Returning to the group didn't feel great. We'd gotten some more scoping out done, but nothing of real importance, at least concerning what was accessible to everyone. We hadn't found anything we could use as a bridge or any other path to get across from this chamber. All that was left was going back to the tunnels, but I wasn't super enthusiastic about it. That might've been our only option… because none of the others' suggestions were bearing any fruit.

"Hear me out: piggy-back ride," Lola pitched.

"No," Mr. Henry shot down immediately.

Lola hastily looked from side to side, as if looking for more arguments. "It keeps most people from touching the lava!"

Now Kieran had a stinger resting on his forehead. "Still! The lava's too deep for one of us to be carried over safely. Even if we can stay above the surface… it's lava! I'm surprised we can even be this close right now!"

All due to Pokémon shenanigans, I assumed. Sometimes, it was difficult to determine what stayed the same as when we were human and what didn't. I did not recall ever seeing a berry go bad on its own, like raspberries in our family fridge. Come to think of it though, hadn't we seen mold at some point?

"Maybe we can all go across lava without getting hurt?" Lola suggested.

Valérie scoffed. "You cannot be serious."

Lola nodded with that laissez-faire attitude she always had. "Micheal and Mr. Henry got across fine."

"They're Fire types."

"They're Pokémon!" Lola retorted. "We're Pokémon! I'm not saying to just cannonball into it, just to at least think about it!"

"Wait, I got it!" Gab exclaimed, her fist slamming into her palm. "Chloe, can I get one of your feathers?"

Chloe obliged without any question. I guessed that if we tested a sample rather than a person, we'd get a closer idea of the others' tolerance. That must've been what Gab was going with. Soon, a small feather was produced and placed on the floor. Gab picked it up. She then marched closer to the lava.

Wait a minute. Do NOT—

"Pass it to me," Mr. Henry demanded, palm up.

"Oh," she realized. "Yeah. Here you go."

I sighed while Mr. Henry made his way to the edge instead. Yeah, I'd rather not risk someone getting hurt when we were testing that possibility in the first place!

The Charizard held the feather delicately in his claws, getting it closer and closer to the lava. As soon as the feather touched the surface, it burst into flames. I couldn't help but gulp. God, what if that had happened to me? I just dunked my whole foot in there without knowing whether it would hurt me! Mr. Henry placed the feather on the ground. It had already been mostly consumed by the fire. Only a very singed and shortened quill remained.

No words were necessary. The example had been a bright warning sign.

"So, uh…" Kieran gulped. Again, no words necessary. Time to throw whatever else against the wall and hopefully it wouldn't end up ashes-up.

Chloe slowly turned to Valérie. "How much Hidden Power can you get out in quick succession?"

Valérie's eyebrows narrowed. "You can't… you can't mean cooling it down, right? That won't work. There's way too much lava. The water will evaporate as soon as it touches it, if not before!"

"No, no!" Chloe raised her wing. "I'm asking how much you can carry." When it was clear that did nothing to change Valérie's opinion, the Swablu clarified further. "How many people you can carry."

Valérie instantly shook her head. "That's way too risky! Come on, Micheal, back me up!"

Oh, so now the Meditite wanted someone else's opinion! My ear flicked.

"You did use it to push down the Gardevoir," I said, ignoring a hiss from Lola. Man! I regretted suggesting that Dark Trap commandment. I couldn't help it if that disaster of a battle had some good strategy examples! "It's still risky, though! Holding someone up could be harder!"

"Yeah," Valérie said. "Everyone would have to be still as stone for me to like…try. There's too much to keep track of."

"Wait," Kieran stood up. He glanced back and forth between all of us, as if something suddenly became obvious. "What if you did hold up rocks? And everyone else used those as steppingstones?"

Ah. You know, come to think of it, that was incredibly obvious. I slowly turned back toward the Meditite.

"… would that work?"

"Only one way to find out," Valérie shrugged nonchalantly, although her eye had a glint of eagerness to it. She stretched, then crouched. One arc with her right arm, and five sizeable water globs appeared before merging into a tall and wobbly column, maybe four meters high and with a radius of one foot.

Mr. Henry took a step back, not overly dramatic but he did have his eyes almost popping out of their sockets. Oh, that's right! Was that the first time he'd seen a Pokémon move?

"She's a Water type?" He asked.

"Nope," I answered.

"But she's blue, and—"

"Smurf type," Lola nodded.

"Let me focus!" Valérie groaned. A hush fell over again, but one of anticipation, not dread.

Mr. Henry put a hand on her shoulder. "You try it over the ground first," he stressed.

"… okay," she replied sheepishly.

This time, the Hidden Power plan started in earnest, a weird kind of telekinesis with extra steps. Valérie may not have had access to Psychic type moves, but there was no mistaking what she was. The water column slithered down and picked up some boulders closer to the wall, and rose back into an arc. The ends of the water didn't touch the floor, but an occasional droplet fell. From the ground, I could only see it sometimes, but the top of the rocks remained dry. Holy smokes, that really was an amazing job she was doing!

Chloe landed on one of the rocks. With her being the lightest out of all of us, that didn't seem to put more strain on Valérie.

"Easy peasy," she sighed, stretching her arm. She flinched a little when Lola barrelled her way to one of the middle boulders. Valérie rolled her eyes and her smile was gone. At least the water was still up?

Chloe fluttered away and landed back with us, and Lola hopped through the rocks to the end of the arch, not a drop of water on her either. The arch rid of passengers, it moved over the lava, small trails of steam rising up whenever a drop of water hit the stream below.

"Shall we?" Valérie gestured.

"How're you getting across?" Kieran asked flatly.

Oh. Crap, we should've thought of that.

"Piggy-back ride," Lola smiled, then crouched down. Valérie slowly got on the Absol's back and gripped Lola's shoulders as she tried to keep focus. God, I hoped this wouldn't end in disaster.

… it didn't. Lola passed above the arch as easily as she did before, and Valérie got off, back on dry land. After getting the go-ahead, Gab was next. She could glide, but not fly, yet got through it just fine. Kieran followed without a word. If something as small as an Emolga could get across, a Beedrill probably wouldn't have much problem. With Chloe flying to the other side, everyone who couldn't touch lava was through! Only Mr. Henry and I remained.

Valérie wiped her brow and let go of the Hidden Power, water and igneous rock crashing into the stream. The vapor billowed upward, curtaining my view to the other side. I didn't need to see to discern the mood, though.

"I did that!" Valérie celebrated. "I did that!"

"High-five where it's due?" Lola asked.

Smack. "High-three!"

As the steam dissipated, I nodded to Mr. Henry. A big Charizard grin had been plastered on his face since everyone else had landed across. We headed to the stream.

Don't worry. We can handle our own, sir.

It felt better to stop to look at things when there were more of us. It kind of took the urgency out of it, you know?

We'd found a landmark we hadn't gotten to explore with only two people. Another tunnel. Mr. Henry and I had passed it during our initial sweep but hadn't ventured far in. It forked into two paths pretty quickly and we didn't want to risk getting lost when this was a quick scouting thing.

We were about to vote on going in when a low growl caught our attention. That was the unmistakeable sound of a stomach grumble, and a loud one at that. Everyone turned to the Swablu.

"Sorry," Chloe sighed. "Can I get a berry? I'm starting to get a headache."

"Sure," Gab replied, opening the backpack and pulling out a Nanab. "Should we, uh, break for dinner?"

Mr. Henry nodded. "Maybe that's the best—"

"I want to explore," Lola interrupted. "We can't sleep here. We should get this over with."

"I want to find water," Chloe said.

Mr. Henry popped in again. "Yes, perhaps we should—"

"Come to think of it, what did you eat if you've been here for a week, sir?" Valérie demanded. "You find any water?"

"Yes!" He snapped. "I was about to bring it up. I know there are a few water sources out and about. Just look at the stalactites!"

"I'm not sure it's all drinkable," Chloe interjected. "If the stalactites are building up in the first place, that means a lot of minerals are in that water. Too much calcium would be bad."

"Oh my God, we are not having this argument again!" Lola snapped. It was weird to see her genuinely ticked off.

Mr. Henry rolled his shoulders and ignored that comment. "I did see a few different kinds of fruits. Some pink, a couple red ones that looked like cherries. A lot of blue ones… the ones like big strawberries?"

"Rawst!" Chloe cleared up. "Makes sense here, with the lava and all."

Seeing that Mr. Henry was still confused, Gab chipped in. "They heal burns."

Mr. Henry nodded at the Emolga. Sure, the Rawst berries weren't of use to him and I, but definitely an asset for the rest of the team. Not that it mattered in my case, but I liked them fine as well.

He continued. "The water sources are reachable, just not without crossing the lava some way or another. The pool I woke up in had a tunnel under the surface. I probably shouldn't have tried anything, what with those things on my back." He stretched out one wing shakily. "But there's a small water deposit with berries somewhere around here, in a one-way room. I remember there was a hole in the wall that let me see into here. If we find it…"

"We break the wall," Valérie concluded.

"Carefully," he added. "We break it carefully so we don't make that room collapse and lose the water."

Kieran spoke up. "Okay, so maybe Mr. Henry goes back to that specific tunnel, then someone keeps an eye on the holes in the wall—"

"I can do that, but you guys are using the buddy system," Mr. Henry scowled. "Everything may be topsy-turvy but we do not break that."

"Groups, then," Kieran crossed his stingers. "One group of two goes in the tunnels, another walks around the room to see where Mr. Henry show up, and the last one stays here to watch the berries and keep track of the meeting spot. Is that fine?"

Good lord, Kieran, we did not need your sass right now. Mr. Henry didn't have any objections, though. He started scanning the group to see who'd be where. I looked away from the teacher's gaze on instinct. No one ever recovers from getting called on for the spelling bee, I guess.

Gab raised her hand. "I have the backpack. I can be on wall duty."

"I can slash at it," Lola shrugged. Great. One group.

"Mm, yes, lucky that you can do that," Mr. Henry nodded. "What with there only being one of each Pokémon, like in the show. Like, uh… Pikachu's cousin who can fly."

"What?" Gab responded.

"… Aren't you supposed to be Pikachu's cousin?"

"I guess you could put it that way, but that's not—"

"That's the character, right? My niece watches it from time to time, but the only character I'm familiar with is the main one."

Lola gasped next to me. "Oh my god, he thinks there's just one Pikachu."

Kieran leaned toward her. "Hey, you weren't much better yourself, Miss Gab-lights-up-because-her-body's-a-giant-glow-stick."

"Okay, one, that was a joke, two, we haven't proven otherwise."

Technically, that was true. Besides, I was far too exhausted to argue. Kieran also looked beyond spent. He threw himself into a sitting position against the wall. I didn't have much room to guess what group he was going to be part of.

"I'll stay here," I spoke up. I had no problem volunteering to stay put. Kieran gave a faint nod.

That left Chloe and Valérie to enter the tunnels, and there were no arguments against it. I absentmindedly batted at a spot on my shoulder that felt dry and uncomfortable. Turned out something small and solid was just lodged in between strands of fur. It fell lightly on the floor, and I realized what those bits and pieces were.

…Rocks. There were pieces of rock in my fur, there because odd and small bits of lava had solidified there. Holy crap.

Maybe I should've gone on lava duty, like Mr. Henry. I was the only other one who could withstand lava. Although… Mr. Henry did say the tunnel was completely under the surface. I didn't do well with claustrophobia. At least, if I stayed with Kieran, I could take some hits from… I don't know, probably a Fire-type, guessing from the level.

I often overlooked the insane luck we'd gotten when first arriving to this place. There were six of us, and mostly well-rounded in terms of typing at that! We hadn't spoken frequently about the others on the bus. It kind of went unsaid that we assumed they were in other levels, making teams of their own and braving battles without us. But what if two students showed up as… I don't know, a Charmander and a Vulpix? Not only would there be two of them, but both would be completely helpless back in the lagoon level. Could that happen? If it could, how was that even fair?

Calm down. You don't know where or what anyone else is.

The teams decided, the group split.

There wasn't much to patrol in our limited designated area, but I wanted to scope out just a little. We'd settled on a nearby watch spot: a craggy ledge laid atop a cliff. The pile of berries stood still behind us. The stone was cool under my paw pads despite the magma far beneath. Still, the hot air could reach me if I leaned beyond the edge. Kieran chose to stay plastered against the wall two feet behind me.

"Come back here, you're making me sick," he groaned after a few minutes.

"It's fine," I assured without even facing him. I felt another rising current ruffling the fur on my face. "It feels good. Besides, you're the one who can fly. Why the sudden fear of heights?"

He sighed. "I'd blame it on the type advantage, I guess. Fire is super effective on bugs."

A magma bubble's pop reached our ears through the dry hot air. As I re-added that type matchup to my mental list, I turned back and joined Kieran near the cooler rock wall. He did look straight up nauseous— his face slick despite the fuzz, his wings splayed out, and his sitting posture hunched over.

"You doing okay?" I asked. "Would it be better if I stayed here?"

"Eh," he shrugged. Somehow, even though I couldn't locate his pupils, I could tell he was looking away. "Just don't fall in."

There was another pause before I spoke again. "You know, even if I fell, it wouldn't hurt me. I swam in it before. It's just a long dive—"

"Fantastic, can you breathe in lava? If the blow knocks you out, I can't swoop into it when you're drowning!"

I rolled my eyes. Valid point, but the delivery was dripping with enough sass to tell me something was up.

"What's actually wrong?"

I looked him in the eye as I questioned him. I wasn't as analytical as Gab and Chloe or as blunt as Lola and Valérie, but I had an advantage over them when talking to Kieran: I had been his friend before all this. Even on uncertain footing, I could get away with trusting my gut.

"I don't know about this," he admitted.

"Don't know about what?"

"Mr. Henry's the first non-hostile Pokémon we've met since the first level. It seems suspicious."

"Boss Pokémon have red eyes," I replied.

"So far, they have!" He hissed.

I was taken aback. Of all people, Kieran wasn't the one I expected to hide anything from me at this point. He was one of these people that let anything fester under their skin unless they took immediate action. There wasn't usually any middle ground. The dry air seemed to carry the tension directly, without anything between us except the heat. He looked at me with an insane intensity, a panic that had suddenly replaced all of his sickness. Was it nausea to begin with?

"Micheal, I don't want to be right," he said hoarsely, then cleared his throat. "I'd give anything for him to be for real. We need an adult here."

"Dude, are you okay?"

"It doesn't matter!" He snapped. "Don't make this about me."

"But I want to help—"

"Help out by thinking!"

He huffed at this, and muttered some more under his breath.

"Is my leadership really that bad?" I smiled. I didn't get a laugh. Kieran only managed a shrug and a sigh before turning his back against me.

We must've stayed there for an hour— in complete silence, minus the bubbling magma— before Gab and Lola came back with news that the watering hole had been found and the wall broken. During that hour, neither of us dared break the silence. What else was there to say? I knew there was trouble at every corner. I knew every other Pokémon we'd seen since Chloe joined us had been hostile. With good reason, we'd been doubting our path ever since the first level; there'd simply been one more variable added in the last week.

Besides, I didn't care if Kieran thought of me that way. I agreed. I knew I wasn't a good leader.