Chapter 3 – Trouble in Snowfell Falls

Silkie wasn’t religious by any stretch of the imagination, (she was only barely literate, after all) but she did send a prayer up to whatever God who was working overtime keeping their world in check that Snowfell’s Mystery Dungeon operated a tiny bit differently than all the rest found across the world.

Unlike most other Mystery Dungeons, whose set limit number of floors was about the only thing preventing them from becoming fully randomised at every possible corner, Snowfall’s Mystery Dungeon had several floors that never changed. Not much of a ‘ Mystery ’ Dungeon when one could perfectly predict the layout of the floor without a map, though Silkie was grateful they wouldn’t be stuck between bottom floor three and five searching endlessly for some shoddy pond that may not have even spawned into existence.

“You know, it seems a bit odd to have a location be called ‘Snowfell Falls’, couldn’t you have come up with something more creative than that?” Angel queried, the three Bug types passed through the undergrowth, digging their way through the piles of flora.

“Yeah, well, for starters, it’s a waterfall. Secondly, I’m pretty sure whoever named this place’s already six feet under; and no one cares enough to change it, either.” Silkie retorted, hardly sparing even a glance at the Surskit behind her, focusing all on the road ahead.

“ Yeesh , no need to get so defensive.” Angel huffed, adjusting the broad brim of her hat, she pulled a map from around her satchel, and examined it several times over.

“What’s wrong, Miss Angel?” The Caterpie asked, Angel chuckled and put her map down.

“Just call me Angel, I’m not much older than you are… probably .” She muffled the last part of her sentence with a cough, immediately deducing how incorrect she was. “Besides, I’m more concerned with the fact that… Snowfell doesn’t show up on this map.” She wrapped the piece of parchment back up into her dainty bag, the satchel swinging emptily where she stuffed the map.

“Snowfell’s not on the map?” The Caterpie gave a surprised cry, “Are you using an outdated map?” He asked, running up to poke at the button that clasped the cases of her bag together, the Surskit letting out a surprised squeal as her receptacle came partially undone, dropping the map again.

“Where would we be on here?” The Caterpie asked, snatching up the map as Angel tied her satchel together, “Probably here, I think? The Bug type pointed to the snowy, alpine regions of the continent, “Or here?” He crossed over to a mountainous terrain surrounded by a myriad of caves, “I failed geography class… So I have no idea.” He bemoaned. 

“No, no. You got it right…” Angel’s eyes narrowed, staring at the patch of white engraving meant to represent snow over and over, “But it’s just not there, I wonder if the map’s on too large of a scale?”

“No, Snowfell village is indeed excluded from most maps, it never has had its own place on the map, and likely never will.” Silkie spoke up, causing confused heads to turn her way. But before the rest of the group could press the already-grumpy Wurmple for answers she wasn’t willing to provide, the sound of rushing water easily distracted everyone from their uneasy thoughts. “We’re almost to the waterfall.” She stated flatly, the floor felt damp with mud – the storm last night left traces of its presence everywhere. Several puddles of mud were dotted about, increasing in frequency the further the stretch of road grew on. 

“Mud puddles! Mum never let me play in these!” The Caterpie seemed elated, even though the subject in question was literally just mud.

“And she’d be right – they’re not clean at all.” Silkie derided, bending down to grab a glob of the stinking substance and hurling it far away.

“You’re no fun…” The kid muttered, but silenced himself at Silkie’s glare.

“Oh, I don’t know… I think a mud bath’s pretty good for the skin every once in a while.” Angel voiced her opinion, “Helps with drawing impurities out… or something like that.” She rambled, rubbing her head. The Caterpie, however, appeared to take her word as if it was gospel. Thrilled, the kid jumped in and made a mess of himself.

“If mud’s so good for you, then why don’t you jump in too?” Silkie gestured. “I’d give a little push as well, free of charge.” She smirked.

“No thanks, mud would weigh me down when I’m skating. After all, I’ve still got a show to put on!” Angel shook her head innocently, almost like she hadn’t noticed the icy bite in the Wurmple’s voice.

“Silkie, don’t act so glum. Angel’s gonna do her best for us, okay?” The Caterpie hopped out the puddle, though in this case he more resembled a brown Grimer with a vaguely stout stature wearing the silhouette of a Caterpie.

“Thank you, I’ll try not to disappoint!”

Silkie growled curses under her breath, how come the kid got along with that random stranger so well! She just showed up and took all of his attention from her, without even trying, by the looks of things! Maybe while Angel was skating she could sneak a Poison Sting and pull her under the water… Silkie shook her head – her speed would really challenge her aim, and if she missed it wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to guess who the attacker was. Maybe String Shot would work better? But that was even more noticeable…

Passing through the undergrowth into a clearing, the rushing of water became all the more apparent as the scenery opened up to a ginormous waterfall. An oval pond was connected by seven smaller streams that spanned from beyond the forest. Overgrown vegetation sprouted from the water’s bowels, there were wild reeds and lilypads all intermingling with the lichen and moss which clawed over the reeds’ bulbs, almost as if desperate to escape the pond’s chilly embrace.

A few Water types were idly sitting by the water’s bank, unbothered by the visitors. The waterfall was connected to a long river that ran all over the mountainside, culminating in the cataract which poured down ferociously. Under the sunlight, it was quite a scenic view, Silkie had to admit.

Maybe even a good spot for a picnic by her lonesome, if she ever came here again.

“Yup, just as I remembered it!” Angel cried, without skipping a beat, she deftly leapt onto the surface of the pond, the moment the tips of her feet touched the water, Silkie expected her to either come running back or immediately sink and admit her previous statements were naught but stupid bluffs. So she was more than a little surprised to see how well Angel got on with water.

“Wow, you really can walk on water!” The Caterpie’s amazed cry made no difference to Silkie, so what if she could walk on water? She probably couldn’t battle anywhere near as well as she could! She kept the thought to herself, however.

Angel walked, actually, skated would probably be a better term, with how easily she was sprightly threading through the body of water; and made her way back to the shore to awe the Caterpie once again.

“Oh, you haven’t seen anything yet!” She exclaimed, dropping her bag, she raced back to the water, gliding with an elegant smoothness that seemed to blend the line between her physical body and the reflection cast onto the surface. A blur of colour enveloped her as she sped along, her agility easily allowed her to leap, duck and twirl past any and all obstacles in her way. Bouncing just over a patch of wild reeds without so much as disturbing none but the tallest one.

The quicker she moved, the more water gathered by her side as she rushed through the waves, spraying out in the form of a magnificent trail behind her. Leaving foam and bubbles that quickly dissipated into the water. Following her blurring speed, it was clear from the water that not only tailed her, but had spread to her sides and front that the occurrence wasn’t natural. It was almost as if it was influenced by psychic powers. Angel was charging up some sort of move to possibly further enhance her speed and give her audience an even better show.

“Show-off…” Silkie muttered under her breath.

As her aura of water grew larger, Angel changed her direction all the way to the waterfall nearby, gallons upon gallons of water flowed fiercely down the rocky face of the cliff that supported it. Beads of water melted halfway into the edge of the stream, becoming one with the cascade, making its appearance all the more powerful.

In comparison, the Surskit looked absolutely dwarfed in comparison to the monster she was about to scale.

Nevertheless, the sole member in her audience (for Silkie had stopped her occasional disinterested glances to curl up, eyes closed) watched with starry eyes as, with a fierce shout that belied her diminutive stature, Angel charged headlong towards the cataract, her body fully glowing and surrounded by water.

To his amazement, she did it – she was actually climbing it !

Her feet, despite being thinner than wooden sticks and more lanky and spindly than strings of wool unravelling from worn-out sweaters, firmly planted themselves onto the cliffside.

Well, partially, at least. Her body’s angle was more diagonal than it was horizontal, but regardless, even against the intense current that came with running headfirst into a waterfall she braced it. Now running straight up with a determined mission.

To the top .

Angel’s almost unnatural grace and fluidity allowed even the enormous downpour to give way, spreading out submissively not particularly dissimilar to how the much stiller waters of the pond had given way to her incredible speed and power. In spite of her tiny body, the flow spread all around her, becoming one with the aqua previously already enveloping her.

From over the horizon, the Caterpie saw a blue speck fly from the steep face of the cliff, leaping past the rocks and water in a dazzling display of skill, willpower and dignity. Sparkling droplets rained down the sky, each painted a different colour by the rocks, the pond, the trees, the sun, and of course, herself.

Her hat gently settled onto the surface of the water, the band wrapped around it soaked thoroughly and its flower glistening with dew, followed by the Surskit emerging from the lake to retrieve it.

Before she even approached the shoreline, the Caterpie was already cheering her on with applause sprinkled with thunderous aplomb. Absolute excitement vibrated from where he stood, as if he just witnessed a historical moment. Then again, he was so young and impressionable that this probably was a historical moment to him.

“Bravo, bravo !” He shouted, wiggling all of his prolegs together to applaud her monumental capabilities. “That was amazing !” he shouted.

Angel blushed, though the occurrence was unnoticeable to anyone but herself due to the pink markings that covered her cheeks, giving her the appearance of constantly blushing. She gave a triumphant bow, elated to soak in all of the attention and compliments the boy was showering her way.

“Hey, Angel, I wanna know, won’t the water wash off your oil?” The Caterpie pointed to the gently rippling waves of the pond, “I’ve seen it wash off other liquids, so shouldn’t it wash off yours?”

“No, water doesn’t dissolve oil, silly! Besides, even if it did, I can control how much and when I want to secrete any, so I could always keep more coming even if water cleaned my oil away.” She stretched her legs for emphasis, “There’s almost nothing I can’t do on water!” She replied confidently, brushing her hat free of dewdrops. “If you threw something into the water and asked me to find it, I very much could!”

“Can we try that, then?” The Caterpie asked, eyes full of sparkles that seemed to come from nowhere.

“Depends. I can’t catch microscopic specks, alright?” She joked, “What have you got for me?”

The Caterpie chuckled, from behind him, he pulled out a single piece of P o K é, the golden coin gleamed, without a second thought, he tossed the dollar into the water, the coin skipped across water several times, finally landing in a stop near the centre of the pond. The shiny coin’s glimmers drew darker and quieter, eventually all but disappearing when it sank to the base of the pond, “Can you get that, Angel?” The Caterpie peered over the water’s edge, “The pond looks pretty deep.”

Angel gave a dismissive wave, “Nonsense, I’m a master at diving! Allow me!” The Surskit stretched, she took a good glimpse at the stilled waves, seemingly determining a precise location to dive. Pulling her hat free of her head, she flicked it over, with a motion from her wrist, sending it spinning inland. Several tense seconds later, she gulped a huge intake of air, and dove downwards. Just like the coin, her partially blue body melted with the water’s azure, becoming one and indistinguishable from another.

With bated breath, the Caterpie sat waiting, the cold wind made him shiver, partly in discomfort, partially due to an ominous feeling as he eyed the depths in front of him. Several minutes passed, and there was no sign of emergence.

“Where’d she go? Did she drown herself while I wasn’t looking?” Silkie’s sudden return startled the caterpillar, who lept into the air and nearly fell into the pond himself. A quick-thinking String Shot on Silkie’s part, however, prevented the accident. She reeled him in with her arms, now why didn’t she think of doing that earlier? That definitely would have saved her trip coming here and wasting time… Oh, well. Who knows, maybe this little stunt might be useful another time. At least now she knew better than to just go with his demands.

“Gah! Miss Silkie?! I thought you were sleeping!”

“Huh? No, I was doing none of that. I just wanted to mess with that stupid bug. Did she drown yet?”

The Caterpie threw her a dismayed glance and shook his head.

“Still kicking? A shame. I didn’t mean to scare you, though.” She confessed, hauling him ashore away from the flowing pool. The Wurmple took another glance at the peaceful water, “So, ready to finally head home…?”

“Not just yet, Angel’s helping me get something back.”

“From where? Under the water?” Silkie surmised, frightfully, as if she was caught out by a predator, she froze. “Do you know what’s down there?! There’s a-” She grimaced, eyes darting to and fro.

The world was suddenly ghost-quiet, not a peep could be heard from anything around the duo. Promptly, the two turned their compound eyes to glance at the unmoving lake, ushers of silence exchanged between the two.

Silkie’s eyes narrowed, her feet spread and ready to make a move. For, despite the tranquillity of the water, the quietness was too unnerving. Silkie spared a glimpse out of the corner of her amber eyes, the nearby Water types noticed the disturbing silence; and nearly all of them vanished in a split second.

Caterpie’s hands tightened on Angel’s discarded hat, rubbing the lustrous bow of the hat between his palms, over and over in discomforted anticipation.

The ambience returned, if the two hadn’t paid such attention to it, they’d have hardly noticed its previous disappearance. The stillness felt like a suffocating blanket draped over Silkie’s eyes, rendering her unable to detect any possible threats.

From the dreaded depths below, a vivid aqua light pierced the surface, crackles of water spurted onto the outside of the pond, bubbles exploded in short bursts of burbling groans that echoed all over the entire forest.

Angel jumped straight out of the water with an urgent yelp, flinging herself like a piece of used rag thrown with both precision and desperation.

Silkie jumped back, her hands found themselves against the slightly coarse texture of her silk and tugged, pulling the string that still connected to Caterpie and launched him backwards too.

“A-Angel, you’re back !” He cried out, hitting the itchy grass with a quiet thud that immediately went drowned out by the roar of the massive insectoid behind the Surskit.

“Which ruffian’s been throwing junk and causing a ruckus in my home?!” A strident voice grated the air, the figure emerged from the abyss of the pond, six elongated green legs struck the wet dirt, firmly implanting themselves into the mud with raucous squelches. A grievous roar scarred their ears (If they had any, but Silkie could nearly feel herself blown off her own feet by the brute’s overwhelming show of power), as if grinding the very air molecules away every time it spoke.

Angel rushed to join the other two Bug types’ side, inadvertently directing the spider’s attention their way. Silkie pointed a stubby arm at Angel, but the arachnid didn’t seem to notice.

When its six lime green legs made themselves sturdy enough to support the creature’s weight, the monster reared its glowing head from beyond the void.

Aqua eyes glowing with malice, black and brown mandibles that clamped shut for good measure, each ready to tear. And a stupendous size that more than towered over the height of all three Bug Pokémon combined.

Caterpie instinctively drew shorter, scurrying to twist himself behind the two more mature Bug Pokémon, hoping to avoid unwanted attention from their newfound visitor.

The Araquanid’s icy-blue eyes struck like a gust of wintry wind, freezing all three where they stood. Silkie curled her body up defensively in front of the boy in haunting prolepsis of what was to come.

“ You !” The Araquanid growled, glaring daggers to all three, “No good explorers messing in my territory. First you turn my house into your own ballet stage, and then you throw trash in and disturb me! What did you expect: for me to pick up your chintzy garbage?!” The furious spider yelled, screeching at the trio in front of it. Accentuating its hate-filled speech with an attack. Water churned from the bubble that enveloped its head, spraying out in a stream at the triad of bugs.

“Duck!” Silkie called, she flattened herself against the floor, fully stretching her whole body to allow her elongated form to rest down against the mud, splayed out in the dirt. The oncoming blast disappeared from her eye level view, though she could still feel several droplets of water skim across the tip of her head. “What did you two do ?!” She screamed, unbridled rage glaring at the other squirming Bug types.

“I just asked Miss Angel to get something back from the water, that’s all!”

“You idiots ! There’s Pokémon living down there, don’t just throw random garbage into their domain!” She hissed, preparing to berate the childish Caterpie’s actions for another round but paused halfway.

Silkie pelted the Araquanid with a barrage of Poison Sting attacks, but a majority of the violet projectiles were melted by the bubbles without even flinching the arachnid. The Wurmple drew a shaky breath. Instinctively, she reached for her Explorer badge, it was clear this enemy had strength. All three of them were ill-equipped for a battle, unless the Surskit could magically summon a Hyper Beam into existence, defeating the Araquanid would take time and strategy – neither of which she had much at the present; And even if they could come out on top, the waste of her precious resources would be detrimental to her in the long run. All in all, the Wurmple saw little logical reason to engage in combat.

She groped further into the bag, but she couldn’t hear the telltale clinking of her badge against its case. No matter how much she rummaged through her satchel, where was it?! Then it dawned on the Wurmple it wasn’t with because she never brought it to begin with – she must’ve left her badge at home . Silkie gulped, swivelling on her back legs as another attack passed, holding onto her strand of silk like a lasso. Without a second’s hesitation, Caterpie, who was fortunately still connected with her string, found himself sailing into the undergrowth and away from danger. Landing roughly against a dead log and snapping several dead branches.

Now that she wasn’t watching, however, a third blasted stream smashed the Wurmple into the dirt. While Angel, who wasn’t preoccupied with anything but dodging attacks, evaded predictable spouts without trouble, the same could not be said for Silkie.

Icy water hit her head-on, she could feel chills being driven straight into her skeletal frame, then came the force of the blow. Naturally, due to its nature from such a powerful creature aimed with the intent to maim, it was overwhelming. She couldn’t withstand it at all. Toppled in only seconds, the Wurmple found her world upside-down as she was completely blown off her feet, freezing cold water rapidly sapped her of her strength as she, like Caterpie, was sent soaring, although her landing was particularly less graceful, flung into the soil wet and tumbling. Getting her face planted straight into a mound of mud.

Meanwhile, Angel dashed left and right, weaving in and out of several short blasts of water, she figured that getting up close and personal to the Araquanid would swiftly disable it of its ability to fire back with its columns of water, and thus rid the looming threat of being sniped over a mile away for her partners. Meekly, she conjured her own flow of bubbles, though they seemed to have even less of an effect than Silkie’s barb barrage. Maybe if she just focused on dodging and left all the fighting to the others, this whole mess would sort itself out. Her speed and agility was kind of the only thing she had going for her anyway.

Unfortunately, she didn’t account for the fact that her adversary also possessed a much more powerful weapon of their own.

The Araquanid’s six legs twitched, without warning, one slammed down, pressing one lengthy limb down extensively, only inches away from impaling the Surskit.

Angel came face-to-face with the Pokémon’s sturdy, bubble-covered leg, she let out an incredulous shriek. Fumbling, she stumbled over the soft mud. Forced to make a sharp turn in the sludge, her feet shook as she struggled futilely to try and re-orient her balance, barely catching her form over a tumbled mess. She must have looked beyond pathetic to the Araquanid, what with her almost tripping over her own momentum and ending belly up in the mire. Disregarding her, the arachnid foe raised its legs to stab once again, tearing up mud and splattering the grimy substance all over the Surskit’s face, further blinding her already heavily fractured composure. The Araquanid took a brief breather to aim its sharp, pointed feet, preparing to smash the poor Surskit beneath into a million bits like a pin would to a defenceless water balloon.

Blinded and terrified, Angel attempted to flee, only to slip, tripping herself over her own legs. The Surskit could do naught but cower in fearful anticipation for her inevitable doom.

Caterpie, having observed the carnage from beyond the sidelines, rushed over to Silkie, the closest to him, using his stubby prolegs, his grip on her hip was more than what sufficed in freeing the worm from the mud mound she found herself buried within. “Silkie! W-we gotta help Miss Angel!” He exclaimed, furiously gesticulating his words into the general direction of the Araquanid, Silkie made no response, but nodded regardless.

The Wurmple swiftly turned her head over to rummage her bag for any possible supplies. Tossing out several seeds, an Oran Berry and an empty bottle of Elixir until she was able to locate the precise item she was looking for.

From inside her bottomless magical bag she removed a single, navy-blue seed. A ring of pale green vines, some old enough to have sprouted leaves and smaller vines around it, wrapped itself tightly around the prism-shaped plant. She rolled it in her palm, deciding that this was their best (and only) option, she handed it to Caterpie.

“This is a Warp Seed, it can teleport any Pokémon to any location in this dungeon.” She whispered to the Caterpie, who looked at her with undoubted attention. “I’ll distract the Araquanid with String Shot and hopefully pry Angel out before she gets clobbered, you need to throw it at that thing when it’s distracted to warp it elsewhere, then we can make our escape! You got that?”

The Caterpie’s bewildered expression morphed into one of great confidence, he nodded. Silkie prepared to charge up a String Shot, her labrum curved, power building in her. By the time it had fully ameliorated, she prepared to fire, only to find that her string fizzled miserably on her lips and died out before it even reached the ground.

She tried again, with a hurried motion, the string dissipated just as quickly as before, falling to the ground limp, harmlessly disappearing between the soil.

“…” She glanced around at her bag, of which several items were spilled over the earth. There were two Oran Berries that she took with her no matter where she went, no matter the length of a mission – you never know if a terrible trap or an equally horrid Monster House would prematurely put an end to your adventures. She also had Pecha berries from their trip to the berry fields earlier, though their basket basket was topsy-turvy and the berries were once more scattered. There was no time to worry about it now. Silkie kept searching, and only came up with a single Chesto berry (since when did she even pack that?)… but no Leppa berries whatsoever.

No matter, she’d just have to settle for a Max Elixir. As she re-opened her bag’s flap, a bubble from Araquanid’s Bubble Beam absorbed the worn sack into its hollow, watery interior and floated off. “What the- Arceus damn it !” Silkie screeched. The bubble carrying her goods popped courtesy of an overhanging branch, though the contents landed a while away from the two dismayed Bug types.

“S-Silkie, is something wrong…?” Her friend looked at her plastered with a face of disquiet. The Warp Seed rolled around his hands, fidgeting in his grasp.

“I’m out of Power Points!” Silkie gasped; and for the first time since he’d known her, Caterpie saw panic suddenly stricken all over her normally impassive and inexpressive face. Her pupils dilated to a third of their normal size, her eyelids, normally so set at an even angle, fluttered wildly as she blinked rapidly. Her head swayed this way and that, failing to locate any Elixir drinks or Leppa berries in the nearby vicinity.

“P-Power points?” Caterpie questioned, he had a vague idea as to their usage during his time in class, though he hardly paid much attention to the teacher’s ramblings anyway.

“All moves need Power Points to be used, they can be restored with Elixirs and Leppa berries, tell me if you see-”

The boy moved over, gently tapping a proleg onto hers, “Let me use String Shot, I-I know the move. I even showed it to you today, right?” He handed the Warp Seed over to her, to which the Wurmple heavily hesitated for a time that felt truly indefinite, longer than the mere concept of perceived time itself. The two stood, each locked in a silent torment of their responsibilities, one was to be accurate, the other was to simply agree. “Please, Silkie, I’ve still got Power Points left for String Shot, a-and if we don’t hurry, Angel will get seriously hurt! I-I won’t muck it up, I know it’s kinda my fault that we’re fighting that bad guy. So I want to make up for it.” His watering black orbs were coated in an earnest fire that belied his determination and guilty glint of tears around the corner of his eyes.

But does he know about the physics of such an attack? What if he missed, he was their only hope. Silkie panicked internally, but after what felt like aeons of an internal debate, the Wurmple mentally shrugged. It wasn’t the time for this. Silkie snapped out of her self-induced trance, her hand rubbing over the glossy texture of the Seed, she gripped it from his hand with a precipitous grasp, though the thought process behind her actions were certainly anything but hasty.

She nodded, “Fire at will, then.”

The duo turned their visage to the chaotic mess that laid before them, the Surskit grappling to stay on her feet, but it looked to be a losing challenge.

“H-Here it comes – String Shooot !” His exclamations soared far and high, like a free bird set loose in the throes of nature. Silk formed in his mouth, his mandibles clicked out of their usual position to allow the thread to come through.

Silkie rolled the Warp Seed in her hand, they were, for all intents and purposes, only going to get one shot at this. Their distance was but a stone’s throw away, with the Araquanid’s much bulkier size, it was highly improbable that she missed. But even then Silkie knew never to put the words ‘luck’ and ‘consistency’ in the same sentence.

They just had to give it their all. Both of them. And pray to whatever Gods they each believed in that they didn’t miss.

The stream of string shot out with a ferocious velocity, covering ground in a matter of seconds as the Caterpie aimed upwards, beginning to near his intended destination, the mud-covered Surskit quickly found her feet entangled in sticky webbing that proved an even more insurmountable dilemma for her to overcome.

Silkie’s expression turned hopeful, their plan worked splendidly thus far. She only hoped that luck would continue to see them prevail. Sadly, there went the eulogy she’d been preparing in case he actually did miss and Angel was turned into a deflated pincushion.

“Now pull…!” Silkie commanded, briefly narrowing one eye to confirm an angle for her to throw the Warp Seed.

Caterpie pulled with all his might, and for a moment Angel budged, but his strength wasn’t nearly enough and instead only served to topple their friend and mildly confuse their enemy’s attack pattern, causing, at the minimum, at least half a dozen strikes to miss their mark.

In the meantime, Angel yelped and shrieked, thinking some unseen force had laid its beady eyes to carry her off during the midst of her predicament. She sprayed bubbles wildly, hoping to deter the would-be offender into leaving her alone. Of course, since the Caterpie had the intention to rescue her and the fact Angel’s aim with her attacks, even while blinded, were subpar at best. Never once hitting her stalk-like legs, where the string was attached, meant it wasn’t coming off anytime soon.

“S-Silkie, fling it now !”

Nevertheless, the deed was done, albeit quite sloppily. The Araquanid thoroughly distracted and confused for the briefest of moments, Silkie took this chance and flung her Warp Seed into the air, this was their ticket to… well, she wouldn’t call it a victory, but rather a ticket out of defeat. So long as the Warp Seed teleported that monstrosity elsewhere, then they could escape!

The Warp Seed drifted through the air; everything turned into slow motion at once.

Caterpie had pulled Angel a fair distance away, but only by such an amount, he tired fairly quickly and had to pant repeatedly for a breather. Of course, the Surskit was most certainly out of harm’s way from the Araquanid’s jabbing legs, that much was for certain. 

The Warp Seed streaked past the air in a whizz of blue and green, Silkie watched with bated breath – it was so close to reaching that Araquanid…!

Alas, it wasn’t meant to be, one of its legs lifted; and in a nimble reaction that seemed too fast for a brute so lumbering, the Pokémon severed the Warp Seed directly before it could impact it, nailing it with the tip of its leg and slashing it into navy ribbons. Like snow, the Warp Seed sprinkled to the ground, sliced open and leaking its power out to the three devastated Bug types.

Welp, looks like that was it, then. They did all they could, in the end, if they were gonna get wrecked, then mother o’mercy – they were gonna get wrecked .

Silkie’s mind felt like it was being dragged across concrete, her legs were moving of their own accord, she urged the kid to back up. But he seemed too hypnotised to react. What were the odds?! That thing was so big, and yet it still reacted so effortlessly. Damn it all, Lady Luck was evidently not on her side today!

The broken Warp Seed hit the floor, a noxious, navy-coloured gas surrounded the closest Pokémon, that being Angel. Who was coincidentally splayed out just directly at the end of the parabolic curve of the Warp Seed’s trajectory.

“U-uhm, what’s going o- Gahhh!” She barely had the time to react as her body became enveloped in a mystical blue glow that flowed through every inch and crevice of herself. From her internals to her hat. All of her body became bathed in the light; and her outline turned to a silhouette which evaporated in the beam. She disappeared in an instant, with the only trace being the drawn-out yell of surprise she first emitted when she made contact with the Warp Seed. Although even that seemed to die off fairly quickly, as she was thrown into a new section of the forest.

“…Well, shit .” A stunned silence swept the group, who stared blankly at what remained of their plan, a rapidly-deteriorating Warp Seed that soon faded into dust and drew off in the breeze. Silkie had half a mind to shout her swear, but the Caterpie intercepted her before her filthy words could leave her throat.

“Uh, was that a part of the plan…?” Caterpie quietly voiced his displeasure. The whispers of which were blown out by the Araquanid, who roared their ear-splitting cry once more, the two Bug types’ eyes widened in fear at the mistake of their plan horribly backfiring from its intended outcome. “Did we fail?” He gulped, shivering like a leaf in fear, or was it the cold? Silkie didn’t know, though she knew she’d be frozen in terror if it weren’t for the fact she was already rushing to the Caterpie’s aid in another vicious cycle of charity she couldn’t seem to escape from when she was around the boy. “… Was it my fault?”

Silkie gripped onto the Caterpie, urgently pulling him by the arm as she backed away herself. “There’s no time, we gotta run !” The spider bent its underbelly downwards until it was parallel to the soil, its six legs burst with muscular vigour – an attack was imminent.

The Araquanid’s Lunge attack flung itself into the floor, riling up a wave of dirt that threatened to completely crush the two. Silkie had previously deemed it impossible for a creature of such proportions to enact their attacks with such ferocity that it unnerved even her impassive stance.

Silkie tackled the Caterpie, knocking him awry from the tsunami of soil. She herself was a little less fortunate, mud and uprooted vegetation caked to her skin as she felt herself spun by the smothering amount of dirt. But she made it out, didn’t she? If so, then why were her legs hurting so much…?

Mentally, the Wurmple blamed herself. Why was she risking her skin for him? She might have made it out if she had just ran away when the monster was focusing on the Surskit…

The pair landed, but Silkie groaned a crestfallen yelp as she hit the ground like a sack of berries. Like wounded prey, she stifled a whimper from the pain to not appear weak in front of a predator. She doubled over, aiming to stand. Her long body cradled into a perimeter of red streaked with cream and white. She held her injured legs, two of her left legs which twitched quite feebly in response every time she caressed herself from the throbbing pain.

“Silkie! Y-You did that to save me …?” Caterpie queried, his eyes fixed on her panting form. Silkie rolled her eyes.

“Don’t get too…” She paused for a brief moment, intaking a sharp inhale of air that rattled her lungs and caused them to burn at the very edges of her thudding ribcage. “E-emotional ‘bout it…” She wheezed, trying in keeping her voice steady and her pitch unchanged despite her injuries.

“Wha-, but you’re hurt !” Caterpie cried, His voice shook, sounding as if it was about to crack and shatter like glass at any given moment. “I’ll get an Oran berry, the teacher told me they can help with almost everything!” He gave the air a fist bump, as if it could respond back. Though Silkie noted he looked quite pleased with himself for finally remembering knowledge from school. Looks like he was finally good for something.

The Caterpie’s trek to the bag, however, was halted before it even had the chance to begin by his nemesis’ pedipalps, all six of them rained down on each and every side of his peripheral vision, followed up by the Araquanid’s glaring head, eyes aglow a distinct cyanic shade, almost leering tauntingly, as if mocking him for his helplessness. Mandibles clicking and snapping with reckless abandon.

“Kid, w-watch out!” Silkie sibilated, lying on her side, still twined around herself and gripping her legs with one of her hands.

Caterpie gulped, unable to take even an inch more of movement before his enemy’s attacks would just impale him outright.

The two cornered Pokémon stared silently at their transgressor. Who continued to glare at them, but otherwise made no incentive to attack. Maybe the Water Bubble Pokémon was taking a bit of mercy against the child. It wasn’t until Silkie chuckled that a sound pierced their tense ‘duel’.

“What a first day of training this is.” She held back a snarky remark, turning to Caterpie, “If you don’t come back after today, frankly, I wouldn’t blame you.” She shrugged with her free hand, scoffing at their seemingly imminent ruination.

“That’s a little crass, Silkie…” Caterpie mumbled, Silkie opened her mouth to retort, but squinted instead to stare deeply upwards. Caterpie traced her eyes, continuing after them until he too, found the origin of her intrigue.

A flicker at first, slowly threading the line in and out between reality. Soon, that flicker turned to something more, cerulean light blazed all over the Araquanid, much akin to the colour of the Warp Seed. Though it didn’t seem to be really affecting the Bug and Water type much. However, as the light dimmed, a silhouette emerged from the heavenly glow, still yelling in anguish as her hat descended to the ground in front of the trinity of Bug types.

“Oh, Angel… you’re back?” Caterpie called out, the light suddenly disappeared, melting into the atmosphere, sending the Surskit falling. Landing square onto the Araquanid’s back. Dazed and confused, Angel instinctively latched onto the first thing within arm’s reach – that being the Araquanid’s neck.

“I- I guess so…? Where could I have gooooon -…!” She didn’t get to finish her sentence, the Araquanid riled against the stranger who just landed on it, pushing upwards in an attempt to fling their invader off. Angel responded by lying flat, making herself as low as she could possibly go, her thin legs wrapped around every corner she could reach in the frantic following of the Araquanid’s crazed efforts. “Wh-what did I miss?!” She yelped, compressing herself against the Araquanid.

Panicking, every time the Araquanid lurched Angel found her head spinning, accidentally channelling several of her attacks, bubbles and ice flew in half a dozen directions unbridled, blowing the bark off of several trees, freezing patches of gravel and muddling the clear water with mud.

Silkie glanced around, that’s where she landed on? What were the odds? Getting teleported right back to where she started but now on her adversary’s back no less. Might as well make use of her distraction, then. With the Araquanid’s attention far from them and preoccupied with its unexpected guest, she spotted her item bag sitting off to the side, its contents still spilled as she wasn’t exactly allocated the largest sum of time to pack away her goods earlier. She ushered Caterpie towards it to fetch her the Oran berry that she needed, on second thought, scratch that, her leg needed that, not her .

Caterpie, obviously wanting to get the lot of them out of their perilous predicament, agreed to her demands, dipping and sliding past sundries of coloured beams. He pried the bag inside-out for its supplies, retrieving the signature blue speckled berry. Feeling its waxy skin around his hands, he clutched onto it tightly and began worming his way back to the Wurmple.

Silkie watched off to the side, as a strike of freezing cold nearly hit Caterpie in the face, yet another scheme began to form in her head. Maybe Lady Luck hadn’t abandoned them after all… “Angel, what was that Ice type attack you just used?”

Her response came back soon enough, albeit heavily disjointed and filled to the brim equally with panic and laced with fear. “It’s Icy Wind, b-but why does that matt- Ack…!” Another jettison of ice that melted quickly before it hit the ground was fired, this time a partial amount blew into the Araquanid’s water bubble, turning its colour a somewhat crystalline hue, though the minimal change was imperceptible to all but one pair of eyes on the battlefield. “Why does that matter?!”

Her question went unanswered, instead, she found that her inquirer was busy chomping down something in the foreground, peeling the blue skin off to bite at the flesh underneath. Just like the Caterpie, the Wurmple absolutely devoured the Oran berry like it would be her last meal.

The revitalising berry enabled the injured Wurmple to immediately pull her damaged body off the ground for another round in battle. She flexed her leg, it still hurt, of course, but in this situation it was practically good as new!

“I’ve got an idea,” She turned to the Caterpie, “But it’ll require you to use your strongest Tackle, and expend some more Power Points for String Shot, you got it?”

“Uh, sure…?” Caterpie tilted his head, not truly understanding the full gist of things but trusting her enough to simply go along with whatever she had cooking up in that brain of hers. “I’ll do anything to help!”

“Okay, good, excellent, even.” Her brain felt somewhat scrambled, but Silkie was sure if she didn’t worry too hard about her crazy plan’s logistics too hard by stuffing those thoughts deep into the back of her head, there was still a chance. “Hey, ugly , over here!” She shouted loudly, garnering their foe’s attention; and momentarily halting the Araquanid’s progress in shaking the nuisance clinging atop it. The diving spider’s eyes narrowed into slits in anger, and fired a relentless Bubble Beam at Silkie, who hopped out of the way thanks to her newfound agility from the Oran Berry. Her legs really were better, she could barely feel the stinging now!

She ran towards her bag of items – she brought three Max Ethers just in case. One of them should be enough to get her String Shot back into commission.

Unfortunately, her little endeavour came to a screeching stop when the Araquanid took notice of her path, and preventatively used their Bubble Beam to blast Silkie’s bag into a puddle of mud, dropping her items everywhere. Not AGAIN !!!

Silkie bared her spikes – that inferno spider would breathe its last when she was through with it.

Before the colossal arachnid could even surmise a plan of attack, the Wurmple already issued a command long in preliminary to their foe’s reaction time. “Angel, use Icy Wind directly at the water bubble!”

“I- uhm, sure, why not ?” She stumbled on her words, but thanks to the split moment of hesitation Silkie induced in the Araquanid, her attack gained momentum without much hassle. Although she never did use attacks very often, so this extended exertion made her feel a little queasy on the inside. She knew it was either this or becoming that thing’s third course – once it was done with Silkie and the kid. Crystallising snowflake patterns emerged from the underbelly of the Araquanid’s water coating, the darker hue spread throughout much quicker, and this time, it was a multitude more visible than earlier. The Araquanid’s liquid bubble was rapidly deteriorating into more of an icy bauble instead.

The arachnid’s head was getting frozen, molecules slowing down, some coming to a complete halt with every passing second and the slow drop of temperature as it declined to zero.

Unfortunately, the Araquanid had the hindsight and awareness to understand what was taking place. The behemoth thrashed with all its might, fiercely fighting over Angel for even just a singular inch of ground. With its much greater force now in total display, Angel’s battle for territorial control turned a steeper route. In truth, her much more diminutive frame and lack of physical strength, along with the fact that her species’ evolution had granted her only a penchant for walking on water meant that she was not efficiently suited for combat or even a long term tussle against an enemy of such calibre, and it showed.

She was losing her grip.