Dungeon 22 – Team Rebirth

Lance could barely react to the transformation; when the Mawile opened her mouth, releasing a gust of pink wind. The Lucario gasped and moved away to avoid being hit. Despite all that, he kept his gaze on the female.

The explorer kept a frown and looked at the Lycanroc. “W-What is this monstrosity?! Just… What did you do to her?!”

The Mega Mawile roared, and moved her two large mouths to attack; she got hit by a ball of pulsating water, yet the Pokémon barely moved, her eyes had a piercing glare as she looked in the direction of the attack.

The Snorunt screamed to her companion. “Lance, I don’t think we have time for this!” Meggie was charging another Water Pulse, when the Mega Mawile ran after her, and both got away from Lance and the Lycanroc.

“Guess that lady is correct!” the Midnight Lycanroc laughed, jumping with his claws enveloped in blue, draconic energy.

“Y-You…” Lance held his paws together and created an Aura Sphere to hold off the attack.

The Fighting-type grunted, but eventually was able to push his enemy away. After that, he panted.

“Haha! Lucario, this is gonna be fun!” the Lycanroc licked his lips, darting; or rather, running in all fours, towards Lance.

---

Meggie ran away from the exit, her opponent right behind, shooting more of the fairy wind. Thanks to her small stature, the Snorunt was able to dodge most of the attacks, and was now hiding behind a tree.

Y-Yes! I escaped, now if only she stopped attacking…

She sighed, and took a peek around: no signs of the Mawile. Now thinking it was safe to come out, Meggie left.

The first thing that she noticed was something rough and rocky crashing against her in the blink of an eye, launching Meggie upward, and the second one was a stream of flames covering her body; both of the effective attacks causing the Snorunt to scream as she felt her body ache and crack, falling to the ground.

Alongside her were the orange Lycanroc, who just finished using his Accelerock move, alongside the Mega Mawile, smoke leaving her mouth.

“Well done, Amy. Flamethrower was a good choice of move,” the wolf nodded, looking at the Snorunt on the floor.

He jumped, tail glowing in a silver, metallic tone, and prepared to strike Meggie, when his tail got hit by a fast and precise kick, throwing the Lycanroc against a tree.

“Hope ya don’t mind the help, darling!”

A Lopunny arrived to stop the move, landing on the floor with grace. The bunny wore a purse with a rescue team badge on it, strapped around her shoulder. The Mawile stopped, as if she was waiting for orders to attack.

“What a weird one…” the bunny took out one seed, and carefully inserted it into Meggie’s mouth.

The Snorunt gasped awake as she ate the seed, eyes darting around. Meggie stared at the Lopunny and backed away, panting.

“Hey, hey lady! I’m here to help ya!” the bunny showed her badge, and Meggie stopped running, getting up.

“W-Who are you?!” The Snorunt said.

“Lilith, and like I said, gonna help ya take down those thugs!”

---

Lance dodged every move the Lycanroc was trying to hit. The Lucario’s eyes glowed blue and he analyzed the aura his enemy was radiating. He growled, preparing another sphere.

“Hahaha! If you keep dodgin’, I’m gonna be mad, Lucario! At least let me hit one Dual Chop!” the wolf smirked, his hands glowing in draconic energy once more.

“Shut your mouth…” Lance ran, launching the attack.

Somehow, the move did not hit, instead, it seemed to be going further away, which made Lance back away in shock; on the other hand, the wolf rushed towards his opponent to hit him with the Dual Chop.

However, the previous Aura Sphere returned, hitting the canine on his back, cancelling his move and making him fall to the ground head first.

“…Pathetic,” Lance said, approaching his enemy with a smirk; his plan had worked wonders. “My aura training wasn’t for nothing.”

“Y-You piece of shit!” the Lycanroc lifted his head, only to see the Lucario’s paw in front of him, glowing with a metallic hue.

“If you don’t want to be hit by a point-blank Flash Canon, I suggest you answer my questions, Lycanroc. No… Lunick, correct?”

“H-Hey! Hey! It’s alright! I’ll answer you!”

---

Inside the park, Lilith’s feet glowed red, and she tried to kick the Lycanroc, but before the attack could land, the wolf collided against Lilith, launching her across the floor.

On the other side, Meggie threw herself, curving like a ball, to hit the Mawile; only for her to be hit by yet another Fairy Wind.

“A-Argh! Why is this so difficult?!” Meggie screamed in pain as she was sent to the ground.

She got up, checking her surroundings. Full of trees. Despite the failure of using Rollout before, the Snorunt smirked, having thought of a plan.

“Let’s do this…” Meggie took a deep breath, rolling once again. This time, however, she charged another Water Pulse.

The combined attack was a water spin, hitting the Mawile and making her scream in pain. After the move, Meggie landed on the ground, panting. Even with that effort, the Mawile was still conscious, and if her expression was any indication, very angry, to the point of growling.

“It worked,” she said, looking at her opponent’s body, wet by the previous move.

The Mawile charged against Meggie, trying to hit her, a giant and white ball of metallic energy had formed around the Mawile’s face.

If I’m gonna do it, it’s gotta be now! Meggie released a stream of cold wind, shutting her eyes; she could only hope for the best.

After a few moments, Meggie opened her eyes, seeing the result of her attack: the Mawile’s body was half-frozen, meaning that Meggie’s opponent could barely move. The Snorunt took a deep breath and crashed, using the Rollout attack again, making the Mawile scream in pain as she got hit, knocking her out.

“I-I did it?! I did it!” Meggie cheered, but her moment of happiness was cut short, as she heard snarling, turning around.

Behind the Snorunt was her other adversary, the Dusk Lycanroc. She backed away, fear beginning to set itself inside her body.

“O-Oh no, I’m not a fighter, why did I agree to this?! I just wanna go home!”

“D-Don’t give up!” Lilith woke up, firing a thunderbolt at the wolf, who yelped, feeling the electricity crackle inside his body.

“Not give up… You’re right! I need to find my answer!” Meggie screamed, her will to battle returning.

“You will be dead before any of that happens!” The wolf barked and ran towards Meggie, his body glowing to indicate the Accelerock move.

Meggie got hit again, cringing and gritting her teeth, but that’s when she realized the opportunity. While the Lycanroc was near her, she charged another Water Pulse, launching it.

“Lilith! The answer… Is in… The trees! NOW”

At that point it was impossible for the canine to dodge, and he got sent vertically. Lilith stood up, watching that happen with a grin, having understood Meggie’s plan.

The Lopunny jumped into the trunk of a tree and, with a heavy stomp, dashed towards the Lycanroc, hitting him with a Jump Kick, sending the wolf crashing on the ground.

“W-Whoa! I was thinking that you were gonna do something else entirely!” Meggie grinned, watching as the bunny landed.

“That was a very good plan!” She gave the Snorunt a thumbs-up.

Suddenly, both of them heard a panting sound. Despite all the attacks, the Lycanroc was still standing, albeit he was severely hurt, feeling stings all over his body due to the effective moves.

“I… I… Sirius, calm down! This is nothing!” He said to himself, body trembling.

“This battle is over, Lycanroc!” Lilith prepared to strike another Thunderbolt, her eyes showed no emotion.

“N-NO!” The canine growled and, using the last of his strength, ran away with his Accelerock.

---

Lance stood still, Flash Canon ready to fire on his paw, just waiting for any wrong move by the red Lycanroc, who was terrified of that Lucario, wishing to go away as soon as possible.

“O-Okay, okay! What do you wanna know?!” Lunick gasped, heart racing.

Lance could sense the wolf’s aura of fear, and smirked. “The usual. Who do you work for?! What did you do to that Mawile?!”

“I-I work for Morgan, he’s a scientist! And a very good one at that, makin’ Mega Evolution and all!”

“Mega what? You’re not making any sense,” Lance frowned, and drew the steel attack closer. “Spill it.”

“M-Mega Evolution! One type of evolution that Morgan discovered! I-I don’t know the process!”

At that point, Lance was trying his best to not blast the Lycanroc. Something about his words seemed familiar to him, that, coupled with the strange collar the Mawile was wearing, made Lance begin to sweat.

“Who’s this… Morgan?” Lance asked, raising an nonexistent eyebrow.

“H-He’s a Gallade!”

Lance blinked, and it all came to him. The reason for his kidnapping, and the one Pokémon that did it. Lance backed away, shivering, making his Flash Canon fade away. Lunick grinned, punching the Lucario in his stomach with his fist coated in electricity. “That’s for being a prick!”

“D-Dad…” Lance didn’t do anything, falling to his knees, the smell of burning fur filled the air.

“Shut ya mouth!” The Lycanroc punched him again, making Lance fall to the floor.

Grinning, Lunick began to kick his opponent several times, all the while laughing like a lunatic. Lance was unable to move, too occupied with thoughts about his captive days to even bother to react to the assault; it was as if in that moment, Lance was that small, defenseless Riolu again. That alone made Lance panic again, to the point where he began crying.

Lunick charged another Thunder Punch. “Haha! Ya know, once I’m done here… I might just make that little Snorunt a snack!”

“Don’t hurt my friend…” Lance snarled, snapping out of the panic and firing a point-blank Aura Sphere into his opponent, sending him away.

The explorer got up, panting, his mind was still filled with the memories, but Lance wanted to focus on the battle. He prepared two other spheres on both hands, but stopped when he heard a running noise to his side. Sirius had just gotten there with his Accelerock, and jumped to the red Lycanroc’s side.

“H-Hey bro! Nice to see ya! A little help?!” Lunick smirked, turning around so his sibling could grab an item in the bag.

“Lunick, you’re as useless as always…”

“I feel like you’re forgetting me here,” Lance said, firing the blue spheres at his opponents, but before they could be hit, they vanished in a white glow.

The Lucario blinked. A Warp Orb, that was it. Growling, he sighed; searching for their aura in a big city like this would be near impossible.

“Laaaaance!”

He turned around to see Meggie and the Lopunny. Not recognizing the latter, Lance crossed his arms, back to his stoic look.

“Meggie,” he said. “It’s good to see you. You… Ran off in the middle of the fight, are you okay?”

“I’m okay, the plan was to lure the Mawile away from you, so I did!”

“Right,” Lance turned to look at the bunny. “And you are?”

“Lopunny, a member of Team Rebirth,” she nodded. “And I helped your friend here, so I’d say thanks.”

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome, Lucario,” Lilith said. “Regardless, where are the Lycanrocs?”

“Warped away,” Lance sighed.

“On the bright side, we saved that Mawile! Even though she was trying to kill us…” Meggie smiled, but then looked down.

“Yes. About that. Do any of you know what this is?” The Lopunny took out a rainbow-colored stone, in the shape of a raindrop.

“It’s an Emera, but what’s with the color? I never saw anything like it,” Lance took a moment to check the stone, which to him, was radiating a very strong aura.

“My team and I found this during one of our latest rescues, and that Mawile also had one. Apparently, it induces some type of—”

“Evolution,” Lance completed the sentence. “I never even heard of this before, that’s weird…”

Meggie was staring at the Emera. Something about its capabilities of evolution was familiar to her, but the former human couldn’t remember it.

“You say you found this before? What type of team is yours? Rescue, exploration?” The canine Pokémon turned to face Lilith.

“Rescue team, we have a very reliable information network. We’ve been investigating kidnappings related to various citizens, unfortunately, they seem to be random.”

Lance flinched at the word “kidnappings”, but kept his stance. “Okay, I understand. Do you have any leads? I’m gonna investigate this further.”

“Wait, what?!” Meggie raised her voice. “We’re gonna tackle this?!”

“It’s related to me, so yes, we will,” Lance said.

Lilith smirked, the Lucario’s words were like a soft tune to her ears. “In that case, what if I propose an alliance between our teams? After all, we’ve been following this case for a while.”

“Interesting point, Lopunny,” Lance nodded, interested in what the bunny had to say.

“I might need to check what my companions have to say about this, but knowing them, I’m sure they’re gonna love the idea!”

Meggie brushed her nonexistent hair. “Seems fair to me, where will we meet them?”

“Meg’s correct. And also, when are we doing this meeting?”

“I need to take the Mawile to the hospital, so I’d say… One hour?”

“May I suggest the Hero guild? I’m used to it, graduated there and all,” Lance nodded, looking at Lilith.

“It could work,” the bunny bowed.

---

After setting that up, the three Pokémon went in different directions. Lance and Meggie went to talk with Apollo, and after that, decided to go to Lance’s apartment, so they could talk with Brian.

Once they got there, they saw the Zoroark sleeping on the couch, several bottles of beer were scattered around the floor and the strong aroma of alcohol filled the air, making Lance cover his nose in disgust.

“I swear, if you weren’t my brother, Brian, I would punch you.”

“Well, well, I don’t think he’s gonna wake up so soon…” Meggie laughed to herself.

Lance rolled his eyes, and then noticed something on the table: three boxes with a letter attached to one of them. Curious, he looked closer, and began to read out loud.

“Dear Lance, Brian, and Meggie, these boxes contain gifts for all of you. Since we don’t know when Meggie’s birthday is, we decided to give her something as well! Brian helped us make your gift, Lance, and his gift is gonna arrive soon!”

“A gift? For me? Who wrote that?”

“Dad did. I guess Brian’s six-month course in engineering paid off.”

“Well, he did want to become our mechanic, and this town has that type of aesthetic anyway. Good for him! Now open my gift!” Meggie jumped like a child, waiting to see what she received.

Lance sighed, opening all the boxes. For Meggie, she got a tiara, for Lance, two bracelets, who fit perfectly in his arms. As for Brian, his box was by far the largest, and contained a tool vest, having screwdrivers, wrenches, hatchets and sockets, all fitting for the Zoroark to use.

“H-How did he learn to do this stuff in six months?!” Meggie gasped, staring at all those tools.

“When Brian sets his mind on something, he does it, I guess,” Lance shrugged, putting the bracelets on his arms. “Now this? I have no idea what it does.”

“It’s for the aesthetic, Lance! And if it’s not, we can ask your sibling after we’re done with the meeting!”

“O-Oh yes, right, the meeting…” Lance lowered his ears. Despite wanting to pursue that Gallade, he couldn’t help but be scared of doing so. What would he do if they met again?

Questions like that popped up inside his brain, enough for Lance to shiver. Meggie, having noticed that, got near her friend. Trying to calm him down, she held his hand. The Lucario took a deep breath, that same exercise he was so familiar with always worked. This time wasn’t different, and soon enough, Lance managed to stop his panic attack.

“…Lance.”

“Y-Yeah?”

“We should go to the meeting,” Meggie nodded. “I don’t think your brother will wake up anytime soon.”

“R-Right,” Lance cleared his throat, leaving his home alongside his friend.

---

It wasn’t long until the duo arrived at the building they wanted. Where once was the Black Skull guild now stood a subdivision of the Hero guild, so familiar to Lance. Simple enough, the building had an architecture of metal, much like the rest of the city, and extended until their eyes could see, the top merged with the smoke that came out of the city’s factories.

And yet, the fact that he was going there to talk about pursuing someone who hurt him made Lance stop to reconsider his choices. Then he remembered that Mawile; she was a victim, just like him.

“Let’s go.”

Once they got inside, Lance noticed several of the guild members walking around the place, some were hasty, and some were at a regular pace. Inspecting around, Lance saw the Lopunny, sitting at a table in the middle of the guild hall.

Meggie, on the other hand, was mesmerized by the sheer beauty of the hall, as it had light poles powered by Luminous Orbs everywhere, besides the mission board, located at the right side of the hall. It also contained several tables for anyone to sit down and relax, beyond a set of stairs, leading to the second floor. Next to the stairs was the secretary’s stand, where a Krokorok was reading. Meggie wondered if the Sceptile that had helped her so much was in the office. Oh well, that wasn’t what they were there for. Her eyes darted to the Lopunny, and she walked towards the bunny.

“Welcome, miss Meggie, mister Lance.”

The Lopunny’s companions were staring at Lance and Meggie: a black-colored Marowak, holding a bone with a flaming tip, and a Electivire. Both of them were carrying bags on their backs.

“It’s nice to meet you too,” Lance crossed his arms. “I’m Lance Williams, and this is my friend, Meggie.”

“Hello!” The Snorunt waved.

“Very well. Introductions, I assume. My name is Scar, I am the leader of Team Rebirth. You’ve already met Lilith, and this—”

“I’m Maxwell, but you can call me Max if you want!” The Electivire gave a wide grin.

“I understand. My other teammate is currently… Hungover. So he can’t join us right now,” Lance sighed, sitting on the table. “Regardless, I assure you we can come to an agreement.”

Meggie also sat down, and with all those big Pokémon, she felt a little insecure, but brushed it off. “Yes. We found that Mawile with… Mega evolution? Is that it?”

“You are correct. Lilith, may I have the Emera?” Scar looked at the bunny, and she opened her purse, handing him the item.

Lance decided to check the aura of that rock. Like he thought, it radiated a powerful, almost intoxicating energy.

“J-Just… How is that thing even made? My brother would sure love to check this stuff out…”

“We don’t know. However, we have our ideas,” Scar answered.

“You see, we have this big information network, spanning all over Eutrios!” Max’s words screamed with energy. “Shocking, isn’t it? Eh?”

Lance was less than amused. “I’ll ignore that pun. Anyway, network?”

“Just some Gengar that are more than happy to work for us, alongside a few Sableye. In fact, about a week from now, we’re gonna get their newest reports,” Lilith smirked, closing her eyes.

“Got it!” Meggie said, brushing her face again.

“Well, how is your investigation going?” Lance asked, looking at Scar.

“Straight to the point? I like you already, mister Williams. Our intel says they have multiple reports of Pokémon going missing, seemingly at random. However, this isn’t something recent. As a matter of fact, it’s been goin for at least—”

“Nine years,” Lance dropped his ears, that entire sentence stinged inside his heart.

Lilith blinked. “How do you know that? Did you investigate that as well?”

“I was one of them. I escaped, or rather, they threw me out. One Blaziken and one Heracross.”

Meggie wondered, sensing something similar in all three species of Pokémon. Still, she couldn’t figure out what.

“I see… Are you doing this out of revenge, mister Williams?” Scar asked.

“No. I want to make the world a better place, and that guy… The Gallade. He can’t keep doing this. It’s not… right”

“Be the change you want to see in the world, correct?” Scar got up, his face had a faint smile. “Understandable. It’s gonna be a pleasure working with you. However, before we do this, I need something from you, mister Williams.”

Lance sighed. “What are you talking about?”

“Simple. A test. Lucario are an… Interesting species. I just want to see what your skills are…”

Lance got up, ears twitching. “Tell me what this test is all about…”