Here's your next chapter! Thanks for reading, everyone! I haven't been feeling too good, but I really wanted to write a new chapter! And just like last time, special shoutouts to MystMYSTICAAAA and hapemape for favoriting my story! It truly means alot to me!

- Chapter Begin -

I wiped a few droplets of sweat from my body as we began to traverse the beginning of the volcano. It was hot. Very hot. I remembered this feeling, but I hadn't felt this way for a very long time. Kai led the front of the group, while Dennis and Art by the sides and me in the middle. We continued to walk carefully as we were wary about any potential feral Pokémon or other threats jumping out at us. But luckily, it seemed that nothing had happened, yet..

"The paper says that they dropped their bag around the fourth floor of the volcano dungeon. This is gonna be a long way up.." Kai sighed, as I wished deeply what he just said wasn't reality. There was almost no way i'd last until then! But together maybe we can.. I gave him a determined look. "We'll do this, together." He smiled widely. It seemed that my words had inspired him. Eventually, we met our first actual wild Pokémon, a Litleo. Art quickly took care of it, though, with a Water Gun. "Sorry buddy.."

I was always confused on why Art even felt bad for the feral Pokémon when he attacked them. They were always aggressive anyways, and why apologize to something that can't even understand you? It's not like I could peek into his mind anyways, so I just shrugged it off and went back to walking with the rest of the group. My mind drifted off to Andy as he thought about what his past possibly could have been, and how he got here before Dennis suddenly spoke up. "Uhh.. guys?" He said very nervously, pointing his claws at the magma slowly approaching us on the floor.

"..Ohh shit." I said, as me and Art began to try and fend off the magma with our water attacks. Dennis also flapped his wings to cool the magma and push it away. After a few minutes, the magma was finally pushed to the sides of the path, with all of us cheering. "Good work, guys!" Kai said, as we all crossed the path before the magma covered it again. We finally reached the stairs to the second floor, smiling. "Here we are!" Art exclaimed, as we all ran up the stairs.

- Magma Volcano: Floor 2 -

The heat on this floor was even worse. All of us could feel the boiling teamperatures, but we trudged on. Kai was taking heavy breaths, clearly already exhausted. We then came to a fork in the road, with two different paths. One was cooler, one was even hotter. "..So, we're all going down the cooler path, right?" I said, as we all went down the colder path in relief. It felt nice.. but it was definitely strange that it was this chilly. Suddenly, all three of my friends dropped to the ground. I stepped away, horrified.

The shadow stood in front of me again. The fog was back. It began to yell at me again.

"NOT WORTHY. NOT WORTHY. NOT WORTHY."

I tried to cover my ears, feeling like the shadow was taunting me. "STOP IT, PLEASE! STOP IT!" I teared up a little, before the taunting finally stopped.

"Otto Romero, you have a second chance. Use it wisely. You know what to do. You've already thought about it." I let go of my ears, looking at the shadow. "..O-Okay." I managed to squeak out, before I felt a hard shaking feeling as I woke up.

I had passed out in front of my three friends. Kai was shaking me when I woke up. "OTTO! YOU'VE BEEN PASSED OUT FOR 15 MINUTES!" He screamed out, with me chuckling nervously. "Sorry, Kai, sorry.." I stood up, as the rest of us began to walk down the path again. My suspicions had been confirmed; I would have to help Andy become the best 'mon he could be. It seemed that the shadow recognized that I didn't want to be the protagonist. The main character. The huge hero. I was perfectly content just supporting someone else.

We went back to walking, Kai keeping me close unlike before though. It seemed that now he was concerned about me, and understandably so. I hadn't passed out or done anything like this for years; mostly because my humanity was often pushed to the back of my mind. But now it was at the forefront, and it was actively preventing me from doing my job as a guild member.

I sighed, trying not to let it get to me. "Kai, too tight!" I said, as he was holding me tight against his chest. He eventually let go, seeming rather relieved I was fine now. Just to make sure, I stayed directly to his side, though, in front of Dennis and Art. We encountered our next enemy, and this time it was tougher than we would've wanted or expected; a Charmeleon. He used Scratch, getting Kai right in the stomach. He retaliated with a Thunderbolt, but that didn't stop him from scratching Kai a second time. Art quickly stopped the Charmeleon dead in it's tracks with a Hydro Pump, though. Kai winced as he tried to tend to the scratches he had recieved. Luckily, it was an easy fix, as they weren't very deep. Art pulled out some medical supplies he had brought with him, wrapping up the wound with gauze. Everyone had a collective sigh of relief now that Kai was alright and the feral Pokémon was gone. We finally reached the third floor, as everyone seemed even more determined than before.

- Magma Volcano: Floor 3 -

The group continued to walk, as the temperature rose once again. We seemed to be getting rather lucky so far. Minimum Pokémon encounters, only minor injuries, and we were in a DAMN VOLCANO! But we never knew if things could suddenly turn really bad for all of us. And guess what? It did. We heard a large roar, as a Charizard began to loudly try and chase us. Dennis stared panickedly, as he yelled out. "GET ON MY BACK, EVERYONE! FAST AS POSSIBLE!" We all listening, all desperately jumping onto him as he flew as fast as he could away from the Charizard. The dragon flew after us, even nearly clawing Dennis' wings a few times. But we had managed to lose it, and even luckier for us, the stairs were only a few minutes away from the distance we had gained. As I jumped off of Dennis, I thanked him. "You really saved us back there.. thanks, Dennis." He smiled widely. "It's not big deal, really.." He seemed rather flattered as he even blushed a bit. The group just walked rather uneventfully towards the stairs, without anything being said besides the occasional compliment towards Dennis. We eventually climbed up to the fourth floor.

- Magma Volcano: Floor 4 -

This was by far the hottest floor. We all knew that this wouldn't be easy. We saw the bag.. but it was surrounded by a large pool of red-hot lava. And guess who was the only person small enough to fit in that small safe spot?

Everyone turned to look at me. I laughed a bit nervously. "Are we.. are we really sure about this?" I said, definitely not wanting to go through with it. Dennis then spoke to me. "You can get on my back, and drop down to grab the bag quickly. It'll be simple, quick, and safe. I promise, nothing'll happen when we're all here." The other two nodded in agreement, as I took a deep breath in. I climbed onto his back once more as he slowly lowered me to the small safe circle the bag was in, and I dropped in. I placed the small bag around my body along with my satchel and carefully gripped onto Dennis' claw, sighing with intense relief when I was dropped back with the rest of the group. We all cheered loudly, before Art spoke up. "Now, to use those guild badges to head back!" We all tapped our badges, being swiftly teleported back to the guild mission board.

Kai quickly returned the bag to whomever had put the mission letter up and got the money, as we split it four ways. It seemed that we had gotten a hefty reward, at 500 Poké each. Usually we got less than 300 on most missions. "This is great!" Kai yelled out, buzzing with electricity. "Anyways, we should probably go check on Andy, Kai." I said, worried about the Rockruff. We'd been gone for quite some time; was he alright? He nodded, and we walked into the infirmary.

It seemed that the Rockruff was shakily walking a bit, with the assistance of Nurse Clefairy. "There you two are!" She said, continuing to try and teach Andy how to walk.

"Move your two front paws forward first, than your two back paws. But don't move both at the same time, or you'll trip!" It seemed that the Rockruff was stuggling with the instructions, so Kai stepped in. "Let me show you a demonstration!" He said with his usual energy. With Kai's help, within a few minutes he was walking completely normally. He smiled widely, thanking Kai profusely.

Him smiling surprisingly made me smile also, if I wasn't already happy. Things were looking up again for me, even if there had been some serious setbacks. I had been given a second chance by whatever strange creature was watching over me, and I could help out someone in need. It felt nice. I eventually returned to my room to think a bit more, just laying in my bed. How would I help Andy, exactly? There was many possibilities, but the most obvious one was to just integrate him into society. Kai could teach him how to train, and he could join us on our missions! It was clearly the best option, without having to reveal his humanity. That was the one thing I refused to do throughout all of this. I felt ashamed of it at this point, like it was a dirty little secret that nobody should know about.

Suddenly, there was a knock at my door after about half an hour, as Kai and Andy walked in. "Andy wanted to get to know you a bit better, Otto. He knows the rest of us quite well already, because we've been talking for the past half hour. But he says there's just something about you that's making him real curious. Why not try and figure out what that is? Anyways, see ya later!" Kai shut the door, as Andy stood there and I got out of bed. It was rather awkward. Something.. about me? Did he..? No, there's no way. He had barely seen me. Maybe it was just how I behaved. He walked closer to me, just awkwardly speaking.

"Hey, Otto.. that's your name, right? Nice to meet you."

- Chapter End -

And that's all for today, everybody! Sorry that this chapter is slightly shorter than the other ones, even if not by much. The 'mission' part of PMDs have never really been my strong suit.. anyways, thanks for reading all the way through! Stay tuned for my next chapter!