”So a little less climbing than the average Sootpolis delivery then, ” Locke deadpanned back Hideo Kino. Truly, he had trained his entire time in Hoenn for this.

You know the drill. New room, new puzzle. angelo vestri was quick to resolve the first half of the puzzle for the team, and Locke positively beamed as he laid eyes on his friend’s Pokémon. ”Your Decidueye looks so cool! I’ve never seen a shiny one before,” he exclaimed, admiring the blue plumage of its hood.

With the Spikey Shield down, De-De was free to Freeze-Dry her opponent from a safe distance, though the Togedemaru seemed largely unbothered by the sparkling frost that now coated parts of its metallic body.

”I dunno, my grandpa collected those novelty plates with like Champions and Elite Four members on them. A couple of em were even signed!”

---

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

Locke listened to Xander Belmont’s story in uncomfortable silence, the stairwell feeling much smaller than the rest as the group ascended. They hoped they’d never reach the point they could talk about such dark topics without so much as twitch.

”That must’ve been hard,” they offered dumbly, unsure of what other condolences they could give the man hadn’t already heard.

Despite the promise of more difficult challenges ahead, this room provided far less of a headscratcher than the previous one. Undeterred by the other Pokémon’s grasp, De-De simply began pirouetting in place, Rapidly Spinning until the Stunfisk was thrown off entirely and she was free to waddle ahead to the exit.

Locke lingered for a bit, taking in the newest inscription with a wistful expression. ”I hope we get to check out the roof of this place…How many floors do ya reckon there are?”

---

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

The new room brought a welcome reprieve and a selection of new held items for the party’s use. Locke let the rest of their companions take first pick, happy to simply enjoy the break and a bit more of the tea from earlier. Their attention lingered on the room’s somewhat rude occupant though, eyeing the man’s shoulder with half curiosity and half concern.

Eventually though, Locke began his own careful consideration of the presented items, comparing them to the Rawst berry in his hand. There was a light tug on his pants, and he looked down to meet De-De’s pleading gaze as it flicked between her trainer and the snack, until he finally relinquished it with a sigh.

The Shed Shell seemed like a decent replacement, at least. He wasn’t sure he had anything else on hand that could replicate its effect, so the carapace was certainly the most likely to be used of the bunch.

”Do ya think these are all part of the same poem, or are they a buncha different ones?” he wondered idly.

---

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

An unexpected surge of triumph rose inside Locke as the trap took hold, at the same time it seemed more backup was arriving from behind.

This was it. They were going to catch him!

The ground ripped open beneath them as, without warning, gargantuan roots broke free from the earth. They struck out at Wobbu-Wobbu, sending him flying back with the force of a truck, unable to withstand the might of an Avatar.

And that’s what bryan delarosa was. Locke might not have been able to put a name to the massive deer that appeared before them, but it was unmistakably a legendary come to claim its chosen.

He watched the masked man be taken away, utterly helpless.

”You gotta be kidding me…”

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

The first thing Locke noticed on exiting the other side was that this room was freezing.

The chill was enough to have them shivering within seconds of landing on the floor, and they suspected their breath was gathering in small puffs somewhere in the darkness. A bit of warmth returned to them as some furred creature (Casso-Casso?) buried itself in their arms and the rest of their little group fell in behind them, shortly before the blinding, fluorescent lights flashed to life.

When he finally blinked the spots out of his eyes, he almost wished they’d stayed off.

Locke picked his way carefully through the rows of containers, gawking at the increasingly familiar, but alien contents within each one. ”I’ve never seen a Basculin in that color before…Come to think of it, all of these Pokémon look a bit strange, don’t they?”

Yvaine Varron voiced his feelings exactly, and the need to help quickly overcame all thoughts of escape. ”Maybe…” He looked around thoughtfully, then approached the terminal at the end of the hall. ”Maybe we can free them with this?”

After a few moments of trying and failing to get the ancient keyboard to type anything, he eventually set Casso-Casso down to pull out his Rotom Phone. The Rotom within scowled back at him as he unlocked it. ”Roto-Roto, a little help?”

With a staticky grumble Roto-Roto exited its handheld device, disgust worn plainly on its phantom face as it floated around the computer in search of some entry point. Failing that, its attention instead was drawn to the curiously-modern USB plugged into the side, and though it seemed unable to find a path inside here either, it lingered over the Mysterious Device until its trainer joined the investigation.

”Hey, come look at this!” Locke removed the stick, turning around to hold it up for the others to inspect.



Oops.

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

”In Kanto we call it ‘the Second Blowhole,’” they chimed in, before extending a hand to Xander Belmont. ”M’Locke, by the way! Sorry introductions took so long, I got a little distracted by the food back there.”

As the group climbed up to the next floor, Locke soon found themselves missing the pool below, the heat shedding them of their coat before they’d even entered the room. They spared the mural only a passing glance, too easily imagining an Unown creeping behind the Moltres to risk dwelling long.

Instead, he put his full focus into the newest puzzle. ”So, our Pokémon’s gotta Yawn…But not sleep? I didn’t even know that could happen.” It was only the third room, and it seemed he’d already reached the end of his battling knowledge. Thankfully this wasn’t a solo trial, and watching his teammates provided a few easy-to-replicate solutions.

By the time Rin-Rin appeared on the field, there was already an Uproar in stereo between angelo vestri’s own Chingling and skyler dross’ sobbing Whisiwashi, and she had no trouble joining in the cacophony even after Yawning herself.

---

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

”I think it was more the aneurysms than the prophecies that put us here, but yeah.”

It did make Locke feel a bit better that Angelo didn’t appear to have any prior knowledge of Uxie either. They’d been hanging around so many more well-read people lately they’d started to feel out of the loop on what everyone else seemed to treat like common knowledge.

”And I don’t actually know how much the Unown have to with it so much as just the letters themselves.” There were ancient alphabets based off of the Pokémon for instance. Or maybe the other way around. He could never remember. ”At least with this charm junk. There’s some other stuff that involve the Unown more…directly?”

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

galar in shambles; what is the darkest day?

”Yes?” Locke answered with a shrug. ”I’m not really sure, but when we used our Pokémon’s Future Sight on the charms, one of the visions we got mentioned Galar getting destroyed by it.”

Maybe he would try to learn more about it, if he could actually remember anything after these meetings.

”Do you know anything more about it?”

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

LLocke flashed Talia Celes a wide smile. ”We deliver anything! ‘Through rain, sleet, or wormhole,’ right Fee-Fee?” His Milotic replied with a cheerful cry, which made a few of the Corsola that had been lagging behind scurry up towards the rest of the swarm.

His cheer didn’t last long, however, realizing his previous slip only after his companion had begun to pry. In fairness, his home region was hardly a secret. If he let his accent drop even a bit, anyone could guess where he was from. But there was good reason for him to avoid bringing it up in casual conversation.

And there it was.

The pity.

Just like that, their nostalgia curdled into a sour feeling deep in their gut, poisoning the memory until they were forced to push it back into the corners of their mind. They shifted uncomfortably for a bit, before breathing out a calming sigh and putting on their most polite smile.

”I only got to visit the islands for a few hours at a time over the summers while I helped my dad drop off fish, so I never got to see much past the docks.” They paused for a couple beats after that though, chewing on the question.

”…I miss the food.”

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

Locke immediately stood to meet Eva as she landed, much to Shika-Shika’s chagrin. ”It’s nice to see you too,” they greeted cheerfully. Now they were done killing time, their body appreciated the chance to finally stretch and eat after grooming for what felt like hours.

”Ya-huh. This here’s Shika-Shika.” He gave his Pokémon a small pat on the head, which the deer shook off with a snort, pointedly looking away from the doctor. ”He’s…a little grumpy about having all this fur right at the start of spring.” It was going to be a nightmare come time for Hoenn’s tropical summer.

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

”F-Five?” He’d expected maybe one or two, but five… ”So you just need three more…Wait. Don’t you only need six to be considered for an Elite Four position? T’think you’re almost at that level…Hoenn kids are something else…”

At this rate the region might very well have a child champion. Well, at least Hideo had a good head on his shoulders.

The pool was a nice surprise, even if it was a little out of place two floors up. They dug through their bag a little to find Fee-Fee’s Pokéball, releasing the Milotic onto the challengers’ side of the pool.

”That’s a weirdly specific anecdote to open with, but okay. Surf.” Fee-Fee lashed his serpentine tail beneath the surface, causing the water to surge and rise over and over in tandem with angelo vestri’s Whirlpool, while De-De cheered on the show from the sideline. The Relicanth couldn’t possible stay under for much longer like that.

Locke glanced over the new message, then pointedly ignored it. ”Ugh, I don’t even wanna think about ‘wishes’…”

---

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

While the Sunny Day failed to hold, the brief flash of light it gave off before being abandoned was just disorienting for the shot to go wide and cut through Nim-Nim’s cowlick-like appendage instead of anything vital. A miracle, considering the poor thing was about 90% head.

The close call still appeared to be too much for the little guy though, and the Castform scurried back to his trainer and buried himself into his coat, fully forfeiting the fight.

Locke quickly recalled both Nim-Nim and Ka-Ka as well now that her task was complete, kicking the gun somewhere behind them as soon as it dropped to the ground. With that out of the way, the sound of more backup approaching from behind, and both Finley Black and Hideo Kino safely taken care of, they could finally put their full focus into putting the brakes on this battle.

And they could do better than a single Anchor Shot.

They pulled a new Pokéball out of their bag and summoned their Wobbuffet to the field. As soon as Wobbu-Wobbu finished materializing, his Shadow morphed beneath him, until it shot out and split, Tagging bryan delarosa and both of his Pokémon’s shadows and trapping all three.

Without a single order, the trap was set. Now to spring it. Locke pointed at the Greninja, directing their Pokémon’s attention to the opposing Mat Block. ”Encore!”

Eat that you murderous little toad.

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz