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Celsus and Imiti continued to look for Pokemon that might know Manaphy or a Phione. They found a Mantine and a Whiscash. Neither of them really knew anything.
(Mantine, Whiscash, and I'm really lazy right now)

The Luvdisc fluttered around in the water from the disturbed water currents caused by the swimming Glaceon. The Luvdisc stared at him for a moment, surprised to see a normally land-dwelling creature here under the surface.

"Ah...um...Manaphy? Ah! I don't know a Manaphy, but a friend of mine probably does! He's a Phione!" And with that the Luvdisc suddenly zoomed off into the water and the distance, seemingly unaware of the fact the Glaceon couldn't nearly swim that fast.

((Cysic gets to take a Luvdisc Recruit or a Luvdisc TM [TM of any Move Luvdisc learns through level-up] ))

---

Several minutes later, just as everyone was starting to regroup and report their findings, something zoomed through the water and skidded to a stop in the middle of the group.



"I heard someone was looking for me?" It asked cheerfully, looking around at them. Pluto spun around to face it. It definitely looked like the pictures from the books...yes, it was a Phione!

"Yes. We are in need of Manaphy, and if you know where it is, we would appreciate if-" Pluto started, but was cut off as the Phione started to giggle.

"Oh yay! You're looking for Manaphy? I'll gladly lead you there, but only..." It leaned forward and tapped Pluto on the nose, causing the Buneary to take a cautious step back. "-if you tag me!"

And with that it turned and sped into the water, diving down into the colourful coral.

Sara shuddered as she looked around at the water all about her. Verity turned to her, looking concerned. “What is it, Sara?” Sara blinked at her, and slowly said, “W-waaaaa-ter.”

“Oh, you don't like the water?” asked Verity. Sara nodded solemnly. “Okay. We'll be out soon. Don't worry. And the faster we find Phione, the sooner we get out.” Sara nodded again as they entered the coral, walls of it rising up on either side. Yuki shivered.

“Yeesh. Kind of frightening. And remind me why, again, we are walking instead of swimming above the coral, which would be much easier?”

“Because you'll get tired easily,” Verity reminded her. “And we're not leaving you. No, we're saving the swimming for getting out of here.”

Yuki sighed. “Okay.”

They moved through the colorful coral, glancing around at all the colors and shapes. The coral was tall, and Verity noticed that there seemed to be no pinks, and very few reds. She reasoned that, because they were so far underwater, most of the reds were dimmed.

Sara cawed softly, glancing around and then staring at something, moving up to the coral. “What is it, Sara?” asked Verity, moving up behind Sara. Sara stepped aside and pointed to a bright pink scale that stood out, for there were few other pinks. “A scale...” Verity muttered quietly. “It could belong to a Gorebyss, maybe, or a Luvdisc? Well, lets keep going.”

Verity, being rather bored, stared up at the surface, watching the sunlight waver and shimmer through the water. It was rather pretty, but then she ran into a rock just as she lowered her head. “Ow...” she commented, rubbing her nose. Yuki shook her head with a grin. Then she, too, looked up, and ran into a rock in the same manner as Verity. She pouted as Verity giggled a little.

Yuki suddenly perked as she saw a female Gorebyss swim away from them in the path to their right in a crossroads they came across. “Excuse me, lady,” she called. The Gorebyss turned to look at them, seeming shocked to see land Pokemon underwater, and Yuki said, “Would you happen to know where a Phione hid in this coral?”

“Oh, Phione? Yes, it came zipping by me just a few minutes ago. Why do you want to know?”

“Well, Phione knows where to find Manaphy, and we need Manaphy if we are to fix this situation our guild is in... You see, lots of Pokemon have been Heart Swapped.”

“Oh, Heart Swap. Okay. Well, Phione went that way,” said the Gorebyss, flicking her tail to indicate the opposite direction than she'd been traveling.

“Okay. Thank you so much!” Yuki said. The Gorebyss nodded, and kept swimming along. Team Nikko spun around and bounded in the indicated direction. They were so eager to find Phione that they accidentally ran into a Luvdisc.

“Sorry,”they said quickly. “That's okay,” the Luvdisc said, amused by the sight of the normally above-water Pokemon trundling along with Air Beads upon their necks. It continued swimming as they ran past it.
The trio began to relax as they settled into being underwater. It was a game that Phione was playing, so they loosened up. They laughed as they ran through the coral. It was remarkably like a hedge maze. Other Pokemon grinned at them as they came rushing past.

“Is Phione here~?” asked Yuki, peering into a nook. “Nope~!” Verity laughed, and Sara smiled as they continued along.

“Hmm. Left or right?” asked Verity as they came to a split in the road. “I vote right~!” declared Yuki. “Right it is!” said Verity, and they headed off to the right.

They trotted along and finally, discovered Phione floating in a crossroads, evidently deciding which way to go.

“Aha!” Verity declared. “Found you!” “Yipes!” gasped Phione, then grinned. “You still have to tag me!” it exclaimed, swimming away. “Hey!” Yuki exclaimed, and the group began running after her. Phione laughed as it swam, and Team Nikko laughed as well.

Phione stopped at a dead end and turned to look at the rapidly approaching trio. “Oh no,” it declared, laughing. It began to swim upwards, and Sara launched herself straight for it, flapping and rotating her wings with skill to swim swiftly after Phione, tapping it with her beak. “Aww, you caught me,” laughed Phione.

“Yep, we did. Now, where's Manaphy?”

(blablabla first mission)


Imiti and Celsus looked at the hole in the reef where the Phione had disappeared for a second. “Why don’t you just teleport after it?”

“We don’t know our way through. Personally, I’d prefer we didn’t get lost or teleport inside a solid wall. Let’s just go after it.”

And so they did. Celsus, being a natural swimmer, easily dived into the reef. Imiti went for a less conventional but also less difficult mode of travel, namely to simply teleport right behind Celsus every time he was about to get out of sight. It worked well, Celsus leading the way in the water environment and Imiti watching his back. It was also quite a change of pace from before, since this time Celsus could actually control his own movement outside a limited, backpack-shaped area. They continued forward through the winding tunnels of coral lit by small sea creatures, not much interesting happening besides the occasional school of fish and an intersection or side passage or two.

After an hour or so, though, something actually happened. That something was a Sharpedo that was apparently very territorial, in a chamber within the coral. There was no exit besides the one they had gone in through; they had apparently taken a wrong turn. Upon seeing the Magikarp and then the Abra enter its room, the Sharpedo immediately attacked.

It lunged at Celsus, who attempted to dodge out of the way, and began to get its mouth around the smaller fish, who really couldn’t do anything but cringe in terror. At this point, Imiti also charged in, reaching for Celsus. There was a crackSNAP as Imiti and Celsus teleported out of the way, behind the much bigger fish, right before the Sharpedo’s mouth shut very hard.
At this point, Imiti and Celsus were behind the Sharpedo, and another teleport took them to the exit. A few teleports later and they had left the Sharpedo far behind.

“Well, uh, can we not run into another one of those? I like my spine intact, thank you very much.”

“I’ll try. Then again, can you think of a mission that -didn’t- involve danger of crippling injury for you? I mean, you’re an adventuring Magikarp.”

“Well—well—oh, shut up!”

And so they continued further down the reef tunnels. Soon, though, the tunnel system started to turn even more haphazard than before. They continued through the coral tunnels the same way as before, until finally they saw some sunlight.

Imiti and Celsus swam out of the coral reef tunnels to see a myriad of sea creatures awaiting them. The Phione wasn’t among them though. They were about to quit when Imiti spotted a spot of blue among some seaweed. One crack later, they were above that seaweed patch. Imiti calmly reached downward and separated the seaweed to reveal the Phione underneath.

“Well, I suppose I’ve been caught.”

“Yes, yes you have. Now, could you please tell us where Manaphy is?”

Verity grinned, happy to have sorted things out, and then pulled out her Exploration Badge from her Bag. She shone it on the other members of the team and herself, teleporting them all back to the guild.