-???, the thing that happened in that one dimension, Oleander-
“So wait a minute, so what you’re telling me is that the things called Mobile Suits in this universe don’t have any form of security devices whatsoever on them to prevent them from just being stolen by something like a teenager and just running off with it? That anyone can open up the pilots seat, shoot the pilot and then steal the machine provided they survive long enough to get close up to do so?” I was upset to hear this and I was going to get a headache from this. “My goodness, are you people daft!”
“Hey, Oleander, look what I got!” Actually afraid to look Buttina, but I’m going to do so anyway. “This toy even comes with a giant light saber and this beam gun thing!”
I turned my gaze and saw a large bipedal white mobile suit and it was holding a large light saber made of pink energy.
“Uh… what was the name of that Mobile Suit?” I asked slowly.
“Oh my god, someone hijacked the Gundam!” The person, of which I was talking to, states with absolute horror.
“Hey Oleander, look what I found trying to put a hole in the colony!” Groaning out at hearing Wrex, I turned around again with the person and saw a giant red robot suit with a single large eye staring down at me. “Shot this blonde pilot guy and threw him out into space when I stole this thing. Pretty sure he was a bad guy, any way this thing is stupidly fast!”
Wrex had a habit of pointing out who was a bad guy and why, he was always right and sometimes even calls them out before Fred can even give us a brief historical scan of the dimension.
“Oh god, Zeon’s here!” The guy said again and I was beginning to think this world needs its head examined if Wrex can steal one so easily, he wasn't as much of a hacker as Buttina was.
“Hey Ollie, guess what I just stole, I even destroyed the other one and ate the guys soul from it before the machine could absorb it!” Fred showed up piloting a large green mobile suit similar to the red one Wrex was piloting. “THAT SOUL TASTED A LITTLE ODD AND THIS DIMENSION IS STUPIDLY LAX ON SECURITY, AT LEAST THE WANZERS WE BOUGHT HAVE DECENT SECURITY SYSTEMS!”
“Seriously, put actual security devices on all of your future mobile suits…” I stated calmly with a twitching right eye.
“Red alert, Zeon is attacking the colony!” An announcement suddenly sounded off and alarms started blaring everywhere and the colony shuddered slightly. “Fortunately it doesn’t look like they are using mobile suits yet!”
Suddenly a portal opened nearby and a giant robot dog mech popped out and I heard familiar barking, apparently Overlord Song Ender the friendly Noise Wolf checked the next dimension over for us.
“What in the world is… you know what, I’m just going to find a shelter and heavily medicate myself, I’m so done with this!” The person started running off. “I’m going to medicate myself so hard I’ll forget that I ever met Mobile Suit stealing alien unicorns!”
“Not a unicorn!” Wrex, Buttina and Fred stated loudly from their different machines.
“Ugh… guys, can you take care of the attack?” My friends and fiancé always resulted in awful headaches these days. “I think you’ve given me a migraine.”
The winged giant blue dog mecha, with the words 'BuCUE Prototype' stenciled onto it, lit up beam blade fangs and started running towards the nearest exit. The two cannons on its back even looked to be charging up, so one had to wonder how Song Ender was controlling it so well with his paws… unless he’s conceptually controlling the thing as his own body since Noise can possess things, usually those things are biological and have emotions for them to mess up.
I’m at least quite certain that Pom wasn’t in this cluster of dimensions, they were just too plain ridiculous. Who builds giant war machines that even teenagers could hijack?!
Though we would be keeping the BuCUE thing, I would have to be the one to maintain it and probably make Bomber Woof V2 capable of connecting to it… would it start generating giant land mines given how Bombers tend to infect things with their bomb making abilities? Eh, still probably a good idea or I’ve finally fully mentally snapped and have gone completely round the bend with the idea of making an infinite mine making robot dog’s brain connect to a giant dog mecha.
Eventually I would end up with something called the Unicorn Gundam, not much was actually Unicorn Pony about it though aside from the technological horn… not until it was modified into a four hoofed death machine anyway.
I actively and eventually acknowledged the fact that Buttina and Wrex’s Shenanigans have finally driven me insane. Well nothing for it, I must go even harder into insanity and eventually circle back around to it being normalcy!
Incidentally, the next few dimensions we visit might have been a bit messed up before we got there… honest!
-Origin Space, Arceus-
Mew quickly disappeared to make sure no other Mystery Dungeons started appearing all over Ransei, unfortunately should Mew fail they would at least try to mitigate the massive oncoming disaster this might cause for my plans.
“Hey, why aren’t we watching Pom?” Asked Bahamut, as we were currently watching Quetal and Curdle struggle against the dangerous Fou.
“Could you see into a specific point in the infinitely changing depths of a Mystery Dungeon before this?” It was troubling that I wouldn’t be able to keep an eye on Pom, but I was able to keep an eye on the anchor points of any dungeon at least… the most important would be the place that what Pom called ‘Skull X’ retreated to.
“No, he couldn’t, we could only see the anchor points which is the more static portions of such dungeons compared to the infinitely changing hallways themselves.” Tiamat immediately jumped in to prove me right, her brother glowered at her.
“The dungeons of this world only have one or three static points at most, with the last usually being occupied… the dungeon Pom has entered has two such points at halfway and end. We’ll be able to see her if she makes it to either.” As I said this I was watching the vicious struggle against the one known as Fou, even when an entire unit of Pokémon were working together the beast was proving to be too strong for them. Those four foxes got in over their heads by trying to follow Pom, but they were good Pokémon even if they were like most canids around Pom.
-Approximately thirty minutes after Pom entered the Mystery Dungeon, Quetal-
“Nghh… I’m not finished yet… I still have something to prove.” I fired off a Beat Up, shadow Curdle blasted my opponent, then was followed by shadow Zorua biting him, the shadow Ninetails firing shadowy ice shards, the shadow Glaceon rammed into my opponent battering him away from the entrance and I followed by slashing him across the side trying to hit an organ or at least something that could slow this monster down as I pushed them further away. I took position in front of the entrance. “I’m not weak!”
I was breathing roughly, my wounds were getting pretty severe and Pom was right about Fou, he was simply a beast.
I wasn’t even angry at him, I had no regrets facing something so strong. I needed to face things head on to grow and I’ve finally decided…
A white glow overtook me.
“You’ll only get in there… over my dead body!” I stated as I started growing and grew an extra claw on each limb, I gained a feathery headdress, two feathery ears, a collar of short down and the claws on my feet and arms became far sharper as I grew to match the threat before me.
None of the five other Pokémon here were standing and might even be bleeding out or whatever might pass or count as an injury for Curdle, but they were currently alive at least because Beat Up wouldn’t have worked if they weren’t.
My evolution healed my body somewhat, but I wouldn’t get a second chance so I had to make this count.
“Fou!” Roared the beast in challenge.
We charged at one another.
-Five seconds after Pom entered the Mystery Dungeon, current location Floor 1, Pom-
I blinked and looked around, I even looked up and behind me. I didn’t see the entrance and we were in a brightly corridor of what looked like ice covered ruins of an old civilization. I didn’t see what was lighting this place up, but everything was clearly visible… one would think it would be darker in here.
“Pom… something doesn’t feel right about this place.” Dolly stated as she began to rub up against my right leg while shivering.
“Warning you have entered anomalous space, immense danger is likely.” Yggdrasil.Sys announced from the device underneath Dolly’s Pecha Scarf.
“Stick close to me Dolly.” Something tells me that if we got separated here, it would be a very, very bad thing. My wool shifted in a similar manner to Dolly’s currently raised hackles.
Again I didn’t see the entrance we came in through and the corridor we were in was somewhat long and narrow, not much room for fighting. It extended behind us and if I was to believe Quetal, there was no way back and if we were to go that way we’d possibly just be going deeper into the Dungeon.
“Come on, we have to keep moving forward.” I stated as I started to move forward and tried to not think about how I saw something like this place in my dreams.
Quetal said the only way out was through it and I was going to save my bestial transformation for Skull X, but first we had to survive to even get to that point. Dolly was giving off a modicum of warmth in the freezing cold air around us.
It was too quiet, only the sound of my hooves and Dolly’s paws as we continued down the corridor and came up to a split one going straight and the other turning right.
The Ice pillars, the surrounding ruins and everything was making me shiver as we came to a stop at the intersection.
I looked to the right and saw something like a room in that direction and something sitting on the floor in that direction, straight ahead was a turn and behind us… a corridor that stretched into the distance.
I turned right and started heading for the room, this corridor was feeling claustrophobic. As we approached the room I noticed a large red apple on the floor and I picked it up with a hoof and looked it over, nothing was wrong with it… but how did it end up here?
I stowed it away and moved forward with Dolly following while looking behind us and upon reaching the room I looked inside and saw a bunch of still Pokémon. It looks like they were sleeping… and there were other things just sitting on the floor. A pile of Poké, a sharp looking twig that looked like the things Shine tended to throw and a staircase going down?
There was an entrance to this place on the other side of the room too.
Making a gesture to be quiet, I took a single step into the room, all the Pokémon came awake and turned to look at me and were immediately active. I don’t even think I made a noise… and suddenly I had the attention of no less than five Pokémon that started to sluggishly move towards me, I’m assuming that all of them were Ice Types given one of them was a Sneasel.
“Dolly… how much of a fight do you think you’ll be able to put up?” I whispered to the side as the five Pokémon came at us, three triangular Pokémon that looked like small walking tents, a Sneasel and what I assume to be an Ice Type Sandshrew given I’ve seen the evolutionary form.
“Whatever you need of me Pom, I’m here for you.” Dolly stated as she brought her board from her back and took it up in a combat stance as she got onto her hind legs.
“Um, excuse me, but…” I took a few steps forward to try to talk to them and noticed the glassy look in the Sneasel’s eyes before it took a swipe at me and I quickly stepped back. There was no intelligence in these Pokémon, so this is what a feral Pokémon looks like, kind of like those poor Pokémon in Binder Blade forest being driven to madness by the psychic energies. “We can’t talk our way out of this can we?”
The three little tents fired icicles out of their mouths and I quickly backed up into the corridor with Dolly as ice shattered and threatened to hit us with shrapnel from the attacks fired at us. One of the attacks slammed into the Sneasel’s back knocking them over, yet they still got up and came at us and not the one that just hit them.
The Sneasel leapt forward and slashed upwards with its left claw in an uppercut, I reared back and narrowly avoided taking the claw to my chin and then slammed my head forward with hardening wool to hammer the Sneasel to the ground and knocked them both down and out.
They disappeared from sight and Dolly quickly moved in front of me to block a barrage of icicles. After the attacks struck and Dolly managed to stay standing, she glowed and bursts forward into the room and started to barrage the three Pokémon.
In nine flashes she knocked them all into position in a straight line and then she burst past the three of them taking them all out and they too disappeared from sight, one of them leaving behind what I recognized to be an Oran Berry.
Once Dolly came out of her Counter Rave the Sandslash took advantage of her slowed reactions and slammed its claw into her board, the floor in the room was made entirely of ice and the blow knocked her over to see her skidding into the wall with a grunt.
I immediately galloped forward, making sure my hooves were covered in wool to provide traction, and shoulder bashed the Sandshrew before it could encroach on Dolly anymore. Following that I reared up and stomped down into its chest and it disappeared beneath my hooves.
“You okay Dolly?” My concern was met with an equally concerned look.
“What… what do you think happens to them when they disappear like that?” Dolly asked as she got up while rubbing at her back.
“I don’t know, Yggdrasil is Skull X anywhere on this floor?” I asked.
“Negative signs of target Skull Chaosdramon X being within local spatial anomaly coordinates.” Meaning he wasn’t on this floor. I looked at the Poké and the Steel Twig, I grabbed the Oran Berry, the Steel Twig and the Poké. I might have to ditch the Poké if it starts taking up to much space in my pack.
“Okay… we can use this stuff.” Suddenly several Pokemon came in through the two entrances and the Sandshrew were looking at the two of us and began to slowly approach. The Pokémon here were like zombies in how they acted. “We need to keep moving Dolly, we should only fight when necessary, so let’s go down the staircase!”
We were close enough to the staircase to evade the two Pokémon that were going to attack us. It didn’t take us three steps down the staircase and a single blink in the darkness before we once again found ourselves in the middle of a well-lit large room full of pillars of ice and stone.
“Pom… where’s the staircase that we just went down?” Dolly asked as she looked behind us. I didn’t see any signs of the Sandshrew that were going to attack us. “Did we even go down a staircase in the first place? This place is making my head hurt.”
“I think I’m beginning to understand why they call places like this Mystery Dungeons.” My voice echoed throughout the room with ice floors and I made my way over to a blue orb, then something clicked behind me and I froze and looked to Dolly as an eruption of green energy swirled around her and something invisible on the floor appeared out of nowhere. “Are you okay Dolly?!”
“Yeah, I’m fine… but who would make a trap that does nothing?” Dolly asked curiously and tilted her head as she ran a paw up and down her back. “Also I’m beginning to think Poodlewolf would be better than being in this place.”
“At a guess, I’m betting that there are more harmful traps than helpful. So let’s consider this a lucky lesson that we should be wary of any noises of a trap going off.” I stepped forward and took up the blue orb in a hoof and wondered what it did. It didn’t seem to do anything and I didn’t know what it was, but it might be helpful.
“Don’t think I would be able to react in time if I step another one of these invisible square thing.” Dolly responded as I took a step to the left to go towards one of the three entrances and then I was blinded when an explosion went off and my ears were ringing. “…. Po…. hear… Pom..!”
“Wha…” I dazedly got up and saw that Dolly wasn’t moving from her spot and staring at me.
“Oh thank goodness you’re alright, that explosion almost scared the spots off of me!” I looked at the floor where I had stepped and saw another square panel, this was had a red six pointed star.
I shook my head, got up and tapped the floor ahead of me and carefully did so multiple times as I made my way over to Dolly. I noted that the square that exploded and the square that Dolly stepped on were almost like they were on some kind of grid.
Upon reaching her Dolly leapt up and wrapped her paws around my neck and hugged me, the warmth of the hug helped the chill in my bones and that explosion had certainly rattled my skull.
“Let’s watch our steps in rooms and test the floor in front of us from now on.” We still needed to get out of this one.
A feral Pokémon, an Ice Type Vulpix, came into the room and quickly stepped on the panel that exploded…. and it exploded again with the same amount of force sending them skidding into the wall next to the entrance they came through and they disappeared upon impact like the other Pokémon we had defeated.
“Did it just explode again!?” Dolly stated in terror.
“Yes, I believe that is what we just saw happen Dolly.” Let’s not touch that floor panel again, we do not need a third explosion going off as that last one caused some sharp icicles to slam into the floor around us.
“Pom, tell me honestly, what kind of place is this?” Dolly stated while not letting me go, I wasn’t about to tell her too since she was quite warm.
“A Mystery Dungeon, with an emphasis on Mystery.” Came my dull tone as I chose to slowly work my way towards an exit from this room away from the exploding floor panel. I didn’t know what direction we were heading it, but we had to go somewhere. “I think finding the staircases is a priority, Yggdrasil.Sys can you inform us when we appear on the same floor as Skull X?”
“Affirmative, if Skull Chaosdramon X is detected, device will alert user to the imminent threat if it appears within the same anomalous spatial region.” The device states blankly as we entered a corridor that turned right and turning the corner it went off into the distance, let’s hope there were no traps in the corridors.
As we took a few steps from the room and down the long corridor another explosion went off behind us and, in a panic, I quickly started galloping away with Dolly gripping tightly onto me.
The corridor was a long twisty pathway, but it seemed to only be leading one direction. Eventually we ran into a feral Pokémon, this one looked like a small walking tree covered in snow, it raised its left arm and it grew into a mass of entangled wooden tendrils.
I quickly hopped back when it slammed its arm, which had massive growths on it, down. The shockwave sent me skidding backwards, I quickly loosed a Bark Blast into it and sent it stumbling back before it could try to hammer us with the mass of wood on its arm again.
It seemed to have hurt itself doing the attack, for when it tried to use the attack again and I swiftly dodged another attempt to smash me with the wooden mass on its left arm and was about to counter it when it simply flinched and then promptly disappeared.
Did using that attack hurt it? Not questioning things, I continued moving through the corridor until we came back to a very familiar room… because it was the same room we left like five minutes ago.
“Uh, Pom, are we back where we started?” Yes Dolly, we were back in the room with the two floor panels and I looked at the exit we used and the one we came back into the room from. However there was a new revealed explosion causing floor trap, so that makes two floor traps that would explode when stepped on.
“We just went in a large circle.” Making a mental map, I remembered that all we did was a lot of right turns and a few left turns before coming back to this room.
Well this was going to be a thing, at least the exploding floor panels were still visible and I carefully made my way for the nearby room exit to the direct left of me, I tapped the floor in front of me every few steps to make sure I didn’t step on another trap.
Dolly shivered with every sharp strike on the floor and didn’t remove herself from hanging on to me.
“I think the corridors might be safe from traps, but not feral Pokémon.” As I said this we entered another corridor and started moving down it, eventually Dolly let go of me and started to follow me from behind once again and was watching the pathway behind us as we went around a left and right S-style bend.
I was trying to mentally map where we were when we came to a four way stop, I don’t think compasses would work in this place, I looked to the right and then Dolly leapt to my left and blocked an icicle attack from another one of those little tent Pokémon that came around a corner from that direction.
We quickly went straight and moved out of its view, once we reached the corner I looked back and saw the little icicle spewing tent Pokémon turn to the right and go the way we came from.
“They don’t seem very intelligent, because that… that was kind of dumb.” Don’t think we should question this place Dolly, things aren’t normal here and it’s pervasive in the chilling atmosphere with every breath I took. “I mean it saw us come this way right?”
I quietly turned and continued heading in the direction I decided we should keep going in, eventually finding another large red apple sitting on the floor.
It was perfectly fine, not rotting, clean even, no signs of worms having bitten into it large apple… this was just a nice apple and I compared it to the first apple I found, something tells me this was going to be a thing as both apples were still perfectly fine looking in my pack.
“Is it just me or is wandering around in here making me hungry?” Dolly commented idly as we came upon another room, it was a long rectangular room and I spotted the staircase on the far side of it.
No Pokémon were in the room, I carefully tapped the floor in front of me, nothing. I took a step forward and Dolly waited until we knew what parts of the floor were safe.
“Maybe we should just rush for the staircase, I mean it is right…” As Dolly was saying this a bunch of metal spikes came raining from the ceiling and slammed into the floor in front of us. “There… okay yeah, keep checking the floor.”
I was now actively striking parts of the floor around us to avoid traps like the… where did the metal spikes that fell from the ceiling go? Did traps just work infinitely here? I’ll certainly keep that in mind as I carefully worked us towards the staircase leading down and out of this large rectangular room full of stuff.
We were going to ignore thing that weren’t healing like Oran Berries, I didn’t need to pick up everything on the floor here as most of it was just loose currency lying around. Likely said currency was to lure the greedy and unaware into traps. I didn’t even know what the orbs could do, but I already had one and seldom thought we would need the things we were passing up.
I did pick up a five Oran Berries and two more red apples, there were a lot of apples just lying around and I was beginning to get the idea that the apples were very specific to Mystery Dungeons.
“Close enough to make a jump for it.” I said calmly, despite the perspiration on my face telling Dolly otherwise.
“Don’t chance it.” Even Dolly’s devil may care attitude was completely cautious given our circumstances, how did Skull X… probably bulldozed through all of this stuff and nothing could do much to it.
My next floor smack activated an odd trap, the symbol on the panel that appeared had a red question mark on a cloud all in one big red circle.
It sent out a pulse that filled the entire room.
What did that… suddenly all the items that were just laying around on the floor randomly turned into feral Pokémon.
“Pom… did all that stuff just turn into feral Pokémon?” Yes, Dolly that is what just happened and now even I’m wondering how the trap suddenly happened to turn piles of currency, apples and other strange things laying around into Pokémon. “Okay, maybe chancing it would have been the better idea.”
“Grab me.” I stated quickly and as soon as Dolly’s paws were locked into my wool, I lunged for the exit as at least twenty Pokémon all surging towards us to attack in a large swarm.
Hitting the steps, I protectively held Dolly as I rolled down into the darkness and then… was promptly back on my hooves again despite not having rolled into the position or even oriented myself to be on my hooves. I was on my back one second and then next just on my hooves and standing in another corridor when I should have been on my back with Dolly in my hooves, speaking of Dolly she was standing right next to me looking equally confused about what just happened.
“Okay, this place is getting quite freaky now.” Dolly said as I let her go and she stood next to me long both ways down the corridor. “Also what about all those feral Pokémon? Wouldn’t they have just followed us down the stairs?”
“The only way out is forward Dolly and the staircases are forward I guess… because there is no way back.” I stated as I looked at the well-lit ceiling. “Also I don’t think the feral Pokémon could follow us down the staircase, this place certainly works in mysterious ways and they might even be trapped in here… so Mystery Dungeon, definitely an applicable description of this place.”
“Let’s keep moving Pom.” Yeah, but which way led to the next staircase now? This place was basically a randomized maze.
-Icy Ruins Entrance, Quetal-
“Nghh… no…” I held up my right claw as the beast snorted and looked away from me and stalked through the entrance following after Pom, my world was slowly blacking out.
“Hey, it looks like that monster is gone, let’s help these guys out now.” Was that Meowth?
“G-g-g-o a… a-head… geddit… over… with…” I rolled onto my back and stared down Team Pocket, bleeding out in the snow from a variety of nasty wounds all over my body.
“Jester, start stringing their wounds shut with String Shot. Start with him, he’s the worse out of this lot.” What? Team Pocket was going to attempt to save us? Meowth soon entered my view with an upset look on his face. “Don’t look so confused, we may be bad guys, but we’re not out and out evil. Sure we’re opportunistic, jerks, thieves, like to pick fights and want to steal things from heroic types like you. All of that is very much true, but you think we’re evil? Not going to kick you while you’re down, we already get enough of that ourselves as it is. Also you’re cream friend over there is starting to pull herself together and I really wonder what she tastes like.”
“I’ll gladly give you all tastes of me, just…. please… help save everyone here!” Curdle stated while crying out tears of honey from her half formed face as the mangled splattered mass that was her body was spread all over the place, Alcremie biology was as weird as Pom thought it was.
I don’t know how Fou did it, but he had splattered Curdle so hard that even the move Recover had trouble putting her back together again.
“Don’t worry, we got you… but I’ll hold you to that!” Meowth stated as I felt something wrapping around my limbs. “Now what is with that weird hole in the ground?”
“Mist—ery…. Dun… geon…” I finally passed out from the pain.
-Team Pocket, Meowth-
A Mystery Dungeon in Ransei, well now we’ve seen a lot of things! The end of eastern Illusio was one of the weirder ones. To see the entrance of a Mystery Dungeon was terrifying, given the implications of such a place.
Team Pocket is not nearly dumb enough to go into one those dangerous deathtraps and we were admittedly pretty dumb at times, I’m surprised we didn’t insist upon doing the whole motto while these guys were dying on the ground. Not like they were in a position to hear the whole thing anyway, six to one that Zoroark creamed them… quite literally in the case of the cute Alcremie chick.
Pom was definitely on her own in there, because I’m already guessing that’s exactly where she went. Wouldn’t find me going after a giant skeletal metal monstrosity like the one that attacked Hail Hollow, which allowed us to rob some upper crust homes in the chaos.
Nope, we’re not suicidal. Also like I just said, we were opportunists. There were Treasures and dangers galore in a Mystery Dungeon, so if Pom survives and comes back out we can ransom her friends back to her.
“Don’t like the cold... James… cuddle for warmth… please?” Mumbled a still half dazed Jessie who was now wearing a festive stocking around her body and a joyful little red hat with white fuzzy trimming around it, all of it freshly stolen stuff too.
“Hey guys, let’s set up camp here!” I turned and everyone answered affirmative as Scourge and Jester helped make sure the injured didn’t bleed out and were placed together. We left the Alcremie to gather herself together, she smelled like lemons, peaches and brown sugar. “Wobbuffet go find some food, you’re really oddly good at that.”
“Wobba wobba!” Wobbuffet saluted and then did a quick love-love dance and then wandered off, eh I trusted him to find his way back to us. He was the most competent member of Team Pocket, even if his battle skills were mostly ‘counter’ productive.