~ GCIB HQ, Gullveria ~

"Subject in custody: Charmander. Age: currently unknown. Height: three feet, six inches. Weight: approximately seventy-six pounds."

Neltharios heard voices as if they were distant, despite his eyes refusing to cooperate with him. When they finally did, and they opened, he found himself on the inside of some sort of enclosure. As his eyes adjusted, a bright light shined in his face as if he was under a spotlight.

"Subject has awoken. Proceed to the next phase."

"Hello there little one. You're going to be our little project for a little while." A different, feminine voice spoke, confusing Neltharios.

"What?! Where am I?! Who are you?!" The golden Charmander snarled.

"Oh my! It actually speaks! This is unlike any other specimen we have." After the rustling of some papers, Neltharios heard, "From your guys' field work, I thought this one was feral. Unless…"

"Unless what?" Neltharios inquired, "What do you know about me?!"

"Let's proceed to the testing phase! I want to confirm something! Send in one of our other ferals!"

"Your what?"

As a door opened to Neltharios's right, he saw a larger, yet more ferocious Poochyena. The pokemon had a darker, spotted mane with darker yellow eyes. Its maw was wider with a large overbite, exposing its fangs.

"Let the test begin."

The Poochyena lunged at Neltharios, making an instant beeline for his neck. Neltharios instinctively dodged to his left, rolling out of the way just in time. Seeing no other option, he balled up his fists and imbued them in fire. "I don't know what's happening, but I know I don't like it!"

As he lunged at the Poochyena, he was startled to realize that he missed when the feral swiftly dodged to its right. He threw another punch, and this time, scored a direct hit. However, the Poochyena instantly got back up and reinitialized the fight as if he wasn't hit at all. It then made another attack at the Charmander's arm, managing to attach itself to Neltharios's body. With a scream, Neltharios felt his body become lighter.

'No! How is a feral Poochyena this strong?!' Neltharios thought as he pummeled the feral with repeated fire punches. As he did, he heard an audible sigh come from outside the enclosure. 'Those bastards! They probably set me up! Taking me away from my friends! Shoving me in that rift! I hate this! I hate them! I hate… hate…'

He glared at the Poochyena, eyes briefly gleaming red, "I hate YOU!"

After that sentence, the Poochyena instantly let go of Neltharios's arm. It gave a few steps backwards. And then… submitted to him?

'What… the heck?' Neltharios blinked several times. The Poochyena still remained lying down on its belly in front of him. 'How? When did- Did I do that?'

"Impressive! Truly remarkable!"

A hatch on the southern wall opened up, revealing a Nidoqueen alongside a Nidoking. For some reason, the Nidoking looked familiar and even caused a sudden spur of rage to build up inside of him, but Neltharios couldn't put a finger on how he knew him.

"This confirms it! You're not just any alpha, but a sentient one! This is a significant development!" The Nidoqueen cheered.

"HUH?!" The Charmander cried out, "There's no way that can be right!"

"But we need to go further! Release one of the other ferals and begin phase three of testing!"

After the hatch shut a second time, another door opened. Neltharios internally knew what was about to happen next, but hoped that his feelings were wrong. Unfortunately, when the door opened fully, a feral Nidorino came into his field of vision. He decided that it was best to fight the beast himself, but for some reason instead of readying a fire punch, he instinctually pointed his finger forward.

'Wait, what am I doing?!' He shouted internally, 'I'm supposed to attack, not finger point!' He tried to lower his arm, but felt his body fight against him. The more he fought his instincts, the more he felt them take hold. Giving up, he then glanced around the room instead, realizing that the Poochyena had entirely stood up, snarling in the direction the Charmander was pointing in. He then witnessed as the Poochyena lunged at the Nidorino, locking the two ferals in combat with each other.

"I- What?!" Neltharios shouted as he watched the two beasts.

"I don't believe it…!" The Nidoking shouted from behind the hatch, "This kid doesn't just stop ferals, he can command them! What could this mean?!"

"I don't know, but I love it!" The Nidoqueen squealed, "We'll end the testing phase here after things get cleaned up. I can get a secure communication channel to speak to the military about our findings."

"Hold up." The Nidoking tapped the Nidoqueen on the shoulder, "If we disclose this information to the broader government, this could cause this kid himself to become a weapon of war."

"What? But isn't he one already?"

"Not exactly," The Nidoking opened the hatch and gestured to Neltharios, "Not very many, if any, 'mons actually know about him yet, and if the information got out immediately we may not have time to fully capitalize on the situation."

"So what do we do, then?"

"By his looks and stature, he seems like he's about to evolve. If we can somehow get him to evolve and be able to harness his power, we can use him for… other purposes."

"You have a point there. Alright, we'll expose him to rigorous training! Then we'll continue to a new phase of testing. But for now, let's let him rest."

"Agreed."

The hatch shut, leaving Neltharios to clean up the mess he inadvertently caused. Glancing back at the fight, he noticed that the Poochyena had mauled the Nidorino, leaving its unconscious form on the surface. 'I'm about to evolve? That Alcryst guy… Didn't he say that I'd go through an Eternarift-induced evolution? Is that what he meant?' The Poochyena returned to Neltharios, submitting again by lying on its belly. "I'm not happy with you!" He shouted, "Get away from me!"

The Poochyena whimpered and whined, but ultimately left Neltharios's side and sat in the corner. The slits in its eyes fixated on Neltharios, and yet the wide eyed creature didn't imply aggression, but rather a strange sense of respect. The Charmander glared back at the Poochyena, causing it to cackle very quietly while giving him the feral equivalent of a bloody smile.

Sighing, he went to his newly founded space in the room. 'Will that thing eventually maul me as well?' The Charmander pondered. He peered down at his hands, inspecting his gold-orange hands. 'Am I becoming a feral? Or is this something else? Aside from my sudden growth spurt and these markings, I don't feel much different.'

Neltharios then rested his head on the wall. 'Will I ever get back to my friends?' His eyes began to well up with tears. 'What did I do to deserve this?'

~ Loxton Tunnel, B1F ~

"Kroto, Rico! Cover us! Palla, stay with me!" Traximus commanded, getting himself into position.

Ferals swarmed in from all directions, breaking any semblance of an escape Team Nova could take to the exits. 'I-I can't get cold feet…' Palla thought, 'Not like last time! I want to help!' Her thoughts were interrupted, however, when a Geodude nearly slammed her with a rollout attack. Fortunately, she rolled to her right just in time.

"Oh god! How do I tap into my powers again?!" Rico screamed.

"Just try something!" Kroto shouted, "Try to summon something from your chest! And make it snappy!"

The Passimian was unfortunate enough to be blindsided by a rollout attack by a Graveler that he didn't account for. Sliding backward, he wiped a bit of sweat off his forehead and fought back with a drain punch that knocked out the Graveler in one shot, taking its life force with it.

"Well then! Here goes nothing!" The Froakie took a deep breath and released a high-pressure water gun attack directly at a Numel, extinguishing its flames and knocking it out.

"Hey!" Rico cheered, "It worked!"

Rico was then shoved aside by Kroto to avoid an incoming rock tomb shot out by a Geodude. "Nice, but look alive! There's still more to go!"

Meanwhile, Traximus and Palla were in a standoff between two Camerupt. The Camerupt to Traximus's left had begun charging an eruption attack, while the Camerupt on the right was slamming the ground, causing the floor of the dungeon to shake wildly.

"Palla! We have to stop them! Use your aqua tail attack!" The Bagon ordered, "Take the one on the left!"

Seeing no reason to object, Palla silently charged up her attack and lunged at the Camerupt to the left. Doing a somersault, she slammed her elongated, water-coated tail into the face of the Camerupt, downing it instantly. On the other side, Traximus had spewed out a dragon breath attack, rendering the other Camerupt paralyzed, stopping its ground shaking. "Now's your chance Palla!" He shouted.

Again, she repeated her motion and took out the other Camerupt. She came to a halt right next to her Bagon friend when a Geodude went flying past her, being pushed by a torrent of water.

"Enemy deleted." Rico declared, showing his back to Team Nova on top of one of the unconscious Geodudes. "Now… let's get to looting this room!"

Team Nova gave disapproving looks to Rico, but proceeded to investigate the room anyways. Kroto went around, gathering some seeds in the corner of the room. Rico went about, looking for anything that he may recognise, but found nothing. Traximus and Palla, meanwhile, inspected the bag that was left behind. Opening it, they found some oran berries, some orbs, and some documents.

"Hmm," Traximus started, "Yep. This is a bag that belongs to an official team of some sort."

"So what do we do?" Palla asked.

"We find who owns this, and return it."

"Hey guys. I found some reviver seeds here! Let's hold onto them." Kroto shouted, tossing a seed to each pokemon.

"Thanks. Now where do we go?" Rico inquired, "Do we just pick a direction and go?"

"Now you're learning," Traximus joked, "Let's go… That way!" He pointed in the southern direction, so the team moved that way. They encountered several empty rooms on their way to the stairs, which ended up at the southernmost point of the floor.

~ Loxton Tunnel, B2F ~

Descending the staircase, the crew found themselves in another empty room. The Froakie groaned, "Oh come on! How does a staircase somehow take us to the same place every time?"

"Better get used to it," Kroto deadpanned, "Cause it may go on for a lot longer."

"H-how much longer…?"

"Try one hundred floors of this."

Rico's eyes widened in horror, "Y-you can't be serious!" He then began running in the northern direction. "I'm not gonna deal with this crud anymore! I want the exit!"

"Wait!" Palla shouted, sprinting after him.

"Good grief," Kroto chided, looking at Traximus, "Guess we'd better follow."

"He's awfully noisy… Were all the humans like this?" Traximus asked nobody in particular.

Following their companions, they came to another open room, this time, there were two unconscious pokemon huddled in the corner of the room. One an Unfezant, and the other a Shinx.

"Hmm? There's two pokemon here…" Kroto inspected, "They don't look like ferals."

"Then I have an idea." Traximus stepped up to the pokemon, and cracked open his reviver seed into the mouth of the Shinx.

"Hey! Traximus, what are you doing? They could be hostile!" The Passimian shouted.

"Relax, I know what I'm doing." The Bagon then turned to the Shinx, who was beginning to regain consciousness, "Hey, you're waking up."

The Shinx stood up, stretching his limbs. "Huh? Who are you guys? Are you a rescue team?"

"Not…officially, but we're here cause there's something happening down here." Traximus explained, "Are you part of an exploration team?"

"Yeah, we are," the Shinx replied, "Why do you ask?"

"Then this belongs to you." The Bagon returned the bag to the Shinx, who immediately swiped it from his nubs.

"Oh my, thank you so much! I guess we owe you an explanation." The Shinx tilted his head, "Okay, I think it was about a day ago, we were sent to Hakari Village on a mission, but on our way we were jumped by the Excadrill Gang. We were dumped down here and tried to scramble our way out. But as you can see, I'm not exactly good at dealing with ground types, and my superior isn't really good with rock types."

Palla tilted her head and looked to Kroto, "Hey, doesn't that sound like what happened to that Sandshrew just now?"

"Yeah." The Passimian stroked his chin, "But why?"

"I think we need to give his boss a jump start. Palla, could you give the Unfezant your reviver seed?" Traximus suggested.

Palla did as instructed, this time with no objection from Kroto. Hacking up some spit, the Unfezant then inhaled as much air as he possibly could and then exhaled. Afterwards, he stood himself up.

"Why boy, I thank you and this here girl for savin' my cooked hide! I just about got myself in a situation rougher than a Geodude off his rock polish!" The Unfezant chuckled, "Dare I say we were fightin' these here ground types for longer than a Magikarp swimming upstream!"

Palla and Traximus both went blank-faced, and in unison, uttered, "...What?"

"Boy, I say I say you just about gave me the inspiration we need to crack them Excadrill Gang wide open like a Chansey making an omelet!" The Unfezant then walked up to Traximus, "Now pay attention son, this here exploration is being taken over by me, meaning there's no hootin' or hollerin' about nothin'!"

"...But-"

"Clean yer ears out boy! What'd I just say?" The Unfezant began heading towards the west exit. "Now let's find yer boy here and hope he din' get himself into no danger!"

Palla and Traximus simply stood in bewilderment, mouths agape. The Shinx trotted up to them and merely stated, "Yeah, he's always like this. You'll get used to it. Come on, let's find those stairs!"

In the next room over, Rico was waiting for them. He briefly waved at them before indicating the stairs. Wasting no time, the whole group headed down the stairs, leading them to another open room, this time with no hallways.

~ Loxton Tunnel, B3F ~

The dark aura of the room was evident due to the dim lighting and the fact that no ferals appeared to be present. There were no hallways, no alcoves, no high ground, nothing that would give Team Nova a vantage point.

"Keep your eyes peeled. Wouldn't want any ferals spooked." The Shinx stated, readying himself.

Instinctively, Traximus looked upward. When he spotted nothing, he inspected the ground, tapping it with his nubs. When that didn't work he looked upright and chided, "This might be the end of the dungeon already. I don't see any ferals or stairs, but where's Sandshrew? And the Excadrill Gang?"

"We're right here, urban scum!"

Suddenly the walls began rumbling, forcing members of Team Nova and company in a defensive formation in the center of the room. When the walls gave way, six Drilbur filed out swarming in from all directions.

"We're surrounded! Again!" Palla shouted.

"That's right kid!" A deeper voice bellowed, "You stumbled into OUR lair, step in on OUR plans, and expect not to get your skull bashed in?!"

"Excadrill!" The Shinx shouted.

"Show yerself son!" Unfezant called out, "I ought to give you a thousand lashings for what you've been doing here I say!"

"Fine by me!" A rumbling beneath the group startled Team Nova. What followed was a drill-like pokemon rising from the ground in the center of their formation, causing the Bagon to be thrown off-balance and closer to the wall of Drilbur, breaking their formation.

"Let's dance, little Bagon!"