Chapter Nine: Power Pass

Hope had no idea how long she had been running for. Everything seemed to be a blur to her. As she zoomed by the endless amount of trees and rocks, she took a moment to process what had just happened.

She couldn’t believe that she had actually been able to escape from the Absolute Zero Syndicate. It wouldn’t have even been possible if not for Norman, Belladonna, Atlas, and Phoenix, but at least she was finally free.

The thought of Norman, Belladonna, Atlas, and Phoenix made her stomach twist into knots. They had all taken a major gambit to help her and her friends escape. The gambit had worked for them, but all four of them had been caught by Scorch and Riptide right at the very end.  She didn’t even want to think about what was happening to them right now. At best, they were probably being tortured as brutally as she, Klaw, and Dewey had been just days ago. At worst, they were…

No , Hope told herself, swallowing thick mucus back into her throat. Don’t even think about that. It’ll just end up distracting you. We have a place to go to now.

A sharp blush rushed to Hope’s cheeks. In all of the anxiety of the escape, she had nearly forgotten the reason for her escape- to go to the Ironheart Guild and form a rescue team with Klaw and Dewey.

She turned to Klaw and Dewey, who were following closely behind her and running just as fast. “Do we even know where we’re going?” she inquired while tilting her head.

Klaw and Dewey came to a screeching halt. “U-ummmmm… a-actually, we d-don’t.” Dewey said, rubbing his head sheepishly.

“How are we going to know where the guild is then?” Hope demanded.

Klaw and Dewey flinched and shrunk back upon hearing Hope’s slightly raised tone. “S-sorry…” Hope said apologetically, immediately flattening her ears. Scorch and Riptide must have done a real number on them.

Fuck those guys , she thought to herself, surprising herself with her harsh language. I wish I was stronger or could find out how to undergo that ‘evolution’ process Klaw and Dewey were talking about during our mission in Silicon Cave. Then I could go back and beat their asses. Make them pay for what they did to my friends.

A strong twinge of sympathy had also been struck in Hope’s body at that moment. After all, after what Polaris had put her through at the Absolute Zero Syndicate, she didn’t think she could look at anything with a claw-like appendage on it or anything resembling a robot again without shaking and vomiting profusely.

Hope simply sighed and took her bag off of her back. “Let’s see if Belladonna put a map in here.” she murmured, ignoring the jolt of anxiety that shot through her stomach upon saying the dinosaur pokemon’s name.

After spending a bit of time pawing through the bag gently, Hope felt something thin and crinkly at the very bottom of the knapsack. “Is this it?” she wondered aloud to herself as she carefully pulled the object out of the bag. It appeared to be a rolled-up sheet of paper, but when Hope unfurled it, she found that it was indeed a map, very similar to the one that Klaw and Dewey had used when they had first rescued her, even having the same AZS logo printed on the lower right corner of the map. That might end up being a problem later , a tiny voice in the back of Hope’s head whispered. Right now, however, Hope didn’t care. “It is! There is a map in here!”, she cheered.

Klaw and Dewey immediately perked up. “Great!” Klaw cheered. “Let’s take a look!”

The two friends walked over to Hope and peered down at the map. This map was considerably larger in scope than the map that Klaw and Dewey had used earlier- instead of showing a single area, it appeared to show an entire continent. A white line made of ink had been hastily drawn through the map, curving and twisting through the continent until finally stopping at an area marked with a giant star.

Klaw and Dewey surveyed the map with strong intent. “It looks like we’re going the right way, at least.” Klaw said while smiling softly.

Dewey nodded, but his small smile quickly turned into a frown. “I-it l-looks like we h-have to go t-through P-power P-pass.” he said, pointing at a large dot on the map labeled Power Pass and marked with a red exclamation point.

“What’s Power Pass?” Hope inquired while tilting her head.

“A Mystery Dungeon.” Klaw responded. “And it’s supposed to be a pretty dangerous one at that. Not even the Pursuers like going in there.”

“But we went through Silicon Cave, right?” Hope said, her tail swishing back and forth. “We have some experience! We shouldn’t have too much trouble going through Power Pass.”

Something in Hope’s mind was telling her that the name Power Pass was important somehow, but she shook it off. They didn’t have any more time to waste.

“Let’s go, guys!” Hope said cheerily. And with that, the trio began to set off.

For the first time in a while, Hope was able to get a good look at her surroundings. The ground appeared to be heavily elevated, and rocks of all kinds littered the ground. As she walked, the ground became higher and higher, and the rocks were digging into her paw pads, cutting into them slightly. Hope grimaced as she felt tiny drops of blood ooze out of her body and onto the sharp stones. It reminded her too much of what she had gone through at the AZS, how that machine had torn into her head, ripped out all the fur, and made her bleed dry until there was nothing but scab tissue left, made her-

Hope shook herself out of the sharp feeling of dread that had encroached on her suddenly. She didn’t want to dwell on that feeling. The past was in the past. She was free now, and she was going to make it to the Ironheart Guild, and she was going to form a rescue team with Klaw and Dewey. That was all that mattered now.

So Hope decided to change the subject. She turned to Klaw and Dewey and said “Geez, what’s up with this terrain? It’s so…” Hope hesitated, struggling to find the right word to finish off her sentence.

“So… what ?” Klaw asked, tilting his head and giving Hope a playful grin.

“W-what are you t-trying to s-say?” Dewey said, his head also tilted and also with a smile on his face, though his was more encouraging.

“Sorry. I’m just trying to think of the correct word.” Hope said. “The ground is just so… rocky ? That’s the best way I can describe it, at least.”

Both Klaw and Dewey simultaneously let out small snorts. “Well, duh . This place is called the Mountain Continent for a reason.” Klaw chuckles.

Hope was now more confused than ever. “Mountain Continent?” she inquired.

A few seconds of silence passed before Klaw flattened his ears sheepishly. “Sorry about that. I keep forgetting that you still don’t know a lot about our world. With everything that’s happened, I feel like you’ve been here a lot longer than you actually have.”

Hope’s ears drooped at those words. After all that she had gone through recently, she had almost forgotten that she had only become a pokemon a few weeks ago. She was born and had spent most of her life as a human, but she felt as if she had been a pokemon for her entire life.

The thought terrified her. She couldn’t forget about her human life. Klaw and Dewey were incredibly nice, and she was excited to go to the guild and see more of this strange and wonderful world. But she couldn’t shake the feeling that she had multiple people back in the human world who valued her presence and desperately missed her.

Hope had to get back to them, no matter what the cost was.

“A-are you o-okay, H-hope? Y-you l-look like you j-just s-saw a g-ghost type p-pokemon.”

Dewey’s words jolted Hope out of her thoughts. Klaw and Dewey were looking at her with their heads tilted and quizzical expressions on their faces. Out of the corner of her eye, she could barely see her tail, which was fluffed up and bristling.

“I’m fine.” Hope lied. After what they had just been through, she didn’t want to stress out Klaw and Dewey. They had sacrificed so much for her, and she was truly grateful for them. She didn’t want them to think that she was just using them to get back to the human world.

Klaw and Dewey seemed unconvinced by her statement. “Are you sure, Hope?” Klaw asked, his tail swishing back and forth.

Hope hesitated briefly. Then again, Klaw and Dewey were her friends for a reason. Out of all of the pokemon she had met during her time in this world, they were the most understanding of her being a human. For every other pokemon, her being a human literally gave them a good excuse to torture her for their own plans and wishes.

If there was going to be anyone who would be willing to help her get back to the human world, it would be Klaw and Dewey.

“…I’ll tell you two a little bit later. You guys should finish whatever you were about to explain to me first.” Hope finally said. Yeah, that seemed like a good course to take. She needed a bit more time to process all of this, and (to her embarrassment) she had probably interrupted Klaw and Dewey right before they were to start explaining what this ‘Mountain Continent’ was.

Klaw and Dewey traded surprised looks with each other. “Oh, right!” Klaw yelped. He and Dewey returned to their knapsacks and grabbed the map. “This world is made up of multiple continents.” Klaw began to explain.

“T-they e-each have t-their own d-differences in the t-terrain.” Dewey continued. “T-this c-continent, for e-example, is v-very r-rocky and h-highly e-elevated. S-so we c-call it the M-mountain C-continent.”

Hope nodded. “That makes sense. I think that the human world has something similar.” She wasn’t even thinking as she spoke, which surprised her.

Klaw and Dewey blinked in surprise. “R-really?” Dewey said, his eyes wide.

“That’s pretty interesting.” Klaw said, his tail swishing back and forth.

Hope blinked slowly. “I… I don’t even know how I knew that.” she mumbled softly, looking down at the rocky ground. It was pretty beautiful, she had to admit. The rocks came in several different shades, from a dull, almost yellowish brown to a gray that shone like silver when it caught the light.

Klaw and Dewey furrowed their eyebrows quizzically. They looked like they were about to open their mouths, but then they looked at each other, and then back at Hope.

“…Never mind.” Klaw said after a long time.

This made Hope very curious. She wasn’t the only one who was feeling uneasy about something right now. The thing that worried her, though, was what exactly Klaw and Dewey were feeling uneasy about. They were definitely going to need to have to talk later.

Now, however, they had to move forwards. So Hope turned back around and flicked her tail. Klaw and Dewey immediately understood. They nodded and began to follow her.

The journey was long and arduous. The trio had to walk through steep hills and on unstable terrain. Hope found herself tripping over her own feet numerous times, and her feet were constantly being cut up from the sharp rocks. Klaw and Dewey were able to traverse the terrain much more easily, but sometimes they too would end up tripping over the sharp rocks or each other’s tails. No matter who was tripping or what they were tripping on, they would always get back up, and the trio would always share some laughs before continuing on the long road ahead.

Having Klaw and Dewey with her made the travelling extremely fun, and soon, Hope forgot about the troubles that had been plaguing her earlier.

It took three days and two nights of almost nonstop travelling to even get close to the guild. Eventually, however, the trio arrived at an interesting place.

It looked like the ground had been split into two. A long crack split the road ahead of them in two. Large circular rocks were suspended in midair at random parts throughout the ravine, almost as if something was telekinetically pulling them into the air. Two large mountain ridges blanketed the edges of the ravine, providing solid borders.

A wooden sign was placed near the edge of one of the mountain ridges, “POWER PASS” was written on it in black ink. Whoever had done the writing appeared to have been in a rush when doing so, as the handwriting was messy and the letters almost bled into each other.

Looking at this sight, Hope could easily tell why even Crim, Shade, and Dart didn’t like going near this place.

“ This is Power Pass?!” Hope exclaimed. “How are we supposed to cross this?”

Klaw and Dewey gazed out over the expanse, their eyes narrowed slightly with worry. “I-i t-think we’re s-supposed to u-use those r-rocks. L-look. T-they a-appear to be f-forming a p-path of s-some k-kind.”

Hope squinted and peered out. Sure enough, she could see that the rocks appeared to form a path of some kind, snaking off faintly into the distance. That didn’t answer Hope’s bigger question, though.

“But how are we supposed to cross these rocks without falling off of them?” Hope asked. “They’re literally floating in midair . If we take one wrong step, we’ll be done for!”

Klaw and Dewey looked at each other uneasily. After a short while, Klaw spoke up. “Well, if the guild really is on the other side of this place, that means that many other explorers have crossed this dungeon before. If they can do it, why can’t we?”

Hope smiled. Her friends always knew exactly what to say to cheer her up. “I guess we’ll just have to be very careful, huh?” she remarked.

“Y-yeah! W-we’ll s-spot each o-other so t-that we d-don’t f-fall!” Dewey exclaimed

With renewed and heightened confidence, Hope began to walk forward, Klaw and Dewey closely trailing behind her. After a little bit of walking, they reached the first of many suspended stones. Hope hesitated for a split second before turning to Klaw and Dewey.

The brothers nodded before lowering themselves to the ground. Hope gently climbed on top of them, using their bodies as stepping stools before reaching out to grab the rock with her front paws. Using all of her upper body strength, she was able to pull herself onto the rock.

Then, she turned back around and stretched out both of her front paws, extending them to Klaw and Dewey. Each brother took one of Hope’s paws, and she began to pull them up. It took a fair bit of struggling, but Hope was just able to pull them up safely onto the floating rock.

“Phew!” Hope sighed as she finished her task. “Now we just have to do that…” she trailed off, squinting into the distance to see how many more floating rocks there were. “…at least twenty more times.” she finished.

Klaw and Dewey snickered at her blase tone, and Hope quickly found herself chortling along with them. After a little bit, the laughter began to die down, and Hope opened her eyes again. As they opened, they naturally shifted to the left, closer to the mountain range.

And that was when Hope saw the shadow.

It was barely visible from the top of the mountain range, but it was definitely there. Hope could just barely make out the silhouettes of what looked like four legs and what appeared to be antlers on the top of its head.

Hope didn’t know exactly why, but she had the strangest yet strongest feeling that whatever that shadow was was watching her every move.

She turned to Klaw and Dewey. “Look over there.” she said uneasily, flicking her tail towards the mountain range.

Klaw and Dewey looked towards where Hope was pointing at, but their brows quickly furrowed. “Are you trying to prank us, Hope? There’s nothing. Just the mountains.” Klaw said.

Hope whipped her head around. Sure enough, the shadow was gone. Her fur began to stand up on all ends.

“N-nothing… I just thought for a moment I saw a shadow of some kind… Must have been my eyes playing tricks on me.” Hope mumbled.

Klaw and Dewey’s eyes dilated with worry. “T-that’s not g-good.” Dewey murmured. “W-what if  s-someone from the s-syndicate is t-tracking us d-down?”

Hope’s heart plummeted into her stomach. Dewey had voiced her exact thoughts. She didn’t remember seeing any pokemon with antlers during her stay at the syndicate, but she couldn’t rule out the possibility. Scorch and Riptide had seen them escape, after all. They would have certainly told Polaris, and he would have certainly sent syndicate members after them.

They needed to keep going, and fast .

Klaw and Dewey seemed to be able to read her mind, because they immediately began to walk forward much faster than they had before. Hope immediately turned to follow them, relieved to have such supportive friends on her side. So they continued walking forward.

The trio took turns helping each other jump off and grab on to the floating rocks. Klaw grabbed Hope and Dewey the second time, and Dewey grabbed Hope and Klaw the third time. Hope noticed that Klaw and Dewey were able to pull her and their respective brother up with much less difficulty than she did.

After Hope got on the third rock and regained her footing, she was distracted by a loud rumbling in her stomach. “Do you guys want to take a quick snack break?” she asked.

“Sure!” Klaw replied cheerily. Saliva was beginning to form a ring around both his and Dewey’s mouths- Hope guessed that they were probably just as hungry as she was.

The trio took a moment to sit down on the floating rocks and dug into their packs. Belladonna, Atlas, and Phoenix had packed a wide variety of food into their packs. Hope was particularly fond of one of the types of sandwiches that had been packed in- a crunchy bread base filled with stringy cheese, sharp onions, sour pickled peppers, and dry yet crisp slices of chesto berry. As she took a bite into the sandwich and felt the juice of the ingredients bleed into her mouth, she heard a distant sound echoing from the edges of the mountains.

Clack, clack, clack…

Hope whirled around. Sure enough, the shadow was back, standing in the center of the mountains. Hope could now make out the shape of its head, which was very oblong and seemed to be pointed in Hope’s direction.

Hope choked down whatever was left of her sandwich and jumped to her feet. Klaw and Dewey, seeing her sudden shock, dropped their own sandwiches and whipped around to where Hope was staring at.

“Y-you were r-right, H-hope!” Dewey gasped. “T-there is a-another p-pokemon here!”

“Is that really another AZS goon?” Klaw hissed, his back arched and his hackles raised.

The mysterious pokemon quickly registered that the trio had noticed its presence, because it turned and began to trot away, its hooves clacking on the mountains the whole while.

“Hey! Get back here!” Hope called out frantically.

She was too late, though, as the mysterious shadow had soon disappeared.

Hope turned back to Klaw and Dewey, grumbling all the while. “We’re going to have to keep an eye out for that guy.” she grumbled.

Klaw and Dewey, however, weren’t paying any attention to her. Instead, they were looking into the deep void below them, their eyes as wide as saucers.

“What’s wrong?” Hope asked. Then, she noticed a deep rumbling sound echoing from the depths of the ravine.

A bright purple light began to emanate from the bottom of the cavern. It rose up higher and higher, slowly morphing into a large column. A large orange antlion pokemon was at the top of the column. It jumped down from the column and made a strange, animalistic noise.

Hope was so caught off guard that she nearly fell off of the rock, but thankfully Klaw and Dewey were able to catch her.

“How in the world did that thing show up?!” Hope exclaimed.

“That thing is called a trapinch” Klaw growled.

“A-and we’ll s-show y-you a-after we d-defeat this t-thing.” Dewey added.

Hope nodded and got into a fighting stance. The trapinch raised itself on its hind legs, then slammed back down into the rock. The force of the impact caused Klaw and Dewey to slide down and almost fall off of the rock. Thankfully, they were just barely able to grab onto the edge of the rock.

“Klaw! Dewey!” Hope cried out. “Are you guys okay?”

“We’re fine!” Klaw responded. “We’ll get back on our feet soon.”

“Are you sure?” Hope asked.

“W-we’re sure!” Dewey answered.

Nodding, Hope turned back around and was immediately greeted with a sharp pain shooting up her right front leg. The trapinch had leaped forward and bitten her leg. The feeling was way too similar to when Scorch and Riptide had broken that very same leg, thrown her against the floor with absolutely no remorse, and it hurts it hurts so bad make it stop make it sto-

Hope shook herself out of her thoughts and shook her leg, successfully getting the trapinch to dislodge itself from her leg. As she did so, she felt something strange come over her. The sides of her abdomen were beginning to ache, almost as if something was going to burst out of them…

Suddenly, sharp leaves began to launch themselves from Hope’s body, firing at the trapinch. They struck it straight on its mouth, causing it to stumble and collapse on its own legs. It still wasn’t knocked out yet, though, and was able to shakily get back onto its feet.

Before the trapinch could attack again, however, two simultaneous blasts of fire and water struck it. The trapinch stumbled back once again and fell into the endless void, screeching all the while.

Hope whipped her head around to see Klaw and Dewey coming back to join her. “Nice!” Klaw remarked. “That’s Razor Leaf! Now we know all four of your moves!”

“What do you mean by-” Hope’s question was cut off by a burning, tingling sensation building up within her nose. “ ACHOO! ” she sneezed, the sheer force of the sneeze causing Klaw and Dewey to jump back a little.

“P-pokemon can only l-learn four m-moves at a t-time.” Dewey began to explain. “S-so your m-moveset is Tackle, C-confusion, ThunderShock, and R-razor L-leaf.”

“In- achoo! -teresting” Hope said thickly as a small droplet of snot trickled down her face. That Razor Leaf attack seemed to give her some nasty congestion.

Klaw and Dewey dug through their packs, pulled out an Oran Berry each, and handed them to Hope. Hope immediately dug into them and could practically feel all of the snot going back up her nose and dissipating.

“Where did that trapinch come from, anyways?” Hope asked.

At this, Klaw and Dewey’s faces darkened. “L-look down.” Dewey said.

Hope shot the brothers an uneasy look, but she walked over to the edge of the rock and peered precariously over the edge. What she saw stunned her.

At the bottom of the ravine were several feral pokemon. They paced around the hard rock floor restlessly, occasionally snapping and snarling at their companions. At some spots on the ground, circles of pale purple light shone vividly. Sometimes, a feral pokemon would step onto one of these circles, after which the circle would transform into a column and lift the feral pokemon out of the ravine.

Strange red crystals were also dotted along the bottom of the ravine, located eerily closely to the circles of purple light. The red crystals gave off a strange aura, enticing yet deadly. For some reason, it reminded Hope of the aura that had surrounded Jupiter while she had been possessed by the strange cosmic ripple.

“That’s… strange.” was all Hope could say.

Klaw and Dewey also looked uneasy, but they quickly recovered, as did Hope. “Let’s keep on moving.” Hope said. And with that, the trio continued their trek through the mystery dungeon.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Look!” Hope cried out. “I think we’re almost at the end of the dungeon!”

The trio had been traversing through Power Pass for what seemed like an eternity. It had been a long and arduous trip, filled with many battles against feral pokemon and quite a few close calls where they almost fell off the rocks. But now they appeared to be near the end. The rocks were becoming more and more sparse, and appeared to be reforming back into another road just ahead of them.

“Looks like we only have one more jump to go!” Klaw remarked.

“D-do you guys w-want to do the j-jump at the same time?” Dewey asked, a rare glint of mischief sparkling in his eyes.

Klaw immediately gained the same glint of mischief in his eyes. “Why not?” he asked. “What do you say, Hope?”

Hope took a few seconds to think. While it might be dangerous, it would be pretty fun, and the gap to the road was much shorter than the gaps between the floating stones.

Hope grinned slyly. “On the count of three?”

Klaw and Dewey also grinned slyly before lowering their bodies to the ground. Hope did the same, and the three stared ahead at the road.

“T-three…” Dewey started.

“Two…” Klaw continued.

“One… GO!” Hope finished. As soon as the final word left her mouth, the trio leapt off of the rock. They practically soared through the air, feeling the cool late afternoon breeze on their skin.

The other side was fast approaching now. Hope was starting to get really excited. After they had made this jump, she and her friends could finally head to the Ironheart Guild and form a rescue team! They would be heroes!

Just as Hope, Klaw, and Dewey were about to land safely on the other side, however, two dark colored streaks zoomed down from the land beyond, on the same path as Klaw and Dewey.

THUD!

Klaw and Dewey crashed into the two dark streaks, sending all parties involved slamming down to the dusty floor. Hope was thankfully able to avoid this fate and landed on her paws. She skidded slightly before turning back around where her friends had “landed”.

“Klaw! Dewey! Are you two okay?” Hope called out in concern.

“We’re good!” Klaw responded. He and Dewey had shaken themselves rather easily and had jumped off of the things they had knocked over.

The things also began to stir and got onto their feet fairly quickly. Hope’s ears shot up in surprise.

The “things” that Klaw and Dewey had crashed into were pokemon. They looked almost identical to each other- they were both bipedal bear pokemon with long gray, black, and white fur covering the majority of their bodies, with the exception of their muzzles, which were covered in shorter, yellow fur. The only difference between the two, base appearance wise, was the direction in which their fur flowed. The one on the left had fur that flowed upwards and was very spiky on the top of its head, while the one on the right had fur that flowed downwards and was more flat on the top of its head.

The most surprising thing to Hope, though, was that these two pokemon were wearing clothes. Both pokemon wore karate uniforms, and the outfits were also nearly identical, with the only distinguishing feature between the two being their colors. The pokemon on the left wore a crimson karate uniform, while the pokemon on the right wore a navy blue karate uniform.

Feral pokemon didn’t wear clothes. That meant that neither of these two pokemon were feral, thank goodness. But who were they, what were they doing here, and what had caused them to crash into Klaw and Dewey?

The two bear pokemon were surveying Hope, Klaw, and Dewey with quizzical, slightly amused looks on their faces. After a while, the one on the left spoke. “Hey there, kids.” he said. His voice was deep and gruff, but it was also friendly. “What are you three doing out here in a place like this?”

“We could ask you the same question.” Hope responded coyly. She didn’t feel like she had anything to worry about bantering with these pokemon. She didn’t remember seeing any pokemon resembling them at the syndicate, and they seemed friendly enough.

Small smiles tugged at the edges of the bear pokemons’ muzzles at Hope’s comment, but they quickly disappeared as they glanced nervously behind them. “Never mind that.” the one on the right said. His voice was also deep, gruff, and friendly, but a quiver of nervousness was laced into it. “You kids gotta turn back now. There’s something terrifying up ahead. We don’t want you guys getting crushed by it.”

Hope’s tail bristled warily. They couldn’t turn back, because that would mean having to return to the syndicate. “Getting crushed by what?” she asked harshly.

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

A loud booming sound began to echo, and a deep red light began to shine over the group. Hope, Klaw, and Dewey whirled around to see an absolutely gigantic pokemon stomping towards them.

This pokemon had to be at least ninety feet tall. It was a centipede pokemon, dark magenta in color, similar to the light that was completely bathing it. Its segments had purple circular markings on them, long horns protruded from its head, and its eyes were a pure crimson. It stared down at the group with pure rage brimming in its eyes.

“That.” the bear pokemon wearing the red uniform said, its voice quivering slightly. “ That was what we didn’t want you three getting crushed by.”

“YOU COWARDS. ” the centipede pokemon spoke. Its oddly warped voice reverberated across the dungeon, loud enough to create cracks within the ground. “ I TOLD YOU TWO IT WOULD JUST BE EASIER TO GIVE UP AND LET ME CONSUME YOU. BUT YOU DIDN’T LISTEN. AT LEAST NOW I GET TO HAVE SOME QUICK SNACKS BEFORE YOU BECOME FUEL FOR THE GREAT ONES.”

The centipede pokemon looked down at Hope, Klaw, and Dewey while it was saying that last sentence. Klaw and Dewey’s eyes burned with anger.

“Oh yeah?” Hope said, lowering her body to the ground in an attack position. “Well you better be ready, because we won’t go down without a fight.”

The centipede pokemon laughed a harsh, horrible laugh that made the trio’s tails straighten out in shock. “WELL, I ALWAYS DID ENJOY PLAYING WITH MY FOOD.” it rumbled. Then, it let out a battle cry, and the fight was on.

The centipede pokemon leaned down and fired a stream of foul smelling purple liquid from its mouth. The liquid struck Hope straight in the chest, burning her like acid.

Hope yelped in pain, gritting her teeth to try and lessen the pain from the acid. As the pain dissipated, she glared at the centipede pokemon and focused strongly on it, attempting to use her Confusion attack. She didn’t know if she could lift it up in the air since it was absolutely gigantic, but it wouldn’t hurt to try.

A bright pink light exploded like a firework from the centipede pokemon’s body, and it let out a cry of pain. Good. It worked! Hope thought to herself, ignoring the slight throbbing feeling in her head brought upon by the use of the move.

Klaw and Dewey quickly followed up with attacks of their own. Klaw’s fangs glowed bright orange and became coated in flames, and he bit down on the air. Dewey, meanwhile, held out his hands and concentrated. Mud began to form in between his hands, which he then shot out at the centipede pokemon. Both attacks connected with the centipede pokemon. Explosions of orange and brown light erupted from its body and it let out an even louder cry of pain.

Still, the foe was not done just yet. Light green orbs of energy began to form around its body, and it fired them at Hope. They struck her head on, and she went flying.

Klaw and Dewey cried out to her, but their voices were muffled. Hope’s head was spinning, and her entire body was hurting. This pokemon was way too strong. Her eyes began to flutter shut, but before they could shut close, a voice cried out.

“Hey, kid! Don’t die on us, you hear me?”

Hope groggily looked up to see one of the bear twins (the one with the blue uniform) rustling through a backpack with a matching color. He pulled out a small yellow seed and ran over to Hope, before kneeling down and crushing it in his long-clawed hands.

The bright, herbaceous, slightly bitter smell of the seed was like magic. Hope had just barely taken a whiff of it when energy suddenly coursed through her body like a tsunami. She quickly got back onto her feet, and it felt like she hadn’t even been hit at all.

“You good, kid?” the bear pokemon asked.

“Never better!” Hope said brightly.

“Excellent!” Hope turned around to see the twin in the red uniform coming towards them, rubbing his hands together in excitement. “Are you ready to continue squashing that bug?”

The twin in the blue uniform got back to his feet and smiled cunningly while giving a thumbs up.

“Never felt more ready in my life!” Hope said. And with that, she bounded forward, the twins close on her heels.

Klaw and Dewey had been doing a good job of holding the centipede pokemon off while Hope was busy getting healed. Its chest was littered with tiny burns and mud stains, and it was breathing heavily. It let out a roar before firing dark tendrils of energy from its horns.

The twin in the red uniform leaped to intercept the attack. When the smoke cleared, small scuffs of dirt were present on the bear pokemon’s crimson uniform, but he was completely unhurt physically. A sly smile crossed his face as he inhaled, crossed his arms, and took a deep breath. He flexed his arms, and as he did so, a dark purple aura fired up around his body. He then leaped at the centipede pokemon and struck it incredibly hard with a single punch, causing the insect to howl in pain.

The twin in the blue uniform also inhaled, crossed his arms, and took a deep breath. He too flexed his arms, and an aura fired up around his body as well, but this aura was light blue. He then struck at the centipede pokemon with three precisely timed series of punches and kicks. Once again, the centipede pokemon was left reeling and panting for the pain.

“I think it’s almost down!” the twin in the red uniform called out.

“You three want to deal the final blow together?” the twin in the blue uniform asked.

Hope. Klaw, and Dewey smiled simultaneously. Then they turned back towards the centipede pokemon and attacked simultaneously. Hope launched herself forward with a Tackle, Klaw chomped down with fangs ablaze, and Dewey fired mud out of his palms like a grenade launcher. All three attacks connected with the centipede pokemon simultaneously, and it let out a final screech of pain as large explosions erupted from around its body and it started to… shrink?!

Hope watched in awe as the centipede pokemon slowly decreased in size, foot by foot. The red light surrounding it slowly disappeared as it became smaller and smaller.

Eventually, the centipede pokemon had returned to its normal size. It was still quite large, at about eight feet long, but that was much better than the almost hundred feet it had been before being defeated. It shakily stumbled around for a bit before regaining its balance and groggily blinking.

Hope, Klaw, Dewey, and the bear twins kept up their attack positions, not wanting to let their guards down in case the centipede pokemon decided to attack again. But the centipede pokemon didn’t attack. It simply opened its eyes (which were now yellow instead of crimson) and looked around in confusion.

“…What in the distortion world just happened?” it- he asked after a long period of silence. “Who are you guys?”

The group dropped their attack positions, but still maintained their wary expressions. This was giving Hope a major sense of deja vu.

“S-seriously, dude?” Dewey asked incredulously. “Y-you really d-don’t r-remember turning g-giant and literally t-threatening to e-eat us?!”

The centipede pokemon blinked slowly. “For the love of Rayquaza on a stick.” it huffed. “You sure you ain’t pullin’ one of my segments right now?”

The group dropped their wary expressions. “Ummm…. No?” Klaw said.

“Seriously, dude. You were literally chasing me and my brother halfway down the road screaming about our blood being ‘ripe for sacrificing’. And you also said you would turn these kids into snacks.” the bear twin in the red uniform said, crossing his arms together.

“Don’t call me dude .” the centipede pokemon snorted. “Call me Dionysus.”

“Okay, Dionysus.” Hope said coyly. “So why did you chase down those two and threaten to eat me and my friends.”

Dionysus looked at the ground abashedly. “…I wasn’t in control of myself when I said those things.” he mumbled after a period of silence.

Yet again, Hope was hit with a major wave of deja vu. And judging by the odd expressions on Klaw and Dewey’s faces, she wasn’t the only one with deja vu.

“Are you serious right now?!” the red-uniformed bear twin roared.

His blue uniformed brother stepped forward and placed a hand on the other’s shoulder. “Calm down, brother.” His voice was calm as he spoke, but his eyes, which were focusing on Dionysus, burned with distrust. “But you better tell us what you mean by that before I lose my temper as well.”

Dionysus shifted uneasily. “Well, you see, I’m a jeweler, and my cousin told me that he was going to propose to his girlfriend soon.”

“And that relates to this how exactly?” Hope asked. “I mean, congrats to your cousin and all that, but I don’t think that excuses you for threatening to eat us.”

Klaw, Dewey, and the bear twins snorted audibly at this sentence.

Dionysus glowered at Hope. “Damn. You’re one sassy kid.” he remarked. “This relates to the current situation because he wanted me to make his engagement band, and he specifically wanted an amethyst from this mystery dungeon to be placed in the center of the band.”

The red-uniformed twin had calmed down a bit now. “Yeah, I have heard stories of there being unusually high deposits of precious gems at the bottom of this dungeon’s ravine.” he said, scratching his head.

“Those aren’t just stories. I’ve gone down and collected some of those gems myself.” Dionysus smirked as he said this. “So I went down thinking that this was going to be a routine collection. But while I was down there, I noticed that these red crystals had suddenly sprouted out of nowhere.”

Hope’s ears shot up. “My friends and I actually saw those crystals while we were crossing the dungeon.” she said, her voice tense.

At Hope’s sentence, Dionysus relaxed visibly. “Good. You believe me.” he said, his tone a bit friendlier. “I’d never seen those crystals before today, but they looked absolutely gorgeous, and I wanted to see if I could get a better look at them. Maybe take one of them home and experiment with making a necklace out of it or something. So I went up to one of them and touched it…”

Dionysus stopped speaking and looked at the ground, his body trembling slightly.

“Go on. It’s OK.” the blue-uniformed bear twin prompted gently.

Dionysus narrowed his eyes, but he continued speaking. “As soon as I touched the crystal, it kind of… took over my body. I don’t really know how to explain it. I felt like a puppet, like my brain was tangled up in strings. I was kind of aware of seeing you all, but the things I said and chasing you down? That wasn’t me. I’m genuinely sorry about that.” Tiny tears were starting to leak out of his eyes.

Hope walked up to Dionysus and batted his chest lightly with her paw. “It’s fine. We understand.” she said kindly.

After all, this wasn’t the first time she had encountered a pokemon who had done terrible things without being in control of their own body. First Jupiter, now Dionysus… What is this force that is possessing all of these innocent pokemon? , she thought to herself.

Dionysus blinked, looked down at Hope, and smiled softly. “Thank you, kid.” he murmured softly. His eyes then slowly traveled upwards, where they met the sun, which was halfway through setting at this point. “Shit! I told my cousin I would be back before sunset!” he yelped, before looking down at the ground shamefully. “He’s gonna be so pissed with me when I tell him that I wasn’t able to get an amethyst for the band…”

“W-well, he’s not getting m-married after s-sunset, r-right? Y-you can go b-back t-tomorrow and get the a-amethyst then!” Dewey said perkily.

“Just tell him you kept having to fend off the ferals, alright?” Klaw chimed in.

Dionysus laughed heartily. “You’re good kids, you hear me?” he said, causing Klaw and Dewey to blush profusely. “Well, I’d best be going now.”

As Dionysus began to walk away, the twins opened their mouths, but Dionysus simply chuckled. “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me.” he said. “As long as I don’t touch those crystals I’ll be fine. It’s a shame, though. They really would have made for some beautiful jewelry.” He blinked quickly, shook his head, and then continued walking. “Farewell!” he called out.

“Bye!” the kids called out simultaneously as they watched Dionysus scuttle over the rocks (he was so long that he didn’t need to jump) and disappear over the horizon.

As soon as Dionysus’s long magenta body had disappeared, the bear twins turned to the kids and sighed audibly. “Well, that sure was something, wasn’t it?” the one with the blue uniform said.

“Gonna be real with you kids, you three are surprisingly strong.” the twin in the red uniform smirked. “We kinda freaked out at first ourselves. Me and my bro, we have bad history with pokemon going crazy like that. It’s a good thing you three are so brave and so strong! You were able to do a number on it before we even stepped in. So thank you…” The bear pokemon stopped before blushing profusely. “I just realized that this whole situation escalated so quickly, we never got to tell each other our names.” he said sheepishly.

“I’m Hope!” Hope said enthusiastically, before gesturing to her friends. “And these are Klaw and Dewey.”

Klaw and Dewey nodded politely.

“Nice to meet you, Hope, Klaw, and Dewey.” the red-uniformed twin said. “I’m Hei’an, and this is my twin brother Shui.”

Shui ruffled his head bashfully. “Now… what are you three kids doing out here alone? You’re the youngest pokemon I’ve ever seen crossing Power Pass alone. I mean… you are strong and all, but most younger pokemon come with their parents, if they have to come at all.” he said quietly.

Upon hearing the word parents , Klaw and Dewey’s eyes dilated, and they began to shake profusely. Hei’an and Shui quickly caught onto this, and their expressions became downtrodden.

Hope stepped forward. “Actually, we were on our way to the Ironheart Guild.” she explained. “We want to form a rescue team, and according to our map, we had to go through this dungeon to get there.”

Silence followed this. Then, suddenly, small smiles appeared on Hei’an and Shui’s faces, and they began to chortle.

“Do you think this is funny?” Klaw demanded.

“Y-yeah! J-just because we’re k-kids means we c-can’t form a r-rescue t-team?” Dewey chimed in.

Hei’an and Shui quickly stopped laughing. “Oh no! Not at all!” Hei’an said, his eyes (as well as those of his brother) filled with apology. “It’s just a strange coincidence. You see, Shui and I actually work and live in the town where the guild is located!”

Hope, Klaw, and Dewey’s eyes lit up so brightly at that sentence that one might have thought someone was hanging up holiday decorations around the mystery dungeon.

“Really?!” the three friends squealed simultaneously.

Shui grinned. “Do you three want to tag along with us on our way back? We’re going to the same place anyways.” he said.

“Of course!” Hope cheered. Klaw and Dewey nodded and babbled words of agreement.

“Then let’s get going, shall we?” Hei’an said warmly.

The three kids cheered once again. Hei’an and Shui smirked, turned around, and motioned for the kids to follow them. And so the group went off on the final leg of their long journey.

What the group didn’t realize, however, was that for the entirety of that final interaction, they were being watched.

From the edges of the mountain range, a pokemon stood, watching the quintet disappear into the sunset-kissed horizon.

The pokemon was quite a strange figure. It was a deer pokemon, with incredibly pale gray (almost white) fur, white legs and a white tail, and long golden antlers that almost looked like antennae. A large, fuzzy, white mane that resembled a beard hung from its oblong face, and around its neck was a strange necklace with a golden cross-like wheel ornament attached to it. The condition of the pokemon’s fur and hooves made it look young, but its eyes were stony and hardened, belying years and years worth of time spent on this planet.

It watched Hope bounce away cheerily, and it smiled.

“So the Chosen One is safe after all.” it mused to itself calmly. “My Lord will certainly be pleased with this news.”

And with that, it began to clamber down the mountain range, heading in the same direction that the quintet had just gone off to.