Pokémon Mystery Dungeon - Explorers of Time and Darkness
Chapter 1 - Rebirth
It's working! We did it!
...
AAAAAAAAUUUUUUGGGHHH!!
A-Are you OK!? Hold on tight, we'll make it! Don't let go!
Gasp ... My arms...! They're disappearing...! No! Hold on!
Don't let go! Don't let go! Don't let g...
This day for sure. Now or never. She was fully prepared, ready for the task that was at hand. Her determination peaked as she clutched her most treasured belonging tightly, and an unbreakable spirit began to burn within her heart. Feeling more confident than ever before, she started walking up the road at a fast pace. The wooden sign she knew so well passed her by in a moment's flash, and the stairs were never easier to climb. As she reached the top of them, she knew that she had also reached her destination.
Not wanting to yield, she decided to keep her eyes focused at her goal. Staring intently at the entrance, she walked past the flags, cut trees and bushes. However, the nearer she got to the entrance, the larger it seemed to become. The fact that it was shaped exactly like the leader of the guild was not helping one bit. Although the entrance was smiling, what if the leader in real life is very different? What if he is strict or mean? What if she ends up regretting…
She slowed her pace down more and more and finally stopped herself right in front of entrance. 'This won't work… I'm not cut out for this. I'll just go home and prepare myself for tomorrow, and then maybe I will…' she started thinking to herself, but suddenly a thought hit her. "I will… No, no, no! I even brought my treasure so that I could do this… I have to be brave… Be brave… Today for sure… Now or never…"
Quietly repeating the slogans she had come up with during her earlier stroke of courage, she took a few shaky steps towards the entrance. She looked around to make sure that no one was watching her from one of the bushes. Suddenly, she heard a strange sound as she stepped on something weird on the ground. She jumped a little out of shock, but kept herself from doing anything else when she noticed that she had just stepped on a wooden grid, covering a large hole in the ground. It was positioned right behind a small hill, so she hadn't noticed it at first. 'Whew… I won't be scared away that easily' she thought to herself, feeling her confidence returning. "POKEMON DETECTED! POKEMON DETECTED!" a loud and shrill voice suddenly echoed from the hole, almost making her jump out of her skin. "WHOOSE FOOTPRINT? WHOOSE FOOTPRINT?" the voice continued, each syllable causing every nerve in her body to shatter as she kept repeating "Brave… Today… Now…" to herself while standing paralyzed at the spot. The voice was silent for a few seconds, before shouting "THE FOOTPRINT IS CHIKORITA'S! THE FOOTPRINT IS CHIKORITA'S!".
"Waaaahh!" Chikorita screamed as she turned around and ran away from the hole and jumped into one of the nearby bushes. Moments later, she saw a shadow of someone at the entrance and could hear a voice. "Huh? There's no one here!" it said as the shadow went inside again, "STUPID PRANKSTERS!".
Crawling out of the bushes later, Chikorita sighed heavily. 'Pathetic… What am I doing…?' she asked herself. She lowered the leaf on her head to take a look at her trump card, her personal treasure that she had brought with her for support. She looked back at the entrance one last time before walking away with her head hanging low.
"Gah! That was close, she almost saw us!" Zubat said, moving out from behind a rock to watch the saddened Pokémon leave. "Wahahaha! Will ya get a load of this coward!?" Koffing laughed, rolling around on the ground behind the rock, "Can't even ENTER the place! WAHAHAHAHA!"
"Hehe... Yeah... But did you see that thing she had on her head?" Zubat said as Koffing calmed down. "Uhh... A green leaf?" Koffing said with a quizzical stare, "Oh, you mean inside it? Yeah, that rock-thing. What about it?". "I heard her mumble something about bringing a treasure with her... And that was the only thing she was carrying, right?" Zubat said and flexed his large ears for a moment to strengthen his point. "Um, at least from what I can tell, it's kind of hard to see" Koffing said, "But that might be true, it looked like that rock had something on it". "Well then, let's steal it!" Zubat said gleefully, "It's not like she's gonna try to stop us, right? She's such a coward!"
'... I'm such a coward' Chikorita thought as she walked down the cliff towards the beach, like she usually did when she was feeling depressed. When she got there, she noticed that the sky was filled with bubbles glittering in the sunset. "Oh! It's time for that again" she exclaimed, getting a rush of happiness for a moment before remembering why she was there. She sat down on the sand and stared out over the ocean. The massive ocean was shining glowing yellow, orange and blue while the bubbles in the air each reflected and transformed the breathtaking view into tiny little versions of itself. A bunch of Krabby had gathered at the edge of the water, where they were constantly increasing the number of the already many bubbles in the air.
'… It's not my fault! It's that loud voice that came out of nowhere…' Chikorita thought and slumped together like a beanbag. Seeing the sun setting at the horizon was beautiful, but did little to help her cope with her feelings. 'I… Why am I always like this?' she thought, 'Why can't I be a little braver? I have tried to get into the guild so many times now and failed… I work up my courage without any trouble, but then it leaves me just as easily! I guess that's what being a coward really is…'
She sat still for a while, not really thinking about anything. The bubbles had started floating pretty far beyond the shore by now, so her eyes started wandering the area to look at them. Looking around, she saw what she thought was a rock in the sand by the shoreline a bit away from her. It was somewhat round and a little bigger than she was. That goes for most rocks anyway; Chikoritas aren't known to be one of the larger Pokémon. 'Wait a minute…' she thought to herself, 'Is that really a rock? It's so brightly colored…'.
She started walking over there to get a closer look, and the nearer she got the less convinced she became that it was a rock. It looked like a Pokémon! 'Hey! Are you alright!?' she said while running towards the unknown creature.
"... Hmnm..." he mumbled. He could hear a voice, and something was bumping his side. His mind was still in scrambles, so he didn't really understand any of this. However, he recovered quickly, and suddenly opened his eyes. "Ah! Great, you're awake!" he heard a female voice to the right of him say. Although he had just come to it, he immediately noticed that something was wrong. He couldn't feel his arms or legs, his stomach felt very strange and he was somehow lying on a part of himself, although he couldn't determine what. "I was worried that something had happened…" he heard the voice again, snapping him out of his internal checkup and back into reality. He saw a rather orange sky above him filled with what seemed to be bubbles, and the unmistakable sound of waves could be heard. "… Are you OK?" he once again heard the voice say. Turning his head to the right, he was greeted by a green smiling face.
"GAH!" he shouted while trying to sit up, but it felt very different from what it usually felt like, "What the… What's this…". He looked again at the green face, which was now looking somewhat worried. "AH! What the heck is that!?" he said, quickly back away. "Huh?" Chikorita said, "What do you mean?". "I-It talks!?" he said, getting a better look at Chikorita from a distance, "A… A giant green hotdog with legs and a face… That gets worried and talks…?".
"Hey! That's rude!" Chikorita snapped back and took a step forward, "What's wrong with you!?". "Stay away from me, hotdog!" he said and started to back away faster, causing him to trip and fall backwards, 'W-What's wrong with my body?' he thought. "Stupid Pikachu, what are you doing?" Chikorita said, getting more and more frustrated.
"Wait… What did you call me?" he said, suddenly stopping. "What I called you!? You called me a hotdog!" Chikorita said. "No, no, what you called me. 'Pikachu', was it?" he replied, now very confused. "Well, you are a Pikachu!" Chikorita said and was preparing to follow up, but stopped herself and watched as the shocked Pokémon suddenly looked down at his body and started moving his limbs. His expression was one of strong disbelief when he slowly said "I'm a… What? What am I?", and suddenly he just silently stared in front of him for a while. "You… Are you alright? I didn't mean to be so harsh before, I…" Chikorita started, but was interrupted as the Pikachu noticed the ocean and tried running there. He immediately stumbled, and even had some trouble getting back on his feet. When he finally got to the ocean, he stared in disbelief at his own reflection, not moving a single muscle.
TO BE CONTINUED
Authors Comments: Yes, the start of a new story. I have been playing Explorers of Darkness now for a few weeks, and as I was playing it I came up with a killer storyline and a lot of nice ideas that would be nice to somehow present to someone else. First, I tried drawing it. That went very poorly... A Pikachu was easy to throw together, but a Groudon? No way!
Second, I tried making a video about it. Or yeah, 'tried' and 'tried'... I scrapped the plan at its embryo state, I've tried recording stuff before, and I know how much work it takes to make it function.
So what was I to do? I was skipping around the house, basically exploding with ideas. I decided to try to write a new story, and I guess we'll see how it goes. There is still a few chapters left of the story before I can start writing the good parts I have planned, but since I can't just skip past the beginning I'll have to work my way through it. Oh! But don't think I won't make the rest exceptional as well! Er... Or at least I'll try to.
I love getting feedback on my work, be it good, bad or neutral. If you wish to show your appreciation for reading this story coughchaptercough, nothing suits me better than a good old review.
Until the next time...