DarkFoxKit: Whew, we finally found some time to write. Well, sort of, things are still going slow for us.

Traveling Master: October sure has not been the month for us. Hopefully November will be better.

DarkFoxKit: It feels like it's been too long since we did an AN. I feel kinda awkward being back here now. Perhaps we should just get the readers to the chapter.

Traveling Master: Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Just wanna say thanks to everyone for their patience, and that we'll be writing when we can, however fast or slow it may be.

DarkFoxKit: For anyone who is interested to know, my treatment will be over soon. But I have a lot to deal with until then, which interferes with our writing time as well. I have surgery on Thursday, and a lot of preparations that need to go into it, which really sucks. Well, it's categorized as surgery, but it's really internal radiation. Hopefully that'll be the last of my treatment.

Traveling Master: Well, it's like you said, you're almost done. Just gotta push past these next few weeks and you'll finally be done. So everyone, if you can, please keep DF in your thoughts and prayers, and just hope that time flies by.

DarkFoxKit: That would be appreciated. Now let's get on with the story.


Chapter 33: The Missing Teams

"So why do we all have to stay here?" Talon asked after everyone else left.

Team Rocket, Team Toxic Stars, Team Wild Thunder, Team Destruct, Team Silkwing, and Team Night Tide were the only ones left in the area, not counting Patricia. Team Crimson Raiders were the only team from the Unity Guild to not be present. They were currently in the medical room.

"Can this be over soon? I'm hungry, and there's no more popcorn," Al grumbled.

"Seriously, you just ate," Grant grunted.

"Yeah, but that was snack food, everyone knows that doesn't really count as a meal," Al countered.

"If you can all be quiet for a moment, I can get back to explaining why you all have to stay here," Patricia spoke up, annoyed by being interrupted earlier.

The others were surprised by the sudden change in attitude, being more used to seeing Patricia in a cheerful mood. Team Rocket were the first to quiet down, having first seen this side of Patricia for a brief moment. The others soon quickly followed, hoping to find out why they were still kept here, instead of returning back to the guild.

After seeing that she had everyone's attention, Patrica continued. "So the reason why each of you have to stay at the tournament for the time being is because something had happened to your Guildmaster. She has been taken away under the suspicion of kidnapping other Pokemon during the tournament."

The moment those words left Patricia's mouth, all teams had a shocked expression, soon to be followed by each of them all shouting out their own questions. The only ones who had remained silent were Team Night Tide, having already known what happen, they had planned to tell their fellow guildmates, but Patricia had beaten them to it.

"Guildmaster Chihiro would never do something like that!" Sparky the Yamper barked in objection.

"Why was she even suspected in the first place!?" Cobra the Seviper hissed angrily.

"If there's anything we know about that pun loving Guildmaster of our's, it's that she is no Pokemon kidnapper," Jessie the Meowth agreed.

"Wooooobbuffet!" The Wobbuffet stated.

"I couldn't agree with you more." James the Pikachu frowned.

"How could you even think Chihiro would do such a thing!?" Roxy the Rockruff growled.

"Chihiro isn't the kind of Pokemon to stoop so low as to kidnapping," Grant the Grovyleadded.

"If anything, I think she'd give up making puns then resort to kidnapping," Al the Charmeleon agreed.

"None of this makes sense, perhaps we should wait and hear Patricia out to why they suspect our guildmaster as being the Pokemon kidnapper," Caper the Purrloin suggested.

"Even if it is completely illogical," Swiper the Nickit agreed.

Dust, Berry, and Shab all frowned, but remained quiet. Spooks, who had been with Team Night Tide this whole time, was invisibly watching from beside Dust. He had been quiet as well. Berry had told him to remain invisible and as quiet as possible during the match, and to keep an eye for anything suspicious. He was to be their spy eyes, and also because they didn't want to leave him alone after his grandmother and siblings had been taken away.

"QUIET!" Patricia shouted. She tried being patient, but having been cut off twice in a row was starting to get on her nerves. She quickly regained her composure once she saw everyone was now quiet. She takes a deep breath before continuing. "Now before I continue, please know that I am only relaying to you what I've been told. If you have any questions, please wait until after I finish explaining. Are we good?"

Everyone nodded, surprised by Patricia's sudden outbursts.

"Good. Now as I said, Chihiro is currently being questioned at this moment and until she has been proven innocent or guilty, she will be remaining with the authorities until then. Which is why each of you are required to stay at the tournament. Due to what had happened to your guildmaster, the authorities wish to keep a close eye on each of you and will be conducting an investigation tomorrow. That's when you can share what you know with the authorities. We've already prepared a room to accommodate you during your stay here. Now you can ask your questions."

At first everyone was silent, still taking in everything that Patricia had just explained.

"Are we under suspicions ourselves?" Dust spoke up over the silence.

"Personally, I don't think so, since each of you had participated in this tournament, but the authorities need to take every precaution. So for the time being, yes, while unlikely, each of you are under suspicions," Patricia explained. "Now are there any other questions?"

Again, all were silent, especially after being told that even they were under suspicion. Then a single arm raised up and everyone turned to see Al was the one raising it.

"So...is there gonna be any food?" Al asked, only for Brody and Grant to simultaneously punch in on top of his head.

"Idiot!" They both shouted at the same time.

"Ouch! It's a legitimate question! If we are going to be stuck here, I'd like to know if we are gonna have food!" Al countered while rubbing the bruise that had formed on top of his head.

Patricia blinked a couple times, wondering how a group like Team Destruct could be so strong, and yet act so childish. "You won't have to worry about food, plenty will be provided during your stay here. Now if that's all, we'll have someone take you to the rooms we have prepared for you."

As if on cue, some rough looking Pokemon wearing sunglasses began to enter. They were clearly the security guards of the tournament, though the most well known ones were the Stufful and Bewear. The Stufful looked at Bewear.

"So, which team do you want to take care of?" Stufful asked.

The Bewear looked at each team for a bit, before landing its eyes on Team Rocket. Jessie noticed the Bewear looking at them, and came up with an idea. She dug out a big looking apple from her bag.

"Hey, if you could take us to one of the nicer rooms, this Perfect Apple is yours," Jessie bribed.

The Bewear walked up to Team Rocket, each step resounding in a hard thump, until they stood in front of them, towering over Jessie, James and Wobbuffet. James and Wobbuffet were hiding behind Jessie, thinking that they may have angered the Bewear, and Jessie was starting to have second thoughts about her bribe. When suddenly the Bewear grabbed the apple and in a swift motion ate the entire fruit in one go.

Jessie, James, and Wobbuffet watched as the Bewear chewed the apple in their mouth. Once the Bewear swallowed the apple, Team Rocket waited for any reaction, with James and Wobbuffet still hiding behind Jessie. Suddenly the Bewear gave a firm nod, causing Team Rocket to sigh in relief, but before they knew it, the Bewear suddenly picked them all up.

"Uh...what are you doing?" James asked.

The Stufful laughed. "Aww, looks like my partner had taken a real liking to you three. She's decided to take you back to her own room instead."

"What?!" James and Jessie both shouted.

"Woooobbuffet!" Wobbuffet added.

"Don't worry, she'll take good care of you, she makes the best berry juice known to Pokemon kind," Stufful smiled.

Bewear nodded before she suddenly started rushing out of the room. Team Rocket almost had the wind knocked out of them from the sudden speed. But just before they were completely gone, they managed to shout one last thing.

"Looks like Team Rocket is blasting off!" Jessie and James shouted at the same time.

"Woooooobbuuuuffeeeet!" Wobbuffet's managed to shout just as Bewear had taken them away.

Everyone just stared at what happened in the past minute, but after deciding it was just how Bewear worked, everyone went back to work. All the teams from the Unity Guild were being led out of the arena to their new rooms. Team Night Tide were being led by a Mienfoo.

"I will be sure to let Team Crimson Raiders know about this soon," Patricia stated as everyone was leaving.


"You three will stay here until further notice. You are not to leave unless given permission to. We will have someone bring you food for the time being," The Mienfoo security guard instructed after he let Dust walk into their new room. Berry and Shab were still on his back. "Are there any questions?"

Nobody said anything. So the Mienfoo gave a nod. "Good. Enjoy your stay."

With that said, the Mienfoo closed the door, leaving Team Night Tide alone.

"This… room is a bit smaller than the one we were in before," Shab noted.

"Well to be fair, the other rooms were mainly to accommodate the other fighters, they weren't really meant to be used as a sleeping quarter. And I assume the medical room is strictly for those who are recovering. Perhaps they have these small rooms for those who had travelled far from their homes to watch the tournament. Though you are right, it seems a bit smaller than what we are used to," Dust explained. He then noticed that Berry was still quiet, looking somewhat troubled. "Is everything alright Berry?"

"I just… find this situation to be… troubling," The Goomy answered as she hopped off of Dust's back. "Chihiro gets arrested under the suspicions that she was kidnapping Pokemon, and now all of the participating teams from the Unity Guild are locked up in rooms that are close by to each other. We're not allowed to leave without permission. Don't you think this might make us all easier targets for the real kidnapper?"

Dust thought about Berry's words before replying. "With what has happened so far, I can see that. Perhaps we can take turns standing guard, watching for any signs of trouble. Though I'm sure if the kidnapper knew of our current situation, they may have already made preparations for us."

"I will say, in the wild, if you know a predator is coming for you, you must plan ahead in advance to keep you and your own school safe," Shab stated.

"Interesting analogy," Dust commented. "Though perhaps we can do more than just plan ahead in advance."

"What do you mean?" Shab asked.

Dust didn't answer at first as he went to the door and peeked outside. He saw no sign of any other Pokemon, only the doors that lead to where the others were most likely staying. He closed the door before addressing Berry and Shab. "Well it doesn't look like anyone is really standing guard, so-"

"Wait," Berry interrupted. "Before we plan anything out… Spooks, are you still here?"

"Yeah," The little Dreepy answered, revealing himself.

"Can you check around the area here? Try to look for any hidden cameras or possibly hidden Pokemon that could be lurking around," Berry instructed. "Do you think you'll be able to do that?"

Spooks nodded. "This is for my siblings and Grandma."

Spooks turned himself invisible again and flew through the wall, flying around the area. Sure enough, there were cameras watching the doors for any Pokemon leaving without permission. He also saw some hidden Zubat hanging on the ceiling, likely using their ears to listen for any footsteps or voices. Spooks frowned, seeing how despite there not being any security guards guarding the door, there was still security around the area. Spooks flew back into the room Team Night Tide were in.

"Berry was right, there are cameras and hidden Pokemon watching," Spooks stated after reappearing before them again.

"Cameras?" Dust asked, which Spooks nodded. "Hmm, while it does make things more difficult, this only raises more questions. Like how the kidnapper hadn't been seen yet."

"Probably because this place is more secure than the rooms the fighters were staying in before," Berry replied. "We were sent in here to be kept an eye on after all."

"So how are we going to get out and continue our investigation?" Shab questioned.

"We might need to disguise ourselves as either a security guard or room service," Berry answered.

"How are you going to do that?" Spooks asked.

"We could wait until room service comes to deliver our meal," Berry suggested. "We can try to sneak their uniform or accessory or whatever it is they wear off of them, and put it on one of us so we can sneak out while pretending to be carting out food. Since Dust is the biggest, he could be the food service Pokemon, while Shab and I could try hiding under the cart."

"But wouldn't the Pokemon looking at the camera feed get suspicious that the room service Pokemon is suddenly an Absol?" Spooks asked.

"Maybe Dust can call for an Absol specifically as the food delivery person. He could say he wanted to see another fellow Absol, because he's pretty scared about what's going on. Or maybe he just wants to flirt with another Absol," Berry snickered at that last part.

"Okay, we both know my social skills are very lacking, I don't even know any ounce of knowledge when it comes to flirting. Second, while not a bad plan, it depends on if they even have an Absol working here," Dust pointed out.

"Well, do you have a better plan?" Berry asked.

Dust raised a claw as he took a breath in, but then sheepishly smiled. "I...do not."

"Then it's our best shot," Berry said.

"Well it's not like we are going to have a chance to ask specifically for an Absol to deliver our food," Dust brought up, when suddenly there was a knock on the door.

The door opened, revealing the same Stufful that they had met before. "Hey, so we are about to get all your food ready, but before we do that, we are just going around to get your preference, if you only want meat or berries, or if you have any known allergies to any specific food."

Berry smiled before she looked at Dust. She didn't say it, but the look she was giving him was all Dust needed to know that meant this was the perfect opportunity to request the Absol food deliverer. Spooks had turned invisible again when the door opened.

Dust sighed before addressing the Stufful. "Actually...there is something I'd like to ask. I was wondering, by chance do you have an Absol working here? And if so, can you have them bring us our food?"

Stufful gave Dust a weird look. "Uh...we actually do have an Absol who works here, but why do you want to meet one?"

"Well...things have been pretty stressful, what with our Guildmaster gone and such. Absol can actually provide great...emotional support with their own kind. So I was hoping to speak with one, just to help me through the night," Dust explained, giving an innocent smile.

Stufful was a bit skeptical of Dust, but he shrugged. "Well I don't know that much about Absol, but that seems to make sense. I'll be sure to have Trixx bring your food."

"Trixx?" Dust gulped. "By chance that wouldn't be a male's name?"

"Female," Stufful answered before looking Dust up and down. The Stufful gave a smirk at Dust. "And please refrain from doing anything too...unprofessional when she comes."

"...Thanks…" Dust kept on smiling, though internally he was screaming. "I look forward to meeting her."

"Oh, I'm sure you will. Trixx likes getting friendly with those in her egg group and the opposite gender~" The Stufful replied before leaving the room.

Dust looked like he wanted to disappear now.

"Well, looks like this will be easier than we thought," Shab chuckled.

"Maybe while Dust is flirting, we should eat some of the food to avoid suspicion too. Besides, I am getting kinda hungry," Berry remarked.

"What should I do?" Spooks asked.

"You keep an eye on the other teams, see if anyone might try to kidnap them," Berry answered.

Shab noticed Dust was looking down and rather depressed. "Hey, Dust, you gonna be okay?"

Dust didn't hear him as he was too busy mumbling to himself. "I don't know the first thing about flirting. The only other time I've ever met with a female Absol besides my mother was that wild one, and she almost mated with me. But that's because she was wild, I'm about to meet with a civilized Absol. How do I even flirt? What do other Absol like? Are they like Mother? Oh Arceus, what if they are like Mother?! I can't handle more than one Eclipse! Oh! What if they actually start flirting back? Will I have to commit? Should I stay in contact afterwards? What if I run into her again in the future? Mother is already gonna be upset if she finds out about Cliff, I can't even imagine her reaction if she saw me with another Absol. If we end up together, will I have to give up researching to provide for her? But I don't want to give that up, but what if we end up with a family?"

Shab slowly backed away from Dust as he continued mumbling. "Uh Berry...I think Dust is broken."

"Hmm… maybe you could help teach him a thing or two about flirting?" Berry asked.

"M-me?" Shab blushed.

"Yeah, you seem to be good at giving compliments since you do it all the time with me. Maybe you can help Dust out to 'turn on the charm'," Berry suggested.

Shab looked at Dust with some doubt. While it was true that he had been giving Berry compliments since they first met, that was because he truly loved Berry and had been receiving help from both Brody and Cupcake. He wasn't so sure if Dust was capable of flirting, but if Berry thinks he can help Dust, then he will do what he can to get the Absol to 'turn on the charm.'

"I'll do what I can." Shab smiled before going back to Dust, who had ceased his mumbling. "Hey, Dust?"

Dust didn't hear Shab as he continued mumbling. "And that's not including our children. How are they going to turn out? Are they going to be like me? Or what if they are all like Mother?! I don't think I can handle that. It was already bad enough that I'm going to end up with someone like Mother, but now our children are going to be like her too?!"

"DUST!" The Feebas shouted, squirting some Water Pulse in Dust's face to get the Absol to stop.

Dust looked up, shocked by the sudden Water Pulse. "Who, what, when, where, and why?!"

"Calm down before you pass out on us," Shab sighed, swimming in the air in front of Dust. "Listen, I've had some flirting advice from Brody and Cupcake… so… maybe I can use some of their teachings to help you a little bit."

"But I'm not ready for this. I'm not ready to be in a relationship," Dust replied worriedly.

"Relax, right now we just need you to focus on distracting the Absol, doesn't mean you have to really flirt with her," Shab explained.

Dust nodded, liking the sound of that. "...Okay...that...works."

"Plus, who knows, maybe you two might actually like each other after this," Shab joked, but Dust didn't think so, and started freaking out again. "Oh boy, this is gonna be harder than I thought."

"Dust, relax. You're not doing this to get into a relationship, okay? You're doing this so we can leave this room and figure out what's really going on and prove our guildmaster's innocence," Berry spoke up, seeing Dust was freaking out again.

Dust started taking deep breaths, remembering why they needed him to flirt in the first place. "You're right, I just gotta remember that. This is all for Chihiro. Nothing more!"

"Alright, then let's start with the lessons," Shab remarked.


Spooks was looking around the rooms, making sure all of the teams were alright. Bewear seemed to be feeding Team Rocket with her big paws. Team Rocket themselves were mixed about this. Bewear was being a bit rough, but she was feeding them very delicious honey mixed with berries and meat, and they appeared to be enjoying it a lot. The other teams appeared to be doing quite well, some of them just got their food delivered. Though Spooks noticed that Team Silkwing didn't touch their food. Ivy looked rather suspicious of it.

Spooks then flew into Team Destruct's room, the last team he was checking up on since he was a little worried about getting caught in one of their 'spars's crossfires.

"I say we should go out there and find that kidnapper ourselves," Grant spoke up. "If we just stay here, we are nothing more than a group of Wooloo waiting to be slaughtered by a hungry Mightyena."

"I wonder how Wooloo might taste, though I can imagine their wool not being very tasty," Al remarked.

Brody ignored Al's comment and focused on Grant's. "Look, I understand why, part of me wants to go searching too, but we have to be more rational about this. If we go out there, destroying everything we see, we'd cause more trouble."

"Though it would be pretty fun," Al pointed out. "In fact, we might actually end up running into the kidnapper if we were to cause some destruction."

"I'm with him, better than sitting here and doing nothing," Grant grunted.

"And I'm telling you, we are not just gonna sit here and wait. But we shouldn't cause more trouble," Brody tried explaining. "Chihiro is already in trouble for something she didn't do, the last thing she needs is us giving the authorities more reason to suspect her."

There was a knock on their door, before it opened. An Electabuzz was pushing in a huge cart full of food. There was a Magmar behind him, karting in more carts of food. They had been informed of Al's rather bottomless pit of a stomach. At seeing the food, Al was about to leap at the cart filled with food, but Grant grabbed his tail, careful to avoid the flame, just as he leaped, pulling him back.

"How about you wait until after me and Brody grab our food before you decide to scarf it all down?" Grant asked.

Al grumbled. "Fine, but please hurry, I don't know how long my stomach can last!"

"Don't worry, you'll get your food," Brody said before thanking the Electabuzz and Magmar.

The Electabuzz and Magmar left rather quickly, not wanting to get in the very hungry looking Charmeleon's way of his food. Al was drooling as he waited ever so 'patiently' for his teammates to grab their food. Once Brody and Grant had gotten their food, Al looked at them, waiting for approval. Brody nodded, which was all that Al needed before rushing towards the cart and devouring the food at an alarming rate.

"Seriously, where does all that food go?" Brody asked, taking an occasional bite from his food. "You'd think after eating so much he'd look a lot more...chunkier."

"You mean like a Snorlax?" The Grovyle chuckled, munching on his own food. "I have no idea where he puts it all. Sometimes I'm rather jealous that he can eat so much and still be as fit as a Machamp."

"...Do you think it may have to do with his past?" Brody brought up, thinking about their amnesiac friend.

Grant shrugged. "Maybe, but we've been a team for a while now and he still hasn't remembered anything. Though at this point I'm not even sure he even thinks about his past. He'd rather think about his next meal than wonder who he was."

"Perhaps he doesn't want to think about his past for a reason…" The Lucario frowned in wonder. "You think maybe we should get an expert Psychic type to try to look into his mind to find anything out?"

"We can try, but it's like you said, maybe there's a reason why he doesn't want to think about his past. We can suggest it and see what he wants to do, though I think he'd be too busy eating to even pay attention. Isn't that right, Al?" Grant chuckled as he asked the Charmeleon his question.

Al didn't reply, which Grant wasn't too surprised by. "See, even now, I don't think there's anything that can draw that Charmeleon's focus away from eating."

"Wait...somethings not right," Brody looked at Al curiously. "Al?"

Again, no reply, this time Grant was now a bit suspicious. They both got up to check on their friend and were surprised to see the Charmeleon sleeping on top of some unfinished giant souffle, using it as a pillow almost.

"Didn't think he'd be that exhausted," Grant remarked.

"Didn't think Al would fall asleep before finishing his food," Brody pointed at the pile of food that was still left on the cart.

"That's… odd… no matter how tired Al would get, even after a long, hard mission, he would never fall asleep as long as he had food left," Grant noted in suspicion, before looking down at their own food and began to sniff it. "... Brody, check the food with your aura, quickly!"

Brody nodded as he closed his eyes and used his aura to look at the food. At first he didn't see anything strange about it, but upon closer look, he noticed there was something off about the food, it almost looked like some kind of glittery powder was spread across their food. He was about to look further when he noticed that he was having trouble focusing on the aura. Things were starting to blur, but it was at that moment he realized what had happened.

"Grant...the food has been laced...with some kind of...powder," Brody managed to say as he felt his body growing heavy.

Grant let out a curse under his breath. Powder usually didn't affect Grass types… on the outside, but if they were to consume the powder, that was a different story. "Someone… tampered… with the food…"

Spooks let out a small gasp when he saw Grant and Brody falling to the floor, unable to stay standing.

"We… we have… to warn… the… the others…" Grant groaned, trying to crawl to the door. He saw that Brody wasn't moving, most likely having succumbed to the powder. Grant knew he didn't have much time until he too succumbed to the powder. "...Can't...give...up...I...I have…"

Grant reached for the door handle, only a few inches away. He tried as hard as he could, mustering any strength left in him to grab the door handle, but at the last moment his arm fell as his vision started to go black.

Spooks quickly flew out of the room and hurried to Team Night Tide's room, hoping he wasn't too late. Berry did say she and Shab were going to eat some of the food after all, and he had to stop them before it was too late.


Dust felt like a nervous wreck. He knew he was doing this for Chihiro, and for the other missing Pokemon, but he really had no idea how to flirt. Shab had been trying his best to teach him, but he felt like the lesson went into one ear, but out the other. They had no more time for lessons, however, because there was a slight scratch on the door.

"Room service!" A feminine voice called out from the door.

"Come on, Dust, you've got this," Berry whispered to her Absol partner.

"Right...I got this...I got this….I don't got this! Nope!" Dust took a deep breath, shaking his head as he tried to reassure himself. "No...I can do this...Oh Arceus why? Let's just get this over with."

Dust nearly tripped on his way to the door, in fact, he stumbled before his head ended up bonking against the door, which caused it to open. There was a tall looking feminine Absol there, blinking at him, before she pushed the cart into the room.

"Wow, didn't think you'd be that eager to get your food," The female Absol chuckled.

Dust rubbed his temple before addressing the Absol. "Sorry, I had just tripped."

A moment of silence went by until Dust felt something nudge the back of his leg. He looked back and saw Shab was the one to nudge him to say something.

"Uh...come right in," Dust awkwardly smiled as he stood aside for the Absol.

The Absol grinned a bit as she pushed the cart inside. "Alright, well, perhaps I should leave now so you can-"

"Wait!" Dust suddenly spoke up.

"Oh? Is there something you want from little ol' me, handsome?~" The Absol playfully smiled.

Dust quickly turned around to hide his face. Oh this is so wrong! This is so awkward! Come on, pull yourself together, remember why you are doing this!

Dust turned back to see the Absol waiting patiently for his reply. He could feel his body temperature rising up in his cheeks as he prepared to flirt. "Soooo...what's an Absol like yourself working around here?"

"Oh, you know, a Pokemon's gotta eat to live. I'm not really much of a Crusader myself, but I can work with food pretty well," The Absol answered. "My name is Trixx, what's yours?~ Oh wait, don't tell me, you're Dust, the leader of Team Night Tide, aren't you?"

"Uh, yes," Dust found it strange at first that she already knew his name, but then remembered how most of the workers probably know who the other fighters are at this point. He then noticed Shab and Berry in the background, making gestures for him to keep going. Sighing, Dust decided it was now or never. "Sorry for my awkwardness. I've never really met that many Absol before, much less a female one. I just can't help but notice how...your fur is a lot shinier compared to others."

"It is?" Trixx asked, looking at her fur for a moment. "Well… I suppose I do shampoo it a lot. Though you have quite the lovely and unique eyes. I've never seen an Absol that has one blue eye and one red eye."

Berry and Shab were getting some food while the two Absol talked. At the same time, Spooks came flying in, still invisible of course. He noticed Berry and Shab were about to eat some of the food. He quickly flew over to them.

"Don't eat the food!" Spooks hissed, making Berry and Shab almost jump.

"Spooks?" Berry blinked, whispering.

"What's going on-" Trixx started as she was about to turn, but then Dust suddenly grabbed her face and held it still.

"Uh...Sorry, my eyes may be unique, but I couldn't help but stare at your beautiful eyes. I almost got lost in them when I first saw them," Dust quickly said, hoping to distract Trixx.

"... My, you really know how to woo a girl~" Trixx giggled.

Dust started blushing really hard as he quickly let go. He was about to apologize, but he knew he had to keep going. "W-well it's not everyday you meet another Absol who is so...captivating."

"The food was tampered with. It put Team Destruct to sleep," Spooks warning quietly to Berry and Shab.

Berry and Shab frowned, before they began to sneak the food to a nearby potted plant, and dumped most of the berries and whatnot into the pot.

"Oh surely you don't mean that," Trixx giggled.

Dust hastily nodded as he just said whatever came to mind. "No, it's true. I've only known two other female Absol in my whole life, and they are nothing compared to you."

"I do hope that's a compliment," Trixx remarked, frowning slightly.

Think Dust, you're losing her. You have to keep distracting her. Dust thought to himself, but then he got an idea. Though he would later regret using the idea, he didn't think about it at the time.

"Oh, I assure you it's a compliment, in fact," Dust then got close to Trixx and bowed his head, making his own horn touch Trixx's horn.

There was a small tap between the two Absol's horns, but Trixx let out a surprised gasp. Suddenly, her entire body turned purple and shrunk down. This shocked Dust, Berry, and Shab as the glowing body turned into a small fox-like creature. In the Absol's place was a Zorua.

Dust blinked a couple times, still trying to register what he just saw. "You're...you're a Zorua?!" Dust shouted in surprise.

"I… didn't expect that," Shab chuckled sheepishly.

"Awww! You just had to go and ruin my fun," Trixx pouted. "It was funny to watch how flustered you were getting!"

"Wait, so if you were really a Zorua...then that means you were…" Dust remarked.

"Leading you on?" Trixx guessed.

"Just playing a prank! Oh thank Arcues," Dust sighed in relief. "I don't know how much longer I could keep that up."

"Dust!" Berry spoke up. "Really?"

"What?" Dust frowned.

Berry sighed, slapping her face with her antenna.

"Oh? So you didn't actually want to woo me?" Trixx questioned. "You know, we get a lot of requests from Pokemon of what type of Pokemon should bring them their food and such. That's why I'm invaluable here, I can use my illusion to fulfill their request without the staff needing to find and hire that particular Pokemon. So I wouldn't say I was pranking you, just trying to help make you feel better."

"Oh, well if that was the case, then you just showing up as yourself would've been far better," Dust replied. "I think it's rather interesting how Zorua are able to use their illusions. While I've already met a Zoroark, I've never had the chance to meet a Zorua before, so I'm rather glad that you're actually a Zorua instead of an Absol."

"You were the one who requested for an Absol," Trixx reminded, looking rather annoyed. "It's part of my job to go with whatever the client requested. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be leaving."

"Wait!" Berry quickly spoke up. "Trixx, don't go yet… we… uh… if you don't mind… maybe you'd like to help us out with something?"

The Zorua looked at the Goomy. "... I'm listening."

"I'm sure you've heard about Pokemon going missing, recently, right?" Berry asked.

Trixx actually looked worried when Berry mentioned the missing Pokemon. "We aren't really supposed to talk about that."

"How come?" Dust asked.

"Well for one, it's only rumors, and we are told we shouldn't get distracted since we are very busy during these tournaments. And those who end up focusing too much on those rumors usually end up leaving. Most likely getting fired for not focusing on work," Trixx explained.

"That… already sounds pretty ominous," Shab pointed out.

"Recently, our Guildmaster was arrested under the suspicion that she could be the one responsible for the missing Pokemon," Berry informed Trixx. "We think that they're keeping us here in one spot, so it would be easy to pick us off. At least that's what we think." Not to mention the fact the food was putting Team Destruct to sleep also raised some red flags.

"We had been doing our own investigation before and were planning on doing so again, but after being told that we needed permission to leave and seeing how the security was, we thought we would try to sneak out using a disguise," Dust added. "It's why I asked specifically for an Absol, sorry for the inconvenience."

"I see, you were planning to knock me out after you've 'seduced' me, huh?" Trixx snickered, seeing Dust's face light up with red a bit.

"For the record, I did not plan this! I did not want to flirt! As you probably had figured out already, my skills when it comes to flirting are almost non existent," Dust quickly said.

"I thought they were pretty good," Trixx remarked. "Then again, I'm not actually an Absol, so I wouldn't know what their standards would be. Anyways… why are you telling me this now?"

"Since you're not actually an Absol, but a Zorua… I thought maybe you might be able to help sneak us out of here," Berry informed. "... I know you don't really have a reason to help us like this… especially since this could potentially get you fired…" Or kidnapped… "But we were hoping you would at least help a team of Crusaders find out about the real kidnapper, and stop this injustice to our Guildmaster."

Trixx gave a thoughtful look. "I will admit, I do like Chihiro, she made a guild for any Pokemon to join, and was welcoming about it. And her puns are pretty funny too."

Spooks smiled at that. "Finally, someone else enjoys her puns."

Trixx looked at the Dreepy, who just dropped his invisibility. "How long had he been here?"

"This is Spooks, one of Chihiro's grandchildren," Shab introduced.

"He left when Chihiro got arrested. He's been helping us investigate around," Berry admitted. "Like… for instance… he warned us the food was tampered with. If we eat it, we would be put to sleep."

Trixx frowned before she looked at the food, sniffing it a bit. "How dare someone try contaminating this food I slaved over! … Wait… so the food I delivered to the others… they've all been put to sleep?"

Spooks nodded. "I'm afraid so. I saw the others were unconscious shortly after eating the food."

"Okay, so it looks like what you said definitely have some merits, Goomy," Trixx said to Berry.

"The name's Berry…" Berry mumbled. She knew Dust's name, but not mine?

Trixx grinned a little. "I'll admit, this does have some kind of thrill to it that I'm enjoying. A sinister mystery of Pokemon going missing behind the scenes of a tournament. And that mystery is so close to my nose, I can smell it."

"So you'll help us?" Berry asked hopefully.

"Well, since my food was tampered with, and I owe the real kidnapper one for this, sure, I'll help you. It'll also be exciting to help a Crusader team that made it as far as they did in the rank up tournament~" The Zorua grinned.

"By chance would you have seen anyone out of the ordinary who might've tampered with the food?" Dust asked.

"I have a few others who cook the food too, but I haven't seen anyone suspicious," The Zorua answered. "But I wasn't exactly looking for a suspicious Pokemon. They say the culprit is usually the one you least expect anyways."

"Hmm, well time is of the essence and we don't know how long it will be when that kidnapper shows up. I hate to leave the others behind in their current state, but I think now would be our best shot in hopes of finding the missing Pokemon," Dust explained. "Right now the kidnapper expects all of us to be trapped here, unconscious, so we will have the element of surprise on our side."

"What do you plan to do first?" Trixx asked.

"We need to leave this room and start investigating," Berry answered. "If we're stuck here, it's only a matter of time before the kidnapper knocks us out and takes us."

"Hmm… well, if you're going to investigate, I would suggest starting with the storage room. Sometimes I would hear whispers of voices in there, even though I never see anyone in the storage room," Trixx suggested.

"That… sounds… really creepy. Are you sure there weren't any Ghost types or something?" Shab asked.

"Doubt it. If it were Ghost types, why speak in hushed whispered tones? And why speak in the storage room? Even if it was a prank, they wouldn't be patient enough to keep it going for as long as they are," Trixx pointed out.

"And we've already had our fair share of Ghost encounters in the past as well," Dust added. "But it looks like the storage room is our best bet."

"Now as for getting you three out of here, well everyone else saw an Absol enter this room, so no one else wouldn't be suspicious seeing an Absol leave as well," Trixx grinned. "And I can use my illusions to disguise you guys as well."

"Heh, so I guess in the end asking for an Absol worked in our favor," Dust remarked.

"Wasn't that the whole point in the first place?" Berry chuckled.

"What should I do?" Spooks asked.

"For now, continue watching over us while staying hidden. On the off chance something were to happen to us, at least we can count on you to warn others," Dust answered.

The Dreepy nodded nervously, before going invisible again.


Dust was currently wearing the food service uniform while pushing the food cart. Trixx, Berry, and Shab were on plates, acting as leftover food. Trixx used her illusion to make Berry appear as a giant berry fruit, Shab looked like a cooked fish, and Trixx herself looked like a bowl of soup. None of them could move, however, or they would ruin the illusion. Dust was the only one who was allowed to move. Trixx only put a minor illusion over his blue eye to make it appear red.

While normally Dust would've asked a multitude of questions, admiring the illusions that Trixx had created, he knew that now wasn't the time for that. Trixx had explained that after she was supposed to deliver their food, she would be allowed to go on break. So all Dust had to do was return the cart and hopefully no one tried talking with him. Following the directions Trixx had given him, Dust continued pushing the food cart as he headed towards the kitchen. So far they haven't ran into any trouble and Dust can only hope that it kept that way.

When they had reached the kitchen, Dust could see a few other Pokemon that were in the middle of cooking, while others were cleaning up. Most likely preparing to close for the day. Dust half expected everyone in the room to immediately look at him and know that he wasn't really Trixx, or that the food were actually Berry, Shab, and Trixx in disguise. But to his relief, no one really paid attention to him. Dust went towards where the other food carts were, lucky for them it seemed that they were close to the exit as well. All Dust needed to do was return the cart, then him and the others could sneak out.

But just as Dust was about to put the food cart with the others, he noticed a shadow towering over him. Dust almost jumped but managed to remain calm. He looked back and saw a Swampert wearing a Chef's top hat and uniform.

"And where do you think you are going?" The Swampert asked. Dust noticed he had a thick accent, but couldn't place where it came from.

Dust only gulped expecting the Swampert was on to them, until the Swampert pointed at his food cart.

"You know the rules, any food left over must be taken care of. Once you do that, then you can take your break, Trixx," The Swampert explained before leaning in closer. "And once you are done, you have to share your tales with that Absol, many are eager to hear it."

Dust now realized that the Swampert didn't know that he wasn't really Trixx, which gave him some relief. So Dust quickly nodded before taking the food cart with his friends and exiting the kitchen. After walking some distance away, Dust made sure that no one else was nearby, nor there were any potential security cameras or Zubats. Once the coast was clear, he let out a big sigh of relief.

"For a moment I thought we were caught," Dust sighed.

Trixx released her illusions on everyone, and stretched out. "Nah, that was the main Chef, Skipper. He's a nice guy, loves to cook, but is very clumsy with everything else."

"Heh, sounds like a certain Lucario we know of," Shab commented.

Berry chuckled at that, before turning serious. "Looks like we're finally outside of our rooms. We should be good now, we can act like just normal Pokemon going around the place as it's closing up."

"Yup!" Trixx smiled. "I know where the storage room is, so just follow me and we'll get there quickly."

Berry hopped off of the cart and landed on Dust's back. Shab hopped off of the cart, landing on Berry's head. Trixx started laughing when she saw this. "Now that's a cute little pile up you have going there."

"We've been told," Dust commented.

Trixx nodded before she started heading off. "Just make sure to stay close, and be ready to stop in case we run into any other Pokemon. I'll try to keep us hidden."

Dust nodded before he followed the Zorua down the corridor. The place looked creepier at night, when most of the lights were turned off. It was a good thing Dust and Trixx were Dark types, otherwise they would struggle trying to walk through the darkness. Berry likely wouldn't have too much trouble navigating either due to her antennae.

"Hey… I don't think we're here alone," Berry whispered suddenly.

This caused Trixx and Dust to stop in their tracks. Dust whispered back. "Are they close? Does it look like they are coming towards us?"

"Yes, to both," Berry answered, frowning.

Dust was starting to feel freaked out. There were Pokemon coming towards them, and they were close. Suddenly, Dust noticed several shadows coming up to them. Trixx quickly backed away. There were four of them from the looks of it.

"Well, well, look at what the Skitty dragged in," A familiar voice chuckled.

A Salandit walked up to them, coming in close enough for the others to be able to see him. "Hey, I saw you guys the other night, right?"

Dust recognized the Salandit, though he was still on guard. "That's right. So why are you here then?"

"I don't think I've introduced myself last time, how rude of me," The Salandit chuckled. "You can call me Kuro. I've been watching the tournament, and couldn't help but notice some foul play, and I don't mean the move itself. I may not have had her as a guildmaster myself, but something just didn't sit right with me when Chihiro was arrested under the accusation of kidnapping Pokemon. Chihiro had helped me out of a few tough jams before, so I feel like I owe her one. But I couldn't possibly help her by myself… luckily, I came across a team who were smart enough to not consume the food given to them here."

Kuro grinned as he looked back at the other three Pokemon.

"Team Night Tide?" A familiar Starly asked in surprise.

"Talon?" Dust asked back as he recognized the Starly.

Then Dust saw the other shadowy figures and recognized them as Team Silkwing.

"What are you guys doing here? Not that we aren't glad, but how did you know not to eat the food?" Dust asked.

"Heh, you can thank Ivy for that," Talon turned to Ivy. "She was the one to point out that something seemed off with the food."

"Perks of being a Grass type is that we tend to know when Sleep Powder is nearby, or in this case, covering our food," Ivy grinned.

"It also helped that I noticed some kind of powder on our food with my Compound Eyes," Tippi added.

"Looks like you guys were smart enough not to eat the food either," Ivy noted.

"We almost did," Berry chuckled sheepishly. "But we had our own little spy helping us out."

Spooks appeared before them, giving them a shy wave.

"My, what a clever use of a Ghost type. I take it this is one of Chihiro's children?" Kuro asked.

"One of her grandchildren actually," Shab corrected.

"Grandchildren? Wow, she didn't look old enough to be a grandparent, then again, it's hard to tell a Ghost type's age just by looking at them," Kuro chuckled.

"I… want to help prove my Grandma's innocence. It's not fair she got arrested. I know she didn't kidnap anyone," Spooks stated.

"As do we," Talon replied. "We know Chihiro is innocent and there's no way she would kidnap any of those Pokemon. You were there when Chihiro had saved my life from that Serperior, so we are going to do anything we can to prove her innocence."

"Well it's a good thing we ran into each other, we actually might have a lead," Dust explained.

"Wait a minute," Trixx spoke up. "While I'm all for helping prove someone's innocence, there are way too many of us here. We're going to draw attention to ourselves if we all go together."

"Trixx has got a point." Berry frowned. "We're trying to get to the storage room to do some investigation. Trixx said she would sometimes hear whispers coming from there. But if we all go there, then the chances of getting caught would be too high."

"Then I propose that the smaller, more stealthier Pokemon go check out the spooky voices of the storage room," Kuro suggested. "The rest can investigate other suspicious places. We can all meet up at a rendezvous point."

"Good idea, we can probably meet up at the main lobby of the tournament after about half an hour," Trixx agreed.

"Then who gets to go to the storage room? I'm definitely out, I'm the biggest one here," Dust remarked.

Kuro looked between each of the Pokemon they had here.

"I'd rather not go, especially if it's going to be stuffy in there. I don't do well with stuffy places," Ivy stated.

"Fine then… Trixx will have to go, since she knows the place better than the rest of us," Kuro decided. "You, Goomy, I heard you were able to sense us coming, is that correct?"

"Oh, uh, yeah, I noticed that there were suddenly four presence around here," Berry answered.

"Alright, then you'll go too in case we run into any other Pokemon," Kuro explained.

"We?" Berry asked.

"Yup, I'll be going too, my dark skin makes it hard for others to spot, plus, you ever tried catching a Salandit before? We are pretty slippery and hard to catch," Kuro answered.

"Alright, then it's settled," Trixx spoke up. "Me, Berry, and Kuro will check out the storage room while the rest of you investigate and search for any clues."

"We'll try our best," Talon said with a wing salute.

"Berry… please be careful. I would be beside myself if anything happened to you," Shab said as Berry slithered off of Dust's back, and the Feebas had to hop off of Berry's head.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine," Berry reassured.

"She's very resilient, we both know that, Shab. Like she said, she'll be fine," Dust reassured Shab before looking at Berry. "But do be careful."

"Good luck," Tippi remarked.

"We'll see you again soon," Talon stated.

"Don't go getting kidnapped on us," Ivy said.


To say Berry was nervous would be an understatement. The last few times she went on without Dust, things didn't usually turn out so great for her. Trixx was leading her and Kuro down the corridor, taking them to the storage room. Though Kuro did have to tell Trixx to slow down a bit, because Berry was having trouble keeping up.

"Sorry… I'm not usually a fast Pokemon," Berry apologized.

"I can see why your friend is always giving you a ride," Trixx replied. "Wait, is that why Dust's fur seemed to have that extra shine to it?"

"I think some Pokemon mentioned that before about Dust's fur," Berry sheepishly admitted.

"Heh, well if you ever decide to try something else besides being a Crusader, maybe you can use your slime for a fur saloon. I think others wouldn't mind having a nice clean fur," Trixx suggested.

"Uh… well they'd need some Pecha Berries on the side if I did that. My slime does have toxins in them, Dust almost died from it before," Berry warned.

"Interesting, I never heard of a Goomy's slime being toxic," Kuro remarked. "Not that it would matter to me, since I am half Poison type myself."

"I… um… well, I'm a bit of a special case. I was raised by a family of Quigsire," Berry informed.

"I remember hearing something about that when Patricia first introduced you and your team, but I thought she was just trying to build up the excitement. Didn't actually think that was true," Trixx replied.

Berry blushed. "I was surprised Patricia knew about that. I guess the guildmasters tell the announcer what they think would sound interesting about their participating members to hype up the crowd more."

"Yeah, that sounds like something the guild masters would do. If there's anything they could all agree on, it's that they like to show off their members," Kuro chuckled.

Trixx then stopped, she peeked her head over a wall before she turned to Kuro and Berry. "There's the storage room, but it's currently being guarded. Probably to keep thieves from stealing stuff in the middle of the night."

Berry frowned a little, before she looked at Trixx. "Couldn't you use your illusion to change shifts with the guard?"

"Hah, I like the way you think, little Goomy. I wonder why others think your kind has a small brain?" Kuro remarked.

Berry blinked. "Wait, what are others saying about my kind?"

Trixx quickly cleared her throat. "Yes, Berry, I do agree with your plan. That's why I'm here after all."

"So what illusion do you plan on using to get past those guards?" Kuro asked.

"That'll be easy~" Trixx smirked before her body glowed with purple energy.

Trixx suddenly looked like Bewear. "Bewear is perhaps our most respected security guard. I doubt anyone would deny her. Though I will need one of you to go as Stufful to talk for me."

"Have Berry go. I'll be able to sneak past them while you two are distracting them," Kuro suggested. "Plus, no offense Berry, but it will make it easier for you since you are kinda slow."

Berry grumbled, but couldn't argue with that. "Fine…"

Trixx tapped Berry's body before putting the Stufful illusion on her. The two of them slowly 'walked' to the current security guard, who was a Stoutland.

"Halt! Who goes there?" The Stoutland growled.

"You can stand down, it's only us," Berry said, trying to imitate the Stufful the best she could.

At seeing who it was, the Stoutland started to relax. "Sorry about that, you know how it is. What with everything that has happened, they expect us to work extra hard now, though I don't really see why. I mean, if they have already caught the kidnapper, I can't see why they won't let us start putting things away. But it's not really our call, is it? We are just security guards. Looks like you two got stuck with night shift, well sorry to hear that but I'm about ready to go and get some rest. Good luck, try not to fall asleep, we all know what happened to Dave."

The Stoutland yawned before walking away, leaving the two.

"Huh… that was easy. I didn't even have to tell him why we were here or anything," Berry remarked when she was sure the Stoutland was out of earshot.

"He's pretty old, he kinda gets the system by now," Trixx chuckled. "Besides, whenever someone sees Bewear, they know it's time to back down and let her handle things."

"Does… Bewear not have her own name?" Berry asked.

"You know, nobody really knows. Bewear never speaks, and Stufful never said what their names were, so everyone just calls them by their species name," Trixx shrugged.

"As interesting as that is…" Kuro spoke up, opening the door to the storage room. "We should focus on the mission."

"Right," Trixx agreed before she released the illusion around herself and Berry before they went into the storage room.

Berry looked around when they were in the storage room. It was dark, and hard to see, but she could sense a lot of big boxes around. She didn't need her sight to 'see' necessarily, but she wasn't quite used to having to only rely on her senses to see where she was going. But there was also something about this place that didn't feel right. She didn't sense any Ghost types, and she was familiar with them by now, but she did sense something was here. Something that was unnatural.

"This place feels kind of… off?" Berry remarked, looking around a bit uneasy.

Trixx looked at Berry, unsure of what she meant. "Is it because you can't see in the dark that well?"

"Well… I mean I can't, but that's not it," Berry answered. "I… get the sense something or someone was here, but… they don't feel… natural? I'm not sure if that's the right word though. But it's creeping me out."

"Are you sure?" Trixx asked.

"I think she might be onto something. She was able to sense me and Team Silkwing before we even got close. Also, at first I thought it was just me, but can't help but feel a bit unsettled in here," Kuro answered.

The Zoura frowned as she gave a thoughtful expression. "You might be onto something. When I first started working here, I didn't like coming into the storage room. I always felt a little uneasy in here. But I guess I did eventually get used to it."

"The fact that this place makes Pokemon feel uneasy, unless you've gotten used to it, already brings up a few red flags." Berry frowned.

"Come on, let's start looking around. Maybe we'll find something," Kuro suggested.

Trixx and Kuro were used to working in the dark, so this wouldn't be a problem. Though Berry would need to take it a bit slower. They looked around the crates that contained many items Berry couldn't even guess, but so far there was still nothing out of the ordinary. But that strange feeling Berry felt kept nagging at her, she can sense where Trixx and Kuro were, but it felt as though there was someone else in there with them, and yet at the same time, it didn't.

Berry shook her head, trying not to psyche herself out. But then she had a thought. If she was sensing someone else was in here, perhaps she should follow that. As creepy as it was, she did want to try to find the real kidnapper, and this might be her best lead. Gulping, and reminding herself she was a Crusader, Berry started to slither to where she was sensing this other presence.

It was hard at first for Berry. When she moved closer to where she felt this other presence, it was as though they had vanished. She backtracked a bit, but suddenly felt the other presence once more in the same direction. As she moved towards the presence, she noticed it vanished once more, but instead of turning back, she decided to see what would happen if she continued on. To her surprise, her senses were telling her that no one was there, and it only got stronger the closer she got. This only made Berry continue on, going past many crates. Eventually she made it to a wall, where she actually sensed nothing. But not like before where there were no Pokemon, this sensation felt familiar, almost like the time when she and Dust found that dead end with Emerald.

Berry began to look around. Her eyes had adjusted to the darkness, so she could see a little bit easier, even though it was still difficult to see with her eyes alone. She felt like nothing was here, yet she just knew something was. The fact that this felt like when she, Dust, and Emerald lost track of Icy's trail that day, already had her suspicious. Whoever was behind this was really good at throwing off Pokemon with tracking abilities' senses.

Berry then noticed a small hole on the wall. There was a tiny bit of light coming from it, it was how she even noticed it in the first place in this darkness. She took a peek through the hole, though it was too difficult to see what was on the other side. But what got her was the fact she could hear voices coming from it. The voices were far too quiet for her to make out, however. But this was a big clue.

Berry quickly slithered away in order to call out to Kuro and Trixx. "Trixx! Kuro! I think I found something!"

Tixx and Kuro quickly went to where Berry was, both excited and nervous at what Berry had found.

"You did? What did you find?" Trixx asked.

"Over here," Berry moved her head in the direction of the hole before she slithered as quickly as she could to show them. "There's a small hole here. I think it leads to another room or something. There's a little bit of light on the other side. And listen… I think there are voices coming from there as well."

Both Trixx and Kuro leaned in, straining hard to listen. At first they didn't hear anything, but then they were able to pick up some voices, though they were too hard to hear.

"That's great that you found this, but it doesn't help that we can barely hear the voices," Trixx brought up.

"Let me see if Spooks is with us, he might be able to go through the wall and remain invisible," Berry suggested before she called out. "Spooks! Spooks, are you here? We could use your help!"

They waited for a few minutes, but there was no sign of the Dreepy anywhere.

"I guess he decided not to follow us," Kuro remarked.

Berry sighed. "We… didn't say he should come with us… he probably thought he shouldn't…"

"Now what? We can't get any closer unless we can squeeze through that tiny hole," Trixx questioned.

"Well you and I may not be able to, Trixx, but Berry can. I'm surprised you didn't get closer yourself, Berry," Kuro replied.

Berry blinked at the suggestion. "What do you mean I can? Look at that hole, it's too small for any of us to get any closer."

"Well for us, yeah, but you should be able to squeeze on through," Kuro explained. "Haven't you done that before?"

"Done what? Squeeze myself through tiny places?" Berry frowned. "No? Quite frankly, it never crossed my mind to do so. One of my sisters got stuck for a whole day when she tried to squeeze her head through a gate."

"Well there's a first for everything," Kuro suggested. "Do you wanna try by yourself, or do you want us to help push you in?"

Berry frowned. "What if I get stuck?"

"You'll be fine, don't worry. If you do get stuck, we can always get Bewear to break down the wall," Trixx snickered.

This didn't encourage the Goomy in the slightest. "Is this really necessary?"

"Unless you have any other ideas, I'm afraid so," Kuro answered. "Plus, whoever is talking on the other side might be the kidnapper themselves. It's a risk you'll have to take if you want to prove Chihiro's innocence."

Berry sighed, but she was a Crusader, and she was doing this for her guildmaster. "Alright fine… I don't know how I could possibly squeeze into that hole though, so you may have to help me."

"Don't worry, we will~" Trixx grinned.

Berry now found herself being stuffed into the hole face-first. She could feel Trixx and Kuro pushing her from the other side, trying to get her in deeper. Berry was worried she might suffocate with how tight the squeeze was, her body likely wasn't used to having to squeeze in such a small place.

"Are you even pushing?" Berry heard Trixx grunt.

"I am pushing. You need to push harder!" Kuro grunted back.

"Well it's not like I try to push a gooey Pokemon into a small hole everyday," Trixx replied.

"Just keep pushing, I think she's almost in," Kuro grunted once more.

Berry blushed heavily, they were pushing her under side right now, and she rather not say how embarrassing it was for her that they were pushing her there. While they were pushing and talking, all Berry could feel was as if her body was being squeezed by a pair of giant hands. At first all she felt was intense pressure, she couldn't tell how much longer her body could take this. She struggled to move towards the light, though she hoped this wasn't a metaphor for her later on if something were to happen to her. She was glad she wasn't claustrophobic, but she really didn't like feeling like she was trapped here. It was pretty hard to breathe, but she kept going, trying her best to get as close to the other side as possible. When she did get closer, she could hear the voices more clearly.

"...What do you mean you're leaving?" Berry heard a voice. She noticed this one was female. "Especially right when the others are ripe for the taking?!"

"Calm yourself, my dear assistant, I trust that you would be able to handle yourself just fine with the others," An unfamiliar male voice said in a soothing tone. "After all, you already have all the power you need to finish up here. You already have everyone in one spot, now it's only a matter of picking them up when you feel like it. But just remember, I do want to study one of them."

"Yes, I know. I'll make sure to separate her from the others once I capture them. I'm just a bit on edge, even though that annoying Ghost Dragon is out of the picture, I still feel as though something could go wrong," The female voice replied.

"And it's good that you are cautious. Even though all the pieces are falling into place, we shouldn't throw out caution," The male praised the female. "Now, I won't be long, but there are things that I have to attend to. By the time I come back, you should have all the Pokemon you need to satisfy your hunger, my dear."

Berry shivered a little, whoever was on the other side felt incredibly strong. She was close to the light now, but she didn't dare to move any closer. She didn't want either of them to notice her.

"Of course, Master. I am happy that you always give me this chance to become stronger from those fighters," The female voice said with respect.

Berry heard something moving, and a door creaking open, before the door closed. The other voice likely left.

"Whew, this is becoming quite a long night…" The female voice sighed tiredly.

Berry realized the female voice, likely the one behind the kidnapping, was talking to herself. The squished Goomy stayed quiet, hoping the female would say something incriminating since she thought she was alone.

"But it will all be worth it in the end. Too bad he wants that Goomy for himself, I would've loved to drain her strength for my own, though I supposed that Absol will suffice. They always seem to taste better the bigger they are," The female said while smacking her lips.

Berry's eyes widened as she accidentally let out a gasp of shock, despite feeling like her lungs were being crushed. This voice was definitely the kidnapper, but Berry hadn't expected the voice to say that this other voice, the one with the scary powerful presence, was interested in her!

"Huh? What was that?!" The voice asked out loud, being on high alert from hearing Berry's gasp.

Berry gulped, and had to think fast. "P-Pichu! Pi!"

"..." The voice remained quiet for a while before Berry heard a long sigh. "It's probably just a wild Pichu or something. It's been a long night, you're just stressed from not having a meal. Speaking of which, the Sleep Powder should be finished doing it's job. Time to go pick myself my meal."

Berry heard footsteps leaving the room, then the door creaking open before closing. Berry waited another minute in the wall, wanting to make sure whoever was out there wouldn't suddenly come back in for whatever reason. When the squished Goomy was absolutely sure there was nobody on the other side anymore, she moved to the hole. Berry let out a breath of relief when her head poked out from the hole. She pulled herself out of the hole, before falling out onto the floor.

Ugh… never again… Berry inwardly groaned before she looked up from her position. This is… definitely someone's room. But who's is it?

The Goomy didn't recognize the room, but it did look a bit fancy and posh. She began to slither around a bit, looking at a desk with a computer on it. Berry frowned, realizing she could get more clues to just who the kidnapper was if she could rummage through their stuff. Berry slithered over to the desk, however, she did notice a picture on the desk.

No way… it's- Berry looked in shock before the door suddenly started opening.


"Dust… why are we here again?" Shab questioned the Absol as they were looking around the dead end where they last saw Emerald.

"Well I figured this would be the best place to investigate," Dust answered.

"Even though we didn't find anything last time?" Shab asked.

"It never hurts to check a second time. Maybe we missed something. Something that we might be able to notice now," Dust suggested.

Dust continued to look around at the dead end, trying to see if there was anything out of the ordinary. Just like last time, there was nothing here in this dead end. And yet Dust felt strongly that perhaps there was something hiding here, something he wasn't seeing.

"Dust, we should look somewhere else. We had both Emerald and Berry last time, and they couldn't sense anything here," Shab explained. "I'm not sure how we can do much better here."

"...Perhaps you are right," Dust agreed.

He was about to leave the dead end when suddenly Team Silkwing had showed up.

"There you are, you two had run off before telling us where you were going. We were starting to think that you might've been kidnapped," Talon said.

"Oh, sorry about that," Dust apologized.

"Why did you even come here?" Ivy asked. "It looks like nothing but a dead end."

"Well last time we were here, we were helping Emerald, the Riolu from Team Aura Force, search for her missing friends. We found something belonging to one of them and it led us to this dead end," Dust explained. "We didn't find anything last time, but I was hoping that maybe this time we might have noticed something different."

"Um… perhaps the kidnapper kept their trail covered, to make sure no sensory Pokemon can sense them? I mean… if they were able to hide for as long as they did, it would make sense they would be able to throw off sensory Pokemon," Tippi noted.

Spooks dropped his invisibility and frowned. "You think maybe there might be a secret around here?"

"That's what I think, but so far haven't found any," Dust answered. "Though I suppose it's why they are called a secret. If it was easy to find, it wouldn't be a very good secret then."

"Well if you haven't found anything, we should keep looking elsewhere. Maybe it's nearby," Talon suggested.

"Right," Dust nodded.

Dust started following after Talon and Ivy, but just as they were leaving, Talon stopped. He looked back and saw that Tippi was still by the dead end, staring at something.

"Tippi, is everything alright?" Talon asked.

"Um… I'm not sure. I think I see something that shouldn't be there," The Butterfree answered.

"What is it?" Ivy asked.

Spooks, Dust, and Shab all looked back at Tippi as well, now curious to see what it was she was looking at. But they didn't see anything unusual.

"It… um… it looks a little… weird? It's difficult to describe. I notice the color is slightly off, and there are some edges there, which I don't think is normal for a supposedly smooth wall," Tippi informed.

"Let me see," Dust got closer to where Tippi was. He didn't see anything out of the ordinary. "Are you sure? I don't see…"

Dust paused, as he focused more at where Tippi was looking at, he barely noticed something off about the wall. True to Tippi's words, he saw that the color was indeed off, though barely. And the edges were barely visible. To any passerby, they wouldn't even have noticed this strange wall, and even those who took a closer look might not have even noticed it in the first place.

"My Arceus, you're right! There is something off about this wall!" Dust happily exclaimed.

"Wow, I knew having you around was the best thing ever, Tippi, but you're going above and beyond!" The Starly smiled, which made Tippi blush.

"But I examined this wall before, even felt around to see if there was anything," Dust said as he examined the strange piece. "So what makes you so special?"

Dust pushed against the piece of the wall, hoping to see if it would budge, but it didn't move. He felt around the wall, barely able to feel the edges and tried to pull it off, but it remained in place.

Hmm, you can't be pushed, and you won't be pulled… Dust thought to himself, trying to think of a solution. He looked back at the group, trying to see if any of them might be able to solve this puzzle. But when his eyes rested on one of them, the solution came to him.

"Spooks!" Dust shouted, causing the Dreepy to let out a small yelp of surprise.

"Y-yeah, Dust?" Spooks stuttered.

"Oh, sorry about alarming you, but is it possible for you to go through this wall?" Dust asked.

"Yeah, it should be easy," Spooks answered. "Why?"

"Well you should be able to go past this wall and see if there's a hidden mechanism on the other side. Maybe a switch or a handle that might reveal the secrets behind this wall," Dust suggested.

"I'll try," The nervous Dreepy said before he phased into the wall.

The others were eagerly waiting for something to happen. They did hear Spooks's surprised gasp though, before there was a 'ker-chunk' sound. Suddenly, the wall ahead of them began to open up, leading to a set of stairs going down.

"I knew it!" Dust shouted.

"I don't believe it," Talon gasped.

"Dang, was not expecting that," Ivy commented.

"Looks like you were right to come here, Dust," Shab congratulated.

"Well, we couldn't have done this without Tippi or Spooks," Dust replied.

Spooks suddenly came out from the wall, looking rather disturbed. "Guys! You need to see this!"

Everyone looked at Spooks, alarmed by his distrubed look. But all nodded as they entered the stairway. Dust didn't know what to expect, though he did guess that perhaps the other missing Pokemon might be there. But the look on Spooks's face made him somewhat nervous at what they might see.

As they were moving, they could hear what sounded like groans and moans, some sounded scared. They soon came down to what appeared to be some kind of underground lab. But they saw some Pokemon at the corner of the wall, looking sick, weak, and unable to move. They recognized some of these Pokemon, they could see Emerald, Rudy, and Icy among the sick and weak looking Pokemon.

"What the heck? It's Team Aura Force!" Shab said in surprise.

"And the other teams that were in the tournament too," Ivy noted. "What the heck happened to them?"

Dust went to Team Aura Force to check on them. "Emerald, are you alright? What happened?"

There was no response, there were only sickly groans coming from them. Recalling his training from Dr. Perfume and started checking their vitals. He noticed that each of them had a high fever, even Rudy, despite being a fire type, was burning up. He checked their pulse, sensing how slow it was.

"Ugh…" Rudy managed to cough out.

"You're awake?" Talon asked in surprise.

"Don't… don't… get… near the… jaws…. Aaaargh…" Rudy groaned, closing his eyes.

"Rudy! Rudy, stay with me!" Dust called out frantically.

The Raboot had gone silent.

"It's no good, he's out cold." Shab frowned.

"What did he mean by 'don't get near the jaws'?" Talon frowned, his feathers a little ruffled from unease.

"Hmm...well we better look around here, maybe we might get a clue as to what these 'jaws' might be, or maybe who the kidnapper is," Dust suggested. "Just be careful when handling the equipment here, we don't know how dangerous or fragile they may be."

"What about these poor Pokemon?" Tippi asked in concern.

"Perhaps some of us should take them out of here and get some of the nurses to look at them," Ivy suggested. "Staying down here can't be good for them."

Dust nodded. "Alright, Team Silkwing, you three handle caring for the Pokemon. See if you can get more help after meeting up with the nurses. Shab, you stay here with me and help me. We might be able to find out what had happened to these Pokemon and hopefully find a solution. Spooks, you keep watch in case any suspicious Pokemon comes nearby, that way we don't get caught in surprise."

"Right," Spooks saluted a little.

Ivy began to use her vines to help pick up some of the Pokemon. Tippi and Talon could only carry one Pokemon at a time. They began hauling the poor Pokemon up the stairs while Dust and Shab began to look around the lab.

"This place is… disturbing…" Shab frowned. "What could they be doing to the Pokemon in this place?"

"From what it looks like, as well as from the rumors we've heard before, I think they were somehow drained of their vitality. As to how? Well, I think we'll be finding that out soon," Dust answered as he looked over the many different notes and equipment.

Whoever built this place seems to have spent a long time. I can't seem to make sense of most of these equations, though I supposed if I had time I'd be able to solve them. Dust thought to himself.

Dust continued searching through the papers, but they all seemed to have random equations or numbers, nothing that really revealed what he wanted. But then something caught his attention. Underneath the pile of notes and papers Dust saw a red folder. Picking it up he saw that it had a label.

"The Jaws of Life?" Dust read outloud. He recalled Rudy's warning about staying away from the Jaws. "I wonder if this is what Rudy was talking about?"

Dust spent the next few minutes reading what was contained within the folder. At first he was intrigued, as he continued reading on, he felt distrubed with each word that he read. But he knew he couldn't stop, he knew he had to keep going, despite how much discomfort this information was giving him. Eventually he finished, putting the folder down and leaning against one of the tables for support. He was breathing hard, his mind heavy with what he just read.

Shab himself had been looking at some vials that had mysterious chemical liquid inside them. The Feebas shivered as he looked at each one, then he stopped at a few different sized tables. There were some that were small and tiny, and others that were large enough to fit a Wailord. Shab gulped a little, not liking what those implied. There were also some kind of light and machine above these tables.

"Maybe we should leave soon. The longer we stay here, the more at risk we are at getting caught ourselves…" Shab frowned, feeling very uneasy, his wild instincts were driving him crazy, they clearly wanted him to run, or in his case, swim through the air away from this place. "It looks like Team Silkwing finished picking up the Pokemon that were by the corner."

Dust didn't reply as he picked up the folder before walking over to one of the tables that had the mysterious vials that Shab had noticed before. He gently picked it up as he examined the contents. A look of fascination and disturbance was on Dust's face.

"Dust, did you hear me? We should go now while we have the chance," Shab suggested once more.

"...I know what the kidnapper did to the missing Pokemon…" Dust finally replied.

"What?" The nervous Feebas asked.

Before Dust could answer, Spooks suddenly came flying in, looking alarmed. "Someone's coming! Hide now!"

Dust almost dropped the vial containing the mysterious liquid after hearing Spooks's warning. Putting the vial down, Dust and Shab spotted some crates stacked against the corner of the room. They opened the first one, saw that it was empty and quickly hopped in before closing the lid. Though Dust made sure to leave a tiny crack so that they might see who the newcomers might be. Dust was a bit squished with Shab though, due to the crate being a little bit small. And there was some stuff in the crate as well.

Spooks himself turned invisible, though he did go through a wall just to be safe. And not a moment too soon, because Dust and Shab could hear several footsteps coming down into the lab. While Dust may not be in touch with his natural senses like Berry was, his danger senses were going off like crazy, making him more anxious.

Dust could see some muscular Pokemon like Machamp, Conkeldurr, or Toxicroak were coming in first. They were carrying several Pokemon that appeared to be either unconscious or asleep. Dust's eyes widened, however, as he recognized those Pokemon; they were all teams from his guild. Team Rocket, Team Wild Thunder, Team Toxic Stars, even Team Destruct were all being brought in here.

At first Dust thought that maybe one of those Pokemon carrying his fellow guildmates was the one behind the kidnapping, but then a voice spoke up, interrupting his thoughts.

"So explain to me again why there are two teams missing?!" The voice shouted. Dust felt he heard it before, recognizing it as female.

"I know why one team is missing, but what happened to the other two!?" The voice growled.

"W-well… M-my Lady… Team Crimson Raiders are still in the medical room, b-being watched by the nurses… a-and we don't know w-what happened to T-Team Silkwing…" A nervous voice informed. "T-they were j-just gone when w-we got to their room."

"Look, I was left in charge, and the moment that happens, you managed to lose trace of them?!" The voice shouted, causing the other muscular Pokemon to flinch. "You better find Team Silkwing, as well as that Absol and Feebas, or so help me you will be next on the menu!"

"Y-yes, my lady! Right away!" The nervous voice quickly said.

Dust was surprised to see a Togetic flying down in the lab. "Hurry and put those Pokemon in their proper places! My lady is growing impatient. I must get the Zubat team to track down the missing teams."

Dust saw the Machamp, Conkeldurr and Toxicroak all give a quick salute before putting the bodies away. They quickly left up the stairs, not wanting to anger the one in charge any more.

"Is there anything else you wish me to do, my lady?" The Togetic asked.

"...No...for now leave me be, I wish to speak with my new guest," The voice answered

Dust and Shab looked out through the crate, trying to see who the voice was. To both of their surprise, they saw it was a very familiar looking Mawile. She was slowly coming down the stairs, there was a spark of hunger in her red eyes, and the big jaw-like mouth on the back of her head looked to be bulging a bit, like there was something in there.

Patricia?! Both Dust and Shab thought in shock at the same time.

"As you wish, my lady. I will go get the Zubat team to track down the missing teams," The Togetic bowed, though he did give a look of pity towards the bulge in Patricia's jaw.

Once the Togetic was gone, Patricia walked to one of the empty tables before she swung her head so that her jaw-like mouth could be resting on the table.

"You know, despite this night having it's issues, running into you has made this night so much better. Wouldn't you agree, Berry?~" Patricia said as the jaws opened up.

Dust and Shab were shocked to see Berry was inside Patricia's jaws, gagged and unable to move. Dust immediately had to grab onto the Feebas and his mouth before he could shout and do something reckless. It was a good thing he did, because Shab was already trying to scream out for Berry, and was flailing around frantically.

"I must say, your slime has a rather...unique taste to it. I was not expecting your slime to have traces of poison within, though it does give it a rather interesting taste~" Patricia taunted as she turned over to look at Berry. "So since you like digging around and invading the privacy of others, I thought it would be appropriate to show you around. You like what I've done with the place?"

Berry glared in defiance at Patricia, she may not be able to move, but she wasn't about to give this Mawile the satisfaction of seeing her being scared.

"Oh that's the look I wanted to see, the same one where you showed everyone your true powers," Patricia stated, looking at Berry rather hungrily. "Oh just thinking about your battle, how you almost killed Team Volcano, I'm so tempted to take you for my own."

Dust could feel Shab struggling even harder to get out of his grasp in order to save his precious Goomy, but Dust had to keep Shab under lockdown before he gave both of them away.

"Luckily for you, you are to be kept...preserved. Though, as I say it now, maybe it would be better to deal with you myself now instead of letting him have his fun with you~" Patricia said, while grinning at Berry. "I've seen what he does with his...toys, and trust me, I think you'd prefer me over him. So how about we make a little deal? You help me by telling me where your teammates are, and after I had my fun with you, I'll let you go."

Berry continued glaring at Patricia, disgusted by her sick thoughts. This only caused Patricia to laugh though.

"Well I know you wouldn't exactly be willing to help, so how about I sweeten the deal?" Patricia asked.

Patricia then walked towards the crates where Dust and Shab were hiding, carrying Berry with her since Berry was still in her jaw, which the Goomy found disgusting. As the Mawile stopped right in front of Dust and Shab's crate, they thought she was about to open their crate, thus exposing them. Shab was hoping that she would, so that he'd have an excuse to free Berry. But to both their surprise, Patricia instead opened a crate next to them.

"I was surprised when I learned that you and that Absol were caring for this baby Larvitar, so I had to make sure that they were kept safe after that meddling Ghost Dragon was taken away," Patricia snickered. "Oh you should've seen the look on everyone's face when I showed up and offered to watch over the Larvitar and that Dreepy, none of them suspecting that I was the one behind the missing Pokemon. It was so ironic that I almost laughed out loud from how willing they were to trust me."

Berry's eyes were wide in shock and horror, then she glared even more angrily at Patricia. Dust paled, realizing just who Patricia was talking about. A baby Larvitar, and a Dreepy. Since Spooks was with them, that could only mean they were… Cliff and Phantom!

Seeing Berry's reaction, Patricia grinned even more. "Now that you know what's at risk, I suggest you behave yourself. Any unruly behavior might cause those two some unwanted consequences."

Patricia then went back to the table where she reached in between her jaws and started untying Berry's gag. As she had taken off the gag, Patricia was somewhat hoping for Berry to start attacking, to give the Mawile an excuse to retaliate, but Berry wouldn't dare risk Cliff or Phantom's life.

"What… do you want from me?" Berry questioned instead.

"Several things, though as I mentioned before, I have to keep you preserved for someone else. So for now, how about telling me where your teammates are?" Patricia asked.

Berry frowned. "I don't know where they are, we split up."

"Hmm...Likely story, I doubt you'd be willing to throw away two lives to save another two, not so easily," Patricia replied. "But it doesn't matter, we have all night to spend together, and it won't be long until the others are found."

Berry shuddered, getting the feeling that this was going to be her worst night of her life. Dust and Shab were still unsure on what to do, but Dust just knew they couldn't be reckless in this situation. Cliff and Phantom were in danger, Berry was captured, and he and Shab may not be enough to overpower Patricia.


FoxyKhai: DarkFoxKit: Poor Chihiro. Don't worry, Team Night Tide is on the case.

Yeah, no, it would've been too easy if Emerald was able to just reach out to Brody. And it wasn't in our plans to do that anyways.

Star Ophiuchus: Traveling Master: Luckily for Chihiro, Team Night Tide is on the case. But they will need all the determination, wits, and skills in order to catch the true perpetrators and clear Chihiro's name.

Star Pisces: DarkFoxKit: Yeah, poor Chihiro.

Greatest Guy: Traveling Master: While normally Chihiro would suddenly appear and respond with her own pun, at the moment she is currently being held prisoner. But I'm sure if she wasn't arrested, she'd greatly enjoy your clever puns. Hopefully Team Night Tide can prove her innocent before it's too late.

Star Aquarius: DarkFoxKit: Team Night Tide are on the case. Spooks will be playing an important role.

Guest #1: DarkFoxKit: Questionnaire, I would suggest typing up the name instead of just leaving it as Guest then so we know it's you.

Traveling Master: Dust's guilt will be coming back, it's something he does blame for himself. And Berry does feel guilty, but for more reasons than you think. But they will most likely confront those feelings in the future, right now their main concern in clearing Chihiro's name. As for Shab, he's always supportive of his friends, especially Berry, so it's also gonna be difficult for him when they have to resolve these issues.

DarkFoxKit: The Everstone was to help keep Berry from evolving, otherwise she would have to break her concentration in the middle of a battle in order to try to stop the evolution herself.

Traveling Master: Main reason they needed Eclipse was cause she's a renowned Master Rank Crusader, and being Dark Type was an extra reassurance in case Chihiro tried to escape. But this is something both Dust and Eclipse understand, so it wouldn't really create a rift between the two guilds. As for Phantom...well that's gonna be a surprise.

DarkFoxKit: And while yes, Chihiro is capable of putting up a fight with Eclipse, that doesn't mean she will do that. That would just get her into more legal trouble right now. Chihiro can only wait and hope someone will clear her name, if she attempted escape, well that would just look really bad for her. As for the Gible and Emerald's team, those would be shown later. We're not gonna answer those kinds of questions right now.

Shab is capable of learning Dragon Pulse, despite it only being an Egg Move normally for Feebas. Yes, there are other egg moves Shab could learn, like Dragon Breath, I think Dragon Pulse is a better dragon type attack. It'd be redundant if he learned both. Though I guess Shab could temporarily learn Dragon Breath, I actually didn't know Feebas could learn that as an egg move. Berry probably wouldn't mind teaching Shab if he asked though, she just doesn't want to be called a Dragon type. As for if Shab knows he could learn a Dragon type move before evolving, he suspects he could since he did grow up with his own kind in the wild before, but it's not something that he thinks about. Perhaps it'll be something Shab will discover later on.

Traveling Master: Well Brody doesn't know Dragon Pulse. In fact, no one on Team Destruct knows any dragon moves. That might change in the future, but can't say for now. But doesn't mean that Shab couldn't learn from Berry. It is possible, since we did established that others can be trained to learn moves already known by others. And while Berry is still having issues with the whole "dragon" thing, doesn't mean she wouldn't be willing to teach Shab a dragon move.

Heh, there's a reason why we made Team Crimson Raiders the rival for Team Night Tide. We have big plans for the two teams. As for Crimson, there's a lot that hasn't been revealed yet. But yes, he is stronger than his teammates, he has gone through intense training to get where he is now. Also, while he may be stronger, he's also very cunning, having let his teammates fight first allowed him to observe Team Silkwing, so he already knew that Tippi would deal the most damage. It was only until later he realized she also had an ability, Compound Eyes, that made things even more difficult for him.

DarkFoxKit: Yeah, Team Silkwing works best together to weaken stronger Pokemon before taking them out. I actually used this strategy myself early game with a Butterfree, a Snivy, and a Starly. It's why I liked implementing them in the story and show that even 'weak' Pokemon can be strong if they have a good strategy.

Yes, the special announcement is related to Chihiro being arrested. All of Unity Guild are supposedly suspected of kidnapping other Pokemon. The teams that lost… well, we'll let you see what happened to them later.

Traveling Master: I will say this, things are building up for this tournament. Can't say who will be facing who, or what will happen, just know that it's gonna be big. And Crimson does care for his teammates, though he shows it differently. He understands their desire and determination. Though out of the two, I would say that him and Blizza have more of an understanding and bond, having been on the same team longer than Levi has.

DarkFoxKit: Grant might evolve into a Sceptile one day, but for now he prefers to stay as a Groyvle. As for the reason why… truth be told, we haven't really thought of a reason yet, we just prefer Groyvle over Sceptile. ^^' As for Al, we do have a big backstory on him, but since it's huge spoilers, we can't go into it right now. As for Brody, he likely knows about Grant's reasons, but not Al's, since Al has no memory of his past.

We won't say much more on Otti right now. Until then, you're free to believe what you want to believe about her.

Agoodnameguy: DarkFoxKit: Yeah, that tends to happen when one brings an egg home and it hatches.

Ralmon: Traveling Master: Heh, I always get those two words confused. Angle and Angel, it's easy to mess up. XD But thanks for pointing that out, there are words that I end up getting mixed up from time to time, but luckily I have DF to help spot them when I make those mistakes.

DarkFoxKit: I can't catch all of your typos or mistakes though, especially since I tend to have those myself. I'm no autocorrect, so you have to learn to watch your own words too, TM. And the early chapters are rough, I'll admit, since we just started working together, you're going to be seeing a lot of weird writings for a while. If all of that is going to bother you though, I'm sorry, but you'll just have to deal with it if you want to keep reading. But quite frankly, it just feels like you have a problem with everything we do, which is why I'm questioning why you're still reading it if you are at this point since it looks like you just don't like the story or the characters at all.

Traveling Master: As for Dust, that was kinda the point for his beginning. We know he wasn't the best guy, he has done many mistakes and he was very selfish. It's why he got kicked out of his old guild, so that he could better learn and improve himself. The beginning of this story he's still gonna be making mistakes, cause before he didn't really have to face real consequences. The only punishment he ever got was from his mother, but after so long, he's gotten used to it.

Now that he's at a new guild, he's going to be learning that there are many things he can't just say and do without facing any kinds of repercussions. It's also why Berry is there with him, to help him learn more, and to have better common sense.

DarkFoxKit: We're not saying all this to get you to like Dust, mind you, we're just trying to explain what we had in mind for Dust when we wrote this. We're not saying Dust was likable at first, or that you should feel sorry for him as you seem to be implying. He was supposed to be unlikable, and from there, his character was supposed to grow and learn. He realizes what he's done in the past was bad, and how he feels about it now. We're not trying to put Dust in the right here, but this is from his point of view in a way, and it shows how he thinks. Berry is there to be his moral compass and teach him right, since she knows better when it comes to social interaction. If you still hate Dust and still think what we're doing with him is bad or hypocritical, then I'm sorry that's how you see him and us as writers. We write our ideas to entertain people, not annoy them to high heck.

Traveling Master: Concerning Dust being thrown out of his old guild, the only ones who know about that are Dust, Chihiro the Guildmaster, Carrie, and Berry. Even though he was thrown out, they still wanted Dust to have a fresh start, so not everyone knows about why he joined at the moment.

DarkFoxKit: As for the info-dumping, dude, have you ever read a proper story before? Even other Pokemon Mystery Dungeon stories have these info-dumps. While I understand the people here may not absolutely need them, that doesn't mean they're not necessary. The story could work different from how the games work, and we needed to make sure everyone knows how the dungeons and other things in the story would work. If it bothers you that much, then you can skip them. I'm not sure what you mean by the story is poorly structured, just that you have a lot of issues with how we wrote it. We thought it was a good beginning at least.

Fine, you can keep reviewing, but the main issues we have with your criticism is that it's not just because they're criticism, they're mostly complaints with how you didn't like certain things, or misunderstood what we had going for completely. You never gave us any reason to believe you even liked a single thing about our story. You seem to not want to give any sort of praise whatsoever, which leaves us questioning why you're even reading this in the first place if you dislike it so much. All that comes to mind is that you want to attack us as writers, and maybe that wasn't your intention, but it certainly came off as that way to us. Especially when you say things like 'you should be discouraged', if we've done something offensive or hypocritical, we certainly don't see it nor was it our intention to do so.

Traveling Master: And like DF had mentioned, things were rough in the beginning, but that's because it was mine and DF's first time writing together. As well, we were still getting the feel for the story itself. Everyone has the right to review stories how they see fit, so whether you decide to continue to read this story and review, well that's up to you. We've done our best to explain ourselves, and hope that you understand why we've said many things just now. But like I said, that's up to you. We will continue to do our best to improve our writing, to continue with this story, for we have big plans in the future. Hopefully you'll get to see where this story goes, along with everyone else who takes their time to read our story even if it is a hot mess. And if not, or if you still dislike it, all I can do is wish you a good day, and hopefully you find other stories to enjoy as well.

DarkFoxKit: And just remember, we are people with feelings. We can feel sensitive to our work. We won't stop you from speaking your mind, but just keep in mind that we are only human, and we're not professional writers. We are also not you, so we can only write with what we think, not what you think. We can't please everybody. We will try our best to write a good story, but we understand it will not be for everyone. And remember; there is such a thing as speaking too much of your mind.

Cosmo Light: DarkFoxKit: Heh, glad you liked that twist at who won the tournament there. Even we were surprised that Team Silkwing won it. TM and I had a long discussion about who should win, and how. In the end, we decided on Team Silkwing, and had to be careful with how they won so it would be believable.

Traveling Master: That isn't a bad theory, we did mention before that one of the figures had a serpent like body. But don't forget, there's two of them, and we did mentioned how the second figure was the one with red eyes. Again, not a bad guess, but can't say more, especially since we are getting close to the climax.

DarkFoxKit: Chopper has his history with Chihiro, but he mostly doesn't like her because she's pretty much the opposite from him. While Chopper believes that the guild should only be for strong Pokemon, while weak Pokemon should be stamped out, Chihiro welcomes any and all Pokemon whether they're weak or strong, and he hates that. He feels Chihiro is weak for thinking this way. I don't mean physically weak, Chopper knows how strong Chihiro is, but he thinks she's mentally weak.

Thank you for your words of encouragement!

The Moonfox Collective: Traveling Master: Heh, before Dust wouldn't really care, since all he had to care about was himself. But since joining Unity Guild, he has come to care deeply for his teammates, so seeing how it was his mistake that cost them the match will definitely be on his mind for a while. Oh, we have plans for Berry too, though not in the way you'd think.

First off, love the reference to Among us. Second, it's not all of Unity Guild, just the members who were participating in the tournament. But it does have to do with Chihiro's arrest, as the two imposters did mention how as long as Chihiro was keeping watch over the other members, they couldn't get close to them. Now that Chihiro is out of the picture, nothing can really stop them from getting what they want. Sorry for the long update, and for making you hold your breath for so long. Hope the wait was worth it.

matthewfw190: DarkFoxKit: Sorry the next chapter took so long to update. It might be like that for a little while, but hopefully for not too much longer.