It wasn't a particularly notable day in history to most of those living in it, maybe aside from the sun looking like it was flickering in and out of existence every now and then, not creating a lack of light, just a lack of a sun. But not a whole lot of people seemed to bothered by it, and the ones who were got over it pretty fast.

It was really just another average day in Tunnel Forest, the trees rose high up piercing into the sky, Pokemon moved through the vegetation looking for their next meal often while trying not to become one themselves, and below the forest floor, creeping in the tunnels made of roots and dirt that gave the forest its namesake, were two Pokemon on the prowl.

"He can't have gone far, not when he's busted up that bad." Said the Gliscor. "Probably knows that though, likely thought you were alone and led you down here to try and shake you off his tail."

"Bait and switch Gideon, works more often than you'd think," The Lairon turned to the Gliscor with a cheeky smile, "make 'em believe that one things coming for 'em, then when they least expect it you pounce and crush 'em!"

Gideon chuckled, "I know how it works rat face, now calm down long enough for me to hear where this pooch went and we might actually get to use it today."

"Why do you always call me that?" The Lairon did his best to look at his own face, "That's not my name and I'm not a Rattata or something, so why do always use it?"

Gideon chuckled to himself again.

"Its because your face looks like a rat Juncker, don't feel bad, its a term of endearment!"

"Of course it would be to you asshole." Juncker said with a hint of a smile, "Now hurry up so we can bag this guy already and I can tell everyone back home how spindly your legs are again." he said as he gently nudged Gideon.

"Hey hey, alright alright," Gideon said while regaining his balance, "I think I've got an idea of where that pooch is in this maze. Here, follow me."

The pair descended deeper into the root-infested tunnels in search of their target, making their way further underneath the extensive tree systems, while at a distance behind them, a lone Treecko followed.

"So what're we dealing with down here?" Juncker asked.

"Not entirely sure, probably not a whole lot, but whatever's down here is gonna be durable, has to be to be able to live in a place this backwards." Gideon said, warily glancing at the jagged roots sticking out of the walls.

"So what, Rock and Steel Types?" Juncker asked.

"Maybe, I'm guessing stuff more native to the forest as well, worst case we might run into a wild Scizor that wants to tear us up." Said Gideon.

"Shouldn't be a problem with that fancy fire fang of yours, you could melt your mouth right through its head if you felt like it!" Juncker said.

"Well yeah I could, but I'd rather not personally, just takes time away from us nabbing that Poochyena-"

"Mightyena."

"Right, Mightyena." Gideon said. "So if we see a Scizor walking about or something roughly as capable of punching one of us, which I don't even know if we will, let's do our best to go around it instead of through it."

The duo continued to make their way deeper into the winding tunnel system with only Gideon's echolocation and the soft light emanating off of the crystals dotting the cave's jagged walls to guide them.

That is until Juncker saw a little clump of black fur on the ground out of the corner of his eye.

Moving towards the clump to examine it, he turned it over with his metal paw to further inspect it. He gave the fur a few sniffs before deeming it harmless.

"Hey Gideon, I think we might be getting close, come check this out," Juncker said motioning with his head, "this definitely dropped off the pooch, we're on his tail for sure."

"I think we're a little closer than the tail, look," Gideon gestured to another corner of the cave with one of his pincers before making his way over to it.

Gideon hunched over and picked up a cold coin off of the ground.

"Just a hunch, but it seems like our friend's been dropping more than just fur." Gideon inspected the coin. "What did you say he had on him when you two fought?"

"He had a scarf…" Juncker looked down in thought. "Oh! And also he had a bag slung on 'em, not sure what was in it, but it for sure wasn't his."

"Let's keep moving then, he's probably holed up somewhere to rest that leg." Gideon said.

As they continued their search deeper into the tunnels, Juncker's face turned into an expression of uncertainty, there was something bothering him that he wasn't entirely sure of, but maybe Gideon could make heads or tails of it if he shared it with him.

"Hey Gideon, can I get your take on something?" Juncker asked.

"Yeah sure," Gideon glanced back at Juncker as he walked, "what is it?"

"I'm not sure why really, but this choice of a hiding spot doesn't make a whole lot of sense, when we had our scuffle and I busted up his leg he darted like a mad dog for the nearest tunnel entrance, I figured it was to try and hide, but one thing I still haven't figured out is how on Carita he plans on getting out of here on that leg." Said Juncker

"Well it could be a couple things," Gideon said, stopping to periodically tap his pincer on the walls, "if he thought it was just you following him then he probably thought he could outmaneuver you down here even on his bad leg, might've been trying to hide and wait you out until you decided to leave."

Gideon kept tapping his pincer on the progressively flatter walls, stopping every now and then to tap any apparent spots of interest a few more times.

"Also possible is that he already knows these tunnels, so he knew he could outwit you in them, keeping in mind that he doesn't know I'm with you, or he knew a good place to post up where you wouldn't think to find him." Gideon paused, "speaking of which, you might want to stand back a little bit."

Juncker obliged, and after Gideon gave him a slight nod of thanks, he suddenly tensed and one of his pincers began to glow a brilliant and blinding white. Gideon drew back the shining pincer behind him before quickly and powerfully thrusting it forward, crashing it into the wall and shattering the sheet of rock into pieces, and out of the new Pokemon sized hole in the wall fell out several more gold pieces.

Gideon relaxed his stance and turned around to look at Juncker.

"Unless we've just run into some old buried treasure, I think we just found what, or where, our Mightyena friend was coming down here for," Gideon reached into the hole and pulled out a disc. "And if this TM is anything to judge by, my guess is that it's not so ancient." Gideon said with a smile.

Juncker gave a small laugh, "Well you've done it again Gideon, cmon, let's check this little cave hut out."

Von laid as still and as quietly as he could in a narrow corner of the cave, where he was pressed up tightly against the walls in a small chamber that you could only get to by way of a Mobile Scarf. It had been a pain to get ahold of his, and once he got it he went almost nowhere without it. Usually the scarf served to keep him out of the clutches of those who would rather see the humble Mightyena in prison instead of going about his thievery.

Today in theory really shouldn't have been any different when a Lairon managed to get the jump on him. He would go about his drill as usual: escape the assailant by entering the tunnel system below the forest, hide in his little treasure chamber, and wait until whatever Pokemon was coming after him gave up.

The Mobile Scarf's usefulness seemed like it might not be enough to save Von's hide this time though. As soon as he heard tapping on one of the walls of the chamber, he immediately panicked and passed straight through the solid rock walls of the cave as if he was Ghost type into the small empty pocket he currently occupied, and there he waited in trepidation as he heard a loud crash of rock breaking and hitting the ground.

Von heard the footsteps of not just a Lairon walking through the entrance he could only assume was the cause of the explosion, but also something lighter entering the cave as well.

"You remember that scarf you said the pooch was wearing Juncker?" One voice said.

"Yeah what about it?" The other voice replied.

"This little treasure trove doesn't have any entrances besides the one I just punched into it, I think our friend might be carrying some very valuable things on him, like maybe a Mobile Scarf perhaps…"

Von held his breath and began to shake a little harder as he heard a shift of wind seemingly move towards him, as if something was gliding inside the chamber. The hole in the wall Von occupied was a one way thing, there was no tunnel on the other side for him to faze into, if they figured out he was in this pocket he was done for.

A sharp distinct sound of something charging up reached Von's ears, and the next thing he knew he was falling out of the wall.

Gideon pulled his pincer back as the white energy dissipated from it. As the thin sheet of rock that had been the wall only seconds earlier quickly came tumbling down, a Mightyena with an injured leg and a scarf wrapped around its neck fell into a heap onto the ground at Gideon's feet.

Gideon acted swiftly, before the Mightyena could regain its bearings he tore the Mobile Scarf from off its body with haste while being careful not to damage it in order to stop the criminal from escaping. He threw the scarf back to Juncker who caught it easily in his mouth before putting it in his pouch.

"So," Gideon picked up the Mightyena by the scruff of his neck, "you're Von the Mightyena? Interesting way to hide all your loot, keep it in a spot you physically can't get to without breaking stuff, being a Ghost, or having a Mobile Scarf, very clever! Also neat use of that air pocket to hide in, if I were you though I would've made sure there was a second way out to faze through too, probably would've saved you from the headache you're in right now." Gideon gave a toothy smile to the hanging Mightyena.

Von's gave a low growl back as his legs pawed at the air, trying to come in contact with something.

"More than one of you huh?" Von sneered and looked at Juncker, "You brought a Gliscor with you? Explains how you were able to find your way through these caves. Well I'm at your mercy now bat, what're you planning on doing with me?"

Gideon smiled, "Funny you should ask that, you see, you've been unusually tame during this short amount of time, and I'm curious, what's your plan for getting out of this? Bad leg, outnumbered, no Mobile Scarf, yet still I know you gotta be scheming something in that furry head of yours."

A mischievous smile crept onto Von's face, and then suddenly he opened his maw and sent a ball of dark wispy energy hurling at Juncker's face.

Juncker jinked out of the way with the agility of a much nimbler Pokemon, and the Shadow Ball harmlessly collided with a wall.

Gideon grinned as he slammed and pinned a struggling Von to the ground.

"Alright that'll do, thanks for showing me what this TM of your's is. I figured it would be Shadow Ball but I didn't have time to check it properly before our meeting, thanks for saving me the time! The Kecleon brothers are gonna go nuts when we bring this to them." he said.

Gideon gestured for Juncker to come to him.

"Juncker, come tie this pooch up so we can head back before dark, and make sure he doesn't get too close to the bag, he might have a Thief TM he's used stowed away in here somewhere. We'll need to let base know that we found Von's stash as well, I just need to take care of one last thing down here..."

Von flailed helplessly as responsibility of him was handed over to Juncker, but with his muzzle tied up and his already torn up leg, there wasn't a whole lot left for him to do.

Gideon made his way back through the entrance of the chamber and looked around the tunnel by way of the soft crystal light. He squinted as he focused on a particular root behind the rock close to the ground that appeared to be almost twitching.

"I know your there. It's alright, you can come out." Said Gideon.

Nervously, the small head of a Treecko slowly peered out to look at the Gliscor before darting out from behind the rock.

Gideon gave a look of appraisal to the Treecko in front of him.

"I knew you were following us the whole way down here," Gideon knelt down to the Treecko, "you don't read as a threat at all, so I wanted to ask you, why is it you followed us?"

"I…" The Treecko eyes shifted nervously. "I-I guess I was just curious, we... don't really see people like you around much…"

"What like you don't see Gliscor or Lairon often in these parts?" Gideon said with a smile.

"No, not that…" the Treecko said, "I mean I never really get to see people who do what you do."

Understanding flashed across Gideon's face as he looked down at the Treecko.

"I was saved by another one of you guys when I was younger, back when the forest was- was burning," the Treecko shuddered, "and- and I never found out who they were, they never showed up in the woods again." the Treecko said.

"I've always wanted to know more about people like you because they did so much for me that night, and for everybody else in the forest, so when I saw your friend fighting that Mightyena in the woods I followed you guys, I really don't know why, I don't know what I was thinking…" the Treecko trailed off.

"What's your name Treecko?" Gideon asked.

"Its uh-" the Treecko tripped over its words. "Its Ayshes, my name is Ayshes."

"Ayshes huh?" Gideon put a pincer to his chin in thought. "Well Ayshes, you managed to get all the way down here without my friend over there realizing it..."

The Gliscor looked as if he was mulling something over in his head.

"I can't say a lot, not here, but I will say that the life Pokemon like me lead isn't an easy one, it's full of hardship and hard work, but its all for something." Gideon stood back up to his full height.

"There's something about you…" Gideon's face was lost in thought for a moment "Do you have family or anyone you know around here?"

Ayshes shook his head still looking at his feet, and Gideon's expression turned to one of sympathy.

"Listen, if you want to know more I'll oblige, but on one condition, go to the northmost bench in Terracotta City's plaza tomorrow." Gideon shifted back to face Juncker. "If I see you there, I want you to be able to tell me why you chose to came, but until then."

Gideon glided back over to Juncker who had Von resting on his back tied up and out cold. And with that they made there way through the caves, out of Ayshes' sight.

Ayshes walked through the tunnels staring at his feet, lost in thought. He had explored these caves often as a child, but he had never been this deep in before, his parents had told him never to stray too far away from home, lest he get lost and they were never able to find him.

He missed them a lot.

It had been a long time since that forest fire came and went taking his family with it. As the years passed by it got easier for him to cope with, but for Ayshes, it felt like there were some wounds that no amount of time could heal. Ever since he got saved by his unknown hero all that time ago, he had been on his own doing what he could to scrape by in the forest.

He never really had anything in mind other than that, there wasn't a whole lot of reason for him to have ambitions beyond it.

So how he was going to explain why he felt compelled to heed that Gliscor's challenge he had no idea.

If Ayshes was being honest he didn't know how to explain it, beyond curiosity he couldn't even pin it down in himself, but maybe finding out why he wanted to go was the reason all along, maybe finding out more about these people who had done so much good for him so long ago could finally lead him to something more.

With a new found resolve in his step Ayshes continued his trek, until he turned a corner and his train of thought was halted by the sight of a body crumpled up on the floor of the cave.

Dropping all pretense of confidence, Ayshes dashed on all fours to the form lying face up on the ground to get a closer look.

It was a Pokemon he had never seen before! It was black and blue and looked to be some sort of dog. After looking at it for a little longer the gears clicked inside Ayshes' head, he had heard of this Pokemon before, but he never thought he would get to see one in person!

It was a Riolu!

Looking at the strange Pokemon more closely, Ayshes let out a sigh of relief when he saw the slight rise and fall of its chest, it wasn't dead like he first feared, it was just unconscious. Even still though, the Riolu's face looked like it was in distress from something.

Ayshes cautiously reached out a hand to try and shake the Riolu awake, but when he touched the Riolu's shoulder its eyes instantly popped open.

"AHHHHHH!" the Riolu screamed.

Startled, Ayshes jumped back, and the newly awakened Pokemon scrambled to its feet, but when it stood up it looked like it was about to just fall over again, wobbling on its feet in an effort to maintain its balance.

"Hey! Are you ok?" Ayshes asked, having recovered from his shock.

"Wha-?!" The Riolu's eyes seemed to widen even more. "How are you doing that?!"

"How am I doing what?"

Ayshes was starting to get confused.

"You- you're a Treecko, a Pokemon! And you just talked! How did you do that?" the Riolu asked in disbelief.

"What do you mean?" Ayshes furrowed his brow. "You're a Pokemon and you're talking too, aren't you?"

"What are you talking about? I'm a human!"

Now Ayshes was really confused.

"I've never seen a Riolu in person before but you sure do look like one to me." he said.

The Riolu quickly looked down at his feet and then up to the rest of his body until he got to his palms. He flipped over his paws to inspect the metal nubs on the back of his arms and tapped them as if in disbelief that they were there. He leaned back on the wall closest to him and began to slump down to a sitting position, still staring at his paws.

"I can't believe it… I've turned into a Pokemon, a Riolu…" he whispered.

A few silent moments passed and Ayshes wasn't really sure what to do.

"Hey, um- I don't know about this whole human thing but, I'm Ayshes, what's your name?"

"My name… my name is…" the Riolu didn't seem to know what to say.

Enzo

That's what it was.

"My name is Enzo." he said.

"Alright Enzo, um, I haven't seen you around here before, do you know how you got here?"

"I…" Enzo looked dumbfounded. "I don't know...I don't remember...I can't remember anything!"

Enzo looked like he was on the verge of panic. He held his head in his paws and if Ayshes looked closely it almost looked like he was shuddering. The sight tugged at his heart strings but once again Ayshes found himself at a loss for what to do.

Before Ayshes could say anything though, Enzo's head shot up to look down the tunnel, ears perked and eyes wide.

"What's going on?" Ayshes asked.

"I hear something... its like metal hitting rock over and over again and it's getting louder." Enzo said.

Ayshes wracked his brain for a moment until he stumbled onto something he remembered the Gliscor had said earlier.

A Scizor.

From what he knew, the wild ones were ruthlessly territorial, and wouldn't hesitate to smash in some perceived intruders if it felt they were in its way, and Ayshes thought that he fit that bill far to well for his comfort.

"Enzo I think something's coming, and if it's what I think it is then we don't wanna be here when it gets here."

The sound grew loud enough that Ayshes was able to hear it now too.

"Cmon, let's get out of these tunnels and fast, we can talk some more on the surface."

Enzo nodded and got to his feet as his quick as he could, still looking unsteady as he stood.

As if on cue though, the red-metal form of a Scizor turned a corner and found itself in the same hallway as the two Pokemon, thankfully not having spotted them yet.

Ayshes motioned for Enzo to follow him as he started creeping down the tunnel while keeping an eye on the Scizor, when all to quickly the two locked eyes.

"RUN!" Ayshes yelled as he dashed through the caves, both Enzo and the Scizor following behind him.

The two sprinted as fast as they could away from the chasing Scizor. Ayshes did his best to follow a path to the surface while still trying to shake their pursuer. He occasionally checked behind him to make sure Enzo was still there and luckily he always was, but everytime he checked it seemed the Scizor got a little closer than the last time he looked.

"Come on, in here!" Ayshes yelled as he pivoted around a corner.

They ran down that hallway a little longer until Ayshes saw… a staircase?

He immediately ground to a halt.

"Enzo, stop real fast!" he said.

The Riolu gradually slowed down until he was next to Ayshes.

"Why did we stop?! Isn't that thing still after us?" Enzo asked worriedly.

"I don't think he's our biggest issue anymore." Ayshes turned to look where they had come from, and there was no Scizor in sight.

But something was different.

What had once been a straightaway coming from another tunnel was now a flat wall with several entrances coming in from the sides.

The caves layout had changed.

"Ayshes what are these stairs? Did Pokemon or something put them here as a way out?" Enzo asked, still clearly nervous.

"Enzo I don't know what to tell you, but I don't know who put these stairs here, nobody does, here, look at the way we came." Ayshes said.

Enzo did so, and when he saw what Ayshes had seen, his expression become one of confusion.

"Wait a second, didn't we…?"

"Listen, I think we might be in trouble now, I've only ever heard of these before and I didn't even know there was one down here-"

"'Was one' what?!" Enzo demanded.

"Enzo, we are in a Mystery Dungeon."