The next morning, things were even more abuzz than usual… if not because of the goings-on in regards to the Ultra Space expedition, then because of Arashi practically bouncing off the walls. It had hardly been half an hour after waking up, and the Greninja was already practically sprinting around the base wherever they went, which Astrid and Raijin observed haplessly. The Starstorm trio trailed their way up to Adnea's study, where both the Orbeetle and Lunala still had tons of pages and diagrams scattered about or pinned to the walls, and a certain little nebula stayed quietly huddled up in a corner while eyeing the surroundings. Astrid still couldn't help but to be baffled by half of the things on the pages, complex calculations and flowsheets that only Adnea would ever likely draft up, but if anything, that only made her even happier to have someone like that mapping out their quickly-approaching expedition. The ethereal goddess, however, still didn't get so much as a glance from the Decidueye.

"You want a wormhole back to your hometown, yeah?" Lunala nonchalantly inquired, studying the trio with a grin.

"Yeah!" Arashi affirmed, looking excited. "For all the trouble they've caused us, it's still a cool way of getting somewhere!"

Lunala giggled. "Well, you've come to the right Beast!"

The Greninja shot Raijin a grin. "Y'know, aside from Rush and Rozen, your bosses are the coolest," he remarked, then grinning back at the starry-winged one, "Maybe I'm just overreacting since I'm not used to it, but having someone around that can just casually rip holes in space is awesome!"

Lunala giggled and gave Arashi a pat on the head with one bony hand, and Raijin simply tapped his fingers together.

"Well, I do like the Light Trio, and having Lunala around is a huge advantage," the Xurkitree mused, not thinking much of it one way or another.

Astrid kept her thoughts to herself, wanting so badly to say 'Necrozma lied by omission to all of us and the other two are complicit' in response, but she kept her beak shut. Rather, she took more note of the little starry cloud in the corner silently eyeing everyone and gazed back in return, which seemed to make the hapless Cosmog tense up. She couldn't blame the little nebula- she'd been horribly timid when dropped into a new world too.

"Careful with that one," Adnea noted, glancing over at the feathered ghost. "He's spent the vast majority of his short life brainwashed and shoved into a cramped box, and he's still adjusting to freedom."

"Ah, so we've got the little nebula's pronoun preferences, at least," Raijin piped up, glancing over at the little starry cloud.

The Cosmog in question, though, blinked, still as a statue. "… You can call me Gemini too," he said, very soft and subdued. "I… I'm not really used to… being individual, but… I like the sound of it."

Arashi started grinning. "Hah! You're special, Gemini, if for no other reason than being the only Gemini! Don't let anyone tell you otherwise!"

The little nebula's mouth started to curl up just a bit in a shy smile. "You three are Team Starstorm, right…?" he said in a voice so soft that it was almost hard to hear. "The human that's more troublesome than Salem, her annoying brat friend that Remi entrusted me to, and her traitor friend that makes Void shake with anger…?"

"That's us, alright!" Arashi answered, laughing happily. "Team Starstorm, the ones pissing Void off right and left, aha!"

More of a smile spread across Gemini's face. "… I think I like that too…~"

The Greninja too started getting an even bigger grin, but before he could say whatever it was on his mind, Lunala jumped in and said quickly, "No, you are not taking Gemini with you, for heaven's sake! Getting overloaded by a bunch of strangers is the last thing he needs right now!"

Arashi, though, shot the starry-winged one a pleadingly excited look. "Oh, come on! It'd be fun!"

"No," the goddess repeated, amiable but firm.

"You four can mess around together all you like after we return from Ultra Space, gods willing," Adnea corroborated.

Arashi still grinned, but he deflated and said, "Okay, okay, point taken!"

Astrid shook her head in hapless amusement at her partner's antics. "Let me guess," she piped up, glancing at the Greninja next to her, "you're already deeming Gemini a 'friend,' aren't you?"

Arashi wasn't fazed in the slightest and easily replied, "Well, obviously! I mean, I carried him around in my backpack for a little while, and I'd say that qualifies as being close! Isn't that enough?"

The Decidueye blinked, and her partner simply grinned at her as if the inquiry in the first place was ridiculous. By that logic, Squad Fourteen-Five should've been treating their own Cosmog like a friend, which very obviously was not the case, but she didn't bother asking about the exact logic he was using. Having someone shoved into a backpack then carrying that backpack around would definitely make them 'close'… but in a physical way and not necessarily a friendly one, though that evidently didn't matter. Adnea was rolling her eyes, apparently thinking the Greninja's antics to be ridiculous too, and Lunala wore an amused look.

"Oooookay, well, you guys can figure that out amongst yourselves later, but in the meantime, here you go," Lunala remarked amiably, shaking her head with a grin.

At that, the air cracked and opened up, and the Starstorm trio exchanged a brief nod before the three of them went leaping in. Lunala gave a friendly wave with one hand as they vanished inside, and the side of the wormhole in the Coalition base shut soon thereafter. The other side opened to some familiar but changed scenery, that of a slightly marshy lakeside with bits of grass that were still scorched black- scars on the ground left by Salem's flames. The sky was slightly grey and gloomy, perhaps signaling that a sprinkle of rain would fall sometime later.

It almost didn't feel right to Astrid, standing in the same place again that she and her partner had escaped from when that crazy Delphox dropped in to utterly ruin their day, and she blinked a few times while staring at the ground. It was welcoming and homey, yet almost surreal… but her partner evidently had different ideas.

"Yes!" Arashi cried happily, pumping two fists in the air and darting over to the edge of the water. "Hell-lo, lovely outskirts of Tranquil Town! I bet it's been quiet out here without me, aha!"

A lone wild Corphish skittering about on the marshy edges apparently didn't like the sudden interruption in its solitude, for the little crustacean went scurrying below the surface almost the moment the Greninja's voice graced the air.

"… It feels strange to be out here and not be trying to hide all the time," Raijin remarked, glancing around.

Astrid couldn't help but to chuckle a bit. "Last time we were here, we were hiding from you," she noted, likewise glancing around. "Arceus above, things have changed."

Arashi turned back around to face them and darted back over, giggling in bliss. He stuck a hand on both of them, excitedly glancing between the other two of the team. "C'mon, let's go say hi to everyone! We've gotta-!"

That thought was cut off by some other commotion consisting of some rather familiar voices.

"Oh, you just try and stop me- ngehhh!" came a certain shifty voice.

"I think I will," came a more collected, but still rather pointed, remark from a certain Jolteon.

"Come on, you oaf, you can't just try to start an urban legend by calling yourself 'The Dark Lord' and floating off ominous drawings in bottles," said a certain more reasoned voice.

The Starstorm trio glanced up to see three other figures- a Toxicroak, specifically a female one judging by the smaller vocal sac, sprawled on the ground with a Jolteon pinning her down with three paws, and an Ambipom snatching up a message-filled bottle with one of his tail-hands. Two of them were certainly different than last time, but they were easily recognized nonetheless- Lila, Trixie, and Charlie. Astrid blinked, a bit taken by surprise at seeing them so suddenly, but she nonetheless started to smile, and Arashi was instantly getting a huge grin.

"Hey!" the Greninja called, playfully excited. "What're you three up to, huh?! Trying to start an urban legend without your legend-worthy pals?! Now, that's just low!"

The other three youngsters perked up, likewise taken by surprise before getting grins of their own.

"Oh, my gods!" Trixie hollered, still pinned under Lila's paws. "It's the cavalcade of useless posers!"

"No way!" Charlie cried.

"You three!" Lila exclaimed.

The next moment, the other three were scurrying over and practically stumbling over their own feet. At least two dozen hugs went around between the six of them, Lila practically tackling over Astrid and Arashi when she jumped into their arms. Raijin gave a few uncertain twitches at likewise having Trixie and Charlie's arms thrown around him too, but he nonetheless returned the gesture just like he did with the other two members of Team Starstorm. Astrid felt tranquil just like the town's namesake with all of her friends around, and her beak curled up even more in a grin. She'd missed it- the shenanigans with the other town youngsters, the relative uneventful state of the town (or so it evidently usually was when Salem's crew of degenerates weren't causing trouble), and the quietly serene surroundings. She'd miss it again too when she left the world entirely… but she tried not to think about that too much.

"What's going on, huh?" Lila inquired, studying them all with a smile. "Don't you guys have some serious business with Salem and her boss?"

"Oh, we do," Arashi affirmed, smiling himself too. "That's actually why we're here! Tomorrow we leave for Ultra Space, and Rush told us to go have some fun back home before we head straight into hostile territory! I mean, there's a chance we might not ever come back, so it would be a total jerk move to leave without seeing everyone first!"

Three sets of wide eyes followed shortly thereafter.

"Seriously?!" Trixie fussed, smirking but disbelieving. "Are you sure those crazy Ultra Beasts aren't just gonna turn you into a bunch of smiling chunks?! I mean, holy hot damn, that's a pretty big undertaking!"

The Greninja chuckled. "Oh, it'll be fine! We've got this guy as the resident expert on everything Ultra Space, after all!" he brushed it off, giving a wave at Raijin.

"Those other crazy Ultra Beasts can try if they want to, but I'm not gonna let them touch these two," the Xurkitree noted. "Or at least, if they do, it'll be over my dead body."

Trixie shot him a smirk, giggling in her usual shifty manner. "Yeah, we heard about that- how you totally are one scary abomination, but we don't gotta worry about it! We just met, but I like you already, ehehe~"

One of Charlie's tail-hands whopped her on the back of the head at her amiably off-handed words, but the Toxicroak didn't care in the slightest and instead playfully stuck one of her long red claws under his neck. He only shook his head, not taking the gesture seriously either, and Raijin twitched uncertainly at the antics.

"Don't mind her; she's like this to literally everyone all the time," Lila noted, shooting the Beast a glance.

"… So I've been told," Raijin replied, studying the shifty-eyed one.

"I gotta ask," Arashi chimed in, glancing excitedly between the Ambipom and Toxicroak, "you two are obviously in different forms, so how'd that go? Those spikes and extra hands look nice on you, aha!"

It was Charlie's turn to get a smirk, and Trixie's fists clenched up for a second as she gave him a side-eye.

Lila, though, piped up before either one of them could open their mouths, "We made two trips down to Lake Lucent, since apparently, Salem's cronies gave up on whatever they were doing down there after you guys beat Azure. Honestly, if I wasn't capable of dropping a Thunderbolt on all those pools and taking most of the dungeon-dwellers in them out in one fell swoop, that place probably would've been way more annoying."

"Oh, it was annoying for completely different reasons, alright," Trixie said to the contrary, giving Charlie another shifty side-eye.

Charlie, though, still didn't seem too fazed, still smirking uncharacteristically. "Oh, you're just mad I got one over on you."

"I sure am!" the Toxicroak didn't deny it. "Even I wouldn't do something that cruel!"

"Oh, you would, too!" the Ambipom protested. "You pretended to have a lovely cake that you were kindly sharing with your friends, and I chucked an Everstone at your face! We're even!"

Astrid and Arashi both blinked, and Raijin silently studied the other trio.

"Alright, you guys, explain," Arashi said amusedly. "What's this about cake and Everstones?"

Lila rolled her eyes, piping up before anyone else, "Well, you see, it all started on one normal afternoon in Verdant Meadow."


The sun shone down with its warm rays, the flora was in bloom, the avians chirped and preened each other in the trees, and it appeared nothing could go wrong short of a portal to the Distortion World suddenly swallowing everyone. It was quieter without Arashi and slightly odd not having Astrid around to be perpetually lurking with her cautious eyes… but Verdant Meadow wasn't particularly uneventful that day. A certain Jolteon and her tiny Eevee brother were on the ground, the former crouched down like she was ready to spring on a foe, and a certain Aipom lounged about on the branches of a nearby tree with a certain tiny Pikipek roosting on the lowest one.

"Urgh, Lila, this is scary!" Veeko protested to his older sister, tail tucked and ears flattened out in apprehension.

"What'll be even scarier is running into another wrong place at the wrong time and not knowing how to defend yourself," Lila shot him down. "And I'd be a terrible older sister if I let that happen! C'mon, Veeko, Tackle me like you mean it!"

Her little brother whimpered in fright, reaching a single front paw out but not quite wanting to take a step in her direction.

"Hey, if I could do it, you can too!" his tiny avian friend called. "Your sister's not that scary! Give her a good whop!"

"Listen to Rina," Lila said to the little Eevee, giving a glance up at the Pikipek. "If you won't listen to your sister, listen to your friend!"

Charlie glanced down, peeling one of the chestnuts dangling among the leaves without much of a care. "Hey, you can evolve into an Espeon and read everyone's moves before they strike, then you can get out of battling."

"I'll do that!" Veeko cried, still hunched up and looking apprehensively at his sister. "If I do that, can we stop?! I don't like battling…!"

"Sure, if you do that," Lila replied, unfazed. "Right now, you're still an Eevee, and for us to do that, we'd have to hunt down a rare Sun Ribbon in a dungeon somewhere. So c'mon, you'd better show me those moves."

The little Eevee haplessly caught on that, for the time being, he was not going to get out of battling. With one more whimper, he ran at his sister and slammed into her. Lila wasn't too fazed, but Veeko was quickly scurrying back in fright again, though his sister gave him a little grin.

"When you can do that without whining about it, I'll get off your case," the Jolteon said.

Veeko definitely didn't look too thrilled at the idea, but he acquiesced.

Lila, though, shot a glance up a Charlie in the tree. "Are you wondering where Trixie is too, or is it just me? She said she just needed to run home and grab something for a second, but… it's been way longer than a second."

"Honestly, I'd be more worried about whatever wild ones she might happen to run across than I am about her," the Aipom replied. "Who knows. Maybe she ran off to find the Dark Lord of All Evil or something."

The Jolteon shook her head. "I wouldn't be surprised," she acknowledged. "But hey, maybe she needs some help with-"

"Heeeeeey, my lovely frieeeeeeeeends~!" a familiar shifty voice cut her off.

All four of the ones in the meadow perked up to see a certain Croagunk skipping through the flowers and berry bushes towards them, a little satchel on her back and holding something over her head- a rather large plate holding (at least, what looked to be) a moist chocolate cake with red glaze dripping down the sides and smallish Razz berries decorating the top. Where she had gotten it, and what she was doing with it aside from hunting down someone to throw it at, was anyone's guess, but Veeko and Rina both eyed its delicious exterior.

"What took you so long, huh?" Lila called as the Croagunk traipsed over. "And what the heck are you doing with that?"

"Well, I couldn't get the berry glaze to drizzle just right, so I had to mess with it a little~" Trixie replied. "C'mere, guys, I made us all a tasty snack~!"

Veeko and Rina definitely wasted no time, and Trixie set the cake down on the grass before retrieving something to cut it with from her satchel. Lila and Charlie, though, still studied her as if not quite believing her intentions were so pure.

"This is not like you," Charlie noted.

"Are you really our Trixie?" Lila sarcastically inquired. "Or are you being possessed and mind-controlled by someone that got your last obscene message in a bottle?"

"Yes, I'm really your Trixie!" the Croagunk brushed her off, carefully slicing the lovely piece of confectionery. "Look, I did some thinking, okay? Maybe I'm not supposed to be Trixie the Terrible that sends out hexes in bottles and talks about gouging eyes out! I mean, if I'm gonna leave a legacy behind, maybe that's not the best one.~ So I'm gonna try being Trixie the Tame for a while, and, well… I made us a cake to make up for all those times I flustered you guys! Don't question it, just enjoy it!"

The Jolteon and Aipom wore amused looks, not quite buying that she had indeed turned over a leaf so suddenly, but then again… that too was par- making stuff up that was blatantly untrue and shamelessly spouting it. The two of them exchanged glances, shaking their heads but nonetheless not questioning their shady friend. She'd likely just wanted to have a treat with her friends and wouldn't come out and say such directly.

Nonetheless, Trixie quickly divided the cake into equal pieces for them all, setting them on some smaller plates she retrieved from her satchel too, and shortly, everyone was taking a bite of the lovely dessert…

… Then promptly spitting it out as fast as they could, save for Trixie herself.

"Arceus above!" Lila exclaimed, eyes huge.

"What is this?!" Veeko shrieked.

"Ewwww!" Rina fussed.

"That's a torture device, not a cake!" Charlie cried in dismay.

They all looked to the one who had brought it, who took another bite and swallowed it with no troubles whatsoever. "What're you talking about~?" Trixie asked nonchalantly.

"She made herself a good piece and poisoned ours!" Charlie declared, bouncing over to the Croagunk's side while his tail-hand snatched her piece up.

Trixie didn't care at all and simply watched as the others present all took bites out of her confiscated piece, then just as quick, spit it out too. She started giggling mischievously, clearly enjoying the scene she was witnessing.

"What is that?!" Charlie forcefully asked. "How did you make something so repulsive, and why does it taste good to you?!"

The Croagunk snickered, smirking like a madwoman. "I can't taste a damn thing at all~" she replied, still unfazed. "I forced myself to scarf down an entire Nomel berry before I came over here, and that thing was so damned sour, I wouldn't be surprised if I couldn't taste anything for a week after this instead of just the usual three days! I couldn't just whip up a concoction of potting soil, mud, Aguav juice, and Spelon glaze then not share it, now could I~? But of course, I wouldn't give you guys something that I wouldn't partake in myself, ehehe~ That'd just be rude.~"

She got some very shocked and disbelieving looks after the words left her mouth.

"So let me get this straight," Lila said, still wincing from the awful taste, "you whipped that abomination up, made it look all pretty, then forced yourself to eat a Nomel berry so you wouldn't have to make us suspicious when you yourself wouldn't eat it, or share in our pain when you did?"

"That's exactly right.~"

The Aipom and Jolteon exchanged another glance, their mouths hanging open at just how playfully nefarious that was. Trixie cackled in amusement, but when Lila's gaze fell on her again, the Croagunk was quickly making a beeline in the opposite direction as the stars of a Swift glowed into being around Lila. Cries of "I'm not sorry, ehehe- ouch!" and several variants thereof resounded throughout the meadow as Trixie was haplessly bombarded by the starry energy discs.


Trixie cackled in amusement again as they recounted the tale, only shutting up when another Swift and a Double-Slap barraged her once more. Astrid and Arashi exchanged glances too, utterly in awe at the sheer devilishness of such a ploy.

"I'm guessing that's extremely unpleasant judging from your reactions," Raijin mused, looking between his two teammates.

"It would be," Astrid affirmed.

"That is a torture device!" Arashi exclaimed. "Gods above, Trixie, we oughtta take you into Ultra Space with us if you're pulling ruthless stuff like that!"

The Toxicroak batted her eyes innocently, replying, "Oh, if you need my terribleness, I'll be happy to lend it to you~"

"… Why would you construct and use a torture device on your friends?" Raijin inquired, studying her. "Am I missing something here…? Isn't that, like, the last thing you'd do to a friend…?"

"Oh, don't worry about her- Trixie expresses her love in strange ways," Lila noted, not too fazed.

"She's a piece of work, but she's our piece of work," Arashi said with a giggle.

"And don't you forget it~!" Trixie affirmed with a mischievous wink.

That seemed to assuage the Xurkitree at least somewhat, and he didn't protest it.

"And you got back at her, didn't you?" Arashi eagerly asked, glancing between Charlie and Lila. "What, did you take an Everstone with you down to Lake Lucent and didn't tell her until she figured out she couldn't evolve?"

"That's exactly what happened!" the Toxicroak affirmed, side-eyeing the Ambipom and Jolteon next to her. "Jeez! What I did was one thing, but what you did was so much more cruel!"

Lila smirked. "You should've thought of that before you went and pranked your friends in the first place!"


Deep Lake Lucent B6F

Even if there was no nefarious Golisopod at the bottom of the lake to spring traps on anyone, there was still plenty of ruckus to be had, mostly on account of a single Croagunk. It was dim in the cavern, but her eyes sparkled with enthusiasm that almost put their missing Frogadier friend to shame.

"Okay, you've got the orb, don't you?!" Trixie cried excitedly, running over to the edge of the pool and staring inside. "Let's do this!"

"No worries, I've got it," Charlie replied, taking a satchel off of his back and fishing out a Drought Orb.

"Oh, the beauty of evolution," Lila remarked, chuckling a bit.

"That's right!" the Croagunk exclaimed, eyes wild with bliss. "Then I get those beautiful spikes that are just… ah~! Perfection~!"

Both the Aipom and Jolteon couldn't help but to be amused at the ridiculous grin she was wearing as she knelt impatiently next to the pool's edge. Charlie held the orb up to activate it, and a bright sun-like glow dried up all of the water that submerged the glowing pink and orange crystal at the bottom of the pool.

"Arceus above, you're almost as bad as Arashi when you get going about those spiked knuckles," Lila remarked, strolling over to the edge too.

"Well, pardon me for wanting to ascend to the clearly superior form of a Toxicroak!" Trixie replied, shooting her a shifty grin.

"Give it just a few seconds and you will!" the Jolteon amusedly brushed her off.

Lila braced herself against the ground on the pool's edge as Charlie took hold of one of her legs with his hands and took Trixie's hand with the one on his tail. The Aipom carefully let his tail drape down into the pool, Trixie using it like a rope to rappel down to the bottom. When she was close enough, she let go, and Charlie dropped down too, leaving only Lila still at the upper edge.

"Astrid's wings would really come in handy about now," the Croagunk remarked as she briefly brushed herself off.

Nonetheless, she darted over to the crystal shard with Charlie trying not to get left in the dust.

Just as quick, a voice was gracing both of their senses. *Seekers of awakening… this is Luminous Pool.*

Trixie's eyes started sparkling, and she looked practically drunk on the excitement. Charlie perked up, but he oddly seemed to be eyeing his friend next to him more than anything.

*Tell me, do ye seek-*

"YES!" Trixie cut the incorporeal voice off. "Yes, we do! Let's cut to the chase and get this show on the road! Give me those beautiful spikes!"

Lila, while not sure exactly what was being said by the disembodied voice, nonetheless started laughing at the antics displayed at the bottom of the empty pool. Charlie still wasn't saying a word, but he was grinning.

*… Very well,* the disembodied voice replied, sounding taken aback. *Let us begin.*

The two of them were cloaked in a white light… but that light didn't stick around for very long, nor did their forms change any at all. Charlie was still smiling, and Trixie was too, immediately looking down at her hands once the light faded.

Instantly, the Croagunk had a perturbed countenance. "EH?! What happened?! Where are my spikes at?!" she shrieked in dismay.

*… Ye cannot evolve at this time,* the disembodied voice chimed back in. *A member of your party is holding an item to suppress my power of awakening. Ye with the handed tail… is that an Everstone in your bag?*

Trixie looked as though she'd been blasted into the next dimension by the gods themselves. "WHAT?!"

The beginnings of a snicker escaped Charlie's mouth, and he was shimmying up the crystal shard itself as fast as he could, then leaping to the upper edge of the pool to escape it. Lila cast him a surprised glance, and a growl of fury came from Trixie as she darted back over to the steep pool wall with her fists in the air.

"Charlie!" the Croagunk thundered, pounding the stone sides with her fists. "WHAT DID YOU DO?!"

With a giggle, the Aipom retrieved an Everstone from the bag he carried. "Getting comeuppance, that's what!"

A cry somewhere between a wail of despair and screech of wrath escaped Trixie's mouth, the Croagunk collapsing on the floor in a distraught heap and pounding the ground with one fist.

Lila eyed the purple simian. "'Comeuppance?'" she inquired.

"For that cake!" Charlie replied. "She ruined our day, so I ruined hers!"

The Jolteon too started getting a mischievous look, gazing down at the frenzied Croagunk next. "Oh, I see! This is comeuppance! I wouldn't have expected that from you, Charlie!"

"I knew no one would- that's why I did it!" Charlie affirmed.

Trixie, though, jumped back up and went back to battering her fists against the pool wall. "JUST YOU WAIT!" she thundered. "IF YOU THOUGHT THE CAKE WAS BAD, WAIT 'TIL YOU SEE WHAT I DO TO YOU AFTER THIS!"

The Aipom still didn't look particularly threatened and tossed the stone up with one hand, then with his tail-hand, grabbed it and chucked it down at Trixie. A grunt of pain escaped her as it whopped her over the head, and moments later, she was yet again glowering up at the top edge with her fists ready to pound someone to a pulp.

"Careful, now!" Lila called, amiable but smirking. "You can't get out of that pool alone! Don't you go insulting us or we might just have to leave you!"

The Croagunk's face fell all over again. "You too, Lila?!"

"You fed me that cake too!" Lila playfully affirmed. "Now c'mon, I want an apology!"

"I do, too!" Charlie concurred, smirking and lounging on the edge as if nothing was amiss. "Matter of fact, tell us how great we are and how much we didn't deserve it!"

"Tell us how much you deserve to be down there in that hole!"

"Tell us what a terrible act it was!"

"Tell us how much you suck!"

Trixie's mouth fell open in pure stupor.

Lila giggled. "C'mon now, you better get to talking, or we'll leave you down there until you faint!"

The Croagunk shook her head, eyes narrowing. "And you guys say I'm bad!"


Lila and Charlie were smirking as they relayed the tale, and Trixie looked like she wanted to gouge their eyes out and shove them down their throats. Astrid blinked a few times, and Arashi wore a little smirk too, albeit while looking on the Toxicroak with at least a shred of pity.

"You see what degenerates these two are?" Trixie remarked, motioning at the Jolteon and Ambipom. "I make them cake and they leave me in a hole!"

"And we'll do it again, too!" Lila said, friendly but pointed.

"For the record, I would've gotten you out of that hole," Raijin gently noted.

Trixie smirked, looking to the Xurkitree and saying mischievously, "See, someone with a conscience~!"

"And what about you two, huh?" Lila asked, glancing between Astrid and Arashi. "I'm guessing it went a lot smoother on your end without anyone to pull shenanigans."

The two of them exchanged a very quick glance. Indeed, there were no shenanigans pulled by anyone, but to call their respective wormhole evolutions 'smooth' was… definitely not accurate. Just like their previous evolutions, they had no idea how to bring up the subject in all the horrific details.

"… Yeah! No hiccups whatsoever!" Arashi piped up, a complete and utter lie.

"It was great," Astrid quickly corroborated.

"Totally not painful or anything!"

"N-not at all!"

Raijin twitched uncertainly at hearing their words and would've been wearing a disbelieving look if he'd been capable, but he didn't say anything to the contrary. Astrid tried not to fluff out uncomfortably and yanked her hood slightly closed to hide the unsettled look in her eyes, but thankfully, the Tranquil Town youngsters had no way of knowing what a bold-faced lie that she and her partner were telling. Her shy antics were par as it was, so they didn't question it.

"And you must be liking those new forms," the Jolteon mused.

Arashi eagerly nodded. "Heck yes! This is what I've been waiting for all along, and I am loving it!"

"I like not being so tiny anymore," Astrid said softly.

Lila couldn't help but to laugh. "Yeah, now I'm the little one! The last time we were all together, you were all still smaller than me, and now I have to look up if I wanna look you guys in the eye!"

Arashi laughed too, crouching down and petting the Jolteon. "Hey, you'll always be the big one in our hearts even if you aren't physically the big one! That'll never change, aha!"

Nobody protested that, and Lila grinned.

"Let's go see everyone," Lila suggested, turning towards town and giving a nod in the same direction. "We all knew you were fine from that letter, but… actually seeing you beats everything else."

"Well, I definitely wanna see Mom and Dad!" Arashi agreed. He turned to Raijin, giving him a nudge. "You'll like them! They're cool!"

"… They won't be upset at me for basically kidnapping their child when Salem turned up, will they?" the Xurkitree inquired, slightly hesitant.

"Oh, heck no, they're not mad," Lila noted to the contrary. "Matter of fact, they actually seem pretty happy that their son and adoptive daughter have someone watching their backs like you."

"If they were mad, I'd defend you!" Arashi said, grinning.

Raijin nodded, tapping his fingers together. "A-ah… Good…"

Astrid, though, couldn't help but be slightly taken aback at being called their 'adoptive daughter,' yet no one else seemed to be thinking anything of it. It was true, Niles and Kaminari had taken her in like one of their own, yet still, she couldn't quite grasp it. The creatures around her definitely could not be replaced, and she couldn't have been more thankful for all the kindness that they had collectively shown her.

… Her eyes started to get misty, knowing she had already written a goodbye letter to them all stowed away in Adnea's shelves. It felt so dirty, yet her hands were tied on the matter.

The six of them traipsed into the town's perimeter, where, aside from the still-burnt remains of the forest off in the distance, everything was exactly as it used to be, as it should've been. Arashi practically bubbled with excitement, giggling blissfully and lightly clapping his hands together, and Astrid couldn't blame him. Raijin studied their surroundings, and Astrid did too, the Decidueye taking it all in again. She recognized Lila's house, the post office, Nez's little cottage, the much smaller Kecleon Shop… It was almost like a dream to visit it again, one she almost didn't want to wake up from. As hectic as her days had been in Tranquil Town, it felt like a proper home in ways that the base back at Craggy Crossroads simply couldn't.

If she hadn't known that she'd be sent back to wherever she'd come from in another world, she would've called it her home… but she knew that the Light Trio wouldn't allow such. She cursed her past life with every fiber of her existence.

"Hah, it feels so good to be baaaaack~!" Arashi chirped, throwing his arms out to the side. "Oh, Tranquil Town, I've missed you.~"

"It's been quiet without you," Lila noted.

Astrid and Raijin exchanged a wordless glance at the mention of things being quiet without Arashi- that had been their assessment of the situation without him present too, but they didn't dare bring up that horrendous escapade unprompted.

"I bet it has been," Arashi said with a chuckle. "You know, things are never quiet in the Crossroads! There's always something going on down there, and even if you just sit on the roof and watch everyone run around below, it's still pretty fun! Our guard, Dren, does that pretty much every day, and I thought he'd get bored, but nope, he never does!"

"That's the huge Salamence, right?" Lila asked.

"Yup! He's surprisingly cuddly, though!" Arashi affirmed, then gesturing at Astrid and Raijin, "These two like chilling out in the basement, and that's basically the only place that's fairly secluded."

"It's cozy," Raijin nonchalantly concurred.

"The only eyes on me there are my teammates," Astrid remarked.

She got a few knowing glances from her friends- even if she was in a more intimidating form and embarking on more treacherous expeditions, the 'timid' state still applied in at least some capacity.

"… So you three are literally a bunch of basement dwellers, huh~?" Trixie said, getting a shifty-eyed grin again.

A thwack from one of Charlie's hands and a little jolt from Lila shut her up, even if she was still smirking.

"Good heavens, she's almost as bad as Cinder, just without the anger issues," Raijin remarked.

"Cinder?" Arashi inquired, shooting the Xurkitree an amusedly uncertain look. "At least Cinder being edgy is an act! She's almost as bad as Rush, just with less cussing!"

"On second thought, you're right," the Beast quickly acquiesced.

The Toxicroak got an even shiftier look. "Oho~?! I'm almost as bad as your gangster of a boss~? Well, that's a step up from being a useless poser, at least~"

It was Arashi's turn to shut her up, a smallish Ice Beam leaving from his fingertip and eliciting a cry of protest. Astrid shook her head haplessly, wondering just what sort of criteria that Trixie might've been using to determine who was a 'useless poser' and who wasn't, then thinking it was probably a ridiculous thought process beyond comprehending in the slightest. There was no rhyme or reason to any of their poisonous friend's snarky remarks.

Little Veeko and Rina seemed to be talking with each other on Lila's front porch, and the second they caught sight of the entourage of older creatures, they gawked at the three figures that hadn't been in town beforehand. A cry of 'Oh my gods, they're not dead!' left the tiny Pikipek's mouth, and Veeko simply got a shy look and studied them all, not quite sure what to make of the crowd of much larger figures. Arashi gave them a friendly wave and Lila shot her little brother a wink.

However, Astrid couldn't help but to get a little shy again when two more familiar figures left out of the post office door- an Inteleon grasping a letter or two in his hands, and a Greninja with a rather prominent scar on one arm that hadn't been there prior. Arashi froze up for a second too, eyes wide and a grin creeping across his mouth in surprise, while Raijin simply froze.

"Did those troublemakers really think I wouldn't find them out?" Niles said, shaking his head and studying one of the documents he held.

"The gods must love arrogant fools- there's plenty that roam this earth and freak out when I beat them in ten seconds," Kaminari said, not too fazed.

It didn't take long for their son to pipe up, "Mom?! Dad?!"

Instantly both of their heads jerked up, and their eyes too went huge. Whatever document that Niles was holding got crumpled up as the Inteleon's hands clenched up in shock, and Kaminari's mouth fell open but no sounds were escaping.

Astrid was happy to see them, but she nonetheless fluffed out and gasped, "A-ah…!"

"… Honey, am I seeing things?" Kaminari remarked, apparently not believing the sight in front of her just yet.

"I don't think so, dear," Niles said nonchalantly, blinking a few times. "There were only two of them last time, they were much smaller, and we thought the third was an enemy."

Arashi wasn't wasting any time and darted over, throwing his arms around his mom and dad as quick as he could, and Niles and Kaminari were almost as fast to return the gesture while their faces twisted into misty-eyed grins.

"Son, is that really you?!" Niles asked faintly, dropping the crumpled documents entirely.

"My little boy is all grown up…!" Kaminari breathed, clutching him up. "Or at least, fully evolved…!"

"I sure am~!" Arashi chirped blissfully. "Astrid! Raijin! Don't be shy!"

The two of them were still shy- especially the Xurkitree with the least familiarity of anyone- but they nonetheless scurried over for yet another round of exchanging hugs.

"Oh, d-dear gods, I owe you two!" Astrid gushed, eyes getting misty as the hug-exchanging ensued. "For taking me in, for everything…! Y-you're all just too nice…!"

She hung on for just a few moments longer than she otherwise might've been inclined to, but Niles and Kaminari didn't protest, and feeling Raijin's currents made them go wide-eyed though they still smiled. Trixie snickered a bit at seeing more displays of affection, but yet another whop from one of Charlie's tail-hands quieted her.

"It's just common decency not to leave someone scared and alone in a strange place," Kaminari said, patting the Decidueye's shoulder softly. "Just accept it."

"You're one of ours," Niles too affirmed.

She nodded, trying not to snivel too much as she tried to dry her eyes. Arashi gave her a hapless smile, sticking his arms around her shoulders and giggling. Raijin too gave her back a pat, and she didn't protest either gesture while she got ahold of herself again.

"I was worried we might not see you two alive or in one piece again, and we might not have ever gotten to meet your friend here," Kaminari said, looking them over with a pleasantly stunned look. "Clearly, that wasn't necessary."

Niles chuckled. "You look just like your mother," he remarked, grinning at Arashi.

"Well, obviously!" the smaller Greninja laughed. "But I got something from you too, Dad! Watch this!"

Arashi's hand curled up with one finger tucked in, one pointed outwards away from him, and one pointed off to the side, and an Ice Beam sailed off into the sky in a method reminiscent of a Snipe Shot. Niles' eyes sparkled at seeing it, and Arashi giggled.

"And you've become a ghost," Kaminari noted, glancing at Astrid. "That must have its benefits."

Astrid nodded. "I-I like this form. A lot."

"She's not a tiny fluffball anymore, but she's still fluffy when you hug her," Arashi said, making the Decidueye blush a bit where feathers didn't cover her face.

"And if we've heard correctly, you're the reason our children are still alive, or at the very least, not in a terrible situation," Niles said, looking Raijin over. "We couldn't be more thankful for your intervention. Truly."

The Xurkitree shyly shrunk up. "I-it's why I'm here." He reached an arm around Astrid and Arashi both, Arashi tensing up for just a split second at feeling his currents but neither one protesting in the slightest. "But even if I wasn't… these two are irreplaceable for multiple reasons. Even if my actual home is thousands of light years away, I feel like I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be when I'm with these two…"

"And it's quite easy to tell you're not from this world when I look at you up close," the Inteleon noted amiably, still studying the Beast. "I've seen almost every species there is in this world, and none are quite like you."

"W-well, this world is a lot different than the one I'm from," Raijin said, turning loose of the ones he clutched. However, something made him perk up. "W-wait, what do you mean 'up-close?' W-we haven't met before, and I'd figured if you'd managed to catch sight of me while I was originally in hiding around this area, we probably would've gotten into a battle like what happened with that sweet Nidoking…"

Niles chuckled, the membranes on his eyes sliding up to make them go entirely black. "Oh, no, we haven't met. I saw you fleeing the scene far up in the cliffs after these two downed Zariel while myself, Kaminari, and two others went out to investigate. I noticed the lightning bolts were all attracted to one oddly glowing object, and these membranes on my eyes let me zoom in on the source, so to speak."

Raijin twitched a bit and Arashi got a grin at the mention of his father's abilities, while Astrid wasn't too fazed one way or another and simply thought the all-obscuring black membranes were slightly unsettling.

"A-ah!" the Xurkitree cried. "Duly noted. I didn't… know you could do that."

Niles chuckled. "Well, gathering intelligence is my strong suit, and my abilities come in handy for it," he nonchalantly brushed it off. "Speaking of which… You three have been on some rather precarious escapades, haven't you? You went up against almost an entire expedition team that'd become another 'crazy' incident, you grabbed an outlaw out of a dungeon full of bloodthirsty prehistoric Pokémon, and you had quite the interception with some higher-ups of Void's faction, no?"

Yet again, both Arashi and Raijin were taken aback, and Astrid simply blinked. She was surprised (as well as slightly hesitant at the mention of the interception by Void's cadres), but at the same time, it was par. The other youngsters perked up too, apparently interested in the events being mentioned.

"How did you know that?!" Arashi exclaimed, mouth hanging open. "They didn't write about those things in the paper! How'd you find out?! It's not like there's a ton of expeditioners that come running through here to talk about it!"

"Is it really that surprising…?" Raijin inquired, sounding uncertain. "If the Coalition is fairly high-profile, then it makes sense to hear about some of those missions…"

Astrid rolled her eyes. "He's a secret agent; do we really need any more explanation than that?" she brushed it off, then turning to her partner, "Why are you so surprised? Raijin wouldn't know that, but you would…"

Arashi, however, got an ever more shocked expression at Astrid's words. "And what in the name of the gods makes you think Dad is a secret agent?! He doesn't talk about his job, so we can't know!"

… At that, everyone (save for the Beast without the necessary anatomy) was giving the smaller Greninja a dumbfounded look, including his father. The feathered ghost's beak hung open, the beginnings of some words starting to come out but getting stifled shortly thereafter. Raijin was as silent as could be, getting the idea but not quite grasping the entire situation.

"And why are you guys looking at me funny?!" Arashi cried, glancing around.

Niles, though, went back to smiling and stuck one hand on the smaller Greninja's shoulder. "Son, you didn't know?"

"Know what?!" Arashi exclaimed, still looking stupefied. "I mean, it's true, you don't talk about what you do! Keeping something a secret doesn't make someone a secret agent any more than getting energy from soil makes Raijin a Grass-type! What's going on here?!"

"Your son is an idiot," Trixie said flatly, not a single creature there even bothering to scold her for it.

Astrid shook her head, managing to get a grip in time to say, "Arashi, even I could tell on my first day here! Your dad knows all this classified stuff, stuff we got told not to repeat, so how else do you think he knows it all? There's a reason he doesn't talk about it- because you don't leave trails anywhere when you collect that sort of information, otherwise your cover gets blown! How do you think he figured out our escapades before the incident with Salem? You know- us going off to Brushwood Tangle and getting into a fight with Lurantis, me getting impaled on that evolution stone, all that?"

Her partner still didn't seem to believe her for a second, but the more words that left her beak, his expression quickly went through quite a few shifts. "H-hold on!" he exclaimed, looking to the Inteleon. "Is that true? Is she right?"

"… Yes," Niles affirmed nonchalantly, looking amused. "I don't talk about the details, yes, but I haven't exactly been covert about what it is I do."

Kaminari shook her head in sheer amazement at the level of obliviousness, touching one hand to her temple as she mused, "Sometimes I wonder if your egg got swapped for another Froakie for all the antics you pull, Arashi…"

Her son didn't even protest. "… I'm the most oblivious creature in the galaxy, aren't I? Everyone else knew but me?"

"I didn't know either," Raijin piped up.

"You don't count," the smaller Greninja quickly brushed him off.

"What did you think he did?" Astrid inquired, completely unsure of what kind of answer she might get.

Her partner shrugged. "I don't know! As far as I knew, Dad was running a secret donut-smuggling group and just happened to come across a bunch of convenient information! Or there was some invisible library off in the wilderness with all the secrets of the universe inside of it that would only appear to its chosen ones or something! I mean, it had to be something cool like that! But a secret agent? That's just… kind of unlikely!"

The Decidueye sighed haplessly, burying her face in her hands. "And this is why I call the shots, not you," she said, her voice an aimless roam of a sound.

Arashi opened his mouth like he wanted to say something in return, but his mother chimed in before any sounds could escape him.

"Well, misconceptions notwithstanding, the Coalition is still treating you nicely, right?" Kaminari inquired, glancing between the Starstorm trio. Her gaze fell on the smaller Greninja as she asked, "You haven't had the image of your idols ruined by being close to them, have you?"

Arashi shook his head as fast as he could in response. "Not even close, Mom! If anything, they're even cooler! You haven't experienced true fun until you've gone out to the town pub with the team and seen Rush's drunk storytelling!"

"It was pretty entertaining," Raijin corroborated.

"I-it's pretty n-nice over there," Astrid noted. "We actually feel s-safe."

"Yeah!" Arashi affirmed. "The other teams out there are pretty cool too! Team Sweetheart is as tough as they are cutesy, The Gnarly Brigade are a bunch of hell-raising edgelords, and Team Charade is like, the best at completely derailing strong enemies! We get our futures predicted by Team Mirage's de facto leader, and we actually freaked out when we met her at first because she's a Delphox like Salem, but not at all like Salem! Don't get me wrong, I love Tranquil Town, but the Crossroads are awesome!"

Lila traipsed closer among the Starstorm trio, piping up with a grin, "Well, you're not gonna forget your less impressive friends for all the big-shots, are you?"

"Heck no!" Arashi exclaimed, crouching down and scruffing the Jolteon between her ears. "Once the crazy stuff dies down, we can hang out here way more often between missions! Heck, there's a little Cosmog back at our base that Adnea un-poisoned not too long ago, and he might join our team sometime in the future! If that happens, we can jump around pretty easily since that species can open wormholes at will!"

"Or I can pester the Light Trio and save the little nebula the exhaustion if at all possible," Raijin mused.

"Yeah! That too!" Arashi concurred.

"Or we can swag up to your base and ask to see the useless posers," Trixie remarked with a shifty grin.

"That sounds like a really bad idea," Charlie said, eyeing the Toxicroak with a funny look.

Arashi giggled. "Well, hey, point is, running around with the big-shots changes nothing! Once we give Void the beating she deserves, life is gonna be fun!"

Astrid and Raijin shared a glance for a moment, seeing as they too had talked about living the good life once everything with Void's faction was squared away while Arashi was gone. Her comrades definitely seemed to love the possibilities, and in any other circumstance, she would've been hopeful about it too. If there were ever two creatures she wouldn't mind running around the galaxy with, they were the ones beside her, and she definitely wouldn't have minded having the other Tranquil Town youngsters around for their shenanigans too. It was awful knowing she wouldn't be able to do it with them, but no, she had to leave a galaxy behind where her friends were free to go on adventures without worry of a sickly-sweet tyrant painting targets on their backs. They'd given her stability and safety plenty of times before, and she had to do the same for them no matter what.

Either way, the morning was lovely, the lot of them spending some much-needed time catching up (and messing around when the youngsters were left entirely to themselves). Nez just had to hug the Starstorm trio all over again, especially Arashi, though he still didn't mention why seeing the smaller Greninja was such a relief after Astrid's previous request for confidentiality. Nonetheless the sweet Nidoking gushed about his 'favorite expedition team' and how he was their biggest fan, which excited Arashi and made Astrid blush (Raijin probably would've done the same if he was capable). Ace and Toko couldn't help but to be slightly surprised at seeing Astrid in a more imposing form, knowing that the Decidueye used to be a tiny little ball of feathers that didn't even know how to preen herself until they showed her. Cobalt was giddy to see the team that had given Zariel a worthy fight after being held as an unconscious hostage at Overgrown Crevice, Lila's parents were happy to see their daughter's friends still in good shape, and Trixie's mother was likewise happy while her father made amiable but off-handed remarks about how their new forms (along with Raijin's only form) must've been great for beating troublemakers senseless. The basement in Coalition HQ was cozy, but Tranquil Town was cozy too in its own way, and the Starstorm trio wasn't protesting it one bit.


By the afternoon, the sky was definitely more grey than anything, and though no rain was falling quite yet, a few little droplets fell here and there that indicated it likely would sometime soon. The entourage of youngsters wound up at the lakeside, where some Magikarps splashed about with hardly any purpose that they watched with amusement. Rina and Veeko stuck close as well, though the two tiny figures were more intent on scratching a game of tic-tac-toe into the mud that they quickly became entranced in. Astrid quite liked it, just watching the tiny waves and whatever silhouettes stirred beneath the surface, and she definitely took it all in… if not because she was happy to see the closest thing to a 'hometown' she had, then because she knew she'd never see it again.

"So those are the most pathetic Pokémon in existence… right?" Raijin inquired, studying the flopping fish.

"If they're not, then they're pretty close," Lila affirmed.

"About as useful as trying to push water uphill with a rake," Trixie too concurred.

"Hey! They evolve into Gyaradoses!" Arashi said to the contrary, shooting them a playfully disbelieving look. "That's pretty rad!"

"Keyword there being 'evolve,'" Charlie replied, unconvinced. "It doesn't matter what they might be in the future if the form they're in now is awful."

"But they can Splash over mountains if they wanted to," Astrid too said to the contrary, looking slightly skeptical. "I-if one of those hit you on its way back down… that'd hurt. A lot."

Arashi perked up. "That's right!" he exclaimed. "See?! They've got power, it's just not tapped yet!"

The Xurkitree twitched, still studying the pathetic little creatures. "… Duly noted," he brushed it off.

Her other friends still didn't seem so convinced, but no one was blaming them for such.

"Say, you guys haven't had any really interesting bottles wash up here, have you?" Arashi inquired, glancing between Lila, Trixie, and Charlie. "I mean, if Trixie's trying to start some urban legend by sending off a ton of cryptically aggressive messages, someone has to send one back eventually!"

The Toxicroak started snickering, getting a shifty grin. "Oh, we found one from some guy that was clearly meant for his girlfriend in another town to see it and no one else, if you know what I mean," she replied, rather amused.

Lila shot their poisonous friend a sharp look, nodding backwards at her little brother and the tiny avian rather pointedly. Charlie started blushing at the mention, and both Astrid and Arashi got funny looks while Raijin twitched.

"… What did you do with it?" Arashi inquired, sounding slightly reluctant. "You tossed it back in again, didn't you?"

"Oh, I kept it to do dramatic readings of it and laugh~" Trixie replied. "I can't throw pure written gold like that away, now can I~? Then I went and wrote one of my own addressed to the same dude with some creative messages of my own, ehehe~"

Lila and Charlie were both shaking their heads in hapless stupor. Arashi still seemed amused, but Astrid's face was a bright red in the areas that weren't obscured by feathers. She definitely didn't want to know what kind of 'creative messages' Trixie had concocted, but she did want to know why anyone would write a message like that and then use an extremely unreliable method of delivery… but she'd likely never get an answer, nor did she particularly care to.

"… I'm not even going to ask," Raijin mused, freeing up.

"Don't," Charlie replied.

At around that moment, though, Astrid started to feel a few droplets of moisture on her feathers, and by the looks of some of her friends, they'd felt it too. Raijin and Arashi's weren't very fazed, but the rest of them perked up just a bit, and sure enough, the dry bits of dirt showed a few wet spots.

"Hey, Kyogre, if you can hear me, now ain't the time to rain on our parade," Trixie remarked, casting a sly look at the sky.

"Oh, speak for yourself," Lila brushed her off. "I haven't gone bolt-firing in a while."

Raijin turned his attention to the Jolteon. "I've heard about you doing that," he noted.

Lila too perked up. "Do you do it too?" she inquired. "Y'know, if the weather starts to get a little funky, I just start aiming Thunderbolts off at the clouds, and having Volt Absorb kick in on the very rare occasion that another bolt from the clouds gets attracted to me feels nice. I just think it's pretty fun."

"Getting struck by lightning is pretty much the equivalent of basking in the sun's rays to me," Raijin replied. "And what you're describing sounds like fun too."

The Jolteon started grinning. "I figured you'd be down for it," she mused happily. "Sheesh, having another Electric-type around is nice! You understand!"

"Oh, I definitely understand," Raijin affirmed. "You'd love my homeworld. The sky is literally always filled with black thunderclouds and just about everything sparks."

Lila's eyes got big with excitement at the thought of such a place. "That sounds great," she agreed. "You've gotta show me sometime, alright?"

"Remind me once this is all said and done, and I totally will," the Xurkitree replied.

Arashi chuckled, grinning but looking reluctant all the same. Both Astrid and Charlie gave him a look, to which he said, "I'm not gonna lie, a place like that sounds like a hellscape."

"You could just stay on my back, and we could stay close to Raijin so all the bolts go to him and not us," Astrid said, not too concerned. "That way you never touch anything that would be harmful to you. I resist electricity so it shouldn't bother me too much."

The Ambipom gave Arashi a pointed but friendly look. "Listen to the ghost-bird, okay? She's trying to keep you from getting yourself killed."

"Hey, don't worry, I'll freely admit she calls the shots better than anyone else!" the Greninja laughed.

Trixie snickered at their exchange, Charlie giving her a pointed look too, but she refrained from making any off-handed remarks.

The droplets from the sky became more frequent, and Astrid pulled her hood a bit tighter around her head to keep her face from getting too wet. Charlie cupped his tail-hands in something of a makeshift umbrella, but he didn't seem too bothered, and Trixie was still shooting some sly, shifty looks at the clouds (the meaning of which was anyone's guess).

"… I don't like getting wet," Veeko said in a slightly pitiful voice, his ears and tail drooping.

"Normally if we're out in the rain, Mom or Dad sticks me under their wing and it's all nice and warm!" Rina noted, fluffing her feathers a bit to get rid of some of the moisture.

At the mention, and knowing she was large enough to be a good cover, Astrid nestled down closer to the ground and held one wing outstretched. "H-hey," she called to the tiny figures.

The two little ones caught on fairly quickly and eagerly scurried over, quickly cuddling up against her side with her wing draped around them like a large blanket.

Trixie was fairly quick to notice too. "I call dibs on the other wing!" she cried, darting over.

A cry of "Wha-!" from the leafy avian accompanied Trixie grabbing her other wing and practically jumping underneath it, which Astrid couldn't help but to be startled at. She fluffed out for just a second at being taken by surprise, but her feathers flattened back out just as quick when she decided she didn't mind that much. Trixie hunched up against her to fit, giggling slyly like she'd just stolen the last cookie out of the jar without anyone noticing. Arashi looked amused, and Charlie simply shook his head.

"Heh~ This is pretty nice~" the Toxicroak said with a grin.

"Isn't it~?" Arashi replied. "I was snuggled up next to her last night too! She's all warm and fluffy and it's great!"

The Decidueye herself didn't doubt them, but she still couldn't help blushing at what her friends were saying. As outwardly intimidating as her raptor-esque body might have been, apparently it was still fairly good for snuggling, which she supposed was a good thing, all factors considered.

However, she couldn't help but to notice Trixie prodding around just a bit, followed by her grabbing some of her feathers. Astrid shot her a funny look, inquiring, "H-hey, what're you doing?"

The Toxicroak prodded around just a little more, then exclaimed, "Girlie! You've got a freaking arsenal under here!"

Astrid blushed even more. "Y-yeah, w-what about- ah!"

Trixie took hold of her wing again and stretched it out like the one in possession of it was about to fly, still poking at some of her feathers. "Look at this! I knew your species had some sharp edges, but damn!"

The bladed feathers were practically on full display with Trixie's nudging and prodding, and the Decidueye still wore a blushing, uncertain look. Arashi couldn't help giggling, and Charlie had a flat expression.

"Hey! That's a bad word!" Rina called from the other fluffy niche at the Toxicroak's remarks, though no one acknowledged her.

"I-I mean, y-yeah, I shoot them," Astrid said, eyeing Trixie. "W-what's up?"

At that, her poisonous friend got a shifty but pleading look, asking haplessly like a child begging for candy, "Can I have one~?!"

Astrid blinked, blushing even harder. "W-why?!" she cried instinctively, completely unsure what to make of Trixie's antics. It might've been simple fascination, but at the same time, Astrid wouldn't have put it past her friend to go committing nefarious acts with it either.

Apparently Charlie had the same idea. "What, so you can go stab someone and completely escape the blame?" he said flatly.

"Because that's wicked!" the Toxicroak replied to the contrary. "I mean, my spikes are the clearly superior ones, but feather-spikes are cool! You aren't gonna deprive your favorite Toxicroak of coolness, are you, Astrid~?"

Trixie batted her eyes in a manner that would've been sweet and innocent on anyone else, but it only made the Decidueye even more uncertain. Nonetheless, even if it was against her better judgment, she replied, "G-go ahead, pick one."

Her poisonous friend squealed in delight, prodding around her feathers again to find the biggest one with a sharp point. Astrid blushed even harder as Trixie pored over each one, bumping the tips to get a feel of the sharpness and grinning in glee the entire time. Her partner evidently couldn't help his laughter and doubled over onto the ground, watching the entire ordeal with the utmost amusement. He too found himself on the receiving end of Charlie's whop, but he didn't care and laughed even harder.

Raijin and Lila, on the other hand, were too busy excitedly carrying on with each other to pay the feather-feeling antics any mind.

"Really?!" Lila exclaimed, grinning. "Like, the lightning bolts just come down straight to you? They just do that on their own?"

"My form attracts them," the Xurkitree replied. "So you know, if we just strolled around outside during a storm and I had a hand or my tail on you or something, we can both get that lovely supercharged feel! That'd make firing bolts off again a breeze!"

"Yes!" Lila agreed. "Gods above, I've finally got me a bolt-firing buddy!"

"I didn't know how great it would be to have a bolt-firing buddy, but this is really nice!" Raijin exclaimed, kneeling down and clutching her up in a hug.

Mere seconds after he touched Lila, though, the rest of the ones present gave a little jolt of fright.

CRRRRACK!

A lightning bolt from above rained down onto the two of them, eliciting a hesitant shout from Arashi and making the little Eevee under Astrid's wing press up against her even more. Lila's fur stood up on end like a bed of needles, making Raijin quickly turn loose of her, and the Xurkitree himself was sparking in a way that his teammates typically didn't see outside of battle.

"Let's go!" Lila exclaimed, turning her attention to the sky.

"Let's!" Raijin agreed, straightening up again.

Crrrrack!

BOOM!

Lila's Thunderbolt was already enough to make the rest of the entourage keep a safe distance, but the Discharge that Raijin fired off was nothing short of scary. It was as if he'd completely absorbed the lightning bolt they'd taken already (which he had, to be sure) and returned it with far more strength, utterly dwarfing the Jolteon's attack and ripping whatever unfortunate clouds had been in its path clean in half. The air buzzed for a second, then dissipated just as quick as the bolt itself flew off into space. Astrid wasn't surprised at all, and Arashi was still as wary of their comrade's sparks as he'd ever been, but the rest of the entourage got wide eyes and gaping mouths (or beaks, in Rina's case).

"… Wow," Charlie said in stupor.

Lila, shocked as she may have been, still looked pretty happy. "Oh, good grief, you are the real deal," she noted, studying the Xurkitree.

"… Well, if there's one thing I'm really good at, it's that," Raijin said, staring off at the hapless cloud.

"Your friend is a badass!" Trixie exclaimed, glancing between Astrid and Arashi. "That's gotta hurt whoever gets hit! Sheesh!"

"Oh, I can confirm, it does," Astrid said quickly. "It's not the worst pain I've ever felt, but it's definitely not pleasant."

The Toxicroak gave her an inquisitively mischievous look. "Eh~? And how would you know if you two are on the same team, huh~? Did you do something nefarious to deserve it~?"

"No, she just asked nicely," Raijin answered, glancing back at them.

That got some odd looks from their other friends, and Trixie chimed in again shortly thereafter, studying the Decidueye, "Eh~? You just asked your buddy to zap you~?"

"W-well, I wanted to s-see how I'd fare," Astrid replied, fluffing out just a bit. "I-I mean, I'd rather figure that out now than when it r-really matters…"

Charlie gave the Toxicroak an odd look next. "What, did you just think she randomly walked up to her buddy, went 'Hey, zap me!' and called it a day?"

"I mean, anything is possible," Trixie replied, still grinning mischievously.

"I wonder about you sometimes, Trixie, y'know that?" Lila remarked, studying Trixie too. "I really do."

Their poisonous friend simply batted her eyes, not a care in the world.

It was only a few minutes that the bolt-firing lasted, Lila and Raijin seemingly perfectly content trying to disperse the dark, fluffy fixtures in the sky overhead, while Astrid's wings still functioned as a makeshift umbrella for Veeko, Rina, and Trixie (who still prodded around until she found the perfect feather). The Decidueye had to admit, the rain felt fairly pleasant on her leafy features, though her ordinary feathers save for the ones on her face nonetheless started to clump together and look ridiculous. Charlie's fur clumped a bit too, and whether Lila's fur would too or not was impossible to tell with it standing on end like a bunch of needles.

"You think we hit 'em all?" Lila inquired, studying the sky with a grin.

"Probably," Raijin answered, glancing about overhead too. "That's pretty fun, I'm not gonna lie."

"But you didn't hit any Pelippers or Wingulls!" Trixie called, peeking out from Astrid's wing. "That's no fun!"

No one dignified her off-handed exclamations with a response.

"In that case, maybe we should go dry off for a little while," Charlie suggested. "Astrid looks like a drowned bird and I'm probably gonna look like a drowned simian sooner or later."

"Mom and Dad probably aren't home right this minute, but we could totally go crash at our place for a little while," Arashi chimed in. "They wouldn't mind."

"Why the hell not," Trixie agreed.

"I'm in," Charlie concurred.

"Fine by me," Lila replied.

"Come to think of it, I've really only seen this place from afar," Raijin mused.

They set off, Trixie coming out from under Astrid's wing while Veeko and Rina still stayed carefully huddled close to her.

"Well, it's probably safe to say you'd never want to live on a sandy beach," Arashi noted with a chuckle, giving their Beast comrade a glance. "That'd probably be miserable for you."

"A miserable way to die, for sure," the Xurkitree affirmed. "There definitely wouldn't be any 'living' on a sandy beach for any long amount of time, that's for sure."

"Sheesh, it gets everywhere and it's kind of annoying, but I don't think I've heard anyone say they hate sand that much," Lila remarked.

"I'm actually not exaggerating," Raijin replied.

The ones that weren't part of Team Starstorm perked up, and Arashi chuckled a bit at their surprise.

"He literally gets his energy from the ground instead of munching on fruit or berries like we do," the Greninja noted. "Apparently sand is the worst for that."

Their friends were quiet for a moment, taking it in.

"… You know, I literally would not have thought of that until you mentioned it," Charlie said.

"Neither would I," Lila concurred.

"Oh, don't worry, it threw these two for a loop too," Raijin said nonchalantly, giving both Astrid and Arashi a pat. "Matter of fact, this one here-" he gave Arashi a playful nudge, "-started asking me all kinds of questions, like how I can see without eyes, what my gender was- I don't have one of those, but I do have eyes, they're just under this spiky shell. One of our other comrades asked me if I was the 'breathing type,' and no, I don't breathe, either."

The other youngsters seemed fascinated, if not slightly taken aback.

"What, did you even come out of an egg?" Rina inquired, peeking out from under Astrid's wing.

"No, actually," the Xurkitree answered without missing a beat.

The little Pikipek looked shocked. "Then where did you come from?! You didn't just magically appear out of thin air, did you?!"

"No, my species sprouts from the ground after a particularly strong lightning bolt hits a patch of soil- the kind of metallic soil you only find in Ultra Plant sections of Ultra Space- just right," Raijin explained. "No eggs involved whatsoever. Celesteelas sprout from the ground too, Pheromosas burst out of crystal cocoons deep in the desert, Nihilegos spawn in murky poisonous pools, Buzzwoles form in active volcanoes… It's way different." He shook his head haplessly for a second. "And way less convoluted."

Astrid and Arashi both blushed a bit, thinking of the giant book that Adnea had showed them to explain where eggs came from. Their comrade was right- it was pretty convoluted.

"That sounds rad as hell," Trixie mused, getting a death glare from Lila at using the word 'hell' around the little ones again. "If I spawned from lightning or in a pool of poison or a volcano, I'd brag about that to literally everyone! You are definitely not a useless poser, ehehe~!"

"Well, if you ever come to Ultra Space after we get everything fixed, you can brag about coming from an egg and being in a stronger form because you actually had to work for it," Raijin replied. "That is definitely not the norm where I'm from."

"Heh! I just might!" the Toxicroak replied.

A gaggle of footprints were left in the wet sand, and the little den on the beach was sure enough empty when Arashi tossed the curtain aside, but it was full of plenty of figures in no time. Astrid had missed it too- the slightly salty smell of the water and the stone walls, even the little shelf in Arashi's room that was much too small for her in her evolved state. Veeko and Rina took a bit of prodding by Lila to leave the Decidueye's wing, but they did eventually and nestled up underneath Lila instead.

"So this is where you two were staying all the time," Raijin said, glancing about at the surroundings.

"Sure is!" Arashi replied. "Mine and Astrid's room is over there-" he pointed at one of the other curtain doors, "-but that cushion I used to sleep on is way too small now and Astrid probably couldn't fit in that shelf she used to roost on even if she flattened out sideways!"

"That basket was cozy while it lasted," Astrid mused softly.

"You do seem to like cramped spaces," her Beast comrade noted.

"She liked them even more when she was a little fluffball, believe it or not," Arashi chuckled, making Astrid blush again.

"Pffft! Nobody likes snug bags and baskets more than a Rowlet does," Trixie laughed.

"W-well, if you get thrown into a new world full of strange creatures you've never met, you'd want to curl up in a snug place too," the Decidueye said, fluffing her feathers a bit in an attempt to get rid of the water clumping them together.

"There's gotta be a blanket or something around here to dry off with," Arashi mused, strolling over to the carved shelves and reaching up for some of the baskets. "Honestly, I couldn't reach much of anything when I was here last since I was way smaller, so this feels funny, aha!"

Astrid scurried over too, reaching up for some of the baskets as well. "Your folks are the kind that have literally everything," she noted. "There's gotta be one somewhere."

"Probably, but I'm not sure exactly where they'd keep it," her partner replied, peeking into one basket then nudging it back into place. "All else fails, we-!"

He grabbed one basket, and the moment he even slightly moved it out of place, the floor underneath them opened up like a trapdoor just waiting to be sprung. Both of them got wide eyes, utterly taken aback, and Astrid tried to flap her wings, but all the water in her feathers slowed her down enough to make her fall too.

"WHAT-!" Lila cried at seeing it.

"Did that just-!" Charlie exclaimed.

"No!" Raijin hollered, darting for them but reaching out just a moment too late.

Whump!

Two pained cries escaped the Decidueye and Greninja as they went sprawling on another hard surface, not even able to see what it was for the darkness that enveloped them when the floor above them closed again. They could hear some cries that sounded panicked overhead, but what anyone was actually saying couldn't be determined.

"Arceus above," Astrid groaned.

"What was that?!" Arashi fussed. "Astrid, I can hear you but I can't see you!"

Almost as quick as the floor had opened up, a lantern overhead flicked on seemingly by itself, and their surroundings became less dim. Astrid's eyes instantly scanned the area, and she found her partner in a rather ungraceful position like herself less than a meter away. They picked themselves up, thoroughly perplexed expressions on their faces, and glanced around. The room they found themselves in wasn't particularly big, but it definitely held quite a few things inside nonetheless- shelves crammed full of documents almost akin to Adnea's expansive collection, metal chests with heavy locks keeping them shut, and some more shelves with objects in glass cases carefully sitting on them. Some of the documents had bindings around them with 'CLASSIFIED' in fairly visible red print, clearly something not to be disturbed unnecessarily. Astrid was utterly confounded by what she saw, taking a step towards one of the shelves with glass cases to look at the objects underneath.

"… You never told me about this," the Decidueye mused flatly, studying the surroundings.

Underneath one case was the broken remains of a horn or spike, underneath another was what looked like a remnant of a bug's wing, under another was an empty bottle that appeared to be smashed… Every single one was carefully labelled 'From Suspect #4,' 'Exhibit A,' and so on. It was odd, clearly something that wasn't meant for outsider eyes. She couldn't help but to notice one item, a rather brightly colored device that appeared to fit easily into the palm of a creature with hands, where one finger would rest on a trigger while the barrel pointed at a target… It seemed oddly familiar, perhaps something she would've run around aiming at her friends on a hot summer's day as a small child in the human world, but it was labelled 'DANGER- Human Weapon Replica #2' which would indicate something far more precarious.

"I… I've actually never seen this before," Arashi replied, studying the surroundings himself.

Astrid perked up. "What?" she asked, turning to face her partner.

"This is completely new to me too," he replied again, still looking likewise puzzled. "I didn't know this was here at all! H-how did we even get here?!"

The Decidueye's beak fell open. "You're not lying to me, are you?"

Arashi shook his head. "No. I'm as confused as you are."

Shortly, she was burying her face in her hands, groaning heavily.

"Hey, what's wrong?" her partner inquired, darting closer and sticking a hand on her shoulder. "Do you know what this place is?"

"I've got an idea," she flatly replied.

Up above, though, their friends were in a stir. Raijin was crouched on the ground, diligently feeling around the floor for any sign of an opening, Lila practically had her face glued to the floor doing the same, Charlie studied their surroundings for any possible sign of a secret switch, and Trixie was pounding the floor with one fist in an effort to open it up again. Veeko and Rina were both fairly startled (though the little Pikipek was intrigued at the same time) and kept their distance, both of their own volition and because Lila told them to back up every time they came close.

"HEY!" Trixie yelled, punching the ground again. "ASTRID! ARASHI! WHERE ARE YOU?!"

"Really!" Raijin too cried. "Where did you guys go?! This better not be some kind of trap, though I have no idea who would pull it and how they'd know we'd be here…!"

"If this house has secret passageways, Arashi never told any of us," Lila noted. "And you know he'd totally tell us all about that sort of thing."

"Did you see their faces when the floor opened up? They looked confused too," Charlie affirmed. "Maybe his Mom or Dad put one in and never told him about it…"

"That better be the reason," Raijin said haplessly. "Otherwise you guys might see me do something ugly."

The others in the beach den looked fairly hesitant at the idea of that, too.

Astrid, on the other hand, looked hesitant for completely different reasons down below. "You see all this classified stuff? Your dad's got a freaking secret spy room, and now we know the location. You know how this usually goes? We've seen too much, now we've gotta die."

Her partner didn't seem too convinced. "My dad would not kill us," he said, giving her a funny look.

"Okay, your mom, then."

"My mom would not kill us either, Astrid!"

"Oh, please- if either one of your parents would, it's her. Every time trouble shows up, she's all 'They better hope they can outrun me!' or 'They better hope my shurikens don't slice them apart before they can escape!'"

The Greninja laughed. "Okay, now you're just being paranoid!"

"You don't know that! You didn't even know this room existed! Who's to say it's not possible?!"

More laughter. "Maybe I didn't know this room existed, but I know my parents!"

"Evidently not! You didn't know your dad was a secret agent!"

"Okay, that's true, but still!" Arashi replied, still not too worried. "We can just ask Lunala-"

"Astrid, Arashi?"

The voice saying their names made them freeze, for it very clearly belonged to a certain Inteleon that wasn't present, yet there was a slight electronic distortion to it as though someone like Raijin were trying to imitate it. Both of their eyes went wide, and Astrid's feathers stood on end.

"Don't you play dumb with me now," Niles' voice came again. "I know it's you two. You're in my secret room, yes?"

Even wider went their eyes.

"… Dad?" Arashi asked, glancing around. "W-where are you?"

"The outskirts of town," came his reply. "If you want to know where my voice is coming from, look on the east-facing wall, about a meter up from the floor on the second shelf from the bottom."

The two uncertain ones shared a glance, then rushed over to the area in question. The shelf that they were directed too looked just like any other ordinary bookshelf (or at least one that was oddly fixated on the word 'classified'), but Astrid picked up on something rather soon when she scanned every book on the shelf with her eyes. One of them had a strangely glassy circular area on the spine, which in any other context might've simply been taken for a design aspect of the book, but she noticed something that seemed to be moving around on the other side. She peered closer, and sure enough, when she tilted her head to the side or moved even slightly, a smallish particle within the circle seemed to follow along.

"… Is that a camera…?" she inquired, studying the strange little fixture.

"A camera? Where?" Arashi asked, trying to get a view of what she was looking at.

She pointed it out, and her partner got a surprised but slightly excited look.

"Indeed it is," came Niles' voice again. "That's not a book at all that you're looking it. It's a remote monitoring device with communicator functions. I'm watching your every move."

The Greninja got an even more excited look. "Really?!"

"Yes, really.~ If you were an unwanted intruder, I'd be activating a self-destruct device that would likely kill you instantly, but obviously, that is not warranted here."

Their eyes went wide, Arashi still looking excited while Astrid fluffed out in hesitance.

"Dad, how did we get here?" Arashi asked. "The ground just opened up and we have no idea why! Our friends are probably freaking out up there!"

"Raijin's probably going nuts," Astrid concurred.

"I'm guessing you activated the hidden switch underneath one of the baskets in the shelves. I've never had to worry about you being able to reach it before on account of you being unevolved and small before," the Inteleon answered.

The two in the secret room exchanged glances again, quickly piecing things together- Arashi had moved one of the baskets while trying to see the contents inside, and that had tripped the switch which caused the trapdoor to open.

"H-how do we get out?" Astrid asked hurriedly, still looking uncertain. "We're not supposed to be in here seeing all this, r-right…?"

"Oh, absolutely not," Niles chuckled. "But it simply can't be helped. There's another hidden switch located in the ceiling- if you look around carefully and focus, Astrid, you should be able to notice a small button sticking outwards. One of you will need to hit it, likely with a ranged attack of some kind, and the trap door will open up again and a ladder will drop down from just below it. You'll have approximately seven seconds to get out before the door closes again, so move fast."

The two of them shared a glance again. The Decidueye pulled her hood close around her eyes and studied the ceiling, quickly locating the button in question which she then pointed out to Arashi too.

"You do the honors," Astrid said.

Her partner was plenty content to do so. "Fine by me!"

Their friends were still puzzled and borderline frantic up above.

"Seriously! Why did this thing open up?!" Trixie hollered, still clobbering the floor.

"Here, let me try," Raijin said, the beginnings of a Signal Beam forming between his hands. "Give me some space, okay?"

The others didn't need much prodding to do exactly that, backing as far away as they could. Shortly they were shielding their eyes from the intensity of the Xurkitree's attack, but at the same time, a certain Decidueye phased straight up through the ground with her wings spread in spectral flight while the floor opened up again. Raijin twitched, caught off guard.

Arashi found himself staring straight into a blinding Signal Beam, and just as quick as he'd darted up the ladder, he turned loose of it again while crying, "Nope! Not this! Not again!"

The floor closed up again, the Greninja still on the opposite side to everyone else.

Astrid landed on the floor, looking slightly flustered. "Arashi, what're you doing?! We're supposed to get out of there!"

The Signal Beam dissipated, Raijin immediately turning to Astrid. "What was that?!"

"Arashi's dad has a secret spy room," the Decidueye replied.

The rest of the entourage perked up, noticing that at least one of the temporarily vanished ones was back again and Raijin hadn't blasted a hole in the floor. They were instantly giving Astrid some funny looks.

"What did you say?" Lila inquired. "'A secret spy room?'"

"You didn't hear it from me," Astrid said quickly.

The ground opened again, and Arashi darted out, the trap door shutting again a few seconds later. "Hey! It's okay, guys! We're not dead!"

"Don't jinx it," Astrid added almost instantly after the words left his mouth.

Their friends studied them, not quite sure what to make of them.

"Don't touch that basket that I just grabbed," Arashi said, giving them all a rather intent glance. "Seriously. Don't."

Their friends still studied them for a few more seconds, Veeko and Rina still huddled underneath Lila in hesitance to make a move that might land them in the same position. Trixie had the beginnings of a smirk on her face, but she evidently took heed of their words nonetheless.

"… Duly noted," Raijin mused uncertainly.

"… We're not supposed to mention this ever again, are we?" Charlie asked.

"Nope," Arashi answered without missing a beat, getting a grin. "It's classified.~"

Their Toxicroak friend started snickering, but a sharp look from Lila made her bite her tongue.

"C'mon, we were in the middle of looking for something, and that blanket isn't gonna find itself," Astrid said, swiftly trying to change the subject.

They dropped it, not mentioning another word about their unintentional escapade. Not a single one of them tried to touch the basket in question, either.


Author's note: Some of the ideas for the scenes I did here (Arashi not knowing his dad was a secret agent, the secret room) were ideas that me and TheDragonSaver came up with… well, about the fourth week I was writing this story. That is to say, I've been waiting to write a pure BS chapter for FAR too long, hehehe.