Author's Note: So for those who don't know it yet, this is a reboot of the original story I made. I didn't like the Book of Mew idea so I just decided to write it out entirely here and just go with something that I had planned on our hero having later on down the line. I also changed our hero's partner for the sake of a better type combo. Alright, onto the story.
"This world of my creation and children is a world that is filled with wonder and mystery, but I sense a great darkness that I had sealed long ago, nearing its freedom from its bonds for my power is now weakening. I only hope that with these gifts we've given you will you have the strength to defeat what's coming. I now entrust the future of this world to you."
It was a sunny day for a little Fennekin running through the forest path. She was currently on her way to Valor Village, a little place next to the grand ocean that housed the guild that she was on her way to join. As she was running down the path to said village, she couldn't help but have some excitement coursing through her, especially since the source of her excitement was currently sitting in the little brown bag she had strapped to her back.
"I can't believe it!" she thought. "I can't believe I was given an invitation to join a guild! I'll be sure to become a great explorer, help lots of pokémon and save just as many lives!"
Just as she was about to exit the forest, she heard a rustling noise coming from within the foliage. She turned her head to look and saw a shaded outline of a cat-like being vanishing within the thick trees. Curiosity catching her interest she followed the being into the woods. After a few minutes of walking the little fox found a clearing. Within it there was a little pond, a few saplings just starting to grow and an unconscious pokémon lying in the center… wait… WHAT?!
The Fennekin was shocked at seeing the mysteriously unconscious blue pokémon in the center of the clearing. Judging from its appearance it was a Riolu, but what caught her attention most was that on the said pokémon's neck was a strange pendant that had a small slate colored a plain white. Shaking her attention away from the pendant, she proceeded to check on the Riolu.
"Hey are you alright?" The Riolu then began to awake upon hearing her voice. When he finally opened his eyes he saw the Fennekin looking at him with a relieved expression. "Oh thank goodness, I thought you were hurt."
The reaction from the bipedal jackal was not what she had expected. First his eyes widened upon hearing her talk, then let out a shocked yelp and jumped up and looked at her. "You… you just talked!"
"Well, yeah… what, you expect me not to?" she asked, sounding offended.
"Well, no but…" the Riolu started. "What I meant was, how are you speaking in plain English?"
Now she was confused. "English? What's that? You are by far the weirdest Riolu I've ever met."
"Riolu?" he said. "I'm a human."
And now she was starting to get concerned. "What are you talking about? You look like a normal Riolu to me."
The said Riolu just stared at her in frustration, which soon turned to concern. He then noticed the pond and proceeded to walk over to it with his eyes closed and repeatedly whispering, "please let me be a human," over and over. Upon walking into the pond, he took a deep breath and opened his eyes to find a Riolu looking back at him.
"Oh…" he said, before fainting into the water. Worried that he might drown, the Fennekin ran over to him, just as he splashed his head out of the water. Looking down at his hands, now paws, reality finally settled onto him. "I really am a Riolu. I've been turned into a pokémon!"
After witnessing the Riolu's seriousness upon actually believing he was human, she had a feeling that he wasn't lying. "Umm… so, do you need any help or…"
"What if a trainer sees me?! They'll probably want to catch me!" the Riolu rambled.
"A trainer?" the Fennekin wondered. "Well if it's any consolation, humans don't exist here."
This caught the Riolu's attention. After a few seconds he breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness."
"Anyways, might as well get introductions out of the way, my name is Amber," she said with a passion of pride. "What's yours?"
The Riolu opened his mouth to talk, only for nothing to come out as he tried to remember his name, only for nothing to come up and his face showed as his eyes shrunk in realization. "I don't remember… Matter of fact, I don't remember anything!"
Amber looked at the pokémon before her sadly. "Poor dude… he gets turned into a pokémon, if he really was human, and he loses all his memories too. It's kinda sad honestly," she thinks to herself. "Hmm… maybe…"
"Hey, I know that everything that's going on with you is strange and all," she says, grabbing the Riolu's attention. "But if you're interested, maybe you could come and form an exploration team with me?"
"An exploration team?" he asks curiously.
"Yeah! You become a mystery dungeon explorer and help pokémon all around the continent! It's really amazing!"
The Riolu couldn't explain it, but for some reason the thought of helping people just made him happy. Trusting his gut, he gave his answer. "Sure! Sounds like fun!"
"Really?!" Amber exclaims excitedly. "I mean, right after you said you lost your memories and all that?"
"Yeah, I can't really explain it, but for some reason just the thought of helping people just makes me feel happy. I might not remember my past, but my gut sure is telling me something that I like."
"That's so cool!" the Fennekin responds. "Well, follow me, I know the way back to the road… I think."
Amber leads the Riolu out of the clearing. As they walk through the dense forest towards the path that Amber was walking down before finding the bipedal blue jackal, she decides to lighten the mood by doing some casual talk. "So, did you see a weird pokémon around here at all?"
"No, not that I remember. Why, did you?"
"Yeah, right before I found you. Matter of fact, they lead me to you."
"Really?"
"Yeah! Crazy right?"
"Not as crazy as getting turned into a pokémon and losing all your memories."
"Right, we still need a name for you," Amber said. "Hmm… how about Rio?"
"Seems a bit basic don't you think?"
"Okay, how about Leo?"
"Doesn't feel right to me."
"Hmm… maybe Cobalt?"
"Cool… but kind of unoriginal."
"Ugh… you're not making this easy Mr. Picky."
"Please don't call me that."
"Alright! I was kidding… How about…" But before she could give an idea, something swooped down from the trees in front of them startling both pokémon. The two looked up to see a Delibird snickering at the two, holding a familiar bag in his right hand. "AHH! My bag!"
"Hey! Give that back!" the human turned Riolu exclaimed, but the Delibird just threw the bag into his white sack that he carries with his left hand before hopping to the next tree. The Riolu sighs before turning to the Fennekin next to him. "I hope nothing important was in that bag." After hearing that, Amber panicked
"GAHH! My invitation was in that bag!" she exclaimed before running after the thief.
"Wait a sec!" the Riolu yells to her before running after her. Being the pokémon he was, he managed to catch up to her quickly. "What's so important here?!"
"Without that invitation, our chances of becoming an exploration team goes up in smoke!" Amber explains. Now understanding the urgency of the situation, the Riolu grabbed the Fennekin in his other arm and began to run faster. They eventually caught up to the Delibird standing before the entrance of a cavern. Upon hearing the Riolu's fast footsteps he turns around to see the two pokémon he stole from.
"What?! How'd you get here so fast?!" he asks them.
"Never underestimate a Riolu's running speed!" the human turned pokémon answers.
"I thought you didn't remember anything?" Amber playfully asks the Riolu.
"I don't remember my past, that doesn't mean I don't know anything about pokémon." he responds. The Delibird looked at the two in worry, before running into the cave. "Hey! Get back here with Amber's bag!" he exclaimed, running in after them.
"Wait!" Amber yells, but he already brought them into the cave.
After chasing the Delibird into the cave, the bipedal jackal stopped within a room lit from the ceiling by some kind of strange glowing yellow crystal, and there were three corridors, one in each wall before him, each one too dark to see down. After putting Amber down, she took one glance around the room, and sighed in annoyance.
"Looks like my suspicions were right, it seems that this place is a mystery dungeon."
"You mentioned that earlier," the Riolu said. "But you didn't quite explain what they were."
"Oh yeah I didn't, did I?" Amber said. "Mystery dungeons are, well, a mystery. They appeared out of nowhere one day and have been here ever since. The dungeons in general are pretty much mazes that change every 24 hours, right at midnight. They tend to house loot and stuff that many explorers and adventurers use while exploring and such."
"Okay, good to know. Is there another way out or something?" the Riolu asks.
"There should be one in every 'break room' as explorers call it. It's essentially a place where explorers can recuperate and leave if they want to," she explains. "If that Delibird wants to leave, he will more than likely head there."
"Alright, so we just have to find it before he does, simple."
The two then run down the corridor in front of them, and find themselves in a similar looking room, this time it was larger with two other corridors and a big blue fruit off to the side of the room.
"Hey, isn't that an oran berry?" the Riolu asks.
"Yeah, it is! We should take it with us, though without my bag, we're going to have to hold it," Amber responds.
"Don't worry. I think I can handle holding a berry for a bit," he says as he grabs the said fruit. The two then continue down the corridor to their right and enter another room. It was smaller than the last and had only one corridor in the left wall, but what was in the center of the room intrigued the Riolu the most. "Hey, is that a Pansage?" It was in fact the grass monkey pokémon, and it had not seemed to have noticed them yet.
"Hey that's great, some help would be amazing right now," the human turned pokémon said walking towards the Pansage, causing its attention to be drawn to him.
"Hey wait!" Amber tried to warn, but the grass monkey had already charged at the Riolu. Once he had noticed the pokémon charging at him, they had already used their scratch attack on him, causing him to be flung back to Amber.
"Hey!" he exclaimed at the Pansage only for a pair of vines to grow out of their back, preparing a vine whip, only for Amber to step in before the attack hit.
"Ember!" she said as her breath of fiery embers attacked the monkey causing it to jump back from the super effective move. It singed it slightly, but not enough to burn it. The human turned Riolu decided to attack the Pansage as well. After putting the berry down, he ran up to it and punched the monkey in the stomach causing it to faint, ending the battle. After a few seconds, the fainted Pansage was coated in darkness before sinking into the floor, much to the shock of the Riolu that just attacked it.
"What just happened?!" he asked in shock, turning to Amber who currently sported a guilty smirk on her face.
"Sorry, I should have told you earlier, but mystery dungeons tend to create these things called 'Shadows'," she explains. "They are pretty much these mindless beings that the dungeon creates to attack any pokémon they come across. Once they've been defeated, they turn back into whatever… stuff it is that created them in the first place. All part of the test that a mystery dungeon gives."
"What test?" he asks.
"To get the dungeon's treasure of course. Once the treasure is found, the dungeon disappears once all the pokémon leave it."
"There's treasure in these dungeons?"
"Don't think they're easy to get to. Remember those break rooms I mentioned earlier?" The Riolu nods his head yes. "Well, they also act as a difficulty separator of sorts. Once you exit the room to travel further into the dungeon, the Shadows become stronger. The closer you come to a dungeon's treasure the stronger the Shadows become."
"I see… so there is a treasure at the end of every mystery dungeon and these Shadows that the dungeon conjures acts as a test to see if you're worthy of collecting it." he summarizes.
"Yep, but enough talking! We have to catch that thief before he gets away!"
"Right!" the Riolu says. Amber then runs toward the next corridor, but the bipedal jackal stops her. "Wait! Can you teach me how to perform an attack?" he asks shyly.
"Sure! Just focus on some form of energy from within and try to push it out into an attack or ability," she explains. He then tries to sense this inner energy, which he finds easily much again to his surprise. He then pushes out that energy into his right fist causing it to turn into a gunmetal gray along with a white aura to emit off him. "Woah! You know Bullet Punch?"
"Really? That's awesome!" the Riolu yells in excitement. After discovering how to perform a move, the Riolu grabs the oran berry he dropped onto the ground and runs after Amber who had already gone on ahead to the next room.
A few rooms later with a few more Shadows defeated the human turned pokémon had gotten a grasp on his moveset; Force Palm, Endure and Bullet Punch. For some reason when he tries to perform a fourth move, he always comes up short. He figured he just didn't know a fourth move yet, so he decided not to worry about it.
"Come on let's go!" Amber says as they run through another corridor. They finally entered another room. It was big with only two other corridors in its walls, and from the corridor across from them, the Delibird they were chasing was before them. They had entered the room at the same time. "Ha! Finally found you, thief!"
"Oh crud!" they exclaimed.
"Yeah! Give Amber back her bag!" the Riolu demands placing the oran berry he was holding down on the ground behind him.
The Delibird seeing no way around this, prepared to battle the two pokémon before him. He felt confident in going against the Riolu, him being a Fighting type to their Ice/Flying, but the Fennekin was gonna be a problem, their Fire typing gave them the greater advantage, but they did have a secret weapon up their sleeve. "Alright kids, you wanna get hurt so bad, then bring it!"
The Riolu made the first move, with a quickly well timed Bullet Punch was able to deal the Delibird a decent amount of damage considering Steel-type moves are super effective against Ice types. The Delibird not expecting that almost wasn't prepared for Amber's follow up attack of Ember, almost. Snapping out of their stupor they dodged the fire attack at the last second. Acting quickly, the Delibird pulled a present out of their bag before tossing it at the duo, exploding and causing decent damage to them, as well as creating a smokescreen. Using Aerial Ace, he charged into the cloud, landing a direct hit on the Fennekin.
They grinned in confidence, feeling that they may stand a chance against the two before them. Their ability Hustle sure gave them a decent damage output on their enemies so that had to hurt a lot.
"Amber!" the Riolu exclaimed, making the mistake of revealing his location. The Delibird then used Aerial Ace again, this time aimed at the bipedal jackal. Luckily he noticed and managed to perform a quickly timed Endure, white aura coating his body as the super effective move made contact, flinging him to the back wall of the room. Pain was everywhere. He was certain that if he didn't perform that Endure he would've fainted, heck he barely had the strength to stand.
"Ha! You two are already down for the count, and here I thought you might be a challenge, but I shouldn't have expected so much from a couple of kids! Hahahahaha-" They were interrupted out of their monologue by a direct hit from Amber's Ember, who was struggling to stand, causing a few flames to ignite on him showing he got burned. "Hey! I was talking here! Y'know what? For that I think I'll give you a taste of your own medicine!" They held their arm out as a sphere of water formed. It was Water Pulse! If that move made contact it would be super effective against her. Before his mind even began to think, his legs moved on their own.
As the Riolu ran towards Amber, the slate pendant on his neck changed colors from plain white to metallic gray, and his normally red eyes now shone the same color as his pendant. Once he was in front of Amber, the Water Pulse fired and was heading straight towards them, he didn't even think, he just yelled out the move he had unknowingly performed.
"MULTI-ATTACK!" Once the words left his mouth, his right arm was coated in a metallic gray aura as he rushed forward, punching through the Water Pulse and hitting the Delibird with a direct hit. The thief was then sent flying into the wall as the Riolu paned heavily.
Tired and hurt, the bipedal jackal kneeled to the floor as his eyes and pendant returned to normal. Amber looked to her partner in shock at what just happened, only for the Delibird to burst out of the wall that they were flown into.
"If you think that this is over, then you've got another thing com-" The Delibird suddenly stopped as he stood for a few moments, before comically falling to the ground, one last ember of the burn inflicted on him being put out. They had fainted.
"Ha! Beat ya you thief!" the Riolu yelled standing back up, only to fall to the ground himself out of exhaustion. Amber, worried for her comrade, grabbed the oran berry in one of her paws and hopped over to him.
"Hey, come on, wake up!" she exclaimed. His eyes squinted open at her voice. "Here eat this." She then shoved the berry into his mouth. After he chewed and swallowed, he felt his wounds being healed and energy being rejuvenated. Soon he could stand on his own two feet again.
"Wow, thanks Amber!" he said. She honestly didn't care about the thank you, she was just glad that he was alright, and proceeded to hug him.
"You're my hero," she whispered, causing him to blush at the gratitude.
"Hey, I just wanted to protect you. I mean, you're the first friend I've made here right?"
After hearing him call her his friend, she just wanted to hug him more, but first, her bag with her invitation. Once the two got the unconscious Delibird's sack, they grabbed her bag which she gladly strapped back onto her chest after checking to see that everything was there. "Now then, onto the break room to get out of here."
What luck they had that the very next room they entered was the said break room. In the room, there was a pair of stairs that lead down to the lower levels of the dungeon, and instead of a crystal on the ceiling providing the lighting it was a hole in the roof, sunlight shining through it. To their left was their safe haven, an opening that was shining with the light of the outside world.
"Alright! Let's get out of here!" Amber yells in excitement as she runs out the exit, the human turned pokémon following right behind her.
After running into the sunlight, they found themselves back at the entrance of the cave. "Whew! That was quite the rush, but I am glad that it's over now," Amber said. "What did you think of it… oh shoot! We've been so busy trying to catch this guy, we still haven't thought of a new name for you yet."
"You just now noticed?" he asked playfully to her.
"Ha! Funny, now what to call you," she pondered. "Hmm… Okay this is gonna sound pretty dumb, but how about Hiro?"
"Hero?" he said.
"Yeah, but instead of an 'e' it's an 'i'."
After thinking for a bit, Hiro then replies. "Sure, I kinda like it."
"Great!" Amber says happily, before giving an interrogating gaze. "Now what was that all about with that strange move you just used?"
Author's Note: So, how was that for my first pokémon story? I know Riolu is kinda a reused character for these Mystery Dungeon stories, but they are one of my favorite pokémon. This is a test chapter that I wanted to start off with. Consider it a preview of an idea.