has been if so. At any rate, while I actually wrote this one before the last one, I decided to post them in this order so we could close out with Bruce. He deserves to carry us out, I think. (And, yet again, this is another one we can at least partly thank catflowerqueen for, since I believe she mentioned to me that Bruce getting to explore Sky Peak would be nice.)


Sky Peak

He felt silly about it, but Bruce couldn't keep the huge grin off his face when everyone arrived back at Sky Peak's base.

Even with that little hiccup at the end (having to fight off those Grimer and Muk), the trip had been incredible. The dungeons on the way up to the peak had all been fairly short and simple, and he'd been grateful to have the chance to explore with everyone again. Of course, Claire and Felix had taken him along when they'd explored Blizzard Island, but it was still nice to have the whole team back in action again.

(And here, Rin and Iris had come along, too—they weren't breaking any exploration rules if the two of them were technically their own group, Iris insisted. She and Rin just so happened to be exploring the same place, was all.)

And, of course, the view from the top of the mountain had been amazing once the offending Poison-Types had been chased off, too. Bruce didn't think there could've been a better end to the whole thing, really. Since Shaymin had been exhausted from carrying everyone back down the mountain—and she still had to go back to the peak and get Team Frontier—everyone had a few minutes to reflect on the trip.

"Bruce, your scarf's even brighter than usual." Claire giggled as she looked over at the Glameow. "I guess that means you really liked coming along, huh?"

Bruce grinned sheepishly as he glanced down at his scarf. Despite the fact that they weren't official guild members anymore, they'd been unable to shake the habit of wearing the scarves Wigglytuff had given them way back when. His own was pink, and it seemed to have an almost shimmering quality to it today. If these things could really read his aura, Bruce supposed it made sense that it'd react slightly to his emotions.

"Yeah," he agreed. "Can you blame me, though? This trip was really fun, and I hope we get the chance to come back here sometime."

Felix nodded. "Yeah, so do I. Having big adventures like this together is nice… Even if we go somewhere else, we'll have to plan something like this again."

Rin and Iris nodded in agreement, and Iris was about to speak up when Shaymin finally arrived back in the clearing. She sighed in relief as Team Frontier settled back on the ground, and she slowly reverted back to her regular form. Machoke waved for everyone's attention, and they all gathered around him as he spoke up.

"All right, everyone! What do you say we gather back at Spinda's Café and celebrate this trip?"

"YEAH!" all of the explorers shouted.

There were calls of "Bye, Shaymin!", "Come back anytime!", and "Thank you!" as everyone turned to leave. Bruce took one more look at Sky Peak before following the rest of his team down the mountain trail.

Yeah…the trip really had been unforgettable, cheesy as it was to think, and he wouldn't have traded it for anything.