Ray woke up with a gasp. His hands were tied to the armrests of the wooden chair he was sitting on. His legs were bound to the two front chair legs. He was in a large cube-shaped room, with sides made of gray stone and a single lantern hanging on the ceiling. There wasn't any door, any window... no sign of some sort of way in and out of the room. Ray was thankful that at least his Carvanha's pokeball was clipped to his belt.

'Hello,' A high-pitched voice said inside Ray's mind. Ray twisted his neck around furiously to find out where the voice had come from. To his left, a Mismagius floated through the stone, a wide grin on its face. The lantern swayed slightly, casting eerie shadows of the Ghost pokemon on the walls and floor.

"What do you want from me!" Ray yelled, struggling against his bonds.

'You are a shifter. It is obvious what we want from you.'

"No it isn't! What even is a shifter!"

'A shifter is someone originally born on this planet with the ability to survive in the Ultra Planet's atmosphere.'

Ray laughed. "What? How?"

'It is from a recessive and rare gene. Shifters react strangely to the presence of Ultra Wormholes near them. For example, you teleported from an area near Littleroot Town in Hoenn... to Castelia City in Unova.'

"What in the name of... Castelia City? The largest city in the world? I don't understand..."

'Do not worry about your well being. You are currently under the protection of Ratem himself.'

Ray stopped jerking around, and sat still. "Ratem? Who? And how long has it been?"

'So many questions. Well, it's fine. You've been out cold for around ten days, because of your unhealthy interaction with the Ultra Wormhole. We've been studying your body in that time. For example, we've found out you don't actually need to breath.'

Ray raised an eyebrow, then remembered he was inside a room without air ventilation. "So what do you want with me?"

The Mismagius floated closer to Ray. 'Sightings of invaders from the Ultra Planet are coming in more and more often, all around the world. We can only assume that Necrozma is preparing to destroy our world. Or something. Shifters like you who can survive on their planet are necessary for fighting against them.'

"I feel insane for believing that... but what do you want me to start doing now?"

'Ratem will make you his apprentice and train you to become a powerful trainer. we need you to become strong to fight Necrozma, after all.'

Ray frowned in thought. "Are there other Shifters?"

'Yes. Ratem is collecting them. They are all his apprentices.'

"So who is this Ratem?"

'You actually don't know? He's a famous member of the elite four. Oh wait, I understand. The public knows him as Blue. His real name is actually Ratem.'

Ray glanced at the Mismagius incredulously. "Well."

"Are you sure you're 13?!" I yelled to my opponent on the other side of the field. He was smirking.

"Yes! Of course!" The boy sneered.

I peed my pants even more. It wasn't like I could just call off the match though. I had already accepted the conditions.

I looked at my starter, who still had that blank face. "Well... evasive action!" I commanded. Evasive action was basically staying on the defensive, using Growl a lot and occasionally throwing in an attack if possible. It seemed like the best strategy to use against a fully evolved mega pokemon.

The pudgy faced boy reddened. "Aren't you going to give up?"

I raised an eyebrow. "I thought you would rather crush my pokemon than let me give up?"

The boy reddened even more, until his face looked like a flabby tomato. "I'm actually a nice person! I'll let you give up!"

I knew something was off about this kid. "Monotone! Moves #2 and #3! Switch to offensive!" I had switched out Helping Hand for Fury Attack, a move my Poipole had been able to learn earlier in the route.

The boy gulped, and I wasn't sure why. My starter zipped through the air and started using Fury Attack. The opposing Mega Metagross just floated there, but as Monotone drew near, the pokemon dodged to the left at lightning speed.

The boy grinned. "Yes! YES! Now, Bullet Punch!"

The Mega Metagross did not such thing. Instead, it reverted back to normal Metagross form, and it feel asleep on the ground.

My jaw dropped. It took me a few seconds to realize what was going on, as my Poipole simply stared at its opponent.

"It doesn't listen to you!"

The pudgy boy started crying. "It's a pokemon my parents gave me! I thought it would make me powerful, but it doesn't listen to me..."

I smiled. "That's why you raise the pokemon yourself, idiot. Now, since you've given up, you're gonna have to pay up."

The boy started crying even more. "F-Fine. *sniffle*. Let's go." We returned our pokemon after I thanked Monotone for doing a good job. He hadn't responded to that.

I waited for the boy to take the lead, as I wasn't sure how to get back to lobby. He walked slowly, rubbing his eyes the whole way. I followed him, and we reached the lobby. To be honest, I didn't like the concept of someone licking my feet, but I did want to teach the stuck-up brat a lesson.

He licked my right shoe for a few seconds second in the middle of the lobby room, then ran away crying.

"Did you win a battle?" A strong voice asked from behind me.

I turned around and saw Tyson. He was holding in his left hand a shot glass with water in it. He followed my gaze. "They ran out of plastic cups, and I was really thirsty, so I went to the bar to find something. Man, I wish I could unsee of the stuff going on in there..."

I smiled. "To answer your question, yes, I won a battle... kind of."

Tyson laughed. "It's funny how you're always unlucky. You just made one of the sons of the Petalburg city gym leader quite unhappy."

I raised an eyebrow. "That kid was..."

Tyson nodded. "Well, we aren't challenging the gym, so it's fine, I guess. But no matter what the case is, make it a point to avoid rich snobs at all costs."

I frowned. "It's not like I'm the one who picked the fight."

Tyson smirked and patted my back. "And you should probably change your underwear and pants.."

I looked down and reddened. I realized everyone in the lobby had been looking at me and laughing, and I quickly ran up the stairs to get changed.

The next morning, our group of four set out along with our six total pokemon and with whatever supplies we still had with us. Little did we know at the time that there were four other humans following us, yet all for different reasons.

As we entered the route, I felt the grass, and smiled. "Ah. Back to this lovely route."

"Humans, I want to that you for doing this much for me. It really means a lot to me."

"Humans only? What about pokemon?" Gastonio cackled, floating in and out of everyone's shadow.

"Bloodless spectre! You dare to imagine I would ever praise you!"

"Trainer, Grime out control again."

I sighed. As usual, it were my pokemon that were causing the ruckus. "Monotone, you really need to work on your grammar."

"Trainer, I speak like this only to trigger all you. Heh heh."

I stopped dead in my tracks. "You little rascal... I thought you would at least be calm and composed!"

"Not I intend to stop. I continue this type speech as long I live."

"Yep. Of course."

We continued onwards, and it actually wasn't that hard to speed through the route. After all, with the cloud cover, the absence of a need to worry about our pokemon (which were strong enough to one hit faint most wild pokemon), and a noble purpose in mind (well, at least in my mind; most of the people in the group had only agreed because it would be good training), our energy and spirits were higher than ever.

It only took around four-ish hours to start seeing the increase in wild Poochyena.

"Wow. We covered so much terrain... it took Arice and I, like, three days to cover this much distance..."

"It would've taken Abby and I only around a day to cover this much distance. I guess we had it easier? You must've had to take a harder pathway; we walked on a completely different one," Kyra said. Apparently she had nicknamed her starter 'Abby'.

"So what should we be doing?" Tyson asked as Gastonio narrowly dodged a surprise Bite from a wild Poochyena.

I shrugged. "I guess we have to find the Mightyena, fainting whatever pokemon stands in our way. Oh crap... that means walking through the tall grass..."

"Why didn't anyone think of that before?" Gastonio said.

"Shut it, gaseous creep! And everyone, don't worry. My sense of smell can detect any pokemon in a wide radius around me."

Tyson rubbed the back of his neck. "Putting my trust into someone else isn't something I can really do..."

I tried to think of something that would work out, considering what Tyson said. Then an idea popped in my head. "Yes! How about we bait the Mightyena!"

Kyra glanced at me sideways. "And how exactly do we do that?"

"We take out cup noodles everywhere we go. As we keep fainting the wild Poochyena who come for it, their leader will eventually arrive."

"Sounds like a plan!" Arice said cheerfully.

And that's what we went with.

Kendra was following the group of four kids, and behind the tall grass, she observed them opening a lot of cup noodles. The reason she was following them was because of that boy with the Poipole who had paled whenever Buzzing Pond was mentioned. She had assumed he had found her Garchomp's fang and stolen it. However, she didn't want to seem like she didn't trust him, in case she was wrong, so she was going to find out covertly.

But she hadn't thought through how. As she was shuffling in the grass to get a good look at the boy, she touched something moist, squishy, and hot. It was a pudgy boy, but his features were hard to make out in the grass.

Kendra stifled a scream as the boy noticed her and reddened. "Who are you?!" Kendra whispered.

"The real questions is who are you!" The boy whispered back.

"I'm following these kids for personal reasons! And you?"

"Well... same! Ok!"

The two settled into quiet, and after a few seconds, the boy silently shifted in the grass to increase the distance between himself and Kendra.

Wait... wasn't that a son of the gym leader? Kendra shrugged, and continued investigating the group, who were now trying to stop a battle between the Poipole and a Poochyena.

Reek was following Kendra in order to get back his pokemon. He was wearing one of his many white coats, and had brought with him a laser gun; one of the high-tech weapons from the Ultra Planet only the government workers could legally possess. Reek was one such worker.

What is that girl doing, spying on someone? I have to take a look.

Reek got closer, and found the four children from earlier... including the boy with the Poipole. Reek salivated. They are all in one place! I just have to shoot down the humans, nab the pokemon I need, and go back home!

But Reek heard something else in the grass, too big to be a pokemon from this area. Reek quietly moved around the grass to get closer, and made out a large black shirt. Another human. It seemed like an overly wide boy in his early teens.

Reek thought about shooting the boy, but if he did, it would cause a large commotion, as the laser gun made a loud noise when emitting each shot. So instead, he decided to shot the four in the main group in quick succession, then immediately shoot the girl with the powerful pokemon. The wide boy would only be attacked if he interfered.

Nodding, Reek spent a dozen more minutes silently getting into place. The group of kids were fighting off a few wild Poochyena. That was distracting them and their pokemon. Good.

Reek aimed his laser gun at the boy with the Poipole. It was a three foot long beauty, with a shiny black exterior and an aiming scope. The only way to charge it was by presenting the gun before Necrozma, and grovelling before the legendary for a refill. The gun could hold a million shots, however, so it wasn't often that refills had to happen.

"And fire!" Reek said, his finger closing in on the trigger. However, a large, sturdy hand appeared from the tall grass Reek was hiding in and smacked the gun out of Reek's hands.

Reek stared in shock at his gun as it emitted a laser at the ground with a loud *Bang*. Reek was then lifted by the collar and thrown on the pathway in front of him. Out came the man who had foiled Reek's plans.

Norman, the gym leader of Petalburg City. "I try to find out what my son is doing in his free time, and instead I find some sort of sci-fi creepo murderer."

Chapter 10 MC/age/pokemon changes:

Blue's real name revealed to be 'Ratem'.

Kyra's Abra revealed to be nicknamed 'Abby'.