Chapter 8: Abby

We were all lying in the grass as the sun peeked over the horizon. “Finally,” Vix cried out excitedly leaping to her feet, “oh, but thank you Slink for getting us up early to wait in a cold, damp field for an hour.” 

“Vix,” I scolded, “you know why we had to be here this early.” As the sun rose higher the sunlight  projected along the ground, the sunbeams getting closer and closer to the Dungeon where the silver mist still swirled as the Dungeon shifted. “Besides this is always a sight to see.”

The encroaching sunlight made contact with the wall of silver mist that filled the entrance to the Dungeon. The mist immediately began to melt and hiss as errant sunbeams pierced it. As the sun rose higher the sunlight fully streamed into the mist seeming to light it from within while it continued to hiss like an angry snake. With a sudden pop the fog seemed to melt as it began to leak out of the Dungeon and dissipate.

We approached the now empty Mystery Dungeon entryway. As always, Vix went first passing through into the Dungeon. Eve, Sierra, and I waited for her response. Sierra leaned down and whispered to me. “So, you said she was gonna help us find my daughter, and you said she was a good navigator, so does she just guess really well or…”

“Just wait for it,” I whispered back.

Vix turned to face us and give her report. “There are sixteen floors, and I think the Hatred are still on floor four. I don’t think that they are close to the portal yet, but it should only take us a few minutes to clear this first floor.”

“Told ya,” I commented to Sierra as I brushed past him, following Vix into the Dungeon. Looking back, the expression on his face was priceless. He quickly snapped out of his shock and scrambled to follow after us.

As Vix estimated, we reached the portal in four minutes, and on the second floor we landed right next to the stairs, so we cleared it in no time at all. The third floor however Vix claimed would take us a while.

“Yeah, no matter how we go about this one we either hit traps, feral Pokemon, or streams that block the path, and since Slink and I can’t cross them…”

“That’s fine,” Eve commented sounding a bit frustrated.

“How are the Hatred doing?” I asked nervously. They couldn’t have been able to outpace us, but if they got lucky during the next few floors they could get a substantial lead.

Vix thought for a moment, almost listening to the Dungeon. “They are almost done with the fourth floor, but we should finish this floor by the time that they move on.”

Sierra let out an audible sigh of relief. “Okay, we need to get going. Now!”

Vix lead us out of the northern path and then stopped. “When I call out, everyone jump!”

“What?” Eve shouted, but Vix ignored her. Instead she charged forward, her head bowed like she was going to headbutt something. She skidded to a halt as the ground seemed to give slightly under her weight, sinking slightly.

“Now!” Vix shouted hitting the deck. There was a loud hissing sound followed by a rapid-fire series of loud pops. Sierra, Eve, and I jumped as high as we could, and good thing we did. A second later hundreds of tiny needles, all glowing with a dark purple light shot by.

Thankfully none of us were pricked. “Hey, Vix,” I called once I was sure we were all safe, “explaining deadly traps is a good thing. Can we get a bit more warning next time.”

Vix glanced back at me with wide-eyed glee. “That was awesome. There are at least three more traps between us and the portal. Let’s go!”

Sierra glanced at Eve, a look of horror on his face. “You guys do this everyday?”

“No,” she answered dryly, “some days we get attacked by blood-thirsty caterpillars, and nearly killed by sentient rocks.”

Even I wasn’t sure if she was kidding, and I had been on all of our adventures.

We encountered, as Vix predicted, three more traps. The first was an explosive trap that Vix disabled all on her own. She detonated it, and then used her Flash Fire ability to absorb the flames. She walked out completely unfazed and led us onward past the smoldering crater.

The second trap was a warp trap. Once again Vix took it on all by herself. She vanished in a flash of light. We all just stood there for a few minutes, not quite sure what to do next. A few minutes later we heard soft running footsteps before Vix turned the corner behind us. “Y’all ready? Let’s keep going.”

Eve and I simply rolled our eyes but Sierra looked a bit wary. “Does she have any sense of fear, or self-preservation, or anything?”

“No,” Eve said dismissively following after Vix.

“Not really,” I said with a shrug.

The final trap we were faced with was a wind trap, and unlike the other two Vix didn’t have a clever or quick way to bypass it. She explained that once it was activated, the trap would activate and create powerful gusts of wind that would be strong enough to keep us away. Since the path funneled into a tight corridor, Vix guessed that the source of the wind would keep us from actually following the path.

“Should we try and find another path?” Eve suggested. “If we can’t get through this trap, we are wasting time.”

Vix opened her mouth to respond before she flinched, an involuntary shiver passing through her body.

“What was that?” Sierra barked. “What do you know? What just happened?”

Eve shook her head. “Team Hatred has made it to the next floor,” she said, “but floor five looks pretty complicated. It should take them a while to get through.”

But Sierra wasn’t listening. “They are getting away,” he growled, “we need to hurry up!”

“Okay,” I said trying to placate him, “let Vix find a path where we can go around and-” 

“No,” Sierra said, “there isn’t time for that.” Without warning he bolted off toward where the pressure area for the trap was.

“Sierra!” Eve cried, instinctively reaching out with her Psychic to try and stop him, but he was a Dark Type. He slipped through her grip like water. We watched one of his paws strike the ground, we saw the earth seem to give way, and we saw dust begin to swirl as wind roared down the corridor. Sierra was thrown off his feet by the sudden roar of wind, and he landed with a dull thud behind us.

Eve, and I planted our feet and tried to brace ourselves, but the wind was too powerful, and eventually pushed us off our feet and dragged us across the ground. Vix hadn’t even stood a chance, and was currently lying in a heap beside Sierra.

“What do we do now!” I yelled to Eve. The wind was growing more powerful, strengthening to a scream. So that we weren’t forced any farther back, I created a pointed Psychic shield to deflect the wind around us.

Eve rolled to her feet and rushed up to my side. She used her power to shore up my shield. “What now?” she shouted. The wind was growing more and more powerful by the second, screaming as it rushed past us.

“The wind has to be coming from somewhere,” I yelled, “maybe we can find it and shut it down.” I closed my eyes and concentrated, sending out a tendril of Psychic energy. I felt Eve do the same beside me. Although the tentacles of concentrated thought weren’t physical, the wind still buffeted them as we forced them forward.

As the path funneled and narrowed the wind got stronger and it became much harder to push against it. Eve and I tried to catch each other if the other faltered, but still it was a huge relief when I felt my power touch the back wall. I rubbed along the wall until I felt a line of long slits, well I didn’t feel them. Anytime my power brushed up near one I was forced to redouble my efforts to stay near the wall because the wind was so powerful there.

“We have to block those holes,” I grunted through gritted teeth. Eve nodded.

“Rock Slide?” she squeaked.

I nodded. I reached up above the wall and grabbed exposed rocks, tree roots, literally anything I could get a grip on. I felt Eve do the same beside me.

“On three,” I panted. “One, two…”

“Three!” Eve shouted pulling as hard as she could. I used every ounce of mental energy to rip the very earth apart until suddenly a cascade of earth and soil crashed down, covering the stone wall and sealing the wind trap. The wind died, Eve and I dropped our shield, and immediately collapsed.

I felt physically and mentally drained. Thankfully the Hatred was at least two floors ahead of us, so we didn’t have to worry.

I struggled to my feet. Looking back I noticed that the rest of our team hadn’t moved. I could see Sierra staring at me, and I felt myself change from Psychic to Fire so quickly, the tufts of fur in my ears combusted from the sudden heat.

“Sierra! Get up!” I stomped over to him, a halo of Fire around my body. The Absol got shakily to his feet. He may have been older and bigger than me, but he shied away from me as I approached. I forced him to meet my eyes, and I stood there, staring him down.

Without breaking my gaze I called out, “Vix, you okay?”

There was a few moments of silence, but I heard Vix getting to her feet, so I wasn’t too concerned. “Yeah, I’m good-” she yelped as she tried to put weight on her front left paw.

Eve was on her feet in an instant. “Vix, what happened?”

“I landed on a rock,” Vix grumbled as she got back to her feet, clutching her injured paw to her chest. Eve gently eased Vix’s paw away with her prehensile tails and carefully examined it.

“I don’t think it is broken,” Eve grumbled, “but I don’t really have experience with this. We should have the nurse look at it when we get back. Until then…” Eve dug around in her bag before she pulled out a roll of bandages. She gingerly wrapped the paw tightly and tied the bandage off. “There, try putting weight on it.”

Vix slowly placed her paw on the ground, and thankfully the padded paw held her weight.

Once I was sure that Vix was okay I turned back to Sierra. “If Vix had been hurt,” I growled, “this mission would have been over. We would be back home, and you would still be here.”

“But-” Sierra protested but I immediately cut him off.

“You don’t get to speak,” I shouted, “you don’t get to say anything. This was all your fault. It would have been much faster to just find the other way around. Vix would get us there in an instant. Because of you we had to disable this trap, and now the way forward is sealed, wasting even more time.

“Sierra, you don’t understand that the rest of us want to save your daughter too. The Hatred have all screwed us over as well. But that doesn’t mean we should be reckless trying to catch them. They can’t navigate as well as Vix, and we have more than half the dungeon still to catch them! Hey Vix did they get any farther?”

“Umm, I think they are still on the fifth floor,” she said in a small voice. I ignored it for now.

“I’m not sure that we can trust you anymore,” I said angrily. I fumbled for a second, but I was quickly able to pull my badge off of my chest and I held it threateningly in my paw. “These badges are vital to Dungeon exploration, and they have an important teleportation function. If a teammate or a lost civilian needs to be quickly evacuated, all someone would need to do would be to tap them with their badge.” I waited for my words to sink in. Honestly it was all just big talk, I’m not sure how I could stop him, or how I could abandon Abigail.

“No,” Sierra said softly, “please I have to save my daughter.”

“Well I’m not sure you can listen to me. I’m not sure you will follow our plan. I don’t know if you will do something completely stupid when we try and save your daughter!” I glanced over at Vix. Perhaps I could kill two birds with one stone. “But I think I can trust you with one thing. When we fight the Hatred and recover your daughter, you are going to hang back with Vix and keep her safe.”

I turned away from Sierra angrily. “So where to next Vix?” I asked. I grimaced inwardly. My tone was a bit harsh, and I wasn’t sure how Vix would take that. I wasn’t mad at her.

“I’ll uh… just follow me,” Vix said quickly. She limped off, slower than before. Eve and I followed behind with a cowed Sierra behind us.

“Did I go to far?” I whispered to Eve.

“Well I wouldn’t have told him that we would have abandoned the mission.” Eve shrugged. “But I think you got your point across.”

“I wanted him to know how serious I was,” I said unapologetically. I paused for a moment. “Is Vix okay?”

Eve nodded. “I think you scared her, I know you scared me. I’ve never seen you that angry, Vix definitely hasn’t. I also think that she thinks you are mad at her, for her injury.”

“What? I’m not. Why would she think that?” I asked concerned.

“You said that Sierra has to protect her when we challenge Team Hatred. You made that Sierra’s punishment.”

I shook my head. “Fire isn’t weak, but it isn’t particularly strong against Fighting Types. Unless we absolutely need her, I don’t want her fighting, especially now with her injured foot.”

Eve nodded. “I didn’t want to say it.”

“I’ll talk to her. I’ll explain.”

“And Viola,” Vix chirped happily, “the portal. Suck it Hatred.” Without even a touch of ceremony, she stepped up to the stone platform and vanished. The rest of us followed a few moments later.

As soon as we landed on the next floor, Vix was primed and ready to go. “Hey, whoever has the Expedition Gadget should time me! I bet I can get us through this floor in exactly two minutes.” Eve laughed, but we all watched as she pulled out the Expedition Gadget.

“Ready? Set? Go!” Eve called starting the timer. Vix hobbled off into the Dungeon, leaving us to scramble behind her. I jogged up, eventually pulling even with Vix.

“Hey, you want to talk?” I asked.

Vix slowed slightly. “This isn’t going to be like the last ‘talk’ we had, right?”

I shook my head. “No I just wanted to ask how things were going.”

“I’m good,” Vix said.

“I mean when I started yelling at Sierra you looked a bit, er, perturbed?”

Vix raised an eyebrow at me. “Perturbed? Look it just startled me a little. I have never heard you yell like that.”

“Oh,” I said awkwardly, “Eve thought you might have thought that I was yelling at you.”

“Eve isn’t so good at the thinking thing is she?” Vix commented.

I playfully pushed her shoulder. “Don’t be mean. She was just worried about you and… your club foot there.” Vix rolled her eyes at me, but grinned. “I just wanted to make sure you aren’t mad that I’m making you stay back.”

“I get it,” Vix shrugged, “you and Eve can take out those Fighting Types in a second. I’m not all that powerful here. And even I admit that I am not all that mobile with this thing.” She held up her bandaged paw. “This is a good plan.” She bit her lip. “Also, I wasn’t expecting you to stick up for me like that. My mother never really had reason to, and that Mightyena taught me that I should fight all my battles alone. I keep forgetting how determined you are to protect me.”

I started to answer, but at that second we turned a corner and lo and behold, there was the stone platform. Vix walked up to it and tapped her paw on it. “How’d I do Eve?” Vix called.

“A minute, fifty-eight seconds.” Eve called back.

Vix grinned back, but then she grimaced as her body was wracked with an involuntary shiver. “Let me guess,” I grumbled, “the Hatred is on to floor six?”

Vix shrugged. “Yeah, but the next floor won’t take us any time at all. We should have them. Floor six I know is saturated with traps, and it is rather complicated. We will certainly catch up.

“Do we have a plan?” Eve asked looking pointedly at me.

I shifted uncomfortably. I didn’t have a plan. “I mean, we outnumber them, and we outpower them. We should just knock them out.”

“No,” Sierra barked, butting in. I fixed him with a glare, and he took a short deep breath. “No, please! You can’t start fighting until we get Abigail out! If those Fighting Types see anything coming then they will hurt her. I am not going to let that happen!”

“Okay, okay.” I conceded.

“Well the Fighting Types are susceptible to Psychic suggestion right?” Eve asked.

“Sure,” I said not quite sure where she was going with this.

Eve nodded, “So we can sneak up on them, and then make them think that Abigail is still there. Then we can sneak her away and we can warp out. No harm, no foul.”

I glanced at Sierra who looked more than a little worried. “Can you guys really do that?”

“I think so,” I said, “don’t worry. Everything will be fine.”

None of us talked much over the next floor. I don’t know how Eve was feeling, but I had Butterfrees in my stomach. Here we were chasing after the Hatred. I knew that we had an advantage here, but I was still nervous.

Vix lead us to the portal in no time. We landed on the sixth floor, and almost instantly I felt something like a punch to the gut. I shivered involuntarily. This had happened the last time we had landed on a floor that the Hatred was on.

“Vix, where are they?” I whispered. I didn’t think the enemy was near, but I also didn’t want them to hear me.

“They are a few corridors away.” Vix whispered back. I guess the feeling was mutual.

“Is there a path that intersects theirs? A t-crossroads?” Eve asked.

Vix closed her eyes for a minute, and nodded. “We have five minutes before they get there. Let’s go!” She darted off into the path on the right, hobbling all the way.

We weren’t running exactly, but Vix kept the pace up as she twisted and turned through the maze like pathways. “Duck!” she called out at one point. All of us hit the dirt as a huge curved blade shot from the right wall, flew above our heads, and entered a matching slot on the opposite wall. Vix continued on like nothing had happened.

Finally, just before we reached a wide crossroads, Vix stopped, fanning out her tails as a barrier to stop us. “Shhh, they’ll pass by in a minute,” she hissed.

“Okay,” I breathed, “you two wait here. We will slip Abigail out, and meet you back here.” I hesitated for a second. “Vix, give Sierra your badge.”

“What?” Vix and Sierra both looked at me like I was crazy.

“If this goes sideways, I want you both to be safe.” I fixed Sierra with a deathly-serious glare. My red eyes flared slightly.  “If anything goes wrong, do what I told you. Tap Vix with the badge, and then briefly press it once to get yourself to safety. Get her out if things go wrong.”

He nodded carefully. “I promise,” he muttered, but he seemed hesitant, hesitant and angry.

“Sierra,” I muttered, “I promise I will not leave here without your daughter.”

The Absol opened his mouth to speak but at that moment we heard heavy footsteps headed our way. “Places everyone,” Eve hissed, “here we go.”

Sierra and Vix backed slowly down the passageway, while Eve and I pressed ourselves in against the inside wall. “Project an empty passageway across here,” I whispered, “I’ll make the one in back oblivious.”

Eve nodded as her gem began to glow brighter and brighter. For a moment I thought that the glow would alert the Hatred to our presence before the glow solidified into a wall of pink energy. Most of the glow faded revealing a perfect mirror image of the passage behind us. Eve grimaced as she was forced to sustain the connection. “Hurry,” she grunted.

I reached out with my own mind towards the sound of marching feet. Eventually I came across a duo of minds, one with a heavy blood-red tint following a thickset pinkish-white mind. Between them was a large empty space, and I nearly panicked before I remembered that Abigail was a Dark Type, and so I shouldn’t be able to detect her with my mind.

As the figures got closer my Psychic probe drew closer to the redish mind in the back. The Throh I assumed. Until finally I felt myself intersect his mind. I tried to keep my probe as small and insignificant as possible, so he wouldn’t sense me as I quickly burrowed my way inside to the part of the brain that is connected to the eyes.

I could see everything that he saw. The narrow path around him, the Gurdurr in front of him, and the frightened Absol with bright red skin and fur directly between them. He blinked, and faster that I thought possible, I acted. With a quick movement I severed the connection from his eyes into his brain. I replaced it with the Psychic probe and immediately conjured exactly what he expected to see.

I held my breath for a moment as the Throh opened his eyes. Nothing. No shout of alarm, no suspicion. Our plan had worked. Suddenly a tall, bulky shadow crossed through Eve’s illusion as the Gurdurr passed by. Eve and I waited a second until a lithe figure passed by. We shared a quick glance before we both leapt through the illusion just before the Throh crashed by.

We both saw the Absol seize up as soon as we landed. “I’ll get Abigail, you distract the Gurdurr,” I breathed to Eve as I lunged forward, nearly tackling Abigail, and throwing one of my paws over her mouth. Abigail let out a tiny squeak as she felt my weight settle on her back. I glanced up at the Gurdurr who didn’t even turn around.

“Quiet back there!” he barked, not even missing a beat.

I could feel Abigail trembling beneath my grip. Of course she was. She had to have been terrified, considering what she had gone through in the last couple of days. “Shhh,” I whispered trying to sound as reassuring as I could, “your father sent us. We are here to rescue you. If you shout out, we might get caught. Understand?” Abigail nodded slowly.

I slid off her back, peeling my paw off of her muzzle in the process. “I’m Slink, and my teammate Eve is behind us,” I breathed into Abigail’s ear. “I have the Throh blind to what we are doing, and Eve is working on the Gurdurr. The next side path we come across, we will all duck into quickly, and we can all warp out of here together. Okay?” I wanted to simply warp out now, but with how quickly the Throh and the Gurdurr had us moving I was afraid of accidentally dropping my badge stranding both myself and Abigail here. It would be much safer to duck out and use our badges later.

The young Absol still looked scared out of her mind, but she nodded slowly. “My dad is here? Thank you, thank you so much!” Her voice was a bit raspy, and a bit deeper than I expected. I wondered when the last time she had had water had been. As quietly as I could, I dug my canteen out of my bag and offered it to the Absol. She took it in her mouth and began to gulp the water down. “Thanks,” she said sheepishly handing me the now empty canteen. As I put it back I pulled out an apple and offered it to her. I tried to explain the rest of the plan as she clumsily ate with only her mouth and one paw.

“Your dad and the third member of our team are following us, and will help get you out of here.”

Abigail seemed to relax at that thought, but she quickly tensed up again. “What about the other two Shiny Pokémon?” My heart skipped a beat, and I felt it sink in my chest.

“What two Shiny Pokémon,” I asked desperately even though I already knew the answer.

Abigail was about to answer, when Eve gently bit my tail. I glanced back at her, and she gestured with her head to the side. I turned my attention back to the front and saw a small path leading off to the side of the main path we were following. “Okay Abigail,” I whispered nervously, “on three we break right okay? One, two, three-”

Before we could make our move, the Gurdurr in front of us suddenly stopped. Abigail and I nearly ran into him, but managed to stop just in time. Then a sickly familiar voice turned my blood to ice.

“Finally Crash. It took you two long enough to get here. I told you which direction to go!” I felt Eve tense beside me, as we unconsciously tried to hide ourselves behind Abigail. “We’ve been waiting for almost fifteen minutes you idiots, and you know Smoke doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”

I shivered slightly. It took real courage for a Dark Type to talk to a pair of Fighting Types like that. I frantically tried to think of a plan. I had some tunneling wands in my bag, but we would be seen for sure if we tried that. I knew we had to get out of there quickly before…

“Seriously, it shouldn’t have taken you this long to get here, especially with that prisoner! But I guess I’m being a bit harsh, especially with the extra passengers you picked up.” The fur at the nape of my neck stood on end as Shane paused. I felt his gaze come to rest on me. “I didn’t think you two had it in you to bring me Eve and Slink.”

I didn’t hesitate for a second. I gathered every ounce of Psychic power I had. My eyes began to glow pink, and the the fur in my ears waved like they were caught in a hurricane. I turned on my heels and sent all of the power in a concentrated shot directly at the Throh behind me. It struck him in the chest, throwing the Fighter back fifteen feet at least. He lay on the ground motionless. “Run!” I screamed.

Thankfully the Gurdurr was still somewhat under Eve’s power, and Shane wasn’t close enough to do anything. Eve instantly took off down the corridor. Abigail on the other hand was frozen from fear. “Abigail, move!” I shouted slamming into her side. Thankfully that got her moving. The three of us sprinted full tilt down the narrow corridor, leaping over the motionless Throh. 

“Eve, get out of here!” I shouted, “I will get Abigail out when I can. You need to get out now.”

“I won’t leave until you do.” Eve shouted back. She was stubborn sometimes.

We reached the crossroads where we had found Abigail, and we all turned into the side path. “Did Vix and Sierra leave already?” I asked fumbling with my badge, trying to take it off of my chest so I could send Abigail out of the Dungeon.

Eve was tensed and ready to go whenever I was ready. “No, idea,” she panted. Then her ears perked up. I had heard it too. Thundering footsteps. I left my badge on my chest where it was, and we started running again. We had to get some space between them and us so we can escape.

We ran as fast as we could, leaping down side paths, dodging as many traps as we could. I was struck with a sudden appreciation for Vix. We would have been out of here having lunch if she was around.

Eventually we found ourselves in a large circular clearing with our path running in, and only a single other path leading out.

“Slink,” Eve panted, “is that what I think it is.” I followed her gaze, and my heart leapt. The stone platform! The path on the other side of the clearing had the portal to the next floor at its entrance.\

This was perfect. If we could get to the next floor, we would have plenty of time to escape. I could have kissed Eve, but Abigail was there, and we didn’t have time to waste.

We nearly ran across the clearing with Abigail right on our heels when a dark figure jumped over the walls of the clearing, blocking our path. The figure’s skin was pitch black except for white patches on its elbows and knees. Two dark-blue fins crested its head, and its blood-red tongue was wrapped around its throat like a scarf. The shiny Greninja regarded us calmly and confidently. It knew that we couldn’t fight it. We were done.

I reached for my badge, perhaps I could throw it at Abigail and maybe it would warp us out, but I had barely moved when a shadow ball crashed into the ground on my left, and a water pulse slammed the ground on my right. The Greninja, Smoke I remembered, stood at the ready. A shadow ball in one hand, and a water sharrukin in the other. I quickly pulled my paw from my badge.

“Eve, run. Get out if you can.” The Greninja didn’t even turn to watch her. His gaze was fixed on me. There was something about his gaze. I could physically feel it on me. The pure malice he exuded burning me.

“Why are you so determined to martyr yourself?” Eve grumbled. “We are in this together!”

“They only want me.” I said calmly. “They would probably let you go, and maybe Abigail too if they got me in exchange.” I turned to Smoke who only blinked.

Soon enough we heard pounding footsteps in the corridor behind us. Shane strutted through the entrance, looking rather pleased. The Gurdurr followed behind him. The Throh was nowhere to be found. I felt a slight twinge of guilt. I must’ve really hurt him.

“How are my two favorite Expedition Society members doing?” Shane asked as he walked up to us. I wanted to tear him apart, but I didn’t dare to do anything with the twitchy Smoke staring me down. “I was surprised to see you two. This was only a routine recruiting mission. I didn’t think you would be stupid enough to come. I don’t even know how you found out where we were. Stanley here,” he motioned to the Gurdurr, “said that he killed the other Absol himself.”

Abigail tensed beside me. “But…” she protested weakly, but she couldn’t find anything to say.

“Oh,” Shane cooed soothingly, “did these two not mention that? Sorry to disappoint you, Abby was it?”

Even without my Psychic connection I could feel Abigail’s anger grow beside me. I leaned as close as I dared to her. “Tell me when,” I breathed.

“And Slink,” Shane cooed. He walked right by me, and if Smoke hadn’t been ready to kill me, I would have destroyed the Umbreon. Suddenly he slapped me across the face, claws unsheathed, just missing my eye. I felt two cuts open up on my nose as I reeled back in pain. “That’s for last time,” the Umbreon snarled, slapping me in the face with his tail as he turned around.

“Stanley, grab the Absol. Smoke has the Fennekin under control-” he never finished his sentence. Without warning a burst of shadow exploded out from Abigail. Shane turned just in time for the dark pulse to slam into his chest, slamming him backwards into the wall. Smoke was just barely able to get his guard up in time, leaping swiftly over the attack, he wasn’t prepared for the next one.

I had been ready, and when Abigail had attacked, I had started channeling my rage. As soon as Smoke hit the ground I sent a Flamethrower at him. He threw up his arms, trying to block the stream of Fire. I knew I couldn’t do much damage to him, but I could stall for time. Maybe open a chance for us to escape.

The Greninja countered with a Water Gun attack. He spit out a steady stream of Water that instantly turned to steam as it met my jet of Flame. He got what he what he wanted though. The Water pushed the Flames back far enough that the Greninja was able to roll aside. I choked back my Flames, leaping aside as he retaliated with a wall of crystal clear Water.

I needed to distract him for longer, but I had a plan. I danced aside as he threw a shadow ball at me. I pursed my lips concentrating my power. A tiny Flame flickered to life on my tongue, about the same size as a candle. I rolled aside as a Water Sherukkin buzzed by my ear at high speed. I started to exhale slowly and carefully, the flickering Flame lengthening into a rope of Fire. The little tongue of Fire reached out and as it got closer to Smoke it began to curl in around itself, around his feet. The rope got thicker, the Fire got hotter, and the Flame curled around him faster and faster, the Inferno climbing higher and higher. Soon Smoke was consumed by the flaming tornado.

I felt a huge burst of Psychic power behind me. I turned to find Eve fending off the Gurdurr, while Abigail did everything she could to keep Shane away from them. As I watched Eve froze, the gem in her forehead blazed to life, growing brighter as she gathered energy. Eventually it looked like Eve had a miniature sun on her head. There was a loud pop, and in an instant the light faded away completely. The Gurdurr took this as an opening, swinging his giant I-beam, slamming it into the ground. Thankfully Eve was pretty agile, and managed to dodge every attack. But everyone gets lucky. The Gurdurr swiped upward with his heavy metal staff, and unfortunately Eve couldn’t get out of the way fast enough. The girder caught her in her leg, and she crashed to the ground. The Gurdurr raised his metal I-beam, ready to take her out when Eve’s move finally took effect.

Before Stanley could strike he was engulfed in a bright white ball of Psychic energy. He cried out as the huge amount of  power pressed in on him. As the light faded the large Pokemon fell to his knees, still just barely conscious. My eyes flashed pink for a moment as I sent a bolt of power directly into the ground. It exploded out of the ground only feet from the Gurdurr. A halo of tiny rock shards hung suspended in the air before they all flared purple and shot, at high speed, into his body. He was probably happy to lose touch with the world as he slumped to the ground.

“Enough!” Shane shouted sending out a Dark Pulse that caught Abigail under her chin slamming her into the ground. I heard a sickening crack as her head hit a rock. Her eyes rolled up into her head as she blacked out. I tried to get to her, but a shadow ball crashed into my chest. The sudden wave of Darkness made my knees buckle as it sapped my strength. Eve received the same treatment, except she was struck in the stomach. She curled up on the ground clutching her belly.

Shane limped up to Abigail’s limp form. I tried to rise, but I couldn’t. I was still trying to recover my energy as it was sapped away by the shadows. As Shane got closer I noticed flickers, almost whispers of purple and black flames around him. “You should have joined us when you had the chance.” he growled at Abigail. He raised his paw, claws extended, aiming for the throat. I hurled myself as close as I could, trying to do anything to stop what I knew what was about to happen, but I collapsed still far from the two.

Shane slashed just as a bright blue glow appeared around Abigail. She vanished with a soft pop, leaving a small circular silver badge on the ground. A new deeper voice spoke up, dangerously quiet. “Stay the hell away from my daughter.”

Sierra charged a night-slash in his horn, and struck Shane across the chest. He then turned around and slammed his tail (also charged with a night-slash) right into the cut that he had previously created. Shane stumbled back from the impact, and right as he recovered his back left foot landed on the stone platform. Shane’s eyes widened in shock, just before he vanished. Sierra watched the platform for a moment, making sure that Shane wasn’t coming back before he rushed over to me. He carefully helped me to my feet.

“Thanks for trying to protect my daughter, “ Sierra grumbled as he helped me up.

“Thanks for taking care of Vix,” I replied, groggily. Eve was back on her feet too, and she obviously hadn’t managed that alone. Vix was supporting her, using several of her tails as a makeshift sling.

I glared daggers at Sierra who shook his head. “I tried to send her out, the problem was catching her.”

I nodded, resigned that Vix was just going to ignore me whenever I tried to keep her safe. I stepped forward to check on Eve when my paw landed in a rather large puddle of Water. My heart stopped as clarity rushed back into my head. My Fire spin was gone, nothing remained of it but a circle of scorched earth, but more importantly so was the Greninja that had been trapped inside.

Where had he gone? Had he left? Had he followed Shane to the next floor? Or was he still here, just about to attack-?

“Slink, look out,” Vix shouted leaping back. I tried to turn, to see what was happening, but I only managed to register a flash of blue light before Eve slammed into me, knocking me aside.

I heard Eve grunt, I heard the solid whump of an attack landing. I turned back to see Eve standing where I had been, with a Water sharrukin sticking out of her chest. The blade dissolved almost instantly, turning back to a liquid and splashing to the ground, but that was nothing compared to the splash of red that followed after it. Eve collapsed into the puddle below her.

“EVE!” I don’t remember screaming. I don’t remember moving at all, but before I knew it I was at her side, my throat raw. I didn’t know what to do, except get Eve to the hospital as quickly as possible.

Vix was at my side a moment later. “Eve,” she cried, “oh, no. Eve, come on!” The little fox was at the verge of panic (just like me) but we couldn’t both break down. I tried to remain calm for her sake.

“Vix, where did Smoke go?” I asked, anger and panic shining through what I had meant to be a calm tone.

“I don’t know. Sierra shot a shadow ball at him, and he vanished into the Dungeon.” Good. He was gone. Otherwise I would have killed him.

“Find your badge, and get Sierra and yourself out.” I commanded leaving no room for any argument. I need to get Eve to the hospital.” I reached out and pressed my paw to Eve’s badge. She vanished in a flash of blue light.

“She’s gonna be okay right?” Vix asked. I didn’t answer, I couldn’t. I could only press my badge and leave.

I blinked away the spots in my eyes as I landed next to Eve. I could still hear her breathing, but it was becoming more ragged and shallow by the minute. I rushed to her and immediately ran into a dead end. How was I going to get her upstairs to the hospital?

I siphoned up the last tiny bit of Psychic energy I had, and used it to lift Eve onto my back. We were about the same size, I was just slightly taller than her, and I know she weighed less than me, but in my weakened state it was a miracle that I could even lift her. I trudged forward, feeling Eve grunt with every step I took. I could feel a wet, stickiness on my back grow with every step, and I knew we were leaving one heck of a trail. I stumbled over the still unconscious Abigail. “Help!” I screamed. “Please, someone, we need help!” I tried to send out a Psychic plea, anything, but I was simply too exhausted.

Arceus must have taken mercy on me, or decided that I was worth a miracle, because a moment later I felt a strong Psychic presence beside me. The air began to hum with pink energy, congregating together in what was undoubtedly a bipedal shape. Suddenly Kegan appeared, blinking as he recovered.

“Slink,” he asked, “what’s going on? I was trying to write a report on- OH Arceus!” He shouted upon seeing the grievously wounded Eve on my back. Without a second thought he reached out and grabbed my by the scruff of my neck. I felt an odd tingling sensation pass over my body, before my vision was filled with pink Psychic energy.

Without warning the ground seemed to pitch underneath me. In an instant I felt my paws leave the ground. I completely rolled in midair before my paws slammed into a new hard surface. Thankfully I remembered these stone floors. We were in the hospital.

Kegan carefully set Eve down on one of the beds (I was so exhausted that I hadn’t even noticed him pick her up) and then vanished once again using his teleport move. I danced in place for a second, shuffling my paws impatiently. I hated this hopeless feeling. There was nothing I could do to help!

Thirty seconds later Kegan was back, and Candice was with him. She took one look at Eve, and then turned to Kegan. “I need Oran serum.” She said calmly. “Get five, just in case.” Kegan vanished again, and when he returned he was holding five syringes, each containing a thick, blue syrup.

Candice instantly snatched one up, stuck the needle into Eve’s chest just below the wound and sent the blue goo into her bloodstream. Blissey carefully set the now empty syringe on the table next to Eve’s bed. “Bandages,” Candice spat without even looking up. Kegan must have been used to this because he had already teleported away. He returned an instant later with several rolls of thick, white bandages.

I watched, holding my breath, but the wound on Eve’s chest wasn’t getting any smaller. “What’s happening?” I nearly shouted. “You said that stuff had Oran in it. Shouldn’t it heal her?”

“She’s losing blood too fast. All of the healing power of the Oran is being used replenishing the blood she is losing.” As if to prove her point, she plucked up the second syringe and injected it into Eve.

“How did this even happen?!” Kegan asked. “You guys never signed in for a job through the Nexus.”

I shook my head. “It was off the books. An Absol came to us last night. Told us that Fighting Types had taken his daughter. We thought we could help. Then Team Hatred ambushed us. The daughter was shiny, they wanted her too.” I knew I needed to tell the truth, but Kegan would be much less sympathetic if he knew that we were aware that Team Hatred would be there. “Eve took a Water sharrukin to the chest. It was meant for me.”

Kegan shook his head while the nurse emptied another vial of Oran serum into Eve. The Espeon now had bandages and gauze wrapped tightly across her chest, but they were being quickly soaked through.

“Uggh,” the Blissey grumbled, “they must have severed an artery. We are going to have to operate. Kegan, I’m going to need at least two bags of Espeon blood from the emergency blood bank.”

Kegan was gone for much longer this time. Long enough that Candice had had to use the fourth vial of Oran serum. She also tossed me a small patch of gauze. “For your nose,” she specified. Kegan returned a few moments later, only he was empty handed.

“We don’t have any Espeon blood.” Kegan said, trying to keep his voice calm.

“What?” Candice snapped, a hint of nervousness sliding into her voice for the first time. “What do you mean we are out?”

“We are out of Psychic blood. Remember that fiasco with that Munna last year?”

“What about Ditto blood?” The nurse asked.

“You know how rare Dittos are here. We only had one bag, and we used that two years ago.”

My fear had been growing, along with a feeling of rage. I tried to come up with a plan, but I had no idea. I barely even noticed when a strange warmth sprouted in my chest.

“Slink!” Kegan barked. I guess I hadn’t realized it, but I had let my powers slide from my control. Everything within ten feet from me had been shoved backwards in a perfect circle. I could feel the power rushing out from me like a high wind. Kegan could barely keep his footing. Quickly I stopped the wind, and Kegan stumbled forward.

“Slink, If you can’t keep yourself under control I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” Rational thought left me for a moment at that point. The next thing I knew I had him held off the ground in my Psychic grip, holding him against the wall.

“How can you not have restocked your blood bank in two years?!” I screamed.

“Slink, please calm down.” Candice said calmly. “There aren’t that many Psychic Types out there, and not many were willing to donate blood.”

“Can you take some of Kegan’s blood,” I cried desperately.

The Blissey shook her head. “You don’t know how blood typing works do you? Yes typing is a factor, but the body type is also extremely important. Eve can only get blood from a quadruped Psychic Type. And there aren’t many of those.”

I felt my heart sink. Was there nothing we could do? I let Kegan down again, before a thought struck me. “Fine, use me! I have four legs and am Psychic! Use my blood.”

“Yes,” Kegan said rubbing his neck, “but you are also a Fire Type.”

“So!” I nearly shouted.

“So only half of your blood is Psychic. The other half is Fire and if we give her Fire blood, she will die! Usually for dual Types like you the split is literally fifty-fifty with half of your body being each. Do you know which side of your body is the Psychic side?”

Candice injected the last syringe of Oran serum into Eve. “We need to figure something out quickly. I guess I could try to operate without any blood, but that will have negative consequences.”

“Like what?” I begged.

“At best, she will probably lose a leg, and maybe her tail. At worst…” the nurse shook her head.

“So our options are, use my blood and there is a fifty-fifty chance of her dying, or we do nothing and she ends up crippled or dead.” I glanced between the two adults hoping one of them had a suggestion. Nothing.

“You are the oldest,” Kegan finally said, “you are the one who has to make this decision.”

I didn’t know. What would happen if we chose the wrong side of my body? What if I chose to play it safe, but Eve never walked again? I knew which one I would want her to pick if our roles were reversed. I had her fate in my hands, and I knew there was only one answer that would work.

“Use me. Let’s risk it. Use my blood.”

“Hop up!” Candice commanded pointing to the next bed. “I will have to put you to sleep before I can draw any blood.”

I hopped up on the bed and tried to get comfortable. It wasn’t easy considering my stomach seemed to be actively trying to eat itself, and my heart seemed determined to escape my chest.

“What side?” Candice asked me. Fear rose up like bile in my throat, while my mind tried to rationalize, logic my way through things. The strange warmth blossomed in my chest again. Then, almost as if it had a mind of its own, I felt it almost slide to the right within my heart before fading away as quickly as it appeared.

Should I trust it? I gave a grim chuckle in my mind. Did I really have a choice? “Right,” I whispered, fully aware of the weight of the word as it left my mouth.

Candice nodded, before she tenderly placed her palm on my head. “If this goes wrong,” Candice said with a shuddering sigh, “please don’t blame yourself.”

She took a step back, took a deep breath before she began to sing. Instead of warbling notes like her normal voice, this was the strange, magical type of song that only a move could provide. Despite the situation I felt each note dig into my muscles, easing the tension and relaxing me. My earlier exhaustion washed over me, supplemented now by the magical fatigue from the song. I sighed in relief as my mind went blank and I drifted off to sleep.

---

I don’t know how much later it was when I woke up. I felt groggy, dizzy, light headed. There was a bandage tightly wound around the crook of my front right leg. That must have been where Candice had taken blood from me. She must have also taken advantage of me being unconscious to take care of a few other injuries. There was a smaller bandage across my nose where Shane had cut me. The fur on my chest felt matted and sticky from some sort of ointment that Candice had put where the shadow ball had struck. By contrast, the fur on my back felt soft and clean. Candice must have washed Eve’s blood out of my fur.

EVE! I nearly opened my eyes, but I stopped myself at the last second. My heart was pounding in my throat as I realized that the second I opened my eyes I would know whether the operation had been successful, or… I couldn’t even conceptualize the alternative. I didn’t want to look, just in case, but at the same time I needed to know.

Finally I opened my eyes, and felt all of my breath leave my body. The bed next to me where Eve had been when I went down was empty. The sheets were stripped away, bundled up at the foot of the bed. A deep red-brown stain marked the center of the mattress, the only evidence that Eve had ever been there.

I felt tears prickle the back of my eyes, and I couldn’t help but give off a short gasp that morphed quickly into a sob. I was too late. It was over. It was all my fault. An evil nagging voice in the back of my head cried out you shouldn’t have risked it! I was exhausted, and I had killed my best friend. I stopped trying to hold myself together. I buried my head in my pillow and I began to cry.

“Slink?” the voice was soft, barely a whisper, but to me it sounded clear as a bell. I forced myself to roll over. There, in the bed behind me, lying on her side and gazing at me was Eve. My exhaustion went away instantly, but the tears remained, but now they were tears of joy. If either of us had been in any state to get up, we would have been at each other’s side in an instant, as it was we could only stare at each other.

“Eve,” I gasped happily. “You’re okay.”

“Of course,” she said. Her voice was weak, but I could hear the laughter in it. “And I hear it is all thanks to you.” Her chest was completely covered by clean white bandages, and it thrilled me to no end to see that nothing was leaking through. She was going to be fine!

I couldn’t speak. I had no words left.

“Kegan, come on!” I heard someone shout. From the slightly muffled feel, I assumed that whoever it was was outside in hallway. I could just barely make out Kegan’s deeper tone as he replied, but he wasn’t talking as loud.

“Fine they can stay out here, but I need to see them!” In the back of my head I realized that I recognized the voice.

“Vix,” I mumbled to Eve, who gave half a nod before grunting. Apparently it hurt to even nod.

Before either of us could figure out what was going on, the doors burst open as a brownish-red furry mass pushed through them. She paused for a moment, scanning the room, before she found Eve’s pink form. She sprinted across the room, ready to leap up onto the bed with Eve like she had with me.

“Vix, wait!” I called out. Vix quickly planted her front paws and leaned back, quickly skidding to a stop. “Vix, you can’t jump up with Eve like that. You have to be more careful. Be gentle.”

Vix blushed slightly before she carefully hopped up onto the foot of Eve’s bed. I heard a slight squeak as Eve felt the slight shock of her movement. Vix tucked her ears close to her head and looked down, as if she expected to be scolded. She gingerly placed each paw as she crept up the bed towards Eve, finally arriving at about chest level.

“I was so worried.” Vix mumbled quietly. I felt a surge of guilt rush through me. I should have brought Vix back with me, but I had been so worried that I had left her, with a stranger, in the middle of a deadly Dungeon. I had forgotten that she was a child, and I had dumped the huge responsibility of getting Sierra back on her. I didn’t even think about how Eve’s injury would affect her. How much it would scare her.

Eve couldn’t exactly hug her, but she found a solution. She reached up with her tail and wrapped Vix in it, pulling her up near her head. She carefully nuzzled up against the little fox, who was shaking from fright and relief from what I could tell. Eve uncurled her tail as Vix turned to face me. She squatted at the edge of Eve’s bed and sprung over and landed on mine. She rubbed up against my chest and under my chin.

“And then I got back, and I heard that you were in surgery too. What happened?” I wrapped my forelegs around the young girl, pulling her to my chest. I had a slight amount of Psychic power now that I had slept a little. I knew that neither Kegan or Candice would approve, but I pushed my bed so that it was pressed against Eve’s. All three of us scooched closer to the center until we were as close as we could get.

“They needed blood so that they could save Eve. I told them to take mine.” I didn’t mention that realistically it was just as likely that my blood would have killed Eve. Vix didn’t need to know that. We just laid there for a moment as a Team. As friends. As a family.

I rubbed a paw over Vix’s forlegs, stopping as I realized that something was wrong. “Vix, where is your bandage?”

Vix looked down, flexing her paw. “Oh, right. Candace fixed it in a heartbeat. Really, you both nearly die and that is what you are concerned about?”

I could still hear Kegan talking with somebody out in the hallway. “Hey, Vix you mentioned that ‘they can stay out there’. Who are they?”

Vix just looked at me with her eyebrow raised. “Sierra and Abigail, duh.”

“What? And Kegan won’t let them in?”

“He says that they aren’t Society Members, so he can’t let him in.” Vix shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t mind.”

I rolled my eyes. “Kegan!” I called out.

The Psychic poked his head into the room. “Yes? Is everything alright?”

“Let Sierra and Abigail in.” I commanded. “Sierra saved our lives. He can come see us. And Abigail is the whole reason we went out there to begin with. Let her in too.”

Kegan opened his mouth to argue before he must have thought better of it. Instead he ducked back outside before throwing the door open. “Okay, Slink asked for you guys. Slink! I can only allow this for a few minutes.” I nodded. I understood.

Sierra rushed in, kinda reminded me of Vix actually, running down the hospital ward to where Eve and I were. “Are you guys okay?” I was a bit shocked. Sierra seemed genuinely concerned for us. I hadn’t seen him display this amount of care for anything but Abigail. She walked in much more slowly, looking awkward as she kept her head low and her tail down. She looked uncomfortable.

“We’re fine.” I said, still watching the obviously uncomfortable Abigail. “Hey, Abigail, you okay?” I asked.

“I’m fine,” she said quietly. Now that her life wasn’t in danger she seemed rather shy. “And, would you please just call me Abby. You calling me Abigail seems…weird.” She trailed off.

“Hey, Vix,” I said softly, “why didn’t you take Abig- I mean Abby back to the apartment? Eve and I will probably be here for a while. And I doubt these two want to leave today..?” I looked pointedly at Sierra.

Vix grumbled to herself, but after a stern look from Eve she shut up and reluctantly got off of the bed. She went to Eve’s bag and pulled out the key to our apartment. “Come on Abby. Let’s go.”

Sierra watched the two girls leave before turning to me. “I guess we are staying the night.”

“Maybe longer,” I interrupted. Eve glanced at me, but I was laser focused on Sierra. “Why are you here on the Fire continent?”

“I told you,” Sierra said suddenly nervous, “we came here to stay with family.”

“Family that lives in town right?” I asked casually.

“Yeah,” Sierra mumbled.

“That’s odd. You came into town from the north, but you had to have gone through the whole town to get to us. How come you didn’t find any of your family? How come you are still here with us?”

Sierra opened his mouth, but then he realized that he didn’t have an argument. “You got me. We have been traveling the world, looking for a place.” He shook his head. “We hadn’t tried the Fire continent yet, so we figured why not. Turns out there is a shiny scourge here. Looks like we have to try somewhere else.”

“Maybe not.” I said. Eve looked at me like I was crazy, but it wasn’t like she could do much to stop me at this point.

“The Hatred came after Abby,” Sierra said, “we are not safe here.”

“I’m not sure if you were there to notice,” I said, “but Smoke, the Greninja who nearly killed Eve, was aiming for me. I was the one who was supposed to die. They are after me too.”

“But-” Sierra tried to protest, but I wasn’t done.

“I told you to send Vix back here. She is young and I was trying to protect her, but I was also trying to keep her away from the Hatred. They want her as well, because she can navigate Dungeons. We are all in danger, but did you see what we did today?”

“Eve nearly got killed,” Sierra prompted.

I shook my head. “We only know of six members of the Hatred. Four are Dark Type and or some other Type we are weak to, but the other two are Fighting Types.”

“So?”

“So, we can take care of the Fighting Types, and you and Abby can take care of the Dark Types, or at least the ones we can’t.” The Absol looked uncomfortable, like he didn’t know what to say.

“Look, it is messy,” I said, “and it seems like we can’t keep you safe, but we can keep eachother safe. We risked our lives to help you and your daughter. Like it or not we are a family, and that means we look out for each other no matter what.”

Sierra looked at me like I was crazy, but then he smiled. “My only wish, for years now, was to find a place where Abby and I would be safe and accepted. You three seem like the only ones crazy enough to take that chance. Thank you.” He shifted his feet uncomfortably. “I think I’ll go. Let you two get some rest. Hopefully those two haven’t completely destroyed your apartment yet.”

He walked out the door, shutting it quietly behind him. I heard him exchange a polite word with Kegan, and then he was gone.”

I laid back down so that I was eye to eye with Eve. “I did the right thing here, correct?”

She nodded, slowly and carefully. “I think so. But please don’t get into the habit of inviting almost strangers into our home.”

I laughed, wiggling closer to her so that our noses were touching. “Noted.”

We both bent our heads down at the same time, until our foreheads were touching. The top of my muzzle was pressed against her nose. Sure Blissey would come in in a while to conduct some tests, sure I would be discharged from the hospital tomorrow, and sure I would spend every moment of the next week at Eve’s side as she slowly recuperated, only returning home to check up on Vix and Sierra, but none of that mattered at the moment. As Eve and I just lay there, our foreheads pressed together, her tail curled around mine, I couldn’t have been more content.