Pokemon Mystery Dungeon
Light in the Shadows | Prologue
Lose a Luz
"Luz? Where are you?"
Sahara expected some sort of "Boo" a few seconds later, such was the normal greeting between them. Nothing happened. Sahara looked everywhere around their normal meeting place, behind the café between their houses. Even up, Luz liked to climb. Nowhere.
"C'mon, this is very funny," Sahara said. She followed the path Luz would have taken, looking for her the entire way to her dad's house. No luck. She walked inside.
"What's wrong?" Mr. Kintaria, a severe-looking, but kind-hearted Recalitty said. "You look like you've lost something."
"Yeah," Sahara said. "Have you seen Luz around?"
"No," Luz's father said sincerely. "She said she was going to talk with you about some movie and ran out the door. She didn't show up?"
"No." Sahara shook her head as well, for no particular reason.
"Huh. Hope she hasn't gone too far astray. Need any help looking for her?" Luz's father offered.
"Please," Sahara nearly gasped.
"Lordy, someone's tense," Luz's father said with a smirk and a chuckle. Sahara didn't laugh. "Come on."
He led Sahara around the rest of Torch Valley, which went into the night, but neither one could find the missing Luz. They stopped in front of a menacing-looking cave in the west face of the valley. The town was far back, this was probably the furthest Luz would have gone.
"Luzfira Lane, stop playing this game," Luz's father said. The middle name! Sahara thought. She's in trouble now!
Nobody came out. "LUZFIRA!" Mr. Kintaria bellowed, the name echoing off the walls of the valley and the cave. Still nothing.
"She's in trouble, and not just with me," Luz's father said. "Wait right here, Sahara. I'll be back." He ran back towards town. Ookay then. Guess I wait, Sahara thought. She looked into the cavern, feeling like she was being watched.
Suddenly, something glowed deep within. "What was that?" Sahara exclaimed. The glint disappeared. "Luz, if you're in there, say something." Only the sound of her own voice greeted her. Sahara tried to "see" ahead using her powers, but couldn't see past the entrance. That's odd, Sahara thought. She walked into the cavern.
Immediately a sharp pain erupted in Sahara's head. She nearly hit it against the wall as she leaned against it, and yet the pain got worse. It felt like something inside her head was screaming, and as such Sahara yelled right along with it. The pain went away after she did that, and while it seemed like common sense at the time, the fact it actually worked shocked Sahara.
She walked further into the tunnel, every so often saying "Hello? You there, Luz?" at a near-whisper. The tunnel bent around and around, and eventually it got too dark to see. Well, if one wasn't a Quakeon, that is. Sahara, for the first time she could remember, had to use her "Luxray vision." Thank you, seismic powers, Sahara thought.
Eventually the path forked. The right path had a soft purple light, enough to barely make out the left path. Figuring that Luz would follow the light because she couldn't see in complete darkness, Sahara took the right path...and came to a dead end.
"Now what?" Sahara thought out loud. There's something on the other side of that wall, I can tell. But if I bring it down, I could trap both of us in here...Sahara tapped on the wall. Nothing happened, good or bad. It appeared the wall didn't matter to the cave's integrity, so Sahara tried to open a person-sized hole in the wall.
Immediately upon doing so, something dived in and went straight for Sahara's face. She tore it off, in her hands was a flailing Zubat. And everyone knew, where there's one Zubat…
...there's many more behind it. Sahara ducked, she counted three more that flew right over her, and two staying to check out who just broke in. Sahara created a pillar of earth underneath each one, crushing them against the ceiling. Zubats don't have much in the way of strength, just number. Sahara walked several steps forward, then started feeling dizzy. She walked along the path as far as she could, but eventually she fell down. That Zubat bit me, Sahara realized. It barely even hurt, but it definitely bit her.
"Luzfira!" Sahara shouted. She didn't expect a response, but it was worth a try.
"Come here!" Luz yelled. Sahara was too occupied with her swirling head to be surprised by the response, just yelling back a weaker "I can't!" No sound came back for a moment, and Sahara assumed Luz couldn't hear her.
"I need help!" Luz pleaded eventually. By then, Sahara's head had started to clear up, and she could walk again. She slowly walked further down the tunnel, which opened into a large room with a pedestal in the middle. On the pedestal was a bracelet. Sahara walked up to it and reached out for it.
"Don't take it!" Luz said. "That's how—" It was too late. Sahara had already grabbed the gem and nearly had it on her wrist. A shudder went through the entire cave. "Ookay, let's go." Sahara ran over to Luz and saw that her leg was broken. Well, there's your problem, Sahara thought. She picked Luz up with a grunt and ran. The light got dimmer, but it didn't go away entirely. It appeared the crystal Sahara took gave off a small amount of light. That was good, because Sahara couldn't "see" anymore otherwise.
"I hope you remember the way out of here!" Luz shouted as the cave shuddered again.
"Yeah, it's simple!" Sahara said. Just go from the cross tunnels straight across and follow it up, right? She continued across a crossing set of tunnels, and then into a room that wasn't there before. She looked frantically for an exit, and found three of them.
"You're lost, aren't you?" someone said. It wasn't Luz, her response was, "Well, now we're screwed."
Watching them was a shadow Pokémon. This didn't look good to her. "Why now?" she asked. "Just wait, they're not ready yet."
"What are you doing?" the shadow Pokémon's captor said. "Ah, your light of hope. Why do you think I sent him to it? To snuff it out."
"Heh. You don't get it, do you?"
"There's nothing you know that I don't."
"Shadows need light. In darkness they can't be cast."
"Get to the point, Anakira."
"The shadow you've cast over the land? It seems you've forgotten that there will always be light in the shadows. Snuff out this one and another one will form."
The shadow Pokémon was slapped for this. "I should just kill you right now."
"Yeaaah, but you need my powers. Good luck without me."
"That's the only reason you're still alive. And I could probably do this with our resident Pixeleon."
"Who doesn't have enough power because it's not the same type."
"You see right through me."
"Then stop being so predicta-" An explosion, followed by a murmur from the shadow Pokémon.
"That's more like it."
