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Pokémon Wishing Stars: Prophecies Give us Choice

Chapter 30: Short Visit New
The sky scatters into 2 shades. A brilliant orange that subtly hides between the clouds far at the horizon, and the looming purplish black, enveloping the sky with it's encompassing darkness, and promise for a new source of light.

The grass bushed in a thin layer of snow is flattened as the bus' wheels tear through, leaving a track of wheel-marks behind us. Peeking out the back window, which is large in comparison to the windows on the side, taking up about half the back of the vehicle, the town is no more visible.

The Sudowoodo greet us on the side, and the bus slows down gradually until it comes to a rest. There's a screech from the bus and the sigh suggesting a great release of air. The doors swing open for Fee and I. Just Fee and I, coming back to little Quartz town.

There is one other individual. A serious looking orc, with black afro hair that feels mismatched with the rest of his outfit. He has black pants that end below the knee, and a white belt tied around it. He wears a black pullover, with red sleeves extending from beneath. He exudes an intense aura. Never smiling. But, purposefully. He seems focused on something. A deep concern, maybe.

He makes no moves to the door, which suggests that he is going to Tourmaline town. Tourmaline town is the furthest south town in all of Dynacriep, and is also home to the Fighting Type gym leader. I haven't seen most of the gym leaders. I've only heard their voices, except for when I visited Diamond city, and judging by the man's age and physique, I think he is one of the few I would recognize as a gym leader, like Mister Tyke.

It doesn't yet click, and I'm dragged out of my revelry by Fee's call. Stepping out of the bus, I shoot another glance at him, and he opens his eyes for the 1st​ time. The door shuts, blocking my vision from him. Soon afterwards, the bus drives off as if it has a vigorous level of purpose. And I suppose it does, for the bus driver is still inside, as well as one passenger. That one passenger is all that's needed for a job to still be required to be done.

We first head to the Pokémon Laboratory, by Fee's request. Professor Zin, unsurprisingly, wearing the 16th​ pair of his collection of lab coats, doesn't seem at all surprised by our sudden arrival. He does, however, allow the slightest smile to appear on his face. Fee starts describing everything that happened, and while listening, the professor prepares a fruit bowl. He cleans up one of the tables, and we seat ourselves.

Fee catches himself on some details, carefully omitting the fact that my arms burst, us fighting (and the fact that I froze us a bit), and being unsure of whether or not we can talk about Type: Null yet. The professor tells us that Chrysanthemum Co. actually reached out to him, asking if he could assist with his expertise on Pokémon to perhaps identify an unknown Pokémon.

We also discover that this Pokémon Lab has been allowed to continue on its business, and some of the aides have already returned. They're starting off with light work. Checking in with some of the equipment, and scanning the Pokédex again. Later, they'll join the Professor and take a look at Type: Null.

Fee finally concludes by saying how he'll be continuing to follow me along the road, as my investigative duties have taken me to Amber town. Amber town is on the complete opposite side of the region, but should only take a day to travel on bus. If the route allowed for a bus ride.

You see, once we reach Ruby town, we need to use a collection of mines to reach Amber town. There's a few towns in between, that being Agate town, Mellite town, Beryl town and Malachite town. Beryl and Malachite can both be reached via bus rides, but there's not an easy cave entrance from them to get into, and they actually require us to go through more towns in order to reach.

Beryl town is close to Peridot town, and is accessible normally only by Peridot town. Malachite is a similar mess, being only accessible by Obsidian town, which is as close to Diamond City as Pearl town is. The fastest path to Amber town, then, happens to be on foot, through what is known as the 'Regnuduo Mine Mazes'.

Professor Zin wishes us both success, sponsoring Fee ₽10 000, likely due to him mentioning how we were strapped for cash. He does express how he was a bit worried that the only update that he got about our whereabouts was that we were in Pearl town, which is an infamously expensive place.

We visit the orphanage next. First thing we get is a warm welcome from half the people. Welios, and a couple of the younger folk, managed to stay awake until early night. Oawam, Tym and Noeyah express the worry they got when all they squeezed from the professor is that 'they'll be fine'. How strange communication can be.

It's homey, if not strange to be in here. I kind of forget. It's not really an orphanage. Just has the function of one. With the professor occasionally dropping by and the loving community, we aren't strapped for food, water, clothes, education. We have a better life here than some people have with their families. Nothing in particular is reminding me of that, just the crazy amount of opportunities I've been given.

I bring out Mini, who quickly becomes a favourite for the girls. Both Oawam and Noeyah have long hair, like I do, but Oawam was opposed to Mini brushing her hair. After seeing how no fur sticks onto Noeyah's hair, she welcomes Mini to help brush her hair. Welios helps brush and stylize the little girls' hair.

Because the boys feel left out, I bring our resident clown to play along. Bursting bubbles is more interesting for me as well, so I join Hextor and Hendrik in seeing who can burst the most amount of bubbles. Teeviy pops out and, not choosing violence on such a relaxing night, allows herself to be groomed by Tym and Fee. The moment of rest is appreciated.

Realizing the time, we dismiss ourselves when only Welios and Noeyah still have the energy to be up. Though Welios suggests that we stay, we deny the request. We do pack 2 blankets and 2 pillows into an additional green bag, taking the bag with us when we head out.

Passing by some of the houses, though most of the residents are inside and/or asleep, we are greeted by Timburr, and, of course, the groups upon groups of the Sudowoodo whom make both the Pokémon lab and the whole of Quartz town more lively. We catch the last bus.

We take the trip from Quartz to Celestite and down to Ruby town. Due to the proximity to the nearby inn versus the days spent in the mines, we decided to rest here. The next day came earlier than we wished it too, bringing us back to the focal point of our objective.

Solve a problem. Its my job to.
 
Chapter 31: Rock Tunnel Maze New
"Treat, Water Gun. Mini, use Pound on the Diglett."

"Teeviy, Covet the Sandshrew."

Treat blasts her water gun into the Dugtrio, causing it to duck into its holes. Mini knocks the Diglett into its hole as if playing wack-a-mole, and Teeviy mimics her movement, slamming her tail onto the Sandshrew. The Sandshrew lays on the ground, swirls appearing over their eyes.

Quickly, we return our Pokémon as we feel a rumble from the ground. I grab Fee's arm and start sprinting through the mines, doing my best to stay on stable parts of the ground. The earth erupts and separates unnaturally, dust falling from the ceiling obscures our path, so I make the quick decision to go right.

"Why are there so many wild Pokémon?"

The repels aren't working. The Pokémon around the area are too strong, which is one problem with the repels. Still, according to the Pokédex, the Pokémon who generally circle the area are about level 10, max. Here, there's fully evolved Pokémon in the mix, almost protecting the weaker ones.

Mini, Treat and Teeviy have been fighting for a long time now. It's almost been a day. The Pokédex is now calling it night. If not for the Pokédex, I would have no idea what moves Mini has, and I would have to take large steps to guess what it is she can do.

"I don't know.", I reply. "But, it's fine. We're making progress." I can only assume we are. Many of the paths are blocked off and have become dens for Pokémon, but there's also equally as many paths open and leading to a place we've never been to before. So far, none of the paths seem to loop, which is fortunate when you're running from a collection of pursuers.

"Crap!" From ahead, a rock snake with 10s of rusted rock stacked upon rusted rock slithers towards us with an unnatural sluggishness to its movement, making it all the more surprising that they approach so quickly.

I launch Treat into the air from the Poké ball, commanding her to Water Gun the Onix. She successfully does so, but they push past as if she did nothing, and begin burrowing into the ground. Already a decently fast Pokémon, the Onix starts leaping into the air and sinking back into the burrows, chucking Rock Tombs at us with ease.

Fee and I successfully dodge the 1st​ hit, but Treat is knocked down onto the ground. I scrounge for a potion, getting low in the hopes of not getting hit. Another boulder flies above me, breaking into a million pieces as it strikes the wall. I rise as I sprint, grabbing Treat and running around the Onix's burrowing spots to the best of my ability.

Another boulder, smacking the wall behind me and causing more dust to sprinkle down at us. I spray Treat with the potion, commanding her to barrage the Onix with as much Water Guns as she can.

She leaps from my grasp, falling towards the burrow the Onix came from. Surprisingly, the Onix shoots out from the same hole, launching a Rock Tomb. Treat launches herself backwards, using the immense pressure from her Water Gun, which breaks the boulder and hits the Onix.

"Teeviy, helping hand!" Fee coughs out.

Teeviy runs into the fray, and using her tail, picks herself into the air. She lets out a cry as she lands on the Onix, and pushes herself off the Onix to land on Treat. Treat begins building up another Water Gun, and Teeviy continuously claps her paws together while triumphantly baby roaring.

The Onix mouth goes wide open, easily big enough to devour the both of them. Them being in free fall, they hopelessly fall in. But before my heart can even drop, water fills the Onix and causes them to collapse onto the ground. Moments later, Treat and Teeviy are flying through the air, the high pressure Water Gun emitting bubbles that Treat managed to use running dry.

I leap to catch them, but Treat's fall is broken by the course dirt. Barrel rolling with Teeviy in my hands, I sprint to Treat. Knocked out. Again.

"Return, Treat. You did great."

Teeviy leaps from my grasp and runs over to Fee. He's on the ground, hand over mouth, coughing.

"Sorry.", he mutters slowly. "The dust. I think."

I pick him up, and he closes his eyes in relinquishment. He returns Teeviy after I heal her with our last potion, and I continue on walking. I keep Mini out, as an additional scout to help protect us from potential dangers. Every hole that exists in this mine, makes me flinch before passing by. Every hole, another possible threat waiting to jump out at us.

The journey continues to be eventful. Every moment of calm is quickly followed by a storm of Pokémon, with Teeviy and Mini having to work even harder to handle the Pokémon. Mini clears the terrain expertly with Tidy up, which also increases her speed and attack, making her our main line of defense.

With enough preparation, Helping Hand from Teeviy and a Pound from Mini cleans the feed of threats coming around. Still, even then, she has her limits, and there's many fights that we have to avoid to be able to keep moving. Eventually, a mine cart. Finally, a mine cart.

I place Fee in the cart. His coughing has only gotten worse. There's times when suddenly, his temperature rises. And I can't use Chill Touch to help out with that. Treat is still unconscious. The dust doesn't stop settling. The mines grow darker.

"Tough luck one as yourself is having." The voice rings an eerie royal touch. A familiar voice. An infamously familiar voice. It immediately makes me reach out to Fee, and without looking back, I sprint.

"Brave bird."

The cry of a metal bird rolls out as there's a scraping of metal on rock. The scraping gets louder and louder and louder. Sharper, and more intense. The cry fades away, but the endless rumbling of earth being torn through doesn't. I turn around and see Mini standing in front of me.

"Mini, move!"

"Chino!"

She braces herself for impact, covering her stomach with her tail, which has become brown with dirt and drenched in mud. What I assume is the Skarmory is a blur of yellowish light mixed with a brown hazy blur. I reach out for her Poké ball, but in a colossal of panic, it drops to the ground.

"Shield!" From the ceiling drops in a short humanoid who casts some kind of magical barrier. The attack is stopped cold, with the shield fracturing into pieces. The humanoid swings their arms in a circle before spreading them wide, and the broken fragments create a water barrier that is formed all around the Skarmory.

"Hey, you almost got the spell right." Another figure drops in, and bouncing on the barrier, it turns to ice. "Good job Curls."

"T-thanks?"

"Ugh. More children."

"Curls, maybe lead us away from the murderer?"

"R-right."

The cave grows even darker than before, as if magically conjured. In the smoke, I feel an arm grasp me, but no footsteps can be heard. At first I think it's from Curi, but then I see Fee's arms concentrated to the ground. A long while of running later, and we emerge from the smoke and into some dark divot. It looks unintentionally apart of the maze.

By intuition, we stay quiet. Mini's tail keeps wrapped to me. I hold onto Fee still. A minute passes. 3 minutes. 10 minutes. Fee struggles a cough, and it causes us to tense deeply. But after another minute passes, a great relief washes over me.

With the calm of the situation, I'm able to acknowledge the presence of two familiar faces that aren't a pain to see. Curi and Akiu. Still wearing similarly to before, from what I recall, with Akiu's hair still being as wild but charming, and Curi appearing endlessly worried about something. Baddies, I called them. This time, they helped me. Helped us.

"Thanks.", I mutter as I lay Fee on the ground.

Curi bows his head subtly, while Akiu snobbishly smiles. "You definitely owe us for that one."

I nod. A favour for a life saved? I'm fine with that. We go further into the hole and reach a dead end. We manage to set up a camp to as much of a degree it would be set up. The 2 blankets and pillows Fee and I got are laid on the ground (we'll clean them later). Curi makes a small fire, without any magic, using the small bits of wood he had and a torch from the mine.

I think about putting Fee closer to the fire, but his coughing makes me hesitant. Curi places his hands on Fee's chest, and then there's a faint greenish light. Much like before. But, the green light almost seems to be battling something much more subtle. A bit darker. Curi concentrates harder, and the light slower fades away. He exhales tension.

"That should help."

Fee winches, opening both eyes. Curi and I look at him from above, and then Akiu joins in. She pokes his face prematurely, and that causes him to blink a lot. Probably in realization of who they are. Before even his mouth opens, I can tell he's trying to process everything that just happened.

He settles for a smile and a nod. "Thank you, Curi. And I guess I should say nice to see you both again?"

"Aww, you missed us?", Akiu asks in a tone that sounds sarcastic.

Fee struggles to keep his smile. "S-sure."

Apparently he can't sense her sarcasm? Or it was a genuine question, which would confuse me as well. Last we met, Curi had an emotional breakdown, and Akiu scolded me for invalidating his feelings. Now? They seem like they're ready to ignore that that ever happened. Which is a choice I can get behind.

Curi expresses his curiosity for the man who was chasing us down, so I tell them about my encounter with the gnome. Last time wasn't very long ago. 3 or 4 days now, and instead of hunting for me by going into Pearl town, he decided to chill down and jump us when we came to him. He was likely hiding from the cops, and Champion Xecial did mention his exploits already. Maybe, because he failed to kill me, he needs to shut me up somehow? It is thanks to me that he even got discovered in the first place, which was thanks to Fee's reaction when we first met him.

"Curly yellow hair gnome with a Skarmory and an impossible ego? Sounds like Mescue Violet."

"Definitely.", Akiu replies, slouching back. "Couldn't he just die in a ditch?"

"You two know him?", Fee asks, taking out Teeviy to also join in the warmth of the place.

They both look towards each other before eventually Akiu shuffles closer, locking eyes first with Fee, then with me. Her natural smile fades into a indignant frown. "A lot of history."
 
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