This is a pretty ambitious project that I've been developing on and off for the past five or six years, can't really remember. It's gone through three total revamps and I've now finally decided that it is fit to see the light of day. Arise, BeybladexPokemon crossover! Spread your wings and take flight into the sunset!

Please read and review! Encouragement will help me push forward (and maybe even finish it =0 *gasp*). You see, working on this story has been pretty problematic for me. The first iteration only got to 8 chapters before I scrapped it. The second only got to 5.5 and then I ditched it. Iteration 3 only has this chapter so far. It's been a hard yard trying to make this story the best it could possibly be. I ran my OC through several different Mary-Sue litmus tests and she came out clean so I hope you like her.

Disclaimer: I don't own Beyblade or Pokemon. I don't do this for any kind of gain whatsoever, it's just for fun.

Journey into a New Dimension

Max sighed with relief and dropped himself on a park bench, spreading his arms over the back of the seat and letting his head fall back. The clean-up that had to be done after the BEGA incident had been a tough job; he'd almost thought it couldn't be done. The city had looked like a hurricane and an earthquake had struck at the same time, not to mention the bureaucracy that had to be invested in sorting out the political and economic mess left in the wake of the sudden downfall of the professional league. A month had passed and now Max's house and his father's shop were back in order but most of the city was still covered in scaffolding and canvas with trucks chugging through the city carrying load after load of debris. At least the ordeal was over and he could now go back to some kind of normal life.

He looked up to the sound of footsteps approaching at a run. He expected it to be some kids playing a chasing game but it wasn't so. Tyson, Ray, Hilary and Daichi had all come looking for him, it seemed.

"Max, we've been looking for you all morning," Tyson said, taking a huge breath and dropping himself on the bench.

"Really? Why?" Max asked with wide eyes.

"The BBA has already announced the dates for the upcoming tournaments, including next year's World Championship and you know what Tyson's like," Ray explained. "They've changed the format again too. The World Championship is a singles tournament and they've set up a separate championship for teams."

Max looked down and nodded dumbly. He could see where this was going but couldn't Tyson just let it be for a week or two? Things had only just gotten back to normal. Some things still weren't back to normal. Ray noticed the exasperated look on Max's face and asked: "Are you okay?"

Max shook his head and looked up with a smile. "Yeah, I'm totally fine."

"Well then you'd better get up and blow the dust of that blade of yours because we're starting our new training regime tomorrow at nine o'clock sharp," Hilary advised.

"Who put you in charge, hag!?" Daichi snapped.

"Why you…!"

"The team tournament is in the summer," Tyson added. "Which is soon and I wanted G-Revolution to be together for this one. What's the matter? Don't you want in?"

"Sure, just gimme time to think about it," Max replied.

A sudden gust of wind blew about them and Hilary squeaked when it blew her skirt up dangerously high. Max could have sworn he saw a pink blur rush past with the wind. Judging by Tyson and Ray's blank, blinking faces and the way they stared in the direction it went, they'd seen it too. The pink blur disappeared into the bushes before Hilary and Daichi could notice it.

"What was that all about?" Daichi wondered aloud. "That's never happened to me before."

Someone dressed in dark clothing suddenly jumped out of the tree above them. Hilary squealed when they landed right beside her and quickly stood up, being almost a whole two heads taller than her. She looked up and sighed when she realised that it was just Kai.

"Geez, way to give me a heart attack," she murmured.

"Yo, Kai," Tyson grinned, jumping to his feet. "You're joining the team, aren't you?"

Kai sniffed and ignored the question. "Have any of you seen a weird cat?"

"A weird cat?" Daichi and Hilary repeated.

"Yes, I've been chasing it all morning," Kai said. "It's the fastest cat I've ever seen."

"Exactly how is it weird?" Ray asked.

Kai hesitated to answer for a moment. "It's bright pink…"

The group all stared at Kai.

"It might have been that thing that ran into the bushes," Max said, standing up and running over to the pink thing's hiding place. Tyson and Ray got up to follow him. Hilary and Daichi exchanged confused glances. Max pushed the branches aside, finding a pink bulb with three whiskers disappearing into a purple hole that closed quickly after it.

"If that was it, it's gone," Tyson said, just to be redundant.

Another rustle from the next bush caught their attention. Max's arms dived into the bush to search through the small leaves and branches. After a few frantic seconds of wading through scratchy twigs he pulled out something red and blue that looked like a duck in some deformed way but it was featherless. It had wings and a tail but no feet. It blinked huge, eerie, round yellow eyes at the strange faces of unfamiliar humans. Max grinned and brought it back to Hilary, Daichi and Kai.

"Hey, isn't this thing cool," he said.

"That's not what I was looking for," Kai replied.

"I know, but the cat disappeared. We found this thing instead. It's awesome, right?"

"What is it?" Daichi asked, poking the red and blue thing in the beak.

"I have no idea."

"You should put it back where you found it," Hilary warned. "It might have some sort of disease or parasite on it that makes humans really ill, even if it looks healthy."

"I've got to admit, it's a pretty cool find," Ray added. "But it doesn't look like anything I've ever seen before. Do you think it's an undiscovered species?"

"I have never seen an animal that looks anything like that," Daichi argued.

"Let's take it to the animal shelter," Tyson suggested. "They'll know what to do with it."

"I think you should leave it alone," Hilary snapped.

Kai sighed and was going to leave in search of that pink cat until he noticed the blue and red thing develop a strange bluish glow. Soon that strange glow had everyone's attention and the argument about what to do with it suddenly stopped. A large purple hole unexpectedly opened up beneath them, dropping them into a swirling purple abyss. Their screams of alarm and panic were cut short as the portal closed over them, leaving not a trace of the blue and red thing or the humans it kidnapped.

A girl, no older than fifteen, lay on the soft grass of a slope under a blue sky with heavenly white clouds floating across it. She was orange-haired and sun-tanned with bright, brown eyes. Her hair was tied up somewhere under her yellow and green bandanna and on her hands she wore fingerless green gloves. She wore a yellow shirt and faded jeans with a pair of running shoes and beside her lay a little yellow and green creature with a large set of jaws on the back of its head. The dirt road behind her was deserted. The trees and grass swayed in a beautiful breeze that picked up her hair and tickled her face, yet it wasn't able to make her smile today. The strange creature turned to look at her sadly and touched her on the arm, making an unhappy whine in the back of its throat.

"Can't believe I lost before the quarterfinals of the Hoenn League… how embarrassing," the girl muttered, reaching over to pat her creature's little hand.

The creature cooed at her with a nasally voice.

"It's embarrassing because I'm the best!" the girl exclaimed, stretching out and balling her fists. "And I know I'm the best because I've done better! Way better! I can't go home like this now."

It cooed again.

"I promised my aunts and cousins that I would definitely conquer the Hoenn Pokémon League. Man, they probably saw my defeat on TV and my cousins will be laughing at me, sending all their greatest taunts to me in spirit. If I went back now it would only be worse – then they'd be taunting me in person. Damn! How could I suck so bad?"

The creature shook its head and made sharp noises in protest.

"But I lost before the finals! I didn't even make it to the Top 8. I have spent the last four years of my life training Pokémon hell bent on being the best and damn my soul to that Eternal Flying Pokémon in the sky, I will be the best! But in order to be the best I have to come out on top in the major Pokémon Leagues. You know that, I know that and my aunts and cousins know that. That's why I'm not going home until I get over that final hurdle in Hoenn!"

The creature sighed and looked up at the sky. The girl also calmed down and folded her hands over her belly, continuing the cloud watching.

"Don't really know what I'm going to do, though. It's going to be a whole year before the Hoenn Pokémon League Tournament starts up again. If I can't go back home, where am I going to go? What am I going to do for a whole year?"

The creature didn't have an answer for her there. She sighed.

"I am so bored already. There's got to be some way to entertain myself for at least one year."

The creature blinked. It suddenly jumped to its feet and pointed to the dirt road behind them, making wild exclamations. The girl sat up to turn and look at whatever the creature was pointing to.

A strong gust suddenly picked up pulling everything towards a small, dark hole. The hole grew bigger until it was the size of a sumo wrestling arena, shooting streaks purple lightning in random directions. Without warning the pulling force was reversed and six youngsters were thrown down the slope. The girl and the creature squealed and jumped out of the way before they were bowled over. The huge hole in space and time disintegrated, leaving in its wake a blue and red thing. To the girl and the yellow and green creature it looked worn out and in desperate need of some rest. As it levitated it was engulfed by another bluish glow and then teleported far away from the scene.

"Well, that was very entertaining for the thirty seconds it lasted," the girl said. She turned to the pile of limbs at the bottom of the slope. The first to pull away was the only girl of the group, a brunette in a yellow skirt. The second was a boy with a long white scarf and two-toned blue hair. The others eventually managed to detangle their arms from their legs and stood up.

"That was the weirdest thing that has ever happened to me," Tyson exclaimed.

"Touché," Max nodded. He looked around, taking in the unfamiliar landscape. "Where'd we end up?"

"Hopefully, not far away," Hilary said.

"Hello, Hilary! Does this place look familiar to you?" Daichi snapped.

"Of course it doesn't but I can hope!" Hilary growled back.

Ray scratched the back of his head and groaned quietly at the antics of those four. He turned to Kai, hoping he would shed some sanity on this situation but his attention was elsewhere. Ray followed his gaze going up the hill and saw a brunette in a yellow shirt with a green and yellow creature that looked like it had a Venus flytrap on its head. He and Kai exchanged glances. Kai just shrugged. Ray sighed, realising that the responsibility of handling this problem was being dumped on him.

"Hey, guys, there's another person here," he announced, interrupting a fight between Hilary and Daichi. Everyone turned to face him. "She might be a local or know something about what happened. I'm going to talk to her."

Ray jogged up the slope to meet her, watched inquisitively by his friends. The girl, who had been staring curiously, seemed a bit taken aback. She waved at him and smiled nervously as he approached.

"Hello, I'm Ray Kon," he said politely. It wouldn't hurt to make a good first impression. She smiled a bit more broadly at his introduction and held out a hand for him to shake.

"Nice to meet you, Ray. Name's Mari, call me Mar."

"Nice to meet you," Ray said, taking the hand she offered. She had the tough, calloused grip of someone who either worked or trained hard. "Um… I suppose you saw what just happened."

Mari nodded.

"I was wondering if you could shed any light on that as well as tell us where we are."

Mari put a finger to her cheek and pondered that for a minute. "I think your predicament has something to do with that Porygon Z that just teleported away from here."

Ray furrowed his eyebrows. "You mean that blue and red thing?"

"Yeah, that's Porygon Z," Mari confirmed. "It's extremely rare and I'm pretty sure it isn't usually found in the wild. As for where, we're currently on Route 101. The closest town is Littleroot."

Ray's eyebrows rose at the information she imparted. All of it was strange to him, in more ways than one. "Are you sure that's a real place?"

Mari frowned at him. "Yes, I'm very sure."

"Well, then could you tell us which country we're in?"

"This is Hoenn," Mari replied. She misread Ray's stunned expression and grinned. "It is a cool place. It's an island, so there are heaps of Pokémon here that don't appear anywhere else."

At this point, Ray was sure that they weren't even on Earth. "Uh… excuse me for a minute."

He turned and ran back down the slope to the others waiting at the bottom. The group immediately bombarded him with questions, with the exception of Kai. He picked a nice, long piece of grass and lay down on the slope to watch the fluffy clouds roll by and listen to the conversation at hand.

"Hey, whoa, stop asking questions all at once!" Ray exclaimed, putting his hands up in front of him. The group quieted and Ray continued: "I don't think we're in Japan anymore. Actually, I'm not even sure if we're on Earth anymore. Has anyone ever heard of a country or province called 'Hoenn'?"

He was answered with blank stares from all members of the party, even Kai.

"Somehow I didn't think so."

"You guys having a little trouble?" Mari asked, coming down the hill to meet them herself. That green and yellow creature followed her.

"Actually, we are," Tyson answered. "We need a way to get back to Japan pronto because there's a beyblade tournament coming up and we need to start training to defend our title ASAP."

"Japan?" said Mari, confused. "Beyblade? You guys drug addicts or something? Where'd you come up with that?"

The group blinked at her.

"You can't be serious," Tyson muttered, letting his jaw drop. "Are you telling us that you have never heard of the fantastic sport of beyblading?"

"Never even heard of a place called Japan and I'm a pretty well-travelled person so if a region called Japan ever existed I'm sure I'd know about it," Mari said with a tone of finality. "By the way, what's a beyblade?"

"Are you some sort of alien? How could you not know what a beyblade is?"

"Here," Kai said calmly, holding up his Dranzer. Mari crouched down to his level to study it.

"It's a spinning top…"

"It's not just a spinning top, it's a beyblade," Max corrected.

"Basically a spinning top, right?"

"Yes," Tyson interjected. "But not an ordinary spinning top. It can spin a hundred times faster than any toy spinning top and a gear can be placed inside to release a massive energy temporarily. They're very powerful tools and they're used for sport."

Mari nodded in understanding. "First I've ever heard of such a thing. Exactly where did you come from?"

"We came from Japan, we just told you that," Daichi said.

"I would hazard to guess that this is probably a new world; a different dimension or at least some alien planet," said Kai, "as weird as that sounds. Just look at that." He pointed to the green and yellow creature. "Have you ever seen something like that?"

Mari looked down to the creature at her side. "You mean Mawi? She's my Pokémon."

"Pokémon?" they echoed.

"Yeah, don't Pokémon exist where you come from?"

"Heck no!" Tyson said. "We have normal animals like dogs and cats and elephants."

"Animals?" Mari said, cocking her head to the side. "Are they like Pokémon?"

Tyson slapped his forehead. "Okay, this girl is not normal."

"You're pretty messed up in the head yourself," Mari retorted.

"No, you're the one who's crazy!"

"Ease up, Tyson," Max said, putting his hands on his Japanese friend's shoulders. "This is a different world. What seems pretty normal to us is probably something she would have never imagined in her life."

"That's all good and fine," Hilary said, walking out in front of Tyson and turning to Mari, "and maybe all these 'Pokémon' things aren't so bad but we need to get back to our own world. Do you think you can help us with that?"

Mari put a hand to her cheek. "That'll be really hard. You would have to find that same Porygon Z that brought you here and see if you can get it to take you back."

"What?!" Daichi exclaimed. "That exact same one? But nobody saw which direction it went in. It could be anywhere! We could still be searching for it in a year's time."

"A whole year?" Mari asked.

"Duh, that's what I said!"

A cunning smile spread across Mari's face. "I think I just found my year's worth of entertainment."

"Well, standing around here isn't going to help you find it, right?" said Mari, jumping up and pumping her fist in the air, suddenly full of enthusiasm. "If we travel around a bit we're bound to run into it sooner or later. I can take you through all of the sights of Hoenn, from the dizzying heights of Mt. Chimney to the deep watery caverns of Sootopolis. Sounds like a blast, doesn't it?"

The party of beybladers and Hilary looked at her strangely. Nobody made a sound until:

"Yeah, it sounds like fun," Daichi replied, eyes lighting up.

"Daichi are you out of your mind?!" Tyson yelled at him. "The new team championships are going to begin in just a few short months! We should be working on that."

"Working? Tyson, since when do you ever care for training?" Hilary asked.

"What are you talking about? I always care about my training regimes and practise schedules and we need to be in Japan training for the tournament."

"But you can't be there, isn't that the problem?" Mari appealed, heart beating fractionally faster. She just had to convince them that this was a good idea. "It's better to make the most of this opportunity while we look for that Porygon Z. That is the only way to get back after all."

Max nodded. "Besides, even if we're a whole year late, I'm sure the tournament will still be there; we'll just have to offer our condolences for not being able to make it this year and show our stuff next year. It's not like we can help it."

"But what are we going to say to our families and friends?" Ray asked. "What are they going to think if we just up and disappear without a word for a whole year? How are we supposed to call them from a different dimension?"

Max instantly paled. "Oh my God, you're right! My dad will probably have a schizophrenic nervous breakdown!"

"Sure it's not going to be that bad," Mari added, trying to placate the blond who was starting to panic. "Might think you're dead though. But that's all the more reason to get a wiggle on this adventure, right?"

"As long as there are hairdressers, malls and magazines, I don't really mind this place at all," Hilary added. When Mari didn't pull any confused faces she assumed the aforementioned objects did exist. "And I wouldn't mind having a pet with a face as cute as that one's."

Mawi posed cutely and batted her eyelashes.

"Pet? Where do you guys come up with these words? But yeah, Mawi has a very cute face," Mari agreed. "There are other cuties out there as well. My aunts have this collection of magazines at home: Pokémon Show. They have the most adorable pictures of the cutest Pokémon you've ever seen."

"At least now I know there are magazines," Hilary giggled. Tyson backed away from the group and stared at them wide eyed.

"You! What did you do to them? They've all gone psycho!" Tyson pointed the accusing finger at Mari.

"Tyson, you're the only one I can see who's going psycho," Hilary scolded. "Like Max said: if we can't make it, we can't make it. We need to find that Porygon Z and Mari's just making a suggestion that might be helpful."

"There's no reason to say that it's unreasonable," Ray added. "And if we travel around it might be easier to catch word or sight of it."

"This little Mawi dude is kind of cute," Daichi said, crouching to the Pokémon's level. "But those jaws on its head are a little creepy."

"She's a girl. If you're interested in Pokémon come with me to Littleroot Town," Mari suggested. "There's a man there who can easily outfit you with all of your Pokémon needs including a Pokémon."

Tyson pulled at his hair and growled. "We don't need Pokémon! Well, except maybe that Polygon Z-"

"Porygon Z," Ray corrected him.

"Whatever. But that's the only one we need. Look, it can't have gone far," Tyson said, shading his eyes with his hand and scouting the area. "We should start looking around here. Otherwise it'll get too far away."

"It teleported," Mari deadpanned. Tyson turned around and stared at her as if he didn't believe what had just come out of her mouth. "No telling where it is right now. Might be close but it's more likely to have gone far. It'll be easier to home in on it if we're out and about, like what Ray said."

"All we're doing is having a little fun while we're stuck here," Max said. "It's not like we're ditching our beyblades or anything."

"That is exactly right!" Mari agreed. "Come on, I'll show you the way to Littleroot Town."

Mari and Mawi led the way to the dirt road with Hilary and Daichi by their sides talking animatedly. Max and Ray followed closely behind. The only people left at the bottom of that slope were Tyson and Kai. They looked at each other.

"Kai, it's just you and me now, huh?"

To Tyson's dismay, Kai stood up, brushed off his pants and started to head up the slope quite a distance behind the others. Tyson groaned and slapped himself in the forehead.