Mystery Dungeon Novel - unfinished

“Where am I?

Am I dreaming this?

I feel a pleasant breeze.

…I hear a voice from somewhere…

I wonder who it is?”

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Poke.

Poke. Poke.

Poke. Poke. Poke.

“E…Excuse me. Please, wake up.”

She rolled over.

“Come on, wake up!”

Shizuka opened her eyes, stood up and stretched, the forest surrounding her a welcome sight.

Until she realised she wasn’t supposed to be here…

“You’re finally awake! Great!” The Mudkip in front of her was grinning.

“Wh…where is this?” She looked around trying to see if she recognised the area.

“You were passed out here. I’m glad to see you’re awake!” The Mudkip said, watching her and wondering what she was doing. “I’m Jet. Glad to meet you. And you are? I’ve never seen you around before.”

“How am I even understanding you?” Shizuka asked, “I’m human.”

“Huh?” Jet looked incredibly confused, “You’re a human? But you look like a normal Charmander in every way.”

“What?” Shizuka held up her paws… paws? She turned around, trying to get a good look at herself. Catching a glimpse of something behind her she tried to see what it was by turning around, but the thing followed her… she stopped and looked over her shoulder. It was an orange tail with a flame at the end… her tail…

“It…It’s true! I’ve turned into a Charmander!” Shizuka yelped in her mind, completely confused, “But why? I don’t remember anything… I have to be dreaming…”

“Um…” The Mudkip, Jet, was talking again, “You’re kind of weird. Your name? What’s your name?”

“My name?” Shizuka thought, “I remember that at least. My name is…” “Shizuka, my name’s Shizuka.”

“Oh…” The Mudkip pondered this, “Shizuka huh? Well… It’s a funny name.” Jet giggled, causing Shizuka to wonder if there was someone else who could help her.

Before she could ask, however, a scared lady’s voice called, “Somebody! Please! Help me!”

“Huh? I hear shouts from over there!” Jet stated.

“I’ve befriended Mr State-the-obvious then.” Shizuka thought with a small smile as a Butterfree flew over.

“What’s wrong?” Jet asked the Butterfree.

“It’s horrible!” Butterfree replied, panicking, “My Caterpie fell into a cavern! My poor baby!”

“What?” Jet yelped as Shizuka frowned.

“A huge fissure opened in the ground, and my Caterpie fell in!” The mother continued, “He’s too young to crawl out by himself! When I went to get my baby, Pokemon suddenly attacked me!”

“Huh, you were attacked?” Jet asked, confused, “By other Pokemon?”

“Is it that strange around here?” The Charmander wondered as Butterfree continued.

“They must be enraged by the fissure and out of control… at least… that’s what I think.” Butterfree gazed at the ground, “I’m not strong enough to fend off those wild Pokemon. What will become of my baby?” It sounded like Butterfree was going to start crying… if Butterfrees could, “Oh! What am I to do?! Oh dear, oh dear!”

Jet turned to Shizuka, who already had an idea what he was going to ask, “This sounds bad, we have to go help!”

Shizuka nodded and they raced to the fissure, climbing down safely and reaching the bottom.

“What do we do?” Shizuka asked Jet as they looked around, “Caterpie isn’t here any more.”

“We’ll have to go deeper into the caves and try to find him,” Jet said, giving her an appraising glance, “What level are you?”

“Uhhh. I don’t know.”

“Well you’re quite small, so maybe you’re a low level like me.” Jet said, looking her over again, “What do you know?”

“Uhhhh.” Shizuka yelped and lashed out at a Wurmple that tried to attack her, her claws racking it, causing it to faint.

“Scratch, obviously.” Jet grinned, “So you must know Growl too.”

“Can we just go?” The Charmander asked irritably, “The sooner we find Caterpie, the sooner I can wake up from this dream.”

“Dream?” Jet asked, but Shizuka was already racing down a corridor, “Shizuka! Wait up!”

She kept on running, following the passageway around until she found a cross road, “Hey Jet, left or right?”

“Uh, right?” Jet hazarded, not knowing what the strange Charmander girl was up to. She dove down the right passage way, keeping an eye out for Caterpie, only to find herself in the first room they’d come to.

“Jet?” She asked as she noticed something gold and shiney, picking it up awkwardly with her paws, “What’s this?”

“Cool, you found some Poke!” Jet grinned, “It’s money, you can use it in the shops in town!”

Shizuka grinned and passed it to the Mudkip who had a bag of some kind, before passing Jet and heading back towards the passageway.

From no where, a Sunkern burst out of hiding and attempted to attack.

This time Shizuka was ready, using Scratch and knocking out the rampaging Pokemon. “I feel kind of guilty, knocking them out like this.” She said, looking over her shoulder before continuing, narrowly avoiding an attacking Pidgey, who Jet used Growl on before Shizuka used Scratch to defeat, “Why would they suddenly attack other Pokemon?”

“I think it might be…” Jet paused to Growl at another Pidgey, “The Earthquakes and things recently that’s disturbing the Pokemon and causing trouble.”

“What Earthquakes?” Shizuka asked as she took the other path.

“How could you have missed them?” Jet looked outraged as Shizuka took point and led them down the stairs, which, considering they were natural, were remarkably well made, “They’ve been shaking the island for days.”

“I’m not a Pokemon, remember?” Shizuka asked as she emerged from the stairs only to be assaulted by another Sunkern, which she Scratched and grinned, this felt natural, like she’d always known how to do this. Most of the rooms on this floor were empty, with no sign of Caterpie, other then some Poke and some Pidgeys that attacked without warning.

Finding the stairs to the next floor in the last place they looked, Jet took point this time, only to be assaulted by a Pidgey and a Wurmple, who the duo knocked out easily.

“What’s this?” Shizuka asked as she nearly stepped on a berry of some kind.

“It’s an Oran Berry.” Jet answered, still wondering how she couldn’t know about the Natural Disasters, “It heals you.”

“Cool.” Shizuka held onto it, “So what about these Natural Disasters? What’s causing them?”

“No one knows. The island was pretty quiet until about a week ago and then…” Jet shrugged, “Shizuka watch…”

A Pidgey used Tackle on her from behind, knocking her over. She Growled as she got up and counter attacked with Scratch, that had hurt… dreams didn’t hurt… “I’m not dreaming, am I?” She asked herself as she headed downstairs again.

“Where is this?” She asked Jet.

“You really don’t remember anything do you?” Jet laughed, “This is Tiny Woods, where a lot of low level Pokemon hang out.”

Shizuka let the words sink in as she heard someone crying, “Come on Jet, I think I hear someone.”

Jet’s fins were shaking. “I think it’s Caterpie.” He laughed, racing a head of her as they reached the bottom of the stairs.

She didn’t understand why it was so light when they kept going downwards until they reached the lowest floor, the trees that made up the walls of ‘Tiny Woods’ were too densely packed to let Pokemon in or out, but their leaves let light in.

They followed the sound of the crying to a Caterpie who was crying, looking for his Mother.

“We came to rescue you.” Jet said, not even waiting for Caterpie to turn around.

“Huh?” It asked, turning around. The Caterpie was tiny, it couldn’t be long out of the egg.

“Your Mum’s waiting,” Jet continued, “Let’s get you out.”

“O…ok.” Caterpie followed them, avoiding Shizuka nervously, avoiding the flame on the end of her tail.

Safely getting back up the floors and carrying Caterpie up the climb they got back to Butterfree without many words shared, even though Shizuka had millions of questions.

“My baby’s safe,” Butterfree smiled at them, “I’m sorry, I don’t know how I could ever thank you properly.”

“Oh, that’s OK!” Jet grinned at her, “It’s been dangerous lately with sudden quakes and fissures like that one. It was great to find your little boy unharmed.”

“Please, may I have your names at least?” She asked.

“I’m Jet.” The Mudkip nodded, “And this is Shizuka.” The Charmander nodded also.

“Cool.” Caterpie looked starry eyed.

“He’s, uh… staring at me adoringly…those sparkly eyes…It’s a little embarrassing… but this doesn’t feel bad either, it’s like I’m a hero. Helping Pokemon in trouble might be a good experience.” Shizuka thought, “Or at least until I find a way to turn myself human again.” She amended hastily.

“Thank you! Jet and Shizuka!” Caterpie said, loudly enough for the whole of Tiny Woods to hear.

“I know it isn’t really enough,” Butterfree said, giving her son a look to quiet him down, “But this is a token of our thanks. Please, accept it.” Butterfree gave Jet an Oran Berry, another blue one that wasn’t quite the same as an Oran berry and a pink berry Shizuka hadn’t seen before. “Thank you so much. Good-bye.” Butterfree and Caterpie left, leaving Shizuka feeling confused.

“Thanks for helping.” Jet said, turning to the Charmander once again, “You’re very tough, I was sure impressed.” Then he looked quizzical, “So, what are you going to do? Do you have any plans?”

“I suppose I should find out why I’ve been turned into a Pokemon, but I don’t know where to start or have anywhere to stay while I’m finding that out…”

“Listen Shizuka,” Jet continued as if she hadn’t paused, “If you don’t have a place to stay, you should come stay with me.” Shizuka thought for a moment, then nodded and followed Jet back to town, where he stopped outside a large house with flames in torches surrounding it. “Well,” Jet turned to her, smiling, “This is the place.”

Shizuka looked at it properly, it was orange and beige brick and kind of reminded her of a furnace. “Wow.” She grinned, “I can’t explain, but I’m happy! I’m a human being, but I like this place. I’m weirdly happy… perhaps it’s an instinct thing for a Pokemon… maybe this is what it feels like to want to wag your tail… It doesn’t matter! I’m happy!” She grinned, “maybe I feel that way because I’m a Charmander.”

“You’re impressed, aren’t you Shizuka?” Jet asked with a hopeful look on his face. She nodded in reply, “I thought so. I thought this would be a good place for you to live, Shizuka. I was sure you’d like it.”

“I have my own mailbox and everything?” Shizuka asked.

“Yeap, they deliver mail from Pokemon straight to your mailbox.” Jet’s face turned serious, “You know, like the fissure Caterpie fell into, there have been many natural disasters recently, because of those disasters, many Pokemon are suffering. I want to help Pokemon in these tough times. I want to help change things so Pokemon can live in peace.” He got all nervous and kicked his back feet, “So, uh… Well… I liked how you handled yourself when we rescued Caterpie. Would you like to join me on a Rescue Team?”

“What’s a Rescue Team?”

“You don’t… Sorry, I forgot, not a Pokemon from this island. A Rescue Team does the sort of thing we did today day in and day out, saves Pokemon who are trapped in Caves or places like Tiny Woods, escorts weaker Pokemon to their friends in dangerous places and generally are charged with helping maintain the peace.”

“So they’re kind of like the Police?”

“The who?”

Shizuka frowned, the memory there but just beyond reach, “I’m not sure.”

Jet laughed, grinning at his new friend and shaking his head, “You are defiantly weird, but I like you.” Then his eyes widened, “Our Team name! We don’t have one yet!”

“Isn’t it your team?”

“We’re the first two members…” Jet sounded embarrassed, “So Shizuka, what do you think would be a good name for us?”

“Uhhh.” “What do you call a Rescue Team?” “Tasukete?”

“What does that mean?” Jet asked, looking at her askance.

Shizuka thought for a moment and then grinned, “It’s a call for help.” She said proudly, having remembered.

Jet thought hard, “A Rescue Team who’s name is a call for help…”

“Nevermind, I can think of something else…”

“No, I like it.” Jet said hastily, “It’s a good name! In fact it’s perfect.” Jet took on a stance that Shizuka could only assume was a proud one, “Rescue Team Tasukete!” Jet grinned, “Let’s do good, starting tomorrow.” He headed off somewhere.

“Wait, Jet!” Shizuka called, “Where’re you going?”

“Home, to sleep.” The Mudkip yawned at her.

“But I thought you lived here?”

Jet laughed, “Sometimes, but since you’ll be living here now, I thought I’d go visit my old home.”

“I don’t want to kick you out of your house…”

“It’s fine, honest, I have plenty of places to go. Besides that house is very much for Fire Types like yourself, it’s too warm for me.”

“Then why did you buy it?” Shizuka asked, head tilted as she pondered.

“It’s big enough for a Rescue Team base and…” He stopped at Shizuka’s grin, she understood. “Anyway, I’m tired and I bet you are too…”

“Can you tell me more about what’s going on tomorrow?” She paused, “Please?”

“Sure.” Jet nodded, “Night Shizuka.”

“G’night Jet.” “Hopefully in the morning I’ll wake up from this crazy dream.”

SPOILERS: Pokémon Y: Thoughts of the Lead Character

It was a small collection of shiny stones. To most people they wouldn’t be worth very much. They looked more like big marbles than anything else. The only reason she knew the group hadn’t been replaced by marbles was the slight glow in each and every one of the balls.

They had no real ‘official’ group name, each one was named for the Pokémon who could use them. However, she called them Megacite. Each one of them interacted with her bracelet, the Mega Ring she had acquired in the Master’s Tower.

She had more Megacite than she had Pokémon who could use them. Even on her own squad she only actually carried two Pokémon who could use their Megacite to evolve to a higher level. A level beyond their normal form, unlocking their hidden potential.

She had been very careful with the extra evolution. There were people who had asked odd questions about her strange, overpowered Pokémon. Accusations had flown about genetically modified Pokémon and unfair tactics, along with a marked interested from the bad guys every time she ended up using the stones in their presence.

If she was honest with herself, however, she had been far too eager to play with the new power when she had first received it. Almost every battle she had entered for the first twenty four hours had involved a mega evolution of some kind of another. Only of course, if she had sent her Lucario or her Charizard into combat, but she had drawn far, far too much attention to herself in doing it.

Still the time to really use the power was at hand. Lysander’s mass message to everyone with a holocaster was a disturbing one. She had suspected him of being in on Team Flare’s scheme for a while. Despite the fact the Professor had been friends with him for a long time, Lysander had been spouting much the same spiel as the grunts she had been smacking around for while.

What was worse was that the Professor had been telling Lysander what she and her friends had been up to. The five of them, collectively known as Sycamore’s students, had been through an awful lot since they had left home and apparently Lysander had been told about all of it.

He had contacted her almost immediately after she had gotten her Mega Ring. Had encouraged her to think about working to change the world, that letting things stay the way they are was wrong. She should have reported him then. Before he had reached the point where he could threaten the lives of everyone in the world.

He was probably stronger than her. Though she had not had much trouble with that even without using the Megacite, she was a brand new Trainer, only a few months from leaving home. He was the leader of a Team of villains who wanted to destroy the world. This wasn’t just one or two grunts, or a small group of villains taking over a power plant.

This was the world.

Still she had her team, her whole team, not just Lucario and Charizard, but Delphfox, Talonflame, Raichu and Pyroar too. Between the six of them, she had faith they could stop whatever was planned. She had a horrible feeling it was going to involve the legendary Pokémon, Yvetal and its power to suck away the lifeforce of those around it upon awakening.  

The only really concern she had was if she ran into a water, ground or rock type. Water types had a match in Raichu, but she didn’t have anything on her team to tackle the other two types. Defeating the rock type Gym had taken a lot of sheer dumb luck and a copious amount of ‘Dragon Rage’ on the part of her, at the time, Charmeleon.

It had worked before though and her team knew better moves now then they had then. She had more experience too. She knew more tactics and had had more practise herself. She would be able to back up her Pokémon as they fought together as a group to prevent Lysander’s plans.

She just had to hope all the growing up she had done over the last couple of months and the power of the Megacite would be enough to allow her to save the world.

What if Hermione played Bowls for the under31s?

“Just another yard, Mione.”

Hermione wrinkled her nose, but nodded and didn’t say a word. Her Skip, after all, was the only person who could get away with shortening her name.

Her opposing number, a girl from Surry, was on and off of the mat in less than two minutes, putting another wood in a head that was looking more and more like a minefield with every wood that went down.

“Where’s the jack?” Hermione asked, glancing at the scoreboards and tallying up that they were just one shot up on the game, before she stepped on the mat again.

Her Skip pointed it out, having wondered if the small yellow ball was visible from the other end considering there were at least two woods sat in front of it. “Just behind this one, you just need to tap it and we’ll have four.”

‘So no pressure.’ Hermione thought ruefully before delivering the wood.

It was heavier this time, certainly, but Hermione felt the ball slip out of her hand before she was ready to let it go, and as such had to watch the wood race down the green, too tight, and crash into completely the wrong wood, giving the opponent two shots.

Considering that this was the final end, this wasn’t a good thing.

“Sorry Evie.” Hermione apologised as she joined her team mates at the other end of the green, feeling thoroughly annoyed with herself.

The black haired woman shrugged, “It happens.”

Hermione watched the opposing Skip put one in the cluster of woods they’d been trying to knock the jack into, causing Evie to frown.

Hermione considered the head. It wouldn’t be easy, but they could still win this. “I have a suggestion.” She spoke up, before Evie could make up her mind.

“Go on.” The twenty two year old gestured, having already considered the way she’d brought Hermione in and discarded the idea and wondering if her number three had seen a different route in.

“If you play onto this one.” Hermione pointed at one of the woods in front and to the left of the jack, “It’ll go this way,” She gestured down and to the left, “And take the jack.”

Evie blinked, stood at Hermione’s side, saw exactly what she getting at, nodded and went up the other end, standing on the mat to play the first of her final two woods.

The woman shook her head as the wood left her hand and Hermione had to agree as the wood went straight past the head and went in the ditch.

“It’s alright, Evie, next time.” Hermione called up to the woman who’d been the backbone of the squad right up until now.

She just waved it off as her opposing number, assuming that she’d try the same thing that she’d been trying to get Hermione to do, put a blocker in that would have been a real pain if that had been what Evie was trying to do.

“This time Evie.” Hermione called up to her Skip, offering what little support she could.

As if her call was a signal, the supporters, the other team members, who had finished their game just minutes ago, and Loraine, the team manager, all offered their support.

Then Evie stepped on the mat and silence fell.

She bowled.

“Hold.” Hermione squeaked as she suddenly realised where the wood was headed, “Hold! HOLD!”

The weight Evie put behind the wood made it hold the line and it clipped the target wood as it went by, sending it crashing into the jack and taking it back to give Oxfordshire two shots.

Evie, who had chased her wood down the green, was glomped by her ecstatic team as the crowd that had escorted the Oxfordshire girls to Lemington Spa went mental.

They were going through to the quarter finals of the Amy Rose competition for the first time since before Hermione had joined the squad three years ago.

Once the completely undignified squealing was over, the much more dignified shaking of hands took place, and once that was over, the Oxfordshire squad left the green to have lunch and get ready for the next round.

“Well done.” Gillian hugged her daughter the moment she stepped off the green, “You played well.”

Hermione shook her head as she sat down and accepted her sandwiches, “Not on that last end.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Alice, a blonde thirteen year old who had been playing Lead on the other rink and had watched the other rink as often as she could, said, “You had a good game other than a couple of unlucky touches, you’ll do great this afternoon.”

“You played well too.” Hermione replied, having caught a few of Alice’s woods, but certainly not all of them, having been rather focused on her own rink.

Alice snorted, watching Laura, her brunette, eighteen year old, Skip, wander off to go buy food from the cafe. “If I’m not subbed out, I’ll be surprised.”

Gillian watched Loraine talking to Evie and Emma, the girl who had been playing number two on Hermione’s rink. “I doubt it. You were having a fantastic game up until the last few ends.”

Alice just shrugged, pausing to take a bite out of her sandwich before asking, “How’s the boarding school going?”

Hermione froze for a moment, before relaxing as completely as she could. She’d joined the Oxfordshire squad a couple of months after her tenth birthday, so she’d had an entire year between then and starting at Hogwarts.

If anything she was surprised that she was playing so well after spending the greater majority of the last term of school petrified.

“Not bad.” She answered calmly, “Had a bit of an incident with a pet snake, but other than that it’s not been bad.”

“Pet snake? Who had a pet snake?” June, always one for a bit of gossip, sat down next to them, “I thought that you said that only cats and mice were allowed.”

“One of the boys from the green house decided he wanted to bring a snake to school and scare everyone. One of my friends chased it off.”

“Which one, the cute black haired one or the red headed idiot one?”

“Harry.” Hermione objected to calling either of her friends cute, the cute part had been added by the others on her team, who had decided he was cute from her description of him. “And Ron helped.” She objected to calling Ron an idiot unless it was to his face, but a slip of the tongue last Christmas, when she’d come home to see her parents and gone to a match while she was home, had firmly labelled the youngest Weasley boy as an idiot.

Mind her squad knew as much as they were allowed to know about her friends from Hogwarts, but there was no way she was ever going to tell Harry or Ron about the Oxfordshire girls. Not if she ever wanted to live it down.

“The cute one.” June nodded, flicking a few stray red hairs over her shoulder. “You should bring them to a game. It would be nice to meet these guys you’re always going on about.”