New idea time. Short intro here. So, I've been doing some exploring into different fandoms again, mainly due to the magic that is story networking. What do I mean by this? I read a story and like it, then check out the author's profile and see what other stories either they've written or have favorited. This has caused my story backlog to increase, but the ideas that I'm exposed to also increase by the same measure. What do I have for you today? Well, I recently discovered this fic named "Borne of Caution" by Fuggmann (id: 13390578) where a man from our world, a zookeeper, gets transported to the world of Pokémon due to the events of the plot and has to now live there during the events of the Alpha Sapphire/Omega Ruby storyline with different things happening alongside the main plot which hybridizes the Pokémon: Advanced anime storyline. It's interesting and it may sound like I'm underselling it, but I'm not. I just don't want to spoil it for you. Go check it out if you have the chance to and you like Pokémon stories.
But what is the idea that I have for you? A while back I had a pilot for the story anime Strike Witches where a dude with a fighter jet ends up in their world. Basically, just that. US Navy pilot ends up in the world of Pokémon and has to deal with it. I then decided to retool this slightly and decided to go with it not being someone from our real world, but someone from the game world of Ace Combat, aka Strangereal. Then about a day later I decided to not do that.
Title: [undecided]
Rating: T
Pairing(s): undecided.
Summary: Rico Salgado is a hotshot Navy pilot on his first sortie since getting into hot water and being assigned disciplinary action. Seeing as the ship's captain doesn't want him getting into trouble, his first sortie is a scouting mission over the South China Sea with his wingman; a freak storm throws him into an area he's never seen before and is forced to eject after coming into contact with something. Landing in an area he doesn't recognize with only his SERE kit, he tries to make his way back to civilization, but why does the wildlife look like the creatures from his childhood favorite game Pokémon?
Disclaimer: I own nothing other than my copy of MS Word and my desktop. Pokémon belongs to the Pokémon Company and Nintendo. I only own this pilot concept. See the foreword for the full disclaimer.
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USS Enterprise, South China Sea. 1300 hours Zulu, 24 December, 20XX.
The flight deck of the USS Enterprise was always a flurry of activity. You always saw the landing of armed patrol-craft and taking off of the same role aircraft. There were auxiliary aircraft doing the same ranging from AWACS to refueling planes to marine or navy search and rescue helicopters performing their tasks. For today though? One Captain Rico Salgado sat ready in the cockpit of his F-18 Super Hornet ready to perform his first sortie in several weeks.
The reason for this delayed sortie? A disagreement with an officer on board. What was that disagreement about? There were boats both officially and unofficially part of the Chinese navy, part of their citizens' patrol fleet he recalled it being called, harassing fishermen off the coast of the Philippines. This had been something going on for almost a decade now between China and South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and the Philippines with their mass fishing fleets. Seeing an egregious amount of harassment, he lost his composure and buzzed the 'peoples' fleet' at supersonic speeds causing two of the decrepit fishing boats to capsize. Apparently, someone higher-up in the chain of command had been pissed since he had gotten his wings 'clipped' for two weeks as punishment. But now, he was back and ready to soar the open skies again.
"Enterprise tower to Falcon 1-4, status?" the female officer called out over the radio.
"Falcon 1-4 to tower, I'm green and very, very mean," Rico replied.
"Falcon 1-4, please be advised that this is a scouting/freedom of movement sortie. Avoid any confrontations."
"Falcon 1-4 acknowledges," he replied. He didn't want to get clipped again.
A few more moments passed as his landing gear was hitched to the catapult. "Falcon 1-4, you're good for launch."
Rico started to power up the engines to take off levels and signaled to the shooter on deck with a salute. The shooter got down on a knee and pointed outward, the catapult operator released the switch and he was accelerating down the runway and quickly climbing. "Good launch."
"Airspace limits have been removed, good hunting, Falcon 1-4."
'Despite I can't hunt anything,' Rico rolled his eyes. "Thanks, tower." His landing gear retracted into the plane's body and he started to climb to ten thousand feet up and flew along the pre-plotted course.
Normally such a task would be delegated to a WSO, but with these newer planes, extra ECM software and machinery had been stuck behind him. Surprisingly it only weighed as much as another pilot so the performance of the plane was unaffected very little if none at all. Arriving in the area he set the autopilot to continue the preplanned course so he could pay closer attention to the sensors and general radio band.
"Home base, this is Falcon 1-4, all quiet on the western front here," Rico reported into his radio.
"Copy that, Falcon 1-4," the operator on the other end acknowledged.
Rico looked down at his radar and noticed a large cloud of something approaching him directly in front. "Home base, what's the weather report today for this area?"
"Weather station reports that the area should be all clear, Falcon 1-4," the operator reported.
"I'd like to dispute that, home base. There's what appears to be a nasty storm coming my way." He looked away from his instruments and out of the canopy. Sure enough, floating in the air was what looked like the darkest, angry clouds he had ever seen in his life.
"Copy, Falcon 1-4. RTB."
"Acknowledged," Rico replied. He rolled the fighter around but was hit suddenly by something that made his head jerk around to see what it was. The storm was accelerating towards him! "Enterprise this is Falcon 1-4, the storm is gaining fast! I repeat, the storm is gaining fast!" Rico said hastily into his radio as he fought with the yoke.
"Say again, Falcon 1-4? The storm is gaining on you?" the operator asked befuddled.
"Correct!" He pushed the afterburner online and he pulled away, which made him sigh with relief, but that didn't last long as it caught up and the black clouds were already touching his fuselage. "It's keeping up with me despite running the afterburners!" Static burst from the radio as Rico flinched. As he did, his plane was engulfed by the black cloud. It was all darkness before in his 2:00 by 1:00, his upper right, there was a bright light. He looked to see what looked like… "A llama?" Rico asked as time seemed to flow differently. It also looked very familiar.
However, that thought process didn't last long as what felt like lightning hit him that caused him to spasm. He lost consciousness for a moment and the world went darker than it was before. As it did, he heard a voice, "You will be my instrument to help save this world," it said.
It was a 'blink and you'll miss it' moment as Rico awoke with a start and immediately observed his surroundings and then his instruments. The outside and his instruments seemed to agree, he was approximately ten thousand feet above sea level and currently over a sea. His fuel gauge wasn't looking good. He cycled his radio and announced, "Enterprise, this is Falcon 1-4. I am bingo fuel, repeat, bingo fuel," he said.
There was nothing but static. He cycled through several other stations and got nothing but static even if there should have been normal radio chatter of position readouts and orders given. He looked at his radio and GPS, neither of which had synced with the military satellites in orbit. This was not good. After spending fifteen minutes cycling through each channel that he knew was assigned to the Navy, he swapped to a general, unencrypted channel. To call it that would be an understatement as it was the emergency channel that anyone using the latest military tech to a ham radio would be able to detect and receive.
"Mayday, mayday, mayday. This is Captain Rico Salgado of the United States Navy," he calmly called out. "I am bingo fuel and am currently in uncharted waters with no map. Assistance is requested. I repeat…" He proceeded to repeat the message over the next few minutes. He was going to give up hope, but the radio crackled as a new voice entered the channel.
"Captain Salgado of the unidentified aircraft, this is Snowpoint City tower," the female voice said on the other end.
'Snowpoint City? Why does that sound so familiar?'
"Adjust heading by 140, you are flying out to sea."
"Copy, adjusting heading, tower." He proceeded to bank into the new heading. Luckily his compass hadn't been screwed with. "How far out am I?"
"Two hundred nautical miles."
'Interesting, same measurement for planes.' He proceeded to look at his gauge and determined his estimated range was about one hundred fifty nautical miles. Doing quick math, he established he'd be able to glide the last fifty under no power as long as there wasn't a bad headwind. "Tower, this is Captain Salgado, I will run out of fuel in one hundred fifty nautical miles. I am currently Angels ten in altitude above sea level."
There was silence before the radio crackled to life again. "Will you be able to glide under power the remaining fifty nautical miles?" the operator asked.
"Assuming there are no major altitude changes or bad headwinds, yes."
"Copy, captain. Continue on your current heading."
He looked down at his armament. It wouldn't be good if it exploded on the runway if he had to make an uncontrolled landing or had to eject due to the aforementioned headwinds. Looking over the horizon, he could see land quickly approaching, and below him was nothing but sea. He flicked several buttons, some to deactivate all explosive caps, others to release them from their mountings. He watched as his Sidewinders, unguided bombs, and four JDAM bombs fell away into the wind; eventually, they landed in the water. They'd be relatively safe if anyone came across them, well, unless you reactivated the blasting caps intentionally, but you'd need a special tool for that.
The jet reached the shore and continued on towards a mountain range. Beneath him, he could see a vast forest with lakes off in the distance. There were other cities as well, but they didn't appear to have an airport which would make sense as to his current heading. Just before he reached the mountains a massive headwind buffeted the plane right as his engines died. He still had electrical power to manipulate the hydraulic stabs and flaps. As the wind buffeted him, his wind speed dropped to dangerous levels, barely above stall speed and his altitude was dropping. It was a slower descent but that would accelerate when his airspeed reached stall speed.
"Tower, this is Salgado. I've been hit by a massive headwind on approach to the mountain range. I am descending fast and am gliding without power. I will need to eject," Rico said as he prepped himself for ejection. "Repeat, airspeed is no longer viable for gliding nor making it up the mountain. Ejecting."
"Copy that, Captain. Sending search and rescue along your trajectory."
And with that Rico yanked the mechanism that'd initiate the ejection sequence. Immediately, explosive bolts went off causing the canopy to sheer away due to wind resistance, then his seat rocketed out of the plane around one hundred feet up allowing the plane to glide past safely before opening the parachute. As he slowly floated to the ground beneath him, he could see his fighter dip down before crashing into the side of the mountain. Due to the lack of fuel, there was no glorious explosion that would be prevalent in a movie to show off technical pyrotechnic skills. It appeared to land in the snow on the side of the mountain. Perhaps it could be recovered if someone dedicated enough climbed up it.
The wind picked up again and started to blow him away from the mountain on a trajectory that was angled away from the flight path of the plane. The search and rescue area would need to be widened to find him. He floated for several minutes and when he was above the treetops, he cut his chair away causing it to crash to the forest floor below leaving him attached to the parachute. His chute got caught in tree branches ten feet above the ground causing him to dangle. He cut the chute with the knife in his gear and braced for impact with the ground. He landed with a hard thud and was sore from it, but there was no sharp pain, so he didn't break anything which was good. He sheathed the knife and started to remove the seat webbing leaving him in just his flight suit. But something didn't feel right.
No, it wasn't the environment, per se, but it was him. He felt… shorter for some reason. Shrugging it off for now, he started to walk to where his chair would have fallen. It didn't take long since it would have been twenty-five yards away. He started to go through the SERE kit in the backpack attached to the rear of the seat. Inside he found five MRE meals – one per day if he rationed it out – along with a canteen of clean water, an FN Five-seveN with two magazines – one of which already being in the firearm – and an FN P90 with three, fifty round magazines.
'Makes sense to have something compact and shares the same munitions,' Rico thought. 'Almost two hundred rounds to work with.'
Lastly, there was one of those space blankets – great for signaling rescue or keeping warm – and lots of paracord on top of a Firestarter. Combined with his K-BAR knife he could start a fire to keep warm or signal others to his position, depending on what he needed. Packed inside was also a hardened radio, but this one was useless, the batteries inside had exploded when it refused to turn on. Someone was losing their job in requisitions when he reported this.
'Or maybe it had been that lightning?' Rico thought. While certain powers that be may cut some corners to save money, emergency gear is usually not one of those corners. Especially when they cost so little to replace.
Using a map was useless. There was no 'Snowpoint City' that existed anywhere. Ok, maybe there was one that existed under translation, but not literally. After all, at least from his limited experience with other languages, such as Japanese, for example, the name Yuki meant 'snow.' Well, at least as far as he knew. After all, languages sometimes have multiple definitions of a word depending on the context of the sentence structure. Even turns of phrases could provide a different meaning. He shook his head and remembered the sight on the horizon as he looked out from his craft. From the in-flight compass, the nearest settlement was due south-southwest of his position before he had to eject. Correcting for distance traveled it was probably closer to due south now. Taking up his survival compass he gathered his bearings and shouldered the backpack and slung the P90 over his shoulders so it was ready at any moment and started walking towards what appeared to be civilization.
As he did, he had more time to think. The P90 and Five-seveN looked comically large in his hands and it felt like it took longer to walk a few miles than normal. While he wasn't the absolute peak of weight lifting perfection, he still had good cardio mainly due to needing to be ready for a situation like he was currently in. The snowy terrain also was starting to get at him, mainly the cold. The flight suit he was wearing may be good for high-G turns but insulated for winter weather it was not.
He heard a twig snap and his head immediately turned to it; weapon raised in low-ready. After all, he didn't want to ice some rescue worker trying to save his ass.
"Who's there?" he called out. He felt skeeved out and his finger hovered around the trigger yet still not on it. "Anybody out there?" He approached slowly, gun at the ready. When he arrived at where the twig snap had happened there was nothing there. "Must have been a wild animal," he muttered. As he turned around to continue on the same heading he had been before, he heard a 'hoot' in the tree above him. He immediately snapped his gaze upwards to see, "A Noctowl?" he asked aloud.
He was confused. Mostly because what was a Pokémon doing here? The last game he recalled even playing was one of the Ruby or Sapphire games (he didn't remember which one exactly) back when he was a kid on his old Gameboy Advance. He didn't really remember a place in Hoenn that was mountainous and had lots of snow. There was a volcano, but no snow. Then again it had been almost twenty years since he played those games, he could be misremembering the entire region since he had been only seven or eight at the time. But he did play the shit out of Yellow and Silver when they were out since he had gotten them second-hand from a Gamestop for birthday presents. He sort of fell off the Pokémon train when the new games came out on the new system and pocket money for a sub-ten-year-old became scarce. But he certainly remembered the old games, and Noctowl was from Gold/Silver's era of games.
As he tried to take a step forward to examine the apparent owl Pokémon, he tripped on an exposed root and fell down. His helmet fell off and as he reached out to pick it back up, he saw his reflection and in a reactive manner sidled away from it. In the reflection was him, but a much younger him. A teenage him. That explained things; why the guns he had looked so massive in his hands; after all, they were made for adult hands. Why he appeared to be more winded than he'd normally be. Why he sort of felt out of shape. It was because he was in the body of a thirteen-year-old him.
"What the fuck?" he muttered in shock and horror. "How…?" It suddenly hit him, the llama thing in the void right before he felt like he had been electrocuted. "Was…?" he asked in horror as he examined his hands. "What the fuck is going on!?" his voice echoed through the trees.
To be continued…?
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And there we go, well at least for the concept of this idea being proposed. I know it wasn't much in the grand scheme of things but I wanted the idea to at least exist out there. I didn't mention this before, but the timeframe that I was at least planning this concept around was the Diamond/Pearl game/anime timeline/frame. Part of this is because I am slowly playing my way through the remakes of Diamond and Pearl (despite not many changes being made outside of style of the overworld). The de-aging part of this idea was inspired from many others that have followed this isekai model of story (which isn't bad, please don't misinterpret my words here), but recently one called "The Natural" by lightningwarrior215 (id: 13618519) I can claim as a reference as said recent inspiration for the concept. It's a good story and I recommend checking it out. Now on to the challenges for this story.
One of the primary challenges will be deciding how I wish to carry this story out. There are so many ideas out there like the aforementioned stories above ("The Natural" and "Bourne of Caution") that slightly follow the established canon of the games/manga/anime but do their own thing. This will truly be the most difficult aspect as I do want a concept like this to stand on its own rather than purely rely on the manga or game for the plot. Sure, the game's backbone events will still be there since I think Plasma's whole plot is an interesting one to play around with, especially with our isekai protagonist here and Arceus. The second challenge is that in the beginning here I stated that I was undecided for any potential pairings, well the main challenge to that is obvious: we have a grown man back inside his hormonal teenage body. I would be remiss if I didn't state that there would be a creepiness factor if he were to get into a relationship with Dawn or one of the other female characters, doubly so if they are adult age since he's a teen (so Cynthia could very much be taboo in her eyes towards him). The inner conflict may be enjoyable to explore but as previously mentioned I have no plans for this concept for any pairings.
Those are the two major challenges for this concept. There are a few minor challenges such as a Pokémon team selection and if the protagonist will try to "catch 'em all" as the iconic line goes, or be hyper selective. Another is how "real" do I want to make this. The best example for this is the previously mentioned "Bourne of Caution" where the world there is very real and mirrors our own quite well, but with a Pokémon flair. Being a trainer is very expensive in his rendition of the Pokémon world (and I certainly like it). I could have included this above, but one of the other challenges is establishing what kind of trainer our isekai protagonist will be. Aggressive? Cautious? Tactician? Guns blazing? The growth will certainly be a challenge.
But with that being said, real life update. Got something new that I'll eventually review over on my Odysee channel (channel ID in my FFN profile if you're interested in non-FFN related things) that has tritium in it to glow in the dark. Ought to be fun. Though I have to finish at least 4 other review videos first before I tackle the new one I got. Yes, they'll eventually be up there. A little bit of life news, I am moving soon. Won't be out of the state or country but to a potentially new area due to my roommate getting married and moving out. No idea why he wants to move in with his fiancé (my future SIL) close to 6 months before the wedding especially since they won't be boning until the wedding night. Unless… But anyway, here's hoping my new home won't require my new purchase to be in my pocket whenever I go out at night. One last bit of personal news. I finally got the results for an interview and they decided to not choose me. I'll be honest, I'm a bit bummed at it. But some better news is that the same people have another position opening up as a supervisor which I'm a top contender for so I'm both hyped and a bit nervous about it at the same time. Fingers crossed.
As for new stories, I have a Cyberpunk 2077/Azur Lane idea in the works. You might be wondering how the hell that will work, but someone's managed to make a couple of Ace Combat and Halo ideas with Azur Lane, so it is certainly possible. I still have a couple of independent ideas, one softly inspired by other media such as the soon to be releasing Isekai Ojisan (a great, under discovered manga and soon-to-be anime). I've also got a couple of other ideas but those are still in the air for now. But that's all I have for you guys this time around. If you want to throw me some tips anonymously, I got some addresses in my profile to drop them in. Otherwise I will see you in whatever I decide to do next.