Arc One: Mystery
Chapter Eight: Told You So
Green is still green. I crack a smile. It's funny when you think about it. Yesterday we were trying to get out of Green Forest because of all the...things that were happening. Normally if that happened to someone they would never enter the forest ever again, and trust me, I would do the same.
Key word: WOULD, as Lucas and I are taking the Guildmaster and her daughter (who might I add is "very thrilled" to be here) through the very same forest in order to show them the strange things that are very real. But soon my smile flips upside down. We've been going through this forest for about ten minutes and nothing unusual has happened. I'm not saying I'm worried, I'm saying that Lucas is freaking out inside.
I turn my head to the Rilo. Yep, he's breathing faster, I see sweat forming at his forehead, and his smile is shaky. I may not be able to sense aura, but I know how to read someone's face.
I mock Lucas. "You look very normal today." Lucas chuckles a little, but it's short lived as his frown returns.
I sigh. "Lucas, you've got to stop worrying. We're not that far into the forest."
He then says, "I can't help it. If all of the stuff that happened yesterday doesn't happen today, then the Guildmaster is going to think we're missing a screw." I look behind us to look at the Wigglytuff and Vulpix. Wigglytuff is as jolly as ever, with a smile on her face that is brighter than the sun. Eve, on the other hand, is staying as close to her mother as possible, looking back and forth. I feel bad for her. She keeps screaming every time a branch breaks, only for it to turn out to be a Pokemon racing on the treetops trying to get some food.
"Red and Lucas, are you two alright?" The Balloon Pokemon asks.
I realize that we both were staring at them and I answer for the two of us. "Yeah, we're good." I reach over to Lucas to grab the compass out of his bag. It looks normal, for now. "Is the compass spinning yet?" Lucas asks a little impatiently.
I shake my head. "Maybe in a minute or so it'll start to spin." I hear Eve talking to her mother. She can't help but worry. Thank goodness that Wigglytuff is her mother. Something then comes to my mind. If she's the mother, then where is the father? Is he-
My train of thought is interrupted by Lucas, who's shaking my arm. "Red, look, the compass!" I look back down at the compass. The arrow doesn't look like it knows right from left and is spinning around in circles freaking out. I start laughing. I have never been so happy to be lost in my life, though I guess I'm still am lost because I'm a human-turned Pokemon on an island in the middle of the sea.
"Wigglytuff, it's happening." I say as I walk over to the Wigglytuff and the Alolan Vulpix, who are looking at the mist that had seemingly came out of nowhere.
"Mom, where did the sun go? It was just there." Eve says scared.
"Well sweetie." Her mother says, "I think Red and Lucas were right." I hand over the compass to the mother so she and her daughter can see the spinning arrow. "Wow, I never thought something like this was possible."
The Alolan Vulpix looks at the compass and gets more worried. "Th-th-that's scary. Can we please leave now?"
"Not yet, dear. We still have to test more theories that we need to test, starting with the badges. Here, you can try to use it." Wigglytuff says, holding out her badge for her daughter to use.
The Vulpix immediately takes it and hits the center button. "Thank you, Mom. I'll see you at home."
...
...
...
"Let me hit that again." Eve says and smacks the button again.
...
...
...
"NONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONO!" The Alolan Vulpix is now mashing the button like crazy. Hmm, Maybe it wasn't a good idea for her to use the badge, considering how worked up she is now.
"This isn't working, Mom. Isn't this fully charged?" She says in a panicked tone.
"Yes, it is dear, but this mist is somehow preventing the badge from working. We'll just have to find an exit."
"Why does stuff like this always happen to me? I feel like I'm cursed."
"Welcome to my world." I think to myself. "But that's kind of dark."
As we make our way, I run through a mental checklist.
Mist: Check.
Compass: Check.
Badges: Check.
All we need are the stairs, evil Pokemon, and changing landscape to appear and our names will be cleared. "Alright everybody." I say. "This way to the stairs...I think?"
The White Vulpix becomes confused. "But weren't you just here yesterday?"
"Yeah, but it's already different then the time we were here." I cover my mouth with my hand, but it's too late. Eve gets closer to her mother and starts to shake. Whoops, my bad.
The four of us walk through the now foggy and misty forest. As we walk, we pass by two rocks next to a tree...with two apple cores by them. Lucas and I pretend that we didn't see them and continue until we come face-to-face with...them.
I never thought we'd see them again, yet here they are. Laughing at us. Both Eve and the Guildmaster stare into the eyes of the beast. The big, the rocky, the "what the heck are they doing here"...stairs.
The other two Pokemon who weren't here yesterday are completely puzzled by them.
"Well, isn't that something you don't see everyday." Wigglytuff says.
Lucas perks up and I even hear a little "Yes" come from him, knowing that everything is going according to plan. "Yeah, Red and I stared at these stairs for like five minutes before we climbed them."
"Wait!" Eve screams, "We're going up them!? Please tell me that's a joke."
I smile and rub the back of my head. "That's what I said, but trust us, there isn't another way to get out of here."
"B-but the fog! What if it just ends!?" Eve says, clearly not any better.
Wigglytuff then hugs the strained Vulpix. "Don't worry. I can carry you up them if you'd-" The Vulpix immediately grabs hold of the Wigglytuff's caring arms, careful not to let go as we go up the stairs.
As the fog thickened, the Vulpix started to panic and I think she even cried a little, but the Guildmaster was quick to comfort her. Nice to see Guildmaster as a caring mother. I was so distracted by the two that I tripped onto the ground when the stairs ended.
Forgot about that little detail. Lucas is the second one to get to the top, with Wigglytuff, carrying her daughter, is the last one to appear from the wall of fog.
The Vulpix jumps from Wigglytuff's tiny hands to the ground and looks at where the stairs are. Or I should say where they would be. "W-where are the stairs?! Shouldn't they be right there?"
Lucas shrugs his shoulders. "Yeah, they SHOULD be there, but they aren't for whatever reason."
"Did you try throwing a rock through it to see if it hits something?" The Vulpix suggests.
Hmm, you know hat, that isn't a bad idea. I look on the ground and pick up a rock. I then stare straight into the eyes of the beast, and toss the small rock at it. Right when the rock disappears into the fog, it reappears on the other side and hits Lucas in the face.
"Oww! What the?!"
I laugh, as does Wigglytuff and Eve do. Well, it hit something alright.
"Weird." I say, "It's like a portal. Whatever goes in that end comes out in this end."
"Ray is going to get a kick out of this when I tell him about this." Wigglytuff exclaims, "Alright you two, where should we go now?"
I go to answer her when I hear something behind me. Quickly turning around I see a fimiliar Caterpie, with the same look in it's eye that it had yesterday.
"You again?!" I yell at it as the Vulpix quickly scurries behind her mother.
"W-w-why does it have that look in its eye." The Vulpix asks her mother.
"I don't know sweetie." She responds. "I'll check."
To the horror of her daughter, she then slowly walks over to the strange Caterpie.
"Hello Caterpie, you don't have to be scared. Here." She reaches into her bag and takes a large apple. She then places it in front of the Caterpie.
"Don't be shy. Enjoy." The Guildmaster says with a huge smile on her face. The Caterpie is hesitant to eat the apple, but slowly, it wiggles closer and closer to the apple.
"See." Wigglytuff says. "We aren't here to hurt-"
The Caterpie then lunges at the Balloon Pokemon, but the small Pokemon just bounces off of her, unable to get a good grip on her, and falls to the ground. It, however, gets back on its feet and jumps at the Guildmaster again, only for the same fate to happen. I look at Wigglytuff. She doesn't look annoyed, in fact, she looks like she's having fun with the Caterpie.
"I see that you are a persistent little fellow. I like Pokemon like that." She tells the Caterpie, who is starting to get tired out.
After about the sixteenth time, the Caterpie gets angry at the pink ball and uses String Shot. It hits Wigglytuff at her left ear, but, once again, she doesn't care about it at all. "You really want to fight me, don't you? Trust me, you don't want to mess with the Guildmaster."
I suddenly hear more sounds coming from an opening, and see a bunch more Caterpie, about six of them, heading straight at the Wigglytuff. Eve panics. "MOM, THERE'S MORE OF THEM COMING!" Wigglytuff turns to the side, only to get smacked by six more String Shot. Oh boy, she almost looks like a marshmow now.
I prepare to use Ember when I hear Wigglytuff say, "Don't worry. I got this, just cover your ears!"
Cover your ears? What does she mean by...oh no!
Wigglytuff + "Cover your ears!" =
"HYPER VOICE!" She screams. Right when I put my hands over my ears, I see a white beam come out from Wigglytuff's mouth. All seven of the Caterpies are hit by the beam and fly off into the foggy sky. Even though I covered my ears in time, I still heard the blast quite well. That's one con of having big ears.
"Oh dear, I didn't mean to use Hyper Voice that hard on them. I hope they don't get hurt by any trees." Wigglytuff says sadly.
An idea pops in my head. "Wait a minute. Can you fly?" I ask the Guildmaster.
Lucas almost laughs but covers his mouth as she thinks for a moment. "Well, no, but I can jump high." She then catches on to my idea. "You want me to go up there to see if the fog ends, don't you?"
I nod. She then smiles back and places her bag down. "I'll be right back." Before we know it (and before Eve has a chance to talk her out of it), the Balloon Pokemon jumps into the air and disappears into the fog. The three of us stare up into the fog for what seems like forever, until she slowly descends from the sky to the ground. Eve rushes to her and hugs her as the Wiggletuff gives us her answer.
"It was weird up there. Being so light, I should have gone over the forest, which trust me, I have done before, but the fog never ended. I have never been in fog that was so tall before. I didn't even hit a single tree branch."
Eve gets scared by the comment. "This place just gets creepier and creepier."
Wigglytuff pats her head. "Now, now. Don't worry, we'll be out of here very soon, right you two?"
"Right!" Lucas and I say at the same time.
I then point to a second opening. "Lets go that way." I say as I run toward it. Everyone then follows me as I take them through the forest, careful not to disturb any other Pokemon that may want to try beat us up too.
After a while, I finally see some stairs sitting in a empty room. "At last." I think to myself. "We're getting out of-"
The ground then starts to shake. Oh yeah, that sixth thing about this place. This time, however, I'm much more prepared than last time and rush toward everyone to inform them about the mini earthquake.
"Everyone." I start. "Stay together. Lucas and I got separated last time this happened."
The white Vulpix then gets even closer to her mom and hugs her. Dang it, why do the scared little Pokemon have to look so darn cute? We all then see the walls around us sinking and rising to and from the ground. Eve tries not to scream as the landscape changes.
After only a couple of seconds, the earth stops moving. We all spread out and see that there is now a wall in front of the stairs. I guess we'll just have to walk around them. When we finally do climb the stairs, we leave the foggy forest and walk into Shifting Caves.
Wigglytuff then looks back at the forest. "Wow. The forest looks so normal from out here. I wonder what would happen if we walked back in this way?"
Eve freaks out and dashes infront of her mother. "No, please Mom, can we please not go back in? We need to tell Ray about everything, don't we? A-and I need to make dinner tonight, too." She says with a sweating face. She really doesn't want to go back in there, but I don't blame her. One time is enough for anyone, let alone two times.
The Guildmaster smiles at her daughter. "I guess that we don't have to go back in today. We do have a Guild to feed tonight. Alright, we'll go home. You boys ready?"
Lucas smiles. "We sure are." As he reaches to his badge on his bandana. We all then press the button, and vanish immediately from the site. I just can't wait to see the look on Ray's face when we get back.
"And the stairs were just there. It felt weird just looking at them. Like, how did they get there in the first place."
"Very interesting, Guildmaster."
All of us are now with Ray in the Guild's headquarters, except for Eve, who left so that she could help prep our dinner while Wigglytuff finishes informing Ray about all the events that had happened in the forest. Lucas and I just sit on the ground, waiting for the Guildmaster to wrap things up. The Chatot then puts his pen down and turns to us.
He clears his throat and says, "I must say, I didn't think things like this were possible. I really do owe you both an apology. I hope you can forgive me for jumping to conclusions too quickly."
Wigglytuff steps up as well. "I owe you two an apology too. I thought you were making up excuses about your "failed" test yesterday. So I hope you can forgive both of us for our mistake." She says.
I smile. It feels good to prove someone wrong, but also to see that they are very quick to ask for forgiveness.
"Apology accepted." Lucas says with a gleaming smile.
Wigglytuff also smiles. "That good to hear." She then heads over to her desk to grab a juggling apple.
Ray then asks the Guildmaster, "So Guildmaster, what are we going to do about these Mist Pits?"
I freeze and say, "The what?!"
He then turns around. "Sorry, that's the name I decided to call the place you were in. What do you think about it?" Lucas and I just stare at him. Really? Mist Pits? That has got to be the worst possible name to call them. THAT'S ALMOST ARMPITS, COME ON!
"Ray?" Guildmaster says while spinning and juggling. "I think that Red and Lucas should come up with a name, since they were the ones to find it and all."
I roll my eyes. That's a nice way to say 'Your name stinks.' Oh, that felt so wrong.
Lucas lights up. "You'll-you'll let us name it?!"
"It's only fair if you do, don't you agree Ray?" Wigglytuff says, looking at the Chatot.
The Music Note Pokemon nods. "Yes, I suppose that would be the right thing to do."
Lucas jumps in the air. "Hooray! We get to name something. Come on, Red, we need to come up with a name ASAP!"
Well, I don't think we need to come up with something THAT fast, but one look at the Rilo tells me that he'll explode if we don't come up with something soon. We then start to brainstorm ideas.
"Well." I start. "It sure is mysterious. So Mysterious something?"
He smiles at me. "I think Mystery would work better, but what will be the second word?"
"How about 'Room'?" Ray asks. We both stare at the bird. Our looks we're giving him tell him one thing: No.
But then again, the Chatot may be on to something. "What are other words for room?" I ask Ray.
He thinks for a moment before he rapidly starts to fire words at us. "Space, headroom, legroom, area, territory, chamber-"
I stop him right there. "That's it. Chamber. Mystery Chamber."
Lucas shakes his head. "I feel like there's a better word that we could use."
He then snaps his fingers (which I didn't think Rilos could do until now) and says, "I GOT IT!" Mystery Dungeon."
I think about it for a while. That does have a nice ring to it, so yes. "Yeah, lets go with Mystery Dungeon. I like that."
The Guildmaster tosses her apple high into the air. "That's a wonderful name, you two."
Ray agrees with the pink fluffball. "Yes, I do think that describes the place quite well."
The Wigglytuff catches the falling apple with her large ears. "Now that we know what to call them, we can celebrate. You two can head over to the big dinner table up stairs with everyone. I don't think you have ever had dinner here, haven't you?"
We both nod. Both the times we were here, we were always late, so this sounds very exciting. "Sure, we'll go, if it's no trouble with you, that is?" Lucas asks.
Wigglytuff laughs. "It's no trouble at all. In fact, it's my pleasure if you two join us."
We both smile. What a kind Pokemon. We then head over to the dinner room, but I stop before I leave the room.
"Wait, aren't you two coming?" I ask.
Ray smiles. "Not yet. The Guildmaster and I need to talk about our plans to deal with this Mystery Dungeon. We'll meet you up there shortly."
"Ok." I respond with and then chase after Lucas, who is already halfway there. I can't wait to sink my teeth into some more Pokemon food. If their apples are great, just imagine how good the food will be.
As the doors close, Wigglytuff says to Ray, "And you said I shouldn't have gone with them."
Ray shakes his head. "That was before Eve, Guildmaster. Admit it, you wouldn't have gone there with them if it wasn't for her."
"Well...you got me there."
Man, I never knew how many different things Pokemon had to eat. I thought they just ate fruits and berries, but they have some food like us humans have, and it's all sooooooooo good, and I'm sooooooooo stuffed by it all. I mean, it looks different from what we have it, but it might just be even better.
Lucas and I joined all the other Guild teams at the dinner table and are having a big feast. Every single dish here is amazing. There's rice with some berry curry, spaghetti with deciduous tomato sauce, and chocolate chip cookies. Who knew Pokemon could make this stuff.
I look over at everyone else. Mostly everyone is eating normally, except for Melody and Zack. Melody just uses her head to eat, while Zack puts his plate over his head and dumps his food into his mouth.
Ok, how is that not funny?
I then see Wigglytuff and Ray come out of the hallway. There they are at last, and everyone else notices them as well.
Daisy is the first to speak. "They you two are. What took you so long?"
Ray responds with, "The Guildmaster and I were talking about some things, that's all."
Sparks is confused and wants to find out. "What kind of things?"
Ray looks at him and says, "You'll see." as he and the Guildmaster makes their way to the table.
The Guildmaster then clears her throat as she prepares to make a speech. "Can I have everyone's attention?" Everyone, myself included, stop eating. We wait for the Wigglytuff to continue her speech.
"First off, I'd like to thank everyone for doing a great job today as always. It brings a smile to my face to know that the world is slowly getting better and better. Second, I'd like to inform you all that we have discovered something brand new."
Whispers start to flow around the table. Everyone wants to figure out what this 'brand new' thing is.
"Did we find out where a Legendary Pokemon lives?" Sparks says with sparkles in his eyes.
"I'm afraid not. Sorry Sparks. But I do think you'll like this." The Pichu sits back down, very eager to figure out what the surprise is.
"As I was saying." Wigglytuff says, "This brand new thing is a place. A strange place that we decided to call...a Mystery Dungeon." Everyone gasps.
"These Mystery Dungeons are dangerous. From what I seen, they trap any Pokemon who enters it in a ever changing maze. There is a strong mist that appears that makes it hard to see. There are some Pokemon in there with a strange look in they eyes and like to attack other travelers. My guess is that they are other Pokemon that have been trapped in there for so long, that they have gone crazy."
Crush interupts the Guildmaster. "That's terrible, we need to help them. Where is this 'Mystery Dungeon'?"
Wigglytuff lowers her head. "I'm afraid that it is Green Forest."
Everyone shouts, "WHAT?!" all at the same time. They can't believe it and start talking to one another. The Guildmaster uses a small Hyper Voice to get everyone's attention again.
"Everyone please. Tomorrow I'll inform Officer Magnezone to close off the entire forest until further notice. Only we will be able to go in so that we can try to find out what is causing all of this. Team Current, I'd like you if you do your normal job, but I would like if Sparks goes with Team Forever to Green Forest. Maybe you can find out something about this Mystery Dungeon so that we can find some way to fix them. Lastly, I'd like to tell you all who found out about this place and gave it the name 'Mystery Dungeon'."
I close my eyes. I bet Lucas is going to go nuts when she says it. We are about to get called up by the Guildmaster.
"It was discovered by our newest team members, Red and Lucas!" She says, pointing to the two of us. Oh, this feels good. We're being-wait?
"NEWEST TEAM?!" Both Lucas and I say. She nods. "Well of course. You saved my daughter from Scar and you discovered Mystery Dungeons. It would be stupid of me if I were to make you retake the test. You two have proven that you have the skills to be a rescue team."
I look over at Lucas. I see tears forming around his eyes. He can't believe it. We're a team. "Th-th-thank you, Wigglytuff. I-I don't know what to say. You won't regret this!" We then start to hear all the others congratulate us on our inclustion.
"Great job, you two."
"That amazing."
"Hmm, maybe you two are pretty good." Both Lucas and I are then lifted into the air, and I think I know why.
"I knew it was ment to be." Zack says. "Both of you looked like you were going to do big things, and I was right, ha ha!" Thankfully, before our spines are broken, Zack sets us down.
Wigglytuff then says, "Tomorrow, I'd like you to come to my room to grab your offical gear, plus you'll need to come up with a name to call your team. That's all I have to say, everyone. Goodnight everyone!"
"I can't believe we're in. I'm finally living my dream. I need to pinch myself...OW! YES, THIS ISN'T A DREAM!" The Emanation Pokemon screams.
"Quiet, Lucas. Everyone is going to sleep." I say back.
We are in our room laying down on our nests. I'll admit, it doesn't feel real, either. Two days ago I didn't have anything, but now I'm part of a Guild.
"Sorry, Red." Lucas starts. "It's just that...this is all so amazing. After all this time, I'm finally on a rescue team."
"Yeah that's cool and all, but I'd like to get some sleep." I yawn.
"Come on, Red. Don't you want to come up with a team name? The sooner we come up with one, the sooner we'll fall to sleep." I smile. "You mean the sooner you'll fall asleep?"
He laughs. "Well, yeah. Come on, please?" I don't think he'll take no for an answer. Besides, we were going to come up with a name anyways.
"Well I don't have any ideas, but I assume you do?" I say to my partner.
Lucas lights up. "I sure do. Tell me what you think about them."
"Ok, shoot." He then fires a ton of names at me, so much that I am conviced that he wrote all of them down on a piece of paper in order to remember them all.
"Team Melee?"
"I feel like you'd call a group of Fighting-Types that."
"Ok, how about...Team Crusade?"
"That sounds like we're guradians of something. Next."
"Team Gleam?"
I stare at him. "We aren't selling crystals, are we?"
"Team...Super Heros, oh no, that sounded much better in my head. Forget about that. Let's try Team Rogue."
"All we need are masks and we'd be criminals."
"Ok, yeah. That was bad. Too bad we're not Eevees, other wise we'll can be 'Eeveelution Squad'. Ha, ha. Do you like Team Aezae?"
"Is that a story or something?"
"Team Star?"
"I feel like that would be a name for Jirachi if she had a rescue team."
"Teammmmmmmmmmmm...Talon? No, I think that was a Zangoose's name. Team Alloy?"
"We can't combined into one Pokemon...Right?"
Lucas sighs. "Coming up with a name is so much hard than I thought. Do you have any ideas?"
I think for a while. What is one or two words that describe us? Random words start to fly through my head. Team Hope, in what, Friends? Team Universe. No, I already said we weren't Guardians. Fantastic? That's stupid.
I sigh. After all of this adventure, you'd think that- Wait, adventure. THAT'S IT!
"I got it. Team Adventure!" I tell Lucas. He pauses for a moment, but then smiles. "Hey, that's perfect! I mean, the past three days have been just that." He then stands up and points out the window. "Tomorrow will be a new day, for tomorrow we'll be...TEAM ADVENTURE! Now I can finally sleep. Goodnight." He says as he drops down onto his bed.
I can't help but smile. Everything is falling into place. I don't know what we'll get ourselves into, but all I can say is that big things are going to happen, that's for sure.
