0.
~\({O})/~
30.
To Lively Town
~\({O})/~
Off the Coast Of Mist
~Latias~
It's sunny. Off the coast of Mist, where the sun rarely shines even during summer, that's considered a hot day.
A streak of hot red shoots across the ocean at speeds only the fastest birds can match. It's not fast enough.
Latias has been flying for a day and a half. At some point, Latios was there, but she hasn't heard him since the last dark blast. She wants to look back, just to make sure he's still there and he's okay, but to do that means to lose some of her velocity. And that's not an option.
She still hasn't laid eyes on just what's chasing her. All she knows is that it's large, large enough to make the air howl behind her. A black flake dances into her vision every so often, ever so small but just enough for her to know her pursuer isn't of this world.
It's been like that ever since they flew past the storm.
The storm was large. It twisted down to the ocean like a massive cyclone, and the centre was almost pitch black.
They were out scouting, looking for any trace of their peers. Word had abruptly dropped off three weeks ago, and nature was beginning to spin out of control. Just the storm in front of them had grown larger and more powerful than any storm should have been.
Then the storm expanded. The blackness began to break away from the main storm, and soon something was chasing them.
Latios always knew what to do. Latias had asked him, shouting as loud as she could over the whistling of air, what they should do. Latios had said they needed to find the island.
Further explanation wasn't given. There wasn't time.
Latias had only been told about the Island in stories kept tightly contained to the circle of legendaries, the only ones who could be trusted with that knowledge. It was an island that existed off the coast of Mist, the entrance to another world that should never be opened. If it ever was, then hell would descend upon the planet and lead it to its doom. Latios hadn't said it, but just from his words Latias had been able to infer what had happened. It must have been opened at some point. And whatever is chasing her now is from that world.
The Mist air finally begins to chill her fins, a familiar sense of frost from zooming around this continent settling in. She must be close to the coast now.
And sure enough, just ahead, there's a thick shroud of fog in the distance. That fog's never lifted all her life, no matter how many times she came near this continent or at what time of the year it is. Unmoving fog is only reminiscent of one thing, she knows: a mystery dungeon.
The sound of grating vocal cords alerts Latias to what's about to happen: another blast. She's ragged and tired, but thankfully the beast is large and a fraction too slow for her. She banks hard right just before a blast of pure black hurtles outward where she had been. Those attacks aren't often, but they are devastating. A flock of birds were caught in the blast the first time, and she didn't even see them after that.
Grating vocal cords. Latias manages to duck just before another blast flies over her head. Two in a row hasn't happened before. All the same, she keeps her bearings and manages to stay ahead of the creature. The fog is growing closer, closer, closer—
She hits it, and mist envelops her vision. Despite the highs speeds she's going at over the water, she can't see more than six feet in front of her.
She still hears the flaps after her. The beast is still on her tail, and it's like it can see her clear as day. The fog doesn't even seem to be displaced behind it.
Eventually, the mist starts to thin out. And the heat begins rising. Latias sees the spines of sharp rocks below. Many of them have been eroded with age, or broken away by something else. She sees a large rock formation ahead, which she won't hit for a minute. And in the distance, she sees what looks like a shipwreck.
It's not like any shipwreck she's ever seen. Pitch black from top to bottom, no sails, a hull made of metal. The white front, which looks strikingly like an aggron's skull, is floating in the water, wrenched apart. The ship looks like it's been speared on the rocks from above—like somemon threw it in that position.
No matter. A shipwreck in waters these treacherous isn't anything to gawk at. Latias sets her sights ahead, but for a split second forgets to pay attention to what's chasing her—
She barely dodges a blast from the creature that flies out into the fog and dissipates just before it reaches the formation. Latias dives through a hole in the rocks—
The hole is too large for the creature to make. She hears the earsplitting crash as it collides with the rocks, the loud, birdlike screech as it collapses on the creature, and the splash as the creature is knocked back into the ocean. That might buy her a minute.
The island has to be around here somewhere. It's now blisteringly hot, and Latias doesn't understand it. But she presses forward anyway. And soon she gets her answer.
She reaches the island. Except, it's only half island. On it stands a mountain made of fire, sending waves of heat through the air around it. Latias could swear it's nearly shining with energy.
She can hear the screeches of the creature behind her, still on the chase. Luckily, she paid attention in her classes. She knows what to do. She skids to a stop down by the island's beach, searching for what she knows she needs to find: a pillar. The creature was delayed, but it's fast approaching.
Latias finds the pillar just in time. She fumbles with the cards on it, trying to figure out what to do with them. For a frightening second, they come off, but then she realizes they're removable. She places them back, and just as the creatures bursts out of the fog with a screech, slots them in the only way they can slot: forward.
Finally, she sees the creature in all its glory: a magnificent dark bird, made entirely of black, swirling dust. Its wings spread out like colossal claws, and it outsizes Latias many times over. It rears its head, preparing to release yet another blast, and between her own exhaustion and the blistering heat Latias can't move fast enough to dodge it. But she doesn't need to. With a rumble, the mountain is sinking further into the ground, and it begins to pull the creature down along with it. It shrieks as more and more of its body evaporates, sucked into the slowly sinking mountain. The shaking envelops the island, and the mountain and the monster become one.
But it only takes a minute, and soon the peak of the mountain sinks into the ground, the earth closing up behind it with just a few rumbles. And then all is still.
It's a minute before Latias dares to move. When she can finally muster the courage to look up from where she's cowering, she sees that where the mountain was, only a completely smooth plateau of unnatural, blue-colored stone exists.
How does a mountain disappear into the ground? What was that creature? And why her and Latios? Latias knows only her brother can answer those questions right now.
But where is he?
"Latios!" she calls out to empty mist, awaiting a call she deep down knows she won't get.
"Brother?"
But the mists are silent, and soon it hits Latias like a truck. She really was alone that whole time.
She cries, and it's ugly.
But eventually she's out of cry. And there's nothing here but desolate rocks, the wrecks of ships long lost to see, and singed trees burnt by something that wasn't there. The legendaries had long since agreed to stay out of the affairs of other pokemon, but the situation is different now. She knows she needs to break that agreement.
Only issue is, she doesn't know where all the world's guilds are. Latios had neglected to teach her that, when he was still…
Ignoring that. The closest one she knew of was the Archeology Division on the Sand Continent. She vaguely recalled there being one on Mist, but she couldn't waste time combing the continent for something she wasn't sure existed or not. Last she checked the Bittercold had wrecked that place anyway.
To the Sand Continent it was, then. She needed to report what she'd seen, and get the information out to somemon who would listen.
For even if she wasn't there when the First Devastation happened, even if her teachers hadn't told her everything she needed to know, she knew enough to know what this meant: The end of the world was approaching.
~\({O})/~
Lively Mountain Range
~Espurr and Tricky~
The Lively Mountain Range was the opposite of its name: vast, barren, and deserted. The sun shone harshly down on the mountains, making the steep pathways hot to the touch. Without a map, there was a real danger of getting lost out here and perishing in the heat.
And neither Espurr nor Tricky had brought the most important thing on their trip.
"Water…" Tricky panted out, trying not to trip over or kick around any rocks as they scaled a narrow passageway up a steep mountainside. Her ears and tail drooped as she panted, making an exaggerated show of how parched she was. Espurr, walking alongside her, was just as thirsty, but she didn't have a solution. Aside from mentally kicking herself for being stupid enough to bring a bag full of everything but water.
They'd fled through the night, with high hopes that they'd be in Lively Town the next morning. The Water Continent couldn't be that big, after all… right? But it was high noon now, and all Espurr and Tricky could see around them were the vast expanse of mountains. All they had to go on was the taut string of hope that Espurr was following the map correctly, and they weren't simply wandering aimlessly throughout the mountains.
Luckily, the route had been outlined in red.
Traveler pokemon often crossed these paths when coming to and from Lively Town, so Espurr didn't understand why the cliffs were so narrow. A few of them probably wouldn't have even fit a trader's wagon. She reached into her bag and spread Ampharos' map again, attempting to pinpoint their location on it. That was easy; the large mountain just ahead of them was outlined clearly on the map. That was the good news. With her eyes, she traced the path they were on and saw a big, purple blotch on the map between them and Lively Town…
That was the bad news.
Behind her, Tricky let out a loud groan and let her legs give way. She slumped over onto the path.
"Espuuur," she whined. "I can't go on any longer! Don't we have any water?"
"No, we don't," Espurr said. She didn't see the point in sugarcoating it. "I'm thirsty too. But lying around isn't going to help any.
"Besides," she added, flapping the map in her paws for effect. "I'm sure there'll be water in Lively Town. This map says we're close."
Tricky's ears couldn't help but give a revealing perk upwards at that. She looked up at Espurr.
"How close?"
"It's just a couple of mountains over. We're nearly there. But…" Espurr turned around, waiting for Tricky to walk up to where they could both survey the massive mountain ahead of them. "We have to go through that big mountain first. And it's a mystery dungeon."
If Espurr was being honest with herself, this was the opportunity she had secretly been hoping for the entire trip. She knew they were being followed; she had seen the distant lights in the mountains during the night when they had travelled. The beheeyem were tireless and they weren't far behind. A mystery dungeon was the perfect opportunity to throw them off, or at least slow them down. It would give them a few hours' worth of an advantage at worst, and if she was reading that map correctly, they'd be safely on the other side of the Lively Mountain Range by then.
Tricky pulled herself to her feet, walking over with a clearly artificial spring in her step. Espurr could see the weariness in it as well.
"Well, if we're that close… how bad can one mystery dungeon be?" she asked.
"Not too bad," Espurr said, more hopefully than anything. She just hoped it wasn't one of those ten floor monster dungeons. She steeled herself. "Not too bad at all. We can make it."
"That's the spirit!" Tricky sang, and the two pokemon set out on the remainder of their quest with renewed vigor the both of them knew in the back of their minds wasn't to last.
Behind them, in the distant mountain range, red, green, and yellow lights blinked.
~\({O})/~
Gentle Slope Cave
"Here it is," Espurr said, panting. The rest of their trip from there had thankfully been downhill, but now they stood at the foot of the mystery dungeon that stood between them and Lively Town—the map called it Gentle Slope Cave.
The air vibrated around them; both Espurr and Tricky could smell a faint tinge of the rancid scent of Mystery Dungeon. But that was typical. Espurr and Tricky looked at each other.
"Ready?"
"Ready!"
"Grab my paw. Together on three. One… Two…"
"Three!"
They both barreled into the dungeon—
And fell out into the halls of a cavern that didn't look quite right in a heap. Espurr and Tricky picked themselves up, coughing from the dust that had just been pushed into their faces. A coughing fit that lasted far longer than it should have from their dry throats. Eventually, Espurr steadied herself against the cavern wall and managed to stop coughing long enough to catch her bearings.
The hallways of the cavern were twisted in ways that wouldn't have been possible outside of a mystery dungeon, with bits and pieces of sky and moss snaking in from the ground and walls. Inside of a dungeon, however, it was pretty normal fare. Espurr hardly even blinked twice. She watched Tricky get to her feet, slowly shouldering her bag and continuing in through the dungeon's halls.
The dungeon was deserted save for Espurr and Tricky, and the faint traces of the scent from before had disappeared. After a while Espurr tentatively dropped her guard, realizing that this dungeon seemed to be devoid of enemies. Not that she particularly had the energy to fight one off if they did run into one (and she could sense off Tricky that she didn't either). For the dungeon's emptiness, she was thankful.
On the second floor, they came across the remains of an overturned trader's cart. The trader was nowhere to be seen, and the rotten stench coming off the cart's insides made Tricky retch in disgust and Espurr cover her nose to block out the smell. It was to Tricky's surprise that she saw Espurr slowly inching towards the caravan, keeping one paw clamped over her nose and reaching the other out to pull off the cart's tarp.
"What are you doing?" Tricky gagged, covering her nose with her paws and wrinkling it the more the tarp came off. "That stuff's rotting!"
"But still…" Espurr gasped between breaths she was taking with her mouth. "There might be…"
With a thwoomp, the tarp came off, revealing its contents to the two pokemon. Their eyes settled amongst one thing among all the other rotting goods:
"Water!"
Both pokemon scrambled over to the cart, thoughts of rotting goods and awful smells forgotten as they hoisted the large canister of water out of the cart. Tricky greedily stuck her head in and drank once they had gotten the lid open, and once she was done (Espurr had to stop her so she wouldn't drink it all) Espurr drank too.
The canister was empty before they knew it, and now that Espurr had drank, she felt hungry. But the rotting stench in the corners of her nostrils (and was some in her fur? She mentally shuddered at the idea) was enough to put her appetite on hold for a while. Anything they could have eaten would probably just end up right back on the floor anyway.
With their thirst quenched, the two pokemon promptly picked themselves up, adjusted their bag and scarves, and continued on their way down the dungeon. The two of them didn't stop to question what had happened to the driver.
The bear attacked on the third floor.
It came out of nowhere, with an opening swipe that flung Espurr from the floor into a nearby wall. Some of the rock chipped off where she hit it, breaking away to reveal endless blue skies on the other side.
Tricky immediately lashed out with an ember, but the bear snuffed the attack out of existence with its left paw. Tricky yelped and ran further back before the bear could snatch her up in its jaws.
Espurr peeled herself off the wall, watching the bear pursue Tricky further down the halls. Once she registered what was happening, she acted without thinking.
"Over here!" Espurr yelled, focusing her mental tendrils on the bear's stubby tail. Mercilessly, she yanked it.
The bear let out a squeal of pain, trying to shake its rump free of Espurr's grip. Tricky hid behind a convenient boulder while it was distracted.
The bear's body force was too strong—Espurr couldn't hold on forever. She eventually lost her grip, watching in fright as the bear turned around and began to make a beeline straight for her.
She dived out of the way just as it made to pin her down, rolling over and out of the bear's reach. The bear slammed into the dungeon wall, its weight breaking away the rest of the rock formation. Now there was a large hole in the wall, revealing an endless expanse of blue skies beyond the dungeon's barriers.
Espurr felt the balance of the dungeon begin to shift, as her body began to slide down the floor that was quickly becoming the wall. Realizing where she was going to end up if she didn't move fast, she scrambled across the diagonally-tilted ground until there was a sturdy rock wall below her for her to land on.
The bear seemed to realize the danger it was in too, and began to follow Espurr across. Espurr turned around and shot a blast of concentrated mental energy straight at the bear. The bear was blown back and fell into the hole, catching the rock wall that was now the ground by a single paw. It was too heavy—the rock that it had a pawhold on began to crack under its weight. There was nothing Espurr could do but gasp for air from where she was and watch the ground crack in abject horror and fascination.
All of the sudden, the rock gave out, and the bear was sent plummeting into the depths below. Its departure was punctuated by a howling roar that became softer and softer until Espurr's ears couldn't pick it up anymore.
Then there was only silence, and the hole.
Tricky slowly crept forward, bugging her eyes out at the hole in the ground. There was a strip of still-intact rock along the edges of what had once been right next to the roof. Tricky shimmied her way across, taking extra super care not to lose her footing and fall into the abyss.
"What happened?" she asked, once she had gotten across safely. "Why are we on the wall now? And why's there a hole in the wall? Did that hole do this?"
Espurr nodded in response to that last question. "I guess this is what happens when you break a mystery dungeon."
"I… I guess so," Tricky mumbled, cowed.
Neither of them mentioned the bear. The silent horror of the incident was unspoken between them.
~\({O})/~
The Gentle Slope Cave was, thankfully, only three floors, but what had felt like thirty minutes inside the dungeon seemed to have taken the entire day instead. Espurr and Tricky staggered out into the sunset, looking up at the waning sun in the sky. But it didn't matter, at least in Espurr's mind. They were past the hardest part; it was all going to be downhill from here! She felt her spirits raise just a little.
Until Tricky's stomach growled.
"Ugh…" she groaned. "I really wish we brought something to eat."
"I wish we did too," Espurr admitted. She was feeling the weariness inside her; all of her bones ached with the pains of having not rested for a day and a half.
Behind her, Tricky collapsed. She was panting, and looked run ragged.
"Can we stop here for the night?" she asked. "I'm so beat. We've been walking all night and all day... Don't you feel tired?"
Espurr had to agree. Silently, she turned around and fell on her rump, letting the bag on her shoulder slump down to the floor. Flickers of worry ran through her mind. They couldn't sleep here! What if the beheeyem got here while they were asleep? What then? But it was, ever-so-slowly, overridden by every bone in her body screaming out for a good night's rest she hadn't really had for the last week.
Tricky snuggled next to her, yawning and not-so-subtly laying her head on Espurr's bag as a pillow. Espurr lay there, keeping her eyes wide open. Even if they had to rest—even if she had to rest—she could still keep guard. There would be time to sleep when they got to Lively Town.
To Lively Town… Espurr's weary mind clung to that one phrase as she felt her eyelids begin to droop and she couldn't keep them open anymore and…
~\({O})/~
Slowly coming to. Espurr blinked herself awake.
Her scarf was twisted and felt tight on her neck, and she could feel the dust in her fur. The sky above was black, illuminated only by the strong shining moon. It was nighttime.
In an instant, Espurr came to her senses. How long had they slept for? That was dangerous! If those beheeyem had stumbled upon them while they were sleeping…
…And yet, they hadn't. And Espurr couldn't deny she felt a little less tired. Maybe Tricky was right, maybe she was just too stressed out. For all she knew, the beheeyem weren't anywhere near—
The clack of some rolling rocks in the distance. Espurr froze. Speak of the—
But there was no use in trying to move now. That would only reveal their position. Espurr took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and reached out with her sixth sense.
She crept over the rugged walls of the mountain with the tendrils of her mind, feeling out for any other living thing in the area. It wasn't long before she found it: just around the corner from where she was sitting, a trio of living beings. She could feel the power they exuded, creeping ever closer. Creeping over the very rocks that Espurr's mind slunk back over. She saw in her mind the alien tendrils that advanced, and in an instant she knew exactly who they belonged to.
There you are.
Espurr's eyes shot open with a gasp sharp enough to alert anymon nearby to her presence. That Voice again… it had come directly from the beheeyems' mind. She could hear the beheeyem getting closer; the chase was up and she knew it.
"Tricky," Espurr hissed. She shook the fennekin violently until Tricky stirred with a whine. "Shh," Espurr cautioned, thrusting her arms out wildly.
"Whu…" Tricky looked up groggily, squinting to keep the moonlight out of her eyes. "What time is it?"
"It's the middle of the night, you need to get up, we're being followed and they're here," Espurr said in the space of a second, not even breaking to pause.
"We're being followed… ?" Tricky mumbled in tired confusion, half asleep.
"Yes!" Espurr exclaimed as quietly as possible. She could feel herself trembling all over. She cast a frantic glance at the entrance to make sure they weren't here yet. "Get up, please!"
Tricky clumsily pulled herself to her feet, and Espurr snatched the exploration bag up once Tricky's head was off it. But it was too late. When Espurr and Tricky turned around, they faced the beheeyem.
The beheeyem moved slowly, as if savoring Espurr and Tricky's fear. Tricky finally seemed to realize the full scope of the danger, snapping wide awake. The beheeyem began to raise the rapidly flickering lights on their limbs in unison. Black sparks collected around their blinkers.
Whatever they were planning, Espurr wasn't having it. Her eyes narrowed—she concentrated on the cliff above her, and then directed a blast of psychic energy up at one of the rocks. A headache spiked up her forehead and made her grunt in pain, but it had done what she wanted it to. The blast dislodged a ton of rocks, that all began to fall down towards them both—
Espurr and Tricky both jumped back just in time. The rockslide tumbled down with a series of loud crashes and completely blocked off the road in front of them. Slowly, they both raised themselves from the ground. The space behind the rocks was silent.
"Did we get them?" Tricky asked.
"I don't know," Espurr admitted.
But she was determined to find out. Closing her eyes, she tried to reach out with her sixth sense again…
The avalanche of rocks suddenly exploded outward—
Both Espurr and Tricky were caught by projectile rocks flying away from the pile. Espurr was sent flying across the path and landed safely on her rump. Tricky was blown clear off the edge of the cliff. She caught the edge by a paw and nothing more.
"Espurr!" she shrieked out in terror, scrabbling with her other three paws to get a good pawhold on the cliff ledge. "Help me!"
The beheeyem were advancing through the settling dust. Their flickering lights blinked Espurr in the eye. She scrambled out of the way as a ball of darkness suddenly flew towards her. It made a visible indent in the ground.
Espurr's head snapped over at the sound of Tricky's shouts, and she immediately dropped her bag and scrambled over to pull her back up onto the ledge. But it was too late—Tricky's one paw finally lost its hold on the ground. With a horrified yelp, Tricky fell off the cliff.
Espurr's world seemed to slow down. Her ears shone, then unfurled. No, this wasn't happening. This couldn't happen. She wasn't going to let it happen. She couldn't. She was… She was going to…
Nearly ten feet below the cliff's ledge, Tricky found herself suspended in midair. She panted in fear, held in place. Visibly straining, Espurr slowly pulled Tricky back up on top of the cliff.
Once she was set on the ground, Tricky collapsed into Espurr's fur, shaking all over. Espurr hugged her tightly. Her ears lost their sheen and went limp.
They had both forgotten about the beheeyem.
Espurr didn't remember until an alien psychic blast nearly buffeted them off the cliff. It would have, if Espurr hadn't managed to combat it at the last second with a barrier of her own. But it took everything out of her. It made her dizzy; her vision grew fuzzy and tinged with yellow, and she could hear her pulse thundering through her ears. It was all she could do not to faint at the edge of a cliff. Barely, she was able to make out black sparks collecting around the lights once more. All she could do was close her eyes and hope it was quick…
But suddenly, the attack flew elsewhere.
Something in retaliation landed in the middle of the pathway, creating a thunderous crack and throwing debris everywhere.
When Espurr opened her eyes again, she caught the cone-hats of the beheeyem turning tail and fleeing down the mountain. Where they had used to be, somemon in a long green cloak twirled their staff for show.
Espurr squinted, trying to make out their cloaked savior's species. But Tricky's eyes suddenly lit up in recognition.
"I know who that is!" she exclaimed in awe. "That's—"
Ampharos gave his staff one more twirl and firmly wedged the pointy end into the rocky ground beneath him as he watched the beheeyem run off like the cowards they were. He adjusted his cloak and then walked over to Espurr and Tricky. The orb on his tail shone extra bright, acting as a lantern.
"Ampharos!"
Tricky broke the silence first, leaping over and wrapping Ampharos in a tight hug. Espurr watched her from where she sat, with something between shock and surprise. The wheels in her brain started turning: This seemed too convenient. How could he have been in just the right place at just the right time to save them? He couldn't have been wandering around in the mountains for two weeks, that wasn't right. So for him to be here, now…
The expedition gadget in her bag suddenly felt a lot heavier. This could be the start of a greater trap. For now, she had to assume he was working with the beheeyem.
Ampharos patted Tricky on the head with a paw, then stood back up.
"You two are a long way from home," he said. "I must ask: what brings you all the way out here?"
Espurr cleared her throat, making her best attempt to not look disheveled as she stood up. "We're headed to—"
"—To Lively Town!" Tricky excitedly finished for her. "We're going to join the Expedition Society with our junior membership!"
"Ah, Lively Town!" Ampharos exclaimed jovially. "It just so happens I'm headed there myself! And..." he glanced back in the direction the beheeyem had gone running for dramatic effect. He lowered his voice. "It seems the path is dangerous tonight. What say we travel the rest of the way together? I'll even see you to the Expedition Society when we get there."
"Wait a minute," Espurr interjected. "How do we know we can trust you?"
Ampharos looked a bit taken aback. "Well, I just saved you two, did I not?"
"You never said why you did that. How did you know we were going to be here?"
"Do you need a reason to do something for somemon?" Ampharos asked without skipping a beat. Berry crackers. This kid was shrewd. He could feel the child's psychic tendrils probing the outer thoughts of his brain, but chose not to comment.
Espurr finally retracted her mind, somewhat satisfied that Ampharos didn't have malicious intent. She dusted herself off, dropped the argument, and walked over to collect her bag.
Ampharos unwedged his staff from the ground. The scent of the mystery dungeon painted the breeze from the path behind. Wherever the beheeyem had run, they could not have gone far.
"We'd best get going, I'd say," Ampharos said, walking back to Espurr and Tricky with his staff once more. "Our shadowy pursuers are not far behind."
~\({O})/~
They traveled until dawn. Espurr and Tricky were delighted to find out that Ampharos had brought along glorious food! The two of them greedily sunk their teeth into a pair of apples like they had never eaten before in their life. Ampharos, walking slightly ahead of them, took a polite bite of his own and tried to act like he had any idea of where he was going. (He didn't, he was just following the path and hoping he was going the right way.)
The path led them up and around one more big mountain, where the sun had finally risen enough to let the three pokemon see their surroundings without the help of Ampharos' tail. It wasn't long before Tricky, back to her usual juvenile self and scampering ahead of the group, hopped upon a small boulder and promptly began to freak out.
"We're here!" she crowed excitedly to the skies. Hopping off the boulder, Tricky sprinted all the way back to Espurr and Ampharos in the space of a second. "We're here! We're here! I can see Lively Town!"
Espurr's face brightened at that news. She quickened her pace and began to jog after Tricky. Once she was far enough away, Ampharos let out a silent sigh of relief. His awful sense of direction hadn't killed them after all.
Sure enough, Lively Town was just a downhill walk away. Walking up to the boulder, Espurr saw the town in all its brilliant colors, with vibrant shades of red and green and blue and purple dotting the town's roofs. In the middle, on a hill slightly elevated from the rest of the town, was a large purple building with bright yellow turreted roofs and a tower with a top floor that looked suspiciously like a connection orb.
"Look at that!" Tricky said loudly, pointing out the building with one paw while bouncing on the other three. "That must be the Expedition Society!"
"Right you are," Ampharos said from behind them. Espurr looked back to see him walking up with his staff. "What say we go get you both acquainted?" He yawned. "I could use a spot of rest on the side."
"Yes yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes!" Tricky screeched, bouncing higher than a spoink. She eagerly led the way down the mountain and to the entry archway of the town, and even Ampharos had to run a little bit to keep up.
~\({O})/~
Expedition Society Headquarters
The Expedition Society had looked small from afar. Now that Espurr was closer, it loomed above her. The tall tower in the middle reached at least four stories high—taller than any building in Serenity Village. Espurr, Tricky, and Ampharos were all cast in its shadow.
Ampharos held back, pretending to be busy checking some of the missions on the billboard. When Espurr looked back he silently waved them both off into the building. Tricky took the invitation without hesitation, pushing open the giant double doors and dashing in. With one last wary glance at Ampharos, Espurr reluctantly followed.
The Expedition Society's lobby was dazzling and took both Espurr and Tricky off guard. The floors were decked out in the same brilliant colors that the outside of the building sported, and a large staircase with golden railings stood in front of them. But for all its fanciness, the lobby was completely empty.
"Where are all the explorers?" Tricky's befuddled voice cut through the silence.
"Oh!"
Both Espurr and Tricky's heads turned to see a small dedenne lugging a stack of papers larger than she was along. She quickly straightened the papers, set them aside, and scurried forward. "Hi! Welcome to the Expedition Society. May I—"
She held her paw out, then realized that Tricky wasn't the best candidate for a paw-shake, then offered it to Espurr instead. Espurr just watched it with caution.
"Um…" Dedenne cleared her throat, a little uneasy at Espurr's silence. "Sorry, you caught us a bit early today. Technically we don't open for another half-hour, but here's what I can do—" she scurried back to her stack of papers, and took a blank one. "—I can have you write down your mission request right here, and one of our esteemed members will get on it shortly after we open!" she grinned widely, then faltered, looking down at the paper. "No, wait, you'll probably want one with the proper form…"
Quick as a flash, she snatched the paper back and ran back over to the stack.
"Agh! So disorganized today…" Espurr heard her snap to herself as she rummaged through the papers.
"I think there's some kind of misunderstanding," Espurr said. She took a deep breath, preparing "We're looking for—"
"—To join!" Tricky cut in, finishing Espurr's sentence.
Dedenne looked just about as shocked as Espurr. She let out a little titter of nervousness.
"I'm… sorry," she began, "but that's a bit above my pay grade. Besides, you two are still kids! Why don't you come back when you're a bit older?"
Tricky locked up. Her ears flopped downwards, and she began to tremble. Espurr was hit with red-hot waves of emotion coming straight from her. It sent her reeling to the side a little, and she had to move somewhat further away from Tricky before it was bearable.
"It's alright, Dedenne; they're with me." Ampharos' voice cut in cleanly, putting a stop to Tricky's emotional crisis.
"Chief!" Dedenne immediately straightened up, going back to picking up her papers. "You... left. Again." She cleared her throat perfunctorily.
"I had an important matter of business to attend to," Ampharos replied. "Namely, rescuing these two." He gestured to both Espurr and Tricky, standing in the background.
"Wait," Espurr said, looking at Ampharos. "'Chief'? You're the chief here?"
Ampharos frowned wryly.
"Well, that jig's up."
He flashed his cape again, ruffling Dedenne's papers and causing her to hold them down protectively. "Indeed!" he declared, taking a flamboyant pose. "Know me as Ampharos, proud Chief of the Expedition Society!"
"Chief, could you cut down a bit on the declarations please?" All four 'mon in the room turned to see Bunnelby, walking into the room like he'd just been resurrected from the grave. "I just woke up; all this noise is makin' my ears fall off."
"Ah, sorry for that," Ampharos gave a graceful bow of apology. "Good to see you up and at 'em."
Bunnelby 'hmm'd in acknowledgment as he took a spot against the wall to finish waking up.
"Wait." Tricky perked up again, looking like she had the key to saving the world. "If you're the chief, then you call all the shots around here, right?"
In an instant she was pressed up tight against Ampharos' leg, hugging it like her life depended on it and staring up at Ampharos with baby doll eyes. "Can we join? Pleeeeaaase?"
Ampharos couldn't say no to eyes like that. (And of course, it was the perfect excuse he needed—not that he was saying that aloud.)
"Of course," he said jovially, ignoring the looks of shock from both Dedenne and Bunnelby. Espurr would have been surprised at this point, but she expected it.
"Why are you doing this?" she asked.
"Why not?" Ampharos replied.
"There is an age-restriction rule imposed upon us by our parent organization," Dedenne noted.
"I'm sure they won't mind." Ampharos brushed it off nonchalantly. He turned to Espurr.
"Why don't you stick around for the briefing?" he said. "You haven't met everymon here yet."
Espurr was about to ask why they should, but Ampharos walked past her and planted his staff against the wall.
"All will be explained in due time," he said, reading her eyes.
Espurr folded her arms. She'd have to hold Ampharos to that. Especially since Tricky was far too awestruck to listen to reason right now.
One by one, the members of the Expedition Society trickled into the room. Espurr counted a bird pokemon who looked very tired and grumpy, a buizel who was busy stretching, a trio of pokemon off to the side who were quietly bickering amongst each other, and something puffy with a huge tongue she was getting obscene mental vibes off of.
"Morning, all." Espurr looked up at the top of the stairs, where perhaps one of the strangest pokemon she had ever seen stood: the lower part of their body was comprised of two bushy pant legs, and they sported a large maw on the backside of their head.
"Ah, morning." Ampharos bowed politely. "I believe that's all of us."
"It would seem so," Mawile said, walking down the stairway. Her eyes settled on Espurr and Tricky, but she didn't say anything.
"Now that we are all gathered here," Ampharos said, his voice the only sound in the room. "I have a special announcement to make." He gestured to Espurr and Tricky. "Effective immediately, consider these two brave young explorers members of the Expedition Society. Feel free to introduce yourselves."
Ampharos wisely backed off, and let the chaos reign.
"Wait a minute." Buizel was the first one to break the silence. "These pichu? Explorers?"
"Yes," said Ampharos.
"I have to share my food with two more pokemon now?" Swirlix cried out.
"Yes," said Ampharos.
"Permission to be exempt from introductions, chief?" Nickit muttered from the sidelines.
"Denied," said Ampharos. He looked at Espurr and Tricky. "Would you two like to start?"
"I'll start!" Tricky hopped up and strode into the middle of the room. "Hi! My name's a secret, but you can call me Tricky! I've always wanted to join the Expedition Society and now I'm here!"
The entire room was left silent in the wake of Tricky's declaration.
"I'm Espurr," Espurr added helpfully from the sidelines. "I'm Tricky's partner. Hi."
Somewhere in a corner, Jirachi, who had forgotten to take his remedy again, snored loudly.
Mawile leaned in towards Ampharos. "Permission to speak to you in my office, Chief?"
"Granted," said Ampharos.
The introductions continued on for what felt like almost a half-hour, and Espurr had to shake every paw and wing. There was Buizel, the cocky and blunt one, and Archen, who seemed every bit the opposite. Holly, Granite, and Cinder were an independent rescue team who had been assigned to the Expedition Society by HAPPI to fill their member quota. Nickit was snide and Espurr couldn't read her at all, but promised to patch them up if they ever got hurt. Jirachi was asleep, and for some reason no-mon wanted to wake him.
Ever-so-slowly, the crowd dispersed, with varying degrees of reactions to Espurr and Tricky's arrival. Espurr noted that the slobbery tongue thing was too busy slobbering to properly greet her, but it slunk off to whatever awful lair it must have made for itself in the kitchen so she pointedly didn't bring it up.
Tricky promptly excused herself on a self-hosted tour of the building as soon as the introductions were over, which left Espurr alone in the lobby, for the most part. Bunnelby, one of the quieter 'mon in the room, suddenly opened his bag and pulled out a brightly shining connection orb. He slotted it in an expedition gadget just like the one Espurr had in her own bag, and pressed a button near the top.
"Hmm? You need what?"
A pause.
"No, I'm free today. I'll be right there."
Bunnelby removed the orb, stuffed it and the gadget back in his bag, and then hurried up the stairs in a flash. Espurr watched him go. She looked around the lobby, which was now completely empty apart from herself and Jirachi's snoring. The morning had been eventful as the night before it and she felt exhausted. But to simply crash somewhere in the building would be impolite, especially when they hadn't even been given rooms to sleep in yet.
In that case… Espurr looked around to see which direction Tricky had went, but realized she had no clue. And she wasn't going to crash in the middle of the lobby. Ampharos had gone to the second floor, though. Maybe she'd go there.
~\({O})/~
Expedition Society Headquarters ~ Second Floor
The room upstairs was dark, and a gate had been slipped over the top of the stairs. Luckily, it was just a gate and nothing more. Espurr hung back in the shadows, trying to get a good look at what was going on further in the room.
There was something in the middle of the room that looked like a large contraption Espurr could only guess the function of. It seemed to operate like a large expedition gadget, projecting images onto a large white sheet through a connection orb.
"Thank you for attending."
Espurr didn't recognize that voice. She watched for a moment. Espurr continued watching from her hiding spot. Sure enough, Mawile walked into her vision only a second after. She had her spectacles on, and seemed to be in full instructor mode. She clicked buttons on the panel, and photographs of paw-written pages from an ancient textbook flashed across the wall.
Clack. Mawile rolled the shutters over the windows on the second floor of the building, casting the room into darkness. The room was in projector mode, and the only pokemon inside were Mawile, Ampharos, and Bunnelby. The Pokemon Nexus projected light through a connection orb and onto the wall. From behind the gate fencing off the second floor from the stairs, Espurr took a spot by the shadows and began to spy.
Mawile adjusted the spectacles she was wearing. She clicked buttons on the panel; photographs of paw-written pages from an ancient textbook flashed across the wall.
"Thank you for attending,'" she began. "The ancient text we see in these photographs dates back almost 10,000 years. It tells the story of the downfall of the Humans. Porgyon's writings speak of an alternate horror world filled with monsters beyond one's imagination."
Another click of the button. Claw-drawn images of a Void Shadow flickered onto the screen, as well as ones of a blood-red mountain enveloped by fire. Espurr barely managed to keep herself from expressing her x in some way. She had been right. The Expedition Society did have their paws wrapped up in this mess.
"It tells of three seals built across the world, meant to keep these monsters where they came from," Mawile continued. It took Espurr a second to remember that she wasn't supposed to be there. She couldn't do much else, but she continued listening intently. Whatever they were up to, they seemed to know what they were talking about. She could learn. "One on the Water Continent. One on the Sand Continent. And one built on a desolate island, forever lost to sea. These seals plug the cracks between our world, and theirs. If one or more were ever to open, living hell would be unleashed upon us. But these seals erode naturally, and only by the means of ancient human artifacts placed at these sites can they be closed once more."
A click from the machine, and the photo on the wall changed to something much more modern—a picture of the Sand Continent.
"Observe," Mawile continued. "On the Sand Continent, there exists a dungeon known as the Sands of Time, that fits the criteria of this legend almost perfectly. While I would normally consider it folly to base my conclusions simply on legend, considering recent events I think it prudent to take action upon what little information we may have regarding this. Bunnelby, as group spelunker, I've chosen you to travel over to the Sand Continent and scope out the dungeon for us. You are only required to take pictures and report back to the Society. If you see anything out of the ordinary, report right back here. Is that understood?"
Bunnelby nodded.
"Yes, Ma'am," he said. "I-I'll be leaving tomorrow, right?"
Mawile nodded. "Of course. Feel free to take the day off and prepare."
"I will." Bunnelby stood up and picked up his bag. "I may leave now?"
Mawile nodded.
"You may."
Espurr took that as her que to get lost. When Bunnelby, Ampharos, and Mawile walked down the stairs, they found Espurr inspecting one of the lavender, gold-trimmed drawers that she could barely see over the top of.
She hoped they bought it.
~\({O})/~
Dining Hall
The dinner tasted somewhat tart that night, as if Swirlix' displeasure at having to share her normal excessive food portion with two more pokemon had leaked into the ingredients she used to cook. But it wasn't anything strong enough to complain about, and so no-mon did. After dinner, Espurr and Tricky were led by Dedenne to their rooms. Tricky had already given herself a tour of the building and thus knew the hallways well for somemon who had only been there a single day, but Espurr found them foreign to her despite wandering around them for a bit. She'd never been in a building this large before—every hallway seemed like it went on for miles, and there were multiple doors leading down both sides.
"This is where you two will sleep," Dedenne said, leading them through a room with an overhanging curtain attached. "There's beds set up for you both already. I'd suggest using them; you'll be up bright and early tomorrow."
She left, and soon after the lights in the hall went out.
Espurr and Tricky settled into the two straw beds in the room, winding down for the night. Espurr appreciated how comfortable the bed was compared to the rocks of the mountain range.
"Can you believe it?"
The sound came from Tricky's side of the room. Espurr lifted her head up from the bed, wearily.
"Believe what?"
"That we're actually here! I never thought we'd get to make it here, or even join! But here we are… it feels like a dream."
Espurr found herself agreeing with Tricky. It all felt like a dream. She could see the many lights of Lively Town glittering outside their window; a dazzling sight she never would have fathomed was possible back in Serenity Village. But yet, it was so far from home. And this building full of pokemon she barely knew couldn't count as a home. No matter how much Tricky seemed to blindly follow them. No matter how nice they seemed. Not when she'd caught a whiff of the very same thing they had just run from Serenity Village to escape.
"It does," was all she said in response.
"Do you think we'll get to go on a mission tomorrow?" Tricky asked.
Espurr hoped not. She wanted a day of rest, at the very least. A day to regroup. A day to plan, if it all went horribly wrong.
"We might. If we can get up for it first. Aren't you sleepy?"
"Yeah… night, I guess."
Tricky snuggled down into her straw bed, closing her eyes and falling silent. Espurr turned the other way, trying not to think about the events of the past day.
Just what had they gotten themselves into?
~\({O})/~
Music of the Week!
Will You Help Me? – James Newton Howard