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Chapter 1

The Start of My Awesome Life as a Pokémon in a Pokémon Mystery Dungeon World!


Loud, annoying birds squawked in the distance, rousing Morgan out of his precious beauty sleep.

Ooh, he hated this. Normally he loved birds! He loved how they could fly and the charming little personalities they had. He loved how they were nature's freak models, always wearing the gaudiest of colors with the strangest arrangements of feathers that made them look like they had eyelashes or a funny crown. But he couldn't stand the noises they made. Didn't matter if it was a little chirp or an ear-piercing screech, they all drove him insane.

Especially when the sun had just barely come out. He had stayed up so late last night, all the way up until three in the morning because of a TV show. Some anime his friends kept recommending to him and telling him that once he watched it, he'd never put it down. He thought they were just hyping it up like they did with everything they were even remotely interested in. He thought he'd just watch one episode before he went to bed, then he'd watch more after school the next day if he liked what he saw. He really doubted he'd even like the first episode, especially when it was one of those stupid girly shows where the girls could turn into frilly warriors and fight mustache-twirling villains who wanted to destroy love.

He had watched all twelve episodes in one sitting and intended to read the manga during class. He didn't need to learn math, he needed answers! He needed to know if the main girl was able to save her crush from the dastardly villain and his army! He couldn't believe the anime had left it on such an awful cliffhanger like that! If the producers purposely ended it like that so he'd buy the manga and keep reading… well… their strategy sure was working!

Screw his friends! They did this to him! It was their fault he got only two hours of sleep and had birds harassing him now!

"HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!"

Morgan couldn't take it anymore. He sharply opened his eyes and threw his blanket off.

Except there was no blanket. Not only that, but he wasn't even in his bedroom. He wasn't even in a bed. He was laying in sand like some kind of beached whale, face-up and looking into a clear blue sky full of circling Wingull. So that was what was making that irritating noise. Of course it was Wingull. What annoying little rats with wings they were, always stealing his food whenever he went to the beach.

Wait, no. That wasn't right. Wingull didn't steal his chips when he left his towel for one second to look at a crab skittering near the waves. Those were seagulls. Wingull were the Pokémon that were modeled after seagulls. As in, creatures that didn't actually exist.

Except they totally did exist because Morgan knew what he was looking at. There were a dozen or so Wingull flying over him.

Well that wasn't right. He sat up and finally noticed the ocean to his left. He saw the blue waves crash along the shoreline before receding, spraying up white foam as they did so. Huh. He was surprised he didn't notice the sounds of the waves before. That was always his favorite part of the beach. It must have been the Wingull. They were really annoying and drowned everything else out with their obnoxious screaming.

So I'm on a beach with Wingull flying everywhere instead of back home in bed, ready for my alarm to ruin my day… Morgan thought to himself. Hmmmm. I know I'm not dreaming. My dreams are never this cool. I always dream that I'm in school or drowning at the bottom of a lake.

He propped up an elbow and rested a hand against his cheek, pondering over his strange situation. That was when he realized yet another thing wasn't right.

His skin felt wrong. It didn't even feel like skin. It felt like… scales. Thick, smooth scales. Now that definitely wasn't how his skin was supposed to feel. He was pretty sure humans didn't just randomly grow scales.

He only had to take one look at his hand to realize what was going on. Or rather, his claw. His blue claw.

He bolted to his feet and ran straight for the water. He looked into the waves, only to find that he couldn't see his reflection at all. Ocean water is constantly moving, so you can't see yourself in it. It was an inconvenience for sure, but nothing that stopped Morgan from just checking over himself. It was a whole lot easier than running to find the nearest pond, which could be miles and miles away.

Sure enough, Morgan wasn't a human anymore. How could he be when he now only had three toes, dull spines protruding out of his back like he was some kind of midget stegosaurs, a short tail that probably wouldn't hurt anyone if he smacked it into them, and a giant mouth filled with huge chompers? No way was he a human anymore unless he was a lizard person now, but he doubted that. No, he knew exactly what he was.

I'm a Totodile. he realized. Oh wow! I'm a Pokémon! A real life Pokémon!

The Totodile grinned to himself, unable to resist the urge to laugh. Oh, this was great. Most humans would have a panic attack upon finding out they were in a completely new body. Most humans would flip out and probably go insane. But not Morgan. Oh no, Morgan loved this. Truth be told, he had been waiting for something like this to happen for many years now.

Oh yes, Morgan had prepared for this day. He had played every single Pokémon Mystery Dungeon game and binged on far too many Isekai anime, all to be ready for when it would be his time to be brought to another world. Everyone told him he was being dumb. Everyone told him that he should grow up and stop believing some stupid fantasy that only existed as wish-fulfillment for losers that wanted to escape their woes and sorrows. But Morgan didn't listen to any of them, and now his dream had finally been fulfilled.

He knew how all of this would play out, now that he understood he had to live in this world as a Totodile. This was a Mystery Dungeon world, a place where Pokémon lived without humans and went on adventures. Depending on the circumstances, there were either rescue teams or expedition teams he could join. That was always how it was, no exceptions. He wouldn't be running a bank or market or something uninspiring like that. No, he was here to have a grand adventure to save the world. That was his reason for being here.

He found it funny he wasn't stricken with amnesia as so often happened in cases like these, but he wasn't complaining. He liked having his memories intact, thank you very much. It would make his experiences in this world all the better. He could use his knowledge of Pokémon and Isekai to his advantage and triumph over everything! Maybe he could even skip the boring parts of these situations and go straight to the fun stuff, like chasing outlaws and traveling to the past by a Celebi.

But first, before any of that, Morgan needed to find his partner. That was how it always was in these Pokémon worlds; he'd get a partner for companionship. Whether they were actually good partners was always debatable… but he still needed to find his. His journey couldn't start until they met.

As it turned out, he didn't even have to move a muscle to find them. He saw a Mudkip approaching from the distance, taking a leisurely walk along the shoreline. The first thing Morgan noticed about the Mudkip was that he seemed to be humming a merry little tune as he walked. The fin upon his head moved rhythmically with his song, swaying back and forth gently. He was so distracted by his singing, in fact, that the Mudkip didn't even seem to notice Morgan. Even when he walked right past the Totodile.

Alright, so his partner was going to be a bit slow. And oblivious. Probably prone to tripping as well. At least he'd be a cheerful little guy. Morgan would take that over having a grumpy partner. It was a bit weird that his soon-to-be partner was a Mudkip though. Usually the Pokémon partners were of a different type, if only because the game mandated that. Maybe things were different in an actual Pokémon world. Maybe that arbitrary rule didn't actually exist.

"Hey!" Morgan called out to the Mudkip.

The fish with legs screamed a shrill, girlish cry and leapt a whole foot in the air. His scream was loud. Like really loud. So loud that it actually drowned out all the Wingull screams and made them fly away, probably because they couldn't stand the idea of someone being more annoying and louder than them. He didn't even stop screaming when his feet hit the sand. He just kept making that awful noise that almost blew out Morgan's ears.

He only stopped when he finally saw the Totodile standing there, plugging his ears with his claws. Thank god he still had something resembling fingers as a Totodile, and five of them just like as a human! He really had lucked out on the Pokémon body roulette!

The Mudkip closed his wide, gaping mouth that could probably swallow the whole ocean and looked at Morgan skittishly. His head fin wobbled as he dug his stubby little paws into the sand, struggling to make sense of why a random Totodile was on the beach calling out to him.

"Oh… Oh hi there," the Mudkip greeted awkwardly. "I didn't see you there…"

"Yeah, I noticed," Morgan quipped. "Whatcha doing out here anyway?"

"I like to come to the beach sometimes…" he answered shyly. "I like the way the sand feels on my feet and being so close to the water… makes me feel good as a water-type. And I like burying myself in the sand sometimes too… that feels really good…"

Well that wasn't surprising. He was a Mudkip after all. He must have loved wet dirt, or sand in this case.

"Yeah, I get what you mean," Morgan said simply. "Guess you come here a lot by yourself?"

"Yeah…" the Mudkip answered bashfully.

Morgan realized at this moment that he didn't want to keep up the small talk. If he really was in a Mystery Dungeon world, then his partner wanted to join a guild. All this talk was just a way of reaching that point in a conversation. It was a way to build character and camaraderie even though the partner was hard-wired to want to join the guild and would join regardless of anything. This conversation was just wasting time.

So Morgan decided he was just going to skip all of that boring dialogue and get straight to the point.

"You got any guilds or rescue teams or expedition teams around here?" Morgan asked bluntly. "I wanted to join one."

As he expected, the Mudkip perked up immediately. Sparkles glimmered in his eyes like that of an anime character as he practically leapt at the Totodile.

"Oh my gosh! Me too!" the Mudkip cried gleefully. "Oh gosh this is great! I've been wanting to join the Expedition Guild for so long, but no one else wanted to go with me! They said it was too much work or something like that!"

The Mudkip practically melted at Morgan's feet and began to cry. Morgan flinched at such a profuse reaction and felt the cringe seep into his very soul, but resisted the urge to back away.

"Will you please make a team with me?" the Mudkip pleaded. "We can be an expedition team together! I know we'd be great as a team! I don't know who you are, but I just know you'll be good! I just know it! I just really wanna join so baaaaaaad!"

So that's what they had in this world. There were expedition teams. So this was like the second round of Mystery Dungeon games, the ones everyone based their fanfictions off of because it had the highest amount of concentrated nostalgia. He wouldn't have been surprised to find a bunch of edgy Grovyle walking around the guild. Or Charmander that kept dumping their tails in water. One of those two.

Well even though he would have preferred a world with something a bit more original like say… being a mercenary, he'd take this. Being on an expedition team would still be pretty fun. He'd get a nice bed to sleep in every night, free food, and go on tons of adventures. Sure, he'd lose ninety percent of his earnings on missions… but he'd still get a lot of money he after a while. He'd still probably make more money than he would in the human world with a college degree…

"Sure," Morgan said with a grin. "I'd love to."

"Oh thank you! Thank you!" the Mudkip cried as he hugged the Totodile's legs with his stubby little legs.

Morgan couldn't feel any more awkward. The Mudkip felt so slimy and slick like a slug. In any other situation, Morgan probably would have kicked him in the face. However, this was his partner and he couldn't do that. So instead, the Totodile gently pat the Mudkip on the head, trying not to get too much ick all over his claws.

"My name's Skipper by the way," the Mudkip said as he finally let go of the Totodile.

"Skipper, heh. Fitting name for a Mudkip," the Totodile laughed to himself. "I'm Morgan."

"Morgan huh? That's a really weird name," Skipper said with a tilted head. "Like really weird. What even is a Morgan?"

"It's not that weird, it's a cool name where I'm from," Morgan said with a deep frown. "Back home, everyone thought I had the coolest name in existence. I made friends just because of my name."

"Must have been some weird home if everyone thought you were cool because of that name…" Skipper said quietly.

Morgan grumbled to himself. This was a first for him. He was always the coolest dude around because of his name. Morgan. That was a seriously awesome name. He had to thank his parents for giving him such a good name. He knew names were different in Pokémon worlds, but he didn't think they'd find his rather human name weird, unnatural. The thought of that soured his mood and made his tail thump irritably behind him.

It put him in such a bad mood, in fact, that he didn't even tell Skipper he used to be a human. He knew he probably should, that was always what humans were supposed to do after meeting their partner, but he didn't care. Besides, what did it matter if Skipper knew he was once a human? Did it really affect the plot that much to know he wasn't always a Pokémon?

The answer was that yes, it did affect the plot very much, but Morgan didn't want to realize that. He wanted to fume at how disgraced he felt.

"Well anyway… you wanna go join the Expedition Guild?" Skipper asked shyly.

"Sure," Morgan shrugged, still seething over such a petty remark. "Let's go."

The Totodile followed the Mudkip off the beach and up the hill, leading into the town. As expected, the town wasn't that different from the ones he had seen in the games. There were lots of tents that were shaped like Pokémon, usually the ones that ran the place. Then of course there were random Pokémon roaming out and about, going throughout their day doing nothing really special. Some were shopping, some were idly chatting with ones alongside them, some were just napping right out in the open. Morgan looked left and right for this supposed guild Skipper thought of, but he couldn't find it anywhere. Maybe it was atop a hill in the distance. He believed the Wigglytuff Guild had been like that. Or maybe it was underground.

"Oh, we're going to have so much fun!" Skipper cheered as he practically skipped in place. "We're going to go on so many adventures! Maybe we'll discover a secret cave with chambers full of sapphires and rubies! Maybe we'll find a pirate map and follow it to buried treasure on some faraway island! Ooooh I can't wait!"

"Yeah, gonna be great," Morgan said, his mood finally lightening up. "Hopefully they'll accept us."

"I'm sure they will!" Skipper said hopefully. "I heard that it's a little hard to get used to everything at first, but as long as you keep at it, you'll get good in no time! And I think that the guild members are supposed to help us out so that we don't feel too lost. So we'll be well taken care of, I think."

"Yeah, we'll definitely be fine then," Morgan agreed. "This'll be a lot of fun… I just know it."

"Glad you agree!" Skipper beamed back at him. "Ohhhh, this is the happiest day of my life! You have no idea how much this means to me! Thank you so much for telling me you wanted to join an expedition team! I know we just barely met and this must all be crazy joining some team with a random Mudkip… but you won't regret it!"

Morgan smiled. He had just barely known the Mudkip for five minutes, yet he was already growing fond of the little guy. His bubbly personality was so infectious. If it weren't for the fact that he was really slimy and disgusting to touch, he would have probably hugged the little fish with legs.

Yes, he really had lucked out coming to this world. He had a great Pokémon form, a great partner, and pretty soon, a sweet guild to join! He could only imagine what great adventures they'd go on together and what sort of plot twists would develop before he inevitably saved the world. Maybe he'd get to go back in time in this world. Maybe he'd get to go to an alternate dimension where he'd meet other versions of Skipper, like an evil version of the Mudkip. Yeah that would be pretty cool. A little scary, but nothing that wouldn't work out in the end! Because that's how all these stories ended; they always ended with the world saved and he and his partner would get to live out the rest of their days in harmony.

"Oh, there it is! There's the Expedition Guild!" Skipper cried.

The Totodile looked ahead to find a large windmill looming in the distance upon a hill. It was quite a lot more colorful than the ones Morgan was used to, this one having fans with soft pastel colors. A flag waved before the windmill, a sigil of a Luxray embroidered onto the fabric. Even from his distance, Morgan could tell the windmill was quite big, definitely large enough to function as a guild.

"Oh, well that's not what I was expecting," Morgan stated. "I was expecting… I dunno, a castle? An underground lair?"

"Well I'll admit that does sound pretty cool," Skipper admitted. "But yeah, this is the Expedition Guild, run by Guildmaster Leo and his assistant, Rocky!"

"Oh, so like the Wigglytuff Guild," Morgan said absent-mindedly.

"The what?" Skipper asked.

"Oh um, nothing," Morgan corrected quickly. "Just thinking nonsense."

So it was going to be like the second game. Maybe even the fourth game a bit. Hopefully the Guildmaster wasn't such a ditz in this world though. He had always hated that. Everyone said it made the Guildmaster charming, but Morgan always found it to be laughable. But more than anything, he especially hoped the assistant wasn't like Chatot. Oh god did he hate Chatot. Such a rude, rude bird he was. Especially with the Perfect Apple incident. That was the epitome of stupidity. Morgan remembered nearly throwing his Nintendo DS out the window when that happened.

"Well I hope that they're nice, seeing as how we're going to be with them for an awfully long time," Morgan then said.

"Oh I heard they're great!" Skipper assured. "I hear Leo is a little intimidating, but I heard he's a real nice guy! I think it's just because he's a Luxray that everyone is a little scared of him when they first meet him."

"Well probably because a Luxray's ability is actually called Intimidation…" Morgan remarked dryly.

The two arrived at the front of the guild. Morgan looked toward the opening of the windmill where his destiny awaited him. All he had to do was step aside and he'd start his new life. He'd begin his epic journey as a Pokémon and have great adventures people would literally kill to have. His heart beat so fast from excitement that it nearly broke his ribcage and burst out like a chestburster. Okay maybe not. That was a bit much.

He looked to the Mudkip and gave him a cheery smile. The Mudkip returned that smile with a giddy grin of his own, his tail wagging vigorously not unlike that of a dog's.

Screaming sounded from the inside of the windmill. Panicked, shrill screams followed by loud, boisterous laughter. Morgan stared into the guild's entrance, dumbfounded. He never remembered this happening in any of the games or stories. Was this supposed to be a weird greeting the guild did? Was this the guild's gimmick?

An Electabuzz, Politoed, and Lucario suddenly emerged from the windmill, bags slung over their shoulders. All of them had giddily, maniacal smiles across their faces as they ran past Morgan and Skipper, oblivious to their presence.

"What…?" Skipper gasped, unable to process what was going on.

"Stop! Stop them!" cried a voice within the windmill.

A Luxray emerged from the entrance and ran toward the fleeing group, but because of massive tunnel vision, didn't see Skipper and tripped right over him. The Luxray and Mudkip both went tumbling down the hill, both of them screaming hysterically. Morgan watched in awed horror as they both ended up gaining so much speed that they crashed into the Pokémon from before, knocking them down like bowling pins. The bags each of the Pokémon went flying, spilling their contents all over the ground.

There were now hundreds of little gems littered amongst the dirt, all of various colors. Morgan didn't even need to think that hard to realize what was happening.

Well… this is a strange development. Morgan thought to himself.

The downed thieves quickly gathered themselves up and swept the gems into their bags. The Luxray shoved Skipper off of him as he hurried to his feet, screaming obscenities. He didn't even get a chance to pounce at the thieves before the Lucario of the group punched him in the face. With a loud crack that undoubtedly fractured his skull, the Luxray went down and didn't get back up.

"Nice job!" the Electabuzz said to the Lucario. "Now hurry up and get all these gems back in the bags! Captain won't be happy if we don't get every last one!"

"I'm working on it, I'm working on it!" the Lucario said urgently. "Gods, I can't believe that stupid Luxray ran us over like that…"

The three scooped up the rest of the gems, or at least most of it since there were just so many and they were scattered everywhere, and slung the bags back over their shoulders. Then they hurried away, retreating far into the distance. Morgan ran down the hill and rejoined Skipper, who was just lying there on the ground like an idiot, mouth gaping open in shock. It was probably best he didn't do anything, honestly. It was thanks to him lying there like a dead fish that he probably didn't get punched in the face. Morgan doubted the thieves even saw the Mudkip because of how he did absolutely nothing.

Morgan helped the fish to his feet, which really just consisted of lightly smacking Skipper across the face and snapping him out of his dumbfounded stupor.

"Those guys… they stole all those gems!" Skipper cried. "Those were the guild's gems!"

"Yeah… gotta say, that's pretty bold to steal from a guild full of powerful Pokémon," Morgan remarked. "They must be some pretty strong Pokémon themselves to actually steal all that. And I think that was the Guildmaster they just knocked out too… or murdered. I can't tell if the guy is dead or not… does this world work like a Nuzlocke where Pokémon can actually die during fights or is it just like the actual games where you just get knocked out?"

"I don't… I don't even know what you're talking about," Skipper babbled.

"Well well well! Look what we have here!" came a cruel, devious laugh.

Morgan and Skipper looked behind them to find they now had another Pokémon in their company. A huge, daunting Gengar towered over them, looking upon them with an evil smile spread wide across his face. Skipper screamed shrilly as he clung to Morgan, practically bursting into tears at the sight of the ghost. Morgan had to admit even he felt a little intimidated. He didn't realize just how big Gengar actually were, especially when he was a short little gator now.

Yeesh. Well I get why in the Pokédex it says to just give up when you see a Gengar. Yeah I can totally see this thing following me through a dark alley and then murdering me in cold blood.

"What a couple of sorry waterlovers we have here," the Gengar sneered. "I bet you two wanted to join this guild, didn't you?"

"Please don't steal my soul and eat it!" Skipper begged. "It doesn't taste good! It tastes like mud!"

"Look at you two. You both look like you're about to piss yourselves," the Gengar taunted. "Not that I blame you of course... I'd be shaking too if I knew I was standing before a menacing Gengar and just watched his crewmates loot an entire guild…"

"So you were with those thieves!" Skipper cried. "You helped them! Why? Why'd you steal all those gems? They belonged to the guild, fair and square!"

"If the guild really treasured their gems that much, they would have guarded them better," the Gengar laughed. "You wouldn't believe how easy it was for me to knock everyone out and slip inside their vault. My crewmates barely had to lift a paw once I opened that vault up! If you ask me, that guild was begging to be looted! Now then… time to take care of you two. I can't have you following me back to the ship now, can I?"

The Gengar stepped toward the two. Morgan reflexively put himself between Skipper and the Gengar.

"Oh look at you, being such a hero," the Gengar grinned evilly.

"Because I am one!" Morgan proclaimed. "I'm the hero of this world whether you know it or not! I'm going to stop this world from ending and if you kill me now, then you're just dooming everyone! So go ahead, try me! Kill me and watch this world fall apart! I dare you, do it!"

The Gengar went blank, unimpressed with Morgan's bravado. He probably thought the Totodile was being either very brave or very stupid. And undoubtedly delusional.

For just a moment, the Gengar only stared at the former human, baffled by Morgan's exaggerated sense of grandeur. Morgan considered picking up Skipper and making a run for it, but then the Gengar started smiling again.

"You know… Captain always said he needed more waterlovers," the Gengar said, his voice taking on a haunting tone that Morgan really didn't like. "Personally I think he's got enough… but oh, I bet he'd be real happy with me if he had more… I bet he'd finally make me Quartermaster and make Summer a swabbie like he should be!"

The Gengar laughed at the thought as he looked down upon the two puny Pokémon, red eyes glinting with glee.

"Looks like I won't be ripping out your souls today," he then said. "You're going to be coming with me instead. You should be glad; you didn't really want to join this guild anyway."

"Huh?" Morgan gawked.

The ghost grabbed the two water-types, sinking his claws deep into their flesh so that he clutched their very bones. A dark, paralyzing cold came over Skipper and Morgan as the Gengar opened his mouth, revealing what Morgan could only describe as literal Hell looking back at him, with demons and ghosts and abominations no mortal should ever have to see.

And then the Gengar threw the both of them into his horrifying maw, swallowing them whole.