Author's Note

First of all: Do NOT read this until you have absolutely finished reading the entire story. There will be major spoilers! Don't ruin it for yourself! Please!

That being said...

That's it. That's the end. They never see each other again. You won't find a happy version of the ending anywhere. This is how I wanted the story to end when I envisioned it somewhere in late 2013 or early 2014. (It's the last day of February 2016 as I write this; a leap day!) I'm a sucker for sad endings. This story is a PMD fan-fiction, so it had to end this way. Although this time, there's no post-game content or scene after the credits manufactured to reverse the tragedy of parting. From an emotional and narrative perspective, I usually hated in the games how you and your partner overcome destiny, or history, or time and space, through oft-bogus reasoning in order to go on adventures together again. There's no beauty in a soul-crushing ending when, after some hand-waving, it's turned into a happy one.

Anyway, I wanted to make an Author's Note to thank certain people and to share some information about this story's behind-the-scenes that I think might increase the enjoyment of it by you, the reader. At times, I was very tempted to put some of this info in footnotes at the end of chapters, like many fan-fiction stories do, but I decided not to break 'story voice' until it was all over. I'm so happy to finally write this note!

Acknowledgments

Thank you to my friends Saiga, Fwargler, Hikari Aiko, sodamoeba, and jester62391 for being there to answer seemingly random (but always secretly writing or story related) questions I wanted to bounce off someone else. Thank you to Halcyonbeing, for being my consulting Pokémon expert. I actually have fairly limited experience with the main line of games, so you were invaluable in solving certain problems I faced to make this story consistent with the Pokémon universe and all its complexities.

Thanks to ReaDulcetta for bringing a climactic moment of my story to life with your art. It's so strange being able to see the characters visually represented in a place outside of my mind. (Even though they look like any other Cyndaquil and Squirtle, haha.) Look at Quil's cute face! Look at it!

Thank you to the people behind Bulbapedia. I used this website an absurd amount, it's ridiculous. At the end of a writing session, I would often have ten tabs of Bulbapedia open on my browser that I'd used for reference. What a fantastic resource!

Big thanks to LionsMane10 and later, Zion of Arcadia for their reviews of my chapters. As I write this, the story is only posted up to Chapter 33, so other incredible reviews may come later on, but you two awesome people are currently above and beyond. It embarrasses me to admit it, but I grew desperately dependent on seeing your reviews pop up. I used to refresh my email multiple times a day to see if one of you had posted one on my latest chapter. Thank you both so much for taking the time to share your detailed thoughts on the chapter. Noting typos, analyzing the content of the chapter, providing encouragement but also not pulling punches – it meant so much to me, each and every time. It really did. I would always read each review multiple times, making changes in what I'd posted or writing down notes to think about as I went forward. I intend to re-upload every chapter, many with minor changes, after the complete first draft is uploaded. Many of those second draft modifications are because of you two. Thank you so much.

And, thank you very much to everyone else who posted reviews. Ralmon, OblivionWings, and others, I do not intend to belittle how much your reviews meant to me as well. Thank you so much for taking the time to post your thoughts on the latest chapter instead of moving on with your life after reading.

Obviously, big thanks to everyone behind the creation of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon as a series. Though I doubt any of you will ever read this, thank you so much for creating these games. They will never be fantastic games worthy of perfect ratings, but they are beautiful experiences nonetheless. These games made me reevaluate what makes a good game. And, silly as it sounds, they made me change the kind of person I wanted to be.

Thank you to ScytheRider, for writing the best and most inspiring fan-fiction I have ever read. Among PMD fan-fiction, I think it's safe to say that your work reigns supreme. I have read a ton of PMD fan-fiction, and I believe I succeeded in hitting all of the high-quality ones. While I think certain writing elements are done better in some other stories than in Silver Resistance, your work is the overall best in my humble opinion. In so many ways. Until I read SR, I had no idea that fan-fiction could be so good. SR brought me into fan-fiction with a bang. I love it so much, and it's not even complete yet! As of writing this, it's only uploaded up to Chapter 64. If, reader, you like PMD fan-fiction but have not yet read ScytheRider's work, I advise you to do yourself a favor and treat yourself.

And, of course, thank YOU so much, reader. Whoever you are. Whether you were mentioned above, or if you read the story without leaving a trace of your existence. I used to think it was corny and unnecessary when authors thanked the reader. I see now just how important it is to me that I have readers, few as they are. Being able to share this story and knowing that it will be read (and possibly enjoyed!) by others down the line is an indescribable feeling.

The Making Of Power Trip

I decided I wanted to write a Pokémon Mystery Dungeon fan-fiction in 2013, for a combination of three reasons. First, I'd been wanting an opportunity to flex my creative writing muscles for a while. In college I took a couple of classes on the craft of creative writing. I'd written some short stories, some essays, but nothing note-worthy. Nothing long or, dare I say, epic. I wanted to see what writing a novel-length story was like. (Though I never expected it to be 264,000 words long!) I wanted to see if I had what it takes, if I could write a decent story. I wanted to face the trials and tribulations that real authors face, to grow as a person and a writer. As a result, I have a bulleted list of things that I learned about writing and myself along the way.

Second, I was exploding with love for PMD at the time. Looking at the release date chronology, I'd probably recently finished Gates to Infinity after already having played Explorers and Rescue Team. I wanted to share my love of those stories. Fan-fiction seemed like a good way to do so.

Third, I had recently read up to the latest chapter in Silver Resistance. I was in awe and disbelief that a fan-fiction could be so good. That this story I was reading for free on the internet by some guy with a picture of a Scyther as his profile image was something I enjoyed more than almost all of the two hundred fifty or so published and thus 'legitimate' novels I'd read. I was overflowing with inspiration and love for his story. Thus, I decided I needed to give back to the community. I remember that feeling well. I wanted to write not to prove myself, or to get my name out there for future endeavors, but to give back. I felt like I had reaped so much enjoyment from ScytheRider's and other works, that I was required to do my best to give back as best as I could. Writing a story of my own was the best way I could do that. (Even though I doubted I could ever reach ScytheRider's level.) In fact, in the digital document that holds all the writing, outlining, and pre-writing I did, the very first section is a paragraph entitled 'Things that I love about Silver Resistance'. (I also have a lesser section with bits and pieces from about 10 other PMD fan-fictions that I either hated and wanted to avoid mimicking, or that I liked and wanted to include in my own way, such as the trash-talking before a fight in Chapter 5 of LionsMane10's Variations.)

I'll go ahead and write here a select few of those things I learned along the way that are amusing or insightful to read.

- It's hard to write characters that aren't like you! I always wanted Squirtle and Quil to say what I would say, what I believe to be the thing to say. But they are different. Squirtle is withdrawn and cold (initially); he wouldn't be sympathetic. Quil wouldn't burst out in anger and say what he is justified in saying (initially), he would keep it inside. But I guess these differences and opinions and personalities they have is nectar to the audience.

- I always have way more content to write than what's planned in my outline. Waking up in shell? Yeah, that involves a whole ordeal of introspection, stretching, and more. Approaching Chando? Yeah, that's 1000 words of suspense and scenery description. Talk about Quil not needing Iyrodenin to evolve? Enjoy this necessary lapse in friendship as Quil comes to terms with Squirtle's human/trainer effects.

- I could have written much more content, perhaps doubling the length of the story, between the Karprest mission and the beginning of the hunt for the source of the boost(s). Could have slowly added teams to the effort. Had auditions, more characters, each teaching Squirtle and Quil something new about themselves or the organization. Had different sorts of missions like night missions, time pressure missions and being delayed by wilds, missions that caused character arcs in fantastical locations. Missions that would make Squirtle and Quil grow in various ways, and require interesting strategies and teamwork. Missions to fight off evil cohort(s) of Electrics that hate Squirtle's guild. Could have developed the team base and Cavetown more, such as with a carrier service's development, dojo, shop, etc. Made a big ordeal of gathering information and pursuing leads to figure out the source of the boost(s). In other words, I could have lengthened the phase of transformation from team to guild. But as I write this, when they're leaving Cavetown soon to deal with Stolt, I find myself almost getting burnt out at how much I could write. It's daunting. Plus, deadlines. I don't want to be writing this PMD fan-fiction for another year, even though that may be how long it takes me to write a story series that does the world and its characters justice. No, I need to end this, even though my story won't be in its ideal state. Sometimes, the artist must move on even when the work is imperfect. (Ha, kinda pretentious there.)

- Could have really further developed the chapters on fear in Weird Wood. I could work on slowly and realistically building up the fear like a horror story. Horror elements, Bein gets lost at one point, Squirtle can't climb high enough to orient himself, he's lost the path, oh snap! Slowly encounters signs of ghosts, finally has to fight one, his Tackle isn't working, oh God so scary. Finally conquers them, or conquers them in order to save a terrified Quil who had possibly fallen into a water trench, a better impetus for Squirtle to evolve.

- Occasionally difficult to manufacture a sense of dramatic tension when death, for the most part, is impossible. Have to resort to less intense measures like being trapped in one place, falling unconscious, or experiencing some pain. Not too big an issue though. And it's a nice change according to one review?

The rest of this section will be a bunch of unconnected facts about the writing of this story.

I'm a huge fan of video game music, and the music of PMD is particularly dear to my heart. I once read another fan-fiction, not PMD, that had bolded music track names a few times in each chapter. (Found it: Pokémon Chronicles – A Hero's Rebirth by Eric566.) They were from video games. The author's intent was for the reader to find the song on YouTube and listen to it while reading the chapter to get the perfect mood that the author had intended. While I really liked that, I decided that it did not belong in a serious, self-respecting work. Though I was tempted. I would probably have used music exclusively from the PMD series. I would have used Sympathy and Sincerity for one of the times Squirtle and Quil had a heart-to-heart, Mt. Blaze for climbing Iyrodenin, Defy the Legends and other fantastic boss themes for the big battles. Agh, it would have been awesome. Didn't stop me from sometimes listening to those songs while writing those sections, haha.

I never used the names of animals or insects, not 'canine' or 'turtle', or even 'sheepish'. If I did, it's a typo, a lapse of consistency. I never said 'animalistic', or ever referred to any possible creatures in the universe but humans and Pokémon. This is because in this universe, there are no animals. So those words would not have arisen. Why would Squirtle think Viper looks like a snake when there are no snakes in either his old or new life? Limiting myself was especially difficult because I love animals and animalistic comparisons! One part in particular that this restriction was bothersome was when I couldn't say birds for 'Flyers', outside of the official title of Legendary Birds. I even refrained from saying Bird, as I wanted 'Legendary Birds' to be a cohesive, complete title that was not merely birds that were Legendary. Perhaps a silly restriction, but I'm happy I did it. (I know I should refer to Squirtle as Brayden, but he'll always be Squirtle to me.)

I tried very hard to make Pokémon other than Squirtle not use common idioms and expressions, not even short phrases like 'turning point' or 'lesser of two evils'. If they do, it's a fairly literal or emergent expression, like 'by the way', or 'see your point'. I used that as a tool to make Squirtle's manner of speaking seem foreign. To make him more human, an outsider. Doing this was really hard, because as I found out while writing, I love making characters say expressions. I may have given characters more leeway to use idioms and such than I would have preferred when I set myself on that path.

I never used the word 'human' until Squirtle brought it up in that Prison conversation.

I also never talked about Squirtle/Wartortle's teeth. I kept it intentionally vague whether or not he had any. Turtles don't, but it's shown in the anime sometimes that both Pokémon species do. I was conflicted. I wanted badly at times to have him grit, grind, or clench his teeth, but I only ever mentioned his two protruding fangs after he'd evolved.

Every Pokémon learned moves as they would have through leveling up in the X and Y generation of main games. (The newest games when I began writing in earnest.) All in the right order, all at the appropriate levels, unless that Pokémon held themselves back on evolving or was some strange exception. Evolution occurred at the right level, too, as we saw in Squirtle and Quil.

The wilderness-dwelling Pokémon that Squirtle and Quil meet are in the habitat they belong in. Except to some degree in towns, due to refugees and diversity and such.

Some game conventions are thrown out though, like orbs, the difference between Legendary and Mythical Pokémon, most Abilities (because, among many narrative-related reasons, it would feel lame if Quil used Flash Fire against Moltres or the characters cheated like that at any other point), and others that didn't make sense or appeal to me. I buffed the power of wearable items like Special Band in my story, because let's face it, items like Special Band suck in the games. By the way, the scarves and cloths have their looks taken from the images used in the games, then the special anime episodes, when available.

Everyone in Squirtle's party had increased level up rate when they traveled and fought with him, but I couldn't show it other than in subtle moments like Bein learning Bonemerang, since he wasn't hanging out with them long enough to cause early evolution like with Quil. Also, somewhat frustratingly, Cyndaquil evolve quite early since they're starters, which detracts from the unnatural progression I was going for.

Chando's weird personality is based off the Video Game Music Choir's adaptation of the Zero-Two battle theme from the video game Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, found on YouTube. Oddly enough. And many of his lines of dialogue are based off their lyrics, as well as lyrics from a certain video game music rock band about Mega Man.

Almost every element of every character arc was planned from the get-go. Bein's came out a bit forced, but I never had the opportunity to work on his as much as I would have liked in the chapters. Same for Quil. I never got the chance to show his naive, overly trusting, and attaching nature getting him into trouble as much as I wanted. Never got to show him learning 'street smarts'. Though I think his transformation into an inspiring force of positivity and determination, much like a certain character from Silver Resistance, went pretty well. That was one element of his arc I really wanted to nail.

When I wrote the scene of them emerging out of Cavetown into bright light before the Blindhollow mission, I realized in a heart-sinking moment that I was being racist by making jokes about Quil's scrunched-up eyes. I'd been talking with a friend about how Cyndaquil have their eyes permanently shut or squinting like people of Asian descent. I never made the comparison between the two when writing; that had never been my intention. I hope my recurring joke about Quil not being able to see isn't interpreted as a jab at Asians, haha.

I used a map! But, uh...it probably shouldn't see the light of day. It would cheapen the higher-quality writing, I think. Know that I paid an aggravating level of detail to spatial awareness. Everything is a set physical distance from everything else. The time it takes Pokémon to move between places matches the distance they have to move, how many battles slow them down, whether or not they are in a rush, if they're riding on Hayzin and Viper, etc. The map went through many updates and revisions, and I referenced it often whenever issues of direction and timing came up.

I would release a chapter when I had five to ten already written ahead of it. That gap increased later in the story. I wanted to give myself breathing room to correct errors and tweak the story a bit using feedback without the hassle of having to frequently reupload chapters. As I write this, only up to Chapter 33 is uploaded. And like I alluded to earlier, I plan to reupload every chapter in the story with all the tweaks and changes inspired by the feedback I received from reviews and personal rereads. The story in its final state should be uploaded by May 2016.

(Edit 4/30/16: the version currently uploaded is the second draft – the story's final state)

I took particular care with chapter names. They always have at least two meanings. For example, the first chapter is named Bolt because: the Electric boost storm occurs in it, lots of lightning strikes are coming down, Squirtle and Quil and everyone else are running around like mad ('bolting'), and because Squirtle becomes Paralyzed. Sometimes I struggled, and a chapter name is only barely a double meaning. But for many of my chapters, I'm quite proud of their cleverness. Like how the chapter Seed focuses on the Totter Seed being used for Raizula's toll, but also contains the conversation between Squirtle and Quil that is the seed of the future Resistance! I also often struggled with chapter names for other reasons: eliminating possible spoilers for readers scanning the chapter list, trying to pick between multiple good names, or because no events in the chapter were significant enough to be referenced by the chapter title. For example, I almost named the last two chapters Light, and Quil or Partner. But I didn't want to spoil that the last chapter would be about Quil, as that would make inquisitive readers think that we'd be seeing the departure of Quil one way or another. Spoilers!

The title of 'Power Trip' matches the story because: a) most of the story sees electricity reigning supreme since it's boosted first, b) it's a story about traveling and getting more powerful (a power trip! haha), c) most antagonists feel they can do whatever they want because of their power, which is a a power trip in the idiomatic sense of the phrase, especially the primary villain Victini who sets all the events of the plot into motion simply because of his power trip, d) Squirtle himself slowly becomes more confident with his intelligence, battling, leadership, and ability to get things done, which peaks at Chapter 28 and is subdued in Chapter 30 after Stolt's tour; that's Squirtle's power trip, e) Quil goes on a little power trip during the Fire boost

First half of Chapter 35, the solo journey through the mountains, does not use the name Wartortle until Quil uses it, in the hopes of mimicking the isolation and lack of talking that he experienced until he was reunited with his friend.

I really wanted to include the personality test when I started this work. A mainstay of the PMD games. When it made no sense to put it at the beginning, I thought I'd put it later, mimicking a major set of flashbacks during a critical moment near the end of a fantastic Legend of Zelda fan-fiction by Rose Zemlya. But that never worked either. Mostly because a personality test never occurred for Squirtle, haha. It was all an accident. Thus I was sad when I realized I couldn't put it. It would have been a fun challenge to write.

I almost wrote a second version of the ending, in which Wartortle is the one breaks down and loses it, while Quil puts on a strong face for the sake of his friend. I thought that subversion of expectation and role reversal would make the moment stand out, and be even more sad. It would highlight Quil's growth, too. However, the reasons in favor of writing it how I did were too strong to overrule.

Whew! Hopefully some of those fun facts were interesting, and shed some light on the way I wrote the story! If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to PM me, even if this story is fifty years old by the time you read this. I imagine I'll still read and reply; I'd absolutely love to talk about my story. Even if you're messaging me just to bash the way I did something, or to tell me how I totally messed up by being inconsistent about something. The best lessons are harsh ones.

References

I may miss some, but here are all of the nods/allusions/references to the PMD games and special anime episodes I can remember that I included in my story:

- Obviously, the whole premise of PMD. This is fan-fiction after all. Amnesic human, talking Pokémon, partner, grand adventure involving Legendaries, save the world, parting. You get the picture.

- "Let's go together!" (one of the AI tactics options in-game)

- Bein's comment about the team not having a team badge

- "Those bubbles sure are pretty!" and "Being a Pokémon isn't half bad!" (Rescue Team episode)

- The bank, the costs of items, the items themselves of course

- Having a Team Base

- Request Board

- The three Legendary Birds being found on mountains

- Numerous small teams being part of a larger organization of helpful Pokémon

- Team Poképals

- "Today let's do our best, as always." (Explorers post-game phrase said every morning by the partner)

- Item use and condition-inflicting moves often being required to win boss fights

- Don't shirk work, run away and pay (Explorers commandments in Wigglytuff's Guild)

- Defy the Legends (Explorers song title)

- Some of what Quil and Squirtle say in the moment of parting

There are references to other fan-fiction, most notably Silver Resistance. Those whose work I nodded to, hope you get a kick out of the references I made a point of slipping in, haha.

What's Next for Talgoran

No more writing, I can say that. I'm off to Physician Assistant graduate school, which will be a suffocating amount of work. From there, my life is unpredictable, but it will certainly be very busy for a time. I have no plans to write anything in the coming years. My main original intent in writing this story was to give back to the PMD fan community, and it brings me immense relief to have made a worthy contribution. That chapter is closed now.

Maybe in the future I'll write another PMD-related story, but I very much doubt it. If anything, I'll write an original story in the fantasy genre. More than likely I'll move onto other pursuits. The name Talgoran can be found in many places on the internet, as I like to try my hand at everything I suppose.

Closing

It's been a long journey, far longer than that of Squirtle and Quil. I know now that I'm a very slow writer. I feel both lightened and weighed down by seeing it all end. I never thought seeing my own characters say goodbye would make me cry. Stories are magical like that I guess.

Again, thank you very much for reading my story. And again, I very, very much appreciate every review or message I receive. I'd love to chat about it, or to read and review your story (if you're an author) since you read mine. Please share my story if you enjoyed it and know someone else who might as well. And if you're ever looking for advice on how to live your life, you don't need to look farther than the words the partner says every morning in the post-game of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky.

Today let's do our best, as always!