Disclaimer: Not entirely sure how necessary these things are, as if I owned Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, then obviously I wouldn't be writing fan fiction about it.
Author's Note: Well, I'm aware that PMD2 has been out for quite some time now… But this is something that I've been wanting to write for a while, so I'm finally getting myself in gear and starting on it. Given how I've got several of my own theories on how the Mystery Dungeon world works, or how it should work, in the very least this shouldn't come off as a rehash of all the other PMD2-original-team-stories you've probably read by now. That aside, also note that not necessarily every chapter (like this one) will be from my main character's point of view. Also, two quick notes: First, I normally don't support human/Pokémon pairings apart from Hero/Grovyle; I'm just pairing the hero's mother with one in an attempt to justify the specific Pokémon she turns into later. Secondly, I'm having all Pokémon speak normally throughout the fic, since not only does the game imply that the hero can at least understand Grovyle pre-transformation, but also, I personally think it's a side-effect of the Dimensional Scream. Now here goes…
Chapter One: Solutions
"Is this really necessary, Michelle?"
"It would be a lot safer, yes. It's for backup—"
"So you're saying we almost have what we need and we're holding back anyway?"
"Please. What if something happens?"
"I don't see how things could get much worse than they are now."
Michelle Black sighed as she scanned the assembled group. The Planetary Investigation Team, as it was called, was a motley assortment of Pokémon and humans, though mainly Pokémon; she could count the number of other humans in the group on one hand. They were all shifting impatiently as they waited on her to reply.
As she possessed the Dimensional Scream ability, Michelle was considered to be a fairly important member of the group, and yet, due to her rather cautious nature, she had a tendency to make the others impatient. Not that the current state of the world really helped calm anyone down… But she disliked the idea of rushing headlong into any solutions, as what they were doing was dangerous enough in and of itself.
"She has a point, you know."
Before Michelle could go on, a somewhat high-pitched voice chimed in for her. Celebi, the Pokémon who had organized the team in the first place, hovered over to the middle of the meeting area. As the group's focus shifted over to her, Celebi folded her arms.
"Really, what could it hurt, my dears?" Celebi twirled around, exasperated. "We've located four Time Gears, and five are all we really need… But given the short-term consequences this plan of ours will have on the residents of the past world, don't you think we'll be met with a bit of resistance?"
"Yes, but what does that have to do with anything?" a Jolteon demanded, his spikes bristling. "We've been getting enough resistance here, despite the fact that everyone is suffering. Surely the Pokémon of the past won't be too hard to handle?"
"You didn't let me finish, dear Jolteon!" Celebi fluttered down towards him, giggling. "This is quite important! If any of the Time Gears we've found are particularly difficult to reach in the past, having one more for backup is really the best idea. We could just go and find only one more, but we really should find two instead for security purposes."
"So then we can have an alternate if something goes wrong in the past," Michelle clarified. "It certainly wouldn't do to have our plan fail because we only went after the bare minimum. If we were to somehow get stuck with only four Time Gears while in the past, we'd have no way to finish our plan."
Jolteon growled slightly, but settled down. Reluctant looks swept across the rest of the group, but no one spoke up. It was still easy to see the uneasiness that had settled in, however.
"Look, we're getting close," Michelle continued. "Given the locations of the Time Gears we've found so far, I've got some fairly good ideas of where another one could be. I'll be using the Dimensional Scream to confirm my ideas, of course, and I'll be able to report back to you all at the next meeting."
"And everyone knows which location we'll be meeting at next, yes?" Celebi's gaze skimmed over the assembly as she spoke. "Remember, we can't go announcing this schedule at our meetings, in case of any eavesdroppers, so don't forget!"
A murmur of relief floated through the crowd as they began shuffling out of the clearing, each to go about their own duties. Most of them were assigned to do things like search for allies and try to discern who may be working for Primal Dialga, the heavy-handed ruler of the frozen world.
Michelle envied the other members of the Planetary Investigation Team in a way. Despite the fact that many of them ended up in direct contact with Primal Dialga's minions, and thus were constantly risking their lives to make sure her investigations went smoothly, there would be no progress at all without her locating the Time Gears. It was quite the heavy burden, and she could understand everyone's impatience even if she didn't like it; everything depended on how quickly she worked, but the pressure was immense.
A brief smile drifted across her face, however, as she collected her two-year-old daughter, Claire, who had fallen asleep during the meeting. Though she didn't feel safe allowing the toddler to come with her, Claire had inherited the family's Dimensional Scream ability. While unlikely, there was always the chance that the burden of locating the Time Gears would fall to Claire, so she'd have to get familiar with attending the meetings.
As Michelle propped Claire over her back, the little girl stirred slightly. Instinctively wrapping her arms around her mother's shoulders, Claire yawned loudly.
"Home, Mommy?"
"Yes, Claire. We're going home."
The pathway out of the small forest clearing was littered with branches. Several of them hovered in the air mid-fall, held in place by nothing other than the lack of a proper time flow; they'd obviously snapped right when the paralysis had hit the area, and no more cues remained to tell them that they should finish falling. Michelle carefully stepped around them, shuffling her feet slightly to disturb any footprints and leaving an obvious trail.
That was one of the truly confusing factors of the frozen world, she pondered. Given the fact that time no longer flowed, nothing should theoretically be able to disturb whatever state the ground was in; her feet still left imprints in the dirt and grass, however. The fact that such marks would linger without her shuffling to obfuscate them made sense, at least, as there was no wind or other movement to disturb them.
"Mommy, look!"
After they had gone a fair distance, Claire's voice rang out, interrupting Michelle's thoughts. Squinting, she could make out a small, round object on the ground several yards ahead of them. Michelle cautiously took a few steps towards it, and as they got closer, she realized it was a Pokémon egg. What in the world had a lone egg doing by itself in an open area?
Claire scrambled down from her mother's back while she was distracted, darting towards the egg. Shrieking her daughter's name, Michelle quickly caught up to her and grabbed her arm. True, the forest was far away from them now and they were out in an open field, and Claire was clearly focused on the egg rather than trying to run off somewhere… There was still no telling if something was out there waiting for them, especially since they had no idea how the egg had gotten there.
Looking down at the surprised child, Michelle suddenly noticed a few bloodstained footprints on the ground behind her. The feeling of dread in her stomach increased as she realized the footprints were leading right towards the egg. It was clear at this point that the egg's parents had been attacked, likely having dropped it in an attempt to escape. Given how the footprints suddenly stopped just a few steps away from it, however, there was a very strong chance that its parents had been captured and possibly killed.
It was yet another reason why they couldn't afford to make any mistakes in the Planetary Investigation Team's goals. The planet's paralysis led to such a smothering, oppressive atmosphere that the fate of the egg's parents wasn't exactly an uncommon string of events. The sheer tension made it easy to see why so many people and Pokémon had been driven to insanity and violence.
"Come along, Claire, it's not safe here—"
But the girl was trying to tug herself away from Michelle's grip, causing her to stumble forward. Claire's hands fell on the egg, and she let out a small, surprised sound and froze suddenly. Her eyes glazed over for a moment, as if she were focusing on something far away. Michelle gasped sharply, recognizing the look on Claire's face as the distinctive look of someone getting a vision from the Dimensional Scream; she'd been told that was the way she looked when she got her visions, and had seen that look on her father's face before as well.
And yet only things related to the Time Gears could activate the Dimensional Scream. As Claire snapped out of her vision and slowly sat down, looking very confused, Michelle incredulously knelt down next to the egg. The instant she touched it, her vision went white; the beginnings of her ability were quite familiar by now.
The scene that unfolded was quite different from the usual ones. Normally, the telltale signs that a Time Gear had once resided in an area led her to see how the area was in the past and where exactly the Time Gear had been located within that area, as well as the surrounding location to help her gauge where it was in relation to any other past landmarks. This time, however, she saw the silhouette of a Pokémon running through a forest — a Grovyle, she quickly identified. The Grovyle slowed down suddenly, noticing something ahead of him. There was a stone pedestal with a gentle blue-green light emanating from it, and the Grovyle approached it eagerly. He then noticed the Time Gear hovering over it, plucked it off the pedestal, and darted away.
The Dimensional Scream ended as abruptly as it had started, and Michelle was left utterly confused. She carefully picked the egg up as questions raced through her brain. It was pretty easy to see that the Grovyle from her vision would be hatching from this egg, and that for some reason he knew about — or would know about — the Time Gears, but that raised a whole slew of problems. Why was he collecting them? If the egg she was holding now was going to hatch into that Grovyle, why was he back in the past? And most importantly, why wasn't she, Claire, or any other member of the Planetary Investigation Team anywhere in the vision?
At least the question of how the egg had managed to activate the ability had been answered, as there had been a Time Gear present in the vision. And at least now she knew that there was a Time Gear in an area that had once been a forest.
These facts didn't seem very comforting, however.
Setting the egg down momentarily, Michelle quickly slung Claire onto her back again. She then picked up the egg again, pace quickening as she continued the trek towards their current temporary home. It was quite close now, fortunately, the short distance from her Pokémon partner being the second factor in activating her ability. Now she was even more anxious to return, needing time to think about what she'd seen.
"Keep it, Mommy?"
"Yes, Claire, we're keeping it. For now, anyway… until we understand what we saw."
Michelle understood that she was talking to herself for the most part, as it would be difficult for the toddler to grasp most of what she was saying. Thinking aloud certainly helped her feel more organized, however.
The open area quickly melted into another thick forest. Ducking under branches was quite difficult while trying to balance both Claire and the egg, but the path was familiar. There was a very narrow cave entrance well-concealed behind several particularly thick trees, and it was there that Michelle entered.
Claire slithered off Michelle's back again and ran over to the cave's three other occupants — the rest of their family. Her twin brother, Andrew, was currently sleeping, curled up against their half-brother, a Growlithe named Jack. The Persian watching over them, their father, looked up at Michelle as Claire approached them.
"How was it — when did you pick that egg up?"
Michelle sighed as she made her way over towards them. Claire was shaking Andrew and Jack in an attempt to wake them, and Michelle sat down slowly beside them.
"Just now, Blitz. I… We got Dimensional Scream readings off of it, so I figured it was best if we keep it."
Blitz's whiskers twitched. "A Dimensional Scream from something besides a Time Gear?"
"Well, there was a Time Gear in the vision. The Dimensional Scream can activate off other things that relate to Time Gears, and it tends to be rather indirect when you'd really prefer something more obvious."
By now, Andrew and Jack were both awake and were staring rather intently at the egg. Andrew and Claire were both slowly tottering towards it while Jack merely cocked his head to the side curiously. As Claire touched the green-spotted shell again, it started to crack, as if conveniently cued by her touch.
Claire laughed delightedly as the shell continued flaking away, revealing the Pokémon inside. A Treecko weakly pushed himself away from the egg shards, flopping forward and blinking as he stared intently up at Claire. The two-year-old stared straight back at him, entranced by his large yellow eyes.
Blitz looked over in Michelle. "I presume you knew what it would hatch into?"
"I saw him as a Grovyle," Michelle replied slowly. "I'm not sure how he's supposed to evolve, not in this darkness, that spring doesn't work anymore—"
"I evolved," Blitz interrupted casually, watching as Claire flung her arms around the surprised Treecko. "We adapted, learned to compensate. It wasn't that hard, you know. If we can be born into this world and live at all without freezing instantly, if Claire and Andrew can be the equivalent of two years old when time doesn't even flow, then Treecko here will evolve eventually."
The conversation had taken a very sudden, serious turn. That was Blitz's personality, Michelle knew — taking the simple and deepening it. But he was quite right, as usual.
Time didn't flow, and its former effects shouldn't have been capable of continuing in the frozen world. It was another baffling feature of the planet's paralysis; it was as if the planet knew what it should be doing and was instinctively rebelling against the unnatural crisis. Despite the constant night and the fact that typical day cycles didn't pass anymore, the imposed paralysis had always been more supernatural than physical in nature, given its cause. The effects were oddly partial, yet still omnipresent.
Yet analyzing the smaller details was unnecessary. Michelle smiled as she watched the newborn Treecko take a few wobbly steps, followed by Claire's jubilant clapping causing him to tumble over in surprise. She was certain that he'd be vital to reversing the planet's paralysis, and she was quite hopeful to see what changes he'd bring to the group.