Chapter 43: Uncharted Waters

The morning came quicker than anyone on Team Traveller expected, though the expanse of water up ahead meant that the rays of a warm and rising sun filtered down to Braveshoal Town as little more than a dim twilight. So it was that Dimitri roused his four charges, and brought them along yawning to peruse the shops near the local bank for supplies for their journey. The walk over proved to be handy for waking the children up, and before the horseshoe crab knew it, he was quickly juggling a small mound of provisions at the counter of a shop fashioned out of gray stone into the shape of a Kecleon's head. Evidently, even the bottom of the sea couldn't stop the Merchantry from setting up a branch, nor deter the scaly proprietor across the counter.

"Okay, so we've got Oran Berries, a couple Reviver Seeds, a Petrify Wand..." Dimitri murmured, sifting through a stack of supplies on the counter. "I think that should be enough to-"

"Oh! That black orb with the light over there," Pleo murmured. "That was the one that I used to get us out of the last dungeon."

"Hrm… now that you mention it, taking one along wouldn't be a bad idea", Nida said as she turned towards the Kecleon shopkeep. "We'll take that Escape Orb as well."

"Ehm... okay, I think that's enough for now..." Dimitri sighed as he shook his head. "If you guys keep picking supplies at this rate, I won't be able to move in the water!"

"So, I take it that that's all, then?" the chameleon prodded.

"Yeah," the Fossil Pokémon answered. "So how much will this all run?"

"1935 Poké."

The Kabutops blanched at hearing the number, and after a brief attempt at arguing down a price that was "seaway robbery", relented and muttered something under his breath about "Viktor's not going to be happy about that…" As Dimitri begrudgingly passed a large stack of gold-colored coins across and paid for the items, Guardia curiously looked at all the other shops around the square, which didn't go unnoticed by Pleo.

"Guardia? What are you looking at?" the little Lugia asked.

The Cubone peered at the gaily-colored stalls along the path, each filled with similarly colorful wares. Many of which were just lying there for the taking…

"I still don't get why we can't just take the stuff from these 'shop' things," she murmured. "I mean, all their stuff is just lying around, so why do you need to trade these little bits of metal?"

"Welcome to what I have to put up with," Elty murmured, which drew a sour frown and lowered ears from Nida.

"Because if you don't, that's stealing and it gets you in trouble," the Nidoran answered.

"So what about when we pick up stuff we find lying around in Mystery Dungeons?" Guardia pressed.

Nida opened her mouth to reply, only for the words to die in her throat. She glanced to Elty to assist her, but all the help he gave was an amused shrug. Nida rolled her eyes and mulled over her answer for a moment before finally finding the words to present her case.

"That's different, though," she began, only for a rough, familiar voice to interrupt from behind.

"My advice helped you, I see."

Team Traveller turned around and saw that there was none other than the whiskered form of Sevan, the Samurott mercenary from the local bank. But… why wasn't he at the bank?

"Eh? Aren't you that Daikenki from yesterday?" Guardia asked, pointing her bone out curiously. "What are you doing here?"

"Yeah," Elty added, giving a puzzled tilt of his head. "Don't you have a bank to be guarding right now?"

"It's fairly quiet at this time of day, and I just happened to notice you," Sevan answered. "I presume you've gotten the guidance you were looking for?"

"Er… yeah, we did," Nida replied. "We met the Blue Fairy the other day and she told us where to go from here."

The Samurott shifted his gaze over to Dimitri in the background, the Kabutops busily packing away his purchase from the Kecleon shop. A suspicious look and twitch of his whiskers came over Sevan's face at the size of Dimitri's generously-packed satchel, causing Nida to tense up and glance at her teammates nervously.

"Seems like that somewhere is pretty far away," the Samurott murmured. "Going anywhere in particular?"

For the second time in a short while, Nida and her teammates found themselves at a loss for words. The wrong answer here held the potential to land her entire team in a great deal of trouble, so was it really wise to say anything at all…?

"Ehm... err..." Pleo stammered, before Nida shook her head and finished his thoughts.

"We can't really talk about it..."

"And why not?" Sevan grunted.

The Nidoran paused. In spite of her best wishes, there was just too much risk in telling the truth. Not while there were so many other Pokémon around that could see or hear them…

"Well you see... uh..."

Before the rabbit could finish her thought process, her ears perked up at a cheery "Privet!", and the sight of Dimitri coming over from the counter with a friendly wave of one of his scythes.

"Are you guys ready yet?" the Kabutops called. "We should leave now if we wanna get to Sormus Island before sundown."

Team Traveller's blood ran cold and Dimitri was quickly taken aback by the wave of panic that spread over his charges' faces. After all their struggle to hide their destination, he had just gone and blurted it out right in front of Sevan! The team watched the Samurott intently, breath held nervously, to see how he'd react to this information, and...

"Ah, I see. In that case, good luck with your travels," Sevan said. "I should be getting back to work about now anyways."

After a brusque goodbye, Sevan set off back to his post. As the Samurott slipped out of view, the five remaining Pokemon were able to relax their posture.

"Uh... who was that?" Dimitri murmured.

"Just someone who helped us find you yesterday," Nida answered. "But it doesn't matter now."

"Hrmph… you never can never be too careful, though," Elty muttered, frowning. "Something about that gave me a bad vibe, and it's not just all the water around us."

"Eh?"

The Kabutops gave a puzzled tilt of his head at the Nidoran and Growlithe. He wasn't quite sure who the little spike ball and fire dog were talking about, but he supposed there was no harm in it.

"Well, no matter…" Dimitri said, waving off his initial unease. "I take it you're all ready to head out now?"

The Water-Type's question was met with a chorus of hearty affirmations from the four children, drawing a small chuckle and a nod of the crab's head.

"Alright, let's get going then," the Kabutops said. "There's a moon pool up ahead past Sophie's."

The four set off after Dimitri, who led them past a row of colorful shops, under the shadow of a stone hoop in between segments of bubble-tunnel. The team's trek took them to a bustling Juice Bar split between an upper level connected to the Subway tunnel and a lower level submerged in the sea, where there was a moon pool to the side. The Kabutops edged up against the water of a moon pool hemmed in by adjacent walls covered in talking-strings and inebriated-looking scrawls. Pleo followed along after his teammates past the mouth of 'Sophie's', where the little Protector paused and looked in.

The space was filled with Pokémon of all shapes and sorts eating and drinking, trading tales of exploits and gossip much as the Pokémon at the guild's mess hall had back in Bluewhorl. The Lugia paused, and realized that this was the first time the team would be leaving a town on friendly terms… perhaps he should do something to mark the occasion? But what?

Hrm… well, this 'Soapy's' did seem an awful lot like the mess hall… So maybe… it would make sense to take a page from the things he'd do if he were leaving the mess hall.

"Goodbye, Braveshoal Town!" he chirped. The little Protector cheerily waved farewell to the passing town, blissfully unaware of the various patrons in the Juice Bar stopping and staring until Elty tugged at his wing with his mouth.

"Get going already, mewa!" Elty snapped. "We can get drinks at the next town!"

As the Growlithe's words hung in the air, Dimitri eased himself into the water and bade his passengers to climb aboard. The four clambered atop their guide in their usual order, before the Kabutops whipped up a bubble and dove under the surface of the water. The vampire crab carried on, past the guarding Pokémon at the tunnel entrance, and off for the current to Sormus… Oblivious all the while to a pair of eyes keenly watching them from the lower level of Sophie's.

"Come on, they're nearly out of sight," Cyanea prodded. "I don't trust your sense of smell outside the open water, and we can't lose them before we get to Spirit Trench."

With that, the forms of a Tentacruel and Sharpedo departed, shadowing the path Dimitri traced in the sea and biding their time to make their move for his divine passenger.


Back on Mengir Island Darzin sailed through the air above Fensedge's collection of tiled and thatched rooftops. After 'convincing' a few local shops to give him an 'Executive Discount' and stocking up supplies for his travel back to Vollezee, the Dragonite was more than ready to leave this wretched hamlet behind him.

"Lousy backstabbers…" the Dragon-Type grumbled. "Someday I'll-"

"Shut up!"

Darzin slowed down his flight as he heard a bellowing voice come down from underneath him. The dragon looked down and saw an Armaldo with a particularly new second-rank scarf yelling at an audience of a Stantler, a Sudowoodo, a Mudbray, and a Grimer.

"But sir, we-"

"I said I don't want to hear it!" Briggs snarled. "You had one job yesterday, which was to put up posters for that Skarmory and those pirates who escaped! Instead I found you laying around snoozing without any scarves on!"

As the Armaldo kept going Darzin shook his head and continued on his way. The affairs of a couple of scarfless screw-ups didn't really concern him, nor were they worth wasting much time prying into.

On his flight over Fensedge he noticed several things. There was the Pidgey, Fletchling, and Pipipek in matching scarves darting over to the guild, the Noctowl and Rowlet from the Recycle shop taking a bag of disused items over the counter, and of course the familiar-looking Clawitzer, Ponyta, Cranidos and Sandslash talking to each other in an alleyway. The Dragonite carried on past, before slowing his pace as he realized why the group in the alleyway seemed familiar...

"Didn't I see that shrimp and the others at the fort yesterday?"

Darzin swung around, and began to descend onto the rooftops next to the alleyway the white-scarved Pokémon were hiding in. The Dragon-Type inched closer and peered over the eaves as the sound of chattering began to prick his earholes.

"Any luck shadowing the Commissioner?" Nagant pressed.

"Well the ship's still here, so his crew is still in port," Berecien answered. "But we haven't seen hide or hair of the actual otter."

"I asked around earlier," Cabot added. "It sounds like he might have left port already."

"Yeah, and the Admiralty doesn't pay mercenaries like me to hang behind enemy lines forever," Niilo grunted. "The longer we hang here, the bigger the risk that we'll botch something and get stuck."

The Admiralty? Then these Pokemon must be Imperial spies! Darzin suppressed his instinct to swoop down and take them down, and kept a quiet watch instead. Could it be they were chasing after the same sea-god Lyn had been tailing all this time?

Given that the entire Board seemed to want him gone, it wouldn't be long before he ran out of opportunities of his own to grab the sea god. As daft as it sounded… perhaps there would be better ways to use these spies. The Dragonite circled back to the alley, where down below, Nagant had grown frustrated with her subordinates' report, drawing a displeased shake of her head before starting to speak.

"Urgh... looks like that it might have been a little much to hope that we'd find out about Lyn's source- Gah!"

Before the wizened Clawitzer could finish, a blue, burning burst struck the shrimp from behind, sending Nagant tumbling in the cluttered alleyway. Berecien, Cabot, and Niilo blanched and went wide-eyed as they saw a Dragonite drop down into the alleyway from the rooftops below.

"The Admiralty, huh?" Darzin scoffed. "I was under the impression that Imps preferred to send their agents into settlements where there were bigger crowds to blend in."

Nagant righted herself with a hiss, clicking her claws as she hopped back into position and readied her large claw. Realizing the danger only a moment after their captain did, her startled underlings hastily assumed combat stances.

"Brace yourselves!"

The Dragonite flashed his claws and gave a low growl back at the Clawitzer and her comrades. However, strangely- and concerningly- he didn't seem particularly worried by being outnumbered by the cornered spies.

"Hrmph, save your breath," Darzin snorted. "Need I remind you that even if you were able to fight me off, the racket would alert the nearby guards? Just where do you expect to run from here?"

Nagant scowled, but found no words with which to respond to Darzin. Although it pained her to admit even to herself, she and her crew had been cornered in both a literal and figurative sense, with no easy out of this situation.

"Grr…"

"C-Captain Nagant?" Cabot stammered. "Wha- what should we do?"

"You're in no position to be doing much of anything right now, so why don't we take some time for a little talk?" the Dragonite suggested. "I actually have an offer that I'd like to make to the lot of you."

The four spies caught themselves and traded blank stares with one another. Here was an Administrator of the Company, who had cornered them all like a bunch of Rattata in this dingy alley… and he wanted to negotiate with them?

"Wait, what?" Niilo said. "Come again?"

"Just what does this 'offer' entail?" Nagant hissed.

"Your employers are looking for the Guardian of the Seas, aren't they?" Darzin demanded. "My offer entails giving them a helping claw to find him."

The Clawitzer paused, and blinked as she tried to square away whether or not she had just heard the Dragon-Type say what she thought she just heard. Soon enough, stunned disbelief gave way to skepticism, prompting Nagant to narrow her eyes leerily at the Administrator.

"And why would you do that?" the shrimp asked.

"Because I've been in the Company for years in order to try and recover something of sentimental value," the Dragonite explained. "As I'm sure you overheard yesterday, I've found reason to believe that I'm facing an impending exit from the ranks. As such, I've decided to explore some alternative approaches."

"Wait, how on earth are we supposed to help you with that?" Cabot pressed.

"Simple. An Empire with a Guardian under its wings is a strong enough actor to take whatever it wanted from Anyilla, regardless of what the Company would think of the matter," Darzin answered. "Recovering some property of sentimental value would be child's play in comparison."

"And just what is this 'something' you're so hung up over-" Niilo began, only to be cut off by a huffing growl.

"That doesn't concern you," Darzin spat. "So are we going to hash out a deal, or no?"

Nagant glowered back at the Dragonite. Even if he wasn't attempting to set her up, he couldn't honestly expect anyone to agree to something so nebulous.

"Hrmph," she grunted. "Assuming we accept, just what are the terms of your deal here?"

"As you know, Administrators hold fairly high positions within the Company. It would allow me to find out about what that Commissioner and the Board have in store for the Guardian," Darzin said. "Surely that would be helpful for helping your Empire beat the Company to the punch, hm?"

Nagant was not sold on the matter, and twitched her feelers irkedly. It was obvious to her that there was a catch to this situation- every intuition she had told her this stunk. She stayed silent, regarding Darzin dubiously.

"Look, the logistics aren't quite as intimidating as you're making them out to be. I'll simply meet you at your ship from time to time to give you information, and you can use that to capture that bird," Darzin reassured. "From there, I will join your Empire's ranks and help you take on the Company as long as I get my sentimental token out of it. A fair deal, no?"

"And just how is that supposed to work when you're an Administrator?" Nagant demanded.

"Yeah, why should any of us trust you?" Berecien snorted. He curled his lip up into a sneer, glaring up at the dragon before him. "How do we know you'll keep up your end of the deal?"

At the Ponyta's words, the Dragonite gave a disdainful snort, before running his claws along the scales on his right flank. After brushing up against a reddened and particularly loose scale near the scrape Salvini left on his neck, he paused, and plucked it out before flicking it into the dirt in front of Nagant and her peers.

"Because now you have proof that we met, Ponyta," Darzin explained. "It would be ever so slightly unbecoming if a Company Administrator was found to be dealing with a bunch of spying Imps, don't you think?"

"And what is the catch in all of this?" Nagant demanded. The shrimp was answered by Darzin lunging forward and grabbing at her scarf. The Clawitzer was knocked back and flailed as she heard fabric tearing, reflexively righting herself and levelling her big claw at the bulky creature in front of her. There, she noticed the Dragonite had flitted back in the alleyway and was displaying a strip of her scarf: the original indigo showing under the white dye.

"The catch is that this agreement goes both ways," Darzin growled. "If it were to come out that an Imperial Captain was spying on the Board, and evidence were to turn up of her presence, I sincerely doubt that such a provocation would go unanswered."

The Dragonite stuffed the scarf fragment into his bag, before turning back to the Water-Type.

"In addition, if I were to be relieved of duty before I were to enjoy the fruits of this risk that I'm taking…" he said. "My last act as Administrator will be to ensure that the Empire doesn't prosper from my plight."

Nagant kept her big claw trained on Darzin, giving a livid scowl at him. The Dragonite paused for a moment, before giving a dismissive shake of his head and a stern glare back.

"So do we have a deal or not?"

Nagant flicked her feelers in silent contemplation as the dragon's words lingered in the air. She was in enemy territory, cornered by one of their strongest champions. Even if she bested him, escape would be nigh impossible. On the other hand, as distasteful as it was, working with him did provide an opportunity. Plus, it would be easier to think of ways to make sure the lizard upheld his end of the bargain while in friendlier waters. She finally lowered her claw, looking down at the ground and giving an annoyed sigh.

"Urgh... fine," the Clawitzer answered. "We'll take your deal."

"Pleasure doing business with you," Darzin replied. "To answer your earlier question about meeting up: I have swift wings and a workload that lets me out and about on a regular basis. As long as you give me something to identify your ship by, I can rendezvous with you aboard it from time to time."

"We're flying white-and-red sails like our scarves right now," Nagant said. "You won't be able to miss us in enemy waters, and we'll leave a dispatch flag up when we're in friendly waters."

"I think I can work with that," he responded. "And I shall bid you farewell here. Administration is busy work, after all."

With that, the Dragonite leapt up and soared off out of the alley, quickly slipping away from his freshly-recruited allies. Nagant fumed and shot out a burst of water at a row of pots against one of the alley walls, reducing them to sopping shards. After a moment for her temper to cool and her mind to sober up, the shrimp gave a sour grunt, rationalizing that now was as good a time as any to leave this accursed island.

"Hrmph. Let's get moving and push off for Otvaga," she huffed. "We can try and find Lyn and his source there. I don't think we'll get another offer like that if we get found out here."

The Clawitzer pressed on, carefully departing the alleyway along with her three subordinates. There had certainly been many an unexpected turn in this mission, but she had found more than enough to work with in Otvaga's safer waters…

The question was, would Commissioner Lyn beat her to the punch?


"Are we almost there yet?"

The prodding chirps of a young and increasingly antsy Lugia rang out in the air bubble attached to the form of a Kabutops swiftly cutting along above the seafloor. Behind them were flecks of froth left in the wake of the traveling crab's bubble, and below were gently waving beds of seagrass on the ocean floor. Dimitri gave a tired shake of his head at his passenger's pestering, before letting out a small grumble.

"Like I explained five minutes ago, not yet." he sighed. "We still have several hours worth of travelling to go."

"But where are we then?"

As if on cue, the team passed by a dark shape on the seafloor, and then by another, and another. Nida, Pleo, and Guardia watched as Elty looked out at the passing forms, only to suddenly flush pale. By chance, the team happened to pass by a pair of spires jutting out of one of the shapes, made of darkened and rotted wooden timbers. A closer examination revealed tattered ropes, and poles that had been attached crosswise… Wait a minute, these spires were ship masts...

The four looked ahead to see an oncoming cliff cleaved in two by a narrow passage, the sand leading up to it pockmarked with the skeletons of sunken hulks; once-proud vessels now stilled with only the form of a feral flitting in or out occasionally to evidence life.

"We're at Spirit Trench," Dimitri explained. "As you can tell from all the wrecks, the waters around here are a bit treacherous, and the only route to Sormus from here that doesn't involve a long detour or walking half a day in the Subway runs through that ravine there."

"And you're not swimming over the giant ravine of doom here why?" Elty grumbled.

"Because the waters over this ravine are the territory of feral Frillish and Jellicent," the Kabutops countered. "They have a habit of sinking ships foolish enough to pass through here when they're cranky, and they aren't any more welcoming to gill-breathers like me."

"That… sounds like a pretty good reason, actually," Guardia said.

"Alright, whatever, just hurry us up through there, okay?" Elty snapped. "I have a bad feeling about this place."

Pleo shifted uncomfortably as Dimitri entered the darkened trench. With only dimmed sunlight from the surface far above and the faint blue of glowing plankton in the water for light, the craggy place certainly didn't look like it was the safest route... but if Dimitri was sure about it, maybe he should try and take his mind off the matter with something else.

"So what is Sormus like anyway?" Pleo asked.

"Well it's not like I go there very often," Dimitri began. "But the entire island is one huge desert."

"What's a desert?"

"I guess you can think of it as kinda like a beach, except there's no water," the Kabutops replied. "It doesn't rain much, and there's not any humidity. Awful terrain to be in really."

"Eh?" Nida asked. "But then how does anyone live there?"

"Well, some Pokémon just seem to be cut out for it," the crab answered. "But the main reason why there's a town on there is because it has the mines that the Empire uses to get copper for their coins."

Pleo tilted his head curiously at his Kabutops guide. Those little metal chunks that the shopkeepers traded stuff for were really that important? Bader had mentioned that the Company and the Empire also made coins like the Kecleon did, and he knew full well what the Company was, but...

"We heard of the Empire back on Boisocéan before…" Pleo murmured. "What is it?"

"Well… I'm not that in tune with surface politics, so it's tough for me to explain. But I guess you can think of it as a group of towns like Braveshoal that's ruled by one specific rod," Dimitri explained. "They used to rule all the surface of Anyilla aside from Otvaga up until around forty years ago."

"When Conntow got destroyed," Nida murmured.

"Something like that, yeah," the Kabutops said. "Viktor says it's comeuppance for what their ruling rod did to the Sea King back in the age of legends, but I don't put too much stock into that."

"Comeuppance? Sea King?" Guardia asked. "What do you mean by that?"

"Ah, it's an old tale. A bunch of air-breathers like you don't need to worry about it," he reassured. "Besides, we're almost at the end of the ravine."

Sure enough, there was a light up ahead marking the end of the ravine. Dimitri pressed on ahead, swimming out onto an undersea plain where a couple lonely wrecks lay near the sunken plateau behind them. Team Traveller noticed that the wrecks stopped appearing up ahead in the distance, and the scenery returned to its normal sand and stone.

"See? That wasn't so bad now, was- AGH!"

A pair of shadowy forms flew out of the last wreck and towards the team, Dimitri's sudden scream and his sudden lurch immediately put Team Traveller on the defensive. The four saw a bullet-like creature with a frightening number of razor-sharp teeth to the right, yanking at the carpal joint of Dimitri's right arm. Before Pleo could make out what the attacker was, he felt a soggy, long appendage curl around his tail and yank him from behind. The little Lugia squawked and desperately beat his uninjured wing in a panic to try and wrench his tail free before Guardia's voice rang out from above.

"A-Aah! Let go of him!"

Pleo heard the swoosh of Guardia's club swinging through the damp air, followed by a wet splat and a hiss of pain as the black tendrils let go and Pleo flopped forward. Dimitri swung a scythe at the toothy shadow, and after wrenching free his right arm riddled with dents and cracks, the Kabutops swam forward in a blind panic. His passengers, still panting and wide-eyed from their encounter, looked back and saw the following form of a Tentacruel cradling her tentacles around a coalescing ball of sludge, and a Sharpedo jetting ahead in hot pursuit.

Dimitri's passengers clung on desperately as the crab lurched and weaved around globs of poison and jets of water from their pursuers. A Sludge Bomb sailed overhead and grazed the wall of the bubble, showering the team with water from a leak, and prompting a spluttering, horrified realization by Nida.

"Dimitri! They're going to break the bubble!"

"I know that! Just hang in there!"

Nida and her teammates clung on for dear life as Dimitri raced through the water. A violet glob zipped past the bubble overhead, causing it to wobble dangerously. If only they were on land! Then they could help fight back against these Pokémon instead of just sitting helplessly on Dimitri's back!

By chance, the Nidoran noticed a stray bubble pass by outside. Then another, and another. The Nidoran peered down and off into the distance, where there to Dimitri's side, was a fuzzy and hazy long tube along the seafloor. The unmistakable profile of a Subway route.

"Wait, down there!" the rabbit squeaked. "There's a Subway tunnel! Get us in there!"

"Eh?! But that leads to-"

The Kabutops was cut off by a ball of sludge shot at him from behind at a frighteningly high velocity, the poisonous glob missing him and his passengers by only a hair's breadth.

"Forget it, it's good enough for now!"

Without further argument, he darted as quickly as his body and the surrounding water allowed down towards the watery tunnel.

Dimitri neared the wall of the Subway, zipping past one of the hoop-markers that held up its different segments. The Kabutops prepared to dive into the air tunnel, only to feel the water disturb around him and a briny jet slice into him from above. He lurched along with his now bubbleless passengers, and fell through the Subway tunnel with an unceremonious splat as the five fell groaning to the ground with an unhealthy amount of seawater. One-by-one, Team Traveller and their guide wearily roused themselves, only to blanch as they saw Katyusha tearing for the tunnel.

"You're not getting away from us so easily!"

"A-Aah!"

Nida looked up, and watched as Katyusha expelled a burst of water that trailed with white steam. The little rabbit flinched as the jet made its way through the wall, only to see Pleo spit up a glowing ball in a panic, reducing the scalding stream into a pattering of hot drops as water leaked in from the hole left behind in the bubble tunnel. Sensing that time was of the essence, Dimitri spat up a cluster of mud blobs through the Subway wall at the retreating Sharpedo's shadow and turned to shout a simple command to his charges.

"Quick! Run!"

The four children turned and bolted down the tunnel, scrambling up a rocky path as the form of an approaching mass of tendrils neared the wall. Nida reflexively raised her spikes, and flicked a barb at the direction of the approaching Tentacruel through the tunnel wall. The Nidoran watched her missile slice through the bubble, only to slow and drift aimlessly in the much thicker water outside. Why, her spike had accomplished little other than springing a fresh leak of seawater! Unfazed, the jellyfish began gathering brine near her mouth, prompting Nida to sprint from her place as a burst of unusually salty water struck where she had been moments ago.

"A-Ack! How are we supposed to fight these guys when they're out in the water?!"

"I'll take the fight to them!" Dimitri cried. "You just keep running down that tunnel."

The Kabutops dug in his feet and sprinted after the Tentacruel's form as she readied another Brine attack from along the Subway wall. The crab tensed his uninjured left claw, and jumped for the jellyfish with a jeering cry.

"I think it's about time someone cut you down to size!"

A pained, burbling screech rang out after Dimitri thrust his scythe through the bubble overhead and raked his uninjured scythe over Cyanea's bell, letting in a curtain of seawater and leaving behind an ugly scrape. The wounded jellyfish slapped her opponent away with tendrils lined with purple, exposed stingers in a blind panic, and desperately fell back after forcing the Kabutops off with a yelp.

Nida and her teammates bolted down the tunnel with Dimitri coming up from the rear lurching from a tender spot Cyanea stung in between his exoskeleton's segments. In spite of that, the team easily made progress down the tunnel… perhaps too easily… Guardia noticed the suspicious lull and looked back, where she saw their Sharpedo and Tentacruel assailants had fallen back a ways. There in the distance, she saw the duo chattering with each other before the shark swam off into the open water.

"Eh?!" she cried. "They're falling back!"

Almost as if on cue, the bone lizard was answered by a violet glob grazing her and knocking her to the ground. The Cubone got up in a start, hastily brushing some toxic gunk and seawater off her scales as the team's flight resumed once again past an undersea ledge, Elty taking the time to shoot back an annoyed glare.

"Gah!" he yipped. "Some 'falling back' that was!"

"But why did that shark swim off then?!" Guardia exclaimed.

That… was actually a good question. Dimitri looked around hastily for places where the Sharpedo could have swum off to, only to be answered with a loud rumble and the sight of Katyusha swimming away rapidly over the crest of the ledge. The Kabutops looked up in the direction where the shark came from, where much to his horror, a large boulder was cascading down the ledge, directly for their Subway tunnel.

"Agh! Look out!"

The group scattered, Nida and her teammates running up ahead, while Dimitri fell back as the boulder slammed into the Subway. The roar of rushing water resounded, as the four children of Team Traveller watched the seawater reclaim the path behind them, throwing the group into a panicked sprint down the path. The waves drew nearer and nearer, and water seeped ahead to turn the path into a deepening lake when the group reached a small hill capped by a stone arch.

The children ran through the arch bracing for the worst, only for the waves to never come. Guardia looked back, and saw that a bubble wall had closed in over the space under the arch, stopping the advancing waters… So that's what those things were for. Off in the distance, the team saw Dimitri swimming up, fatigue starting to take its toll on him.

"Ack! Hang in there, ki- ARGH!"

The Kabutops cried out in pain as he felt something toothy and sharp clamp down on his left leg. Much to everyone's horror, the culprit was none other than Katyusha, digging her teeth in deeper into the tarsal of one of Dimitri's legs.

"Going somewhere?!" the Sharpedo shouted, muffled somewhat by the bony carapace in her mouth. Team Traveller watched as Dimitri blindly hacked at Katyusha, struggling to no avail to get his leg free. Slowly, an awful realization began to sink in: there was nothing the four could do to help their friend but watch from within the air tunnel.

"Dimitri-!" Pleo yelled, only to duck as sudden a passing jet of water. The four blindly bolted along, until they saw Cyanea floating up ahead above the tunnel.

"Why are you doing this?!" Nida exclaimed. "Why are you attacking us like this?!"

"Because that bird with you is the key to restore Anyilla to its former glory," Cyanea answered. "We can end this right here if you surrender and come along peacefully-"

"No!"

The Tentacruel blinked out of surprise and looked down at the little bird in front of her. Even in spite of his injured wing and being separated from his strongest defender, there was a fire within the Protector's eyes. A fire that spoke all too clearly what came out of his beak immediately afterwards.

"I won't go with you!" Pleo cried. "I promised I'd go home with my friends, and I'm not leaving them!"

"Then you leave me no choice," the jellyfish growled. "Eat sludge!"

A rapidly growing ball of sludge started pooling in front of the Tentacruel, tainting the water around her with ugly wisps of liquid poison. Pleo froze, realizing that in that moment he was staring down a fight with a foe that seemed far stronger than him, with no one who could help him…

"Keep it together, mewa! Follow my lead!" a voice from behind yipped. A column of cinders flew overhead at the ball of sludge as it broke through the Subway wall. Pleo hastily disgorged a Weather Ball at the blob, reducing the Sludge Bomb into a smoky stain on the ground.

As the stain was quickly swept away by the water let in from the hole the blob punched into the bubble, a realization dawned on the little Lugia.

He wasn't alone at all! He was here with his friends, and if they all just worked together…"

"Ack!" Guardia exclaimed. "She's coming back!"

The four whirled and saw Cyanea approaching from overhead, prompting Team Traveller to break into a desperate sprint away from the pursuing jellyfish. The Poison-Type once again sent a jet of briny water through the wall and down the Subway passage, only this time, her attack found its mark on Nida as the Nidoran attempted to flee with her friends.

"Agh!"

Nida pitched forward and tumbled along the ground, breathing heavily and coughing up brinewater as she struggled to get up. She felt a claw tug at her and saw it was none other than Guardia, coming to her aid.

"Come on, Nidoran," she pleaded. "Don't go giving up on us! We need all the help we can to fight that yajū off!"

The two looked back towards Elty and Pleo, who had spat up embers and a glowing ball after Cyanea, only for their attacks to do little beyond letting in more water into the Subway and making the wall of the tunnel waver more and more. Nida and Guardia's faces fell as a sinking realization came over the pair. The jellyfish was wearing them all thin and every time they tried to attack back, she could just fall back into the sea around the tunnel!

"How are we supposed to fight her?!" Guardia cried.

Gah… why did that lizard need to raise questions that didn't have an easy answer? The only time that that blasted Tentacruel ever came around was whenever she was ready to attack! Just then, Elty's ears perked up, as he realized that all this time, Cyanea had been giving them exactly the opening they needed to fight her!

"Look, bonehead! She only attacks from right by the wall!" Elty cried. "If we want to take her out, we need to hit her with everything we've got when she comes back!"

"But we'll be right in front of her that way!" Pleo squawked.

Nida glanced up at the Tentacruel and back at her teammates. Guardia had clearly already made up her mind and had grasped her club tightly, readying herself to strike. It was now or never, and with their situation as dire as it already was… perhaps fortune really did favor the bold.

"Then we'll have to work as a team and make this count!" Nida exclaimed.

The four looked up and watched as Cyanea once again neared the Subway wall, a volume of sloshing, whitish brine gathering near her mouth. This time, there was no running, as Team Traveller's members dug in their feet and braced their bodies for battle.

"Here she comes!" Elty barked. "We've got one shot at this!"

Elty's fur bristled as blue sparks began to dance up and down his body. The Fire-Type moved from teammate to teammate as he gave a firm tap to each of his compatriots, passing the blue sparks onto them. The sparks settled in a bluish aura that soon faded, leaving behind an invigoration that made even fighting the Tentacruel up ahead look possible.

"Now!" Nida cried.

The Nidoran flicked a barb towards the Tentacruel, followed by a glowing ball from Pleo. The attacks sliced through the Subway's wall, finding their mark on the jellyfish's face. Cyanea lurched up with a pained shriek, spewing her Brine up and towards the ceiling of the Subway and missing her targets by a wide margin.

The Poison-Type cradled her face with her tendrils, drifting along stunned from the attacks. Any satisfaction however was short-lived, as Nida, Elty, and Pleo noticed that more water was coming into the Subway than normal. A closer examination revealed the holes punched into the wall were arranged in a rough spread, and rather than closing up right away, the holes seemed to be growing, as if they were expanding into each other.

"Ack! The bubble!" Pleo yelped. "It's bursting!"

Meanwhile, Guardia had kept her attention focused on Cyanea, ignoring the pouring water as she kept her focus on the harrying yajū and an attempt to strike back. The Cubone saw the Tentacruel's form pass through a section ringed by leaks in the wall, when she realized that her best chance to strike her would be to take a leap of faith and take a stab at her elders' lore. Guardia raised her club, and arced her arm back, preparing a forceful throw.

"Eat this, you lousy salt-sucker!"

"Guardia, wait!" Nida exclaimed. "Don't-!"

The Cubone hurled her bone, spinning in the air as it found its mark at the Subway wall, ripping a new hole into the bubble tunnel. The tear spread wider and wider until it abruptly joined the earlier holes and suddenly gave way to a wall of water coming down on the four.

"AAAA-"

The wave picked up the team and carried them further down the tunnel, before the sea closed in overhead, leaving the four to be pushed around by the turbulence kicked up by the sudden floodwaters.

Pleo felt himself drift underwater and opened his eyes, where he saw that he had carried along past a clump of seaweed with a patch of foggy water in the distance. The Lugia hastily attempted to right himself, and found that with a dive, he could smoothly move around in the water. He did it again, and again, gliding along in the water. Why… this was almost like flying! And Nida, and Elty, and Guardia… surely they were similarly doing well-

The little Protector looked ahead, where he saw his friends at a patch of open water. Far from the graceful, sweeping movements he expected, they were thrashing out of blind terror. This seawater- It was- it was hurting them!

"Stop right there!"

Pleo looked back and saw the shape of a Tentacruel heading in his direction after recovering from the attacks earlier. He had to get his friends out of here as soon as possible... but to where? Anywhere he and his friends could go, Cyanea would just be able to follow him! Wait a minute...

Pleo looked off into the distance and saw a wall of cloudy water, filled with what looked an awful lot like the fog of a Mystery Dungeon. That could be just the break he and his friends needed! If it had fog, maybe there would be air inside. And if it was a Mystery Dungeon, then even if Cyanea followed him, she wouldn't wind up falling into the same place as him!

The Lugia hastily swam over to his teammates, feeling them latch on with their paws and mouths and took off swimming for the foggy water. In the distance, Cyanea continued to pursue, preparing a jet of briny waters, only for him to see her abruptly stop as the fog clouded Pleo's vision more and more. And so it was that the little Protector carried on into the murky haze before him, not daring to stop his flight until he could see what laid on the other end.


The sun shone down on the green-sanded beaches of Mengir, where just outside of Fensedge, the battered Siglo Swellow had been brought ashore by the crew after carefully limping into the harbor away from the Board's prying eyes. The Iron Fleet's ambush had left the ship behind in tatters, providing no shortage of repairs to be done. The sails were shredded ribbons held together by rickety patches, the decks were riddled with burnt and splintered timbers, and the hull was pockmarked with gaping holes in dire need of a fix more permanent than a simple ice plug. Crom and Pladur too joined the rush to patch up the stricken schooner, the two dutifully lugging a load of wooden timbers along the beach towards the battered ship.

"... We've sure got a lot of work ahead of us," Pladur sighed. The duo carried on, the Fraxure's pace halting and uneven due to his wounds from the big fight. Even without the lingering injuries, there seemed to be a heavy and hopeless atmosphere clinging to the worksite, as the crew of the Siglo Swellow went about their duties repairing their stricken ship.

As the two neared a hole in the hull, they saw Ander was hard at work sawing timbers into planks usable for repairs, the ship's temporary icy plug having long melted away. The sound of flapping wings caught their attention, and Crom looked up with a start, half expecting to see Pleo's form. Those fleeting, fanciful hopes were quickly brought back down to earth when he saw the flapping creature was the crew's Unfezant mailmon flying off towards the horizon... back towards a now-distant feeling home.

"Dad...?" the Druddigon hesitantly asked. "Do you think mom will be worried when she finds out about us?"

"I'm sure it'll be fine. She can't be much worse than me," the Fraxure hastily reassured. "I'm the one who's always a bit jumpy at letting you go off into the unknown."

Crom supposed his father had a point, but even as the two neared their destination at a gaping hole in the Siglo Swellow's hull, something about the reassurance didn't quite click. His dad's words failed to ease him, and the little dragon continued to trudge along as he tried to put his misgivings into words.

"I guess… but what about the town?" Crom insisted. "What will they think when they find out about the others being gone again?"

"Take things one step at a time, Crom," a voice buzzed. The young Druddigon looked up and saw Ander looking over to him, the blotch-headed mantis giving a tired shake of his head as he rested his scythes from a long morning of hacking wood.

"When life throws a barrier at you, sometimes you need to hunker back a bit to let things sort out," the Scyther said. "There's no sense wearing yourself out over impossible fights."

Ander's words proved to be a rather underwhelming reassurance, prompting the little Druddigon's wings to droop dejectedly. While it was true that some fights couldn't be won… did he really have to say it like that?

"I guess so…" Crom murmured. "I just wish there was something we could do."

"We'll work through it, Crom," Pladur reassured. "For now, why don't we drop this lumber off at-"

"Ya volví!"

Crom, Pladur, and Ander looked up, and watched as Kiran swooped overhead, and came to a flapping stop on the beach. The Pokémon looked at each other puzzledly, wasn't Kiran supposed to be in town right now?

"Eh? Already, Kiran?" Ander asked. "Weren't you picking up Lum Berries for the ship?"

The Scyther's prodding prompted Kiran to uncomfortably ruffle his feathers, the Swellow visibly stumbling to find the right words to share with the other.

"Erm… well…"

Crom, Pladur, and Ander traded uneasy looks at Kiran's hesitance. Had something gone wrong? And if so… what was it?

"Did something happen out there, Kiran?"

"Well…" the Swellow began. "It turned out the only place in town that had Lum Berries in stock was the local Kecleon shop…"

"I mean, they overcharge a bit," Pladur insisted, "but that means you were able to get the Lum Berries, right?"

"Not quite," Kiran sighed. "It turns out I'm banned from their stores due to matching the description of a vandal who trashed one of their shops on Kenobi."

At the mention of 'vandal' and 'Kenobi', Pladur stared blankly, before burying his face in an opened claw.

"The shop in Andaku," he realized with a groan. "They must have blacklisted us after that little incident..."

"I guess it was only natural that our getaway would have had some sort of hitch to it," Ander said, shaking his head. Before the mantis could continue his thoughts, he was cut off by the sound of the ship's meal bell and a buzzing cry from the ship's deck.

"All hands on deck, I've got an announcement to make!"

The four turned and looked up at the ship's deck, where a rapidly growing crowd of their peers gathered around Captain Beatrix as she flitted about the main mast.

"Eh? What's going on?" the Hitmontop first mate wondered.

"Yeah, the ship's still a wreck!" Natrix exclaimed.

"And it is awful early to be sounding off the dinner bell..." Philips murmured.

"Come on," Kiran instructed. "Let's see what's going on."

Kiran led his companions off into the gathering meeting, where the crew of the Siglo Swellow had assembled under the main mast. Some chattering went here and there about the gathered Pokémon. Had something else been uncovered along with Natrix and Philips' discovery yesterday that Lyn hadn't yet found the Protector? Did more news come from home? There, Captain Beatrix flitted about lethargically, clearly short on sleep. The Illumise motioned for quiet, and then cleared her throat to speak.

"I know you're all hard at work, but there's a little problem that we've run into," she announced. "Specifically, we're running low on supplies."

The captain's declaration drew concerned looks and unnerved chatter from her audience. First they almost got the ship shot out from under them, and now they didn't even have the supplies to leave port.

"We can buy more from the town, but…" Beatrix began. "I did the numbers, and unless we plan on sailing our next leg on empty stomachs, we don't have the funds to cover the difference."

"... So now what?" Natrix asked.

"It's simple, some of us will need to pitch in and do a few jobs around town," the Illumise instructed. "The sooner we close the gap, the sooner we can get out of here. Any volunteers?"

A tide of uneasy and demoralized murmurs went about the gathered crew, until suddenly, a young voice cut through the chatter...

"We'll do it, Captain Beatrix!"

The whole assembly turned and stared at a young Druddigon standing tall with his chest puffed out pridefully, much to the stammering confusion of his Fraxure father.

"Er... we will?" Pladur murmured. "Crom, don't you think-?"

"No, dad, I want to help!" Crom insisted. "If I could manage missions with my team back home, we should have no problem doing one or two here!"

"The easiest way to make a little bit of side money would be to take a mission…" Kiran mused. "And if you're headed off into town, I might as well take you two under my wing."

"Ander?" Crom asked. "You'll help us too, right?"

At the mention of his name, the Scyther blinked in surprise, regarding the young Druddigon incredulously.

"Eh? Me?" Ander buzzed. "But- why would you need me to-?"

"It would be wise to have a full team if we're looking through missions…" Kiran mulled.

"And, well… you've helped us all get through some real jams already, so…" Pladur added.

After a moment's thought, Ander sighed and shrugged his shoulders.

"… I suppose it'd be a nice break from chopping wood," the mantis murmured. "Alright, I'll bite."

"Approved," Beatrix said. "Any other volunteers?"

Crom's example bolstered the spirits of the other Pokémon, prompting volunteers to step forward one by one, their cries ringing in the air with newfound vigor and determination.

"Count me in!"

"Yeah, us too!"

As more and more Pokémon volunteered, Crom and his companions set off from the Siglo Swellow, clambering down the rope ladder for the beach. During their trek down the coast for Fensedge Village off in the distance, the clamor from the ship behind them grew fainter and was slowly replaced with the lapping sound of ocean waves. The trek took the four past sea stones, lumps of driftwood, and curiously a few glinting metal feathers left on the beach sand. As Crom continued on with Ander and Kiran, they noticed that Pladur seemed to be having trouble keeping pace, the Fraxure being slowed to a hobble from aches stiffening his limbs and gasping for air.

"Kiran, are we sure about doing a mission?" Ander asked.

"E-eh, it's alright!" Pladur insisted. "Nothing that a little working through can't fix!"

Ander frowned, seeming unconvinced. He raised a brow dubiously and glanced to his other teammates, who all wore a similar expression.

"… We'll see what they have on the board," Kiran sighed. "There has to be something we can all do."

The three waited for Pladur's to catch up with them before continuing along their path for Fensedge. As the group made their way for the stone pillars in the distance, a nagging doubt kept tugging at their minds...

Would this really work out?


After entering the foggy water, Pleo found that his sight rapidly deteriorated as the mist quickly thickened. The little Lugia desperately continued tugging his teammate's limp bodies along, only to suddenly feel himself drop.

The water stripped away, and the Lugia fell tumbling through a void, shrieking in panic with the unconscious forms of his companions. The little Protector felt his body strike a wet, stony surface and rolled along, sending a pain jolting through his bandaged wing. He eventually came to a stop on his back, panting and wearily picking his body off the ground.

Pleo looked around as the water started to roll off his plumes, and saw that he was in a chamber whose bottom was enclosed by a bubble much like the Subway, the top and a portion of the far left wall flooded with seawater. There were large roots criss-crossing the chamber walls, with large, blue and pink crystals embedded into them. And behind him, his friends were sprawled out in a sopping pile, motionless.

"N-Nida? Elty? Guardia? " the little Lugia asked. "Are you all alright?"

The three soggy lumps gave back no response, nor any sign of movement. At once, memories of the team's near-disaster in Mengir's Mystery Dungeon surfaced; causing Pleo to fear the worst, and hastily dart over to Nida and nose at her body with his beak.

"Come on, get up, please!" he cried.

The Lugia kept prodding, his desperation showing through as he shook the Nidoran's shoulder roughly in his attempt to rouse her. Finally, after a dreadful few seconds, he felt Nida twitch under his grasp. Nida gagged and coughed up some seawater, and shot her eyes open with her pupils shrunken to pins. As she laid on the ground, Nida took in her strange new surroundings, the Nidoran drawing ragged, panting breaths as she drug herself up to her feet.

"Nida!"

"Wh-what happened?!" the Nidoran squeaked.

"The Subway tunnel flooded! All of you were going still and I thought you were going to die again," the Lugia squawked, before continuing on with a torrent of words. "And I dragged you into this fog in the water since it looked like the one back in the Mystery Dungeons- And- And-!"

Pleo's rattled squawks roused Elty, who flailed around on the ground with a panicked howl as the Growlithe fought for air...

"A-Aah! I'm drowning! Ratunku! R-Ratun-!"

...only to realize that his lungs were breathing in air, and that he was lying on a cold and damp patch of stony ground. The Fire-Type blinked, and warily picked himself up off the ground, giving a sheepish laugh.

"Er… just swallowed a bit of seawater," he insisted. "Nothing that I can't bounce back from!"

Nida and Pleo traded unamused looks with each other at Elty's hasty and unconvincing show of bravado. The din similarly roused Guardia, who staggered up to her feet, coughing and groaning.

"Urgh… Gardie, can you not do this right now?" she grumbled. "That was certainly a worse attempt at Honebūmeran than norma- Huh?"

The Cubone instinctively reached to the side for her bone, and after failing to find it, felt about her surroundings. The lizard's initial calm quickly gave way to a deep panic as she realized that something was deeply amiss.

"A-Aah! My bone!" she exclaimed. "It's gone!"

Nida's ears folded back and she hastily sniffed about for any sign of Guardia's club, only to realize that based off where she saw it last, it was likely the club was far, far out of reach.

"The water must have swept it away after you threw it at that Tentacruel," Nida explained. Any hope for soothing Guardia's nerves quickly fell flat, as the Nidoran's words served to panic the Cubone more, making the Ground-Type start to hyperventilate.

"Eh? But Guardia, you're okay aren't you?" Pleo chirped. "Why is the bone so important? Can't you just get another bone later-?"

"Because I need that to live, kamome!" Guardia cried. "Without my bone I'm completely helpless! If a yajū pounced on me without it, then- then-"

"Look, just take a deep breath and get ahold of yourself right now, bonehead," Elty snapped. "As long as we get out of here, we can get another from a scavver."

"Yeah, we're obviously in a Mystery Dungeon right now," Nida explained. "It's alright, we'll just use the Escape Orb from the bag to get out of here."

The Nidoran set down the slightly-too-big satchel on her shoulder onto the ground. There, Elty noticed that the bag had sprouted a fresh tear in the fabric, most likely from the fall into the Mystery Dungeon.

"Ugh… nice going with the bag, spike ball," he groaned. "I've had that thing for years and I kept it in better shape than you have in the last few days."

"Elty, we have other priorities here," Nida frowned, as she poked her head in to root through the satchel for the orb that would take the team back to safety.

"I'm just saying, I am getting my bag back at some point," the Growlithe huffed. "And when that happens, I want it fixed- Huh?!"

The four watched as Nida pulled the Escape Orb out of the bag. There in her paw was the familiar black, glassy orb, except its light was just as dull as when they bought it back in Braveshoal Town!

"Eh? Nida?" Pleo asked. "Aren't Escape Orbs supposed to glow brightly when we can use them?"

"Er… well… yes, but… I don't understand," she murmured, tapping frantically at the orb's surface. "Why can't we leave from this dungeon?"

"Well, what entrance did we come in from?" Elty asked, prompting a curious tilt of Pleo's head.

"Huh?"

"An Escape Orb takes you back to the beginning of whatever path you took to enter a Distortion," he explained. "If you just fell into it without going through a path, then of course it's not going to work!"

The team's eyes widened out of shock after Elty's words as a sinking realization began to creep into their minds. The very fact that they had wound up in the middle of the Mystery Dungeon like this meant they had to have come through it much as they went into the Dungeon at Boisocéan…

And that meant...

"W-we're stuck in this yajū nest without any way to get out?!" Guardia whimpered. Nida hastily motioned with calm with her paws, trying unconvincingly to reassure the disarmed Cubone.

"It's alright! It's alright! We can still make this work out!" she insisted. "We're much better supplied than the last time we got in a situation like this! We can just find a place to hunker down until someone can help us out of here-"

"So that that Sharpedo and Tentacruel can come and find us?" Elty retorted.

Nida caught herself and twitched her whiskers at the mention of the team's pursuers. It wouldn't do them much good to start that chase up again...

"Uh... right. We would probably be better trying to find a way out," the Nidoran murmured. As Nida looked around, she saw that the team seemed to be in a collection of bubbles much like the Subway, interleaved with what appeared to be the roots of a great mangrove forest far above them.

The Poison-Type saw that a mix of ocean stone and clumps of mangrove roots seemed to form barriers into the shape of rough chambers that cut through bubble and water alike, with pink and blue crystals sprouting from the barriers and patches of the wet floor underneath. The presence of shed scales on the ground seemed to indicate that something had swum through this place recently. All-in-all, the place was an awkward halfway point that was neither easily walkable by Pokémon like them, nor swimmable by more fish-like Pokémon. The sort of dungeon that would have been perfect fit for Dimitri, were he around.

"But... where are we exactly?"

Nida turned to face Pleo, hoping for some more information. He was the one to drag the group to safety... maybe he would also be able to shed some light on things?

"Pleo, did you see anything when you brought us in here?" Nida asked.

"Uh… fog?"

"Come on, something more specific than that!" Guardia exclaimed, still visibly distraught, her empty hands quailing. "I need to get another bone as soon as-"

The Cubone's panicked chatter was interrupted by the sound of sniffing. She turned around, and saw Elty walk up to a pink crystal in a clump of mangrove roots, giving some inquisitive smells and a few prods at the gem, as if it had a touch of familiarity to it. The Ground-Type's mood quickly took a sour turn, the helmeted lizard fuming at how casually the lousy mutt could just ignore her mortal plight.

"Gardie! Why are you just standing there looking at those stupid rocks?!" the Cubone huffed. "This is important!"

"I was just trying to get a better idea of our surroundings," the Growlithe answered. "I think I might have found a clue to get outta here."

"Eh?" Nida asked, giving her right ear a skeptical raise. "How can you be so sure?"

"Just a feeling I got," Elty retorted. "Besides, we don't have many other leads right now, do we?"

Nida, Pleo and Guardia hesitantly looked at each other. While they didn't like trusting their safety in an unknown dungeon to a feeling, it wasn't like they really had anything else to go on...

"Well, no..." Pleo admitted.

"Then follow me, and grab some Bubbleweed if you see it. We don't need to nearly drown again," the Fire-Type instructed. "Bonehead, you stick with Pleo if you feel so unsafe. Who knows, maybe you'll gather some lore on the way!"

Team Traveller set off, Elty leading the way down a corridor into this strange, unknown Mystery Dungeon. Or at least unknown to the others. After a ways into his trek, the Growlithe allowed a smirk to creep across his face. The dungeon's layout, the crystals... all of that seemed familiar to Elty for good reason.

"It's good to be home again…"


After pulling into port at Mengir, the Siglo Swellow's crew desperately set out to try and repair their stricken ship. There were timbers to be replaced, sails to be patched up, and leads to be pursued for the whereabouts of Team Traveller. Little did they know, that just a little ways down the docks, another Company crew was similarly going through turmoil.

"Hey! Be careful with that!"

The sharp buzz of an irked Mothim hung in the air, its owner flitting to and fro over the heads of some First-Ranks loading crates up a gangplank. In any other circumstance, a surprise order to head out would have been a hassle for Ellsberg to oversee even if Director Inler hadn't just out-and-out given away his beloved Nektar Weide for Lyn to command.

But in spite of that, there was a silver lining or two, the Bug-Type supposed. Since Lyn was busy swimming off to Otvaga, he was left to assume his proper role as the ship's acting captain. There were decks to be swabbed, sails and rigging that needed to be checked, and the old stalwarts he had been able to bring aboard into this new crew seemed to be taking things in stride…

"I'm tellin' ya, you've gotta move your wings and throw your head. Girls eat that stuff right up."

… of course not all the Pokémon on the ship were working, like the Fearow and Swanna who perched idly on the ship's railing, much to Ellsberg's displeasure.

"Hey! You two over there!" the Mothim yelled. Ellsberg's cries drew the birds' attention, who turned around with skeptical looks and displeased ruffles of their plumes.

"Eh?" the Swanna asked. "Maurier, isn't that-?"

"Your acting captain," Ellsberg spat. "Double check the rigging before we pull out of port. I want those ropes checked for damage, and those knots checked for looseness!"

Instead of the swift response that the moth hoped for, the Flying-Types traded dismissive glances and smirks with one another. Ellsberg flapped his wings frustratedly and barked once again at the gathered air escorts.

"Well?!" he buzzed. "What are you waiting for?!"

"Yeah, yeah, we'll get to it," the Fearow, evidently 'Maurier' answered. The duo lazily flew off, snickering among themselves as they began to slowly peck over the rigging as Ellsberg flew off fuming under his breath.

These new Pokémon from Lyn's crew were nigh useless! If one of them wasn't being desultory with their work, it was because they were blatantly lazing around! He never saw them treat Lyn this disrespectfully, so why did they suddenly take license to treat him, their acting captain, as if he were just a raw recruit?!

"The things I have to put up with this crew- Eh?!"

As soon as he had opened his mouth, the Mothim spotted a group consisting of a Krokorok, a Grumpig, a Nuzleaf and a Hitmonchan from Lyn's crew. Far from working, the four were lazing around on some furniture purloined from below deck and playing a game of cards with Pokémon designs on them. The very same group that he had instructed to load supplies onto the ship an hour ago.

"What are you doing?!" Ellsberg hissed. "You four are supposed to be loading crates!"

The four Pokémon paused from their game for a fleeting moment, shooting disinterested looks before returning back to their cards.

"Relax," the Krokorok answered, giving a dismissive wave back. "Those crates will still be there after a quick round of cards."

"How dare you speak to your superior like that, you miserable numbsk- ... is that my desk?!"

The Mothim gestured angrily at a detailed hardwood desk, proportioned perfectly for the Mothim under the Grumpig's rump. That was the desk he did paperwork from and this lousy pig was using it as a common bar stool!

"What? This? I found it in the captain's cabin," the Grumpig replied. "Captain Lyn obviously wouldn't be able to use something this small, so it seemed like fair to me to let someone else use it."

"But that's-!"

"Hey, Notary. In case you haven't noticed, You're not the captain here anymore," the Krokorok of the group spat. "I say that I'd know better than a paper pusher about how much time is needed to load crates."

"Yeah, Ken here loads crates on a regular basis," the Nuzleaf snorted, gesturing at the Krokorok. "I'd take his judgment over that of a wimp like you!"

"Yeah, go suck a flower!" the Hitmonchan jeered.

Ellsberg flitted up and down, filling the air with loud, angry moth noises. The Bug-Type seethed and glared at the impudent underlings, giving a livid pound of the table that sent the cards on it flying.

"Now listen all of you!" the Mothim fumed. "If I don't see you moving crates into the hold in the next minute, you can look forward to cleaning the ship's heads for the rest of this mission!"

"Oh, yeah?"

The threat and disruption of their game had rubbed the four lackeys wrong. Ken threw his cards down on the table and stomped over to Ellsberg, glaring. The other players at the table rose from their places, shooting similarly displeased glares.

"And are you gonna enforce it then, Notary?" the Krokorok sneered.

"Yeah, last time I checked we already had a captain and a first mate," the Grumpig scoffed. "And it wasn't a paper pusher like you!"

Ellsberg glared back at the Krokorok, and whipped his wings as silvery powder gathered at the tips. At this, the Ground-Type's companions got up and closed ranks about their teammate, taking the Bug-Type aback as the four assumed battle positions. The moth, not to be deterred, buzzed a call for his crew to assemble... only to find himself left alone with the four fuming card-players. The Mothim grew unnerved and looked around at the other Pokémon of the crew, discovering that the new faces from Lyn's ranks were busy either shooting unamused glares or outright ignoring him. Even his old stalwarts weren't coming to his rescue, as they traded puzzled looks, and a few openly asked each other if it was appropriate to come to the aid of their former captain.

The moth's silvery powder dissipated as he and the now sneering card-players came to a sinking realization that any scuffle would be just between themselves. Any one of the Pokémon would not have been an issue for Ellsberg to dispatch on his own. Even two or maybe three he could potentially handle with a little bit of a struggle... But it was just himself... against all four of them...

"D-don't try me!" the Mothim stammered. "I have forms to fill out for the harbormaster right now, but I better see those crates taken care of when I'm done!"

Ellsberg hastily flew off and flitted over to the prow. The Bug-Type landed, and sullenly began to make his way down the steps below deck, eager to be away from this strange new crew. Along the way, Ellsberg's Gligar First Mate swooped in and stopped his former captain at the stairs, a concerned look etched into the scorpionfly's face.

"Captain," the Ground-Type began. "Are you-?"

"I'm fine, Gordon!" Ellsberg shot back. "I… I just need some time to sort out some administrivia."

The Mothim slipped down the stairs past a push-door and into a storage area filled with water-laden barrels. Ellsberg pushed his head up against one of the casks, starting to grow bleary-eyed. He'd spent almost ten years climbing up the ranks of the Company, going from an awkward, easily-bullied Burmy, to the captain of his own ship with prospects of climbing the ladder.

And here it was all going up in smoke, right in front of his eyes thanks to that blasted sea ferret Lyn needing a temporary advantage! Why was this happening again? The bullying, the casual disregard… It took him nearly a decade getting his current scarf! This was supposed to all just be a bunch of distant memories!

"Well you're certainly sorry looking right now," a mocking voice sneered from behind. "Having a bad day?"

Ellsberg flitted up with a start and whirled around, where he saw the black-and-red form of Lyn's Weavile first mate leaning against the frame of the doorway, picking at his claws disinterestedly.

"What do you want, Ketu?" Ellsberg snapped. "I'm a bit busy here!"

"Really now?" the Dark-Type scoffed. "If you ask me, 'sniffling in a corner' isn't exactly busy."

"Hrmph... why don't you go do something useful?!" Ellsberg spat. "I haven't seen you since this morning when Lyn swam off while I've been busy preparing the ship!"

"Relax, Mister Notary," Ketu said. "I had some stuff to take care of onshore."

"Like what?"

"Why don't you come with me and find out?" the Weavile replied. "There's someone who wants to meet with you."

Ellsberg stopped and stared back at the Dark-Type blankly. Had- had he just heard Ketu right?

"Someone... wants to meet me?"

"Administrator Elilan does," Ketu explained. "I could go on and on about what he's after, but it'll mean more coming from him in person. Now, you coming or what?"

The Mothim blinked, unsure what to make of the Weavile's statement. Knowing the way his morning had been going, it could very well be Ketu just jerking him around… But then again, he had come out to find him...

"I'll bite, but..." Ellsberg began. "Just what's going on here, Ketu?"

"You'll find out soon enough," the Weavile said. "Let's get moving for now."

Ellsberg watched Ketu head through the push-door, and heard his paces up the steps to the deck. The Mothim paused, and in spite of his instincts telling him to stay at his post on the ship, got up and followed after the Dark-Type.

Lyn's crew would survive without a captain for a little while, and if an Administrator called him it would surely be important… right?


Author's Notes:

- Daikenki (ダイケンキ) - Japanese: Localization name for "Samurott" (Official Romanization
- Privet! (Привeт!) - Russian: "Hello!" (informal) (BGN/PCGN Romanization)
- (¡)Ya volví! - Spanish: "I'm back!"
- Ratunku! - Polish: "Help me!"
- kamome (鴎 / かもめ / カモメ) - Japanese: "(sea)gull". Compare "キャモメ", the Japanese localization name for "Wingull". (Hepburn Romanization)