His consciousness stirs. He opens his eyes, and looks up, down, to his side – it's pitch black everywhere. He moves his arm to try to stand up, but a sudden intense pain in his side flares up. He winces, holds himself, and passes out.
…
He stirs again later. There's still no light. The pain in his side has subsided to a dull warmth. Taking care not to upset the sore spot, he moves his arm to arm in front of him and grips a rocky floor. He lifts himself, but his arms tremble weakly until a sharp bite in his side stops him. He collapses, stomach hitting the jagged ground.
He uses what strength he has to roll onto his back. He takes a deep breath, calming his onsetting panic and pain.
Where am I?
No light reaches here. The air is hot. Every sound reverberates. Must be a cave.
Why am I here?
He digs through his memories, but nothing surfaces. He only remembers being a human and his name, Mark. Not what he did before here. Not how he got his injury.
What happened? Am I ok?
His body not only feels short and small, but he has an inexplicable sensation of etherealness. Is he poisoned? Is pain playing tricks on his mind?
I'm not OK
"Heeeelp!" he shouts. His voice echoed far away. No one else responds.
"HEEEL- AAA!" he shouts again, forcing his body too hard again. He clenches his side, but it is too late. He slips into unconsciousness.
…
It is distant sounds that stir him again. With hazy vision, he sees an orange glow against the ceiling in the corner of his eye. Looking to its source, he notices a large hole in the ground not far from him. Enough light shines through for him to see a fainted Gallade sprawled across the ground to the side. Mark is frozen by the discovery, but seeing the orange glow flicker and grow brighter snaps him back. He hears grunts and rocks rumbling.
"HEEELP!" he shouts. Once again there's only an echo followed by dreadful silence.
He gnashes his teeth and takes a deep breath. He rolls around, grunting and wincing through the pain. It takes all his effort to ignore his body crying and force himself onto his knees.
"HEEEELP!"
He lurches forward, and hugs his waist. He breathes heavily, almost laughing. He tilts his eyes up, hoping there is a rescue coming. The orange glows even brighter– a vague shadow is casted to the ceiling. The way the light flows and flickers makes the source unmistakably a fire.
A torch is thrown over the lip of the hole. One endless moment later, the head of a Sneasel pops up.
"You need heeeelp?" she says cheekily.
Her claws reach over the edge and she swings a leg over. She looks at both him and the unconscious Gallade. Mark takes a deep breath, relief washing him.
"Oh thank you…"
"Well aren't you lucky, of all the people to show up you got the best adventurer around, and you bet her heart even larger than her reputation. I'm the best." She boldly proclaims. Her hands hold her hips with pride as she looks down and away, with eyes closed and a cheeky grin splattered across her whole face.
Mark collapses to his side. He curls up. His head is painfully dizzy.
"Please help me…"
"Yeah yeah, don't worry. I gotcha."
She picks up the torch and walks over. With light finally gracing his form, he sees his own body. His side is brown, red, and many other ugly colours, but that's not as alarming as everything else: he's no longer human. He's a foot tall, with ghostly purple skin speckled with bright gems. A Sableye. He shuts his eyes and breathes heavily, panic finally having wormed into his brain. The Sneasel's standing over him, looking down.
"Hey, hey, hey! You'll be fine, ok? You've got me," Sneasel says.
She drops her satchel and starts digging inside of it.
"It looks like you fell off that cliff over there. So… how did you end up like this? The hell did you two do?" She says. Her claw takes a second to point where she means.
Mark rolls his head to see this cliff. It's unfamiliar. Mark shakes his head. The Sneasel rolls her eyes and shrugs. She pulls out a small, blue-tinted mushroom, and a larger beige mushroom. She holds the blue mushroom in front of his mouth for him.
"Here."
Mark takes a bite and swallows the soft and bitter fungus. Immediately, the warmth on his side ebbs, and he feels strength return to him. The difference is immense. He sighs. He takes the mushroom from her and begins to eat the rest of it. The bruised side fades fast, leaving only a funny tingling where it was. The Sneasel offers the other mushroom, which he takes. She gets up and walks over to the Gallade. Mark sits up and looks at her.
"Does this one need help?" she asks.
"I don't know."
"Hm."
She kneels and rolls the Gallade. His front is grossly bruised like how Mark was, but there's also scratch marks, bruises on his limbs and face, dried blood, and scorched fur on his leg. She reaches to feel his pulse.
"This one didn't make it"
Mark stares at the other mushroom, grimacing. The Sneasel chuckles evilly.
"I'm gonna take his stuff"
Mark looks away. He rolls the larger mushroom in his fingers before taking a bite. Its strong flavour catches him by surprise, and egged on by his desperate stomach, he wolves down the rest. It is very filling. The Sneasel slips the Gallade's satchel off his arm and slings it onto her shoulder. She heads back to pick up her own bag and torch.
"Thank you," Mark says.
"Heh. Thank you. Also, the name's Layla. Use that when you praise me later, ok?"
"U…understood".
Layla laughs loudly. She steps ahead of him and reaches back to grab his arm. Her grip is firm.
"Anyways, we gotta go. I'm being chased by some goons, and they'll kill us both if they find us."
She smiles and tugs his arm. Mark stumbles behind her. He looks behind; there is another orange glow coming from the hole.
A deep voice resonates below. "There. Up there on the wall. She may have climbed up that hole."
"You sure?" a second voice says.
"You saw how good she was at climbing! She's definitely up there," the first one responds.
"I and Gligar can climb. We'll go. You just continue down the tunnel," a third female voice responds.
Mark can't keep up with Layla, even as she's dragging him along. He trips repeatedly and he falls over, nearly smacking the ground if it weren't for Layla holding his forearm.
"What's wrong?" Layla says, hushed.
"Not used to these legs…"
She grabs his upper arm. Her grip is even stronger.
"Get used to them fast!" she says, annoyed.
The grip keeps him steady enough that he won't fall, even as he continues to stumble. It slows both of them down. Layla looks behind her; the light has grown a lot brighter. She scowls and swings a sharp turn - "In here!" she says - forcing him into a hole in the wall. There's a series of naturally formed steps they walk down. On the final step, Mark trips and falls, grunting at the impact.
"They went in there!" the female voice shouts.
Layla curses under her breath, and picks Mark up under his shoulders. She has him swing an arm over her shoulders. She then lifts the torch up high and examines the room. All surfaces were an indistinguishable brown rocky surface, and few stalactites dot the ceiling. The floor is rough. There are tunnels on each wall. She heads to the right one, half-carrying Mark. Mark can manage this speed.
"Know how to survive a Mystery Dungeon?" Layla asks.
Mark thinks. "…No."
Their shoulders brush against the narrow corridor.
"Ok. I'll take the lead fighting any pokemon. If you have something like shadow ball, that will help. Stay by me at all times. Keep your eyes out for stairs, we only get out of mystery dungeons going up or down. Oh-"
She opens her satchel and digs out another blue mushroom and hands it to Mark.
"If you do get hurt, eat this oran mushroom."
Mark nods and accepts it. The two exit into a new room. Layla holds the torch high, shining light to the whole area. There's stairs in front of them. Layla sighs with relief and pats Mark's shoulder, before descending with him. She's more patient letting Mark have his footing on each step. She looks back: no light filters down the tunnel. She giggles with a wide smile.
On the new floor, an Aron rests on the floor. It stirs. Layla lets go of Mark and walks over to it. The Aron snarls at Layla and charges at her. She drops her torch and runs up to counter its tackle with a nasty kick, shooting the Iron-clad pokemon a foot off the ground before it thuds against a wall. She chases it down, jumps, and fury swipes its exposed underbelly.
The ghost type stands and holds his arms up to steady his balance. He teeters, until he gives up fighting gravity and lets it guide his body to where it wants to be, which is to have knees bent. The pose feels natural and stable, even if it felt awkward for an ex-human. He takes a step forward without falter. Then another. He picks up Layla's torch as she finishes knocking the Aron out. He tries a jog towards her. That's still too much; he falls over as he tries to slow his speed. Layla catches him.
"Figuring it out?" She grins.
"Yeah…"
"Alright. We'll try going faster."
She takes the torch and grabs his forearm. They keep up a small run through another tunnel. They cross the next room without stopping, ignoring an oran berry growing out of a crack. The next room has a sleeping Geodude by the nearest tunnel, so she goes down a second path. She turns around when she sees a Kabutos lumped against the hall's side. They flee before its head turns. They sneak past the Geodude.
The next room has stairs, which they head down. On the new floor, a Scatterbug drops onto Mark's head, sinking its mandibles into the scalp with a bug bite. Mark yelps and shakes it until it flies off his head and lands on its feet.
The bug charges to Mark. He jumps onto it and mimics Layla's move from earlier, digging his own claws into his sides until its consciousness fades.
Layla's already made it to the only exit of the room. She claps. "Whoo. That was hot!"
Mark stands up and looks at his claws. He notices the oren mushroom he was holding got roughed up. He eats it, helping the sting.
"Anyways, do those legs work now?" she says.
He looks up. "I think. I'll try."
Layla turns around. "Well, if you fall behind and it gets dark, yell loud." She lets him catch up before running down the tunnel. Mark's running isn't perfect, but he's got it sorted. They enter an empty room and take a right.
"Oh, I should say this. At the end of this dungeon, if I'm right, it may be another large tunnel like where we exited from. They shouldn't have maps because only I'm perfect enough to have the only good map of this region. They won't risk getting lost. If it's not a tunnel, then it'll be a dead end, and we'll DIE. But don't worry, you'll die in the great presence of-"
The next room is a long room. A Geodude punching a wall on the far side hears Layla's yammering and gets annoyed. It yells and rushes across, but it's slow and the two have time.
"Let him come to us. …Know how to use Shadow Sneak?"
"Uhhh…"
Mark focuses on the ground. He tries to feel different emotions, which does nothing. He pretends to be lightheaded – no good. The next guess he tries to pretend mind is moving forward out of his head. This works; a sinister shadow creeps across every bump and crevice in front of him. Just in time, ghastly energy springs up and strikes the Geodude he failed to pay attention to! It saves Mark from being slugged in the face. He's pushed aside but it already swings for another punch. Mark panics and holds up his arms in front of him, wincing.
Layla intervenes, catching Geodude's face with a scratch. Its anger turns to Layla and it chucks a rock right to her brow. She yells, grabbing the bleeding eyebrow, before returning one final scratch to the Geodude. Its ugly face cracks and It drops with a thud.
"Alright," she says and reaches around to grab his arm and drag again.
"Hey! I can walk!" Mark says.
"Yeah, but too bad."
They take an exit in the middle of the room. It was a dead end. Layla huffs and turns around, dragging Mark again before he realizes they're turning around. The alternate exit looped back into an early room. Layla's grip tightens and she growls. Onwards deeper, another room has another Scatterbug which Layla chases off with one hell of an angry face. There's one final tunnel corridor before stairs appear.
The two descend. They were no longer in the mystery dungeon; the roof of the cave was highly curved and the tunnelling organic. A dense field of stalagmites and stalactites block their view.
"WE'RE OUT!" Layla shouts. She looks over her shoulder to Mark. "Thought they were going to catch up with how long that last floor took."
She lets go and breaks into a run, travelling down the tunnel's gentle slope, a victorious smile on her face. She easily weaves through stalagmites. The shadows of the torch light dance around the wall, shadows of stony edifices flying by. Mark falls behind. He bumps into the rocky edifices and steps on a tiny stalagmite he couldn't see.
"Ow! Ah! Layla, wait!"
She's already reached a clearing and is running further away. Mark reaches it too, panicking to escape the swallowing darkness. He doesn't notice that Layla's stopped ahead of him until Layla's outheld arm holds him back from diving into an abyss.
A 50-meter-wide pit stretches ahead of them, pushing aside the cave walls. Far below, beyond the reach of the torch, a red glow emanates. The sides are smooth, with no holds for claws to grip. Layla looks aside to Mark.
"This is it," she says, defeated.
She takes a deep breath, looks back to where she came. She steps forward, and plants her feet. She pats at her satchel, feeling two of them…
"Wait!"
She tosses the torch aside, making wooden clacks reverberate through the cave. She slips her own stachel off and tosses it to Mark. And then puts the Gallade's onto the ground to explore it. Her face quickly lights up.
"Oh my god. We can do this!"
She takes out large spores and puts them on the ground. There's intense focus in her sorting. She puts pulsating glowing orange spores into one pile, spores of pink and white into another pile, and everything else into a third pile.
Mark looks down to the bag he's holding in his claws, tilting it to look around. He leans in to sniff it. Smells like adventure, and kind of nice.
"That Gallade knew what they were doing, the bag's loaded. Our adversaries are going to be a Flygon and Gligar. I'm going to need your help. I can take down the Flygon but if the Gligar interrupts me once, the Flygon will overwhelm us both. You'll need to keep him away from me and distract him."
The larger spores are placed on the top of the bag. There are two spores left, a spiky pink one she eats immediately, wincing at its bitterness, and a spore with a green rail she breaks off and puts under her tongue. She stands up and wears the bag again. Mark walks up to her side, sliding her satchel over his head.
"I haven't fought by someone's side in awhile. I'm excited. It'll be nice," Layla says.
Mark weakly nods and looks down. He taps his claws over the back of his hand. They're sharper than he thought. A flickering orange glow emerges from the far side, filtering through the field of tall spikes. The shadows dance and flicker in the chaotic patterns two torches bring.
"Hey, before we fight, I should get your name," Layla says.
"Oh? Oh… Mark."
"Thanks. Quality name. I'll remember it. Oh, and let them move first, ok?"
Mark nods. He's not sure what stance to take, so he just moves a foot forward and holds his claws in front of his face. Layla giggles after glancing at the pose.
A Gligar emerges from the rocks first. Its stride is rigid and wooden, and it holds its torch low to the ground. Its tongue hangs out. It stops with legs spread and a hand on his hip. A far larger, menacing body of the Flygon worms out above the rock field. They're intimidating, looking down from many feet above the small pokemon. The Flygon holds her torch forward, pointing at Layla. Then Mark.
"You. Step aside. This isn't any of your business," the Flygon tells Mark.
"What?" Layla says, shocked.
"She's a dangerous pokemon. She ambushed us and stole our partner's belongings. She's a despicable thief."
"HEY! IT WASN'T YOURS TO BEGIN WITH!" Layla shouts.
"NOT. HIS. BUSINESS."
Everybody goes silent. The only sound intruding the space is the crackling of the many torches, basking everyone's tense expression in a soft orange flicker. Mark can barely breathe. His mouth is open, but no words come out.
"We'll bring you home safely. Don't get involved with these kinds of people. There's enough misery in this world."
Mark looks at Layla. There's doubt in his face.
Layla turns her head. Her eyes meet his. Her expression is dire.
"What? …No. Mark, I need you…" she says quietly.
"Step aside now, Sableye. Please. Final warning" The Flygon threatens.
His whole body is locked. He can barely breathe.
What do I do?