Dungeon 11 – Setting The Stage
by Navar“So that’s what happened?” the Zorua said, having just heard the story that detective Apollo had told him.
“Yes, they are the only survivors of that city… it’s a shame they suffered this way.” The Arcanine frowned, shuffling the papers.
“Even if they have suffered, it doesn’t justify what they are doing now,” Brian took a deep breath, lowering his ears, despite all that had happened to the crew, the boy was determined to stop them.
“In fact, but my hands… well… my paws are tied,” Apollo sighed, ears lowered. “But now that we’re working together, maybe we can arrest them.”
“I have another question; does anyone know why Genesect attacked that town?”
“He’s a Pokémon who likes to test himself, they say it was a way to improve his techniques.” Apollo looked elsewhere, pondering about the attack.
“Ok, I got it! Listen, I have to see if my brother has been discharged from the hospital, when can we see each other again?”
“Come here at the end of the day, we’ll plan right what we’ll do…”
Nodding, the boy then left the office. The story he heard was certainly tragic, and even if he could understand the suffering of the Crew, he had a job to do to prevent more families from being hurt. With a new objective, Brian went to the hospital where his brother was.
Lance was lying on the hospital bed, his body moved sharply, as if he was having a nightmare, his entire being as covered in heavy sweat, the liquid dripping on the bed that covered him.
Number ten… it seems that you have failed… you know what that means, don’t you? the voice said inside Lance’s mind. The boy saw himself in a dark room with an open door, and in the middle of the darkness, the Riolu could see two blood-red eyes staring at him, a wide grin showing up right after.
No… please! I’ll get it right next time! Let me go! gasping for air, the boy screamed in terror, trying to run towards the exit.
The door then closed, and Lance fell to the ground. He got up and began to claw at the wall, tears streaming from his eyes as laughter began to fill the room.
“LANCE! ARE YOU OKAY?!”
The team leader woke up from his nightmare with an unstable heartbeat and a dizzy head, seeing his brother in front of him. Panting, he sat on the hospital bed.
“This scene is becoming common… it’s already the second time in less than a week!” Brian was almost shouting, but the zorua’s eyebrows were arched, he looked worried.
“I realized this on my own, genius…” he took a deep breath,before standing up.
“I’m glad you’re okay Lance! The doctors said you got lucky…” Brian gulped. “I thought you were a goner…”
“Yeah, somehow I’m the luckiest mon here…” Lance rolled his eyes. “What did I miss while I was out?”
“I found an ally… he’s from the police, but I think we should go home first and rest. I arranged the meeting to be at night!”
The brothers left the hospital and made the normal way back to the apartment. This time, Lance didn’t say anything at all during their trip. Brian, despite not finding it strange, thought about asking what was in his mind, as the Riolu’s nightmares were happening more often, but decided to leave his friend alone at the moment.
“I’ll have to increase your rent… the property damage doesn’t pay itself.” the Weavile said, at first reading a newspaper, but stopping to look at them.
I… failed… it was a dream, but I failed… how am I still alive? Lance’s mind was full of thoughts, he ignored the manager and just went to his apartment.
As they entered, Brian jumped on top of the couch, stretching himself before laying down on the sofa. He was exhausted from walking all day looking for clues from the team targets. His brother, however, seemed even more stressed than before. Lance’s body was shaking and he seemed to be out of breath.
I can’t fail… no… no! NO! Get a grip, Lance! You can’t show weakness at all, if you do you will die!
“Hey, Lance?” noticing this, Zorua left the sofa, getting closer to his sibling.
“Get away from me!” He charged energy on his hand when the memories came back. This time, he couldn’t hold on.
Lance fell to the ground, crying desperately,screaming as he punched the ground. Looking at that, Brian rushed to his brother, widening his eyes.
“Hey! What?! Breathe Lance! You’re okay, we’re both okay!” trying to calm him down, Brian put his hands on Riolu’s shoulder.
“No, you don’t understand… you don’t understand anything! I can’t fail! In that place I was, if I failed, I couldn’t eat or drink for days! I… failed again.”
“I understand that, but breathe! You will not die here! Look, you got hurt and I am to be blamed for it, I was hasty and…
“You! It’s true…” Lance gritted his teeth. “It was your fault! It was your idea to pretend to be Dad and I failed because of you!” he then closed his fist, punching the Zorua.
Brian fell to the ground, rubbing his hand on his snout, where he was hit. Spitting, the boy faced his brother, breathing heavily.
“I said I took the blame, but that doesn’t mean you can punch me out of nowhere!”
“Shut up… SHUT UP! I have everything planned, from the beginning to the end of our day, and you’re just messing everything up!” Lance stood up, barely, and stepped on the ground with all his might, body shaking.
“We are living beings! Nobody is a machine without feelings waiting for you to order them to do something!”
“But I can’t… fail…” the boy once again fell to his knees, crying loudly.
“Everybody fails! Even Dad and Uncle Shiron have failed several times! Everything will be fine! Breathe! Please, Lance, I want to help you!” His voice sounded shaky, even though he was trying to sound calm, it was obvious that he couldn’t stay that way.
The Riolu inhaled, counting a few seconds, and held his breath, counting up to seven. Then he expired slowly, counting up to eight. The boy repeated the movement several times until he finally calmed down. Lance moved away, lying on the sofa and looking at the ceiling.
“Hey, listen here… I know you don’t like to talk about that period of our childhood, but… if you need me I’m here. We’re partners and I’m your brother, I care about you.”
Brian put his paw on Lance’s shoulder, looking at his sibling in the eye. That worked, as Lance nodded to him.
“So… who do we need to meet? ” Lance asked the Zorua, still panting.
“A police detective who is investigating the mercenaries… ah, yes, there are three of them. Known as the Heart of Steel Crew, they are native of a town called Oreshard.”
“I heard about it, it was destroyed, nobody survived… or that’s what I read, apparently three Pokémon did.”
“It was… well, we still have time until night, I’ll order our lunch.”
“Lasagna…” he said, covering his eyes with his hand.
“Then it will be lasagna!” Brian forced a smile, turning on the wired phone their house had.
After lunch, the two of them were sitting on the couch,planning their next step. Lance kept his eyes closed, focused. In his mind he listed which places he should go, considering the police station first.
“We can go to a store I came to when we got here, I… I think we can buy useful things for the next dungeons we go to.” Brian said, remembering the Watchog from before.
Lance opened his eyes, gaze shifted to his brother. “Is that the place where you bought the item for me to evolve? Well, if they have more stuff than the Kecleon…”
“They have! It’s full of items!”
“So let’s go now.” the boy left the couch.
With their backpacks on, Brian having special attachments, the team left their home, heading towards Watchog’s market. The day seemed quiet, despite having been witness to an attack the night before. Many Pokémon could still be seen walking quietly through the streets, while some of them were entering stores. The sky was clear, with few clouds. Despite the sense of uneasiness, the day was calm.
“This place is very different from home… do you miss it?” The Zorua asked while walking, a faint smile on his face.
Lance thought for a moment and stopped walking. Despite some bad memories, he liked his village and the friends he made during the guild training.
“I… I think so, but I believe that getting out of there was a decision I needed to make.” hesitating, Riolu began to move his legs again.
The market they wanted to go to was getting closer and closer and at the door, the Watchog seemed to hand out flyers to some Pokémon passing by.
“What is it, sir?” the dark type asked as he approached, analyzing the paper.
“Hm? Ah! It’s the Zorua from before! You’re an explorer, right? I have to advertise my business, boy!” Laughing, Watchog delivered one of the papers to Brian.
“We are not here to see flyers. We want to see the items in stock.” Lance got closer, crossing the arms.
“Do you know him Zorua?” The salesman went to look at Lance from top to bottom, seeing that he had already entered the store.
“My brother, that’s how he is… we came to look for some supplies for our next missions.” Disappointed, the Zorua lowered his ears.
“Okay, when you’re done, let me know, I’ll be distributing more papers here…” the Pokémon turned back to the street, extending his arm with the pamphlets.
Nodding, Brian entered the scene. When he arrived, he saw his brother analyzing the counter, seeing the products available. He was standing with his tail wagging slowly, looking at the seeds.
“See? I said it was a good idea to come here!” Brian said as he approached, smiling and wagging his tail, energetic.
“Well, you were right, brother.” Lance turned his face to look at Zorua.
“Look, you were a little rude to the salesman, so I would be careful. He might raise the prices just because of that… ” the boy then turned to face where Riolu was looking. “What are you looking for?”
“These seeds can be very useful if used correctly… they help a lot in dungeons.”
“Hm, that’s true…” Brian then saw some something shining on another bench, heading there.
The products in question were a bunch of blue spheres, which seemed to be made of glass and were on top of pillows, also having an adhesive indicating the name on the counter. The Zorua stopped to think about what to do.
My moves are Pursuit, Copycat, Fury Swipes, and Shadow Ball. They are good moves, but with these spheres I could… the inspiration seemed to hit the fox Pokémon like the tail of a Salamence. Smiling, he took some.
“You may enter! The store is open, I’m just divulging,” Watchog’s voice on the other side could be heard by the boys.
“Thanks a lot…” the Pokémon answered, coming in. His body was tall, and his skin looked like armor.
The new client was looking at the items in another area when he noticed the brothers. Beating his tail on the ground, he narrowed his eyes. The Aggron had recognized his targets from the last mission.
Calm down Atlas, they shouldn’t even know who I am… And I can’t finish them here, it’ll draw attention… thinking about what to do, he decided to pretend he was looking for something to buy.
“Ok Lance, I’ve decided! And you?” Brian said, storing the items at his open bag at the same time.
“You will fill our backpack with Orbs… but that’s ok, they can be very useful, come on…” the boy left, followed by his brother.
Passing by the mercenary, the teenagers went on their way, until they reached the seller, who smiled, seeing that they had bought many things.
“The total will be of… 3000 coins,” he spoke excitedly, waiting to be paid.
“You’re lucky that money is not a problem for us.” Lance said, opening his own backpack, handing the money to the other Pokémon. The Riolu, then, walked to the exit without saying a word, next to his brother.
Once outside, they noticed that it was already getting dark. The appointed time had arrived. Instead of going towards their home, they went in the opposite direction, going to the police station. In the sky, the Sun was beginning to disappear to indicate that night was approaching.
Detective Apollo was in his office, drinking tea and looking at some papers when he heard someone knocking on his door. Sighing, he wondered if it was that Zorua from earlier. A quick sniff on the air confirmed his suspicions.
“Boys, come in!” he looked at the door and screamed to the Pokémon outside.
The small explorers went into the room. Noticing the new Pokémon, the Arcanine saw the scar on Lance’s body. For a moment, the policeman thought of asking but thought it better to bite his tongue and instead talk about the subject that they had agreed upon.
“So, you’re the one investigating the mercenaries? My name is Lance.” He crossed his arms, sitting on one of the office chairs.
“Yes, I’m Apollo! I see that your brother told you the news.” The dog put the envelopes on the table.
“Well, I said there were three criminals, I just didn’t say their species… ” commenting, Brian sat down too.
“Hm, an Aggron and a Bisharp…” the team leader said, turning the pages of the document.
“Well, what do you suggest we do? We need a direct confession or we won’t be able to arrest them…” Apollo took a sip of tea.
“The idea is very simple, we will…” the Riolu then got interrupted.
“Get their confession out personally.” Brian finished the sentence his brother started while looking at the big orange dog.
“Didn’t I say it would be risky? What are you thinking?” The detective said, bowing his eyebrow. He expected an answer.
“As I said, it is simple. Brian and I will split up. I will question the Swalot.”
“I’m a Dark-type, I’d better take the Alakazam…”
“If we can take main support out of this trio, it will be easier…” the dog scratched his chin. “Okay, I understand your idea, but let’s get one thing straight. I can’t support you guys too much, so the most I can do is help record the conversation…”
“When will we execute this plan?” Lance asked, still looking at the documents.
“Give me two days to prepare and we’ll start…” the canid consented with his head. He raised his paw to the duo and Brian greeted the cop with his own.
With the evening, the city of Bright Dawn seemed to fall asleep a little. However, in one of the local bars was the Aggron known as Atlas. He sat at a table and was eating a pie and next to him were his teammates and childhood friends, Flint and Napoleon.
“Those kids haven’t given up on us yet… you worthless Pokémon! You were supposed to kill them when you had the chance!” The reptile shoved another piece of pie on his mouth, looking at the penguin.
“Well, it’s the mayor’s fault for not offering more money…” the Empoleon shrugged
“This petty attitude of yours will end up killing us and you know it… even so, I don’t think they will be a problem, we could just consider an ambush.” The Bisharp pondereded, nudging the table with his sword in his arm.
“I can help.” the three mercenaries heard a voice from behind them, and turned in the direction of it.
Near them was a multi-colored Pokémon, with two cyan eyes on its torso, and a third one in its head , which shared the same color. Its body floated in the air and had several appendages floating around. The Sigyliph continued to talk, even without any sound coming out of his mouth.
“Tell me something… do you need help on this particular job?” the psychic Pokémon floated while asking them.
“What are you doing here? You don’t even drink!” Atlas said, biting another piece of the pie he had been eating.
“Well, you seem to be in an unpleasant situation and I thought I’d give a friendly shoulder…”
“It is a good idea.” Flint decided to talk. “If he goes after the kids, they won’t know it had anything to do with us and will stay out of our glue, at least for now.”
Stopping to consider this, the gang leader sighed and decided to agree. At best, they wouldn’t have to deal with the explorers, and at worst, they would have more time to plan how they were going to finish them. The next day was going to be difficult for everyone involved.
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