This story takes place after Danganronpa: Fictional Nexus, but there will be no spoilers in the first few chapters of this story. Also be sure to check back with this story when Fictional Nexus ends, as well as Fictional Epicenter.

Third-Person POV

West City, Alternate Timeline in the world of Dragon Ball. (Future Trunks's timeline to be specific)

"Ack…"

A young man in a red knit cap awakens, rubbing his head as he stands back up. He looks around and finds himself in a dilapidated apartment complex, piles of rubble scattered around him in the lobby.

"Ugh, darn it. My clothes have gotten messy, I need to find a shower right away!"

This was Ruby. Pokédex holder of the Hoenn region and Pokémon contest extraordinaire, earning the name of "The Charmer". He checked his pockets and found six red and white Pokéballs on his belt, breathing a sigh of relief that his team was okay.

"Now that I know you all are alright, I should go out and look for information on where I am." He says to his Pokémon and smiles.

He begins to walk out into the city, but he stops when he hears a noise from behind him.

"Nana!" Ruby lets out his Mightyena and she sniffs around for the source of the noise.

Nana growls at something in the corner and ushers Ruby to come closer.

"Ah…ah…." A figure shrouded in shadow lets out.

"It's a girl? If so, what are you so worried about Nana? It's just a scared—"

Ruby is interrupted when he sees the girl looking up. Red eyes, rotting patchwork-like skin, with white floofy hair and two small ponytails at the back of it. She was a zombie.

"AHHHHHHHH!" Ruby screamed and the zombie girl did as well, "W-W-W-What are you?! D-Don't come any closer or I'll have Nana use Take Down!"

"P-Please don't! I'm not your enemy, so calm down!" She tells him.

She was Junko Konno. Legendary Showa Idol and current member of the Saga Prefecture's (zombie) idol group, Franchouchou. Junko raised her hands in front of herself as she tried to reason with the Pokémon trainer.

"Hm… why should I believe you? You could be the one that brought me here, maybe to eat me…" Ruby lowered his eyebrows as he stared at her.

"E-Eat you?! Of course not! I just woke up here as well and I heard you talking to those balls. And what even is that thing, is it a wolf? Or…"

"Rrrrgh…" Nana grits her teeth.

"Eep!" Junko lets out.

"Wait, you don't know what a Pokémon is?" Ruby asked her.

"A Poké… what?" Junko gives a confused look at him.

Ruby thinks for a moment before turning to Nana, "Stand down, she's not any trouble to us."

Nana looks at Junko for a second before stepping towards her.

"Wh-What do you want? I'm not particularly tasty…" A fearful Junko closes her eyes as Nana sniffs her.

And then she nuzzles her cheek.

"Huh?"

"Well now, I guess you really aren't that bad after all. You may call me Ruby." Ruby holds his hand out to her.

"Um… Junko." She introduces herself while grabbing his hand, pulling herself up and shaking it.

"Okay then Junko, it looks like we're both lost here, so maybe it would be good for us to stick together for a while." Ruby recalls Nana back into her ball.

"I guess… but I don't think it's wise for me to go out while looking like this. I would need some makeup or—" Junko says, worried.

"Ask for makeup and you shall receive it!" Ruby exclaims as he takes out his makeup kit from his backpack.

"Huh?! Huh?!" Junko fidgets as Ruby begins to give her a quick makeover.

"Hey, do you have a preferred eye color for contacts?"

"Uh… light blue?"

Ruby carefully inserts the contacts into her eyes and the end result is stunning. Her skin looks normal with added blush and her eyes were like a sky to match her cloud-like hair.

"Looking beautiful!" He holds a small mirror up to her as his eyes sparkle.

"Amazing…thank you!" Junko observes her look all over.

Ruby packs away the makeup kit and once again walks towards the open door, "Alright, now let's get going."

"Right." Junko nodded as the two of them exited the destroyed apartment.

Their mouths were agape as they stepped out into a city in flames, with screams ringing out from all over. Buildings were wrecked as smoke went upwards into the bright orange evening sky.

"What is happening here?" Junko looked around at the destruction.

"It looks like this city is under attack, but by what?" Ruby then notices something stirring in the garbage can next to them.

A half-white, half-black bear with a side smile and glowing red eye popped its head out of the can and waddled towards them.

"Um… is this a Pokémon as well?" Junko turns to Ruby for an answer.

"If it is, it's not one I've ever seen. But it doesn't seem like it is…" Ruby tries to approach the bear, but then…

SNIKT!

Insert Song: It's a Monokuma World (Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls)

"Agh!" Its claws come out and leave a slight cut on Ruby's arm.

"Ruby!" Junko panics.

The Charmer jumps back and holds out another Pokéball with two hands.

Ruby begins to introduce this Pokémon to Junko's confusion,"Regardless of the effects of time, the smartness that this body encompasses never changes. Hopping between rain, sun, and snow with Forecast, this is the Pokémon Castform—Fofo!"

Fofo is released from her ball and rams straight into the bear's pudgy stomach. The bear stands back up and slashes at the Weather Pokémon, but she just keeps dodging.

"Sunny Day, then Weather Ball!" Ruby commands.

"What is happening? It's beginning to get more humid!" Junko begins to sweat as Fofo transforms into her Sunny Form.

Fofo then shoots a large fireball into the bear's belly button, blowing it up into metal pieces.

"A robot bear?" Junko looks on, puzzled and scared at the same time.

A robotic laughter then echoed through the alleyway as five more of those bears began to run at them.

"And it looks like he had friends, we better run!"

The two of them made their way to the main streets of the city, water spouting out after a fire hydrant was destroyed. There are more black and white bears tearing apart the area, so they decided to head west.

Eventually they found a bus stop where they could catch their breath for a short time.

"This is all happening so fast… I have so many questions about this." Junko pants and brushes her hair out of her face.

"Same here, but it looks like we'll keep on getting more questions rather than answers anytime soon. At least we have time to breathe…" Ruby sighs.

Junko then begins to shake with fear as she points something out to her companion. There are countless bodies streamed across the sidewalk with puddles of blood flowing into almost a river.

"Oh my goodness… I'm going to die again… we're gonna die here to those bears…" Junko then starts to tear up.

"No, we can't just let that happen. We have to find a way to get out of here, giving up is not an option unless you want to die. You want to live, don't you?" Ruby asks her.

Junko, choked up, nods slowly, "I… I do. I need to live and find my friends..."

"Alright, how about we go looking for them then? I have my own friends to worry about as well, so we might as well go searching for all of them. How about it?" Ruby suggests.

Junko hesitates for a bit, still a bit reluctant to trust the stranger who almost had his pet hyena attack her. Although she thought back to the way he protected them from the first bear they encountered. She looks at Ruby, who gives her a reassuring smile and holds his hand out towards her.

Junko takes a deep breath, and prepares to grab it until…

"Eh…"

"Hm?" The two of them wonder what made that noise and then see a body getting up from the ground.

"B-Bodies aren't supposed to move after they're dead!" Junko clutches Ruby's arm tight in fear.

"A bit hypocritical coming from you, but still I agree!" The two of them panic as the body is finally on its feet.

"(yawns) Wha… What happened? Last thing I remember was seeing dead bodies and… oh dear Goddess, they're still there."

"Huh?" Ruby and Junko blankly stare at the sleepy green-haired young man until he notices them.

"Can I help you two?" He asks them, holding a book under his arm while rubbing his eyes.

Linhardt von Hevring was his name. Student of the Officers Academy at Garreg Mach Monastery in Fódlan, the main healer of the Black Eagle House. Lin just squinted at them, then finally decided to say something.

"Hm… have we met before?" Linhardt asks Junko.

"Um… not to my knowledge no." She answers.

"Strange, it feels like we met somewhere, almost like in another life. Oh well, do you two know where we are right now?" He poses another question.

"I… uh, no we don't. We just kind of woke up in this city before getting attacked." Ruby answers this time.

Linhardt puts his fingers to his chins and nods, "By those weird bears, I assume?"

Ruby and Junko look at each other before nodding at him.

"The same thing happened to me too. My good nap was interrupted when those things woke me up. It was exhausting running from them, and when I saw all of these dead bodies around… I ended up fainting." Linhardt sighed.

"You must have been running pretty far then…" Junko responds to his story.

"Oh I fainted because of the blood, not because of the exhaustion. I just can't stand the sight of it… that's why I stay far away from the battlefield." Linhardt tells her nonchalantly.

"Oh, I see… Well, do you have any idea where to go?" Junko asks.

"Not really." Linhardt yawns again.

"So… Do you have a name?" Ruby asks.

"Linhardt, goodbye." And he just starts walking away.

"What?!" Junko and Ruby let out in response to his uncaring attitude.

"Hold on! We're about to head out to look for a way to escape, as well as seeing if our friends are around here. You should come with us!" Ruby explains.

"I'd much rather stay far away from any trouble and I wouldn't want to place my life in the hands of strangers, especially ones that dress like you. What is even on your head?" Linhardt asks Ruby.

"F-For your information, this is a hat!" Ruby adjusts said hat a little.

"Hm." Linhardt grunts before Junko stops him.

"Please, traveling alone would surely put your life in more danger than if you weren't. Would it hurt too much to have company when trying to figure out where we are?"

"... You raise a good point…. But still, farewell." Linhardt walks away after thinking for a few seconds.

"H-Hey!" Ruby runs after him as Junko sighs.

"What a day this has been already…" She shakes her head before giving chase as well.

Unbeknownst to the three of them, someone was listening to their conversation from above. The figure decides to follow from the rooftops, although they were getting slightly annoyed at the constant back and forth with the young trio. Most of the banter consists of Linhardt wanting Junko and Ruby to leave him alone, while the other two are just trying to convince the aloof scholar to come with them.

The small group continue their trek through the burning city, observing the damage that has already been dealt to everything around them.

"Who could have done all of this?" Junko says as they walk through a torn down shopping district.

"From my experience, someone who has little care for the lives of innocents. Definitely a far from beautiful individual." Ruby shakes his head with disgust.

"Whoever it is, did they really have to drag us into it? I mean, with how none of us know where we are, I can assume that none of us are from around here. And there's also the factor of how we even got here in the first place!" Linhardt complains.

"Hm?" Junko spots a nearby toolbox and walks over to it.

"What is it?" Ruby asks her.

"Well, if we manage to run into more enemies, I wouldn't want to be a burden. I guess I'll bring this drill along for self-defense." Junko pulls out a battery-powered hand drill from the box.

Linhardt squinted, "I'm sorry, but I can't imagine something like that damaging those bears very much. Also, I would very much like to avoid a fight, thank you very much."

"Puhuhuhu~!"

A laugh comes out of the blue and out pops eight more of those robot bears from a sushi joint.

"It looks like there's no avoiding this fight, Linhardt." Ruby tells him as the trio is surrounded.

"Ech, battle." Linhardt groans.

Insert Song: Battle! Rival Music (Pokémon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire)

Ruby takes out another one of his Pokéballs, "Regardless of the effects of time, the toughness that this body encompasses never changes. Boiling with raging Torrent, this is the Pokémon Swampert—Mumu!"

Mumu comes out of the Pokéball, giving out a cry as Linhardt and Junko are astonished.

"What… is that?" Linhardt's eyes were wide awake now.

"A… Swampert, I think he called it. Ah! Behind you!" Junko warns Linhardt.

"(sighs) Wind…" Linhardt releases a blade of wind from his hands and it cuts the robot bear in half.

"Y-You know magic?!" Junko gasps.

"Yeah. What about it?" He responds, uninterested in what is currently going on.

"That's… incredible!" She compliments.

"Oh, behind you as well." Linhardt points out and Junko turns and sees a robot bear jump at her.

"AHHHHHH!" She yells out as before unconsciously activating the hand drill in her hand.

The drill pierces through the mechanical heart of the bear and it powers down.

"Huh, I stand corrected on it being useless." Linhardt states.

But before Junko could ask any questions on how that worked, "Muddy Water!" Ruby calls out and Mumu releases a wave of muddy water over the remaining four of the bears… as well as Junko and Linhardt.

"Ack! No no no no no! I'm sorry!" Ruby tells them.

"I-It's okay! I just need a change of clothes..." Junko reassures him.

"No! Not just that, your makeu—"

"That was certainly unpleasant, (spits out water from his mouth), huh? HUH?!" Linhardt turns to look at Junko's zombified patchwork face.

"My work has been ruined!" Ruby clutches his head as he yells.

"You can just put on more makeup later, it's alright!" Junko tries to calm him down.

"What in Sothis's name... are you?" Linhardt is just plain confused right now.

"I'm a... zombie, but we've got more important things to focus on! Look!" Junko spots another robot bear, but this one is much rounder, it's in the shape of a ball in fact!

It begins rolling down the side of the building and the trio barely manage to dodge the thing. It then circles back around and knocks into Mumu's gut.

"Mumu!" Ruby calls out to his Swampert.

The amphibian Pokémon regains his footing and looks to Ruby with confidence in his eyes.

"Is it alright?" Junko worryingly asks.

"He's a little hurt, but it looks like he still wants to keep going." Ruby explains.

"Oh I can take care of his wounds, hold on." Linhardt lifts his hand up and Mumu's wounds disappear in a blue light.

"Whoa… just like one of my seniors…" Ruby looks on with amazement.

Junko puts a hand on the spot where Mumu's bruises were as the Pokémon laughed like he was being tickled, "Oh my… they're completely gone!"

"The wounds are gone, but not our enemy unfortunately. It's coming back at us again, why did it just stand there and wait for us?" Linhardt questioned as the ball bear began rolling towards them.

"Who knows? You ready, Mumu? Hammer Arm!" Ruby commands him and he swings his arm right into the ball bear and sends it flying into a destroyed fountain.

"(sighs) Is it finally over?" Junko felt exhausted.

"It looks like it… ugh, this constant fighting is not what I had planned for my evening…" Ruby shakes his head as he wipes away the dirt and debris off of Mumu.

"Same here, I would have rather been in the monastery's library studying crests, going fishing, or what I enjoy the most, taking a nap in the perfect spot…" Linhardt yawned and stretched.

"I was just about to contact my… friend Sapphire to see if she wanted to go out anywhere. Preferably anywhere that I couldn't get dirty." Ruby looked downtrodden as he looked at his outfit.

"You two have quite the interesting lives… but it's strange. I don't seem to recall much of what I was doing before getting here." Junko ponders.

"Really now? Then I assume that you live a pretty mundane life as a living corpse?" Linhardt raises an eyebrow.

"Not really, I'm actually part of an idol group and—"

"YOU'RE AN IDOL?!" Ruby gasps as Linhardt covers his ears.

"Y-Yes I am." Junko states.

"No wonder you looked so stunning with the makeup I put on you! You were made for the spotlight! May you be so kind as to let me hear your singing?" Ruby clutches Junko's hands as a sweat drop rolls down her face.

"Oh brother…" Linhardt just goes to read in his book as Ruby keeps on asking a flustered Junko questions.

Mumu then walks over to Lin, curious as to what he's reading, "What do you want um, Mumu?"

The Swampert just kept on bothering the green-haired lad, to his annoyance. The camaraderie then came to a sudden end.

"ROOOOOOOOAAAARRRR!"

"Now what?" Linhardt gets back up and shuts his book closed to Mumu's sadness.

"No… I've heard this cry before…" Ruby grips his fist as he reaches for another ball and recalls Mumu.

"What is it…?" Junko looks at him with slight fear.

Ruby just took a deep breath in, "Regardless of—"

"Just take out your monster already." Linhardt rudely interrupts.

"Hmph! This is the Pokémon Gardevoir—Rara!"

Rara Calms her Mind as she senses what is coming.

"RRROOOAAARRR!"

"It's getting louder, which means it's…" Junko fidgets before being paralyzed to her spot as she sees it in the sky.

Insert Song: Tempest of Seasons (Rain) (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)

"Salamence… Rara, Shadow Ball!" Ruby grit his teeth as he commanded his Gardevoir.

Rara shoots out a Shadow Ball, but Salamence dodges and dives head first towards Ruby and Linhardt.

"Urk!" Linhardt utters as he is clipped in the arm by its wing while dodging.

"You alright?!" Ruby turns to the healer concerned.

"Does it look like I am? Ugh…" Linhardt stumbles to one knee.

"I gotta find an opening, Junko, can you find me one? Junko?" Ruby sees her continuing to look at the dragon-type with fear.

"Ah…ah…" The Showa Idol stuttered out as the Salamence began to swing its tail around, making her duck for cover.

"Junko!" Ruby calls out to her as Rara holds back the tail.

"What a pain this is… Nosferatu!" Linhardt absorbs energy from the Salamence to heal himself.

The battle with the beast took quite a while, as none of the attacks they tried seemed to affect it. It was then that Junko noticed something as another attack missed her.

"Its eyes…" Junko looked up at the Salamence and what she saw was certainly not normal.

Glowing red, with mesmerizing swirls circling around. This Salamence was not rampaging out of its own free will.

Upon realizing that, Junko joined up with the others, "It's being controlled by something! See its eyes?"

"You're right, the way it's attacking us isn't too barbaric, it's taking its time with us like some kind of game." Ruby furrowed his eyes, angered that someone would do such a thing.

"Does knowing that even help in this situation?" Linhardt stops to catch his breath.

"We just need to find a way to subdue it without harming it too badly. As scary as it is… I don't want it to die." Junko informs them.

Ruby nods in agreement, "Indeed, we just need a way to knock it out and keep it contained. Hm… let me see if I have such a thing… aha!" Ruby digs around in his bag until he finds… an Ultra Ball.

"Another one of those ball things? Planning on stuffing something of that size into something so small…" Linhardt questions.

"You'd be surprised at what these are capable of containing." Ruby snarked back, "This just needs to be thrown at a certain spot so that it can easily be captured. I could do it, but I think I'd be better off giving Rara commands to distract it."

Rara meanwhile was going unaffected by the many attacks Salamence threw at her because of her fairy typing. Unfortunately she did not have any fairy moves in her arsenal, so she was stuck playing defense.

"I'll do it, I don't think I'll be useful with anything else." Junko volunteered and Linhardt sighed in relief, "Running low on the usages for my spells, so you better make this one shot count."

"Right." Junko responded as she moved behind cover.

"Wind!" Linhardt fired another blade of wind to the left of the Salamence.

"Shadow Ball!" Ruby commands Rara and she attacks once more to the dragon's right.

Salamence writhed in pain, but then proceeded to shrug off the attacks. Both of its wings then clipped the two boys and Rara, knocking them into a pile of rubble.

"Oh no, I really need a new opening…" Junko keeps quiet as she hides her position.

It was at that moment when the dragon Pokémon decided to just flatten the young men via a Body Slam.

"No no no no no…" Linhardt mumbled as the Salamence got closer and closer…

And then…. The two of them opened their eyes to see something extraordinary.

Insert Song: Main Theme (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)

A man with a metal arm, holding up the body of the Salamence to prevent it from crushing them.

"You kids alright?" He asked them.

"I feel lightheaded, honestly." Linhardt told him.

"Well I can't fix that, what I can fix is this." He gripped his metal arm before using it to knock the Salamence back a few feet.

"Wow… this day is full of surprises…" Junko was in awe of the strength of the man from afar.

Ruby's eyes then widened, "Junko! You have a clear shot now, throw the ball!"

The Salamence got back on its feet and began to flap its wings. Junko took a deep breath in and focused on where she needed to aim. Gripping the Ultra Ball, she runs back into the battlefield as light is beginning to gather in the Salamence's mouth, preparing to fire a Hyper Beam.

"HAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Junko throws the ball…

It soars OVER Salamence's head before bouncing off a wall right back at her, "Ah." The Ultra Ball bounces off of her forehead and it continues to ricochet until it reaches the target area, right between the eyes.

The light is blinding as the Salamence is sucked in, and when everyone opens their eyes, the ball falls to the stone street below.

The metal-armed man starts to approach it, but Ruby stops him, "Wait!".

The ball begins to rock back and forth, the button glowing red as the four of them stood patiently.

*click*

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief right then, glad that the fight has finally come to an end.

"Ughhhhh I could sleep forever…." Linhardt fell backwards.

"Trust me, sleeping that long isn't really the best thing in the world." The older man told him.

"T-Thank you for showing up to help us, sir!" Junko bowed towards him respectfully.

"That was a great showing of toughness on your end, coolness as well with the way you entered the fray." Ruby complimented with a smile.

"You're uh, welcome. The name's Bucky."

Sergeant James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes, the former Winter Soldier. Freed from his HYDRA brainwashing and fresh off of a battle alongside his partner Sam Wilson aka Captain America, he finally managed to make amends with his past.

Bucky rubs the back of his head, still not used to people complimenting or thanking him, "I actually saw you three earlier, though with the magic and the pocket monsters, I thought I didn't need to step in for a while. Big dragon thing changed things though. Good on you for catching it uh… creepy girl?"

"J-Junko…" The "creepy girl" lowers her head sadly.

Ruby pats her on the back, "It's alright Junko, you shouldn't feel so bad about your looks. Besides, I'll be sure to put more makeup on you later, and even make you a new set of clothes too!"

"Thank you, Ruby…" She softly smiles.

"Anyways, we need to keep moving. Those Monokumas will probably discover all the damaged parts and stuff soon, and warn whoever's controlling them." Bucky walks ahead of them.

"Monokumas?" Junko asks.

"I punched a hole through a few of them and the names were inside. That's all I know, other than the fact that we need to figure out how to shut them all down. Can't let these things kill any more people." Bucky explains.

"Hold on, we also need to see if our friends are around here, as well as ways to get home." Ruby tells the sergeant.

Bucky shook his head at that, "Look kid, I think that it would be even more difficult with those bears running around. Let's kick their metal asses, then I'll consider helping you out."

"I see what you're getting at, but I think we'd be better suited if we had more of us here." Ruby gives his reasoning.

"Well, either way we have to keep moving. They'll catch up soon if we don't leave. Get up magic kid." Bucky walks over to Linhardt.

"Zzzzzzzz." The student snoozes away.

"Great, babysitting was not on my agenda." Bucky picks him up and carries him over his shoulder.

"It's been one of those days… Come on Junko. Junko?" Ruby turns to his new companion as she's picking up the Salamence ball.

"Hm…" She lets out as she looks at it in her hands.

"It's yours now, you caught it after all. You want to give it a nickname?" Ruby asks her.

"I'll… think about it. For now we should find a place to stay for the night, it is getting dark."

"Right. Good job with that throw by the way, even if it didn't turn out as expected."

"Ha ha… Thank you. Would you kindly teach me how to catch a Pokémon properly in the near future?"

"Sure, my schedule is pretty clean right now."

The two of them smile as Bucky ushered them to follow him. And so the first of our heroes have encountered each other, when shall we meet the remaining eight? Why can't Junko remember anything of what she was doing before ending up in the city? Why is the author writing this story when Fictional Nexus is nearly complete? I guess we'll see the answers next time, maybe?

TO BE CONTINUED WHEN DANGANRONPA: FICTIONAL NEXUS ENDS

This is just a quick test run because I needed a break from writing Fictional Nexus, but I also decided that this fic and Fictional Epicenter will be running at the same time when Nexus is over. Hope you're ready for plenty of battles and character interactions, since this story will have a lot of them. For now, see you when the first killing game is over