There's only a few seconds of darkness before Lilly lights up the room, eyes narrowed with concentration as she struggles to light up the whole tunnel. Still, she must be able to see enough, because she looks around, and immediately makes me blush by murmuring, "Fourteen."

Many people and Pokemon both claim that their perfect match finishes their sentences, but few have ever found a significant other who does their headcounts before they can.

There's no time for gushing now.

"I can't believe it." Ferro mutters, shaking his head.

"What, that Grim ditched us?" Lilly says, glaring my way. "Me neither."

"No." Ferro says, looking at the ceiling with a deep sadness in his eyes. "I thought Rick the Gastly was never going to give us up."

"Ghost types," Chompers groans. "Well, are we going to be able to get out of here?"

Gaia lifts a stone. "I'm not sure. We must be far, far underground. Those were rocks, not dirt."

"Goldenrod must be slanted," Toxis adds, "Ecruteak is a higher elevation. Near the Illex, Goldenrod is close to sea level, and then it goes up from there, but the whole tunnel system was built at the same level. No wonder the project was cancelled, this is incredibly poor construction."
"Oh, so now you're an architect too. We'll add that to 'paying our taxes' as one of the many things we can push off on you if we ever have to do boring adult work to get by." Lilly laughs.

"No taxes. Never again." Toxis says, putting a massive hand up to his face. "You're giving me a migraine just by mentioning them. Anyone have coffee?"

No, Shell says, Obviously. I sense multiple Pokemon in distress. Can we try to settle them?

"Is the egg okay?" cries Shika, bolting to her feet. "Sky?"

Though Sky is out of the vicinity of the lights, I hear a fluttering of wings as she staggers over, bruised and exhausted. "My egg! I... please tell me she's okay."

Khrys, who's taken a similar amount of damage, soars over to her and holds her tight. "It's going to be okay. We have it. I managed to telekinetically move it out of the way."

Shika, looking guilty, dips her head. "I'm so sorry."

"You couldn't have expected it." Khrys responds. "Thank you for carrying us around."

Shell nudges Sky the egg, which is spotless. She immediately begins sobbing, resting all four wings against it. "Oh, thank Arceus. Thank every legendary there is."

I try to look confident, but though I'm glad the story had a happy ending, Sky and Khrys's wounds worry me. Was it Rage? Was it the tunnel? If this is how much damage an accident can do, how will they fare in a fight? Ashley had to switch them out and send them against less agile foes in hopes their opponents wouldn't even land a hit. I don't have Pokeballs, a plan, or any way to protect my best friends, and it feels like I've been hit myself. Still, I ask, "Everyone else alright?"

Toxis picks up a certain Vaporeon, who looks unharmed, but is still staring at us with a glassy terror in his eyes. His fins shake and his tail is curled up tight, and Toxis sets him down before us.

"Dill...?" he asks.

"We're screwed." Dill says softly.

"Don't worry, I'm sure we'll find some way-" Dusty begins, but Dill cuts him off.

He turns to Toxis, looking resolute. "If we're going to die, I have something to tell you."

"Dill." Toxis lays a hand on his shoulder.

"I- I'm a bad partner and I'm so sorry! I eat all the cookie dough before we can make the actual pastries, even though it has raw eggs in it. I keep mixing the darks in with the lights because human laundry makes no sense. Sometimes I go downstairs in the middle of the night and drink milk straight from the carton-" he pauses. "Oh. This is really bad. You know how I spent 400 dollars and told you it was on Sky and Khrys's anniversary present? I lied. I actually busted the Impala and spent it on repairs."

"It wasn't lost in the mail?" Sky asks.

"Dill, that was expensive." Toxis moans.

Dill sniffs. "I know. I'm so sorry and I'm an awful partner and-"

Toxis sighs, picking up Dill and holding him close. "None of that matters now. Pokemon don't have to deal with human problems and even if we did, none of that would ever keep me from loving you."

"Not even lying about the Impala repairs?"

"Not even that... and I knew anyways. Why do you think we sent them those sweaters? I have no idea when Sky's birthday is."
"I don't even know when my birthday is." Sky admits. "Okay, this is kind of depressing."

"Are you okay now?" Toxis asks.

"A little." Dill says, "Don't let go though. Please."

"This has been really sweet and touching, but if you guys don't mind, I have no intentions to suffocate in a cramped side tunnel today. Lilly?"

"On it." says Lilly, aiming a Focus Blast at the nearest set of rocks to reveal even more rocks. "Arceus, this is a pickle."

I look around. "Anyone else have a plan?"

Dusty raises a claw. "I know Dig."

I try to remember the flavor text for the move, and then remember Khrys bringing it up as one of the moves with field effects, specifically the ability to escape any cave. "Wait, that would just... get us straight out of here?"

Dusty nods, murmuring, "Apparently."

"I guess that's one benefit of being stuck in a video game." mentions Khrys.

"Usually not dying would be one too, wouldn't it? Something about multiple lives or whatever?"

"We're not dead. There you go." Gaia points out.

Lilly adds, eager to get out of here, "Well, let's not wait around to die again. This place isn't going to hold much longer. Dusty, we can't go straight up. Do you think you would make a tilted tunnel, so that we could climb up it?"

Large enough for Rage to get out? asks Shell.

"You... you should go without me." Rage says, his voice a low rumble from the back of the tunnel where he lies. "I almost got you all killed once. I'm just a burden on the team."

Dusty pats Rage on one of his scales, holding his eyes for a good minute before and moving past. Within seconds, he goes from perfectly still to a tornado of claws and scales. Dirt flies everywhere, coating both Rage and the rest of us, and Shell begins telekinetically lifting some of the residue up and moving it over to the 'wall' on the other side.

Eager to get out, many of us clamber forwards and begin assisting. Soon, it's just that core team of six, all of us looking disheveled and sporting mild to severe injury.

"We're a mess, aren't we?" laughs Khrys, and I realize how much I missed this. Even here, in a caved in tunnel on the outskirts of a major city, I feel safe with them here.

"We are." I say, "and-"
Dusty calls, "We're out!"

Sky clings onto my back with two of her wings and we join our teammates in climbing up Dusty's tunnel. We have to wait a while for Rage to wriggle through, but we keep close to his tail and make it out not long after he goes. I've never breathed air so fresh and Dill leaps out of Toxis's arms, laughing nervously and rolling on the fresh grass, limbs sprawled out and tongue lolling.

Still, we're not out of the woods yet... particularly because we're not in the woods. We might be out of the city, but the route around us isn't much safer. I take one last glance at the Goldenrod skyline and drop to all fours, bounding into the woods. Sky clings tighter as we go, and the others follow my lead, even Dill, who looks up and realizes we're almost gone before Toxis picks him up and carries him himself.

We all end up in a pile far in the woods to the south of Ecruteak, the sky above that hazy blue with pink clouds that comes just before the sun starts truly setting. We're all panting and more than a little traumatized, but we're alive, accounted for, and... terribly hungry. My stomach growls in disapproval and it looks like in the excitement we've lost all our berries. My teammates pained expressions let me know all of us feel the same.

"Shoulda eaten that doughnut." Millie confesses. "Would've regretted it, but not as much as I regret this." She throws her arms outwards.

"Speaking of Dill's escapades today..." Toxis continues, "Dill, are you claustrophobic?"

"Um... not very." he says, but he's refusing to meet Toxis's eyes. "Just... when I was a pup, I was told that if a cave in was to occur, I was dead where I stood, so I might just've panicked a little bit. I haven't felt any adrenaline since I got back to Pokemon form, and that was... not fun. I wasn't sure if I wanted to dig or bite something but I just knew I had to do something and... I guess talking to you is the best way I could think of to calm down." He rests his head back in Toxis's lap.

As Toxis brushes his boyfriend's head, Chompers sighs, "It's been hard on all of us. Our bodies are weird, our brains want to kill us, and none of us want to eat grass or cute things."
"Thank you all for coming back." I tell them, feeling a swell of gratitude seeing them all here. "Really. No matter what we have to go through, we're going through it as a team."

"I'm so glad Sky and Khrys are here. Whatever you feel right now, you two have always been some of our strongest." Gaia says.

"I have no idea how you deal without hands, but mad props to you, Shell." Ferro adds, smiling, and Shell ducks his head under his wing, making a chirruping sound akin to embarrassed laughter.

"Shout out to Rage for dealing with... everything about Gyaradoses!" Lilly yells, and I think I see Rage almost smile.

The whole team breaks out into sharing their sentiments, and though I have nothing to say myself, I watch and relax, feeling the day's tension ease away. Still, there's something that unnerves me about the current assembly.. there's two Pokemon who haven't said a word. I decide to run a headcount.

Ten, twelve, thirteen...

"Shika?"
As if on queue, Shika enters the clearing with a selection of exotic berries on her back, thrown atop a makeshift saddle of wood... apricorns, I realize, and enough to feed at least half of us. She smiles, tipping the saddle over and sliding the berries onto the ground before us. "This is my hometown. You didn't think I'd let you all starve when you're my guests, did you?"