#pmd month

[rokkosmysterydungeon]

31 Days of PMD: An Interconnected Series of Vignettes

Day 17: Favorite Game

Game: All

Theme: Meta, Comparisons, Revelations

Spoilers: Post-game

It was once again time for the Teams to convene. And by Teams, I mean five incarnations of the same human, and their partners. It was this human who was brought to this Earth-inhabited-only-by-pokémon multiple times, within the span of a single decade laden with calamities. Each version of her, with a trusty pokémon partner in tow, stopping these calamities from ending the world. And now that they all knew about each other, they’d been having these little get-togethers ever since. Mostly to hang out, support one another, and learn from each other.

A lot of the time, the other humans learned about the human world from Dork, an emboar and the only one of them who didn’t have amnesia. As a bonus, she could even still access the human world physically. Last time, she’d told them about a human world fictional character named Squidward Tentacles, but this time, she had something she was super-excited to share with her counterparts!

She warped into the room holding a small cardboard box. Inside was a strange blue book-looking thing and 5 smaller boxes. Assuming you, the reader, are from the same human world as she is, you would probably recognize these items as a Nintendo 3DS and the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series of video games.

Passing the box around, the other four humans each took one of the games, reading the text on them curiously. When the box got back to Dork, she passed it to her partner, a haxorus named Andrea.

“Pokémon Mystery Dungeon?” Danny, a combusken and the hero of the Air Continent, read aloud. She could still read English, the language printed on the box, despite her amnesia and not having encountered anything in English for years. Flipping over her box, which was thicker and made of a flimsier material than the other boxes, she continued reading. “Introducing the newest pokémon, you, what if you woke up one day and you were a pokémon... Well this is bizarre.”

“Are these things…? Dork, so this means the humans know about this world, and apparently what goes on in it?” asked Cia, the infernape hero of the Grass Continent. She recognized locales like the Treasure Town Beach and the Wigglytuff Guild, reproduced in the pictures printed on her box.

Andrea tapped on Dork’s shoulder as she was preparing to answer Cia. “Hey Dork, not to interrupt you, but what is with this book? Where are the pages, or even words???” They had opened the 3DS and was confused by the lack of pages within it.

Daniel, a blaziken and a more famous hero of the Grass Continent, opened her box, and was greeted by a strange tile being held in place by some tiny clips. “This one also does not have pages.”

“Mine does.” said Cia, showing off the inside of hers, where the instruction manual was.

“Everyone, everyone! I’m about to explain all of this!” said Dork. She held up her box, a copy of Gates to Infinity, with a flourish. “These are the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games!! So in the human world, there are these things called video games, where you-” She held out her hand for Andrea to hand her the 3DS, and they did. “-press these buttons on this machine to affect the sights and sounds on a screen!” She pointed to each part of the 3DS as she explained this. “Sometimes video games are exercises of reflex and strategy, and other times they tell stories! And as I’m sure you all figured out, these ones, developed by the group Spike Chunsoft, tell our stories!~”

The crowd of pokémon murmured. The humans-turned-pokémon heroes’ conversed with their born-pokémon partners to discuss what this could all mean.

“I’ll bite.” said the ever-quiet Madoka, the human who up until now, hadn’t spoken during this get-together. She was the quilava hero of the Water Continent. “Just how did they know about this world and what we did here? Do you tell them about us while visiting?”

“That!” Dork replied. “Is the cool thing! Humans entirely came up with it from imagination! I did not need to tell anyone about us. In fact, this game series started even before I was brought here and found out this world was real! To think, a dimension really exists here that matches up with these stories! I know none of you remember, but the human we all are… is a huuuge fan of these games!”

“Yup!” Daigo, a bayleef and Madoka’s partner, nodded. “I already knew that and in fact was part of why I chose you all those years ago in the first place!” Daigo was an alter ego for the ancient pokémon Amui, who had indeed found out about Pokémon Video Games and how Mystery Dungeon fans seemed more likely to consider coming here.

“WHAAAAAT?” shouted everyone else except Dork.

Daniel then pointed at the green-labeled tile in her box. “So this is like, a tiny book that that machine you’re holding reads and makes, the game?”

Dork nodded. “Something like that! In fact, let me demonstrate with my game, Gates to Infinity!” She inserted her game, a much more thick-paper-looking light gray tile, into the 3DS and turned it on. The screen came to life and the diorama-like 3D models moved on the screen as the game ran, the emboar passed the system around so everyone could look at it, mesmerized.

“Ohhh that is sooo cool!” said Samuel, an empoleon and Daniel’s partner. “Also, is any one of these game things the most popular in the human world? I have to imagine one is, right? That the humans think is... the best?”

“Oh yeah.” said Dork. “Among the human fanbase, Explorers of Sky, which is your and Daniel’s game, is by far the most popular and liked.”

Samuel made a proud pose. It seemed his game matched the popularity of Team Talon in real life and he was all for it. “They’ve got great taste! Best game of the series, huh? Wanna bet that makes me the most popular character, too?”

Dork had an anime sweat drop appear on her head. “Well, popular doesn’t necessarily mean the best...” She chuckled nervously. “The most popular character is the thief-actually-hero Grovyle, which means the most popular of us is Razr.” She pointed at the surprised grovyle, who was Danny’s partner and thus part of the Air Continent’s Team Emberites, an area and story covered by a different game.

“What? Seriously, me??” stammered Razr. “That’s uh… that’s so much though…” He really wasn’t sure how to take this, it wasn’t exactly a goal of his to be popular in another dimension, or something he’d even conceptualized as possible. “Wait a minute, by thief that means that bad future version of me that helped Team Crimson and then Talon. That future that no longer happens, so technically, not me!”

“I dunnooooo~” Danny chirped in a silly-playful tone. “Technically, that is you!”

Razr started looking around the room, as he tended to do when flustered. “But-”

Danny then leaned close to Razr, offering him a hug with her warm feathers if he wanted. “Dark future-Razr could only become the hero he was because of who you are! You’re a hero, especially my hero!”

Razr was calming down, having accepted the hug, when Snake, the ivysaur partner of Cia, had finally gathered the courage to say his thoughts out loud. “Wait a minute, but if my team and Team Talon, where we both did basically the same thing, saving Time from collapse, that would mean our game is near identical, right? So why would Team Talon’s game be the most popular?”

Dork shrugged nervously. “Well, their game, Sky, had bonus content compared to yours, Explorers of Darkness, because Sky came out later as an enhancement to Time and Darkness.”

“Is- is bonus content, whatever that means, seriously it?” Snake said in a small tone of voice.

“So uh, Dork?” asked Madoka, trying to change the subject. “Which game is your, or I guess, our favorite? Is it Explorers of Sky?”

“Ohhhh gosh, it’s actually pretty difficult to choose a favorite for me actually. I like them all a lot! I guess my favorite tends to be close between Rescue Team and Super. Super’s got really fun gameplay and-”

“Wait, Dork.” interrupted Andrea, their arms crossed. “Your favorite isn’t our game, the something of Infinity?”

“Welllll… I mean, I still love it, it’s a very charming and relaxing game, it’s just... the gameplay’s just a haiiiir under and the text speed is unbearably slow...” clarified Dork.

“Unbelievable. The humans made our game the worst one if I’m understanding you right. Why do so many things you tell me about the human world make me want to chop down a tree?” The haxorus looked over at Snake. “So inadequacy club for us, then?”

Cia spoke up to defend Snake & try to defuse everything. “Worst of an overall good series is still really good, I’d think! It sounds like we all have high quality video games. Worst doesn’t have to mean bad.”

Andrea scoffed. “I mean, that is kind of what the word ‘worst’ tends to mean, but I’ll drop it.”

Cia shrugged and went back to playing the 3DS since she had it at the moment. It was remarkably intuitive, despite her not remembering what video games were.

“Aren’t video games just made up of human words code?” Daigo asked casually. “You can just, modify the words to make the text speed faster and stuff, can’t you?”

Dork answered. “Nintendo doesn’t like people modifying games on their systems, I’d have to do some homebrew I’m not sure if I’m technologically competent enough to not mess up.”

“Nintendo sounds like they can go eat a rock.” said Andrea.

Daigo couldn’t help but laugh at that.

Madoka, staring intently at her box, said “I noticed there’s some numbers on here that seem to be years? Are these human calendar years, 1995 & 2015?”

“Yes.” said Dork. “Why do you ask?”

The quilava looked around and then asked. “I’ve been wondering how old I am, on-and-off. So… assuming these games come out spaced similarly to our adventures, and you have your memories and thus know your own age… can you figure out what mine is?”

“Ohhh, yeah of course, I can totally answer that. You are correct about the correlation between when each of us arrived and when the games came out. Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon came out late November 2015, which is when I, and consequently you, were 23 years old.”

Madoka blinked, her eyes taking on a wide, blank stare. “23?”

It soon dawned on everyone in the room, who were familiar with Madoka’s story, how she was taking this information and why.

“You mean… I’ve been seen as, treated as, a kid this whole time...? Tachibana sent me to a kid-level school and everything… And I’m 23?! Are you freaking kidding me?” Her flame spots, which typically never produced flame during these meetings, lit up in all their blazing glory.

“Well, uh, hey you’re in kindred spirits. I was also seen as and treated as a kid and I’m several millenniums old, ha ha haaaa….” Daigo said, hoping to help Madoka navigate this sudden trying time.

She would need more time, though the others did try to pitch into the calming. Cia for example, tried giving her the 3DS, though she refused to take it. Eventually, she just handed it off to Danny instead, who, after her attempt at helping Madoka was the one that worked, seemed to jump at the opportunity to reward herself.

The chipper combusken opened her box and noticed that her game was a wider and thicker than the game cards the others had. Molded right above the label were the words ‘Game Boy Advance’. After failing to find anywhere in the 3DS it would fit, she held it up and went “Hey uhhhh Dork? How do I put this one in?”

Dork’s eyes bugged out. “Ack! I completely forgot, that one’s not compatible with the 3DS! I should’ve brought my regular DS too… sorry about that.”

Danny laughed. “I don’t know what any of those mean, but thank you!” Soon everyone else joined in on the laughter too and decided to call it a night shortly thereafter. After all, there’s only so much getting your mind-blown one can take in one sitting.

[rokkosmysterydungeon]

31 Days of PMD: An Interconnected Series of Vignettes

Day 16: Legendary

Game: Headcanon Distant Past

Theme: Quick-thinking, Hope in the face of all odds

Spoilers: Contains spoilers & “call-forwards” for Super’s endgame

It was the end of the world. The cluster of an entity known as Dark Matter had used their Dark Enforcers to transmute almost every pokémon on the planet into cold, unmoving, stone. This technique was all thanks to the brightest of the enforcers, now known as Yveltal. Yveltal had undergone a big metamorphosis during the endgame of Dark Matter’s plan, turning into the final piece of the plot to end all life, the Cocoon of Death.

Yveltal’s corporeal projection, a large red Y-shaped bird, was locked in battle against a similar projection, that of the Tree of Life, the tall blue X-shaped deer, Xerneas. He had undergone a transformation of his own, and was the opposing linchpin for the final stand. The two stood off, each set to stop the other’s goal. All around them were a handful of allies, the scattered remains of the Alchemists’ League and the Warriors’ Guild. The battlefield was strewn with petrified pokémon, those who had been turned to stone during this very battle, looks of frozen despair on their faces.

So pitched was this brawl that no one had noticed the sudden appearance of an absolutely puny vulpix, or I suppose a nickit? Or Zoru- anyway, a pokémon appeared on the scene, brought here by Amui, a small blue cat-like pokémon. They had finally decided to show up to this pivotal battle after all. Amui had been searching for some kind of answer to stop all this, and now was the time to put their answer into fruition.

“Okay, your target’s over there!” they waved and pointed, trying to catch their +1’s attention. “Go get ‘em! C’mon Role, you can do it! Go! Go over there! Go get ‘em, girl!”

The fox-like pokémon, Role, was entirely overwhelmed from the sheer amount of new stimuli. She had been turned into this form, like, a minute ago, and was getting bombarded with sensory input, especially from the sounds of the battle all around her. She also now had a completely different leg setup (from plantigrade 2 to now digitigrade 4), and had only just barely stumbled out of the way when a lucario and aegislash, locked spike-to-shield, barreled past. It was probably for the best she couldn’t process what Amui was saying. The blue mew was being a bit too unknowingly patronizing. Role’s not a pet!

Dark Matter had no face, or any known nonverbal way to display emotion. If they could, they probably would’ve looked bemused in this moment. “THis iS aMui'S PLaN TO sToP us?” they thought, and continued gathering power for their next wave of petrifications. It would be their final wave, the one to wipe out the last of the mere crumbs-worth of pokémon, once their Enforcers took down that pesky Tree of Life that stood between them and hurtling this planet into the sun.

Another participant in the battle, a pink onion-like fairy-ish pokémon, Alys, then noticed the presence of Amui and the fox pokémon. Amui, she was familiar with, the two having similar origins. She was created by Dialga, and Amui by Palkia, both as their respective “parents” first creations. Both had, along with fellow creation Ali, formally left their creators and became tight-knit group of friends. As for Role… Alys didn’t know what to make of her.

She dodged several incoming attacks from a nearby gardevoir as she thought about what to do. What in the actual hey did Amui have in mind? They were trying to sic this puny pokémon, who didn’t even seem to know how to walk, onto Dark Matter. She’d known Amui for centuries, and knew their plans tended to either be elaborately-thought out or hastily boneheaded, and this was looking to be the latter. She made her decision and called on her power to pause time. Everyone and everything stopped, except for the exceptions she’d granted: herself and Amui.

“Huh?” Amui blinked, picking up the sudden lack of movement and sound. They spun to face Alys, having experienced this power many times before. “Alys, what’s up?”

“Who is that.” Alys pointed at Roll, who was frozen mid-mental-meltdown. The celebi had been wanting to save her time pause (a power that’s use took a lot out of her) for a better moment, on account of this battle literally being the last stand for all life on the world. But that better moment would never come if Amui continued fooling around, though.

“This is a human!! Her name is Role!” Amui said with glitters of hope in their eyes. “You know how Dark Matter petrifies any pokémon that comes close, right? But then I realized, that might not work on animals. Sooo, I found a dimension where the animals didn’t go extinct, picked the smartest of animal species, humans, and then vetted through a lot of them- I did my due diligence, Alys!- and found one willing to help me save the world and she’s here now!” They gestured to the tiny fox, highly proud of their find.

“Humans did not look like this.” Alys’s eyes narrowed. She knew Amui wouldn’t outright try to fool her, which could only mean they had managed to fool themselves. “Did you turn it into a pokémon? That seems like it’d defeat the whole purpose.”

Amui’s confidence fell. “Uh umm, yeah… that’s because animals can’t use Moves and so I thought taking advantage of the Trading Void’s mechanics to give her a power boost… uh… yeah I’m betting on that Dark Matter’s waves target by soul and not physiology.”

Alys sighed. “Despite how much I really wish I could avoid saying this: even in the form of a pokémon, this human does not seem powerful at all. Even supposing she manages to get close to Dark Matter, do you truly believe she’s capable of destroying it?”

No answer from Amui. During the pause-within-this-pause, Alys looked over to where Dark Matter was. That... thing had pushed life on planet Earth to the brink. She knew how deeply Amui cared about stopping it. Amui had, with her and Ali’s help, warped reality itself to create the Mystery Dungeons 400 years ago, all to save the pokémon on this planet. She remembered Amui in tears, when they told her how they found out Dark Matter was a side effect of the Mystery Dungeon inner workings. The Void Shadows that embodied by the lifeforce and emotions of all pokémon… their own Shadow twisting into Dark Matter, setting out to destroy everything Amui held dear.

She felt for her friend. They shouldered such worry, such guilt, and such feeling of responsibility. “Hhhh, Amui… I apologize for my dismissiveness before. You are in a desperate and painful spot, thus understandably, you were taken in by the fastest plan you could create.” She floated down slowly, until she was entirely sitting on the ground. “But we do need a better plan, and seeing as I have time paused right now, we should brainstorm one. Do you agree?”

Amui followed suit by laying down, and taking a deep breath. “Yeah, I do. Thank you for being a good friend, Alys.” They looked around, their gaze catching on Role. “Let’s first go over what we’re working with...”

Role hyperventilated as the action of the battle swirled all around her. So lost was she in the meltdown that she didn’t even notice the jump-cut-like fashion in which Amui abruptly disappeared and a strange hole (a time portal) appeared. What she could notice, was when Alys flew down close to her and started talking.

“Hey. Hey Role. It is going to be okay. Can you calm down for me?”

The small pokémon gasped in a large gulp of air. She was trying to follow the instruction best she could. She wanted to be calmer, and now someone else wanted her to be calmer too.

Eventually, she had calmed down sufficiently enough, so Alys began the speech she prepared. “Amui and I came up with a plan. I will fly you somewhere away from here so I can brief you on-”

She was interrupted by a thunderous CRRRRACK!! She looked up and saw the Tree of Life, grievously damaged. Xerneas’s projection doubled over, and began to flicker out of existence. And as this happened, Dark Matter began to pulse rapidly. They were close to finishing the charge for their final petrification wave!

“There’s no time.” Alys thought, in a dread-stained split-second.

“Role, I have to cut it short, just remember Amui trusts you and you can do this!” She said without pausing. Every single little bit of time was of the essence here. Using her remaining strength, she picked Role up and tossed her into the time portal. “Good luck, you two.” was her final thought before the wave washed over her, turning her and the remaining pokémon present, to stone.

To return life to this planet, Amui and Role would have to pull off the plan in the past. A new adventure would begin for everyone, and hopefully, they’d all save the world from this grave fate.

[rokkosmysterydungeon]

31 Days of PMD: An Interconnected Series of Vignettes

Day 15: Dungeon

Game: Rescue Team

Theme: Difference in Experiences, Helping Those You Can

Spoilers: Very start of game

Tiny Woods might as well been called Towering Woods for the two tiny pokémon walking around in there. The first in the small line was a torchic named Danny. Walking-while-cowering behind her was a treecko named Razr. They had both only just met less than an hour ago, and both of them were anxious with fear.

Razr had always been afraid of mystery dungeons. The lack of consistent spatial sense was disorienting and the dungeon illusions, which were strange, non-speaking facsimiles of pokémon that attacked any unfortunate pokémon that entered. He had been fortunate to never really have a need to go in one willingly, though he had daydreamed about having the courage to go into them fearlessly and rescue pokémon in need. But today, when he and Danny were abruptly approached by a panicked mother, who insisted there was no time to go into town to get a professional Rescue Team on the case, the dream seemed to be coming true, minus the bravery.

“That butterfree’s really, really worried. I just hope me and Danny can actually pull this off...”

Danny, meanwhile, had only just arrived here, with amnesia to boot. She had absolutely no idea what any of this was. Without any experience living in this world, or this body (she used to be a human), it was all a cavalcade of new, a cavalcade of intimidatingly daunting and dangerous events. Where she once had long and dexterous arms, she now had stubby wings that couldn’t grab anything. Her legs, also now stubby, were bombarded by a revelry of uncomfortable scrapes and sensations mostly inflicted by her own clumsiness. All she could do was try to feel out how to even pull this mission off… a little kid was in danger, after all.

“The poor caterpie… I hope we can find him soon. These trees seem like they’re stretching on forever! Why are these paths strangely rectangular? I need to watch where I’m going so don’t step on yet another rock. I should probably ask Razr how to use like, those elemental Moves because I do at least know I’m a fire-type which is supposed to be useful for those dungeon… uh things, I gotta ask Razr what that term was again...”

She used her talons to pick up some blue fruit she found while scanning the ground and passed it to the hands-having treecko. “Hey Razr, I was wondering...”

Razr accidentally crushed the Oran Berry as he received it. He was quite tense. Hopefully, his nerves wouldn’t make him blank on this yet-another-question from her. “Wondering what?”

“Do you? Er- Is there a trick to using like, the Moves of the elemental types, like…? You know a grass-type Move, right?”

“Uh, yeah I do but… trick to it? I know you said you’re human and that’s probably why you don’t know, but it’s… just something you know how to do. I don’t know how I can explain it at all...” He saw Danny’s face fall and panickedly added: “B-but I can try to think of how I do it! And how to explain it! I’ve kind of never had to really battle in my life so uh, not really trained to teach if you know what I mean, ha ha haaa….”

As the two entered a narrow passage, known to seasoned Rescuers as “hallways” (and thus, neither of them knew they were called that). Razr followed as Danny slowly inched forward. The novice torchic was staring directly at the ground, focusing on walking more carefully. Due to this, she was failing to notice the illusory exeggcute that was hopping directly toward her.

A pit dropped in Razr’s stomach. What was Danny doing?! He tried to speak, but was having trouble getting anything out besides whispery mumbles. His eyes darted back and forth between Danny and the exeggcute, praying that she’d notice in time.

Then, Danny paused. Did she finally notice the enemy up ahead and making a plan? “Whew, that’s right… dungeon illusions slow down if you slow down. She’s probably formulating a plan of attack right now, thank goodness!” thought Razr. This emotion was quickly dashed when Danny just spun in place instead, apparently testing out some leg motion, shrieking a kiai as she did so. The exeggcute reacted by advancing dangerously closer.

“Augh!” Razr had to face the hard truth. How Danny outright told him more than one reason she didn’t know how to fight! And yet he’d been cowering behind her this whole time. Whether he liked it or not, he was the more experienced of the two, and needed to take action! He quickly took a deep breath and aimed his mouth straight ahead. He was a head taller than Danny so with the next hop the dungeon illusion would take, he’d have a clear shot.

And as the hop came, he roared out, “Here I go! Dragon Breath!”

Danny finally clued in that danger was a mere foot away from her when Razr invoked his Move. She stared ahead as the purple flame of Dragon Breath soared over her head, slightly brushing against her head feathers, and hit the exeggcute directly in mid-air. The illusion fell to the ground and faded. Razr just defeated it in one shot.

After taking a second to process this, she turned around to look at Razr. (though not in the eyes) Now, she was missing a lot of memories, but some that she retained had to do with pokémon, and with that knowledge came some preconceptions. The one relevant to this situation was that she was not expecting Razr, a treecko, to have a powerful Move like Dragon Breath, especially not one who had admitted to not having battled as much as most pokémon.

She took a staggered breath. “H-how do you know that move? That was… you have Dragon Breath!?”

Razr blinked, staring back at her. He was trying to look at her eyes. “I mean, uh… is that? Or, I guess it is. You see, the thing about me…” He rubbed the back of his head. “… I’m rich. My father owns the largest applemeal and grain mill in the area. I, uh, don’t know if you know or remember the concept of money, but... even though I’ve never gone into a dungeon without a powerful chaperone, my father still got me this expensive TM, to allow me access to a Move like this. But… I’ve never had a reason to actually use it, for real, until now.”

Danny finally looked up at his face. Razr could see something… he wasn’t sure what the emotion he saw in her eyes was, only that it was incredibly positive. The torchic quickly averted her gaze once again. Evidently even when she made eye contact for some reason, she’d catch on and so couldn’t do so for long. Looking sheepishly down at the ground, she said, “So Razr, was the reason…? Is the reason you finally used that Move, to protect me?”

Razr blushed, not knowing how to take a comment he had never before received in his life. Sure he had covered the rescue fees of countless pokémon, but… gratitude like this? Where he had finally physically defended someone? This was new territory. And his heart pounded with fervor. It was such a new, exciting experience. Whether he was ready or not, fate had thrown him someone who had spurred him to take this leap. He felt more than he ever did, that his dream was within his reach. He could be a protector, a rescuer!

“Um, uh… Well I mean- you seemed like you were still trying to figure out the Move thing and so I thought I’d, uh, yeah. Protect you, heh heh!” He took a deep breath again, but this time to just, live in the moment. He was relieved. “Anyway Danny, what do you say we go rescue that caterpie, huh?”

Danny nodded and started running down the hallway. “Yes! I’m on it!” she chirped, confident in the friendship bond she’d just started.

“Alright! Then, oh hey! Wait for me!”

[rokkosmysterydungeon]

31 Days of PMD: An Interconnected Series of Vignettes

Day 14: Betrayal

Game: Super

Theme: Emotional Turmoil & Processing

Spoilers: Post-game (actually... contains massive spoilers for all the games)

The quilava sighed wearily as she laid down on a bed of straw, surrounded by a group of four other fire-type pokémon. Her name was Madoka, and she’d been working hard the past several months to fill something called “The Arc of Connections”. The pokémon around her had a unique connection to her, because, in a weird sort of time/consciousness-shenanigans kind of way, they were also her.

Danny the combusken, Cia the infernape, Daniel the blaziken, and Dork the emboar. Some time ago, they and Madoka discovered they were all somehow the same being, a particular human, brought into the pokémon world multiple times. And each of them had saved the world in some way. All their journeys seemed to have other similarities as well, and in fact was why the troubled quilava requested this meeting. She wanted to ask her other selves advice about…

“How did you all deal with the uh… when someone you thought you could trust betrayed you?”

Madoka had, over the course of learning about her other selves and their stories, remembered that this seemed to be a common thread in all their experiences.

Dork was the first to respond. “Why do you ask?”

“It’s about Mr. Tachibana, isn’t it?” Cia interjected.

Madoka nodded, and rolled onto her back to stare at the ceiling. One heave of a breath later, she elaborated on her issue. “My Team recently reached Great Master Rank and when we Rank up, the Connection Orb informs us of pokémon interested in Connecting with us. This time, he showed up. Apparently he wants to try and make up for betraying me in the past by contributing to the Arc of Connections.” She started looking around to her counterparts, trying to gauge if she had lost them in her ramble. “I don’t know what to do… I don’t want to but at the same time I feel like I have to. Like this is part of the whole test to see if I’m worthy of meeting Arceus. Yet every time I think about him… I just...”

She began shaking from the memory and her other four selves immediately stepped in with pets and comfort. One benefit of them all being versions of the same person meant they knew exactly the ways they all preferred to be comforted. “It’s okay. It’s okay.” The group insisted.

Mr. Tachibana, a nuzleaf from Serene Village, had done a number on Madoka with the betrayal he did while under the dark influence of the being Dark Matter. Shortly after she arrived in the pokémon world, he’d taken her in and acted like a father to her. Only it turned out this was a scheme to manipulate her all along; he’d been the one to give the order to scramble her brain, and then once she did the one thing he needed, he used a power shared among the Dark Enforcers to turn her and everyone she was with at the time, including their best friend, Daigo, to stone, sending all their souls to the hellish dimension known as the Voidlands. And then when she and Daigo had escaped and encountered him again, he gloated about all of it, shredding Madoka’s already battered heart.

Little wonder that even with the knowledge Dark Matter was influencing him at the time, Madoka still did not trust, or even want to think about him. Everything about the subject of him hurt.

The conversation finally continued when Danny tried the ‘using anecdote from own experience to try and help’ thing she was prone to do. “You know, when the entire town of Pokémon Square turned on me and Razr, and wanted us dead, it was difficult to swallow when we cleared my name and the townspeople apologized to us. I was thinking ‘how can I go back to trusting them when they betrayed me so easily and violently?’ I suppose the reason I eventually did forgive them was mostly because I felt I needed to in order to make my own peace with setting foot in the town again, and using key facilities I need to perform my rescue work. Our circumstances are different, and that’s not to say you definitely have to forgive Mr. Tachibana. It’s more… uh… maybe it’d help if you thought about the ways the forgiveness would help you, to help you decide.”

Daniel, who often seemed to carry herself as ‘Danny but more responsible’ due to being the evolved form of her Air Continent counterpart, nodded, and added, “Remember that you do not owe anyone you wronged your forgiveness. You are not wronging them back by not forgiving or letting back into your life. Even if they weren’t fully in control, the fact of the matter is, you were still hurt, and the face attached etches itself in your memory, logic or choice be damned. To elaborate on what Danny said, your focus is best served on brainstorming how forgiveness, or no forgiveness, would help you, and then weighing from there.”

“If it helps, you can use us as an example. Daniel hasn’t forgiven Nada and wants nothing to do with him, while I did and check in with him from time to time, helping him make sure he never becomes his evil future self.” said Cia.

The duskull she was referring to, Nada, was regarded among Cia, Daniel, and the explorer community as a whole as a weird case, because he technically didn’t do anything wrong. It was his dusknoir future self from a dark timeline, who went by Adán, that had betrayed both Team Crimson and Team Talon, but that version of him was erased, twice. It was a future that wasn’t going to happen. And yet the duskull still feared becoming that guy again.

“Yeah he sure is an example, alright...” said Daniel.

“I mean unlike Mr. Tachibana, the Nada of this timeline didn’t actually do anything, and I felt like I owed him help-” “Please don’t say that, that’s really not gonna help Madoka right now!” Daniel and Cia disagreed about Nada more than they’d both care to admit. Despite being the same person, and having a near-identical adventure, the fact both had wildly different partners personality-wise had clearly influenced the two in different ways.

“Okay, quiet everyone.” Dork raised her voice. Not to a full-on yell, but still enough to overpower the usual trained-quietness all the versions of her spoke with. “Madoka, would you like us to help you with making your mental list?”

The still-stressed quilava seemed to deflate on the bed. “I don’t know… I wish I knew the correct answer. To everything, really. I want to, I guess, know if he, er- Mr. Tachibana, if he really is trying. I don’t know if I want to start having him in my life again really, but… if he wants to make amends, to accept his help in completing the Arc?” She moved over to the window and looked outside, where all the partners, one for all 5 of the humans, were hanging out. She naturally put her gaze mostly on her partner, watching as they were showing off their Move Transform, going from their bayleef identity, Daigo, to their mew identity, Amui, and back again.

“I want to complete the Arc, for them...” she said, sadly.

Danny, ever trying-to-help, asked, “Do you feel that, you want to complete it for you, too?”

“I don’t know...”

Dork stepped in. “You know, you don’t have to decide right now.” She stepped over to the window to join Madoka in reflection. “Your partner, well, they’re immortal, and if your body’s anything like the rest of ours, you’ve got plenty of life ahead of you. You don’t have to make a decision about this now, or even anytime soon. I trust Daigo will understand.”

Madoka looked up at Dork with her bright red eyes. “Do you really believe so?”

“Oh yeah.” The emboar nodded, as the other three walked over to give Madoka back pats. Dork then thought for a second and then shared, “In fact, the pokémon who betrayed me and Andrea, that munna, her name is Dal. And I still haven’t come to my own decision on whether I forgive her or not. She’s really been trying to do good in the world now, I believe she’s making a true effort. But she and her cohorts also eliminated many humans-turned-pokémon off the face of this world, and almost got me as well. But that’s how I know, er- how I can assure you it’s alright if you still can’t decide.

Danny, Cia, and Daniel all nodded. “Very valid. You’re good at this, Dork.”

Madoka took a relieved breath as that adorable smile of hers finally returned. “Thank you Dork, thank you everyone. I definitely feel relieved for now.” She then ran to go join all the partners outside, ready to play and stuff. It was a lovely night out there, and her decision on Mr. Tachibana could always wait to be made under a different set of stars.

[rokkosmysterydungeon]

31 Days of PMD: An Interconnected Series of Vignettes

Day 13: Villain

Game: Rescue Team

Theme: Predisposition, Predestination, and Choice

Spoilers: Post-game (also contains a spoiler for Gates to Infinity)

“That human will one day be reborn as a Pokémon… And when the human becomes a Pokémon… The world's balance will be upset..."

Truman never heard those words, because by the time the ninetales said them, he had run quite far away. But he was certainly experiencing them now, because for many months now, he hadn’t been a human.

He was a gastly. He just woke up like this one morning, deposited in some place called Noe Town on the Mist Continent or whatever. Nothing was familiar about it, and the more he learned, the more he realized this was another world altogether.

With his new form lacking limbs, Truman had found his time here… difficult. It was a whole big learning curve to figure out how to do anything, including access to the powers pokémon could use, known as Moves. Compounding matters was that Noe Town was something of a cesspool teeming with thieves and liars. He’d gotten beaten up and stolen from more times than he could count.

That was, until he met Munna. This pokémon found him, beaten up as usual, at the ocean one day. He awoke in her miserable little shack of a house, and upon realizing the situation, and the floating pink pokémon’s kindness, decided that his luck had finally changed. He introduced himself, and the fact that he used to be a human, and the munna gave her name in turn, and tearfully danced around Truman with joy, as she had pinned her hopes on the fairy tales she’d read, where a human comes to Earth to save the land and the innocent pokémon! She promised right then to help and support him in any way she could.

She gave so much, yet Truman never bothered to learn her name. To him, pokémon having names was such an affront. Did they think they were people or something? Now, obviously pokémon in the world of pokémon are people because they have their own societies, which require the ability to critically think, to achieve. But Truman couldn’t see it that way. Pokémon were always merely bestial helpers to humans. For as long as he could remember, that was always the truth. When he was a Pokémon Trainer, he lived by that truth. And when Munna gave her offer, he took the chance to live by it again.

All he needed was for Munna to help him find out how to return to the human world, and of course, ensure he survived to get that far.

And help him she did. Though it took a long while, the two had reached the end of their latest lead. In exchange for gathering some materials for a local chandelure, the chandelure told them the supposed whereabouts of a wise sage, who supposedly knew the most about humans and destinies out of anyone in the area.

“Whew… this is it, Truman! Er- hopefully!” Munna said with a smile. She floated forward into this strange mystic cave.

Truman floated behind her in turn. He wondered how close he was to evolving. He remembered that haunter, the evolved form of gastly, had hands, and he direly missed his. Though if this time really was the goal he’d sought, he’d have his old, fully-featured body back anyway.

The two reached the inner part of the cave, where an yamask greeted them. The mask he carried on his tail was strange in that it was completely blank.

“I foresaw that I’d have company today! Welcome Gastly & Munna. For what do you seek my knowledge for?”

Munna, ever the advocate for Truman, went ahead to respond. “My friend here, he is a human, and seeking a way to fulfill his destiny and return home!”

The yamask then took his blank mask and held it up to Truman. The mask then grew a face. It was Truman’s from when he was a human! He was a little uneasy, but also impressed. The yamask stared intently at the mask, before finally turning to address the expectant gastly.

“I can confirm you are indeed a human. However...” as they said that, everyone’s face fell. “Through the circumstances you entered this world, you are not allowed to leave.”

“WHAT!?” roared Truman. “WHAT CIRCUMSTANCES, EVEN?”

The yamask revealed what he had found. “You pulled on the tail of a ninetales, and abandoned your loyal pokémon partner so you could avoid a terrible curse. But your wicked heart wouldn’t go unpunished… She foresaw that you’d wind up here and great calamity would follow.”

Munna was shaking. “This… this can’t be true… Truman isn’t like that… right?”

“He is.” The yamask sighed. “But his punishment, is also a test. When humans arrive in our world, it’s because the sender knows one can help save it. Though he’ll never get to leave, if he works on himself, and becomes better, he can stop the coming calamity, saving all of us, and himself, in the process.”

Truman was livid. His rage built up inside him with every word this yamask spoke. “Never get to leave? I’ll never get to leave this stupid world!? Then what’s the point of helping any of these pokémon!? A wicked heart, a wicked heart!? I’LL SHOW YOU A WICKED HEART!”

“ASTONISH!” He snapped like a rubber band to attack the yamask, no mercy. The Move hit and allowed him to immediately follow up with another before his target could retaliate. “PAYBACK!”

“Truman- TRUMAN! Stop it! What are you doing?” cried Munna. She didn’t get why her friend was doing this, but that was only because he hadn’t truly let her get to know him. Why would he, after all?

The angry gastly finished pummeling the poor yamask into the ground, and turned to face her. “Didn’t you hear that? Apparently, I’m stuck here forever.” He began to laugh. “Keh… I’m feeling so much better now that I beat him, though. I’ve been getting stronger lately, haven’t you noticed?”

Munna was freaking out at this point. “W-well, I’m sorry you’re stuck here, but on the bright side, you’ve got me! We’re friends and you can still save the world, bring back hope!”

Truman began floating over to her. “You don’t understand. We are not friends. You think we’re friends just because I flattered you with pretty words before?! I am a human. And where I come from, pokémon exist to serve humans.” He was dangerously close now. “You didn’t even help me teach this old fool a lesson. I’m starting to think you’ve outstayed your usefulness.”

Small tears fell from the pink pokémon’s eyes. But Truman didn’t care. He only had one last thing to say to her. “I think I’m about ready to evolve now.” Munna gasped as he launched Moves at her, knocking her out before she’d even fully processed his betrayal.

… When she came to, she was all alone in the cave. All alone, like before. In this cruel world, her beacon of hope turned out to be just like the rest of it. There was nothing to believe in anymore. It was then that Dal, the munna, cursed Truman’s name, and vowed she’d make him pay someday. She’d make any human who came here pay... humans were the worst, and she hated them. She hated him.

A haunter cackled to himself in his makeshift lair. It had been about a year now since he’d evolved and outgrew that goody-good munna. Now he was the one delivering the beatdowns, and taking what he wanted. His name was Truman, and many, many pokémon on the Mist Continent all had some bone to pick with him. As much as he was enjoying himself, his growing reputation as an evil outlaw was making it increasingly tougher to go into any towns. He decided to begin making plans to ditch this place and go somewhere new. He just had to pick where.

He used his hands to grab a dart and throw it at a map of the world on the wall. He then floated over to inspect where it landed. Where would he find his next destiny...

“The Air Continent, huh? Keh-keh-keh! Wait until the pokémon over there get a load of me! I should see if I can evolve again before I get there...”

[rokkosmysterydungeon]

31 Days of PMD: An Interconnected Series of Vignettes

Day 12: Final Boss

Game: Gates to Infinity

Theme: Despair/Resignation, Hope/Action

Spoilers: End game

This vignette contains the main character getting caught up in dysphoria/self-doubt/self-dehumanization. It also briefly touches on parental ableism. Thus, this heads-up.

“Just take deep breaths. Remember to breathe.”

She approached the giant ice crystal that floated before her in this maelstrom of dark wind.

“This isn’t supposed to be affecting me… and yet, the Winds of Despair are starting to... I have to stop the Bittercold before it’s too late!”

These were the thoughts of Dork, a tepig who used to be a human, and was one of many humans the Voice of Life had summoned to the Mist Continent. All for the express purpose of taking down this… thing, that could destroy all of reality. Humans were supposed to be immune to its effect, which incapacitated any pokémon that dared approach it. Nowhere was this more visible than a short distance behind Dork, where their friend and partner, an axew named Andrea, lay doubled over in pain.

She approached the great crystal with her mission in mind. Her mission, but also to make it pay for hurting her friend! She just had to get closer so she could start kicking its ass.

The fire within her roared as the Winds of Despair picked up. This was escalating severely! Dork’s face scrunched up with as much rage as the cute, round face of a tepig possibly could. Every part of her was so ready to end this, she pressed on.

It’s difficult to determine whether the Bittercold fully recognized what was happening. If it had a self-preservation instinct, or was afraid of Dork? Was its storm the cause for what happened next?

With another gust hitting her straight on, Dork suddenly found herself replaying an old memory. It was from when she was a young child, when she was a human.

She and her family were hiking one summer along the paths of Mt. Rokko, near the city of Kobe, where her mom was from. They were all there to visit family, two of which, her grandmother and aunt, were also present. And of course there was the guide, making sure everyone stayed safe.

Dork’s sister had spotted a couple of wild boars milling around under some trees, and started walking closer to take a better look. The thing about wild boars is they are highly dangerous if they start to attack a human, outright deadly to kids like Dork and her sister. Luckily, the guide noticed all of this and stopped the sister.

“Do not get near those animals. They are wild boars and they are highly dangerous.” the guide warned.

As if spurred on to contribute something to the situation, Dork’s aunt then replied, “Definitely. The babies start out very cute but then they turn into those… scary vicious things.”

Dork’s mom & grandma chatted in agreement, and for Dork herself, that last part echoed in her memory from time to time, and it was floating around now… now that she was basically a wild boar herself! (the Tepig evolution line most resembles this animal, after all) The strength and power she’d demonstrated to beat down many adversaries, including the legendary Kyurem, was considerable. And now that she was thinking about it, it was starting to scare her.

It was then that she was blasted with another memory. When she was a teenager, and overheard her stepdad and mom talking about her. The one where she first truly realized that her mom was afraid of her. And chose other adults who’d all agree, and want to solve the “problem” of her autism. How it put many past occurrences into perspective, and for more in the subsequent years. The adults in her life, they all saw her like they saw the wild boars. She remembered the sickening sensation her human body gave her through those years. How her body inched closer to adult form, meaning her whole being inched closer to being a scary, vicious, and ugly monster.

In her present, the now-wavering tepig felt a cold puncture in her chest. It felt as though an icicle stabbed its way through her heart. And the more she became lost in the memories, in the self-perception, of what she was always destined to become, the more the Winds of Despair could jab at her being. The Voice of Life must’ve made a mistake in the haste of all the humans they had chosen. She was no hero at all! She even chose a joke name on her way into this world; what kind of hero does that? The pokémon she became was a sign all this time! And now… she couldn’t even move closer to the Bittercold anymore. The pain sapped her strength, and like Andrea, she too had fallen, doubled over from the torment.

“This can’t be happening! Everyone’s counting on me but I’m just…. I’m merely a monster. I’m so sorry, everyone. I really wish I could’ve been your hero.”

“Don’t give up!”

Where did that come from? Was she hearing things?

“Don’t give up!”

In-between incredibly belabored breaths, Dork asked, “Andrea… did you hear that too? Or am I just…?”

“I can… hear it, too.” The axew’s voice was very weak. Dork was surprised she even managed to hear that, on top of her surprise that Andrea was still conscious enough to speak.

“Don’t give up! You can do it!”

The chorus of voices continued chanting. And the more Dork listened, the more she could make out that the voices belonged to the pokémon she’d met in her time in this world. From her friends at Paradise, to the citizens of Post Town, to even the munna who had once tried to eliminate her. Every one of them, chanting repeatedly the hope they pinned on Dork.

“You can do it! Don’t give up!”

Andrea struggled their way up to a kneel, so they could face Dork. “You heard them, right? Dork? We all believe in you!”

It started to click for the former human. The many pokémon she and Andrea had helped. So many had given up on life, hope, and the future before she met them. She had to admit she really did help. Her whole time in the Pokémon World, she’d strove to help, and had tangibly affected these pokémons’ lives. She was always working to make sure she’d never become what she feared, and right now, the voices making their way to this spot, were all here to tell her that. They believed in her, without a hint of fear in their hearts. At this time, she was their hero!

“Don’t give up!!!”

The fire in her chest returned. It no longer burned with anger, but with gratitude. Its warmth melted the chill that had cut through Dork and allowed her to stand back up. The Winds of Despair were losing their ability to affect her, and thus, she took the final steps she needed, to begin taking the Bittercold down.

She looked up at the crystal being, smiling confidently. “For everyone’s sake, let’s do this! FLAME CHARGE!”

[rokkosmysterydungeon]

31 Days of PMD: An Interconnected Series of Vignettes

Day 11: Favorite Character

Game: Super

Theme: Reconnection, Bonds

Spoilers: Post-game, sort of

Purifying Cave. The cyndaquil known as Madoka had gone through hell to get to the inner sanctum of this place. It had taken lots of wand use, orb use, and even seed use, to make it this far. Why was she subjecting herself to such punishment? Well, it was the only chance she had at getting to talk to a very special friend.

“If you really want to talk, I’ll be at Purifying Cave starting tomorrow. It seems we really can’t avoid each other these days, so if you truly want to hash things out, I won’t run anymore.”

Those words her friend said to her yesterday stuck in her head like a bittersweet gumball. Madoka remembered the resigned tone the blue mew had when they said this. The friend she remembered was a chikorita named Daigo, who believed in and was patient with Madoka. But after their memory was restored, and they turned out to actually be Amui, a mythical pokémon, something changed. And Madoka wanted to find out what this really was.

The fire in her soul burned with determination. She managed to get through this tough dungeon, what was surely a test of sorts from Amui. She approached the blue mew, who was floating tensely in the circular room.

“Amui. I’m here now.”

Amui slowly turned around to face her. Unlike the cold expressions they’d worn on their past few encounters, their face this time was matted with the aftermath of a flood of tears. “Madoka… so, you still….” They choked up. “You still….  … Why?!”

The pit in Madoka’s stomach already sunk a bit. “Why what?”

“Why do you still want to be my friend?!” cried Amui. “I’ve been nothing but mean to you ever since I got my memory back! I’ve lost you so many times in my immortal life, and then when you come back to the pokémon world, your memory’s gone again, and- and… I don’t know! I thought if I went ahead and said goodbye this time, I’d be over it, but I… I...”

“You’ve swooped in to save me whenever I’ve bitten off more than I can chew in recent dungeons.” Madoka said after it seemed like Amui wasn’t going to finish that thought. “If you still care about me, then why not still be friends?”

Amui turned away with a sniffle. “You shouldn’t even want to be friends with me. What’s so great about someone who makes the decisions I do? Someone whose fault it is that so much of the bad stuff that happens to us, happens? Why can’t you just make it easy and spurn me for the rest of your life?”

Madoka was crying at this point too. “Because I care about you! You deserve someone who will try to listen! And ‘your fault’!? The person I knew accepted Dark Matter and solved the crisis! Despite everything, you make good and kind decisions!”

“That was Daigo.” Amui’s volume spiked. “Daigo was the one to accept Dark Matter! I told you that day I got my memory back: I had it all locked away because the first time we fought Dark Matter, I couldn’t do that. I struck Dark Matter down with all my wrath for what they did and the future paid the price for my anger! I was never going to solve it for good as myself. When I have all of me, I can’t possibly be them, the person you actually grew to like. The full ‘me’? I’m just someone who’s always used you as a means to an end. An immortal fooling themselves into thinking they could ever meaningfully connect with another being.”

Madoka shook her head. “You were the best person I knew in this whole world…” Though she had started her journey as a cyndaquil with a wiped mind, the new memories she’d made since then flooded in, of all the wonderful times she’d had with her chikorita, truly a mew, friend. “Are you really going to tell me all those good times we had, that wasn’t you!? When you shared your dream with me on the hill with the big tree? When you faced your fear of ghosts to save the other kids at Ancient Barrow? When we finally reached Lively Town and got to join the Expedition Society and you single-handedly boosted everyone’s morale for weeks? That’s what I remember, and I will always believe in you, because you did all those, and much more!”

Amui’s held their eyes wide open. They knew Madoka usually didn’t talk at length like this, and that her doing so meant this was truly a storm that had been brewing in the small cyndaquil’s heart.

Madoka had to breathe for a minute, her tears and snot clogging her face’s everything. “You chose to be my friend without even knowing who I was… when neither of us knew we had any sort of larger calling. That’s how I know we are real friends, that we’d be friends even if you didn’t need me for whatever end. … Or I guess, were friends, if you really feel that way.” She got real quiet. “Your decisions are your decisions… and I guess, even if after I’ve spilled my whole truth to you, and you still don’t want to be friends anymore, then… I’ll just have to accept it.”

The ball was in the mythical’s court. They tasked themselves to really think about it; if that was what they truly wanted, to tell this human-turned-pokémon, someone they’d shared many adventures with, someone they’d grown very attached to, to go away forever. They remembered their first meeting, their first adventure long, long ago, when she, the human, went by ‘Role’. They remembered learning the many quirks and facets of their friend over time, of how endearing this being from another world could actually be. They remembered how crushed they felt when she was ejected from their world that first time, and then the elation they felt when they found her again eons later as Danny the combusken at Buried Relic. And then the memories they’d made when they were the chikorita, Daigo. That form where they got to meet her all over again... the friend with the cutest look on her face when she smiled. Yes, no matter who she was, whether in the ancient past as Role or in the present as Madoka, she had that quality in Amui’s eyes. The face that gave them so much joy when they’d reached through her shell to make her happy... the face that broke their heart when her emotions were in ruin.

Finally, they took a deep breath. “I really don’t want to say goodbye to you ever again. But even if your consciousness keeps finding its way back to this world, the fact of the matter is, the body you inhabit is mortal. Even if this world no longer ejects you upon completing your mission, I’ll still have to face the pain of losing you again, whether it be now, or later.”

Madoka responded with a deep breath her own. “Then what do you want?”

“I want-” Amui blinked many times in succession, trying to put the words together. “I want to stay friends with you, Madoka. And I want to know if you truly want to- or, I guess I already know. You’ve already proven you want to keep our friendship alive, despite everything.” They smiled and psychically propelled their body over to hug their friend. “It’s great to know no matter what happens to your mind, body, or soul, you’re still you! And that… by that same logic, I’m still me, too.” they said, choking up.

There were no words from Madoka. Just grunts and murmurs of pure emotion as she accepted the hug. Amui had always found these noises to be ridiculously cute, a very ‘that’s her!’ way of expressing positive feelings.

“Thank you, Madoka… for nudging me out of feeling sorry for myself once again.” They were no longer figuratively blue, it was just their fur’s color now, once again.

“Now then!” they continued, breaking from the hug with a newly-energized cadence to their floating. “How ‘bout we go on over to the Expedition Society and see about adding me back to our team? I’ve got some catching up to do with everyone!”

[rokkosmysterydungeon]

31 Days of PMD: An Interconnected Series of Vignettes

Day 10: Outlaw / Thief

Game: Explorers

Theme: Grief over People & Memories

Spoilers: Mid-game

Dark droplets pelted all the plants at Treeshroud Forest. Every leaf, every blade of grass, nothing escaped the heavy rain. Not even the being who was technically, yet not-technically, a plant. This was a grovyle, a grass-type pokémon, rushing through with long leaps his legs were built for.

This was Razr, a Rescuer.

Rescue Teams were very uncommon on the Grass Continent, because the area’s more popular profession, that of Exploration Teams, usually also threw in rescue services. Indeed, Razr used to operate on the Air Continent, where he was one of many Rescuers long ago, or, what to him was long ago, anyway. In any case, he was here on a very different kind of rescue.

He finally stopped at a clearing in the very depths of the forest. Shining against the darkness of the storm was the prize Razr sought. It was a Time Gear, governing the local time in its mid-air perch.

“I finally found it… A Time Gear…!”

Now all he had to do was take it.

“But… this is only the first of many...”

All he had to do was take it.

But he just stood there for a bit. All he had to do was take it, and his mission would be one step closer to completion. But his strong legs began to waver. He began speaking, not to anyone corporeal, but to his memory of someone dear to him.

“Danny… I’m so sorry you aren’t here to see this. I don’t… I wish I...” He had to kneel down to catch his bearings. “No, don’t let go! Just a little longer… Come on! Hang on!” he remembered… the last words he ever said to his combusken partner. He began to cry, his tears mixing with the rain that poured down his face. His emotions were too much of a flood to withstand anymore.

“I can’t believe this is happening!” He clenched the grass with his hands and feet. “We were going to save the world again, together! You and I should’ve been here, doing this with each other by our sides!” Lightning touched down on a nearby tree, the sheer light it gave off enveloping Razr for less than a second. He took several deep breaths. He needed to calm down, and re-focus himself on his task. Like it or not, he had to be his own rock now. The world needed him to be.

He stood up again and fixed his eyes on the Time Gear. The mission was simple enough: Retrieve all of the Time Gears and then take them to Temporal Tower.

He remembered the events that led up to this. How he and Danny, and their third team member, Marshtomp, were in the middle of a rescue mission. Some strange weather had come in shortly after they entered the dungeon, but they thought nothing of it until Marshtomp fainted during a battle with some dungeon illusions. How Danny & Razr were trying to figure out why their Reviver Seeds weren’t working, their friend frozen on the ground. How their client, when they found her, was also frozen, completely unresponsive, like Marshtomp. How when they returned to Pokémon Square, the town was engulfed in panic and chaos, everybody having someone they knew succumb to the mysterious freeze. The sun hung still in the gray sky, and it never set again.

Time had somehow come to a stop.

The team he ran with Danny, Team Emberites, was renowned in the community for their efforts in the field, tackling many of the most dangerous missions & even saving the world once. And for a time, even through mourning their fallen friend, they did their best to soothe the scared pokémon of the area, performing any rescues they still could. Slowly, yet inevitably, their clientele dried up. There were very few unfrozen pokémon left anymore. It was then that they were found by Alys.

Alys used to work for a pokémon known as Dialga, the keeper of time. She told them that Temporal Tower, Dialga’s ultimate machine, meant to automate the task of governing the flow of time, had suffered a catastrophic system failure, which paralyzed time throughout the world. And with this collapse, Dialga had regressed to a bestial, merely self-preserving state of being called Primal Dialga. She needed anyone she could find to help her find the Time Gears, a set of recovery media designed to safely reboot and repair Temporal Tower in such an event. Always having it in their hearts to rescue others, of course Team Emberites accepted the mission.

Soon Alys whisked them off to the Grass Continent, where the Time Gears were said to be hidden. Through an unknown amount of time, (it was difficult to keep track when the sun no longer moved) the three of them scoured the Continent, slowly but surely finding Time Gear locations. Complicating the search was Primal Dialga’s disciples. These still-unfrozen pokémon seemed to think they could avoid a horrible fate by serving Dialga and making sure he stayed Primal for the rest of frozen time. These disciples were everywhere, and the team had to stay one step ahead.

Eventually, they found and retrieved the whole set. Yet… they had no way to get to Temporal Tower. Alys knew it was somewhere called the Hidden Land, but lacked the means to get to it. The biggest setback came when the leader of Dialga’s disciples, Adán, a dusknoir, got his hands on the Time Gears during a fight and promptly vanished. He returned to them later, gloating that he had taken the gears to Primal Dialga, who promptly destroyed them, effectively making their mission impossible. Without Time Gears, what hope did they possibly have?

The three refused to give up, and eventually found a solution. By using something called Luminous Water, which was at a protected spring on the Water Continent (they lucked out bigtime, since Danny, as a human-turned-pokémon, met the requirements needed to bypass its seal), they could restore Alys’s time-based powers, with which she could open a warp to the past, and Team Emberites could find the Time Gears there.

Razr couldn’t help but laugh bitterly. Once again, when it looked like they’d all managed to figure out a solution, something unfortunate happened to set the team back. While in the time warp, something attacked Danny, separating her from Razr. And he never saw her again.

He’d arrived here, in the past, completely alone. He tried to find Danny for the first few days, but it was to no avail. And that led to now, where he stood. In front of the Time Gear.

All he had to do was take it.

He knew what would happen once he did. Time in the local area would halt, as a backlash effect from moving the Gear from its designated place. Pokémon in the forest would be subject to the same horror that he experienced in the future of darkness. They’d be seeing their home and their loved ones freeze in time. He’d be doing something very bad. If anyone that didn’t freeze saw him, he’d almost certainly be wanted, be hated. He knew he had to save the world, and he could only do that, if he did this.

The rain felt cool on his grassy, leafy body. Oh, how he’d missed the movement of weather! He wondered how his ‘past, actually-present’ counterpart, a beloved hero on the Air Continent, was doing. He hoped that that version of him was having a great time with Danny, and would cherish his time with her... always.

As for him, and all the pain and loss he’d had to swallow, he braced himself for the new addition to the pile, and reached his green arm forward.

All he had to do was take it... and take it he did.

The dark blue rain in Treeshroud Forest turned a stagnant gray as the resigned grovyle bolted off into the night, the Time Gear in hand.

This was Razr, a Thief.