I felt my stomach tie knots at the sight of the path before us. I don't know why, but I had a somewhat bad feeling about what was ahead.

"Alright." I said in the middle of a breath. "We should keep moving and figure this out."
Toony nodded timidly, still holding his tail tightly as he looked at the archway.
"Let's go." Pikachu added, sounding a bit timid in the process.
Without looking at them, I brought out my weapon before advancing towards the destination ahead. Toony and Pikachu followed me through and up an old and crumbling flight of stairs. It was a surprisingly long staircase, but It eventually ended...at a very dark cave passageway . I gulped slightly at the endless darkness before me. I'm not necessarily afraid of the dark, I just don't like it when there might be possible enemies ahead.
I felt Toony slightly clutch to my leg in fear as Pikachu's ear also brushed against my cheek, making me realize that both of the nekos were holding onto me in fear like their life depended on it. I tried my best not to laugh from the tickling of Pikachu's ear as I tried to remember if I had brought matches with me. It only took another shaking brush of the Pokémon's ear for me to come up with a useful and foolproof idea.
"Pikachu." I said, making him jump from the instant break of the silence.
"Y-Yes?" He shakily replied.
"Could you use Flash, please?" I asked politely as I turned to look at where I thought he was.
He paused for a moment before a sound of electricity was heard.
I closed my eyes from the bright light for a second until it seemed like it wasn't blinding before opening my eyes again. I was met with a fairly bright version of the cave we had just been in, along with the source of the light standing beside me. Pikachu's markings were glowing a bright gold as electricity swirled around his ears and tail. He was looking at me, smiling as bright as the light he was creating. His smile was enough to make me smile as well as Toony also awed at the glowing Pokémon.
"Thanks!" I said, making his smile and his light glow even brighter.
"No problem!" He chirped in reply.
I turned back around, facing the passageway with a new light to guide me and a reclaimed courage.
"Alright, let's get going. From here on out, we'll have to fight whatever is in our way if we want to get to the end. Toony, stick close. You and I don't have the ability of Flash like Pikachu does, so we should stick together." I said while making sure that everyone was still in the small group.
Toony nodded with a hint of determination and excitement in his eyes as his ears perked.
"Got it!" He replied.
My lips flicked up into a smile quickly before I gripped my weapon and began advancing further into the cave.

We hadn't walked for long before we ran into a whole hoard of enemies. There must have been over twenty nutskis and two clubberskulls. Plus the addition of a few monoeyes in the mix.
"AAAAAA!!! HELP!! I NEED SOME HELP!!!" Toony screeched as he ran past me in the middle of the battle.
I rose a brow, confused on why his fear rose to high intervals so quickly as I looked in his direction.
"Hey! Where are you going!? I thought you were handling those flying acorns!" I yelled after him, referring to the nutskis that he had been fighting as Pikachu and I were trying to kill one of the two clubberskulls.
"ORNE!!!! ORNE!!!" Was all Toony screamed as a reply.
Pikachu was quite a distance from me, but I still managed to shoot him a confused glance. He returned my expression for only just a second before giving a terrified one in its place. His fur bristled as he pointed behind me.
I rose a brow as I turned around, only to turn back around and sprint.
"Run!!!" I yelled as I ran from the giant floating orne coming straight towards me.
I grabbed Pikachu's wrist in the process, still sprinting as I dragged the startled little lightbulb behind me.
The orne's screech was ear-splitting and definitely gut retching as it glided after us in fury. It opened its mouth, revealing multiple little skulls that sprung out at us to try and kill us instantly.
We managed to catch up to a frightened Toony as we ran around in (almost) circles around the room we were in. Pikachu wiggled his wrist out of my hand so he could grab Toony and make a break for it with me.
"T-Try to find... an exit!" I yelled over at Pikachu and Toony as I ran, beginning to run low on stamina and breath.
They were both too scared to nod, so they kept running.
We ran for what seemed like endless hours from the orne, looking for some way out. The area we had ventured into went deep underground, exposing some lava from how deep it was. It was also quite massive in radius, so it was a long trek for us to try and find our way out.
If having an angry orne wasn't bad enough, the clubberskulls that we hadn't finished off were also after us. Therefore, escape was a necessity now.
"There!" Pikachu yelled as he pointed to a roughly adorned archway that lead to a door.
I felt a light sense of relief at the sight of the exit. Although, there was also a hint of doubt. These things didn't just work like this. With every new dungeon that I have explored, you always have to defeat all of the enemies first before the door actually works. It's rather strange to think about. I always wondered why that was the case. Maybe it's because the gods of that dungeon wanted to test our skill? Or maybe it was just something that happened that couldn't be explained.
When we reached the large stone doors to the exit, we all pushed them open as hard as we could. All three of the large monstrosities plus a few nutski were all headed straight for us. And to our luck, the doors actually opened.
 We ran into the next room, quickly slamming the doors behind us as we braced our weight against it. We all heard a loud 'thud' come from the other side, possibly from the two clubberskulls and the orne that had been chasing us. Strangely, the door didn't open again. Even from the impact on the other side it stayed still. Oh well, better for our sake.
We stood still for a moment, panting and exhausted from the running and fighting we just had to go through.
"W-Well.... I-I'll check that off my bucket list a-as... one of the things.... I-I never wanted to do...." Pikachu retorted as he slid down the door so he could sit down to catch his breath.
"D-Ditto..." I replied while breathing heavily, receiving a confused and slightly disgusted look from Pikachu (which I figured out quickly) before adding, "It's an... expression... not th-the pokemon..."
(A/N I'm sorry if you like Ditto! I just wanted to make a joke!)
He nodded, relaxing slightly as he closed his eyes in order to regain his energy again.
"H-H-Hey... Th-Those were a-a lot of monsters.... d-do you think that w-was supposed to be a-a makeshift b-boss fight?" Toony asked as he layed on the ground in exhaustion.
I looked at him, only thinking for a second before responding.
"No... Could't be.... And if it was... what would it be for?" I asked. Yet shortly after my comment realization struck. "It could be Pittoo, Pit, or Lady Palutena.... We have to get moving again!" I said, quickly standing up as I brushed myself off.
Pikachu groaned as Toony joined him in giving me an unamused expression.
"Already?" Toony wined.
I nodded, holding my hands out to help them up.
"Yup. If we want to find anyone, we have to keep moving." I replied.
They both sat up, nodding hesitantly before grabbing my hands to get up.
I turned my head to look behind me, seeing more stairs going up. Sighing, I kept my weapon in hand before beginning to walk to the stairs.
"Well, let's start the climb."

Ascending to the top of the stairs was much more difficult that we had expected. There were so many stairs that it seemed impossible for so many to exist. We ran into occasional simple mobs along the way, but it was nothing we couldn't handle.
Indeed, though, the arrival to the top of the stairs was quite rewarding. Although there was another door, it was still good to stop climbing.
"F-Finally...." Pikachu panted as he leaned against the wall.
I nodded in agreement, bracing myself as I placed my hands on my knees and tried to regain my lost breath.
"U-Um... What's this?" I heard Toony ask as I looked up.
He was pointing to three bottles of pink liquid at the entrance to the door.
Giving a confused look I walked over, picking up one bottle as I examined it carefully. I opened the bottle to smell the strange liquid and was met with a sweet and pleasant aroma. It smelled like flowers, yet at the same time like fresh pastries. It was hard to put into detail the exact smell. But, in short, it smelled amazing. I shrugged, taking a sip of it as I could see Toony about to yell at me to stop. I instantly felt more energized and less sore. My wounds began to fade as any bleeding stopped. These results made me smile as I looked over at the two exasperated nekos.
"It's okay, it's a healing potion." I stated before gulping a little more down. I decided to save the rest for later, just in case.
They both blinked in confusion before Toony picked one up, taking a small sip. His face lit up as he smiled brightly.
"(Y/n)'s right! Try it, Pikachu!" Toony chirped as he handed Pikachu the third bottle.
He hesitantly grabbed it before also taking a sip. He soon let out a delighted sigh in relief when he finished the drink.
"That was actually really good!" He said with a smile as he looked at me.
I returned his smile, but then looked back at my own drink again. I felt a slight feeling of uneasiness deep in my gut. 
Something's wrong here. You don't just get healing potions at random.
I tried to shrug it off as I looked back at the two.
"Well, It's time to go see what's on the other side of the door. You ready?" I asked them.
They both nodded excitedly.
"We're ready." They both exclaimed in unison.
I smiled at their dorkish behavior before turning to the door. I stuffed the healing potion in my satchel before placing my hands on the door, pushing it open.
I looked up, curious to see what might be meeting us in this new area. But what I saw made my stomach tie knots (not in a good way) and my heart drop into my stomach. There, tangled in a bunch of thorns and vines, elevated from the ground, restrained and bleeding was a tattered fallen angel...
My eyes widened as all I could do was scream out his name.
"PITTOO!!!"

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Alright! Finally an update! I just finished this. Oh gods, it's been so long since I've updated anything. I am dreadfully sorry about that. I made this one longer to make up for me having not updated in a while. Anywho, out of one cliffhanger and into another. We'll see what happens next. Again, sorry for not updating lately. And I'll see you in the next chapter, Dragon Riders!

~Hurneth Flamefury