Before the Mystery
Oct 22, 2018 17:00:18 GMT
Post by MandL27 on Oct 22, 2018 17:00:18 GMT
Everything is normal for a Pokémon battle enthusiast in New Bark Town until he gets a dream from Palkia tasking him with saving another world's dying future. It seems simple, but of course, no journey with Pokémon ever goes as planned, much less so when he becomes a Pokémon himself...
While this fic is derived from a run of Explorers of Sky I recorded a while back (nine months!), I'm taking creative liberties with many of its events, creating a fic I'd describe as "like canon, unless noted".
Table of Contents:
“Matthew…” I hear. The voice sounds distant, yet I hear it from within, as if the voice is projected directly to my mind.
“Hello?” I call out, looking over the violet array of holes, each a different shape and size. They seem arranged before me in a completely non-Euclidian grid.
“Matthew…” the voice says again.. This time, it sounds clearer, being a deep baritone that conveys an aura of power. “We need you… This entire world needs you.”
“Needs me?” I repeat, thoroughly confused by what this voice seems to be laying out. “For what?”
“First, allow me to introduce myself. I am Palkia, the Legendary Pokémon of space. Though I am not the Palkia of this dimension. In the dimension I am from…time has stopped,” the voice continues.
“Time stopped?” I ask Palkia. “But how? Doesn’t Dialga ensure that never happens?”
“Ordinarily, yes, Dialga governs the flow of time. But the Dialga of my dimension has lost all sense of self, causing time to grind to a halt. I fear if it is not rectified immediately, it may spread to other dimensions.”
“I see why you need me now,” I say. In the back of my mind I ponder why he chose me specifically, but the situation seems far too pressing to ask him about that. “What do I need to do to fix this?”
“Already there is a movement seeking to restore the flow of time. Gifted with the ability to understand Pokémon and to sense different time periods when near concentrations of chronal energy, your goal would be to work with this movement to track down the locations of Time Gears. With that knowledge, do whatever you can to restore Temporal Tower.” Palkia instructs.
“Wait a second,” I interrupt. “I already have several questions. Time Gears? Chronal energy? Temporal Tower?”
“Time Gears are artifacts created to ensure the flow of time. Functionally, they’re large masses of chronal energy,” Palkia explains. “The rest shall become clear, I am certain.”
“Alright. If this is the mission that you need me for - that this dimension needs me for - I’m ready.”
“Very well. Good luck, Matthew, and may you succeed in your mission.”
I awaken on a cold, hard surface. Where am I? I think to myself as I get up, seeing that the hard surface in question is actually stone-grey grass. Even more strangely, no wind at all blows through the trees, and the air feels cold and stiff. Is this…is this what Palkia mentioned? I make my way over toward a wooded area in the distance, glancing around every so often for any hostile presences, when suddenly a flash of green darts between the trees. “What was that?”
I instantly regret vocalizing my confusion, as three bird-like creatures with sharp metallic feathers emerge from hiding behind a nearby string of boulders, while the string of boulders reveals itself to be a rocky-skinned serpentine being. I back away slowly, shakily, unable to defend myself from the sudden ambush when the green flash from earlier zips by, knocking all four Pokémon to the ground.
“Impossible…” the figure, who is now clearly revealed to be a leafy lizard known as a Grovyle, says as he comes to a stop next to me. Oddly enough, a yellow band of some sort is tied around his right arm. “A human? There’s no way there could have been a human in this world, much less one living for so long in this dark future. And yet…”
My eyes widen upon noticing the Grovyle was somehow uttering coherent speech. I then shake my head, dismissing the shock as I remind myself that Palkia gave me the ability to understand Pokémon. “Dark…dark future? Is that what they call this place?” I ask, still shivering a bit from the Onix and Skarmory from earlier.
“It’s not really ‘they’ anymore. Most of the Pokémon here have given into despair and gone completely feral,” the Grovyle mutters, tilting his head down. “Er, are you alright?” he asks, offering a green scaly hand.
I gently grip his hand and shake. “I’m fine, thanks to you. Do you know where we are?”
“We’re in a clearing near the Sealed Ruin,” the Grovyle explains. “I was on my way to meet Blossom so we could begin scouring the mainland for Time Gears.”
“Weren’t those destroyed?” I ask, confused as to why this Grovyle’s assessment of the situation is conflicting with what Palkia said.
“Yes, but if we can locate where they used to be, we could take the Passage of Time to the past and recover them before Temporal Tower is destroyed.”
“Sounds complicated,” I respond with a small, confused frown. “But at the very least, it should work. Shall we go look for…Blossom, was it?”
“Yes,” the Grovyle agrees. “I’m Thorn, by the way. And you are?”
“Matthew.”
“Follow me, Matthew,” Thorn instructs. “If we find more wild Pokémon in these ruins, leave them to me. I’ve been fighting for my way in this desolate land since the day I hatched.”
“Got it,” I say, letting him lead me through the grey, barren landscape that is the dark future. Working alongside Thorn feels like I’m a real Pokémon Trainer.
“Here we are. It shouldn’t be far from here,” Thorn says as we come across a large stone structure. It’d probably look a lot more impressive if it wasn’t all grey. “I take it you haven’t been in a mystery dungeon before?”
“No…?” I respond, tilting my head. “What are those?”
“Y-you don’t even know what they are? Simply put, they’re ever-changing areas filled with hostile Pokémon,” Thorn explains, surprised at my unfamiliarity with them. “Stay near me, but don’t let the wild Pokémon get too close to you. I doubt you’d like what would follow.”
“If it’s anything like what those Skarmory looked like they wanted to do, you’re absolutely right,” I say as I follow Thorn into the ruins’ entrance.
Like the rest of the environment I’ve seen so far, these ruins could be summed up in a single word: grey. Grey stone floor against grey stone walls with a grey stone ceiling overhead. Occasionally there’d be small pockets with no floor at all, and I’m not about to find out how deep those holes are.
If just one possible layout could be as disorienting as this, I’d hate to see what others look like. It felt like we hadn’t made much progress at all, and already we’d rounded more corners than I could possibly keep track of. “Are mystery dungeons always this confusing?” I ask Thorn.
“Usually,” he responds as he parries a swing from a fluid, violet mass with his leaves before tunneling under it and popping back up, sending it flying against a wall. “All my life, I’ve been going through these. You get used to it after a while.”
“Meanwhile, I haven’t,” I say, “so forgive me for any newcomer questions. Good job with that Muk, by the way.”
“Type advantages aren’t everything,” Thorn comments. “What really matters is training. Train yourself, and you can overcome any foe.” The Grovyle then leaps at a mass of vines in the distance, slicing into it with his leaves until it falls unconscious.
The rest of the dungeon passed without much incident. Thorn must’ve trained a lot, if he can deal with wild Pokémon this well. Soon, we reach a large hall in the middle of the ruins. “Is this where you were going to meet Blossom?” I ask.
“Indeed,” Thorn confirms. “Usually she doesn’t take this long to show hers--”
“Hi!” a feminine voice rings out through the chamber as its source, a small pink fairy-like creature, emerges from behind a rocky pillar.
My eyes widen at this revelation. “A…a Celebi?” I stammer out in complete awe. “And you’re…pink?”
“Yep!” she responds. “My name is Blossom. And yours is?”
“I’m Matthew,” I answer. “Thorn found me out in a clearing, surrounded by Skarmory and Onix.”
“That sounds scary for a human!” Blossom comments. “But with us, you’re safe. We’ll defend you!”
Not going to question the fact that I’m a human in this world, huh? I think to myself before looking over at Thorn. “I think that much was made obvious as we went through the Sealed Ruin to get here.”
“Isn’t Thorn amazing?” Blossom says, her tone dripping with infatuation.
“I wouldn’t exactly put it that way…” Thorn grumbles, clearly not enjoying the Celebi’s implications.
“Aren’t we supposed to be going to the mainland to look for Time Gears, or at least where they used to be?” I remind the two Pokémon, hoping to get them back on track.
“Oh, right!” Blossom quickly snaps back to the more pressing matter at the moment. “Do you have a plan, Thorn?”
Thorn’s face pales as he realizes his plan was actually nonexistent. “Uh…”
“Palkia told me something before I wound up in that clearing,” I interject. “Something about being able to sense other periods of time when near a Time Gear’s location.”
“Palkia?!” Thorn echoes, stepping backward in shock. “How…how could you have even met him?”
“He contacted me in a dream,” I answer. “When I woke up from that, I was where you found me.”
“And you’re saying he gave you the power to sense the past or future just by being near Time Gears?” Thorn asks.
I nod. “Correct. That should help immensely in our hunt for Time Gears.”
“Now where on the mainland am I taking you?” Blossom asks.
“Should we start in the east?” I suggest.
“Works for me,” Thorn says with a shrug.
“You ready?” Blossom asks as she flies over to the two of us.
“Ready,” Thorn and I assert at the same time as a bright flash emanates from Blossom.
When the light fades, I find myself surrounded by grey trees, some branches scattered across the ground. A thick layer of fog looms overhead, severely limiting visibility. “Well this is a good start,” I say.
“We’d better start searching,” Thorn instructs, “but with this fog, it’ll be hard to keep ourselves oriented.”
“Do either of you happen to know Defog?” I ask. “It’d clear the immediate surroundings, at least.”
“Unfortunately, no,” Thorn responds. “All of my training has been focused on managing hostile situations, not anything like this.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I spot a faint red glow. “Hey, what’s this?” I ask as I go to pick up the glowing object. “It feels kinda warm…”
“Perhaps that’s what we need to use?” Thorn guesses. “We should look for something it could be used with.”
I nod and once again follow Thorn through the forest. “Why do I get the feeling this’ll be another mystery dungeon?”
“That’s extremely likely,” Thorn says. “I would expect Time Gears to have been hidden in high-mysteriosity areas like this.”
Once again, the forest appears laid out specifically to befuddle all who enter, with dirt roads running in all directions and seemingly impenetrable walls of trees keeping us on the maze of paths. Occasionally, I spot some small pools of water, their surfaces as grey and hard as everything else in this future. I end up relying mostly on Thorn for navigation; an easy task, considering he’s already been dealing with any hostile Pokémon we run across. “So, Thorn, can you explain what led up to time stopping?”
“Dialga has regressed into a barely sentient state,” Thorn explains, leaping after a small brown and beige raccoon before it could attack me. “I’ve begun calling this state Primal Dialga. Without Dialga to govern the flow of time, time ceased to flow, which destroyed the Time Gears.”
“Palkia mentioned that much,” I say, referring specifically to Dialga’s regression. “But what could have caused Dialga to go primal like this?”
“The only possible cause that I know of is the collapse of Temporal Tower.”
“Temporal Tower? Isn’t that where Dialga resides?”
“Even after its collapse, yes,” Thorn confirms, leaping up onto a tree branch to scout for hostile Pokémon. “At this point, though, it’s more where rebel Pokémon are sent if Dialga finds out they’re planning to change time.”
“So we’re fugitives,” I conclude with a sigh. “Great. Back on the topic of the tower crumbling, though, I’m guessing you have no idea what led up to that.”
“Not at this point,” Thorn answers, swinging his leaves at a kangaroo-looking mushroom ‘mon. “I once found the remains of a settlement near the west coast of the continent, but none of the records there even discussed the tower.”
“I guess whatever Pokémon lived there before the tower went boom were as clueless as we are now,” I dryly joke as I climb over a knocked-over tree.
After what felt like several hours, but was in reality no time at all, we arrive in a clearing with a statue depicting a vaguely reptilian beast roaring toward its grey surroundings.
“Matthew, look,” Thorn instructs. “There’s a hole in the statue.”
I glance at the stone I had picked up earlier. “Might this go in it?” To test my theory, I try fitting the stone in the hole.
It fits perfectly, and the statue begins to glow brightly. All three of us shield our eyes at the light, having been so acclimated to the dull lack of brightness this whole world is enveloped in. Once it fades, we find the fog suddenly cleared. “Of course,” Thorn mumbles. “Groudon is the legendary Pokémon of the land, but he’s better known for the clear, hot weather his presence brings. That must be why that statue dispelled the fog.”
“I’m getting a feeling we’re onto something big,” I tell Thorn. “Let’s keep going.” We head toward a cliff in the distance, and I begin to make out a cave entrance framed by some ornate-looking stone structures. I don’t know why, but something about it feels…powerful. “Might there have been a Time Gear here?”
“It’s very likely,” Thorn replies as he looks over a pattern on the ruins. “These patterns line up with everything I’ve found on them. There’s no doubt about it - a Time Gear existed here in Fiery Vent.”
“One down…uh, how many to go?” I rub the back of my head in slight embarrassment.
“Four,” Thorn answers. “There are only five holes atop Temporal Spire, so we only need five Time Gears to fill them. Let’s look for others now.”
We then begin trekking elsewhere on the continent. “I’m guessing you know your way around the place, Thorn?”
“I’ve been around this place my entire life,” Thorn says, easily scaling a cliff with his reptilian claws. “Honestly, I’m more concerned about you keeping up.”
I look for footholds to climb up the cliff with, soon getting to the top a bit after Thorn did. “I’ll try; that’s about all I can say.”
“Trying is important. Without an attempt, nothing can happen.”
“So, how will finding these Time Gears, or at least where they used to be, help us restore time?” I ask.
Thorn ducks into a cave mouth and motions for me to step in. Shortly after I do so, a purple imp-like ghost walks by where we just were, seemingly searching for something. Not finding whatever they were after, they continue onward. “Phew,” Thorn exhales once the Sableye was out of earshot. “Anyway, knowing where the Time Gears are is useless to us now. But once we go back to the past, we can use this information to find the Time Gears and take them to Temporal Tower before it crumbles.”
“How are we going to go back in time, though?” I ask, clearly not understanding a crucial part of Thorn’s plan.
“I’m in charge of that,” Blossom says in an uncharacteristically subdued tone. “I can open the Passage of Time, letting you and Thorn go to the past.”
“And once we’re there, it’s simply a matter of returning to the locations we’re scouting out now,” Thorn adds, digging into a bag slung over his shoulder. “Need an apple?” he offers me, taking out another one for himself.
“Sure,” I say, taking the apple from his clawed hand and biting into it. “I have to say, that’s a much simpler plan than I was expecting.”
“Based on the records I found in that ruined town, taking a Time Gear will stop time in the surrounding area,” Thorn informs between bites, “but Dialga needs several Time Gears at Temporal Tower to restore the tower should it get damaged. With the Time Gears spread about the continent like these ruins suggest they were, Dialga couldn’t amplify his power enough to save the tower. This is the only way, I’m afraid.”
“I hope the Pokémon of the past understand that we’re doing what’s necessary,” I say, glancing outside the cave as I finish my apple. “And if they don’t, well, I guess they’ll figure it out soon enough.”
Our snack break over, the three of us resume scouring the mainland for where Time Gears used to be, so we could get them in the past and restore Temporal Tower. “So if they’re scattered around the continent, should we look somewhere further west?” I suggest, crawling back out of the cave.
Thorn nods and leads us down another path. The grass and dirt start to give way to sand, which feels really weird not dispersing under my footfalls. “Sandstone Pit should be just up ahead,” he tells me, peeking around a boulder before progressing.
Like at Fiery Vent, I start to feel an aura of power. “Feels like there was one here too,” I say.
“What makes you think that?” Thorn asks.
“Back at Fiery Vent, something about the area felt powerful,” I explain, sitting down on a smaller rock. “Almost like there was some raw energy calling out to me.”
“That should make our search easier,” Thorn concludes, “since now we only need you to feel that aura.”
I stop for a bit and focus, wondering if I can feel any other former Time Gear locations. Sadly, I only notice the Sandstone Pit one we’ve already confirmed. “I don’t know where any others would be, though. Should we sweep back across the northern side?”
“Certainly,” Thorn concurs as we retreat from the desert.
As we make our way back to the east, I spot another cave mouth lined by crystals in varying shades of grey. “Man, this must’ve been really pretty before time stopped,” I say.
“Think of it as a reason to restore time,” Thorn advises as we go deeper into the cave, crawling beneath a large crystal filling most of the tunnel.
Right on cue, I feel the aura as we reach an opening. A huge crystal stands before us in the middle, the framing from Fiery Vent surrounding it. “There’s one here too.”
“Fiery Vent, Sandstone Pit, and Crystal Hollow. That makes three. Two to go,” Thorn declares as we leave the cave and continue further east.
We then find ourselves in what looks like a different part of the forest we started in. “Are we back where we started?”
“This is too far north to be that forest,” Thorn says, climbing a tree to get atop an outcropping. “And the terrain isn’t as flat.”
I climb up the tree as well, not wanting to lose sight of him. Atop the cliff, there seems to be a small stone pedestal, two quarter-circles curving upward from the base. I reach out to touch it…and get the worst feeling I’ve had in my life. I collapse to the ground, too dizzy and nauseous to even stand up.
“Matthew, are you alright?!” Thorn calls out, but even his voice feels faint and distant.
I begin to see the forest in vivid shades of green, a six-spoked cyan gear with blue markings floating on the pedestal and glowing brilliantly. “Ugh, what was that?” I ask as I come to, the sight of the forest in grey tones returning to me.
“You just completely fainted as soon as you touched that,” Thorn explains, returning to a calm tone. “Did you feel any of it?”
“I felt really sick, but then I saw…this forest. But not grey like it is now. I saw what it must’ve been in the past. And I saw a Time Gear here.”
“Then that answers the more pressing question,” Thorn says. “Still, we’ve been at this for a long time. Perhaps we’ll have to track down the fifth in the past.”
“That’s fine by me,” I say, ready to begin our search.
With our search for Time Gears finished, Blossom teleports us back to where I woke up. “Now, we go back to the past and secure the Time Gears. Once we have enough, we take them to Temporal Tower and prevent this future from ever happening,” Thorn reviews.
“And how do you plan to do that?”
“That’s where I come in!” Blossom interjects. “I open the Passage of Time for you to go through.”
Oh, right, Celebi can time travel, I mentally remind myself. “I’m guessing we need to go somewhere for this.”
“The Passage of Time is located deep in Dusk Forest. Follow me,” Thorn says as he dashes off into the foliage, me and Blossom not far behind.
Much hacking, slashing, and jumping between trees later, we arrive at a cliff face with a glowing tunnel-like thing leading into it. “Is that the Passage of Time?” I ask.
A deep, reverberating laugh from atop the cliff interrupts my conversation with Thorn. “Hoohoohahahaha!”
“Of course!” Thorn grumbles. “I should’ve known Yoru would show up. Hurry into the tunnel!”
I scramble toward the Passage of Time at Thorn’s behest. “Who’s Yoru?!” I panickedly ask him.
“I’ll explain later! There’s no time now!” We leap into the Passage, ready to be sent back to the past.
I grip his claws with my hands, not wanting us to get separated. But then…something happens. A bright flash, followed by what felt like the entire world shaking, both of which result in me losing my grip on Thorn.
“Matthew!” Thorn calls out as I tumble away from him, barely even able to recognize his voice. I feel my body shifting, a tail growing in as my face stretches forward a bit. As these changes continue, I fall unconscious, the earlier attack’s impact finally getting to me.
While this fic is derived from a run of Explorers of Sky I recorded a while back (nine months!), I'm taking creative liberties with many of its events, creating a fic I'd describe as "like canon, unless noted".
Table of Contents:
Chapter 1: In the Future [you are here]
Chapter 2: Arrival on the Grass Continent
Chapter 3: Joining the Guild
Chapter 2: Arrival on the Grass Continent
Chapter 3: Joining the Guild
“Matthew…” I hear. The voice sounds distant, yet I hear it from within, as if the voice is projected directly to my mind.
“Hello?” I call out, looking over the violet array of holes, each a different shape and size. They seem arranged before me in a completely non-Euclidian grid.
“Matthew…” the voice says again.. This time, it sounds clearer, being a deep baritone that conveys an aura of power. “We need you… This entire world needs you.”
“Needs me?” I repeat, thoroughly confused by what this voice seems to be laying out. “For what?”
“First, allow me to introduce myself. I am Palkia, the Legendary Pokémon of space. Though I am not the Palkia of this dimension. In the dimension I am from…time has stopped,” the voice continues.
“Time stopped?” I ask Palkia. “But how? Doesn’t Dialga ensure that never happens?”
“Ordinarily, yes, Dialga governs the flow of time. But the Dialga of my dimension has lost all sense of self, causing time to grind to a halt. I fear if it is not rectified immediately, it may spread to other dimensions.”
“I see why you need me now,” I say. In the back of my mind I ponder why he chose me specifically, but the situation seems far too pressing to ask him about that. “What do I need to do to fix this?”
“Already there is a movement seeking to restore the flow of time. Gifted with the ability to understand Pokémon and to sense different time periods when near concentrations of chronal energy, your goal would be to work with this movement to track down the locations of Time Gears. With that knowledge, do whatever you can to restore Temporal Tower.” Palkia instructs.
“Wait a second,” I interrupt. “I already have several questions. Time Gears? Chronal energy? Temporal Tower?”
“Time Gears are artifacts created to ensure the flow of time. Functionally, they’re large masses of chronal energy,” Palkia explains. “The rest shall become clear, I am certain.”
“Alright. If this is the mission that you need me for - that this dimension needs me for - I’m ready.”
“Very well. Good luck, Matthew, and may you succeed in your mission.”
I awaken on a cold, hard surface. Where am I? I think to myself as I get up, seeing that the hard surface in question is actually stone-grey grass. Even more strangely, no wind at all blows through the trees, and the air feels cold and stiff. Is this…is this what Palkia mentioned? I make my way over toward a wooded area in the distance, glancing around every so often for any hostile presences, when suddenly a flash of green darts between the trees. “What was that?”
I instantly regret vocalizing my confusion, as three bird-like creatures with sharp metallic feathers emerge from hiding behind a nearby string of boulders, while the string of boulders reveals itself to be a rocky-skinned serpentine being. I back away slowly, shakily, unable to defend myself from the sudden ambush when the green flash from earlier zips by, knocking all four Pokémon to the ground.
“Impossible…” the figure, who is now clearly revealed to be a leafy lizard known as a Grovyle, says as he comes to a stop next to me. Oddly enough, a yellow band of some sort is tied around his right arm. “A human? There’s no way there could have been a human in this world, much less one living for so long in this dark future. And yet…”
My eyes widen upon noticing the Grovyle was somehow uttering coherent speech. I then shake my head, dismissing the shock as I remind myself that Palkia gave me the ability to understand Pokémon. “Dark…dark future? Is that what they call this place?” I ask, still shivering a bit from the Onix and Skarmory from earlier.
“It’s not really ‘they’ anymore. Most of the Pokémon here have given into despair and gone completely feral,” the Grovyle mutters, tilting his head down. “Er, are you alright?” he asks, offering a green scaly hand.
I gently grip his hand and shake. “I’m fine, thanks to you. Do you know where we are?”
“We’re in a clearing near the Sealed Ruin,” the Grovyle explains. “I was on my way to meet Blossom so we could begin scouring the mainland for Time Gears.”
“Weren’t those destroyed?” I ask, confused as to why this Grovyle’s assessment of the situation is conflicting with what Palkia said.
“Yes, but if we can locate where they used to be, we could take the Passage of Time to the past and recover them before Temporal Tower is destroyed.”
“Sounds complicated,” I respond with a small, confused frown. “But at the very least, it should work. Shall we go look for…Blossom, was it?”
“Yes,” the Grovyle agrees. “I’m Thorn, by the way. And you are?”
“Matthew.”
“Follow me, Matthew,” Thorn instructs. “If we find more wild Pokémon in these ruins, leave them to me. I’ve been fighting for my way in this desolate land since the day I hatched.”
“Got it,” I say, letting him lead me through the grey, barren landscape that is the dark future. Working alongside Thorn feels like I’m a real Pokémon Trainer.
“Here we are. It shouldn’t be far from here,” Thorn says as we come across a large stone structure. It’d probably look a lot more impressive if it wasn’t all grey. “I take it you haven’t been in a mystery dungeon before?”
“No…?” I respond, tilting my head. “What are those?”
“Y-you don’t even know what they are? Simply put, they’re ever-changing areas filled with hostile Pokémon,” Thorn explains, surprised at my unfamiliarity with them. “Stay near me, but don’t let the wild Pokémon get too close to you. I doubt you’d like what would follow.”
“If it’s anything like what those Skarmory looked like they wanted to do, you’re absolutely right,” I say as I follow Thorn into the ruins’ entrance.
Like the rest of the environment I’ve seen so far, these ruins could be summed up in a single word: grey. Grey stone floor against grey stone walls with a grey stone ceiling overhead. Occasionally there’d be small pockets with no floor at all, and I’m not about to find out how deep those holes are.
If just one possible layout could be as disorienting as this, I’d hate to see what others look like. It felt like we hadn’t made much progress at all, and already we’d rounded more corners than I could possibly keep track of. “Are mystery dungeons always this confusing?” I ask Thorn.
“Usually,” he responds as he parries a swing from a fluid, violet mass with his leaves before tunneling under it and popping back up, sending it flying against a wall. “All my life, I’ve been going through these. You get used to it after a while.”
“Meanwhile, I haven’t,” I say, “so forgive me for any newcomer questions. Good job with that Muk, by the way.”
“Type advantages aren’t everything,” Thorn comments. “What really matters is training. Train yourself, and you can overcome any foe.” The Grovyle then leaps at a mass of vines in the distance, slicing into it with his leaves until it falls unconscious.
The rest of the dungeon passed without much incident. Thorn must’ve trained a lot, if he can deal with wild Pokémon this well. Soon, we reach a large hall in the middle of the ruins. “Is this where you were going to meet Blossom?” I ask.
“Indeed,” Thorn confirms. “Usually she doesn’t take this long to show hers--”
“Hi!” a feminine voice rings out through the chamber as its source, a small pink fairy-like creature, emerges from behind a rocky pillar.
My eyes widen at this revelation. “A…a Celebi?” I stammer out in complete awe. “And you’re…pink?”
“Yep!” she responds. “My name is Blossom. And yours is?”
“I’m Matthew,” I answer. “Thorn found me out in a clearing, surrounded by Skarmory and Onix.”
“That sounds scary for a human!” Blossom comments. “But with us, you’re safe. We’ll defend you!”
Not going to question the fact that I’m a human in this world, huh? I think to myself before looking over at Thorn. “I think that much was made obvious as we went through the Sealed Ruin to get here.”
“Isn’t Thorn amazing?” Blossom says, her tone dripping with infatuation.
“I wouldn’t exactly put it that way…” Thorn grumbles, clearly not enjoying the Celebi’s implications.
“Aren’t we supposed to be going to the mainland to look for Time Gears, or at least where they used to be?” I remind the two Pokémon, hoping to get them back on track.
“Oh, right!” Blossom quickly snaps back to the more pressing matter at the moment. “Do you have a plan, Thorn?”
Thorn’s face pales as he realizes his plan was actually nonexistent. “Uh…”
“Palkia told me something before I wound up in that clearing,” I interject. “Something about being able to sense other periods of time when near a Time Gear’s location.”
“Palkia?!” Thorn echoes, stepping backward in shock. “How…how could you have even met him?”
“He contacted me in a dream,” I answer. “When I woke up from that, I was where you found me.”
“And you’re saying he gave you the power to sense the past or future just by being near Time Gears?” Thorn asks.
I nod. “Correct. That should help immensely in our hunt for Time Gears.”
“Now where on the mainland am I taking you?” Blossom asks.
“Should we start in the east?” I suggest.
“Works for me,” Thorn says with a shrug.
“You ready?” Blossom asks as she flies over to the two of us.
“Ready,” Thorn and I assert at the same time as a bright flash emanates from Blossom.
When the light fades, I find myself surrounded by grey trees, some branches scattered across the ground. A thick layer of fog looms overhead, severely limiting visibility. “Well this is a good start,” I say.
“We’d better start searching,” Thorn instructs, “but with this fog, it’ll be hard to keep ourselves oriented.”
“Do either of you happen to know Defog?” I ask. “It’d clear the immediate surroundings, at least.”
“Unfortunately, no,” Thorn responds. “All of my training has been focused on managing hostile situations, not anything like this.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I spot a faint red glow. “Hey, what’s this?” I ask as I go to pick up the glowing object. “It feels kinda warm…”
“Perhaps that’s what we need to use?” Thorn guesses. “We should look for something it could be used with.”
I nod and once again follow Thorn through the forest. “Why do I get the feeling this’ll be another mystery dungeon?”
“That’s extremely likely,” Thorn says. “I would expect Time Gears to have been hidden in high-mysteriosity areas like this.”
Once again, the forest appears laid out specifically to befuddle all who enter, with dirt roads running in all directions and seemingly impenetrable walls of trees keeping us on the maze of paths. Occasionally, I spot some small pools of water, their surfaces as grey and hard as everything else in this future. I end up relying mostly on Thorn for navigation; an easy task, considering he’s already been dealing with any hostile Pokémon we run across. “So, Thorn, can you explain what led up to time stopping?”
“Dialga has regressed into a barely sentient state,” Thorn explains, leaping after a small brown and beige raccoon before it could attack me. “I’ve begun calling this state Primal Dialga. Without Dialga to govern the flow of time, time ceased to flow, which destroyed the Time Gears.”
“Palkia mentioned that much,” I say, referring specifically to Dialga’s regression. “But what could have caused Dialga to go primal like this?”
“The only possible cause that I know of is the collapse of Temporal Tower.”
“Temporal Tower? Isn’t that where Dialga resides?”
“Even after its collapse, yes,” Thorn confirms, leaping up onto a tree branch to scout for hostile Pokémon. “At this point, though, it’s more where rebel Pokémon are sent if Dialga finds out they’re planning to change time.”
“So we’re fugitives,” I conclude with a sigh. “Great. Back on the topic of the tower crumbling, though, I’m guessing you have no idea what led up to that.”
“Not at this point,” Thorn answers, swinging his leaves at a kangaroo-looking mushroom ‘mon. “I once found the remains of a settlement near the west coast of the continent, but none of the records there even discussed the tower.”
“I guess whatever Pokémon lived there before the tower went boom were as clueless as we are now,” I dryly joke as I climb over a knocked-over tree.
After what felt like several hours, but was in reality no time at all, we arrive in a clearing with a statue depicting a vaguely reptilian beast roaring toward its grey surroundings.
“Matthew, look,” Thorn instructs. “There’s a hole in the statue.”
I glance at the stone I had picked up earlier. “Might this go in it?” To test my theory, I try fitting the stone in the hole.
It fits perfectly, and the statue begins to glow brightly. All three of us shield our eyes at the light, having been so acclimated to the dull lack of brightness this whole world is enveloped in. Once it fades, we find the fog suddenly cleared. “Of course,” Thorn mumbles. “Groudon is the legendary Pokémon of the land, but he’s better known for the clear, hot weather his presence brings. That must be why that statue dispelled the fog.”
“I’m getting a feeling we’re onto something big,” I tell Thorn. “Let’s keep going.” We head toward a cliff in the distance, and I begin to make out a cave entrance framed by some ornate-looking stone structures. I don’t know why, but something about it feels…powerful. “Might there have been a Time Gear here?”
“It’s very likely,” Thorn replies as he looks over a pattern on the ruins. “These patterns line up with everything I’ve found on them. There’s no doubt about it - a Time Gear existed here in Fiery Vent.”
“One down…uh, how many to go?” I rub the back of my head in slight embarrassment.
“Four,” Thorn answers. “There are only five holes atop Temporal Spire, so we only need five Time Gears to fill them. Let’s look for others now.”
We then begin trekking elsewhere on the continent. “I’m guessing you know your way around the place, Thorn?”
“I’ve been around this place my entire life,” Thorn says, easily scaling a cliff with his reptilian claws. “Honestly, I’m more concerned about you keeping up.”
I look for footholds to climb up the cliff with, soon getting to the top a bit after Thorn did. “I’ll try; that’s about all I can say.”
“Trying is important. Without an attempt, nothing can happen.”
“So, how will finding these Time Gears, or at least where they used to be, help us restore time?” I ask.
Thorn ducks into a cave mouth and motions for me to step in. Shortly after I do so, a purple imp-like ghost walks by where we just were, seemingly searching for something. Not finding whatever they were after, they continue onward. “Phew,” Thorn exhales once the Sableye was out of earshot. “Anyway, knowing where the Time Gears are is useless to us now. But once we go back to the past, we can use this information to find the Time Gears and take them to Temporal Tower before it crumbles.”
“How are we going to go back in time, though?” I ask, clearly not understanding a crucial part of Thorn’s plan.
“I’m in charge of that,” Blossom says in an uncharacteristically subdued tone. “I can open the Passage of Time, letting you and Thorn go to the past.”
“And once we’re there, it’s simply a matter of returning to the locations we’re scouting out now,” Thorn adds, digging into a bag slung over his shoulder. “Need an apple?” he offers me, taking out another one for himself.
“Sure,” I say, taking the apple from his clawed hand and biting into it. “I have to say, that’s a much simpler plan than I was expecting.”
“Based on the records I found in that ruined town, taking a Time Gear will stop time in the surrounding area,” Thorn informs between bites, “but Dialga needs several Time Gears at Temporal Tower to restore the tower should it get damaged. With the Time Gears spread about the continent like these ruins suggest they were, Dialga couldn’t amplify his power enough to save the tower. This is the only way, I’m afraid.”
“I hope the Pokémon of the past understand that we’re doing what’s necessary,” I say, glancing outside the cave as I finish my apple. “And if they don’t, well, I guess they’ll figure it out soon enough.”
Our snack break over, the three of us resume scouring the mainland for where Time Gears used to be, so we could get them in the past and restore Temporal Tower. “So if they’re scattered around the continent, should we look somewhere further west?” I suggest, crawling back out of the cave.
Thorn nods and leads us down another path. The grass and dirt start to give way to sand, which feels really weird not dispersing under my footfalls. “Sandstone Pit should be just up ahead,” he tells me, peeking around a boulder before progressing.
Like at Fiery Vent, I start to feel an aura of power. “Feels like there was one here too,” I say.
“What makes you think that?” Thorn asks.
“Back at Fiery Vent, something about the area felt powerful,” I explain, sitting down on a smaller rock. “Almost like there was some raw energy calling out to me.”
“That should make our search easier,” Thorn concludes, “since now we only need you to feel that aura.”
I stop for a bit and focus, wondering if I can feel any other former Time Gear locations. Sadly, I only notice the Sandstone Pit one we’ve already confirmed. “I don’t know where any others would be, though. Should we sweep back across the northern side?”
“Certainly,” Thorn concurs as we retreat from the desert.
As we make our way back to the east, I spot another cave mouth lined by crystals in varying shades of grey. “Man, this must’ve been really pretty before time stopped,” I say.
“Think of it as a reason to restore time,” Thorn advises as we go deeper into the cave, crawling beneath a large crystal filling most of the tunnel.
Right on cue, I feel the aura as we reach an opening. A huge crystal stands before us in the middle, the framing from Fiery Vent surrounding it. “There’s one here too.”
“Fiery Vent, Sandstone Pit, and Crystal Hollow. That makes three. Two to go,” Thorn declares as we leave the cave and continue further east.
We then find ourselves in what looks like a different part of the forest we started in. “Are we back where we started?”
“This is too far north to be that forest,” Thorn says, climbing a tree to get atop an outcropping. “And the terrain isn’t as flat.”
I climb up the tree as well, not wanting to lose sight of him. Atop the cliff, there seems to be a small stone pedestal, two quarter-circles curving upward from the base. I reach out to touch it…and get the worst feeling I’ve had in my life. I collapse to the ground, too dizzy and nauseous to even stand up.
“Matthew, are you alright?!” Thorn calls out, but even his voice feels faint and distant.
I begin to see the forest in vivid shades of green, a six-spoked cyan gear with blue markings floating on the pedestal and glowing brilliantly. “Ugh, what was that?” I ask as I come to, the sight of the forest in grey tones returning to me.
“You just completely fainted as soon as you touched that,” Thorn explains, returning to a calm tone. “Did you feel any of it?”
“I felt really sick, but then I saw…this forest. But not grey like it is now. I saw what it must’ve been in the past. And I saw a Time Gear here.”
“Then that answers the more pressing question,” Thorn says. “Still, we’ve been at this for a long time. Perhaps we’ll have to track down the fifth in the past.”
“That’s fine by me,” I say, ready to begin our search.
With our search for Time Gears finished, Blossom teleports us back to where I woke up. “Now, we go back to the past and secure the Time Gears. Once we have enough, we take them to Temporal Tower and prevent this future from ever happening,” Thorn reviews.
“And how do you plan to do that?”
“That’s where I come in!” Blossom interjects. “I open the Passage of Time for you to go through.”
Oh, right, Celebi can time travel, I mentally remind myself. “I’m guessing we need to go somewhere for this.”
“The Passage of Time is located deep in Dusk Forest. Follow me,” Thorn says as he dashes off into the foliage, me and Blossom not far behind.
Much hacking, slashing, and jumping between trees later, we arrive at a cliff face with a glowing tunnel-like thing leading into it. “Is that the Passage of Time?” I ask.
A deep, reverberating laugh from atop the cliff interrupts my conversation with Thorn. “Hoohoohahahaha!”
“Of course!” Thorn grumbles. “I should’ve known Yoru would show up. Hurry into the tunnel!”
I scramble toward the Passage of Time at Thorn’s behest. “Who’s Yoru?!” I panickedly ask him.
“I’ll explain later! There’s no time now!” We leap into the Passage, ready to be sent back to the past.
I grip his claws with my hands, not wanting us to get separated. But then…something happens. A bright flash, followed by what felt like the entire world shaking, both of which result in me losing my grip on Thorn.
“Matthew!” Thorn calls out as I tumble away from him, barely even able to recognize his voice. I feel my body shifting, a tail growing in as my face stretches forward a bit. As these changes continue, I fall unconscious, the earlier attack’s impact finally getting to me.
