Chapter 52: Mending Fences
Through the foggy sky above, the sun's rays poked through in muted and soft hues. Late in the morning, they grew bright enough to rouse Team Traveller, the four stirring and rising to their feet beside the ruined arch with yawns and stretches. After a brief moment to check their surroundings, the group retraced their steps back through the fog of the Distortion, making their way for a hazy exit back out into the dungeon.
Upon exiting the fog, the group looked around and saw the floor transformed into a maze of stony ledges and cactus thickets filled with darkened sand. The four looked about, trying to make sense of where to best start amidst the narrow passages, the thorny plants, and similarly unwelcome-looking stone bluffs.
"… Where do we start here?" Pleo asked.
"Well, I guess the way to start would be to figure out how the Distortion's shifted the floor," Nida answered. "Let's start by checking out what's around here?"
"And just how are we supposed to decide that?" Guardia demanded.
Elty looked ahead and saw that the path split into two forks around a stony formation. On the left was a narrow path that carried along into a deepening gully, to the right was another path that ran through a cactus thicket. The Growlithe peered down each path, and saw that neither of the two had an easily visible end… Two shots in the dark, with no scents or tracks to help determine which was the better option. In moments like these, perhaps it was best to let fate have its say in the matter.
"Let's flip a coin," he offered. "Heads we go left, tails we go right."
Elty nosed into the bag over Nida's shoulder and dug out a coin with his muzzle. Merchantry coins didn't have the heads of kings on their fronts like Imperial Bezants did per se, but the mint marker and value inscription did a good enough job indicating the tail. The Growlithe sat down and took the metal disc awkwardly in between his paws before setting it on his snout. As he struggled to keep the coin in place long enough to flip it, Guardia looked on, amused.
"You know Gardie, I could probably-"
"Quiet, bonehead," Elty snapped. "I've got this."
Finally, he positioned the Poké to rest steadily on his snout, and he flicked his nose skyward, sending the coin spinning upward through the air. The coin landed neatly in the sand and the sun glinted off of its surface, the number denoting its value and the stamped Merchantry design indicating its originating mint highlighted that the flip had come up 'tails.'
"Guess that means we'll start with the right," Elty said.
The four went down the right corridor, and cautiously inched along through halls and chambers crowded by dense clumps of spiky plants. The group carried along through the cactus thicket, stumbling across a Totter Seed, some stray coins, and a chipped Gravelerock during their journeys, passing into a shaded corridor when a faint melody carried along the air.
"Bum bah de dum bum bum bah de dum~"
The team paused, their ears perking up as they glanced around for the source of the mysterious melody. Nida tapped her foot thoughtfully at the sound of the tune, which upon closer listening sounded somewhat familiar... but who could be making all that noise in a place like this?
"Eh?" Pleo murmured. "Is that someone humming?"
"Should we assume that it's hostile?" Guardia whispered.
"I'm not sure, but…" Nida muttered. "I could've sworn that I heard Calino hum something just like that at his shop back home..."
The Nidoran carried on as she and her teammates entered the chamber ahead. There, the entire clearing had been covered in red carpeting with golden designs of swirls circumscribed by overlapping squares. All around, items of every conceivable shape and color were carefully laid out. On it, a Kecleon cheerily idled with a hum as a bulkier counterpart and a grizzled-looking Kecleon with a stomach scar sat in the background playing cards, occasionally looking up and eying the rest of the carpet.
"Welcome! Welcome! " the shopkeeper Kecleon cheered.
"Eh?! What's a Kecleon doing down here?" Pleo asked. "Is he lost?"
"Nope! I'm here for business!" the chameleon insisted. "Selling to explorers like you in towns might be our bread and butter now, but we still ply our wares where they're most needed, just like in the days of Taloon the Great!"
"Egh…" Guardia muttered. "How do we know that we're really getting a good price here?"
"I mean, it can't hurt to look around at least," her Nidoran teammate offered.
The four youngsters stepped onto the ruddy carpet, sniffing and prodding at the Kecleon's wares. There was a plump Sitrus Berry, its overripe scent and faint glimmer indicating it had been touched by a dungeon's distortion. A little further away was a wand with an orb of light inside that moved to track some unseen point when the wand was shifted…
"Oh!"
And there, beside Pleo's wing was the black, glassy form of an Escape Orb. The Protector craned his neck down and nosed at the orb, its bright light evidencing that it was primed and ready for use. The seabird's thoughts turned back to their last excursion with an Escape Orb, remembering how it instantly pulled the team out of the Distortion on Mengir. As long as the Kecleon came in through the right place, if they got this orb, they'd be able to get out of the dungeon! The rest of the merchant's wares could always be bought in town, and wouldn't it leave money over for a proper room at a hostel?
"We'll take that one," Pleo chirped, pointing proudly at the Escape Orb with his wing.
"That will be 300 Poké," the shopkeeper Kecleon said.
Team Traveller blanched and felt their jaws drop at the chameleon's words. 3- 300 Poké?! That was more than quarter of the money that they had with them right now!
"E-Eh?!" Nida exclaimed. "But we'd be able to get it for half of that back in town!"
"Yes, and we need to bump the prices up in here to cover a little service fee," the bulkier Kecleon explained, getting up from his game of cards. "We don't exactly have any town guards to cover our security here!"
"I mean, if you're startling the spike ball here, it has to be an unfair price," Guardia insisted. "Can't you lower it at all?"
"No," the scarred Kecleon snapped.
"But you hiked it for no reason!" the Cubone fumed.
The Cubone's argument with the shopkeeper carried on, the Ground-Type fruitlessly attempting to haggle the chameleon down to a fair price. The bodyguards traded exasperated looks with one another as the bulky Kecleon's eye caught movement from its corner. The lizard turned and saw that at the edge of the mat, while his superior had been distracted with his unruly customer, the Growlithe in their group was nosing at a Perfect Apple and eyeing it hungrily…
Too hungrily.
"Oi, mutt!" the bulky Kecleon shouted. "Get your mouth away from that!"
"Eh?!"
Elty clamped down on the apple reflexively and jumped back in a panic off the mat. After looking down and seeing that he was no longer on the red-and-gold carpet, he went wide-eyed, and spat out the apple, pulling his ears and tail back with an apologetic whine.
"Er… sorry about the misunderstanding?" the Growlithe gulped.
"You bit it, you bought it," the scarred Kecleon seethed. "So cough up the money."
"Uh… how much will that be?" Pleo stammered.
"1200 Poké."
"Wh-What?!" Nida cried. "Eso es una locura! We don't even have that kind of money!"
The three Kecleon's moods visibly darkened and the shopkeeper among them let out a growl. His bulky and scarred companions began drawing forward, their claws flashing out for swipes as Team Traveller backpedaled more and more from the mat.
"Er… what she meant to say was… uh…" Elty stammered. The Growlithe hastily fished around in his mind for a suitable excuse, but with the lizards visibly honing their claws to slash them, the Fire-Type's instincts to flee swiftly overwhelmed his more sober thoughts.
"Run!"
The dog spat up a column of cinders at the bulky Kecleon, prompting the group to break in a blind panic as the three chameleons hastily stamped out fires on the carpet.
"Don't let them get away!" the shopkeep shouted. Team Traveller tore along through the passages in the cacti thicket, the sound of the bodyguards' pursuit nipping at their heels. Guardia made it to an intersection, where a sudden claw swipe prompted her to veer leftward and charge on blindly. Much to her horror, the Cubone quickly discovered that she'd separated from the group, and tried to double back, only to see an orange Kecleon charging her. The bone lizard turned to bolt, only for her foot to get caught on a loose pebble and send her falling face-first onto the ground.
"A-Aagh!"
"Gotcha!" the bulky Kecleon shouted.
The fiery-orange Kecleon lunged for Guardia with a claw swipe, prompting the Cubone to throw her club at her pursuer's face in a blind panic. A loud smack rang out and the chameleon bowled back with a pained yelp as he stumbled back into a prickly pear plant. As the lizard winced and inched away from the thorny bush, the Cubone hastily drug herself up to her feet, running past the Kecleon and after her team as they charged blindly down the corridor.
"Gah!" Nida cried. "We can't shake 'em!"
Elty charged on ahead, when he chanced to notice a small spray of sand in the air being carried down to the ground at an unnaturally fast pace. For it to do that, it had to be blown down from above…
And for that to happen, the odds were as good as any that it was coming from the floor above them.
"Ah! That way!" the Growlithe yipped. "That's our exit!"
As the group followed Elty's direction, they spotted a set of stony steps in a chamber at the end of the hallway. One by one, they bolted for the exit as fast as they could, bursting into the chamber when a sharp shout rang out.
"Going somewhere?!"
Team Traveller looked up in time to see a pair of scaly presences blocking their way and skidded to a stop. There in front of them were the bodyguards from the dungeon shop, the scarred Kecleon to the left, and the bulk Kecleon, now a tawny brown, to the right. The pair glared and hissed at the four youngsters, readying their claws for a strike as Pleo shrank back uneasily.
"Uh… Wh-What do we do now?" the young Legendary stammered.
As the two lizards slowly closed in on the team, a sudden realization came to Guardia. She noticed that the Kecleon she struck earlier had turned into an earthy brown color. In addition, the other lizard had turned orange after Elty had breathed fire on it, and had seemed to be particularly hurt by her subsequent bone throw…
Who was to say that they couldn't do the same again?
"Wait! They become like whatever attack hit them last!" Guardia cried. "Gardie, light that one on the right up!"
"Coming up!" Elty cried.
The Growlithe spat up a gout of fire onto the bulkier of the two chameleons, the lizard's scales melting from their tawny color into a vivid orange as he recoiled from the fire. The bodyguard dug his feet in and growled, regaining his balance to charge ahead and tackle the Fire-Type back with a yelp. Seeing that Guardia was keenly eying his partner and sweeping her bone out for a running smash, the scarred Kecleon quickly put two and two together, and dashed over to try and intercept her attack.
"Oh no you don- Ack!" the scarred Kecleon began, only to abruptly cry out in pain. A forceful kick caught him in the stomach, followed by a second that swept him off his feet and knocked him over with a yelp. The culprit, a blue-furred Nidoran panted, and turned to her other teammates, crying out as loud as she could manage.
"Pleo! Guardia!" Nida shouted. "Now!"
Not letting a moment go to waste, Pleo hastily brought his wings together and sent a cutting gust of wind at the reddening Kecleon that Nida attacked. Guardia followed suit and bolted for the bulky, orange Kecleon, springing up and bringing an overhead smash with her bone onto the current Fire-Type's head. The two chameleons bowled over in pain, and groped about in a stunned stupor, slow to rise back to their feet. Sensing that they'd been given precious moments to get a head start over their pursuers, Guardia whirled to her teammates and motioned to them with her club.
"Hurry!" Guardia exclaimed. "Before they get back up!"
The group bolted up the stairs in a multicolored blur, Elty limping along afterwards gasping for air. The group staggered up and flopped down, the stairs pulling itself into the floor just in time to thwart the shouting approach of the Kecleon bodyguards, filling the air with the sound of stone grinding against stone. Together in a tired heap, Team Traveller laid in the sand panting as the grinding noise ceased and they were left listening to the quiet shifting of sands in the dungeon as they caught their breath and nosed at a set of fresh wounds. After they had a moment to recuperate, they separated from their pile, and Nida wasted no time in pointing blame for their unfortunate encounter.
"Nice going there, Elty," Nida huffed.
"Yeah, way to almost get us knocked into next week thanks to stealing," Guardia glowered.
"Oi, I didn't do it on purpose this time!" Elty snapped. "And if you had covered for me half as well as you fought back there, we might have been able to get away without being chased by a bunch of angry lizards!"
Pleo balked somewhat at Elty's unintentional, backhanded compliment. Although his sour attitude didn't help things now any more than it had been recently, Pleo thought that perhaps he was onto something after all. Maybe if they had been working together a little better from the start, those Kecleon wouldn't have taken them to be such a rough crowd so quickly...?
"… Actually, I think he's right," Pleo murmured.
"Eh? What are you going on about?" Guardia demanded.
"Well, we did get through that fight because we worked together," he explained. "If we had also done the same back at the Kecleon shop, then…"
Nida flicked her ears back and shook her head begrudgingly. Her dour mood made her want to disagree, but she couldn't in good conscience say that Pleo was wrong. Throughout their history as a team, they had definitely been at their strongest while working more closely together.
"Let's not read too much into a fluke Pleo. What's done is done," Nida sighed. "Let's just keep a sharper eye out this time and stick closer together."
Guardia gave a small, tired nod in agreement, while Elty shot a sour frown at the spike ball before opting to let the matter be. The team hastily divided up an Oran Berry and devoured it before gathering up their belongings and starting to set off. First Nida, followed closely behind by Guardia. Pleo paused a moment before ruffling his feathers and starting off, only to feel a presence nose him from behind.
"Hey, Pleo."
The young Lugia turned around, and saw Elty looking at him, giving a grateful nod and wag of his tail. He was… happy? It had felt so long since the last time he'd seen him like this.
"Thanks for backing me up back there."
The Fire-Type carried on, leaving Pleo to blink and stare after before following after himself. In spite of his wounds and his tired gait, he'd felt in higher spirits than any time since the day on the beach in Mengir. Maybe… Just maybe, they'd get through this.
Out on the sea, the Vasilek continued on its course for Sormus, the island announcing its presence as the air grew hotter knot after knot as they drew nearer. The heat began to take its toll on the laboring crew, as the Pokémon were driven towards exhaustion by the sweltering heat, and Nagant's trips into the sea to stay hydrated grew ever more frequent. At the bow, the form of sand dunes and stony hills surrounding a column of fog poked over the horizon, prompting the lookout to announce the sight of the land. The lookout's cry drew the attention of the crew, who gathered on the railing to stare off at the approaching island in the distance.
"… Where do we even start?" Berecien murmured.
"Yeah, would those kersat have gone in town?" Niilo mulled. "Or in the Mystery Dungeon?"
"Let's start by looking for anything that seems out of place," Nagant grunted. "We know that that Protector brings trouble wherever he goes, so if he's here, we'll surely see some sort of sign."
"Uh…" Cabot murmured. "Would that count as something out of the ordinary?"
The Cranidos gestured with his claw off at a white object in the distance. Nagant - failing to make out the object with a squint - fished out a scope from her bag and peered through it to see that the white belonged to the sails of a small Brigantine. The vessel had an unusually skeletal crew, and seemed to be anchored out at sea on the far side of Sormus for no particular reason: both matters which dredged up a sense of suspicion from the wizened shrimp.
"… It does, actually. If I didn't know better, I'd have sworn I saw a ship like that that in port at Mengir," she chittered. "Take us in a bit closer."
The frigate changed its heading and the escorts in the air whipped up a headwind to slow the craft down to a crawl as it drifted along past the waiting twin-master. It was a craft with a blue sun design on it, the meager white-scarved crew having become suspiciously tense at the sight of their craft. Among them, there was one, very visible exception, consisting of a Weavile perched on a small mound of large ice blocks lying down basking in the sun's rays as his throne slowly melted away at the bottom.
"Hoy!" Jun buzzed. "Whose ship is this!"
"Ketu, acting captain of the Nektar… Whatever here," the Weavile lazily answered from his icy perch. The Dark-Type shuffled off his icy perch and dropped down to the deck, making his way over to the railing with a stretch before coming to a stop in front of the Clawitzer captain resting his chin on his claws.
"Are you Imps all this nosy? I was just catching some rays here."
The demeanor aboard the Vasilek quickly darkened at the mention of 'Imps', a few growls and glares breaking out at the smaller ship and its crew. Nagant was similarly displeased by the Weavile's flippant attitude, giving a dismissive twitch of her mandibles.
"Uh… huh…" the shrimp scoffed, shifting her big claw towards the Dark-Type with a fierce scowl. "And just what are you doing here anchored in the middle of nowhere like this?"
"We're a ship full of Company spies performing surveillance," Ketu snarked back. "Can't you tell?"
A wave of shock crested over both crews, stunned surprise from the Vasilek's, and nervous, startled expressions from the white-scarved crew. Even Nagant and Jun weren't immune to the surprise: the Clawitzer captain dropped her firing claw to the deck out of astonishment and her Beedrill first mate flitted up with a start and buzzed out of shock.
"WHAT?!"
The Weavile shifted a claw over his mouth, trying and largely failing to stifle a snickering laugh at the expense of his interrogators. Nagant, sensing that she was being mocked, clicked her mandibles and aimed her firing claw back at Ketu with an irate hiss.
"Take this seriously and give us a straight answer, Weavile!" the Clawitzer snapped.
"Tch. I'm sunbathing on an anchored ship here!" Ketu retorted. "What do you think I'm up to?"
A wave of exasperated sighs and scowls settled over the watching crew at the furball's response. Chief among them was Nagant, who grudgingly lowered her claw. She peered off into the sky with an audibly irked grunt, before directing her attention back to the apparent captain of the white sailed ship.
"Hrmph. Did you happen to see any Pokémon fly by at least?" the shrimp demanded. "A bird with white plumes and a long neck?"
"Nope."
A skeptical frown began to spread over Nagant's face, the Clawitzer none too pleased with the short and dismissive answer the Weavile gave her.
"Are you sure?" she pressed.
"Yup."
The Clawitzer gave the Weavile a sour look, only for him to lean on the railing and pick his claws, completely indifferent to the Imperial Captain's displeasure. Nagant chittered under her breath and rolled her eyes, before pivoting on her tail and turning back to her crew, eager to leave behind the furry slacker and his ship.
"Let's get moving!"
At their captain's command, the crew of the Vasilek set into a hurried daze; the escorts whipping up wind and sea currents to move the frigate along on its route for land. As Nagant's ship departed, the Clawitzer looked back in time to see the Weavile from the white ship give a mocking wave, prompting her to turn away with a frustrated chitter.
The ship carried on, the sand dunes and bluffs of Sormus growing larger and more visible, along with glimpses of the gaping pit mines in the distance, and the dusty adobe huts of a small-ish village by the seaside. All the while, Nagant still seethed from her prior encounter, and how the run-in with the ship and its furball captain had done little but waste her time and raise the pressure of her blue blood from his obnoxious demeanor. Sensing that it would be best for everyone involved if Nagant wasn't in one of her tempestuous moods before higher nobles, her first mate settled down beside his superior, and gave a buzzing beat of his wings for attention.
"Talk about making much ado about nothing…" Jun sighed. "But I'm honestly at a bit of a loss of where we can go from here. After all, we just know that the Guardian headed west… but there's precious little else we know that isn't conjecture."
The Clawitzer paused and thought the matter over. They truly were short on leads, but they were already here at Sormus, and they knew that the Protector had flown off in a course headed for it… Perhaps this was the right time to get a feel for what the Pokémon on the ground had been hearing lately.
"… Have word sent to the Duke in Copperband Village" Nagant ordered. "We might not be able to narrow things down on our own, but he can certainly help."
"Right," the Beedrill buzzed. "I'll see to it that it's done once we-"
"Now, Jun."
"Ex-Excuse me?" the Bug-Type stammered.
A tense silence hung in the air as the detailing on Copperband's buildings started coming into view, Jun uneasily shifted his drills waiting for further explanation from his superior. He was met with a firm glare from the Clawitzer, the old shrimp's patience clearly thinner than normal.
"The fate of the Empire rests in that bird's wings," she said. "If the Duke has any idea at all of where we could look for him, I want to hit the water swimming."
"Eh? What is this place?"
Nida's words floated through the air as Team Traveller made their way up the steps to a small, open chamber consisting of a long, spindly crevasse ringed by sandstone walls. The four carried on, passing sand mounds and stones, but not a single passage or turn, a night-and-day difference from the maze-like levels that they had encountered before.
"It's nothing like the last floors we've been on!" she exclaimed. "Are we even still in the dungeon right now?"
"Not exactly, we're at the midpoint right now," Elty scoffed.
"Midpoint?" Pleo murmured.
"It's a stable zone that occurs in a lot of dungeons," the Growlithe explained. "If a dungeon branches into multiple ones, it usually happens in places like these."
"But how can you tell this is a midpoint, Elty?" the young Protector insisted.
"That's how I can tell."
The Fire-Type pointed off ahead at a stony lump with his claw. The stone clump looked vaguely familiar to the young Lugia… Two legs, two arms, a strong tail, and a pouch up at the front. Why, that looked just like a Pokémon he had seen back on Tromba!
"… Why is there a statue here of that one juice shop owner from back in Bluewhorl Town?" Pleo asked.
"Because it's not a statue," Elty insisted. "Look."
The Growlithe noticed a small pebble by his paws and bent down to pick it up with his mouth. He stretched up, and dropped the pebble down the pouch with a hollow-sounding clunk as it struck the inside of the rock, immediately making Guardia's eyes light up in realization.
"Ah! It's a hut-dweller's Storage Rock!" she exclaimed. "Though this is the first I've seen in this shape…"
"I've heard that they tend to be made in the shape of the Pokémon who hold onto your items," Elty explained. "So I guess the Storage Shop that handles this rock must be run by a Kangaskhan."
"Oh? But what's in here?" Pleo wondered. Curious at the mention of the stone being a Storage Rock, the young Lugia craned his head in and began to poke around with his beak in the darkness.
"Ugh, how much further do we need to go in this sandbox anyway?" a snorting voice added.
"Come on, Hooke. It ain't that bad, and we're almost at the midpoint anyway," a low, raspy voice murmured.
"Huh?"
Pleo looked around inside the rock for a moment, before realizing that the voices were coming from outside. He pulled his head back out, and saw his teammates staring at a Krokorok and a Grumpig in white scarves further down the room, sniffing at the ground.
"Hey!" the Lugia chirped. "Are you another rescue team?"
The white-scarved duo jolted upright in a startled shock. The Krokorok bared his teeth and gave a belligerent, throaty hiss, only for some chatter from his companion to seemingly put the creature at ease as the two began to make their way over.
"Do you know how we can get out of here?" Pleo asked. "We're kinda lost."
"Er… well, we've got a teleporter if that's what you're talking about," the Grumpig answered, drawing a skeptical head tilt from Nida. Something about these two felt familiar to her, as if she had seen them somewhere before… but where?
The Psychic-Type began to make his way over, his Krokorok companion pausing to press his badge and speak into it, appearing as if a weight had been taken off his shoulders.
"Hey, Kachina," the reptile said into his badge. "I think we just got our lucky break."
The pair walked up, revealing their white scarves to be sporting blue sun-like designs that caught Elty's eye. The Growlithe shifted uncomfortably, starting to look unnerved, and leaned in to Pleo's side to gain his attention.
"Uhm… mewa, not that I'm one to look a gift horse in the mouth," Elty whispered uneasily. "But doesn't that design look familiar at all to you?"
"Eh? Where's it from?" Pleo asked.
"I haven't seen anything like it since I joined you," Guardia scoffed. "Between all the patterns you hut-dwellers put around your neck, it's no surprise everything would start looking the same to you."
"… It's probably just the desert sun playing tricks on you," the Grumpig reassured. "Come on, we'll get you taken care of once we're out."
"Yeah. Just come along and we'll get you out of this dive," the Krokorok added. "Sure beats crate work any day."
Nida's barbs stood on end at the mention of "crate work", prompting her to tense up and go wide-eyed. This was that same Krokorok and Grumpig that had discovered Crom from his crate aboard Lyn's ship! The same ones that had helped those horrid cretins beat him and throw him off that lousy boat in the first place!
"A-Aah! You!" she squeaked. "Don't touch him!"
The Nidoran fanned her barbs out and flicked one at the Krokorok, catching him in his wrist and drawing a pained bellow from the Desert Croc Pokémon.
"ARGH!"
"Spike ball, what are you doing?!" Guardia exclaimed.
"These guys were some of the Pokémon who beat up Crom when we entered Lyn´s ship!" Nida cried.
Team Traveller went rigid and felt the blood in their veins run cold at the realization that their company's mood had decisively soured. Both Ken and Hooke were now sporting glares, and pawing at the ground ready to lunge.
"Grr… so you figured us out after all, Nidoran," Ken spat.
"Not that it's gonna make a difference!" Hooke snorted. "Get 'em!"
The Grumpig sent a ray of light sparkling like a column of gems from the pearls on his head towards Elty, only for Guardia to shove him out of the way and be sent flopping back along the floor with a yelp. At the same time, Pleo flapped up and began to form a Weather Ball in his mouth, disgorging the glowing orb at his Krokorok assailant, only for him to drop to the ground and vanish in a plume of sand and dirt.
"E-Eh?! Where'd he go?!" Pleo squawked.
Nida looked around frantically, as all signs of Ken's presence had vanished barring a hole in the ground that he'd left behind. The Poison-Type's ears pricked up at the sound of rumbling, which drew her attention to a snaking streak of disturbed sand beelining straight for her. She hastily tried to hop away in a panic, only to hear the crash of dirt flying up from the ground, and a sharp shout.
"Gotcha!"
The Nidoran shrieked as she felt a heavy blow on her belly from below, sending her flopping back on the ground. Nida woozily stumbled back up to her feet, just in time to see Pleo disgorge another Weather Ball at the Krokorok, who much to his horror, largely shrugged the blow off and proceeded to chase after the bird with snapping jaws.
"A-Aah! H-How are we supposed to fight these guys?!" Pleo exclaimed.
As Nida paused to catch her breath, she saw Guardia and Elty being herded by the Grumpig towards the Krokorok with a series of beams. Grah! How were they supposed to beat these two when they were so much stronger?! It wasn't as if they could just make them beat each other up!
… Wait a minute, maybe they could! They'd picked up a Totter Seed just a few floors ago, and now was the time to use it!
"Pleo!" Nida cried. "Come this way!"
The Lugia flew along the ground in a panicked hurry, followed closely by Ken, who snapped at the seabird with his jaws, ruffling Pleo's feathers with a series of near-missed bites as the bird stubbornly remained just out of his reach. Nida waited for the pair to come by as she readied a swirl-patterned seed in her paws for a throw.
"Take this!"
Nida hurled the Totter Seed with all her might, the projectile sailing along into the Krokorok's mouth. The crocodile gulped the seed down with a choking gag, and for a second, Nida grimaced, thinking the Totter Seed had failed to do anything other than fatten her attacker up… only to notice that the Krokorok's gait had grown dazed and erratic.
"Nrgh…" Ken groaned. "Room spinning… Oi! Stop right there, bird!"
The Desert Croc dug his heels into the earth and launched himself with his jaws opened… at none other than his Grumpig partner. The crocodile knocked the Psychic-Type down with a startled yelp, followed by a pained squeal as he bit down onto the pig's rump.
"AUGH! What is wrong with you, you stupid clod?!" Hooke shouted. "Do I look like a bird here?!"
The Krokorok blinked in confusion before his partner hastily shoved him off to the ground, visibly wobbling and struggling to keep his balance as he nursed his injured rump. Guardia's eyes lit up at the sight of her tottering foe, this could be just the break that they all needed!
"Get the pig!" she cried. "If we can defeat him, we can narrow things down to that Waruvile!"
The Cubone charged the Psychic-Type, only to lose her footing and tumble after being struck by a glowing beam of light. Before Hooke could follow up with a further blow, he felt a burning pain on his back, followed by a sharp jab on his flank. In a wide-eyed panic, the pig sprang off his tail just as a glowing orb narrowly missed his head, prompting him to reach for his badge after losing his nerve.
"Hey! A little help he- AUGH!"
A heavy blow abruptly struck the Psychic-Type's head and his vision began to run muddy. The Grumpig's grip on his badge slackened and he tottered forward and backward a moment, attempting to spring away off his tail only to faceplant and lose consciousness. Unbeknownst to the Company underling, the culprit of the blow planted her foot on the Psychic-Type's groaning head, giving a triumphant bat of her club against her free claw.
"Hah, they really do fall harder when they're bigger," she jeered. "I'd have expected more of a fight out of him!"
"Grah… Stop multiplying, you lousy brats!" Ken fumed.
The four youngsters' attention quickly turned to the Krokorok as he stomped the ground, setting the area around him shaking with enough force to flatten the surrounding sandy terrain. Ultimately though, the attack hit far off from its intended target, the Krokorok accomplishing little more than to kick up a cloud of dust from the stamped sand. Team Traveller looked on nervously as the Krokorok stomped the ground flat around him, whirling around in a desperate attempt to land a hit. Although he wasn't accomplishing much at present, it was clear to them that they were on borrowed time against the disoriented Desert Croc. If they were to have any chance of coming out on top here, they'd need to act quickly and decisively to overpower him.
"Quick! Take him out too before he snaps out of it!" Elty yipped.
"Right behind you!" Guardia cried.
Elty landed the first blow by somersaulting into the reptile as flames danced on his pelt, followed by Guardia lobbing her bone at the Ground-Type and striking him in his stomach. As the Desert Croc reached around for the Cubone's club, he felt a spike lodge in his flank and bellowed out in pain after being knocked back by a forceful, burning tackle.
Ken looked up, his vision starting to sharpen and settle as he saw that the tackle had come from none other than Pleo, filaments of fiery blue light still dancing on his plumes. The Krokorok lunged ahead at the Lugia, the seabird noticing his attacker at the last moment with a terrified squawk.
"A-AAH!"
Pleo desperately tried to fly off, only to flop forward as a heavy weight pinned him against the ground. He felt a crushing bite along his back and shrieked in pain, desperately beating his wings and kicking until a loud blow rang out and knocked the weight off his back, allowing him to break free. His rescuer was none other than Guardia, the Cubone staring down the Company Krokorok as he rose back to his feet, seething.
"Oi, you overgrown mogura!" Guardia spat. "You've got the rest of us to deal with!"
"Grr! Let's see how tough you're talking after I've got my jaws around you!" Ken bellowed.
The Krokorok ran for the Cubone with his jaws opened, biting down as he got near. Instead of feeling his jaws clamp down on something, he felt a weight latch onto his upper snout. Ken tried to open his mouth to throw the unwelcome weight up and into his maw, only to find that his jaws refused to budge at all.
"Mrrph?!"
There, directly in front of his eyes, was the form of the Cubone, clinging onto his snout and holding his mouth shut by pulling her bone against his lower jaw! The Krokorok thrashed his head this way and that, trying to throw the lizard off of him. After a few fruitless thrashes, Guardia's left grip slipped, prompting Ken to wrench his head right and finally shake his unwelcome passenger loose. The crocodile turned to pounce on his attacker, only for his victory to be short-lived as a burning pain erupted on his flank. Ken whirled in time to see embers dance on his hide, and yelp as he felt a pair of forceful kicks hit his stomach.
The Krokorok gagged and clutched at his stomach, as the world started to grow fuzzy and faint as he struggled to stay on his feet. The sound of a harsh wind kicked up, and Ken felt himself lifted off the ground and sailing just above it, the form of the Storage Rock fast approaching.
SMACK!
Pleo brought his wings back to his sides after his Whirlwind, watching Ken strike the Storage Rock headfirst. The crocodile bounced off of the Pokémon-shaped stone, and flopped sprawled-out against the ground, groaning incoherently out of pain.
"Ur-Urgh…"
Team Traveller stared and winced against their wounds, their breaths coming ragged and short. The four braced themselves for further blows, only for none to come. A quick check of their surroundings revealed Hooke and Ken slumped over in the sand, both unresponsive and with nary a sign of life other than the quiet rise and fall of their chests. Still half-disbelieving the turn of events, Nida walked up and prodded at Ken's leg, giving a forceful kick after she was satisfied the crocodile wouldn't be getting up soon.
"That- That was for Crom!" Nida panted. "And don't you forget it, you Company scum!"
"Save the theatrics for later," Guardia grunted. "They almost certainly weren't alone, and their friends can't be far behind."
"Then let's get ourselves a little apology from them before we have to leave," Elty said. The Fire-Type made his way over to the unconscious form of Hooke, pulling the Grumpig's bag off of his shoulders as Nida gave a disgusted shake of her head.
"Elty, are we seriously getting into banditry here?" the Nidoran sighed.
"Eh?" Guardia protested. "But you didn't have any problem when my Colony did it to that giant tonbo and his buddies."
"Besides, when they get back up, who would you prefer to have this stuff?" Elty countered. "Them or us?"
"Uh... that's a pretty good point, actually," Pleo replied.
The Growlithe stuck his head in the bag and began throwing out its contents. A few berries, a few Heal Seeds and a Reviver Seed, some orbs and wands that he couldn't make out yet...
The team quickly divided up the healing items among them and set to work patching up their bruises and scrapes and began to dump the pilfered items into the ratty bag on Nida's shoulder. The group quickly discovered that there was too much to take, and the Grumpig's bag was too bulky for any of them to carry off. Not knowing what to do with the remainder, but deciding that it was best to not let Ken and Hooke easily recover it, Nida opted to dump the bag and its contents down the Kangaskhan-shaped rock. As the Poison-Type handled the rest of the bag's contents, Elty and Guardia traded quiet glances with each other, each waiting for the other to speak first.
"Hey... about that fight there…" Guardia murmured. "Thanks for pulling in for me."
"Well, it's just what was needed then," Elty said. "It's no big deal-"
"Hey Ken, you there? You and Hooke went dark all of a sudden.
The four froze at the sound of the voice filling the room, and they turned to see that Ken had shifted onto his badge, unwittingly calling out to the teleporter on the other end. The Krokorok was dazed and far from ready for another battle, but even so, he was starting to stir, and his lucidity was clearly starting to return to him.
"Grnk... Wha...?" Ken groaned. "Who is this?"
"That's our cue to get out of here," Nida said. "Come on, let's go!"
The group hastily fled, continuing off into the distance where a fresh set of stairs awaited them at the end of the chamber. All the while, their hearts pounded and their breaths grew light from knowing that Lyn and his underlings were catching up with them. And yet, in spite of it all, they knew that they were nearing the end. Just a little further, they'd finally have a safe harbor to pull into.
As with the more seaside portions of Rosequartz Town, the local market had been similarly damaged by the arrival of Nagant and her pursuing horde of ferals. Roofs were caved in, walls toppled, but in spite of it all, the entrepreneurial spirit carried. Merchants shifted the undamaged remnants of their stock out for sale in their shop, or in the case of some such as Laurens and his amulets, in the midst of battered shops. Other shopkeepers such as his immediate neighbors were less fortunate, and carried on their trade on hastily spread mats in front of obliterated storefronts.
There amid the chaotic hubub, Kichiro sized up a trio of hastily-patched buckets filled with blackish pitch set out by a Mr. Mime. The Psychic-Type did his best to study the reactions of his customer, the Bug-Type evidently noticing the sorry state of his wares a bit more than he would have liked. Even so, this was what he had to work with right now, and the shopkeep crossed his fingers that his Ledian customer would need the pitch more than he needed the money to rebuild his store.
"Sorry about the condition," Mr. Mime said. "But it's the best we've got considering the circumstances."
"Guess I can't complain too much there…" Kichiro sighed. "This is actually the third place we've had to pick up stray supplies from like this."
The Ledian picked up two of the pitch buckets and began to hand off the last to Wilhelm, only for the Hoppip to never take it. Kichiro looked behind him, where there on the other side of the street was his partner loitering at a battered shop managed by a Feraligatr, mesmerized with his reflection in the pink baubles hanging from the eaves of his battered shop.
"Oi, hayseed!" the Ledian snapped. "Get your leaves in gear and help me carry these buckets of pitch!"
"Oh! Er.. coming!"
The Hoppip flitted over and grabbed onto the handle of his bucket and flew up after his Ledian teammate, struggling under the weight of the pitch-laden container. The pair flew along in a course tracing the docks of Rosequartz Town, passing a Gurdurr overseeing a repair on a trashed pier. Further out in the harbor, a large group of harbor Pokémon directed by a Starmie helped to raise a freshly-sunken hulk off the harbor floor, the ship leaking water out of its port holes. Kichiro's attention was drawn to the sound of a nearby yelp, as a Zangoose, a Banette, and a Flareon were chased off from the Torrent Tsars' dock with a loud, contemptuous "and don't come back!" from Ingela's underlings. The beetle turned his attention to follow Scian and his partners' flight, only to be distracted by Wilhelm suddenly piping up from behind.
"Heh! A 'mon sure learns a lot hanging around the likes of you!" the Hoppip cheered.
Wilhelm's enthusiasm was not shared with his partner, who stared ahead with a sour look on his face. The Ledian grumbled loudly under his breath, fighting with his buckets of pitch to stay balanced and airborne.
"I'm starting to think that Hess stuck you with me on purpose because of that bone lizard," Kichiro growled.
"Huh?" Wilhelm asked. "What do you mean by tha-?"
"W-Wait! What do you mean we're going after that demon?!"
Kichiro flitted to a stop, almost dropping his buckets out of surprise at the sudden voices. The Ledian hastily scanned his surroundings, where on the docks down by the sea nestled among a small stack of crates he spotted a Combusken, a Grotle, and a Scraggy in the black scarves of the Shadow Brigade.
"… Hey wait a moment, that's our job they're talking about," Kichiro murmured.
He looked around and spotted a flat roof nearby, flitting down and coming to a stop atop it. The Bug-Type set down his pitch buckets and lined them up to provide cover before peering over at the group of Shadow Brigade Pokémon. The Ledian turned to motion for his partner to follow, only to see Wilhelm flit past… and keep going. The beetle hastily dragged the Grass-Type into his perch before he could get spotted, stifling the pink Pokémon's yelp as he shushed and motioned for silence.
"Ugh… this again?" the Combusken grumbled. "I thought we concluded that it was just hearsay!"
"I dunno, Sela. I've been hearing it too," Hanuna murmured. "And Sibich did try to go after the demon while he was in town…"
"All the more reason why he wouldn't!" Sela insisted. "He's seen how dangerous that thing is for himself, there's no way he'd risk scaring us and a third of his crew off with some goose chase!"
"Oh come on, you can't admit that something doesn't smell about this," Eric countered. "Going off to do an operation on Giotto with all three of his ships? Just a day after the port got trashed?"
Back from their place behind the pitch buckets, Kichiro shifted uneasily. Sibich had stopped going out with his full force a few years ago after a failed raid on an Imperial copper shipment that cost him a ship that he'd only recently replaced. So just what would motivate him to be so bold again?
"We're just like spies right now! Like the Company and Empire and their cloak and dag-" Wilhelm whispered, only to be cut off with a shushing hiss from his Ledian teammate.
"Can you can it right now?!"
"Oi! I'm not giving you a cut of my take to loaf around!"
The trio of Marked pirates below them gulped and turned around reluctantly to see a red-eyed Cofagrigus looming over them. The Ghost-Type was in a visibly foul mood, which served to quickly quell the disagreement among the three and draw a more apologetic tone.
"Er… sorry, Captain Sibich," Eric said. "It's just that we were a little worn down and thought a break might help us work better."
"Yes, and there will be plenty of time to do that on the water," the Cofagrigus insisted. "With everything that I've done for you, I'd have thought that you'd return the favor with your work!"
Kichiro and Wilhelm blinked at the Ghost-Type's words, the pair casting blank glances at each other. Just what could Captain Sibich have meant by...
"'Everything he's done for them'?" Wilhelm asked.
"Don't ask me," Kichiro answered. "Maybe they're some of those Marked his crew apprentices."
"Right, we'll get back to work," Hanuna replied. "The sooner these crates get onboard, the sooner we can get moving."
"But… why are we heading out so soon? What exactly are we chasing after?" Eric prodded.
"My source from within the Imperial Admiralty told me to expect the haul of a lifetime out there," Sibich explained. "Setback or none, it's not a matter to dismiss lightly."
The three Marked traded uneasy looks with each other, turning their attention back to their captain hoping for reassurance. The Ghost-Type, sensing that the conversation wasn't going where he wanted it to, narrowed his eyes and gave a dissuading wave of his hands.
"It's nothing that you all need to worry about," the Cofagrigus huffed. "Just do your part aboard this crew, and the job will go smoothly."
"… If you say so," Sela murmured.
The three Pokémon paused and uneasily turned to their work, shuffling off and leaving Sibich behind among the crates. After a quick glance about his surroundings, the Ghost-Type lazily floated above the ground and brought a left hand up to his face, where a silvery feather emerged from his palm. The Cofagrigus cradled it with a knowing sneer, before tightening his hand around it and drawing it back into his wraith-like body, leaving Kichiro and Wilhelm staring stunned and slack-jawed.
"… We need to tell the captain about this," Kichiro muttered.
"Yeah! Captain Sibich can hide stuff in his body!" Wilhelm exclaimed. "Who knows what else he's keeping in there-"
"No, you dunce!" the Ledian hissed. "About Sibich going to Giotto!"
"Er… right. That too."
The pair cast some glances about their surroundings, and after being suitably satisfied they weren't being watched, they scooped up their buckets and leapt off the far side of the roof. The two Pokémon took wing, zipping along as quickly as their wings and burdens would allow as they wondered just who Sibich's lead could've been… and what else did he know that they didn't?
After the ambush and a hasty healing, Team Traveller hurried on lower and lower into the shifting floors of the Mystery Dungeon. Their travails took them past one floor to the next, brushing up with feral and trap alike. The scenery in the dungeon's second half had similarly changed, as was the case of their current floor riddled with stony spires, and curiously enough, an admixture of smooth ruined walls and pillars. The search for the stairs had gone slowly, with the four making their way through the labyrinth, searching here and there for the exit only to continuously come up short of leads.
"See anything, Guardia?" Nida asked.
"... Nothing," the Cubone said. "Just the normal sand and rocks."
"That's strange… floors aren't normally this empty right?" Pleo wondered. "We haven't seen any ferals or items down here yet."
Elty blinked and flicked his ears uneasily. Now that the mewa had mentioned it, they really hadn't seen any other Pokémon down here. It couldn't have been that late into the day, could it? But even if it were, that wouldn't explain the lack of items...
"... You're right," Elty murmured. "Somethings up."
"Eh?" Pleo asked. "What do you-?"
"Hey, Locke. Did you hear that?" a gruff voice murmured.
"Yeah, sounded like it was coming from over there ," a small, nasally voice added. "You think it's our targets?"
Team Traveller froze at the sound of the familiar-sounding voices, as they saw the shadows of a short, pointy-snouted nymph, and a tall, gangly humanoid with prominent fists spread on the walls ahead. Nida's fur stood on end at the mention of "targets", realizing that they belonged to none other than…
"Ah! It's more of Lyn's lackeys!" Nida yelped.
"Wh-What do we do?!" Pleo exclaimed.
The four watched as the forms of a Nuzleaf and Hitmonchan passed the end of the hallway, prompting the two dart ahead into a large chamber riddled with large stone clumps and a broken pillar. Guardia wheeled her club back, ready to strike at any pursuers coming into the room... but nobody came. She carefully peeked around the corner and down the hallway, discovering that it was empty and their pursuers not visible beyond the faint sound of distant footsteps.
"I don't think they saw us," Guardia whispered.
"... They're close," the Hitmonchan murmured. "These tracks are fresh."
"You take the far corridor, Jan. I'll take this one," the Nuzleaf grunted. Team Traveller froze as approaching footfalls rang down the corridors ahead, the movement periodically paused to give way to loud thumps against the walls as the distant Pokemon checked for stable zones. Elty pulled his tail in between his legs, whining anxiously to his teammates as he glanced back and forth at his surroundings.
"If we stay here, they'll find us!" Elty whispered.
"I know that!" Guardia hissed. "But what are we supposed to do?"
Scanning across the room, Nida's thoughts turned to the pillar in the center of the chamber. It would hardly make a reliable hiding place in the long-term, but it would at least provide cover to block the sight from wherever the Pokemon in the corridors emerged.
"There!" the Nidoran said. "We'll go behind that pillar, and we'll move on when they're not looking."
The four bunched up behind the pillar, scooting along to the other side as they heard their pursuers approach from behind it. They carefully inched along the pillar as the Company Pokémon passed by, and began retracing the tracks the pair had followed into the chamber. Nida and the others managed to slip along the length of the long chamber as Jan and Locke searched the rear, the form of a rock cluster coming into view, with a corridor behind that provided a glimpse of stairs to the next floor.
"Alright, we're clear," Nida murmured. "Let's go to those rocks next."
Team Traveller crept along, making it to the rock cluster just in time as the Company Pokémon turned around and tried to puzzle out where their targets had gone off to. The four waited for the voices to grow distant, evidently trying out the other corridors before setting off. Pleo took the lead, the young Protector waddling on into the corridor ahead... and directly onto a small tile with a swirly design set in the stony floor underfoot.
Click!
The Lugia squawked as the ground under his feet abruptly spun around, sending the bird whirling in place and stumbling forward. Pleo lurched forward, groaning in a daze and the shapes of the surrounding stones running muddy as the racket drew the attention of the Company Pokémon from further down the chamber.
"Hey! Someone's here!" Locke exclaimed.
The team froze and blanched as the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps sounded out, putting Nida, Elty, and Guardia into a blind panic. Nida and Guardia hastily latched onto Pleo's wings, guiding the dazed seabird along as Elty hung back, much to their consternation.
"Gardie, hurry up!" Guardia snapped. "They're coming!"
"I know that! Just go on ahead for a moment!" the Growlithe insisted.
The three others hurried along as Elty walked in front of the trap, and waited patiently. The Fire-Type didn't brace himself, or do anything that seemed to indicate he was preparing for a battle at all. He watched as the Hitmonchan and the Nuzleaf rounded the corner, and then bellowed out to draw their attention.
"Oi, you Company clods!"
The pair of Company Pokémon looked ahead just in time to see the dog waiting for them, giving a taunting shake of his rump in their direction.
"Want a piece of this, come and get it!" he jeered.
The Hitmonchan and Nuzleaf blinked a moment, and then glowered at the portly mutt, neither particularly amused with his taunting first impression.
"Grr… Aren't you a pleasant one," Locke growled.
"Oi, just hurry up and tan his hide already!" Jan shouted. The Hitmonchan hurried along, dashing straight for the waiting Fire-Type. As the pair neared, he suddenly leapt behind, leaving Jan to run off into a patch of disturbed sand where a loud click rang out in the chamber.
"Hey, what the- ARGH!"
The floor underneath abruptly spun the Fighting-Type around with a yelp. The Hitmonchan reached out to try and grab onto his taunter, only to latch onto his partner and drag him onto the trap. Elty snickered as the two staggered off the trap trading loud recriminations, bolting off, but not without calling back to his would-be attackers.
"Have fun seeing things!" he barked. The Fire-Type ran ahead, following the tracks of his teammates around the bend, and towards a set of stairs, where the three waited uneasily at the lip of the steps.
"What's the deal with that?!" Nida cried. "You could've gotten yourself hurt!"
"Yeah, yeah, chew me out later," the Growlithe yipped. "Let's just get out of here before they get back to their senses!"
The group darted up the stairs, coming to a stop on a sandy floor. The familiar sounds of the staircase grinding back into the floor rang out, the racket of stone on stone filling the air before fading away and finally stopping. The four Pokémon breathed sighs of relief before settling down into the sand, grateful for their reprieve.
"Elty, what you did back there was reckless, childish, and stupid..." Nida growled. The Nidoran scowled a moment at the Growlithe, before easing up and giving a small smile.
"And it saved our hides," the Poison-Type said. "So thanks for that."
"Heh… well, I might have had an idea it would work from past experience," Elty answered. "But hey, what works, works, right?"
The three quickly turned to amicable smalltalk, trading exhortations and cheers with one another. From his place to the side of his teammates, Pleo watched as the mood took on a happier and more upbeat atmosphere for what felt like the first time in an eternity, prompting a small, relieved smile to settle onto his face.
"Pleo?"
"Huh?"
"Why are you just standing there?" Guardia asked. "We should get going before a new set of stairs opens up on the floor below and those Company Pokémon can get up here."
"Ah, right!" the bird chirped.
The four hastily staggered to their feet, gathering up their items before they hurried off into the twisting corridors of the floor. In the midst of it all, the group's spirits were lifted as a strange feeling of reassurance came over them, the four finally feeling like a team once more.
While Team Traveller carried on in their search for the next floor, the crew of the Siglo Swellow was hard at work at sea. Captain Beatrix had called for the sails to be switched back to Company colors en route to Orleigh, which prompted the crew to set about switching out the current white sails they'd prepared in anticipation of Otvaga.
The air and rigging hummed with activity as Pokémon detached and pulled down the white sails and pulled up lavender ones to take their place. Down on the deck, the Pokémon in charge of packing away the spare sails were similarly kept busy. Among them were the familiar forms of Crom, Pladur, and their acquaintances from Bluewhorl who seemed at a loss over their task.
"Er… why are we doing this again?" Ander asked.
"Well, we don't have much in the way of defenses beyond our own strength," Pladur said. "So we'll need anything that can help us keep as many pirates as possible second-guessing how strong we are."
"That's… 50% less assuring than I was hoping for from your explanation, Pladur," Kiran sighed.
Pladur's misgivings settled down on Crom and the others, the lingering worries about being in proximity to Orleigh of all places weighing down their work stashing away the sail in their claws. Seeing their unease, Beatrix flitted over and settled on the deck, hoping to reassure them.
"Well, we're not exactly planning on storming the beaches," their captain replied. "I think that it should be more than enough for our needs."
"Are we sure that this is a good idea, Beatrix?" Pladur asked. "I mean, it is a pirate hangout…"
The Fraxure waited expectantly for an answer from the Illumise captain, only to be met with silence. Evidently, the gravity of the matter hadn't escaped her, and even she seemed to hesitate over what the best course of action was.
"… We don't have much other choice, I'm afraid."
"But what will we do if we get to Orleigh and find out they're there?" Crom asked, only to be answered by a snarling, burbling voice.
"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that."
The Dragon-Type and his companions froze and jolted upright at the sound of the voice, whirling around in an attempt to see just who the surprise speaker was.
"H-Huh?!" the Druddigon cried.
All around the ship, the sea escorts had flown into frenzy looking around for the culprit. Off on the starboard side, a Mantine on the team went wide-eyed after seeing a horde of approaching shapes, turning back to the ship in a panic.
"Agh!" the Mantine lookout yelped. "Bogeys surfacing under u-"
The ray was cut off by a sudden jet of water, knocking the Water-Type back against the hull. A wave flecked by the bodies of sea Pokémon crested and broke over the deck of the railing, sending Crom and his partners tumbling back with the rest of the crew coughing and gagging up water. The wave had knocked out a few sea escorts who were unceremoniously strewn groaning on the deck, their counterparts being driven back against the ship by a hail of attacks from darting Pokémon further out in the water.
"Protivnik sleva!" a Kingdra cried. "Keep your eyes on those Company rats!"
"Someone jam their rudder!" a Relicanth shouted.
The crew of the Siglo Swellow looked around and saw that the seafaring marauders had hemmed in their escorts, the lot shrinking back out of intimidated pallor. There, directly behind Crom and his companions, the brown and violet form of a Dragalge sliced through the water, coming to a growling stop next to the hull.
"You're not going anywhere fast," Viktor snarled.
Team Traveller's search on the floors above their run-in with the Nuzleaf and Hitmonchan proved to be profitable for the quartet, with the four discovering a foggy shortcut hidden in a wall during their search for the stairs. Nida led the group along, pacing through the foggy passage as the feelings of desert heat and the smell of swirling sand wafted through the air. The four emerged into a chamber filled with sand dunes hemmed between tall stone ledges, looking at their surroundings and rocky pillars hanging like stalactites from an inverted floor overhead.
"Hm, looks like it's another sandy floor…" the Nidoran murmured.
"Well at least it sounds quiet enough," Elty remarked. "Nothing we can't handle."
Team Traveller carried down a series of corridors, stopping and inspecting their surroundings at each chamber. The group would hurry along after hearing a grunt or footsteps of an approaching feral, repeating the process a few times until...
"Eh? Aren't those the stairs?" Pleo chirped.
Sure enough, directly ahead of them was a flight of stony stairs heading up from the sandy floor. Guardia blinked, prodding incredulously at the steps before giving a shake of her head.
"Huh. Seems like the dead's fortune is smiling down on us," Guardia said.
"Fortune, schmortune," Elty scoffed. "I'm not celebrating until we're out of this place.
One by one, Team Traveller filed up the stairs, the creaking and groaning of the floor behind them sealing off the stairs rang out, as they took in their new surroundings. They had come to a wide-open grassy expanse nestled among unusually tall dunes. At its center was a sandy patch bordering a pool of water, with tall and leafy palms towering overhead of them.
"Eh? I've never seen a floor this open before…" Nida murmured.
"If it wasn't for the stairs, I'd think we went into another stable zone!" Pleo chirped.
"That's because we are in one!" Guardia exclaimed "Look!"
The Cubone pointed off ahead of the group beyond the oasis in front of them. There in the distance, there was a craggy, stony tunnel with the haze of the Distortion visibly filling up its mouth.
"This place must be one of the exits to the dungeon," the Ground-Type explained. "If we go through there, we should be in the clear here."
"Heh, about time we got a lucky break," Elty sighed.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Elty trotted along towards the exit, counting his lucky stars that the worst this accursed leg of their journey had to offer was finally over with.
"Who dares tread on our territory?!"
As if on cue to disprove the Growlithe, a cry rang out and a torrent of grit exploded from the ground, obscuring the vision for each member of Team Traveller as they screwed their eyes shut against the stream of sand. After the initial plume of dust, the quartet of youngsters were able to crack open their eyes, now able to see the source of the disruption: a massive, tawny Hippowdon leered them down through the sandstorm, flanked by three equally irritable-looking Hippopotas.
"A-Aah!" Guardia cried.
"N-Nida?!" Pleo squawked. "What do we do?"
"I- I-" the Nidoran began, only to be interrupted by a low, rumbling growl from the Hippowdon.
"Yes, you'd better be scared, kakarat!" the hulking hippo snarled. "This is our space, and by time we're through with you, you won't forget it for the rest of your lives!"
Author's Notes:
- Eso es una locura! - Spanish: "That's crazy!", lit: "That's (a) madness!"
- kersat - Finnish: "kids", "children"
- Waruvile (ワルビル) - Japanese: "Krokorok" (Official Romanization)
- mogura (土竜 / 鼹鼠 / 鼴 / モグラ) - Japanese: "mole" (Hepburn Romanization)
- tonbo (蜻蛉 / とんぼ / トンボ) - Japanese: "dragonfly" (Hepburn Romanization)
- Protivnik sleva! (Противник слeва!) - Russian: "Hostiles on left!" (BGN/PCGN Romanization)
- kakarat - Finnish: "brats"
