Chapter 22 - The Tempest's Token

"You twisted this pretty bad. Thankfully, you didn't manage to seriously damage the muscle."

Brionne was wrapping my sore leg up with a cloth coated in lotion curated from what looked like oran berry juice. When we had finished with morning announcements, Mawile had suggested that I get it checked out with the Society medical staff, that being Comfey and her assistant Brionne, to make sure it was healing right. Comfey took off following the conclusion of breakfast, doing cartwheels as she levitated all through the halls until finally barreling through the front doors on some kind of errand. That left the shy water-type nurse to tend to my medical needs.

"So what are the Alolan Isles like?" I inquired as soon as she finished applying another dab of poultice to the surface of my foot.

She looked up, almost as if she wasn't sure she was the one being spoken to. "O-oh, well... it's all really sunny. There are plenty of beaches and coastal Pokemon."

I nodded my head, and reminded myself to find the place on a map later. It sounded like an ideal spot to take a satisfying beach vacation... which made me wonder, do we get vacations at the Expedition Society? I'd have to ask Ampharos or Mawile later.

Another question arose from her answer, and I vocalized it to pique my curiosity. "If it's so tropical, then where did Vulpix come from? Isn't she an ice-type?"

Brionne went to grab something from a cabinet, and nodded her head in the affirmative as she made her way back over to me with some kind of bottle. "Yes, she is. There is actually a volcano on the northeastern island that sticks high enough into the air where snow can sometimes fall during the winter. A tribe of ground and fire type Pokemon used to live there for the heat of the molten rock, but in recent generations it had cooled significantly, forming a frozen environment in the colder months. They apparently adapted to the shift in ecology rather than leaving their home, and it changed their genetic code in a dramatic design similar to that of evolution. The Vulpix here descends from this group, and thus is an ice-type rather than a fire-type."

I raised my eyebrows at her and raised my head back. "Damn," I said in a complimentary tone. "You seem to know your stuff."

She rubbed the back of her head and smiled bashfully. "Y-yeah, I studied a lot about the lore of the islands in my free time." She applied the paste-like substance from the bottle to a fresh wrap of a soft, white dressing. "Then I met Comfey, and then eventually Vulpix and then Ampharos and Mawile. Mawile was hurt, so we all helped treat her wounds, and then he accepted us into the Expedition Society. It's worked out pretty well since then."

She finished delicately wrapping three layers of a paper-thin thread around my foot. As a Snivy, my arms and legs weren't impressively long, so even a small roll of the bandage covered my entire leg. I moved it on a swivel experimentally, and concluded that walking wouldn't be too tedious with the extra wrapping.

"Thanks, Brionne," I said with a parting smile and wave, before making my way out the door of the infirmary and down to the first floor.

Leah was chatting with Bunnelby over by the wall about something involving hats, when I walked over and made my presence known.

"Hi Sage," Bunnelby greeted. "What happened to your leg?"

"Bad encounter with an Onix," I answered simply.

He nodded his head knowingly and didn't press further. As the Society's excavation-specialist, I could imagine he had experienced relatively similar confrontations.

"So," I began, clapping my hands together. "Are we going exploring together today?"

Bunnelby sighed and shook his head no. "As much as I'd love to see what y'all are made of, I've got a mining project over at Showdown Mountain that won't be finished for another couple of weeks." He rubbed the back of his head, and benignantly added, "I don't think that's something you two would be all that interested in. It's not a very exciting job, if you ask me."

I acknowledged him in vivid agreement. I wasn't intimately interested in involving myself in that kind of mission, one that surely entailed plenty of dirt and grime burrowing into the earth. I'd never considered myself the pickiest of grass-types, but that's something I'd rather pass on anyway.

"Well, I've gotta head out. Maybe some other time!" He waved to us and was on his way out the door, his pack of tools bumping into his thigh with each step.

"Hm. Guess it's just us today," Leah observed, sounding wistful. "Maybe we can see if there are any local jobs to do that'll pass the time."

I already had the connection orb in my hands, and was in the middle of inserting it into the gadget when I heard a voice from across the room that was directed at us.

"Actually, we'd like the help of you two today, if you don't mind." The voice belonged to Mincinno, and I turned around to see him approaching us. He was accompanied by Vulpix and Helioptile, the former still adjusting to waking up and the latter already wagging his tail with energy.

"Alola Team Prism," Vulpix greeted the two of us, a ragged yawn highlighting her soft voice. "How are you enjoying the Society so far?"

"It's amazing!" Leah expressed her joy forthright. "It's a dream come true!"

I shadowed her enthusiasm with a more diplomatic response. "Yes, we've been treated well." I glanced at Leah, who smiled at me warmly, before looking back at Mincinno and continuing. "We've always wanted to do this, so it means a lot to finally be here."

"Aye, good to hear!" Helioptile said.

"Yeah, it's nice to be able to make a difference in this world, ain't it?" Mincinno said with a respectful nod. He pulled out his gadget and glanced at something before putting it right back into his bag and briefly sizing the two of us up. "Anyway, yeah. We're off on a mission to the Golden Prairie, an area nearby that's just off the coastline. Apparently some Pokemon have been acting weird over there lately, so Ampharos wanted a group of four or five to check it out. You two up for the task?"

"Perfect!" I answered immediately. "This sounds a lot more exciting than what Bunnelby's doing."

"No kidding," Leah agreed. She had her own gadget out now, Ampharos having distributed us a second one so that we could each have one for communication purposes. She booted up the map feature, which only took a couple of seconds thanks to our convenient location in the middle of Lively Town. From Jirachi I had learned that the cellular features of the gadget were processed by linking a signal with the Nexus Atlas upstairs, which was that giant holographic globe in the middle of the central room on the second story. It made sense then, that we'd have had a bad signal in Serene Village, being relatively far away. Sure, back then we'd had our own map saved onto the gadget, but we couldn't connect and see the entire Water Continent, which would've been much more practical for our journey through the Sheer Mountain Range.

"Lemme see..." She was searching through the glossary for the location that Mincinno had just mentioned, leaning her shoulder against the wall to allow both front paws to be used. "Not there, not there... ah! Here it is!" She jabbed her paw on the screen at a beach not terribly far from Lively Town, and I tapped my hand on her paw in what had become a trademark reminder that the touch screen was sensitive and she didn't have to jab it so hard.

Mincinno looked over Leah's shoulder at the location on the screen. "Yep, that's the spot," he confirmed with us as he motioned toward the door. "We've already packed plenty of food and supplies, so if y'all are ready, we're heading out. Keep in mind that, at best, we'll be gone all day."

"Alright, we just need to go get a few things from the deposit box and then we'll be ready." I said.

"Cool," Mincinno replied as he led his team out the front door. "We'll be waiting by the docks. Try not to take too long."

With that, they were out the door and on their way to the docks. Leah placed her gadget away into our bag that was slung around my shoulder, and we both made our way into town as well.

As we walked into the town square, Leah began recounting to me some of the things she'd learned from some the Society members that she'd gotten a chance to talk to more than I had, like Dedenne and Comfey.

"Dedenne told me that she can transmit signals to the members' gadgets through her whiskers that can go way farther than the gadget can go!"

My eyebrows raised curiously at that. "Then why don't we just use Dedenne to talk long-distance instead? Couldn't she just relay everything to anyone who needs information?"

"That's what I said," she continued. "She said it really tires her out when she does communicate that way, so she only does it when there's bad weather or something interfering with the gadget's signal. It makes sense, I gue- oof!" Leah wasn't paying attention and characteristically ran smack into the back of another Pokemon.

"Hey, watch where you're going!" I heard a gruff voice grumble.

After momentarily helping my partner up off the ground, I looked up to see who she'd run into with an apology already prepared, and paled. I hadn't even been awake for an hour, and there was already an unexpected nuisance to be dealt with, this time before Leah and I even got a chance to leave town on our mission.

It was that damn Krokorok that had been terrorizing that child not even forty-eight hours ago. My blood ran cold when I realized it was the same Pokemon, assuming he would recognize us and instigate a fight. But when he turned around and glowered over us, there was merely mild annoyance where I feared would be heated retrospect. I must have gotten us out of that alley just in time for him not to see us.

"Well?" he bellowed. "Don't just stand there and gawk. Say somethin'!" Every word that came out of his mouth was accompanied by a perceivable effort to flex his chest and arms, which came off a bit offsetting considering his rickety frame. Leah and I were both the opposite of impressed.

"Uh, sorry about that..." Leah mumbled, trying hard not to let her anger show. From the aggressive undertone her voice carried, she clearly recognized him just as well as I had.

Krokorok looked around, and noticed that the square still hadn't filled up to its usual crowded capacity yet, before looking back at us with a newfound grin that didn't promise good intentions. "Aye, you two. You're kids, right?" He sized us up, and rubbed the bottom of his grinning snout. "Yeah, yeah, you two are definitely just kids. Sweet, this is just what I needed..."

Leah and I shared a knowing look. Was this crook seriously going to try the same thing he had tried the other day on that Treecko?

"You two. Listen. You got any Poké that you could share with a poor soul like me?"

Wow. It occurred to me that it probably would've been smarter to just turn him in to the law enforcement rather than take off like we had, so that he wouldn't be able to continue with his low-life antics. Then again, taking off and helping with Swirlix's gluttony problems is what got us aquatinted with the Expedition Society, so I guess it worked out. But still, had this guy really just gone right back to terrorizing anyone he could pick on even after our unplanned ambush? Here he was, trying to pull the same stunt on us, not even two days after we had gone and, quoting Mincinno, 'knocked him on his ass'. For god's sake, he still had a burn mark remaining on his forehead from when Leah blasted him from the edge of the alleyway.

"Not a chance," I replied with a glare. I grabbed Leah's paw to lead her away when the Krokorok stepped in to block our path.

"Come on," he insisted, returning the glare but maintaining his grin. "You two look like generous Pokemon. I'm sure you can spare a few coins, if you're catching my drift."

"Catch this," Leah sneered, flames spawning in her throat.

I'd been fighting by her side long enough now to know exactly when and how she was attacking based upon her body language, and I placed myself in position to follow up on her ember attack with a vine whip to our opponent's legs, the same tactic we'd used against him not two days ago. It had become a favorite combo of ours back in Serene Village, and still was.

But this time, a voice from the northern gate called over to us in an authoritative tone, and Leah ceased her fire a split second before she would've released it.

"What's going on here?" Buizel demanded. He stalked over to the three of us, giving Krokorok a death stare while he approached. "You'd better not be trying to extort our newest recruits, Krokorok."

"Newest... recruits?" Krokorok repeated in awe. He looked at the two of us again, and fear sparked in his eyes when he noticed the official badges we wore on our chests. He threw his hands up palms-out to downplay the situation. "N-no way! Not me! I was just having a friendly chat with my friends here!" He nervously turned to us and smiled big, this time without any traces of the arrogant grin from before. "It's all good in the hood, right friends?"

Buizel gauged him with a mixture of contempt and forced pity. "Somehow I doubt that. I'd strongly suggest you keep your distance, unless you want to be hearing from me."

Krokorok seemed unsure how to respond, and was about to just acquiesce and scurry off when another Pokemon lumbered his way over to us. While this Pokemon resembled Korokorok in design, his bulky stature bore no relation to that slim frame. The stranger's muscles were more developed, and his scales were a menacing shade of dark red as opposed to the desert tan that tattered Krokorok. His claws were what stood out most, being several inches long and thick enough to rip apart whatever he pleased.

"What's going on here?" the big red Pokemon bellowed in a deep raggedy voice. He eyes us all impatiently, and subconsciously contracted his claws in and out of his palms.

"O-oh, mister Krookodile! You arrived just in time!" Krokorok was at his side right away, and the confidence that Buizel's arrival had drained from him had suddenly returned twofold. He shoved a finger in our direction and put on the best sorry-face he could muster. "Those three were over here bullying me for no good reason at all!"

"Oh, they were, were they?" Krookodile grunted, sounding somewhere between annoyed and angry.

"What?!" I exclaimed. "That's bullshit!"

Krokorok ignored me entirely. "Bullying others is just downright wrong. Ain't that right mister Krookodile?"

Krookodile sneered at us. "You two punks from the Expedition Society?" He directed his question at Leah and I. Buizel was standing between us, and took a step forward.

"Yes," Buizel answered for us. "They are our newe-"

"Quiet, wretch!" Krookodile boomed, taking a step forward as well. "I wasn't askin' the likes o' you, bloody orphan!"

"What did you say?" Buizel spat back.

He looked ready to burst, so I jumped in before things could escalate any further. "Chill out, chill out!" I exclaimed, one vine holding Buizel back while the other pushed Krookodile back. "We don't want any trouble! Back down!"

Krookodile shifted his glare from Buizel to me, and did not let up on its intensity. After a few moments of stark consideration, he shoved the vine off his chest and grunted.

"What a bunch of garbage. I could wipe the floor with the lot of you... Come on, runt!" he ordered his underling, who quickly fell at his side as he began to stalk away. He turned his head halfway, and narrowed his eyes at us, giving one final parting warning. "I'd suggest you don't test the limits of my patience. Cross my gang again and you will live to regret it."

Krokorok was downright gleeful the entire time, and when his boss wasn't looking, turned his head back and stuck his tongue out at us. Even when the were no longer in sight, Buizel was still fuming. "That little... ugh!" He shook his head and looked at Leah and I, who were looking back at him with some concern. He rubbed the back of his head apologetically. "Sorry about that. In case you couldn't tell, Krookodile there isn't on the best terms with me, or anyone in the Expedition Society for that matter."

"No need to be sorry," Leah said. "You saved us from having to deal with those two alone, so thank you."

"What'd he say about his 'gang'?" I asked him, making him huff and shake his head again.

"He was talking about the local mafia, or at least, that what they refer to themselves as. They're basically just a group of thugs and low-lifers who kiss the ground Krookodile walks on. Most of them aren't anything to worry about, but Krookodile there... he's a different story. He's the worst thing to ever happen to Lively Town, and he's strong to boot. Stay clear of him if you can."

"Understood. Thanks Buizel!"

He nodded. "No problem. I gotta go now, I'll catch you two at dinner." He walked off toward the cafe, and left us standing in the plaza.

Leah looked at me and blinked. "Well," she said. "That was interesting."

I closed my eyes and shook my head. "Yeah, let's just move on. This is all too much nonsense for this early in the morning."

She raised an eyebrow, and glanced up at the sky before tilting her head at me. "Sage, it's only a couple hours before noon."

"Yeah," I replied dryly. "That's still too early to be getting involved in all this drama. Maybe not for someone like you, but for me it's a different story."

"You're just not a morning person," she countered, sticking out her tongue.

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever, I guess that's true."

"Anyway," Leah continued, trying to keep us focused. "Mincinno said to meet his team by the docks down by the beach down that path." She pointed to the eastern gate that led down to the beach. Built above the beach at a higher elevation, I could see wooden docks off to the side, where a couple of trading vessels were anchored to the harbor. I didn't have a good view of it even from this edge of the square, but I could still see the tops of them well enough to decipher the vehicles as sailing vessels.

I went over to the deposit box and took out a couple of reviver seeds, heal seeds, and about six big apples for us to munch on along the way. We were supposed to be gone all day, if not stay overnight, so I figured that this would have to suffice. If not, we could always find more.

After reevaluating that we had everything we needed, we set off towards the docks.

A set of wooden stairs led down the hillside and down to the coast, where it merged with the sand. Leah and I didn't take this path however, instead heading to the right where the wooden planks took us to a larger platform curving above the sand below and just on the outline of town. Various merchants had their shops set up here on the right side of the port, which was bordering the small hill that Lively Town sat upon that stretched above where the ocean met the land. On the left side of the wooden docks was a set of railing that some Pokemon leaned on and engaged in conversation, while other areas had no railing to make way for the actual ship docks, where a vessel could pull in and anchor down.

Helioptile saw us before we saw them, and over by the railing he hailed the two of us down. We swiftly jogged our way over to the trio, who were all waiting for us.

"What took you so long?" Mincinno pestered, not looking all too pleased by the wait.

"Sorry," Leah casually apologized as she caught her breath. "We got caught up dealing with some crook named Krookodile, and Buizel had to help bail us out."

Mincinno's eyes widened. "Krookodile? Damn, you two may have shown a lot of potential already, but taking him on isn't something I'd recommend doing right away. That's why I keep saying to everyone that we need to throw that guy in jail."

Vulpix rolled her eyes. "We can't just throw him in jail, he already served his time for the last crime he was arrested for."

"Now, we get to wait for him to commit another one," Helioptile added neutrally.

"That's basically the gist of it. So much for protecting the town, right?" Mincinno said with a scowl.

Vulpix punched him on the shoulder. "Oh, hush," she chided. "Don't be so negative. If he acts up again, we'll be there to stop him." Before Mincinno had a chance to reply, Vulpix changed the subject. "So, this mission... Shouldn't we get going?"

"Yes," I agreed. "We're ready when you guys are."

Mincinno glanced around and nodded. "Alright, no point in wasting any more time," he said. He pulled out his gadget and brought up the map, where he put a marker on our destination and another marker on our current location. "Since it's so close to the coastline, the fastest way is gonna probably be this." He zoomed in and drew a line with his paw, which outlined the coast before jutting inland once it became parallel with our destination. "On this prairie is a large hill with a cave. By the hill is a village, which is where we were asked to investigate."

He shut down the electronic device and tossed it into his loose-hanging bag, and then motioned for us to follow him. Our group of five walked through the docks, and Leah and I got a chance to observed more of the construction that had been done. Crates and barrels of goods were lying everywhere, and some parts of the elevated area still looked undeveloped. In a few years, this would probably became a booming marketplace, but for now it was mostly lonely, with only a few small stands scattered by the townside selling drinks or fruit. Mincinno had no interest in stopping for anything, but finally consented upon Vulpix's and Leah's pleading. Mincinno's team bought themselves drinks, and I purchased a couple for Leah and I as well. It was so much more convenient than dipping my long nose into the stream at Serene Village to get a drink, where here I could get a throwaway cup holding a tasty liquid that saturated my thirst almost as effectively as water. With the sun beating down on us as it had been all summer long, it was nice to be refreshed like this every now and then.

We didn't dawdle for long, and by the time noon came about, we were already making our way across the edge of the coast. It was a pretty boring walk, and I found myself lost in thought most of the time. There wasn't that much to see out here on the unexplored beach, and it was relatively uncomfortable considering the sand that scratched at our feet and got stuck in-between toes and nestled within fur. Even though Mincinno had displayed how this was the fastest route, it still felt incredibly slow-moving, and it all collectively got old after a couple hours. Even the scent of salt on the wind was starting to annoy me by the time noon was well behind us. We all engaged in simple conversation at first, but after a while we just settled into walking the walk and becoming engrossed in our own half-awake cognition for a majority of the time. I got so lost in idle thought at one point, after a few hours had passed, that I hardly noticed I was being spoken to.

"Hey, Sage?" The voice had belonged to Vulpix, who was currently walking alongside me.

"Hm?" I transiently shed the insignificant daydream I had been locked in and addressed the ice-type. "Oh, sorry... I'm kinda half-awake over here."

"Yeah, same," she remarked with a wayward glance at the ocean down to our distant left.

Now that I was back to paying attention, I could see that Mincinno and Helioptile were engaged in some sort of immaterial discussion. Leah had pitched herself in as well, leaving just Vulpix and I walking in silence, which I guess she had finally decided to break in order to ward away the incessant boredom of this long hike.

"So," she continued, her subtle tropical accent keeping the idle conversation alive. "What was it like living so far into the mainland?" She added with a soft chuckle, "I've never really lived far from the ocean, so I've always wondered about how other Pokemon do."

This was a question I had been hoping to avoid. This was all so shifty, not disclosing the truth of my story to the rest of the Expedition Society despite now being official members. I hated to lie and say I'd actually grown up in Serene Village, but right now, that's what I had to stick with. Still, it scared me knowing that someone would probably find out eventually, and I'd essentially be put in a checkmate that even now I had no way out of. Not to mention that I really just didn't want to think about that place in general, let alone discuss it with someone, in fear of being overridden by the remaining guilt.

Regardless, I couldn't just leave Vulpix out to dry. I swallowed and formulated a basic, fundamental description that held back on the personal details enough to not be considered lying, at least not in the form of directly giving misinformation. It's what I had been doing thus far anyway.

"Well, let me think..." I began while rubbing my chin and looking up at the afternoon sky thoughtfully. "Compared to Lively Town, living out there was much more... more simplified."

"Simplified?" she pressed curiously at my choice of words, tilting her head sideways as she walked.

"Yeah. There wasn't as much color, or as many sounds and shapes and stuff like Lively Town. There wasn't any many Pokemon, or as many shops, or the same variety of food, or anything. It was slower moving and, well, simple. Everything was static and predictable." I paused, then added, "It was much greener, though. And even though Lively Town has some nice views, Serene Village had its fair share of sights to see as well."

Vulpix was intrigued by my unadorned description of where I had come from, and pressed onward. "Interesting! Did you like it there?"

I paused in thought, and almost paused in step as well. I didn't miss a beat for the sake of remaining inconspicuous, but I still felt the full weight of the question threaten to trip me up. "Y-yeah," I answered, a bit too quickly in an effort to not sound hesitant. "Yeah, I loved it there. I made a lot of good friends back at Serene Village. Friends and... family."

She seemed to sense my melancholy from touching on the subject. Nodding her head knowingly, she brushed a tuft of head-fur off her eyes and sighed. "I know what you mean," she replied with sympathy swimming in her tone. "I left my family behind to come join the Expedition Society too. It's hard with them being halfway across the world all the time, but... you find ways to get used to it. As long as they know you're off making the world a better place, you can always be satisfied you're doing the right thing knowing they're cheering for you."

I felt like laughing at just how poorly that fit my description.

I didn't exactly have a family, and the few friends I did have probably wouldn't vouch that I was "making the world a better place" at the moment. I left them all against their collective wishes in the middle of the night without a word, for god's sake. I highly doubt any of them, whether it be Espurr or Nuzleaf or a pick of the villagers, are cheering for me at this point. They probably just think I'm a rebellious idiot who wasn't willing to face the Beeheyem straight up, or in the case of the uninformed majority of villagers, that I'm a rebellious idiot with no regard for authority or the limits of my capabilities.

I didn't say any of this out loud, of course, if not to avoid giving too much information than to simply avoid being rude. But the thought was ever-present, and it still hurt just like it did on the journey through the mountains. And if I was being honest with myself, it would probably hurt that way for a long time. That was exactly why it was better left ignored.

It just made me so agitated that this kind of burden was being forced on me by some unknown force that still refused to reveal itself. Not for the first time, and surely not for the last, I demanded in my head to know why such a difficult decision had been placed on my unfamiliar shoulders. It was one thing to be swept into another world and turned into a Pokemon, but all of this drama and conflict with no answers packaged with it had became ridiculous to the point where it all seemed unnecessary. It all seriously didn't even seem real anymore. I guess not having a single answer to your problems tended to do this kind of thing to your mentality.

Regardless, I couldn't have brought myself to resent Vulpix for her unintentional words of detriment even if I tried. I may not be all too enthusiastic about that particular topic these days, but I certainly wasn't depressed to the point of irrationality. She was innocently trying to spark a conversation and lift me up about something that had me down, which I apparently wasn't doing a good job of hiding. I'd at least try to put on a smile and illustrate gratitude, even if it was all artificial.

"Yeah, that's what keeps me going a lot of the time," I lied. "It's... nice to know that you have family far away who are wishing you success, you know?"

"Hmm," she hummed in agreement.

"Hey, you two!" we heard Mincinno call from up front. "Pick up the pace!" Vulpix and I had fallen about a dozen steps behind, and we hurried to catch up.

"Don't mind him," she giggled as we jogged forward. "He's actually a pretty cool guy most of the time. Things have just been stressful lately, that's all."

"Stressful? How so?"

Vulpix shook her head slightly, and adopted a look of mild uncertainty. She glanced around, as if to make sure nobody was listening, and then looked sideways at me as we jogged along. "Have you ever heard of a Pokemon turning to stone?" she asked.

"Yeah," I answered. "I remember reading an article about it in the newspaper. Is it true?"

"Well..." Vulpix trailed off and sighed. "That's what we've heard. Ampharos and Mawile are the only ones in the Expedition Society who have actually seen the remains of a Pokemon turned to stone, but neither of them really like to talk about it much."

"So it is true, then?" I urged.

She answered my question with an earnest nod. After a couple seconds of silence, she elaborated further. "They saw it firsthand, and from their observations Project Chisel was inspired."

"Project Chisel?"

"Mm hmm," she verified. "Project Chisel is an operation with two end goals, the first involving uncovering information about the culprit, or culprits, and doing what can be done to stop them. The second objective, which is a higher priority, is to find a cure for those already turned to stone."

"Wow..." I murmured. "How much progress has been made?"

Vulpix shook her head. "I wouldn't know much about it. Ampharos says that until he makes a significant breakthrough, he doesn't plan on involving the rest of us if he can help it, for safety reasons." She paused for a moment, and shivered. "I'm not complaining, though. I know I don't want to be turned into stone."

The thought sent a shiver down my back as well. The concept of being turned to stone... It just didn't sit right with me. Even thinking about it gave me this ominous sensation of foreboding similar to how I felt that day in Serene Village when I first read about it.

"Me neither," I concurred. "How long has it been happening?"

"Something like two... more like three months now?"

I was silent for a moment, before an impertinent intuition invaded my thoughts and made me pause.

What if Pokemon turning to stone and me becoming a Snivy is connected somehow?

It sounded stupid as soon as it entered my head, but I explored the idea anyway. I'd been in this world for approximately three months now, which, if Vulpix could be considered a liable source, lined up seamlessly with when Pokemon apparently started being turned to stone. A human being turned into a Pokemon and coming to this world was something that was only recorded in fairy tales, and Pokemon being turned to stone, by the sound of it, was something that nobody had even dreamed could pose an issue. What's more interesting, I found, was that joining the Expedition Society with Leah put me right in the midst of an investigation into this mystery. As paranoid as you have to be when you're in a foreign world surrounded by the unknown, I could be fairly certain this was not just me overthinking things. Maybe it would be better if I disclosed my human origin to the rest of the Society after all, so I could seek help connecting these dots. I figured I should at least tell Mawile at some point, since she's the historian who I'd probably just end up getting referred to anyway. I'd have to consult Leah about it sometime soon.

At least if I truly am related to what that newspaper described, in whatever crazy way, then I could perhaps find consolation in knowing I kept that kind of danger away from Serene Village with my hastened exit. The Expedition Society, on the other hand, allowed me to establish myself and fight whatever it was that had it out for me. It was a chance to find a new start, or to put in better words, a new hope. Here I could enjoy the everyday life of being an explorer, exploration with Leah being the one thing that really did keep me going rather than some family that I might or might not have had back in some other world. And there was always the increased potential to learn something about what happened to me, which gave this new frontier that much more purpose.

I could only hope these two enterprises didn't end up controverting each other. There was more than likely a human world that existed somewhere, one that I had presumably originated from. Part of me wanted to go back to that world, and perhaps make sense of everything once and for all. But another part of me wanted to stay, and develop my life here. I wasn't really sure why, either, and it really bugged me. This was nothing new of course; I still hardly knew anything about... anything. How much have I truly learned since the moment I woke in the forest and came to the conclusion that I had lost next to all of my memories? Maybe that was why I didn't want to leave all of the sudden; because I haven't learned anything yet.

I was snapped out of my thoughts momentarily by the sound of laughter. Ahead of me I saw Helioptile crack some kind of joke, and Mincinno shaking his head and holding down a smile in order to maintain his strict demeanor. Leah laughed loudly at whatever it was, which is what had caught my attention. I found myself staring at her for a moment longer than usual, subconsciously feeling at the cloth around my neck.

Or maybe there's a different reason I'm so hesitant to leave...?

"Alright gang!" Mincinno announced suddenly, halting in his tracks and gathering everyone's attention. He pointed to a break in the hills to our right, and waved us forward. "We'll start moving inland through this small valley here. We should arrive in a couple of hours if we make good time."

I looked up at the sky and frowned. The sun was already on its descent, not too far from its noon position, but far enough to indicate that this would likely end up being an overnight expedition. And by the looks of it, we might not spend tonight dry either, judging by the clouds that had began to blow in and form a cluster above. It hadn't developed into anything malignant, but the change in the weather's composition had totally snuck up on us, as I could've sworn there hadn't been a cloud in sight when we departed.

It looked like the foothills around this area of the coast had plenty of woods scattered around, where we could gather food and camp out for the approaching night. If Mincinno was correct about our time frame, we'd arrive and have an opportunity to do what investigations we needed to do before night fell, meaning we'd possibly be camping out on the way back to Lively Town.

Either way, our fate was sealed. We'd just have to smile about it and pray to Arceus that it doesn't rain.

Unfortunately, Mincinno underestimated how long i would take to trudge through the small chasm in the hills. We did eventually get through it, where our surroundings opened up into an expanse of green and gold that boasted few trees and plenty of tall grass. The grass extended up well past our waistlines, and in the case of Vulpix and Leah, all the way to their necks. I had a low enough center of gravity as it was, so I didn't have any issues staying on my feet, but it was still rather tedious trudging through the golden-brown turf with none of us being very tall.

Not far from the hills that sat between the expanse and the ocean was our destination. The village supposedly had no self-applied name, and furthermore wasn't established well enough to warrant that Jirachi give it a default marker on the map, so we simply referred to it as "the village".

By the time we actually reached the village, it was already only about four hours until twilight. Still, that left us plenty of time to get the job done and head back to the woods to set up a satisfactory camp as long as we weren't occupied for too long. When we reached the outskirts where the tall grass ended, Mincinno stopped us short and pulled a notepad out of his bag.

"Alright," he explained. "Now, we didn't really get much information in the report that was sent, besides that some Pokemon over here started acting weird and violent all of the sudden. That's literally all we know." He jotted something on his notepad and then placed it back into his bag, before running his gaze across the other four of us. "So," he continued. "We're going to find whoever's in charge, and talk to them. We'll help in whatever way we can, and then we'll head back. Keep your eyes out for anything suspicious or noteworthy, and try not to impede into the daily lives of anyone here beyond asking necessary questions. This isn't a place that experiences a lot of outside influence according to the incredibly thin scouting report that Mawile provided me, so keep that in mind when you're interacting with anyone here."

"Where are we spending the night?" Leah asked.

Mincinno looked around, before locking his eyes onto the hills to our backs. "We'll sleep somewhere over there," he said while pointing the way we came. "There's plenty of trees we can camp around, and probably a water source too."

"Dude, we're gonna get soaked," Helioptile argued with a wayward glance to the darkening skies.

Mincinno looked up too, and frowned. "Shit," he muttered under his breath. "We'll find a big tree to sit under or something. We don't have time to worry about that right now anyway, we need to get a move on."

Helioptile shrugged. "Whatever you say," he said. "I have the dry skin ability anyway, so I like the rain."

The village was considerably larger than Serene Village in size, considering all of the open land available for use with the exception of a few tall, rocky hills that extended from the earth. There were probably fifteen or so wooden houses, most of them built with a particular rectangular design in mind. It was all constructed with a mixture of wood harvested from the maple and acacia that sparsely dotted the flat landscape. Besides these tiny archaic buildings and a water well in the middle of it all, there really wasn't much here that was owed to the influence of civilization. It was all very quaint, and I found it almost relaxing in light of the impending mission.

The tall grass had been cleared away everywhere within thirty feet of the village's edge, leaving anything approaching the settlement plenty of room to be spotted first. And spotted we were, by a large Pokemon and a smaller (but still a bit taller than any of us) Pokemon that flanked his left side. By the looks of it, they had been awaiting our arrival for a good while now.

"I think they've been waiting for us," Mincinno whispered behind him in a hushed voice. "This seems to be an all-grass-type village by the looks of it, so Sage will introduce us."

I nodded my understanding of Mincinno's logical thinking, and took point just as soon as our two parties entered speaking distance. The large Chesnaught stepped forward slowly, a wooden cane in his left hand planted down to keep his declining body steady.

"Greetings!" he called in a ragged voice, further indicating his age. "Judgin' by them there badges, ya must be the group I sent out fer." He extended a large hand to me, and I unfurled a vine and shook it as firmly as I could. "I'm Chesnaught, the elder 'round these parts. 'Tis mighty nice to meet y'all."

"It's our pleasure, elder Chesnaught," I said in a level tone to not reveal any emotion beyond the fundamental friendliness of the meeting. "We're here to help with whatever you need."

"Good..." he said slowly. "My daughter here will guide you to where it is that we needed yer help. She'll explain the nitty-gritty along the way." He patted the Breloom beside him on the head, and lumbered back into one of the wooden houses nearby.

"Howdy!" the mushroom-headed girl chirped in a voice highlighted by an accent even stronger than the elder's. "I'm Breloom. Like my dad said, I'll be explainin' to you what our problem is." She took a step in the direction of a nearby hill that stood out among the rest, and motioned for us to follow. Mincinno took point again, and we all began walking.

"So, what exactly is the problem?" Vulpix asked.

"Well," Breloom paused and pursed her lips. "I reckon it's pretty dang hard to explain. We clearly ain't too close to any of them major towns or cities, so we tend to buckle up 'n solve our own problems when the hay hits the fan. But... this time's a bit different."

"How so?" I asked.

She took a couple of seconds to choose her words. "As you can see, our village here ain't too big, only housin' 'bout forty residents in total, so we got a pretty good clench on who's who and what's what. Everyone knows everyone, 'n that's just how it is 'round here. Ain't ever been no unknowns 'till just the other day..."

She paused to clear her throat, and continued. "You see, a few of the villagers done gone 'n lost their minds all of the sudden. No warnin', no nothin'. They just up 'n went ham on everyone, talkin' nonsense 'bout how the end is near 'n there ain't nothin' we can do to stop it. Some real crazy doo-doo if you ask me."

"Why are we walking away from the village?" Mincinno asked with a hint of suspicion.

"I'm takin' y'all to the Lowland Cavern. That's where them five that went crazy are at, at the moment."

"Can you explain, in detail, how they transitioned from normal, everyday residents of this village into what it is that made you call us here?" Mincinno earnestly requested.

"It all started when they began mutterin' to themselves," Breloom said with a downcast look showing on her face. "They would talk to themselves and also amongst themselves a whole ton, which was dang weird since these five never hung out with each other that often beforehand. Then, they started hollerin' 'n causin' a ruckus all the time, chantin' about death and the apocalypse. After a few days, my father done got sick of it, but them crazies hightailed it into the Lowland Cavern before anyone could knock some sense into them. Ain't nobody allowed into that place since it's one o' them hellish mazes where you get attacked by the uncivilized. So, we done called for one of y'all's special teams from Lively Town, since y'all apparently are trained to deal with these kinds of situations... Ah, I reckon we've arrived!"

By now we'd walked a good ways from the village, and we're now standing at the mouth of a cave that dug into the hill we'd been approaching. The opening didn't look too scary, but I knew plenty enough about the unpredictability of mystery dungeons that we might be in for a tough time regardless.

"How long have they been in there?" Mincinno questioned her. "And how will we recognize them?"

"'Bout five days now," the female Breloom decided. "And you'll know it's them. Trust me." She paused, and we all stood there awkwardly for a moment before she spoke up again. "I... do mightily appreciate y'all's help. The whole village does. So, we wish y'all the best of luck. It prolly goes without sayin', but please bring them back safe."

"Alright," Mincinno said flatly. "We'll get it done."

Breloom gave us a curt nod and began to turn around to make her way back to the village. Before she could do so, however, she stopped herself and shifted her head back nervously. "Um..." she hesitantly added. "If they, you know, attack y'all... try to knock them out as cleanly as you can. They done got really violent a couple times, and it wasn't pretty, so just... yeah. Thanks." She didn't stick around to give details, completing her turn and making her way back for real this time.

We all shared a mutual glance of forewarning. This might not be as normal an investigation as we had thought, if "investigation" was even an accurate description of the mission at this point in time. With our waning daylight and the knowledge that they had already been inside for days, however, we had no choice but to roll with it. There was little time to waste.

The Lowland Caverns, just as we had been told, was a mystery dungeon. I had initially offered to search for a stick that Leah could light on fire as a torch, but Helioptile stepped up proudly and declared that there was no need. It turned out that he knew flash, which was a far better alternative than carrying around a flaming stick to see. With the help of the bright-yellow glow that illuminated a large section of the cave around us, we were able to fight off any opposition that made itself present. Most of the wild Pokemon here weren't terribly strong, a lot of them being dark and rock types that were easily cut down by whoever held the type advantage in our well-rounded squad. This being our first joint mission with Team Carbon, Leah and I used this opportunity to examine their capabilities, just as they did the same for us. As far as the dungeon went, the five of us performed well as a majority of the opposition didn't match up well. It turned out that Vulpix is an ice-type and a fairy-type, and she had a decent moveset to back herself up. And Helioptile, while a bit erratic in nature, was a pretty capable fighter as well. Mincinno, as I had expected, was just the same, although unlike his teammates, preferred to fight in close quarters rather than from a ranged distance.

Thing were going smoothly for the first handful of floors, and if was looking like this would turn out positively after all. We might've written it off as just an average run through a dungeon if it weren't for the ticking.

When I first heard it, I thought it might just be raining outside and I was hearing the noise of the precipitation connecting with the earth. But when I listened closer, I realized that wouldn't make sense for two reasons. One, we weren't anywhere near the surface, probably at least nine floors down at this point, and two, this really didn't sound anything like dripping water anyway. This was a tick, tick, tick sound that was not only unnatural in composition but unnatural in consistency as well. There were no alterations whatsoever in the constant flow of the sound that barely piqued my eardrums exactly every second and a half.

"Do you guys hear that?" Leah whispered to all of us.

"I... think?" Vulpix answered ambiguously.

"Something is definitely making noise," Mincinno commented in a hushed tone. "But what is it? It sounds like it's coming from far away, but from all directions..."

"Maybe if we keep moving, we'll pass by whatever's making it and it will eventually stop," Helioptile suggested.

"Sage?" Leah whispered back to me. "You can hear it too, right?"

Something was wrong here... I wasn't sure what, or why, but a sudden sensation of deafening pressure enclosed on the broad hallway we were in. It wasn't the kind that made you claustrophobic; rather, I could only best describe it as the spiritual kind that one might feel when they've angered an omnipotent deity. It was as if the walls and the ceiling were trying to tell my soul something. I'd never felt anything so supernatural before, unless you count the unwavering dread of realizing my memories were wiped clean and that I'd been turned into a Pokemon.

"Sage!" a sharp whisper called. Leah was staring at me, her face colored worried in the shadow of Helioptile's glowing body several feet away.

"Hm? Oh, s-sorry. I was just listening to the sound, that's all."

My partner nodded slowly and continued forward with the other three. I noticed with a great deal of perplexity that they all were walking just the same as before, with perhaps a meager amount of caution applied to their steps to credit the unnatural ticking sound. None of them seemed to notice, or to put more accurately, be capable of noticing the pressure that had just captivated me all of the sudden. I could still feel it lingering in the depths of my consciousness, sending a chill up my spine, and it took an extra burst of willpower just to pick my feet off the ground and catch up to them.

It was when we started to get notably deeper into the cave that I noticed my companions were beginning to feel uneasy as well, restlessly glancing around at every corner that might be hiding something. The ticking sound was no longer persisting on the contours of our imaginations as it got louder the deeper we went. It merged itself with the now-undeniable sense of dread that I was fairly certain we could all feel now, forming an omnipresent cacophony of nightmarish qualities. The sound still held its form; every one and a half second I'd hear a loud tick before it would cycle again. But as it continued to get louder, the source continued to evade the physical realm. It came from the walls, and the floor and ceiling, and from inside us too.

"S-Sage?" Leah whispered under her breath as she fell into step beside me. I could see the hair on the back of her neck was sticking up, and realized after a brief self-evaluation that I felt the same tension she did.

"Yeah?" I answered coarsely.

Her eyes were now full of fear, and I was reminded of her misgivings about anything involving the supernatural. "I..." she immediately found trouble speaking. "I don't think this is a normal dungeon anymore."

"Neither do I." I breathed out slowly. No words of comfort were to be shared here, where it felt like the universe was collapsing in on us and nobody had the faintest idea why.

I came to the grim realization that, although we should still be in a mystery dungeon, there hadn't been a single wild Pokemon to appear for a good while now. I voiced this to everyone, who paid it half a mind under the intensified strain on our spirits. Mincinno finally suggested that they were probably scared off by whatever's causing this weird feeling, which definitely didn't do a good job making any of us feel better about this. No, this was certainly not a normal dungeon. Something was very, very wrong. Something else was here, in this cave, and it knew we were here too.

I was on the verge of suggesting that we just abort the mission altogether, when we finally reached a dead-end. Before us was a gigantic stone slab that appeared to serve as a door or a seal of some sort. Upon closer inspection, I noticed little runes scribbled into the rock, none of which I could begin to decipher.

"What the hell is this?" Mincinno said as he ran his paw across the giant rectangular stone. "Can any of you read this?"

We all got closer and inspected it. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't make sense of any of it. It was some kind of bygone language that I wouldn't have known anything about. By the looks of disappointment on my friends' faces, they had all reached a similar conclusion.

"I bet Mawile could figure this out," Helioptile said after a couple of unsuccessful minutes. "Maybe we should take it back to her?"

"How do you imagine we haul a twenty-ton slab back to Mawile?" Vulpix chafed.

"We could-" he stopped himself short and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Hrmm... yeah, I got nothing."

"Get a good look at a few of the runes so we can describe them from memory," Mincinno ordered. "It's better than nothing."

"This is great and all," Leah said with another nervous glance around the dead-end room. "But where are the villagers we came in here for?"

"And where's this ticking sound coming from?" Vulpix added. "Shouldn't we have found it by now if this is the end of the cave?"

She had a good point. The ticking now actually was rather deafening by any definition, and the pressure we had been feeling intensified to a level even higher than before. Helioptile's glowing body lit up the entire room well enough, but it still didn't satisfy the ominous sensation of being watched at every angle. It didn't make any sense, and part of me didn't want it to. I just wanted to find these stupid nutcase villagers and leave at this point.

"Hey, check this out," Vulpix whispered. She was looking at some kind of pole on the right side of the slab that had escaped my notice. It extended from the ground up a few feet in the air, where a cylinder containing charred wood rested on top. Another identical pole sat opposite of this one on the left side of the slab, making their purpose all-too-obvious.

"Leah, do you think you could light those two torches?" Vulpix asked her. "I think it might do something."

Leah nodded, and a burst of fire formed in her throat. She held back enough on the attack to simmer against the wood just enough to start a small fire. She did the same for both torches, and then stepped back with the rest of us to see what would happen next.

At first, nothing happened at all. It took about ten seconds for us to finally hear a rumbling sound, this sound overlapping the constant ticking and shaking the cave around us. We all panicked at first, thinking it was about to collapse on us, when we quickly realized that it was the giant slab that was doing the rumbling. The whole room shook as it began descending into the floor, opening up a new entrance behind it. Once the top of the slab was aligned with the floor, it abruptly stopped moving, and the cave went silent. We all held our breath as we came to the grim realization that the ticking sound, too, had stopped.

We didn't even get a chance to comprehend the otherworldliness of the uncanny silence, before a new sound canceled it out and made us all tense up even more than before.

We heard groaning. Like someone was deathly sick. And it was coming from inside the room that had just opened up.

"Guys..." I whispered. "I think I know where those villagers are."

"Alright," Mincinno began quietly, keeping a wayward eye on the entrance to make sure nothing emerged. "Leah will take the bottom left corner, and Vulpix will take the bottom right corner. Helioptile will lead and Sage and I will flank him from a half-step behind so we don't cast any shadows in places that aren't already accounted for. We clear the room, grab the villagers, and then we go. If they put up some kind of fight, we knock them out while maintaining formation. Understood?"

We all nodded, and got in a tight pentagonal formation. Mincinno waited a moment for us to get our bearings and take a deep breath, and then waved us forward.

"Now!" he hissed.

We burst through the moderately-sized entrance and into a room that was a little less than twice the size of our bedroom back at the Expedition Society. Vulpix and Leah took their diagonal angles as instructed, first checking the back corners and then turning their attention forward. The other three of us advanced forward, ready for anything that might lunge at us.

When I finally gathered a perception of where we were, I gagged and nearly stumbled from the assault on my senses. There were rectangular shelves cut into the walls of the room of all different lengths, most of them occupied by what could only be decomposing bones and skeletons that were in the bleak transition of becoming one with the earth. The ones I could immediately see spanned what could be thousands of years apart from each other in the decomposition process, but they all were undoubtedly very old. The skulls, for the most part, were so ancient that I couldn't even begin to determine the species of any of them. The only thing that I could determine by looking at them was that this was a very old tomb.

Near the back wall of the room was a single rectangular stone coffin, with the lid smashed apart and bits and pieces of it scattered all across the room. Around this tomb was where we finally saw the moaning villagers.

They were all kneeling at the altar, with their faces down on the floor and their palms extended outward and resting on the sides of the coffin. All five of them sat in a perfect semi-circle around it, and didn't waver an inch from our noisy arrival.

It looked like a Simisage, a Swadloon, a Treecko, and a Roselia made up the four that sat on either side of the one in the middle, who I couldn't quite see from my current angle. Then, in an action that broke the standstill, the one in the middle got up from his worshipping position, and turned to face us. My heart skipped a beat when I saw his him, and I instantly regretted ever coming down here.

He looked terrible, for starters, like he hadn't eaten or been outside in a lifetime. Skin was starting to peel off of his face, and the entire green portion of his scaly body was starting to dry out and match the color of his pale underbelly, giving him a look that screamed death. If not for the demonic red eyes that glowed in direct opposition to Helioptile's flash, I'd have thought the Snivy before us was a walking corpse.

If I thought I was scared at the sight of his remains, then I was in for a shock when I heard his distorted voice.

"fiLThY HuMAn!" his voice creaked, echoing through the room and stabbing a knife through my soul. "yOU CaNnOT eSCaPe thE INeVitaBLe!"

We all could do nothing but stare at the animated remains of the possessed Snivy in our petrified state. It was all so sudden, and nobody knew how to react, or even knew if responding was even a good path of action at all.

"fOoL! YOu aRe nOThiNG bUT aN uMBraGe oF wHaT yOU oNcE wERe!" The Snivy's rotten body jerked abnormally, and his head snapped upwards at an impossible angle. "HeED mY tOKeN; yOU ShALL bE COnsUMeD bY tHE sUN aLOnG wITh tHE REsT oF yOUr DeFIcIENt kIND! iT Is yOUr dEStinY!"

The Snivy's head finally snapped back into its normal position, and shuddered once more. Then, without another moment's hesitation, he levitated forward at breakneck speed with his tattered vines out and in a threatening position.

Something inside me swelled and propelled me forward to meet the approaching enemy a moment sooner than any of my companions could react. The forces of my healthy vines clashed with the rotten vines of the enemy, and I felt little resistance as I cut through rotten cells. Slicing my two weapons in an X-shape, the dead Snivy's brown vines were cut clean off almost instantly, and the force holding him an inch off the ground let go. The corpse's momentum carried it forward, and I fell back as it landed right on top of me.

Its red eyes stared into mine, and I felt two entities intertwine in a helix that I could feel spanning countless generations. I stared back, and found mockery reflected back at me. Mockery dominated by the kind of anger that followed a desire for vengeance and suffering. And it made me angry. It made me very angry.

"You're running out of time Sage..." it whispered into my ear.

I shoved the corpse off of me and prepared to deal it another volley of vine whip. But there was no need; the red glimmer in his eyes had dissolved, and the body had gone completely limp. The other villagers kneeling by the tomb violently spasmed as soon as this happened, before falling limp as well.

None of us could muster any words to what had just happened. As I sat there on the ground surrounded by bones, I felt an uncomfortable sense of disconnect from the rational world around me. It was all too much, and not even the remains of Helioptile's glow could remain in my vision as my consciousness escaped into nothingness.