Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Memories

Chapter 1: Memories

I awoke with a start, coughing and gasping for air. I drew in a breath only to cough out again.

Air in... Cough out... Air in... Cough out...

It was a violent cycle, like I was drowning. I was gasping for my next breath in an ocean, but there was only black surrounding me, no water. In fact, it was pitch black, I could barely see my paw in front of my face. I laid down on my side, hoping to alleviate some of the pain and regain my breath. But the truth was, I wasn't in pain; the paralyzing feeling was more startling than excruciating. My most primal instincts screamed at the baffling situation.

My soul felt like it was being nibbled away by the overwhelming darkness. I wasn't sure how long my mind would last in this abyss. Immediately, my mind began to race with horrifying thoughts, What if I'm stuck out here alone? I'm going to die. After resting for what could have been mere seconds or an eternity, the darkness was too consuming; my body refused to let me sit there and rot.

I forced my sore throat to scream out for help, "Is someone there?" Nothing responded, so I desperately tried again, "Hello?"

Instantly, something in the distance lit up. It blinked on and off a few times like it was asking for me to respond. I gathered up as much air as I could muster and shouted at the light, "I'm over here." The light jumped, then started growing bigger rapidly.

As it grew closer, I noticed a sprinting figure holding the light's source: a lantern. The shape reminded me of an egg with frills hanging off of it. As it grew even closer, I noticed another figure behind the first. I couldn't quite make out what it was, but its darker colors shadowed the frontrunner like a plump ghost and its chosen haunting victim. The duet's light cut through the void, illuminating the infinite emptiness that I was suspended in.

"We're almost there, hang on." I heard a female's voice say. My mind decided that that was the egg-shaped one speaking to me. A dark-type or a ghost-type—typically dreary or unsettling types to be around—could never be that cheery.

I rolled over to my belly, placing my head on my paws. My large, rabbit-shaped ears drooped down to touch the ground beneath me. Finally, the frilly egg-shaped shadow in the distance made sense in my mind as a cheerfully pink Blissey with an egg in the pouch on her stomach approached my location. I looked up at her, hoping for an explanation about where I was. My memory was eluding me at the moment, so any clues as to where I was were appreciated. The moments before I had woken up slipped from my mind, leaving me clueless to my whereabouts.

Something deep in my mind caused me to panic when I saw the second Pokémon. A Dusknoir floated into the light and glanced down at me with its singular red eye. Its head sat within its impressive collar and its antenna-shaped feature atop its head made me shiver with fearful recollection. I freaked out, scrambling to my feet as fast as possible and bolted away from the duo. Within seconds, I felt strong arms wrap around me. My view passed from the void below me to a sinister yellow maw on the creature's stomach before panning up to its face. I forced myself to look into Dusknoir's huge red eye as it hoisted me up. I gulped down the lump in my throat.

"Please don't freak out, we're here to guide you," she said. Her voice caught me off guard, and my missing memories screamed that this was incorrect. The blanks wanted me to believe one fact: Dusknoir was supposed to be a man.

Her face became more soothing, obviously a response to the confusion painted on my face in the dim lighting, "We are taking you home, you will be safe soon enough." She didn't know the reason behind my fear, this was not the same Dusknoir that my mind was alerting me of.

"Where is home?" My voice was raspy.

"The spirit world," Blissey responded this time. "It is also known as Paradise, and it will be your new home." She waved the lantern from side to side while humming a gleeful tune. Something told me that Blissey had trouble staying in one spot for too long with her jolly demeanor.