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Coincidence was a funny thing.[break][break]

Just as Riley started to calm himself down and make a plan, a voice called out from behind him. A stern, strangely familiar voice. Turning around, Riley was met with the familiar face of Agent Gunner Graves, from that bank robbery a while back. Riley didn't know if he was surprised or not. "Oh. It's you." Riley echoed back, his arms crossing his chest.[break][break]

Truthfully, he'd been halfway certain that the secret agent bit was entirely fabricated, but now... well, it seemed more plausible. Who else would come to a place like this willingly? No, he was more surprised by the sheer unlikelihood of the reunion. Sure, there couldn't be that many secret agents wandering around Hoenn, but this was sort of like a needle in a haystack.[break][break]

Still, he couldn't help but be relieved to see the agent... though he did his best not to show it. While he wasn't exactly a fan of authority, just seeing another human here was the best thing he could ask for. Riley noted the oddly-coloured raichu at the man's side, before reaching down and grabbing a pokéball of his own. Alarm bells were ringing in his head, and he wasn't about to be caught off-guard.[break][break]

"You could say that," Riley replied, sighing. "It's a long story." The silence that came after was filled with that strange sound—a slow, steady pounding, like the pulse of a heart. It rumbled all around them, like they were in one giant vein. Riley looked around, unsettled but also strangely curious. "...Where the fuck are we?" He asked, unable to stop the dread and awe from slipping into his tone.[break][break]

Riley shifted to look back at the yawning chasm ahead of them. As he looked over the ledge, his stomach lurched. Looking down like this, he felt as though the darkness of the chasm was going to draw him in and consume him. But before he could think on that any further, he stood up a bit straighter. "...And what the hell is that?" he added, pointing.[break][break]

On the opposite side of the chasm, lodged into the side of the cliffside just a ways down from them, there appeared to be some kind of... ship. What used to be a ship, anyways. It was clearly in disrepair, though to what extent it was damaged was unclear, as it was still shrouded by the darkness of the abyss. And from Riley could tell... it had been sitting there for a long, long time.[break][break]

expedition: ultra deep sea - first

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If you had asked Riley to guess what he'd be doing a weekend off... well, stumbling into a different fucking dimension wouldn't have been in his top five, to say the least.[break][break]

Disaster had approached slowly... and then, all at once. But let's start at the beginning: a weekend trip out to Dewford Town, in an attempt to get some wildlife photos for an assignment. Simple, right? It had started that way. After arriving on the island, he'd taken a few of his pokémon over towards Granite Cave, hoping to see some makuhita and the like in their natural habitat. And for a while, it had gone swimmingly.[break][break]

But then, in the depths of the cave, they'd found it. Something... odd. They'd seen the glow first; Asta, his espeon, had been walking at his side, providing light using MORNING SUN. But as they'd turned a corner, they'd seen a strange blue light, pulsating in the darkness. Inviting them in.[break][break]

"Do you see that?" Riley had asked. Asta looked to him, face inscrutable, before nodding once. Blue, his oshawott, had been dozing on Riley's shoulder, but this was even enough to perk him up. The three of them had continued walking, now more cautiously than ever, until they turned another corner, coming face to face with the portal.[break][break]

It took Riley longer than he'd like to admit to shake off his shock. Asta seemed stunned as well, his light flickering for a moment, while Blue had cautiously approached the portal, his eyes sparkling.[break][break]

He'd read about these—something about rifts, opening up in various areas of Hoenn after the 99943 meteno crisis. The idea had fascinated him: portals to other worlds. But he'd never be stupid enough to go into one. Was Granite Cave a reported location already? Had he just totally missed that in the news, somehow?[break][break]

"We need to report this to someone," Riley had said, looking to Asta. "Does the league care about stuff like this?" Then again, maybe they already knew, and he was just an idiot. "We should probably head back regardless, it isn't..." As Riley had turned back to look at the portal, he'd frozen up, reality hitting him like a bucket of cold water. "...Safe."[break][break]

Blue was nowhere to be seen.[break][break]

Looking back, Riley wasn't proud of how much he hesitated in that moment. His mind whirred. He'd done the mental calculus: how much was his oshawott worth to him? Yeah, it was an absolutely fucked loss, but if he followed Blue into the portal, there was a good chance Riley would also never be coming back. But in the end, only one answer had come to Riley's mind.[break][break]

Leaving Blue behind hadn't been an option. His pokémon would've been sure to agree.[break][break]

Pulling Asta back into his pokéball for the trip, Riley had stared at the portal, setting his jaw. With a long, slow breath, he'd set down his camera equipment, rolled up his jeans to mid-shin, and tied his hair back. Then, not letting himself hesitate any longer than he needed to, Riley had strode forward towards the portal, his fists clenched.

---

When Riley stepped out of the portal, the first thing he did was breathe a long, shaky breath of relief.[break][break]

The second thing he'd done was immediately start scanning the ground for his troublesome oshawott. Thankfully, this didn't take too long—the little guy was playing with some vegetation, which also seemed to resemble seaweed. As Riley approached, the oshawott turned to him and let out a small squeak of surprise. His eyes started to round with a pleading, guilty look on his face.[break][break]

"Nope."[break][break]

Riley returned Blue to the pokéball immediately, and then turned around. And for the second time that day, his heart absolutely plummeted to the bottom of his chest. The portal wasn't there. The portal wasn't fucking there.[break][break]

How could this have happened? Sure, he'd been mostly focused on finding Blue as opposed to paying attention to his surroundings, but he hadn't wandered that far. Or maybe the portal had closed behind him? Were they supposed to do that? He was truly so far out of his fucking depth here.[break][break]

For a moment, Riley felt the urge to cry. He wasn't normally the type, but something about the utter helplessness of this situation was enough to push him over the edge. But he stopped himself, before he got off-track. His fingernails dug into his palm. He took a long, slow breath.[break][break]

He could get out of this. This was just a puzzle to crack, and Riley enjoyed a nice puzzle. Opening his eyes, Riley took a shallow, shaky breath—then he started to properly take in his surroundings. And for a brief moment, any tension he was feeling was overwritten by pure awe.[break][break]

He stood near a precipice, overlooking what appeared to be some kind of underwater cavern. Light filtered in from above, though Riley couldn't see from what source. The light caused the walls of the cavern to glisten and glow, creating a mysterious, enchanting atmosphere. Behind him, there was a series of tunnels, leading deeper into... who knows where. And when he looked down, off the edge of the precipice...[break][break]

He took a sharp step back. It had been like staring into a yawning abyss.[break][break]

Okay. It was time to turn the artist brain off—now the survivor brain was kicking into gear, as he started to make a plan. He tried to ignore the little tickle in the back of his brain. Curiosity. It desperately wanted to know the answer to one single, terrible question:[break][break]

What is waiting at the bottom of an abyss like that?[break][break]

expedition: ultra deep sea - first

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Riley couldn't get enough of Petalburg Woods.[break][break]

Yeah yeah, he supposed it was a bit stereotypical: "kid from arid hellhole enjoys plants and shit" wasn't exactly a new phenomenon, but still. He couldn't really get enough of Hoenn's flora, and though he wasn't a landscape photographer primarily, he had sworn to capture as much of it as he could. That wasn't why he was here today, though. No, truthfully, he was here for a single reason: to try catching some pokémon on his own.[break][break]

While he'd caught a few incidentally, he'd really only gave it a fair shot on that day with Momo. And truthfully, he'd found the activity pretty fun. Though he doubted that he was destined to be a "gym trainer" or anything dumb like that, he definitely could see himself doing some more proper trainer stuff. Especially after meeting Gunner and his crazy dragon-types. On that note, the agent had a good idea: given the state of things in Hoenn, having more protection for himself was probably a good call. He certainly wasn't going to go to the police if something happened.[break][break]

"Alright, girl," said Riley, once they were deep into the woods. "Keep your eyes peeled." Speaking of dragons, he'd decided to bring Laika, his flygon, with him today. Not only had she made the trip from Slateport much easier, but she probably needed the opportunity to get out and stretch her wings. While Riley had been fortunate enough to capture the rare dragon type, his university lifestyle didn't exactly promote the exercise required for a majestic dragon like her.[break][break]

Laika affixed him with a blank, uninterested stare, then looked away entirely. It almost felt pointed. Riley sighed, before kneeling down and pulling the small set of pokémon incense he'd picked up from the market. "Let's see if this works," he muttered, before lighting it and stepping away. Now, they waited to see if any pokémon would show.

using incense: grass

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One of these days, Blue was going to give him a heart attack.[break][break]

On this particular day, the energetic oshawott had accompanied him down to the waters of Slateport Beach. It was a relatively warm November morning, and Riley happened to have some time off from classes, so he'd decided to go for a walk near the beach. It was possibly one of the last warm days of the year, after all—which was a weird thought, actually. Fairly different from Orre's climate.[break][break]

But the moment they reached the sand, Riley regretted his decision. As it turned out, some kind of event had been set up along one side of the beach, with a modest crowd lingering and occasionally letting out gasps or applause. Some kind of show, obviously. Initially, Riley had been perfectly satisfied to head to the other side of the beach and ignore it, but Blue had taken off in the direction of the show before Riley could stop him.[break][break]

As they reached the event, Riley was finally able to read the signs... and grimaced. TRAVELLING MERMAID SHOW was printed in large, eye-catching font, but that wasn't what made him uneasy. It was the smaller script right underneath that had him worried: amateur entries welcome. For a moment, Riley was relieved that Blue couldn't read.[break][break]

And then the little fucker looked up at him with wide, pleading eyes. Those fucking eyes. "Aw, c'mon!" Riley moaned quietly, leaning his head back. "There's no way you can read that." Regardless, Blue had somehow picked up on the event's implication, and his pleading eyes grew wider. "No. No way," Riley said firmly, shaking his head again.[break][break]

The oshawott let out a little whimper. Riley hissed in a breath, before caving immediately.[break][break]

"Fine. Whatever." He let out a long, low sigh, before turning to the crowd. "You're not gonna be this cute forever, little guy. Don't get used to this." With that, Riley stepped away to find the show organizer, quietly cursing out Sierra for inflicting this hellion upon him. Blue, meanwhile, hopped up and down as he waited, water jetting out from his feet as he leapt into the air.

mission: mermaid show