Rosette had been standing at that stall for a good five minutes, now.

Piers knew it was unexpected for them to get used to their new world so soon when they were only on their third day there, but there was something odd about a market run entirely by Pokémon. Besides the cafe, they had passed a bank seemingly owned by the Haunter they were constantly warned about, with a tiny Duskull floating by his side, as well as an abandoned store with a sign of a chest slapped onto the front. There seemed to be two of those particular stores, with another much smaller similarly abandoned one next to their current location.

A stall ran by two Kecleon, one of which was purple.

As Rosette continued to stare at the assortment of goods before her, Raihan whispered to Piers. "So… How many blueberries do you think that Kecleon ate?"

Piers lightly elbowed him before awkwardly rubbing his foreleg with the other, flinching. Stupid shell. "Raihan, I think we've seen weirder than an oddly coloured chameleon. I know there's a Maractus running a stand in Stow-On-Side, but this feels ridiculous."

"Ah come on, how else would Pokémon run their own world? This looks organised, one Kecleon sells seeds and berries and the other sells TMs! TMs! They're so cool-looking, aren't they?"

The Zigzagoon gave him a blank look then looked at the purple Kecleon's wares. They were at a bit of a distance because he did not exactly want to start conversation, how awkward it always was when you were in a store and the shopkeeper watched you the whole time as though waiting for you to steal something. But TMs here seemed to be not in the form of discs but rather resembling crystals, with a faint colourful glow that he assumed corresponded to the type of the moves. "What move do you think that purple one has?"

Raihan squinted at the crystal. "I dunno, either Sludge Bomb or Shadow Ball."

"Actually it's Dazzling Gleam," the purple Kecleon piped up, prompting the Trapinch to whine.

"Oh fuck off, in what world is that a fairy colour?!"

Piers coughed awkwardly then nudged the distracted Roserade. "Hey um, Rosette? How about you pick that up? Dazzling Gleam's quite a widespread attack."

Rosette mumbled under her breath, not taking her eyes off the green Kecleon's wares. She seemed to be focused on what looked like a bundle of scarves. "No thanks, it'd be useless against Fire types."

With a hearty laugh, the purple brother held out a light brown crystal to Raihan. "If you want to get rid of Fire types, this Rock Slide should do the trick, hm?"

"Oh wow, that would be grea-"

"Raihan, we don't have any money," Piers grumbled, prompting his friend to whine once again.

"Aww, fuck."

Finally, Rosette took a handful of notes from her bag and slid them across the counter. "I'll have these three items, thank you."

The soon-to-be travellers backed away from the stand as the keepers cheered their goodbyes, Piers narrowing his eyes as he tried to work out what exactly Rosette was carrying. They looked like bandanas, but he had never seen ones with such patterns before. Two of them looked like they would easily fit around their necks, whilst the third seemed crafted to be worn like a hat.

"Uh… Excuse me, but what exactly are those?"

She gestured towards a bench and they followed, she gingerly placed them down on the wood and cleared her throat. "I thought I'd get us some equipment to help us with the mission. This red scarf here is a 'Fierce Bandana' whilst the purple one is a 'Lucky Ribbon'. Not sure why its called that, but it'd be just big enough to wear as a headband for you, hm?" Considering his tininess, she was probably correct. "The last one is a 'Zinc Band'. The Fierce Bandana increases the power of moves, which I thought would be good for…" She blankly looked at Raihan, as he stared back at her with an eventually blank smile. "Ryker? That's your name, right?"

"It's Raihan, but no one seems able to remember my name anyway."

"Right, Raihan. … Sorry." She stifled a cough. "Anyway, your Ground type moves will be handy with all the fire types, so I thought a bit of a buff would be helpful. The Lucky Ribbon shields the user from critical hits, I thought it might save Piers as Zigzagoon are rather fragile. A Defence Scarf wouldn't save him from a crit Night Slash."

"Probably a good call. What's the Zinc Band do, then?"

She awkwardly unravelled it, repurposing it into a scarf. "It increases special defence so it might save me from an Ember or three. Unfortunately whilst Pecha Scarves block Poison, there's no scarf for getting burnt. Would you like assistance putting these on?"

Raihan looked at his stubby forelegs and nodded.

As Rosette neatly tied the bandana around his neck, Piers took his 'ribbon' and shoved it on to rest over his ears. On one side, it slipped and obscured one of his eyes, prompting him to awkwardly poke it back up. "Is my head really that small?" It slipped back down again and Raihan laughed as he hurried to fix it.

"It's cute, keep it like that! It's kind of like an eyepatch!"

"Which would be all well and good if I didn't use both eyes to see," he grumbled, though judging by how Raihan seemed to be laughing even louder now, the heat he could feel in his face was showing externally. How he loathed the fact that Pokémon could blush, he had enough trouble as a pasty ass human. "What's the name of the place we're going again, Rosette?"

"I don't think that mystery dungeon had a name when we wandered in, but Flaaffy dubbed it the 'Hot As Fuck And Not In The Fun Way' Cavern." Rosette coughed. "Which is uh… One heck of a mouthful."

Piers sweatdropped. "Right… No way in the Distortion World am I using that name."

Raihan piped up, "How about we call it the 'Inferno Cave'?"

"Nah, that name's already taken for another dungeon," Rosette mumbled, shaking her head. "Let's just call it 'Hot Cavern', no need for creativity. We'd be in there once whilst we find Lance and then never step foot in there again."

Seeing as he couldn't come up with a better name, Piers just shrugged. It truly felt as though becoming a Pokémon had destroyed all sense of creativity, despite the logical outcome being quite the opposite.

However, steps away from the border between the village and the wilds, they heard a cry.

"Hey, hey!"

"Eh? That sounds like…" Raihan trailed off as they turned to see two familiar Eevee, one wearing a collar and the other a winter hat. "Oh, Punk Eevee, Snowcap! Aren't you two supposed to be at work?"

Eevee shook his head fervently, grinning as his fellow fox next to him awkwardly struggled with his hat. "It's our day off so we're going berry picking! Are you lot going berry picking too?"

"Actually, we're going to a mystery dungeon to rescue a grown ass bunny from himself," Piers deadpanned, prompting the young Pokémon's eyes to light up.

"Cool, can we come?"

Rosette interjected before either of the former humans could input, her eyes blazing. "Absolutely not, this mission is too dangerous for children!"

Snowcap's ears twitched, a sulky frown on his face. "We're not children, why does everyone keep calling us that?"

'Maybe because you act like kids', Piers was tempted to say, however his mind flashed to back home. When 10 year olds could travel entire continents with only their pets and 12 year olds were on the news for disbanding the mafia, the line between child and adult seemed to blur. Heck, the Eevee friends had been Pokémon all their lives, they probably had more battling experience than them. "Isn't it safer though if there's more of us?"

Rosette's bag waggled with her as she swiftly spun around, sticking her nose in the air. "I'm afraid that's simply not accurate, it just makes reviver seed management more difficult. We can't daddle around when Lance is waiting, what would we do if they got hurt?"

"Reviver seed management…?" Raihan shook the thought off, tilting his head. "I mean… You have a point." He barely knew Espeon but he felt if they got her son injured, he would be Psychic'd to death. "It's probably for the best."

Eevee opened his mouth then grit his teeth, shaking his head. "Fine, I don't wanna be around a prissy superhero wannabe, anyway!"

"A prissy what- What did you just call me?" the Roserade snapped but the collared Eevee had already pounced away, leaving Snowcap looking helplessly between the group and his fleeing friend before bounding after him. "Ugh, kids! Why are they always so eager to maim themselves?!"

Piers stared into the distance, it was not long at all before he lost sight of the pair. "Wow, uh… He did not take that well." He had an odd feeling in his gut, but he tried to dismiss it. It was probably just hunger, he'd just swipe a berry out of the bag on their way to the cavern and hope neither of them noticed. "So… Let's get going."

The trek to the newly dubbed 'Hot Cavern' was uneventful.

Piers looked at Raihan for the twentieth time in 15 minutes as they slugged behind Rosette, hoping that this would be the moment his friend finally decided to break the silence. By the 5 minute mark, he had started counting the passing by bug Pokémon, before immediately shutting down that new hobby as the intrusive thoughts kicked in. Never before had he considered death by Caterpie. However, now as a black and white raccoon, it felt like a very real fear.

There was something about being a foot tall which made even being near this Roserade acutely terrifying. If he recalled correctly, Lopunny were even taller.

At least Raihan had a protective shell in case this giant plant woman took a misstep.

Finally as the gym leader turned his head to meet his stare, he mustered all his bravery. "How much further is to the cavern?" Thank Arceus that Raihan pulled through for him.

"We're nearly there, don't be impatient," she grumbled, prompting Piers to murmur.

"We wouldn't be so impatient if the journey wasn't so mind numbingly boring." He flinched as Rosette glared at him. "H-Hey, I know Rai was thinking it too! Is this how you and Lance travel together?"

She shook her head. "No, he's actually quite the chatterbox. I'm lucky to hear myself think. Are you two usually this quiet?"

Raihan had the decency to look sheepish. "Not really, usually Leon and I are making Piers have a headache at this point."

The Roserade stopped then turned around to face them, lifting her brow. "Leon? What kind of Pokémon is he?"

"He's a Charmander." Piers felt his stomach unsettle a little. He was barely accepting his own reality, it felt so alien to talk about their friend as though he was wandering around lost as a flame tailed lizard. "We got separated and the two of us ended up in Vulpine Village. We're hoping he'll end up wandering right back with us but to quote his little brother, 'he's pants with directions'."

Rosette seemed to silently regard their words, before tilting her head. "What are pants?"

Of course despite the fact some Pokémon seemed to be born wearing clothing, they'd end up in this conversation. "They're these things you wear over your legs. Like what Sawk and Throh have. But in this case, it means 'absolutely terrible'. Think of it as slang, eh?" Raihan exhaled. "When we heard your friend wandered off and got himself separated, it kind of made us think of Lee."

"I see." Rosette looked away. It seemed as though she wanted to say something more, before she shook her head and continued on her path. "I hope we don't burn through our supplies too quickly fighting these fire types. Come on, I see it. Hurry along now."

As she scurried ahead of them, they exchanged glances. "Was that supposed to be a pun?"

Raihan would not receive an answer to that question, by the time they entered the 'Hot Cavern' he could feel himself start to sweat and he didn't even know if Trapinch had pores. "Holy shit, it is hot as balls."

"Hot as what kind of balls," Rosette questioned, narrowing her eyes as she fanned herself with her flower-hand. It only seemed to shed petals, however.

"It's just a say-" Piers gave a startled growl as his instincts to the heat were apparently to spill his tongue out and pant. "Fuc- Stupid tongue, this is humiliating!"

Unfortunately, his speech being butchered by his impromptu blabbering only made Raihan laugh. "Lighten up, we'll blast through, find the bunny then leave! Rosette, how big exactly is this cave?"

Rosette stopped to cross her arms, thinking. Her plant skin where the mask didn't cover was clearly dripping. "I'm not sure, we went down about 7 flights of stairs then got separated, I made it another 3 before I got maimed by those Cyndaquil."

Having already took their first steps into the open expanse of the first room, the former humans halted and slowly turned around. "Stairs?" Piers echoed.

"10 of them?" Raihan shook his head, realising this wasn't the important part. "Why the fuck does a cave have stairs?!"

The grass woman shrugged, her cape dancing behind her. Being also an extension of her body, it would not be immune to shriveling in the heat lest it grew too powerful. "Don't ask me, Mystery Dungeons defy logic. Nobody builds these stairs, they just spawn in completely random locations on the floor but fortunately there's always a way down. If we get knocked out however, we'll be forced to stumble blindly back through. So uh… We should exercise caution. And if we come close to falling, its better to run away than end up losing our supplies."

She certainly sounded like that had never happened to her, Piers mused dryly. "Yeah, let's ho[e it doesn't come to that." His ears twitched and his fur stood on end. "Something's coming."

His senses were certainly correct that something was coming, however they greatly underestimated how many 'somethings' were coming. As though reacting to the Roserade's movements, a cluster of Magby had flocked over, blocking the visible path out of the box-like room. "Oh, it's just some baby Pokémon."

"Don't let your guard down, I can only Mud-Slap so much," Raihan mumbled, as he briefly pondered exactly how PP worked before shaking his head. He took on a defensive position. Rosette followed whilst Piers just continued to blankly stare at the red duck Pokémon. Oddly enough despite being literal babies, they were all larger than him. As much as he loved Zigzagoon, couldn't he have turned into something less likely to be accidentally trod on.

The Magby charged and they were forced to counter. Raihan attacked the ground with a force that he felt should have blinded all 5 of the ducklings but only seemed to catch one of them in the eyes as it cried and flailed around uselessly. The clever thing to do when they were outnumbered would be to focus them down one at a time so Piers slammed into the blinded Magby with a Covet, growling as an Ember from its friend barely caught him in the process. Who knew a burning raccoon spelt of charred toast? "Oh fuck, that stings! We have plenty of Rawst berries, right?"

"I made sure we had at least 10, unfortunately any more and we'd have to skip out on reviver seeds!" Rosette called out as she narrowly evaded a flurry of Embers from the other Magby then flung an array of shining leaves at them. Any attempt at evasion proved futile, as they honed on and exploded against one of the slow ducks. That same duck countered with a splurt of ooze from its beak, making her scream as it fizzed against her abdomen. "Agh! That had a 30% chance to miss!"

Raihan threw himself at another Magby before it could inflict a burn on her too, a clamp of his teeth enough to make it topple over limply. "That's two down, just don't get distract-"

One of the remaining trio spewed out thick smoke, filling the room and obscuring them from view.

"Oh, balls."

Piers gave a low growl, looking at Rosette. "It isn't going to do much, but I think we're going to have to rely on your Magical Leaf until this clears."

"It won't naturally clear, we'll have to run for the stairs or find another way," she murmured, before swiftly moving away as she heard footsteps. The Magby stumbled past her, its Ember harmlessly fizzing out on the cave floor. "Fortunately for us, these dumb kids have blinded themselves too it seems." She hurled a stream of Magical Leaves at the aforementioned dumb kid, prompting it to squeal. Piers followed the sound to charge with a Headbutt, barely grazing it. That was all it seemed to take, as the baby Pokémon burst into tears and ran away.

"I feel a tad bad about this."

"They decided to attack us, there's not much we can do," Raihan murmured before grunting as despite the Smokescreen an Ember struck his shell. "Son of a- Why the hell does that hurt so much?" Before the Zigzagoon could even think of a sarcastic response, a ripple of pain shredded through him and he staggered, his burnt fur sparking. "Piers, you're-"

His own legs buckled underneath his heavy shell and he crashed, kicking up a cloud of dust. "Oh great, we're going to have to use two of our Rawst berries already," Rosette mumbled dryly, before both her flowers glowed. "Might be a bit risky with the accuracy drop, but I need to deal with this quick…"

A blizzard of petals ripped through the room. Raihan mused for a brief second how beautiful the sight was before another wave of pain hit and he passed out.

"Get up, get up damn it!"

The Roserade's shouts fell on deaf ears once again. Both the fallen Pokémon's bodies no longer sparked with burns, however this was no doubt not a pleasant alternative.

"Oh for Arceus' sake, is this why Lance always runs away whenever I use that move," Rosette grumbled, continuing to attempt a wake-up slap with one flower as the other hand fumbled through the bag. Having flowers for hands would normally make such a feat difficult, however what one tended to forget was that the bouquets were not indeed fused to her fingers.

Finally locating the seeds, she violently shoved them into the unconscious Pokémon's mouths. They sprung up instantly, choking and coughing as they keeled forward, forcing the reviver seed back out again. "What the- What the hell was that for?!" Piers snapped, still heaving a little as he stared down at the dull seed. Upon contact with their saliva, the little sprout inside had shrivelled up, barely visible through the crack. "Oh Arceus, is that how those things are used?"

"Normally I think you're supposed to eat the sprout, but I dunno how you're supposed to do that when you're lying unconscious." Rosette picked her bouquet back up and crossed her arms. "Take that as your incentive not to faint again."

"Not like we asked to," Raihan mumbled, feeling his body still sore as he shook the feeling back into his legs. "Wait… Was that Petal Blizzard you used?"

Rosette looked away.

Piers stretched his body out, vibrating slightly. "That thing… That was Petal Blizzard? That thing's a friendly fire attack, no wonder we were knocked out!"

"How was I supposed to know about that?" Rosette grumbled, red in the face. "Lance was always in the other room when I did that!"

"Probably because he knew if he stayed, he'd end up a rabbit kebab." Raihan shook his head then looked at his friend. "We should do the same next time… How about we wait at the stairs on each floor, let Rosette set her nuke off, then go in after her? It might make finding Lance go more smoothly. … And we won't have to deal with Magby every time we go down a flight."

"Sounds like a plan, but first we got to find the stairs," Piers murmured, before gently tugging at his ribbon-headband. Fortunately these things seemed invincible, he was half-expecting to see them shredded.

Fortunately fainting didn't seem to feel like a near-death experience at present. Because he had the feeling they would end up doing that a lot during their time in this world. But what happened if they ran out of reviver seeds? He hated to think what happened to unconscious Pokémon stranded in dungeons with feral Pokémon and no rescuers around.

Time to execute Plan B - Nuke and Run.

Or as it would turn into, Nuke and Clean.

On the 12th floor, just before they reached the stairs, Raihan learnt the hard way how Struggle worked.

Truth be told, he was partially surprised it didn't happen sooner, before he found Mud-Slap didn't fail upon being used for the 11th time. What surprised him even more however was when his attempt to blind an enemy Cyndaquil the old fashioned way by stomping his feet against the cave floor turned into him literally eating dirt as he crashed head-first at the mouse's feet.

"Rai, the heck?" As Rosette slapped the disorientated Cyndaquil with a Magical Leaf, Piers awkwardly tried to shove the Trapinch back to an upright position. Raihan's vision was invaded by dancing stars, movements clumsy as he attempted to help Piers help him. "What the hell just happened?"

Rosette dodged an Ember and silenced the enemy with one more attack, shaking her head as she faced her companions. It had taken longer than they thought to get to this point, alas further than she had progressed solo. The amount of reviver seeds and berries they had remaining though, she was glad they had never let the Eevee friends join them. "I knew this was going to happen eventually. It looks like he's run out of stamina. The kind of reviver seeds we're using are the 'Tiny' variation, they'll restore our HP but not our attack energy. Once we run out of that, trying to use moves eats into our health. Have you two never had to Struggle before?"

Piers had a brief reminder of the difficult beginning of his Pokémon journey. "Uh… I've seen others struggle, but I guess I never thought it would happen to us. I thought we just lost the ability to use moves one at a time before the Struggle effect set in, I'm sure Raihan still had Sand-Attacks left."

"The universe isn't going to magically tell you 'oh you silly billy, you can't use Mud-Slap more than 16 times'. You've gotta know your limit and stop before it gets too much." Rosette rolled her eyes as she delivered that mocking drawl, before digging through the bag and pulling out three bottles. "I think its time we use these then, before we end up doing it ourselves."

She passed them the bottles and Piers gently set it down with his teeth before glancing it over, sniffing at it. "Are these Elixirs?"

"Oh good, you know something." Piers was just about ready to make Rosette catch his claws. "They'll restore our stamina right away. We don't want to end up Struggling through a boss fight."

Now that she had said that, he had the feeling she had jinxed it. He carefully pried the lid off with his teeth and Raihan did the same. The built-up soreness accumulated from 11 flights of stairs seemed to melt away. "Oh goodie, time to go down to Floor 13."

Floor 13 was devoid of stairs.

In fact, it looked extremely different to the other floors. It did not have a labyrinth of walls like the hell they had just tracked through, instead it seemed to be a completely normal cave floor. Raihan was not sure what he expected to be at the bottom of a cave, however he was a tad disappointed that they were not gems embedded in the walls. What set it apart from a nondescript cave basement however was how he could see light shining from the far end.

"Is that an exit?"

Rosette took her hand out of the bag as her brow furrowed, pursing her lips. "I've never seen a place like this whilst exploring dungeons before. I was half expecting to see Lance just sitting down here or cornered by some big bad boss Pokémon or something and we'd need to use an Escape Orb to leave. I wonder where this leads to."

"Only one way to find out." However, Piers could feel a strange sensation creeping through him, prickling his fur. Something felt odd about this place. He was not given time to ponder this however, as he was forced to chase his friend and their client.

Running through the exit, he was almost blinded by the contrast. The cave seemed to open up to a large field, filled with grass and flowers whose petals caught the bright sun. In all truth, Piers had expected to leave the cave to find it was 11 at night, however judging by the sky it was still afternoon. The field was not surrounded by walls, in fact it didn't seem to be surrounded by anything. Looking down over an edge he couldn't even spy a bottom, lest one of them toppled over.

Raihan nudged him and nodded towards the far middle of the meadow. Lounging amongst the flowers was a Lopunny, who seemed to be mumbling to himself as he weaved them together.

"Come on, stay together..."

Rosette just stared at him silently as Raihan asked. "Is that Lance?"

The rabbit's ears twitched and he looked up, before grinning widely. "Hey Rosette, you finally made it!"

The Roserade seemed to drag herself over, stopping to crouch down. Piers jumped as the force of her slap carried on the wind.

"Don't you 'Hey Rosette' me! You had me scared stiff!"

Lance blinked, rubbing his bruised cheek as his pink eyes gazed at her. "Well obviously you weren't stiff, you managed to find me."

"Well, looks like Lance is an idiot," Piers stated dryly, prompting Raihan to snort.

Rosette made a sound akin to a hiccup then forcibly hugged her friend. "Stupidhead, how dare you made me worry!"

As Raihan watched the crying Roserade, he couldn't help but chuckle. "And Rosette is a tsundere, remind you of someone Piers?"

Piers elbowed him, forgetting how much it hurt the first time. "Shut it." His words had a weak growl to them but held no malice. "We should use the Escape Orb now, right? Wait, will it work if we're not all together?"

Raihan shrugged, looking at the bag dangling from Rosette's arm. "No idea, but she won't just ditch us right?" Suddenly his body went rigid, only his head moving from side to side as though seeking something out. "Piers, do you feel that?"

That lingering paranoia crashed down on the Zigzagoon as he gawked at him. "Wait, you feel it too? There's a kind of prickly feeling in the air, isn't there?" It felt so familiar, yet only as he looked back at the duo did the memory finally click. "You two, get over here now!"

"What-" Rosette's head whipped round so she could stare at them, tears still in her eyes. "What are you talking about-" Her words were cut off by her scream as the ground started to shake, clinging tighter to her friend as he did the same. "Ah- What's happening?!"

The force of the quake was enough to knock Piers off his feet, digging his claws into the dirt to anchor himself as Raihan crouched low, bracing the shockwaves. "It can't be, not again-"

At the centre of the meadow, an explosion of energy ripped from the earth. Rosette gawked at the powerful magenta beam, a near miss that soon threatened to engulf them. "What- What's that?" She squeaked as Lance gripped her arms tight, the bunny's teeth gritting as his paws glowed. "Lance, what are you…"

"Get away, run!" With a powerful Circle Throw, the Roserade was sent flying back towards her escorts, squealing. Her eyes caught a glance at that surging tower before it devoured the field, overwhelming her.

Piers' body felt numb as he came to, that sensation of deja vu finally clicking as he weakly raised his head. That eruption of dynamax energy had blown the petals right off the meadow's flowers, the aftermath of it sparking red as it danced around the body of the titanic Pokémon before them. He couldn't quite register what Rosette was whimpering next to them, his ears ringing as only white noise echoed through his mind for a brief moment. Raihan on his other side shook himself back to his senses, staring wide eyed at the Lopunny towering over them. Those sparks of crimson seemed to cause him pain, his elongated limbs trembling and his eyes squeezed shut, ears twitching.

Finally, the white noise was drowned out by Lance's scream and Piers threw himself back just in time to dodge a Double Kick. "Are you kidding me?! The meadow's a dynamax den!"

"What a terrible type match up, too!" Raihan exclaimed, spying a glance at the hyperventilating Rosette. "Hey, this might sound crazy! But we have to knock him out!"

Rosette gawked at him, before shaking her head. "You're right, you do sound crazy! Why the hell would I do that?!"

"He's dynamaxed, the only way he'll turn back is if we defeat him!" Piers focused his eyes on the flailing rabbit and prepared himself to lunge. Nothing happened. "Hey, why the heck can't I use Tackle?!"

"You might have forgotten it!" Raihan narrowly avoided another kick of Lance's swift leg before grunting as it swung back and whacked him back. "You might have learnt another move, try something else for now!" The Trapinch used the force that threw him backwards to attack the dirt, flinging dirt at the frenzied Lopunny. He let out a low shriek and staggered back. "Oh thank Arceus, I can still use Sand Attack!"

Piers looked at Rosette, seeing the plant lady remain immobile. "Hey, do something! Think about it like this, your friend's in a lot of pain right now! Dynamax energy turns Pokémon feral, the only way to help him is to beat him!" His mind swiftly searched his movepool and he attacked Lance with a Headbutt, the relief of such a move working suddenly fading as he swiftly recovered and grabbed the tiny raccoon. "Oh shit."

The Lopunny used Circle Throw.

Piers hit the ground hard, prompting Raihan to shout out as dirt and grass was thrown up by the impact. "Piers- Are you alright?" If his body wasn't screaming so much, he would yell back a witty remark about the impact of a Fighting type move on a Dark type Pokémon. Instead he found he couldn't make a single sound, his vision flashing black as he tried to. After that Sand Attack, what exactly had been the chance of that succeeding? He could hear more yelling but found himself unable to understand the words spoken, blurred vision barely making out a flash of dirt blinding the dynamaxed opponent as he lunged once again.

His body surged with energy as he tasted something on his tongue, vision clearing to see Rosette trembling before him, her hand having extended a reviver seed to his maw. Dropping the now plain seed, she forced herself back to her feet and mumbled. "If you take any more fighting damage, you're going to need a lot more of those. I'm going to connect your health to his." Before Piers could question such a strangely worded statement, Rosette launched a flurry of seeds from her bouquet. Although the large but agile Pokémon was able to avoid most of them, one planted on his arm and immediately sprouted, snaring him with a web of vines. Those vines extended out and wrapped around Piers' hind left foot. The vines zapped Lance, causing the feral Pokémon to grimace. "You can't go fainting now, alright? I don't want to deliver the final blow so I need you two to bring him back to me."

The Zigzagoon gazed at her then nodded, searching his memories to come up with a strategy. If he got hit by a full power Circle Throw again, not even Leech Seed would help him. But if he could lower his attack, perhaps he couldn't be so useless. "We'll save him."

With the vines connecting them he couldn't flee too far from the Lopunny but fortunately he didn't need the range, as he dodged another potentially-fatal Double Kick. "Rai, keep lowering his accuracy, we'll stall him out!"

"Right!" Raihan hurled a Sand Attack and averted another clumsy attack. "You better know what you're doing Piers, I'm not explaining to Leon that we couldn't find him together because you got stepped on by a playboy bunny!"

"No need to worry!" His eyes lit up and though the first kick hit, the second sailing right past him, the impact felt less painful than expected, a jolt of energy returning as the leech seed drained Lance's energy in turn. "That's why I can't use Tackle, I learnt Baby Doll Eyes!"

The Trapinch grinned, taking the opportunity to set up a Laser Focus on the stumbling rabbit. "Told you!" He dodged another attack, hitting the dirt in turn. Nothing happened. "Piers, I need you to keep doing that! Stall for me!"

Thank Arceus for the lowered accuracy, Piers flashed his eyes again and narrowly averted a second attempt at Circle Throw, feeling another spark of energy run through him. Perhaps it would be too much to ask Rosette to throw in a Poison Powder, however he could tell Lance was weakening, as he Headbutted him and grimaced as a Quick Attack hit him in turn. Another Baby Doll Eyes, however he found his heart pounding as before he could get away, the gigantic Lopunny grabbed him again. Oh no. "Rai-"

He hit the ground again, body roaring with pain despite the obviously weakened blow. The dynamaxed rabbit swung his leg. Raihan's memory clicked.

The kick soared past him as Lance was swallowed by a vortex of sand, his distorted screech muffled. All that could be seen through the dense tornado was the faint glow of dynamax energy, and a flash of red as the Leech Seed continued to chip away. "That's Sand Tomb!"

"Hah, I thought there was no way we fought all those enemies on the way here and didn't level up at least a little!" Restricted by the concentrated sandstorm and blinded by the flurry of Sand Attacks, it was all too easy to dodge the panicked series of kicks. "Come on, let's finish it off together!"

Piers and Raihan slammed into Lance with all their might.

Crimson energy ripped once again through the meadow, blowing apart the vortex and shredding the leeched vines. The force of the aftermath sent the two hurling back, as the Lopunny's body convulsed, before shrinking back down and collapsing.

Raihan forced himself to stand again, watching as Rosette ran over to her friend before looking over at his own. Piers was out cold, however the fear dissipated as he listened close to hear his soft breathing. After such a fight, he wasn't surprised to see he had temporarily succumbed to exhaustion, as he gently prodded the raccoon's body to burrow under and nestle him on his shell.

"Oww, my head's ringing… What was that light?" Lance had recovered surprisingly quickly, Raihan had thought before he noticed the half-eaten oran berry clutched in Rosette's hand. Soon that berry hit the ground as the Roserade threw her arms around her friend, her words swiftly turning into gibberish. Their mission had been a success, and he was half-tempted to wake Piers back up to celebrate. Instead he would let him rest, moving carefully as to not stir him as he joined the disorientated rabbit and his plant lady friend.

"We should get back to the village. Make sure you two don't get split up again, alright?" Rosette could not answer Raihan through all the wibbling, but Lance did for her as he held her close and shot a sheepish grin at the Trapinch.

"I have no idea what just happened but I feel like I just got dragged through quick sand."

Raihan chuckled and located their Escape Orb, clutching it gently in his jaw before nestling it between the four of them, freeing his tongue so he could speak. "Escape!"