Summary: Joey and Barkley, riolu and treecko partners, go exploring a mysterious dungeon, their first objective is a rescue, though when that's done they plan to explore for secrets and treasure rumoured to lie within. However the legendary pokemon that is hidden deep inside is keen to never let any secrets leave.

Commission from egkangaroo

Word Count: 6981

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The dungeon stretched before the two pokemon adventurers. A storied and treacherous location. Those stories told of riches within related to some pokemon of legend, yet all who’d sought them out had been repelled by the dangers. There weren’t even wild pokemon within, just a plethora of traps that started unpleasant and quickly ramped up to being dangerous. 

It was not a place one should venture alone or unprepared, for even full parties had been said to enter and not return. 

Of course it was all possible it was exaggerated. Blown out of proportion by those who wanted to lend an air of mystery to their locale, it was also possible that one of those missing groups had found the treasures within and left in secret, worried that their glory would attract covetous eyes. 

For the riolu Joey and their friend Barkley, a treecko, the treasure would be nice, the experience and thrills of adventure would be welcome too but they were here on a rescue mission. Begged by a concerned staravia to look for his beau. 

The pair quested inward, undeterred by the warning signs that had been put up recently. They knew what they were about and were confident that they had prepared. 

Not more than a few paces past the threshold the dusty floor clicked, before a loud flash erupted, stunning both pokemon. “Aagh!” Barkley yelped, hands to his eyes, rubbing them, still seeing the afterimage burned in. 

“Wh-where did that come from?” Joey replied, wincing until they could finally see clearly again, the dungeon looking far gloomier than before. 

The two looked around for a while before Barkley finally spotted the point that had set off the flash. “Cover your eyes.” He said, shutting his own and covering them with his hand before he poked another point just to be sure. It flashed powerfully, enough that they could still spot the light through their eyelids. “Mmh, that’s a well hidden one. We’re going to have to be careful.” 

“I guess it wasn’t too exaggerated after all.” Joey said with a chuckle trying to ease the atmosphere. 

The two pokemon were hoping to rely on their size to win through the trials ahead. Larger pokemon had tried and struggled, smaller pokemon were typically scared off by the potential for grave injury, resolving to return when tougher. Their small frames opened up avenues already. A small crack in one wall allowed them to circumvent the more obviously travelled road. 

All the same, Joey threw a skittering pebble down the gap, bouncing it off the walls. No extra surprises emerged from the wall, though it gave a wet splash at the far end. “Wanna risk it?” 

“Hopefully it’s just water.” The treecko replied, listening for a while but there was no flow to be heard. “Indoor pond maybe?” 

“Here goes.”

“No, let me go, if it’s water or mud I’ll probably handle it better.” The grass-type pokemon said, confident in his innate strengths. He’d made the right call, the ground beyond was a wet muddy mass that was at least waist deep, if not more but by carefully using a vine he was able to secure himself at an even and traversable depth. “Looks like a sinking trap. I’ll help you cross it.” 

The sounds of Joey slowly scooching along the gap gave him time to prepare, lashing another vine for the riolu to balance on without having to risk treading the mud. “Okay, ready?” 

“Sure.” 

Joey leapt while Barkley used the vine to help sling them forward. The riolu sailed over the mud, landing on solid stone and carefully holding position in case there were more surprises. Barkley threw the vine toward them and they caught it, tugging to slowly pull the treecko across the mud. 

“Easy now.” Barkley said, before he felt a stirring, the mud around him was bubbling. “Wait, quick, fast, fast!!” 

Joey widened his eyes, tugging hard, snatching Barkley out of the mud mere moments before a geyser-like eruption blew up from the bubbling point. Thicker mud spilled out, doughy and clinging, liable to weigh down anyone caught in it and fired with enough force to knock them over. 

“That was close! Thanks for the rescue.” He said, as Joey pulled him to the surface. His hand patted the riolu’s shoulder appreciatively. 

“Any time.” 

Barkley cleaned himself up before the pair resumed their slow, cautious exploration of the trap filled dungeon. 

More traps lay in their path, several kept quite obvious, the challenge being how to traverse them safely, others hidden with the pair having to use a few items in their bag to scan the area around them and only then seeing triggers they would have easily flipped by mistake. 

The more obvious traps also seemed the more dangerous, yet as they passed the first room, even those started to be masked. The place had been carefully constructed, it had to be guarding something. 

In the distance, something glittered, catching the eye. Both of them sighted it and pressed cautiously forward, scanning the ground in case it was bait. As they drew near enough to see they saw a large shape of solid edges, glinting blue ice and within a shocked fletchinder, frozen in motion. 

“That must be who we’re here for!” Joey said, worried at first when they saw the bird pokemon wasn’t moving. “I hope we’re not too late.” 

“Same.” Barkley replied. “Look, over there!” He directed their attention to  a fire trap, one that spat a gout of flame at periodic intervals. “If we push her over there we might be able to melt the ice!” 

“Mmm, good thinking.” Joey said, setting his hands to the ice. “Aah, cold!” 

“Careful! What if it had spread?” Barkley chided, though he was happy for his partner to be the one pushing, not relishing the chill bite of ice. The treecko moved ahead carefully, scanning the floor step by step. Slowly they worked the ice block closer, inch by inch until Barkley gave one last sweep to be sure of no intervening surprises and then aided Joey in moving it forward. 

The air grew thick with steam and humidity as the fire worked unnaturally fast on the ice. A quirk of the traps, no doubt. One of the bird pokemon’s wings was freed first and it twitched and flapped. 

“Calm down!” Joey urged, reaching to brush in what they hoped was a soothing way. It seemed to dispel some of the trapped pokemon’s panic. The ice was thawing well, revealing more of the fletchinder’s body. “Easy, easy.” 

As soon as the neck and head were free of the ice, the bird squawked loudly. “Cold! C-cold, good grief!” 

“We’re here to help, don’t worry!” Barkley reassured, waiting for more of the ice to recede before plunging in. They worked the stranger loose, who responded by stepping closer to the fire, letting it warm them up for a while as they turned to their rescuers. 

“Oh, thank you, thank you.” She spoke, words shooting out of her mouth at a rapid speed. “There’s no way I’d have lasted much longer in that, I could still see everything!! I was starting to wonder if no one would ever come, oh I shouldn’t have come in here alone, I mean, I thought I’d find something nice, not delve too deep, just get a present and then flee.” 

Her torrent of words continued as she described in vague terms that she had someone waiting for her. “Heh, that settles it. Don’t worry, we were sent here by a kind staravia who was distraught at your disappearance.”

“Really?! Ohhh, that’s so good to hear, well, not the part where I’ve upset him but-” the wittering continued again, the two exchanging a look. “Sorry, you must want to leave as much as I do. Don’t let me waste your time.” The bird pokemon said. 

Barkley replied with their intentions. “Actually we’re going to keep exploring. Do you remember how you got here?” 

“Yes, yes, I am sure I can retrace my steps just fine. Don’t you worry. Though for what it’s worth I don’t know how smart that is. I mean, it’s even more dangerous ahead, I got scared half to death by some near scrapes… it’s how I uh… ran into this fix.” The bird said. 

“We appreciate the warning but we’ve seen worse. We’ll make it.” 

“Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you but I know better than to argue with an adventurous spirit like yours.” The fletchinder said before she took wing, flying through the cavernous room at a confident speed. The few traps she set off were easily skirted and the lack of any surprised or distressed cries reassured Joey and Barkley enough that they turned away, setting back to plumb the depths of the dungeon.

The construction didn’t let up, more severe traps were arrayed in front of them. The pair had expected and prepared for more harmful things. Their preparations were rewarded, there was indeed an unwelcoming mix from strange aspected traps like the ice and flame to the more mundane, though no less dangerous breed of traps; spikes, arrows, blades and pits. Yet they were nestled between more that seemed less inclined to hurt. As though the purpose was to wound and weaken before the foolish explorer might be led to fall into the grasp of these other devices. 

Like the ice that had frozen the bird, the traps seemed primed to punish interlopers by seizing them indefinitely. The muddy bog they’d crossed earlier came to mind as they navigated their way over a thin rail with poisonous-looking viscous goo below.  Further down they crossed paths with open holes in the wall, one barred over with metal though there was no sign of any occupant within the cell. Those holes had similar metal grates waiting to crash down and seal. 

Barkley looked for a clue as to what made them dangerous. There was no chance they were just for display and only a fool or a very specific kind of pokemon would intentionally wander into one when there was not even loot to tempt them closer. 

He sighted the danger among an array of similar looking rock patterns on the floor. Each one of the slabs was lined up with a cell. He’d been in enough dungeons before to get the feeling that he understood them, he tested his first theory, dropping a weighty pebble from his bag. The floor clicked, thrummed with a sound and then threw the pebble with kinetic force toward one of the cells. The stone clacked against the wall and the metal bars slammed into place around it. 

“Phew… dangerous in itself. Should we try to figure out how to release the cells in case one of us falls in?” Joey asked.

“Nah, just don’t fall in!” Barkley joked, laughing to himself and moving onward. The pair pressed forward as cautiously as they could, mere moments later Joey heard a click behind them, accompanied by an “Uh-oh.” From the treecko.

They spun to look in time to see a dancing purple light swim around and over Barkley’s head. “Joey, I’m not sure I-” He began before the purple flashed brighter and seemed to stun the treecko. 

“Barkley? Barkley what’s up?” The riolu asked. Barkley’s mouth relaxed, hanging open with a light smile on the edges as he was entranced, turning without a word and marching in a straight line toward one of the cells, rather than the featureless kind that the kinetic trap was designed to throw people into, this one lacked anywhere for a grate to slam. However there were open manacles on the floor, chained to the walls. 

Joey made an assumption as to what was happening and moved to act. “Barkley, stop! Snap out of it!” They said, grabbing the treecko, shaking him around the shoulders. His partner looked past him, blankly, one of his hands rising to push Joey out of the path. “Barkley, I don’t wanna hurt you but I don’t like the look of what you’re trying to do!”

The treecko dodged as Joey lunged to tackle him, the riolu falling flat and nearly tripping one of the other traps, their eyes wide, they scampered back. That distance was enough for Barkley to make it to the cell, his hands picking up one of the manacles and clapping it shut around his ankle. 

Joey moved quickly, picking themself up and running toward the cell. They swatted a second manacle out of Barkley’s hands. The treecko responded, still in the daze by lifting the largest manacle, a collar. Too slow to stop him seizing it, Joey moved to put a hand against his neck so that it couldn’t go round. The riolu let out a shocked gasp when the treecko seemingly absent mindedly snapped the collar around Joey’s neck instead! 

The riolu had no choice, the hypnotising trap still had their friend in its grasp. “Sorry about this.” They whispered before their hand whacked out in an open handed slap. 

The impact echoed, bouncing off the walls but seemed to have been enough to wake the treecko. “Oww! What the heck?” He said, looking around his surroundings in confusion. He stumbled on the shackle, looking at it, and his brain working to fill in the blanks. “Oh my gosh, did I-?” 

“Mmh, yeah.” Joey said with frustration though it was directed at the predicament rather than to place any blame. “Still, I’m glad that worked.” Joey said giving Barkley a quick hug to shake the worried thoughts out.

“Thanks for stopping me.” Barkley said, scratching his head in embarrassment before giving another hug back, relieved that he’d been saved from dooming himself and possibly his partner. “This room wouldn’t happen to have keys, would it?” 

Their brief exploration found it did not, plus with the pair shackled to the same wall by short chains they had difficulty moving around, meaning Barkley had to squeeze closer to the ground to try and make things move comfortably. 

The pokemon tugged on the shackles with their combined strength, yet that still wasn’t enough to pry them loose. Futile attempts, tanglings of limbs and barks of frustration filled the next while until Joey had a moment to think. “The cuff looks too strong but I reckon I could damage those chains. I just need an angle.” 

“What about the one at your neck?” 

“Well, not much I can do for that but there might be something helpful out of our reach.” 

Barkley sighed. “Well, alright, not much more we can do for it without trying, I guess.” He stepped as far away as he could, holding the chain taut. 

“Yeah, steady like that.” Joey stated, before striking with a strong kick. The chain clinked, the force pulling Barkley to stumble closer. He kept walking away, holding it steady and then another kick, and another. 

“Is it even doing anything?” Barkley asked pessimistically, yet after the next kick there was a break showing in the chain link nearest the cuff.  That was a source of encouragement. The treecko perked up, cheering his friend on as a few resounding kicks later the cuff felt lighter. While still attached to his ankle, it was free of the wall. “Great! It worked!” 

“Good, now, let's try and figure out this one.” Joey said, tugging on the manacle. “And uh, please don’t tread in any more traps without me. I’d hate for you to be stuck somewhere.” They said, though their mind couldn’t help fearing that Barkley might fall into another hypno trap and come back to finish the job he started. 

The riolu took a precautionary measure. Lifting the manacles and locking them together without attaching them. The final arm cuff locked and then scared Joey as it tugged out of their grasp. The sound of metal pulled sharply over stone filled their ears, bouncing off the walls as the trap entered its second stage; when all clasps were shut the chains were pulled into the walls, in theory stretching the captive wide. For Joey, that meant they were yanked to the rear wall, head clipped close to the stone as the excess chain pulled in and locked. “Waah!”

The chain found equilibrium, not tightening too far or pulling Joey off the floor yet still tightly wound to the point they couldn’t pull away even an inch. 

Their cry brought Barkley back in a hurry, the treecko looking over what had happened and wincing. He wasn’t going to chide his friend on being incautious when it was his own fault they were like this. “Here, I found some bits, it’s not great but I think I might be able to make a file or a saw or something.” 

A noise bounced off the walls in the distance, coming from another room joined to the one they were exploring. The two shared a look. “Better make it quiet and hopefully quick.” They said, not wanting to be found by whatever had made the noise. 

The treecko worked as quickly as he dared, metal rasping on metal behind Joey’s head. Joey had braced for the chain to break and the exchange of forces to bounce them forward, yet Barkley had managed to score and grind at the clasping point, breaking through the metal ring itself! It came loose only to be reeled into the wall fully, allowing Joey to step free. “Great work! Want me to look at yours?” He offered.

“Please do, I’m not keen on walking around with a jingling fashion accessory.” 

The riolu worked swiftly, able to access the cuff more easily. Soon it too fell loose, both pokemon breathing a sigh of relief. “That might have taken some time but it’s better than being stuck until someone came to rescue us!” Barkley quipped. 

“Yeah… I’m not having second thoughts yet, though another close call like that might bring them on.” Joey mused.

“We’ll be extra careful from now on.” The treecko said encouragingly and with commitment. His confidence was contagious enough that Joey straightened up and gave a nod. 




A shadow loomed from a distant corner of the room, the path the two small pokemon had taken joined up with the more generously sized but even more perilous track. An ear flicked as an onlooker peeled back into the shadows, moving ahead. 

Joey and Barkley were not alone, nor had they passed unnoticed.




The intrepid partners focused on a slower, steadier approach, a few close calls accompanied a few fatiguing hits, though not enough to incapacitate or need a rescue. Some traps were outright harmless, particularly in the strange sprawling maze that they’d found themselves in. Filled with warp tiles that simply dumped them back at the start. It made the maze infuriating to contend with. 

Whenever they thought the exit was in sight they’d find a warp shooting them back, where they’d have to retrace their steps and join up with their partner once more. 

After returning from being bounced for one time too many, Barkley brashly declared that that had to be it, there couldn’t be any more! Only for him to step and vanish in a vwip of noise. Joey had to cover their mouth to not laugh at the turn of events. That left a single potential path through the maze which Joey took, walking to an open area on the far side, hoping it would afford a little moment to rest. 

They waited for a while for Barkley to catch up, taking it slow, noting a few potential traps ahead for them to walk around. Some of which could be recognised as having similar patterns to those they’d seen earlier, however there was enough new and presumably even more hidden about the room that Joey didn’t want to test anything rash until they were reunited. 

It really was taking a surprising amount of time for Barkley to get back. Joey tried once again not to giggle. The treecko probably took a wrong turn somewhere and had been warped back. 

Finally they saw movement and turned, their smile freezing in place when they realised the treecko was not alone. A taller pokemon stood behind Barkley, the two moving in step. A vicious grin was spread over the newcomer’s face. It was a sneasel, one sporting a few signs of wear from traps and quite possibly a strike or two of Barkley’s making. “What’s up, dweeb?” Her voice called. “A friend of yours?” 

“Barkley!” Joey yelled in concern, taking a step forward.

The sneasel’s clawed hand tightened over Barkley’s shoulder. “Not so fast. I could be persuaded to do some actual damage if you test me.” 

“Mmmh. Who are you, what do you want?” 

The sneasel smirked. “I assume I can answer both of those questions at the same time. Name’s Bleak, perhaps you’ve heard of me?” She said, her expression glowing when she saw a reaction straight away. 



“You’re her?!” Barkley squeaked, then fell silent with a gasp as her claws poked in harshly.

“In the flesh. Now, you’ve made it quite far, not bad for a bunch of lowly shrimps. You’re gonna share with me everything you’ve discovered in here and then you’re going to give up your claim on the treasure. You got that?” 

Joey suppressed the urge to yell “No way!”, with their friend that close to the sneasel there was not much they could immediately do.

“Is that a no?” She said tilting her head and turning her eyes to one of the more obvious; and likely more punishing traps. “Just come over here, easy now, give me everything in your packs and I’ll let you both walk on out of here. Hey, I’ll even ask your names and see that you’re mentioned in the tales they’ll tell of me.”

Joey’s eyes looked between their friend and the foe before them, their chest rose and fell but neither Joey or Barkley could afford to give in to her threats. Bleak had a reputation, she was a villain, a double-crosser who couldn’t be trusted. 

The sneasel’s lips peeled in a grin as Joey approached her. These heroic adventurer types were so gullible, so easy to manipulate. She was already considering how she’d deal with them both, maybe throw them into a trap and retrieve them when she’d pillaged the place. To sell the illusion she brushed Barkley’s shoulder gently. “There, there.” She said lowering her guard “You’re making the right choice.” 

The treecko suddenly ducked, pulling out of her grip. “What?” She managed to bark before a black furred paw struck her torso. The blow was forceful rather than pointed, sending her staggering back. 

“You little worm.” She spat, glaring, flexing her claws. Yet Joey had dropped their fighting stance with a smug and satisfied look. She followed the riolu’s gaze, the floor below her flashed and then exploded in motion. One of the dungeon’s kinetic traps sent her flying at speed toward a wall where a second trap lay waiting to be triggered. 

Seven long sturdy vines sprouted from the compacted earth, snaring Bleak’s head, binding her arms to her body, her legs to each other and then reeling in to pull her hard to the wall. “You pests! When I get out of this I’ll- Mmmhh!!”

The vines covered her mouth and then continued to coil around her cheeks and face, her eyes went from glaring to a momentary panic before they were covered up, her head becoming a mass of vine covered blankness and frustrated grunts while the remaining vines snared up her limbs. Joey ran to Barkley, took his hand in theirs and pulled him away into the dungeon. 

“The trap won’t hold her forever, we’ll have to be ready because she’ll be in a mood to fight next time.” Barkley decided, following his buddy quickly. “Look out!” 

Joey reacted in time, the pair's hands separated as they both jumped and dodged the trap. “You may be right but that gives me an idea; We need to take a more dangerous path, near as many traps as we can without setting them off or defusing them.” 

Barkley nodded, understanding the idea. The two small pokemon hurried away from the site of the confrontation delving deeper. 




By luck and by skill the pair travelled further, yet there were still a plentiful number of problems in sight. The traps were becoming harder to spot, more numerous and yet more dangerous. Had they been larger pokemon they’d have had to disarm a few already just to get past. Fortunately their slight builds and various tricks allowed them to skirt the edges.

The signs of the previous adventurers’ travels had vanished too. This deep in the dungeon there was not a living soul to be seen nor any signs of failed intrusion. The pair descended another flight of steps, entering a chamber with a huge door dominating the facing wall. Etchings of some strange pokemon were carved on it, with ominous looking figures around it. They were prostrated in what could have been reverence or subservience, it was too hard to tell. The mural could have spoken to either tale, either they were praising the being, beseeching it to save them from strife, or pleading and begging it to spare them its wrath. 

“That’s scary…” Joey couldn’t help murmuring. “I don’t recognise the pokemon there, do you?” 

“No. And it might be scary but it looks like it opens up, at least.” Barkley said, stepping forward and pushing the door. 

Joey let out a gasp to stop him, yet the door was fortunately silent. It refused to open of course, though it also didn’t immediately trigger any dangerous traps. “Ugh, I’ll bet there’s a puzzle to it.” The treecko mumbled, pointing to hollow tubes that flowed into one of the side rooms. 

He’d been correct, the pair separated to the two rooms to work on the puzzles within. Joey was still trying to figure out the trick to theirs when Barkley returned some minutes later. 

“Hit a wall with yours?”  Joey asked. 

Barkley shook his head. “I’m all done with mine, there’s some kind of coloured mist in the tubes so I think I got it right. I just came to help. Any clues on this one?”

“I don’t know, I think it requires attacks.” They summarised. 

A series of orbs lay in the room, a symbol lit up within a few of them, representing Steel and Fighting. “Is it just as simple as lighting them up?” Barkley asked, using a vine to whip several of the orbs. One flashed with green, a leafy symbol appearing. “Aha!” 

The room shifted around them, panels opening, more orbs appearing. The riolu looked around the new layout, seemingly disconcerted.

“It doesn’t seem to be, some orbs get hidden if you light others. I found a strange red slab in one of the openings.” Joey replied, tapping it to demonstrate on the orb they were near. It sparked with a harmless puff of flame and glowed red. Once lit it swapped the room around again. “It’s all quite weird and I’m lost without instructions.” 

“Oh! I thought my puzzle was a bit weird, I had to arrange a sliding bunch of blocks several times, they had some more murals about that spooky looking thing in the main room but there were also some glowing coloured orbs. Come on, I’ll show you!” Barkley said, running off to the other chamber. 

Joey followed behind, though as Barkley passed the stairs a fist of fire shot out and struck him, sending him flying with a cry. Joey stepped back, wide eyed, only to feel a hand fall on his head from behind and throw him across the room. It was an ambush! 

The fist had come from a primeape that strode down the room, flanked by Bleak, who looked angrier than the perpetually enraged pokemon at her side. The third member of her team, a sableye, leapt at Joey and though the riolu tried to stand and resist them, the trio soon were more than enough to overpower them, roughing them up until they fell still. 

“Did you really think that’d hold me?!” Bleak demanded, kicking both of them while they were down. The sableye said nothing about how it was his claws that had freed the humiliated sneasel. “Leave me behind in a bunch of vines would you? Some good guys you are! Well, we’ve got something better than vines.” She said, seeing that Barkley was still moving. “Knock him out!” She commanded. 

The primeape shuffled forward before delivering another fire punch, enough to make Barkley faint and join his partner in unconsciousness. Their attackers set upon them with ropes as well as the vines they’d chopped Bleak out of. 

Their arms were tied heftily around the forearms, joined together behind each pokemon’s back, the ropes were then tied around the chests and waists, securing the arms further before Bleak ordered them to be pushed back to back. She made sure to bind them extra tightly in that pose, lashing the harness constructions together and burying the knots well out of their reach. Finally she turned to their legs, coiling each one individually. Connecting each pokemon’s shins together and then binding the thighs to the other. 

“Waste of time. Woulda been so much easier if you’d listened to me!” She hissed. 

With the two bound, she turned away, looking back to the door. “Now, let's see if we can find this treasure.” 

“Want me to get 'em ready for travel?” The primeape asked.

“Yeah boss, yeah! Let’s take em back to the town square as a warning for those who cross us!” 

The sneasel glared at the helpless two. “Loot first, worry about them later.” She said, though already she was scheming. She’d find a way to persuade her companions to just abandon the troublemakers. She wanted them to pay for outsmarting her and she’d be sure to set up even more traps so that even if they made it up the stairs while tied, they’d not make it much further. 

An hour passed after the trio had skulked into the room, the sound of grating stone and shifting blocks was punctuated by frustration and rage as they tried to solve the puzzle through brute force. 

“Nnnh… oww…” Joey whispered, shifting their shoulders. The wiggling woke Barkley who let out a pained grunt. “You okay?”

“Mmm. Nothing that won’t heal. W-what happened?” The treecko asked. 

“Looks like Bleak wasn’t alone, she got us good.” Joey replied, their hand reaching the small distance it could to brush Barkley’s side reassuringly.

“Mmnf, I can’t move.” Barkley groaned, trying to fight out. The ropes were taut all over, trying to move his arms tugged on the ropes around Joey, making them creak and the riolu squeak as they were squeezed. 

The pair were still too weak and dazed, leaving them to figure out how their binds interacted by trial and error. Rescuing their torso’s seemed a lost cause and their attempts to figure out how to stand led nowhere after many guesses and failures.

A shout echoed from the puzzle room. “Blast this damn thing, it’s impossible!” Yelled Bleak’s voice, accompanied by a chime as she struck one of the orbs. There was a click and then a heavy clunk as something shifted. 

“Huh?” Joey grunted, feeling something shift. 

“Joey! Th-the door!” 

In Bleak’s frustration she’d managed to hit the final part, the door began to creak open, yawning outwards. “What do you see?” The riolu asked, trying to angle round and bend. 

“W-what is that?!” Barkley replied, frozen stiff as two red eyes stared from within sunken hollows, framed by golden horns, the pokemon on the mural, Giratina, glared at those who disturbed him.

Long shadowy tendrils seeped out from behind the portal, threading into the ropes. “No! Stay away!” Barkley shouted as the tendrils stiffened and then reeled in. 

“What’s going on?” Joey asked, yet soon they were answered by motion, the tendrils reeled them in, pulling them along the floor toward the door. As they neared it, more tendrils shot into the rest of the ropes and yanked upwards, pulling them in! The door slid shut behind them. “What, wh-what the heck! N-no!” 




“What the hell? Where’d those pests go?!” Bleak yelled. “Ah whatever, look in that last room, if you find them, tell me. But remember what we’re here for. There’s still meant to be some treasure down here. There better be.” 




“Mmmh! Mhhnghhh!” Joey squealed. As soon as the door had shut behind them the blackness of the room had almost come to life, squirming and wiggling when in their periphery, while seemingly empty if looked at directly. 

The shadows that had pulled them in held them in the air, as though rendering both pokemon weightless. More tendrils had shot out over their mouths, pressing their jaws shut and wrapping over them before each had to endure the shadows pushing through a gap in their lips, cleaving between the teeth and pushing on the tongue. There was no true feeling of weight, nothing they could taste or sense, yet the mass, almost composed of sheer force, held them muffled. 

“Silence!” A voice thoomed around their heads, echoing in the void. “You dared to breach the sanctity of this place, to steal the secrets of the misbegotten past!” 

“Whh? Nhhh, wh- Hhhghk!” Barkley had begun to protest before the shadows stiffened, squeezing his body entirely. 

“I know why all of you fools enter this place. My humiliation, my defeat and imprisonment were not enough for you. You come to claim what remains- the secrets and the power I possess.” The voice intoned. The shadows coalesced around Giratina. Whether the legendary pokemon controlled them on his own or whether this space was shared by unseen others, it had the two tiny creatures firmly in its grasp. “That even this many years later there are those who ignore the warnings, that charge in even- going so far as to offer their companions as tribute. I shall take but I shall give nothing!” 

“Mmmh?! Wh-whnnnh-!” Joey made to protest against the assertion, the dark force squeezing them too and then securing the gagging mass harder. 

The shadows weaved into the ropes and vines that had both pokemon bound, they shaped around them hugging tightly to match, then mimicked the form. The mixed strands that joined Joey and Barkley together vanished, unwound out of existence in this alternate dimension they’d been snatched into. Both pokemon tried to squirm in the air, Barkley’s face contorted with determination, Joey’s eyes wide and pleading. 

The new shadow-made ropes were just as abrasive and controlling as the others. Both pokemon were further tied as the shadows made a laddered sleeve up their legs. The rope wound around, biting into their fur and skin for the first coil, then the second turn knotted and linked the opposite leg. The shadow-rope alternated between the two, every odd inch wrapped over an individual leg, every even one lashing them together. 

Their arms were also tightly coiled in the shadows, then bound sharply behind their backs, forcing their shoulders further backwards than before. The coils connected their wrists with a loop that ran under and around the base of their tails, unable to pull them up. 

Rope wove around the throats bunching up into a collar, which tied both to the tip of their tails, reeling them in behind the neck and to the shadows in and around their mouths which solidified, gagging and harnessing their heads. 

Giratina watched silently and passively, despite the ire in its eyes. 

The two partners drifted away from each other. Letting out another round of panicked muffles at being even momentarily separated from their other half. Giratina ignored the cries, instead simply twisting them to face it head on. 

“Mmmh, mmh- hmmm!” Joey whined, trying to look towards Barkley, whose shoulders still struggled. The ropes had fully covered their legs and now the same weaving strands traced over their arms, lashing them to the torso, tying taut enough to bunch around the riolu’s fur. 

Above and below the elbows, just below the shoulders, all positioned to anchor both pokemon’s limbs so that they could barely squirm. “Now.” The giant shadowed form said, staring at them both, drawing their attention to it. “Begone from my sight!” 

“Mmmh?!” Joey gasped, could it be they were going to be expelled through the door like this? Their emotions were conflicted, at least it meant being cast away from this terrifying monster, yet if they appeared before Bleak and her cronies in such impossible to escape restraints the posse might be inspired to further exploit their weakness. 

Joey’s musings were pointless, as rather than being thrown from the rift, a single portal opened behind them, sucking them away from Giratina and toward each other. They were twisted once again to be back to back, the shadowy ropes twitching once more to snap against each other, tying their heads and shoulders to each other! 

The vacuum of the portal tore them from one dimension into another. Rather than an infinite depth of swirling shadows, their surroundings had changed to a solid cubic cell. Dark tethers snapped from the centre of the ceiling, tangling the ropes over their legs and inverting the packaged pair, leaving them hanging in suspension. 

“Mmmh? Mhhrhhnnh?” Barkley called, or tried to, even without the powerful pokemon present the shadows it had twisted remained strong. His twisting attempts to work his hands or shrug his arms were met with stiffening reactions as Joey squirmed too. 

The treecko’s fingers tried to reach out but not only were they too far from the knots to even be able to touch the ropes, the pairs tails which were harshly pushed against each other, kept his fingers from even meeting Joey’s. Their peril was harsh enough but being so close to the one he cared about most in the world and unable to even touch them directly was a cruel twist. The only point of contact was the obstructing tails and the tops of their heads, everything else fixed in place by the ropes, so near yet still incapable of getting closer or further.

In frustration he tried to kick, setting the shadowed tethers creaking like rope, rubbing against his legs but while the binds didn’t budge the long strand connecting them to the ceiling twisted enough to set them swaying and slowly turning. 

Enough that slowly they each got to see all sides and corners of the room and realise the impossibility of it; the cell they were in had no doors, no windows, not a single feature. Solid walls on all sides. The sourceless light was dim yet still enough for them to see how helpless they were. 

If the tether broke by some miracle their legs were stiffly reinforced with little chance of prising free on their own. If they then somehow managed to get onto their feet and find balance, there was nothing for them to use, nothing to do and no way they could leave. 

Still, the pair tried. They fought and battled but this hadn’t been a general trap. These bindings had been hand crafted. Designed not as a deterrent with rescue as an eventual option, but as a final punishment of the vengeful creature that was the heart of the dungeon’s storied past. Their combined struggles persisted until Joey’s body started to ache. Barkley kept the fight a little further yet soon he too lost his spirited resistance when he noticed his partner had fallen still.

“Hmnnnf, mmmhhn…” Joey whined, dejectedly. All their battling had done was exhaust them of energy and set the tether to sway forward and then back round. In this split off dimension they were isolated from everything. They tried to keep up their spirits with the solitary consolation they could latch onto: At the very least, they were here with Barkley and not imprisoned in their own separate realm.




Time dragged forward. The mysterious cell eliminated their bodily needs, even after days of their torment they not only lacked the need to sleep but were unable to, the inverted posture should not have been something they could maintain either. 

The sounds of the creaking rope was the most constant noise, punctuated by their own groans. They grew more and more despondent. Unable to share any intimacy, unable to do anything to comfort the other beyond make a muffled cry of sympathy or try to hum any tune that might appease and soothe. 

And when both their moods dropped it only fed the worry they felt until it was all they could do to keep from crying and whimpering. Each pokemon blamed themselves, Barkley was frustrated that he’d lowered his guard and not been able to stand up to the ambush. Joey felt that if they’d just been quicker and smarter with their own puzzle then-... no, the problem was that they’d delved beyond where they should have taken the hints to turn back. 

The squirming treecko made something shift, both pokemon sensed it, gasping in surprise, feeling the difference, only for the shadowed ropes to move and squeeze, replacing itself perfectly.

In all the time that followed, in all their struggles, the pair remained just as rigidly bound as before. If Bleak and the others found the way to open the door, if they too were claimed by the giratina, then Joey and Barkley never found out about it.