"Something like this… Just to give you a better idea." Dusty said as he finished sketching the unexplained phenomenon from his team's trip to Serene Woods. It was a bit sloppier than what he'd normally draw, but the cubone was still a bit shaken up from the day's events. And after speaking with Sol and Luna about it, they all headed up to team mire's room.
"Hmm… Interesting…" Sol said, looking at the picture before he skimmed through the book he lent to Jonah.
"Did you find anything yet?" Ivy asked the heliolisk.
Sol shook his head as he kept searching. "Dang it, where was that page again…"
The treecko rolled her eyes before glancing over at Jonah, who was sitting in his bed and staring at his goggles as he held them in his paws. He soon set them down and reached for his bag, taking out his journal.
Well… today something… interesting happened… Team Mire took me out on a trip though a "mystery dungeon" called Serene Woods. Apparently it's where they found me when I first got here. But while we were part way through, the dungeon seemed to break apart.
And though it's technically been my third time inside a dungeon, I don't think they're supposed to do that… By the way, when I say break apart, I mean there were remnants of the place floating throughout some kind of void. And there had been areas possessing lower amounts of gravity then others. Had there not been, I think someone could have died…
Jonah then stopped writing and looked down at the tinted goggles sitting beside him. "I wonder if there's anywhere to get a drink around here…?" He thought, before sighing and getting back to his journal. "Right, where was I…?"
Somehow… I was able to lead us to the end, where there was this… rift, if I can call it that… There was also someone there. We're not sure who they were, or what they were doing… But looking back on it… Maybe, they were trying to fix what happened. I wonder if me being here has something to do with it… I hope not.
"You um… you doing okay…?" Ivy asked.
"What happened back there… Do you think I could have caused that…?" Jonah quietly said looking up at the treecko.
"What are you talking about?"
"Look, I felt like I had this… connection with, whatever that was… the same as one I kept feeling a while back…"
"Umm… Do you think we should tell Lilac about this…?" Dusty asked.
"Yeah I guess… But what if it was all just a one time thing?" Riptide replied.
"Well we should still say something." Said Ivy. "One time thing or not, that was some freaky shit."
"I think I found something that could help." Said Sol in an unsure tone as he looked up from the book. The other five pokemon began to gather around the heliolisk as he prepared to read aloud. "Travels of Distortion…" The story the heliolisk began to tell was of a pokemon journeying through the distortion realm searching for their lost love.
"Okay that was a cool story and all, but how is that supposed to help?" Ivy asked, crossing her arms.
"Hey, I'm just trying to go off what you guys described." Sol replied, giving a sliight scowl.
"Okey, so while you all try to figure… all of this out. I'm gonna go back to our room and work on my next piece." Luna said, getting up and heading towards the door.
"D-Do you mind if I come to…?" Dusty asked the umbreon. "I… don't really want to think about this all right now…" Luna turned back and nodded before heading out.
"I-I'll see you guys later alright…" Dusty said, as he did the same.
"I think I'm gonna go too." Jonah said, getting off his bed. As the buizel soon left, Ivy, Riptide, and Sol sat there staring at the door.
"So… now what?" Riptide asked.
"Are you doing okay…? You seemed a bit…" Luna said before she reached for a paintbrush with her mouth.
"It's just that… yesterday I already got separated from them on a job… And today it happened again during, whatever that was…" Dusty said, looking down.
"Uh huh…" Luna mumbled.
A few long minutes passed as Dusty began to sketch while Luna continued to paint. Dusty soon stopped and looked up at the umbreon. "Can I ask you something…?"
"Sure." Luna responded in a somewhat muffled tone. There was a bit of a long awkward pause as Dusty hesitated.
"How… How do you see me…?"
Luna stopped for a few seconds before setting down her brush. "If this is going where I think it's going, I'm probably not the one you should be asking that to."
Hearing this, Dusty slowly sank down, and went back to his drawing. "Maybe…"
After a few more minutes past there was a knock at the door. "It's open!" Luna said after setting down her brush. It opened as Riptide, Ivy, and Sol stood in the doorway.
"Hey…" Said Ivy. "So we were gonna go see Lilac… and-"
"Oh, um… Yeah. Yeah I'm coming." Dusty said, hastily getting up and gathering his things.
Jonah walked through the streets of Cascade, thinking about the day as he looked around at the vivid sunset casting its orange light over the city. Making his way down to the main square, the buizel soon caught the attention of a certain blaziken talking with a charizard. "He-Hey! Jonah! Over here!" Ashe said, waving him over.
"Aren't you supposed to be at the guild?" Jonah asked, tilting his head. Torch slowly glanced at the blaziken, giving her "the look".
"I… was taking a break…" Ashe said, holding up a talon.
"You know, you could at least try to be a good influence for the kid." Torch said in a slightly joking manner.
"Kid… I-I'm in my twenties…" Jonah said with an unamused look on his face. "Do I really look like a kid…? So much for getting that drink…" Jonah thought looking over himself. "Then again I didn't notice that team mire were teenagers…"
"Oh… sorry about that…" Said Torch.
"Nah… It's fine…" Jonah said waving his paws. "It's just been an… interesting day…"
"Well it better not have been too interesting, cause your guild test is tomorrow." Said Ashe.
"Wait, tomorrow?!"
"Yeah… Due to… guild stuff… I'll be monitoring your test tomorrow. But hey, I'm sure you'll do fine." Ashe said smiling.
"Yeah…" Jonah said, rubbing the back of his head. "Hey… do you ever feel like you've "done something" but you're not quite sure what…?"
"Hmm, I can't really say off the top of my head."
"Well I remember quite a few times…" Torch said under his breath.
"Hey, the kid asked me, not you." Ashe said, turning towards the charizard.
"I think I'll just head back to the guild now." Jonah said, slightly annoyed as he started to walk off.
"Wait!" Ashe said, following the buizel.
Torch slowly shook his head. "The hell am I gonna do with her…?"
Lilac was standing behind Lance's desk, and was rearranging various things throughout the office. The goodra kept this up for a while before hearing a knock at the door. Lilac stopped and walked towards the entrance of the room and opened it. "Oh, Sol and team mire." The goorda said with a friendly smile.
"So Riptide, are still feelin-" Lilac talking as she saw the embarrassed croconaw gesturing with his hands for her to stop. Lilac giggled and shook her head. "So how can I help you all?"
The four pokemon looked at each other and then back at Lilac. "We… need to talk to you about something…" Ivy said, rubbing her arm.
"I… kind of think Jonah should be here for this…" Dusty said, whispering to the treecko.
"Fine, I'll go look for him then. I just think it's better that we deal with this now." Ivy said before running off.
"Where is she going?" Lilac asked in a slightly concerned tone.
"She's just getting Jonah… This, kind of concerns him too..." Dusty said.
"Dammit, where is he…?" Ivy thought as she darted through the guild's stone halls, and back to her team's room. "Okay, not here." She said to herself. Eventually, upon reaching the main hall, she saw Jonah walking back inside.
"There you are!" She said, quickly walking up to him.
"Did I miss something…?" Jonah asked.
"Just come with me." Ivy said, grabbing his paw and pulling him away.
"Oh… I… honestly don't know what to tell you…" Lilac said. "I'm just glad that you're all okay…" She said with a concerned smile. "And I'll be sure to inform Lance and Cobalt about this as soon as I can."
"That's not exactly everything…" Jonah said, looking down slightly. "I… think I might have had something to do with this…"
"Wait what?!"
"W-What do you mean…?" Riptide and Dusty asked.
"Look, you guys saw what happened back there. How I was able to lead us all though-"
"But that was because of those right?" Riptide said, pointing to the buizel's goggles.
"It wasn't… just the goggles… It was like I had a… connection with that place." Jonah said, as he started to pace back and forth and mutter to himself.
"Are… Are you okay Jonah…?" Dusty asked. The buizel then stopped pacing and looked up at Dusty.
"Sorry… I was just thinking…"
As the conversation continued, Sol grew more and more interested in team mire's situation. He honestly didn't think too much of the buizel when he first met him. But now after hearing that Jonah could possibly have a connection to another world, his interest peaked.
"Something's definitely up with this guy, and I'm gonna find out what…" Sol thought as his frill slowly opened in excitement.
Later that night, as the three members of team mire were asleep Jonah laid awake in his bed. On one side of him was the book on dungeon items laying open, looking as if it were about to fall to the floor. As for Jonah, he was laying on his stomach and writing in his journal.
So my guild test is tomorrow, and here I am awake writing this… The more I think about what happened today, the more I think I may have come across something big. Well, maybe not as big as finding an entire other world… But honestly I'm still not sure… I'll probably sound like a broken record saying this, but if you told me that researching this energy would lead to me turning into a two tailed weasel, and applying to an "exploration guild"... Then… yeah...
But then there's team mire… I think they're still a bit rattled from what happened, especially Dusty. Hell I don't blame them… I really hope they're doing okay… But I need to relax. I have to pass this, because if I'm gonna be stuck here I may as well do something I'm used to… Which reminds me… I kind of wonder if that rift could've taken me back…
Jonah closed his journal and looked to his side at the book, reaching for it. "A last minute glance over never hurt anyone right…?"
The next morning, the members of team mire roused from their beds, and got ready for the new day. As Ivy, Riptide, and Jonah made their way to the door, Dusty was hesitant. "You guys go on ahead…" Said Riptide, before he turned and walked towards the cubone.
"So… Do you wanna talk…?" Dusty remained silent as he stood there with his head down. "Hey if this is about yesterday-"
"It's not… just about yesterday…" Dusty quietly said. "Riptide… How… How do you see me…?"
"What's that supposed to mean…?"
"You guys keep having to save me over and over. Like that job with Flare, or the cave rescue…"
"Well sometimes things happen on missions right? I mean I got taken out by that ursaring too, and you're the one who dealt the final blow to that-"
"After you and Ivy showed up!" Dusty said, raising his voice. "And even yesterday, Jonah's the one who got us back together… I just panicked…"
"You're… not saying you wanna quit… Are you…?" Riptide said in a somber tone.
"No! No… It's just… Sometimes it kind of feels like I'm just kind of tagging along behind you two… I… want to get stronger like you and Ivy."
Riptide just stood there, staring down at the cubone. Before perking up, and giving a smile. "Then leave it to me!" The croconaw said, puffing his chest out.
"You're gonna train me?" Dusty asked, raising a brow.
"Well Ivy and I did before right?" Riptide said. "Besides, Ashe seems kind of… intense…"
"Come on, let's go meet up with the others alright." Dusty nodded and followed the croconaw out of they're room. "Besides if you leave, who's gonna keep things between me and Ivy stable." Riptide jokingly said, earning a small chuckle from Dusty.
Riptide and Dusty soon met up with Ivy and Jonah in the guild's dining hall. Where the buizel and treecko were speaking with Ashe.
"So, are you ready?" Asked Ashe.
"Yeah… Yeah, I'm ready." Jonah said, with slight hesitation and sounding somewhat tired. "Damn… Why am so I nervous about this…" He thought.
"Alright then. Meet me down by the beach soon." Jonah nodded as the blaziken walked away.
"You'll do fine. We'll be there while you take the agility and battles tests." Ivy said, slapping the buizel on the back.
"This is starting to feel like high school football tryouts all over again…" Jonah said, mostly to himself.
"No idea what that is, but I'm assuming… You know what, I'll shut up." Ivy said as Jonah gave her a slight glare from the side.
"Great pep talk there." Riptide said in a jokingly sarcastic tone as he sat down at their table with a plate of berries.
"Bleghhh!" Ivy groaned.
"Guys…" Dusty said.
"Yeah, we know…" The two said back.
Jonah couldn't help but chuckle at the events in front of him, as he reached for a chesto berry on the table. "Tired?" Ivy asked.
"A bit… I'm normally not like this…" Jonah said, before biting into the berry's tough exterior. "So if I pass, they'll probably stick me with you guys right?" The buizel said, chewing.
"Most likely, I mean we did find you." Dusty replied.
"Well, let's just hope this goes well." Jonah said, shaking himself into a more awake state. "Wow, that hits fast…"
Lance, Cobalt, and Vernal began to gather their things and continued their trip to Marble City.
"Well…" Lance said, taking a deep breath as he looked up at the towering cliffside that stood before him. "It been a while hasn't it? You all ready?" Lance said, smiling and turning around. Cobalt and Veral both nodded before the three headed into the dungeon.
Riged Pass: Floor 1
Well after the trio had entered the rocky dungeon, Cobalt noticed that Lance seemed a bit happier then normal. The empoleon appeared to be marching with his head held high and humming some kind of tune, much like he did when they went exploring together as kids.
"Well you're certainly in a good mood for someone who's soon to be in the presence of Guildmaster Pyre." Cobalt said with a slight grin.
Lance soon froze in place and turned towards the lucario. "Well I was… But really though, how can I not be. How often do we get to "go out" like this?"
"I guess you do have a point there."
"Of course I do!" Lance cheerfully said as he continued to walk.
Riged Pass: Floor 10
"And you know how fast things get around in Timberglade. I'm pretty sure his team is embarrassed of him now." Vernal said as he walked alongside Lance.
"Can't say I blame them, I mean if my teammates almost mistook a cherubi for a berry I'd be embarrassed too."
As they continued to talk, a stone formation shaped like a staircase soon came into view. But a loud rumbling soon echoed through the dungeon as the ground began to shake. The three braced themselves as a massive steelix shot up out of the ground in front of them. The giant snake roared as a volley of large rocks began to rain down.
Lance raised both of his flippers as a vortex of water began to emerge from them. The boulders from steelix's attack were soon swept up in the whirlpool before it was tossed aside, annoying the steelix. Before he could go for another attack Vernal held up his wing, pulling back on the vine hanging from his hood. Vernal then fired an arrow that gave off a shadowy aura. As It landed right in front of the steelix, it found that he was unable to move. Cobalt used this opening to rush their immobilized adversary with close combat.
With the sleelix defeated the three made their way to the stairs, the wind heavily picking up as they did so. "Woah!" Vernal said as he was almost knocked out of the air. "Let's try and get through here before the wind gets-" He said, landing. But before he could finish however, a pulse of energy knocked the three of them back.
"What the hell was that?!" Lance exclaimed as he slowly got back up.
"I don't know…" Cobalt responded. "But something tells me that isn't the last of it…"
Almost as if on cue, another pulse of energy spread through the stony dungeon. The sky soon turned a deep violet and the ground began to shake, but not in the same way as the steelix from before. This was more… violent.
"Grab onto something quick!" Lance yelled as the ground began to break apart.
Cobalt and Vernal rushed to the empoleon's side as they ran to one of the dungeon's rocky walls. The trio held on for dear life as they watched as the surrounding dungeon fell apart and collapsed, leaving various pieces of earth floating throughout the void around them. Vernal was holding on to two of his arrow-like feathers that he had plunged into the side of the cliff. "Okay… I've seen my fair share of crazy, but what hel-"
"Wait." Cobalt said, as he looked like he was trying to focus on something. "That aura again… What is it- …" The lucario looked to the side and noticed a floating chunk of land gravitate towards them.
"On my mark, we jump." He said, still watching the piece of floating land. "Three… Two… One…"
"Go!" Ashe yelled, signaling Jonah to start running. An obstacle course had been set up on the beach where Jonah had trained with Ashe before. In Jonah's line of sight there was a long stretch of sand, followed by a tall stone wall. He noticed that quite a few spots in the sand were more disturbed than others.
"Really…? Pitfalls…?" He thought as he quickly weaved between the piles of sand, eventually reaching the rock wall.
"Well that wasn't too hard…" Jonah said to himself, before feeling a sharp pain in his tails. "Fuck!" He yelled as he spun backwards, finding a red crab with its claw clamped down on his two tails.
"You put krabby in there…?" Dusty said looking up at Ashe, who was chuckling at the scene unfolding in front of them.
"Really!?" Jonah yelled, turning towards the snickering blaziken.
"Hey, you're on a time limit. Remember?!" Said Ashe, still snickering. Jonah rolled his eyes and repeatedly slammed the krabby with ice punch, knocking it off before leaping onto the stone wall.
After feeling like he had a good enough grip, Jonah looked up the wall of rocks. The structure was uneven, and looked like it was hastily put together. "This is so fucking unsafe…" He thought as he pulled himself up. As he did so, Jonah became encapsulated in water and shot into the air.
Upon reaching the top, the water dissipated as Jonah reached for the top of the wall. Pulling himself up, he felt the wall start to shake. Jonah looked down the unstable structure and readied ice punch. "This better work…" He thought before using water gun, aiming it at the ground below. Jonah then ran his frozen paw up against the stream of water. As it froze, Jonah grabbed onto the pillar of ice and slid down.
Once the buizel reached the bottom, he leapt off the ice pillar and ran up to a… giant… sandcastle… But as he ran closer, a shadowy orb was fired from the sandcastle. Jonah quickly jumped out of the way, face planting in the sand. "No… There is no way…"
The palossand began to fire off more shadow balls at Jonah. The buizel then used aqua jet, trying to dodge the incoming attacks. He then tried to weave his way around the large palossand, but was met with a tower of sand trying to block him. "Dammit." Jonah thought as he swayed to the side, narrowly avoiding the mass of sand.
"Come on Jonah…" Ivy said to herself before glancing at Riptide. "Are you even paying attention?"
"Huh? Oh, sorry… It's just, I kind of feel like I'm forgetting something…"
Ashe and team mire watched as Jonah flew past the palossand and the volley of shadow balls that followed, just barely avoiding them. As he approached a suspended ring one of the shadowy orbs hit the tail end of Jonah's aqua jet, sending him though the ring and crashing into the sand below. The four walked up to the buizel as he slowly got up.
"Living sandcastles… Great…" Jonah thought. "I hate sand…" He said, spitting out sand, and shaking it off his body. "So how'd I do…?"
"Could've been faster, but not bad." Said Ashe. "Alright, well take a short break, and we'll start your combat test soon."
"I sure hope you know where you're leading us…" Vernal said, as the three continued to make their way through the fractured dungeon.
"Like I said earlier, I feel this aura is trying to lead us somewhere…" Cobalt replied before stopping, he looked over their surroundings before jumping up a column of slowly rotating large stones. Upon reaching the top, he once again scanned over the void.
"Why do I feel like Pyre's just gonna bust our asses for being late if we make it out of here…" Lance said as the lucario made his way back down.
"He most likely will, but let's focus on one thing at a time."
"So did you see anything while you were up there?" Asked Vernal. Cobalt nodded and gestured for the two birds to follow him.
"Down there." The lucario said, pointing at a piece of land that floated below the one they currently stood on. On the land mass was a rock formation that looked like a massive spiral staircase. However, in front of it stood a large group of dungeon pokemon, all of which seemed to be trying to attack a single target.
The target in question was wearing a long hooded cloak, and wielded some kind of wooden staff. "That's them…" Cobalt said, watching the fight. As a group of rhyperior, rhydon, and metang charged at the cloaked figure, they slammed the end of their staff onto the ground. The attacking pokemon all seemed to freeze in place. And as the figure raised their staff, the end that was on the ground ignited. They leaped into the air, swinging their staff to create a massive blast of fire.
But once the blast cleared, more rock types began to surround them. "Dammit…" They thought, before a blue sphere slammed into one of the opposing pokemon. The figure turned around to see Cobalt and Lance, as well as Vernal gliding overhead.
"As much as I appreciate this, I have things under control." They said in a feminine sounding voice.
"Sure." Lance said, before sweeping hydro pump across multiple dungeon pokemon.
As the four continued to fight off the hoard of pokemon, a powerful wave of energy ran past them. "Dammit, I'm running out of time… Listen, I need you three to hold these guys off."
"Do you have somewhere to be?" Vernal said, firing another quill from his wing.
"I don't have time to… Please, just do it…? It's the only way we can leave this place." She said, making a break for the staircase.
Upon reaching the top the cloaked figure stopped to catch her breath, as the air had grown thin on the way up. She lowered her hood and looked out in front of her. They were delphox with short fur, finding that keeping the orange tufts on her ears was easier to manage this way.
"I hate… the way… the stairs… distort…" She said as she walked up to a rift in the air. It looked like it was starting to get bigger. The delphox raised her staff as the crystals tied to the end began to glow.
"Wait…" Cobalt said panting, having just finished climbing up the staircase. The delphox allowed her staff to float towards the rift, causing a blinding light to engulf the fractured dungeon.
Lance, Cobalt, and Vernal soon found themselves at the top of Rigid Pass. The two guild masters began to gaze around in disbelief, as in a flash everything around them had changed. "What… the hell… just happened…?" Lance asked, the empoleon feeling around the ground with his foot.
"I think whoever that was did something…" Said Vernal.
Cobalt scanned the surrounding rocky terrain for any sign of the mysterious stranger. "Hey, Cobalt. Something wrong?" Lance asked.
"They're gone…"
"What was that?"
"We should go… We shouldn't keep the others waiting…"
"Hey… if something's bothering you-"
"There's just something about their aura…" Cobalt said, looking off to the side. "But really, we should go… I say this for your sake."
"So what do you think that was back there?" Asked Vernal.
"Whatever that was, it's something the others need to hear about…" Lance said, turning around. "This could wind up being a serious problem…"
"Alright! You ready for the combat test?" Ashe said, leading Jonah and Team Mire to her dojo.
"Depends… who am I going up against?" The buizel said, giving a sigh.
"Me." Ashe said in a deadpan tone, while firing a menacing look towards Jonah.
"Okay, who am I really fighting?" He said after a brief hesitation with an unamused look on his face.
"You're no fun…" Ashe said, smiling and rolling her eyes. "But yeah, you'll be facing Riptide."
"Huh?" The two water types said in unison.