You find a set of stairs leading down.

Chapter by Nenen

You look around you, trying to see if there’s any kind of hole or something you can fall into, but all you see is rubble. You don't want to climb down the tower from the outside, you would most likely fall right away and… best not to think about it. Regardless, you’re stuck here unless you find a way to get down. You put your claws on your big hips and sigh, things are starting smoothly alright. Is there really nothing there other than rubble? Or below it?

…

…

You’re an idiot.

Soon you begin picking up rubble and… leaving it in place in the air. With time completely frozen these rocks won’t fall no matter what you do. You can still move them though. Actually, you wonder if you could step on them while they’re on the air. You pick a piece of rubble and place it not so high in the air for a test and step on it. Just as you thought, the rock remains in place allowing you to stand on the air. The moment you do something like taking a step or jumping your own body’s momentum moves the rock somewhere else. You don't see much use for it now, but maybe you'll think of something eventually.

It takes a bit but you finally find something under some rubble. Stairs. You can't see what's on the floor they lead to, it is pitch black after a few steps, but you know it is your best chance of getting out of here. So, after some deep breaths to psych yourself up you go down.

When you get down you notice that the place is just as dark as the stairs made you think. There seem to be torches with the fire frozen in place, but also still illuminating the room. You can see the individual embers and the way the fire curves like this. If it weren’t fully in gray it would be kind of pretty. You look back, only to see that the stairs are gone. Like, poof, no longer there.

This is a Mystery Dungeon isn’t it? Of course it would be, Primal DIalga is from that continuity after all. Wait, does that mean there are also Mystery Dungeons back there? You are sure you saw developed cities, ruins of them sure but still saw them, so maybe it is the case. Well, guess you have to find the next set of stairs now. And so you walk around the dark rooms, avoiding holes that apparently don’t lead down at all if your guess is right, seeing some halls filled with water and trying to pass by some rubble. In a way, it is kind of fun to do this, the thrill of exploration reminds you of the dungeon crawler games you sometimes play, there is one where you have to make your own maps as you go in blind.

It is a bit into your exploration that you find your first real obstacle. You had turned a corner to a hallway you were sure you had seen before when you encountered a Pokémon. At first you thought it was just more rubble, but then said ‘rubble’ started floating and taking a humanoid shape. A wide torso made of chipped rock floated in the middle, below it two long rocks surrounded a metal sphere forming a leg, one on the left and right. Four long jagged rocks floated around the torso, smaller white ones floating nearby the bigger parts forming claws. A chunk of rock, or rather metal as you’re starting to recognize it, floated above the torso, a white X on the center of it, two black holes on the sides of the X. Then one last piece of metal placed itself between the legs, making you realize this was a male Metagross, now having assembled itself into a hulking humanoid shape. “H-hello?” You tried waving at them but the Pokémon just roared and sent one of his fists towards you. Luckily you were able to avoid it, only to see that it left a big crater on the point of impact. “Okay, I do not want to get hit by those.” This Pokémon must be an enemy, which means now you have to fight it somehow.

“Heh, it should be easy.” You’re confident you can do this, you’re Primal Dialga now, a powerful Legendary with powers over time. You just need to… uhhh… how do you use attacks again? Wait, more importantly, what attacks does Dialga know? Or Primal Dialga at that? You’re taking out of your own questioning when you notice another arm sent to you, once again avoiding it as it crashes into a wall. It’s a good thing you’re in an open area now, otherwise it could get messy. Here though, you have room to do- *BAM* Your thoughts are interrupted when something hits you hard on your left, sending you a bit towards the right and falling into the floor. Amidst the pain you try to think how you got hit when you didn’t see them launching an arm when you notice it. Two of the arms are floating around the room freely. One of them must have flown out of your view and hit you while you were too busy looking at them! Fuck! You got cocky. Your left hurts but you don’t think anything broke, perks of being a Legendary maybe.

Your lesson on being humble and not consider yourself invincible because you’re a legendary over you pay more attention to what is around all of you. You are still able to dodge, but unless you attack you won’t get anywhere. C’mon, think, think! What attacks can you do? What type is Dialga? Dragon you believe, as well as steel based on all of it around your form. Okay so, you can probably do dragon breath but you have no idea how to do it so that’s out, same with dragon rage. What other attacks were there? Iron claw comes to mind, and dragon claw. You figure those would be the easiest to figure out to do, but they are still specific moves. Unless you do them right all you will do is just use scratch. But you can’t keep thinking about it and dodging forever either. Well, fuck it, you’ll figure it as you go. You charge at the Pokémon, who didn’t seem to expect that as the arms take some time to go towards you. However it is easy to predict them since they’ll go straight at you anyways. You dodge a few more times and then jump, concentrating on your claw, trying to send the energy you can feel in you towards it. It appears to do the trick as your claws become enveloped by a bigger orange claw made of energy that you bring down on the Metagross. The attack hits clean, and the Metagross is the one sent flying this time. Breathing heavily you continue focusing on this feeling in your body and claws, trying to be ready for an attack that may come. To your surprise however, the Metagross just glows and disappears, leaving nothing behind.

Did they teleport? Metagross can’t learn teleport, right? You aren’t sure. It’s been a while since you last played one of the games. The weirdness doesn’t stop there however, as you feel a weird tingle on your whole body afterwards, the feeling vanishing as soon as it appears. “Well, guess all I can do is keep going.” Your side hurts a bit still but you should do a bit better now. Remembering to be careful and how to do Dragon Claw. Should figure out other moves though.

As you walk you ponder your encounter. You are sure you had seen Primal Dialga as more, well, Pokémon than anthro when you saw her, but that voice said they “restored” the body to the form it should be. Maybe she changed because of that energy she had? It’s as good an explanation as any. You won’t get any answer about anything unless you find a Pokémon willing to talk. Speaking of which, you don’t find a Pokémon this time, but you find a berry. An Oran Berry to be precise. These things heal so you bite on to it. It’s very sour! But also juicy, and to be fair you liked your oranges when they were somewhat sour. A few bites and you feel a bit better already, and you also found the next set of stairs! So down you go.

_____________

“Haa… Haaa… that… that should be it.” You’re exhausted. It is only the second floor you’ve been in and you feel you saw more action than you would need in a lifetime. Another Metagross appeared, this one likely female because of the absence of the dangling bits. That one was a pain to deal with, taking 3 Dragon Claws to defeat and scoring a few hits in, but in the end you won and, like the previous Metagross, it disappeared afterwards. Aside from that you encountered a group of 2 Pokémon that looked like humanoid bells, who also attacked you on sight. It was hard to deal with a 2 on 1 situation but you managed somewhat. Lastly there was a room with 4 Pokémon on it. Knowing to pick your fights you retreated but they followed you. The hall wasn’t too wide however, so only the one in front was able to attack you, while the others had to try and throw stuff between the small gaps theri forms left. This is the one you just cleared. You didn’t pay attention to their gender, but you know they were a Salamance, 2 types of Porygon and a Lunatone you believe. They all banished just like the others, and you felt that tingly sensation after that. “Ugh, I’m drenched in sweat. Hopefully I can wash with the water around.” You found the next set of stairs in the following room and went down.

There weren't any Pokémon encounters in the next floor thankfully, and the one after only had two that were alone. After that there was a floor with 4 single encounters and the stairs. Thankfully you were able to find a place to rest after those last stairs. Nothing here but a single room and the stairs. You simply decided to lay down a bit and rest, then continue once you felt ready.