As they walked, Sanvu asked various questions about supplies and what they should expect to Pachuku, but Pachuku was very vague and jumpy about it. It was unnerving, and not because Pachuku seemed afraid, no, there was a glint in his eye that was suspiciously eager for this kind of thing. It was to be expected since he had wanted to join for so long, but what made him so confident, Sanvu wasn’t entirely sure.

It was as if the world itself were rippling through a puddle just ahead of them, though it was only a short distance. A wooden sign stood just before them, with nothing on it except an odd symbol. They were otherwise in a perfectly normal forest; just the same as the last several minutes of walking had been after they left Mentage Town.

“So I’m guessing that’s it? The dungeon?” Sanvu queried, but then Pachuku was practically attempting to push him in, with little he could do to resist.

*Music: Pokémon Mystery Dungon – Rescue Team DX – Tiny Woods

The world briefly spun around almost immediately. What had looked like a perfectly average forest path had widened into a rectangular-shaped field. The trees themselves were now much closer together; bunched up creating walls with crevices too small for one to slip through, save for two thin corridors, one to their left, and another just in front of them, to their right. There was a light sensation of pressure in the air that was imposing itself over and around them, as if preparing them.

“And if you look behind you…” Pachuku spoke confidently as he turned around, and Sanvu followed. The path they had trodden before was now also blocked by trees, without sight of the previous areas they’d crossed.

“Okay, this is definitely weird, but have we prepared enough for this?” Sanvu asked. Besides the odd sights, nothing seemed too out of the ordinary. He figured mentally that this was somehow normal, in a bizarre sort of way.

“Yup, and this is one of the weaker dungeons. I’ve been doing this forever, so just follow my lead.”

“What, coming into these places? That’s normal?” Sanvu was a bit on edge, but he wasn’t sure why. Had Pachuku made a mistake?

Pachuku moved through the corridors. “So, the gist with these places is that they’ll try to keep you in no matter what. But there’s theories that, like, the dungeons don’t necessarily ‘like’ just doing that.”

“So… it’s, alive?” Sanvu was attempting to follow behind him, following at a slow rate.

“Somewhat? But items can be found in dungeons too, and so something like this place should have-ah!”

Pachuku then dashed forward, to which Sanvu had to run after him to another rectangular shaped room after crossing a sharp right turn. It was slightly like a maze, although that tidbit from Pachuku had him a bit on edge thinking that the plants themselves were going to lash out at him. Pachuku was ahead inside the room, and he ran back with an object in his tail.

Pachuku placed it down. It looked like a sphere; it had a cyan-blue colour that surrounded the rim, alongside purple and brown splotches of colour at its centre. The purple appeared to form rings around the brown energy, so it almost resembled an eye in shape.

“It’s pretty, but what does it do?”

“I think this is one of those Orbs. I think this one freezes apparitions around you, but we won’t need it now,” Pachuku then put it in the bag that Sanvu held.

“You remember I told you we get items from dungeons all the time? Well, you haven’t got much to fear there. Honestly, this is why I didn’t get why they didn’t want me to join. You’d think they’d want more supplies to deal with all this stuff, especially when it’s, like, my thing.”

“So, you, like, can find items easier than they do?”

“Yup! I think they say it’s my ability or something.”

Sanvu let that information simmer, but no matter how hard he thought, he couldn’t make sense of their reasoning. Pachuku had the ability to search out items useful for exploration, and they didn’t want that?

“Does anybody just have that ability?”

“Uhh, I don’t know. But I’ve been told once or twice that they have no idea how I find so much on my own.”

It seemed more and more like there was a specific vendetta against Pachuku’s existence. But why, Sanvu couldn’t put to mind.

“Anyway, we shouldn’t dawdle. Who knows if one of them will find us here?” Pachuku darted off straight ahead after putting some unknown objects in the bag.

“Okay, so what are we really looking for? Items are great and all, but how do you get out of the dungeon?”

“We gotta find the stairs. Touching them enough will take us out of here.”

“The… stairs?” Sanvu’s confusion was palpable in the way his brows had remained a line throughout this entire line of questioning. “Stairs to where?”

“To the next floor.”

“But… this is a forest, forests don’t have floors.”

“It’s the bane of any Pokemon to know what exactly creates a ‘floor’ or whatnot. Dungeons have floors, find the stairs and you can leave ‘em. Take it up with Arceus if you gotta problem with it,” Pachuku bounded ahead, and Sanvu followed.

It wasn’t two steps before a looming shadow appeared, melting into the form of a small creature. It looked like a small raccoon, with brown spiky patterns adorning its fluffy fur. Despite its small appearance, it was sending quite the glower in intimidation.

“Zigzagoon!” Pachuku exclaimed, before darting right at it. It slammed a ways back, but was otherwise unfazed. Sanvu glared at it, unaware that it then wagged its tail furiously. Had that done something, he didn’t know. But it got up and immediately slammed into Pachuku, enough to send him tumbling back into the wall. Then it glared at Sanvu again.

Pachuku was still getting up from that attack, though he was definitely still charging up, what with the sparks dancing in his cheeks.

A force welled within Sanvu as he noticed the creature turn towards him, its body emitting a small, white glow. It slammed into him, the white energy surrounding it sending him skidding back. The force of it was primarily what stunned him, hitting like a truck. Pachuku picked himself up and bolted the little rodent with some of those latent sparks, but it wasn’t entirely done yet.

What happened next was so quick that it wasn’t even entirely perceptible.

Sanvu felt this strange force grow, and as he watched this rascal slam into Pachuku again, it triggered something within him. He felt this force grow and grow, until he felt himself reach for and smack the little fiend sideways.

While he did this, Pachuku stared in awe as he watched Sanvu use something that should, in all honesty, be rather mundane.

Sanvu, however, wasn’t entirely focused, and so slammed the thing down without realising what it was he was even doing in the first place. Then, as it laid flat and unmoving, it followed its course into the ground, melting away any trace of ‘Zigzagoon’ that it even was into the dirt.

“Whoa, that was amazing!” Pachuku mentioned “You should’ve used those earlier!”

Sanvu wasn’t entirely focused on that though, for now he was trussling with the sensation of what were two, long, green vine-like objects appearing in his periphery. He couldn’t entirely control himself, falling into the dirt face first, while they retracted automatically. Pachuku couldn’t hold in his amusement at watching the scene unfold, until Sanvu wasn’t moving from the ground.

He ran over to Sanvu after he was collapsed for some time, shaking him awake. “You okay, there? Don’t tell me you knocked yourself out with your own vines!” Pachuku laughed. Sanvu slowly got up, whispering.

“Wh-What was… that about… what were those?” His breathing had increased in speed.

“Those were vines, what’re you worried about, you beat that thing like nothing I’d ever seen! Although, why didn’t you use Tackle?” Pachuku looked to the area where it had melted away, his tail was swishing somewhat wildly.

“I… felt this immense power, and I thought I could use it. I don’t even know what I was doing.” Sanvu tried to explain, his eyes tightly closed, though recollection wasn’t coming easy. “I wasn’t close enough, and I wanted to smack it away, I think.”

“You definitely did that alright. But you really don’t know how to use them? Now?” Pachuku asked, as if incredulous.

“I-I… don’t feel that power anymore, so, no, I don’t think so?”

“Next time, just worry about Tackle. That’s what you practiced anyway. Don’t worry too much about strength, I’ll handle the rest.”

Sanvu picked himself up, brushing some of the dirt off as he did.

“Anyway, I’m fine,” Pachuku assured him. “We should really get moving before something else happens.”

They moved slowly, entering another corridor leading to another rectangular stretch of land. In the middle of the room were… wooden stairs just sitting in the middle of the forest. Though they looked mostly ordinary, it looked as if a strange presence floated about them in wisps of energy that looked like dust or small motes of light; they were otherwise the only other thing odd about them.

“Huh, so they are just stairs,” Sanvu noted dryly.

“Yeah, plain as any other set. We both need to touch ‘em, and then we’ll move to the next floor!”

The two Pokemon then both touched it, the world swirling much like it did at the entrance, like a blurry tornado that would threaten dizziness if gazed at for too long.

The rest of the dungeon proceeded very smoothly for their first attempt. Soon it became routine, pick up useful items, find and ascend the stairs. If an apparition came along, usually a Zigzagoon or something otherwise mundane, like what was apparently called a Pidove, or a Wurmple, it was usually dispelled with some head slams and bolts. Sometimes, Sanvu managed to use the vines, although he became increasingly more aware of them with each time he brought them out, and the instinctual nature of how easy they could be whipped out was slightly alarming to him. But with Pachuku expaining how he’d heard it was just normal for Snivy, he became less afraid of them as they went on, but still couldn’t help remaining unnerved at them.

Some floors later, the two of them reached a clearing that definitely was no longer square.

~~

---

“Did we clear it?” Sanvu asked. The fatigue was evident in the breathiness that his voice exuded

“This must be the endpoint. We didn’t find anybody in the dungeon, did we?” Pachuku noted sadly, ears drooping. They continued forward, when Pachuku noticed something.

His badge was glowing.

“Hey, uh, she said they glow if they’re nearby right?”

“The Amnesiacs? Yeah, she did.”

They ran ahead on the short narrow path. Where the trees had been in unnatural square formations, this just looked close to an ordinary forest path, but an odd purple haze coated the sky, blotting it out. It appeared to stay level with the trees, instead of surrounding every other particle on the low ground. It darkened the area in a way almost artificially so.

They found a large tree in front of a rocky wall emanating a blue glow. As they did, the badges they both held pulsated more and more, until it was stuck in a state of glowing that they didn’t even need to look at them anymore.

A small individual laid clutching its head next to a large tree in front of a cave with a blue glow emanating from inside. The source wasn’t entirely clear, but it looked almost cave-like in appearance; the grass petering out just in front of the entrance. The creature was about their size, primarily yellow; it looked a bit stocky, its back donning three brown stripes. Its tail was an odd jagged shape. It was turned away, facing the blue glow.

Pachuku wandered up to it, but stopped about a few feet away, wincing slightly, “Whoa, good thing we have the badges. Come feel that.”

Sanvu walked up slowly, badge in hand. The moment he did, it was as if the very air around the creature threatened to pinprick them if they got too close. He felt light tickles of energy ripple off, the badge now permanently aglow. “This has to be the one, right? What is that?”

At that, the creature turned around. Now that Sanvu could see its face, he noted its similarity to Pachuku, in that it had red cheeks, and otherwise bored a similar facial and bodily structure to that of his newfound friend. Its ears were longer, and tipped in black. Upon noticing them, its features appeared to light up. “A-Are you rescuers?” It asked.

“Yup! Though, you don’t remember who you are, or why you’re here, right?” Pachuku asked “I’m Pachuku, and this is Sanvu.” Sanvu waved silently. “What’s your name?”

“I… I don’t… know… I don’t know anything! I got caught by the dungeon… I must’ve wandered in by accident…” he trailed off. He sounded young, but not too young.

“How old are you to be wandering in a dungeon like yourself?” Sanvu asked.

“I… can’t remember that either…” the yellow rodent-like creature responded.

“Yep, very Amnesiac.” He turned to Sanvu “This is a Pikachu; he doesn’t look too much younger than we are.”

“I’m 17, so this is something kids typically do?”

“Huh, I don’t remember not asking, I’m practically almost the same, 16. I’d say Pikachu’s a year or so younger, if I were to wager a guess.”

Sanvu briefly froze at the realisation of remembering his own age, only now dawning on him the implications of the situation. He didn’t have long to mull over it before the yellow rodent spoke up again.

“C-Can you… help me get out?” The Pikachu stammered “I’ve been stuck here for a while, and it’s quite scary…”

“No worries, we gotcha covered.” Pachuku motioned to Sanvu. “We’re both gonna need to remember that room, you’ll be back there in just a moment.”

Sanvu and Pachuku both held their badges up, thinking very strongly of the room they were shown by Didra, and while their eyes were closed, the senses indicated that Pikachu in fact had been teleported, because that pinpricking sensation dissipated a short few seconds after it was done. Opening their eyes revealed that he was indeed gone.

“So, that’s it?” Sanvu asked Pachuku. He almost sounded disappointed. “That’s all we need to do?”

“Y-Yeah, now we need to use them on ourselves.”

“What about that blue light?”

“It’ll drop us at the entrance. If we use the badges though, we save ourselves a walk.”

“So, what, just remember the building and then we’ll be there?”

“Yep. Let’s follow Pikachu home.”

They held the badges up at each other, briefly remembering Mindscape. As they did, there was a brief sensation of floating, and then they were back in front of the building, far and away from the eerie forest of before.

---

Upon walking inside, Notey approached them.

“Good job on your first mission, Didra is handling the Amnesiac,” he commended. His eyes were almost completely closed. “Your reward will be provided via the machine over there, your badges can help pick it up. You’re dismissed for today.”

Both of them were somewhat tired after the whole ordeal that was the walking, so they took the compliments in stride, as Notey showed them through the process of getting the rewards, which was just a simple money drop of 1500p. Sanvu watched for any sign of suspicion from the small bird, but now it almost seemed like he was paranoid; nothing appeared different from before.

It wasn’t long before they were outside, the sun still high, though on its way to sinking particularly soon.

“So, where do you wanna go?” Pachuku asked

Sanvu, while a little tired, was somehow still raring to go. He chalked it up to this Pokemon body; where something like that dungeon would leave him utterly exhausted as a human, it had felt like nothing but an extended stroll otherwise. It left him slightly astonished.

“If you aren’t tired, I know a place we could go.”

“Really? What kind of place?”

“It’s not far. Follow me.”

---

At that, they went down the path leading away that almost ran into town, but Pachuku veered a hard right instead, and ended up in the forest. Eventually, they came to an area almost totally surrounded by trees in a ring, with a circular field in the middle. It didn’t look particularly special.

“It looks kinda like the dungeon.” Sanvu pointed out “Only…”

“It’s not as obvious? Yeah, haha, I use this place for training. Note the trees.”

Most of the trees had been seared with some type of burn mark all at the same spot. Now that Sanvu was looking, it was a bit eerie.

“So, you zapped all of these?”

“Yup. Nobody comes out here, so I use it to train.” Pachuku then started readying sparks.

“And there’s… no issue? You’re not, gonna like, tear the whole place down?”

“Not really. Besides, I’m weak, if I could level a tree, I wouldn’t be here, you know!” Pachuku said, sneaking a smirk back after he had turned around.

As the sounds of sparks filled the air, Sanvu couldn’t help but be a bit curious. He’d seen it plenty in the dungeon, but it was still quite wonderous, and it’d help if he knew how it worked so he didn’t have to gawk at something that Pachuku treated with such normalcy, Sanvu didn’t want to remain uninformed for long.

“Hey, so, how does it work? The… zapping thing?”

“Discharge?”

“…Just in general. Like, what’s the mechanism, cause I get the feeling I shouldn’t be quite so shocked at something so basic, but…”

“Why’s it so poignant to you?” Pachuku asked. He’d stopped charging now, turning around to face Sanvu. “It’s just something us Electric-types do.”

“Well, I guess I’d just like to know. I’ve never really seen anything like it before, and I’m just curious.”

“You like to ‘know’ a lot, don’t you?”

“Uh, yeah. Is there a problem with that?”

Pachuku briefly glanced about before responding. “I mean, no, but it is pretty basic for us. I guess this is just more of your humanity or whatever showing through, huh? No other Pokemon’s questioned something like that before.”

“Well I certainly didn’t see anything quite so exciting as a human, no.”

Pachuku had a small smirk on his face as he spoke. “I guess it really does make sense, why you couldn’t use the vines properly, among all the other stuff; if you never saw anything like that, that would make sense why basic electricity usage would seem so crazy to you.”

Then he twirled around on the spot, landing in a pose with most of his paws splayed out, as if to flourish, “Sure, I could maybe explain it, best I possibly can, anyways.”

*Music: Pokémon Mystery Dungeon – Rescue Team DX – Kecleon Shop

Pachuku then pointed to his cheek with a paw. “These cheeks don’t just look cute; they’re actually where we store electricity. Most Electric-types have some kind of storage for it, but it varies here or there. Heck, I’ve heard there’s apparently a way for some to store it without dedicated electricity sacs like I do but I don’t know much about that.”

Sanvu nodded along.

“So that electricity’s gotta actually go somewhere. Most of it ends up in my fur, but I’m really redirecting it to my tail,” He twitched the appropriate limb upon its utterance. “It’s easier to direct it, from there.”

“So that’s why your fur felt staticy when you pushed on me that one time,” Sanvu noted.

“Oh-uh? Oh yeah!” Pachuku briefly recognised what Sanvu meant after a moment of jolting back, “It’s not enough to actually hurt though,” He shied away, not meeting Sanvu’s eyes, “Apparently I shouldn’t be proud of that, though.”

“Why not?”

“Means I can’t stop Pokemon nearly as well from attacking,” He explained. “One of the downsides of being a smaller Electric-type, I guess.”

“Anyway, then I gotta direct it at a target. That part’s easiest,” Pachuku said, lighting back up. “Cause everything has energy, so I just gotta think, and then wham, there’s my target, or something like that.”

“Wait, back up, everything has energy? What’s that about?”

“I wouldn’t be able to explain it super well but, uh…” Pachuku trailed off, thinking, “All things, living or not, have, like, energy. So, like, I sort of ‘feel’ the difference between different things, and then shoot,” He rubbed his other cheek with his paw. “That’s also how I try to avoid hitting you, or anyone I like, cause you also have energy, but it’s more pronounced than an apparition’s, or a tree, or something.”

“Would you say it’s like, an aura?”

“Uh, yeah, sure, but I’m no aura master or anything. I’m sure there’s better ways of explaining it than I have. But that energy also allows me to just generate electricity from general activity as well.”

“Explains your speed, I suppose.”

“Maybe!” Pachuku smiled “But even if I hit you, it probably wouldn’t hurt that much, your type would probably help rub most of it off.”

“Huh? What makes you so sure?”

“Grass resists Electric-type moves. I’m pretty sure it’s the other way around, too, I think, maybe.” He turned towards the burned trees. “These aren’t too intense, just from repeated use. I’ve been at this for months.”

“Months?”

“Yeah, so if I hit you it probably wouldn’t hurt that much. Unless I was, like, really mad or something,” Pachuku laughed

Sanvu considered this information, and although he didn’t have much to contribute, it did make him feel better knowing the mechanism of it, so to speak.

“So, like, what brought the vines out? You trained with Didra earlier, you could’ve used them then, so why…” Pachuku inquired. He was looking a little puzzled, his head cocked to the side.

Sanvu wasn’t feeling that energy anymore, so it wasn’t as easy to reach for it. His attempt to do so now had also failed.

“I dunno, I guess the dungeon just… brought them out. I didn’t think Tackle could work, cause I was a bit slow, and far away,” Sanvu mused. “I still can’t do it.”

At that, Pachuku bounded a few spots away to Sanvu’s left.

“That won’t do, will it? How about we lightly spar here?” Pachuku suggested, and he went on all fours. “If we both need to train, it’ll do good, I bet.”

Then he intentionally zipped forward, but blasted just past Sanvu. As he did, he began to feel that pressure.

The dungeon masked a lot of the feeling before, but as he reached for it, it was almost instinctual. Pachuku would make a dive with Quick Attack, intentionally missing Sanvu (though only barely) and aiming for trees instead, but as he did, Sanvu welled up more and more, until the vines were out and fully grown. It was as soon as Pachuku would dash away that Sanvu began to make the connection, and after a few attempts, it finally hit him why it was occurring. All at once, it began to make sense.

“Wait, I think I get it now!”

Pachuku stopped a moment away. “You do?”

Sanvu attempted to think clearly about it, but received much blurring. Clearly this memory had been taken too, but not completely as he tried to focus on the feeling. “Yeah. Give me a moment.”

Pachuku watched, and Sanvu managed to use a singular vine to wrap around a tree. The process was very slow, but it was deliberate and done.

“This is just like a dream I had once. My hands were in front of me, but they were all warped and funny-looking,” Sanvu recalled. “My fingers were crooked, and you wanna know the funniest part?”

Pachuku tilted his head.

“My hands were right beside me the whole time, in both places at once,” Sanvu explained “When I saw that… first one attack you, the one thing I wanted to do was to reach out to it to push it out of the way.”

“So, that allowed you to use the vines?”

Sanvu nodded, slowly getting the hang of it. “I think so, anyways.”

Moving the now singular vine was now very simple. It was like a balled fist that moved based on thought and intent, in any direction that Sanvu desired. The rest was instinctual, and based internally on his Grass-type energy, though this explanation surely wouldn’t come from the focus required to use it at the moment.

“But, why did you…” Pachuku almost asked why he had felt so strongly in the first place to want to push a meaningless apparition away, but then stopped to think about it; The former human must’ve cared about him so much because he was the first guy that wanted to help him. But was that really it?

“I… I don’t entirely know,” Sanvu said. He was still experimenting with its length and what he could do to bend it. “But… I wanted to protect you. I didn’t want… to be a sitting duck.”

“Aw… but that was a pretty weak bunch of Zigzagoon and whatnot. What put you on edge like that?”

Sanvu then grabbed a rock with a vine and then chucked it. It hit the tree roughly, and then he retracted it. “Well, I didn’t think I had any defences,” He started, “But I now feel way stronger after basically getting two more arms,” Sanvu looked pretty confident now, staring at his actual green arms with something resembling awe, mouth curled into a smile.

“Sure, that’s something at least. If Didra has nothing for us tomorrow, though, I should show you around town,” Pachuku planned, “Now with those funds we could probably get more supplies beforehand.”

“Oh good, so we can actually go in with a plan,” Sanvu said, relieved, laughing at the end.

Pachuku laughed alongside him. “Okay, sure, but the look you had was pretty good when we first got in, not gonna lie.”

~~

They both laughed and trained for a while longer, the sun beginning to dip in the sky. Eventually, they both agreed to go back home.

Both were extremely lucky to miss the cold wind that blew through right after, the cherry that was the frost on top of already damaged grass and trees.

---

Later, at home, both were preparing for the next day. Pachuku watched Sanvu with curiosity, given how he appeared to do things differently. The Snivy hadn’t used the vines since coming home, but that wasn’t what made him curious. Sanvu was sitting on the bed oddly, almost about to sleep, when Pachuku asked.

“So, I get you’re human and all, but you slept… funny.” Pachuku’s head twitched right before he said ‘funny,’ “Why?”

“It was the closest to the position I slept at home like this,” Sanvu explained. “What, there’s specific sleeping procedures here too?”

“No no no, I just wondered. Oh well, tomorrow, we’ll go see what’s up with the Pikachu, huh?”

“I hope bringing him into town wasn’t a bad idea or anything…”

“Oh I’d hope not, but they deal with it. I’m sure we’ll hear about what’s next in the morn, huh?”

Sanvu nodded, grunting in agreement.

“I could make another recommendation; I’d heard curling up is like, the best way to sleep. Not sure how it’ll work out for you but sleep tight!”

Pachuku then bounced up to his bed again, and Sanvu considered this. Curling up as a human would be uncomfortable, but he figured he’d try it anyway… and was met with a strangely comforting sensation. He didn’t even have time to mull over his thoughts before the abyss consumed his soul.