Author's Note:So everyone, welcome to my Pokémon Mystery Dungeon fanfic: Gates to Infinity! As the summary suggests/blatantly says, this is a novelization of the main game...but with some twists to keep things interesting! I may be accepting OCs in the future (that seems to be a requirement for PMD fics these days), but for now, simply enjoy what I have to offer. I hope to see lots of fans here, as I know that the game itself had a lot lacking in terms of gameplay. Well, this is a story, so whether you're familiar with the game or not, you'll find yourself welcome here. Now then, without further ado...
...a strange plane of eternity...the limitless fabrication of the subconscious...that mysterious plane between the realms of life and oblivion...between the limits of reality and fantasy...where literally anything becomes possible...and likely...to happen...
...yes...that place spanning the boundaries of time and space...that place leaping the dividing walls between dimensions...that place...deep within the mind itself...
...that...that is where it all began. That is how it all began. At the very least, it is how this story begins. This story...this twist of events...the plea for help...the transformation...the growth...the resolve...and the bond that grew, stemming between so many souls...but that touched one in particular. The one soul who, in these brief moments, had his life changed forever...in more ways than one...
...and now...the story begins.
...
An entire realm of color. Such was all that seemed to exist in this odd place. Colors, awash in vibrant hues, covering nearly every visible facet of the world.
... ...
The colors...a mix of multitudes, but three in particular-green, purple, and blue-made themselves primarily visible. They swirled and puffed across the spectrum of sight, reminiscent of clouds, almost. The color clouds had no visible beginning, appearing to stretch endlessly into infinity...but they all seemed to be collecting at one spot. It was the only distinct feature in this place. Where all of the clouds ultimately coalesced into a single large point of light directly ahead...pure white, and radiating with an...almost mystical feel.
... ... ...
No true solid surface. No true sense of up or down, left or right. How far ahead that light could have been was impossible to tell, in this place where time, space, length and direction all seemed to hold no meaning. It simply existed. Floating amongst all of this...this strange mix of chaos and serenity...was a presence. A presence with no current body, no current form of any kind. A presence that, too, simply existed there. How had it arrived here? For how long had it been here? What was its purpose here? For these questions, there was no single answer...or perhaps there were no answers at all. But nevertheless, as the presence slowly began to awaken, to become simultaneously aware of itself and its surroundings, these were the questions that began to plague its mind.
Wh-where...
A strange light humming noise, nearly imperceptible as the presence rose from its stupor, began to fluctuate through the realm...
Where...am I...?
As the first complete thought was finished, a new sound entered...a light ringing noise to accompany to humming. It was all still far too quiet for this barely conscious mind to comprehend, however.
...Is this...a dream...? Am I... Am I dreaming...?
As this mental question was formed, something changed within the realm...a physical change, which the presence was able to see with nonexistent eyes. The light ahead of it...the pure orb of white light...suddenly grew and rippled, and the surrounding noises grew and rung out in tandem, as though in response to the presence...to his presence.
...Oh! What was that?
The movement was gone now...it had only been for the briefest of moments...but it was enough to render the curious mind alert. He now became aware of the noises and sights before him. But his focus was currently on the strange sight he had just seen...what he had just heard...it had sounded so familiar...
I'm sure of it... That was definitely a voice. Someone...is calling to me...
And with this conclusion, it happened again. The white orb of light before him grew and contracted repeatedly as more sounds began to fill the realm...the sounds came in response to the movement of the orb...however, this time, in addition to the simple humming and ringing, a new sound was added...one that became far easier to make out, as it formed words with a voice that was not truly a voice at all, so much as it was simply phrases appearing in his mind...
"You... You who can now hear my voice... Might you be...a human?"
There was no time to recover from the sudden shock of hearing a outside voice. It continued to talk to him, in that strange voice that...could not be identified in any way, save that it took an...almost begging tone.
"If you are, then please... Listen to my plea. I want you...to save the Pokémon world. We need your..."
The voice and sounds all cut off for a moment as a bright flash of light cut across the orb, appearing to break into the message. Then as suddenly as it appeared, it was gone...replaced by a violent surge of purple light from the orb as one word screeched from its depths.
"HELP!"
And just like that, the image of the orb vanished, replaced with a new sight...a dark cave. Within it, a creature...small and pink, nearly spherical, quadruped creature. It had vertically oval, shiny red eyes with two discernible eyelashes. Between its eyes was a vertically oval spot in a darker shade of pink. This shade of pink was also the color of the center of the five purple petal flower designs ornamenting much of the creature's body. Its four tiny limbs were tapered, as was its downwardly curving snout, which appeared to be largely obscuring what must have been its mouth as it could be heard panting in fright. It appeared to somehow be floating in the air as it hurried along at a high speed, as though fleeing from something...
...and that something quickly became apparent. As the vision panned over slightly, another creature came into view...a three-headed, dragon-like creature, with six thin, black wings on its back, and a terrifying expression of bloodlust on its features. On its neck was a fuchsia-colored flower-like collar which opened up to its head. The main head was a dark blue and its eyes were black with fuchsia pupils. Its hands, also black, harbored a head in each one; these heads were also blue with black eyes, and small collars on the insides of the hands. On its abdomen were two overall-like fuchsia stripes. Its feet appeared atrophied, having no claws or defined soles and two or three small toes. Its tail also sported a fuchsia stripe with a black tuft on the end of it.
The dragon-like creature released a massive roar of anger and rage as it closed in on its quarry. It slowly drew closer...the pink creature didn't look like it would be able to get away...the dragon got closer and closer...it drew back its main head, opened its toothy maw...and bore down upon-
Before the vision was complete, it cut off to white, then to black. The presence, previously in something of a trance as it observed the vision, suddenly snapped alert.
Wha-! What was that just now?! What...what could it mean? Those Pokémon...
Slowly, vision was restored...the presence found himself returned to the same color-washed realm from before...however...this time, instead of an orb of light...something was different...the clouds appeared to be forming together into a new shape...
... And now there's...something fuzzy...
Yes, the clouds were coming together into a new form...a dark, shadowy form, directly in front of him...it was fuzzy, and hard to make out, but...the outline of it looked so familiar...almost like...
...Huh? Wait... That blurry reflection... Could that be...me?
Then, without warning, the image shifted. It shrunk, became more round in certain areas, such as the head and the waist, and other parts almost seemed to disappear entirely, while some aspects appeared to grow out of nowhere...and all the while, he could feel a strange sensation on his own form...but when had he..?
...! Wh-what now?! My reflection... it wavered, and then...shifted... Almost as if I changed somehow...
As the reflection completed its transformation, and that odd feeling left him, the image became brighter...clearer...colors from the surrounding clouds began to fill in the shape of the reflection...mostly the colors of light blue, dark blue, and white...with traces of orange and yellow also coming in...slowly, the shadowy picture became hazy...then simply slightly foggy as it became easier to see, the wisps of shadow leaving it behind...and finally, with a final burst of light, the reflection became completely visible in its entirety. It was all the presence could do to keep from shouting in surprise as he saw...himself...
N-no...no way...
He was still bipedal at least. But now he was primarily light blue, dark blue, and white in color, just like the colors of the clouds that had filled his reflection. He had a rounded, spherical white head, with small, triangular dark-blue ears to the sides. His eyes were large, dark, and ovoid; his dark-orange nose was shaped like an oval on its side. He also possessed black speckles on his cheeks, and light blue bubble-esque features composed a collar around his neck. His torso was also light blue, decorated with a pale yellow seashell-like object in the center. His arms were small, white, digit-less and somewhat rounded, while his feet actually had discernible digits, being dark blue and flipper-shaped. Finally, he possessed a slightly plank-shaped dark blue tail and a pair of fangs that became visible as he gasped in shock.
I-I look like...I look like...Oshawott?! But...how?!
Before he could dwell on this further, another burst of light filled his vision. When it went away, so too had his reflection. Now, all that was visible ahead of him was those endless swirling clouds of colors...but yet...something felt different...he felt like...
...wait. He felt. That meant...
He hesitantly reached out with his mind for his body, to see if he would get a response...to his surprise, he did, in the form of an arm slowly rising up before his eyes. In truth, he wasn't sure if he wanted to see it, but...he did. And once again, he almost yelled out from what he saw. No hand, no fingers, no nails, not even the typical pinkish flesh he'd unknowingly grown accustomed to. Now, all that he saw was a simple white arm...that ended in a rounded tip. Nothing else. Simultaneously horrified and curious, he tried to clench his "fist"...and found that, while not what he had in mind, he was able to do something similar with his digit-less hand as it bent slightly and became sturdier. Then came the other sensations...his ears, now closer to the top of his head than to the direct sides of it, and no longer in the same shape they usually took. He found his sense of hearing to be mostly unaffected, save for the generally disorienting feeling it brought. His legs were now much shorter, while his feet were larger than before, relatively speaking. As he took a few tentative steps forward, he found that they worked surprisingly well, even if he had to waddle a bit. But most of all was an entirely new sensation...his tail. He found that he subconsciously raised it into the air whenever he moved around on his feet, like he was keeping it, and himself, balanced. It was an entirely new feeling, completely foreign in every way, and yet...it didn't feel alien to him at all. It felt as though he'd had this tail his whole life. Like grabbing hold of something as a toddler and just then realizing that this was what your hands were there for.
He cautiously took another step forward...and like stepping out of a fog, a whole new sight appeared before him. He fell back slightly in surprise at what he saw; a wide, gaping hole in what must've been the floor. Like a pit leading down into unknown depths, though...this "pit" was sky blue...tiny wisps of white could be seen through it, like actual clouds...and looking into it somehow gave a different feeling of vertigo...not of looking far down, but of being high up...but that couldn't be right...
As he slowly approached the pit and looked over the edge, he was surprised to find that he once again saw his reflection upon the surface. So the "pit" was in fact more akin to a pool...of what, he did not know. Possibly water? Somehow, he doubted it...nevertheless, he continued to examine his own reflection in the surface for several minutes. He gazed intently at it, as though expecting it to change somehow...when nothing happened after an extended period of time, he closed his eyes and sighed.
I-I knew it...I really did turn into Oshawott...but...this is just a dream, right? This isn't actually happening...but then...why does this all feel so real...?
In the middle of the pool, a light suddenly began to form...a light similar to that first orb of light he'd seen...but this one was much smaller, and clearly separated from the surroundings. Its appearance, along with the twinkling sounds it made, drew his attention.
Huh? What's that light?
He found himself taking a step forward.
I don't know why, but... I feel as if that voice calling for help... I feel like it came from there.
Another step forward. The pool rippled slightly as his foot entered it.
Didn't that voice say something about saving the Pokémon world?
He took several more steps forward, bringing himself into the center of the pool, and directly before the shimmering orb of light. However, just as he drew close to it, the orb sputtered and vanished. As it did so, the entire world around him suddenly fell dark, as though a massive shadow had fallen over it. For a few moments, nothing occurred. All he felt was a terrible sense of foreboding...
Then it happened. Bright blue wisps of light came wafting down from out of nowhere, circling the pool he stood on. They began to settle onto the ground and form some sort of design...a bright blue circular design around the pool, moving and shifting of its own accord. As this was happening, the pool beneath his feet began to glow with a bright light, almost blinding him as he looked down as it roared loudly with the sound of building energy. Something was about to happen...he had to get away from here. Before he could take even one step, however, an unseen force gripped him and held him in place just as the floor beneath him erupted in an infinite beam of light, rising straight up and enveloping him entirely. he only had time to scream out...
...and when he came to, he was falling. That much, he knew right away. He barreled downwards through a multitude of white clouds, becoming wet along the way, before he fell through them entirely. Then he saw it. All of it. Below him, a vast expanse of land, in a great variety of different forms-plains, forests, mountains, canyons, lakes, deserts, all of it-extending far into every direction. To his sides, pure, empty space, save for the air that tore past him as he fell and the occasional cloud. Above him, only more clouds, including the ones he had just emerged from, but no sign of the strange portal that had brought him here.
Yes, he was in the sky. And he was free-falling toward the ground below, with absolutely nothing to slow his descent.
"UWWAAAAHHH! NOOOOOO!" he shouted at the top of his lungs as he flailed helplessly in the air. His voice was all but lost even to his own ears as the wind carried it away from him before he could hear it. He was falling...falling...and he was helpless to stop it. The ground was rushing up towards him, faster and faster. It was coming closer...closer...it wouldn't be long now...he would hit the ground, and...and...
"WHHOOAAAAAAAAHHHHH WHOAWHOAWHOOOAAAA! HEEEEEELLLLLPPPP MMMEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
His young voice screamed as loud as it could it the vain hope that someone, anyone, would hear him...and then he blacked out.