Sausage note: Yo! Time for a good cliffhanger... um, unhanging! :D

By the way, sorry for the long, long wait! I took so long that Badniks Of The Forest is already on its fourth part! Goddamn it... XD

Well, to excuse myself, I had a nasty cold for a while... and then I passed it off to ravengal (sorry, babe! :s) who I decided to entertain with classic games such as Croc, Rayman 1&2, and Broforce while she recovered from both that, and having to wait for new glasses to arrive. Life got fairly busy, as you can probably imagine. XP (Plus, I deleted a decent chunk of work through sheer tiredness-induced retardation, which didn't help. Always back your shit up, folks!)

Ahhh well. On the plus side, I decided to add some sections to chapters 2, 5 and 6, to make the plot feel less pointless! Not to mention, I made an entirely new chapter for Questing For Comrades called 'The Damp Distractions'! Go check that shit out, for more biggus dickus points!

Last time: Buneary and friends learned how to not fight so shite thanks to a running coal monster, and The Birdbrains explored Mega Man's least favourite mountain.


Chapter Seventeen: The Bosom Buddies


Energy immediately returned to Buneary's body when the liquid from the elixir went down her throat. Thanking Sneasel - who had brought it to her lips for her - she hopped to her feet and looked to see if she'd made it. To see if she'd stopped Coalossal before he could make it to the middle of the spiraling pathway.

He was collapsed onto the podium, slowly picking himself up to sit on it. He'd won. Barely, but still.

Her ears dipped in disappointment. "Aww... I was so close, too..." she mumbled with a sigh.

"Yeah, that's a right ol' bugger, that is," Gourgeist said sympathetically.

"Well, it was certainly a good attempt!" Sneasel said reassuringly. "Had me by the seat of my feathers the whole time!"

Buneary smiled lightly. "Thanks... but it's not saying much when I'm the only one who failed the whole thing."

"I failed, I think~" Ponytale chimed.

"You didn't use any proper moves, though...?" Salandit murmured. She let out a light yelp and shook her head, looking at Buneary. "N-Not that I'm saying you did bad, or anything, Buneary! You're stronger than you look! ... W-Which is really strong!"

"I think she understands, Salandit," Sneasel said, shaking his head with a light grin.

Buneary giggled lightly. "Y-Yeah, I get it. Thanks," she said. Well, at least everyone was being nice about it. That made her feel better, though her performance was still a let down...

"You shouldn't be so discouraged, Buneary," Coalossal said, standing on the podium with crossed arms. "I'm sure you've heard something similar before, but... failure isn't weakness. It is the first step to strength, knowledge and understanding yourself."

She looked at him in surprise. "Gosh, you think so?"

"Hm. Winning battles and losing battles... both will help you in the long run." He closed his eyes, brows furrowing with a huff. "... It's a lesson I wish I'd known in my youth, to be perfectly honest. I will never live down the arrogance I'd once shown, fighting with nothing but a plate to show my strength..."

Buneary, Sneasel and Salandit shared an awkward glance at his sudden self-berating. Gourgeist and Ponytale continued to smile pleasantly, however.

"Well, you're right strong, now, so don't'cha worry, none!" Gourgeist reassured.

Ponytale blinked. "... Oh! The Arceus one, not the... Not a dinner one," she mumbled, as if only just catching on to something.

"... Yes," Coalossal said, leaving his response to her at that, along with a confused frown. Shaking his head, he turned to Gourgeist. "Thank you, but... this strength is only the beginning of my potential. I must get stronger, still!"

"Oh, right," Gourgeist replied, still smiling.

"In any case, that's neither here nor there." The rock-type indicated toward Buneary with a smile. "Regardless of success or failure, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't impressed."

"I-Impressed?" Buneary asked, taken aback. "Huh? But I didn't beat you! I mean, I know what you said, but..."

"Doesn't matter. You were relentless until the end, and always in unexpected ways. It was surprising."

"He has a point!" Sneasel agreed. "Every time I thought I'd figured out some sort of style, you did something different. And not in a way that suggested floundering, either."

"Hm. Do you practice different styles, Buneary?"

Buneary stared at them with widened eyes, surprised at their insights. "Uh... n-not really? I don't know, I just... do things, and try to see what works," she admitted, hoping it wouldn't bring her score down.

"Really?" He contemplatively crossed his arms. "Hm, interesting. It must come naturally to you, then."

"It can't be all that amazing though, can it? I only did whatever seemed right, at the time."

"It's true that anyone can do whatever takes their fancy during battle... but it's more than that. First, you tested me, to see how I would react to your different uses of Swift, even using trick shots to throw me off. Realizing that it wouldn't do anything quickly enough, you went on to try and punch and kick me at different angles, learning from what worked with Swift. Judging by the moves you used, too, you were trying to throw me off by inflicting status problems that would leave me helpless, if everything went well."

Hopping down from the podium, he walked over to her before continuing. "Your tactics went into guerrilla territory, after. Trying to trip me up by hitting me in the kneecaps, which was surprising, coming from someone like you. And finally, you threw strategy to the wind and used every bit of power left in you to stop me. Even going to the goal just to make a last stand. All of that together is the sort of thing I'd expect from several different types of fighters, but to see it all come from you... well, it was a good learning experience. It felt like you were constantly testing the waters. Adapting, and shifting tactics."

Buneary's face grew warmer and warmer as he continued. "Um... uh... th-thanks!" she replied bashfully. Gosh... that was the most praise she'd ever gotten in such a short amount of time! She was sort of embarrassed... but it sure did leave her happy!

"Praising words indeed!" Sneasel chimed.

"Wow... does this style, like... even have a name, or something?" Ponytale wondered, head tilted.

"Well... I met someone called, uh..." Buneary started, pausing to try and remember, "... yeah, Dynamite Aegislash. He said I have an all-rounder style."

"... No, that's not it," Coalossal replied, closing his eyes with a thoughtful frown. "Too basic. An all-rounder is someone whose way of fighting is so normal, he has no faults, nor specialties. Perfectly balanced."

"Oh, I think I've heard that one," Salandit piped in. "Like... a wild card, right?"

"... No. It would be over the top to call Buneary one of those. A wild card is so unpredictable, that it's hard to tell if even he knows what he'll do, next." He took a breath. "Much like Redemption Flareon, come to think of it. The one time I fought him was an experience so confusing, I'm not sure I learned anything from it."

Buneary's eyes lit up. She heard Sneasel take a surprised breath, too.

"Oh, you fought him!? Really?" she asked excitedly.

"Yeah. Though like I said, it was... weird." He let out a drawn out huff through his nostrils, inadvertently releasing smoke from them. "He would start using a move, only to change his mind and do something else, after. He also constantly used moves wrong, yet landed them perfectly, against all logic. As if that wasn't enough, he enjoyed shouting strange phrases I didn't understand, too." He frowned lightly. "... And he wouldn't stop calling me Ree-You, and asking me to perform the... 'how-doe-ken', or whatever it was he asked for. He only stopped when I fired Incinerate from my hands, which was enough for a cheer."

Buneary looked at him in awe. "Wow... he really is like he is in the book~" she said gleefully.

"More than I would have ever guessed!" Sneasel agreed happily.

"... He sounds like a nutjob!" Salandit said in disbelief.

"He sounds funny..." Ponytale said with an airy giggle. "I don't get it, but I like him..."

"Aye! 'e always sounded like the right fun sort," Gourgeist said, smiling. "The way our Sneasel would talk about 'im in that book of 'is."

"Whatever you say..." Salandit said, not looking very persuaded.

Coalossal grunted audibly, as if he'd come to a conclusion. "... I have it. This conversation has reminded me of what I was looking for. The 'Anything Goes' style. That is what you are, Buneary," he explained to the rabbit.

"A-Anything goes?" she asked. "Isn't that a bit over the top, too?"

"Hmm... well, why don't we find out?"

"Huh? Find out?"

He nodded with his usual confirming grunt of, "Hm," and looked around himself at the others. He indicated towards Sneasel. "Sneasel, are you interested in one last trial? And a more traditional one, at that."

"Oh, why, absolutely!" the weasel replied. He stroked his chin with a claw. "Me in particular, though?"

"I'm thoroughly impressed with all the fighting style variance I've seen today. It's been a treat, so thank you, everyone," Coalossal replied, getting happy remarks from the others. "However, the two with the truest fighting spirits... well, it's you and Buneary."

Sneasel clicked his claws with an enlightened grin. "Aha, I believe I see what you're getting at! You want to test your theory with a battle of me against Buneary! Correct?"

Coalossal nodded. "Hm, correct. You catch on quick."

Buneary's eyes widened. "A battle? Right now?" she asked in surprise. More fighting!? How was she getting into so many today!? Was this some sort of secret test of character the guild was performing on her, or what!?

"Ooh, sounds interesting!" Sneasel replied to the rock-type. "After watching your performance, Buneary, I'm happy to get the chance!"

"Aye! Should be a right ol' show!" Gourgeist said eagerly.

"Yeah! Sounds fun..." Ponytale murmured happily.

"Yeesh... well, better her than me, I guess..." Salandit mumbled to herself.

"Well... if it'll help with your dojo plans, I guess so...?" Buneary said, unsure.

"That is, if you're up for it, anyway," Coalossal reassured. "Your efforts won't go without any rewards, don't you worry."

"Hm... well..." she mumbled, eyeing up Sneasel, who seemed pretty eager. Oh dear... To be honest, she was a little worried. A one on one fight with Sneasel... Seeing him in action during his trial made it clear that he knew his stuff when it came to fighting. Sure, she'd won against Aegislash, earlier... but that had been a team effort. One which she'd fainted in, at that.

Not to mention, she'd been through so much mayhem today already. Was she ready for this at all...? It would help her become a good explorer, she supposed, but... she was starting to feel a bit drained.

"Hmm, tell you what, Buneary!" Sneasel said, apparently noticing her hesitance. "Shall we do this another day? From what I understand, you've been through enough today, as is."

She frowned guiltily. "Oh, I dunno... you sounded really interested, though..."

He gave her a friendly smile. "Not to worry! I'll always be up for a friendly fight, so it's fine by me!"

"Well... if it's not too much trouble..."

"That's fine," Coalossal interjected. "In fact, how about a week or so from now? It will give me time to settle and decide on some things."

"I shall be looking forward to it!" Sneasel chimed.

"Y-Yeah!" Buneary added after a small breath of relief. Well, she had time to train herself up, if nothing else. "Me too!"

"Aye, it'll be grand either way!" Gourgeist said, as pleased as ever.

"Aww... well, okay," Ponytale said, sounding disappointed. "I really wanted to see Sneasel in action, but I guess that's alright..."

"Do you... ever talk about anything else?" Salandit asked with a raised eyebrow. "Anything not about Sneasel?"

"Huh? Well... I was talking about Christmas, earlier..." The pony blinked before beaming brightly. "Oh! Yeah! Merry Christmas, everyone...~"

Everyone paused unblinkingly. Not long after, Buneary giggled, Sneasel and Salandit reacted in exasperation, and Coalossal simply crossed his arms and shook his head, frowning in confusion.

"Don't, um... worry, Ponytale!" Sneasel said, flusteredly trying to bring things back on topic. He grinned. "Honestly, Coalossal's insight on my fighting style has inspired me. Before, I had Nasty Plot, which I was not able to show off. For the upcoming battle, I shall devise a new move that is more fitting for me! That should make for a much more exciting battle, don't you think?"

Buneary noticed Coalossal nod in approval, a small smile appearing on his lips.

"Well... that sure sounds fun~" Ponytale replied, once again smiling as airily as ever. "It'll be the best New Year's party I've had in a while...~"

"Aha, yes! Quite..." Sneasel remarked, sheepishness returning.

"Well, there we have it then, I guess," Salandit said. "Today, me, Sneasel and... ugh... the murder bug are cooking stuff... and next week, you guys can have your battle party, and I'll be in my room, relaxing~"

"Um, you can join us, if you want!" Buneary suggested hopefully.

Salandit looked at her as if she'd gone crazy. "After all the crap I went through today!? I think a nice, long retreat under my pillow fort of solitude is a much better use of my time, thank you!"

"... She'll be there. Probably," Sneasel said with a roll of his eyes, much to her resounding displeasure.

"Eheh, okay...!" Buneary replied, putting on an eager smile. That was going to be a crazy day, too, wasn't it?

Oh well... she'd certainly try her best, if nothing else. Besides, it wasn't like it was a fight to the death, or anything like that. She was sure it would be fun, no matter what!


Eiscue kept running for dear life, with those nasty shadow pokémon still hot on his heels. It was hard not to yell in terror. Those guys were out for his blood!

Hearing their snarls getting closer, he scrambled to run faster, making sure to avoid tripping and running into any of the stone spikes surrounding him. He yelped loudly in shock when he noticed the shadow gliscor soaring towards him from the sky, glaring at him with its glowing red eyes. Oh crap! No way out without risking a dive bomb, or something worse!

He panickingly wondered which move to power up to hit the evil guy with. Uh... Freeze-Dry? Was he even close enough for that? Um, Head Smash? Gah, but what if the gliscor fired something at him instead of coming closer? Uh...

"Stop it!"

Eiscue jumped at the sudden voice from above. Even the gliscor's attention turned away to look upward. What the-!?

He jumped again when another pokémon fell from the sky and rammed its glowing tail into the gliscor, right between the eyes. The fake scorpion was sent plummeting downward, roaring in a feral rage as it was sent into the ground, somehow missing any spikes.

Eiscue stopped to watch as the attacker backflipped away from the impact to come tumbling down. Whoa... someone was saving him? Sweet! He had some pretty slick moves, too!

The shadow zweilous suddenly rushed past him, using one of its heads to deliver a slice that bent the air with dark energy.

Eiscue shrieked and leapt away in surprise. Thankfully, the attack had somehow missed, but sheesh! That's what he got for getting distracted!

He turned, putting his back to the spiky wall to face both sides. The shadow gliscor and shadow zweilous were on one side, with one picking itself up off the ground and the other looking around to see where Eiscue was. On his other side were the shadow croconaw and the shadow girafarig, who were already preparing moves.

The savior from before had come to a slightly rough landing behind the croconaw and girafarig, who hadn't noticed him yet. Getting a good look, Eiscue saw that he was a pikachu, frowning up at the two shadow pokémon over on his side.

Eiscue smiled gratefully. Yeah, thanks to him, this could work!

The croconaw pounced forwards, fists and feet glowing a shadowy aura. Facing it, Eiscue twisted around and bent over to protect himself with his icy head.

The croconaw delivered a bunch of punches and kicks to it, cracking it heavily with each hit. Before it could destroy it, Eiscue pushed forwards, shoving it a few steps away. He reared his head up and, powering his ice block with rock-type energy, slammed it down onto the fake crocodile with Head Smash.

The impact was strong enough to shatter the rock-coated ice block, coating the injured croconaw in debris. At the same time, he saw the pikachu whip his body around, harshly knocking the girafarig away with his glowing tail. It growled and turned to face him.

With the ice block gone, all of Eiscue's senses became crystal clear, and his mind became clearer still. Yeah, he could really do this!

The zweilous from before recklessly lunged at him, coated in a fiercely burning dark aura. Running on instinct, Eiscue twirled out of the way, grabbed one of the zweilous' necks and flung it to the side.

Still zipping forwards on pure momentum, it slammed into a wall. It was punctured from head to toe with spikes going right through its body, leaving gaping wounds with wisps of shadow leaking out. It exploded into a huge cloud of dark energy, which quickly dissipated.

Eiscue blinked at his own handiwork. Wow... normal pokémon usually couldn't die without fainting - especially in a dungeon - so that was crazy! Either that was one hell of an attack he'd just done, or fainting was enough for shadow pokémon to die.

He flinched at the cold, sharp feeling in his flippers. Ow... Even touching shadow energy hurt like hell! He had to be careful.

He saw the gliscor and croconaw looking his way while preparing moves glowing with dark energy. The girafarig was preoccupied with attempting to shoot bolt after bolt of dark electricity at the pikachu. Even though they kept being harmlessly absorbed into the mouse's tail as he angled it upwards, the fake giraffe mindlessly kept it up.

Happy that the pikachu was safe, Eiscue prepared a move of his own. At the same time, the croconaw slammed its fist into the ground, causing shadow spikes to shoot upwards from the ground, going in Eiscue's direction.

Eiscue leapt high to the side and landed on one of the spikes jutting out from the wall, dodging the less favorable death spikes. Gripping another spike to keep his balance, he spat a big glob of gel onto his flipper and flung it forwards.

It burst, spraying the croconaw and gliscor with a thick coat of gel. It clung to them like glue.

Eiscue beamed. Good! He wasn't sure if Soak would get rid of the shadow-typing, but it was sure to keep them occupied, anyway! He gathered a cloud of Freeze-Dry in his beak, ready to take advantage.

Before he could get a good charge going, though, the gliscor unleashed a stream of dark gas at him. Surprised, he fired Freeze-Dry early. It tangled with the dark gas, but dissipated too soon, allowing the shadow attack to advance again.

Oh crap! He covered his face, bracing himself for pain. He felt something cold and utterly horrible completely envelop him, but it didn't hurt.

He uncovered his face to see what was happening. His vision was completely overtaken by a dark void of shadowy mist, however. He couldn't see a thing!

Remembering that it was some sort of gassy mist, he hopped off the spike he was on to shake it off. Even as he fell several feet to a painful landing, the mist still hung around him, ruining his sight.

Worried, he flailed his flippers around to hit anything that came near. An explosion suddenly rang out, followed by a furious snarl coming from something sailing through the air. Oh, legends, what was happening!?

He stopped flailing when he felt a presence in front of him, crackling with electricity. The sound of a noisy blast of energy rang out, followed by some shuffling.

"Here!" the somewhat deep voice of the pikachu's said hurriedly. A second later, Eiscue felt something small hit him and explode into dust, which poured over him.

His vision was immediately restored. Oddly, though, he could see that the mist was still obviously surrounding him. He could see right through it!

"That good?" the pikachu asked.

"Yeah, I dunno what you gave me, but thanks!" Eiscue replied happily, looking around to regain his bearings.

The three shadow pokémon were picking themselves up, completely ignoring their wounds which were leaking some shadowy substance. They seemed ready to attack any second, despite their pretty bad injuries.

By Eiscue's feet, the much smaller pikachu had turned back to face their enemies. "... Eyedrop seed," he said, still looking forward. "Gives you good vision for a while."

"Huh, cool stuff!" the penguin replied. He began to say something else, but was distracted when he noticed something on the back of the pikachu's head: a poofy, cool-looking ponytail of fur, held in place by what seemed to be a cover band he was wearing. Neat!

Eiscue tensed when the croconaw opened its mouth. A stream of shadow-coated frost poured out towards them, so he and the pikachu dodged to opposite sides.

The dark frost barely grazed Eiscue's flipper, sending a horrible sharp chill down it. Grunting, he ignored it and fired a frosty blast of his own from his beak.

The noisily crackling mist hit the shadow gliscor, who had foolhardily rushed his way. It immediately went as stiff as a board, completely frozen with only momentum keeping it flying towards him.

Eiscue grabbed the gliscor's statue-like body as it nearly rammed into him. Its skin felt way harder than it probably should've done, thanks to being frozen. He couldn't help but grin as he admired his handiwork. Hah! This was why he loved Soak! No matter what, he was always super effective, baby!

... Wait, or would it have been more super effective to not use Soak, because of its type? ... And the croconaw was already water-type, thinking about it. Had he goofed up again!?

He noticed a flash of dark energy in the corner of his eye. Surprised, he instinctively held the gliscor's frozen body in front of him. Shadowy bolts of electricity struck it, making it shatter into thousands of pieces.

Eiscue looked down at the shards with wide, horrified eyes while they disintegrated into dark mist. Yeesh, that was close! Frowning, he looked at the shadow girafarig who'd launched the attack. Alright, no daydreaming. Eyes on the prize!

He fired off more streams of Freeze-Dry at the girafarig. It didn't freeze, because it wasn't water-type, but it was enough to keep it at bay.

He glanced at the pikachu while he prepared a Soak. He was surprised when he saw the mouse producing a light-blue beam of energy from his paw, using it as a blade to deflect the croconaw's barrage of shadowy punches and kicks.

It was hard for Eiscue to stop himself from paying attention to him instead of the girafarig. Holy crap! What move was that?

Well, whatever, he had to concentrate! Cutting off his Freeze-Dry, the penguin fired a huge spray of Soak gel from his beak.

Ignoring its injuries from the frost attack, the girafarig took the brief opening to fire another bolt of shadow lightning his way. Hitting the gel, it started traveling up it, towards him.

Nearly choking on his gel in fright, he coughed out the last of it. He wasn't in time, as the electricity hit him directly in the beak.

The hit didn't knock him out, though. Surprisingly, it hadn't even hurt! Instead, a hologram of the pikachu had appeared, taking the hit for him. The pikachu grunted loudly from it, but a glance confirmed he'd stayed firm.

Eiscue blinked in confusion. He beamed when he realized what had happened. Oh, right, the cover band! It protected allies from a hit that would've fainted them! So the pikachu considered him a proper ally? What a neat dude!

Not finished attacking, the girafarig charged right at eiscue, ignoring the harmless gel underfoot. Seeing an opportunity, Eiscue fired a quick, weak spray of Freeze-Dry at the ground. It immediately froze, catching one of its hooves in the dry ice and making it violently stumble to the floor.

Uncaring, it glared up at him and snarled. Frowning back at it, he conjured energy into his flippers and flung some large snowflakes into the air.

The snowflakes exploded into a cloud of frost when they were above the girafarig. Huge, sharp icicles rained down from it, impaling the fake giraffe over and over to leave shadow-leaking holes.

Its snarls grew fainter and fainter with each icicle, until the pokémon burst into a dark cloud of mist. It faded away into nothing, soon to be followed by the cloud of frost above it.

Stopping his attack, Eiscue joyfully pumped a flipper into the air. Woo, awesome! If only his teammates could've seen that!

Calming down, he let out a tired breath and looked over at the pikachu. He was keeping up with the attacking croconaw with ease, constantly using subtle movements to duck and dodge out of the way of shadow-fueled kicks and punches, while deflecting others with his blue blade of energy. He wasn't cocky about it, though. He did it all with nothing more than a cool air of what seemed like indifference.

Eiscue thought he looked so cool! Still, he didn't just want to leave all the work to the guy, so he ran over and gave the croconaw a harsh slap with his flipper, sending it stumbling backwards a step. "Do it, dude!" he shouted eagerly.

"Yeah," the pikachu replied, taking the opening to stab his blade of energy into the croconaw's belly. It was sent stumbling backwards, snarling and with a big hole leaking shadows on its front.

A fierce coating of water suddenly flowed around the fake crocodile like an aggressive veil. That ability called Torrent, no doubt! So shadow pokémon had normal pokémon abilities, did they? Good - and worrying - to know!

Dispelling his energy sword, the pikachu's cheeks began to spark, first quietly, and soon afterwards, violently. Just as the croconaw lunged again, the mouse fired a huge ball of swirling, electrical energy.

It exploded on impact, sending bits of shadow flying everywhere. Seconds later, they faded away into nothing.

Eiscue let out a breath. Laughing heartily, he pumped a flipper into the air. "Yeahhhh, we did it!" he cheered.

The pikachu looked at him. "Yeah..." he added with a tired breath of his own. Even though the threat was gone, he still had a light frown on him, but Eiscue didn't mind. "Uh... thanks. For helping."

Eiscue beamed at him. "What're you talking about, man? You're the guy who flew down outta nowhere to save my butt!" He gave a thumbs up. Or at least as much of one as he could do without any fingers. "I owe ya!"

"Uh... it's no big deal," the pikachu replied, eyebrows crinkling as he glanced away. "... You took out most of 'em, anyway."

Eiscue rubbed the back of his head, face going warm. "Wellll, I did do pretty cool myself, I guess. Haha~!"

The pikachu huffed through his nose, but didn't say anything else.

Not sure if that was positive or not, Eiscue awkwardly shook his head. "Eheh, um, but no, man!" he continued, pointed at him. "You're the savior, today!" He patted his treasure bag. "Hey, d'you like chople berries? I've got some right here for ya, so let's hang out for a bit!"

The pikachu looked at him in what seemed like surprise. Even though his frown remained, the corners of his lips very lightly lifted. "... Sure. Thanks."


Wandering away from Coalossal's dojo - whether it be a temporary one or a permanent one - Buneary waved at the rock-type as she left. She could see him give an exaggerated nod in response, arms crossed as sagely as ever. Perhaps his species was similar to Sneasel's, in a way...

"Welp, tour over!" Salandit chimed a little too eagerly. "So I guess that means it's home time~"

"Aye, sounds about right, that does," Gourgeist replied. "If we're gettin' everyone's tea sorted, we'd best be off, eh?"

"Mmm... I like drinking tea..." Ponytale mumbled. "I like it when it's mixed with black apricorns. The smell tickles my nose and makes me feel like I'm floating...~"

Buneary blinked. Well, she knew what tea was, but... apricorns? Another thing to add to her 'try at some point' list, she supposed.

Sneasel gave an exasperated breath, though not without some amusement. "Ponytale, he's referring to our dinner, not a spot of tea."

"Aye, that's it," Gourgeist agreed. "Though I do like some tea with me tea."

"... Huh?" Ponytale muttered, head tilted in confusion.

"A-Anyway, let's not get off track!" Salandit said quickly. "Time to go home, and- Shit, I have to work with the murder bug." She put her hands against her face, frowning in dismay. "Ughh...!"

Sneasel shook his head in bemusement before offering Buneary a smile. "Well, Buneary... any plans, now that you've seen everything there is to see?" he asked.

"Um... I don't know, to be honest," Buneary replied. "Miss Donphan and Mr. Snorlax wanted to sort something out before calling me over to tell me... uh..." She scratched her chin in thought. Wait, what was it they were doing for her again? She was starting to lose track because of all the day's antics.

"To tell you which team we've decided might suit you best," a deep yet feminine voice interjected.

Surprised, Buneary turned to see who'd spoken. She was even more surprised to see that it was Donphan herself, who was walking closer.

Salandit nearly jumped a foot in the air at the sudden entrance. "Wah! Wh-What the-!?" she cried, only calming down when she saw the elephant. "Oh... i-it's just Donphan. That's... reassuring, I think," she continued, not seemingly entirely reassured by herself.

"Oh, indeed, speak of the devil!" Sneasel chimed cheerfully. "Hello, dear guildmaster!"

Everyone else gave their greetings, Buneary smiling widely as she did. Wow, what amazing timing!

"I can't believe the queen of the town is here! Wow..." Ponytale muttered in awe. "I'm honored...~"

"I'm... not a queen," Donphan replied, an eyebrow raised. "Nobody owns this town, either. Never mind a queen."

"Oh... but your giant head is over there...?" the pony asked, pointing towards the guild's building a fair distance away. "It looks sort of important..."

Donphan huffed in amusement. "That's just the building for my guild. Don't look into it too much."

Ponytale frowned sadly. "Aww... disappointing, but okay..."

"Oh, no, ye lost me, now," Gourgeist said, rubbing his head with his hair. "Queens 'n' giant 'eads. I don't think I'll ever get it."

"Like I said before, I'll tell you in detail about queens, later," Sneasel said, crossing his arms with a grin.

Gourgeist smiled again, hair going slack. "Well, okie dokes, then. Anyway, what brings you out 'ere, lass?" he asked Donphan.

"It's like I said," she replied, turning to Buneary. "After going over some things, Snorlax and I have an idea on how to solve your predicament."

"Oh? Predicament?" Buneary asked. "... Oh! Do you mean the thing about my possible team?"

"Yes, and we know the perfect pokémon for the job."

"Oh! How nice~" Buneary chimed. She looked around excitedly. "Where are they? My teammates?"

"Treasure Town. Snorlax and I went over earlier to see if we could get their approval, but we haven't quite found them, yet. So instead, I'm wondering if you would like to come with me to see them, yourself."

"Okay~ Sounds like a plan!"

"Well, doesn't that work out well?" Sneasel said. "I suppose we'll be seeing you later on, then, Buneary. Perhaps even at tea ti- Erm, dinner time."

"Absolutely~ Thanks for the tour! All of you!"

"Don't worry about it, none, lass," Gourgeist replied. "It was a grand ol' time!"

"It was pretty crazy, but... I guess it was kinda cool," Salandit said, smiling lightly. "Too bad about dinner, but hey."

"I liked the part where I got confessed to...~" Ponytale said, smiling airily with a blush on her face.

Sneasel let out a breath with an awkward smile, like he wanted to say something but was keeping it to himself.

"Sounds like you've all had an exciting time, for sure," Donphan responded, looking pleased. She looked at Gourgeist and Sneasel. "Thanks for taking care of Buneary. If it weren't for the last time I asked you to take someone under your wing, I might've asked you two if Buneary could join Team Valiant."

Buneary tilted her head. When she noticed everyone glance at Salandit, however, she got the hunch she knew what Donphan was referring to...

"... W-What?" Salandit asked, shrinking under everyone's gazes.

Ignoring her with a light cough, Sneasel smiled proudly. "Think nothing of it! If you'd asked, I'm sure we would have been happy to take Buneary in, anyway!" he proclaimed.

"Aye! Would'a been a right ol' gaff, avin' 'er about," Gourgeist agreed.

"Aww, thanks~" Buneary replied gleefully.

To be honest, she wouldn't have minded too much, herself. Still, with Salandit's shenanigans, and Gourgeist's explosions, perhaps a different team would be less stressful to deal with. It meant Sneasel would have less Run Away and Klutz mishaps to deal with, too. As much as she didn't want to admit it...

"I'll keep that in mind if we ever get another recruit, thank you," Donphan replied with a nod. "For now, we... Hm?"

As Donphan glanced at the sky in apparent curiosity, Buneary and the others followed her gaze. High in the air, Hobby Ducklett seemed to be flying around, looking for something.

"Huh... that bird is a cloud," Ponytale mumbled. Her head went lopsided, gaze seeming to trail off. "I wonder if she's related to Gourgeist..."

"Uh... n-no, that's Hobby Ducklett, I think," Buneary replied, trying to hide her confusion. "I met him in the guild!"

"Oh, I wonder what 'e's up to?" Gourgeist said, floating into the sky, towards him. When he was in range, he waved to the duck. "'Ey up, there, Ducklett!" he greeted, barely audible to Buneary's hearing due to distance.

"Bwah!" Ducklett exclaimed, stumbling in the air from his shock. With some frantic flapping, he managed to correct himself and stay upright. "Oh, uh... hey there, big guy. Say, while you're here, would you help me out?"

"Sure! What's the story?"

"I was posting stuff up on the boards when I noticed this from Stunky and Spiritomb." Ducklett held up his two flipper-like feet, revealing something between them too far away for Buneary to see. "Looks like they're having trouble on Mt. Bristle."

"Oh, bugger, that's right bad, that is!" Gourgeist said in concern.

"No kidding! And I can't even go help, 'cos I'm on mail duty, and Rufflet's off somewhere, being a brat."

Buneary heard a click of the tongue from Donphan's direction. Huh? This was tricky to hear for Buneary, so she was surprised at the reaction. A coincidence, maybe?

Gourgeist took the object from Ducklett. "Well, no worries, lad! I'll go see what our Sneasel thinks." A purple portal appeared in midair below the pumpkin, disappearing along with him when he fell through it.

"... Uh... bye, then?" the duck remarked, looking around in confusion before flying away. "Yeesh, that Team Valiant's a load of quirky..." he mumbled, going out of earshot.

Recognizing Gourgeist's move, Buneary yelped and hopped away from where she was standing. The pumpkin crashed close to where she'd been, spraying sand everywhere and making Salandit scream.

"Oh, Sneasel!" Gourgeist said, oblivious to the carnage. "It turns out our Stunky 'n' Spiritomb got 'emselves into some bother, down at Mt. Bristle!"

Sneasel stopped exasperatedly brushing himself off to give the pumpkin his full attention. "Oh dear, what happened?" he asked. When Gourgeist handed him the object - two message board notes - he began reading at once. His brows knitted. "... Hmm, 'bother' is right. It seems a particularly strong criminal beat them in a fight and robbed them blind."

Hopping closer, Buneary frowned sadly. "Aww, really? How terrible..." she muttered. Why did criminals have to steal things, anyway? Didn't they understand how much it can hurt to have all your things taken? Not that she could relate too much, herself, but she had a good hunch...

Shaking sand off, Donphan let out a breath. "Crime never rests, it seems. Sneasel, could you go help them? This late in the day, they might not be rescued until tonight, if left to another team," she asked.

He grandly put his hand to his chest, allowing his cape to billow behind him. "Consider it done!"

"Oh crap... this means no help for making food, does it?" Salandit asked worriedly.

Sneasel's grand gesture deflated. "Oh... right... um..."

"Uh, Gourgeist, you said you were good at cooking, right?" Buneary asked. She smiled. "Why don't you go help cook, so Sneasel can do his mission?"

"Oh, aye, I can do that!" Gourgeist chimed. "I'll do everyone me specialty for tea: pumpkin 'n' pumkin pie!"

"Wow... putting the same food in, twice..." Ponytale mumbled, amazed. "That's some advanced cooking technique. Is that how Rotom makes stuff taste so... like, good and stuff?"

"... Something like that," Sneasel said in exasperated amusement. "In any case, that's a splendid idea, Buneary! Let's go about it that way."

"Oh, thank the legends~!" Salandit chimed, practically bouncing from happiness. "No murder for me today! Thanks, Buneary~"

"I... didn't do anything, but you're welcome," Buneary replied awkwardly.

Donphan let out another audible breath through her trunk. "Well, the day's getting on, so you go get yourselves ready to cook."

"Aye, best to crack on," Gourgeist agreed.

"I guess..." Salandit replied, far less enthusiastically, though not as direly as before, thankfully.

"Good, thanks. Have fun, you two," Donphan said.

"And in any case, Salandit," Sneasel started, "do your best not to scream in Charjabug's face, won't you?"

"No promises! See ya!" Salandit replied, heading off to the guild.

"Take care, now!" Gourgeist added, waving to the group before following Salandit.

Everyone else offered their goodbyes as the two left.

"Well, I'd best follow suit, I suppose," Sneasel said. He sighed and crossed his arms. "I can only imagine how I'll fare on my own, though..."

"I wasn't aware you would go it alone," Donphan said, frowning apologetically. "Maybe you should stay, after all. Mt. Bristle is a hard dungeon to traverse."

Sneasel grinned confidently. "No, no, it will be alright! After all, if you and Snorlax could handle it when you were barely starting out, I'm sure it shall be okay for me, as well!"

Buneary gasped lightly in recognition. "Oh, right! The place where you went to save the baby from that drowzee!" she said excitedly.

Donphan huffed in what sounded like amusement. "Snorlax was right. You are a fan, aren't you?"

Buneary's face went warm. "Uh, um... a little..." she replied, shyly kicking the ground. Gosh, she sure knew how to embarrass herself, didn't she?

"Heh. Well, you're right. The book made it sound a lot easier than it was, though." She looked at Sneasel. "But if you're sure you can handle it, then by all means."

"Right you are, my dear Donphan!" Sneasel exclaimed. "As soon as Rapidash returns, I'll be away!"

"Wait, Sneasel..." Ponytale said, smiling airily. "I just thought of, like... a thing."

He gave her a curious look. "Oh? What sort of thing?"

"Well... I'm, like... sort of good at running, because I'm a ponytale... so I could take you there, if you want." Her smile brightened. "Oh, and you won't be lonely, either! Yeah, let's do it...~"

He stalled. "Ah, yes, that's... one idea, I suppose!" he said, voice cracking ever so slightly.

"It's kind of you to offer," Donphan said to the pony, though with a raised eyebrow towards Sneasel. "Do you want to take her up on it, though, Sneasel?"

"Well... it will certainly save me from paying for a travel ticket, in any case... so sure!" He smiled. "Thank you, Ponytale! Let us go at once!"

Ponytale excitedly bounced about on her front hooves daintily. "Yaaay...~! Sneasel wants to ride me...~!"

Sneasel crossed his arms and nodded. "Absolutely! It shall be a fun..." He spluttered in surprise. "W-Wait, no, don't say that out loud!"

She stopped to tilt her head at him. "Huh? You don't want to try mounting me for a nice ride...?"

"No- I mean yes, I do want to mount you, b-but...! Um, whoops, I mean..."

Buneary tried her hardest to avoid giggling. She also noticed that Donphan had slapped her trunk against her face in exasperation. Oh dear... well, at least it wasn't as bad as the whole 'frism' incident.

As soon as that thought had crossed her mind, she noticed two passersby - a male, white bunny resembling a tall scorbunny and a female houndoom - giving the weasel and pony some odd looks.

Buneary's amusement turned into second-hand embarrassment. Looks like she'd spoken too soon...

On noticing them, Sneasel became twice as flustered, face going as red as his feathers. "L-Literally! She means to say 'literally'!" Pushing some of her hair out of the way, he hopped onto Ponytale's back. Because they were about the same size, she didn't seem to mind the added weight. "Like this! Haha..."

"Sneasel's on top of me...~" Ponytale murmured joyfully, cheeks going red.

"Uh... whatever works for you two," the tall rabbit said with a snicker.

The houndoom said nothing, though her bewildered look remained, even as the two of them walked away together.

"... Maybe you two should get going," Donphan said with an obvious cringe stretched across her lips.

A similar cringe went across Sneasel's features, too. "Y-Yeah. Um... farewell, Donphan! Buneary!" he said with a wave to them both.

"Y-Yeah, good luck! See you tonight~" Buneary said, just about avoiding the cringe party.

"Bye~ See you... uh... when I do. I suppose..." Ponytale added, far too oblivious for any cringing. "Hope Santa Claus brings you lots of presents...~"

"Eheh, yeah... you too~"

With that, she ran off into the distance with Sneasel on top. Though not anywhere near as fast as Dash Crash Rapidash, she was still surprisingly speedy. Buneary could see why Drampa had called her a ponyta before correcting himself.

"... What a strange character," Donphan muttered.

Buneary chuckled awkwardly. "Yeah. She can be," she replied. She cleared her throat. "So, um... what's the plan? Do we have to wait for Rapidash to take us to the other town?"

On saying that, she shivered. Oh dear... she wasn't looking forward to the ride. Not one bit.

"No need," Donphan replied. She wandered over to the Rapidash Express stand. "Come with me."

Murmuring in curiosity, Buneary followed her. When next to the stand, Donphan moved over to one of the carriages left lying about and hooked it to her belly via a special harness. "Now, hop in. We're going the same way I like to travel with Snorlax."

"Oh, um... o-okay?" Buneary replied, hopping into the carriage. Well... this wasn't going to exactly be fast, but the elephant seemed to know what she was doing. Maybe?

Donphan took a deep breath and rolled into a ball. The gray armor-like plating going across her body took on a rocky texture as she began to roll in place, going faster and faster by the second.

Buneary's eyes lit up. Oh, oh, she recognized this! It was Rollout, Donphan's - or rather, Phanpy's - favorite move to use in the book! It allowed her to roll around at fast speeds to dodge attacks and ram into her foes.

Buneary blinked. Wait... fast speeds...

"Hold on tight!" Donphan called out, rolling fast enough to kick up sand and dirt, which the carriage thankfully blocked from hitting Buneary. Immediately after, the elephant lurched forwards at insane speeds, bringing the carriage along with her.

Buneary screamed and held onto it for dear life. Oh, legends, not agaaaain!


Togetic produced a large present in her paws and aimed at the other bird standing opposite her. "Oricorio! Take this!" she shouted, throwing it towards him.

"Heh, yeah, you got it!" he replied, grabbing it in his purple wings with ease.

"What the... hell?" the machoke inbetween them muttered, rapidly shifting his focus from her to him.

While he was distracted, Togetic formed three big balls of energy above herself, one made of lightning, one ice, and one fire. When she gave a big clap, they mashed together and fired a multicolored laser. At the same time, Oricorio did a twirl and flung the gift box.

The gift box hit first and exploded into bright, colorful healing sparkles, making Togetic frown. Ugh, darn it! Thankfully, just as the machoke was about to say something, the big laser engulfed him. His screams were brief, as he got lost within a huge chunk of ice in seconds.

Togetic did a celebratory twirl. "Hooray~! We did it!" she cheered with a girly pose.

"Sure did!" Oricorio agreed. He grinned. "You know, we sure work pretty well together!" He put his wings behind his head. "I'll bet that makes me look pretty attractive, huh?"

She giggled. "More like girly. What was that twirl, about, anyway?" She did another twirl for emphasis. "You do them better than me! Heehee~!"

His spluttered in indignation and crossed his wings with a nearly pouty frown. "Tsk, you don't know what you're talking about!" He grinned again. "And I'm not taking that from the gal who just healed her enemy."

She huffed at him irritably. "That was just bad luck, mister! And my Tri Attack was lucky, so it didn't matter!"

"Haha! Yeah, yeah."

"Humph! Anyway, we'd better get going, before this big lug gets out and attacks again."

Oricorio glanced at the machoke, whose icy prison was starting to crack apart. His eyes widened in concern. "Uh, yeah. Got'cha."

The two quickly took to the skies. Luckily, the scarf the machoke was wearing didn't seem to have been the special band she'd been looking for, so they were fine leaving him to his business.

Going back to scanning the fields of spike rows below, she noticed Oricorio doing the same beside her. After a minute or so, she decided to finally ask, "Why did you decide to come help out, anyway? It's not like you owe me anything, right?"

"Yeah, I guess..." he replied. He huffed amusedly. "But what can I say? I can't help but wanna give cute girls like you a hand."

She felt her face warm. "G-Gee, you sure know how to lay it on thick, don't you?"

"Yup." He laughed. "Plus, you sure make me laugh!" He stopped flapping to fling both of his wings up at once. "'Whewww!'"

She went red hot in the face with a heavy frown. "Ohhhh! Forget it, you don't just lay it on thick! You are thick!"

Flying again, he just laughed at her. What a pain!

Calming down, he went back to looking below. "What scarf were you looking for, anyway?" he asked.

"A special band. Our client had it stolen, so we're finding out who took it."

"Huh, alright." There was a pause before he murmured in curiosity. "Wait, what's this 'we' business? Did you bring more cute girls to the mountain with you?"

She huffed in irritation. "Do you just flirt with every girl you meet?"

He smirked. "Only the cute ones!"

"Ugh! Anyway, no! It's my friends, Noctowl and Eiscue! They're my teammates. And they're boys!"

"Aww, damn. Well, at least you're here."

She put her paws on her hips. "Not so fast, mister! You're not getting any from me, before you ask. Whatever that 'any' is!" she scolded, though with a small amused grin she struggled to hide.

"That's what you think!"

She stuck her tongue out at him and went back to searching the spiky lands below. She furrowed her brows when she noticed how cloudy it was getting down there. "Ugh, can't see a thing! Did it get way cloudier?"

"Well, we're on a giant mountain, what did you expect? The higher you get, the worse it gets!"

"Bah! I guess I'll have to go closer after all." She slowly fluttered back down towards the huge mountain blade thing she'd been exploring. "Ohh, it's so spiky, though..."

"It's not that bad."

"That's easy for you to say! You live here, right?"

"Uh... sorta? I've been going from dungeon to dungeon for a while, so I haven't been here all that long."

"Huh? Really?" she asked, looking at him in complete bewilderment. "What the heck made you want to come to this nasty mountain?"

"I'm lookin' for something!"

She tilted her head. "Huh? You are? What sort of thing?"

He stalled. "... Uh... dunno."

Her eyes widened in disbelief. "You don't know!?"

"Not really..." He let out an amused huff. "Hey, maybe it's pretty girls, like you!"

She clicked her tongue. "Oh, will you give it a rest, already?"

"Haha! Can't promise tha-"

A bright gray blur swooped by and smashed into him, sending him reeling through the sky with a yell. He disappeared in some thick clouds.

Togetic screamed in surprise. What the heck!? Her eyes traced the attacker until it stopped, revealing itself to be some angry staraptor guy. He was wincing, as if his own attack had hurt him.

"Hey, what's the big idea!?" she yelled at the big brute. She stalled when he turned his attention her way and she got a good look at the size of him and his bulky muscles. Uh oh...

He glared at her, giving her a good look at his lumpy face. "You... You are woman," he said in a voice that was so burly and deep it sent shivers down her spine from nerves.

"... Uh... huh?" she murmured, not quite sure what he was getting at.

"This means much of strong, milky breast ready for baby. This has lots good."

She let out a light gasp with widened eyes. "W-What!? What did you just say!?" Did she... just misunderstand, because of his very strange English?

"Need good woman with excellent breast for feed baby brother. You will come. You will milk Starly." He flew closer.

She inched away, holding her chest closer to herself. "Wah! Don't you even dare! They'll send you to that Renegade Pit in a heartbeat!"

"No. Pit of renegades for raper. Breast suck only give jail. I am jail."

Feeling herself start to sweat, she strained her brain for some sort of idea to avoid becoming some stupid kid's wet nurse. Especially since she didn't even have any damn milk! "I... I-I don't think so!" She waved her paws back and forth, stimulating something in her mind.

She barely got started before the breast-obsessed hawk lunged at her, glowing a bright gray as if using Double-Edge.

Startled, she stopped waving her paws to shield her face, interrupting whatever move she was about to use. Wah!

"Fat chance!" Oricorio yelled, flying in front her. Ghostly balls of energy swirled around him as he frantically did some exotic dance, involving the swaying of his arms and spreading of his fan-like wing tips. He went step to step on a platform of mystical energy, which explained how he was able to do this even though they were in the air.

The ghostly balls swirled around him and her, creating a field of distortion at the exact moment the staraptor reached them. He passed straight through the two birds, causing no harm.

Realizing she was unharmed, she gasped in delight. "Wow, Oricorio! Did that make us go ghostly? How did you know that would work?" she asked.

He blinked and looked around. "... Oh, right, normal-type. Shi-" he started before coughing and posing coolly with a grin. "W-Well, yeah, of course I did! A real man's gotta protect the cute girls around him, right?"

She huffed and rolled her eyes. "Oh, real impressive," she sassed, failing to hide the amusement in her voice.

He huffed indignantly and looked off towards where the staraptor had darted towards. "Well, whatever. Either way, we'd better stop this guy!"

She nodded and looked in the same direction. "Yeah! No way I'm letting him near my chest!" she said, eyeing up the bird who was flying a fair distance away, looking at them while charging some move.

"Right! He's-" He stalled before raising an eyebrow at her.. "... Wait, what?"

She gasped as the staraptor lunged, enveloped in a golden aura shaped like himself. "Never mind that! Here he comes!" she shouted.

Oricorio yelped and quickly got into a battle-ready stance. "Uh, yeah! Explanations later!"

The staraptor continued sailing straight at them like a golden bat outta Hell. When he was seconds away, she dodged to the side while Oricorio dodged downwards.

She saw Oricorio get away, but she was painfully struck by the tip of the staraptor's huge golden wing and sent tumbling to the side.

Correcting herself, she rubbed her sore, bruised side. Ow, ow... Thank The Original One she'd avoided the brunt of that! He was as strong as he looked!

Taking a breath, she prepared herself to use another move. She stalled when she noticed Oricorio tearing open his chest coverings, revealing his modestly muscular, lightly feather-coated chest. What the heck? Was he trying to show off? He didn't look bad, admittedly, but...

"Guess it's time I used this!" Oricorio said cockily, reaching into his exposed chest area and bringing out a tiny, yellow bottle. He popped open the top and shoved his beak inside, somehow slurping it into his long beak.

"I don't care of the drink. I need a milk," the staraptor retorted uncaringly, twisting around to dash downwards at him, coated in a bright gray aura.

Re-covering himself and tossing the bottle away, allowing it to fall to Earth, Oricorio twisted around and flew away from the attacking bird. In doing so, he was able to land on the staraptor's head without being hurt by the force of Double-Edge.

As impressive as that was, it didn't compare to what happened next. Togetic's eyes widened in awe as Oricorio's sleek, purple feathers rapidly fell off, only to be replaced with yellow, fuzzy ones. Especially on his wing tips and around his ankles. The feathers around his waist also sprung upwards, showing off his white lower torso.

When his transformation was complete, he did a cool pose, right on the tip of the brutish bird's beak. "If ghost's not working... guess it's time for some zapping action!" he boasted.

"What now fuck is this?" the staraptor said, almost in a shout.

Oricorio began a frenzied dance, one which involved him kicking his legs high into the air, and waving his fuzzy wings like they were pompoms. As he went faster and faster, electricity started to build around him in a big field, growing stronger and stronger at the same rate.

Flying around in circles, the staraptor started to grunt loudly, clearly affected by whatever this crazy move was. It was hard for Togetic to concentrate on how well it was working, though, because the extremely girly dance was making it hard not to laugh. What the heck? His moves had been feminine enough before, but this really took the cake!

Eventually, as his cheerleader dance grew faster and more frantic, she couldn't help herself but double over in a fit of heavy giggles. "Oh my... legends, Oricorio! I didn't know you were... a cheerleader!" she said, finding it hard to get words out for heavy laughter. "How girly! Bwahahahaheeheehee!"

"W-What!? Girly!?" Oricorio shouted. The sounds of electrical crackling seemed to get quieter. "That's not true! I'm- W-Whoops!" He yelled in surprise as if he'd been flung away.

Togetic wanted to shout his name in concern and pay attention to what was going on... but she pictured his dancing again and laughed twice as hard. She laughed so much, she couldn't do anything but hold her belly and kick her legs. Oh... Oh, she couldn't take it! With all that boyish boasting of his, why were his dances so girly!? Hahahahaha!

Her laughter died when she felt something rough wrap around her with a strong grip. Looking around, she was horrified to see that the staraptor had his talons around her.

Faced upright, she could clearly see that his strangely lumpy face was frazzled by electricity. "No more fight. I only breast now," he said in his usual, stoic monotone.

"Bah! No, no, no, you brute!" she shouted, struggling. "Get off me this instant!" She started to wave her paws, causing a tickle in her mind. "I'm warning you! I've got luck on my side!"

"Tiny body no good for pain give. Only milk give."

A ghostly energy built up in her paws. "That's what you think!" She held her paw out, causing an arched stick of dark purple energy to appear in it. Ghostly strings shot out from the tips, connecting to her other paw, in which she held an arrow made of concentrated spiritual aura.

She beamed. Oh, sweet! This was the move Sir Robber Stopper Decidueye had used in the movie, A Spark Of Embers! She sure rolled a six with this one!

Her smile turned into a grin as she held her paws in the same way an archer would, drawing the arrow back and aiming it at the staraptor. As soon as she fired this thing, it would painfully go all the way through that jerk bird and drag out his shadow, chaining it to the floor to stop him dead. Oh, heck, seeing as they were in the sky, it would probably even drag him all the way back down to Earth!

She giggled. "Your luck just ran out, you milk hooligan! Take this!" she shouted, letting go of the arrow.

It flew upwards, straight through the staraptor's neck. Then it kept on going. And going. And going.

As it finished its ascent and started falling down to the lands below - all to no visible effect to the staraptor - Togetic began to realize that something was wrong. Err... where was the pain and shadow stabbing? Had she messed up something?

"Woman is more weaker than hungry starly baby," the staraptor retorted. "No more nonsense. Is feeding time."

"Uh... n-n-not so fast!" Togetic shouted, ignoring the sweat pooling on her forehead. "I have more where that-"

"Hello, fellow pokémon~!" somebody sang randomly.

Togetic turned to face the newcomer and was surprised to see a smiling face belonging to a leafeon of all things. Huh!? Weren't they in the air, though!? How was a leafeon here? ... And why did he have wings made of concentrated wind attached to him?

... Actually... on second inspection, he had one of those 'type devices' attached to his shoulder. A device noctowl was fond of, which could change the type of a pokémon. The one on this leafeon had a picture of a wing on it, so... he was flying-type, now?

"Uh... who are you?" Oricorio asked, having finally caught up.

"Just a passerby~" the leafeon replied. "I saw quite the commotion going on, up in the sky, so I just had to come up here and see what was going on. Everything okay?"

"No way, José!" Togetic exclaimed. "This guy wants me to humiliate myself!"

The leafeon huffed. "Aha, so a groper, is it?"

"The grope is not mine," the staraptor replied. "Only the breastmilk."

"W-What!?" Oricorio yelped, looking very perturbed indeed.

Togetic's face heated up. "You see!? He's downright diddled in the head!" she said, pointing at the large bird. "I don't even have any buns in the oven, and I'm pretty sure I need one, first!"

The leafeon huffed again, though in a chuckle this time. "Oh, you typical wild pokémon... I guess someone oughta teach you a lesson, hm?" he asked the staraptor, his smile growing tighter.

The staraptor slowly rose, as if getting ready to leave. "No lessons. Only home time with big tasty breast," he replied, apparently ignoring what Togetic had said.

"No... haha, I insist...!" the leafeon retorted, reaching into the bag around his shoulder. He brought out a wonder orb and, after inspecting it briefly, held it up for everyone to see. "Ooh, here's a fun one! Any guesses as to what this is, anyone?"

Glimpsing briefly, Togetic saw some sort of floating clock thing with stuttering hands inside of the orb. "Well, I don't know, but save me, please!" she said, struggling again.

"It tells the time?" Oricorio asked, not taking this as urgently as Togetic would have liked.

"Haha! No, no..." the leafeon replied to him. "This foe-seal orb..." He activated it, causing it to shine, "... it stops time~!"

Everyone stalled.

"... Huh?" Oricorio mumbled.

Chaos erupted out of nowhere when dozens of spiky iron thorns flew into the staraptor from all angles. Togetic screamed as most of them nearly hit her. Holy shit!

"Groaaaaarrow! W-What is this the meaning!?" the staraptor shouted, breaking his seemingly stoic character. His flying grew erratic as he tried to stay in the air, despite his injuries. "Why thorns of death in everywhere!?"

Togetic looked around frantically and, thanks to the staraptor flailing about, she noticed the leafeon high above. He was falling towards them with a very wide smile.

"Hahaha, don't worry!" he exclaimed, suddenly brandishing a sharp spike that shined like silver. "I saved the best one for last!" He flung it with all his might.

It sailed straight into the staraptor's head with a sickening thud, launching him downwards. He went into freefall with a final roar as his energy seemed to leave him.

Still caught in his talons as he plummeted, Togetic squealed and tried to pry his toes off her. Failing that, she conjured a small ball of Hidden Power and slammed it into his leg. It burst into blue energy with a watery splash, loosening his grip enough for her to slip out and fly away as he fell to the spiky mountain below.

Delicately rubbing her soggy paw - sore from being too close to the wet explosion - Togetic let out a big breath. Phew... What a hassle!

"Jeez, are you okay?" Oricorio asked in concern, flying closer.

"Yeah, I think so..." she breathed out. She glanced upwards at the leafeon, who was giggling away to himself heartily.

"You wanted home time did you!?" he shouted down at the falling staraptor, even though he was probably out of earshot now. "Too bad! The only way you're going home now is in a fucking stretcher!"

"Uh... sir?" Togetic asked, cautiously flying closer.

"Man, you're really getting into it, huh?" Oricorio remarked in shock, flying next to her.

The leafeon stopped laughing and looked at them, eyes widened. "... Um... I..." He cleared his throat and smiled pleasantly with a tilt of his head. "Whoops! I suppose I was so caught up in my act of justice, that I got somewhat carried away~"

"No kidding..." Togetic mumbled. She smoothed out her feathers and down, ruffled by the fight. "Uh... well, thanks for saving me, anyway! The chips were starting to look down, so you coming here was my lucky day!"

"Yeah, thanks..." Oricorio added. He huffed and looked off to the side with a small frown. "Had it handled, though..."

Togetic raised an eyebrow at that remark. She wasn't able to comment, though, before the leafeon continued. "It's no problem~ I am a very nice pokémon, after all," he said. "Something you won't get from... most pokémon, I'm sure! Right?"

"Not from that jerk, that's for sure!" Togetic agreed, glancing down at the staraptor's general direction. She couldn't see him anymore, so it was likely he'd crashed somewhere into the mountain already. Thank goodness for him that it was impossible to die in dungeons, thanks to dungeon magic!

The leafeon let out a pleasant hum. "No doubt." He let out an intrigued murmur and flew closer while gazing at her. His eyes lit up in recognition at something on her front. "Hmm, aha, so you're an explorer of Wigglytuff's, hm? And you're silver-ranked, too, just like that noctowl I met. How cute~"

"Wow, you're right on the money-" Her eyes widened. "Wait, you've met Noctowl?"

"That's right! And..." He paused, seemingly to think, "... you know... I think I might know what you and he are looking for. A special band, right...?"

She gasped, eyes lighting up. "Wow, that's it exactly! How on Earth did you figure that out!?"

"Well, there was this poor stunky I saw earlier, along with her ghost friend... They seemed to be explorers, themselves." He let out a sad sigh. "The poor girl, though... she was set upon by some horrible pikachu outlaw. He stole her special band and, worse still, fondled the unconscious stunky's breasts while pleasuring himself! Would you believe that?"

Togetic gasped again, this time in horror. "Wow, that's horrible! And you say this pikachu has the special band?"

"That's right! So if you want to find it, you two and your noctowl friend should band together and head to the top floors!"

Togetic gave a determined nod. "Got it! We'll teach that creep a lesson, don't you worry!"

"Uh... yeah...?" Oricorio mumbled.

The leafeon's smile widened. "Good to hear!" He gestured towards the wind wings on his back. "Well, I'm off back down, before my flying device wears off. See you later~"

Togetic waved. "Bye! Thanks so much for the tip! And the rescue, too!"

"See ya," Oricorio added.

The leafeon gave a nod and allowed himself to tumble down, back to Earth.

Togetic turned to Oricorio. "Alright, I'm going to go warn Noctowl that...-" She stalled when she saw the unsure look on the bird's face. "... Huh? Oricorio, what's wrong?"

He murmured in surprise and shook his head. "Uh, nothing. It's just... there's something weird about all this, and I don't know what..." he admitted.

"Weird? Hmm..." She paused for a second before giggling. "Y'know, I'll bet you're just jealous that another knight in shining armor came to save me, instead of you!"

He spluttered. "W-What!? No, I'm not!" He huffed and looked away, frowning indignantly. "Why would I be?"

She giggled some more and pulled a girly, flirtatious pose. "Why, I'll bet it's because you've actually fallen in love with me, already, haven't you~?" she teased.

He looked caught off guard for a second before apparently catching himself. "Nah, I told you, I like all sorts of pretty girls," he said aloofedly.

She smirked and winked. "Sure, sure~ Anyway, I must admit... while you were trying to rescue me, you sure looked handsome out there~"

His eyes lit up in a beaming smile. "Huh, you think? Really?" He puffed his chest out with a grin. "Well, you're right about that!"

"Heehee, yup! Like when you transformed and..." She pictured him doing the extremely flamboyant cheerleader dance, while riding on the staraptor's face and couldn't stop herself from cracking up in laughter again. Oh, good legends, she wished she could watch a movie of that!

His smile immediately fell into another frown. "H-Hey!" He huffed, though his grumpiness gave way to a cocky grin after. "No way I'm taking this from someone who made the same ghost move mistake I did."

She took a deep breath, faintly calming her giggles. "Huh...? What ghost mista-?" She stopped laughing. Wait... did he mean...?

She gasped in horror. "Oh no, you saw!?"

He imitated the drawing of a bow with his feet. "'Your luck ran out!'" he mimicked her in a silly voice before firing an imaginary arrow. "'Wooosh! No damage! Much better than Oricorio's Revelation Dance!"

Togetic growled in irritation and stomped her foot into the empty air. "Ohhh, Oricorio...! I take it all back! You weren't handsome at all, you jerk!"

It was his turn to double over laughing, barely flapping enough to keep himself up in the air. Son of a-!


Buneary couldn't stop shivering from sheer nerves as she stepped off the carriage. Ohhhh, why had Donphan gone so fast!?

"Oh dear," Donphan said, taking her harness off while giving the rabbit a concerned frown. "I suppose Snorlax hadn't been kidding when he mentioned your nerves. Are you okay?"

"Y-Yeah... J-Just peachy...!" Buneary replied, trying her best to smile. She probably only managed a cheesy, awkward grin, but still.

"... If you say so," Donphan replied with a light shake of the head. "Anyway, as I tried to tell you over the screaming... we're here. Treasure Town."

Trying to ignore the warming in her face at the comment, Buneary looked around to take in her surroundings.

The first and most obvious thing she noticed was the huge cliff face filled with windows, right next to the Rapidash Express stand. Into it, a steep flight of stairs were carved out, leading up the small mountain. On one side of the stairs was a large signpost, showing directions... and on the other was a pretty fountain, spewing water from a sculpture of a large apple being held high by a posing wigglytuff statue.

Her eyes lit up at the sight of it. No doubt about it... she was here! The town where Donphan and Snorlax had made their start!

She looked around some more. In front of her, she saw a large cliff overlooking a big forest that led off to nowhere. A set of stairs were also carved into the rock next to a small windmill, leading down the cliff. It didn't seem like the town was down there, though there was a small building shaped like a spinda's head near the top of the stairs, with tables outside of it.

Looking to her side - opposite of the path leading out of town - she finally saw it: civilization! Specifically, a long, rocky pathway leading through a large town, filled with pokémon going about their lives. Many of them seemed to be visiting various large tents and buildings of different pokémon-shaped designs.

She excitedly bounced on the balls of her feet. Oh boy! It was so much more exciting to see in person than in the book!

Donphan let out a small chuckle near her. "Snorlax once told me he reacted the same way, you know. Back when he moved here, before we met."

"Oh, did he also read the book?" Buneary asked, looking at her gleefully.

Donphan blinked. She huffed out another chuckle. "... I doubt it, somehow."

"Oh? Why-?" Buneary stalled. Embarrassment filled her veins as she slapped her paws against her face. "... D'ohh..."

"Heh. Caught you. Anyway, let's have a walk."

"... Okay," Buneary replied, hoping Donphan wouldn't gossip about this. Tsk...

She followed the elephant into the heart of town. She grew slightly self-conscious as a lot of the pokémon looked her way. Or more specifically, Donphan's way. The problem with hanging out with a celebrity, she supposed.

After giving a few pokémon a small greeting, Donphan turned to look back at Buneary. "... I hope having all eyes on you isn't making you feel too uncomfortable," she asked. "I'm used to it now, but it was even a bit much for me, after I became famous."

"Oh, really?" Buneary asked, oddly reassured by her comment. She smiled reassuringly. "Well... no, I'm okay, thanks~"

Donphan lightly smiled back. "Glad to hear it." She glanced around. "Now, then. They weren't around Venture Village, so knowing the team I'm looking for, they should be around this town, instead. The only question is where they've decided to go and slack off-"

"Oh my gosh! Is that Donphan?" a shrill, girly voice excitedly rang out from nearby.

"Oh, I think so!" another voice - just as feminine, though far less shrill - said happily.

Buneary and Donphan turned to see the two pokémon approach from a pathway leading to a green, bird-like building. It was a sunflora with pretty sunflower-shaped jewels hanging from two of her petals, and a slightly chubby chimecho with an igglybuff following underneath, while happily playing with her tassle.

Buneary subconsciously put a paw to her mouth in amazement. Wow... it was Assembly Chimecho and Yippee Sunflora from the book! From Wigglytuff's guild! She was meeting so many celebrities today!

"Ah, hello, you two," Donphan said to them. "It's been a fairly long while since we last... um..." She eyed Chimecho up before raising an eyebrow. "... Good grief. Chimecho, are you pregnant again?"

"Heehee, you noticed~" Chimecho replied, rubbing her belly. "Well, you're right! I think I conceived sometime a few weeks ago, so it won't be long until the time comes... Yay!"

"Yay~!" her igglybuff baby parroted. "Want babby!"

Buneary gasped lightly. Oh, how cute! So Chimecho and Wigglytuff were an item, were they? The book had never mentioned anything like that! Especially not the family they'd started.

"That's... Well, congratulations. I'm very happy for you," Donphan replied awkwardly. "But... how? From what I've read, you're not even in the same egg group. Your chances of anything happening are extremely slim. But... well... Igglybuff's not even a month old yet, but... hm."

Chimecho tilted her head contemplatively. "Hmm, I guess so... but my Wigglytuff is very fond of his nighttime mischief~ So there's plenty of opportunities for offsp-"

"Eek! Oh my gosh, Chimecho, you can't just say embarrassing things like that!" Sunflora interrupted, now very red in the face. "That's private business between you and Wigglytuff!"

"Hm? Well, I don't mind~ Besides, from what I understand, you can get far more rambunctious in the bedroom~"

"Rabunshus~!" the igglybuff parroted, bouncing up and down.

Sunflora let out an embarrassed shriek. "Ohh, Chimecho! I can't believe you!" She flailed around in sheer flusteredness, making the sunflower jewels on her petals jangle. "Why did you say thaaaat!? Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh! I'm so embarrassed!"

Buneary cringed at the entire conversation. She could see Donphan pulling a funny face, too. She didn't blame her. Not only was there plenty of second-hand embarrassment to be had... but Buneary couldn't imagine for the life of her how someone like Wigglytuff - the eccentric, goofy guildmaster from the book - could be so intimate with his wife.

... While Sunflora continued to flail around in embarrassment, Buneary's mind wandered...


The mental image of Wigglytuff bouncing on top of Chimecho in continuous belly flops met Buneary's imagination.

He let out continuous, gleeful cries as his big, light pink penis was lost within his wife's folds. ... Er... wherever they were. Buneary had trouble picturing it on her small, round body.

"Hooraaay! This is fun, my friendly sex friend!" Wigglytuff loudly proclaimed, gently batting Chimecho's breasts like they were drums. ... Actually, Buneary couldn't picture where they were, either.

"Oh, yes! This is very good, guildmaster~" Chimecho chimed.

"Yup! Oooh, and here comes the best part!" He gave one more final thrust as he released everything he had. "Yooomtahhhhhh!"

"Oh my! The guildmaster is so cool and mischievooooous~!" she exclaimed.


... Buneary found herself trying to hold back many things at once as those thoughts of hers played out in her mind. A cringe from the awkward scene... some laughter from the ridiculousness of the guildmaster doing that of all things... and perhaps a very red face from how the thought had been a little hotter than it should have been.

"Um... Buneary? Are you still with us, there?" Donphan asked. "I was just introducing you."

Buneary blinked. On seeing everyone looking at her expectantly, she gasped. "O-Oh! Yes, s-sorry!" she spluttered, face definitely going red, now.

Sunflora giggled, leafy hands on her cheeks. "Eek! She's such a little delight, isn't she~? Yippee!"

"She's almost as airheaded as you can be, sometimes," Chimecho said to Donphan in amusement.

"... Only when I'm doing a dimensional scream..." Donphan huffed.

Sunflora giggled again at their comments before turning back to Buneary. "Pleased to make your acquaintance! I can tell you're the shy, humble type as well, aren't you? My baby girl, Nuzleaf, could stand to learn a thing or two from you!"

Buneary smiled away a big blush, as well as an even bigger pout. Ohh, not only did they think she was ditsy, but she bet they thought she was a little kid, too... "Th-Thank you! I, um, think..." she mumbled.

Sunflora proudly put a leaf to her chest, where her shiny badge was. It stood out, due to being completely black, save for its gold wings. "I'm known as Yippee Sunflora~ I once worked on behalf of the Wigglytuff Guild... but ever since graduation, I've become a solo, independent explorer!"

"Oh, cool! You really made it big, then!" Buneary replied happily. Would she be like that one day...?

"Most certainly! Yippee~"

Chimecho hummed out a chuckle. "As for me..." she started, gently patting her own badge. Interestingly, it was quite different to Sunflora's, being a shiny metallic color, with shiny pink wings to the sides and an equally shiny gray button in the middle. "I'm Assembly Chimecho. I'm both the secretary and caterer of the Wigglytuff Guild, as well as the wife of the guildmaster, Wigglytuff~!"

"Guilfmasher..." her baby parroted.

Chimecho gasped lightly before giggling and patting her on the head with her tassel. "Oh, and of course! This is one of our many children. She has her papa's smile!"

"Want Papa!" Igglybuff exclaimed, hopping up and down.

"Heehee, that's so cute~" Buneary cooed. She didn't really know what a secretary was, but she at least knew a cutesy scene when she saw one! She waved towards the baby in a gentle manner. "Hello, baby~ You're a cutie, aren't you?"

Igglybuff looked at her before withdrawing behind Chimecho without a word.

Buneary giggled. "Oh dear... I think I need to do some trust earning first." She smiled up at Chimecho. "She's so cute, though! Almost as cute as my little brother used to be. What's her name?"

"She doesn't seem to have a title yet..." the bell replied. Her cheerful smile grew, "but I'm sure she'll be just as smart as her papa, so I like to call her 'Very Clever Igglybuff'.

"Your baby's going to develop an ego with that sort of name," Donphan lectured. "Be careful, won't you?"

"It'll be fine," Chimecho replied, unconcerned. "After all, as you see, she's a little shy without her mama and papa around, so-"

Igglybuff cut her off by lightly tugging on her tassel with both paws. "Hungry Iggly..." she whined.

"Oh? What's wrong with little Igglybuff?" Buneary asked. "Is she hungry?"

"Heehee, that's right, don't worry," Chimecho replied. She floated down towards her baby with a pleasant smile. "Isn't that right, my baby? What do we say when we want something tasty?"

"... P'ease..." the baby replied.

"Good girl~" Chimecho brought her two stubby hands to her front and rummaged around. Even though it was only a side view for Buneary, she got a good, clean look at Chimecho unashamedly - perhaps even gleefully - pulling out her breasts.

As Igglybuff went in to suckle on Chimecho, Buneary's mouth nearly dropped to the floor in shock. Well... at least she knew why she hadn't seen them, earlier. What looked like a majority of her lower body was actually her surprisingly large chest! Perhaps her 'expecting' had made them grow...?

"... Uh..." Donphan muttered, clearly in shock herself.

"Eeeek! Oh my gosh, Chimecho!" Sunflora shrieked, face bursting into a red glow. She shuffled around flusteredly. "What're you doing!? That's so shameful! Oh my gosh!"

"... What?" Chimecho asked innocently. "If the baby doesn't get her mama's nutrients, she won't grow as strong, will she~?"

"Th-That's not the point!"

"... Feeding her here, though? Really?" Donphan asked Chimecho exasperatedly.

"It's a natural thing, don't worry~" Chimecho chimed. She glanced at both Donphan and Buneary. "The two of you will know when you have your own babies, one day! Then you'll be right there with us in the breast feeding club~"

"Er, we'll... see," the elephant replied doubtfully.

"Y-Yeah..." Buneary muttered. Yeesh, she didn't even have a boyfriend, yet, so that wasn't happening any time soon. Who would she even date?

"Chimecho! Don't say 'us'! Don't give them that mental image!" Sunflora exclaimed, face going redder still. She ran around in extremely embarrassed circles. "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, don't imagine it! Oh my gooosh!"

... Too late. Buneary had already pictured Sunflora doing it. She wasn't proud of that, but it wasn't exactly going to leave any time soon.

Igglybuff stopped suckling to giggle cutely at Sunflora's antics. She didn't even care as Chimecho 'spilled', leaving a mess. "Ah ma gawsh~" she sang.

Chimecho gasped and giggled. "Messy baby!" she chided playfully, using her tassel to wipe her face.

Donphan let out a big, drawn out sigh and looked towards Buneary. "Say... while I, um... ask them about our errand, why don't you go take a trip over to Sharpedo Bluff, over there?" she suggested, pointing down the path, towards a rocky area in the distance. "... Call it a tourist visit."

"Uh, aye, aye!" Buneary replied with a small salute.

After quickly saying an awkward farewell to Chimecho, Igglybuff and Sunflora - with only the former replying - Buneary quickly hopped down the pathway towards Sharpedo Bluff. She was so weirded out by the whole situation, she couldn't even dredge up any excitement to see the home of her two heroes.

Yeesh... Surely, surely, surely that had to be the last of the embarrassing ordeals for the day... right? She really hoped so. She was starting to wonder, though...

While wondering away, she noticed how close they'd been to the green, bird-like house. While hoping that its occupant hadn't heard anything, she soon spotted several onlookers. Aside from several townsfolk's attentions attracted to the chaos, she saw that two differently-colored kecleons were watching from their shop stand with bashful looks of intrigue... and a kangaskhan was watching the scene from her own shop's stand with a knowing look.

Second-hand embarrassment running through her veins yet again, Buneary quickly rushed over to where the bluff seemed to be. After walking past a large building surrounded in huge pink streamers and shaped like a pokémon's face - one with a yellow crescent moon shape on both sides - she soon found herself on a small rocky plain, leading to a cliff.

"Oh! Hi, Miss!" a familiar voice excitedly said to her from behind a tree nearby.

Surprised, Buneary turned to see Snorlax waving her over. "Ah! Hello, Mr. Snorlax~" she greeted, coming closer.

He chuckled. "Let me guess... you were looking for the girls- Um, that is, the team we wanna ask to take you in... and you just couldn't help but pay a visit to my old home, right?"

Though a little embarrassed, she giggled. "Y-Yeah... you caught me." That wasn't exactly what had happened, but...!

"Haha, sounds about right! Well, I'd love to show you around the place, but I actually sold the house to a friend on the cheap. You know, once we built the guild, 'n' all."

Her eyes widened. "Oh, really? Who did you give it to?"

"Here, come over here. I came over to see if the team's around, and instead, I found a prime target for eavesdropping, just like the good ol' days! The one I gave the house to, at that!"

She tilted her head. "Uh... okay?"

She went over to where he was, behind the tree. Peering around it with him, she easily spotted a cluster of brown, round-topped rocks overlooking the sea beyond the cliff. One of them had a small tuft of yellow grass poking out of the top.

She wondered who she was supposed to be 'eavesdropping' on, exactly. When she noticed some of the rocks start to move, she suddenly got her answer. Oh, it was a pokémon? ... Wait, no. Were they Diglett and Dugtrio, from the story?

Buneary smiled. Neat! Admittedly, they hadn't been featured in the story, much, so she didn't know a lot about them... but it was still cool to see them~

Soon after the realization, a loud voice bellowed from Dugtrio. "O sea! Hear us! Feel us! ... Smell us! O vaaaaaast sea!" He paused to take a big breath.

"Yay, sea! O sea!" Diglett joined in.

Buneary blinked. "Um... is he... usually like this? Dugtrio, I mean?" she asked. Though they didn't seem to be able to hear her or Snorlax, she kept her voice somewhat quiet.

Snorlax chuckled, not bothering to be as quiet. "Pretty much. He always was a quirky one, that one," he replied. He scratched the side of his head with a claw. "... Er, 'those three'? Well, you know."

"I... see." How... was this not in the book?

Dugtrio turned to face the much smaller mole. It was only then that Buneary noticed that he... Er, or 'they' seemed to be growing a big, dark brown bushy beard on their faces. A different style for each face, at that.

"What do you think, grandson? Is the sea not wonderful?" he asked, easily audible despite the crashing of the sea's waves.

The diglett - who apparently wasn't the one from the book - nodded at him. "Yes, grandpapa," he replied, sounding quite young. He tilted his head for a spell, allowing his tiny yellow tuft of hair to sway. "Grandpapa?"

"Hm?"

"Grandpapa, can you swim in the sea?"

Dugtrio stared at him, their usual frowning eyebrows twitching ever so slightly. "... ... ... ... Of course." All three of their heads bobbed up and down independently from one another. "What do you take us for?"

The diglett's eyes lit up. "Oh! So you can swim!" he said, bobbing up and down excitedly. "Grandpapa, you're so special!"

"... Perhaps it is just the sea's effect on me, but... for some reason... nostalgia fills us." The three dugtrios went back to shouting in the sea's general direction. Or the three digletts that made up a dugtrio? Or... well, whatever.

Snorlax laughed. "The more things change, the more they stay the same, eh? There's a reason we gave him the bluff," he joked. He scratched his chin. "... Wait, were Dugtrio's sea rants in the book? Hard to remember what that Butterfree put into it..."

"... I don't remember them, to be honest," Buneary mumbled. Oh dear, she hoped that wasn't a sign there were lots of things missing from the book. She already knew some details were fudged, so...

"Aww, drat. And here I was, hoping to surprise you!" He sighed, though with a smile. "Oh well. Any luck on finding the team we're putting you on?"

She shook her head. "I don't think so, no..."

"Ah, oh well... I guess they could always be in Baram Town..." He clicked his claws in realization. "Oh, wait, the café! Never occurred to me, but it's got to be in there!"

"You got it," Donphan added, walking over to them. "Chimecho noticed them go inside, earlier."

"Well, there you go! The mystery's solved," Snorlax said happily. He smiled down at Buneary. "Ready to go meet your new team, Miss?"

"Um, s-sure!" she replied, smiling back up at him. How exciting! Though she was admittedly a little nervous, too.

Putting the feeling aside, she followed the two larger pokémon back into town, ready for whatever this mystery team had to offer.


"Wow, really? Brick Break? That's how ya did it?" Eiscue asked excitedly from the smooth patch of rocky ground he was sitting on.

"Yeah," Pikachu replied from where he was seated, leaning against a large, upwards-facing spike. He held up a paw, allowing an energy blade to form from the tip of his fingers. "It slices through walls more easily like this."

"Wow, that's so cool! How'd you learn to do that!?"

Dissipating his blade, Pikachu huffed and stared at the floor, a light red seeming to dust his cheeks. "I was inspired by the... 'lightsaber', I think it was called." His consistent frown went a little deeper. "My dad used to talk about it..."

"Huh... you know, I remember hearing that from somewhere! Maybe a movie, or something?" Eiscue beamed. "Dude, either way, I think that's all sorts of neat!"

He huffed again, frown lightening. "... Thanks, Eiscue."

"No problem, man!"

The penguin grabbed an oran berry from the small pile he'd made for himself and his new pal. The dude hadn't eaten much, yet, but it was the least Eiscue could do for him, after everything he'd done.

Wolfing down his berry, Eiscue started up a Freeze-Dry. "Welp... gotta restore my Ice Face now, so I'd better do that." He unleashed a small blast of frost at his own head. It crackled faintly, but didn't hurt, because he kept it light.

"... I thought you had to use Hail for that," Pikachu said, sounding curious.

"Eheh, well, yeah... but my teammates don't like it. 'Specially 'cos they're all up in the air, where it hits 'em hardest." He sighed and shrugged. "Takes longer to do it this way, but them's the breaks!"

"Ah. Makes sense." Pikachu blinked, and then his eyes widened. "... You have teammates on the mountain?"

"You bet'cha! Lady Luck Togetic, and Snapshot Noctowl, here helping me find some special band for a delcatty gal!" He grinned happily. "She sounds kinda hot, so I hope I get to meet her after this...~"

Pikachu flinched. "... A special band, huh?"

Eiscue looked at him curiously. "Er, yeah. Hey, you doin' alright, there, man?"

Pikachu stalled for a short while. "... A stunky."

"Huh? A stunky?" He jolted in surprise. "Wait, you know about her? The red, big boobied stunky?"

Pikachu's eyes widened in surprise. "... Y-Yeah. She's an explorer, and she's got the special band."

"Well, don't worry, my man! I totally heard about her, already. She's got it, so now I've gotta look for her."

"No. No need. She's an explorer, so she went and did the mission already."

Eiscue felt a dip in his stomach. "Oh, whaaaaat...!? Aww, man, really!?"

"Yeah. You should go get your friends and leave. Quickly."

Eiscue sighed. "Well... I guess, if it's already been-" He blinked. "... Wait a sec, that doesn't make any sense! When a mission in the dungeon's already been done, the button on my badge will flash a bunch! But it's not done that at all!"

Pikachu gulped. "... Oh, right. Yeah..."

Eiscue smiled at him. "Don't worry, man. I dunno what that stunky's deal is, staying on the mountain even though she has the band... but we'll track her down and get to the bottom of things, don't'cha worry!"

"... Yeah..." Pikachu replied, sighing deeply as his frown went sorta dejected.

Eiscue frowned in concern. Yeesh, what was up with him? It was almost like he wanted them to stop chasing the stunky, or something.

He smiled as that thought came to mind. "Ahh, I see! You've totally got a thing for that stunky, haven't ya?"

"... Something like that," Pikachu replied.

"Haha, alright, fair enough, my man!" He smiled wider. "Well, if her boobies are as big as they say, I don't blame you. Between you and me, I'm totally a boobs kinda guy!"

"Yeah?"

"Yeah!" He crossed his arms. "I'm tellin' ya... if I had a girlfriend with huge boobies, I think every day would be the best ever! Don't you agree?"

"... Dunno, honestly."

Eiscue chuckled sheepishly. "Sorry, this is getting sorta awkward, huh?"

"I don't mind." The mouse paused. "... If I say I'm interested in that stunky and her tits, will you and your friends leave?"

Eiscue stared at him. "Huh? Well... we've still gotta return that band, so..."

"Ah. Damn it..." He sighed deeply before hopping to his feet, extending a Brick Break blade as he rose. "Sorry, Eiscue, but... you've gotta take a nap."

Eiscue stiffened in shock. "H-Huh? ... You mean for real?"

"Yeah. S-Sorry." He spun in place and swiped at Eiscue's head.

Totally unprepared, he took the brunt of it to his face. A bright glow shone on impact, and the pain in the penguin's face numbed immediately.

... Huh? ... Oh, right! The chople berries from earlier! Eiscue would have grinned, but he was too thrown off by what had just happened. "W-What the Hell, dude!? Why are you-?"

"You've got to choose better friends next time," Pikachu replied, dissipating his energy blade.

Eiscue hopped to his feet. "What the...!? But you saved me, bro! What's better than-!?"

Paws glowing, Pikachu jabbed one into Eiscue's belly. The pain was numbed again, but the mouse didn't stop. He rapidly jabbed his paws into Eiscue again and again and again, until the pain became strong enough for Eiscue to cry out. Aghhh! He was fast as all hell!

Eiscue tried to start up a move, but the thought of hitting someone he'd just made friends with made him feel too weird, so the best he could manage was a half-hearted spray of Freeze-Dry.

It barely crackled against the mouse's head as he continued to lay into Eiscue with dozens of jabs a second. In no time at all, Eiscue found himself flopping to the floor, cradling his agonizing belly. He felt all of his energy pour out of him as everything started to go hazy.

"Sh-Shit..." Eiscue muttered out. "Guess I should'a not... talked about your girl's boobies like that..."

Pikachu offered him a sad frown. "... It's alright." He clenched his eyes shut and looked away. "... I think I like asses more, anyway."

"Huh... should'a known..."

Pikachu twisted around and slammed his glowing tail into Eiscue's head. He was knocked high into the air, going splat against some of the berries he'd laid out earlier on crashing into the floor.

Everything went black, but before he was forcibly sent into his dreams, he heard Pikachu say one more thing to himself.

"Ughh, damn it... I hate this..." He rustled, as if he was bringing something out of his bag. "I need to find the others, before...!"

His voice disappeared as the sound of a teleportation rang out. Seconds later, Eiscue felt himself faint for real.

Well, crap...


TO BE CONTINUED!


Finished: 16/09 (September)/2022

Word count: 15,644

VGS2's sausage notes: Fuck... y'know, in the previous chapter, I accidentally made Ponytale chase Gourgeist instead of Coalossal. Um... whoops. XD How embarrassing. Thanks, PokeMaster64, for stopping me from keeping that in the story forever like a right muppet.

On that note, if you ever spy something that looks especially peculiar in my story... well, you've seen enough of my fun mistakes by now to know I probably just fucked up somewhere along the lines, so feel free to laugh and/or tell me. XP

... Also, yeah, if the Wigglytuff section weirded you out, then I've done my job. XD Enjoy your mental scarring!

Today's shameless promotion: Verge Uprising

Author: SunhatLeafeon

Universe: Original Mystery Dungeon-verse in a modern-ish era.

Main species: Lots of fennekins, a minccino, and a tidal wave of eevees

Summary: A seemingly endless rain storm blows in, and Pokémon are beginning to mysteriously vanish. Amidst rising crime and political tension on the three Onya Islands, the guilds must act, recruits both new and old playing their parts. Outside of the guilds, however, yet more factions of Pokémon are at play as well, each with their own ideal futures in mind.

Romance: A bunch of shippings are thrown about! Usually straight and sometimes gay!

Wackiness: Mostly straitlaced, but conversations can get quirky!

Lewdness: Sexy jokes are shared, and lewdness is greatly implied!

Action: Lots! Injury is frequent!

Grittiness: A bit on the violent end of things, which may get worse!

Length: Looking to be somewhat long!

Now here's a fic I've been meaning to advertise for a fairly long time! Sadly, though, because I took a fecking age and a half, I've only gotten around to it just now. Sorry, SunhatLeafeon! Sorry for being a lazy cunt, too, and never responding to your fun messages!

Verge Uprising is a fun little story with lots and lots of fun characters, caught in a huge conspiracy between several factions who are at odds with each other, to say the least. The poor bastards often get into chaotic fights, in which injury and calling each other's names are frequent. Said names being things like Coconut Maulle, Lady Tartar of the House of Sauce, Waffle Brekky, and other funny shit like that. XD It's worth it for that, alone, so go give it a looksee!


Fun mistakes of the day:

#1: 'Plus, I deleted a decent chunk of work through sheer sleep-induced retardation, which didn't help.'

(When you become so retarded it puts you to sleep. Or did the sleep cause the retardation...? Either way, my language is probably causing many fits of rage from Twitter/Tumblr users as we speak, so I'd better stop meself. For now...!)

#2: '"You didn't use any more, though...?" Salandit murmured.'

(... Any more what?)

#3: 'realizing that it wouldn't work quirkly enough,'

(Reminds me of Fire Emblem: Fates, and how the localization felt the need to make everyone ultra wacky, even when it was cringy.)

#4: "Yeesh... well, better here than me, I guess..."

(Microsoft Word 2007 (I'm really old fashioned, I know) seems to think that THIS is the correct way to say this sentence. There's no context I can think of that bloody justifies this at all. XD Maybe Word thinks I'm making yet another dirty sex joke, or something, I dunno.)

#5: '"Aww... well, okay," Ponytale said, sounding disappoooo'

(Don't you hate it when a horse walks by, lifts its tail and does its business wherever it pleases? Well, it looks like... Actually, I'm gonna stop this train of thought right here. XD What is this, a furry site?)

#6: 'Eiscue stopped to watch as the attack - a pikachu - backflipped away from the impact,'

(Ever has there ever been a fic where a pokémon attack gains sentience and becomes a main character?)

#7: 'Either that was one hell of an attack he just did, or fainting was enough for shadow to die.'

(Damn. So much for being the ultimate lifeform, eh? Maybe he's just eager to off himself after the shit SEGA did with his personality.)

#8: 'he spat a big glob of gel from his flipper and flung it forwards.'

(He has a mouth on his flipper, apparently. Sounds creepy. O,o)

#9: 'dodging the less favorable deat spieks.'

(What strange Imgur-level speech is this?)

#10: 'It was only then that the penguin noticed the poofy, cool-looking ponytale of fur the pikachu had,'

(Apparently Bradley has a magical talking pony of his own. He and Sneasel should compare!)

#11: 'he conjured energy into his flippers and flung some large slowflakes into the air.'

(Don't you just hate those ultra sluggish projectiles in fighting games? They always hit you when someone else uses them, and you can never hit with them when you use them. Fuck you, Dhalsim!)

#12: 'When he was in range, he waved to the dfuck'

(What the hell did you just see, Gourgeist? XD Y'know, one of the Ash's Pikachus from one of my other my fics is gonna get the nickname of 'D', or something similar. So does that mean...? O,o)

#13: '"No promises!" Salsandfi replied,'

(That's my favourite ground-type. Y'know, as long as it doesn't get sand into the food while trying to work with Gourgeist.)

#14: 'she started to strain her brain for some sort of idea to avoid becoming some stupid kid's wet nurse. Especially since she didn't even have any!'

(Poor, poor Togetic never had a wet nurse as a baby, which is when they need their nutrients the most. Tragic.)

#15: 'Toegetic wanted to shout his name in concern'

(What's she concerned about? Oricorio finding out that she has weird human feet? (I thought that would be a funny image, but now I'm horrified, and the furries are hard. D:))

#16: 'creating a field of distortion at the exact moment, the staraptor reached them. He passing straight through, causing no harm.'

(Damn, I guess Togetic's been listening to this 'predator pokémon' for too long. Now it's messed up her English! And definitely not a sign I wrote this when I was tired.)

#17: 'She gasped as the starpator lunged, enveloped in a golden aura shaped like himself.'

(When Jotaro's stand decides to pat instead of punch, he gains an appropriate name.)

#18: 'the leafeon retorted, reaching into the bag around his bag.'

(Is this bagception? Or does he mean a bag he keeps near his, uh... y'know. 'Bag'. XD)

#19: 'Embarrassment filled her veins as she slapper her paws against her face.'

(According to ravengal, a 'slapper' is a British name for a prostitute. Just throwing that out there... XD)

#20: 'a lot of the pokémon looked her way. Or more specially, Donphan's way.'

(Giving Donphan special looks, eh? She must be one hot elephant. (... What the fuck am I typing. XD I need sleep.))

#21: '"... I hope having all eyes on your isn't making you feel too uncomfortable," she asked.'

(At this rate, I'm sure she'll get used to it eventually... XD)

#22: "Oh my gosh, Chimecho! I don't believe you!"

(So you don't believe Chimecho when she says you did the nasty? Even though you of all should people should know? Is a certain prince from Bandits of the Forest your special friend, or what?)

#23: 'She could see Donphan pulling some funny faces, too.'

(Donphan trying to lighten the mood with some goofy expressions like a true bro-sis.)

#24: '"Heehee, that's so cute~!" Buneary coped'

(Damn these huge fingers of mine! They should know by now that Buneary can never cope. XP)

#25: "This is one of our many children. She had her papa's smile!"

('Buneary blinked, staring at the bell questioningly. "Uh... had?" she asked, looking back down at the baby balloon. She gasped loudly when there was nothing there. Nothing but a gravestone dedicated to an igglybuff, who'd passed away several years ago. "... B-But..." Buneary started, tears of anguish forming, "... who was phone!?" ... And then she died, the end, go home. XP)

#26: 'As Igglybuff went in to suckle on Buneary's mouth'

(Oops... that's not how you get fed! Igglybuff's not the brightest baby, apparently. Poor Buneary. XP)

#27: 'He sighed and shrugged. "Takes longer dong this, but them's the breaks!"'

(*Donkey Kong would like to know your current location*)

=Bonus Explorers of Sky mistakes for the last time, probably!=

#28: 'Dialga: "I AM DIALGA! TH PROTECOTR OF TEMPORAL TOWER!"'

(Oh, shit, he's into leet-ish speak. That can't be good for time. O,o)

#29: 'Dialga: *Café* "I'M READY! IS IT TIME TO GOO?"'

(Oh, Dialga, you dirty old man... XD)

#30: 'Dialga: "HURRY NOW! THE TIE IS NOW!"'

(Dapper Dialga. (This is the last Dialga one, I promise))

#31: 'Chatot: "Why, I'm poos"'

(He chats shit all the time, so I'd agree!)

#32: 'Piplup: I'm pretty certain we can find blue gummis in Craggy Coats'

(You heard him, Torchic! Time to go pickpocket people in rough-looking coats!)

#33: 'Drapion: "Hey! You guys! Weren't you listening?! Didn't my lady Weavile tell you to hit the toad?!"'

(Team AWD truly are mean if they're bullying all the little mushroom bastards. Better hope Mario doesn't find out they trolled any! Hurr hurr. (Don't look up Tails Gets Trolled))

#34: 'Xatu: "... The darkness... The malevolent darkness has melted... It is your doing. You have my thanks."'

(I forgot a word, so now the new secret to defeating evil is to just leave it in the hot sun for too long, I guess.)


Welp, that'll do it! Cheers, lads and lasses! :D

Oh, and don't forget to go read Questing For Comrades, as well as chapters 2, 5 and 6 of this fic! Thanks again, and tata for now! c:

*Fades away for another millennium goodbye*