Explorers of Origin: A Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Fanfiction, Volume 1

Chapter 12: Into the Cave

Moving forward is the only way out of danger, even if all hope is lost.

For two long and mundane hours, Mawile, Pikachu, and Espeon trekked the heavily damaged Amazonia Road, the main path connecting Açaí Town and Koruno City filled with potholes and bones of dead Pokémon on both sides. Developing a small pinch of sadness inside of her, the queen breathes in deeply in an effort to prevent any tears sprouting from her regal face. Mawile regrets the fact that the path has not been well cared for as of late, with the rise of the Amartoloí being the primary cause. As for Pikachu, the boredom of walking through a torn-up road forces him to melt the vocal ice and begin chatting about the enemy.

"Remind me why we should care about those purple idiots."

"Homicides, vanishing towns and cities, semi-natural disasters... the list goes on."

"All of us have been through this crap since word first spread over 20 years ago. Whenever a community seemed to be back on their feet, they show up and reset the chaos. Even so, we still gotta get up and keep going. I don't really see a point in giving up easily when there's so much to live for."

"You're oddly optimistic about this, Mawile."

"Am I, Pikachu? This is how I normally think things."

"Huh."

"There's no point in dwelling into the tough times. Like Mawile said, only by moving on will get us anywhere."

Silently processing Espeon's perspective on the Amartoloí crisis, Pikachu reverts his gaze towards the path when his ears begin to twitch in a rapidly random, yet very precise pattern. Turning over his right shoulder, he discovers a few Amartoloí vortexes materializing one by one. With Mawile and Espeon following suit soon after, they knew that a battle is unavoidable, so they gathered into their combat formation to fend off the threat.

"Treat this like fight like the one we had back at the hidden passage; we attack in sync to kill them off quickly. Got it, kiddos?"

"Yeah."

"You got it!"

"I'll leave the command to you, Mawile. Once you're all set, let us free!"

"Oh? That's surprising. But I'll do it, I guess."

Mawile analyzes the Amartoloí intensely, taking note of their spawning positions and the sequential patterns of each spawn. After patiently awaiting the proper timing, Mawile charges an Ice Beam from her ponytail jaw and gives her teammates the thumbs-up.

"Let's party!"

On Mawile's command, the team launches their offensive. Transferring the energy of her Ice Beam from her ponytail to her mouth, Mawile unleashes the freezing ray of sky-blue light in the style of a windshield wiper, eliminating the frontmost wave of Amartoloí with sniper-like precision. Immediately following the rise of short ice pillars formed by the Ice Beam, Pikachu performs a critical Extremespeed to jump on top of each pillar's peak at blazing speeds, bashing through Amartoloí figures attempting to jump over the pillars to deny access to their blind spots. Espeon follows suit via her barrage of Quick Attacks, taking care of the Amartoloí approaching from the left side of the path.

Electric fields, psychic fields, and patches of ice intersect wildly as the trio continue to repel the seemingly endless spawns of Amartoloí that pile up in front of them. Utilizing her psychic traits, Espeon detects six spawnpoints, three on each side, that house the purple energy that materializes the Amartoloí. Figuring that unleashing a flurry of attacks would get rid of them, she suggests Mawile to aim her attacks on all of them.