Back to the future time.
"Okay?" Mane asked backing up against the wall by the others, positively spooked now. "What in my name was that?"
"Shush," Chatot hissed, pressing Mane back further. The litleo grumbled as he was squished further against the wall.
"You know?" he asked, voice muffled by chilly stone. "You ever find that fantasies aren't so fun in practise?"
Sean, in response, pushed him harder against the wall. "Be. Quiet."
"Six fantasies."
"Litleo," Chatot snapped and Mane grumbled some more, but did hold his tongue.
The three pokémon remained still. Squeezed into a tiny space, crushed against the rocks, holding silent. Each could feel the others heartbeat, hammering away.
Slowly as nothing more was happening, Sean began to peel himself off of Chatot's back, brushing a few feathers off. Chatot similarly relaxed his posture and released Mane, who immediately began to mutter obscenities under his breath.
Sean's tassels began to shiver in the air, and he closed his eyes. Mane gave him a curious look, but Chatot nodded wisely.
"What can you sense?" Chatot whispered.
Sean was silent for a moment longer. "I… don't really know. Pain, maybe confusion? It's foggy, and I'm not exactly great at using these things." He tapped one of his tassels and they fell slack.
A distant thump echoed.
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Mane demanded, stepping in place anxiously. "If something is out there, we're going to have to get by them anyway. Is it even a bad guy?"
Sean groaned, "It might-"
He was cut off by a scream. High, piercing, which carried for miles in the silent landscape. All three of them jumped at the sound of pain and misery.
"What was?" Chatot flapped.
"What should?" Mane begun.
Neither of them were heard by Sean, who had already ran out from their cropping and back onto the path. He knew that scream.
"Come ON!" Sean yelled back. That scream would have been heard by everything in the area, there was little point in being quiet now.
Mane fell into a hesitant run but Chatot took a moment longer to regain his bearings and flap after them.
Sean sprinted forward, paws thumping against the ground, as he approached a white figure on the path. Writhing in pain against the stone, there was nothing but sheer cliffs on both sides, one going up and another going down.
From Scout's cries, Sean feared he'd fallen from up above. That was several storeys he had fallen, at least.
"Scout! Scout!?" Sean said as he reached the meowth. Scout didn't seem to hear him, he was twisting in pain against the unforgiving ground, clutching his right arm with his left. Sean winced when he saw it, knocked out of its socket and twisted further with Scout's violent convulsions. He almost looked like he was having a seizure on the cold, unforgiving stone.
A pair of bags laid with their contents scattered around them and Sean immediately began searching for anything that could help. Scout lashed out with a claw and slashed through one of Sean's legs and the riolu nearly buckled from the sudden pain.
He found a sleep seed right as his companions reached him.
"Hold him down," he commanded Chatot. The bird didn't do as directed.
"E-Excuse?"
"Hold him so I can give him this sleep seed!" Sean snapped and Chatot narrowed his eye but quickly followed through.
His wings, although appearing clumsy, were very strong and Chatot was able to grab Scout from behind and hold him up, pinning his arms.
The meowth whimpered and shook, almost sobbing as Sean came forward. Mane watched helplessly as Sean forced Scout's mouth open and shoved the seed down his throat. The meowth gurgled a little, but soon fell slack in Chatot's hold.
"Okay," Sean breathed, dreading this next part. "Lay him on his back, set his arms on both sides." Chatot caught on and grimaced before complying. Something clinked on the stone as Scout was set down and with no more convulsions, Sean and Chatot spotted the cuff around his leg with the broken chain.
"Have you done this before?" Chatot asked, once Scout was laying prone on his back. It was unpleasant to see all the tears in his fur and paws.
"Yeah, and it's never pretty," Sean said, grimacing. He looked to his paws with a frown. "I haven't done this as a riolu yet, but I should be right. Litleo?" he asked, remembering the Fire-type. "Can you get everything in the bags while we do this because we need to be gone?"
Mane nodded silently and went about collecting the items as Sean began the procedure. He grabbed Scout's wrist and began to lift it up, twisting until he felt resistance. Even asleep, Scout winced in pain. Sean stopped lifting and began to twist the arm, again until he felt resistance.
Pausing to take a steadying breath, Sean nodded to Chatot. "Might not want to watch this," he said with a grim smile. Chatot didn't back away and Sean decided he couldn't hesitate, the sableye and Dusknoir WOULD be coming for the scream as fast as they could.
Sean took another breath and began to lift the arm further and further until he felt something pop. Sean and Chatot flinched at the sound, and Scout moaned in pain.
"Th-there," Sean said, lowering his arm. "We have to go, get him on my back."
Chatot nodded and began to gently lift Scout. "Quickly!"
"He's hurt," Chatot protested, but complied again. He was frowning harder, following orders like this was bothering him.
"Let's go."
Mane looked up. "I haven't gotten everything!" he objected, and Sean turned a frustrated stare on him.
"We have no time. We have to go NOW!"
Chatot flapped over and took the bag that Mane had yet to touch and scooped what he could, pushing aside part of a blanket that was sticking out, but Sean began to leave without them and so they both hurried to catch up.
"Is this really necessary?" Chatot demanded as they approached the dungeon. "Leaving perfectly good items like a trail?"
"Do neither of you understand what will happen if you are caught?" Sean asked, not turning to face them. He had a meowth on his back weighing him down, he wasn't in any position to be meeting their eyes.
Chatot made a spluttery sound and Mane scowled.
"How did Scout get out?" he asked, deciding to focus on the important questions. "You made it sound like he was locked up somewhere. And he just falls out of the sky when we're talking about him?"
"This place is maddening," Sean answered, without actually answering the question. He didn't know the answer. "Keep close, if you get separated you could lose each other. It's not like the past, here space is all mashed up as well, you could walk over a hill to the ocean and two feet past that the ice caps."
They didn't seem to thrilled to be accepting that but stuck close, Sean was the one carrying Scout after all and both Chatot and Mane's eyes were trained on the meowth with concern.
"Here we are," Sean said, pausing only briefly at the dungeon entrance. "Chasm Cave. Fortunately, being this close to the broken tower ensures at least a little bit of reliability with space." He stepped in with no further dilly dallying and his companions hurried to match his step.
Even carrying Scout, Sean wasn't letting anything slow him down. He was limping slightly, however, from the slash Scout had given his leg. Marks of blood would lead their followers to the dungeon but once they were through they should be in a better position.
How the meowth got out and got to them, he'd take as a sliver of good fortune. He felt he was due for some good luck after the last few days.
"Since I'm carrying Scout," Sean said, as the roof of the cave disappeared into skies and they found themselves in a plains cut with sheer cliffs that led to inky blackness. "You're both probably going to need to do most of the fighting."
"We can handle it!" Mane scoffed, stepping up forward to pass Sean. He turned to look him in the eye. "You guard him with everything."
Sean met the fiery gaze with a cool one of his own. "You don't need to tell me to protect my friend."
"Ahem," Chatot cleared his throat and they stopped staring each other down. "The matters leading up to this point may have been fraught with tension and uncertainty, but we are going to have to work together to get through this, I'm certain."
Sean nodded and Mane turned back to looking ahead. "I'll lead." Was all he said before setting off with a stiff walk.
Chatot stuck behind Sean as they went, he and Mane acting as a guard to protect him. Or, really, to protect the unconscious Scout.
The dungeon was unpleasant, with its cliffs that fell into nothingness and the lack of any noise. It was unnerving. The three kept themselves steady by talking.
"It's the best way to maintain your sanity in this place," Sean explained when Mane demanded why he was asking them what berries they enjoyed the most.
"Berries?" Mane sneered.
"Talking," Sean replied, unmoved by Mane's antagonism. "It drowns out the silence. When it's silent, stuff starts to 'get to you'. And I mean it, like something is trying to crawl into your brain. I'd really prefer us all to keep our sanity here."
"Alright." Mane nodded, a sneaky gleam entered his eye. "How bi-"
Mane was drowned out when Chatot lunged ahead to strike a drifloon that had been sneaking forward, knocking the Ghost-type down the cliff.
"You can chatter later," Chatot snapped as more drifloon began to float up. "Combat should be loud enough."
Sean kept an eye on the closest drifloon whenever they tried to slip past and go for the weakest of their number, turning to block it with his own body if necessary.
Thankfully, Mane's Fire Blast and Chatot's surprisingly powerful Aerial Ace dispatched the drifloon before any could reach him.
"Good work you two," Sean congratulated, genuinely impressed.
Mane flipped some fur out of his face. "Of course," he sneered, with noticeably less heat than before.
Chatot simply nodded. "We had best not dawdle," he pointed out and the group began to move again. This time Chatot took the lead and Mane stepped back behind to guard the rear.
If Mane's chuckling was any indication of what he wasn't saying, no one commented.
No other incident occurred through the dungeon and they landscape changed from riddled with cliffs to completely flat ground.
"Hm?" Chatot blinked and glanced around. He and Mane looked back, and as far as their eyes could see the ground was flat.
"What just…?"
"We're out of the dungeon," Sean said, surprised he had to point that out.
"Obviously," Chatot sniffed, flapping back to the lead. "It was simply odd to experience the change so suddenly."
"It's how it is here," Sean replied, shouldering Scout into a better position. The meowth had stirred a few times but hadn't quite woken up yet. "Dungeons are the only places of sanity in the future."
"What?"
"What he said," Mane parroted. "What?"
Sean sighed. His shoulders were hurting, his feet were hurting, he had a killer headache, and he didn't want to play educator every two minutes.
"Look," he said, as they came into view of a frozen waterfall. "When time collapsed, a bunch of legendary pokémon tried to do something about it. Our team discovered multiple of them frozen in time, including Palkia."
"Palkia…?" Chatot murmured.
"Palkia is Dialga's counterpart, except for space rather than time," Sean explained again. "And when Palkia tried to stop Dialga's rampage, it got frozen in time. With Palkia no longer maintaining space, the world has gone… confusing. Areas that are not dungeons can shift and change. You could leave a dungeon and find that the area past it used to be halfway across the world."
"You can't be serious!" Chatot squawked. "How would anyone find their way around? Maps would be obsolete!"
"Maps ARE obsolete," Sean confirmed. "But dungeons always remain the same places. THAT is how you find your way around. The places between them might change, but where you are doesn't. And where the dungeons are don't change."
"That's still confusing," Mane muttered, and Sean nodded, jostling Scout who whimpered.
"Yeah. It is."
They walked in a period of silence, Sean letting his companions digest that revelation. Personally he found a world where everywhere remained where it was to be a delightful novelty. Reminded him of home and left him feeling sad that such normality was not normal to him anymore.
Even the feel of the wind on his face was bizarre after living in this dark world for as long as he had.
"Water!" Mane cried, spotting the waterfall. He ran forward and Chatot flew eagerly as well. Sean didn't move any faster, he could see it was frozen.
"What?" Mane asked, patting the water with his paw. "Frozen…?" He frowned but took a breath and breathed fire on it. The water hadn't felt very cold, but if it was frozen…
It did not melt.
"What?" he repeated and poked it again. "What is this?"
"It's frozen in time," Sean said. "You were at the Underground Lake weren't you? You would have seen this."
"We kinda left before we got frozen in time," Mane replied, frowning. "You know? Thanks to your buddy. Shinx says thanks for the chest cut, he always wanted to see his ribs from the inside."
Sean turned his head at that. "Ah… sorry about that." He turned back with an apologetic expression, Mane was unmoved. "If it'd make you feel better, I hit Striker in the face when he told me that."
Mane's expression didn't move, at first.
"Heh." He began to smile, before pausing and moving back to a frown. "I'd like to believe that. Dunno though, you kind of told us what we wanted to hear before."
Sean rolled his eyes, stepping past the frozen waterfall and Chatot futilely pecking at it. "Look I'm sorry. I didn't want to lie, but the situation left me with no other options. You wouldn't have helped me had I told you I was going to break Striker out too."
"You should have heard Shinx though," Mane laughed fondly. "I didn't know he knew that many filthy words. If it wasn't for everything going on that would have been a great night."
"Hang onto that," Sean advised as Chatot gave up and joined them. "Anything happy is something you need to hang onto here."
"You're so melodramatic," Mane pointed out, coming by Sean's side. "And I'm thirsty. Real thirsty."
Sean frowned and glanced to Mane as he smirked. He ignored him.
Mane pouted as Chatot flapped up to his other side. "Litleo does bring up a valuable point," Chatot said. "Among his… less useful babble. We will need water at some point."
"Hopefully we can get to Celebi before we need any actual water," Sean said, "but for now, berries we have are going to have to do."
"Yes, berries. Give me them."
"Hm." Chatot looked between the two before opening one of the bags. "That is the second time you have mentioned this 'Celebi'. As with many things, the name rings a distant bell in my mind. Who is Celebi?"
"Is that how we're getting back to the past?" Mane asked, through a mouthful of oran berry.
"Yesh," Sean answered, before swallowing. "Yes. Celebi is the key to all this. She's how we got to the past in the first place. She can lead us to the Passage of Time. But first we need to find her."
"And… where?"
"We're going to head to Celebi's most common haunt," Sean answered. "It's where we first met her. It's where she usually hides. We'll be heading through several dungeons to remain on track, trying for a shortcut could be… risky."
"Risks are the spice of life!" Mane said.
Chatot disagreed with Mane. "The dungeons then. Since you claim they act as anchors of our position?"
Sean nodded. "Yep. The space between them is roughly the same space as it 'should be' just it could be a very random terrain," he said as Scout shifted on his back. "Let's… uh?"
Mane and Chatot heard the rustling of movement and turned as Scout threw himself off Sean's back, the sudden force knocking the riolu onto his face.
Scout ran in a blind panic, right into a wall.
"Sean!" Mane cried, running up to him.
"What?" Sean growled from where he was picking himself up.
Scout turned on Mane and hissed, claws coming out as he bared his teeth. The litleo forced himself to a stop. "Woah, woah, woah," he said as Scout gave a few warning swipes with his left arm. The right hung limply by his side. "Hey, don't you recognise me?"
Scout paused in his hissing, blinking furiously. Chatot also approached and Scout backed up against the wall, clinking the cuff against the stone, causing Chatot to pause.
"Scout," Sean said, standing up. "Chatot, Litleo, give him space." They glanced to him worriedly and neither moved.
Scout was trembling against the wall, eyes flicking to all three in quick succession. When no one moved he almost began to relax, pulling himself off the wall.
"Scout," Sean repeated. "Are you alright?"
Scout gave a long, hard, blink and breathed out a sigh. "W-where?"
"You're safe," Sean answered.
"With us!" Mane added. "Seriously, Scout? Don't you recognise me?"
Scout blinked dopily at Mane for a moment. "I… lit… M-May…?"
"Mane," he correctly, flatly. "Seriously? You forgot ME?"
"Back off," Sean said, and Mane turned to him angrily.
"Seriously? Have you even MET me? How could he forget me?"
"He took a blow to the head," Sean snapped back, not noticing as Chatot hopped forward. "After travelling through time. Then he had to be put to sleep, probably with a concussion. He's disorientated. Give him a break."
Mane growled and looked to Chatot for validation, only to notice Chatot roosting in front of a puzzled Scout.
He was speaking quietly, enough so that the other two had to strain to overhear.
"-ou slept for an entire day. The Guildmaster and Corphish made many jokes at you and Shinx's expense for sleeping so long. Felines, they laughed. Things changed, of course, as they got to know you."
Scout cocked his head. "Chatot?" he asked, tasting the word. "Chat… oh! Chatot!"
He straightened up before relaxing and shook his head. "Good grief, what just happened?" he looked around, spotting Mane and Sean. "Did I actually blank out? Jeez, I barely recognised anyone." He blinked a few more times as Mane puffed his chest out.
"Of COURSE you didn't forget me. I clearly just stunned you with my dashing good looks."
"That must have been it," Scout said dryly, and Mane blinked.
"Really?"
"It's good to have you back," Sean said warmly, stepping forward. He smiled gratefully to Chatot and the bird nodded back. "How's your arm?"
"My arm?" Scout asked, lifting his left. "Fine. It's… uh?" he looked to the right, where his arm still was just hanging there. Scout's eyes widened lightly as he tried to move it.
He managed a weak swing of his arm. Trying to move his digits was impossible.
"M-my arm?" he said in alarm, looking up at Sean. "What happened?"
"It's fine," Sean said, stepping up to rest a paw on Scout's left shoulder. "You fell pretty far and dislocated it pretty badly. I was able to pop it back in after giving you a sleep seed. Chatot helped."
"I got the items!" Mane said.
"After that I carried you through the dungeon. We're in the interim before the next one. I'm glad you woke up though, how's your head?"
"My head is fine," Scout said, still trying to move his arm. "My arm is NOT fine." He gave up and grabbed it with his other one. Grimacing at the numbness the arm, feeling like he was hefting a sack of bones.
"It'll probably be numb for a while, but you should recover." Sean nodded. "We should give you a berry and get on our way. The sableye could catch up to us at any time, and we've stuck around here too long."
With Sean no longer having to carry Scout, he hoped the Dark Hill would be easier. But he didn't count on it. He remembered everyone struggling with the Ghost-types to come.
Dusknoir growled wearily as he floated back into the stockade. By some perverted miracle, Sean had smuggled a luminous orb through. Undoubtedly, Striker had been the one responsible for Sean to even possess such a thing.
Striker's quirkiness about orbs had long since moved past an amusing foible and right into tantrum-throwing territory.
The sableye all kept their heads down as they followed him. Wisely avoiding catching his attention. Not a scrape of a claw or nervous titter could be heard.
It was bad news all around and Dusknoir did not enjoy the thought of having to approach Master Dialga to explain and beg forgiveness. He'd like to see a sableye attempt it, but Master Dialga would quite literally smite one of them if they dared to approach.
Annoying gremlins they could be, yet Dusknoir didn't wish them destroyed.
So, he would suffer Master Dialga's displeasure alone.
But first he had to strategize. Approaching Master Dialga without a cunning plan would be masochistic at best and suicidal at worst. Neither of those things was Dusknoir, no matter how Striker liked to claim he was the former. If anyone was suicidal it was Striker.
To plan he needed to be calm. And to be calm, he needed to see Scout.
The sableye were all very silent. Even to Dusknoir's stressed mind, he couldn't help but wonder why.
Glancing back at them, glaring just to be sure, he looked over all six of them. None were foolish enough to raise their heads and Dusknoir turned back and continued to float towards the brig.
Six sableye.
Dusknoir froze.
He slowly turned back to them and counted silently. Six sableye. He decided to do this again, slowly, verbally.
"One."
The sableye didn't move.
"Two."
The sableye kept their heads down.
"Three."
The sableye didn't scrape their claws.
"Four."
The sableye stood together.
"Five."
The sableye stood together."
"…Six."
It was minute, but Dusknoir could see their shoulders tensing. All six. At the same time. They were identical, and he had a feeling he knew how this was going to go.
"I believe," Dusknoir began plainly, the sableye continued to tense. "I set one of you to guard Scout. Am I wrong?"
None of them reacted.
Dusknoir turned and raced as fast as he could for the brig, tearing the door open. The cell was bare, the chain was snapped. The bags were gone, which was something. Assuming the sableye did in fact store them away safely, if they didn't then that would mean Scout….
He floated back out of the small room slowly. Needing a long moment to collect his composure so he didn't start doing something violent.
"Tell me," Dusknoir began, voice shaking with rage, "which one of you disobeyed my orders and left Scout alone to escape?"
He waited. Although he knew it was futile, none of them moved.
"I know you can tell each other apart," Dusknoir said lowly, eye flickering as his fingers began to twitch erratically. "Tell me which of you is to be punished. Tell me which one of you disobeyed and you will be rewarded."
Despite the promise of a reward, despite the threat to all of them, none of them lifted the accusing finger. Dusknoir's own fingers itched and the shadows around him began to twist.
"Tell. Me," he demanded as the dull light of the room began to dim further. "Tell me or you will ALL suffer the punishment."
None of them cracked.
Dusknoir released his Power, despite how badly he wanted to blast them until they broke and told him what he wanted to know. Harming them would be pointless, it would be wrong even, and he needed them to track his escapees down.
"Very well," Dusknoir whispered. "None of you will eat until the four of them are in front of me. And if Scout is hurt…." He left it hanging.
All six of them cringed. Food was everything to the sableye, to all pokémon in this dark time. To be barred from eating was torture.
"If Scout is hurt…" Dusknoir repeated, just to make sure they heard it clearly. He wouldn't finish the threat. They could picture what he'd do to them while they were searching.
A distant scream caused them all to jump and the sableye all turned back. Dusknoir floated a half-step forward, knowing that cry. A stab of pain went through his chest as he pulled himself back. He wasn't fast enough, he wouldn't be able to get to Scout in time.
"Well what are you waiting for?" Dusknoir roared, the sableye all jumped again. "GO AFTER THEM!"
The six pokémon scuttled out as fast as they could. If they could catch the escapees already, Master Dusknoir may even forgive them.
Although, if that scream was who they thought it was.
Dusknoir watched them all disappear before turning back. He wasn't entirely convinced the sableye could get to them in time. Sean was wily and clever, and also capable of first aid. He could trust Scout would be in safe hands until he was back in Dusknoir's own, safer, hands.
He gazed down at his hands, his fingers twitched once and he felt confusion. That twitch, the stagger of a sableye to one of the mobile shadows he had commanded. Had he really…?
He shook it off for now, he had to think of what he'd say to Master Dialga. He'd wait, just in case, the sableye could surprise him.
Was that optimism?
The sableye ran as fast as they could until they reached the door to the outside. Without hesitation they were off, following the still-echoing cry of pain.
One of them had something to say, however.
"Th-thanks," Sableye said, ducking his head as he felt the eyes of the others on him. He was the one who had been set to guard Scout.
"Don't mention it," Sableye replied offhandedly. He was always quite chill.
Sableye nodded in agreement, she wasn't willing to say anything comforting though.
"Do it again and I'm wringing your neck," Sableye hissed, she was hungry. They were all hungry.
They were hungry. Yet, they were family first.
Sableye managed a weak grimace as Sableye turned away.
"I can't believe we're going without food," Sableye grumbled. He was always the most food-conscious of the six.
None of them knew much about where they came from, only brief scraps of memory. They may not be blood related, they may not have actual blood perhaps, but they were close regardless.
"Just focus on finding them," Sableye said gruffly. He was the best at keeping them on track and the other five all clashed their claws together in response.
The sableye always stuck together.
"I think I would have been happier if I stayed unconscious," Scout coughed, nearing his wits end.
"At least you can actually do something," Sean commented dourly. He had been regulated as the main bag carrier now, he and Scout now wore their own Treasure Bags. Scout's one was carried more as a means of comfort, since all their items fit into Sean's bag without trouble.
"With one arm?"
The dungeon they had walked into was filled with Ghost-types, and Sean knew only one move capable of properly fighting them.
And since his Copycat relied on his opponents attacking first, Sean was left as the item carrier.
It was a role he was used to, having been a human for most of his life. Didn't mean he enjoyed it, however.
Even with the Ghost-types bringing back unpleasant memories, Sean still found himself almost enjoying the experience.
There were four of them again. Scout was here, even if one arm down, and he was here. Chatot was surprisingly strong, almost reminded him of Striker.
Mane was different though.
The litleo seemed to flit between tense shoulders and angry glares and a more relaxed, friendly, and uncomfortably flirtatious state.
He wondered if it was a coping method.
"So, then I said to him," Mane said with a sleezy smirk, "is that a-"
"Hush please," Chatot snapped and Mane turned an annoyed glare over to the bird. "Your ceaseless scarlet tales are beginning to severely test my patience. Riolu may have claimed that silence drives you mad, but I fear I'll go mad if you keep this up, regardless."
"You're such a stick in the mud!" Mane groaned. "Seriously? Does Wigglytuff never stick you or something?"
Chatot immediately flew into a rage. "DON'T YOU DARE SPEAK OF THE GUILDMASTER IN SUCH A CRUDE MANNER!"
Mane met Chatot's fury with a smirk. "So, that's a no then?"
Chatot seemed to fluff up in apoplectic rage but seemed unable to find the right words to voice his contempt of this entire situation.
"Calm down," Sean said, Chatot began to splutter furiously. "Look. I know how you feel, this is a stressful experience, but-"
"No," Chatot snapped, voice sharp and brittle. Sean paused as Chatot took a breath, Scout glanced back to the Flying-type in concern. "I do not believe you do know how I feel. Taken from everything and everyone I ever knew, tied up to be executed, now on the run in a frozen world with one of the most wanted criminals in both times ordering me around without the time to even ask anything. I do not believe you understand how stressful this is."
Sean's face flashed with something intense but he took a breath looked Chatot over. Feathers sticking out, panting for breath, favouring one leg, one wing tucked firmly against his body.
"I'm with Chats for once," Mane said, sliding into the conversation. "You're strutting around and telling us both what to do and we have to do it because if we don't, who knows what'll happen?"
"I'm helping you!" Sean protested. "You don't seriously think I'm going to hurt you?"
Mane snorted. "Hurt us? Hah. Good luck. But you still know stuff about this place, what's going on, what COULD happen. And you haven't slowed down for a second to explain it. We have to rely on you to have any idea on what to do. And, well, I get it." Mane rolled his shoulders, grinning an unpleasant grin. "I mean, if you DID tell us then there might be the risk of us deciding we don't need you, huh?"
Sean pursed his lips, taking a half step back. "Yeah," he admitted, glancing to a worried Scout, "I won't lie and say that I haven't thought about that. But." He turned back to face them, face setting into a firm expression.
"Technically I only need one person with me to keep my sanity in this place. I COULD have lost you in this dungeon up to this point, or even in the first one. But I'm not going to. I want to help you get back to the past, and if helping you helps me too, then why shouldn't I?"
"I'm not leaving them," Scout cut in, Sean smiled at the meowth as Mane's ears perked.
"The matter still remains," Chatot pointed out, "that we depend on you completely for guidance."
Sean sighed and nodded, glancing forwards. "Look. These dungeons are extreme, taking your focus away to stop and chat is risky and since we left together we've had to move as fast as we can. IF the exit of this dungeon is safe, I'll answer some questions then."
"That's all we ask," Chatot said and hopped forward. "Come. Let us move through this dungeon swiftly."
Mane nodded and joined him. With renewed vigour, they charged their way through the dungeon. Scout began sending Sean speculative looks every so often though.
They continued trekking through the uphill dungeon until the ground began to level out.
"Finally!" Mane cried, running forward onto flat ground. The environment around them changed as they blinked from the dungeon walls to open air.
Scout flinched as he noticed a large rock above him and skirted forward and tripped onto his face. He groaned and forced himself up with his left arm, the right was still not responding. The rock remained where it was.
"Are we out of the dungeon?" Chatot asked, panting softly for breath. The four slowed to a stop and glanced around. There was rock walls to their right, and a cliff to their left.
"Looks like it," Mane said, stepping close to the cliff drop. Scout wanted to reach forward and pull him away, but Mane wasn't stepping too close to the edge. "What are those lights?"
"The stockade," Sean answered, briefly taking a look before shuddering away. It was a sheer drop down, only Chatot would survive that and only because he could fly. "See the tower in the distance? Roughly as long as that's in sight the space around it is fairly predictable. It was dangerous to come here though, Dialga is insane and violent so no one lives here."
"Does anyone live?" Chatot asked.
Sean nodded. "Even after the apocolypse pokemon still come together. There's an equator of sorts, since the planet doesn't spin one half is cold and frozen and the other half is scorched and burning. That equator area is the safest place, there's a slew of towns called The Rubblebelt. They aren't as… well I would say aren't as friendly as pokemon of your time but after that display in Treasure Town I am not as sure."
Chatot and Mane frowned as Scout winced. They continued walking forward as the riolu was already setting off.
"Since we have left the dungeon," Chatot said, hopping forward. "You have promised to explain some things."
Sean nodded. "Let's just get out of open space first," he suggested, nodding forward past an old, dead, tree. "The next dungeon shouldn't be far away, but," he added sharply when it looked like Chatot was going to protest, "It'll be a safe place to quickly run in if anything happens."
"You're really paranoid, you know that right?" Mane said, Sean didn't respond.
"He has to be," Scout said, walking next to Mane. "To survive this place."
Mane gave him a searching look. "I guess says a few things about you too," he said lightly.
They continued until the walls began closing in again, but the sky remained stationary. "There's the entrance to the Sealed Ruin dungeon," Sean said, pointing to a rectangular break in the rocks. "This will have to do for now."
He came to a stop, edging himself very close to the dungeon, before turning to the three curious pokémon with arms crossed. "First, we can't stand here for long. Enough to catch our breaths and ask some questions. Then we have to keep going. Understand?"
"Tell us why we have to be in such a hurry?" Mane asked, immediately. "Ever since we got out, even after Scout screaming the place down, we've seen nothing. No sableye, no Dusknoir, nothing."
"Do you remember the sableye in Treasure Town?" Sean answered with his own question. "Their ability to sink into shadows and appear or disappear very quickly? I've ran from them for a long time, and because of how much racket that was about before we got Scout, I have no doubt they are trailing us." He looked around suspiciously, but it was for show. If a sableye was watching them, he wouldn't be able to see it.
Sean tested his aura senses next, reminded that he could do that now. But his abilities were still weak, and he sensed nothing but the frustration of the three in front of him.
Feeling others emotions left him feeling deeply unsettled, like his bones were itching and pressure on the back of his eyes. It just wasn't natural to his still-human mind. Still, he could pick up on Chatot's stoic frustration, Scout's pained frustration, and Mane's rather complex set of emotions he couldn't quite parse.
"How did things get like this?" Chatot asked quietly. "The pokémon I knew would have stood strong in the face of this calamity. Banded together. But all we've seen are maddened souls in dungeons and the evil of Dusknoir."
Sean frowned. "Dusknoir… is complicated to discuss, I cannot say he is evil just… misguided. In The Rubblebelt you have pokémon that are a bit more the way you'd recognise but everyone is still harsh. Kindness gets used and unless you're useful as well they wouldn't have survived long."
Mane glanced between the uncomfortable, and still confused, Scout and Sean. "So… what's the deal here. He really was your buddy in this time?" He coughed after speaking and smacked his lips. "I'm also thirsty still."
"Have a berry," Chatot said and Scout moved to dig into his bag, before remembering there was nothing in it. Sean reluctantly passed a berry along and then one to Chatot. "Scout?" he asked, offering one out himself.
"I'm not too thirsty," Scout said, turning the berry down, waving his left arm. He had a feeling it'd be better saved for when it was needed. Even if his right arm was still hanging like a limp noodle. "A sableye gave me water when I was in the cage." Sean nodded and stowed the berry away.
"Actually," Scout said, taking Sean's attention back. "I've been dying to know. Dusknoir said some stuff, the sableye did. And even Grovyle tried to use me as a hostage against Dusknoir. What is with that? Why would that matter? What am I not understanding here?"
Sean frowned, considering the question.
"I mean… I'm sure I was with you and Grovyle," Scout added, frowning in frustration. "Well, I was only sure about Grovyle before. And now you, and Dusknoir said that I was HIS partner, but Grovyle still came to me, and you broke me out, and everything is just confusing."
"What do you remember?" Sean asked. "Exactly?"
Scout glanced to Mane and Chatot, who also looked curious.
"I don't really know," Scout answered, turning back to Sean. "I know what we were doing." He tried to ignore the feeling coming off the two pokémon behind him. "And I know why. But I don't actually remember it myself. It's like I'm a different person. I'm not sure of anything anymore since I thought I was y-you."
He trailed off. It felt awful to say. Weird to admit. Disturbing to even consider.
"Does he know of the games?" Scout wondered. He had wondered it a lot since he found out he wasn't even Sean. Apparently. "My friends. My family. Is any of that actually mine?" He couldn't remember any names anyway.
Risking to dwell on that was already clawing at Scout's throat. Even mentally calling himself Scout felt both right and wrong to a skin-tearing degree. Was he even Scout or some alien consciousness hosted in his skin, what had happened? Who was he, WHAT WAS-
If Sean was uncomfortable at the reminder, he didn't show it. "Strange," he said and gave Scout a smile. "But stranger for you I imagine. Jeez, where do I even begin?"
"With Dusknoir, maybe."
Sean gave a crooked smile and nodded. "Alright. Ye… I'd like to say years ago, but honestly I don't even know. I don't know how long I've been here. I'm not from this world actually, from my own human world. No dungeons there, lots of pokémon still though. I know you're having trouble, Chatot, but imagine not even being a pokémon and thrown into this on the first day you set out on your own adventure?"
Sean looked up to the dark sky and sighed. "I first met Dusknoir when he was still a Dusclops, Striker and I quite literally tripped over you. You were a little bandit and stole my bag and ran while he distracted us."
Mane giggled unexpectedly and waved them off when they looked to him. "Sorry. That was NOT what I was expecting."
"Yeah!" Scout said stunned. "I was with Dusknoir?"
Sean smiled and nodded firmly. "He raised you. You were his kid." Scout's eyes widened. "That's why he's trying to protect you, even now. I know he'll always see you as his son, that's why I don't think he's evil. He was one of us once, I named him Guardian because that's what he was. I named you all, actually."
"Oh."
Chatot and Mane blinked in shock as well. Mane recovered first. "You know I can see it," he said, glancing back to where the lights still twinkled. "He always came across as a daddy to me."
Sean and Scout gave Mane a Look and Mane grinned back.
Chatot glanced between them before gathering that Mane had said something inappropriate again and covered his face with a wing.
"He's my…?" Scout began, voice shaking but not stuttering. He cleared his throat and shook his head. "Really?"
Sean smiled kindly. "Sorry you had to find out this way, but even though you've got amnesia I'm not going to hide that stuff from you."
"How did I come with you then?" Scout asked, still stunned.
At that, Sean smiled a fond smile. "Heh, well Striker and Guardian were pretty much the same strength and you, worried for your dad, came back and I was able to diffuse the situation. Afterwards you and Guardian agreed to travel with us."
Sean continued smiling and raised a fist. "The four of us became members of the Planetary Investigation Team. Well, we were pretty much the only members. The four of us and Saniya, that's my name for Celebi. And our benefactor, Giratina."
He grinned as Scout gasped, knowing who that was even if Chatot and Mane didn't.
Sean adopted a thoughtful expression. "Oh, as well as Soothe, although I never met her. I guess she was sort of the first member, Saniya sent her back years ago. That's all of us though."
Chatot's head shot up. "What?" he squawked and flapped over. "What did you just say?"
"I, uh, uh, what?" Sean backed away, surprised at the sudden reaction from Chatot.
"The name?" Chatot snapped, getting in right and close. "What name did you just say?"
"…Soothe."
Chatot recoiled, slowly shaking his head. "No… no…" he muttered, hopping away. "Impossible. Utterly impossible."
"I'm going to go out on a limb here," Mane said, concerned alongside everyone else, "and say that you know the name?"
"What was the species of 'Soothe'?" Chatot demanded, turning back to Sean.
"I… I never met her," Sean protested, Chatot's eyes narrowed. "But, well, Saniya told us to keep an eye and ear out for an audino with lavender fur and a sassy disposition."
Chatot slowly nodded. "Ah." He turned away and to the dungeon. Silence crawled between them. "We have spent enough time chattering, we should go."
Mane scrambled to his feet as Scout scrambled for words. "Wait," he said. "I have to know why Dusknoir, Guardian, whatever. What happened there? Why did he turn evil and I stayed?"
"I can answer that in the dungeon," Sean said, happy to be moving again.
"Oh NOW you can talk in the dungeons," Mane muttered, stomping ahead. He had other questions he wanted to ask as well.
"This won't take long," Sean said as they began moving into the dungeon. "And this one isn't as bad as the previous one."
"I still think we should talk about Chatot!" Mane protested, running up to the bird hopping away. "Hey? Hey Chats? What's with the freak-out? You know the chick?"
"There is nothing to say," Chatot replied and Mane huffed.
"Obviously," he drawled. "So how'd you know her? Another pokémon from the future? What luck that YOU would have met them all." He glanced back to Sean. "That IS all of you guys right?"
Sean nodded. "From what I know, yeah."
"Sweet. So Chats? Chats? Chatot? Hello?"
"Be silent, Litleo!" Chatot snapped.
"Not until you spill the beans."
"You have no right to be making such demands of me!"
"Well we just demanded Riolu tell us everything, so… double standard much?"
"Stop." The word was as tight as a drawn bow, ready to snap an arrow at the lightest twitch.
Mane could hear it. And for a moment he considered himself before disregarding it entirely. "Come on," he whined, patting Chatot's back.
"I SAID NO!" Chatot yelled, spinning back and blowing Mane back with a gust of wind. The blow knocked Mane flying and he hit the wall and bounced off it.
Sean and Scout jumped from the sudden action and Scout ran to Mane's side while Chatot realised what he'd done.
"I-I."
"Cool," Mane said as Scout helped him up. "I'm fine," he grunted to Scout's quiet question. He brushed himself off and began trotting forward. "Well, like Chatot said we have to go."
His voice was clipped as he didn't look at Chatot as he passed.
"I… didn't mean," Chatot began. Scout ran past him and to Mane's side while Sean slowly came up to Chatot.
"This place," he said gently. "I'm sorry you're having to go through this. But turning on each other will kill us."
Chatot swallowed and gave a shaky nod. "I'll… I'll apologise."
Sean nodded and walked alongside Chatot as he tried to pull his thoughts together. Chatot wasn't the kind to lash out like that, even Sean knew that.
He wondered about Soothe and what she meant to Chatot if being questioned so insistently could bring about such a reaction.
The four walked in silence until the sounds of their own heartbeats began to get to them and Scout began to loudly talk about all the mishaps he'd had in dungeons.
It helped.
"Where are they?" Sableye growled. The other two looked on worriedly. "Where are they? Where are they?"
Sableye paced back and forth, scratching his claws. He didn't appreciate being left waiting, he didn't appreciate what it made him think and feel.
"Th-They are probably just having a tougher time then we did," Sableye said, hoping to provide at least some comfort.
"Or they're extra dead," Sableye said, picking his teeth. He knew they weren't going to be given provisions as a punishment, but no one could stop him from eating anything he found in dungeons. Even if the 'food' was best left untouched, he was hungry dammit.
It also made Sableye look extra guilty for depriving them of food in the first place. So, it was a plus-plus.
They were waiting outside the entrance to the Sealed Ruin dungeon. The escapees had moved into it not a few minutes ago, implied by the lingering traces of heat.
It was foolhardy to enter a dungeon with more than four members, so they had split into two teams of three.
The first team had made it through without trouble, the others were taking their sweet time and it was driving Sableye ready to start biting his claws.
And all five of them would give him those looks again if he started that again.
Maybe just one small nibble….
"Look at him," Sableye said, nudging Sableye. "He's so hungry he's eating himself!"
"Y-You know that's not true!"
"Do you see him spitting them out?"
"Well… I-I."
"Sableye!" Sableye barked, causing both of them to jump. Sableye pointed a chewed claw at him and he stopped leaning over Sableye. "Stop whining about your belly. If you can't find something worthwhile to say, don't say anything at all."
Sableye grumbled something about food, but did back off. Sableye went back to chewing on his claws while Sableye looked on worriedly.
They waited in relative silence, talking only to reaffirm their sanity, until Sableye finished chewing one hand and moved onto the next.
"For the master's sake Sableye!" someone yelled and all three jumped. Sableye immediately put his hand behind his back, but his other hand was even more chewed. There was no winning.
Sableye, Sableye, and Sableye walked out of the dungeon. The lead of that team was strutting with annoyance and grabbed Sableye's chewed claws. "What have we told you about doing this?"
"Lay off the guy," Sableye said, supporting Sableye as she limped along. "You know he can't help it when he's worried."
"Where have you three been?" Sableye demanded, pushing past Sableye to get a closer look at the injury Sableye was sporting.
"A lot of bastards were attacking us," she explained, but Sableye was already past that.
"A drifblim got her good," Sableye explained, backing off easily to let Sableye take a look. Her leg had been twisted, but he couldn't feel any breaks. Just a sprain.
"You're going to want to lay off running for a while," Sableye said softly. Sableye nodded quietly, she was a little ashamed she'd been snuck on upon by the drifblim so easily.
"We're all here now!" Sableye said, taking all attention to her. "So what are we doing next?"
"Well," Sableye said, stepping back from Sableye and straightening up, "we've been waiting long enough that we've rested enough. Due to this injury you're going to need to take some time, rest that leg. But you can't stand around too long, alright?"
"Did the targets pass through?" she asked.
"Yes." Sableye nodded, gesturing to the dungeon. "They entered the dungeon already. We're going on ahead, through the dungeon. Sableye scouted ahead while we waited, it may be traversable by avoiding the dungeon. You three consider going around the dungeon and see if you can get ahead of them."
"Gotcha."
"Swell."
"Alright," Sableye whispered, surprising the others. She didn't usually speak.
Sableye nodded, pleased he was being listened to. "Alright." He nodded, looking back to Sableye and Sableye.
Sableye managed a smile and nodded back, Sableye continued to look argumentative but seemed willing to hold his tongue for now.
"Let's go. For Master Dusknoir and for our world!"
"For Master Dusknoir and our world!" the others chanted back.
Sableye, Sableye, and Sableye ran into the dungeon, one of them complaining already about food. Sableye, Sableye, and Sableye watched them go, relieved to be given permission to go around the dungeon.
"So…?" Sableye begun, smiling to the ladies. "Grass-Fire-Water anyone?" he asked, raising a fist. Sableye grinned and held hers out.
"You're on."
"You know this place isn't so bad," Mane said faux-cheerfully as he left a muk a steaming pile of sludge.
"By 'isn't so bad' you mean 'is a nightmarish land of evil and horror', right?" Scout asked, forcing a metang to flee with a Shadow Ball. He felt his head swim for a moment and staggered, but shook it off.
"Something like that."
Chatot still hadn't found the time to apologise to Mane and had begun seeing Sean's point on dungeons really not giving them much time to talk.
He knew he could say it at any time but shouting it in the middle of a scrap hardly seemed polite.
Perhaps it'd be easier though.
Chatot was one concern. Scout was another.
Mane was a brimming pot of tension, but he could be managed in other ways.
Scout's right arm was being held by his left when not in battle and Sean noticed him stumbling constantly, shaking his head before collecting himself and straightening up.
He couldn't help but look at his arm. First the paw, now the whole arm. Scout was surprising him with his lack of demanding aid, normally his ears would be bleeding by now from all the pleas he couldn't understand.
He hadn't begged to be carried once. Sure, Sean was considerably shorter than what he used to be, but he had carried Scout through one dungeon. He had expected Scout to beg to be carried again, and if he had been unable to say no when it was just cute eyes he had no idea if he could refuse actual words.
And yet he hadn't asked once. Had not complained at all. And mostly remained quiet. At least that wasn't too far off his normal behaviour, after Guardian betrayed them Scout had closed up greatly.
Scout stumbled again, catching himself, and brushing off Mane's concerned whisper. Sean observed the ground he had tripped over as he passed. Nothing out of the ordinary like all the other times. Nothing that'd cause him to lose his balance at least.
He dug a berry out.
"Scout?" Sean called, and the meowth didn't react.
"That's you," Mane pointed out and Sean saw Scout's ears flick before he straightened up.
"Oh! Right." He turned and Sean held out the berry.
"You have to eat something," he said as pleasantly, yet firmly, as he could. Scout looked at the berry for a moment, but then a sound occurred in front of them and Mane exploded the disturbance with a blast of fire.
"Thanks," Scout said, accepting the berry once it was clear. Sean noticed him grab his numb arm immediately, squishing the berry against the other hands paws. He lifted it up with his other paw and bit into the berry carefully, leaving the juice on his paw without wiping it away.
Sean wondered about that.
"This dungeon remains a challenge," Chatot grunted, forcing a probopass' mini-noses back with a burst of wind, distracting it long enough for Mane to blast it away.
"It's great," Mane insisted, flambeing a tangrowth.
"Because everything seems tailored to you," Sean muttered, hitting a forretress multiple times in the shell with Force Palm, blowing it back inch by inch. His leg was aching again, but he pushed through the pain.
Mane breathed embers on it, and it fled as quickly as it could, squeaking in terror.
"The last place wasn't so bad either," Mane laughed, puffing his chest up at Sean's flat expression.
"Preferable to this for certain," Chatot agreed.
"Ghost-types are fine with me," Scout offered.
"Okay." Sean took a breath and raised a paw, pointing a stubby portion of his paw up. "First! You are all Normal-types, so you didn't have to deal with all the attacks. Two. I could barely do anything against Ghost's."
"That's your problem," Mane said, looking down his nose at Sean. "Come on, lots of Steelies around. Shouldn't you be loving this?"
"You'd love it too if you had to punch those 'Steelies'," Sean muttered, but dropped the matter.
The four experienced no further troubles for the rest of the dungeon. Despite Sean's light complaints, he did find the experience preferable to the dungeons before it. First carrying Scout and then feeling useless had stressed him out. Not helped by the antagonism from Chatot and Litleo.
At least now that he'd given some explanations, both of them seemed calmer, more content with him. He could sympathise, not understanding what was going on when he first arrived in this place was very difficult as well. And he hadn't had anyone to explain anything.
Still, being able to actually have conversations rather than just hearing random syllables felt much better.
"So, we got a little distracted," Scout said, as they began nearing the end of the dungeon. "About Dusknoir and what happened there?"
Scout was trying hard not to show just how interested he was. To know that there was such a history between Dusknoir and Grovyle was fascinating enough to overcome any annoyance at not having known about it before. But to know he was related to it?
It wasn't a pleasant topic for Sean, however, and he grimaced. "Yeah, alright. Let's just get through that as fast as we can."
Scout nodded, and the other two listened in as Sean began to explain.
"First, I don't know the entire story," he prefaced. "I couldn't understand the words since humans can't understand pokémon and it isn't something Striker likes to talk about these days. What I could tell, however, was that Guardian was approached by someone. Who? I don't know. Someone. And they convinced him that, well…."
He trailed off, suddenly unsure of if he should finish telling the story. Scout accepted the consequences before, but he almost seemed to be an entirely different person now.
"What the cost would be?" Scout asked, Sean blinked. The meowth gave him a smile, small and weak, and Sean returned it. They understood each other.
"Yeah." He nodded. "Guardian couldn't accept it and tried to talk us out of it. When Striker and you refused, he tried to take you by force. That led to one of the worst fights I've ever seen, and I've seen some stuff, but we escaped. You were inconsolable for ages, and Guardian never stopped pursuing us. He'd become a dusknoir shortly after and even Striker could barely fight him anymore and we didn't always have Celebi around."
Scout nodded sadly and he took a deep breath. He wobbled in place for a moment and Sean nearly went to steady him, but he regained his balance and gave a thankful smile.
"Thanks for telling me," Scout said, and Sean nodded. "No one has been explaining anything. It's good to finally understand what I've been missing."
Sean smiled. "That's not all you wanted to ask though, right?"
Scout blinked, almost looking affronted. Sean smiled again and he sighed. "How well do you really know me?"
Laughing, Sean said. "I've known you for years. Probably. It's not hard to read you, even if you're pretty different now."
Mane glanced in, interested. But Scout beat him to the punch. "So, I am then?" he asked, he had a feeling that Sean had missed that he was genuinely asking how well he was known. "Different?"
Sean gave him a puzzled stare for a moment. "Well, yeah. There's plenty of similarities and plenty of differences. You're not as tense or as quiet as you started being. You smile a lot again, that's nice to see. You were sort of the 'heart' of the team, when Guardian turned against us you lost a lot of that. So, it's been great to see that again."
Scout smiled, before becoming self-conscious of that and stopping. Sean sniggered at him.
"Otherwise, it's hard to tell. Again, I don't really know a whole lot about how you used to talk or speak. If Striker was around, he'd be able to fill you in some more. But I'm glad he's not here, I'm not sure he could take coming back to this place."
Scout nodded. He was disappointed, but there was nothing that could be argued there. Still, it wasn't everything he wanted to ask.
"Where did you come from?" Scout asked, determined not to evade around the subject. Sean cocked his head at him, and Scout rephrased. "You mentioned earlier about not being from this world. How does THAT work?"
Sean breathed out a sigh as Chatot and Mane looked in again. They had gone a while since they had been attacked, the walls were changing as well. But not immediately. Perhaps they were close to the end of the dungeon.
"Yeah. I have no idea how I came here though. The world I'm from has humans all over the place. Heh." He smiled wistfully. "It's been a long time since I've seen my friends or my family. I hope mother is alright. And my father. And my friends. I try not to think about them, heh, I'd love to see Felix and Keira again now that I'm like this that'd be funny." He shook the memories away, it would not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.
"Who?"
"Excuse me," Chatot cleared his throat.
"Yeah?" Sean asked, turning to Chatot. He was still smiling, it was just so fun to finally speak with Scout. He'd wondered for years what everyone talked like and sounded. Pantomime could only fill so much of that need.
"It appears we've reached the end," Chatot sniffed, gesturing around. They were in a very wide room. It looked perfect for an awful lot of bass music or a collection of ominous healing items. There was nothing of the sort, no sound at all. "Or at least, this is the first time the dungeon has changed thus far."
"Yep, this is the end," Sean confirmed, pointing forward. Mane had spotted something and trotted up to a strange lumpy stone near the middle of the room. "Out that exit and we should be outside again. One minute we have walls, then one second we'll be out. It'll probably be a bit weird out there."
"What do you?" Chatot begun.
Mane had poked the odd keystone and it poked back.
A wave of force blasted him flying with a yell and the three other pokémon all jumped to attention. Mane landed and rolled a few times before groaning, very dizzy.
He tried to stand, but it appeared he'd drunk too many perfect apple ciders and he fell back down.
"Who/What/When/Where/And WHY?" A voice that could only be described as legion chorused out.
Scout ran to Mane's side and helped him up, clumsily with one arm, as Sean immediately tried to diffuse the situation. Chatot simply squawked and flapped threateningly.
"We are just passing through," he said quickly, and placatingly. "We'll be out of your hair in seconds. We are leaving now."
"Leaving/Going/Running/SCREAMING" The odd keystone erupted into purple and green and the thick, almost syrupy, essence that was a spiritomb leaked out before rippling.
"We are going," Sean said firmly. "Chatot, Litleo, Scout, go before it attacks."
Chatot fluttered back to help Mane get up and Sean began backing away, still holding his paws up calmly.
The spiral eye of the spiritomb sunk into its body as the other eye remained trained on the four. Its whole form shivered constantly, roiling up violently every few moments.
"Leave/Go/Flee/Run/Leave," the spiritomb ordered and Sean nodded.
"Yes, we are leaving."
"RUN/RUN/RUN."
The whole spiritomb jerked violently as a dull boom echoed out, the odd keystone was nearly tipped from some unseen blow in its back.
The spiritomb screamed a piercing shriek of 108 tortured souls before exploding out in a miasma of violence.
Sean had no time to brace before the shadows struck him and launched him flying back. He slammed again the back wall as the spiritomb turned its fury on the remaining three.
Its initial ghostly blast affected none of them, but it switched tactics immediately. Their shadows deepened into darker pools and lashed out, striking each one in the chest.
Scout wheezed weakly as his legs crumbled, but Mane and Chatot took the attack better.
"RAAH!" Mane roared, blasting back with an Ember. The spiritomb howled, shrieked, and roiled, retreating its essence as Chatot copied Mane's next attack, Fire Blast, with his Mirror Move.
Sean pulled himself up and rushed over to Scout. "Scout?" he hissed, leaning down by the meowth. Scout groaned but grabbed his arm and pulled himself up. He looked ready to vomit, but was holding it in.
"Litleo!" Sean yelled, as the litleo in question began to pull himself up. "Circle around and use Fire Blast, Chatot get into the air and distract it, when Litleo attacks you copy it."
They complied. Reason was shelved for clear-headed orders. If Sean had any idea on what to do, they'd follow and then tell him off later.
Chatot fluttered about, swiftly evading through ducks and dives the spiritomb's clumsy blows. Mane got into position and gave a wordless cry as signal.
Chatot fluttered up to get a good eye of him and they both formed a Fire Blast and barraged the spiritomb.
"Scout?" Sean hissed, wincing as he heard Scout's breathing whistling behind him. "I hate to ask, but can you take this and get it close." He held out a blast seed, Scout gave it a dubious look.
"I," he wheezed, barely able to catch his breath. Each inhale felt like nothing was entering his lungs. "Have bad experience with those."
"You are the quickest and most agile," Sean said, Scout still shook his head, grabbing onto Sean's shoulder to steady himself. "I. Alright, I'll-"
"I can barely-"
It was not Scout's day.
He made a sound uncomfortably close to gurk when a sneaky attack struck him in the back. He crumpled in Sean's grip like a collapsing house of cards.
Sean said a very bad word and rushed to Scout's aid while Mane and Chatot continued with fervour, they hadn't noticed Scout get struck.
"Litleo!" Chatot called above the sounds of violence, fluttering closer to where the Fire-type was sending explosions at the screaming spiritomb. "I must apologise for my earlier action. I know this isn't the time nor place, but no matter how I think I cannot find the right words to express my regrets. The Guildmaster always says to speak without thinking when one is talking from the heart, so let me do this now."
"Yeah, okay, sure," Mane huffed. He was running on sparks at this point.
"You have been unfairly judged by many in the past, due to nothing but your parentage. The Wigglytuff Guild has offered a blank slate to any who wish it and I have not held true to such an ideal. Let me apologise for all of my behaviour up to this point. I have been wrong."
Chatot capped it off by forming another Fire Blast and his, Mane's, and a surprise angry one from Sean using Copycat, struck the spiritomb all at the same time.
It continued to screech and roil, but it's body was growing smaller and its cries quieter.
"Eeep!" the now tiny spiritomb squeaked, turning and fleeing. "Eeep-eep-eeeeeee-" It's voice grew distant as it hopped away, mostly just a keystone at this point.
"Hoo," Mane breathed, relieved that was over. "Anyway, what was that?" he asked, turning to Chatot who puffed it furiously.
"What?" he squawked. "You weren't listening as I bared my soul and admitted I was wrong?"
"Nah," Mane laughed. "I heard you! I just wanted to hear you say you were wrong again!" He stuck his tongue out at the gaping Chatot and sauntered away.
"Wrong my back feathers," Chatot grumbled, hopping after him.
They both spotted Sean cradling Scout and immediately rushed forward, even as their limbs really began to squeal in protest.
It had been a long day.
"Scout!" Mane cried, jumping to his side.
Scout batted his away with his working arm. "I'm fine," he croaked, clearing his throat for nearly half a second before returning to gasping for breath. "I'm fine," he insisted, struggling to free himself from Sean's grip. "Just a bit winded."
"Your ribs," Sean muttered, feeling along Scout's chest. Scout tried to suppress the flinches, but he couldn't. "When you fell. You cracked some, fffuck! How could I have missed that?"
"I'm fine," Scout repeated, pulling himself free of Sean's oddly comforting embrace. It brought to mind curling up in a warm lap. "Seriously, stop freaking out. We don't have time to be lolling about, especially after the spiritomb battle. We have to go."
"Eat this," Sean said, pulling their one sitrus berry out and offering it.
"No thanks." Scout waved him off.
"Don't be difficult," Sean warned. "Or I will force you to eat this."
"I'm with nice guy over here," Mane said, stepping into the conversation. "You have barely had anything and you're the one in the worst shape."
"I can still keep going!" Scout insisted, turning to Chatot. "Tell them! I've been in worse states."
"That you were in a brief coma from," Chatot snapped, Sean nearly crushed the berry in his paws.
"That's a fun reminder," he growled.
Mane raised a paw. "So was I."
Sean ignored him. "If doesn't matter if you've had worse," he said, glowering until Scout began to crack. "What matters is that you are hurt now. Eat it."
Scout sighed and held his paw out. Sean watched him eat it, all three of them did, before nodding. "Now get on my back."
"Out of the question," Scout replied, stomping a foot. The chain clinked annoyingly on the ground. Its weight had grown invisible against him, he didn't even feel it anymore.
"My back is warmer!" Mane added with a Rai-like grin. He was ignored, causing him to pout.
"Scout."
"No! You don't need to treat me like glass! I got this far, and there can't be that much more to go. But YOU need your energy."
They stared each other down for a moment, before Chatot cleared his throat.
"As has been brought up several times today," he said, blinking tiredly, "we don't really have time for this." He fluttered in the air, flexing his talons. "Now, I could very easily carry Meowth myself if he continues to be obstinate."
Sean sighed and ground his teeth but relented. "Fine. But you are taking it easy from here."
"How much easier could I be taking it?" Scout grumbled.
Sean walked them all forward before nodding and taking the lead. Scout turned away from him but didn't move away.
They walked in an uncomfortable silence for a while, Sean's expression changed to a frown as he stared forward, thinking.
"Is something the matter?" Scout asked, noticing Sean was frowning a lot more. "Is this about me?"
Sean shook his head, to Scout's relief. "Up to this point, I've had a good idea on what to expect," Sean admitted. "Since we are close to Dialga, time is relatively stable, and space doesn't intrude. But the further you go the less… sure it becomes. We've got a big gap between dungeons coming up and there could be anything in the way."
"Anything?" Scout asked, reminded of what had been said earlier.
"Palkia got frozen in time," Sean quickly explained what had happened when time collapsed, Scout wincing with each part of bad news. "So, yeah. Pretty much anything. These places tend to follow SOME constants though. The area won't be bigger than what this place was originally, but the path to Dusk Forest IS pretty long."
"Can these places be dangerous?" Chatot asked.
"Everywhere is dangerous," Sean said.
"Bring it on!" Mane replied.
"How will we know?" Scout asked. Sean gave him a pained look.
"Well. You can't, really. But we, uh… relied on you to 'scout' ahead."
"Oh. My. Freaking. Gosh," Mane said, somehow energetic and flat at the same time. "THAT'S why he's called Scout?"
Scout raised an eyebrow at Sean as he laughed. This was a topic he could enjoy.
"I named everyone!" he giggled, shaking his head. "And yeah. Striker was our main fighter with strong 'strikes', Scout was our scout, even Guardian…" his smile became fixed. "Well. He was the protector. He 'guarded' us. Saniya even means moment in time. I thought it was clever. Only my name doesn't have any meaning."
"Why's that?" Mane asked. "Shorn means something, weird name for a riolu though. More like a mareep name."
Sean shrugged. "Humans don't normally do that. Not the same way as pokémon. Honestly I was pretty lucky with the names I gave those guys, since Striker told me it actually fits how you do the whole naming thing. Saniya is a stretch though."
There was a Raigeki, it wasn't completely out of the question.
"He didn't tell you before?"
Sean shook his head. "Humans can't understand pokémon remember. Until I became a riolu, all I heard were 'gro, grovyle' or 'meow, me, owth."
"So, we sound like feral's to you?" Mane narrowed his eyes.
"Hey, I didn't get to choose how I used to hear pokémon!" Sean protested and Mane rolled his eyes.
"Suuurre."
"Anyway. The dungeon is about to properly end."
The four pokémon paused as their surroundings changed with a blink. When before they were within a dungeon with walls and a roof, with a single blink they were outside on a cliffside.
Everything was dark, as things usually were in the future. There were a line of trees tended once upon a time and a large rock sticking out of the ground.
"Where?" Mane began, glancing behind them. "WOAH!" he yipped and jumped forward. The other three spun around and found themselves right at the edge of the cliff, looking out onto a thin platform of rocks leading to a floating rocky entrance with the dungeon ripple. Beyond that there was the sea. Frozen.
It wasn't ice, however. The water had just stopped.
Scout felt something unpleasant grip his soul. "Where are we?"
He looked to Chatot, who wore the same troubled expression. Sean just shook his head in awe.
"Hey guys?" Mane called from where he had begun trotting ahead. "I, uh… think you should see this."
In silence befitting the lack of sound around them, the three came forward, passing by unsettlingly familiar trees and on a well-worn track.
Mane had stopped, staring out in terrified amazement. Or perhaps, just terror. He was standing by a pokémon that didn't move, most unusual for its species, a vigoroth.
They stopped by him and the four looked past Vigoroth, frozen with his arm raised in a greeting, and out into the bustling crowd. All dulled and completely unmoving.
They looked out into Treasure Town.
Feels like a missed opportunity to explore a frozen-in-time Treasure Town in the games, doesn't it?