To the Subseed Forest!

Team Dragonheart Adventures 1
1
"Mmmm that was a tasty breakfast Sakura, don't you think!? What shall we do today?... Hey, what's all that commotion going on in the landing?"
Anna was being her usual over-hyperactive self as she bounced down the stairs, accidentally crashing into an Arcanine as she did so and apologizing.
Honestly.
"Excuse me! Confused Igglybuff coming through! Outta the way!"
"Anna!" Judging by the cross mumblings Anna was bouncing her way through a crowd to find out what's up. "Anna, stop that!"
"Sorry." After apologizing to everyone on Anna's behalf, I pulled her back out. "What is it Anna?! Don't push past everyone like that!"
"But I wanna see what's going on! I won't be able to otherwise!"
"For goodness' sake." It was a cross-looking Noibat who had extricated himself from the congested crowd.
[ATTENTION RILEY FROM TEAM NIGHTBRIGHT IS MAKING A CAMEO]
"They've just put some tasks up on the Notice Board. That's all. Look, here you go."
"Thank you!" As Anna waves goodbye to the Noibat I look at the papers he's passed us.
"This looks interesting. So there's a new dungeon out there, huh?"
"Whatisitwhatisitwhatisit!!!???" Anna bumps into me, knocking me over as she bounces over to get a closer look. "Wow, the Subseed Forest!"
"FYI Anna, dungeons are very dangerous places. And it says here that you should have an Intelligence stat of 3 or a 4 for Agility. Think about it."
Anna's Stats:
Intelligence: 2/5
Agility: 3/5
"Aww come on I'm just one off for both of them!... And you have?"
"Don't worry; Agility: 3..."
"That's not gonna help you."
"Intelligence: 4."
"Ooooohhhhhhh, right! So we'll need your intelligence to get through here alright!... And there's no way in heck I'm letting you go alone."
"I know. You're coming with me."
"Yayyy!" Anna jumps so high she nearly makes a dent in the roof. "So, shall we check out the Subseed Forest today?"
"Don't be so impatient Anna. But let's get ready."
"Yay!"
We go up to our room and get our bags, then head into Andalusst City to get supplies.
"Let's see. Oran Berry... yes, we've got plenty of those, I think. Max Elixir, Heal Seeds, Cheri Berries... Sakura, why are you buying balls of string?!"
She then burst out laughing when she realized. "Wait! Balls of string. Hahahaha!!!"
"It says here that ""The Subseed forest is a maze of trees, and getting lost is a very real risk." So to try and keep us from getting lost, I've decided that we'll tie the end of a piece of string to the entrance. We'll unroll the string as we walk on. If we pass by an area with string, we'll know we've been here before and it will also help us to retrace our steps."
"Cool!" Anna gasped. "I see you don't have an Intelligence of 4 for nothing."
"Great. Thank you." I then went and bought a bottle of Bluk Berry juice. "Anna, have you got the bento boxes?"
"Yup!"
We went back to our room in the Explorer's Guild HQ to pack some more. I managed to bag the en-suite while Anna was down getting a snack, took the bag out of the wastepaper bin and emptied the bottles of Bluk Berry juice into it. Next, I dipped the balls of string in and left them on the window to soak.
"Sakuraaaaa!!!" It was Anna. "I've got some fruit pastries for you!"
I went out to check. As I inspected the tasty-looking Razz Berry and Sitrus Berry jam pastries Anna had brought back, she dashed into the bathroom. "Sorry Sakura, I really need to go... What have you done with the balls of string?! And wait... doesn't Bluk Berry juice leave a really bad stain?"
"I dyed them," I explained. "So we don't mistake it for Ariados webbing."
"Aaaaaah. Awesome. Though it smells of Bluk Berries in here."
"At least I wasn't using Durin berries. Or Miltank poo. And someone will probably drive out the smell the only way they know how."
"Perfume?"
Wrong answer.
So, after taking the string balls out and leaving them in the hot sun to dry for a little, we went to hand the note over to Gothitelle at the Request Gate. Anna was hyper as usual.
"OH MY DAYS WE'RE ACTUALLY GONNA USE THIS THING! GOTHITELLE IS ACTUALLY GONNA USE HER SPACE-WARP POWERS TO TAKE US THERE!!!"  
I just handed Gavina's note over to Gothitelle, telling her that "We'd like to go here, please."
"Right away."
"Awesoooooooooommme!!!" Anna gasped as Gothitelle opened up a Magnagate on the other side of the double doors.
"For first-timers here, you look enthralled as usual. It's only a Magnagate," Gothitelle protested as we stepped through the door. "Good luck..."
...

2
I must say, travelling by Magnagate was very... bright. It made you feel slightly detached from the world as you stepped into the bright light and woke up at the entrance to a thick forest.
Not a chink of light shone through the wall of trees inside, staged with several stumps from here to there. The top was decorated with a carpet of thick green leaves cushioning various Berries, and textile cocoons hang from the trees like Christmas decorations. The bark on these trees looked like rock made from very dark chocolate, and their gnarled roots seemed to be undulating to goodness-knows-how-deep. Along with puffs of long grass, the ground was drowned in leaves and ivy both alive and dead.
"Awesome! Let's go!"Anna sprung off through the entrance.
"Anna, wait! We haven't done the string yet!"
"Oh. Sorry."
"Now try not to bounce too far ahead," I told her as I tied the purple end of the first string ball around the tree. "Let's go!"
"WOOT!" Anna bounced off ahead of me... then realized within a split second and boinged back to me as I unrolled the string looped onto my tail. We began walking on.
"So... we've got to search the forest for anything that looks like a hole in a tree stump."
"And split up." Anna was reading the note too.
"Do you want to?"
"No. ... Hey, look what I've found!"
It was a hole in a tree stump.
"Already?! I didn't realize Missions were so quick!" Anna bounced beside me. "Let's go!"
She cannonballed through the hole... and got Razor Leafed by an angry Sewaddle. "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKK!!! THERE'S SOMETHING IN THERE!"
She long-distance bounced away as I looked down the hole. "Sorry!" I called, then floated after Anna. "Anna! You should check what's down the hole before you jump in! That was actually a simple Sewaddle sleeping-hole!"
It looked too shallow to be a dungeon anyway. "Dangit, I should've brought a torch," I sighed. "Then I could shine it down the hole and see if there were any entrances."
"Wouldn't that wake up sleeping Bug-types?" Anna called as she looked at a smooth stump.
"You've got a point. And don't go too far in, it said it was on the border. I don't want to lose you."
"Right you are." Anna bounced back to me like a rubber boomerang. "There are so many stumps round here! How on EARTH are we going to find it?"
"It did say this would be difficult." I sighed. "Come on. It looks like there's a hole under this one."
As I looked in, I nearly woke up the Bunnelby sleeping inside the shallow excavation.
"False alarm. Keep looking."
...
"Are we nearly there yet?" Anna looked like she'd fall asleep where she stood.
"I don't know." Goodness knows how long we'd been searching. Minutes, hours, days, months... years... We'd tried stump after stump and... Dang the whole concept of sleeping-holes and warrens in tree stumps. "How's your Belly?"
"32, I think..." Anna yawned. "Oh! A tree stump! And it's got a big black hole in it! Yippee-ki-yaysies! Yippity-yay!"
Anna bounced towards the stump, which looked a little... I don't know about you, but... smoky?
"PHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANTUMP!" The stump-no, it wasn't a stump-whatever it was- looked up at Anna.
"AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Anna jumped a squillion metres in the air and flew to a nearby hedge for cover.
"Thanks for making me deaf in at least one ear!" I yelled... as I noticed a Karrablast give her a freaky-looking stare and a bunch of disturbed Scatterbugs chased her back out as she squealed in reaction. She panted as they retreated back to the hedge.
"I think we may have to do a little fighting," I stated and stared at the Phantump tree stump.
"I know." I think Anna was now recovering from the shock of being jumped out on, but I couldn't be too sure. "Hey! There's another one!"
"Er, Anna..." That stump looked similar to the Phantump. I had to rush ahead and tap it to check. And it was. I got a pesky Shadow Ball to the solar plexus.
"Another one!" Anna gasped. I just retaliated with a Twister and a couple of Dragon Rages to knock it out.
"Er, Sakura!" Anna said nervously. "I'm not sure that was such a good idea..."
Three Phantumps were leaving their tree stump disguise and drifting unnervingly towards us, probably to take revenge against their fallen friend.
"Brace yourself Anna," I turned to her.
"Ready as I'll ever be!" Anna's eyes were burning moderately. "Let's go!"
A Phantump fired a Dark Pulse at me a millisecond after the words had left Anna's mouth. I was attacking one alright... but then I realized the other two were picking on Anna, and she was looking low already, so I darted towards them and Twistered them from behind.
"Anna! Eat this!" I passed her an Oran Berry and Dragon Raged a Phantump in the face. It got sent flying into a tree and landed hard on a raised patch of rocky grass... with a tough brown head.
"TORTERRAAAAAA!!!" The awakened Torterra began charging towards us.
"Oh @&%*," I cursed as I Dragon Raged another Phantump into unconsciousness. Anna had managed to land a Pound or two on it, which was impressive. But that didn't mean her "flight not fight" default was gone forever. She was squealing and cowering under the last remaining Phantump.
I sent a punishing Twister to the back of the Phantump as the Torterra crashed into a bush... disturbing a couple of Kricketots and Caterpies which ran fearfully out the bush and panicked. Anna tried to Pound it... but it turned out the Phantump was immune to Normal-type moves. I had to incinerate it with Dragon Rage instead.
And that's when we noticed the Torterra.
"Tor... Tor..." It was pawing the ground and we were too low on HP to get out the way. "TERRAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!"
PAFF!
We got catapulted into a nearby tree and... Oh crap I think Anna's fainted. And to make matters worse...
Butterfree nest after Butterfree nest surrounded us... containing millions of pairs of staring red compound eyes... staring at us...
"EEEEEEEEEKKKKKK!!!!"
Let me tell you something, a hundred Gusts aimed and fired at you hurts like shnoogen...

...

3
Anna and I woke up back in our room at about the same time. We both looked quite rough.
"Was that ASBO Torterra real?" Anna asked me.
"Of course it was." I really don't feel like getting up right now.
"Did you manage to complete the mission? I think I fainted partway through."
Don't remind me, Anna... "No. We got butted into a tree where loads of Butterfrees were nesting. And they didn't take too kindly to being disturbed and crashed into... We got hit by a heckofalotta Gusts."
"So we disturbed them, right?" Anna seemed to be getting out of bed.
"Yeah."
"Aww no." Anna checked Gavina's note. "Sakura, look here. Vinnie wrote that "Finding the entrance without disturbing the native bug Pokemon will award teammates with a MERIT.""
"Well there goes that chance."
"Yeah, and there's more. "You might want to use your ears to listen for echoes... I’d advise against just poking around. Lots of Bug-type Pokemon live here, and I doubt they want their homes messed with." Well we certainly listened to that bit. And did we destroy anything?"
"I don't know."
"I hope not, because she also wrote that "Wanton bushwhacking and defacing of innocent nature will incur a STRIKE, but will forfeit all rewards. Gavina does not reward disobedient scouts." Did we destroy anything?"
"I don't think so..." I thought. "But we could've accidentally smashed a few trees or something what with that fight we got into."
"I thought so. Because it sounds like we scared a lot of Bug-types into next week, possibly dented a few hedges and trees, screamed loudly and picked fights... Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"We're not gonna get any rewards, are we? This was all a waste of time."
"Yeah, and are you thinking something else?" Anna said persistently.
"Yeah, it's..."
"We'll say it at the same time," Anna decided. "1, 2, 3..."
"Gavina is gonna kill us!!!"