Here we go, the real start of Dungeon. These first few chapters will be lacking action and you may find them boring, but they're very important to set up the story. I suppose I could have picked less used main characters, but you can be sure that regardless of their species and how commonly they appear in Dungeon fanfics, I'll make mine quite unique.


Chapter One: A Detestable Friendship

It was the tenth of May, nine o'clock a.m. In Mourburn, there had just ended another "discussion" of who had gone missing. The townsfolk had those talks about every two days, although whenever someone fell into a fissure and a friend of theirs was with them, the friend would go racing off back to town to beg anyone who would listen to help. In that way, it was learned who were Missings long before everyone got together to talk about them.

At the one just ended, the main focus had been the disappearance of a better-known member of the Skystrype Rescue Team. He had been on a rescue mission only half a day ago, but two large earthquakes had rocked the dungeon he was in since then. It was likely he and the Missing he had been after hadn't survived, but the concerned citizens and teammates were still hoping that they had.

The only Pokémon who didn't seem to be completely focused on him were a frantic Butterfree, more worried about her son, a Caterpie, than anything else, and an Eevee, the only other one who was interested in saving him. The semi-fox-like creature was well known in those parts for being a very optimistic person with a good sense of humor, but not so much that she annoyed everyone she was around all of the time.

With no one else apparently willing to go and attempt a rescue of him, and because he was just so young, she decided to try to do it herself. She wasn't part of a rescue team nor did she wish to join one, but she and the Butterfree, Gloria, had been well-acquainted for about two years. Everyone liked Dillon, the Caterpie, but they never seemed to actually want to be associated with him; his only real friend was the Eevee, and she loved nothing better than playing with him. She'd rather not let those good times end just then.

She and Gloria were currently headed to the Tiny Woods, where Dillon had disappeared. Actually, he had disappeared under the woods, as the butterfly was explaining; apparently, they were both out for some fresh air and exercise. She had turned her back for only a moment, the ground had started shaking and a long, thin fissure that opened up in the earth plunged Dillon into a dungeon below. She immediately whirled around and, to her horror, saw that her son was gone. She desperately cried down to him to no avail, and she couldn't go down after him because she was too big. Butterfrees are larger than you'd think, actually.

She came back to town as fast as she could and started pleading with anyone she saw to rescue him, but no one would take the job; some claimed that they would, but they too were too large to get down there. Her last hope was the next town meeting, where anyone who might be willing to help her would be coming. Fortunately there was to be one the next morning, though it was a long and torturous wait for her until then. That was then, but now she actually had a real hope in her friend that she might soon see her son again. If he wasn't already dead, that is.

Suddenly, Gloria stopped; her friend wasn't right beside her anymore. She whipped around again, terrified that somehow, something had happened to her too, though as she looked back she saw that the evolution Pokémon was still there, paused as she twitched her ears curiously. She had heard something nearby, and they were already in the outskirts of the woods. But rather than rustling or twig-snapping, it sounded like a--a popping sound. Really, what she heard was indescribable.

Cautiously, she tiptoed over to the side of the dirt path, a light fence of shrubbery obstructing her view of anything beyond it, and quietly parted a section of it with her front paw. Nothing was there. Just to be safe, she then stepped into the shrubbery, looking this way and that with every step for any wild Pokémon that might be looking for an easy meal. Gloria was just behind her, glancing around nervously in the same manner as her friend.

After about half a minute of false anticipation, a very quick search, the Eevee decided that what she had heard was either simply a Pidgey nearby or her imagination. She turned around and slowly found her way back to the dirt path, Gloria and she both relieved that they hadn't actually found anything. Stepping back out into the openness of the path, the fox-like creature took a deep breath and--yelped, jumping back. Lying on the dirt road before her, unconscious, was a large red lizard: a Charmander. Unconscious, not as in sleeping peacefully; by his body position it looked as if he had suddenly collapsed, or simply fallen out of the sky.

The Eevee edged closer to him, not having decided whether he was threatening or not. He looked harmless enough, but it could be a trick, or she might wake him up in a very, very grumpy mood. She slowly circled him, looking for bruises or anything else that might hint as to what happened before he, well, did whatever he had just done.

There were none, which mystified her all the more; his breathing was also normal, meaning that he hadn't been pouring his lungs out fleeing from something or someone. Together, those observations greatly increased the chance that he had just walked up, decided to take a nap and plopped down right in the middle of the road. Not to mention right in dangerous, wild territory. It made absolutely no sense.

Suddenly his eyes jolted open, and the Eevee jumped back once more in surprise. She readied herself for a fight, trying to hide the fear welling up inside of her, but it wasn't necessary; all the Charmander did was lay there, blinking. No jumping up, growling and charging; not angry, confused or frightened. Just laying there, thinking.

Slowly, he turned his head to his right and left, looking at his surroundings carefully. He didn't seem to recognize them.

"So, um..." the Eevee started, finally plucking up the courage to say something, "I haven't seen you around here before."

He turned his head toward her, a cautious look in his eyes. "Well, I don't think I've been around here before."

His voice was ever-so-slightly cold, biting and sarcastic, almost as if he wanted to offend her. Not very common for people who had never even seen each other before, and the Eevee certainly wasn't feeling any more comfortable around him, but she decided that she wasn't just going to give a huff and march away. He was probably lost and didn't want to admit it, and her better nature was urging her to try to help him.

"I'm Chrys," she said, forcing a half-smile to her face.

The Charmander ignored her, twisting his body to face the ground and pushing himself up onto his feet. He seemed intently focused on himself and his surroundings, almost as if he had never seen a Charmander or woods before. Obviously, something awry had just happened to him after all.

After a few seconds of slowly turning around in circles, he stopped and faced Chrys. In a perfectly calm, almost bored voice, he asked, "Where am I?"

It was like something out of a storyteller's mouth back at Mourburn; first a mysterious and completely unexplained appearance, then what was probably the most common question asked in the entire world of suspense: "Where am I?" It was ridiculous. Nevertheless, Chrys was obliged to help, as her subconscious always got the better of her.

"We are in the outskirts of the Tiny Woods. Actually, Gloria and I were just headed into the deeper parts," she answered, more than a slight bit huffy at his lack of manners.

He simply stood there and blinked for a few seconds, as if expecting Chrys to say something further. When she didn't, he said, "Tiny Woods. I actually believe that that's one of the most unoriginal names I've ever heard in my life. Literally."

He was completely serious; there wasn't a twinge of excitement that could hint toward his words being a joke. Of all the rude, egotistical morons--

"Well, we didn't name it that," Chrys stated, resisting the urge to slap him with her paw, "And we've got to go now."

A glance back at Gloria confirmed she seemed very anxious to continue into the woods. With her son's life in danger and this idiot only delaying them, she had good reason to be.

"Any specific reason you're going in there?" asked the Charmander, as if he even had the right to inquire.

Chrys turned back toward the path and started walking, her Butterfree friend a bit confused and warily following. After walking only a few feet, she stopped and answered, "Gloria's son, Dillon, lost his way in there, and we're going to find him."

The two of them then started forward again, leaving the overgrown lizard to go his own way and hopefully never see them again. As they got farther and farther away, Chrys looked back to see if he was still just standing there. To her relief, he was gone, either having gone the other way or having disappeared into the mangled and twisted shrubbery surrounding the path. Whichever it was, she was quite fine with that.

After a little while, the sky slowly faded from view with more and more giant trees obscuring the view from the land; the woods may have had a small name, but they were every bit as dangerous as any other place in that time and had the looks to match. Besides the gnarled, clawed-up and bitten-on plants everywhere, there was one thing scarier than anything else: the small fissure in the center of it all, beckoning anyone near it to come in and be swallowed up by the earth itself.

Standing right above it were Chrys and Gloria, sweating anxiously. The Butterfree's son was down there and she didn't even know if he was dead or alive, and the Eevee was his only hope if he still was. Slowly, Chrys stepped forward, wishing for something to suddenly happen so that she wouldn't have to go down there. Something. Anything. You can probably already guess what happened next.

"Hey."

Chrys jumped back from the hole and spun around to see the annoyingly familiar face of the Charmander she and Gloria had met earlier. Calming down, she demanded, "What do you think you're doing here? We never asked for your company, nor did we want it!"

"Wow. I think that's almost harsh," he said, mocking the fox-like creature's intimidating ability, or lack thereof. "But to answer your question, I thought that you probably needed help."

Chrys' face started to grow red from anger and embarrassment. With no witty responses coming to mind to counter him, she yelled, "Jerk!"

He shrugged it off and glanced down the hole. After seeming to think through the matter in a few seconds, he looked back at Chrys. "...And you were expecting to get back up here how, exactly, after you dived down there?"

She raised an eyebrow, not understanding quite what he meant.

"Obviously, you were just about to go down there. After you found whatever you were--"

"Whoever," Gloria corrected him in a huffy tone of voice.

It was the Charmander's turn to raise an eyebrow as he glanced down the hole once more. "Fine. After you found whoever you were looking for, presumably, you were going to bring them back up here and everybody goes home happily. But, I wonder, how were you planning to get them and yourself back up here? Fly?"

After a couple of seconds of it sinking in, Chrys' cheeks flushed red again as she realized what he meant; she hadn't gotten any rope, vines or any other durable string-like substance to ensure here safe return after she found Dillon. The fissure did have a noticeably large distance between the opening and area where one would land from hopping into it, and in her nervousness she had forgotten even the most rudimentary and important thing.

She looked back at the Charmander, wishing she could melt through the ground. "I... forgot about... that."

Apparently, it was quite an amusing situation as he was barely able to suppress snickering. They had no rope nearby and since they weren't in a jungle, no sturdy vines. So, they had still wasted their time in coming because there was nothing that could be done for the poor Caterpie stuck down there. As the mother she was, Gloria instantly starting crying. Bawling, really.

Chrys wandered over to her to try and comfort her, desperately thinking of ways in her head to continue the rescue. Soon, after some more crying, silent consoling and half-grinning, the Charmander spoke up once more. "So, who were you going after?"

The Eevee bitterly looked up at him from staring at the ground, almost as if their current events were his fault. "Her son. Dillon. He's down there, trapped and alone. And now..."

She trailed off as Gloria fell to the ground, unable to continue flying from breaking out into hysterics. Looking on at the drama unfolding before him, the Charmander dropped his amused face, the situation having apparently lost its humor. He gave a slight sigh and carefully eyed the two other Pokemon in front of him, seeing that they were now taking no notice of him.

Before the they could even understand what was going on, he gave a small dash and jumped into the fissure, barely managing to squeeze through as he nearly hit his head on the side of the opening.

Gloria and Chrys, the tears still streaming down the Butterfree's face, looked up only in time to hear the Charmander's landing in the caverns below. The Eevee quickly rushed over the opening as her friend slowly did the same, fear, curiosity and excitement welling up in the both of them.

"What do you think you're doing? There's no way to get back up!" Chrys exclaimed down at him.

He, meanwhile, was already brushing himself off and studying the new terrain around him. Looking back up the fissure at Chrys, he answered, "That's the thing; you're a quadruped, not able to scale walls without the help of some type of sharp, durable claws, which, being an Eevee, you don't have. I, however, am a biped, and possess a less awkward body shape for the situation at hand by being able to gracefully carry supplies and various other miscellaneous things."

Chrys continued to look on, mystified. "How's that going to help you get out?"

Before she even finished her words, the Charmander had started off into the labyrinth below, searching for the lost Caterpie. There were no words shared between Chrys and Gloria as they desperately waited for his and Dillon's return. Unless, as usual, Dillon was already dead.

It was a torturous fifteen minutes before any sounds were heard, other than the distant wind and insect chirps in the surrounding underbrush; finally, they heard footsteps. The two friends almost stopped breathing as it got more distinct, clearly the sound of bare feet padding on solid dirt and a few dried leaves here and there.

The Charmander walked up to them, holding in his paws the small shape of a Caterpie napping peacefully. Gloria nearly went into hysterics once again as she started sobbing in joy.

The rescuer gently shook the little caterpillar awake. Opening his eyes, he yawned drowsily, not really aware of what was going on; the moment he saw his mother, however, he started squirming in the Charmander's grasp to get up to her, laughing and giggling happily at his own safe return.

He was lifted up and clapped onto Chrys' outstretched paw, scampering up her to finally be back with his mother. The Butterfree hugged him as tightly as she could, laughing with her son. Chrys, not one to ruin the moment, looked on at the ended ordeal with an elated smile. Still, it was a bit hard to believe that such a jerk of a Charmander would do something so wonderful. Either way, she was quite happy with the way things turned out.

Then she remembered that he was still stuck down in the crevice. She looked back down to see that he apparently wasn't very concerned; in fact, he was shoveling a mound of dirt right beneath the opening of the fissure. Quite clever, really.

"Hey," he said to Chrys, "can you get those two back to town, or wherever they're suppose to go? I want to talk to you alone."

Curious but compliant, the Eevee told her friend and her son that it was all right for them to head back to Mourburn. After a bit of reassurance that Chrys would make sure the Charmander got out safely, the two left happily. After they were gone, the fire lizard began speaking again.

"As you probably guessed, I'm not from around here," he stated. "So tell me this: is it a custom of people to go into the deepest, darkest reaches of the woods to play with their children around here?"

After a minute of silence, he said, "I didn't think so."

Quite the observant Charmander he was. With everything he had said and done now, there was still one thing that Chrys wanted to know. "Who are you, anyway?"

Stopping his digging, he stood up to look at her. "My name's Marco. Marco Klein. Just call me Marc." He then went back to shoveling.

Chrys smiled. "Okay, Marc."

Without even looking up, Marc said, "And quit smiling like that; it makes you look stupid."

The Eevee, more on instinct than suggestion, did so. What a jerk. Still, she couldn't seem to keep her mind off him. Rather, his words. Gloria had always been so careful and protective; a good mother to any child. Why would she go to the innermost part of the Tiny Woods? She had always come across to Chrys as having a good sense of direction, not easily getting lost... and being so protective, she would never let Dillon out of her sight. How could this have happened in the first place?

The thought of foul play never even crossed her mind.


I decided that Marc didn't remember what he was before coming to this land after all, and in case anyone who never played the game is reading, I won't say until it's revealed in the story. Comments, suggestions and constructive criticism are welcome and obviously wanted.