The "Tail" of Exploration Team FlameTail. A story that is similar but different to the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Stories.
This story begins with a Pikachu named Pika, who used to be a part of a Rescue Team, but was unable to continue since his friend disappeared in a bright light on top of a canyon.
Now, instead of rescue teams and Pokémon Square, there are exploration teams and Treasure Town.
Even though everything has been changing over many years, Pika remains quite young, and still has many, many more things to learn about the world on which he lives on...
Chapter 1 A Storm at Sea
These events take place after a very stormy night, when the winds howled and the waves smashed the cliffs.
Pika had been pacing up and down the length of the cliff for a while now. The longer he stayed there, the more nervous he became. "That's it; I refuse to be paralysed by this any longer. I'm going to have to steel my courage today." he thought as he was deciding whether or not he was going to enter Wigglytuff's guild, a top-rank exploration centre, where Pokémon came to train to be part of an Exploration Team. Exploration Teams went all over the world making discoveries and maybe even finding treasure. Anyway, back to the story.
Pika took a deep breath, then walked onto a wooden grate which was in front of the door of the guild. "Pokémon detected! Pokémon detected!" shouted a voice from deep below the grate. "Whose footprint? Whose footprint?" shouted another voice. The first voice replied "The footprint is Pikachu's! The footprint is Pikachu's!" "Waaahhhh!" yelled Pika as the voices scared him off of the grate. "Oh, forget it. I can't work up the courage to go in. I thought holding on to my personal treasure would inspire me. Oh, well" Pika said to himself as he walked off away from the guild sadly.
When Pika had gone, two Pokémon came out from behind some bushes and started talking to each other. "Did you see that Zubat?" said the first one. "Yeah, but did you see what that wimp had with him Koffing? Looked like some sort of treasure." "Do we go after him?" asked Koffing. "We do."
Meanwhile, Pika had just arrived at the beach. It was evening, and all of the Krabby had come to blow bubbles over the sea. When Pika saw the sight of the orange Sunlight shining and reflecting off all of the bubbles, he suddenly relaxed and stood there, watching his most favourite view.
"The view is spectacular here, with all of the bubbles floating over the sea and the sunset. I always come here to uplift myself." Pika thought as he took in the view. Then, he saw something at the end of the beach, near the beach cave.
"Hmm? What's that over there?" he wondered. As he moved closer, he saw what it was and panicked. "Oh no! Someone has collapsed onto the sand!" he realized as he raced over to the unconscious Pokémon. "Are you alright?!" he exclaimed to the Charmander. "Urgh..." he moaned as he woke up. He stood up and started to look around. "You're awake! What a relief, you were passed out here" Pika said to the puzzled Charmander.
Then, the Charmander told Pika that he has no recollection of anything besides the fact that he is a human. "What? But you look like a normal Charmander to me. Suddenly, the Charmander started panicking as he realized the truth that he had indeed, turned into a Charmander. "Hey, are you trying to trick me?" asked Pika.
"No, why would I do that?" said the Charmander. "Well alright, then at least do you know your name?" Pika asked. "Oh that's right, my name is Char" said Char as he had a feeling he knew the Pikachu. "My name is Pika" as Pika also had a feeling that he knew Char.
"Sorry for doubting you though, it's just that more and more bad Pokémon have been turning up everywhere and it's hard to find a good Pokémon." As Pika finished talking, Char suddenly noticed two Pokémon, a Zubat and a Koffing, coming right at Pika. Before he could warn Pika, they slammed into him, causing a rock to fly from Pika's grip.
"Hey! Why'd you do that?!" exclaimed Pika as he got up off the ground. "We were trying to mess with you, can't face up to us, can you?" said the Zubat which made Char realize that these Pokémon were mean. "Oh, what's this?" said Zubat as he picked up the rock. "No, that's..." said Pika as he panicked.
"I'll take that" said Zubat. "What's the matter, aren't going to try to get this back? I didn't know you were such a coward!" teased Koffing. "See you around, chicken" said Zubat as he and Koffing were approaching the entrance to the beach cave.
Char couldn't take anymore of this since Pika was left sitting on the beach, upset. He jumped in front of the bullies and yelled "This is as far as you'll go into the cave unless you give Pika back his rock." "If you want it, you'll have to beat us first!" they said as they quickly fled into the cave. "Quick Char" said Pika, now full of courage because of Char's actions, "If we're quick, we can catch them at the bottom of the cave!"
So Char and Pika went deep into the cave, beating the wild Pokémon that challenged them, Kabuto, Corsola, Shellder and Shellos, until they reached the bottom of the beach cave. The ground was soft sand, the walls were red rocks weathered by high tide waves and there was a large opening at the back which showed the sea. Pika went behind the bullies and shouted "Uh, hey, give me back what you stole from me! That's my personal treasure! It means everything to me!"
"We told you, only if you beat us!" Suddenly, there were two bright flashes of light followed by a third, longer flash. Then, the battle started. Char went up to Zubat and hit him with an Ember attack, which knocked him out. Meanwhile, Pika hit Koffing with a Thundershock attack, but then Pika was poisoned by Koffing's Poison Gas attack.
Pika fell down in pain, clutching his stomach. When Char saw this, a huge power caused by anger engulfed him, which he suddenly released at Koffing. It knocked Koffing out cold. Since the bullies where wiped out, Char rushed over to Pika to see how he was going. It seemed that the poison had disappeared once the battle had finished.
"I hate poison, it hurts more than anything!" said Pika as he got up. "Anyway, how did you use Heat Wave? Only the most powerful fire type Pokémon can successfully control it..." Pika asked as he suddenly realized that he used to know another two fire types who could use Blast Burn. "I don't have a clue" said Char as he tried to figure out why Pika was so familiar.
"Anyway, thanks for helping me out. I couldn't have got this back without you." Pika picked up the rock that they had fought for. "This is my Relic Fragment. It's my personal treasure. I'll admit, it looks like junk, but if you look closely at it..." Char looked at it and saw a strange, unique pattern on the top of it. "See? That inscription forms a strange pattern, doesn't it?" "I've never seen anything like it!" said Char as he studied the pattern closely. "I just know that this fits into somewhere, I just don't know where yet. I love exploring, I mean wouldn't it be great to explore hidden lands? And history! Wouldn't it be fantastic to make historic discoveries? That's how I feel anyway" said Pika.
"Well, anyway, how would you like to join an exploration team with me Char? Please?" "Hmm, what should I do? I don't even know what an Exploration Team is! But, I don't have anywhere to go and maybe I could remember who I am by staying with Pika..." Char thought. "So, will you join an exploration team with me Char?" "I guess so" "You will? Excellent! Now, let's go to Wigglytuff's guild and sign up to be apprentices! The training could be tough, but let's give it our best effort Char!" said Pika happily.
As they walked off, Char suddenly became dizzy and blacked out. Then, he had a vision of a tower of clouds in the sky. Then, as suddenly as it had appeared, it disappeared and Char was back at the Pokémon World with Pika...