The storm rages forth, the rain heavy as it pounds itself into the cracks of the ground. The wind howls and moans, beating against the unknown pokemon. He pauses for a moment, trying to fight against this strong current. It was just like before, nature fighting against him but this time, he wasn't going to stop until he got what he came for.
He runs through the trees, until he comes across a faint glow lighting up the darkened sky. The pokemon takes a few steps closer, his eyes transfixed on the glow. He reaches for it, still staring at it as if he can't believe it himself. He mumbles, "Is it really…?" Another step closer. "Yes, after searching for so long, I've finally found one. A Time Gear."
Lightning strikes a tree close to him and he is blinded momentarily, revealing a part of him to this world. Just as quickly as he had come, the unknown pokemon dashes into the darkness, the rain drowning out his movements and his outline as he vanishes.
"…Go for miles! Alright everyone, back to work. Hold on you two," Chatot says, looking at Mana and Riolu. He directs a wing over to the 'wanted' notice board and both pokemon walk over to it, looking at Chatot.
"Since you both are still new, I'll pick out an easy job for you to-" "W-wait, we have to f-fight these bad guys? I thought we were just going to explore dungeons and stuff, not catch criminals!" Riolu backs away slowly, his legs shaking together. His eyes grow big and he glances at Mana, but she is not paying attention. She squints ahead, looking at one poster in particular. Pinned at the center of the board is a familiar face and she walks over to touch a corner of the paper. Suddenly, her head begins to hurt. T-this...pain! She closes her eyes and instead of seeing nothing, she sees an unknown place.
Azurill skips forward until he hits a dead end. Looking around, he only sees the cliffs in front of him and nothing else except for his new friend, Drowzee. Azurill smiles and says, "Maybe we went the wrong way." He looks around again. "Oh, I hope my brother catches up soon; I don't want him to think I'm lost or anything. Do you think we should go back and look-" Drowzee's laughs out loud, cutting off the little pokemon.
"Your brother won't be coming after us. In fact, he won't be coming at all." "Wh…what do you mean?" "I mean that I only needed you; your brother was just in the way. Don't worry, you'll see him again if you cooperate." Drowzee takes a step towards Azurill, who takes a step back. His tail hits the wall and he gasps, terrified.
"C-cooperate? Wha-what do you mean?" "Oh it's simple really." Drowzee points to a small hole right next to Azurill and continues. "You're going to enter that little hole and find me my treasure that's supposedly hidden in there. You see, I'm too big to fit in, but when I came across you in the square yesterday, I knew that you were the perfect size so I pretended to help you look for your precious item. Hahaha! And you were so gullible in believing me too!" Drowzee laughs again, the sound echoing off the walls.
"N-No way! I'm not helping someone like you. You...you tricked me!" Azurill yells, tears welling up in his eyes. Where did his brother go? Did something happen to him? Azurill's thoughts run wildly around his head and he runs past Drowzee to get away, to move as far away from this villain as possible. Drowzee sees this and quickly blocks the pokemon from going any further. He smiles cruelly, his eyes flashing with anger and something else, something scary. Azurill shakes his head slowly and screams out, "Someone! H-help me!"
Drowzee's maniacal laugh drowns out Azurill's cries and Mana is suddenly shaking her head furiously, trying to get the laugh to stop. Riolu's mingled words bring Mana back to reality and immediately, she is gasping for air. Mana rips down the poster and holds it up in front of Riolu.
"Azurill and Marill are in danger! Remember him from yesterday?" Mana pants, her head still throbbing from her earlier headache. She doesn't wait for her friend's reply as she shoves the paper into their small pack. She runs up the ladder, ignoring her friend as she exits the guild.
"W-wait up Mana!" Riolu clambers up the ladder, trying to adjust the straps of the pack at the same time. He understands Mana's rush, but… Something's different about her, something...wrong. He flicks that thought away, hurrying to find the cyndaquil. Running out of the guild, he jumps a few steps at a time and allmost trips over Mana in the process. He looks over her and there is Marill, worried.
"Ah, it's you two from the market! Please, can you help me find my brother?" Marill explains what happened, his worried expression changing to panic as he finishes his story. Riolu and Mana listen intently until finally, Marill says, "I couldn't keep up and the next thing I knew, they disappeared! I don't know what to do and I don't think I can…I can…" Marill bursts into tears and Riolu tries, unsuccessfully, to calm down the blue pokemon.
"I-It's going to be alright. Mana and I will find him for you, right Mana?" Riolu looks at his friend with pleading eyes. He was never one to console any pokemon, but this situation demanded it. The only problem was that RIolu was terrified of going after a wanted criminal, especially going out there without any time for preparations. Wasn't his friend scared? Mana's voice cuts through his pessimism, her anger barely showing through as she faces Marill.
"There's nothing to worry about. Riolu and I will get Azurill back, promise." How dare Drowzee take advantage of those brothers without any remorse? Mana walks past, her anger surprising Riolu as he steps toward Marill. "U-uh yeah! We'll bring back your brother so there's nothing to worry about okay?" Riolu takes off after Mana, keeping pace with her as they travel towards their destination. When they reach the entrance, Riolu stops. His legs begin shaking and he hesitates to move forward. Mana glances back at her friend, but she is too impatient and angry to comfort him and she takes a deep breath.
"I know you're scared, but we promised Marill we'd save his brother. You know what Drowzee is capable of so there's no reason to back out now." "B-but Mana…maybe we should come back and let someone else do it instead. I don't think we're ready-"
"Ready?!" Riolu squeals when Mana lashes out at him.
"You were the one who wanted to be an explorer, so why are you backing out now? What happened to solving the mystery of your relic or finding buried treasure? You think everything is going to come to you every time you run away? We are an exploration team and we don't just find treasure, we help innocent pokemon find their justice. That's what we're doing now and you want to leave?! We promised Marill that we'd get his brother back, but if you want to run away, then go ahead. I'll find Drowzee, stop him if I have to, and get Marill back to safety all on my own…without you!" With that, Mana turns around and heads into the cave, leaving Riolu surrounded by her lingering words.
Mana throws her last sleep seed and runs away as another group of spinarak chase after her. She makes a left and squeezes herself in a corner, holding her breath as the pokemon scramble past her and disappear around the corner. She glances around, but there is no sign of any pokemon. Panting, she makes her way towards the stairs she had passed and climbs up. She comes face to face with an angry machop.
"U-uh…I don't want to fight you, but-" Machop uses low kick, but it misses. Without hesitation, Mana uses ember and Machop faints. She walks around him, ready to look for the next set of stairs. She never thought it would be so hard to make it through the mountainous area on her own. She feels guilty for snapping at Riolu, but is too afraid to face him. He might have went for help, or maybe he's upset that I yelled at him. Mana shakes her head in an attempt to erase her guilt. Sure she regrets how she handled the situation, but the thought of leaving Azurill with a wanted criminal any longer doesn't sit well with her.
Mana's stomach growls. She looks around, afraid that she had been caught, but there's no sign that any of the sleeping pokemon in front of her had heard. She glances at the staircase hiding behind a Nidorino and sighs, defeated. How was she going to get past him without waking him up? Mana remembers that Bidoof had told her that a Nidorino's horn was poisonous. I only grabbed a sleep seed, but Riolu still has our bag and I'm too weak and hungry to even try anything. Has she failed Azurill? Was everything she worked for already over?
"No, I still have some energy left. I can still fight, even for a little bit." With only Mana determination guiding her, she quietly walks towards the sleeping pokemon. Nidorino's eyes pop open, but Mana uses smokescreen and runs straight for the stairs. She feels a sharp piercing in her side as she runs up the stairs. She collapses at the top, watching as the stairs in front of her disappear. Her legs feel weak, her stomach aching for nourishment, and the poison that Nidorino injected is spreading through her body. She is unable to go any further, unable to save Azurill, unable to get her memories back, and unable to apologize to Riolu for the awful things she had said to him. The regrets she has spills out of her eyes, trailing down her cheeks. A blurry figure bends down, but Mana is too exhausted to do anything as her body rests on the cold ground. The exhaustion kicks in and she succumbs to the sleep, hearing no more of the voice yelling something and the touch that tugs her gently.
"…na. Ma…na." A paw nudges her, but she refuses to wake up. Why is someone trying to help her? She has been weakened but why is someone trying to make her feel worse? Another nudge and Mana moans, her muscles aching and her body grumbling from being woken up.
"Mana, please. Wake up. I can't do anything without you, I'm useless and a coward. I can't go up those stairs and face Drowzee like I did with Zubat and Koffing. You're my friend and I know that I can trust you to fight with me, but you have to wake up. Please, Mana. I can't do this…without you." Riolu hiccups, wiping his tears away. He sniffles, looking for a pecha berry buried somewhere in the bag.
"I'm sorry…Riolu." Mana tries to get up, but she is too weak to move. Riolu pulls out a pecha berry and breaks it into smaller pieces. He hands it to her and she nibbles on it, looking down in shame. "I said awful things to you and I know apologizing isn't enough, but-"
"Mm-mm, you were right. I should be the one saying sorry. I've always been afraid of anything that sounded dangerous and I've always ran from it. Meeting you helped me realize that I shouldn't just wait for answers to come to me; I should be the one to charge for it, so there's no reason for you to apologize." Riolu chuckles, but Mana notices him wiping away a tear. She says nothing, finishing up the rest of the berry. Riolu then hands her an oran berry, telling her that he'll scan for any pokemon.
"Okay, there's no one around, so we should be all right trying to find the stairs. How are you doing? Would you like to rest some more?" Mana shakes her head, feeling her strength returning. She makes a note of the berries she has eaten and with Riolu's help, Mana begins searching for this floor's set of stairs. It is not long when two nidorinos block their path, their horns dripping with poison. Mana flinches, remembering the poison from earlier. Both pokemon charge at them and Riolu holds his palms up, his whole body trembling.
"Mana, hurry! I'll hold them off while you get a-away." One nidorino uses poison sting, aiming straight for Riolu as the other one tackles from the side. Mana could only watch, paralyzed. A million different things run through her mind, but the one little thing snaps her out of her fear.
"It was because you were there that I was able to overcome my fear and fight for myself…" That's right, it was that time when we got back Riolu's relic from Zubat and Koffing. Mana's fear shakens her, but she decides to fight back. As long as Riolu is with me, I will fight for my beliefs and for my friend!
Riolu's eyes widen, his palms still in front of him as the poisonous horns come at him. To the side, the other nidorino charges straight for his legs. He has no time to move, no thoughts to scream at him, and his instinct to run had fled from him the second he chose to follow after Mana. What was he thinking? He thought he could do this, he thought he could overcome his fear. How utterly wrong he was, and now he is going to pay for his courage.
"Riolu, get down!" Mana's voice kills off any lingering panic and Riolu drops to the floor as something flies over him. Suddenly, the two nidorinos wander around aimlessly grumbling and pawing at the ground with unease. Mana uses smokescreen, then flees from the pokemon with Riolu following after her. After turning a corner, his legs finally give way and he collapses.
"Wh-what was that you threw at them?" "It's called a foe-fear orb. It caused the nidorino to be afraid of us, so they wouldn't attack. That's why they started avoiding us. Are you okay?" Mana looks at her friend, concerned. What she did was unthinkable, but smart. She shouldn't have gotten scared and froze like that while Riolu was in danger, but his words were able to calm her down long enough to think of a plan. Should she tell Riolu or should she wait until this is all over? No, I'll apologize to him later when we rescue Azurill. For now, I need to get ahold of myself and think. Mana shakes her head and looks around.
"We can't stay long. We have to find the stairs quickly before we run into any more danger. Can you stand?" Riolu gets up, ignoring the trembling of his legs. He smiles weakly at Mana and nods. "Okay, so are you ready? We don't have enough items to get us through, but we need to save some for Drowzee. I have a feeling he's going to be the toughest one to beat." Riolu only nods, not trusting his voice for fear that he will begin to cry. How can Mana be so calm? Why must I be the scaredy-cat and not some courageous pokemon like her? Riolu trails behind Mana as they walk through the floor's maze, searching for the staircase. Mana glances behind her a few times, keeping an eye on the depressed Riolu and she sighs quietly.
"Y-you know… If you hadn't come to save me back there, I would've died from the poison. But when we faced those nidorino, I was terrified because I remembered how their poison had affected me. I remembered how the pain felt and I couldn't move hwen I saw that you were surrounded. Even after you had told me to run, I couldn't. I was so afraid and I wanted to run away so badly, but then I remembered what you had said to me when we first met." Mana pauses, looking around the corner while refusing to glance back at Riolu. She beckons him to follow, continuing.
"You're not the only one who gets scared, but we all have a choice. Do we want it to rule over us or do we want to rule over them? I want to know what happened to me and why I have been turned into a pokemon, but I am afraid that I will learn something and I will regret it when I know the truth. You want to know more about your relic, but there is going to be a lot of difficult paths and you have to decide whether or not you want to go through them or just hide. Oh, there it is! The staircase." Mana gasps, then smiles. Riolu pauses as he glances at the stairs. Unlike the last floors, this set of stairs leads to light. Could it be that they have finally made it to the top? Riolu gulps, suddenly feeling the urge to run.
"Remember what I said." Mana stares at her friend, then looks up at the stairs. "I'm not going hide because I will be afraid of something, but getting back my memory is more important to me than my own fear. I will fight, so I am going up there. Are you also going to fight?" Riolu was wrong about Mana. Of course she has fears, how could he assume otherwise? I am willing to fight as long as she is! Someday, I will overcome my own fears and discover the mystery of the relic.
Riolu smiles, determination sparkling in his eyes. "Let's go save Azurill."