Well this was embarrassing.

He normally stuck to the paths, but at some point it looked like he’d wandered off. The canopy in this part of the forest was surprisingly thick, making flight difficult. The light of the full moon still peeked through enough to cast silver freckles on the grass, mixing with Indi-Indi’s soft blue glow. Strangely though, Locke couldn’t pin down the moon’s exact location.

More disturbingly, his Probopass was having trouble orientating herself as well.

Apparently unable to sense north, Probo-Probo had sent her mini-noses in every direction in search of an exit, only for each to return unsuccessful. Except for one. The steel type turned towards where the her nose was last seen, disappearing into the undergrowth.

“Over there?” Probo-Probo slowly led them through the trees until they reached the missing drone. The mini-nose seemed to be peering through the bushes at something. It briefly turned towards Locke as they approached, before darting past the foliage and out of sight again.

Locke hurried to follow it, nearly tripping through the underbrush to catch up. When they finally finished disentangling themselves from the bushes they were surprised to find the mini-nose orbiting a familiar face.

“Oh! Skyler!”

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

The mini-nose, apparently satisfied with whatever assessment it had given Skyler, turned its attention to her Marowak, and the other two followed it to swarm the ghost type. All three circled around the Pokémon in dizzying patterns as they inspected it, hovering just out of reach of its club.

“I do overnight deliveries too ya know! And I’m pretty sure it’s stranger to find a sea captain out here than a mailman.” Locke pointed out while giving their leg one last tug, stumbling forward as they broke free of the bush. They picked out the twigs and leaves embedded in their jeans as they continued, “Although, come to think of it, I’m pretty sure the sun was still out when I left Lilyco-”



The sudden sound of twigs breaking behind him made Locke jump, and even the mini-noses abandoned their strange dance to cower behind Boneling. He half-turned to face the darkness they’d just come from, casting wary glances back at Skyler. Indi-Indi, ever-curious slowly floated forward to light up the undergrowth before its trainer could call it back.

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

“Uh, no!” Locke answered, voice high and eyes wide.

Indi-Indi quickly backed away in surprise, hiding itself in a rock-hard shell and dropping to the ground with a thunk at it’s trainer’s feet. “Probo-Probo! Cover us!” At the Probopass’ command, her mini-noses flew forward to surround the group with a Wide Guard while Locke rushed to pick up his frightened Minior.

With one arm occupied with a shivering star, he reached into his bag to find a Pokémon better suited for a quick escape, only to find it empty. Of course he’d been robbed on top of everything else. “You wouldn’t happen to have something that can Teleport, would you?”

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

She didn’t have to tell him twice. Locke shuffled as close as he could get to Skyler, clutching the back of her shirt like a lifeline and flinching at the subsequent attack. “Probo-Probo! Find it!” he squeaked from behind the captain.

The mini-noses fanned out, hovering around the area in search of their assailant. Three stopped at the edge of the tree line, each Locking-On to a different bush or branch. The last…

The last nose didn’t move, just turned and stared at them-no,

behind them.

A flash of light met Locke as they turned around, brighter for having spent the better part of an hour in pitch darkness. In the ensuing blindness, something slithered and wound itself around their leg, yanking it out from under them to send the courier crashing to the ground with a sharp yelp.

“Skyyyleeeer!”

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

”My leg! There’s something-” Locke cut off with another shout, as more vines suddenly whipped out and engulfed them up to their chest. The plant matter glowed an unnatural white, and they felt the Strength Sap from their body as the Shiinotic one-by-one revealed themselves. And Skyler-

Skyler was trapped too, by some unseen bind.

The mushrooms atop one of the wild Pokémon released a flickering, white powder near the pair, further exhausting Locke. Desperate, he muttered one last command before the Spores took hold and dragged him into deadly slumber:

”Magnet…Bomb…”

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BOOM.

Locke jolted awake as one mini-nose slammed into its target, sending both a Shiinotic and the branch it was hidden in crashing to the ground.

BOOM.

Another mini-nose found its mark amidst the brambles, clearing the undergrowth in a small radius around it and exposing the clump of Morelull underneath.

BOOM.

Dirt and grass rained around them as one nose revealed a Shiinotic hiding beneath the earth.

BOOM.

The last of Probo-Probo’s mini-noses exploded behind them, just beyond the wall of blue flame between them and their captors. Locke peeked out from underneath Skyler, heart pounding with adrenaline, but found it impossible to assess the damage form this angle.

Nonetheless, it did the trick. What Shiinotic remained quickly scattered until the two trainers were alone, seemingly free of whatever spell the Pokémon had held them under.

Locke let out a sigh of relief, though it came out as more of a long wheeze while crushed beneath the older woman.

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

Locke flipped over onto his back as the world shifted around them nauseatingly. Trees turned to buildings, the previously eerie silence was filled with the distant sounds of city life, and the stars above faded under the light pollution of a thousand street lamps.

Watching it made his head pound, so he closed his eyes until the illusion had fully faded and Skyler had finished helping him stand.

Their growing headache and worn out body protested any activity after wandering around in apparent circles for several hours, but curling up alone in a tent outside the city felt like too miserable an end to the night.

And some Alto Marean sounded really good right about now.

”…Yeah. Why not.”

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz