Pokemon Mystery Dungeon

Chapter Twenty-Three

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Raiden and I were damp, tired and, fed up with the job we were pursuing. I heard a sigh from Raiden as we proceeded up the stairs to the sixth floor of Drenched Bluff, "Ugh, I hate this place. I swear every time we come here my paws feel sloshy for at least two days." I gave him a smirk and flicked the water off one of my back paws in his direction, "Hey, you brought this upon yourself. I wanted to take the job in apple woods." I swooned, beginning to daydream of all the delicious apples we could have acquired until Raiden returned the splash with his own. "Oh, come on. You know, if it wasn't my turn to choose, you would have chosen this job too. You've gotta soft spot for children, especially ones that get themselves into sticky situations." Raiden wasn't wrong. Ever since our mission to rescue Azurill, I'd discovered that I had a fondness towards helping younger pokemon. "What can I say, they're adorable! Plus, I've gotta start building our fan base, now, for when we're famous explorers." Raiden let out a chuckle as we continued to search for the lost Nidoran.

After searching through almost the entire sixth floor of Drenched Bluff, I heard another sigh from Raiden. "I swear, how in the world does a baby Nidoran manage to make their way through six floors of a mystery dungeon!" I shrugged in response, "The older brother did say she wanted to be an explorer when she grew up. I'm actually kinda impressed." As we wandered into the last room on this floor of the dungeon, we spotted the lost Nidoran bouncing on and off a wonder tile at the opposite end of the long room. She looked fascinated with the tile, as she would step off, use focus energy then step back onto the tile, negating the previous increase in her critical hit ratio. The scene was very endearing, causing me to not want to interrupt her experimentation with the mysterious tile. However, panic struck me as I saw a Shellos making a beeline towards the preoccupied child. Knowing Raiden was much faster in short distances, and let out a shout, "Raiden! Quick!"

Not requiring a full explanation, as he had witnessed what was about to transpire as well, he sprinted forward. He stopped quite a ways back from the pokemon, worrying me as I attempted to make up the distance between us. Jarringly, Raiden began to compile a large orb of electricity that sparked off his body at his tail before hurling it with a whip of his tail across the room toward the unsuspecting Shellos. I watched in awe as the electric spear few across the room and decked the Shellos, sending it spiraling into the water. The baby Nidoran, startled by the sudden violent commotion next to her, sprinted away from the wonder tile and towards an adjacent room. Suppressing the surprise at Raiden's new move, I changed my course of direction away from the Shellos and Raiden, I ran after the child, scared more pokemon would appear. "Wait! We're here to help! Your brother sent us here to bring you home!"

She looked over her shoulder with distrust and anger, and continued to run from me hissing, "Yeah right! Your just a baddie trying to get me! Me and big brother always use the secret password with strangers!" She was about to dart and disappear into a tiny passage, far to small Raiden or me, as I yelled, "Mankey farts!" She halted just before she disappeared from my sight. Turning around, her expression was a stark contrast to the previous look I had received from her. Awe and admiration played across her features as she ran towards me, halting mear inches from my face. "You must really be an explorer then! Sooo coool!"

As I recovered from the sudden change in her demeanor, she berated me with question after question. "What's your team name?! How many members does your team have?! Are you a sole explorer?! Do you work with the Wiggletuff exploration guild?! How many baddies have you stopped?! What do you-" My sweat dropped as I gently interrupted her onslaught of questions, "Why don't we get you out of here and back to your brother, then you can ask my partner and I all the questions you want. Your brother's worried sick about you, you know." She beamed up at me and nodded following closely behind me, accidentally stepping on my heels every so often, as we returned to the previous room.