This story was created to recrate the main concept of the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series, Where the human protagonist transforms into a powerful non-human creature or animal, but in the world of Runeterra.

This is a collaboration between myself and Fiverr User, jlrsutton

Cover art by Kori Arredondo

He had felt this before. Floating. In the sea, by the beach. But it wasn't quite right. Damien couldn't feel the sun warming his front as he lay there nor the air brush across his chest. He couldn't hear the seagulls.

But he heard the waves.

Damien could feel water not just below him, but all around. What had for a moment felt pure was now throwing him around. His body was out of control, torn from rest. Damien opened his eyes to see where he was, possibly to help get his bearings and return to his sunny beachside swim.

There was no sun. There was no beach. Damien could barely make out the surface of the water from the deep, bottomless black of the ocean that he currently hung above.

Damien did what any normal person would under the circumstances. He panicked. This far under the surface and with the currents yanking his body unceremoniously about, he had no chance at swimming to the surface. He wouldn't be able to scrape another breath, to fill his lungs with that which they were already screaming for. He desperately flung his arms ahead of himself to scramble towards the surface, determined that if he was going to die, he would go down fighting.

For some reason, Damien only just realized, the saltwater was not burning his eyes as he had kept them open to search around for a good half a minute. He didn't really notice the impressive underwater eyesight until he saw his arms clawing at the water. Small, thin little things with less fingers than he was accustomed to; and more skin between each of those long, bony appendages. Not to mention, on top of the other differences, his skin was a light blue, speckled with white patches.

Damien, upon seeing his arms and then realizing they were his arms, gasped in shock, accidentally inhaling a rush of cold saltwater. He reflexively began to choke, but the effect was like trying to blow a nose that wasn't blocked in the first place. Instead of successfully choking, Damien simply… breathed. He could feel the water in his lungs, flooding them and cooling down his interior. However, the water felt natural, like it wasn't invading some inaccessible part of Damien's body.

Damien, now that he was beginning to get his understanding of how to maneuver the waters, was more aware of his senses. Not acutely, but he was certain something was watching him. Not intensely, but consistently. Just out of reach.

Damien continued to wait there, deep below the surface. He was still in the dark, save for the skittering of lights highlighting the waves and smaller ripples across the surface of the water high above. The roiling of the waves and strong currents had pushed him deeper down to calmer waters. To darker waters.

Damien no longer had fear of the deep at the forefront of his brain. He was focusing on the one-two of breathing. Damien was so engrossed in figuring out the intricacies of this new body he had that he didn't notice the form of the other being beginning to emerge into view, appearing from the enveloping darkness.

The first thing that alerted Damien was a glint of light catching his eye. This far below the surface, at night, there was very little light to catch and even fewer things for it to catch onto. The being rapidly approaching Damien was holding something that happened to look very shiny indeed. Very shiny and very sharp.

Damien began to backpedal in the water, unwilling to turn his back to the being as he wasn't armed at all. The being, for their part, shot through the water with urgency. Damien quickly made out a face instead of fierce jaws, concern wrought across it. The rest of the head and body were a mix of fish and human, with a huge green tail and fin replacing where normally, a human would have legs.

The being was cutting their way through the water in Damien's direction quickly, however the movement was slightly uneven, going in flurries of speed instead of one consistent pace. Damien soon could also see that the being wasn't use their arms to swim, instead they were holding a shining weapon in each hand, causing drag in the water.

For the first time since coming to consciousness, Damien heard something other than the rush of water around him. The being was shouting in his direction. No, at him. To him.

"Where have you been?!" She called through the water, almost complete in closing the distance. She held out one of the weapons, the smaller one in her left hand, as if for Damien to take it.

Damien hesitated, still unsure as to whether she meant to harm him or not. She didn't appear to be actively hostile, so he went along with her prompts, to hopefully not upset her. Damien swam up and gripped the weapon she held. He pulled to take it, but she held on tight, staring deep into his large ice blue eyes. Wracked with suspicious energy, she let go of the weapon, still eyeing Damien carefully.

"How are you feeling?" She asked, "I thought we had lost you."

Damien hadn't tried speaking under water and his first attempt sent a flurry of trapped bubbles from his lungs up to the surface. He coughed and tried to cover his mouth instinctively, dropping the weapon that, to him, seemed quite large. The being looked shocked, staring from him to the shining weapon that was rapidly sinking into the darkness. She sighed and shot down after it, returning swiftly to give it back to him.

"You must have hit your head," she said, the suspicion switching to concern. "It was a nasty hit you took. I thought-"

She cut herself off, averting her gaze for a moment.

"Enough about me," she said, shaking her head, "you didn't get a chance to reply. How are you? What happened?"

"I-" Damien coughed again, but forced more words out. "I just woke up here a few minutes ago. I think I was…" Damien's voice trailed off as what he was thinking was even more far-fetched than an underwater conversation with a mermaid.

His voice was higher than he was used to, yet scratchy. It sounded strange hearing it from inside his head, but also distorted through the waves. It was ever so slightly deeper than the being's voice, yet hers did not sound scratchy at all. It was useful having her there so that he could begin to try and piece together what little logic he could in this madness.

"Look," she continued, "we don't have a lot of time. I was only going this way because his ship is coming this way. We need to outrun it. I know you're a little…confused, but can you at least outrun that bottom feeder?"

"Ship? Outrun a ship? By swimming?" Damien asked incredulously.

"Oh, this is bad, your injury must be worse than I thought." The being paused, bobbing in the water and scanning all over Damien with her eyes to see if she could make out any obvious signs of injury but, from the look on her face, Damien could tell she couldn't see anything wrong with him. "What do you remember?" She asked slowly. "Let's start easy. What's my name?"

Damien stayed silent, unable to answer. She rolled her eyes, switching her weapon between her hands anxiously.

"Okay, easier then. What's your name?" The being waved her hand, as if trying to coax Damien into speaking a simple, obvious answer. He could not.

"Oh goodness Fizz," she said, "if you don't know anything, how are we going to fight off the ship of pirates that'll be bearing down on us at any moment?"

"Pirates?"

"Fizz," she growled, "I swear, if this is a joke… Alright. My name, is Nami. You are Fizz. Is that easy enough?"

"That doesn't seem right. None of this seems right," Damien mumbled, half to himself, "but I can't be in a dream. People wake up when they realize, they're dreaming."

"You also need to be asleep to dream. Can you hold your trident? Can you use it?"

"I really don't-"

Damien was unable to finish his thought as what was now akin to the sky for him and been wrenched open. A knife of firelight split through the surface of the seas, the hull of a great ship passing overhead and beaming lantern light across the seas. The two sea-dwelling creatures, engrossed in their conversation, did not see the roped until it was too late, trawling along behind the ship. A fishing net, weighed down by metal balls connected by rope, gathered both Nami and Damien up in its path and before they could swim out of its clutches, the net closed around them, successful in its hunt.

Nami held firm on Damien's trident to make sure he didn't drop it again.

"We don't have much time," Nami said, "trust your instincts and you'll be fine. You're a great warrior, remember? Maybe this trial by fire will jog your memory."

Nami laughed. A strained sound from someone who did not believe what they had said was funny, but was forcing positivity into the situation anyway.

Both Nami and Damien hit the deck of the ship in a heap, wrapped up in rope, saltwater splashing out across the wooden boards.

Up above the waves, the weather was foul. It was night time, but Damien could tell that daylight wouldn't have found this portion of the sea through whatever thunderclouds were hidden by the lack of light. Winds howled across the deck of the ship, whistling as they hit each of the three masts. The lanterns were completely covered by thick glass to stop the wind putting out the flames within and the light shed by the lanterns revealed numerous eager eyed people staring down at the two in the net.

Damien tried to get a peek at a few of them without them noticing, essentially playing dead so that they wouldn't attack him. Nami seemed to be going for the same tactic. They were useless until they were released from the weighted ropes. The parts that Damien could see showed him that these people were indeed pirates and couldn't look any more like them if they tried. One person had boots on, but the toecap was missing from one of his boots, exposing his moldy and chipped toenails to the elements. Another person had a striped shirt on; it was incredibly stained and likely hadn't been washed- ever, judging from the smell.

Every man that surrounded them brandished a sword, although none of their weapons looked as expensive or impressive as either Damien's or Nami's. Damien gripped a long trident, although it wouldn't seem long in the hands of a normal sized human. It had a decorative fish fin at one end and three curled points forming a deadly pincer at the other. Deep blue decorations dazzled throughout the silver trident. Nami held a similarly long weapon, proportionally to her large size, but hers was more gold than silver and ended in a viciously serrated edge, with a blue finish, in the shape of a circle at the end of her weapon. Neither weapon could be used until… yes.

One of the pirates, impatient of all the standing and staring, as well as the likely bitter effect of the weather, moved to lift the weights from the net and uncover their new prisoners.

The weights were lifted and Nami nudged Damien to get his attention, urging him to wait for the right moment. Damien, however, did not wait at all. Damien rolled over where he was, his arms raised, although he was still holding the trident as his hand had refused to obey him out of fear.

The moment the pirates got a better look of Damien's face, they began to back away, bristling with fear.

Damien tried to stand to begin his earnest speech about how it was all a mistake, but his legs needed a moment to remember how to stand. How long had he been floating in the water? It didn't feel that long at all, but it could easily have been an eternity the way his legs felt. As Damien collapsed in a pile, one of the pirates, acting more out of fear than confidence, attempted a swipe at his back with the sword. Nami's weapon was up to parry the blade in a flash.

The ring of metal broke the tension, the starting chime for the fight to begin. Damien forced himself to his feet before the first of the pirates was on him, booting him in the stomach and sending him, winded, across the deck of the ship. He hit the deck hard, his trident clattering out of his hand. He looked up, breathing heavily and clutching his chest where he had been kicked. Nami, with her fish tail, was unable to stand and face the crowd of menacing individuals. That did not mean they were faring well against her however.

Her circular blade spun and stabbed away, hooking other swords and sending them swinging, forcing the pirates into attacking each other. Then, she began to do things that even in this dream, Damien thought impossible.

Nami raised her free arm and brought it rushing down. A splash could be heard, even above the roaring and tumultuous waves. One rogue wave burst over the side of the ship and stayed, hovering to allow Nami to traverse across the ship normally. She flung water from the wave at a pirate, trapping him in a bubble and sending him overboard. She was holding her own quite well against the pirate thugs, but the numbers weren't on her side as long as Damien wasn't helping.

He pushed himself to his feet, unsteadily limping over to his trident and picking it up to give him balance. He ran across the deck to re-join the fray, but was still unaccustomed to the legs and collapsed halfway, sliding across the deck and bumping into the heel of one of the pirates that had been refraining from attacking the blade-wielding wave.

The pirate picked up his foot and turned to see what had hit him. Damien closed his eyes and swung, embedding one of the blades of the trident into the man's knee. The leg that had been supporting the pirate buckled as his knee gave out and Damien gave himself a silent congratulations before having to lift his trident to block the blow of yet another pirate.

There were too many of them and Damien couldn't think of what to do. Many of the pirates were still holding back from attacking him, seemingly waiting for something. A couple were exchanging looks as they watched Damien fumble his way across the battlefield.

"Legend or not," a deep voice barked out from somewhere on the ship, forcing all the pirates to hesitate in their assault, "you're meant to be dead. Let me fix that for you."