It's not long before it becomes clear that she has literally no chance of catching up with Snitter on foot, so she stumbles to a halt on the sandy incline leading up to the cave, breathing hard.

"Snits just... took off!" she wheezes, waving a hand behind her at Henry. "I couldn't get him to go twenty feet all day without him stopping to look at his reflection in something, and now he just shot off for the cave in a straight line."

Still panting, she just nods, eyes wide with combined incredulity and worry. Snitter is a bona fide freak of science but he doesn't just run wild. Until right this second, anyway.

"I can't even see him... argh, fuck."

She'd hastily returned the rest of her Pokemon to their balls in the interest of not leaving them behind, and she fumbles distractedly at her belt, trying to decide which one might be the most equipped for possibly tracking Snitter down in a freaking cavern.

"He must've seen something, but I dunno what...

"Yeah..."

Heather shoots Henry (and Fruitloops) a grateful smile-- sometimes it seems like yesterday that the fellow survivor was determined to hide away from the entire world. She's happy to have him here with her, even if it's turning into a wild goose chase. Her bro. ;-;

"Hopefully he'll see his reflection somewhere and stop dead in his tracks like he's been doing all day..."

Finally deciding on Tricia, she releases the Manectric, who is still crunching confusedly on the milkbone she'd been handed a moment ago.

"Can you sniff out where Snits went, girl?"

An affirmative bark is Tricia's answer (once she swallows her snack, anyway).

The Manectric fortunately doesn't have a complicated path to follow... Snitter was on a mission and that mission did not zig-zag.

Heather, too, follows at a small distance.

"Yeeeeaah, I... wasn't even totally sold on heading in there..."

She was kind of tired, and she's NOT wild about caves... but now she doesn't exactly have a choice. :T

Letting out a gusty sigh, she reaches up to her front pocket to flip on her flashlight-- never goes anywhere without it!

"Did you bring a light? We might need it in there..."

--oh, that kind of light, huh?

Heather can't help but shoot the little candle Pokemon a dubious glance... she's never had a great track record with ghost-types. But... at this point, HENRY's the resident ghost expert. She can put on her big girl khakis and trust him. Hopefully.

Ahead of them, Tricia (thankfully her bright colors light her up like neon even in the comparative darkness) stops at the entrance to a side-tunnel and barks. Snitter went this way, guys!

"All right... eyes peeled, and maybe keep a battler at the ready too..."

SHE'S GOT HER EYE ON YOU, BOO. NO GHOSTY BUSINESS, GOT IT?!

Henry's voice booms down the tunnel, echoing hauntingly over their footsteps.

"Whoa. Wild acoustics in here," Heather comments quietly as they follow Tricia's lead down the dark tunnel... which opens up into a much brighter subchamber, one encrusted with gleaming opalescent surfaces that turn the space into a veritable funhouse of deceptive reflections.

Much to Heather's disappointment, Snitter is not parked in front of any of them, bobbling at his own reflection... but a faint, distant squawk echoes back at them from somewhere ahead.

"--that was him! ... I think!"

It really is true... this place isn't like anything else Heather's seen over the course of her years in this world, and that's saying something, because she's seen a lot.

And even outside of the cave, the atmosphere here in the crater was... unique.

Not quite creepy, but still somehow... alien.

The whirs and tinkles, both of sound and light... the entire place was dazzling and disorienting from top to bottom. Which made their current task more difficult than Heather liked.

"Hope Tricia can keep up with him..."

With all those mirrored surfaces, she has a feeling smell is going to be much more reliable than sight.

"Yeah, she's fast as hell, but this place is a little like a funhouse..."

Case in point, she pauses to frown at her own reflection in a tall, spindly crystal that kind of makes her look like some kind of horrible segmented insect. Suppressing a shudder, she moves on.

"And as pretty as it is, I'll be honest, I'm not like... wild about the vibe..."

The weird energy in the air that's given her goosebumps off and on throughout the day is harder to ignore in here.

There's another far-off squark, and Tricia WHFS, darting forwards-- but staying in view, stopping at each crystalline turn and barking over her shoulder at the humans to follow. NOT LOSING YOU TRAINERS IN HERE!

She considers this for a second... and then nods.

Because yeah... it is familiar.

Even if it seems almost silly on the surface to compare this enchanting wonderland to the place she instantly knows he's talking about. Without bothering to be coy about it, she reaches out an arm and links it with his when he scoots closer.

"Here's hoping it's just good old-fashioned deja-vu."


The Manectric leads them on, through another few slightly-narrower corridors of the crystalline labyrinth, before the path opens back up once more into another ballroom-like wide space.

And... there in the middle.... could that be?!

Snitter is STANCED in the dead-center of the cave, the pale parts of him painted various rainbow pastels by the crystals all around. His crest is raised and he is looking STRAIGHT UP.

The two survivors' heads angle upwards as one.

And sure enough, hovering about thirty feet upwards is... a Volcarona.

... No. Something that's intended to look like a Volcarona, but clearly isn't.

Three diamond-shaped metal pieces hover on either side of its body in the approximate shape of wings, quivering as they make hundreds of tiny adjustments, even though they clearly aren't what's keeping the thing airborne.

Flickering at the top of its shiny silver chassis are a pair of glowing, segmented orange eyes.

Eyes which had previously been focused on Snitter below, but which snap instantly to the two humans. ... And, uh. Turn yellow. From somewhere in the robotic body, a whirring alarm starts sounding.

Heather speaks first.

"Oh, shit."

There is definitely something Up with this one.

And Heather is getting some mild flashbacks to the first time she saw an Ultra Beast (which, for recap, was possibly the closest she's come in this world to feeling the same kind of dread she felt at entering the Otherworld. Which is to say... not close-close, but close enough to stand out.)

Which means, fortunately, that her instincts kick in.

Unlike Henry, Heather's first impulse is WEAPON.

"TRICIA, use Charge!"

The Manectric's spiky fur sparks, standing on end.

Meanwhile, the alarm emanating from the metallic moth's body carries on, now accompanied by the 'wings' flashing orange and white. A threat display. It hovers higher in the air, vibrating.