Prologue
It was the Big Bang that set everything into motion. A literal, ear-splitting bang that echoed across the Grass Continent in the dead of the night.
Ninetales awoke with a start to a sky ablaze with falling stars. She stretched and yawned. It’s a beautiful sight. Sharpedo Bluff was, indeed, a fantastic place to live on nights like this. Situated on an opening in a mountain cliff, it provided a beautiful open view of the sky. More importantly, it allowed her to easily observe the surrounding shores and any activity on the ocean with ease.
Another thunderous clap sounded in the distance, jerking her out of her reverie. On closer inspection, the "stars" were more like volcanic embers, thrown up into the sky from some explosion.
A cave on the northern beach... Brine Cave. Brine Cave was on fire. Worse, it was spewing flaming rocks into the air, some of which were on a direct path to crash on Treasure Town. Now fully awake, Ninetales slung her explorer’s satchel over her back and hastily crammed a few orbs inside. She HAS to be awake – she could fly me there. Stepping out onto the bluff's edge, she cupped her paws to her maw and whistled sharply.
A blur of purple and… massive ears promptly materialized out of the sky. A green scarf embroidered with symbols that looked like gusts of wind hid the coat of fuzzy white fur around its neck. Blackish wings beat the air with a rhythmic whoosh as the descending Noivern stabilized herself in the airspace just outside the bluff. “You called?”
“Hey, Aria. I need you to fly me over to that flaming cave in the distance as fast as you can.”
“Ooh, that looks pretty bad. I never knew rocks could catch fire.” More blithe remarks. “You still haven’t asked me how things are going over at the Ice Continent, you know? Business is booming. My corporation is making something great happen! Nine. You should join us; it will be fun!”
“You told me that about three times yesterday. And that’s not important now. It sounds like something big is going down at Brine Cave. Something pretty big must be happening if I can hear it over from Treasure Town. Rocks will be raining on the town soon, and someone could be hurt. We need to stop the source of whatever this is immediately.” Ninetales deadpanned.
“Seriously? It’s my holiday. I’m not even responsible for this old sleepy town. And your paws are filthy. I’ll have you know that I can carry at most four Geodudes on a good day. What if you break my back? And my wings. And what good is a Noivern without her wings? Ah, my poor back. All because of one fat, demanding, fire-fox.” Aria jabbed back in a sing-song voice.
“S-Shut up! It's approximately one Geodude, and you know it’s mostly fur.” Ninetales blushed as her serious demeanour crumbled.
“Ufufufufu. Oh, that’s rich. You actually went and measured your weight! Alright, alright. I’m done playing. Get on, I’ll take you to Brine Cave.” Aria descended with an exaggerated flourish, sending waves of dust and air rippling through the bluff – and right onto Ninetales.
“You are lucky we are friends.”
“Love you too, Nine.” The duo took off, with Aria still giggling at the pouting fox.
***
The entrance to Brine Cave was an unassuming hole in the rock wall, framed by jagged stalagmites that clawed upward like twisted fingers. Over the years, moss and various assorted groundcover plants had made their home on the rock formations. However, an observant admirer of the local flora would notice that their growth would, coincidentally, halt in an irregular circle around the dark maw of the cave, as if some unseen force kept them at bay.
Incidentally, said rock wall was throwing up meteors today. It seemed like every so often, superheated gas from deep within the cave would build up and propel chunks of flaming rock in random directions.
“You handle the flying rocks. Notify Wigglytuff if you can. Maybe even bring him here. I’ll handle the source,” she ordered.
“Does the Guildmaster even age? I would love to be a Fairy-type as well.”
Ignoring the extra commentary from Aria, Nine disembarked and concentrated. Will-O-Wisp. Sparks flickered into existence and began orbiting her body, gradually growing into spheres of ethereal blue flames. It was a slow technique, but most experienced fire Pokémon knew how to make it work creatively.
“Want my help?” Aria offered.
“I’ll manage, as always. Focus on the rocks.”
Without waiting for a response, Nine crossed the threshold into the dungeon. The oppressive atmosphere that characterized all mystery dungeons seemed even more suffocating within caverns. The light from the surface quickly faded, replaced by faint, unnatural glows emanating from unknown sources within the depths.
As she navigated through the rubble, a feral Gastrodon lunged at her from the shadows with a screech. Instinctively, the balls of fire surrounding her converged on the attacker. The Gastrodon had caked itself in fire-retardant mud and mucus, but Nine had found a loophole around this long ago. The flames injected themselves into the Gastrodon’s membranous skin, eliciting a yelp of pain and blowing the slug back.
Mystery dungeons are sometimes full of outlaws, but for the ones presently burning and collapsing – not so much. They are also full of apparitions generated by ley line-related phenomena. This theory, proposed decades ago by an Umbreon researcher from the Mist Continent, is now widely accepted.
The Gastrodon was an apparition.
Nine watched the slug, now with gaping holes through its body, slowly lose its corporeal form before disintegrating into sparks of light. The intersection of ley lines makes an imperfect copy of the lifeforms around them. These manifest as apparitions. Or maybe “constructs” was a better word for the twisted, Pokémon-like things physically capable of rending non-experienced explorers apart.
Over the decades, she had watched Treasure Town become Treasure City. Nine couldn’t care less about the new recreational facilities, but they finally had an actual medical centre to patch explorers up instead of the D.I.Y. Oran Berry salves back in the day. There were now tiny settlements taking advantage of land around the city to produce berries instead of scavenging them from dungeons. Many Pokémon that she would never have seen on the Grass Continent when she was a Vulpix had appeared. Why, just yesterday, she had seen a Sneasler selling orbs, a Meowstic wandering around town with her child, a Jangmo-o playing at the crossroads with a Popplio.
Her favourite running joke was Wigglytuff refusing to change the base structure of the old guild building (which happened to look like his face). What he did do, however, was keep building around the old structure, effectively making it—his face, that is— bigger without changing the size of the eyes, ears, and mouth. At the end, it looked like a giant pink balloon with squinty eyes. He even added a Chatot-shaped observatory on the top of the building. THAT was heartwarming.
Unfortunately, that meant that the apparitions in these dungeons had grown in variety over time. The earth always remembers, after all.
“Help! Help!” A desperate cry echoed through the cave's depths.
“I’m coming! Who are you?” she shouted back into the void.
For a moment, only silence answered. Then, a voice emerged from the darkness, cheerful and bright. “My name is Chatot. I am Guildmaster Wigglytuff's right-hand Pokémon! ♪” The air hummed with an ominous vibration. Her heart skipped a beat.
H̶͕͍̪̅̾̓͜͝H̶͕͍̪̅̾̓͜͝H̶͕͍̪̅̾̓͜͝H̶͕͍̪̅̾̓͜͝E̷͖͂͐͝E̷͖͂͐͝E̷͖͂͐͝E̷͖͂͐͝L̷̖̦͙͎͂̑̇̓L̷̖̦͙͎͂̑̇̓L̷̖̦͙͎͂̑̇̓P̸̻̔͗̕P̸̻̔͗̕P̸̻̔͗̕.
In a snap decision, Nine thrust her tails up to block the noise, shielding her sensitive hearing as a deafening Boomburst tore through the chamber. The force of the shockwave sent tremors through the ground, rattling her bones and causing blood to trickle from her ears. Noivern uses Boomburst way too much. But at least now I can tell when it starts.
She retaliated swiftly. Star-shaped rays shot back toward the source of the noise, pinpointing Chatot. The attack clipped its wings, sending the bird-thing crashing to the ground. “Urrgghh…! I won’t let you get away with this…” the creature spat, flopping helplessly on the floor.
Nine’s muzzle twisted in disgust. She unleashed a Flamethrower with a breath, the intense flames consuming the abomination and silencing it for good. It’s a good thing I was the one to witness this and not the Guildmaster.
For the moment, that was the end of the nastiest surprises the dungeon had to offer. Nine sped through the upper levels of the cave, her breath quickening as she followed the trail of cracked boulders and smoke.
As she approached the cave’s center, her pace slowed, each step taken with deliberate caution. The air had become charged with an ominous energy at some point – whatever caused this devastation was close; she could sense it. She crept around the final bend, expecting to confront some fearsome beast—only to find… nothing. The “last” cavern was vast and silent as it always was, opening out to a distant horizon of water. In other words, nothing special. Most of the Grass Continent was mountainous, and it was typical for subterranean caves like this to lead out to the sea. It was a perfectly ordinary view.
Then, the picturesque display of the ocean flickered, as though it were a river surface disturbed by a stone. “What?” Before Nine could fully grasp what was happening, the tranquil view ruptured. The faux cave opening flashed lightning and crackles of thunder that shook the entire room. A wind that was certainly NOT the ocean breeze howled out of the portal, icy and fierce, carrying with it the scent of burning ozone, the distant sound of something vast and terrible, and a little grey ball of fur with purple eyes—
Nine’s psychic powers caught the Espurr mid-air, holding it safely at a distance. “Mewr?”
“It seems harmless… it even looks like a baby.” But she knew better—after everything that happened in the dungeon today—no way this was an ordinary Espurr.
“Well, we’ll find out if it’s an apparition soon enough.” She stuffed a Sleep Seed into the Espurr’s mouth, its tiny form going limp as she slipped it into her satchel. Others had tried to bring subdued apparitions out of dungeons before, but they all crumbled to dust when they crossed the barrier.
“I can’t destroy this portal alone. I’ll need help.” Nine reached for an Escape Orb, keeping a wary eye on the sinister energy emanating from the portal. But just as she moved, the miasma shifted—no longer in front of her, but behind. A cold shock ran down her spine as she spun around, coming face to face with—A small, bipedal white cat with patches of blue fur and dull, bloodshot eyes. It was a female Meowstic.
There is no mental signature, just an empty shell—another zombie conjured by the mystery dungeon.
I was expecting worse. Why are there so many new apparitions here anyway? She allowed herself a brief moment of relief.
Then, the cat unfurled its ears, unleashing a Psychic blast. Nine barely flinched. “Not very strong, either.” With a thought, she conjured a swirling inferno, engulfing the Meowstic in flames. The cat remained eerily calm, even as its skin began to blister and char.
Nine’s eyes widened in sudden realization as she saw blood seeping from the burns. Wait… she’s bleeding? Panic surged through her. It might be a real Pokémon! She quickly dispelled the flames, the fire vanishing in an instant.
“Are you alright? What’s going on here?” But the Meowstic offered no response, just an empty, glassy stare.
“Stay still. I’m using my badge to get you out.” As Nine reached for the insignia on her satchel, a piercing pain shot through her abdomen.
She winced. “G-guh. Future Sight. I got careless,” she muttered to herself.
Now I have to get out of here, too. All thoughts of using the badge to send Meowstic out forgotten, she crudely bound the impassive Meowstic with her tails before activating an Escape Orb. They vanished from the cave in a flash of blue light, leaving the ominous portal swirling in the darkness behind them.
***
Neither the appearance of the Meowstic nor the Espurr at the location of the portal had to be a coincidence. She was, however, too tired to make sense of it now. There was still work to do, but thankfully, Aria was here.
“A portal opened to an unknown location,” she explained. “We need to close whatever it is.”
“You need to speak louder, Nine. I came over as soon as I saw the light from the Escape Orb, but you look fine. Oh, hey, there’s a hole in your stomach. I know you’ve seen worse, and your spine looks fine, so whatever. Also, you should have seen me knock 85 boulders out of the sky!” The Noivern rattled off. “And who is this charming cat that you have brought with you? Let’s get you both some first aid—yikes!”
Ninetales turned to see the Meowstic writhing in the dim glow of the rising sun. Her once glassy eyes now flared with a wild, unhinged life, as if something primal had awakened. She wailed, her voice high and piercing, twisting her body in unnatural contortions, driven by a pain too deep to soothe.
Yet, despite what seemed to Nine like excruciating pain, there was still no mental trace behind the frenzied thrashing. If she had to make a comparison, the entire scene was more akin to that of an insect in its death throes.
The contortions slowed, agonized wails fading to a raspy whimper. Then, like dry leaves caught in a flame, the cat's body started crumbling. It was a silent process. Nine and Aria could only hear what seemed like a faint crackling as the Meowstic’s form broke apart into beads of light. Soon, there was nothing at all.
At the same time, the rumbling and groaning dungeon let out a final tremor… and stopped.
Aria and Nine sat, shell-shocked, beside the cavern’s opening. Too speechless for words, Nine tried to continue the conversation with telepathy, but even her thoughts were a messy stream of consciousness. I saw Chatot. A portal opened at the end of the dungeon. For some reason… I don’t think it is there any more. We have to send a team to investigate. That Meowstic was already mentally gone. I didn’t kill her, I swear. Aria. Are the dungeons taking regular Pokémon too? This could be Dark Matter. We might have another Dark Matter on our hands.
Aria nodded mutely, the gravity of Nine’s words sinking in.
“YOOM-TAH!” A familiar voice called out from over the hill. “Does anyone want some Apples?” Usually, Nine would have chastised him for his lateness, but something about Wigglytuff’s presence inspired a much-needed optimism in her. Maybe, just maybe, whatever twisted scenario they had on their hands would turn out fine. “What’s with all the grim faces?”
Aria was the first to shake herself out of her stupor. “I’ll have your largest one, thank you.” She reached for the basket with a claw, only for Wigglytuff to slap it away. “Nuh-uh. Here, you can have this one.”
“Hey! What is the point of bringing apples if you aren’t going to share them all! Nine, you gotta join my organization now, yes? I know I asked you a bunch, but after this, we might really need your help,” Aria suggested as she nudged Nine with her talons.
As Nine took a smallish apple from the basket, something nagged at the back of her mind. She had brought something else from the dungeon, hadn’t she? It was with her somewhere. Where?
A soft mewling came from her satchel. Right. There it was.
“KITTY!” Wigglytuff practically sang as he yanked the Espurr from the bag. Reflexively, she used her psychic powers to pull it back, eliciting a disappointed “Aw” from the Guildmaster. “My responsibility.” Maybe it was her guilt for nearly burning a Meowstic alive, though said Meowstic had disintegrated shortly after, through no fault of her own, of course.
Let’s see, she thought, looking at the small Espurr. I’m going to name it—
Last edited: