Hey everyone! It's been a while, but I finally finished chapter 55!
Yeah, I kind of got stuck for a bit, so I decided to take the same approach I did with the last chapter I got stuck on, namely going back to one of the earlier scenes and changing it up, and seeing where it'd go from there. It also helps that I had a sudden flash of inspiration as I was trying to sleep one night, which gave me the general idea for this chapter.
Also, I intended to include a female Sneasel as a supporting character during the Mt. Frostbite chapters, but the character ended up being cut, so I decided to include a Sneasel in this chapter to make up for that, even if it's a different one.
Anyways, feel free to let me know your thoughts on the story. If you guys have any advice, I'll try to keep it in mind for future chapters.
I hope you enjoy this chapter!
Chapter 55: We're stuck here forever, aren't we?
Elina looked up at the home of the town oracle, where six of the Axis Tower crystals were currently being kept for safe-keeping until they could all be brought back to Axis Tower. It was getting pretty late, but both Stella and Bow seemed to still be awake. Were they perhaps looking to the stars for guidance? Elina glanced up at the night sky. Supposedly, her species came to this planet a long time ago from somewhere beyond that sky. It was kind of hard for Elina to imagine that, though, since she had been born in this world. Although now that she thought about it, she was a bit curious about what exactly lied beyond the sky.
Thinking about it, there were a few other species of Pokémon who were also said to come from space. Lunatone and Solrock, for example, apparently came to live on this planet after falling from the sky. And didn't Cosmo once say that her species came from the moon? Elina wasn't entirely sure if that was true, but she couldn't think of a reason why Cosmo would lie to her either. After all, Cosmo was sort of like an aunt to her.
"… I wonder how they're all doing back home," Elina thought to herself, letting out a small sigh. "Do they miss me? I hope father isn't too lonely…"
Elina glanced over at Stella's house once more.
"… It won't be much longer until they've all been gathered now," Elina thought. "Then, they'll be returned to Axis Tower…"
Elina shuddered a bit.
"But… Erebos… he'll surely try to stop us…" Elina thought, wrapping her arms around herself in an attempt to stop her trembling. "Back then… I just barely managed to escape from him…"
"Is someone out there?" Bow's voice called out, and Elina realized that the other psychic types must've sensed her distress.
Bow stepped outside to see if anyone was nearby, her mother staying in the doorway and looking around as well. However, the presence they had felt seemed to be gone.
"Huh… That's strange…" Bow commented, looking around. "I could've sworn I sensed someone…"
"Yes, someone was definitely here, until just a moment ago…" Stella responded, nodding her head. "Who would stop by at this hour, though…?"
"Did somebody nocturnal want some advice?" Bow mused, tilting her head.
"… Well, if it's advice they wanted, they'll probably return," Stella responded, looking around once more before motioning for Bow to come back inside. "Anyways, I think that's enough for tonight. Let's get some sleep."
"Okay," Bow replied, letting out a small yawn as she stepped back inside. "Good night."
"Good night, sweetie," Stella responded, smiling at Bow. "Love you."
"Love you too," Bow replied as she got into bed.
Elina peeked out from some bushes in the town plaza, not sure why she still felt so cautious even though no one was around at the moment. Was it just that she had been startled by Bow suddenly calling out to her earlier, or was it because she had reminded herself of what happened the night the crystals were taken from Axis Tower? That night…
She remembered hearing the sound of rain pouring down outside. The wind blowing, lightning flashing…
Then, an intruder suddenly appeared inside the tower.
Before she even realized what was going on, various guards were trying their best to stop the intruder from taking the crystals. However, the intruder possessed powers none of them had ever seen before.
Somehow, Elina managed to stay out of the intruder's sight. Whether it was pure luck, or because she was too small and weak for the intruder to consider her a threat, she wasn't sure…
She couldn't stop shaking, but even so, she didn't take her eyes off of the intruder, as he flew up to where the crystals were. She saw the streams of light shining into the crystal in the center from the other seven crystals positioned around it being disrupted as Erebos removed them from their pedestals one by one.
Elina could've sworn that Erebos' maniacal laughter only got more and more intense with each crystal he took, until only the clear one in the center was left.
Then, just before he could take the last one…
"It's still kind of hard to believe… that I managed to do that…" Elina thought to herself, hugging herself tightly in an attempt to stop her trembling. "I know I was just lucky, though…"
Elina noticed that her fingers had started flashing erratically as she thought about what happened that night. She took a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself down.
"C-Calm down… After all, he's… he's not even looking for me! If he wanted to find me, he could've easily done so at any time!" Elina thought to herself. "Besides, even with my interference, he still technically succeeded in his goal that night…"
Elina looked down at her hands, her glowing fingers having stopped flashing gibberish. She then looked around the town plaza. The crystals in the wooden posts around the town plaza looked pretty when they were glowing like this at night. Even when no one was around late at night, their light somehow made it feel less lonely.
"Fenix Town is quite nice…" Elina thought to herself. "To think, that if none of this had happened, I probably would've never come here…"
As far as Elina could remember, she hadn't really been outside of the tower that many times before all this. She'd never really considered exploring what was out there, and yet she had managed to make it all the way out here. Perhaps she had been stronger than she had believed herself to be all along. At the very least, her psychic powers had certainly gotten stronger since then.
"I've gotten much better at teleportation, and Kala has been helping me work on my telepathy…" Elina thought to herself, glancing over in the direction of the dojo. "Maybe I should work on my battle skills next?"
Elina wasn't sure what the future would bring, but she had always expected that she'd eventually end up becoming another one of the guards protecting the Axis Tower crystals alongside her father and the others. She would certainly need to get stronger in battle if she planned to become a guard…
… Did she want to become a guard, though? It suddenly occurred to her that she had never really given that much thought. Maybe it was too soon to be thinking about it, though, with everything else that was still going on.
"Ah, my thoughts are all over the place…" Elina thought, rubbing her head. "Maybe it's about time to call it a night and get some sleep…"
Elina quietly made her way over to one of the spots where she usually slept. She tried to clear her mind so her thoughts wouldn't keep her awake for too long, but doing so tended to be easier said than done. At times like this, she almost felt a bit envious of Kala, who seemed to have no difficulty whatsoever falling asleep. But if she just kept her eyes closed and made sure there weren't any disturbances, she would surely fall asleep eventually.
As Chiaki woke up, he noticed that Blitz was already awake and staring down at a piece of paper laying on the floor in front of him. Judging from the ink on one of Blitz's front paws, it seemed he had already made some progress on that letter for Lita. At the moment, though, he was just staring down at the paper in deep thought, trying to figure out what to write down next. Chiaki was curious about what Blitz had written so far, but figured it was best not to look. Whatever was written in that letter was between Blitz and his little sister, after all.
"… Hm?" Blitz said, one of his ears twitching slightly before he glanced over at Chiaki who had just gotten out of bed. "Oh, you're awake."
"Good morning!" Chiaki replied, smiling at Blitz.
"Good morning to you too," Blitz responded, smiling back.
"… You look kind of tired," Chiaki commented, noticing Blitz's weary expression.
"Ah, well… I woke up early, and… I couldn't stop thinking about it…" Blitz responded, letting out a small yawn. "So, after a while, I decided I might as well get up and try to write it…"
"Oh, I see," Chiaki replied, nodding his head slightly.
"I even managed to think of some things to write, but… now that I've gotten this far, I'm not sure where to go from here…" Blitz said, looking over what he had written down so far. "I… don't know if I should keep trying, or if… I should just do something else for a bit, and maybe if I'm lucky, it'll just come to me then…"
"Maybe you should go back to sleep for a bit?" Chiaki suggested.
"Nah… Even if I'm still a bit tired, I already know I won't be able to return to sleep," Blitz responded, shaking his head. "So, I'll just stay up."
"Okay, then…" Chiaki replied, nodding his head. "Well, in that case… Why don't we head out for a bit?"
"Yeah, sure," Blitz responded, putting the paper away. "Let's me just wash this ink off my paws first."
Things were the same as usual in the town plaza, various rescue teams getting ready for their next missions while other Pokémon stood around gossiping and discussing recent events in the region. Among the various conversations they could hear snippets of as they walked past, one thing they overheard that Blitz made a note of was one rescue team telling another about a notice that had been put up at the rescue team HQ. Before he could hear any more details, however, a familiar voice caught his attention.
"Blitz! Chiaki! Good morning!" Sera called out as she ran over to them.
"Oh, there you are, Sera!" Chiaki responded, smiling at her.
"Hi, Sera," Blitz said, also smiling.
"Huh? Blitz, you don't look so good," Sera commented, squinting her eyes a bit as she looked at Blitz's face. "Did you not get enough sleep last night?"
"Ah, is it that obvious…?" Blitz responded, sheepishly rubbing the rings on his forelegs together.
"Well, I don't blame you, considering what happened yesterday…" Sera replied, her ears drooping down slightly.
"Don't worry about it," Blitz responded, shaking his head. "I need some time to think things through, but… I don't think just keeping to myself while I try to get that sorted out will help."
"Blitz…!" Sera replied, looking rather surprised at this.
"Heh, what's with that look?" Blitz asked, letting out a chuckle. "I mean, I know I don't have to keep everything to myself anymore."
"Ah… I see," Sera responded, smiling at Blitz.
The three of them then headed over to the café to pick up Azure and Frederick before deciding on what they would do today. As they arrived, Azure was in the middle of cleaning the tables.
"Oh, hey guys!" Azure said, waving at her friends.
"Hi, Azure!" Sera responded, looking around. "Frederick's not here?"
"Nope, not yet," Azure replied, shrugging slightly. "He didn't mention having any other plans, so I assume he'll be here soon. Feel free to wait here while I finish cleaning these tables."
Blitz and the others watched as Azure cleaned the tables one-by-one, spraying them with her bubble attack before swiftly drying them off with a washcloth. Judging from her movements, Blitz guessed that Azure must've practiced this technique for cleaning efficiently. As she was close to finishing off the last few tables, Frederick finally showed up.
"Hey guys," Frederick said, walking over to the rest of the group.
"Hi Frederick!" Chiaki responded, smiling at the Deino.
"Ooh, good timing!" Azure said, grinning. "I'm almost done, so just give me a moment!"
Once Azure had finished the last table, she ran up to the others.
"So, what are we doing today?" Azure asked, still smiling.
"We haven't decided yet," Sera responded, shaking her head.
"Hmm… Maybe we should head over to the HQ?" Blitz suggested. "I think there's something there we should check out."
"Ooh, you're really up for an adventure?" Azure asked, looking over at Blitz.
"Well… Maybe," Blitz responded, nodding his head slightly. "At the very least, I want to know what is going on."
The group then made their way to the rescue team HQ. Reaching the main area, things seemed the same as usual, except for something that had been posted up next to the bulletin boards. They quickly went over to examine it.
"… Ah, I see," Blitz said, as he looked over the document. "I guess some mystery dungeons have been greatly affected by the distortions, to the point where they're practically inaccessible."
"Well, that kind of sucks," Azure commented.
"It's not that surprising, though," Sera said, her ears drooping down a little. "I mean, we've seen and heard of how distortions have been spreading and getting bigger all this time…"
"Yeah…" Blitz responded, nodding his head. "For now, there aren't that many mystery dungeons that have been blocked off, but I can only imagine the list will get longer… The list also mentions some other mystery dungeons that are currently being monitored and that may soon be blocked off as well."
"I sure hope nobody got lost in those dungeons before the distortions closed them up…" Frederick commented, tilting his head slightly.
"… Well, I don't see any of the dungeons that are currently inaccessible mentioned as the location of any of the missions on the bulletin boards," Azure said, glancing at the various missions posted. "I assume that means we don't got to worry about that."
"Hope you're right about that," Frederick responded. "If not, then they might be in there for a while…"
"… You've got a wild imagination, buddy," Azure commented, blinking a few times.
"Ah! Look at that!" Sera said, pointing her paw at one particular mission on the bulletin board. "Isn't that one of the mystery dungeons that is currently under observation and that may soon be closed up?"
Blitz let out a gasp as he quickly looked over at the mission, then back at the list to confirm Sera's observation.
"You're right…" Blitz responded, nodding his head slightly. "According to the list, any mission in these possibly soon-to-be closed off dungeons should be prioritized…"
"So, is that what we're doing today, then?" Azure asked, looking over at her teammates.
"Well, none of the other teams have accepted this one yet," Blitz replied, taking another look at the mission. "And the difficulty range shouldn't be too difficult for our current rank… under normal circumstances, anyways."
"In other words, the distortions might make things a bit more difficult," Sera responded, letting out a sigh.
"I'm always up for a challenge," Azure said, smirking. "Guess we'd better get ready, huh?"
"… Yeah, we'd better go rescue this Pokémon," Blitz responded, nodding his head.
The team quickly made their way back to the town plaza to prepare for the mission. Once they had sorted out which items to bring, they made their way back to the HQ. As they prepared to set off, they first had to decide who would stay behind.
"Good luck, guys," Frederick said, smiling at his teammates.
"Sorry about having you be the one to stay behind two missions in a row, buddy," Azure said.
"No, it's fine," Frederick replied, shaking his head. "There'll be plenty of other chances to go on missions, so I don't mind waiting."
"Yeah, that's true!" Sera said, wagging her tail.
"All right, then!" Azure said, grinning. "We'll be sure to tell you all about the mission when we get back, so until then, just cheer us on from here, okay?"
"Of course!" Frederick responded, nodding his head.
With their preparations complete, Blitz, Sera, Chiaki and Azure headed into Kala's room.
"Kala, wake up," Chiaki said, lightly shaking the Abra's shoulder.
"Mm… Just put the spoon back where you found it…" Kala muttered in her sleep.
After a few moments, Kala finally woke up and listened to the rescue team's request.
"Hmm, I see…" Kala said, nodding her head slightly. "All right, I can send you there… You guys just be careful, okay?"
"We will, don't worry," Blitz responded, nodding his head in response.
And so, in a flash of green light, Blitz, Sera, Chiaki and Azure were teleported out of the room. With her job done for now, Kala laid back down on her pillow.
"A mystery dungeon heavily affected by distortion, huh…" Kala muttered to herself as she let out a yawn. "Wonder if it'd be as confusing as a dream…"
Kala didn't spend too much time thinking about it before falling back asleep, ready to return to her own strange dreams.
"… So, where's the entrance to the dungeon?" Azure asked as she and her teammates looked around.
"Um…" Blitz rolled out the treasure map and quickly glanced at it. "Well, this does look like it could be the right area, and if so…"
Blitz took a few steps away, examining his surroundings before finally spotting something in the distance.
"Oh, I think that might be it over there!" Blitz said, pointing a paw in the direction of what he'd seen.
After rolling the map back up, the group quickly followed Blitz over to the entrance of the mystery dungeon. As they approached it, they noticed that small distortions were scattered throughout the areas closer to the dungeon.
"All right, we're here," Azure said, looking at the entrance to the mystery dungeon. "I wonder why we landed that far from the entrance, though…"
"Good question," Blitz responded, touching a paw to his chin. "I'm not sure if Kala did that on purpose or not, but either way, it might have to do with the distortions…"
"Ah, so we ended up further away from the dungeon because there weren't as many distortions over there," Azure replied. "Got it."
"Well, it's my best guess, anyways," Blitz responded, looking up at the entrance. "Anyways, our client should be on the thirteenth floor…"
"I wonder what it'll be like in there…" Chiaki commented.
"Hopefully it doesn't get too difficult to navigate," Sera said, her ears twitching slightly.
"I'm ready to head in when you guys are!" Azure said, seemingly unperturbed.
Blitz exchanged glances with his teammates, before they all stepped inside the mystery dungeon. Upon entering, they quickly noticed that parts of the walls were warped and flickering.
"… Yeah, this is just about what I expected," Azure commented, looking around.
"Ugh, I feel I might get dizzy looking at this for too long…" Sera said, her ears drooping down.
"Let's not linger here too long," Blitz responded, looking over at his teammates. "Come on, we should get moving."
The team quickly began exploring the floor, trying to find the stairs as soon as possible. As they made their way throughout the first few floors, they noticed that the wild Pokémon in the dungeon seemed more aggressive than normal. Of course, this didn't come as a surprise, considering they had already seen how the distortions tended to agitate the wild Pokémon in the mystery dungeons.
"I feel kind of bad for the wild Pokémon here…" Sera said, trying to avert her eyes from some of the distorted walls.
"Me too…" Chiaki responded, nodding his head slightly. "I hope the remaining two Axis Tower crystals are found soon so things can go back to normal…"
"Yeah…" Sera replied, nodding her head in agreement.
As they made their way through the different floors, they noticed that the level of distortion seemed to wary from floor to floor. Once they had managed to get past the first five floors, the next few floors were a little less distorted. However, a few floors after that seemed even more distorted than the first few.
"Geez… Make up your mind," Azure said.
"Hmm?" Chiaki said, glancing at Azure following behind him.
"I was talking to the dungeon," Azure explained, sighing.
"Oh," Chiaki replied, turning back around.
"Ugh, is it just me, or is it kind of hard to breathe in here?" Sera asked, her ears twitching slightly.
"I guess this floor must be especially harshly affected by distortion," Blitz responded, looking around. "It's okay, let's just hurry up and find the stairs."
Blitz quickly led them down one of the paths, only to suddenly find himself in a different room before they had even walked through the entire tunnel.
"Um…" Blitz said, glancing at the path behind him. "That… can't be right."
"What just happened!?" Azure exclaimed, looking around.
"Did we just… teleport?" Sera asked, blinking a few times.
"I… I guess so," Blitz responded, looking around.
"Huh… How'd that happen?" Chiaki asked, tilting his head slightly.
"Hmm…" Blitz kept looking around for a moment, before his eyes settled on one of the other paths leading out of the room. "Let's try going that way next."
Following Blitz's lead, the team began heading towards a different path. However, once again, before they knew it, they ended up in a different place from before.
"Oh, hey! The stairs!" Azure exclaimed, pointing to said stairs. "But, wait… How'd we…"
"I see…" Blitz said, looking around.
"I guess we got teleported again," Sera said, looking over at Blitz. "Did you figure something out?"
"Hmm… On floors with particularly strong distortion, I guess the paths are connected in certain ways…" Blitz responded, looking back at the path they had just appeared from. "As in… Imagine that each path is a portal linked to a different path…"
"Ah, is that how it works?" Azure replied, blinking a few times. "Huh… In other words, navigating those floors might be a pain…"
"Yeah…" Blitz responded, nodding his head as he glanced over at the stairs again. "Finding the stairs to the next floor in a situation will require some luck on our part…"
"Well, we did get lucky this time," Chiaki said, smiling. "So, it'll probably be fine!"
"We should also try our best to remember which paths lead where," Blitz added.
After discussing the situation, the team moved on to the next floor. Thankfully, the next floor wasn't as distorted as the previous one, allowing them to get through the floor without too much difficulty. However, once they had made it through the next few floors, they finally reached the floor where their client was supposed to be, only to find it was another floor strongly affected by the distortion.
"This again…" Azure commented as they tried to walk down a path, only to be teleported to a different part of the dungeon.
"All right… Try to remember the layout of these rooms, and where the paths lead," Blitz said, looking around at his teammates.
"Hmm… Maybe it'll be easier to remember if we don't pick up the items?" Sera suggested as she glanced over at some Iron Thorns lying on the ground.
"Good thinking," Blitz responded, nodding approvingly at Sera.
"Agreed," Azure said, thinking for a moment. "Although, if we find an item that might be useful, we can just switch it out with something from the bag that we don't need, right?"
"Yes, of course," Blitz replied.
"Sounds like a plan!" Chiaki said, smiling. "All right, let's keep moving!"
The team quickly resumed their exploration of the floor, making good use of items to help memorize the layout of the floor. After being teleported around the dungeon for a bit, having to start over at least twice after being returned to the room they arrived in upon reaching the floor, they finally found their client. A rather frustrated looking dark-furred bipedal Pokémon was pacing back and forth inside a room, the pink feather on its left ear twitching.
"Hmm?" the Sneasel said, turning to look at Blitz and his teammates. "Ah… Did you come to rescue me?"
"Yes, we did!" Chiaki responded, nodding his head.
"… Well, give it a try," the Sneasel said.
"What do you mean?" Blitz inquired, tilting his head slightly.
"…" the Sneasel just looked away.
Blitz waited for a moment, before stepping forward and holding up the rescue team badge. However, nothing seemed to happen.
"… Even the badge?" the Sneasel said, letting out a sigh. "I was hoping it was just the escape orbs that didn't work…"
"Huh? We can't teleport out of here!?" Azure exclaimed.
"Seems that way…" the Sneasel responded, shrugging.
"… The strong distortions on this floor must be interfering with our ability to teleport," Blitz said, looking down at the badge.
"What do we do, then?" Sera asked, her ears drooping down.
"Don't panic," Blitz responded, putting the badge back on the bag. "Maybe it'll work if we move to a different floor…"
"Oh! Because the distortion might not be as strong there?" Chiaki chimed in.
"Exactly," Blitz replied, nodding his head.
"All right! Then let's find the stairs!" Chiaki responded, smiling.
"Uh… Good luck with that," the Sneasel said, crossing his arms. "I've been wandering around for a while now, and I just can't seem to find those (Frillish) stairs!"
"Whoa, calm down!" Azure exclaimed, before walking over and patting the Sneasel's shoulder. "I understand you're frustrated, but there's no need for such language."
"Yeah, it'll be okay!" Chiaki said, looking around. "We'll get you out of here!"
"Well… I feel like I've already tried every possible way I can go in here, but… maybe you guys can find another path," the Sneasel responded, shrugging slightly. "Ugh, my head hurts… I just want to get out of here…"
"Okay, let's look for the stairs!" Sera said, wagging her tail.
And so, the Sneasel joined the exploration as the group attempted to find the stairs leading to the next floor. However, it seemed that no matter which way they went, they just kept walking in circles, being sent back to the same rooms again, and again, and again, and again…
"… And there's the Iron Thorns again," Azure said, glancing over at the Iron Thorns laying on the ground. "How many times have we seen those now?"
"We're stuck here forever, aren't we?" the Sneasel muttered while rubbing his head.
"Hey, don't give up!" Chiaki said, looking around. "There's got to be something we haven't tried yet!"
Blitz glanced at the nearby paths a few times, seemingly at a loss for which one to pick.
"… Blitz?" Chiaki said, looking over at the team leader.
"Um…" Blitz replied, rubbing the rings on his forelegs together.
"B-Blitz?" Chiaki said again, realizing what was going on. "Hey, it's okay! We're all kind of confused right now, so don't worry about it! If we keep trying, I'm sure we'll find a way!"
"Chiaki's right!" Sera exclaimed, her ears perking up. "Just try to stay calm!"
"R-Right… Sorry," Blitz responded, taking a deep breath. "Whew…"
"So, which way should we go?" Azure asked, glancing around. "Just go with your gut feeling."
"Hmm… In that case…" Blitz responded, looking around once more before pointing to one of the paths. "Let's try going there again."
Following Blitz's lead, the group returned to one of the rooms they had visited a few times now in their attempts to find their way through the dungeon. As Blitz attempted to once again figure out where to go from there, a wild Pokémon resembling a crow wearing a top hat appeared.
"I'll deal with it!" Azure said, smirking as she faced the Murkrow.
The Murkrow flew out of the way as Azure tried to hit it with her bubble beam attacks. Once the Murkrow came closer for an attack, Azure used her rollout to move out of the way. She kept rolling faster and faster, trying to ram her opponent while it flew close to the ground. It was at this point that something unexpected happened. Once she had finally hit the Murkrow with her full force, Azure kept rolling at full speed towards a wall. However, instead of simply colliding with it, Azure disappeared into the wall.
"Whoa!" Sera exclaimed, her ears pointing upright in surprise. "Did you see that!?"
Blitz quickly walked over to the wall, curiously looking at it for a few moments before reaching into the treasure bag. Sera, Chiaki and the Sneasel watched as he took out a small seed and flung it through the wall.
"… Do you think…?" Chiaki asked, curiously looking at the wall.
"I guess it's worth a try at this point," Blitz said, looking at the others. "This might just be the path we need."
"Azure! Can you hear me?" Sera shouted at the wall. "Are you okay?"
The group waited a few moments for an answer. At first, there was nothing, but then a stream of bubbles suddenly shot out from the wall.
"Oh! I guess that's a yes!" Chiaki said, smiling.
"All right, let's get out of here," the Sneasel said, smirking.
The group gathered around the wall, and after a count of three, they leapt through the wall. It only took a moment before they reemerged from a particular spot on another wall in another room. Azure grinned as she saw the others arrive. A few other spots on the wall were also wet, suggesting that it took Azure a few tries to find the part of the wall that she had entered the room from when she used her bubble beam to send a signal.
"Hey guys!" Azure said, waving at them.
"Hi!" Chiaki responded, waving back.
"There are two paths leading out of this room," Azure said, pointing them out. "Since the stairs aren't in here, I'm guessing one of those paths might lead there."
"I see…" Sera said, looking at the two paths. "So… We just got to choose the right one…"
"Yeah, I think so," Azure responded, before handing the seed Blitz flung through the wall back to him. "Thought you might want this back."
Blitz put the seed back into the treasure bag, before taking a moment to watch the two paths.
"So, which one do you think we should choose?" Chiaki asked, glancing back and forth at the two paths.
"We'd better get it right…" the Sneasel said, sighing.
"If rollcall orbs worked here, we could just try both paths, and then the group that found the stairs could bring the others over…" Blitz mused, still trying to decide.
"Well, at least we do know the way now, so if we get sent back somewhere, we can just try again," Sera said.
"Yeah…" Blitz replied, nodding his head slightly.
"So, should we just flip a coin, or something?" Azure suggested.
After taking a moment to decide their path, the group were finally able to locate the stairs to the next floor. They had to get through two other floors, before reaching a floor where the distortion seemed fairly light compared to the previous floors.
"… All right, let's try this again," Blitz said, taking out the badge once more.
"I have a good feeling about this one!" Chiaki said, grinning.
"Please, let it work this time…" the Sneasel muttered, anxiously biting at one of his claws.
As Blitz lifted up the badge, a golden light began to emanate from it. Everyone's expressions brightened as the light shined on the Sneasel.
"Finally!" the Sneasel said, grinning. "I'll wait for you guys back at the HQ with your reward!"
"Okay, we'll see you there in just a moment!" Chiaki responded, nodding his head.
After the Sneasel had been safely teleported out of the dungeon, Blitz and his teammates gathered around the badge as they activated it one more time to leave the dungeon themselves and return to the rescue team HQ to pick up their reward. And with that, they had completed their mission.
"So… You guys wanna stop by the café?" Azure asked.
"Sorry, but I think I'll just head home for tonight," Blitz responded, shaking his head. "I want to try to finish writing that letter for Lita… Plus, since I didn't sleep too well last night, I should try to get to sleep a little earlier tonight."
"All right, fair enough," Azure replied, nodding slightly before looking over at Sera and Chiaki. "What about you guys?"
"I think I'll be heading home too," Sera responded. "I'm kind of worn out from all that stuff we went through today…"
"Yeah, that dungeon sure was something…" Chiaki said, rubbing the back of his head.
"I see," Azure replied. "Well, guess it's good bye for now, then! I'll see you guys tomorrow!"
And so, the team went their separate ways for the night. Azure went back to the café to assist her mother, as well as tell Frederick all about today's adventure. Sera was greeted by her older brother Flare as she returned home. And as Blitz and Chiaki returned home, Blitz immediately looked over at the unfinished letter lying on the floor and sat down in front of it to pick up where he had left off.
Chiaki lay down on his bed and listened for a while to the sound of Blitz's ink-covered paw carefully touching the paper, until finally…
"… There, that should do it," Blitz said, looking over the letter one more time.
"You're done?" Chiaki asked, looking over at Blitz.
"Yeah…" Blitz responded, cleaning the ink off of his paw again. "I think so."
"That's good," Chiaki said, smiling at Blitz.
"Mm-hm," Blitz replied, nodding his head. "When Santos stops by during his deliveries tomorrow, I'll have him take it with him."
Blitz let out a sigh of relief as he laid down on his bed. It seemed to take only a few moments before he fell asleep. Chiaki smiled and closed his eyes, trying to fall asleep himself. He thought back to the mystery dungeon they had explored that day and wondered just how much worse the mystery dungeons that had been rendered inaccessible were. Were the wild Pokémon living in those dungeons okay?
"… I shouldn't think about this now," Chiaki thought to himself, letting out a sigh. "I don't think I'd be able to sleep if I did…"
Of course, it was difficult to not think about it. Even so, Chiaki tried his best to push his worries out of his mind, so that he could get some rest and be ready for whatever he and his friends would do tomorrow. That was all he could do for now.
End of Chapter 55