I don't know what happened. Hell, I can barely even remember what was going on before I ended up here. I remember being high above in the sky, loud explosions, falling, and a hard impact with salt water. Let me tell you, falling into that stuff fucking hurts. How all those action heroes do it in the movies I have no idea, because the next thing I know I'm paralyzed on some beach in the middle of the night and choking up more blood than water.
"Hold still. I can't do this with you squirming like that."
The deep voice is unrecognizable to me and it is far too dark to make out the silhouette bending over my helpless form. After all I've been through, there was no way I would take being at someone else's mercy very lightly. My thoughts are rudely interrupted by a wind-knocking blow to my chest. Before I can take a breath of air the impacted area begins to burn with the intensity of a bullet wound which somehow missed a vital organ. I feel something digging through my pockets and the voice soon speaks up yet again.
"Nice wallet. So your name's Browley?" Yeah, give me back my stuff. "Sorry, Browley. I never wished to get you involved in this but I don't have a choice anymore."
My state is no match for the pain still burning away at me, spreading throughout my body. I mentally curse to myself as black spots begin to cloud my vision. I was going to die here after all that I went through. After escaping death time and time again in that forsaken hell-hole I was going to die the one time I was truly on my way home. And all while getting mugged. Nice job, Browley. But death didn't come to me. The exact opposite came, and my journey was far from over. I jumped straight from the frying pan into the fire, which probably had something to do with my future element. Well, that or all the firepower I packed in my previous crusade.
After the pain subsided there was nothing but numbness and black space before me. I never got to sleep very long; senses instantaneously flooded my brain. Air fills my nostrils so quickly I awake with a jolt. My head is pounding fiercely against my skull and I know the blood is rushing up there. Well, at least it is rushing. My vision stays a blurry mess as my eyes adjust to the bright light shining through the tree tops… tree tops? I thought I was on a beach. Wildly my head swings out and back to get a view of my surroundings and I discover my new location to be somewhere in a tropical jungle. The humidity and the plant life together just scream the tropics to me and I scowl at the heat. The sticky feeling of sweat is already starting to get on my nerves. When I make the movement to wipe my brow I notice something very wrong with my hand. Instead of the five-fingered, human hand I was familiar with I see an orange thing in my field of vision. It has four fingers instead of five and each one ends with a hardened point. I flex it experimentally in awe at what is before me. Then I check the other hand to be greeted with a mirror image.
The magnitude of the situation sets in at that moment. Panic-stricken I look over everything on my body and discover something new entirely. Everything is orange except for the large patch of faded yellow running down from my chest to my- Oh fuck. I have a tail. I have a fucking tail. To make matters worse there is an open flame at the end of it. There is a flame at the end of my tail, a tail I shouldn't even have! A flame! Fire! The thing that burns down forests and jungles! Just like the one I'm in… But then I see it. Upon closer inspection I notice a rather small hole at the end of my new appendage. And then I realize that maybe I'm not on fire (I would probably feel that if I was) and what's really happening is that the flame is being emitted by the tail. I've seen stranger things, like the existence of my tail in the first place. Fuck, I'm never going to let that drop am I? Ironically the tail is what calmed me down, even if for a second. There is a strange alien feeling in my lower backside when I turn back around to further examine myself. My flaming tail hit the grassy ground in a jungle. My blood runs cold and I freeze in place out of fear. Seconds turn into minutes and the green shrubbery shows no hints of being disturbed by a ravaging fire. Once again my attention goes to that tail and not even the grass surrounding the flame shows any burns. Against my better judgment I try wiggling the tail around in the grass with my clawed hand yet nothing happens. What kind of fire is this anyways? The land I find myself in apparently has a tight timetable for my thinking as once again a noise interrupts me.
"Oh crap!" I crane my neck up just in time to see a yellow rodent crash into me face-first. "Owowow, sorry. The branch was a little loose." The creature apologizes in a voice that sounds like a younger version of a mix between Nolan North's Deadpool and JonTron. "You okay?" It studies me for a moment before bursting out in laughter. "Yep! You're fine!" I raise an eyebrow and promptly realize that I may not even have eyebrows anymore. I never even checked my face to notice the changes there. The yellow monster's laughter fades into a nervous chuckle before speaking once again. "Um… sorry about that. I was just practicing my parkour in the trees." Parkour? Like that street running thing people do instead of just taking the stairs? My eyebrow remained firmly raised as I began to question just exactly what kind of freaky animal was talking to me.
"What? Do I have something on my face?" The monster crossed its eyes and began rubbing at its black nose, then its red cheeks. I want to ask so many questions, but every time I open my mouth I find that words just escape me. I cannot seem to think of a way to inquire as to what is in front of me without getting a punch in the face. So I seal my lips shut once again. The creature notices my attempts to speak and predictably begins to ask about it.
"Yes? Do you need to say something?" I shake my head for negative but the thing doesn't buy it. "Come on, you can tell me. Look at you staring at the grass; you're the shy type, huh?" Fuck, I am staring at the grass. "So what are you doing out here all alone anyways? Charmanders tend to live in the volcano back-" He sticks his tongue out as he spins around with a finger (paw?) pointed. Finally he stops and gestures in the given direction. "-that way! I mean, that's a long ways from here, nearly the entirety of the island!" Finally some good information. So I'm on an island, which means I'm stranded out in the middle of the ocean somewhere in a foreign body. And apparently I'm something called a Charmander. Then what was this thing?
"Okay seriously, that whole 'not-talking' thing is kinda starting to freak me out." He puts his paws on his hips before gasping in false realization. Here it comes, the same question everyone I meet seems to ask me. "You're not mute, are you?" I called it. His fears were alleviated when once again I shook my head no, but still it would not shut up. "So then what's up with the quietness? You can't be that shy, right?" Figuring that I will have to say something to get some silence from the annoying thing, I cough a little to clear my voice before speaking.
"W-wha…" Crap, I'm stuttering again. "Wha-what… what are you?" Too blunt? The yellow rodent looks at me quizzically before once again laughing.
"Oh, good one. That's a good one." He stares at me for a few seconds before dropping the grin. "You serious? You've never seen a Pikachu before? Everyone's seen a Pikachu! The Pichu-boom is still going on! Fuck man, there's even starting to be reservations for us in some regions!" Give me a break, I just got here. "Wow. That is… new. What's your name?" The Pikachu's eyes quickly dart to the side before meeting mine again. "Er, if you have a name. Most Pokémon don't for some reason. I don't know." He follows up with a very forced cough.
"Browley." I answer with a hoarse voice.
"Well come on Browley, this is no place for a lone Pokémon. There's nothing here but a couple of Mystery Dungeons." The Pikachu proceeds to walk off in the direction I can only assume it came from.
"W-what's a Mystery Dungeon?" I manage to croak out.
The Pikachu stops in its tracks immediately. Its head whips around to face me completely stunned. "You don't have amnesia do you?" I frown at the question before realizing that to a degree I actually do. I can't remember how I got to this island, or how I changed bodies.
"A-a little."
The rodent's eyes sparkle for the quickest moment and his mouth opens yet again. "You wouldn't happen to be human, would you?" How the fuck did he-
"Yes?"
"Wow. That explains things!" He chuckles.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, that's why you didn't know what I was and why you don't know what a Mystery Dungeon is!" Once again the thing was grinning at my lack of knowledge of this island. "You definitely gotta get to town with me, you'll probably end up dead within a few hours otherwise! No offense." Why is it that whenever someone says 'no offense' it becomes much more offensive? I guess he does have a point though, I don't know this island like he probably does and this new body is bound to cause problems somehow. "By the way, I never did say my name did I? Yeah, I actually decided I needed one since there are just so damn many Pikachus in the world today! I'm Boon! Nice meeting you Browley!"
Boon… I think I'm probably going to forget it within a few minutes like I do with most names. Oh well, I can just use amnesia as an excuse to ask again, even if the case is rather minor.
"So," Boon begins yet again. "Do you know how to use moves?" I can't say I do, so I just shake for the negative. "Oh really? Well before we go on let's practice." That grin is starting to unnerve me this time.
It takes us a few minutes but we manage to find a clear area to practice 'moves'. Boon stands about fifteen feet in front of me rubbing his paws together. Fuck it, I'll say hands. They're close enough.
"Okay then! I know nothing about fire types but that shouldn't be too much of a problem right now! I can go over the basics!" Boon shouts out to me. He jumps down onto all fours and static begins to visibly build up by those red cheeks of his. There is no way I'm getting on four legs if that's what he wants, I'm human dammit! "Grounds rules! Each Pokémon has something in its body that controls its powers!" Wait, we have powers? As in superpowers? I think I can get used to this body. "I've heard all kinds of names for it, like ember and amber! I think that sounds stupid so I'm calling it the PEN15!" I can't help but face palm at this name; I prefer the term 'amber'. "Why does everyone always do that? Whatever. Now the PEN15 separates itself into different forms within your body, we call these 'moves'! The PEN15 can't split into more than four moves, so even if you technically know how to preform those moves your PEN15 won't let you!" That seems rather inconvenient. "You're new to this so your PEN15 probably only knows one or two moves! I assume those are 'growl' and 'scratch'!"
"…I thought you said these were powers…"
"They are! They all don't have fancy names though!"
"Then what's difference between a regular growl and the move?"
"The move was named after growling 'cause it sounds similar. Really what it does is mess with the other Pokémon's PEN15. Why are you smiling like that? Anyways… it messes with the PEN15 and weakens their powers a bit." Oh, that's pretty cool. Now even Boon is beginning to laugh, but I suspect it's for a different reason. "Man, if you tried growling regularly at a Nidoking it'd stomp you into the dirt!" Note to self: Find out what a Nidoking is. "That's why you need to use moves as often as possible! Screw the haters! Haters gonna hate! Now focus and try to direct some of that PEN15 into either 'scratch' or 'growl'!"
I lower myself into a fighting stance and prepare to do some Kumbaya-Zen shit. I close my eyes and begin to focus when Boon's laughter reaches my eardrums.
"Oh man! I can't believe you fell for that focus thing! Well, I can 'cause you did, but you know what I mean!" I let out a sigh as I wait for him to teach me how to do this. After what I can only guess is about ten whole minutes Boon regains his composure and wipes a tear from his eye. "Alright, alright. Heh, I'm serious now. This is going to sound weird, but bear with me for a second." You? weird? Naw, you're just a little annoying. "You know how you change the pitch of your burps and farts? It's the same thing, only for your PEN15! It just sort of comes naturally, try it out!" I'm screwed.
I 'try it out' and find myself directing a flow of gasses towards my mouth. It builds up in my chest and with all my might I let loose one of my best burps of the week. Boon is rolling around on the floor laughing at this point. My face is probably red with embarrassment but I am not going to let the little yellow thing hurt my pride more. So I do what anyone sane would do who just failed at a task, I try the exact same thing again. My results are predictable. Boon said it comes out naturally, so I attempt to be natural. I clear my head of thoughts about the PEN15's power. Maybe I am still trying to focus on what shouldn't be focused on. This time I manage to direct, well, something to my mouth. I'm unable to hold it in and a set of visible energy waves comes blasting out of my maw with a dull noise vaguely resembling a growl. The waves are bright and white in coloration; I can't help but be mesmerized by their appearance. Boon is still rolling around giggling before he is hit by the waves. Rather than freak out or grow angry, he actually jumps up and starts cheering!
"Whoo-hooo! You did it! That's how you use a move! The rest should be pretty similar to that, just channel the energy and let it loose! Your PEN15 should do the rest!" I relish in my victory as he continues cheering about how great of a teacher he is.
When Boon was done we hiked further on for a good while. From the top of the hills the island setting is increasingly apparent. I can even see the beaches where sand meets water. Across that water was the faint image of more island, just barely visible along the horizon. Boon must have noticed my gaze because he commented on the sight.
"Yep. That's the Southeastern part of the Jichi Islands. This place is actually shaped like an upside-down 'U'. If you look to your left a bit you'll see how this connects. Kinda. The view isn't really good enough right here, but you'll get the idea." Indeed I do. I have to stick my neck out a tad but I can see where the far island slightly begins to bend towards our direction. At the rate it is going though, the actual connecting point is probably miles ahead of our current location. Boon chuckles. "Don't worry, the nearest town isn't all the way on the other side. We just have a little further to go."
Our hike picks back up and Boon rattles on about his parkour more. Apparently he's been practicing ever since he was a Pichu. It takes another blank stare for him to realize I have no idea what that is and he clarifies it's basically a baby-to-toddler form of Pikachu. Within another ten minutes we reach another set up trees, this one with the strangest looking thing I've ever seen.
Cutting into the jungle as if it was placed there way after the trees were is a faintly visible dome of something. As we get closer the dome becomes more and more visible, yet this was nothing natural. The surface of the dome distorts the single image of the jungle into a mess of images. It is as if the dome is projecting a picture of the jungle and displacing little patches of that image in areas they shouldn't belong. It creates a jumbled up view of the path before us, yet the effect is still so subtle one would have to look closely to notice the distortion.
Boon sighs and pops his knuckles. "Welp, this is it. This is a Mystery Dungeon."