Spice of Life: The Search for Raziel
 
In many cases, when something is destroyed, it is instinctive to want to repair it. This ideology, while certainly most common in the realm of the physical, is not limited to it. Emotions and feelings can be torn asunder, just like paper, with words and actions. When it comes to mending these, the strongest force at our disposal is forgiveness. There is great power in the words “I’m sorry”, power that can turn foes into friends, and ultimately quench the flames of anger.
 
 
Corona was still in disbelief: she had just tried to kill the shiny liepard named Cyn in cold blood, and in turn she offered aid by the same Pokemon. Of course she now knew that her hate was misplaced, but that hardly justified what the ninetales did. As she was helped along by Fandango her head hung low with shame towards her actions; she was able to apologise to Cyn, but she couldn’t help but feel that she was let off the hook way to easy. Perhaps the task she offered to help with, assisting Doc Leaf, a friend and companion of ‘The Winner's’ leader, would help her feel as though she was beginning to pay her debt. For now though, as the four arrived in the tree-home of the leafeon, it was time for a debriefing.
 
 
“So, I should probably start off by explaining our situation.” The Leafeon smiled as he looked over the gathered pokemon. He turned his attention to the Swampert sitting beside him with a smile, “Typh and I have been put in charge with determining the effects the Rainbow Lense gives from different heights and distances. Fortunately it seems like we’re getting a lot of sun today, so this is the perfect time for us to test it.”
 
 
“The Rainbow Lense?” Corona asked curiously. She didn’t need to question where the sunny weather was coming from, it had followed her since she was a Vulpix.
 
 
“It’s that crystal ball over there.” Typh explained, gesturing to the translucent orb propped by a set of carefully placed sticks. There was a ruler not far from it wedged into the ground, the markings in pen showed the different distances that the doctor had already tested, “We found it out in the Dark Woods, if the sunlight shines through it onto a plant it makes it grow way quicker than it would otherwise.”
 
 
“How much quicker is ‘way quicker’?” Fang asked, perking his ears as he stared at the crystal ball in astonishment. The idea that something so simple and fragile could have that kind of power left his tail wagging.
 
 
“Well, this morning we had one sapling for each berry.” Typh replied before gesturing around at the large piles of berries all around them, “Now we have enough to feed Clearspring for the next seven years.”
 
 
“I think that might be exaggerating it a bit, Typh.” Leaf chuckled awkwardly, not wanting to be pointed out on his wastefulness. One of his vines carefully slipped from the leaves gathered at his paws and polished the Rainbow Lense with a cloth as he spoke, “I think we’ve found the ideal height for berries, but we still need to figure out the right altitude for seeds. Cyn wants to use this as our source of Reviver seeds for the Den, so I want to make sure that they’re perfect.” he tucked his ears back, “If they weren’t…”
 
 
“They’ll be perfect.” Typh interrupted the Leafeon as he took a berry from one of the piles and grinned, “But all this talking is making me hungry. Let’s eat!”
 
 
“Typh!” Leaf gasped, his vine quickly moving away from the crystal and slapping the berry from the Swampert’s hand, “Not from that pile, those are all the defective ones. Remember what happened last time? Your tail turned into a mouth!”
 
 
“There’s a market for those too.” Typh shrugged before moving to one of the other piles and sitting down at it. He waved Corona and Fang over before gesturing to the piles, deciding to let Leaf work on tweaking and cleaning the orb while he explained the situation. “So, here’s how it works guys. You eat ten, if nothing weird happens you tell Leaf and he marks it off on his clipboard.”
 
 
“Sounds simple enough.” Corona shrugged, though her eyes were glued to the berry that Leaf knocked away from Typh. Forming a mouth on a tail; could it really do that? What if she ate it? Would a mouth form on each of her tails or just one? Though curious, she wasn’t stupid either. She picked up the berry with one of her tails, she’d just hold onto it for now and see if Leaf wouldn’t mind further tests on it later. With further coaxing from an excited Fang, she joined him and Typh at the berry pile.
 
 
“Where should we start?” Fang’s eyes darted between the myriad of fruit before him. They all looked so ripe and tasty, he could hardly keep himself still.
 
 
“Well, I suppose the obvious choice would be to start with your favourite and work your way around.” Leaf offered with a friendly smile before moving over to the jar of seeds. He took out the first and buried it in the ground beneath the lense, though shortly after he took his paws away to wipe the dirt off them a small sapling sprouted up from the grass, “I’ll get to work on getting the Reviver Seeds ready. This’ll be the big one, so I insist I test these personally.”
 
 
“So long as you know what you’re doing, Doc.” Typh replied, continuing to stuff handfuls of berries into his maw. After taking a moment to count his fingers he raised his hand, “Cheri berries are fine, Leaf!” he called out. It seemed like a pretty straight forward demonstration of how the rest of their afternoon would go.
 
 
“Ill have...these!” Fang shouted, pulling a pile of pecha berries from the larger collection. He started to count them, making sure he had exactly ten before burying his face into the food, chomping and nibbling away. Corona couldn’t help but smirk at the spectacle, even with mood damaged as it was.
 
 
“This lense seems to be quite the valuable tool.” Cory commented, watching the sapling grow beneath the crystal’s light. “All you need is sunlight to make it work? Is it really that simple? Well, I mean there are the issues of positioning and height and what not, but the sun being the trigger is quite fortunate.”
 
 
“The pecha’s were fine, and tasty!” Fang looked up from his finished pile, wagging his tail happily. Corona, however, let out a gasp.
 
 
“Oh my gosh! Are you alright Fang?” She stepped over to him, tilting his head about as she examined him. “You're pink!”
 
 
“I’m what?” Fang looked down at his fur; where there was once gray and black, there was now pale and bright pink fur. It was almost as if he had Solomon’s colorations. “Oooh. Neat!”
 
 
“This isn’t going to be permanent, is it Leaf?” Cory asked the doctor with concerned eyes.”
 
 
“Ah, no. It should pass…. heh, sorry about that, Fang.” Leaf smiled awkwardly as he looked back towards the sapling, “I’m afraid I won’t be able to grow you a heal seed until I’ve harvested the Reviver seeds. That won’t be a problem, will it?”
 
 
“Him being as pink as a Jigglypuff? Nah, I’m sure he’ll be fine for a couple of hours.” Typh laughed before slapping Fang on the back with a friendly grin, “You’re lucky that camera we found isn’t working, kid.”
 
 
“I wish it were, we might have been able to use it to document our work,” Leaf sighed before perking his ears as he suddenly recalled a step he had missed out, “Oh! Fang, do you remember what the berry looked like? Did it have any special markings, anything that would help us distinguish others like it?”
 
 
“This isn’t a problem. It’s kinda cool!” Fang turned himself around, looking about his own form. “What should I test next? Oh, I know, I try some chesto berries. Maybe It’ll turn me purple, since I’m already red...well, almost red. It would be a really weird purple.”
 
 
“Guess I’d better do this too...let’s see here.” Corona was still iffy about the color her friend was sporting, but if the Doc said it was okay, it must have been okay. Her eyes fell onto a bunch of aspear berries. “These thaw ice by increasing body temperature, if I’m not mistaken. I’ll try these.” With a careful grip, she plucked the fruit up one by one and tossed them into her maw.
 
 
“Alright everyone, there’s something I forgot to mention. Could you please make sure to examine the berries before you eat them?” Leaf asked, speaking a little louder to make sure he had Typh’s attention, “That way we’ll be able to find others that will grant similar effects. I don’t know if we’ll ever need to turn pink, but I wouldn’t mind keeping berries with the same effects together.”
 
 
“Yeah, yeah. We’ll let you know.” Typh replied before looking over one of the berries he had taken from the pile. He rolled his eyes and tossed it into his mouth, though as he began to chew it his mouth slowly became thinner and thinner until eventually it disappeared all together. The Swampert let out an alarmed noise and gagged, though try as he might he couldn’t spit the berry back out.
 
 
“Okay, so… new new rule, small bites, that way we’ll still have the berry if anything goes wrong.” Leaf noted before making his way over to the Swampert and looking up at him, “Okay Typh, breathe through your nose. It’ll only be an hour at the most, alright?”
 
 
  Corona watched the spectacle with a new worry. It was like they volunteered to be in some kind of mad scientist experiment. Suddenly, those aspear berries she was munching on didn’t taste as good as they did previously. She slowed down, eating them in three or four bites now; there didn’t appear to be anything wrong, but paranoia was as strong a placebo as any sugar pill. “I guess that mean’s me and Fang are going to have to double-time our work, since we’re down a mouth.”
 
 
  “Does that mean I don’t have to slow down?” Fang asked, chewing on the last of the chesto berries he wanted to eat. They could hear him chewing, the berry sounding oddly crunchy in his jaws. “These chesto’s seem fine...kinda tough though.”
 
 
  “Well, at least not all the defects are severe.” Cory sighed. “Remember to put the rest of them aside Fang dear, just like the doctor said.” Fang nodded, his cheeks still stuffed with his food. “These aspear berries are fine as well Leaf.” Corona added, pushing the small pile aside. “Seems that we’ve gone through a lot of the basic berries. Let’s see what you have in terms of more advanced stuff.”
 
 
  “Like these?” Fang dangled a tamato berry from his paw in front of his friend. “I don’t even know what these are, but they look juicy!”
 
 
  “Uh, Fang.” Corona gestured for him to put the fruit down with her paws. “That might not be the best one for you to try. Why not pick something else?”
 
 
  “Aww, what’s the worse that can happen?” With a grin, the mightyena chomped into the berry. His smile immediately faded. “Hoth...HOTH!” Fang dropped the rest of the berry and let his tongue droop from his mouth as he tried to fan in. “WAHER LEESE!”
 
 
  “You can’t drink water Fang, it won’t help get rid of the hot flavor. You need bread or milk.” Corona stepped to Fang’s side as he whimpered and attempted to calm him down. “Got anything like that here Leaf?”
 
 
  “I’ve got some milk in the clinic, I’ll be right back!” Leaf gasped before dashing off around the corner, leaving Corona with the mouthless Swampert and the frantic Mightyena. And despite all the chaos, the testing was going a little better than the doctor had expected it would.
 
 
____________________________________________________________________________
 
 
  Meanwhile, Cyn, Spice, Solomon, and Kalsea had taken route towards Goldgrass Grotto on their quest to find the zangoose Raziel and bring him in for questioning. Before they left, they gathered a short supply of berries for the trip, including a number of status-healing berries, oran berries, and a minum berry; the last berry was added to the mix on accident, believed to be a chesto berry in their haste. Tensions were high, between Spice’s distrust of the other ninetales and Solomon’s distrust of Kalsea, whom he’d only met twice at the most random, yet convenient, of times. “Well?” Solomon spoke up to the glaceon as the group moved. She had been walking close to him, and he wasn’t sure how to take it.
 
 
  “Well what?” She asked, cocking her head to the side.
 
 
  “Are you ever going to explain why you keep popping up where we go? You can’t expect me to believe it only coincidence.” Sol stared at her with distrusting eyes.
 
 
  “What, you don’t think I’m following you do I?” She asked with a coy grin. She knew she was pushing his buttons. “What reason would I have for that? Hey, can you believe this guy? Thinking he’s special enough to have a stalker.” She called out to the other two.
 
  “Ha, how absurd. A common Sylveon having a stalker.” Spice chuckled in amusement as he tagged along at the back of the group, leisurely strolling along and ‘conserving his energy’, as he had told them whenever they told him to hurry up, “Now, if he were a contest pokemon I might think a stalker would be quite reasonable.” the Ninetales rolled his eyes, “But of course, Sylveons don’t last long in contests. Trust me, I know.”
 
 
  “Are you ever going to let that go? It was weeks ago.” Cyn rolled her eyes as he prowled ahead of the group, her ears perked up and alert as they listened out for any signs of life among the bushes. “And can you guys try to stay focused? We’ve got a job to do. That Zangoose isn’t going to find himself.”
 
 
  “I wouldn’t think he’d have to, surely he already knows where he is.” Spice replied with a little grin. He rarely had chances to one-up the Liepard, but he did enjoy watching her fur bristle out when he did.
 
 
  “Hey, could someone throw something at him for me real quick?” Cyn asked, hoping to balance her desire to get Spice back for that remark and their forward momentum on their mission.
 
 
  “Eh, why not?” Above Kalsea’s head, a small ball of ice quickly formed, briefly hovering in place before rocketing towards the sassy ninetales, pelting him in the side of the head. “Sorry, just following orders.” She sung, sticking out her tongue.
 
 
  “Careful, your might scratch his perfect face.” Solomon sarcastically warned, rolling his bright eyes. “I swear, you contest pokemon are all the same. Care more about your appearance and prancing about than you do about things that really matter.”
 
 
  “You think my face is perfect?” Spice blinked, only to find himself getting a ball of ice directly to it. He spluttered and whined, spitting out a stray ice shard that had landed in his mouth. He narrowed his eyes at the Glaceon briefly before turning his attention back to her Sylveon companion. He stood up straight and fluffed out his tails before going back to his smug smirk, “And by the way, the only reason you’d have that opinion is because you’re not talented or attractive enough to enter one yourself.”
 
 
  “If by ‘not talented’ and ‘attractive’ you mean that I’m above such trivial idiocy, than I must agree with you.” Sol argued back, turning to face Spice behind the group. “What things of worth have you done? Nothing, I’d say. You can only entertain, and are quite poor at it. I’m a trained healer; I’ve saved lives and eased pain. Unlike you, I have a worthwhile purpose.”
 
 
  “Ha, clearly all that time in the wild has left you out of the know. Perhaps I should educate you, oh ‘trained healer’.” Spice chuckled condescendingly as he held his head even higher, by this point he was looking up at the treetops and Cyn had tucked her ears back in preparation for the oncoming boasting. “I saved Clearspring from a tyrant, captured the most wanted pokemon in Sinnoh, and I’m still the undefeated Beauty Contest champion!” he flicked his head to one side dramatically, “Other than one minor and barely legal defeat in my last contest which certainly didn’t count.” he added in an off-handed tone.
 
 
  “And yet you’re afraid of a bunch of tiny joltik.” Kalsea chuckled, unable to remain out of the conversation any longer.
 
 
  “Joltik? You're afraid of a bunch of tiny, electric bugs?” Solomon asked, almost cracking a smile at the thought.
 
 
  “Yep! He was babbling about joltik when I found him inebriated and twitching back in town.” Kalsea flicked the yellow scarf she had around her neck. “Why, if it wasn’t for me knocking you out of it with this cloth I found, you’d probably still be there Spice.”
 
 
  “Joltik are a Beauty contest pokemon’s worst nightmare.” Spice replied matter-of-factly, apparently not feeling the slightest shame in his fear. His tails perked up as he counted off the reasons, “One, They’re disgusting bugs. Two, Their electric, fuzzy, ugly, stupid bodies mean they’ll make all your fur stand on end from the static.” he shuddered, “Three, They know Swarm! Because that’s what they do, they Swarm you! Once one gets on you, there’s no getting away!” His eyes widened in a panic as his tails flicked furiously as though he were still trying to get them off, “Do you know what the humans call them? The ATTACHING POKEMON! Because there’s no getting them off!”
 
 
  “Don’t wet yourself, Spice.” Cyn finally butted in before lowering herself to the ground, “And for crying out loud, keep your voice down. Something’s not right, we haven’t run into a single pokemon out here… and for that matter, no berries or seeds either. Usually this forest is full of them.”
 
 
  “We must be close to Goldgrass, assuming we didn’t make any wrong turns.” Solomon addressed, showing no concern for Spice’s protests. “There was little present last time. If we keep going, we’ll soon start to see bleached grass and other plant life. Once there, we’ll be able to start tracking Raziel.”
 
 
  It wasn’t long before they began to see the signs that Solomon had pointed out. The green grass faded from under their paws and gave way to dry, brittle grass that crunched as they stepped on it. The forest seemed to disappear the further they walked, and Cyn found herself beginning to sweat under the sunlight.
 
 
  “Ah, now this is much better.” Spice grinned gleefully as he pranced along, “Why didn’t anyone told me about this place? It’s rugged, but beautiful. Harsh, and yet simple and calming.” Spice breathed in deeply, “It’s like the whole Grotto is covered in potpourri~” he chimed happily, scooping up a handful of the dried leaves and slipping them into his bag.
 
 
  “According to what we heard during our travels, there used to be a powerful pokemon here that protected the place.” Sol added. “It doesn’t appear to be here anymore, but it is likely the reason this place is so unusually quiet. The wild pokemon in the immediate area know to stay clear.” The group moved forward further, reaching a clearing where the trees ceased. In the clearing, a small cave could be seen. “This is the heart of the grotto, where we last saw Raziel.”
 
 
  “Do you think he’s still inside?” Cyn asked as she began to move towards the mouth of the cave. “Probably a bad idea to head in, we’d be better off finding some way to get him to come out. Anyone got a blast seed?”
 
 
  “Don’t bother. When we got here, this place was empty.” Solomon stood at the mouth of the cave, looking into the darkness. “Raziel claimed that it left after the vulpix were killed off. Im sure Fandango told you all you needed to know about the vulpix…”
 
 
  “Yeah… he did.” Cyn replied, trying to keep her blood from boiling as she recalled the tragic story. She shook her head and looked around before narrowing her eyes on the grass, “It shouldn’t be too hard to detect a scent around here, everyone look for a trail. We’ll find Raziel and find out what really happened.”
 
 
  “It might’ve just been another Liepard, you can’t be the only one in the region after all.” Spice noted as he began to dig about aimlessly in the leaves, all while trying to make it look as though he knew how to track.
 
 
  “Raziel was acting strange. It’s more likely that he was lying to us than it is that there are two shiny liepard in such a small area.” Solomon explained, keeping his eyes glued to the ground. “Maybe we should have brought Fandango with us. His nose is one of the best I’ve seen for this kind of-” He was cut off by a tired, grumpy growl from within the cave. Snapping his head in the direction, he began to back away.
 
 
  “I thought you said this place was empty.” Kalsea whispered to him, following his lead.
 
 
  “It was. Something must have moved in during the past few days.” Sol gritted his teeth. Whatever was inside did not sound friendly.
 
 
  “Everyone hide.” Cyn whispered as she began to back away from the cave, “We can still get a jump on them.”
 
 
  “Where? There’s no where to hide.” Spice whispered back, keeping himself low as he began to shiver nervously. He could hear the footsteps echoing through the cave. They were getting louder and closer by the second.
 
 
  Emerging from the mouth of the cave was a large, and rather plump, ursaring. He appeared ragged, his fur matted, short, and uneven. It looked as though he went through hell and back, and survived. The bear gave a yawn from his large maw, stretching his arms up into the sky before finally looking to the pokemon surrounding him. One in particular seemed to catch his attention more so than the others. “YOU!!!” he roared, pointed his claws at Solomon. “I remember you!”
 
 
  “What are you talking about?” Sol began, taking a defensive stance. “I’ve never met you before!”
 
 
  “Oh no? Several weeks ago, you and that ninetales bitch knocked me out and torched off all my fur! Ring a bell now?” He snorted, flexing his claws in rage.
 
 
  “Hmm...oh right, I remember now.” the sylveon said matter-of-fact. “The wild pokemon called you...Luke I believe? You attacked us first if I recall, so anything we did was justified.”
 
 
  “Hey, Luke, have you seen a Zangoose around here?” Cyn asked, trying to break the tension while still keeping a good distance between herself and the large ursine. As she noticed his plump stomach she wondered if they should have called the mission off then and there.
 
 
  Luke glared at the liepard, her question drawing his attention away from the source of his rage. He said nothing, instead opening his maw, sparkling light forming between his jaws. “Hyper beam! Hit the deck!” Solomon shouted, ducking into the grass and taking Kalsea, whom was beside him, down as well, pouncing onto her back. The beam shot out with an unnatural hum, the power and heat behind it breaking the air just as lighting does during a storm. It surged forth towards Cyn without mercy.
 
 
  The Liepard was quick to pounce out of the way, leaving the Hyper Beam disappearing off into the forest before finally connecting with a tree and sending it toppling over onto another. Cyn flicked her tail as she began to walk around the Ursaring, her eyes narrowing on him as she waited for a moment of weakness.
 
 
  “Cyn, are you insane? He’s five times your size and weight!” Spice cried out before turning to look over at Kalsea and Solomon, “But there are more of us. Quick, help her defeat him!” the Ninetales yipped, pointing his paw commandingly towards the towering pokemon.
 
 
  “My only attack is hyper voice. If I go offensive, I’ll hurt everyone else too.” Solomon growled. “Kalsea, is there anything you can do?”
 
 
  “Plenty.” She hummed. Sol’s jaw nearly dropped; Kalsea was smiling and calm, as she was when the four began their quest. It was as if she was unaware they were even in a fight.
 
 
  The ursaring panted, waiting for his strength to return after hyper beam. His eyes followed Cyn as she circled him, watching him carefully. “I’ve dealt with worse before. You four are nothing.” Luke brought up his claws and let them pop out to full length. He moved to swipe, only to receive a ice shard flung into his face. It did little more than aggravate him more, but it did draw his eyes away from the liepard and towards the Glaceon, who prepared to launch another ball of ice.
 
 
  As the ursaring turned towards Kalsea, Cyn narrowed her eyes on the short, scrappy fur on his back. She lowered herself briefly before pouncing towards him with her claws extended, only to feel a sharp yank on her tail that left her landing on her face. She rolled onto her side and narrowed her eyes back at the Ninetales who had grabbed her, “Spice, what the heck?!”
 
 
  “You were about to run right at him, what was I supposed to do?!” Spice snapped back at her, leaving the Liepard lost for words as for once the Ninetales looked semi-serious about something. He nodded briefly in Sol and Kalsea’s direction, hinting for Cyn to move to them instead as he opened his mouth and let out a torrent of flame. By the looks of things, he wasn’t so much looking to burn Luke as he was planning to reduce him to ashes.
 
 
  Hearing the roar of the flame burning the air, Luke turned around in time to see the ninetales’ flames surge into his torso. Memories of the female fox from weeks ago flashed into his mind, causing him to scramble away from the flames rather than try to charge through them. He took massive damage to his chest and belly, his fur once again burned into nothing, but ultimately he was still ready to fight. He rolled back onto his feet once the flames ceased, fuming from his nostrils. “I’ll tear you apart!” Luke roared, charging at Spice on all fours.
 
 
  The Ninetales quickly went from heroic to terrified as he frantically turned tails and fled from the bear, and unfortunately straight past the rest of the group and back the way they had come, all the while shrieking ‘Freeze it! Freeze it! Freeze it!’ in an ear piercing pitch.
 
 
  “Spice, you dumbass!” Cyn growled at him, preparing her claws to fight against the oncoming bear before turning her attention to the Glaceon, “Tell me you can freeze this guy.” she whispered hurriedly.
 
 
  Kalsea, her next shard of ice still floating above her, took aim at the bear and let loose. Instead of striking him in the head of the body however, her attack landed between one of his front paws and the ground as he barreled towards them, causing him to trip and roll onto the ground. “That’s the best I got.” She huffed. “Only ice move I know is ice shard, and that doesn’t freeze.”
 
 
  “Wonderful.” Solomon complained sarcastically. “As much as I hate the idea of following that self-loving friend of yours Cyn, I’d say a tactical retreat is our best course of action right now. We better move!”
 
 
  “Good plan.” Cyn replied quickly before turning and bolting off after the Ninetales. Given her natural speed and Spice’s lack of athletic ability it wasn’t long before she caught up to him and was hissing in his ear, “You want to tell me what -that- was? I thought you had a plan.”
 
 
  “I did have a plan. I planned to prove to that Sylveon I was a better fighter than he is.” Spice replied with a little grin, “And, seeing as how I did the most damage in that little battle, I would consider myself the winner of our previous argument.”
 
 
  “Ah, right. Shallow, how do I keep forgetting.” Cyn rolled her eyes before looking over her shoulder as she slowed down to allow the others to catch up and for Spice to catch his breath. She could still hear the Ursaring snarling and growling away as he searched for them. “We need to lose him, or else he’ll end up being Clearspring’s problem.”
 
 
  “And how do you propose we do that?” Spice asked breathlessly, only to follow her gaze into the forest. Between the trees he could see the stone pillar that marked the entry to the Dark Woods mystery dungeon. It would certainly be hard for the bear to track them in a place that constantly shifted and changed.
 
 
__________________________________________________________________________
 
 
  The berry work continued well into the day. New berries were being tested, and some of the same berries grown with a new angle on the strange object known as the rainbow lense. A number of them showed no alterations from their normally desired effects, though there were plenty more that did. Fandango had encountered a cluster of mago berries that were so hard that they were like rocks, and couldn’t be chewed. Corona ate some bulk berries that, while staining her mouth black as they were none to do, also caused her to periodically hiccup and produce bubbles from her mouth. These were not all they encountered of course, the list goes on, ranging from some tasting like soap, to some being completely hollow inside, to incorrect flavors, and so forth.
 
 
  Despite his experience, Typh was back to gulping down berries as though he had never eaten in his life. Leaf was struggling to keep up with the results as they were called out, though he did his best to ensure everyone had more berries to test while he idly worked on testing the blast seeds on nearby rocks. “Heh, maybe we should take a break for a second and let everyone catch their breath.” he pleaded.
 
 
  “Yeah, I think -” Corona began before a hiccup erupted from her, a bunch of small bubbles floating up into the air before popping. “I think that’s a good idea. I don’t think I’ve ever felt tired from eating before.” She placed a paw over her belly, which sagged slightly from the food in her stomach. Fang sported the same, even more so than her due to his faster eating habits.
 
 
  “Don’t overdo it, you two. There’s no reason to feel like you need to keep up with Typh.” Leaf insisted as he moved back towards the group and left the Rainbow Lense to finish growing his third Reviver sapling, “Fang tells me you were trained pokemon before you moved to the wild. Tell me, what was the human world like?” his eyes sparkled, “I’ve always wanted to visit a city or town, but I usually find myself too preoccupied with work to go myself.”
 
 
  “Hard to say.” Fang admitted, stretching his back legs; he had been sitting the whole time, and it was starting to make him feel a bit stiff. “When I hatched, I spent a good amount of time being cared for at the breeding center. There were buildings very similar to this one, with some differences of course, since humans and pokemon are very different. After I grew up a bit and went through the training regimen of a pokemon meant for battles, I was placed in this thing called a ‘storage box’. It was kind of like a fenced off natural habitat, where I spent time with a bunch of other pokemon that were bred and trained for various other purposes. I think I was the only one there who belonged to our trainer, the others were for other trainers and left here and there. My experience with people only extends to my brief time training and the people who fed us.”
 
 
  “My experience is quite a bit different.” Corona smiled and gave a short chuckle. “I was a breeder you see. My job was...well babies.”
 
 
  “Yikes.” Typh cringed. Leaf just cleared his throat and nudged the water type with his paw, trying to not-so-subtly tell him not to say anything impolite.
 
 
  “It wasn’t as bad as you might think” Corona motioned with her forepaws as she tried to calm down the others. “The people there were good people, the pokemon were nice as well. We were never mistreated, the eggs were never harmed, and the babies were taken care of appropriately. I was kept in a daycare most of my adult life, able to roam free in permitted areas. I’ve seen daycares all around the world actually, so there was quite a bit of traveling to be done.” She covered Fang’s ears with her forepaws. “And i’ve become quite experienced in the art of lovemaking. A neat little perk of the breeding lifestyle.” She gave a quick wink before letting Fang hear again.
 
 
  “What was that about?” Fang asked, rubbing his ears with his own forepaws.
 
 
  “Oh, nothing, nothing at all. Right boys?” Corona looked to Leaf and Typh with a mischievous grin.
 
 
  “Ha, nothing at all.” Typh agreed, taking the chance to nudge the Leafeon back as he just sat there blushing redder than a Cheri berry. The Swampert then scratched at his large stomach idly as he continued the conversation, “You guys should come by the Den before you go. Bring the little guy too, I figure he’d like it.”
 
 
  “I’ve been curious about that actually.” Cory gave Fang a quick pat on his head. “What is this ‘Den’? I’ve only vaguely heard of it when...well, when all this insanity began, but I don’t know what the place is like. Is it a club or something?”
 
 
  “Sort of, we cater to special interest groups and-” Typh paused as he looked down at Fang before reaching over and covering up his ears with his hands, though the Swampert’s voice easily bypassed any attempts at protecting Fang’s innocence, “Pokemon who want to experience being a predator or prey in a safe environment.”
 
 
  “To put it simply, we’re a.. heh... ‘fetish club’.” Leaf replied, mumbling the last few words before sitting up with a smile, “We feel like such urges should be taken care of somewhere safe, rather than having pokemon losing their lives over… well, experiences.”
 
 
  “Oooh, you don’t say.” Corona hummed. “That sounds like interesting fun. Maybe I’ll pay a visit some time before -”
 
 
  “Hey, come one now!” Fang huffed, pushing Typh’s large hands away from his head. “Why do you keep doing that? Is there something on my head?” He patted his head, trying to find some sort of foreign obstruction. “I don’t see why you had to try and hide any of that from me. I could hear you ya know, about the pred and prey thing. Why try and hide the fact that it’s a restaurant from me?”
 
 
  Cory covered her mouth with one of her tails and chuckled. Poor Fang, he only heard what Typh said and made his own conclusion. “Yeah, it’s a restaurant Fang. Sorry for roughing up your pink fur.” She rubbed his head again, laughing.
 
 
  “Heh, well of course I’d recommend the Leaf Salad.” Typh grinned as he picked up the doctor by his tail, much to his embarrassment. He held him upside down and grinned over at the Leafeon, “Doesn’t add a pound to you, and he’s pretty great tasting too.”
 
 
  “T-Typh, please don’t do this in front of our guests.” Leaf begged him with a blush as his labcoat flapped down and left him mostly exposed. He gave an apologetic look over to Corona, “Heh, sorry about this, Corona, Fang.”
 
  “It’s alright Leaf.” Corona waved to Leaf as he was dangled by his tail. “We get the playful banter. Unless you were referring to losing your coat? I mean, we’re mostly naked already. Me and Fang just have scarves.” She felt over her neck with one of her forepaws, patting around as she searched. “Oh, right. I left my scarf on the ground after I confused Spice.”
 
 
“We could help you look for it. We’ve made plenty of progress today, so I’m sure Cyn wouldn’t mind.” Leaf insisted before squirming in Typh’s grip. The Swampert gave him a little shake before placing him back on the ground.
 
 
“After all these berries, I’m going to expect dessert, you know.” Typh warned him, running a hand over his gut before slowly getting to his feet and turning to Corona, “So, what kind of scarf was it anyway?”
 
 
“Oh, it was a persim scarf. Yellow. Very similar to Spice’s, save for the color and mine being more ragged.” Cory explained.
 
 
“Hey, don’t worry about losing your scarf, lady. You can go nude if you want.” a new voice catcalled from behind her. As the Ninetales turned she found herself looking at a Persian, who grinned flirtatiously as he prowled towards her, “But if you’re so desperate, how about coming back to my hotel room, I’m sure I could find you something to put on.”
 
 
“Malus, I thought you were meant to be out on a mission today. One that would take a lot longer than one morning.” Leaf spoke up as he glanced over at Corona with this third apologetic look of the day, “Corona, Fang, this is Malus… he’s a member of the Winners.”
 
 
“Hi!” Fandango waved a forepaw at the feline. “We’re eating berries!”
 
 
“You guys seem to have quite the team.” Corona waved at Malus as well. “I imagine there are even more that we haven’t seen yet.”
 
 
“Yeah, probably… but my old team had more.” Malus replied as he moved closer to Corona before running a paw over the red ruby on his forehead to clean it, “I’m kind of taking care of ‘em, teaching them how bigger teams do things. I’m just that kind of guy.”
 
 
“Yep, that’s why you’re here. Not because Auric is forcing you to stay or anything.” Typh replied, crossing his arms over his chest as he looked the cat over, “Don’t tell me you came by just to gloat.”
 
 
“Nah, Auric told me there were chicks here. I guess he just meant one.” Malus shrugged before turning back to the vixen with a sultry smile, “Still, doesn’t mean we can’t have fun. Right?”
 
 
“Hmm…” Cory hummed with squinted eyes. She knew that smile anywhere, and she would have none of that while Fandango was listening. “Well of course we can have fun. As it turns out, we needed another mouth to help with this berry testing business, didn’t we Leaf?”
 
 
“Berries? Ugh, don’t tell me you’re a herbivore.” Malus shook his head before turning his attention to Fandango and grinning as he prowled towards him, “I’m a carnivore, babe. There’s only one thing I eat, and that’s pokemon… hey, this your lunch?”
 
 
“Lunch?” Fandango looked around to his sides and behind him. “Who, me? But I’m not food, I eat pokemon too.”
 
 
“Malus, that’s enough!” Leaf snapped at the cat. The Persian looked over his shoulder in a mixture of contempt and surprise that the Leafeon had finally stood up to him. He rolled his eyes at the doctor before glancing curiously over to the Ninetales to see how she had taken his showboating.
 
 
Corona glared at the persian with narrow eyes that seemed to burn with anger. She didn’t need to say anything, her look said it all: “back off!” it screamed, threatening to ruin Malus should he continue to make threats.
 
 
“Pssh.” Malus replied, though the smirk on his face made it look as though that were a pretty good comeback. He patted Fandango on the back and chuckled, “Hey relax. I’m just teasing the guy, giving him the ol’ Clearspring welcome.”
 
 
“That isn’t how we want pokemon to see Clearspring. It’s meant to be a place they can feel safe from predators, not constantly fearing them.” Leaf replied before breathing out a sigh and shaking his head, “Are you here to help or not?”
 
 
“Oh, he’s here to help alright.” Typh rumbled lowly. He made his way over to the cat and picked him up by the scruff of his neck before tossing him towards the nearest berry pile, “If he’s so hungry, he can get started with the berry pile. Otherwise, I’m sure I can find something else he can do around here.”
 
 
“Something else?” Malus asked, though the low growl coming from the Swampert’s stomach answered his question before the pokemon attached to it did, “Sorry I asked… damn, Typh. You’ve been eating berries all day, how can you still be hungry?”
 
 
“Berries don’t really do anything for me. I’d think as a fellow predator you’d know that.” Typh replied, picking at his mouth before moving to head out of the garden gate. “I’m going to go look for Corona’s scarf. If that pile of berries isn’t gone by the time I get back, I’m going to use them to season your fur.”
 
 
“Oh, thank you Typh!” Corona waved to the water type as he left.
 
 
“Mehmeh meh, mehmehmeh meh meh.” Malus mocked him once the Swampert was out of an earshot before turning his attention to the task ahead of him. The Persian slowly picked up one of the berries and took a bite before gagging and spitting to the side, “Sour.” he muttered, tossing it to one side before biting into the next, “Sweet.” he noted, tossing it onto the last. It wasn’t clear if he knew what they were testing, or if he was helping at all.
 
 
“Not like that Malus.” Fang walked up to and sat beside the feline. He still smiled his toothy grin, happy to see another face despite his disposition. “Leaf said we needed to try ten berries of a single type, then take note on any odd occurrences. Like me being pink; that was one of the side effects. Doesn’t it look neat?” He looked over his own fur. “It’s temporary, but it’s really nifty. It makes me look like our other friend Solomon. He’s a sylveon, pink all over all the time.”
 
 
“Wait… let me get this straight.” Malus began before lowering his voice and pulling Fang closer so only the two of them would be in on the conversation they were having. “You’re a wild predator travelling with a Sylveon… and you haven’t even tried to eat him yet?” he blinked, “How is that even possible? I would go for that fairy the second we ran out of food.”
 
 
Fang raised an eyebrow at Malus’s claim. “Why would I eat him? He’s my friend, I don’t want to loose him. Besides, we’ve never ran out of food. He carries a bunch of supplies with him for all of us, and occasional hunting helps make sure that we always have something.”
 
 
“You’ve got Reviver seeds, don’t you? If he was really your friend, he’d agree to do it.” Malus replied matter-of-factly before leaning in so close the Mightyena could smell his breath, “And you know what else? some pokemon actually -like- being eaten. You might be doing him a favour.”
 
 
“Reviver seeds? I think we have a few of those...I’ve never seen them work through.” Fang was becoming curious about what he was being told. “I remember licking his face once, before he told me not to do that too him because he hated being sticky. He tasted like cotton candy. I don’t know if he’d enjoy it though, even if he did I doubt he’d admit to it. Honestly, I’ve only ever seen him smile, like, once.”
 
 
  “I’d just take him by surprise one night and see what happens. Worse case scenario, he gets huffy about it, which is hilarious coming from a fairy type.” Malus chuckles at the thought before gesturing over to Leaf, “You know Leaf’s one of those kinds of pokemon, right? He loves getting eaten, he’s pretty much someone’s breakfast or lunch every day. If he were a more filling meal he might also end up as their dinner.” the Persian smirked, “And just look how happy he is. Can you imagine if Solomon got a chance to unwind like that?”
 
 
  “He get’s eaten every day?” Fang glanced over to the grass type briefly before turning back. “So those reviver seeds actually work?”
 
 
  “Every time without fail, and now Leaf’s mass-producing them with that Rainbow Lense.” Malus pointed over to it just in time for them to see the Reviver seed sapling spit out a torrent of seeds, which Leaf quickly gathered up and placed in a jar, “I’m sure we have a couple to spare for you and your team. So, you gonna do it?”
 
 
  “Well...if it’s safe, and it’ll make him happy, I don’t see why it wouldn’t be a good thing to do…” Fang cocked his head as he thought about the scenario. “I know I’d enjoy it, I love sweet things. I guess there’s no harm in -”
 
 
  “Fang honey,” Corona interrupted his whisper. She had managed to sneak up to Malus’s other side. She didn’t look angry, but there was something about her tone that was off. “Do me a favor and try those pinap berries over there won’t you please?”
 
 
  “Okay!” Fandango, with a small skip, moved away from Malus. Once out of her eyeshot, Cory’s eyes narrowed at the cat.
 
 
  “What?” Malus blinked at the vixen before leaning up to reach her eye-level as he started to purr soothingly, “I was just apologizing for my little mistake earlier. No big deal.”
 
 
  “I’m not deaf.” the fox growled. “Don’t you dare and try to talk my Fang into doing something like that, you hear?”
 
 
  “Oh come on, he’s a predator. What, are you going to spoon-feed him berries for the rest of his life?” Malus rolled his eyes, “Let the guy hunt, alright? It’d be good for him. Boost his self-esteem, he could use it after looking like a Jigglypuff for a day.”
 
 
  “He does hunt. We all hunt.” Corona drew her face closer to his, their faces barely an inch from touching one another. “But I will not have him trying to hurt family. Solomon is my grandson and like a brother to Fang; do not turn them against each other.”
 
 
  “Your grandson?” Malus blinked before carefully shying away from the Ninetales, “Ew, and I thought you were my age. Heh, sorry about that, Grandma. I won’t interfere with your family.” he rolled his eyes, “But Fang seemed pretty into it, everyone in the Winners eats each other like they’re shaking paws, once you’ve got Reviver seeds it’s not a big deal, as much as I hate ‘em.”
 
 
  “By Arceus you’re petty.” She grumbled as he drew attention to her age. In truth, she was young in terms of human years; she probably was Malus’s age, if a few short years older. “Of course Fang was into it,” she glanced over to the dark type, seeing that he was busy munching on fruit before turning back, “he’s a bit gullible is all, and the last thing I want is for him to start acting like you do, acting all high and mighty like you’re so damn perfect!”
 
 
  “Jeez, you’re making me sound like Spice.” Malus rolled his eyes before shaking his head, “I know I’m not perfect. I’m an unkempt, rowdy-but-roguish pokemon with a little too much reliance on his jewel.” he tapped the gemstone on his forehead before shrugging, “I’m just acknowledging the fact I’m a predator, honestly I think more pokemon should do it. It might stop others from treating us like we’re the bad guys.”
 
 
  “Being a predator isn’t what makes you a ‘bad guy’, trust me.” Corona scowled. “You’re causing mischief for the sake of causing mischief.” A hum escaped her as she thought. “You said everyone in the winners eats each other, yet you claim to be a predator. Wouldn’t that mean you’ve been eaten before? I bet you hate it.”
 
 
  “There’s this new thing called ‘the food chain’. I may not be at the top of it, but I’m way up there… higher than you, anyway.” Malus reminded her with a playful swish of his tail. Though her argument did seem to get through to him, there was a weakness in his eyes as she reminded him of how it felt to be prey… but of course, the Persian wasn’t about to acknowledge it.
 
 
  “So you say…” Corona paced herself closer to the persian, keeping her eyes affixed to his as she approached. “I seem to recall that Leaf was testing out seeds as well as berries today. Reviver seeds were one of them. Now, I’ve personally never seen one in action, but I’m not one to lean away from an ‘educational experience’.”
 
 
  “Oh yeah? Heh, might be a tight squeeze, but I’m sure I could manage you. I guess if Leaf’s testing them anyway, what’s the harm?” Malus replied, apparently deciding to meet her words with his own threats as he moved to stare back into her eyes with his dark red irises, “I’m sure Fang won’t panic if we tell him it’s for testing, so you don’t have to worry about him.”
 
 
  “I’m sure he will, but I’m afraid you have the scenario I have in mind quite backwards.” Corona’s eyes began to glow a deep, blood-colored crimson. Malus would begin to feel dizzy, the world around him suddenly appearing to be growing. The fruit, the floor, the furniture, and of course, the aggravated ninetales before him. “Tell me...Malus, was it? Did you think me unable to be as good a hunter as you because I’m older? Because I’ve had children? Perhaps my mild-mannered attitude or my consumption of fruit?”
 
 
  “W-woah, hey, look. Heh, I was just kidding around, Lady!” Malus stammered as he found himself looking up at the giant Ninetales before quickly backing away from her paw to lessen his chances of being stepped on. “Change me back to my normal size, damnit. Even Leaf could eat me right now!”
 
 
  Corona smirked at Malus’s pleas. To her and everyone else in the garden, the cat was the exact same size as he had always been; confuse ray was such a wonderful ability. She stepped closer and closer. “Oh don’t worry, you’ll be back to normal soon enough. That is, of course, if the reviver seeds grown by the rainbow lense work correctly.”
 
 
  “You mean there’s a chance they won’t?” Malus yowled in a panic before turning to run, but Corona’s paw came down on his tail and pinned him place. Soon he found himself slowly being brought up towards her giant maw, “Ahh! No! Please, I’ll do anything! I swear, I’ll never eat another pokemon again! I won’t hurt a fly!”
 
 
  “What’s up with Malus?” Leaf blinked, watching the cat flailing about and rolling around in the mud, all the while screaming bloody murder. After taking in Corona’s calm attitude to the situation he instead turned to Fang for his opinion, “Do you suppose it was one of the berries?”
 
 
  Fang, his cheeks full of fruit, looked to Leaf before looking over to his friend standing over the flailing feline. He swallowed his food with a wet gulp. “Kinda looks like what the pokemon she uses confuse ray on go through. Random flailing, sometimes pleading or yelling.” Corona, not realizing that the others were watching her, opened up her mouth and licked it over Malus’s face. “Maybe he ticked her off? She did seem rather unhappy about him.”
 
 
  “It really wouldn’t surprise me if he had… well, so long as she’s alright with letting me give him a Reviver seed before she does anything.” Leaf shrugged it off in a ‘no big deal’ kind of way. It was almost alarming how careless he was about the fate of his alleged teammate… From Fang’s observations so far, he could conclude that civilized pokemon were weird.
 
 
  “So... Malus told me about these reviver seeds. They really do work? I mean, he said they do, but I guess I’m going to see them in action now.” Fang watched as his friend took the persian’s head between her jaw, slipping it into her her mouth and throat.
 
 
 “They do indeed. I’ve found myself needing them quite a few times in the past, so having a way to grow them quickly is quite useful.” Leaf replied, his tail swishing back and forth as he watched the vixen work. The Persian’s yowling was quietened down to muffled noises, most of which were overpowered by the heavy gulps and ‘gllrk’s’ coming from his predator. “Heh, looks like she’s serious about this.”
 
 
“I’ve never seen her eat anything that big.” Fang sounded concerned. “Well, one thing. Back when we were looking for her children, there was this lickitung we ran into in the abandoned sanctuary. Corona is normally a very calm and friendly pokemon, but...I’ve never seen her snap like she did. She blew that thing out of a second story window and then ate it on the ground. She could barely walk for a day after that.” He thought about what he said as he continued to watch Cory swallow down Malus. His body wasn’t struggling as much, likely fatigued from the constant movement, and hung limp as his front legs and chest began to be worked down her throat. “Well, she isn’t a monster. She was under the impression that the lickitung ate her children then. She only ate it after it tried to eat Sol once everything was said and done. Even so...I hope she’s gonna get better. She scares me when she acts like that.”
 
 
  “I can’t promise that finding the one who sent her here will make her feel better, or even if getting her revenge will make her feel better.” Leaf admitted, unable to take his eyes off the vixen as she made a meal of the once proud feline, “This type of trauma takes a lot of healing and care… we have a psychologist here in Clearspring, maybe she’ll be able to help Corona cope.” the Leafeon paused before turning to Fang, “That is, if you three are indeed planning on staying for a while.”
 
 
  “I...Don’t really know what we’re going to do after this.” Fang folded his ears down as he began to roll one of the pinap berries around on the ground, batting it about with a forepaw. “Our whole reason for running about was to find them, but now we can’t. We could stay here I guess, but that’s their call, not mine.” The vixen’s drool-drenched maw was working it’s way around Malus’s torso, his back legs not far behind. Her neck bulged with the writhing form the cat made, with her belly beginning to sag with his head and front paws. “Oh, I just remembered! Do pokemon like being eaten? Malus said something about that too.”
 
 
  “Heh… well, for once Malus was telling the truth.” Leaf chuckled awkwardly before clearing his throat, trying to find the right way to explain this. He hadn’t even given Stringbean ‘the talk’ yet. He cleared his throat, “Well, Fandango, some pokemon do indeed enjoy being eaten. It’s not really clear why, sometimes it’s something that happened to them at a young age, or they have deeper rooted reasons, but for whatever reason, we enjoy it.” he explained, trying to keep a warm smile throughout his lecture, “But while the pokemon who enjoy it fantasize about it, most realize the dangers and would never go through with ‘fulfilling their desires’, as it were.”
 
 
  “That’s...weird.” Fang blurted out. “I mean, I like eating other pokemon because I don’t want to go hungry. a few rattatta here and there; if not them, always something small. The other way around though? I just don’t get it. Maybe Sol would, he’s smart.” He wagged his tail about. Corona was now on the last stretch of her meal, sending Malus’s hind legs into her throat with a wet, rhythmic -shlic, shlic, shlic- sound.
 
 
  “I must admit, even I can’t understand it. It’s just something that affects some pokemon and not others. But it’s important not to judge them by their interests, that isn’t really fair on them.” Leaf explained before glancing back to the vixen just in time to see Malus’ paws disappearing between Corona’s lips, only his slender tail remained outside and continued to lash about. “I’m glad someone finally gave him a taste of his own medicine.”
 
 
  “I’m not judging the pokemon who think like that, just the idea itself.” Fang explained. His ears drooped a bit. “I wasn’t trying to insult you or anyone, really. I’m sorry if it sounded like that.” Corona waddled her way over to the two, leaving Malus’s tail flicking about outside of her lips. She gave Fang a pat on the head, giving silent remorse for his sorrow.
 
 
  “I completely understand, Fang. Maybe someday we’ll understand what causes it and it’ll all make more sense… but for now, we’ll just have to accept it as something that happens sometimes.” Leaf shrugged with a smile before turning his attention to the vixen, “You can finish him off if you’d like, it’d probably teach him a lesson. I just need to add a little something before you do though.” he said, taking out a seed and offering it to Corona, “The Reviver seeds we’ve grown with the Lense seem to be bigger than the naturally grown ones. Though given that you’ve just swallowed a Persian, this shouldn’t be too hard.”
 
 
  With a long, drawn out slurp, Cory swallowed the last of Malus like one might eat a long noodle. “Do the new ones work?” She asked, taking the seed in her forepaw and looking at it carefully. “As much as I’m starting to dislike this guy, I don’t want to see him dead.”
 
 
  “Comparing them to a naturally grown Reviver seed, they seem to be exactly the same.” Leaf replied, though Corona’s concern left him second-guessing himself. He reached into a pocket hidden within his labcoat and took out another seed, “Though I suppose it wouldn’t be fair to make Malus test that. He can use mine, I’ll test this one myself.” he insisted before taking the larger seed from Corona and putting it in his coat pocket. The seed was far more noticeable than its predecessor, it almost looked like it might have added some extra weight.
 
 
  “Too bad there isn’t a way to test these safely.” Corona shrugged, tossing the smaller seed into her mouth and swallowing it in one, quick gulp. “But maybe now Malus will be more respectful to me and my friends. I’m not a force to be trifled with, and I’m not old either!” She moved her head closer to her own gurgling belly. “You hear that cat!? Just because I have grandchildren doesn’t mean I’m old!”
 
 
“Mmph mmph!” Malus yelled back, finding it hard to speak or even move in the Ninetales tight stomach. Leaf couldn’t help but feel a little amusement in seeing the defined bulges of the pokemon’s face, which he helpfully rubbed down with his paws.
 
 
“I try not to dwell on it too much. The seeds were harvested from a Reviver seed sapling, which came from a Reviver seed. So they -should- work exactly the same way.” the Leafeon replied, though the hesitation in his voice wasn’t quite as encouraging as his words were, “When everything else is ready, I’ll be testing them myself. I’m sure it’ll go fine.”
 
 
“Uh… hey.”
 
 
The group turned as they heard the voice. Typh stood at the entrance to the garden with his eyes drawn to Corona’s squirming stomach. For a moment there was an awkward silence all around, the Ninetales began to wonder whether she had overstepped the line in eating the cat. Finally the Swampert breathed out a frustrated sigh, leaving Leaf quickly getting to his feet as he took the initiative, “N-now, Typh. Corona had a perfectly valid reason for-”
 
 
“So that -is- Malus? Man, I miss all the good stuff.” The Swampert huffed, leaving Corona and Fang exchanging a confused but relieved glance. Yep, Civilized pokemon were definitely weird.
 
 
_____________________________________________________________________________
 
 
  “I hate this place…” Solomon grumbled as the four walked along. To avoid the ursaring named Luke and his grumpy wrath, they fled into the Dark Wook mystery dungeon, following Spice’s advance. “Don’t know where I’m going, Gotta watch my step for who-knows-what, and I don’t know what half the stuff that grows in here is.”
 
 
  “Relax, we’ve got badges. We can warp out whenever we need to.” Cyn insisted as she lead the group along now that the Ninetales was completely out of breath. “We’ve just got to walk around here until we lose ‘Berserky the Bear’. Shouldn’t take more than twenty minutes.”
 
 
“Well, if he does find us I could just give him another blast of my flamethrower. It -did- seem to be quite effective.” Spice pointed out for the eighth time since they had entered the dungeon. He looked back at Solomon with a little smirk, “Tell me, where were you again, Mr combat pokemon? Cowering while the bigger pokemon fought for you?”
 
 
“Spice, I swear if you don’t shut your mouth…” Sol grasped at his ears with his ribbons and gritted his teeth. “Combat isn’t all about ramming into things and using attacks like an idiot. I’m a cleric; I heal wounds, I don’t cause them. Not that I’d expect a contest pokemon to understand finer points like that. Look at you, you’re out of breath after that short little sprint!”
 
 
  “I’m not, *pant* out of, *pant* breath.” Spice replied, leaving Cyn rolling her eyes as they stopped once more for the Ninetales to catch his breath. The fox stood up straight, trying his best to look both powerful and intimidating as he looked down at the Sylveon, “I’m just conserving my energy. Who knows what’s out here.”
 
 
  “It’s starting to seem like -nothing- is out here.” Cyn noted as she glanced down at the path beneath them, “We haven’t found any berries or seeds, and for all the noises we haven’t really encountered any pokemon either.” the Liepard’s ears perked and twitched, “It’s just weird… something’s not right.”
 
 
  It didn’t appear that Solomon even heard Cyn, his attention drawn to the ninetails. “Tell me, how does one such as yourself perceive the world when their head is crammed so far up their own ass?” He scolded, unphased by his intimidating pose.
 
 
  “Oh my god, give it a rest Sol.” Kalsea complained with a sigh. “He’s just goading you on, and it’s working. Give it a rest. We have more important things to worry about right now.”
 
 
  “Yes Sol, do give it a rest.” The Ninetales grinned smugly as he examined his claws and shook a little dirt off of his tails.
 
 
  “Spice, shut up.” Cyn spoke up, breaking the fox’s short-lived victory as she moved to the edge of the path and began to check the bushes, “No berries… no nothing. There’s no food in this entire mystery dungeon.”
 
 
  “How can that be?” Solomon pondered, giving a passing glare to the ninetales before stepping to Cyn’s side. “My two friends and I got lost in the Dark Wood a few days ago. It wasn’t exactly plentiful then, but it wasn’t this barren.”
 
 
  “I don’t know, maybe we’d better get going before we find out.” Cyn replied as she reached into her bag and held it out towards Sol, “I’m sending you and Kalsea back first, then me and Spice will-”
 
 
  SNAP! the sound resounded in Cyn’s head as a vine shot from the bushes and lassoed her before binding her front legs together, leaving her dropping her badge. All at once she was dragged back towards the undergrowth, and the hungry Victreebel maw that slowly began to emerge from it.
 
 
  “Cyn!” Spice cried out, his mouth beginning to glow as he prepared his flamethrower only to have a flock of Spearow descend on him and begin to rapidly peck at his fur, leaving him flailing his paws at them in an attempt to get free of the group, “Ack, shoo!”
 
 
  “Kalsea, cover your ears!” Sol ordered, inhaling deep. As soon as she was sufficiently ready, the sylveon let loose a loud, ear-piercing screech that echoed through the area, forcing the spearow to flee in pain and freeing up Spice to attack the victreebel, who resisted the fairy-type hyper voice.
 
 
  “Ooow. Ow. Ears!” Spice whined, holding his ears before watching the fleeing Spearow and laughing victoriously, “Ha! And don’t come back. I should’ve known you’d be no match for a real opponent!”
 
 
  Cyn wasn’t celebrating quite as much as she continued to struggle against the Victreebel’s grip. With her forepaws out of action, her only hope was the bush that her tail had wrapped itself tightly around, and even that hadn’t stopped the grass-type from beginning to engulf her head and upper body. Summoning whatever energy she could spare she spat out a shadow ball into the fleshy insides of the pokemon, causing it to let out a muffled screech and retreat slightly up her form. “C-can’t keep this up forever!” she called out to the others.
 
 
  Kalsea ran past the fox towards Cyn, forming three ice shards overhead. “She needs help! Move Spice!” she shouted at him before firing the projectiles off into the soft flesh of the grass type. They caused it to reel about in pain, but it wasn’t enough to make it let go of Cyn. It did draw it’s attention however, and it began to fire several razor leafs at her, which she began to efficiently bob and weave herself around. She was untouchable, but could not form another attack while being bombarded.
 
 
  “Oh, yes! of course! Cyn!” Spice widened his eyes as he suddenly remembered and ran to Kalsea’s side before letting out a jet of flame that incinerated any leaves that fell in its path. Finally it collided with the Victreebel and forced it to finally to spit out its meal along with several high-velocity seeds, sending Cyn flying through the air and landing on the Ninetales.
 
 
  The Liepard took deep breathes of the cool, fresh air as the grass-type dragged itself away. She opened her mouth to say something to Spice but instead decided to save her critique until later, “That was close.” she managed before climbing off of the Ninetales and slowly looking around.
 
 
  What she saw sent shivers through her spine. The treetops were filled with pokemon, all watching them with hungry eyes. Ariados began to descend from the canopy overhead while Dugtrio began to burrow out of the earth beneath them, leaving the group slowly gathering in one spot as the wall of pokemon stood between them and the path. Cyn narrowed her eyes and reached back towards her bag, though as she noticed the fallen badge glistening in the dirt she knew using it to escape wasn’t an option, “Spice, badge. Now!”
 
 
  “Right! ...O-oh, oh no.” The Ninetales whimpered as he began to pat down his scarf frantically, “I-I don’t have it! Those birds must have taken it when they blindsided me!” He gasped, turning to Cyn as his tails began to twitch in alarm, “Wh-what are we going to do? We can’t possibly fight them all!”
 
 
  As the group was forced to huddle together, a single orb rolled past the approaching wild beasts before their paws. With a pop, it burst into a large cloud of black smoke, cloaking the area in an opaque screen. “All units, fire at will!” a voice roared from outside the veil, which was followed by the sounds of numerous blast seeds going off simultaneously. From the smoke emerged the visage of a persian, though specific details were unnoticable. “You four, come with me now!”
 
 
  “Kaiser?” Solomon asked, his ears perking at the sound of his voice. “Is that you?”
 
 
  “We can talk later, we need to get you all to safety first. Follow me and stay alert!” With that, the persian bounded out of the smokescreen, his path clear. Without another word, Sol followed suit, bounding out of the smoke. Kalsea followed suit, trusting the judgement of her fairy friend.
 
 
  Cyn didn’t need to be given a reason to follow after Kaiser. Sol seemed to know him, and even if it was a trap he was just one Persian against all four of them. The sounds of explosions emerged from the chaos behind them, and as Cyn took a curious glance over her shoulder to see the carnage she could see an army of Meowths wielding what appeared to be slingshots and launching blast seeds into the brawl going on beneath them.
 
 
  Okay, maybe he wasn’t -entirely- alone.
 
 
  With the sounds of battle at their heels, the group made haste deeper into the darkness...