Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Shadows

A story by Eevee. Enjoy~

Prologue
A dark shape streaked through the sky, its wings outstretched by its sides. It quickly closed its eyes before crashing head-first into a large tree, grunting as it hit branches. Its wing caught on one, but was swiftly freed. The shape fell to the ground and lay, sprawled out.

"Noivern? Is that you?" a hushed whisper came from the bushes.

The dark Pokémon nodded. "Yes." He watched as a small paw appeared from the leaves, and a small yellow Pokémon jumped out of the bush. "Dedenne. We haven't met in a while."

The tiny mouse-like Pokémon Noivern had called Dedenne stretched her limbs. She sat up and sniffed. "No, we haven't."

"So, you wanted to talk to me about something." Noivern mentioned, leaning back against the tree he'd flown into. "What is it?"

In the darkness, Dedenne's eyes flashed in fright. "An enternal darkness is coming, Noivern." Electricity sparked at her cheeks, and her tail twitched nervously. "Only Fire, Water, and Grass can save us." In the dark, Noivern could feel the other Pokémon's dark eyes bore into him. "And the three are not from this world."

Noivern's eyes widened. "Wha-"

A violent rustling, followed by a crash, sounded from deep within the forest. Dedenne squeaked in surprise and terror, and quickly said, "I-I have to go. Th-they're coming!" Without hearing Noivern's reply, she darted off into the forest, her long, thin black tail disappearing into the bushes.

Another violent rustling came from the forest, but much closer this time. Noivern swallowed and sprang into the air, flapping his wings and flying in place. When a huge orange paw stepped out into view, Noivern immediately dived into a heavily-leaved tree. An Arcanine stepped into the open, followed by an undersized Greninja, a Tunda-pattern Vivillon, and a Serperior, seemingly the leader of them.

As Noivern watched, the Serperior slithered forward slowly. Its red eyes glowed coldly in the moonlight barely filtering through the leaves, and it was heading for Noivern's tree.

''It can't know I'm hiding here! ''Noivern secretly hoped. But all Serperior have extremely sensitive heat vision, as well as extraordinary sight. Its long tail reached up to Noivern and wrapped around him before he could spring away and take to the skies. Serperior held Noivern to its face. "So, it seems that you and Dedenne have met here, is that so?"

Noivern refused to speak. He was slammed to the ground and brought back up to the Grass-type's eye level. The intimidating glare from Serperior made Noivern flinch and look away.

The serpentine Pokémon hissed, "Arcanine, go look for Dedenne." The Fire-type nodded in reply and shot into the forest, following the tiny Electric/Fairy-type's trail.

"Dedenne!" Noivern screeched through telepathy. He knew Dedenne could hear his cry; she could also speak through telepathy. "They're chasing you!"

Noivern struggled to get free, then broke his wing loose. Quickly, he used Air Slash, directing it toward Serperior's throat. The Grass-type dodged, loosening its grip on Noivern. The dragon took that chance and freed himself of the enemy's powerful grip. He flew off into the night, willing for Dedenne to be okay.

Chapter 1
Red opened his eyes, flinching at the light that filtered through the leaves on the trees.

Wait, trees?

He sat up, glancing around. He'd just been on Mt. Silver, about to leave to go back to Celadon City, then he was knocked out by something invisible. Now he was here, in a forest, not even knowing how he got there.

A few yards away, a Leafeon was glancing around, eyes wide with surprise. It looked at him, then took a step back. "A Flareon?" it growled, sounding more confused then angry.

"Wait, what do you mean, a Flare-" Red glanced behind him, and that's when he saw the fluffy Flareon tail. He screeched in surprise and lifted his hand, which was now a reddish-orange paw. "I'm a Flareon!?"

The Leafeon looked even more confused. "What, you didn't know?"

Red recognized the voice."Wait, Leaf?"

"Red?"

"If you're here, and I'm here, then is Blue here-"

A voice sounded from a tree. "Yes, Blue's here." Something fell out of the tree, and a Vaporeon rose to its paws, looking annoyed. "And Blue would like to know how he got here." He shook one paw, shaking a blade of grass off of it.

Leaf shrugged. "How are we supposed to know?" She blinked, angling an ear toward a rustling bush.

"Who's there?" a voice squeaked timidly.

Red flicked his ears. "Only people that were turned into Pokémon against our wills. No one important."

A small mouse Pokémon leaped out of the bush, running over to the three. It stopped, then muttered, "Fire, Grass, and Water... right..." It then said, louder, "If you're wondering where you are, you are in the Pokémon world."

Blue rolled his eyes. "Isn't that obvious?"

The Pokémon glared at him, eletricity sparking at its cheeks. "Can you shut up?" Ignoring his reaction, it continued. "I mean, you're in a world where only Pokémon live. No humans anywhere." It flicked its tail. "By the way, I'm Dedenne."

Leaf blinked. "I'm Leaf-"

"I know who you are." Dedenne said. "Leaf, Red, and Blue." When Leaf looked surprised, Dedenne quickly explained, "I received a prophecy from the Lake Messengers - the Legendary Four's messengers, I should say."

"Azelf, Uxie, and Mesprit, right?" Red asked.

Dedenne nodded. "Right." She glanced at each of them, then lamely growled, "Are the Four sure that you three are the ones the Four's prophecy intended?

"You mentioned Fire, Grass, and Water, sooo... I guess?" Leaf blinked. She flicked her ears.

The small electric mouse sighed, then mumbled something inaudible,

A crashing came from the forest, and Dedenne looked up in alarm. She growled, "The fate of the entire Pokémon world is in your paws." Then she turned and fled into the bushes on the opposite side.

Blue's eye twitched. "What, no information or anything?" He stood up, but before he could say anything else, a Zangoose and a Seviper crashed through the trees, obviously angered.

The Zangoose hissed, "How'd you lose her!? We almost caught her!"

"Well, ssssssorry if sssshe led me through a bunch of bracken!" the Seviper shot back.

The Zangoose's red claws glowed as it prepared to attack, but then both saw the trio. The Seviper grinned evilly. "Looks like we've found her recruitsssssss." he hissed.

Zangoose nodded. "Looks like it." He lowered his paw, then glared at Leaf. "I'll attack the leafy one."

Seviper glared at him in protest. "Sssssso I have to take down two of them?" he protested. He coiled up, his unblinking eyes glancing at Red and Blue.

"Oh please. You took down three at once back in that Pokémon Village place."

"Yeah, three Poliwagssssss!" Seviper flicked his tail back and forth.

"Poliwags, Eevees, same things."

"Yeah, right. Only Poliwagsssss are only about two feet tall, and thossse two are about three feet tall!"

"Oh, c'mon. The Fire-type one is only a foot taller than a Poliwag." Zangoose pointed out, flicking his ears.

Both of the Pokémon started arguing, and Leaf glanced at Red. "Let's just leave." she whispered, and Red nodded in agreement.

-tbc-