After the murky black abyss, a morning start was had. Despite the peaceful awakening, Sanvu couldn’t help but feel… slightly groggy. The last thing in recent memory was him going to sleep, yet waking up felt bizarre. Maybe he just wasn’t a morning person… Pokemon.

It was still early, however, though it wouldn’t be for long. Sanvu recalled more things as his mind started turning. They’d sent that ‘peek-at-you’ creature that looked similar to Pachuku to Mindscape, and then they were supposed to be doing something to it. It then came to mind he had no idea how they would ‘bring’ the lost memories back, or maybe they were taking that strange haze off of it?

Making a mental note to find out what was up with that, his head tilted over, Pachuku, of what little he could see of him, was definitely still asleep.

 Taking a chance, he flexed his limbs as if stretching, and then attempted to grow out that vine again. It seemed to respond better the more he used it. Though he wasn’t about to do anything crazy with it, and so retracted it. Thinking about it kept his mind off of the mental pit that was his past. Amnesiacs first. Finding out what would happen with them would hopefully yield for information on his past, so he hoped, so this could distract him from freaking out inside. That’s all that mattered.

Pachuku eventually woke, and the two started up the morning’s breakfast. Which was, of course, berries.

“They’re supposed to come around again with the drops later,” Pachuku mentioned. “We should have more then.”

“Drops?” Sanvu asked

“Of food. We don’t just scavenge or get from the shops. Mindscape ensures the town’s paid for with supplies, and they tend to drop by every once in a while,” Pachuku explained. “They always used to encourage me to try to get back in to Mindscape when I failed, so now I can tell them I’ve finally done it.”

“We didn’t see them in the building though?”

“They don’t work in there, they work for Mindscape. Separately, I think they’re associated with the Pelippers who deliver all the rescue mail.”

“So I’m guessing we’re paying them somehow?”

“The reward yesterday wasn’t that big, so I think a cut goes to both Didra and that lot. They’ve been around as long as I can remember.”

So after a fruitful meal of discussing food origins, it was time to head to Mindscape. Some supplies, like an Oran and an Apple, here and there and up the road they were again. Much like before, it was very quiet. Even the building itself loomed with a menace as if it were in shadow, hiding away from the world. Sanvu maybe theorized it being soundproof; it certainly didn’t look the part.

---

When they entered, Notey pointed them to Didra, who showed them to the room they were shown yesterday that they sent the Pikachu to. He was still standing slightly in front of the glowing light. The room looked otherwise untouched.

Didra moved the two inside. “You need not be concerned. His Amnesiac energy has been removed through being in this room.” She pointed to two round spots on the wall that looked like strange panels. The room was shaded in a dim light, and so they looked almost black but not quite. “Those panels react to Amnesiac energy, and we convert and disperse it harmlessly through Mindscape’s building,” she explained, waving her arm to many devices attached to the ceiling with various holes, no doubt for sucking… something up. “As a result, he should be able to recall what it was that was being blocked by that energy.”

“And our mission…?” Sanvu probed. He had more questions for how this process worked, but he wasn’t about to ask them yet.

“Help this Pikachu with whatever it is that he needs. The Amnesiac energy is gone, but his memory may still be scattered slightly from the process, so your mission today is to just simply help him out. He will explain the rest. I’ll leave you to it.”

And with that, she wandered right out of the room, leaving the three of them alone.

The Pikachu came closer.

“Thank you two so much for yesterday! I had no idea that I… y’know… had my mind wiped. I thought we were more careful but… I guess not,” He looked away at that last admission. “Oh, by the way, my name’s Peko, just in case you don’t believe me.”

“Peko… what were you even doing yesterday, in a dungeon? I don’t know much, but apparently these dungeons aren’t really for civilians to just wander in?” Sanvu questioned.

“It wasn’t a dungeon,” The Pikachu answered.

“It… wasn’t?”

“No, not the part of it that I was in anyways. It was quite a while away, not anywhere close to where I was, before you found me.”

“It was in the area?”

“Dungeons can move, or grow, so I’ve heard,” Pachuku explained. “It’s pretty uncommon as an occurrence though, so most don’t prepare for it. Still doesn’t explain why you were so close though.”

“W-We were just playing, neither of us expected there to be a moving dungeon.” The Pikachu responded. He sounded guilty; it showed in the fear in his voice.

“We?” Sanvu echoed.

“Y-Yeah… you see…

“We were just playing nearby the dungeon. My sister, Piki, who’s a Pichu, was with me; just usual kid stuff. While we’re chasing each other, she stops at this… I can’t describe it,” Peko clutched his head with his small paws.

*Music: Pokémon Myster Dungeon: Gates to Infinity – Hiding in the Shadows

“You… alright?” Sanvu asked, a little softer this time.

“Y-Yeah, it’s just… so terrifying… have either of you seen a Dusk Stone?” Peko asked.

“Oh, I think I have! They’re those purple-black stones that Ghost-types love, right?” Pachuku sounded very enthusiastic about this, to the point Sanvu raised a brow. “He hasn’t, clearly.”

“Well…” Peko started, but Pachuku turned to Sanvu.

“A Dusk Stone is some sort of elemental stone. It’s said to hold all manner of darkness or something. It’s, like, purple and black in colour” He tilted his head to Peko. “Peko would know what those stones would look like, since he needs a Thunder Stone to evolve, which essentially just means getting stronger and bigger.” Pachuku explained.

“So why do you know about it?” Sanvu asked

“I’ve seen lots and lots of items, my guy. Items are how you beat the dungeon at its own game,” Pachuku was smiling at this, his tail wagging as if to emphasise his point.

“Well…” Peko started again, a little louder this time, “It was like that, but in reality, a Dusk Stone isn’t meant to do much other than look kinda creepy, right? Or evolve those that use it?”

Pachuku was attentive in particular, his features concentrating.

“This stone… looked kinda like a Dusk Stone, but… wasn’t, or at least I don’t think it was. There was some kind of gunk surrounding it, and Piki… she touched it. Even though I told her not to…!” Peko was shaking a little.

“…Then what happened?” Sanvu was trying hard not to worry himself. A rock that could erase memory?

“Th-Then… there… was this… big Pokemon that appeared nearby” Peko recalled. “A-And it said… I think ‘My long-lost child…’ and then it snatched Piki and flew off!”

“What kind of Pokemon was it?” Pachuku asked

“Flying-type, I think, I couldn’t get a good view of it because it was almost totally covered in pitch-black… stuff, the only thing I could make out were feathers. But it snatched Piki… she’s not good with her electricity yet…” Peko went on, his hands held together. “I went to try and zap it, but it was so fast it flew out of reach…”

“That isn’t much to go on,” Sanvu mentioned.

“But then… the last thing I heard, and I have no idea where this came from, was the words ‘Stony Enclose.’ Over and over, and then the dungeon crept up to where I was,” Peko recounted. “Last thing I recall was that I was just… vanishing, bit by bit, or at least, I thought I was, since you found me before anything happened.”

“So when you were sitting there, you felt like you were vanishing?” Sanvu asked, confused.

“Y-Yeah, I think by that point was when I had ‘become’ the Amnesiac. Cause I didn’t remember anything about myself until I came here,” He turned up to those panels. “I still don’t remember much in between the dungeon appearing and my becoming the Amnesiac though…”

~~

“That’s okay! Stony Enclose gives us a lot more to go on now!” Pachuku responded. “It’s a long-standing dungeon, though while I haven’t heard of Flying-types living there, I’ve heard plenty of Rock-types do. If it’s related, we should go check it out.”

“I… want you to help find Piki… I have a hunch she’s there, but I’m in no position to check, since I succumbed so easily earlier, so, would you do it for me?” Peko asked.

“That’s alright. A lead’s a lead.” Sanvu assured. “So that’s it, go to this Stony Enclose place, and figure out what happened to Piki.”

“Sounds great to me!” Pachuku agreed. “Though we should prepare.”

“Oh, so now you decide to figure that’s a better idea? What of yesterday’s gun-blazing attitude?” Sanvu replied, sarcastically.

“W-Well, at that point, I just wanted to see how you’d react since that dungeon’s basically just full of Normal-types. Rock-types tend to have Ground type moves and uhhh…” Pachuku trailed off.

Peko, hearing this, couldn’t help but look notably more serious. “You don’t know basic type match-ups? Especially since this is a Flying-type, if they’re in Stony Enclose you’ll-“

“I’ll help him on that front,” Pachuku interrupted. “Now let’s get going already!”

The two wandered out and down the road after a goodbye and assurance that Piki would indeed be found.

---

*Music: Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door – Rogueport

During the walk down to the town, Pachuku was giving Sanvu the rundown on the types. His vine move would help do damage to the earthly creatures, but Pachuku himself would have the advantage when it came time to shoot for the aerial creatures. Suddenly it seemed much better that Sanvu lashed out yesterday, since it would mean covering for one another, but they wouldn’t get anywhere without items.

They arrived at a stall, a green chameleon-like Pokemon stood. As they approached, they noticed a group of three other Pokemon at the stall. One looked like a small white-and-blue otter-like creature with a flat tail, another looked like a large blue bat with a very fluffy neck rim of fur, and that one was carrying what looked like a metallic egg with green spikes jutting out from every which angle you could possibly see. They were turned away.

“We won’t hold you too long, do you plan to get any more Rawsts in stock?” the otter asked. The voice sounded quite high-pitch, and suggested that it was perhaps a girl.

“No, sorry, not for a while, there’s still berry stock problems everywhere and Rawsts are just one of many berries affected. That shouldn’t trouble you too much, right?” The chameleon responded. The otter shook her head.

“N-No, we don’t plan on tackling fire dungeons for a while due to all this mess, but it’d be nice if you did. Well, bye now!” she waved, turning and noticing the newcomers.

“Hi,” Sanvu merely said, holding up a hand in greeting. This got the bat to turn around, which just out of necessity meant showing that the egg indeed had eyes on them too when it consequently turned as well. Their badges were visibly attached as well.

“Oh, so you’re new members,” Her voice was flat, as if simply making an observation, though not one sounding like it was of interest. “Well, that’s a bit of a surprise, I guess, that you finally did it…”

Pachuku once again winced at this, but otherwise seemed unbothered. “Hey, so, uh, this is Sanvu, and, uh, well, I suppose you already know who I am, aheh…”

“You know them?” Sanvu queried, sending a raised eyebrow in his direction.

“More like he’s made himself known. Everyone knows about Pachuku wanting desperately to join Mindscape for forever now,” she deadpanned flatly “Though if you’re as new as you sound, then I guess that would sound confusing, huh?” She looked a little more thoughtful after this, her eyes opening wider. “I’m Oshee, and these are…” she gestured to the bat and the egg.

“Swensie! And this annoying prickler is Sero” The bat commented. It also sounded feminine.

“You chose to hold me. Not my fault you get what’s coming.” The egg joked in response, in a deep and grunt voice.

“Uh, so, I didn’t get your species, I’m, like, really new, around here.” Sanvu asked sheepishly.

“She’s an Oshawott, the flying one’s a Swoobat and she’s holding a Ferroseed. Although, last I heard, you were a Woobat, weren’t you?” Pachuku asked. “Good job on evolving, huh!”

“Yeah, evolving’s a real pain since the Amnesiacs popped up and dungeons started not letting you, but thanks a lot!” Swensie cheered. She seemed otherwise unabated by Sero’s earlier comment, continuing to hold onto him.

“Can I ask why exactly you seem to have something against Pachuku? I don’t get why he attracts so much vitriol from everyone else,” Sanvu queried, “I mean, it is kinda rude to make first impressions like that, right?”

At that, the Oshawott’s features grew softer. “You’re right… sorry. I just… have my opinions, both just instinctively and just in general about things he’s, well, done, and it’s just way harder to trust other Pokemon these days. Especially as the newest team before you were just… I should be better about that.”

“We haven’t been here that long,” Sero grunted. “Only about a couple weeks. Swensie here only evolved a while ago. I suppose you’ve seen how on-edge everyone else is, right?”

Sanvu nodded. “Only a bit, but even that feels wrong.”

“Yeah, so, don’t be surprised it creeps through for a bit of judgement.” Oshee commented. She seemed apologetic at this point, as she bowed lightly after saying this. “Although, still, I have my reasons to be suspicious given the rumors about him; I feel better trusting the teams who’ve been there longer on that sort of thing.”

“I suppose that makes sense, if only slightly,” Sanvu commented. “But still not excusable.”

“Yeah. We’ve gotta go, so continue doing good work for Mindscape. Oh, what’d you call your team again? We haven’t caught up before now so I had no idea we got new members, hah. We’re the Tenditions.” She struck a proud pose at this, placing one of her paws on her chest.

“Uh, we’re the Minders. Nice to meet up with you,” Sanvu answered, smiling. At that, the trio moved past them. The Swoobat dropped the Ferroseed, and he rolled away on his side, while his teammates tailed him quickly. Sanvu watched this, not paying attention to the fact Pachuku was already bounding to the counter.

“Well, hello there, Pachuku. And… Sanvu, did I catch that right?” The chameleon pointed out, as Sanvu turned around.

“Yeah, hello. And you are…?”

“Hoh, I am just one of many Kecleon ‘round these parts!” he laughed. “Do call me Keckle if you need a nickname for me, but I otherwise just go by Kecleon. Old habit.”

‘Isn’t that like calling a dog “Dog?” Odd mannerism, everyone’s introduced themselves with names so far…’ Sanvu thought, not wanting to offend the lizard.

“So what’ve you got? We’re going to Stony Enclose, so uh, do you have, like, a basic set?” Pachuku asked.

“I have the basics, but no sets, no; stock is real hard to come by these days so things have to go by the individuals! I could recommend some Orans, some Leppas, and I do wish I had more of those defensive berries but I could otherwise recommend Reviver Seeds, Blast Seeds and some Apples.” He explained.

“A Reviver Seed will drain us out, so uh…” Pachuku murmured thinking hard. Sanvu was otherwise hanging around, watching the items on the counter with interest. “We should take 2 Orans, 3 Leppas, an Apple and a Blast Seed”

“Maybe take another Apple?” The Kecleon recommended

“Maybe, that’ll make three. One’s in the bag already.”

“254p, thank you.” Kecleon calculated, although the speed at which he said that made him seem almost like a calculator. It unnerved Sanvu a little, as Pachuku moved the money and stuffed the items into the bag. “Hope to see you again, sometime!”

“Oh, sure as heck!” Pachuku grinned, though he appeared to exhibit the same anxious look, though not for long after he waved away, as they walked back towards Mindscape so then they could start going toward the dungeon.

“So, I’m really going to have to know why everyone we’ve met seems to like judging you,” Sanvu noted as they walked by. “Do you have, like, beef with everybody?”

Pachuku squinted a bit at the word ‘beef’ not really getting it, but he responded anyway, seeming to mostly understand, “Before you wanted to join, I was searching that forest for like, days,” Pachuku recounted, “I found many Pokemon like you, but most of them had mostly hit their head, or they were just random passerby and I confused them for an Amnesiac by mistake,” Pachuku started to fiddle with his paws as he spoke.

“Just like with me, huh?” Sanvu commented. Pachuku didn’t look up.

“Y-Yeah. But sometimes, the other members would see me coming in. I’m pretty sure they probably made it a game at that point, like, ‘how long can Pachuku go before he’s just ejected totally,’ kind of thing,” Pachuku made a wide gesture that appeared to be making an impression out of the others as his voice took on a mocking tone. “I didn’t see them, much, in town; nobody approached me directly after all. But then, that kind of separation was already happening in general around here, so I never really held it against the members or anything. Just don’t like when they bring it up.” Pachuku admitted. “So what if it took me a while, I still tried, at all.”

“So did you make a big show out of it? How many did you wander in with? I imagine if it were a lot I could understand their impression being… weird.”

“It wasn’t that many. Like, first it was a Gloom, but she was super depressing, and then it was a Mime Jr., but turns out he tricked me, and then there were like, maybe three others. I mostly walked them in the same way I walked you in, so I don’t really get why they’re so mad.”

“So, could it be something else? Something larger? You think the Amnesiac stuff could do with it?”

“Maybe, but I’m not willing to cast doubt on them. They’re the ones who know their stuff, so we’ve just gotta follow their lead,” Pachuku said, stopping in front of Mindscape. His face didn’t sell it very well, but Pachuku had huffed away as if he were bothered by something.

‘I guess I won’t prod further, but I’m pretty sure it can’t just be that, right?’ Sanvu noted silently, while Pachuku pulled something out from the bag they were given, the squirrel’s face a small frown.

~~

Both of them were looking at the map they were given. It was actually a small metallic device that looked hexagonal, but looked otherwise like a flat unremarkable piece of metal. There was a small screen, and turning it on provided a map of existing dungeon locations.

“I haven’t looked at that, wow, that’s pretty advanced for somewhere like this. How’s it work?” Sanvu asked, wowed a little by its properties.

“Hm? Oh, Mindscape uses information from the badges we carry to map out the surrounding areas. I think so, anyways, how that’s actually done is a mystery, but that information then gets put into this map, which I guess they can check and change somehow, but I couldn’t tell you how that’s done.”

“Just reminds me of a small computer screen, and since this place is pretty natural, I just didn’t expect it. I mean Mindscape’s pretty out-of-place too by that logic, but uh, even it looks a little… primitive.”

“It’s not important. Anyway, Stony Enclose is here,” he pointed, to an area leading southward. “So that’s that way.” Pachuku then pointed to their right, as they decided to head in that direction, ready to start the dungeon.

---

*Music: Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky – Mt. Bristle

After crossing the rift between the worlds, they were inside something resembling a cave, the rectangular floors resembling the forest dungeon they’d explored before, but all was decorated with grey stone instead of trees bunching up. The ceiling formed around them tightly, as if the room was packing everything inside it.

Business began as usual. Pachuku would find things to pick up, and the two would often find things to smack. For Sanvu, bringing the vines out was getting easier and easier, especially since the dungeon accommodated for this strength enhancement by allowing him to use it less, given all the pebbles he was crushing; especially given the many that had large arms and noses. He had attempted to run into the apparitions directly, but that had been a bad idea, even Pachuku was looking like he was avoiding using anything but electricity, despite the caveats.

It was the third floor. They had encountered only a few of the Rock-types that apparently plagued this dungeon, like primarily Geodude, Nosepass and Roggenrola. The large rectangular room held an Oran Berry, another berry that was purple and looked a bit spiky, alongside another apple. By the time he’d finished looking at them, they were already in his bag.

“That Wiki Berry’s one of them useful berries you can use for an effect similar to Totter Seeds, so don’t eat it, unless you like eating dry things.”

“Why would it matter if I did?”

“It’s part of that group of berries that senses your tastes or something. If you don’t like dry stuff, it’ll explode all of that in your mouth and you’ll get all dizzy. So don’t.”

The room had two entrances, one directly in front, and one off to the side. Through the hallway, they came to a forked road, and inside another room.

The things Pachuku would pick up, and with such speed hardly surprised Sanvu at this point. It wasn’t really all that surprising that a squirrel would learn resourcefulness whether or not he was aware of that subtlety or not. What was more concerning though was that where Pachuku had been eager to throw Sanvu into the line of fire previously, he appeared to be much more reactive this time around, following behind Sanvu for the most part instead of bounding ahead, except for when he would see an item. Sanvu, despite using more moves than Pachuku had, had pretty much felt the pace at a leisurely stroll compared to the prior dungeon.

Inside the new room they’d entered was nothing but a bunch of stones littering the ground that looked dislodged from several that were bunched up against the ‘walls’ of the dungeon. That was hardly surprising, although Pachuku walking over to pick them up was the most interesting part in particular.

“Do you think we’ll just be able to store everything?” Sanvu was laughing a little as he said this; the bag was looking to be almost full.

“Aww, don’t worry, you can start using them and we’ll still have more.” He brought over what looked like small rocks over, but as he did, the floor nearby morphed into the appearance of a small green dinosaur. It had a few markings on its body, with one prominent red marking on its stomach.

“Actually, this might be a good opportunity for me to show you something!” Pachuku was practically bouncing as he spoke, before twisting towards the dinosaur.

“Hey, Geo Pebble, hit the Larvitar!” and the next thing Sanvu knew was that the moment Pachuku had let go of it, it had whizzed into the dinosaur, plunking its head briefly for a moment, but didn’t appear to phase it too much. As it stumbled closer, a single lashed vine from Sanvu managed to bring it back to the floor and out of sight.

“When we find another one, I’ll get you to try it, it’s really simple, just call out the attacker, and wham! Free hits! I’ve even heard it even hits opponents when you can’t even see them, it’s wild stuff.”

“We don’t have to worry about the rocks growing a conscience though, right?”

“What do you mean?”

“Its sapience is limited and you don’t have to worry about some unknown rock army plotting against Pokemon, right?”

“Uhhhh, no, not that I think so?” Pachuku was tilting his head in confusion, “The heck you mean by ‘rock army?’ That just sounds silly.”

“Also, how am I meant to hit them when I don’t even know their species? You know them better than I do.”

“Eh, try it and see; I’ve aimed worse before. You could just guess the type of the Pokemon if you need to, or even just call out the direction that you’re throwing in. I hear they respond to intent or something, maybe it’s just dungeon logic.”

That gave Sanvu a bit of an idea.

They came back the way they came after encountering a dead end, managing to fork their way into the room with the stairs, which was something like a football field in length. The stairs were all the way across the room.

Halfway across the room, another impassable barrier knocked itself up. The black sludge began to block their path.

“Now!” Pachuku passed Sanvu one of the odd stones. It really did just look like an ordinary pebble up close.

“Uhhh…” he fumbled with it as it formed. It was some golden-yellow bipedal lizard with cream skin and a baggy, loose lower-body skin that looked like pants. Sanvu had been trying to pay attention to what Pachuku had been calling the creatures of the dungeon, but as they were all new to him, he wasn’t entirely remembering them all immediately. But if it responded to intent, then it may not have entirely been that difficult.

“Uhh… hit the weird lizard kid thing?” Sanvu then tossed the rock, and it too whizzed into the intended target, whacking its head to the side. As it staggered forward its reward was an electrocution from Pachuku, which took it right out.

“Nice job on the Scraggy, although what was with that naming?”

“I thought it was ‘Scrappy,’ man, is this what they mean by ‘too much information?’”

“I mean, it still worked, but you’re gonna need to work on that either way. Wouldn’t want it to hit me, right, ha-ha!” Pachuku laughed as he took ahead to the stairs.

“You’re a squirrel, not a lizard!” Sanvu laughed after him.

“Pachirisu! Gotta catch up at some point!”

Sanvu learned pretty quickly that Pachuku pretty well would leap on ahead of these things. Both of them didn’t need to touch the stairs, only one did, provided the other holding their badge was at least within the room, they’d also warp alongside. Pachuku had explained it as some psychic connection the badges held, but good luck getting any further information out of him, since he didn’t have it.

Eventually after much stone throwing on various creatures that resembled beavers that held large logs and little human-like kids with dinosaur-like tails, they encountered the final set of stairs.

~~