Chapter Text
PROLOGUE
[The Sea/Wigglytuff’s Guild 1]
Out in the sea, a storm raged on, a raft struggling to stay afloat amidst the waters.
“D-Don’t let go!”
A Grovyle yelled to their companion, winds and thunder worsening the storm, shaking the raft drifting on the sea.
“I can’t hold on much longer!”
Grovyle's companion yelled, holding onto a piece of rope the best they can as they were getting swept away by the intense waves.
“Waaah!”
Lightning crackled, thunder roared, the two were swept away by the waves, separated in the tides and lost in the seas, the storm raging on and increasing in intensity.
Elsewhere...
A Cyndaquil walks up to an odd-looking, pink building, nervously clutching an odd stone.
“You can do this... You can do this...”
They step forward, stepping onto a grate, a loud voice suddenly piping up from below.
“POKEMON DETECTED! POKEMON DETECTED!”
“WHOSE FOOTPRINT? WHOSE FOOTPRINT?”
The Cyndaquil jolted back in surprise, yelping loudly, they stepped back onto solid ground.
“Arceus... I just...”
A bit shocked, they sigh, just leaving, walking away from the grate, looking back at the building before continuing to walk away.
A quiet laugh emanated behind a totem pole as they walked away, mumbling coming after.
They later end up on the beach, looking out towards the shore as the Krabby blow their bubbles.
“It’s always so relaxing here...” the Cyndaquil remarked, feeling relaxed.
Little did they know, they were being trailed by two individuals, the two had taken interest in the strange rock the Cyndaquil held.
As they walked along the shore, they saw a figure in the distance, an Eevee, passed out by the shore. They run towards them and look over them, being careful to wake them.
“H-hello?”
[END OF PROLOGUE]
CHAPTER 1
[Beach Cave]
“ H...o ?”
A figure groaned, laying on the ground.
“ C...y..u.. me? ”
They stirred a little, hearing the voice.
“ Wake up! ”
The figure shot up, their furry ears flopped back as they rose from their deep sleep, breathing heavily. They turned to see where the voice came from, who was a bit surprised as they got up suddenly.
“W-whoa, calm down! Are you okay?” The Cyndaquil spoke, trying not to scare the first, who was visibly panicked. “Wh-who are you?! Where...” the brown furred one looked around at the scenery, a sandy beach with a lot of rock formations in the area.
“Calm down! I’m not going to hurt you, Eevee,” the blue and cream furred creature told the Eevee, “You seemed pretty out of it...” Verity looked at them in confusion, “E-Eevee?”. The other scratched the back of their head, “Yeah...? Aren’t you one?”
“ A talking Pokemon...? ” the Eevee thought, “N-no, I’m... A Human?” they responded. The other Pokemon looked at the Eevee curiously, “Well, you don’t look human,” they took a good look at them again, “You look like a pretty normal Eevee to me!”
The Eevee looked at their hands, well... paws. Rushing over to the shore afterwards, they saw only the reflection of an Eevee, brown fur and all, “H-holy...” the other Pokemon looking at the Eevee, “See? An Eevee, as sure as I’m a Cyndaquil!” the Cyndaquil giggled a bit awkwardly, “You... Okay?”
Eevee began hyperventilating, just falling on their hindlegs, essentially into a sitting position, “N-no! Wh-why am I a Pokemon?! Why can I understand you?! You’re a Cyndaquil!” they take a second to reflect on the last part, “...Actually, I already answered that.” The Cyndaquil approached them gently, putting a paw on their shoulder, “Hey,” the Cyndaquil patted them as they did, “It’ll be okay, what’s your name?”
“My name...?” the Eevee pondered a bit, looking at the Cyndaquil in front of them, “It’s Verity.” The Cyndaquil nodded, moving their paw away to point at themself, “I’m Charque, you can call me Char!” Charque chuckled, grinning in a friendly manner. “Well... Where are we?” Verity asked, looking at the rock formations then the sand beneath their paws a bit more.
Charque helped Verity off their sitting position, though noticing they preferred to stand bipedal, “You’re at the beach, south of Treasure Town,” Charque pointed north, “which as you can guess is over in that direction.” Verity nodded, just looking at a stone nearby, pointing to it, “Hey, what’s that?” Noticing where Verity pointed, Charque turned to them, picking up the rock, “Oh, it’s... my personal treasure.”
“Your personal treasure? It looks odd...” Verity paused, realizing how they sounded, “N-not in a bad way!” In response to an otherwise backhanded comment, Charque laughed, just sighing afterwards, “No, don’t worry. Glad you kinda like it though, it means alot to me.” He smiled, Verity smiling back.
“Kehehe~!” A cackle emanated from behind a rock, suddenly a bat-like creature flew towards Charque and attacked them, causing them to let go of their rock, “O-ow!” Charque exclaimed. The Zubat cackled again, grabbing Charque’s rock, “Hey Koffing, check this out, it really was worth it!” The Koffing revealed themself, checking the rock out, “Alright, looks like the wimp was useful after all!”
“Who are you?! Why did you take Char’s rock?!” Verity yelled, going into a fighting position. “Don’t even bother, see you later losers!” The two thieves quickly ran into the cave at the end of the beach, Verity helped Charque up as they watched them go in, “Char, we have to go after them,” they pulled Charque up, “We are going to get your rock back!”
Charque looked down, then at Verity, Charque just a bit worried, “A-are you sure? Those guys seemed-” “We’ll be stronger, I just know it.” Verity interrupted, holding both of Charque’s paws, “That thing’s important right? We’re gonna get it back.” The pep talk prompted Charque to nod firmly, the two began to sprint into the cave afterwards, off to get Charque’s treasure back.
The two entered the cave, ending up in an unfamiliar scenery. Verity looked around, a bit dumbfounded at the place, “Hey, so... what’s all this?” Verity asked. “We’re in a Mystery Dungeon. To put it simply, they’re places affected by an unknown power and its layout will always be different when entering one, no matter what."
“What’s interesting is, nobody knows how they work, that’s why there are Exploration Teams set. But even then, there will still be Pokemon living within these walls, becoming hostile due to the unknown power.” Charque explained. “Huh, cool...” Verity smiled. Suddenly, a claw from a brown horseshoe crab-like Pokemon thrusted forward, aimed towards Verity, “WATCH OUT!” Charque let out an Ember at the Pokemon, a small bout of fire from their mouth in a ball shape, scorching it and leaving it unconscious, “A Kabuto.” Verity looked down at the Kabuto, shuddering, “Well... Thanks.”
The two proceeded forward, walking deeper into the mystery dungeon. “So, what was that?” Verity asked, walking alongside Charque, “The... fire thing.” Verity asked, Charque looked back at them, “Ember, one of my moves, judging by your species, you should have a move called Swift! I... dunno what it does exactly but you should be able to figure it out if you try!” Verity rolled their eyes at this, just smiling after. They soon encounter another Pokemon, one that looks like a slug. “A Shellos.” Charque said, the Shellos slinging mud at Charque, “A-ack!!” Verity saw this and decided to take action, breathing deeply, “...Swift-!” As they moved their tail, as if going to slap them with it from a distance, bright yellow disc-like stars began to shoot out, hitting the Shellos, knocking it unconscious, “Woah.” the impressed Eevee chuckled, going to help Charque, “Dude, you good?” Verity asked. “Yeah, I’m good... That was cool though.” Charque smiled at them, the two nodding as they proceeded.
The two happened upon some stairs that seemingly lead nowhere, “The stairs!” Charque perked up, smiling at the sight of it, Verity giving a confused look at them, “They... Don’t look like they lead anywhere.” Charque looked at the staircase, “Oh,” Charque pointed at the stairs, “Mystery dungeons have different floors, judging by the staircase here, we have to go down here. They may look like they don't lead anywhere, but from what I've heard they seemingly teleport the people going through them to the corresponding floor, but like the Dungeon themselves, the floors the stairs take you to will also have a random layout.” Charque explained, Verity nodding in somewhat of an understanding of it, “Ah, gotcha, so we just go down them?”. Charque nodded firmly, “Mhm! Let’s head down.”
They headed deeper, continuing their pursuit of the two thieves. Despite the dangers, they pressed on, knocking out a Shellos, a Kabuto, and even a pink and blue coral-looking creature, a Corsola, according to Charque. The two managed to find another set of stairs, “We’re doing great, huh?” Verity exclaimed, pumping their paws in the air. “Yeah! We’ll get my treasure back in no time!” Charque clapped, leading Verity down the stairs, the two descending deeper into the dungeon.
The next floor they descended to was the Beach Cave Pit. At the end of the room were Zubat and Koffing, cackling to each other as they held Charque’s Treasure before Zubat noticed Verity and Cyndaquil, “Hey! The two wimps followed us down here!” Koffing turned and laughed, “Well, back for a real beating, are you?” Koffing scoffed, Verity growled a little, “Could you shut up? All you guys do is talk and talk, the only thing I think you managed to do was steal Char’s treasure, but...”
“Feels like you won’t be able to beat us like you said you would, huh?” Verity said, looking at the two thieves. Charque was a bit astonished by this display, but nodded in agreement. “Keh! Let’s see about that!” the Koffing rushes at Verity with Smog, purplish gas coming out of Koffing's craters. Verity covering their nose, performs a Tackle, pushing their body against Koffing, coughing afterwards from Koffing’s Smog. The Koffing is pushed back.
Zubat used Supersonic against Charque, covering their ears from the loud screeching from the Zubat, retaliating with an Ember, scorching the Zubat. Charque and Verity both rushed towards Zubat and Koffing, using Pound and Tackle respectively as the thieves let go of the rock.
Soon, the thieves were knocked down, Charque and Verity tiredly panting, Charque taking back their treasure, “M-my Relic Fragment!” The Koffing opened their eyes, “Lucky... Lucky fucks... Your win today was only a fluke!” the Koffing floated back up, a little beat up now. “Y-yeah! We’ll get you next time!” their Zubat friend said before flying away. Charque turned to Verity and smiled, “Hey, Verity? Thanks for this...” Verity smiled in response, nudging them, “Alright, no need to get so sappy, let’s head out.”
“Thank you, really!” Charque said to Verity, both of them now back at the beach. “Hey, it was only the right thing to do,” Verity chuckled, looking at the Relic Fragment, “So... what is that thing anyway? Why’s it so important to you?” Verity pointed to the Relic Fragment, Charque sitting down and holding it, “It's a Relic Fragment,” they gestured to Verity to sit down, then doing so, “You see... I’ve always really loved ancient lore and legends, I just can’t help but be excited hearing about tales from the past! Don’t you feel the same?”
“Hearing about ancient stories, hidden treasure troves, secret myths and legends... Lands unexplored, just waiting in the darkness to be shone on by the exploring light! It would be so exciting to just get out there and explore those lands!” Charque looked out into the sea, “That’s my dream, see. One day I came across my Relic Fragment, I... admit it looks like junk but I’d like you to take a closer look.” Charque then pointed to the middle of the stone.
Verity looked into the stone, looking at where Charque is pointing, “See? There's an odd pattern in the inscription.” Charque noted, the pattern was a star, with an eye in the middle, as well as talisman-looking things hanging from its arms. Verity nodded, “Hm, I suppose so... What about it?”. Charque clears their throat a bit before going on, “This Relic Fragment must be a key to legendary areas! Unexplored treasure troves of ancient history!” his eyes seemed to sparkle, “Atleast, that’s what I can feel just by looking at it. It’s... why I want to join an exploration team, this fragment has to fit somewhere, and I want to discover exactly where it is and solve its mystery.”
Charque then suddenly looked a bit down, sighing, “Earlier I tried to join the Explorer’s Guild as an apprentice... But I kinda chickened out,” he turned to Verity, a little expectantly, “What about you, Verity? What are you gonna do now? You’ve been suddenly transformed into a Pokemon and lost your memories... Do you have anywhere to go and stay after this?”
Verity remained quiet, pondering their decision on what to do now, a paw on their chin, another supporting their arm, “Hm...”. Charque looked at them still, just watching the waves as they waited for an answer, “If.. not, could I ask a favor from you then?”. Verity looked at Charque and nodded, “...well, What is it?” they respond. Charque fiddled with their own paws for a bit, “Would you mind forming an exploration team with me? I feel like you and I could make an exceptional team together, Verity,” he eagerly asked, Verity was a bit taken aback, but looked at Charque, “So will you?”
Verity smiled, nodding and taking Charque’s paw as a sign of trust, “Alright, let’s do this.”
[END OF CHAPTER 1]