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Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Protectors of Time

This is a science fiction Pokemon Mystery Dungeon fanfiction based on a future hundreds of years after the events in the Explorers series. Note that it contains spoilers for the Explorers series.

I would greatly appreciate any feedback you may have.

Summary
Kira the Fennekin is a temporal researcher at the Treasure Town Temporal Observatory. Nearly three centuries have passed after the members of Wigglytuff's guild prevented the temporal disaster that threatened the Pokemon world. The present is prosperous and stable, a fortunate opposite of the dark, amorphous future that was avoided.

Kira hates mornings and Pokemon battles, and loves Chesto berries. Her jobs at the Temporal Observatory are to continue in the pursuit of understanding the physics behind the flow of time in the Pokemon world, and also to keep alert for temporal anomalies. She never expected to actually find the latter, but on a fateful Monday morning, she did. Her discovery would reveal a conspiracy that she and her colleagues would quickly find themselves entangled in. A conspiracy dating back to ancient times, and would cause her to learn about her past, and the past, present and future of all Pokemon along the way.


Chapter 1: Temporal Sensors

A chime rang through the small, cramped room.

A figure rose slowly from the small bed in the corner, with yellow fur, large, pointed ears and a bushy tail. The Fennekin reached for the source of the racket, a tablet kept on the nightstand. She sat up, turning on the device and effecting a cessation of the noise. Light flooded the room as the fox Pokemon groggily scrolled through her inbox. Messages from friends, family and work appeared on screen, before they were extinguished by a disinterested press of the power button. Stuffing the tablet into her bag, she swung the carrying strap around her body and walked out of the room.

The Fennekin walked down the corridor, along with several other Pokemon. She didn't interact with them as they walked from their quarters to their various posts in the Temporal Observatory.

"Good morning, Kira!", a Vulpix called as the Fennekin walked into the mess hall.

"Morning Leslie.", she replied as she sat down beside the other fox Pokemon in the building.

"Happy Monday!", the Vulpix said.

"Happy?", Kira replied.

Leslie chuckled, "I see you haven't had your morning Chesto berry yet."

"At this point I think I need a reviver seed.", Kira groaned, biting into the aforementioned Chesto berry that she had grabbed from the table.

Leslie laughed, "Oh, come on! I remember you going on about how you always wanted to work at the Temporal Observatory when we were at the main guild."

"I do, just after twelve at noon.", Kira chuckled, "Speaking of, I should get to my post."

"Aren't you going to eat anything else?"

"Maybe later.", Kira said as she stood up, "I don't have much of an appetite in the morning."

Leaving the bustle of the mess hall behind, Kira walked into the quiet corridor. The white walls and floor led the way to the laboratory to which Kira was assigned. Walking up to the sliding glass door, she held the researcher badge that she wore on her scarf up to a small scanner affixed to the wall. A green light illuminated from under the scanner surface before the door opened.

A Sylveon waved to Kira as she entered, "Hey!", she said cheerfully.

"Hey.", Kira responded as she walked up to the long table at the front of the room, where a computer console was waiting for her. Once again scanning her badge, she sat down in front of the screen.

"Still working on that time flow analysis?", the Sylveon asked.

"Almost done. For some reason the data processing steps are taking a lot longer than usual.", Kira said, tapping commands into the screen.

"Need help?"

"I'm fine for now. Thanks, Ella."

The Sylveon smiled as she walked to her own console. Kira focused on the grid of numbers, symbols and color codes on her screen, methodically entering a new set of calculations for the computers to perform. She paused as the results appeared on screen.

"Ella?", she said.

"Huh?"

"On second thought, could you take a look at this? It doesn't seem right."

"What doesn't seem right?", the Sylveon said as she walked over to her collegue.

"I'm reading a resonant temporal variance in the local time stream."

"Let me see.", Ella said as she walked over to the Fennekin.

"See this?", Kira said, pointing to a box in the spreadsheet, "The local time stream is fluctuating at about three picoseconds from normal."

"No offense, but are you sure it's not a problem with your calculations?"

"I already checked my own work."

"Why don't I double check it for you? A fresh pair of eyes can't hurt.", the Sylveon offered.

"Thanks. While you do that, I'll go up to the temporal sensors and run a diagnostic on them. Let's make sure this isn't a glitch."

"Good idea.", Ella said, "Temporal variance actually occurring is pretty much unheard of, and if it's this severe already then there's definitely something wrong."

"I'll be back in a few minutes.", Kira said as she retrieved a diagnostics kit from a nearby drawer and left the room. As she made her way toward the tower which housed the all-important temporal sensors, she couldn't help but feel an uneasy feeling wash over her. Her job as a temporal researcher was to collect data on the flow of time and to investigate the physical mechanisms behind how it works, but to also stay alert for anomalies. Just like everyone else at the Temporal Observatory, she had studied the topic in detail and was always taught that temporal variance, where the rate at which time flows destabilizes and starts to fluctuate, is only possible in theory. She couldn't help but wonder that if what she observed was actually temporal variance, and what it meant for the stability of the time line.

Finally reaching the base of the tower, she scanned her badge in order to gain entry. Climbing into the tiny elevator that would take her to the top of the structure, she checked the equipment that she would need for her task, looking over the included checklist for performing a sensor diagnostic. A small beep caught her attention as the elevator doors opened to a small, cylindrical room. Mounted on the walls of the chamber were eight silver metal cylinders, arranged equal distance to each other. Translucent slits were cut lengthwise into the cylinders which emitted a dim blue glow.

Kira's attention was immediately drawn to one of the cylinders, whose glow flickered erratically like a defective lamp and produced an loud electrical fizzing sound. This differed from the other sensors, which were silent and were unchanging in their light output. Reaching for the diagnostics device, she straightened the two data cables affixed to it. Plugging one cable into her tablet, she took a step toward the faulty sensor and reached for the small data port at the base. Before she could react, a thin, blueish white spark jumped from the metal housing to her outstretched paw. Kira yelped as she felt a burning pain propagate from her paw to the rest of her body, like a metal spike was being driven into her paw and through the bone in her leg. She abruptly faded into unconsciousness a moment later.
 
Chapter 2: A Rude Awakening

Kira woke up in a hospital bed. Looking around, she realized that her left paw was bandaged, and an IV needle was affixed to her right paw. Wires were attached to her head and chest, leading to a monitor that displayed her vital signs.

"Hello?", she called out. A moment later, a Chansey wearing a white lab coat entered the room.

"Welcome back, Miss Kira.", the Chansey said kindly.

"What happened?", Kira asked, confused.

"Your coworkers found you fainted and brought you here. You suffered a severe electrical shock and burns to your paw."

"Is this... Treasure Town?", she asked.

"Yes. You're in the Treasure Town General Hospital."

"Is she awake?", Kira heard a familiar voice from the hallway. Leslie and Ella soon rushed into the room.

"Kira!", Leslie shouted as she ran to her friend, "Are you okay?"

"I think so.", Kira replied, "What happened?"

"When you didn't didn't come back from the sensor tower, Ella got worried and went to look for you. She found you passed out on the floor, and we rushed you here."

"How long was I fainted?"

"Almost six hours.", the Chansey said.

Suddenly remembering what she was doing before she passed out, Kira sat up from the bed, "Ella, when you went into the sensor room, did you notice a malfunctioning temporal sensor?"

"Yeah. The one that was flickering."

"When I went to download the diagnostic data from it, it shocked me with some kind of electrical arc."

"We know.", Leslie said, "We shut down the sensor array and disconnected it. We still don't know what's wrong with it though."

"At least we know the temporal variance was a false alarm.", Kira sighed.

"Actually...", Ella interrupted, "We're still detecting it even with the faulty sensor disconnected. We're still trying to check the other sensors, make sure they're not outputting inaccurate data, but so far we've not found a single thing wrong with them."

"Seems like a coincidenence that a sensor blew out at the same time we started detecting the flux, though.", Kira wondered out loud.

"Yeah. So far none of us have been able to explain it. We'll need to run more tests."

"I'll help you.", Kira said as she stood up from the bed, but was soon stopped by the Chansey.

"Actually, Miss Kira, we're keeping you under observation until tomorrow.", the nurse said, "We want to make sure there wasn't any serious damage to your body."

"Why? I feel fine!", Kira inquired, "Fennekins battle electric-type Pokemon all the time, well not me personally, but..."

"That's true, but the shock you sustained wasn't from a Pokemon, so we can't assume you'll have the same tolerance to it.", the nurse said.

Kira nodded.

"Well, we'll be waiting for you back at the observatory.", Leslie said, "Take care, Kira!"

"Thanks. See you tomorrow."

Kira was released from the hospital at noon the next day, after having scheduled a follow-up appointment. She made her way to the outskirts of the bustling, historic city, returning to the Temporal Observatory. Upon entering, however, she could sense that something was wrong. The lab was in chaos as supplies was scattered everywhere. Leslie and Ella were running about, checking every drawer and compartment.

"Uh... hey! Is something wrong?", Kira asked.

"Kira!", Leslie called when she saw her, "You know the faulty sensor we were examining?"

"Yeah?"

"It's missing! Someone took it!"

"What?!"

"We had it in the lab yesterday, and when we got here this morning it flat out wasn't here!"

"Someone stole a broken temporal sensor that zaps Pokemon? Wait... the Temporal Observatory a restricted area! How could a thief even get in, let alone know that the sensor was in this lab? How would they even know what a temporal sensor is?!"

"We don't know! But whoever did this was also polite enough to wipe all the data we had collected about it!", Ella said angrily, throwing the data cable she was holding on the ground in frustration.
 
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