Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of the Stars

Chapter 7

In the days following their capture of the outlaw Haunter, Skittle and Zero continued to do their best to help Pokemon in need by taking jobs from the Guild's job board, whether it was by delivering items to Pokemon in dungeons, rescuing Pokemon from dungeons, or bringing criminals to justice. They even took jobs from Pokemon in Kyubi's Cafe whenever they found the time to visit. The duo never found their work as an Exploration Team to be too hard during those days though it would get harder as after a week had passed since the duo brought Haunter to justice, news of disaster reached the Crystal Guild.

"What?!" Skittle gasped when Krystal informed the members of the guild of the news, "Something happened at the top of Sky Peak?!"

"Indeed," Krystal replied, "As for what, it's hard to say. The Pokémon that told Officer Magnezone about this was panicked and wasn't at the peak at the time. But from what they said, large amounts of sludge and grime is scattered about from what seemed to have been strong Poison Type attacks."

"The poor Pokémon on the mountain..." Jenny said, covering her mouth, "There must be quite a few hurt Pokemon as well as scared ones too..."

"How far down the mountain is the sludge?" Dusclops asked.

"As far as we know, it is contained to the Peak and 9th pass of Sky Peak," Krystal replied, "But it could have spread even farther down by now or the time we get there so we must act quickly if we are to stop the cause of the sludge as well as prevent anymore damage the Sky Peak or Shaymin Village."

"Has some sludge hit Shaymin Village somehow?" Treeko asked.

"No, but panicked Pokémon from the mountain dungeon have caused some damage as they flee the mountain," Krystal said, "Which makes our job a bit more difficult and dangerous."

"But nevertheless," Zwei said, "We must do what we can to help, all of us."

"Wait," Zero asked, slightly shocked, "We're all going there?"

"We are," Krystal said, "Officer Magnezone has called all Exploration Teams and explorers available to Sky Peak to help out and make sure this doesn't become bigger than it already is. As such, this entire Guild will be going there to help."

"We have no time to waste then," Dusclops said.

"Yeah!" Treeko said, nodding, "Let's get moving!" And with that, everyone headed off to Sky Peak despite some of them not being fully prepared.

When they got there, the village at it's foot was in chaos with several Pokemon running around like a Torchic with its head cut off while these small Pokemon that looked like little moving bushes tried to calm them. A good number of the houses were in shambles and there were several Exploration Badges trying to help out where they could, whether it be trying to prevent the damage from getting worse or helping the small Pokemon calm down others. Skittle looked around in shock, "This... This is horrible..."

"Indeed," Krystal said, looking around, "Which is why we must do what we can to prevent it from getting any worse." She then looked at Dusklops and Treeko, "Team Dusk, head up the mountain and try to deal with the cause of the sludge." The duo nodded and headed into the Dungeon as Krystal went off to aid in damage control within the village.

Skittle looked at Zero, slight panic in her eyes, "What do we do Zero...? We have to help but..." She looked around the village and at the Dungeon entrance before looking back at Zero, "I don't know what we can do in the village and I heard Sky Peak is an extremely hard and dangerous Dungeon for low leveled Pokemon like us but... I want to help..."

"Then do what you feel is needed of you here," Zwei said, looking at Skittle and Zero. His voice was calm and he wasn't speeding through his words like when they met him, "It's all you can do. If you feel you're needed in the Dungeon then go, and be careful."