As The Nerve and Jupiter's Thunder shrank in the rearward display, I turned my attention to the much larger forward display as the pilot counted down in preparation to entering Hyperspace. Despite our relative proximity to Earth, the ships were still out beyond Pluto's orbit, and a flight to Earth, even at maximum velocity in the Sentinel-class shuttle, would take hours. With a quick hop through Hyperspace however, we were already preparing to revert, appearing between Mars and Earth in around ten seconds.

Unlike my personal shuttle, which was more like a private yacht, this was a troop and equipment transport, and with the technology standards on most ships, it would work well enough in a reconnaissance role here.

Aside from myself, Makoto and Nabiki had elected to recon the planet, along with Rei and Shinji, while Dr. Akagi had asked Lieutenant Ibuki to accompany us, and Captain Mei had left her twins to man The Nerve after a quick game of rock-paper-scissors to see who got to go.

Rei was in the cockpit with the pilot, already familiarizing herself with the systems aboard, while Shinji remained back with the rest of us in the transport area. Further back was a hastily-installed Holonet transceiver to communicate back to the ships outside the system in real-time, as well as a squad of Stormtroopers, though I didn't think we'd be seeing much of them.

As the shuttle slowed and entered a high-orbit, the screen changed to display the planet below, rapidly shifting from a standard map of the Earth to a planet far different than any visited before.

"Well... that's new," I mumbled as the continents became fully visible. Turning towards the entry to the cockpit, I called out, "can you show us lifesigns? And maybe a separate display of locations with a large amount of electromagnetic radiation?"

After a moment, the screen split, the two globes side-by-side, and one showed an abundance of life in most areas, with the highest concentrations correlating to areas the other image displayed as the most industrialization.

"Well, it's fairly obvious where the cities are," Nabiki said, while the displays constantly updated themselves as more and more data became available.

"They're bunched up, though," Lieutenant Ibuki said, frowning. "Look, they all seem to follow a pattern: one major city, seven to ten smaller cities, and then a lot of space between them and the next bunch."

"I don't know about that, but I recognize some of these landmasses. This area here looks like Hokkaido, and this one here looks like Kyushu," Nabiki pointed out.

"Yeah, and this whole section here, between those looks kind of like Chubu and Kanto," Makoto piped in.

Nabiki frowned, "They're a little off... and grossly oversized, but I can kind of see the waterline being appropriate. There's a lot of land missing, though."

I however, realized they'd mentioned something familiar in there. "What did you say this area looked like?" I asked Makoto.

"Chubu and Kanto," She replied.

I smirked, "Kanto was the region in the blue, red, and yellow games," I explained. "Which one is it, area wise?" I asked.

She pointed to an area on the map, and I frowned. "Without labels, it's hard to remember things perfectly, but... this town here should be Viridian City," I explained, tapping an area with increased EMR and lifesigns. "And this here is Cerulean," I said, pointing to another. "This mountain is Mount Moon, and here," I said, pointing to a long bridge extending out into the oversized harbor, "this is bicycle road... or something like that."

"Impressive," Nabiki said with a grin to let me know that wasn't how she really felt. Frowning at her for a second, I shrugged and backed away from the map. "It was a fun game. And fairly easy to remember certain things from. To the west is Johto, a region that shares their final four with Kanto. That was the Gold and Silver games."

"And Crystal," Makoto added with a grin.

"I only played Gold," I replied, turning to her. "Was Crystal like Yellow? A sort of late-addition version?"

She nodded, and I turned back to the map, "I only played Gold, so I suppose I missed it. Those two islands, though... they're new to me."

"I just told you-" Nabiki started, and I turned to cut her off with a frown.

"Game-wise, Nabiki; Game wise. I don't doubt what you said about their physical appearance, but I'm not sure about their layout. Or Pokémon."

Shinji, who'd been quietly listening to the conversation along with Mei and Ibuki, suddenly cut in, "You still haven't explained to us exactly what Pokémon are."

"That's part of the reason we had you come along," Nabiki replied, factually. After a moment, she elaborated, "This world is fairly child-centric... at least from the anime and games. Or really, it's expressed in a way to engage children, from around ten or so, right on up to... well... people like Kyle here."

"Hey!" I complained, though I smiled to let her know I agreed.

"In any case," Makoto continued, "While Nabiki and I know of this world from our secondary memories, and Kyle from his primary memories, we all agree that you- or someone like you- with no experience in things, would be able to give a better explanation to everyone back on the ships."

"I think Dr. Akagi figured that out, which is why she sent you along, Ibuki," I added.

"I see... Command-" she trailed off as she realized she was addressing me incorrectly. "My Lord?" She hazarded a moment later. I winced as I realized I'd probably have to deal with that issue for a while, still.

"For now, Maya, call me Kyle, unless it's an emergency. In that case, or you feel you must address me by rank, then call me Commander, since you're already used to it." I glanced back at the map with a shrug. "We could have probably covered this earlier," I mumbled.

"I... understand, Commander." She hesitantly answered.

"In any case," Nabiki said, drawing everyone's attention again. "On this world, most children go off on a Pokémon journey around the age of 10, which varies in goals, depending on whether or not you play the game or watch the show..."

"What's a Pokémon journey?" Shinji asked.

"It's where you go live out in the wilds after being kicked out of your house by loving parents and replace all the friends you might have made with little animals that seem somewhat self-aware and are capable of using magic attacks like... something out of a video game," I answered with a grin.

"But... but... that's crazy!" Maya sputtered, obviously shocked.

"It's not nearly that bad," Nabiki interrupted, smiling slightly at my description. "There are definite dangers, but most children are prepared, and this world is based on a game for kids, so the violence is minimal. The entire world is less dangerous than any of ours, no matter where you go. At least, that's what the anime and games depicted..." For a moment, Nabiki actually managed to look unsure, and I silently agreed with her.

It'd be pretty annoying if we found out that for every Ash, there were a dozen little Billys that never came home.

"I think we've collected as much data as we're going to get from this range... anyone have a preference on where we should land?" Makoto said, finally.

"I'd like to check out this island here, to the west; the one that looks like Kyushu. We can travel east and cover all," Nabiki paused to scan the city count closely, before nodding, "four regions in one trip."

I nodded, but stopped suddenly, grinning as an idea came to me, "Actually, what if we split up? I'm actually kind of curious to see it the other way around, East-to-west, since that's the way the games seem to have been going. We can work our way towards the middle here, between Johto and Kanto."

"And how are we supposed to keep in touch? Commlinks may be better than radios, but I know the they don't have that much range," Nabiki stated, pointing at the distance on the map.

"Simple. After dropping us off, this ship can hide out here in the center, where we're going to meet up. Then it'll act as a booster to keep us in touch," Makoto offered.

"Not bad," I muttered, nodding her way, "I was thinking we'd just use the local communications. But this will work better, I'll bet. More privacy, if nothing else."

"So how are we going to split up?" Maya asked, looking between Nabiki and me as if judging us- which is probably exactly what she was doing.

"We'll take turns picking until we've gone down the list. I go first," I said.

"Why do you go first?" Nabiki asked, quirking a brow.

I shrugged, "Rank has its privileges?"

Makoto smirked, "If I wanted to be mean, I could say pearls before... well... Ryouga..."

Nabiki scowled, "With a glass of water, I could say 'Ladies first.'"

I rolled my eyes, "Then what would that make you? A little girl? Lets all try to act our ages here, before Shinji and Rei send us to our rooms."

"I wouldn't... wait, what?" Shinji asked, confused.

I rolled my eyes, but smiled. "Makoto."

"Shinji," Nabiki declared immediately after.

Quirking a brow, I gave her a sidelong glance, "something you're not telling us?"

The middle Tendo just rolled her eyes and waved her hand at me dismissively. "Just choose."

Sighing dramatically, I whined, "sure, ruin all my fun, why don't you?" Before straightening up, and glancing around, before pausing to look at the cockpit door. "Rei."

"Oh? Now who's got something to hide?" Nabiki asked. "Ibuki."

"I thought you, of all people, would understand the need for someone young enough to be on a Pokémon journey to be in each group." I shrugged. I was about to say "Mei," when suddenly there was a blinding flash of light and the entire shuttle shuddered beneath us and the lights went out.

"What the hell?" I asked, as I drifted off the floor. Artificial gravity was gone, too.

"Where the hell am I?" A new voice asked, surprising everyone. While everyone else began asking who was there, I frowned; that voice was new, but definitely familiar.

Before I could say anything, however, the entry to the cockpit cracked open a hair, and Rei's voice, emotionless despite the current situation called back, "Power will be returning shortly. We experienced a localized, unknown electromagnetic event which forced a shutdown of most systems."

"Who's there?" The voice asked again, and I frowned. There was no way...

"Ranma?" Nabiki asked, a moment before I felt gravity start back up, bringing me gently to the floor as it ramped up to its full power.

The lights turned on a moment later, and I spun to where I'd heard the voice last. And there, indeed, stood Ranma Saotome, looking more confused with our surroundings than with us.

"How the hell did you get here?" Nabiki asked, climbing to her feet. Everyone else did as well, while Ranma finished his examination of the ship and turned back towards us.

"Well, you see... remember how I asked if I could come with you, and then decided not to?" He asked.

I frowned, having to think back before vaguely recalling that having happened.

When I nodded, he continued, "Well... after you left, I thought about it some more, and realized that if Nabiki were going, then she obviously thought she had a way back... and Nabiki's not likely to do anything without having thought it out better than I could, so I figured I made a mistake..."

"Eloquent as ever, Ranma," Nabiki stated dryly. "And yet almost intelligent," she muttered under her breath.

Ranma frowned, "I don't... look, that's not all. After you left, for a while your dad was ecstatic, thinking you'd run off with Kyle and eloped... and then a week later, all your stuff just disappeared!"

"The re-write!" Makoto exclaimed.

Ranma just shrugged. "Whatever it was, almost everyone was hit by it, though I think the old ghoul still remembered."

"Err... Ranma, we all talked about this in front of you, remember? That's how Kyle and Makoto got their jobs at Furinkan... and how... I... err..." Nabiki trailed off suddenly, frowning.

"How you got engaged to my husband?" Makoto asked, smiling.

"What!?" Maya and Shinji shouted.

I winced, "Not so loud, please."

Ranma, who'd been looking about as introspective as he could be, just shrugged, "I suppose so. I kind of assumed you just beat up the principal for the job. And I try to avoid anything that has to do with engagements, since... well... you know how mine are," he added quietly.

Makoto, Nabiki and I all nodded.

"No." Shinji said, gaining Ranma's attention.

"Hey! Who's this.. who are they?" he asked, shifting his point from Shinji to waving his finger back and forth between him and Maya. Then he looked cover at Mei. "And who... err.. what?... umm..." He trailed off, and I smirked as Mei buried her face in her hands.

"Ranma, meet Shinji Ikari, Maya Ibuki, and Mei... umm... " I trailed off myself as I realized Mei didn't seem like a complete introduction. Turning to her, I raised an eyebrow. "You wouldn't happen to have a last name chosen, would you?"

Mei just shrugged, "We never really saw much of a need for one. I suppose, since we're almost sisters, 'Ayanami' would work... though we're far more used to answering to our given names."

I nodded, "Mei, then. No point in adding more confusion if the three of you are together." Turning back towards Ranma, I waved my hand towards her, "and this is Mei. Just Mei."

Ranma stared at her for a moment, before nodding, "Okay."

Turning to Shinji and Maya, I pointed over my shoulder at Ranma, "This is Ranma Saotome, a powerful martial artist, and... umm..." I paused, wondering what else described him.

"He has a curse kind of like Kyle's, though he can control it, and it's just a girl, and he's engaged to my little sister through an arrangement made by our parents before we were born," Nabiki contributed with a smirk.

"Hey! They didn't have to know about... about..." he suddenly turned to look at me. "You've got a curse?"

I winced, "Yeah, picked it up a few days after we left. Permanent, incurable, vaguely helpful at times..."

Ranma nodded, "Girl?"

"Angel; female. You wouldn't be able to tell the difference unless you got me upset," I explained. Ranma just nodded sagely, as if understanding.

"You... have a curse too?" Maya asked hesitantly.

"It's not exactly something I'm proud of," Ranma growled.

"Oh, relax, Saotome, at least you don't have to worry about cold water anymore," Nabiki replied.

"No? I have control of the change, but water still hits me out of the blue, all the time."

I winced. "Well, at least you have control."

"Do I?" Ranma asked, though he was looking down as he spoke. "I was so used to turning with cold water I still change when hit... I've just grown to expect it, I guess. Only after it happens do I really think about it. Then I have to run off and pretend I found some hot water."

"Sounds complicated," Makoto offered, sounding sympathetic.

Ranma just nodded.

"How did you appear like that?" Shinji asked, finally.

Ranma looked up at him for a moment, before turning his gaze to the screen which was back to displaying the two copies of the globe spinning below us. "Umm... first off, where are we?"

"Orbiting earth in a spaceship preparing to land," Nabiki explained.

"He's on my team," I suddenly stated, loudly.

"Wha- No! You and Makoto are more than enough!" Nabiki replied hotly.

I shook my head. "Too late! You have Maya, Mei, and Shinji. I have Makoto, Ranma, and Rei."

"But..." Nabiki started, before I cut her off.

"What are you so worried about? This is Pokémon, not Nerima. Ranma's an overpowered liability, not an asset," I explained.

"Hey! I'm right here, you know!" Ranma yelled.

"Shut-up Ranma," Makoto, Nabiki and I all said at once. He fell back into a chair as Nabiki replied, "That may be true if this is like the games or show, but if it's not, I don't think it's fair to horde all the Martial Arts users on one team. If not Ranma, give me Makoto or Rei."

I frowned. "If you take Rei, then I'd need Shinji."

Nabiki smirked, "Take Mei."

"Dowha?" I asked, frowning. Before I could explain things to her again, she continued.

"Mei may be a ship's Captain, but remember, she still looks fourteen, even if she's older, mentally," Nabiki argued.

I winced, before looking between Makoto and Mei, "I kind of.. err.. no offense, Mei, but I already have one... if you know what I mean," I said, earning a slight glare from the clone, while Makoto rolled her eyes and stepped away from me.

"Then give me Makoto. You and Ranma, Rei and Makoto; two per team." Nabiki said.

"I'm short a person, and you're up one that way," I replied.

Nabiki rolled her eyes and looked everyone over once, before returning her gaze to me. "Take Shinji, then: you, Ranma, Shinji, and Mei; Makoto, Maya, Rei, and Me."

I blinked, thinking it over in my head. Finally, I turned to Makoto. "Would... err.. that be alright with you?" I asked.

My wife just rolled her eyes and went over to stand beside Nabiki. At the Tendo's smirk, however, she narrowed her gaze. "It's fine. Any more stupid arguments, however, and I'm going to stay with the ship."

"At least someone's thinking straight," Mei muttered. Makoto smiled in her direction a little, and Mei nodded back before looking at me. "So, since we got first pick, does that mean Nabiki's team gets to kick first?"

I blinked, before those who understood started chuckling. "Cute," I muttered, when the laugh was dying down.

"... what just happened?" Ranma asked.

Shinji shook his head," I think we were insulted, but I'm not sure where, exactly... which reminds me... Now will you tell us how you got here?"

Ranma suddenly straightened up. "Oh yeah!"

"Yes?" I asked.

"I was trying to figure out why nobody remembered you all, and then I found that lamp," he explained.

"The one that grants wishes?" Nabiki asked, leaning forward suddenly.

"No, the one I had on my bedside table," I replied sarcastically.

"We... didn't have a bedside table," Makoto said.

"ANYWAY," Shinji said, glaring at us all. Properly cowed, we turned back to Ranma.

"Yeah, the one from before. The guy inside didn't remember me, but when I asked for him to cure the curse for good, he said his magic was already on my curse, and he couldn't."

"Wow. That sucks," I said, smiling.

"Yes. Yes it does." Ranma replied with a glare. "Anyway, when he asked me how that happened, I explained what had happened to him, and he shrugged and told me to go ahead and try another wish."

"What'd you wish for?" Nabiki asked, leaning forward again.

"I was just getting to that," Ranma growled, before turning his gaze back to the ceiling. "I thought about wishing for something that would give me a cure to my curse, but then I remembered the way you managed to beat Taro and the Letch, and thought about wishing for a map that would lead me to a cure, or something like that."

"That's... actually a pretty smart idea," Makoto said, blinking. Nabiki's eyes were wide, but she managed to nod.

"So what happened?" Shinji asked.

"My pops threw open the door and demanded I cure his curse. Then Ryouga showed up, and, well... you know."

Makoto, Nabiki and I winced, Mei merely nodded sadly, while Maya and Shinji looked confused. "No. What hat happened?"

Ranma collapsed back into the chair behind him. "The idiot tried to grab it, there was a fight... the usual."

"So... how did you get here." I asked.

"Ranma looked at me, then shrugged, "Oh. Ryouga started talking about how he'd seen hell because of me, and my old man was growling at me because he'd gotten wet, and I think Mousse was there, because I had to dodge some weapons... but it was Akane who kind of set me off. She started yelling at me to leave pig-boy alone, and I shouted back that I wish she understood what was going on..."

There was a loud noise as Makoto, Mei, Nabiki and I all drew back with a pained hiss at that. Noticing Maya and Shinji's confused looks, I told them we'd explain later, before turning back to Ranma. "So what happened?"

"Well... it was weird. Everyone froze as the guy in the lamp appeared and told me my wish was granted, but then Akane got mad and started attacking me again, screaming that I was supposed to get beat up because the fans demanded it or something." He paused, before shrugging. "I don't know, she wasn't making much sense the rest of the fight."

I closed my mouth, unaware as to when, exactly it had fallen open, then asked, "So... how did you get here?"

"Well, after the fight, I realized there wasn't much of a reason not to find you all... Akane told me that I'd never find a cure for my curse on this... that... err... my world, and oddly enough, it made sense in a weird kind of way. At least, nothing I'd ever found seemed to work."

"So you decided to come here," I finished.

Ranma nodded. "Yeah, The lamp-guy said I had two more wishes, so I wished for a gate here, and said I'd save the last one for a way back..." Ranma blinked, then looked around. "Hey! Where'd it go!?" Jumping to his feet, he began frantically searching the cabin of the shuttle, pushing people out of his way as he began crawling all over the floor.

"We're beginning our descent," Rei's voice rang out over the intercom.

"There's been a slight change of plans, Rei," I started, before she cut me off.

"I heard everything, Commander. We're headed to the drop-off point for your team first, then Nabiki's. Please inform us what temporary rank you're assigning Mr. Saotome so the Stormtroopers and officers know how to treat him." The intercom clicked off, and I blinked in surprise at the speaker, before turning to look back at the Martial artists still crawling across the floor.

With a sighed, I buried my face in my hand. "Well Ranma... welcome to the crew."

Author's notes: Another start! And Ranma's back, how about that?

Seriously, though. Bringing Ranma back has always been part of the plan, I just had to find a way to do it that was acceptably humorous, and sensible and... well.. not right in the middle of the War with the Angels. Now seemed like the best time to do it, though, at the onset of a new adventure, and so, here he is, back to add his own type of chaos into the melting pot of this fic.

On the flip side, there's the Universe I've chosen to arrive in... I realize it's a massive shift in gears from Evangelion, but Pokémon, along with a few others, is one of the few series I knew would be included from the moment I realized I'd continue past the first NASIF.

With that said, however, I'd like to admit that I was slightly worried as to how I should portray certain things. Do I follow the games or the anime or find a balance between both? Do I go with the English Pokémon names, or the Japanese, or should I mix and match? Which characters from the games should I introduce? How about he anime? ... and so on and so forth. Since then, I've gone with, I suppose, the middle-of-the road approach, which is what most Pokémon fics tend to do. Shocking! I worried myself into a fit before following the crowd.

While this is getting kind of long, I also need to point two more things out before I close this up. First off, I'm not to keen or re-telling things a number of times, as you've probably already noticed. As such, while I try to make sure everything is sensible, if I refer to a past event from an earlier NASIF part, then I'll probably gloss over it... so if you're just now joining, you might want to start back at 1. I promise it gets better. After all, that's why you're here, right?

Finally, I've pretty much finalized the list of places to go. That does not mean I've finalized the list of things to do. I know what I want to have by NASIF 13, but what happens in NASIF 5-12 is still malleable. Some things are set into stone as guidelines, but the rest is still in development. This means that chapters should start coming out a little faster, since there's now a path to the end.

Oh yeah, chapter 2 is already written, just needs pre-reading. So expect it up... very soon.

Of course, if I slack, then all timelines are out the window, but it's a new year, and resolution #1 was to write more, so it shouldn't be as bad as my last dry year. Once again, I'd like to thank my pre-reader Nate, and say that, without him and the others, my fics would all be horrible collections of words that don't really go well together.