Adventures of Team Ciscone! (A Mystery Dungeon Story)

[TheSolx]

This fan story is based on the Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness game.
The storyline will also be based on the game, so it might contain spoilers as I advance in the story. If someone is playing Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness or Sky and don't want spoilers, I warn you not to read past the point where you are in the game



Chapter 1 - Part 1: The Stranger
I looked out on the ocean. I had never seen this place before. The waves looked pretty rough, from the little I could see. There were a strange cliff not far away... or so it seemed.
"Ugh... W-where am I..? "

---

"Hey! Are you alright? What happened?!"
I woke up, not remembering much. Over me stood a Squirtle. It looked anxiously at me, like if something was wrong.
"Ugh.. my head..." I were on a beach, half-way in the seawater. How had I ended up here? When I thought about it, I couldn't really remember much at all.
"Hey, are you okay? You were zonked out right now..." the Squirtle said. Wait! What? The Squirtle is talking?
I looked at it, probably with a very shocked expression. "Y-you can talk?" "Well, duh! Do I look like a baby to you?" "Uh... well... no? But how do you speak the human language?"
The Squirtle looked at me with a confused expression. "Human language? What do you mean?"
"I understand you, but last time I checked, I didn't understand Pokémon speech." The Squirtle got an even more confused look. "You're a funny one, aren't you? To me, you look like any normal Treecko, so why would you NOT understand me?"

Huh? I-I looked like a normal what? A Treecko? I streched out my hand. It was green, and it looked like it had some kind of small spikes on the fingertips. What the...?! I stood up, looking at my feet. They were the same: Green... and they looked like Gecko feet. As I realized what was happening and looked further up on my body, I noticed  that my stomach was colored red and had green outlines. What the heck had happened to me?!!

"Uh... are you okay? Maybe you hit your head a bit harder than it looks," the Squirtle said. After a while without me answering, he said, "Anyway, I'm Tudro. Who are you?"
"Uh... I-I'm Solar." "Solar? That's a funny name." My facial expression probably changed to something else than surprised right then. At least that's how I felt it.
Suddenly, Tudro, as the Squirtle had called himself, stumbled forward and tripped on a rock. "Ow!"
"Oh, sorry! I didn't mean it to be that soft. Whoa-ho-ho!" Where Tudro had stood, a Koffing were now floating a few feet over the ground. Beside him a Zubat were doing the same. "Hey! What did you do that for?!" Tudro asked. "We just wanted to mess around with you!" "Whoa-ho-ho! Hey Zubat. Look there!"
Koffing signaled to Zubat to look just below them. There was a stone with some strange pattern lying htere. "It's that wimps treasure! Whoa-ho-ho!" "Let's take it! Heh-heh-heh!" "Hey! That's my treasure!" Tudro yelled at them. "Heh-heh-heh! What'cha gonna do about it? Pick it up?"
Tudro started trembling. It seemed it was anger. But he didn't do anything else. "Whoa-ho-ho! Seems like he is the wimp we thought he was!""We're wasting our time. Let's get out of here! Hah-hah-hah!"

Koffing and Zubat disappeared into a cave right behind me and Tudro. "Sigh... That was my treasure. If I don't get it back..." Tudro's expression turned into a sad grin. "They were right... I'm a total wimp, not even fighting for my most valuable possession..." That stone must have meant a lot to him.
"H-hey... since it looks like we're stuck here anyway... I'll try to help you get it back, okay?" I said, trying to cheer him up. He looked up at me with a joyful expression. "W-what? Would you really do that?" "Sure! That thing they took seems to be really special to you, so I can't just let them pass by with stealing things." "T-that's... That's great! Thank you! Thank you so much!!"


Chapter 1 - Part 2: The Beach Cave
Tudro and I followed Koffing and Zubat into the cave. To me, this cave seemed... disorted. It seemed to change as we came deeper and deeper. As we progressed, many wild Pokémon attacked us.
"Bubble!" Tudro took a deep breath and shot a beam of bubbles towards a blue Shellos coming towards us from the other side of the cavern room. When the beam hit, it seemed to absorb it and went through unaffected. "Argh... It has an absorbing ability! My Water moves won't work here." The Shellos came closer, and I realized I had to do something to help Tudro. "Solar! You're a Grass-type, right? We Water Pokémon don't stand a chance against you. Try using some move at it!"
I tried to focus. I couldn't remember ever having used a move. All I could remember was that I used to be a human. The Shellos were only a few feet away now. "Ehr..." I somehow remembered that a Treecko should know the Tackle move, so I tried to focus on doing that. I charged towards the Shellos and slammed into it. "Uh... right! Nice job, Solar!!!" Tudro cheered.

Most of the following battles went the same way. We progressed easily, the wild Pokémon around here didn't seem to be too strong. I also found out I had the Absorb move when I grabbed a Shellder to try a experimental kind of Tackle-throw. The small needles on my hand went through Shellder's shell armor and I suddenly felt renewed, while the Shellder fainted almost instantly.
I'm not sure how deep we went, but in the end, we found a dead end. It looked peaceful. There was a direct connection to the sea, through a hole in the wall. Seawater came through with the tide and filled up around a small "island" connected to the caverns behind us. Sunlight shone through a hole in the cave's roof and was reflected by the water in the cave to make a beautiful, moving pattern on the walls around us. At the other side of the landmass we were standing on, stood Koffing and Zubat. We had finally caught up to them. "We’ve been here for a while now... Maybe we should go back?" "And run into those wimps? Heh-heh-heh! That would be more waste of time! We need to find the boss! Okay, let's go!" Zubat turned around to look us right into the eyes. "Heh-heh-heh! Now lookie here. The wimps managed to get through to this place. Impressive!" Koffing turned around to look at us as well. "Mhoa-ho-ho! It seems we underestimated them a little. Well... What do you want?!" "I-I... We came to get my treasure back!" Tudro replied. "Heh-heh-heh! You mean this?" Zubat showed the stone with the strange pattern they had taken earlier. "Give it back!" Tudro were almost yelling now. I guess he were really angry at them. "Mhoa-ho-ho! You can have it back.. If you can beat us!" Koffing said and charged towards Tudro. Zubat came cackling behind him, towards me. Tudro withdrew into his shell to take less damage from the hit, while I didn't have much defense that way. I charged to meet Zubat on the way and we slammed into each other. "Offf!" I hit Zubat in the stomach, while he hit me in the right arm. I took a chance and grabbed him. "Absorb!" I felt fine again almost instantly. The pain I felt in the arm almost vanished. Zubat started shaking a little. That attack had probably taken away some of his energy. For a split-second I checked over at Koffing and Tudro and saw a beam of bubbles hit right on. I turned back to Zubat to see him charge towards me and I tried to duck away. I managed to get away, but Zubat took a fast turn and bit me. I could feel some of my energy go away. "Heh-heh-heh! Don't think you are the only one with Energy Draining moves!" Zubat went off again and I stood back up. I could feel some anger now. Then I suddenly saw a beam of bubbles pass me and hit Zubat in the face. I looked over at Tudro and saw Koffing fainted on the ground beside him. I heard Zubat slam into the ground as well, and turned around to check. He had also fainted. We had won!

Tudro came over to me. We both looked around for the stone. "I found it! Yay!" Tudro bursted out in happiness. I hadn't seen someone this happy before. At least I couldn't remember having. "Here. Take a look at it." Tudro sat down on a rock. I went over and did the same. The strange pattern on it looked... well... strange. Even stranger in this light. It looked like it moved around on the stone together with the light. "This is my Artifact. I found it in a cave once. I've had it with me ever since. It's my treasure." He grinned when he said "treasure". "Hm... It's a very nice treasure, I guess. I can't say I've ever seen a pattern like that before though" I smiled towards Tudro. "Mhm. But... there is one think bugging me. About you. You were talking about humans before... what did you mean with "Can you speak the human language?"?" "I-I'm not sure... I can't remember much from before I meet you. I just have the feeling... that I am a Human, not a Treecko. I... I really don't know what happened to me." "So... you say that you were a human, and were... turned into a Pokémon?" "I don't know - I mean... I'm not sure. Maybe... I did something? An experiment gone wrong or something?" "Hmm... It's hard to believe something like that... But... I believe you. I have a feeling you're telling the thruth."
"Urgh..." Right then, Zubat came back to consciousness. "Damned... we got beaten by wimps! Hey! Koffing! Wake up!" Koffing slowly opened his eyes and looked around. "Huh! This isn't the Boss' cave-! ... Uh... Right!" Zubat and Koffing scurried off, not even looking at us. "Hey... thanks for helping me back there. I don't think I could have done it without you." "No problem," I smiled. So this Squirtle believed me? That was a relief. I felt that I could trust him. He seemed to have a very friendly personality. "I didn't feel like leaving someone that needed help behind just like that." Tudro looked over at me, smilling. "So... what are you going to do now? It seems like you have had some kind of amnesia, so your memory will probably come back at some point, right?" "I-I guess so..." We sat silent for a little while, until Tudro spoke again. "So... You don't have anywhere to go, and you don't know anyone...?" "Right." "Hmm... Well... I were thinking about something. Before I found you at the beach, I tried to sign up for an exploration team... But I chickened out. But... I have a feeling that... maybe we could try... I mean, you don't have anywhere to go, so it's not really a loss, is it?" I looked at him. An exploration team? Whatever that was, it sounded... fun. I smiled. "That... sounds like a good idea." Tudro grinned happily again. "Great! Then we should go to Wigglytuff's Guild and sign up as apprentices right now!" I had no idea what that meant, but without either a memory of who or what I am, I couldn't really say no. Maybe it would help, being in a exploration team. Maybe it would help me find out who I am. Tudro grabbed my arm and signaled that we should go back where we came from, so I followed him back.

[TheSolx]

Chapter 2 - Part 1: Wigglytuff's Guild
They way back through the cave seemed to be shorter. I didn't recognize much of the tunnels we went through and I didn't see any of the Pokémon that were fainted only a little while ago. Maybe they had woken up and hid somewhere? When we got out, Tudro didn't stop. He walked right over to the other side of the beach and clearly wanted me to follow. He seemed very excited about the idea of joining a Exploration team.
There were a natural stairway leading away from the beach up towards higher ground. I could see the cliff from before. It somehow looked like a Sharpedo carved into the cliffside. "So where are we going?" "To Wigglytuff's Guild, up there!" Tudro pointed towards another stairway carved into the hill in front of us. On the left side I saw a little town full of Pokémon walking around.
We continued towards Wigglytuff's Guild. On top of the stairs we just climbed, there was a small plateu with a big tent facing away from the cliffside. It was formed to look like a Wigglytuff. That was probably the Wigglytuff Guild. The entrance were covered by metal bars as a security door. When I looked inside, I couldn't see anything. To be honest, it looked pretty small for a Guild. "Okay. Here goes." I followed Tudro a little bit more, until I heard a voice. "Pokémon detected! Pokémon detected!" "Who is it? Who is it?" "The footprint is Squirtle's! The footprint is Squirtle's!" "Woah!! N-no! I need to go through with this. I have Solar with me!" "You can ENTER!""
Tudro stepped forward and I noticed he had been standing on a grate on the ground. Below it was a hole where the voices had come from. "You had someone with you? Tell him to stand on the GRATE!" It was probably talking about me. I stepped on the gratw and the voices started again. "Pokémon detected! Pokémon detected!" "Who is it? Who is it?" "The footprint is... uh... uhm... I think it is Treecko's?" "What do you mean THINK? It's your JOB to know a Pokémon's footprint, isn't it Diglett?" "I-I know. But - You don't see many Treecko around here. It's a rare footprint!" "Ehr... are they arguing?" "Whatever! It's probably not a bad guy. You can ENTER!" The metal bars covering the entrance to the tent opened and we could go inside.

We entered and found... Nothing? There wasn't much around. A board with some notes on and a hole in the middle of the tent. "Hmm... This place is weirder than I thought. Listen! I hear voiced down here." Tudro climbed down the hole. I noticed there was a ladder on the side of the hole, probably attached to the wall further down. "Woah! Solar. Get down here. This place is awesome!" I climbed down into a huge underground room. There were Pokémon everywhere, talking with others. There was another notice board on the right side of the room and two boards attached to the walls on both sides. Tudor went over to one of them. "Wow. This is a notice board for exploration jobs. Once we have registered as a team, we will get jobs from here." "Ahem! Are you the ones that just arrived?" We turned around. There was a Chatot just behind us. It was clearly the one that had talked. "We don't want any sales or advertising in the Guild, so if you would please leave, it would be great." Sales? Advertising? Weren't this a Exploration guild? Why would anyone come here to sell something when there was a town right nearby? "N-no! We aren't here for any of that. We want to form a Exploration Team!" What? Form? I thought we were joining a Exploration team? "What do you mean form?" "Oh, didn't I tell you? No one -joins- Wigglytuff's team. We are only forming a team to train under Wigglytuff's Guild. Once we pass the graduation, we will have to find our own place to have a team." "Ehr... right! But why didn't you tell me at once that you wanted to register a Exploration Team? That's great! But you do know our training are really strict and challenging right? Many apprentices have quit because of it." "What?! Really? M-maybe this isn't for us then... Is it really THAT hard?" "Well, uhm, ehr... No, not at all! It's actually quite easy! Hehe... heh." "He really changed opinions fast, didn't he?" I whispered to Tudro. He nodded back. "Well, if you will follow me then!"

We followed Chatot down another ladder to the bottom of the cave. On the right side of this room were a tunnel, probably leading to another room. There was a counter standing by the wall. A Croagunk standing there watched us as we came with Chatot. By a hole on the other side of the room, a Loudred smiled at us. I heard a voice coming from the hole. "Pokémon detected! Pokémon detected!" The Loudred turned towards the hole and replied. So those were the ones that had talked before. Chatot stopped outside a door on the right side of the room."Well, here we are. This is the Guildmaster's Chambers." Chatot led us through the door into a room facing the side of the cliff. There were windows facing out towards the sea. There were a pair of chests, one on each side of the room, filled with gems and other treasures. This Pokémon probably had a lot of adventures behind him. In the middle of the room, facing away from us, stood a Pokémon watching the sea. It was clearly Wigglytuff himself. "Guildmaster. I present two Pokémon wanting to form a Exploration team together.... Guildmaster?" Wigglytuff didn't move at all. It was like he didn't hear Chatot. "Guildmaster!" Right then, Wigglytuff turned around. All three of us jumped at the sudden reaction. "Hi! So you want to form a Exploration Team? Well then! Let's get you registered!" He grabbed something to write on while Chatot found a something to write with and gave it to Wigglytuff. "So! What is your Team's name?" "Uh... name? Oh! I haven't thought about that! Do you have any ideas Solar?" Tudro asked me about a Team name? I said the first thing I thought about. "Uhm... what about... Ciscone? Team Ciscone?" Both Wigglytuff and Tudro looked at me now. Wigglytuff were smilling widely. "Uh, yeah! That's a great name!" Tudro said. He looked really excited now. "Okay! Then you are registered! Team Ciscone! Do your best! Oh, and take this" Wigglytuff grinned now and put away the paper he had rabbled on. It sure didn't seem like a Registration note for anything. He dived into one of the huge chests and found a box. "Here! Take this! It's a Exploration Team Starter Kit!" Tudro opened the box. There was two badges, a map and a bag. "Awesome! Team badges and a Wonder Map!" "Yepp! Bear those badges with pride! And that Wonder Map changes as you explore new locations! It's a really neat item for Explorers like us!" "Thanks a lot!" both Tudro and I said at the same time. "Haha!!! Seems like you're a good team already! Now go get some rest. Tomorrow's training will be tough!" We thanked Wigglytuff again and then Chatot showed us to our room. "You will live here while you are apprentices in the guild. We hope you will work hard to become as good as possible. I will tell you more about your first asignement tomorrow." Chatot smiled at us and left. "That wasn't as bad as I thought. Wigglytuff seemed like a really nice guy. I can understand why everyone in town likes him. Now let's get some sleep. If it's gonna be tough tomorrow, we need the energy. Good night Solar.

So now I had signed up for apprenticeship at an exploration guild, not even knowing what it was about. It's weird though, waking up to this. This morning I were zonked out on the beach. Then I meet Tudro and helped him get back that weird stone and now I'm an apprentice. Sure a lot to grasp in one day.
I sat up for a long time wondering about this. I also tried remembering something from before Tudro found me, but it was all blank. I couldn't remember anything. After a little while, I went to sleep as well. I was tired, and if the morning would be challenging too, I might as well get the energy.

[TheSolx]

Chapter 2 - Part 2: Team Ciscone's First Assignement
"WAKE UP! IT'S MORNING!" "GAH! What the...!?" I woke up. What sound was that? It was ridiciously loud! The sun shone through a window in the room. I were sitting against the wall, facing the entrance to the room. Tudro were lying on his bed of dried straws on the floor. "COME ON! UP WITH YOU! I DON'T WANT TO GET IN TROUBLE BECAUSE SOME NEW APPRENTICES ARE LATE!" I could see other Pokémon gathering in the hallway behind Loudred. He looked like he was smiling when he left the room and went into another. "WAKEY WAKEY! IT'S MORNING!" "That must be one of the more fun jobs in the guild. Haha! ... OH, Solar! We are late!"

When we came to the morning report, everyone were waiting for us. I noticed we were gathered outside Wigglytuff's chambers, but he weren't here yet. "You're LATE!" "Hush! Your voice is ridiciously loud!" "..." "Okay. It seems like everyone are here now. Guildmaster! The Guild is ready to be adressed!" The doors to Wigglytuff's chambers opened and Wigglytuff took a few steps towards us. "..." "Guildmaster?" Everyone waited. "...zZz" Chatot suddenly looked very pale. The others that were gathered started whispering to eachother. "Oh my... The Guildmaster sure knows how to surprise." "Gosh! And his eyes are wide open. How creepy." "Yeah! It's really creeping me out when he does THAT!" Everyone stopped when Chatot started mumbling to himself. "Well, uh, ehr... Thank you for your words of wisdom to the Apprentices, Guildmaster!" Everyone looked at Chatot, then at Wigglytuff and then at eachother. "Okay then! Everyone! Let's do the morning cheer!" Everyone seemed to settle down. Wigglytuff seemed to have woke up too. His eyes were moving now, scanning the room and watching everyone. "ONE! TWO! THREE! SMILES GO FOR MILES!!! HOORAY!" everyone cheered, except me and Tudro, who didn't know the cheer yet.
The group scattered. Loudred and Diglett went over to the hole we saw them at last night. Craogunk went over to the counter I saw him at last night and started fiddling with a huge cauldron. The others, Dugtrio, Sunflora, Bidoof and Chimeco, went upstairs. Wigglytuff went back into his chambers. "Now, you two. Follow me, and I will find your first assignement."

We followed Chatot upstairs. Sunflora and Bidoof were standing by one of the boards. They looked over at us when we climbed up, and then continued looking at the board. I noticed that it was full of posters with different Pokémon on it. We went to the other side, where another board held a bunch of notices. Chatot stopped and turned to us. "This is the list of jobs we do here at the Guild. They vary from rescue jobs to delivery and exploring new locations. Umm..." Chatot hesitated a little. "As you probably know, time have started to disort in some places." Huh? Time? Like... in hours and minutes? What did he mean that time is "disorted"? "I've heard about it. More and more Pokémon are turning mad because of it and have started to become aggressive and attacking other Pokémon." "Aha. You seem to be well informed. Good! Then you might also know that more and more Mystery Dungeons are appearing around the world, am I right?" Hm? Mystery Dungeons? "Oh, right! Solar! You know that place we went through yesterday, to get back my Artifact from Koffing and Zubat? I don't know if you noticed, but when we were leaving, it had changed." I nodded. I could still remember the feeling I had that the place was disorted. "That was a Mystery Dungeon. Every time you enter one, it's a whole new place. For some reason, it changes whenever you enter it. It's like exploring a whole new place." Oh! So that was a Mystery Dungeon? It sounded weird to me. A cave or dungeon changing every time you entered. But if it was like that place, I guess I could get used to it if i had to. "Great! That means I don't have to give you too much info about it. Rookies usually don't know much about them. Anyway! Most of the jobs posted here take place in Mystery Dungeons where Pokémon have become lost or need escort because of the changes and the aggressive Pokémon. As an Exploration Team and a apprentice to the Guild, your duty will be to do the jobs listed here. Just remember to leave the hard jobs to the proffesionals, or at least the more experienced. If you faint in a Mystery Dungeon in a fight, no one will know what happens. Often, you get stuck in one place while the Dungeon changes, but most times you will be able to escape or somehow be "kicked out", as we call it, of the dungeon. Remember that!" "Oh, that's right... We will be careful then."
"Now, let's see if we can find a job fitting for a rookie team... Hmm... Aha!" Chatot grabbed one of the notes on the board and took it down. He gave it to Tudro. He read it out loud:

"Dear Exploration Team. Recently a outlaw stole something very important to me. A pearl. It just doesn't feel right when it's not on top of my head. However, someone told me they had seen my pearl at Rocky Bluff, a dangerous area just North-east of Treasure Town. I can't go myself because of the recent aggressiveness among the Pokémon living there. Please help me! -Spoink ... So we are just supposed to get a pearl from a bluff?" Tudro looked kind of insulted. But he smiled. "I guess it can't be that hard. Let's go Solar. Spoink needs our help!" "Right!" I replied with a grin!