The story was originally published for PokéCommunity's Small Writing Contest 2018. PokéCommunity remains the primary release site.

Syndication began in 2020. There is an announcement thread for syndication on Mastodon and a release announcement on FF.net.

Gesta is the Electrike leader of “Team Kokool”, an adventurer team in the world of the PMD games, a few decades after the events of Explorers of Sky. He is the descendant of a pack of Electrike that were displaced from their former in-game locations, and was later trained to become an adventurer.

During a gathering quest for the Lietre Guild Gesta's team including their client are rerouted to an emergency rescue in a nearby maze that has wandered into a Monster House. Gesta is worried that obeying orders and bringing in their Prinplup client into the fray was a mistake and their client could be endangered. As it turns out however, the Prinplup is quite capable of clearing the Monster House on his own; as the situation clears, it is revealed that Team Kokool's client is none other than Dalvin, the Prinplup who decades ago went to fight off Dialga (as the “partner” Pokémon in the game's storyline) in the Hidden Land, the realm frozen in time that preceded Dialga's station.

Back at their Adventurers Guild, Gesta is interviewed by Tagrau, the Guildmaster Noctowl, and by the Prinplup. Gesta and Dalvin talk and they realize they share a common background - Gesta's mentor was Ŝafo, one of Dalvin's early recruits. Gesta is impressed by the presence of a legendary hero; however, they do not get to continue their meeting as a number of agents arrive from Dragon Gate to take Dalvin away, revealing there is a threat that requires his attention.

Once at Dragon Gate, Dalvin meets Dialga who offers him a special position as a guard for a higher-order being (hinted to be Arceus). Dalvin is reticent to take the offer, worried that he would miss out on the courtship seasons if he's unable to return, and this prompts Dialga to try a number of different angles and concessions in order to sway the Prinplup to his side, ending up in Dalvin proposing that he should fight Dialga to “recruit” him and together wrestle control of Palkia's Luscious Orb. Dialga hesitantly lets the matter go, hinting that he absolutely knows Dalvin will accept his offering in the future.

Lietre Guild and Deepsmoke Cavern are two original locations made for the story, both located in the same continent that Treasure Town is located at. All other named locations (Capim Town, Shimmering Hills, Temporal Tower) are part of the shared world map across the various PMD games as shown in Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon.

The story takes place in what would be, in theory, many years into the Good Future of the Explorers of Sky PMD game, after the protagonist and their teammate have saved the world from Primal Dialga. No further statement is made of how the adventure fits into the PMD canon, in particular in consideration of how the PMD world as shown in Super relates to the other games.

Dalvin's dialogue with Dialga implies that by the time this scene takes place, the events of Gates to Infinity were solved an indetermined amount of time ago; enough in theory that Dalvin either doesn't remember the name of the Bittercold correctly, or he doesn't care.

Debuts:

• Dalvin (MC)
• Gesta (MC)
• Dialga

References:

• Ŝafo, a character based on an NPC suggestion from the Ŝafo from WAAPT, is mentioned.
• Dragon Gate is a location and dungeon in the Sky continent as shown in Super.
• Plot events and locations of the four handheld PMD games up to 2018 are mentioned:
  • The patients in the Lietre Guild mention the meteor events in the storyline of Rescue Team.
  • Dalvin is stated to be the Partner Pokémon from Explorers.
  • Dialga and Dalvin discuss that the Bittercold threat was solved some time ago, from Gates.
  • Capim Town and Dragon's Gate from Super Mystery Dungeon exist and are featured.

• This oneshot was originally written as an entry for PokéCommunity's SWC 2018 (Small Writing Contest), where it got the 1st place. It features Dalvin, one of the leads of the storyline of PMD: Sky in the author's run of the game, and is the first Suocéverse story featuring the PMD 'verse.
• The story uses typographical formatting elements to represent Dialga's dialogue as portrayed in the games, in particular for the internet versions CSS "small-caps" font variant is used to represent the ALLCAPS in the original game's dialogue without enforcing long tirades of verbatim all-caps that would make the story difficult to read. This is achieved in print versions and in the two official release versions (PokéCommunity and Archive Of Our Own) that allow for customized typographical styling.
  • In mediums that would not allow for HTML text formatting, such as web forums without customized styles (eg.: most web forums that use the default BBCode parser), an alternative is used depending on what is readily available, which can be using verbatim ALL CAPS, or using “size=…” text resize options.
• PokéCommunity's Small Writing Contest 2018 is the primary and original release.
• Tumblr Announcement.
• Announcement Thread on Mastodon.