I lazily opened my eyes, slowly but surely as I blinked the sleepiness away from my body. Yawning and subconsciously throwing my arms in the air, my awareness returned to me, my eyes unblurring themselves.

I took notice of my arms, noticing blue fur on them and having them end on paws rather than hands. Oh yeah… I forgot that I had become a riolu again.

After yesterday's events, with Evon’s promise and all that stuff with Alsia, nothing interesting happened afterwards. I continued showing some other games on my phone, like Subway Surfers, Sonic Dash, and even some other miscellaneous games on my phone that didn’t need the internet to work. Of course, I avoided showing more Pokémon games since that made the eevee feel uncomfortable.

But we didn’t just play phone games, as much as they were addicting. Since Evon was addicted and not a Redditor like me, he suggested we do other things besides those games, like target practice and other things that rely on me practicing Pokémon moves. Was this what most Pokémon found fun? Don’t get me wrong, I like the feeling, I get a bit of a rush of fun adrenaline whenever I draw out Pokémon power from inside me. But like… there’s gotta be something else to do, right? Like, bro, Evon has a training dummy in his house.

After that, not much else went on. We ate dinner and let’s say that uh…

----------------------------------------

Evon sighed after shooting a Shadow Ball directly at the dummy, sitting on his rear as his tail tilted from side to side. My sharp riolu ears heard a small rumbling coming from the fox Pokémon’s belly. “Alright, that’s enough training for today. We should be good for our first mission tomorrow.” He turned his head to me, one of his ears flattening against his head. “Are you hungry?”

“You bet I am! Man, just training makes you hella tired. I didn’t even manage to do one Aura Sphere and I should be a master of that already…” I said, wiping my brow with my paw even though I couldn’t sweat in this form. A force of habit, naturally.

“Do you even know how to use aura to your advantage? Like… at all?” Evon inquired.

“Uh…” I did my best Hotel Mario voice impression as I shrugged. “No…”

Evon smirked like the smug bastard he always was when he felt the slightest bit of superiority towards me. “Of course.” He got up and started heading to the living room again. “Let’s just eat dinner.”

“Hell yeah-” A quick whiff of the air as I followed Evon quickly made my excitement vanish in an instant. How the hell did I forget about the one thing I questioned a hell of a lot about when we first bought it?

How could I forget about the raw Pokémon meat on the paper bag on the living room table?

My mind was starting to race with thoughts as we got to the table, Evon already unfolding and the smell intensifying. It didn’t help that for some reason, the smell felt better than what it felt when I was a human. ‘Don’t fucking tell me we’re gonna eat that shit raw, aw hell naw!’ As Evon got the pieces of meat out, I gulped dry and called Evon’s attention. “Hey, uh… Evon?”

The eevee, after dropping the last piece of meat with a bloody and wet splat on the table, turned to me. “Yeah? Something up? You look… hesitant.”

I rubbed the back of my head a bit nervously. “So like… you have anything to cook up the meat? Or like…”

The eevee tilted his head. “No? We eat it raw most of the time. Fire-types are the ones who usually cook them before consumption.” His ears flickered before asking. “Wait, does your species only eat cooked meat?”

I scratched my arm and rolled my eyes a bit embarrassedly. “Yeah… because we think it’s gross and because we get sick if we do so.”

Evon snickered before giggling a little. “Damn, you weren’t kidding when you said humans were weak, but you didn’t say they are as weak as a twig!”

“Shuddup, our god didn’t make something as powerful as like, I dunno, a dragon type or something.” I admitted, getting closer to the table and sitting on one of the hay seats scattered around it. “If we did, we would’ve been the same as Pokémon!”

“Not in intelligence because you guys are pretty stupid. Like, who in Giratina’s name enslaves their own species for dumb reasons like different skin color?” Evon asked with a smirk on his face.

“I sometimes hate when you’re right.” I said while rolling my eyes. I then grimaced a bit on the meat sitting in front of me. There was no oven, and if I tried to turn into a fire Pokémon to cook it, I’d probably burn the meat since I still don’t know how to control my moves properly. ‘Is this even morally correct…?’

Evon noticed my hesitation before speaking with a frown. “If it makes you feel slightly better… you’re a Pokémon now, riolu eat raw meat, ya know.”

“Yeah, I get, I get. Now keep quiet, I need to focus on rejecting my humanity for a moment.” I said before scrunching my face, not in disgust, but primarily for concentration. What also made it slightly better was the fact that the meat piece smelled good, like, there wasn’t a good enough comparison, but it did smell tasty…

Suddenly, my stance loosened as the smell kept distracting me from my concentration, making me sniff the peace more than usual. The hunger… the hunger inside me needed to be quelled. The void that lingered in my stomach needed to be filled… it didn’t matter anymore. Who cared if this was morally incorrect or not? Who cared if this would give me food poisoning or not? I didn’t anymore. I was hungry and this piece of delicacy would be the thing to satisfy me.

Without any more hesitation, I grabbed the bloody meat in my paws and bit down on it ferociously. It felt like something else was controlling my body, something directing me to clamp my teeth down into the flesh and consume it without any mercy, all in the hopes that the hunger would fade away.

----------------------------------------

“...Ah…” I was left staring at nothing as the memories from yesterday returned to me, blinking as I remembered how I went wild mode on that poor piece of meat without any mercy while hoping that my hunger would be satisfied. I looked at my paws for any traces of blood and remains of flesh stuck in my fur, thankfully, there were none. ‘At least I had the decency to wash myself after that.’

If I remember correctly afterwards, Evon didn’t eat the same way as me. He did mention something about controlling hunting instincts or some shit along those lines. Welp, new thing to add to the “Suppressing Pokémon Instincts” list!

“Anyway, that’s enough about that, that’s yesterday’s drama that hopefully Evon won’t bring up today.” I said before getting up and transforming back into my human form, revealing my shirtless torso with the shiny crystal necklace that Raina gave to me. “Today’s first mission baby, let’s fucking gooooo!!!”

I grabbed my shirt and twirled it around for a moment, shaking some dust off of it before putting it on. It was still a bit smelly and with a couple of scratch marks, but I’d just give it a simple wash after the mission just to extend the remaining strand of lifespan it had left. “Wooooooo!!! Yeah, baby!!!” I ran to my backpack and slung it across my shoulders, knowing that I had all the essentials I needed for the mission, including my phone (very essential, trust). “That’s what I’ve been waiting for, that’s what it’s all about-!”

Suddenly, the door to my room swung open, revealing the familiar face of the pink-eyed heatran. “Lucas?”

“Woooooooo!” I ran towards Basidian, grinning excitedly all the while. Like Spongebob, I shouted while throwing an arm in the air. “I’m ready!”

The old heatran stared at me for a moment before she began to laugh for a moment. She then spoke once her small fit of guttural laughter died down. “I take it you’re excited for your first mission, child?”

“Yeppers!” I flicked a finger in her direction, posing flamboyantly. “My first successful mission that is. Because if I don’t succeed… uh…” I put a finger on my chin, trying to avoid saying ‘I die!’ in front of her. “I lose!”

“And you’re going to ensure that’s not going to happen, right?” Basi asked with a smile as she stepped away from the door to let me slip through. “After all, from what you’ve told me, you trained with Evon yesterday, didn’t you?”

“Yep! Now, I’m ready to face anything on our first mission!” I rubbed the underside of my nose. “And don’t worry, it’s not gonna be anything like the Dar- I mean, those kidnappers that roughed me up that day.” I said, almost revealing the identity of the Pokémon that wanted to kidnap me. I still haven’t told Basi about the true nature of the group that kidnapped Raina because that’d definitely make the heatran hella worried and probably make me stuck in the house forever since mother instincts or something like that. So I decided that it’d be best if the Dark Rebellion stuff went unsaid for now. “I’ll be careful, no worries.”

I went to pet the metal forehead of the elder, feeling warm and rusty steel brush against my hand. Basi closed her eyes, nuzzling her forehead against my palm. “Okay then, just make sure you’re taking care of yourself out there. Don’t forget to eat if you’re feeling hungry, dungeon exploration leaves any Pokémon hungry.”

I moved my hand away from the heatran’s head, giving a thumbs up to her. “Don’t worry!” I pat my backpack softly. “The bag with the bread pieces is still here.” I flashed her an okay sign with a hand. “I’m pretty Gucci to go if I say so myself!”

Basidian chuckled. “Well, if you say so. Are you well-fed enough? Not missing anything?” I nod my head before shaking it, answering both her questions in order. “Well, in that case. I wish you good luck on your mission, Child!”

“Thanks Basi! Cya later!” I said and got out of the house, not before waving goodbye at her, the heatran doing the same.

Once I closed the door behind me, my excitement-anxiety flared up and I basically squealed in happiness. I knew I was a teen and all that, but shut the hell up, let me have my moment! Not every day you get isekaid to another fucking world filled with creatures previously thought fictional and went on adventures… and almost die a lotta times- But hey! This shit is the dream of many and I’m going to enjoy every second of it!

“Let’s go!” I exclaimed to myself before starting to dash in the direction of the guild, the place where Evon and I agreed to meet up. I was beginning to get used to navigating the tunnels of the village, after all, it had been, like… five days since I got here (geez, time went by fast).

I rushed past many Pokémon during my run, from avoiding stepping on small ones to dodging the big bulky ones. I felt like I was in a Sonic boost level, even doing sharp turns when the tunnel changed to another direction. Where were the rings for me to collect? The loops for me to pass? And the enemies for me to boost through?

Okay, enough Sonic references… for now.

After a minute, I started panting and heaving, the remains of my sedentarism finally catching up to me. I walked the rest of the way to the guild, finally realizing that Pokémon were staring oddly at me, aka, the usual. I wonder when one of them would have the balls to come up to me and ask-

“So… you’re the shapeshifter, correct?”

I stopped walking, trying to locate the source of the voice. I spotted the source of the voice, seeing a strange bipedal Pokémon leaning on the wall of the cave with their face darkened. They wore a red cape-like cloak and a black belt with a blue, silver, red, and gold chest-shaped pouch strapped to it. It took a small second for me to realize that the Pokémon itself was a gholdengo; they looked, however, much different than what I was used to. This one was in one half made out of gold coins and on the other half made out of silver coins, split vertically. Their coin braids on top of their head were slicked to the back like some human hairstyles.

Immediately, my sweaty competitive Pokémon player mindset noticed red flags all over the individual. One: Gholdengo. Two: Gholdengo. Three: Gholdengo . I began to sweat a bit, remembering the times that a single Pokémon swept my entire team in a match because I let it accidentally set up. Oh, you missed an attack? Too bad, Nasty Plot + Make It Rain on your ass.

That’s not even to mention their broken-ass ability.

I gulped dry, shoving those thoughts away from me. ‘ Remember Lucas, this is not a game, so don’t sweat about those dumb mechanics for now, just act friendly. Also, what the hell is a gholdengo doing here and why are they like that? How come I never saw him in the village before?’ I crossed my arms and asked. “Uh… you spoke to me?”

The coin-made Pokémon stepped away from the wall and raised his head to look at me, revealing their gold and silver eyes contrasting with their two sides. They put a hand on their side and spoke with a raspy low-pitched male voice. “Yes, you, who else? Are there any other shape-shifting Pokémon I should know about?”

“Uh… a ditto?”

“What in Arceus’ name is a ditto?”

My arms limped a bit as I rolled my eyes. “Nevermind…” I put my hands on my side. “More importantly, you want something from me?”

“No… what I do want is that you stay certain of something.” He scowled menacingly, a certain chilliness filling the air around me. “ I am watching you…”

I tensed a bit, a certain chill going through my spine. “W-why…?”

His cloak started rising a little as he continued speaking. “Your kind presents infinite potential, and with that infinite potential, comes infinite danger.” He stepped closer to me. “You might be on the good side now, but who knows when you will turn into the dark side? After all, the Dark Rebellion did offer a position in their ranks, didn’t they?”

My eyes widened, making me take a step back in caution and concern. “H-how did you know that…?”

“I have my sources… say, you weren’t considering that offer, were you?” The gholdengo asked, crossing his arms as his frown deepened.

My face scrunched in confusion. “The fuck? No, ‘course not! Why would I want to join a group that literally kills people they don’t like!?”

The scowl on the coin Pokémon softened a bit as he put a hand on his chin. “Interesting response… but yet, this feeling I have of you…” He muttered the last part, the chill in the air disappearing. “I shall keep watch of you, I still haven’t gotten the information I wanted from you.”

He started walking away as I tilted my head. “That’s it? You threaten me and walk away? Bro, won’t you even tell me who you are!?”

The gholdengo stopped and turned his head to me, looking at me unamused. “The name is Xenes, and all you need to know about me is that I value this village more than anything else.” He continued walking down his path. “See you around, shapeshifter.”

I watched the now-named Xenes walk away, the sound of his footsteps being the same as the sound of coins jingling in a sack. A light scowl appeared on my face as I muttered. “Geez, and here I thought Evon was the edgelord of this place… what’s even his deal-?” I then realized something I was beginning to forget. “Fuck, the mission!”

With my breath a bit caught up, I started to run again, even though the Stalacta Guild was right next door.

I entered the Bat Cave-like area and started looking for Evon, worrying a bit if I had overslept. What if Evon just wasn’t there? What if he had waited for so long that Evon just gave up and went back home? What if-

Oh never mind, he was just sitting idly on the lounge of the guild. Dumb anxiety…

I ignored the stares from some guild members and went towards the eyepatch-wearing eevee next to a table. He perked up once he noticed me and got off his haunches, his half of the necklace jiggling around his neck. “There you are. For a second, you had me worried you were going to regret your decision and not come.”

“Hell naw boi! You really think I’d pass in something as exciting as this?” I winked and grinned smugly. “Sorry, but you got the wrong number!” I suppressed the urge to squeal in public and bounce in place like an excited child. “So, have ya decided what mission we gonna do first?”

“Not yet, but before that…” Evon opened his bag and started searching for something. He then took out with his mouth two familiar objects and put them on the table. It was the same eye badges I saw Ino’s team wear, however, these badges had only one pair of wings instead of two. “Quartzo forgot to hand us these once we finished the form.”

I picked one of them up and inspected them further. They were modeled exactly like an eye, even down to the slit in the middle that served like a reptile’s pupil. Unlike the edgelord doggo’s badges, these were bronze instead of silver. And who could forget about the white wings on the side? “So… are these our badges?”

“Yep. Also, I should explain how they work.” Evon said as I pinned the badge on my shirt. “There are five exploration ranks; Bronze, Silver, Gold, Master, and Legend, each determined by the amount of Exploration Points, or Exp. for short, our team has. Our badges can show our ranks by their color and the number of pairs of wings our badges carry.”

“Interesting system. So… by doing missions we get Exp. to grow in ranks to tackle the big missions, right?” ‘Ain’t no way that sounds like fucking experience points from video games. Universe, do you want me to believe that this world is a game or not!?’

Evon nodded. “Yes. The Diamond Kingdom Guild Association, or D.K.G.A. for short, will keep a record of the missions we do and then give us the points for each mission done. Once we achieve enough points, the Guildmaster will tell us and move our ranks.” Evon grabbed the badge with a paw and stared at it a bit melancholically. “I was a Silver Rank before… the incident.” He sighed. “Here I am, starting this stuff all over again…”

I crouched next to Evon. “Hey, remember, you’re doing this for Alsia, right? You’re gonna try again and this time surpass the silver, got it?” Evon nodded, a bit of hope returning to his face. He was about to put his badge on his mane before my mind thought of a brilliant idea. “Holldup!”

Evon paused his action and looked at me. “What? Something wrong?”

“Just had an awesome idea, trust me on this!” I said, the eevee sighing at that.

As I grabbed the fox Pokémon’s badge, he asked curiously, although slightly annoyed. “What are you gonna do now-” He interrupted himself once he saw me having my hand slowly move towards his face. He leaned his head away from my hand a little before asking. “The heck are you-”

“Just trust me on this bro, it’ll look good.” With my tongue poking out, I moved my hand towards his eyepatch with precision, hoping that I wouldn’t hurt him with this. He didn’t have an eye under that thing, right?

Eventually, I placed the badge on his eyepatch, the left wing of the badge at least not covering a bit of the eevee’s right eye. Evon ran a paw over his eyepatch, feeling the badge over it. He blinked and looked at me a bit madly. “Did you just fucking-”

“What? It looks good on you! Looks badass!” I argued, a scowl making itself present on Evon’s face.

“Remove it, now.” He requested, his tail starting to sway a bit.

I took off my backpack, fishing for my phone. “If you don’t believe it, then look at it yourself.” I grabbed my phone and turned the camera on, putting it in selfie mode. I then turned the front camera towards Evon, letting him see how the badge looked on him. For me, the badge looked like it just fit like some sort of parasite eye. Since Evon lacked one eye (supposedly), it fits a bit to have that badge there. “Since you’re missing an eye, I thought that this badge could make for a nice aesthetic.”

image [https://file.garden/ZeEYyRamDG12bOk5/Evon.png]

Evon stared at himself from my phone, analyzing how the badge looked at him from a lot of angles. He even lifted his eyepatch a bit to- holy shit, he was missing an entire eye. Literally just a hole of void where his left eye was supposed to be. I cringed a bit, Evon noticing it and lowering his eyepatch. “Sorry, your phone just made me feel like I was alone with a mirror.” He sighed and rubbed the back of his head. “Can’t believe I’m saying this but… you do have a point about the badge. I… kinda like it, honestly.”

I put my phone back into my backpack. “Heh, knew you’d come around.” I grinned as I slung my backpack over my shoulders. “I just know what fits some Pokémon best, what can I say?”

“Okay, Fully Covered Creature, whatever you say.” Evon said with a chuckle before motioning for me to follow him. “Anyway, let’s get this over with. I need to get back into the swing of Mystery Dungeon adventuring.”

“No need to say it twice!” I said as I followed Evon to the mission board.

We arrived at the board coated with papers, the contents on them being miscellaneous requests, wanted posters, and missing Pokémon. It felt like I was seeing something straight out of an anime or some shit. All that was left was that the guild was secretly a tavern for explorers and rescuers to shower themselves in booze.

I put my hands on my side and looked at the eevee beside me. “So… what type of mission do you suggest we do first?”

“Well… missions come in difficulty rank, the same one we use for badges. So just search for one that says bronze.” Evon said as he started looking for some missions.

I mirrored his actions and hummed in thought as I looked at the board. Let’s see… missing geodude last seen in Kibo Thicket… eh, the ‘mon in the pic looked tough enough, he was probably just taking a bit to find some things. A marowak looking for help to get rid of stray ivy around his house because some samurott planted them there for… a prank? Uh… that’s their own issue, not interested. And a… whatever a lovemih is that is wanted for…

… I’m not finishing reading that, not planning to get horny over Pokémon because of whatever that thing’s ability is.

“Hey, Lucas.”

I turned to Evon, seeing him look at a specific poster. He was looking at the poster of a nervous-looking hisuian zorua. The paper read: “White zorua stuck inside the Marsh Meadow Mystery Dungeon. The client appears to be a child and it is trapped inside the dungeon, surrounded by the local ferals.” It was a bronze-rank mission and it seemed to be posted recently. The reward would be fifty Poké, which didn’t matter to me since I didn’t know how much that actually was worth. However, something about the poster made me a bit curious about something.

Evon pointed his paw at the poster he was staring at. “Is that a good enough mission for you?”

I hummed and crossed my arms. “Rescuing someone… yes…” I grinned, a bit eager to do something I always wanted to do, and that was to be a fucking hero. “Hell yeah!” I pumped my fist in the air before snatching the poster from the board and grinned at the eevee. “Perfect way to start our team, by asserting our heroic nature to the guild!”

Evon’s ears flattened, looking at me unamused. “You just want more fame and get looked up to…”

“But I’m already a celebrity here in the village! So famous that even a guy threatened me because of my powers!” I said half-jokingly.

“Wait, what?”

I leaned my head close to Evon, whispering in his ears. “I’ll tell you later when we are on our way. He could be watching right now.” I leaned away and swiftly changed the topic. “Anyway, kinda curious.” I straightened the paper, revealing its contents again. “How does the guy that makes these posters know all of this info? Like, that kid is still in the dungeon, aren’t they?”

Evon stared at me for a moment before shifting his glance to his surroundings a bit. “Um… they are, but, because of things like communication orbs, they can send out distress signals to the nearest guild for help.” He then pointed at his badge on his eyepatch. “Anyone that isn’t an explorer takes them everywhere with them since they don’t have badges to carry the task of sending distress signals.”

“Ah, got ya, got ya.” I said before rolling the paper and putting it in my backpack. “Anyway, we got a mission to do and a zorua to save so let’s-a go!”

“Yeah, let’s do this.”

With that, we both left the guild before heading out of the village itself. The sun lit up the sky and our surroundings, a tremendous shift from the dimly illuminated cave. The sight of the lush forest in front of me brought me joy, opening my arms and felt the sunlight grace my skin. “Aw hell yeah! Finally out of that cave! Finally touching grass and escaping the Discord Mod and Redditor allegations once again!”

Evon looked at me a bit inquisitively, one of his ears tilting downwards. “Do I want to know what those two things are…?”

“No, no you don’t.”

“Thought so.”

Stretching my arms and my back, I asked the eevee. “Soooo, have any idea where the heck this Marsh Meadow is? Cuz I have no damn clue.”

Evon sighed and went to search his pouch once again. Quickly, he produced a rolled-up piece of paper with his mouth before putting it on the grassy floor. He then unveiled it with his paws, a map manifesting itself into the paper. No, literally, a map poofed into the paper, revealing the entire continent and all of its POIs. That just left me a bit surprised, but I just chalked it up to Pokémon magic bullshit as usual.

“It shows here that if we keep going west, we’ll come across Marsh Meadows. It isn’t that far from Cavestone so it should take about an hour or so to get there.” Evon said while analyzing the map. He then turned his head to me. “If everything goes accordingly and there are no interruptions, I’d say we might get there even earlier.”

It then hit me the bad part about having this job. We’d have to walk a ton . This would be just like walking a trail through a forest, but guess what!? You take a break and you either: One, get your ass mauled by the local wildlife; Two, your client dies because you took too long!

… my sedentary ass was not prepared for this at all. It was even a miracle I endured that much to get to Cavestone in the first place.

I slightly groaned a bit. “Too much walking, man…”

Folding the paper, Evon smugly commented. “Oh, does that mean you’re giving up? And after hyping up Team Infinity for too long…”

I immediately wagged my finger. “Nuh-uh! I wasn’t hyping this shit up for nothing. I’m gonna see it through ‘till I can’t anymore!” I grinned at Evon. “You’ll see, fox boy!”

“What’s a fox?”

I blinked before turning away from the eevee. “Anyway, enough dilly-dallying! To infinity… and beyond!!!”

With that, I started walking away, not before hearing Evon say. “You’re going the wrong way, dummy.”

I quickly started going the other way. “ This way!!!”

I heard Evon sigh behind me.

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It had been some minutes since we left Cavestone, the walk being uninteresting so far. I had considered using my phone a bit to distract myself but decided against it for a few reasons. It was low on battery; I would be distracted and get attacked without having a chance to transform; or quite possibly step on Pokémon shit.

So far so good. My legs still didn’t give in to my slight sedentarism and I didn’t feel tired. I silently thanked Dad for those cycling sessions I did with him on weekends, if I didn’t have, my stamina would surely be shittier.

To say I was a bit bored for just walking mostly in silence would be an understatement. I was basically forced to look around and observe the local wildlife while keeping silent. After all, what are the chances members of the Dark Rebellion appear and this time be successful in kidnapping me? Or like, what if bandits ambush us and steal all our shit? Would it be an LA classic? Yes, it would, but still, wouldn’t want for that to happen.

However, Evon broke the silence when he reminded me of something. “So… about that ‘mon that threatened you… were you joking about that or…”

“Nope.” As I walked, I turned my head to Evon. “Before arriving in the guild, there was this gholdengo fella half silver and half gold. He said he was watching me, told me I was dangerous, and that he knew about the whole Dark Rebellion fiasco then left without elaborating further. His name was Xemnas…? No, that’s Kingdom Heart… oh wait, Xenes. His name was Xenes.”

“Wait, Xenes the gold-rank explorer that has no team?” Evon asked, his eyes widening a bit. “ That Xenes?”

I blinked a bit, crossing my arms. “Sounds like you know the guy.”

“How couldn’t I? That ‘mon is famous around, not only the guild but the entirety of the village for being a solo explorer and still tackling difficult missions left and right every week!” Evon said, his tail swishing a bit as he talked about the edgelord gholdengo. “It’s still a wonder how he isn’t Legend-rank yet!”

I looked aside a bit nervously. ‘Oh great… I really did pick the wrong house and now I got a big shot that isn’t Spamton watching my every move inside that village…’ “Aha… wow, uh… reassuring to know…”

Evon took notice of my nervousness and frowned. “Oh yeah…” His ears drooped a bit. “Guess you have to gain his trust so he gets his eyes off your back.”

“Money bro’s gonna see.” I grinned as I rubbed the underside of my nose. “With my heroic acts of saving people, he’s gonna think otherwise and think of me as the guardian deity of the village!”

“Hard doubt that but… sure, whatever you say.” Evon smiled as he shook his head.

Eventually, the forest around us started giving way to a bit of a flower-filled clearing. A breeze flowed past us, lifting my hair slightly and brushing against Evon’s fur. A sweet smell passed by our noses, the pleasant smell making us relax a little. Along with the flowers, there were various ponds of water, the pond being the origin of some of the flowers themselves. The air even felt a bit wet, unlike the forest.

I took in the scenario, amazed by the sheer spectacle of such a view that I would’ve never seen if it wasn’t for computers. “Geez… this place is so damn beautiful…” I got out of my mesmerized trance and looked at the eevee after shaking my head a bit. “So… is this the dungeon?”

“No, but given the dungeon's name, I’d say that the entrance is around here somewhere or we’re right next to it.” Evon stated before starting to look around, sniffing the air a bit more. “We just need to find it.”

I put a hand above my eyes, blocking a bit of the sun's rays to observe the area a bit better. Looking around, I could see some lotad and lombre idling about in some of the ponds, ignoring us and other Pokémon who pacifically buzzed about like cutiefly. This place felt exactly like the kind of place where some kind of magical fairy would appear and grant some sort of magic power to us.

Not spotting anything out of place yet, I asked Evon. “What does the map say?”

I turned to the eevee, seeing him take the magical map out of his bag and putting on the ground. “Let’s see… huh…” Evon looked up from the map, scanning over the area. “It shows here that we’re basically in its vicinity. We just need to find the entrance.”

“Ah, okay.” I looked around, eyeing some of the Pokémon in the area. My attention was caught at a fairly close cutiefly who was sucking the nectar of a pond flower. “Should we ask the locals about it? Can they even answer our question…?”

After putting the map back in his pouch, Evon glanced at me with a frown on his face. “Even though wild Pokémon are not like ferals and can act civilized, there’s no way of telling if they can communicate with us or not. We just have to hope they know how to speak.”

“Welp, hope we get it first try.” I said before walking slowly to the cutiefly. Getting close to them, I realized that the bee Pokémon was so small that I could basically fit them in the palm of my hand. I probably looked like a massive giant to them so I needed to approach them carefully and gently.

The cutiefly stopped sucking on nectar after noticing me, their body freezing slightly. “W-what you want!?”

Hopefully, my placation act was good enough after dealing with so many animals who acted hostile towards me. This had to be the one that I didn’t get scratched or bitten! “Yo, yo, yo, chill! I ain’t here to hurt you. Just wanna ask a question, alright?” I kneeled next to the flower, getting at eye-level with the bug. “I promise you’re gonna be alright, okay?”

“A-alright…” They responded meekly, their high-pitched voice not making it easy for me to identify their gender. “Wh- what question…?”

“So… do you know where the local Mystery Dungeon is?” I pointed a thumb at Evon. “My friend and I are trying to find it to save someone.”

“E-explorers… you not attack hive… right?” From what I could notice from their voice alone, they seemed nervous…

I soothed the cutiefly, finding their worries a bit cute. To be honest, if I could pet it and not get stung, I so would. “No, we’re not. As I said, we’re here to save an innocent Pokémon. You’d be saving a life if you could tell us.”

“Um…” They lifted a nub in the direction of a weirdly shaped tree hidden behind some lush. “There. Trunk is entrance.”

“Oooooh, so that’s where it was.” I said before looking at the little bug again, giving them a thumbs up. “Thanks, lil’ dude, you’re awesome!” I said before getting up and walking away. While going back to Evon, I could hear the cutiefly muttering to themselves.

“Me… awesome…?”

I smile at hearing those words and say to Evon. “Yo, got the location!” Evon turned his head at me, inquisitive. I pointed at the weird tree. “That’s the entrance… for some reason.”

“Mystery Dungeons are pocket dimensions, therefore, the entrance can reside in many odd places.” Evon said before tilting his head at me. “There have even been reports of Mystery Dungeons forming inside chests.”

“The hell? That’s kinda crazy. Can they even form inside a Pokémon? Like, inside a wailord, maybe?” I hypothesized, imagining a scenario of a moving Dungeon inside the whale’s Pokémon body.

Evon frowned, a thinking expression appearing on his face. “That… I don’t know. There weren’t any reports of that so far, but there could be.” He turned to face the tree. “But anyways, let’s not waste any more time. We have a Pokémon to save.”

I grinned, balling my hand into a fist. “Hell yeah, let’s do this!”

Without any further prompt, we walked towards the tree, the local wildlife paying no mind as we passed by some of them. We got past a huge bush of flowers, finally revealing the full trunk of the tree. From the bottom up, the tree was split in two in the shape of an arc, like someone had cut a passageway through the wood in the shape of a round door. Hanging from one of the branches of the tree, a big yellowish bulb stood with some cutieflies leaving and entering the place.

So that’s why the little guy from before thought we might attack their hive, it was because it hung on the entrance to the dungeon.

I sighed, did a few hops, and tapped my face with my palms. “Alright, this is it, we’re gonna do it for real this time!”

Evon raised an invisible eyebrow as he looked at me. “Shouldn’t you be in a Pokémon form already? You wouldn’t want opponents taking advantage of you while transforming. And, like… your human musk has a strong scent on your shirt, ya know…”

I hummed in thought. “Yep, speakin’ facts right there.”

With the Pokémon in mind, I started transforming into it. Pink sparkly light surrounded my vision, my body morphing slowly into my desired Pokémon. Large feet, a round fluffy tail, large ears, and big incisors made part of my new body. Once the light faded from my sight, I looked at my white-furred body with a bit of orange fur on my feet. I had successfully turned into a scorbunny.

I turned to Evon, a smirk across my face. “Thanks for the warning my loyal companion! Wouldn’t want us to get ambushed without a form ready to save our rears!”

Evon rolled his eye a playful smile on his face. “Like it would’ve made a difference with your mediocre fighting skills.

“Bro, did you just call me mid!?” I said a bit tempered. “Aight, that’s it. I’m gonna be the best fighter out of both of us on this mission, you just watch!” I hopped in place before readying my legs, feeling my bare feet firing up. “Marsh Meadows…” I then bolted into the dungeon. “Here I come!”

“Hey, wait a second!”

I heard Evon’s voice trailing behind me along with his footsteps. It was then that I felt the air shift around us, the same dry air from the last time we entered one still lingering. A shiver went up my spine due to the sheer atmospheric change.

Once I was a bit more feet ahead, I stopped and analyzed the dungeon around me. The dungeon was like the exact scenery we saw outside it but multiplied by ten. Rectangular-like areas and narrow tree hallways filled my surroundings, big difference from the last dungeon I was in is that this place felt a bit more lively and colorful than the plain forest. Ponds of water and wildflowers coated the place. The flowers were colorful, arranged in various colors, even black flowers incredibly.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Evon showed up beside me, a frown on his face. “Please, don’t do that again. Even if this is a bronze-rank dungeon, it doesn’t make it less dangerous for novice explorers. They’re completely unpredictable and you never know what might happen when you enter one.”

“Yeah… got it, got it.” I said before putting my paws behind my head and looking around. “So… we’re gonna be in this place until we find the zorua, then we dip, correct?”

“Yes. It might take a while to find them, but we just have to hope we get to them before something bad happens.” Evon said, taking a few steps forward and looking around cautiously.

“Alright then, we move!” I said before walking along with the eevee. Before we got much further, we were presented with a lovely fork in the road that expanded into five different paths. “Uh… which way?”

“Let’s just pick randomly. We barely started and we got a lot of ground to cover.” Evon suggested, humming afterwards as he looked over the different paths to take. He then pointed a paw towards the left-most path. “How about that path?”

I thought about it, taking in the sight of a pond and some flowers in the distance of the path. “Eh, sounds good to me, dude. Let’s get to it!”

We entered the chosen path, threading carefully in case some ferals appeared. While on the path, I decided to test some of the limitations in my scorbunny form. I punched the air a few times, barely being able to see my paws from how fast my punches were. I did a 3 punch combo repeatedly before ending it with a kick. During my kicks, I noticed a few sparks flying where the soles of my feet flew.

‘Ooh, could I make use of Blaze Kick at some point? That’d be lit! … Mods, crush my skull after that pun, thank you.’ I thought to myself before trying to breathe a bit of fire. I concentrated a little bit of warm energy in my throat before letting it out of my mouth with a small flame breath, testing my fire-breathing capability.

It was still a bit crazy to me that I was just turning into different creatures at will and literally just doing what they normally do, coming to me so naturally. Well, if some habits of those species get to me as well (like just scratching behind the ear like a dog, yeah, still not over that), that just means some abilities come naturally as well.

“Testing out what you can do as a scorbunny?” I heard Evon say, making me turn to him and seeing him eye me curiously.

“Yeah, gotta get ready for the fights.” I said before shooting out another small burst of Ember, this time aiming it upwards. It felt like I was letting out a very hot spit of saliva, but nope, it was a damn fireball. “Gotta check all my limitations to see what I can or can’t do yet.”

“Understandable.”

The path we took eventually widened to a small clearing with a fresh pond of water and lush bushes of flowers scattered throughout the place, a sweet and welcoming smell filling our noses as we walked into it… which meant this place was about to lower our guards so bad that hordes and hordes and hordes of enemies would flood in the place.

Evon looked around before focusing his gaze on the pond. “Hm…” His ears twitched and flickered before he walked over to it. “I’m a bit thirsty. Can you cover for me while I drink?”

I crossed my small arms, one of my ears tilting sideways. “Didn’t you say this place was dangerous? You’re basically lowering your guard and saying: ‘I’m a smol wil’ veevee, please don’t hurt me, UwU!’ ” I said mockingly, trying to do a cutesy voice.

“Haha, very funny. Just stay on watch, alright?” He said before lowering his head and taking a few sips from the pond, his tail twitching a little.

I glanced around momentarily before a certain urge came over to me. ‘Urgh, I gotta piss.’ Humming, I peered over a bush with some flowers and decided that was a good spot to do it. I walked over to it and saw no one looking. I readied myself to release the load but noticed some of the flowers twitch and move a little. “The fuck…? Oh shit-!”

Some flowers started floating , leaving the bushes and revealing what they really were. Holding the plant’s stalks were a small group of floette, angry floette who did not take well me being here.

I backed away a bit before running back to Evon. “Evon, we got trouble!”

The eevee turned away from the pond, looking at me and the group of the fairy-types on my tail. Suddenly, I felt a sudden hot wind brush my back, making me stagger forward and tumble a bit and only stopping in front of Evon. “Lucas, what happened!?”

I corrected my position in one quick motion, turning towards the angry floette. I noticed there were four of them. “I was about to piss and, like, they showed up from the bush!”

Evon groaned, getting into a battle stance and baring his teeth. “Of course…!”

The four fairies pointed their flowers at us and from them shot a faint pink glow that was carried by a sudden gust of wind. “Guh!” We jumped out of the way of the sparkly light in different directions, getting separated from each other. I called out to the eevee. “Let’s focus on two each! That way we don’t get overwhelmed with all of them focusing on us together!”

“Yeah! After all, you’d mess up everything and we’d both get mauled!” Evon said before firing a Shadow Ball directly at one of the floette. The ball exploded, sending the flower-bound Pokémon a few feet back while another focused on the eevee. “Let’s see if you can win this one.”

I grinned as the two other floettes floated closer to me, holding the stalks of their flowers closely to them. “Oh, I’ll show you that I can win this easily!” As I let Evon do his battle, I shifted my focus solely on the two floettes, one with a purple flower and the other with a pink flower. “Yo, girlies! How about we dance together, and that dance ends with both of you eating the floor- woah!”

The purple-flowered fairy shot another sparkly hot wind at me, making me stagger back a bit. I corrected my position just in time to dodge the pink-flowered floette floating towards me, sidestepping out of their tackle and kicking her as she passed by me. I grinned again as the adrenaline flowed through my body again.

“Eat this!” I ran towards the pink floette, gathering hot energy deep within my chest and concentrating it on the back of my throat. I then let the energy out in the form of a fire breath, exhaling a small wave of flame that washed over the targetted fairy. I heard it squeal and scream in pain with her high-pitched voice; I almost felt bad… almost.

Before I could gloat about my small victory, I felt my leg get wrapped up in a vine before I felt it getting pulled along with my leg. I fell to the ground before looking above my shoulder to find the purple floette with a Vine Whip that came from the flower’s petal. I gritted my teeth and said. “Sorry, but I ain’t into tentacles!”

I burned the vine with another flame breath, freeing my leg and quickly getting up… only to get assaulted from behind with another tackle. A swell of pain ached from my back as I staggered a bit forward and fell to my knees. I grunted a bit in pain before quickly getting up and assessing my situation by looking around. I was surrounded on both sides. Lowkey though…

Getting surrounded by Andrew and Droz was worse than this.

I grinned and quipped. “Ladies, please, one at a time. You can’t have my entire body at the same time!”

I could see the two floettes aiming their flower at me, ready to unleash some kind of magic. I readied my legs, feeling my feet burn as I poured a bit of strength onto them. It would be a gamble, but I felt like I could do it with this body.

With no more time wasted, one of the fairies shot more of that sparkly wind while the other shot a very sharp leaf from their flower’s petals. Once they released their attacks, I bent my knees hard and jumped as high as I could, doing a front flip and landing beside the attacks. I almost lost my footing but I quickly corrected my position. “Holy shit… I did it, hah!” I exclaimed as the attacks clashed behind me.

I turned around, focusing on the purple-flowered floette. “Now… time for ass whooping!” I felt my feet get fired up as my body started moving on its own, getting puppeteered by pure adrenaline alone. I ran towards the fairy, shooting out a burst of flame with an exhale, burning the fairy a bit. Once the flames doused a bit, I ran in and delivered what I trained some minutes ago, not caring if this was in my moveset or not. The 1, 2, 3 punch combo landed swiftly on the floette, despite my small paws (I supposed it worked since the fairy was fairly small). Once the combo was finished, I launched the floette away with a swift kick, the sole of my feet causing some additional burns as well. As the floette fell to the ground unconscious, I spoke while looking at my paws and flexing them. “I’m getting good at this Pokémon stuff! GGs bro-”

My quip was interrupted when a razor-sharp leaf passed through my arm, cutting a small gash. I grunted in pain as I gripped my arm over the wound and turned into the other floette, seemingly angrier than before.

“Aight... I get it. You also want a piece of me since I’m that hot .” The wound stung a lot, making my arm burn a bit from pain. But it was manageable, it wasn’t that deep. “Welp then…” I took my paw off the wound and shook it aside, blood flying off it. I then balled my paw into a fist. “But be careful though, I may cause a burn~”

The floette shot another Razor Leaf towards me, but I dodged the leafy projectile this time and dashed towards the pink-flowered fairy. I jumped into the air and shot a fireball directly at the fairy, however she unfortunately dodged it. I landed on the ground and she decided to tackle me again with her small head. The hit connected, making me take a step back. However, I used the opportunity and grabbed the fairy with my paws, constricting her movements.

“Prime opportunity for yeeting but since you float… gotta do the painful way.” I saw the fairy scrunch her face, knowing what was coming. I then released a point-blank flame breath…

But not at the floette.

She opened her eyes to find herself not getting burned, but rather her flower. She saw the burning petals being carried by the wind as they turned into ashes, the only thing left being the stem of it. The little fairy then turned her small head back to me a little confused. “Floe…?”

“Look, I may have gone overboard while in the heat of the moment, but like… the only reason I was attacking you is because you attacked me first.” ‘And since I destroyed her flower, she should stop attacking now. A small gambit, but fortunately, it was enough to pacify.’ I thought to myself before softening my grip on the fairy. “To be honest, I like to avoid as much conflict as possible, but sometimes, it’s unavoidable, as I learned in the past.”

I released the floette, the fairy floating in front of me a little lost and confused. She looked at the remains of the stem that she held a bit solemnly. “Floe…”

I put my paws on my waist and frowned. “I did say it would be painful… I needed to find a way to make you stop attacking.” I put a paw on her head and stroked it a bit. “Don’t worry though, I’m sure you’ll find another flower good enough for you.”

“Floe… floette!” The little flower pixie responded, dropping the stem of the burned flower. For some reason, after my words, she seemed a bit enthusiastic. She floated towards the downed floette and started carrying her and her flower on the back. She turned to me. “Floette!” She then flew back into the bush they came from. It seemed the two of those fairies were fairly close together.

I smiled seeing that. “Well, at least she didn’t take her defeat that bitterly.” I then turned to see how Evon’s battle was going. “Welp, how are you fairing against-... what the fuck…?”

I saw the eevee sitting on his rear with the two floettes he had been fighting with already knocked out, one with a large number of burns on her body and the other bleeding a bit with some scratch and bite marks. The scene reminded me of how our cat would be in the exact same position when it brought dead rats and lizards to our living room. “Thought you would’ve taken longer than that or probably lost. Good to know you at least have some fight in you.”

I blinked a bit surprised before asking. “Wha… when did you even finish your fight…?”

Evon responded with a small shrug. “A few seconds before you took down the first floette.”

“Huh? You didn’t even-”

Evon’s tail swished around from side to side. “I wanted to see how much you could fare against ferals on your own. Who knew you just needed some beatings and then you become an average battler?” Evon said with a smirk before looking at the bush the floette had gone through. “Although… didn’t expect you to have mercy on one of them.”

I rubbed the back of my head a bit sheepishly. “Yeah so uh… I’m a pacifist when I can. I don’t really like hurting beings unless super necessary.” I looked at the bush with a sheepish smile. “When I just saw her struggle so helplessly in my paws, I felt bad… so I just destroyed her main weapon hoping that would be enough to make her stop attacking.”

Evon frowned. “I’m glad that your mercy endeavors worked and all…” He turned him to me. “But you know that’s not gonna happen every time, right?”

“Yeah, I know, I know. After all, that’s the thing that got me bullied in the first place. Sometimes, violence is just like Thanos and is inevitable depending on the person.” I said with a nonchalant shrug.

“Good, at least you understand.” Evon said before turning to the path ahead. “Anyways, let’s keep moving-”

I pressed my paws between my legs. “Shit, I still gotta piss!”

Evon turned to me annoyed. “Oh, COME ON-”

----------------------------------------

With the energy of the battle fading away and my bladder empty, Evon and I continued on our merry way through the Mystery Dungeon.

Oh boy, I did not expect the battle to go this well for me. Sure, I’ve gotten hit a few times and even gotten a nasty cut on my arm. But like, even with the damage I’ve taken, I still kicked those fairies’ asses, hell, I even did a fucking front flip in the air to avoid those attacks, something I’ve never done before! Was it this scorbunny body that made me more agile and physically able? If so… I picked the right body!

Still, I’m glad that even though shit like punching and kicking aren’t in my moveset it does have some sort of effect… just like actual PMD where characters can just not use moves if they want! Hell yeah! Random bullshit go! It was time for me to make up a lot of crazy shit on the spot and hope to God (or Arceus, I guess) that it works!

Growl…

Evon’s ears flickered and turned his head to me, stopping in place. “Was that you?”

I put a paw on my belly, feeling the hunger pangs in my stomach. I sheepishly smiled. “Yep… uh… was so excited by the mission that I didn’t eat breakfast…”

The eyepatch-wearing eevee tilted his head. “Did you bring anything to eat?”

“Yep!” I transformed back into my human form and got access to my backpack again. “It’s time for a little break cuz we’re awesome and we deserve it to make it this far!” I took my backpack out of my shoulders and set it down.

“It has been just one battle and a couple of steps into the dungeon… we haven’t even gotten that far.” Evon argued while sitting on the grass. Before he could argue more, we could hear another rumble, this time coming from the eevee. “... never mind, what did you bring?”

I took out of my backpack the bread bag and set it on the ground beside the backpack. “Gamers’ most reliable food source! Bread! ” I took out a loaf from the bag and took a bite. While munching, I spoke a bit muffled. “I brought, like, ten or less, so you can eat one or two if you want.”

“You sure you could’ve brought that many?” Evon said, approaching the bag before sniffing it.

I gulped the bread piece. “Basi’s food stash is hella huge, and she was the one to pack this with me so no worries.” I sat down and sighed, taking in the small moment of rest. I sure hope no feral would come here being attracted by the smell of bread… or the smell of my sweaty shirt.

Evon took a bread piece out of the bag and put it on the ground, eating a piece of the food before speaking to me again. “Are you sure we can have a break right here? You know we’re wide open for any kind of attack, right?”

“We are, but I’m sure the ferals will never expect when I hit them with the L + ratio + don’t care combo.” I said before taking another bite from the bread. While munching, I noticed Evon’s confused and unamused expression, so I responded while muffled. “It means that I don’t care if they come to us, we’re gonna deal with them either way.”

“You sound so confident, yet you got hit a lot during that fight.” Evon pointed at my arm, highlighting my biggest wound from that battle. “What if you get hurt even more than just a simple cut?”

“Eh, we get hurt, we heal, life goes on.” I said with a shrug. “I don’t focus too much on small things like cuts and whatnot. I’ve gotten hurt with much worse stuff than that after all.” I smirked at the eevee. “Ever stubbed your toe on the table leg or stepped on a Lego?”

“I… what?”

“Nothing, hehe.” I fiddled with the bread in my hands. “All I’m saying is that despite the life or death situation we are in these places… I just feel… more powerful than ever before. After all, you know how humans are weak as hell, right?” I smiled. “By getting this power, I just feel like I can recover faster from any wounds, no matter how deadly they are.”

“Wasn’t this thought process that got you heavily injured and sent to the clinic when we fought those Dark Rebellion guys?” Evon asked, his ears flattening against his head.

“It’s not the same mindset as before!” I argued a bit defensively. “I’m not gonna recklessly charge into battles thinking I’m gonna win them all, I learned my lesson!” I sighed before biting into the bread. After gulping the piece, I added more to my claim. “It’s like… a confidence boost of sorts. You know what I mean, right?”

Evon just stared ahead silently for a moment. I tilted my head for a moment, but he shook his head before sighing. “Well, I can get why.” He glanced back at me. “But please, don’t get ourselves into more trouble than we can handle. Impulsive behavior like this can get you killed sometimes.”

I tried not to think about a certain event caused by my impulsiveness back in the human world. “Yeah, I know…” I took the final bite of the bread before grabbing another one from the bag and getting up. “Okay, I’ll eat this piece while we’re on the way. We wasted a bit of time here, gotta get on the move before-”

“Woop?”

Evon and I turned to the direction of the voice to find a Pokémon waddling towards us. My memer ass immediately recognized the Pokémon once I took in their armless blue and slimy body, their two purple branching gills attached to their round head, and that smile… and that damn derpy smile on his face…

It was a damn wooper.

Evon got in a defensive battle stance, but before he could do anything, I gasped in excitement. “Wo-wo… WOOPAH!!!” I said a little bit too eagerly before crouching down and trying to approach the blue axolotl Pokémon gently and quietly.

Evon looked at me a bit confused, growing a bit annoyed, judging by his tail’s movements and face. “Lucas, this is NOT the time for one of your idiotic human antics…!”

I glanced at the eevee, ignoring the hiss in his voice. “Calm down, this ain’t gonna be like that sprigatito again, I know what I’m doing!” I argued before crawling closer to the wooper, gripping the bread harder in my hand. “Hey lil’ guy, lil’ dude, lil’ pal!” I said before smiling at the axolotl, its derpy smile greeting me back. “Wanna see a funny magic trick?”

The wooper tilted its head, its smile turning into a pog of curiosity. “Woo…?”

“Watch this!” Pink light overtook my vision and I started transforming once again. I felt my arms just retract further than they ever could, my legs becoming nonexistent with only my feet remaining. The side of my head grew some strange protrusions as it became a bit more round. Once the transformation finished, I was nothing more than a silly lil’ wooper! “Woo!”

The true wooper was a bit surprised by this, however, it happily started bouncing in place. “Woo, woo, woopah!”

“Woopah!” I responded before kicking the bread towards the other axolotl with my feet. Also, perfect time to mention; that having no arms felt wrong. Like, it probably was a different feeling from a crippled human, but like, I just felt like there was a muscle hidden somewhere in my torso but I didn’t know where.

I tried to ignore the feeling just for the bit where there was no need to hurt the wooper. Hopefully, it took the trade offer.

I felt a paw touch my tail, making me turn around to face Evon who looked suspicious of me. “What are you even doing…? You didn’t turn into a feral… right?”

I looked back at the wooper, seeing it take the bread with its mouth and walk away. Once I was in the clear, I turned back to the eevee and whispered. “It was just my strat to pretend that I was like them and give them something to leave us alone with no need for battle.”

“Uh… why do that when we could’ve… ah, right, pacifist.” Evon said before sitting on the ground.

I nodded. “Exactly, and not only that… wooper is considered… let’s say, sacred in my world. You wouldn’t understand, but I do and I mustn't disrespect my kind by hurting such perfection in Pokémon form!” I said while imagining I was saluting. Oh, was it hard staying in the body of such a perfect lifeform…

Evon just stared at me a bit confused before sighing and walking by me. “Let’s just move on…”

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Back into human form and with my stomach filled to the brim, we continued walking through the dungeon. We tried to avoid many confrontations with the wildlife to save up the energy in case the situation went dire. Our Metal Gear Solid sneaking skills went really well things considered, the Pokémon in the Mystery Dungeon.

Marsh Meadows lived up to its name since this dungeon was filled with flower-connected Pokémon and water Pokémon because of the ponds. Wooper, comfey, flabébé and floette, sunflora, and even some ducklett. There were a lot of species variety here. If you were a fire-type Pokémon coming into this dungeon thinking it’ll be easy GGs by the abundance of fairy types and grass types… the water types were here to counter you.

Luckily, none of those Pokémon noticed us while we were sneaking by them. However, some noticed us but didn’t bother once Evon growled at them, making the lil’ critters scurry away from fear.

After making some marills run away by baring his fangs, Evon looked at me with a slightly annoyed frown. “Why are you still in human form? That musky shirt is attracting unwanted attention…”

“Ah, shit, right, forgot!” I said in a low voice before humming. “Hm… any idea what Pokémon I should become?”

Evon’s tail and ears lowered. “How should I know? You said to me that you could only turn into some first-stage-evolution Pokémon, but you know, a deity could make this dungeon a breeze…”

“And getting my ass controlled by the deity’s instincts and getting turned into a feral god? Yep, no chance.” I said while crossing my arms.

“Wait, that’s what happens if you transform into a more powerful Pokémon?” Evon asked while tilting his head, receiving a nod from me in return as he hummed in thought. “So that’s why you acted so differently while you were in Suicune’s form…”

“I’m still confused about that, but still… I’m pretty sure that’s why I don’t remember any of it.” I crossed my arms, trying to think back on that whole fiasco with Valtrus. My memories from then were pretty foggy, probably because of the high amount of adrenaline and the pain coursing through my body at the time. “Hm… speaking of suicune, I do need to try transforming into another quadruped Pokémon since they’re agile most of the time.”

While I was brainstorming for the exact Pokémon, Evon asked. “Any you got in mind to deal with fairy and grass types?”

“Hm… oh! I so got it!” I exclaimed before transforming slowly, the pink light filling my vision again. Like the poochyena transformation, I felt my stance slowly changing; I used four limbs instead of two to stand up. Once the pink light faded away, I found myself staring at orange fur with black streaks in my forelegs and a cream-colored mane coming from my chin. I had turned into a growlithe.

When I fully transformed, the scents around the area became more powerful, even the unpleasant ones… it’s like I had a third eye just for smell.

Evon’s ears perked up. “Growlithe, eh? Not bad of a choice.”

I wagged my tail subconsciously. “Yeah, and if we run into some water types, you cover that for me, alright?”

Evon nodded and we continued on our path.

Honestly, walking as a quadruped felt weird at first, I sometimes almost stumbled and fell on my face while trying to not get my feet tangled up. However, after some steps, I managed to get the hang of it, it just felt like extra steps when I crawled on all fours for the funsies trying to mimic my cat. Now all I needed to figure out how to turn around and to run, the latter being the hardest part from what I saw how animals did it.

Eh, I’d cross that bridge when it came to it… Oh, wait, nice, the wound on one of my forelegs was already closing!

Eventually, we reached a peculiar area… at least, out of the ordinary for the dungeon as a whole. It looked like the dungeon left its theming aside and focused on one of its themes: the flowers. The area was littered with flowers of all shapes and sizes, some even were tremendously big, like the size of a couch or something.

Wait, some are sunfloras… and they noticed us.

There were two of the flower Pokémon that saw us sneaking around, but unfortunately, the clap of my ass cheeks alerted them and now they were heading over to our direction to probably defend their territory. “They were bound to engage us eventually…” Evon said before getting in an attacking stance.

I let out a small breath of flame to the side before baring a toothy grin to the two sentient sunflowers. “Let’s show these plants that we don’t mess around!” Then, the idea of Team Infinity’s catchphrase being used sounded cool in my head, so… “To infinity… and beyond!”

I said before my body started to run towards one of the sunflora subconsciously, a rush of excited adrenaline flowing through my body. I felt my chest fire up as energy built inside, slowly traveling to my throat. I then released the energy in the form of a fire breath, the flames traveling to meet one of the sunflower Pokémon. It didn’t manage to dodge it in time, getting its leaves and petals burned in the process.

As the plant staggered back from the fire, its partner opened their mouth and suddenly globs of light started leaving my body and getting sucked directly into the sunflora’s mouth. I suddenly felt a bit lightheaded as more of those light balls came out of my body. However, before I could do anything about that, a Shadow Ball hit the sunflora in the torso, sending it flying backwards. I looked behind to see Evon readying another one. “What are you doing? Keep fighting!”

“No need to tell me twice!” I looked back at the sunflora seeing vines come out of its legs and root into the ground. My imagination went wild, already thinking about the anime vines' bullshit that this thing was about to do. “Nuh-uh, you don’t!”

I ran towards it and, out of instinct, instead of firing a fireball, I decided to literally bite it . I opened my mouth wide and clamped my teeth down into the leafy skin of the sunflora, feeling the heat pass from my teeth towards it as I felt the taste of the sunflower. It screeched in agony as my body moved on its own, my head shaking as I tried tearing its stem-like body apart from it.

… wait, what the fuck was I doing?

I spat the sunflora, backing away from it as it unrooted from the ground, and promptly fell unconscious on the ground. I stared at its bite wound in horror, realizing what I had just done to it. It had an ugly gash that bled some greenish fluids onto the ground, scorch marks accompanying it…

I… I was about to kill it…

‘That’s… that’s not what I-’

My thoughts were interrupted when suddenly a Razor Leaf passed by my body, cutting through my side a bit and cleaving through my fur. I groaned in pain before I heard Evon’s shout. “Lucas, don’t just stand there!” He passed by me, glowing in a glistening white light that surrounded his body. “Focus!”

The eevee tackled the sunflora who was hit with the Shadow Ball previously, the force of impact sending the sunflower Pokémon towards a tree. However, as it slumped back to the ground, it quickly got back up, a green glow beginning to grow on the sunflower Pokémon’s face. It was charging up for something big .

I shook my head and focused back on the battle, trying to shove those bad thoughts away. ‘It’s not your fault, they aren’t animals, I’m not an animal, that sunflora will live. ’ I said to myself before turning to the charging sunflora. “I need to take care of that…” I said to myself before rushing to it with flames licking at my lips. “Evon, stall its charging while I try to take it out!”

“Already doing it!” I heard Evon say before a volley of small Shadow Balls flew directly at the sunflower Pokémon, impacting its head and torso and staggering it a bit backwards. Although the attack didn’t stop the charge, it did delay the charge.

More than enough for me.

I ran torwards the sunflora and jumped, flames building up in the back of my throat. I opened my muzzle and let out a fireball torwards the wild Pokémon, engulfing it in flames. The glow around the sunflora’s head was consumed by the flames, the flower screaming in agony before falling onto the ground unconscious.

I landed on the floor, panting a bit from all the movement. I then grunted in pain, trying to clutch a forepaw at my side at the wound. For a second, I thought I saw something moving among the foliage, but I didn’t mind it and judged it as just a bit of wind caused by the fire. I had a wound to prioritize for now. “At least their asses are officially whooped…”

My ears flickered when I heard Evon approaching and turned to look at him. “They weren’t that hard, honestly. Just a bit resilient.”

“You say that since you weren’t hurt…” I said with a grimace.

Evon frowned unamused. “Hey, I wasn’t the one who stood still for seconds after defeating an enemy while the other recovered. Besides, why did you do that?”

“I…” I gazed over the sunflora I defeated with a bite, scowling a bit in shame before looking away. “Nothing, just brain fart or something.” I said before walking away and looking around. “Anyway, let’s not think about that. We still need to find-”

“What are you guys doing!? Y-you need to hide quickly!”

A meekly boyish voice was heard, making our ears flicker and look at the source of it. Mine and Evon’s attention was turned to a slightly tilted tree, with its underside exposed leading to a small little burrow. It was dark inside, however, two little shining eyes could be seen staring from it. Evon and I looked at each other for a moment before approaching slowly the tree so as to not scare the obviously civilized Pokémon.

I started with a low voice. “Heeeeey, are you the little zorua that got trapped in here? Are you stuck inside the stump?”

“No dummy, I’m hiding!” The voice, who was most probably the zorua, responded in a whisper. “I’m hiding so that scary Pokémon doesn’t find me!”

Evon tilted his head. “Scary Pokémon? What scary Pokémon?”

Suddenly, a mighty roar filled the silence of the whole area which made my heart tremble a bit from how loud it was. Evon and I turned around, trying to locate the source of the roar, but we didn’t need to look further once we saw trees literally getting pushed to the side like they were small obstacles in their way. There were no loud footsteps, meaning that whatever the Pokémon was either had very silent footsteps, crawled, or slithered.

“T-t-that Scary P-P-Pokémon!” The zorua exclaimed in a whisper.

The Pokémon finally revealed itself to be... what the fuck was even that? The Pokémon resembled a giant sunflower with sharp golden petals surrounding its head, its entire torso consisted of hardened vines that rooted themselves into the ground, it had no legs but it had two arms of tangled and intertwined long and thick vines that ended in a four-fingered clawed hand. Its face resembled a sunflora’s however, its lips were shaped like sharp teeth that covered the entrance of its mouth.

“What the fuck is that thing!?” I asked while taking slow steps back from fear. Despite the giant monster flower’s resemblance to sunflora… it reminded me a bit of that Cuphead flower boss final phase.

Evon stood in place as he spoke a bit in fear. “That’s sunflora’s final evolution… sunbloom .” He gritted his teeth as he took a small step back. “What is it doing here? I thought that this was a bronze-rank dungeon!”

“How should I know!? Recent change or something-!?”

The sunbloom roared once again before smashing its vine arms on the ground, causing bigger and sharper vines to erupt and travel towards us. “Dodge!”

With Evon’s shout, I jumped out of the way of the vines along with the eevee, the vines puncturing the ground where we stood. “Geez!” I said as I looked at the damage. I then glanced back at the giant sunflower Pokémon again who growled at us. “This guy might look like a tough guy, but I know how this goes with these types of bozos! The bigger they are, the slower they move!” I then started dashing towards the Pokémon, flames licking at my teeth as I rapidly approached the sunbloom. “And the bigger they are, the bigger the fall!”

I shot a jet of flames at the big wild Pokémon, aiming at its head. However, they blocked the fire with a viny arm, only leaving a black burnt spot on it. It didn’t shout in pain or anything, it didn’t even flinch. My eyes went wide before I got swatted away by the same arm that blocked my attack, sending me flying backwards and making me skid across the ground in pain. I heard Evon shout. “Lucas!”

“Ow…” I muttered before slowly attempting to get up on trembling legs. “Bro actually got hands…”

“Try not to get too close!” Evon said before charging a Shadow Ball in front of his mouth and launching it directly into the sunbloom face. Even though the hit connected with a small explosion coating the Pokémon’s head, the sunbloom showed itself to be almost unbothered by the hit, only getting angrier. “Shit…”

“Uh, Evon, why our attacks aren’t doing anything to it…?” I asked, a bit terrified that this would be an unwinnable battle… at least we can hit it.

The eevee gritted his teeth. “It’s tough, but there must be some kind of weak point we need to take advantage of…”

I analyzed the sunbloom a bit more, trying to find any discernable weak points we could exploit. I frowned once I couldn’t identify anything that we could hit specifically. “Uh… what if there’s none…?”

“Then we keep attacking until we make one.” Evon said as his face turned full-on predatorial. He coated his body in a white aura, disappearing in a blur as he dashed straight towards the sunflower Pokémon. Before I could call him out on his hypocritical action of not approaching the Pokémon, he was already in front of it, jumping from its torso to its arms to its head in less than a second. The eevee then bit down on one of the Pokemon’s petals, trying to tear it away from its head.

I realized that was my sign to move in as well. I dashed in towards the sunbloom, shooting another thin pillar of fire from my mouth on its torso. However, as it got hit, the sunbloom roared again and released a blast of the shockwave of pure darkness that came out of the Pokémon, blasting the eevee off its face and launching me away from it as well.

We tumbled to the ground, burns and aches flaring throughout my whole body, even my tail felt a little sore. “Ngh… motherfucker…” I said as I looked back at the flower monster. It grunted loudly before shoving its arms into the soil below, looking at us with an intense stare. “Ugh, what is it doing now…?”

“Whatever the case, be careful…” Evon muttered as he got up.

The earth shook as a giant vine erected from the ground, the giant appendage being 7 or 8 feet tall. The vine started glowing lime green, getting coated in some kind of energy of sorts that slowly shaped itself…

Into a giant ass blade.

‘Shit, is that-’ I interrupted my thought as I saw the blade rising in the air before starting to take a horizontal sweep of the area. “DUCK!” I screamed before I crouched rapidly, accidentally hitting my snout on the floor and hoping that the eevee managed to duck in time. I saw the glowing blade cut trees behind us, leaving huge gashes on them while some of them fell. “Holy fuck…!”

I heard Evon’s voice calling out. “It’s striking again!”

I looked at the blade vine again, seeing it getting raised this time getting ready to sunder us vertically. I rolled out of the way, not bothering this time seeing the damage that the Solar Blade had caused once it came down. I went to the base of the vine, feeling flames coat my teeth as I opened my mouth wide. Once I got close to it, I bit down the fine that erupted from the ground, clamping my teeth with as much force as I could around the thick vine.

“Lucas!” I heard Evon shout as the sunbloom let out a guttural shout, the Solar Blade dissipating as its vine flailed around wildly, thrashing aimlessly as it tried to make me get rid of it. Still, for some reason, my body just wanted to keep biting until it submitted so I could rip out its-

Not again!

I let the pressure around the sunbloom’s vine loosen up a little, but that was all that it took for it to forcibly pull its vine back underground, even though I had accidentally ripped some of its leafy skin from it. I spat most of the vine pieces off my mouth as Evon approached me. “T-that was risky…!”

I glanced at him for a moment before looking back at the sunflower Pokémon. “I know, but still, we needed to get out of that situation. And hey, it can get hurt with enough brute force.”

The sunbloom roared into the sky once again, not removing its arms from the ground even though its giant vine was retracted. Instead, it hunched its back and stared at us as its face began glowing the same lime green as its Solar Blade. It then clicked with me, that the attack the sunflora was attempting to do at that time was Solar Beam…

Haha, I’m in danger!

“Fuck, it’s charging!” I said as a sense of dread took over my heart. “We gotta do something, or else…”

“No need to even say it!” Evon shouted before shooting out a charged Shadow Ball directly at the charging sunbloom, the impact doing little to delay its charge. The eevee then glanced at me. “Come on, help me!”

“Got it!” I said before starting to blast the sunflower Pokémon with my own fire projectiles as well. Fire and shadows combined to pelt the sunbloom to stop its charge as much as possible. However, despite a bit of delay in the charge, it wasn’t stopping, despite us sending out the strongest projectiles we could muster.

The charge got to a point where the wild Pokémon’s limbs were trembling and the glow became blinding enough to cover its entire head along with its petals. It was about to let loose.

I stopped attacking and screamed at Evon. “Evon, we need to fucking run !”

Evon threw out his last Shadow Ball and took a step back while growling. “If that wasn’t obvious enough-”

The glow suddenly vanished from the sunbloom’s head and I had an instant reaction by pouncing at Evon and making us both roll out of the way of a giant lime-green laser beam that came from the sunbloom’s face. The beam was aimed at the spot where Evon was standing, and even though we managed to dodge out of the way of the attack, my tail didn’t.

It was numb at first but when we stopped the rolling and I lay beside Evon, pain surged through me as tears swelled up in my eyes from the pain. I groaned from the pain and looked back and saw the laser beam still active as the sunflower Pokémon aimed its laser at the sky, the beam finally dissipating as it tore through a few clouds. But never mind the spectacle of that, my fucking tail was in so much pain right now!

“Ghn… gah!” I groaned as I went to look at the damage on my tail. The fluffy tail that stood there was completely replaced by a burnt and bleeding mess of flesh and fur molten together. Imagine the pain that would emerge from this if I wasn’t a fire type… “Goddamn, not very effective and it still hurts like a bitch… ngh, fuck me…!”

Evon noticed my pain and crawled up to me. “Lucas… are you alright? Can you still fight…?”

I slowly but surely, despite the aches in my body, rose on trembling feet, doing my best to push through the pain that covered my body. I looked back at the sunbloom, seeing it remove its arms from the ground and limp a bit. It seemed that Solar Beam took a bit out of it. “I can… we need to attack it now… while it recovers!”

Evon nodded, a white glow covering his body. “Right!” The eevee said before dashing torwards the sunflower Pokémon in a flash. I followed him, preparing a fire attack while ignoring the burns and aches that my tail provoked. While Evon tried to tackle the sunbloom from a lot of angles at fast speeds, I tried pelting it with more fire projectiles, however, that didn’t seem to be as effective. I suddenly wondered if this guy was even a grass type or not.

The sunbloom roared once again as the light surrounding Evon’s body vanished. The sunflower Pokémon then snatched the fox on its claw, restraining him from any movement. “Evon!” I shouted, feeling a bit more invigorated than before. I shot more fireballs at the sunbloom, however, it protected itself with its other free arm. “Let him go you knockoff of a-”

Before I could finish the sentence, the sunbloom slammed its free arm on the ground while Evon attempted to bite its other claw. I suddenly felt the earth shake around me, but before I could do anything about it, vines erupted from the ground and surrounded me. I growled at them but before I could burn them to ashes, they wrapped themselves around me and constricted my torso, pinning me to the ground.

“Ngh, you bitch!” I shouted before I tried my best to shoot flames at the vines and tear them with my teeth, however, my struggles were in vain as they kept me stuck on the ground. “Dammit…!”

Meanwhile, Evon was still attempting to free from the sunbloom’s grasp, bitting into its fingers as best as he could. “Release me!” Evon shouted and attempted to charge a Shadow Ball to shoot at the Pokémon’s face. However, the sunbloom stopped the charge by slamming the eevee into the ground, forcing him to eat dirt again, again, and again.

I screamed. “Evon!” ‘I need to do something, anything to get us out of this stupid mess! What can I do? I can’t just transform into a more powerful form or-’ It then dawned on me… that was something I could do at a large cost. But this may’ve been the thing needed to get us out of that mess. “You know what? Fuck it, we ball!”

I started thinking of a stronger fire type, something that wouldn’t just immediately turn me into a feral right away. It was probably best if I stuck to something like a mid-evo that wouldn’t immediately turn into a feral. I should’ve tested the waters, but this is my best shot to win.

My head then locked in on my preferred form.

“NOW!” I shouted before I opened my eyes wide and started transforming again. The pink sparkly light covered my vision as I felt the changes occur in my body. My tail slowly disappeared, the pain transferring to my back a little, my arms and legs changed structure a little and my head reformed with my ears changing shape a bit. Once the transformation was over, the pink disappeared, letting me see the area again. My eyes locked onto the sunbloom who was trying to crush Evon by slamming him on the ground repeatedly.

“Let… him… GO! ” I roared as I felt fire erupt out of my back and the top of my head, the heat making the vines loosen as they got burnt to ashes by my fire quills. I swatted the rest away, freeing myself from their hold. I stood up on two legs as the sunflower Pokémon stopped slamming Evon to look at my quilava body. It released Evon and growled at me as it took note of the new potential threat to it and its territory.

Evon struggled to get up, but even so, he only managed to lift up its head. “Lucas…?”

In my new form, I felt powered, mostly reinvigorated to fight the sunflower menace in front of me. “Heal up, Evon…” I got into a stance, clenching my paws as I bawled them into fists. “I’ll distract it!”

The sunbloom roared and slithered up to me, reaching out to grab me. I sidestepped out of the way and shot a stronger burst of flame to the sunbloom’s face, the impact of the attack making it flinch this time, but not enough to stagger it. As it growled to me, I went back to four paws and ran around it to see if it could keep up with its slower body.

The sunflower Pokémon then shoved one of its arms into the ground, making another giant vine appear. The appendage apparently tracked my movements even though the sunbloom didn’t even look at me. ‘So it can sense me through the vine. Gotta take care of that then!’

The vine had enough of tracking me and went for the attack, trying to pierce me with its pointy tip. Fortunately, I dodged its strikes and jabs, noticing I was anticipating strikes much faster than before. When it jabbed one last time, I jumped back and my brain thought of something wild to do with my fire quills. ‘Quilava learns Flame Wheel, so does that mean… oh my god…’

The vine was extending itself to strike me once again, however, I did what instinct told me and curled into a ball, with my quills still active. I didn’t know why I did it or how I did it but my body started spinning in place, gaining friction as I built up innate acceleration. Interestingly enough, I didn’t feel like throwing up just like a certain hedgehog. “Take this! Flaming Spindash!”

I then rolled into the base of the vine, rolling through it as if it were nothing but a wall of feathers. I stopped on the base of something hard, uncurling myself and backing away from it just as I heard the roar of the sunbloom as I looked at the damage I caused. The Pokémon’s side now had a black spot that was burning a bit.

It unearthed its arm and looked at me with an angry face, it looked like it was ready to pounce on me. I steeled my stance to whatever it was about to throw at me, however, a Shadow Ball impacted its face, making it stagger a bit like last time. It looked at the source of the move with a snarl, seeing Evon standing in a battle position and with his wounds all healed. “Should’ve killed me while you could!”

“Evon, you’ve fully recovered already!?” I asked in relief and excitement, feeling my quills spark even harder as I grinned.

“Why you’re so surprised? Nothing like an oran berry can’t fix-”

Evon was interrupted when the sunbloom roared into the air again before leaping into the air, covering the sun with its large body for a second before crashing down again away from us. It shoved its arms on the ground and hunched, the green glow from before started covering its face again. It was charging another Solar Beam. “Aw hell naw, not this time!” I turned to Evon. “Let’s stop it together! It’s getting weaker, we need to use this to our advantage before it releases that beam!”

“Understood!” Evon said before we both looked back at the charging sunbloom, the eevee’s body getting coated in a white aura. “Let’s go!”

In a flash, Evon dashed towards the sunflower Pokémon, clawing at it at high speeds to delay the charge as best as he could. It seemed to be having some effect since the big guy was trying to avoid some of Evon’s attacks, and flinching a bit whenever it got hit.

I dropped onto four legs again and started running towards the sunbloom, pelting its face with a barrage of fireballs at its glowing face, trying to delay the charge as much as possible. While I took a small breath to recharge my flames, Evon stopped clawing at random parts of the sunflower Pokémon’s body and went directly for the head. He opened his mouth and bit one of its petals again, delaying the charge even more as the big feral screeched in pain.

I stopped in front of the sunflower Pokémon, its glowing face staring right at me as I went back to two legs. “Evon, move!” Evon did as I requested, releasing the bitten petal off the Pokémon and leaving plenty of room for me to go crazy.

I bent my knees and jumped high in the air, having a clear target in my sight before I started descending. I curled up into a ball again and started spinning in place, getting faster and faster without getting dizzy. I felt the heat of the flames surrounding me as I descended down on the enemy. “Eat this Dropdash, bitch!”

The wheel of fire connected as I felt my body impact the head of the sunflower, feeling my quills tear a bit of its flowery flesh from the sunbloom as I kept spinning rapidly. The glowing sun's energy shielded its face a bit as it charged, but I pushed through it, trying to cause as much damage as possible. Once I felt the speed decrease, I jumped away, landing on the ground and skidding to a stop.

The sunbloom looked up and released the beam that it could manage to charge into the sky before unrooting its arms. It roared a bit before its arms fell limp, followed by the rest of its body. After what seemed like forever… the big sunbloom was out unconscious.

Evon and I just stared at the big unconscious flower that lay on the ground unmoving as we panted from exhaustion and a bit of fatigue. We stayed like that for a small moment, the silence coating the area we were in, giving it an eerie vibe.

“... heh… hehehe… hehehehahaha…” I started laughing a bit, panting between the laughter. “Hahahahahahahaha!!!” I scooped the eevee in a hug as I felt my fire quills retract into my body. “We did it, Evon! We beat that damn monster, hahahahahahaha!”

“We did it… we really did it…” Evon muttered under his pants, ignoring the fact he was being hugged. “We defeated a sunbloom all by ourselves…”

“Yeah, dude! We fucking did it!” I beamed in excitement, hugging the fluffball that Evon tighter! “Woohoo!” I released the eevee and looked back at the downed sunbloom, pointing at it. “That’s right, bitch! That’s what you get for messing with Team-Fucking-Finity right here! Hahaha… hah…” I then collapsed on my back, my arms and legs wide open. “I”m so damn tired…”

Evon sighed loudly as he looked at me, a tired expression present on his face. “You don’t say…” He then fished in his bag again before pulling out an oran berry and placing it next to me. “You’ve endured a lot of hits, eat this.”

I glanced at the berry lying at my side and stared at it for a moment, considering if I had stomach remaining to eat or not. After some seconds, I grabbed the oran berry with a paw and bit down on it, tearing the berry’s flesh easily with my sharp teeth. After I finished eating the food, I felt the extreme pain and injuries that I suffered in the dungeon patch up very quickly, like someone turned regeneration hacks on my body. I immediately felt more invigorated, however, I still felt a bit sore. I looked back at Evon after sitting up. “Thank you, dude.”

“Anytime.” Evon replied with a nod.

“D-did… did the scary Pokémon go away…?”

Evon and I looked back to the tree where the zorua kid was currently hiding under, seeing him poke his white-furred head out of the hiding spot. He then noticed the downed sunbloom behind us, his yellow-irised eyes widening. “It’s-... it’s asleep?”

I got up. “No dude, we beat the shi-” I interrupted myself as I remembered who I was talking to. “I mean, we defeated it, now you’re safe!”

Evon nodded, walking towards the little fox. “Yes, no need to hide anymore. We’re taking you back to the guild so you can meet up with one of your parents, alright?”

The little zorua nodded with a little (and fucking adorable) yip. “Got it!” He then tilted his head as he looked at me again, analyzing my body. “Uh… I thought I saw a growlithe with Mr. Eevee.”

Oh yeah, forgot that turning into other Pokémon is not a normal thing here. “Lil’ kid, you won’t believe what happened to Mr. Growlithe.” I grinned as I leaned closer to the wispy white fox. “Let me tell you all about when we go back to our guild!” However, I realized something that made me groan tiredly and my body went limp. “Ugh, man, we’re gonna have to walk all the way back to Cavestone…”

“Not exactly.” Evon said as he turned back to me. He pointed at the badge in his eyepatch. “Remember these badges? These things have an emergency button that teleports us back into the guild whenever we’re in deep trouble. But they also work as a method of transportation whenever we finish a mission.”

I immediately perked up. “Thank GOD for that. I didn’t wanna travel all the way back after all this shi- I mean, stuff we had to deal with.”

The eevee sighed and said. “Just hold on to me and we’ll go back together, alright?” I nodded as I went to touch Evon’s back, the zorua repeating my action and touching Evon’s leg. “Is everyone ready?”

“Mhm.”

“Gucci to go.”

Evon nodded and pressed a paw on his badge, focusing on the pupil of the badge. In a flash, a beam of light overcame us and in an instant, we were out of the dungeon.