Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Chaotic Times Together

Chapter 1 - Finding a Partner

'Okay…One last time. Go over the checklist. Make sure you've got everything…'

With a deep breath to calm her nerves, Vylet opened up her adventure pouch and studied its contents carefully. The young Sneasel used her claws delicately to shuffle the items around, taking stock of everything inside.

'Food…lots of berries. Status healing…still more berries and Heal Seeds. Escape Orb…standard issue. Quick Seeds, Sleep Seeds, Reviver Seeds… Uh oh! Did I forget the Foe-Seal Orb? Oh no, here it is…'

As she went, Vylet kept glancing over at the scrap of paper sitting on the ground nearby, with a pebble on top to keep it from blowing away. Written on it was her full checklist of items and precautions. Every box was already marked with a checkmark, though that wasn't deterring her from going over the list one last time. It never hurt to be prepared.

"What's the holdup?"

Vylet jumped slightly and lifted her head up to gaze at her companion. The Quagsire standing nearby was giving her a friendly but mildly impatient look. "Huh?" she muttered.

"Didn't you already check all that stuff before we left?" he asked her, "What're you doing now?"

"Oh, uh…" Vylet cleared her throat. "Just…y'know, triple checking. Just wanna make absolutely sure we've got everything before we head in."

The Quagsire briefly turned and glanced over his shoulder. Vylet followed his gaze towards the mildly ominous-looking cave entrance that stood nearby. He looked back at her and gave her an odd look. "It's a D-rank mission," he said plainly, "It's not that big of a deal."

Vylet frowned and said, "I know…I just like being prepared." She then cleared her throat and zipped up the pouch before slinging it over her shoulder. "Anyway, I'm ready to go."

"Good!" the Quagsire said with a big grin, "I'm really eager to get goin'!"

Smiling, Vylet nodded. "I do like the enthusiasm." She walked up and stood next to him, and then both Pokémon looked towards the cave entrance. "Rockfall Cave…" she murmured.

"Hopefully the name's not literal, haha!"

Vylet turned to her companion briefly and said, "By the way, am I pronouncing this right? Your name is Levenez?"

"You got it," he said with a cheeky grin, "But, again, just feel free to call me 'Lev'."

The Sneasel nodded. "Well, I know I said this already, but it's a pleasure to meet you. I hope we can make a great team together."

"Heh. Likewise."

"You've got our mission, right?"

Lev reached for his own adventure pouch. "Yeah, I got it here. Don't worry, I remember what it said. We're collecting Silver Spikes from in here."

"Why are there Silver Spikes in a place like this?"

Lev snickered and said, "You trying to make logical sense out of a Mystery Dungeon?"

"Heh… Point taken." Vylet paused for a moment and then asked in a softer voice, "Do you think there's any bad Pokémon in here?"

"Well, if they're Rock-Types then don't worry, I got you covered with Water Gun."

Vylet looked over at Lev in confusion. "Huh…? I can handle Rock-Types just fine."

Lev looked at her, but paused before he replied. "Oh…Right, never mind. Forget that. Not an Ice-Type…"

Resisting the urge to roll her eyes and sigh, Vylet simply nodded. "Correct. Fighting and Poison Types."

"Sorry," Lev said, "I know you guys exist, obviously, but I've never actually seen or met one before."

"It's fine," Vylet said dismissively, "Don't fret about it."

Lev then cleared his throat. "Well anyway, should we get going?"

"Do we have everything prepared and ready?" Vylet asked, but Lev was already in the process of entering the cave as she did. "Wh-Ah! Okay, then," she stammered as she hurried to catch up with the gait of the larger Pokémon.

The two stepped over to the mouth of the cave. From outward appearances, there was nothing spectacular or noteworthy about it. Simply put, it just looked like a cave in a wall. One step past the threshold, though, was enough proof that this was more than just a simple cave. Vylet shivered slightly as the now-familiar sensation washed over her. Stepping into a Mystery Dungeon always felt like stepping into somewhere different, somewhere that was just not right.

From the mouth of the cave, a simple straight tunnel lead forwards into the dark depths that lay beyond. Even with the light filtering in through the cave's opening, Vylet could hardly see more than a few metres in.

"Yup," Lev commented, "Dark. Just as I figured." The Quagsire then opened up his adventure pouch again.

Vylet chuckled softly in amusement at the notion of discovering that a cave was, in fact, dark. It made logical sense that caves would be dark. But, of course, Mystery Dungeons didn't tend to follow logic. Some cave-like Mystery Dungeons were illuminated as if by the light of day, and nobody knew why. Unfortunately, that didn't seem to be the case for this one.

The Sneasel jumped slightly as an object was suddenly held in front of her. "Ah. Thanks," she said as she grabbed the headlamp from him and strapped it onto her forehead. Delightful tools, they were. A simple headband-like strap that held a circular recessed piece of metal at the front. Attached inside of the metal was a small fire crystal. Once the headlamp was in place, she reached up with her claw and tapped the crystal. A tiny flame sparked to life inside of it, which was enough to provide a beam of light ahead of her so she could see.

Lev had also put on his own headlamp and turned it on. "Onwards!" he proclaimed excitedly, and then started to make his way down the tunnel.

Vylet again had to hurry to catch up with him, but was soon walking behind him as the two made their way inside. She suppressed a shiver and did her best to calm her nerves. It was certainly not the first time she had ever gone into a Mystery Dungeon, but it was still a nervous experience to her. These places were just so strange and, to hit the nail on the head, mysterious. They defied explanation and weren't always the safest place to be.

Briefly, she glanced down at her torso and caught a glimpse of the white scarf around her neck that was draped across her purple-furred chest. Attached to the front of the fabric, proudly on display, was her badge. A guild badge. Her guild badge.

Looking at it was a reminder that she had earned this badge. She deserved it, and she deserved to wear it. ' You're a member of the guild,' she told herself, ' You passed the entry test, you cleared basic training, you've got this.'

Finally, the pair came to the first of what would be countless intersections. Mystery Dungeons always oriented themselves like twisted mazes, and this one was no exception.

"So, what's your strategy for picking directions?" Vylet asked.

"Strategy?" Lev replied in a slightly incredulous voice, "I just go with my gut! These dungeons are random, right? So what does it matter?"

Taken aback slightly, Vylet replied, "Yeah, but-"

"C'mon, let's go this way!" Lev interjected, and the Quagsire promptly turned and walked down the left passage.

"Oh! Uh…O-okay?"

Vylet once again fell into step behind the Quagsire. The meager light from the entrance faded away, leaving only the light from their headlamps. The strange energy of the Mystery Dungeon could be felt all around them, as if the air were just two percent thicker than usual. Vylet wondered if she would ever get used to it.

Since it was too early to start looking for Silver Spikes, as they were reported to be a couple floors down, Vylet followed silently behind her Quagsire companion as her mind started to wander. She couldn't help but give Lev a critical eye. She had only met him yesterday for the first time and she knew not to judge a book by its cover, but she couldn't help but wonder. Could this really be her future partner walking in front of her?

After all, that was the reason why she and Lev were on this mission in the first place. Vylet was looking for a partner to form a team with, and this was a trial run to see if the two of them were compatible as a team.

It had been more than a month since Vylet had officially joined the guild, and she was still without a partner. Most Pokémon tended to join the guild as a pre-existing team, but not Vylet. She still needed to find someone. Guild regulations specified that all members need to participate in teams of at least two Pokémon, mostly for safety reasons. Singular Pokémon could still join the guild, but they would be expected to eventually find a partner. However, unpartnered Pokémon were only permitted to take on D-Rank missions, and this restriction extended to unofficial team-ups like this one.

Vylet had already been on three trial missions with potential teammates that simply didn't work out, so she was hoping that the third time was the charm. She didn't know what the time limit was, but she knew that if she didn't form a team soon then she would be kicked out of the guild entirely.

"There's the stairs!" Lev suddenly piped up.

"Wha? Already?" Vylet remarked as she peered past the larger Pokémon's frame. The light from both headlamps shined into a small open room, where a set of rough steps were leading down into the floor.

"Hah! See? Wha'd I tell ya? Always go with your gut and you'll succeed."

Vylet gazed up at him for a moment and thought about saying something, but decided to bite her tongue. "Well, I'm just glad we found it. Let's head down to the next floor then."

"Right! Follow me!"

The pair's exploration into the Mystery Dungeon was thankfully uneventful, and soon they found themselves on the third floor down. Of course this was to be expected from a dungeon hosting a D-Rank mission, but Vylet was still thankful they hadn't run into anyone unsavoury. They had, however, come across quite a few small berry bushes along the way and picked up some extra berries to take back with them.

"We start looking now, yeah?" Vylet asked.

"Already found one!" Lev called out, his voice sounding much further away than expected.

Vylet looked over in surprise, seeing that he had run down to the end of a short corridor without her. She stood there for a moment with a furrowed brow, and then ran off to join him.

"There's more room in my pouch, so we'll store 'em in there," Lev said to her.

"Okay. Sounds like a plan," the Sneasel replied. She looked at the object that Lev was holding up. A long metallic spike, silver in colour, with an unusual carved design on the end that resembled a tied ribbon; a Silver Spike.

"How many did the client want?" she asked.

"At least thirty," Lev replied, "but the more, the better."

"Oh, there's another one just down there!"

The pair started to roam this floor of the Mystery Dungeon, collecting Silver Spikes wherever they could find them. This was what a lot of D-Rank missions entailed. Namely, item-gathering missions. Not the most exciting or fulfilling task, but at least Vylet knew she was helping someone out.

Vylet followed along behind Lev, who was intrepid in his search for the scattered items. They would split up whenever they reached a room, which usually had a couple of Silver Spikes lying about, and then Lev would pick another corridor to head down.

Soon enough, by Vylet's count, they had gathered fifteen of the items. "Nice work," she complimented her potential partner, "The stairs were back in that last room, but should we keep looking up here for a bit?"

"Nah, we might as well head down if we know where the stairs are!" the Quagsire said to her with a grin.

"You think so? Okay…"

The pair returned down the corridor they had just come through and returned to the previous room. Vylet shone her headlamp around for a bit until it illuminated the set of stairs she had spotted earlier. Lev hopped over and quickly rushed down the stairs, and Vylet followed behind him a moment later.

Now on the fourth basement floor, they found themselves in a completely empty room. There were three corridors leading out of the room, and Lev was already looking at each of them with a critical eye. "Hmmm…" he murmured softly, "None in this room, which means there's gotta be tons in the other rooms. Hm? Right?"

Vylet didn't answer right away. She was looking down one of the corridors. Right before Lev had started speaking, Vylet could have sworn that she'd heard a noise. Things were generally pretty quiet inside of Mystery Dungeons that weren't actively occupied. However, Lev's talking had drowned out whatever noise it was, and now Vylet wasn't completely sure if she'd actually heard anything or if she was just imagining things.

"I'm gonna eat one of our apples, okay?"

Finally Vylet perked up. "Huh? Wha? Oh, yeah, sure."

Lev gave her a look with an arched eyebrow. "You good?"

Vylet blinked. "Yeah…Yeah, I'm fine."

"A'right…" Lev shrugged and retrieved the shiny red fruit from his pouch.

While the Quagsire quickly scarfed the food down, Vylet idly glanced down that corridor again. Since Lev wasn't talking, she was listening to see if she could hear the sound again. However, the only thing she could hear was the quiet sounds of Lev's chewing.

Eventually she shrugged and gave up, reasoning that she must've imagined it. Lev had finished his apple by this point and started marching ahead down one of the other corridors, so Vylet followed him once again.

"None in this room either?" Lev spoke up once they came across another room at the end of the hallway, "That's weird."

"Hm? No spikes?" Vylet asked.

"Must just be bad luck. There'll be plenty around here somewhere…" Lev murmured, mostly to himself. He started to wander over to one of the room's exits.

Vylet grumbled softly under her breath as she followed behind the Quagsire. Once she stepped into the passage way, though, her ears perked up suddenly. There was that sound again, and she was sure she'd heard it this time. The tunnels were acting as an echo chamber so she had no idea where it was coming from, and it sounded quite distant and indistinct, but she could definitely hear something. As she walked up to an intersection of tunnels, she paused for a moment to listen closely and try to figure out the sound's direction.

"Hang on…" she spoke up, "I…think we might not be alone down here…" She shivered for a moment and tried to get her nerves under control. If there were other Pokémon inside of this Mystery Dungeon, there was very little chance that they were any kind of nice, friendly Pokémon. From all of her prior training and what little experience she had so far, she knew that Pokémon in Mystery Dungeons were almost always up to no good. It would be in their best interest to avoid them completely, but that was usually out of the question. Still, though, she recalled from her training that it would be a good idea to stay quiet and at least try to sneak to the next floor undetected.

"Aha! They're over here!" Lev's loud voice suddenly boomed.

Vylet nearly leapt right out of her skin in shock, having been so tensed up before. She whipped her head over her shoulder, ready to shush and scold the Quagsire, but she was surprised to find he was no longer there. She looked around in confusion for a moment before she just barely caught a glimpse of Lev's blue tail disappearing around a corner down one of the many passageways. In seconds, he was out of sight.

"Wh…?! Hey!" she called out to him, now that stealth was thrown out the window, and took off running down the passageway. She got to the corner as quick as she could, but was hit with dismay the moment she rounded it and saw another intersection. Lev was nowhere in sight. There were three different directions for her to choose from, and she had no idea which way the Quagsire had gone. "Lev?" she called out.

There was no response. Vylet just stood there for a moment in disbelief, and then she clenched her claws tightly and growled softly. " Idiot…" she seethed softly. Without much choice, Vylet picked one of the directions at random and started running down it. "Lev?" she called out as she ran, "Lev, where'd you go? You left me behind! We're supposed to stick together! What're you doing?!"

She heard no reply besides her own echo. Either Lev couldn't hear her, or he was actively ignoring her. A little bit of panic started to seep in, which Vylet did her best to quell. She told herself that she just needed to find him again. After all, he wouldn't be dumb enough to go down to the next floor without her, right? Vylet increased her pace as she ran down the tunnels, hoping to catch up with him as soon as possible.

When she rounded the next corner there was still no Quagsire in sight, but she did finally hear something. Unfortunately, she could tell even through the echo that it wasn't Lev's voice. Whatever other Pokémon she had heard before was yelling something now. If this other Pokémon was an enemy, which was a very likely possibility, then they knew about her and Lev's presence by now. Another brief spike of panic hit her as she wondered if they were now being actively sought out.

Vylet cracked her knuckles as she rounded the next corner. She was no stranger to getting into a battle, but that certainly didn't mean she enjoyed it. D-Rank missions weren't supposed to involve battling of any kind, though only so much could be done to control that. Vylet was just hoping she would run into her errant partner before these unknown Pokémon.

The Sneasel rounded a few more corners, still hearing screams and yells in the distance. She even came across a few Silver Spikes along the way, but passed by them without a second thought. Finally, she rounded one more corner and came to an open room where she finally saw someone else, thanks to a large fire crystal resting in the corner of the room that provided light. Unfortunately, who she saw wasn't a Quagsire.

Immediately, Vylet could see three Pokémon in the room. One was a large Granbull, standing tall with large, flexing muscles. The Fairy-Type was actively growling and was probably the one she heard shouting earlier. Next to the Granbull was a Boldore. Of course, Boldore didn't have conventional faces and couldn't make facial expressions, but that didn't mean this one was any less menacing.

The third Pokémon was lying haphazardly on the ground beneath the other two, looking up at them with a terrified expression. It was an Eevee with very dirty, messy fur and a male fur pattern on the tail. There was a small trickle of blood leaking out the corner of his mouth.

Vylet's first instinct was to turn tail and run away before they noticed her, but she paused as she took in the scene again. It was clear to see that this Eevee wasn't an enemy, but rather someone in trouble. These other two Pokémon were antagonizing him, which is probably what all of the shouting had been about.

The Eevee noticed her and yelped in surprise. Unfortunately, this caused the other two to quickly turn and look at her. Vylet tensed up.

"Who the hell're you?" the Boldore demanded in a deep, masculine voice.

"Someone else movin' in our turf!" the Granbull replied in an even deeper voice.

Vylet's heart hammered in her chest for a few seconds, but then she clenched her claws and made a snap decision. "What's going on here?" she demanded in an authoritative voice as she stepped into the room.

"Aw crap, Marz," the Boldore spoke up, "She's from the guild. She got a scarf."

"So?" the Granbull, apparently named Marz, shot back, "Guild schmild. If she knows what's good for her, she'll turn around and get outta this dungeon."

While the two larger Pokémon were distracted, the Eevee started to hastily scramble away, trying to make an escape.

Marz's large ear twitched immediately. "'Ey!" he exclaimed. He then wheeled around on the spot, drew his hind leg back, and delivered a bright glowing Mega Kick right into the Eevee's stomach. The Eevee wailed in pain and went sailing through the air across the room. Vylet winced as he smashed hard to the ground on the far side of the room. It looked like he had slammed right into the wall.

"Don't you even think about leavin'!" Marz shouted at him, "I ain't done with you yet!"

Vylet immediately ran into the room fully and stopped just before the two. "All right, that's quite enough!" she exclaimed and then raised her claws into a fighting pose, "Leave him alone!"

"I thought we told you to scram!" the Boldore challenged, taking a menacing step towards her.

"Don't bother, Rolf," Marz said as he turned to face her as well, "She's obviously hard of hearin'. We'll need to get our message through to her the hard way."

Vylet gulped and again steeled her nerves. These were the types of ne'er-do-wells that one usually wouldn't encounter on anything below a B-rank mission. This wasn't something she had been prepared to do today, nor was it something she was officially trained for. But, again, Vylet was no stranger to getting in battles.

Marz had raised up to his full height and was giving her a menacing, intimidating look. Rolf, the Boldore, seemed a little more hesitant. "Marz, she's guild. She's got combat trainin'. Don't get cocky."

Vylet narrowed her gaze. It was true that she'd had combat training, although these two didn't need to know that she had only passed the basic course so far.

Marz, however, started to laugh. "What are ya, an idiot?" he bellowed, "Pay attention, rocks-fer-brains! Here, lemme spell it out for ya. That's a Sneasel, you're a Rock-Type, and though I loathe the name, I'm a Fairy-Type. We both got the advantage! She's toast!"

For a moment, Vylet just stared at the two, processing what they had just said in disbelief. She then relaxed herself somewhat, rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Morons…" she mumbled under her breath, as suddenly all of the tension she had felt about this upcoming fight vanished completely.

Marz grinned menacingly and took a step towards her. "Last chance, Sneasel. Run away or get flattened."

Vylet just stood up straight and crossed her arms. "Go ahead," she said, "Try me."

Both of the others shared a glance and chuckled. "Your funeral!" Rolf exclaimed and then he took a leap forward. He landed in front of Marz, quickly dug his legs into the ground and let out a mighty growl as he flung them upwards, releasing a ton of small and medium-sized rocks through the air towards her.

Vylet faced down the Rock Slide attack unflinchingly. She held her ground at first, then quickly brought up her claws and started punching the rocks as they came towards her. Most of them burst into dust like they were made of chalk. A few of the rocks did slip past and strike her, but Vylet shrugged them off like they were tiny pebbles. Once the attack finished, she had nothing more than a few blemishes on her fur.

"What th-?" was all Rolf could say before Vylet immediately dashed towards him. He tried to skitter back, but she skidded to halt right before him, crouched down, and swung her leg out in a fast, sweeping motion. Her Low Kick connected right into the side of Rolf's head, causing him to cry out in pain and tumble to the ground nearby.

Vylet sensed something over her shoulder, and turned to see Marz advancing on her. He was already too close to dodge his attack, but Vylet smirked when she saw that his paws, curled into fists, were dimly glowing pink. He closed the distance and stated rapidly punching and smacking her. She was able to block a few of his strikes with her arms, but he was moving so fast that most of them struck her.

They barely hurt. Vylet could feel the mildly fizzly, almost magical sensation of the Fairy-Type attack. Normally a move like this, Play Rough, would use that energy to disrupt the target's nerves to cause more damage. Vylet's body, though, was pretty much unaffected.

Once his attack finally ended, Vylet caught him off guard with a sudden Quick Attack. He stumbled back with a surprised grunt and fell onto his back. A shadow then engulfed her, and she turned back to see a couple much larger rocks being hurled in her direction. Vylet quickly dodged to the side of the Rock Tomb attack, though she couldn't move far enough to dodge the last boulder. Instead, she faced it head-on and gave it a quick Brick Break, shattering it into two.

"What's with this broad?!" Rolf shouted, and then cried out in fear when she rushed him again. He tried to set up another Rock Slide, but Vylet was too fast for him. Her claw reared back and delivered another sharp Brick Break right to Rolf's face with an audible crack sound. The Boldore groaned in pain and then crumpled to the ground.

Vylet then turned around and saw that Marz was still standing up from being knocked down earlier, and he looked a bit disoriented. Vylet quickly dashed silently into his blind spot. Before he managed to spot her, he let out a sudden cry of pain.

The Granbull turned over his shoulder and glared at the Sneasel. He grunted in pain as she pulled her claws out from the base of his shoulder. Blood poured out, but the wound was relatively shallow. Marz tried to whirl around so he could attack her, but found himself stumbling instead. He held a paw up against the wound, and seethed in pain.

"What…" he muttered weakly, staring at the Sneasel's claw. It was dimly glowing purple. "What the hell are you…?"

Vylet allowed herself a little smirk as she stepped back, watching the effects of her Poison Jab attack take effect. "I'm not Dark/Ice, you idiot."

His eyes widened, as if he was finally taking notice of her differing fur colour. "That's…That's impossible."

"No it's not," she replied flatly, "You just need to read more books. Or learn how to read."

Vylet took another step back so that both of her foes were in view. The Boldore, smashed by her Fighting-Type move, and the Granbull, suffering from her Poison-Type move. She couldn't possibly have asked for a better matchup. With Marz stumbling around weakly thanks to the effects of her poison, and Rolf seeming to be unable to stand up, Vylet reached into her pouch and took out an object.

She held up the purple sphere, which was translucent and seemed to have a pinkish mist swirling inside. "Goodnight," she said simply, and then tossed the Foe-Seal Orb right between the two. The orb cracked open upon hitting the ground and there was a brief white flash. Neither of her opponents even had a chance to say anything before they both slumped to the ground lethargically. Neither of them would be moving for quite a while.

Vylet then let out a breath of relief and shook off the last of her nerves. It took her a few moments to fully relax now that the battle was over, though her heart was still hammering in her chest from the pure adrenaline.

'That could have gone badly…' she thought, 'Very badly. Especially since that clown decided to ditch me so I was all alone. Thank heavens for the type matchup…'

Once all the post-battle jitters were out of her system, Vylet turned her attention to the other occupant of the room. With the large fire crystal in the room, she had no problem seeing where the Eevee had ended up. He was still in the room, and it was clear to see once she got closer why he hadn't taken the chance to escape.

Vylet winced at the sight. The Eevee was laying in a heap against one of the room's rocky walls, with his head pressed right against the wall. There was no massive blood splatter, thankfully, but there was no question of where the point of impact had been. This Eevee had slammed head-first right into the wall. His eyes were closed, but Vylet could already see his chest gently rising and falling.

"Hello?" she called out as she knelt down next to him, "Eevee? Can you hear me?" She grabbed onto his shoulder and gently shook him, trying to rouse him. "You okay, sweetie? C'mon wake up. Wake up, please…"

At first there was absolutely no reaction, causing Vylet to bite her lip in panic. When she jostled him a little harder, though, the Eevee responded with a low, pathetic-sounding groan.

"Hey, you're alive!" she said with a soft chuckle, "That's good. Those two bullies are gone, so you're safe now. It's okay, nothing to worry about."

"Wh…?" the Eevee muttered. He wrenched his eyes open slowly, squinting against the light even though it wasn't terribly bright. He simply groaned again and laid there.

"Are you okay?" Vylet asked him, "Can you move? Can you stand up?"

The Eevee turned his eyes to look up at her, but Vylet could see they were unfocused. "Who…?" he muttered

"C'mon," Vylet urged him, "Try to sit up."

"Urgh…" The Eevee moved his paws about sluggishly and aimlessly for a moment and then he rolled over onto his stomach with a painful grunt. Even just laying down, he already looked unsteady. It took him a moment to set his forepaws on the ground, and then he finally struggled to push himself up into a sitting position.

This didn't last more than a second before he started to pitch to the side. Vylet quickly reached out and caught him. "Oh dear," she said worriedly, "That's not good…What's wrong exactly? You feel dizzy? Can I offer you an Oran Berry?"

The Eevee slumped from her arms and flopped back down onto the ground, just continuing to moan and writhe softly in pain.

"All right…" Vylet then said, "You might have a concussion. Scratch that, you probably have a concussion. I really hope that's all you have, and not something worse like a cracked skull…" A moment later she added, "Sorry, that's not something you probably wanna hear…"

"Ugghhh…" the Eevee moaned, lethargically bringing a paw up to awkwardly hold against his head.

"Oh, hey! There you are…"

Vylet's head snapped up upon hearing the voice. Her confused look quickly turned into a bitter scowl when she saw who was entering the room, lumbering along casually like nothing was wrong.

"What happened here?" the Quagsire asked as he approached, eyeing the two downed goons.

"You!" Vylet exclaimed, "What the hell is wrong with you? You left me behind!"

Lev actually seemed taken aback by her sudden outburst. "I…thought you were right behind me."

"You didn't check? You didn't make sure I was with you? You didn't notice that I was gone?"

"I mean…Sorry, I guess?"

Vylet shook her head in frustration. "Forget it," she said, already rooting through her pouch, "We're getting out of here." She punctuated her statement perfectly by pulling out a translucent black orb with a small white glowing centre.

"What?" Lev blurted out, "Whaddaya mean?"

"He's hurt," Vylet said, pointing at the Eevee whom she wasn't sure Lev had even noticed yet.

"But we don't have enough Silver Spikes yet. Unless you grabbed a whole b-"

" NOW!"

Vylet reared back her arm and threw the Escape Orb right down on the ground between the three of them. It shattered instantly, there was a bright flash, and then everything was quiet.

Back outside at the dungeon's entrance, there was another bright flash. It faded to reveal a Sneasel, a Quagsire, and a passed-out Eevee. Vylet wasted no time and immediately started rifling through her adventure pouch.

"What did you do that for?" Lev was shouting at her, "We weren't done the mission! We don't have enough."

"Shut it!" Vylet snapped, "He's hurt. He needs help."

"Who even is this?"

"I don't know."

There was a short pause. "Then why are we abandoning our mission for him?"

Vylet found what she was looking for and pulled it from the pouch, then she leveled a venomous glare at Lev that made him start slightly. "I am never going on another mission with you ever again. In fact, I hope this is the last time I see you. I don't want you to ever speak to me again. You are awful."

Lev seemed genuinely confused by her outburst. "Wh…? I just-"

"I don't care," Vylet said. She then held up the object, a somewhat small tube that looked to be made out of cardboard, and squeezed one end of it hard. The other end burst open with a loud pop, and something sparkling and red was fired up into the sky at blinding speed, leaving a trail of reddish smoke behind. The flare traveled up above the treetops, kept going even higher, and then finally burst into a small but bright red explosion.

Vylet stashed the used-up emergency flare back into her pouch and turned her attention back to the Eevee. He was still out cold, but breathing evenly. Vylet still had no idea who he was. Was this a lost Pokémon, and if so was there a request to rescue him back at the guild? Vylet couldn't recall any other missions slated for Rockfall Tunnel, though there were quite a few on the board at the time.

It didn't matter, of course. All she cared about was that he was hurt and she wanted to get him medical help as soon as possible. Though all she could do at the moment was wait and hope someone had seen the flare.

Lev was sitting off to the side, his forelimbs crossed and a grumpy look on his face. Vylet cast a quick glance at him before muttering darkly under her breath. Why did they all turn out like this? All she wanted to do was find a guild partner, but they always turned out to be just unpleasant Pokémon. She'd decided from the moment he left her behind on her own that Lev would not be her partner. Vylet sighed softly to herself, knowing that there was nothing she could do except try again with someone else. This was like a worse version of dating.

Thankfully, after only about five minutes had passed, there was a shout from up in the air. Vylet glanced up and caught sight of the brilliant red feathers of a Braviary who was swooping down from the air towards them. A small dust cloud was kicked up as the Braviary landed.

"Hi," Vylet greeted him pleasantly but urgently, "He needs to be taken back to the guild and seen by the nurse as soon as possible. Hold him gently because he might have a concussion."

The Braviary looked down at the Eevee and then nodded curtly. "Can do," he replied with a quick wing salute, "I've done medical transportation before." He then flapped his wings and rose up into a low hover above the ground. He reached down with one of his talons and, with a gentle grace that even surprised Vylet a little, picked the Eevee up and cradled him safely and securely. Vylet and Lev then braced themselves against the wind as the Braviary took off into the sky and away from them, flying at a brisk pace but decidedly less than his top speed.

Vylet sighed softly in relief, then turned and gave Lev a sour look. "I'm heading back now," she said plainly, "Follow behind. Or don't. I don't care."

The Sneasel then turned and started marching off down the nearby dirt road. After a moment, she heard heavier footsteps behind her and a quiet grumbling. Vylet just closed her eyes for a moment and sighed, trying to just get all of the ugliness out of her head. She decided to put all of this behind her. All she really cared about right now was if that Eevee would be okay.