Chapter 7: Relics Of The Past

Small Edit on 12/27/23, I updated something later in the chapter to hopefully make more sense. (It’s been bugging me for a while)

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Hello again! This chapter’s gonna be a massive push toward progression, so I hope you’re ready because this one is pretty important. Also, fair warning the first actual swear is in this part, don’t worry I’m not gonna do this often.

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Time Unknown

Joseph’s Dream Space

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Joseph woke up in a weird place filled with big, fluffy clouds of various vibrant colors, he looked around and noticed that he was back in his human body.

“I’m back to normal!?” Joseph blurted.

His voice echoed into the void without a response…

‘That’s strange… Where am I?’ He thought before noticing that his thoughts echoed through the void as well, it was like he was hearing his brain project his thoughts for everyone to hear.

A few moments passed before, eventually, Joseph heard a familiar voice call out to him, “Joseph… Are you there, Joseph?”

Joseph instantly recognized the voice, “MOM!?” He gasped.

“Yes, sweetie, it’s me.” Joseph’s mom replied in an echoey voice.

“Where are you!? What is this place!?” Joseph asked frantically.

“Settle down, you’ll understand soon enough.” Joseph’s mom responded softly, “How have you been?”

“I’ve been… Fine? I can’t really say, I’m still extremely confused about what’s been going on the past couple of days.”

“It happens, I’ve been there once or twice.” Joseph’s mother chuckled.

“Well, I can assure you whatever’s been going on with me has not been normal, I’m still not even sure if it’s real or not.”

“Well, I’m sure you’ll find answers if you go digging for them.” Joseph’s mother assured him.

“But I don’t know where to look! How do I go digging for answers if I don’t know where I’m looking!?”

“You’ll find them, just be patient, and you’ll find where to look.”

Joseph was about to ask another question when the clouds that surrounded him flickered with light.

“I have to go.” Joseph’s mother sighed.

“Wait! Don’t go!” Joseph pleaded.

“I’m sorry Joseph, I’ll see you later, I love you.”

“Wait! MOM!”

The clouds flickered again before losing all of their vibrancy, leaving Joseph in a dark, lifeless void.

Joseph began to tear up, “Great, she’s gone, now what?” He began to whimper when suddenly he felt himself getting pulled by something. He turned around to notice what looked like a black hole pulling him in, he didn’t even try to resist it, he knew that any attempt to escape the black hole would be futile, so he let the black hole swallow him up.

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January 25th, 3:00 am

I.D.P.K. Headquarters

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Joseph shot awake and looked at his hands. He noticed they were still his human hands and not the Shinx paws he had become accustomed to over the past 5 days, “Oh god, I’m not still in that dream, am I!?” He blurted.

“You’re good, kid.” A voice called out.

Joseph looked around frantically until he spotted Lucario, once he spotted him he let out a sigh of relief, “Oh, thank god, that dream was so strange.”

“You mind explaining it to me?” Lucario asked, “I’m supposed to be documenting your dreams on the nights we bring you here.”

“O-oh uh yeah sure.” Joseph stuttered.

Joseph explained the dream as Lucario jotted down the details on a clipboard quickly and neatly before showing the clipboard to Joseph, “Did I miss anything?” He asked.

Joseph was astonished, not only was he surprised that Lucario could write in human script, but he was also REALLY good at it, so good in fact that his writing looked like it was printed from a computer.

“H-how did you-” Joseph asked before cutting off.

“Natural talent.” Lucario quipped.

“R-right, I almost forgot, nothing here’s supposed to make sense.” Joseph stuttered, “So where’s Christian?”

Lucario facepalmed, “He’s running late…” He sighed, “He said he’d be back by now, but clearly something’s holding him up.”

“What!? How’s he running late!? I thought you guys were supposed to be pulling me here when you actually had stuff for me!”

“Well, yeah, we are, but this thing takes a sec to actually pull you here, hence why you’re able to dream before you come here.” Lucario explained.

“So you started it early?”

“Yep.”

“And he’s still not back?”

“Yep.”

“Where did he even go anyway?

“Uh…”

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January 25th, 5:00 pm

Route 6

Galar Region

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Christian ran through Route 6 until finally stopping near a camp to catch his breath, “*Huff* I should have…*Huff* Left earlier…”

“You good man?” Someone asked.

“Yeah… It’s just I came here to revive some fossils, but I didn’t give myself enough time to do it before an important meeting.” Christian replied.

“You have fossils?” The person asked.

“Yup…”

“You care to show them to me, Cara Liss?”

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January 25th, 3:10 am

I.D.P.K. Headquarters

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“So he’s wrapping up the preparations for my gift?” Joseph asked.

“He should be unless he changed his mind or something.”

Just as Lucario finished saying that, Christian came sprinting into the room at full speed, “I’m here! I’m here!” He exclaimed.

“Too slow! Now you owe me 1,000,000 Poké!” Lucario shouted.

Christian rolled his eyes and groaned, “Ugh, fine… I’ll deduct it from your debt.”

Lucario stomped his foot and swung at the air, “Dang it, I forgot I was still in debt.” He huffed.

Joseph cleared his throat, “You guys gonna tell me why you brought me here now?” He grumbled.

Christian and Lucario turned their heads back toward Joseph awkwardly, “Uh yeah, but first, we gotta talk about that.” Christian said.

“That? What do you mean that!?”

Christian walked up to Joseph and poked him in the chest, “That.” He reiterated.

This weirded Joseph out a little, and Lucario could see that, “This is why I’m glad I have a spike on my chest.” He muttered.

“Why’d you have to poke me? Couldn’t you have just told me we needed to talk about the fact I’m a human again?” Joseph questioned.

“Because it goes further than that,” Christian explained, “as I explained at our second meeting, your form here is determined by what your form was in your last dream.”

“Yeah, I remember you saying that, but why are you bringing it up now?”

Christian continued his explanation, “Because if you’re not a Shinx right now, that means you had a dream where you weren’t a Shinx.”

“Yeah, I get that, but I already told Lucario about my dream, so why does it matter?”

“Because it could mean that you’ve learned to control your dreams.” Christian answered.

Joseph shuddered as he remembered the end of the dream, “Well, I can tell you right now, I had absolutely no control over that dream.”

“That’s what I thought,” Lucario replied, “but hey, at least we checked, right?”

“I guess so…”

“One last thing before we move on…” Christian said, “That shirt you have on is awesome!” He bubbled as he pointed at the shirt.

Joseph looked down at himself, he was wearing the same clothes as the day he had been sent to the Pokémon world. His outfit consisted of a pair of red sweatpants and a black t-shirt that had a hand-drawn Mimikyu printed on it.

Joseph was completely caught off guard by this compliment, “Uh, thanks?”

Christian smiled, “You’re welcome!”

‘That was a bit random, but I guess it is a pretty cool shirt.’ Joseph thought to himself.

Christian quickly transitioned into the next topic, “Anyway, I have that gift I mentioned last time ready for you.”

“What is it?” Joseph asked.

Lucario rolled his eyes once again, “It better not be one of those plasma cannons that our superiors have.”

“Oh, don’t worry, it’s not.” Christian assured him.

Christian pulled a yellow backpack off of his back and rummaged through it a bit before pulling out a strange case thing, he then threw the backpack onto the floor.

“What is this?” Joseph questioned.

Christian responded by pressing a green button on the case, opening it up, and revealing three Pokéballs inside, “This, is your gift!” Christian declared.

Joseph shattered the sound barrier with his voice, “WHAT!?” He blurted.

“Yup, first we made you a Pokémon, now we’re making you a Pokémon trainer!” Christian cheered, before adding to that by saying, “This might even make you the first Pokémon trainer who is a Pokémon themself!”

Joseph had no clue how to react to this and honestly who would? This is beyond your normal everyday weirdness, this is ADVANCED WEIRDNESS, “I’m so confused, if I’m already a Pokémon then why would I need to train one?” He asked.

“Because having a friend who you can bring around in your pocket is pretty helpful,” Christian explained, “especially if that friend is absolutely massive, that tends to help a lot.”

“Ok, I guess…” Joseph said awkwardly, “So what Pokémon are these?”

“That’s the best part! They’re a surprise!” Christian responded.

“Then how am I supposed to pick one effectively!?” Joseph asked, “If I don’t know what the choices are, then how do I know which one would help the most!?”

“I can assure you there are no wrong choices here.” Christian explained, “Each one of these Pokémon will definitely help you out a ton.”

“Whatever…” Joseph sighed, “Can you at least tell me what type they are?”

“Nope!” Christian burst, “That would ruin the whole surprise!”

“Fine…” Joseph groaned, he looked the three Pokéballs over before taking the one on the right, “This thing’s a lot heavier than I was expecting.” He remarked.

“Yeah, Pokéballs are heavier than they look,” Christian agreed, “Hopefully that won’t be a problem for your little Shinx arms.”

Joseph laughed before stating, “I’ll be fine, I threw a Spheal at someone yesterday.”

Christian and Lucario burst out laughing, the image of a Spheal being used as a projectile was possibly one of the funniest things they had ever heard.

“Well, I think we should be sending you back now.” Christian said with a sigh.

For some reason, this actually disappointed Joseph, “Alright…” He sighed, “See you later, I guess.”

“See ‘ya, Spheal chucker!” Christian teased as he walked over to the dream machine.

Joseph rolled his eyes, “Is that my title now?” He chuckled.

“Yup!” Christian bubbled, “You’re never living that down!”

“Why would I want to?” Joseph asked, “I’d honestly rather be a Spheal Chucker than a king!”

“Wouldn’t we all?” Lucario chuckled.

“See ‘ya, dude!” Christian said one last time as he pressed the button to send Joseph back.

And you know how it goes at this point, Joseph ends up in a void until eventually…

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January 25th, 7:00 am

Team Echoes’ Base – Joseph’s Room

Coast Continent

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Strangely, Joseph didn’t actually get woken up when he was sent back to his real body, instead, he slept until a reasonable time for once!

Joseph went to get out of bed when he remembered the Pokéball he was given in his dream meet, ‘I wonder what’s in it?’ He asked himself, ‘Oh well, that can wait until I tell Rory about it.’

And as if on cue, Rory popped out from under Joseph’s bed and chirped, “Good morning!”

“‘Morning Rory!” Joseph replied.

Rory climbed up onto Joseph’s bed, letting her legs dangle as she sat beside him, “You sleep well last night?” She asked.

“Yes, I did,” Joseph answered, “which is weird because I had another dream meet last night.”

“You did!? But didn’t they tell you they’d only bring you there if they wanted to give you something!?”

“Yup, and they did give me something.”

“Oooh, what is it?” Rory asked.

Joseph looked around for the Pokéball, but no matter where he looked he couldn’t find it, well until he checked under his pillow, then he found it instantly, “This.” He said as he presented the Pokéball to Rory.

“What is that?” Rory questioned.

“It’s a Pokéball, it’s similar to the Master Ball that Slippy has, and the Luxury Ball that Sammy found, but this one has something in it!”

“What!? You mean to tell me there’s a Pokémon in there!?”

“Yup! I don’t know what kind of Pokémon, but we’re about to find out!” Joseph declared.

Joseph pressed the button on the Pokéball and threw it onto the floor, creating a bright flash of light.

Rory shielded her face from the light, “Ah! It’s too bright!”

When she uncovered her face, the light was gone. In the light’s place was a giant, grotesque creature! The creature had the head, arms, and torso of a bird but the waist, legs, and tail of a dragon!

“WHAT IS THAT THING!?” Rory shouted.

The creature looked around before asking, “Where… Where am I?”

Joseph got off his bed and approached the creature, when the creature jumped back, “W-what are you!?” It asked.

Rory got up and ran toward the creature, “The real question is what are you!?” She shouted as she pointed at it.

“I-I’m not actually sure anymore! I-I was a ghost yesterday, but…” The creature looked at its hands, “I’m alive again somehow. I don’t understand how though, I thought my body was ripped in half by a giant rock…”

“Uh, yeah, about that…” Joseph said awkwardly, “You might want to get a good look at yourself.”

The creature looked down at its feet and noticed its new monstrous dragon feet, this didn’t sit well with him at all, causing him to let out an ear-piercing, “EEEEEEEEEK!” sound.

Joseph and Rory covered their ears, just narrowly shielding their eardrums from being evaporated.

“W-what happened to me!? W-why am I like this!?” The creature shrieked as he began to hyperventilate.

But before Joseph and Rory could respond, Cinder barged into the room, “Are you guys ok!? I heard a loud scream, so I ran in here as quickly as I could!” She blurted before noticing Frankenstein’s monster towering over her friends, “WHAT IS THAT THING!?”

The creature began to cry, “I’m a monster!” He whimpered.

“Relax,” Joseph said softly, “you’re not a monster, you’re just the victim of a mad scientist’s experiments.”

The creature sniffed, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’re a Dracozolt, a Pokémon created by a machine that takes fossils, combines them together, and revives them… I think anyway.” Joseph explained, again, softly, just in case the newly revived freak of nature attacked him out of anger or fear or both!

“Fossils? What are those?” The Dracozolt asked.

“They’re preserved remains of living creatures, humans found ways to revive these fossils, but there’s…” Joseph paused to sigh, “A certain human in a certain world who just carelessly throws fossils into a machine and mixes them together.”

That made the Dracozolt’s blood boil, but then he had an idea, “Can I get a name and a location, so I can meet this ‘human’ you speak of?”

“Her name is Cara Liss, and she lives in Galar, unfortunately however she lives in another world, and even more unfortunately you’ve been sent into a world that is currently in danger of being completely destroyed.”

“Oh great…” The Dracozolt sighed, “Of course, I have…”

“I feel you on that,” Joseph sighed, “I was a human who was sent here unwillingly, and now I’m a Shinx who’s supposed to stop the world from ending or something.”

“Poor guy…” The Dracozolt whimpered, “I don’t exactly know what a human is, but you didn’t deserve to become a Shinx against your will.”

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

“You can’t tell anyone about Joseph being human, though!” Cinder shouted.

“What, why?” The Dracozolt asked

“The other Pokémon will hunt me down and kill me!” Joseph answered.

“Got it! Your secret is safe with me!”

“Good.” Joseph stated, “So, do you have a name?”

“No… I don’t…”

“I mean, how could he? He’s a monster!” Rory shouted as she turned to Cinder and Joseph.

“Hey! I will not have you talking to him like that! He’s my friend!” Joseph scolded.

“Your friend? Are you sure about that?”

“Absolutely! I mean, come on! He’s a dragon! That’s so freakin’ cool!”

The Dracozolt looked back at his tail awkwardly, “Well half of my body certainly looks like a dragon, but I don’t have wings or anything, so I don’t really think I count as a dragon.”

“Not all dragons have wings.” Joseph said.

“Well, do dragons have beaks?”

“Who cares!? You do, and you’re awesome! That’s all that matters!”

“But everyone else thinks I’m a freak!”

“Well, that’s because they aren’t used to having a disproportionate dragon around.”

“And for the record, I never said you were a freak,” Cinder added, “I just was caught off guard by the fact there’s a giant bird dragon in our house first thing in the morning.”

“Oh…” The Dracozolt muttered, “Well, do you think I’m a freak?”

“A freak? No. Freakishly cute? Absolutely!” Cinder answered, “Just look at your little cheek spots! You’re so adorable!”

The Dracozolt’s cheeks lit up, “R-really!?”

“Of course! If anything happened to you, I’d never forgive myself for letting you suffer.”

“T-thank you!”

“So what should his name be?” Joseph asked.

Cinder immediately responded with, “I shall call him Stumpy.”

“Is that ok with you?” Joseph asked.

“I… I LOVE IT!” Stumpy shouted with glee as he jumped into the air multiple times, shaking the ground as he landed.

“Well, I guess that settles it, then welcome to Team Echoes Stumpy!”

“YAY! I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THAT MEANS, BUT IT MAKES ME SO HAPPY!” Stumpy resounded as he continued to shake the ground.

Cinder decided to explain what being a team meant to Stumpy, “A team is basically a group of friends who help others and go exploring together.” Cinder explained, “Everyone here is part of Team Echoes, so maybe you should go introduce yourself to them.”

“That’s a great idea!” Stumpy chirped.

Stumpy ran out of Joseph’s room before realizing he hadn’t asked for the names of anyone in there, so he peeked back in and said, “Oh, yeah, I forgot to ask for your names.”

“I’m Joseph,” Joseph said, “and this is Cinder and Rory.”

“Hello!” Cinder waved.

But Rory didn’t give a response, she was both disgusted and terrified of Stumpy, and she was not fond of the fact that he’d be sticking around.

“Rory doesn’t seem to like talking to me…” Stumpy sighed.

“It’s ok, she’ll come around…” Joseph said as he turned his head toward Rory, “Eventually…”

Stumpy opened his eyes and rolled them, “Whatever…” He said as he stopped peeking into the room, “Keep being grumpy, Rory.” He grumbled as he walked away.

Cinder turned to Joseph, “So where did Stumpy come from?”

“Oh, uh, I had another dream meet with Christian, and he let me take a Pokéball containing a seemingly random Pokémon with me.” Joseph responded

“So Christian just gave you Stumpy?” Cinder asked.

“Pretty much.”

“I can see why, he’s absolutely terrifying!” Rory shouted.

“He’s not even that scary!” Joseph shouted, “And he’s bigger than I was as a human!”

“Well, I’m sorry, weird amalgamates aren’t the norm in this world!”

“They aren’t where I’m from either, but you’re acting like he chose to be this way!”

“Exactly!” Cinder chimed in, “Imagine if you got cut in half in some horrific accident then some crazed lunatic stitched you to the bottom half of a completely different Pokémon, how would you feel if that happened to you and everyone around you treated you like some freak?”

“I-I guess you’re right…” Rory sighed, “I should go apologize…”

“I’m sure Stumpy would appreciate that.” Joseph and Cinder chorused.

“Ha! Jinx!” Joseph called out.

This confused Cinder, “Jynx? But there’s no Jynx here.”

“It’s a human thing, it means we said the same thing at the same time, it also means you can’t talk until someone says your name 3 times.” Joseph explained.

“And if I do?”

“I get to punch you.”

“That’s fine, it’s not like you could even phase me with your punches.”

Joseph punched Cinder as hard as he could, but unfortunately, she didn’t feel a thing…

Cinder grinned, “Told ‘ya!” she said.

Joseph sighed, “Fine… I yield you’re unjinxed…”

Rory approached the door to the room before looking back and saying, “Well… I’m gonna go apologize to Stumpy.”

“Alright,” Cinder replied, “we’ll be in here discussing our plans for today.”

“Sounds good!”

Rory left the room and Cinder turned to Joseph again, “Ok, so in my spare time I’ve been doing some research on the various world-ending events that have happened here over the years, just in case the situation with the void slime stuff has happened before.” Cinder explained.

“Did you find anything?” Joseph asked.

“Well… No… But Lanturn may have given me a lead.”

“A lead? What kind of lead?”

“He told me about a Pokémon who survived an ancient evil about 800 years ago, living in the Glacier Continent.”

“Please tell me they’re coming here,” Joseph pleaded, “I really don’t feel like freezing over today.”

“Yeah… No, they’re not coming here, we’re going to the Glacier Continent to meet up with them.”

“Oh boy…”

“Oh, quit being such a baby! You have your fur to keep you warm and if that isn’t enough I’ll be with you the whole time, so you can just ask me to start a fire for you!”

“And if that doesn’t work?”

“Then I’ll ask Vulcan to come with us too, just suck it up and endure the cold, you wimp!”

“Fine… hypocrite…”

“I’m not a hypocrite! I’m not a baby about the cold!”

“But you complained about the rain.”

“That’s different! The rain hurts me and if my flame spots get too soaked I could die!”

“Well, if I get too cold I could die as well, betcha didn’t know that little miss Flamethrower.”

“I’m aware that Pokémon can freeze to death, but it takes a really long time for that to happen like we’re talking weeks at sub-zero temperatures.”

“How does that work!?”

“Don’t ask me! I wouldn’t know! My flames keep me warm even if there’s a blizzard!”

“Wouldn’t that be nice…”

Just as Joseph and Cinder stopped bantering about Joseph freezing his tail off, Vulcan entered the room on Stumpy’s back, “Can we keep him?” Vulcan asked.

“As like a pet or something?” Joseph asked.

“Yes!” Vulcan confirmed, “He’s so precious! I don’t want anyone to hurt him.”

“That’s what I said!” Cinder exulted.

“I appreciate the compliments, but I’m not anybody’s pet!” Stumpy protested.

Joseph grinned, “Well, technically…” He then returned Stumpy to his Pokéball, causing Vulcan to fall to the floor comically.

“Woah! What was that!?” Vulcan asked.

“I returned him to his Pokéball, a Pokéball is a device that humans made to store and transport their Pokémon friends.” Joseph explained.

“So, Stumpy’s in that ball?” Cinder asked.

“Yup,” Joseph answered, “I’m pretty sure he can still hear us too, Hey Stumpy can you still hear us in there?” Joseph asked as he looked at Stumpy’s Pokéball

The Pokéball moved a little in Joseph’s paws, “I’ll take that as a yes.” Joseph concluded.

Joseph released Stumpy from his Pokéball once again, “What happened?” Stumpy asked.

“I returned you to your Pokéball,” Joseph answered, “Another human gave me that Pokéball so that I could carry you around in my bag.”

Stumpy didn’t like where this was going, “Why would you need to do that?” He asked.

“In case we want to bring you somewhere, but there isn’t enough space for you to come with us.”

“So you’re just gonna stuff me in your bag with all your other stuff? What happens if you forget I’m in there or something?”

“I won’t, you’re able to move the ball from the inside.”

“But what if I fall out of your bag or something? Are you just gonna leave me there?”

In response, Joseph dropped the Pokéball on the floor, “It’s safe to say I’d notice if the ball fell out of my bag or something.”

“But don’t you feel like this strips him of his freedom a bit?” Cinder chimed in.

“Yeah, what she said, doesn’t this kinda make me your-“

“No! You are not my slave, don’t even say it!” Joseph shouted.

“How so then?”

“The ball only works if you and I are friendly toward each other, if we’re not then it stops working right, it’s to prevent people from misusing Pokéballs to abuse Pokémon for evil.”

“Oh, thank goodness…”

“Yeah, it’s safe to say I’m not gonna be doing any of that, in fact, I don’t even want to put you in the ball unless I have to.” Joseph said.

“But then where am I gonna stay? Your room isn’t big enough for you, Rory, and me.”

Cinder looked at Vulcan, “You thinking what I’m thinking?” She asked him.

“Yup.” Vulcan responded.

Cinder and Vulcan both turned to Stumpy, “Hey Stumpy, since we have extra rooms here, why don’t Vulcan and I make you the perfect room?” Cinder offered.

“You’d do that for me!?”

“Anything for my big buddy!” Vulcan chirped.

“Aw… Thank you guys.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Joseph spoke up, “Alright guys, let’s go gather the gang and discuss our plans.” He said.

“Right!” The three chorused.

Cinder pulled up her watch and began typing something, “…aaand send, there now everyone should be heading for Specter’s room so we can chat.” She announced, “Let’s get going.”

The group walked into Specter’s room and sat down, well except for Stumpy who was a little scared he’d get another unfavorable reaction, “Ah, morning you guys.” Specter greeted.

“Morning Specter!” Cinder chirped.

“You’re not gonna freak out at the sight of me, are you?” Stumpy asked as he peeked in through the door frame.

“I don’t even know who you are, so probably not unless you’ve got like 28 legs or something.” Specter responded.

“Well, I don’t, but I’m not sure that the two that I have are much better.” Stumpy admitted.

“I don’t know what you mean by that…”

Stumpy sighed, “Let me just show you.”

Stumpy stomped his way into Specter’s room and sat down on the floor next to the table.

“Oh, I uh, see.” Specter said, “What an… Interesting Pokémon you are.”

“You don’t mean that in a mean way, do you?”

“Not at all, I’m an ex-criminal, I’ve definitely seen scarier Pokémon before.”

“Oh, thank goodness… I’ve had enough of being called a monster for one lifetime.”

“It’s only been a few hours since you got here, though.” Joseph interjected.

“Yeah, and just a few hours I’ve; woken up after being revived as some hybrid creature, gotten screamed at, and gotten insulted a bunch.”

“I apologized!” Rory shouted as she entered the room.

“I know, but it doesn’t change the fact that this has been possibly the worst morning of my life!”

“I’m sorry…”

“I already told you, you’re fine, just try to be nicer going forward.”

“So, what’s taking Sammy and Slippy so long?” Joseph asked.

Rory quickly grabbed a seat and got comfy, “I don’t know, they should be in here by now,” She replied.

A few moments later, the stragglers arrived, but as soon as Slippy caught a glimpse of Stumpy, he rolled out of the room as fast as he could.

“Really!? We’re still not done freaking out about my appearance!?” Stumpy squawked.

Sammy drew an Aqua Cutter blade and pointed it at Stumpy, “You don’t belong in this world, monster!” He shouted heroically.

Rory jumped from her seat and stood in front of Stumpy, “He’s not our enemy!” She yelled as she waved her arms frantically.

“Oh yeah? And how do you know that?” Sammy challenged.

Stumpy stood up, stepped over Rory, and picked up Sammy, “Because if I was your enemy…” Stumpy left off.

“Wha- HEY! PUT ME DOWN!” Sammy screamed as he squirmed, desperately trying to escape Stumpy’s monstrous grip.

“HEY, PUT HIM DOWN!” Rory demanded.

Stumpy tossed Sammy onto his back, “Would I do this?” He asked.

“O-oh, I guess not…” Sammy said.

“Phew…” Rory sighed, “I thought you were gonna stomp him out or something…”

“I’ll save that for our enemies.” Stumpy winked.

“That’s somehow both terrifying and reassuring at the same time.”

“I mean, considering he’s both absolutely adorable and absolutely terrifying at the same time, so I guess it makes sense that you feel that way.” Vulcan pointed out.

“True.”

Stumpy reclaimed his spot by the table and sat back down, he then began to tap his fingers on the table, “So is the little round guy gonna come back?” He asked.

But before anyone could answer, Slippy rolled back into the room, he then crashed into the table, slammed down a piece of paper and a box of crayons, and began scribbling at mach speed.

“What’s he doing?” Stumpy questioned.

But everyone else was too distracted by Slippy’s drawing to answer. Eventually, Slippy finished his drawing and pushed it over to Stumpy.

Stumpy picked up the paper and looked at the drawing, it was a near-perfect drawing of himself, “Is that… Me?”

“Yup! You’re just so cute, I HAD to draw you!” Slippy stated.

“Oh, well, thank you! I think I’ll put this in my room when I get it!”

“You’re welcome!” Slippy bubbled.

The rest of the group was shocked by Slippy’s craftsmanship, the picture wasn’t like the other drawings Slippy had in his room, it was almost as if he took a picture of Stumpy and printed it out.

“Wow, Slippy, when’d you learn to draw so well!?” Cinder asked.

“Oh, I’ve been able to draw like this for as long as I can remember.”

“Then why are the drawings in your room so simple?” Joseph questioned.

“Because they fit the atmosphere I was going for,” Slippy answered, “I can basically draw in any art style I want to, so I usually like to mix things up.”

“I guess that makes sense.”

Specter cleared his throat, “So that’s everyone, right?”

“Sort of…” Cinder said as she swung her bag onto her lap, she then began shaking it as she shouted, “WAKE UP!” Repetitively.

A few moments later, Tiny popped out of the bag, “I’m up! I’m UP!” She yelled.

“Good, now I can discuss our plans for today,” Cinder announced, “I already discussed this with Joseph, but basically, Lantern informed me of a Pokémon in the Glacier Continent who apparently lived through a world-ending event about 800 years ago, so I decided it might be worth asking them about that event to see if any of the details line up with what’s going on today.”

“Wow, what a great idea, it’s just a shame you picked the ABSOLUTE WORST time to execute it.” Specter criticized.

“That’s what I’m saying!” Joseph shouted from the other side of the table.

Tiny decided to put her own two cents in, “Well, it sucks to be you guys then because I can’t get cold!”

“Good for you.” Specter and Joseph chorused.

Cinder rolled her eyes, “Well, aside from the two babies, does anyone else have a problem with this idea?” Cinder surveyed.

“A-actually I do.” Slippy stuttered as he raised a flipper.

“Really!? I thought you would be cool with going somewhere cold!”

“Yeah, I would… Unless it’s there, I swore I’d never go back there for as long as I live.”

“What!? Why!?”

“Without going into too much detail, notice how I haven’t mentioned my mother at all.”

“Was she like a bad Pokémon or something?” Joseph asked.

“No, quite the opposite actually, but she suffered from a major problem and eventually…” Slippy trailed off and began tearing up, “N-never mind.”

Cinder started to feel bad for Slippy, “It’s ok Slippy, you don’t have to go if you don’t want to.”

“N-no, it’s fine, I’ll go, we’re eventually going to all go there at some point anyway.”

“Uh ok… Any other objections?”

Stumpy spoke up, “Nope! I wanna go to comfort Slippy!”

Joseph objected to this, “I really, don’t think you should go Stumpy.” He asserted, “Your feathers aren’t nearly enough to keep you warm, and they only cover the top half of your body, the rest of your body is covered in scales which are even worse for fending off the cold.”

“I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

“I can’t let you do that! You’ll get yourself hurt!” Joseph protested.

“I’ll be fine!”

“Whatever, but if you complain about the cold I’m putting you in the ball, you hear me?”

Stumpy sighed, “Alright…”

“I have another objection.” Specter raised, “If I go to the Glacier Continent I’m probably gonna evolve into a Glaceon, and I don’t exactly want to do that.”

“We can just buy you an Everstone before we leave.” Cinder suggested.

“I don’t have to wear it on some girly necklace, do I?” Specter fretted.

“No, you can just throw it in your bag and call it a day.”

“I don’t trust that.”

“That’s what I’ve been doing this whole time, and I haven’t evolved.”

“You sure that works?”

“Look, I’ve been to every dungeon in this area, so I’ve probably leveled up at least once or twice since getting here, and yet I’m still unevolved, it’s safe to say that it works.” Cinder assured.

Specter took a deep breath, “Ok… But if I evolve because you got your information wrong, you gotta evolve too.”

“Uh-uh! No way! That would ruin my entire life!” Cinder protested.

“Ruin your life!? I wanna become an Espeon! If I evolve into a Glaceon I can kiss that dream goodbye and say hello to a life of making snowmen that just melt away instantly!” Specter shot back.

“I understand that, but if I evolve into a Typhlosion I could end up seriously hurting someone I care about all because I couldn’t control my uncontrollable temper!” Cinder fretted, “I would become an outcast who can’t have any friends!”

“And I’d become a living snow cone dispenser! A SNOW CONE DISPENSER!” Specter yelled.

“Can you two just cut it out!?” Vulcan flared up his flames and shouted in an attempt to break up the fight, “We get it, you don’t want to become an ice machine and Cinder doesn’t want to become a raging wildfire, but arguing isn’t going to help anything! We already said we’d get you an Everstone so that you wouldn’t have to evolve, so can we stop this pointless drivel!?”

Seeing the flames erupt from the top of Vulcan’s head intimidated Specter, “Y-yes sir.” He squeaked.

“Thank you.”

“Getting back on track,” Joseph interjected, “Are we taking the whole team or are we only bringing some of us?”

“Everyone is going,” Cinder answered, “We need as many Pokémon to hear the story in its purest form as possible.”

“But Lapras can’t carry all of us!” Slippy blurted.

Cinder grinned, “Who said we were taking a Lapras?”

“I’m… not sure if I follow.”

“You don’t have to, just go get prepared and Vulcan and I will handle the transportation situation.”

“Can’t we just get supplies while we’re out?” Sammy raised.

“Not really, because the Glacier Continent doesn’t really grow plants, so anything organic is completely off the table unless we bring it overseas with us.”

Joseph jumped up from his seat and ran for the door, “Cool, thanks, bye!” He shouted as he left the base.

The rest of the group was caught off guard by this, “Wha- hey! Get back here!” Rory shouted as she ran after Joseph.

Everyone sat there for a moment before Sammy asked, “What are we waiting for? Let’s go after them!”

---

January 25th, 9:30 am

Sunset Square

Coast Continent

---

Joseph laughed as he led the charge through Sunset Square, “Can’t catch me!” He boasted.

The rest of Team Echoes struggled to catch up to Joseph until Stumpy decided to kick things into overdrive, he then began to sprint faster than anyone had expected him to given the fact he’s the biggest one in the group. He eventually caught up to Joseph and grabbed him by the tail and lifted him up into the air, “Oh, I can’t, huh?”

“Hey! Not the tail!” Joseph shouted back.

“Oh sorry, lemme just…” Stumpy left off before tossing Joseph high up into the air and catching him on his back.

Obviously, Joseph was in shock after being launched what felt like 15 feet into the air by a bird-dragon hybrid, so his fur was standing on end when he landed, “W-w-what the heck man!?” He stuttered.

“Oh, sorry, I should’ve warned you first.” Stumpy said as he lowered his head apologetically.

“I-it’s cool…” Joseph said shakily.

“Good job Stumpy!” Rory shouted, “Now hand him over!”

Stumpy cackled, “Who said I was on your side.” He said before sprinting off with Joseph on his back.

“Traitor!” Rory growled, “Get them!” She commanded.

Team Echoes kept chasing after Joseph and his noble steed, but it was no use, he was runnin’ circles around them, as some would say. Eventually, they gave up and regrouped so they could discuss what supplies to get, and Stumpy set Joseph back down for this discussion.

“So what do we need?” Rory asked.

Joseph thought aloud for a moment, “Well we’ll obviously need some Oran Berries, but thankfully we still have some leftovers from our last little excursion.”

Specter decided to voice his concerns, “Do you think it’ll be enough, though?”

“Probably not…” Joseph sighed, “But the good news is, depending on what Stumpy’s ability is, we might be able to save some.”

“How so?”

“If he has Volt Absorb, I could just use Spark on him to heal him!”

“Wait really!?” Stumpy exclaimed.

“Yeah, that’s how it should work anyway.” Joseph theorized.

“I always thought my ability was useless, I mean that’s what my brother told me, and he was my big bro, so I had no reason to doubt him.” Stumpy elaborated.

“You have a brother!?” Rory blurted.

“Yes, although he’s probably dead now, I didn’t see what happened to him on the day I died initially, but considering stars were crashing down to earth I think it’s safe to say he didn’t make it.” Stumpy said with a frown.

“That and the fact that it’s probably been like, what, millions of years since that happened.” Joseph added, “Yeah, I think he’s long gone.”

Specter was caught off guard by what Stumpy said, “Wait, you died?” He asked.

“Yup… From what Joseph said, I was revived from the preserved remains of my body, but unfortunately for me, I got cut in half, so some weirdo took someone else’s body and combined it with mine,” Stumpy clarified, he then looked back at his tail awkwardly before looking back at Specter, “thus I became this disfigured mess of a Pokémon.”

Specter gasped, “Oh my Arceus I’m so sorry to hear that! That’s a fate infinitely worse than becoming a Glaceon!”

“Eh, it could be just a little worse, at least I can still function properly like this.”

Joseph hissed before saying, “Yeah, some of Cara Liss’ other creations weren’t so lucky *cough* *cough* Arctovish *cough* *cough*.”

“Arctovish? The hell’s an Arctovish!?” Specter blurted.

“It’s a Pokémon that has been revived from two different fossils, just like Stumpy, but unlike Stumpy, it’s a fish, both parts of it are a fish actually, however, the parts don’t line up, and the head ends up getting put on upside down, making its mouth point up toward the sky, which as you can imagine make eating near impossible without help.”

“That sounds horrifying!” Sammy blurted.

“Agreed.” The group chorused.

Joseph sighed, “Let’s just get back to getting our supplies before we get too sidetracked.”

Just as Joseph finished saying that, someone crashed into him from behind, knocking him to the ground in a familiar fashion, after picking himself off the ground Joseph looked around to see… No one, he turned back around to be met by a small Vulpix who was giggling like a little kid.

“Boo!” The Vulpix bubbled.

“Ahh?” Joseph said in an attempt to appear scared.

This didn’t fool the Vulpix however, “You’re no fun!” He accused.

A few moments later, a voice called out to the Vulpix, “Blair! What did I tell you about crashing into strangers!?”

Team Echoes turned around to see Cloak approaching them, “Oh, thank goodness it’s you lot.” She sighed as she came to a stop.

“Hello, Cloak!” Joseph greeted, “Chasing after the little one I see.”

Cloak chuckled before sighing, “Yup… I’m completely exhausted… I’ve been chasing him around all day.”

While Cloak was still trying to catch her breath, Blair walked over to Stumpy, “Whoa! He’s huge!” He marveled, “I wanna climb onto his back!”

Cloak tried to keep him from climbing onto Stumpy’s back, “Wait, don’t-” She cried out before Blair jumped up and tried climbing the side of Stumpy’s leg like it was a mountain.

“Hey! Don’t do that!” Stumpy shouted.

But it was no use, he had become a jungle gym for this little Vulpix child, a fate worse than death, well… ok… maybe that’s going a little too far but still you wouldn’t like it if something started trying to climb up onto your back either, right?

Blair eventually made it to the top of Stumpy’s dragon half and posed triumphantly, “HAHA! I’m victorious!” He shouted.

“Blair! That is extremely rude! Get down from there at once!” Cloak demanded.

“Aw… Ok…” Blair whined.

Blair climbed down from atop Stumpy and ran over to his mother, who promptly scolded him, “Don’t do that ever again, you hear me!?”

Blair responded by blasting her in the face with the mightiest Flamethrower anyone on Team Echoes had ever seen, leaving her with her eyes open wide and ash coating her whole face, “Bleh.” He taunted as he stuck his tongue out at her before running off.

Cloak fell over comically, causing the members of Team Echoes to run to her side, “Are you ok!?” Rory shouted.

Cloak let out a cough before shaking the ashes off of her face and jolting back up, “I’m fine, that’s like the 12th time he’s done that today.”

“Please tell me you’re exaggerating.”

“Nope… I’ve been counting…”

“Why don’t you tell him to stop, then?”

“Because the last time I told him to stop spraying flames in my face, he went from tiny little Embers to the biggest Flamethrowers I’ve ever seen!” Cloak exclaimed, “I’m afraid he’s gonna throw a Fire Blast at me next!”

Stumpy sighed, “Man, I wish I could breathe fire.”

Cloak turned her attention to Stumpy and immediately realized that he wasn’t exactly what you would call a “normal” Pokémon, “Oh hey, you’re one of those fossil Pokémon from Galar aren’t you?”

“Uh, I think?” Stumpy faltered.

“How’d you get here? I haven’t seen any other fossil Pokémon walking around.”

Joseph covered for Stumpy, “Your trainer let me pick between three Pokéballs and I chose the one he was in.”

“I thought humans were supposed to get a fire, water, or grass type as their first partner Pokémon.”

“Are you even surprised at this point? I mean nothing that’s going on here is very normal so why would a starter Pokémon be normal?”

“Fair,” Cloak said, “Well I guess I should let you guys get back to what you’re doing, I’ll see you around.”

Cloak began to walk off but stopped briefly to shoot Stumpy a smile before continuing to walk away.

“That was… Weird…” Specter noted.

“Let’s just get back to getting our supplies.” Joseph sighed.

The team approached the Kecleon shop and bought two Violent Seeds, two Reviver Seeds, and then about a dozen apples and Oran Berries. The group then saw a collection of scarves for sale and decided to take a look at them too.

“Wow, they really have a lot of good equipment here, huh.” Sammy mentioned.

“Yup! We have only the finest selection here!” Crimson the red-striped Kecleon boasted.

Then Joseph had an idea, he pulled out his guild member card and presented it to the Kecleon brothers, “Oh, I see,” Amethyst the purple Kecleon said, “You’re only looking for the best of the best, well we’ve got you covered.” Amethyst pulled a box out from under the counter, inside the box there were scarves of every color, and each one had the symbol of a type on it.

Joseph inspected each scarf before picking out two, one red scarf with a fire type emblem on it (not to be confused with the fire emblem) and one light blue one with an ice type emblem, “I’d like these two, please.” He stated.

“Alright, that’ll be 18,000 Poké.” Amethyst said.

“Deal!” Joseph exulted as he pulled out a hefty amount of Poké.

‘Where’d a kid get so much money?’ Amethyst thought, ‘His parents must be loaded.’

Amethyst decided to ask Joseph where he obtained his money from, “Hey kid, just out of curiosity where did this money come from?”

“Oh, we stole it.” Joseph answered nonchalantly.

“You what!?”

“Yep! We stole it straight from the Coin Case gang’s vault, Lanturn sent us on a little raid of their base, he also said we could keep anything we found there.”

Amethyst took a deep breath, “Phew, you had me for a moment there.”

Joseph laughed, “I’m sorry, I should have made that clear before I just went, ‘We stole this money’.

“It’s all good, by the way, those guild cards you’ve got there allow you to withdraw Poké directly from the bank from anywhere.”

“Oh, that’s cool! I guess I’ll go store all my Poké there then.”

“It’d be wise, I’d hate to see you lose all that Poké because you overextended in a dungeon or something.”

“Alright, well, thanks for the info!” Joseph bubbled as he left the Kecleon shop.

Joseph regrouped with the team and told them about what Amethyst had told him, “Hey guys, apparently our guild cards let us take money out of the bank whenever and wherever we want.”

“Oh cool! Let’s go to the bank then!” Slippy chirped.

“Uh, there’s just one small problem with that, I don’t know where it is.”

“Just follow me, I know this town like the back of my flipper!”

---

January 25th, 10:30 am

Sunset Square Supplies

Coast Continent

---

Slippy practically dragged Joseph into the department store while the rest of the team followed, once they entered they noticed a giant banner that read “Free stuff for every new face” on it, well except Joseph and Stumpy because they both can’t read.

“Huh? What’s this place?” Stumpy asked the group.

But before anyone could answer, a camera flashed in Stumpy’s face and confetti began to rain down from the ceiling.

“You know, between the thing in town with Blair bumping into me and this, I’m starting to get a massive sense of déjà vu.” Joseph mentioned.

“Me too.” Rory agreed.

Seconds later, Ribombee flew toward Stumpy and began to celebrate, “Welcome to Sunset Square Supplies new patron!” She announced.

“Huh? What?” Stumpy replied.

“This is Sunset Square Supplies, a department store enhanced by technology from all over the globe!” Ribombee explained, “There’s tons of stuff to buy here, we even have a bank here!”

“Cool! I’m still not exactly sure what that all means…”

Joseph covered for Stumpy once again, “Please excuse my friend here, he’s a bit ancient you see.”

“Oh, I get it, he must be from the Plains Continent then.” Ribombee concluded, “Well my friend, prepare to have your mind blown!”

Stumpy tilted his head, “Uh, ok.” He said.

“We actually have a promotion going on right now for new faces, every newcomer gets a goodie bag!” Ribombee said as she tossed a goodie bag to Stumpy.

“Thanks?”

“You’re welcome!” Ribombee bubbled.

Ribombee flew off in a flash just like before, leaving Stumpy very confused, “What was that about?” He asked.

“She was welcoming you,” Joseph clarified, “apparently she loves giving stuff away because last time we were here she gave me the bag that I’m carrying right now. There should be some good stuff in there, so I would recommend checking it out when you get the time.”

Stumpy looked down at the bag, it was black with a blue silhouette of an Inteleon with a yellow sparkle on its pointer finger, “It looks pretty cool, it could be empty and I’d be fine with that because at least I got a sick-looking bag.” Stumpy noted.

Slippy began impatiently taping his flippers on the ground, “Are we gonna go to the bank or are we gonna keep sitting around talking like we normally do?”

“Alright! We’ll get going!” Joseph responded.

“Good, now follow me.”

The group followed Slippy to the elevator before he stopped them, “Stumpy’s probably gonna have to ride alone.”

“What why?” Stumpy asked.

“Because these elevators have a weight limit and no offense, but I don’t think you’ve got a lot of wiggle room, buddy.”

Stumpy sighed, “I miss my old body, I used to be so light, but now I shake the ground every time I take a step.”

“It’s ok, buddy, we’ll wait for you on the other side.” Slippy assured him.

“Just try not to freak out in the elevator,” Rory added, “It might seem scary at first, but you’ll be fine.”

“Uh, ok.” Stumpy said as he tilted his head, completely unaware of what she was talking about.

The group got into the elevator and went up to the second floor, leaving Stumpy to ride the elevator all alone. Stumpy waited for the elevator to come back down and entered it, ‘Here we go, I guess,’ He thought to himself, ‘I mean if Rory told me not to freak out then something’s probably going to happen, so hopefully I’m ready for it, whatever it may be.’

“Please select a floor.” A robotic voice instructed.

“Oh, uh, sorry.” Stumpy said awkwardly.

“You do realize I’m not a real Pokémon, right?” The robotic voice asked.

This creeped Stumpy out, “Uh, yes! No! Maybe!?” He quavered.

“Whatever, going up.” The elevator robot responded.

The elevator door shut, and the elevator began to move up, this initially startled Stumpy, but he took a deep breath, calming him down. Eventually, the elevator started playing a tune that Stumpy found particularly soothing, but just as soon as the tune began it ended as the elevator door opened.

Stumpy lowered his head in disappointment, “Aw… I was enjoying that…” He lamented as he exited the elevator

“So how was the ride?” Joseph asked.

“It was nice until the end, I miss the calming sounds.”

“You mean the music?”

“Is that what it’s called?”

Rory raised her eyebrow, “How do you not know what music is?”

“It probably wasn’t a thing back millions of years ago.” Joseph concluded.

“Can confirm, music wasn’t a thing back then.” Stumpy said, sounding like a complete boomer the whole time.

Joseph facepalmed, “Why am I not surprised.”

Slippy was basically bouncing off the walls at this point, “Hey! Come on! We got places to be!” He demanded.

“We’re going! We’re going!” Joseph replied, “God, and I thought I was impatient.”

The group walked through the mall for a bit, with Stumpy looking at all the colorful lights and signs everywhere and marveling the whole time, until they made it to their destination. The bank was a giant piggy bank run by a pink Lechonk, a Spoink, and a Grumpig.

The group walked up to the counter and were greeted by the Grumpig, “Ah, welcome travelers to the Grumpiggy Bank,” The Grumpig greeted. “Are you here to open an account?”

Joseph pulled out all his money, “Yes, in fact, I am, how much will it cost?” He asked.

“Oh, opening an account is completely free!” Grumpig clarified, “You just have to sign here.” Grumpig added as she pushed a piece of paper and a stamp pad toward Joseph.

‘Oh, thank god, signatures are just paw prints in this world.’ Joseph thought, ‘I would’ve been screwed if she handed me a bottle of ink or a pen or something.’

Joseph quickly stamped his paw on the stamp pad and then again on the paper, sealing the deal.

“Great, I just need to know one more thing,” Grumpig said, “are you part of the SurfSpark guild?”

“Yup!” Joseph responded as he pulled out his guild card.

“Alright,” Grumpig replied, “Let me just…” Grumpig began using some sort of psychic power on the card until she eventually let out a hearty, “TA-DAH!” as the card changed its boring green color out for a purple pattern that gave off a psychic vibe, “Now your card can be used to deposit and withdraw Poké!” Grumpig announced, “Just know that you can’t deposit Poké in dungeons, you can only withdraw.”

“Thanks!” Joseph bubbled.

“Any time!”

“Wait, how do I deposit Poké with the card?”

“Just place the Poké onto the card, and it will warp here automatically!”

“Ah, I see, and how do I withdraw?”

“Do you see the gold part of the card?”

Joseph looked at the card, as mentioned earlier it had become a purple color with a psychic pattern on it, but there was also a gold rectangle on the card, Joseph noticed this and said, “Yeah I see it.”

“Just put a digit on the gold part and think of how much you wanna withdraw, then it will warp there automatically as well!”

“Alright, thanks for the explanations!”

“You’re welcome!” Grumpig said, “If you ever need to hear my explanation again, then just go ask Ham over there, he’s the Lechonk, he’s really friendly, and he loves to explain things to others.”

“I’ll make sure to keep that in mind,” Joseph replied, “I gotta get going now, see ya!”

“Bye-bye!”

Joseph turned around to notice all of his friends barring Stumpy lined up to get bank accounts set up, “Oh boy, this is gonna take a while, isn’t it?”

“Yup!” They all chorused.

“Alright well you guys have fun with that, I’m gonna go regroup with Stumpy.”

Joseph looked around for Stumpy but despite his pretty decent size and his disfigured figure he was nowhere to be seen, well that is until Joseph looked down to the first floor where he saw him talking to a Porygon who was running a shop. Joseph took the elevator back down to the first floor and regrouped with Stumpy.

“Oh hey Joseph, I got bored, so I decided to get back in the elevator to listen to the music.” Stumpy said.

“What’s this place?” Joseph asked.

“Oh, I don’t know, I just came here because it looked interesting.”

The Porygon at the counter spoke up in a pixelated voice, “This is Porygon’s Bits and Bytes brought to you by Silph Co.”

Joseph tilted his head in confusion, “Isn’t Silph Co. like a company from another world or something?” He asked, wondering if he had his Pokémon knowledge right.

“Indeed! You seem to have done your research [Specimen #403].” Porygon output.

Joseph continued his questions, ignoring Porygon’s strange speech mannerisms, “Then how are you here?”

“We [Specimen #137] and our superiors are capable of interdimensional travel, making us the perfect vessel for promoting Silph Co.’s other inventions.”

“Such as?”

“Technical Machines, Technical Records, and Hidden Machines of course!”

Joseph raised an eyebrow at that factoid, “I thought you could find those in dungeons, though.”

“They can, that’s because dungeons have been observed as anomalies in time and space, causing items from other universes to end up in them, it’s also been observed that some feral Pokémon are actually wild Pokémon from other worlds entirely.”

Stumpy was confused, “Is what you’re saying even intelligible, or is it just gibberish?”

“Don’t worry, [Specimen #880] My speech is 100% intelligible!” Porygon assured him, “Unlike [Specimen #474] over there.” Porygon said as he pointed his polygonal tail toward a Porygon-Z. (try saying that 10 times fast.)

The Porygon-Z looked over at the group and let loose his words of wisdom, “HeLlO I-I-I’m dOiNg GrEa- *static* Congratulations! You won a trip to Mt. Silver!” He uttered before his speech was drowned out by static.

“Remember to only use officially licensed Silph Co. products.” Porygon advised, “Otherwise you’ll end up like him.”

“Understood.” Joseph squeaked.

“So, would either of you like to make a transaction?”

“Do you have any dragon moves?” Joseph asked.

“Yep! We have a fine selection right here!” Porygon said as he pulled out a screen and displayed it to Joseph.

On the screen were various TMs with the moves they contained listed in this world’s native script, but also in English and surprisingly Japanese too! This made things much easier for Joseph to read, so he began browsing the catalog, ‘Let’s see here, Scale Shot, already have it, plus it’s not something Stumpy can learn… Hm… Oooh Dragon Tail! I’ll take that!”

Joseph pressed the green purchase button next to the TM he wanted, “Is that all?” Porygon asked.

“Yup!” Joseph replied.

The screen retracted and Porygon’s eyes emitted a green glow, “Hey Twoie! We got an order!” He shouted as he transmitted the order data to “Twoie”.

Moments later, a Porygon-2 rushed out and used its beak to hand Joseph the TM, “Thanks for your patronage [organic lifeform]!”

“Hold on, don’t I need to give you guys the Poké?” Joseph questioned.

“No need, we already sent the transaction data to [Specimen #326] so she’ll be sending us the Poké momentarily.”

“Oh ok then, see ya later then!”

“User successfully logged out.” Porygon said as he waved to Joseph.

‘I gotta get me one of those.’ Joseph thought as he walked away from Porygon.

Joseph and Stumpy regrouped with the team after they had all opened bank accounts, once they did that Joseph’s watch started vibrating, Cinder was calling him, probably because she was getting tired of waiting.

“What’s that sound?” Stumpy asked.

“It’s my watch, Cinder’s calling us.” Joseph responded.

“Shouldn’t you pick it up then?” Sammy interjected.

“I’m getting to it!”

Joseph picked up the call to be met with an explosion of shouting, “WHERE ARE YOU GUYS!?” Cinder boomed.

“We were getting supplies!” Joseph squeaked, “But then Amethyst told us about our guild cards being able to withdraw money from the bank, so we went to go make bank accounts, and for some reason, everyone decided to make one, and one thing led to another. You get the point.”

Cinder took a deep breath, “Oh good, I thought you all waited for us to leave the base so you could slip back in there.” She said in a much calmer tone.

“Nah, we were getting ready, we were just taking a bit is all.”

“Well hurry up and get over here so we can get going!”

Specter began to get a little worried, he still didn’t have the Everstone that he wanted, the closest he could find was an Ice Stone which was the exact opposite of what he wanted, “Wait what about the Everstone!?” He asked, “I can’t find one anywhere!”

“Have you checked with Porygon yet?”

“No, I haven’t why?”

“He mainly sells TMs and stuff, but he also sells random stuff he’s collected that he thinks other Pokémon might want,” Cinder clarified, “he typically has Everstones in that selection.

“Got it, I’ll check his place out then.”

Joseph turned to Specter and laughed, “Have fun talking to Porygon.”

“Yeah, he’s a bit of a weirdo, but he’s pretty knowledgeable, so I can’t exactly complain.” Cinder added.

Specter tilted his head and raised his eyebrow, “Uh ok?”

“So where do you want us to meet up when we’re done?” Joseph asked.

“We’ll be by the beach where we saw Malachite yesterday, so come here when you’re ready.” Cinder concluded.

“Alright, see ya then!” Joseph hung up the call before Cinder could even say goodbye and turned back to the group, “So other than Specter we’re all ready right?” He asked.

“Uh, Rory ran over to Porygon’s as soon as she heard she could buy TMs.” Sammy answered.

“Oh great…” Joseph groaned.

“Calm down, I’m already done looking!” Rory shouted as she ran back to the group.

“Oh, sorry…”

“I got a TM for Low Sweep, I thought I’d give it a chance because I’ve been struggling with enemies getting up in my face, this should help me deal with them a bit better.”

“Sounds good!” Joseph said, “What are you gonna replace with Low Sweep?”

“Quick Attack.” Rory responded, “Sure it helps close in on my opponent, but why close in on them if I can’t do anything afterward?”

“I see what you’re saying.”

Just as Joseph and Rory finished talking about moves and stuff, Specter rejoined the group, sporting a necklace with a bell on it, Sammy spotted the bell and decided to ask, “Didn’t you say you were against girly things?”

“It’s not girly,” Specter said calmly, “it’s a Soothe Bell, it’s supposed to help me evolve into an Espeon faster according to Porygon.”

“You ok bud!?” Joseph asked, “You sound like you’ve done a complete 180 especially because this whole time you’ve been really angsty!”

“I’m fine,” Specter answered, “the bell helps me stay calm.”

“Uh, alright then, we should get going, Cinder’s probably gonna think we ditched her for real if we keep her waiting any longer.”

“Fair point, let’s go.”

---

January 25th, 12:30 pm

Beachy Outskirts

Coast Continent

---

Cinder was getting a little worried, “What if they actually did ditch us?” She fretted.

“Cinder calm down! They’re gonna get here!” Vulcan shouted.

“And if they don’t!?” Cinder snapped back.

Vulcan rolled his good eye, “We can breathe fire, and they’re hiding in our tree house, you do the math.”

“WE CAN’T JUST KILL THEM!” Cinder shrieked.

Joseph and the gang walked up to the siblings right as Cinder shrieked, “What’s going on?” Joseph asked.

“Oh, uh, n-nothing!” Vulcan stuttered, “We were just talking about what we’d do if our rides didn’t show up.”

“He was talking about how he was going to burn our house down with you all still in it if you didn’t make your way down here.” Cinder admitted.

Vulcan turned to Cinder, “C’mon! Why’d you have to sell me out like that!?” He shouted.

The group’s eyes went wide open, “For real!?” Stumpy shouted, “I thought we were friends!”

“W-we are! It’s just if you guys abandoned my sister, I would’ve been really angry!”

“So burning our base down with us still inside is the solution to your anger problem!?” Rory shouted.

“It was a joke! I wouldn’t have actually done it!”

Slippy shot a Water Gun into Vulcan’s bad eye, “You don’t just joke about murdering a group of Pokémon, dude!” He yelled, “It’s messed up! The only thing worse is joking about suicide!”

Vulcan was still rubbing the water out of his eye, “Fair enough… I deserved that.”

Specter walked between the group and Vulcan, “We can settle this without a fight,” He said, “just take a deep breath and listen to the bell chime” He then rang the bell and the sound echoed through the area soothing the minds of everyone on the beach.

“Woah, where’d you get that?” Cinder asked.

“Porygon sold it to me, it’s supposed to help me evolve into an Espeon faster.”

“Oh, that’s neat.”

“So, where’s our ride?” Specter questioned.

“Oh, they’ll be here soon.” Cinder answered.

“Then why were you trying to rush us!?” The group shouted.

“I wasn’t! It was Vulcan who was rushing you guys!”

“But you were all worried too!” Joseph accused.

“Well, that’s because I was afraid that our ride was gonna think we were messing with them.” Cinder clarified.

“What do you mean by that?” Joseph asked as a giant Wailord emerged from the water behind him.

“Uh, Joseph? You might wanna turn around.” Sammy said.

Joseph turned around slowly to see the Wailord smiling at him with his ginormous face, “Oh… Uh… Hello friend.” Joseph muttered as he began to sweat bullets.

The Wailord noticed that its presence was scaring Joseph, “It’s alright bud, I won’t eat you.” She said calmly but also very loudly.

Everyone covered their ears as the Wailord spoke, “Could you keep it down!?” Vulcan shouted.

“S-sorry,” The Wailord apologized, “it’s kinda hard to be quiet when you’re this big.”

“So this is how we’re getting to the Glacier Continent?” Rory asked.

“Yup, we’re taking the Wailord Ferry!” Cinder chirped.

“Please don’t tell me we have to ride in its mouth.” Joseph pleaded.

“What!? No! Of course we don’t have to ride in its mouth!” Cinder stated.

“Oh, thank god, you had me worried for a sec.”

“Just climb on my back, and I’ll do the rest!” Wailord chirped.

“Can you do it quietly!?” Vulcan asked as he covered his ears.

“Yeah, s-sorry.”

The group climbed onto Wailord’s back and got comfy before Wailord swam off into the open sea.

---

January 25th, 12:45 pm

Open Sea

---

Team Echoes were passing the time by talking about their favorite foods, while Joseph was staring at the sea from off the side of Wailord’s back. While he was staring off blankly, he thought he saw something in the water, ‘Is there a Luvdisc under there?’ He asked himself.

Rory noticed Joseph staring at the water and decided to ask him what he was doing, “What’s going on over here?”

Joseph looked over at Rory, “Oh nothing,” Joseph answered, “I’m just staring into the water.”

“Is there something in there?”

“I think? I’m not sure though.”

Rory peeked into the water and saw something pink with a red gem on its forehead, “Is it an Espeon? N-no, it can’t be, they don’t live underwater.”

‘Clearly, Uxie missed this one.’ The pink Pokémon thought.

“I thought it was a Luvdisc.” Joseph voiced, “I mean, it’s pink, and it’s underwater, so it’s probably either that or an Alomomola.”

“But I thought those Pokémon lived further underwater.”

“Well, it still makes more sense than an Espeon.”

“I only said that because I saw a red gem on its head!”

Joseph took another peek only to see the creature staring right at him, when the creature noticed him it sat there for a moment before realizing it had been seen, it then blushed like a tomato and sunk deeper into the water. Joseph realized what was going on, “I found out what it was!” He declared.

“What was it then?” Rory asked.

“It was Mesprit, the emotion Pokémon.” Joseph answered.

Rory laughed, “There’s no way that was Mesprit!” She said, “It was probably just a Luvdisc that was wearing a ruby or something on its head.”

“It was though!” Joseph swore, “When I looked back into the water, she was staring right at me! She even dove deeper into the water after she realized I was staring right back at her!”

“I’ll believe it when I see it.”

“You did see it though!”

“Then I don’t believe it.”

“But you just said- whatever…”

Rory rolled her eyes, “I’m gonna go back to talking about food now.”

Joseph resumed staring at the water when he noticed a tiny pink spec, ‘Is she still here?’ He asked himself.

But as soon as he asked himself that, he felt a strange feeling in his head, it was almost like someone else was peering into his thoughts, he even heard their inner voice, ‘Good he doesn’t know why I’m here, and if he tells anyone they’re going to think he’s crazy.’ A feminine voice said.

Joseph was beginning to see the picture, Mesprit was reading his thoughts, and for some reason, she was using her telepathy to communicate with him. Joseph figured that the telepathy was a mistake, given the fact that Mesprit didn’t seem aware that she was using her telepathy, this gave Joseph a dumb idea.

‘Hey, you left your AirDrop on.’ Joseph thought, in an attempt to get Mesprit’s attention.

‘AirDrop? What’s that?’ Mesprit asked herself in the insecure voice channel she had formed with Joseph.

Joseph rolled his eyes, ‘You left your telepathy on.’

‘EEP!’

Mesprit teleported back up to where she was spotted by Joseph initially, ‘Not a word about this! You hear me!?’

Joseph thought about immediately agreeing to what she said, but he decided against it in favor of pressuring her for answers, but first, he wanted to challenge her authority, I mean why would she give him answers if she felt like she was in control of the situation, ‘Or else what?’ He asked.

‘O-or else I’ll get da- I mean Arceus to use his Judgment on you!’

‘Pfft, yeah right, you sound super sure of yourself there, bud.’

‘W-well I’m not afraid of you!’

‘You sure about that? You’re stuttering even though you don’t know what my intentions are.’

‘Th-that’s why I’m afraid!’ Mesprit said before realizing she admitted to being afraid, ‘Wait…’

‘So you admit it! You are afraid.’

‘N-no, I just misspoke, that’s all!’

‘Misspoke? Really? You’re an experienced psychic, and you misspoke through telepathy? I find that hard to believe.’

Mesprit couldn’t take the suspense anymore. ‘What do you want from me!?’ She shouted with her telepathy.

‘I want to know why you were spying on me!’ Joseph demanded.

‘I wasn’t! I just so happened to be in the area, and I was a little curious!’

‘You really expect me to believe that after you dove back under the water when we locked eyes initially?’

‘I was just a little embarrassed, that’s all!’

‘Then why were you reading my thoughts afterward? And why were you making sure I didn’t know why you were here?’

Mesprit began blushing again, ‘I- well- uh- you see-‘ She sputtered before deciding she had enough and teleporting far away.

‘Coward!’ Joseph shouted in his head, just in case Mesprit was still reading his thoughts.

And sure enough, Joseph heard a faint, ‘I heard that.’ afterward.

‘You were meant to genius.’ Joseph quipped.

And just like that, the responses stopped. Joseph turned away from the water and was immediately jump scared by Cinder, “Is the water really that interesting?” She asked.

Joseph took a deep breath, “Nope, there’s nothing there, well now anyway.”

“Was there something in there?”

“Yeah, but you wouldn’t believe me if I told you what, or rather who was in the water.”

“Was it someone you know?”

“Nope, but I know them now.”

Cinder tilted her head in confusion, “I’m not sure if I understand.”

“They spoke to me.” Joseph clarified

“They did!? But I didn’t hear your voice!”

“Because I didn’t actually speak to them, they read my mind and spoke to me with telepathy.”

“That’s a bit strange, what kind of psychic types live out here?”

“She doesn’t live here, in fact, I’m convinced she was only here because of me.”

“Really!?”

“Yep, but I can’t talk about that here, it’s too sensitive of a topic,” Joseph said, “I’ll tell you right before bed alright?”

“But won’t Rory hear it?”

“Yeah but she’s fine, she already knows, well sort of anyway…”

“What do you mean sort of?”

“She didn’t believe me, hopefully, if you believe me, we can convince her that I’m not actually crazy.”

“Gotcha, I look forward to proving your sanity.” Cinder chuckled, “Anyway, you wanna talk about food with us?”

“Sure I guess.” Joseph answered.

The two joined the rest of the team and began talking about food, all the while a certain pink-headed Pokémon lurked under the water, still spying on the group albeit from a very safe distance, ‘Great… Now he’s going to alert the whole group… Fantastic, I knew I should’ve stuck with my plan but no Uxie just had to insist that her plan was better because she’s the knowledge Pokémon,’ Mesprit whined, ‘look just because you gave the mortals the gift of knowledge doesn’t mean you have an infinite supply of the stuff, and clearly you didn’t save any for yourself. Whatever… I’ll just try to pry answers from your friends instead.’

Mesprit snapped her fingers and teleported away again, this time she actually teleported far away from the group, leaving them to enjoy the rest of their ferry ride in peace.

---

January 25th, 2:00 pm

Slushville

Glacier Continent

---

Team Echoes arrived at the Glacier Continent, stepping off of Wailord’s back and onto the blanket of snow that caked the streets of Slushville.

“Well, I’ll be seeing you!” Wailord chirped as she sunk back into the sea.

“See you!” Cinder waved before turning to her team, “So now that we’re here, it’s time to discuss our game plan.”

Joseph started shivering, “W-we g-go t-to whatever i-igloo o-our g-guy’s st-staying in and w-we t-talk to him so we can l-leave.”

Vulcan flared up his flames and gave Joseph a big hug, causing him to stop shivering, “So dramatic.” He scoffed.

“It’s so cold! My fur doesn’t help at all!” Joseph shot back.

“Well, it seems to be working for everyone else.” Vulcan said, pointing to the rest of the group, who were, indeed, perfectly fine, even Stumpy, which didn’t make any sense.

“Wait, how is Stumpy not cold?” Joseph questioned.

“I don’t know!” Stumpy responded, “My feathers usually don’t cut it against the harsh winter weather and my scales shouldn’t be fairing much better either, but for some reason, there’s something inside me that’s keeping me warm.”

“Wait, could it be a flame pipe?” Vulcan asked.

“Absolutely not! I don’t have a flame pipe!”

“Actually, since you’re a dragon now, you might.” Joseph said.

“Wait really!?”

“Yep, dragons can usually breathe fire, so maybe you can too.”

“Ooh! Can I teach him Flamethrower!?” Cinder asked enthusiastically.

“Only if breathing fire doesn’t hurt me.” Stumpy answered.

“Alright! So basically you just channel all the warmth from your flame pipe, and you let it loose!” Cinder instructed.

Stumpy tried to follow Cinder’s instructions but ended up failing somewhere down the line as he did let loose a stream of something, but it wasn’t flames, it was smoke, he coughed up a bunch of smoke and shot it everywhere.

“Ooh so close.” Cinder said.

Stumpy lowered his head and sighed, “I guess I can’t breathe fire then…”

“Don’t worry, you’ll get it eventually.” Cinder encouraged, “It took me FOREVER to learn Flamethrower myself.”

“But you’re a fire type, you’re actually supposed to learn Flamethrower, meanwhile I’m over here trying to force myself to spit out flames all because I’ve been haphazardly combined with a dragon.”

“Well you have the necessary components in there so it’s still possible! I mean, would you have even spit out all that smoke if you didn’t have any way of making fire in there?”

“I guess not.”

“Then don’t call it quits yet! You can do this! You just need a little more practice, that’s all!”

Stumpy raised his head, “You’re right! I can do it! And once I get a little more practice in, I’ll be able to torch this tundra!”

“That’s the spirit!”

This little scene reminded Joseph of something, ‘Right, I still have the scarves I bought.’ He thought as he looked at Stumpy.

“Is something up, Joseph?” Stumpy asked.

Joseph rummaged through his bag before pulling out the red scarf he bought earlier, “Here, take this,” Joseph said as he handed the scarf to Stumpy, “this should help you learn how to breathe fire faster.”

“What’s this?”

“It’s a fire Tera Scarf, it allows you to become a fire type somehow.”

Cinder took a look at the scarf, “Why does that one have a fire type emblem on it?”

Vulcan rolled his good eye at Cinder, “Uh, I don’t know, maybe because it’s a fire type scarf?” He said sarcastically.

“I get that!” Cinder snapped back, “But none of ours have emblems on them, but Joseph has a grass type one and Rory has a poison type one.”

“I heard one of the Kecleon brothers say something about that,” Sammy interjected, “he said that some of them have different designs.”

“Did he say why?” Cinder asked.

“He said it was because some of the guild members didn’t like that they had to wear certain colors to get the effect of their scarves, so the Kecleon brothers dye them different colors and stuff to appease everyone.”

“Oh, I get it.” Cinder replied, “Maybe I’ll ask for a blue one next time we go to a Kecleon shop.”

“So do I just tie it around my neck like you guys have?” Stumpy asked.

“Here, let me get it for you.” Joseph said.

Joseph jumped onto Stumpy’s back and tied the scarf around his neck before jumping back down.

“Thanks bud!” Stumpy said.

“You’re welcome! Now to put my new one on.” Joseph said as he took his old green Tera Scarf off and replaced it with the light blue one.

“Oooh an ice type scarf, that’s clever!” Cinder remarked.

“Yeah, I thought if we were going somewhere cold, I might as well prepare for it.”

“So ours are the same then?” Sammy asked as he looked down at his light blue scarf.

“I mean, I think so, they are the same color and all.”

“Maybe we should go for an ice bath later then.” Sammy suggested.

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea, I still don’t know how to swim as a Shinx yet.”

“Well, you can figure it out when you need to swim,” Cinder interjected, “For now let’s just get going.”

“I-I don’t think figuring things out as we go is a good idea when it comes to swimming.” Joseph squeaked.

“Nonsense!” Cinder replied, “Worst comes the worst, Sammy and Slippy can just pull you out of the water.”

“I guess… But what if we get separated?”

“Uh… w-well that won’t happen!”

“Let’s just get going before you jinx things.”

Team Echoes finally left the port and entered Slushville proper, the town was filled with igloos and glowing ice crystals, oh yeah, and tons of snowmon, what are snowmon? Think of a snowman but instead of a man, it’s a Pokémon. Among the snowmon sculptures, there were, a few Pikachu, a Glaceon, a Snom, a Cubchoo (accompanied by a Beartic), and a horde of Spheal, all built out of snow.

“Wow, there’s so much life here.” Joseph marveled.

“Yup, the kids here love to build snow sculptures,” Slippy responded, “and since it’s always so cold here they never melt!”

“Is that why there are so many Spheal sculptures?” Rory asked, “Because you built them when you were a kid?”

“Nope, I never built a single snow Spheal, I did build a Charmander out of snow once though.”

“Why a Charmander?”

“Because one day I became friends with a Charmander who came here to go sightseeing, so I decided to make a Charmander out of snow to commemorate that.”

“That sounds like something you’d do.” Cinder said.

“I know! Because it is something I did!” Slippy chirped.

Joseph’s impatience was getting the better of him again, “Not to interrupt or anything, but where are we actually going?” He asked.

“We’re going to a place called the Chilled Caverns.” Cinder answered, “It’s not exactly the most notable place, it’s mostly just an empty ice cave, but our guy’s made it into his home so it’s notable enough to make it our destination.”

“Got it.” Joseph responded, “Are there any dungeons on the way there?”

“Yep, there’s two: Slip Slide Slope, and Icefall Caverns.”

“So we’re going through a cave to get to another cave?”

“Kinda?” Cinder said uncertainly, “From what I’ve heard, Icefall Caverns seems to have a gate that leads to Chilled Caverns, but I’m not so sure if that makes sense, like why hide a cave within a cave?”

Sammy’s eyes started to sparkle, “Do you think it was because there was an ancient civilization living in the Chilled Caverns?!” He asked, “Maybe we could be uncovering something history forgot!”

Vulcan rolled his good eye, “I doubt it… I mean, if there’s a guy living there, then someone else probably knows about the place.”

“Wow, way to be a buzzkill dude.” Rory interjected.

“What, I’m just stating the facts.”

“But you saw how excited he was about possibly finding something forgotten, and yet you still decided to kill his fun.”

“She has a point, you know.” Sammy agreed.

“Sorry, I just wanted to make sure you didn’t waste your time looking for something that’s not there.” Vulcan said.

“Oh, I got you.”

“So are we staying together the whole time or are we splitting up?” Joseph asked.

“We’re splitting up,” Cinder answered, “You’re going with Vulcan, Rory, Sammy, and Stumpy, while I’m going with Slippy, Specter, and Tiny.”

“But our group’s so much smaller!” Slippy voiced.

“Yeah, I did that on purpose, you’ve been here before, and I’m the most experienced in battle, so it only makes sense to give us the smaller group.”

“But why keep Slippy with you if we’re left without a guide?” Sammy asked.

“Relax you’ll be fine,” Cinder assured, “if you get lost just call us, and we’ll guide you.”

Stumpy, having been born in an era without technology, misunderstood Cinder’s advice, “LIKE THIS!?” He roared.

The sound of Stumpy’s voice was so loud, it knocked everyone off their feet.

Joseph got back onto his feet and cleared up what Cinder was saying, “No like this.” He said as he pressed something on his watch.

Cinder remained on the ground, lying down, her head was spinning and her eyes going all swirly when suddenly her watch started vibrating, she shook away the dizziness and sat up before picking up the call, “Hello?”

Joseph turned to Stumpy and held his watch toward him, “Say something.” He instructed before covering his ears.

“LIKE THIS!?” Stumpy roared again, knocking Cinder back over.

Cinder’s head was spinning again, “Y-yes Stumpy like that, but preferably a lot quieter next time.”

Stumpy heard his voice come through the other side and was amazed, “So Joseph and I weren’t just hearing things earlier, cool!” He remarked, “How does this witchcraft work?”

“It’s not witchcraft Stumpy,” Joseph said, “it’s technology, it makes our lives easier, so in this case, it’s allowing us to talk to Cinder from anywhere in the world.”

“So if we go back to where we were before, we could still talk with her?”

“Yep!” Joseph confirmed, “It’s pretty helpful for talking with your friends when they’re far away!”

“Ah, I see.”

“Well we should get going,” Cinder said, “C’mon Slippy, lead the way!”

“Alright, I’ll try.” Slippy replied.

Cinder’s group broke off from the main group and headed into a path on the other side of Slushville.

“Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s get moving!” Vulcan said.

The main group left Slushville as well, trudging off into the snowy wastes and leaving the beautiful town behind them.

---

January 25th, 2:30 pm

Slip Slide Slope – Entrance

Glacier Continent

---

The party walked through the snow until they reached a beautiful snow-covered forest, “Woah this place is pretty!” Sammy marveled.

“Yeah, pretty dangerous.” Vulcan added, “I’m getting mad dungeon vibes from this forest.”

“That checks out,” Joseph responded, “My watch says this is Slip Slide Slope.”

“Then we should proceed with caution, these places are no joke.” Vulcan said as he pointed at his bad eye.

“Yeah, we know!” Rory shouted, “You don’t gotta show us your eye to prove it or anything!”

“I was just making sure.”

“Draw your weapons!” Sammy commanded, “We’re gonna rip this place to shreds!”

Everyone rolled their eyes, “Not to ruin the moment, but you do realize you’re the only one who has any weapons, right?” Joseph asked.

“I meant metaphorically.” Sammy responded.

The whole group let out an “Oh.”

This made Sammy sigh, “Let’s just go in.”

The team entered the forest dungeon only to notice the ground was entirely covered in ice, no items, no dirt, no grass, just ice.

“Oh god…” Joseph sighed, “I’m gonna freeze my butt off, aren’t I?”

“Yup,” Vulcan said, “and I’m not giving you another hug, so you better get ready to shiver a whole ton!”

“What? Why are you being like this?”

“‘Cuz you need to toughen up, you squishy little human.”

Stumpy stepped in, “If you’re gonna be like that, then you can kiss our little piggyback rides goodbye.”

“Fine! Fine! I take it back, jeez!” Vulcan shouted in response, “But can you tell me why humans are so squishy and wimpy?”

“Because, unlike Pokémon, we can’t do cool stuff like breathe fire or generate our own electricity, and also unlike Pokémon we can’t survive a point-blank explosion, so it’s safe to say we aren’t used to being put into situations that normal Pokémon would be fine with.” Joseph responded.

Vulcan rolled his good eye, “Pfft, wimpy excuse.” He scoffed.

“Why do you even think humans are wimpy anyway? You hadn’t even met one until you met me, and even then I’m not exactly human anymore!”

“Well yeah, but, I overheard one say that he didn’t have enough Reviver Seeds to make it through Dark Crater once.”

“That was taken out of context!”

“Well, it checks out, considering you’ve been nothing but a wimp this whole time!”

But before the argument could continue a feral Snorunt hit Vulcan with an Ice Beam, freezing him solid in a block of ice and causing the whole group to laugh before engaging the Snorunt.

“That’s karma for you.” Joseph quipped before hitting the Snorunt with a Spark.

The Snorunt was knocked back, but Rory body blocked it before it could get knocked too far away, she then hit it with a Low Sweep, passing it to Stumpy who slammed it with his tail sending it on a collision course for the ice that encased Vulcan, shattering it and freeing him.

“Brrr… Wh-what happened?” Vulcan said, shivering as he attempted to flare his flames back up, only to fail because he was way too cold.

“The ice too cold for you?” Joseph quipped, “Cinder said that she would only feel a little chilly if she was coated in ice, guess that makes you the squishier sibling.”

“Shut up! Not everyone can be as tough as Cinder, alright!?” Vulcan huffed.

“Well if you can’t walk the walk don’t talk the talk.” Joseph said.

“What does that even mean?” Vulcan asked.

“Don’t be a hypocrite.”

Vulcan sighed, “Fair enough… I’m just tired of being shown up by Cinder.”

“Well putting others down and constantly shouting about how much better you are than everyone else doesn’t help, it just makes you annoying, understand?” Rory asked.

“Yeah, I understand.” Vulcan said shamefully, “But what actually happened? One minute I was my usual hot-headed self and the next I was freezing cold, and it feels like I missed what was going on.”

“You got frozen solid by a Snorunt.” Joseph answered, “You might want to stay on your toes so it doesn’t happen again.”

“I was frozen!?” Vulcan gasped, “How long has it been!? How long was I trapped in that ice!? How long did it take me to thaw!?”

“Relax, it’s only been a few minutes,” Stumpy said, “I knocked the Snorunt into the ice with my tail, and it shattered.”

Vulcan ran up and hugged Stumpy’s leg, “OHMYARCEUSTHANKYOUBIGGUYYOUHAVENOIDEAHOWTHANKFULIAM!” He burst, he didn’t take another breath until he had spat that entire glob of words out.

“Uh, you’re welcome?”

“Here, just take an Oran Berry and get off of Stumpy’s leg so we can get started for real.” Joseph said as he handed Vulcan an Oran Berry.

Vulcan took a massive bite out of the Oran Berry before flaring up his flames, “Thanks bud.” He said as he shoved the rest of the berry in his mouth.

The group got going for real this time, slipping and sliding across the ice to enter, exit, and explore the rooms of the dungeon, eventually, they came across their first set of stairs causing them to collectively celebrate, but little did they know they weren’t alone as there was a certain pink-headed Pokémon following them from afar, ‘So the human is capable of teamwork.’ Mesprit thought as she peeked around the corner at the group, ‘Maybe this one won’t be as bad as she was then.’

Stumpy was confused as to why his teammates were celebrating, “What’s so significant about these stairs?” He asked.

“They’re our ticket forward.” Joseph said, “They’re a little scary for newcomers, though, so you might wanna mentally prepare yourself before going forward.”

“Ok!” Stumpy responded, “I’ll wait here and take a deep breath while you guys go ahead, then I’ll follow you when I’m ready, ok?”

“Ok, just try not to get rushed down.”

“I won’t! My tail is pretty big, so if I do have to fight a group of enemies, I can just hit them with my Dragon Tail attack!”

“Alright, just don’t sit here too long, alright?”

“Got ya!”

The group went ahead while Stumpy took a seat beside the stairs and took a deep breath, but as he stood back up he noticed something, or rather someone, staring at him from around the corner.

Having realized she had been spotted, Mesprit tried to fly away, but she was too slow as Stumpy had already closed the gap and grabbed her by the tails, “EEP!” Mesprit shouted.

“Calm down, I’m not gonna hurt you.” Stumpy said, “I was just gonna guide you toward the stairs.”

“I knew they were there, I just didn’t want you all spotting me!” Mesprit squeaked as she tried to wiggle free.

“Huh, why not?”

“Because the human mustn’t know I’m still spying on him!” Mesprit shouted before covering her mouth and blushing, ‘Darn it, I said way too much there.’ She told herself.

Stumpy raised an eyebrow, “Why are you spying on us?”

Mesprit teleported out of Stumpy’s grasp and slapped him, “None of your business.”

Stumpy regained his grasp on Mesprit this time getting a grip on her neck, “You’re gonna regret hitting me and spying on us!” He shouted.

From there things got ugly, Stumpy tossed Mesprit onto the ground and slammed her with his tail, he then followed this up by stomping the ground furiously, landing a couple of his stomps directly onto Mesprit’s body, he didn’t stop until he was absolutely sure that she wasn’t gonna get back up, then he whacked her with his tail one last time sending her far down the corridor, he then turned tail and sprinted up the stairs.

---

January 25th, 3:15 pm

Slip Slide Slope – Floor 2

Glacier Continent

---

Stumpy wasn’t really concerned about the weirdness of the stairs and their reality-bending shenanigans, what he was concerned about was telling his team that they were being spied on, once he reached the second floor however all hell was already breaking loose because the team had been ambushed by a monster house in the very first room of the floor, very unfortunate…

Joseph noticed Stumpy’s arrival while he was fighting off a Rufflet, “Stumpy! There you are! Come help us out! There’s too many of them for us to deal with!”

“On it!” Stumpy declared as he sprinted toward the Rufflet Joseph was fighting.

The Rufflet had already been weakened a little by some of Joseph’s attacks, but it was still putting up one hell of a fight, so Stumpy prepared his Bolt Beak attack as he sprinted, but once he had finally closed the gap he slipped, falling forward and slamming his beak into the Rufflet for an instant K.O.!

Stumpy let out a sigh of relief, “Phew, I almost messed that up.” He said as he picked himself back up.

“Good job!” Joseph said as he jumped up and gave Stumpy a fist bump, “Now let’s go help out the others!”

Rory was backed into a corner against a Munna when Stumpy slammed it with his tail, knocking it into a more favorable position, “Wow, thanks Stumpy!”

“You’re welcome!” Stumpy chirped, “Now let’s take this chunky floral patterned meanie out!”

Rory gave Stumpy a determined nod before running off and kicking the Munna with a Low Sweep. Her teammates were quick to follow up on this, with Joseph hitting the Munna with a Spark before quickly moving out of the way of Stumpy’s Meteor Beam.

“Woah! That was cool! What was that move!?” Rory asked.

“I don’t know! I just had a weird feeling, so I let my gut take control and that’s what happened!” Stumpy replied.

“You think you could do that again?” Sammy asked as he just barely kept a Frosmoth at bay with his scallop.

“Sure thing bud!” Stumpy chirped as he charged up another Meteor Beam.

As Stumpy charged his beam, stars appeared all around him until they glowed with a bright white sheen, letting him know it was time to let the beam loose. Stumpy let the beam loose and absolutely pulverized the Frosmoth leaving it defeated on the ground.

“Sick! Thanks bud!” Sammy cheered.

“You’re welcome!” Stumpy exulted.

And just as Stumpy took out the Frosmoth, Vulcan had finished dealing with a Snover, “Phew now to help the others.” He said before looking over at the others to see them crowding around Stumpy who was posing triumphantly, “Of course,” Vulcan groaned as he rolled his good eye, “if Cinder’s not around to show me up there’s always someone else to show me up in her place.”

Stumpy let out another sigh of relief before asking, “Why were there so many enemies?” He asked.

“This room was a monster house, which means we were ambushed as soon as we got here.” Joseph answered.

“Oh, I see.” Stumpy responded, “Well I’ve got something I need to tell you.”

“What is it?” Sammy asked.

“Before I went up the stairs after you guys, I encountered a strange Pokémon who was spying on us.”

“Spying on us!?” Sammy blurted, “Was it a feral Pokémon?”

“Do ferals speak?” Stumpy asked.

“No, they don’t.” Vulcan answered as he walked over to join the group.

“Then uh, no, no it was not a feral.”

Joseph immediately had an idea as to who it was, “Were they pink and gray with a red gem on their forehead?” He asked.

“Yup, they also had two tails with smaller red gems on them.”

“Yep, it’s Mesprit, she’s still spying on us.”

“MESPRIT!?” Vulcan shouted.

“STILL!?” Stumpy blurted.

“Yep, she’s been spying on us since the ride here.” Joseph explained.

“You sure!?” Sammy asked.

“Yup, I spotted her in the water, then she turned beet red and sunk down deeper, but she accidentally used her telepathy on me, so I heard a little more than I should have, then I interrogated her a little before she teleported away like a coward.”

“That checks out,” Stumpy said, “I was able to catch her, and she gave me most of the info I wanted, she then slapped me across the face, needless to say, she’s not gonna get too close to us for a while, not with me around anyway.”

“Wait, did you fight back?” Rory asked.

“Well I wouldn’t say I ‘fought back’ I’d say I stomped her out until the message was clear, and then I sent her flying with my tail for good measure.”

“You’re exaggerating right?”

“Hardly,” Stumpy chirped, “if anything I’m selling myself a bit short.”

“So you just beat up a legendary Pokémon like it was nothing!?” Joseph asked.

“Well if that’s what you’d call this Mesprit chick then yes, yes I did.”

“Eh, I’ll believe it when I see it.” Vulcan said.

“Yeah, his story is a little one-sided for me.” Sammy agreed.

Stumpy started to falter, “B-but I’m not lying! You guys saw me in battle! You know that I’m a powerhouse!”

“Being a powerhouse and being able to stand up to what is effectively a goddess are two different things, bud.” Vulcan remarked.

“Fine, don’t believe me then, but just know that I know what I saw!”

“Whatever, let’s just keep moving.”

Vulcan and Sammy made their way through another corridor of trees in the dungeon, leaving Rory, Joseph, and Stumpy in the former monster house.

“Rory, you believe me, right?” Stumpy asked.

“Probably not, she wouldn’t even believe me when she looked at her under the water.” Joseph responded.

“You’re kinda right…” Rory replied, “At first I was like, ‘this is completely outlandish’ but now that there’s supposedly been a repeat offense I’m starting to believe a little.”

Just as Rory finished saying that, a really beat-up-looking Mesprit appeared on the floor with them, catching them all by surprise, “You’re gonna pay for beating me up you little twerp!” Mesprit shouted.

“Huh, so you weren’t lying.” Rory said.

“Just tell me why you’re spying on us!” Stumpy yelled back.

“I already told you it’s none of your BUSINESS!” Mesprit growled as her eyes glowed a pink color.

Suddenly, a pink glow overtook Stumpy, “Huh!? Why can’t I move!?” He asked in a panic.

“Let’s see how you like getting thrown around!” Mesprit quipped as she used her psychic powers to throw Stumpy at one of the walls of trees.

Stumpy went flying but was stopped when Joseph returned him to his Pokéball, “What’s your deal!?” Joseph shouted.

“MY DEAL!? THAT THING ATTACKED ME!” Mesprit screamed.

Suddenly, Stumpy’s Pokéball started shaking violently until he managed to burst out of it on his own, “Well you were the one spying on me and my friends!” He shot back.

“Are you really friends, or is he using that strange device to control you?”

“We’re friends! Joseph’s wanted nothing more than to help me and comfort me since we met, and even if we just met today, I’d say that makes him my friend!”

“What even are you anyway? Arceus told me some of his creations were a little strange, but I think this is too strange for even him.”

“Yeah, that’s because Stumpy was the result of some mad scientist in another world!” Joseph shouted, “He’s just like me, a poor soul who’s been forced into an altered body because of some weird experiment.”

Mesprit tilted her head and brought her hand to her chin, “Is that so? Well, maybe you’d both be better off dead!” Mesprit used her psychic powers to grab both Joseph and Stumpy, “Die.” She said as she prepared to launch the two into each other, but she was clocked in the face by Rory’s Vacuum Wave, “URGH! Is everyone going to be a problem around here!?”

“Yeah, actually we are because regardless of their situations, Joseph and Stumpy are our friends!”

“You do realize, the last human to come to this world almost destroyed it, right?”

“Yeah, but do you realize that people and Pokémon can be different, right?” Joseph countered.

“Well after you interrogated me earlier and after your little beast friend almost killed me I find it very hard to believe that you’d be any different.”

“I only interrogated you earlier because you were spying on me, being spied on is creepy and nobody likes it!”

“Well nobody likes you either, but that clearly won’t make you go away.”

“Didn’t I just prove you wrong by saving him?” Rory asked.

“You know what I mean, you insolent idiot, don’t make me crush every bone in your body just to shut your smart ass up!”

“Someone’s getting a little tilted.” Rory taunted.

“ENOUGH!” Mesprit shouted as she used her psychic power to sweep the trio off their feet, “I’m going to end the three of you here and tell Arceus you died in some freak accident.”

“I think your wording’s a bit off, it should be ‘died to’ a freak accident.” Rory scoffed, “Not that it matters because you’re not going to kill us!”

“Bring it then! I won’t be brought down by foolish mortals like you!”

The trio got back to their feet and prepared for the fight of their lives when suddenly Mesprit used her psychic power to snatch Stumpy’s Pokéball from Joseph’s bag, “Got it, now how do I use this wretched thing?” She asked.

“Here, let me give you a hand!” Joseph shouted as he slammed into Mesprit with a Spark, causing her to drop the ball.

“How dare you touch me, mortal!”

“Get used to it because once we beat you we’ll be using your face as the doormat to our base from now on!” Joseph quipped.

“You wouldn’t dare!”

“Yeah, you’re right, I wouldn’t want something that ugly in my house either.”

“URGH! SHUT UP ALREADY!”

Mesprit’s flashed pink for a moment before returning to their normal colors, ‘Heh foolish mortal.’ Mesprit chuckled to herself as she saw a vision of her psychic power slamming Joseph into the ground, ‘Future Sight is such a blessing.’

However, while Mesprit was busy focusing on the future, she neglected to focus on the present, leaving her wide open for Stumpy’s Dragon Tail, which sent her flying into one of the trees, Joseph followed up by using Secret Power to launch an Ice Shard attack at Mesprit freezing her to the tree.

“Gah!” Mesprit growled, “Unhand me this instant!”

“Yeah, uh, how about no.” Rory scoffed.

“Yeah, after what you pulled you’re not getting out of there unless a feral comes and knocks you out.” Joseph said, “See ya!”

Joseph and the group began walking away when suddenly Joseph got slammed into the ground by Mesprit’s Future Sight attack, causing the group to turn around, “So you’re still gonna be a problem, huh?” Rory shouted.

“N-no, that was Future Sight! I wasn’t trying to attack you anymore, I promise!” Mesprit swore.

“I don’t buy it for a moment.” Joseph said.

Crystals enveloped Joseph powering him up with powerful ice energy then he emerged with a crystal crown with a giant snowflake on it, this caught Mesprit completely off guard, “What the-” She said before Joseph shot a Tera Blast straight for Mesprit freezing her over entirely.

Joseph let out a sigh of relief, “Now that that’s over, shall we catch up to the group?” He asked his teammates.

Rory and Stumpy both nodded and the three of them went on with their journey through the dungeon.

---

January 25th, 4:00 pm

Slip Slide Slope – Floor 6

Glacier Continent

---

It wasn’t until the final floor that Joseph, Rory, and Stumpy caught up with their teammates, and once they did, they received an earful from Vulcan, “WHERE WERE YOU GUYS!?”

“Something came up, and we had a pretty anticlimactic and one-sided fight against a pretty tough opponent. Joseph answered.

“Is that why you’ve got that crown on?” Sammy asked.

“Yep, we froze somebody to a tree.” Joseph said all nonchalantly.

“You did WHAT!?”

“Yep, we froze someone to a tree.”

“Who was it?”

“Mesprit.” Rory answered.

“Really, you guys are still on that?” Vulcan asked.

“Yeah because she’s really spying on us! Or at least she was before we froze her to that tree.”

“There’s no way she’s spying on us, you guys are just seeing stuff.”

“She slammed me into the ground with Future Sight!” Joseph countered, “I’m not just seeing stuff, it’s real!”

“Then why haven’t we seen her yet?” Sammy asked.

“Because she’s a coward who hides behind corners and trees and stuff.” Stumpy answered, “She only came at us because I embarrassed her by beating her up.”

“I still find it hard to believe that you beat up a legendary Pokémon like it was nothing.” Vulcan said.

“Well, clearly she had enough strength to chase after us after the fact, so he definitely didn’t knock her out.” Joseph replied, “And considering we didn’t knock her out either, it’s not that hard to believe.”

“Well, I’m still not believing it until I see it.” Vulcan huffed.

“Same here.” Sammy agreed.

“Whatever, let’s just get out of this place, it’s already getting pretty dark.” Joseph mentioned.

The team wandered around the floor uneventfully before finding the stairs and leaving the dungeon behind.

---

January 25th, 4:08 pm

Slip Slide Slope – Outside

Glacier Continent

---

“Phew, we finally made it out of there.” Joseph said as he and his teammates appeared on the other side of the dungeon.

“We’re not in the clear yet.” Vulcan told the group, “We still have to get through the Icefall Caverns.”

“I know, but we still made it through that place!”

“I’d hardly consider it an achievement.”

“Well not everyone was born in Dark Crater.”

“Fair point.” Vulcan sighed, “I guess it is a bit impressive then, I mean you guys are still noobs after all.”

“Hey! I’m not a noob when it comes to battling!” Stumpy ribbed.

“Well, have you been in many Mystery Dungeons?”

“Uh, I don’t think so? What’s a Mystery Dungeon?”

“They’re shifting dungeons full of feral Pokémon, just like that place, except normally they have some good loot to entice explorers.”

“Oh, that’s cool, I don’t think we had those where I came from.” Stumpy responded.

“Really!?” Vulcan blurted, “Then what reason was there to battle!?”

“We battled for food, resources, territory, and basically anything else that’s usually obtained in a more civilized manner here.”

“That sounds… Absolutely terrifying.”

“Yep! It sure was! But it got the adrenaline flowing, so I was perfectly ok with it.”

“I bet if Cinder was from where you’re from, she’d be like the queen of the world or something.”

“Why does she like fighting or something?”

“She literally couldn’t live without it, even when we were kids she would always pick fights with the feral Pokémon that lived in Dark Crater, and she’d always come out on top somehow.”

“Huh, well you’re probably right then, any kid that could hold their own in a fight always had a bright future where I’m from.”

The group kept walking through the snow and talking about fights and Mystery Dungeons and whatnot until they came across a bit of blood in the snow, “Oh my goodness!” Sammy shouted in terror, “There’s blood in the snow here!” He said as he pointed at the bloody snow.

The group inspected the snow briefly, “Yep, that’s Cinder’s blood.” Vulcan concluded.

“There’s no way you can tell that by just looking at it.” Joseph said, “You’d need to do a DNA test on it first.”

“I don’t need to do a DNA test,” Vulcan said, “I just know that’s Cinder’s blood.”

“How can you be sure?” Rory asked.

“I just am.” Vulcan answered.

“That doesn’t make sense, though!” Joseph yelled.

Just after Joseph yelled that Cinder approached the group while munching on an Oran Berry, “What are you guys arguing about?”

She asked.

“That’s your blood in the snow, right?” Vulcan asked.

“Yup, you should’ve seen the other guy.” Cinder responded.

“Told you, Joseph.” Vulcan boasted.

“I- h- wha- I can’t even.” Joseph sputtered.

“What’s going on?” Cinder asked.

“Vulcan could tell that blood puddle was yours without even knowing you were here.”

“Oh yeah, that’s just his sibling intuition, he does stuff like that sometimes.”

“Can we stop talking about blood now?” Rory asked.

“Alright,” Cinder said, “how about I show you guys the camp we built?”

“You built a camp?” Joseph asked.

“Yep, we thought it’d be a good idea to warm up before we continue on.”

“But I thought you said you guys wouldn’t need to warm up.”

“Well, that’s what I thought too but…” Cinder said before opening her bag to reveal Tiny, who was shivering a bunch.

“N-no! C-c-c-close the b-b-b-b-bag!” Tiny demanded.

“Didn’t you say you didn’t get cold?” Sammy asked.

“I may have made a slight miscalculation.”

Sammy rolled his eyes, “Right, let’s just go warm up then.”

---

January 25th, 4:22 pm

Team Echoes’ Camp

Glacier Continent

---

Team Echoes walked down a small path through the snowy forest until they reached a small camp with an equally small campfire. Slippy and Specter were sitting by the campfire, patiently awaiting Cinder’s return.

Once Slippy had spotted his team, he jumped from his seat and rolled over to them, “You made it!” He cheered.

“Yup! It was a bit bumpy, but we made it.” Joseph replied.

“You guys ran into an issue?” Cinder asked.

“Sort of? I’ll add it to the list of things I wanna talk about once this is all over.”

“Oh, uh alright, could you at least let me know briefly what happened then?”

“We encountered Mesprit in the dungeon.” Rory said without warning.

Cinder paused for a moment before saying, “Right, we’ll talk about it later.”

This left Joseph and Rory a bit confused, “Uh, ok.” Rory responded.

After that rather awkward conversation, Cinder led the group to the campfire, they all sat around the campfire for a moment before Cinder spoke up, “I’m going to make dinner for everyone.” She announced.

Vulcan was very quick to shoot her down, “Absolutely not.” He protested.

“What!? Why!?”

“You remember what happened last time you cooked dinner for everyone!”

“You can’t blame me for that! I was only one!” Cinder shouted.

“Yeah, but Mom was basically doing all the work for you, and you still managed to mess it up!” Vulcan countered.

“Well, it’s been 20 years since then! You don’t think I’ve gotten better at cooking since then?”

“Nope, I still have absolutely zero faith in your cooking abilities.”

“Fine, then you cook something then!”

Hearing Cinder tell him to cook something brought a smile to Vulcan’s face, “I thought you’d never ask!”

Vulcan pulled out a cooking pot, set it above the fire, and got to work making a meal out of the various things he had in his bag, while the rest of the group watched, ‘Dang he’s really going at it huh,’ Joseph thought, ‘it’s like watching a professional!”

After a short wait, Vulcan had finally finished making dinner for everyone, he had prepared some Spicy Smoked-Tail Curry with the ingredients he had in his bag and distributed equal portions of it to everyone, “Alright everyone, dig in!” Vulcan announced.

The group dug into their curry, the spicy flavor warming them up for the road ahead and offering an extra kick of flavor that appealed to everyone in the group, well… Almost everyone that is…

“WHY IS THE FOOD ATTACKING MY MOUTH!?” Stumpy screamed.

“It’s spicy! It’s gonna feel like it’s super hot,” Joseph explained, “You’ll be fine it’s not gonna kill you.”

Of course, this didn’t stop Stumpy from screaming, in fact, it only seemed to make things worse, “WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT TO EAT SPICY STUFF!?”

“It’s a preference thing,” Rory explained, “Different Pokémon have different taste preferences.”

Stumpy’s tongue finally stopped burning, “So you’re telling me pain is a taste preference?”

The entire group started laughing, “Sort of.” Joseph said.

“Well it’s definitely not my preference, I’ll tell you that.”

The group finished their meal and cleaned up the camp before once again breaking off into two groups, “Alright, see you guys at Chilled Caverns!” Cinder waved as her group took off into the forest once more.

“I think we should get going too,” Vulcan said, “if we pick up the pace then we can probably make it back home by 10.”

“Wait, how late is it right now?” Sammy asked.

Joseph checked his watch, “It’s about 4:54 pm right now.” He announced.

“Why is it so dark then?”

“Because this continent doesn’t get much sunlight, from what I’ve heard.” Rory recalled.

“That and because of this continent’s harsh year-round winter weather, the days are probably really short.” Joseph added.

“Well I don’t really care what the reason is, I just wanna make it back before it gets super late.” Vulcan said as he grew more and more impatient as time went on.

“Fair point, let’s just get going then.”

---

January 25th, 5:10 pm

Icefall Caverns – Floor 1

Glacier Continent

---

The team had finally reached Icefall Caverns and instead of dillydallying outside like they did at the Slip Slide Slope, they entered immediately. Upon entering, a snowstorm started up despite the fact they were in a cave.

“It’s snowing?” Joseph asked.

“Yeah, that happens sometimes in Mystery Dungeons,” Vulcan said, “the weather in these places doesn’t have to abide by any sort of logic.”

“As if the dungeons themselves did have to abide by any sort of logic.”

“Fair point, you should’ve expected it to snow then.”

“Well, in my mind that wasn’t a possibility even for a place like this.”

“Well keep that in mind going forward, dungeon ceilings are just a suggestion as far as the dungeon’s concerned.”

Joseph rolled his eyes, “Alright, I guess…”

The group continued through the dungeon when suddenly, *click*.

Rory raised an eyebrow, “What was tha-” She said before she was sprayed by a stream of water from below. The water quickly froze, freezing Rory with it.

“Crap! It’s some sort of freeze trap!” Vulcan groaned, “Hold on, I got you!”

Vulcan spat out a stream of flames and surrounded ice sculpture Rory, thawing her out and dispersing just as they did so. Once she was freed, she began to shiver a whole ton, “Th-th-thanks.” She sputtered.”

Vulcan flared up his flames and gave Rory a big hug to warm her up, “You’re welcome,” He said before saying, “please don’t take this as a romantic thing.”

“I won’t.” Rory promised, “My eyes are elsewhere anyway.”

“Oh, uh, ok then…” Vulcan said, “It’s not Joseph, is it?”

“There’s a bit of an age gap there, bud.” Joseph said.

A sweat droplet rolled down Vulcan’s face, “Oh, I uh… Couldn’t tell…” He admitted awkwardly.

“I get it, I’m immature!” Joseph shouted.

“I-it’s not that, it’s just you look like you’re around the same age judging by your sizes,” Vulcan explained, “I can’t tell if it’s because you’re small or if she’s big.”

“Oh, it’s probably because I’m pretty big for a Riolu.” Rory answered.

“You are?” Vulcan asked, “I mean, I don’t doubt that you are, but I also don’t have a good frame of reference because the only other Riolu I’ve seen was tiny.”

“Yeah, I’m bigger than most other Riolu,” Rory confirmed, “there were a few other Riolu at the school I went to when I was like 6, and out of them I was definitely the biggest,” Rory explained before sighing, “that didn’t save me from getting bullied though…”

Vulcan lowered his head in disappointment, “That sucks…” He sighed.

Joseph sighed as well, “Yeah, I feel you on that…” He said, “I was heavily bullied in school…”

“You too!?” Rory gasped.

“Yep, turns out being the nerdy gamer kid makes you a big target for bullies.” Joseph said, “Well I guess more accurately being yourself makes you a big target for bullies.” Joseph clarified before noticing everyone was staring at him like he just spoke another language.

“What’s a gamer?” Vulcan asked.

“It’s a term for people who play video games.” Joseph explained.

“What are video games?” Stumpy asked.

“They’re exactly what they sound like, games you play on a video screen.” Joseph said, ‘I sound like such a boomer, referring to a screen as a video screen.’ He mused.

Stumpy was still a bit confused given the fact that he’s literally ancient, “What’s a screen?” He asked.

Joseph facepalmed and sighed, “Right, I forgot that you’re literally ancient,” He groaned, “this is gonna take a bit to explain.”

---

January 25th, 5:25 pm

Icefall Caverns – Floor 3

Glacier Continent

---

The team continued through the dungeon as Joseph explained the concept of technology to Stumpy, eventually the team arrived on the third and final floor of the Icefall Caverns.

“…And that’s basically what a screen is.” Joseph explained, “Do you understand now?”

“I think… Wait… Uh… Never mind, you completely lost me.” Stumpy said.

Joseph let out a sigh of defeat, “I’ll just show you the screens in the guild later.”

“Alright.” Stumpy replied.

Sammy turned to Vulcan and asked, “So, how much further do we got to go?”

“I’ve got a feeling that this is the last floor, but I’m not sure.” Vulcan answered.

“Hopefully it is,” Rory interjected, “I’m so tired of the cold.”

“Same here,” Sammy replied, “I can’t wait to go home and snuggle up in my bed.”

“Yeah, me too,” Vulcan said before yawning, “all this walking is making me tired.”

“I feel you,” Rory said, “my legs are killing me.”

“Same!” Vulcan shouted, “I can’t imagine how Stumpy’s feeling right now!”

“I’m fine.” Stumpy responded, “You’d think being this lopsided would make long periods of walking a slog, but oddly enough it doesn’t.”

“That’s odd,” Vulcan thought, “I wonder how that works.”

“I think it might have something to do with the fact that I have dragon legs,” Stumpy proposed, “I mean dragons are tough, right?”

“I guess that makes sense, but wouldn’t you be straining them more because of your lopsidedness?”

“I don’t think so, I mean, it doesn’t feel like I am.” Stumpy said, “I mean, compared to my old legs, they seem to be fairing much better.”

“Oh, well that’s good, maybe being combined with the bottom half of a dragon wasn’t such a bad thing then.” Joseph replied.

“Eh, I’d still say it’s a trade-off, on one hand, I’m way stronger, on the other hand, everyone sees me as a monster.” Stumpy said before looking over at Vulcan, “Well almost everyone anyway.”

Vulcan smiled, “You’re my big buddy! I couldn’t call you a monster even if I wanted to!”

“You mean it!?”

“With all my heart, dude!”

Stumpy walked over to Vulcan and tossed him onto his back, “Thanks bud.” He said.

“You’re welcome.”

The group continued walking through the winding corridors of the caverns, eventually, they entered a room that had a lone apple sitting in the open, “Anyone else think that looks a little fishy?” Joseph asked.

“What, the apple in the middle of an empty room?” Vulcan responded.

“Yeah, doesn’t that scream ‘obvious trap’ to you?”

“Not really, Mystery Dungeons are weird, but they aren’t sentient.”

“Whatever.” Joseph said before running over to collect the item, “Yoink!” He exclaimed as he reached out to take the apple, but as he did so, *click*, a panel on the floor sank in and made a clicking noise, shortly after this happened pink mist spread out around the room, swirling around the apple in the process, “Wh-what’s going on!?” Joseph asked.

“Crap! You were right!” Vulcan yelled, “It’s a Pokémon trap! Joseph, get away from that apple!”

Joseph was still a little stunned by everything going on, thankfully, however, the dungeon went easy on him and the apple didn’t do much at first, “Uh, I think it’s broken.” Joseph said.

But shortly after saying that the apple started moving a bit, “I wouldn’t be too sure about that!” Rory shouted as she pointed at the apple.

Joseph looked back at the apple just as two eyes popped out of the top, “Oh, how fitting.” Joseph said as he rolled his eyes, “Well at least it won’t be a problem to take care of.” He said as he lowered into a fighting position.

The creature that popped out of the apple flinched, “I don’t wanna fight!” It shouted.

“Oh, uh, ok then.” Joseph said as he dropped his guard.

“Phew…” The apple sighed, “Now can you please explain to me what is going on here?”

“Uh, I triggered a trap, and it turned an apple on the floor into you, I think anyway.”

“How does that work?”

“Well, normally dungeons just use illusions to make fake Pokémon,” Vulcan explained, “but nothing about this seems normal.”

The apple shivered, “We can talk later, for now, I need a warm place to stay.”

“Alright little Applin just hop in my bag, and I’ll let you out when we get somewhere warmer.” Joseph said.

The Applin hopped into Joseph’s bag, “Is that what I am? An Applin?” She asked.

“Yep, you’re a Pokémon known as an Applin.” Joseph clarified.

“Oh, uh, cool, I guess…”

The group continued through the cavern without any major issues after that, eventually, Joseph found the stairs, but he also found a certain someone who somehow thawed out and got ahead of them, “Finally I can leave this terrible place.” Mesprit said before floating up the stairs.

‘There she is again.’ Joseph thought.

The rest of the group caught up to Joseph, “Is something up?” Sammy asked.

Joseph thought about telling the truth but decided not to because he didn’t want to start bickering about what he did and didn’t see, “Nothing, I was just lost in a thought for a moment.” He lied.

“Oh, ok.” Sammy said skeptically before noticing the stairs behind Joseph, “Oh hey look, the stairs!” He said.

---

January 25th, 5:25 pm

Chilled Caverns – Gate

Glacier Continent

---

The team had finally arrived in the Chilled Caverns, well sort of anyway, Cinder and her team were waiting patiently by the gate until their teammates finally arrived.

“You made it!” Cinder cheered.

“Yeah, it took us long enough!” Vulcan shouted.

“Yeah… Sorry about that…” Cinder sighed, “Well we’re finally here and our guy should be behind this gate.”

Joseph looked at the gate, it was a huge gate made out of ice, there’s not really much else to say about it, “So what’s the hold-up?” Joseph asked, “Let’s just get going already!”

“We can’t.” Slippy said, “The gate’s locked.”

“So? Can’t Cinder just burn it down?”

“I tried.” Cinder said, “It won’t melt, like at all.”

“Have you tried using a Violent Seed?”

“Yup, it didn’t work either.”

“Then how are we supposed to get this thing open?” Rory asked.

Suddenly, four colored panels on the floor began to glow, “What’s going on with those?” Sammy asked.

“Oh, we have no idea.” Cinder said, “They just keep doing that.”

Joseph thought for a moment and then realized, ‘Wait, this is just like a puzzle in a video game!’ He thought, ‘But how do I solve it? Maybe it has something to do with the colors on the panels?”

The panels were still glowing, and each panel was glowing a different color, they were, green, blue, red, and gray respectively, “Do you think the colors have meanings?” Sammy asked.

Then it hit Joseph, “Wait! I think we’re supposed to stand on the panel of the corresponding type!” He announced to the group.

“Huh?” Sammy asked, “What do types have to do with this?”

“Stand on the blue panel.” Joseph said, “You’ll see what I mean.”

“Uh ok?” Sammy said as he walked over to the blue panel, once he was standing on the panel it started to flash through a spectrum of colors, “I did something!” Sammy announced.

Just as Sammy announced that he had done something, a ball of light flew out of the panel and crashed into the gate, causing a blue light to appear on the door, “Whoa!” The group chorused.

“And they said playing video games wouldn’t help me in reality.” Joseph quipped.

“What do we do next?” Cinder asked.

“I think the gray one is steel, so you need to put Tiny on that one.”

“On it!” Cinder said as she walked over to the gray panel and placed Tiny on it.

This caused the panel and the door to light up again as a gray light appeared on the door, “Alright now you need to stand on the red one.” Joseph told Cinder.

“Got it!” Cinder said, she then walked over to the red panel, causing the door to react again.

“Alright, just one more.” Joseph said.

“But we don’t have a Pokémon that has a green type.” Cinder said.

“That’s what you think.” Joseph said, he then walked over to the green panel and placed the Applin he had befriended earlier onto the panel.

“An apple?” Cinder questioned, “But that’s not a Pokémon.”

The Applin popped out of the apple to say, “That’s what you think.”

“Wait what!?” Cinder blurted as the door did its thing with the lights.

“Long story, I’ll explain it to you later.” Joseph said.

“Uh, ok?”

Suddenly, the ground began to shake and the lights on the gate began flashing in a seizure-inducing fashion, “What’s it doing!?” Rory asked.

“I think it’s opening!” Sammy replied.

The gate began to open slowly… Just slowly opening… Until… Finally… The gate cracked open slightly.

“Huh, I was honestly expecting it to open a bit more than that.” Joseph said.

Just as Joseph finished saying that the gate shattered into a million pieces, “You were saying?” Vulcan ribbed.

“I’ll shut up now.” Joseph responded.

The group walked past the destroyed gate and into a secret village in the caverns, although from the looks of things the village had been abandoned a long time ago, “I told you we’d find an ancient civilization here!” Slippy bubbled.

“Huh, I guess I was wrong then.” Vulcan responded.

“Ah, welcome strangers.” A voice called out.

The group looked over to see a Torkoal approaching them slowly, “Ah, you must be Smokey.” Cinder replied.

“Yup, that’s me.” Smokey replied, “Let me guess you’re here to hear about the legend, right?”

“I think so,” Cinder said, “The legend is about how the world almost ended about 800 years ago, right?”

“Yup, a tragedy for sure.”

“Could you give us the fast version?” Vulcan asked, “I kinda wanna get back home before 10.”

“Oh sure,” Smokey answered, “I’ll make sure to make it snappy.”

“So where did it all start?” Cinder asked.

“Long ago, a human was called to this world to deal with a Zangoose who had gone mad with evil power, this evil power was known as resentment, a potent purple goo-like substance that can be used by those with corrupted souls to do all kinds of terrible things.” Smokey explained.

“Purple goo, you say.” Cinder said, “That’s a little unsettling given our current situation.”

“Let me guess, you folks had a run-in with the stuff recently.”

“Yup… Wait, how’d you know?”

“When the heroes had dealt with the Zangoose I could still feel the presence of resentment, I can’t explain why, but I could, and I knew it would return someday.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

“I know… I wish I could give you a more proper explanation, but for now, that’s all I have.” Smokey said.

“Oh, that will do just nicely.” A creepy and distorted voice responded.

Smokey turned around, “Who said tha-” He asked before getting cut off by a blast of purple goo, turning him into a puddle where he once stood.

This caught Team Echoes off guard, they all looked around frantically in an attempt to find Smokey’s assailant when suddenly a figure emerged from the puddle that had formed from the blast that hit Smokey, “Looking for me?” The figure asked in its twisted voice.

“Uh, yeah, I was until I realized I had vastly underestimated the danger I was in.” Joseph squeaked.

“Oooh, how interesting.” The figure said as it crept up to Joseph, “So you’re a human.” It said.

“Uh, how’d you know that?”

“That’s not important.” The figure stated, “What is important is that you’re a human.”

“Why is that so important?”

“Because that means you’d make the perfect partner.”

“As if I’d want to join you, I don’t even know what you are!”

“So you reject?”

“Absolutely! I’d rather not become some evil supervillain, thank you.”

“That’s a shame, and to think I was gonna let you live if you accepted.” The figure said with a sigh, “Oh well, time for you to die.”

Cinder hit the figure with a Fire Blast, “Take that creep!” She shouted.

“You’re gonna regret that you little rat!” The figure shouted.

“No, I’m not!” Cinder countered, “Defeating evil runs in my blood!”

The figure rolled what appeared to be its eyes, “Oh well, your funeral.” It said. The figure then summoned a ton of goo behind her, eating up the entire cavern, “Well I’d love to have the pleasure of killing you myself, but you all seem like the difficult type, so I’ll just leave the goo to do my job for me, see you in hell, literally.” The figure said as it dove back down into the goo beneath it, disappearing.

The goo began to spread throughout the cavern, causing the group to back away as it began to approach them.

Cinder shot a Flamethrower at it, but it didn’t do much, “Uh guys? What do we do!?” She asked.

“RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!” Rory shouted.

---

January 25th, 5:35 pm

Slushville

Glacier Continent

---

Team Echoes ran for their lives as the goo ate everything behind them and kept pace with them, “We’re gonna die!” Slippy screamed.

“Don’t let up!” Sammy replied, “We survive as long as we keep running!”

The villagers of Slushville were just unwinding peacefully when Team Echoes came running through the village at full speed.

“EVERYONE, RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!” Rory shouted in an attempt to save as many of the villagers as she could.

At first, the villagers just shrugged it off, they didn’t think they were in any imminent danger, but then they noticed the all-consuming goo eat away at the world around them. Mass panic began as Pokémon scrambled to get to the docks.

“Everyone, get to a water Pokémon and get as far away from here as you can!” Joseph shouted, “This stuff will not hesitate to kill you instantly!”

Team Echoes joined the crowd and ran to the docks, “We’re almost in the clear!” Sammy said before tripping, “AAAH!” He screamed as he face-planted.

Stumpy scooped up Sammy quickly, “I got you!” He said as he placed Sammy onto his back.

Sammy let out a relieved sigh, “Phew… I thought I was a goner.”

“Nope! As long as I’m around, I won’t let anything bad happen to any of you!”

“Thanks bud.”

“No problem!”

Team Echoes made it to their getaway Wailord and began frantically screaming, “GOGOGOGOGOGOGOGO!” Joseph screamed incoherently.

“OK! OK! I’m on it!” Wailord responded.

Wailord floated off with all the villagers of Slushville in tow, or at least the ones that made it, the slower ones didn’t make it unfortunately, they were too slow to escape so they were consumed by the goo, making them the figure’s newest victims.

Joseph looked back at the Glacier Continent as resentment claimed it, “The sight of a whole continent getting eaten up sickens me.” Joseph said.

“What are we even supposed to do about that!?” Cinder shouted.

“No clue.” Specter said, “But something about that figure seems… Familiar…”

“You seem rather calm about this!” Vulcan shouted.

“Oh sorry, that’s the bell talking,” Specter said as he took the Soothe Bell off, “WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO!?”

Sammy spoke up, “The only thing we can do, gain intel on our enemy so we can take them down.”

“I mean, I’d agree with you if there was any feasible counter.” Cinder replied, “But whatever this resentment stuff is, is currently consuming the world and anyone who dares to stand in the way!”

“Yeah, I know, but there must be a way to reverse the effects and all we got to do is get the figure to tell us how!”

“But why would they?” Joseph asked, “It’d be completely stupid of them to just give us the key to defeating them.”

“Exactly, that’s why we have to bait them into giving us that info.”

“And how do you suggest we do that!?” Vulcan asked, “In case you forgot, getting near that thing is actively a threat to our lives!”

“I know, but it’s a risk we gotta take, otherwise we’ll all die unceremoniously along with the rest of the world.”

Specter sighed and put the bell back on, “I guess you’re right, there’s no better alternative, we just gotta hope we can figure things out before it’s too late.”

“I wish that wasn’t the case.” Joseph said.

“Same here,” Sammy agreed, “but that’s just the hand we’ve been dealt.”

“Uh, guys?” Specter asked, “Where are Stumpy and Rory?”

“Crap, we didn’t leave them behind, did we!?” Vulcan asked.

Joseph looked around until he spotted the pair in the crowd of other Pokémon, “Oh, there they are.” Joseph said as he pointed over at the crowd.

“Oh, thank Arceus.” Vulcan sighed, “I was super worried for a moment.”

“The crowd seems to be cheering for them,” Sammy said, “I wonder why?”

Joseph walked over to the crowd only to hear them chanting, “HEROES! HEROES! HEROES!”

Joseph was a little confused by this, so he decided to ask about it, “Hey, what’s going on here?”

A Frosmoth turned to Joseph, “Oh, we’re celebrating our heroes.” She answered.

“Heroes?”

“Yeah, that big guy in the middle saved that Oshawott, didn’t you see?”

“Yeah, I did see, that’s my friend Stumpy.”

“Well, he’s a hero now!” The Frosmoth exulted, “And a cute one at that!”

“Cool…” Joseph said awkwardly before backing out of the crowd and regrouping with his friends.

“So, what’s going on?” Sammy asked.

“They’re celebrating and calling Rory and Stumpy heroes.” Joseph answered.

“I understand calling Stumpy a hero because he saved Sammy and all, but why is Rory a hero?” Cinder asked.

“I guess because she shouted and told everyone to run, but I did the same thing and I didn’t get any credit for it.” Joseph replied.

Just as Joseph finished saying that the Frosmoth from earlier flew over to the group, “I just realized, you’re that Shinx that told us all to go to the docks right?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Guys, he’s over here!” The Frosmoth shouted.

And just like that the crowd swallowed Joseph up, “HEROES! HEROES! HEROES!” They chanted.

“Give me a break…” Joseph whispered.

---

January 25th, 7:35 pm

Sunset Square – Beachy Outskirts

Coast Continent

---

After an exhausting ride home, Team Echoes made it back in one piece, “Oh, thank god we’re out of the cold.” Joseph said as he stepped off of Wailord’s back and onto the beach.

“You said it.” Rory agreed, “I just wanna snuggle up in my bed now.”

“Same!” The group chorused.

“What about us?” The Frosmoth asked.

“Oh, uh, you guys should go to the SurfSpark guild, I’m sure Lanturn will know what to do.” Cinder answered, “It’s the giant lighthouse on the hill over there, you can’t miss it.”

“Ok, thank you, ma’am.” The Frosmoth replied before turning to the crowd and shouting, “Everyone, follow me!”

The crowd ran off toward the guild, leaving Team Echoes all alone, “Well I guess that takes care of that.” Cinder said, “Now to go home and get some shut-eye.”

Suddenly, Joseph’s bag began to shake, “Oh right, I still gotta let you out.” Joseph said as he opened the bag, “Alright, you’re free.”

“Alright, I guess I’ll see you later.” The Applin said.

“See ya!”

The Applin withdrew back into its apple and began to roll away until it eventually bumped into Malachite, who was out on a nighttime stroll, “An apple?” She questioned, “Well don’t mind if I do I guess.”

Joseph caught her right before she could take a bite, “DON’T!” He shouted.

“Huh? What’s wrong?” Malachite asked.

“That’s not a normal apple.” Joseph said.

“What are you talking about? It looks normal to me.”

“Hello.” The Applin said as it popped out of its apple.

“Oh, I see, it’s not an apple, it’s a friend.” Malachite said.

“Well I used to be an apple, but there was this really weird mist stuff that gave me life.” The Applin told her.

“Oh, that’s strange… I don’t remember Pokémon traps working like that.”

“Me neither,” Joseph said, “yet here we are.”

“Well, I’ll take this little gal off your hands if that’s fine with you.”

“I’m ok with it, it’s getting pretty crowded around our base already.”

“I have no objections.” The Applin said.

“Alright, welcome to Team Shadows, then!” Malachite bubbled.

“Team Shadows?” The Applin asked.

“Yeah, we’re a team of explorers, or at least we will be once you join the team, for now, though it’s just me…”

“Alright then, if it makes you happy, I’ll join you.”

“Thank you!”

“You’re welcome.”

Malachite walked off with her new friend in tow, talking about how they would make the perfect team as they walked.

“Well, I guess that settles Malachite’s friend issue.” Joseph said, “Now to go home and forget about what happened today.”

---

January 25th, 7:55 pm

Team Echoes Base – Joseph’s room

Coast Continent

---

Joseph plopped onto his bed and yawned, “It’s not even that late, but I am absolutely exhausted.”

“Same here.” Rory yawned.

But just before the two could get some sleep, Cinder knocked on the door, “Knock, knock, you guys awake?”

“Yeah, just barely.” Rory replied.

Cinder opened the door and entered the room, bringing Stumpy with her, “Alright two things, first thing, where is Stumpy going to sleep tonight, and second thing, you still wanna talk about what happened while we were riding to the Glacier Continent?” Cinder asked

“First thing, uh, I don’t know yet, and second thing uh yeah I almost forgot about that but yes I would love to talk about that.” Joseph answered.

“What do you mean you don’t know where I should sleep?” Stumpy asked, “Don’t you have extra rooms?”

“Well yes we do, but I don’t think we have a bed big enough for you, no offense.”

“Am I supposed to sleep on the floor then?”

“Well, you could, but you could also sleep in your ball.”

“How would that even work?”

“I don’t know, I have no idea what it’s like in there.”

“Alright, just put me in there for a moment, and I’ll tell you if it’s a good place to sleep or not.”

“Ok then.” Joseph said as he called Stumpy back into his ball.

A few moments passed and there was no response from the ball, no shaking, no abrupt bursting out of said ball, no nothing, “I think you should let him out now.” Rory said.

“Right, s-sorry.” Joseph said before freeing Stumpy from the ball.

Once freed, Stumpy just sat there snoring, he had fallen asleep in the mere moments he was in the ball, “Guess that gives us our answer then.” Cinder said.

“HEY!” Joseph shouted, “WAKE UP, WE GOTTA TALK!”

“Huh? What?” Stumpy said as he woke up from his 37-second power nap.

“Ok, onto the second thing, when we were riding on Wailord I saw Mesprit spying on us from under the water, and then she accidentally used her telepathy on me, then later we spotted her again while we were in Slip Slide Slope, she proceeded to fight us there, we froze her to a tree and kept going, I then saw her one last time right before the gate to Chilled Caverns.” Joseph explained.

Joseph expected Cinder to start laughing or something, but surprisingly she didn’t laugh, instead, she blurted, “You saw Mesprit too!?”

“Yep,” Stumpy added, “For some reason she was spying on us.”

“That’s weird, she greeted Me and Slippy, I don’t know why she was being all sneaky around you guys.”

“She found me out, that’s why.” Joseph explained, “She probably wanted you guys to say something bad about me.”

“That sounds accurate, she asked us about you, she even read my mind, but there wasn’t a single negative thing about you in there.” Cinder said.

“Wow, she wasn’t even trying to hide it from you, huh.”

“No, apparently not, I mean it’s whatever, if she’s trying to scope out if you’re evil or something, then she has her answer now.”

“Good point, you think she’ll back off now?”

“Nope, not at all.” Cinder said, “If anything, she’s probably going to keep snooping until she gets the answer she’s looking for.”

“Great… I can’t wait for when she resorts to kidnapping or something…” Joseph said sarcastically.

“Yeah, I’m not looking forward to our next encounter either, but I’d take her over that thing from earlier.”

Joseph yawned, “Well I’m gonna get some rest, good night guys.”

“Good night.” The group chorused.

Joseph returned Stumpy to his ball and climbed into his bed, ‘Dang it’s been a long day, hopefully, tomorrow will be less stressful.’ He thought to himself, ‘Oh yeah, and hopefully, I’ll have an actually normal dream tonight, I’m so tired of these weird dream meets and dream spaces where my mom calls out to me for no reason.’

Joseph took a deep breath and cleared his mind before drifting off into his dreams once again.

---

January 25th, 9:00 pm

Temple of Light

---

Mesprit was FUMING with rage, “AURRGH, I didn’t get ANY useful info on that human!” She shouted, “And to make matters worse, we lost the Glacier Continent now too!”

She floated through the halls of the temple of light, passing by Solgaleo, Lunala, and Necrozma, who were playing around with their ability to fuse, “Hey Mesprit!” Necrozma called out, “You wanna see if you can fuse with me?”

“Absolutely not.” Mesprit huffed.

“Aw, come on, why not?”

“Because A, that’s weird, and B, that’s not how your fusing ability works.”

“How can you be so sure about that?”

“Because Arceus told me that’s not how it works, now leave me alone!”

“Aw, is someone a little grumpy?”

“Shouldn’t you be destroying the world or something?” Mesprit asked.

“Not in this universe!” Necrozma replied, “Besides, I’m too playful to be evil.”

“He’s got you there,” Solgaleo pointed out.

Lunala laughed, “Yup, that he does.” She said.

“Look I’m not in the mood to play with you dimwits so shut up and leave me alone!” Mesprit shouted, pink energy enveloping her eyes as she did so.

“Tch, whatever.” Necrozma scoffed, “You’re just mad you can’t Ultra Burst.”

Mesprit flew away so she could get on with disappointing her father, when suddenly he appeared next to her, “Thou seems upset, is everything alright?” Arceus asked.

“No nothing is alright, I tried getting info about that human, but I couldn’t get any without getting spotted or beaten up, or stuck to a tree.” Mesprit said.

“Calm thyself, you’ll get the exposition you desire, thou must exercise patience.”

“I’ve been patient! It’s not working!”

Arceus rolled his eyes, “Clearly.” He jeered.

“ARGH, you’re not helping!”

“And you aren’t listening!” Arceus boomed, droping his shakespearean speak and silencing Mesprit, “Look, if you slow down a bit, things will eventually go better for you.”

“R-right s-sorry.”

Arceus peered into Mesprit’s mind in an attempt to see what went wrong, “Hm… Interesting…” He mused, “What you should try to do instead of trying to kill the human on contact is try to gain his trust.” He suggested.

“Gain his trust… I’ve got it!”

“Oh boy…”

“I’ll get into his house and try to erm… ‘hang out’ with him as the mortals say.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Nonsense!” Mesprit shouted as she flew away, “It’s the perfect plan!”

Arceus sighed, “Mesprit what am I going to do with you?”

---

WOOOOOOOO! That took forever to write, I wouldn’t even blame you if you thought I had abandoned this thing already, considering I’ve been rather quick with these things up until now, there was just so much I wanted to write into this chapter and for some reason my brain was all like “No it has to be all in one piece breaking it into two parts would ruin the flow.” so I ended up just going and going and going, and you get the point, anyway sorry if that was too much information packed into one chapter I just couldn’t split it into two as I said, anyway yeah onto the singular boss bio for this chapter.

---

Boss data downloaded successfully!

The embodiment of emotions: Mesprit!

Yeah, I’m not gonna sugarcoat it, she got cheesed.

Mesprit was sent by Arceus to spy on Joseph and the gang, but after a few unfortunate slip-ups she ended up just saying screw it and trying to kill Joseph, that didn’t end so well when Joseph froze her to a tree, humiliating her and causing her to lose sight of his group, she didn’t really lose to Joseph and Co. but she didn’t exactly win either, it was more like a T.K.O. if you will. If Joseph hadn’t frozen her there, then his group would’ve been screwed.

---

And to wrap things up, here’s a review reply:

To KirgizovVlad: Thank you! I was actually starting to get a little worried that the characters were getting a little boring, but I guess I was wrong! Also, I don’t plan on abandoning this thing, but stuff happens sometimes so hopefully regardless of what happens going forward I’m still able to finish this thing.

Anyway, that’s all for now! Next time: Get ready to meet the most awkward house guest in the history of house guests! See you then!