Chapter 6: Mine Rescue
Audino had already exhausted her Heal Pulse, but she carefully dressed Arcanine's wounds. No one knew which direction the remaining Ice-types had taken Mayor Bayleef, and the town was a confusing mess of scents and footprints from the morning's mêlée. Arcanine, Zorua, and Riolu split up to search the perimeter. By the time they found the trail, it was late morning.
The chill of the Ice-type's passing had wilted the tips of the new spring growth in the meadow, and they found the footprints of several Snorunts; Bayleef's scent was among them as well. The trail was too subtle for Arcanine to follow at speed, so the three of them walked. The sky was clear and the weather was cool but not cold, with a slight breeze. Under ordinary circumstances it would have been a pleasant day to travel.
They walked in silence, Riolu and Zorua still in shock from the morning's events and the loss of their friend. Arcanine did not interrupt their mourning; it was something they would each have to deal with themselves, and there was nothing he could say which would help their pain.
Arcanine himself was in high spirits. Despite his injuries, he felt more alive than he had in a long time. In part, it was the thrill of danger and victory, of having risked his life and once again proved himself stronger and tougher than his enemies. It was a feeling he could seldom achieve in mystery dungeons, which, after years of training, had achieved the boring repetitiveness of work.
In addition, though, it felt good having other Pokémon beside him. Doing mystery dungeons with Zorua had been fun, of course, but still just a game. Two was partners, and partners was better than being alone, but with the three of them together, now, it felt like a team, even if it was only temporary. They had a job to do, even if it was something relatively mundane. Arcanine kept his feelings to himself, knowing that it was not something that the others could appreciate right now.
After a time, Riolu began to fall behind, and Arcanine noticed that he was limping again.
"Would you like to ride?" Arcanine asked, pausing to let Riolu catch up.
Riolu nodded wearily, and Arcanine crouched to allow him to mount. Riolu was a careful rider, avoiding the worst of his injuries, but still his weight rubbed painfully against Arcanine's wounds through the bandages. Arcanine chose to tolerate it; he could do nothing to alleviate Riolu's grief, but the physical pain of Riolu's injuries was something he could help with.
They followed the trail south and east out of town and through the meadow for about half an hour. They were approaching the mountains here; the ground grew rockier and their quarry's trail more difficult to follow. Their progress slowed, and Arcanine's enthusiasm began to fade into frustration.
"Riolu," Zorua said, "Does this place look familiar to you?"
Riolu shook his head.
"Remember that time we climbed the mountain and found that creepy tunnel that was perfectly round, and we all dared each other to go in?"
"The huge tunnel?" Riolu asked.
"Yeah, that one. I think it's up here. I don't know anyone who's been inside, but I'm sure it must be a mystery dungeon."
"Can you find the way without following their trail?" Arcanine asked.
"I'm not sure. It's been years. I think so, though."
"Lead on," Arcanine said, "unless you want to ride too, and give me directions."
"No, it'll be easier to find on foot."
Zorua turned and began to lead them up the slope, picking her way agilely between the rocks. After several kilometers they crossed a narrow trail. Zorua bent to sniff the ground, then turned around and grinned at Arcanine and Riolu.
"I was right. They came this way."
"Break time," Arcanine declared. Zorua looked tired, and he wanted to get Riolu off for a few minutes so that he could scratch and adjust his bandages.
"Thanks for carrying me," Riolu said as he slid from Arcanine's back, "I'm not hurting you, am I?"
"Not at all." It wasn't entirely true, but there was no point in worrying Riolu about it. "Help me get these off?"
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The tunnel was nearly perfectly round and smooth, as Zorua had said, and about ten meters across. It headed straight into the mountain horizontally. The entrance was in the saddle between two peaks, and incredibly large spoil piles spilled down into the valleys on either side.
"Strange," Arcanine said, "Who would build like that?"
"I don't have any idea," Zorua said, looking down one side and then the other, "but that is a lot of rock to move. Those piles are miles long."
"Someone made it, though," Riolu said, "it can't be a mystery dungeon if someone made it, can it? I mean, if you dug a tunnel, you wouldn't come back later and find it's moved itself."
"Concealed Ruin and Buried Relic," Arcanine said. "Both built. Stacked, worked stones."
"And Temporal Tower," Zorua added, "I mean, I've never been there of course, but I've heard the stories."
There was a footprint visible in a patch of soil between the rocks; one of the triangular Ice-types whose trail they had been following. Silently, Arcanine pointed it out to the others.
Riolu sighed. "Let's get this over with, then."
"Wait," Arcanine said. "Need my bag."
"We have to go. They have Bayleef, remember? He might be injured, or…" Zorua trailed off, not wanting to say it, "anyway, we don't even know if they'll come back out in the same place, do we?"
"Don't know what's inside. Might need light, or berries."
Zorua was glaring at him. Arcanine sighed. He knew going in unprepared was foolish. He hadn't survived five years of exploring alone with a badge he dared not use by being reckless. He had been negligent to forget the bag in the first place. Still, he found it difficult to argue with Zorua's innocence and determination. He still felt a bit guilty, too, about his hesitation this morning.
"Can't help him if we don't make it. Can be to my cave and back in two hours. Wait here."
Arcanine was gone before Zorua could argue.
"How can he do this?" Zorua fumed to Riolu, pacing agitatedly in front of the tunnel, "we don't have time!"
Riolu sat in the shade of the rock face near the mouth of the tunnel, groaning in relief as he stretched his injured leg out in front of himself. He reached up to feel his injured ear and feeler. They still hurt, but he could already feel the itch of regrowing tissue.
"I don't like it either, Zorua, but I think he's right. We don't have a light, or berries, or anything else."
Zorua lay down next to Riolu and rested her head on his lap. Her tail curled around to cover her face. Riolu's fingers found the tender spots at the bases of her ears and stroked gently through her fur.
"How could they do that to Treecko and Luxio?"
Riolu leaned back against the stone, closing his eyes. His head hurt. His leg hurt. It felt as if there was a great empty space next to him where Treecko should have been. He didn't have any answers, either.
"Zorua, I'm exhausted. I'm going to sleep while we wait, okay? You should try to sleep too. We need to be alert later to watch Arcanine's back, because he's going to be tired too."
"I'm sorry, Riolu. I'm being such a baby about this." Zorua nuzzled her face against his chest.
Riolu didn't answer, just wrapped his arms through her ruff and held her.
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They looked so peaceful like that, Arcanine thought. He couldn't see Zorua's face, bur the fur beneath Riolu's eyes had the telltale trails of tears. Riolu's ear and feeler were healing well, and most of their cuts and scrapes were already gone. Arcanine's own wounds felt much better as well; he had stopped to tear off the last of his bandages on the way back. Whatever they found inside, Arcanine thought, waiting had been the right choice.
It was evening now. Arcanine didn't want to wake the two of them. He wanted to lay down beside them, his teammates, his friends. He didn't know Bayleef, and the other Pokémon meant nothing to him. The three of them could spend the night here, and go back to his cave in the morning, and have wonderful adventures together while the rest of the world took care of its own problems.
It couldn't work, though. Zorua and Riolu had their own lives back in Meadow Town. They would be angry if he didn't finish the job. Luxio would be disappointed, too, and he seemed like a good Pokémon. Arcanine coughed quietly, waking the others.
"Okay. Let's go."
The three of them started into the tunnel; it was wide enough for all three of them to walk abreast. Arcanine took the center, with Riolu and Zorua on either side, trailing slightly behind. A few meters in, a brief disorientation marked their entry into a mystery dungeon. The three of them paused and looked around. Nothing was different, and they could still see the light of the tunnel entrance behind them.
They didn't notice at first, but the tunnel curved slightly. By the time they were a few hundred meters in, the circle of light at the entrance was reduced to a narrow wedge.
"Can't see any more." Arcanine said. "Riolu, there's a Luminous Orb in the bag. Can you find it for me?"
Riolu felt through the bag around Arcanine's neck, and withdrew the orb. It was about the size of an Apple, perfectly round, smooth and cool to the touch. It glowed with a faint blue light where his fingers touched the surface. Riolu rubbed it, and the glow intensified. Soon it was bright enough for them to see by.
"When we get back to town, we should get this mounted on a necklace for you. My father had one like that, so he could have his hands free." Riolu said.
After another hundred meters, the light of the entrance disappeared completely, and the tunnel was lit only by the unearthly blue light of the orb in Riolu's hand.
As they walked, Zorua began to get the feeling that something was following them. Her sensitive ears caught the occasional clink of metal on stone, but every time she turned to look, she could see nothing there.
"Uh, guys. Hold on." Zorua said. The others stopped and turned to her. "I think there's something behind us."
Riolu stepped out in front of Arcanine and Zorua, holding the Luminous Orb against his chest so that his body shielded their eyes from the light, casting the light away from them in the direction that they had come. At first they saw nothing. Then, there was a brief glint of light reflected from something near the ceiling.
"Up there!" Zorua pointed.
Riolu directed the light upward. Something floated silently near the top of the tunnel, a body like a stubby metal tube with a single eye set in a sphere at its front. It hovered there for a while, watching them, then dove at Riolu.
Riolu sidestepped and struck with the palm of his free hand. He yelped, more in surprise than pain, as his hand thudded against solid steel, but the blow was effective. The Beldum wobbled unsteadily before Arcanine swatted it out of the air. It hit the ground with a loud clang and was still.
"If they didn't know we're here, they do now," Zorua observed.
They all bent down to inspect the unconscious Pokémon. The exploration badge pinned to Arcanine's treasure bag clinked against the side of the Beldum and stuck. They all jumped at the sound.
Arcanine laughed and pulled the bag away. "Must be magnetic."
Zorua nudged it with her nose. It was extremely heavy for its size, and didn't move. She put both her front paws on its side and pushed, rocking it slightly.
"Must be all metal," she said. "It's really heavy."
Riolu nodded in agreement.
"They're really sneaky, and I wouldn't want to get hit with all that weight," Zorua said, "we'd better be careful and watch the ceiling."
They continued on for several hours, occasionally fighting more Beldum along the way. The tunnel branched occasionally, to the left or right in long, sweeping wyes, but always remained perfectly level.
Eventually the tunnel opened into a large cavern which stretched away above, ahead, and to the sides farther than their light could reach. Unlike the smooth, obviously artificial walls of the tunnel, the cavern was jagged natural stone. Stalactites and stalagmites grew in clusters like copses of trees in a meadow. Ahead of them hovered two new Pokémon, each one looking like a pair of the Beldum they had fought before joined by a central disc.
"Move!" Arcanine commanded as balls of orange light began to form between the claws of each Metang. Arcanine and Riolu dodged to the left behind a cluster of columns, and Zorua dodged to the right behind a boulder. The first Hyper Beam flashed down the tunnel through the space Arcanine had just occupied. The second hit the columns behind which they had taken cover. Several of the columns exploded with a deafening crack and a burst of steam, spraying Riolu and Arcanine with sharp fragments of rock.
Arcanine answered with Flamethrower as he charged; it was a glancing hit, blackening the underside of one Metang's disc without inflicting significant injury. He wanted badly to use Heat Wave, but Riolu and Zorua were too close. As Arcanine leapt at the closer Metang, it swung a heavy metal arm. The blow caught Arcanine on the side of the head and sent him sprawling to the ground.
Riolu and Zorua circled the other Metang, dodging its slashing steel claws as they searched for an opening. It swung at Riolu, who ducked under the blow. Zorua clawed it from behind, but her claws skittered harmlessly off the smooth metal.
The air between the claws of Arcanine's Metang began to glow again. Arcanine raised a paw in front of himself in a warding motion, Protecting himself in a glow of cool, blue energy. Metang's Hyper Beam washed harmlessly around him. Metang growled in anger, a sound like grinding gears and tearing metal, and hovered toward him. Arcanine stood, waiting as it approached. It swung at Arcanine, but Arcanine was faster; he dodged, allowing the force of Metang's swing to spin it away from him, then Arcanine's paws crashed down on Metang's exposed side, crumpling metal and sending it bobbing back. Before it recovered, Arcanine caught it with another burst of fire, and it crashed to the ground.
Metang swung at Zorua again, and Riolu saw an opening. His palm struck Metang's underside, leaving a large dent; Metang wobbled, but didn't go down. Riolu jumped away as it turned back to face him, but too slowly. A heavy, clawed metal fist slammed into his chest.
"Riolu!" Zorua cried.
The blow should have crushed Riolu's ribs and knocked him out, but Riolu Endured it, staggering back. Arcanine leapt, landing on the second Metang. It fell to the ground with a crunch, Arcanine still on top. Zorua rushed in, clawing at its eyes. As Metang struggled to free itself from Arcanine's weight, Riolu stepped in behind it, knocking it out with a forceful blow to the back of the main disc.
"Riolu! Are you okay?" Zorua asked.
"I think so." Riolu sat down heavily, leaning against a stalagmite. Blood flowed from the gash on his chest, soaking his belly fur and dripping onto the ground. "And I was almost healed from last time…"
"Arcanine, do we have any bandages in the bag?" Zorua asked.
Arcanine shook his head. "Never had any luck bandaging myself. Couple spare scarves, though."
Arcanine set the bag down. Zorua pushed her nose inside, rustled around, and came out with a pair of scarves, which she handed to Riolu. Arcanine fetched the Luminous Orb and set it beside Riolu, while Riolu tied the scarves together and wrapped them around his chest. He winced and yelped as he pulled them tight. Zorua dug in the bag again and offered Riolu some Orans.
"Hate to do this, but we'll have to rest before we continue,"Arcanine said.
"Let me ride you. I can't fight, but I can hold on." Riolu grabbed Arcanine's mane with both hands and began to pull himself up.
"No," Arcanine told him, "sit down. I can't fight either if I have to worry about you fainting if I throw you off."
Riolu sat back down, looking somewhat offended.
"I sorry. I know you're tough, but let's not risk it, okay? Lean back and I'll clean you."
Riolu nodded acceptance and leaned back against the rock. He winced at first and then relaxed as Arcanine gently licked the blood from his fur. Zorua stood sentry while Arcanine worked, making sure no other Pokémon caught them off guard. She fidgeted impatiently, wanting to complain about the delay, but knowing that the others were not any more pleased than she was.
Finished, Arcanine sat down beside Zorua. His head still hurt where Metang had hit him, and he felt a bit dizzy. There was a lump on the side of his head, and he rubbed it with one paw.
"You okay, big guy?" Zorua asked."
"Yeah, I will be. And, I'm sorry this is taking so long."
Zorua sighed. She sat down next to him and rubbed her face against his mane. "I don't like it, but you're right. You were right about going back for the bag too. We wouldn't have made it this far without the light."
"I should have remembered the bag in the first place. Was careless."
Riolu stuffed himself with the rest of the berries in Arcanine's bag, hoping to speed the process of healing, and fell asleep. Arcanine and Zorua sat beside him. They were both tired, but it seemed unwise to let their guard down here. They took turns rubbing the Luminous Orb to keep the light going.
They had no means of judging time down here in the dark, but Arcanine thought it had been half an hour or so when Riolu woke. He was no longer bleeding, and, though unsteady on his feet, did not appear to be in immediate danger of fainting. Arcanine crouched, allowing Riolu to mount him again, and the three of them continued. The next several hours were uneventful. They found an underground stream and stopped to drink. Several more Beldum crossed their path, but Arcanine dispatched them with Flamethrower before they could get close. The mechanical Pokémon were easier to spot now that they knew what they were looking for, and with Riolu holding the orb on Arcanine's back, the light reached farther than it had near the ground.
Eventually their tunnel ended in a massive stone door, spanning its full diameter. One side of the door was wedged open by a large boulder, leaving a half-meter gap. A faint daylight-colored light shown out from within.
Zorua, in the lead, poked her head through the gap and looked around. The source of the light was hidden around a corner, but she could smell several familiar scents inside.
"I can smell them!" Zorua whispered excitedly to the others, "Bayleef, and some of the Ice-types. They're still here."
Arcanine put his head through the gap as well; he could smell them, too.
"Must be the end of the mystery dungeon. Riolu, can you put out the light?"
Riolu stuffed the orb back in the bag and drew it tightly closed. They silently crept through the gap and down the tunnel beyond. There was a corner ahead, the first sharp turn they had encountered in the dungeon. Riolu slid down from Arcanine's back, and the three of them peeked around the corner.
The room was illuminated by a single glowing orb, the bright yellow of the sun, set on a pole in the center of the room, about five meters off the ground. There was another door at the far end of the room This one was closed, its surface covered with carvings of interconnected circles and ellipses. In front of the door stood Bayleef and another Froslass. Another ten or so Cryogonals and Snorunts where scattered around the room; none of them seemed particularly alert.
"So, what's the plan now?" asked Zorua after they withdrew.
"Don't think we can fight them all at once," Arcanine said, "want you two to hang back. I'll run in and Heat Wave before they can react."
"What about Bayleef?"
"Will knock him out, too, but he'll recover. Also, I don't have any other ideas."
"Neither do I," Zorua admitted, "Riolu?"
Riolu shook his head. "I'm afraid I'm not good for much right now."
"Here goes, then."
Arcanine set down the bag and paused for a moment, preparing himself. He could feel the heat inside, and he drew it toward the surface, not the small portion that he used for Flamethrower, but an entire, raging inferno. Riolu and Zorua stepped back as flames flickered from his jaws. Arcanine charged into the room, straight for Froslass and Bayleef, but instead of completing the charge, he stopped in the center of the room.
All around him, his opponents where just beginning to react. Arcanine took a deep breath, raised his head, and then exhaled. Flames billowed outward in all directions as if someone had lit a match in a room filled with flammable gas. Pokémon screamed and melted and caught fire as Arcanine stood silently at the center of the destruction.
Just as quickly, the flames subsided. One Cryogonal, sheltered behind an alter-like block of stone to the side of the room, emerged and pelted him with ice. Arcanine melted it with a burst of flame.
Zorua ran into the room, clawing at a scorched Snorunt who slipped past her, back out into the mystery dungeon. Riolu followed more slowly. Bayleef and Froslass were both collapsed in front of the door, unconscious and badly burned. Zorua went to Bayleef, nudging him with her nose. Bayleef didn't respond. His leaves were charred, and the side of his body which had been closest to Arcanine was burned and blistered.
"Too bad I ate all the berries," Riolu said, "and I didn't see any Reviver Seeds in there."
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A dozen discs of smooth black stone, each about the size of Riolu's fist, were scattered on the ground around them. Each one had a different rune carved into one face. None of them recognized the characters.
Set into the very center of the door, even with the height of the lamp in the middle of the room, was a large, hemispherical crystal, its highly polished surface reflecting light in all directions. Around the crystal were engraved ten ellipses of various sizes, the smallest almost touching the center crystal, and the largest almost touching the edge of the door. Twelve circles were engraved on each ellipse, each one the size of one of the runed discs. On three of the ellipses, each of the twelve circles had four more circles evenly spaced around it. Each circle was beveled so that the half of the circle facing the center of the door reflected the light of the lamp back toward the center of the room.
The three of them stared at the door for several minutes, trying to make sense of it.
"It's a diagram of the solar system," Arcanine said, finally, "at least, a solar system."
Zorua and Riolu looked at each other, then at Arcanine. "We have no idea what you're talking about, big guy."
"It's, ah, Human astrology. The crystal in the center is the sun, and the ellipses show the paths of the planets."
Zorua and Riolu looked at each other again.
"I told you he talked about weird things," she said to Riolu, then to Arcanine, "we'll have to take your word for that, but what do we do with it?"
"I haven't any idea."
Riolu picked up one of the runed discs and examined it, then stepped forward to place it in one of the recesses he could reach near the bottom of the door. The hole was loose enough that the disc slid in easily, but tight enough to prevent it from falling out. Nothing happened. He placed another.
While the three of them were distracted, Froslass rose, grabbed a disc from the floor, and floated quickly back toward the mystery dungeon.
"Arcanine!" Zorua called, turning to Pursue Froslass.
Arcanine turned around, breathing fire at the departing Pokémon. He missed, leaving a blackened trail on the wall. They followed Froslass around the corner, and Zorua pounced, claws raking across the Ice-type's back. Arcanine couldn't get a clear line of fire. Froslass shook Zorua off, slipped through the gap in the door, and vanished.
"Did she get one of the stones?" Riolu asked.
"Almost." Zorua grinned, batting the dropped disc across the floor to Riolu.
"How did you-" Arcanine began to ask.
Zorua grinned and flicked her tail. "I got tricks."
They returned to the door. Arcanine wasn't sure, but he thought some of the other Ice-types in the room had moved. He didn't care; at this point, there seemed little harm in letting the rest of them flee. Bayleef was still out cold. Riolu picked up the remaining discs and counted them; there were twelve.
"So, I guess we gotta put the discs in the right holes or something, and the door will open," Zorua said. "There's only twelve, how hard can it be?"
Arcanine watched for a few minutes as Zorua and Riolu placed and removed discs, calculating in his head. He couldn't finish, the numbers were much too large to keep track of.
"We aren't going to get it like this," Arcanine said, "there are trillions of possible combinations, and even if we all stand on each other, we can't reach half the door."
"I hadn't thought about that." Zorua looked disappointed.
"Also, think we're missing a disc. There are ten planetary and three lunar orbits; if each one gets one rune, there should be thirteen."
They searched the rest of the room and the remaining Ice-types, but didn't find another.
"Maybe the boss had another one, or that little guy who got away had one," Riolu suggested.
"Doesn't matter anyway, unless Bayleef knows the combination," Zorua said, "Guess all we can do is wait 'til he wakes up."
Arcanine laughed. "Going to roll the rest of these guys out into the mystery dungeon so we can rest without watching them."
Riolu retrieved the rune discs and put them Arcanine's bag. They sat down on the floor beside Bayleef and watched as Arcanine pushed the remaining bad guys out of the room. When he finished, Arcanine joined them, laying on his side where he could keep an eye toward both Bayleef and the entrance. Zorua immediately curled up under his mane. After a moment's hesitation Riolu joined them, leaning back against Arcanine's chest.
"You know what guys? I'm really hungry. Too bad someone ate all the berries," Zorua said.
Riolu poked her in the ribs, and Zorua giggled.
"Seriously, though. What did they want with Bayleef, and were these discs his, or the Ice-type's?"
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"They were looking for some kind of 'fragment'," Bayleef explained, watching Arcanine nervously. "They thought someone in Meadow Town would be able to open the door. I played along so that they would leave the others alone."
"An Orrery Fragment?" Arcanine suggested. He had forgotten until just now what Luxio had said before; it hadn't seemed important at the time, but combined with the diagram on the door, suddenly it did.
"How did you…oh, some of the Pokémon in town would have heard them talking about it."
"Or-air-ee?" Zorua wondered.
"An orrery is a mechanical model of a solar system," Arcanine explained, "ah, like the picture on the door, but with three-dimensional, moving parts."
By now Zorua and Riolu were used to Arcanine saying strange things, but Bayleef looked surprised and suspicious.
"So how do we get in?" Zorua asked.
Bayleef glanced quickly at the door and the floor around them, and at Arcanine's bag. Riolu, Arcanine, and Zorua all looked at each other, sharing the same thought; He's hiding something. He doesn't know whether we found the discs, or the Ice-types took them.
"I have no idea," Bayleef said, "I didn't know about this place until they brought me here this morning."
Leaving the final room, the four Pokémon found themselves back on the other side of the wedged door at the end of the mystery dungeon.
"I guess we have to fight back out," Zorua said.
The journey out was much the same as the journey in had been, minus the pair of Metangs. They emerged before dawn in the same place they had entered.
"So, there's no sign," Riolu said, "and as far as we know, no one else has explored this place. That means we're the first, and we get to name it."
The whole team looked toward Bayleef, wondering it he would admit to knowing anything else of the tunnel. The mayor looked annoyed, but remained silent.
"How about Creepy Tunnel?" Zorua suggested.
Riolu found a branch on the ground and held it out to Arcanine. "Could you char this for me?"
Arcanine took a deep breath and exhaled a small flame on the end of the branch for as long as he could keep it going, charring the tip. Riolu returned to the entrance of the tunnel and wrote on the wall:
Creepy Tunnel
Team Arcanine - Zorua - Riolu
followed by the date. Arcanine grinned and lifted one leg, urinating as high up on the wall as he could, and the other two followed suit.
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When the four of them returned to Meadow Town the next morning, they found that Luxio had not been idle in their absence. Two Pokémon intercepted them outside of town and insisted on escorting them to see Luxio immediately. They passed two more pairs of townsfolk patrolling the road that looped through Meadow Town, the same path that the Snorunts had patrolled the previous morning. They passed several stacked piles of lumber which had not been there the previous day, and Arcanine wondered what Luxio had planned for them; a stockade, perhaps?
The lodge had been cleaned of blood, debris, and broken furniture, and the doors Arcanine had smashed were repaired. The frame of the main door had been reinforced with heavy timbers, and Arcanine thought it would take him considerable effort to batter the new one down. Several more Pokémon were nailing thick boards across the windows as bars.
The lodge's common room had become a command post. Several surviving tables held quickly sketched maps, guard rosters and crates of Apples and Berries. A pot of Chesto Berry tea steamed over the fire. Several local Pokémon sat at one one the tables, talking. Luxio had made himself a bed of straw and blankets in a corner of the common room, and he slept despite the noise around him.
Zorua nudged Luxio. He opened his eyes, yawning and staring at the three of them for a moment, not yet fully awake.
"Zorua! Riolu! You're back. We were worried about you. Thank you, Arcanine. Did you find…?
"Bayleef headed straight for his office when we got back. He'll probably hide 'til Arcanine leaves." Zorua said. "He didn't even say 'thank you.'"
"Sounds like the charming Bayleef we all know," said Luxio.
"I lit him on fire a little bit," Arcanine said, "but he got better."
Luxio chuckled. "I'm sure you're all tired. We had to throw out your beds after the…incident, but I can have more straw and blankets brought in. There's food on the tables; help yourselves. You too, Arcanine. We all owe you."
"You know, this is really impressive," Zorua said, "I've never seen everyone working together like this before. Actually," Zorua continued in a voice only the four of them could hear, "I've never seen half of them working at all."
"Yes, Pokémon have been remarkably cooperative," Luxio said, just as quietly, "I'm taking advantage of it while it lasts, and while Bayleef isn't interfering."
Luxio stood and stretched, and the four of them moved to the unoccupied table. Riolu poured Chesto Berry tea for everyone; a mug for himself and bowls for the quadrupeds. After they had eaten, Arcanine set his treasure bag on the table and began pulling out the discs.
"What are those?" Luxio asked.
"I'll let Zorua and Riolu tell the story," Arcanine said, "I'm exhausted. Going to head home."
"You're welcome to stay as long as you like," Luxio told him, "we can even find a private room, if you prefer."
Arcanine hesitated. He was enjoying the company of the others, and the walk home alone seemed unappealing; habit, however, took over.
"Thank you, but I can't."
Zorua and Riolu hugged Arcanine, and he licked their faces.
"We'll both come visit soon, if that's okay," Zorua said.
"Please do," Arcanine told her.
"You've done a good job putting this place back together," Arcanine told Luxio. Then, Arcanine leaned close to Luxio and whispered so that only the four of them could hear. "Be careful with Bayleef. He knows more than he'll say."