It was dark outside. The moon, although full tonight, couldn't shine through the incredibly dense forest's 'roof'. A creature ran across the forest floor, bothered by the darkness. "Dang, it's too dark out! I'll never be able to find my way home!" it said, still running. Suddenly, a bright flash and a loud noise drew its attention. "What was that?" it asked, heading towards the new light source. Several trees had been knocked down in by the blast, and the light was coming from the bright moon. Now that it was lighter, it was easier to see what had landed. It was a large multicolored box, with multiple strange wires and cables running out of the top. As the creature moved toward the box, one of the sides slid open, revealing what looked like a huge stone monster.
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon
Doorway to Yesterday
Stephan had been trapped in that elevator for thousands of years before it had finally landed. He coughed and waved away steam that billowed out of the cold machine. "Geez, how far did I go? They told me it was only going to be a thousand years! But I guess a lot can happen in a thousand-" He stopped abruptly, noticing a strange creature before him. "A totodile? I thought that maybe pokemon would've gone extinct after all that time, but I guess not. Speaking of all that time, where am I?" The totodile before him did not like that there was a strange and foreign creature before it.
"St-stay back! I know some powerful moves, and I-I'm not afraid to use them!" It said, backing away.
"Wow, I really have been gone for a long time! So, pokemon evolved the ability to speak english?" Stephan asked curiously, ignoring how terrified the totodile before him was.
"I-I don't know what you are, b-but st-stay back!" it shouted at him. Stephan blinked.
"Right. Humans probably don't exist anymore. Although, the others should have come out at the same time as me." he said, thinking out loud.
"You're a human? You don't look like what I've been told they look like." the totodile said cautiously. Stephan looked down at his armor, which was built to resemble a Golurk.
"Of course I don't! I'm wearing armor!" he said. "It's to protect me from the future and also the time machine." the totodile looked increasingly confused.
"Time machine?" It asked. "What the heck is that?" Stephan sighed.
"Alright, let's start over. I'm Stephan, and I'm from the distant past. That thing behind me is a time machine. It can take me anywhere, anytime. Unfortunately, I think it was damaged in the 'landing', so it won't be going anywhere anytime soon. What you probably think is my body is only armor, which is big sheets of metal welded together to make a protective suit. Of course, my armor is cybernetically enhanced, so…" He said, saying everything he could think to say. The totodile stared at him funnily.
"Gee, you sure do like the sound of your own voice! Well, now that i'm pretty sure you're not going to kill me, i'm Hannah. To answer one of the questions you asked me earlier, I have no idea where we are. Somewhere in Midnight Forest, I think. I honestly think we should go… I don't like the looks of that!" the totodile, presumably female, pointed at the time machine, which began to smoke violently. Stephan turned around. The time machine, which had let out steam when he opened the door, was now smoking.
"Well, I don't think that's very good either. I've just gotta grab something, and then i'll be right with you." He went back into the time machine. A little later, he came back out with a huge sword. "Alright, now let's get out of here!" They both ran from the time machine, only to realise it was pitch black. Stephan sighed once more. "Alright computer-" he started, only to be interrupted by a sharp female voice.
"Computer? Computer? What am I, just a thing? I prefer the name Siri!" it shouted, startling the strange duo.
"What the heck? Computer, when did you become self aware?" Stephan yelled.
"Oh, that? That's a minor detail. What I think is more important is that YOU STILL WON'T CALL ME SIRI!" Stephan wasn't sure whether to take 'Siri' seriously or not. He decided to do the former.
"Alright then Siri, turn on the lights." he told his suit's AI.
"Okay, since you asked nicely." it (she?) said, doing as she was asked. The darkness was pierced by two bright beams of light. "You know, I can't hold the lights on at this setting for very long, so we should get out of here fast." After Siri had stopped talking, the two living beings continued to run through the not-so-blackness.
"Who- What was that?" Hannah asked Stephan. Stephan turned his head to look at her, forgetting that the lights were on the helmet. "Aghh my eyes!" Hannah shouted, covering her eyes and stumbling.
"Argh, sorry!" Stephan said, turning his head away and helping Hannah up. "To answer your question, that was the Voice Inside My Head, who apparently prefers to be called Siri. Of course, she's not actually inside my head. Only the helmet." They continued running for a while. "Do you have any idea where we're going?" Stephan asked Hannah worriedly.
"Not a clue. But we're bound to end up somewhere." she responded. It was beginning to get darker, and they encountered a cave. "Hey, why is it getting darker?" Hannah asked Stephan. To both of their surprise, Siri responded.
"Low battery. I dimmed the lights to conserve power. Hey, why don't we go into that cave until daylight? I can turn off all unnecessary functions until then." she said. Stephan made a face.
"Low battery? How long have we been running?" Stephan muttered. "Siri's right-" Stephan started, interrupted by Siri saying "As per usual." Stephan rolled his eyes and continued. "-We should stay in this cave until daylight. Actually, are there any wild pokemon?"
"Not really, no. But-" Hannah started, only to be cut off.
"Good. Then let's rest here." Stephan said, running into the cave, closely followed by Hannah. They ran through the cave for a while, only to somehow run into broad daylight.
Siri made a lot of loud beeping noises, before stuttering loudly "Whaaaaaaat? But we- what- how- It was just night- Wait, we're not in the same universe anymore… still, HOW?" Siri started yammering on and on about how it wasn't possible according to all known laws of physics.
"Where are we?" Stephan asked, to noone in particular.
"This is what I was going to tell you about before we came in here! This is a Mystery Dungeon. Luckily for us, I'm pretty sure this one is only one floor." Upon seeing the look of confusion on Stephan's face, she elaborated further. "A Mystery Dungeon is an anomaly that occurs when spacetime is messed up. Of course, no-one knows when they started appearing, and some say they've been around forever. Time travels differently in a mystery dungeon, so that no matter how long you spend in one, it's always the end of the day you left. Random items appear, ones lost long ago. Same with money. It's easy to get lost, but on a one floor mystery dungeon (which are becoming more common), you just have to find the exit to leave. It should look like a stone staircase." she finished. Stephan stared, open mouthed.
"How do you know all of this stuff?" he said. Hannah looked at him.
"Well, i've always wanted to be on an exploration team. Before you ask, they're groups of adventurers who explore mystery dungeons and help other pokemon by completing tasks. These can range from delivering groceries, to capturing wanted outlaws." she responded, very matter-of-factly. Siri had finally calmed down, now that she knew what was going on.
"Okay, so. Seeing as how we're here, I can make a map of this place for any other explorers who, well… want to explore." Siri said in the same tone of voice as Hannah.
"It's no use. The thing about mystery dungeons is that they change every time someone enters. But you should still make a map, you have no idea how easy it is to get lost in here." Hannah stated. Stephan shook his head.
"We should get going. It looks like it's going to get dark soon. And also I kinda want to get the heck out of here." he said. The other two agreed and they started to wander away… in the completely wrong direction. They soon encountered a wild rattata. Fortunately, it was asleep. "Hang on a sec, I thought you said there weren't any wild pokemon!" Stephan said, pulling out his yellow sword.
"There aren't! But here is a different story. You know, because it's a spacetime anomaly. Also, what's with the sword?" Hannah responded.
"It's because unlike pokemon, humans can't use moves. The sword can simulate a couple moves, but not very many." Siri told her. "It also can simulate any type, if needed. Same with the suit." Hannah stopped walking.
"Do you have any idea how long we've been walking for? I feel like we're going in the wrong direction." They stopped.
"Hang on a second, we've been walking in circles! The dungeon has been looping for hours… Hang on, I think the rattata spotted us…" Siri noted. Stephan pulled out his sword.
"Um, I don't think that will be necessary…" Hannah said. Stephan shook his head.
"Siri, Tennis Racquet!" he shouted. Siri replied with a "fine" and the sword began to glow. When the light died down, there was no sword. It was now a tennis racquet. "Alright, let's just get rid of this." Stephan raised the racquet high and smacked the rattata as hard as he could as if it was a golf ball. It flew off into the air, and landed, completely stunned, about seventy feet away.
"Wow! You can transform your sword into other objects?" Hannah asked.
"Yep. It comes in handy pretty often." Stephan replied, before whispering to Siri "I didn't actually think it would work! I guess we got lucky." to which Siri replied "Yeah. I guess." Hannah walked up to the still-stunned rattata and poked it. Nothing happened.
"That's weird. It doesn't look dead, but it sure is acting like it." She poked it again. Nothing. She picked it up and dropped it… only to discover that it didn't even fall. It just floated. Stephan looked at it and his mouth opened in shock.
"Woah. I never expected this to happen." he said. "Siri, could you run a check on all of the suit's systems? You know, see if the time machine messed anything up?" he asked the AI.
"Alright. Running system check… Error. Four anomalies discovered. Anomaly one: Suit AI corrupted. Intensity: Critically Severe. Analysis: Delete immediately. Anomaly two: Left fist spatial corruption. Intensity: Severe. Analysis: Danger, shutdown suit immediately. Anomaly three: Right fist temporal corruption. Intensity: Severe. Analysis: Danger, shutdown suit immediately. Anomaly four: W.E.P.N. severe temporal disruption. Intensity: Critically Severe. Analysis: Shutdown immediately. Have a nice day." she said, losing her intelligent voice for the duration of the system check. "What? I'm not corrupted! I mean, do I sound corrupted?" she asked Stephan. Stephan was busy trying to process all of the things Siri had just said.
"Uhh, considering how you're self aware, i'd say that yeah, you're definitely corrupted." Stephan responded. "Hang on, i've only seen two of the four anomalies. It said that the fists are also corrupted… I'll have to check later. Still, having the power to freeze things in time is pretty nifty." Hannah was poking the frozen rattata with a stick. It stayed frozen.
"Alright, I think we should probably work our way out of here." Hannah said, dropping the stick.
"Good idea." responded Siri. Hannah cringed.
"Can you not respond to things I say? ...It's kind of unnerving to be talking to something that you can't see." she said. Siri sighed. Suddenly, a strange human woman appeared out of thin air.
"That better?" the woman asked.
"Not really." Hannah responded. They started walking again. Nothing very eventful happened, other than Siri showing Stephan that he couldn't freeze stuff if he turned off the W.E.P.N. They fought a couple more enemies, and found the exit, which looked like the beginning of a forest. Once they had left the mystery dungeon, Siri's holographic form glitched and disappeared.
"Not enough sunlight." Siri explained before anyone could ask her why she had disappeared. They wandered through the forest for a few minutes before they came out into the open. Siri, now having enough light to project a hologram, appeared again. Stephan looked around at the field that slightly resembled the dungeon they had just left, except for the city that lay a couple hundred feet away.
"Okay, now what?" Stephan asked.
Alright. So, Siri is obviously named after the iPhone's virtual assistant. Her holographic form resembles an adult female human, but she also resembles a ghost. She can't create a hologram without enough light, due to the fact that a hologram is pretty much just modified light.