Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Stardust

Chapter 4: The First Mission

A loud banging woke DJ from his blissful slumber. Groggily, he opened his eyes and glanced out the window. He was slightly irritated that it was barely light out. There was another loud bang from outside his room.

"Wake up!" shouted a voice, who DJ recognized as Bertha, from outside his door. "You don't want to be late on your first day, do you?!"

"OK." said DJ as he slowly got out of bed. "I'll be out in a second."

"Meet us in the lounge." replied Bertha.

DJ slowly went to the bathroom and splashed water on his face in order to wake himself up. He then looked at his reflection. He stared at the Riolu in the mirror, remembering everything that had occurred.

"Still a Riolu." DJ sighed. "A well. I might as well make the most of this." With that he left the bathroom and exited his room.

When he arrived in the lounge, DJ saw that Katara was chatting with Jackson and Grace, Blade was talking with Drake (it was a one-sided conversation), and Bertha was arguing with Blitz, again. DJ stood there for a moment, awkwardly, before sitting a little way away from everyone. Katara noticed this and spoke up.

"DJ, why are you sitting over there?"

"Well you guys were talking and I didn't want to interrupt..." said DJ, his voice slowly getting softer until he was just mumbling.

Everyone just looked at him strangely. DJ began to feel even more awkward and he began to shrink back into the armchair that he was sitting in. They stared at him for a few more moments before Drake spoke.

"You're very shy." he said bluntly.

"No I'm not." said DJ defensively.

"Yes you are." said Blitz. "We can feel your uneasiness."

DJ mentally cursed forgetting that, as an untrained Riolu, others around him could feel his emotions. "I'm not shy. It just takes me awhile to 'warm up' to people. I guess..." he added not sure if what he said was true.

"You were talking to us fine yesterday." said Katara.

"Yeah..." said DJ. "I think I was still in shock about being turned into a Pokemon."

"Well you don't have to be shy around us pup." said Bertha.

"I'm not shy." said DJ a little louder, slightly irritated about being called a pup. 'Why does everyone keep calling me that.' thought DJ.

Before anymore could be said the door to the lounge opened, revealing Asura, who was holding a few papers. As he entered everyone stood at attention.

"Alright everyone." said Asura. "I have everyone's missions for the day. Blade and Drake, you are to capture an outlaw at Rugged Mountain." He then handed a paper, that had the details of the mission, to Blade, who carefully held it in his scythes. He looked at the paper then nodded to Drake and they both left. "Bertha and Blitz, you two are going to escort a client through Whisper Forest." said Asura as he handed them the paper. "Grace, a client lost an item somewhere in Sea-stone Cave. You are to retrieve it. Finally, Jackson you will accompany Katara and DJ as their senior officer until further notice."

"Great, I get to be their babysitter." said Jackson in a joking tone.

"Hey!" shouted Katara and DJ in union.

"Anyway." said Asura gaining their attention. "You three will be going to Fractured Cave on a rescue mission." He then handed the paper to DJ, who was the closest, and said, "Good luck." With that he turned and left without another word.

"OK." said Jackson. "We need to go to Kangaskhan Storage to pick up some supplies for the mission. Let's go." With that, the three Pokemon left.

After a few minutes of walking past various shops, the trio came upon a huge square building. The building was almost all brown and it had a sign that read, Kangaskhan's Storage. As they approached the counter a huge dinosaur-like Pokemon turned around. It was all brown, except for its stomach and ears (which looked like a kangaroo's), with plates growing out of its shoulders and a spiked tail. Its face had a rounded snout, two fangs protruding out of its mouth, and two red eyes that were filled with kindness. It also had a pouch on its stomach, that appeared to have something in it. DJ recognized it as a Kangaskhan. When the Kangaskhan saw the trio it smiled.

"Hello." said the Kangaskhan, with an elderly female voice. "Jackson. Katara it's good to see you again. And who might you be little pup?" the Kangaskhan said to DJ.

'Seriously.' thought DJ. 'What's with everyone calling me a pup?!' "My name is DJ, Ma'am ."

"Don't call me Ma'am." said the Kangaskhan sweetly. "That makes me sound old. Just call me Auntie Cana. Everyone does. So you're the human that turned into a Pokemon, right?"

DJ gasped. "How did you know?"

"Gallade told me. You see, me an your guild master are old friends."

DJ just nodded, not knowing what else to say. At that moment Cana's pouch wiggled, and a tiny, purple, Kangaskhan popped out. It looked at the group, and when it saw Katara it smiled.

"Katawa! Jackie!" the young Kangaskhan shouted as it jumped into Katara's arms.

"Hey Mai." said Katara. "How have you been?"

"Good!" said Mai happily as she nuzzled against Katara's neck. She then noticed DJ and she jumped from Katara's arms to DJ, who barely caught her. "Puppy!" she shouted, causing DJ to sweat-drop and everyone else to laugh.

'Her too?!' thought DJ. 'What the hell is with people calling me that?!"

"Now Mai." said Cana, lightly chuckling at the young Kangaskhan's antics. "Be polite." She then turned to Jackson. "Now what can I do for you all?"

"Just a standard adventure pack." said Jackson.

"OK." said Cana. "Coming right up." She then turned and went deeper into the storage facility. After a few minutes she returned with a large blue backpack. "Here you go. One standard adventure pack."

"Thanks Auntie Cana." said Jackson as he used psychic to levitate the pack to the ground. He then turned to Katara and DJ, who was being petted, much to his displeasure, by an overly excited Mai. "OK, because you're both rookies we will use this pack. It is about twenty pounds, when you two get better we will make our own pack, which will be a lot lighter. It has ten of each berry, several various orbs, some seeds, a map, and our explorer badges. He then began to rummage through the bag before he levitated a small device. The device was round with wings on the side and a small green stone in the center (picture the badge design from Explores of Sky). It also had a small red button and a small blue button on the side. "The buttons on the badges," Jackson continued. "Are used in two circumstances. The red button acts as a voice recorder, in case you are on a undercover mission, while the blue button alerts a member of the Pokemon Apprehension Agency. They are called to take an outlaw away when you have knocked it out." He then rummaged through the bag again and pulled out a map. "This map is a map of Shion, which is the continent we are on. The orbs," said Jackson pulling out a light blue sphere. "All have various uses. The name of the orb is engraved on it and to activate it you simply smash it to the ground. Any questions?" Both DJ and Katara shook their heads. "Good so let's go!"

"Wait." said Cana. She reaches under the counter and pulls out a scarf, a ribbon, and a bandana. The scarf was white with black polka-dots all over it, the ribbon was green and had black at both ends and the bandana was completely red. "Here. Take these. The scarf is called a Defense Scarf, the ribbon is a Joy Ribbon, and the bandana is known as a Power Band. I'm sure they will help you on explorations."

"Thank you Auntie Cana." said the trio said. Jackson used psychic to tie the Defense Scarf around his neck, Katara wrapped the Joy Ribbon around her arm, as her neck was covered in bubbles, and DJ tied the Power Band on his forehead.

Jackson then turned to DJ. "Since you are the junior member of the group, you get to carry the bag."

DJ grumbled at this, but put Mai down, much to her disappointment, and slung the bag onto his back like it weighed nothing, causing Cana, Katara, and Jackson to gape at him.

"What?" asked DJ as he noticed them staring at him.

"You're carrying that like it weighs nothing." Katara exclaimed.

"It's not that heavy." said DJ causing them to gape some more.

"I knew fighting types were strong." said Cana. "But for a pup that's impressive."

DJ shifted his feet nervously. He didn't see what the big deal was because he was sure that, as a human, he carried things that were a lot heavier than the pack. 'And why do they keep calling me a pup?!'

"Anyway." said Jackson. "Let's get going. Rugged Mountain is about a twenty minute walk from here."

"Isn't there some kind of bus that we could take?" asked DJ, not wanting to walk that far.

"What's a bus?" asked Jackson confusedly.

"Never mind." sighed DJ.

"Funny puppy!" laughed Mai.

DJ sweat-dropped. "Can we just go now?"

With that the trio said goodbye to Cana and Mai and set off.

"Sooo." said Jackson after about fifteen minutes after leaving Kangaskhan's Storage. "What do you think of Auntie Cana?"

"She seems nice." replied DJ. "She acted really... 'motherly'."

"Yeah." said Katara. "All Kangaskhan are like that, even to those they have just met. So..." began Katara with a sly smirk. "What did you think of Mai?"

DJ sweat-dropped. "She was... nice."

Both Katara and Jackson chuckled at his response. "Yeah she's really happy-go-lucky." said Katara. "She's actually a good judge of character. She only acts that way to Pokemon that have good hearts."

DJ scratched the back of his head sheepishly. They continued walking in silence before they came upon a cave entrance. A strange crystal-like structure near the entrance caught DJ's attention, but before he could examine it Jackson spoke up

"This is Fractured Cave." said Jackson. "DJ, read the details of the job."

DJ pulled out the paper that Asura had given him and read it. "The request is from a couple of Typhlosion. It says that we are looking for a young Cyndaquil named Furno, who got lost somewhere in the dungeon."

"OK." stated Jackson. "We are about to enter a mystery dungeon. A mystery dungeon is a cave, mountain, forest, or other place that has been put under some kind of spell. Don't ask me how a place is put under a spell, because no one knows. Now, mystery dungeons have a set number of floors, this dungeon has six floors. Each floor magically changes so that every time you go through it, it is different. To get through a floor you must find a stairway that leads to the next floor. Once you go through to the next floor the staircase disappears. If you are separated in a dungeon do NOT go through the stairs. Because if you go without your teammates it becomes a lot harder to find you. Also watch out for various traps that hidden throughout dungeons. There are three ways to exit a dungeon. One is to go through all the floors and take the exit, which is at the end of all dungeons. The second way is to use an Escape Orb. The final way is with this bad boy." pointing to the crystal-like structure. "This is a giant teleport gem, which are located outside of every known mystery dungeon. Teleport gems are crystals that have been pumped full of psychic energy that are directly connected with our exploration badges. If you press the center of your badge, while in a dungeon, you and every non-feral Pokemon around you are teleported out of the dungeon. They were created for explores so that they wouldn't have to lug around escape orbs everywhere. Finally if you are trapped in a mystery dungeon for too long, you will begin to become feral. That's why it's imperative that we find Furno. Now let's go!"

As they entered the cave DJ noticed that as soon as they entered there were various pathways leading in different directions, one of which was partially blocked by a boulder.

"Oh, I forgot to mention." said Jackson. "Each floor is basically a maze, so we'll probably have to walk around a lot before we find the stairs. Now most of the Pokemon here are rock types so you two should have no problem here."

"Umm... Jackson?" said DJ nervously, causing Jackson to turn and face him. "I don't know any fighting type moves."

Jackson gaped at DJ. "What? What kind of fighting type doesn't know any fighting type moves?"

DJ just gave him a deadpan look.

"Oh, right." said Jackson with an embarrassed look on his face. "I forgot you were a human. Well... I don't know much about fighting type moves, but there is one move that I've heard about. It's called force palm. From what I've heard, you just focus your energy into your paw, slam it against something, then release it. Try it on that boulder."

DJ gave Jackson a skeptical look, but walked over to the boulder and tried to imagine his energy go to his paw. He gasped when he actually felt energy begin to course through his paw. Without a second thought he slammed his paw against the boulder and released the energy. The was a small flash of light where DJ's paw hit the boulder, then nothing

"Well damn." said Jackson. "I guess that didn't wo-" he was cut of when cracks began to appear on the boulder. The boulder then exploded, sending debris everywhere. "I stand corrected."

"Damn!" said Katara, staring a DJ in shock. "Now I see how you beat that Druddigon!"

DJ blushed a little at the comment. "Anyway, let's go find Furno." he said with new found confidence.

The trio went down a random path and walked, taking random turns until they reached a room. The room was empty except for a lone red seed, sitting in the middle of the room. Jackson walked over to it and examined it.

"This is a Blast Seed." said Jackson. "When you eat one flames will shout out of your mouth and damage anything in front of you. Put it in the bag DJ, it could come in handy later."

After DJ picked up the seed and placed it into the bag, the trio set off down another path. They came upon another room with a staircase. The trio went down the staircase, and like Jackson said, it disappeared when they got to the next floor. They walked for a few more minutes until they came upon their first feral Pokemon. It looked like a floating rock with two bulky arms and two beady black eyes.

"That's a Geodude." said Jackson. "OK you two, show me what you've got."

"Your not helping?" DJ asked incredulously.

"Nope. I'm just here to make sure you two don't get in over your heads. Good luck."

No sooner had he said that the Geodude rushed Katara and DJ using tackle. They both jumped out of the way and glared at the feral Pokemon.

"Fine then." said DJ, removing the pack so he could move better. "Let's take this overgrown pebble out!"

As if hearing DJ, the Geodude became enraged at DJ's words and tried to tackle him, but Katara shot out a bunch of bubbles at the Geodude. When the bubbles hit the Geodude it cried out in pain. Not giving the Geodude a chance to recover, DJ charged the Geodude and used force palm to send it flying into a wall, knocking it out. With the Geodude unconscious, DJ picked up the pack again and the trio set off again.

The trio encountered a few more Geodude and a couple of Roggenrola before they came upon the next set of stairs. As the entered the next floor they saw that the set of stairs to the next floor was in the same room as them.

"That's really lucky." said Jackson. "That almost rarely happens."

Without another word the trio made it to the fourth floor, where the missing Cyndaquil should be. As they were about decide which path to go down they heard a child's scream. Without so much of a hesitation the trio sprinted off to the direction of the scream. As they came into a room they saw a giant rock snake (Onix) baring down upon a smaller shrew-like Pokemon that had a long nose, blue and cream colored fur, and four red spots on its back (Cyndaquil). The Onix raised its tail and was about to crush the Cyndaquil, but DJ used quick attack to grab the Cyndaquil and ran away before the attack could hit. The Onix roared in confusion, wondering where it prey had gone, when an orb of water hit it in the face.

The Onix roared in pain and turned to Katara, glaring. It then slammed its tail to the ground making rocks fall from the ceiling over where Katara was standing (Rock Throw). Katara quickly jumped out of the way, but was hit in the stomach by the Onix's tail (Slam). Katara hit the opposite wall and slumped to the ground. The Onix reared its head back and prepared to headbutt Katara, but as it shot its head forward DJ appeared in front of it and used force palm to counteract the headbutt. The Onix roared in pain as it moved back, shaking its head. Katara used this opportunity to launch another water pulse at the Onix, making it cry out again.

DJ jumped high into the air, landing on the Onix's head and used force palm on it. The hit was so hard that visible cracks formed on the Onix's head where it was struck. The Onix screeched in pain and rage as it shook its head violently, sending DJ crashing into the wall. Just as the Onix began to advance towards DJ's prone form, it was hit by a barrage of bubbles. The Onix roared in pain and swung its tail at Katara.

Seeing the attack, Katara leapt over the tail and shot a water pulse at the Onix's face, doing major damage. As the Onix shook its head in an attempt to alleviate the pain that it was feeling, DJ recovered and hit the Onix with another force palm. The Onix shuddered, then slumped forward and, to DJ, Katara, and Jackson's horror, fell towards the young Cyndaquil. Thinking quickly DJ dashed forward towards the petrified Cyndaquil, his speed dwarfing his previous speed. A white line seeming to come from DJ's back as he ran forward. Just as he reached the young Cyndaquil, the Onix hit the ground, creating a shroud of dust that blocked DJ and the Cyndaquil from view.

"DJ!" Katara and Jackson shouted, as they looked on in horror. The two waited with bated breath as they hoped beyond hope that their friend was alright. After what felt like hours, a figure walked out of the dust. When more of the dust settled, the figure turned out to be DJ, carrying the still terrified Cyndaquil.

"DJ! You're okay!" Katara shouted in relief. Her face then gained a stern look. "What were you thinking?!"

"What? You didn't expect me to just leave this little guy for dead did you?" DJ asked rhetorically, gesturing to the young Pokemon that was curled up in his arms.

Katara sighed. "No," she grumbled. "Just don't do anything like that again. Also, how did you move that fast?"

"I think I can shed some light upon this situation," Jackson said, drawing the duo's attention. "I believe that you instinctively used quick attack in order to save little Furno here. Speaking of little Furno, we should probably get him out of here."

Realizing that he was still holding the little Cyndaquil, DJ looked down at him and spoke reassuringly. "Hey there little guy. Are you Furno?" The little Cyndaquil looked up at him and nodded. DJ smiled. "Good. We were sent here by your parents to find you."

The young Cyndaquil then hugged DJ as if he would disappear and sobbed, repeating "thank you" over and over again.. DJ was surprised by this action at first, but then his expression softened and he began to pat the crying Cyndaquil on the back, trying to calm him down.

"It's OK." said DJ reassuringly. "You're safe now. Come on let's go see your parents."

Furno nodded and DJ carried the Cyndaquil in his arms and walked over to Jackson and Katara. Katara then pressed the stone in the middle of the badge and they were all teleported out of the dungeon.