"Come in, sit down," said Prof. Birch to Seto Kaiba as he gestured to the nearest chair. The professor's lab was cozy, but a bit cluttered. Piles of paper were stacked on the tables and around the computers in the corner. But the windows were open and the sunlight was streaming in. The room was decorated with brightly, and it had a comfortable feel. Kaiba sat down on a computer chair, his blue eyes still taking everything in. He did not know what to make of the circumstances, but he was constantly searching for a logical explanation.

"So," started Prof. Birch. "What were you doing in the middle of the forest with no pokémon? It's not smart to travel without one."

"I'm not traveling," he answered. "I was just....brought here."

"Brought here? How?" asked Prof. Birch. "Did you drive or something?"

"No," answered Kaiba, a bit harshly. It came not from being mad but from being confused.

"The how?"

"You won't believe me if I told you."

"What makes you says that?"

"Because I don't believe it myself," sighed Seto. He rubbed his eyes.

"Try me," suggested Prof. Birch. He had walked over and gotten himself a fresh mug of coffee from the nearby counter.

"Okay, but don't say anything until I'm done," said Kaiba.

"Okay, deal."

"Fine. I was sitting at home, working at my desk. The next thing I know I'm in some weird place that was nothing but fog. These three strange creatures say that I'm needed here and that they are going to make my favorite dragons real," explained Kaiba. "I woke up in the forest, no idea where I'm at; no dragons, no answers. That mutt attacked me and you know the rest."

"That's.....different," stammered Prof. Birch, after he had blinked several times. "Do you know what kind of creatures they were?"

Kaiba paused a moment, trying to remember the unusual names. "Mew.....Celebi......Jirachi."

Prof. Birch's eyes went as wide as dinner plates and his jaw dropped as far as it would go. He lost his grip on his coffee mug and it fell to the ground, shattering. Dark liquid spread across the floor, but he hardly seemed to care.

"What is it?" snapped Kaiba, who was getting very annoyed with the whole situation.

"You are joking right?" asked Prof. Birch.

"No, I'm not."

"You have to be, because that's impossible," said Prof. Birch. "Those pokémon are just myths, they probably don't even exist, and if they ever did they have long since become extinct."

"That's what I saw," said Seto with gritted teeth.

"You must have made a mistake....maybe you were dreaming or hit your head or something," said Prof. Birch. Now they were both groping for a logical answer. Kaiba glared at him and the professor shifted a bit under the intense gaze.

"Well...." stammered Birch. "Whatever the reason is, you shouldn't be traveling without a pokémon." Kaiba continued his icy glare, but the professor ignored it. "You seem a bit old to be starting on a pokémon journey. Pretty much everyone starts when they're ten. How old are you now?"

"Eighteen," answered Seto, simply. (AN/ I know there's a lot of ideas out there about his age, but in my fics, he's 18.)

"They must do things differently where you're from," said Prof. Birch. "You did say you were outside of Hoenn after all. Wait! I know what you're doing here!"

"You do?" asked Kaiba, skeptically.

"Yup," he answered with a grin. "You've probably got tired of your old league, so you came to Hoenn to try something new. It's okay to admit it, lots of trainers have come here for that very reason." Kaiba didn't answer, his eyes just narrowed. Prof. Birch shifted again uncomfortably. "You came to the right place to start a Hoenn adventure. This lab happens to be the local headquarters for trainer registration. Kids from the nearby towns come here to get their trainer's license and first pokémon. I can help you get started on your quest right away."

Kaiba blinked at him. He was starting to doubt Birch's intelligence by the minute, and his own questions were multiplying. The only reason he was staying were the words "quest" and "trainer" The three psychics he had met before used them, and they were the only connection he could find. Somehow they were the key to figuring out this world, and when he did that he'd be closer to getting home.

"This way," gestured Prof. Birch. "I'll get you a poké-nav and a poké-dex. You probably want a Hoenn trainer's license too, the out-of-the-league ones sometimes don't work. I can also give you some poké-balls to get you started.

Kaiba merely nodded and accepted the small machines the professor handed to him. He looked them over. They were fairly simple, and someone with as much experience as he had wouldn't have too much trouble figuring out how to use them. He turned to poké-balls over in his fingers. They were strange, and he didn't know what to do with the ones he already had. The professor was jabbering away on what Seto would need to do to restart in Hoenn.

"I know you came to Hoenn to start over from scratch," Prof. Birch was saying. "But most trainers do bring at least one of their old pokémon. Well, since you don't have any, you can choose either Torchic, Mudkip, or Treeko."

Kaiba glanced down at the small pokémon, clearly not impressed. It would be hard for even a dragon to impress him at that size. And, deep down, he was still wary about the elemental abilities they had displayed.

"No thanks," replied Kaiba.

"Excuse me?"

"I said 'no thanks.'"

"You can't be serious about starting a pokémon journey with no pokémon!"

"I can handle it," said Kaiba with another glare. "I always handle everything on my own. I don't need help from anyone."

Prof. Birch looked him over once, not exactly sure what to make of him. "......Oh! You mean you want to catch your first pokémon on your own! Why didn't you simply say that? I can understand that choice. It will be difficult, but you're old enough to know about that. I know how some trainers just love a challenge, and I guess I can't stop you. My number has been programmed into the poké-nav, so if you ever need any help, or are having seconds thoughts, call me."

"I doubt that will happen," replied Seto in monotone.

"It's going to be harder than you're thinking to restart in Hoenn," cautioned Prof. Birch. "Feel free to ask any of us here in the lab for advice. I'm sure you'll learn a lot."

"Of course," replied Seto in his usual emotionless tone, which made it impossible to tell if he was being sincere or sarcastic.

At that moment a younger boy with white hair ran in. He had on a red and black jogging outfit, complete with headband. He walked right up to Prof. Birch. "Hello, grandpa."

"Hello, Brendan," greeted Prof. Birch. He turned back to Seto Kaiba. "My grandson and I have some field research to do now, so I have to go."

"I understand. I'm leaving too," replied Kaiba in the exact same tone he had used before.

"Be careful," cautioned Prof. Birch one last time before he hurried out the door with Brendan.

Kaiba paused a moment to pocket the machines he had been given, then he too headed for the door. Outside, he once again looked around the small quiet town of Littleroot. He had no idea what to do. But before he had too much time to worry about that, and before he had taken more than a dozen steps away from the lab two of Prof. Birch's assistances who were working outside caught his eyes. He took a few steps closer and watched them.

The first had several poké-balls. As Seto watched, the assistant tapped the button and the ball enlarged. Then, much to Kaiba's surprise, he threw the poké-ball. It burst open with a flash of light. That light condensed into a living pokémon! This one was small with stripes that alternated between light brown and dark brown. The pokémon went up to the assistant and rubbed against his leg. The assistant stroked it.

Kaiba pulled out one of his poké-balls. He examined it carefully. "So, is that how it works...."

Not wanting to be caught looking like he didn't know what he was doing, Kaiba turned and walked back into the forest nonchalantly. Once he was sure he was out of sight of the town and safe from wanderers, he pulled out a random poké-ball.

"Okay, let's see how this works," he muttered. He tapped the button on the front and it enlarged in his hand. He looked it over, longing to take it apart and examine it, but he had something else to do with it first.

"Open," he said as he tossed it. Half to his own surprise, it did open. But it fell to the ground with no spectacular light show. He walked over and picked it up curiously. Nothing had happened.

"Hmmm," muttered Kaiba, thinking out-loud. "Before that man managed to call a creature out of it....Hmmm, so somehow, these pokémon..." That word seemed strange to say. "....somehow they can get inside these poké-balls. Strange...I wonder what mechanism allows that to happen." His hand was on his mini tool kit before he knew it. But Seto was not yet ready to take one apart before he better understood how they functioned. "It's empty.... I guess....that it is expected that somehow I can get a pokémon inside of this. This is one strange place...." He fingered the poké-ball more and it closed. Then he hit the button again and it shrunk.

Seto Kaiba went to put it back into his pocket. As he did, his hands touched all the poké-balls in it. He countered eight, then he remembered the two that Mew, Jirachi, and Celebi had given him. A smile began to crawl up his face as he figured that his Blue-Eyes, White Dragon might be actually living in his pocket at that very moment.

He quickly pulled out all eight poké-balls and held them in an open palm. They were all identical in looks, and Seto momentarily cursed himself for mixing them up. But he quickly noticed that two were heavier. He pocketed the rest and looked at the two containing his dragons. He selected one of them and tapped the button, making it larger.

"Come out, my Blue-Eyes!" he exclaimed as he threw it. This time there was a large flash of light, which materialized into his pride and joy with a loud roar.

Seto Kaiba's eyes went wide with amazement and wonder as his Blue-Eyes, White Dragon stood in front of him, flesh and blood, not a hologram. He was so stunned, he didn't seem quite sure what to do. He slowly raised his right hand and touched his dragon's side. The Blue-Eyes looked at his, blue- eyes met blue eyes.

"I don't believe it," said Seto. "This is amazing!" The dragon growled slightly in response. Kaiba continued to look at it with wide eyes. This was his greatest impossible dream, and now it was real. There was only one thing missing. "I wish Mokuba was here too...."

That thought put his mind back on track. Kaiba reminded himself that he needed to find a way back to his own world. As interesting as this was, the lack of sense that it made had its downfalls. But the appearance of his favorite dragon had calmed his urgency to hurry out of there as fast as he could.

"I guess we had better go," Seto said to his dragon. "We aren't going to find anything out if we stay here."

"EARGH!" growled the Blue-Eyes in agreement.

Seto did a slow circle, trying to figure out what he should do and which was to go. The Blue-Eyes, White Dragon nudged him north.

"It's as good as any other option," agreed Kaiba and he started walking, one hand on his dragon.