Many eons ago... The first Pokemon was born...

They settled into pink furry arms, and their cheek was set upon a warm chest... And when their eyes opened, they found soft sapphire blue ones staring back, filled with all the love the universe had in it, and a little more besides...

Who that first Pokemon was is lost to time, but their lineage is not Who was born after is lost as well... Eventually, the order we knew came into being. Above it all, a haughty judge. Below, elementals and guardians of that which was vital. Myths and Legends...

And the one who began it all was so childlike in her enrapturement of the world... Despite having power outstripping all of them, her days were filled with merriment. She saw no point in mortal conflicts. Not an ageless being like her, who had seen the skies turn blue and the first grass creep from the soil. She let them have their fun. She could scarcely do otherwise...

Until...

It was a night mere decades ago... The sky lit with fire and colour as Mew rushed her bloodied and beaten form to defend from the overwhelming presence bearing down on her...

Her planet. Her responsibility.

Her children...

The thing came from no where; splitting the membrane between realities and seeping in like an acrid smoke... It knew nothing but hunger and doom, and only Mew could stop it...

In that moment of confrontation, she had gathered her energy and unleashed it all... And for a brief moment the stars had been blotted by a flash as bright as the day...

And then a hot streak of energy had plummeted, and buried itself in the earth. 

Ever after that night was remembered in hushed whispers... 

"Until today..." The Alakazam said, closing the book, and looking between them all... The erstwhile Dewott, arm in a sling and a chipped tooth that would probably have to be pulled... Lucky his kind grew them back... Ilianna... Hopping from one foot to the other, first as an exercise, and then suddenly she ran from the room. Noah blushed... "Oh. Her bladder is smaller than usual... I mean... Ah, never mind, ignore me..."

The scowling Bandit, Li, clinging hard to her by now apparent lover, Muanil the Abra... Mua. The Alakazam couldn't have been more overjoyed to see her back, unless the news she returned with hadn't troubled him so thoroughly...

"I have known this all to be true. I was young when the night lit. I saw it with my own eyes. And I sensed her there. It is what lead me on my life's path to this very moment, and now... We find she may not have died... But is below, creating a mystery dungeon. That only leaves us with the final, and most infuriating question: Why?"

"She obviously doesn't know she's doing it." Li said, lifting her chin in an expression of frustrated disgust... "She's just lashing out with her great psychic power and... And that's how they're formed, isn't it?"

"How we believe they are formed. Yes. Powerful singular Pokemon, on the level of myths or even legends... Perhaps, half formed or half permeated into our world from their higher plane. Some of their power flows through the elements here and creates a... 'seed'. One that creates 'roots' of tunnels and avatars of pure elements to guard them. In our image. Even occasionally dragging real Pokemon down to bolster its numbers, though... I suppose knowing all this, one could go down by choice... Ugh. To live amongst autmotons... who would willingly subject themselves..."

"This is far off topic." snapped Ilianna. Everyone jumped. She had of course been quite stealthy in her return... "What does she want?"

"And why is she... IMPREGNATING all of us...?" Li snapped. They all looked at her with expressions of surprise. She shook her head hard... "No. Not me. Just Mua. For now." she muttered sarcastically...

"She is the goddess of maternity." Alakazam began, but Noah waved his scallop a bit with his good arm... "Hey. No. She communed with us. She has a specific plan. She wanted to tell us that, if you had just been civil..."

"If your Ilianna hadn't woken up in months, would you be civil?"

Noah turned with a pout, then turned back with a wide grin. Ilianna grabbed his nose and shut his jaw before he pointed out that Mua was an Abra... 

"She won't respond... She isn't... THERE..." Li snarled, putting her head against Mua's. Her eyes were dewed up and she was trying not to cry... Every time she had gone to a guild, sometimes even like this, they had taken advantage... Demanded money or told her she had to work for their protection. She despised it. She was a Pokemon in need... So what if she didn't have anything to offer as a reward? Should that mean that no one helps her...?

And this was only enforcing those thoughts. Mua had finally been extracted and brought home. Despite the fact that the crystal told her not to remove Mua from the chamber... And a rescue team had done it. The only reason she had backed down in the first place was the fact that this Frogadier had gotten Mua to wake up, somehow... Well. That, and...

"Something about this doesn't make sense." the Alakazam muttered, stroking his mustache. He seemed to hold none of what had happened against the Bandit. One wondered if he hadn't known all along that the two were entwined... "Even being an avatar of fertility, I cannot see a reason she would need others to be pregnant. Is it simply her nature...? Bah. If anything we should bring her crystal to the surface, and find a way to free her. If she is indeed trapped, as I think we all assume she must be..."

"Doing that would be difficult. There are Rock and Fire types aplenty." Li grumbled, and looked around in a conspiratorial way... "I also know that the mine was rigged to blow. From an old plan to stop the mystery dungeon. I found the detonators..."

"So... We could seal the entrance?" Noah asked. The bandit shook her head... "No. The reason they didn't go through with it is because it would have collapsed underwater caves and disrupted the balance of things enough to turn this whole town into a forgotten relic on the bottom of a nice new lake."

The room was stifled by that, and there was a prolonged moment of silence... 

"The question is the same as when it began." Ilianna grumpily muttered. She crouched down and Noah put his paw atop her head, petting her a bit to calm her hormones... "What do we do about the mystery dungeon?"

Again, silence... and then... Mua's hand curled a bit... and she breathed out a soft sigh...

They all clustered around Li, whose fur stood up, but she thankfully was more focused on Mua than the encroachment on her personal space. The Abra flexed her claw a few more times... And then relaxed back to a peaceful sleep. Noah and Ilianna slumped in defeat, until they realized that the Alakazam and Li were both still tightly focused...

"...Hi dad... Li..."

There were a few more tears to be shed that day. Mua was still asleep, but she was present. Whatever had clouded her mind seemed to be gone... Or at the least, repelled for the moment...

Noah stood in the trees, swiping with his scallop. After a bit, he took his arm out of the sling and flexed it. His face was a bit red as he did so, both from pain and...

He flashed back to that moment... The brutal fight that was, at this point, a week or more ago. For a time everything had stalled since Mua had woken up. The Alakazam traveled with her immediately to a nearby city. It would take time to do so... And everyone else stayed behind, in case someone else was kidnapped...

Li was not happy about it. She only just got her girlfriend back, and yet she was forced to separate again. Forced to guard a town who had hated her. She was not in a particularly cooperative mood and often was gone for the whole day.

Yet Noah remained in that moment. Her thighs straddling him. Yeah, her sleeve was about to come down and burst him like an overeager Drifloon, but...

He put his knees together... Paw sliding along the scallop until it got to the sharp part...

"HA!"

He jumped, but turned and
 looked. There was a loud creaking and a sharp thump, followed by another cry. Noah pushed through some of the undergrowth and peered out with an expression of confusion... In a nearby clearing, Li was also training to get some of her own frustrations out. When she wasn't holding back, it was apparent she was just as strong as the Dewott... Probably more. He rubbed his head to massage his bruised ego, but then just watched as she swung her sleeves and sliced through trees like they were soft sand...

Finally he stepped out into the clearing. She swung, but didn't hit him... Just surprised...

"What???" she snapped, baring her triangular, sharkish maw in a furious expression...

"I only heard someone crying out. I wasn't sure..."

"Ever the hero..." she grunted, and then swung and cut down another tree... It slid and then fell over with a thump... "I can take care of myself..."
[12:55 PM]
"If we're in the same boat... We should be closer, you know. This definitely doesn't work unless you trust us..."

"Yeah, yeah. And Mua trusts you. But you know? I don't." she swung and smashed a tree to splinters. Noah had to lift his scallop to deflect a few chunks of wood from coming at his face...

"I know you don't. What happened that made you so distrustful of us Dungeoneers?"

"Explorers like you have always been in it for one thing..."

Noah smirked and put his scallop back on his fur, before his hands went to his hips... "Yeah? Well do you see us out here vying for money? Power?" 

"Just adoration." she said, as she turned and punched one of the fallen trees enough to splinter it. He turned his head away and then frowed up at her. For a moment, he didn't say anything... Then he lifted his chin defiantly to her...

"So?"

She turned back to glare at him furiously...

"What do you mean SO!?"

"What's wrong with adoration? It's good to feel like you helped someone..."

"You don't think it would cloud your thought process?"

"You don't think someone could genuinely be out here to help other Pokemon?"

"NO!" she snapped, whirling around and coming muzzle to muzzle with him. Noah didn't back down...

"Not even Mua?"

Li flinched and deflated hard. She ground her fangs together and tried to work her way out of the logic. This foolhardy otter seemed to have hemmed her in; he of course wasn't Mua... but he had saved her. At personal expense. He still clutched the bandage in his free paw after all... And this town had little or nothing to pay them with but room and board... For someone who was trying to make a nest, like he and his mate, she could only envision someone being even more desperate to gather resources...

After a night together unexpectedly left Mua with child, she knew that feeling starkly well...

Before she could give a rebuttal, the treeline rustled. She spun and backed up to be side by side with Noah. The two posed...

"WAAH!" 

Flump. The explorers braced themselves... then relaxed and looked down at the flailing Jumpluff, who floated up slowly as if they had bounced off the ground weightlessly. Upside down, they stared at the two Pokemon, both of whom had a scarf by now that designated them as Explorers...

"PLEASE HELP!"

===

Not so long later, at the Jumpluff's insistence, they had run straight back to the Dungeon in the middle of the night. Now, halfway through and with the caves bright thanks to the Grass type's Flash, they were approaching the Dungeon again...

"...and they came and grabbed them and now I think they're at the bottom and I had weird dreams before but they told me they were cute when I slept and..."

Noah stalked forward, his face downturned into a sour expression. He had wanted to return to the town proper and retrieve Ilianna, but the Jumpluff had been so panicked that he and Li felt compelled to sprint after the poor little thing. Now they were slightly exhausted and about to take on a Dungeon without his mate.

And for a GRASS type. He grumbled under his breath...

Li was far less opposed to their 'client's' type. Given she was in love with a Psychic type, she likely wasn't picky in general. But she was deathly annoyed with the babbling the Jumpluff was giving. Finally, as they approached the entrance, she grabbed the Jumpluff and slammed them against the wall hard enough to form cracks. Surprisingly, they seemed entirely undeterred, and more nervous about making sure their puffs were in the right place...

"LOOK!" she snarled... "You've been 'telling us what the problem is' for the last TWO HOURS... So start here... What is your name...?"

"...Oh! Oh, that, well the thing about that is that my name is actually..."

THUMP!

That was the scallop embedding it into the wall next to the Grass type's head. Noah fumed silently behind, arms crossed...

"Sayl!" they finally squeaked...

"And why are we here, Sayl... In ONE sentence..." Li huffed, yanking the scallop out of the wall and tossing it behind her shoulder for Noah to catch...

It took the Jumpluff an embarrassingly long time to formulate JUST one sentence... But when they finally did; "Because my friend got too close to the dungeon and the monsters took them and now they might be hurt or something else and please you are strong you save them pleeeeeeeeeeeease!"

The plant was dropped into the dirt. They flumped on their face and stayed there while Li rubbed her head... "And now I'm going to have a headache, and Mua isn't even here." she mumbled, turning towards the entrance to the Dungeon. She seemed almost casual about it, and had obviously lived  amongst the mines by dodging Fire types, dominating Rock types and, when push came to shove, just being better than them. No wonder she was so strong... Noah looked her up and down... pausing... He found himself staring at her shapely backside... A Fighting type with a sleek, hourglass form. He once again found himself in that moment, with those thighs straddled around him...

Then he glanced up at caught her staring back.

Her face went red and she jerked her gaze back forward, and then went down into the Dungeon without another word. Noah gasped and ran after her. 

After a moment of dead silence, Sayl lifted their face, blinked, and floated quickly after them...

"You were staring...!" Noah said, sounding more incredulous than anything. His head jerked aside as a rock flung and shattered on the opposite wall, then he returned with an aqua jet that turned the offending golem to mud...

"I. Was. Not. STARING. I was... ELSEWHERE! Drifting into my own thoughts! Not staring at anything in particular!"

She said each line as she swiped away another Roggenrola, finally finishing by shattering the Gigalith that was harbouring them. Sayl rushed back and forth between them, depending on who seemed the less dangerous at the moment to be around...

"You were staring, and you CAUGHT ME staring, and you aren't calling me out on it!" Noah pointed out, leaping up suddenly to grab Sayl and pull them against his body, ducking and rolling as an Onix brought their immense tail down to crush them... He stood up, panting, seeming to realize who he was hugging so tightly, and flinging them aside quickly, shuddering and brushing out his fur quickly with his paws...

"You are a pervert! And you have a mate!" shouted Li, who stomped over to him, suddenly disappearing with a quick 'wsh!' and reappearing to counter attack, and shatter an offending Graveller, before returning to him... 

They once more locked eyes, as they had so many times in fury. But was it fury? Both of them felt the tension acutely. Noah heard his scallop strain for how hard he squeezed it. They turned away simultaniously...

"...I love Mua..." muttered Li... Her fur was a bit on end... "...But I follow Mew's teachings. I grew up in this town, after all. That salty old goat has been the closest we've ever had to a mayor..." she took a few steps, and then stretched hard to undo some kinks in her muscles from the fighting. Noah desperately tried not to focus on her obvious arousal, puffed between her thighs, and instead on the conversation itself... "You weren't surprised. About Mew. She called you here too?"

She nodded... "I've believed his story, since the first time he told it. I really do think this is Mew... And... You aren't the only one she's spoken to. You know that..."

Noah's fur was unnaturally wet by now. He of course sweated more than most Pokemon, given his type, but this was more a defensive mechanism... Making oneself as slippery as possible to get out of a potential bad situation. But it wasn't the mystery dungeon that was worrying him so... He hadn't begun sweating until she started talking...

"...She told me she had something important to tell me. And then she made me bring Mua down to her. She gave me a grand vision of a town full of..." she flinched, and turned back to him quickly, seeming to realized he could see her heat just as well as smell it...

"Do I really have to say at this point? She wants us to breed..." she turned again, just enough to break his gaze with a huff... "But you have a mate..."

"And?"

It was her turn to sweat. He had responded on instinct, not intending it to sound so dismissive. He hadn't really discussed this with Ilianna, in any depth, but he was pretty sure that their love of a heavy belly outstripped their worry that they would lose devotion to one another...

And if she was offering, after all... How could a strapping young male of breeding age reject her...

"I didn't offer anything!" she said, seemingly apropos of nothing. They stared in shock at one another as they realized how close their thought patterns were...

"You..." she began, but her fur puffed up just as much as his had become slick with water... The steamy moment held, fat droplets of water
 hitting the heated rocks below and evaporating with a sharp hiss...

He took a couple steps forward... He stammered a moment... And then weakly asked...

"Wait... Where's Sayl?" 

There was a screech from the depths of the cave. A whine, long, and overly drawn out 'noooooo'. They both knew instantly who it was, and without a word, darted towards the source...

"Rule 1! Rule 1! Never let your escort out of your sight! The FIRST rule of escorting! The FIRST ONE!" 

"A lot of good it did you, you horny fool! Staring at me like I'm..."

"Stop! You're not gonna walk it back now...! We were just about eye to eye there!"

"What are you insinuating!?"

"I'M SAYING IT WOULD BE REALLY FUCKING NICE IF I COULD KNOCK YOU UP!"

Noah and Li skidded to a halt after rounding a corner, staring stupidly. 

It hadn't been Noah who said that. It had been Sayl. The Grass type was floating above an incredibly embarrassed looking Furfrou, who looked up when the two Explorers entered...

The fluffy dog was quite a sight. Their pelt was slightly overgrown, but Sayl was already using a pair of produced grass blades to groom it. The dog stood slowly, and they blushed...

"Ah... Hello. You must be the ones sent to rescue me... I... I'm sorry, you're very much not needed. I actually came here of my own accord..."

"What?!"

Sayl suddenly floated down in front of them, so they could be face to face...

"Y-You stupid puppy, how the hell could you do that?! I told you it was dangerous!!!"

The hound sighed, rolled their eyes, and then kissed the Grass type lightly. Sayl immediately got a dreamy expression and began floating aimlessly again...

"I needed to come down here for a special ingredient. You see... I don't know if you know, but this particular Mystery Dungeon is special..."

Li looked at Noah exasperatedly. His expression was much the same...

"We know about Mew. Is that why you're here?"

"The crystals!" the furfrou said happily... "Did you not wonder what they could be used for? The stones..."

"The elemental stones in the mine above...?" Li asked, blinking. She had never even known the crystal that grew around Mew had any property beyond being pretty. And yet, the Furfrou turned and pulled one out of the pack that was slung on their side, and handed it to Noah...

Noah turned it over in his paws... It was about the size of an apple, but he realized the facets were perfect... And it didn't look artificial either...

"Many of the larger crystals have one of these inside...! And these are wonderful little things... Shall I demonstrate?" 

Before either could say anything, another crystal was withdrawn and the Furfrou placed it down, and stepped on it. Breaking it released a rainbow energy that enveloped the Normal type in a bright glow...

The Furfrou lept up and posed. Sayl sprang into action. As the Furfrou flung one arm out, the Jumpluff quickly groomed it. The other paw got the same. Then they posed again, and their back legs. Their torso. Their head...

With their fancy new haircut, they landed down and posed. The crystals on the cave wall around them gleamed brightly. Sayl threw their pom poms about as if cheering.

Li stepped forward with a stomp that cracked the crystal, posing herself. She had her trademark grin on, despite exuding an aura of fury. The attack stat of the other two Pokemon dropped immediately.

"We came down here... AGAIN... In the middle of the night... For you to... To...!!!"

"D-Don't be hasty!"

The Furfrou said... and the voice gave Li pause. The canine smiled meekly... And then turned softly around to show that, besides the flair, the crystal had changed her indeed, given she used to be a...

Noah gasped and looked down at the item in his paw... "What in..."

"It allows the changing of sex~" the higher pitched voice on the Furfrou came more peppily as she pranced about in her fancier 'garb'... "I call it Mew's Gift. Sayl calls them Swapstones. I don't care~ They allow one to experience the joys of motherhood or fatherhood, no matter where you began!"

Sayl floated up slowly, until they were upside down beside the Furfrou's head...

"Where you began?"

"...I do not remember at this point. Nor do I care... All I know is that we're on the cusp of something big~! And there is something below, something related to Mew, that will allow us all such infinite pleasure! I decided that I wished to do it first as a female! Just as Mew did!"

"B-BUT I WANNA KNOCK YOU UP FIRST!" Sayl whined. All three of the other Pokemon snarled and shrunk the puff to a whimpery little dot.

"If no one is in danger, then we should leave." Li said, snapping the group back to reality...

"OR..." Noah said, as he stepped forward and blatantly looked the Furfrou up and down. She looked self conscious and lifted her paw defensively as he sauntered up and... shoved the crystal back into her pack...

"You join us."

"You? And what are you doing here?"

Noah took a moment to explain what had gone on, before he put his hands on his hips...

"You were right. We're all on the cusp of something big. And whether this town survives it or not depends on if it has a solid Team to defend it. And you got down here on your own. By the looks of it, you do it all the time..."

"Well, I don't mean to brag, but yes... I informed Sayl I was going down here, as I always did. They panicked, given the recent hullaballo with the daughter of that Psychic gentlemon."

In the background, Li grit her fangs and turned to glare sharply at Sayl, who shrank even further and tried to look as innocent as possible...

"So join us at the town. We can revitalize it, and push away all these roving bands of bandits who terrorize everyone..."

Li snapped her gaze back to him, only to find he was staring at her with a smirk...

"I'm talking about the other Teams that harass these people for payments, when you have so little as it is. That isn't right. And if I'm honest, I don't consider them to be Guild members anyway..." she pointed his paw in the air. Everyone awkwardly followed it before realizing he was just being dramatic and looking back at him...

"Furthermore... If this is where Mew makes her home... Then we will be blessed with fertility. By now, I'm sure you can see that she has such big plans for us... BIG." he emphasized, thumping his paws on his middle. All three of the other Pokemon flushed with excitement...

"And if you're right..." he gestured to the Furfrou... "Then it means that 'infinite pleasure'... Will be way closer than you think..." 

"SO." he said, looking at each of them pointedly... "I'm offering you a job... I might as well be founding a town. And I need strong mons for it... And more importantly... Those who have... 'seen the light'." 

He again set his paws on his middle, and made their faces redden further. Noah stood a bit straighter, scenting all three of them... Then Li jerked her gaze away. She looked back to find Noah had moved to stand directly in front of her...

"You don't have to accept. If you don't like it, you can just go back to Mua. Be happy." he held out his paw... "But if you say yes... I would be honoured. And I'm not just saying that because you beat me up..."

She couldn't help but grin at that, arms crossed over her chest until she unfolded them and gripped his paw in her's firmly...

"You're a male of 'stature'. I am confident that I will get a load of worth. Whether the hard way, or the long way."

Noah's expression briefly became stark as she twisted his flirting around, and then he chuckled nervously... then genuinely. He stepped back and put his paws firmly on his hips in his wide, proud stance. The Furfrou trotted forward and bowed...

"Farri, at your service, sir!"

Then she backed up, but returned the favour he had given earlier by blatantly checking him out. By now his sheathe was bulging firmly and his breathing was a little hard. He wasn't going to deny how much all of this excited him, to say nothing of how eager he had been before...

"Then it's agreed...! The founding of a new Team..." He threw his arm up again, his eyes shining with excitement...

"And it's name will be... Team...!" 

They stared at him expectantly for a long held moment before he slumped a bit and frowned, scratching his head...

"Well. Shoot. That will have to come later. I can't just name it something without Ilianna here..."

They all looked at one another, then back at him. He returned to his confident pose... "But a nameless Team is just a Team without its first quest! So let's make a name for ourselves...!"

It was enough. They were rallied, enough that even Sayl floated forward and joined excitedly. Noah would later say that he was in one of his hotheaded moments when he said yes. Li claims the hotheadedness made him say NO... until Sayl begged for 10 minutes straight.

Either way, by that time, they had come to a plan. They made their way down the last few floors, back to where the final, crystalline chamber was. Li noted it was eerile quiet, and Farri said that she never traveled so far down... Even Sayl was spooked silent by the vast, empty floors they encountered...

Something, clearly, was wrong...

"We take the crystal, we go as fast as we can home. We're probably going to be chased... But we need to all be here if we wanna get this thing out..." Noah directed. Li couldn't help but admire the fact that, as hotheaded as he indeed could be, he had a knack for leadership. She hoped that it was worthwhile when it wasn't tempered by the ninja focus of his mate...

They gathered around the crystal. As soon as they chipped the surrounding floor away with strikes, and began to lift, they realized that it was actually an ovoid... And far bigger than they expected it to be.

"WUFF!!!" grunted Farri, as they set the massive thing down a few meters from the gaping crater of dirt it had left... It was taller than even Li, and weighed seemingly as much as a Steelix...

"Damn... There's no way we could get that out of here alone... We'd be too vulnerable..." Li hissed... 

It was an impasse. They stood in the ominous crystal chamber, sounds reverberating all about. Farri took the time to gather more Swapstones, as the chamber was a veritable endless well of them...

"If what we all believe is true, this must be the impact site itself... Can you believe it? Decades ago, she fell right here..."

"She IS right here..." Noah snapped back to Farri, thumping his paw against the smooth crystal egg that they had barely managed to carry the length of a room, much less...

"Then why doesn't it feel like..." Li began... Noah glanced at her, confused. She looked back... then breathed out... "Like we can get her to where she needs to be?"

Before Noah could form an answer, the chamber suddenly rumbled beneath their feet. Sayl ducked quickly behind Farri, who backed away from the naked crater... As a gleaming stone slowly rose up...

"What is it... Another crystal?!"

"No... it's amber... There's a FOSSIL inside...!"

The amber shattered, and revealed the bones. They swirled slowly, gaining layer after layer of latent plant matter and dust... Growing bigger... And bigger...

THUD...

An immense Cradily sat there in the middle of the room. Its head swaying and its tendrils writhing, it lifted its head and gave a low rumbling roar that reverberated off of the walls into a distorted cacophany... 

As if the bell had finally crashed through the church roof...

"Why is she still defending herself?!" Li snarled. Farri hopped back and skidded to a stop next to her, prancing a bit in excitement and fear... "I don't... know... I don't think she knows! But I'm sure that very large Fossil will treat this egg as if it were her own!!!" 

Then it was a fight.

The three Pokemon braced themselves, but it didn't take Noah's experience to know they were out-typed, tired, and facing something far out of their league. But none of them wanted to admit defeat... Nor were they even sure they could retreat safely...

Li leapt forward and swung, but her sleeve was instantly tangled in a vine that extended downwards in a flash. Noah moved in to help, but the sharp sprays of water, usually enough to cut stone, couldn't content with the grassy material underneath. And Farri was not at all used to direct battle like this.  Still, she clamped down and managed to free Li from the vine, spitting out the taste and wincing as the telltale signs of poison set in. She was saved only by Noah's habit of always keeping a few Peacha on him for Illy's morning sickness...

"Oh this is hopeless...!" Sayl floated around the egg, darting like a fly as they watched the others attempt to actually beat the thing.

They gasped as a tendril darted for them, and without thinking they swiped to knock it back. The Cradily jerked their head in pain, and then focused firmly on the puff who had dared to nip their finger. They swung a tendril to swipe Sayl out of the air...

"NO!" Farri shrieked, turning her attention away at the wrong moment, she was tossed into a wall by an errant flung stone. The dominos toppled. Li made a move to help, but was further tangled in vines, leaving Noah to fend off the others that threatened to pull him down into the Dungeon forever. He took long steps back as the vines twisted towards him, every slice being regenerated in moments... He was running out of options, and soon his back was against the egg. Sayl was finally snagged and reeled in, seemingly being pulled straight through the plant and into the monster itself...

"NO!" Noah gasped, realizing the others were gone too... "NO!!!" 

But no matter how he struggled... He drew nearer... Until he was pressed against the loam, and everything went dark... 

Noah's eyes snapped open. He stood up slowly and looked around.

He was in an endless grassy field. The deep, starry night sky above was broken by the blood red dawn on the horizon...

He stared in its direction before the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. He spun with a gasp...

She floated there... Arms softly spread... Her body was marked with the worship runes of old, and her expression was tranquil... 

Her middle was swelled in maternity...

"You did this to me last time, Noah. Do you remember?"

It took a moment for him to close his jaw and find himself, before slumping and then looking up at her pitifully...

"Am I dead?"

She laughed and floated down to put her paws on his cheeks... "No, silly... And you aren't exactly brainwashed either... But I did bring you over to my side... Didn't I...?"

He melted into her paws and nodded. She lifted him to a stand, and then floated beside him as they walked...

"I've brought you here for a reason. But you've already worked it out. The beautiful little town I defended so long ago is dying... Picked apart by mandibuzz, same as how they picked apart this beautiful cave that I created when I fell..." she floated suddenly in front of him, though he kept walking and she kept pace... 

"And I will not stand for it anymore. I called out to powerful champions to bring me from this place and into the sunlight so I may grow in strength, and hatch from the shell I have placed myself in to recover..."

Noah took a few steps moer and then stopped. He stared at her midsection. He could somehow scent it was his...

"What part of that involves getting us to breed with one another?"

Mew laughed again. Carefree and playful, just as she always had been. Apparently the night she had been reminded of her responsibility meant little in the grand scheme of things, and she had returned to her idle ways... 

"It should help me recover... But honestly, what better a reward could I give, but to let you all experience the joys of creating life... And if this is truly to be MY town, as you have been inspired to make it, then I would want to grant my champions as much of that joy as I may well give." she said, poking his chest firmly a few times to emphasize. He rubbed the spot and smirked...

"So you started with you?"

"I started with Ilianna~ Though I suppose she was always destined for it anyway..." she turned, her tail flicking gently as she floated forward, blatant about her exposure... Carefree indeed... 

Noah followed her to a small patch of tall grass. They ruffled through it, and eventually encountered Li, who was breathing hard. She was sat on the ground, legs spread, her sleeves draped over her knees and her eyes half closed... Tongue lolled from her mouth...

"This one was not sure if she wanted to carry. Mua looked so good with a full tummy, how could she take the spotlight...?" she trailed her catty claws along Li's shoulder and face. Being the strongest Psychic type in existence meant that Li was putty in her paws...

"In truth she wanted it more than anything. I could feel it. And now, she has been put into heat... No more running, Noah... Time to look her in the eye..."

And with that, she flitted off... Doubtless to go 'inaugurate' Farri and Sayl into her growing city. It left Noah stood there, in front of Li, who made no effort to move or hide herself...

"...Is... is that true... Li...? Would... You want a litter from me...?"

Li thumped her head back on the ground... She draped a sleeve on her eyes. She panted a few more moments before groaning, and muttering...

"Yeah. I thought you were cute since the moment I spotted you... Sitting there by the fire... Staring at your wife's pregnancy... You don't know how jealous I..." 

She had no time for more than that. Noah jerked forward and kissed her deeply, paws on her knees, and pressed his hips against her own… His sheathe needed no more encouragement. His rod stood straight and flared instantly, and rubbed slick trails in her fur as he slowly thrust, then pulled away... Attempting to push inside...

"We are all... Going to be so swollen... U-Us girls, and... Anyone now... With those crystals, we..."

"Mmhm... But something tells me you're gonna keep... Coming... Back for me..."

She lifted her head, stunned, as he grinned and finally slid his member home. She arched and her claws dug into the dirt below her... She moaned loudly, and seemingly didn't care if one of the others in this strange between world heard her...

He finished bottoming out in her... Slowly shoving forward until he felt his tip shoved against that sacred inner chamber... He held her thighs tightly, shuddering at the texture of her puss... Soft like her fur, but when she squeezed... Iron, like her muscles...

He pulled back, and thrust in. She gave an utterly feminine squeak, and she would give more as he continued to thrust into her again and again, until he leaned forward to lock lips. She left deep tracts in the ground, grass flinging as she jerked one paw up and gripped him about his back, forcing him even deeper. He arched and hissed excitedly, pinning her down at the shoulders now...

A pair of feral creatures rutting in some field. It excited him greatly to think next of finding a nesting spot... Watching her strain with his children... Making more...

He pinned her more firmly and locked his hips. He groaned and then leaned down to whisper to her in heated breaths...

"This... Is the first... The next... Few... I'm going to make... So much bigger!"

He stiffened as he felt a paw graze his inner thigh... and go a bit higher. He stiffened harder when he realized it wasn't Li...

"Why wait..." Mew whispered... The two mating Pokemon gasped... Li felt warmth... 

She rolled heavily on the ground and then came to a stop, moments before she would have fallen into a leaking puddle of fiery rock... She gasped and hefted herself... But then stumbled and groaned, putting her hand on her middle...

It wasn't quite full term... She could tell... By now she understood that her and the others 'touched' by Mew had a sixth sense when it came to pregnancies... She was...

She swallowed...

She looked just below full term. She was not even halfway into her first trimester...

"NOAH!" she snarled, turning angrily... And then realized where she was...

Back in the crystal chamber. Cracks had appeared on the walls as the Cradily flailed and slammed its head against the distant ceiling. She had to dodge a sharp stalagmite, moments before it jabbed into the crystal and caused another spurt of magma. She gasped and backed away quickly. She looked sick... Not just because of her midsection, but because she recalled cracking the crystal when she had fought Noah. She was imagining what might have happened if she had finished the Focus Strike...

"Mua..." she mumbled in the moment... "I owe you my life..."

"I know."

She spun to look, her eyes wide. She spotted Noah, herding Farri and Sayl quickly to safety. He looked just as dazed as her, however, and the voice was not his... She turned her head back and realized that vines were sluggishly attempting to grab her again. She jumped back and landed next to...

Muanil.

She floated there in a meditative pose, one hand on her middle, and the other extended out. She was concentrating her psychic energy on grabbing at the extending vines. The Cradily struggled, but as soon as Mua caught hold of one to keep it still, there was another flash and...

Ilianna landed and skidded on the crystal. A mass of vines sloughed in half and splattered on the crystal. She leapt again, faster than the eye could see... Swish, slash! Whoosh!

The beast was angry enough to wrench up its suction cups. It slammed them down again in frustration and roared, the crystal chamber webbing with further cracks. Li wobbled and fell to one knee but she felt a paw on her shoulder...

She looked up as Noah helped her to a stand...

"Sit this one out..." and then he gave her a gentle kiss... "Not in your condition after all..."

She gave him a testy look... But then it spread into her mischievous grin...

"Not a chance... You think an organization like ours can afford to give their warriors maternity leave? We'd never get anything done..."

Noah blinked, but she pushed him aside, stepped forward, and posed. Her body crackled with fighting energy, and if it was possible it seemed even more vibrant and powerful than before. Notably, it originated at her belly...

'Do you think I'd let my warriors be so frail?'

He looked around, hearing the distant voice he by now recognized. He focused on the egg... Though the voice didn't come from it...

'Do not be such a fool, Noah... I have sent you on this quest, have I not? Do not fear... No one will come to any harm. Least of all a mother under my watch...'

Noah stared at the silent egg, his frown deepening in worry until... 

Ilianna skidded to a stop beside him. She pulled herself up and slid her hood down. Steam curled off of her body, and drops of sweat left trails in the dew all along her midsection...

'After all... She has been fighting all along.' 

"Of course..." Noah said, taking a couple steps towards her. He grinned and spread his arms... And she slapped him...

"Oof..." he rubbed his cheek. She sighed and shook her head, but couldn't help but embrace him with a wry grin of her own...

"You're lucky you didn't find a jealous mate..."

He hugged her back, but couldn't resist squeezing her backside...

"Not jealous. Just greedy. I'll make sure  out of everyone in our village... You have the biggest belly..."

Ilianna smirked... But then Mua suddenly floated down between them...

"Happy vibes later! The dungeon boss is going to tear this place apart...! We need to go!"

"Wait!" Li snapped... "If we go, he'll destroy this chamber. There's magma all about us!"

"Molten rock from Mew's impact, or a lava floe, or something... Perhaps it was deliberate. Like this place is a nest?" Farri asked, wagging her tail a bit...

"Why would we care?" Noah cut in, before they got off topic...

"The explosives! Did you not hear me when I said if they go off, the town will be flooded by underground springs! Wiped off the map!"

They all stiffened, and then glanced at one of the cracks, oozing firey material... A match held against a fuse...

"So what do we do!?"

Ilianna put her hood back up and crouched...

"We break it first."

And then she leapt away. Noah looked confusedly at Li, who wasted little time and leapt forward as well, coming down hard and smashing a thick crack on the ground to make it wider...

Noah was still unsure of the plan, his mind still refocusing. As soon as the crack was wide enough, magma drooled from it and touched one of the Cradily's suckerpads. It yanked it back with a low groan...

Noah's eyes lit up and he rushed into the fray, loyal Farri right at his heels... 

The Team dodged around and under the swiping tendrils of the increasingly furious fossil, forcing it to aim its attacks at the degrading floor it was firmly attached to.

Still, it soon became apparent as cracks spiderwebbed out that they couldn't control it like they thought they could. The flailing of the monster was enough to smash holes in the walls, and those would fill up this chamber slowly with molten death. That would end them far before the Cradily, who would continue to flail and smash the crystal until it all gave way...

The halls of the dungeon above would flood with magma... More floes would burst... The heat would slowly climb to one of the spots where an explosive was placed, on a particular support beam...

The aged powder would catch, and...

"We can't let that happen!" Farri suddenly snarled, as she leapt up and onto the vines. With surprising agility, she hopped from vine to vine, and when she was about to fall, Sayl gripped her and waggled their pom poms has hard as they could to get her just enough height to land on the Cradily's head...

"Farri... NO!" Noah said, but he couldn't get anywhere near the vines. Instead, Ilianna's powerful legs had her land near the two...

Despite her disadvantage, she stood to fend off more of the encroaching tendrils as Farri rushed forward, though to what none of them could see...

"You... Can't... Run away! If you are part of this Team... You must know when to fight...!"

"I am a part of this Team...!" Farri said proudly, turning around and skidded to a stop... "And I know now isn't the time to fight... It's the time to run...!"

Ilianna stopped and stared in confusion. The canine Pokemon crouched and gathered her power. She crackled with energy. Sayl clung to her back, refusing to leave even now...

"Giga... IMPACT!" she cried... and then leapt upwards... Aiming it... Up... instead of down...

"You..." Ilianna began to snarl in frustration, until she saw…

The ceiling of the cave was struck with incredible force. A rumble shook through them, and for a moment, even the Cradily went still in confusion...

And then a stalactite fell... And then... Another...

The sharp crackling above heralded what was to come... And the Cradily was anchored below it...

Ilianna dashed forward and landed on a specific spot. She put her hand on her middle and closed her eyes, listening, letting the world go silent around her as she focused... Not even the roaring Cradily below could rustle her...

She suddenly snapped her eyes open and leapt... And caught Farri as she fell back down...

Sayl under one arm. Farri under the other, she hit the ground and dashed towards the entrance. Noah only knew she was there because he recognized the blur from barely seeing it so many times. He turned and began to run, not even needing to give orders. Li and Mua ran too, Mua holding her hand out to pick up the egg and carry it behind them effortlessly...

The Cradily roared and rampaged, ironically beating its head angrily against the ground now and hastening the inevitable. The sharpened spires of its doom rained down and pierced its artificial body, and the crystal below. Not long after everyone had fled back up to the next floor... The cave sagged heavily... Suddenly unable to shoulder the weight of the giant Pokemon...

And then it gave way entirely...

The Team stood there at the stairs, one floor up, listening to the aftermath. Everyone was panting. Ilianna literally splayed out on the ground, Farri nearly fainted, and everyone else bruised and scratched...

"We did it..."

Mua's soft smile came as a beacon in the gloom of the mystery dungeon. She sat atop the egg again, both paws on her middle. Li pushed herself up and moved over to hug her firmly, before looking down at their squished together bellies...

"Oh... Uh..."

"No. No need to explain..." Mua chuckled... "That's why we are here." she patted the egg below, and everyone stood, beaming... 

Noah suddenly swept Ilianna up. The amphibian was still defensive and prepared for the worst, but his embrace was enough to make her relax and sigh a few small bubbles, which popped into their own soft little sighs...

"Come on then!" He began to walk back towards the next set of stairs, as if they hadn't just fought a gigantic Pokemon and barely won... "We've got a lot to do, and at least a couple months to do it all!"

The pregnant ones in the group groaned hard, but Mua lifted the egg and followed with a smile... and so did everyone else.

They had done it... They had recovered Mew. They had founded their Team...

Elsewhere in the mines... A crack on the wall suddenly split from pressure...
 A sputtering of magma landed near a box marked with an explosive symbol...