Author's Note:
Given that I'm skipping a lot of filler, you might have thought I would skip Amp Plains. Nope! Instead, I'm using it to introduce a new character. Enjoy the chapter!

As Brandon and I waited for this morning's assembly, I saw Dusknoir was waiting alongside us. If what Sunflora said yesterday was true, then I wondered why someone as skilled as he was would spend time at our guild. Supposedly he worked alone and didn't have a team, so it seemed strange for that kind of explorer to ask a guild for help. Of course, that wasn't the only thing strange about Dusknoir; though Sunflora claimed he was famous, I had never heard of him.

Brandon also noticed something strange. "Wigglytuff is early," he pointed out. "Normally it's just us, Sunflora, and Chatot right now."

"He must be worried about the time gears," I responded quietly. "He is supposed to let the guild know a second one has been stolen. Maybe he wants to appear serious for that."

"Maybe," Brandon agreed, "but we shouldn't speculate, at least not out loud. Let the Guildmaster break the news."

It wasn't long before everyone else joined us in the meeting room. Chatot was back in his usual place, though there was a short delay as Wigglytuff filled him in on yesterday's events. Despite that, Chatot remained calm as he called the assembly to order.

"Okay, pokemon, we have several announcements today, so listen closely," Chatot began. "First, I'm sure you've all noticed that a famous explorer is staying at our guild. Dusknoir is said to be a skilled battler and very knowledgeable, but we must insist that none of you bother him with trivial requests such as autographs or explorations. He is a guest in our guild and should be treated as such."

"Now Chatot, there is no need for such concerns," Dusknoir explained. "I would be happy to assist your recruits in any way during my free time. However, I'm afraid we have important matters to attend to first. Wigglytuff, if you will?"

"Right!" Wigglytuff answered enthusiastically. "Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors that some of the time gears have been stolen. Unfortunately, Dusknoir has confirmed those rumors to be true. As of yesterday, two time gears have gone missing, so starting tomorrow, this guild's number one priority will be tracking down and catching the thieves."

"However, we are ill-prepared to do so at the moment," Chatot continued. "As such, the Guildmaster and I will consult with Dusknoir to form our plan of action. By the end of the day, our preparations will be complete. We want the rest of you to spend today preparing for a potentially difficult mission."

"Does that mean we should not do field missions today?" Sunflora asked.

Dusknoir had a different thought. "I would suggest you treat today as you would any other day. If a guild as famous as this one was to suddenly stop all explorations without giving an explanation, it would worry the townsfolk. It would be best to not cause a panic as long as there is hope that the thieves and the destruction they cause can be contained."

"We will trust your judgment," Chatot confirmed. "You should all attend to your usual duties until further notice."

"That's right!" Wigglytuff cut in, "It's our job as explorers to keep everyone else safe, and nothing will ever change that. Now then, everyone, one!"

"Don't shirk work!" the guildmembers recited. When the morning cheers finished, everyone dispersed to their daily routines. Chatot and Dusknoir followed the Guildmaster into his room, and Brandon and I made our way up the ladders and out of the guild.

As we walked to Treasure Town, we discussed our plan for the day. "When Chatot said we should prepare for a difficult mission, he just meant we should buy some items, right?" Brandon asked.

"That's most of it, but I think we should open that treasure box first," I replied. "How much Poke did Spiral give us yesterday?"

Brandon checked our bag before answering, "Five-hundred."

"So we have plenty then. Xatu only charges one-hundred fifty to open a box," I explained.

"Oh, that's what Xatu does? I wasn't sure," he said.

That surprised me a bit. "Didn't I explain that before?"

"I didn't know what a 'box' was before," he explained.

"In any case, what do you think is in it?" I asked.

Brandon appeared annoyed by the question. "You do realize that I know literally nothing about boxes, right?"

By now we were at Xatu's shop. "Sorry, I forgot. Still, it's fun to speculate," I said, handing the box to Xatu along with the Poke for his service.

He silently turned around and entered the tent that made up his shop, returning a moment later with an item in his wing. "And so, it is revealed," Xatu finally said. "Within the box was this special band."

We left the shop and determined what to do with our new equipment. "This band boosts the power of special moves," I explained. "It should be pretty useful for us."

"So, it could make your Bubble Beam stronger then," Brandon suggested. "It's already our strongest move, imagine how powerful it could be with that band."

I handed him the special band saying, "Don't act like your attacks are weak; remember Drowzee? It was your Razor Leaf that took him down, boosted by the power band. I don't need a band to boost my attacks, and you don't even know any physical moves anymore. Besides, I kind of like the silver bow."

"I just think you would benefit more from increased attack power than I would," Brandon reasoned, "but I do agree that the power band isn't helping me anymore."

While he put on the special band I checked the Kecleon shop. There were a lot of useful items, but I decided to only buy two oran berries and a pecha berry. I also left Kecleon the five poke we owed them for the luminous orb. The leftover coins could be used to restock our bag later, but for now we had plenty of items. We were interrupted as we left the shop, however.

Marill and Azurill ran up to us, and Marill had a scrap of paper in his hand. "Crest, there you are. We need your help with something," Marill said.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Well, you know how we lost a rare item a while ago?" he asked.

"Actually, we were just talking about something related to that. You were looking for it when Drowzee tricked you, right?" Brandon cut in.

"That's right!" Azurill answered cheerfully.

"We still haven't found it," Marill explained, "but I think we've come pretty close. The problem is that we think someone stole it."

The Kecleon overheard and jumped into the conversation. "That's just terrible!" the purple one said.

"Perhaps it would be best to leave your item and find a new one. What are you looking for, exactly? If it's not too rare, we may be able to sell it," the green Kecleon added.

"It's a water float," Azurill answered.

"A trade item?" Kecleon replied, incredulous. "We truly wish we could sell an item so valuable, but short of a miracle, I'm afraid we could never find one."

"You said it was stolen, right?" I asked. "Do you know who stole it? We might be able to catch them."

"We don't know who stole it, but we do know where it is," Marill answered, handing me the paper.

I read over the note. "The water float is now in our possession. If you want it back, go to the deepest part of Amp Plains. Though, given how weak and puny you are, you could never make it. How about you complain to your big-shot friends instead? Chaw-haw-haw."

Brandon was instantly suspicious of the note. "Whoever wrote this clearly wanted us to go to Amp Plains."

"That dungeon is probably full of Electric types," I explained. "I think we could retrieve the water float, but Marill will have to wait here, and there's no way we're bringing Azurill."

"It's not a good matchup for you either," Brandon pointed out.

"That's never stopped you from exploring," I countered. Turning to Marill and Azurill, I said, "You two wait here. We'll get your item back."

I admit that I was a bit on edge when we reached Amp Plains. This place had clearly been ravaged by thunderstorms for a long time, and even now the bright flashes of lightning made me jump. Couple that with the knowledge that we were willingly walking into a trap, and I was surprised that Crest found the courage to come here at all.

"It's easy to see why Electric types love this place," Crest said as we prepared to enter it.

"No kidding," I replied. "Try to stay near me in the dungeon. I'll block as many attacks as I can."

To be honest, it was nice to finally be at a type advantage again. This would be the first time that I defended Crest in a dungeon instead of the other way around. Sure, we had faced Water type hostiles before, but Crest could hold his own against them just fine. Besides, in those dungeons either I didn't know a Grass move yet or Spiral was there to fight the hostiles.

Progress through Amp Plains was slow. Since most Electric types were more agile than we were, I had to take a lot of hits to protect Crest. At least Reflect helped us defend against the swarm of Quick Attack users we faced. It didn't protect us from Static though, a problem we discovered when Crest tried out Fury Attack on an Elekid. That mistake cost us our only heal seed.

Still, my ability to heal myself meant the dungeon was going mostly smoothly. With me to defend him, Crest got more use out of Bide than I ever thought possible from such a slow move. It certainly helped that hostiles don't seem to know anything about type matchups. At least, most of them didn't.

Upon defeating a hostile Mareep, Crest went to pick up the cheri berry it dropped and made the mistake of letting his guard down. "Spark!" I heard a hostile shout.

"Reflect!" I responded, my barrier going up just in time to defend Crest from an electrified tackle. As the moves clashed, I determined the attacker to be a Shinx.

"Fury Attack!" Crest retaliated, landing multiple hits on our enemy.

I ran over to the battle as the Shinx jumped back defensively. He began to glow bright yellow before being engulfed in a red aura. While I waited for his next attack, Crest fired a Bubble Beam. Shinx ran through the attack and responded with another Spark, but this time I was ready to block the hit for Crest. When the Spark hit me, Crest jumped away so I could counter with Poison Powder.

Shinx and I both stumbled away from the interaction. That last Spark was much stronger than I expected; I doubt Crest could have taken the hit. The Shinx winced from poison damage before charging at me with a Tackle, but this time Crest blocked the hit and unleashed a Bide in response. I used that time to heal with Synthesis and retake the lead. It didn't matter though; the Shinx collapsed from the poison a moment later.

"Are you okay?" I asked Crest.

"I'll be fine, but what was that? His battle style wasn't like the other hostiles," Crest pointed out, grabbing an oran berry.

I looked back to the Shinx, perplexed. "I've never heard one call out its attacks before. If he was a hostile, wouldn't he have faded away by now?"

Crest seemed just as surprised. "Wait, is that Shinx an explorer? If he is, he must not have a badge. Otherwise he would have been ejected from the dungeon."

We cautiously approached him, noting that he was still barely conscious. "We can't just leave him here," I said as another wave of poison damage hit the Shinx.

"Do we have any reviver seeds?" Crest asked.

"Just one," I said, fishing it out of our bag. "I hope you don't end up needing this later." I offered the seed to Shinx and he hesitantly accepted it. A moment later, he got up, fully healed. Even the poison was gone.

Confused, the Shinx asked, "Why did you heal me?"

"Because we're an exploration team. Why did you attack us?" Crest responded.

"This place is dangerous," he answered. "You can't go any farther."

"Why not?" I questioned.

"There is a pack of Luxio living at the end of this dungeon, and they don't take kindly to strangers. If they find you, it… won't end well," Shinx explained.

"That doesn't explain why you attacked us," I argued. "Why didn't you just say something in the first place?"

Shinx looked pretty upset by that. "I'm really sorry, okay? That's just the way things are here. Everyone always attacks first out of fear they will be attacked themselves. The pack is no different in that regard, but they are ruthless. You have to turn back now."

Crest disagreed. "We're not here looking for a fight, we're looking for a lost item. We'll leave as soon as we find it."

"You don't understand! It's way too dangerous to keep going," Shinx tried to explain.

"If things get too dangerous we can use our escape orb," I argued.

"But," Shinx began before giving up. "Fine, but at least let me go with you. Maybe I can talk some sense into the pack." We hesitated for a moment, so he added, "I promise I won't attack you again. I'll even help you fight if it comes to that."

"Alright," I conceded. "As long as Crest is okay with it."

"If you're going to help us, then you can come," Crest agreed. "We're looking for a water float. Let us know if you see it."

Our alliance was a bit uneasy at first, largely because we weren't sure if we could trust someone who attacked us, but Shinx quickly proved himself a useful ally. With his help, it was easy to keep Crest away from enemies. The tension quickly faded as we progressed through the dungeon with relative ease.

"Hey, Shinx? There's something I've been wondering," I said. "You mentioned that the 'pack' you're so worried about is a pack of Luxio, right? That's your evolved form, so are you originally from that pack?"

"Yeah, I am," he admitted. "That's how I know so much about them, and why I attacked you instead of just saying something. Oh, and my name is actually Jolt."

"I'm Crest and that's Brandon," Crest properly introduced us. "Why did you leave the pack?"

"Because they're aggressive," Jolt answered. "They attack everyone they see, and they can't be reasoned with. Plus, when they start an attack, they… don't stop. I saw so many pokemon get hurt by them, and eventually just, well, left. I didn't know what else to do, so I started attacking explorers so they would never reach the pack."

We reached another set of stairs and found ourselves on a rest floor. "Was this the first time you lost a battle?" Crest asked.

"Yes," Jolt answered. "It's actually pretty rare for experienced explorers to come here. Most pokemon know how dangerous this place is."

"To be honest, I'm surprised Crest didn't know," I replied.

"This dungeon isn't famous, at least, not outside of the Grass Continent," he defended. "And an aggressive pack of pokemon isn't normal for mystery dungeons. If it was, I would have expected it."

"I still think we should turn back," Jolt complained.

Of course, Crest and I disagreed. "We came here knowing we were walking into a trap," I explained. "Now that we know what that trap is, we can prepare for it."

As I rummaged through the treasure bag Crest asked, "Do we have any useful orbs in there?"

"We have a foe-fear orb and a blowback orb. Actually, I think you should hold on to that one," I answered, giving the blowback orb to Crest. "We also have one stun, one sleep, and two blast seeds. Oh, and this."

I handed the power band to Jolt. "You want me to use this?"

"You can use it better than either of us," I reasoned. "After all, you said you would help us fight."

"I know, but you're still underestimating the pack," he argued. "And don't think you can hide from them either. Their leader is a Luxray."

Crest still wasn't too worried, falling back on our usual reasoning. "We can always use our escape orb."

"Wait, you aren't going to abandon me with the pack, are you?" Jolt worried.

"Relax," Crest replied, messing with his badge. "I've officially made you our client for an escort mission. If we have to escape, you'll warp out with us."

"I think that's all the preparations we need," I said. "Let's just move on and get this over with."

The second half of the dungeon wasn't much harder than the first, likely thanks to Jolt and the power band. During the exploration we found a new luminous orb. "You do realize we don't need that, right?" Jolt said. "I am a Shinx, after all. Bright flashes of light are kind of my thing." The yellow rings on his legs glowed slightly to make his point.

"Okay, but you won't always be exploring with us though," Crest reasoned. "I'm sure we'll find a use for it later."

"Oh, right," Jolt answered, almost sounding disappointed. It wasn't much longer before we reached the end of the dungeon. "This clearing is the last traversable area we can reach. Trying to go further will just get you lost, which is pretty much a death sentence around here."

"Let me guess: because of the pack?" Crest asked.

"If the lightning doesn't get you first, then yes," Jolt replied. "Let's just find your item and leave before we cause any trouble."

"It's too late for that, Fang," an ominous voice called out.

"I think they found us," I said, too startled to add anything productive.

Jolt was also terrified. "We are so dead," he said to himself. "You might want to get that escape orb ready."

"Wait, I see the water float! It's just up ahead," Crest pointed out.

"FANG!" the voice from earlier called out, "how dare you bring outsiders here? This place is our haven, and you would jeopardize it? Or did you bring them here so we could get rid of these trespassers?"

"Don't call me Fang!" Jolt shouted back angrily. "My name is Jolt now, and these trespassers have no intentions of fighting you. Let them reclaim their lost item and they'll leave peacefully!"

A brief pause followed only to be ended by the mysterious voice. "So that's how it is… Traitor! Let there be no mercy for trespassers. We'll destroy the lot of you, here and now!"

A blinding light filled what was now the battlefield, and when it faded we found ourselves surrounded by the pack. The Luxray Jolt had mentioned earlier was staring us down from across the arena, and eight Luxio glared at us from much closer distances.

"Brandon, you have a plan, right? Because this would be a really bad time for you to not have a plan," Crest said shakily.

"Of course I have a plan, we do this!" I answered, smashing the foe-fear orb on the ground. "Stick together and attack one Luxio at a time. We'll get the Luxray last." The now-panicking Luxio put up little resistance as we singled them out with Magical Leaf and Bubble Beam while Jolt combined Charge and Spark to finish off our weakened enemies.

"You idiots, they're not even evolved! Are you really going to lose to a Water type?" Luxray shouted at his pack in anger. It didn't do him any good though. In fact, his shouting caused the frightened Luxio to panic more, unleashing unfocused blasts of electricity wildly across the battlefield and catching each other in the crossfire.

"Jolt, stay back and let us deal with this from a distance," I ordered, firing another round of Magical Leaf. When Crest's Bubble Beam reached the crossfire, the chaos reached an all-time high. The water caused the electricity to scatter wildly, with some of it following my guided leaves, some blasting the ground randomly, and one bolt flew directly at us. I managed to block the attack for Crest, but the blast left me feeling numb.

By now the effects of the foe-fear orb were wearing off, and only two Luxio were left standing alongside a furious Luxray. Crest reached into our bag to get me a cheri berry while Jolt maintained a defensive stance.

Suddenly, Luxray charged at us. Before I even knew what happened, Jolt was caught in his Thunder Fang a short distance ahead of me. 'Luxray must have singled me out as the leader, which means Jolt intercepted the attack. But it was so fast…'

I was snapped from my thoughts by the two remaining Luxio charging at us. By now the cheri berry had healed me, but there was no way I'd be fast enough to dodge their attack. Instead, I tried to put up a Reflect barrier to defend all of us. That, too, was too slow, and our enemies' Sparks hit me and Crest before I could block it. I tumbled backward a short distance, but to my surprise so did one of the Luxio.

Apparently, Crest used the blowback orb to defend himself, making him the only one from our group to get out of that attack unscathed. He fired a Bubble Beam at Luxray to make him drop Jolt before getting tackled by the first Luxio's Spark.

I attempted to heal with Synthesis only to be interrupted by Luxray. "Oh, no you don't," he said maliciously, pinning me down by my leaf. "I don't care if that was Solar Beam or Synthesis, you've already caused me enough trouble." I was completely helpless as Luxray began charging an attack of his own.

"Wait! Luxray!" a vaguely familiar voice called out from behind me. As he continued to speak, I realized it was Dusknoir. "These pokemon have no ill-will toward your pack. Let them go this instant!"

"Why should I believe you, ghoul? They invaded our territory and attacked us. Just look at what they've done to my pack! Countless Luxio have fallen to these trespassers," Luxray argued.

"They are not countless; there are only six of them. I know your pack has suffered much over the years. Your weary skepticism toward travelers is completely justified. But before you do anything else, I ask you, and I ask you to answer me honestly, I ask you this: did you not attack them first?" Dusknoir reasoned. There was a deathly silence as Luxray considered Dusknoir's words. "I assure you, allow these pokemon to go free, and we will leave this place peacefully once our errand here is complete."

Another stint of silence. "You claim to know much about us, yet I know nothing of you. Still, you entered upon this scene and chose debate over battle… so be it!" Luxray said, finally letting me go. "I will choose to believe your words, Dusknoir. Complete your 'errand' and be gone by our return."

"Of course, Luxray. I would have it no other way," Dusknoir agreed.

"Good," Luxray confirmed. "But there is one more matter to attend to." He walked over to Jolt and, after confirming he was still conscious, said, "Fang, your exile is no longer self-imposed. Consider this your warning." With that he gathered the Luxio and walked off.

"Are you three alright?" Dusknoir asked after the pack had left.

"Nothing my Synthesis can't fix," I replied.

"Uhg… could I get an oran berry?" Crest asked. I didn't hesitate to give him one.

"That just leaves the Shinx," Dusknoir concluded.

I ran over to Jolt and helped him up. "Here, Jolt. Eat this, it will help," I said, offering him our last oran berry. He weakly accepted it. "We're going to take you to our guild to get healed, okay?"

"Yeah, that's okay," he got out, "not like I can stay here anyway."

"Jolt, we're really sorry," Crest said. "We didn't mean to cause you this much trouble."

"It's fine," Jolt assured us. "No matter what Luxray might say, I'd never call that pack family."

"What you did takes a lot of courage," Dusknoir praised. "No matter how much you may hate them, it couldn't have been easy to go against your own pack."

Crest walked ahead of us and picked something up. "I've got the water float. I wonder who put it here, though."

"Whoever it was wouldn't be here now," Dusknoir reasoned. "They must know how dangerous that pack is."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," I said, stepping nearer to where Crest found the water float. Just as I suspected, I felt a familiar pain in my leaf. "I know you're there, Skuntank! Come out of wherever it is you're hiding and own up to this, you cowards!"

To my surprise, Team Skull actually did come out of hiding. "Chaw-haw-haw, so the wimp actually figured it out," Skuntank cackled.

"I didn't see you fighting," I taunted back.

"Well, duh! We set you up!" Koffing explained.

"Yeah, for a team leader, you can be pretty dull," Zubat added.

"This certainly simplifies things. I'm not certain, but baiting an exploration team into a dangerous dungeon with the intent to seriously injure them is probably some sort of crime. Shall we see if there is a jail cell with your names on it?" Dusknoir threatened.

"Chaw-haw-haw, I really am the only one with a brain here. Go ahead, try to catch us. Or get the kid to a healer. You can't do both!" Skuntank shouted, his team already running away.

"They're overestimating the extent of Shinx's injuries. Still, we should get him to a healer quickly, so I suppose Skuntank was right in that regard," Dusknoir reasoned.

"In that case, let's get out of here. Crest, you and Dusknoir return the water float to Marill. I'll take Jolt to Chimecho," I said, raising my badge.