It was quiet in the forest.

Too quiet.

Piers' gaze scanned their environment, unaffected by the poor lighting caused by the thick trees towering over them. Besides him he could hear Raihan plodding along, bag securely strapped around his shell. He could hear their items rolling around and bumping inside that bag, to the point it was starting to get irritating.

"I hope we don't do this enough that I have to get used to that sound," Piers murmured, hearing Raihan laugh.

"Hey, we're doing something other than sitting around confused in a clinic." He almost stumbled as his foot hit a tree root. "Could have used a torch though, I can hardly see where I'm going. Shame we can't incinerate the trees, hm?"

Piers stared at him and snorted. "Sure, let's commit deforestation. It'd be easier to find this kid, at least."

"Wha-" Raihan quickly shook his head. "I don't know if that's illegal here, but it is at the very least immoral!"

The Zigzagoon chuckled, glancing around. No Pokémon had come to bother them yet, so he had not had the opportunity to test out Headbutt yet. What moves had he proved himself to know? Tackle, Sand Attack and Covet. If he had Headbutt, that would make four. He wondered what would happen if he picked up another trick, would he magically forget how to kick dirt in his enemies' faces? Being a Pokémon made little sense as it was.

Humans could not understand each other yet they could understand every Pokémon they met though in their world. All he should be able to say to Raihan was 'Ziggy zag zag'. Was this world different or was this simply what all Pokémon in their world heard? Did every Pokémon species speak a different language every other Pokémon happened to know? His head was starting to spin at the thought.

"I'm being sarcastic, Rai."

His friend looked away, now red in the face. If he kept questioning every little detail, Piers would surely go insane. But blushing Trapinch sure looked cute. "Sod off, already." He watched Piers step over a fallen branch. "Can you see all this?"

He nodded, stopping as he picked up a scent. What was that smell? It smelt like… He was not quite sure, actually. "Zigzagoon can see in the dark, I guess I can too. Sucks for you, huh? I can't climb on your back and steer you with that bag on ya."

"Shame," Raihan deadpanned, watching Piers' tail swish. "Shame neither of us can learn Flash, either."

As Piers decided to follow the scent, Raihan continued to watch his tail, seeing it fluffy and bright. At the very least, he wouldn't be losing his friend easily. A mischievous thought came to mind.

BLEP! Piers' tongue fell out of his mouth with a yelp as his tail received a chomp, a shockwave pricking through him. "Wha- Raihan!" With his tongue rolled out the words were incoherent yet Raihan still laughed as his friend struggled then slapped him in the face with his tail. "Who do you think you're chompin'?!"

"Sorry, couldn't resist," he chirped, unaffected by the slap. However, Piers was wondering how many hit points he had lost. That better not come back to bite him. No pun intended. "Least you resist it!" He flashed Raihan his middle claw. He was missing having fingers but at least he had an odd number of digits. "Come on, we need to find Zorua!"

They had been wandering for a while now and whilst they had no idea where the forest Pokémon were, they knew for a fact that they were lost.

"Damn it, why is this place such a maze?" Piers growled, as Raihan kept his eyes open for anything familiar. They had not seen the tree he had toppled yesterday and he was tempted to destroy another one just so they had some form of checkpoint. "Couldn't they have given us a map or something?"

"I don't know about you, but I was watching where Ninetales and Flaaffy were taking us yesterday," Raihan mumbled. "The forest looks completely different today. Doesn't everyone keep calling this place a dungeon?"

Piers felt and heard his stomach rumble, prompting his face to swamp with heat as Raihan chuckled. "They called it a 'mystery dungeon'... But what does that even mean?" He sighed, stopping his friend by grabbing the bag strap around his left front-leg. He yelped. "Don't start squawking, I'm hungry. Snowcap popped some apples in there too, didn't he? Let's stop to eat."

So the two of them settled down in the clearing, Raihan gazing at the trees framing the area like a room as Piers unzipped the bag with his teeth then clumsily pulled the apples out. Fuck it, he wanted his hands back as soon as possible. "This part of the forest is weird, huh? It's like a box. Reminds me of the place we got attacked by the Poochyena and Rattata. Oh, and we picked up some money, didn't we?"

"We never did get that back, did we?" Piers mumbled as he put an apple in front of his companion then sat down with his own. His back wasn't coordinating with sitting properly so he slumped against Raihan's side. For such a hard shell, it felt oddly comfortable. He would probably fall asleep again if he climbed on top. No, he shouldn't doze off here. They might get mugged or worse. He bit into the apple. "Are we going to be okay?"

Raihan shrugged, sinking his teeth into the fruit. "Probably. You sound worried, mate."

"Don't you 'mate' me," he responded, with a half-arsed annoyed tone. "You know, 'mate' probably means something very different when we're talking about Pokémon." The Trapinch craned his head to look at him. "Fucking."

He nearly choked. "W-We both know what we mean. Come on, pal." Raihan quickly composed himself but made a mental note never to refer to his friends as mates in front of the village Pokémon. "Tell me what's on your mind."

Piers stared up at the trees. They were less crowded in this area, using the move Flash here would have been a waste of energy. He wondered if Pokémon called their hit points and power points different words and internally laughed whenever their trainers referred to their limit on Flamethrower as PP. Never mind that, he was starting to get another headache. "I guess it didn't quite hit me until we woke up that we're stuck here, y'know? I was hoping we'd wake up half-pissed under the table and Marnie would come and nag us. But no… We're trapped here and we don't even know why or if Leon is looking for us. You've gotta worry about him with his sense of direction."

"I hope he didn't get sent over here with us, it'd be nice if it was simple and we just found a Jirachi or something and wished to go home," Raihan mumbled. "I suppose though we wouldn't be able to specify 'can you bring us home? And our friend Leon if he's around'. At least we ended up here together, I'd hate to be alone in this."

"Same…" How embarrassed he felt that morning when the Eevee friends had told Raihan he had been sleeping on him, but now he felt slightly less ashamed of himself. They were childhood friends, why should he be so flustered? It could do with the fact he was sober so couldn't use the alcohol as an excuse like whenever he used his abs as a pillow. Not very comfy and reminded him that he was a shrimp. "It's a good thing we gave my sister our Pokémon to look after before we went out, actually, or they might have been splurged across this world."

Raihan's selfie-happy brain flipped its switch as he munched down the last of the apple. "What about our Rotom phones, though? Are they buzzing around here looking for us, or are they back home?"

"Maybe back home, we probably lost them somewhere as usual and they're whizzing through Ballonlea searching…" Piers trailed off, teeth embedded into the apple as he stared at the Pokémon approaching them.

It was a small Pokémon, looking like a hamster with an adorable face and eyes that peered innocently at them as it crawled towards them. Its nose was wrinkling in a familiar manner, for this was a Pokémon the both of them had seen so many times before. "Is that a Morpek-"

"Marnie!" Piers' big brother instincts drowned out Raihan's statement, prompting him to stare at the Zigzagoon, causing him to blush and sheepishly chuckle. "Sorry, force of habit. Huh, I knew Morpeko was tiny but even now it's less than half my size."

"They are as a species only one foot tall, aren't they?" Raihan remarked, watching the critter continue to sniff. "Hey Piers, maybe you should zip my bag back up."

His friend stared at him then at the Morpeko as it scampered up to them, a curious smile on its sweet face. He clumsily sealed the bag up with his teeth then tried smiling at the hamster. Blep! "Stupid tongue," he mumbled after shoving it back inside his mouth before trying to clear his throat. "Excuse me little guy, have you seen a Zorua around here?"

The Morpeko tilted its head. "Pee?"

They exchanged glances, as Morpeko continued sniffing at Raihan. "Can this little fella talk? He seems like a baby," the Trapinch mumbled, as Piers furrowed his brow.

"Maybe Pokémon have to learn how to talk too… Can babies only say their own name? But that's what we hear as humans… Ugh, this is so stupid." As he groaned, the Morpeko got off its all fours and chirped.

"Mor! Ko ko!"

Noticing the electric type was pointing at its mouth, Piers looked at his half-eaten apple. The hamster's eyes shone as they followed his gaze. "Did you want this? I've already been eating it… But I guess if you don't care about germs?" Crap, now he was worrying about the immune systems of baby Pokémon. Nevertheless, Morpeko clearly didn't care as it went ahead and started devouring the half-eaten apple in an extremely messy fashion. "Alright then… Guess lunch break is over. Let's find this Zorua."

Raihan nodded and they went off, abandoning the Morpeko. Until it darted after them and stopped before them, waving its arms and grinning. "Peeko! Mor!"

"Sorry kid, we have places to go and no apples left." Raihan watched the critter point wildly at the bag on his shell. "These are our supplies, we need these in case of emergency."

"I'm sure there's some berries on the floor somewhere, this wacky forest sure loves spawning random shit out of nowhere," Piers deadpanned, watching the child growl and snap nonsense at them. "Hey, we said we're sorry, but we have a mission. Go find your mother."

Dread filled Raihan as he noticed the electric crackling around Morpeko as it argued an incoherent argument. "Hey mate, you do remember Morpeko's ability, right…?"

"Of course I do, I gave Marnie hers." Piers crossed his front legs as best as he could. "You have to teach them early to accept no for an answer, you don't give your little sister a bratty rat. This fella learns to take no now, it'll be easier for everyone late-"

He was cut off by his own yelp as lightning flew, Raihan moving to shield him from the Thundershock attack. Within a second, Morpeko went from cute and cuddly to cute and hangry. "Morpeko!"

"Oh for fuck's sake!" Piers found himself snapping, hiding from the wild electric attack as the little monster shot attack after attack at them. "See what I mean? You deal with this now and you don't get your level 50 Morpeko flinging itself at you in its hamster ball!"

Raihan thanked the fact that of all Pokémon he could have turned into, it was a ground type. "No, you don't deal with it! That's the parents' job!" He flinched as Morpeko learnt its lesson and slammed into him with a Power Trip. "Damn, why does that hurt?"

"Morpeko has a base 90 attack stat, that's why," he growled, dodging a strategically aimed Thundershock. "This thing has to be at least level 10, did we have to come across a buff baby?"

"Trainers at home are grinding 3 hour old babies up to level 100, you know?" Raihan slammed his front legs into the ground hard, prompting the hangry hamster to squeak and shuffle back. "Time to see if this works- Mud Slap!" He struck the dirt with force, sending it hurling at Morpeko and prompting it to shriek.

"Pee!" Hurt and dirt in its eyes, it flailed to attack aimlessly with Thundershock again, Piers scrambled to dodge the wildfire, uh, lightning, and saw an opening.

"Take this!" He slammed his head into it, shoving it back and knocking it off its feet.

The Pokémon flailed and the friends exchanged frantic looks. "Leg it?"

"Yes."

So they did exactly that, bolting it down the forever confusing hallways as the hangry and disoriented Morpeko screeched nonsense that echoed through the forest.

The two were not quite sure how long they had been running, but they knew this was the fifth dead end in what felt like twenty minutes but was probably three.

Watching Piers crash next to him, hearing his agonised whining as his eyes set on the wall of trees, Raihan toddled over to them and looked around. It looked almost the same as the last dead end, only narrower. That previous time, he had tried ripping the trees out of their way with his teeth but all he had received was a sore jaw. "This forest is so weird."

"You're telling me," Piers grumbled, watching Raihan shovel something up off the forest floor with his mouth. "What did you find this time?"

His friend showed him the fabric dangling from his maw. "Cloth. Doesn't this look familiar?"

The Zigzagoon squinted, examining the scrap after Raihan dropped it in his paws. It was black with faint stripes and a thicker blue stripe that seemed to narrow. Noticing the smallest hint of red at the edge, it clicked. "This… This looks like part of Leon's shirt, doesn't it? What does this mean? Our clothes were nowhere to be seen…"

Raihan sunk down next to him, frowning. "No idea… But maybe Lee did end up here… And got lost in here… I wonder if he's a Pokémon or human."

"I hope a human, or it'd be bloody hard to find him." Piers faltered. "But if he is a human… I guess he might stick out in a bad way. What are we looking for? If he ended up like us, he could have become anything."

Raihan shook his head, sniffing at the fabric. "Maybe not… I'm a Trapinch and you're a Zigzagoon. Both pre-evolutions of Pokémon we have. Lee might be the same."

He gave him a blank look. "That doesn't narrow it down much, he's caught a lot of mons over the years. I guess if we go with his main squad though, that's Charmander, Honedge, Dreepy or Sobble."

"So we'll simply keep an eye out for those species," the gym leader chirped, prompting Piers to scoff.

"Ah yes, so we'll just go up to every member of those species and say 'excuse me, you wouldn't happen to have been human once, would you?'"

If Trapinch had fingers, Raihan would have flipped him off. Instead he sighed and pushed himself back up. "Of course not, we just ask if they're called Leon. Put that in the bag, maybe we could get help sniffing him out."

As he did so, a roar echoed through the forest and they jumped, staring at each other. "That did not sound good."

"No shit, Piers. Let's check it out."

The pair scampered towards where they estimated the noise was coming from, dodging bug Pokémon and a few Rattata and Sentret fleeing past them in a frenzy. What had produced that noise to get them so skittish, they wondered as Raihan swiftly shielded Piers from a panicked lightning blast produced by the tiny Morpeko they had initially escaped from. Piers almost felt sorry for the blighter, but thanked Arceus that his friend could literally shrug off electricity. He had the feeling they needed as much health as possible for whatever was causing this disturbance.

Finally they arrived at another clearing, however it was very different to the previous one. All the trees that had once maybe served as walls were now shredded, leaves torn across the forest floor and bark hanging off the knocked down trunks. Raihan's mouth fell open and Piers gently closed it. In the server of the forest was what looked like an Ekans, however they were certain it would tower over them even if they were still human. Its tail swished producing a piercing rattle as it thrashed, burrowing its head into the dirt as though attacking the very earth.

"Bloody Hell, look at that! It's- It's glowing red!" Raihan gasped.

Piers stared at the giant snake as its eyes locked on them and another deep, powerful roar left it. "It's… It's dynamaxed. But how- Is this forest-" He cut himself off as he looked past the agitated Pokémon, to see a trembling fox trying desperately to hide behind the fallen trees. "Rai, that must be Zorua!"

Raihan took a second to glance away from the terrifying sight of a 20-foot Ekans and observe the small Pokémon trying to blend in with the carnage. He was dark brown with blue accents, red eyes clearly tearful even from this distance. "Crap- Are we going to have to fight this thing?!"

Ekans screeched again and Piers dug his claws into the ground as the shockwave threatened to send him flying. "Damn it- We have no choice, we have to try!"

With his cry, the Ekans lunged at them. They clumsily threw themselves out of the way, Raihan rolling on the floor before throwing a tackle attack that the massive yet speedy snake dodged. Ekans spat out a barrage of violet spikes, forcing the Trapinch to scramble away yelping as they bounced off his smooth body. "Ow! Oh fuck! This hurts!"

"Hold on!" Piers threw himself at the snake headbutting it in the tail prompting it to screech before slapping him aside with its rattle. "Agh! Hey, Ekans doesn't even learn Tail Slap! Cheater!"

"I don't think it cares!" Raihan exclaimed, before looking at the piles of dirt surrounding them. "Hang in there, let's try- This!" As he charged into Ekans' line of sight it struck out at him fangs first and he kicked the mud into its gaping maw. The snake recoiled and started coughing, giving him the chance to sling more 'sand' into its eyes. "Right! If we drag its accuracy all the way down, this should be a cake walk!"

Piers felt a little disoriented, staring at the Ekans. He was certain a minute ago that it did not have two tails, even if it felt like he was getting slammed by five of them consecutively. "Right… Watch out!"

Ekans thrashed at Raihan again and he barely dodged another bite, countering with a chomp of his own. His jaw clamped around its tail and nausea instantly flooded his senses, immediately releasing its flesh. "Ugh, gross!" He started spluttering, flailing out of the way of another attack as he did so. "I know Ekans isn't poisonous, but it's sure disgusting!"

"What did you expect? Just hold your nose!" As Raihan glared past their enemy at him, he held back a chuckle and threw a sand attack at the colossal Pokémon, however it fell short of its target. "... Damn it."

If it wasn't for Ekans launching itself at him again, Raihan would have laughed. Instead he narrowly avoided its fangs again, however their bag was not so lucky. The fabric split with a loud rip and the contents spilled onto the forest floor. "Ack! You little shit, do I look like I can sew anything back together right now?!"

"Worry about that later!" Piers snapped, eyes widening as he watched their opponent's eyes spark. "Get away, now!"

Raihan jolted and looked at the Ekans only to suddenly feel his body stiffen. No matter how much he tried to will his legs to move, mentally yelled at his muscles to start working again, his form unwillingly resembled a statue. "Wha- I can't move!" Even his jaw was threatening to go stiff on him, as he realised what had happened. Ekans not being native to his home region, he did not know everything about them. However he knew of the move Glare. "Piers, I'm stuck!"

Adrenaline kicked in and his friend rapidly searched the environment. The bag's contents had been thrown here there and everywhere by the impact, and he had no time to waste searching. "Hang in there!" He scammered over to the nearest object, taking only a second to glance at it as Ekans got ready to attack again. Moon shaped, made his mouth tingle as he gripped it. He had one shot. "Look over here, you overgrown reptile!"

And as Ekans bristled and turned to glare at him, the stun seed slammed into him. The effect was instant, Piers could see the lightning crackle around the snake's body like a prison before it collapsed and started thrashing. Now the countdown began.

Pecha berry, no.

Ekans let out a screech, its body growing rigid.

Blast seed, not what he needed right now.

Raihan tried but failed to shout out at his friend, feeling cold seize him. It was only temporary, it wasn't going to kill him, he desperately reminded himself.

Oran berry, save that.

It wasn't going to be the paralysis that did him in, it was what was going to happen if he didn't break free.

Reviver seed, he didn't even know how to use that!

The Ekans' skin crackled then burst, allowing their enemy to slip out of its shed skin unharmed. No!

Found it!

"Rai-Rai, quick!" Piers got the cheri berry to Raihan just in time for him to dodge its bite and the two of them slammed into it, hearing it screech as it staggered back. "We need a plan! Other than lowering its accuracy, what do we do?"

Raihan searched his brain, for every little thing about Trapinch he knew. He was indeed level 12 if he could use Mud Slap, so far he had also used Bite and Sand Attack. One more move- "We need to strike its weak spot! Every attack matters now!"

"Then find the weak spot, I'll keep it distracted!" Piers forced Ekans to dodge a headbutt, barely evading a counter spray of Poison Sting. "Maybe do it before we need to grab the Pecha berry though!"

Raihan's eyes swept over the giant snake, mind racing. Tail, no.

Piers slammed into Ekans with a Covet, growling as he found no treasure and no sign of weakness.

Eyes? They were so high up that they could only aim their sand attacks in counter, if it clued into their plan it would surely only settle for poison and illegal tail slaps.

Ekans sunk its teeth into Piers' tail and he spat out a string of curses, taking the opportunity to reach for the dirt again. A swift slash and a spray of mud and Ekans soon let him go, blasting poison again.

What a shame Ekans had shed skin, that stun seed was really helpful whilst it lasted- Raihan gestured to it and Piers quickly grabbed the blast seed.

Raihan's eyes locked onto Ekans' underbelly. He had to suck it up, for his friend and the kid they were in this godforsaken forest to save in the first place.

Piers swallowed the seed and their enemy received an explosion of flames to the face, prompting it to roar and snare the Zigzagoon with its tail. "Shit! Let go of me, you knockoff Silicobra!"

That was Wrap, he had no choice! "Let go of him, you bastard!" Raihan sunk his teeth into Ekans' weak spot. As it writhed and thrashed, Piers struggling in its flailing bind, the Trapinch nailed it with a super effective Mud Slap.

Regardless of how tall it was, it was alas a level 12 Ekans. With a guttural screech, Ekans convulsed, unwrapping and sending Piers crashing into Raihan before it exploded with crimson energy. Piers' body yelled at him as he did so but he forced himself to watch as the energy ripped through the clearing then fizzed out, leaving the Ekans tiny and unconscious.

"Fucking hell," he breathed as Raihan gently nudged him off his shell then staggered over to their knocked-out enemy. "It better not come after us again when it wakes up."

"I don't think it will." Raihan finally let himself let out an exhausted sigh and crash, energy zapped. "I hope that's not a sign of what's to come. Get me an oran berry, will ya?"

Piers gathered their scattered goods, snagging one of the berries with his teeth by the vine. "Have some manners will ya? You're an adult."

"Please get me an oran berry before I pass out and we're forced to learn how to operate those revival seeds," Raihan grumbled, prompting his friend to roll his eyes and chuckle, dropping it in front of him.

As he chomped into it, they heard a whisper. "Actually they're called reviver seeds… Is it safe now?" They looked to see the shiny Zorua still metres away, staring frightened at the Ekans.

"It's not going to hurt you, we gave it quite the beating." Raihan swallowed, watching Piers nibble on his own berry. "You're the Zorua from Vulpine Village right? Your mother sent us looking for you."

Zorua slowly approached, his right back leg twitching as he limped. "You were looking for me? What happened to…" He nearly fell over as he gestured to it with his front paw. "That purple thing?"

"Never seen an Ekans before, kid?" Zorua shook his head and Raihan chuckled. "We have no idea but it won't be hurting you. What were you doing all the way out here? Your mother was worried sick."

The little fox turned away and squeezed in between some wrecked trunks that were barely rooted. Leaping back out, he had a sunflower clenched between his teeth by the stem, the flower's face even bigger than his head. "I was looking for sunflowers. Mr Haunter told me it was sunflower season and offered to help me find them but…" He glanced around as they did the same. No ghost types in sight. "I think he had something else to do and had to leave, he forgot to tell me though I think."

"No, I think he ditched you, kid," Piers deadpanned, looking through their gathered items. Getting this all back with a split bag would be hard. "Hey, have you seen a human go through this forest?"

Zorua tilted his head. "A humon? What kind of Pokémon is that? It sounds like a fighting type."

They exchanged glances. "I guess he has no idea what one is," Raihan mumbled before clamping the scrap of their friend's shirt in his mouth and dropping it before the fox. "This belongs to him. Have you seen anything like this?"

The tiny dark type sniffed it, furrowing his brow before shaking his head. "I don't think so. I've neither seen nor smelled it." His nose wrinkled before he turned his head away to bury it in the sunflower. "It spells like ash. Is 'Humon' a fire type?"

Piers and Raihan's gazes met. Something clicked. "That narrows it down, Lee must be a fire type like Charmander."

"Or something that can breathe fire," Raihan mumbled, giving the fabric another sniff. "He could even be a dragon type."

"So, what do we do?" Piers whispered. "Do we sniff every dragon or fire type we come across? That's asking for trouble."

Raihan shook his head, looking at Zorua as he continued to eradicate the ash scent from his senses with the flower. Eventually he sneezed, looking startled. "We should take this kid home. How are we going to get our loot back?"

Piers poked the other dark type. "Hey Zorua, if we use an escape orb, what would happen to our belongings?" He gestured to their items which looked like they would slip out of the ripped bag again with the slightest motion.

The teen fox peered at them and shrugged. "Not sure. I've managed to bring a pile of sunflowers back with an escape orb but I think I lost a few."

"We'll just have to try and pray nothing goes missing, we can't afford that… That thing," Raihan nodded towards the unconscious Ekans. "Waking up and biting us in the ass literally. It might not be dynamaxed anymore, but it would bloody hurt."

The Zigzagoon silently regarded their enemy. What had caused it to dynamax? Was this forest on top of a power spot? Maybe dynamaxing wasn't exclusive to Galar after all. Just more questions to ask Ninetales. "Come on." He fished the escape orb out of their extremely damaged bag then held it up. "Escape!"

With a flash of light, the trio disappeared and Ekans stirred awake. It looked around then slipped into the bushes to continue living its life as a normal six-foot snake.