Chapter Text
{Huh… where am I? It feels… kind of cold… I can’t keep my eyes open… so tired…. Almost like I’m dreaming…}
He felt something poking him. “Hey, um… are you okay? This probably isn’t the best place to sleep…” the quiet, feminine voice said as the poking continued.
His eyes slowly blinked open, and that was when he noticed that his field of vision was a lot lower than it used to be. He blinked again to see a Bergmite talking to him! The tiny ice-chunk-shaped Pokémon had been poking him with one of her legs.
“H-Hi… sorry I just saw you sleeping on the ground… it’s a bit weird for a Tirtouga to be sleeping here…” The Bergmite looked down.
“A Tirtouga?” he asked himself out loud as he looked around. It looked like they were on a medium-sized iceberg in the middle of the ocean.
There was water and icebergs as far as the eye could see. He tried to look up and what he could see of the sky was gray and heavy. “Woah, we’re on an ice floe.” He looked down into the freezing cold water below and sure enough, he had flippers instead of arms and legs. He certainly looked like a Tirtouga.
“Wait, this can’t be right! I’m not a Tirtouga! I’m a human! At least that’s what I remember…”
Pain shot through his head as he tried to remember how he got here. “U-um… are you sure you’re a human? Y-you look like a normal Tirtouga to me… what’s your name?”
“I can’t remember… all I remember is that I was a human…”
The Bergmite frowned. “I-I’m Snowy… if you can’t remember your name, then I guess we’ll just have to come up with one…”
He nodded, thinking long and hard for a few moments. “I guess you can call me Floe. I mean, it seems fitting.”
A scream interrupted them as a Corsola hopped up to them. “Are you two explorers? My friend, Luvdisc, and I were walking together, and then a ravine opened up beneath her. Please, please help her. There’s a small path leading into it but… I’m not very strong. I’m begging you, please help my friend!” The pink and white Pokémon was shaking softly as she pleaded.
Floe and Snowy looked at each other in confusion for a brief moment before they both nodded. “Alright, we’ll get Luvdisc and bring her back, okay?” Floe said to the Corsola softly.
Corsola jumped up and down a tiny bit. “Thank you! Thank you! Follow me, I’ll show you where Luvdisc fell.”
The trio made their way to the ravine and as Corsola had said, there was indeed a small path leading down into it. Floe and Snowy looked at each other one more time before they began to descend.
Icy Ravine B1
The walls were narrow in the ravine and the ground was slippery enough that Floe had to try not to go sliding into walls like he was a pinball. The Tirtouga trudged ahead of Snowy who was quiet as she talked. “W-Woah, I can’t believe I’m in a real Mystery Dungeon.”
“What’s that?” Floe asked, using his flippers to drag himself through the snow.
“T-they’re all over the world. Rescue teams delve into them to find treasure, capture outlaws, or rescue Pokémon that get lost. T-they’re challenging though. No one knows why, but they change every time someone enters them. I-it’s pretty weird. T-the Pokémon that live in them have been getting more and more aggressive, which is another thing that makes Mystery Dungeons dangerous,” Snowy explained. They continued walking through narrow hallways until they saw their first open room.
They weren’t alone, though: a sleeping Ducklett was in the corner of the room. The entrance to the next corridor looked like it was far enough away that they wouldn’t disturb the dreaming Pokémon as they passed by.
The duo moved quietly, taking extra care not to disturb the slumbering dual Water and Flying-type. Once they were out of the room, they continued treading quietly for a bit longer before resuming their normal pace.
The next room that they entered was completely devoid of any Pokémon at all. There were a few items on the ground, however “O-oh, Poké! T-that’ll be super helpful for buying items.” Snowy said, examining it. She let out a sigh. “O-of course, I have nowhere to put it…”
Floe awkwardly pushed his way over to her, still not used to his new body. He looked at the Poké “Hm… could we try putting it in my shell? That’s the only place I can think of to put it.”
After a few rather difficult moments the Poké had been stowed in Floe’s shell even if it was super inelegant. Snowy giggled softly at his predicament.
“I feel ridiculous… but at least it’s stable… I think,” Floe grunted as a slight whooshing noise echoed from the hallway. An Icy Castform wandered out and headed straight towards Snowy.
Snowy’s eyes widened. As the Castform careened into her, the ice that made up her body seemed to glow and become even tougher.
Floe opened his mouth to say something, but instead, a small blast of water shot out and knocked the Castform back.
Snowy took advantage of the breathing room and started to spin around before launching herself at the Castform. With another small whoosh, it collapsed.
“W-whew, that was kind of scary. I-I wouldn’t have been able to knock it out if you hadn’t given me room,” Snowy said softly
“I don’t know how I did that, one second I was going to say something, but then… that happened. But I helped you, and that’s what matters the most to me.” Floe told her.
“W-we make a good team!” Snowy exclaimed in a hushed voice.
“It certainly seems so,” Floe said with a nod.
The two proceeded more guardedly, moving across the snow- and ice-covered ground in silence. When they made it to an out-of-place staircase leading down, they exchanged glances and descended.
Icy Ravine B2
After they got down the last step, albeit with a tiny bit of difficulty. They saw that, unlike the floor above, this room was very long. In the distance, they saw another staircase.
“Well, at least we don’t have to go looking.” Floe attempted to shrug before trudging over to it, making sure that Snowy was right behind him. There were no hostile Pokémon in the room, thankfully, so their path to the staircase was clear.
Icy Ravine B3
When the duo descended, they saw four sleeping Mantyke’s all curled around each other a few paces away. They looked at each other and moved as slowly and silently as they could away from them towards the nearby corridor.
As they traversed the floor, they realized that they had exclusively been in corridors aside from the first room. Just as they were about to make comments, they entered a small room with the staircase. But that wasn’t all; they also saw two delicious-looking apples resting on the ground next to each other.
Snowy softly squealed and made her way past Floe to bite into the apple. She had a small smile on her face as she ate and Floe trudged up to her. “E-Explorer teams supposedly love finding apples in dungeons. I-I can see why… my belly was empty.” Snowy commented between bites.
Floe’s own stomach rumbled softly in agreement as he rolled the apple that was left for him and started to eat. Once their respective apples were completely gone, the pair rested for a moment before descending yet again.
Icy Ravine B4
By now, the two had some idea of what they should expect so they trudged on through the first room without giving it much of a glance at all. The shorter hallways led to a series of rooms that were all connected to each other and they were on their guard for more Pokémon that might try to harry them.
They fought a few more Castforms and a Ducklett but they were unscathed, thankfully. Floe realized that his shell made him excellent defensively which let Snowy knock the enemies out while they were focused on him.
Snowy, on the other flipper, made her icy body super tough which let Floe knock them out with small blasts of water.
They reached the staircase a bit more battle-hardened and eager to finish their self-appointed mission.
Icy Ravine B5
As they descended, they heard a faint whimpering and they moved in the direction of it. After a couple of minutes, they found who was making the out-of-place noise and it was who they were looking for.
Luvdisc was being pushed into a corner by a school of Mantykes. Snowy launched herself at one as a small blast of water came out of Floe’s mouth. The water hit the small ray-like Pokémon head-on before Snowy’s tackle knocked it back even more and it sank to the ground.
She didn’t stop there though, rapidly spinning around and then using the momentum to crash into another one which also sank to the ground.
Floe launched a few blasts of water one after another. The third Mantyke, still reeling from the blast of the first, was caught off guard by the second and it sank as well.
The fourth Mantyke made what Floe guessed was an angry noise as it floated towards Luvdisc. “Leave her alone!” Snowy screeched before a small chunk of ice launched from her mouth with such force that it sent Mantyke crashing into the wall with a small thud.
“W-Woah! I-I didn’t know I could do that!” Snowy said in disbelief as what she did registered with her.
“Thank you for coming to rescue me! Thank you, Thank you!” Luvdisc exclaimed as she stopped whimpering and came up to her saviors.
“Corsola asked us to come and get you, think you can make it back outside with us?” Floe asked.
Luvdisc nodded and the trio started to make their way out of the Mystery Dungeon, unharried any further by the Pokémon that seemed to have made this place their home.
Once they reemerged from the ravine, Corsola hopped over to them. “You rescued Luvdic! Thank you thank you!”
“It was no big deal… not really at least,” Floe told them but Corsola didn’t seem to be listening as she kept thanking them.
Snowy and Floe let the two friends have their reunion and stood off to the side. “H-hey um… Floe. I-I was thinking… would you maybe want to form a rescue team with me? I-its okay if you don’t… I just thought since we make such a good team together…”
{I did like helping those two out, and Snowy’s right. We did make a good team together... maybe doing this will also help me regain my memories.} Floe thought and after a moment he nodded.
“R-Really? Y-you’ll form a rescue team with me? Y-yay thank you!” Snowy hopped up and down for a moment. “W-we should go register with the Explorer’s Guild… it’s not far from here.”
“Sounds like a plan to me, partner.”