Defcon 5

The door Kira had pulled him through led them both into a large room, where the door immediately swung shut behind them. It looked old, and- well, ruined, like the rest of the house. It was strange, there wasn't much around. What little furniture there was in this room appeared to be untouched, pristine, with nothing but a think layer of dust to speak of. Lincoln wasn't sure how to describe it, but... he felt a sense of calm wash over him in this room. Like there hadn't been conflict here in many, many years.

"Hey, Kira... Do you think this place is empty?" Lincoln asked as he slumped down, eager to take advantage of a rest if they could get one. He was sore from running through all these places so fast, and the added stress of trying to control powers he had absolutely no experience with wasn't helping in the slightest. He was just happy they had gotten out without facing any more trouble from those pokemon that had appeared at the end.

"This place is so weird, even for a mystery dungeon. Kind of makes you wonder what's at the end, huh...? If there is an end."

She...was a little surprised that worked so well. The lucario's heart raced, fully realizing that she and Lincoln were so close to having to fight-something that'd be an absolute pain with Lincoln. Fortunately, the chamber around them seemed almost...soothing. It was strange. Her shoulders relaxed as she took her paw off the door.

Theeen Lincoln started talking. Empty? Did this place look empty to him? Or did he mean this particular room? She was not sure, so she did not answer. This was further enforced by the fact that she did know the answer to the second question.

"A forest." She spoke up, "An entire, underground, forest." It was the reason why she wanted to come back here. It was so strange to see it, she just had to see it again. Although, with Lincoln around she questioned whether she should. The lucario glanced to the other briefly. Well, they were already this far in...might as well go further.

She turned and walked with the expectation that the Linc would follow.

A forest? Lincoln's interest was definitely piqued. A forest, down here? In this... weird house? He hauled himself back onto his feet, definitely following after that revalation. "A forest? really? In here?!" He sounded both incredulous and impressed. Kira must have really been a professional to know about things like this!! Especially such big secrets!! His tail even moved a bit unconsciously with the tone of his thoughts.

"That's so cool that you know that!" Lincoln replied. "How did you find out?, You're like, a professional explorer right? You must have so many cool stories!!" His mind drifted a little bit, imagining adventuring and being the big hero, getting to see as many places as Kira apparently had... he thought she had, anyways. He was beginning to realize he didn't actually know all that much about her... He wanted to ask more, but it also occurred to him that he had also just asked her a question. He could tell she didn't like to be overwhelmed very much, so he waited patiently before continuing on this train of thought.

Jeez this kid...well, guy was just so full of questions and enthusiasm. The headache in the back of her head only seemed to grow, it was too late, she was going to have to live with the headache for now. Why did this trip have to be more miserable than the last?

Speaking of the last, "I was just checking out the place out with a friend." she explained, "Then we got sucked deeper and ended up in the place...only to get kicked out soon after by an over-sized sawsbuck looking pokemon." she spoke as she moved along. The chamber seemed to go on forever, she didn't remember it being like this before, but the house was weird already, so she didn't quite question it.

She didn't really comment on having a whole lot of "cool" stories. The truth of the matter was she rarely ever got to go out period. It was too dangerous to go on her own and ever since Tally disappeared, she's been kind of on her own.

"Sawsbuck-like pokemon?" Lincoln remembered a lot of deer-type pokemon from back on his family's farm, but he wasn't sure he saw any pokemon strong enough to kick someone like Kira out of a dungeon. He couldn't imagine what a pokemon like that must look like! A shiver went down his spine. "I can't even imagine a pokemon that strong... that must have been a scary experience..." he mused quietly. If they were going deeper, did that mean he and Kira would be encountering that pokemon again?!? The realization shook him, but he was trying to at least appear unphased in front of Kira... wait. She could sense his emotions, couldn't she??!!

Lincoln immediately forced himself to chipper up, though this was becoming a tiring exercize.

"That pokemon could still be down here, huh... But how long ago was that? Maybe it's not here anymore...?" he pondered aloud. "When you first explored this place... wait, you were an explorer!! Were you on a guild team and everything?!?" he suddenly exclaimed, very interested once again.

"I am an explorer." She immediately corrected Lincoln with a tinge of venom to her tone, as if she found it insulting that he used past tense. The lucario huffed, the pain in the back of her head only grew stronger. She could feel that the Lucario was scared and...honestly, he probably should be. For all they knew, that thing could kill them. It...was fine though. She'd just make sure he could get away. Then it'd be fine, right?

She continued forward down the dark hall, certain that lincoln followed her along. "It wasn't too long ago, but I don't think it'd just up and leave. It's a guardian of the forest. Its job is to kick out outsiders. So, for as long as we're in there, we're probably going to be hunted."

Lincoln flinched. He really hoped he stopped saying things that made Kira mad eventually, but that seemed a lot harder than it first appeared. He hadn't really been sure if she was still an explorer or not- after all, this mansion was their first face-to-face meeting!! He was determined to not get down, though. Kira was a strong pokemon, right?! She definitely wouldn't want to see him pouting or crying like a baby. After all, she was still an explorer, presently, in her words. And maybe, just maybe... she could help him follow his dreams, too!! Lincoln would have liked that more than anything in the world.

"Sorry! I didn't want to make any assumptions... Since I just met you, and stuff," Lincoln replied sheepishly to Kira's earlier correction of his tense. "But, wow... If you've been an explorer through all that, you must be able to do anything!! I hope one day I can be as good as you!!" he exclaimed with a big smile on his face. "The guardian sounds scary... But it sounds like facing it is worth it to see the smazing things hidden under this house!"

"...If you don't mind... can I ask you what it was like when you evolved?" Lincoln continued after a moment of silence. "With all of these things happening at once, I'm a little intimidated... Will I ever be able to get control of myself? I left home before I could learn anything useful about what my evolution would do to me!"

Instant regret from the other lucario, in a way it satisfied her. He should regret it in her eyes. Still, he knew what he did was wrong. So, at least he might not do it again. The lucario huffed and moved along without a moment's hesitation. Then, Lincoln decided to go off about how he wanted to be as good as her...It was flattering really, a type of praise that she welcomed wholeheartedly. It softened her up a little.

"Yeah it's...pretty cool actually," she admitted in regards to the forest, "It's super huge and everything's so brightly lit up, it's like it's day outside. There's mushrooms on the ceiling that just glow and act like a sun. It's weird."

Then, Lincoln asked her about her evolution. She paused for a moment as she recalled the time she evolved, "It...wasn't anything special really." she admitted, "I found these weird cave markings in Sandstone Cave and they had like-instructions? It's hard to explain, but I followed those instructions and it taught me a lot about how to use Aura and then I just...evolved...pretty sure the person that wrote them is dead too.

Lincoln suddenly heard a lot of things that were very interesting all at once, and he had trouble containing his excitement and keeping from exploding everything all at one. He decided to start with the thing that wasn't about Kira, because that was what he was most interested in talking about and he wasn't sure if they'd every get another chance in this crazy house with no end. "That exists within this dark house?!! Wow! I can't believe I even get the chance to see something like that! Mystery Dungeons are so weird, but they make a lot of cool things happen!!"

Now, onto even more mystifying topics. "Speaking of amazing things, you've been all the way to the desert?!" This was a cross between a statement and a question. "And that's where you learned?! That's so... I can't even describe how cool that is! You're like a hero from a story book- you even have a cool backstory!!" It was at this point that Linc realized he had begun to nerd out a little, and he pulled back with a sheepish chuckle. "Uhh... that must be a hard way to learn, though. You figured it out all on your own?"

At this point she was starting to expect him to blow up with excitement at everything she said. It didn't help her with coping with it, unfortunately. It was strange, she really should have been flattered, but all this attention on her just made her feel weird. Nobody had ever really shown this much interest in her before over, well, anything.

The more he talked about it though, it really did sound like some stupid superhero backstory. It irked her. Maybe she was just a hipster, but it felt kinda like she was devolving into some generic explorer in the guild. The kind of a-hole she wanted to avoid being.

"Yes..." she admitted, though at this point she would have loved to say that she didn't. The throbbing headache pounded. It was getting difficult to see with her Aura as they pressed forward. God, there was seeds for curing burns, confusion, and even to thaw someone out, but why wasn't there anything for a simple headache??

"...So where did you come from again?" she asked, desperate to turn the conversation away from her now.

...Lincoln began to feel an odd, faint throbbing encroaching in on his headspace, like a headache beginning to form. What? What could he possibly be getting a headache from? Had he really been hurt that badly? He tried to discretely rub at his temple in a way that Kira wouldn't notice... he didn't want to appear weak in front of her, After all. He had noticed that she didn't seem to like it when he was weak. He distracted himself by getting excited over the fact that she had asked him a question!! A question he was a little nervous to answer, really...

"Oh, um... it's a town far away. There are a lot of farms there, so it's really big- but there aren't as many people at the same time," he explained, a bit sheepishly. He didn't really have any cool stories like she did yet- his life had been pretty normal up until this point. He hadn't even really gone into mystery dungeons until he came to Grassveil. "I always dreamed of catching outlaws when I was a kid- I was friends with the woman in town who protected the farms! She trained me to use some of my abilities before I left." Come to think of it, she probably could have taught him a lot more... but not enough happened in his hometown!! How much would he really have learned?!

Kira gave an amused huff, "And you said I'm the one with some story out of a fairy tale." She looked up to the ceiling with closed eyes as she walked, trying to let the calm atmosphere relax her a little. She was too stressed. This wasn't good for her.

"Little farmer boy who had some cool teacher, leaves the farm and goes on a wild adventure. Grows up in the process. That's pretty pretty much the beginning of every epic ever. All you're missing is it being burned to the ground and some evil arch nemesis to track down and avenge your family." Of course, she assumed none of this happened to the riolu. He was far too happy go lucky for that type of background, especially when he spoke of his home land.

Kira never knew what happened of her family. She'd been alone for as long as she could remember. It's honestly a crazy wonder that she survived as a weak little riolu child-oh god if she told Lincoln he'd probably freak out about that too.

The headache dulled in Linc's head as Kira said these things that he then promptly took as a compliment. "You... you really think so? I never thought about it that way..." There was a spark of warmth in his chest that made him smile. He hadn't gotten a compliment that nice since he had been at home with his parents... he found himself really, really hoping that she meant it. With the happy facade that he had been using to distract himself broken down in this moment... that homesick feeling was starting to flood in again.

"Um... I don't think I've said this yet, but... thank you for everything so far." His intonation was a lot more mellow now... maybe even a bit melancholy. "I hadn't exactly been fully alone before you, but... I never really found anyone I felt like I fit in with before meeting you here. And... heh, well, I'm not used to being alone... I kinda left without thinking, and I've been kinda forcing myself to be positive about everything to avoid thinking about it, I think..." Why did his chest have to be so tight right now?!? He didn't want to cry in front of her again, that would be embarassing. He lowered his head and tried to pretend like there weren't tears in his eyes.

"So, um... after all that, and after you've been helping me this whole time... it's nice to hear that you think I could do what I dreamed of!! Not even- *hicc,* I mean, I know why they said what they said, but my parents never really encouraged me to do what I wanted until I really was leaving..." He tried to rub his paws over his face in a way that wasn't necessarily wiping tears or anything. Nah, could have been anything. Maybe he had allergies. "I think this is the strongest I've ever felt!"

She didn't know how, but she somehow made him feel good about himself. She didn't really think that talking about his family dying and village being burned to the ground was a bad thing until a moment after she said it. Fortunately, it didn't seem to bother him. Instead, he was bothered in a completely different way. His tone of voice shifted entirely as the blob of aura that was him changed. The sudden pitch caused her to at the very least look back at him to see what was up.

Ooooh boy he was crying. What did she do???? All she did was poke fun at him for calling her the storybook hero by turning it against him w h a t? At the very least he didn't seem to be sad per say. If anything he seemed more grateful...

...okaaay? How the hell did she accomplish any of what he just said? She was Kira, the socially lacking lucario that hated everyone and everyone hated her. That's usually how things went. This was different though. Now she seemed to have somehow connected with this random lucario she met in a mansion on an emotional level. It was...good...for him she guessed? She wasn't sure what to say in response to that. She was nervous. She didn't want to say the wrong thing and ruin it, but she couldn't just say nothing!

"Uh...you're...welcome?" She guessed. Did...did this guy need a hug or something? She wasn't a snuggly person to begin with. "Uhh...well, It's...really only up from here? I mean-now that you're a lucario, once you've figured out the whole aura-thing it gets a whole lot easier...ahah..."

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Lincoln took a moment to process what was being said to him, and he started to look a little calmer. He was glad she had accepted his thanks, and that it hadn't been (excessively) weird or anything and it hand't made her upset. Maybe it had been a good thing! So why was he even crying?! It was silly. It had just been so long since he had someone older to look up to and trust... and well, even though he had evolved, there was still a whole lot he didn't know. But Kira was right, the only direction to go was up! He had a lot to learn! Of course, he didn't really know how to learn this aura stuff...

...

But Kira did?

Lincoln looked up from his paws. "...Really?" he asked, a hint of a shining hope in his voice. "I mean, I didn't really stay with my teacher long enough to learn how to do that, but... you know a lot about it, right...?" He felt really nervous suddenly with this question now burning a hole in his brain. But, honestly- what was the harm in asking? Realistically, they were trapped in this house together either way, so whatever she said didn't change the fact that they could still work together to get out! Plus... he couldn't think of anyone else in his life right now that he would have preferred to go with!

"Um- can you show me?!" He blurted suddenly. "I know its a lot to ask, and I'm not nearly experienced as you- but I work hard, and I'll learn fast! I'll do whatever I can to catch up to you so I won't hold you back! I'll listen to whatever you say!!"