"Huh? You're kidding me, right? You're saying it's possible to jump between worlds?"

The young man leaned back in the brown leather chair, head resting on his fist and pupils trained on the strange-looking girl in front of him. He was puzzled, his eyebrows knitted tightly behind the triangular sunglasses that obscured part of his face. The bright reds and crushing blacks of his outfit clashed strongly with the clean, smooth and relatively monochrome room around him. Computers and screens are collected along the walls of the place, displaying all manner of indecipherable data.

"Anything's possible when you're as powerful as me," chuckled the girl, whipping back her sparkling blonde hair and smiling proudly.

Unlike the man's tense position in his chair, she was sprawled out, laying down horizontally across her own chair and its armrests. She quickly reached out to the table sitting between them, closing her tiny fingers around a tea cup. She then recklessly dumped the contents of the cup into her mouth in a way that would seem to almost guarantee a massive spill, yet not a single drop escaped her. The cup on the young man's side remained untouched.

"I'll go ahead and start from the beginning," The girl says, spinning herself upright. "Alter Weyland, you have been chosen by the benevolent Jump-chan for a purpose beyond your silly little mortal comprehension." She began to crawl onto the table toward Alter in a playful manner, finally stopping with her finger pointing directly in his face.

"You've been chosen to entertain me!" she says excitedly.

"Entertain you? The hell?" Alter slapped Jump-chan's hand away, crossed his arms, and brought his face close to hers. "I'm not some kinda clown."

"Some people who look at you would beg to differ!" She said matter-of-factly, hands pressed together and smiling happily.

"Are you tryin' to piss me off? Don't think I won't beat the shit outta you just because you're a kid," Alter said, slamming his fist into the table and spilling his now cold tea.

"Ooh, now that's some fire! You should take those feelings and direct them towards your next world! It'll be way more fun that way." Jump-chan said, unable to hide the extreme pleasure she was taking in pushing Alter's buttons.

Alter felt like he was going in circles. Where most people would be apologizing by now, this girl was pointing and laughing. The worst part was, he thought, he knew he couldn't do anything about it. He decided instead to try and calm down. More than this brat needed to be taught a lesson, he needed to get a grasp on his situation. He had suddenly blinked from his couch to this unusual new place. It was completely different from the teleporters he was used to. In any case, he didn't even walk into a teleporting chamber. He had just been transported, seemingly on a whim. If the girl could do all that, maybe she was actually being serious about all this, Alter thought. He couldn't deny that the idea intrigued him. He didn't have anything going for him back in the old world. Day in and day out, nothing but work, marching slowly towards oblivion. In order to lose something for going through with this, he needed to have something to lose first.

Alter sighed deeply and relaxed his sitting position. "Fine, I'll bite. What's the deal with this whole 'jumping' thing?"

Upon hearing this, the nebulous pattern within Jump-chan's eyes twinkled even brighter. "Finally, you're starting to say things that make sense! Sit back, and I'll explain everything."

Jump-chan reached somewhere and pulled down a projector screen and then produced a long pointing baton from behind her back. Alter could not figure out where she was keeping either. A surprisingly high-quality presentation, complete with supplementary art, appeared on the screen. Jump-chan began to point as she spoke.

"Basically, sometimes, extradimensional beings like me get bored and try to shake things up a little bit. So we take random interesting people from their worlds and put them in other ones, just to see what happens!"

"So, gods are fucking around with mortal lives for fun. Great."

"Hey, just be happy I'm the one who chose you! Not all of them are as nice and pretty as me, you know."

"If you're one of the better ones, I'm scared for reality's future."

"Shush! I'm getting to the important part!"

The presentation changed to an explanation, mentioning 'perks', 'choice points' and other terms Alter didn't understand.

"I think it's pretty boring to send people to places with nothing but the clothes on their back and expect them to win, which is why I devised this genius little system." Jump-chain pointed to one of the sections on the presentation. "Introducing… Choice Points! Choice points, or CP for short, are things you can spend on abilities and equipment to give you a little boost during your jump." Jump-chan assumed an exaggerated shrugging pose.

"You might be wondering, 'how do I get these fancy points?' and I'd be glad you asked!" The presentation clicked to the next slide.

"Basically, before every jump, you'll get 1000 points to spend on whatever you want. Well, I say 'whatever you want,' but you gotta choose from some specific options. After you choose, you're all ready to start the next 10 years of your life in another world. Finally, I'm sure you're wondering what happens when your time is done. From there, you have choices. You can either go home, choose to live in that world forever, or continue the adventure in another world! The best part is, if you choose the first or the last option, you get to keep all the abilities and items you got from that world!" With a little flourish, Jump-chan pulled the string on the projector screen and sent it back to where it came from, wherever that was.

"Well, whaddya think?"

For a moment, Alter only stood there. On one hand, he could hardly believe what he just heard. On the other, he felt it could be his chance to finally break out of his old life. Deep down, he knew what he wanted. After a few moments of personal deliberation, Alter spoke up.

"I'll do it."

Jump-chan's eyes lit up yet again. "Yay! I knew you'd say yes! Here, take this tablet!"

Jump-chan suddenly threw a tablet in his general direction, which he barely caught. He tapped the screen, and on it was what looked like the title screen of a game.

"Po-ké-mon?" Alter said, trying to sound out the unfamiliar word he had just seen.

"Yeah, Pokémon! It's a fun little game series about making friends with monsters and becoming the best trainer around! It's an easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy world for a newbie like you!"

The implications of what she just said kind of annoyed him, but Alter ultimately decided not to say anything. He wouldn't complain about not being actively sabotaged. As Alter tapped through, a number of options greeted him. After making his choices, he handed the tablet back to Jump-chan.

"Great, looks like you're all done. You ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be, I guess." Alter crossed his arms.

"That's the spirit!"

"By the way, what happens if I die in the other world?"

"You'll die, just like normal, silly! This is real life, after all. But enough chit-chat. Off you go!"

"Wait–"

Before Alter could say another word, Jump-chan snapped, and his view of her 'office' disappeared in an instant.

Alter felt the wind blowing through his hair as he pedaled down the route to Violet City, which was quickly approaching.

"That bitch. I'm definitely teaching her a lesson when I get back." Alter said to himself, face set in a scowl. However, underneath that scowl was apparently some level of excitement, as it began to slowly turn into a grin. "Still, I can't be all mad. There's a whole world in front of me, and ten whole years of adventure to be had."

Alter squeezed down on the brakes of his bike. He finally made it. The place where he'd challenge his first gym leader. Violet City.