~ Loxton Tunnel, B3F ~

Rico was struggling. Having just been reborn into this world, he was trying to get a grapple of his power but being under constant pressure, he found it difficult. He dodged swipe after swipe from a Drilbur, managing to avoid being slashed on his face.

"When did this suddenly get so difficult?!" The Froakie screamed.

"Because these aren't ferals!" Kroto replied, dodging a slash attack from another Drilbur, "These guys actually have brains that they use!" He responded with a drain punch directly to the face and yelled, "So use yours, and start spraying water guns!"

Doing as instructed, he sprayed the Drilbur in front of him, sending him into a wall. Having no time to cheer, he immediately flung himself to the right, dodging an incoming rock slide attack from the left. As the rock slide cleared, he heard a splashing noise, and then noticed Palla standing atop him.

"So sorry about that!" Palla said to the unconscious Drilbur.

Rico turned around to see Traximus, the Unfezant, and the Shinx pincered between the Excadrill and two other Drilbur. "Guys! Help them!" He called out, "I can take care of the others!"

The Excadrill ran to the far wall where Rico launched the Drilbur. He picked up a horn off the wall and yelled, "Oh really? Can you?!"

With a massive blow of the horn, the group sensed another rumble come from the walls. "Here she comes lads! Make way!" The Excadrill screamed.

What followed was a large section of the northern wall collapsing in, leading to a massive Steelix to come charging through. The rumbling was harsh enough to throw everybody on the ground off balance.

"Who dares intrude in OUR base?!" The Steelix roared, briefly stunning everybody in the room.

"Oh you just had to open your mouth!" Kroto snarled, "We'll take the Steelix! Palla! Help Traximus and the others!"

"O-Okay!" Palla stammered, "Traximus! I'm on my way!"

Rico and Kroto then turned to the massive ironclad serpent in front of them. The Froakie found his heart jumping into his throat. Kroto, however, readied his fists for a drain punch attack, but found that no energy came to them.

"Shoot! Ran out at the wrong time!" Kroto yelled, sweat trickling down his face.

Rico gave Kroto a look, "Ran out of what?!"

"Look out!" Kroto grabbed Rico and leapt to the left. The Steelix's massive tail slammed down into the earthen floor, shaking the entire dungeon. When the tail lifted, what was left was a crater in a straight line leading from the impact zone.

"Listen, our attacks aren't infinite! I need you to use your water gun, strategically." Kroto explained.

"How?!"

"Hmm." Kroto examined the Steelix. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary with this Steelix. No red eyes, no exaggerated features, it seemed like a civilian Steelix. That was, until he noticed a fairly large crack on the Steelix's left cheek. "There! Try aiming your water gun near the left cheek!"

"What about you?" Rico asked, "What will you do?"

Kroto readied a close combat instead of his usual drain punch, "I'll be a distraction!"

The Passimian launched himself at the large serpent. At the same time, a well of darkness appeared in the maw of the Steelix. When Kroto threw his first punch at the her, he felt his hand collide with a tooth clad in a miasma of dark energy. A crunch attack landed itself on Kroto, though he didn't care. As Kroto fell to the ground, he continued to unleash a flurry of blows onto the Steelix.

'Okay Rico! Don't screw this up!' Rico summoned a well of water from within him and sprayed it at the Steelix. Unfortunately, he missed his target, the serpent moving her head out of the way in time to avoid the attack.

'Crap! Let me try that again!' He repeated his attack, this time with less confidence than before. Much like last time, he managed to miss his target, and in the process, hit Kroto in the back.

"What are you doing!?" Kroto screamed as he lost his footing and slipped into the maw of the Steelix. "Aww, hell!"

The Passimian found himself between the two jaws of the Steelix. He put his arms up defensively against the closing maw, and with his muscles outstretched, found himself defenseless.

Meanwhile, Traximus was surrounded by enemies. Excadrill proved to be a challenge for his dragon typing, as his main attacks dealt little damage to him. He relied on his ember attack, though that didn't seem to do very much either. All he could do was dodge most of the attacks, but he couldn't avoid sustaining some damage.

"Quit moving around kid!" Excadrill shouted, "You're making things real difficult!"

"Hey, Mr. Unfezant! I need some help over here!" Traximus yelled.

"Boy!" The Unfezant shouted back, "What'd I say about hootin' and hollerin'?!"

"Boss, not the time!" The Shinx responded, "He might literally die!"

The Unfezant whipped up a whirlwind, blowing the Drilbur back, "Oh fine! Yer pestern's getting real obnoxious I tell you what!"

Suddenly the Unfezant turned to the Excadrill, "Now clean yer ears son and listen to the soothing sound of my voice…"

Traximus heard something being mumbled by him before the Excadrill fell over, sleeping soundly. "Hypnosis? Since when did you…?"

"Boy! Focus on this here fight!"

Seeing their leader fall asleep, the remaining Drilbur suddenly found themselves backed against the wall. Traximus and Palla rushed them, with Traximus spewing dragon breath and Palla using aqua tail. The rest of the Drilbur found themselves unconscious, much like their leader. Turning around, the rest of the pokemon shifted their attention to the Steelix.

"This battle isn't over!" The Shinx declared, "Look!"

"I could really use some help here!" Kroto shouted, flexing his arms against the top jaw.

The Unfezant flew directly behind the Steelix. He suddenly began flapping his wings. "Alright son! Watch your hide there!" A wave of heat blew over the back of the serpent, causing the metal to heat, and her head to rear upwards, roaring. Realizing his mistake he muttered, "Uh… Uh oh."

The roaring was cut off with an audible gulping sound. The room fell deadly silent, with multiple parties, including the Steelix, going wide eyed.

'No… Oh no!' Rico thought to himself, 'Did that thing… eat him?'

Then, what followed was muffled banging coming from the Steelix. She began choking, hacking up several loads of saliva before spitting a Passimian out, covered in spit.

"Never!" Kroto panted, angrily, "I'm not going to be eaten by some overgrown Dratini! Not now!"

The Passimian then launched a close combat directly onto the crack in the Steelix. Blow after blow landed, drawing pained screeches from her and slamming of her tail, whipping up a ton of dust. Then, a collapse of something large. When the dust settled, Kroto was standing atop the felled serpent.

"Not ever."

Growling and snarling, Kroto walked over towards the unconscious Excadrill. "Today was going fine! But then we just had to go in and play the hero! The Magcargo and now this!" Grunting and heaving, he lifted the Excadrill by his head, charging one last close combat. "I refuse! I refuse to have-Ack!"

The Passimian suddenly found himself choking and gasping for air, dropping the Excadrill in the process. Rico and the others surrounded him, concerned about his well-being.

"Kroto!" Traximus shouted, looking around, "I think it's the dust that's choking him up!"

"Well boy, I ought to give some air to this here young man!" The Unfezant cheered, blowing a gentle whirlwind away from Kroto, pushing the dust away.

As Kroto's choking subsided, the Excadrill began to wake up. Scouting the battlefield, he saw the downed Kroto, the two dragons, Rico, and the other two explorers and in the background, a Steelix lying down, out cold. "H-Huh?! What happened to my Steelix?!" He cried.

"Defeated," Traximus scolded, "Now surrender! You're outnumbered, for real this time!"

"Gah… Forget it. I've lost." The Excadrill pointed to the large hole made by the Steelix. "Beyond that wall, you'll find the Sandshrew."

"Wait… Really?" Traximus blinked several times, "Just like that?"

"Kid, we may be a gang, but we're not barbarians. I'll go quietly and face my consequences…"

Traximus cautiously approached the far wall, leaving the Excadrill to be dealt with by the explorers. Coming to the brink of the wall, and clearing his vision, he found the Sandshrew in the back corner, cowering. The Bagon approached him, and lessened his guard.

"Hey there," Traximus began, "You okay?"

After the Sandshrew heard his voice, he stopped cowering and looked up at him. It seemed that seeing a familiar face brought on a relieved smile.

"Thanks to you, I am now! I think…"

"What happened to you?" Traximus asked.

"The Excadrill gang jumped me when I was on a delivery task. I'm a bronze-ranked member of the local guild, and I needed some jobs to bring my team to silver rank. So I opted to go by myself and take on some local jobs for my team." The Sandshrew explained.

"Wow! So you're an official explorer?"

"Yep! But since I'm down here, I'll likely never hear the end of it from my boss…"

"Yer hootin' right son!" The Unfezant barked from behind Traximus, "You done caused these here boys a great deal of trouble with your tomfoolery!" The Unfezant brushed the Bagon aside as he continued scolding the Sandshrew, "What were you thinking boy? Going about doing jobs by yerself, whaddya you think you are? A human?"

The ensuing berating caused Traximus to lose interest and go back to his team. Kroto, having caught his breath, fell on his back breathing softly. Rico, Palla and even the Shinx soon regrouped and all parties shared a moment of silence.

"Hey, do any of you know the way out?" Rico asked.

Looking at the beratement continuing, then looking back, the Shinx rolled an orb over towards Team Nova, "Crack open this escape orb and head out. This will last a while."

"What about you?" Palla reminded, "How will you get out?"

"We have plenty of them. We'll see you around." The Shinx walked over to the Sandshrew and his boss, joining in on the conversation. Kroto rolled over and picked up the orb, staring into his reflection inside it.

"Well guys, ready to leave?" The Passimian asked.

With everybody's nod of confirmation, Kroto smashed the orb, leading to a flash of bright light that consumed all of Team Nova. After the lights faded, the group vanished out of the dungeon.

~ Windlass Plains ~

A bright flash appeared on the hills of the plains. When the light show subsided, Team Nova found themselves back in the familiar scene they were in before the dungeon. Looking upwards, they found themselves in the midst of a sunset, with the sun beaming on the hills, casting small shadows on the scenes beneath them.

"Wow… Look at the sunset." Palla commented, peering at the hills reflecting an olive glow in the orange sunlight.

Kroto stretched out in the grassy fields, "Success feels different after being in a dungeon, huh? I didn't think we were in there for this long though."

"Well?" Rico interrupted their relaxation, "So what about humans bothers you guys so much?"

After giving a sigh, Traximus explained, "You may not know this, but humans are really, really strong. In fact, there's this group known as the Four Heavenly Monarchs, who are humans that are pokemon. But it's a long story, and it's better told over dinner."

At Traximus's last sentence, Rico found his stomach rumbling. "See, told you!" The Bagon snickered, "Let's go back to Hakari Village. Don't tell anybody you're human, though."

~ Hakari Village ~

At the edge of the village, Team Nova sat down near a tree, watching all the villagers go about their business. Rico took in the sights and watched over the village, but an important set of questions were on his mind.

"Now what?" Rico asked, "What can I do now?"

Kroto shut his eyes and yawned, "It's not like we can send you back where you came from…"

"I'm already a guest at Kruler's house," Palla stated, "And I can't make decisions for her…"

"Then I guess in the meantime, you can stay at my place." Traximus groaned, "Gosh this is gonna be such a headache."

"What does this world have against me?!" Rico snapped, "I'm not that much of a burden, am I?"

"Um, no. It's just that we can't have you blurting out that you're human. What comes after is usually a global crisis and we don't want everybody here riled up." Traximus whispered to the Froakie, who went wide-eyed at the revelation.

"Wait, you mean… I am the cataclysm?" He whispered back, drawing an exhausted sigh from the Bagon.

"Yes- I mean no- I- whatever. Just don't tell anybody else that you're human and you'll be good."

"Welp," Kroto got up, "I'm beat! I need a bath and some rest. I'll see you guys later."

As Kroto walked off, Rico looked to Traximus for an answer. The Bagon merely replied, "If you look for a house with a silver dragon emblem on it, you'll find my place. Tell my mom I sent you. I still have one more place I gotta go."

Rico left for the destination set out for him, leaving the two dragons behind. Traximus then turned his attention to his Axew friend. "Well, I'm off! I'll see you…"

"Wait." Palla cut him off, "I want to talk to you for a bit."

"...Okay," The Bagon approached and sat beside her, "What's up?"

"Do you…think I did good back there?"

"Huh? Of course you did. We all contributed our share of work, even Rico."

The Axew tilted her head upwards, "I tried to be a bit braver today than I was last time. It was just… scary that time."

"No kidding! I thought I was gonna be chomped up by that Gyarados, Euno, I think his name was?" Traximus chuckled a bit at that thought.

Palla couldn't help but to giggle a bit. "Um… I also have something else to ask…"

"Go on, I'm listening."

For a bit there was silence. When Traximus looked at Palla, he found her averting his gaze. The Bagon was confused by her body language, but also found himself curious. As he approached closer, he asked, "Is something wrong?"

"...Never mind," Palla turned away, "It's-It's too soon for that. You'll probably say 'no' anyway."

Letting it go, Traximus backed away. "I understand." Looking to the sky, he found it to be darkening, "We better get going. It'll be dark before long."

"Mhm." Palla agreed, dashing past Traximus and into the village.

~ Gullverian Command Center, Some time Later ~

Alcryst stood across from General Garland. Left of the general was Prime Minsister Ingasa with his Lucario guard. And to the right was Sector of Defense director Darcy. The table in front of all of them held stacks of official documents and reports on the edges of the table. In the center, there was a large war map. Alcryst cleared his throat, commanding the attention of his small audience.

"Thank you all for coming on such short notice." The Alakazam began, "Let's start. We have a brand-new problem. If our enemies are who I think they are, then both Gullveria and Talgeria are in extreme danger."

Alcryst placed several black figurines on the table, three on Northrun and one on Treasure Town, Pokemon Square, Lively Town, and Paradise. "These are the locations that I believe to have operatives serving our opposition."

The Prime Minister tapped his chin, "Northrun? Is that not Gullverian territory? Are you suggesting that our enemies are from within?"

"Yes, and no." Alcryst psychically conjured up some purple tokens. He began placing them around the map, two on Kira University. "From the evidence I was able to gather on the patterns of appearance, whoever is placing Eternarifts has access to both Talgeria and Gullveria. Additionally, they would need somebody who knows about the availability of such a weapon."

"So is it a Talgerian scientist gone rogue?" The general asked, narrowing his eyes.

"That leads me into my next point. In the past, there were only a select few scientists that knew about the Eternarift project. One of those scientists may be affiliated with an individual that you're all too familiar with. The Notorious 'Derge, he is called."

Director Darcy raised her hand, noticing the attention on her, she briefly dropped it, "'Derge? But if he's involved, that means that Team Blackhand is involved."

"Correct." Alcryst agreed, "Team Blackhand, a well known organization that spreads fear and terror all around both Gullveria and Talgeria. They capitalized on the weakened state of the Gullverian nation during the war, and it's no surprise that they're taking advantage of the weakened state of both nations now."

"But what's their endgame?" The Prime Minister inquired, "Every organization has a goal, a purpose."

"That's something even I don't know. But here's what I do know. The leader of Team Blackhand must be apprehended before this can get out of anybody's control."