7/4/20
8:47 am
Nearby Misty Mountain

It took around fifty minutes to leave the wooden cabin. We spent the majority of it teaching Phoenix how to walk and run on four legs, and I helped with the running part. It was great Abby was able to teach her everything—even though she's a bit wobbly; one of us would still have been carrying 'Nix if she didn't teach her. Currently, we were heading down the familiar dirt roads moving towards a place I know well...

Phoenix looked at the huge rocky mountain ahead of us and laughed loudly. "This place is huge!" Her voice echoed around the forest, startling some Pokémon in the distance awake.

"Shush..." Abby placed a paw on 'Nix's muzzle. "I wouldn't try to wake these Pokémon up. They get cranky."

As the Houndour slowly nodded and asked for advice, my eyes started closing to focus on Phoenix's body. Cord noticed this and nudged my shoulder. "Why are you using Power Gauging now?"

Power Gauging is an automatic ability Electric, Fighting, and Psychic types have. It'll show where Pokémon are hiding along with estimating their "power level." Cord has the better Power Gauging since he's Electric and Psychic. "What?" I whispered to him, "I wanna see her power level before we start training her." Let's see, an average starting point for a regular first-form Pokémon is about one hundred. Her level was currently two hundred fifty. Not—...

"What the fuck?" I said out loud, making everyone turn towards me.

The Glaceon stopped moving to look at the direction I was staring at—Phoenix. "Are you using Power Gagging on her?"

"Power Gauging," I corrected while pronouncing it. "And yes, I did do that." My head turned towards the Houndour. "She has a higher level than when I first came here—or whatever Cord told me in the Dream World about my power level."

Cord wanted to say something about that but was interrupted when Phoenix tackled me toward the ground. "I'm stronger than you in the beginning?" The yell she gave deafened my enlarged ears.

"And here I thought you were the older cousin," I mumbled toward her. She quickly pouted before letting me stand up. I was moving the dust the Houndour gave me while looking back at her. "Yes, I was lower than you when I started, 'Nix. Hopefully, with this training we're about to give, you can come within striking distance for all three of us..." My eyes wandered down towards the Houndour's four paws, where they widened.

"Let me guess," Cord placed a paw on my shoulder before sighing. "Phoenix walks on four legs than two, making this training harder for you and Phoenix." I didn't want to say anything, so I kept on staring at Phoenix's paws. "I thought so."

"...Abby?" My eyes turned to the Glaceon. "You're definitely helping me by teaching 'Nix how to fight, right?"

She could see my eyes light up when she nodded. "Might as well," Abby responded while looking at the Houndour. "But I must warn you two. My moves have drastically changed, and I can't control them for a long time."

"I'm sure that's not a problem," Phoenix replied while looking at the mountain ahead of us. "What's the worst that can go wrong?" We could all see her slowly run towards the entrance, clueless about the challenges ahead of her.

Cord and Abby could see my head shaking when 'Nix went inside. "...She's going to get herself killed, isn't she?"

"Yup."

"No kidding."

We raced over there with a sense of urgency.

***
8:54 am
Misty Mountain 1F

I feel like Phoenix is gonna be the teammate that jinxes all of us. Her very first room was a Monster House that made her run towards the far corner of the room. Cord, Abby, and I entered on the other side, realizing what laid ahead of us.

"You have got to be kidding," I yelled out, making every hostile Pokémon stare at me. "That's gotta be the worst luck someone has had in awhile!" I could hear an exasperated sigh coming from the Raichu next to me. "What?"

"Never mind." Cord started looking around, trying to account for almost all the Pokémon around him. "The distance between each hostile is small," he quickly remarked. "We should probably start with a ranged attack."

Some of my energy automatically started moving towards my right paw, forming a small yellow sphere. My eyes pondered towards the glowing object, making me take a deep breath.

"Well, I am rusty..." After grunting, my arm rapidly threw the yellow sphere towards a group of Pokémon. It exploded on contact, starling and scattering some of the hostiles. This made the room split into three, with one of them having a direct route to 'Nix.

"Split up!" Cord quickly charged at the right side of the Monster House. He made his left paw glow yellow with sparks, making me notice the very first time he used Thunder Punch outside of the Dream World.

"Manny," Abby called on me. "Get to Phoenix. The two of us will handle them." The Glaceon started to glow silver, and charged at a group of hostiles, creating a tailwind. The affected Pokémon got launched like bowling pins.

"I guess she learned Quick Attack." I forced myself on all fours to start running towards Phoenix. A Kantonian Graveler and a Spearow quickly stood in my way making me groan mentally. "You have got to be kidding me." I quickly started focusing energy on my tail, jumping towards the Rock-type when it fully glowed silver. The Graveler met my attack with a Frustration punch, halting all of my progress.

We were dead even. My eyes noticed the Spearow flinging Air Slash towards me.

"'Nix!" I cried out while taking bit by bit of damage. "I might need your help right now."

The Houndour's eyes widened as she heard what I said. "What?" She took a step forward while looking at me. "I don't even know how to attack, Manny!"

"Yes, you do; It's somewhere in your mind. Find it!" The Graveler quickly pushed me back a few steps before starting to throw multiple rocks twice the size I was. The electrical cheeks I had fully charged, raring to attack. "Ka!"

As I was using Thunderbolt at the rock, Phoenix was stressing her mind, trying to find those hidden moves. "I can't find it!" She didn't notice her own eyes were starting to glow red. The Spearow turned around from my direction and started to zoom towards her. "Oh, shit...!" Was my eyes deceiving at that moment?

As I tried to yell out my next move, Phoenix shot three fireballs at the Spearow. It quickly landed, making the bird fly towards the wall.

"Holy crap," I shouted out while not noticing my red fading away. "That was Ember!" The Houndour was shocked for a few seconds before I noticed her eyes widening in a direction.

"Manny, pay attention!" Phoenix yelled towards me... Oh shit, I forgot about the Graveler two seconds ago! Thick cracks started to form below me, triggering my fight or flight response.

I ran to 'Nix, of course.

The cracks from the Earthquake kept on following me, like heat-seeking missiles locked onto their target. It scared the shit out of me, especially because of a weird feeling that the attack will do critical damage. "'Nix, try to distract the Graveler," I told her while running on four paws. I could already infer a hint of doubt sticking on the Houndour's mind. "Be confident!"

"Okay! Okay." Phoenix shook her head and faced the Graveler. She didn't notice that her new canine teeth started glowing white. Her body lunged towards the Rock type while her head lowered, bracing for the impact of her attack. I think she was going to yell something out, but got interrupted when her jaw locked into place. The three of us could hear the grunting noises she was making while getting ever so closer towards the Graveler. When the jaw finally closed is when she made contact with the Graveler; her teeth started to sink in the Pokémon's arm.

I was panting loudly as Phoenix's new opponent started swinging her around. "I need help 'Nix," I mumbled to myself. My body was about to shift to the two, when Abby stood right in front of me.

"Maybe I should do it this time," She suggested to me, "'cause you ran out of stamina." I really wanted to argue against that, but there was nothing I could do. She was off before I tried to respond. The Glaceon started opening her mouth, making a light blue sphere form. "Take this!" Light blue lighting bolts shot towards the Graveler. Some of the sparks landed on the very bottom of the Pokémon, making the Graveler start getting covered in ice.

Okay, that move had to be Ice Beam, even though her accuracy was low right now. "'Nix!" I shouted again with a tiny bit of a voice crack, "I suggest you release you Bite now!" The Houndour glanced down to notice Graveler's body start turning into ice, making her eyes widen. She finally released her grip from the Pokémon, dropping her to the floor. Abby started adding more bolts towards the Graveler to speed up the freezing process.

"Well that sucked," I said to the two females who were looking at me. "I barely did anything in this Monster House." Looking around, Cord was still finishing up the final non-fainted Pokémon. As he was using Thunderbolt for his final attack I sighed. "Heck, Cord got more activity then I did."

At the mention of his name, the Alolan Raichu started floating towards me. "Manny, the main thing we worked on in the Dream World was speed and endurance—even though you didn't show it here." He placed a paw on my shoulder for a second before going on the pathway east of us. "So yeah, it's normal to be rusty with your moves now."

Cord's tone of that sentence disappointed me, so I started to walk in Cord's direction with my head down. "Wait," Phoenix placed a paw on her muzzle while stumbling in our direction, "wouldn't Quick Attack be faster if you used it?"

"Actually, I don't have Quick Attack anymore. I replaced it with—..." Me and Cord paused ourselves to turn around. I thought Abby asked that question, but I suddenly realized 'Nix was the culprit. "How did you know I had that move?"

The Houndour started looking around the pathway, biting her muzzle. "I was here before—even though I couldn't walk on four legs anyway. And I saw you battling loads of Pokémon." She paused herself to laugh quickly. "It was amazing."

"Well that doesn't make sense," I responded while my paw was placed on my chin. "The only time I faced more than two Pokémon at a time was in..." The date finally came upon me, shaking my entire core. "Oh God," I tried to mumble to myself, "I still remember all those corrupted Pokémon I fought. It gives me nightmares to see the one-shotted faints in their perspective."

"Oh, you mean the offensive you, Abby and Chris had in Darkness Headquarters?" Cord stated out loud, making me stare at him with a deadpan expression... At the very least, I tried to keep that for myself.

'Nix was bewildered that Cord left himself out of the group. "Wait, so where were you then? Sick or something?"

I think Abby wanted to pounce on that answer, so I decided to push Cord's tail along the pathway for a distraction. The Glaceon smiled in response and started following along. "That's because he was captured by the Darkness."

"Captured?" The Houndour followed us via limping across the hallway. She was grunting before asking, "Why Cord and not anyone else?"

The Alolan Raichu turned around to lead towards the next room. He sighed while shaking his head. "To be honest, I don't have a definite answer to that. But I had to take a guess..." Cord looked behind while still floating forward, wanting to ask something telepathically to me. I only nodded without hearing a word, since I already knew what he was going to say. "It's probably because I used to be a part of the Darkness."

"...Don't ask," I responded while Phoenix was about to open her mouth. "He didn't like it when he had to explain it to us."

"Oh, okay." The Houndour separated from the single file line once we arrived in an empty room.

I tapped the Raichu's shoulder before asking, "What's the items we need to find? I just wanna mentally write it down."

"Fine," Cord agreed while opening a large bag on the side of his body. "Well, the Pokémon hosting this tournament aren't giving us healing after each battle, so I decided to grab a few items in advance." He quickly took out a Pecha berry before proceeding to take a bite out of it. "Sorry, that salad I made earlier was about to give me food poisoning."

My eyes noticed Phoenix grabbing a blue berry with some leaves on it. The two of us immediately recognized it as a Rawst Berry, the item that helps cure burns. She told me about the recognition after we left this place. "Get to the point, Cord."

"With all of us joining this tournament," he finally responded, "we're going to need one Oran Berry and two—."

"Here you go!" 'Nix quickly interrupted while placing the Rawst Berry on Cord's Treasure Bag. The two of us stood silent at each other before the Glaceon shook us awake.

He suddenly pushed me towards the front of the line going into the next hallway. "O-One. One Rawst Berry!" He shouted out loud before letting me lead the way.

Objectives:
Find a Oran Berry!
Find a Rawst Berry!

I could hear my feet skidding while turning to the Pokémon who was pushing me. "Dude, what the heck is wrong with you?" I asked him while a cold sweat ran down my head. "It's like you got the heebee jeebees or something."

"I don't know!" The Raichu cried out while moving his orange fur around. "I just gotta calm myself down..."

Yeah, you go do that while I start hearing another Pokémon's footsteps that's not Phoenix or Abby. "...I'm just gonna battle this hostile ahead of us." I suddenly dropped to four feet and scampered towards danger.

"Cord?" The Glaceon placed a paw on the Raichu's shoulder, concerned. "Are you alright? You've been acting weird ever since Manny and Phoenix arrived here."

I could hear Cord grimacing from the cold touch Abby was giving off. "I'm good, Abby," he said, floating forward. "I just haven't seen these two in the same place for the longest time." A determined cry came ringing in my ears, making me look at what was right in front of me.

A large brown bird placed it's claws on the floor, it's eyes beady for a taste of action. In the corner of my eye was a tinier bird with a scorch mark on her head. "Oh..." I suddenly realized what was going on, so I stopped moving. "Looks like dad here wants revenge for 'Nix's first battle." The Fearow in front of me sent out a deafening cry. One I didn't take too greatly of.

"That's pretty rude, but I'm not stepping aside." My head turned to my approaching teammates. "Cord, teleport yourself and the others to somewhere else on the floor. I want this battle for myself." Sparks started flying along my cheeks, a determined face surrounding me.

My best friend gave a sly smile before grabbing on Abby's arms and 'Nix's arm. "I trust you, partner," Cord stated while closing his eyes. "Phoenix, hold on tight!"

The Houndour suddenly turned to the Alolan Raichu confused. "Wait a second. Cord has—!?" A sudden whoosh could be heard echoing throughout the hallway, and all three of my teammates were gone.

Unconsciously, my tail started glowing silver and heavier. Heavier than all the other times I used Iron Tail. "Look, if you don't wanna talk about it, I will have to strike you down." My head turned back to the Fearow. "And besides, I think you could help me." A short, loud cry exited the large bird Pokémon, nearly startling me. "I guess not."

My Iron Tail shined brightly as I charged towards the Fearow. The opponent threw a large gust of wind, slowing down my speed, but not enough for my physical attack to connect. He was forced down to the rocky ground, and the impact forced me to around the same spot from when I started. When I waited for my opponent to make a move, he took out a blue fruit with some seeds outside.

I immediately recognized that fruit to be an Oran Berry.

"Oh no you don't!" My body started glowing red while charging once again. But instead of my body slowing down from the Gust thrown earlier, I was moving at my normal speed. Maybe I was going twice as fast. But I wasn't complaining when I somehow stole the Oran Berry from Fearow's claw.

You know how I said that I was moving faster with Gust on, right?

Without the Gust, I reached into the next room in a second, and the Fearow and Spearow didn't even fly into one tile in my direction. The speed I was going in wasn't Turbo Boost, but it was still fast enough for me to get killed if I hit anything hard.

I was trying to stop myself from moving when my body was glowing purple to go along with the red. My body suddenly stopped right in front of a rocky spike, which was touching the fur on my head.

"C-Cord...?"

"Yeah?"

"Stop saving me every time I come here with Psychic."

The Raichu came out of the other long hallway to stifle a laugh. "Stop trying to get yourself killed."

A tiny Houndour peeked into the room where I was in. "That is too close for comfort," Phoenix stated while slowly walking towards me. "You sure you're alright?"

"A-As positive as a Munchlax eating..." The purple and red glow finally faded away, making me control my own body again. "Sorry, I just wanted to say that out loud..."

I could hear Cord mumble something, but I wasn't paying attention since Abby was approaching me. "I got an Oran Berry for us," I stated while holding the fruit in my hand. "Now we just need a Rawst Berry."

"No need..." My best friend floated towards all of us to notice the blue strawberry fruit. "Abby found the berry in the room we teleported on." At the mention of teleport, 'Nix trembled in a bit of fear.

The Glaceon in front of me placed a paw behind her neck. "Oh please, it was Cord who got us there, so it was all you." My paw threw the Oran Berry to Cord's bag.

The loud and screeching cry came in the hallway I came from. "Oh, I actually stole the Oran Berry from the Fearow. So..."

"Unbelievable..." The Alolan Raichu quickly hopped off his tail and ran towards everyone. I knew Phoenix was screaming mentally when he grabbed her and Abby. "Hold on tight!" He shouted while grabbing my paw. Cord used Teleport out of the dungeon...

At the time we left, there were a few things in my mind. But my main concern was about Chris. He could be in trouble if we don't find him. I decided to discuss it later.

*Game File Saved*