Chapter 4: House Keeping Matters

Hey! This was the first chapter that was released after the initial posting of this thingie, However I wouldn’t count on this being indicative of how often chapters will release, I don’t exactly have a set release window for any of the chapters other than ‘when it’s done’ so apologies in advance if these things take a bit too long 😛 also this chapter is pretty light on the action side of things, there’s a little action early on but after that it’s kinda just chill, trust me though if you’re asking for action then chapter 5 is where I plan to have a lot more action and by the later chapters you’ll probably be begging for more slow chill chapters again (Hopefully not because I’m failing to write the action packed chapters though.) anyway enjoy this chapter or don’t it’s up to you ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

10/31/23 Edit: Fixed the spelling of “Tera” as used in Tera Blast, the stupid auto correct from when I was still writing this on my phone made me think that Terra (as in the name) was the correct spelling but I have since confirmed that is not the case. Applies to all chapters where Tera Blast and the Tera Scarves are mentioned

3/18/24 Fixed more intro spelling stuff

---

January 22nd, 7:00 am

Surfspark Guild – Team Echoes’ Room

Coast Continent

---

Joseph woke up and yawned, “Good morning, team!” He chirped.

“‘Morning!” Slippy cheered, matching Joseph’s energy.

“Are you gonna keep calling us ‘team’ rather than ‘friends’? Riolu asked, completely ignoring the radiant tone of her teammates.

“Oh, sorry, Good morning friends!”

“That’s more like it!”

Joseph looked around the room for his teammates only to find Cinder passed out holding her diary and a feather that seemed to have been scorched beyond recognition, “Cinder! It’s time to get up!” He shouted.

“Huh!? Oh, I passed out…” Cinder sighed.

“What time did you fall asleep last night!?” Riolu gasped.

“Well, initially about 12 am, but I woke up from a nightmare at around 3 am and passed out at around 6 am? I think?”

“You only got like 4 hours of sleep!”

“Wait I did!? That’s a new record!”

“That’s still not a good amount of sleep!’ Cameron shouted from across the room.

“I know… But it’s still better than every other night I’ve spent here.”

“Have you at least tried talking to someone about this? Maybe they could help you out or something.”

“Lanturn knows, unfortunately, nothing we’ve tried will make this nightmare go away.”

“That’s terrible!” Oshawott shrieked, “It’s like you’re trapped in an endless cycle of pain!”

“You get used to it after a couple of months.”

“Things’ll get better, Cinder, you just gotta tough it out.” Joseph assured her, “Besides, you remember what happened last night, right?”

Cinder’s face lit up, “Right! I almost forgot about that!” She beamed.

“What happened last night?” Riolu asked.

“I’ll explain later, for now…” *GROAR* “Yep, right on cue. Time for breakfast”

Team Echoes left their room and made their way down to the dining hall, on the way Cameron started some idle chit-chat, “Anyone else feel like that room was a bit small?”

“I mean, it could be bigger, but it didn’t bother me too much.” Joseph replied.

“I agree with Cameron on this one, that room makes Sharpedo Bluff feel like a mansion!” Cinder added.

“Well, I was thinking we could try making a base for our team, I mean we can’t just stay in the guild all the time right?”

“I mean, I guess, but Cinder’s the head of intelligence, wouldn’t that mean she needs to be here at all times?”

“No, I can leave, Lanturn even offered to buy me a little house all to myself, but I declined because I didn’t want to be alone.”

“Well, I guess that settles it then, we’ll look into making a base somewhere!” Riolu cheered.

Team Echoes entered the dining hall and enjoyed breakfast, nothing too interesting happened, but as per usual the conversations picked back up after the meal, “So what’re we doing today?” Joseph asked.

“Well, the Guildmaster asked me to teach you guys about Mystery Dungeons, so we can get our first job out of the way.” Cinder replied.

“Maybe we can scope out places to base up while we’re at it.” Cameron suggested.

“That would probably take a while to get sorted, besides it’s not like the perfect place is just gonna fall right into our hands.

“I guess you’re right… Well, we should still try, you know.”

“You can try if you want to, but I’m just letting you know you’re not going to find anything. I’ve searched the entire surrounding area and I haven’t found anything even slightly interesting.”

“Well, maybe you missed something, I mean you were searching all alone weren’t you?”

“You’ve got a point there. Alright, well, let me know if you find something.”

“Won’t you be there with us?”

“Nope! We’re splitting up!”

“Wha- why?”

“Because you definitely don’t need me to tell you how to traverse a dungeon, so we can split the workload.”

“Fair, I would’ve probably gotten tired of you constantly stopping us to explain every little detail anyway.”

“Alright, let’s decide the groups then!”

“I’ll take Joseph and Riolu. You take Slippy and Oshawott.”

“What!? Why not have Oshawott and I travel together?” Riolu asked.

“Yeah, Cameron, why are you separating Riolu and Oshawott?”

“Just in case, I get the feeling that Riolu would never forgive herself if she let Oshawott get hurt.”

“Fair point, I guess…”

“Well, let’s go grab some jobs from the board, that way we don’t have to pick a dungeon ourselves, we can just let the job board do it for us!” Cinder exclaimed.

“Sounds good, let’s get going.”

Team Echoes left the dining hall and climbed the ladder back up to the first floor, once there they entered the job room and approached the job board, “Alright let’s see what jobs we got here today.” Cinder hummed as she started scrolling through the pages on the digital job board, “No, no, maybe, no, Aha! This one seems like a great first job!” Cinder exclaimed as she took Joseph’s watch and placed it into the board’s watch slot. She then returned the watch after downloading the job data.

Cameron looked at the job listing, “It doesn’t seem too bad.” He said.

Joseph, still unable to read the runes, was frustrated by the fact Cameron decided to read the job listing in his head, “Could you read it out!? I’m kinda illiterrate here!” He huffed.

“Oh, right, sorry dude, I gotcha.”

The job listing read as follows:

Blimey!

I asked my friend to go find us a spot for a picnic, and the mate’s gone and buggered it up!

It’d be massively helpful if you could go fetch him for me.

He should be somewhere in the Palm Wood Forest.

Cheers!

-Cloak

“Did you have to say it with that accent?”

“Uh, yeah, because that’s how it’s written on there, I’d prove it to you, but you can’t read.”

“That’s fine, I can just have Riolu verify it for me.”

“Why me? I’m not the only one who can read here!”

“Well, I thought since we’re gonna be working together today, I might as well use this as a trust exercise.”

Riolu rolled her eyes, “Whatever, just don’t ask me to read anything else for you.” She sighed.

Riolu approached the board and began to read the job listing to herself.

“So?”

“What are these words? Like come on, just say ‘screwed it up’!”

“Ok, that’s all the confirmation I needed. We should get going.”

“Alright, you guys have fun, I’m gonna try to find a job for the ‘B team’ here.” Cinder said.

“See ya Cinder!” The “A team” waved as they took off towards the door.

“Hold it!” Litwick shouted, “You guys are heading out, right?”

“Yeah, what about it?” Cameron asked.

“Well, you should probably hit up town first, ya know, so you can prepare?”

“I gotcha, we’ll make sure to do that!”

Litwick opened the door, “Alright, try to make it back by lunchtime, you guys.” He said.

“Ok, see ya Litwick!” Riolu shouted as she ran out the door, leaving her teammates behind.

“Well, what are you guys waiting for? Shouldn’t you try to catch up with her?”

“I wanted to ask you something first. Is Chandelure your mom?” Cameron asked.

“Yeah, why?”

“Her food’s the best I’ve ever had! You’re so lucky to have such a good chef as your mother!”

“Thanks! I’ll make sure to tell her you said that!”

“Stay awesome, little dude!” Cameron said as he ran after Riolu.

“Hey no fair!” Joseph shouted as he took off as well.

After running for a little bit, Team Echoes’ A team made it to Sunset Square, once there they checked with the Kecleon brothers and bought some supplies using the remaining money Cinder had given them yesterday.

“Alright, I think that’s everything we’ll need, I mean c’mon, Palm Wood Forest isn’t exactly the hardest dungeon to get through.” Cameron recounted, “I’ll show you guys the way from here.”

The group left town and began traveling on a somewhat grassy path, this path passed through a forest that surprisingly wasn’t a dungeon, “Wow this forest is pretty! It looks just like the one from a book my parents gave me!” Riolu whooped.

“It does look like something out of a book, huh.” Joseph agreed.

“Have you guys like never seen a forest before?” Cameron asked.

“Not really, the Crag Continent didn’t have very many.” Riolu replied.

“Me neither, where I’m from, basically everything is either a road or civilization.”

“Really!? Wow! Thank Arceus we’re visiting one early on then, imagine how embarrassing it would be to gawk at a forest if we were actually escorting someone.” Cameron chuckled.

“Well, when you put it like that, it does sound very embarrassing.” Joseph sighed, looking down dejectedly.

“Agreed. I’d rather not look like an idiot.”

The trio continued down the path until they reached a beach, “We’re almost there.” Cameron announced.

Joseph looked around the beach, “We are? I don’t really see anything that screams ‘dungeon entrance’.

“That’s because this beach is a red herring, we’re supposed to walk across the beach a little bit and then turn back into the forest, then the path will lead into a forest of palm trees.”

“That doesn’t sound confusing at all.” Riolu deadpanned.

“Yeah, it’s an easy dungeon to complete but a hard one to find, I’ve heard stories of Pokémon going missing here for weeks!”

“Really!? How do they make it out then!?”

“They survived off of the coconuts growing on the trees. From what I’ve heard, every Pokémon that’s gone missing here has left hating the taste of coconuts.”

“Understandably, I mean, imagine you were trapped in a labyrinth, unable to find the exit, and you could only eat one thing the whole time.” Joseph shuddered, “Sounds like a fun way to go insane.”

“Well, if you don’t wanna end up like them, I would suggest sticking together.” Cameron warned.

“Why wouldn’t we!? It’s like the number one rule of Mystery Dungeons!” Riolu exclaimed.

“Well, not everyone knows that, as stupid as that sounds. We should get a move on so we can save the poor soul who thought this would be a good place for a picnic.”

Joseph and Riolu gave Cameron a determined nod. They picked up the pace towards the dungeon’s entrance, stopping before entering. Cameron chuckled and pulled his Tera Scarf over his face, “Hehe, this place won’t know what hit it.”

“What’re you doing, you dork?” Riolu asked.

“Uh, sorry, it’s a little habit I have, every time I enter a dungeon I usually put on some sort of mask and say something like that.”

“Sounds pretty familiar.” Joseph mused, “I can’t exactly put my finger on it, though.”

“Well, maybe because you don’t have fingers anymore, dummy.”

“Fair, let’s just get going.”

---

January 22nd, 9:00 am

Palm Wood Forest

Coast Continent

---

The trio entered the forest carefully as to avoid stepping on a trap as soon as they entered. Joseph looked back towards the entrance only to find trees blocking where they had entered, the trees were around the same size as the rest of the trees in the forest, “Uh, guys? Didn’t we come in through there?” Joseph asked as he pointed back towards the “entrance”.

“Yeah, we did, dungeons do that so you can’t chicken out without an Escape Orb.” Cameron explained.

Joseph quivered, “That’s so creepy!” He shrieked.

“Get used to it bud, these places aren’t meant to be traveled by little weaklings.”

“Then why did we bring Joseph here?” Riolu teased.

“Says the one who fainted from one Water Gun yesterday!” Joseph shot back.

“Wha- Hey! That was because I realized Oshawott had amnesia, not because he hit me with Water Gun.”

“Likely excuse.”

“Look, as funny as your bantering is, I think we should get a move on.” Cameron suggested.

“Right!”

Team Echoes crept further into the dungeon, with Cameron leading the charge. They reached a clearing that was filled with weak feral Pokémon, completely unaware of their presence. Cameron motioned the others to stay back, “I’m gonna catch them off guard, you two prepare your attacks.” He whispered.

“Prepare our attacks!? I don’t know how!” Joseph whispered back.

“How do you not know how to prepare your attacks!? Don’t humans have moves too!?” Riolu blurted quietly.

“No we don’t! We can kinda imitate some moves, but I don’t think that would work!”

“Just wing it! If you at least try to imitate something like Tackle you should be able to use it!” Cameron assured Joseph, “That’s how I figured out how to use my moves.”

“Ok…” Joseph said as he crouched down, preparing to pounce at the ferals, “I hope this works…”

“On three,” Cameron directed, “one, two, THREE!” After Cameron gave the signal, stars formed around him and shot at the three feral Pokémon, hitting them from behind, knocking them over.

Riolu ran into the clearing shortly after, “Take THIS!” She shouted as she clapped her paws together, forming a Vacuum Wave. Her attack flew straight at her target: a Zigzagoon that had been dazed by Cameron’s Swift. The Zigzagoon was too dazed to avoid the attack, taking it head on and fainting as a result.

The other two feral Pokémon were about to attack Riolu, but they were stopped by Joseph and Cameron pouncing them with Quick Attack. Joseph’s opponent was a Pikipek, which theoretically speaking should be an easy fight for a Shinx, but Joseph still doesn’t exactly know how to use electric moves, so things should be a little interesting, “Uh, what do I do now?” He asked awkwardly.

“Don’t think about it just hit it!” Cameron said before chomping down on the Surskit he had pinned with Bite.

Joseph tried to think of a way to hit this thing before it got up, his human instincts kicked in, and he settled for attempting to punch it, he gave the Pikipek two “punches” and it fainted.

“Wow! That’s gotta be the saddest Double Kick I’ve ever seen.” Riolu laughed.

Cameron rolled his eyes before adding to what Riolu said in a more constructive manner, “Yeah, for future reference, Double Kick is preformed with your back legs not your front legs dude.”

“Thanks, I’ll try to remember that for when I actually intend on using Double Kick instead of just giving into my instincts and trying to punch my enemy.” Joseph sighed.

“Well, you got ’em that’s all that matters. Let’s keep going.”

Team Echoes continued traveling through the dungeon, before finding a clearing that had a set of stairs in it, “What’s with the weird stairs in the middle of a forest?” Riolu asked.

“That’s our ticket to the next floor!” Cameron celebrated.

“Of the forest?”

“Yes.”

“How does that make any sense?”

“It doesn’t, nothing in these dungeons makes sense.”

“So, like, how do these stairs work?”

“You walk up and end up on the next floor after a rather disorienting feeling, you’ll know what I’m talking about once you go up the stairs.”

“Ok… I hope I don’t get nauseous from this.” Riolu said as she ran into the clearing and up the stairs without a second thought.

“You’re supposed to wait for us, you moron!” Cameron shouted as he sprinted into the clearing and followed Riolu up the stairs.

Joseph was all alone in the corridor of trees, “I don’t really feel like getting swarmed right now so I’m just gonna follow their example.” He said to himself before he too ran into the clearing, stopping just before the stairs. He took a deep breath and went up the stairs, as he walked up the stairs it felt like gravity and reality were shifting around him as the world went black, one moment it felt like he was going up a floor, the next it felt like he was going down, it even felt like he was walking sideways at one point! But before he could cry out for help, he ended up on the next floor.

“Oh good, you made it!” Cameron joked.

“What was that!?” Joseph shouted.

“Nobody seems to know, some say it’s a rip in time and space itself while others say it’s all an illusion, but nobody can come up with a concrete answer.”

“That’s so strange.”

“Some might even say mysterious. Eh? Eh?”

“Shut up.”

“Fine…”

Joseph looked around and noticed that Riolu was nowhere to be seen, “Uh, where’s Riolu?” He asked

“She hasn’t got here yet.”

“But didn’t she go up before us?”

“Yup, but because of Mystery Dungeon jank she ended up behind us somehow.”

A few moments later, Riolu appeared out of thin air. She had a terrified expression on her face, shortly after arriving she curled up into a ball and started crying, “I-I wanna go home!” She wept.

Joseph gasped, “Are you alright!?” he asked.

“I figured this would happen.” Cameron sighed, “Here, I picked this up while we were buying supplies.” Cameron said as he pulled out a massive rainbow lollipop out of his bag and handed it to Riolu.

Riolu’s eyes sparkled as she looked at the giant sized lollipop, “WOAH!” She marveled, “Where did you get this!?”

“I snuck in a visit to the Batter Splatter while you guys were distracted with your shopping.”

“But weren’t you the one who said we were good to go?”

“Yep, I’m just that sneaky, hence why my moniker was Specter back when I was still a criminal.”

Joseph rolled his eyes, “Did anyone seriously call you that, or was that just something you came up with to sound scary?” He asked.

“I came up with it so everyone would stop calling me by my name.” Cameron sighed.

“Is there something wrong with your name or something?”

“Everyone thinks it’s a girl’s name,” Cameron sighed. “Nobody from my old gang would take me seriously, it was always just ‘Look at girly girl Cameron wearing her pink bandana.’ or ‘Espeon’s so girly, why do you want to evolve into one?’.”

“Dang… I mean, I get that they’re crooks and all, but did they just not care about you? I mean, you made it seem like they were supposed to given you were part of this ‘gang’ but the way they treated you makes me think they hated you.”

“They did hate me, that’s why I ended up getting caught in Sunset Square yesterday, they wanted me to get busted so they didn’t have to keep me around.”

Riolu pulled the lollipop out of her mouth, “That’s horrible! They’re horrible!” She shouted.

“I know, I just hope the info I gave Lanturn is enough to put them behind bars.”

“Yeah, I hope so too, for your sake.” Joseph said.

“Well, we can worry about that later, for now we should focus on finding the lost Pokémon.”

“Can I ask you something first?” Riolu asked.

“Well, you just did so, no.”

“Wait! That wasn’t the question.”

“Fine, just spit it out so we can get moving.”

“Why do you want to evolve into an Espeon? N-not that there’s a problem with that, I just wanted to know if there was like a specific reason or something.”

“Oh it’s simple because psychic powers are sick and beat out all my other options.”

“It’s pretty hard to argue with that.” Joseph agreed.

“I mean, the other evolutions are cool and all, but for me, it’s no contest.”

“I mean, I guess it would be pretty cool to have a psychic type on our side.” Riolu added.

“I rest my case, now let’s keep going.”

The trio continued through the dungeon, traveling through the makeshift halls the trees provided. There weren’t too many feral Pokémon, the only ones Team Echoes saw were dealt with already, which was a good sign that they were getting closer to their client. As they made their way through, however, they began to notice that some of the trees had deep claw marks dug into them, “Uh, is anyone else noticing the claw marks on the trees?” Joseph asked.

“Yup, I have no idea who could have left these here.” Cameron remarked.

“Maybe it was Nail, I mean have you seen his claws!?” Riolu marveled.

Cameron shivered, “It should be a crime to have claws like his.” He whimpered.

“Well, in his defense, he kinda needed them to survive in his home environment.” Joseph explained.

“He shoulda’ stayed home then.” Cameron huffed, “What kind of place do you have to live in to need claws like that anyway?”

“Mountainous areas such as Mount Coronet, a mountain in Hisui.”

“You know about Nail’s home?” Riolu asked.

“Kinda, it’s a fictional place where I came from.”

“Oh, I get it now.”

Cameron was still a little confused, “I don’t get it though, why does he need those claws?” He questioned.

“He needs them to dig into the sides of cliffs so he can climb them, they also dig into anything he might consider a threat.” Joseph explained.

“Well, that’s obvious! You act like he hasn’t already threatened to cleave off my limbs!”

“I mean, chances are he’d just give you a hearty dose of poison and leave it at that.”

“With claws like that!? Nuh uh, it’d be a miracle if he didn’t draw blood with those things!”

“I know, I’m just saying he’d probably leave your limbs intact, in favor of giving you a nasty gash and enough poison to put you in a coma.”

“Can we just stop talking about this!? I’m really uncomfortable with Nail and this conversation isn’t helping at all!”

“Alright, sorry Specter.”

“Wait, what did you just call me?”

“Specter, I mean you wanted others to call you that, right?”

“Y-yeah! I just didn’t expect you to!”

“Well, then I’ll call you Specter from now on, if that’s alright with you.”

“Are you kidding!? Of course I’m ok with that!”

“Ok then, Specter it is!”

“Alright, let’s get going!”

The trio happily traversed through the clearing they had been taking a short break in. Riolu was enjoying her lollipop and Cameron, or I guess Specter now, was happy that he actually had friends now instead of being all alone, oh yeah and Joseph was happy because his teammates were happy. Eventually they found themselves at the next set of stairs, “Oh no… There are more stairs!?” Riolu shrieked.

“Yeah, unfortunately…” Specter sighed, “This should be the last set though, after that we’re home free… Well, sort of anyway…”

“I still don’t really like the stairs very much, something about entering a black void that’s constantly shifting while also having to climb a seemingly endless amount of stairs just doesn’t sit right with me.”

“Well, it’s not as bad if you just keep walking and don’t pay it any mind. Once you’ve gone up enough flights of these stairs, you kinda become numb to the weird reality shifty thing going on.”

“I hope that’s true.”

“It is, I’ve already gotten used to it so I don’t really feel the weird shifting anymore.”

“Ok… Well, if I still feel that weird shifty feeling after this, you owe me 2000 Poké.”

“Well, it’ll cancel out because you already owe me 2000 Poké for the lollipop.”

“Wha- hey! I don’t owe you anything, you thief!”

“Tell that to your sucker, sucker!”

Once Specter and Riolu finished bantering over who owes who money, the trio proceeded up the stairs, Joseph didn’t feel the weird shifting this time however ‘Did I already get used to it? If so how!? I only felt the shifting once!’ He thought to himself. Moments later, he appeared on the next floor, the floor was basically empty only consisting of one clearing and a straight path out of there. Joseph took a look around, he didn’t notice much at first, but then he noticed a Luxray with yellow fur holding a picnic basket in its mouth. Shortly after he noticed the Luxray, his teammates appeared beside him. Joseph turned to his teammates, “You think that’s who we’re looking for?” He asked.

“A lost Pokémon holding a picnic basket, uh, yup, that checks out.” Specter confirmed, “Although if I didn’t know any better, I’d probably think he’s your dad.”

“I mean, it is a strange coincidence that the Pokémon we’re looking for just so happens to be a shiny Luxray.”

Riolu was a little confused by Joseph’s wording “Shiny?” She questioned.

“It’s a term humans came up with to describe Pokémon with abnormal coloration.”

“Ooooh ok, so you’re a shiny Shinx then.”

“Yeah and that Luxray is shiny, so are Nail and Hula, which is strange, why are we finding so many shiny Pokémon? They’re supposed to be rare!”

“It might have something to do with the fact that Hula and Nail are both from another world.”

“But Cinder isn’t shiny, and she’s also from another world.”

“Look, we can discuss the overabundance of ‘shiny’ Pokémon after we escort this dude out of here.”

Team Echoes approached the Luxray slowly, making sure they didn’t startle him, unfortunately Riolu ended up stepping on a twig, making a loud breaking sound. The Luxray turned around to see Team Echoes staring back at him, looking rather embarrassed, “More trouble eh?” The Luxray said as he charged up electricity.

“Woah, woah, woah! We’re not here to cause any trouble, we’re just here because we’re looking for a lost Pokémon, that’s all!” Specter squealed.

Specter’s squealing caught the Luxray of guard, “You SPEAK!?” He blurted.

“Y-yeah, and I would appreciate it if you didn’t tear our faces off… Please?”

To Specter’s surprise, the Luxray dropped his stance, “What a relief! I thought you guys were more of those weirdos that only spoke in grunts and groans.” He sighed.

“Those are ferals, they inhabit dungeons like this one.” Specter explained.

“Ah, I see, I was wondering why this place was so hostile.”

“Have you never been in a dungeon before?”

“Nope, you wouldn’t believe me, but I’m on a bit of an interdimensional honeymoon right now.”

“Excuse me?”

“I’m here on vacation with the love of my life to celebrate the greatest achievement of my life!”

“Ok…?”

“So you guys are looking for someone?”

Joseph filled in for Specter, who was still trying to process what the Luxray had just said, “I believe you’re the one we’re looking for.”

The Luxray raised his eyebrow, “What makes you say that?” He inquired.

“Well, we were sent here to look for a Pokémon who got lost while looking for a picnic spot, and you just so happen to be lost with a picnic basket.”

“Who sent you here? The police? I’m innocent I swear!”

“Relax, we were sent here to come escort you somewhere safe.”

“Phew… I thought I was about to get arrested… Not that I did anything wrong or anything!”

“Well, we were sent here by someone named Cloak, they seemed to be pretty worried about you.”

“Shoot! That’s even worse than getting arrested! We gotta get back to her before she ‘has a go’ at me.”

“Uh, ok?”

Team Echoes left the clearing with the Luxray in tow and began to make their way back to Sunset Square, utterly confused by the sheer weirdness of their client. On their way back, Joseph’s watch started vibrating, “Uh Joseph, your watch’s making weird noises, you didn’t hit it too hard, did you?” Riolu asked.

“I think I’m getting a call, I mean, that’s what it looks like based on the green and red buttons on screen.” Joseph responded, “Hold up, let me just…” Joseph muttered as he struggled to press the green button on the watch’s screen, “Ah, got it!”

Joseph answered the call only to be greeted by Cinder’s voice, “Howdy A team! How’s it going?” She asked.

Riolu was caught off guard by Cinder’s voice coming seemingly out of nowhere, “Cinder!? Where are you!? I can hear you, but I can’t see you!” She sputtered.

“Look at Joseph’s watch, I’m calling you guys right now.”

“Ooooooh, that’s what you meant when you said ‘call me’.”

“Yeah, sorry, I should have called you earlier so I could’ve made that a bit clearer.”

“I would’ve called you earlier if I could actually read what any of this stuff says.” Joseph huffed.

“Sorry about that, I would’ve fixed that for you if I could, but unfortunately I didn’t make the watches so I don’t know how to add stuff to them.”

“Maybe you guys could teach me how to read once we get our own place.”

“That sounds like either a very good idea or a very annoying afternoon.”

“Or both.” Specter added.

“Or both…” Cinder echoed with a sigh.

“Well, the good news is we’re on our way back with our client in tow!” Joseph cheered.

“Great! So why are you taking the long way?” Cinder ribbed.

“What do you mean!? We’re taking the fastest route back!” Specter shouted.

“That’s the problem, you guys are walking when you could just use your watches to warp back.”

“Well, last time I checked, you didn’t tell us about our watches having a teleport function.”

“Well, I’m telling you now!”

“Just get on with it so we can get this over with.”

“There should be a button somewhere on your watch’s home screen that says ‘warp’ if you press it you should appear back here but make sure someone is close to your client otherwise they’ll get left behind.” Cinder explained

“Ok, Joseph, go stand next to our friend here.”

“Alright, what next?” Joseph asked.

“Press the thing that looks like a portal on your watch.”

“Ok… Here goes…” Joseph said as he hesitantly pressed the button on his watch. He was immediately engulfed in a pillar of light, along with the client. The pillar began to close in on Joseph and the client. Once it had fully closed on the two of them, they appeared back in the guild’s job room.

---

January 22nd, 9:00 am

Surfspark Guild – Job Room

Coast Continent

---

“Welcome back!” Cinder greeted.

Joseph fell flat on his face, the world felt like it was spinning faster than the speed of light, he felt like he was going to vomit any moment now, “Ugh… I’m sooo… Dizzy…” he gagged.

Cinder made a snapping noise, “Hey! Snap out of it! I’m not cleaning up after you if you hurl on the floor!” She warned.

Hearing Cinder’s snapping and yelling snapped Joseph out of his daze, “Ugh thanks Cinder…” He groused.

“You’re welcome!”

Joseph looked around and noticed he was back in the job room at the guild, shortly after he noticed this his teammates appeared beside him, “We’re back!” Riolu announced.

“Where did you get the lollipop?” Cinder asked.

“I gave it to her,” Specter answered, “I bought it just in case someone freaked out after going up dungeon stairs for the first time.”

“I should’ve thought of that, fortunately I didn’t have that problem with Slippy or Oshawott.”

“I’m just lucky the one lollipop was enough! I can’t imagine what would’ve happened if both of my teammates lost their cool!”

“You were also lucky lollipops are my favorite!” Riolu added.

“Well, I’ll be sure to keep that in mind going forward.”

“Shouldn’t we be looking for Cloak so we can tell them that we completed her request?” Joseph asked as he grew a little impatient.

“They should be here shortly, I marked the job as complete on the board so they have been notified.” Cinder explained.

“How does that work?”

“When you put in a job request here at the guild, you’re given a buzzer that goes off when the job is complete.”

“Ah, so it’s like a restaurant then.”

“Yeah, except instead of your food being finished, it’s your request.”

“That’s a thing?” Riolu asked.

“Yup, the restaurants in the Coast Continent have them, and I’ve heard there are some in the Crystal Continent have them too!” Cinder answered, “I was as surprised as you were when I first found out about that, since we don’t have that kind of tech back home.”

“That’s a little bizarre to me considering how much tech there is where I’m from, the world’s been practically overrun by the stuff.” Joseph commented.

“That sounds… eerie…”

“It is a little, but it’s not as scary as it could be.”

But before Joseph could update Cinder’s nightmare playlist with visions of nuclear fallout and the robot uprising, someone spoke up, “Hello! It’s me Cloak! My lost little explorer is ready for pickup, right?” the voice said.

Joseph turned around to see a purple fox like Pokémon with nine fluffy tails and fluffy fur to match, ‘Another shiny Pokémon!? Ok now there’s too many for this to be a lucky coincidence!’ He thought.

The Luxray turned to face the Pokémon, “Hey! I’m not anyone’s little explorer!” He shouted, blushing like a tomato under his fur.

“Haven’t you been like everywhere in our world?”

“Uh, well um, maybe…”

“Then you’re my little explorer as far as I’m concerned.”

“You’re from another world!?” Cinder gasped.

“Yup! Razor here and I are here for a bit of an interdimensional honeymoon of sorts.”

“I have no clue what that’s supposed to mean.” Specter sighed.

“We’re here celebrating the fact that we had an egg!”

“What!?” Team Echoes echoed in unison.

“Yup! I’m gonna be the mum of a fire type Vulpix!” Cloak beamed, “Well, assuming Razor hasn’t buggered it up too massively. You still have the egg, right, Razor?”

Razor looked into the picnic basket, “Yup, it’s still there! It’s still intact, too!”

“Brilliant! You have no clue how gutted I’d be if our little one got scrambled.”

“I thought all Vulpix were fire types though.” Cinder muttered to herself as she reviewed her notes on Vulpix.

Joseph heard Cinder’s muttering and decided to clear her confusion, “Cinder you remember how I said some Pokémon evolve differently based on their environment?”

“Yeah but how is that relevant to this?”

“Some Pokémon are just flat out different depending on where they come from, this is known as a regional variant, so for example Cloak here is an Alolan Ninetales and as the name implies there’s a high likelihood she’s from a place called Alola, although she could be from somewhere else if her parents were holding an Everstone.” Joseph explained, sounding like a huge nerd the whole time.

“That’s… Strange, I guess I’ll write that down.”

Joseph turned back towards where Cloak and Razor were standing, only to notice Cloak was right up in his face, “Uh, did I say something?” Joseph awkwardly asked.

“What did you say that Cyndaquil’s name was?”

“H-her name is Cinder, is there something wrong with that?”

“No, nothing’s wrong with it, I was just confirming something, on an unrelated note what’s your name?”

“Uh, Joseph ma’am.”

Cloak backed off and looked back at Razor then back at Joseph, “Do you have somewhere we can be a little more private?” Cloak asked.

“Y-you’re scaring me.” Joseph squeaked.

“Don’t be afraid! We’re not gonna do anything to you! We just need to tell you something very important!”

“Uh… Ok…?

Team Echoes took the couple to their room and closed the door, “Ok, this as private as we can get here.” Cinder assured them, “Please don’t do anything hast-” Cinder said before getting wrapped up in a hug from the couple.

The couple let go of Cinder after a few moments, “Christian told us to give you that.” Razor clarified.

“What!?” Cinder gasped, “You KNOW Christian!?”

“Yep! We’re his friends from his adventures as a human!” Cloak cheered.

“Then why are you here!? Shouldn’t you be searching for him?”

“He was able to meet back up with us and after Joseph’s little dream visit last night we were told to come see you guys.”

“Dream visit?” Riolu asked.

“I woke up back in that weird facility last night in my dreams, apparently I was brought there by the one who sent me into this world.”

“That’s strange…”

“We were told to give you this.” Cloak said as she pulled out a weird pink cloud from her bag and handed it to Cinder.

“What IS this!?” Cinder asked, absolutely perplexed by what she had just received.

“It’s Dream Mist, it should help you with your nightmares.”

“But how did Christian know I was having nightmares!?

“He said something about hearing you sleep talking at like 2 am one morning when he went to get water, y’know before all this happened.” Razor explained, “He also asked us to do this!” Razor exclaimed as he walked over to Joseph and zapped his watch.

“OW! What was that for!?” Joseph yelped.

“Check the time, then you’ll see.”

Joseph looked at his watch, “It says it’s 9:30… WAIT! What did you do!?”

“I may have corrupted the font on your watch to make it something you can actually read, you’re welcome.”

“I’m not even gonna begin to ask about how that works.”

“Good because I wasn’t given an explanation either.”

“Of course…”

“Well, I think that concludes what we have to say here.” Cloak said.

“B-but wait, is Christian gonna come and get me? If so when? I don’t know how much longer I can stay here!” Cinder stammered.

“All he told us is he needs you and Joseph here for the time being, whatever that means.” Razor sighed.

“Wha- What do you mean ‘he needs us here for the time being’!? Why’s he being so cryptic about this!?”

“He needs to, unfortunately, the IDPK won’t let him say much about what’s going on, all we know is danger is looming, and he needs you two here to deal with it.”

“What!? B-but I can’t save the world! I can barely even walk! The one fight I was in today only went well because I had the jump on my opponent!” Joseph stammered.

“And I’m the biggest failure on the face of the planet! How are we supposed to save this world!?” Cinder added.

“You might feel that way now, but you’re not fighting this threat now. By the time you are fighting the threat, whatever it may be, you’ll be ready for it.” Cloak assured them.

“Yeah, what she said!” Razor added.

“Oh yeah and Cinder, stop beating yourself up about what Chatot always said to you, he’s wrong and this is your chance to prove it!” Cloak cheered enthusiastically.

“Y-you’re right! I gotta stop beating myself up over this! If I don’t then I’ll just end up proving him right!” Cinder declared as she flared up her quills.

“I’m still not so sure about this… I mean again I can’t really function right now…” Joseph mumbled, “And this whole pep talk isn’t exactly giving me high hope either, I mean normally pep talks like these happen way later in a story.”

Razor put his paw on Joseph’s shoulder, “But this isn’t like other stories, so what if it isn’t structured like others, what matters is you making it a story worth sharing, or in this case one that can be shared at all I guess, I mean it’s kinda hard to share a story if the world it takes place in is gone. So give me, no, the world a story worth sharing!”

“Y-yeah! Yeah! I’ll give you a story so great you’ll tell it to your little one every night before bed!”

“That’s more like it! Now you just gotta prepare for whatever this world throws at you!”

“Yeah… it’s still a little awkward getting a pep talk like this before anything’s really happened.”

“What do you mean ‘before anything’s really happened’!?” Riolu shouted, “The entire Crag Continent is gone and Corviknight DIED when he went to go check up on what happened, not to mention the villagers of Purity Heights are also dead!”

“Well, it’s probably only going down hill from here, so we just gotta get as strong as we can so we can weather the storm when it arrives.” Joseph sighed.

“Yeah, I guess… we should probably focus on the present for right now, though.”

“Well, we best be heading off now, Arboliva is probably worried about our egg.” Cloak said.

“You met Arboliva?” Cinder asked.

“Yep… She just about had a go at me when I said that Razor went missing with our egg, even after I told her he’d probably be fine.”

“I’ve heard she gets like that sometimes, she’s just really passionate about helping other Pokémon.”

“Well, let’s hope passion doesn’t become paranoia somewhere down the road. I don’t know if I could handle getting dragged into the infirmary.”

“Yeah, I would say I don’t think I could handle it either, but Riolu here grabbed me by the tail and dragged me there on my first day here.” Joseph ribbed.

“Hey! I only did it because you couldn’t match my pace!” Riolu shot back.

“Oh boy…” Specter sighed. “Somebody grab the popcorn, because they’re gonna be bantering for a while”

“Well, have fun with that, we’re gonna go make sure Arboliva doesn’t ‘have a go’ at us.” Razor joshed.

“Are you making fun of my accent again?” Cloak asked.

“Uh, maybe?”

“Get over here, you twit!”

And just like that, Razor ripped the door open and ran out the room, Cloak chasing after him as they entered the hall. Meanwhile, Riolu and Joseph were still bantering as Cinder shut the door to the room again. Cinder sat back down next to Specter and started up a conversation, “So got any guesses on when they’re gonna stop?”

“Uh, yeah, right now.” Specter said before raising his voice towards Riolu and Joseph, “You two gonna keep bantering all day or are we gonna make the most of it?”

Joseph and Riolu cut the bantering short, “I wanna make the most of today, but it’s a bit late for that now, right?” Riolu asked.

Joseph checked his newly “fixed” watch, “It’s only like 9:48 am, we still got a while before it’s too late to really do anything.” He said.

“So what do we do now? It’s still super early in the morning, and we already completed our mission for today.”

“Well, we had a secondary objective for today, remember?” Specter reminded the group.

“Oh, yeah, we were gonna go look for a better place to stay.”

“Shouldn’t we have the whole team together for this discussion?” Joseph asked.

“Yeah, wait, where have Slippy and Oshawott been this whole time?”

“They went out after we finished our mission, they said they wanted to play around a bit.” Cinder answered.

“Well, should we go get them?” Riolu asked.

Joseph sighed, “Let me get my stuff sorted first, I still haven’t moved everything from the bag I got yesterday into my guild bag.” He said.

“I almost forgot about that, what’s even in that bag?” Cinder asked.

“A couple of TMs, some Sweet Hearts, and some berries. Nothing much, but it’d be nice to have it in with the rest of my stuff.”

“I understand, I should probably do the same with my old treasure bag.”

“What’s in there?”

“My diary, my Wonder Map, some Oran berries, my species log, some ink, and a whole lot of Chatot feathers. One of which I’ve torched and used as a writing utensil.”

“Why the feathers? Were you friends with a Chatot or something?” Riolu questioned.

“Absolutely not, I got the feathers from the head of intelligence of the guild back home. He freaked out because my friend stood up for me and utterly destroyed him in retaliation, I kept them out of spite.”

“I’m assuming you took the role of head of intelligence here out of spite as well.” Joseph guessed.

“Yep, it was Lanturn’s idea, if I ever see Chatot again, you best believe I’m rubbing this in his face!”

“I’ll hold you to that, from the little bit I’ve heard he sounds insufferable.”

“Right, now where were we? Oh, yeah, sorting our bags, let’s do that.”

Specter and Riolu moved towards the door, “Ok, you two have fun with that, we’re just gonna go catch up with the others.” Specter said as he and Riolu slipped out of the room.

On that note, Cinder and Joseph began sorting out their bags, while they were doing so Joseph had a question for Cinder, “What moves are on these TMs?” He asked.

“Let me see them real quick.” Cinder said as she reached a nublet towards Joseph, he handed her the TMs he had received yesterday and awaited her answer, “Let’s see… Well, we know this one’s Tera Blast because Lanturn told us… This one’s… Scale Shot…? I’ve never heard of that move before… And the last one’s Secret Power… A little underwhelming, but not terrible.”

“Secret Power!? That’s awesome! I might learn that right now!”

“Huh, why? It’s not that great of a move, You should only really use TMs if they have good moves on them.”

“Secret Power can be used outside of battles to make secret bases! We can make our team base a secret base!”

“It can? If so, why haven’t I heard anyone else mention this?”

“Probably because nobody knows what to look for, you have to find specific places to use it, like certain trees or shrubs and stuff.”

“That sounds… strange…”

“I’ll prove it to you if we can find a good spot.”

“Alright, I’ll hold you to that then. Do you want to learn it now?”

“I guess, I mean, I don’t exactly know how to use a TM though.”

“Oh, it’s pretty easy actually, you just take it out of its case and slap it on your forehead.”

“Ok…?” Joseph questioned as he took the TMs back from Cinder. Joseph took the TM for Secret Power out of its case and slapped it on his forehead, as he was instructed to do, suddenly he could feel a sort of energy flow into his head, it felt like somehow this energy was talking to him, giving him lessons on how so summon this strange power, and somehow he immediately understood, “Woah.” Joseph marveled after having his mind blown.

“See! Isn’t it great!?” Cinder exclaimed.

“Absolutely! It’s like instant knowledge! It’s almost magical!”

“I know right!? It’s so amazing, it’s just a shame I don’t really need TMs anymore.”

“You already have your moves planned out?”

“Yep, it’s a pretty simple set, but it’s one I’m confident in.”

“Well, I have no clue what my moves are so I probably should use my TMs.”

“Oh, you can check your moves on your watch.”

“I can!?”

“Yup, I was pretty shocked by that too.”

Joseph checked his watch, on the home screen there was an app labeled “moves” gee I wonder what this app does. Joseph opened the very creatively named app and checked his moves, “Let’s see it says I have: Secret Power, Leer, Double Kick, and Quick Attack.” He announced.

“I don’t think it can get much better than that right now, I mean, I don’t think you can learn Scale Shot, and we still don’t know what Tera Blast does.”

“I have a vague idea of what Tera Blast does, but I’m unsure if it does what I think it does here, either way though it’s probably better than Leer.” Joseph deducted as he opened the case for the Tera Blast TM and slapped it against his forehead and forgot how to use Leer even though he didn’t know how to use it in the first place.

“Wha- hey! Don’t just use TMs all willy-nilly like that!”

“I’m not wasting them! I’m just fixing my moves! I’m pretty sure I’m gonna keep these for a while!”

“Alright, but I’m not buying you more TMs if you ended up replacing those moves.”

Joseph went to put the used TMs in his bag, as he did this however he noticed the Tera Blast TM hadn’t lost its color like the other TM, “Hmm… Interesting…”

“What’s interesting?”

“The Tera Blast TM seems to still be usable somehow.”

“Wait really? Then why did we all get one?”

“I don’t know, maybe in case we ever get separated.”

“I really hope that doesn’t happen, I’ve already been separated from my friends once, I don’t need it to happen again.”

“Relax, I was only talking about temporarily, like if we were to split up and do two separate missions for the day or something.”

“Ah, ok, so in the event we want to learn it we won’t need to do it before splitting up, gotcha.”

“I mean, if Tera Blast does what I think it does then we shouldn’t really need more than one TM each, it’s just that good of a move.”

“What do you mean, ‘what you think it does’ have you heard of this move or something?”

“Yes I have, but it’s a bit peculiar so I’m unsure if it’s even the same move here.”

“What do you think it does?”

“Something very hard to explain without demonstrating it properly, I would recommend learning it and giving it a try.”

“I’ll pass for right now, I like my moves too much to get rid of one.”

“Alright, it’s your choice after all.”

Joseph put the TMs away and kept moving his stuff to his other bag, while Cinder looked at her Tera Blast TM, ‘Should I actually learn it? I mean, Defense Curl is good for making Rollout stronger, but it’s not really great for much else,’ She thought before just deciding, ‘whatever, I’ll mull this over later.’ She finished sorting her bag and waited patiently for Joseph to do the same.

“Alright, I’m done, let’s get going.” Joseph announced.

The two left their room and made their way to the guild’s entrance, once they got there they saw Nail having a chat with Litwick, “It’s been pretty chill today, although there was a visitor with a strange accent earlier, she’s supposed to be staying here for the next couple of days while Arboliva checks up on her egg.” Litwick said.

“Sounds strange… What did their accent sound like?” Nail asked.

“It’s pretty hard to replicate, but she said the phrase ‘have a go’ a lot, no idea what they meant by that.”

“That sounds oddly familiar… Do you know where she went?”

“She should be somewhere around town, she went out on a picnic.”

“Got it I’ll be back in a little bit.”

Nail shot out of the door like a bullet, which caught Litwick off guard, “O-ok bud…” He uttered.

Cinder and Joseph walked up to Litwick’s post, “You good bud?” Joseph asked.

“I’ve never seen Nail move that fast!” Litwick responded.

“Well, he is a pretty fast Pokémon, you’d know that if you’ve fought him before.” Cinder explained.

“Well I’ve never had to so I haven’t.”

“You should be thankful you’ve never had to, some of us here haven’t been so lucky.”

“Well, nobody’s forced you to spar with him, Cinder.” Joseph reminded Cinder.

“Maybe not, but I still had to fight him when I woke up in this world. He came so close to killing me that day.”

“Pfft, you’re overexaggerating, there’s no way he could have-“

“I passed out in a puddle of my own blood, and I woke up here with a huge bandage on my belly! I think it’s safe to say he did almost kill me!”

“Never mind! Jeez that’s scary!”

“Yeah, thankfully I’ve seen worse injuries, otherwise I’d probably be having nightmares about that.”

“Why’d you two get into a fight anyway?”

“We were in a dungeon, he was lost and afraid, he hadn’t been in a dungeon before that point so he thought I was a feral, he attacked me without a second thought, I won the fight, but he gave me a nasty injury as a last trick and we both passed out, Lanturn found us and healed us up the best he could with the supplies he had, Nail offered to carry me here as fast as he could so Lanturn could treat my wound properly, If it weren’t for Nail realizing his mistake I would have been a goner.” Cinder explained.

“Woah, sounds hectic.”

“It was, I hope I don’t have another day like that for a while.”

“For a while!? Wouldn’t you never want to have another day like that!?”

“Normally I’m all for almost dying, but I would prefer almost dying because I was outrunning a boulder or fighting my way out of a monster house, not because I passed out from blood loss.”

“I personally would rather not almost die at all, thank you.”

“Well, that’s the risk you accept when you enter a Mystery Dungeon so I would get used to it if I were you.”

Joseph shuddered, “Can we just get going? This topic is making me uncomfortable.” He said shakily.

“Fine, I’ll stop talking about death… For now.”

Cinder and Joseph waved Litwick goodbye as they left the guild and hit the road towards town.

---

January 22nd, 10:00 am

Sunset Square

Coast Continent

---

Cinder and Joseph arrived in town, but there still was no sign of the rest of their team, they did however spot Razor and Cloak chilling out and having a nice picnic brunch under a pretty big tree. The two walked over to the couple’s picnic and greeted them, “Howdy you two!” Cinder beamed as she waved at the couple.

“Hey Cinder! How’s it going?” Cloak replied.

“It’s going good, I was just wondering if you saw our teammates anywhere.”

“You mean the Eevee and the Riolu, yeah we saw them pass by not too long ago, they were chasing a Spheal and an Oshawott, they said something about a huge tree somewhere.”

“Which way did they go?”

Cloak and Razor both pointed in the direction that the younger members of Team Echoes were running, giggling when they realized they had both pointed in unison.

“Thanks!” Cinder beamed as she and Joseph began sprinting off towards where the couple had pointed.

The two ran for a bit before reaching a giant tree on the outskirts of Sunset Square, once there they noticed the rest of the team was just… staring… and who could blame them this tree was pretty huge, it appeared to be an oak tree or at least something similar to an oak tree, the leaves were still attached to the tree despite it being January, although that could’ve been because of the Coast Continent always having warmer weather year round. Strangely, there seemed to be no gaps in between the leaves, like at all, it was almost as if the leaves were hiding something.

Cinder and Joseph joined back up with the rest of their teammates, “That’s a pretty big tree, huh.” Joseph remarked.

“Pretty big!? It’s GIGANTIC!” Riolu shouted.

Specter sighed, “If only we could turn this thing into a base somehow…” He said.

Joseph walked up the tree and took a deep breath, “I might be able to make that happen, actually.” He said.

“How? It’s not like we can just turn this thing into a house or something.”

“Just sit back and watch.”

Joseph began to summon the power he had learned from the TM, gaining a soft green glow, he channeled the power into his paw and lightly tapped the tree, the soft green glow transferred from Joseph to the tree and after a few moments a vine fell down from the top of the tree, leading into a newly formed gap in the leaves.

“W-what did you just do!?” Specter shouted in surprise.

“Climb the vine, I’ll show you.”

Joseph climbed up the vine, leaving his teammates in awe as they were still processing the beautiful sight they had just witnessed.

“Should we follow him?” Slippy asked.

“I guess, I mean, it feels kinda rude not to after he did whatever that was.” Cinder responded.

---

January 22nd, 10:18 am

Giant Freaking Tree

Coast Continent

---

The rest of Team Echoes climbed up the vine and entered the gap in the leaves, once they entered they noticed a huge house had formed on the inside of the tree’s leaves, “Check it out! It’s even bigger on the inside!” Joseph exulted.

“What the- h-how did you do this?” Specter asked.

“I got a TM for Secret Power yesterday, Secret Power allows you to make secret bases out of certain things in the environment such as trees or shrubs.”

“Well, I guess our housing situation is situated, this place is like a full on house!”

“I know! There’s full on rooms for everyone and everything! I actually think there’s a little too much space!”

“That’s a good thing! We could always give the extra rooms to new recruits!” Cinder exulted.

“Plus, it gives us plenty of space for furniture.” Riolu added.

“Oh yeah, we don’t have like anything here, I mean each room has a leaf bed but other than that we’ve got nothing.” Joseph sighed.

Cinder laughed, “I can fix that.” She said.

“How would we even get it up here, though?”

“You’ll see.” Cinder said as she made her way back to the entrance, “I’ll be right back!” She announced.

“Well, on that note, I’m gonna go gather our stuff from our room, you guys pick your rooms or something.” Riolu said before she also left the base.

The remaining members of the team picked their rooms and patiently awaited the return of their teammates. Joseph decided to pass the time by testing out his new leaf bed, he hopped onto the pile of leaves and began to lay down, ‘I think I like this better than the straw bed, but I would still love to have a normal bed.’ He thought.

He got out of the bed and left his very empty room, back in the main room Slippy and Specter were chatting, “This place is even soundproofed! It’s amazing!” Slippy bubbled.

“It is!? That’s crazy! And I was surprised by the fact there were full on rooms with doors and beds! Mine even has a window!” Specter exulted.

“How does any of this make sense!? How does a tree just have the perfect house hidden in its leaves!?”

“I don’t know, but I’m not complaining! This place is awesome!”

A few moments later, Riolu returned, carrying a couple of books, some ink, and the Mystery Box that Joseph had received from Gimmighoul. She set everything down on the floor, “Alright, that’s everything Lanturn would let me take from our room, unfortunately we still don’t have a table to put it on.” She said.

“What’s with the weird box?” Specter asked.

“I don’t know, Joseph asked Gimmighoul if he could have it, and now it’s with us.”

“What’s in it?”

“According to Gimmighoul, nothing… like actually nothing… there was never anything in it.”

“Why would anyone want it then?”

“I don’t know, maybe because it looks cool? I don’t get it either.”

Joseph took the box back, “If I’m not mistaken this box is meant for something.” He clarified.

“Meant for what? Taking up space?” Riolu quipped.

“No, it’s meant for summoning a mythical Pokémon.”

“HA! Good one Joseph!”

“I’m being serious! It can summon a mythical Pokémon called Meltan!”

Specter brushed Joseph off, “I’ll believe it when I see it.” He said.

A few moments later, there was rustling coming from near the entrance to the base, someone was climbing the vine. Everyone assumed it was just Cinder so they didn’t pay it any mind until the Pokémon climbed all the way up the vine, revealing they indeed weren’t Cinder but rather a Meltan with an impeccable sense of timing instead.

“GIVE ME THAT BOX BACK!” The Meltan shouted.

“Who are you exactly?” Slippy asked.

The Meltan answered by firing possibly the weakest Thunder Shock the world has ever seen, which missed might I add, it didn’t even manage to leave a mark on the floor it was that pathetic.

Everyone began to laugh except for Joseph who facepalmed, “That’s supposed to be threatening!?” Riolu laughed.

“What are you gonna do? Joy buzz us to death?” Specter quipped.

“Um… right… I may have overestimated my abilities…” The Meltan said before sighing, “I miss my old body.” It whimpered.

“Poor guy…” Joseph muttered.

The Meltan turned around, “Just keep the box… I’ll never be strong enough to take it back anyway…” It moped.

Just as the Meltan went to slide back down the vine, Cinder popped up in front of it, “Woah! What are you!?” She asked.

“It doesn’t matter… I’ll never be what I used to be…” The Meltan answered apathetically.

“Wha- who hurt you little guy?”

The Meltan didn’t respond, it just slid past Cinder and towards the vine.

Cinder scooped the Meltan into her arms, “I’m not gonna let you run away from your problems, just tell me what’s wrong.” She said.

“The box… I lost the box…”

“The box? What box?”

“The box that Shinx has…”

“You mean this one?” Joseph asked as he brought the box to the Meltan.

The Meltan’s face lit up, “Yes, that one! I need it to regrow!”

“Regrow?” Cinder questioned.

“Yes regrow! I was once a massive Pokémon known as Melmetal, but I got old, and I crumbled away, I was reborn as a small little pathetic Meltan and I need to use that box to regrow back into a Melmetal.”

“I’m not exactly sure I follow, but you’re welcome to stay with us so you can use the box!”

“Are those meanies gonna be here?”

“Meanies!? You attacked first!” Joseph interjected.

“They made fun of my attack!”

“Oh boy…” Cinder sighed, “I think you should go apologize, little guy.”

“B-but they-“

“No buts! If you want them to apologize you need to apologize first.”

“Fine… But what if they think I’m gonna attack them again?”

“They won’t, I’ll be right beside you the whole time.”

“You will? Thank you!”

“Don’t mention it, bud.”

Joseph, Cinder, and the Meltan walked back towards the main room of the base. Once they reached the main room, they noticed the ‘meanies’ sitting in a circle on the floor, having a chat about what they wanted to decorate their rooms with, “I would love to have a training dummy in my room.” Riolu said.

“That’d be cool,” Specter responded, “I really want something that gives off that psychic vibe, like a crystal ball or something.”

“I want a lava lamp!” Slippy bubbled.

“Wouldn’t we need electricity for that?”

“Yeah, but I could just ask Joseph to power it!”

“I’m sure he would appreciate spending all his energy to power your lava lamp.”

“Ahem!” Cinder called out, gaining the attention of the others, “Our little buddy here would like to apologize.” She said as she set the Meltan down in front of her and gave it a slight push towards the group.

The Meltan awkwardly introduced itself, “Uh, hi, I’m Tiny, and I believe we got off on the wrong foot.”

“Got off on the wrong foot!? You tried to attack us!” Riolu shouted.

“Emphasis on tried.” Specter added.

“Look! I know I tried to attack you, but you don’t understand I need that box, otherwise I’ll be stuck this small and pathetic forever!”

“So you figured attacking us would be the best way to get it back?”

“Well, it would’ve been if I still had my old body, but unfortunately I lost it 3,000 years ago.”

“Excuse me?”

“3,000 years ago I was a Melmetal, a fierce giant that would easily crush any of you in one fell swoop, but as all Melmetal eventually do, I crumbled, effectively putting me in a 3,000-year slumber. When I woke up yesterday, I noticed I returned to my weak little Meltan body, I’m still readjusting to my whole form change so I tried to act like the metal giant I once was, but unfortunately I’m not exactly what you would call a giant anymore.”

“So what you’re saying is you wanted to tear us apart, but you were stopped by your feeble body.”

“Well, not really, I just needed that box back and my instincts told me to take it back by force.”

“Oh, so it wasn’t personal got it.” Slippy said.

“Why didn’t you just ask politely?” Riolu asked very unceremoniously.

“Again I was acting on instinct and at that moment my instincts were telling me ‘get the box back at all costs’.”

“Sounds like a lousy excuse but whatever apology accepted I guess.”

“Don’t you guys have something to apologize for too?” Cinder hinted.

“Oh yeah, sorry for making fun of you little dude.”

Slippy tilted his head a bit, “I think she’s a girl.” He said with a little uncertainty.

“Wait AM I!?” Tiny gasped, “Did I really get reborn as a girl!? I mean, it sure sounds like I did with the way my voice sounds! I really hope not! That would be so awkward!”

“Maybe you just got a different voice,” Cinder thought, “I mean, having a high-pitched voice doesn’t make you a girl.”

“I mean, that could be the case… but either way my voice makes me uncomfortable, and I haven’t really been feeling like myself, ya know besides the whole metal giant thing.”

“Well, that’s probably because you’ve been dead for like 3,000 years, you’re probably still readjusting to the plain of the living.” Joseph proposed.

“That’s not a thing that we Meltan experience. I don’t know how to explain it though, despite the fact that we don’t lay eggs and the fact that there’s virtually no difference between male and female Meltan I still feel like a girl.”

“Maybe that’s exactly it, maybe gender isn’t a thing for Meltan so instead they just go with what they feel like.”

“You know what, I’ll roll with it just so we can get off this topic.”

“Agreed.”

Specter opted to change the topic, “So Cinder, did you get any furniture, I would love to deck out my room.” He said.

“I did! I tried to get a wide variety of stuff for everyone, and by that I mean I just bought everything in the furniture store.”

“You did WHAT!?” Riolu blurted.

“Where did you get enough Poké to afford that!?” Specter questioned.

“I’ve done tons of jobs since arriving here, and since Lanturn didn’t take a cut from any of them, I amassed a hefty amount of Poké, not enough to buy me happiness though.” Cinder explained.

“How much is a ‘hefty amount’?” Joseph asked, concerned as to how much Cinder actually spent.

“It doesn’t matter, I’ve only got 100,000 Poké left after that little splurge session.”

“That’s still a ton of Poké.”

“I know, but I’m not spending any of it any time soon, you guys are gonna have to buy everything from here out, well unless we go out to eat or something then I’ll still pay my share of the bill, but that’s the only exception!”

“Next question, How on earth do you expect to get all that stuff here!?”

“Like this.” Cinder said confidently as she poured her bag out onto the floor, spilling out a mountain of cardboard boxes.

“Holy…” Specter marveled, “When did your bag get big enough to fit all that stuff in it!?”

“It’s not about my bag being big, it’s about it being magic.”

Joseph sighed, “Let me guess the cardboard boxes are magical too.” He said in a defeated tone.

“Yep! You don’t sound very surprised by that.”

“Well yeah I’m not, name one thing here that isn’t magical.”

“Good point… I mean, if it weren’t for some weird magical power, we wouldn’t even be here right now.”

“I rest my case.”

Oshawott walked out of his room only to bear witness to the giant mountain of cardboard boxes filling the main room, “I took a nap for like 30 minutes and I come back to find this, what did I miss?”

“Cinder bought every item in stock at a furniture store, and she refuses to tell us how much it costed her.” Riolu explained, “Oh, yeah, and we got attacked by this little bundle of confusion.” She said as she lifted Tiny up and showed her(?) to Oshawott.

“Uh, hello…” Tiny said, waving awkwardly.

“Do you know what it is?” Oshawott asked.

“I’m a Meltan, I’m also very uncomfortable and want to be put back down now.”

“Oh, s-sorry…” Riolu said as she set Tiny back down.

Cinder approached the mountain of boxes, “If you guys want to like sift through the boxes and look for some stuff to put in your rooms, then you’re more than welcome too.” She offered, “I’m just gonna grab these and go.” She said as she grabbed two boxes, one was labeled “plushies” and the other was labeled “shelves”, “Oops I forgot one.” She said as she picked up one more labeled “Chatot voodoo doll” and left for her room.

The rest of Team Echoes (and Tiny) started sifting through the massive mountain of cardboard boxes, reading the labels on each one to see if they contained anything they would want.

“A SLIDE!? YIPPEE!” Slippy whooped.

“A skeleton Aerodactyl poster? It’s so edgy… I like it!” Specter declared.

“Hey, look at that! It’s a training dummy!” Riolu exulted.

This went on for a few hours, someone would find something they wanted and take it for their room, surprisingly there wasn’t any fighting, there was such a wide variety of stuff that nobody felt the need to fight over anything, which sounds crazy given the fact that everyone on Team Echoes seems to have at least one common interest with one another. They briefly took a break when Cinder brought them lunch, but for the most part they just kept going, even using the spare furniture to deck out the main room into a sort of lounge. Finally, when they were finished, they had something they could definitively call their own base.

---

January 22nd, 7:00 pm

Team Echoes’ Base

Coast Continent

---

Team Echoes had spent all day decorating every square inch of their base, they even put a picnic table and some umbrellas outside, but it was getting somewhat late and Cinder’s stomach was starting to do its usual volcano impression, so the team decided to call it there and go get some food, but before they did that Cinder had something to say.

“Before we go and make the pointless trek back to the guild, I would like to present one last addition to the base.” She announced. She then threw down a heavy metal plate, “The guild master said I could put one of these warp panels here so we could easily access the guild from here.”

“That’s convenient.” Joseph remarked, “Where does it lead on the other side though?”

“It should lead back to our old room so we’ll be close to the dining hall.”

“Let’s just hope Joseph doesn’t get all nauseous from teleporting this time.” Specter sighed.

“He shouldn’t have that problem this time, usually that only happens if it’s someone’s first time teleporting.” Cinder explained.

“That was his first time teleporting?” Riolu asked.

“Yes it was, because unlike you guys, I grew up in a world where magic is all fake and teleportation is impossible with the technology available.” Joseph grumbled.

“How did you go like anywhere without teleporting? Even the Crag Continent uses teleportation, and we didn’t have any of the weird technology stuff they have here!”

“We used cars and planes and other vehicles. They got us from point A to point B so much faster than if we just walked everywhere.”

“Sounds weird, I wonder what that stuff is like. I wonder what your whole world is like.”

“Maybe if you wish on enough stars we’ll end up going on a little adventure back in my world but I wouldn’t count on it considering I still don’t even know how to get back home!”

“We’ll figure it out when we get there, but for now, let’s just go get some food.”

So Team Echoes warped back to the guild and ate dinner, nothing really that notable happened while they were eating, although Specter really loved the crystal Duskull chandelier that lit up the dining hall that night.

After they had their dinner, they left the guild and returned to their base. Once they had returned to their base, Joseph had an idea, “What if we all did room tours of our rooms.” He suggested.

“That sounds like a great idea!” Praised Cinder, “I mean, if you guys are comfortable with us invading your personal space a little, that is.”

“Well, you’re probably gonna barge into my room at some point, so sure, why not.” Riolu sassed.

“Is everyone else ok with us doing room tours?”

The rest of the group nodded their heads, Tiny nodding her(?) head so hard it fell off, leaving her (you know what, yeah her.) eye floating above the rest of her body. Everybody looked at her funny when this happened, well except for Joseph who saw this coming.

“Uh, I think you dropped something.” Specter said awkwardly.

“Eep! My head!” Tiny squealed as she felt around the area where her head should have been, confirming it did indeed fall off.

Tiny’s head fell in front of Slippy, who proceeded to hand it back to Tiny, “Here ya go buddy.” He said as he handed it back to Tiny.

“Thanks buddy.” Tiny replied.

Tiny put her head back on her shoulders, making sure to avoid poking herself in the eye in the process.

“That was… A little strange…” Cinder noted, “How did your head just fall off?”

“It’s not attached to my body very well, so if I move too quickly, it can just fall off.”

“That’s kinda weird, does it reattach when you put it back?”

“Yeah, it still doesn’t change the fact that until I evolve, I’m just gonna keep dropping it.”

“That’s a little unfortunate…” Joseph said sympathetically, “Although I think we could use this to our advantage.”

“How does my head falling off help us in any way?”

“Well, shiny objects are inherently distracting for one thing, but I was thinking we could use your head to determine who shows off their room first.”

“You’re not spinning me around and seeing where my head lands! I disapprove of that idea!”

“I was just gonna say Slippy’s up first because he picked up your head first.”

“Oh, well, I’m fine with that. Lead the way, Slippy!”

“Alright! C’mon guys, follow me!” Slippy bubbled as he began to hop through the base and towards his room.

The team followed Slippy to his room through the hall and to his room, the door was wide open revealing the massive slide at the center of the room and various other toys sprawled out across the room. The room looked like that of a toddler’s but given Slippy’s bubbly personality and the fact that Spheal as a species are pretty childish by nature. The team walked into the room fully to see crayon drawings of some of the Pokémon Slippy had met at the guild, there were even some drawings of them too!

“Wow, it’s so vibrant!” Praised Cinder.

“You like it!?” Slippy asked as he stood in the middle of his creation, looking like a little kid showing his mother his freshly cleaned room.

“I do! It’s bright and bubbly, just like you!”

“Thank you!”

“This place is like the complete opposite of my room,” Specter added. “I actually like it a lot because of that.”

“Wait really!? Thank you!”

“You’re welcome bud. Oh, yeah, did you end up getting that lava lamp you wanted?”

“Yup! It’s in the corner there!” Slippy smiled as he pointed a flipper towards the lava lamp.

“How is that on? There’s no electricity!”

“It’s crystal powered! It doesn’t need any!”

“Oh, that’s cool!”

The rest of the team complimented Slippy’s room and after deciding on whose room to tour next they walked to Specter’s room next, “Ok, prepare to be amazed!” He said as he swung the door open. His room looked about like what you’d expect from an edgy ex-criminal preteen, skulls, bones, roses, flames, the whole nine yards, there were also posters of various Pokémon that would fit said aesthetic such as Zoroark and Midnight Lycanroc.

“Wow, I feel like I might cut myself on all this edge.” Joseph ribbed, “I don’t mean that in a bad way though, it looks pretty nice, actually.”

“Thanks! I was worried you guys weren’t gonna like it.” Specter said as he gave a sigh of relief.

“I mean, it shouldn’t really matter what we think though, this is your room you shouldn’t let us dictate what you are and aren’t allowed to put in it.”

“Huh, I guess you’re right… Well, in that case, go ahead and say all the mean things you want! I’m not gonna let any of it get to me!”

“I’m pretty sure that’s not how it works…” Riolu muttered.

“Just let him have it.” Oshawott whispered back.

“This room looks perfect for a future Umbreon!” Cinder commented.

“Well, I’m not sharing my room, so if an Umbreon joins our team they can get their own room!” Specter protested.

“Wait, do you not want to evolve into an Umbreon?”

“Nope! I’m gonna become an Espeon one day!”

“Wow, I never would’ve guessed! That’s kinda cool though! I would love to have a psychic type on our team!”

“I think we all would! Psychic is one of the coolest types!”

“This room kinda implies otherwise.” Riolu ribbed.

“I mean not really, I have a couple of psychic themed items as well, like that crystal ball I wanted!” Specter said as he pointed towards a round table with a small mirror and a crystal ball on it.

“Ooh, can you read my fortune?” Slippy asked.

“Uh, I can try, but it’s probably not going to be very accurate.”

“Yay, fortune reading time!”

The entire team gathered around the crystal ball, with Specter sitting closest to it. Specter took a deep breath, “Ok, let’s see here…” He gulped as he waved his paws over the crystal ball in an attempt to imitate what he had seen fortune-tellers do when telling fortunes. After a few moments of nothing happening, he was going to call it quits, but something appeared in the crystal ball, “I got something!?” Specter exclaimed, perplexed by the fact he had successfully gotten something to appear in the crystal ball.

“What do you see!?” Slippy eagerly asked, practically jumping out of his seat in excitement.

“Uh, I see… A Spheal with a bandage on his head talking with another Spheal that’s wearing an orange Tera Scarf.”

“What are they saying?”

“They’re… Talking about going down the slide in your room…”

“That’s strange, so the one in the orange scarf is me then.”

“That’s what it looks like…”

“That was… Anticlimactic…” Cinder sighed, “Maybe mine will be better?”

“We’ll see, I guess, Slippy switch spots with Cinder.”

Slippy did as instructed, and Cinder sat in front of the crystal ball, eagerly awaiting her fortune.

Specter took another deep breath and did the thing he did before, a couple of moments later he saw another vision in the crystal ball, “I got something again!” He announced.

“What is it this time?”

“I see… Cinder and Joseph going to the Kecleon shop… There’s a Quilava there… He’s just shopping… Oh? He turned to Cinder, and he’s saying he knows her? His face is pretty heavily scarred and one of his eyes has lost most of its color… Wha- the vision ended abruptly!”

“Wh-wha-“

“I’m just as confused as you are! He didn’t even give you his name before he moved kinda suddenly towards you and the vision cut before I could even see why he did that!”

“Th-that’s a little unsettling…”

“Yeah… Maybe it’s best if we don’t read any more fortunes…”

Oshawott shuddered, “Agreed! Let’s just move on to the next room tour!” He fretted.

The team quickly left Specter’s room after they were spooked by the crystal ball’s visions, and after a brief discussion, they decided to check out Cinder’s room next.

Upon entering they noticed it was still pretty empty, only having a few shelves with some plushies, a table, and a voodoo doll of a Chatot with an ungodly amount of pins through its wings, “Jeez! What happened to this Chatot doll!?” Oshawott shrieked.

“It’s a voodoo doll, it’s supposed to represent hatred towards someone in particular, like a teacher or a co-worker.” Joseph explained.

“Or the head of Intelligence at Wigglytuff’s guild in the Grass Continent.” Cinder added, “Just as an example, ya know?”

“Cinder, your hate towards Chatot is almost obsessive at this point, you sure you’re still ok in there?”

“I’m fine! I’m just full of spite!”

“Well, as long as you keep that thing away from any lava, I’m fine with it, I don’t wanna find out that he’s this world’s guide or something.”

The entire team looked at Joseph and collectively said “Huh?”

“Oh, uh, don’t worry about it, it’s from a game I played once…”

“Ok…” Cinder said as she turned around, “Well, over here, we have a shelf with plushie versions of me and all my friends from back home.”

The shelf had 4 plushies, a Cyndaquil, a Lucario, a Spheal, and a Shinx. There was also a strange object that appeared to be a badge of some sort with a pair of wings attached to it, the badge was placed next to the plushies, “Hey Cinder, what’s this?” Riolu asked, picking up the strange object and pulling it up to one of her eyes.

“It’s my old team badge from back home, it lost all its color when I got here, I’m still holding onto it in hopes that I can use it again when I finally do get back home.”

“Why did it lose its color?”

“Because it stopped working, I think it stopped working because this world’s magic is a little different from the magic back home.”

“It looks so sad and lifeless… Almost like part of it actually died when you entered this world…” Joseph lamented.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought too… It made me cry, seeing the once vibrant gem in the middle turn pitch black, it’s so depressing…”

“I think we should move on before we all start tearing up.” Riolu suggested.

“Good idea.” Cinder muttered.

“Ooh! Can I go next?” Tiny asked.

“Sure why not?”

So Tiny’s room was up next, as the team entered they noticed plants, plants everywhere, everything from flowers to Venus flytraps there were all kinds of plants everywhere.

“Woah, it’s so flammable.” Cinder ribbed.

“DO NOT SET MY ROOM ON FIRE!” Tiny boomed.

“Ok, ok, chill! I was only kidding!”

“You better be! Or else I’ll eat that badge in your room!”

“You’ll what!?”

“I’ll eat it! Meltan eat metal, and that badge of yours was looking really tasty.”

“Is that why you ate your fork?” Oshawott questioned.

“Yup! I’m looking forward to eating the tray next time!”

“Please don’t do that, I’ll probably have to pay Lanturn back for the tray, and I’m trying to save my money back up after the stunt I pulled today.” Cinder pleaded.

“Alright, I better not see any fire then, one spark and it’s done, got it?”

Cinder nodded her head, “Should I like, cover up my flame spots?”

“No, I feel like that’s a little extra.”

Cinder let out a relieved sigh, “Good, I’d feel super uncomfortable with that…”

“Is wearing a jacket really that uncomfortable?” Joseph asked.

“What’s a jacket?”

“Oh right, I forgot, Pokémon don’t wear human clothes here…”

“Oh, so it’s a human thing, got it, uh yeah it probably would be a little uncomfortable then.”

“How were you planning to cover up your flame spots then?”

“Tape.”

“I think that would’ve just made everyone uncomfortable.” Riolu added.

“That’s what I’m saying!” Joseph blurted.

“Whatever, we don’t have to worry about it so let’s stop talking about it.”

The team looked around the room again and noticed all the furniture was plant themed to match the high amount of plants in the room, Slippy was a little curious about this and decided to ask, “Did you make your room like this because of your whole gender situation?”

“No! Well, not entirely anyway… I wanted to fill my room with stuff that I wouldn’t eat, so anything metal was off the table.” Tiny explained, “I’ve always been a fan of the overgrown aesthetic so I decided this would be the perfect opportunity to try it out, the flowers however I added because girly instinct took over.”

“Ugh… Again with the whole ‘girly’ thing? Look, just because you feel like a girl or are a girl doesn’t mean you have to act stereotypically girly…” Joseph groaned.

“I’m actually embracing it though. For some reason, I’m actually starting to like it, despite my initial reaction.”

“Oh, well, good on you then.” Oshawott smiled.

“Thanks! It’s always comforting to know someone’s supporting my decision to reinvent myself!”

“You’re welcome! I kinda know how it feels, given I have amnesia.”

“Wait you do!? That’s terrible!”

“It might seem that way, but it could also be a great opportunity to reinvent myself, and that’s what I plan to do.”

“That’s an interesting way to look at it.” Cinder commented.

“I’ll be with you every step of the way, buddy.” Riolu assured him.

“Well then, I’d like to announce my first step towards reinventing myself, I’d like everyone to call me Sammy from now on.”

“A-are you sure!? You said you were fine with your name being Oshawott.”

“No, old me said that, the new me, Sammy, wants to be called Sammy.” Oshawott, no, Sammy said with a chuckle.

“Well, if it makes you happy then… Sammy it is!”

“Thank you Riolu. I knew you’d understand.”

“That leaves Riolu as the only one without a nickname.” Cinder pointed out.

“I’m still open to suggestions if anyone’s got one for me.”

“I actually thought of one for you.” Joseph replied.

“What is it?”

“Rory.”

“I like it! It’s short and simple, just like my old name!”

“Phew, I was afraid I put all the effort into thinking of a name for you just for you to say you didn’t like it.”

“How hard is it to come up with a name!?”

“It’s pretty hard, especially when it’s a name for someone else.”

“It’s just a name! How is it that difficult!?”

“Well just as an example, my thought process for your name was, thinking about something that pertains to you, I went with aura because of Lucario having aura abilities, then I played around with that word, I eventually rhymed aura with aurora, then I played with that word, aurora, rora, Rory, thus deciding your name.”

“I think you’re just over complicating things, but I respect your efforts nonetheless.”

“Thank you.”

“I guess we all have proper names now.” Cinder said.

“Yup! Now we won’t get confused with other Pokémon of our species!” Sammy exulted.

“On that note, let’s continue our little tour thingie, Sammy, you wanna go next?”

“Sure! Follow me guys!”

The team followed Sammy to his room, upon entering their eyes were bombarded by colorful shells and various other beach themed items, pretty standard for a water type, especially one with a shell on his stomach. What wasn’t standard however was a GIANT sword mounted on the wall.

“Woah! What’s with the giant sword!?” Joseph asked.

“Well, I’m gonna wield two of them when I become a Samurott so I thought it would be fitting, besides who else was gonna display a sword this big anyway?” Sammy asked rhetorically.

“I mean, I thought it would be fitting for Joseph to have it because of the legends from my world, but I guess this works too.” Cinder said.

“I think the sword really ties this place together, y’know.”

“I agree, a giant sword is a must-have for any room.” Joseph ribbed.

Sammy chuckled, “I’m glad we’re all on the same page.”

“It’s getting kinda late, should we just speed run the last two rooms?” Joseph asked.

“I guess so,” Cinder replied, “Rory, you wanna go next?”

“I guess.”

The team quickly moved into Rory’s room next, her room was like a mini dojo, there were multiple training dummies made out of hay, they looked somewhat humanoid, although they had the ears and tail of a Riolu and they stood up on wooden stands instead of legs. Rory demonstrated her Vacuum Wave on one of the dummies, the dummy was knocked back a little on its stand, but it wobbled back into place shortly after her attack.

“Pretty neat, huh.” Riolu remarked.

“Yeah! Now we can train whenever we want!” Specter exulted as he pumped his fist.

“I’m starting to feel like my joke about Cinder’s voodoo doll wasn’t as out of place as I thought it was, that training dummy looks like the one from the game I was talking about.” Joseph commented.

“Well, it’s probably just a coincidence. I think it’s time to wrap this whole thing up though, Joseph, lead the way to your room!”

Joseph did as instructed, leading his teammates straight to his room, once there he revealed it to them, it was a bit strange to say the least, well to them anyway, to Joseph it was perfectly normal because it was an exact replica of his room from home.

“What’s with this place? It feels… wrong somehow.” Rory mentioned.

“It’s my room from my house back home! Well, a replica of it at least…”

“Oh, that’s why it feels so alien because in a way it is.”

“Why is there a hospital bed here? And where are its wheels?” Sammy asked.

“It’s not a hospital bed, human beds are just like that!.”

“Where did you get a human bed from, Cinder?”

“I got it from the back of the furniture store, they said it was just found somewhere, they don’t know why it was there, but they just found it a few days ago.”

“Did they even know it was a human bed?”

“Nope, it was labeled as a ‘feathery bed’, I can tell you one thing though, there aren’t any feathers on that bed.”

“Yep, a more accurate name would be like the ‘springy bed’ or the ‘strange bed’ or something.” Joseph thought.

“Well, on that note, I think it’s time for bed.” Specter yawned, “‘Night friends.”

“‘Night!” the team said in unison as they all returned to their rooms.

Joseph got up and closed the door to his room and jumped onto his now oversized human bed, ‘Somehow this still feels right even though I’m not a human anymore.’ He thought, ‘I wonder if Christian’s gonna contact me tonight. I feel like we wouldn’t get very far with how much has happened today. It’d still be nice to try to pry more info out of him, though.’

Joseph readjusted his position on the bed and closed his eyes, ‘Well in the event that he does try to contact me I should at least try to make sure I get a good night’s rest, I wouldn’t wanna be all cranky tomorrow morning.’ He thought. Shortly after, he fell asleep, awaiting whatever dreams may come.

---

Yeah, this chapter was like twice as long as I initially wanted it to be, you can thank the room tours for that. I mean, I could have just left it at “Team Echoes toured each other’s rooms, it was fun, they had fun.” but I liked writing about what each of the character’s rooms looked like, it was fun and I think doing it here is probably better than detracting from one of the more tense chapters to be all like “Joseph entered Rory’s room for the first time since they had moved into the tree base, *Insert Terraria refere- I mean room description here*” oh yeah and in case you didn’t get what game Joseph was referencing it was Teraria, both with the voodoo doll joke and with the dummies which are also supposed to be loosely based off the ones from Teraria. Definitely not the last time I’ll be referencing Teraria or any other games for that matter (*cough* *cough* Chapter 5 *cough* *cough*) but it’s probably one of the few times I’m gonna be as on the nose about it. Now on to chapter 5- wait, what month is it again? Ah crap… (Context: this chapter was finished the week before Halloween, needless to say, the next chapter’s gonna be… interesting…)