The moon went down without me going back to sleep. Why did we pick the time where the sky was lit as the time to sleep? That would be a doozy to decondition when we'd escape this level if we spent enough time here. What if I just didn't wake anyone else up until the moon rose up again? I suppressed the thought— and a yawn— and went to push my Pokémon classmates awake. I would've nodded off eventually while waiting. I needed some conversation to keep myself awake.

After some confusion over Kieran and Micheal expecting their now void watch shift, breakfast was in order. We'd stopped next to some bushes, so Kieran and Gab were at work getting berries into a pile. I must've spaced out, because the next thing I knew, everyone was already in a circle and having their share. I walked over and laid down next to Kieran.

"Pass me a PokéBerry," I demanded.

"A what?" Kieran asked.

"You know. PokéBerries," I pointed.

"No," Kieran said, squinting in annoyance. "They're just berries. They have specific names. Stop."

"PokéRocks", I said, nudging bits of gravel with my front paw.

"No."

"Can you prove they're not called that?"

"Well... not without my phone!" He groaned. "But I can assure you there are mentions of regular rocks in Pokémon."

"Oh, Graveler's PokéDex entry says it looks like a rock!" Chloe said from the opposite side of the circle.

"Okay, so just rocks then. PokéGround," I continued.

"Stop it."

"PokéSky."

"Screw you."

Valérie chipped in, pointing at me. "PokéAbso— wait, that one doesn't work."

"Only that one?" Kieran exclaimed.

"Are you passing me an Oran berry or not?" I groaned.

He kicked one from his stash to me and I dug in. Not satisfied with just the one berry and not wanting to deal with Kieran again, I walked to the Oran bush and focused energy into my claws. With one swipe, I cut down a sizeable branch, bringing down... one more berry with it.

Huh. Maybe another branch has more—

My train of thought was interrupted by Micheal, who'd walked to me, looking back and forth between the branch and myself.

He shook his head. "What are you doing?"

I shrugged. "Eh? Practice?"

"We don't know how many times you can do that. Save it for when we need it."

I rolled my eyes and watched the Litleo round up our ragtag Pokémon team now that the berries were mostly gone. I ate mine. Time for more walking.

"Ready to go?" Micheal asked Gab.

"I think so", she mumbled. "Let me see if I can do Flash again."

The Emolga had been eating some small, round berries that she said were supposedly able to restore her move. Before she could start it up, though, her gaze wandered to the felled branch and she did a double take.

"Wait. Why don't we just carry a torch?" She said, grabbing the branch.

Everyone who could manage a facepalm did so.

"Yup," Micheal laughed, face unobstructed and ears lowered. "Yup, we should've thought of that before, huh?"

Later, we had another water break. Gab was off checking out some berry bushes with Chloe, and the rest of us laid down against the gravel once again. I was getting sore from all of that exercise. The last level was all right; we'd passed a threshold somewhere in the cave where a certain amount of walking wasn't so tiresome. Here, it seemed we were building to another threshold, and I just wanted it to be over already.

I tilted my head side to side, feeling the weight of my super cool scythe, practically playing with it like a kid with a loose tooth. Micheal was stretching next to me and he noticed.

"What is that anyway, a sickle?" He asked.

"It's a scythe," I corrected.

"What's the difference?"

"I, uh..." I stammered. He had me there. "Scythe is cooler."

"If you only call it that because of the Grim Reaper, I swear to God..." Valérie groaned from her corner. She'd stayed facedown for the entirety of the break, holding the torch upright with a loose grip from her hand. Kieran sat next to her.

"Too edgy for ya?" I grinned, watching her bring entire planets to shame with the radius of her eye roll.

"We are talking blades," Micheal mumbled, to an immediate cackle from me.

The rest of the conversation remained as nonsensical, much to my delight. Eventually my attention fell on a small dark sphere spawning a couple meters away from us, right at the top of a slope leading to the water.

My tired eyes couldn't focus on the texture of the Dark Trap. After all, even when I'd been well-rested, I couldn't. If the garbage moon was a white circle pasted onto the sky, they were black spheres pasted inches above the ground. I kept squinting at the orb even though there was nothing to discern.

"It's weird how they look like black holes up close," I commented.

"Yeah?" Micheal asked absently.

"Well yeah, look."

I pushed him toward the orb with a bat from my front paw. That sent him tripping and falling mere inches from the trap, face flat on the gravel. Whoops. He got up and turned back to face me.

"Hey!" He exclaimed. "I could see it from over there! Do you think I'm blind?"

As he kept that up, the Dark Trap expanded behind him. I motioned for him to get away, but the trap was deceptively fast. A theory I'd had while traveling was confirmed: the traps had the power to absorb Pokémon into it. The rough sand-like walls were set before the Litleo had a chance to jump away. The Dark Trap grew to its maximum size, having engulfed Micheal before dropping to the ground with the gravel audibly shuffling.

"Micheal!" Kieran yelled.

When there was no response, his eyes widened and he ran to the Dark Trap. He knocked on the surface to no response other than the gravel at the bottom of the trap being jostled.

"Oh, they're pretty soundproof," I called to him, recalling how I could only hear muffled voices when the trap had started to dissolve. "Wouldn't want to break your stingers over something that won't work."

"What the hell, Lola?" He said, throwing his stingers over his head. "Why would you push him like that?"

"Uh, you weren't worried when I was in one of those things."

He squinted, trying to reach for a response. Honestly, I didn't even want an apology. I was just tired and wanted to deescalate the situation.

Then the Dark Trap tipped over and started to slide down the shore.

"Oh my God!" Kieran shrieked.

"Look, Valérie's got it!" I said, and Kieran finally stopped.

It was true. The freakishly strong Pokémon had placed herself at the bottom of the Dark Trap pushing it to safety back to the shore. She'd done so way more quietly than I would've expected of her. Then again, while she'd had to get her feet into the murky water (which was a strong catalyst for complaints), it wasn't like Micheal was in any actual danger. He was a fire lion but he wasn't made of fire, right?

Presumably hearing the commotion, Chloe and Gab rushed over from the berry bushes. The Emolga was heaving the backpack on her shoulders with the top flap swung open, and the Swablu was following behind, trying her darnedest to pick up the trail of fallen berries.

"What did we miss?" Gab gasped.

"We skipped a rock into the lake," Valérie sighed. I chuckled at that. Someone was in a relaxed mood today.

Meanwhile, Gab gave me a horrified look the second she realized someone was missing. She barely deflated when seemingly connecting the dots, what with us surrounding the Dark Trap.

"This is..." Valérie started, "this is a bit heavy, isn't it? What's it made of, lead?"

And thus the Dark Trap remained only halfway up the slope for the better part of five minutes. I didn't talk during that time, my eyes fixated on the traps floating above the water hundreds of meters away from us. I knew some judgemental glares were directed my way, but it wasn't a big deal. I was allowed to think of other things.

A familiar eggshell-like sound reached my ears and I sighed. From the outside, the darkness simply dissolved, leaving no trace of itself. One of Micheal's hind paws grazed the lake's surface, making the water ripple and shimmer. He quickly retracted it when he realized. At that point, he was completely free. I walked over.

"Sweet, you're not dead," I said, patting him on the back.

He jumped at the contact, but looked fine otherwise. He took a deep breath and got to his feet. Paws. Got to his paws.

Anyway, he walked away from me, heading up the coast. He only gave a tail swish as a signal to follow him.

Kieran flew up and landed next to him, whispering something and looking concerned. Micheal shook his head and already looked chipper.

"More fear than harm, really," I overheard. "I've had worse time-outs when I was in kindergarten."

"Ha!" Kieran laughed.

Valérie grunted next to me as she picked up the torch again. That thing had lasted ridiculously long. Was it heavy, though? Valérie certainly acted like it was, but wasn't she the strong one of the group?

Whatever.

I followed the rest of the group, keeping myself some meters behind.

It only took us half an hour of walking to find something interesting again. Deftly avoiding any further Dark Trap incidents, Micheal had been leading the charge.

He'd just stopped, ears perked up in alert.

"There's something in front of us," he mumbled.

He looked back and gestured to me to come check it out. I lazily made my way to his position and focused my sight on a huddle of Dark Traps still a ways away from us. There, standing on top of one of them, stood a weird fox with glowing eyes. On its body were several rings that gave anyone enough light to discern it. Even from behind me, it seemed the others had started to examine the creature.

"Umbreon," Kieran identified.

The name hung in the air as we quietly kept looking at our supposed foe from a distance. It hopped from one top of a Dark Trap to another.

"Maybe it's someone else?" Chloe suggested, hopping ahead.

"Woah, it's got red eyes, though," Micheal protested, in his usual mom-friend manner. "Are you sure about this?"

"Umbreon usually have red eyes," Kieran stated. "We can't actually know whether or not it's hostile until we go see it."

Red eyes? Since when were they red? Hadn't this been in black and white for everyone else?

"Hey!" I called to the Umbreon. Its ears twitched while the rest of it grew deathly still. I earned yet another set of glares. One person didn't contribute, however. She looked onward with half-lidded eyes. Good god, why did she look so tired? She'd nearly slept the most!

"If it's a boss, we're gonna have to fight it anyway, right?" Valérie shrugged. "Let's just get it over with."

Good, someone agreed with my inability to shut up.

A roar rang through the path. It was a low, guttural sound. I saw bared fangs and the Umbreon now facing us.

I realized that near it were far more structures than Dark Traps. By squinting to the distance, I could see spires and tendrils lapping the shores and lashing through the air. As the Umbreon started walking toward us, new ones joined it like waves at every step. At least it looked like it. They were hard to discern. The Umbreon wasn't.

Until the glowing rings flickered off.

"Everyone stay close!" Micheal yelled, post-gasp and fur on end.

Before I knew it, the scraping of paws on rock filled the air. It was getting close fast. Why couldn't I see it?

I'd spent the night not resting my eyes. Of course my night vision had gotten worse.

The sound got louder, black spikes tracing a running course. Did this thing control the Dark Traps? I couldn't observe them for long. A wall of darkness stretched from the gravel to meters above us, crackling. It blocked the entire width of the path in front of us, still growing in height.

"Uh, what's it doing? Blocking itself?" I mocked.

The wall grew in an arc, starting to circle us, passing through the water.

"When the traps are still growing, they're one-way," Chloe gulped, landing on my back. "It's trapping us by not telling where the Umbreon is going to come from."

I tensed, turning to tell her to get off. According to her words, we were already expecting one jumpscare. I didn't need one from behind me. She'd attached herself to the back of my neck, though, so I couldn't see her. I could only feel her tremble. This girl's face must've looked way too scared for comfort.

"Just stay happy, that's your thing!" I snapped.

The Swablu flew off my back. I couldn't see her face from my viewpoint but I hoped she was somewhat smiling. She went up until she passed the wall.

Oh, of course she can go fly above the wall. Duh.

"Bring us back a frap," I called.

Gab eyed me suspiciously and put her bag down. Good. Berry support was a-go.

Micheal's next order was cut off by the Umbreon finally crashing through the wall. Now that it was closer, it was more visible. Its still-glowing eyes were a dead giveaway.

One cough later, an Ember was spat out onto the gravel and promptly dodged by the Umbreon, who avoided it like a cat with water.

"Uh, scatter!" Micheal's suggestion rang out.

"What?" Gab questioned.

She didn't get an answer as we did indeed scatter, the Umbreon bolting after Micheal. As before, spikes jutted out of the gravel behind it, leaving a dangerous and sharp trail.

Was this an Umbreon thing or a Dark type thing? Judging by Kieran and Gab's faces, it was something they clearly didn't expect. Maybe it was a dungeon thing.

Once Micheal was out of range from the Umbreon, it started sending the spires in waves in our direction. Those, fortunately for us, either missed their mark or dissolved before covering the distance between us and the Umbreon. Spike after spike, failed hit after failed hit, it threw everything in its dark arsenal at us. Nothing landed, thankfully.

It needs to learn Dark Aim.

Wait, that's one of your worse ones. Where's the joke, Lola?

It needs to follow the word of the Dark Trap. There. Nailed it.

"Here's Johnny!" Micheal shouted, pouncing on the fox and trying to bite it. He was shaken off like a cowboy at his first rodeo, roughly landing on the gravel.

"Are we just going to stand there?" Kieran shouted. "He needs help!"

"Yeah, with picking better movie references," I responded.

Kieran and Valérie groaned louder than the Umbreon growled. The Meditite clutched her torch and yelled out a war-cry as she started running. She made it to the beast and... slapped it in the face.

"Hell yeah!" I cheered.

While the Umbreon was obviously stunned by the oldest technique in a high school girl's book, it was also very transfixed on Valérie's torch. Something about it clearly made it anxious. Valérie picked up on that, waving the flaming branch around. The Umbreon slowly backed away, stepping toward Kieran, Gab and I.

Micheal finally got up and started walking with Valérie, keeping a meter of space between her and himself.

"Guys?" He called to us. "Stay where you are. We're surrounding this thing."

There was no discernible reaction from the Umbreon, which led me to believe boss Pokémon didn't know words. Weird.

"S-stay close, okay?" Gab whispered at my side, padding slightly behind me. The Emolga kept her backpack's straps in her hands with a loose grip.

Kieran flew a couple feet away from us, keeping his stingers raised. It took Micheal and Valérie less than a minute to slowly bring it into a small circle.

Was this the first fight we had slightly under control? Wow, how long would this last?

...Here's the thing about surrounding a threat: it's close to everyone involved. We didn't know what it had in store at such a close range.

Every time it saw one of us, it growled more and more. It getting slapped did not help the matter. I didn't know how its vocal chords— or any bosses', for that matter— were in use when the boss was always puking out pixels.

God, what an angry puppy.

In a split second, a cylindrical wall was raised, reaching high above us and blocking the Umbreon from view. Must've been the same trick as before, only in reverse. With no way to tell who it would attack, we just tensed and exchanged looks.

"Guys? Where are you?" Chloe yelled from up above. Shoot, Swablu must not be very good nocturnal flyers. Did she even know the Umbreon had reached us yet?

"Hold on, I got you!" Kieran shouted back, flying up to her approximated position.

That was enough of a distraction for the Umbreon. I was tackled in the side, knocking me out of breath as I hit the gravel. I gasped and saw the Umbreon looming over, rings aglow once again. Those gray eyes made my blood run cold for a second.

... they were red in the dream.

It roared again and I saw its teeth glow a stark white. The Umbreon reared its head up, taking an almost insultingly long time to attack me.

A bright glow whizzed by me, landing with a thump and a yelp. I almost didn't recognize Gab without the backpack. The blinding Emolga stood with her arms stretched out in front of her, eyes closed and face in the middle of cringing. It was either from the panic or the Umbreon's ensuing pained shriek.

"What are you doing?!" Micheal yelled from the side.

"Warding it off!" Gab choked out. "O-or making myself a target. I don't know yet."

"Distracting it is enough!" Came a voice from on high.

With a swoop and a peck, Chloe had landed a hit. Sure, it was just a nick, but from my spot I saw a tiny clump of dark hair fall to the ground. Jaws clamped on air with an audible impact, Chloe having avoided the glowing fangs by an inch.

All this couldn't distract me from the fact that the Umbreon had been startled by a light being turned on. That was what we were afraid of? The rest of the battle was going to be a piece of cake. I didn't see what there was to be worried about anymore.

The Umbreon looked around itself for a second, before bolting off away from us. Kieran and Chloe landed moments later.

"Status report?" Kieran asked.

"The dude's afraid of light, I think," I said. That was maybe the first serious thing I'd said today.

"Does this count as a win?" Chloe wondered. As there was no portal in sight, it was a unanimous no. It seemed the Umbreon would have to be chased and snuffed out.

"Let's go, then," Micheal commanded.

"You coming, flashlight?" Valérie asked.

Gab looked seconds away from hyperventilating. She looked over to me, still a walking lightbulb.

"Lola, grab the backpack for now!" She finally said.

And now I didn't even have to fight the Umbreon? Awesome.

"Sure," I said, biting down on a backpack strap and starting to drag it.

The squad ran after the boss, Valérie trailing slightly behind them. I just walked, taking my sweet time. It seemed Valérie wanted to take a break too, though. As the rest of the group raced on, she suddenly stopped. She'd only ran a short distance, so even with my slow pace, I caught up with her. Didn't seem like her to not chase after the monster, but today was obviously an off-day.

Some meters away from her, I put the backpack down.

"Hey, think fast!" I yelled.

I kicked it toward her, thinking nothing of it.

I heard the clatter of wood on rock. The torch rolled out of view.

Valérie was laying on the ground, not far from the backpack. The top flap was open, some berries rolling down the shore into the water.

"Oh no," I gasped.

I leapt to the berries' rescue, pushing the backpack further away from the water with a kick. Most berries that had fallen out were already too far gone for me to reach. The only one still close was bobbing up and down the waves. I dove into the water, able to reach the lake floor but barely.

I bit into nothing, the Pecha berry dodging my attempt and floating deeper into the lake. The waves I made sloshed around me. I didn't take their taunt and jumped after the berry.

Suddenly, there was no floor under me. I hadn't realized I didn't know how to swim as an Absol. My limbs struggled to keep up with instincts and whatever I would've had my human body do. Both inputs were incompatible. Leaving the lake wasn't.

I clawed at the gravel as I turned back, fruitless. I coughed out water and felt heavy, and not just because of the weight of the water my fur absorbed. The walk back to safety was tense. I reached the backpack as the Meditite started crawling toward me.

Despite still being weak from the skirmish, Valérie grabbed my chest fur with an iron grip and pulled me toward her face. She was exhausted, her eyes glazed over and her skin beaded with sweat.

"You owe me at least twenty-five bucks," she rasped out, before her grasp weakened and she fainted.

"Heh," I laughed nervously. I tried to give my signature grin, but I just couldn't.

She was still poisoned.

She'd figured it out faster than I did. We hadn't beat any boss yet and one of our teammates was down.

It didn't take long for the rest of the group to catch up. The Umbreon was nowhere to be seen, but no one looked happy enough for a victory to have happened. A draw, then, with the enemy still lurking in the shadows. I could still hear its gurgled cries somewhere far off.

"What's going on?" Gab asked.

Her eyes went from me, to the tipped-over backpack, to Valérie collapsed on the gravel. Her ears lowered and she brought her hands to her mouth. I looked away, focusing on the rest of the group.

"Commandment two: don't kick the backpack for... kicks," I answered with some nervous laughter.

The tension with the following silence was palpable.

"Really?!" Kieran exclaimed. "Now?"

He threw his stingers in the air and exchanged befuddled glances with everyone. A puddle had formed around my feet as drops of water fell from my fur. I was so cold.

Gab shuffled around in her bag and her face fell.

"There's no Pecha berries left!" She gulped.

I barely registered that. I was too busy looking into the lake, searching for any trace of the one I'd missed. I felt questioning glances burrowing into the back of my head. They knew I'd let those go. And for once I'd tried.

"We need to get her to the Pecha bush," Micheal declared.

With some help from all around, we managed to hoist Valérie onto my back, since I was basically the only one tall enough to carry someone. Gab also hopped on, holding Valérie in place as the whole group dashed to the bush.

The scenery whizzed by us, a mix of gray and black. The cries of the Umbreon, already faint when we'd left, had stopped echoing in the distance.

"How did this happen?" Micheal said. "She ate the berry, right?"

"I don't know, I don't know!" Kieran answered. "Maybe she did it wrong!"

We were at the bush now. I heard the exhausted huffing and panting all around me. The remains of the Pecha berry Valérie ate earlier were still near, and there were at least three more left on the bush.

"Maybe she did," Chloe gasped.

Sure enough, the chunk that had come off from Valérie's bite was from the bottom of the Pecha berry. Maybe it had been efficient only as a retardant since she'd eaten the peel. Micheal flexed his claws in hopes of slicing through to get to the fruit. Nothing got through.

"Kieran, uh, skewer it open!" Micheal yelled. "We can tear away the peel from there!"

But Kieran just stared at his stingers fearfully.

"He might poison the berry," Chloe stated.

"Lola, use Scratch, then!" Micheal pleaded.

Gab's grip on my neck tightened as I reared up, made my claws glow, and cut the thing open in three neat slices. The actual fruit was only in two of them, neither being the bottom one. Chloe's theory was unfortunately right: we'd been way off.

Micheal bit the former center of the berry, the peel thankfully falling off without effort, and brought it over to where Valérie was dropped off. From there, he put his paws together and used them to drop the berry in her mouth. She was able to chew.

Her shallow breathing slowed. She already looked fine.

"She's doing better," I heard Chloe say from an increasing distance away.

Yep. I'd headed off into the dark.