As daylight rose over Nova Town, Team Terrae slowly woke up from their abnormally comfortable room in the inn. It was a new day, and very likely a new beginning for the team.

None of them said a word as they clamored outside. Pokémon wandered the streets, just starting their routines for the day. Occasionally one would take a glance at them— Terrae obviously looked like an exploration team, but they didn't match any of the teams the townspeople had seen in the guild.

Despite the stares, they continued down the path, through the town center and north towards the canyon, where a tent in the shape of an oversized Lucario head looked out over the city.

Mira slowed down as they approached the tent. They knew what they were doing when they decided to resign from Hydreigon's, but it felt completely different now that they were actually here. Their old boss had a lot to say about Lucario, none of it remotely flattering, and now they were gonna ask to join his guild.

Steeling herself, she stepped inside, and opened the hatch. With one last look back at her teammates, she descended the ladder.

Within Lucario's Guild, morning announcements had ended a little bit ago. Most of the teams were still scattered around, chatting with each other or looking at missions on the job board.

Team Apex was off in their corner, translating mission requests on the outlaw board. None of them noticed the newcomers yet.

As the four members of Team Terrae entered, the atmosphere in the guild tensed up. Conversations between the various teams came to a halt as they turned to stare at the Zorua. Most of them remembered the Guilded Games, how Mira was pretty much the only reason Hydreigon's Guild got so close to victory.

The conversations resumed in hushed tones as they tried to figure out what the hell Team Terrae was doing at the guild.

Rune was the first member of Apex to notice their presence, and gently tapped on Kibo's shoulder. When he spun around to look, his tail thwacked Blizz, the Prince, and Zar, catching their attention as well.

In true Blizz fashion, he completely disregarded the awkward silence that set over the guild.

"Yo, what's up guys!" He ran up to them, getting fist bumps from Mira and Ride, a high-five from Angel, and a look of irritation from the Duke. "Why the hell'd you come all the way out here?"

"Well, we..." Mira's words trailed off, distracted by all the guild apprentices watching her. She was overwhelmed, her mind immediately jumping to the worst case scenario. 'They probably all knew Hydreigon had me cheat at the games so he could win and they all hate me and-'

"We have formally resigned from Hydreigon's Guild," the Duke stated, bailing out Mira. "There was a difference of opinions with our former guildmaster, and felt we could no longer serve under him. However, we still have an extensive skill set in the field of dungeon exploration, hence why we wished to seek out Lucario's Guild."

"Legit, you guys wanna join?" Blizz's smile only grew. "Hell yea, Scizor's out in that office, he'll get you set up."

With the probably-too-casual greeting Blizz gave, the atmosphere in the guild began to loosen up. That, combined with most everyone hearing the Duke, meant they didn't feel the need to be on edge.

Of course, everyone was still curious about what the hell could've happened to make them quit, but that's a much less hostile thing to be wondering about.

"Thank you..." Mira murmured, not wanting the rest of the guild to hear.

The four marched up to the door Blizz pointed out, and Mira gave a gentle knock. When there was no response, Angel gave an aggressive knock with her forehead.

"Come in." Scizor's voice was muffled, meaning he was probably deep into a book at that moment.

Mira cautiously opened the door, letting herself and the rest of her team in. When Scizor noticed the team, he immediately put his book to the side— He had no clue why one of Hydreigon's top teams would be at the guild.

"Team Terrae of Hydreigon's Guild, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

At the mention of their guild allegiance, Mira flinched. "...You see, we... left Hydreigon's Guild yesterday. We wanted to sign up as new recruits at Lucario's Guild."

Scizor raised an eyebrow. "...I can understand how Hydreigon's personality may be off-putting, but you are willing to lose all your progress at your former guild?"

Mira nodded. "We... I proposed a mission that could've been a bit dangerous, and Hydreigon got pretty mad at us. He banned us from taking on any real missions, which… well, we could have spent that time rescuing other Pokémon, or helping somehow..."

Scizor nodded. "Noble enough reasoning. What was this mission?"

"We wanted to look into the husk dungeons," Mira said, resolutely. "We think... a while ago we went through a mystery dungeon that should've turned Pokémon into husks, and it didn't do anything to us. If we can do that then... we might be able to go into other husk dungeons and figure out how to put a stop to it."

Scizor cleared his throat. "This explanation is very similar to a discussion I had with Team Apex previously. Are the four of you familiar with them?"

Mira nodded.

"Then may I ask, could there be a common link between your lives and theirs?" The question was open ended, but everyone in the room knew what it meant.

Except for Angel. She was completely lost.

Ride leaned in to whisper to Mira. "I think they already told them..."

Mira looked back to Scizor. "Yes... We're the same as them."

"I suspected. And while Hydreigon fears for your well-being, you know you will be fine, hence why you wanted to join another guild where the assets you provide can be better applied?"

Mira nodded.

"...Normally I would not be as open to this. Relations between our guild and Hydreigon's are tenuous on the best of days, and accepting a team that has quit due to a personal falling-out would jeopardize all progress made on this front." Scizor paused to gauge Team Terrae's reactions. "However, given the circumstances, I am willing to make an exception. You were silver rank previously, correct?"

"Yea, but we left our badges behind."

Scizor looked into his desk. "While I am not at liberty to grant you the rank immediately, I can make an executive decision that you will not need to take the entrance exam." He removed four bronze badges, and gave them to the Pokémon in front of him. "You still need to talk to the guildmaster, however."

Mira bowed down slightly. "Thank you very much."

Scizor led them back out of his office, making the arduous six meter journey to Lucario's room. Blizz gave them a friendly wave as they walked past.

"Guildmaster? I have some potential recruits."

"...Send them in."

Mira, Angel, and Ride looked between each other, nervousness setting in once again. Maybe Lucario was more intimidating than Apex let on...

Still, this was the path they chose. Mira led the way into the pitch black room, the door shutting right behind them.

"Hmm... I've met you fuckers before..." Lucario's voice was more coarse than normal. Put on edge, the four members of Team Terrae braced for a fight.

This came soon enough, as a figure rushed forwards in an attempt to pin Mira against the wall. Unfortunately for said figure, it only managed to catch an illusion, before it proceeded to get hit by a Fire Spin, Wing Attack, Knock-Off, and Dragon Claw.

"Fucking amazing!" Lanterns all around the room began to light up, illuminating the interior. Lucario was standing on top of his desk, the only sign that he just got hit by the four explorers being the slightly singed fur on the back of his neck.

"Am I to assume this was a test of sorts?" The Duke looked unamused.

"Hell fucking yea it is, and you guys aced it. Name's Lucario, great to meet you all." He went around, shaking each Terrae member's hand.

Mira was the last one in the line, and while Lucario had her paw grabbed, she asked the question. "So do we get to join your guild?"

"Abso-fucking-lutely. You guys are an amazing exploration team, and I get to spite the cranky old bastard, no way in hell I'm passing that up."

Mira blinked a few times. "...Are you talking about Hydreigon?"

"Yep, cranky old bastard."

Ride looked around, nervously, as if someone would go after her for even thinking this thought. "...It kinda fits..."

"So, you guys are sticking with your old team name, right? Terrae?"

Mira nodded. "It means a lot to us, sorry if it causes any issues for you."

"Okay one, it absolutely fucking doesn't. Two, I don't know how Hydreigon runs his guild, but around here you don't apologize for shit like that."

"Okay, sorry-err..." Mira was at a loss for what to say. "Thanks for telling us?"

Lucario ruffled Mira's fur a bit. "Still terrible, but a start. Scizor! Get in here, we gotta get these guys set up."

—

After an hour and a half of exchanging names, reading off bureaucratic bullshit, and finding an empty room for them to stay in, Team Terrae walked out of the office with four shiny new badges.

By the time they were done with their introduction, Team Apex had set out for their mission of the day, so a more thorough explanation about what the hell they were doing here would have to wait. And since Scizor didn't have any new husk missions today, they were free to take on normal missions.

The Duke was mostly muttering to himself. "It is still humiliating that we must begin at the rookie rank."

"We'll make it back in no time!" Angel encouraged. "Come on, let's go look at the rescue board."

Before the Duke could say anything, Angel grabbed one of his front legs, dragging him up to the closer of the three boards.

The rest of the team caught up, looking over it as well.

Mira was a bit concerned as she eyed over all the mission requests. "They... really don't do a lot of rescues here, do they?"

Compared to the outlaw board, which was overflowing with requests that would get taken within hours of a posting, this seemed like it had nothing. There were a few listings that seemed to have been pinned up for a concerningly long amount of time, and the board itself looked to be in a state of disrepair— the wood was well-aged and covered in dust.

"Looks like we gotta carry this guild's rescue missions!" Angel took the highest ranked mission she could, a B-rank out to Shining Peaks.

It looked simple enough— They just had to climb to the summit, rescue the client, and make it back to town. The dungeon wasn't even that far a walk from here.

"We should not underestimate it," the Duke advised. "The climate of Nova Town is not the same as that of Tenea City, and we may encounter challenges we did not previously anticipate. We should ensure our equipment is sufficient."

Mira opened up the bag of team supplies, looking for anything that they may be short on.

"Maybe we could use a Rawst Berry, since the climate of western Varin is warmer and we may be dealing with more fire types than normal..."

The dungeon did not prove to have any additional challenges. It did not even prove to be that difficult. The only remotely-difficult part was the giant Beartic they had to fight at the summit, but with the four of them, one of whom had a type advantage, taking it down was a simple affair.

The client was a Crabrawler who eventually got around to thanking them, though they had to tolerate him complaining for half the walk back that yes, his unconscious body could absolutely beat the still-rampaging Beartic in a fight, he just needed a bit more time.

That's mostly par for the course of rescuing other Pokémon though, Terrae was used to it.

After dropping off Crabrawler at the town center to go find his brother, the team returned to the guild.

As Mira was climbing down the ladder, she noticed Blizz heading back to their room.

"…Uh, Blizz…"

The Treecko turned around, hearing his name called. "Huh- Oh, hey, welcome back guys."

The rest of Team Terrae worked their way down the ladder as Blizz walked over to talk to Mira.

"So how was your second first day?"

"Well, we went up to Shining Peaks and rescued a Crabrawler... Had to fight a Beartic."

Blizz's expression dropped. "Fucking… Nice job though."

Mira immediately began worrying she messed up somehow. "Wait, is there something wrong with-"

"Nah, that was me and the Prince's... second mission, I think? Had to go rescue Rune at the summit, fought the Beartic and everything. He really fucked us up— We had to put Rune on an oran berry high so she wouldn't die, I broke a bone or two and kinda went delirious, fun times."

The Zorua really didn't know how to process this information, not that Blizz would give her much of a chance.

"Anyways, come into our room in a bit, we definitely gotta talk."

"R...Right." Mira nodded, managing to get a grip on the conversation. "Yea, just let us drop our stuff off."

"Okay so this is almost everyone," Blizz announced to the seven other former humans in the room. "Zar's out because of course she is, and none of us have heard from Fanita since that one dungeon."

"I am guessing this is a strategy meeting?" the Prince asked.

Blizz nodded. "Yep. So first up, what's the deal with you guys?" He turned to face Mira. "Don't get me wrong, having you guys here is cool as hell, just like, last time we talked you said you wanted to stay in Tenea."

"The situation developed to our detriment," the Duke began, launching into the same explanation they gave Scizor this morning. However, unlike with Scizor, they also shared their theories about Hydreigon and his involvement.

"He knew we went to Hollowturn Temple despite none of us mentioning it to him," Mira explained.

Kibo cocked his head. "Wouldn't he have heard it from your guys' assistant guildmaster? Lycanroc, right?"

It took Mira a moment to understand what Kibo meant. "…Rescue missions work differently in Tenea, we have a separate agency for search and rescue, sorta like the police."

"Hydreigon should not have known that we took that mission," the Duke summarized. "The fact that he did means he or someone else was following us, or he already had an interest in the dungeon."

The Prince didn't seem quite convinced. "It was Fanita's hideout prior to our battle, was it not? This would make it a valuable location to keep tabs on."

"...Yea, but why would he care," Rune pointed out. "Guildmasters usually don't… do stuff like that. If there was a random police officer from the city watching the dungeon, would they recognize you guys?"

Mira shook her head. "I don't think so. There's a lot of them, they don't bother to learn all the guild members."

Kibo looked up in thought. "So, for Hydreigon to have a real reason to know y'all were there, he would have had to decide that today he was gonna go after Fanita, stake out the dungeon entrance and not go in, and see y'all and not say anything."

"That... It doesn't sound like something the Guil- Err, Hydreigon would do," Mira agreed.

The Prince looked out the window, still speaking to the group. "This can be coupled with the information the four of us have derived. Between the component discovered in Greenspook Steppes, and the personal vendetta Hydreigon has against us, this theory lines up."

"However this falls short of proper evidence," the Duke countered.

The Prince nodded, shifting his gaze from the window back to the group. "I concur. As it stands we only have a suspect profile, we still lack any direct proof that he caused it. We have not even found a link between Blizz's abduction and the individual who is causing the husk crisis."

"But like, now that we have a guy in mind we can look into him and get that evidence," Blizz pointed out. "If everyone else is okay with it and if Scizor doesn't have a new mission for us, I think we should do some research ourselves. See what dungeon might be next."

There was a brief silence after Blizz's suggestion.

Oddly enough, Ride was the first to break it. "...That sounds like a good idea, but... how? If anyone knew, we... someone would have already figured out who's behind it for sure."

"I mean yea, but we got a few advantages here. We're not actually at any risk of the husk stuff, we can split into two groups, and I know a guy who can probably help us out."

The Prince stretched out. "I assume you are referring to Absol?"

"Yep, figured he might have an idea, or maybe we can see if his disaster sense thing can figure out where it is."

"...Very well, I shall sign off on this plan."

Blizz looked out to the others. "Anyone got an issue with this?"

No one spoke, though Team Terrae had their doubts that Absol could tell them everything they needed. Still, Blizz seemed confident in it at least, so that put their concerns to rest for now.

"Right on. We'll try to do this on our next off day."

The pretense of a meeting quickly fell apart as the ex-humans began chatting among themselves. The Prince and the Duke were off in a corner speaking in what seemed to be a different language, Angel and Kibo somehow managed to shout at each other while trying to hide nervous blushes, Blizz and Mira were having a very one-sided conversation about team leadership, and Ride and Rune were separate from everyone else, not talking but just enjoying each other's silence.

As Blizz was comparing his style of evading attacks through his agility compared to Mira's style with illusions, he looked on at the other former humans genuinely having a good time.

"…You ever think about how much this would fucking suck if we were on our own?"

Mira didn't understand where the change in the conversation came from. "What do you mean?"

"Like, just having to deal with all this on our own, no other humans or whatever. Sure as hell wouldn't be having times like this."

Mira nodded. "Yea, I get what you mean… Meeting everyone else has been… it's the best part of all this."

"Hell yea. Like, sure, if they had to get 10 of us that means something is really fucked up, but still, rather deal with something hard as hell with everyone else than something easy on my own."

"Right… I agree."

Blizz took another look at the two teams. They were having fun and enjoying themselves despite all the circumstances surrounding them.

He wouldn't give this up for the world.

When the morning wake-up came, Team Apex was ready to start the next day. By technicality, they weren't the guild's newbies any more, as Team Terrae lined up to their right for morning announcements.

"Alright, settle down everyone." Scizor stepped out of his office, quieting the guild. "So the first announcement. We have a new team in our guild. Team Terrae used to be a member of Hydreigon's Guild, but left for personal reasons and decided to join us."

The other guild apprentices let out a round of cheering.

"Now please treat them like any other team, and do not press them for details about Hydreigon's Guild. If they want to share something they will."

That was the only important announcement. There were a couple small things about how they should try to take more rescue missions, but for Blizz most of it just went in one ear and out the other.

What he was looking forward to was Team Terrae's first guild chant. He made sure to yell a bit louder than normal when Lucario kicked them off.

"IT WAS TWELVE HUNDRED AND THIRTEEN!"

After Mira mentally recovered from the chant, she and Blizz went up to Scizor to ask about any special assignments for them.

"As it stands, we still do not have anything. I'm talking to Beheeyem to figure out where you will be sent next, until that point you are free to take on whatever jobs you please, or take your day off today."

Blizz nodded. "Gotcha, the two of us will be heading into town then."

Mira looked a bit confused, before realizing he was suggesting that they both go to Absol's.

"As I said, do whatever you please today. Just try not to get yourselves killed." Scizor retreated back into his office, leaving the two team leaders by themselves.

Blizz led the way to Absol's house after briefly mentioning to the rest of the team where they were going. Zar managed to return at some point, only moderately surprising Blizz.

"...Are you sure both of us should go? You're the one who normally talks to him."

"Sure, but like, if we both split up, you're gonna need to know what's going on so you can lead the other Terrae guys." Blizz walked up to Absol's front door. "Better if you're here with me, cause I fucking suck at explaining things. Plus, you'll probably come up with smarter questions than me."

With those partially motivating words, Blizz knocked on the door. Absol answered it before Blizz could even get a second knock in.

"Treecko, good to see you again. And you've brought a friend as well?"

Blizz nodded. "Yea, this is Zorua. She's uh, also human, runs her own team."

Absol's eyes widened just slightly. "I see… Well she is more than welcome here. Please, come in."

The two entered Absol's house and took a seat at his dining table. Unfortunately for Blizz, there was no apple pie laid out this time; instead it was a series of maps and documents that looked vaguely similar to the ones Scizor was always going through.

Absol followed behind his guests, sitting down at the front of the table. "I'm guessing the two of you came to me for more information?"

"Basically, yea. We got some really weak evidence that Hydreigon might be the one behind the husks, but like we wanna know for sure. So we were wondering if you knew anything about what dungeon might be the next to like... huskify."

Mira suppressed a giggle. "Huskify?"

Blizz laughed a bit as well. "Shut up."

Absol looked at them with a slight trace of confusion. "Well, I have been looking into that, though I haven't been able to find any true pattern. The dungeons that are affected tend to be concentrated in the northern sections of Varin, but aside from that I don't have much."

"Well like, had an idea, and it's probably a stupid one," Blizz admitted. "So like, your disaster thing will go off if I'm gonna go into something dangerous, right?"

"...Assuming I am touching you, yes."

"So like, what if I just keep saying 'I'm going to this dungeon' for a bunch of different dungeons while you have your horn on me? Then like, if one of those triggers your disaster thing that's the one we need to go to."

Absol raised a paw to argue that there was no way it could work. It steadily lowered as he realized Blizz's idea could actually have some merit. A new headache arose, alongside the one he gets from his disaster sense whenever one of the former humans are around.

"But wait, what if it's a dungeon that's just really difficult?" Mira asked. "And wouldn't judging where we want to go based on how much of a disaster it will be… a bad idea?"

"Well uh, on the first point, I don't think there's a whole lot of dungeons in Varin that'd be that difficult for the nine of us. Like there's those batshit ones off the coast, but with Zar and everyone else the dungeon itself shouldn't be difficult."

Mira seemed conflicted about this approach, but relented. "…Alright."

Absol was equally concerned, but decided he was going to help Blizz. "The dungeons with a yellow pin in them have not yet become husk dungeons, read off the names of those first."

Blizz nodded as Absol reached out to him with his horn. There was a brief period of silence, before the most recurring issue since he woke up as a Treecko arose once again.

"I can't read this."

Before Absol could say anything, Mira made an offer. "I could translate them for you." When she noticed Blizz's confused stare, she elaborated. "I've been learning footprint runes. I'm not... great at them, but I know a bit."

"...Alright yea, let's do that."

Mira stood in front of the two Pokémon, looking over the map. "Okay, try... Heatmaw Cave."

"We're gonna go to Heatmaw Cave."

Absol shook his head. "No reaction."

"Dewbeat Grassland."

"Going to Dewbeat Grassland?"

Absol shook his head again.

This process went on for about five minutes as they cycled through all the dungeons in north-west Varin. At last, on their 24th attempt, they got something.

"Try... Rougepoint Mesa."

"We're gonna go to Roguepoint Mesa."

As soon as Blizz finished saying "Mesa", Absol jumped backwards as if he got hit by an attack.

"GAHHH!"

It took him a moment to collect himself, lowering his head towards the guests.

"My... apologies. I believe we may have found a match."

"Roguepoint Mesa..." Blizz looked at where Mira was pointing on the map. It was southeast of them, bordering the desert that separated Nova Town and the Cascia region. "Sounds lit, should be able to make it today too. Wanna go round up the others?"

Mira took a nervous nod.

"Before the two of you leave, I feel obligated to give you a warning... No matter how likely you are to ignore it... The reaction I just felt was extremely strong. Whatever awaits you at this dungeon... please make sure you are prepared for it."

"Ehh, between Zar and Rune and these guys we'll probably be fine. Thanks for the heads up though." Blizz gave Absol a wave as he walked out the door, Mira following close behind.

Absol stepped out and watched as they disappeared down the street. "...They are going to get themselves killed like this..."

"Gotta say, I'm loving this heat!"

"I know right, the sun feels awesome!"

"I concur, we should have opted to take a mission here much sooner."

Kibo, Angel, and the Duke were in significantly higher spirits than the rest of the traveling party. Surprising no one, the scorching desert environment with the sun beating down over them was not particularly conducive to the well-being of grass, dark, or ice types.

As a result, both team leaders were not doing particularly well.

"...Can you do it again?" Mira looked to Rune, who nodded as she fired a wide-spread Powder Snow over the area.

Due to the properties of her scarf causing her attacks to be around 100 degrees colder than it would otherwise be, all the Pokémon around her got cooled down. This included Rune— laws of thermodynamics be damned.

"Oh thank god, that's so much better..." As a result of the renewed cold, Blizz was able to keep up his march through the desert.

Thankfully, the home-stretch was in sight. A series of large red pillars jutting out of the ground below denoted that they made it through the desert, and were at the mesa. While this didn't really change anything about the heat or the suffering they were going through, it meant that they were almost to the dungeon where they would hopefully find shade.

"Come on guys, aren't you excited? We might see the guy who's been doing all this!" Zar's enthusiasm wasn't quite as contagious as she would have liked. In face of the miserable walk, most of them hadn't given the mission much thought.

It slowly dawned on them that yes, if Absol was right, they actually would be fighting some dude who's been going around causing an effect that basically kills someone.

"Hell yea..." Refusing to let himself get bogged down in his own thoughts, Blizz tried to match Zar's mood. "WE'RE GONNA FUCKING GET IT!"

His call seemed to rejuvenate the rest of the explorers.

Kibo jumped into the air out of excitement. "Yea! We're gonna make him see justice!"

"...We shall put an end to it here," the Prince declared. "We will intercept Hydreigon and subject him to the full force of the law."

Blizz looked on at the two teams as they finally reached the dungeon entrance. "...Alright, thinking we might need to split up. And not like, just for the dungeon."

Angel looked over at him. "What'dya mean?"

"This is supposed to be where Hydreigon goes next, right? But like, we don't know if whatever causes the husks is already in the dungeon, or if it even has to be there in the first place."

"You are suggesting that we divide into one group to stay around the dungeon entrance, and one to actually conduct the exploration," the Prince summarized.

"Yea, exactly."

Rune looked down to her feet. "...I don't think I can manage in this heat all day..."

Blizz nodded. "No yea, wouldn't want you to. I'm thinking Kibo and Angel for sure since they're dealing with the heat really well."

The two dragon types smiled, before ramming their heads into each other.

"Same thing for Duke."

"This is agreeable." He glared back at the headbutt competition going on between Kibo and Angel. "...I will, however, take a different lookout point."

"Still puts us at six and three... Zar, that thing where you manage to find us in the middle of a dungeon, how long would it take you to go a random spot in the dungeon to the entrance and back?"

"Hmm..." She brought up her hand to her chin. "I can probably do it in three minutes!"

"Rad, I want you to bounce between us in the dungeon and these guys up top. Trade off like... I dunno... every 15 minutes? If one group finds the guy, go get the others."

Zar jumped up in excitement. "Got it!"

"Everyone else is gonna be going through the dungeon itself," Blizz decided, before turning to Mira. "No issues, right?"

She shook her head. "I was going to suggest the exact same thing... Well, I don't know enough about Zar, but everything else…"

"Alright then, good luck guys." Blizz gave the group that was staying behind a wave as he ventured into the darkness.

Roguepoint Mesa was a refreshingly basic dungeon. It didn't have any rivers of boiling water, random flooding, or darkness that made it literally impossible to see.

"See, this is what it's about." Blizz's face was lit up lime green by an Energy Ball he charged, before he fired it at a Sandslash. "Just a dungeon made of rock and some ferals that know how to fight. Like God intended."

In a lesser dungeon, the single Energy Ball would've been all it took to knock out a Sandslash. In this dungeon, it was still kicking, and had to run face-first into a Knock Off, courtesy of Mira, before it went down.

"Nice hit," Blizz complimented, stepping over the feral's body.

"...They really oughta put games on these things." Kibo was idly examining his guild badge from his spot next to Angel. "Wonder if they even got those out here. I mean, they got movies on discs and all that. Would Pong be that difficult?"

"Hey guys!" Kibo and Angel were disturbed by a tunnel opening up a few yards in front of them, from which a Treecko emerged. "Anything cool up here?"

Kibo shook his head. "Whole lotta sand, not much else."

"Dang..." Zar tried to sit a short distance away from the dragon types, but got bored immediately. To relieve this, she got up to practice her moves on some nearby rocks. The tips of her fingers began glowing a light green before she carved an 'X' into the unfortunate pile of stone.

Kibo looked on, slightly interested. "Don't think I've seen that move before. What is it?"

"X-Scissor! Really fun one to use." She continued her assault into the rocks, not giving them a moment to breathe.

"Huh... swear I remember Blizz complaining about that move a while ago..."

After nine floors, the explorers reached the end of the dungeon. The final floor was, like always, a single rectangular room with a warp tile at the end.

Rune looked around, not seeing anything important. "...So what do we do now?"

"Guess that means he didn't make it to the dungeon yet..." Blizz stepped up to the warp tile. "Which means that if the dude does show up he'll run into the guys up top first."

Ride bent over, disappointed. "...So going through this dungeon was pointless?"

"More or less," Blizz confirmed. "But we needed to do it to make sure."

Before the conversation could linger any longer, he stepped on the warp tile, taking him back to the dungeon entrance.

The moment he could see again, he froze. Something was very wrong. The ground around the entrance was completely torn up, covered in open fissures and small pools of blood.

Equally concerning, Kibo, Angel, the Duke, and Zar were nowhere to be found.

The other members of the dungeon crew warped in, all of them immediately noticing the same very-wrongness. It was only after the last of them came out that they figured out what happened to their friends.

"NOW!" A gruff voice shouted from behind the explorers, before the sound of broken glass rang out around them.

Immediately, all the muscles in Blizz's body locked up— he was completely petrified.

Unable to rotate his body, all he could do was follow with his eyes as the shadows of a Flygon, Kingler, and Mudsbray stepped into his field of view. The Flygon stopped in front of all of them, flashing a police badge.

"Teams Apex and Terrae, on behalf of the Tenea City police department, it is my pleasure to inform you that you are under arrest."

He had no idea what was happening or why they were being arrested. All he could do was watch as the Kingler walked up to the Prince, its larger claw glowing white.

It crashed down on the Prince using Guillotine, giving the Umbreon a deep gash across the base of his neck and knocking him out in one hit.

The Flygon and Kingler went around each of his frozen teammates, casually pulling out a one-hit KO move to take them out without a fight.

Blizz was the last one standing as Flygon stood over him.

"Treecko, the ring leader, if I understand right."

His finger twitched just slightly. Was it finally wearing off?

"Can't believe all of this bullshit was caused by someone so fucking pathetic."

He could feel his hand again, but he needed more.

He had to break through.

"We got no clue how you did it, but I get the feeling you'll be telling us everything soon enough."

His arm was shaking. Almost…

"Well, oughta end this now." Flygon flew up, then crashed back to the ground, sending a rapidly expanding Fissure in Blizz's direction.

Blizz's knees just managed to shake off the paralysis as he tried to jump away.

Unfortunately, it was too little too late. The Fissure already reached his feet before he could move again, and he tried to jump off of nothing.

The last thing Blizz saw before getting knocked out was two walls of earth poised to completely crush him.

A/N: So here we are. We have officially passed 100k words, and still going strong. Thanks for all the support!

Ch 20: Cheap Sunglasses - 5/28/22