A huge mistake I noticed (well, huge to ME,) I've been calling Razor Leaf, Leaf Attack. I don't know why, I'll fix it along with anything else that needs fixing, like I promised.

Biggest chapter so far, enjoy!

Chapter 15: Saving Pipton

Isaac led Lloyd down the snow covered path, the storm getting calmer as time passed, Lloyd hoped this was somehow a sign, a sign that the worst had already come and passed.

Lloyd was surprise, he had yet to see another Piplup since coming here. Were they sleeping somewhere or something? Lloyd decided to ask, it would probably pass the time anyways as they trekked down through the cold, mountain path.

"Where is everyone Isaac? I thought Pipton was a town, but you're the only pokemon I've seen."

"All the others live near the lake, they almost never leave. Its where they sleep, and its where they eat, they never have reason to leave."

"Then why are you and your father not there?"

"I'm sure if my dad wanted to, he would go down there with the others. But me, I'm different, I have interests beyond just eating and sleeping. That's why I chose to live in that house, to keep my possessions in. Father is just there to protect me, to keep me safe."

"Other Interests, like what?"

"Reading, writing, what ever strikes my fancy at the time."

"What kind of stuff do you write, if you don't mind me asking."

"Not much I'm afraid, I haven't really found the inspiration needed to write anything half decent. I'm waiting for something, or someone, to spark my creativity."

"Well, I hope you find it soon."

Neither said anything else for a while. Lloyd wasn't much of a conversation starter, and Isaac didn't seem very talkative at all. Lloyd wasn't used to the silence, ever since waking up he's had Rita at his side, talking away.

Lloyd was already starting to miss her.

"Your about to see your Piplup Lloyd, the lake is right ahead."

Lloyd was thinking so hard about Rita, he hadn't even noticed the Lake Pipton come into view. Although Lloyd wouldn't call it a lake himself, it was basically a hole in the ice that a Snorlax could barely fit through. Around the 'lake' was the Piplup Lloyd was expecting to see, a lot of Piplup. Surrounding the lake had to be at least a thousand, if not two thousand, Piplup. Some wandered around, but most were sitting down in the snow, their eyes closed.

"We should go around, everyone is starving right now and if they smell our food they will probably steal our bag."

When Isaac said that, a Piplup they didn't notice had walked up to them, unseen, from their left.

"Pip?" Was all it said, it curiously stared at Lloyd.

"Um, hello?"

"Piplup." It came closer to Lloyd, so much closer that Lloyd had to lean back a little to avoid getting poked in the eye with its peak. The Piplup obviously didn't get the concept of personal space.

"Hey!" Said Isaac. "Pip, Piplup Pip!" The Piplup that was in Lloyds face looked at Isaac. Lloyd backed off while it was distracted.

Isaac took a small piece of apple of his bag and showed it to the other Piplup. "Piplup, pip pip!" Isaac threw the apple piece off towards the lake, and the other Piplup chased after it.

"What was that about?" Asked Lloyd.

"He thought you might have food."

"And what about what he said, he definitely wasn't speaking anything I could understand."

"Most Piplup, and even a lot of their evolutions, can't handle complex language. They speak there own unique and simple language."

"Why can you speak normally then?"

"I don't know, I always figured I was just smart… Or at least, smarter then the others. But that doesn't matter, Piplup are to well known as complete simpletons."

Isaac stood there in deep thought. Lloyd went over and put his paw on Isaac's shoulder.

"I don't think that, not at all. You guys are just… Different is all." Isaac smiled. (or at least, Lloyd thought it was a smile, hard to tell because of the beak.)

"Thank you Lloyd, if only the rest of the world was like you."

Towards the lake they both heard the chirping of Piplup. Both of them saw that about a dozen of them coming their way.

"Oh no, we gotta go Lloyd."

"Uh, right."

They ran away from the hungry Piplup, towards the Celsius Cave. The pokemon didn't follow for long, eventually losing interest and returning to the lakeside.

---

Lloyd and Isaac stood at the entrance of Celsius Cave, the large opening looking like the mouth of a giant monster. Lloyd couldn't see more then a few feet into the cave, it was so dark.

"Wow, this place is really scary looking."

"If you want to turn back now Lloyd..."

"No I can't, you need me, the other Piplup need me, Rita needs me. I can't let fear get in the way."

He looked at the dark, gaping cave again.

"Even if it's a lot of fear..."

---

Location: Celsius Cave, Basement 9

All was going according to plan, the machine that baited the lake with the berry juice was off, and the fish in the lake had all gone off somewhere else to feed. It wouldn't be long before all the retched Piplup will all have starved, or at the very least, fled somewhere far away. As long as they were gone, Maverick didn't care.

"So, Maverick, what are we going to do now?"

It was that idiotic Raticate, after leaving home and coming here, they had followed and insisted they accompany me. I could have just killed them and been rid of them, but that would probably anger their boss, and I wouldn't get paid.

"Just wait here, we need to stay until the Brotherhood guys get here. Once they do we'll attack them and kill them, all three of us."

"But what if they are too strong or..."

Maverick got close to Raticate. Out of fear of being punished for speaking out, Raticate braced for some kind of assault. Instead, Maverick got down to Raticates level and spoke softly to him.

"Do not worry. I have a backup plan in case they do defeat us. I assure you there is no way we will fail."

Maverick went to the berry machine and fiddled with a few things, leaving Raticate to stand there, awe struck.

That 'Master Zar' they spoke of must have abused these two quite a bit. No wonder the idiot got himself captured, any plan worth doing requires servants to help you do it, no matter how incompetent.

Soon they would arrive, and Maverick would kill them both, and take Glacier Mountains for his own, rich as he could possibly imagine.

---

Location: Celsius Cave, Basement 1

The first floor of the cave was relatively empty of wild pokemon, Lloyd figured most of them would be in the deeper parts of the cave. Thanks to Isaacs scarf, the cave wasn't cold at all, he felt warm all over, like the scarf was emitting some kind of aura or shield or something.

To pass the time, Lloyd was telling Isaac the story of how Rita and him had met.

"... And if all that wasn't enough, a Muk came out of nowhere and actually ATE her!"

"Hahaha, she must has stunk so badly when you guys got out."

"You know it, she smelled like she was living in a garbage can all her life! After I saved her, we got to the basement of the sewer, where we fought this Chamaeleon named Zar, and beat him! After that, a whole bunch of crazy stuff happened."

"Like what?"

"First of all, Zar turned back into a Charmander when we got back to the surface."

"He devolved? I didn't think that was possible."

"According to Ewan, that guy from Team Torrent I told you about, it's a very rare, and very bad thing. And even weirder then that, after we got cleaned up at a spa Ewan sent us too, and went to bed, the entire city was attacked by a single pokemon. He killed a whole bunch of people and destroyed quite a few buildings too."

"That's terrible, did they catch the pokemon?"

"Nope, he escaped. After that, Ewan sent us here as our first mission, we got help from a squirtle along the way, who had to get left behind in Glacier Tunnel thanks to a trap, and Rita was attacked by that Sneasel, you know the rest."

"Wow, that's quite the story. I kind of admire your courage, the pair of you certainly are a valiant team."

"Yeah, thanks."

They cleared another room, which was empty, like every room they've been it so far.

"This is good, isn't it?" Asked Lloyd.

"I guess so, but its weird, even the upper levels have at least a few wild pokemon... This is strange to say the least."

In the next room, which was also empty, Lloyd and Isaac stopped to look around. Something wasn't right.

"Lloyd, lets stop for a second, this isn't normal. I think..."

But before he could finish, right by his head a great ball of fire whizzed by, catching Isaac by surprise, but not harming him. Swiftly he ducked behind the wall beside the hallway it came from.

"That's more like it, it seems the wild pokemon planned to ambushed us."

From the hallway came the pokemon that launched the fire attack, a Magby.

Lloyd ducked behind the wall opposite to Isaac.

"I didn't expect fire pokemon is this place. I thought it would just be ice types and such."

"Most of the pokemon here are fire types, they can keep warm quite easily because they are fire types."

Well, that kinda makes sense I guess.

Lloyd and Isaac hadn't noticed, but the room they had stopped in only had one exit. And the one they came is was blocked by the Magby that attacked them, who was joined by another Magby, and a Zubat.

Isaac poked his head around the corner and out his mouth came several large bubbles, obviously the bubble attack. Most of them missed, but a few hit the first Magby, stunning it momentarily.

Copying Isaacs tactic, Lloyd charged up a thunder shock attack, rounded the corner for a sec, fired it at the group of pokemon, and quickly returned to safety. Lloyds attack hit the zubat, who flew right into it, it crashed into the icy snow below, and fainted.

One down, two to go.

Isaac repeated his bubble attack, this time hitting the Magby with every single bubble. The Magby couldn't stand the attack and was knocked out.

Only one was left, but instead of staying to fight, it turned tail and fled, knowing it had no chance alone.

"Whew, that was close, your a great fighter Isaac."

"I would like to say the same about you, your aim is especially good. This place should be a piece of cake."

With the wild pokemon no longer an issue, Lloyd and Isaac quickly found the stairs to the second basement level.

"Here we are, lets get going as soon as... Isaac?"

Isaac wasn't listening, he seemed to be digging in the snow.

"Um, what are you doing?"

"There's something here."

Lloyd went over to where Isaac was digging and saw a small, blue object poking out slightly. Lloyd saw that it was an orb, like the two escape orbs he had found before.

"Wow, nice find. What orb is it?"

"One sec..."

Isaac continue to dig away the heavy snow. When the orb was dug out more then half way, Isaac grabbed onto it and popped it out.

"Lets see... According to the inscription, its an evasion orb. Pretty cool."

"What's it do?"

"Does something to your body, makes dodging attacks much easier. Really useful if your fighting a really strong pokemon."

"We should save that for later, sounds like a life saver."

Isaac promptly put it in his bag. "Done, and done. Looks like that's everything, lets go."

"Right. The sooner the better."

---

Location: Celsius Cave, Basement 4

So far the mystery dungeon was pretty standard. Fight wild pokemon, find stairs, rinse and repeat. Nothing unusual happened, and the only things they found were poke and a few Oran Berrys.

When they stepped onto the floor of basement 4, something felt strange. The ground was much wetter and slushy then the last three levels. Lloyd seemed to be the only one who noticed.

"Um, Isaac, is the ground supposed to be so wet?"

"Its the fire pokemon here, the deeper we get the more of them there are, and the more of them the hotter it gets. By the time we get to Basement 8, the entire place will be very smooth, grey stone."

Lloyd hadn't noticed before, but it was a little warmer then before. Still cold, but not as cold as anywhere else he's been in since getting here except Isaacs house.

"Speaking of the fire pokemon, here's one now."

Isaac was right, on its way to them was a tiny, black and yellow pokemon. It was a Cyndaquil.

It growled at them from across the room, then began to ready one of its fire attacks. Its head back and its back ablaze like a tiny campfire.

Isaac didn't waste time, he fired a bubble attack at the Cyndaquil, hitting it. Unfortunately, the attack neither fainted nor even made Cyndaquil flinch. Its fire attack, flamethrower, was totally successful, hitting Isaac, engulfing him in flame.

Isaac wasn't defeated, but it must have hurt like crazy. Lloyd stepped in and finished off Cyndaquil with a thunder shock.

Lloyd went over to the injured Piplup. "Are you hurt? How bad is it?"

"I think I'll be fine, the attack didn't burn me luckily." He opened up his bag and took out an oran berry, which he immediately ate. He closed his eyes for a second and exhaled deep. "Whew, much better."

"That's good, last thing I want is another friend to get hurt."

"You think of me as your friend? Huh, thanks man."

"What? Don't you have any friends in Pipton?"

"Not really, I have me, my father, and a bunch of other Piplup not worth making friends with. All they care about is food."

"Then why do you help them?"

"I don't know, I never really had any reason to leave. I figured nobody outside Glacier Mountains would accept me."

Lloyd thought for a minute, he got a great idea that would definitely help the both of them.

"Why don't you join our team? We need a third member anyways, your a pretty cool guy, your tough, smart..."

"Hmm... Let me think about it ok?"

"Yeah, no problem!"

---

Location: Celsius Cave, Basement 7

As Isaac had said, the amount of wild pokemon in each floor had grown each time they got deeper. The snow was completely gone now, the cave now a grey, smooth stone. Not even puddles of melted ice and snow remained, the entire room as nearby hallways were completely dry. Lastly, it was so hot, Lloyd and Isaac both had to take off their scarves, which Isaac stored inside his bag.

"Wow, this place looks completely different now." Said Lloyd.

"From what I've read, its common for mystery dungeons to look different part way through. Sometimes they are filled with pools of water in the deeper levels, sometimes they grow so dark you can't see more then a foot in front of you. Its best to always be prepared for any situation because of that."

"How far before we get to the last floor?"

"The next basement level is where the machine is. Since its such a small floor, most of it being behind a door to keep wild pokemon from messing with anything, our only worry down there is the three pokemon who came here."

"Well, lets go, we can't waist time. To many pokemon are waiting for us."

Isaac nodded. "Right."

With Lloyd in front, they went down the path of the nearest hallway like tunnel. At the end was a room, in it was some poke. Lloyd scooped it up and put it in the bag. Now empty, they left the room on route to the next.

This time, the room was completely empty, but on the ground there was a lot of disturbed dust, as if pokemon had recently been here.

"Well, lets not stick around." Said Lloyd. "Looks like pokemon could be nearby somewhere..."

"Yeah, but something doesn't feel right, be careful."

Cautiously, both made their way through the room. Looking around with every step for any hidden pokemon ready to ambush them. They stopped in the middle of the room.

"I guess I was wrong." Said Lloyd. "Nobodies here. This rooms empty after..."

"Oh, crud. Lloyd, we're in trouble."

Lloyd turned around and saw Isaac was looking straight up, when Lloyd copied him, he saw a bunch of pokemon clinging to the ceiling, eyes all on the two of them. A quick count told Lloyd that there was nine of them.

They dropped from the ceiling, all landing in places to block them from escaping. Both hallways had at least three guarding it, with the remaining three beside them.

"Oh no, what are we going to do Isaac? What's going on?"

"Its a monster house, when wild pokemon sense someone coming, they all hide in wait to ambush the intruders all at once. I don't know what to do, I'm sorry."

With angry looks in there eyes, the pokemon, several Magby, a Magmar, two Zubat and another Cyndaquil, all slowly approached Isaac and Lloyd.

"Lloyd, our only chance is to fight, if we be careful, we could do this. You ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be."

"Lets do this then!"

Lloyd looks around for the nearest target, one of the Magbys. He charged up and attacked it with a thunder shock, fainting it instantly. Isaac had targeted the lone Cyndaquil with a bubble, but missed and hit one of the Zubat. Luckily the attack knocked it out, so it was still successful of an attack.

The Magmar began to cough up a black smoke.

"What's it doing Isaac?"

"Smokescreen, don't breath it in and stay close to me, its trying to make it hard for us to hit them from a distance with our attacks."

Isaac and Lloyd both attacked one last time, each taking out a Magby, before the remaining pokemon disappeared into the smoke. Isaac and Lloyd were now fighting blind.

The wild pokemon, now reduced to five, walked silently towards them, to not give their position away. By the time either Lloyd or Isaac could see them, they were too close to hit with their usual attacks.

The first two that they could see was the last Zubat, coming for Lloyd, and another Magby, trying to sneak in beside Isaac.

Lloyd knew that he was bigger and heavier then the Zubat, so before he let it attack, he jumped on it, causing it to crash and get crushed beneath Lloyd. He finished it off with a downward aimed thunder shock.

Isaac's beak was glowing white, which meant he was using his peck attack. Magby swung at Isaac, but he dodged backwards, then leapt forward, hitting the Magby in the forehead with his beak.

Out of nowhere though, the last Magby came out and jumped on Isaac, pinning him to the ground. Lloyd quickly rushed over and smacked it across the face with his tail, momentarily stunned, Isaac rolled onto his back and shot a bubble at it right in the face, finishing it off.

Only Magmar remained, and with the smoke beginning to clear, victory was guaranteed. Isaac shot at it from a distance with his bubble attack, giving Lloyd the cover needed to get close. Magmar didn't notice Lloyd coming as it dodged bubble after bubble. With a sweep of his tail, Magmar was knocked over by Lloyd, and was finished off with a bubble and thunder shock combo.

With magmar defeated, the monster house had been conquered.

"Woohoo! Great job Isaac!"

"Man, that was great, you were great Lloyd. Man oh man..."

Isaac turned to Lloyd, his flipper raised in the air in triumph.

"After this, I've come to a conclusion. I am accepting your offer, I will join your team. This has been the most fun I've ever had in my entire life! The fact I'm helping so many is definite bonus."

"That's great to hear! Welcome to the team Isaac!" Lloyd copied Isaacs stance. "With you aboard, we can't be defeated! We are going to be the best team the Brotherhood has ever witnessed!"

With the last of the wild pokemon defeated, and a spring in their steps, they preceded to the final room, where the stairs were located. Only one last obstacle in their way to finally saving Rita and Pipton.