Dungeon 3 - Travelers

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

Lance and Brian walked along a road flanked by a large forest filled with thick trees on both sides. Brian took a look around and gulped, he couldn't exactly place the reason, but there was something about the woods that scared him.

The darkness of the night was only broken by the moon lighting the way for them to go forward. As they walked, Lance took a peek at a map he'd brought along for the journey while Brian dubiously watched him study its markings.

"Uh, Lance? Can you tell me if this is the way we need to go? This forest's giving me the creeps… do we really need to walk so close to it?" the Zorua asked.

"We're taking the fastest route, just like I planned." Lance said. The Riolu's face carried the same stoic expression he'd sported since the two of them left Thornwell, but even so, he couldn't help but let a bit of annoyance leak through his voice.

"I already told you this before, Brian. So I'm not sure why you think the answer would've suddenly changed."

"That doesn't mean you have to say the exact same thing each time!" Brian grumbled. "Are you sure this is the right way to Bright Dawn?"

Lance sighed and stopped walking, showing the map to his sibling. Brian couldn't make out many details in the dim light, but he could clearly see there was a large, red "X" marking the spot where they should go, and a circle around their hometown. The distance between those two spots was quite large, and the Zorua took that as a sign that they were still far away from their destination.

"Again, like I said, we're on the fastest route," Lance shrugged. "As you can see, even with it, the journey's still gonna take a while. At least if we're going by foot."

Can't tell if I'm the only one that can put up with this. Brian pouted and lowered his head as he followed the Riolu. I kinda wish Blitz was here, too bad he and Lance split up.

Brian blinked after noticing that Lance had already set off down the path without him. After letting out a surprised yip, he hurried along to catch up, slowing his pace as he reached Lance's side and shooting an askew glance at him as they walked.

"You know, we left the village two days ago, and you hardly said anything the whole trip that wasn't an answer to a question..." Brian remarked. "It's our first time leaving Thornwell on our own. Has there really been nothing that's stood out to you about our journey?"

Lance wondered for a moment and then shrugged. "I don't think so. I mean… it's a little too hot for my taste, but there's nothing we can do to change that, so there's no point in talking about it."

His stiff tail proved that comment, and his blank expression only furthered that idea.

"...And you know I'm not fond of small talk," he finished.

Geez. And you wonder why you don't have many friends. Brian sighed, as he moved on along the darkened path.

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

Lance and Brian continued their walk for what seemed like an eternity to the Zorua, who was already slowing down his pace and sucking on a bottle of water. The trek had similarly taken a toll on Lance, who forced himself to stay awake, at least for a little longer, until they could find somewhere to rest.

From afar, the two saw the vague outline of a Pokémon with a wagon up ahead, making Brian's eyes widen.

"Huh. Guess we're not the only ones travelling this road right now."

"It's not that remote of a route," Lance remarked. "But still. Something feels off about that wagon."

Or perhaps more accurately, of the figure next to it. Why, the outline almost looked like it was frantically waving at them! As they approached, Lance and Brian got a better view of the wagon and noticed it was overturned by the side of the road. Brian tilted his head at the sight and soon looked at the Riolu.

"Uh, Lance? I think we should—"

"On it!" the Riolu cried. "Come on!"

Lance dashed forward towards the stricken wagon, as Brian followed him as fast as his legs could carry him. The further they ran ahead, the more features of the Pokémon they could make out. Small body, blue scales with a white belly and large, yellow eyes: a Croagunk, and just as they feared, it was waving the pair down for help.

Along with that Pokémon, Brian saw Klink serving as support for the wagon's wheels, but they appeared to be knocked out. After Lance and Brian neared, the frog's eyes darted to the badges on their bodies and he breathed a sigh of relief. He'd evidently realized that they were explorers.

"Good evening, sir... are you alright?" Lance asked as he approached the group. "What happened here?"

As much as he wanted to deal with business first, Brian's inner engineer took over as he eyed the carriage. The positioning of the Klink, the beauty of the carriage], it all impressed him so much that he couldn't help but grin and slowly wag his tail.

"A carriage... I never saw one like this in our village!" Brian said, arriving after his brother. After noticing the Klink latched into place as wheels, the Zorua couldn't help but turn and ask the Croagunk...

"Do the Klink like being used as wheels?"

The Croagunk gave a sideways glance at Lance, waiting for an explanation. The Riolu gave none other than a quiet sigh, prompting the Croagunk to flusteredly clear his throat.

"Erm… Thank you for admiring our vehicle, but we're in a bit of a hurry here," he gulped, now staring at the forest around them. "I-I'm afraid we don't have much time for smalltalk like this."

Lance covered his face for a moment and then quickly flashed his eyes at Brian, bringing him to his senses.

"Right, sorry to keep you waiting. My brother can be a bit of a tech junkie. Too much of one sometimes," the Riolu said. He took the team's crest, showing it to the frog. "We are Team Liberators from the Hero Guild, I'm Lance and this Zorua is my brother."

"Brian's the name, and tech's my game!" the Zorua chimed in. "Don't worry, we weren't just going to leave you on the side of the road like this. We'll be happy to help you!"

The Croagunk sighed in relief and smiled at the brothers, considering shaking their paws for a second, but opted not to on account of having a quite literally poisonous touch.

"You came at just the right time," he explained. "I'm Gama, and I'm part of a delivery team with these Klink and my driver, Marty."

He looked at the harness, slashed to bits and frowned, before turning back to the two.

"He's the Zebstrika that normally drives the carriage. We were attacked just a few minutes ago by a pack of crazed Mightyena!" the Croagunk exclaimed. "We tried to fight them off but they caught Marty, and drug him off into the forest! Between protecting the little Klink, I barely had time to react before they disappeared!"

Lance closed his eyes and mulled the Croagunk's words. From what he could detect from Gama's aura, he was telling the truth... or else he was a very good liar. Given the overturned wagon and his apparent distress, he was inclined to go with the first option.

In that case, Gama was most likely either attacked by Outlaws or feral Pokémon. The latter seemed more possible just from a cursory examination of the facts: nothing was stolen from the wagon, the fact that only the driver was snatched of all the Pokémon present, and Gama's description of the pack as crazed-looking all pointed in that direction. After finishing his thoughts, he snapped his fingers and opened his eyes.

"Feral Mightyena. If we don't act quickly, they'll eat Marty alive. Or worse, the Mystery Dungeon they drug him back to will turn him into one of them ," Lance murmured.

Still musing about it, he took a look around, the dark trees and black leaves on his mind, and he figured out where they were.

"Wait a minute, these trees..." the Riolu murmured. "If I'm not mistaken, the only dungeon anywhere close with surroundings like this is—"

"Ah! We're near Dusk Woods!" Brian pointed out, snarling. "I-I knew I recognized that forest! C'mon, we gotta hurry!"

The two nodded to one another and ran into the woods. Gama gulped as he watched them go away.

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

The first thing Brian noticed after entering the dungeon was how eerie everything looked. The trees looked almost dead, as if someone could destroy them with a punch. The heavy fog swirling around was only amplifying the uncanny atmosphere. Why, he could even see one of the trees growing in on itself! Perhaps he should be less surprised, after all the strange sights could easily be chalked up as being due to the peculiar nature of mystery dungeons.

Despite the foreboding atmosphere, the team pushed on amid the foggy forest. On a couple occasions, they ran into feral Pokémon and got into a brief fight, but thanks to their training from the Hero Guild, those encounters proved short-lived.

Overall, while the search for Gama's missing driver had taxed their nerves, it'd gone largely without incident… and also without any sign of Marty. Brian stopped, stepping on a dark log and breaking it as he looked back at Lance worriedly.

"This is gonna be a stupid question, but… uh, this place is huge, Lance. Can't you use your aura thing to find him?"

"Brian, what do you take me for? A fool? I've been trying to do just that..." Lance sighed, before closing his eyes and concentrating. "We've moved around a bit since my last reading. Let me try getting a new one before we move on."

The Zorua eased into a combat stance, keenly looking and listening for any movement around them as his brother focused on his meditation. Riolu and its evolution, Lucario, were famous for being able to manipulate aura, a type of energy present in all living beings.

They used it to communicate, to fight, and much like Lance was doing now, to find others. His ears moved while he meditated, searching for any trace of the Zebstrika's aura in the forest. Even with past practice, the process of searching for a Pokémon with aura from a cold start was slow and draining for Lance, so he focused as much of his willpower as he could on his search for the missing Pokémon.

Lance saw his surroundings in shades of black and blue. He tightened his concentration even further, peering deeper into the dungeon for Zebstrika's aura. In this case, the zebra ought to be easier to find. After all, he was near Mightyena, and if Lance picked up traces of a group of them, odds were that Marty would be there too.

At last, Lance found him. What he picked up was an aura that was flickering, weakening, and it was surrounded by three others that felt like Mightyena. Hungry Mightyena. Lance opened his eyes, falling to his knees and panting. Brian, noticing this, approached his brother with a worried look on his face.

"Before you say anything, I'm fine, Brian," Lance insisted. "More importantly, I found Marty. Come on, we don't have much time!"

The two of them ran deeper into the forest, Lance leading the way as he chased after the auras that he felt. As they approached the location Lance had sensed, they smelled blood in the air, which only grew stronger and stronger the closer they got. Brian shivered, the scent was nauseating to him, and he instinctively looked at his brother. Much to his surprise, Lance didn't even flinch or falter in any way. He was completely normal.

I'm not like him, huh? Can't stand blood. Brian gulped. "S-So, we should probably move on towards Marty, r-right? Don't wanna spend too much time here, y'know?"

Lance looked forward, smiling for a moment. "So you do have a serious side to you, but that's right," the Riolu remarked.

"Dungeon madness. To lose your mind and soul, to become nothing more than a beast. Truly a fate worse than death."

"I-I mean, we're saving someone from it, sooo, it's a good thing, right?" His brother just nodded, and Brian gulped.

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

This was their first official mission as a team and he wanted it to be a success. Marty's life probably—no, it definitely depended on it being a success. But even more importantly than that, he absolutely could not let anything awful happen to his brother and best friend during this mission.

And so with the courage he could muster, Brian fought back his shivers, lowered his head, and kept pressing on.

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

The grassy terrain was replaced by solid rock, topped with patches of grey fur and, as Lance noticed during a scan of his surroundings, skulls and bones—likely leftovers from the feral pack's previous meals.

After they got a little closer, Brian noticed the Zebstrika laying on the ground with no visible signs of life. Lance quickly checked the electric-type's aura and confirmed he was still alive, however tenuously. However, the ferals nearby were also very much alive, the sound of their gnashing teeth alerting the siblings' attention. And the biggest one of the Mightyena looked at Marty with a swishing tail.

It didn't take long for Brian to take action, running as fast as he could towards the pack, his heart racing all the while. The other Mightyena noticed him too now, and one of them growled, licking its teeth before lunging towards Brian.

"Oh no you don't!" Lance snarled.

The Riolu extended his arm, his palm flashing with energy, before he fired a pulse of blue aura from it. The energy pulse caught the Mightyena mid-lunge with a yelp and sent it flying into a rocky wall. The Dark-type struck the stony face with a sharp thud before hitting the ground unconscious, too weak to do anything but feebly twitch.

After seeing the Force Palm, the pack leader reflexively jumped back and crouched with a low, threatening snarl. Almost as soon as the pack leader came to a stop, he lunged forward with bared, bloodied teeth. And behind Lance and Brian, the other Mightyena lunged at them with fiery fangs.

"Stay back, you monster!"

Brian was taken by instinct again and rammed against the Mightyena with a dark aura surrounding his body before it could hit Lance. The move forced him back, his ears drooped, while the Mightyena was knocked away from him.

The Zorua panted, muttering about the headache he felt from his Pursuit as he tried to ignore it and focus on the battle at hand.

"Nice save with the Pursuit, Brian." Lance snapped his fingers, looking at the bulky Mightyena.

"Yeah, yeah, I know I'm charming," the Zorua remarked. "But don't get distracted!"

Brian ran ahead, darting in front of Lance as he tore for the wild Mightyena. The Zorua ducked low against the ground, sliding underneath the Mightyena's legs before jumping up and ramming against its belly.

Before Brian could celebrate, he felt a hard, metallic tail club him in his belly and send him tumbling back. Brian's plight caught Lance off-guard, and using the opportunity, the leader of the pack swiped its claws at Lance.

He tried to block the blow by crossing his arms over each other, and while he managed to protect his face and body, the attack cut deep in his arms, forcing him back a few meters, and Lance could see the bruises and slashes at his arm, along with patches of his fur dropping to the ground.

To make matters worse, Lance noticed the Mightyena's tail had begun to shine, taking on silvery and metallic sheen.

"N-No, you won't—"

It ran, turning around before swinging its tail at Lance, who was unable to dodge or block this time. The feral's Iron Tail caught Lance square in his chest, sending him flying towards a rocky wall.

Lance felt his back strike the wall and pitched forward into the dirt. After he fell to the ground, Lance coughed and slowly began to right himself, the attack was powerful enough that he heard something snap inside his body. Despite his pain, he knew full well that Marty's life was on the line right now, and with every ounce of his willpower he did his best to ignore the pain throbbing in his arms and on his back.

At the same time, Brian focused on dodging a string of attacks from the Mightyena harrying him. The Zorua used his small size to his advantage, but the feral was relentless.

Time and again, it kept trying to sink its teeth on him, only for the fox to jump back and dodge, smirking. His smirking confidence had come crashing down once he heard the noise of Lance striking the wall, making him cock his head at his Riolu brother and his eyes shoot wide with alarm.

"Lance! Are you... Argh!"

Brian screamed in pain as he felt strong jaws dig into his stomach and the area about it went numb. A quick glance to his right side revealed that the Mightyena he'd been fighting charged its fangs with electricity while he was distracted, and was currently clamping down on his belly. Even in the midst of his pain and the feral's crushing bite, Brian saw an opening to turn his situation around on his attacker.

With a deep breath, Brian's mind remembered the attack Lance had used earlier, and how he could do the same. Brian opened his mouth and unleashed the same Force Palm towards the Mightyena, instantly knocking it out.

Lance couldn't help but chuckle at the sight, before setting his gaze on the pack leader. It was the only feral left, they were so close to finishing the mission.

"I've got this, Brian. Just stay back and watch," Lance said. The Riolu cast a glance off at his teammate, before cracking his knuckles and whirling to face the pack leader. The scruffy and jagged fur, the wild, murderous eyes, Lance saw everything. Undeterred by it all, he focused, his feelers twitching.

As the Mightyena ran towards him, Lance looked up at a rock formation nearby and grinned, as pieces of a plan fell together in his mind on the fly.

One of the first things I learned. The only ones who should kill… are those who are prepared to be killed, he thought. But… today , that won't be needed.

Lance fired another beam from his paw, but it seemed to miss his opponent. Instead, the attack zipped along and struck the wall behind the Mightyena. The feral didn't notice the damage until its ears perked up at the sound of rocks breaking. The Mightyena managed to dodge a few of the rocks, but more and more fell, closing in on the pack leader.

"Ah. Exactly as planned," Lance chuckled. The Riolu raised his paw and moved it from the position of one falling rock to the other, firing more beams in quick succession.

Lance's Force Palms collided with the rocks in midair, and thanks to the sheer number he was launching in rapid succession, each one got weaker, enough that Lance was able to use his Force Palms to redirect the rocks instead of destroying them. The net effect was to make a spread of stony projectiles that came cascading down on the Mightyena, an overwhelming volley sending the feral tottering back before it pitched over and fainted.

While the dust settled, Brian approached his brother, panting from exhaustion.

As harrowing as their battle had been, the two had won. One problem solved, another left behind for them to clean up. Even with the Mightyena felled, they still had the issue of bringing Zebstrika back safely. And judging from the wounds the ferals had inflicted, they didn't have much time to act.

Fortunately, Lance already came up with a solution for that particular problem even before they entered the dungeon, having remembered his guild training. He opened his backpack, taking three Oran Berries. He ate the first one, then threw another to his brother.

"We're done here." Lance said. With the last berry in paw, the Riolu approached the Zebstrika, forcing the last berry down his throat.

It didn't take long for the Oran to do its job, sealing up the more severe wounds on Marty's body. The Zebstrika's body shuddered briefly as he slowly opened his eyes, and came face to face with the two strangers hovering over him.

"W-Where am I?!" Marty cried. The Zebstrika reflexively tried to stand up to run away, only for his body to fail him as a sharp pain ran through his legs. The Electric-type thrashed as he looked up at the siblings and recoiled. "...W-Who are you?! P-Please don't eat me!"

"Calm down! We're not ferals! We're an exploration team. Team Liberators from the Hero Guild," Lance explained. "Your friend Gama hired us to rescue you. My name is Lance and this is my brother, Brian."

Lance pointed to his Zorua companion, who gave a small wave with his front paw.

"That's right, and you're really lucky we found you when you did," Brian insisted. "If we'd come just a few minutes later..."

Brian trailed off for a moment and couldn't help visibly shudder at the thought. Marty blinked, taking the time to assess his situation, flinching at the sight of the unconscious Mightyena. Brian noticed the puller's unease, and the Zorua quickly shook his head to reassure him.

" I don't think we should spend too much time here, the clock's ticking! So, to keep things short: we knocked out the Mightyenas, saved you, and gave you an Oran Berry for your wounds," Brian insisted, nodding. "There's more to the story, but we should be going now. Those Mightyena might wake up soon and we still have to get you out of here."

Marty's tail swished and he grunted, forcing himself to stand up. Panting, he slowly nodded to them.

"I-I can't thank you two enough… if you need anything, just—"

Lance crossed his arms and sighed. "What we need is to get as far away from this place as possible. Otherwise the dungeon will take us."

The two brothers hurriedly guided their client back through the forest. The whole time, they remained alert and paid keen attention to their surroundings. Although the Mightyena pack was defeated, they could still find more enemies in the forest. And with a client now with them, travelling through a place like Dusk Woods would surely be even more dangerous...

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

Except. Those fears never came to pass. Fortunately, the trip back was quiet (save for the usual quip or two from Brian, much to Lance's annoyance) and they brought the zebra back safely to the carriage.

By now, the Croagunk was trying to rest next to the carriage, but the sweat dripping from him told them otherwise. He heard the footsteps coming from the forest and looked over at Team Liberators as they approached, eyes widening.

"Marty! You're all right!"

The frog chirped and gave his friend a nice, big smile, not able to hold back the joy of seeing him again.

"Thankfully we got to him before we ran out of time." Brian sighed in relief. "How long did we take?"

Lance picked a pocket watch in his backpack. "...About an hour and a half. Could have done better."

Gama took a deep breath to calm down, rubbing the poison off him so as to not accidentally poison Marty, and soon ran towards his friend, hugging him. Marty gave Gama a light smile.

"I'm fine Gama, really... thanks to those two."

Marty pointed with a forehoof at Team Liberators' team of two. Lance pawed at his shoulder absentmindedly, while Brian blushed and squirmed bashfully at the Zebstrika's thanks.

"Ah, y-you don't need to make such a big deal out of it!" Brian insisted. "It was our pleasure to help you!"

"Thanks are to be expected, considering our job, Brian. Explorers have to help others," Lance chimed in, before turning his attention over to the Zebstrika and Croagunk.

"Just try to be more careful from now on," the Riolu insisted."We patched him up the best we could with an Oran Berry, but you should take it easy tonight and get checked out the next time you come across a medic. As for us, we should get going right now."

Brian's ears twitched and he blinked, tilting his head.

"W-Wha? So soon, Lance?! We should—"

The Riolu began to walk, pulling his protesting sibling by his tail only to get cut off by Gama grabbing his arm. Lance reflexively backed away and growled, except… the Croagunk didn't show any signs of untoward intentions. Why was he still beaming at him with a grateful smile?

"Hey, kids! Don't head off so soon, you deserve a reward for the help you've given us tonight!" Gamma insisted. "Marty and I happen to be in the transportation business. Where are you going? If you've come all the way from the Hero Guild on foot , you could stand to have some help getting to your destination."

Lance looked at his brother, already expecting him to accept it in a heartbeat. He had to admit, the idea was tempting, and they would get there faster, the only disadvantage being that there'd be more chitchat. What to do, what to do?

"We're on a journey to Bright Dawn! Why?" Brian asked. The Zorua's eyes shined in anticipation, even though Gama hadn't said anything about the nature of the reward, he already had a suspicion of what it'd be. Marty, meanwhile, shook his head.

"Er… I think I can speak for Gama and say that we would be happy to take you under different circumstances... but Bright Dawn is a bit far off our scheduled route," Marty said.

Brian's ears drooped. The Zebstrika thought for a moment and traded a glance with his Croagunk partner, before tapping his hooves on the ground.

"Though our route and the one to Bright Dawn should still overlap up to the next village on this route," he offered. "Why don't you let us take you there before we part ways? If nothing else, it'd save you two the effort that you'd otherwise have to spend walking over there."

Brian turned to his brother with pleading eyes. The Riolu tapped his chin in thought. They were being offered the trip, and if anything they could protect them in case the Mightyena returned. Having decided, Lance smiled.

"Alright, dork. You win, we're taking the offer, thank you very much." Lance said, nodding back to Gamma.

The Zorua wagged his tail repeatedly and jumped, spinning in the air as he turned into a Rapidash and trotted in place with a satisfied nod and letting out a happy neigh. " Yay! Thanks, Lance! I knew you had it in you!"

"Then it's settled! Though… we'll have to go tomorrow," Gama insisted. "It's late, and Marty can't pull any wagons with his wounds this fresh. So let's set up a small camp, okay?"

Their best bet was to go into the forest again and gather a few chunks of wood for the fire, which Lance opted to do himself. Meanwhile, Gama went inside the carriage, bringing back a first-aid kit to help tend Marty's wound. The two sighed, thankful that fate had chanced to bring Team Liberators their way.

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

At midnight, Lance was already sound asleep, leaning against a wooden log, with Brian by his side. As his brother slept, the fox chewed on a roasted oran berry, looking up at the night sky in silence. Marty was also asleep, lying a bit further away, next to Gama. Brian didn't keep his attention on the two for long and turned his attention back to munching on his meal. After a mission like theirs, he'd earned the right to just ignore the world and eat in peace.

Except, the world wasn't having it that night. The Zorua's ears flickered, as even while distracted, he still heard Gama approach and sit next to him with a smile on his face.

"I'd hoped to also be able to thank your brother, but by the looks of it, he's already asleep."

Brian sighed, he wished Lance would open up and talk to future clients like he did. I understand his reasoning. But still… if only he wasn't so distant from everyone.

"You got that right. Lance doesn't really talk all that much to others. Unless he absolutely has to," the Zorua sighed. "Worst part? I'm not even sure if he talks to me because he cares about me, or if he only because we're on the same team.

Brian lowered his head and stared at the ground, expecting Gama to try and brush the matter aside. Much to his surprise, the Croagunk nodded in agreement, looking up at him in much the same fashion.

"Aren't you worried about what that'll do for your relations with your clients?" the Croagunk asked. "I can't say I've heard of too many successful teams that constantly keep everyone at arm's length…"

He eyed Lance for a moment, before turning back to Brian.

"Sorry if I'm intruding... but can you tell me why he is like this?" he asked. "Did he have some sort of bad experience with a past client? Or is this just always how he's been?"

Brian looked away, as old, unwanted memories forced their way to the surface. His mind flashed to him inside his house, alone, and frantically crying, with Lance nowhere to be seen. He lingered a moment, before shaking the thoughts from his mind.

"I don't like to talk much about it, but it wasn't because of a client," he said. "He's been like this after a bad experience we had when we were both very young. I… would prefer it if we didn't go into more detail than that."

Brian looked away and flattened his ears with a low sigh. Gama tapped the fox's head softly, earning a purr from him.

"Well, that's okay, just be sure to pass my thanks onto your brother, alright?" Gama insisted. "It's good for you two to rest, I can tell that the fight you had was intense!"

Brian agreed, yawning and rubbing his eyes. Gama chuckled a little and moved away from Brian, closing his eyes and trying to sleep. The fox whimpered faintly, closing his eyes as well.

Falling asleep was hard. The shadows of their past had a way of seeing to that. The Zorua worried for a moment over whether they might make the whole journey he and Lance set out similarly difficult, or maybe entirely impossible.

…But those worries could wait for another time. And whatever they portended for their journey, at least right then, right there, they were still able to help someone who needed them.

Brian yawned again, scratching his ears. As long as he could protect Lance, things would surely go well. Eventually, his tiredness won out over his racing thoughts, and he too drifted off to sleep.