As you may have surmised from the timing and chapter title for this update, this is an April Fool's Day crossover. Specifically with Ambyssin's Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Guiding Light in my list of favorited fics. If you haven't already done so, do take some time to check it out as it's one of the more engaging PMD stories that I have run across. Nothing here is canon, but instead is written for the sake of having fun with a 'what if' with an alternate Chapter 55, with your regular programming returning after the end of this three-parter.
Bonus Chapter: Turbulent Roadtrip, Part 1
The hours after Team Traveller's defeat at Sormus went by in a darkened, unconscious blur, bereft of even the light of dreams. When Pleo finally stirred, he awoke to a dim glow shining through his heavy eyelids, the feeling of leaves underwing evidencing that he'd been brought into someplace with tree cover. He stirred against the ground, gritting his beak as a renewed pain wracked his whole body from his toes out to the tips of his wings.
"Nnrgh…"
The Lugia sat up with a start, still bleary-eyed from his slumber, as he realized that his aches had come about because of that battle that they'd lost earlier. So... just where had he and his friends wound up this time?
Pleo's vision began to clear and he noticed in the dim light that he was sprawled out on moss-covered dirt… much like the Mystery Dungeon back in Boisocéan. The Lugia looked ahead uneasily, and to his alarm, he was in a shaded place full of trees towering higher than any he'd seen before in his travel. Pleo stood up at once, seeing that he was in a clearing, a quick glance revealing his still unconscious friends scattered all around him.
"Ah! Nida! Elty! Guardia!" he squawked. "Wake up!"
The young Protector darted over and nudged at his Nidoran teammate with his beak, pleading her to get up. The nudging and ruckus drew stirs from the three Pokémon, who tiredly shifted their bodies.
"Ungh…" Nida moaned. "What's going on?"
The three woozily rose to their feet, only to jolt back with a start at the sight of the towering forest. In all their travels, they'd never come across a forest that was anything like this one. Which beggared the question of what happened, and equally important...
"Wha-?! How did we get here?!" Nida exclaimed.
"Gah… we were at Sormus running from Lyn and his lackeys… Then… we got ambushed by those Imps while we were about to fly off," Elty murmured. "The last thing I remember was us getting soaked by that Clawitzer and everything just went kinda black there."
"Yeah, but that doesn't explain why we're in the middle of a forest!" Guardia piped. "I'd expect us to be in a ship, or a cave, or… someplace without trees!"
Nida paused, twitching her nose anxiously as the gnawing realization that the Cubone was onto something sank in. But even if the place was strange, just who but Nagant could have done it? The Clawitzer was the one who knocked them out, but on the other paw, a step back and the feeling of cloth underfoot revealed that even the team's bag had made the trip! What could have possibly motivated her to just let them keep that?
"Well, however she dumped us here, we at least got our items out of it," the Nidoran sighed. "So we aren't totally helpless right now."
"But where do we go now?" Pleo said, eyeing his surroundings anxiously. "We've never seen a forest like this before, so how can we find out where we are?"
Nida paused, staring off blankly at the trees around her. No matter where she looked, all she could see was the same dimly lit scattering of gigantic trees, with nary a hint to something as simple as what direction was north or south. Just how was anyone supposed to tell where they were based off of that little information?
"… Er…"
"I mean, if there were more solid walls around, I'd say we were in a Mystery Dungeon," Elty offered. "But… I dunno..."
"Perhaps we could start by scouting around a bit?" Guardia suggested. "The more familiar we are with the territory, the better we'd be able to find a way out afterwards."
The team murmured among themselves and quickly concurred with the Cubone, following after her among the trunks of the forest. All the while, the four wondered just what on earth could have enabled the trees to grow so tall… why they were even taller than the ones back in Mengir! Guardia spotted a clump of bushes blocking the path up ahead, prompting her to pause and search for a way around, only for the sound of voices to reach her ears.
"Gah… what are we supposed to do now?" a scratchy voice whined.
"Yeah, Lycanroc! We've got no food or money!" a high, nasally voice added. "We need that to get anywhere!"
The sound of Pokémon up ahead made Team Traveller stop and look around their surroundings. All around them, they saw nothing but the same trees and bushes they'd seen all this while, but when Nida raised her nose and sniffed, she caught the scent of fur… and a smell that reminded her of a less smoky and more dusty version of Elty coming past the bushes.
"Huh?"
The team crept along, poking their way through a gap in the shrub ahead. The four saw a group consisting of a ruddy Lycanroc standing on his hindlegs, a Sneasel, and a Jangmo-o gathered around. None of them had scarves on them… so were these local ferals? But if so, why would they worry about money?
"Pipe down, mates. We just got out of prison, not a bloody Kecleon shop! We'll just need to take things step by step and worry about getting some supplies first!" the Lycanroc snapped. "Once we get that figured out, we can focus on settling the score with Snowy and the rest of that stupid guild."
… No, they surely were not ferals. Given the mention of 'prison', it seemed far more likely that the three were merely some pirates who in a fit of blunderful thinking opted to shed their scarves to lay low even if it meant winding up on the wrong side of the Pact.
"These guys seem like obvious criminals," Nida whispered. "Let's get out of here before they know we're here."
"To be fair, we're obvious criminals right about now," Elty admonished. "Why the Company went to all the trouble of-"
"But how do we even start?" the Jangmo-o asked. "We tried foraging, and all we managed to pick up were some pine cones!"
"Simple. There's bound to be some inexperienced dweebs crawling around these parts," the Sneasel insisted. "We just give them a hard knock and walk off with their stuff!"
"… Okay never mind," the Growlithe said. "Let's go."
Team Traveller turned and began to slink off past the bush, first Guardia, then Nida, then Elty, and finally Pleo. As the white bird made his way back onto the path, he felt a branch snag on the spikes on his tail, prompting him to turn back and tug. A simple pull failed to dislodge himself, prompting his eyes to widen with worry as he tugged harder, and harder until...
Crack
The branch suddenly gave way with a loud snap, prompting gulps from the young Lugia and his teammates as the sound of movement at once came from beyond the bush.
"Oi!" the Lycanroc snapped. "Who's there?!"
With the brigands now aware of their presence, the team's hearts began to pound and hasten. From her spot at the front of the team, Guardia shook her head, whirling and darting forward with a loud shout to her teammates.
"Run!"
The four took off, running, darting down the path for a sunlit clearing up ahead. As the team was almost upon the opened space, a white wind shot out, encrusting the ground underfoot with ice, and pitching Guardia forward onto her belly. Her teammates, unable to stop in time, collided with her, sending the whole of Team Traveller tumbling forward into the clearing in a groaning heap.
"Speaking of inexperienced dweebs, looks like we've got some right here!" the Sneasel jeered.
"Yeah, thanks for stopping by," the Jangmo-o snarled. "Now fork over the goods-!"
Pleo and his companions uneasily rose to their feet, looking around them to see that the path was blocked by the growling form of a Midnight Lycanroc. Flanking him from both sides were the snarling forms of the Jangmo-o and the Sneasel. The pair approached, glaring and growling, only for a sudden wide-eyed moment of surprise to set upon the Jangmo-o, followed by an intimidated cringe.
"E-Eh?! Sneasel!" the Dragon-Type whined. "These dweebs have Lugia with them!"
The Sneasel blinked and noted that the seabird with the group did seem unusually silvery under the light. The Dark-Type grimaced, and backpedaled uneasily at the sight of the Legendary, waving his claws frantically as he stammered back.
"Er… we were just going someplace! Hah hah..." he offered. "Uh… really, really far away!"
"Huh? Where?" Pleo asked. "Is it someplace brighter than here?"
Pleo's reaction at once made the Sneasel and Jangmo-o tilt their heads in surprise. Far from the regal, authoritative voice of a living god, the Lugia had spoke back to them much as a lost whelp would to a passing stranger!
"Uh, boss?" the Jangmo-o murmured. "Are Lugia supposed to sound that squeaky?"
"How am I supposed to know that, mate?" the Lycanroc huffed in response. "That said, I ain't no Legendaryologist, but he sounds like a runt. A hatchling, even."
"Lugia's a bird, right? So don't you mean a fledgling?" the Sneasel countered. "Kweh heh heh!"
The Dark-Type was cut off by a smack to the back of his head, pitching him forward onto the ground. The Sneasel groaned and picked himself up, his Lycanroc teammate having no stomach for his puns at this time.
"I don't care, alright? Point is, he and his friends are just some pikers like Snowy and that shelia that's always with him," the Lycanroc growled. "Legendary or not, we're Team Fang! We can take him!"
The Lycanroc's declaration seemed to raise his teammates' confidence, prompting them to snicker and jeer at Team Traveller as they crept along. Hastily, the four youngsters tensed up, bracing themselves for battle with this team of unscarved brigands.
"Remind me to never listen to you for direction again, bonehead," Elty grumbled.
"Elty, focus on important things here!" Nida snapped.
"Right, like knocking a few numbskulls around!" Guardia exclaimed. "Yah!"
The Cubone tore along the ground, vaulting with her club to spring up as she neared the Midnight Lycanroc. The wolf grimaced and backpedaled as the bone lizard flew into the air, bringing her club down onto the Rock-Type's head with a heavy blow.
"Grah!"
"Hah! Your bark's worse than your bite!" Guardia jeered, coming to a stop on the ground. The Ground-Type looked up, only to notice light shrouding her foe's paws and his pained grimace to turn into a devious smile.
"Oh really, runt? Try this on for size!"
The Lycanroc swung a claw low, catching the young Cubone in her chest with crushing force. Guardia yelped from the stunning blow and was sent flying, sailing headlong for a tree trunk.
"Woooooah!"
The lizard hit the tree and slid down with a dazed groan, which served to brighten the eyes of the Jangmo-o and Sneasel, now filled with newfound enthusiasm.
"Hah! This'll be easy!" the Jangmo-o exclaimed.
"Yeah," the Sneasel added. "I dunno what rock you all crawled out from under, but we on Team Fang have actual experience ripping off dorks like you!"
The pair charged ahead, the Sneasel lunging forward at blistering speed as his Jangmo-o teammate charged after with his tail readied for a swinging blow that forced Nida and Elty to dive out of the way. From his place at the rear of the group, Pleo's nerve failed him as he watched the Lycanroc charge him, prompting him to squawk out of fright.
"A-Aah!"
Reflexively, the young Lugia spat up a glowing ball of light at the Lycanroc, making the wolf stumble back. Sensing that time was of the essence, Nida and Elty rushed forward, shooting glares at their Sneasel and Jangmo-o foes.
"Grr! If you think we're just going to roll over for you, you've got another thing coming!" the Nidoran hissed. "We've come too far to get pushed around by a bunch of scum-sucking canallas like you!"
Nida darted for the Sneasel, prompting him to swing at her with open claws. With a hasty sidestep, the Poison-Type weaved around the swing, before retaliating with a pair of spinning blows. The Sneasel buckled under the first kick, the second sending him skidding back with a yelp along the ground, much to his teammate's alarm.
"Sneasel!" the Jangmo-o cried. "Come on! Keep it tog- Ouchies!"
The Jangmo-o felt a weight and piercing pain pulling down on his flank, prompting him to look up and see Elty's jaws wrapped around them, attempting to drag him around much like an awkwardly-shaped toy.
"Hey, lunhkfed!" Elty jeered. "Whorry more about yourshelf!"
"Gah! Get off of me already!"
The Dragon-Type spat up a gout of fiery blue light, forcing Elty off with a yelp. The Growlithe tottered a bit, his gaze turning to the corner of his eye where Pleo had spat up another ball of light at the Lycanroc, only for this one to be batted away by a barrage of rocks torn up from the ground.
"Hah!" the Lycanroc snarled. "Was that really the best you could do, you overgrown feather duster?!"
The young Lugia took off running in a panic, the Lycanroc charging after him until he heard Guardia groan, and saw the Cubone right herself from her tree trunk. The Rock-Type slowed to a stop and trained his attention to the bone lizard, a low growl rising in his throat.
"I'll deal with you later," he snapped. "For now, let's put that little bone in my craw down for the count!"
The Midnight Lycanroc, eager to further repay his head blow, took off running for Guardia. From her place against the tree trunk, the Cubone watched paralyzed with fear as the much bigger, furry yajū lunged for her, only for a sudden squawk to ring out.
"Guardia, quick!"
Before she could react, Guardia felt a presence swoop down and pluck her up. The Cubone screwed her eyes shut, feeling her body get dumped on something warm and feathery that she dug her claws into for dear life.
A sudden realization dawned on her, as she remembered that there was only one Pokémon with feathers around here big enough to carry her like this. Guardia cracked her eyes open, seeing the ground zip by underneath and white-and-blue head of none other than...
"Huh?! Pleo!"
"Just hang on!" the Lugia insisted. "We'll work it out!"
Back on the ground, the Sneasel and the Jangmo-o had grown weary of being harried by these surprisingly strong rookies. Panting and weakened from battle, the Sneasel flicked a claw irritatedly and turned to his Dragon-Type teammate.
"Gah! New strategy, Jangmo-o," he said. "Let's stick together and pool our attacks!"
"Er… but haven't we been doing that all this ti-"
"Stick closer scales-for-brains!" the Dark-Type hissed. "Just follow my lead!"
The two withdrew, inching up back to back with each other as Nida and Elty flanked them. The two sent forth an icy wind quickly followed by a swing of the Jangmo-o's tail that struck Elty with a yelp, before whirling and doing the same to Nida right as she ran up readying a Poison Sting.
"AGH!"
The Nidoran tottered back with an agonized cry, leaving the two partners in crime to take in the handiwork of their cooperation, the Jangmo-o being particularly surprised with the results.
"Hey, Sneasel! It actually worked!" the Dragon-Type cried.
"Of course it did! I came up with it!" the Sneasel insisted. "Now let's rip off these chumps!"
The pair turned their attention to a dazed Elty, who struggled to keep his balance. Sensing that the tide of battle had turned, the Sneasel charged ahead, slipping into a shadow on the ground before popping up in front of the Puppy Pokémon with his claws bared.
"Lights out, dweebs!" the Sneasel jeered. "And thanks for the free gear!"
The Dark-Type's taunt at once snapped Elty into attention, the dog yelping as he saw the Sneasel bring his claws down into a swipe. The Growlithe weaved his head so the Sneasel's attack grazed him, and jumped back before somersaulting forward in a hasty, fiery wheel, which struck the Dark-Type bandit square in the face.
"AAAAAGH!"
The Sneasel sailed back singed and trailing curls of smoke, coming to a tumbling, unconscious stop at his Jangmo-o's teammate feet. The Dragon-Type went wide-eyed and quailed, shaken by how suddenly his friend had been defeated.
"A-Aah! Sneasel- Nrk!"
The Dragon-Type whined in pain, glancing up at his rump to see a needle dribbling venom lodged in it, along with its owner hopping away a little further ahead. The dragon felt a chill come over his body, though not enough to quench a fire of irritation stoked by the indignity of his surprise attack.
"Hey! What's the big idea?! I was busy reacting to somethi-!"
"Eyaaaaaah!"
A sharp cry rang out, prompting the Jangmo-o to look up and go wide-eyed at the sight of a Cubone falling from the sky. The Ground-Type brought her club down with an overhead smash right onto the Jangmo-o's head.
The impact was followed by the sound of a loud crash, and afterwards Guardia stepped away from a weakly twitching Jangmo-o. A low growl drew everyone's attention behind them, where the Lycanroc glared, spitting contemptuously to the side.
"Hrmph, so you got through them already," the Lycanroc snarled. "Well, it'll take more than that to beat me! I'm the one who carried those two dorks!"
The wolf howled and charged ahead readying a Rock Tomb. As soon as the Rock-Type had darted forward, he was hit by a shining burst on his shoulder, followed by a heavy, clubbing blow that caught him in the stomach. The Lycanroc bowled over and looked up just in time to see Elty roll at him with a Flame Wheel that struck him and knocked him onto his knees, followed by a pair of swift kicks that sent him rolling into a tree trunk. The Rock-Type lay there groaning, weakly cracking his eyes open when he saw all four members of Team Traveller rushing him, prompting the frazzled Lycanroc to let out a yelp, his nerves having deserted him.
"A-Ack! Keep your lousy gear! I didn't sign up for this!"
The Lycanroc got up and bolted off in a panic, only to catch himself pause, and turn back running for the forms of the fainted Jangmo-o and Sneasel.
"And you two are coming along!" the Lycanroc shouted. "No way am I letting you two dweebs squeal on me!"
The Rock-Type ran up, and much to Team Traveller's confoundment, quickly slipped his two teammates under his arms. The four watched with puzzled expressions as the Midnight Lycanroc disappeared off into the undergrowth with his fellow brigands. With the forest returning to its prior silence, the team blinked, panting uneasily as they turned to nurse their wounds.
"Well, that was certainly a warm welcome," Elty harrumphed.
"They were certainly… a different team," Pleo muttered.
"What... was that all about?" Nida asked. "And how did they know Pleo was a Lugia?"
"Could… there be more than one of me?" Pleo murmured. The seabird's question drew some baffled glances from his teammates, much as if he'd asked them if the sun ever rose in the west.
"But that's preposterous!" Nida squeaked. "There's only one Lugia, and that's you!"
"Meh, they probably just read a story about you or something," Elty retorted. "I'd be more worried about where we are right now."
The Growlithe's comment made Pleo blink and tilt his head puzzledly. Weren't they just in some sort of forest? What else would there be to be worried about beyond ferals or more bandits like Team Fang?
"Huh? Why's that?"
"Those three mentioned something about breaking out of a prison. But what if they're wrong?" Elty said. "I admit there's less cells than I'd expect, but that Clawitzer did knock us out after saying she'd capture the mewa… and doesn't this place seem like the right sort of spot to banish a 'mon you don't want to deal with?"
An uneasy pause hung in the air, Nida, Pleo, and Guardia grudgingly realizing that so far that beyond Team Fang, the forest had been quiet and desolate enough to be a place where a Pokémon could be easily forgotten. The three lingered a moment on the thought, before Guardia dispelled it with a shake of her head and a rap of her club against the ground.
"Well, I don't know what's going here, Gardie," she harrumphed. "But we've got better things to do than worrying what this weird forest is."
"Oh? What do we do now?" Pleo asked.
"I say we move on, and keep an eye out for anyone else here," the Cubone offered. "If there's one team of thieves prowling around, there's most likely others."
"Sounds good enough to me," Nida grunted. "Come on, let's patch ourselves up and get going."
With that, the Nidoran dug into the team's satchel, hastily pulling out an Oran Berry and dividing it among the four of them. After applying its juices to their wounds and wolfing down its pulp, the group pressed on, setting off deeper into the darkened forest warily eyeing their surroundings.
After their hostile encounter with Team Fang underneath the treetops of the towering forest, Team Traveller continued tiredly in their search for a way out, keeping an eye out for any further brigands lying in wait in the shadows. All the while, as the four made their way past one giant tree trunk or set of wall-like ridges after the other, they couldn't help but sense the place they'd woken up in was peculiar… and seemingly doing its best to hide wherever its exit was.
"Anything at all?" Nida asked.
"Nothing," Elty sighed. "No exits, no stairs, nothing at all that would suggest that this isn't some normal patch of land if it weren't for the freaky trees."
"What about that?" Guardia asked.
The Cubone raised her bone and pointed off in the distance up ahead. Nida and Elty squinted, taking a few step forward for the image to take shape in their eyes, where they saw a mass of tightly-spaced trees. The Growlithe paced forward, sniffing the ground as he neared a set of roots and looked up to discover that much to his shock, the trees had been fused into a solid, impenetrable wall of wood.
"Gah!" Elty whined. "This place really is some sort of freaky prison!"
"I wouldn't be so sure, Gardie," Guardia rebutted. "There weren't exactly any trees, but the Mystery Dungeon back home also sometimes made giant walls. Perhaps we're just in a stable zone right now…"
The Cubone trailed off before noticing her teammates staring skeptically at her. Wagging her tail awkwardly from the attention, Guardia cleared her throat, opting to perhaps amend her earlier statement.
"… A very big stable zone," she insisted.
"But don't those have ways to get out?" Pleo asked. "How are we supposed to find our way out here?"
"Er… we could try walking along this wall and see where it goes?" Nida suggested.
"But it took ages just to get here!" Elty exclaimed. "And we don't know this place is even safe to be poking around like this."
"So what do you suggest then?" the Nidoran insisted, drawing a blank hem and haw back from her Growlithe teammate.
"Uh… maybe we could try signaling other Pokémon outside?"
"Huh?" Pleo asked. "But wouldn't our badges need to have been touched by a teleporter for that to work?"
The young Protector gestured at the metal bauble pinned on his scarf, moving his beak against it for a nudge. He spoke an inquisitive 'Hello' into the badge and waited, only to be answered by a long silence affirming his suspicions.
"… Er… right. Maybe there's a path somewhere that leads outside...?" Elty began, only to be answered by a shake from Guardia's head.
"Then we'd be better off following Nida's idea. We'd still need to find this path first..." she finished. "Assuming that it'd even be someplace near this wall."
"Hmm… let's just keep track of where we've been and look around for some clues," Nida said.
The Nidoran's suggestion drew murmurs of agreement, prompting Elty to inhale and blow out a column of cinders onto the tree-wall. The embers danced against the wood for a moment, leaving a blackened mark against their bark, which Team Traveller used as their guidestone.
The youngsters set off, each fanning out in a separate direction along the wall, with Nida opting to follow it lengthwise to the north, or at least what she presumed to be the north. Along the way, the Nidoran crept forward carefully, dutifully nosing around for traps and looking back over her shoulder towards her other teammates, until she chanced to notice some trampled bushes up ahead.
"Eh?"
The Poison-Type carried along, following the damaged bush and noticing a trail of crushed and mangled foliage that carried on to a tree's trunk. The Nidoran blinked and sniffed the air uneasily, before opting to move along along the path, unable to shake a sensation all the while that she was being watched.
"… Hello?" she asked. "Is anyone there-?"
Nida's question was abruptly cut off by a rain of warm, sticky fluid that splattered over her head. The Poison-Type jumped back with a start, fanning her barbs out and running a paw up to her ears… and pulling it back completely red.
"H-Huh?! Th-That's-!"
The Nidoran flushed pale and went woozy, her pupils dilating as she realized that the red substance looked like none other than blood. She backpedaled in a panic, only to slip and feel the same warm, sticky feeling against her legs, prompting her to lose her nerve and squeal out of fright, stumbling in a flailing panic to get back to her feet and away from this death-cursed place.
"Mwee hee hee! I knew that Tamato juice would come in handy!"
Nida blinked and paused at the disembodied mention of 'Tamato juice', prompting her to uneasily raise her paw before licking it, and feel the hot rush of spice confirm that it was indeed made of Tamato berries. She whirled around, eying her surroundings defensively in search of the prankster, only for her teammates to rush in from the path's entrance.
"W-What's going on?!" Pleo cried.
"Yeah!" Elty yipped. "We heard you scream-!"
Before anyone could react, the tree ahead was consumed with billowy shadows, eyes and mouths appearing in the mist as all of a sudden, the forms of a Haunter, Drifloon, and Misdreavus popped out with a singular, unifying cry…
"Boo!"
"AGH!"
Team Traveller's members yelped and leapt back as the three Ghost-Types settled towards the ground, giggling with glee over the strangers' visible alarm. The four youngsters gasped for breath, as the initial shock of their surprise began to fade.
"Looks like you got them good, Haunter," the Drifloon said, much to his partner's snickering delight.
"I'll say! Looks like they're in… a sticky situation!"
As the Haunter chortled, Team Traveller instantly assumed defensive positions with Guardia shooting back a fierce glare. These ghosts must be none other than another band of thieves, and for her part, she would make sure that they'd regret trying to prey on them.
"Grr… if you think that you're going to rob us, you've got another thing coming!" the Cubone snarled, only to be met with a trio of blinking stares back.
"'Robbery'?" the Drifloon scoffed. "Since when did we ever get mistaken for thieves?"
"I suppose the Tamato juice might have been a little overkill…" the Misdreavus murmured.
"Mwee hee hee! You've got it all wrong, kiddos!" the Haunter insisted. "Team Specter doesn't take things from other Pokémon, we give them things! Like the fright of their lives!"
"You dumped this icky Tamato juice all over me you lousy jerk!" Nida snapped. "How is that giving me anything?!"
"Well, you got Tamato juice," the Drifloon said.
"We do also give lifts out of Mystery Dungeons like this one to lost Pokémon," the Misdreavus added.
The Misdreavus' words at once perked up the team of youngsters. If this was a Mystery Dungeon, then it would be a simple matter of having a team hail a teleporter to fish them out! And with any luck it sounded like they'd just run into one!
"But, since you all sound kinda mad about the prank…" the Haunter began. "I guess we're just better off leaving you alo-"
"Wait!" Pleo cried. "We need to leave this dungeon too!"
The Lugia looked to his teammates, hoping to have them vouch for their circumstances… only to notice that the lot of them sported skeptical expressions, evidently unenthused by the idea of doing much of anything at all with this team of pranksters.
"Eh… I dunno about this one, Pleo," Elty murmured.
"Yeah, color me not impressed with this offer," Nida grumbled.
"We are an Exploration Team," the Drifloon insisted. "Even if you're not the type to take a joke, if you're in trouble here, you shouldn't be too choosy about your help."
The balloon-like Pokémon reached for a metallic band looped over his arm and showed off a shining bauble shaped like a crescent moon with rainbow wings on it. At once, Pleo's eyes lit up, finding the badge to be proof enough that these Ghost-Types held their best hope of leaving this strange Mystery Dungeon.
"See! We can trust them, right?" he insisted, drawing reluctant sighs back from his fellow teammates.
"Egh… I suppose," Guardia said. "But their colony's practices are even more backwards than normal."
"Ugh… fine," Nida groaned "Just hurry up and get us out of here."
"Mwee hee hee! On it!"
The Haunter rifled through the satchel on his body, before taking out a rainbow-colored sphere. Nida traded puzzled looks with her teammates, wondering just what the wraith hoped to accomplish by pulling out this orb on such short notice.
"One trip out coming right up!" the Haunter insisted, prompting Elty to tilt his head and perk his left ear up.
"Hey, wait a minute!" he cried. "Why aren't you grabbing your badg-"
Before Elty could finish, the Haunter threw the orb against the ground and shattered it, swallowing up the gathered Pokémon in a flash of light. For a fleeting moment, quiet returned to the strange forest, only for the silence to be broken in by running footfalls.
"Grah! We missed our chance!"
The crunch of trodden sticks and leaves rang out as an Absol with a serrated forehead scythe and a harness around his chest stepped out into the clearing. Behind him, the form of a blue Houndoom in a white, tightly-fitted suit and helmet followed, scanning the surroundings warily. A woosh of disturbed air rang out, as the pair were joined by a purple creature with small, nubby arms and legs and a round head topped with three needles zipped into the freshly-vacated clearing. The Absol swiped a paw against the ground irritatedly, prompting the blue Houndoom in the suit to sigh and shake her head.
"To be fair, if it wasn't for the Nidoran, we wouldn't have been able to find them in the first place," the Houndoom said.
"That was an Exploration Team that they departed with, correct? If that is the case, it is reasonable to assume that they are proceeding to Aeon Town," the purple creature added.
"Grr… we don't have time to chase those four around!" the Absol snapped. "There was an Ultra Wormhole torn open earlier and we need to figure out what they know. Otherwise, we're looking at a potential disaster here!"
The Absol's declaration drew puzzled glances from his teammates, who looked at each other before looking back at the Dark-Type.
"… Aside from the shrunken Lugia, they looked more like clueless and lost children to me," the Houndoom replied.
"I hypothesize those terrestrials pose a minimal threat level, Gallian," the purple Pokémon insisted.
"Well, we're not here to judge by looks. Weren't you the ones harping on about how your Ultra Recon Squad unit is here to investigate how Ultra Space is affecting my world?" the Absol growled. "In my book, that means checking any potential threats by any means necessary."
The Dark-Type shook his head, before setting off deeper into the forest, followed along closely by his teammates. Along the way, they traded curious looks with one another, wondering just what had brought these fallers from afar to this world.
