Hey everyone! It's time for another new chapter of PMD: Reflecting Balance!

Almost had this chapter done last week, but then I got stuck at the very end. Oh, well. Inspiration comes and goes.

Anyways, I hope you're all enjoying the story so far! Here's Chapter 53!

Chapter 53: I have this feeling…

Getting through a mystery dungeon full of tough ice-type Pokémon when half of your team was missing was no easy task, but Blitz and Sera had managed to make some decent progress after resuming their adventure. They had hoped to at least catch up to one of the other two rescue teams exploring the dungeon and from there work out a plan for how to deal with the current situation. Blitz wanted to avoid battles as much as possible until then, but the wild Pokémon just kept coming after them, making it difficult to get anywhere without fighting for it. As a result, he and Sera were starting to run low on healing items.

Blitz couldn't help but feel like his difficulty bringing himself to use his Fire Fang attack directly against his opponents were part of the reason he and Sera had ended up in this predicament. After all, he probably could've ended some of those battles faster if he had just used that super effective attack.

"Maybe we… should've just stayed in that safe room…" Sera said, panting.

"Are you okay?" Blitz asked, glancing at Sera following behind him.

"I'll be fine…" Sera responded, shaking some snow out of her fur.

Blitz nodded his head in acknowledgement, before turning his full attention back to trying to make it through the floor they were currently on.

The sound of the footsteps of a larger Pokémon that seemed to be approaching from behind made Blitz wince, but he knew he had to remain calm. Taking a deep breath, he simply continued walking. If nothing else, he would do his best to protect Sera.

"Come on, this way," Blitz said, hurriedly moving further down the path.

Parts of the floor were slippery, so they had to try not to fall as they made their way through the area. They soon found themselves in another room, but the stairs were nowhere to be seen.

"Okay, guess we're… huh?" Blitz said, looking over at the only other path leading out of the room.

"Is something wrong?" Sera asked.

A large block of ice was blocking the other path, preventing the two from continuing forward from there. They still had the option of going back the way they came, but first they would have to deal with the Mamoswine that had been following them all this way. Seeing as the Mamoswine was also part ground-type, Blitz wasn't looking forward to fighting it, especially if it knew moves that could hit everything in the room.

"This might be bad…" Blitz muttered, turning around to look at the Mamoswine. "Did they lead us into a trap…?"

"Let's just try to take it down as fast as possible!" Sera said, taking a fighting stance.

"R-Right…" Blitz responded, nodding his head.

The Mamoswine roared as five floating rocks glowing with an ancient power materialized above it. As the Mamoswine stomped on the ground, the floating rocks went flying towards Blitz and Sera. Luckily, the two of them were able to dodge the attack. The rocks crashed against the ground, disintegrating on impact. Sera then closed her eyes for a moment, while Blitz made his fur glow brightly in order to temporarily blind the Mamoswine.

Sera dashed forward and tackled the Mamoswine while it was still dazzled by the light. Blitz stared up at the Mamoswine, trying to figure out what to do. His electric attacks were no good against a ground-type Pokémon, and unless he was willing to use his fangs, he didn't have a lot of options.

"Ugh… No time for this…" Blitz muttered under his breath.

Blitz ran up and rammed into one of the Mamoswine's legs, in order to get some more damage in before the Mamoswine had the chance to attack. The Mamoswine roared and angrily stomped on the ground, dropping large icicles down on the two.

As they moved out of the way, Sera felt something appear underneath her paws.

"Ah!" Sera yelped as smoke erupted from the trap she had just stepped on.

"Ah, that's…!" Blitz exclaimed, as the smoke began to clear.

More wild Pokémon had suddenly appeared in the room Blitz and Sera were in, having been drawn in by the trap Sera had triggered.

"This is bad…!" Blitz muttered, looking around.

"What do we do?" Sera asked, looking over at Blitz.

Blitz kept glancing around at the wild Pokémon that had appeared, trying to figure out how to handle the situation. Did they have any items that could help…?

Before he had the chance to think about it further, a Glalie fired several small shards of ice in his direction. Unable to dodge in time, Blitz was knocked back and sent sliding towards a wall. Blitz groaned in pain before getting back on his feet. Sera tried to run to his side, but her path was blocked off by two other wild Pokémon. Making a growling noise, she hoped to weaken the power of the wild Pokémon's attacks a little, but she knew it wouldn't be enough.

However, at that moment…

"Leave them alone, you jerks!" a familiar female voice cried out.

Blitz and Sera perked their ears up, and some of the wild Pokémon turned around to try to find out where that voice came from. The next thing they knew, a blue blur struck one of the Glalie, before rolling at a high speed towards a Weavile, knocking it off its feet. It then began rolling towards the second Glalie in the room, only to suddenly be telekinetically lifted into the air by a purple, humanoid Pokémon looking like it was wearing a red dress.

"Hey, I wasn't done yet!" Azure protested, flailing in mid-air.

Before the Jynx that had interrupted Azure's Rollout attack could do anything else, she was suddenly struck from behind by a powerful Night Slash attack from the horn on the side of Wynn's head, knocking her out instantly and causing Azure to drop back onto the ground.

"Azure!" Sera exclaimed, running over to her teammate. "You're here!"

"Sorry we're late!" Azure responded, grinning. "But hey, at least we got here in time!"

Most of the wild Pokémon had turned their attention to Wynn, who seemed unperturbed by the looks they were giving him. The Weavile suddenly lunged towards Wynn, only to be knocked out of the air by Chiaki suddenly leaping forward to block the attack with his own.

"I'm here too!" Chiaki said as he landed on his feet, smiling and waving to his teammates.

"Chiaki…" Sera responded, sighing in relief. "Thank goodness… You're both okay…"

"Sorry to worry you guys!" Azure said, nonchalantly knocking out the still-stunned Weavile with her tail.

"It's all right," Sera responded, smiling at her friends. "I'm just glad to see you two again!"

"We're glad to see you and Blitz again too!" Chiaki said, smiling back at Sera.

Blitz let out a powerful roar to push back one of the wild Pokémon blocking his path, before running over to his teammates.

"That Absol…" Blitz said, looking over at Wynn. "He's the one they told us about, isn't he?"

"Yeah, he is," Azure responded, grinning. "His name is Wynn. He helped us out."

"I see," Blitz replied, smiling as he watched Wynn take down one of the Glalie. "Well, why don't we take out the rest of these wild Pokémon, and then you guys can tell us more?"

"I'm already on it!" Azure shouted, the orb on her tail glowing as she rushed back into battle.

Blitz, Sera and Chiaki exchanged glances, before nodding their heads and running over to join the battle.

After finally taking down the last of the wild Pokémon and moving onto a new floor, Chiaki and Azure explained what had happened, while Wynn shared some of the items he had brought along from his own storage to help Blitz and Sera recover from the battle. He even allowed to Blitz to take some of the items to replace the ones he'd used over the course of the exploration so far. Blitz was a bit reluctant to accept the offer at first, but Azure and Chiaki eventually convinced him to do so.

"… I see," Blitz said, listening to Chiaki and Azure's explanation. "So you met up with Mirage's rescue team…"

"Yep," Azure responded, nodding. "Wynn saved them too."

"Well, I'm glad they're safe," Sera replied, wagging her tail.

"Still no sign of Sting's team, though…" Blitz said, holding a paw to his chin. "So, I guess they must be further ahead…"

"Probably," Chiaki responded, nodding his head. "I wonder how far they've made it… Could they have found the crystal already?"

"Good question…" Blitz replied, tilting his head slightly to the side. "I think we should probably keep looking for them, just in case…"

"Agreed," Wynn said, looking over at Blitz. "I have this feeling…"

"What kind of feeling?" Chiaki inquired, looking up at Wynn.

"I'm not sure," Wynn responded, shaking his head. "Regardless, I'll continue to accompany you all the rest of the way."

"Awesome!" Azure said, grinning at Wynn. "With you around, the rest of this dungeon will be a breeze!"

"Don't let your guard down, Azure," Blitz commented, giving her a look.

"I won't," Azure replied, her ears twitching slightly. "I'll let you know if I hear something!"

"Good," Blitz responded, smiling at Azure. "Well then… Let's go."

With renewed energy, Blitz and his teammates continued their exploration, Wynn following closely behind. Surely they had to be getting close to their goal?

Wynn stayed mostly quiet as they climbed higher, but he kept glancing down at Chiaki. Chiaki did notice, but didn't say anything about it, even if he did wonder why Wynn kept looking at him like that.

"… Do you think the wild Pokémon here will return to normal once we've taken back the crystal?" Chiaki wondered out loud.

"I don't know," Blitz responded, glancing over at his teammates following behind him. "I don't think the crystals themselves were enchanted. So far, it has either been part of the area itself or some of the Pokémon in the dungeon where it was hidden that were cursed, in order to make it difficult for anyone who tried to reclaim the crystals…"

"Ah, I guess you're right…" Chiaki replied, holding a paw to his chin. "So, retrieving the crystal won't necessary return things to normal here…"

A worried expression crossed Chiaki's face as he looked up at Wynn.

"If the wild Pokémon don't return to normal… Will you be okay?" Chiaki said.

"There's no need to worry about me," Wynn responded, glancing around. "Aside from being more persistent in chasing down Pokémon that aren't part of the dungeon, they're not any stronger than they normally are."

"Ah, I see…" Chiaki replied, seeming a bit relieved.

"What really worries me about these wild Pokémon's behavior is the possibility that it might endanger the village near this mountain if it continues," Wynn said, closing his eyes for a moment.

"Oh! I didn't even think of that!" Chiaki exclaimed.

"Thankfully, I haven't sensed any signs of such a thing happening in the near future," Wynn said, narrowing his eyes slightly. "Of course, that doesn't mean I can just relax for now…"

"… Well, I certainly hope nothing bad happens to the village," Chiaki responded, looking down at the ground.

Wynn just nodded his head in response. They just kept following the rest of the team for a few moments, before Wynn suddenly spoke up again.

"So, how many of the Axis Tower crystals have been recovered?" Wynn asked.

"Huh? Oh, we've got five of them so far," Chiaki responded, looking up at Wynn. "Once we get the one from here, there'll only be two more left to find!"

"... I see," Wynn replied, nodding his head.

"Hopefully we'll be able to return them all to Axis Tower before the distortions get too out of hand…" Chiaki said. "And as for Erebos, that's up to Samara… I wonder if my memory will return once he's been dealt with…"

"Your memory…?" Wynn inquired, looking down at Chiaki.

"Ah, yeah… I don't really remember anything about my past," Chiaki explained, rubbing his head. "I think Erebos might've done something to me… That's the only explanation we can think of, anyways…"

"I see…" Wynn responded, seeming as if he had something on his mind.

The group continued moving through the dungeon. Eventually, Wynn stopped in front of a set of stairs.

"We're almost at the top," Wynn said, looking at the stairs. "The crystal you've been looking for is probably there… However, I get the feeling that we'll have to face one more challenge before we can obtain it."

"Of course," Azure responded, shrugging slightly. "That's basically how it works, right? I wouldn't expect anything less, really…"

Blitz took out some items from the bag and handed them out to his teammates, so they could all have their full strength when they headed to the next floor. Wynn kept quietly looking at the stairs as he waited for Blitz and his teammates to finish their preparations for the challenge ahead.

"Okay… Is everyone ready?" Blitz asked, looking over at his teammates.

"I certainly am!" Azure replied, grinning.

"I'm ready too," Sera said, smiling at her teammates.

"Me too!" Chiaki responded, raising his paw.

"All right…" Blitz said, looking over at Wynn. "Looks like everyone's good to go."

"Then let's head up there," Wynn responded, glancing at Blitz and his teammates for a moment before turning his gaze back to the stairs.

Chiaki thought Wynn seemed a bit anxious. Just what exactly was waiting for them beyond those stairs? There was only one way to find out…

Wynn was the first to head up the stairs, reaching the summit of Mt. Frostbite. As Blitz and his teammates arrived shortly afterwards, they saw Wynn already running up to help a familiar Beartic.

"Hey, that's Frosty!" Sera exclaimed, her ears perking up.

"What's going on here?" Blitz wondered out loud, as Frosty was standing near some rocks, seemingly hiding from something up ahead.

As the group headed up to check on Frosty, Chiaki noticed that there seemed to be an awful lot of large ice spikes stuck to the ground, with even more visible beyond Frosty's hiding spot. Were they made of regular ice, or was it ice created from Erebos' magic?

"Grr… I thought nobody was going to show up…" Frosty said, seeming a bit relieved. "I seriously didn't know what to do…"

"What happened, Frosty?" Blitz asked, looking up at the polar bear Pokémon.

"After somehow making it through the dungeon, we finally arrived here…" Frosty began to explain. "We went a bit further ahead, and there we saw it… the crystal…"

"You found it!?" Chiaki exclaimed.

"Yeah…" Frosty replied, nodding his head. "It's frozen in ice, surrounded by these huge ice spikes and so on..."

Wynn peeked past Frosty's hiding spot and looked over towards the large ice crystal surrounded by ice spikes. Within the ice, one could faintly see something light blue shimmering. However, there was something else that Wynn noticed nearby, and he gasped as he saw what it was.

"Is something wrong, Wynn?" Chiaki asked, walking over to see what had caught the Absol's attention.

Blitz, Sera and Azure joined the others trying to see what it was, and were shocked to see a certain Beedrill and a certain Wigglytuff, both trapped inside large blocks of ice.

"Sting and Melody are…!" Sera said, taking a few steps back.

"A bunch of ice-type Pokémon attacked us when we tried to get close to the crystal…" Frosty explained, clenching his fist. "They managed to freeze Sting and Melody… I couldn't get close enough to free them because there were too many of those wild Pokémon in the way… I somehow managed to get past them and hide back here…"

"And they haven't tried to attack you over here?" Blitz asked, tilting his head slightly.

"Yeah, that is strange, considering how the wild Pokémon we fought on the way here acted…" Frosty responded, sighing. "Not that there's much I can do on my own in this situation anyways… Couldn't even signal for help since Sting has the badge…"

"I think I can hear something moving nearby…" Azure said, her ears twitching. "Those wild Pokémon are definitely just waiting to attack if we head out there…"

Wynn had quietly been observing the situation, preparing himself for battle. After all, they would certainly have to fight in order to rescue the two frozen rescue team Pokémon and claim the crystal. However, there was one other thing that somehow felt off, and if his sixth sense was right, it had something to do with the ice that the crystal was sealed in.

"I don't think we'll be much safer if we just stay here…" Blitz said, looking around. "They could ambush us at any moment…"

"Frosty, do you need any berries or medicine before we head in?" Chiaki asked, looking up at the Beartic.

"Nah, I think I'm good," Frosty replied, shaking his head and smiling. "I couldn't do anything before, but now that you guys are here, I'm sure we can get this done!"

As the group began moving closer to the ice containing the crystal, Sera used her Helping Hand move to power up her teammates in preparation for the battle. Wynn suddenly stopped, as eight Glalie suddenly appeared and fired ice beams towards the group from several directions. Wynn managed to block one of the beams with his horn, while Chiaki pulled Sera out of the way of the attacks and Frosty used his own body to shield Blitz and Azure from the attacks.

Wynn dashed forward, hitting one Glalie with a powerful Night Slash. Azure had started firing her bubble beam attacks at random Glalie as they tried to move closer to the group, trying to push them back a bit. However, an Abomasnow's arm suddenly blocked Azure's attack, and it began to hail as two Abomasnow revealed their presence.

While Blitz and his teammates were mostly annoyed by this turn of events, Frosty seemed pleased with this development.

"Hail, huh?" Frosty said, smirking. "Oh, you just made a huge mistake there!"

Before anyone knew it, Frosty had vanished from sight. One of the Glalie didn't even have time to react when Frosty suddenly came charging towards it at high speed. Frosty punched the Glalie with enough force to knock it into one of the other Glalie, causing both to momentarily fall to the ground. However, as Frosty was looking satisfied with his work, he suddenly became aware of the fact that he wasn't the only one there to have taken advantage of the hail storm, as something hard struck him from behind.

Frosty let out a pained grunt, and turned around to see the Mamoswine that had just attacked him. He quickly rolled out of the way before the Mamoswine could stomp on him.

In the meantime, Wynn kept moving as quickly as he could to avoid ice beams, ice shards and other such attacks being fired in his direction. A few of the attacks grazed his back, but he just kept running. He didn't see any reason to worry just yet. If things got too bad, he could use a certain move to take them down. Hopefully, things wouldn't go that far.

Azure had mostly been making use of her ranged attacks up until now, but as a few of the ice types were starting to get closer to them, she figured it was time to show her true strength with some physical attacks.

"Back me up, guys!" Azure shouted, before rolling towards the wild Pokémon at high speed.

One of the Abomasnow tried to block Azure's path with its arm, only to flinch as Chiaki suddenly leapt forward and punched it. Before it could recover, Azure rammed into the Abomasnow, bouncing off and continuing rolling in a different direction towards one of the Glalie. Chiaki smiled and waved at Azure as she rolled away, before turning back to continue fighting the Abomasnow.

Blitz had managed to momentarily stun two Glalie by blinding them with his brightly glowing fur, letting Sera run up and tackle one of them. Shortly afterwards, Azure came rolling and slammed into the other Glalie, knocking it down to the ground.

Frosty had momentarily stepped away from the Mamoswine so he could help the others take down some of the other wild Pokémon. He had already managed to defeat one of the Glalie by dropping several rocks on it. In doing so, he had managed to divert the attention of two other Glalie that had been focusing their attacks on Wynn. Frosty continued to make use of the hail to dodge the two Glalie's attempts to headbutt or bite him.

In the meantime, Azure had managed to take out another one of the Glalie with her Rollout attack. Coming to a stop, Azure's ears twitched as she heard something behind her, allowing her to jump out of the way of the Mamoswine attempting to run her over.

"Nice try," Azure said with a smirk as the Mamoswine ran right past her.

Blitz and Sera had gone to assist Chiaki, who had gotten into trouble in his own when one of the Glalie had managed to hit him with an ice shard attack while he was still focused on taking down one of the Abomasnow. As the Abomasnow was about to slam one of its arms down on Chiaki, Sera managed to run over and pull Chiaki out of the way just before the attack could connect. Before the Abomasnow could react to this, Blitz dashed forward and hit it with an electrified tackle. The electric attack only did a small amount of damage to the Abomasnow.

"Thanks, Sera," Chiaki said as he sat up, smiling at his teammate.

"No problem!" Sera responded, smiling back.

Blitz moved out of the way as the Abomasnow launched several sharp-edged leaves towards him. Once the Abomasnow had ceased its attack, Blitz tried to blind it with his glowing fur, but the Abomasnow seemed to have realized what Blitz intended to do and covered its eyes with one arm. However, this still opened up an opportunity for Chiaki and Sera, who attacked the Abomasnow while it was distracted. With their combined power, they were able to defeat the Abomasnow.

Of course, there was little time to relax, as there were still more opponents to deal with.

Wynn had helped Frosty take down two more Glalie, and was looking over to see how many wild Pokémon were left. Even though he was feeling a bit worn out from the battle, at least it seemed they had managed to take out almost half of the wild Pokémon guarding the area.

"Sting… Melody… Just wait a little longer…" Frosty said, glancing over at his frozen teammates. "I'll definitely save you guys…!"

Wynn pulled out and consumed an Oran berry to regain some of his strength, before looking around to see if any of the other rescue team members needed his assistance.

Azure seemed to have decided to focus on taking down the Mamoswine, trying to keep it away from her teammates. Azure smirked as she jumped up and slammed her glowing, water-coated tail against the Mamoswine for a good amount of damage. She hadn't yet noticed one of the remaining Glalie floating towards her, trying to sneak up from behind. The Glalie was about to ram into her, when Wynn leapt forward and took the attack.

"Don't worry about me," Wynn said as Azure turned around to see what was going on behind her.

Wynn struck the Glalie with the side of his horn, pushing it back a bit away from Azure. With the situation under control for now, Azure turned back to continue fighting the Mamoswine.

Blitz, Sera and Chiaki were attempting to take down one of the other three remaining Glalie, which had created an energy shield around itself to block their attacks. While waiting for the barrier to go down, a strong, icy wind suddenly blew through the entire area, damaging everyone except the wild Pokémon. It was the remaining Abomasnow that had suddenly unleashed a powerful Blizzard attack.

It seemed the wild Pokémon had changed up their strategy and were now unleashing their strongest moves. The hail was making it especially hard to dodge the Blizzard attacks.

"Ugh! This is bad!" Blitz said, shielding his face with a paw.

"I guess they've been saving their best moves for a situation like this, huh?" Azure commented, shaking some snow off of her body.

"Better try to take out these remaining guys as fast as possible!" Frosty shouted before charging at one of the remaining Glalie.

The others agreed there was no time to waste, and that it'd be best to finish things as soon as they possibly could. Blitz looked over at the Abomasnow, who looked just about ready to unleash another Blizzard attack. Blitz took a few steps towards the Abomasnow, letting his fangs heat up as he got closer. Once the Abomasnow noticed Blitz heading towards it, Blitz quickened his pace. Suddenly, he leapt up and flicked a few flames from his fangs into the Abomasnow's face. Startled by the fire, the Abomasnow took a few steps back.

While the Abomasnow was still stunned, Chiaki came running and delivered a jump kick to the Abomasnow's chest.

"Nice timing," Blitz commented, smiling at Chiaki.

"Glad to help!" Chiaki responded, smiling back.

The Abomasnow roared and tried to slam its arm down on the two. Blitz simply moved out of the way, while Chiaki jumped onto the arm and slid down as the Abomasnow raised its arm once more in order to punch the Abomasnow in the face with a glowing fist. By draining some of the Abomasnow's energy, Chiaki was able to recover from some of the damage he had taken during the battle. As the Abomasnow stumbled from having its energy drained, Blitz helped Chiaki finish the job by tackling the Abomasnow one more time.

In the meantime, Azure had decided to try finishing off the Mamoswine, since she had already weakened it significantly with her water attacks. If only those Glalie would stop interrupting her with their attacks…

"You're in my way!" Azure shouted as she rolled out of the way of several ice shard attacks fired in her direction.

Frosty had managed to take down one of the four Glalie, and noticed that two of the remaining three seemed mostly focused on Azure at the moment. Wynn was fighting the third one, waiting for the barrier currently protecting it to disappear. The hail seemed like it was about to stop, so Frosty knew he had to act quickly while he could still make use of it. He lunged towards the two Glalie that were attacking Azure, catching them off-guard as he rammed into them at a high speed.

With the two Glalie out of the way, Azure could focus on taking out the Mamoswine. With the hail coming to a stop, it wouldn't be able to hide anymore. Hearing its footsteps, Azure hurried over to where the Mamoswine was. Too slow to escape her, Azure was able to slam her water-coated tail into the Mamoswine once more, finally knocking it out.

"All right, who's left…?" Azure said, looking around.

The others, having taken out the last three Glalie, looked around in surprise.

"Is that… all of them…?" Blitz said, panting.

"Huh… I think so…" Sera responded, glancing around.

"… I don't sense any other enemies," Wynn said, closing his eyes for a moment. "It seems we've managed to take them all down."

Frosty walked over to the block of ice containing the still-frozen Sting, examining the ice with his paws.

"Hmm… So, we defeated all the enemies, but now what?" Frosty asked, looking over at the others with a concerned expression. "This ice is really thick… How are we going to get Sting and Melody out of here?"

"Good question…" Blitz replied as he looked over at the ice Melody was trapped in.

"Well, Blitz has his Fire Fang attack…" Sera said, her ears drooping down a little. "But… that might take a while…"

"Do we have any items we can use?" Chiaki asked, tilting his head slightly.

"Or maybe we can help!" a familiar voice called out.

The others turned around in surprise to see that Mirage and her teammates had just arrived on the floor.

"Sorry we're late," Mirage said, smiling sheepishly. "Looks like we just missed the big battle, huh?"

"Mirage…! You… you guys are still here?" Chiaki exclaimed.

"What kind of silly question is that?" Megara responded, putting her hands to her hips. "I mean, we're right in front of you guys, aren't we?"

"We wanted to make sure you guys were okay," Mirage explained, grinning. "So, we decided to stay a bit longer and try to catch up to you guys!"

"T-The mushroom isn't s-sure how you convinced it to stay…" Cordyceps commented, shivering a bit. "T-The mushroom would rather be s-somewhere warm, but not too warm…"

"It's good to see you guys again!" Chiaki said, smiling at the other rescue team.

Frosty suddenly grabbed Megara's arm and pulled her towards the block of ice containing Sting, pointing to it anxiously.

"Um, can you hurry up and…?" Frosty said, still gesturing to his frozen leader.

"Okay, okay!" Megara responded, chuckling a little. "Just leave this to me!"

Frosty let out a sigh of relief as he stepped aside to let Megara begin the process of thawing out his frozen teammates. For now, the rest of them could relax for a bit. Chiaki noticed that Wynn seemed to be staring up at the block of ice containing the crystal they had all come to retrieve, and walked up next to him to get a better look at it.

"I feel a strange dark aura emanating from this large block of ice…" Wynn said, still staring at it thoughtfully. "Perhaps it's the magic Erebos used to affect the behavior of the wild Pokémon…"

"Does that mean things will go back to normal here once we've melted it?" Chiaki asked, looking up at Wynn.

"It might," Wynn responded, nodding his head slightly.

"Assuming Erebos didn't make it out of Never-Melt Ice," Azure commented, having overheard the conversation.

"… Chiaki, when you look at this crystal, do you… feel anything?" Wynn asked, looking down at the Mienfoo.

"Do I… feel anything?" Chiaki responded, staring at the crystal for a moment. "Hmm… No, not really…"

"… I see," Wynn replied, looking back up at the crystal.

Chiaki glanced up at Wynn for a moment, before staring up at the crystal again. It really was just like how he saw it in his dream. How strange…

After a while, Megara had successfully managed to thaw out both Sting and Melody, who were both still shivering as Megara began the process of thawing out the crystal. Blitz had assisted her by using his Fire Fang to clear out some of the ice spikes, making a clearer path to reach the large block of ice. The steam rising from the ice as Megara worked on melting it seemed to take on a strange purple tint, suggesting it really was affected by Erebos' magic. It also seemed harder to melt than the rest of the ice, but Megara was slowly but surely working her way to the crystal.

"Ugh… I can almost feel my wings again…" Sting buzzed, glancing at his back.

"M-Maybe it's about time I prioritized learning some new attacks…" Melody said, snuggling up to Mirage for warmth. "I-I think I'll start by learning some fire-type attacks…"

"Are they going to be okay?" Sera asked, looking a bit concerned.

"I think so…" Frosty responded, rubbing the back of his head. "But we'll have Giselle take a look at them when we get back, just in case."

Having made sure everyone was okay, Wynn kept watching as Megara worked on melting the large block of ice in order to retrieve the crystal. Megara kept alternating between breathing a stream of fire from her beak at the ice, and engulfing her fists in fire and using those to heat it up.

"Just a little more…" Megara muttered, stopping for a moment to dry her hands before continuing. "Come on…"

Megara was getting ready to grab the crystal once the ice around it had melted enough to free it. After a few more moments, the crystal finally fell into her hands. The others gathered around her as she held up the crystal.

"Well done, Meg!" Mirage said, grinning at her teammate.

"Great job," Cordyceps commented, shivering a bit. "Can we go home now?"

"I suppose it is about time to head back…" Frosty said, rubbing the back of his head.

"Yeah… We should hurry home," Blitz added, nodding his head.

The rescue teams looked over at Wynn, who seemed to be examining what was left of the block of ice that had contained the crystal.

"Has that strange feeling gone away?" Chiaki asked, walking up to Wynn.

"I think so…" Wynn responded, nodding his head slightly. "Hopefully, it won't bother the wild Pokémon anymore."

"I hope so too!" Chiaki said, smiling at Wynn.

Blitz stepped forward, looking up at Wynn.

"Wynn, thank you for everything," Blitz said, bowing his head down. "We couldn't have done this without your help."

"Yeah, you were really amazing!" Mirage added, smiling at Wynn. "You're like, a one-Pokémon rescue team!"

"I'm just glad you're all okay," Wynn responded, looking at the three rescue teams with a small smile on his face. "And that you were able to complete your mission."

"Hey, there's no need to be modest!" Mirage said, pointing a claw at Wynn. "You are great, and you deserve to hear it!"

Wynn blinked a few times, seeming unsure about how to respond to that. He turned away for a moment, hoping nobody would notice the blush that had suddenly appeared on his face.

"Well, we're heading back!" Frosty announced, waving at the others. "Take care, Wynn! Everyone else, we'll see you back home!"

Sting, Melody and Frosty disappeared in a flash of golden light from their rescue team badge, returning home to Fenix Town. Mirage and her teammates briefly exchanged glances, before nodding and turning to the others. Megara held out the crystal she had been holding, offering it to Blitz.

"Here, I think you guys should be the ones to bring this to Stella," Megara said.

"Huh? Why?" Blitz asked, blinking a few times.

"Well, you guys did most of the work, didn't you?" Mirage responded, chuckling. "All we did was come in at the end to help melt some ice."

Blitz stared at the crystal for a few moments, before nodding his head.

"If you insist," Blitz said, placing the crystal inside the treasure bag.

"All right, then!" Mirage responded, grinning. "Well, time to go home!"

"Finally…" Cordyceps said, letting out a sigh of relief.

"Will be nice to get some rest…" Megara commented, seeming a bit tired.

"Bye, Wynn! Thanks again for all the help!" Mirage said, waving good-bye to Wynn.

After Mirage and her teammates had teleported away, only Blitz and his teammates remained there with Wynn. Blitz waited for his teammates to gather around him so they could teleport home as well. As he was walking over to the others, Chiaki briefly glanced over his shoulder and thought he saw Wynn giving him a strange look. He turned around, but all he could see was Wynn's usual stoic expression.

Chiaki wondered if he'd just imagined it. He considered asking Wynn if something was wrong, but decided against it.

"I guess it's time we head home as well," Blitz said, looking at his teammates. "It's been a long day…"

"Yeah… I'm really looking forward to telling Frederick about today's adventure!" Azure responded, grinning.

"Ah… My legs are tired…" Sera said, her ears drooping down a little.

"You should all get some rest when you get home," Wynn commented, looking at the four of them.

"We will!" Chiaki responded, smiling at Wynn. "Make sure you get some rest too, okay?"

"… I will, don't worry," Wynn replied, nodding his head and smiling back at Chiaki.

"Okay, let's go home," Blitz said, looking over at each of his teammates before looking over at Wynn. "Good bye, Wynn."

"Farewell," Wynn responded, watching as the golden light emanating from the rescue team badge enveloped the rescue team and they disappeared from sight.

After everyone had left, Wynn went back into the mystery dungeon to check on the conditions of the wild Pokémon. From what he could tell, they weren't quite as insistent on pursuing him as before, which presumably meant Erebos' spell was indeed wearing off. The weather on certain floors in the areas outside also seemed less intense than before. Eventually, Wynn returned to his cave to rest for the night. Wynn lay down in his bed, and just stared into space for several moments.

Even if Erebos' spell was wearing off and things were starting to go back to normal, there was still a lot on Wynn's mind.

"That Mienfoo…" Wynn muttered, still staring at nothing in particular. "His future seems quite uncertain… Perhaps I should've said something…"

Wynn sighed and closed his eyes. There wasn't anything he could do, so there was no point in dwelling on it. All he could do was believe in Chiaki, and hope for the best.

"Chiaki… Just keep getting stronger…" Wynn mumbled, beginning to drift off to sleep. "If you're strong enough, then… even you might be…"

Wynn soon fell asleep. He hadn't even really realized how tired he was. It had been a long day; assisting the rescue teams and helping them retrieve that crystal. Wynn felt grateful to the rescue teams, since it was with their help that he had been able to avert a potential threat to the village.

However, while the village was safe for now, a new potential threat began to materialize during the night, as small distortions began to appear throughout the Snow-Laden Path…

End of Chapter 53