Misty Forest

1F

As he and Fennekin stepped into the forest, Ethan felt a cool sensation on his skin, a stark change from the already-hot morning sun of outside. It was a welcome cool for sure, but such a change sent a quick shiver throughout his body.

"Now you know why it's called Misty Forest," Fennekin giggled slightly, although not without a hint of nervousness. "It's not very bad today, though. There have been some times where I come in here, and I can hardly see my paws in front of my face because the fog is so thick!"

"I'm surprised the sun didn't—" Ethan cut himself off as he turned back to where they had just been, only to find a thick wall of trees and undergrowth like the rest of the forest. "Where'd the entrance go?"

"It's a mystery dungeon. Even the entrances and exits change, so we're in here until we get through or get knocked out." She motioned her head towards a small path out of the clearing they were in, then started walking towards it.

"Knocked out?" Ethan echoed as he jogged to catch up to her and then walked by her side. "What happens then?"

"You wake up outside, perfectly healthy. If you're carrying any money or items, though, then you lose some of them. But I don't have any money or an adventuring bag, so just what I can carry." When they got to the narrow path out of the clearing, Fennekin stepped aside and gestured a paw down it. "You first."

"Me? You know this forest better than I do, you should go first!"

"I'll be right here," Fennekin responded gently with a loving smile. "If we get attacked and you're getting overwhelmed, just switch places with me. That's why it's great to have team members to fight along with you! I'm sure you'll do fine."

Ethan took a deep breath in, then coughed as he let it out much quicker than he had anticipated. "Okay," he continued coughing, "I'm ready." Head high, he walked in front of Fennekin and began down the path. After taking a few steps, he turned his head back and was met with a small smile on her face.

"I'm still here."

"Yeah." He laughed nervously, then looked back forward. "Just making sure."

After a few more steps in silence, Ethan stepped out into a small clearing, a small ramp of roots and vines in the corner seemingly leading up into the trees. "What's that?" Ethan asked, pointing towards it.

"Those are the stairs!" Fennekin beamed. "Mystery dungeons have different levels, and you just have to find the way to the next one. Eventually, you get to the end of the dungeon and exit on the other side. Now come on, let's go!"

Misty Forest

2F

"How do we know when we're getting close?" Ethan confirmed as he took the final step up to the next level of Misty Forest. Looking around, he saw they were in a large room with two exits, one straight in front of them and another to his left.

"It's always the same amount of floors," Fennekin replied as she walked up next to him, "but if you don't know that, then there's no telling. The floors just keep going, and sometimes the plants or rocks or Pokémon change, but you can't see the exit."

"Where do you think we should go?" he asked, looking around the room. "Is there a good way to tell where to go?"

"Pick a direction and go! That's part of the fun of exploring, you never know what you're going to find!"

"Let's go forward," Ethan proclaimed, his voice unsteady. "I guess we just have to wander around until we find the stairs, so either works for me."

"Think of it as going on an adventure," she laughed. "That's how I always viewed getting lost or just wandering around. It makes it so much more fun!"

"I guess," he laughed back. As he walked into the narrow path between the trees, a flash of brown swooped down from the trees and landed right into his chest, stopping him in his tracks and knocking the wind out of him.

"It's a Hoothoot!" he heard Fennekin yell behind him. "Attack it!"

Instinctively, Ethan reached out with his hand and hit the Pokémon, causing a few loose feathers to fly up. "Use your electric attacks!" Fennekin yelled again as the Hoothoot lunged out with its beak. Quickly, Ethan took a few clumsy steps to the side, narrowly avoiding the beak. Did he have electric attacks? Somehow, he knew how to charge his cheeks nearly to the point of feeling like bursting, then shot them out and landed the bolt squarely on the Hoothoot's body. Before he could act, the other Pokémon turned around and hopped a few feet away and flew back into the trees.

"Was that just a battle?" Ethan panted between big breaths, trying to get his breathing back to normal. After a few seconds, he began trudging back forward through the path.

"You did great! And see, I told you you had electric attacks!"

"Why electric attacks? Are those the only types of moves I have since I'm a Pikachu?"

"Every type of move has its strengths and weaknesses against certain Pokémon." Judging by the way Fennekin tilted her chin up into the air and the very pointed way she spoke, she was quoting something by heart. "Additionally, every Pokémon has one to two types, and using moves of their own type strengthens their power."

"You must be a really good explorer if you know all of that. I think I'd have trouble keeping track of what moves are effective against what Pokémon." He emerged into a small clearing upon finishing speaking, with one exit to his left. "I guess we're going that way."

Ethan heard a nervous giggle and a cleared throat behind him as he walked towards the small path leading out of the clearing. "I'm not actually that good of an explorer. I'm...not even really an explorer, I guess. I've read a lot of books and stories about explorers, though!"

Not even knowing how to respond, Ethan and Fennekin walked forward in silence, the only sound the crunching of leaves and snapping of twigs below their feet. Not an explorer? She seemed to know what she was talking about, but he supposed that it would explain why she hadn't managed to get through the forest. Why was she trying to get through, though? If Pokéopolis was the only city around but she was on this side of the forest, that meant she was from somewhere else.

"There's the stairs!" Fennekin exclaimed as they walked into another small clearing before Ethan could ask any further questions.

Misty Forest

3F

"Are you also on your way to Pokéopolis?" Ethan asked as he took the final step up to the next floor of the dungeon. The clearing they entered into was large and long, one path leading out to their left and two close together on the far end.

"That's right!" Fennekin confirmed as she bounced up the stairs and next to him. Once he started walking towards the two exits at the far end, she fell in behind him. "I've always wanted to join the Adventuring Academy, and that's where it is! You don't have to go there to become a part of the Exploration Society of course, but they teach you everything you ever need to know about being an Exploration Team. Some of the best explorers in the world teach there, and they work very closely with the Exploration Society so it's a lot easier to start than if you don't go to the Academy."

As Ethan walked into the small path leading out of the clearing, he saw another small path breaking off to the right, although a quick look down it showed that it just doubled back into the same room. Exploration Society? Exploration Team? It seemed very formal for exploring, but maybe there was a lot more to it than just going somewhere and seeing what you could find.

After a few moments of walking, they emerged into a small clearing with only one exit on the left. As he started walking towards it, Fennekin grabbed his tail and held him back. "An oran berry!" she exclaimed.

"A what?" He looked back at her, and then at the round blue lump in the middle of the room she was pointing at. It definitely looked like a berry, he supposed, but had no clue what an oran berry was supposed to be.

"An oran berry," she repeated, walking up to it and putting a paw on it. "If you get hurt, you can eat one and you'll instantly feel better! We don't have a bag to put it in, but you should be able to carry one while we explore."

"Just carry it?" he confirmed as he walked up and picked the berry up off the ground. It was hard, remarkably so, like holding a rock. This was edible? He imagined that someone would break a tooth trying to eat one raw, which seemed the last thing you'd want when injured.

"An item like that, yes," she nodded, putting her paw back down on the ground. "You can carry or wear an item, and if you have an explorer's bag, you can store anything else in there. You might need that berry if we get into more fights!"

Ethan laughed slightly as he turned around and walked down the small path leading out of the room. "I hope not, we beat that Hoothoot but I don't want to think about what else could be in here."

"You get stronger from battling other Pokémon though, so you don't want to not see any Pokémon! You just have to hope that you don't see too many at once."

As they neared the exit of the clearing, Ethan caught the glimpse of some shape moving through the grass. "It's an Ekans!" Fennekin cried out before he could react. "Get close and attack it!"

More confident than the last time, Ethan walked a few steps closer to what he could now see was a long, purple snake-like creature. As it popped its head out of the grass he used Thundershock, hitting it squarely in its face. More energy began piling in his cheeks as he began to charge up another attack, but before it could go off he felt a sharp, stabbing pain in his chest. The electricity jumped out of him as he fell to his knees in pain, but the Ekans deftly lurched to the side and avoided the bolt.

"It hit you with a Poison Sting!" Even though in reality little was happening around them, adrenaline pumped through Ethan's body and nearly drowned out the sound of Fennekin's voice. Poison didn't sound good, so he had to act quickly. His head suddenly got hot, as if fire were thrown over it. He went to hit the Ekans with a basic attack but swayed in dizziness; may as well use the momentum, he supposed, so he pushed himself off one of his feet and slammed into it. As he got back onto his feet, he saw the Ekans slithering away across the ground.

"It looks like it poisoned you," Fennekin said as he pulled the barb out of his skin and threw it off to the side. "Good thing you have the oran berry, then."

Ethan took a few deep breaths in; his body, while not feeling perfect, was passable. A few steps towards the path on his left proved him wrong, however. Sharp pain coursed all throughout his body, sending him to his knees and making his teeth clench so hard they felt at the verge of shattering.

Fennekin laughed shakily, as if unsure that that was the correct response, as she walked up and rubbed his back. "That would be the poison. It'll continue hurting you, but by the time we get to the next floor it should wear off. If you feel like you can't make it, eat that oran berry."

"I feel okay," Ethan grunted as he got to his feet. "I think it'll depend on where the stairs are."

"Hopefully they aren't too far. I think that the next room ahead could be where the stairs are! Remember, if you feel like you're going to faint in a battle, just step back and let me take over. There's no reason to take all of the hits if you can't!"

Step by step, Ethan walked out of the clearing and into the path, eyes darting around the entire time to notice anything that could be an approaching Pokémon. Hopefully Fennekin was keeping her eyes open, for the longer the trudge went on, the blurrier and more unfocused his vision became. Maybe that was what fainting felt like? He sure felt like he was getting closer and closer to falling down.

"Ethan!" Fennekin snapped, lightly grabbing and yanking his tail. He spun around, but before being able to ask anything, the sight of the mossy, vine-covered stairs floated in and then out of the hazy tube his sight was gradually narrowing down to.

Misty Forest

4F

Sharp pains went through Ethan's chest with every labored breath he took. "How do I know if poison has worn off?" he barely managed to wheeze out as Fennekin ascended the stairs after him.

"Hopefully it will have worn off by now. Poison also stops you from recovering from your injuries, so if you start feeling better, you'll know that you're good!" Ethan looked down at the berry in his hands, then brought his head back up and looked around. The clearing looked free of Pokémon, a medium-sized area with an exit in front of them and one to the left. Something in his gut told him to go straight forward, so Ethan walked on ahead.

"Ekans!" Fennekin cried out after only a few steps. After a quick turn of his head and a scan of the room, he saw what she was talking about; just like before, there was a long figure slithering through the grass towards them. Perhaps they could fight it, he thought, but it was better to not risk it.

"Let's just get out!" he ordered, already taking a few steps towards the exit he had decided upon. Once he turned his head however, he was met with a similar rustling of grass coming straight towards them from the exit, this time caused by a small yellow creature with sharp fangs and seemingly wrapped in leaves.

"And a Sewaddle! We're going to need to position ourselves so we can both fight. I can take the Sewaddle on, you focus on the Ekans!"

Ethan couldn't even remember processing a decision, but quickly moved around Fennekin to place her closer to the Sewaddle and have them both next to the Ekans when it would come up to them. He took a bite of his berry as he did so, hearing something between a crunch and a snap as the hard skin broke open to reveal slightly more tender flesh that tasted...well, like nothing, if he was being honest. Still, something about the flesh and juice of the berry made him feel more alert and take some of the pain away, so bracing himself for a battle and bringing electricity to his cheeks was significantly easier than he had figured it would have been if not.

"Use your Quick Attack!" Fennekin yelled when the Ekans got a few feet away from him. "It's what you used to finish the last one off!" Was that right? It was worth a shot, at least. Trying to remember how he defeated the previous Ekans, he almost lept off of his feet and broke out in a full sprint towards the Pokémon before slamming into it. Before it could react, he ran back next to Fennekin.

"Like that?" he asked, the abrupt stop in his momentum causing his feet to sink into the damp ground slightly.

"Yeah!" A noise akin to something snapping or crackling came from the direction Fennekin was in, and when he turned his head slightly to look in his peripherals, he could almost swear that her ears were glowing bright red. Everything felt warmer, too. The crackling turned into a short flare-up like dry kindling suddenly catching on fire, and a small burst of flame seemed to come out of her mouth. Wherever it came from, it hit the Sewaddle dead on, causing it to cry out in pain and retreat back into the forest.

Stabbing pain in his arm brought Ethan back to the reality of his situation as the Ekans sank its teeth into his skin. Quickly deciding, he filled his cheeks back up with electricity and used Thundershock, taking advantage of the fact that the other Pokémon seemed intent on keeping its hold on him. As he prepared for another attack, it released its tight hold on him and quickly went back into the forest.

"What was that you did?" he asked while examining his arm. It hurt, but with time it would recover. It did not look to be any sort of wound to worry about.

"I'm a fire-type," she explained, "so I used Ember. And Sewaddle is weak to fire-types, which is why I said to let me handle it."

"That went a bit better than the last fight," he laughed. "You seemed really strong. How come you haven't made it through this forest before?"

A small smile grew on her face, but behind it Ethan could sense the nervousness she still held. "Not every Pokémon is weak to fire moves. And I don't know many other moves, so I just had to rely on those or basic attacks. It's a lot harder when you don't have anybody else with you."

"It is kinda nice that I just had to focus on that Ekans," he began as he moved past Fennekin to start leaving the clearing. "I don't know how powerful a Sewaddle is, but two Pokémon at once seems difficult."

"Two Pokémon at once is usually why I faint and can't get through," she admitted, following him out. "There's only so much you can do. Maybe if I had a bag to hold some more useful items, but since I don't I just have to rely on what I can carry."

That made sense, he supposed. He hoped that he would find another berry sometime soon, or they were getting close to the exit. Only having to fight another Sewaddle would also be fine, since it seemed like Fennekin had that down. Or a Hoothoot, maybe? Definitely not another Ekans, not after last time.

When they emerged from the path into another small clearing, Ethan smiled upon seeing the stairs right in front of them on the right wall. That seemed easy enough.

Misty Forest Clearing

"I've never been this far into the forest," Fennekin thought aloud as they walked into a large, wide open space, much less densely forested than anywhere else they had seen thus far. "I bet we're almost outside!"

"I think I can see light up ahead!" Ethan cried out. Excitedly he walked forward a few steps, then felt himself brought to the ground. His immediate reaction was to prepare a Thundershock, but when he saw one of Fennekin's paws enter his field of vision from above, he brought it back inside of him. She was on top of him? What was going on?

"Ambush!" The worry in her voice was clear as she rolled off of him and onto her own feet. Quickly getting up himself, he noticed a pile of fruity mush where he was once standing. Was that an apple? He had never been in an ambush, but he figured that fruit was not a common weapon for it.

"Aipom!" another voice called out from somewhere in the trees. "I told you not to do that, now they know we're here!"

"It was your idea!" another voice yelled back. "You said we should wait in the trees to battle them."

"But I didn't say to throw an apple at them the second we saw them!" The two shouts were coming from a similar area, causing Ethan to look at where they seemed to originate from. Judging from the tone and the mere fact that they were yelling while right near each other, it seemed likely whoever was in the trees was not the most coordinated group out there.

Just as his eyes went to where he thought the voices were coming from, a small purple Pokémon, long tail ending in a large hand, dropped out of the tree. "Aipom!" the feminine voice cried out as it hit the ground. "Why did you go down, now they know where you are!"

"Come on, Emolga! They already know we're here, and your yelling has totally told them where we are." If the one in the trees was Emolga, that must make the one on the ground Aipom.

"My yelling?" the one named Emolga, a small black and white Pokémon with yellow cheeks and what appeared to be some sort of cape or glider, gently jumped out of the trees, spreading her arms wide near the ground to land gracefully on her feet. "You're the one who threw the apple at them and then started yelling back at me!"

Ethan felt Fennekin lightly nudge his elbow, then speak in hushed tones between gritted teeth. "They certainly are characters, aren't they?"

"I heard that!" Emolga yelled back at them. "You're about to find out why you never mess with members of the Adventuring Academy!"

"Adventuring Academy?" Fennekin yelped, her voice cracking slightly at the start. "Wait, there's been a misunderstanding!"

Fennekin's only response was Aipom deftly tossing another apple out of their bag into the air, then twirling around and grabbing it in his tail before finishing the spin and launching it straight towards her. She managed to sidestep the incoming fruit, causing it to land hard on the ground and splatter mush everywhere. "We're going to have to battle them," Ethan said to her as she regained her footing back where she had been. Seeing Emolga rushing towards him, he leapt out and hit her with Quick Attack before rushing back. Fennekin turned towards Aipom and closed in on him, soon coming face to face.

Just as Ethan landed back in place after his attack, he felt something slam into him but saw nothing except a smugly-grinning Emolga. She knew Quick Attack, too! He decided that he would need to get closer; he didn't think Thundershock could reach that far, and Fennekin being surrounded by both of them was worrying. That might let one or both of the other Pokémon attack him, but if he didn't move then he might be dooming Fennekin to take both hits.

As he walked towards the fight, he braced himself for a hit. Heat flaring up to his right signified that Fennekin was using Ember, and if that did not, the cry of pain from Aipom did. "She burned me!" he cried out.

"Just keep fighting!" Emolga scoffed, turning to face Fennekin. Her cheeks sparked with electricity, but instead of shooting it out, she grabbed one of Fennekin's legs and clenched it tightly before shoving her face into it.

"She used Nuzzle, I'm paralyzed!" Fennekin barely managed to grunt out before Aipom hit her with a basic attack. Which was more important to attack first, Emolga who could paralyze, whatever that meant, or Aipom who was already hurt and still had smoke rising off of his body? He was already facing Aipom and needed to make a decision, so he called electricity of his own to his cheeks and zapped him with a Thundershock. It must have been enough, because after being hit square in his chest, Aipom fell to the ground.

In his focus on Aipom, Ethan felt Emolga grab his arm and bury her face in it, but unlike Fennekin, he only felt a small tingling sensation and didn't seem to be affected by the paralysis. "You're an electric type, of course!" she growled. Taking advantage of her right there, he performed a basic attack and startled her enough to make her let go of him, but not enough to prevent her from making another basic attack of her own.

Ethan shot out electricity in another Thundershock, but Emolga only grinned and hopped back and forth on her feet before slamming into him and hitting him with a basic attack seemingly at the same time. Did she get faster? He could have sworn that she did, maybe it was the Thundershock. She didn't seem to take any damage from it unlike everything else he attacked with it. Just to play it safe, he sprang off of his feet and into her with Quick Attack and felt a ball of heat narrowly avoid him as Fennekin recovered from her paralysis and hit her with Ember.

When he landed back on his feet where he had been, he watched Emolga drop to one knee, face contorted in barely-contained pain. "We have to get out of here, Aipom!" she yelled.

"Wait!" Fennekin screamed as Aipom rolled over and shakily got to his feet. "You misunderstand, we're not from here, we're trying to get to Pokéopolis! We're trying to get to the Adventuring Academy!"

"You're what?" she responded after a few seconds of staring at the two of them in disbelief. "Why did you attack us, then?"

"Hey, you attacked us first!" Fennekin defended. "But we don't want to hurt you, we just want to get to the Academy."

"Aipom attacked you first," Emolga corrected.

"Emolga told me to," Aipom responded in a tone identical to hers.

"Regardless," Emolga sighed, anger clear in her breath, "if you're trying to get to the Academy, we can bring you there. Beating us probably means you're good enough to be accepted, I suppose, but that's not our decision."

"Luxio is going to be real mad when she hears we got beat by two new recruits," Aipom muttered. "She'll probably make us spend the whole week battling just to make up for it!"

"Maybe some training will serve you well. We're in no shape to go on, so we may as well bring these two back with us. Now come on you two, the exit is right over there."