The path was long with far-spanning stretches of water on either side. As we trekked on, I got flashbacks to the first level. Sure, we weren't in an enclosed space anymore, and there was only one direction to go into, but with how everyone stuck so close to each other... might as well be the cave maze. I wasn't claustrophobic, so it didn't matter to me back then. If anything, it was more annoying now because it was so obvious to me where we were going. Thank Poké-God for the Dark type night vision.

The only other Pokémon in the group that held a candle to Absol in those terms was Micheal. The fire lion walked next to me, both of us leading the squad. As far as I could tell, the others could see as well as a person could at dusk. I could only guess, though. Absol vision was about the same, day or night. Gab's Flash had run out a few hours ago so everyone else just had to deal.

While no one had gone into the dark water for a swim, we'd taken several water breaks. Pokémon bodies had been durable enough so far, and there was no debate left in us concerning water and its drinking safety. The water here lacked the salty tang of the ocean, so it was some kind of far-spanning lake. It didn't make any difference. Even my night vision couldn't make out anything on the other side. Who knows? Maybe there wasn't one.

The path had started out barren, but was starting to gain vegetation as we made our way across it. Then again, they were mostly dead berry bushes still standing above the gravel, so maybe that wasn't a good sign. We did have Gab's backpack still filled three quarters up, so we were set for a couple days. Hopefully this world hadn't programmed in mold and rot.

We'd stopped for another break, picking a spot near the water and a bunch of bushes. It must've been at least half a day since we started to walk, and Valérie of course had started complaining to Micheal. I'd chosen to lie down away from the water while the squabble kept on and on. To their credit, it was calmer than most times. They were both sitting down and no one was yelling.

"I'm just saying it sucks that we can't tell the time anymore. It makes me antsy," Valérie sighed, stretching her arms.

"We've already gone through the first level, right?" Micheal reassured her. "This should just be the same thing, then. No biggie."

"I don't need you to reassure me," she snapped, then shook her head when his ears drooped. "Ugh. It's not your fault. I don't know if pointing out bad things'll help in the long run but it feels cathartic now, you know?"

"It can," he replied hesitantly. "Hey, how about a fire for this break? At least the cold will be dealt with for a minute."

"Hell yeah," Valérie answered, sitting down as he walked away.

Making herself a target.

"How ya doin'?" Chloe asked, landing next to me after a couple laps in the air. I didn't know if she understood the notion of a break.

"I'm doing great now," I said. I started walking toward the shrubs we hadn't checked out yet.

"Hey, wait! Micheal's aiming for those," Chloe warned, flying after me.

"Exactly," I said, smirking.

We stopped next to a sizeable group of bushes, most of them dead, as were most of the ones on the dark gravel path. Micheal sent me a quizzical look.

"Get away from the bushes," he said.

"We should," Chloe added.

"Don't you think you'll get better with an incentive?" I asked. "You know, get better aim when you're trying to not shoot anyone."

"… Yeah?" he shrugged. "It could. Thanks?"

"And we're within a ten-meter radius of your target," I continued. "So we're not gonna get hit."

Micheal sighed before taking a deep breath.

I heckled some more. "Grow a spine, God damn it."

He'd gotten better at generating the Ember fast. Maybe it was a muscle memory thing. He straightened up and opened his mouth slightly, a faint glow coming from his throat. It built up until he spat it out with him still facing us. And then it went ninety degrees to the right and bonked Valérie right on her noggin.

"Ow?" She shouted out of both pain and sheer confusion. Gab ran over to her with an Oran berry taken out of her bag. Wait, had she been here the whole time? Man, she was quiet. Valérie declined the offer and mouthed a "how" to Micheal.

"Sorry," Micheal mumbled. He looked as dumbfounded as I felt fulfilled.

This was followed by a yelp, as he saw one of those eggs of darkness spawning next to him. It had just appeared inches away. The dark sphere was barely a bouncy ball's size, being so small it wasn't obvious it was supposed to be oval yet. Eggs of darkness? Dark spheres? Man, I had to think of a cooler name for them. I couldn't even call them black holes because they looked way too solid.

Anyway, Micheal dodged it easily and took a few steps back. It wasn't a new sight on the gravel path, but it was the first time one had shown up so close to us while taking a break. It was only natural to focus on it again in a casual setting.

"What are those anyway?" Micheal said,

"Non-lethal traps, maybe?" Gab suggested. "Lola was in one before, so they affect us."

Chloe piped up, landing on the backpack and forcing Gab to sit down. "It could be an equivalent to stalling a turn while we're not in something turn-based."

"So yeah... a trap," Gab shrugged.

That's the one!

"Dark Traps!" I spoke spooookily, to Valérie's immediate glare. She never did like anything I said. So I doubled down. "All hail the Dark Trap!"

"Really?" She muttered.

"The Dark Trap is all-knowing. It makes it quiet and gives us a clear mind. Anyway, I can't hear you, I'm already compiling our Ten Commandments in my head."

"Jesus Christ."

"Commandment one! No one shall chuck fire at anyone, Micheal."

He was visibly embarrassed at that, looking away from the smouldering remains of the Ember. Kieran stood up.

"Come on, don't single him out."

"Fine. No one chuck fire, Kieran."

Valérie's groan was a bigger symptom of pain than what she'd expressed when getting hit in the head with a flaming hairball. "Why did we get stuck with you?"

If I was bipedal, I would've brought a hand to my heart and thrown the other in the air in a gesture of mock allegiance. I continued with a scythe flip (a worthy substitute). "No mortal man can disobey all Ten Commandments and live!"

"Fine. Tell us about them, o wise one," Kieran demanded, gesturing with his stingers in a wide arc.

Think of another one, think of another one, think of anothe—

"... and no mortal woman can recite all ten at once. Lest she die," I said.

Kieran sat down next to Micheal and started heckling me. "Your cult's got to vary its punishments."

This was not helping. I'd lost the high ground. I was now tasked with sharing the word of the Dark Trap, but nothing was coming to mind. Turned out there was a limit to my nonsense. My back leg shuffled awkwardly and knocked against a leafy branch. I looked in that direction on instinct and was faced with a plant I hadn't seen here yet. Well, yes, it was yet another berry bush, but the fruit were triangular and spotted. I couldn't tell the colour of it, of course, but they were a lot lighter than the shadowy leaves.

Oh, a distraction.

"Kieran, what the hell are those berries?"

He definitely noticed what I was trying to do, rolling his eyes as best he could without pupils. It was shockingly effective. He flew over to me with a soft buzz from his wings, and didn't seem too fazed by the bush of weird fruit.

"Oh, I know those" Kieran said. "Those are Pecha berries. They heal poison."

As soon as he said that, I saw an opportunity to change the subject even more and I jumped in. "Ten bucks to whoever licks one of Kieran's stingers."

"Oh my god" was all Valérie said, but I could see her hiding a grin.

Okay, that's the one. Keep going.

"We have a cure right there!" I gestured to the berry bush. "We can test it!"

"You don't even have ten bucks on you," Kieran said.

"I will when we get back to the bus."

I would. I was going to buy a snack at the fort on that day, and I'd taken some loose change from around the house for the occasion.

"Uh, maybe we shouldn't try to literally poison ourselves—" Gab's reply was smart, upon looking back, but, as smart ideas often are, she was drowned out by stupidity.

"And what do I get for someone licking me?" Kieran asked indignantly, his arm stingers thrown over his head.

Micheal came forward. "Ten bucks from me."

There was sudden silence among the group, and I couldn't blame them. Micheal had started to act all goody-goody somewhere in the first level. You know, the whole responsible shebang. Whenever something needed to be done, he was the one that had to be the buzzkill and bring it up. After maybe Gab, he was the least likely person I thought would go along with this. I grinned ear to scythe. Was it my birthday?

"Don't you make promises you can't keep, chief," Kieran glared.

"I would do a pinkie promise, but neither of us have pinkies at the moment," Micheal answered, before sighing. "Also, we're in high school. Just take my word for it?"

"Yeah, sure."

Valérie put her hands on her hips. "Is there anyone here who's... less affected by poison? Do types play a part here?"

Gab's face was buried in her paws, clearly ashamed of this entire conversation. I saw Chloe float down and pat her on the back, yet she was still intently listening in on everything.

Kieran answered Valérie. "Types don't matter here. Steel and Poison can't get poisoned except by one specific Pokémon line that's not here right now."

"Okay, yeah, I'll do it," Valérie announced, to chuckles all around. Except for Gab, again, but eh, who was counting her?

"We should add it up afterward," I overheard Kieran whisper after she'd walked over to him. "You know, get get a huge fry platter and blizzards at the DQ across the street."

"We gotta dip the fries in the blizzards," Valérie whispered back.

"Well, yeah, duh."

They both went for a high-five, but realized their near mistake right before hitting hand and stinger together. Kieran held his stinger up with some disdain.

"It's for science," went Micheal, the awkward-master.

Valérie stuck her tongue out, and... nothing much else. It was kind of anticlimactic, honestly. She didn't turn purple or anything, but again, I couldn't tell. Meditite could be supposed to be purple already.

"... Was that it?" I asked.

"Yeah, it was," Valérie shrugged. "You owe me ten dollars anyway."

She got that out just before she collapsed.

"Oh God no," Kieran gulped.

Valérie slumped to the ground, moaning and clutching her stomach. God, that was fast-acting.

Micheal broke the silence. "What are we doing? Someone grab a berry off the bush!"

"On it. Chill," I said.

I shooed Chloe off a branch, knowing that I could handle it no problem. I bit down on a berry and pulled.

Pecha berries didn't kid around. The fruit was hard enough that it was difficult to get a grip on it with my teeth. I got it off, tearing part of a branch and leaves with me. Whatever, Valérie'd just get one with a long stem. I brought it over to the Meditite who looked like she was going to throw up. Oh, the humanity.

Valérie grabbed the fruit and bit off a chunk of it, chewing through the very rough peel. She finally swallowed it after an eon, looking absolutely disgusted.

"That... that is inedible," she said.

"You feel better?" Chloe asked.

Valérie held the remainder of the Pecha berry up, then dropped it. She got up, still a bit dazed. "Yeah, I'm good."

"Have an Oran," Gab said, handing one over to her.

She gladly accepted, nearly swallowing it in one bite. Meanwhile, Kieran (with some disdain) was rinsing his stinger in the dark water. The lake had been calm for a while; rather than waves lapping the shore, there was a strong current that could pull anyone that fell in far away.

Kieran smiled, turning to Micheal. "You know that means that a poison status is absolutely over-powered here, right?"

"Huh," Micheal responded. "So we should put you in the front in every battle, then?"

Kieran's smile straight-up melted. I laughed at that, earning me yet another glare for my collection.

Valérie got up and dusted herself off. Come to think of it, falling on gravel must've hurt more than I'd realized. She groaned, but it was in her Valérie way, so she looked fine. Her nauseous expression turned into a confused squint as she looked to the horizon, past the berry bushes.

"... what is that?" She started. "Is that the sun?"

I didn't even shoot out a remark about how stupid that phrase sounded when it was clearly the moon. I knew we were disoriented.

A white orb had risen from behind the horizon, bringing along a halo of faint white light. It wasn't strong enough to change the sky's colour, but it made the sinuous gravel path clearer.

"It's the moon," Kieran said. What a genius.

It sure looked like our moon as far as the shape was concerned... but it was completely blank. It was a photoshopped white circle stapled onto the sky. Talk about something that didn't get a finished rendering job.

With everything in this world being realistic (barring everything Pokémon-related), that got unsettling even for me. For a brief moment, it made me wonder what else could be missing that we hadn't noticed.

To what extent can we really be ourselves in a world that can't spawn backdrops correctly?

Then I buried that thought and made a joke about the dang moon.

"The giant sky pancake says it's nighttime."

"What?" Chloe chirped.

"The sky pancake. Cause we're not calling that a moon."

"I'll concede," Valérie added. "That's some garbage moon."

"The graphics people were on some serious crunch time," I said.

"Well... is it really night or day?" Chloe asked, to Micheal's immediate groan.

"Night. It's night," he quickly said. "We're tired, the moon's out, and we're tired."

For once, he was the first one to lay down on the ground, eyes already closed. It took a few moments of silence for him to turn his head upward and add something.

"Uh, I guess Kieran and I call last shift?" He proposed sheepishly.

He sat up as everyone nodded, not looking any less tired whatsoever. Someone kicked the still lit Ember toward some dead shrub Valérie had torn up. Gab and Chloe volunteered for the first shift, and before I knew it, my head was resting on the gravel again.

My shift came way too early, as per usual. Whoever got the middle shift got screwed into taking two naps instead of a usable block of sleep. Most of the time, it had been Valérie and I who got stuck with it. Man, no wonder she'd been so cranky.

A guest had graced our lonely three hours, though. Gab had stayed up past her shift, studying the notes from the first level by the fire. I'd almost forgotten she'd been carrying them in her bag under all those berries. Hey, what could I say? My brain prioritized food, not answers. Even though we clearly needed the latter.

The notes didn't look like much. The ones we hadn't read in the first dungeon were clear, but most of the others ones had huge ink spills on them. Gab hadn't laid them out on the gravel, choosing to flip through the pile a page at a time. It was a waste of suspense. Nothing legible had come up, other than a few infuriating smiley faces that were clearly this mysterious dungeon dude's signature. I'd stopped looking at the pages past the halfway point. There was a sizeable stack but there might as well have been two pages.

Valérie was taking a nap in the corner. She'd tended to tucker out early at night, but it was still early for her. Whatever, we'd had a rough day... if it could count as one, what with the lack of natural light.

I didn't mind. Her taking a snooze meant that she wouldn't argue my ear off tonight. Quiet had been good so far.

Gab looked like she was running on fumes. Any minute now, she would fall over and drop all the paper into the fire. As much as I would've liked to be a witness to that... I tried to keep her awake.

"Anything new?" I asked.

"What, other than the Absol and Emolga thing?" She shot out drowsily, stifling a yawn. "We have a perpetual night sky. That's pretty new. And creepy. It's creepy."

"About the notes."

"Oh, uh..." she replied while shaking out some tiredness. "Not all of it is writing. Some pages have drawings."

"Are they any good?" I asked. As an artist with a Deviantart page which boasted over ten watchers, I needed to know.

"No," she said, smiling. "Look at that one. I think it's an Oran berry, and next to it, there's maybe a quartered one."

I studied the page she handed me with utmost attention. For flaws. I needed to make fun of literally everything I could find. If I couldn't make the most out of this, I would get so bored for the next couple hours.

I pondered through an extensive pause and submitted my reply. "Too bad the writing's gone. We need an explanation as to why that guy can't draw circles."

She sighed. "Oh, no one can draw circles. He gets off that one. I'm more concerned with the tree next to it."

"Just draw bigger broccoli, dude!" I exclaimed, then got shushed by Gab. I whispered next. "It's so easy."

"It's so easy," she repeated.

She flipped to another page of what we had to assume was a farming guide. By the fire, dappled light danced around us and the notes. Gab yawned, scooting close to the backpack.

"Hey, it's fun when you talk," I said, nudging her with my paw. Her ears drooped and face fell into an expression of pure exasperation.

... Guess she hears that a lot. Well, then.

"It's fun when you let me talk," she replied, smirking.

We talked some more, but the conversation momentum had all but gone. Eventually, Gab put the notes back into the backpack and called it a night.

As for me, I hadn't wanted to sleep much since landing in this level. I chocked it up to the Dark typing. Totes not because of those weird nightmares from last night. I didn't get anything tonight, but I woke up feeling antsy. I shoved that down. What kind of a person lets some dream dictate their day?... Gab, probably.

The Emolga was looking peaceful, for once. She leaned against the backpack as someone would with a pillow. The way she was curled up reminded me of Thermidor, my brother's cat.

On the list of things to do when you get back home: making a flying squirrel original character.

I couldn't exactly draw here. For now all I could do was keep up the mental list. Whatever. This place was so insanely cool that I continuously added to my visual memory bank.

I turned away from the bonfire, gazing into the abyss of a lake before me. It really was pretty to look at, no matter what the others said. The sky had even more stars than the last level, and all were reflected in the water. Every so often, the waves would be in the perfect position for an illusion. For a split second, I really felt like I was in deep space. No ceiling or floor, just me and the vacuum.

Before I knew it, the moon was two thirds across the sky. In fact, it had passed that maybe an hour ago. The moon clock was a very rough estimate of actual time. I couldn't be sure if it did cover eight hours. And if I couldn't be sure, why bother waking anyone else up? I was awake and enjoying the scenery. Being here was the best.