A.N. A quick note for this one and chapters ahead. For now, when I use the name of a species, it will be in lower case if it is not its name, and capital if it is.

Ex. "Hey look at that squirtle!" vs. "Hey, this is my friend Squirtle."

Chapter 1

Of Light and Skull

Waves, waves crashing on a shore. This is what Eevee heard as consciousness tricked into his system. But as awareness began to return to him the sound of the waves and a powerful exhaustion began to put him under once again. He only had time for one thought before returning to unconsciousness.

"How did I end up on a beach?"

00000

"Hurry up there Char!"

A charmander poked his head out from behind a stone outcropping, "Sorry, I thought I saw the entrance to Beach Cave over here."

The pokémon leading the group sighed, "We will point out Beach cave when we get there. Stop running off or we will leave you behind."

The charmander known as Char looked at the sand dejectedly as he walked back toward the group, "Sorry, I'm just so excited to see the place where team Light began. It's even cooler that a team who knows them is showing us!"

As Char returned to the group he grumbled to the bulbasaur beside him, "I'm just excited, and I thought I saw the entrance to Beach Cave. You understand don't you Bulbasaur?"

Bulbasaur sighed and glared at Char, "I know you are excited. But whenever something about team Light comes up you become unbearable. You have a truly fanatical obsession with them."

Char turned to the squirtle on his other side, "Help me out here Squirtle. Tell him to calm down a little."

Squirtle looked at Bulbasaur and spoke mellowly, "Bulbasaur you should calm down a bit, glaring is rude." He then turned to Char "But you should calm down to Char. You do tend to be a bit overenthusiastic whenever team Light comes up. We all respect them greatly. But you do have, as Bulbasaur put it, a fanatical obsession."

Car gave Squirtle a small glare and hit his shell lightly with his tail, "Traitor."

The Pokémon leading half turned and shouted back. "Quiet back there. We are almost to where they first met."

Char grinned at his companions, "We're almost there. I am so excited. I wonder if…" Char suddenly stopped and snapped around toward an outcropping of rock aginst the cliff face, "Did you hear that?"

Bulbasaur and Squirtle glanced at each other for a moment and then turned to him and replied in unison, "What?"

"I could almost swear I heard" Char turned to the outcropping again and dashed off calling back, "Make sure they don't leave without me."

As Char dashed over to the outcropping the leader of the party turned around to face the two.

"Did your friend dash off again?"

Squirtle answered, "Yes"

"Did he ask you to keep us waiting for him?"

"Yes"

"Are you going to try to hold us up here?"

"No"

"…Really?"

"Yes"

The leader looked at him seriously for a moment longer before grinning, "Whoa-ho-ho. I like you. You're so mellow and calm and all that."

Squirtle lazily replied, "I like to think of it as go with the flow."

"Well let's move on."

000000000000000000

Groaning, consciousness fully returned to Eevee, "Oww, what in the world happened."

Eevee shook its head and looked around.

He was in a small sheltered area. The base of a cliff stood on one side and large rocks that looked like they had fallen from the cliff were leaning against it, forming a kind of false cave. The only opening large enough to leave though was along one edge cliff. The only other thing of note within the shelter was a rock that a shallow pool of water had formed in.

Eevee sat up and thought, "O.K. I seem to be on a beach. Not a bad place to wake up. But now how in the world did I get here?"

Eevee's face screwed up in thought for a few moments. He then let out another groan, "O.K, can't remember how I ended up here. Keep calm and think. You need to pull yourself together… What's my name again? Oh, that's not good. I can't remember my name. That's bad. That's very bad. What in the world is going on?"

Looking down on his furry brown paws eevee tried to think, "O.K. do I remember anything? Name? No. Home? No. Friends? No. Wait a minute." Eevee looked down on his paws again and shouted, "FURRY BROWN PAWS?! THAT'S NOT RIGHT!"

Looking around eevee spotted the small pool of water again and dashed up to it and looked into its mirror-smooth water.

"That collar. Those ears. Those eyes." Eevee turned to the side and mentally grumbled. "That tail. There's no mistaking it. I'm an eevee. But why? How? I'm not supposed to be an eevee. Wait, why do I think I shouldn't be an eevee?"

Panic welled up inside the eevee until at last he shouted out, "What in the world is going on?"

"Hello?"

Eevee jumped and spun around, baring its teeth at the charmander walking around the rocks separating hiding the space from the beach beyond.

"Are you O.K.?" The charmander looked at him with concern in its eyes.

Calming down eevee looked at the charmander in confusion, "This is going to sound crazy but, where in the world am I?"

The charmander grinned, "That's an easy one. You're on the beach just outside of Treasure Town." He paused for a moment before looking at Eevee in concern, "Did you fall off the cliff while training or something?"

Eevee looked at him in confusion, "Umm, I don't think so? But are there any other landmarks in the area? That didn't clear things up."

Charmander looked at him with a puzzled expression, "You don't recognize Treasure Town? How can you not know it? Do you have heat stroke or something?"

Eevee glared at him.

Noticing the glare char held up his paw and said apologetically, "Sorry. No need to glare." The charmander paused to think for a moment before continuing, "The only other place of interest in the immediate area would be the Beach Cave."

At the mention of the Beach Cave a look of panic came over the charmander's face, "Oh, right."

Eevee watched in confusion as the charmander ran over and looked around the edge of the rock cave.

The charmander ran back with a look of even greater panic on his face, "Come with me. I need to get back to the group now!"

With that, he grabbed eevee's fur collar and pulled him with as he dashed out from the shelter of the rocks onto the beach proper.

Eevee struggled as he was dragged along complaining loudly, "What in the world are you doing, let go! Ow! Slow down a little. Ow! At least stop pulling on my fur!"

Charmander gave a sheepish grin and rubbed the side of his head with his free paw as he continued running, "Sorry. I need to catch up to the tour group, and you should come along. It will be great! Maybe the team leading it could help you find something familiar afterward. You can call me Char by the way."

Eevee grimaced as he managed to regain his paws and the match the pace Char was setting.

"This charmander seems a little crazy. But maybe this team he mentioned could help me. At very least they could probably answer a few questions without dragging me somewhere."

Char, with eevee in tow, quickly made his way back to the group. As he returned to next to Bulbasaur and Squirtle they glanced at the eevee he was pulling along. Bulbasaur then turned to Char and said accusingly, "You dragged this poor eevee here didn't you?"

Char's guilty look was all the answer Bulbasaur needed. He turned to the eevee, "I apologize for my acquaintance. He probably grabbed you and said something along the lines of" Bulbasaur cleared his throat and imitated Char's excited tone, "This tour will be great!" he returned his voice to normal, "Right?"

Eevee grinned and replied, "You got it in one. Does he often do stuff like this?"

Bulbasaur replied, "Thankfully he's not always this big an idiot." Bulbasaur paused for a moment to deflect a swipe by Char and continued, "But whenever something about Team Light come up he completely loses all sense of self-control."

Eevee was about to reply when Char interrupted and said, "Squirtle help me out here. Tell Eevee here I'm not an idiot!" he then turned to Bulbasaur and said, "And come on Bulbasaur, we've known each other nearly our entire lives. Aren't we friends?"

Bulbasaur responded first, "When you grow up a little and get over your obsession then I might be willing to call you a friend."

Char grimaced at Bulbasaur's response while Squirtle responded to Char's question, "You are of about average intelligence most of the time, but whenever team Light comes up you do tend to fall into the idiot category."

Char growled at Squirtle before swinging hard at the back of the turtle pokémon's head. Eevee was surprised when the turtle neither dodged nor recoiled from the hit. Instead, the turtle took the blow and used the force imparted by the blow to do a full summersault, coming up on his feet.

Squirtle turned to look at the shocked face of the eevee and spoke in the same mellow tone as before, "That is the true power of going with the flow."

Bulbasaur turned to eevee and whispered, "He may act like it's nothing, but he practiced that for years." Bulbasaur gave a small smirk before continuing, "I think he just learned it so he wouldn't need to put in the effort of getting up if he's knocked down."

Bulbasaur's smirk widened into a full grin as he began to speak in a normal tone, "Anyway, what he just showed you is nothing. Watch this." Bulbasaur extended two vines.

For the first time eevee saw Squirtle's facial expression change as he spoke, "Please don't. I hate it when you do that."

Ignoring his request Bulbasaur began to swat him around with its vines.

Eevee's expression changed from surprise to amusement as he watched the turtle get batted around like a ball. It was both amusing and very impressive how the turtle managed to keep rolling around by extending and retracting parts of its body into its shell. After a few seconds of this, Bulbasaur retracted its vines and Squirtle rolled back onto his feet and shakily stood in place.

Eevee looked at Squirtle with a grin, "That was really impressive Squirtle. How long did it take you to get that good?"

The turtle ignored eevee and instead repeated to Bulbasaur, "I hate it when you do that."

Bulbasaur just continued to grin, "Come on, admit it. You like showing off that skill of yours."

Squirtle stared at him for a second before his face returned to its normal neutral expression. Then he said, "I do like showing that off when the opportunity presents itself. But that doesn't change the fact that I dislike it when you do that to me without permission."

Char spoke up at this, "Yeah, you really shouldn't do that to Squirtle unless he asks you to Bulbasaur."

Bulbasaur looked at both of them in turn before saying, "Bah, you guys are no fun. But, fine. I'm sorry I did that without permission Squirtle. I won't do that again."

Squirtle gave and small nod and said, "Thank you, much appreciated."

It was then the group noticed the pokemon leading them slowing to a halt. Once they had come to a stop he turned and announced, "We have arrived."

Looking back at the group in noticed eevee and began to float over, "Whoa-ho-ho. It seems we picked up another member as well." The koffing leading the group floated over to eevee and said, "There is a 200 P fee for this tour."

A brief panic washed over the eevee as his mind raced, "P? Is that some kind of currency here? What should I do? Should I just apologize and say I don't have any? No, I have some questions I need answered. What if"

Eevee was shaken out of his thoughts by Char's voice, "I'll pay for him." Eevee looked at Char in surprise as he walked up to the koffing.

Char looked at him and said, "My friends were right, I did kind of drag you into this and it looks like you don't have any P on you. So let me do this as my way of apologizing." With that, he reached into the pouch hanging from his neck.

While he was digging for coins Eevee's opinion of him rose a bit as he thought, "I guess he isn't completely senseless. He did acknowledge that he dragged me into this. I guess his passion for this Team Light really did overwhelm him earlier."

Eevee turned his attention back to Char as he pulled several coins out of his pouch and passed them to the koffing. Koffing held off on taking the coins as both he and eevee were staring at Char' pouch. The pile of coins he was holding looked larger than the pouch itself.

Eevee's eyes left the pouch a moment before Koffing's did and he noticed something strange in the pokémon's eyes. Before he could identify it the koffing's eyes took on an even stranger look as they lit up with a pink glow. Eevee took a half step back as the stack of coins became surrounded by the same glow as the Koffing's eyes rose and fell into a pouch the koffing was wearing around it's body.

The koffing then turned to eevee and said, "Welcome to the tour. Do you want to be called Eevee? Or do you have a nickname you'd prefer the group to use?"

Eevee game a small start as koffing asked if he had a nickname. But quickly thought, "I suppose I couldn't have asked for a better opening."

Eevee then spoke, "I don't remember my name, or anything else for that matter. Is there any chance you could help me?

Koffing looked at eevee with an expression of disbelief for a few moments before breaking into a grin and speaking, "I guess you actually heard this part of the story before. Good for you. But let me tell the story O.K. You messed up a few of the details."

Eevee stared at him in confusion, "What in the world is he talking about?"

Koffing then addressed the whole group, "Now for those of you who don't know the story. About 7 years ago Flare the vulpix came right here, her favorite spot in treasure town, after another failed attempt to join Wigglytuff's Guild."

At this Char gave a jolt of surprise and interrupted, "Wait, Wigglytuff's Guild actually rejected Flare?"

Koffing glared angrily at Char and responded, "Technically no, the identification process outside the guild scared her and she never stayed on the grate long enough to gain access. Now don't interrupt again."

Eevee looked at Koffing suspiciously, "That was a very severe response. Why did he react that strongly? Does he hate being interrupted that much? No, that was anger, not annoyance. Is something else bothering him?" Eevee dismissed the thought. "No, Char probably just got on his nerves before I got here. I was with him for all of a minute before I wanted to lash out at him."

Koffing looked at the group as a whole, "Please save any questions or comments till the end of the story." He glared at Char for a moment before resuming. "When Flare arrived here she discovered a shinx collapsed in the sand. She woke the shinx and was shocked when he claimed to remember nothing but his name, Tempest. She was skeptical at first but after hearing him give his name she decided to trust him and explained that she was cautious because many pokemon were becoming more aggressive." A small grin came on Koffing's face as he continued, "Her timing was ironic as it was then Team Skull came up behind her and tackled her. Knocking the treasure she called the relic fragment from her."

At the mention of pokemon becoming more aggressive Eevee heard Char whisper to Bulbasaur "the time-space crisis". But what caught the eevee's attention were not the whispers but the smug look on the koffing's face.

"He really seems pleased at the irony of that. Actually, that seems like more than an appreciation of the irony."

Koffing continued, "They had seen her take out the relic fragment at the guild's gate and decided that it could be valuable and would be easy to swipe. They grabbed the relic fragment and taunted Flare about being too much of a coward to try to take it back before entering the Beach Cave."

"However, Flare convinced Tempest to help her retrieve the relic fragment and with him by her side she had enough courage to chase after the team. They managed to follow them through and fought at the bottom of the Beach Cave." The others were focusing on Koffing's tale but Eevee noticed Koffing's face shift briefly to one of anger.

"Tempest managed to use a sleep seed to put one of them to sleep and Flare managed to hit the other with a blast seed. With one knocked out by the blast seed, they were able to defeat the other before he woke up. With both down, they retrieved the relic fragment and exited the cave.

After they exited Beach Cave they came back to this spot and Flare asked Tempest to form an exploration team with her. Not having anything else to do Tempest agreed and thus Team Light was formed." Koffing paused for a moment before adding, "It was also the day their rivalry with team Skull began."

Koffing looked at the gathered pokémon before asking, "Now are there any questions before I show you Beach Cave."

Char immediately spoke up, "Yeah. Do you have any idea if Team Light is in Treasure Town, and if not when they might be?"

Koffing though for a moment before replying, "If I remember correctly they went out on a mission to Crevice Cave investigating rumors of an old enemy appearing there." Koffing thought for a moment longer before continuing, "Though that was a few days ago so they should be back soon."

As he said that Eevee noticed a slight look of concern cross Koffing's face, and looking at the mark on Koffing's body he began to put pieces together in his head.

He thought, "That mark. The way he reacted to parts of his own story. Could he be? No, this is just me being paranoid."

To everyone's surprise Bulbasaur spoke up next, "One of them was taken out by a single blast seed? Those things are really weak."

Koffing replied in a controlled, cool tone, "Like Team Light, they had only just begun and their leader, who is also the strongest member of the team, was busy elsewhere."

Eevee scowled at the Koffing's tone, "O.K. that's it. He almost certainly is."

Char took a breath to ask another question, but before he could Eevee put on his best innocent face and interrupted, "Who are the members of Team Skull? You never said their names."

Panic crossed Koffing's face for a moment, but he quickly regained his composure with a laugh, "Whoa-ho-ho! You surprised me there. There is a reason I didn't tell you who they were. Let's move along to the beach cave and then I'll tell you."

With that Koffing began floating away.

Eevee turned and whispered to Char and his group, "Be careful. I'm almost certain that koffing is up to something."

Bulbasaur nodded, "Now that you mention it something does seem off about him."

Squirtle watched as koffing floated away, "I don't think anything is wrong with him. But man, what I wouldn't give to be able to float around like him."

Bulbasaur sighed and replied, "Squirtle, I doubt a rampaging gyarados would cause you more than a moment's concern."

Squirtle just nodded, "Point taken. Feel free to discount my opinion."

Char looked at all of them with disbelief written all over his face, "Come on. He may be a little strange, but he did offer to lead this tour. And please don't just discard Squirtle's opinion."

Bulbasaur snapped back, "Char he didn't offer to lead a tour, he was advertising it. Then he charged an outrageous amount for it. Also, Squirtle admitted his opinion was worthless. He doesn't care, right Squirtle?"

Squirtle nodded, "That's right."

Char looked at them dejectedly, "I still don't agree with you. But I can't change how you think." His face brightened as he grabbed Eevee's collar, "But you can't change how I think either, and I won't leave until the tour is finished."

With that, he began to dash off toward Koffing dragging Eevee along with him.

"Oww! Oww! Again? Oww! Stop dragging me along you crazy charmander. I can walk myself. Oww! Please, at least avoid the rocks."

Bulbasaur looked at Squirtle and spoke resignedly, "If he comes out of this alive and without mauling char we owe him an apology and a gift."

Squirtle nodded, "A big one."

00000

Everyone gathered near the entrance to a cave at the base of a cliff.

Koffing looked around at the assembled group and grimaced, "That charmander still has that idiotic grin on his face."

As his gaze shifted he took note of the eevee. He was currently glaring at him, "I think he might have guessed. I guess I need to move things along."

As he took note of the eevee's appearance he commented, "What in the world happened to you? You look like you ran into a group of angry hippowdon."

Eevee's glare shifted to Char.

Koffing though, "Ah, something that idiot did. Well, I think we shift priorities."

While eevee was distracted he shouted out, "Now! Just the charmander!"

00000

Eevee, Char, Bulbasaur and Squirtle all jumped in surprise looking around for who Koffing called out to.

Eevee spotted a form detaching from the top of the cave. Gesturing with his head Eevee yelled, "Up there!"

Everyone's eyes snapped to the form heading toward them.

Bulbasaur quickly added, "Zubat."

The zubat flew at the group and as he neared them he let out a piercing shriek.

Eevee grimaced at the sound pierced his sensitive ears. He glared and prepared to jump away from the creature Bulbasaur called zubat. But as soon as he recovered from the pain of the sound the world began to spin and he placed a paw out to steady himself. "What in the world is happening?"

With the world spinning Eevee couldn't do anything as the zubat swooped down. It flew at Char and with a single bite both severed the strap holding Char's pouch and grabbed the pouch itself. With the pouch in tow, he flew to Koffing and dropped it in front of him.

With a light pink glow, the pouch stopped in front of Koffing and opened.

Koffing grinned at Zubat, "The boss will be happy. Looks like there's is a few thousand P in here. The pouch is an explorer pouch and could sell for a good bit as well if needed."

Koffing turned to the still stunned group, "To answer the eevee's earlier question. Team skull has three members. The leader is Skuntank, the other two members are myself and Zubat here."

Zubat smugly grinned at them, "Feels nostalgic stealing from wimps here again, doesn't it Koffing?"

Koffings smile deepened, "It does."

Char stumbled to his feet and shouted, "Give that back! That's my life savings."

Koffing just looked at him, "You really are an idiot. You carry around everything you own in one easy to steal package? Well lucky for us I suppose."

They all stood there in silence for a few moments recovering from the shock of what happened and the dizziness that had overcome them all. Eevee glared at them as the world began to settle. "O.K. whatever that was strange but whatever it was seems to be wearing off now. What should I do?" Movement caught his eye and Eevee turned see Bulbasaur raising himself higher.

Bulbasaur blinked and steadied itself and glared at the pair before turning and dashing down the beach calling back, "I'll go try to get someone from the guild!"

Char glanced back at the retreating form of Bulbasaur before turning and looking at Koffing with rage evident in his eyes, "So this tour was all just a trick to get my money?"

Koffing replied, "Not quite, the original plan was to steal from everyone who came along. But after seeing your pouch and with how much you annoyed me I decided that you were the only one worth robbing."

Char's glare intensified and his voice trembled with anger, "You… You… You jerks!"

Chars tail flame doubled in size and began putting off far more heat as his face contorted into rage.

"Whoa-ho-ho. That looks like it might sting." Koffing gestured to Zubat, "Come on let's get out of here before the guild shows up."

"Heh-heh-heh. Sounds like a good idea, they still hate us after that scheme we attempted at Foggy Forest." With that the two dashed into the cave.

Still trembling in anger Char turned to Eevee, "Will you help me go after them?"

After a moment of thought Eevee nodded, "Those guys are horrible. I might not really like you, but you did at least try to help me earlier. I'll try to return the favor."

Char ignored the verbal jab and gave a short nod before turning to Squirtle, "Go after Bulbasaur and let her know that we are chasing them into Beach Cave."

Squirtle nodded and began walking in the direction Bulbasaur went.

Char's tail flame became slightly brighter as he scowled and yelled, "Faster you idiot!"

Squirtle speed up a bit as Char shook his head, his tail flame returning to normal as he mumbled, "He doesn't understand urgency does he."

Char inhaled deeply and let out a small fireball that hit the sand next to Squirtle.

"Run! Or the next one is stronger and directed at you."

Squirtle dropped to all fours and began to run up the beach.

Char gave a small satisfied nod and turned to Eevee, "Follow me."

With that he dashed into the cave with Eevee following close behind. After running a few yards his into the cave his pace faltered for a moment.

Just as Eevee was about to ask what was wrong an intense feeling of vertigo overtook him and he froze for a moment to collect himself.

He shook himself to try to clear the feeling before turning to Char, "What in the world was that?"

Char quickly replied, "We just crossed the threshold of the dungeon."

Eevee's body froze as he replied, "What do you mean by 'Dungeon'."

Char looked at him in confusion, "What? Have you never heard of mystery dungeons before?"

Eevee's body remained frozen, "What in the world are you talking about?"

Char looked at him with booth confusion and panic on his face, "How do you not know what a…" Char paused and looked at Eevee before saying emotionlessly, "You were serious earlier about not remembering anything weren't you."

Eevee simply nodded.

Char's face fell and both were silent for a few moments.

Char broke the silence, "Well that's not good."

A.N. Well here it is. My first two chapters. Sorry if they are a little rough, I am still new to this. These have actually been written for months, and I have gone through them many times, with me changing a few words or sentences every time. I could have continued this for months to come, but I decided that it was time to put this up. I believe I am my own harshest critic. However, I am not an effective critic for myself. So on that note I am looking for a beta reader to help me see what needs fixing and to help tell me when enough is enough and it is time to post. If anyone would be interested please send me a PM and I will get back to you soon.

On the note of updates I can't tell you how regularly they will come. I work on this a little bit most days, on others the words just won't come, and sometimes I am hit with inspiration and can put out a ton in a short amount of time. I will try to get the next chapter up next week Friday, but this is a guess and not a promise.