Writing stories while listening to music, and also having fireworks bursting all around you. I'm happy with all of that except the fireworks bit.

Also, crap, sorry, forgot to post this one, despite having it ready! Ack!

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: The Shroud of Darkness

Chapter 02: Dr. Bronson Rx

I opened my eyes. Now where was I? It was all foggy, but not like that yellow, cloudy place. It was just a dull, average, gray fog.

"The heck?" I said to no one in particular.

A faint "The heck?" echoed back to me.

I waited a moment. "Hello?"

Again, I was met by my own faint echo.

I looked around, and saw nothing but the fog in every direction. I looked down, surprised to find a stony path below me, but my feet were all dark and misty, like they weren't quite there. I looked myself over more, and yep, more misty dark body. Troubled, I began to follow the path.

As I wandered, my eyes were drawn to a tall thing in the distance. I gazed at it for a moment, then continued onwards, noting that the path lead more-or-less towards that large thing. Upon approaching the area near it, the path branched out, one heading towards the big...monolith, and the other continuing onwards. I decided to check out the monolith.

I walked down the path a ways, stopping as the monolith came into full view. It was exactly as I had said; a large monolith. It was tall, dark, and had a strange shine to it, almost as if someone had half-heartedly polished it. It also felt...off...? I then noticed that there were cracks laced across the surface of it, like a giant spider's web. As I took a hesitant step forwards, a small object flew past my head. I recoiled, seeing that it was only a fuzzy...ball...of some sort...a wisp, perhaps? It floated along, oblivious to the world around it, but it was dark, and moved sluggishly. I saw more in the distance, the same dark color, and the same movement, though there was one or two that seemed to be brighter and more agile. Perhaps this area was sick?

I returned to the path, not wanting to get lost in the mist, and approached the monolith. The strange part, however, is that it didn't seem to be getting any closer. Then, I smacked my nose - or rather where my nose would have been - on the monolith. Bewildered, I looked up. It looked just as big up close as it had from a distance...did it shrink as I got close to it? Did I grow as I approached? I was confused, and a bit scared by this thing. I turned around and walked back down the path. I did turn around briefly to look at it, and it was just as big from afar as it had been up close...I quickened my pace slightly as I rejoined the path.

I saw another monolith in the distance, but this one stood out a bit more. As I approached the fork in the path for this monolith, I couldn't help but notice that this one seemed more alive. It gleamed a bit brighter, and though there were fewer wisps around it, more seemed lively and bright. It also wasn't as badly cracked as the last one. I hesitantly approached it, fearing it wouldn't actually get bigger when I approached. It did not. Luckily, I didn't run into it this time, since I had my hand out in front of me, so I felt it before I ran into it.

Ding...

A sound reverberated through the area. Suddenly, all the wisps drew nearer. Startled, I backed up a bit.

The sound finished echoing, and the wisps swayed slightly as they stayed where they were. Hesitantly, I tried touching one. Instantly, I saw something inside the wisp, which looked like the back of that bird, flying over the lake. I looked about, confusedly. Slowly, I backed away from the monolith. I continued down the path.

I investigated many other monoliths, but they were all practically dead, very few of the wisps floating around looked like they were even remotely alive, and very few showed anything. The other one that seemed pretty lively had wisps that showed me pictures of little other things, like mountains or trees.

Eventually, I reached one that had a few wisps about, which showed little but the blobs from before and that bird. There was one, however, that looked...different. If it was possible, I would have said this one looked evil. I tried to reach out to it, but it darted away from my grasp every time I reached for it. Eventually, I managed to tap into it slightly.

And then the wisp made a very shrill noise.

KYYYYYYYYY!

I backpedaled furiously, suddenly seeing a very ominous pair of unwavering red eyes staring daggers into me. I cried out, suddenly feeling very small and very afraid.

Then, just as suddenly as the wisp began to be scary, it went back to its business, floating away.

I could only lay there in shock for a moment before picking myself back up, dusting the nonexistent-dust off my nonexistent-legs - something I had just noticed - before noticing that the fog was getting...very dense. In fact...it was getting thicker by the second! I tried waving the fog away, but it just kept getting thicker and thicker, until eventually everything went dark and wet.

SPLISH!

"Owowowowow!"

"Oh, sorry, forgot about...that, sorry!" cried a voice, who I recognized as the green-and-red blob from earlier.

"I...don't worry about it..." I said trying to wipe the water out of my eyes, but stopping as pain lanced up my arm. I cringed.

"Oh, don't do...that, yeah, don't do that."

I blinked the water away, surprised to see myself in some sort of...building? The walls seemed to be made of some sort of wood/clay-something combination, leaving me laying on a sort of surface covered in something kind of soft and kind of wooden. One wall had a hole covered with a curtain, and another wall having a window looking out, letting in a breeze. Some other bits of wood, such as split logs, formed tables and chairs, one table holding some strange items I couldn't figure out, the other under the window having a green-and-red figure sitting on a chair next to it.

"It's you, the blob!" I exclaimed, "...actually, no, I shouldn't call you...a...yeah...sorry..."

The figure gave me a strange look, and I looked a bit more closely at him, shifting my head painfully towards it.

He was mostly green, his head ending in a snout with 2 great yellow eyes sitting on top. His mouth and belly were red, and he had a large sort of green, leaf-like tail hanging off the other end of the seat.

"You...you're kind of strange, you know that?" responded the figure, who I decided looked a bit like a lizard of some kind.

"I...yeah. So, I...you saved me or something?" I asked.

"Oh, yeah," said the lizard, getting up towards me, "Me and my buddy Ian found you after you fell out of the sky." He sort of looked off to the side. "He said you told him something about flipping the bird about that..." he looked back to me, extending a hand. "Name's Mido!"

I looked at the hand, remembering the pain I felt in my arm a few moments prior.

"...Wait, right, you're all sore...nevermind," he said, looking a bit sheepish as he lowered his hand. "So, what's your name then?"

"Oh, I'm...I...oh..." my mind was drawing a complete blank. "I actually...don't remember."

"If I had to wager a guess, I'd say that you've got amnesia, friend," said a new voice, emerging through the curtain. This one was all creamy with pink on him, large ears, some sort of cloth apron on him, and a neat, white hat.

"Doctor Bronson, you surprised me!" said the lizard, now known as Mido.

"Oh, hello Mido. I assume you've come to check up on your friend here?" said the doctor.

"Oh, yeah...yes. Is he going to be okay?" asked Mido concernedly.

Man, what a nice guy. Here I am, a complete stranger, and he's concerned about me. That's awesome. I grinned slightly, my heart warmed.

"Well, he's not dead, so I think he'll live...though he ought to stay here for a while; I reckon that leg's knackered and his back's not much better," said the doctor thoughtfully, "Tell me, Cubone, do you think you can remember anything? Anything at all?"

"I...know what mountains are...?" I responded dumbly.

"I see," said the doctor, "Well, that's brilliant, then. Amnesia's not fatal, but not much I can do about that for the time being."

"Well, he's gotta have a name, right doctor?" said Mido.

"I feel like...maybe I can remember?" I asked, trying to sound hopeful.

"Well...I can call you...something..." said Mido, trailing off.

"Alright, you think of some names, I'll check our patient here." He said, pulling the curls on his ears out towards me. "I'll probably have to get Sylvie to check him out here in not too long," I head him murmur under his breath. "Alright, Cubone, don't move, I'm just going to check you out here..." he said, placing the ear curl on my head.

As he did so, I felt a strange warm-yet-cold feeling rush through my body, like laying your head on the cold side of a pillow. The feeling stayed for a bit, the doctor shuddering a bit as he did so, before removing it, the ear-curl curling back up into its natural, curly self.

"Yep, just as I feared, your back's in rough shape, and your leg's kapput. I'm afraid you'll need a few weeks on that for it to fix up, but I'll put a bandage around it, regardless. One moment, please."

And with that, Doctor Bronson left the room.

"So...if you ever remember your name, I'll call you that, but for now, can I just call you...Sky?" asked Mido, from his window seat.

"I...that doesn't sound...right..." I responded back, still a bit dazed at what just happened with the doctor's ears.

"Well, it's just for right now. If you ever remember your name, we'll call you that, okay?" he responded.

"I...but that's not my...hmm..." I stopped. Sure, the name was not fitting me very well, but...oh I don't know! I mean...just...it's not like...

"...Oh, for now, alright," I sighed. Sure, it wasn't my name, but it would do better than Cubone, which everyone was calling me for whatever reason. Hey, speaking of...

"Speaking of names, what's everyone calling me Cubone for?"

"...I...you really don't know anything, do you?" responded Mido, dumbfounded.

I shook my head very slightly, as not to hurt my neck.

"...Well, alright...how do I explain this...okay, here goes..." He breathed in. "So, I'm Mido, but I'm also a Treecko. Dr. Bronson is an Audino, Ian's an Archen, and you're a Cubone." He exhaled quickly. "If you don't know someone's name, we usually just call them by the name of their species. So, if someone didn't know my name, they'd call me Treecko. Got it?"

"...I think so," I responded, "so I'm a Cubone then? What's that?"

Mido looked at me for a split second before throwing his head back, making some sort of groan/chuckle. "Dude, you're absolutely clueless."

I kind of just glared at him after that.

"Well, Cubones are bonekeepers, and are usually pretty lonely, from what I've heard before," he said quickly.

"...huh..." I said.

We sat quietly for a moment.

"...So," said Mido, clearing his throat, "You...got a place to stay?"

"...I guess not, but I'm going to be here for a while, so I don't think I need anywhere to stay for a bit," I responded.

"Okay," came his reply.

A few seconds later, the doctor came bustling into the room, some bandages and sticks - among other things - were tucked under his arm.

"Alright, Cubone, I'v-"

"Sky," interrupted Mido, "We've decided on Sky...for right now."

The doctor looked back at him briefly. "That's fair. Now," he said, turning towards me, "I'm going to do a bit of a patch job with all of this, but I'm going to have to put you under to do it. You understand?"

"I...sure?" came my reply.

The doctor nodded. "Mido, I'll need you to leave now."

Suddenly, his eyes started...glowing. I felt like I was being drawn into them almost. What was this...?

Before I even knew it, sleep had once more taken hold.

Believe it or not, I finished this right after the last chapter. I'm on a roll!

Also, patiently awaiting (at the time of writing this) for Pokemon Go to come out...just keep waiting...

Anyway, I hope you all are liking this so far. I'm trying to take the story a bit slower than the old one. We covered less ground in these 2 chapters than the old one, but that's okay, because I'm being a lot more thorough. Chapter 1 was still the same stuff, and ended just about the same way, but it also had much more detail in it, don't you guys think?

Anyway, sorry if this outro's a little weird, it's like 12:00 in the morning, and I'm still not asleep. Whoopdedoo.

Still, if you guys have suggestions, feedback, anything, leave me a review, as I remember reading through reviews on the old one, and just...having a real good time.

...Speaking of old stuff, I think I'm going to put the compendium to rest as well. Not really enough there to keep it going, so I'll just junk it.

Anywho...not really sure where else I want to go with this end card, so...I'll just see you later then!

Au revoir!

- JacobDaGun