We all knew that I was bound to do this. That's right. Seeing as I've written my own versions of how the first two sets of the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games should have gone (although with poor syntax, plot, and character development), it's only natural that I write one featuring Gates to Infinity. It's time to show how my skills have (in my totally unbiased opinion) improved. Anyway, enough of my useless rambling! Let's get started.

You guys know that I don't own Pokémon right? If I did, Ash would have actually won a league by now…

Chapter 1: Dreams

Light was everywhere in every color across the spectrum. It was so bright here that it was impossible to tell if there was anyone truly there or if the voices that resonated here were merely figments of one's imagination.

"Wh-where…am I?" That pretty much rules out the figments of one's imagination option. Clearly someone was here but who in their right mind would want to be in a place where they couldn't see anything? Then again, maybe whoever this was wasn't in their right mind...

"Is…Is this…a dream? Am I…dreaming?" Who knows? Probably shouldn't rule it out since the blinding light doesn't mess up vision like it should.

"…Oh! What was that?" Whoever this person was has probably gone crazy; no other voices have made their presence known…yet. "I could have sworn…I'm sure of it…That was definitely a voice!" Yup, whoever this was has gone off the deep end for sure. There was no way that another voice could be talking to him if they all just resonate in this blindingly bright…where even is here anyway?

"Someone…is calling out to me!" Talk about conceited. How can a disembodied voice actually speak to another disembodied voice and how do disembodied voices even exist? Those sound like something out of a cliché horror or adventure movie…who cares. But it was becoming clear that this voice held a masculine tone to it not only enough to be considered a real man but deeper than someone in childhood.

"You…you who can hear my voice…might you be…a human?" another disembodied voice inquired. Well that definitively proves that disembodied voices don't resonate in this woebegone realm. It must be actual beings communicating with this realm as a medium. Wait a second, how does this voice even know that it's talking to a human anyway? Has it been stalking this supposed human? That's just creepy sir…or is it ma'am. Who cares…

"If you are then please…listen to my plea," Sounds desperate. Wonder what plea this supposedly disembodied voice could make…

"Please…I need you to save the Pokémon world!" Well whoever this is, they certainly don't beat around the bush. A trait to be appreciated for sure and full points for getting to the point without mindless plot to get things going. That's one way to shake things up for sure.

"We need you're—…" suddenly the blindingly bright light dissipated just a little and an air of seemingly malevolent aura permeated through the dreamscape as the human flinched in shock. What in the world was going on here?

The human was shown a scene of a small pink blob being chased by what looked like a three headed dragon? Reminded him vaguely of a hydra…only difference here is that this one could fly and only had three heads instead of six. Watching the rest of the sequence revealed the dragon to have six thin, black wings on its back each of which ends in two points. On its neck was a fuchsia-colored collar which surrounded its head. The main head was dark blue and its eyes are black with fuchsia pupils. Its hands were also black and harbor a head in each one; these heads were similarly blue with black eyes. There were small collars on the inside of its 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.

The human was understandable shaken by the end which left the important question of what to do now as he mulled over the details of what had occurred whilst the light grew brighter again and the human found its way back to the realm of light where there was a major change.

"There's a reflection here," the human noted, staring at it. "That's funny because it looks an awful lot like me…"

The human raised an arm and so did the silhouetted reflection. The human slapped his silky smooth face and the silhouette followed suit. The human kept this up until it was absolutely clear that this reflection was that of the human which raised the interesting question of whether this human was some kind of masochist.

"Should have known," the human muttered, shaking his head. "I don't see anyone else here." Admittedly that wasn't saying very much as there was too much light for anyone to make out much of anything at all.

The human blinked in surprise when the reflection began wavering and shifting into an indiscernible figure. "What is this thing?" the human wondered, squinting at the new figure once the shift had finished. It looked pretty vague to him as it was still a silhouette but thought little of it just then.

The human shrugged and decided that it was not worth stressing about as instinct dictated that the he start walking and with that approached the door of light.

From there found the human standing on top of a small…what was the human supposed to call it? A looking glass? That'd do for now.

Only one problem.

The human wasn't a human.

That's right! The human had since turned into a pokémon! What pokémon was he'd become was alien to him but decided that it probably wasn't worth being too worried. After all there were more important things that needed to be done. Like saving the world for instance despite having no idea how to even begin going about such an endeavor but decided to push that thought away for now.

"I don't know why," the male pokémon muttered. "But I can feel that voice begging for help. I feel like it came from here," he glanced at the small sphere of light right in front of him. He blinked as he remembered part of the conversation from that voice from before.

"Didn't the voice say that I needed to save the pokémon world? I'm pretty sure that sounds right…" he muttered as he moved closer to the light sphere to get a better look. It was vaguely disturbing that the human turned pokémon was somehow taking this all into stride which raises the question of what his life was like before he became a pokémon.

Suddenly, a ring appeared around him and began to glow brightly. He couldn't suppress a yelp of surprise purely out of reflex and fear for what was about to happen.

And for good reason too when he found himself falling much like a skydiver would. The human turned pokémon wondered vaguely in between panicked mantras of 'I'm gonna die' how he'd ended up in free fall in the first place. Although acknowledging that it was somewhat lazy, he decided that he needed to make sure this landing would not get him killed. He grimaced at the irony. Sent to the pokémon world only to be killed before he could even do anything…what an ironic and sad way to go.

Increasing his surface area as to decrease terminal velocity was the first order of business. If he could slow to a gentle landing then he would take it. Second was finding a spot where he could land without breaking a body part. He then acknowledged that a broken limb was probably inevitable and so was coming in for a gentle landing. He was in free fall after all, not gliding. Oh how he wished he could fly.

Regardless, he spotted large easily noticeable bush that might make the landing slightly less painful. He could only hope that the bush had no thorns. He was already falling at what he assumed to be terminal velocity and had no desire to make his entrance any more terrifying with a rough landing.

The human-turned pokémon made sure his body was in position and heaved a deep breath hoping it would work.

He'd never know for sure if his plan succeeded or not because he had blacked out before making his landing despite having fought against it for almost a minute...

"Hey! Hey! Are you okay?" He groaned. Who could possibly be bothering him now? Couldn't whoever was bothering him tell that he just wanted to rest? He did just have a rougher than expected landing…Then again, that might not be the most obvious conclusion one could draw from the encounter…

"Come on! Wake up!" Now that he was paying more attention, he could make out the feminine traces behind the voice and felt the dark fog clouding his vision to dissipate and he was able to make out some more clear features. It was obvious that whoever was trying to wake him looked like a mouse.

A large mouse.

A large mouse that looked to have yellow fur, bright amber eyes, what looked to be red circles on her cheeks, and what had to be the coolest was the lightning bolt shaped tail that curved into a heart. She had long pointed ears with black tips along with small forearms with five fingers per paw and small feet with three toes per foot.

He winced as he slowly got up into a sitting position and looked around. He looked to be in a forest. Looking around some more found a large bush where he assumed to have landed. He nodded to himself; that had been the plan and his intact health showed that it had worked. He was amazed that he had survived yet alone landing relatively unscathed. Ah, one of the perks of being a pokémon...

Turning back to the electric rodent, the human turned pokémon wanted to ask what she was but decided that sounded too rude and instead asked, "Who are you?

"I'm Pikachu," she smiled at him and he couldn't help but notice how pretty she looked when she smiled. Man he felt like a creeper thinking such cliché thoughts; surely he could be more creative than that! "And you're an Axew right?"

He blinked and looked down at the grayish-green scales on his body. Feeling his face told him that he had two flat tusks on the sides of his mouth and feeling the top of his head told him that he now had a horn! Was that what Pokémon he had become? He'd take her word for it seeing as he had no clue. He then wondered how they were able to communicate so easily before remembering that he was a pokémon as well…

Lovely.

Then again, he had a horn and tusks! How cool was that!

"I think I am," he murmured before coming to a realization. He wanted to be something more meaningful than just Axew although having an 'x' in his name was a nice perk. "But please…call me Auron."

Pikachu blinked before testing the foreign name on her tongue. She believed it to have a nice ring to it and immediately took it in stride.

"So you're not hurt right? You fell right out of the sky," Pikachu asked worriedly, scrutinizing him for any injuries that he may have been inadvertently hiding from her.

"I'm not sure how that happened but I think I'm okay," Auron lied. Somehow he was skeptical that Pikachu would believe that he was actually a human sent to save the Pokémon world. Nonetheless he was touched by her concern.

Pikachu scrutinized him for a few more seconds, searching for any injuries before nodding to herself.

"So Auron, where are you from? I've never seen you around here before," Pikachu commented idly while Auron stiffened, mentally cursing himself for overlooking such a simple question. How could he explain to Pikachu that he was a human? There's no way she or anyone else would believe him. He'd certainly never believe if someone told him such a thing…at least not without some proof and he thought himself to be a relatively open minded individual. On the other hand, Auron already felt that he'd developed a friend in Pikachu despite having only known her for about five minutes. He sighed when he realized that he didn't want to lie to her and had little choice other than to tell the truth.

"WHAAT!" Pikachu gasped when Auron confessed. "Y-You're actually a human! And you got turned into a Pokemon because some voice was crying out for help?! So you basically fell out of the human world into this one!"

Auron sighed. He knew it would be too big of a stretch to hope that anyone would believe his story so he was only vaguely confused when Pikachu turned away from him and seemed to be having a conversation with herself before nodding resolutely and turning back to him.

"Okay," she stated. "I got it." Auron blinked at the growing smile or her face which he couldn't help but feel reassured. "I believe you Auron! I believe your story!"

Auron felt his jaw drop at Pikachu's declaration. She believed him without any proof or any way to back up what he'd said! What an incredible stroke of luck! Nonetheless, he did find comfort in someone believing him despite the impossibility of the declaration.

"I know you must be surprised," Pikachu smiled bashfully. At Auron's vigorous nod she continued, "It is a pretty incredible story to believe. After all, humans only existed in fairy tales or so I believed and it seemed totally impossible that a human could just turn into a pokémon and fall out of the sky one day." Auron nodded. He assumed that this wasn't a common occurrence.

She stared up at the sky while Auron watched on curiously. "You know what I think?" she asked her Axew friend. At his shrug, she continued her little monologue.

"I think that there are so many mysteries in the universe but maybe…those things aren't so mysterious after all…maybe there are just things that I don't know about yet and that's why I believe it's mysterious," Pikachu admitted while Auron watched on, clearly impressed with Pikachu's open mindedness.

"That's why I want to learn and see as much about the world as possible!" Pikachu declared, passion laced every syllable that just made Auron want to join her quest.

"I want to meet mythical Pokémon that are the stuff of legends! I want to explore the deepest caverns and ancient ruins!" Pikachu exclaimed.

'With the way Pikachu talks, it makes me want to join her in this pursuit. It sounds so exciting!' Auron thought eagerly as he listened intently as Pikachu admitted that she wanted to be an adventurer.

"That's why I traveled all the way here to—," Pikachu's eyes widened in horror as she remembered the reason she was out in the forest in the first place.

"Augh! I forgot! The most important meeting of my life!" Pikachu moved passed before clamping her eyes shut. "I've got to get there ASAP but the path ahead looks really tough. It'll be hard to make it through on my own…"

Pikachu felt her eyes prick with tears as she realized the sheer magnitude of her plight. She had gotten lucky, having been able to avoid most of the battles on her trail thus far but she doubted her luck would hold out for much longer. "What am I supposed to do?" Her eyes brightened suddenly as she realized that she didn't have to travel all by herself.

"Auron! Please!" Pikachu began, sounding more than a little desperate. "Will you please come with me on the path ahead?"

Auron watched as her expression turned downcast as she continued. "My journey is so close to being over and everything I want is so close but if I don't hurry, I won't make it in time. I'm really not sure if I will be able to fight and get through the path by myself."

Auron blinked at her desperation as she declared that there was no time to explain and that she needed him to come with her. She had even gone so far as to push him from behind to get Auron to lead down the path.

Auron blinked at Pikachu's surge of boldness as she pushed him out of the forest and toward the ragged mountain.

"This place is…amazing," Auron breathed as he took in the rocky expanse around him. He felt right at home here in nature's embrace. He would have taken more time to admire nature's beauty had Pikachu not called him over and insisted that they needed to move posthaste.

"Hey Pikachu," said Auron abruptly as the pair kept moving. "Do you have a name aside Pikachu that you'd rather be called?"

The electric type blinked before she reflected on Auron's question. It had never occurred to her to make a new name for herself although given what she wanted to do, it did seem fitting to give herself a new name for this quest of hers...theirs...

She stared around, looking for inspiration. Her eyes landed on her tail and she stared at and felt sparks fall from her cheeks as it came to mind.

"Light," she decided. "Call me Light."

Auron nodded, shooting Light a toothy grin before noting that the bridge collapsed, causing Light to go into a panic. How was she going to get to her meeting in time if the bridge collapsed?

"Light," said Auron firmly, "You need to relax. If you keep this up, you'll be too tired to even participate in the meeting."

Light nodded after taking a deep breath and immediately followed Auron's lead as the intrepid duo began scaling the rocky maze and crossed through the rockface.

It was immediately clear why Light had asked Auron to come along. As soon as they had stepped into the cave labyrinth, they were immediately attacked by an unusually aggressive Gothita who had used pound on Auron.

The small dragon type scowled before realizing that he had no idea how to fight back.

Light seemed to have come to that realization too as she gave an abridged version of how battle as a pokemon.

Auron wasn't sure what that meant but trusted Light's advice as he lunged in and scratched at the Gothita that had attacked him with Light backing him up with a thundershock. Auron stared at his partner's ability to produce electricity while wishing he could do something similar.

He seemed to get some version of his wish when the duo found themselves surrounded by at least five pokemon. While they weren't a threat by themselves, as a group, the battle would be much tougher especially since it was two inexperienced battlers against five aggressive pokemon. The odds were not in their favor as they sent Light flying. Auron snarled as he scratched away but blinked when his small hands were enveloped in dark energy knocked away two of their enemies. The rest fled when they saw the kind of power Auron harnessed.

Auron disregarded his foes' abrupt exit as he found Light padding her way back to his side.

"Auron, you were incredible out there!" Light gushed as she explained that he had learned how to use Assurance. Light described it as a dark type attack that did more damage if you were already injured when you used it. Auron grinned. Clearly fate wanted to make his job at least a little bit easier; something that he was intensely grateful.

Thankfully, after the ambush no other pokemon had tried to surprise the weary duo as they finally spotted the exit and made a mad dash toward it. Only to find themselves up on the summit.

"Now how are we going to get across," Light mumbled, crossing her arms as she began to think. Auron glanced around and spotted a tree and the other side of the ledge nearby. He had contemplated simply jumping across ultimately decided against it. He'd already been in free fall once today and had no desire to repeat the feat. But the tree gave him an idea.

Angling his head to the side, Auron gave the tree his best headbutt and grimaced when it didn't fall over like he'd hoped. He was hoping that his horn would be able to cut through the tree but to no avail; he'd then tried with his tusks but had gotten similar results.

Light blinked when she saw Auron trying to knock the tree down and together their combined headbutt managed to knock the tree down and create a makeshift bridge. Auron had volunteered to go first and encouraged Light when she crossed, reminding her to not look down but immediately regretted it when she froze.

He shook his head as he moved to Light's side and led her through the bridge path before hopping off on the other side.

"We made it!" Auron grinned after traveling down the other side of the rockface. Being a pokemon felt awesome! It gave him a more acute sense of appreciating nature at any rate.

"We need to hurry!" Light stated frantically as she pushed Auron toward the dirt path. "Come on!" she shouted as she continued nudging him down the path while Auron wondered where Light was taking him so badly that she needed to push him.

He'd find out in due time...

How was that? I'm sorry I haven't posted any stories in long time. I want to blame reality for hindering me in this regard and that is partially true but there's also a lack of inspiration and just laziness that made me not write anything sooner. I sincerely apologize but if you like this story then you'll be happy to know that I have every intention of getting an update to you all at least once a week. If this changes, I'll let you all know right away via my profile page so definitely check there regularly for progress reports and as always: thanks for reading and please review!