HOME | DD

Description
body div#devskin0 hr { }

Map used: Basalt Halls No.140

-Sakura's POV
"I'm sure you're more than aware that we really need to get the paperwork in this time," I sighed to Anna, depleted.
"Don't forget, you're usually the one who handles that," Anna replied "and not very well either."
"Point taken," I cringed. "And why did the briefings have to be so blooming LONG!? This is so confusing."
"I think basically we have to fix the dungeon floor so it's safe for the Hunters and Researchers to pass through," Anna said. "You filled our Treasure Bag?"
"As much as I could," I told her. "But, don't dungeon floors change every time someone new goes in? So this will all be useless."
"It says here," Anna snatched the note off me "that "Changes we make to the floors will persist even if the rooms shift about"."
"Good," I answered. "So we're basically collecting as many resources as we can and busting any traps."
"Yup!" Anna chirruped.
"Then let's go!"
"I take it you want the Basalt Halls," Sanya said as we rushed to her stall.
"Yup!" Anna did a little jump. "Magnagate please!"
"Here you go," As usual, it didn't take long for the Gothitelle to open up a circling hole in space and time. "Any time before Yulemas, please."
"See you in Geoda!" we called back as we stepped inside.
The Magnagate took us to some sort of small mountain made from thick black columns of basalt. Behind us was fluffy opaque mist, underneath us was a grey-white stone floor with little patches of grass here and there. In front of us and spreading to the sides was said mountain with an expensive-looking golden door attached straight ahead.
"Looks like this is the place," I said to the door. "You ready, Anna?"
"WAAH!", said a voice behind me. "This mist bounces you off or something!"
Anna seemed to be trying to jump into the mist, and got deflected onto the floor every time.
"Be careful with that Anna!" I called. "We don't know what would happen! Come on."
"Wooooaaahhh, so that's the door?" Anna came over. "It's got a scary face, but it looks really shiny."
After asking Anna if she was ready, we pushed the door open together.

I think Anna was the 1st one in by a couple of miles-in the split-second of darkness the door gave us Anna was like "YEEEEEEEAAAAAHHHHH-OW!!!"
"ANNA!" I didn't need to speed over very far-she was lying straight in front of me looking more like a Sandslash than an Igglybuff due to the sharp brown jagged rocks sticking into her. "Anna, you alright?!"
"What sorta stupid question is that?" Anna wobbled. "I think I just died."
"No you haven't." I started pulling the rocks out of her as she squealed in reaction. "What WAS that?"
"I don't know." Anna was starting to sniffle. "First minute I was running straight through the door, the next I was spiked with pain!"
"There's a lesson to be learned there," I told her. "Another Sakura's Dungeon Exploring Tip: Always be aware of your surroundings. Don't just rush into things and consider the things you see around you before making a move."
Anna sighed as I picked her off the source of the damage-a prickly Stealth Rock Trap. The dark and explosive rock growth was quite obvious to the calm naked eye, with branches of diamond-sharp rock reaching out to impale anyone unlucky enough to get caught.
"It hurts, Sakura..." Anna was starting to cry now. She was leaking blood in several places.
"Have an Oran Berry cookie. That should sort you out." I rummaged through our Treasure Bag for the blue-stained cookie we'd baked yesterday. Anna scoffed it without a second thought.
Meanwhile I examined the offending rocks. "You'll probably get jabbed if you do a Physical move on this thing. Mind if I Dragon Rage it?"
"Sure," Anna said as she popped the last bite of her cookie in her mouth. The only Special move between us was my Dragon Rage, and rage it certainly got for hurting Anna like that. The flower imposter exploded on impact.
Now I used a Twister to gather up all the offending pieces and swirl them into a little pile in the corner. Anna clapped.
"1 down... I don't know how many to go. What should we do with this?" I asked Anna for suggestions.
"I think rock dust can be mixed with mud and other stuff to make bricks," was her answer. "Have you got a box to put it in?"
"Yeah." Another Twister placed the debris into one of the spare boxes in our Treasure Bag. Our load was increased further by Spoolstones Anna found lying next to the trap.
Now it was a question of which path to take. And we couldn't even flip a coin-there were three of them. There were two pace-long gaps, one in each wall either side of us and facing the door we'd come through was a less glamorous door made of rickety cracked wood.
"Which one would you suggest?" I had to turn to Anna for advice again.
"Pick a number between 1, 2 and 3," she told me.
"Okay...2." I replied spontaneously.
"Then we're going this way." Anna took me to the gap on our left.

Whether or not we felt a bit stuffy as we got closer, as soon as we entered the large room... it felt like a large oven. Anna said she felt like she was drowning in her own sweat. The sweat she actually had was making her shine combined with the burning torches on the walls, and I didn't feel any better.
It couldn't be due to the torches, could it? They're just a light source...
Wait, why would you need a light source in a place like this?! This is uncharted territory.
"Let's get this over with," Anna panted. "There are Spoolstones in the corner and we can flip a coin to decide where to go next, since there are only two doors."
The doors were wall gaps again, one far down to the right, one attached to the wall ahead. Anna hastily stepped forward, then
"AIIIEEE!"
For a small flash of time there was a small blaze in front of me surrounding an Igglybuff shape.
"An Ember..." Anna collapsed to the floor. "Just my luck."
"An Ember Trap," I rolled her off and passed her an Oran Berry. Then I smashed the hidden tile with a Dragon Rage and wrenched up the pieces into the Treasure Bag. They'd probably make a decent price with scrap metal dealers. "Are you okay?"
"Who goes there?"
Somehow, a cross-looking Barboach with thick brown rings over his whiskers had appeared behind us. We jumped up to face him at once.
"Who are you?" asked a recovered Anna.
"A loyal servant of King Wussey Whiskey Montgeomery Mudsuckery Sedimus Munge IV (his grace)," he said loftily. "And you are intruders."
"I'm sorry, could you just repeat that?" Anna, like me, couldn't catch the king's name.
"It doesn't matter," stated the Barboach. "Are you, by any chance-yes you are, you have Team Badges... Our glorious king recently had to negotiate with some impertinent Andalusst Pokémon who want to build a passage through here. Well, not negotiate there's no way he'd go back on the obvious decision. The answer is no. Of course not. This is His Grace's territory and any exploring upstart caught by our Braviary-eyes will be punished. Severely."
This did not seem to faze Anna. "King or not, right now, there's two of us... and one of you."
"Well the heat round here seems to be giving you an unfair advantage," noticed the Barboach. "And who said I'd be fighting alone? I'm just a servant." He paused for a minute. "BRODUS! WE HAVE INTRUDERS!!"
This yell called a stockier Barboach over to us. He had just one ring on just one whisker and was brandishing a massive red ball on a stick like it was a twig.
"What is it, Laslo?" he asked in a deep voice.
"These two. Sort them out."
And just like that, we'd managed to land ourselves into a fight with two displeased Barboach. These guys were easy compared to foes I'd had to face in the past, but I could see that Anna was having trouble. Just like fights we'd been in earlier, I stuck round a squealing Anna as I shielded her from the toughness of the two Barboach. They were quite easy to pick off once I'd given them a good Thunder Wave.
A kicking up of dust later, Anna was on the floor, I was standing above the fainted Barboach, and we were both panting.
"Let's hope that was the last of them," I sighed as I gave Anna another Oran Berry cookie and munched a simple Oran Berry. "You can get the Spoolstones. How about... Tails for the front, Heads to the right?"
"It would make more sense for Heads to be the front," Anna called as she bounced over to the Spoolstones. "Wow, this is so cool!"
"Okay, Heads it is." I flipped the little bronze coin I'd just rummaged out the Treasure Bag. "It's Heads!"
"Okay then!" Anna then bounced as fast as she could towards the entrance to try and escape the heat. I had to catch up.

"OWWWW!!!"
Note to self-Lead the way when it comes to exploring these places. It was Poison Stings this time. Anna had been the first to enter the small room and was suffering the consequences on the floor looking a bit peaky.
Luckily I'd packed two Pecha Berries-but we'd only have one after this.
"Do you want to smash the trap this time?" I asked Anna after she'd finished eating.
"Yeah," Anna managed to sort the offending tile out with one swift Pound. We ended up packing those remains as well. "What on EARTH is that noise?!"
"What noise?..." I started.
"Can't you hear it? That Nuh-duh-duh noise."
"Yeah, you're right..."
Anna WAS right. Ever so faintly, we could hear this small echoing chant, like something you might hear at some kind of ritual. We couldn't work out the words, but it was creepy nonetheless.
"I-is that the only trap round here?" Anna shivered. "This is weirding me out."
I had to check the floor carefully for a little bit, but "Yeah. Let's go. We need to check out the Tails option."

We had to leg it straight out the chanting room, right through the very hot one and bounced off something hard but a bit fleshy...
"A Fleshcap!" Anna pointed across the room. "Sakura, look!"
"I think that's the least of our troubles," I said as I picked myself up.
"She's right," said another deep voice. "Goodbye, intruders."
"Oh great, a Barboach." Anna whined.
She was right. Like that Brodus guy we'd seen earlier, he carried a red ball-on-stick club and was built strongly.
"Welcome to my amphitheatre." The Barboach pushed us down some slope on the floor. "It's not much, but it will certainly do. I have been stationed in this little room to dispatch intruders like you for the happiness and glory of His Grace. Farewell."
My Thunder Wave missed.
The floor of this room, it turned out, was not flat but dipped in the middle to form a sort of bowl shape. That was all.
"You forget," Anna started as he dodged a Pound. "Idiot. There's two of us, and..."
"One of you," we said together. He went down with an "Aaaargh!" induced by my Dragon Rage and Anna's Tackle. She then gave him a Pound to finish him off.
Anna took the Fleshcap as I worked out that there were no traps in this room and put it in our last Resource Box. Then, since the exit was not here, we had to go back to the room we'd first been in, since there were no entrances anywhere else either.

A coin flip chose our next room-the gap to our right. It looked like all the other rooms we'd been in, with no entrances anywhere else, except that the floor was covered in footprints-except for one clear dusty square.
I walked over to that square and Dragon Raged it.
"Detective work, Anna," I explained. "The Barboach would know where this trap was and therefore steer clear of it, and if the trap had been activated by any intruders, it would've been covered up afterwards. Plus it looked suspicious."
Anna gave an awestruck "Wooow" as we opened the wooden door in our starting room without any trouble. We were on a roll!

There were a few rather nourished plants on the room's dirty floor-in fact there were plants on every pace of space. Plants probably wouldn't grow with Traps underneath. What was odd, however, was the Fleshcap lying around. Of course we couldn't take it since we'd filled all three of our Resource Boxes.
And trap-wise, I'd spoken too soon. There was a slightly higher mound of dirt towards one of two entrances with no plants at all. Not even a leaf.
I carefully brushed the dirt into a pile and found a dark metal square underneath with purple triangles painted on.
"Anna, will you do the honours?"
"Yeah!" She broke the trap with one swift Pound-and got Poison Stung in the process. Oh poo.
Sure enough, Anna began to look a little purple and ill. She'd been poisoned!
I had to put the Treasure Bag down to remove the last Pecha Berry-as soon as it touched the floor, a light Barboach snatched it up and ran off with it.
"OY!!!" Luckily the Barboach hadn't eaten it, but... Ewww. It's in his mouth.
"GIVE THAT BACK!" I called to him as I chased him into a rockier room. The walls seemed to be covered in some kind of strange scratchings... on closer examination they just seemed to be nothing but strange scratchings.
And then there was a loud "Gulp" from behind me.
"YOU SWALLOWED IT, DIDN'T YOU!" I whipped round to face the Pecha Berry thief.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!" He opened his mouth to show me. "Yup," grinned the Barboach. "That was your last one, wasn't it?"
"How did you know?" I edged angrily towards him and curled my tail round his neck, a Twister at the ready.
"Simple, you've gone to so much trouble to get this one. The dungeon exit was next door so you could've easily fished another Pecha Berry out of that bag of yours. No matter. Intruders must faint. ARILUS!!" He called down the room. "There's a PMT Dratini and a pipsqueak of a poisoned Igglybuff who've managed to get past Laslo and Brodus and Nidor. Help me out please! It's Embu talking!"
"They'll come to me," said a forced deep voice, as Embu replied with "You t**t, I'm in trouble here!" I take it Nidor was the Barboach in the amphitheatre.
"You're right," I said as I Twistered him onto the floor. "The PMT Dratini had you in a headlock."
I Dragon Raged him as he screamed, then ran back into the garden room. "ANNA! I'm sorry, I couldn't get the berry back." I sighed apologetically.
"It's okay," Anna said weakly. "The room ahead's the last one." She handed me a Max Elixir for my PP. "You're strong enough to do this by yourself."
"There's no way in heck I'm leaving without you," I stated.
"I know," Anna replied. "There's just one Barboach left and then we can leave this place. Good luck Sakura."
"Stay back then." I had to walk into the room by myself, where the floor was covered in shards and splinters of wood. "Wish me luck Anna!"
"I already did."
"How sentimental." It was the faked deep voice again, belonging to a Barboach with two beads on its right whisker, one long and one short, and a small silver spoon in its mouth and clutching a rope in its tail, which he set down on the ground. "Ropey-ropey, higgly-jigglybuff, obey my command and tie up that Igglybuff!"
The rope sat on the floor doing nothing.
"I said-Oh screw it." The Barboach began walking towards Anna, who ran to me for protection. The Barboach-Arilus, I remember, turned to me.
"I am Arilus, a psychic-in-training!" he boasted. "My marvellous deeds so far only include the ability to bend a spoon in my mouth, but trust me, there will be many more to come! Not that you'll survive to see them, intruders-"
I gave him a Twister to the face.
"Idiot." It was my turn to talk, and I couldn't help but laugh. "You can't learn to become psychic like that unless you manage to learn a Psychic-type move! Otherwise you have to be born or evolve into a Psychic-type, and if I'm not mistaken, you, even if you evolve into a Whiscash, will always be a Water and Ground-type! Now leave Anna and me alone. We are just passing through here on a mission, we didn't realize you'd be so territorial and so we won't come here again, I'm sure of it. Therefore, if you let us go through this gate, we will leave you guys alone."
"Fat chance, intruders." Arilus advanced towards the both of us. "His Grace has given us all orders to defeat any exploring intruders and bring them to him personally. So submit!"
His Water Gun hit Anna as well as me. She squealed as it drenched her.
"YOU SON OF A-" In retaliation, I drenched him with a Dragon Rage. "No, it is you who will lose. Trust me."
"Well I predict that you shall lose this battle, intruding Dratini witch!"
And thus me and Arilus locked ourselves in a fight to the faint. In between blows, I had to whip my head round to check on Anna, whose poisoned condition had now sapped her to low health. Then I decided.
"Anna!" I called to my teammate after giving Arilus another Twister. "Take the Treasure Bag and go on ahead without me!"
"WHAT?!!!" Anna's eyes inflated. "I'm not leaving you!"
"Don't worry about me!" I called in between catching my breath. "I thought I told you a while back that I can take care of myself!"
"But Sakura-" Anna was starting to cry.
"GO! NOW!" I called. "I'll catch you up very soon! You go and get yourself healed up you'll faint if you stay here soon!"
"Sakura, please... I'll survive-"
"GO!" I snapped.
It looked to me like Anna had run off through the exit door with our Treasure Bag before she could change her mind, her eyes overflowing with tears and Arilus shouting "CURSES!" in the background.
Well she'll be fine, I'm sure. Right now I've got to take care of him...

-Anna's POV
I ran screaming and wailing out of the exit door and collided into something hot and rocky.
"Well hello there what's the matter?" asked a deep gruff voice.
"It's... It's... WAAAA-HA-HAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" It's no use.
"Hey sweetheart, what's the matter?" soothes a blurry blue vision. "It's okay we're here to help you."
"It's Sakura," I howled. "She's, she's...AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!" Seems like I can't get a word in edgeways.
"Well she's poisoned," said the gruff voice. "She needs a Pecha Berry right now."
"Got one!" said the female blue character, who pulled it out of a Treasure Bag she was carrying. "Here, eat this."
I scoffed the berry in two quick chomps.
"Thank you so much," I croaked. "For helping me. Thank you."
"You're welcome," said the gruff voice. "And right now... you're an Explorer, aren't you? Therefore you need to go to the camp in Geoda and get some rest."
"No!" I managed to snap impertinently. "I need to stay here and wait for Sakura!"
"We'll wait for her and tell her where you are." On closer, clearer examination, the female voice belonged to a Wartortle wearing blue fingerless gloves and the gruff voice was owned by an elderly Torkoal. "But I'm curious, who is Sakura?"
"She's my partner," I explained sniffley. "I'm Anna, and together we're Team Dragonheart. She's the team leader."
"How did you get separated?", asked the Torkoal.
So I told the Torkoal how we'd gotten to the last room in the dungeon and therefore the exit, but there was a slightly psychic Barboach standing in our way and Sakura had insisted that I go on ahead without her despite how much I'd protested. She's strong and can take care of herself.
"Relax," the Wartortle soothed. "This Sakura Dratini of yours seems like a kind creature. She'll be back soon, I'm sure."
Right on cue, Sakura smashed out of the exit door and caught back her heavy breath on the floor and into my tearful arms as I screamed "SAKURA! I was so worried about you!".
"Awww, I'm sorry Anna," said the taken-by-surprise Dratini. Then she turned to the Torkoal and the Wartortle. "You guys an exploration team?" she asked. "Because we need to talk to our superiors about some complications. Seems like this dungeon is already occupied..."

-END-

-Cameo Victimz-
See if you can spot where you are!
*Team Steam Shell by
Victimz for this mission were chosen at random from those who commented on my request. Those who commented but didn't get used will be used in further missions. Thank you to everyone who commented! Requests are now closed.

Description
body div#devskin0 hr { }

Map used: Basalt Halls No.140

-Sakura's POV
"I'm sure you're more than aware that we really need to get the paperwork in this time," I sighed to Anna, depleted.
"Don't forget, you're usually the one who handles that," Anna replied "and not very well either."
"Point taken," I cringed. "And why did the briefings have to be so blooming LONG!? This is so confusing."
"I think basically we have to fix the dungeon floor so it's safe for the Hunters and Researchers to pass through," Anna said. "You filled our Treasure Bag?"
"As much as I could," I told her. "But, don't dungeon floors change every time someone new goes in? So this will all be useless."
"It says here," Anna snatched the note off me "that "Changes we make to the floors will persist even if the rooms shift about"."
"Good," I answered. "So we're basically collecting as many resources as we can and busting any traps."
"Yup!" Anna chirruped.
"Then let's go!"
"I take it you want the Basalt Halls," Sanya said as we rushed to her stall.
"Yup!" Anna did a little jump. "Magnagate please!"
"Here you go," As usual, it didn't take long for the Gothitelle to open up a circling hole in space and time. "Any time before Yulemas, please."
"See you in Geoda!" we called back as we stepped inside.
The Magnagate took us to some sort of small mountain made from thick black columns of basalt. Behind us was fluffy opaque mist, underneath us was a grey-white stone floor with little patches of grass here and there. In front of us and spreading to the sides was said mountain with an expensive-looking golden door attached straight ahead.
"Looks like this is the place," I said to the door. "You ready, Anna?"
"WAAH!", said a voice behind me. "This mist bounces you off or something!"
Anna seemed to be trying to jump into the mist, and got deflected onto the floor every time.
"Be careful with that Anna!" I called. "We don't know what would happen! Come on."
"Wooooaaahhh, so that's the door?" Anna came over. "It's got a scary face, but it looks really shiny."
After asking Anna if she was ready, we pushed the door open together.

I think Anna was the 1st one in by a couple of miles-in the split-second of darkness the door gave us Anna was like "YEEEEEEEAAAAAHHHHH-OW!!!"
"ANNA!" I didn't need to speed over very far-she was lying straight in front of me looking more like a Sandslash than an Igglybuff due to the sharp brown jagged rocks sticking into her. "Anna, you alright?!"
"What sorta stupid question is that?" Anna wobbled. "I think I just died."
"No you haven't." I started pulling the rocks out of her as she squealed in reaction. "What WAS that?"
"I don't know." Anna was starting to sniffle. "First minute I was running straight through the door, the next I was spiked with pain!"
"There's a lesson to be learned there," I told her. "Another Sakura's Dungeon Exploring Tip: Always be aware of your surroundings. Don't just rush into things and consider the things you see around you before making a move."
Anna sighed as I picked her off the source of the damage-a prickly Stealth Rock Trap. The dark and explosive rock growth was quite obvious to the calm naked eye, with branches of diamond-sharp rock reaching out to impale anyone unlucky enough to get caught.
"It hurts, Sakura..." Anna was starting to cry now. She was leaking blood in several places.
"Have an Oran Berry cookie. That should sort you out." I rummaged through our Treasure Bag for the blue-stained cookie we'd baked yesterday. Anna scoffed it without a second thought.
Meanwhile I examined the offending rocks. "You'll probably get jabbed if you do a Physical move on this thing. Mind if I Dragon Rage it?"
"Sure," Anna said as she popped the last bite of her cookie in her mouth. The only Special move between us was my Dragon Rage, and rage it certainly got for hurting Anna like that. The flower imposter exploded on impact.
Now I used a Twister to gather up all the offending pieces and swirl them into a little pile in the corner. Anna clapped.
"1 down... I don't know how many to go. What should we do with this?" I asked Anna for suggestions.
"I think rock dust can be mixed with mud and other stuff to make bricks," was her answer. "Have you got a box to put it in?"
"Yeah." Another Twister placed the debris into one of the spare boxes in our Treasure Bag. Our load was increased further by Spoolstones Anna found lying next to the trap.
Now it was a question of which path to take. And we couldn't even flip a coin-there were three of them. There were two pace-long gaps, one in each wall either side of us and facing the door we'd come through was a less glamorous door made of rickety cracked wood.
"Which one would you suggest?" I had to turn to Anna for advice again.
"Pick a number between 1, 2 and 3," she told me.
"Okay...2." I replied spontaneously.
"Then we're going this way." Anna took me to the gap on our left.

Whether or not we felt a bit stuffy as we got closer, as soon as we entered the large room... it felt like a large oven. Anna said she felt like she was drowning in her own sweat. The sweat she actually had was making her shine combined with the burning torches on the walls, and I didn't feel any better.
It couldn't be due to the torches, could it? They're just a light source...
Wait, why would you need a light source in a place like this?! This is uncharted territory.
"Let's get this over with," Anna panted. "There are Spoolstones in the corner and we can flip a coin to decide where to go next, since there are only two doors."
The doors were wall gaps again, one far down to the right, one attached to the wall ahead. Anna hastily stepped forward, then
"AIIIEEE!"
For a small flash of time there was a small blaze in front of me surrounding an Igglybuff shape.
"An Ember..." Anna collapsed to the floor. "Just my luck."
"An Ember Trap," I rolled her off and passed her an Oran Berry. Then I smashed the hidden tile with a Dragon Rage and wrenched up the pieces into the Treasure Bag. They'd probably make a decent price with scrap metal dealers. "Are you okay?"
"Who goes there?"
Somehow, a cross-looking Barboach with thick brown rings over his whiskers had appeared behind us. We jumped up to face him at once.
"Who are you?" asked a recovered Anna.
"A loyal servant of King Wussey Whiskey Montgeomery Mudsuckery Sedimus Munge IV (his grace)," he said loftily. "And you are intruders."
"I'm sorry, could you just repeat that?" Anna, like me, couldn't catch the king's name.
"It doesn't matter," stated the Barboach. "Are you, by any chance-yes you are, you have Team Badges... Our glorious king recently had to negotiate with some impertinent Andalusst Pokémon who want to build a passage through here. Well, not negotiate there's no way he'd go back on the obvious decision. The answer is no. Of course not. This is His Grace's territory and any exploring upstart caught by our Braviary-eyes will be punished. Severely."
This did not seem to faze Anna. "King or not, right now, there's two of us... and one of you."
"Well the heat round here seems to be giving you an unfair advantage," noticed the Barboach. "And who said I'd be fighting alone? I'm just a servant." He paused for a minute. "BRODUS! WE HAVE INTRUDERS!!"
This yell called a stockier Barboach over to us. He had just one ring on just one whisker and was brandishing a massive red ball on a stick like it was a twig.
"What is it, Laslo?" he asked in a deep voice.
"These two. Sort them out."
And just like that, we'd managed to land ourselves into a fight with two displeased Barboach. These guys were easy compared to foes I'd had to face in the past, but I could see that Anna was having trouble. Just like fights we'd been in earlier, I stuck round a squealing Anna as I shielded her from the toughness of the two Barboach. They were quite easy to pick off once I'd given them a good Thunder Wave.
A kicking up of dust later, Anna was on the floor, I was standing above the fainted Barboach, and we were both panting.
"Let's hope that was the last of them," I sighed as I gave Anna another Oran Berry cookie and munched a simple Oran Berry. "You can get the Spoolstones. How about... Tails for the front, Heads to the right?"
"It would make more sense for Heads to be the front," Anna called as she bounced over to the Spoolstones. "Wow, this is so cool!"
"Okay, Heads it is." I flipped the little bronze coin I'd just rummaged out the Treasure Bag. "It's Heads!"
"Okay then!" Anna then bounced as fast as she could towards the entrance to try and escape the heat. I had to catch up.

"OWWWW!!!"
Note to self-Lead the way when it comes to exploring these places. It was Poison Stings this time. Anna had been the first to enter the small room and was suffering the consequences on the floor looking a bit peaky.
Luckily I'd packed two Pecha Berries-but we'd only have one after this.
"Do you want to smash the trap this time?" I asked Anna after she'd finished eating.
"Yeah," Anna managed to sort the offending tile out with one swift Pound. We ended up packing those remains as well. "What on EARTH is that noise?!"
"What noise?..." I started.
"Can't you hear it? That Nuh-duh-duh noise."
"Yeah, you're right..."
Anna WAS right. Ever so faintly, we could hear this small echoing chant, like something you might hear at some kind of ritual. We couldn't work out the words, but it was creepy nonetheless.
"I-is that the only trap round here?" Anna shivered. "This is weirding me out."
I had to check the floor carefully for a little bit, but "Yeah. Let's go. We need to check out the Tails option."

We had to leg it straight out the chanting room, right through the very hot one and bounced off something hard but a bit fleshy...
"A Fleshcap!" Anna pointed across the room. "Sakura, look!"
"I think that's the least of our troubles," I said as I picked myself up.
"She's right," said another deep voice. "Goodbye, intruders."
"Oh great, a Barboach." Anna whined.
She was right. Like that Brodus guy we'd seen earlier, he carried a red ball-on-stick club and was built strongly.
"Welcome to my amphitheatre." The Barboach pushed us down some slope on the floor. "It's not much, but it will certainly do. I have been stationed in this little room to dispatch intruders like you for the happiness and glory of His Grace. Farewell."
My Thunder Wave missed.
The floor of this room, it turned out, was not flat but dipped in the middle to form a sort of bowl shape. That was all.
"You forget," Anna started as he dodged a Pound. "Idiot. There's two of us, and..."
"One of you," we said together. He went down with an "Aaaargh!" induced by my Dragon Rage and Anna's Tackle. She then gave him a Pound to finish him off.
Anna took the Fleshcap as I worked out that there were no traps in this room and put it in our last Resource Box. Then, since the exit was not here, we had to go back to the room we'd first been in, since there were no entrances anywhere else either.

A coin flip chose our next room-the gap to our right. It looked like all the other rooms we'd been in, with no entrances anywhere else, except that the floor was covered in footprints-except for one clear dusty square.
I walked over to that square and Dragon Raged it.
"Detective work, Anna," I explained. "The Barboach would know where this trap was and therefore steer clear of it, and if the trap had been activated by any intruders, it would've been covered up afterwards. Plus it looked suspicious."
Anna gave an awestruck "Wooow" as we opened the wooden door in our starting room without any trouble. We were on a roll!

There were a few rather nourished plants on the room's dirty floor-in fact there were plants on every pace of space. Plants probably wouldn't grow with Traps underneath. What was odd, however, was the Fleshcap lying around. Of course we couldn't take it since we'd filled all three of our Resource Boxes.
And trap-wise, I'd spoken too soon. There was a slightly higher mound of dirt towards one of two entrances with no plants at all. Not even a leaf.
I carefully brushed the dirt into a pile and found a dark metal square underneath with purple triangles painted on.
"Anna, will you do the honours?"
"Yeah!" She broke the trap with one swift Pound-and got Poison Stung in the process. Oh poo.
Sure enough, Anna began to look a little purple and ill. She'd been poisoned!
I had to put the Treasure Bag down to remove the last Pecha Berry-as soon as it touched the floor, a light Barboach snatched it up and ran off with it.
"OY!!!" Luckily the Barboach hadn't eaten it, but... Ewww. It's in his mouth.
"GIVE THAT BACK!" I called to him as I chased him into a rockier room. The walls seemed to be covered in some kind of strange scratchings... on closer examination they just seemed to be nothing but strange scratchings.
And then there was a loud "Gulp" from behind me.
"YOU SWALLOWED IT, DIDN'T YOU!" I whipped round to face the Pecha Berry thief.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!" He opened his mouth to show me. "Yup," grinned the Barboach. "That was your last one, wasn't it?"
"How did you know?" I edged angrily towards him and curled my tail round his neck, a Twister at the ready.
"Simple, you've gone to so much trouble to get this one. The dungeon exit was next door so you could've easily fished another Pecha Berry out of that bag of yours. No matter. Intruders must faint. ARILUS!!" He called down the room. "There's a PMT Dratini and a pipsqueak of a poisoned Igglybuff who've managed to get past Laslo and Brodus and Nidor. Help me out please! It's Embu talking!"
"They'll come to me," said a forced deep voice, as Embu replied with "You t**t, I'm in trouble here!" I take it Nidor was the Barboach in the amphitheatre.
"You're right," I said as I Twistered him onto the floor. "The PMT Dratini had you in a headlock."
I Dragon Raged him as he screamed, then ran back into the garden room. "ANNA! I'm sorry, I couldn't get the berry back." I sighed apologetically.
"It's okay," Anna said weakly. "The room ahead's the last one." She handed me a Max Elixir for my PP. "You're strong enough to do this by yourself."
"There's no way in heck I'm leaving without you," I stated.
"I know," Anna replied. "There's just one Barboach left and then we can leave this place. Good luck Sakura."
"Stay back then." I had to walk into the room by myself, where the floor was covered in shards and splinters of wood. "Wish me luck Anna!"
"I already did."
"How sentimental." It was the faked deep voice again, belonging to a Barboach with two beads on its right whisker, one long and one short, and a small silver spoon in its mouth and clutching a rope in its tail, which he set down on the ground. "Ropey-ropey, higgly-jigglybuff, obey my command and tie up that Igglybuff!"
The rope sat on the floor doing nothing.
"I said-Oh screw it." The Barboach began walking towards Anna, who ran to me for protection. The Barboach-Arilus, I remember, turned to me.
"I am Arilus, a psychic-in-training!" he boasted. "My marvellous deeds so far only include the ability to bend a spoon in my mouth, but trust me, there will be many more to come! Not that you'll survive to see them, intruders-"
I gave him a Twister to the face.
"Idiot." It was my turn to talk, and I couldn't help but laugh. "You can't learn to become psychic like that unless you manage to learn a Psychic-type move! Otherwise you have to be born or evolve into a Psychic-type, and if I'm not mistaken, you, even if you evolve into a Whiscash, will always be a Water and Ground-type! Now leave Anna and me alone. We are just passing through here on a mission, we didn't realize you'd be so territorial and so we won't come here again, I'm sure of it. Therefore, if you let us go through this gate, we will leave you guys alone."
"Fat chance, intruders." Arilus advanced towards the both of us. "His Grace has given us all orders to defeat any exploring intruders and bring them to him personally. So submit!"
His Water Gun hit Anna as well as me. She squealed as it drenched her.
"YOU SON OF A-" In retaliation, I drenched him with a Dragon Rage. "No, it is you who will lose. Trust me."
"Well I predict that you shall lose this battle, intruding Dratini witch!"
And thus me and Arilus locked ourselves in a fight to the faint. In between blows, I had to whip my head round to check on Anna, whose poisoned condition had now sapped her to low health. Then I decided.
"Anna!" I called to my teammate after giving Arilus another Twister. "Take the Treasure Bag and go on ahead without me!"
"WHAT?!!!" Anna's eyes inflated. "I'm not leaving you!"
"Don't worry about me!" I called in between catching my breath. "I thought I told you a while back that I can take care of myself!"
"But Sakura-" Anna was starting to cry.
"GO! NOW!" I called. "I'll catch you up very soon! You go and get yourself healed up you'll faint if you stay here soon!"
"Sakura, please... I'll survive-"
"GO!" I snapped.
It looked to me like Anna had run off through the exit door with our Treasure Bag before she could change her mind, her eyes overflowing with tears and Arilus shouting "CURSES!" in the background.
Well she'll be fine, I'm sure. Right now I've got to take care of him...

-Anna's POV
I ran screaming and wailing out of the exit door and collided into something hot and rocky.
"Well hello there what's the matter?" asked a deep gruff voice.
"It's... It's... WAAAA-HA-HAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" It's no use.
"Hey sweetheart, what's the matter?" soothes a blurry blue vision. "It's okay we're here to help you."
"It's Sakura," I howled. "She's, she's...AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!" Seems like I can't get a word in edgeways.
"Well she's poisoned," said the gruff voice. "She needs a Pecha Berry right now."
"Got one!" said the female blue character, who pulled it out of a Treasure Bag she was carrying. "Here, eat this."
I scoffed the berry in two quick chomps.
"Thank you so much," I croaked. "For helping me. Thank you."
"You're welcome," said the gruff voice. "And right now... you're an Explorer, aren't you? Therefore you need to go to the camp in Geoda and get some rest."
"No!" I managed to snap impertinently. "I need to stay here and wait for Sakura!"
"We'll wait for her and tell her where you are." On closer, clearer examination, the female voice belonged to a Wartortle wearing blue fingerless gloves and the gruff voice was owned by an elderly Torkoal. "But I'm curious, who is Sakura?"
"She's my partner," I explained sniffley. "I'm Anna, and together we're Team Dragonheart. She's the team leader."
"How did you get separated?", asked the Torkoal.
So I told the Torkoal how we'd gotten to the last room in the dungeon and therefore the exit, but there was a slightly psychic Barboach standing in our way and Sakura had insisted that I go on ahead without her despite how much I'd protested. She's strong and can take care of herself.
"Relax," the Wartortle soothed. "This Sakura Dratini of yours seems like a kind creature. She'll be back soon, I'm sure."
Right on cue, Sakura smashed out of the exit door and caught back her heavy breath on the floor and into my tearful arms as I screamed "SAKURA! I was so worried about you!".
"Awww, I'm sorry Anna," said the taken-by-surprise Dratini. Then she turned to the Torkoal and the Wartortle. "You guys an exploration team?" she asked. "Because we need to talk to our superiors about some complications. Seems like this dungeon is already occupied..."

-END-

-Cameo Victimz-
See if you can spot where you are!
*Team Steam Shell by
Victimz for this mission were chosen at random from those who commented on my request. Those who commented but didn't get used will be used in further missions. Thank you to everyone who commented! Requests are now closed.