Chapter 3: First Mission.
Drew looked around. He wasn't sure how, but he was in a volcanic cave. He could tell by the heat and small pools of lava that were scattered around. "How did I get here," he pondered to himself. "The last thing I remember was going to sleep. I don't even remember waking up. Of course! This is a dream. But why would my dream be in a volcanic cave? This place doesn't even seem familiar."
"Maybe not here, but deeper down it will," An emotionless voice said behind him. Spooked, Drew whipped around, but he saw nothing. "You cannot see me Drew, but I am here. You do not know who I am, but I know who you are."
"Wh-who are you," Drew stuttered.
"All will be revealed, but for now you only need to know one thing. The dark heart will overcome death, judgment, and light."
"What does that mean?"
"You will learn in due time. But for now, it is time to return you to your mission." The voice faded away as it finished the sentence, and memories came flushing into Drew's mind.
"I remember how I got here," Drew said, going over the memories form that morning.
He woke to Crue screaming at him that they were supposed to be gone already and then slapping him a few times. And then when Drew finished getting ready, which wasn't easy with Crue yelling at him to get a move on, they went upstairs. Drew thought that he might have to help chose a mission, but luckily his teammates already chose one. He also saw Spiral for the first time that she was out of her shell; she looked like a blue snail with a bunch of little tentacles and two eyes with large pupils. The mission was, if he remembered correctly, to come to Mt. Magma, where they currently were, and apprehend a few fire type outlaws.
But, for some reason, Drew had no memories of anything that happened once they entered the cave except for his talk with the voice. "Guys," He shouted, hoping his teammates might hear him. "Crue, Spiral, Helm! Hey, I remembered all of their names."
"D-D-Drew." A meek voice called out from somewhere else on the floor. It didn't really sound familiar, but Drew guessed it was Spiral.
"Yes, Spiral," he called back. "Where are you?"
"I'm over here, behind this rock," Spiral replied. Drew turned his attention to where her voice was coming from and noticed a large boulder. He floated over to it and looked behind it to see Spiral's spiral shell.
"What happened? I can't remember anything from when we came into here. And where are Helm and Crue?"
"I-I don't know. We just came into here and then I felt something hit me. I flew over here and then curled up in my shell. But we need to find them." Spiral slowly crawled out of her shell.
"So, we'll scour this floor until we find them." Drew tried to sound reassuring.
"Uhh, what if they went to the next floor? Then we'll have to find the way down," Spiral said, surprising Drew.
"Hold on a second, this place isn't one floor?" The ghost type was utterly flabbergasted.
"No, even the shortest dungeons are five floors, luckily there is always a way to go down or up."
"Hello Magby!" a familiar voice yelled from the other side of the floor, signifying that Helm was still on the floor with them. Drew and Spiral hurried over to where the voice was, luckily not running into any wild Pokemon that would have slowed them down. They arrived in a small room which only let out in the corridor they just passed through and a natural stairwell in a hole in the wall. Helm was sitting there alone. "Bye bye Magby! Hello sissy!"
"There you are Helm," Spiral said, followed by a sigh of relief. "What happened?"
"I beat a Magby and he want bye-bye!" the excited fossil Pokemon yelled.
"No, when we first came in and got attacked," Drew tried.
"Oh! We got attacked by meanies from behind. They knock you out and send my sister behind a rock! Then they grab me and Crue and start running. We got down to Magma pit, and they set us down. I didn't get a good look, but I know they are fire types, they gave off so much heat. Almost as soon as we where put down, Crue distracted them which let me escape. I came up here to look for you guys!"
"As long as you're okay, brother," Spiral said, going up to her brother and hugging him with her tentacles.
"What about Crue?" Drew asked Spiral.
"Uhh, yeah, Crue. So, how many floors are there anyways?" Spiral quickly changed the topic with her question.
"Five floors, really small. Follow me!" Helm ran to the stairwell in the wall and went down it. The other two followed him. They arrived in a small area with a small corridor leading to the rest of the floor surrounded by a pool of magma.
"How does the magma from the fist floor not melt through to this floor?" Drew asked. "And even more, why doesn't the heat affect us much, I mean I'm only a little warmer than usual?"
"Meh, wild magic I guess," Spiral replied, unable to think up any other excuse.
"Come guys, move. Stairs nearby," Helm told the other two before scurrying down the corridor. Spiral and Drew followed him to see that in the next room there was indeed the stairwell, but there was also a wild Pokemon. It looked like a small orange chick with miniscule yellow wings and a yellow head crest.
"Tor Torchic," the Pokemon said, showing the inability of wild Pokemon from saying anything other than their names.
"A Torchic, good thing we're Water-types," Drew pointed out the obvious. "Wait, do either of you guys even know any Water moves, because I only know Bubble and it is really weak even against a Fire-type?"
"No, I don't." Spiral pulled into her shell from embarrassment.
"Hello!" Helm popped up behind the Torchic, making it jump and shoot out an Ember attack at Helm. He shrugged the move off due to its lower power and his quadruple resistance to it. "That's not nice! Scratch!" One of Helm's claws glew white and he jumped at Torchic, scratching it with the claw.
"Bubble!" Drew shot a small blast of bubbles at the Torchic from behind, knocking it out. Suddenly, a yellow light appeared form nowhere and surrounded the Torchic, the wild magic taking it away.
"What just happened?" Drew asked, perplexed.
"Did you miss the orientation on the first day?" Spiral replied, coming back out of her shell. "Wild magic transports any fainted wild Pokemon away from where they are knocked out."
"Well I did spend most of that day passed out. Well, no matter. Let's get going, we are already over half way to saving Crue." Drew went up the stairs, just to run back down. "Quick, hide!" Spiral pulled back into her shell and Helm laid down flat and closed the eyespots on his shell, allowing the two of them to appear like rocks. Drew hid behind Spiral and squished himself down as much as he could to avoid being seen.
"I wonder how much Tentacool jewels sell for," a deep voice said from the stairwell. "I bet a few hundred Poke for that little one and a thousand for each of the big ones. They're supposed to shine really brightly and beautifully. Think off how much someone might pay for some of them."
"Yeah boss," a squeaky voice said.
"Double yeah boss," another squeaky voice said.
"Too bad Vince got captured by the police," the first squeaky voice spoke up again.
"Well he was an idiot, so he deserved it," the deep voice said.
Drew looked over Spiral's shell at the three Pokemon. One of them was about four feet tall and looked like a mixture of a ball and a baboon, having a round, red body with two eyeballs with black fur circling them and a creepy smile with sharp teeth. He supported most of his weight on his oversized arms which touched the ground almost in front of him instead of his small feet under his stubby tail. Two large, flame like eyebrows stuck up from the top inner corners of his eyes. That Darmanitan must be in charge, Drew thought.
One of the other two Pokemon looked like a red oval with very stubby arms and legs with tiny, three-digited hands and feet. He had eyes like those of the first Pokemon, but his eyebrows looked like little yellow puffy checkmarks instead of flames and his smile was much less creepy. Three yellow ovals were on his stomach in a pattern. That is a Darumaka, I believe. He'll eventually evolve into a Darmanitan.
The third Pokemon was a short, bipedal one with a small, thin tail. He was red except for a tan raindrop shaped spot on his stomach, his black neck, and a tan snout. He had weird, bubble like growths surrounding the top of his head and a small spike on the back of his neck. And that's a Magby, who isn't really related except for all of them being Fire-types.
Then Drew noticed a fourth Pokemon. It was a severely beaten up Crue who looked close to passing out. The two locked eyes for a second and a look of terror appeared on Crue's face. "Supersonic!" Crue let out a high pitched sound that threw the Dramanitan, Darumaka, and Magby off balance for a second. "Get out of here, I'll be fine!" He yelled to his teammates.
"What?" The Darumaka regained balance and turned around to see Drew's head. "More intruders!"
"What!" The Darmanitan screamed. "Flare Blitz!" A fiery aura surrounded the criminal Pokemon and he charged at the three members of Team Hydro. When he got close, he jumped up and slammed into the ground, unleashing a fiery blast that sent waves of pain through the Pokemon.
Drew felt consciousness slipping away when a yellow flash appeared in his eyes. He had a dreamless sleep and awoke in the infirmary, his teammates in beds around his. "What happened?" he asked one of the nurses, the male Gardevoir from the incident with Raymond.
"You guys were knocked out by a strong Darmanitan outlaw. He seemed to knock all of you out with one move and all of you are in bad condition, especially your Tentacool friend," the Gardevoir said matter-of-factly. "What were a group of new recruits like you doing taking on a group of rank B outlaws anyways?"
"Rank B? Crue picked out the outlaws before I even woke up. They were all Fire-types so I didn't really think of it. Dang it, maybe if I actually cared. I may have gotten up early enough to have convinced him to have taken a job more our level." Drew stopped talking and looked at his beat up friend lying in a bed. "How did we get back here?"
"Your team's explorer's badges teleported you all back here in really bad condition after you all were beat. It's a good thing they do, or you could all have been killed. I am revoking that outlaw from you guys and I cannot let any of you go for a few days. Just try and get some sleep." The Gardevoir walked off, leaving Drew with his unconscious teammates. "The dark heart will overcome death, judgment, and light. I wonder what it means."