Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Recovering Memories

Chapter 18: Battle of the Foxes

Pojoin Town, the next morning

In front of a mirror in their bedroom stood a quaxly, carefully grooming his head crest, a large cup of ice water nearby to keep himself hydrated. He always likes to make sure that he looks his best when he wakes up in the morning, after all, and drinking lots of water allows his crest to remain shiny and smooth. As he did this, and as Sofia, Felipe and Mike slept, Team Seekers was on the opposite side of the room, preparing for their mission today.

"Okay, I think we have everything," Ryan said, lying in his bed as he looked through his bag. "Reviver seeds are a must for this battle, especially now that I can be hit by zoroark's shadow ball." He rested a forepaw on his box of seeds. "These bad boys too. Strategic use of them could slow her and her son down. I wonder if we could find leichi or petaya berries anywhere, because those could be helpful, too..." His teammates nodded in agreement, as he pretty much covered anything they would have to say on the matter.

"I think you're overthinking this," Quincy said, not looking away from the mirror. "You'll be fine. It's not like you're going against her by yourself. There's four of you and only two of them. One of you even has the upper hand in terms of typing!"

"Hey!" the glaceon retorted. "You can never be too prepared, okay?"

Quincy sighed before taking a long sip of water. Just then, Ingrid opened the door unannounced, causing a startled quaxly to spit the sip all over the mirror while Ryan leapt with a start out of his bed. He landed on his feet with his back arched, tail and ears raised high, and a wide-eyed look on his face. Terry tried to pat his side to calm him, but found that his fur was sharp and cold to the touch and pulled it back reflexively, wincing.

"Oh, sorry for startling you," Ingrid said. "I just... heard it was your birthday today."

"Lemme guess," Ryan said, shaking the ice crystals out of his fur, "Erin told you?"

The ninetales nodded before she prepared to pull something out of her bag. "I figured that since it was your birthday today, I'd get you a gift." She carefully dropped a light blue disc-like device onto the floor in front of Ryan. "It's a Technical Machine for ice beam, one of the most powerful ice attacks."

"Oh, you shouldn't have," Ryan said politely.

"I'm glad you like-"

"No, you really didn't need to," the glaceon insisted, picking up the TM. "Seriously, where did you even get this? I don't think I've even seen any in my entire time in this world."

Ingrid raised a quizzical eyebrow at the last remark. "Come again?"

Ryan waved a forepaw dismissively, trying to steer the topic elsewhere upon realizing what he just said. "Never mind. Thanks for the gift, I do really appreciate it." He turned it over. "I don't see any instructions though. Maybe if I..." He touched the device to the crystals on his forehead, expecting to gain the knowledge of using a new move. Unfortunately for him, nothing happened, other than him feeling incredibly stupid in this moment.

"Tch, why did I think that would work?" He facepawed before looking over the TM again. This time, on the back he spotted instructions, but they were only in footprint runes, which he couldn't read. That explains why I missed them in the first place, I've pretty much stopped noticing them, he thought.

"Can someone read this for me?" he asked sheepishly. "I, uh... can't read footprint runes..."

"Hmm..." Ingrid hummed aloud as if she were pondering something. "Certainly. It says, 'When touched to the head, a TM's information is absorbed by the user's mind, provided that the move stored on the TM is one that their species is capable of learning. However, in order to use it, one must first press the button on the front, which is labeled with the name of the move.'"