CHAPTER 4: THIEF!

Lower Coral Cove

Finally, the trio had arrived at the bottom of the stairs, emerging into a huge room with a pair of cascading waterfalls in the back and a thin layer of seawater covering the floor. Between the waterfalls was a section of the stone floor that was slightly raised compared to the rest of the room, slightly peeking out of the water. On top of it was a mid-sized pile of a multitude of berries.

“Oh,” Ryan said. “The berries really were down here! What a pleasant surprise!”

“See?” Ben replied, “I told you two I knew what I was doing!” Him and Lena ran over to the pile and started shoving as many berries into their bags as they could. “Now we’ve just gotta grab as many as we can and-“

“Um, guys?” the eevee said, sniffing the area with his enhanced sense of smell. “Something around here smells… noxious…”

Lena turned to the concerned eevee. “So? We’ll be done picking them up soon, just give us a sec, kiddo!”

Ryan bristled at being called a kid. “Lena, this is serious! I’m pretty sure the berry thief is in this very room with us!”

“Oh, don’t be ridiculous!” the sneasel said dismissively, continuing to shove as many berries as she could fit into her bag. “We’re the only three pokemon in here, you’re just imagining things!”

All Ryan could do was watch as the pokemon he had caught the scent of jumped from the ledge near the origin of the twin waterfalls and landed with a splash between the eevee and the berry pile that his companions had nearly finished cleaning up. The pokemon had the appearance of a bipedal frog, and it had yellow eyes, a red sac on its throat, and red claws on each hand.

“Hey!” the toxicroak said, sounding angry yet sluggish. “You think you can just take these berries? These are mine! I rightfully stole- er, I mean borrowed them from that alcremie lady!”

“Borrowed?” Lena asked, acting confused while knowing full well he was lying to their faces. “How do you even borrow food?”

“Y-yeah,” Ryan agreed, trying to hide his fear of the poison dart frog that towered over him. “N-next time, come up with a better story, a-and try not to make a Freudian slip like that!”

From behind the toxicroak, Ben gave Ryan a funny look as their aggressor steamed with increasing anger. “I don’t know what that word you just said is, but what do little sheets of paper have to do with-“

“All of you shut up!” the toxicroak shouted, pivoting around and pointing a claw right in the litten’s face. “You took MY berries and now you must pay!”

Instead of attacking Ben, however, he instead leapt straight at Lena to catch her off guard with a jab of poison. Almost as quickly as he leapt, the sneasel rolled out of the way, taking the brief moment before the toxicroak got back up to close her bag so the berries wouldn’t fall out. During that same window, Ryan dashed forward to tackle the frog and hit him just as he was getting up, knocking him back to the ground.

“They’re not your berries,” Ryan said, standing on the thief’s chest to keep him down. “We’re gonna return them to their rightful owner.”

Instead of with words, toxicroak responded by lifting an arm and poison jabbing Ryan in the side. The next thing the eevee knew, he was once again flying across the room, only this time, it was a large enough room that he didn’t hit the wall. He did, however, land facefirst into the water, getting some of it in his mouth, which he promptly spat out after getting up.

“Ryan!” Lena called as she kept trying to scratch the frog, who had gotten up by now. “Your side!”

A quick look at his side revealed that purple streaks had started to appear on his fur, and he started to feel weaker little by little.

“Ben… Lena… I don’t feel so good… please help…” he said weakly.

After she tossed a pecha berry his way, she turned angrily to the toxicroak. “Oh, now you’ve done it. Nobody poisons MY friends!” She extended an arm to the side, and her claws took on a a steely glow. “Well, I won’t let you poison anyone ANYMORE!” The sneasel shouted before she leapt at the toxicroak’s face, repeatedly scraping at his skin with metal claws and inflicting great pain. Ben also unleashed a small flame that hit the frog straight in the side, inflicting a burn. All of this proved to be too much for the thief to handle, and he sank to the ground in defeat. Lena landed back on the ground, panting as she continued to fume with rage. She looked over at Ryan, the pecha berry still at his paws due to being distracted by the fight that had just unfolded.

“Ryan!” the sneasel shouted, concerned. “I gave you that berry to eat it, not just stare at it!”

“Yeah, yeah, I will…” he said, a hint of indignance in his voice before he ingested the small, peach shaped fruit. Not only was the berry far more intense in it’s sweet flavor than he could’ve imagined- probably because of pokemon tastebuds, Ryan thought- he had also forgotten how hungry he had been prior to this because he was too concerned with getting the berries back.

With somewhat scuffed-looking claws rested on her hips, the sneasel added, “The poison won’t go away immediately, but that berry should give you enough strength for us to leave this dungeon. And about time we leave too! I can’t wait to see the sun again!”

Ryan groaned. “Don’t tell me we have to go all the way back through the dungeon to get out.”

Ben waved an arm. “Nah, don’t worry! Mystery dungeons have a waypoint at the bottom that warps you back to the entrance, so we’ll easily be able to get back out!” The litten started to look around the room for where it might be. “Ah-ha!” he exclaimed, pointing a forepaw towards a glowing blue circle on the opposite side of the room where Ryan stood. “Now let’s take this thief and the berries and get outta here!”

Lena and Ben carefully dragged the outlaw behind them, each grasping an arm, and Ryan followed behind them. He would have helped if not for not having arms. A flash of light appeared as the four pokemon passed through the waypoint, leaving the cavernous room empty of anyone.

Luneria Beach

The trio and their unconscious captive rematerialized outside the entrance to Coral Cove in another flash of light, excited that they were back in the sun, their goal successfully accomplished.

“I can’t believe this,” the eevee said. “We actually did it! We recovered the berries and captured the thief!” He raised a paw to Ben. “High five!”

Ben and Lena just gave blank looks.

“Er, I mean high three?” he corrected himself sheepishly.

Still blank looks. Ryan lowered his paw, hanging his head in embarrassment.

“Never mind…”

“Ahem…” someone cleared their throat. The trio looked in the direction the sound came from, and the litten’s ears flattened. In front of them stood Alcremie, an incineroar and a cinccino.

“M-mom, d-dad,” the litten stammered, “I-I can explain…”

“No need,” the cinccino said, calmly but sternly, almost angry, with her paw on her hips. “I can’t believe you would just risk your life to go into that mystery dungeon over some berries that Alcremie can easily get more of. Not only that, but you brought along the two humans who probably can’t even use moves…”

“Hey!” Ryan said, “Lena and I are perfectly capable of- wait, how did you know we were human? Especially since I’ve never even seen you before, Ben’s mom?”

“Not your conversation, eevee,” the cinccino said. “Also, you can call me Marcy.” She turned back to Ben, who was staring down in shame, and sighed. “Anyways, Benjamin, you can’t just go running into danger like that, especially with pokemon you barely know! You should feel ashamed.”

Ben looked up into his mother’s pink eyes and opened his bag. “B-but we got the berries back! Captured the thief too, and none of us are seriously hurt.”

Ryan began to speak. “Um, actually, I-“

Ben put a paw over the eevee’s mouth, and he laughed nervously. “I said, none of us are seriously hurt!”

The cinccino looked over to her mate. “What do you think, Cinder?”

“I… have to agree with Ben on this one,” the incineroar said, putting a paw behind his head. “I mean, we can’t keep coddling him forever, and-“

“Sorry I’m late!” a deep, male voice shouted from behind the larger rabbits. They turned around and saw, running towards them, a blue canine pokemon with a green kerchief that Ryan recognized as a lucario. He came to a stop just before slamming into Alcremie, placing his paws on his knees as he caught his breath.

“Guildmaster Felix?” Ben said, a sparkle in his eyes. Meanwhile, Ryan rolled his.

Of course the guildmaster’s a lucario. Go figure, he thought, eyerolling internally. I mean, it makes sense given that they’re known for heroic deeds, and exploration guilds are pretty heroic, but still…

“What are you doing here?” Cinder asked as the lucario stood back upright. “Don’t you have… guild duties to attend to?”

The guildmaster waved a paw. “That can wait,” he said. “After Alcremie told you two about what your son was up to, she came and got me. In fact, she wanted me, specifically.” He put a paw behind his head. “She was very insistent that it was me who came and not one of the other teams.”

“I see. Well, nice to see ya, old pal!” Cinder said, giving Felix a pat on the back.

“Thanks, but I’m not here for you,” the lucario said, turning to Ben. “So, is it true that your companions are humans?”

Ben was about to speak when Ryan interrupted. “How does everyone already know that?!” He yelled, annoyed, and the lucario chuckled.

“I’ll take that as a yes. Anyways, I see that you and the two humans got Alcremie’s berries back for her and took out the toxicroak who stole them?”

“Yeah!” the litten said excitedly. “You really should’ve seen how well Lena used her anger after Ryan-“

“What he’s saying is, yes we did,” Lena interrupted, opening her bag and showing the berries.

“Oh,” the lucario said with surprise. “Impressive!”

“…what do you mean?” Ryan asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I’m just surprised that a team that seems to have no training still managed to hold their own against an outlaw. Which is why…” he extended a paw out. “…I want to invite you three to join the guild.”

The eevee was shocked about the proposition. Clearly he sees something in me… he thought. Maybe if I join, I can find a way home, or Lena’s memories, or at the very least find out whatever happened to my Uncle.

“Now, keep in mind that there will still be an entrance exam,” the lucario added, “but since you’ve already been through a dungeon, you’d do it tomorrow if you accept. So, how about it?”

To Ryan’s side, Ben was squealing with excitement, and Lena seemed pretty happy about the proposition as well. He reached out a paw to meet lucario’s, and they shook on it.

“Yeah,” the eevee said. “I accept.”