Chapter 3 – Friction

Mt. Bristle

Status: Normal (Active)

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Floor 1

The three enter the dungeon together with a crash, not at all expecting the slight drop. Mudkip, sitting a bit off to the side, glares at the one responsible for them being there in the first place. Kai looks back, gaping at the fact that the murky entranceway is no longer there.

The deino, not noticing and not at all caring about either issue, quickly wriggles herself out from under Kai and jumps to her feet, accidentally landing on one of Kai’s back paws. He jumps up too with a small yelp, catching a small smirk on Myzi’s face at the noise. He frowns, eyes narrowed.

Regardless, he tries to ask about the issue he cared about, “Um… what happened to-“

Myzi gives him no leeway, “-So! Now that we’re in the dungeon… Mudkip and Kai will take the lead, while Sumac and I… […], I can barely sense anything in this place – Sumac and I will stay in the back, watch out for ferals that way. Just wanna see how well you two work together n’ stuff. …ugh…”

“I-uhm-…” The mudkip stutters, gaze directed towards Myzi but twitching in Kai’s direction on occasion. He flinches when he catches the quilava looking at him. “I d-don’t think this… uhm…”

With the mudkip struggling on his own words, the deino starts to slump, “Stop trying to… argue, Mudkip. We’re already here, might as… might as well go through with it. …”

Mudkip opens his mouth to say something again, but closes it after a moment. Sumac talks in his stead, “…Myzi? You good?”

“Something about this place… isn’t making me feel too great. Headache. Very fuzzy and bright around me. Dunno.”

The ‘I told you so’ echoes around in Kai’s head as if someone’d said it, but the group stands (and sits) in silence. Sumac winces.

“Don’t have the fuzzy thing you’re talking about, but my head’s throbbing a little as well.” She looks over to Kai and Mudkip, “You two?”

Kai shrugs, looking back at where the dungeon entrance should be, still in a light state of confusion, while Mudkip shakes his head. Sumac perks up, “Someone mentioned something about side-effects in dungeons a while ago, I think. Headaches make sense…?”

Myzi, lifting her head up, gives a sly smirk. “You were always the nerd of the group. Sumac.”

“Wai-“

“This is gonna… take some fuckin’ gettin’ used to… This works out just fine then. Kai and Mudkip, you… guys lead. If the dungeon’s weird shit makes me collapse, Sumac can call for ya. Got it?”

“W-“

“Don’t care. Gonna space out now, will be fine in a decent while, I think.”

Her head slumps down again, smirk still present, and she whispers something only Sumac manages to hear. The goomy nods slowly, small yet nervous smile forming.

Kai looks over to Mudkip, only to see the dungeon’s gray-tan walls instead. He does catch the mudkip from the corner of his eye in one of the room’s paths after a few moments. Above him, the walls go up around thirty feet, until there’s… nothing.

Kai wonders if he can climb up there, maybe get a vantage-

“Kai? You just stalling, or…?”

The quilava directs his head to the goomy, flinching in surprise. He flicks his gaze to Mudkip, who by this point has sat down.

“N-no… was just… looking at the dungeon. I guess?”

“Looking at the… dungeon.” She does so herself. “Hm. Guess that’s fair. Wouldn’t ya rather get this over with, though?”

“I mean, yeah…” He points at the sky, “Shouldn’t we be able to climb up there, up the walls?”

She tilts her head. “…Probably. The effort’s not really worth it at this point, but like… I guess that’s an option? Just… admire the dungeon and think about that stuff later.”

“Okay…”

With a brief glance back, the mudkip gets up and walks down the path, Kai dashing to catch up. Sumac and Myzi catch up together themselves, Sumac whispering to the deino the whole way. Kai finds it odd, but doesn’t make a comment on it.

The group walks around the floor for a while, not really finding anything of note, foe or otherwise. Other than some random rocks lying around, there isn’t much of anything to see other than the same walls they’d been seeing since they entered the dungeon.

Fortunately and unfortunately, that lack of anything interesting lasts for the rest of the floor. Their quiet wandering comes to a pause as they enter what Sumac blandly identifies as the ‘transition room’. Very similar to the first room, but the portal Kai expected is actually there now.

All he can do is go along with it. As the other three go in, he follows behind mindlessly.

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Floor 2

The dungeon spits them out again, though Kai lands with more grace this time. Myzi, still affected by the dungeon’s influence, doesn’t manage the same. She pops up quickly, but slumps back down after a second. She mumbles something to Sumac as Mudkip takes the lead again, Kai following behind without haste.

This floor is largely the same for the group, minus a few standout oddities. One of the rooms isn’t as square as the rest of the dungeon, having what seems like little dug-in dens. Nothing’s in them, though the group does find some squarish seeds. They don’t pick any of them up, though Kai did find it odd that the seeds were in a more mountainous dungeon in the first place.

He doesn’t really feel like breaking the silence to ask.

Another thing of note he noticed was the so-called ‘pitfalls’ littering the dungeon floor. Not big enough to be a concern, but big enough to be a tripping hazard at least. With a pause, he checks to see how deep one is.

His eyes narrow as, despite the natural light seeping through, he can’t see the bottom.

Nothing yet pops up to antagonize them though, so they move onto the next floor.

---

Floor 3

Myzi only stumbles this time before they continue.

Mudkip’s pace increases from the previous floor, the deino struggling to keep herself from falling behind. Kai catches a glimpse of Sumac glaring at the mudkip.

More holes, bigger holes, still not a concern for the group. As they turn a corner, however, they come across their first – a living creature besides themselves.

Kai recoils in shock as Mudkip shoots a water-like bullet at the thing, forcing it to the wall and knocking it out almost immediately.

‘Guess it wasn’t a concern after all…?’

“W-wha…?” Kai stutters out, staring at the mudkip in awe.

Sumac coughs, directing his attention to her.

“Uh, he used water gun. Sure, it’s powerful, but… Have you- ahhh, nevermind. Just… I dunno. That’s a thing here, I guess…?”

Kai squints. “Uhm… Can I ask for… more?”

Sumac frowns. “Something something I’m not the right person to ask, just accept that as a thing, yadda yadda… Learn as you go. That’s all the advice I’ve got for ya at this point.”

“…Do I have powers like that?”

She clicks her tongue, “Mhm. Pretty sure your species is a fire-type, so you’d have moves in that general area.”

“Hum-… Quilava is a fire-type?”

“Look, just… I don’t know that much, dude. Just making educated guesses. If you want you could try bringing it out, but I wouldn’t have any advice for ya in that area. At this point we’re almost halfway through anyways, and I’m already kinda raring to leave this place. Shouldn’t be-“

The deino underneath growls lowly, startling Sumac. “Chickening out already, ay?”

“N-no! Just want to-“

Myzi lifts her head up, smiling. “Eh, whatever. I’m feeling better now, so we can do this ‘observation’ stuff properly.”

She tells Sumac to identify the creature downed by Mudkip. The goomy does so with a whisper.

“Starly? Shoulda let Kai take care of that one.”

Mudkip frowns, and so does Sumac. Kai catches her whisper this time, coming out more as a hiss, “You know I didn’t want to come here either, right?”

“Dammit, don’t spoil this for me, Summi. …-“

Sumac interrupts her, but Kai doesn’t manage to catch any of the rest of their hissing match.

Instead, he directs his attention to the now-downed creature. He picks his brain for any form of anatomical knowledge, managing to scrounge up that its mouth is a ‘beak’, its clawed feet are ‘talons’, and its arms are ‘wings’.

He turns away as the duo’s argument comes to an end, neither side looking happy. Mudkip, impatient, begins his walk again, and the rest of the group follows quickly after.

His attention sticks to the mudkip, walking up to him.

“Hey, uh-”

Mudkip startles, turning around, but takes a deep breath, nodding after a moment.

“…How do you use your ‘water gun’ like you do?”

His eyes dilate, directing themselves around the room with haste.

“U-uhm… I d-don’t know…?”

‘God, I feel like a five-year-old asking questions like these…’

“N-nevermind. Let’s just keep going.”

“O-okay…”

They look away from one another, heads down. Kai frowns as they continue their walk.

‘Pretty sure Myzi’s trying to set me up with Mudkip, but like… I don’t really know how well that’d work if this is how we talk.’

He picks his head back up. ‘…Well, not like that’s my main concern right now.’

He shakes himself, sending a half-hearted glare back at the deino before continuing.

---

Floor 4

They enter the next floor with a bang. Literally – Mudkip firing another of his ‘water bullets’ to take down another creature.

Kai just stares.

The creature he’d taken down was probably about two times as big as the ‘starly’ creature, seemingly two creatures merged into one. Both heads have beaks though, so he assumes there’s quite a bit of variation between species. He looks back at Myzi, who is not paying it any attention.  

“Next one let Kai take care of. Got that Mudkip?”

He doesn’t respond, starting his jaunt away again. Myzi jumps forward, biting onto his tail and forcing out a yelp.

“Nah, you ain’t leadin’ anymore. Leader encounters shit first, so Kai’s the leader.” She lets go of his tail. “Got it?”

The mudkip grunts, tears in his eyes. His expression darkens when he catches Kai staring, looking down and shifting to the side. A moment of silence passes as the group waits for Kai to take the lead.

He does so with a nervous stumble.

As he starts, he travels a bit slower than the mudkip did, if only to be cautious. That caution is warranted as, immediately when entering the next room, he pretty much runs into one of them.

He jumps nearly a foot back in shock, which was apparently just enough to dodge the stabbing attack the thing had apparently tried aiming at him.

He lands with as much grace as he can manage, directing his attention back to the creature. All he can really pick up is that it’s purple, half his size, and it has a horn.

As he waits for it to make a move, it… takes its attention off him completely, turning to the rest of the group with a growl.

Remembering back to the last few seconds, he didn’t think it ever really directly looked at him, just where he’d attacked it.

‘…Does it just not think I’m a threat?’

As it gets into an attacking position, he cautiously walks behind it, before trying to unbalance it by grabbing and pulling at its back legs. It looks back with a squeak of panic, but after tilting its head in apparent confusion it wrenches itself out of Kai’s grip, turning back to the group with yet another growl.

‘…Does it straight up not even see me?’

He repeats what he did again with similar results.

‘Uhhhhhh.’

It then charges in to attack the mudkip, kicking dirt in Kai’s eyes. He startles back in surprise, but quickly shakes himself off as its attack hits home.

As Mudkip lets out a whimper while it withdraws, Myzi yells, “KAI! What the hell are you doing!? You’re supposed to fight it, not… I don’t even know what you’re doing right now.”

‘Did Mudkip or Sumac see what I’m seeing?’

“I- I don’t… How am I supposed to attack this thing? I don’t even know what it is…” He gets out.

Sumac quickly supplies Myzi, and the deino announces in kind, “Nidoran. Poison-…fuck. Mudkip, take it out.”

But the mudkip only shakes his head, holding the spot he’d been hit with more tears. The ‘nidoran’ keeps growling, almost in rebellion.

“Damn it…”

Myzi growls right back, stepping in front of Mudkip. Sumac jumps off her back, landing next to him.

With a snarl, Myzi starts her charge, the nidoran squeaking into action not a moment later.

But, at the last second, she veers off her charging path, causing the nidoran’s horn to hit nothing but air, and her back leg to ram right into its side.

The nidoran veers off to the side, only to get stomped into the wall. It’s out cold within seconds.

She doesn’t hesitate in going back to Mudkip, turning her attention to the goomy beside him. “Is he poisoned?”

“N-no… I don’t think so…”

“Good. …”

She turns around, frowning. As Kai inches back to the group, she doesn’t make a move.

“…I think I overestimated you guys, honestly.”

Mudkip flinches violently, Sumac wilts, and Kai just tilts his head.

Sumac speaks up, “W-what do you mea-“

She turns back to them with a manic grin, “Guess that means we’ve got some fuckin’ work to do!”

“Where’s Kai, anyways? I want to ask him ‘bout something.”

Sumac cringes. “Behind you.”

“Thanks, Summi.”

She flips around, grin still present. “Kai! You there?”

He nods, “Mhm.” He sees Sumac give him a look of pity.

“Great! Now, I’ve got a question for you. How did the nidoran get past you? You are the leader, so it’s supposed to go after you, right?”

“Um, yeah? It kinda just… gave up after I accidentally dodged its attack.”

She sits down, leaning back. “Oh? How so?”

“It just… It attacked where I was a moment before, then turned to you guys. I don’t think it ever actually looked at me, despite the fact that I pretty much walked into it.”

“That’s… wait.” She leans forward in interest. “Recount what happened to me. Full story. Leave nothing out, I’ll tell you when to stop.”

“Okaaay… Uh, I walked through the hallway. The nidoran was turning the corner, and I pretty much walked into it. I hopped away in surprise and it attacked where I was like half a second later. Never really looked at me. When it stopped attacking me, it turned to you guys. Kinda confused me, so I walked up to it to see if I could get a reaction. Even pulled on its legs a bit. It acted like I wasn’t even there. Then, it charged at Mudkip and kicked dirt in-“

“Stop. Okay, so that’s… scary, actually. You sure you aren’t embellishing on that second half?”

Kai looks over Myzi, catching Sumac’s eye. “Did you see what happened at all?”

“No-“

Sumac clears her throat, catching the deino, “A little…? Mudkip probably saw more than me, though I did see you behind it when it squeaked and turned around like it did. Thought it was gonna attack you, then it turned around and charged Mudkip instead.”

Kai nods. “Yeah.”

Myzi just sits there, expression giving nothing away. Then, after a moment, she stamps a foot down.

“I am no longer disappointed with the results of this expedition. Don’t know what this means necessarily, but I’m interested in seeing how this works.”

Sumac tilts her head, confused.

Myzi turns back to face her, “Kai’s staying leader. I’m taking second lead though. Have a pretty good idea of Mudkip’s capabilities already, and we can work on ‘teamwork’ shit later. That alright with you two?”

“Wai-“

She immediately turns to Kai, slight growl in her words, “I do not care how little you know about fighting. And honestly, I’ve come to expect that you know next to nothing about it based on what you’ve already said.”

Kai frowns.

“However, I do want to test if what you said about your so-called ability is true. I’m sure a lot of others’ll be interested too later, but for now I just want to test it. So! You’re leader. If you lied to me and ferals go after you anyways, guess that’s your fault for lying to me. Got it?”

“It still tried to atta-“

“Be more careful of your surroundings then. Go slower, if you want. Be careful around corners or whatever – I don’t care. I haven’t really seen how well you can take hits anyways, though I’ll assume not too well considering your lack of experience. We’ll never know until we give it a try, though. Who knows – maybe that could be a cool little team strategy you and Mudkip work on – you stand as his body shield as he fires all of his hard-hitters! Ooh, I’m already excited~“

Sumac pipes in, doubtful. “Why are you so hyped up on pairing these two together, anyways?”

Myzi smirks. “Tell ya when we get back.”

“…”

“Either way, we’ve got two more floors to clear – technically three, counting this one. Y’all wanted to get out of here anyways, so I’m cool picking up the pace.”

“But-“

“That is, if Kai chooses to go quicker.”

The group goes silent.

Mudkip shakily rises to his feet as Kai just stares at the deino.

‘…Well. I’m starting to hate this… if I didn’t already.’

Sighing in contempt, he takes the lead again at a pace a bit slower than the group might like, though Mudkip struggling in the back keeps him from going too fast. Hiss-whispering between Sumac and Myzi picks up in volume as they argue.

Kai catches Myzi looking down guiltily.

The pace speeds up after making it through a room or two though, and soon enough through to the next floor.

---

Floor 5

“Hooh…” Myzi breathes. “Two more floors, then we’re done.”

She faces Mudkip, “Kinda feel bad getting pissy like that, but I’ll save apologies for when we get outta here. You guys all good to go?”

Nobody says anything.

She sighs, kicking at the ground, and turns to where she’d heard Kai land.

“Gonna talk a few things over with Sumac, if there’s a feral just tell me and I’ll get it. I’ll leave you guys alone for the day after this unless I’m told to do otherwise… yeah. …Still want to test your little ability Kai, but we can do that on the last floor, and only against 1 or 2 ‘mons. That alright with you?”

‘…?’

“…I guess.”

“Cool. Cool…”

She hangs back, collecting Sumac as Kai and Mudkip rise to their feet.

“Actually, I’ll just take the lead for now. Y’all can just chill behind me. You guys… good with that?”

“Uh…” Kai shares a look with Mudkip, “…Sure.”

“Alright. You guys ready to go?”

“Mhm.”

She nods, turning and slowly walking ahead, Mudkip following behind and Kai taking the rear.

‘…’

Kai stares at his paws, frowning.

‘…Should I be mad at her?’

He looks back up, eyes meeting with Sumac’s. She gives him a small smile before turning back around.

‘Well, I’ll definitely blame her for this, if anything. Other than that though… I guess this kiiiiinda works as an upfront introduction to this place…? At least there’s some benefit. Considering how bad Mudkip looked when he got hit like that though… Miiiight’ve been a bit much, but nothing’s really happened to me yet, so.’

He kicks a pebble into one of the dungeon’s pit-holes.

‘Lotta stuff to ask Zoo when we get back. Or when I’m in the mood.’

He bites his lip as they advance to the next floor.

---

Floor 6

“…So uh… Kai.”

He startles out of his own thoughts. Myzi shuffles a few feet back anxiously.

“You ready to… take the front? …If you want-“

“Sure.” Kai shrugs.

“I’ll… probably mention this later, but uhh… yeah. Regardless of results, I will admit that I was a bit hasty in bringing all of you out here. Especially you, Kai. You sure-“

The quilava shakes her response off, “S’ fine. We’re almost done here anyways so like… I dunno. Gave me more to process, I guess.”

‘Surprised how fast she switched. Looking to be far more reasonable than I thought she was, at least.’

“Alright. Sooo. You all ready to go?” Myzi draws out.

The group lets out their sounds of confirmation, and Kai takes the lead again.

Myzi quickly takes her spot behind him, almost ramming right into him before roughly reigning herself back.

She lets out a quiet sigh of relief.

“Sooooo… do you have any questions you want to ask me…?”

Kai stops to stare at her. She gives him an innocent smile back.

He turns back, continuing the walk. “…Not really. Brain’s kinda fried as is. There’re probably better methods to learn stuff anyways, I’ll just investigate a bit when I feel like it.”

“…Sorry for-“

“-It’s fine.”

“-…”

They continue on in silence. And, despite the disappointment on Myzi’s face when they find the exit before encountering any other foes, she says nothing as they step out of the dungeon.