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Pokemon Mystery Dungeon
The Dream Catchers
Chapter 2

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

"Geez what the heck?" Charmander asked as she watched me run in circles around her. "You've been screaming for a solid minute now."

"It has not been a minute," I slid to a stop in front of her, indignant at the accusation.

"It most certainly has," she crossed her arms and huffed. "I counted."

"Did not!" I protested.

"So, what exactly is wrong?" Charmander asked. "Aside from the nearly drowning thing."

"I'm an eevee!" I said gesturing a brown paw at my fluffy mane.

"Um, yes?" Charmander asked clearly confused.

"I'm not an eevee," I tried to explain as I came to a stop.

"I'm pretty sure you're an eevee," Charmander responded.

"Well okay, I know I look like one now!" I responded, "I'm not crazy."

"You say that..." Charmander seemed hesitant.

"Well!" I started to talk then hesitated. I was a human? Right? I couldn't really remember anything before waking up in this forest. Yet, I'm pretty sure I was human before I woke up. Pokemon weren't real. It was a game. Right? I remembered it was a game! So that was sort of proof that I was human! Still I couldn't deny what was actually happening. So if I assumed pokemon were real and that I was currently one and talking to another... Well, I realized from the charmander's point of view I probably looked pretty crazy. I sat back down on my haunches and took a deep breath before speaking again. "I acknowledge that I'm an eevee right now but I used to be a human."

"A human?" Charmander tilted her head. "That seems a little farfetched."

"I'm not making it up!" I protested. "That's why I can't even walk on four legs without tripping over myself."

"You were just running in circles fine a minute ago," Charmander pointed out.

"Well..." I felt my ears suddenly flatten against my head and my tail sag. Curse you expressive body parts! You're even worse than blushing at hiding my embarrassment! "I can do it fine when I don't think about it. It's just when I start thinking about it I get confused on how to move each leg and just trip all over myself."

"Well then why are you thinking about it?" Charmander asked.

"Don't think about breathing," I responded.

"Why would I," Charmander paused and then gave me an annoyed look. "Oh thanks a lot now that's the only thing I can think about."

"See!" I pointed at her with a paw. "When you try not to think about something it's the only thing you can think of!"

"Alright point taken," Charmander sighed. I could hear her breathing heavily. She was still trying not to think about breathing. "Okay, so you're a human, I believe you"

"Wait just like that?" I asked.

"Well," Charmander said. "It's more like I have no way to prove or disprove what you're saying. I don't see any gain in calling you a liar at the moment. But, if you are supposedly actually a human, what now?"

"What now?" I asked tilting my head confused as to what she meant.

"What is your goal?" Charmander asked. "What do you want? Where are you going? What does a human gone pokemon do?"

"Oh well that!" I paused. What was I supposed to do? I had no idea where I was or where I should be going. I had no memories of my human self. Was my goal to change back? Well... I thought about it... And... I didn't think so. Not yet. With the panic slowly dying down I could think. And well... I was an actual pokemon! And I was in a world full of other pokemon! (Assuming Charmander wasn't the only other person in existence) That was kind of exciting! I did want to know how this happened, but for all I knew the human me was way worse off than the eevee me. Until I knew more information maybe I should just focus on being an eevee? "I guess... Whatever pokemon do?"

"That covers a lot of ground," Charmander said sighing with annoyance. "Look, do you know the way back to town? Maybe you just need to rest for a bit."

"There's a town!?" This took me by surprise. "So there are other humans there who might know me?"

"What? No!" Charmander shook her head. "Why would there be any humans in a pokemon town?"

"The town is full of pokemon?" I blinked in disbelief. That sounded like an amazing sight. "How do I get there?"

"You don't know?" She paused. "Well, I suppose if you're a human that might make sense. Okay, I'll show you how to get there. But please, do me a favor and try not to fall into anymore lakes on the way."

"I make no promises!" I said with a smile as I stood up. Charmander started walking off away from the lake and I followed. My thoughts were distracted thinking about the town so I was able to walk fine.

"So um..." I tried to think of a way to make conversation. "What's your name?" I tried.

"Name?" Charmander paused. "Most people just call me Charmander."

"Okay right," I said. "But you have a name right? I mean it would get pretty confusing if everyone just called you Charmander all the time. I mean what if you were standing next to another charmander?"

"It's not confusing at all," Charmander said. "Besides, do you have a name?"

"Of course I do!" And much to my relief I realized I could remember my name. "It's Reeve."

"Reeve?" Charmander seemed surprised that I actually had an answer. "Huh."

"What's wrong with it?" I asked

"Nothing's wrong," she continued walking but paused to turn back at me. "But if you need a nickname for me my parents liked to call me Riz."

"Well, nice to meet you Riz," I said. "I would offer to shake your hand but... I'm... not 100% sure how that custom works when I'm a quadruped."

"Why would we shake hands?" Riz asked.

"And apparently it just doesn't exist," I responded. We continued on, the tree line was becoming thinner at this point. I realized we were reaching the end of the forest.

"Almost there," Riz spoke up. "I figure I can take you to the Guild Hall and someone there might know what to-"

"ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAWR!"

"What was that!?" I gave a shout as Riz was interrupted by a loud roar.

"I don't know, but I know where we're not going," Riz replied.

"Aiiiiiiiiiiiii!" Someone let loose a blood curdling scream of terror.

"Someone's in trouble!" I shouted before immediately busting into a sprint in the direction that the scream came from.

"W-wait!" Riz shouted after me. "You hear a roar and a scream and you run towards it!? Are you crazy!?"

I probably was crazy. I was in a world I didn't understand, in a body I didn't know how to control. Yet... Whoever was in trouble, I couldn't just leave them! That just... It wasn't right! I ran as fast as my legs could carry me.

"GROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAWR!"

I heard another road. It was close this time. I leaped through a series of bushes and came out into a small clearing in the forest. In the clearing there was a small round pink creature with two thin leaves sticking out of its head. I recognized it as the pokemon hoppip. That had been the source of the scream... And standing above it...

A massive bear pokemon towered above both me and the hoppip. It was brown with a yellow circle in the center of its chest and stomach. It sported massive claws on both its hands and feet each one as long as my head. It was an ursaring!

"Um... hi!" I said. I could feel myself shaking standing before this massive thing. It looked like it could put an end to me just by stepping on me. I tried to look brave but I was all too aware of my tail hiding between my legs. "Look I don't know what's going on... But um, I'm sure there's some way we can talk this out."

"GROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAWR!" Ursaring responded.

"It's no use!" Hoppip chimed in. "He won't talk or listen to anything I can say."

"Oh boy," I muttered and swallowed. Well, I wanted to do whatever pokemon do. Pokemon fight right? I didn't quite know how to do that yet but... Trial by fire it was. "Look get out of here! I'll keep it busy just run!"

"But it!" Hoppip responded.

"Go!" I shouted over her. Hoppip whimpered a bit before turning to flee. The ursaring responded by attempting to slash out her with both of his front claws.

"Oh no you don't!" I responded and ran at the ursaring. I jumped into the air and attempted to tackle him with all of my body weight. It wasn't very effective. However it did take his attention off of the hoppit who was able to flee at this point. Unfortunately, this meant its attention was on me. It didn't look too wounded from my tackle as it turned to face me. It certainly looked angry though!

"ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAWR!" Ursaring raised up its claws.

"Look I know we got off onto the wrong foot," I started to back away. "But really, let's just calm down and-"

"ROOOOOOOOOOOOOAWR!" Ursaring didn't respond. Instead he lunged at me. For the second time today I thought my life was over. Before Ursaring could reach me though an ember of flames struck out across the forest and hit Ursaring directly in the back. The bear pokemon stumbled from the hit and in this brief time I managed to run out from in front of it.

"Don't just stand there!" Riz was yelling at me. She had followed me here and was in the clearing now! "He's gone completely berserk! No matter what you say he's not going to come to his senses till we defeat him!"

"Um right!" I ran in a circle around ursaring to pick up speed before attempting to throw myself against him in another tackle. He growled and furiously attempted to cut at me with his claws. I tried to withdraw away from them as quickly as I could! Riz backed me up firing several more embers from her mouth at him causing him from chasing me down and cutting me to shreds.

"What are you doing!?" Riz asked. "You can't just charge head on against a stronger opponent! You do that and we'll both be done for!"

"It's not like I have many options!" I protested. Ursaring slammed his claws down at me in another slash as I just barely moved out of the way. The beast's attacks were wild! They weren't accurate but a single one would be enough to take either of us down. I tried to think... How would an eevee fight in the actual game? What attacks could it use? Well, without a TM, not a whole lot. Yet... As I watched Ursaring prepare for another swipe at me I realized there was one thing I might be able to do. I dug my forepaws hard into the grass to dig up the dirt and sand beneath it. Then I flung my paws forward sending a stream of sand upward and into the ursaring's face.

"GROOOAWR!" Ursaring gave a shout in pain. The attack hadn't physically hurt him much but it had blinded him. He slashed at me with his claws, but this time I didn't even have to dodge. His aim was way off!

"That will work," Riz responded. "And gives me an idea," she took a deep breath then exhaled a stream of black smoke that formed into a circle around Ursaring. The bear pokemon roared in fury and swung around with its claws. However between the sand and the smoke it could no longer see where either of us was.

"It's gotta be wearing itself down acting like that," I said. "Let's finish it off!" As I gave a shout, I felt a strange energy well up inside me. "Take it down in one shot!" As I shouted to Riz I felt the energy leave me. It wasn't gone. No, I looked to Riz now who was ready to attack.

"Hmph, as if I need a helping hand there," Riz said. She inhaled deeply and released another ember of flames. This time it was much more powerful than her previous attacks! The energy I summoned had strengthened it! The flames struck ursaring who was physically lifted off his feet and throw backwards into a tree. The ursaring twitched once after landing then went limp.

"Did we do it?" I asked.

"I think so," Riz spoke. "That... That could have gone a lot worse. Not bad."

"Heh thanks," my tail wagged happily at Riz's praise. However before I could respond further ursaring started to move and stand up again. "No wait... It still wants to fight!?"

"Ugggh" Ursaring groaned and looked at us as if confused. "What... What happened? Where am I?"

"What?" I stared at it in disbelief. Every fiber of my body braced itself should I need to start dodging and attacking again. "You were just trying to kill us! What do you mean what happened?"

"I... I was!?" Ursaring spoke in a panicked voice. "No! No I'd never do that!"

"You went berserk," Riz spoke in a voice more calm than either of us. She seemed to be more aware of what was going on.

"Berserk me?" Ursaring protested. "But... But I thought that only happened to vicious pokemon!"

"As far as I can tell, it can happen to anyone," Riz said. "I once heard of a flock of bunneary that went berserk and beat up a tyranitar."

"I'm sorry," I spoke up. "I feel like everyone understands what's going on here except me. What do you mean gone berserk?"

"It means they go crazy and attack people," Riz said.

"Well I figured that much out from context clues thank you very much," I said. "But is this like a thing?"

"You hear about it happening a lot," Ursaring spoke up sadly. "All over the world pokemon are just losing their minds. They enter a savage state in which they just attack everyone within sight. It's terrifying! I dare not go out alone these days for worries of running into a berserk pokemon!"

"You say that, but you nearly did us in," I muttered.

"Wait!" Ursaring looked around. "Where's Hoppip?  She agreed to go with me when I wanted to gather berries in the forest! With all these stories going on I was too scared to go alone."

"Um, well..." I was starting to piece together the full story. "I saw you attacking a hoppip when I first arrived."

"What!?" This seemed to horrify the ursaring more than anything else. "Noooo! That can't be true! Noooo Hoppip! Please forgive me I wasn't myself! With that Ursaring took off running from the clearing with tears in his eyes. As torn up as he is, I really hope Hoppip forgives him.

"I guess that's that," I said.

"You're crazy, you know that?" Riz said. "You could have gotten yourself or someone else killed. Why the heck did you run out here?"

"Ugh well, I just had to! I mean yeah it could have ended badly but," I smiled smugly. "It clearly didn't! I mean we won and everything's okay now!"

"But you shouldn't take stupid risks!" Riz shouted. "Why would you do that?"

"It's just..." I moved a paw around in the grass absent mindedly. "I... wouldn't forgive myself if I could have done something to help and chose not to."

"You..." She sighed.

"Besides," a thought occurred to me. "You didn't have to come! Why... Why did you come to help? Or save me from the lake for that matter?"

"I couldn't just let you die," Riz responded. "Even if you're a stranger I'd never forgi-" She paused. "Ah... Clever boy."

"Heh, guess we're kinda similar there," I smiled. "So um... Which way is it to that town you mentioned?"


To Be Continued