Arc One: Mystery
Chapter Ten: One Of A Kind Vulpix
I didn't think we were in a Mystery Dungeon until now, but it does make sense. Like, a lot of sense.
I did think it was a little too quiet when we were picking apples. But there wasn't any mist, or crazy Pokemon...but does that mean that Mystery Dungeons don't need any of that stuff? Can they just happen without warning?
"Eve, EVE! Wake up!" I hear Lucas scream, shaking the unconscious Pokemon. Oh yeah, Eve fainted. Not because she got hit with something, but because of fear.
I see Lucas reaching into his bag to grab something, and I think I know what he's trying to get.
"Wait!" I say with my hands out. "We don't have to use a Tiny Reviver Seed. Those things are expensive, hard to get, and that's the only one we have."
Lucas doesn't take it too well. "She fainted, Red. We have to use it."
I counter with, "But she fainted from fright. We can just grab a bucket of water to wake her up."
"And where do we find one of those?" Lucas says.
...I got nothing. I then shake my head. Come on, what other way could we wake her up?
A lightbulb goes off. "Nevermind that first idea. I got this."
Lucas twists his head in confusion, but then backs away from Eve. "Ok, if you're sure. What's your idea?"
"You'll see." I say to the Rilo. I then take a deep breath and Lucas catches on to my idea.
He then stops. "Why are you going to use Ember on her?!"
I sigh. "All I want to do is just light one of her tails on fire. NOT A BIG ONE, but big enough that it'll wake her up."
Lucas goes to argue with me, but before he has a chance to, I breathe out some embers. Unfortunately, I breathed out a little too much and soon three of her six tails were on fire.
"LOOK WHAT YOU DID!" Lucas screams at me. "We could have just stepped on her tails and NOT engulf them in flames."
I slap my face. That would have been a much better idea. Why do I have to be so stupid at points.
My plan does work, however, as Eve jumps up on her four feet. "What's going on?! What happened?! Why does-" She then looks back at her tails.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"MY TAILS ARE ON FIRE!?" She yells. She then runs around in circles, having no idea what to do. "HELPHELPHELPHELPHELPHELPHELPHELPHELP!"
Both me and Lucas have no idea how to calm her down. I then remember the most simple rule when you're on fire.
"EVE, STOP, DROP, AND ROLL!"
Upon hearing it, Eve gets to the ground and rolls side to side until all the fire is reduced to smoke. After that's over, she then stares at us with a very angry look.
"WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU TWO?! HOW WOULD YOU TWO LIKE IT IF I USED EMBER ON YOUR TAILS?!"
Lucas points at me. "I was not involved in this at all. It was Red's idea."
Well, he just threw me under the bus, but I guess I did deserve it. "Alright, that wasn't a good idea at all. I wasn't thinking straight. I'm sorry."
The Vulpix sighs. "You should think a lot longer and harder about your ideas. It still burns." She says, looking at her tails.
"Well, at least we saved a Tiny Reviver Seed." I say. I then earn cold stares from Lucas and Eve. Sweat then drops from my head. "Ok, I said that I was sorry. I won't do that again, promise."
Eve manages to smile. "Thank you. Now do any of you guys have an Oran Berry on you? My tails feel like a burnt marshmallow."
"Sure." Lucas says and takes an Oran Berry from our bag. As Eve eats the berry, Lucas stares out into the open.
"I can't believe we're in a Mystery Dungeon." He says, "There's no mist anywhere, nor any Pokemon around."
I respond with, "Well then, we'll have to tell Wigglytuff about this. I don't think anyone is going to like this news."
Lucas nods. "Yeah, closing Green Forest was one thing, but telling everyone they can't go pick apples is going to break everyone's heart."
I then feel the ground moving and yell, "The Mystery Dungeon is changing! Stay close!"
It only takes about ten seconds for the earthquake to stop, but the landscape looks very different from before. Both me and Lucas are standing next to each other with the apple bags in our hands. I then look back and see Eve shaking on the ground with her paws over her eyes. She knows that the earthquake is over, right?
"Uhh, Eve, the earthquake is over. You can stop shaking." Lucas says.
The Vulpix, however, continues shaking. "This place j-just got a-a lot more sc-scarier. W-why here? W-why n-now?"
Oh boy, she's traumatized. I try to calm her down. "It's ok, Eve. We got out of here once, we can do it again."
The Fox Pokemon doesn't respond and continues to shake. I sigh. "You have nothing to worry about. Your mom trusted us to protect you. We'll keep you safe, we promise. So can you make it out with us?"
She uncovers her eyes in time to see me smiling and reaching out my hand. She then gulps. "O-ok. I'll t-try." As she slowly gets up from the ground. She then moves behind the two of us and says, "Lead the way."
I look ahead. There's a wall in front of us with two paths leading to the left and right sides respectively. "Let's...go right." I say.
We then walk over to the right path and make our way. The bags start to feel heavier and heavier with every step we take. We could just leave the bags here or take some apples out, but we're already here, so we might as well take as many apples as we can. It's not like it's going to be any different.
As we walk through the hallway-looking woods, I start to hear something in the distance ahead of us. I stop, turn to Lucas, and say, "Something's up ahead. I think its might be some Pokemon."
Eve gets scared by my comment and shakes. "L-Lucas, can you please use your aura sensors to see if they're f-friendly?"
The Rilo shakes his head. "I can't do that. My head's going to explode if I try. We'll just have to cross our fingers and hope that they're not enemies."
We all stay still. Both me and Lucas are preparing for the worse while Eve just keeps shaking on the ground. We then see the noisemakers.
A Pidgey and a Butterfree. And they look like they've been trying to get out of here too.
"Maybe around here there'll be a-GAHHHH!" The Pidgey screams. "More crazy Pokemon! Gary, help me out!"
The Butterfree says, "You got it." And prepares to attack.
I panic, swallow my embers, and step toward the two frightened Pokemon. "Easy, we aren't going to hurt you. We're lost in this woods too."
The Pidgey and Butterfree look at each other and breathe a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness. I thought we had to deal with another Pokemon." The Pidgey says, "Both me and Gary came here to pick some apples, but soon it felt like we were going through some sort of maze. Like this place doesn't want us to leave."
The Butterfree, or Gary, then says, "We've been here for what seems like forever. I'm glad we finally found Pokemon who don't want to kill us."
"Same here." I say.
Gary then looks at our bandanas. An exclamation point then appears over his head. "Wait, aren't you two Team Adventure?"
Lucas immediately pulls out his badge. "We sure are!" He says with excitement. "We were also getting some apples too, but our badges don't work in Mystery Dungeons."
The Pidgey jumps in shock. "You're kidding me?! Then how do we get out of here?"
I let out a nervous chuckle. "This may sound weird, but there should be stairs around here that should take us out-"
"Wait, stairs? Like stairs that just lead up into the sky?" The Pidgey asks.
The three of us nod.
"You're kidding me. That's the exit?!" Gary says, "We just passed by some not too long ago. The top of them were covered in fog, so we didn't go up them." I smile. "They may look dangerous, but they are the only way out of here that we know of."
The Pidgey then smiles. "Really then. Then why don't you follow us to them? I don't think you three would like to stay here much longer."
Eve nods. "Yes, please." And follows the two Flying-types as they make their way.
Lucas turns to me and says, "We should follow them. I don't know how much longer I can carry these bags. They're getting really heavy."
I agree with him. "Tell me about it. It went from lifting a basket to lifting a table very fast. My arms are going to break soon."
Lucas laughs and we then catch up with the three Pokemon. It's nice to see a friendly face around here.
As we walk through the woods, I look over at the walls of the dungeons and see some marks and some fainted Pokemon on the ground.
I ask, "So, you guys ran into Pokemon in here?"
Gary nods. "There were quite a lot of Pokemon that tried to attack us. Don't know what we did to deserve it, but we took care of all of them. Steve, are we close to the stairs?"
"Yep. They are right around this corner." The Pidgey says.
Something then catches my eye: I see electricity come from one of the fainted Pokemon. Since when did a Pidgey or a Butterfree knew how to use a Thunderbolt or any electric attack? It bugs me so much that I have to ask.
"Do any of you know an electric attack?" To my surprise, they shake their heads.
"Nope, why would we know those moves?" Something else then comes to me.
"If you came here to pick apples, then where are your bags?" The two Pokemon don't answer my question and instead say, "Look I think we're here."
"Finally!" Eve says and races past everyone.
"Hey Eve, wait up!" Lucas says. We both then follow the Vulpix until we catch with her. We then see that she is looking around in the room.
"There's nothing in here." She says. "Did we take a wrong turn or something?"
The dots then connect. They don't have bags, they said that they didn't know any electric moves, and they are strangers. We just made a bad mistake, didn't we?
Laughter then fills the air. We all turn around to see that it's coming from the two Flying-Types, who are both giving me very bad vibes. My instincts tell me to attack, so I drop my bags, run at the Butterfree, and use Double Kick. With the way those two are acting, they can't be up to any good.
The Butterfree doesn't even move at all, as he's too busy laughing. That's good as I hit him directly in the chest...
Only to sink right through him.
I'm so caught off guard that I land on my face. What the heck, I thought the only ones that could do that were-
I turn my head to see dark smoke cover the two. By the time it disappears, I'm left staring at a Stableye and a Gengar. Like I was going to say, the only ones that could do that were Ghost-Types. Oh no.
Eve then runs away, screaming "GHOSTS-TYPES!"
The Gengar sinks into the ground and reappears in front of the Vulpix. "Boo!"
"GAAAHHHHHHHH!" Eve yells and then falls to the ground and faints. The Gengar take a moment to stare at the Alolan Vulpix. "Wow, that was easy. I thought that I'd have to attack first. Lucky me." The Gengar laughs and goes to pick her up when Lucas slashes him with a Metal Claw.
"Leave her alone, you stupid Ghost-Type." He says and fires a Vacuum Wave at him, which just passes straight through him. I slap my face. Ghost-Types don't take damage from Fighting-Type or Normal-Types moves. I thought I just made that very clear.
The Gengar laughs even harder. "You thought that was going to hurt me?! HA! You're going to make me get a cramp in my stomach." He then covers himself with electricity. "Let's see if you're just the kids that Scar said you were. GET A LOAD OF THIS!"
He aims his Thunderbolt at Lucas, but the Emanation Pokemon gets out of the way in time. Lucas then dashes toward Eve to help her, but is hit by a Shadow Ball and is tossed to the side.
I turn and see that it came from the Stableye, who giggles, "Got him!"
"Not cool!" I growl and use Blaze Kick against him. He panics as I fly at him. Soon I feel his head making contact with my foot, and he slides against the ground, yelling in pain.
I then turn my head to the Gengar, who uses Thunderbolt again on Lucas. This time, however, it hits its mark as Lucas screams in pain. "GAAAAHHHHHHHH!"
I turn my train of thought to Eve and try to wake her up by shaking her. "EVE, WAKE UP! WE NEED TO LEAVE NOW!"
I then look up and see the Gengar with a dark claw. "Lights out for you-"
He's cut off by a Metal Claw from Lucas and slams into the wall. Lucas, holding on to his right arm, quickly reaches into his bag and pulls out a Tiny Reviver Seed.
"Say what you want, but I'm using this." He says. This time, I don't complain. "Be my guest." I say as I turn around to see the two Ghost-Types, who are just laughing.
I yell, "What does Scar want with us?!"
The Sableye giggles. "Like we'd tell you. Just give up and come with us."
"Like we'd trust you that we'd stay in one piece. Do you guys have a brain in there?"
The Gengar snaps. "If you three want to keep your skin, then you would trust us."
I then feel Lucas tugging my arm. I turn my head to see the wounded Rilo whisper, "Red, those are B-ranked criminals named Fang and Shard." B-ranked huh, the best we've fought were C-ranked, but we did beat up Scar, and he's the only S-rank criminal.
Lucas then starts to shake. "I really don't want to do it, b-but we got to fight them."
I'm surprised by this. "Really? You're up for this?"
"Not at all, but we have a job to do: Keep Eve safe and bring back apples. I'm...I'm not going to be a coward." He then looks over at the spilled bags. "Besides, we may not be able to do the last one, so we'll have to make this count."
I then see a bright light engulf Eve. She then wakes up and freaks out. "Where am I? GAH! GHOSTS!"
I go to calm her down. "Don't worry Eve. We got this. Just stay put. Everything is going to be fine." I then turn to Lucas and say, "Can you use anything besides Metal Claw?"
"No, that's my only non-Fighting-Type and Normal-Type move."
Dang it.
The Gengar and Stableye laugh. "You dare approach us?! Get as close as you'd like. We'll make quick work of both of you two and then take you to the boss...if you're still alive, that is."
"IN YOUR DREAMS!" I yell as I use Blaze Kick on the Stableye. He dodges to the side and uses Shadow Ball at me. I jump in the air and dodge it as well.
"You shouldn't have jumped, kid." I hear a voice behind me. I turn right around in time to see the Gengar smack me down to earth with Shadow Claw. I make a large dent in the ground.
"Give up, kid." The Gengar says as he floats down. "You're not going to win this fight."
"No!" I say. "I won't give up." I then start to shake with anger. "I! WILL! NOT! LOSE!" I then feel myself getting engulfed in flames. Is this...the same power I had back when I was fighting Scar? I smile, it's been a long time since I've felt this powerful. It's time to show those thugs their place.
I look and see Lucas duking it out with the Stableye. That just leaves me with the Gengar, who appears in front of me. "Well, someone's mad!"
I give him a death stare. "SHUT UP!" I yell and use Ember, but it turns out to be Flamethrower, frying the Ghost. After the attack, he stares at me, all black.
"Hmm, I did not see that coming." He then smiles again, "But I bet you didn't see this coming either!" He uses Shadow Sneak on me, but I manage to avoid his attack.
"Nice try!" I say and use Flamethrower again. This time he sinks into the ground. I only hear his voice saying, "Where am I? Am I here, no here." He then laughs as he's moving through the dirt. I can't see him. I close my eyes. Maybe if I focus, I could sense his aura, like a Lucario.
...
...
"BOOO!" I turn my head to see the Gengar staring straight at my soul. I then hear voices enter my head, telling me all kinds of things. I fall to the ground, pulling my ears. WHAT IS THIS FEELING!?
"Like my Confuse Ray?" I hear a voice say. I then feel something hit me hard in the stomach. Shadow Claw.
I'm then tossed into the air and am hit by a Dark Pulse and lastly hit the ground.
Why did I think I could sense aura? Now I'm in trouble...and in serious pain. I then hear two voices call out, but I don't know what they're saying. I'm already hearing enough voices, not to mention I can barely move my body.
I painfully open my eyes and see Lucas and Eve looking at me. Two Shadow Balls then hit Lucas at the same time when he isn't looking, causing an explosion before he has time to react. I then see Eve open her mouth, but I can't hear what she's saying because of the big bang. It's probably her screaming, "NOOOO!" or something like that. I'd do the same thing, but, man, everything hurts.
The air clears up and I'm left looking at a Rilo covered with bruises that are starting to bled. No, Lucas, I can't let-
I then hear the ghostly voices return in my head again. "Stop it, stop it!" I scream.
So this is what Confuse Ray feels like. This might be my least favorite to get hit by.
I then see the Gengar slowly walking toward the Alolan Vulpix, who's frozen in fear. The Stableye starts to charge another Shadow Ball to fire at Lucas, who is slowly trying to get up.
"I-I-I...won't...l-let you...kidnap us...we have...a job...to do..." He barely says. I want to help him, I want to move, but I just can't. All the voices makes it hard to think straight. Plus, oww!
"And we have a job, too." The Gengar says. "And we're about to complete it."
"And to think Scar lost to you two. You were easy." The Stableye says and launches his projectile at the beaten Rilo, who braces himself.
"NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" I scream. I can't close my eyes. I'm too frighten to move.
But I'm happy that I saw it.
A black blur go in front of Lucas, destroying the Shadow Ball, and protecting Lucas from his doom. As the voices in my head slowly vanish, I hear the Stableye yelling at the Gengar. "WHAT WAS THAT FOR?! I HAD HIM!?"
Gengar panics. "Are you serious?! That wasn't me, dude! That was someone else!"
"You're the only one here that can use Dark Pulse." I then start to feel the ground shaking. What now?! My thoughts then shift to another thought: WHERE'S EVE?!
I turn my head and see something I never thought I'd ever see: Rocks that look like daggers coming out of the ground and forming into a wall, and in the middle of them is Eve, looking very angry and has tears over her eyes. I can see the steam coming out of her ears as the rocks multiple. "LEAVE ME...ALONE!" She screams. She then slams her front paws into the ground, causing the rocks to shatter and fly in the air. We're all just left speechless as the rocks stop in the air.
WHAT THE HECK IS HAPPENING?! IS EVE REALLY DOING ALL OF THIS BY HERSELF?!
She then yells, "TAKE THIS!" and suddenly the mountain of rocks head straight at the two bad guys, who both scream in terror.
*BAM*
All the rocks trap the Pokemon in a cone-like rock cage. My jaw hits the ground and I look at Lucas, who has the same look as I do: Complete bewilderment.
The next thing that happens just adds to the confusion: Eve launches a giant fire symbol at the rock dome, causing it to blow up.
Wait a minute. Timeout. I begin to think about the moves that have been used. First one was Dark Pulse, then after that had to be Stone Edge, the next could have been Confusion or Psychic, and that last move had to be Fire Blast. All of which came from one source: Eve. But how?! Since when did an Alolan Vulpix know how to use any of those moves?
As the dust settles, we see the Stableye and Gengar on the ground, knocked out. Good grief, that's finally over-
"DON'T HURT ME!" Eve screams again. Suddenly, more stones appear from the ground.
What is she doing?! It's over! The fight's done! Through the chaos, I find the energy to get up. I see a line of boulders heading straight at Lucas, who can barly move.
I let him down once, I'm not doing it again!
I jump toward Lucas and the rocks. I feel myself become a bullet of fire, and when I hit the first rock, and pass through it and hit the next one, and another...and another!
I destroy all the rocks before they get to Lucas. But that fire energy...please tell me I just used Flare Blitz.
Nevermind, Lucas did it for you. "Red, you just used Flare Blitz." He then keeps staring at me. I forgot that he never saw me in this form. "You look amazing. Now I'm jealous." A cry from Eve ends our short conversion. We turn and see Eve and the ground, crying and screaming. "Eve!" I start. "Stop it. They're down for the count. You don't have to keep-"
I then feel something go around my neck, but nothing's there. I'm then lifted into the air, but NO ONE'S THERE!
Is Eve using Psychic on me?! WHY?! I'M NOT THE BAD GUY! THEY'RE KNOCKED OUT ANYWAYS
"STAY AWAY FROM ME, YOU MONSTER!" I hear a voice running through my mind as she holds me even harder. Was that telepathy? Why does she know that, and why is she doing this to me. We're trying to save her, not kill her.
Lucas rushes to Eve and hugs her. "Eve, stop. We're your friends. Red's your friend. Stop it. Breath in, breath out. Calm down."
She tries to shake Lucas off of herself as I slowly choke in the air. Eve...stop...
I then feel her grip losen on me as Lucas keeps saying, "It's ok." over and over again, just trying his best to calm her down, and it's working. The rocks are sinking back into the ground and I'm slowly going down to the ground with her grip getting weaker and weaker. Eve's angry turns into a flood of tears as she breaks down to the ground crying.
Thank goodness, NOW it's all over, now all we...have...to do... I fall to the ground.
I guess this is the cost of that fire power, huh? Makes me feel like a million bucks at first only to strip everything away as soon as I'm done with it. But I can't faint...not now...we don't have any Reviver Seeds...they need me to...huh...
I feel a rush of energy enter my body, but it doesn't feel bad. In fact, it feels very soothing, like if someone...is someone healing me? I open my eyes just a bit to see Eve with her paws on my chest. She knows Heal Pulse cause WHY NOT!? Nothing about her makes sense anymore. But I shouldn't complain about it. I feel great now.
Lucas then runs over to help me back on my feet. He looks like he also got a Heal Pulse, too, as his wounds are almost gone.
After Lucas helps me up, we turn to Eve. I say, "Eve, since-"
She then drops to the floor and cries...again. "I'm sorry, so, so sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you at all. I was just so scared by that Gengar and...I..." Streams of tears start to come from the Fox Pokemon. "You all think I'm a weirdo or something now. I never wanted to be like this. I'm sorryyyyyyyyyy-"
"Are you kidding me?!" Lucas says. "Besides the fact you went a little crazy at the end, you were incredible." The Vulpix pauses and stares at the Rilo. "First you used Dark Pulse, then Stone Edge, then Psychic, and then finished it off with Fire Blast! You're amazing!"
The Vulpix is confused. "Y-you're not mad at me?"
"Well, a little, but I think we can let that go."
"B-but I used Dark Pulse?"
"So?"
"That's a Dark-Type move. No one like me should know that. Do you know what happens to Pokemon who know a Dark-Type move?"
"Eve, you used that to save my life. I don't know what would have happened if you didn't cancel that Shadow Ball out."
The Vulpix just sits there, puzzled even more. Clearly, she was execpting us to be steaming mad at her, but I have to agree with Lucas. She did more good than harm.
"...but..." She then stares at me. She tears up again. "I'm...so sorry, Red. Don't act like you don't hate me now. Don't hide it. I called you a monster." I reach out my hand and she closes her eyes, waiting for me to hurt her. But even though I am mad at her, deep down, I know that she didn't mean it. And she is VERY sorry.
"Don't worry about it. I forgive you." She opens her eyes and stares at me.
"You...do? After what I did?" She says.
I smile. "I would have gone berzerks too if I had the energy to. I understand you were only trying to protect yourself."
Lucas frowns, "Yeah, we were supposed to protect you, but instead you came in and saved the day in your strange, powerful way. Could you always use those moves?"
The Alolan Vulpix doesn't answer, she's still in awe that we hadn't done anything bad to her yet. She looks down at her paws. "I...don't really know how I do all of that. I don't like fighting at all, but I just felt like I needed to do something."
I then ask Eve a question. "Eve, if you used Psychic on me, then why didn't you use it on Lucas?"
She takes a deep breath. "You won't believe me even if I tell you."
"You spoke to me using telepathy and also used all those moves. I think we'll believe you just fine." She looks back up at the two of us and says, "Your...aura was scary. When you were coming at me, I panicked and attacked."
Lucas's eyes widen. "Is there anything you can't do?"
Eve, for the first time in a long time, smiles. "I can't swim." We all then laugh. Feels like forever since we've all been happy. Ever since those Pokemon attacked us we've been-
Wait, those Pokemon. I quickly turn around and see that the Gengar and Stableye are still KO'd.
"Well, it's a good thing those two are out." I sigh in relief. "Sorry we couldn't keep you safe, Eve."
She smiles. "It's ok. At least all the apples are safe." We turn our heads over to the far wall and see all the apple bags sitting there, completely fine.
"Well that's cool. We get to turn in criminals AND bring back some apples." Lucas says. "We did do both tasks. Ha, ha."
"But how are we going to take the bags AND the Gengar and Stableye?" I point out.
The bags then start to float in the air. I look down at Eve and see that she's the one behind it.
"So that's how you picked all those apples." I say. "But why did you lie about that?"
"I thought you'd think I was crazy or something. Vulpixs aren't supposed to know Psychic." She responds.
"Well." Lucas says. "We're glad you're an exception."
I laugh. "Yeah, you're one of a kind Vulpix, that's for sure."
Eve smiles and says, "Thank you." and we then make our way the criminals and get ready to get out of this Mystery Dungeon.
...oh yeah, that was a thing.
