Team Moonshine: Troubled Sleep

Life at Clover Guild

It had been a few weeks since the official founding of team Moonshine. The group was moved into a new, bigger dorm room, much to their leader’s distaste. Adrian had preferred the ability to disappear into his room and avoid people, but that was no longer an option for him. Now, he had no escape from his fellow guild members..

His team tried to give Adrian his space most of the time, though. Most of them started taking up hobbies. Vileplume found himself fascinated by human culture, and would often talk to the humans about things from their world. He was slowly becoming an expert on the “means” humans would use to convey ideas and explain important parts of their history.

Bellossom, while holding about as much interest in humans as her brother, found her time occupied by a recent interest in medicine. This was sparked by some recent missions that had gone poorly for the team. Particularly their second mission, where Adrian had to explain to her how to tie a tourniquet so Enny wouldn’t bleed out from a gash on his hindleg. She spent a lot of late nights at the guild’s infirmary, assisting Kina with some of the less severe patients.

Enny just liked to fuck with people by making them think he was a girl. His guildmates would all react differently upon realizing he was a dude. Some of them got pissed off, while some were kind of into it. Cyndaquil, a well known nuisance at the guild, was very into it. He tried to flirt with Enny for a while. Enny didn't mind at first, even returning some of the compliments, but Cyndaquil quickly opened up on some of his more niche… interests. Enny cut contact with him very quickly after hearing what Cyndaquil wanted to do with his ribbons.

The group did try to make sure that Adrian was getting out more often, though. Threats of being dragged through the guild again by Enny were usually enough to get him out of his corner of the dorm. This didn’t necessarily mean they would get good results, though.

Adrian was very quickly building a negative reputation inside the guild. He was very prone to starting fights with people, especially the ones who told him about how popular umbreon “artwork” was in the human world. At first, he didn’t acknowledge the remarks and ignored them. Over time, however, his responses to these comments grew more and more aggressive. Eventually, he’d start entire arguments with people, and berate them for their degenerate interests.

One incident in particular solidified Adrian’s reputation, and set the precedent for anyone who would try aggravating him in the future. Team Moonshine found themselves sitting at a dinner one night next to the somewhat infamous Team “Misfits”. Cyndaquil was one of the members of this team, and he just so happened to be right beside Adrian that night.

“So, are you like most umbreons on the internet?” Cyndaquil asked.

“What?” Adrian replied, clearly confused.

“Oh, didn’t you know?” Cyndaquil said. “Contrary to popular belief, vaporeon is actually not the pokemon most suited for-”

“You finish that sentence, and you won’t be walking away from dinner tonight,” Adrian interrupted.

The rest of the table stopped their conversations and watched the two. Cyndaquil stared intently at Adrian with a smirk, while Adrian did his best to avoid eye contact.

“Oh, that's what I'm hoping for," Cyndaquil whispered to him.

Adrian started to growl viciously.

“Cyndaquil, cut it out,” Phanpy said.

“You really should. He’s not the joking type,” Vileplume warned.

“Come on, you can tell he’s enjoying it just as much as I am. Isn’t that right, little bre?” Cyndaquil said. He gave Adrian a playful nudge, which ended up being the last push Adrian needed.

The umbreon quickly turned and lunged at Cyndaquil, taking him to the ground and knocking their bench over. Glass shattered on the floor as Adrian began to maul Cyndaquil. The two teams scrambled up to pull the two apart. Totodile and Phanpy dragged Cyndaquil back while Bellossom and Vileplume used stun spores to paralyze him and pull him off.

“Jesus fucking Christ, Adrian! Have you gone feral?” Enny yelped.

In the short time the fight had gone on, Cyndaquil had several bite marks in his shoulder and scratches along his body. He was breathing very heavily, but he was also blushing just as hard, so it probably wasn’t a result of the pain. Adrian had a bit of blood in his mouth, and a savage glare in his eyes aimed directly at Cyndaquil.

Adrian had a private conversation with the guildmaster that night. There wasn’t any major punishment for either party, as both of the teams explained Cyndaquil had been pestering Adrian for a while and was warned to stop. Ultimately, he got a strong verbal warning and he was restricted from doing any jobs from the guild for a day.

People stopped cracking jokes at Adrian after that incident. Even Enny lowered his remarks towards Adrian for a while. The guild also made sure Cyndaquil and Adrian never sat anywhere near each other again during meals. Cyndaquil would try a few more times to flirt with Adrian, but someone would usually step in to break them up before anything started.

Adrian’s team started paying more attention to him after the mess hall incident. They noticed things were pretty off with him. He was sleeping in later, and yet he seemed more tired than usual. Occasionally, one of them would wake up in the middle of the day to see him shifting around violently in the mess of pillows and blankets he used for a bed. He would mutter incoherently in his sleep. Bellossom even heard him whimper at one point.

Whenever they asked him about it in the evening, he brushed them off, seemingly unaware of the problem.. They could all clearly tell something was wrong, though. Nobody was sure how to approach it, though, so they all just chose to ignore it. They decided it was probably best to focus on work than risk pissing him off.

---

The group awoke one afternoon and went over to the outlaw bulletin board. Their first mission had the unintended consequence of making them all love hunting outlaws. These jobs were usually local, meaning they would be quicker and they'd have to pack fewer supplies. Vileplume proposed that they focus on one, difficult job today. Everyone agreed, so they started looking at some of the higher tier jobs.

Enny’s eyes landed on an interesting task. “Clear out this gang of robots! Please!”. There wasn’t any explanation on who they’d be fighting, but the mission took place in a nearby dungeon called the Power Plant. It was rumored to have been built by humans eons ago. After their disappearance, it became a home to wild electric types who were able to power themselves up using the mysterious technology. In recent years, however, explorers of the region discovered the place had turned into a mystery dungeon.

“Wait, there are humans in this world? I thought it was supposed to be pokemon only,” Enny wondered aloud.

“There was also a power plant in Rescue Team that was built by humans, actually,” Adrian explained.

“What are you two talking about?” Vileplume asked.

“Nothing important. Let’s just take this job,” Adrian said.

“Are you sure?” Bellossom questioned. “It doesn’t even say what we’re fighting.”

“I don’t really care,” Adrian muttered. “They’re most likely electric or steel type, so just keep Enny out of the front line.”

“I hope for your sake, it’s a hoard of tinkatinks,” Enny remarked.

“What the fuck are those?” Adrian asked.

“The little pink robot from gen 9. It’s fairy and steel type,” Enny stated.

“I haven’t played any of the mainline games past X and Y,” Adrian shrugged.

Bellossom and Vileplume looked at each other with confusion. “What are you guys talking about?” Vileplume asked.

“Nothing,” Adrian and Enny answered simultaneously.

Team Moonshine split off into two separate groups. Adrian and Enny packed their gear up while Bellossom and Vileplume went to the market and purchased the supplies they needed. Bellossom was able to find the stuff she needed to assemble a first aid kit. She got a set of gauze, tape, and oran berry juice. The guild’s nurse, Kina, had explained to her that oran berry juice could be applied to bandages to aid the healing process.

The group reconvened at the stone bridge leading out of Capim town just before sunset. Vileplume and Bellossom noticed Adrian had a couple of scratches on his face when he approached them.

“By Arceus, what happened to you?” Vileplume asked.

Adrian didn’t answer, so Enny sighed and began to explain. “While we were leaving the guild, somebody called us ‘furfags’, so Adrian attacked them.”

“Dammit, Adrian. You’re gonna get yourself in trouble again,” Vileplume said, planting his face in his palms.

“Gotta send the message somehow,” Adrian asserted.

Vileplume groaned. “Let’s just go before you pick another fight.”

Adrian took the lead of the group and they all set out. Bellossom followed behind her brother, as usual. She kept glancing forward at Adrian, though. She hoped that this job wouldn’t have any complications, and they’d just go home afterwards. She also was aware that something was wrong with Adrian, though. She could only hope those scratches on his face weren’t a warning of things to come.

The Power Plant

Team Moonshine set up camp shortly before arriving at the Power Plant. The plan was to have everyone rested up before entering the dungeon so they would all be at peak performance, as they had no idea what kind of pokemon they’d be fighting beyond “robots”. Vileplume woke up in the afternoon much earlier than everyone else, so he started cooking a cheri berry curry for breakfast. As he was finishing up the stew, Enny and Bellossom woke up.
“What’s the good smell?” Enny yawned.

“Ooh! Breakfast!” Bellossom chimed.

“I figured cheri berries would help prevent any severe paralysis we might get,” Vileplume said while pouring out the stew into bowls.

Enny picked up a bowl and licked up a mouthful of the stew before spitting it out instantly. “HOLY FUCK, THAT’S SPICY!” He exclaimed.

“Oh, calm down, it’s not that spicy,” Bellossom said as she started eating the stew.

“I HATE spicy food!” Enny complained.

“Well, Cheri berries are naturally spicy,” Vileplume noted, grabbing his own bowl. “If you don’t want any, you can grab one of the apples. Just make sure you don’t get paralyzed in the dungeon, or we’ll have to force a cheri berry down your throat.”

“If I get paralyzed, just leave me behind!” Enny proclaimed in a high-pitched voice.

“Alright, man. Whatever you say,” Vileplume chuckled. “You wanna trade me your berries for my seeds then?”

“Definitely! I don’t want any of these nasty berries near me!” Enny said while pulling an apple out of his satchel. He used another ribbon to toss his bag of berries towards Vileplume’s satchel. He then took a seat and started eating his apple.

The group ate silently for a while until Bellossom finished her bowl. She looked over at Adrian. He was the only one who hadn’t woken up, still sleeping by the pine tree he laid by the night prior. He was starting to stir and mumble, as he’d been doing at the guild lately, catching her attention.

“Guys, he’s doing it again,” Bellossom whispered.

Vileplume and Enny looked over to watch Adrian. Everyone had stopped eating, not really sure what to do until Enny got an idea. He got closer to him, wrapped one of his ribbons around Adrian’s foreleg, and closed his eyes. Enny had heard that sylveons could read people’s emotions through their ribbons, but he’d never actually done it before.

“He’s feeling… negative,” Enny muttered.

“What does that mean?” Vileplume asked quietly.

“I don’t know. I’m not very good at this!” Enny whispered sharply. He wrapped another ribbon around Adrian’s leg, tightening his grip slightly. “It’s definitely not anger, which is kind of surprising… It feels bad, though.”

“He must be having a nightmare,” Bellossom whispered back.

Enny closed his eyes tighter, really trying to focus on reading the emotions. “I’m… not really sure what it is exactly. It feels kind of… purple?”

“Okay, now what does that mean?” Vileplume asked.

“It’s just the feeling I’m getting. This stuff is weird,” Enny said. “Wait, it’s changing! It’s getting redder!”

“E-Enny…” Bellossom stuttered.

“I think he’s getting angry, but I’m not sure why,” Enny explained.

Enny started to hear the sound of growling, causing his ears to twitch.

“Yeah, he’s definitely pissed off right now,” Enny said.

“You don’t need your ribbons to figure that out,” Vileplume said, no longer whispering.

Enny, confused by what he meant, opened his eyes. Right in front of him was Adrian’s face, eyes wide open and shooting daggers into him.

“Oh… good morning, Adrian!” Enny giggled nervously while gently unwrapping his ribbons.

“You do this shit again, and I’ll tear your ribbons off,” Adrian snarled.

Enny backed up slowly as Adrian slowly picked himself up. His eyelids were low, and he had visible bags under his eyes. He slowly walked towards the last bowl of curry, picking it up with Psychic and scarfing it down.

“Um… Adrian?” Bellossom asked as she approached him.

“What?” Adrian snapped suddenly.

“Ah,” She recoiled. “A-are you feeling okay?”

“Swear to fucking god, I keep telling you! I’m fine! I have no idea what you guys are so goddamn scared of!” Adrian roared.

Bellossom backed away, tears building up in her eyes. Vileplume grabbed his sister and looked at Adrian. “Dude, you’re not fine,” he stated bluntly. “You’re starting fights at the guild, you’re talking in your sleep, and you’re yelling at us.”

“Yeah, I don’t like you guys prying into my life and asking how I’m feeling,” Adrian sneered.

“Well, forgive us, but we kind of have to!” Vileplume shouted, causing his sister to cry and grip him tightly. “You’re our leader, and if you have a psychotic breakdown in the middle of a job, we’re kind of on our own!”

“You’re treating me like I’m fucking crazy,” Adrian argued.

“Well, you kind of have been lately! You’ve assaulted two people in the guild already!”

“Those freaks need to learn a thing or two about boundaries,” Adrian said. “Besides, the first faggot clearly enjoyed it. His face was red as a fucking tomato.”

“Dammit, Adrian, can you not see how messed up that reasoning is?” Vileplume asked.

“Everything I’m doing, I at least have a reason behind it. I don’t see any issue with that,” Adrian answered.

Vileplume fumed with anger. He stepped away from his sister and over to his cooking supplies. The group started packing up their stuff without saying a word to each other. When they set off towards the dungeon, Vileplume let Bellossom go ahead of him, not wanting to be near Adrian after their fight.

---

Team Moonshine quickly arrived at the Power Plant. The building before them was surrounded by a massive wall of concrete and overgrown shrubbery. A tall spire could be seen behind the walls, along with a turbine of some kind. The group entered the building before them, being led by the weary umbreon.

As they stepped inside, Vileplume and Bellossom marveled at the interior. It appeared to them as a mass of powerful technology with unseen potential. They could only dream of what purposes all the devices served for this building. To Adrian and Enny, however, it was nothing more than a mess of crossed wires and devices haphazardly slammed together and twisted by the essence of the dungeon. Whatever purpose these machines had served was clearly ruined.

The group delved deeper and deeper into the Power Plant. The electronics grew more rusted and the walls grew stained, with chunks occasionally opening up, revealing the support beams underneath. They would occasionally be ambushed by feral pokemon of the dungeon. Thankfully, the only person among them with a weakness to the locals was Enny with the steel types.

Vileplume and Bellossom were actually resistant to the electric types, so they attempted to draw most of the attention onto themselves. Adrian, however, wasn’t helping them with this plan. Any time he saw a wild pokemon, he would rush them at with little regard for his own safety. This only made Bellossom more worried, and Vileplume more annoyed.

“Adrian, you need to quit doing this! You’re just getting yourself hurt!” Vileplume complained as he stepped over a destroyed magneton and towards a wounded Adrian.

“I don’t care about the damage. I can take it,” Adrian growled.

“Well, you’re burning through your oran berries. How many do you have left?” Vileplume asked.

“Just this one,” Adrian said as he lifted his last oran berry out of his pouch with Psychic.

“Are you serious?!” Vileplume yelled. “You used most of our cheri berries, and you’re out of oran berries? Adrian, what the actual fuck are you doing?”

“It’s not that bad, calm the fuck down!” Adrian yelled back. “The gang of robots can’t be that far from us at this point.”

“How do you figure that?” Vileplume asked rhetorically. “We’ve been walking around the same corridors with all this human technology, and we’ve found nothing!”

“I fucking feel it. We’ve been here for a long time, we gotta be getting-”

“Guys, look out!” Enny shouted suddenly.

While the two were arguing, an electivire had snuck up on them. It shot off a bolt of electricity towards Vileplume. Adrian quickly shoved him out of the way and took the attack. He muscles stiffened, and he fell to the floor, paralyzed. The oran berry he was holding dropped beside him.

“Goddammit, Adrian!” Vileplume yelled before he started to fight.

Bellossom joined her brother as he battled the feral pokemon. Enny dug through his satchel for anything that could be helpful. Vileplume had given him that bag of seeds. Maybe one of them was a heal seed? That would certainly do the trick.

Bellossom and Vileplume fought the wild electivire, beating back and knocking it out with a combined sleep powder. When they turned around, they saw Enny standing alone and panicking, while Adrian was nowhere in sight.

“Woah, hold up. Where did Adrian go?” Vileplume asked.

“I… I dunno!” Enny stuttered. “I just gave him a heal seed, and he disappeared!”

“He what?” Vileplume reeled back from the explanation.

“I dunno! I’ve never seen anything like that happen!” Enny said.

“Enny, what did the seed look like?” Bellossom asked.

“Uh, it was blue, and it had a green vine around it,” Enny described.

Bellossom and Vileplume’s faces went pale as they realized what happened.

“What’s wrong? That’s what a heal seed looks like, right?”

“Enny, that’s a warp seed you idiot!” Vileplume yelled. “You just teleported him to a random part of the dungeon! He could be anywhere!”

“OH MY GOD! I’M SO SORRY!” Enny cried. “I haven’t had to use my seeds before! I had no idea!”

Vileplume continued to berate Enny while Bellossom stood there. Her thoughts were more focused on Adrian. He was alone in a random part of the dungeon, wounded and paralyzed. She had no idea what would become of him. He hadn't been the nicest to her, but she still worried about him.

Eventually, Vileplume stopped his yelling and he stepped up to lead the group. He had no idea where Adrian could be, so he decided it was best to continue forward in the dungeon. They traveled through the endless hallways of the Power Plant, hoping to find the gang of outlaws so they could finish their job and return home. Hopefully, everyone would make it out alright.

The Exterminator Swarm

Team Moonshine, now under the leadership of Vileplume, continued through the dungeon. The decayed hallways of the Power Plant held few items to scavenge. The team was relying on their dwindling stock of food and healing supplies.

Vileplume struggled to keep Enny and Bellossom motivated in their difficult situation. The two wanted to find Adrian, but Vileplume figured it would be too hard, and he’d probably be knocked out by the time they did recover him. The best thing to do for now was complete the mission and call for a rescue team later.

Enny started having issues as they started to encounter more magnetons deep into the dungeon. They knew how to take advantage of his type weakness, and Vileplume and Bellossom struggled to keep them off of him. It turned out that wild electric pokemon were far more willing to do a suicidal rush in the attempt to down a single pokemon than fight an uphill battle against two grass types.

As the group pressed forward, they started noticing dungeon natives that had seemingly died. They had blunt force trauma and didn't do so much as twitch when the team approached them. Every body was accompanied with markings on the wall behind, spelling out the words “CONQUER AND DESTROY.”

Eventually, in spite of Enny’s growing wounds, the team made it to a hallway leading to what appeared to be the final room. As they went through, a set of pistons could be heard moving back and forth with the sound of a steam engine. There was another sound, however. A dozen different buzzing sounds, all different pitches, starting and stopping at different times.

The team looked to one another for confidence. All that separated them from the room ahead was a staircase leading down to it. This had to be where the gang of robots was. Enny looked to Bellossom, who looked to Vileplume, who nodded to both of them. They all walked down the stairs. The sounds of buzzing and clanging metal grew even louder.

The team was stunned and horrified by the sight. The final room held a machine venting steam from across the room. Ventilation shafts dotted the walls. The air was thick and hot, but that wasn't what caught their attention.

Floating in all around the room was a swarm of beldum. They all surrounded something in the center, seemingly unaware of the team’s presence. The three started to slowly back away until one of the beldum noticed them.

“HALT!” It buzzed, altering the rest of the hoard and making them all face the explorers. “LOWER LIFE FORMS DETECTED! STATE YOUR ORDERS NOW!”

Team Moonshine hesitated for a moment until Vileplume stepped up. He knew trying to fight these creatures would be a lost cause. “Um…” he stammered. “We're just a group of travelers. We thought we'd just explore this dungeon since-”

“EXPLORERS?” The beldum quoted.

“THEY ARE EXPLORERS!” Another one screeched.

“EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!” The hoard began chanting in unison.

“SILENCE!” The leading beldum announced.

The team began to shiver in fear as the swarm went quiet.

“EXPLORERS, WE SEEK NO FIGHT WITH YOU,” The leader buzzed. “IF YOU CAN PROVE YOURSELF USEFUL, YOU MAY FLEE THIS DUNGEON AND LIVE UNTIL WE BEGIN OUR CLEANSING.”

“Cleansing?” Vileplume asked, confused and afraid.

“CLEANSING OF THE LOWER LIFE FORMS!” A shiny beldum in the center of the swarm shouted. It stood out in the collective.

“SILENCE, BLACK ONE!” another beldum shouted back.

“YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO SPEAK, BLACKY”

The swarm devolved into more senseless shouting and chanting, this time directed towards the shiny beldum. The leader silenced them once more.

“THE BLACK ONE IS CORRECT,” the leader stated. “ALL POKEMON WILL BE EXTERMINATED UPON THE RETURN OF THE EMPEROR!”

“And who is ‘the emperor’?” Vileplume asked.

“THE NAME OF THE EMPEROR MUST NOT BE SPOKEN!” the leader announced, followed by more chanting from the swarm. “HE IS THE PERFECT BEING! BROUGHT HERE FROM A FAR OFF LAND TO SPREAD PURITY! HE INFORMED US OF OUR SUPERIORITY TO THE LOWER LIFE FORMS! HE DISAPPEARED AFTER OUR FAILED BATTLE WITH THE TIME TRAVELING POKEMON, AND NOW WE SEEK ORDERS!”

“These guys remind me of something from the human world,” Enny whispered to Vileplume. “Whoever their emperor is, they’re probably long gone, now. They should believe whatever you say, though. Tell them you saw him somewhere else.”

Vileplume nodded. He looked up at the swarm and said, “We heard there was an emperor visiting treasure town a while ago. Maybe he's still there?”

“YOU LIE!” the beldum leader screeched. “THE EMPEROR WOULD NEVER INTERMINGLE WITH THE LOWER LIFE FORMS!”

“Wait! We’re telling the-”

“EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!” the swarm chanted

The beldums split into two hoards and attacked the team without warning. Enny was quickly singled out and taken down, leaving Vileplume and Bellossom alone against the murderous swarm. Their poison powder had no effect, and their grass types moves were ineffective, so they desperately tried to find off them off with stun spores.

As the injuries started to build up, Vileplume realized how hopeless their situation was. In one last, desperate move, he pulled out a blowback orb and used it on his sister, launching her back towards the stairs.

Bellossom slammed into the foot of the stairs. She yelled back towards her brother, “What are you doing?!”

“Run! Just run!” Vileplume shouted as the swarm overtook him.

Bellossom burst into tears and went limp by the stairs. After seeing her brother get taken down, she had no strength to fight or run. She sat there helpless as the beldum approached her. She closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable…

Suddenly, a loud metal clang was made in the room. One of the vents covers in the room fell off, and out of it poured a black figure with glowing rings. Adrian had arrived.

The beldum turned their attention towards it. “HALT! STATE YOUR ORDERS!”

Adrian didn’t answer as he slowly stood up. He was covered in small cuts from his previous fights, but was certainly in a much better condition than the rest of his team. His eyes were hollow, however. He breathed heavily, and he staggered about haphazardly.

“STATE YOUR ORDERS NOW OR BE EXTERMINATED!” The leading beldum demanded.

“I’ve been crawling around in vent shafts for three fucking hours,” Adrian said with a drained look in his eyes. He made no eye contact with the beldums. “I need to fight until I stop hearing it.”

“YOU SEEK… EXTERMINATION?” The beldum questioned.

“I want to fight until I remember nothing!” Adrian yelled, ignoring the beldum’s question.

“VERY WELL! EXTERMINATE HIM!” The beldum ordered.

“EXTERMINATE FOR EMPEROR BRIGGS! EXTERMINATE!” The shiny beldum screeched.

“SILENCE BLACKY! DO NOT SPEAK THE EMPEROR-”

The beldum was cut off abruptly by Adrian lunging at the machine and sinking his teeth deep into it. The metal was strong, but the attack’s dark type energy bent the metal easily and tore the robot apart.

The beldum began to attack Adrian, but for every attack they landed on him, he was able to outright kill a member of their swarm. Adrian ripped through the creatures like paper, jumping from one beldum to the next. As their numbers began to shrink, some beldum began to flee, while others were emboldened.

None of the beldum had interest in Bellossom or her fallen allies. She took this as an opportunity to start patching up Enny and Vileplume. The two were still alive, but they were bleeding and had major blunt force trauma. She began to patch them up, (using the oran juice bandages she’d been taught to make), while keeping an eye on Adrian to make sure he was still doing okay.

She wondered while she was working on her brother what Adrian was talking about when he fell out of the vent. This was not the time or the place to think about things like that, though. She had one skill that was really useful right now, and that was medicine. She tried her best to focus on the task. Whatever Adrian said could wait for later.

The fight with the beldum was finally starting to end. The robots that had been able to decimate Team Moonshine so quickly had now been reduced to a handful of quivering machines, all floating as far away from the savage umbreon ripping them apart.

“STAY BACK! THE BELDUM MUST SURVIVE!” The survivors pleaded.

Adrian cared little for the pleas for mercy. He jumped at the remaining beldum and tore them to pieces, ending the fight.

Bellosom got up, having finished bandaging both her brother and Enny, looked up at the mess. The beldum had been utterly destroyed. Adrian himself was wounded badly, but somehow he kept standing in spite of the pain he had to have been feeling. The bloodied umbreon started walking over to his team.

“Adrian, I’m so glad you’re alright!” She cried, get up and running towards him with her arms wide open.

“Don’t try to hug me, I’m covered in cuts right now,” he said. “Do you have any oran berries?”

Bellossom reached into her bag and pulled out a berry, which Adrian eagerly picked up and swallowed, barely taking the time to chew. Bellossom then pulled out an escape orb and threw it against the ground, transporting the entire team (and a few broken beldum) outside the power plant.

---

Bellossom and Adrian set up a camp together. It was about an hour before twilight when they got everything in order. Enny and Vileplume remained unconscious, so it was impossible to travel back to the guild. After setting up a small fire, Adrian walked over to a tree and tried to lay down. Bellossom did a quick check to make sure the two would be okay, and then she walked over to see Adrian.

“Adrian, are you doing alright?” She asked.

Adrian’s looked up at Bellossom. “My cuts have mostly healed. I didn’t have any major gashes like the other two, and there weren’t any pokemon in the vents… besides me.”

Bellossom breathed heavily, trying to figure out what to say to him. He had been so unwilling to acknowledge his problems up until now, completely denying he had them. That fight was the first time she’d heard him say anything that even hinted at his awareness.

“That’s not what I meant,” Bellossom she finally said. “When you fell out of that tunnel, or ‘vent’, You started talking about how you needed to fight until you remembered nothing.”

Adrian said nothing, only able to stare up at Belossom.

“Adrian, I get if you’re not comfortable talking about it…” she mumbled, sitting down beside Adrian under the tree. “But please, I’m really worried about you. Did something happen to you recently? Did someone at the guild do something? Besides all the name-calling, you know.”

Adrian stopped watching her. He stared at the ground for a moment before he finally sat up.

“I guess I can’t keep escaping this,” he sighed. “No, nothing’s happened at the guild. The things you’ve been noticing have just been the result of some nightmares I’ve been having.”

Bellossom was surprised. She hadn’t expected him to acknowledge her questions at all, but now he was being completely honest with her.

“Adrian, what’s going on in your nightmares?” Bellossom asked. “It seems to me like when they’re happening, you get really sad. Is it something from your human life?”

Adrian closed his eyes. Bellossom wasn’t sure what he was thinking, but he was clearly taking into account what she was saying to him.

Finally, Adrian opened his eyes and stared up towards the sky. “I mentioned a little bit about my family on our first job together. My father and my sister…” he said. “I don’t actually hate them, even if I made it seem like I did. We didn’t get along very well, especially as I got older. I kind of distanced myself from them over the last year. They still made efforts to talk to me, but I kept pushing them away. I eventually moved out and started living on my own just to get away from them.

“Since I’ve been brought here, though, I’m kind of starting to realize how much I actually miss them. I keep having dreams about them. In these dreams… they’re right in front of me. I can see the two of them together, talking about how happy they are that I’m finally gone. In these dreams, I’m unable to move, and unable to speak. I don’t know why, but I just can’t get the idea out of my head that now that I’m gone… maybe they’re happier without me.”

Bellossom watched as Adrian’s eyes started to water near the end of his explanation. She had seen him angry plenty of times by now, but she had never seen him anywhere close to crying like he was now. She wasn’t sure what to say, so she just reached out and hugged his side.

Adrian was a bit stunned by the gesture. His first instinct was to pull away, but Bellossom didn’t let go. He just let it happen for a little while until she finally spoke.

“Adrian… I’m really sorry,” she said, her eyes tearing up. “I really want you to know, as bad as these past weeks may have been for you, I’ve really appreciated having you here.”

Adrian wasn’t sure how to respond to her. He took a deep breath to get a hold of his emotions. His eyes stopped watering, and he was calm again. He shifted away from her, getting Bellossom to finally let go of him.

“Bellossom, I…” he paused, trying to figure out what to say. “Thank you. It’s not going to help with my nightmares, but I appreciate you saying that. Nobody’s said anything like that to me in a very long time.”

“I just hope things get better for you,” Bellossom said. “If there’s something I can do to help you, let me know. Otherwise, I’m always willing to talk to you.”

“There’s nothing you can really do about my dreams,” Adrian sighed. “I just have to live with it for now.”

The two got quiet again. They stared up at the stars. The sun’s rays began to peek over the horizon, casting a vivid purple over the night sky. As the sun rose over the horizon, the two of them slowly drifted off to sleep.

---

The next afternoon, everyone woke up stiff from the injuries they had. Vileplume and Enny were incredibly sore, but their wounds had healed well enough that they could walk. The team began their journey back to Capim town.

It was well into the night as everyone finally returned to Capim Town. Upon entering the guild, Adrian was immediately stopped by a nervous looking oshawott.

“You’re Adrian, leader of Team Moonshine, right?” he asked.

“Yeah, why?” Adrian said.

“Lliam- er, the guildmaster, wanted to have a word with you. Something about a fight a few days ago, just before you left for your mission,” the oshawott explained.

Adrian groaned. “Alright, you two,” he said, looking towards Enny and Vileplume, “Take yourselves to the infirmary and make sure you’re okay. Bellossom, I don’t really care what you do. I’ve gotta handle this little mess.”

The group then split off. Adrian entered the guildmaster’s office. Over the following two hours, loud arguing and yelling could be heard outside the office. Adrian had a very long and drawn out conversation with the meowstic about how it was wrong to fight his fellow guild members. He was warned numerous times of the future consequences for his behavior, and he was told he was not allowed to join the guild for any meals for the following week.

After his verbal lashing was over, Adrian finally got to report the details of his team’s mission, which itself took another hour. By the time he got out of the guildmaster’s office, the sun had risen and Adrian was exhausted. He started to make his way over to his dorm. He noticed a linoone, wearing a mailmon’s hat and a satchel stuffed full of letters, was closing the door to his room.

“Hey, who the fuck are you and why were you in my room?” He called out to the linoone.

“Oh, hey!” The linoone smiled. “I’m just the delivery guy. Your team had a package with express shipping ordered overnight.”

“Well that’s kinda weird. I don’t know who would’ve ordered it,” Adrian said.

The linoone got into a quadrupedal stance and walked over to Adrian. “You know, I’ve heard a little bit about you. Didn’t think you were the type who enjoyed plushies.”

“What?” Adrian asked. The linoone sped off before he could get an explanation.

Adrian opened the door to his dorm. Enny and Vileplume were nowhere to be seen, most likely still in the infirmary. Bellossom was sleeping peacefully in her bed by the window. Adrian walked over to his pile of pillows and found a package lying on it.

“You gotta be fucking kidding me,” He whispered under his breath. “There’s no way I’m keeping this.”

---

The next afternoon, Bellossom woke up. She began to leave the room, intending to get some food. She remembered something, before leaving, however.

Bellossom walked over to Adrian’s pillow nest. She wanted to see if he would actually use it. She wasn’t sure at first, but when she got closer, she saw it nestled between his forelegs.