Chapter 5

	After hiking for thirty minutes Scyther, Pecha, and Oran stopped before the mouth of the Indigo Overgrowth. all of the leaves of every tree in their sight was a deep violet hue, almost appearing entirely white from the thick veils of web topping the gigantic plants like a blanket.  The air felt strange and clingy to their fur, especially to the Buneary; each pat she gave her excited hairs, the more they crackled and bit at her paw.  

	“Ow!  What's with my fur all of a sudden?”  She screamed, while swatting at her fur as if trying to kill an entire family of mosquitoes that chose her for their next picnic.

	“I dunno, but it sounds funny,” Oran commented.  “I wanna touch your fur!”

	She took two steps back, and screamed at his approaching paws, “Stay away from me!  Go touch yourself!”

	“But mine isn't as long as yours; it won't make the funny sounds,” he stuttered to her numbly.  A slight tingle caught his tongue; the more he smacked his mouth, the more the tingle spread.  “I cant feel my tongue all of a sudden,” he said to himself.  He told his instructor, “Is this what it feels like to be you, Scyther?”

	 “Look!”  He pointed his right scythe in the air, and their eyes followed its direction.  A large bolt of lightning broke from the back of the Overgrowth's throat, screaming with electricity, and causing a flock of bird Pokemon to scatter away from the danger in panic.  “A Thunder Wave,” he told himself underneath his voice, “Dedenne is still here, after all.  Guys, we haven't much time,” he told his students.  “Dedenne is still here.  I'll make this quick: we'll have a better chance of success if we all stick together.  Ariados aren't brainless, so we need to be careful of our surroundings; for all we know, they've set up the entire area as their hunting trap.  And Oran, whatever you do: don't use your Aura Sphere.”

	Oran threw his arms up in response, “What?!  Why?  That's my favorite move!”

	“Oran, quit complaining,” Pecha told him.  “Every time you use it, it pops like a bubble.”

	“Yeah, but every time I use it, I get better at it,” he told her back.  He looked at his palms, tightening them into fists.  He didn't know how to say it, but while looking at his fists, he heard his powers whisper into his ear, promising him they'll succeed this time around.  “I have this weird feeling,” he said to his sister, “I just know it, I know it's going to work this time!”  He said to the Scyther, “Just let me use it this one time; I'll get it to work!”

	“No, and that's final,” the mantis told him, looking him dead in the eye.
	
	“Scyther, please-!”

	“How will we know for certain if you can get it to work?”  Scyther asked him.  “In a situation like this, we need to be precise; we can't rely on vague gut feelings.  I know how hard it must feel, Oran, but the more we argue about this, the more we're letting Pikachu and Dedenne down- and not just them- but the whole guild, too.”

	“Right, so we don't have time to lose!”  Oran charged right into the mouth of the woodlands without a second thought.  He had no fear of what's awaiting.  He had no interest in thinking it through.  His mind had two priorities: find Dedenne, and fight off as many Ariados he can, in any order he wanted.

	“O-Oran!”  Scyther's heart jumped seeing that boy dive into unknown danger headfirst.  He and Pecha took off for their impulsive teammate.  Scyther shouted, “Come back!  What did I just say about sticking together?!  Oran!”

	“Oran, what are you thinking?!”  Pecha yelled.

	Out of sight, Oran's voice echoed through the throat of the woodlands, “No time to lose!”


	The bruised and dirty Pikachu sat on Guildmistress Florges' desk back at the guild, in front of the Single Bloom Pokemon and her assistant.  As time passed, his heart calmed from its nervous beating, and he regained some lost breath, though his chest still cramped to a degree.  “And that's my story, Guildmistress Florges,” he told her, looking her face to face.  “Three of your guys are already out there looking for my wife.”

	“This is quite the situation you've brought to me,” She thought to herself out loud.  

	“Guildmistress, what should we do?”  Azumarill asked her.  “Should I issue more help?”

	“I trust in Scyther and his team that they'll get the job done,” she told her.  “But Indigo Overgrowth, Arceus know if the rumors I've heard about that area is true.”

	The Pikachu tried hiding his breakdown behind his paws, but the rivers of tears seeped through the cracks of his dam.  “I'm begging you, Florges, please, do whatever it takes to save Dedenne!”  sniffling, he wiped most of his waterworks off with his arm, “She's the best thing that ever happened to me.  I...I don't think I'll ever find someone like her again!  I had one happy moment  happen in my life, and those Ariados are going to ruin it!”

	“There, there, it'll be all right,” she whispered to the distressed rodent, running her delicate fingers across his head. 

	“Th-thank you,” the Pikachu whimpered while drying his eyes with his arm.  “I wouldn't know what I'd do without you.”

	“You're very much welcome,”  she told him smiling.  “I just wouldn't feel right denying help to a Pokemon in need.”

	He smiled, wiping one last tear from his eye.  “I-I'm supposed to pay you for your service, right?  I don't have anything to offer, I-”

	“That's all right,” she said.  “My guild's services do require payment, but we'll work something out.  Your wife must be someone special if you're taking her all the way to Cristal Spring.” She laughed into her hand, “Ahahaha! Taking her to a place like that, you must treat her like a real queen!”

	Pikachu looked away, his red-dotted cheeks glowed with a soothing light.  “Ehehe, yeah,” he admitted.  “She's my cheery, energetic, little queen.  She can be just as bossy and abrasive as one, but that's just how she defends herself.  When I got to know her, I saw how she really was on the inside- she's just as anxious and soft as I am.  And I have no plans of letting go of her.”
	

	“Oran?  Oran, where are you?”  Scyther and Pecha's calling voices cried through the Indigo as they searched for their missing teammate, but with no returning reception.  They had him in their sights, and somehow, he stayed evasive to their search- not two Pokemon were in need of potential rescuing.  

	“Rrgh, Oran, you can be an idiot, sometimes,” Pecha grunted to herself.  “No wait, you're always an idiot, what am I saying.  Do we even have time to look for you?”  Wherever she placed her eyes, the more the unnerving chill crawling beneath her pelt grew worse.  She didn't notice it back at the entrance, but the deeper she walked through the woodlands, more and more white sacs of tightly coiled silk clinging to the violet trees lined their coarse.  Some hung low, almost as if laying on the ground, while the rest hung high above in the branches like fruits.  Some were even so thinly wrapped, Pecha made out the dried remains of other Pokemon inside.

	“Don't look at them, Pecha,” Scyther told her while devoting his eyes to the path in front of him, as if he had eyes in the back of his head watching her soak up the macabre scene

	She cleared her throat of its choking pit by gulping it down, “S-Scyther, are they all what I think-?”

	“Yes,”  he replied.  “They are what we're trying to prevent Dedenne and Oran from becoming.  Don't let it scare you, Pecha- as horrible as it might seem- this kind of sight is normal in the wild.  Just stick by me, and everything will be okay.”

	“Don't look at them, he said,” she scoffed to herself.  With at least three of the cobweb sacs showing up within her peripheral vision with each step she took, and then three more, it was something of an impossible favor- unless she knew how to keep on coarse while keeping her eyes shut.  Her stomach gurgled with an uneasy sensation, and she forced back the urge to cry, though for how long she didn't know.  “So, uh, why do they call this an Overgrowth?”  Pecha asked.  “It looks like a regular forest to me.”

	“It sorta is,” Scyther told her.  “They're more like boundaries between two other forests.  The Indigo Overgrowth separates the Verde Forest from the Escarlata Forest to the east.”

	Her tightly coiled ears shot up and stiffened.  She felt every one of her hairs get delicately plucked off of her body by the air, one by one, as if it tried to get her attention about something.  But when she ran her paws across her little body, she found her hairs still intact.  Her muscles stiffened to the point where even walking became a struggle.  She tried telling Scyther about it, “U-uhm, Scyther, I have a really bad feeling about this.  My danger sense is acting up. I feel like something's looming over my head.”

	“It's going to be all right,” Scyther told her calmly.  “As long as I'm here, you don't have anything to worry a-”

	It came from nowhere, right before their eyes a thick string of silk latched onto the anticipating Buneary's back, and reeling her into the branches of the tree above her head with unreal speed.

	“AAAAAAAAAGGGHHHHHHHH!”  Pecha screamed her lungs out while she was lifted into the tree, watching the ground shrink underneath her feet.  “Scyther!  Help me!  Help me!”  The more she struggled to break free from the sticky silk, the more she got herself lassoed and wrapped in its grip.   

	Scyther cried, “Pecha!”

	Pecha trapped herself in the webbing with her entire torso in its bind, and her arms restrained.  The more she struggled to free herself,  the tighter it squeezed her; she wasted most of her energy in one moment, and had little strength to keep it up.  She huffed to herself, “It's no use.”

	She felt something wet drip on the back of her head; it might just be morning dew dripping off the tree leaves.  When she looked up, she wished it was only that: two purple eyes glaring brighter than a candle wisp looked straight at her from the shade within the tree.  It had a small red head armed with a single horn as long as one of her ears, and a larger red body with black stripes.  The drips she felt came from its two large fangs, which were excessively coated in the stuff.  It hung on the side of the tree by its four yellow legs as it reeled her in by the web it spat from its mouth.

	“S-Scyther,”  Pecha cried once more, “Scyther!  Help!  Help me, I can't get free!”  Meeting face to face with her predator breathed some new life in her struggle.  But once again, all attempts for freedom tangled her more in the string.  

	Before the spider claimed its meal, Scyther severed the silk with a single swing of his right scythe, cutting through it like paper across his sharp bladed appendage.  Before the Buneary ever had a chance to fall he held out his left scythe, and Pecha's stringy cocoon stuck to its flat surface. Using his beating wings to slow them down, he landed on his feet with a soft thud.  The spider backed itself deeper into the shade of the tree line when Scyther spotted it looking up.  “Hold still for a sec,” he told the frightened Buneary.

	“A-already ahead of you.”  She had no choice but to trust him.  Scraping her off his scythe was the tricky part, it always latched back on when he touched the string with his other scythe.  With some fiddling, Pecha finally plopped to the ground.  With a swift swipe down her back, Scyther severed her natural binds.  “Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew.”  It seemed like the stuff had a mind of its own while she scraped herself away from its clingy mess, reacting to every little movement she made as an excuse to spread all over the place.  But she managed to crawl out of it, crumpling it all into a ball that only claimed a handful of her hair.  After tossing the nasty sight into a nearby bush, she held herself tightly.  “Wh-wh-what was that thing?”  She asked Scyther.

	“That was an Ariados,” Scyther stuttered.  “That one just so happened to be one of the patient ones.  Are you okay?”

	“I..I...”  Her knees had the structural stability of a Ditto, and the uncontrollable wobbling sent  her crashing to the ground.  She lost all restraint to her stomach, emptying it all over the ground as a yellow-ish pile mixed with various chunks of berries. She cried into the puddle of mud she created, huffing and puffing without catching her breath. In the silence of her catching her breath like they were hiccups and wiping her face clean with her arm, she whimpered to her instructor, “Scyther, I don't wanna do this anymore.    I wanna go home, where I won't be eaten!  I can't handle any of this anymore!”  

	Seeing the crying Buneary reminded Scyther of what he used to go through as a new explorer.  He once felt her pain of inexperience, wanting to give up the first instant the world challenged his innocence, and made his stomach tie itself into a knot.  This is what he wanted- an experience that would help them absorb his lessons- but why does he feel so guilty about getting what he wanted? If only he had hands he'd give her a needed, warming hug.  He crouched down to her, “Hey, Pecha, it's gonna be all right,” he told her lovingly.

	“No!  You, you keep saying that, but I know it's not going to be,”  Pecha screamed.  “I told you something awful was about to happen, but you didn't listen to me!   I'm, I'm just a Buneary- all I'm good for is running away! At least you can defend yourself- you're big, and you have blades for hands; I am the preferred snack for all the Pokemon bigger than me!”

	A yellow flash lighting up from inside the belly of the Overgrowth caught Scyther's sharp eyes.  “Aaaaagggghhhh!”  A faint shriek followed it, one too feminine to belong to Oran on first hearing; its owner's cry reminded him of the little time they have left.

	Pecha sniffled while wiping the streams from under her button eyes, “I'm done playing explorer; I'm not cut out to actually be one.  I never was.  I don't know how Oran can just be fine with all of this, but I...I just wanna go home.”
	
	“You can't give up, now,” Scyther pleaded.  “Don't blame yourself for feeling like that; if anyone's to blame, it's really me.”  He took a short moment to think about what to say next, “I should have realized something like this was going to happen.  But instead, I was too caught up in the thought that an experience like this would help you two absorb my lessons a little better.  I shouldn't have endangered you and your brother like this.”  He rose from his knees, looking down at the weeping Buneary, “But we've made it this far, and we can't look back, now; all we can do now is move on, and rescue Dedenne.  You're right to feel afraid, and you're right to want to run- but you're letting those feelings control you.  You may be just a Buneary, but you're the bravest Buneary I know.”

	Pecha sniffled, “Do...do you really mean that?”

	“I wouldn't be saying it if I didn't,”  he told her.  “You mustn't run away, Pecha.  Everyone's counting on us, on you.  Do you want to let them down?”

	Despite hearing what Scyther had to say, her gut instinct opposed his words.  It kept telling her, “Run away.  Run away.  You'll be safer, then.”  She considered taking its advice, and even thought of letting the instinct drive her and take her to safety.  But no matter how much more sickened her stomach became, she choked it all back down.  Against her own desire she stood back up to her feet, wiping off her tear-drenched fur.  “Okay...okay,” she sniffled one last time to Scyther in a calmer tone.  “I won't be afraid anymore.  I want to help out the best I can.”

	“Alright!  That's my Pecha,” he praised her, softly tapping her on the back with his right scythe.  “I'm proud of you for doing this.  Let's go save some Pokemon!”  He picked the fragile bunny off her feet, and plopped her right onto his right shoulder.  “Oh, and some advice: if you happen to see any silvery threads hanging from the trees, steer clear from those.”

	“Okay.”

	
	She must have ran at least seven miles deep into the heart of the Indigo Overgrowth, all the while evading the fangs of what seemed like a hundred predators to her.  Dedenne was just a tiny little gerbil, smaller than even her husband, defending herself in a bigger Pokemon's territory.  Dirt lightly painted her burnt orange coat around her belly.  Like Pikachu, giant red dots covered the entirety of both her face cheeks, though unlike him, antenna-like whiskers protruded from her spots.

	She put her brakes on, skidding  a few feet across the soil.  Peeking over her shoulder, several Ariados were still hot on her tail- seven in counting.  “You're a persistent bunch,” she huffed.  Though she was drained to her very bones of juice, it was all or nothing.  She took a deep breath and howled, “Thunderbolt!”  From the crackling field surrounding her she shot a single prong of lightning at the predators- when it hit one, it hit them all.
 

	“Gyaaaa-aaaagh!”  Taking the lightning head-on, their bodies tensed and tightened to the point their muscles felt like solid stone to them.  The Ariados fell flat, right from underneath their four legs that twitched uncontrollably.  

	She barely had the strength to suspend herself upright from the ground with her own hands.  She can't remember how long she's been going at this, paralyzing these one track-minded insects, but the toll of her efforts started racking up.  Her body was empty of energy, muscles ached and screamed  for immediate relief.  Every time she opened her eyes the world around her spun and her vision fogged.  She had pushed herself beyond her own limits, and still she pushed forward. “D...dangit,” she huffed to herself.  “I can't...I can't keep this up much longer!  When is Pikachu coming back with help?  He better not have deserted me out here!”

	After taking her eyes off the paralyzed group, she tripped.  She looked behind her, and an Ariados hooked her with its String Shot.  Even with his body slightly twitching and muscles stiffening from being filled with electricity, Dedenne still had to rake her claws into the soil to keep from having his venom-drenched fangs digging into her.  “No, no, no,” she chanted frantically, “I refuse to let you have me!”

	He answered back with a chant of his own, “Hungry!  Hungry!  Hungry!  Must eat!”

	“Eat someone else- I'm not on the menu!”  But her comment meant nothing to the Ariados, who could only think of what her plump, juicy, insides tasted like.  

	“Leave her alone!”  A voice broke from the shadows of the Overgrowth.  A young Riolu hopped across the abdomens of the grouped Ariados like a stone path in a raging river.  He leaped into the air, and kicked his heels straight down onto the leading spider's head, slamming it onto the dirt path. Disoriented with a mind-splitting headache from the attack, The Ariados let go of its web the Dedenne was caught in. “Hey, are you Dedenne?”  He asked the gerbil.

	“That depends, just who are you?”

	“I'm Oran, I'm from Florges Guild,” he told her proudly, flashing his shiny badge stuck to his scarf.  “Your boyfriend sent me n' my team to come rescue y-”

	“BOYFRIEND?!”  Dedenne rattled the very trees of the Indigo with her voice- if she and Loudred were to go against each other in a screaming contest, all of the judges would go deaf, and no one would be chosen winner.  Oran crossed a thin and fragile line, with the ignorance of his youth unable to protect him from her wrath.  “KID, DO I LOOK LIKE THE KIND OF WOMAN WHO HAS A BOYFRIEND?!  I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW THAT I HAVE A HUSBAND, AND HE'S THE REASON I'M BARELY SURVIVING IN THIS DEATH TRAP OF NATURE!  IN FACT, I'M SURE HE'S PROBABLY RELAXING HIS LAZY BUTT AT YOUR DUMB GUILD, WHILE I'M RISKING MY LIFE NOT TO BECOME BUG FOOD!!”  She came down with a dry hacking fit, coughing and wheezing out a lung, sparing the poor Riolu from the rest of her rant.  “How did you  even find me, anyways?”

	Instead of her question, all Oran could hear was a faint siren wailing from inside his ear lobes.  He shaked his head hoping to get the splitting sound out of his mind, but the soft static still resumed.  “What?”  He asked her.

	“Rrgh, nevermind,”  she grunted.  Thanks to her lack of an inside voice, speaking to her rescuer won't work for a few moments.  She reached for his left paw, her antenna whiskers sparked several times before delivering a shock over to him with the rest of her strength.  At first it caught him off guard as he stepped back, but then he noticed- the shock isn't hurting him- not one bit!  At worst his muscles just cringed on their own underneath his skin, but nothing painful or irritating.  But it felt odd to him, like the electricity pinched him not to hurt him, but to relay something to him that physical words couldn't.  “Take me to your guild.”  Was that what she was trying to tell him?

	A stream of a thousand purple needles as thin as a blade of grass suddenly struck the gerbil, sweeping her off her feet, and out of the jackal's loose grip.  “D-Dedenne!  Are you o-?”  From the side of his eyes he caught another storm of Poison Sting rushing his way.  He tucked his head into his crossed arms and protected his chest, “Endure!”  One by one the darts ricocheted off his arms like they were hitting a barrier, instead, and spiking into the ground around him.  But the move failed to protect him from the sensation of being pricked barely beneath the pelt a thousand times over, like being stung by a swarm of wasps.  When the rain stopped, he raised an arm high enough to take a peek through his defense- the Ariados have shaken off their paralysis from before, and, needless to say, they weren't too happy.

	“Rrgh.”  Despite her body wanting to be a pin cushion and lie on the ground, Dedenne forced herself back up, ignoring the shaking in her arms telling her to stop, before collapsing again back down.  The needles melted inside her as if they were icicles, taking their times spreading their vileness in her system.

	“Dedenne!”  Oran hustled his way to her side, gently lifting her head into his lap.  “Are you okay?”  he asked.

	“Yeah, totally, I'm totally fine right now,” she whimpered to him, unable to block out the sickening pain in her body.

	“Really?”  He asked her.  “You don't look fine to me.”

	She wheezed “It's called sarcasm...you idiot.”  The Poison Stings soaked deeper into her body.  She wanted to scream- about how much she felt her insides turn to liquid- but her body refused her request.  Being a lone Fairy-type in an area brimming with Poison-types must never be fun.  “Just, please, take me away from here, already,” she coughed.  “I...I feel disgusting.  I feel like I'm melting inside.”

	“Don't worry, Dedenne, I'll take you to my guild, no problem,” he assured her, softly throwing her around his back like a bag.  But the sheer weight of the rodent on his back nearly sent him to his knees.  Each time he took a step her weight wanted to pin him to the ground.  “Gosh, you are really heavy, y'know that?”

	Dedenne cried an ill groan into his back.

	The line of Ariados drew closer to the duo as a slow march, salivating entire pools of venom from their fangs and leaving trails of it behind.  With all emotion replaced by hunger, their eyes saw two appetizers to alleviate it.  “Hey!  That blue kid is taking our food,” an Ariados shouted.

	The other came up with a brilliant idea, “Let's eat him, too!”

	Despite danger inching its way closer to the Riolu, he stood ready to fight them off one by one, with both his hands supporting Dedenne on his back.  “Go on, come at me, I'm not scared of you,” he taunted them.  “You mess with me, you mess with Florges Guild!”

	“Food is mine!”  An eager spider broke from the line, and rushed at the Riolu.  All it could think of was how the gerbil and jackal would taste together.  But it felt one of its hind legs catch on something- it peeped behind it, a String Shot connected it to another Ariados.  “What's the big deal?!”

	“If anyone gets food, it's me,” the Ariados hissed at its captive, tightening its String Shot to keep the captured spider from touching the pair.

	The captive spider responded, “Fool! They're both MINE!  Let go!”  The Ariados raked its pointy legs across the ground, attempting to force itself out of its lasso and take a bite out of the small Pokemon.  But the captor stayed strong while fishing the misbehaving arachnid back into the group.

	Once unified under a simple goal, Oran watched the group fall into chaos under that goal: their tidy line dissolved into a mosh pit of hissing spiders, each trying to intimidate the rest from having their next meal.  Crouching low to the ground while the appendages on their thorax flared upright, some even sniped back at whoever dared to get too close.  “What's happening?”  Oran thought to himself while watching it all unfold. “Were they all just pretending to be cool with each other?  Were they all planning on turning on each other when they get Dedenne?”

	“Oran!”  His ears twitched.  With a few lightning quick slashes, Scyther pushed a path through the circle of arachnids, with Pecha riding on his shoulders.  Although the team reunited at last, the leader had a couple words to lay off his chest to the young blue jackal, and none of them happy.  “I'm very cross with you, mister,” Scyther told him with a harsh look in his eyes.  “Just rushing in like that, what were you thinking?!  You nearly endangered us all by doing that!”

	Oran argued back, “Hey, you said we didn't have much time to save Dedenne, so I took the initiative!”

	“I also said we must be precise,” the mantis replied.  “Would you call running in with a head full of gusto 'precise'?  I sure wouldn't!”

	Pecha hopped down from Scyther's shoulder, and delivered a slap across his face that thundered throughout the forest.  “That's for nearly getting me eaten!”

	He knew she was serious- she put a lot more sting into that slap than usual.  He rubbed the sore lump on his cheek, while his left eye started tearing up a little.  “Hey, we can all relax, now- I rescued Dedenne!  See?”  Oran turned his back slightly, revealing the gerbil clasping for her dear life on his back.

	Scyther let out a huge sigh of relief, “Well, at least you did.  And at least nothing terrible happened to you.”  His eyes fixated on the small needles lining all over her back, which were now more like tiny magenta bumps.  “Ooh, can't say the same thing for her, though.  That's a lot of poison for someone her size.”

	“Please...help,” she whimpered.

	“Don't worry,” Scyther assured her.  “Ariados poison isn't lethal; but you'll still need attention, pronto.  Oran, hold her out.” 

	The Riolu unstrapped her arms from his back, and held her in front of his chest as high as he could.  The mantis dropped to one of his knees, and held his silver badge that was pinned to his bandanna between his scythes.  “Don't worry, Dedenne.  Just open your eyes, and focus on my badge.”

	She had trouble just opening her eyes half way, but when she looked at the small sapphire piece in the middle of his badge, it started to glow pure white.  The stone transferred the shine to her, its brightness rivaling that of the sun's, until it suddenly died down to just a twinkle- and Dedenne was nowhere to be found.

	“Whoa, where'd she go, Scyther?”  Oran asked.

	“Back to the guild,” he replied.  “My badge can teleport other Pokemon to the guild.”
	
	“Cool!  When will mine do that?”  He asked, starry-eyed.

	“Later, but that's not important, now,” he told the Riolu.  “For now, we need to head back to-”

	“Hey!”  The Ariados gang wiggled themselves up until they were upright on their feet again.  They approached the trio with growling stomachs, and even angrier spirits.  “You took our only food,” one slurped, “now you made us angry!”

	“Pecha, Oran, get behind me,” Scyther said, gently nudging them to his sides. “One Ariados is bad enough; a group of them spells trouble.”

	“But, Scyther, I wanna help,” Oran yelled at him.

	“Oran, just listen to Scyther,” his sister told him, “you've done enough 'help' for today!”

	Something felt off to the Riolu: It was like a pulse of negativity suddenly flowing through his entire being, like wind flowing through his sapphire fur.  The negativity turned into images quickly flashing before his eyes- of him getting tightly wrapped up in a cocoon, like a mummy still alive. Then came the image of a spider, a living silhouette able to hold the cocoon like it was a pea- and it sank its tree-thick fangs into the wiggling sac.  He felt his back suddenly flare up with some kind of sharp, burning ache, with all the pain concentrated into two spots.  His  howls pierced through the thick foliage of the Overgrowth, the experience drove him madly to his knees as he latched his paws on the furs of his head.  “What's happening?!”  he demanded in agony.  “What's going on?!”

	His mentor joined in with his own screams of dwindling sanity as the wave even affected him, “AAAAGGH-NN!” He collapsed to his knees, pleading for the horrible images to stop playing behind his eyes: he flew anywhere and everywhere he could to avoid the silk streams, but he wasn't fast enough.  As soon as his left leg caught on the web, he turned to a cocoon before he could even blink.  His squirming and muffled screams for help attracted the spider silhouette; his dance for desperation made him all the more delicious for it, the silhouette drove its tree-sized fangs into the dancing bean, putting him out of his misery.  “These thoughts!  Make them stop!  Make them stop!”  Just with Oran's cries, Scyther found no one else to relieve him from the horror.

	“G-guys?”  Everywhere she looked, everyone around Pecha seemed to have gone feral with insanity of some sort.  She gulped a tight knot down her neck, standing in one spot while crawling beneath her own skin, and unable to figure out what's happening to everyone.  “Guys, cut that out!  I've been through enough weird stuff for today!”

	“GYAAAAGH!”  Whatever Oran and Scyther felt, the pulsating horror extended to even the group of Ariados.  No matter how much they shook their heads violently, or bang them against the ground, they saw the same images, too, and it drove them haywire!  Through their hysteria they chanted out loud, “She's here!  She's here!  Run away, run away!”

	“Wait!  Who's here?!”  Oran screamed.  “Scyther, what's happening?!”

	The pulse seized. The images in their images weakened to where Oran and Scyther shook them out of their heads.  They became just a memory to be quickly forgotten.  “Br-r-r-r-r,” Oran rattled his head, “That was intense; a little too intense.”

	“I-I think we were hit with a Night Shade,” Scyther told him with a hint of trembling in his voice.  He aimed his eyes over the towering tree line.  If it was the move he suspected, somebody must have had to use it close by.  “That must mean whoever used it is right above us!”

	The Buneary's danger sense grabbed her by her soft ears, and chucked her forward off her feet.  A large object fell from a tree and landed where she once stood with a ground-shaking thump.  Another Ariados, but different from the rest: the rest of the bunch looked like newly hatched egglings compared to her gargantuan size.  Instead of scarlet red, her exoskeleton was a deep purple, perfect for camouflaging in the Overgrowth's foliage, and bright blue rings around her legs, instead of purple.

	Oran stretched his arms out wide, “Whoa, that one is huge!  I bet it can take on all the other Ariados!”

	But Scyther and Pecha didn't share the same enthusiasm as the little pup.  The mere sight of her sent trembles down their spines, freezing the Buneary in place, and forced the Scyther into uncertain anticipation.  “She probably has,” Scyther choked.

	She looked at the Buneary through her light blue tinted eyes with a glare of strange content, and Pecha could only guess at what she was thinking to the sound of her fangs clanging against each other.  Like a showdown before noon, both predator and prey stared each other down.

	The Ariados took the first draw- she spat a thick stream of String Shot that no one's eyes managed to catch, and latched to the Buneary before she had any time to even twitch.  The Ariados reeled Pecha in with a single jerk of her head, and wrapped her between her fangs.  Her heart raced as moments from her earlier experience flashed before her eyes, but instead of giving in, she fought them back.  Despite her hands being bound to her waist, her free ears delivered devastating Pound after devastating pound to the arachnid's face.  She repeated her orders to her, “Let go of me!  Let go of me!  I won't be on your menu, today!”  But the Ariados took all of her struggles as if she were being continually punched by a feather- not a single sign of flinching or hurt shown in her eyes.

 	While she had the monstrous bug distracted, the Scyther and his jackal pup apprentice rushed in to help her fight.  Scyther leaped, and readied his right scythe up high for an aerial slash. “I won't let you have her!”  But the spider was quicker than he thought, jumping out of his way and onto the trunk of a nearby tree at the last second before he swiped at her with his sharp appendage.

	Stationed on the side of the tree, the black markings on her abdomen that formed a frowning face became exposed to the Scyther and Riolu.  For some reason they couldn't take their eyes off the markings, fully aware of the hypnosis they were undergoing.  The face twitched.  Even while being plastered onto the female spider's back it seemed like it was coming to life on its own.  Stiffly the dotted eyes slanted into an angered glare, and the single frowning line split and morphed into a stencil smile full of teeth.  

	The face popped right off of the Ariados' back, and hovered toward the explorers like a bodiless specter looking for a victim to scare.  It opened its mouth as if to eat them, then let out a small shriek of nails running across a chalkboard, knocking the two on their butts.  When they opened their eyes, Ariados disappeared from the tree, but still seen hopping from limb to limb of each tree deep inside the woods.

	“Rrgh, she hit us with a Scary Face,” Scyther grunted getting back up.  “She's slowing us down so we can't get Pecha- I hate when that happens.  It always makes me feel so awkwardly sluggish.”

	“No use crying over it, Scyther, we can still get her back!”  The eager Riolu lept to his feet.  His legs filled with a sense of awkwardness, as if his very bones were going against his wishes of pursuing the spider holding his older sis captive, and wanted to stay in place, but he didn't listen to them.  Through the subtle sensations of fear and shock he pushed himself through the Overgrowth's foliage that was almost as tall as he was, and nearly disappearing in front of the Scyther's eyes yet again.  “Don't worry, Pecha, we'll get you back!”

	“There he goes running off, again,” Scyther said to himself.  He stood up slowly.  Each step he took felt like he was fighting against some kind of underwater current wanting to push him back to his knees, but he won't allow him to give in to it.  He tried matching the Riolu's speed as he ran, ignoring his legs and knees wanting to lock in place in fear.  “Pecha, whatever you do, don't stop attacking her!  She wants you to tire out!”  He shouted as loudly as his lungs could allow. 

	
	The tree lines zoomed past Pecha while wrapped in the gnaws of her predator.  Each long hop from branch to branch made her stomach want to hurl, but that was the least of her worries.   She huffed and puffed while delivering a number of Pounds to the arachnid's face with her long ears, but the Ariados never seemed to be fazed from her attacks.  Either she had a Durant's exoskeleton, or Pecha's soft, cottony ears were barely strong enough to swat flies out of the air. Rather than hurting the Ariados, the Buneary believed she was inching her way to the spider's last nerve.  She wasn't used to attacking another Pokemon for this long: soon a strong wave of soreness engulfed her ears, her attacks started to slow down.

	Pecha shouted at the Ariados to the rhythm of her Pounds, “Let go of me!  I've had it up to here with you miserable insects snatching me up!  Why not go eat someone your own size?  Oh, that's right, there is no one your size!  You just love bullying smaller Pokemon, and gobbling them up!  Well I won't let you make a meal out of me!”

	As soon as Ariados landed on her next branch, a bright bluish orb broke straight through the limb, and the spider tumbled down!  She landed roughly on her left side, spitting out the rabbit she once had between her fangs with a long string.  Her four legs danced and scampered in the air without anything to catch on until she decided to roll around on her back, landing safely back on all fours.  

	“We're not done with you, yet!” A blue blur struck the Ariados breathless in her sides when she turned around to see who yelled at her.  She tumbled and rolled across the ground several times from the impact; when back on all fours, she shook the pain right off her body.  A Riolu seemed to have struck her with his elbow during his Quick Attack.  Eyebrows narrowed, Oran stared at her with a readied face as he let the cracking of his knuckles speak for him. The situation turned out different for her: now she has two walking meals to scrounge on.  

	The Scyther trailed behind Oran, finally able to run off the effects of Scary Face.  He felt like he ran a twenty-mile marathon, despite running just two miles.  He bent over and took heavy breaths, hoping to quell the burning in his lungs.  “Nice...shot there, Oran,” he wheezed.  “But how did you get it to go through the branch?  I thought your Aura Sphere always ricochets.”

	Oran shrugged his shoulders, “I dunno, it just always worked when I practice on tree trunks n' stuff.”

	“Rgh, I'm sure glad the gang's all back together,” Pecha grunted to herself, trying to free herself from her String Shot cocoon.  “Hey, I have an idea to celebrate this occasion- somebody help me out of this nasty stuff- whoa-!”  The Ariados yanked on the loose string connecting her to the Buneary, reeling Pecha while she dragged across the ground.  “Hey,” she yelled at the spider, “I said I've had enough of this for today!”

	“I got ya, Pecha!”  Oran chased after his sister.  He grabbed hold of her wrapped body, and dug his hind paws into the ground to halt the spider from claiming her.  But he underestimated her strength, no matter how deep he dug his heels into the ground, she never slowed down her pull, causing him to rake rows of dirt behind him.  “Rrrgh-!”  This was one tug-o-war he refused to lose; taking one step at a time backwards, he matched his efforts to the Ariados', and Pecha was going nowhere.  “I!  Won't!  Let!  You!  Have!  My!  Sister!”

	Pecha thought to give him some encouraging words, “Come on, Oran!  Pull Harder!”

	“I'm...trying!”

	The webbing's elasticity was stretched to its absolute limit between the two Pokemon, but with all the tension stored within its strands, it still refused to break.  But with a single touch from Scyther's right blade, the string gave way and flung Ariados and Oran in opposite directions.  “Oomph!”  The Riolu met the ground harshly with his back, but at least his sister is safe in his arms.  Scyther turned to the Buneary, and freed her from her sticky bindings with a single swipe of his Fury Cutter.  “Pecha, are you alright?”  He asked her.

	She crawled out of the sticky string like a Butterfree molting out of her Metapod cocoon, but not without losing a few patches of fur on her.  “Y-yeah,” she told him, freeing her left paw out of the mess, and throwing it on the ground.  “Do me a favor: after we're done, let's not do any more missions involving giant spiders.”

	“Watch out-!” Scyther jumped right in front of the kids.  One by one thousands of little Poison Stings punctured his back while he used himself as a shield for his little ones.  “Rrgh!”  His body tensed as if  it went through a bad acupuncture session, he was unable to move a muscle outside of a simple twitch.  His legs couldn't handle the weight of his body, and he crashed onto the dirt like a fallen tree.

	“Scyther!”  Pecha and Oran ran to their fallen mentor's side.  Frantically they pulled out every needle puncturing his backside that they can get their paws on, even risking pricking their hands on their  before they had the chance to sink in.  When Scyther was freed from the Poison Stings, his back was a chart of connect-the-dots left by the Poison-type attack that stuck him.  

	“Thanks, guys,”  Scyther grunted while slowly picking himself up; the absent poisonous needles left phantom pains that still fooled his body into wanting to lock up.

	“Scyther, let's just go home, now,” Pecha told him softly.  “We rescued Dedenne, there's no reason to stay.”

	Scyther knew his disciple had a point.  Their mission was over, and Dedenne is now recovering back at the guild.  He could use his silver badge to teleport the three of them away, and call it a day.  But something built inside of him, irking him to stay.  “No,” he said.

	“What? No?  But why?”  The Buneary asked.

	“You're right that our mission is over,” Scyther said, “but when a Pokemon attacks my students, I won't let it slide!”  He turned away from the children.  Crossing his blades in front of his chest, he emitted a white glow around his body, and two more Scyther appeared by his side.

	Oran's heart raced as fast as his tail wagged.  He always wanted to see how an experienced explorer handled business, and now was his chance.  He cheered him on, “Yeah!  Go, Scyther!  Kick that bug's butt!”

	“Ariados, today you will witness the wrath of a Silver-ranked explorer!”  

	The Ariados attempted to fire another round of Poison Sting, hoping that would finish the job, but Scyther and his doppelgangers easily fled the stream of purple needles, flying away from it.  Their small wings turned ghostly white, and grew to be twice as long as his arms.  They flew low to the ground, low enough for each of them to strike the spider with just one of their wings.

	As the Scyther gang swarmed above her like angry Beedrill, what felt like a light graze across her exoskeleton with their wings to them was like a deep cut to her.  The Flying-type attacks kept coming, and with them another monstrous shriek of distress from the Ariados.

	Oran jumped up and down at the sight of the spectacle, “Yeah!  Go, Scyther!  You have it on the ropes!”

	“And now for the finishing move!”  His two doppelgangers dissipated into mist, and the real Scyther revealed himself over the Ariados head.  “Fury Cutter!”  He dropped like a falling rock from the sky, his raised scythe screamed through the air.

	Victory was assured to him.  Until the spider proved him otherwise, by catching his blade between her maw before it had the chance to hit.

	“What the?  How is that possible?!”  Scyther screamed.  He tried to wiggle his arm out of her fangs, but her grip was too strong to even let him inch his way to freedom.

	She flung him around in the air like a toddler would with a brand new action figure, before flinging him back by his students' feet.  “Even after being super-effectively hit by my Wing Attack, she still has fight in her,” he grunted as the kids pushed him up.

	“Why didn't you go for another Wing Attack while you were overhead?”  Pecha asked.

	“I got excited, and thought I had her with my Fury Cutter,” he said.  “I've never won a fight with my Fury Cutter.  Let that be a lesson, kids: even when victory is assured, you still lose.”

	The spider drew closer to the group, her fangs leaving entire rivers of venom behind just to the thought of the all-you-can-eat-buffet she was about to have.  Oran didn't want to stand by while his friends would be eaten; he had to think fast.  He threw himself in front of the Scyther, his arms stretched wide.  “No!  I won't let you have us,”  he shouted at the spider.  

	Ariados didn't care for his plea; all she wondered was how much longer was her prey going to run out of steam to fight back.  Then came her solution: she opened her maw wide, and aimed a thousand needles of Poison Sting at the Riolu.

	“I said I won't let you have us!”  All he wanted to see was his friends' safety.  All he wanted to feel was their pain in their place. A small spark of growth clicked inside of him- he crossed his arms in front of his chest, and the thousand poison needles just disappeared on contact with his skin.  With each of their stings a dark blue aura around the jackal's body shined brighter.  

	Pecha and Scyther watched behind him with curious fascination: what was happening to their teammate, they wondered with open eyes.  The Buneary has never seen something quite like this before; the Scyther just can't quite put his scythe on what's happening in front of him.  “Scyther, what's he doing?”  She asked.

	“If my hunch is right, Oran is learning Counter,”  Scyther sputtered to her.

	The pecking of the needles died off. “Here, have it all back!” With a wave of his right paw, Oran returned all one thousand needles to the spider.  Of all he threw back only a hand full pricked Ariados in her face, but that small amount was enough to send the creepy-crawly into a fit, screaming bloody murder as she raked the pins out with her front legs.  

	A shout from Scyther caught Oran by the ears, “Oran, she's weakened now!  Use your Quick Attack!”

	“Okay!”  After his first step his feet felt weightless and quick like the wind.  Everything in front of him became a blur to his crimson eyes, all but the fast-approaching arachnid.  Before time ran out he propped his right shoulder in front of him as he awaited the incoming collision.

	As the final needle fell out of her face, Ariados was lifted off her feet and carried off by the speeding Riolu.  He slammed down his breaks, and threw the gargantuan arachnid with the rest of his inertia that still believed he was in motion.  When she hit the ground she hit it hard, skipping across it like a stone over a pond while rolling.  A sturdy tree trunk broke her momentum, along with, as evidence from her unconscious twitching, most of her body.

	“Hey, I did it!  I won!”  taking on a Pokemon three times his size and winning made him feel a while lot bigger about himself.  Underneath all of the dancing around and hopping for glee, he felt like he could take an Ursaring on, no problem!  “Scyther, did you see that?”  He asked his teacher.  “Wasn't that cool.”

	“Yes, you did a good job,” Scyther replied, grunting as he barely picked himself back up.  “Hoo-geez, what an adventure.  Sure thing I'm gonna feel this in the morning.”

	Pecha hopped to her little brother, “Oran, how did you do that?”  She asked him, her jaw still hanging low.

	“Did what?”  What a vague question coming from his sister.  Usually she's more blunt when it comes to questions.

	“That blue, glowy thing, how did you do that?  When you were shielding us from the Poison Sting.”

	he pondered hard to himself, rubbing the sides of his head to see if that helped bring back anything from that moment.  Certainly he did remember that instant, but everything else was so vague to him: his feelings, all were as gray to him as the world around him.    “I-I don't know how I did it,” he told her.  “I was just so fed up with that Ariados trying to hurt you guys, all I wanted was to do something.”  He glanced down at his open paws, “And then something just...unlocked inside of me.  Just sort of sparked inside.”

	“Well, the important thing is, we're all at least in one piece,” Scyther told the children.  “Just between us: Ariados aren't exactly my favorite Pokemon to deal with.  They tend to be a bit unpredictable for me, it's scary.”

	Pecha turned to Scyther, nodding her head in agreement, “I hear that.  This entire thing has been stressful on my fur.”

	“Okay, guys, time to fall in towards me.  I'll take us home.”  Pecha and Oran huddled around the Scyther.  He gave his silver badge a slight tap, and its sapphire eye hummed while emitting a faint glow.  A quick burst of light, and the crew was gone.

	There couldn't have been any greater relief pouring from Pikachu's eyes seeing his wife again, back in Florges' office.  He rubbed his scarlet cheeks against hers as he held her tightly, producing small sparks of static between them.  “Oh, Dedenne, my love,” he cried onto her cheek, “I'm so glad you're okay!  I'm just so happy that we're together again!”

	Dedenne only responded to him with a low grumble of irritation.  After seeing her husband again after what she's been put through, how could she reply back to him with the same kindness.

	“Wh-what's wrong, dear?”  He asked her nervously.

	“I think you know what's wrong,” she replied back with a bitter voice.  She decided to let her foolish husband have it, “Do you know how long you left me stranded out there, at the mercy of every Ariados in the Indigo Overgrowth?!  I don't even know how long I was out there, but it felt like an eternity!  And all because YOU ran away to get help, when you could have stayed with me to fight them off!  We could have solved the problem faster that way!”

	Pikachu's once gentle grasp around his wife grew limp and weak.  He knew she had some harsh criticism about his decision, and he thought he could take it.  But his watery eyes and cracking heart believed otherwise.  “B-b-but I did get help for you,” he sniveled.  “I-I only wanted to help.”

	She crossed her arms while turning her back on him, “Thanks for the 'help'.”

	“Dedenne, I-” the closer he got to her, the more she wanted to push away from him.  he squeaked multiple huffs, and hid his eyes in his palms.  “I'm so sorry, Dedenne,” he told her, with streams of water trailing down his tiny arms.  “I wanted our honeymoon to be perfect; but instead, I ruined it for us!  If only I didn't take that detour!  Why am I so stupid?  Everything good that happens to me I ruin!”  

	“Cry all you want, I'm still mad at you,” she told him.

	“You deserve to be mad at me- even I'm mad at me-  and I deserve every ounce of it!”  Dedenne felt her husband's tiny hands gently placed on her shoulders, “I know today was sort of a hiccup, but let's try to forget about it.  Every couple goes through days like this.  But at least let me take us to Cristal Springs!  Before our marriage dies before it even begins.”

	Dedenne glanced at her husband from her left shoulder.    Even while bumbling, she noticed something different in him.  Previously he was too squishy to support himself.  Maybe some of that softness hardened into a backbone during her absence.  And she felt a little proud, teaching him how to do that, though not enough to break through her anger.  “Fine,” she sighed heavily, “I suppose I'll forgive you.”

	“R-really?”  He pulled his wife in towards him for a tight hug.  “Thank you, Dedenne,” he praised with tears running from his eyes, “you don't know how much that makes me happy!  I promise not to mess this up!”

	She replied with no words, but with a, silent, hot huff into his arm.

	Pikachu peeled away from her, “What's wrong, love?” He asked.  “Was it something I said?”

	“Oh, nothing,” Dedenne told him.  Pretending to trip into his chest, she purred to him within his hold, “it's just that, after going through all that stuff, I'm really beat.  I don't think I have the energy to walk all the way to Cristal Springs.  If only there was a big, strong Pikachu that could carry me there- that would make me very happy.”

	He caught on to what she was trying to tell him, though he thought it best to keep it to himself, and just play along.  “U-uhm, okay,” he said, “I'll carry you along the way, if that's what you want.”

	“Oh, that would be lovely,” she purred with warmth.  Crawling into his arms she wiggled a little bit to fit snugly in his caress.  She could almost fall asleep!  It took the mouse by surprise: rarely did his wife ever let him hold her.  His stubby, little arms just wanted to give way as soon as she cradled on top. But after all he put her through, he felt she needed this little rest, and he needed this little pain.  She pecked him in his right cheek with a kiss, “Love ya', honey.”

	He chuckled a bit under his wife's weight, “I-I love you, too.”  He looked to the three explorers standing in front of him who saved his wife, “Thank you, explorers,” he told them.  “If it weren't for you, I would see my wife, again.”

	“No problem, we're always happy to help,” Scyther told him.

	Finally reunited, the Electric couple went on their journey, continuing for the glistening waters of Cristal Springs.

	“What, no reward?”  Being left empty-handed frustrated the Buneary.  She at least expected to be paid for all her labor and the fur she lost- some Poké wouldn't have hurt.  She turned to the Guildmistress, “We're just letting them walk out for free?”

	“We've already worked out a payment,” Florges said while tapping a stack of papers on the face of her desk.  “It may not come today, but you'll be duly compensated.”

	Pecha grunted, crossing her arms, “Could you at least tell me what it is?”

	Florges chuckled, “No, no, no, I'm keeping it a surprise~.  I thought you'd appreciate surprises.”

	“I think I'm all burnt out on surprises for today,” the Buneary said.

	She felt Scyther's lukewarm blade wrapping around her right shoulder.  He kneeled down to her, and stuttered, “Come on, let's get some rest, okay?”

	“Excellent idea, Scyther,” Florges praised, “you've all had quite a day, I'm sure.  You all deserve some rest.”  Being dismissed by the Guildmistress, Pecha and Scyther walked out of the office.

	Strutting behind the others Oran had one foot out the door, before hearing his name called, “Oh, Oran,” Florges said, “before you leave, I need to have a word with you.”

	A massive clump formed in his throat, and tiny goosebumps began growing under his pelt. Regardless of what she had to tell him, he never liked being called by her to stay in her office.  He had a feeling he knew what she wanted to talk about, but a little speck in the back of his mind kept him cool, telling him she might actually commend him in private! He turned and asked, “Yes, Miss Florges?” Although his body stayed collected, his voice crackled with anticipated anxiety.

	“Scyther has told me about your behavior in the Indigo Overgrowth,” she explained.  “I'm very disappointed in you.  That's not the way an explorer should act.”

	he rushed over to her deck, “But if I hadn't, I wouldn't rescue Dedenne,” he argued.

	“That may be true,” Florges said, “but you could have put your teammates in danger, just running off like that. You could have easily put yourself in danger. I do not condone reckless behavior like that.  I'm sorry, Oran, but you give me no choice: no dinner for you, tonight.”

	In one instant, upon hearing those words, he immediately knew what it felt like to be a Water-type being struck by Wood Hammer.  “No, no, Miss Florges, don't do that,” he begged against her desk, his eyes misting lightly with tears.  “I promise I learned my lesson!  I won't do that ever again!”

	“I'll take your word for it,” the Guildmistress told him, “after you are finished with your punishment.  Don't worry, I know you'll pull through.”

	“This can't be happening,” he chanted softly to himself while cupping his pointed ears to his head, “this can't be happening!” The anxiety was too much for him to bear, and he dashed out of her office before it had the chance to cripple him.

	The office grew dead and silent with just the Florges occupying its lonesome space.  Her once erect form slouched sluggishly down on the desk, her face covered behind the wall her arms formed.   A deep breath turned into a heavy sigh, and she raised her head from behind her arms, “I hope I wasn't too harsh on him,” she said to herself.  “That boy is becoming more and more like his mother everyday.  Pretty soon I have to discipline him the same way I disciplined her.  Oh, Lopunny, why is watching over your children so draining?  I'm a Guildmistress, I'm supposed to watch over the welfare of many Pokemon at once- why is babysitting just two children so difficult on me?”  A great yawn escaped her mouth, and she wiped the light dew from her eyes.  “Oh my, I should take a break, too, before my job kills me.”

	The light of day quickly burned to just specks of light in the blackened Unidan sky, with just streaks of gray clouds casually floating across the canvas.  A gentle, yet weary breath of wind blew through a beige prairie of dry grass.  Like an island stranded in an ocean, there was a small cave formation looking over the field, softly illuminated by several torches inside its mouth.

	A young Gabite paced back and forth in front of the cavern at an impatient pace.  Being on the run with her twin brother, it didn't sit well with her just staying in one place, while authorities came closer to sniffing them out.  How much longer must she sit around until that happened, she thought.  “Come on, come on,” she growled to herself as she chugged along her little personal moat, “where is he?  The authorities are gonna be here any minute- where is he?!”

	“Calm down, Pele,” her twin brother told her from within the cave.  Surrounding him where he sat was their plunder for the day: four hundred-fifty of Poké, three Oran berries, and just a handful of Gravelerrock. Hardly anything of worth in small quantities.  “I'm sure we're safe for the night.”

	“Easy for you to say, Lono,” she hissed at him.  “We can't have our guards down when it comes to the Pawniard Brigade: one minute we'll be miles ahead of them, and then the next they're breathing down our scales!  We can crush those little worms easily- but noooo- we need to be on the run from them!”  Repeatedly she took her frustration out on a nearest innocent wall by kicking it, crushing it bit by bit into rubble underneath her large feet.  “He's an idiot,” she roared, “he's making us sitting ducks, while he's still out there!  We're supposed to be a team!”

	Each kick by his sister caused the ceiling above his head to rumble a little bit, with a few strands of dust breaking loose.  “Can you try to be a little more quiet?”  Lono asked his sister calmly.  “And while you're at it, I'd appreciate it if you don't collapse the entire foundation on top of us.”

	“Shut up, Lono, worry about yourself,” the sister barked.  “Go back to counting our loot!”  She was about to deliver another blow to the wall, but something stopped her.  A curious rumble, softly vibrating beneath her grounded foot.  The little shiver quickly became a violent shake, until a geyser of earth and dust exploded in front of the cavern, and a heavy object crashed back down near the gaping opening.

	The thin veil of dust settled, revealing a Garchomp behind it, one very large for his species.  A deep scar from long ago stretched diagonally across his scarlet underbelly, and another smaller one permanently closing his left eye.

	“Where have you been, Ku?!” The Gabite female demanded.  “do you know how much I hate waiting out here?!”

	“Shut up,” the land shark growled back.  The authority and aggression in his voice took the female a step back, closing her mouth.  “I was meeting with an associate of mine.”

	“I hope it was a good meeting,” the twin brother cracked.

	“All you need to know is we have our next target: a small town not too far from here.  I hear they have something that has peeked my interest.”

	“Really?”  Pele asked.  “What is it?”

	“You'll see soon enough. It's time to head out!”  The Garchomp hopped back into the hole from where he came.

	“Aw, man, and I was just starting to like it in here,” Lono said in a sarcastic tone, scraping all of the items off the floor and shoveling them back into his bag.  “Any longer, I would've called this place 'home'.”

	“There's no use bellyaching,”  Pele told him, rearing for a fight, “I've been looking forward for a little action all night!  Come on!”  The Gabite hopped and then drilled into the earth, disappearing into the hole she made.  

	Lono huffed, “Why am I always picking up your guys' slack?”
