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Chapter 7:
Moonchild
The inside of the temple was exceptionally ornate, making the practical, matter-of-fact architecture of the Eternal Enclave seem naked in comparison.
The floor was of a dark green marble stone, its surface covered in thin white veins that ran through the entire building as a kind of stone-cold circulatory system. Along the pristine white walls stood many small statues of strange-looking Pokémon, some of them familiar, and some of them completely alien to Basil.
He eyed their guide, noticing the similarities between the Clefable and some of the Pokémon depicted in the decorative statues. A part of him wondered how a place of that nature, so ornate and beautiful, could exist in the same region as the decrepit, depressing architecture he had witnessed in his time at Bitterroot.
Thelonious' entourage of fairy-type Pokémon had slowly dissolved as they went deeper and deeper into the building, their curiosity as fickle as their patience with outsiders. Basil wondered just how much time had passed since they had gotten actual, professional help.
"And this," Bishop Thelonious said as he motioned towards the archway in front of them, "is our meditation room. Here is where we keep our precious stash of moonstones."
Under the watchful eye of two Aromatisse guards, the three companions entered the domed area. The room seemed to be designed to draw as much attention as possible toward the pile of grey stones that laid piled up on its center; the round windows around them seemingly letting in only as much sunlight as it was necessary to illuminate them.
In spite of their glossy-looking appearance, the stones did not reflect the light around them, giving them an eerie aura that made them look out of place, as though they did not belong in the same room as the sunbathed marble. It was as if, under their ashen green surface, they hid a deep secret they could not share with the lesser minerals around them, one that helped them trick even the fundamental properties of the world.
"I will kindly ask you to moderate your voice in this room," Thelonious explained in a fittingly low tone. "As you can see, some of us like to spend our mornings here, contemplating the stones and pondering the secrets of the Moon Above... even when it is not visible to us, such as right now."
So mesmerized Basil was by the otherworldly stones that he had failed to notice the few Pokémon that surrounded them. He looked around, noting that they did not seem interested in him either, save for a few cursory glances that mirrored the ones the Clefairy had given them just a few minutes back.
"We understand," Darian spoke in a whisper of his own, bowing his head towards the bishop.
"So, what exactly do you want us to do?" asked Caspia, matching the other's tones the best she could. "The letter said something about a thief hiding the stones inside a mystery dungeon…"
"Well, that is our main theory," Thelonious explained, raising an index finger. He pursed his lips. "We believe that the thief's hideout lies deep within the Ferromagnetic Mine. The thief, some kind of flying-type creature, appears to fly inside under the shroud of night after sneaking into this room to steal the stones."
"I guess this is a stupid question." Basil stared out of one of the many round windows that surrounded them. "But have you tried blocking the windows?"
"I'm afraid we cannot do that, young one," Thelonious replied. "It is imperative that the light of the Moon Above enters this room during the night."
Basil let out a low hum and lowered his head. He had been instructed to avoid getting himself into conversations he could not follow properly, so he shut his mouth and let his partners speak.
"Do you at least know where the thief comes from?" Caspia asked. Her tone was surprisingly professional for someone who had been cracking jokes at the expense of the monks mere minutes ago.
"We do not," the Clefable confessed with a tinge of shame in his voice. "The only thing we know is where they go after the fact, but… unfortunately, we cannot follow." He paused to stare out of the closest window, the black ovals of his eyes fixated on some distant point in space.
"The Ferromagnetic Mine is full to the brim with steel-types." Darian raised his moot. "And, since you don't have any formal combat training…"
"Yes, precisely," the bishop interjected. "It is with great embarrassment that I admit to have been defeated in that dungeon after trying to recover our precious stones. Many times have we tried to infiltrate the thief's lair, and each and every one we failed!"
Basil considered the notion. Perhaps Caspia's irrational fear of grass-types was not as much an exaggeration as he had believed until now, if even a fully-grown, fully-evolved Pokémon was unable to survive against creatures of a certain type, mindless as they could be.
He looked at Darian, his eyes narrowed slightly. He was a fairy-type too, he thought. Why had the Sylveon chosen a mission that was purposefully difficult for him to take?
"And you're… totally, one hundred percent sure that's where the thief is hiding the stones?" Caspia had joined the conversation again, a tinge of impatience in her tone. "We'd like to know that before going in."
In spite of the rashness of the question, Basil could tell she was just covering her basis, trying to squeeze as much information as possible from that exchange.
"Yes, some of our guards saw them disappear into the mine," Thelonious replied. If he was bothered by Caspia's redundant question, he did not show it. "We don't exactly know what kind of Pokémon it is, but they can fly, and they're very, very fast." He bowed his head and let out a tired sigh. "Sometimes, it feels as though they are always one step ahead of us!"
Basil gulped when the very likely possibility of the thief being a flying-type popped into his head. Perfectly timed, too; he was starting to believe the little team they had put together was not the most fitting one for the job.
He opened his mouth to speak, if only to distract himself from the sudden fear that had assaulted his mind and heart.
"So we know where to find them, and we know what they do," he said, only realizing he had spoken too loud when all the heads in the room turned toward him. His glance immediately shot to the floor as he mouthed an apology.
"Please, continue, little one," Thelonious said. The low tone of his voice barely managed to mask the chuckle that followed his words.
It took a moment before Basil could look up again.
"W-well, I mean… we know this Pokémon's fast, we know they can fly… I'd say our best choice here is not to try to catch the thief, but to ambush them where we know they're going to be." The rest stared at him, as though waiting for him to reach a conclusion that, to him, was fairly obvious. "They'll expect the monks to chase after them, but if we get to their hideout before them, we can catch them off-guard."
"You took the words right out of my mouth," Darian said, the tips of his feelers dancing around his body to match his cheerful tone. "You're already thinking like a true Overseer, Basil!"
The Bulbasaur gave him a half-hearted smile, unsure on how to feel about the title. The smile faded quickly, however, as he remembered one other thing.
"There's still something I don't understand, though," he said. He glanced at Caspia, then at Darian. "How can a Pokémon live inside a mystery dungeon?"
The Sylveon arched his eyebrows.
"Live there?" he repeated. There was amusement in his voice. "Oh, no, dear. I don't think it's possible to live inside one of those places. The most likely answer is that there's a Kangaskhan stone somewhere inside the dungeon."
"And what's that?" inquired Caspia.
Darian opened his mouth, but no sound came out of it. He pursed his lips together, then glanced around the room, as though trying to find the correct words to explain the concept to them.
"They are… well, they're one-to-one scale Kangaskhan statues, really. And we don't know why, or how, but they seem to dispel the effects of the mystery dungeon around them, wherever they spawn. Wild Pokémon don't even go near them, if they can help it."
"The perfect place for a criminal to hide," Basil concluded.
"All we need to do is to ambush the thief there, then," Caspia joined in. There was a gleam in her eyes, one that told the Bulbasaur she was ready to jump into action at any moment. "We can even hide behind the stone, right?"
"Indeed," Darian said with a slight bow.
"It's settled, then," Caspia decided, on her own. An all-too excited smile had wormed its way onto her face. "We'll head into the mystery dungeon and recover your missing moon stones!"
All the Pokémon in the room took notice of Caspia's loud declaration, of course.
Before leaving for the Ferromagnetic Cave, the team took a couple of hours to prepare for the coming mission.
The room they were lent for that purpose was considerably humbler than the rest of the building; the ornate decorations in the walls were nowhere to be seen, and the only other thing in the room was a small-size bed that Basil presumed was there for any travelers who passed by the church.
Thelonious insisted on bringing them something to eat. While Basil refused, the other two were quick to dispatch the plentiful and delicious-looking berry salad.
"The thing in your back probably gave you enough food for a good while," Caspia explained. "It can turn sunlight into energy for you, in case you didn't know."
And that, more or less, explained what had happened to him when they faced the Magmortar. While Basil did not specifically mention the incident out loud, he acknowledged the usefulness of having a near-unlimited source of energy permanently attached to his back.
"Some grass-type Pokémon can even overexert their bodies thanks to the plants they're attached to," Darian noted. He stared at the ceiling for a moment, racking his thoughts for a specific memory. "A member of my family, a Leafeon, had that ability. It's quite rare in that species, but it works more or less like the one you have."
"So that's it, then," Basil sat down and turned to look at the bulb in his back to the best of his ability. "I guess this little guy helps me as much as I help it."
"That's the point of a symbiosis, dear," Darian replied with a shrug. There was no condescendence in his tone, no signs that he thought less of Basil for not realizing sooner. "Both parts have to get something out of it."
Basil glanced at Caspia, who was too busy finishing her meal to pay attention to them. Darian's statement echoed in his mind for a few moments before the Buizel snapped him out of it with a question, one that was not even directed at him.
"Is there anything you guys wanna do before heading into the dungeon?" she asked. "I think I should check our bag before leaving… I still don't know what kind of items you put in there, Darian."
"That's a very good idea, Caspia," replied the Sylveon with an approving nod. He nodded toward the backpack, which had been left leaning against one of the corners of the room. "It's of vital importance to always take stock before going into a mystery dungeon."
Basil raised an eyebrow. While Darian was being as helpful as he had been back at the Eternal Enclave, he seemed to be purposefully leaving out vital pieces of advice so they could figure them out on their own.
That may have very well been his imagination, though. He discarded the thought, for the time being, when Caspia's attention turned to the backpack.
"Let's see what's in there, then," she mused as she got up, still chewing the last pieces of her food.
She carefully opened the backpack and began to empty its contents, one by one, in front of her. Basil took a few steps forward, curious to see exactly what kinds of items one would carry with them to a mystery dungeon.
He saw some objects he recognized; the berry he'd given Caspia back when they were running from the Obsidian Order, a couple of blast seeds, and a leather pouch full of small rocks. After that, however, the items produced from the bag began to look a bit more bizarre.
"Why is this full of…" he tilted his head, trying to comprehend the strange items in front of him, "crystal balls?"
"I'm not an expert or anything, so don't take my word for it," Caspia replied without halting her task, "but I think these things have different powers depending on the color." She stopped to look at the pitch-black orb she had taken out of the bag. It looked like there was some kind of light source trapped within, right in its center. "Never seen one this close before, though…"
She placed the hand-size orb alongside the other three, with a delicacy that was very unlike her. Two of them were purple, while the remaining one was light orange and had a rough drawing of a star in its center.
"What are they?" Basil asked. He extended a vine and carefully took one of the purple ones.
He spun it around to get a better look. Its surface was smooth and crystal-like, and there was a darkened zig-zag stripped across it that appeared to move, very slowly, right under the surface. It was trippy and confusing to look at, its all too organic movement making it register not as an inanimate object, but as a strange living organism.
Basil left it on the floor, near the others, and shook his head to clear the paradox from his mind.
"Wonder orbs can be very… baffling the first time you look at them," Darian explained. He approached from behind, carefully placing a feeler on Basil's shoulder before gently pushing the orb back where it belonged. Basil felt better almost immediately. "Don't think too much about them, dear. They're strange to look at, but like Caspia explained, all of them are useful to some degree."
The Bulbasaur gave a slow nod as he watched Caspia empty the remaining items on the floor. Fortunately, the remaining items were far less unsettling than those strange orbs, and Basil could easily tell what they were. Their function, however, was a different story.
"Okay, so I know what most of these do," Caspia declared, pointing at the items she had carefully laid down on the floor. She scratched her head. "The ones to the right are the ones I don't get."
There were only two items that fell into the latter category: a small silver scarf with black spots, and a set of three, gold oval seeds. On closer inspection, the seeds displayed a number of semi-concentric cyan stripes that made them look like strange, psychedelic eyes.
"This is something I packed hoping Basil would wear it," Darian explained as he picked up the bow so the Bulbasaur could get a better look. "We call it a defense bow. It makes the wearer slightly more resistant to damage inside a mystery dungeon."
Basil eyed the scarf, a bit unsure if he should take it right away. He trusted Darian, but something about what he said made him a bit weary.
"Why is that? Why does it not work outside of a mystery dungeon?"
"We don't know, dear. Many of the items made for exploring are made inside of the dungeons, by Pokémon who understand their inner workings much better than I." He placed the bow on the floor, in front of Basil. "They're still very useful, though!"
The Bulbasaur picked up the bow them, imagining there was very little he could do to better understand its properties. He used his vines to clumsily tie it around his neck, momentarily glancing at his two partners as if to wordlessly ask if he was doing such menial task correctly.
The only reply he got was an awkward thumbs up from Caspia.
"As for these seeds," Darian continued, motioning toward the small items. "They allow Pokémon to see in the dark. I brought them in case we lose our only shiny stone."
Basil glanced at the mentioned item, a smaller version of the same sort of stone that decorated the walls of the Eternal Enclave.
"I packed our bag this time, since this is your trial mission." The Sylveon began to collect the items and place them back inside the bag, leaving it to Caspia and Basil to take note of exactly where everything was stored. "But, with a bit of luck, you will have to do it from now on, so take care to always place the more fragile items at the top of the bag."
The way he placed the items inside each of the pockets, without giving any of them so much as a glance, was yet another proof of his expertise as an explorer. Basil imagined he must have packed so many bags during his years as a member of the Overseers that it came as a mechanical reaction.
He hesitated before putting back one of the orbs inside the backpack. Under its transparent, reflective surface moved what appeared to be a cluster of miniature, pitch black clouds, slowly turning around a singular point of white light right at the center of the sphere.
"This," Darian said, gently bumping the orb with his snoot so his protegees could get a better look, "is one of the most important items an Overseer can carry."
"I saw it when I was emptying the bag." Caspia picked it up with both paws and lifted it up to Basil's face so he could see it as well. The brightness of the light trapped inside, like the moon in a starless night, forced Basil to narrow his eyes to truly appreciate its strange inner cosmos. "What does it do?"
"It breaks something within a mystery dungeon." Basil picked up on the strangely somber tone that had taken over Darian's speech, but said nothing. "It disrupts it, forcing it to eject whatever living, sentient Pokémon are still inside. We call it an escape orb."
Although staring at it was still giving Basil strange, eerie sensations he could not quite explain, there was something beautiful about the way the light was visible from all angles, the black smoke around it never fully managing to hide it from view. Fittingly, it seemed as though the white miniature star almost found a way to escape the relentless darkness wrapped around it, no matter the position of the clouds.
"It's sort of beautiful," he admitted, raising a paw to caress its glossy surface. "Do you know what it's made of?"
Darian shook his head with a side smile.
"The makers of these things, they never reveal their secrets," he explained. "Items made inside mystery dungeons are very valuable, and they want to squeeze every last poké out of them, so… for them, it makes sense to keep it a secret."
"What a bunch of greedy assholes," Caspia rudely noted as she handed back the escape orb. "If it's so useful for explorers, everyone should have one!"
"Yes, well…" Darian put it right back into the bag. His smile had vanished. "Their jobs depend on that secret. It's not as altruistic as what we do, but sadly you can't account for everyone when you're just trying to survive."
Caspia nodded, letting out a quiet, annoyed hum as she crossed her arms in front of her chest.
"I don't like it either, but it is what it is." The Sylveon nodded at them to move toward the door.
Thelonious dissolved into a myriad of apologies about not being able to eat with them, and thanked them once more for their help as he accompanied them outside. Some of the Pokémon that had looked at them with suspicion or scorn followed them, curiously, with open eyes.
The path to the Ferromagnetic Mine was not a particularly long or difficult one. It was more or less a straight line towards the nearest rock formation, which was less than five minutes away from the Moonlight church. Its entrance looked mon-made, but there was very little to actually see before Darian encouraged them to walk past it, into the dungeon.
The world shifted around Basil, seemingly completely disappearing for a few seconds before rebuilding itself around him, slowly, painfully readjusting his senses one by one. He closed his eyes, hoping to get it over with quickly.
He opened them again when he felt something graze his front paw.
"Gah!"
He jumped backward, his sense of survival overriding his original reticence to perceive his own passage into the dungeon. He found there was nothing there but dark brown dirt.
"You okay, dude?" he heard Caspia ask.
The dim light of the shiny stone allowed him to see her concerned expression. She made an attempt to reach toward him, but stopped halfway through, presumably noticing the terrified, confused expression on his face.
Her surroundings, although hard to properly tell, matched what Basil imagined an abandoned mine would look like.
"Yeah, I just…" He looked around, carefully analyzing his position in regards to the walls around him. They were tall, much taller than he had expected, and also less narrow than the pathways of the Twisted Woods. He turned around to see no entrance behind him. "Never mind. I… I really hate mystery dungeons, Caspia."
One more sensation, less familiar than the claustrophobic oppressiveness of the dungeon, overcame him as a hearty chuckle escaped Caspia's lips. He felt a bit more stable than the last time, as though there was something rooting him in place in a benign way, preventing him from being knocked down by the sheer torrent of confusion that was the transition between the real world and this sort of malleable faux-reality.
"Are you feeling alright?" Darian asked.
"I think?" Basil replied, looking at the place he had though the tendril to be. He took a few seconds to make sure they were alone. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just got scared."
He was not about to tell them he had imagined something touching him. Not then, when Caspia's place in the Overseers was on the line.
"That's a natural reaction," Darian clarified with one of his warm smiles.
"Yeah, it happens to everyone. Happened to me a lot when I started exploring them." Caspia was not looking at him at she spoke, but he could tell she was being honest. Her attention was elsewhere, her gaze lost somewhere down the branching tunnel in front of them.
Basil caught his breath and nodded. There was no way his mind playing tricks on him was going to sabotage their first mission.
"Alright, then we move forward," he declared. "No going back now."
After making sure everyone was ready, the three of them ventured into the dungeon. Darian stood watch on the back, while Caspia and Basil led the way. It was much easier to walk around in the mine, considering how much wider the passages were. In spite of how much more claustrophobic the underground nature of the dungeon should have make him feel, Basil took comfort in the idea that it made more sense for a mine to be arranged in such a conscious, mon-made manner.
Ignoring the part of his brain that screamed at him about how unnatural the place was, he took a deep breath and began examining his surroundings.
The structure of the tunnel was protected— no, guaranteed, by sets of thick pillars of wood that arose from both sides and continued until reaching the ceiling, where they met each other in a seamless embrace. Together, they formed a protective layer that made him feel safe, in a way.
"This place is old…" The statement came almost automatically, but he had little proof of it besides the general vibe of the area. "It feels like it's been abandoned for a long time."
"They abandoned it around the time the war ended," Caspia explained. "So… 8 years ago. I think half of it collapsed or something…"
Basil nodded. The idea of the tunnel collapsing should have imbued fear in him, but an uncharted part of his inland empire somehow knew that it was impossible for a mystery dungeon to just fall down. The corrupting forces that had turned the place into a maze had probably already devised a plan to keep it from collapsing further, or even reversing the damage done. Or, perhaps, they had ignored the collapsed area entirely, deciding instead to poison only the routes where Pokémon could actually walk, for who knows what reason.
"Nobody died, fortunately," Darian's head popped in between the pair. His smile, this time, was a bit sad. "But a lot of Pokémon lost their jobs. Perhaps for the better, considering this ended up becoming a mystery dungeon, but still…"
"Can any place just… turn into a mystery dungeon?" Basil inquired. He looked up, his mind still fixated on the impossibility of the ceiling moving even an inch.
"Kinda?" Caspia shrugged. "It usually only happens to abandoned places, for some reason. I don't know if any random forest or cave can turn into one."
"We… haven't been able to understand the criteria an area needs to fill to become a mystery dungeon, dear," Darian explained. He kept his distance this time. "But, so far, there's been a grand total of zero casualties after a place became one, so it makes sense to assume it basically only happens to areas where nobody actually lives."
The first few minutes inside the dungeon were calm, maybe too much so. The three Pokémon made their way through tunnel after tunnel, always leaving some kind of mark along the wall to make sure they did not follow the same path twice.
After a while, however, Basil started to hear a low buzz in the distance. It was gentle, but continuous and invariable. But, and this was something it took Basil a little while to figure out, they seemed to be getting closer to its source.
Or the source was coming closer to them.
"Can you hear that?" He nodded toward the depths of the tunnel.
"You can hear it, too?" Caspia asked, rubbing her paw against the back of her neck. She stopped walking and pointed her shiny stone forward. "Cool, cool. I thought it was in my head."
Darian sat behind them, unspeaking. Basil scanned his face, but found no indication that he was going to help. He looked at Caspia again.
"Do you think it's a Pokémon?"
"I'm pretty sure it is." Her tail had begun to shake, slowly swaying sideways before bouncing back in the opposite direction. "This place's been way too quiet."
They stood there, in silence, for a few seconds. Basil's ears were turned toward the darkness before them, in an attempt to decipher the origin of the noise. Now that they were standing still, it did not seem to be getting any louder.
"I say we keep moving," he said. "If it's a Pokémon, then It doesn't look like it's moving."
"It could be asleep." Darian's voice came suddenly and unexpectedly, startling them both. He seemed to find that funny. "Sorry, darlings. Just my two Poké."
Basil smiled. His previous assessment of Darian had been true: he was only giving them small drops of information, hoping they would figure out the rest on their own. It was a test. He even imagined the Sylveon knew exactly what kind of Pokémon was making the sound.
They decided to continue moving, which seemed to please Darian. He was good at hiding his true thoughts on his protegee's actions, but the relief that came with the knowledge that they were doing the right thing was very difficult to mask.
After turning particularly acute corner, Caspia placed a paw in front of Basil's face, stopping him from continuing onward. Her eyes were fixed on the pitch-black darkness ahead, and the hair on her back was standing on end.
"Do you see something?" Basil narrowed his eyes in an attempt to find whatever had alarmed Caspia.
"A spark," she replied, simply. Whatever primal instincts had taken over her during their fight with the Shiftry had returned. "Wait for it."
Basil did not have to wait long before a shy, brief spark was produced just a few meters before them, right outside of the area illuminated by the shiny stone.
"That… I don't think that's a Pokémon," Caspia concluded.
Basil looked gazed into the darkness for a few more seconds, a bit on edge. Another spark, as short and faint as the last one.
"Can you give me this for one moment?" he said, wrapping a vine around their only source of light. Caspia did not let go immediately. "Come on, trust me, I know what I'm doing."
A bit reluctantly, the Buizel let go of the stone, and Basil quickly extended his vine in front of them, way past the original threshold of the darkness. He hovered his vine in the air near the spark, leaving them in the dark and revealing what laid ahead.
"Oh, that's… okay, that's not what I was expecting." The relief in Caspia's voice was tangible. She walked toward the newly revealed section of the tunnel. "These are just rocks!"
The floor before them was covered in small, black stones. None of them was bigger than one of Caspia's fists, but their pointy edges made them, Basil imagined, very dangerous to step on. Darian and him approached and took a closer look.
"This must be a trap," Darian explained, rubbing one of his feelers against his chin. "Some wild Pokémon like to hunt by placing pointy stones on the floor, waiting for others to come instead of chasing after them."
"But these aren't just normal stones, right?" Caspia paused until two of the rocks moved, almost imperceptibly, toward each other, generating a small blue spark. "They're doing… stuff!"
"They're probably from a wild Geodude or Graveler." Darian leaned in closer to examine the amateurish trap. "I don't think it's wise to touch them. They could shock us if we step on them… or worse, paralyze us for a few seconds."
"Geodude?" Caspia asked. She turned to look at the Sylveon. "Isn't that a normal rock-type?"
"There are some sub-species of Geodude that can actually produce electricity," Basil noted, passingly, as he stared at the small stones. "It makes sense they would come here, of all places, if this is really a mine with magnetic rocks."
Neither one of his partners replied. He frowned, turning his head toward them, only to find them returning his gaze with a confused expression in each of their faces. He tilted his head to the side.
"How… how do you know that, Basil?" asked Caspia. Her tone was a strange blend of amusement and worry.
Basil blinked, slowly going through the words he had just said and coming to the exact same realization. How did he know that? Where and when had he acquired that very specific knowledge?
Before he could try to rack his thoughts for an answer, however, he noticed something move right behind his friends. A yelp escaped his mouth, already agape after the surprise of his sudden outburst of knowledge.
"Look out!" he cried.
Darian moved out of the way so swiftly it would have been easy for someone to believe he had simply teleported. A rocky, mitten-like hand hit the floor he had just been stepping on, raising a small cloud of dust and causing gravel to fly everywhere.
"Graveler!" Caspia warned. She got on all fours as the light of Basil's shiny stone revealed the figure of the round, stone-skinned Pokémon behind them.
As Basil had somehow predicted, this Graveler's body was covered in magnetic stones, yellow and black, that protruded from its rotund body. They produced the same buzzing as the similarly looking rocks that prevented the team from advancing forward.
It slowly raised its hand before trying to slam it against Caspia, missing her for a few inches. The Buizel used what little room she had to maneuver to slide along the wall of the dungeon and hit the wild Pokémon in the leg with a short but potent stream of water.
The Graveler bent down with a screech, giving the team some breathing room. They instinctively turned to look toward the direction they had been going in.
"Crap, it's got us trapped!" Basil said between gritted teeth.
He could always move the shiny stone closer to the improvised trap, to try and discern how long the field of paralyzing stones extended for, but that put them at risk: not being able to see the windup of their opponent's attack could prove catastrophic.
"We'll have to go through it, then!" Caspia began to charge toward it again. Basil wondered if she did not know this Pokémon was likely an electric-type.
This time, the Graveler was prepared, though. As soon as it saw Caspia approach again, it extended one of its four arms and grabbed her by the abdomen, cleanly pulling her off the floor.
"Eek!" she cried. She punched the stony surface of its fist, desperately trying to get out of the Pokémons grasp.
With wide eyes, Basil saw the yellow stones in the Graveler's body begin to glow. Almost in slow motion, he witnessed the same sparks produced by the stones on the floor being brought to life by the black minerals protruding from the creature's body.
Before he even realized he was even moving, he extended his free vine and quickly wrapped it against the arm holding Caspia, firmly planting his feet on the floor before beginning to pull.
"Leave her alone, you!" he cried. Although his pulls seemed to be doing very little to actually release Caspia, the Graveler was surprised enough by the attack that it stopped charging whatever electric-type move it was planning on using.
"Good job, Basil." Darian's tone was calm as he quickly approached the confused Pokémon. A faint pink glow began to emanate from his body. "But let me lend you guys a paw!"
He stopped dead on his tracks just before hitting his target. Then, his body immediately released a barrage of black and sharp leaf-shaped projectiles that flew directly toward the Graveler. The only reason Basil could even see them in the dim light of the stone was because they were glowing the same shade of pink Darian was.
"Graaaaaah!" the Graveler screeched as the attack hit him, releasing Caspia to clutch the parts of his body where the leaf-like projectiles had hurt him.
The Buizel hit the ground with a groan and, without even turning to look at her friends, got into position once more, charging a water-type attack with her tail.
Seeing as though the rock-type Pokémon was trying to back up, Basil planted his feet firmly on the ground, his vine tensing up as the rock-type Pokémon tried to pull away. He was still not fond of hurting wild Pokémon, but had Darian not been there, Caspia could have been gone for.
And so, he stood his ground, preventing the Graveler from stepping away from Caspia's aqua tail attack, which connected right between its eyes.
"That should do it." Caspia dusted herself as the mighty rock-type fell to the floor with a loud thump.
"You're not injured, dear?" inquired Darian as he circled her, trying to find the answer by himself. "A Graveler's grip is nothing to scoff at…"
"Nah, I'm fine," Caspia assured him with a toothy grin. "Thanks to Basil here. Dude, you're getting very good with those vines!"
"I think it was my instincts doing most of the work," Basil smiled back, a bit flustered after the sudden compliment. He retracted the vine he had forgotten was still tied around the rock-type's arm. "When I saw it charging an electric-type attack, I knew I had to do something."
"Yes, perhaps it was a bit unwise to charge toward it like that," Darian noted. "Especially after Basil's… strangely specific explanation, you should've taken into account that this Graveler had an affinity for electric-type moves."
Caspia gave a slow nod. There was an awkward silence between them.
"I… really don't know what to say." Basil found himself frowning again. "The information just came to me in an instant. I don't ever think I ever knew an electric-type Graveler before this."
"Do you think that maybe your memories are slowly coming back?" asked Caspia, rubbing a paw against her chin. "Maybe Ellen made a mistake…"
"That's unlikely," Darian cut her off with surprising harshness. He must have noticed the surprised look in their faces, because he followed his words with an apologetic smile. "What I mean, dear, is that Ellen is one of the most thorough psychic-type Pokémon I've had the chance to meet. I'm sure she wouldn't miss something like that…"
"Yeah, but maybe Caspia's right." Basil wanted to believe that was the case. Explaining the phenomenon would not only give him closure regarding his mysterious knowledge, it would mean he had a way of recovering some of his other memories, trivial as they might be. "It's the only way of explaining this, right? That she made a mistake?"
Darian looked up, toward the darkness ahead. His lips were pursed, as though he was trying to conceptualize something. After a while, however, he simply shrugged.
"Perhaps it is," he concluded. "Perhaps she thought she wouldn't find too much and gave up on finding specific information. You should ask her directly the next time you meet."
Basil nodded, his brow sinking a bit. He knew Elleanor did not look like a particularly normal Pokémon, but he had imagined she was, at least, good at her job. Perhaps there was something up with his memories that even her was unable to understand?
"In the meantime," Darian gently nudged Basil toward the body of the fallen Graveler, "We should keep going. There's still a fair chunk of the dungeon to cover before we reach the Kangaskhan stone."
It took them a while to arrive to what Darian called the 'next sector' of the mine. It definitely looked different; shy ores of metallic minerals could be seen occasionally peeking out of the walls, giving meaning to the name of the dungeon.
After his ingenious display during the fight with the Graveler, it was decided Basil would carry the shiny stone, its light revealing each smidge of metal they walked past.
As Darian explained that most mystery dungeons were separated in clear, unique sectors, each with its own special properties and inhabitants, Basil noticed something he did not believe had witnessed in the previous section of tunnel: the wooden beam right ahead, the one to his right… it had an indentation on it. The kind of markings he and Caspia would make to not get lost.
It was triangular in shape, and fairly long. A less attentive eye would have completely missed it, but
He paid it little mind, not wanting to interrupt Darian, but he entertained the possibility of the thief somehow having made it. He knew that the inner workings of a mystery dungeon would not allow for something like that to happen, of course.
Just as he was ready to move on and focus on some different aspect of the dungeon, he noticed something that shook him to the core. Something that, under normal circumstances, he would not have even batted an eye to.
The next beam. It had the exact same marking on it.
"That can't be…" he mused.
"Something the matter?" Darian had stopped walking, and so had Caspia. The two were staring back at him with concerned looks in their faces.
"No, it's just…" Basil tried to explain the uncomfortable feeling of seeing that marking, the shivers that took over his nervous system every time it appeared inside his field of view. "Wait, let me check something."
He continued walking, passing by his two partners and gesturing at them to follow him with one of his vines. They continued on for a few more meters, before…
"There it is again," he said as he approached the next beam in the sequence. Once more, the carving, the feeling. His body was trying to tell you that there was something very wrong, but his mind could not articulate why.
He looked forward, hoping to find some sort of clue inside the darkness ahead. His only answer were the echoes of his own steps, stretching for as far as he could listen into the unfathomable depths of the eldritch horror that was the mystery dungeon.
"What's the matter, dude?" Caspia placed a paw on his shoulder. He did not flinch; he was getting used to her touch, unrequited as it usually was.
"That carving over there," he tilted his head toward the beam without stopping to look at it again. He did not know if he could bear to look at it again without having a nervous breakdown, even if he did not understand precisely why. "I've seen the exact same marking three times already. In three different beams."
"Really?" Caspia looked back, but did not linger on the sight. "I hadn't noticed. That's kinda weird…"
"It's perfectly normal, actually."
Darian's presence warmed the air around Basil. Somehow, as though he could conjure his own reality around him, the Sylveon talked him into believing that yes, it was perfectly normal to find such identical indentations.
A feeler gently grazed the shoulder Caspia was not touching, wordlessly reassuring him that he was not going mad.
"This is a normal reaction," Darian said. "For one who hasn't spent a lot of time inside a mystery dungeon, at least."
He turned to look at him. He was smiling, as it was common for him.
"The dungeon generates these environments based on residual information," he explained. The words came out of his mouth in an almost artificial way, as though they were not his own. "Sometimes, it creates duplicates of objects just to fill itself with things. I'm told whatever the dungeon is, it needs to fill the void with something… so it sometimes draws from already existing items."
"So… it just copies whatever it has in hand?" Caspia talked as though the dungeon was a living thing that could decide what it did with the elements that composed it. As she spoke, she removed her paw from Basil's shoulder. "Instead of coming up with something new, it draws whatever it needs from the dungeon?"
"More or less, yes, but we still don't understand exactly how it works." Darian leaned in toward Basil and winked at him. "Mystery dungeons wouldn't be called that if we knew everything about them!"
"Did you also freak out the first time you noticed?" Basil inquired.
"Well, yes." He caressed his chin with a paw. "I believe everyone has. The body knows there's something deeply wrong, but it can't exactly pinpoint exactly what it is. I'm no expert, but I think it's our basic instincts flaring up."
The thought caused Basil's entire body to relax, even though the unease of having perceived he way the dungeon tricked his senses. In a way, he found solace in knowing there was an order to it, that it made sense even if it was only in an abstract, metaphysical sense that came with the assumption that the dungeon was some sort of bizarre superorganism.
With that strange reassurance in mind, the Bulbasaur and his friends continued to descend into the depths of the mine.