Team Bucket Brigade and the Quest for the Holy Pail

Episode 3/9: Shadow of the Colossus

June 21st

I have no hands (and especially no pinky, but here we are) and yet I must write. I promised Ruby, after all, and today is the last day as sea before I get to the Water Continent. Do I need to refresh myself? The storm, getting thrown overboard, then saved by Ruby and Team Wildcats... I guess I'll just start from there, after we went to the next floor of the Mystery Dungeon.

----- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFi7LHGDrmo (BGM: Eyes of Blight Theme - Warframe ) ----- The one we appeared in plus all the ones that followed were more of the same, the sort of thing that would be expected from most Mystery Dungeons. We'd appear on a floor together, thankfully, since apparently the weirdness of the Rift scattering our party was just at the entrance. I say thankfully because almost every single room was infested with ferals.

They weren't really a match for us, though when I say "us" I really just mean the rest of the party. My little waterguns did hardly anything. Mick and Rocky would do more of their ember-vine whip combo, Ruby would slice ferals to dust with her Haxorus horns, and Vikavolt was especially strong, the electrifying bolts shot from her mouth gunning down ferals in single blows.

The hardest time anyone had was Jack. He knew combat, of course, but was at a severe type disadvantage. Whenever we'd be overwhelmed he'd step forward, the flame from his tail a heavy flame that he'd blow onto, releasing a flamethrower. It was at least more effective against the different seal-like ferals that attacked us.

But we kept them at bay as we advanced, each floor the party getting into the rhythm of fighting. Everyone except me, that is. But because I wasn't focusing on fighting I noticed how the dungeon itself changed.

From what I understand dungeons remain basically the same as they're gone through, maybe changing up a bit halfways through. I just remember when I'd play PMD that the music would change, though I don't really recall if the tiles would also become different.

That wasn't the case here. My bucked was back on land, and after the first few floors Ruby decided she needed to focus more on the intensifying combat instead of carrying me, so she said:
"Stay by my side, Shirley."

And that I did. I swam by her side every step we all took, and I'll actually admit in spite of us being in this underwater hellscape, it was actually a little nice to "walk" besides my partner, to move my fins and generally not be confined in a single bucket. Who would have ever guessed that not spending every hour of every day in a small metal pail would make me feel better?

It made me all the more determined to go and get that Holy Pail. Even if I'd be fucked over like Hans from back in the Clover Guild, if I could have even a fraction of the freedom I felt in the Mystery Dungeon, I'd be happy, especially if I did without all the ferals trying to attack me.

But I'm missing the point of all this: I noticed the dungeon itself was changing.

The winds were the first thing. Even though we were underwater, a light wind blew through the coral walls, making a whistling sound of some kind, almost like a humming. Like the storm it pulled inward, towards the dungeon, even though there was no true direction where "in" was. The wind was hardly audible, only barely distinguishable from the sound of footsteps when there was no battle being fought. That was back when the light still shone through.

That's right: everything became darker the deeper we went. The waters that the coral magically held at bay, the ocean let some sunlight in. Even though it was the middle of the night and there were stormclouds obscuring even the moon, because of the esoteric nature of these Mystery Dungeons light was shining through the sky like a beautiful underwater scene you would see in movies.

But the darkness didn't come from the waters darkening, but instead from the growing walls of coral. Every floor we advanced, the coral grew taller, advancing beyond just head height and instead slowly clawing their way towards the surface, slowly curving inwards. It reached a point where they stooped growing high and instead grew to the side, arching inwards to form a roof, which blocked more and more of the light.

Pretty soon the rest of the party took notice and Jack took lead. I could tell he was nervous with how his tail flickered in the tight passageways between rooms and under the light force of the wind, but he pressed on and lit the way for us, each floor his flame becoming brighter and brighter compared to the surroundings that got darker and darker.

By the time we were nearly there, the coral had encased everything completely, leaving so little light shining through the holes Jack's fire was our only source of vision. The darkness was all-encompassing, and now it seemed like the whistling wind became a bit more confident and started to whisper. I didn't think it was the case at first. As everyone pressed on, the sparks of Vikavolt's electric attacks and the dull glow of Ruby's axes imbued with dragon-type energy dominated what I could hear. But in the silences between combat, I heard whispers in the walls, each floor becoming more and more confident. It sounded like Latin, but I know it wasn't. That's all I can really say about that.

But as the winds' whistles became whispers as the coral walls enveloped everything, I thought that would be the end of the changes. No, the dungeon still changed.

I noticed something I don't think anyone else there could've, and that was because of my human background. Maybe Ruby was right that somehow these things were tied to us, more than just spitting out some random artifact from our dimension. After the coral couldn't grow any denser, it started changing shape.

The coral at the beginning of the dungeon grew erratically, in ways that people would normally think of coral growing back on Earth. But as we pressed on to the end, they started taking a shape, becoming longer and slender, like reeds.

They started growing in fives, five long winding stalks of coral rising from one large base. As we got closer and closer to the end, they started intertwining with one another, one coral's tendrils curling around the other. Pink, blue, purple, and red would all weave through and gasp at one another, each floor the pattern becoming more and more apparent. No one could make sense of it, but I knew in the back of my mind that the shapes the coral had began to take were familiar, something I had seen before millions of times.

I rubbed my eyes with my tiny little fins, trying to clear my vision in the dark, but that's when I looked down at my fins, then back up at the coral.

They were hands. Human hands. Ruby, if you're reading this, I guess the closest thing to them would be like the hands of Infernapes. That's the best I can do, but really you just need to remember the Mystery Dungeon right before we reached the last chamber, how the coral was grasping one another, fingers locked with fingers, a hand grabbing a wrist which in turn grabbed another wrist, over and over until the pattern was the entire design. It seemed harmonious, surprisingly, with all the hands interlocked with one another.

But it felt like they wanted to grab at something other than themselves. Like if I brushed against the wall they would grab and latch onto me and never let me go. They didn't since the other guys in our team did exactly that and nothing happened, but I guess that it was just a feeling. Besides, you wanted me to describe everything in there, so this is me doing that.

The winds at this point were still whispers, nasty unknown chants that would've dug into my eardrum if I still had one. So no shit I was unsettled as fuck. I can't imagine what Ruby and company thought, seeing the coral become unknown hands that they've never seen, the very walls themselves letting through a wind that spoke in tongues in a language they never knew existed.

It was a long, difficult journey, but we at last found the last room of the last floor. The stairs there were against the wall, and even though they led upward again to nothingness, there was dead coral, covered in frost, growing on it.

We all stood in that empty room, the floor clear of ferals, waiting, the only sound those goddamn whispers just rolling their tongues. Ruby turned to us all and said:
"Rifts almost always make the dungeon itself erratic. Every floor a slight mutation of the previous one until the start and end are completely different."

No one said anything, and I sure as fuck kept my fish mouth shut. But Ruby just kept talking, rummaging through her bag and taking inventory of whatever remained. The reviver seeds she threw aside, calling them pointless because of the Rift. The three remaining Orbs she rubbed very lightly, just enough to see that they still worked but not enough to activate them. She sighed.

I remember the sigh clearly. I remember it when my dad had to put my dog down. The dog was tired and not eating, refusing to get out of bed. He came home, I told him about Rocket, and he checked on him. He stood up from where Rocket was laying down and sighed. Scooped him up in his arms and took him away.

That was Ruby's sigh as she looked at the stairs. Like she knew what was going to come. I mean, she did, right? She said she ran into Rifts her whole life. Just bad luck, but that's what led her to finding out about human culture, just finding bits and pieces of the things Rifts shat into existence. Maybe that's why she was apparently a part of the Federation at one point? I don't know, and honestly that's not the point here.

She led us in knowing what was going to come. She sighed and put the orbs in the bags that were around attached to her waist and said to everyone if they were ready. Even though everyone else said yes, she must have known they weren't. Even she wasn't. She told me to stay by her side as she walked up those stairs. Her departing words to us all were:
"Stay by me and listen to me. Together, we can seal the Rift."

Swimming like I was underwater, I stuck by her as closely as I could, basically pressing my scales and fin against her leg. Together, we both disappeared.

We then entered a fucking void of all things. Sorry, I have to be serious, descriptive.

It was a void, though, at least in the visual sense. Pure inky black like you would see if we were in the bottom of the ocean... no vision whatsoever. But you could feel a presence. Many presences, actually. The void was so empty of anything that every other creature in there I could just feel.

I felt Ruby beside me, her sharp claws digging into me and pulling me close even though I tried to stick beside her as much as possible. I felt the presence of Rocky and Mick beside me, their footsteps echoing. Those echoing footsteps made me realize that the whispers in the wind had subsided, and the wind itself stopped, like it was waiting patiently for something to stir. Next was the constant buzz of Vikavolt's wings, and she just said a quiet:
"Hmm."

Finally came Jack, and with him appearing behind us and the fire from his tail burning bright, the inky black void was pushed away, at least a little. The fire from Jack's tail illuminated us all, but somehow barely. It was as if the black nothingness was just thick and dense like it was a fog even though it should have been a lack of light. That alone should have sent me swimming away crying.

But there was something else, too. I felt it the moment I got there, and it was only when the presence of the pokemon I was traveling was finally stopped changing that it became apparent, like a consistent presence that only makes itself known once everything stands still. So when Jack held up his tail high above his head and illuminated no parts of the room, defeated, its presence became apparent.

I staggered back. We all did, taking a step away from the epicenter of the void further back to a wall that we couldn't see. Ruby said once she fought a pokemon whose ability was pressure. At least, I'm guessing that was the case... I don't think the pokemon that live here have the exact names for abilities but thankfully I played pokemon as an adult in college instead of going to parties. I sure as shit don't know if that's why I ended up here in the first place, but since I am here I am glad I know.

But pressure. It was a itching feeling of discomfort that started clawing away at me. Its like my body knew it was being watched and some innate survival instinct was kicking in trying to get me far away, to have the both of us survive.

Ruby frowned. She pulled out an orb from her saddlebag and rubbed it. I prayed to the god of earth, Arceus, Kyogre, whoever, I don't know, hoping that it was an Escape Orb. My reservations of leaving behind the whole ship in Ruby's claws were taken from me by that presence and the darkness of the fog.

They didn't return when the fog was driven away by the blinding light of the Luminous Orb. The inky fog was replaced by a clear air that remained even after the Orb exhausted itself.

I will go into detail describing what happened immediately after, what I felt and what I saw. The first thing was that the Luminous Orb was bright but also warm. I didn't realize how cold the bottom of the ocean was, but the warmth of the Luminous Orb made me feel for a moment that we could fight against whatever the center of the Rift was. Just for a moment.

Then the walls were lit up. The human hands, grabbing one another over and over and over hungrily, any harmony gone, finally had something to grasp. Wherever they could they held onto planks of wood and steel and cloth. When I saw the tattered banner of the Federation being gripped by two of the coral-hands, I realized that this was the remnant of other ship that Ruby and Jack had mentioned, with all its bits and pieces scattered throughout the dungeon.

The hands that didn't grasp the remains pointed inwards, jagged fingers on random spots along the rising wall pointing at us. They were still, but felt like they followed wherever I moved. Unlike the previous floor where they ended at the normal roof level, they continued upwards and upwards, forming a titanic cathedral-like ceiling that I could barely see. I squinted and strained my eyes, and I saw that the hands at the top of the ceiling were all grabbing wildly at a huge mast, a long and jagged wooden pike that pointed inward, downward, like some inverted steeple.

It was the crown to the reason why I realized why the ceiling was so enormously high.

The stalactite of coral hands pointed their spear down at the center of the room, onto the shell of a towering Lapras that dwarfed us all, the black fog that hid it from us totally gone. Its eyes were at first closed, but the face was looking right at us, somehow seeing us while sleeping. It was about as tall as a skyscraper, with its whole head above where clouds would normally be.

Clouds. Three, red blips of clouds circled its shell, one that transformed from the typical shell of a Lapras to some sort of impenetrable fortress. But there were grooves along the side of the shell and at first I didn't know what they were.

But the eyes of the Larpas fluttered open, and it looked down at us. It let out a shrill cry and threw some sort of tantrum, slamming its fins down on the ground, causing the entire room to shake. I noticed all the wooden bits of board shook a little more, as if they were loose, the sounds they made as they scraped against the coral bone-chilling. Even the inverted spire seemed to waver a little.

But that wasn't the start of the battle. No, only after the Lapras finished its rage at being fully woken up did the winds blow again. Just like the storm, pulling us in, the winds like a vacuum ran towards the Lapras from all around us, from the tiny holes in the coral walls. They ran along the grooves of the Lapras' shell like a hurricane and, I don't know how, started to frost over. Maybe it wa It was because of the Larpas' ice-type affinity alongside whatever Rift-fuckery was going on that caused the winds to freeze. They ran along its shell, and as they flowed along the grooves they began to carry frost and ice, ones that formed into crystals that looked like musical notes. HUMAN musical notes. As if it knew what I am. I can't read music but I know what they look like, and that was it, that is what they were.

But that wasn't the only thing the winds carried. The notes were human but the chant, the voices, definitely weren't. The battle didn't happen whenever the light revealed the final boss from Satan's Merry Adventure. The battle didn't start when Lapras opened its eyes and looked down on us all. No, the battle didn't even start when it started shaking the entire room and shards of ice started flying around in the air.

The battle started, we all realized, when the maddening chants carried by the winds reached our ears.
----- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeIeR5fbc9k (BGM: The Fragmented - Warframe ) ----- The moment those nonsensical, guttural words reached our ears, almost all of us faltered. I never wished more than in that moment I'd be stuck back in a bucket. I turned back and saw Jack's tail-light almost go out. Vikavolt almost tumbled midair, her wings skipping more than just one flutter. The hair raised on the back of Mick and Rocky's necks, their eyes widening like a cat does when surprised. I even saw Rocky's tail wrap around Mick's leg, trying to find some sort of comfort in their supposed brotherhood. Under the intensifying chants, I don't think either of them did.

But Ruby. I turned to her and saw that she didn't step back like all of us did. She still had both feet planted firmly on the ground, but her wings were buzzing, ready to fly. She was hunched over, ready to take off, and the blades she had attached to her arms were glowing bright with that purple-and-blue of draconic energy.

I know Ruby seems two-faced. I mean, she could go from being a happy human-culture-loving weeb to a serious, brooding Flygon issuing out commands. But I saw her face how she looked at the Lapras with more malice than I've ever seen, how her eyes looked at the creature as if it was the very thing that took her parents away, took away any chance she had at a regular life. It probably was the closest embodiment to that she'd get.

Ruby cried out:
"Snap out of it! Ignore the whispers! We have to attack its underbelly, where it's weak! Distract it! There is a human artifact somewhere, so make yourself useful. Shirley! If you see it, point it out, and we can all go home! I'll look as well!"

Ruby flew off up to the sky, and Vikavolt, stunned for a moment, followed. Jack and Team Wildcats all rushed towards the towering Lapras. Me? I swam the fuck away, saying:
"Fuck no. No no no no no."

Can I be blamed? What would any reasonable person do if they saw the loch ness monster rearing its head and satanic hymns were echoing everywhere? Besides, Ruby was the expert on this stuff. She can spot artifacts probably better than me, so I didn't want to interfere. That's what I told myself as I beelined towards the wall.

I slowed, though, as I heard the sound of combat. I looked back and saw that at first we were fighting on equal ground. Mick was using vines from his hands to lash at the underside of the Lapras, each one cracking like a whip. He was joined by Rocky's bouncing embers that scorched the Lapras's underside. Jack defended them all on the ground, using his flamethrower to burn away the incoming icicles carried by the wind.

But that quickly changed. The incantations changed, whispers beginning to sound like they were talking with each other, conspiring how to take our party down. The ground began to freeze, a wall of ice growing over the Lapras' fins and crawling up its chest. Mick's lashing vines glanced harmlessly off the thick, growing permafrost. Rocky pushed aside Mick and threw another flurry of embers, but they couldn't contend against the sheer cold. Jack joined him, and their combined efforts did manage to absorb the ice, but it just melted into water that was absorbed by the Lapras, healing its wounds.

We all looked up to above the wall of ice, where Vikavolt was like a gunship, flying almost stationary except when she had to dodge an incoming attack. Without a barrier of there up high, her attacks left pockmarks of smoke. But this got the attention of the Lapras, and the icy musical notes assaulting Team Wildcats and Jack below changed course. The music made solid flew high and were thrown in great masses against Vikavolt. She dodged one, then a second and a third, but the fourth tore off her wing. She tried to fall back, to lower herself to the ground with just a wing, but the ice shards kept coming.

Mick called out to Rocky and said:
"We gotta do a lash to the sky to catch her!"

Rocky nodded and started running towards his brother and, with a massive bound, pounced towards him. Mick, with a vine appearing from each forearm, wrapped them against Rocky as he passed overhead, then swing him in a circle.

It was like an over-the-top wrestling act you'd see on WWE, but it actually worked. Using his momentum, Mick released the vines around Rocky and the Torracat flew up to the sky, right at falling Vikavolt. Flinging a few embers at the flying bits of ice, he grabbed Vikavolt and held her tightly, letting the remaining onslaught strike his back as opposed to the vulnerable bug-type.

She tried to slow them both down, but if one wing wasn't enough for her, it definitely wasn't enough for the two of them. But as they tumbled through the sky, from beyond my peripheral vision I saw a Flygon in the distance. Ruby, with a sealed bottle still in her hand, was on her way. She flung the bottle into the air and grabbed it with her mouth, leaving both of her claws clear to grab the two. Careful to not cut them with her blades, she managed to sorta-tackle them through the sky, changing their trajectory enough to avoid another flurry of ice attacks. With her wings buzzing wildly under the strain of carrying two passengers, they hit the ground and skidded with a thud. Mick wan quickly towards them, Jack backstepping and still using his flamethrower to defend them.

And me? I swam over in total shock, hoping that the three bodies on the floor were aright, especially Ruby. Vikavolt managed to right herself, then with a hand from Mick Rocky also managed to stand.

And Ruby, finally, stood, the bottle clenched between her teeth still intact. She spat it out and stowed it away in a saddlebag. With a grimace she turned to us all and said:
"I couldn't find anything out of place. I flew all over this room and found nothing. The winds blow along the side of the Lapras, as if trying to get into the shell. I think the Lapras is on top of the Rift."
----- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Quv9NFEQN7s (BGM: The Fragmented Duet Extended - Warframe ) ----- Mick yowled, trying to speak over the chanting coming from all around us:
"Well then how do we seal it? What're we gonna do?"

Ruby pulled out the lone Escape Orb and studied it, weighing the options in her mind. They could all escape now, but it'd be back to a doomed ship, one that would share the same fate of the Larpas Liner splayed along the walls and ceiling. She glanced at me. I knew she and I could both escape, but everyone else would be captured by the storm. Maybe she saw the sadness in my eyes at that prospect. Unfortunately, she mistook me being unhappy with a situation for me wanting to die in some glorious and righteous act, which was absolutely not the case.

Thinking I was enticing her to remain, she put the Orb away. She looked back up at the Lapras and said:
"We need to take it down if we want to seal the Rift. Vikavolt is injured and on the ground. Jack! Defend her, if you can. Mick? Rocky? That move you did, the one that let you jump up? I want you to try to get onto the shell of the Lapras to distract it."

Everyone understood and, as Jack's fire intensified and Team Wildcats ran off to the shell, dodging the flying bits of ice and song, Ruby turned to me. She said:
"Stay here with Jack, Shirley. Stay alive for me, okay?"

I nodded silently, and with that, her wings buzzing, she flew off. I saw it all happen from there, staying behind the flamethrower of Jack that withstood the unrelenting barrage of ice.

I saw how Mick threw Rocky on the shell, how Rocky's bouncing embers earned the Lapras's ire. Ruby noticed, too, because she went from flying around low, observing it, to a full-speed climb.

If Vikavolt was like an attack helicopter, then Ruby was a fighter jet. With immense speed she climbed upward, the draconic energy turning her blades a deep indigo leaving behind a streak of light like contrails. As she flew along the exposed neck of the Lapras, she cut, going from side to side, and with every yard she climbed towards the head of the Lapras, a flurry of cuts gushing smoke were left in her wake.

She then was right in front of the head, hovering only for a moment. I was too far down to see the emotions on her face, but I could've sworn I saw her mouth move. She then charged straight towards it, focusing all her draconic power into an axe whose indigo energy was as bright as the moon.

She pierced its left eye. It reeled back as Ruby sliced at it, again and again until the white of the sclera and black of the iris was replaced by a thick and foggy smoke.

It let out a terrifying shriek that made me stagger swim backward, trying in vain to get away from the sound. I flopped around for a moment before I looked back to see Mick and Rocky slipping off the shell. I turned up to see Ruby, who was likewise disoriented from the soundwave. She was floating in front of the lapras, dazed and trying to right herself, when a spear of ice struck her dead square in the chest.

I saw her plummet from the ceiling downward, struggling to stay aloft, but all she managed to do successfully was slow the fall. She landed with a thud very different from the one before, one that made me sick to my stomach. She slowed her fall, but I wondered by how much?

I don't know what I was thinking. Was I trying to be some sort of hero? Did I think I could actually do anything? I swam towards her, ignoring the cries of Jack to stay where I was.

But I wasn't killed by any ice being flung. Looking back at it now, it all stopped, the frozen notes dancing through the air around the Lapras in a symphony of insanity. I still heard whispers, but they were just echoes in my own head. In truth, the actual chanting had stopped, as the Lapras started to draw a deep breath.

I was at Ruby's side, and she looked up from the crater at me. I saw one of her legs was broken. She winced as she held it, chewing on an oran berry to try to alleviate the pain, but she noticed before me that the chants had stopped, so she asked:
"Shirley? We won?"

I managed to spit out:
"No."

Her antennae drooped when she asked:
"So why did the chanting stop?"

I followed her eyes as they looked past me, towards the Lapras standing above us. It was drawing its breath still, for so unimaginably long I thought it might have frozen still. But when its one remaining looked down at us all and had a wild look in it, Ruby somehow knew exactly what that with the drawing of breath meant.

I heard her cry out:
"NO!"

But I didn't see her. I was too busy staring as its throat began to constrict, and the icicles around the shell continued to form into musical notes. But I didn't see them actually be released, to float above us, because I first heard the buzzing of Ruby's wings.

I felt her claws dig deep into me, without any concern for how much they hurt as they tore into my scales and cut one of my fins. Forgive the expression, but that was only because there was a bigger fish to fry.

She flew up into the sky a few feet then immediately dove. In that split second I was highest I caught a glimpse of the surroundings. Jack was standing over Vikavolt who was lying motionless on the ground except for her twitching wings. Jack held the flame of his tail up high, but there was nothing to defend against. He looked helpless. And Team Wildcats didn't look much better, trying to scramble off the shell of the Lapras and nearly falling over each other while doing so.

None of them covered their ears, not that it would have made a difference. I don't know how Ruby thought it work for us, but she took me and dove into the ground anyways. Although I know she used the move dig, it really felt like we were cutting through some sort of thick liquid.

Because I was wrapped in her arms as we dove, I wasn't left behind as we went deeper and deeper. But it still wasn't enough as I heard far, far above the Lapras belt out the opening tunes of a song. It was unlike the nonsensical chanting that we had faced earlier. From the very first note I knew it was a song announcing our demise.

Once again Ruby cried out, and for the first time with fear in her voice:
"NO!"

And I felt her claw into me as if it would shield us from the perish song. But that wasn't all she did. Immediately, before the first note had finished, a loud, high-pitched violin-like sound deafened me, like a fly that hovers around your ear. A glance back told me that her wings were buzzing faster than I've ever seen them, even more than when she tried to fly. Listening to it was a pain, and I felt myself weaken as the buzz of her wings was the only thing I could sense, and I wished in the moment for nothing more that to faint.

She was curled around me, holding me in a fetal position, in some hole she dug underground, for what felt like ten minutes. It couldn't have been more than a minute in reality, but the way she was clinging to me, digging into me, how she clenched her eyes as her wings buzzed, it felt like an eternity. When it finally stopped, when I felt that the song she managed to overcome from the Lapras had stopped, she stopped too.

Still holding onto me, she uncurled and shot straight up. I felt the world shift around me as she returned back to the surface with her dig, and we burst from the ground into a low hover.

The Lapras was looking at us, and I swear to god it looked like it was smiling a small grin as I stared into its still-smoking eye socket. Ruby dropped me and I fell a foot or two before I managed to right myself, and when I looked back at her she had just finished fishing out an Orb from her pocket.

She looked at me and asked if I heard the song, though I could hardly hear her since her bug buzz nearly was still ringing in my ears. I told her:
"Your fucking bug buzz made me deaf. I can hardly hear shit, Ruby."

A slight look of relief washed over her face, but that was quickly replaced with concern. I followed her head as she looked around the room. I saw her first train on Team Wildcats, with Rocky and Mick both wobbling, trying to hold onto each other while still covering their ears. The look in their eyes...

I think they way tears were pooling under them, how they gripped each other with claws just to be closer with no concern for the pain, I think they knew they were going to perish in a few heartbeats, and they wanted to go out together in a brotherly embrace. The ball in my gut made me not only feel like an asshole for my earlier comments, but also made me realize that Ruby had just saved my life.

I followed her gaze to the other side of the room, to Jack and Vikavolt. The Charmeleon was holding his hands to his head, covering where I assume his ears would be. He was screaming, trying to drown out what he had clearly heard. Vikavolt said nothing and was still on her back, her wings twitching, but she was otherwise completely silent.

I don't know why Ruby chose Wildcats. Maybe it was because they were closer? Younger? If I had to guess it was since they were an Exploration team for the Federation before they got impressed, though it's not the kind of thing I'd ask Ruby. Who she chose to let live and die, I mean.

She flew straight towards Team Wildcats and rubbed the Orb, letting it shine bright. A few more heartbeats passed by, each one closer and closer to death. She flung the Orb down towards Mick and Rocky, who seemed to have accepted their fate. It struck when it was at its brightest, and when the light faded they were both gone.

But the whole dungeon was silent, and not even the winds made a sound. I think it was a sick, morbid curiosity that made me look back at where Jack had been screaming just a few seconds before, trying to overcome the song. He lie flat on the ground, the fire on his tail extinguished. He was as unmoving as Vikavolt who was next to him. Her wings didn't twitch anymore.

But I know my Smogon, and I know that perish song affects everyone. Ruby thought so too, apparently. She flew back to me and watched as the song the Lapras sang finally affected it. Its whole body started to shudder, and it began to cough up smoke. I watched as the shell on its back grew a crack that stretched across the whole carapace. But then... nothing happened. Smoke still came in bits and dribbles from its jaw, but it remained upright. Though the crack along its shell revealed even to my not-very-sharp eye a fleshy inside, no smoke bled through the shell. It seemed weak, for sure, but far from dead.

I almost cried in frustration. I said to Ruby:
"What is happening? That was a perish song, wasn't it?"

Ruby was looking over the Lapras just as I was, and seeming to come to the same conclusion I did. She said:
"It was. It should have killed itself."

I said:
"Ruby, why did you use the Escape Orb on just them? Why didn't you rescue us too? We can't kill this thing."

Ruby screamed in anguish:
"It should have killed itself! It should've! It should've!"

I never heard Ruby sound so confused and scared, so I tried to speak up. I wanted to console her, but not only did I not know what to say, I definitely couldn't speak over her ramblings as she spoke to herself out loud:
"I... It should have died. We should have been able to remain here, alive, and safely close the Rift and save the ship! Did it withstand it because of the Rift? Becoming this size has happened before, but only just being weakened by a perish song? How long has this Rift been left alone? Is... is this the end? Will the ship end up just like the one plastered all over the walls of this dungeon, its bits and remnants the decorations of this abomination?"

She looked at me, and I saw that the red bubbles around her eyes had condensation on them. Pooled at the bottom of her eyes was a little bit of water. I never knew that's how it worked, but I was too stunned to even comment on that. I just asked:
"Is it the end, Ruby? Are we gonna die here?"
----- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0WIG0VHn1s (BGM: Dust's Dominion - Warframe ) ----- Ruby's tears didn't stop, but her expression changed. She seemed to regain her composure and traded her sadness for anger. She turned around and limped on her lame foot before looking up. Her eyes had more condensation than before, but the tears were angry ones. Her wings buzzed like a violin and I heard her say to me:
"I won't go down without a fight. After everything I've been through with these things, running into them my whole life... I won't let it get me so easily. Maybe it can't be killed, but you can close the Rift, Shirley. The shell, it's cracked right? Take this bottle and open it in there. Look for something that doesn't belong. I'll distract it. After that you should try to escape."

I grabbed the bottle she dropped and asked:
"What about you?"

She reached into the bag and pulled out the Mobile Orb, letting it glow and expend itself. I felt lighter, but was clear we had no way back other than forward. She then closed her eyes, seemingly accepting of her fate. She repeated herself:
"I'll distract it. The mission... uh, the quest. You need to survive. If you close this Rift, go to Gentle Slope Cave. There should be a Rift there. It's been contained for a few weeks, now."

I said:
"Ruby? What do you mean? The Holy Pail is there?"

Ruby was about to speak but just stopped, trying to think. She shook her head and finally said:
"I'm sorry Shirley. Now go."

She zoomed upward and I was there dumbfounded. Was she really going to fight the Lapras head-on, even after what happened last time? I had my answer when I saw her zooming up, once again like a jet with an indigo thrust, shouting and trying to get its attention.

Sure enough, the ice crystals which appeared again alongside the chanting were all targeting her. I grabbed the bottle, swimming towards the shell. I was practically unimpeded, only having to maneuver around bits of the ship that fell from where it was once grasped by the walls, wooden planks everywhere. As I swam I looked up, past the remaining of the past ship on the wall, trying to see how she was holding out.

It was a battle that went by so swiftly. Ruby was trying to go for the other eye.

She couldn't attack it outright. She was along the neck, indigo slashes dicing it all along the pale underside, leaving huge gashes where smoke bled. I realized Ruby was trying to provide herself cover using the essence of the Lapras.

Thankfully the Lapras was at least weakened by its own perish song. Total bullshit it withstood what should have killed it also, but that's beside my point. The spears of ice flew slower, and she was better able to dodge the attacks, especially since she was extra evasive under the shroud of the rising smoke.

Still, all that it wasn't enough against the sheer amount of attacks the Lapras was flinging at her, all while the chanting egged the fight on. One was bound to strike, and I saw it when it did, a little musical sphere that struck her only good leg.

It was barely a glancing blow, but it stung much more for her, I'm sure, because of how she weak she was against it. She wavered in the air for a second, and barely missed a follow up attack.

It was thankfully weakened. The spears of ice flew slower, but with all the focus on her she still took glancing blows on her limbs and armor. She was slowing down, almost flying straight into the wooden mast right above the Lapras, which shook as the colossus let out a deafening, frustrated roar, the pain of all Ruby's cuts apparent.

I saw how the roar made the huge wooden mast that Ruby barely missed crashing into shudder and waver, and I almost dropped the bottle of Rift sealant right then and there. I realized we could both make it. But that meant I'd have to be the one to distract it. Like hell I wanted to do that.

Looking up, though, and seeing Ruby slowly get closer and closer to death made my decision final. I called out to her, my voice echoing along the walls and against the chants. I saw her dip her head and, though she was short on breath, so much that she couldn't say much, I saw her acknowledge my words:
"The mast! Go for the mast! I'll distract it!"

She didn't argue. She zipped upward, and I nearly shat myself when a spear of ice glanced her armor, throwing her off balance. I knew I had to do something since she was taking too much heat. I couldn't attack the Lapras directly since all I knew was water gun and it would just heal the fucker. I looked around helplessly and saw what looked like a wooden spike from the ship strewn beside me.

It was the best I could do, but it was all or nothing at this point. I threw the spike at it, and I let out a curse when it didn't even flinch.

But it did draw its attention, even if it didn't hurt it much. It looked down at me instead of at Ruby, and being gazed down by that one-eyed monstrosity made me start to regret trying to help her. What sealed the deal was that it sent a few shards of ice towards me.

Ruby was able to dodge most of the attacks she had faced, and continued to do so. She was like a fighter jet spinning around missiles, weaving through all the attacks as she approached the spire. Me? I was a lame duck fish. I was hit by all of them. Swimming away, trying to get as much distance as possible, one slammed into me, a sharp white-hot pain that rushed up my spine and nearly paralyzed me. I dropped the bottle. Another threw me to the ground. There on the floor, though, I saw a blur of green and red with streaks of bright indigo energy go headfirst into the assortment of coral holding that wooden mast to the ceiling.

With or a mighty cut or dig or whatever, I don't know, she severed the whole thing as she dove into the coral stalactite. I saw it let the mast loose, how the wooden pike fell down in slow motion, right onto the crack on the shell of the Lapras. I didn't get to hear its death cry unfortunately. As I saw Ruby emerge from the other side of the coral, I saw her get struck by a shard of ice. I couldn't see it was a shard of ice, actually, since it was so far away. I'm just guessing it was since I also saw one meant for me a moment before it caused me to black out.

----- https://youtu.be/2-wCncyejhA?si=t9kB0AvvK9Sn21HP (BGM: Saya - Warframe ) -----

When I finally woke back up, I was in a bucket, my home that I had never been so happy to be in. I was so sore and hurt, but thankfully the unusual coldness of the water seemed to numb it. I let myself slowly float up, emerging right as the sun was setting. I was on the deck, back on the ship, though the skies were clear, there was a somber quiet.

I looked to my side and Ruby was there, dozing beside me, basking in the heat of the setting sun. I whispered:
"Ruby?"

She was definitely not totally asleep since I know she is a heavy sleeper. I mean, do you know how many times I tried to wake her up to let me use the restroom in a different bucket? Like I've always said, this life was the absolute worst thing that could have happened to me.

But seeing Ruby jolt up and look at me, with relief washing over her face, it was cathartic. She seemed happy I was alive and gave me a tired pat. I asked:
"What happened?"

She was tired but she still said:
"You did it. I was getting swarmed by the shards of ice from the Lapras, and it was a losing battle. I couldn't kill it, not on my own. You distracting it let me fly a little more clear. I dove into the stalactite of coral and just... cut. I put everything I had, all my energy, into that. It fell and pierced the shell of the Lapras. All the ice it had was flung in every direction. I got hit square in the chest. The armor barely kept me conscious, but you were out cold."

With that little pun she giggled, and it was honestly refreshing to see a bit of the old, cheery Ruby back. I never knew Rifts could affect her so deeply, and that surprise was still present as she continued her story:
"The Lapras went the way of the feral and became smoke. The Rift was within its shell the whole time, like we thought. You could have sealed it. Maybe lived. But you risked yourself to save me."

She said this last bit with a huge hint of surprise, so I said:
"Well, Ruby, I'm not a total asshole all the time. Besides, haven't you heard me say how much I'd want this to be over and done with?"

Ruby looked a bit alarmed at this and said:
"Do you really mean that?"

I garbled, water still in my mouth after diving for breath:
"Kinda? Sorta? Not really."

Her antennae drooped when I spoke. Maybe she thought I was suicidal this whole time? I don't know, and honestly I feel a little bad that she genuinely thought this whole time I wanted to die.

Ruby was careful when she spoke:
"I... I see. Well, you know I was willing to sacrifice myself for the greater good. You get that right? You understand how important that is?"

Now she lost me. I said:
"Fuck no. I don't care about this shitty world since it fucked me over the second I arrived. But I guess I do care about you a little. For you, I was willing to help out."

This only seemed to make Ruby cry, slow little tears forming and collecting at the bottom of her red orbs. I tried to speak but just said:
"I wish you would understand how important that is... the greater good. But I don't think you do. It's okay. It makes it harder for me, but I still know what needs to be done."

I had no clue how to respond to her cryptic as fuck sentence so I just sat there, in the bucket, in silence. The ship was in fact sailing since I felt a little more seasick from the motion of the ocean, but after the experience I had in that Mystery Dungeon I was able to stomach it pretty well.

What I sucked at stomaching was that silence, so after a bit I said, trying to change the topic:
"What about everyone else? Rocky and Mick? Team Wildcats, right?"

Ruby, still looking at the open the ocean, said:
"They survived. They were out of the dungeon when the perish song struck. They're asleep, trying to forget."

I was about to ask what happened to Jack and Vikivolt, but Ruby lowering her head and sobbing a bit more told me the answer. Now I felt even more like a shitbag than before, and at least her rambling about "sacrifice" and "the greater good" made sense. Still, I had to say somehow change the topic, so I went and asked:
"What about the artifact? There was one there, right? Haven't you been saying that I might know something about Rifts?"

Ruby said:
"Do you?"

I said:
"No. But maybe I can identify the artifact? Help piece together what's happening?"

Ruby wasn't any less sad, but she at least seemed a bit more determined and distracted. She said:
"Maybe. It seems somewhat familiar, but not exactly."

Now I was intrigued:
"A human artifact 'somewhat familiar'? Like another anime magazine you've seen before?"

Ruby shook her head as she lifted herself up with her wings. I saw she had a bandage wrapped tightly around her leg. She said:
"No. The face I think I've seen before, but never at all. Just come and see if you know what it is."

She lifted herself up with her wings and then carried me, taking me below deck. As we passed by the crew, they all looked at us but said nothing. I get them being sad about the loss of Jack and being thankful for Ruby saving them all making them have mixed emotions, but you would at least THINK that the absolute retard failure of a Panpour that knocked me off the ship in the first place would apologize. But no, he just swabbed the deck with a stupid, blank smile on his face as if nothing even happened. I cursed him a little more loudly than just under my breath.

We went down and the passengers gave us space. I would have expected Team Wildcats to say something, but I looked towards their bunks and saw them sleeping, unsurprisingly exhausted by this whole ordeal.

Ruby opened a barrel from the ship and lifted me up so I could peer inside. I choked on air.

She put me back down and I tried to catch my breath underwater. When I resurfaced she was holding it, looking at me in confusion. Dangling it in front of me, Ruby said:
"See, it seems to have the colors of a pikachu, but the face is something I've never seen before. Is this what a human is supposed to look like?"

I looked at the clay medallion with the best straight face I could muster, trying to overcome the emotional whiplash I was experiencing and said:
"No, that is not the appearance of a human."

I made sure to not mention it had the face, however, of a particularly fast blue hedgehog. She raised an eyebrow and asked:
"Do you know what this creature is?"

Look, I know I shouldn't lie, and that's why I am writing this down here so whenever I look back on this I can be reminded to tell Ruby the truth. But at that moment, while she was still grieving over the loss of two pokemon, I wasn't about to tell her what killed them, injured the two of us, and nearly capsized the ship was a Sonichu medallion. Its beady green eyes and stupid smile stared into my soul.

Honestly, the whispers of insanity for the dungeon made a whole lot more sense now.

So, considering everything we had just been through, no shit I lied. I told her no and I KNOW she didn't believe me. But the alternative was definitely worse. I'll give it a few days. But just as quickly as that look of doubt appeared, it faded away. She said:
"Well Shirley, thanks for your help anyways. At the very least, can you go and write in your journal. I need you to be detailed, okay? Tell me everything from your perspective."

I said:
"My perspective? Like as some fish?"

Ruby shook her head:
"As a human. And please, take it seriously. You don't understand how important it is to me that you try to be as detailed as possible."

I sighed and said I was too tired. I mean, I never missed a daily entry in my journal ever since Ruby gifted it to me, but I sure as hell wasn't going to write all of that down in a day, much less two.

Well, Ruby, here we are. I wrote it. And you know what? I remember why you gave this to me in the first place so long ago, when you told me it would be nice to reflect on everything as a human. It was so I can look back.

Rereading everything, I see that you, Ruby, saved my life and so many other lives, and I'm just plain ungrateful. What a shame. I know I've been a total thorn in your side and honestly now knowing how serious you can really be I'm surprised you never threw me to the wolves. (I bet if you read this ever, Ruby, you will have no idea what those are.)

I can't promise it will be overnight. But the second we make port in Lively Town tomorrow and go to that dungeon to continue the Quest for the Holy Pail so I can evolve, I promise I will at least try to be a better partner.

No, I won't tell you all this. That would be useless. I'll do it by my actions. Yeah, I'd bet you wouldn't even notice at first. But far in the future, whenever I'm a changed man and a Milotic, you can know today is the day all that started.