Wave after wave of blue flames crashed into her, pushing her closer to an awful cold.

The voice cried out one last time, desperation choking what hope it had left. "Save the Legendaries! Please!"

Confusion, anger and guilt boiled inside her, a stirring pot of emotion only lidded by a dominating need to help. Reality was only a moment away. "I promise I'll-"

The human's promise was smothered by a rush of water, as the warmth and light of the inferno was replaced by cold, uncaring water. A sharp chill sank into her bones as she tumbled through darkness, the brilliant blue having vanished completely. There was no voice to plead with her here, only endless black.

The first thing she did was flail wildly, determined to fight against a non-existent current. Her floundering took up precious time, long enough that when the human realized she was free to move as she pleased, pressure had already begun to build in her chest.

Instinct kicked in, and the human spotted a flicker of light amidst the watery depths, finding herself easily falling into a quick, but powerful rhythm. Strangely, it was accompanied by an unpleasant, dragging sensation. For a moment, she thought her earlier suspicions were true and the water had been conspiring to hinder her.

But no. As she swam upwards and light filled her vision, the human could see a blur of red and yellow where her arms should have been. Right. Fur would make swimming harder, wouldn't it?

She had to ignore it. One thing at a time.

Breaking the surface of the water, the human spat and spluttered at a mess of grey and white, a world her mind had no interest in making sense of until her lungs were satisfied. At most, it allowed her to recognize a part of it as a low-stone wall and she rushed towards it, cutting through the water with practiced ease. She threw herself over the ledge, collapsing onto sweet, sweet land…which was somehow even colder than the water. Snow. She was lying in snow.

Rolling onto her back, the human wiped the last of the water from her eyes, laying still for a few seconds while her heart drummed against her ears. Looking up, she saw buildings growing from the edges of her vision, reaching for a distant, white sky. Snow drifted lazily down from above. A single flake even fell atop the snout that had attached itself to her.

Again, she ignored it. There were more important things to worry about.

Sitting up, the human found herself surrounded by houses, only briefly taking note of them before her eyes landed on a stone fountain, just within arm's reach. She must have crawled out of it. And if that's where she had come from, then surely that meant the voice was down there too.

She flung herself back into the water without a second thought-

"OW!"

-only to smack off solid stone.

The fountain had gone and made itself shallow, now barely reaching the human's chest as she sat in it, rubbing her head. For a moment she envisioned herself drowning in such low water, but that couldn't be right. It had been deeper just two seconds ago. There had to be some trick to it.

Scrambling to her feet, she found that giving the stone a few stomps revealed nothing. The houses then! She'd drag out a resident of the square and make them explain their weird fountain to her. Stepping over its edge, she returned to the snow, feet sending a shiver of complaint through her body. Yet, the snow-laden square wasn't nearly as cold as she expected, now that her senses were settling down. The human was surprised she wasn't freezing, considering she wasn't wearing any-

Nope. She still wasn't going to think about it. Save the voice first, worry about yourself second.

As she marched towards one of the square's wooden shacks, the human couldn't stop herself from imagining the conversation she'd have to put up with. She'd have to breeze past any questions on why she looked wrong, and get them to focus on the mission.

Help. The. Voice. There had to be someone around who wouldn't think she was crazy.

But as the human stomped towards the shack, she noticed how…unnerving it looked. It was as if the hut and every other building in the square had been painted onto the wall, the only features sticking out being the windows and doors. They were all packed together so tight that there wasn't an inch of space between them, save for four alleys, centred perfectly on each side.

The human paused, noticing that a stone cabin, in fact, wrapped around the alley, its door awkwardly plastered onto the corner. And, with her ears finally free from the pounding of her heart, she realized just how silent the place was. It felt as if she'd been dropped in some play-pretend village.

Shaking the hesitation off, she arrived at the shack's door, and gave it a strong knock.

Nothing. She gave it another knock. Still nothing. She tried the handle. It didn't move an inch. Peeking through the window, she was met by a solid wall of black.

She tried the next house, a tall, crystalline tower. Knock? Nothing. Handle? Nothing. Window? Nothing.

Hurrying down the line, the human tried house after house. There were so many of them, there had to be someone around, someone to talk to, or at least to yell at her for-

She froze, having finally made it to one of the square's alleys. Lining its walls were yet more houses, with no end in sight.

"HEY!" she cried out, turning back to the rest of the square. "Someone get out here! There's-" how could she possibly explain the past few minutes, "-weird stuff happening!"

Silence.

"Please…?"

Her breathing quickened, puffs of smoke filling the air. Finally, the human realized she was well and truly alone.

Fine! That was fine! With, totally, completely renewed determination, the human rushed back over to the fountain. If there was no one around (which she was totally fine with by the way) then she'd just help the voice herself. There was probably some secret button around the fountain's edge that led to a trap door, or-or-

The human didn't make it far enough to search for the imaginary button. She'd frozen, having caught sight of something in the water.

A scared looking, strange, sopping wet creature stared back at her. Its dull red eyes were wide and frightened, the yellow whiskers on its face dripping pathetically. Numb, the human brought a hand to her face, and the reflection did the same.

Well, paw. She didn't have hands any more. Or a proper face. Or her body. Or anyway to help the voice, or to keep her promise, or-

Driving a fist through the water, the reflection scattered. That wasn't what she looked like! She was a human, she wasn't supposed to have whiskers, or paws, or fur! She should've looked…looked…

What did a human look like?

It was a stupid question. She was sure of it, mad that her brain would even come up with such a dumb idea. She was a human, so of course she knew what they looked like. They had… skin… hands, feet and… hair? Hair was different from fur, she was sure…

The paws rushed to her head, and began squeezing for even a drop of information. What did she look like? What color were her eyes supposed to be, her hair? Where was her home, how old was she, what was her NAME?

Nothing. The human's mind was a wasteland, with only the odd shrub of useless information. She knew nothing of what came before the flames, and she had no idea what she was supposed to do next. How was she supposed to keep her promise like this? What if she wasn't able to? If she failed then-

"Help!"

Her thoughts scattered at the cry. Whirling around as if she'd been struck, the human stared at the alleyway behind her, mouth agape and mind blank.

Again, a voice echoed out of the alley, "Someone, w-we need assistan-AH!"

The human blinked, and she was at the mouth of the alley, ready to sprint down it with reckless abandon and help the voice. Well, not the voice, this one was way more nasally and high-pitched. And it was that which stopped her.

She glanced back to the fountain, sitting alone in the middle of the empty, fake square. She had to go. This new voice was one that she could help-

NOT that she couldn't help the other voice, she just needed something to work with, some way to move forward, and this was as good a way as any. Maybe whoever owned the nasally voice could even explain how the fountain-

A sound like thunder cracked down the alley, followed by a furious roar. Berating herself for the seconds she'd wasted, the human shouted a quick, "I'll be back!" to the fountain, before bolting down the alley.

Feet beating against the snow, the human did her best to ignore the repeating buildings as she came to a crossroad of houses, hurriedly choosing the left-most passage as a loud, booming noise echoed from it, followed by a high-pitched squeal.

Her blood pumped from the mere atmosphere of the new square, but the actual sight gave her pause. It almost seemed the same as the last one, save for lacking a fountain and being a tad smaller, which didn't bother her any more, obviously, no matter how creepy it looked. The human would've been happy to throw herself into the fray, if she only recognized any of the things doing the fighting.

A purple-furred feline was running circles around her pursuers, one a pink, hammer-wielding gremlin, and the other a blue-feathered, dangerous looking bird, who flew above the fighting, far away from the gremlin's wild swings.

The pink gremlin was clearly furious.

"Haven't you ever been in a battle? STOP! RUNNING!" yet another swing went wide, and she growled as the cat's laughter filled the room, "GRAH! Corv, stop flapping about up there and help me!"

The bird, 'Corv,' apparently, was very clearly looking for a chance to help, only to have to pull back every time he got close. "I'm looking for an opening! Which would be a lot easier if you took a moment and aimed that damn thing."

Immediately, the gremlin came to a stop, pointing her hammer up at the bird, "Hey! Don't you DARE call my hammer a thing, its-OW!"

The argument had left the cat with the perfect opportunity to leap at her grounded pursuer, claws leaving a nasty scratch mark across the gremlin's face. Skidding a safe distance away, she turned back to point and laugh at her victim.

The gremlin was unamused, "I said STOP!" and the chase began again.

Just from watching, the human felt lighter. She wanted to join the fight, to chase the feline and catch her. She wasn't sure who the good guy was, but the cat seemed mean. She would've helped too, if it wasn't for the bird.

Having given up on helping the hammer-wielder, Corv's beady red eyes instead snapped to the corner of the square, and the human's followed. There, as far from the fight as they could be, was yet another strange creature, a fluffy little thing, who was searching through a small bag, nervously glancing to the chase every so often.

The bird looked between the two groups, weighed the odds, and then pivoted, flying across the room with his talons spread wide.

"V-Vivid, help!" the fluffy thing squealed, discarding the bag and pressing himself against the wall, as if it held some way of escape.

Straight away, the human's brain switched tracks. Alright, the cat might have started things, but the bird was about to claw up the most harmless looking thing in the square. Now she knew who the bad guys were, and therefore, who she wanted to punch.

Sprinting across the square, she caught up with the bird just as he began to descend upon the puffball. Leaping, the human managed to tackle him out of the air, bringing them both crashing to the ground. How had she leapt that high?

The question was flung to the back of her mind as she hurried to her feet, and seized one of the bird's legs, gripping it with both paws, "Who-" was all Corv managed to get out, as he was thrown over the human's head, and slammed into the ground. With the wind knocked out of his body, he gasped, just in time for her to swing him over her head again, and slam him back down the other side.

Again and again, the human brought him to the ground, until she felt his other talon desperately clawing at her paws. More aware of her loosening grip then she was the pain, the human spun 'Corv' around and flung him across the square. His limp body crashed into the snow a safe distance away.

Smoke sailed into the sky from the human's mouth. Her blood was pumping and she couldn't stop grinning. A part of her wanted to rush over and continue her assault…but the whimpering behind her needed to stop.

For some reason, the little puffball looked about ready to run for it if the human so much as twitched.

Was he scared of her? That wasn't right, she'd just saved him.

"Hiya! You okay?"

The puffball nodded slowly, eyes darting to the human's feet. Curiously, she followed his gaze to the ground.

"Oh," leaning down, she scooped the bag up, and offered it to him, "Here ya go," when he didn't take it, she tried smiling harder, "Don't worry, I'm not gonna bite you."

She chomped the air a few times to emphasize the point.

The clacking of her teeth finally shook the puffball from his hesitation, and he swiped the bag from the human's paws.

"Th-Thanks."

"Happy to help."

Just as she'd been about to (maybe a bit rudely) ask what exactly he was, a worried, "Corv!" echoed across the square. The pink gremlin had abandoned her chase, choosing instead to rush to her fallen partner.

Instinct told the human to strike, that the gremlin had left herself wide open for an attack, probably thinking that she could reach Corv before the human could (which logically seemed right to the human, but her gut told her otherwise) but she shook off the feeling. It felt dirty, underhanded even. She'd taken a moment, so it was only fair they got a chance too. She'd let them recover and then she'd beat-

The feline was on the gremlin before she got anywhere near Corv. She barrelled her over and gleefully unleashed a storm of scratches over the gremlin's face. The human watched in disbelief as the cat then hopped off the gremlin, snatched her hammer from the ground, and ran.

"Vivid?!" The puffball sounded ready to faint, "Don't leave me with-"

"MY HAMMER!"

His squeak was drowned out by the gremlin's furious roar, who resorted to crawling after Vivid on all fours, before quickly staggering to her feet and resuming their chase, "GET BACK HERE YOU LITTLE THIEVING-"

The outraged cries became echoes as the two left the square, leaving the human alone with the puffball, and the gremlin's forgotten, feathered partner.

"What a cheap trick," the human scowled. She'd been hoping to fight the pink one too. Looking behind her she saw that the puffball still looked terrified, "Hey, c'mon. I already said I wasn't gonna hurt you."

"Sorry it's just-" calming a bit, he shook his head.

"I-I didn't think we'd meet any other Pokémon this far down in the dungeon. A-Aside from the outlaws, I mean," warily, he looked her in the eyes for the first time, asking hopefully, "…are…are you with the Restoration Society?"

That was better, even if the human had no idea what he was talking about. "Restoration Society?"

"Yeah, the Society," he repeated, a confused look coming over his face, "Do you not know-"

"Of course she's not with the Society. Use your eyes, moron. She's not even wearing a badge."

Corv had dragged himself up from the snow, shaking the white from his feathers, and shooting a murderous glance at the puffball.

"Hey, go easy with the names," the human ushered the little guy behind her, blocking the bird's view, "Unless you want me to throw you about some more?"

"And unless you want me to claw you into scraps, you'll get out of here, Mienfoo," Corv shot back. The human could only imagine what the insult meant, "The boss told us to take care of the purrloin and espurr. So long as you stay out of the way there's no need for you to get hurt."

The threat sent a tingle of excitement up the human's spine. Throwing what she hoped was a reassuring smile back to the puffball, she stepped forward, driving a fist into her palm, "You want him? You go through me."

Inwardly, she squealed with delight. Not only was she going to get another fight, but she'd just sounded SO cool!

She was sure the bird was intimidated by her coolness, but he hid it quite well, spitting a, "Fine," as he spread his wings and began to flap them wildly.

Pleasant gusts of wind washed over the human's face, leaving her confused. Was he trying to scare her with his wingspan? The idea was swiftly squashed as the light gust built up, and with one last sweep of his wings, Corv sent two whirling blasts of air forward.

Instinct told her to dodge, and the human nearly scoffed aloud at her own idea. How was wind supposed to-

The spirals hit her before she could blink, and the human collided with the wall and she heard, and felt, a horrible cracking sound.

Thankfully the puffball had dived out from behind her before he could be turned into a cushion, "A-Are you okay?"

Rather than answer, she pushed him away, just as Corv soared across the clearing and pinned her to the wall. Her arms seared with pain as they protected the rest of her from a storm of furious talons. Desperate to escape the onslaught, the human leaned into it, before biting into the blue feathers, hacking away at Corv's throat with her teeth.

The pain was enough to force him back, where he took off from the ground, twitching. She spat out a mouthful of feathers. He seemed to decide that keeping a distance was the best strategy, winding up his wings again.

The human shouted, "Move!" to the puffball, before rolling from the corner and avoiding an incoming blast of air. How was he doing that with his wings? It was weird enough that the creatures could talk, but now they were doing magic?

The puffball scampered to one of the corners to watch from afar. With him safe, the human ran across the square, each blast of air that missed her creating a scattering of snow. As the shots slowed and the bird worked harder to keep himself in the air, she pounced from the ground, reaching out-

-and missing him by a feather. She was punished with another blast of air slamming her against the ground. Head spinning, the human spat out a mouthful of snow, her mouth sharply cold. How was she supposed to reach him? Could she do that? No, something told her that making gusts of air was a wing thing. The human would have to work with what she had.

Rolling over just as another spiral of air hit the ground, the human scooped up a clump of snow, and chucked it at the bird.

It scattered against his beak, leaving Corv shaking his head, "H-Hey, what are you-ow!" the human lobbed another snowball, then another and another, thrilled to find that her aim was impeccable. He tried to summon up another spiral of air, but each time his wings were met with a sudden, hastily made snowball, "Would you stop?! That's not even a move, you're just-"

The human lunged.

Corv had fallen just within arm's reach. An indignant squawk rang through the square as the human seized his tail-feathers and let gravity bring them both to the ground. The human's body ached from the crash, but it kept moving. Before Corv could recover, the human had flung her body onto his, and begun pummeling him into the snow.

His talons raked her belly, his beak stabbed her flesh, but the human kept fighting, kept beating every inch of him she could find. His attacks weakened, becoming less sharp as he merely tried to pry the human off him, amounting to one last, desperate kick that gave him just enough room to wiggle out from under her.

The human barely failed to grasp another bunch of feathers, leaving her stumbling. She corrected herself, ready to continue the brawl, only to see her opponent was rapidly gaining distance…a lot of distance…

"Wait," she called after him, disappointment filling her, "You can't just leave!"

Corv didn't look back, floundering into one of the alleys. The human nearly gave chase, but settled for a frustrated stomp of the foot. Well, running away was basically giving up, so she'd pretty much won. That's what mattered.

As she stood, bitterly triumphant in the square, a pulsing pain finally reached the human. The scratches on her chest, the arm she'd landed weird on and her back, aching from that first blast of air. All at once the human became aware of her injuries. Smoke poured into the air as she was forced onto shallow breaths, the cuts across her chest beating like a second, spiky heart.

Falling to her knees, she was only dimly aware that the puffball had hurried to her side, his voice sounding far, far away, "Oh my gosh, q-quick, eat this!"

Something round and blue was pushed in front of her face, and without hesitation, the human shoved it in her mouth, surprised to be met with a sharp, sweet taste. Juices burst from whatever she'd just eaten, sinking into her tongue and spreading through her mouth. A wave of freshness fell over her, like a cold wind on a hot day.

The blaring pain that had taken her slowly faded, and with a few blinks and a shake of the head the world was set right. Well, almost. She was still covered in fur, unfortunately.

"Woah…" the human inspected the scratch on her chest, and somehow, it had faded, "Woah! What did you give me?"

"A berry. O-Oran berry…just a plain old…" he watched her twirl about, inspecting her form in wonder, "…oran berry."

"Oran berry," she tried the word. The human had never heard of it, but then again, she couldn't think of any fruit off the top of her head, the sludge still mucking up mind, "Awesome. D'ya got any more?"

"Vivid told me not to waste them," the puffball said automatically, hastily adding, "B-But if you're just hungry, I do have a few pears…I think."

Her stomach was feeling pretty empty, "Oh definitely, I'll take whatever. Thanks a bunch!"

"Well, if we're just giving our supplies away, throw in a few pecha berries too. You know, just in case any of the pears have gone off."

"Vivid!" it was hard to tell if the little puffball said the name in delight or frustration.

But regardless, the purple-furred feline had returned, swaggering over from a nearby alley without a care in the world. Neither the gremlin, nor the hammer were with her.

"You. What happened to the pink one?" The human had sort of been hoping to fight her. She hadn't seemed like the type to run in the middle of a fight.

She was distracted from her disappointment by Vivid's yawn, "Oh, the tinkatuff? I ditched her hammer somewhere. She's probably somewhere out there, stampeding around for it. Anyway, I see that everything worked out just as I planned. I took care of Tinkatuff, Mienfoo took care of Corvisquire and you-" she gave the puffball a single, light pat "-don't have a scratch on you."

"You just left me with her!" Oh he was definitely frustrated, though his expression softened as he nervously looked at the human, "I-I mean no o-o-offence, I trust you now…m-mostly, it's just-" with a nod from her, he turned his attention back to the feline. "How could you possibly have known Mienfoo wasn't going to-to-to-"

"I had a feeling," Vivid shrugged, scythe-like tail flicking towards the human. "Besides, look at her. The mienfoo is harmless."

"Vivid!"

Harmless? She wasn't harmless! With every second that passed, the human was liking the cat less and less. And they both kept calling her that word. "Hold on a sec. Why do you keep calling me mienfoo?"

The puffball's expression turned to confusion, and Vivid eye's almost widened from their half-lidded state. "Is this a lead in? You're gonna tell us you're named too?"

Great. Another word she didn't understand. "Named?" Surely they didn't just mean that she was named-named? Everyone had a name.

Not that she would've been able to answer.

As the human cursed the mud in her head, Vivid turned to her friend, giving him a look. He quickly answered it with a low, "She didn't know about the Restoration Society either. Or what an oran berry was."

The human had begun to stare at the ground, thinking as hard as she could, trying to scoop away the muck that still filled her mind. It was fruitless, and worse, gave her a headache. When a moment passed without words, she looked up to see that both creatures were watching her, Vivid with a blank look, and the puffball with a pitying one.

The silence of the pretend-town threatened to return, "Stop staring. I'd like to see what you knew if YOU woke up with amnesia."

Vivid blinked and whispered, "Oh my Four."

"Vivid…" the puffball whined, shaking his head, looking away.

"What?"

"Oh. My. Four," she said again, chest beginning to heave.

"Vivid."

"Seriously, what-"

The human's question was interrupted when the feline burst into wild laughter, having to use the wall to keep herself upright, "Wh-Wh-Wh-HA! Hahaha, this has gotta be a joke! P-Please tell me you two planned this while I was gone."

"Planned what?" the human growled. That settled it. She didn't like this cat. Giving up on her, she turned to the puffball, "What is she talking about?"

But the cat just kept talking. "HA! That's insane, what are the odds of-"

"Viviiiid, please" he whined again, giving the snow at his feet a stern, "It's not funny."

A pang of sympathy resounded through the human as the sad little puffball held one arm in the other, shaking a little bit. She glared at the cat, whose laughter continued to bounce about the square for only a moment longer, before stopping all at once.

"You're right," but Vivid still wore the same, dumb smirk. "It's not. Sorry," she tacked on the last word with stale sincerity.

The puffball continued to stare at the snow below, not reacting to the apology whatsoever. His face was stuck with a sad, thoughtful, yet also baffled expression. How the human got all that from his limited features was a mystery to herself.

"I woke up all by myself like ten minutes ago and I was way less confused than I am now. Could one of you please fill me in on…" the human gestured about, at the looming, fake houses, hoping the question would distract the little guy from whatever was bothering him.

Unfortunately, Vivid kept speaking. "Well, let's fix that right now."

"First off, you're in a mystery dungeon. They're super dangerous mazes that like to plop themselves down wherever they please and mess with the space there. This place? Used to be a town. Founder's Town, to be specific. Ring any bells?"

The human thought deeply for a solid five seconds, and then grunted, shaking her head. The mud that had clogged her brain hadn't budged.

"Hm. Well, worth a shot. Anyway, second thing. Mystery dungeons get more dangerous the further down you go, more monsters, more traps, more weird nonsense, stuff like that. We are on…"

Vivid paused thoughtfully and, without looking, gave the puffball a small tap with her tail. He finally looked up, slightly startled. "Wh- oh. Um. The fifth floor."

"Right. So, when Founder's Town got turned into a dungeon, all the Pokémon living there got dumped onto the first floor. I mean, some of them probably wandered down a floor or so looking for an escape tunnel, but that's beside the point. We-" her tail dragged the puffball closer, and Vivid wrapped an arm around him, puffing her chest out proudly. "-heroically journeyed in here to help-"

"Hold on," there was that word again, the one the voice had called her too, "What's a Pokémon?"

Again, the human seemed to have caught them off guard. Thankfully this time, the puffball spoke up before the cat could start laughing at her again.

"Um…what you are?"

"But I'm a human." And again, they both stared at her. What part of amnesia did they not understand?

"You look like any other Mienfoo to me. Bit scruffier than most maybe," Vivid muttered, and for the first time, looked genuinely curious… only to blow an uncaring raspberry. She turned to her partner, "Ugh, there's so many species. Espurr, what's a human again?"

'Espurr,' the puffball, reached into his bag, fumbling with it for a moment, before he pulled out a small, red and white book, flipping through it. "I don't know. There's nothing in here about a huemen, and it doesn't seem to be a mienfoo variation either…"

"It's human!" the HUMAN corrected.

"Sorry!" Espurr quickly wilted under her outburst, nearly losing the book to the snow.

Immediately, the human felt guilty, "It's alright just…I am not a Pokenmom." It felt good to say so. That, or the oran berry wasn't done with her.

"Pokémon," Vivid snappily corrected, leaning forward to peer at her as Espurr mumbled another apology, returning to his book, "No memory, and you don't even know what you are. How'd you fight like that?"

"I do know what I am. Human!" she snapped back, before shrugging. "And I dunno. Instinct?"

"Instinct? Ohhhhh, I definitely shouldn't have left you with Espurr."

The 'Pokkénman' in question seemed to have given up on his book, placing it back into his bag. "It's fine. Mien- uh, the human is good, I mean. She really made sure Corvisquire couldn't get anywhere near me."

"'course not," the human said proudly. "No way I could just stand by while you were in danger."

"Ohhh, brother," Vivid's smirk returned, and she waved a dismissive paw through the air. "Back to the point, before we ran into your oh-so heroic self, we spotted those outlaws heading further into the dungeon. Seemed suspicious and like a good way to make a name for ourselves so we-"

"And because it was the right thing to do," Espurr hastily interjected.

"Mmhm. Anyway, we followed them down to see what they were up to, got caught, their boss sent those two goons after us and then you showed up. And now here we are," Vivid punctuated the end of her lecture with a jab of the tail. "Make sense?"

"Kind of?"

So, she was in some dungeon-town-thingy, five floors down, and surrounded by talking animals that called themselves Pokémon, who somehow didn't know what humans were. "I still don't really get what a Pokémon is though..."

"Anything that's alive," Vivid answered bluntly.

"That's… not technically correct," Espurr hesitantly began. "By that logic trees and other plants-"

"Look, I was just sticking to the basics. If you're gonna give her the whole spiel, grab an escape orb first so we can leave the dungeon," Vivid ordered.

Espurr nodded and began to dig through his bag once again. The word that stood out to the human was escape? As in, run away? "Wait, we're leaving? Now? But what about the bad guys? I thought you wanted to capture them."

"Seemed like a fun idea at first. Buuuut we've already burnt through most of Espurr's supplies and I went through my bag and chucked it a floor or so ago. Also, we've totally lost the element of surprise too," Vivid explained.

The human took a step closer to the two. She didn't want to leave yet! She hadn't gotten to finish her fight. "We don't need to surprise 'em! If the three of us work together, I bet we could take them down. Like you said, I took care of the Corv-thing and you were running circles around the hammer one!"

"I was, wasn't I?" Vivid smiled sweetly at the memory, "I'd agree with you if it was just those two, but their boss is around here somewhere. Now that we've lost his goons we have just as good a chance of running into him as we do them, and that is one 'mon I don't feel like facing head on."

"I…I can't find one."

Both turned their attention to Espurr, who'd placed his bag onto the ground and carefully placed a number of strange looking berries and books onto the floor, continuing to rummage.

"A-An escape orb I mean. Th-There should be another one in here but I-I can't find it," he whimpered. The human would've asked exactly what an escape orb was, but she was preoccupied trying to figure out how so many books had fit in such a small bag.

Apparently this was normal however, as Vivid paid no attention to the miracle bag. "You were supposed to be keeping track of them."

"I was! Or, I thought I was," shaking the now upside down bag a few times, a few more colourful berries fell out. Espurr looked at them like they marked the end of the world. "I think we gave our last one to those two goomey brothers…"

"And that's bad?"

The human did her best to stop any hope from leaking into her tone, but judging from the look she got from Vivid, it didn't work. But she couldn't help it! Sure the pretend-town or mystery dungeon or whatever was creepy, but she felt way better now that she had someone to explore it with (even if one of them seemed annoying). And there were still bad guys to catch and voices to help!

The human nearly cringed at the thought. She'd totally forgotten about the voice. Helping it out was way more important than getting a good fight in…but if they could run into an outlaw along the way…

Espurr looked up to her, horrified. "Really bad! I-If we don't have one, the only way we can get out of the dungeon is if we find an escape tunnel a-and the chances of that are-are-"

Even though she'd wanted to stay in the dungeon it felt bad to see the little guy so panicked. She'd of course been about to promise him that he'd be fine and they'd find an exit-whatsit in no time, but Vivid got there first.

Kneeling down, she began tossing the books and berries back into Espurr's bag, before pulling him to his feet, "Low enough that the sooner we start looking, the better. Good news, human, you might just get some more outlaw-action after all."

The cat had totally read her mind. She rubbed the back of her head guiltily, "Just trying to look on the bright side. But before that, I just remembered something! You guys said you came down here to save Pokémon, right? Well I know where another one is on this floor!"

Surely these two would be able to solve the mystery of the fountain.

Author's Note:

Oops. It seems like when I said "week-ish" I meant like a month. That's what poor time management gets ya. Apologies. As mentioned previously, writing hard.