The Dungeon activity seemed to be a huge success. All teams, even though a little different than expected, have passed. The students all went back to their homes, exhausted. Expected, of course, a Mystery Dungeon is no children's playground, even in the easiest one, you could get beat up badly by a dungeon feral.
Even though the children went back home, Mr. Zeta didn’t. He was supposed to file a report on the children on how they went in their activity. In his personal opinion, the children (or more precisely, the teenagers) went alright on their first dungeon, although Elsa and her friends were caught by surprise by a sudden Galvantula, they went nicely on this test.
However, there were two things that bothered him in the dungeon, the Galvantula, and that shiny Joltik. Even though Jingle-Jungle Woods had bug types in it, Galvantulas and Joltiks aren’t common in that dungeon. Even so, why would that Joltik help them fight against (if he heard correctly) his own mother? And how could a newborn-looking Pokémon do that in the first place?
Unless… if the newborn wasn’t a Pokémon in the first place.
Before coming to a conclusion while in the school halls, a voice from a certain teacher called out to him. “Hey, Zetamon!”
The Porygon-Z looked up and saw the shiny Decidueye teacher, Iris. “You know that I prefer Mr. Zeta Ms. [birdseye view].”
She chuckled as she walked closer to the Porygon-Z. “Always with that weird humor of yours, huh?”
“Thank that company that I was programmed this way.” He detached his limbs from his body and spun them around him before attaching them again.
“Asuri?”
“What other [piece of corporate bullshit-!] you have in mind?”
“Heh, none.”
“What I thought honestly.” He commented while shrugging. “But anyways, how is [the torture we call life] going?”
Iris shrugged with her wings. “I’m doing alright myself. How about you?”
“[Terrible, miserable, insufferable-] I’m doing quite alright myself too.” He looked to the side, closing his yellow eyes, still thinking about the dungeon.
“Something wrong?”
Zetamon looked back at her. “Ah, nothing wrong. I was just… thinking about something…”
No glitches in his voice that Iris noticed… that was concerning. “Could you perhaps tell me what troubles you?”
He hummed in thought. “I think it’s better if we discuss this in the teacher’s [panic room of doom]! Do you mind?”
“No, not at all.”
The Porygon-Z nodded before floating off to the teacher’s office, Iris following behind him. They entered the teacher’s office and Zetamon locked the door behind him with his telekinesis. The Decidueye cocked her head in confusion as she noticed the locked door. The normal type sat on one of his desks and sighed while glitching a little.
“So um… how was the dungeon activity? Did the kids do well?”
“They went [extraordinary terri-] well.” He opened a drawer on his desk with a Psychic and grabbed a CD from it. He ejected the CD on his abdomen and inserted the new one. His body jerked a little as his eyes displayed some static before returning to normal. His new voice sounded like a normal middle-aged man. “Although… something unexpected happened.”
Iris crossed her wings with a frown. “What happened?”
“A wild Galvantula followed them in the dungeon and trapped one of the teams in its webs.” The Decidueye’s face became shocked. “Don’t worry, the other team managed to take it down with a… bit of dysfunctional teamwork. Fortunately, they didn’t get that injured.”
Iris looked aside as she thought about something else. “Did… something more happen?”
“Well, yes. It seems that one of the hatchlings of the same Galvantula helped Claire and her team to win against its own mother. Which is the most interesting part…”
Iris hesitated a bit in asking. “Was the Joltik a little… off-colored?”
Zetamon looked at her in surprise. “Yes… it was… it appears you know something about this Ms. Iris. Care [sharing to the class]?” He groaned. “Ugh, just when I thought this CD would make me free of the glitches…” He looked back at the archer owl. “Anyways, do you know anything about that Joltik?”
Iris sighed. “I do… after all, I caught him in my class. I can tell you have some suspicions about him… yes it’s a human.”
The Porygon-Z widened their eyes a little before the eyes displayed static for a brief second before returning to his normal eyes. “So… he told you?”
“Yes, he did. He was really nervous about it. After all, I would be as well if I knew that my people were disappearing left and right.” She sighed again ruffling her feathers. “Look, let’s keep this between us alright? He is right to not trust anyone, anyone could be the supposed human kidnapper.”
“Indeed. Anyone you found [sussy impostor] in this school?” Zetamon asked rubbing his head with a nub.
“I don’t know… every staff member seems alright, even the janitor with his creepy vibes.”
The normal type nodded before his eyes glitched and displayed a second of static. “I see… I may talk to the human if he decides to come back to this school.”
“Nah, I think it’s better to just let him think that only I know. I noticed that this one is a bit timid and nervous.” She adjusted her glasses. “Better have him comfortable here so we don’t scare him away into supposedly getting kidnapped.”
“You are certainly right about that.” Mr. Zeta then did a little stretch with his limbs and floated behind his desk, turning on his computer and pulling out a cable from the drawer. “Anyways, I need to write a report to the director. Thanks for listening to me.”
Iris waved. “No problem Zeta- I mean Mr. Zeta.” She chuckled as she went to the door. The owl tried to open it, but it was still locked. “Oh um… Zeta…”
The Porygon-Z looked at the Decidueye motioning towards the door. “Ah yes, sorry.” He unlocked the door with his Psychic and Iris left the room. He let out another glitched sigh and plugged the cable into his body and connected it to the PC.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
The Porygon line had the power to enter inside computers and do whatever they wanted inside it. This action makes using a computer more easily since the Porygon line is half an AI and half a Pokémon. They don’t need to use keyboards, mousses, or any hardware, they are the hardware AND software at the same time.
With that knowledge, Zetamon started to write the report only using his voice. It was a handful for writing something fast, and if he wanted to erase something, he thought about the word he wanted to erase then, the next millisecond, it was gone. “Reaching the end of the dungeon, I encountered a team fighting a Galvantula, not from the dungeon, but from the wilds. Fortunately, the students Claire the fire Vulpix, Taro the Togedemaru, and Amy the Shaymin, managed to defeat it with the help of…” He erased the last part. “Managed to defeat it all by themselves with their teamwork.”
After filling in some details, he finished the report. He unplugged the cable from his body and his consciousness returned to the real world. He then said to himself. “Don’t worry little Joltik, I’ll keep your little secret hidden.”
----------------------------------------
“We. DID IT!” Claire shouted loudly in her room. “We did it, we did it, we fucking did IT!”
“Could you uh… express victory a bit quieter… my ears or… whatever would appreciate it…” John said putting his front nubs on the sides of his head.
After coming back from the Mystery Dungeon, Claire couldn’t contain her excitement, since a large smile could be seen on her face throughout the entire trip. Elsa on the other hand (or paw), didn’t care much, and when she and Claire arrived home, the ice Vulpix immediately went out to hang out with her friends.
John, however, was both happy and a little shaken by everything that happened in the dungeon. From all the bugs to his nightmare of a mother. He hoped and prayed to whatever god of this world to never see that abomination that calls itself his mother.
Thankfully, he was (probably) safe in a house full of (deity-looking) foxes, with non-bug Pokémon except for himself.
Claire sat up and looked at John. “Come on John, aren’t you happy that our first mission in a Mystery Dungeon was a success?”
“What I’m happy about is that I’m finally out of that horror house…” The human-turned-Joltik muttered to himself. “Yes… I am happy. Although, it felt more like your mission instead of ours.”
The fire fox wagged her tails. “Don’t be like that! You helped too, if it wasn’t for you catching that oran berry that Amy mentioned, who knows what would’ve happened to me?”
“Yeah I know… but I just felt like I caused more problems than helped. The bird snatching me up, me feeding off of your friend, and the elephant in the room, my mother…” The jumping spider shivered at the thought. “Worst moment of my new life so far…”
“Well, she was really unexpected, but still, we defeated her nonetheless and passed the activity!” Claire beamed. “Look on the positive sides of it at least.”
John sighed. “Fine, I’ll try at least.”
“That’s the spirit!” Suddenly, something came back to her. “Oh that’s right, I can’t wait to show mom my new move!”
John remembered seeing it from the distance, the ghostly flames that appeared around her. “Ah yes… do you know what that was?”
“Mom talked about it… I think… Will-o-Wisp, she said the move was called.” Claire summoned three small purple fireballs around her after she closed her eyes. The flames started circling around her body as she opened her eyes. “So cool…”
John looked in awe at the flames before his inner instincts only saw the danger. “Um… better… stop that before you burn something.” He meant a small greenish Joltik.
Claire nodded before the flames disappeared. “So awesome, isn’t that right?”
“Yeah, it is…” He looked aside for a moment, deep in thought. “Hm… I just thought of something…”
The Vulpix’s eyes glistened and she leaned her head close to John, making him yelp and do a small jump. “Yes?”
“U-um… it’s a combination of attacks and-”
“Say. No. More!” Claire grabbed him with her mouth and put him on her back. The Vulpix then raced to her private training grounds to make Snormmy suffer again, like last time wasn’t enough for the poor dummy. Claire stopped in front of it and put John on the ground as she wagged her tails excitedly. “So… as you were saying?”
John was a bit dumbfounded before snapping back to reality, stuttering, and looking at Claire. “R-right… so… a basically a combo between us.”
“Gosh, it hasn’t been one week and we’re already making our own combos! We will really make the perfect team together!”
“… Could you please…”
“Oops! Sorry, continue.” The Vulpix smiled sheepishly.
“So um…” John cleared his throat. “I thought about you burning stuff for a moment, and that got me thinking… what if I make you conduct the flames without having to miss the attack? If I trap the enemy or just…” He spat out strands of silk toward the Snorlax dummy, and it latched on to it. The Joltik cut the web from his mouth and held it with his pointy nub. “Now all you have to do is just put this String Shot on fire.”
After 5 seconds of thinking, Claire connected the dots. “Oh, like this?” She let out a small fireball on the web and the fire started consuming the entire Silk, to John’s nub to the end that was latched onto the Snorlax, it left a little black mark on the belly of the dummy. “Oh wow, it worked!”
“And that’s not all. Imagine the damage caused if the opponent is surrounded by silk or worse, trapped in a silk cocoon!” That made John a bit excited, he imagined some random bug burning inside a silk cocoon made by him. “Ah, the sweet, sweet damage…”
“Yeah! That’ll definitely be really useful in battles!”
“What will be useful in battles?” Another voice butted in. The two Pokémon looked to the side to see Reya, the Ninetales, sitting at the door of the backyard. “Heard voices back here just wanted to check in.”
Claire ran towards her mother, frolicking around like an excited puppy. “Mom, mom, mom! You won’t BELIEVE what happened today! I gotta tell you everything!”
The Ninetales chuckled. “Calm down girl. Don’t tell me you ate a Capsakid tooth to make you that fired up.”
“Of course not! So like, you know about that dungeon activity today? It was awesome, I fought my very best with my team, John even helped too!”
Reya realized a second later what that meant. “Wait… did that mean… he revealed himself to the whole class?”
“Well… not everyone saw him, only a few classmates.” Claire shrugged while letting out a sheepish smile.
The Ninetales sighed. “Well, at least the kids aren’t that huge of a deal…” She muttered to herself before warming up to Claire with a smile. “So, what did you do there in the dungeon?”
Claire grinned. “Well, Mr. Zeta asked us to find flags inside of the dungeon and take them out of it. But when we found a flag, this Galvantula came out of nowhere and said that it was John’s mother!”
“Excuse me what!?” All of Reya's tail shot up as she shouted. John hid behind a small rock.
“I swear that thing wasn’t my mother and it will never BE my mother!” He shouted from behind the rock.
“Don’t worry mom, we defeated it together!” Claire beamed as she made three purple flames appear around her. “And I learned a new move!”
The nine tails from Reya slowly lowered as she looked back at her daughter, looking at Will-o-Wisp she created. “Ah... you finally learned Will-o-Wisp! Way to go Claire…!” Claire made a toothy grin. “Now um… I have something to talk about with John over there, could you uh… do me a favor and go do something else?”
“Aw… but I didn’t even show our combo attack…”
“It’s alright, you can show me later!”
“Okay, mom!” The Vulpix said before running back inside the house.
Reya sighed and walked over to the small rock that John was sitting on top of. “So… could you explain that about… your mother?”
John made a high-pitched sigh and looked at the big deity-looking fox in front of him. “Look, this may sound strange but… yes the egg that I came from did come from someone… and since I uh…” He took a deep breath. “… fear bugs, I ran away from what was supposed to be my family…” 'My ass' kept being unsaid.
“I see… you didn’t think she would be a problem later?” The Ninetales asked laying on the ground as the tails behind her kept moving slowly and majestically.
“Yeah… no. I still think I put everyone in danger because of my stupid selfish thought…” John looked away ashamed of himself. How could he be this dumb? He should’ve known mothers do anything for their sons.
Reya closed her eyes before opening them again. “Look, John, don’t blame yourself for this. But you should know that Pokémon would do anything for their little babies, and I mean anything. You should see how an enraged Kangahskan acts when she doesn’t find her baby.”
“Um… I don’t know what that is and I don’t think I wanna know.”
The nine-tailed fox chuckled. “Good then, especially wild ones, don’t mess with it if you ever find one.”
“Alright then.” So far, John was really enjoying the talks he had with Reya. She doesn’t look like she is aggressive, acts calm and collected, and has that kind of warmth that only motherly people tend to have. “So erm… should we go back inside?”
“Alright then.” She turned her back and John hopped on her back. “Also could you tell me how is Claire enjoying School? I don’t see that happiness in ages.”
“Yeah… I guess I left some kind of impact on her.” John couldn’t help but chuckle at the thought of a small little spider just making a fire-breathing fox’s life happier by just existing.
“Ohoho, you certainly did.” With that, Reya closed the door to the backyard with a telekinetic pull.