Pokemon : Mystery After Dungeon Chr 11

"Blaze! Wake! Come on! Wake, Blaze!" The Torchic's eyes fluttered open.

"Are we okay?" he asked. She nodded.

"Yes. But Dream Demi failed when I tried to call it forth when I was asleep." she turned to see the all-too familiar shape of an old friend, also slumped against the wall. "Is that Grovyle? Haven't talked to him in ages! I thought he was still in the future!" she walked over to her friend, poking him in the ribs. "Grovyle! Wake!" When he did nothing, she quickly used a Leaf Blade attack, trimming his head leaf a little. His eyes snapped open.

"Gah! Who are you?! Where are we?!" he demanded. She frowned.

"Grovyle, it's me! You don't have amnesia, do you?" he shook his head.

"No, I have my memory, actually. I really don't know you."

She turned away, a single tear falling down her cheek. How could he not know her? He was her best friend and partner in their time. She didn't notice a third shape as another pokémon rose, not noticing her, either.

"Huh? Is that...?" She spun around, recognising the voice.

"Catstar! I haven't seen you in a long time. How have you be-" she stopped, noticing she was staring right at a strange-looking Riolu, not her Eevee friend. She turned away again, embarrassed at the mistake. "Sorry, really. I thought you were someone else."

"I did, too." The Riolu approached her, putting an arm around her shoulder.

"Or did I?"

"....Huh?"

"Well..." began the Riolu. "Are you Narry Nee-Chan?" Narry gasped.

"How do you know my name?!"

The Riolu smiled again. "It's me, Catstar. Let me explain..."
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After a while of explaining, Ebony and Grovyle had filled in Narry and the other pokémon, the Torchic, who Ebony had since learned was called Blaze, entirely on the subject.

"So..." Narry said slowly, "You and Grovyle are from another dimension and have to collect these crystals to save space."

"Sounds cliché when you say it like that, but yeah."

"Should we help?" Blaze asked. "We're an exploration team, too! We stopped Primal Dialga!" Ebony frowned.

"Yeah... I gotta ask you about that later, Narry. So we'll get all the crystals in this dimension and then we go to mine. By the way, your Catstar knows me now, so we're going by nicknames to save confusion."

"Oh?" Narry asked curiously. "Tell me."

"I'm Ebony, she's Eve. You should have one, too."

Narry stared at a puddle of water thoughtfully for a while, watching small drops fall onto it, a ripple spreading across the surface. "Hmm... Can I be called Lira?"

Ebony grinned. "Love it! Okay, so you wanna come, then?" Both their new friends nodded. "Good. And no, Blaze, you don't need a nickname. In my dimension, I don't think Narry, uh, Lira, knows you. She was met on the beach by a Pikachu by the name of Cell."

"Cell?" Blaze said suddenly. Ebony nodded.

"Yeah, why?"

"I know a Pikachu called Cell here! He's on Team Sapphire; they're your team in this dimension!"

That was when it struck Ebony. She hadn't really thought of it much, but Pikachu had always seemed familiar to her. Of course; it was Cell! "Oh! That's why he always seemed so familiar!"

Grovyle took the break in the conversation as a chance to jump into it himself. "Okay, now introductions are outta the way, let's just think; who sent us here? Because we all know we normally wake up on the beach after travelling through time or space, so why are we in Beach Cave?"

"Well me and Blaze were just walking through Sinister Woods, near to where Team Sapphire's base was, since we were visiting them," Lira said, "They live off further to the north, in another region. I have no idea how we're here, but I think someone hit me round the back of the head with something."

"So... They'll probably be back to finish the job, since I guess they tried to kill us. If they just wanted us out they could've just dragged me and Ebony away, but I've noticed a few wounds and I'm pretty sure I din't get those whilst travelling. We need to get outta here, and fast."

They all nodded, preparing to get out of the cave.
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Numar awoke to see Deathica looking rather annoyed at the large amounts of sand covering her... Dress? Well, since Deathica was, tecnically, just a dress with a mind, she didn't know if that would be suited to this scenario.

"Hey, we must go now. Numar, clean what you can from your fur, it is time to save the others!" Numar nodded and the two ran from the beach, in persuit of their friends.
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Ebony and the other three were finally out of the cave, following the tracks on the beach. Noone could make sense of any of it until Blaze finally pointed something out.

"Footprints."

Ebony stared at him. "What?"

He shrugged. "Footprints. Look, there's a trail of Eevee footprints, two trails of Pikachu footprints, Shinx footprints, again, two pairs, a trail of Skitty prints... Then there's a couple of Celebi tracks, like they flew to the ground for a bit when they got tired. I guess these are all your friends...?"

"We don't know a Skitty," Grovyle interjected. Blaze shrugged, before continuing.

"However, there's also a pair of Grovyle tracks and those of a Riolu... Did either of you do any walking before ending up in that cave?" Both shook their heads. "Well, now we know someone's replaced you.And now we know who we're looking for; a Skitty, a Grovyle and a Riolu. Also, there's some Zorua prints and it looks like someone else was here too, but didn't leave tracks, so I guess they can either fly or are a ghost type... But these tracks are fresher, so I don't think they were with your friends."

"Question," Ebony said suddenly to Blaze. The Torchic looked at her. "How do you know who each set of tracks belong to so well?"

"The both of us do many days of sentry duty," Lira said, grinning, "Blaze knows so many footprints!"

Everyone smiled, before setting off along the beach' in persuit of their friends. They charged past the guild at full speed, Blaze taking lead and following the tracks. They all grinded to a halt as they came across grass.

"Well, since they're not in sand anymore, it's gonna be ghard to follow them," Blaze shrugged, "So where do you think they'd be?"

"Hmm... They want crystals, so where...?" Grovyle began. Suddenly everyone looked at each other in realisation.

"Crystal Cave," they said as one, then running hurriedly to find their friends before it was too late.
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The nine of them started at the huge, glimmering crystal at the heart of Crystal Cave, right behind the inner cave that led to the Crystal Crossing dungeon.

"You think that's an imperium crystal?" Amy asked. Eve nodded.

"Yeah... When Numar sacrificed herself to fend off those Misdreavus the first day back to the human world, Numar told us the crystals in my world were in her cave. We have them now, Grovyle, I would ask you to look after them, but I think Amy should; she does seem like a trustworthy addition to our team, after all."

"Let me look after them!" cried Grovyle. Then, realising how angry he had seemed, he addded in a much more rational tone, "I've handled the Time Gears before; the Imerium Crystals probably need the same sort of handling. I don't think she's ever carried Time Gears, has she?"

"Actually," Amy huffed loudly, "A certain Grovyle got himself killed in my dimension. I was the one who had to take the Time Gears to Temporal Tower! Me! Me and Treeko sacrificed everything! So don't come that Trubbish with me!"

Grovyle just stared at her, surprised. He raised an eyebrow. "Fine. You go ahead and take the crystal. I need to talk to you later anyway."
Enzo had a bad feeling about this. He turned towards Ebony, expecting her to do something, to try to defend Amy. However, she just watched emotionlessly as Grovyle glared at their new ally.

"Hey, Eve," he wispered to an uneasy look from his companion, "I think we need to talk, too."
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The large group had just set up a camp for the night, on their way to finsing more crystals, when Enzo finally collared his Eevee friend.

"Eve, does something seem... Off, about Grovyle and Ebony to you?" Eve frowned, looking towards Pika, Star, Pikachu and Celebi, who seemed just as worried about their friends as they, before finally answering the Shinx's question.

"Well, when I first met Grovyle, I thought he was a little suspicious. Now I'm really suspicious about him; he gets wierder and wierder. And why has Ebony got a red band of fur around her neck?"

"She always has," answered Enzo, "I can't remember a time when she hasn't. But her voice... For the most, she sounds like her. But there's something slightly different about it... Only slightly, though." Eve nodded.

"I thought that was because of her transformation to Riolu... But okay, I believe you. I think we need to get the others safe. But how...?"

Enzo got up. "I think I know a way."