February 9th, 8:48

Team Echoes' Base - Joseph's room

Coast Continent

Joseph woke up to his stomach rumbling, he tried to tough it out and keep sleeping but ultimately failed. He rolled out of bed and stumbled toward the door, only to watch it slowly open as Rory snuck into the room with a plate of food.

"Huh? He's not in bed." Rory whispered to herself.

"Down here."

Rory squealed as she almost dropped the plate, "EEP!"

Joseph stared up at Rory, although the room was too dark to see it, he had an apologetic look on his face, "Sorry… I was just gonna grab some food really quick before jumping back in bed."

"Oh, what a coincidence, I was actually gonna bring you some food."

Joseph saw the plate in Rory's hands and snatched it up right as she was about to hand it to him, "Thanks!"

Rory looked down at the floor, a defeated look in her eyes, "Great… Guess I gotta get a new plate…"

Joseph looked up from his plate for a moment, "Oh, was this plate yours?"

"Nope, I was just joshing you. I had to. You snatched the plate so fast I could hardly tell what happened." Rory chuckled, "Speaking of snatching plates… Do you think now's a good time for the Draco Plate story?"

Joseph didn't respond immediately as he was too busy scarfing down his food, once the dish had been thoroughly demolished he set the empty plate down and responded, "I'd be fine with a nice bedtime story."

"Alright then, just sit tight, because things are gonna get pretty weird pretty fast."

Rory took a seat on the floor as Joseph got back up on his bed and tucked himself in. She took the time to recall every little, minute detail she could remember. As Joseph let out a yawn, she started the story, "Ok, it all started after breakfast that morning, Sammy, Slippy, and I had decided to go after none other than the Draco Plate. Little did we know we'd be in for a long day…"

February 5th, 10:45 am

Lost at sea…

Rory and the gang were traveling by Lapras back, they had been out at sea for a few hours now with their goal nowhere in sight. It seemed that the map was leading them into the middle of nowhere.

Their ride was starting to get a little annoyed, "'Ey, this ain't a prank or nothin', is it?"

Sammy waved his stubby little arms frantically, "N-no! I swear there's something out here we needed to see!"

The Lapras rolled their eyes, "Like hell! There isn't anything to see but the sea!"

"Look, you gotta believe us, sir! Our map is leading us here!" Sammy said as he stumbled back.

"Oh I get it, you idiots actually bought into that stupid 'technology' stuff they got on the Crystal Continent, well look where that got ya! Out in the middle of nowhere!"

Sammy continued stumbling back until he bumped into Rory, causing her to drop her Mega Stone from her bag. Rory stared down into the water as the stone sank, "Crud! We did not spend all that time looking for that just to lose it in the middle of the sea!"

Quickly, Rory pulled a blue scarf from her bag before tossing it aside, she tied the scarf around her neck and dove into the water.

"Wait! Rory! What are you doing!? You can't breathe down there!" Sammy screamed as he dove in after her.

That left Slippy sitting alone on Lapras' back. With a sigh, he grabbed Rory's bag and hopped into the water. He exchanged looks with Lapras, "We'll be back in a sec, just sit tight a sec, ok?"

The Lapras rolled his eyes, "It's not like I got a choice…"

"Thanks!" Slippy bubbled as he dove in after his friends.

A bright light emerged from under the water as Rory Terastallized into a water type to chase after her lost Lucarionite. She swam so fast she could outpace a Sharpedo with ease. This obviously left her teammates in the dust as they struggled to keep up with her unprecedented speed.

Exhaustion took over Slippy's entire body as he slowed to a stop to catch his breath, "How is she swimming so fast!?"

Sammy had also stopped to catch his breath, he'd be drenched in sweat if he wasn't already drenched in seawater, "Beats me, maybe it has something to do with the crown?"

Rory started to close in on the Mega Stone as the sea floor came into view. Just before the stone could hit the ground, Rory snatched it up, with the stone back in her possession she sighed, "Dang… I didn't have diving to the bottom of the ocean after a Mega Stone on my bucket list for today, but here we are, I guess…"

Rory took a moment to fill her lungs with water, which would normally kill her, but since she was under the protection of the Tera Crystals, logic wasn't real, thus she remained unharmed. She used her budget potion of water breathing to take in her surroundings, she could see light filtering in from above as a school of Wishiwashi swam by. As she was taking in the scenery, her friends bumped into her once more, causing her to briefly drop her stone again, "Gah! Not again!"

Slippy quickly snatched up the stone with Rory's bag before handing it back to her, "Woah there! You almost lost it again!"

Rory slung her bag back over her shoulder with a smile, "Thanks, but why didn't you just leave our stuff with Lapras?"

"I was worried he'd try and swim off with it," Slippy said with a troubled look, "So I brought it down here."

"Ah, good point, that guy was really sketchy." Rory nodded, "We should probably get back to him before he just up and leaves us."

"Hold that thought…" Sammy muttered.

He seemed entranced by something, it was almost impossible to get his attention, Rory had to essentially rattle his brain around in his skull to snap him out of it, "DUDE! What are you staring at!? Let's get going!"

"Huh!? Wha!? U-uh I-I was ju-just- something strange caught my eye!"

"Uh-huh." Rory rolled her eyes, "We've established that already. Do you wanna like… Tell us what it was?"

Sammy didn't know how to describe what he saw, so instead, he just opted to point back toward the strange… Thing… For lack of better words…

Rory swam over to the oddity and almost immediately became entranced, just like Sammy had just moments ago.

Sammy practically had to pry Rory away from the anomaly, "Makes sense now, right?"

"What is that!?" She replied, "It's like a window into some strange place."

Rory's vague description wasn't doing it for Slippy, he needed to see whatever it was she was blabbing about, so he swam over to take a look for himself, "Wow… You're right, it's like some weird window thingie, but where does it lead?"

He crept closer to the strange window, once he was within a flipper's reach he reached out and tried to touch it, only to disappear in an instant,

"WAH! SLIPPY!" Rory called out.

Mere moments later, Rory and Sammy reached into the window, sending them to the other side…

February 5th, 12:17 pm

Palkia's Pocket Dimension

Rory and Sammy fell out of the reality window and hit the ground rather unceremoniously.

"Oof!" Rory groaned as the ground undid her Terastallization.

Sammy got back to his feet as he held his (now aching) head, "What is this place?"

He surveyed the area a bit, the landscape resembled some sort of weird cave environment, the walls and floor were made of some strange pinkish-red stone-like material, and the ceiling had strange, spacey-looking stalactites hanging from it.

Rory rubbed her head as she stood back up, "No clue, but whatever it is, it ain't normal."

"You're probably right," Sammy agreed, "We should grab Slippy and get the heck out of here!"

Rory nodded moments before getting hit in the face by a Spheal being used as a dodgeball. She was knocked back down onto the ground by the sudden Spheal smack.

"Found him…" She groaned as she pushed the round boi aside gently.

"Stay there a moment!" Sammy shouted, "I'm gonna go look for the culprit!"

After a quick thumbs up from his girlfriend, Sammy proceeded with caution. He proceeded through the hall before entering a large open area in the cave. In the middle of the clearing, Palkia lay on his side, fast asleep, he must've swatted Slippy away while he snoozed.

"Hey, Sammy! Is it safe to come out yet?" Rory yelled from down the hall, "The world finally stopped spinning enough for me to get back on my feet!"

"Uhm… Funny story…"

Rory ran down the hall, holding onto Slippy as if he were a beach ball. Upon noticing the sleeping beast, she skidded to a stop, "Oh… Crap…"

So here they were, a lovey-dovey couple and their emotional support Spheal, staring down the god of space while he took a nap in his own realm. None of them dared to disturb his slumber, lest they invoke the wrath of someone who could almost certainly send them wherever he wanted with the snap of his… Fingers? Does Palkia even have fingers? Ok just checked, he most certainly does… Huh…

Unfortunately, Palkia woke up on his own, making our 'heroes' go pale as a piece of paper, "Mhmn, I had a strange dream… Some group of mortals broke into my realm and asked for the Draco Plate… Cresselia's probably just messing with me again…"

Palkia got up and immediately realized what was going on, "Oh… So it was Dialga then…" He said as he stared at the trembling members of Team Echoes.

Rory broke through her paralysis with a squeak, "P-please… Don't crush us…"

Palkia flipped around and yawned, "Eh, too much effort, I'll have someone else do it for me."

With the snap of his fingers, he summoned a Spacial Rend, which then summoned a pair of Sandslash, one yellowish beige, the other blue. The pair landed spectacularly, adding a bit of insult to injury to Team Echoes' failed landing earlier.

"Woah, where are we, bro?" The beige Sandslash asked.

"No clue," The blue one shrugged, "But one thing's clear, those guys over there are itchin' to fight us!"

"Wha!?" Rory blurted, "That's not true!"

"You can't lie to us!" Shouted the beige Sandslash, "Isn't that right, Blue?"

"You know it, Spike!" Blue nodded, "We know our enemies when we see 'em!"

While the bros were hyping each other up, Rory rolled her eyes before firing a Flash Cannon directly at the blue brother. Rather upsettingly, the attack missed as Blue hopped backward. Rory snarled at this development, "Look, if you're gonna fight us, could you at least spare us the yap? You two are extremely annoying!"

The bros shot her an offended look, "Says you!"

In an instant, the two lunged at Rory with their claws only to be repealed by Sammy's Razor Shells, "Lay a claw on her and I'll gut you!"

"Oh, so you two are a pair too." Blue chuckled, "Well then, let's see how well you two synergize with each other in battle!"

The bros split up, with one attacking Rory and the other attacking Sammy. Blue slashed at Sammy furiously with their claws. He used his shells to block the flurry of claw swipes, that was until Blue knocked them away.

"Heh, not so tough without those shells, are ya' now?" Blue laughed.

Despite losing his shells for the moment, Sammy wasn't out of options just yet. As Blue's claws drew ever closer to making contact with his skin, he drew a pair of Aqua Cutter blades. The two clashed once more, only this time Sammy came out on top thanks to a well-aimed Water Gun.

With Blue down momentarily, Sammy checked on how Rory was doing. The answer was less than desirable, as she was struggling to deal with the 'slash' in Sandslash. At this rate, Rory was set to lose the fight, so with his little allotted borrowed time, he motioned to her, "HEY! CATCH!"

Sammy chucked his shells to Rory, who proceeded to kick them straight at her opponent. Their little impromptu combo proved super effective (and not just because of type advantages) as Spike was sent flying back. Seeing as Spike would need a moment to return to the battlefield, Rory rushed over to her partner and gave him a high five, "That's how it's done!"

Slippy was stunned, he couldn't believe what he had just witnessed, "Wow! That was amazing, you two!" The Clap Pokémon applauded.

The pair bowed in unison, just barely allowing them to avoid the Sandslash bros' next attack.

"You think you're the only one who can do team attacks like that!?" Blue shouted.

Spike picked up where his brother left off, "Well, you're wrong!"

"FEAST YOUR EYES ON THIS!"

Blue grabbed Spike and spun him around in circles, the spinning gained speed exponentially until they practically became a tornado. Once they reached a quite frankly dangerous speed, Blue let go of Spike, turning him into a flying spikeball of destruction.

As the ground-type Sandslash bro approached rapidly, Slippy fired his Water Gun, in an attempt to slow him down, but it wasn't enough, he needed more water. Without uttering a word, he glanced at Sammy as if to say "Join in!"

Realizing what Slippy was getting at, Sammy lent him his strength, adding his Water Gun to the mix. The flow of water was enough to stop Spike's momentum and send him tumbling. The water types held their 'fire' leaving an opening for Rory to send a Flash Cannon at the vulnerable little hedgehog wannabe.

Blue was shocked, he was sure that attack was gonna work, he did everything right, and yet everything was falling apart right in his little claws, "No! Bro!"

He ran to his fallen brother, tears streaming from his eyes, "It wasn't meant to go like this! We practiced that attack for months!"

His brother didn't respond, he was out cold…

The members of Team Echoes stared over Blue's shoulders, "You should've listened to us when we said we weren't your enemies!" Rory huffed.

"Ah!" The Sandslash cowered as he flipped onto his back, "Ok! Ok! I'm sorry! We j-just wanted to test our attack on someone strong and w-well you all looked strong s-so."

"You should know better than to pick fights like that! You're lucky we weren't capable of worse!"

That thought shot a shiver down Blue's spine. He was overwhelmed by fear, so overwhelmed in fact that instead of replying he just picked his brother up, placed him on his back, and ran away as fast as he could. But before he could really make any headway, a portal opened right in front of him, he tripped into it, sending him and his brother back home.

Rory sighed, "Alright… That takes care of that… Now what?"

Palkia clapped as he reentered the clearing, "Bravo, that fight was the most entertaining thing I've seen in the last hundred years."

Sammy raised an eyebrow, "You're… You're kidding, right?"

The god of space shook his head, "Afraid not, why else do you think I had someone else fight you?"

"That's just sad, you should get out more often… And maybe find some friends while you're at it."

"I've tried… But I'm not very good at it…" Palkia grumbled as he stared down at his feet.

Slippy, being the friend-shaped ball of the team, heard this and immediately offered to be Palkia's friend, "I can be your friend! I'm great at making friends!"

Palkia immediately perked back up, "Really? You'd be friends with an old sad sack like me?"

"Yup! As long as you aren't a murderer or something, I'll be your friend!"

Rory facepalmed, "That is a surprisingly low bar…"

Ignoring Rory's double standards (She was the one to befriend Joseph, after all), Slippy held out a flipper and shook hands with Palkia. The god of space smiled, "Nice to meet you, little blobby creature."

Palkia's ignorance made Slippy chuckle, "Have you never met a Spheal before?"

"Nope, I haven't the slightest clue where you're from, but I can tell you now I've never been there."

"Well… It's a bit too late now…" Rory sighed, "This evil slime stuff has eaten away the whole place. That's why we're here, we need the Draco Plate to stop it from spreading to the entire world."

"Oh… So that's why Mesprit contacted me the other day… Well, she said not to make it easy on you so…"

Rory took a page from Joseph's book as impatience got the better of her, "So what!?"

"Give me a sec… I'm trying to think of a suitable challenge for you three…" Palkia muttered as he tapped his foot, giving the ground a slight shake, "It's kinda hard to think while I'm thirsty… I could go for a Royal Gummi smoothie right now… Wait that's it!"

"You can't be serious…"

"Oh, I assure you I am, you see, I'm not just asking for any old smoothie, I'm asking for an otherworldly smoothie."

"I don't think that makes it any better." Sammy frowned, "But whatever, if it'll help us save the world, we'll get you a smoothie."

Rory sighed, she didn't like the idea of being a delivery girl for the god of space, but she had no choice in the matter, "Ugh, fine… But you're giving us the Gummi, understand?"

With the snap of his fingers, Palkia opened up a portal right above Rory, a few moments later a Royal Gummi fell out of it and into her hands, the portal then closed. Once the smaller portal had closed, a bigger one resembling the one that brought the team to this strange realm opened in its place.

With a new portal formed, Palkia gave his impromptu food delivery Pokémon instructions, "Alright, I hid a Spacial Rend in a safe, empty place in the other world. There should be a café somewhere around there. Just ask around. I'm sure some nice stranger will take you there."

"You couldn't even give us directions!?" Rory shouted.

"Unfortunately, no, I've never actually been to the café."

Sammy squinted as he brought a hand to his chin, "How do you even know if there's a café, then?"

"I'm going off what Mesprit told me about 2000 years ago."

Rory rolled her eyes, "Of course you are." She paused to shake her head, "Why wouldn't you be?"

"I'm sorry… I told you I need to get out more…" Palkia grumbled as he kicked at some pebbles on the ground.

"Whatever… Let's just get going…"

The members of Team Echoes stepped through the portal, taking a step into uncharted waters so to speak… Or at least that's what it seemed at first…

?

?

The trio stepped out of the portal into… Someone's home? It sure seemed like it anyway as there were four little hay beds, a table, and a water fountain thingie that could very generously considered a sink. Aside from "The Essentials", there was also a giant gaping hole on the left side of the home, almost as if it was built into the side of a cliff.

Sammy looked around the strange place with a raised eyebrow, "Did Palkia just…"

"...Put us in someone's house?" Rory finished.

"Uh, yeah, that."

"Well, I mean, I guess this counts as 'somewhere safe'." Rory remarked, "Assuming we don't get locked up for breaking and entering, that is."

"Well then let's get out of here before we find out!"

Slippy rolled over to the table, "I wouldn't worry about that." He said as he brushed a little dust off the table with a flipper, "This place looks abandoned, I doubt anyone would care if they found us here."

"That's fair." Sammy sighed as he dragged his foot along the floor, "I wonder who lived here."

"It's none of our business." Rory shrugged, she seemed eager to get this stupid delivery job over with, "Besides, if the house is abandoned, then we're probably never gonna meet the owner."

Slippy rolled away from the table, "R-right, I didn't think about that… Let's just get going."

The trio emerged from the home and confirmed that it was indeed on the side of a cliff. Staring off to the left revealed a town not too dissimilar to Sunset Square, although it lacked any actual buildings, instead opting for tents and such with Pokémon manning them like stalls.

Rory bumped her lover on the shoulder, "You think that's where the café's at?"

Sammy wasn't so sure, "Uh, well, I don't really see any actual buildings there. Maybe we should ask some of the townsfolk?"

Rory and Slippy nodded before proceeding forth into town. As they walked around, the sort of cheery atmosphere of the colorful town was drowned out by missing posters and massive claw marks, "What's with this place? It looks like a crime scene!" Slippy squeaked.

Rory was starting to get a little uncomfortable, so she pulled out a lollipop from her bag. The blue raspberry flavor calmed her nerves a little, "Not sure what's going on here, but it's definitely troublesome."

"You haven't heard?"

A quick turnaround revealed a Roserade, "A few months ago, a team by the name of ShinyStar encountered a beast. They've been missing ever since…"

"That sounds concerning." Sammy said, "Has anyone gone looking for them?"

The Roserade lowered their bouquets, "Believe me, all the guild's finest teams have been searching for months, but we've yet to find a trace of them," They paused for a moment to reach for their bag, "Well, aside from a note from their leader."

Roserade handed Sammy the note. He immediately began reading it, looking increasingly worried as he closed in on the final words, "Oh… That's horrible…"

As her curiosity got the better of her, Rory peaked over Sammy's shoulder and read the note.

This is it…

This is how Team ShinyStar goes out…

Funny how Dialga brought me back from being erased from the timeline just so I could get erased again by a temporal anomaly…

Everyone else's either knocked out or has been taken through that rift, all except for me, that is. I'm stuck here, unable to do anything but write this note as I await my fate…

If anyone stumbles upon this note, please, remember us. We're probably long gone by this point. It's no use looking for us… Even if we somehow survive this, we're still goners…

"Yeesh… That sounds brutal…" Rory muttered, "I wonder what they mean by a 'temporal anomaly'?"

Roserade took the note back, she shed a tear as she put it away, "That day, there was a tear in the sky. Wigglytuff ordered us to evacuate the denizens of Treasure Town, but we forgot to tell Team ShinyStar because we forgot that they were on break!"

At this point, the dam broke, and Roserade fell to their knees crying, "It's all our fault! We got them killed!"

"Woah! Take a breather!" Sammy shouted, "I'm sure you didn't get anyone killed, they're probably still out there somewhere, right?"

Roserade buried their face in their bouquets, "I can't in good faith believe that… I mean, if they were still alive, they would've been found by now, they were such a loud, happy bunch, it'd be unusual for them to go this unnoticed for this long if they were still alive."

"Uh, not to be rude or anything," Rory interjected awkwardly, "But we were uh, just trying to go to the café, wherever that is."

"Oh, how foolish of me…" Roserade sniffed, "How could I break down in front of a trio of tourists…"

Slippy jumped in, "I-It's alright! We understand you're going through a lot right now!"

Roserade shook their head, "Spinda's Café is that way." They pointed with a bouquet, "Once you reach the crossroad, it's in a little hole in the ground."

"U-um, w-well, thanks for the directions!" Sammy stammered.

Roserade didn't respond, they didn't look capable of continuing the conversation any further without breaking down completely. So Team Echoes just kinda awkwardly stepped away…

The trio made their way toward the crossroads, but something was lingering in Rory's mind, "Is it just me, or did the name of that team sound familiar to either of you?"

"Just you." Her boyfriend responded, "Although that is strange… Why would a name from another world sound familiar to you?"

Rory raised a paw as she went to answer, but Slippy cut her off, "Uh, guys? You might wanna see this."

The pair walked over to their beach ball-shaped friend and saw one of the missing posters, this one happened to have a Cyndaquil on it.

Have you seen this Pokémon?

Name: Cinder

Species: Cyndaquil

Gender: Female

If you've seen this Pokémon or anyone claiming to be part of Team ShinyStar, please contact Wigglytuff of Wigglytuff's Guild. Please be respectful, these Pokémon were victims of a tragedy. Any "Jokesters" will be promptly, uh, "Yoom-Tahed"... Whatever that means…

Rory's eyes were as wide as Perfect Apples, "Oh… That's where I remember that from… That was Cinder's team…"

"So this is her home world." Sammy surmised, "We gotta tell everyone she's still alright!"

"Are you nuts!?" Slippy blurted, "They all think we're just a bunch of tourists! They'd think we're just spitting insensitive nonsense!"

"You're right…" Sammy grumbled, "Ugh! I wish we could tell them, though!"

Rory shook her head, "It's not necessary. If what Joseph said is true, she's got a way out planned, assuming she wants to go back, that is."

"Well, that's good." Slippy said as he tried in vain to muster a smile. However, the depressing note from earlier was preventing him from doing so, "I remember hearing about how upset she was when she first ended up in our world. I'm happy that her story has a happy ending."

"Yeah, I'm with 'ya on that." Sammy smiled, "Now let's go get that drink so that ours does as well."

The trio ran off until they hit the fated crossroads. To the east of the crossroads, sat a watering hole, beside that, a well-trodden path out into the unknown. The north path led up the mountain to a strange pink tent. Finally, to the south, a path to the beach.

Beside the beach path sat a small hole in the ground, "Wow, I didn't expect our tour guide to be so literal." Rory chuckled, "I just thought they didn't think the place looked pretty."

"Maybe it was a double meaning?" Sammy thought aloud as he brought his hand to his chin, "Let's just go inside already."

February 5th, 1:37 pm

Spinda's Café

Grass Continent

The trio entered the café only to be blown away by its cheery atmosphere, everyone seemed to be having a good time, well except someone, they looked like they had one too many drinks. At the end of the room, there were two counters, one manned by a Spinda, and the other by a Wynaut and a Wobbuffet, the former seemed to be serving drinks while the ladder… Well, at first glance, it wasn't exactly clear what they were doing, so the trio paid them no mind.

Sammy looked around as he and his friends approached the drink counter, "Well, guess that answers my question, they were being literal when they said this place was in a hole in the ground."

As the trio approached the counter, the bubbly bartender greeted them, "Ah hello! Can I get you three something?"

Rory pulled out the Royal Gummi and gave it to Spinda, "Can we get this made into a smoothie? It's for a friend."

Totally missing the begrudging tone of that last bit, Spinda happily obliged, "Sure thing! Why don't you have a seat while I prepare your drink?"

Rory took a look at the tables, once she realized none of them were open she looked back at Spinda, "Uh, none of your tables are open…"

"They never are!" Spinda replied, "Usually folks will just sit next to complete strangers. Sounds weird at first, but usually, they end up becoming friends!"

"Um, w-well, I'm not sure how I feel about sitting next to a bunch of strangers."

Rory's concerns fell on deaf ears, however, as Spinda completely ignored her, "Ooh! I know! Why don't you try to help that guy over there? They seem like they could use a friend!"

The individual in question was a Chatot, they were sprawled out all over the table. You remember when I mentioned the Pokémon that looked like they had one too many drinks? Yeah, that was this Chatot.

Nevertheless, Rory sighed as she motioned for her team to follow her to the table, she didn't want Spinda to keep pestering her after all. Once everyone approached the table, they all awkwardly took a seat. Upon closer inspection, the Chatot seemed to be upset about something, "How could I let this happen… I've failed my duties as the Guildmaster's right-hand… And worse… I've let a doppelgänger take my place…"

Rory and Sammy cringed at the bird's midlife crisis, meanwhile Slippy, being the great friend he is, tapped the feathered fellow on the shoulder, "Hey, what's wrong?"

The parakeet Pokémon looked up. They looked a mess, disheveled feathers and tears adorning their visage, "Oh, just forget it, nobody's going to believe me anyway…"

"I'll probably believe you! I'm pretty naive if I do say so myself."

The Chatot slammed his head into the table, "Look kid, it's none of your business, just butt out…"

Rory rolled her eyes as she brought her chin to the table, "Well this officially blew up in our faces, let's just wait until the order's done so we can get out of here."

Her boyfriend nodded, "Agreed, this world's vibes are making me uneasy."

Slippy saw the opportunity to get Chatot's attention and almost immediately took it, "Well, yeah! Our friend from another world is presumed dead here! How could you like it here!?"

Just as predicted, Chatot raised his head from the table, "Hold on a moment, what was that?"

A smile bloomed on Slippy's face as his plan worked out flawlessly, only to immediately get shot down as Spinda called the team over, "I've got a Royal Gummi Smoothie for our band of unfamiliar newcomers."

"Shoot!" Slippy blurted. He had no idea why, but he felt like he needed to keep this conversation going, so he reached into his bag in search of more Gummis, thankfully, he just so happened to have a few, so he shoved them into Rory's paws as quick as he could, "U-uh, actually I want a drink before we go, could you ask the bartend to make this into something?"

She was reluctant at first, but she obliged anyway, "Sure, whatever…"

With his cover-up in play, the Spheal turned his attention back to Chatot, "S-so, as I was saying, we met someone who claimed to be from another world. I didn't think too much of it at first, but one thing led to another, and we ended up getting sent to this world by our world's Palkia all so he could get a drink, so you can imagine how shocked we were when we saw our friend on a missing poster here."

Chatot slouched back over on the table, "That sounds like a bunch of made-up rubbish."

"I'm telling the truth! I swear!"

"You really expect me to believe that? I'll admit, some weird stuff has gone down in the past, but none of that is as preposterous as another world's Palkia sending a bunch of strangers on a drink run! What kind of buffoon do you take me for!?"

Feathers hit the floor as Chatot flapped his wings frantically. Meanwhile, Sammy shot Slippy a dirty look, "What's your deal!? Didn't we just establish that nobody would believe us if we told them our deal!?"

"Y-yeah," Slippy stammered, "B-but I just thought that maybe-"

Sammy sighed as he shook his head, "Look, dude, I get it. You want to let everyone know she's still alive, but it's basically impossible without any proof."

'Proof…' Slippy mused, 'Wait a sec!'

The Spheal rummaged around in his bag and produced the Master Ball he bought from one of his world's Kecleon bros all that time ago, "There! This is my proof!"

Sammy was caught off guard, "Wh-wha!?"

"What is this!?" Chatot asked as he appraised the ball, "It looks like some sort of toy!"

"It's a relic from another world!" Slippy proclaimed, "Stuff from other worlds just keeps popping up in ours! And not only that, Pokémon from other worlds are popping up as well! And that's partially why we met up with Palkia! We wanna fix it, but to do that we need the Draco Plate, which is why he sent us to get him a drink!"

Chatot set the Master Ball down on the table and brought his wing to his face, "Ugh… These youths are driving me crazy" He muttered, "Look, it's gonna take a lot more than a weird-looking toy to convince me."

Slippy reclaimed his treasure as his case fell apart in his flippers, "B-but it's not a toy! It's a genuine relic from another world! Can't you see!?"

"Yeah, I'm not buying that, I've seen many a relic in my time as an explorer and this looks nothing like one."

Slippy stored the device away and crossed his flippers angrily for a moment, "Fine, you want better proof!? I'll show you better proof!"

The Café's lights dimmed as crystals formed around Slippy. We've been through this before, so there's no point in drawing it out for something less intense. Slippy proudly donned his crystal crown, "IS THIS ENOUGH PROOF FOR YOU!?" He boomed.

Everyone in the café had their eyes locked on the Spheal. If Mega Evolution was ever a rare sight here, then surely this had to have been something completely new to this world. Chatot was quite frankly astonished, "W-what the!? What did I just witness!?"

"I take it you can't Terastallize around these parts." Slippy responded, "Back in my world, we use these scarves to change our types."

Sammy slammed his palm into his face, "You're still trying to convince this guy we're from another world? Come on! Just give up! There's no way we're gonna-"

Sammy's train of thought was interrupted by Chatot, "I… *sigh* I think I'm starting to believe you… Even if your story is as stupid as it sounds…"

"Yes!" Slippy exulted, "Thank you! I swear you won't regret this!"

"What is even the point?" Sammy asked with a raised brow, "We're not bringing anyone with us!"

A massive hole formed in Slippy's logic, "Right… We can't bring him with us…" He whimpered.

As the Spheal's smile faded, so did his crystal crown, just in time for Rory to deliver the drink he bought to buy time, "Here you go, not really sure why you wanted a drink so suddenly, but who am I to judge when I decided to piggyback off your idea."

Rory sat down, placing a rainbow-colored drink in front of her and a blue drink in front of her knight in shining armor. The aforementioned knight raised his brow, "What kind of drink did you get?"

"Oh, It's one of my lollipops blended into a drink." Rory smiled, "I may have had to remind Spinda to remove the stick before blending it, but I think things turned out great."

"That sounds interesting, I wonder what mine tastes like." He lifted his drink and took a sip. The flavor was delightful, it was like all his favorite candy blended up into a drink, "Woah! That's really good! I can see why Palkia wanted a drink from this place!"

Rory nodded, "I agree. I hate to say it, but Palkia really knows his stuff, maybe we should follow Slippy's lead and start hanging out with him."

Sammy chuckled, "If we ever get some free time, that is."

The pair laughed in unison. They clinked their glasses and gulped down their drinks. While they were having a grand old time, Slippy took a sippy every once in a while, but something was clearly off, 'Man… I thought I could help him…' He silently sulked to himself as he stared at Chatot, 'Oh well… Maybe things'll sort themselves out on their own…'

The team finished their drinks and cleaned up the table, after briefly waving Spinda and their table 'friend' farewell, they set foot outside the café and prepared to head back to the rift. But along the way, they ran into some complications (literally).

Slippy was still somewhat bummed about not being able to help Chatot reconnect with Team ShinyStar and prove that he's the real deal, which now that I mention it sounds really unrealistic, but hey, you never know. Uh, I'm getting off-topic, Slippy was staring at the ground as he hopped on forward, seeing as he wasn't exactly looking where he was going, he bumped into someone, and let's just say that someone was less than happy about being bumped into.

"Watch where you're going, chump!" A rather rude voice blared.

"O-oh, s-sorry." Slippy stammered.

He looked up to see a Skuntank giving him the stink eye. Accompanying him were a Zubat and a Koffing, making up Team Skull, the mischievous team of troublemakers that interrupt trainers on their island chall- wait that's the wrong one oops… Guess I'm the numbskull, then…

Zubat took note of how small Slippy was and hatched a plan. He proceeded to whisper something into his boss' ear, "Pst, boss, this guy looks like easy pickins don'tcha think?"

"Chaw-haw." Skuntank whispered back, "Easy pickins indeed."

Koffing butted in, creating an impromptu huddle, "Methinks this twerp is overdue for a run of his pockets."

The three broke off of their huddle and stared at Slippy, "Wh-what are you staring at me like that for?" He asked.

Koffing snickered, "We ain't gonna sugarcoat it kid, we're gonna need you to hand over everything 'ya got!"

The group's sudden hostility served as a wake-up call for the Spheal, "Or what?"

"Ah, getting cocky, are we? Well, if that's the way you wanna do things, Boss! Let's hit 'em with the noxious gas combo!"

"Chaw-haw-haw! What a great idea!"

As the three prepared their combo move, Slippy rolled his eyes before rolling out of the way of the slow-moving gas cloud they fired at him. Yeah… Maybe a slow-moving gas cloud isn't the best combo move, "Are you clowns done embarrassing yourselves?" Slippy scoffed.

"CLOWNS!? I SHOW YOU THE CLOWN!" Skuntank shot back rather aggressively.

Suddenly, Skuntank fired a Flamethrower into the gas, causing a huge explosion, launching everyone in the area flying. The blast caught the attention of Rory and Sammy, who rushed to Slippy's aid. Sammy's expression soured as he drew his shells, "What the heck is going on here!?" He blurted.

Slippy quickly picked himself up and shook off the pain from the blast, "These crooks were trying to rob me!"

Rory gave Skuntank an unrivaled death glare, "I'll give you to the count of three to get out of our sight before I turn you into a stain on the ground, you hear!?"

"You really think your little puppy dog eyes scare me?" Skuntank shot back.

That just figures, doesn't it? Skuntank wasn't the type to back down, even when he and his cronies were severely outmatched (Their """""fight""""" against Wigglytuff comes to mind). This fight would be no different, as Skuntank wasn't gonna pass up the opportunity to screw with what looked like a bunch of tourists.

On the other side of the coin, Rory and Sammy weren't gonna let some foreign crook rob their friend, that just wouldn't be right. Instead, they intended to show them the strength of their bonds through battle.

Before the battle could truly begin, Rory nodded at Sammy, signaling him to raise the Keystone high. If things weren't serious before, they sure as hell were now, as Rory had transformed into Mega Lucario! Unfortunately, though, she didn't scream "MAX AURA!" or anything…

Koffing wasn't fond of the thought of fighting a supped-up, possibly berserk Lucario, "Woah! H-hey boss? Maybe we shouldn't mess with them."

Zubat echoed that sentiment, "Y-yeah boss, let's scram! There's no telling what kinda crazy biz that maniac could throw at us! That Mega Evolution jazz is unstable!"

The skunk Pokémon held his teammates' mouths shut with his paws, "Get a hold of yourselves! Did you see the explosion we just caused? It's safe to say we're even less stable! Now let's use that to our advantage!"

"R-right boss…" The two muttered reluctantly as their mouths were freed from the boss' grasp.

"Right then, let's hit 'em with our new Explosive Gas Combo!"

But before they could use their combo, Sammy and Rory hit them with one of their combos. (Jeez, combo moves seem to be the theme of today…) Sammy threw a shell into the air, and Rory fired a Flash Cannon into it, sending it hurdling toward Koffing at the speed of a bullet.

"Yikes!" Koffing yelped as he just narrowly avoided the shell, "HEY! THAT COULD HAVE KILLED M-"

Rory wasn't in the mood to listen to this buffoon, besides, if she wanted the combo move to work as intended, she needed to act fast, so, she shot a Vacuum Wave to catch the floating purple ball of pollution off guard.

Rory's fake out worked, as the attack hit Koffing smack-dab in the middle of the forehead, "GACK!" Koffing grunted, "That's messed up! I wasn't even ready yet!"

The gust of wind generated by the attack was so intense it blew Team Skull back a bit. Had the attack been any stronger, Zubat might very well have been blown away. This planted a seed in Zubat's mind, "Hey boss."

"What is it?" Skuntank grunted.

"If they can make a windstorm like that, then we won't be able to suffocate them with our gas combo." Zubat warned, "We should figure out a way to deal wit' that first."

The fight was put on pause for a moment, for some reason, Zubat's sudden moment of smarts shocked everyone, "Uh… You… You doing alright there, Zubat? You don't sound right."

If Zubat had eyes, they would've rolled out of his head, leaving him back at square one, "I'm a bat! I fly! Of course I would take note of the wind!"

A collective, "Ooooooh…" rang out through the battlefield.

Zubat sighed, "I may be stupid, but I'm not an idiot."

With that strange interaction out of the way, the battle continued. Zubat swooped at Rory and smacked her with his wings. Surprisingly, the attack had a visible effect on her as her stance was interrupted. This, however, would only prove to be a hollow victory as Rory immediately snapped back with a point-blank Flash Cannon, sending Zubat twirling through the air as he careened toward the ground behind his teammates.

"G-guh! Sh-she's strong!" Zubat gasped, "We should keep our distance!"

"Keep our distance!? She outranges us!" Koffing snapped, "How do you expect to do that!?"

"Like this!" Skuntank shouted as he shot a puff of fire directly at Rory.

The flames hit her dead on, sending her sliding back a bit, "Oof… That one hurt…"

Sammy gasped before running to his girlfriend's side, "Are you alright?"

"I'll be fine. Don't let your guard down, there's no telling what these guys are up to."

Aaaaand she jinxed it… Sammy was about to nod to his lover when he heard something strange, followed by a "LOOK OUT!" from Slippy. Thankfully, Slippy was paying attention, he threw himself in front of Sammy just in time to tank the attack. When the dust settled from whatever attack those goons fired at Sammy, a bright crystal lit up the battlefield.

"Uh, boss?" Koffing whispered, "What kinda weird party trick is that?"

"No clue." The boss whispered back, "I've never seen anything like it."

Slippy looked over at Rory intently, "Rory! Let's do a combo attack! Your Aura Sphere with my Tera Blast!"

"Ugh… Aura…" She groaned, "Fine… Follow my lead!"

Rory fired an enormous Aura Sphere at Skuntank. The attack moved slowly, but that was Rory's intention, as it allowed Slippy to follow up a bit easier. Speaking of Slippy following up, "NOW SLIPPY!"

"Got it!"

A flurry of punches and kicks collided with the Aura Sphere, adding to its power. Unfortunately, though, this had the unforeseen consequence of stopping the attack in its tracks. The Aura Sphere had grown too big, but thankfully, it didn't need to keep moving, Rory was about to force it to move!

"Alright, now for the SPICE!"

She fired a Vacuum Wave into the ball of auric flames, causing it to speed up exponentially. The attack became unavoidable as it flew through the air like a speeding bullet. Team Skull wasn't given proper time to avoid the oncoming attack as it blew up right in their faces, sending blue aura flames everywhere, including all over Rory's body, causing her to faint.

Sammy winced as he used his Water Gun to extinguish the flames, "Wow, that was wreckless… Maybe you should rehearse your combos before you get yourself hurt."

Slippy fought back tears, not only because of the pain he felt from the massive life force explosion he just helped cause, but also because he felt bad for essentially getting Rory KO'd, "N-noted, I'm sorry…"

Surprisingly, Team Skull gained the advantage after that attack, still having all three of their members up and at 'em, even if Zubat was struggling to stay airborne, "Ugh… My ears are still ringing… But we got rid of the wind, so it was worth it, I guess…"

'Shoot!' Sammy thought, 'What do we do about their gas attack? We can't blow it away anymore unless we get Rory back on her feet. Even then, her Mega Evolution wore off, so Vacuum Wave wouldn't have nearly the same effect as it did before.'

Sammy was yanked out of his thoughts by Zubat shouting, "Now! Hit 'em wit' the Noxious Gas Combo!"

Things were looking bleak for our duo of water types and their incapacitated friend, but, as luck would have it, Slippy had an idea that would turn the tides of the battle once more, he let Team Skull use their Noxious Gas Combo, then countered with a Powder Snow flurry, utilizing the wind properties to blow the gas back. Unfortunately, though, the pitiful amount of wind produced by Slippy's Powder Snow wasn't enough to blow away the smog, leaving him and Sammy to take the brunt of the attack.

Seeing his opponents choke on the air they breathe made Skuntank chuckle, "Now for the finishing touch! Chaw-haw-haw!"

The gas erupted into a fiery inferno as Skuntank added his Chemical X, a Flamethrower bigger than any other. This attack proved to be far too much for our group of (somewhat) novice explorers, as Slippy and Sammy collapsed…

But it wasn't quite game over just yet, as Chatot emerged from the café's staircase just in time to see the damage, "My goodness! Team Skull!? What are you doing!?"

Chatot's voice made Skuntank's eyes go wide, "U-uh, it's not what it looks like! That psycho Spheal attacked us first!"

"Then why are you rummaging through his stuff!?"

Skuntank looked down at the stuff he had in his paws before dropping it and shooting Chatot an awkward smile.

"I knew it! You three are nothing but a bunch of crooks! Just wait until the Guildmaster hears about this!"

"Uh, w-well, you see…" Skuntank sputtered, "Run for it, gang!"

And just like that, Team Skull took off like the wind, never to be seen again… Eh, they'll probably be back next week when this all blows over, things are rather low stakes around here nowadays anyway…

With that taken care of, Chatot tended to the fallen team, feeding them a few Reviver Seeds and leaving some Tamato Berry Paste next to Slippy and Sammy to help them with the leftover stench from Skuntank's attacks.

Once they were up, Slippy ran over to his stuff, which had been conveniently blown away from him in the explosion, "Nononononononono, please tell me they didn't take the Fist Plate, please oh please…"

Chatot shook his head, "He didn't take anything, I made sure of it." He paused to sigh, "I'm sorry you all had to deal with them, I really should've called them out earlier, but, I couldn't, and you all paid the price."

"Huh?" Rory questioned, "What are talking about?"

Chatot pointed his beak toward the ground, "Some time ago, I scolded Team ShinyStar for 'slandering' Team Skull. I had yet to find out about their tomfoolery, and Team ShinyStar was still just a pair of newbies. They had yet to meet their other members, but that's beside the point. They were still new, so they weren't exactly the most trustworthy. So I may have made the executive decision to side with Team Skull. I don't think they ever forgave me, even after I made it up to them, and with this whole doppelgänger situation going on now, I don't think they ever will…"

"If I may." Slippy interjected, "Why is it such a big deal if they don't forgive you?"

"Well… They kinda saved the world, and I think it goes without saying that you don't want to be on the bad side of someone who's stopped the destruction of the entire world."

"Oh yeah… That would suck, it would make you feel like a villain."

"Yeah, and with how high our guild's revenue cut is, there's an argument to be made that we are villains… I just hope the argument isn't valid enough for those guys to start a rebellion or something."

"Well, uh, thanks for helping us out, but we better get going soon." Rory said before feeling her nose wrinkle, "Ugh! What is that horrible smell?"

"O-oh, that would be us…" Sammy frowned, "We sort of lost that fight and got sprayed with nasty gas."

"That Skuntank! Next time we see him, I'll teach him not to mess with my boyfriend! A-and my regular friend!"

Chatot handed Sammy the Tamato Berry Paste, "Here, normal tomatoes only mask the smell, but this should fully remove it."

"Uh, th-thanks…"

Sammy and Slippy doused themselves in berry juices and used their Water Guns to wash themselves off, eliminating the skunk stench.

"Thanks for everything, Mr!" Slippy chirped, "Maybe when we bring Cinder home, we'll stay and hang out a while!"

Chatot smiled as he waved with his right-wing, "Goodbye! I hope to see you again!"

As Team Echoes walked off into the distance, however, Chatot's smile faded, "Why do I feel compelled to follow them?"

February 5th, 1:58 pm

Palkia's Pocket Dimension

Having returned to Palkia's interdimensional lair, Team Echoes delivered the drink, which thankfully survived the explosion (somehow) and didn't get caught up in Skuntank's gas combo (somehow).

"Ah, just how I like it." Palkia exhaled, "Thank you for the drink."

Rory shot Palkia a stern look, "You didn't forget our deal, did you?"

"Absolutely not, my friend, one Draco Plate coming right up!"

With the snap of his fingers, Palkia summoned a Spacial Rend. From the rend, a broken stone tablet emerged. Seeing the plate broken into pieces caused the group to audibly gasp.

"What!?" Sammy blurted.

Rory followed up, "It's broken!?"

"It can't be!" Slippy cried out, "What do we do now!?"

Palkia got one good look at the broken plate and chuckled awkwardly as he threw it out, "Oops, that wasn't supposed to happen." He began digging through another, hastily made, Spacial Rend, "There's gotta be a world I can nick the Draco Plate from without causing a calamity, right? No? Eh, this one needed to go anyway."

Palkia pulled out an intact Draco Plate and handed it to a very concerned-looking Sammy, "Y-you didn't actually steal this from another world just now, did you?"

Palkia broke out into laughter, "Of course not! I was merely 'pulling a prank' as you mortals call it."

"Then where did the broken Draco Plate come from?"

"Well… It's a long story, and I'm not allowed to share all the details with you, but I can tell you that someone used it as a shield and shattered it as you see here. But thankfully, Arceus was able to make a new one."

"Why can't you share the details?" Slippy wondered.

"Because if I did, Arceus would probably tear my arms off… Again…"

"HUH!? AGAIN!?" Rory squealed, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN AGAIN!?"

"Eh, it's none of your business." Palkia said nonchalantly, "Now, I think it's time we parted ways, buh bye!"

With the snap of his fingers, Palkia warped the team out of his pocket dimension…

February 5th, 2:00 pm

Open Sea

The members of Team Echoes were warped just above Lapras' back. With a resounding thud, they landed on his shell, catching him by surprise, "AAAH! What the hell was that!?"

He looked back at his shell to see Rory waving at him, "Ok, we got what we came for, let's head on back!"

"H-hold on! You can't just disappear underwater for a few hours like that! What the hell were you doing down there!?"

Sammy pulled the dark red plate out of his bag and spun it on his finger, "We were hunting for treasure, and we got it!"

"I… Y'know what, I'm not even gonna ask… Let's just go home…"

February 9th, 9:26

Team Echoes' Base - Joseph's room

Coast Continent

"And that's that…" Rory concluded, "It was… Quite the ordeal… Who would've thought we'd be going to another dimension to grab a drink, only to end up getting wiped out by a bunch of thugs?"

"Not me, that's for sure." Joseph replied.

"Wow, I'm surprised you're still awake. I thought for sure you'd fall asleep midway through the story."

"Well, I wouldn't wanna be rude, would I?"

Hearing Joseph's kind remarks made Rory smile, "Wow, that's so sweet of you. I really did make the right call when I let you live."

The two laughed a bit, only stopping when Joseph let out a yawn, "Well, I guess I'm gonna try to go back to sleep. Good night Rory."

Rory smiled once more, "Goodnight, Joseph." She said before exiting the room, closing the door quietly behind her.

Now that he was alone with his thoughts, Joseph began entertaining a few before bed, 'Man… Sounds like I wasn't the only one who had a rough time with their plate… Maybe we need a bit more training… If only we had the time to get in some good training… Oh well…'

He tossed and turned a bit as another thought popped into his head, 'It seems that Rory and I are growing closer, maybe I should come up with a combo move to try with her or something… Hopefully, I can think of one that doesn't end in us getting hurt.'

And with that, Joseph had officially run out of excuses to keep himself awake any longer. So, he let his brain rest, he was gonna need all the rest he could get, because tomorrow, it was back to hunting ancient artifacts… Or so he thought… Suddenly, he heard a strange psychic noise. He growled briefly before jumping out of bed to look for the source of the noise. It was then he found a note in front of the door.

Hey, it's Mesprit!

Sorry for teleporting this note into your room while you're trying to sleep, but this is kinda important.

I need you to heed what I say- er- write very carefully. Do NOT, I repeat, DO NOT keep pursuing the plates!

"Huh!?" Joseph whispered before continuing to read.

I'm still chasing that lead you gave us, but it'll take a lot longer than I had anticipated to get back to you on that. The plot thickened, so to speak.

In the meantime, focus your efforts not just on getting stronger, but stocking up on resources, growing closer with your teammates, and exploring the world!

We have enough plates to still have one or two in the event she tries to rush us down and take them from us, so that'll suffice for now.

Take this time to prepare, but don't slack off, or we'll all pay the price, you hear.

Anyway, I'll let you rest.

Rest well hero - Mesprit

With that massive wall of text out of the way, Joseph jumped back in bed, "Great… I'm gonna have to relay the message tomorrow… Thanks, you big pink dork…" He muttered

Another note appeared right on his face…

I HEARD THAT, YOU BIG YELLOW MORON!

YOU SHOULD BE HONORED THAT I CALLED YOU A HERO!

Joseph chuckled as he pulled the note off his face, "Goodnight Mesprit."

Phew… Ok… That does it for this time… Sorry for like disappearing for like a month again, I wish I could like, keep you all updated on the progress of each new chapter, but I'm not sure if there's a way to do that here, so I guess unless I figure out a way to do that I'm just gonna have to leave you guys in the dark, sorry…

That being said, I think this chapter really did benefit from the longer development time. I feel that I was able to make the characters more expressive and I was able to squeeze in more detail instead of just saying "[character] did this" all the time. I also may have squeezed in a cheeky little reference during the Sandslash bros fight. I wanna see if anyone actually gets it without me saying anything though, so all I'll say is that their combo move was very familiar. (Your hint is that it's from an RPG just not a Pokémon one)

Anyway, enough rambling, let's actually close this thing out.

/ /Boss data downloaded successfully!\ \

The PMD community's bane: Team Skull!

Yeah, I'm not gonna sugarcoat it, this fight wasn't winnable, even with our heroes having their trump cards. Despite being a group of no-good crooks, Team Skull just has more experience than Team Echoes at this point. Team Echoes could even outnumber them 6 to 3 and I'd still put my money on Team Skull, They're just that far ahead of our heroes right now. They were able to catch Wigglytuff's attention after all, so there's gotta be more to them than meets the eye.

And now for reviews:

To KirgizovVlad: Happy (Very late) New Year! Thank you for being patient with me while I recovered from burnout. Seriously, putting out 2 chapters in October last year was a bit much and by the end of that year's Halloween Special, I felt completely drained. I should be good to keep writing, assuming I can put down Persona 3 Reload long enough to get anything down, that is. Don't worry though, I'll eventually put it down long enough to finish this thing.

Anyway, thanks for sticking around this long, before I truly end this off I'd like to give an update on that plan I shared with you all last time. Obviously, the part about pursuing another plate is out the window now, seeing as Mesprit told them not to do that, but other than that the plan is still somewhat similar to what it was last time, Mesprit's research is still the next Main chapter. However, since April is next month, I did want to try something for April Fool's again this year. This will probably delay the development of the next chapter for a little bit, as I'm going to give myself some extra time for it, just like I did last year. Why? Well, I can't tell you why because it would ruin the surprise, but just know there's a gimmick with it that's gonna take me more time to write. But if last year's any indication, there's a chance that I'll be done earlier than I expected (which I highly doubt will happen this time) so work on chapter 20 might begin earlier.

Phew, that was a wall of text… TLDR The order of things coming eventually now looks like this: April Fools 2025 then Mesprit's Research (Chapter 20) then whatever Team Echoes decides to do with their newfound free time (Chapter 21). See you whenever those eventually release.