Crusaders of Dusk

by DarkFoxKit

Cut off from the life he knew, an Absol now must work his way and earn his right to return to the place he called home. Joining him is a timid Goomy who desires to become stronger and more respected. The two will face many challenges, learning to trust one another.

59. Chapter 59: An Outlaw Organization

Traveling Master: Heeeey everyone, sorry about the delay, kinda my fault. I'm currently taking vacation time from my work, and before I had left, I had taken my laptop to get repaired, so that way I can use it and either play games, watch stuff, or more importantly, write with DarkFoxKit. What I didn't account for was that after it was fixed, it would now have issues connecting with any wifi network. Heck, even when using my phone's hotspot, it struggles to connect to it. Which is why it's taken us this long to get another chapter up. So sorry about causing this mess.

DarkFoxKit: Unfortunately, while we were able to get this chapter uploaded, we also came with… not really bad news, but not happy news either. We won't be able to write for a little while, but it shouldn't take nearly as long as it did when we went on that hiatus.

Traveling Master: Yeah, it's only gonna be until my vacation time is over. I return back to work on the 12th of September, and with that, my PC. Right now I'm visiting family, but once I'm back home, I'll be able to use my computer and write with DF.

DarkFoxKit: Anyways, we'll let you guys get to the chapter. As always, if you're reading this in the far future, this probably means nothing to you. XD

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Chapter 59: An Outlaw Organization

Dust and Shab had been on the run from this rampaging Tyrantrum. The Tyrantrum roared loudly as it stomped its way towards them, its massive jaws opening up with the intention of crushing their bodies with its teeth. Even though Dust would technically resist Bite or Crunch, he didn't want to take a chance with this massive T-Rex-like Pokemon. As soon as Dio and Undergrowth had left, Dust and Shab took that chance to get out of the cage. Dust had hoped that they were safe now, but to his dismay, the Tyrantrum smashed through its cage, and since then they had been on the run.

The Tyrantrum had somehow not destroyed any of the containers that had the other fossil Pokemon inside, but it kept chasing them even after they ran out of the lab and were in the underground tunnel.

"S-shouldn't we try to fight back!?" Shab shouted as he and Dust were still running, though Shab was swimming rather than actually running.

"Normally that would be the logical thing to do, but that Tyrantrum is right now full of adrenaline. It had been kept unconscious with sedatives, but now that it's awake, nothing is going to faze it right now!" Dust quickly explained. "Right now it's an unstoppable juggernaut, it's like that time when we had Spooks wake up Al during that tournament. You saw how berserk he went, so right now I'm just trying to buy us time until that Tyrantrum fully wakes up."

"How long will that take!? We can't keep running forever!" Shab shouted. "If it needs to wake up, then perhaps I should hit its face with water!"

"Then go for it!" Dust replied.

Shab managed to turn himself around and fired a Water Pulse attack at the Tyrantrum's face. The fossil Pokemon didn't even seem to flinch from the attack, whether if it was due to being that far stronger, or simply Shab's attack didn't fully wake it, Dust wasn't sure. What he was sure of was that Tyrantrum wasn't going to stop chasing them, and the longer they spent running from the Pokemon, the sooner someone would end up noticing them.

While continuing to run, Dust thought of another solution. "Shab, use Water Pulse again, but this time on the ground!"

Shab knew this wasn't the time to question it, the Feebas looked down before blasting out water on the ground, making it wet and damp.

"Hold on!" Dust shouted before he grabbed onto Shab with his mouth, holding onto his tail fin, then he jumped in the air.

As soon as the Absol was in the air, Dust twisted around, tossing Shab onto his head, and fired an Ice Beam right where Shab used Water Pulse. Immediately the ground became a solid sheet of ice. The Tyrantrum's focus was on Dust and Shab, so it failed to notice the now slick ground as it set foot on it. As soon as it did, the fossil Pokemon lost its footing, falling on the ground while its momentum carried it across the floor. When the Tyrantrum was under Dust, he used the fossil Pokemon as footing and jumped off its body to land away from the ice covered ground.

As soon as Dust had landed, both he and Shab turned around to see Tyrantrum's body collide with the wall, causing the area to shake for a moment. Dust was worried it might actually cause the ceiling to collapse, but after a moment the shaking ceased, causing the Absol to give a sigh of relief. Seeing that the Tyrantrum wasn't getting up, Dust took this chance to recover his stamina after running for so long.

"Well, I guess that's one way to take down a Tyrantrum," Dust lightly chuckled.

"Yeah, though next time, if you plan on grabbing my tail fin with your mouth, can you ease up a bit? It almost felt like you punctured them with your teeth," Shab said as he curved his body to look at his tail fin. He was glad to see there were no holes.

"Sorry, it was the heat of the moment," Dust sweatdropped.

"Well, at least the Tyrantrum is-" Shab began to say when he saw the T-Rex Pokemon starting to slowly get back up behind Dust. "Is…"

Shab began to pale when Tyrantrum began to get back to its feet. Its eyes were wide open now, and so was its anger.

"What's wrong?" Dust asked, noticing Shab's sudden paleness.

"B-b-behind you!" Shab yelled.

Dust didn't have to turn around to guess why Shab had yelled. Dust could already feel the ground shake with each loud step. Dust could also see a shadow tower over him as hot breath hit the back of his body. And even though every fiber of his being was telling him to pick up Shab and run, that his sense of dread of going ballistic, Dust's legs refused to move. All he could do was turn and look back, seeing Tyrantrum was right behind him, eyes giving off a murderous glare.

The Tyrantrum gave a loud roar, so loud that Dust almost went deaf from it. The only thing that snapped him out of it was Shab slapping his face with his tail fin. "Dust! Snap out of it! We have to go!"

Dust didn't say anything as he went to pick up Shab. But just as he was about to do so, a new loud noise came from above, causing Dust and Shab to look up towards the source. The ceiling above them suddenly gave away. Tyrantrum was just under the sudden hole in the ceiling and something small and purple fell from the hole.

"Is that…" Dust started saying, unsure if he was mistaken.

"Ow!" The purple thing yelled in a familiar voice as it landed on top of the Tyrantrum's head. "What the?"

The Tyrantrum let out another angry roar before shaking its head, causing the purple thing to yelp as it fell off of the Tyrantrum's head. Shab's eyes went wide when the purple thing was just over him. Dust blinked in shock when there was a loud squishing sound when the purple thing landed on top of Shab, nearly covering his entire body. It was only after the thing landed on Shab did Dust recognize the purple thing.

"Berry!" Dust happily exclaimed.

While Berry didn't respond at first, Dust heard something mumble, though he couldn't tell if it was Shab or Berry that was trying to talk. Seeing that the Tyrantrum was still glaring muder daggers at him, Dust went and scooped up Berry and Shab together with his horn and placed them on his back before running once more. As soon as the Absol ran, Tyrantrum began its chase, this time with furious speed, forcing Dust to run even faster then he did last time.

"Sorry to break up the reunion, but I need you two to split right now!" Dust shouted, hoping that they were able to hear him.

Shab managed to poke his face out from under the dazed Goomy, and saw the Tyrantrum chasing them. "Dust! D-do you think you could go faster? It's catching up to us!"

"I'm going as fast as I can!" Dust shouted. "How about you carry me and Berry while trying to outrun a giant rampaging Pokemon?!

Tyrantrum roared as it got closer and closer. Shab's eyes went wide as the Tyrantrum began to lean down at them with its jaws opened up.

Berry began to snap out of her daze just as the Tyrantrum was leaning down at them. Confused, shocked, and scared at suddenly seeing these massive jaws about to bite down on her, Berry's eyes went wide with horror before she let out a small, yet very draconic roar of her own at the Tyrantrum. Upon hearing this roar, the Tyrantrum closed its mouth, and slowed down, going from angry rage to confusion.

Dust was still running when he heard Berry's sudden roar. Just like the Tyrantrum, Dust was easily as confused as he looked behind to see the Tyrantrum come to a stop. Too many things were racing through his head. Why did it suddenly stop? Was it because of Berry? If so, what did she do? I never heard Berry make that kind of noise, is that what caused the Tyrantrum to stop? But why? And what does-

"Dust, look out!" Dust saw both Berry and Shab shout at him.

Dust then turned to face forward, just in time to see he was about to crash into the wall. Dust tried to stop, but the ground was a bit slippery from his earlier tactics to try to knock out the Tyrantrum, and he ended up running face-first into the wall. Berry and Shab slipped off of his back as Dust slowly slid down from the wall and onto the floor in a daze.

"What the Distortion World is going on?" Berry groaned, still trying to gather her bearings.

"I'll explain later. Right now we need to go!" Shab answered before spitting water at Dust, trying to snap him out of it. "Come on Dust, you have to get up now!"

"5 more minutes, I gotta win the olympic to earn the berries while catching fire," Dust said with a daze.

"Dust!" Shab shouted desperately.

The Tyrantrum soon caught up to them, and it began to lean down toward them. However, unlike before, the Tyrantrum wasn't aiming its gaping maw at them, and instead seemed to be looking down at them in curiosity. Berry blinked as she tried to understand the situation.

The last thing Berry saw was Torrent about to face off against Undergrowth, they were talking about a lot of things, and Torrent used his attack to make Berry fall down a hole. The next thing Berry knew, she hit a hard surface she thought was the ground, only to suddenly be thrown off and landed on what she thought may have been Shab. She was surprised that she even found Shab and Dust, but she didn't have time to realize she had been reunited with them because she saw a gaping maw about to clamp down on her. Berry may have screamed, she wasn't sure. Dust was running and ended up crashing into a wall.

Berry finally came to the conclusion that Dust and Shab had been running from this Tyrantrum. She had no idea why a wild Tyrantrum was here, how it was here, or why it was chasing them.

The Tyrantrum's nose was on Berry just as she came to this conclusion, surprising her. The Tyrantrum appeared to be sniffing her. Though the Tyrantrum reminded Berry of Tsunami. They were both big, scary, wild dragons.

"Uh… hello?" Berry hesitantly said, not sure what to make of this.

The Tyrantrum didn't respond as it continued to stare at Berry with bewilderment.

"Berry, it's a fossil Pokemon, and likely a wild one," Shab whispered behind Berry. "It most likely won't understand what you're saying."

To both Berry and Shab's surprise, the Tyrantrum made a small growling noise, but it didn't sound like it was aggressive. Shab couldn't understand if it was just growling or if it was doing something else, but Berry blinked a few times when she heard the small growl.

Wait… that sounds like… Berry remembered Tsunami making similar noises before.

Berry couldn't say she understood everything, but she could tell the Tyrantrum was trying to talk to her. From what she could understand, the Tyrantrum was saying 'baby', 'out', and 'food'. Berry had been practicing the wild Pokemon language with Shab after her little training with Tsunami, but she had never thought she would have to put it into practice so soon.

Taking a deep breath, Berry tried to speak in the wild Pokemon language with a series of her own growls. "Why… chase… friends?"

"Friends?" The Tyrantrum asked in the same language, only to give an angry growl.

Berry could make out 'capture me' somewhere in that angry series of growls. Does she think that Dust and Shab captured her or something?

"Not them… they friends… they not bad… help… they help." Berry tried to say, hoping the Tyrantrum understood what she was saying.

Dust finally managed to finally snap out of his daze after getting splashed again with water by Shab. Dust shook his head before wincing a bit, feeling a pounding pain coming from his head.

"Ow, that's gonna bruise," Dust remarked as he gently rubbed his temple with his right paw. "What happened-"

Dust went silent when he saw Tyrantrum glaring at him as he remembered what happened before he crashed. …Oh right.

"Don't make any sudden movements," Shab warned Dust. "But I think…Berry is communicating with it."

"What?" Dust blinked, confused. "Berry? When could she speak wild Pokemon? … Why aren't you speaking to it then?"

"It seems to think Berry is a part of its kin due to both of them being Dragon types," Shab guessed. "And… well… it may come as a shock to you, but even wild Pokemon have different languages. I speak aquatic, not draconic. Those series of roars and growls is the wild draconic language."

It was indeed a shock to Dust, and if it wasn't for the fact that there was an angry Tyrantrum staring him down, he would've gone nuts. Instead, he only asked the first thing that came to mind. "So when did Berry suddenly learn to speak draconic?"

"Um… I'll have to tell you later," Shab hesitantly answered, knowing Berry withheld that information to not hurt Dust's feelings since Berry had been training and learning about wild Pokemon while he was on his botched vacation.

Dust decided to focus on Berry communicating with the Tyrantrum, this was just an information gold mine. The only regret that he had right now was that he had nothing to take notes with. Of all the times to not bring my notepad, it had to be now! I swear, after this, I'm going to work on a new method to make sure I can record moments like these!

Dust only heard more growls and little roars coming from the Tyrantrum as it turned its attention back to Berry. He saw her listen to the fossil Pokemon, taking a few moments to understand what it was saying before making similar growling noises to the Tyrantrum. Though Berry's growls were a little more different, they sounded similar to some fish Pokemon that he heard speaking underwater before.

Berry looked over at Dust and Shab. "I can't understand her fluently, but from what I can gather, she thought you two put her in a cage in her 'old home'. I'm trying to tell her that you're not a part of the Pokemon who caught and put her in that cage. And… something about an egg, I think."

Her? So the Tyrantrum is female? And… Egg? Dust thought. Only egg that comes to mind is Cliff's. But we already dealt with her biological parents…Then there's…But there's no way Al could've…Oh Arceus, he could've.

Not wanting to risk antagonizing the Tyrantrum more, Dust refrained from bringing up Al or the egg he found.

"We help… we good Pokemon. Help us?" Berry said to the Tyrantrum. "Lost here. Move to bad Pokemon?"

The Tyrantrum seemed a bit skeptical, but looking back at the frozen ground, then back to Dust and Shab before making more growling noise, which Dust assumed was draconic.

"Attack me…" The Tyrantrum roared, pointing at Dust and Shab with her two claws, then pointed back at the icy ground behind her.

Berry sweatdropped, it was pretty easy to figure out what happened when she saw the icy ground. "Scared of you. You big, you chase. They run. They not know. They not bad. Help you, help us."

Tyrantrum looked at Dust and Shab, seeing their worried expression, and realized that maybe Berry was right. That Dust and Shab were only trying to run away and didn't have much choice. The Absol and the fish Pokemon seem to know how to put up a fight despite being so small, so maybe they could help her get away from this awful place. It was a little difficult to understand the Goomy, but the Goomy clearly didn't know their language that well, so she had to work with what she could.

"I help help me escape," Tyrantrum said to the Goomy, using as basic draconic as she could with this Goomy.

Berry nodded to the Tyrantrum. "We both help."

Berry turned over to Dust and Shab. "So we made a deal. The Tyrantrum is willing to help us as long as we help her get away from this place."

Both Dust and Shab gave a sigh of relief, with the Absol being the first to reply. "Well, that's good to hear. Better to have a fossil Pokemon on your side than against it," Dust then recalled all the other fossil Pokemon that were still trapped in those containers. "Shab, remember all those other fossil Pokemon we saw before? We should free them as well."

"Are you sure?" Shab asked. "I mean, I want to help them escape too, but don't you remember how Tyrantrum reacted when it first woke up? Right now we can't really afford to be dealing with so many rampaging fossil Pokemon, not when we are deep in enemy territory."

Dust realized what Shab meant, with how dangerous it was with Tyrantrum alone. If they were in better conditions, Dust was sure they could afford to help the fossil Pokemon, but unfortunately now wasn't the best time. "Alright, we'll try and come back for them later once we have a better handle of the situation."

"You guys better tell me what the Distortion World is going on," Berry grumbled. "I didn't appreciate nearly getting eaten after falling on top of a rampaging dragon, and landing on top of one of my teammates."

It was then it hit Shab how Berry's body had covered him earlier, and now his entire body turned, almost steaming.

"We'll fill you in, Berry," Dust said, oblivious to Shab's reaction. "You should tell us what's been going on with you too."

"Yeah…" Berry frowned, remembering about Undergrowth, Patricia, and Torrent. "I definitely will."

But before any of them could get started on telling their side of the story, Tyrantrum interrupted them when it called out to Berry, speaking once more in its draconic tongue.

Berry blinked as she looked up at the Tyrantrum. "Ride?"

"Ride?" Dust and Shab repeated in confusion.

Tyrantrum lowered herself to the ground, touching the floor with the bottom of her mouth and waited.

"Ah… she wants us to get on her head," Berry realized.

Dust couldn't help but feel all giddy as he hopped with excitement. "Oh, I always dreamt of riding a Tyrantrum as a child! But I realized it was impossible due to…well them being extinct… and also very dangerous. But now, I can't believe it's happening!"

"You're way too excited about this…" Shab sighed.

Dust hopped on top of the Tyrantrum's head, Berry slithered up, while Shab swam up himself.

"So… Shab… how are you able to understand Tsunami, but not the Tyrantrum?" Berry asked as Shab got beside her.

"Tsunami is able to speak aquatic, and draconic," Shab answered. "Two different languages. You've been using both languages while you were talking to the Tyrantrum. I suppose that's like having a foreign accent while speaking a language."

Too many things were going through Dust mind as he overheard Shab and Berry's conversation. And once again, he was deeply regretting not bringing a notepad with him. Mental note, make sure to ask Shab and Berry about wild language later. Do not take 'no' for an answer.

Tyrantrum began moving down the large tunnels.

Seeing how the tunnels seemed to stretch for some distance, Team Night Tide took this chance to finally relax, knowing that at any moment they would most likely have to face danger once again. And with that, Dust also took this opportunity to try and figure out what had happened since their team had separated.

"So I guess for starters, how did you end up falling from the ceiling, Berry? As well, where's Cliff and Kuro?" Dust asked, while glad to see Berry again, he was now worried about Cliff and Kuro's whereabouts.

"Oh… right… everything happened so fast I forgot you two weren't there for everything," Berry sheepishly realized. "Well, when Kuro, Cliff, and I headed to the inn, we waited for you two. But neither of you showed up for a while, so we got worried. We began asking around town about you two. We were told that someone saw you two heading to the outskirts of Mt. Snowfall's village. It… wasn't hard to deduce Rouge got to you. According to Kuro, Rouge's pheromones are so strong that she can affect any male Pokemon. We knew climbing Mt. Snowfall would be tough, though, so Kuro and I allowed ourselves to get caught by some minions to be brought here a lot easier. I told Icy, who was with us, to take care of Cliff. They're either waiting back at the village or went back to the guild. I doubt Icy would be reckless, and stupid enough to take someone as young as Cliff into Mt. Snowfall's Mystery Dungeon."

Berry then frowned as a small nagging thought came to her mind, wondering if Cliff and Icy did try to go across Mt. Snowfall to get to them. But for the sake of her sanity, she decided to think positive, and know Icy was responsible enough to take Cliff back… even though Berry didn't really know Icy… the Goomy shook her head.

"Kuro and I found Rouge. Kuro told me to pretend to be a male Goomy and be under Rouge's pheromone's spell," Berry continued. "And… I saw Patricia."

"What? The Mawile?" Shab frowned in worry. "The same one from the rank up tournament who tried to eat you?"

"Well I guess we shouldn't be too surprised, considering who we saw earlier," Dust noted. "We saw Undergrowth, so if that Serperior was here, then Patricia would've been close by. Did the Mawile recognize you?"

"Wait, you saw Undergrowth?" Berry asked, surprised. "... Well, I guess that makes it a little easier then. And… uh… I'm not sure. Patricia seemed to be convinced I was… well, myself, but Rouge was saying that was impossible since I was 'clearly affected' by her pheromones. Patricia was going to test it by… tasting me, but she didn't get a chance to due to the immeasurable luck, and timing, you two had when you escaped, setting off an alarm."

"How dare she!" Shab growled, his face turning red, not from enjoyment or embarrassment this time, but from rage and anger. "How dare that dirty Mawile try to taste your precious, wonderful slime! She's far too tainted to be anywhere near your slime!"

"Shab… calm down. I mean I know you… really like my slime, but it's not that big of a deal," Berry said, sweat dropping at how passionate, and angry, Shab was getting over Patricia wanting to taste her slime.

"Considering that Patricia would've most likely recognized you through taste alone, I think we cut it pretty close when we had escaped," Dust added, but then recalled the mysterious Pokemon across their old cell. "By chance did Rouge take you to the prison cells? If so, did you happen to meet a mysterious Pokemon? He was across the cell we had escaped from."

"Yes… I did," Berry confirmed. "Which leads me to what I was about to tell you two. Um… did you not know that Pokemon was Torrent?"

"Torrent… I feel like I've heard that name before… but uh… who was that again?" Dust asked.

"He's the Greninja judge we had when we were fighting against Team Crimson Raiders to see if we were ready for the Gold Rank," Berry explained. "The one who also knew Grant, and the one Grant never talks about."

"That was him?!" Dust asked, remembering that weird Greninja from before. "But didn't he say he was some Hyper Rank Crusader? What was he doing there in the first place?"

"Hmph, why didn't he tell us who he was in the first place?" Shab remarked. "That could've been helpful, instead of just keeping his identity a secret."

"I think he was testing you two," Berry said, remembering Torrent mentioned how he wanted to see if Dust and Shab would free the other prisoners. "To see if you would free the other prisoners or something."

Berry shook his head. "That's not important right now. What happened after Torrent and I managed to escape is what I wanted to tell you. We ran into Undergrowth. That Serperior is a dangerously good hunter, he was able to spot us despite hiding in the shadows, on the ceiling. Hiding from him when he's nearby is… very hard to do. And I thought Tsunami was able to sense prey easily… Undergrowth and Torrent seems to know each other, and… they both seem to know Tsunami too. I didn't get the full story from them, but they may have been childhood friends at one point. Undergrowth seemed to want me for some reason, and Torrent had me escape from Undergrowth by blasting the floor under me, and forcing me to fall through it. That was the hole you guys saw me fall from."

"Which led to you meeting our new…friend here," Dust added. "That only raises more questions, but let's get our side of the story cleared first before asking questions. It was around the time at the village, when me and Shab had collected some information. At first things seemed normal…but then I smelt some kind of strange scent in the air. And as soon as I did, it was like everything was out of my control, I just had to find the source, no matter what."

"Dust started running off with no warning while I was riding his back. I didn't understand what was going on with him, but as we got closer to the source, I soon smelt it and after that, everything just went dark," Shab added. "That was most likely Rouge we had smelled. I was the first to wake up in the cell, so I did what I could to wake Dust up."

"Shortly after waking up, we met Torrent, though back then we didn't know who he was. But he warned us of the food the Loudred gave us," Dust explained as he pulled out one of the berries from his bag. "He told us that the berries had been altered, tainted to make those who eat them addicted."

"I noticed," Berry remarked, recalling how all the prisoners reacted as soon as she and Torrent had released them. "It looked like the prisoners could only think of those berries, as well as Rouge. Torrent mentioned that you took those berries with the intention of finding a cure?"

"Correct, somewhat similar to when your slime had put me in a coma, it was thanks to that slime that Dr. Perfume was able to at least determine the cause of my ailment, as well as possible solution, which led you to finding that flower from your old home," Dust explained. "I figured that I could use these berries to study the chemicals and such within and hopefully find a possible cure for all the prisoners. Even though we plan on freeing them from their cells, their minds will still be locked unless I can do something to free them."

"We'll tackle that later when we can," Shab interjected. "Anyways, thanks to Dust, we managed to make that hole in the wall, but we didn't expect the ground to suddenly break apart, causing both me and Dust to fall down below to some dark location. After walking through the dark tunnels for a bit, we finally came across this large area. There was a huge cage, as well as all these big liquid containers, each holding a Fossil Pokemon within."

"Before we could get a closer look, we suddenly had two new visitors and quickly hid within the cage, thinking the contents inside were just large objects," Dust added. "That's when we saw Undergrowth talking with Dio, that Persian reporter from the tournament. Do you remember how invested he seemed in us?"

"Yeah… I think I do remember a Persian reporter talking to us during the tournament," Berry answered. "Wait… why was he talking to Undergrowth?"

"Well…from what it sounded like, it seemed as though they were making some kind of deal. Dio kept going on about Team Purify, and from the sound of it, he may be their leader. But what has me concerned is what Undergrowth said. I thought before he and Patricia were acting on their own, but then Undergrowth mentioned the SDS and was very vague about their leader," Dust answered. "It makes me wonder how dangerous this SDS group is, that they have someone like Undergrowth working with Dio, instead of the leader themselves."

Berry frowned. "Undergrowth mentioned the leader of the SDS is really powerful, even more so than him and Torrent, who were, quite frankly, already scary powerful."

Dust gulped, thinking about an even more dangerous Pokemon than Undergrowth. While he may have been unconscious when Undergrowth first showed up at the tournament, he did recall what Berry had shared with him. How the Serperior managed to take down the authorities, despite all of them being Magnazone, Magnamite and Magneton, all resistant to his grass attacks. It was only thanks to his mother showing up that Undergrowth decided to surrender, only to escape a moment later. Something told him that this SDS group would be something they may have to tackle in the future, and the mere thought caused a brief sense of dread to come to him.

Dust shook his head before responding. "We should count ourselves lucky that we aren't dealing with Undergrowth's leader. Anyways, we learned that they were experimenting on all these Fossil Pokemon, but two managed to escape. A Cranidos that took residence in the Phoenix Desert, later evolving into Rampardos, and a Tyrunt. It's very likely that Rampardos is Cliff's biological mother. Tyrunt took refuge in some kind of tropic like dungeon, and apparently evolved into this Tyrantrum here. Team Purify managed to capture it, just before Team Destruct showed up."

"Wait… you're telling me that Rampardos we saw at the Phoenix Desert came from here!?" Berry yelled in shock. "As in Cliff's mother!?"

"Well, it's only a theory, but considering Fossil Pokemon aren't exactly supposed to exist, I believed it was only thanks to the dungeon inself that there was a Rampardos in the first place," Dust answered. "But after hearing Dio and Undergrowth state how their escaped Cranidos ended up in the Phoenix Desert dungeon, it made more sense that Cliff's mother came from here. But that's not the only concerning thing. They were very set on getting Cranidos and Tyrunt back, but thanks to them escaping, they learned that they were able to breed. So even though they were having trouble with getting Rampardos back, they could still try and get her offspring…meaning Cliff. It's very fortunate for us that Cliff wasn't officially on our team during the tournament, especially when Dio was interviewing us. He'd probably learn of Cliff's origins and…" Dust shuddered at the thought. "...He'd most likely would've kidnapped Cliff while we were dealing with Patricia."

"Even though Patricia kidnapped her during that incident…" Berry huffed, not so happy at the memory.

"So all in all, it sounds like we've all had quite the adventure," Shab remarked. "Wait… what happened to Kuro?"

"Last I saw him, he was still under Rouge's spell, and she had him follow her," Berry answered. "Rouge wants to keep Kuro close, so she didn't put him in a cell."

"So to sum everything up, right now Cliff is with Icy, who I'm surprised was here in the first place, Kuro is with Rouge, and we are currently riding a Tyrantrum," Dust summarized. "Which reminds me, right after Dio and Undergrowth left, that's when we found out the object we were hiding behind was actually Tyrantrum, who woke up shortly after and gave us a good chase. The rest you already know, you fell and later managed to communicate with the Fossil Pokemon."

"There's one more thing, apparently Undergrowth kept some of your slime from the tournament. He mentioned about the research he's done, and how apparently Dio is also interested in what he learned," Shab added, upset that anyone would dare use Berry's slime for their greedy desires.

"Wait… what?" Berry frowned. "I… I know my slime is a little… unusual from a normal Goomy's slime due to my long exposure to my adopted family, but was there anything really that special about my slime that could be used in any special way? … You know, other than maybe slowly poisoning someone?"

"I don't think it's the toxins that really interest Undergrowth, but more about what you were capable of that catches their attention," Dust remarked. "It's true, your slime has unusual properties, if mixed with certain variables, it could be used as a combustible substance, ironically, it could also be used as a protective coating against flames to some degree. But I think it might be because of who your parents are that they are interested in your slime. They may wish to learn more about your outburst."

"Of course… it's always because of those stupid, overpowered outbursts…" Berry growled, angry that those outbursts always came back to bite her in the back. "Trust me, if I could get rid of them, I would in a heartbeat…"

"Berry… I know those outbursts scare you, but you've been working hard to learn to control them. And your outbursts had saved us a few times," Shab reminded. "Despite what you may think, those outbursts are a part of you, and you wouldn't be you without them. You wouldn't have tried to learn or bond with your biological mother if you didn't have to worry about them, nor would you have tried to learn the language of the wild."

"Wait! Did I hear you wrong? You were learning how to speak wild? When did this happen?" Dust asked, but then recalled the forced vacation Chihiro had them all do, and remembered Berry and Shab going together. "Was this when I took Cliff and Chompy to the beach, while you two did your own activities?"

Shab sweatdropped, realizing he just blew the secret he and Berry had been trying to keep from Dust.

Berry frowned, but hoped that by this point, Dust had cooled off from his botched vacation. "I've been… meaning to visit Tsunami again, and hoped she would be able to teach me how to control my outburst."

"And why did you decide to keep this from me? I understand it's most likely a personal matter, or if you didn't wish to deal with my many questions, but still, a simple 'I'm visiting my mother' would have sufficed." Dust frowned.

"I did say I was going to visit someone," Berry hesitantly said. "And you never really asked what I was doing during our suspension… And you weren't in the best of moods, so I didn't really want to tell you what I was doing."

"Well…I supposed that is a fair point, on some parts," Dust replied, recalling how he was indeed in a sour mood after his day at the beach. So hearing how productive Berry had spent her time with Tsunami would most likely have worsened his mood. "But still, why keep it vague about who you were visiting before you left? We both know I would've understood you wanting to go on your own to visit your mother."

Berry sighed as she rubbed the top of her head with her horn. "To be honest, I wasn't sure myself. I think I just… felt awkward about visiting Tsunami of all Pokemon. I didn't really want to tell anyone who wasn't coming with me about where I was going. I guess I also didn't want to worry you and Cliff about what I was planning to do, since when it comes to my outburst, it's always… very unpredictable."

Berry then looked up at Dust again. "But… I will say, according to Tsunami, the best way to control my outbursts is to learn to be more like a wild Pokemon,to understand what they're like, because while I'm in my outburst mode, I end up becoming wild myself. Which led to the whole language thing. I'm definitely nowhere near fluent though, and I didn't know there were different wild languages until Shab just told me a few minutes ago. I just know a few basic words… in Draconic and… Aquatic apparently."

Dust frowned before responding. "Berry, again, you know I would've understood, and if it's something you wish to tackle without having others worry, that's fine. But we are your teammates, and more importantly, your friends. You have to trust us, whether it's with good or uncomfortable news, cause no matter what, that's what we are here for. We both know how that went for me, when I didn't want to make others worry, and that caused me to go into a coma. Likewise…" Dust paused as he gently placed a paw against his right eye. "Ever since my battle with Crimson and learning of what I almost did, I hoped that we would be able to support each other, since you knew exactly what it felt like when your outbursts got out of hand. Again, I understand if you don't want to make others worried over your outbursts, but I guess it just makes it harder to turn to you for help if I start having trouble with my own."

"Dust… I also wanted to try to control my outburst so I could help you with yours," Berry explained. "I had every intention to tell you after Shab and I got back from visiting Tsunami… I just… didn't want to make your already bad mood worse. And after you cooled off, it just… felt awkward to bring it up now. I guess I just thought it'd be easier if you didn't know… though I guess I should've known better than to try to hide this from you. I'm sorry, Dust… I really should've just told you after you felt better."

"I apologize too, I wasn't sure if telling you was a good idea or not either. Although it was for a different reason," Shab admitted.

"It's fine, you made the right decision in not telling me when I wasn't in the best of moods," Dust replied with a smile. Though mentally, he was having some self doubt. So… Berry was productive once again, while I had wasted my time. I'm grateful that she's improving, but what have I been doing? Then a new thought occurred to him. The more I think about it, the more it seems like I'm holding Berry back.

The Tyrantrum let out a growl, cutting Dust's train of thought and letting them know something.

"She says we're 'near'," Berry roughly translated. "I think she means we're near the exit of the tunnels."

Berry took a deep breath and let it out. "I am sorry for being vague about Tsunami with you, Dust, but we'll have to put that talk on hold. We need to talk about what we'll do once we get out of these tunnels… and what to do about Kuro and Rouge. Neither you nor Shab can get close to Rouge without being taken in by her pheromones."

"So let's look at our options then," Dust started. "Rescuing Kuro would only result in me and Shab falling under Rouge's control, which is something we want to avoid. Maybe if they had a lab of sorts, I can work on a remedy or something to help counteract Rouge's pheromones. Berry, by chance did you learn of this place before getting separated from Torrent?"

"I've learned some things," Berry answered. "Torrent was taking me to a secret entrance to this place to meet up with some Crusaders who were assigned to be here. But then Undergrowth caught us."

"Assigned here? Do you think he was talking about us?" Dust asked.

"I don't think so, Torrent said he came here under Chihiro's orders, and that he was to meet with a high ranking team. He didn't believe Chihiro would send a Silver Rank team like us to meet with him," Berry replied.

"Strange, you'd think Chihiro would've mentioned something like this to Kuro," Dust remarked.

"I don't think Kuro knew because he never really went to the guildmaster," Shab remarked. "And he only intended for us to take out Rouge, not… get involved with all of this."

"We just seem to be a magnet for trouble, and being where we shouldn't be…" Berry sighed.

"Yeah…" Dust sighed as well, wondering if most of it was his fault somehow. "Where's the secret entrance?"

"I… don't know… like I said, Undergrowth showed up before Torrent could take me there," Berry replied.

"Is there anything else you saw that might help us?" Dust asked.

Berry gave it some thought before she answered. "There's a cafeteria where they serve food, and I remembered seeing those same berries there as well. I haven't found a lab, but maybe the cafeteria will do?"

"It's a start, that might be where we can learn where they get their altered berries. Maybe find some other clues to navigate this place," Dust noted, but realized they had a new problem to deal with. "But how are we gonna get past undetected? If it was just us three, it's possible, but with Tyrantrum, it would be very hard to miss a giant fossil Pokemon."

"Who needs to be sneaky when you have a Tyrantrum?~" Berry grinned mischievously, a grin that Dust rarely ever saw on his Goomy partner. "The biggest threats we need to worry about are Undergrowth, Patricia, Rouge, and maybe Dio. The rest… heh, let's see how brave they are when they come face to face with a Tyrantrum."

"Well…it definitely is a new approach," Dust remarked, having been used to them usually sneaking about. Strangely enough, he couldn't help but feel an old sensation, almost like when he was back in Olympus guild, just before he ended up causing some kind of chaos.

Shab was blushing slightly, seeing Berry act like this made his heart beat slightly faster. "T-then let's not keep them waiting!"

Berry gave a roar of her own, letting the Tyrantrum know to go head to 'a place to eat' and to go wild. Tyrantrum let out a roar of her own, she was clearly more than happy to go wild on this place.

Dust realized he may have stirred up two very powerful, and slightly unstable, dragons loose on these poor Pokemon.

---

In the cafeteria of the building, a couple of familiar minions were talking to each other. A Zubat, and a Drowzee. Both of them were pretty bored.

"So… any plans for today…?" Drowzee asked the Zubat.

"Just… eat, then continue patrol, I guess," Zubat sighed. "You'd think Lady Rouge would've promoted us when we brought her that Salandit she had been looking for, and that… Grimer Pokemon as a bonus."

"Well I wouldn't bring it up to her if I were you," Drowzee responded. "I remember hearing about the last guy who brought up the same issue to Lady Rouge before, and she ended up promoting him to working with all the other special male Pokemon."

"You can't be serious? No way would Lady Rouge do that," Zubat remarked.

"Who do you think was on our patrol before you came?" Drowzee replied. "Just shows that if you aren't pulling your weight, then they'll find ways to make you more productive."

"It's hard enough being a male Pokemon here and worrying about whether or not Lady Rouge would use her pheromones on us, as well as those special berries, but not even being able to complain at all despite our hard work?" Zubat sighed. "Why did we sign up for this again?"

"Just like you and almost every other Pokemon working here, we didn't exactly have anywhere else to go. Though I'm with ya, if I had known beforehand what we would be getting ourselves into, I wouldn't have joined. But we can't really leave now, since they like to keep their group all secretive and such. Can't risk any deserters spilling the beans and such," Drowzee remarked.

"I wonder if the females have it as bad, since they can't be affected by Lady Rouge's pheromones," Zubat wondered. "Lucky females…"

"They're on a tighter leash than we are, so I wouldn't call the females 'lucky'," Drowzee pointed out. "Since they can't be affected by Lady Rouge's pheromones, they're always being kept a close watch by someone. They have to start using their own charms to bring in new recruits, preferably males. If they so much as look at their superiors funny, they get punished."

"Yeesh, with how Lady Rouge treats most of the members here, you'd think she be the leader of Team Purify," Zubat remarked.

"I don't know what Lady Rouge is thinking. If she so much as feels a twinkle of me trying to read her mind, it's mind control city for me," Drowzee sighed.

"Well… at least nothing's happening, so it'll just be a boring day for-" Zubat began to say before something huge crashed through the wall and let out a loud roar that nearly deafened the Zubat.

The other Pokemon in the cafeteria all began screaming and scrambling around in a panic when a huge Tyrantrum had burst through the wall, roaring and stomping around. While most of the other Pokemon were already panicking and running away, Zubat and Drowzee stared in shock at the sudden, rampaging Tyrantrum.

"You had to jinx us!" Drowzee shouted as he started to run away.

"How was I supposed to know?!" Zubat shouted back, flying after the Drowzee.

Seeing that most of the Pokemon either ran or hid, Dust surveyed the area until he spotted what he assumed was the kitchen. "Berry, have Tyrantrum take us over to the kitchen. If we are lucky, we might be able to find clues on where they make their special berries."

"Okay… I'll try. I don't know the wild- err, draconic language for 'kitchen', but I'll try 'food'," Berry said before she took a deep breath and let out her own little roar at the Tyrantrum.

Tyrantrum stopped moving around and looked up for a moment, trying to decipher what Berry was asking her. Something about 'food'. Tyrantrum looked around and growled something back.

"She says we have food all around," Berry said, looking at the panicking Pokemon. "I need something to help steer her into the kitchen."

"I guess just ask if she could let us down then, she might think you're hungry and want to eat," Shab suggested.

Berry gave another roar at the Tyrantrum. Tyrantrum gave a shrug before lowering herself to the floor, allowing Shab, Dust, and Berry to get off of her head.

"I really hope she doesn't try to eat the other Pokemon here," Berry sweatdropped.

"Maybe you should stick with her while me and Shab investigate the kitchen, just in case Tyrantrum does try to eat the other Pokemon," Dust remarked. "They may be working for the bad guys, but they don't deserve that."

"We'll try to get this done soon, Berry," Shab promised the Goomy.

"W-wait a minute! You two are going to leave me alone with another Pokemon eating dragon!?" Berry yelled. "Tsunami was one thing, but I'm not even related to this Tyrantrum!"

"That may be so, but you are the reason Tyrantrum stopped attacking us," Dust pointed out. "As well, out of us 3, you are the only one who can communicate with her," But then Dust briefly remembered how things went when he and Berry got separated, and how he wasn't as productive as she was. "Though if you want, Shab could stay with you while I investigate the kitchen."

"Uh… no… if Tyrantrum gets hungry, she might get tempted to eat Shab," Berry replied, seeming to realize the dangers of having a hungry Tyrantrum around. "You two use the kitchen for whatever you need to figure out the berries. Maybe Shab can find Tyrantrum some meat to eat so she doesn't get too hungry."

"Sounds like a plan," Dust nodded before heading over to the kitchen.

Shab gave a worried look as he looked at Dust before turning to Berry. "Just give us a shout if anything happens. We'll be right there faster than Brody hearing about a new female member."

Berry gave a small chuckle at that. "Just try to hurry, I don't know how long I can keep her from wanting to eat the other Pokemon."

Dust and Shab went into the kitchen. There was a lot of food, most of it was berries. There were quite a few slabs of meat though. Shab would be uncomfortable when he saw some fish Pokemon hanging at the back of the kitchen, but he had seen plenty of fish Pokemon eating each other in the wild.

"You go ahead and start analyzing the berries. I'll get these meat over to the Tyrantrum," Shab suggested.

"Already working on it," Dust replied, having taken out one of the altered berries from his bag.

Dust would've liked to have a lab to analyze the berries, but he would have to work with what he had here. While Dust wasn't entirely sure how effective his Pecha Scarf would be, he didn't wanna take any risks involving these berries, so he pulled his scarf over his muzzle, using it as a mask. He then used his claw to cut open the berry in front of him.

Shab began pushing a rather large meat out of the kitchen. Dust wondered for a moment if that was Mammoswine's meat. But Dust looked back at the berry in front of him. He was surprised by the coloration of the inside. He knew berries all had different colorations from one another, but he has never seen one where the insides were purple. Dust looked around the kitchen, searching for any berries and was glad to find a crate with assorted berries. It only took him a moment until he found a few that were like the ones he was studying.

As Dust took those new berries, an interesting thought occurred to him. Huh, deja vu. Last time I messed with berries was at the Olympus guild…right before I caused that slimy explosion. Let's try and not repeat history.

Dust gave a slight chuckle before cutting up these new berries with his claws. He was both glad and intrigued to see that these berries had different colors on the inside, a normal white coloring. Still, he dared not risk smelling them, even less eating them in case they were also altered.

This is all good, but it's not enough. Something is missing, what is the connection between these berries? Dust wondered when he heard a sudden clang in the corner. At first he thought it might've been Shab, but recalled how he was taking that giant slab of meat from earlier to Tyrantrum, meaning that Dust wasn't the only one in this kitchen.

Making sure to be on guard, Dust slowly made his way towards the source of the sound, listening for anyone in the area. So far the only noise he heard was his claws as they clicked against the hard ground. As he got to the corner, there was still no indication of anyone being there, nor any new sound and Dust started to wonder if he might've imagined the earlier noise, when suddenly Dust heard something tapping on the ground behind him.

Dust turned to see a soup spoon on the floor. It likely dropped and made that sound, but what confused Dust was that it sounded like it was tapping the ground, not falling onto it. If anything, this just further his suspicion that someone was hiding here. Dust wished he had the ability to sense nearby Pokemon, like how Berry did with her horns, but all he had was his wits. So he continued to the corner, seeing a few crates. Dust goes to the first crate, still keeping his guard up as he prepared to open the container.

There was nothing in the first crate, Dust went to the next one, but then saw something moving in the corner of his eye. He looked over at what appeared to be a big oven. And to his shock, he saw a scared looking Nidoran female trying to close the oven, but the door was stuck. At first Dust was confused why she seemed so scared, but then recalled it was most likely due to his appearance.

Gotta remember, not everyone is used to seeing an Absol. I probably look like a predator to that Nidoran right now. Dust thought as he sighed. He started making his way towards the oven, making sure to go slow in hopes of not frightening the Nidoran further. "Hey, it's okay, I'm not here to hurt you. I just want to talk."

The Nidoran suddenly ran out of the oven, but Dust didn't see the Nidoran near him. It just looked like she jumped out, but wasn't touching him, and was 2 dimensional. Confused, Dust turned around to see the same oven the Nidoran had been in, and the Nidoran herself running down the kitchen. Looking back, Dust realized what happened. He had been talking to the reflection, reflecting off of a shiny dish washer's door. He turned around and saw the real Nidoran trying to make her way towards the exit. Normally Dust would have let the Pokemon go, but seeing how he needed answers, that Nidoran was his only source and he couldn't afford to let her escape.

Okay, I'm sorry but I don't have time for this. Dust thought as he prepared himself.

The Absol then used Faint Attack as he rushed towards the running Nidoran. The Nidoran let out a loud squeak when Dust caught her with his paws, careful not to actually hurt her.

"L-let her go!" Another voice shouted from behind Dust.

Dust turned his head to see another Nidoran female glaring at him. But there was something odd about this Nidoran female. The color was a more saturated blue, the ears were a lot longer than the Nidoran Dust caught, and it was also missing the whiskers. The horn looked slightly bigger too.

"R-run away, Needle!" The Nidoran under Dust's paws squealed.

"N-no way, Noodle! We promised we'd stick together! S-so you b-better let her go or else!" Needle shouted.

Dust knew he must've looked terrifying to them, so he didn't blame them for their reaction. Not wanting to antagonize them more, Dust sat down, but still kept the other Nidoran under his right paw.

"Alright, I'll let her go, but only if you two help me first. I promise you I won't cause…Noodle any harm," Dust replied.

The two Nidoran looked at Dust cautiously. Noodle and Needle didn't say anything for a minute, but seeing how Dust wasn't trying to cut into Noodle, Needle finally said something.

"If you truly mean what you said, then let my sister go, then we'll talk," Needle stated.

Dust nodded as he prepared to lift his paw. He was already preparing himself for another Faint Attack if those two decided to run for it, but for now, he hoped they would stay and listen. As soon as he lifted his paw up, Noodle ran towards Needle and gave the Nidoran a hug. Dust was expecting them to run, and he wouldn't have blamed them if they did, considering how he was an Absol and others would've done the same, if given the chance. But to both his surprise and relief, the two Nidoran had remained, at least for now.

"So… what is it that you want?" Needle asked.

"Is it food? Because we have plenty here," Noodle gestured around. "Well… assuming that big Tyrantrum you brought here doesn't eat everything first."

"Don't worry, my team is making sure she doesn't try and eat anyone here. My name is Dust, and I am a Crusader of Team Night Tide. We weren't planning on coming here, but due to events out of our control, we now have made this our mission," Dust explained before taking out one of the altered berries he left in his bag. "I want to learn more about these berries, where they were made, and find a counter cure for them."

"These… are Rouge's berries!" Needle squeaked in alarm, quickly holding her nose like her life depended on it. "Keep those away from me!"

Noodle frowned, seeing the surprised and confused look on Dust's face. "Um… she… has a really bad experience with those… uh… berries…"

Dust blinked as he looked at Needle, realizing that maybe she wasn't quite a Nidoran female. He had seen both genders Nidoran before. The more he looked at Needle, the more he looked physically like a Nidoran male. The only thing throwing Dust off was the color.

Dust quickly put the berry away before addressing Needle. "...I'm guessing Rouge's berries, as well as her pheromones are why you are lying about being female? I've seen what happened to the male prisoners, what became of them. But I gotta ask, are those your natural colors?"

Needle was shocked that Dust figured out her… or rather, his gender. "H-how did you know I was male?!"

"Oh, I've seen both genders before, and I'm rather very perceptive when it comes to research. In fact, I recalled taking some time studying the differences between certain Pokemon and their opposite genders. Rather interesting, how certain Pokemon have unique traits that the opposite gender doesn't have. And I read quite a bit about Nidoran and the differences between the two genders. Only thing is your color, which I haven't seen anything like before," Dust excitedly exclaimed.

"Please! Don't tell anyone! Especially Rouge!" Noodle begged, standing protectively in front of Needle. "We didn't want Rouge to separate us, and feed my brother those filthy berries."

"Oh, I wouldn't dare. I already know the danger Rouge presents," Dust reassured. "I'm just excited, that's all. But…if you know how dangerous it was being around Rouge, why stay here? Why come in the first place? Surely there could've been better options besides staying here."

"We… couldn't find any… we lost our parents when we were really young…" Noodle frowned. "We ran into Rouge, and she promised she would take us to a place to keep us safe. She… didn't realize Needle was male though, so she kept both of us together when she brought us here. Since we were so young, she had us learn to work in the kitchen as it was the 'easiest job' she could give us. As long as we worked on our daily quota, we would have a place to sleep and eat."

"It's good she didn't know I was male, because we later learn what she does to male Pokemon here…" Needle shivered. "S-sure we've had an adult watching us do our work, but at least we were together, and nobody suspected I wasn't a female Nidoran."

"Because of your color, making you almost look like a female Nidoran too?" Dust inquired.

"Y-yeah. It's also why we were trying to find a safe place to stay. I'm a shiny Nidoran, and already we knew shiny Pokemon were sought after," Needle explained.

"So while it helped fool others into thinking Needle was female, it only made it harder for us to leave," Noodle added. "They surely would've taken him if they ever learned he was also a shiny Pokemon."

Dust couldn't imagine what they must've felt, having to constantly hide Needle's true secret in fear of one day being discovered and ending up like those prisoners he saw before. Dust also couldn't fathom why anyone would even do those kinds of things in the first place.

"Since you two have been working in the kitchen since first coming here, then maybe you can help me. I wish to create a cure for all those male Pokemon affected by Rouge's pheromones and her berries. No one should go through that, nor should they have to stay in constant fear in exchange for 'safety'. I can only do so much on my own, will you two help me? And in return, I promise that you two will get out of here safely," Dust promised, wanting to help the two Nidoran.

"R-really?" Needle asked, hesitantly. "This… isn't some kind of trick, is it? We trusted Rouge, and look at where that got us…"

Dust realized he needed to show them some kind of proof that he was genuine when he said he would help them. Then he remembered his Crusader badge. After grabbing his badge, he held it on top of his paw, showing the two Nidoran the item. The two Pokemon gave a slight gasp, before responding.

"You really are a Crusader?" Needle asked.

"I thought you were lying, because…well…you're an Absol," Noodle sheepishly added.

Dust gave a slight chuckle before putting his badge away. "Well, I get that a lot, but I assure you, I am a Crusader. And as a Crusader, I give you my word that me and my team will help you."

"... Well… I suppose anything is better than here now," Noodle said before she stepped forward. "Since we work in the kitchen, we've had to make some of those berries, so I have a pretty good idea how it works. Needle usually stay away from the berries though, because it would affect him."

It's a good thing I decided to use my Pecha Scarf then. Guess it helps filter the berries' smell. Dust thought before questioning the Nidoran female. "So is there a place where Rouge uses her pheromones on these berries, or does she do them all here?"

"Oh no, it would be too much trouble for Rouge to use them here, since the males would get heavily affected by her pheromones," Noodle answered.

"Only a few are allowed to know where she uses her pheromones," Needle added. "Luckily some of the kitchen staff were allowed to go pick up some of those berries from her, specifically the females."

"Needle was supposed to pick them up last time, but because he's male, we had to come up with an excuse on why he couldn't. Luckily they believed he was allergic to those specific berries, so they sent me instead," Noodle explained. "We've had many close calls like that, and we were worried that we would get suspicious if we kept it up."

"Which kinda sucked, since the regular berries were my favorite. Couldn't eat them anymore since I was 'allergic' to them," Needle grumbled.

"So, by chance do you still remember how to get to that area? Where Rouge used her pheromones on the berries?" Dust asked.

"Yeah… Needle will have to stay here, because the place still has Rouge's lingering pheromones with how much she uses it," Noodle answered. "That Feebas we saw earlier… he was a part of your team, right?"

"Yeah, his name is Shab," Dust answered. "He'll probably be back here soon once he feeds the Tyrantrum."

Noodle nodded before she looked over at her brother. "Wait until that Feebas comes back, and explain everything to him."

"But are you sure you should go? I get you want to find a cure, but won't you be affected by the lingering pheromones too?" Needle asked Dust.

"Normally yes, but I believe it's thanks to my Pecha Scarf that I haven't been fully affected yet, at least by the berries. Seeing how Rouge is part poison, perhaps her pheromones contain traces of toxins within. As long as Rouge herself isn't there, I should be fine to enter the area," Dust explained. "Wait, shouldn't that mean Poison types should be immune?"

"No… Salazzle has the Corrosion ability, meaning her poison can affect Poison types too," Needle frowned.

"Then we really best hope Rouge isn't there. I highly doubt the Pecha Scarf can do much if she's physically there," Dust remarked. He then noticed Shab entering the kitchen once more, seeming a bit exhausted, most likely from having to carry a big piece of meat on his own. Not wanting him to get too close to the berry he had cut earlier, Dust went over to Shab. "So, how's Berry doing with Tyrantrum?"

"She's doing… fine… Tyrantrum seems… to think Berry is… a baby… and it's her… responsibility to… keep Berry safe…" Shab answered, panting a bit. "Berry… doesn't like that… but at least… she's safe… with the Tyrantrum."

"Fascinating, questions for later though," Dust remarked, disappointed that now wasn't the time or place for such questions.

"How…about…you? Any… luck?" Shab asked before noticing the two Nidoran that were behind Dust. Even though they had only trusted the Absol recently, they were still wary of the Feebas. "And…who…are…they?"

"Oh, these are Needle and Noodle," Dust answered. "They work here in the kitchen and are helping learn more about those special berries."

"Oh… that's… good…" Shab took a moment to catch most of his breath. "Um… so will you be okay… working on the berries?"

Dust nodded as he tugged a bit on his scarf. "I should be, seems like my Pecha Scarf helps filter some of the pheromones left behind by Rouge. Though I doubt it will be very effective if the actual Salazzle was here. At least now I can work in close proximity to those berries without having to worry about falling under Rouge's control again."

"So… what do you want me to do?" Shab asked.

"I want you to keep an eye on Needle," Dust answered. "The color can be a little confusing, but he's a Nidoran male, so he can't follow me to the room where the berries are usually made. Noodle will have to guide me to the room."

Shab looked at the two Nidoran, they appeared to be quite young and scared. "... I'll keep an eye on him. But… are you sure you're okay? Outside of the berries I mean."

"Of course, granted we did get separated and we are in enemy territory, but we've been through worse," Dust reassured. "Plus, this will be most productive, Berry will make sure to keep Tyrantrum in check, you'll make sure Needle here is safe, and I'll be able to find a counter agent for Rouge's pheromones."

"You just seemed a bit… off lately," Shab remarked.

"Huh? What makes you say that?" Dust asked, surprised at the comment.

"Well… I was just wondering why you double backed me going with you and sticking with Berry," Shab said. "It's not like you to start doubting the plans you've made unless you know for a fact it's a bad idea, which this wasn't. And you just seemed… on edge, more than usual."

Dust sighed, trying to keep his self doubts to himself. "Look, considering we both woke up captured, separated from our team, of course I'm going to be on edge. I'm just trying to do all I can so we can achieve the best outcome. Last time I was captured by Articuno, I was left frozen and couldn't help at all until the very end. At least this time we all do our job to stop Team Purify, without being a hindrance to each other."

"... Hmm… I guess. Call it instinct then, I am still a wild Pokemon by nature," Shab remarked, still not quite convinced everything Dust said was the full story to his current attitude. "Just don't let your doubt start clouding your head, especially now. You and Noodle go ahead."

Dust had a feeling this would be a conversation he'll have to tackle later, but for now, he was thankful for the chance to at least be on his own. "Very well, but you be careful too. I doubt Team Purify will be ignoring a Tyrantrum much longer, so I'll try and be quick on my end."

Shab gave a nod to Dust before he swam floated over to the two Nidoran, who looked at him warily.

"Hey, don't worry kids, we're only here to help," Shab said in a gentle voice. "We'll make sure to get you to safety as soon as we're able to."

Both Nidoran still seemed somewhat hesitant, but they decided to put their faith in Dust and Shab. The two quickly gave each other a hug before Noodle went over to Dust while Needle stayed put.

"You stay safe, Noodle," Needle said.

"You too brother," Noodle replied before turning to Shab. "Please, keep him safe."

"Don't worry, he'll be here, waiting for you when you guys return," Shab reassured.

Noodle nodded before she turned and looked up at Dust. "Alright, let's go."

"Lead the way," Dust replied.

Noodle began leading Dust to the back of the kitchen, opening up a trap door that was hidden under the kitchen's stove. Dust was fascinated by how well hidden the door was. Noodle lead the Absol down.

Dust could see the stairs had been used a lot, seeing a lot of paw prints, among other things, on the stairs as they headed down.

"This place, I think, was some kind of dungeon in a forgotten past," Noodle remarked, likely not wanting there to be awkward silence between them. "Before it was refurbished into a secret room for mixing up the special berries."

"Interesting," Dust noted. "And by dungeon, do you mean a regular one? Or a Mystery Dungeon?"

"A regular one, a dungeon where they kept prisoners, or at least worse prisoners than the dungeon cells they're using now," Noodle answered. "Since it goes so far down, and it's well hidden."

Dust nodded, relieved to hear it was a normal dungeon. "By chance, have you learned why Team Purify is doing all this? Making these special berries? Or even taking residence in a place like this?"

"Well, I only work in the kitchen, and me and Needle are too young to be trusted with most of what's going on here," Noodle asked. "But the perks of working in the kitchen is we hear a thing or two from time to time, especially when you work closely with Rouge's berries."

Dust was intrigued by this, but also thought of the kitchen back at Unity Guild. Mental note, try not to discuss sensitive topics while at the cafeteria.

Finally, the two of them reached the bottom. There was a wooden door in front of them.

"I've heard that there used to be a different door here, but it had rusted and fallen off, so it was replaced with this door," Noodle said as she tapped on the wooden door a few times before she opened it. "Good, it's empty. Rouge must've already gotten a fresh supply of berries recently, or this place would be full of workers."

Dust nodded before making sure his Pecha Scarf was securely wrapped around his muzzle. "Just in case my scarf fails to protect me, if I show any indication of acting like other male Pokemon under Rouge's control, try and get me away from this place before it's too late."

Noodle nodded, though she was a bit unsure how she was gonna move an Absol that was a lot bigger than she was. "Then wait a bit after I open the door. A lot of Rouge's scent lingers within the room, so if you start having trouble thinking, I'll shut the door and we'll go back. Are you ready?"

"I'm as ready as I ever could be," Dust said.

"Okay… it's too bad you don't have a female member with you, this would make it easier…" Noodle commented as she began to open the door more.

Dust initially held his breath, both out of caution and fear, but he knew he'd have to face this sooner or later. So Dust took a small breath, hoping the scarf would protect him. After a few seconds of waiting, Dust still felt like himself, his mind was clouded and such, and so he started breathing normally as he entered the room.

"Well, seems like the Pecha Scarf is working, thankfully," Dust remarked before taking in his surroundings.

To his surprise, Dust saw that the room was somewhat like a laboratory. Dust mentally chuckled to himself, as he examined the room. If I had a Poke for each time I came across a secret lab led by a secret staircase owned by a some criminal group, I'd have 2 Poke…which isn't a lot, but strange that it has happened twice already.

Noodle went over to a set of vials and contraptions. She took out an ordinary looking Oran Berry. "This is how we usually do this. Rouge would supply us with her pheromones, and…"

Noodle put a needle into the berry, barely piercing through the Oran Berry's skin. "We inject the pheromone inside the berry's core. This needle doesn't have any pheromones in it, but you get the idea."

Dust nodded, though he was somewhat disappointed. He was hoping there would be some pheromones left over, so he could better examine them and find a cure. But then he recalled Dio's conversation with Undergrowth, with how Rouge's pheromones were kept a secret. He figured it was something Team Purify didn't wish to make public, especially among their own members.

He spotted two empty containers and decided to take the Oran Berry Noodle had used as an example earlier, and squeezed the berry between his paws while holding it above one of the containers. Once the first container was filled with the juices of the Oran Berry, Dust took out one of Rouge's berries from his bag, and proceeded to do the same thing, this time using the second container for the contents. Just like before when he had only cut the berries, the normal Oran Berry had similar colors to any regular Oran Berry. But the special berries had that same, purple color in the container, similar to when he cut them before.

While it was all fascinating, it still didn't provide much answers to finding a cure yet. He was already forming some ideas and possible theories, but most of them would take too much time, which he didn't have too much of.

"Did you find anything yet?" Noodle asked curiously, watching Dust doing his thing.

"Not yet, if I had more time, I'd be able to conduct more research, but I also have to practice caution. Last time I messed with someone's toxins, well it wasn't pretty," Dust answered, recalling how he ended up in a coma due to Berry's slime. At the thought of Berry's slime, Dust quickly checked his bag, hoping to find what he was searching for.

To his relief, he saw he had kept the assorted sampled Berry, Shab, Cliff and even Chompy had given him. Glad I hadn't left them behind.

"What are those?" Noodle asked, having noticed the new containers Dust was taking out.

"New variables," Dust answered. "My teammates recently gave me a piece of their bodies, so I could study them. I never had the chance before, but sometimes, the best way to discover new things is to introduce new variables. As I mentioned before, last time I dealt with toxins, I wasn't fully prepared," Dust pointed at the container holding Berry's slime. "My friend's slime is unique and has traces of toxins within. It's why I wear this Pecha Scarf, so that I would be protected from long exposure to her slime."

"Is your partner a Grimer?"

"No, she's not a Grimer, she's a Goomy," Dust replied.

"... Okay, but how will her slime be useful?" Noodle asked, still unsure what the Absol was talking about.

"You'll meet her once we are done here," Dust replied. "As for your question, did you know that certain toxins can counteract other poisons and such?" After seeing Noodle shake her head, Dust went on to further explain. "It's a curious mechanism of these toxins. Rouge is a perfect example, thanks to her Corrosion ability, her toxins are able to penetrate and affect those who would normally be immune to poison related attacks. Likewise, those very same advantages could be a possible weakness, if introduced to a new type of toxin. So if my theory is correct, by introducing my friend's slime to Rouge's very own toxin, it should counter each other."

"But… how would you know if it works?" Noodle asked. "Would you need to eat the berry yourself to test it? Wouldn't that be too risky?"

"You're right, eating it would be foolish, especially with too many open variables," Dust confirmed. "That's why a safer approach would be through smell. I plan on mixing my friend's slime and the contents of the special berries together, and once I have a new substance, I'll use the new variable and inject it into a normal berry. If the berry does affect me, we can at least wait until the effects wore off. If nothing happens, then we just created a way to counter Rouge's pheromones. I'm not sure yet how effective it might be against those already addicted to her scent, but let's first find out if the slime will work first."

Noodle frowned. "So… once you inject your friend's slime into the berry… you're going to sniff the berry and see if it'll affect you? Is that the gist of your plan?"

"Well…in simple terms, yes," Dust remarked.

"Well, we should go outside of this room if you plan to do that then, since Rouge's pheromones are still lingering around here," The Nidoran pointed out.

"Of course, it wouldn't really be an effective test if I did it here," Dust replied with a slight chuckle. "I just need a moment to inject this slime into the berry."

After having watched Noodle perform the method the first time, it wasn't difficult for Dust to repeat the method. After putting in some of Berry's slime in the injector, he took out another special berry, noticing that he only had a few left. Dust really hoped for this work, he can only afford to use these berries, and he doubted he'd be able to get a new sample from Rouge. He then injected the berry, waiting until all the slime had emptied out of the injector and into the berry. Once done, he took the berry and placed it back in his bag.

"That's it?" Noodle asked, expecting more to happen.

"Yes, sometimes experiments can be really simple. Just count yourself lucky, last time I messed with berries, I caused a rather unexpected explosion to occur," Dust remarked, recalling his last moments in his old guild. "Lesson learned, certain berries don't mix well, especially with using an electric conduit. But that's a story for another time, let's head back to the others, I'm sure they are waiting for our return."

"You must have some interesting stories. I didn't expect an Absol to experiment stuff," Noodle admitted as she opened the door. "Come on, let's get out of this creepy place so you can do your test."

Dust nodded as he walked past the door, with Noodle closing it as they left the room. They made their journey back up the stairs, and like before, Noodle asked her own questions, wanting to avoid the silence between the two.

"So why is an Absol like yourself into experimenting?" Noodle asked. "I thought Absol wouldn't be into that kind of stuff. Heck, when me and Needle first saw you, we were terrified of what you'd do to us, since Absol usually hunts our kind in the wild."

"I don't blame you for thinking that. Our kind is known to be more on the intimidating side," Dust remarked. "But, something you might find out is that Pokemon aren't gonna act like the way everyone believes them too. I grew up with lots of curiosity, and thanks to my upbringing, I had access to lots of resources. I've read countless books, study Pokemon, and whenever a curious thought entered my head, I had to find out what would happen."

"Wow… that's pretty neat. I wish my brother and I could've grown up like that too," Noodle remarked.

They reached the top of the stairs.

"Okay. Do you want to try sniffing the berry now?" Noodle asked. "Or do it in the kitchen?"

"Hmm, I was planning on doing it in the kitchen, but it might be better to do it now. I rather have it only affect me and not Needle or Shab, in case my experiment fails," Dust answered. "You can keep me locked in the stairway until my head clears up."

"Okay, I'll try," Noodle replied.

Dust held up the berry and was about to sniff it when he heard what sounded like screaming coming from the kitchen. Noodle shot up her head and ears in alarm at the screaming as well. Dust quickly put the berry back into his bag before rushing towards the door. As soon as Dust and Noodle had opened the door, they couldn't believe what they had witnessed.

---

Oragonking: Traveling Master: Don't forget type advantage too, since Water is weak to Grass types. But Torrent wouldn't have gotten to where he was now if it wasn't for his skills, hard work, and such. Don't count him out yet. As for Kuro, well Rouge seems to have some unique past to the Salandit, so she has interesting plans for him.

I blame your laptop

Berry4Goodra: DarkFoxKit: Wasn't the question that Mew from Child of Mew was more powerful because she can change an entire race of Pokemon without having to kill the existing ones? So if she only did it to just one, how does that make her any better? And are you asking about this particular Mew? Because if so I will say this Mew isn't quite like the Mew from Child of Mew. And if you try to theorize about how and why, you're not going to get any confirmation from us, we are trying to keep surprises for the readers after all.

Traveling Master: Well, Dust has come a long way since the beginning of this story. Back then Dust was far less considerate of others, not putting much thought about what their thoughts or regard how they would feel from his questions. If anything, Dust would've bombarded Shab with countless questions, not thinking about how uncomfortable Shab would feel and such. So yeah, Dust has gone through some character development.

As for Shab's past life, he did come from the wild, and usually wild Pokémon try to find the best, suitable mate. That could mean finding the fastest, strongest, etc., mate there could be. So for Shab's case, it could've been a scenario where he had no choice in the matter when it came to finding a mate.

DarkFoxKit: What are you asking regarding the Tyrantrum? That it's like one of Cliff's birth parents or is one of her birth parents? It's a little hard to interpret your… lack of grammar there. But assuming you mean if the Tyrantrum is similar to Cliff's Rampardos parent, then yes, she is. They're both fossil Pokemon.

The Water type? You mean the Greninja? Yes, that is the same prisoner who was talking to Dust and Shab, but they were not in the same cell, they were in nearby cells.

Hey, Berry4Goodra, a tip for writing questions while reading, please try to delete any questions that get answered in the same chapter. Otherwise we'll end up answering it, then see you saw the answer, and that ends up wasting more time.

Traveling Master: She first learned from Torrent. She met the Greninja before meeting Berry's father. And even though they knew each other, I say Tsunami is stronger than Torrent.

DarkFoxKit: But don't think that means Tsunami would automatically win in a one-on-one battle against Torrent. Yes, Tsunami is stronger in terms of stats, but Torrent could still outsmart her, like dodging her attacks with how fast he is, and hitting her with enough strong Ice type attacks. So if they were to battle each other, it could go either way. I'm only saying this because I figured you might start bringing up the whole battle scenario between the two. Also, more questions that get answered at the end of the chapter. I'm sorry, but we're not exactly commenting to you live while you're reading. ^^'

Traveling Master: There aren't many who know of Tsunami. Berry's father made sure to keep it that way. It's why Tsunami had told Berry why she had to keep it a secret or why she stayed at Waterfall Cavern. But since Tsunami's past is very important to the story, we can't answer most of your questions concerning Tsunami and her past.

I can at least answer the question about the Volcanic Ash Guild leader. His name was mentioned once during the tournament. The leader's name is Cronus.

DarkFoxKit: We don't have a specific time or place (at least at this moment) regarding Torrent's meeting with Tsunami. We're still working out the details of their backstory. I guess I can say Tsunami would probably be… uh… younger in terms of physical age than Berry, but older in terms of maturity due to pure wild Pokemon maturing much quicker than civilized Pokemon like Berry, hence why Cliff has been maturing so much quicker than normal babies. Since I know you seem to be a stickler for details, Tsunami's physical age would probably be about 5 or 6 years, while her mental/maturity age would be 17 or 18.

Traveling Master: Tsunami was fully wild when Torrent first met her, and became semi-civilized after their meeting. Again, this is all before she met Berry's father.

And similar to what DF had said with Torrent earlier, a one on one between Tsunami and Undergrowth wouldn't be one sided. Tsunami is stronger, but Undergrowth is faster and more cunning. So it would be pretty close.

DarkFoxKit: Um… okay, I had to take a moment to figure out what you were asking due to how… hard it can be to read your words. If you're asking us if we'll be giving Tsunami's full backstory, we do plan on it, but not for a while since her backstory is meant to be something that doesn't come into play for quite a while. As for harvest seasons, they're actually years, but those are the wild Pokemon terms for years. I thought it'd be kinda creative to show wild Pokemon don't have every single term that civilized Pokemon have.

Yes, Berry's ability is Sap Sipper, and so is Tsunami's. Why do you ask?

Sobbas: Traveling Master: Thanks, when Dust and Berry aren't thrown into action, it gives us a chance to share some interesting details that we've been planning for a while. And I agree, Dust and Shab can become good friends, we just haven't really shown it much due to it always being Dust, Berry, and Shab. We want to have both Dust and Berry have unique interactions with other characters from time to time.

Dust doesn't really have a preference, seeing that he never really considered the thought of being in a relationship before, he just figured that if both of them were Dark type, they were get along more. That's just an assumption on his part, whether he ends up with another Dark type Pokemon, another unexpected type, or all together doesn't end up with anyone is too soon to say. We do have plans regarding Dust's potential relationship.

DarkFoxKit: There is a lot more to Shab than his fondness of Berry. We've thought about his backstory and why he was at Dusk Forest. But we don't want to reveal too much, people are already trying to guess Shab's backstory and who his parents were, so we have to be careful what we put in until we're ready to show Shab's backstory. But we did try to show more of Shab's personality and how he can get along with Dust without Berry being there.

Traveling Master: Well, most of those questions concerning the fossils and Rouge's purpose will be answered soon, which is why we can't really say much. But you are right about SDS, it's something me and DF have been planning for a long time, almost since the beginning of when we started this story. Though right now the main focus will be on Dust and Berry dealing with Rouge and the group she's a part of.

It's why Dust was afraid for Cliff when he made that theory. It was a very good thing that Cliff wasn't officially part of the team back when Team Night Tide first met Dio, or else he might've suspected something about Cliff and made that connection too. Also, the Rampardos is the mother while the Tyranitar was the father. Which is one of the reasons why it took Team Purify that long to find Cranidos. The Phoenix Desert dungeon isn't exactly an easy Mystery Dungeon in the first place, as well, as soon as Cranidos ended up with the Tyranitar and later evolved, it just made it that more difficult to even retrieve her.

DarkFoxKit: Also, Cliff isn't a fossil, she was just born from one of the fossil Pokemon. However, due to the genetics of these fossil Pokemon, it may have made Cliff a little more different than most Larvitar,, but nobody really knows what the effects could be. The Persian being one of the bad guys wasn't meant to be a big twist, it was pretty much bluntly stated at the end of the tournament arc. ^^' But yes, Dio is based off of Giovanni. We shorted the name to Gio, and changed the 'G' to a 'D' to make it less on the nose. As for why the criminal organization is called Team Purify, they don't see themselves as being bad guys. But that's all I'll say on the matter.

I'm surprised to hear not many people use Mawile's jaws to show how intimidating they really are. Whenever I see Mawile, I think 'oh crap, this thing could eat me with a jaw that big!' Plus they do have the Intimidate ability. I'm glad that we made Patricia a fitting villain for the whole wanting to eat others thing, and especially for poor Berry. XD

Traveling Master: Yup, you were right on the dot when it came to Torrent. We wanted to build up the mystery behind the Pokemon in the cell before revealing that it was Torrent, as well as part of his past connections with Undergrowth and Tsunami. There's actually a big influence for why we chose those 3 Pokemon, but I'll let you and the other readers figure that out.

Also, I believe it was thanks to you that reminded us of Torrent, when we first introduced him. Afterwards, we kinda forgot about him, but thanks to either you or another reviewer, we were able to not only come up with a better idea for Torrent, but now we have in involved and helping Team Night Tide while providing some interesting information about Undergrowth and Tsunami.

DarkFoxKit: We've always had plans for Torrent and his connection with Undergrowth and Tsunami, we just didn't plan to use him much until you mentioned him, and we figured this would be a good place to use him more and reveal more of his backstory. About Pokemon making teams, they don't all need to be a part of the guild to make a Crusader team, they're just more… freelancers in that regard. So it was more likely the team those 3 formed were like children wanting to form a team to mimic the heroes they admire so much, and become stronger together for it. But yes, Berry does share her mother's adventurous spirit, which hurts more when you realize that Tsunami had been constraining herself to Waterfall Cavern for all these years. And don't worry, we do plan on showing the backstory for those 3 eventually.

Yeah, Torrent had quite the crush on Tsunami, though Tsunami never liked him like that. In some ways, Torrent still has feelings for Tsunami, but he knows better than to chase after someone who doesn't feel the same way. Heh, a reunion between them is inevitable, we wouldn't go through the trouble of linking them together only to never show them together. Torrent could possibly be Berry's godfather later, just because they're not biologically related doesn't mean he wouldn't want to protect her.

Traveling Master: Heh, again, Tsunami has quite the interesting past. And while the idea of the third member being Eclipse or even Dust's father sounds interesting, unfortunately that never crossed our mind. Plus, we like the idea of it being Undergrowth too, again, something kinda influenced us to have those 3 on the same team XD. Still, cool theory, but we already have plans for Dust's father and what he's been up to all these years.

Also, Undergrowth wasn't always evil, heck he doesn't even consider himself evil. He just chose to embrace his nature and follow the rule of the wild, only the strongest can survive. We'll eventually go more into his past, along with Torrent's and Tsunami's to show what exactly happened to those three and how they ended up where they are now.

DarkFoxKit: Heh, you're the only one so far who ever answers these questions we ask, and for that I really appreciate that. I like your take on a possible new Mystery Dungeon game. Personally I think it'd be more interesting if it wasn't just another Mystery Dungeon game, because while the story is awesome, and I love being able to play as a Pokemon, the dungeon crawling is not really the best playstyle for me. It can get grindy and boring after a while, or too freakishly difficult and chaotic in later dungeons. It'd be nice if they made a game where you can freely explore the world and take on missions in the world rather than in maze-like dungeons where you're restricted to a grid-based movement. I guess what I'm saying is it'd be cool if they had a free roaming Pokemon game where it has Mystery Dungeon traits like the story and being able to play as a Pokemon. But I would totally play any new Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games they release, because at this point, I'm worried they're not going to make anymore. Oh, TM, do you have anything to add to this? Any opinions or thoughts of your own about the games?

Traveling Master: Not much to say, though similar to how Scarlet and Violet is now adding multiplayer, that would be awesome to see that with Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games. Being able to link up with your friends and explore dungeons the same time they do would be fun. Though I have no idea how long that will take for Gamefreak to even work on a game like that. But here's hoping.

Earthpatriot117: DarkFoxKit: There's a lot more to the backstory between Torrent, Undergrowth, and Tsunami. And… well, not Berry's uncles, but maybe more like godfathers or something like that? XD As for Undergrowth, he had his own way of thinking, which usually leads to someone who was once good to become bad. But we'll show more of that in the future.

Heh. Yes, Dio is in fact a Persian version of Giovanni. His name, 'Dio' was actually a shorten version of Giovanni, Gio, but we changed the 'G' to 'D' to make it sound more like a name, and less obvious that he was based off of Giovanni.

Traveling Master: The leader of SDS is male, Undergrowth isn't trying to mislead anyone here. That character will be introduced later, for now Dust and Berry will be worrying about Dio and his group. As for Jessie being related to Dio…that's a good idea…one that didn't cross our minds XD. Well, too late now, as interesting as that would be, trying to somehow include that kind of relationship would feel forced. So unfortuatnly, no, Jessie isn't related to Dio.

As for what SDS stands for…hehehe, guess that's something you, as well as Dust and Berry will have to figure out.

DarkFoxKit: Heh, well if the Pokemon in the cell was Calcifer, he wouldn't have been shrouded in shadows due to the flame on his tail. Hope you keep looking forward to the next chapter!