They woke just after first light and broke down camp. After a short breakfast of Pidgey eggs and apples, Cinder led them into the entrance of the dungeon. This was the longest but most straightforward of the dungeons, cutting through the sandstone plateau that separated the forest from the mountain biome. Being a mystery dungeon, the path was never the same but Cinder pointed out that in this particular case the correct way could always be found by following the largest of the branching paths. This dungeon was populated mostly by Zubat and Ghastly, but never in numbers large enough to threaten the group. The real challenge of this dungeon was the darkness. Cinder had his tail of course, but his body would block most the light in the direction he was facing which made navigation difficult.

Typically teams would bring torches to light the way, but in their rush to leave Baram Town they neglected to purchase any. Instead, Oscar showed them how to make torches from the forest by wrapping tree bark and dried grass soaked in sap around a stick. They would last about an hour, and they had space to store about five such torches. Gaia, the only other Pokémon that could grasp things and not already 'holding' a torch like Cinder, assumed the role of torchbearer and took point. When asked if she was nervous holding fire so close to herself, she simply shrugged and said fire never really bothered her much. She explained the reason when pressed further, and that seemed to satisfy them. Cinder jokingly asked if Oscar could do something like that for him and water, and he said he would be happy to if they ever stumbled across a Rocket lab, but not to get his hopes up.

After the third hour they had their first serious encounter since they left Baram Town; an old sleeping Onix was blocking the path to the exit of the dungeon. Oscar knew that Onix were not necessarily strong Pokémon on their own, but he still found the sheer size of the creature intimidating. The others were a little more gung-ho, and Gaia woke the beast up with a Bullet Seed to the face. With a roar the fight was joined, the smaller Pokémon darting around the Onix making it difficult for it to select a target. Oscar did not have much in the way of moves that could cause direct damage to the Rock/Ground type, so he focused on using his telekinesis to hold the large Pokémon in place for brief periods so his teammates could secure a good hit, or to misdirect an attack that was going to land. The strategy was working, and the Onix was growing more ragged and frustrated by the moment.

Unfortunately for Oscar, this was when the Onix noticed that one of the combatants was much less mobile than the others. The Fennekin on the far side of the room suddenly seemed like the most important thing in the world for the Onix to smash. It roared and dove into the ground, disappearing from view.

"Oscar, look out!" Gaia called, and Oscar felt a powerful sense of inevitability come over him, that he was sure something was going to happen, and it was going to happen now! He jumped out of the way just as the Onix burst from the ground underneath where he was. The feeling returned, and the Fennekin jumped back once again just as the massive head came crashing down. He was about to throw a nearby rock at the Onix, thinking if he hit its eyes it should do some damage when a Bullet Seed hit the side of the Onix's face and knocked it head into the wall. It seems like Gaia had the same idea. The Onix was slow to get up, and Cinder yelled out "Just Scratch it! It's almost down!" to Oscar. Oscar grunted, not sure what scratching the massive rock head would do but against his better judgement did so anyway.

It worked exactly as well as he expected it to, with the small claws on his paws gliding harmlessly over the hard skin of the Onix. It was as his paw passed over the Onix's mouth that Oscar got the feeling again, but this time he was too slow to react. The Onix opened its jaws and bit down on the outstretched paw, crushing the small bones there. Oscar shrieked and was lifted into the air as the Onix moved its head and tossed him across the room. The rest of the team converged on the Onix just as this happened and hit it with their all simultaneously, knocking the Pokémon out. Oscar did not see any of this happen, focused entirely on his shredded paw. He had been a very careful man, and had never suffered a serious injury in his life. He never thought something could hurt this much. At that moment, he wished for nothing more than for the pain to stop. He wanted more than anything in the world for this injury to go away, and it did. A soft white glow enveloped his paw, and he saw exposed bone straiten and flesh knit itself together. He Wished for the injury to be healed, and his Wish was granted. Oscar didn't know that Fennekin could learn the move, but he was very glad to be mistaken just this once. He was still very sore from his short flight and sudden stop, but that now felt almost pleasant with the previous injury fresh in his mind.

The rest of his team ran up to meet him, worry in their eyes. When he saw that he only had minor injuries, they relaxed a bit.

"I didn't know Pokémon could make such a high-pitched noise!" Stumpy joked "I would be surprised if the others could hear it at all."

"Stuff it, Stumpy."

"What happened?" Cinder asked him after they all were done laughing at Oscar's expense. "You had it!"

"What happened," Oscar began slowly, "Is that a 10 kilogram fox has no business getting stuck in with a 200 kilogram rock monster!"

"But that shouldn't matter, I mean we were doing fine and these two are even smaller than you!" Stumpy said. "You are almost as big as me, you should have knocked it out no problem." He thought for a moment. "You did Scratch it right?"

"Of course I did! It did not do anything." He lifted his paw to show the small claws, as if that told the entire story itself.

"No, not scratch, Scratch." Cinder said. "You can't just… vigorously rub your claws on something like that and expect it to hurt, you need to empower them with your Aura. I know you haven't been a Pokémon for very long, but even wet hatchlings know how to do this." Oscar just blinked at him. "Oh, uh, I didn't realize. Back when you said you only knew Psychic I just kinda assumed you left the basic ability out." He gave a coy grin. "Sorry." Oscar waved him off.

"It is fine, it worked out in the end. It turns out I know Wish as well, healed my paw right up. Let us just chalk this up to an experiment gone a little out of control."

"Yeah, let's." Gaia said. "Let's also get out of this dungeon. I'm tired and hungry, and I want to be well rested before we pummel the Pokémon in the next dungeon." The rest agreed and made their way out of the cave dungeon. They soon found themselves in a sandstone canyon, carved by some ancient river and its tributaries. Cinder said that the entrance into the next dungeon was 30 minutes or so into the canyon, and that they should be good to rest for a bit where they were.

Oscar ate an Oran berry to heal the rest of his wounds, and noticed that it did not fill him up as much as a fruit its size should have. The group fed themselves and took a short nap, rotating watch in the off chance that a wild Pokémon attacked them here, and after about two hours they were ready for the next leg of the dungeon crawl.

The dungeon, which smugglers had come to name Sandy Canyon, was populated almost entire by Geodude, but only sparsely so. Gaia had suggested that Cinder do most of the fighting this time around, so he could get practice fighting with type disadvantage in a somewhat controlled environment. He did well, even if his opponents were on the weaker side. He even managed to beat two Geodude at once, Dragon Dancing into a powerful Scratch on one and knocking the other to the ground with his tail before dispatching that one was well. It wasn't a proper Tail Whip and didn't carry the damage, but with Gaia's coaching he was learning to use his entire body as a weapon to get any advantage he could.

The rest of the dungeon was relatively uneventful, only the occasional Geodude accosting them. After an hour they made it through Sandy Canyon, this time with no major encounter at the end of the final path. The canyon opened up to the foothills of the mountains, a single jagged snow-capped peak surrounded by a crown of lesser mountains. Cinder pointed south-east, and said that the camp was a five hour hike in that direction. They would make it there by sundown, so long as the third dungeon was not spawned along the path. Stumpy wondered if perhaps they should rest or search for food before continuing as they were running low, but Cinder dismissed these concerns assuring them that it was very unlikely that the dungeon would be there this time of year and that they had not exactly exerted themselves in the last dungeon. Gaia agreed, eager to meet the Pokémon at the bandit camp, while Oscar's feelings were more aligned with the Poochyena's. He decided to trust Cinder's judgement, however, and rationalized that he didn't want to navigate at night in the cold anyway.

After a couple of hours walking and chatting, Gaia abruptly stopped, staring at a large boulder along the path up the foothill.

"What's wrong?" Stumpy asked.

"This boulder, we've passed it already." Cinder sighed and closed his eyes, taking a few weary breaths before turning to her.

"Are you sure?" He asked.

"Absolutely." She declared. "Look, you see these dark lines? They kind of look like a Pikachu. I noticed it thirty minutes ago when we passed it the first time."

"Shoot." Cinder said, shaking his head. "I guess I was wrong, the mystery dungeon is here. We have probably been walking in circles for a while now. This is really unlucky."

"Is this bad?" Stumpy asked, a little concerned. "I've never been in this one before."

"No, no." Cinder reassured him, "We should be fine. The danger in this dungeon is not realizing you're in it. Before you know it, you are out of food and completely lost. Good thing Gaia here is so observant." He turned to her with a smile. "All we need to do is make sure we are always moving uphill, and keep an eye out for fissures cutting across the path. The 'floors' in this dungeon are marked by these fissures, so long as we keep moving uphill and crossing fissures, we should be fine." He put a claw up to his mouth and tapped a few times in contemplation. "So long as we don't keep getting unlucky. There are practically no wild Pokémon in this dungeon, but if we do come across one it will almost certainly be a dragon. If we are really unlucky it will be in its final evolution. But that's super rare, I'm sure we will be fine."

"Do not say that! Now it is sure to happen!" Oscar was a superstitious creature. You did not work in the more 'experimental' sciences for long without developing a rich and deep series of rituals and superstitions to ensure smooth and consistent testing. If you were not careful this superstition would bleed into other areas of your life, and Oscar was more than happy to allow himself fall into that trap. He was convinced, absolutely convinced, that they would be fighting dragons soon simply because the Charmander was fool enough to say it wasn't likely. Even if you think it, Oscar believed, never say it! "Gaia! Do you still have the stun seeds?" He asked.

"No," Cinder said. "I do. Don't you think you are overreacting a little? It really is super rare to see dragons in this dungeon."

"Yes, just like it is rare to encounter this dungeon in the first place. Get the seeds." Cinder rolled his eyes, but complied. He gave one to Gaia to hold, and held on to one himself. The third seed was put back in the bag, near the top for easy access.

"Happy?" Cinder asked.

"No. But this is the best we can do. We should leave this place."

The group continued on, and with their new priorities for navigating soon found one of the fissures Cinder spoke about. It was about a meter across, cutting through the hills and the path the Pokémon were travelling on. Cinder did not even pause at the juncture, and simply vaulted over it. Gaia immediately followed, and after a moments hesitation Stumpy and Oscar followed. An hour passed, and they continued to travel uphill and cross the fissures when they came to them. It was after entering the fourth 'floor' that Cinder decided to speak again.

"See?" He said, gesturing to Oscar as they rounded a corner along the trail. "Nothing to worry about."

It was then, of course, that they encountered their first wild Pokémon of the dungeon. They finished rounding the corner and about 20 meters ahead in an arena style opening of the path stood not one, not two, but three Bagon. They looked older, and on the cusp of evolving. Oscar did not look at Cinder, choosing to simply splay his ears back and hiss to get across his point. The Bagon had not noticed them yet, fighting over a torn-up bag on the ground between them. Various items littered the floor, but the party could not tell what they were from this distance.

"We can take 'em." Gaia assured. "Tough, but we can do it."

"Y-yeah." Stumpy agreed shakily. "Never fought a dragon before. I'm sure it w-will be fun."

"Let's get them." Gaia made to charge before being dragged back by Oscar, electing to bite her tail to save his moves for the fight to come.

"Wait." He said simply, the Bagon still too focused on the contents of the bag to notice the commotion. "We need to save our strength for the big one sure to come." He glared at Cinder. "That means we fight smart. That means we fight dirty, and that means we do not take any unnecessary risks." He pointed to the Bagon on at the right of the group. "That one, holding the scarf. He dies first. When we move in, as soon as they become aware of us I will push the two to left back and hold them there as long as I can. Stun seed the one on the right, then dog pile it. Tear it to pieces, as fast as you can. When it is dead, I will let the second through and you repeat the process, then again for the last. Do not use the last seed, we may need it later."

The three other Pokémon though for a moment, before Stumpy spoke. "That's a good idea, I never would have thought of that."

"Of course it is. Now sort your shit and move!" And they did. The plan, in this case, did survive contact with the enemy. The Bagon were tough, very tough, but they were wild and could not coordinate any kind of cohesive response to the quick and savage attack. Once the Bagon had become aware of their charge, Oscar flung the two leftmost dragons to the far side of the area, unconcerned with the amount of energy the move would take. This plan hinged on isolating the dragons, and isolate them he would. They crashed against the steep hill, about five meters up, and rolled ungracefully down the hill. After the initial attack, Oscar focused on them one at a time, flinging them back up the hill whenever they got to close. They were deceptively heavy, and deceptively fast. Oscar was tiring quickly, but fortunately his team played their part well.

After the rightmost Bagon had been isolated, Cinder threw the stun seed and temporarily immobilized the dragon. The three attackers converged on it quickly, and essentially bounced it between them with their attacks. The Bagon soon fainted, and when Oscar sensed his teammates aggression die down a bit, he let the second through. It made straight for the Fennekin, not so simple minded as to be oblivious to the disrespect it had been handed. It was intercepted by a stun seed and three bloodthirsty predators emboldened by their first victory. Oscar found it significantly easier, almost trivial, to keep a single opponent isolated. When the second Bagon fell, he allowed the third to make its suicidal charge. It was quickly delt with, and the team took a moment to cheer.

"Excellent work." Oscar said, "You all did well." He was never a trainer, but perhaps in another life he would have enjoyed it. There was something primally satisfying about devising a plan to brutalize an opponent.

"You didn't do too bad yourself." Cinder praised, "That plan was really good. Those Bagon were really tough, they took a lot of hits to take down. I wouldn't want to fight one by myself." He looked a little sullen at the thought of not being able to take an unevolved Pokémon in single combat, but the feeling seemed to wash over him quickly, victory high still in full effect.

Gaia run up and hugged Oscar, picking him up of the ground and squeezing.

"ggck!"

"That was awesome! I always wanted to be in a proper battle! I always knew you would want to train me one day." At the sound of his wheezing, she let him go. "Thanks."

"No problem." He waived it off. "You would be amazed at the things you can do if you think before you act."

"Well that's why we have you, trainer." Stumpy teased, making his way over to the bag the Bagon he been pilfering.

"My own trainer…" Cinder said wistfully as he looked off into the distance, with a tone and expression that made Oscar unsure if he was joking or serious. Apparently the Charmander was unsure himself, if his mind was anything to go by.

"I am not a trainer. It takes years of specialized education I do not have, and you do not need to be a trainer to realize the value of divide and conquer tactics."

"Oh c'mon, don't sell yourself short." Gaia jabbed him with an elbow. "If a child can do it, then so can you!"

"What's a child?" Cinder asked Gaia, "Is that like an unevolved Human?"

"Basically." Gaia confirmed.

"What? No. That is not how-"

"Hey guys! Look!" Stumpy interrupted the inevitable argument and gestured for the group to come over. They made their way over to the bag and took a look. There were several apples and a few Sitrus berries on the ground. The team didn't waste time collecting and storing the apples, hungry as they were after the fight and the rationing following the dwindling food supplies. Scattered across the ground were copper coins, that after collecting amounted to about 600 poke worth. The black scarf the Bagon had been holding turned out to be a "pretty good" Efficient Bandana. When asked what it did, Cinder said that it made it so sometimes you didn't get more tired after using a move. Gaia suggested that since Oscar didn't seem to be 'comfortable' getting close with the enemy, that he should probably get it. Oscar let the insult slide, he was only petty with certain people.

Oscar saw his first sign of proper technology in the world, in the form of a TM. An honest-to-the-spirits TM, plastic case included. It was a Waterfall TM and of no use to the team, but Stumpy excitedly exclaimed that they could get at least 3 Poke for it. All TM's were valuable. There was nothing else of value in the bag, what was left being too damaged to be useful. A torn up map of the region, and broken orb of unknown use and more distressingly two shattered TM's. One destroyed beyond recognition but the other clearly labelled as 'Hyper Beam'. Stumpy almost cried at the misfortune, the value of this TM being extravagant as Oscar was led to believe. But there was no time for that. Valuables acquired, the team continued on through the dungeon.

When asked how long the dungeon was, Cinder confessed he didn't know. From what he knew, the length of this dungeon was as variable and unpredictable as its appearances. He said they should be getting close to the end, in the normal course of events. He chose not to add any of his thoughts on the likelihood of such a thing, learning from his mistakes. After passing two more 'floors', Cinder froze and motioned for the team to stop.

"I think," he said with some venom, "we found the cause of our misfortune." When Gaia asked him to elaborate, he simply pointed to the top of a hill in front of them. There sat an Absol, staring down at them dispassionately. Gaia and Stumpy gasped. Oscar rolled his eyes.

"Gaia, you know better. There were Absol at the base."

"It's not like I talked to them! All the others said it was a bad idea. They can't all be wrong." Oscar would have to remind her, later, that truth was not subject to democratic consensus.

"And you Stumpy, a fellow Dark type?"

"Absol give Dark types a bad name, they're different." Oscar decided that discussion wasn't worth him time right now.

"First the dungeon!" Cinder accused, "Then the dragons, then the destroyed TMs! Haven't you done enough? Leave us alone!" The Absol seemed to chuckle, but Oscar couldn't tell from this distance. "This isn't funny!"

"Enough, you superstitious louts." Oscar said, the irony of the statement was lost on him. "Absol. Are you wild?" It shook its head. "Is there something we should know? You let us see you, so you must want to warn us." It nodded but did not elaborate. "What, then?"

"Escape." A feminine voice answered. And with that she turned and left the party behind.

"Typical, causing problems and leaving others to deal with the mess." Cinder muttered darkly. It was time for Oscar to put his Professor hat back on.

"Move and talk." He ordered, and the group complied. "Absol," he stressed the word, "predict disasters. They do not cause them, they do not have the power to cause the things they are often accused of. Summoning a mystery dungeon, conjuring dragons? Think on this. No, that Absol was warning us of something ahead, something we need to escape from. Probably that fully evolved dragon you cursed us with, Charmander." Cinder let his mouth hang open, dumbstruck at the accusation. Him the cause of this bad luck? Preposterous! "The only thing Absol can be faulted for is being needlessly secretive and convoluted with their warnings. Of course people would suspect the worst with an ominous one word warning like 'escape'." Oscar thought for a moment. "Perhaps they appreciate the theater of it?" He added mostly to himself.

The others did not have the opportunity to argue their case, as they approached another arena-like opening in the path. About 100 meters in diameter, and littered with massive boulders. It was pretty clear to Oscar what was going to happen next, but Gaia beat him to it when she screamed at them to scatter. A Salamence crashed into the space the team had occupied from above, and blocked their path back.

"Fucking book it!" Oscar yelled, and sprinted toward the fissure on the far side of the arena. There was no way they could win this fight, but maybe they could outrun it. It was a solid plan, flying dragon catching up to them notwithstanding, until the path out was blocked by no less than six Pokémon appearing from behind the boulders. A mix of Bagon and Shelgon. They were trapped. They were on Cinder and Stumpy in moments, leaving Gaia and Oscar to face the fully grown dragon. It was hard enough to control parts of the Onix's body, and Oscar knew he would have no hope of even slowing down the dragon with telekinesis. Instead he let out an ember to the face of the Salamence, intent only on distracting it for a moment. It worked, the dragon moved it wings to protect its eyes. "Gaia, seed, now!"

Gaia wasn't sure exactly which seed he was talking about, the move or the item, but she decided to play it safe and use both. She threw the last stun seed at the dragon, which hit it's face just as it lowered its wings. She followed this up with a Bullet Seed, which to her credit caused the dragon to grunt. This would buy them a few seconds, and Oscar thought about what they could do next.

"Escape!" Gaia exclaimed in epiphany. "The Absol's warning. The Escape Orbs!" Oh! He had forgotten about the items. That was it, that that the move. Without a word, they both made their way to Cinder, who held both Escape Orbs in his bag, a mistake Oscar resolved to never make again if they made it out. Their hopes failed, however, as they saw the state of the other members of their team. Cinder was already unconscious, being kicked around by two Bagon and a Shelgon in a sick parody of the tactics they employed earlier in the dungeon. Stumpy too being assaulted by three attackers, but his hearty constitution let him endure the onslaught somewhat better than his long time partner. At least he was still conscious. Barely. Oscar and Gaia tried to make their way to Cinder, hoping to get to the bag he held. Before they could make it, the Salamence caught up with them, already recovered from the stun seed, and sent them flying with a swipe of its tail. The two Pokémon flew through the air and managed to knock aside two of Stumpy's assailants in the process.

With his newfound breathing room, the Poochyena managed to stand and doge the incoming strike of the remaining Bagon attacking him. He looked around and saw the state of his team, the Fennekin and Treecko entangled with two wild Pokémon, struggling to free themselves, and his Charmander friend not struggling at all. A triumphant roar from the Salamence shook his bones, and he realized his team was in dire straits. "The Escape Orbs!" Gaia yelled at him, still struggling to free herself from the pile of biting and clawing Pokémon. The Salamence charged towards the downed Charmander, and Stumpy knew he had to do something, anything! But what could he do? It didn't matter, he would do whatever it took to help his friends! Resolve steeled him, and in that moment he was overtaken with a blinding light.

The Mightyena did not stop to ponder his is new state, driven only be the overwhelming desire to act. He let out a Sand Attack, many times larger and more powerful than he ever had before, and blinded the Salamence and Cinder's assailants. This was his window. He charged the Pokémon attacking his friend, and bit the leg of the closet Bagon. He wanted revenge for what they did to his friend, and a cooldness seeped into his jaws. The powerful bite and icy fangs tore into the Bagon, and he flung the small dragon around like a toy, knocking the other two away. He released the Bagon in his jaws, unconscious from the broken leg and lacerations, and dug his muzzle into the bag. He found the orb, and stirred by the proximity and intent of emotions to flee/escape/live, the orb activated.