It took a second for this to sink in before Keo was on his feet, glaring at the Weavile. “What? What!? No, we’re not allowing that!”
Weavile seemed surprisingly unconcerned. “I mean, I’m coming along whether you like it or not.”
“There’s already- more than enough people here!” Keo continued.
“And that sounds like a whole lot of not my problem,” Weavile interrupted. “Listen, if that ledge incident is anything to go by, I’d easily say that you would all suck at exploring. And there’s a lot of mystery dungeons between here and Mistralton.”
“Going into a mystery dungeon with more than three people is stupid dangerous,” Keo continued, glaring at Weavile balefully. “Everyone knows this.”
“Then how come we survived an Anomaly with four?” Gideon asked, listening to the conversation tiredly.
Keo and Weavile both turned to stare at him, Keo balefully and Weavile with a look of blank amazement. “You did whatnow?”
“So what if we did?” Keo sat down resolutely. “No. You’re not joining.”
“Funny how I’ve only heard you complaining so far,” Weavile remarked. His eyes strayed to the other three in the group expectantly. “Any other comments?”
Dexter shuffled in place awkwardly. “Um, well, I will say that I do not really know you yet, but… you did just go out of your way to save Mister Gideon and Miss Valerie…”
Gideon sighed. He was gently stroking the back of Valerie’s head, trying to comfort both her and himself. “I’m afraid we’re biased in that respect, Keo.”
Keo looked around at all of them. “You can’t be serious! You’re just letting him follow us?!”
“Keo,” Valerie said softly, “we let you follow.”
This shut Keo up very effectively. He opened his mouth several times to retort, eventually lapsing into a glowering silence.
Weavile waited a minute before grinning and unslinging his backpack from his shoulder. It jingled as it hit the ground, which Gideon thought was slightly odd. “Well, now that that’s decided.” He dug through the bag and pulled out a kettle, quickly arranging a campfire for it to sit on. He conjured ice from seemingly nowhere and plunked it inside the kettle before looking around and pointing at Dexter. “Hey, can you use Flareslate to light this?”
Dexter jumped, startled. “I-! Um, slates are missing. All slates are missing,” he corrected himself, his tone sounding ashamed.
Weavile’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Wow, you are really messed up.” He reached into the backpack again and felt around for something, more jingling noises accompanying the movement until he pulled out a flint. He pulled out a single Poke coin and scratched it against the flint, the campfire catching alight.
Keo bristled. “Hey, that’s a waste of good Poke!”
Weavile snorted, flipping the coin into the backpack where it landed with a small clink. “Look, kid, there’s more where that came from. If I damage a few Poke, oh no! What a shame! I have more.”
“How much more?” Keo asked, but he was ignored as Weavile set the Treasure Bag down and opened it.
“What in the goddamn?” a stunned Weavile asked. “What is this?” He hefted out the flight recorder and turned it around. “Some kind of bomb?”
“Black box from a plane,” Gideon said evenly. “Trying to get to Mistralton to read it.”
Weavile’s eyes lit up in comprehension. “Ahhhh. Alright.” He set it down and rummaged around in the rest of the Treasure Bag until he pulled out two Oran Berries, which he juiced into the kettle. He tossed one mushed berry into his mouth and set the other one delicately into the pot, trying to make sure that the hot water wouldn’t splash him.
“What are you doing, exactly?” Dexter asked curiously.
“Oran tea,” Weavile replied. “They don’t exactly look too well at the moment, and I figure that we should get going relatively soon.” He reached into a side pocket of his backpack and pulled out two mugs, which were full of Poke. He poured them out into the main backpack, the coins creating a golden waterfall as they joined their brethren inside. Keo stared at the backpack like it was haunted after that.
After the kettle whistled, Weavile poured the tea into the mugs and brought them over to Gideon and Valerie, who accepted them without much fanfare. “Drink it,” he commanded. “It’ll help.”
Valerie blew on her tea before taking a sip. She jolted upright as she choked and pulled at her burnt tongue. “Ackt! Hotths! Hotthsth!”
Gideon wisely blew on his tea more than once and was still rewarded with a scalded tongue for his trouble. “Good grief, man, how hot did you need to make this?”
“Very,” Weavile said, watching with a stupid grin. He put out the campfire using more ice and put the still-hot kettle in among the coins he had dumped in (among who knows what else) and zipped it up before putting the flight recorder back into the Treasure bag, hefting both of them over his shoulder. He kicked the evidence of the campfire into oblivion before turning to Gideon and Valerie, who were still drinking the tea very slowly. “Want me to cool it off?”
Both of them nodded gratefully. “That would be great,” Valerie said sheepishly.
Weavile summoned two ice “cubes” and dunked one in each mug. They melted very quickly, but the tea was drank much faster after that. Gideon collected Valerie’s empty mug and handed both of the mugs back to Weavile, who tied them to the side of the backpack using a loose ribbon of some kind. “Cool, let’s get going.”
There was another sort of gate ahead of them, but this one didn’t have a turnstile. Nor anyone at the counter, worryingly enough. The light on the other side of the gate shone brightly, beckoning them through. Gideon thought it was a bit odd— it wasn’t that dim inside.
They stepped through the light onto a bridge.
It was marvelously long. Tall poles curved their way above the bridge, descending down into the rushing water below. Keo began to look a little pale again, but he shook it off. “We can’t be that high up,” he muttered to himself.
Their footsteps echoed on the bridge, which held sturdy. Valerie looked much like herself again, which was a fact Gideon was relieved about. He hated seeing her closed up like that.
Dexter was looking everywhere. Slowly at first, before it became more frantic. Eventually he looked up and stopped dead, his holographic eyes shrinking. “Um…? Guys? Why is the sky white…?”
Gideon looked back at Dexter, confused. “What do you mea…?” He trailed off as he looked into the sky, along with the rest of the group.
The sky was white. A blinding, brilliant white. Gideon peered around, looking for the sun, which seemed to have vanished. “The heck?”
As if the words were giving the bridge some kind of permission, it noiselessly bent up towards the white sky, almost like a mirage. Gideon looked ahead and stared at the sudden wall before slowly dragging a paw down his face in agony.
Valerie looked at the bridge-wall and paled. “O-oh. Guess we can’t go that way.”
Keo slammed a paw into the metal bridge, letting out an incoherent noise of anger. “Why do we have to go through another one of these?! Wasn’t one enough!?”
Weavile smirked. “Wow, I sure am glad that there’s a good two thousand documented dungeons and who knows how many undocumented ones on the planet.”
“What’s your point?” Keo asked suspiciously.
“That you’re gonna have to go through far more of these if you want to get anywhere,” he replied. He walked up to the wall and tapped it curiously.
He seemed to glue himself to the wall. He made a muffled noise of complaint before pushing himself up- he was sideways.
Keo let out a hysterical laugh. “Oh. Oh okay so that’s just a thing. You can walk on walls now. Okay that makes perfect sense.”
Weavile looked up— sideways?— at them. “Now is not the time to have a mental breakdown. Come on, gotta keep going.”
Valerie boldly walked up to the wall and touched it, falling to the wall-thing and standing up. “Ow. Vertigo.”
Gideon had an idea. He walked up to the wall and put his foot against it to somewhat brace himself.
The whole world suddenly seemed to turn 90 degrees. He stumbled away from the now-wall and was upright again, feeling a little dizzy. “Are all mystery dungeons like this?” he asked.
“I’m fifty-fifty on whether this is an Anomaly,” Weavile said as Dexter made movements very similar to Gideon’s. “Mystery dungeons are more like mazes.”
Keo was the last one. He stared at the people standing on the wall with a faintly sick expression before running at the wall with his eyes closed. He hit the wall-that-was-now-ground and somersaulted, coming out in a sprawl and panting a little.
“Are you okay?” Valerie asked kindly.
“Perfectly fine,” he replied in the strained way that indicated he wasn’t. “Peachy.”
Shockingly, it was Dexter of all people who helped him up. “Easy does it,” he said gently. “Heights are nothing to scoff at.”
Keo groaned. “I knowww. I don’t feel so good…”
They walked up the bridge in silence after that. Gideon kept getting the impression that the bridge ahead was jittering erratically, but it was only when he looked at it out of the corner of his eye. It gave him the creeps.
And then they came to a crossroads.
The bridge ahead of them split into two, as if something had sheered it down the middle. Miraculously, the bridge still managed to stay upright, even as the supporting poles extended endlessly into the abyss. Keo took one look and squeezed his eyes shut. There were no guard rails in the middle.
“Age old question,” Weavile said. “Left or right?”
“I think we should go right,” Valerie said unexpectedly.
Gideon glanced at her, surprised. “How come?”
She shuffled uncomfortable. “I’m… not entirely sure. Just a feeling.”
“You really freak me out when you talk like that,” he muttered as they began to walk along the right half of the bridge. It angled away from the other half, leaving the single guard railing on the right side. Keo stuck to the railing as close as he could, trying to stare only straight ahead and failing.
Weavile slowed down. “Hey, there’s a Pokemon ahead.”
There was. Gideon could hardly make out the speck, but the sudden appearance of a Pokemon made him nervous. “The last time we saw Pokemon in a mystery dungeon, they were faceless.”
“That was an Anomaly,” Keo corrected. His voice still had the strained tone to it.
As they approached the Pokemon, Gideon saw with relief that it did have a face. It was a Misdreavus, pensively staring across the white sky. It faded away into nothingness as they approached, causing him to stop and look around. “Where…?”
“Ghost-type,” Weavile said. “Kinda coy sometimes. But we’re just passing through, so we should be fine.”
Valerie sighed. “It looked lonely.”
They continued on, Gideon casting a backwards look when he thought they were far enough. The Misdreavus had returned, still looking across the white sky. He shivered a little and turned his attention to the path ahead.
The bridge seemed to spiral up and around and down, like some sort of messed up rollercoaster. Keo stopped, shaking miserably. “I’m- I’m not going on that. I am not going on that.”
“Looks fine to me,” Weavile said. “A little screwy, maybe, but-“
“Yeah? And what if we fall?” Keo asked, his fear spilling over into anger. “What if this stupid gravity thing stops working? What happens when we hit the ground?”
Weavile considered these questions with a thoughtful expression before depositing both of his bags on the ground. He walked to the unguarded edge of the bridge, turned around, and grinned at Keo while making finger guns. “See you in a sec!”
He then fell backward off the bridge.
Gideon and Valerie rushed to the edge and watched as he fell into the sky, looking entirely unconcerned. He faded away into the atmospheric fog, leaving everyone else dumbstruck.
“That has to be the bravest and stupidest thing I have ever seen,” Dexter said after a few seconds, as shocked as the rest of them. “What in the world…?”
Keo’s pupils had gone dilated, his breathing rapid. Valerie noticed and walked over to him. “Look,” she began. “I know that he may have just- done that-“
Keo closed his eyes and crumpled to the ground. “I hate it here I hate it here I hate it here I hate it heeeerrreee…”
Valerie hugged him. “Everything will be fine, Keo,” she said comfortingly. “Did you hear how confident he was? He’ll probably be back pretty soon.” Her tone didn’t inspire much confidence in her own words.
And then Weavile slammed face first into the bridge, causing their surroundings to reverberate loudly.
Everyone jumped and stared in shock as he lay there. Eventually, he pushed himself off of the ground, looking at everyone through a bruised face. “See?” he slurred. “Nuthin’ to worry ‘bout. Medic…” he mumbled as he sat down.
Gideon jumped to the Treasure Bag and dug around the fight recorder, producing a squished looking Oran berry. He handed it to Weavile, who ate it gratefully. He seemed much better afterward, standing up without swaying at all. “Okay,” he said as he shouldered both the bags again. “Now we know that there’s not that much danger to falling. Let’s keep going, shall we?”
He hadn’t cured Keo’s fear, but he had certainly shocked him enough to keep him going. He stared at Weavile wide-eyed the entire time they walked along the bridge, hardly noticing the twists and turns the path was making them take.
“How did you do that?” he eventually squeaked out.
“Hm?” Weavile looked over his shoulder.
“How did you- fall and then come back?” Keo asked, barely more eloquent.
“Something about how mystery dungeons work,“ Weavile said, looking ahead again. “They’re like a giant, self contained box. They really want you to stay on the beaten path.”
Keo looked at the floor again. “The books didn’t mention anything about that…”
Weavile laughed. “A lot of the writers of said books haven’t had much personal experience. Nor do I blame them, considering Anomalies!” He looked back at Keo curiously. “You want to be an explorer?”
Keo nodded slowly. “I thought that there would be- less weirdness.”
Weavile produced a coin from his feathery collar, somehow, and started flipping it idly as they walked. “Mystery dungeons have always been kinda weird. Doesn’t help that they’ve started appearing on man-made structures, twisting and distorting them beyond recognition.”
“Oh, um, I’ve been meaning to ask,” Valerie cut in. “Do you know what happened to… humans?”
Weavile caught the coin and investigated it thoughtfully, holding it up to the light. “Dunno!”
Gideon looked at him blankly. “How do you not know?”
“Um, well, from what I have read, they all left the planet to explore the stars,” Dexter said humbly.
Before Gideon and Valerie could process this, Weavile replied, “That’s a cool story, but unfortunately there’s a little something called ‘the Convergence’. Even though the entire timeline or whatever was merged, there hasn’t been a sign of humans who were before that. Like, at all. Not a peep.”
Valerie’s hand found Gideon’s paw. “O-oh.” Her voice was weak.
“I have my own theories, of course,” Weavile continued, “but they’re kinda out there, and until I can find actual proof somehow, they’re nothing more than theories.” He suddenly looked at them with interest. “Why do you ask?”
The question caught them off guard. Valerie looked to Gideon for help, who was completely devoid of excuses. “Just curious, I guess?” he managed.
Weavile peered at them for a minute before shrugging and returning the coin to his crest. “Nothing wrong with questions.”
Except for when you ask the wrong ones, Gideon thought ruefully. He was beginning to wonder when he would have to break the news and how they would react.
They walked into a “room”. Gideon was hesitant to call it that, because it was a part of the bridge that was slightly wider than normal. Weavile held up a hand as he looked around. “Anyone need a break?”
Everyone chorused “yes”. They had been walking for what felt like forever, so an excuse to take a break was welcome. They all spread out, Keo remaining near the railing, and sprawled out in various sitting positions. The bridge continued endlessly into the fog, curving above them and below them like a painting. Gideon almost swore he could hear water somewhere, lapping against the supports of the bridge.
They were all tired. Despite the Oran tea from earlier, Valerie was still content to lean against Gideon, gently rubbing his fluffy arm. The caffeine jolt (or whatever it had been) was beginning to wear off, and Gideon knew that they would both need to sleep for a long, long time.
After a while, Weavile reached into his backpack, which jingled loudly as he looked for something.
“How much money do you even have in there?” Keo asked, somewhat irritably.
“A bit,” Weavile replied vaguely. “Aha!” He pulled out a tangle of wires attached to a black rectangle, quickly untangling the wires to reveal a set of earbuds. He reached into a pocket of the backpack and pulled out-
“A cassette?” Dexter asked, confused.
Weavile nodded as he opened the cassette player and slotted it in. “I love music. My family is originally from The Veil, so music is still in my blood. Especially the old old stuff.”
Dexter’s ears perked forward. “Really? What is the Veil like? Is it interesting? Do they really have hundreds of years of music archives?”
Weavile grinned. “For an android, you seem really clueless about The Veil.”
Dexter looked at the floor, slightly ashamedly. “My… memory is corrupted. I cannot access any memories before about two days ago.”
“That’s a good song,” Weavile said distractedly. He processed what Dexter had said and stared at him. “Wait, how the hell is your memory corrupted?”
“Dunno,” Dexter replied, still looking at the chunk of bridge they were sitting on. “Miss Valerie woke me up in a house a few miles from here. Apparently I had been found lying on the ground by a Ninetails, who stored me away for an undetermined amount of time.”
“No other partitions?” asked Weavile, aghast. “No recovery options? No backups?”
Dexter’s holographic face disappeared for a moment, replaced by a loading symbol. It quickly snapped back into place, looking somewhat confused. “Well- I- actually, yes, I do have backups, but they require an admin password.”
Weavile pointed at him. “And even if you did know it, your memory is missing. I call foul play.”
“That… does seem to be the case, yes,” Dexter said humbly, looking up at Weavile. “But you do know about the Veil…?”
Weavile laughed. “Alright, whatever, I can see that I’m not getting rid of you that easily.”
Gideon and Valerie listened in interest as Weavile drummed his claws on the cassette player, even though he wasn’t listening to it. “The Veil is a bit like Black City, even if the grass around it hasn’t regrown yet. It’s got the tallest building in the world, which Black City is very envious over.” He shook his head with an appreciative grin. “It’s also got dance clubs for miles, used to have more surveillance than a prison, and is teeming with androids.”
Valerie smiled as she watched how excited Dexter was getting. But she asked, “‘Used’ to have surveillance?”
“It’s part of why the Convergence is/was a big deal,” Weavile replied. “All of the drones that used to watch everyone in the city just… deactivated. No one is entirely sure why, I think it has something to do with the guy who was running them failing miserably at his job, but that’s none of my business.” He grinned as he remembered something. “Oh, yeah, the Convergence was brought around thanks in part to a human.”
This caught their attention. “Really?” Valerie sat up and Gideon leaned forward. “How did a human do it?” Valerie continued.
Weavile scratched his feathery crown. “Not sure! Though one of the facts we do know is that she was turned into a Skitty by an Anomaly, somehow.”
Gideon and Valerie exchanged slow looks, the implications of this sinking in. “So, um, what was this human like?” Valerie asked, a little nervously.
“You’re askin’ me?” Weavile’s eyebrows shot up. “We’re in Unova, which is a good third of a continent away from the Grass Continent. If you want to know more, you can stop by there.”
“We might have to, then,” Gideon muttered. Aloud, he said, “Maybe after we get the black box read.”
“Makes sense,” Weavile said with a shrug. “Priorities and all.”
They lapsed into silence again, Weavile starting his cassette and listening with a contented smile on his face. Dexter began quietly edging closer to him, a wistful look on his face. As he silently sat down next to him, Weavile smiled, still with his eyes closed. “If you want to listen, you can just ask, ya dork.” He pulled out an earbud and stuck it into Dexter’s ear, causing his face to light up. Literally. It grew brighter by several lumens as an excited and wonderful smile grew on his face before settling into a peaceful expression of joyous contentment.
Valerie couldn’t help smiling as well. “I want to make him look like that more often,” she told Gideon softly. “He’s so cute when he smiles like that.”
“He really is,” Gideon muttered. He wasn’t as smitten by the holographic face, but the robot was beginning to grow on him.
After a while, Keo began to get very jittery. “Can we get going soon?” he said at length. “I really, really, really don’t want to know what an Anomaly in this place is like…”
Weavile sighed and paused his tape, causing a faint look of disappointment to cross Dexter’s face. “I liked where that one was going.”
“Fox boy over there is complaining that we aren’t moving fast enough for the dungeon,” Weavile said peaceably as he collected the earbuds and dumped both them and the player into a side pocket of the backpack.
“F-fox boy?!” Keo asked incredulously. “I’m just trying to make sure we don’t get killed!”
“And that’s all well and good, but you gotta learn how to take breaks,” Weavile replied as he shouldered the bags again. “Alright, let’s go.”
They continued along the bridge, the break having done everyone good. Even Keo looked slightly more relaxed, though he was still unwell looking. Their footsteps echoed on the metal, and-
“Hey, there’s that Misdreavus again,” Weavile said with surprise.
It was looking out over the ocean still, the look of longing still on its face. Weavile waved in an attempt to get its attention. “Hey! You over there!”
“Don’t do that!” Keo hissed. “What if it thinks we’re in its territory?!”
He didn’t need to worry. It faded out of existence again, before they had even gotten close.
Valerie sighed again. “I wish I knew how to help it. It looks like it’s missing something.”
They continued walking. Gideon’s legs were beginning to get tired again, a lot faster than last time, but Keo’s words had instilled a certain kind of dread in his heart. He didn’t want to go through an experience like that again.
They passed through another room which looked faintly familiar, walking along the winding bridge. It wound up and over and down into the sky, before-
Weavile raised a hand. “Wait.”
Everyone stopped, looking at him curiously. “What is it?” Dexter asked.
Weavile pointed ahead at the Misdreavus again. “We’re going in circles.”
“Are you sure we haven’t just encountered three different ghosts and all of them happened to be shy?” Gideon asked dryly. His legs hurt and he wanted to sit down.
Weavile shook his head. “Nope! That’s the same Misdreavus. This mystery dungeon is sending us in circles.”
Keo let out a shuddery groan. “I hate this place I hate this place…”
“It could be way worse,” Dexter began comfortingly.
“Finish that thought and I am pushing you off this bridge for jinxing us,” Keo said, a little too quickly. “We’re not invoking that. We’re not doing that.
They walked past the Misdreavus again, it disappearing as usual. Valerie didn’t say anything again, but Gideon could hazard a guess about what she was thinking. He comfortingly took her hand and gave it an affectionate squeeze to show he understood. She glanced at him sharply before relaxing, a small smile playing about her face.
They passed by the room again. As they did, Gideon began to feel prickles on his back. Like they were being followed.
He looked back over the group: Valerie was at his side, Dexter was accompanying Keo, and Abra was trailing behind them. Everything seemed fine. He turned his gaze forward, still holding Valerie’s hand. Something still felt wrong, though.
“Do you feel like someone is following us?” he asked Valerie after a while. “I just can’t get this feeling out of my mind.”
Valerie cocked her head. “It… does feel like that…” She looked over her shoulder before looking back at Gideon. “I- can’t seem to put my finger on it, but it does feel like we’re being-“
Her head snapped back around. After a moment, she said, “Um, guys? We’re being followed.”
Everyone stopped and turned around. An Abra that had been floating along behind them peacefully came to a stop, waiting expectantly.
“How long has it been following us?!” Keo squeaked. His nerves were still tattered.
“Since we passed that room again…?” Gideon said, squinting at the Abra. “I just saw you. How didn’t- how did I not-“
“Psychic-type chicanery,” Weavile said dismissively. He pointed at it. “Look, I know you can hear us. Don’t try anything funny. I’m a Dark-type.”
The Abra nodded, seemingly unfettered by this threat. They all turned back around nervously, and the Abra began following them again.
Valerie looked over her shoulder and nervously muttered to Gideon, “It’s following us again…”
“Why hasn’t it attacked us yet?” Gideon quietly asked no one in particular. “We’re clearly in its territory…”
After a while, they came to the spot with the Misdreavus again. They didn’t even bother to hail it, expecting it to disappear as they got close.
Instead, it stayed corporeal, its face growing more and more confused as they approached. It finally turned to the group and scanned its occupants, landing on Abra.
It took a second, but its face lit up. “Abra!” it squealed in a girl’s voice, causing all of them to jump. They watched as the ghost swooped down and rubbed affectionately on the Abra’s cheek, who seemed to take it in stride.
“Whaaaaat am I watching,” Keo muttered uncomfortably.
The ghost turned its attention to the group. “Oh, were you the ones who found him?!”
“Um. He kinda followed us,” Gideon said.
The ghost giggled. “He does that. I can’t thank you enough for reuniting us! He’s a bit shy, which is probably why he kept teleporting you.”
“He what?” Keo asked blankly.
“He what?” Gideon asked, staring at the Pokemon in equal doses confusion and outrage. “Why?”
“It’s how he tries to get your attention.” The Misdreavus giggled again. “I’m not sure how I can…” She trailed off, tilting her head to hear something no one else could. “Oh! Actually…”
She moved around to the Abra’s other arm and dragged off a weird looking bracelet using her mouth. It shone with a golden color, and notches were engraved in it for something. She drifted in front of Gideon, who was the second tallest. He took the bracelet and examined it cluelessly. “Oh, um, thanks…?”
The ghost smiled at them warmly. “Oh, no need to be so modest! You helped a little girl be really happy today!” She turned to Abra. “Come on, let’s play!”
Abra nodded, and they both floated away down the bridge, disappearing into the white fog. If there was fog. They couldn’t tell.
“What is this?” Gideon asked, turning it around. Some kind of gem seemed to be set in one of the notches, reflecting every color like an opal that was completely made of rainbows.
Keo took one look and stared. “That’s- that’s a Gold Looplet.”
Weavile looked over Gideon’s shoulder and let out a long whistle. “And that’s an Awakening Emera. What in the sweet hell did you just get?”
“It’s pretty,” Valerie said doubtfully. “Other than that, I don’t really see a use for it.”
Keo let out a single, unfeeling laugh. “Put it on. I dare you.”
“Not when you have a reaction like that,” Gideon said immediately.
Weavile snorted. “It’s perfectly safe, he just wants to see your reaction.”
“To what?” Gideon asked incredulously. “Wearing jewelry?” But after a moment of hesitation, he put it on.
Surprisingly, it fit. Gideon admired it around his arm. It didn’t look half bad there. Maybe he could get one for-
A surge of energy rushed through him. He stumbled backward, resisting the urge to cough. “What- what the hell?!”
Everyone else was watching with varying levels of interest, Valerie looking on in worry, instead. “Does it hurt?” she asked.
Gideon shook his head, trying to dissect how he felt. “I- feel amazing, actually. I feel like I could run a lap of the planet. And then do it again. And then again.” The energy flowing through him was incredible.
And addictive.
He took the looplet off, stumbling a little as his sudden energy disappeared. He didn’t feel tired, but he had the impression that if he had run a lap around the planet, taking it off would’ve killed him instantly.
“Don’t get used to it,” Weavile said. “Emeras break outside of dungeons, for some reason. Exposure to sunlight, I think.”
Gideon looked up at the sky. “Then what the heck do you call that?”
“Unnatural,” Dexter said dryly. “I think we should get out of here now that we are not being teleported over and over.”
The rest of the group agreed and began to walk along the bridge, passing the room one last time. Gideon contemplated the looplet as he walked, trying to figure out what he was going to do with it. His eyes strayed to Valerie. She was also looking at the looplet curiously, her eyes drifting to the Awakening Emera embedded in it.
Gideon had a sudden, mischievous idea. “Hey, Val.”
“Hm?” She looked at him expectantly.
“We’re engaged, but we seem to have lost the rings. Somewhere.”
“Uh huh.” Her eyes drifted to the looplet again before she looked sharply at him. “Gideon-?”
He took her hand and carefully slotted the looplet onto her finger like a ring. He wasn’t sure whether or not it shrank or if it had always been that size. “There we go,” he said, his signature goofy grin on his face. “Now we can say we’re engaged.”
They had stopped walking as Gideon had grabbed her hand. Valerie stared at the ring on her finger before suddenly grabbing Gideon and kissing him.
It was a short thing, done more out of a sudden and intense impulse. But Gideon felt that Emera again, as if he was wearing the looplet himself. Valerie pulled away, smiling at him with a grin that nearly mirrored his own. “Sid, you goofball.” Rainbows were dancing in her eyes, the power yearning to be freed.
“Val, you dork.” He took her loopleted hand and started towards the rest of the group, who had stopped to watch.
Keo looked absolutely disgusted. “Did you have to kiss?”
“Yes,” Valerie said simply.
“Wait until you’re older,” Gideon teased. “You’ll find someone that you love and you’ll realize there’s no other way to express it.”
Keo wrinkled his noise. “Not like that. Ick.”
They just laughed as they walked along, feeling the energy and power flowing through them. Gideon had the faintest impression that not all of the energy was from the Emera, though he didn’t have the brain space to analyze the feelings flowing through him.
They walked along the bridge that curled and weaved its way through the air before it seemed to straighten out somewhat. Some kind of yellow light made itself known as a gate, similar to the one they had entered.
Keo sighed in evident relief. “Thank Arceus. I was starting to think we’d never get out of this place.”
“The light is coming from the ceiling,” Dexter observed.
They looked with dismay as they realized Dexter was right. The gate was above them, the bridge making a sharp angle up into it. Weavile touched the bridge experimentally and shook his head. “No good.”
Valerie began jogging in place. “I have an idea.”
Gideon glanced at her. “Uh huh? What is it?”
She gestured excitedly. “Weavile throws me up there, I catch hold, he throws everyone else to me so I can throw them through the gate, and then he climbs the wall and we both go through.”
Weavile’s eyebrows shot up. “Have you even seen me throw?”
“If you can climb cliffs like that, then you can definitely throw people the fifteen or so yards that the plan needs,” she said dismissively.
“If you say so,” Dexter said doubtfully. “I am quite heavy, though, and you are only a little larger than me…”
Valerie cracked her knuckles. “I’ll manage.”
“You sure about this?” Weavile asked as he picked her up. “What if I miss?”
“I can fly,” she said, still in the overconfident tone.
“Still, um, try to be careful with her?” Gideon asked nervously.
Weavile smirked. “Yeah yeah, I saw you get engaged.”
“Technically, we were already engaaaaaaaaaged!” The word was drawn out into a yelp as Weavile threw her with no warning. She managed to find a hold and stayed there for a minute before looking down and nodding. “I’m good! Send them up!”
“Who’s first?” Weavile asked.
“Me,” Keo surprisingly volunteered. “I want out of this place.”
“Up you go!” Weavile said as he picked Keo up. He threw him like a dart directly at Valerie. She reached down and managed to snag the scruff of his neck, causing him to yelp, before she threw him up through the golden light.
“Who’s next?” she called, panting.
“I want to go last,” Gideon said. “Not because I’m scared or anything,” he added hastily, “just so I can make sure that she doesn’t get hurt.”
Weavile rolled his eyes as he picked up Dexter. “Sure thing, Sid.”
Dexter, as he had predicted, was heavier. Gideon felt his heart stop as Valerie barely caught him by a robotic ear, her grip slipping from the sudden weight. But with a grunt, she slung him through the gate, even as her hand slipped from its hold entirely.
Gideon dashed beneath her to try and catch her, but she elegantly twirled mid-air and glided down to the bridge, panting. “Good lord, he wasn’t lying.”
“So what’s plan B?” Weavile asked.
Valerie laughed, exhilarated. “We never stopped plan A! Throw me back up!”
“But you slipped!” Gideon argued, rightfully worried.
“Throw me to the other end this time,” Valerie said, ignoring him. “The side away from the wall. You’re probably going to need to make a running leap.”
“I’m probably just as heavy as Dex, though,” Weavile said, moving one of the bags he was wearing. “What if you’re left here because you slip again?”
“Exactly!” Gideon gestured at him. “He gets it!”
“I can do anything right now,” Valerie said, a dangerous grin on her face. “Besides, just give some of the weight to Gideon.”
Weavile shouldered the Treasure Bag to the ground, leaving Gideon to put it on and adjust the straps as he threw Valerie again. She landed and found a hold much quicker, looking down and nodding. “Ready!”
Weavile picked up Gideon. “You have immaculate choice in women,” he said.
Before Gideon could react to this, he was flying through the air, his stomach committing evasive maneuvers. He reached out a paw-
Valerie caught it. She grinned down at him for a second.
“See you in a sec, fluffy.”
Gideon found himself rolling through a gate of some kind, gravity disconcerting after such a long time in a place where it didn’t work properly. Keo and Dexter were there, waiting nervously.
“You made it!” Dexter said, standing up. “What happened? I felt her hold slip-“
“Fluffy?!” Gideon said as he sat upright, outraged. “Fluffy!? She has the nerve to call me ‘fluffy’!?”
They stared at him blankly. “What?” Keo asked.
“Valerie called me fluffy as she hurled me through!” Gideon faced the gate, half debating going back in. “I am going to have words.”
Weavile appeared in a roll, stopping with a pose before standing up straight. A second later, Valerie fell through, pushing herself up with some effort. “See?” she panted. “Nothing to worry about!”
There was silence for a moment. “Catch her,” Weavile advised.
Gideon ran forward and did as she fell over suddenly. She looked unconscious, but her eyes opened slightly as Gideon studied her with worry.
“Thanks,” she mumbled. “Hit like a… ton of bricks.”
“I had a feeling it would,” Gideon murmured, smoothing out the fur over her forehead. “You pushed yourself too hard.”
A massive grin spread across her face. “But it was cool.”
Gideon sighed. “Yes,” he conceded, “It was cool. But you can’t burn yourself out over things like this.”
She closed her eyes contentedly, still smiling. “I just needed to hear you say that.”
He rolled his eyes. “Wing’ed dork.”
Her eyes snapped back open and focused on him. “What did you just call me?”
“You two can leave the flirting for later,” Weavile said with amusement. “Come on, let’s get going. Just past this route in Nimbasa.”
Gideon, attempting to follow the group, suddenly realized he was carrying twice his weight in both the flight recorder and Valerie. He took a few weak steps towards the door before falling to his knees. “A… little… help?” he gasped.
Weavile looked back and snorted. “Hand her here.”
He took her as if she hardly weighed more than a bag of groceries before he turned around and dumped her on Dexter’s back. Dexter stared at her for a few seconds before looking back at Weavile. “Um-?”
“You’re strong enough to carry her,” he said. “Unless your legs are broken, which I doubt.”
“No, I can carry her,” Dexter said. “But- why me?”
“Gideon’s- actually, do we really need a reason?” Weavile grinned. “We’re trying to get to Nimbasa right now. We can get things sorted out after we rest.”
Dexter looked over his shoulder at Valerie, who was draped over him like a weighted blanked, before looking at Gideon, who had tiredly rejoined the group. “Are- are you sure, sir?”
Gideon caught one of Valerie’s hands. She cracked open her eyes and peeked at him, smiling a little as she made very slight nodding motions.
“I’m fine with it,” he said. “We just need rest.”
“Okay,” Dexter said dubiously. “If you’re ever uncomfortable or want to get off-“
“Can we get going already?” Keo asked, standing by the door impatiently.
“I’ll live, Dex,” Valerie said, stroking the top of the robot’s head. “You’re fine.”
They left the gate, stepping out onto an asphalt road. A fence lined the edge of the path, keeping the evergreen trees from invading the path with too much shade. Gideon thought it was about noon, but he was too tired to ask. A few buildings loomed in the distance, showing that they were almost there.
The walk through the route was short and uneventful, luckily. As they stepped into the gate, a Growlithe blinked at them from behind the counter. “Oh, uh. Hello. Not sure how you slipped past me.”
“Never seen you in my life,” Weavile said truthfully.
The Growlithe raised an eyebrow. “Hm. Well, I’m supposed to warn you about the mystery dungeon on Marvelous Bridge…”
“Too late, already went through it,” Keo said tiredly. “I never want to take another bridge as long as I live.
“You-“ He scanned the group. “No, too many to be explorers,” he muttered. “Well, I could consider that some good advice, little ‘mon. The other bridges on the continent have all- spontaneously turned into mystery dungeons.”
They all stared at it. “You’re kidding,” Keo replied disbelievingly.
“Not at all. There’s a reason that most people take the trains instead-“
Keo’s mouth fell open in indignation. “There were trains?!”