So...hello. How are you all? Good? ...Yeah, sorry. I'll, uh...yeah, I'll jabber at you at the end here. Bye!
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: The Shroud of Darkness
Chapter 01: A New World
"Zach, where are the fries?" asked a concerned voice from somewhere else in the kitchen.
"Working on it, this isn't easy!" came the reply from my companion behind me. He wiped a bit of grease off his forehead from the fries.
What were we doing? Well, the hideout of those beasts happened to be a local fast food joint, and they happened to be disguising themselves as the employees. Truthfully, it was kind of brilliant, in a weird way. Well, we broke in the back door and knocked everyone out, unknowingly during business hours, so after locking everyone into a closet, we frantically began to finish orders. I was manning the register, Zach was handling the fries and getting things wrapped, and Ryu had burger duty. Of course, we weren't being too discreet, but somehow the customers didn't seem to mind. My staff lay nearby, of course, in case I needed it. Zach still had his chainmail vest on, and his sword was strapped to his back, and Ryu...well, he didn't have anything else but his karate gi.
I looked back, concerned. I could see Zach's blonde hair over the roof of the fryer as he worked frantically to not burn the fries. I saw Ryu's black hair and blue headband join him for a moment, with a customer's burger.
"What's taking so long?" asked a feminine voice in front of me.
I turned back around. "I apologize, we're a bit...short staffed at the moment," I stuttered back to the lady who was patiently awaiting her order. I cast a brief glance at my staff, amused at what I realized had just been an accidental pun.
Ding! Zach had the order ready, it seemed. I turned around, grabbed the tray, double-checked the order was right, and turned back to the lady. "Here is your order, ma'a-OH!"
Where did her face go? She had one like 2 seconds ago, where did it go? Now there was just a black void. She stood there, still, like a statue.
"Uh...Zach, we may have a problem..." I said hesitantly.
"She may not be our only concern," said Ryu. He pointed behind him.
The kitchen was...breaking apart? Tile by tile, the place was breaking apart into a black void. I grabbed my staff, clutching it close, as Zach drew his blade, and Ryu took a fighting stance. We all backed up slowly, stopped by the lady from earlier. Her face was still gone, but two red slits appeared in her face, like eerie eyes. The void continued, and engulfed us all. I screamed as I saw my friends fall into the void, and disappear, along with everything else. I, however, stayed still, unaffected by the void.
"RYU, ZACH!" I screamed as they fell. What to do? Nothing! I couldn't even move! In fact, I almost felt...nonexistent.
As the final bits of reality disappeared, I silently mourned the loss of my friends. And, suddenly, one last body drifted towards the void. It was a scrawny boy, dressed in blood-soaked pajama...wait, that's me! What?
...I'm asleep...I think...right?
...I have to be...
...Yeah, completely, because I've never had friends called Ryu or Zach...and I most certainly was not a warrior...yeah, it was a dream...
...So I should be waking up at any moment...
...
...Right...?
...
...
...
...
Come on...wake up...
...
...Hello?
...
...
...
...
...
...
...Help...please, help...
...
...
...
...What...what's that?
...
...A...It's a...a yellow and a black and a white...
...And it's...clouds...
...Hello?
...I see something else...what is it?
...Is it...talking to me?
...
...
...It's gone...did it talk to me?
...What's going on?
And just like that...I could feel again...but differently...
"I...wh...thanks, I think..." I muttered out confusedly.
Suddenly, the large vast yellow area I was in with the black and white clouds began to become brighter and brighter. And suddenly, I was blinded by the light, closing and covering my eyes because of it.
"'Ey, what do yer doin'? What kinduva trick is this?" said a strange voice.
"Huh?" I opened my eyes, and I found myself near more clouds, white ones, but this time there was blue instead of yellow...and there was green and blue and yellow and...well, land below me. Specifically, a...whatsits...lake, that's the word.
"Where in the...?"
"Stop gawkin' an' answer me, ya lout!" said the voice again.
I looked down, startled that I seemed to be on something. A...what's the word...a...something. It was covered in brown, and had long red and orange at the top, and had brown going out far to the side...wait, this is called a bird...right?
"Oh...hi...uh...wh-wh...what a-"
"Oh, forget about it, I'll get you down for ya."
"Oh, I...thanks, I thi-oooOOOHAAAAAA!"
Mid sentence, the bird spun around, and I fell off it. This was not good. I felt very afraid, and all I remember all the way down was "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaAaAaAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaa..."
And then it got all dark and black...
SPLOOOSH!
...
...
...e...
..y...ke...
...ka...th..e...
...
...
HELLO?!
I made a very startled noise as I was suddenly shaken slightly at the shoulder.
"Mrrgh!"
"Hey, he's awake!"
"...Uh...?"
I noticed I was on my back, looking towards the...up...thing...sky? Yeah, that must be it, and those weird green things must be...something...? Honestly, I could not see anything very well, it was just all a large blur. Also, everything stung, like it hurt. I was then greeted by a red-and-green blob as it poked itself over me.
"You're okay...right?"
"...I...?"
"Yo, that's not how you handle someone who just fell out of the sky!"
Wait, who and where was this new voice?
"...who...is th-"
"Oh, come on, I at least got him to wake up!" responded my green, blobby buddy.
"Okay," said the voice, "that's good and all, but we need to see if he needs help, which I'm sure he does. Don't move him too much!"
"I have...body pain..." groaned myself.
"I'll bet you do," said the new voice, revealing itself as a sort of...pinkish-yellowish blob? Ack, why couldn't I see anything?
"Okay, well, let's get some help, and possibly something to lay him on. Got it?" said the yellow blob to the green one.
"Alright, I'll get a plank or something!" said the green one, exiting view.
I heard a loud breath-no, a sigh-coming from the yellow blob. "So, we're going to get you fixed up, okay? But, can you tell us a little about yourself?"
"I...well...I have pain...and everything is blobs..." I said slowly.
"Mhmm, alright, can you give us a name, Cubone?" responded the blob.
"...Who...what...?"
"I'm going to take that as a no. Alright, that's fantastic. You remember what happened at all?" he queried.
"...A bird flipped me off..." I said blearily, though the world around me was beginning to darken.
"...Wh-okay then, uh...oh, hold on, don't you...don't drift off now...worked so hard...keep awake...Cubone..."
How's it going? Good, I hope? Yeah...cool.
Listen, I do apologize, I've been meaning to finish up this story, but despite having time, I just...really dropped the ball on this one. So, yeah, this story is old, but dang it, I'm going to now finish it this time...hopefully.
Anyway, as to why I actually stopped last time, well...honestly I got a little ahead of myself. I bit off more than I could chew, you might could say. 7,000 words or whatever it was that I promised was too much for me. I buckled under the pressure, and now here we are, over a year later...yeah.
Actually, I was going to reboot this again in February, but due to laziness on my end, that fell through as well. If the story seems to jump in mood half-way through, you'll know why. Well, apart from the just jumbled nature of the chapter as a whole, which is intentional. It's a confusing time for everyone. After all, it's not every day that a Cubone just falls out of the sky, right?
Anywho, if you read the old story, you're probably guessing how things are going from here, but the thing is...well, the old one had MAJOR pacing issues. Like...really bad. Didn't really know where I was going, characters didn't really...do well...? Anyway, I promise to fix all of that come this new one.
Also, part of the pacing fix means that if you remember the old story, you may find that things may take a bit longer to get started than you might think, so...yeah.
Also, that other story I said I might do? Probably not going to follow through with that, unfortunately. If I have the time later, sure, but for now, I don't really remember the plot, and I have no real motivation to start that. That being said, I've got another story buzzing about my head that I might throw into a form less...fanfiction-y. You know, custom world and all of that? I'd be throwing a more...fictional feel on it, giving it a bit of a game feel to it. (after all, inspiration for it came from various games, which I won't be disclosing.)
Anyway, that's for a different time, and it's again, just an idea. But hey, plans change, you know.
For the time being, I'm going to just focus on one story.
Also, I have a job now! And School will happen too at some point. Don't expect as frequent of updates on this version as there was on the old one, which I do have to apologize for. So...1 new chapter a week? One benefit is that I can probably make these chapters a bit longer than in the old story, so that's good.
Another thing that will be inhibiting my ability to shove multiple chapters out per week is a developing case of carpal tunnel.
Yeah, carpal tunnel.
Anyway, in an effort to stop myself from droning on about my woes and prevent this chapter from seeming longer than it is, I'll go ahead and excuse myself now. I'll see if I can't get a second chapter done today...which would be interesting, but unlikely. Still, might as well get a lot done while I'm still motivated, eh?
Well, I'm off now.
Tschüs!
- JacobDaGun