Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gateway of Dreams

Prologue

The warmth of the day shines through the crystal clear windows as the sound of the Starly and Staravia sing in harmony, perched on the branches of the waving trees that stood past the gates of the village. The noise of the busy villagers of Starside Town would be enough to wake even a Snorlax, as Rescue Teams would rush to a Mystery Dungeon in order to help a Pokémon in need. The warmth of the sun, the waving of the trees, and the chirping of the Bird Pokémon outside told me to stay in bed and fall asleep once again, but the commotion outside would surly prevent that. Common sense took over, and I stood my self up, the flame on my tail igniting, ready to start a new day.
I walk across the wooden floor of the hut towards the door in front of me, passing dozens of pots, most of which contained items that didn't have much value. The haze of the sunlight reaches through the tiny gap between the door and the wall, revealing the particles of dust that floated in the air around me. I reach up for the bronze doorknob and twist it, pushing the door open and greeting the light of the sun into my home. For a second, the light blinds me, but my eyes soon adjust, and a crowd of Pokémon
comes into view, along with a long row of huts and a cloudless, blue sky in the background.
"Morning, Chase!" a Pikachu says to me as I walk onto the main path and towards the Kecleon Mart to get some food. "Mornin'!" I reply cheerfully, waving towards him as I carry on down the path. I pass a load of other Pokémon, ranging from Caterpie to Luxio, each of which friendly greeting me as I pass by. I finally arrive at the Kecleon Mart, which was located at the back fence of the village along with many other shops.
"Good morning there, Chase!" The Kecleon Brothers say simultaneously, one green and one purple. "Mornin' guys!" I reply for possibly the thirtieth time in a matter of five minutes. "Do you have any Cheri Berries? I need something to wake me up." I ask with a small yawn. "We're sorry, we're out of stock on Cheri Berries. We were going to go to the Berry Field to get some more, but we're having so many costumers today." The purple Kecleon tells me. "There's no way one of us would be able to manage the shop alone, so would you mind going to the Berry Fields for us?" He then asks me. "Sure, no problem!" I tell them with a grin. "Thank you so much!" They both say, yet again simultaneously. The green Kecleon hands me a large basket. "Could you get some Oran and Rawst Berries too? We've also run low on stock for them." He asks me. "Will do!" I tell him, rushing through the village, out of the gates, and into the forest covered mountainside. I run along the trail under the shade of the trees overhead. The wind blows fiercely, making the noise of the trees roar above everything else. I see more Starly and Staravia gliding along with the wind through the gaps in the leaves. The trees clear up a bit
to my left, revealing the forest below the mountain with the colourful meadow and shining Light Source in the centre, the glimmering, endless sea to the right with small islands scattered
around, and the towering mountains in the distance, some so tall that there would be a thick layer of snow at the peak.
I reach a large clearing in the woods. There is a cliff wall to my right with a small waterfall flowing from the top, forming a pond at the bottom of the wall. A stream flowed from the pond that cut through the path, into the woods, and over the cliff further on. The stream could easily be jumped over, but there were still stones that Pokémon could walk across. I, who wanted to rush to the Berry Fields, jumped over and carried on dashing down the path and back into the woods.
Later on, the path splits in three. The path on the left lead down the mountain and into the Emerald Woods below, the middle path, which went across the mountain, lead to the Mountainside Caves, which was a Mystery Dungeon. I follow the path on my right, which lead up the mountain and towards the Berry Fields. The trip uphill wears me down a bit, but I reach the top non-the-less, and
the Berry Field now lays before me. "Alright then..." I say to myself under my breath. "Let's get started."
I walk back down the path after at least half an hour of picking enough Berries for the Kecleon Brothers, the basket I carry now heavy with a ton of the three types of Berries they wanted. The wind had somewhat died down now, making the noise of the leaves rustling in the trees more bearable. I walk into the clearing again, intent on heading back to the village, when I spot something out of the corner of my eye. I turn my head, and in the water, there is a Pokémon I have never seen, lying there, motionless. I place the basket on the floor, and head over to it. Close up, I see that the Pokémon has green scales and a cream underbelly, like a snake. There are leaf-like arms that sprout from below it's shoulders with three fingers each. There is a large leaf on the end of it's tail, and a yellow line going from it's neck to the end of it's tail. There are also two yellow wing-like things that sprout from it's shoulders. "...Hey, are you OK there?" I ask the Pokémon, wondering if he was asleep or passed out. Hopefully not worse... "Hey! Can you hear me?!" I call out. There is still no reply from the stranger. "Come on! Wake up!!"
It still doesn't reply. And it's only just now that I realise that it isn't breathing either. My thoughts turn to panic, and I realise that a good idea would be to get it out of the water before I do anything else. "(This is bad...)" I think to myself. "(This is really bad...)" I turn it over so that it lies on it's back, making it easier to pull it out. I grab both it's arms and begin to pull it out the pond, worrying that whatever Pokémon this was might actually be dead. However, my thoughts are relieved when I pull it half-way out of the water, because the Pokémon began to cough. "Oh! Hey, can you hear me?" I call out to it, getting in front and waving for a response. It opens it's eyes, which appear to be blue, and looks at me, shivering slightly from being wet. "Phew...You really had me worried there." I say with a slight chuckle, glad that this new Pokémon wasn't dead. "...Wha..." It begins to say weakly. "W-What in the hell?!" it calls out in a panicked voice. It's sounded like a boy. It scrambles out of the water, but trips over only a few feet away. "Hey...What's up?" I ask him, looking confused as to why he was so panicked. He scrambles up again looking as if he was struggling to stand. "Hey, it's OK. I'm not gonna hurt you or any-"
"W-WHAT!?!" The Pokémon cries out again after looking at it's arms. The noise would be enough to wake the whole mountain if it was asleep. "I've turned into a Snivy?!"

 

Chapter 1: Open the Gates
"Knock, knock, knock" Comes a sound from the black, oak wood door as I tap my fist against it. A few silent seconds pass, before I hear a "Chuck" from the other side as the door slowly opens. I pass through, and see my eldest younger sibling, Rose, standing there, looking delighted to see me.
"Welcome back, Edge!" Says the 8 year old.
"Hey, Hanna." I reply. Before I can go into the living room to the left of the door, she sticks her 3DS into my hands. I don't even have time to look at the screen before words come blurting out of her mouth.
"Can you to help me with this level, Edge? Me and Splash keep fainting on this one floor and I can't get past." She explains. I look on the screen, and see that the game displayed is Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity. I had given it to her a while back because I had no further use for it.
"Hanna, for the last time, it's called a Mystery Dungeon, not a level." I tell her once again, going to sit down on the stairs to my right to get past the Dungeon for her. Hazy Pass to be exact. "What part of the game is this again?" I ask
"I have to follow Scraggy to get the Blue Gems back, I think. Then I can build a house." She answers.
"Ah, OK. In that case I'll help you with the boss fight, too."
"There's a boss on this level?"
"Dungeon, Hanna. And yes there is. Two to be exact." I tell my sister.
"Oh wow, I'll never get past that..." She replies.
"I will."
"Thanks Edge!" Hanna calls out to me, the console in her hands with the game playing the cut-scene after you beat Gurdurr for the second time. She runs up the stairs and supposedly to her room. I go and peek into the living room to see if mum is in there. Instead, I see the large TV playing 'Care Bears' in the corner of the rectangular room, with Lynda, my youngest sister, watching. Mum is nowhere in the room.
"Ah, God!" I cry, turning away from the screen. I don't know why, but I have a tendency to over react whenever there is a kid's programme playing on TV. I look in the dining room, which was straight ahead from the front door. There is a large table in the centre with seven, large, black chairs surrounding it, one of which is a fold up chair that used to be at my desk. There is a window covering most of the space on the wall on the other side of the room, with a ton of useless stuff shoved on the windowsill. There is also a very large, white bookcase that covers the whole wall on the left side. There are too many books to fit inside neatly, which I honestly find hard to believe. I then turn to go into the kitchen, which is next to the stairs. There is a simple but big fridge right next to the door, with a microwave on the counter next to it, and then a kettle next to that. A sink and dishwasher are found on the far side of the room, the light next to 'Drying' on the washer lit. There is an oven in the bottom right corner of the room, somewhat next to the door. As I walk in, I hear a voice behind me. I turn, and I see mum sorting some clothes in the laundry room, which can be entered from next to the oven.
"Oh, hello Edge." Mum begins to say. "Was everything OK at school today?"
"Better than most days." I tell her. "I managed to avoid Alex."
"Good good." She replies. "Maybe things are starting to get better."
"In dream land, yeah. But this is reality mum, where everyone is against me. Everyone."
"Don't think like that, Edge." She says, sounding both worried and annoyed. "Everyone your age has these problems"
"Oh, so every twelve year old has an entire band of pricks making their lives a misery?" I ask, somewhat sarcastically.
"Edge!" Mum cries. "How do you know that everyone is against you? So far it's only Alex and his friends who have been bullying you."
"Come to school with me on Monday and you'll see why I think that. And you forget that Alex used to be my best friend." I tell my mother. "Not everyone gets betrayed by their best friend, do they?" Mum goes silent for a second, as if she had nothing else to say. "...I'm going up to my room." I tell her, walking out the kitchen and going upstairs.
"Things will get better for you, Edge." I hear mum call. "Trust me."
I stare at the screen of my PC as I scroll down my Google+ feed, seeing a ton of anime posts and posts of people failing. There is also an unimaginable amount of memes. Eventually, my head falls onto the keyboard.
"I'm bored..." I say to myself, fitting in a groan afterwards. I had played all my games, checked all my feeds, read all my books, and watched everything I can watch on Youtube.
I had nothing to do. "...Screw it. Cry of Fear." I tell myself. Opening my games folder on my desktop and double-clicking the game. I had been stuck in this room full of Faceless for a long while, and I plan to get past it now. While the game loads, I decide to just walk around in circles to stretch my legs. Looking around my room, I see my bunk bed behind me, with a ton of un-needed crap on the lower bunk and an untidy bed on the top. There is a large map of the world on the left wall, and a window on the right, showing the view from the front of the house. My desk is covered with Lego pieces, drink glasses, cups, and DVD and video game cases with the disk missing. There is also, of course, my PC layed on top. To the right, there is my chest of drawers, with and XBox 360 and a TV on top. There is a set of complexly tangled wires behind the two objects. On top of my XBox, there is an alarm. It is set for 6:10 in the morning. "Oh, right. I have to turn that off." I remind myself, switching off the alarm. The game finishes loading, and I begin to play, selecting the save where I was stuck in the room of Faceless.
"Dinner!" I hear mum call throughout the house.
"Goddamnit." I mutter, shutting the laptop and heading down the corridor. There are various toys spread across the floor. I practically glide down the stairs, and go into the kitchen to collect my...
"Spaghetti and meatballs, huh?" I say to mum.
"Yep." She replies briefly.
"Let me guess, I've got fake meat?" I ask again.
"Yep." She repeats. I grab my bowl, get a fork, and head into the dining room. Everyone else is there at the table, eating away. All three of my sisters, my brother, and my step-dad. I sit next to Hanna and begin to slurp on my spaghetti. Nothing much really happens during dinner, and, as usual, I finish first.
"...Christ Edge...Do you even chew?" Mum asks me jokingly.
"Surprisingly, yes." I reply. "I'm really tired, so I'm gonna go to sleep before you guys." I then tell everyone.
"Alright then." Mum says as I walk out the room. I place my bowl in the kitchen and head upstairs, walk through the landing once again, and into my room. Looking out the window, I see the sky is pitch black, even though it was only 8:41. I get into my pyjama bottoms, turn off the light, climb into bed, and get ready to sleep...
After what seems to be a few hours to me, my senses return and I wake up all of a sudden, only to find myself standing in a pitch black space. I twist my neck around, observing my location. But there was nothing to observe. It was just pure...black.
"H-Hello?" I call out into the vast and empty darkness. I am replied with silence. "Is anyone here?!" I shout again, this time at the top of my lungs. There is still no reply. "(What the hell is this...)" I think to myself, trembling with sense of fear. Not knowing what to do, I start running forwards, hoping greatly that I would come across something. Anything. I carry on running through the shroud of darkness, my speed increasing as I go along. But there is nothing to be found. "...W-Wha...W-What the hell...?" I say, blubbering slightly. "W-Where the h-hell am I?!" I crouch into a ball, tears starting to pour from my eyes. Was I...trapped here? Is there no way I can get out?
Am I stuck here forever?
Before fear can overtake me, I hear something faint in the distance. My head instantly pops up, and I see something glimmering in the distance. Hope is instantly re-ignited within me, and I go sprawling towards whatever it is. As I get closer I hear some more sounds coming from it's direction. This time more clear.
"Hey! Can you hear me?!" I hear the voice cry. It is unfamiliar, but re-assuring non-the-less. I'm only a few meters away now, and I see that the object is a massive ball of light, shining as bright as the sun in this dark space. "Come on! Wake up!" The voice cries one last time. Hope take over my body, and I jump into the light, almost doing a swallow dive in the process. Going through the light...
...everything begins.

 

Chapter 2: Awakening

The first thing I hear after going through the light is the sound of trickling water, and then the waving leaves of what I assume to be trees, and the sound of...dragging? My sense of touch returns to me, and I realise someone is pulling me. I also feel wet and cold.
It is then that I remember to breath.
Instead of breaths, I cough loudly, removing water from my throat. "(...W-Water...? What, was I drowning?)" I ask myself mentally. How did I end up drowning? I was in my bed before I woke up in that dark space, so how would there be enough water to submerge my body? But then again, there was the sound of water and trees, so I must be outside now. So how did I get outside?
"Oh! Hey, can you hear me?" I hear someone call out as I shiver from the cold. It sounds like the voice that was coming from the huge ball of light. I begin to open my eyes, which, for some reason, seems difficult for me to do. My vision is blinded by a bright light, which was probably the sun, seeing I was outside. "Phew...You really had me worried there." The voice says again with a chuckle. It sounds like it belongs to someone the same age as me, just a little more playful then I would sound. My eyes adapt to the sunlight, and a figure comes into view.
I stare in disbelief as a Chimchar stands before me.
"Wha..." I try to say. But yet again, I find it hard to do so. Confusion gives me the energy to cry aloud. "W-What in the hell?!"

The first thing my body tells me to do is get out of the pond that I appeared to be lying in and away from the Chimchar. I do just that, and go scrambling in the opposite direction, only to trip over due to the lack of energy.
"(...W-What am I so weak...?)" I think to myself, only just managing to push myself off the ground. Whilst I do, I notice something different about my hands.
"Hey, what's up? I'm not gonna hurt you or any-" The Pokémon doesn't even have time to finish before I cry aloud at the top of my voice.
"W-WHAT?!" I had looked at my hands, which weren't made of human flesh, but two, long, dark green leaves. My body colour had changed to green and I now had an underbelly, like a snake. I even had a tail with a large leaf on the tip and short, stubby legs. "I've turned into a Snivy?!"

"H-hey! Calm down, OK?" The Chimchar tells me, as if he was trying to re-assure me. "Just tell me what's wrong. Maybe I can help out."
"OK, then..." I begin to say, trying to follow the Chimp Pokémon's advise. "First off, where am I? What is this place?"
"We're in the Setta Region. This is a mountain in the Emerald Woods. How come ya don't know that?" The Chimchar asks, confused towards my clueless nature.
"...Well first off, I've never heard of the Setta Region, so that doesn't help me very much..." I begin to tell him. "Second off, the reason I don't know this is because I've just woke up in this place with something I never knew existed in my face." I finish, saying the last three words more sternly than the rest of the sentence.
"...Something ya never knew existed? Oh, so you've probably never seen a Chimchar befo-" I cut him off before he is able to finish.
"No, I have seen a Chimchar before! It was a drawing on a sheet of paper! Pokémon aren't real in the human world!" I say aloud. I realise that I'm starting to panic a bit more.
"Whadya mean "the Human World"? Humans are only creature we hear 'bout in stories 'n all." Getting tired of having to break everything down to him, I just cut to the chase, hoping that he would acctually understand this.

"OK, just listen to me." I say, trying my hardest not to let my anger towards the Chimchar's clueless personality loose. "Before you woke my up, I was a regular, normal, human being. I had a normal (but crappy) life, but now I'm here. And I have to find a way back." I turn away from him and begin walking down a path to my right, hoping that there would be someone else to give me answers. But, yet again, I only manage a few feet before I go tumbling over my own feet. "(God DAMN! I'm not used to this damned body!)" I exclaim mentally. This day was just getting worse and worse.
"H-Hey! Ya can't just walk away like that!" The Chimchar calls out as I get onto my feet again and begin walking off.
"Watch me." I reply. There is a silence before the Chimchar speaks up again.
"...I-If ya go out there, you'll just wander into some predator's territory! That'll be the end'a ya!" I pause as he says this.
"(...Crap. He's right. I don't know how to fight, let alone run. In this body at least. If I get attacked by a predator or something, I'm dead...)"
"...Just come with me, OK? I live in a village nearby, and I'd be more than happy to let ya stay a while." He tells me. I look back at him as he says this. I didn't have anywhere to go, and I didn't know anything about this world. Chimchar would be able to help me out there. I guess it wouldn't hurt if I stayed with him for a while.
"...OK, I'll stay with you until I can find a way back to the human world." I tell him. "...To be honest, I'm quite surprised that you believe me, but I guess I'm not going to complain about that."
"Yeah...I'm findin' it sorta hard to believe to be honest." He says with a smirk. "But with all the weird thing in our world, it wouldn't be anythin' new. Besides, I've heard that there have been other humans here before. L-Like that one in Treasure Town, I think. Have you heard of him?"
"Wait, what?" I say suddenly after hearing this.

"I heard a story of some two guys who came to Treasure Town one day and formed an Exploration Team at the Guild there. One of them was apparently a human." I begins to tell me. "The team did a lot of great things. I think they even fought Dialga when he was super mad!"
"...Y-Yeah...I've heard of him..." Is all I manage to say. This Chimchar had literally just told me that the events that occur in the Explorer games from Pokémon Mystery Dungeon actually happened. If I was still in the human world, you might as well have told me that the world was flat.
"Anyway, should we get goin'? Or d'ya wanna stay here?" He asks me, jokingly.
"OK then. Let's get going." I reply, following after the Pokémon as he walked off to the path the opposite side from where I was going.
"So, what's ya name?" I asks me all of a sudden.
"Huh? Oh, m-my name is Edge." I answer.
"I'm Chase." He replies. "Pleased to meechya, Edge!"