Sausage note: Oh, God, ravengal and I got sick again a month ago, would you believe? Not only that, but this one was utter hell on Earth! D:

I don't think I've had a flu like that since I was but a wee boy! Is this some punishment for refusing to shove a dubious-at-best liquid into my veins? Maybe. (Probably not. XP)

Either way, in celebration of us surviving, here's another chapter! By my estimation, we're so close to relevancy now, that I can almost taste it! :D

Last time: Buneary joins her first team! Also, Bradley's battling birdies! Also, skunk explosion!


Chapter Nineteen: The Mysterious Happenings


Buneary's journey through Beach Cave continued on for a small while in much the same way as before. Every time a pokémon attacked them, it was treated to an Energy Ball from Maractus. Most were taken out in one hit, due to both her strength and it being especially effective.

On the odd occasion that it didn't, due to the pokémon dodging or being stronger than average, Grumpig would help out with either a Psybeam from afar, or a Drain Punch from nearby. Either one would always end the battle immediately.

Because they were so efficient at taking out enemies, it seemed they weren't getting too tired from an overuse of moves, or dodging around, or anything at all. Honestly, Buneary felt more tired watching them than they became while fighting. Though awe inspiring, it made her feel really envious.

Walking alongside them, now down to floor two of the dungeon, Buneary looked around at the place. Despite how spacious the cave was, it still felt rather claustrophobic.

There was a copious amount of very tall rock formations clustered together with barely any space between, and large rock pools on or around the path were common. Even though the floor had no walls, she felt very walled in indeed.

She flinched when a droplet of water landed on an exposed part of her rolled up ear. Aghh, she swore the water droplets were getting more and more constant, now. Were they currently under the sea, or something? At least the floor was still nice and sandy...

Looking back at her teammates, she suddenly found herself a little bothered by how much taller they both were than her. Over twice her size, in fact! So not only was she the weakest one in her team with the smallest chest, but the shrimp, too!?

"Hey, so, Buneary," Grumpig started, snapping the rabbit out of her jealous thoughts, "you said you went on a Drenched Bluff excursion today, right? How'd that go? I'm curious."

"Oh, well, it's a long story..." Buneary replied.

"That's fine~" Maractus replied. "It'll give us something to do while we look for the next floor!"

"Right," Grumpig added. She used her arm to polish the black pearl embedded in her belly. "And like I said before... if we're on the same team, it's good to get as acquainted as possible. So give us the low down, kid."

"Well... okay!" Buneary replied. She then went to work on telling them a somewhat shortened story of events. She was tempted to gloss over the parts involving her having her chest coverings pulled off, and everyone seeing it... but she decided to be honest about it. Even if it made her face heat up from embarrassment.

Partway through her telling that part of the story, Grumpig interjected with a frown. "Really? Marowisp did that?"

"Y-Yeah..." Buneary mumbled. "It made Yamask really awkward, so he couldn't charge his move properly anymore. So Marowisp took the opportunity to hit us both with, uh... his bone, I think. We all beat him together afterwards, but..."

"Tsk. Bastard. I know he was a huge pervert back in the day, but... that's real something."

"Ohh, yeah..." Maractus added sadly. "It's sad to think he's gotten badder since last time."

Buneary tilted her head. "Was he perverted? He only did that to win the fight... and Mr. Snorlax only said he was a bit obsessed with his quips..." she asked.

"You bet he was," Grumpig replied. "The son of a bitch would 'accidentally' whip his bone against my backside, and Maractus' chest while laughing. And there was a rumor going around that he would try and bargain with girl clients to sleep with him, instead of paying for missions he'd done for them... though I dunno if that was true, or not."

Buneary looked at her in concern. "Y-Yeesh..." And here she thought he was just a bit naughty. He sounded like the sort of person Salandit thought that all men were like.

Grumpig sighed and shrugged. "Honestly, I don't know how Aegislash put up with his antics for so long. Constantly having to smack him upside the head for the things he did."

"Yeah..." Maractus added with a sigh of her own. She giggled lightly. "Well... at least Golurk didn't care."

"Heh, yeah, well, he wouldn't, would he? Utterly aloof, that one."

Buneary huffed slowly through her nose. Oh dear... while she was already starting to think that not all pokémon were as squeaky clean as she'd hoped, hearing this wasn't exactly helping her opinion.

Well, maybe Marowisp was just... fighting his own demons, or something? Yeah, maybe something that had happened in his life had caused him to become so mean and misunderstood! Surely, he only needed a little bit of care and attention to get back on the right track.

"Uh... m-maybe..." Buneary started, wondering how to phrase her thoughts, "maybe he just... you know..."

Grumpig stopped suddenly. "Hm? Wait..." she said, hushing her. She looked around cautiously. "... Something in the air feels weird..."

"Oh? What's wrong, Grumpig?" Maractus asked, stopping to look at her curiously.

"Weird...?" Buneary asked. She extended both ears and looked around, wondering if she would get a better idea of what she'd meant.

Not long afterwards, the sound of an otherworldly whoosh of wind passed by her ears. Huh?

She shrieked when a sudden purple haze filled the cavern, coating every inch of the place in a transparent miasma of... whatever the heck that was!

"Uh oh!" Maractus shouted in a worried tone. "Is that what I think it is?"

"Sure looks like it," Grumpig replied, on guard.

"W-What!? Looks like what!?" Buneary exclaimed, feeling her Run Away ability start to spike up. "What's going on?"

"Oh, oh, don't worry, Buneary!" Maractus said in a hurried, yet reassuring tone. "It's just the dungeon filling with-"

After a bright flash of purple, she suddenly, for no reason at all, turned into a lanturn.

Buneary stared. "... Uh..." she muttered. What the...?

The lanturn looked down at herself in surprise. Buneary could tell it was Maractus, because the fish's chest was just as massive, though scaled down slightly for its size. Her face also had that sort of bubbly look to it, even without a massive smile to go with it. Not to mention, her eyes were the same shade of yellow, if not a different shape.

Buneary continued to stare. She looked at Grumpig for her input.

She was also a lanturn. A chubbier one with a smaller chest, purple eyes and a more reserved appearance.

Buneary started to feel panic rise in her chest. What in heck's name was going on!?

She suddenly felt an odd sensation come over her. Her once furry skin felt slightly slimy... the top of her head felt smooth... her tail felt like it had split into two, long antennae-like strands, emitting a constant tingly sensation... and her lower body felt really chilly and bare all of a sudden.

Dread building in her heart, she looked down at herself. Her rounder body and blobbier feet were blue.

She rushed over to a puddle and looked at her reflection in it. A very worried chinchou with brown, cross-shaped eyes stared back. "Oh sugar!" she shouted, gripping at her face in horror. Her 'paws' nearly slipped off her face from the new, wet texture. "Why am I a chinchou now!? What happened!?"

Grumpig let out a deep sigh, and chuckled dryly after. "Welp. Guess even small, easy dungeons like this can have too much mysteriosity," she said, lazily lying on her front.

"Heehee, nowhere's safe, it seems~!" Maractus sang amusedly, hopping around on her large, blue belly. Her bosom bounced around just as vigorously as it had before, though without any rattling.

Buneary stared at them, confused. "Uh... does this... happen often?" she asked.

"Sometimes," Grumpig replied. "What, have you never experienced a dungeon undergoing a burst of mysteriosity before?"

"Um... I don't even know what this mysterious... thing is, honestly..."

"Huh."

"It's a nerdy way of saying dungeon magic!" Maractus explained, rocking back and forth on her now fishy belly.

"It's not nerdy..." Grumpig retorted, rolling her eyes.

Aside from amusement, Maractus ignored her. "Every dungeon has it! That's why there's traps, and why cool stuff always happens in them!"

"Right," Grumpig picked herself up off the floor, though without legs, she was left propping herself up on her flippers. "Sometimes, there's too much, though, so a distortion happens. Or a 'burst of mysteriosity'. Or whatever you wanna call it. Makes really weird things occur, when it happens."

Straining with a grunt, Grumpig made the yellow bulbs on her new antennae light up. "... Case in point," she finished.

"Ohhh, okay," Buneary replied, humongously reassured by knowing there was an explanation for this. "Uh... it's not permanent, right?"

Grumpig laughed. "Well, if it was, I wouldn't be a grumpig, would I?"

"W-Well... it could've turned you into one at some point..."

Maractus giggled and gave Grumpig an impish grin. "Wellll, she's got'cha thereeee...~!" she teased.

"Pft. Alright, fair comment," Grumpig relented. "Anyway, it usually lasts for an hour, or so. And when we left the café, it should've been around 3 o'clock, sooo... should wear off before dinner, easy."

"Well, that's a relief," Buneary said, wiping the sweat off her head. Not that it would make much of a difference when her face was wet, anyway, but still. "Uh... so this mysteriosity stuff... does it do anything else, or is it just for changing species?"

Grumpig turned to face the opposite direction and began crawling along the sand. "Ugh, wish there was more water... Um, anyway, yeah... I think there's a whole bunch of unpredictable things that can happen."

"Mmhmm!" Maractus added, bouncing next to her on her belly. "I remember the time we were in Apple Woods, and all our moves were disabled! Just... everyone's!"

"Yeah... Legends, and there was that fun day in Breezy Meadows, where we couldn't stop drifting off to sleep for the life of us."

Maractus giggled heartily. "You always do that after a big meal, anyway~"

"Pft! Hey," Grumpig chided, though in an amused tone. "You'll be 'sleeping' soon, if you keep that up."

"Heehee!"

Following them on her rubbery feet, Buneary let out a giggle of her own. Afterwards, she nodded in understanding. "Crazy stuff, then," she said.

"Very, very!"

Looking herself over, Buneary felt a headrush of what could only be described as an existential crisis. It was extremely surreal, owning a body that was technically hers, while also technically not. The only thing she could use to identify herself was her average bosom, and her much smaller size to the other now-water-types. As much as she didn't want to admit it.

"Well..." Grumpig started, angling her head towards Buneary, "at least that should do it for crazy antics this dungeon. Next floor's the last one, and we've already covered most of this one."

"Okay!" Buneary replied eagerly. After all, she didn't know for the life of her how she would be able to fight like this, so the sooner they could finish up in here, the better.

... She glanced at the other girls with a tilted head as something occurred to her. Should she be calling them 'Sasspot Lanturn' and 'Big Fun Lanturn'?

... No, she would just end up making things confusing by doing that. Never mind.


Sneasel smiled as brightly as he could, despite the circumstances. He was finding it difficult - considering he'd lost two expensive reviver seeds, due to his good deed involving that strange staraptor - but he was trying his best, all the same.

He was still happy he'd chosen to be virtuous, rather than give in to any sort of greed... but oh, his poor wallet...

Glamour Stunky - who was now healthy, thanks to one of his two before mentioned seeds - gave him an apologetic glance as she walked alongside him.

"Oh dear, darling, I can tell: you still haven't quite forgiven me for my little stunt, have you?" she asked, still ignoring the soot and burnt tar covering her.

"N-No- I mean yes, I have, don't worry!" Sneasel replied sheepishly. He stumbled slightly while awkwardly trying to dodge around a prickly patch of flooring. "I'm just, um... worried! About Spiritomb, naturally."

She let out an uncomfortable chuckle. "Well... if nothing else, Sneasel, I think it's safe to say that you're not a natural fibber."

He cringed. Either that, or she was good at detecting a good fib...

"That's my Sneasel...!" Ponytale praised, walking on Sneasel's other side. "Always kind, truthful and heroic and, like... other good things like that...~"

"Agreed, dear," Stunky added cheerfully.

Sneasel scratched his cheek, feeling his smile return with an awkward edge to it. "Eheh... thank you, ladies," he replied. Well, Ponytale's crush aside, he appreciated the confidence boost.

Stunky murmured in thought over something before continuing. "Say, Sneasel, you said you were having some money troubles?"

"Today has been quite expensive, indeed, yes," he replied with a forced chuckle.

"Oh dear... well, once I return from my errand on this mountain, I'll send for aid from my father, over in Elegant Gorge."

He looked at her in intrigue. "Aid? Why, thank you, but what sort of aid could he possibly offer?"

"Hmm... perhaps I could ask if I could trouble him for a gold ribbon, or two." She stretched, cracking her back in the process. "I'm sure he'll have some spares lying around."

Sneasel nearly leapt out of his skin. "Gold ribbons!? Are you certain!?" he exclaimed far louder than he'd meant to. "That's two-thousand poké a ribbon!"

Stunky laughed. "Oh, well, I most certainly should ask him for some, if you're going to react like that."

"Ohh... that sounds nice and expensive...!" Ponytale said. "You should go for it, Sneasel..."

Sneasel's heart began to race a mile a minute. "Oh, well... that's rather... tempting..." he muttered. Catching himself, he gulped and frantically shook his head. "N-No! I couldn't possibly! That's a rather overly expensive gift, isn't it?" He put a claw to his chest valiantly. "No, it is okay to receive no payment! Your safety is reward enough!"

Stunky paused shortly before shrugging. "Well, suit yourself, darling. Thank you~" she chimed.

He felt his throat dry up like a desert. "O-O-Oh... yes... you're welcome...!" he choked out, all bravado dead. Whoops...

"So kind and cool...!" Ponytale praised. He couldn't decide whether it softened the blow or rubbed salt in the wound, instead.

Stunky continued holding her neutral look. Eventually, she began giggling heartily. "Oh, Sneasel, I'm only being a tease! Oh-hoho, if you could see your face right now, you'd break your own heart, I swear."

He blinked. He let out a long, exasperated huff. "Eheh, ah... you're quite the perceptive one, I see," he muttered, smiling bemusedly.

"You had better believe it, darling!" she replied, amused.

"Oh... teasing my poor Sneasel...!" Ponytale muttered, sticking her lips out in a fussy manner. It was the most annoyed the weasel had ever seen her, so it was rather jarring.

"You're right, I apologize. Please, I insist, just accept the gold ribbons, Sneasel, my dear."

Relief and excitement built up in Sneasel's chest again. Before he could say anything rash, however, he remembered his morals. "Oh, well... I-"

"Ah, ah, ah...!" Stunky said, hushing him. "I won't let you put your foot in it any longer. Honestly, my family is quite rich, so..." She smiled brightly. "Aha! Yes, consider it a reward for rescuing me, darling. Like you mentioned before, you came here in the first place to come and find me, right?"

He grinned brightly. "I like the way you think, my friend! Yes, seems like a fair trade, thank you!"

"Then it is settled! You shall receive a-!" She stalled, looking past Sneasel. "Hm? What's wrong, Ponytale?"

Sneasel turned to see the pony giving a troubled look.

"Ah, well..." she started, tilting her head, "what about the... uh... your friend? She was on the mission thing Gourgeist told us about..." she asked.

Stunky gasped. "Oh, you're right! I nearly forgot!"

Sneasel's grin faded. "O-Oh, yes..." He cleared his throat and held his head high, forcing his grin back with an air of confidence. "You're quite correct! Before any sort of reward is to be exchanged, we shall find your missing partner at once!"

Stunky smirked in what seemed like amusement before nodding. "If you say so, my darling." She turned her gaze upwards, towards the topmost blade-shaped floor sticking out of the mountain. "Afterwards, when we're all together... I think it would be prudent to go on a little 'errand,' if that would be okay with you."

"Oh? What sort of errand...?" Ponytale asked.

"Apprehending the outlaw who assaulted you, I presume? The one you mentioned in the mission notice?" Sneasel asked.

"Right you are!" Stunky replied. "I'm to head towards the top of the mountain to kick that bandit's..." She cleared her throat, "... caboose."

"... Uh... caboose... what's that...?" Ponytale asked.

Sneasel began to answer, but then realized he didn't want to say something as crass as 'butt'. "Hm... it means... um..."

"Pardon me, but it means 'arse', darling," the skunk replied simply.

"Ohhh, okay," Ponytale replied, smiling.

Sneasel pulled a tight lipped grimace. Oh... well... at least her elegant accent had made it a little less crass.

He snapped to attention when he noticed they were about to reach the edge of the giant mountain blade they were on. "Hm, I suppose Spiritomb isn't on this floor, at least," he assumed. "Unless there's somewhere we missed."

"Oh dear, and he wasn't on the previous floor, either," Stunky replied, going to the edge to peer over it.

"How do we know he's not, like... in the mountain?" Ponytale asked. "The big cave... bit."

"An excellent point!" Sneasel replied. "We should go and check! In fact, there may even be one of these giant blade structures on the other side we could investigate!"

Ponytale blushed. "Heehee...! Praise from Sneasel...~"

He tried to hide his exasperation as he turned around, followed by the others. They did so just in time to see a large white light form in front of them, quickly taking the shape of a pokémon.

Sneasel immediately went on guard. Another fainted pokémon!?

Wait, though... it would be a red light in that case. A white teleport meant a pokémon was willingly teleporting in some way, whereas a red light signaled an unwilling teleportation.

Just as that came to mind, the back of a large, familiar penguin appeared before them, looking around as he fully formed.

"Aww, man... he's not here, either, is he?" Switch Flip Eiscue grumbled. It was hard to immediately tell what expression he was pulling, due to the signature ice cube on his head.

Hearing his voice, Sneasel immediately knew it was the exact fellow he'd guessed it was. "Why, Eiscue! Fancy meeting you here!" he announced cheerfully.

Yelping, Eiscue spun on his heel to face them. In doing so, Sneasel was able to get a good look at the warp scarf around his neck. "Huh? Sneasel, that you?" He brightened up. "Yeah, it's gotta be! You're the only one I know who wears such a bangin' cape!"

Sneasel readjusted it with a proud grin. "Why, thank you!"

"Oh, are you two acquainted?" Stunky asked in intrigue. "If so, it's certainly a small world, as they say."

"Haha, yeah! We're buddies-" Eiscue started, nearly jumping in the air when he saw Stunky. "Dude, whoa! It's you, the red stunky with the big- Uh, err, I mean who's an explorer! Yeah."

She blinked in surprise. "Oh? You know of me, do you? Actually, it sounds like you were looking for me!"

"You bet! I'm on a mission for a special band, and I heard you had it!" He crossed his flippers while tilting his head. "Dunno why you're still here on this mountain, though. Why didn't'cha take it back to the client?"

She smiled in understanding. "Aha, right. Well, after a pleasant camp out on the mountain, I was on my way to the top floor, so I could teleport back down with my badge," she explained, tapping the silver-rank badge on her chest for emphasis. "However, a rowdy pikachu mugged me for my things, and left me unconscious. Band included."

Eiscue's eyes widened. "Get out, really? And here I was, lookin' for a pikachu who just knocked me out!"

"R-Really? The pikachu got you, too?" she asked in shock.

"You bet'cha! Thought we were hittin' it off well, too..."

"Oh my... and to clarify, did he have a ponytail?"

"He sure did!"

"Huh...?" Ponytale mumbled, tilting her head at them.

Realizing what had confused her, Sneasel huffed out a chuckle. "No, they don't mean you, Ponytale. They meant an actual ponytail. A hairstyle, in other words," he explained.

"Oh..." She giggled airily. "I didn't even notice that! Clever Sneasel..."

He raised an eyebrow in surprise. "That... wasn't it? Then whatever's the matter?"

"Well... if he knocked you out, Ice... uh, Ice Man, then how are you still, like... not fainted?" she asked, looking at Eiscue.

"Oh, he left my bag with me, so I just went and healed myself up, good as new!" Eiscue replied. He sheepishly rubbed the side of his ice cube. "And I'm Eiscue..."

"So... he left your belongings alone, too?" Sneasel asked.

"Yeah! He even left some apples and berries with me, instead of takin' 'em with him. We were gonna eat 'em together, but things happened. I guess..."

Sneasel crossed his arms. "My word... I think we have a good load of catching up to do."

With that, the group began to discuss the bizarre outlaw as they moved back, towards the mountain proper.


Buneary, who was still a chinchou, couldn't help but check herself out as she walked along with the two newly-turned lanturns on her team.

Thankfully, her slimy skin made the cold, moist, salty breeze flowing through the cave seem far less harsh. Heck, it almost felt comfortable, as weird as it was to say. It was going to be hard going back to normal, she had to admit.

That said, one thing she was having trouble getting used to was the constant tingle coming from her antennae, which flowed down to where her tail should have been. Was this something all electric-types had to put up with? She wasn't very jealous, honestly.

She didn't get much time to contemplate things before a corsola and a krabby jumped out of hiding from a rock pool, next to the sandy path. Both boyish-looking water-types took on battle poses.

"I knew it! It's one of those explorer teams!" the corsola shouted, pointing at them with an accusatory glare.

The krabby nodded. "Yeah! Like what our cousin 'n' her sis went 'n' became!" he shouted.

"Ohhh, so you know Team Cuties?" Maractus asked happily.

Buneary gasped and smiled. "I know Team Cuties! In fact, I'm friends with them! Does that mean we can be friends?" she asked.

The krabby gave them a surprised look. "Aww, well, gee..." he muttered, scratching his head with a pincer. "I guess that does sorta make you 'n' us-"

"No! Screw you, explorers!" the corsola roared. He angrily stomped his four feet, making little sound in the soft sand. "How dare you brainwash our family! You're gonna get it!"

"Uh... y-yeah!" the krabby added, snipping his pincers while frowning.

"Big surprise. Alright," Grumpig retorted, letting out a big displeased breath. She waved her flippers around, making them flash with rapid colors. After a second or two, she brought them together and thrust them forwards, firing a flashing laser surrounded in rings.

However, it seemed weaker and slower than when she'd used it earlier. It even missed, as the corsola hopped to the side.

"That was pathetic! My turn!" he shouted, running at her. He rapidly flailed every limb and branch he had, like he was throwing an aggressive tantrum.

"Oh, whoops..." Grumpig muttered, "guess that's not how lanturns should do it." She held her flippers up to block the corsola's advance by grabbing his horn-like branch. He wasn't even able to reach because of the distance.

"Frick!" the corsola yelled.

Maractus giggled. "Silly Grumpig! That's what the... uh, light 'em up things are for!" she chided in amusement.

"Antennae...!" Grumpig responded, grunting as she kept the angry coral at bay.

"Yeah, that!"

"Gee, guess I'm up to bat..." the krabby said, advancing on Grumpig with a sideways walk.

"Aha, not so faaast~!" Maractus sang, holding out a flipper. After a second of nothing happening, she looked at it in confusion.

"Uh, n-no you don't!" Buneary shouted, starting up a move of her own. Her heart skipped a beat when she couldn't feel the energy of Swift anywhere inside of her. Oh no, where was it!?

In a frenzy, she reached deep inside of her soul to see if she had anything useable. Feeling a cold energy somewhere inside, she used that, building up a ball of whatever it was in front of her mouth.

When she fired it off, it came out in a blue burst of energy, taking the form of a stream of lightning. It struck the krabby just before he could take a swing at Grumpig with a metallic pincer, freezing him in a solid block of ice with a yelp.

"Oh, cool! You know Ice Beam?" Maractus asked, impressed.

"Uh... I shouldn't do!" Buneary replied, eyes wide. Since when had that move snuck into her!? She certainly shouldn't have it. She'd made sure of that!

Wait... this was related to her turning into chinchou, wasn't it? Was that why Swift didn't work?

She was snapped out of her thoughts when the krabby broke the ice surrounding his metallic pincers through the sheer might of them. The metal dissipated as he opened them to fire out dozens of mud globs at Buneary.

She yelped and covered her face. Thankfully, Maractus leapt in and activated a transparent barrier, which wrapped around the not-cactus in a dome. The mud splattered harmlessly against it, leaving thick muddy marks on impact.

"Huh... that's a weird Spiky Shield," Maractus said, looking around at her barrier in surprise.

Buneary stared in equal surprise. No kidding... that was Protect, wasn't it? So their moves were all muddled up, too?

She tried to consider what was happening exactly, but a ball of mud missed the barrier and splashed on Buneary's head. She shrieked in pain as a horrible shocking sensation went through her entire body, drawing towards the mud on her. Aghh...! So this was what a ground-type move felt like to electric-types? It was horrible!

Buneary frantically shook her head, wanting to get it off as soon as possible, even as it continued to stick. Thankfully, she spotted a nearby rock pool in the frenzy, so she decided to run towards it and dive inside. The feeling of the mud washing away and the cool water on her moist skin was blissfully refreshing.

Now content, she swam back up to the surface. Though it was only a very short trip, she felt completely at one with the water as she went up, like she was a bird flying through the air. Aghhh, she was starting to wish she was a water-type, instead! Did normal-types like her even have any advantages?

Putting that aside, she poked her head through the surface of the water to see how things were going. She saw Grumpig zapping the corsola with a shot of Psybeam from her antennae, instead of her flippers like before. It seemed much stronger this time, able to knock the corsola out of her grasp and into a cluster of rocks, where he disappeared.

Maractus was advancing on the still-frozen krabby, hopping from side to side on her belly to dodge the mud balls coming her way. She did so with stylish twirls and poses, like she was dancing rather than fighting.

Once close enough, she charged an electrical attack in her antennae. The electricity flowed down her flipper towards the tip. "I think this is sorta like Energy Ball! Hyaaa~!" she shouted, jumping in the air with a rapid twirl.

An aggressively sparkling ball of yellow plasma flew from her flipper, launching into the krabby's block of ice at incredible speeds. It broke through and rapidly bounced around inside, striking the krabby over and over again to cries of pain. It finished in an electrical explosion, shattering the ice and sending the krabby tumbling elsewhere into the cavern.

Buneary beamed in relief. Despite being completely different pokémon, it looked like they were still as strong as ever!

She hopped out of the water to walk over to them. "Ooh, well done!" she praised.

"Heehee, thanks!" Maractus replied cheerfully, having landed again.

"Yeah, same, kid. You did good!" Grumpig added with a smile.

Buneary thanked her back, beaming brighter.

Grumpig turned her gaze to Maractus with an incredulous look, instead. "Jeez, though, Maractus. When did you get so good at being a fish? Can't figure out how this works for the life of me."

"It's easy!" the once-cactus replied. "I think our moves are all reaaally similar to what we had before! Like, my Energy Ball turned into Electro Ball, and Spiky Shield became Protect!"

Grumpig mouthed out an 'ohh'. "Guess that explains why we got ourselves knocked about so much, last time this happened. Never connected the dots." She frowned in what looked like confusion. "... Didn't affect Psybeam, though, apparently."

"Um... can lanturns learn Psybeam?" Buneary asked.

Grumpig clapped her flippers together. "Right, that'll be it. Well done, detective."

Buneary giggled. "Um, thank you."

"Time to start relearning our moves, then~" Maractus chimed.

"Whoopie," Grumpig grumbled dryly in amusement.

Buneary felt her lips curl into a half-smile, half-grimace. She couldn't say she was looking forward to the idea, either. She'd only just learned Swift today, and now she was having to learn more? At least she already had experience with one of them...

"Take this, you huge boobied bitches!" someone screamed angrily.

Buneary's attention snapped to the voice, and she saw the corsola coming down toward Grumpig, limbs flailing so fast they became nothing but pink and white blurs.

Yelping in alarm, Grumpig held her flippers above herself in defense. She was immediately pelted with a flurry of punches and kicks, which made her grunt loudly in pain, buckling from the force.

"Wah! Grumpig!" Maractus shouted in alarm.

Panicked, Buneary reached into herself for a move to use. Feeling a heavy tingle in her antennae, she charged it up and fired it off in seconds.

It came out in another bolt of energy, though bright yellow, this time. It struck the corsola, making him yell in agony before being blasted away, fried a crispy black.

Buneary stared at the coral as he went flying past a cluster of tall mossy rocks and out of sight. Huh... had that been Thunderbolt? Tsk, another move she wasn't fond of! It always made her fluff stand on end. Not that it was a problem right now, but still.

"Woo, nice one!" Maractus praised, hopping up and down.

"Yeah, thanks," Grumpig added. She tenderly rubbed her head with both flippers. "Ughh... forgot he had Regenerate. They never faint for long with that."

"Oh yeah... Corso- Uh, Cheerleader Corsola told me about that!" Buneary said. It was hard to forget, what with how many times the girl had fainted, yet had come back anyway.

"Heh, fair enough. Speaking of which, as you probably guessed, she has family around these parts. I think her mom likes to blow bubbles at dusk around here, actually. Krabby tradition."

"Ooh, very nice! I wonder if we'll get to see that when we leave?"

"Eh, we'll probably be gone before then."

"Aww, pity..." Buneary replied, disappointed. Well, no chance of reenacting the start of her book, Time & Darkness, then...

"Buuuut, we could always come see them another time~!" Maractus chimed, shaking her hips in a dance. She looked around and lightly frowned. "... I miss my maraca noises."

Grumpig snickered. She looked curious after. "... Y'know, I never did learn how you do that," she said.

"I have loose seeds rattling all around me~" Maractus said, perking up again. She started to shake her body and flippers around for emphasis, but awkwardly stopped when she realized it was as silent as ever. "... Whoops."

Grumpig's snickers turned into proper laughter. Buneary couldn't stop herself from giggling, either.

"Well, no loose seeds this time, I guess," Grumpig said, laughter dying down. She smirked. "Not unless you wanna go ask Cacturne outside to put some in you. I know you're dying to."

Maractus gasped before giggling. "The naughtiness keeps on coming! Grumpig, I'm officially calling you Naughty Comments Grumpig from now on!"

The former pig huffed in amusement. "Oh goody."

Buneary grinned happily at their continued antics. Her eyes widened when she realized something. "Oh, hey, why weren't Corsola's friends turned into lanturns? Or chinchous?" she asked.

Grumpig blinked. "... Good point." She scratched her head. "Uhh..."

"Ohhh, I think I knooow~!" Maractus sang. "The dungeon magic burst thing only works on the floor itself, soooo..." She pulled a small pose, "they must'a come up from another floor!"

"Ooh, so we're close to the next floor?" Buneary asked happily.

"Looks that way, kid!" Grumpig said cheerfully. "Good going, you two. Let's go find out where the way down's hiding, then. It's usually around the same place in dungeons, but because stuff shifts around a fair bit, we might need to go excavating around these rocks."

"Okay!" Buneary replied, preparing herself for a good search.


"Dude, no way..." Eiscue muttered. "I know he's sort of a traitor for some reason, but Pikachu's cool! He saved me!"

Stunky, who was walking beside him along with the others, gave him a sympathetic frown. "Sorry, dear, but I'm certain it must have been him," she replied in that really fancy accent of hers.

"Are you certain it was him, though?" Sneasel asked, walking closer to avoid the spiky walls of the cavern they were traveling in. "The nidoran you mentioned was gazing intently before you woke up..."

"Yeah! It was definitely him!" Eiscue added. "He's some sleaseball who saw a really nice boob and took the chance!"

Stunky stared for a second before laughing lightly. "Well, I appreciate the compliment, crude as it was... but not a chance, I'm afraid. He acted far too... surprised for that to be the case. He almost seemed to think it was me who uncovered myself," she explained.

Eiscue got all embarrassed. Gah! He'd told himself not to talk about her boobs! "Uh... well, I dunno..."

"Sounds sorta weird..." Ponytale said. "He steals stuff, except for when it's Eiscue's stuff... and then he goes around groping boobies... but you said he said he likes asses..."

"That in itself is proof, darling!" Stunky retorted. "He has admitted to being a pervert!"

Eiscue cringed. Maybe he shouldn't have blurted that out earlier...

"It's all rather suspect..." Sneasel said, scratching the side of his face with a claw. "Perhaps, Eiscue... he spared you because you're a man, like him? Maybe he just does not like women?"

"Darling, Spiritomb is a man," Stunky reminded him. "It's rather hard to mistake him for the opposite with his rather deep voice."

"Well, yes... but we don't know if his belongings were taken, yet, do we? Not until we find him, anyhow."

"Ah, I suppose..."

"I hope he didn't, like... get groped..." Ponytale said, brows furrowed in worry.

Sneasel snickered. "I doubt it, Ponytale. From the description given, this bandit seems to much prefer women. On an intimate level, at least."

"Oh..." Ponytale giggled in a dopey way. "I didn't think of that..."

Eiscue let out a breath. Oh man... they had some good points... but no, he wanted to believe in his new buddy! He must've had some good reason for the things he'd been doing! He had a good heart, Eiscue could tell!

For now, though, he guessed they had to find this Spiritomb dude to get his side of the story. Surely, that would clear things up!

The group stopped when they came up to a crossroad in the spiky tunnel with a high ceiling. One pathway led upwards in a slope to the next floor, while the other one went down another corridor with a much lower ceiling. Light trickled in from the distance, so it probably led outside.

"Well, where shall we go, my friends?" Sneasel asked.

"Spiritombs are, like... ghosts, right? I think?" Ponytale asked, tilting her head. When she did that, Eiscue thought she looked sort of hot. "Maybe if we go up towards where Heaven is, we'll find him somewhere..."

Sneasel crossed his arms and huffed in amusement, but Stunky's eyes bulged in bewilderment.

"Bloody hell, darling, I-!" Stunky started before covering her mouth. She smiled awkwardly with a blush on letting go. "Um... ehem, pardon my language... but yes, I know he's a ghost-type, but he's far from dead, I'll have you know. I should hope so, anyway."

Eiscue rubbed the side of his ice cube. "Huh, that's what she meant? Sorta lost me there for a sec," he said.

"Oh... that's sorta weird for a ghost, but that's good, I guess," Ponytale responded to Stunky, her head upright. She gave a light, unreadable frown. "No meeting her today, then..."

"Huh?" Eiscue muttered. "Who's 'her'?"

Ponytale turned to look at him. Before she could say anything, Sneasel interjected with surprise. "Oh! It seems there's a pokémon on the spikes above us!" he said, gesturing upwards.

Everyone immediately looked up. Eiscue saw a weird purple face filled with green dots looking down at them.

The penguin blinked and then shrugged. "... Uh, cool..." he muttered before looking back at Ponytale. "Yeah, but really, who's the 'her' you-?"

"Aha, Spiritomb, darling, it's you!" Stunky cried out, waving towards him.

Eiscue's eyes widened and he looked up again. Huh, that was him? How lucky!

Damn, but now it would be awkward if he asked Ponytale about whoever she'd been talking about. Well, whatever, he'd just ask about it later. He'd definitely remember, for sure!

"Aha...!" Spiritomb called down in a deep and gravelly voice. "I thought I'd heard my... delightful Miss Stunky's voice...!"

"You most certainly did, my dearest!" Stunky called back. "Oh, you don't know how relieved I am! I've been trying to find you for a few hours, now!"

Spiritomb gave a dark, evil-sounding chuckle, which echoed ominously on the cave walls. "Oh, I am... so very honored to have you worry about me, so. I'm not sure if I deserve the privilege...!" he said, ending on another chuckle that sent shivers up Eiscue's spine. Yeesh, this guy was spooky!

"You most certainly do!"

"Do you need any, like... healing?" Ponytale called to him. "I thought you fainted..."

"How... kind of you to offer...!" Spiritomb replied. Even from the fair distance, Eiscue could see that his big, jagged smile never left his face for even a second. "However, it is okay, thank you. I happened to chance upon a reviver seed buried in a crevice."

"Oh, that's good, then!" Ponytale replied happily.

"Have you been searching for Stunky ever since?" Sneasel asked.

"For a short while," Spiritomb replied. "However... I had to pause my search after I found a small, lonely child, all by himself." His smile seemed to go wider. "I had to take a second to... deal with him...!" He chuckled darkly again.

"H-Holy crap, what did you do with him, bro!?" Eiscue screeched up at him, terrified of what the answer would be.

Spiritomb chuckled again. "Let's just say... I've had my fill of childcare for one day...!"

The blood drained from Eiscue's face. Holy crap, he'd eaten him, the bastard! What sort of messed up partner was he!?

"Ghooost! Baby has hunger!" a much younger-sounding voice cried out from around where Spiritomb was. "Berry mush give! Tasty, like milk of breast!"

Spiritomb turned to face the unseen kid. "At once, Master Starly...! I would be... delighted to mash some more berries into a mix for you...!"

"Is yes good!"

Eiscue blinked. ... Eh?

"Oh, how wonderful, darling!" Stunky called back up. "It's just like you to be so caring to others~!"

"What a nice man, indeed," Sneasel agreed, smiling approvingly. He raised an eyebrow and scratched his chin as something seemed to occur to him, but he didn't say anything.

Eiscue blinked again. "Uh... yeah. The best," he muttered. Well, now he felt like a dummy.

His mood picked up when he realized something. If Spiritomb was much nicer than he'd thought at first, then he knew it was the same deal for Pikachu! He'd prove it, too!


Now on floor three of Beach Cave, Buneary watched as Grumpig faced off against a kabuto. Despite the strange bug's various angry insults, Grumpig didn't seem to be taking the fight too seriously. If anything, it was just an excuse to find out what her fourth move was. The one which had replaced Drain Punch.

Buneary and Maractus had figured out theirs already as they went along, with some practice. For the former cactus, her Spiky Shield, Energy Ball, Poison Jab and Pin Missile had been replaced by Protect, Electro Ball, Aqua Tail and Bubble Beam, respectively.

For Buneary, her Dizzy Punch, Swift and Reversal had all been replaced by completely random moves that didn't seem related to what they'd replaced. Aside from being ones she was used to, anyway. She'd even gotten Endure back, despite having gotten rid of it earlier in the day. Maybe that was related? At least she'd been allowed to keep Bounce, at least.

Grumpig had also been able to keep her move, Psybeam. Her Power Gem, however, had been replaced by Signal Beam. Plus, her Mirror Coat had been replaced by a move that had led to quite an awkward situation...


Buneary watched Grumpig clench her flippers together, charging a move.

"Alright, here goes...!" the former pig said before a brief, bright glow enveloped her head, dispersing into foggy mist after. She blinked and looked around.

"... Wait, where am I? What just happened?" she muttered. She put a flipper to her forehead. "Wait, am I in... Beach Cave? Uh... did I step on a trap, or something?"

"Huh? Grumpig, are you... alright?" Buneary asked, getting a bit concerned. What the heck had she just used?

Grumpig looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "... Was I doing a babysitting mission? C'mon, help me out here."

"B-Babysitting!? I'm six years old! I'm an adult!" she retorted in horror.

"... You are? Huh, um... whoops, sorry."

Buneary pouted hard. Ohhh...! If she had a bigger chest like Pretty Buneary, she bet this wouldn't happen as much...

Maractus giggled heartily. "Grumpiiig, you went and used Amnesia, didn't you?" she asked.

"Ahh, it's Amnesia?" Buneary asked in intrigue. Well, that would make sense. It was a move Elder Slowking had. It was useful for reducing pain and stress by forgetting all about it ever happening... but if it was powered up enough, it could also block out memories, making things very awkward.

Grumpig gave the former cactus a look. "Huh? I don't even have-" She stared at Maractus, eyes widening more and more as she scanned her friend's fishy body. "... Maractus, since when did you become a frigging dolphin?"

"The same time you did, Miss Dolphin!" Maractus chimed.

Grumpig stared some more. She looked down at herself. She looked back at the others, her expression completely flat. "... Okay, either I've gone off the deep end, or we need to have a deep, insightful chat."

Maractus laughed, but Buneary could only smile apologetically. Maybe it was a good time to tell her that the move could be reversed by using it the right way...


Buneary giggled lightly at the recent memory. In retrospect, it had been pretty amusing. Well, except for the part where she'd been mistaken for a kid. Tsk!

She could barely get a pout out before Grumpig suddenly disappeared into a cloud of darkness as the kabuto scratched at her. She just as suddenly reappeared behind it, twisting around to smash her tail into its side.

The kabuto was launched away, tumbling deeper into the cave. "W-Whaaaat!?" she screeched in a feminine voice as she went out of sight.

Maractus began hopping on her stomach while clapping. "Yaaay~! You did it! We have our final move~!" she cheered.

"Guess so!" Grumpig responded, grinning proudly.

"Very nice! What was it?" Buneary asked, briefly clapping along with Maractus.

"Sucker Punch, it looks like. I kinda like it, actually." She sighed. "Too bad that, short of some divine intervention, I can't have any more moves. I'd have to ruin my perfect 'stay away' strategy, or whatever Aegislash called it."

"Yeah, that's a pity..." Buneary said sympathetically. She knew what Grumpig meant. After today, she was starting to miss Endure a lot... but she was starting to come to like Swift, too. Life was hard, sometimes.

Maractus let out an amused hum. "Well, at least you'll keep Aegislash happy this way. He won't have to nerd out again~" she joked.

"Pft. Thank Arceus," Grumpig replied with a smirk. "Once you get him started with fighting styles, he never shuts up."

"Aegislash? Dynamite Aegislash?" Buneary asked in surprise. "He's not nerdy... is he?"

The girls looked at her in equal surprise.

"Wooow, Buneary, you've met all sorts of people today, huh?" Maractus joked.

"No kidding," Grumpig agreed, smirking lightly. "And yeah, you'd better believe he is. If you've really met him, I'll bet he went on about your style, too, eh?"

"He... Yeah, he did," Buneary admitted. "He was pretty passionate about it, too."

Grumpig laughed. "Knew it. Hey, on that note, you never finished telling us about your Drenched Bluff excursion, did you?"

"Hey, yeah, that's right!" Maractus added. "Tell us, gal! Past the part with Marowisp's mischief!"

Buneary cringed from the mere mention of that memory. Pushing past that, she smiled. "Well... sure!" she replied.

She continued telling them about her hectic day. At least, the parts that wouldn't make her die of embarrassment, anyway.


Flying a safe distance in the air, Noctowl stared at the chaotic scene unfolding in front of him. Sharp shrapnel, thick dust and streamers filled the cave he'd recently entered, no thanks to Togetic's Present attack.

Noctowl shook his head in disbelief. What the hell? First, that surly-looking pikachu with a ponytail had spoken of some 'monster', which the owl had assumed was just some bully, or something equally as dumb... and then the next thing he knew, this guy's some sort of perverted groping criminal.

Well, whatever was going on, he supposed the mouse was his enemy until he could get some answers. Something that was just peachy, with the type-advantage they had to work against.

"I-Is everyone alright!?" Togetic's voice rang out from the obscuring cloud of dust, coughing as she shouted. "Ughh, this'll ruin my poor feathers..."

"Yeah, but where's that pikachu?" the weirdly feminine bird Togetic had brought along with her shouted out in a very unfeminine voice. For now, until he got further answers, Noctowl assumed he was an ally.

Either way, it was a good question. He narrowed his eyes and glanced around, focusing his vision. With Keen Eye, he saw past the dust as if it weren't there, and quickly found the pikachu. He was hiding off to the side, charging an electrical move of some kind while glaring at Togetic.

"Togetic, Hidden Power at nine o'clock!" Noctowl commanded.

Yelping in surprise, Togetic quickly looked around and flung an orb of rapidly flashing elemental energy in the pikachu's general direction.

The orb barely missed him, but its explosion on hitting the ground was strong enough to topple him over onto his knees with a startled shout.

Noctowl smirked. Thank legends for Hustle. The Hidden Power would have been pitiful without it. Togetic had to use the moves quickly to keep them powerful, however, which meant little time for aiming.

... Aiming... That thought gave Noctowl a plan. "Togetic! Fly around and throw as many Presents as you can around the cave!" he ordered. "And make sure they don't explode immediately! They have to explode randomly!"

"Huh? Well, alright!" she shouted, taking to the air and preparing a Present box as she spoke. "Here's hoping for some luck!" She threw it in a random direction and prepared another.

He nodded and turned to the cheerleader bird. "I don't know what moves you have, but distract that pikachu, bird!"

"Yeesh, dunno who died and made you king, but alright, I guess!" he called back. He kicked his legs into the air one after another while waving his pom pom wings. He looked ridiculous, but he built up a good amount of electricity in doing so.

By now, the dust was starting to settle, so Noctowl was sure everyone could now see the pikachu somewhat. He'd taken to going on the defensive, hiding out on top of the large pile of rocky rubble Togetic had knocked down from the wall.

Looking in the cheerleader's direction, the mouse crouched down while holding himself up with a paw. He had his jagged tail held into the air, which seemed to redirect all the electricity towards him. It was continually absorbed into his tail, causing him no visible harm as his cheeks glowed with power.

"Hey, sto-!" Noctowl began before stopping himself. Wait, this could work to their advantage. If the pikachu was busy with that, and if it left him in a confident state of mind, he would be open to surprise attacks.

Noctowl smirked cockily. Dumb rodent just sealed his fate. The owl activated Future Sight and gazed into the future.

The shadows-to-be of the pokémon in the room showed him that the pikachu was just about to launch a powerful electrical attack. Everyone else was still moving around, using the strategy Noctowl had given them. The owl could also see himself flying through the air, unleashing more Future Sights.

Satisfied, present-Noctowl fired a laser into the future in the pikachu's direction, causing the vision to fade for the moment. Taking a page from himself, he began to fly through the air, ready to set off more Future Sight traps.

He saw more visions as he attacked. The next one showed the pikachu still recovering from the first laser, which had left a smoldering burn mark against the rubble behind him. After firing another laser, he looked into another vision, showing the pikachu looking around frantically for the source of attacks.

By this point, in the present, he saw that the pikachu had begun charging his move, as prophesized. Just before he could fire it, a laser appeared out of thin air, grazing his arm and exploding behind him. It knocked him to the floor with a yelp, and his electricity died down.

Grinning, Noctowl fired another laser at the future pikachu and started another Future Sight. He saw a vision of the cheerleader bird twirling around to slap the pikachu in the face several times with his pom poms. The mouse was knocked backwards several steps, towards a Present.

"Heh, got you," Noctowl muttered to himself, firing a laser directly at where the Present would be. One way or another, the guy was screwed.

As the future shadows faded away once again, he found himself starting to sweat from move exertion, so he stopped for the time being. This was a good time to document his journey, anyway.

He quickly found a spike to perch on and took his camera out of his treasure bag. While he took his time snapping some pictures, he took note of how the battle was going. Presents were littering the ground - though Togetic was practically on her paws and knees from move fatigue - and the cheerleader was dancing closer and closer to the pikachu, pom poms glowing as he charged the slapping move of his. Double Slap, probably.

On the pikachu's side of things, he was busy trying to deal with the lasers that were practically barraging him at this point. All while stepping around the various Presents littering the ground, which were also exploding randomly and at various strengths, just to put him even further on edge.

Ha! He had no chance!

Having taken one more photo, Noctowl put the camera away and decided to use one last Future Sight attack. Mostly to see how things had gone. He expected to grin widely.

His face fell into a heavy frown when he saw the cheerleader splayed out on the floor, unconscious. What!? What happened!?

The future pikachu was staring up at where he was currently. He seemed to be charging up another move.

Not bothering with a laser, Noctowl cut off the attack and, while trying to stay calm, glanced at the action, straining his brain to find a problem. He'd even turned his head upside down to help him think, as most noctowls did.

The cheerleader was now smacking the pikachu around with his pom poms, and elegantly weaving around punches thrown back at him in retaliation. Not long after, the pikachu stumbled backwards, towards a Present, and the soon to be impact site of Noctowl's laser.

Noctowl corrected his head. This... This was perfect, right? This was supposed to do it!

A gasping breath escaped the owl's nostrils when the pikachu corrected himself, lunged forwards and grabbed the cheerleader's outstretched wing. He twisted around to fling the bird at the waiting Present.

When he landed on it, it exploded harshly into streamers, knocking him upwards. He flew directly into the harsh, pink laser waiting for him, cutting off his cries with a small explosion. He smacked into the cave floor after, not moving again.

Oh shit! How could this have happened!? From just one small gap in the prophecy, he'd turned it around that much!?

"O... Oricorio!" Togetic called out. Pushing herself back to her feet with a groan, she formed three different colored orbs above herself. "Your luck ends here, groper!" The three elemental balls came together and fired a large multicolored laser in the pikachu's direction.

The mouse looked ready to dodge, but the laser missed him anyway. It continued onwards before combusting against the wall in an icy, fiery and electrical explosion, all at once. He glanced back at it, likely confused.

"Oh no, no, noooo...!" Togetic muttered in horror. She started up another attack, but unceremoniously flopped onto her front from exhaustion before Noctowl could even guess what it was.

He gave a heavy frown. Shit! He had to do something, or his vision of being blasted himself was going to come true! Thankfully, it wasn't set in stone as long as he went against it, but he had to act fast.

Grabbing an ether out of his bag and drinking it for a boost of stamina, he tossed the bottle away and hopped off the spike he'd rested on to go in for a glide. He flew into place a distance away from the pikachu and sized him up before starting towards him. He usually hated obvious, direct strategies, but it was either this or wasting one of his orbs on one tiny, mediocre opponent.

Already having the pikachu's attention, he decided to gloat. "You're one lucky 'monster', I'll give you that," he called out. He tucked his head inwards and rapidly spun in place. On building enough momentum, he rocketed forwards, hardened skull first, "but you're just basic stuff!"

He noticed the pikachu leap to the side in an attempt to dodge. Noctowl subtly changed his trajectory to match it. Noticing that, the pikachu hurriedly ran in the opposite direction.

Smirking, Noctowl swerved to match his pace. It was no use for the rodent. At this distance, Noctowl could match any evasive movement with ease!

A second later, he collided with the pikachu at full tilt. The mouse was sent sprawling high into the air with a cry.

Deciding to go all in, Noctowl continued pumping energy into his Skull Bash to keep his momentum going and his skull strong. Ricocheting off a spike unharmed, he sailed off into the air, aiming directly at the airborne pikachu as he flew.

All of a sudden, the mouse flipped around to correct himself. He was still in fighting condition, even after that?

Noctowl felt his heart rate go far faster when he noticed the pikachu's whole body crackle with the intense electricity he'd absorbed from earlier.

Rather than back down, however, the owl went even faster. No! He could beat him to the punch! He was just a little, weak mouse!

He was only an inch away when the pikachu launched a massive ball of electricity from a paw directly into his face. Everything erupted into agony as his vision went white.


Now on the final floor of Beach Cave, Buneary sighed at the antics of an enemy chinchou that had followed her and the others to the next floor to attack them. He was becoming increasingly frustrated as his electrical and watery moves had no effect on the girls, aside from making them feel refreshed and energized.

After the seventh attack, Buneary shook her head in disbelief. Honestly, would he ever give up? She was honestly starting to feel sorry for him.

One more electrical attack later and the chinchou collapsed to his knees, exhausted.

"... Are you done?" Grumpig sassed, putting a flipper to her side and raising an eyebrow.

"Teeheehee! He's very determined, isn't he!" Maractus said, very amused by the whole thing.

The chinchou feebly smacked his flippers into the ground. "Ahhh, d-damn it... Why did that stupid cloud thing... have to turn me into this?" he asked, irritated and defeated.

"Well... it was nice of you to heal us...?" Buneary offered sheepishly. Her answer did nothing but make him groan in anguish, making her feel even more awkward.

"Okay, bub, thanks for the waste of time, but we'd best scamper," Grumpig said, hopping past him.

"Toodles~" Maractus added, joining her.

"Fuck," the chinchou retorted.

Buneary just shrugged awkwardly at him and walked past. Anything she added would probably just annoy him further.

"So, as I was saying..." Grumpig started, "how did that fight with Aegislash go?"

"Oh yeah, um..." Buneary replied, quickly glancing back at the chinchou just to be sure. He was staring at her with wide eyes, but she didn't know why. "I think... Octillery fired some steaming hot water."

"Oh, Scald? He has that?" Maractus asked.

"Yup! And he- ... Huh?" She paused when she heard something strange. She tried to extend her ear, but could only succeed at wiggling the tiny stumps that made up her ears, instead. Gahh, she still wasn't used to being a chinchou! She missed having sensitive hearing...

The other girls stopped when they seemed to hear it, too.

"... What's buzzing loudly?" Grumpig asked.

"Let me see!" Maractus replied. She strained for a second, causing the yellow tips of her antennae to brighten intensely.

It was so bright that Buneary had to turn away. "Eek! T-Too bright!" she squealed.

"Yeah, Maractus, jeez," Grumpig complained, probably shielding her own eyes. "Were you actually born a lanturn, or what? How are you so good at this?"

"What? All I did was send electricity to my antennae~" Maractus replied.

Grumpig snorted in amusement. "Because it's that easy."

Giggling at their sassy conversation, Buneary gazed off into the distance, squinting as she glanced past Maractus' light show. It had been a bit too dark to see before - despite dungeon magic keeping the place somewhat lit up - but now, Buneary could see it clearly. Some pokémon were fighting in the distance.

It didn't seem like much of a fight, though. An insect pokémon with a shiny yellow head was flying around a bird pokémon at an incredibly fast, erratic pace, occasionally stopping to take a stab at it. Buneary could hear its loud, incessant buzzing from here, despite the distance.

"Do you girls see that?" Buneary asked, pointing it out. "Some pokémon are having a little fight!"

Grumpig and Maractus looked in the same direction. Both made an intrigued murmur.

"Ohhh...? Isn't that little Rufflet?" Maractus asked.

Buneary looked at her in surprise. "Oh! Ducklett's teammate, right?"

"Oh, you know about him, too, eh?" Grumpig asked.

"Yeah! Ducklett told me that he was... shirking work," Buneary replied, ending on a sheepish note.

Grumpig clicked her tongue. "Yeah, he was supposed to be helping out Deino with clean up duty, I think."

"Tsk! What a little rascal!" Maractus replied. "Guess we'd better go give him a telling off before Donphan does~"

"You bet."

Buneary frowned apprehensively. Oh no, she hadn't just gotten Rufflet into trouble, had she? She hoped not, though it was sort of irresponsible of him to just ditch his chores...

The girls all ran or hopped over to the ongoing fight. When close enough, Buneary got a good look at the bird in question.

He was a rather young looking eagle, with a fluffy head decorated with a single red feather. He was angrily trying to throw blades of air at the insect, who was mockingly dancing around the kid.

Grumpig stopped a small distance away, followed by Maractus. Buneary stopped with them, though not without giving them a confused glance. "Sh-Shouldn't we help him?" she asked.

"Nah," Grumpig replied with a shake of the head. "If he's gonna skip work, he'd better learn a thing or two about fighting while he's at it, eh?"

"We'll help if it gets dicey, though, riiight...?" Maractus asked.

Grumpig huffed in amusement. "We won't let the ninjask beat him half to death, obviously."

"Okay..." Buneary replied, still unsure.

She continued to watch the fight unfold, though it kept on going the same way, for the most part. The ninjask was just far too fast for Rufflet to keep up with, so all attacks just went sailing off target.

"Ahh, just hold still, you... y-you buffoon!" Rufflet yelled in a young yet pompous voice, looking just short of throwing a tantrum.

"Aww, poor baby's getting maaad! Hyee hyee hyee!" the ninjask teased in a voice that grated on Buneary's ears. He stopped weaving around to hover. "Okay then, kiddums! Gimmie your best shot!"

Rufflet growled and grew a ball of swirling air on the tip of his wing. He flung it at the waiting insect.

The ninjask laughed and zipped off to the side faster than Buneary's eyes could keep track. The ball of wind kept going until it hit some rocks, smashing them to pieces on impact.

"Whoops! Too bad, baby! Hyee hyee!" the ninjask taunted, drifting around in a figure-eight pattern while sticking his tongue out.

Rufflet let out an infuriated cry of anguish and stomped his feet. "How dare you, you... uh, you annoying fiend!" he snapped.

The ninjask laughed heartily. "Even your insults are lame, like your mother!"

Grumpig huffed, as if trying not to laugh. "Legends above..." she muttered.

"Don't speak of my mom like that!" Rufflet yelled, lunging at him with his talons.

Predictably, the ninjask zipped away at the last second, letting Rufflet grab at thin air. The bug doubled back and sliced the eagle in the back of the head with a pincer, earning a cry of pain. He zipped back and forth to slice him over and over again, his pincers glowing a brighter shade of green with each strike.

"H-Hey! Do you need help?" Buneary shouted to him, starting to get worried.

Rufflet twisted around to kick at the ninjask, though only succeeded in a light scratch on his shell as the insect backed off. Glancing at the girls, Rufflet irritably shouted, "Back off, wilds, I am not in the mood!"

Buneary flinched. Yeesh...

"Pft. Hello to you, too," Grumpig snarked.

"Don't worry, we're just here to watch~" Maractus chimed.

Rufflet huffed and threw another blade of air at the ninjask, missing in the process. "Good, because this is a fight between us two gentlemen. One to one!"

"One gentleman and a baby!" the bug teased, flying around erratically.

Rufflet only growled in response.

"Face it, bucko, you should give up!" the bug continued. "Before I make you go crying to Mommy!"

Landing, Rufflet growled. "No, shut up! I'm brave! I don't back down, no matter who the opponent is! I mean it!" He prepared another ball of wind in his wings, aiming for the ninjask who had decided to zip around again.

Before he could throw it, Grumpig spoke up. "Hey, Rufflet! Don't throw it at where he is right now. Throw it at where he's going to be!"

"Yeah! Cut him off at the pass!" Maractus added.

"Hey, where's my tips?" the ninjask demanded to no response.

Buneary looked at her teammates in intrigue. Oh, that was a good thing to remember, actually. She had to take note!

Sadly, unlike her, Rufflet just scoffed at it. "I-I'm fine! I don't need any advice!" he snapped indignantly, still charging his wind. Oddly, it slowly shrank as he continued charging.

Grumpig crossed her flippers and rose an eyebrow. "You don't, huh? Well then, I'm sure I don't need to tell you to stop charging your Air Slash, before Hustle stops kicking in and it goes completely feeble."

He spluttered indignantly. "I knew that!" he retorted, flinging the swirling ball of wind at the ninjask. It almost hit him, but was off by just a bit.

"What sort of ability makes moves weaker?" Buneary asked, truly confused. Had she done it? Had she found something worse than Klutz?

"The opposite. It inflates the power immensely," Grumpig replied.

Maractus giggled. "The less nerdy way of saying it is that it makes moves way, way stronger~" she replied, making Grumpig roll her eyes playfully. "Buuut, if you stop to aim, they get a bit bad."

"Oh... okay," Buneary replied, a little disappointed. And here she'd thought she'd found some solace...

She watched Rufflet throw another couple of Air Slashes at the bug, who was still happily zipping around faster than the once-rabbit could keep track. However, much to her surprise, the eagle had stopped trying to aim, and instead started to seemingly throw them at nothing.

When one of them clipped the bug, causing him to get caught inside of the vortex as it swirled along, Buneary caught onto Rufflet's plan. "Oh! He's doing it! He's throwing it ahead of the ninjask!" she said excitedly.

"Ooh, so he did listen!" Maractus said. "Even if he waaas super grumpy about it."

"Lucky shot, baby boy!" the ninjask said to Rufflet, picking himself up from the sandy floor and shaking himself off. "But you won't get lucky twi-"

"No! I've had it with you! Shut up forever!" Rufflet yelled, lunging at the ninjask before he could recover. He grabbed him with both talons and took off high into the air in a short, snappy motion. The cave's ceiling apparently wasn't an issue, as clouds formed above him, creating a small portal into the sky. He disappeared into it, bug in talons.

"He's really going to use Sky Drop on something that can fly, eh?" Grumpig said, smirking sassily. "Bold move."

"Let's see how it plays out~" Maractus giggled.

Buneary continued to watch with that in mind. After a short while, the ninjask fell through the sky portal and... rapidly flapped his wings, allowing him to fly again.

Flinching from the returning buzzing noise, Buneary pulled a face. Part of her wondered if that would happen, and, well, it had. Whoops.

"... That's it?" the ninjask muttered, voice echoing on the huge, empty ceiling of the cave. He began cracking up. "What a load of-"

"Nooooo!" Rufflet yelled, falling from his sky portal as it closed behind him. He rapidly flapped his wings, unleashing an intense gale of heavy wind downwards.

The ninjask was blown harshly downwards, swearing as he plummeted. He crashed into one of the rocks with a loud, painful crack, and plummeted into a rock pool after. He floated on the water, unconscious.

Rufflet slowly fluttered downwards and landed on the pool's shore, near the bug. "There! I... win, hooligan!" he gloated, panting from exhaustion. After all the moves he'd used in quick succession, Buneary didn't blame him for being tired. "Now you can... enjoy some jail time for... causing havoc since your... evolution, or... whatever the note said..."

The girls moved closer to him. At the same time, Grumpig pulled an elixir out from her bag. "You were a bit of a butt about it all, but whatever. Nice work, kid," she praised, handing it over.

"... Thanks?" Rufflet responded, accepting it from her with a raised eyebrow. "... Do we know each other?"

"Think about it, kid. Who else do you know that snarks all the time and has a best friend with massive tit- Uh, I mean with a massively fun personality?" she started, likely correcting herself because of Rufflet's age.

He finished knocking back his drink to look them up and down, the creases on his brows furrowing more by the second. "... The... crass ladies from Team Nebula? But I thought you were a... grumpig and maractus, though...?"

"Dungeon magic mischief~!" Maractus chimed.

"Oh..." He looked past them and locked eyes with Buneary.

She shrank back lightly from his frown. "H-Hello!" she greeted.

He blinked. "... And who's this?"

"Our newest friend~!" Maractus sang, lifting Buneary up and pulling her into a hug. "Flowery Buneary~!"

"W-Wallflower Buneary...!" Buneary corrected, being practically absorbed by her huge, slippery, bouncing bosom. Thank goodness the needles were gone, at least.

"Oh. Hello," he responded somewhat awkwardly, straightening out his feathers.

"Hello, Rufflet!" she replied, struggling into a more comfortable position so her face was free.

He huffed haughtily in response. He followed up with a surprised gasp out of nowhere. "Wahh! Why is her heinie showing!?" he shouted in a far less haughty voice, feathers ruffling frantically.

Buneary blinked. Her eyes went as wide as they could. "H-Heinie!? What heinie!? Where!?" she shrieked. What could he see? She couldn't see!

"Yeah, what're you-? ... Oh..." Grumpig started, petering off as she moved behind Buneary.

"What, w-what, what!?" Buneary asked panickingly. She squeaked when she felt a wet flipper poke her in her left bum cheek.

"... Kid, how long were you, uh... planning to go like this for?" Grumpig asked from behind her, sounding far more uncomfortable than usual.

Maractus gasped in surprise. "She's not actually showing, is she? We would'a seen that!" she asked before pausing. "... Wait, did we ever see her back?"

"Guess not...?"

Fully freaking out, Buneary struggled out of Maractus' grasp. No, no, no! They weren't telling the truth, surely! They were just kidding, right? She was bad at covering herself, sure, but her fluff let her hide that little problem!

... Wait... but she didn't have any-

She suddenly tumbled out of Maractus' grasp and harshly landed flat on her back. Dazed, she lay there with her legs splayed out.

"... Whoa," Grumpig muttered, sounding speechless.

Rufflet made a strangled noise, almost like he was gagging. Looking up at him, Buneary saw him looking very sick indeed. "Oh my Zapdos, her dirty bits are-!" he yelled, stopping to shiver. "Ewww, I'm going to be sick!"

Maractus giggled nervously. "Ohhh my, oh my, oh my... I didn't know we were in Freedom Coast!" she said in surprise.

Buneary's throat went dry and her blood went cold. Oh Arceus, please no! No!

She glanced down at herself. Between her legs, she saw a long line of lightly open folds, leading to a long pink crevice with a small bump at the end closest to her.

"Aghhhh, noooooo!" she screamed, face nearly melting off from heat.


Bradley panted while he eyed up the team who had banded together to try and defeat him.

Right now, Noctowl and the cheerleader Bradley guessed was called 'Oricorio' were laid out on the floor, roughed up and unconscious. The only one awake aside from the mouse was Togetic, who was looking around with panic written all over her face.

Bradley's frown lowered into a somber one as he breathed out a frustrated sigh. If only he'd been more efficient about things. There was no need to drag out such a pointless fight.

Well, at least he'd won. He hadn't been entirely sure if he'd be able to...

That said, he hadn't entirely won just yet. He slowly approached Togetic, who was staring back at him fearfully while on her front, still seeming too tired to move.

"N-No! No, no, back off, you brute!" she shouted at him. "No one else is getting groped today, you hear me!? Not by a staraptor or you or anyone!"

He sighed again and reached into his treasure bag. He fished around until he felt something that was soft and fluffy in his paws. Pulling it out, he confirmed that it was the seed that resembled a pinecone, albeit various gentle shades of pink and white, with a puffy, cloud like texture.

Holding it firmly, he wandered closer, ready to feed her the sleep seed. "Don't make this hard, please. I just... I just need you to go to sleep for a while," he explained.

"So you can grope me harder? Forget that!" Togetic retorted, reaching into her own treasure bag. After some frantic fumbling, she dug out a bottle of ether.

His frown deepened. Especially when he saw her desperately grab at the lid of the bubbling brown liquid. Ugh, damn it! The drink wouldn't fully relieve her fatigue, but she wouldn't sleep for long if she wasn't very tired.

He needed to act now, or he would have to hurt her properly.

"Hey, no, stop!" he shouted, running closer on his twos while lining up a good shot to hit her with the seed. If it hit her, it would explode into dust, putting her to sleep on contact.

"No way!" she shouted, finally getting a good hold on the lid and starting to turn it. "I'm not going down without a- Bah!?"

The feathers on her head ruffled harshly. Suddenly, her head was slammed into the floor, getting a muffled squeal of pain from her. Her head slowly and stiffly raised afterwards, though the completely pained and disoriented look on her face told him that she wasn't doing it of her own accord.

He stopped and gasped. Huh?

"Ow... W... What...?" Togetic muttered out.

Her head slammed into the hard stone floor again. It was lifted and slammed once again. And again. And again.

Even when her limbs finally went limp and she stopped making noises altogether, her bruised head was smashed into the floor again. A coin that had been lodged into her head feathers went flying out, rolling across the cave to come to a stop by Bradley's feet as he stood there, shocked.

But... B-But he hadn't done anything...

His ears pricked when he heard the low sound of chuckling coming from behind Togetic. It raised in volume until it sounded like full on laughing.

Bradley's heart skipped a beat. He recognized it immediately. "... Ben..." he mumbled.

"Mmm, that's right, little monster!" the fox responded, the calmness of his usual pleasant voice wavering in his amusement.

A blade of green energy appeared in the air behind Togetic out of nowhere. It was forcefully stabbed into something unseen, causing ripples of light to spread outwards from the stabbing site. Like a disturbed pool of water, the ripples spread across a familiar shape.

Bradley's frown deepened in confusion. After the green blade stabbed again, earning a grunt from Ben, the ripples intensified until the fox suddenly faded into view, his shoulder lightly bruised.

Oh... had he used a vanish seed to turn invisible? Or an invisify orb?

... How long had he been in the cave, watching?

Either way, shit. If he was here, there was no plausible way he could sneak the team away elsewhere. Somewhere they wouldn't have to suffer any 'justice'.

On that note, Ben plucked the bottle of ether out of Togetic's paw and hoisted himself up into an awkward bipedal stance. After unscrewing it, he laughed heartily and dumped the contents onto her.

"I'm sorry, but... how fucking retarded do you have to be?" he managed to say inbetween fits of laughter. "If they attacked you all at once, they would've won... but no, here's a stupid 'let's run around like fucking idiots' strategy!"

Bradley winced from the display. Especially when he saw that the fox's crotch coverings were starting to bulge lightly again.

Ben's laughter came straight from the throat as he finished drenching Togetic from head to toe in the fizzy liquid. "What sort of shitty moves are these, anyway!?" he exclaimed. "Nothing but awful luck-based moves and dancing around queerly! Yeah, that'll work!"

Falling back onto his fours, he threw the bottle as hard as he could. It went flying into Oricorio and shattered into bits, scattering him with glass shards. He groaned loudly and curled in pain, but didn't seem to have woken up.

Bradley's eyes stung. He hadn't wanted this...

His laughter subsiding, Ben lifted Togetic up by one of her feet. "What was that about 'no groping today' you said?" he asked condescendingly.

He suddenly tore away her chest coverings with his teeth, allowing her tits to flop close to her face from the gravity.

Bradley stiffened in shock. No, not again...

Spitting out loose feathers, Ben snickered. "Sorry, but I agree with the shitty staraptor! That's all a worthless pokémon like you is good for! You little sex obsessed bastards!" he sneered. He hoisted her in front of his face and allowed one of her dangling breasts into his mouth.

He harshly sucked on her nipple, making loud, mocking hums of pleasure as he did. Still unconscious, she whimpered lightly in what sounded like pain from the rough treatment.

Bradley balled his paws into fists. He couldn't stop them from shaking.

Ben stopped to cackle. "Oh... I hope she's having a horrible nightmare of that staraptor...~" he said, shivering in utter delight.

When Bradley saw him going in for another round, something in his heart flared up. "Stop it!" he shouted, frown going deep. "You made your point! She can't even hear you anymore, so... so cut it out!"

Ben stopped what he was doing to stare at him in surprise. "... Oh... so this is too much justice for you, now, is it?" he muttered, his once cruel smile turning into a stretched one. "I'm just... hmm... " His smile went into his usual pleasant one, "... making her punishment appropriate to something that happened earlier. Something involving a braindead staraptor."

"That's..." Bradley let out a long, deep huff. "... That's bullshit. She hasn't even done anything. They just wanted the special band we stole..."

Ben's smile went stretched again. "... It doesn't matter if they haven't done anything yet. All pokémon will do something horrible eventually. Just like how..." His nostrils flared up, smile threatening to falter, "just like how they pretended to be friendly to all the wonderful humans, so, so long ago. Then one day they fucking weren't!" He hurled Togetic away with all his might.

She went flying across the cavern and slammed into the spiky cave wall hard enough to disturb debris. Bradley gasped when he saw that a spike had made its way through her body. He was relieved to see that there was no gore, however. Instead, the penetrated part of her body had turned into a red light, shortly followed by the rest of her.

While the red light travelled elsewhere into the mountain, Bradley looked back at Ben, heart hammering in his chest.

The fox was breathing heavily, canines bared. After a short while, he took a deep breath and went back to smiling pleasantly, though it wasn't as wide as it usually was. "... Oh... well. Let's just find some items to confiscate, shall we?" he said, practically spitting in disgust with his every word.

"... Y-Yeah..." Bradley mumbled. "I guess..."

As Ben went towards Noctowl, Bradley couldn't stop himself from staring. Jesus, that was the first time he'd seen him act like that. And he'd known Ben for as long as he could remember...

... Well... maybe that wasn't entirely true. There were some other times he'd acted that way.

Shaking off a shiver in his spine, he went to put away the sleep seed he still had in his paw. His eyes widened when he saw the poké coin that had rolled out of Togetic's head feathers. The emerald studs in it showed that it was worth ten poké.

He stared at it. It wasn't worth much at all... but why had she kept it in her head feathers? Was it important?

He didn't know... but he had a hunch he should keep it safe and away from Ben.

After glancing at Ben, who was busy investigating Noctowl, Bradley shoved the coin into his ponytail of fur. If he shoved it somewhere with other coins, he'd only forget which one it was.

After doing that, he trudged over to where Oricorio was. Thankfully, he didn't seem to have a bag to steal, but he was still covered in glass shards, which looked painful.

"Say, by the way," Ben started. His voice was more like its usual self, meaning he'd hopefully calmed down. "You took your good time returning from dumping that machop somewhere. Did you get held up?"

"By shadow pokémon, yeah," Bradley replied, leaving out Eiscue's existence. "I had to travel more to avoid them."

"Hm. Okay." The fox clicked his tongue. "That's why, if it were up to me... I would've just thrown him over the edge, and been done with him. Far less hassle, and exactly what he would've deserved."

Bradley huffed quietly. Not a chance.

The mouse began to try and dust the glass shards off Oricorio. Some of the sharper ones stung his paws, but he ignored them. He didn't care about pain.

While he was busy helping Oricorio, he heard rustling coming from Ben's direction. He looked up to see a disturbing sight. The fox was standing in front of Noctowl, whose covers had been pulled off, revealing his bare ass.

"Whoops...!" Ben said with a somewhat guilty tone to his voice. "How clumsy of me. I was just looking for his camera, to clip away the pictures he took of me..." He shrugged, "... and then I ended up making him indecent. By accident."

Bradley crinkled his frown in disbelief. "... Really?" he asked.

"Hmm, really." He pointed towards the owl. "Would you mind fixing him up again? I still need to deal with his camera, while I can still remember."

Bradley took one look at the owl's asscrack before his frown went far deeper. "... Do I have to?"

Ben shrugged. "I suppose not... but I'm definitely not going to be doing it. So I suppose he'll have to settle for going bare, won't he?" He let out a chuckle. "I'm sure he'll greatly appreciate it...~"

Bradley sighed through his nostrils. Ugh. He didn't want him to be seen like this. It would be terrible for him. "... Fine." He wandered closer to Noctowl's back end.

Even though it was pretty gross, he took his time staring, wondering how he was going to do this. Maybe this was payback for the attempt at a quip he'd made before knocking out Eiscue, earlier...

He heard Ben fiddling with the owl's bag, likely looking for the camera. He didn't bother paying the fox any more attention, though.

A little while later and he finally figured out how to handle the issue, without accidentally shoving his paw up the owl's ass, or something just as awful. He reached for him and grabbed a handful of feathers on one of his cheeks.

The mouse snapped upright when he heard the click of a camera. He spun around to meet Ben, who was seated with the camera pointed at him.

Bradley frowned in confusion. "... Err...?"

"Oh me, oh my, sorry, little monster," Ben replied, lowering the camera to give him his usual hollow smile. "While trying to open it up, I seem to have taken a picture, instead. Oops...!"

"That's... Really?" Bradley asked incredulously.

"Mm-hmm." Ben effortlessly flicked open a hatch, leading to the camera's inner workings. "I suppose I'd better get rid of that one, too...~"

Bradley's brow narrowed. "... Yeah..."

Ben nodded and went to work on carefully checking through the camera reel.

Heaving out a sigh, Bradley went to smooth over Noctowl's feathers. It took a fair bit of shuffling - not helped by the owl's huge size - but he eventually managed something that looked half decent. The owl wouldn't find out what had happened.

At least... as long as Ben kept up his end of the bargain.

On that note, he watched the fox. He was busy carefully cutting apart the reel of film with a tiny sharp leaf on his finger tip, clearly trying to be as precise as possible. Eventually, his dispersed his mini Leaf Blade and instead emitted a thin, weak Solar Beam from his eyes. He used it to weld the two separated strips of film reel together.

When they were fully connected, his smile grew. "Good. No more pictures of me to worry about~" He eyed Bradley up, smile going lightly crooked. "... or you, I suppose...!"

"That's good..." Bradley replied, hoping he was telling the truth. After one of his stunts from earlier, though, he wasn't sure he was.

On that note... "Ben," he asked.

"Hmm?" Ben murmured in intrigue, closing the camera back up and placing it on the ground.

"Why did you tell them I'm a groper?"

"... Heh. Well..." Ben turned away, towards the bag. He began to sift through its contents. "... I just needed to give them a reason to come up the mountain, towards us. That's all..."

Bradley's ears dipped. "They would have come up anyway, though... We already stole their stuff, and the note we found in the stunky's bag mentioned that special band. It's already important to them..."

"Maybe so..." Ben pulled several orbs, wands and berries out of Noctowl's bag. It was strange how he didn't just dump all of its contents out, like he had with the stunky's and spiritomb's belongings. "But who cares? The stunky would have told them anyway, so I just sped the process along."

"I care..." Bradley muttered.

Ben huffed and looked back at Bradley. Though he was smiling, his gaze seemed hollow. "Oh dear, little monster. You sound like you're not happy with me..."

Bradley stared at him. He clenched his fists, and his brows furrowed deeper. "... No. All this 'justice' is terrible." His fists shook. "I'm finished. You can... make me do some training all you want, but I don't want to hurt people anymore!"

Ben continued to stare, his expression completely unreadable. After a small while of deafening silence, he shoved the camera back into the bag, walked closer and raised a paw.

Bradley flinched, readying himself for a punch. The fox, instead, used it to shrug.

"Well, okay then, little monster. Fair enough," he said, smiling pleasantly. His tone was far more chipper than expected. "You don't want to do this anymore? I understand..."

Bradley's brow furrowed in confusion. "You... do?"

"Sure! I won't make you."

Bradley felt a rush of relief bubble in his chest. "Oh... thanks."

"You're welcome~" Ben sat up and started towards the cave's entrance.

Bradley raised an eyebrow. "Uh, where are you going?"

"Home, of course~ If you don't want to help me punish pokémon for their misdeeds, then there's not much more to say, is there?"

Bradley's relief started to drain away. "Oh, I... I mean, I guess..."

"You can join me, if you like!" Ben stopped in place. "... Oh... except you can't, can you? You're not welcome there, anymore. Not after the horrible thing you did...~"

Dread and shame filled Bradley's heart. "... No..."

"Hm. That's a pity," Ben replied. He walked towards Bradley, his smile growing dark. "I suppose I'll just have to leave you here, then." He slowly started to circle him, letting his voice go deeper and smoother. "All alone... rotting away in a cave with no friends, or family to speak of. Just like how I found you."

Bradley's eyes stung. "N-No, stop..."

Ben murmured out a dark chuckle. "And now that you have a criminal record, you'll be a complete outcast, won't you? Not even the pokémon pretending to be friendly will want anything to do with you. Not unless they want you to go to jail, I suppose...!"

Bradley clenched his eyes shut and looked away. "... I didn't want this, though..."

"I know... but it's the truth." Bradley felt Ben stroke his head. He looked up at him in surprise as the fox continued speaking. "But it's okay... I can protect you... I can keep you company... and all you have to do is be a good little monster and do as I say. That's not too much of a compromise, is it?"

"... I... I-I don't know..." Bradley choked out.

"Heh. Here..." Ben sat down next to him and grabbed hold of Bradley's ponytail at the base. He tugged off the black and orange cover band the mouse was wearing to keep it in place and dropped it to the floor.

Just as Bradley wondered what he was doing, Ben pulled something out of his treasure bag and quickly tied it around the ponytail. Afterwards, Bradley felt the energy stored in his cheek pouches surge with power.

"I must admit, you've done a lot of good work today," Ben continued, his voice going back to his usual pleasant one. "So... here's a present! The before-mentioned special band~"

Bradley reached around to feel at the piece of clothing around his ponytail. It felt exactly like the special band. "... But... for me? Really?"

Ben gave him a bright smile. "Of course! After all, I care about you a great deal, don't I? I wouldn't have taken you on as my apprentice, if I didn't. I just want you to work with me, instead of against me. Could you do that for me?"

Bradley felt more emotional than he was willing to admit. Ben had never given him something so nice before. Even if it was the stolen item. "I... I guess... so," he replied, the lightest of smiles tugging at his lips.

"Good~! Now, then..." Ben pointed at Noctowl and Oricorio. "Throw those two worthless birds and the bag over the cliff near this cave. We don't need them anymore."

Bradley took a deep breath through his nostrils. "... Okay."

Ben gave him a pat on the head. "... Good little monster."


TO BE CONTINUED!


Finished: 02/12 (December)/2022

Word count: 15,209

VGS2's sausage notes: Oh, Ben, you're such a naughty little scamp. XP

Also, forgive me, Buneary! I told myself I wouldn't torture you anymore on this long, long day, but then I remembered your shitty fluff, and... well... I'm not one to pass up on an opportunity. XD If only her friends hadn't been too tall to notice her little issue.

By the way, uh... I was wrong about something, clearly. It turns out this is what we got.

Bubble Bobble Dragon = The Ultimate Chimera teaches his bird how to play on the Casio

Weed Cat = NiGHTS goes into the dreams of Yuri from Fire Emblem

Josuke Ducklett = Revali breeds with Cyber Peacock and creates a gay baby with a giant ass

So I rolled zero this time. Damn you, Game Freak!

(Fun trivia: Speaking of Megaman X... it inspired the pokémon titles of this fic! Before that, I was going to make it things like 'Snorlax The Relic Finder', and what have you. Something ravengal's now considering for her fic, at some point. Neat, huh? XP)

Today's shameless promotion: The Star and the Prince

Author: AnimeJewel246

Universe: A pokémon-only world.

Main species: A buneary pirate, a pikachu mage and a teddiursa thief, amongst many others.

Summary: Fate can be a fickle thing. Fate is what led to the three kingdoms of the Mysteria region to war with each other. Yet, in another twist of fate, a headstrong pirate and a timid mage, both with different motivations, end up meeting. After realizing their interests align, the two team up, setting off a chain of events no pokemon alive could have anticipated...

Romance: Promises to get romantic eventually!

Wackiness: Super quirky characters lead to funny times!

Lewdness: Not really!

Action: Lots of speedy action scenes!

Grittiness: Death threats are thrown about! Also, one character is delightfully called 'Rosalio The Blood Harvester', which makes me wonder!

Length: Looking to eventually be fairly long!

Y'know, the author nearly deleted this one due to low traffic, so I'm glad I managed to get to it in time to change her mind!

It's a very fun and quirky fic that sure knows how to make enjoyable characters! It also has pirates, mages, bandits, gangsters and a talking ninja knife. It's pretty crazy. XD

Now that I mention it, its diverse combination of themes sort of remind me of Guardian Heroes, an old beat 'em up game for the Sega Saturn and later Xbox 360 (but still not Steam or anything modern. Damnit, Treasure!). I just hope giant robots, angels, demons and a cool prince guy with twin swords and jeans get added to the fic at some point, just to complete the package. XD

Anyway, enough about me reminiscing about when games were cooler! Go read it and comment, now! :D


Fun mistakes of the day:

#1: 'Aghh, she sword,'

(Time for another ghost possession! This time, it's Aegislash's turn. XP
Sucks, too, because weapons are always instantly lethal in pokémon-centric fics, for some reason. She'd better watch herself!)

#2: "It'll give us something to do while we look for the net floor!"

(Are they looking for a Team Rocket trap, or something? Actually, now that I mention it, I should make that an actual trap. The net thing, not Team Rocket. XD
On that note, if you have any ideas for traps or items or whatever, don't be afraid to mention 'em! I'll pretty much do anything, at this point. XP)

#3: 'And there was a rumor going around that he would try and get girls to sleep with him instead of doing missions...'

(Er... what a scoundrel, I guess. XD "Don't feel like doing missions. How about we 'shirk work' together, instead?" *Wink*)

#4: '"W-What!? Looks like what!?" Buneary explained.'

(You can't explain out a question, you sausage! That defeats the purpose! (Unless you're saying something looks like a what, in which case, at ease, soldier. XP))

#5: 'Sneasel as brightly as he could, despite the circumstances.'

(He wants to fuck that shiny sneasel so much that he himself turned shiny, just for her. If that's not a sign of loyalty, I don't know what is!)

#6: 'considering he'd lost two expensive reviver seeds due to his good deal'

(What sort of shitty 'good deal' was that? XD Sneasel, work on your bartering!)

#7: 'considering he'd lost two expensive reviver seeds due to his good dead'

(Sneasel, stop trying to kill yourself! I know I've been rather mean to you so far, but still! At least stop taking those seeds with you when you do it.)

#8: 'Yes, consider it a reward for resc think, Spuing me, darling.'

(Oh shit, while I was typing something, the ol' laptop decided to move the cursor for some reason. Now poor Stunky is having a mild stroke! I guess that explosion did her no favors.)

#9: 'Sneasel pulled a tight lipped grimACE.'

(Thanks, capslock. You've turned Sneasel into an expert emo.)

#10: '"Aww, man... here's not here, either, i he?" Eiscue grumbled.'

(If here isn't 'here', where is it, then? XD What a daft bloke.)

#11: 'Buneary ran towards a rock poo and dived inside.'

(What a time for my keyboard to not listen to me. XD Buneary, what's wrong with you? Leave the rock-type toilets alone.)

#12: 'and feeling the cool water against her mist skin.'

(I think Ponytale missed a pokémon to accuse of being a cloud. There's one right here, apparently!)

#13: 'She did son with stylish twirls and poses,'

(... She did what to her son? O,o Poor, poor Cacnea Jr is going to grow up diddled.)

#14: 'Grumpig blinked. "... Good poo"'

(... I tried to stop my finger from tapping twice, I really did. XD Aye yai yai...)

#15: 'First, that surly-looking pikachu with a ponytale had spoken of some 'monster'''

(The damn mouse stole Sneasel's horse!)

#16: 'Rather that back down, however, the owl went even fat'

(Please stop eating, Noctowl! I beg of you!)

#17: 'Buneary didn't blame him for being titred.'

(Is that the act of being tired of tits? If so, I guess that's how people from the Mystery Dungeon Union Discord server feel when they read my fic. (Seriously, they're strangely prudish over there. No offense if you came from there, of course. You prude. XP))

#18: '"Our newest friend~!" Maractus sang, lifting. "Flowery Buneary~!"'

(I hope Maractus doesn't skip leg day!)

#19: 'Between her legs, she saw a long line of LIGHTLY OPEN FOLDS'

(I just imagine someone narrating this in a super macho voice. XD I guess Buneary turned into a Broforce character, or something.

Oh, on that note, I mentioned Broforce a few chapters back, didn't I? And now there's apparently a new update coming up. Am I a prophet, or something? XD Hope it's good!)

#20: "No one else is getting roped today, you hear me!?"

(Kinky.)

#21: 'causing ripples of light to spread outwards from the stabbing sight'

(Stabbing vision! *Knives fly out of Ben's eyes, like he's playing the Binding of Isaac, or something*)

#22: 'He flung Togetic away with all her might'

(What sort of judo technique is that?)

#23: 'As the fox went towards Jesus, that was the first time he'd seen Ben act like that.'

(Shit, I got interrupted at the worst time. XD Something inside tells me Jesus won't be letting him through the pearly gates any time soon.)

#24: 'He used it to wield the two separated strips of film reel together.'

(That's his plan? He's just gonna... hold both of the reel's ends together, and call it a day? XD Maybe if Noctowl's fecking blind, sure.)

#25: 'Ben murmured out a dark chuckle. "And now that you have a criminal records"'

(Feck, I imagine him saying this line in a 'can I has cheeseburger?' sort of cutesy voice and then crack up. XD Damn you, Ben, for ruining my serious scene!)


Welp, that'll do it! Thanks for reading, mate! :D

Oh, by the way... Fanfictiondotnet thought it would be an amazing idea to lock email notifications behind an option you have to toggle. And one that you have to toggle every six months, at that.

Make sure you go and toggle it to on, so you don't miss anyone's updates!

... And while you're at it, please turn off the swear filter, so I don't have to keep adding áccénts to my PMs to avoid being censored. The amount of times it looks like I said 'bitch' instead of 'bugger' is ridiculous, I tells ya. XD

Ah well, 'till next time, ladies and gents! Have a good one, and tata for now! c: