Pokemon Mystery Dungeon:

Over A Barrel

The day they were laid to rest was a solemn one. A discrete and isolated spot on the borders of the badlands was chosen to prevent any disturbances whatsoever, both before and after the ceremony. The Hero left many friends and foes alike behind as they left the world, so visitors of all intentions were to be expected.

It was still a relatively small affair despite that fact.

The most distraught of the attendees was, of course, his partner.

As they were lowered down and away from the others into the pit, their partner spoke, the lack of tone in their voice indicative of how they felt about the event. Now since the Hero was gone, they had to be both the conduit of what their organization stood for, and to continue on the Hero's legacy.

"We will continue with their work. The guild will not end with the passing of our leader, but instead begin anew."

The hero's partner paused before speaking once more, taking a moment to gather the strength to not be swallowed by the general sullen mood of the small crowd that accompanied them. Regardless, their beloved leader descended into the dark hole all the same.

"I know that everyone here feels the same way that I do, if not worse. Regardless of that fact, let us rejoice in the fact that they were a part of our lives, and will continue to be, until the day we ourselves are lowered into our own respective graves."

No other words were spoken, punctuating the finality of both the speech of their new leader and the ceremony of their former.

The tomb was sealed by several of the attendees, and the Hero was laid to rest away from prying eyes for many years.

Chapter 1: Heat

"I swear it's one. It's gotta' be." The cyndaquil remarked as he peeked his head down into the hole below. The scorching midday desert sun cast a sunbeam down into the seemingly bottomless pit that revealed nothing to him.

"Murky, how many times have you said this exact sentence to me?" Inquired his partner, shooting him an unamused glance. "The odds of us finding a new one is second to none." His comrade's illogical antics only added to his annoyance, as if the heat bearing down upon him from the early summer sun was already unbearable enough.

Murky turned his head upwards to meet the sandshrew's glance and squinted, matching if not exceeding their vitriolic look. "C'moooon, Sterling. It only takes one for our big break." He whined, wiping his sweaty forehead as he gazed up at his friend and the corona of the sun behind him. "You're always shootin' me down on these things. What kinda' partner in crime are you?"

"The sane one." Sterling responded, his expression largely unchanged.

Murky's tone faded as he stood up to face him, groping for the filthy flap of the canvas satchel slung around his partner's shoulder. "Wh-c'mon. Just grab the rope and lower me down already, will ya'? Just let me go in with the good ol' built-in back torch real quick."

Sterling swatted his partner's stubby arms away from the tools of the trade in annoyance, keeping him at bay with a well-placed outstretched hand to the forehead as Murky continued his futile attempt, thrashing his head about erratically in an attempt to access what was rightfully his. The coals on the fire type's back began to glow brighter in conjunction with his efforts. "Ster, come on! Just give it! Real quick! I swear!"

"Oh, don't you Ster me. Let's go home already! I am not going to watch you crawl into some hole in the middle of nowhere for the next five hours!" One hand became two upon the cyndaquil's face. "Now stop, Murky!"

"No, you stop, you bastard! Just listen to me!" Murky's back flared up, making the heat of the desert even more unbearably. He had enough, and changed tactics. He pulled away from his doormat of a friend's grasp and retreated several steps backwards before charging at him, knocking them both to the ground in a full on scuffle. The two of them began to struggle on the ground, clumsily thrashing and rolling about on the scalding stones scattered around the vertical entrance to the subject of their argument.

The two continued to fight, during which Sterling laid an expectant hand down for support in order to fling his snarling friend off of him. However, it found no purchase and instead wrapped around the edge of the hole. He suddenly froze, whipping his head around to confirm his fears. Oh shit.

"Murky, wait!"

Murky didn't know nor care, and seized the opportunity to attempt to violently rip the bag from his friend, unwittingly jerking the two of them towards the hole. "Ha-ha! I gotcha', you pushoverrr…"

Sterling didn't realize his friend's eyes could open so wide.

"Aw, shit."

By the time he realized what he had done, they had already begun their descent, and the hard ground at the bottom greeted them even faster.

The Barrows: Floor 1.

As Sterling stirred awake, he realized that Murky laid unresponsive on his belly, still clutching the adventuring kit the two fought over. Sterling had no idea as to how long the two fell, nor how long they laid there, but did remember how they got there, and the negative emotions flooded back. Sterling flopped his irresponsible friend off his belly to his side with a swift motion of his entire body, and began to stand up, grumbling his grievances during, noting that his backside had accumulated a handsome bruise. "Murky, why did you do all of that?"

Murky stirred once he was suddenly subjected to both injustices by his friend, and mumbled into the dirt. "Do what...? Where are we, Ster?"

Despite everything, Sterling helped his disoriented friend up, and began to dust him off prior to himself, adjusting his tone to be more approachable and kind. Murky immediately recoiled from his touch as usual and chose to do it himself. "We fell into the hole you insisted on exploring, Murky." He paused to gaze around the featureless and dimly-lit room for a moment before nudging his smaller companion that held his head in either annoyance or pain. "Hey. Light your back-light... Thing. I can't see."

"Ugh. Fine. Whatever you want, boss."

Upon Murky's compliance, the area was illuminated by his back. It was more of a cavern with various smaller entrances to indiscriminate, long hallways that lacked any sort of defining features aside from being dark and hewn from rock. Sterling sighed in half-relief. It wasn't glamorous, and it sure as hell wasn't exciting. Murky would thankfully be disappointed, and they could leave.

"Well, here we are I guess. We aren't hurt though, thank Gods. But there's nothing here aside from more caves though, so let's get out before the sun sets. We don't know how long we've been down here, Murky."

Sterling already knew that whatever berries and soft items they had in their bag were utterly demolished from the force of two full-grown Pokemon colliding around it. As he began to dig in his now slime-saturated canvas bag wrapped around his midsection, his partner piped up in a flat tone. "Uh, Ster. Where'd the hell we come from?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, we fell, right?"

"Yeah, why?" Responded Sterling, turning to face his friend, who was now solemnly looking directly up.

"There ain't no hole above us."

"What do you mean? We..." He looked upwards as well, and was shocked to find no entrance, nor sun beaming down upon them, for that matter. Sterling's blood ran cold, and he began to search the room for any indication that they were dragged to their current position, or placed there otherwise by any other means. He found none, and began to grow worried.

"I… I can't see how we got here… Oh Gods…" He turned his head to make eye contact with his friend. Murky was beaming, despite their circumstances. He then clasped his hands together and cocked a sly eyebrow up.

"We did it. We found one."

"Found what, Murky? A bad situation!?" Snipped Sterling, unamused and fully aware of the deep trouble they were now in.

"No, no! Simmer down, will ya'? We found the prospector's dream! A new, unmapped mystery dungeon!" He gazed around in wonderment at the relatively boring and featureless area while waving his comically short limbs around in enthusiasm. "This is going to change our lives! All of our hard work is gonna' pay off! Think about it!"

Sterling continued to feel unsure about their current situation as he looked around at the unfamiliar subterranean environment. Instead of offering his usual interrogative response that seemed to be their dichotomy, he simply looked at his friend with concern, the look on his face saying enough.

"What? Aren't you excited?" Murky's attitude began to waver, seeming to question himself internally for a moment.

"No, I'm not. We are in deep shit, man. We don't even have a proper prospecting kit."

Murky jabbed him in his soft side with one of his arms, eliciting a light yelp out of him. "Ster, we are two grown-ass pokemon. We ain't gonna' die down here or anything of the sort. You sound like a cub." Murky's pep talk came out more as a dismissive lecture, but Sterling got the point.

"Alright, we need a plan, then." Sterling remarked as he dug in his bag to take inventory of what they had left. There wasn't a lot there, just a rope coiled around the strap of the bag, two bruised oran berries that somehow managed to survive the fall, a shoddy map of the town they lived in and the surrounding areas, basic medical supplies for more serious injuries, and a compass. Sterling unclasped the last item and watched the needle spin aimlessly. "Mmm… No dice on any sort of heading."

"Right." Murky curiously peered over Sterling's shoulder to confirm what he had just said. "From what I reckon, we still aren't screwed."

"How? Looks pretty grim to me, Murky."

"Well, that's easy." Murky remarked, with an overly confident grin and posture to accompany his words that did little to dissuade Sterling's dread about this entire situation. "We go down to the bottom of this here thing and then go back up… right?"

Sterling groaned.

After a brief breather, the two decided to pick a hallway out of the three that were presented before them. Murky chose left, wanting to explore in a methodical manner. He argued that if they kept to the left, through each tunnel, they would be able to maintain their bearings. Whatever that meant.

Sterling followed suit. They walked in relative silence through the thin, twisting passage for an indeterminate amount of time, watching their obscenely long shadows probe the dark distance that lay out of reach of Murky's flames he kept stoked on his back.

Sterling began to speak, struggling to pass the time in silence as they walked next to one another. "So, uh…" He grasped at straws as to what to say. "How's work, Murk?"

Murky frowned for a moment in contemplation and stifled curiosity, averting his gaze from the path in front of them to Sterling's eyes for a brief moment in time before darting them back. "Y'know how it is… It's work." he replied, awkwardly. This wasn't a subject Murky spoke about often with his friend, nor cared to start. "It pays money. Allows me to eat n' such."

While it wasn't the most concise of answers Sterling was satiated. "Yeah? It was kind of your brother to get you a job there. Glad things are turning out well so far. How is he doing, by the way?"

Murky punted a rock. The clack it made against the walls further down the tunnel reverberated back at them sharply. "Still better than me in every and any way, Ster. If that's what you're asking."

Murky then sought to reflect the inquiries. "How's working for ol' dad? He gettin' you all geared up to run the shop?"

"Yeah… It's not a bad lot, Murky. Really. He's done well for himself, and I consider myself fortunate to have someone like him to show me the ropes."

"Hm!" Murky hummed out in approval. "I gotcha'. Happy for ya', Ster." It seems like he wasn't in the mood to talk about their mundane lives. Nor was he really ever Sterling noticed, so he decided to not to bother questioning him further.

Sterling was unsure if he should say what he was going to next, as Murky calmed down from the earlier disagreement and was pleasant to be around. His friend was usually fine to be around on most days aside from the usual quick temper, but it seemed to him that when they went prospecting Murky's already reactive nature seemed to only grow worse.

"...I'm also still thinking about going to that school up north. I nearly have enough to pay off the first year. Dad said he'd cover half of the rest if I promised to work it off in time."

Murky froze, his blank expression falling to a slight frown. He turned to face his friend and spoke in a quiet tone. "Like, go-go? Why, Ster? We won't need anything after we are done here. We made it!"

Sterling knew his friend was about to get wound up again, and rushed to explain himself. "Well, yeah! Just because we finished at that dusty schoolhouse in the next town over doesn't mean I am going to stop, you know?"

"Ster, once we get a claim down, we won't have to worry about money or nothin'!"

He sighed. "It's not about the money, Murky. You know that."

Murky didn't respond nor react. He just gazed down the tunnel instead.

"Murk. Don't be like this."

…

"Murky!"

He didn't move a muscle, instead continuing to stare ahead, his tone low and without inflection. "What is that, Sterling?"

Sterling looked down the tunnel, and saw what Murky spoke of.

At the end of the tunnel a pair of glinting slit pupils caught their guiding firelight, staring back at them from the darkness.