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[attr="class","wildtitle"]A WILD VANILLITE APPEARED!

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[attr="class","wildtabox"] FEMALE	[attr="class","wildtabox2"] WEAK ARMOR
[attr="class","wildtabox"]ACID ARMOR	[attr="class","wildtabox2"]MIRROR COAT
[attr="class","wildtabox"]HARDEN	[attr="class","wildtabox2"]ASTONISH
[attr="class","wildtabox"] ---	[attr="class","wildtabox2"] ---

[attr="class","wildtag"]Shalin Nariya Altagracia Contreras

[attr="class","wildnote"] WHAT WILL YOU DO?

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[attr="class","wildtitle"]A WILD WOOPER APPEARED!

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[attr="class","wildtabox"] FEMALE	[attr="class","wildtabox2"] UNAWARE
[attr="class","wildtabox"]MUD BOMB	[attr="class","wildtabox2"]TAIL WHIP
[attr="class","wildtabox"]AQUA TAIL	[attr="class","wildtabox2"]MIST
[attr="class","wildtabox"] ---	[attr="class","wildtabox2"] ---

[attr="class","wildtag"]Shalin Nariya Altagracia Contreras

[attr="class","wildnote"] WHAT WILL YOU DO?

BOTH OF YOUR CAPTURE ATTEMPTS ARE SUCCESSFUL!

The Tyrantum Altagracia called out was huge, taking up quite a bit of the room. Shalin's mount reacted much more slowly than normal to the fierce dinosaur's presence. She didn't have quite as much of a reaction as Kiara, though; as it turned out, she had been around the species semi-regularly and knew what to expect. Seeing the apex predator wag its giant tail like a small canine warmed her heart; not even Regal had that soft of a heart.

"Nice Pokémon! I have one stuck in customs, too," Shalin complimented. "Hopefully Regal will be able to make it across the border soon!" Seeing the vicious Pokémon be so docile made her giggle quietly as Soberano got to work. It had to be hard for the ancient Pokémon; after all, dragon-types were known for their aversion to cold. That showed just how well-trained he was. The passage was clean too. "Usually Tyrantum are brutal even when trained. Soberano is so sweet! I hope you get to see Regal sometime soon!"

Back to work, though. Beyond the ice wall the dragon-type opened up was a spiral staircase leading downward, and what appeared to be a long one, at that. Blue fire similar to the one illuminating the arena kept the staircase well-lit but eerily so. Before proceeding down the stairs, Shalin procured her last vial of Super Potion and sprayed Kiara's wounds from the Froslass' FROST BREATH. "That's my last one; whatever strength she has left, I gotta make it last." She withdrew her Pyroar long enough to descend the long staircase.

According to her map, this was the Crystal Trench's very bottom level, and it had a very different décor from the rest of the place. While the observation chamber and arena looked very regal and castle-like, this floor looked like an ice prison; not a single ice window in sight, only illuminated by blue fire. While it didn't quite get to the temperature the ice arena was at, it was quite a bit colder than the rest of the dungeon. She surmised many of this dungeon's prisoners of aeons past died of hypothermia before carrying their sentences out. It was a grim prospect to think about.

An entire horde of Vanillish raced past Shalin as she heard a bone-chilling avian screech come from the north, drowning out a distant Alolan Ninetales cry that Altagracia might have been able to hear. "Did you hear that?!" she asked her companion, her heart racing. She could feel Kiara's heart beating faster, too. Curiosity got the better of her, though; she pressed onward, into a large tunnel leading deeper into the dungeon...

...when the avian cry repeated itself, a divine-strength ICY WIND howled through the tunnel, blowing Shalin clean off her Pyroar mount and back to the prison level's antechamber. When she managed to stand up, squinting in pain from nerves flaring up around the edges of her cheeks. She could not feel her face from how cold it was. The entire tunnel she tried to go through was covered in a sheet of ice so thick she could not clearly see through it, and in front of that was a Kiarasickie. "Kiara, no!" Shalin dizzily recalled her Pokémon, still not noticing the faint Alolan Ninetales cries over her rather heavy breathing.

In an effort to warm back up, Shalin sent out several of her Pokémon: Levy, her Milotic; Prance, her Wyrdeer; and finally, Treble, her Hakamo-o. The three cuddled around their trainer in an effort to warm her up, Treble going to a greater extent by vibrating his scales gently enough to feel like a message and not fast enough for contact to feel abrasive like it would in battle. Letting out a sad-sounding cry, the water-type splashed drops of LIFE DEW over Shalin and her team, including Altagracia and her squad inside the mist if she so desired.

The explorer's face was still numb, but she at least was feeling a lot better. She was out of Super Potion, and Levy's LIFE DEW was fully depleted. While the healing energy was renewable, it took hours for it to renew. She was running at close to full strength but with no reserves. "I imagine it had to have come from a Pokémon that's both Ice-type and Flying-type. The only one I know of is Delibird, and there was no way that was a Delibird's cry. Can you think of a Pokémon that's Ice-type and Flying-type and is that powerful?" Shalin asked. She hated to reverse the question, but she could not think of a Pokémon that fit.

Once she was feeling better, Shalin withdrew her team and pressed eastward, hearing a loud Alolan Ninetales cry that got louder the farther eastward they walked across the lonely-looking prison corridor. The voice the Ninetales was making was deep for its kind. A chill shot down her spine, and not from cold temperature. "Altagracia, that's it. That's the Ninetales I told you about. Can you hear her?" They could hear the sounds of Ice-type and Fairy-type attacks going off, too. They weren't getting in there easily, though; the door was chained shut, its lock bearing quite a large keyhole. "Well we can't do anything here. Let's go back upstairs. See if we can get to the arena's observation level. It's the only place in here we haven't been yet. Well, except past this lock."

Provided her partner would agree to the backtrack, Shalin would lead the way back upstairs. Getting out of the prison and back to the lower levels of the Crystal Trench felt like stepping next to a space heater by comparison. As they backtracked, the two heard the Alolan Ninetales cry again, the sound at its loudest when she went up the spiraling stairs she had passed up before. It led to the arena's observation area. Well, that was easy enough to find!

Shalin's heart sank when she heard Altagracia's namedrop. A Glastrier was wandering the Crystal Trench, and now the Titan of Ice, Articuno? "Now it makes sense why even Ice Heal wouldn't defrost Kiara," she added, her heart rate rising. Perhaps the presence of ice-type Legendary Pokémon was the real reason this was a place Rangers were not authorized to go into.

Fully aware of the danger she was in, Shalin's level of urgency rose unnaturally high. It was as though that in the split second of understanding she was in the presence of possibly a hostile Legendary Pokémon, she had become a totally different person. "We need to move. We need to get what we came here for and go."

After a long climb and quite a bit of backtracking, Shalin had led the way to the arena's observation chamber. She was not used to doing this much walking, though her second wind from trying to complete her objective before she ran into either of those diving Pokémon again overcame her shortness of breath.

On the observation chamber's west side was a familiar sight. "Hey look, it's that's slide. That's how we got down to the arena level," Shalin pointed out. "Could be handy." As she rounded the circular deck, she caught sight of a yellow-and-blue treasure chest encased in thick ice formed from repeated use of ICICLE CRASH. What horrible battle had taken place here? She didn't want to think of it; in her current mental state, every wasted moment was one where Articuno could catch up to her.

"Treble, gonna need a hand here," Shalin said as she sent out her Hakamo-o with far less emotion and excitement than was normally in her voice. "Altagracia, cover your ears." Once she was sure her partner had done as she asked, she covered her own and addressed the dragon-type. "I want you to use your CLANGING SCALES to shatter that ice, okay?" Nodding, Shalin's Pokémon rest his claws against the pillar, then the loud rattling came. While the scales themselves weren't as loud as Shalin expected, what they heard was akin to a car stereo bass boosted well beyond legal limits as Treble's claws struck the ice more rapidly than one of his trainer's bug Pokémon's wings buzzed.

When the cacophony stopped, Shalin slowly uncovered her ears. The ice pillar was completely destroyed, though its frozen contents were unharmed. "We need to take this back downstairs, and fast."

You got the BOSS KEY! This is the master key of the dungeon. It can open many locks that small keys cannot.

The girl seemed in all too much of a hurry to get back to the deepest depths of the castle's prison, even encouraging Altagracia to take the slippery slide back to arena level. Regardless of how the two got there, Shalin stopped in front of the locked vault door where she had heard the Alolan Ninetales cries and inserted the large key, but did not turn it until her partner showed up.

Shalin took a deep breath as Altagracia opened the vault door, the loud, deep cry of a giant Alolan Ninetales. "If you have a Fire-type or a Poison-type Pokémon, get it ready." From the explorer's tense tone, that was not a suggestion. She had forgotten that Altagracia was technically her client, and had the authority to decide when they left. Plus, she still had the freedom to use her Pokémon how she wanted! She headed in with Queen Zing's Poké Ball in hand; with Kiara still stuck as a Kiarasickle, it was her best weapon against an Alolan Ninetales.

Shalin stepped through into the darkness ahead. Provided Altagracia followed her in, the first thing she would notice were wisps of blue fire, similar to the ones in the arena where the two fought the Froslass, floating slowly from the ceiling toward fixed points on the walls. The girl sent out her Beedrill and was about to mount the insect, when the blue flames lit torches close to the ceiling, well out of reach of the ground. The entire room was bathed in a cold, familiar blue light that may have been chilling to the bone to both Shalin and Altagracia. Moments later, it... it sounded another terrifying, otherworldly cry.



An Alolan Ninetales, its red gaze fixated on Queen Zing, lunged toward her with blinding AGILITY. Shalin was able to sprint out of harm's way, but the startled Beedrill was not. Finding herself pinned beneath the hulking fairy fox, the bug-type furiously buzzed her wings, flailing her three stings toward her mist-laden foe. Her trainer didn't even have time to issue a command before the Alpha stopped the poison-type cold, twisting reality around her with EXTRASENSORY power.

The buzzing stopped in an instant, her Beedrill wiped out in a single attack. Shalin was an opportunist; with the Ninetales having its back exposed to her, she reached for its shoulder, just like she did the last time. The Ninetales wasn't going to fall for that trick again! Catching movement out of its peripheral, the red-eyed Ice-type hopped back and gave Shalin a death stare, the mist of an ICE BEAM foaming from its mouth. Furthermore, walls of sparkling NEVER MELT ICE had materialized around the two doors, their glow clearly indicating the Alolan Ninetales was maintaining the icy prison the two found themselves in.

NAME          SPECIES        STATUS
Shalin        Human          ♥♥♥♥♥
Flit          Yanmega        Good
Kiara         Pyroar-F       Freeze
Treble        Hakamo-o       Good
Prance        Wyrdeer        Good
Queen Zing    Beedrill       KO
Levy          Milotic        Good

The Magneton's MIRROR SHOT came just in time, able to stop the Ninetales' chilling attack from turning Shalin into a giant ice cube! Furthermore, the metallic projectile caused their foe to lurch backward. She palmed two Poké Balls, one containing Prance, and an empty one. She wasn't leaving without the Medallion, but she also wanted to make this Ninetales hers. It had worked on the Pidgeot. What made this different?

Taking advantage of the Ninetales briefly being stunned, Shalin ran toward the ice-type, grabbed its shoulder, and flung herself aboard. The red-eyed Pokémon bellowed a primal cry when she felt the girl's hands buried in her fur again. She dropped the Poké Ball containing Prance, the Wyrdeer trying to ram the wild with PSYSHIELD BASH from either ahead or behind. She could not broadside the foe with her trainer having the time of her life trying to exhaust the Ninetales by being the annoying flea she was. Learning from her last encounter with the girl, bucking the girl off was going to be exhausting. The Crystal Trench's Ice Queen had to employ quite the NASTY PLOT if she wanted to send the girl flying.

The Alpha kept as much distance from Magneton and Prance as possible. If they weren't in the middle of combat, watching the twirling displays of AGILITY. Shalin, following her instincts to hold on, squeezed the fairy fox's sides hard. That was also the universal command for a mount to go faster. And faster she went, looking like a comet streaking across the night sky as she circled the room at speeds that made even the so-called Wildest Rider in Hoenn scream.

Unlike many of Shalin's fast Pokémon, the Ninetales was also extremely nimble. The Ice Queen's AGILITY reaching peak form, she swerved sharply to cart across the center of the large chamber, her rider screaming from being so white-knuckled that she felt they were going to pierce her skin at any moment. She had a lot of experience riding wild Pokémon, but this rough of a ride was even beyond her talent. She prepared for the next swerve by flipping the capture button on her palmed Poké Ball to face the Ninetales.

The angry Alpha was ready, though. She built up speed again, then dug her sharp claws into the ice in the center of the arena. Braking as hard as she could before rearing, she caught her rider off guard. She thrust her back upward sharply, bucking Shalin with not a tremendous show of force, but plenty powerful and with such finesse that the peak of the motion was right underneath where Shalin sat. She looked like she was in a great deal of pain as she went sailing across the arena into one of the slabs of Never Melt Ice at high speed.

Her empty Poké Ball dropped onto the Ninetales, drawing the Ice Queen in. The injured rider took a breather to stand up and catch her breath as she watched, from a distance, the fairy-type struggle to break free. And break free she did, shattering the Poké Ball and sending projectiles flying at roughly the speed of firearm bullets. The instant she broke out, she lunged at Altagracia's Magneton with every bit of STORED POWER she had.