"No kidding," Shalin laughed as she had reached the top of the stairs, a septet of standing coffins surrounding a dais with a latched, ornately-carved chest in it. Everything seemed quiet...too quiet. It was such an obvious trap, but curiosity's allure would be difficult to overtime. The lull in the action would be a good chance for Shalin to at least dress her now second set of Zubat wounds. The flying vermin were easy enough to swat out of the sky on their own, but in swarms was where they were truly dangerous. The girl couldn't help but laugh about Ashley's mention of being taken out to dinner. "You're right, Sawyer. When this is over, we'll have to get a nice meal somewhere."

Ignoring the coffin-surrounded treasure chest for now, Shalin took a peek through the south exit, which led to what appeared to be a dead end full of Pawniard. "Nope," she shook her head and turned back around, approaching the coffin-encircled treasure chest once more. She carefully scanned the chest and the coffins for any sign of a trap, and could not find one just from Kiara's light. Unfortunately for her, she had missed a trip wire; when she popped the chest's lid open, the coffins toppled over like dominos, the girl having to dive out of the way before she was crushed. It looked like more gems not unlike what she had seen on the lowest floor of the ruins.

Shalin pressed onward, crawling into a slippery, narrow tunnel in the west wall. The slick, oil-covered surface caused her to slide to the same room they had found the friendly Klefki in, but on the opposite side. She could get to the source of the light she had seen before; it was a hole in the ceiling! She sent out her Beedrill again, waving Ashley over. "Sawyer, we should be able to go up from here," she pointed toward the missing ceiling corner. Provided Ashley was willing to follow her upward after the Beedrill let her off, the two would move on together.

The girl recalled her noisy Beedrill and took a look around; it seemed like the only way out of the empty room containing nothing but the pitfall back to where they came from was another slick-looking crawlspace. She slid down into another mostly-empty room, though this one had a Bisharp who wielded a vicious-looking ball-and-chain. The steel-type was a very dangerous Pokémon as is, but one using that on top of everything else could put some serious hurt on anything it struck. Not wanting to deal with the wild, she spurred Kiara to sprint into the next room. which glowed with a yellow light whose source was on the east side.

Two rows of Claydol stared at Shalin as she approached the dais on the far side of the room. As Kiara carried her closer, the light's source became apparent: it was coming from a yellow-and-black marble Shalin could only recognize as a hunk of Beedrillite! "Whoa, Sawyer! Can you believe this?" While she wasn't a believer before, something in her mind nagged her to think this was destiny in action. Kiara carried Shalin up to the pedestal at the center of the dais, where she took a deep breath and grasped the large, marble-like Mega Stone.

You got the BEEDRILLITE! While Queen Zing cannot Mega Evolve without a KEY STONE, she can now remotely control the flight path of her TWINEEDLE!

Just as she sent Queen Zing out and handed the valuable mineral to her yellow-and-black companion, a series of iron bars rose from the floor to surround the dais, trapping the two inside as seven of the Claydol came to life. If Sawyer had followed her to the dais, he would have been trapped, too. One was inside the dais and looked like it was going to erupt EARTH POWER toward them, the others looking like they were charging PSYBEAMs.

Ashley Shepard

{WC: 660|
{PC: 9}

NAME          SPECIES        STATUS
Shalin        Human          ♥♥♥♥♥♥
Flit          Yanmega        Good
Kiara         Pyroar-F       Fair
Treble        Hakamo-o       Good
Prance        Wyrdeer        Good
Queen Zing    Beedrill       Good
Jugan         Snivy          Good

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The room erupted into Psychic-type and Ground-type chaos. EARTH POWER was erupting all over the dais; there was nowhere to hide. "Quick, Queen Zing! Latch onto it, then use your Triple Sting Combo!" Taking advantage of his ability to hover off the ground, the Beedrill had extra time to act before being engulfed in the Ground-type move, and did she ever make use of it. She dove toward the psychic-type and stabbed with both of her foreleg stings, adding insult to injury with a point-blank TWINEEDLE, her buzzing drowning out almost all the other noise in the room. She wasn't done yet; while the Claydol was still reeling, she braced herself against her foreleg stings and plunged her deadly rear FELL STINGER barb into the Psychic-type. Its eyes ceased glowing, the foe hitting the ground with a loud thud.

Meanwhile, Ashley was doing a wonderful job fending off the Claydol, he and Bongo working together to take two down and grievously injure a third. Then a PSYBEAM struck him. "Queen Zing, use your TWINEEDLE again!" With the giant surge of power from her Beedrillite and FELL STINGER, the yellow and black insect droned loudly and harshly, rapid-firing the thin but highly venomous needles toward the Psychic-types. Psychics were powerful, but insects were their bane. As two more of the Claydol fell, a PSYBEAM raced toward her, the girl ducking. She didn't have to, though; the attack harmlessly struck one of the bars keeping her prisoner.

As Queen Zing TWINEEDLEd the fifth Claydol to unconsciousness, the final one took cover behind a pillar and continued to fire PSYBEAMs toward Shalin and Queen Zing. It was only a matter of time before they were struck, and the cage was so dense that she could not get a full-size Poké Ball between two of them. The venomous's insect's Beedrillite started glowing as she fired another barrage of needles, curving around the pillar and striking the Claydol square in the head, knocking it down in two hits.

Once all seven had been felled, the bars receded into the ground, Shalin taking several deep breaths. "Sawyer, you okay?!" she shouted, stumbling toward the dais and toward Ashley. "That stone is something else! Did you see Queen Zing's Twineedle? She can curve it now!"

Ashley Shepard

{WC: 378}
{PC: 10}

NAME          SPECIES        STATUS
Shalin        Human          ♥♥♥♥♥♥
Flit          Yanmega        Good
Kiara         Pyroar-F       Fair
Treble        Hakamo-o       Good
Prance        Wyrdeer        Good
Queen Zing    Beedrill       Fair
Jugan         Snivy          Good

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That battle did a number on everyone - both Shalin and Ashley, and their Pokémon teams as a whole. Though the seven unconscious Claydol still looked creepy, they wouldn't be getting up any time soon after their Bug-type and Grass-type beating. "I'm good with...taking a...breather," Shalin panted, starting to feel the burn of the Psybeams that had struck her. She pulled out her phone and checked the map she had been keeping. If exploration rate meant anything, the Beedrillite room they were in now marked the halfway point.

After Ashley's mention of a head impact, Shalin's first instinct was to check for obvious injuries. She didn't find anything too terrible. What a miracle! There were still some areas she needed to patch up, both in the area that was struck and elsewhere on both of them. She never went anywhere without a first aid kit. As she began patching the two of them up, she realized she had not fully restocked it before leaving. She prioritized patching and dressing all of Ashley's wounds before moving on to her own. While she did not have enough supplies to patch up all of her own, she was able to get most of the worst ones.

"That's all she wrote," Shalin sighed, still a bit tired. "We gotta be really careful from here on out. If you have a Pokémon that's the right size for it, you should think about riding your Pokémon, or at least keeping one in front of you. Having a Pokémon between you and this place's nasties could make a big difference." While Shalin was far from a mounted combatant, the added mobility made her feel a lot safer.

While the two were still licking their wounds, Shalin continued to review their map. They had reached a dead end. Clearly the two had missed something. Then, a lightbulb. They hadn't missed something. Shalin had found something. "Sawyer, I think we need to go back here," she tilted the map toward him and pointed her finger toward a dead-end in the northwest corner of the lowest level.

After sufficient rest and a copious amount of backtracking, Shalin and Kiara led the way to the planned destination. With her Beedrill's new ability, this would be simple. "Queen Zing, let's go! Use your TWINEEDLE!" The lithe explorer sent her Beedrill out, who promptly rest her foreleg stings in the small gap. She pulled both of them to her right as she took her shot, the needles rotating clockwise at high speed and curving around the glass wall, striking the previously out-of-reach switch.

GRIIINNNNDDDD!!!

A stone slab receded into the floor, revealing a spiral staircase. "Let's go." The moment they emerged to the second level, the Klefki accompanying Ashley let out a cry, floating and flitting toward the southeast corner of the large hall. After frantically searching the oddly-shaped southeast wall, the steel-type spotted a small alcove similar in shape and size to one of the ones Ashley and Shalin had slid down before. The small Pokémon had little trouble floating up it.

Meanwhile, Shalin and Kiara headed toward the south side of the upper level, taking a peek arounc the corner. A large, ring-shaped object was shedding light in all colors of the rainbow, illuminating the room. "Sawyer, would you look at this." Floating atop a pedestal was a rare treasure indeed - a MEGA CIRCLET. And one almost perfectly sized for Shalin's head, too! With that, she could Mega Evolve Queen Zing and make the Beedrill truly a force to be reckoned with. There was just one problem, though. What was more unsettling was the prison-like cage of bars that covered the south and east sides of the small room.

What kind of deadly trap protected such a valuable artifact from would-be thieves?

Shalin double-checked her map; they had been everywhere they could get to as of yet. If they wanted to leave the Epoch Ruins alive, they were likely going to have to trip this horrible trap, whatever it was. She did a thorough search of the room. No blade-holes or arrow-holes she noticed. No immediate threat of death as she completed her first two passes of the wall. As her eyes shifted to the floor, it dawned on her. Those were scrape marks all along the entire floor.

When she grabbed that Mega Circlet, they were going to have to book it. Book it, or become plaster on the walls of the Epoch Ruins for the rest of existence. She scooted forward on her Pyroar's back. "Sawyer, saddle up and hold on tight. We're gonna need it. Believe me."

Ashley Shepard

NAME          SPECIES        STATUS
Shalin        Human          ♥♥♥♥♥♥
Flit          Yanmega        Good
Kiara         Pyroar-F       Fair
Treble        Hakamo-o       Good
Prance        Wyrdeer        Good
Queen Zing    Beedrill       Fair
Jugan         Snivy          Good

{WC: 775}
{PC: 11}

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Shalin carefully guided Kiara to the pedestal with the Mega Circlet floating within reach. She took one hand off her Pyroar's reins to grab the rare and powerful charm, which fit her head almost perfectly.

You got a MEGA CIRCLET! With the power of a corresponding Mega Stone, you can now Mega Evolve your Pokémon for a limited time!

With a screech and a loud thud, the bars caging the pedestal area receded into the floor, and a stone slab covered the doorway the two had just passed through. A maze of spikes rose from the floor, beyond where the bars had receded. A stream of quicksand flowed over its labyrinthine corridors, which would push Kiara in the direction of the flowing sands and necessitate adjustments from them both. While Ashley's thoughts about a boulder chasing them weren't far off, the reality was far worse. A deafening thud boomed in the long chamber as the reality sunk in.

The walls were closing in on them.

"Let's go, Kiara! Run!" The explorer dug her heels into Kiara's sides, the Pyroar racing into the spike maze with both passengers in tow. Jumping was not an option, lest she get per precious cat mount skewered. She had to run the maze's course, mostly against the flowing sand. Shalin was quickly finding the turns to be too complex for full manual control to be the way to go. She hung Kiara's reins on the end of her saddle and gently pat her. "Relying on you!"

The constant swerving challenged Shalin's grip on the fire-type feline, but cutting one set of reaction times did the trick: they made it to the open door on the opposite side of the deathtrap just as the closing walls had reached the door frame. On the other side was a large, yellow key that would fit well on Ashley's Klefki's key ring.

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

Shalin and Kiara both took deep breaths after that one. In a place full of deathtraps, that one was by far the worst. One wrong turn or bad decision, and the three would have wound up pancakes, splattered over the walls of the Epoch Ruins for...well, an epoch to come. "You okay, Sawyer?" she asked, dismounting her Pokémon to help regain feeling in her legs before she even thought about continuing upstairs.

Ashley Shepard

Keys: Boss

NAME          SPECIES        STATUS
Shalin        Human          ♥♥♥♥♥♥
Flit          Yanmega        Good
Kiara         Pyroar-F       Fair
Treble        Hakamo-o       Good
Prance        Wyrdeer        Good
Queen Zing    Beedrill       Fair
Jugan         Snivy          Good

{WC: 410}
{PC: 12}

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"I got a place I can take you in Fortree," Shalin laughed back. "Great milkshakes. My treat." She, too, was getting close to the end of her rope with the Epoch Ruins. Looking at her map, they were almost there! She wished she could have given Kiara a break, but the Pyroar was the green-head's only reliable source of light. "I think I'm ready, Sawyer," she said, standing up and getting on Kiara's back again. "If you're ready, let's go."

As Shalin led the way, she noticed a very faint natural light entering the small chamber upstairs. It was dim, but she could see beyond the radius shed by her mount's glowing mane! That was a sign the two were getting close. Once she reached the top, she encountered four small statues depicting the hieroglyphs of four Unown; H, J, P, and T, in that order. Covering the door was a slab with a riddle:

"A MESSAGE FOR YE SEEKING
MEDALLION OF PUREST CHROME!
RECALL THE ROADS WHENCE YE CAME,
MOTHER TEMPLE MUCH THE SAME.
WHICH DOES NOT BELONG?"

"You have any idea what this is talking about?" Shalin asked, shrugging. If there was one thing she despised, it was riddles. The first two lines didn't feel like they were relevant, but what was the "Mother Temple much the same" it was referring to? She paced the room, brainstorming for what it could possibly be referring to. After a few minutes, she noticed marks surrounding the P-labeled pedestal. She pushed in its direction, the statue giving way. The tablet blocking the north exit receded, and a trapdoor opened in the northeast corner, Shalin immediately able to hear a Klefki cry. "That was it!" she smiled. "See, there's more than one way to skin an Ursaring."

Shalin peered over the now-opened trapdoor, sighting the Klefki that had accompanied them this entire time trying to get a small treasure chest open! She switched ride Pokémon to her Beedrill and hovered to the lower level, helping the Steel-type by kicking open the chest's lid. Inside was another SMALL KEY! With that and the master key, no locks were stopping them now!

After the Klefki and Shalin rejoined Ashley, Shalin pressed onward, the chrome-colored key immediately being used on a locked door that led them into a room whose perimeter was covered in tall spikes similar to the ones in the room with the Mega Circlet inside. It was big - there was all kinds of room for her to fight alongside one of her giant insects. And fight she would need to - the nearly silent wingbeats of a giant Crobat, nearly the size of an Alpha Pokémon; both of them could ride this Crobat together if it was theirs! Shalin withdrew her Beedrill for Flit, her Yanmega.

Once the two were inside the perimeter, stone shutters would seal them inside. There was no escaping until the duel with this speedy wild Pokémon was over! She put her earplugs in and prepared to enter a battle with the four-winged poison-type!

Ashley Shepard

Keys: Boss

NAME          SPECIES        STATUS
Shalin        Human          ♥♥♥♥♥♥
Flit          Yanmega        Good
Kiara         Pyroar-F       Fair
Treble        Hakamo-o       Good
Prance        Wyrdeer        Good
Queen Zing    Beedrill       Fair
Jugan         Snivy          Good

{WC: 508}
{PC: 13}

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Shalin did as Ashley instructed, covering her eyes as Bullet kicked up a fierce WHIRLWIND with her small wings. It helped marginally, though it wasn't quite as effective as it would have been against other flying Pokémon. The swirling winds made it more difficult to fly, but the dust didn't impair the Crobat's echolocation much. It was enough to at least keep the giant bat's fangs at bay.

Knowing the species' true senses were in echolocation, Shalin grinned. She had the perfect Pokémon to combat those senses, and she was going to have a blast doing so. The explorer stowed her Beedrill's reins and gripped the end of the insectile predator's saddle for dear life. "Overload it, Queen Zing!" The enormous wasp flew to an adjacent corner of the room, near where the spikes outlining the room were. She churned her wings at full blast.

Shalin's messy, fine, green hair turned into nothing short of a bloom of chaos from the violently shaking Beedrill giving her the most intense massage imaginable. The feeling was utterly alien, every nerve in her body tingling from the rapid motion overwhelming it. The two would have a substantial advantage as long as Queen Zing kept the vibration up, leaving the Crobat effectively blind. She had a big smile on her face - was she actually enjoying being shaken about so harshly? The Beedrill's wings were completely invisible from how fast they were beating.

Two could play at the sound game, though! The Crobat let out a SUPERSONIC screech of its own to get the deafening droning to stop. That wasn't the only factor; Shalin's big smile was slowly starting to disappear from her face as the noise continued. Was the violent vibration starting to overwhelm the self-proclaimed wildest Pokémon rider in Hoenn?

Ashley Shepard


Keys: Boss

NAME          SPECIES        STATUS
Shalin        Human          ♥♥♥♥♥♥
Flit          Yanmega        Good
Kiara         Pyroar-F       Fair
Treble        Hakamo-o       Good
Prance        Wyrdeer        Good
Queen Zing    Beedrill       Fair
Jugan         Snivy          Good

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The droning did indeed stop, but not as a result of the SUPERSONIC attack. It stopped as a result of Bongo's and Bullet's impressive combo attack that the Crobat would have easily been able to dodge if it knew where the two were coming from. The giant vespoid landed, the wild child unable to feel her limbs.

It took the perimeter spikes receding into the floor and the two sets of shutters covering the doors slamming open, each with a loud thud, to realize it was over. She gave a weak thumbs up. As much fun as she had fighting astride Queen Zing, that shaking left her wiped!

Once she was feeling better, she answered Ashley's question. "I just looked at the floor to see which one looked like it would move easiest, heh," she laughed, withdrawing Queen Zing for Kiara and mounting up. "We're almost there!" Shalin cheered, her stomach starting to rumble. Just how long had they been here?

The next hallway was laden with all sorts of blade traps, Shalin having her Pyroar intentionally trip the first one and retract her foot back. After watching the blades fly, Shalin concluded that the trap's designer intended to use the victim's emotions against them; as long as they kept moving forward and didn't try to dodge anything, none of the blades would touch them. "Either hop on Kiara or run behind me. Long as we keep moving, we'll be fine."

Regardless of what Ashley preferred, she led the way, a cascade of blade traps and bolts flying behind her. The rhythmic metal-to-stone impacts produced a sinister beat that almost sounded like instruments backing a malevolent god's chant. If Ashley was riding behind Shalin, she would give him a warning before sharply swerving Kiara right, leaping over two spiked pillars on their sides. "Great work, girl. I know you're getting tired." At the end of the long hall was a staircase leading up, dim light filtering through it. "Look at that! It's light!" she called out.

While it was only faint, there was outside light trickling in from the very top of the first basement, or the fourth level from the bottom. This level was twice as tall as the others, but a giant trapdoor kept them from simply flying to the top level. Several Sandile and evolved forms chased them as they explored, but all it took was Shalin sending Queen Zing out and roaring her wings toward them intimidatingly to get them to back down.

In the large room's northwest corner were three switches similar to the one the Beedrillite was needed for on the bottom level. This would be substantially more complicated, as they were moving back and forth past the transparent wall. Furthermore, all three "Queen Zing, use your TWINEEDLE!" the trainer cried, the giant bee resting her foreleg stings on the small alcove and launching them. The two switched she hit clicked, then clicked back. "One more time!" She repeated the attack, only to get the same result.

With the narrow slits at floor level and chest level the only way to get to the switches, and Queen Zing having to curve her Twineedles around a wall to get to the back two, this was going to require precise timing. Where was she going to get a third projectile from? Shalin couldn't ask Bongo for help; they'd only have one shot, and there was on way they'd be able to recover his stick even if they succeeded. She thought about it long and hard, then it clicked.

"It won't be easy, but I think Queen Zing can do it." She studied the moving patterns for a while. Queen Zing took several shots, nailing two out of three several times. The two waited patiently for the right moment. "Now! Use your FELL STINGER and TWINEEDLE together!" The bug-type extended her rear sting deep into the floor alcove, launching three deadly barbs at once. All three hit with the sound of a box of toys spilling out onto a hard floor. That did the trick; the trapdoor opened above them.

The deep cry of a Tsaarena echoed throughout the two-story chamber, much more light filtering in. They didn't even need Kiara to see. Shalin flew up to the top level with Queen Zing, the giant bee ready to carry Ashley afterward. An ornate, golden lock covered a large shutter, the low-pitched Tsaarena cry much louder than before when she was closer to the door. "Get ready to fight a grass-type Pokémon," Shalin warned. "When you're ready, open it. I promise I'll take you out to lunch when we're out of here. Wherever you want to go."

Ashley Shepard

Keys: Boss

NAME          SPECIES        STATUS
Shalin        Human          ♥♥♥♥♥♥
Flit          Yanmega        Good
Kiara         Pyroar-F       Fair
Treble        Hakamo-o       Good
Prance        Wyrdeer        Good
Queen Zing    Beedrill       Fair
Jugan         Snivy          Good

{WC: 780}
{PC: 15}