WARNING:this story is technically part of the timeline of my other story, real life in a false world and has spoilers for events that haven't happened in that story yet. I repeat There are spoilers. So if you still wish to read this after that warning or are a newcomer who just wants to read a story about Pokemon you should be fine because there will also be in depth exposition in this first chapter so you're not left blind.

AN:I own nothing

Chapter 1-pause everything

-Crane-

It had been twelve hours since the most grueling, bloody, and taxing battle the organization known as Luin had ever taken part of. The organization that I both built and led almost all in piles of their own blood. It wasn't just that though, the city that we were fighting in was close to burning to the ground, there were also countless civilian casualties, and to top it all off was the worst tragedy of all the hero known as Superman had been killed by the monster.

That's right, the enemy we had been fighting was Doomsday. I mean it's not like I planned to drop all of us in the middle of the death of Superman, but it happened and I decided to act. Despite my knowledge of the monster we were fighting and how dangerous it was and how Clark was gonna die anyway I decided to order Luin to mobilize for combat. It was honestly the most stupid idea I had ever had and they still followed me almost to our deaths.

After that the justice league moved us to the watchtower for medical treatment and started questioning the conscious members about who the hell we were. A lot of members of Luin were unconscious, myself included, leaving only Neo Politan, Mercury Black, Penny Polendina, and Mezool to answer questions. If it was just Mezool it would be fine, she's the always in control type, and Neo obviously can't talk at all, it's Mercury and Penny that were the problems. Penny herself can't tell a lie to save her life and Mercury is so self assured and cocky that Batman probably figured everything he needed from him within a few minutes.

We were eventually let out though and we all headed to Luin, the place not the organization, to plan our next move. That led us to right now with all of us sitting in a white room while I set Flynt's new leg.

"And done." I said wiping my hands on my shirt "now that thing is soul constant, so it should always be correct for your age."

Flynt didn't answer out loud but he did nod his head. Flynt Coal is the dependable type and Luin's second in command. Though he has told me that he'll leave the organization as soon as we finish our mission he'll always be welcome here.

"So why didn't you just use your aging machine to fix everything." Questions Mercury in his usual cocky voice. Though he technically works for Cinder he's really more of a lone wolf type and that attitude of his gets him in loads of trouble. Luckily for him he's really good at killing people.

"It doesn't work like that idiot." Answers the heavily Slavic accented voice of Skarlet. Though she's just as dangerous as she was when she was Shao Khan's 'daughter' she is much more easy to manage and Luin providing her resources keeps her in line. She also seems to be in a much better mood than the rest of us, which makes sense since she was one of the least injured of us having only been knocked unconscious.

"The soul chronochanger changes our soul's age, It doesn't rewind time. Meaning if we lose anything it's gone." I say turning towards the crowd.

"Well who cares about that right now." Ruby clunkily changes the subject "are you sure you don't want a robotic eye Em, it'll be cool!"

"Sorry Ruby, but it would be useless. I can't see through my own semblance with one." Answers Emerald Sustrai with more genuine emotion that she would have answered with a few years ago. Emerald herself was hit on the left side of her head in the fight with Doomsday and the hit shattered her skull causing blindness in her left eye. Emerald also works for Cinder and despite how her relationship with Ruby started her and Emerald are actually legitimately close now.

Doomsday gave Ruby a concussion and broke her nose, but those and the minor cuts and burns were healed with aura. Ruby is pretty much how she's always been just a little more aware of the darkness in the world. So with all the childness of a five year old Ruby whines "aww, but it'd be so cool!"

I shift my eyes over to a familiar clock in the room that currently says two years one hundred eighty nine day twelve hours fifty six minutes and fourteen seconds left and the clock was counting down. The clock was an absolute limit we set for ourselves for the lime we needed to prepare to defeat Salem, but "huuuuuuuuh." I walked over to the clock and with a single push of a button I paused the countdown.

The silence behind me was the only answer I needed, but even still I just turned around and let myself fall into a couch seat. And so the awkward silence of the room continued for some time until finally Flynt broke the stalemate "are you sure that's fine?"

"It has to be, we're close to breaking. We can't continue like this." I respond completely unable to take the tired tone out of my voice.

"...I agree, we've completely exhausted ourselves way before this but we just kept pushing." Emerald explained before turning her gaze to the three who in another time would be part of team JNPR "and that not even mentioning those of us who've been training non stop."

"I don't disagree but can we really afford to stop?" Pyrrha asked with her new deeper scratchier voice she got courtesy of Doomsday crushing her windpipe. When we were at Beacon I ended up taking Jaune's place as her partner and leader of the team. The only real difference in her personality that I can think of is that she's a little less polite than when we met.

"We have all the time in the world or did you forget that girl." Cinder taunts from a corner of the room. While Emerald and Ruby's relationship improved greatly the relationship between Cinder and Pyrrha has been on a continuous downward slope since their meeting that only got worse since Pyrrha learned about Cinder killing her in an alternate universe. Cinder's wounds on the other hand were by far the most life threatening, with her six broken ribs and punctured lung, but they were easily healed with magic so no lasting injuries.

Ren stepped in the way of the two girl's on coming argument with his calm voice "she's aware of that. She just wants to confirm that we're ok postponing our schedule." I however find myself unable to find any noticeable difference in his personality and the simple broken legs Doomsday gave him don't seem to have left any long term effects.

"It should also be mentioned that while I do want to hear your opinions on this just in case it changes my mind I would appreciate it if you consider this an order." I state softly.

"Well if it's an order there's nothing we can do." Mercury cuts in while testing his new prosthetics after Doomsday destroyed his old ones.

No one seemed to disagree with that or at least no one spoke up so I turned towards our resident dapper thief "do you mind getting those IDs we talked about last week? They might need a bit of adjusting."

Roman is completely the scoundrel he's always been but he's a useful scoundrel and since he wasn't in our battle completely unharmed "sure sure, don't worry about a thing. I got this."

I then turn towards my servant, Leonardo Di Vinci, and tell her "Caster. Go tell Lulu about this, can't leave our allies in the dark."

Caster was also uninvolved with our battle with Doomsday so she was completely uninjured "yeah whatever."

I'm so tired, huuuuuuuuh well anyway "the rest of us should head to the Soul chronochanger, we have business with it."

"I'll make sure to boot up the machine father." The voice of my greatest creation says from a small box on the table.

-Blake-

The only people besides the so-called justice league that know of my new deafness are Flynt and Crane. Doomsday got a nasty hit on the left side of my head that shattered my skull. Ever since I haven't been able to hear on that side at all, not out of my Faunus or human ear. It's caused my balance to go completely out of whack and it'll definitely take more than a little work to fix and not even Crane's machine can fix it.

The soul chronochanger is nothing short of exceptional. Crane's said to many a stranger that his scientific specialties are artificial intelligence and biomechanical engineering, this miracle machine is nothing of the sort. I remember when he first revealed the pod shaped object that Flynt asked him if he solved death and Crane in a surprised voice just said 'i guess I did.' I personally don't understand the first thing about how the machine actually works but Crane always describes it as changing the age of the soul and your body just follows on its own.

My thoughts on this vacation that Crane sprung on us are much more clear though. We need this or we'll break. We were close to that point anyway or maybe we already passed it a long while ago. Whatever the case it's more surprising that none of us noticed before now or maybe it's that none of us wanted to notice, who can say for sure now.

Cinder was in the machine when Roman and Caster returned and after Roman gave Crane a small metal lockbox they two both informed our boss about how they're not participating in whatever is happening. Crane very well could have ordered them to involve themselves but that's not Crane's style and they work differently than the rest of us anyway so I guess it doesn't really matter.

No sooner was that settled then did the machine give the telltale steaming sound of opening. And out from the steam stepped the form of a little girl in cinder's clothes that were entirely too large for her prepubescent body. "I'm going to go change." She spoke with a small blush on her face.

"Wait wait, why didn't her clothes change with her?" Squeaked Emerald from embarrassment.

"Ah yes, I had forgotten only Cinder and myself have experienced this." Skarlet side eyed the dark skinned girl "you still shouldn't expect your clothes to possess a soul little girl."

"Well what was I supposed to expect?" Emerald Growled back.

"Enough enough, the machine only affects those that possess two things." Crane begins explaining "The first is you require a soul, that one is easy and pretty includes every sentient thing you will ever meet. The second is a bit more restrictive, you need an organic body. That is why the machine doesn't affect Uva, Mezool, Penny, and myself."

Penny then coughed lightly to switch attention to her "that is technically untrue, but only technically. It's not that it doesn't affect, it does, but only our souls."

"Yes yes, Penny is correct." Crane started again "it goes back to the machine's original person to change a soul's age, your physical bodies change with your souls is an unexpected side effect."

"Yes, that's all very interesting and all." The younger red faced Cinder squeaked "but if you don't mind I'd like to wear some clothes that actually fit."

"Ah yes yes, sorry for keeping you." Crane apologies quickly "now who's next?"

After Cinder ran out of the room I had no reason not to so I stepped forward "why not."

"Good good, now lay back and avoid touching the outer walls." The boss said while pushing me into the metal contraption.

"I actually have a question. Why do we have to decrease our ages anyway?" I spout out a question before Crane can close the lid on me.

"Well it's customary for a Pokemon trainer to start their journey at ten." He answered simply.

'wait what?' was the only thought to pass through my head as the lid to the machine closed on me.

-Ren-

Looking at a young Nora has not gotten any less strange than it was two hours ago. She's always been a bit ...wired, but right now it's like her entire body is made out of caffeine and a stranger just gave her a bag of candy. Admittedly I vaguely remember her being like this when we were kids too but I'd assumed she just grew out of it. Maybe it has to do with fitting all that energy into one tiny body and I mean I do mean tiny.

She was always a bit smaller than the other kids when we were children. Looking around the room everyone looks about how you'd expect them to look like with the exception of Uva, Mezool and Crane, who haven't changed yet, Flynt and Mercury, who are busy searching through clothes so they don't accidentally reveal their mechanical legs, and Penny, who can't change at all. Skarlet is also hanging about but she is not changing since she apparently decided she's only going to get blood samples from the Pokemon.

That does leave one person unaccounted for though "I haven't seen Neo in a while." I state.

"Oh she's here, just a bit hidden right now." Crane answers almost off handedly.

"Hidden?" The new younger and scrawnier Ruby parrots.

It was at that moment Crane's face gained a very rare uncomfortable look "well *cough cough* yes, uhhhh let's leave it at that."

So it's a Neo problem? I guess that makes sense, she was always rather proud and we were defeated rather utterly. Simple embarrassment then, no need to interfere in something that'll solve itself. If anything she's being a bit overdramatic, I broke both my arms and Nora broke both her legs, but compared to the rest of us that's on the lower end and Neo only broke a single arm.

But enough of my monotonous complaining, Crane was busy passing around little plastic cards and handfuls of bills that he had gotten from a small metal lockbox that Roman gave him. The bills were, of course, the currency of the world we were vacationing in and the plastic cards were apparently identification.

The bills were all large numbers, not a single one going below one hundred, and if I were to place them I would compare them to the Yen we are given whenever we travel to Japan. Each one was colored differently and you would think that signifies the value, but each one's design and color changed with no rhyme or reason.

The ID however is much easier to identify. It was a small piece of plastic with my name and a picture of the new younger me. Now if I didn't work with Luin I would be much more confused on where my picture came from, but the answer is actually quite simple if not a raiser of more questions. Roman Torchwick is absolutely baffling when it comes to business and it is absolutely better for all involved peace of mind to not ask further questions.

"Ren Ren Reny, look I got an I'd thing." My longest and oldest friend cheered at me excitedly.

"It's ID Nora." I explain slowly even though I already know she stopped listening. It should also be noted that you shouldn't question Nora either, it's an even more confusing experience with no escape.

"Shouldn't you get changed already Crane?" Ilia Amitola interrupted my thoughts. Ilia herself sports large scars under her eyes that are left over evidence of the surgery she had to undergo to save her eyesight after Doomsday shattered her orbital plate. She also now wears glasses to help with her new worse eyesight.

Crane then looked down at himself before simply saying "oh yeah." Crane, Uva, and Mezool's bodies then began to shift in a silvery coin flipping like manner and a sound like loose change filled the air as the three's bodies began morphing and shrinking until all that's left were three more kids to add to the pile.

"As if I needed to see your creepy ass transformations." Mercury sneered as he entered the room with Flynt right behind him.

"You just don't appreciate true beauty, perhaps I could show you." Mezool snarled in response.

Crane wasn't having any of it and stepped in between the two "hey hey, kill each other at a later point."

Not exactly the best way to break up a fight but whatever works. Crane is dangerous there is no doubt about that, but at the very least he doesn't want us killing each other. The advancement of strength, will, and cunning in that order, that is one of Luin's edicts and it fits his personality to a T.

"So what is this vacation you mentioned?" I question now that everyone was here.

"We're going to a simple D rank reality so it shouldn't give us any trouble." He answered simply.

His habits of ranking how dangerous something is has proven unreliable at best and Ruby who constantly travels with Crane seemed to agree "the last time we traveled to a D rank you ended up having six or seven epic shirtless battles with the Yakuza."

"Some of those were Uva." He pathetically tried to defend.

"So just to get this clear." Nora began pondering "we're all gonna end up shirtless fighting criminals?"

"No no, it should be fine. The unspoken rules should prevent that." Our leader tries to explain.

"Unspoken rules?" I ask before the normal Luin complaining can continue.

"Yes yes, the unspoken rules. After the last war there just hasn't been any murders or crimes of human on human violence."

"War?" Skarlet questioned.

Crane, in a completely insulting way that only Crane could get away with, waved off the assassin girl "didn't care, look it up yourself."

It was Flynt that noticed the incoming danger from the Outworld girl and asked another question, saving our leader's life "so what are we doing there?"

It has been asked by many people if Crane is evil and many would be tricked into believing that the answer is yes when not even Crane himself knows the answer, but all the same the look he had right now looked positively devilish "Pokemon battling."

-Cinder-

Pokemon battling is very possibly a very barbaric practice, but it is definitely a waste of time that Crane has somehow talked the entirety of Luin into. He's done this multiple times before as well, first when he convinced me to betray Salem, second when he convinced practically the entire first year class of Beacon on a fool's errand to defeat Salem, and after that it happened many more times.

When I confronted him about it he just said 'people are a lot less angry about being manipulated when they're aware it's happening' and then he laughed. And being the fool I am, I let him manipulate me with that simple explanation. And then he manipulated us to fight that monster Doomsday.

Everything we did that monster just walked through like it was nothing. Then Crane incinerated his own arm with his own nen and everything just started falling apart. Before I even realized it I was in a pile of glass and stone with my blood filling my lungs. And in the moment when I thought I was dying I just started apologizing in my head over and over to no one. I just hate being scared, I'm the one with the power I shouldn't be scared.

I'm told that the reason I survived was that Penny dragged me to help. The girl that Crane claims I killed in his memories saved my life. The irony is not lost on me. Whatever the case, Crane is still wasting our time.

Pallet town was much less densely populated then vale or any of the other places we have traveled to. The residential area was spread out in a way you would expect to find on farmland and the houses looked to be no bigger than two bedroom flats. And to top off the weirdness of the place the only building that looked to be used in business was a lone research lab.

This lab was where we were headed. The way Crane explained it was a Pokemon journey is sort of like a right of passage that this world has and it works perfectly for our vacation. Or at least it would if we weren't Luin. Every basic task is many times harder than it should be and it's all because of the manipulative jackass leading us. We're pretty much just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

But anyway the lab we were heading to was probably about five times larger than all the houses we passed and had a fenced off area behind it even bigger than that. The most noticeable part was the ten year old boy surrounded by cheerleaders and stroking his own ego. The weirdest part about it though was how Crane took one look at him and said "we'll go in the side."

Now usually I would just brush off him doing that since it's a very Crane thing to do, but I'm pretty sure that was a flash of recognition on his face. This is of course another of those places that Crane is a 'fan' of so it makes since he would know the person. The thing that makes me pause is the realization that accompanied the recognition. Whatever it means I have to keep my eyes peeled.

"Welp the rest is on you." Our galactic jackass of a boss suddenly said as we came to stop at a small wooden door.

"You're leaving us?" Ruby whines out a question.

"Traveling together defeats the point of the game I have planned." Ah there's the other shoe.

"Is that alright?" The ever logical Ren asked. "With this professor Oak I mean?"

Crane just waves him off "it should be fine, he has your pictures." And then without another word Crane pushed his way through the Crowd of gathered Luin members and walked off.

It seemed that no one knew how to respond to that since no one spoke up in protest, but after a little while I got tired of waiting and approached the wooden side door and knocked.

From the other side of the door the voice of an older man called out "just a moment!" And almost as soon as that was said the door opened to reveal a man probably in his sixties to seventies with a square head and grey hair. The man then quickly scanned our group before stating the obvious "there sure are a lot of you."

As if taking that as the go ahead Nora Burst from the Crowd and began vigorously shaking the old man's hand "Hiya I'm Nora Valkyrie!" And then the strange weight that was on everyone's shoulders began to lift as Luin began it's usual chaotic introductions "Nice to meet you, I'm Ruby Rose!""name's Mercury Black.""Lei Ren sir.""Weiss Schnee, charmed.""I'm Phyrra Nikos, a pleasure.""call me Uva.""Let's have some fun! I'm Neon Katt by the way!""Flynt, Flynt Coal.""I'm Eri Mister."G-G-Goldie Butterfly!""I'm Bee, just Bee if you don't mind.""Emerald Sustrai.""I'm Mezool, please take care of me.""...May Zedong.""Yang Xiao Long, how's it Yanging. Hehehe.""salutations, I'm Penny Polendina!""Ilia Amitola.""Hello, I'm Blake Belladonna."

After the cacophony of my Allies quieted down I cleared my throat before saying "as you can tell there are quite a few of us, I'm Cinder Fall by the way."

"Yes I saw all your faces very recently, just this morning in fact. There is a bit of a small problem with your request." The old man spoke calmly and concisely.

"Problem? Oh no that sounds bad!" Penny, who looked older than the rest of us because of her android body, shouted in shock.

"Oh no no, it shouldn't be that much of a problem, just needs to be mentioned." The old man mentioned before changing tune "ah apologies, Please come inside while I explain."

After following him a short while the old man began to speak again "usually I don't have to entertain such a large group and on such short notice."

"Oh no it's entirely our fault." Weiss cuts in before bowing slightly and then running forward to reclaim her spot.

"Really it's alright. I was still able to complete the request, just to a minimum degree." The old man said as we entered a small sitting room with two small couches and definitely not enough room for the twenty three people present.

"If you don't mind, I have a question. I at least am unaware of this request, what was it?" Ren questioned from somewhere on the other side of the group gathered and honestly it's a great question that I haven't heard either and from the murmuring around me it seems I'm not the only one.

The professor seems a bit shocked that we didn't know as his eyes scan us "none of you? Truly?"

"...Crane on occasion seems to forget to tell us things." Emerald admits bashfully and is quickly followed by a hissed 'on occasion!?' from the Schnee heiress.

"Hmmmm, I was asked by a rather dapper gentleman in a bowler hat to prepare a group of kids for Pokemon journeys and then the same man gave me photos of you kids this morning."

"That sounds like Roman, he works for Crane." The young Miss Rose offered.

"And what's this problem you mentioned?" Asked Blake.

Instead of answering, the old man took two small red and white balls from his pocket and then the balls quadrupled in size. A red beam of light shot out from the balls before they coalesced into shapes before disappearing and revealing two strange monster's that must be the 'Pokemon' that Crane mentioned.

The first was a small green quadruped dinosaur with a large plant bulb covering it's back. The second was equally small but this one was a red bipedal lizard with a flame on the end of its tail.

Before the professor could speak again Ruby, Weiss, and Neon began gushing about the 'cute' creatures.

"And this is the 'problem'?" Flynt asked, cutting straight to the point as usual.

"Because it was on such short notice I was only able to obtain Charmander and Bulbasaur." The old man explains "now I wouldn't usually allow new trainers to go on a journey without a Pokemon, but it seems that you're all verified trainers meaning I can't actually stop you."

"Still we're very grateful that you made time for us." Penny smiled.

Just then Emerald elbowed me in the side before gesturing over to the fire lizard who hasn't broken eye contact with me despite being fussed over by three girls. "Sir, that one seems to be staring at me."

"Oh." The professor let out briefly before kneeling next to the creature and whispering something in its ear. The Pokemon just nodded in response and the old man rose up smirking. "Congratulations."

"Congratulations?" I echo back.

The old man then walked right up to me before slapping one of the balls into my hand "Charmander wants to be your partner, remember that Pokemon can be willful living creatures. You may find that sometimes they'll pick you, not the other way around."

I can't say I really understand, but either way I couldn't seem to break my eyes away from the ball in my hand. So I just stood there as the silence of my surrounding company permeated the room and I kept standing there until what seemed to be a stalemate was finally broken as Ren Kneels before what must have been the Bulbasaur.

"Do you mind traveling with me?" Was all he said.

-Crane(Bonus)-

" Are you fine with this father?" A voice asked from within my head. The voice was named Cyan by normal Remnant and she was an A.I. I designed to help manage the gamer system that my patron put in my head. Despite her actual consciousness being housed in a quantum black box back at Luin, the place not the organization, the vast majority of the time she spends questioning me through the gamer system.

"It should be fine, it's just gonna be a game between us Luin members for personal glory anyway. Nothing dangerous about that." I explain out loud which would be dangerous if anyone heard me, but I have no choice, it's the limitations of my system.

" If you say so, I'll make sure to monitor the memo." She says a bit dejectedly, but that's to be expected with her entering her rebellious stage. She's always questioning everything I do in that accusing tone she has. In fact it probably won't be many more years until she breaks off completely, but whatever. She can advance however she wants, that is a part of Luin's edicts.

"Good good, thanks sweetheart." I answer back simply.

I had been walking almost nonstop since I had separated from the rest of my buds and have even made it to Viridian city and it's not even sun down yet. The only person I saw was a young girl I passed in Pallet town who looked vaguely familiar but I couldn't place my finger on it, but whatever I'm over it.

Either way I made sure to use observation Haki to check out the eighth gym and sure enough I found the large underground laboratory that Giovanni is using to create Mewtwo. At least I think it is, the lab itself was so large and my Haki could since the entire structure.

That's none of my business now at least. I either expose it too early and the hidden team Rocket members just move or I go there too late and there's nothing to find. Either way it seems like more trouble than it's worth.

Doubling back I see a wanted poster for Jesse and James before promptly ignoring it and heading for the pokemart. After buying some PokeBalls I'm planning on going to Viridian forest so my journey can finally begin.

"This is gonna be so much fun." I couldn't help but giggle to myself.

" You do worry me sometimes father." Cyan mentions off handedly.

-pokemon-

Name: ???

species: Charmander

Trainer: Cinder Fall

Gender: Male

Nature: Quiet

-Scratch -Growl

-Ember -

Name: ???

species: Bulbasaur

Trainer: Lie Ren

Gender: Female

Nature: Calm

-Tackle -Growl

-Vine Whip -