AN: Azakael drew up some awesome cover art for this story! It foreshadows some future events in this story…


Immediately the girl in the hoodie was on her feet, her eyes practically bulging out of her sockets as she stared down Dylan with a stunned, borderline frightened and somewhat frustrated look. Her feet pointed towards him, but her body was halfway turned away as if she was debating running the other direction. Dylan wasn't quite sure what to make of her either but wasn't nearly as on edge as she appeared to be.

"Explain. Now," the girl said softly but forcefully, pointing one hesitant finger at him.

"You just fell out of a wormhole too!" Dylan pointed out, motioning at her and her company. "That's not exactly a normal occurrence! I was gonna go see another world with my friends and then this happens, and now our Cosmog and the one holding it is nowhere to be found!"

The girl's countenance contorted for a second, going from hesitant to amusedly disbelieving. She gave a half-hearted chuckle, then something of an odd snicker, studying him as if unsure he was real before turning back and calling, "Raijin! Gemini! Do you guys know where-!" She paused, and her face fell instantly upon noticing her company laid out in a heap. "You guys…?"

She looked down at her own hands, glanced at her own body, and instantly became quite a lot more dismayed. She flexed her fingers, kicked at the ground with her feet, patted down her clothes, and ran her fingers through her hair before rushing over to the water's edge. Her mannerisms were certainly bizarre, and Dylan couldn't help but to eye her incredulously as she did it.

"Um…" his voice trailed off as he watched her. He looked back to her company. "Raijin and Gemini, she said…"

The Xurkitree appeared to be stirring some more, twitching a bit and flickering for just a moment before looking livelier. Quickly he was picking himself up too, glancing around at his surroundings, but on noticing Dylan and the boy sprawled in the dirt next to him, he twitched and backed away from them both, holding one arm up in front of himself. Dylan couldn't tell what such meant- perhaps it was defensive and uncertain, or perhaps it was cautionary, warning him to keep his distance. He wasn't planning to recklessly approach the Beast, that was for sure- the last time he'd seen a Xurkitree, it had been giving Ashton and Regulus, a legitimate legendary, a hard time in the World Championships.

The girl, however, shrieked the moment she saw her reflection in the water, dropping onto her knees and clutching fistfuls of dirt. "You have got to be kidding me," she croaked before letting loose a deluge of yelling. "WHAT DID YOU DO?!" she thundered, looking up at the sky. She looked back down for a second and slapped the surface of the water, then got back to her feet and went right back to yelling at the sky while shaking her fist. "NECROZMA! I know this was you, you low-down lying scumbag! Why am I a human again?! What did you DO?!"

At that, the Xurkitree turned to her, darting over while she let out a wild yell and dropped back into a kneeling position with her fists clenched.

Dylan blinked a few times, taking a few moments to process her words. "Necrozma?!" he said in disbelief. "Okay, hold on-!"

"What the heck is all the yelling?!" a familiar voice chimed in, Ashton picking herself up off the ground while rubbing her head slightly. She looked around a bit before hollering, "Where the heck is- oh my goodness!" Upon seeing the Ultra Beast, she too paused.

The Xurkitree knelt down next to the fussing one by the water, ever-so-gently touching her shoulders with his fingertips. A few metallic buzzing sounds escaped him that, after a second, became more coherent. "Astrid?" he asked, sounding static-laden and garbled, but at least understandable.

She perked right up. "R-Raijin!" she exclaimed, reaching up and grabbing his cables. "Are you okay?! You s-sound hurt…"

"I'm fine," he replied, sounding more coherent but still noticeably distorted. He sounded more like his usual self as he went on, however. "I'm trying to get the frequency right for a human. And if I didn't already know how you talked and vaguely remembered you drawing yourself after you came home, I never would've recognized you…"

She whimpered, shrinking up a bit before turning loose and darting over to the one still slumped in the sand. "Arashi!" she cried, crouching down and shaking him by the shoulders. "Arashi, is that you?! Tell me that's you!"

The one still lying in the dirt seemed perfectly content with his eyes closed and a grin on his face. "Stop right there, evil doer…~" he mumbled happily. "Not on our watch…~"

"Arashi!" Astrid hollered again.

At that, the boy's eyes shot open. "Astrid!" he shouted back but paused on seeing the face staring down at him with inquisitive eyes. "And what species might you be, huh~?" he inquired playfully, sitting up. He glanced around with a grin as he took note of his Beast comrade as well as the other three figures, not a care in the world. "Sheesh, Gemini must've dropped us in a colony of unknown Pokémon, aha! It's okay, Astrid, you can come out! I'll talk to 'em!"

At that, Ashton marched right up to them, saying rather directly, "Okay, if you're talking, I'm asking! What the heck is going on?! This sure as heck is not the other world we were supposed to be in if two other humans are here, and you've got an Ultra Beast with you, so you must've tampered with our wormhole! What's the big idea?!"

Arashi jumped up, giving Ashton funny look as he replied, "How did you know Astrid was a human, and who's the other one you're talking about, huh?!"

Ashton likewise gave him a funny look, shooting back, "Are you crazy?! I'm talking about you, moron!"

The one she addressed got an amused but concerned look, inquiring in turn, "Me?! Are you okay? Look, I'm no wormhole expert, but if you're using them, it sounds like you fell out of one and hit your head pretty hard!"

He reached out to place a hand on Ashton's shoulder, but when he did, he took his turn pausing too the moment he touched her at seeing his own limb. Ashton certainly wasn't amused, brushing his hand off and taking a step backwards while balling one fist up, and Dylan blinked, watching the whole thing unfold with a stunned expression. Fairly quickly, Arashi was doing the same odd maneuver hat Astrid had done, running over to the water's edge and hollering the moment he saw his reflection on the surface.

"Why do I look like this?!" he shouted, flailing around uncertainly. "Did I hit my head too hard?!"

"You and Astrid are in human bodies," Raijin noted haplessly.

"WHAT?!" Arashi cried, looking horrified as he cast his eyes up to the Xurkitree. "Why me?! I mean, Astrid kinda sorta makes sense, but why me?! That's not normal, is it?!"

"No," the Xurkitree easily affirmed. "Not in the slightest."

"Gemini!" Arashi cried, jumping up. "Did you do something?!" He looked to the girl in the hoodie. "And Astrid, is that you?!"

Astrid nodded, not looking too thrilled, and Raijin wordlessly retrieved the small pouch from his back, prying open the drawstring carefully while Astrid darted over to look. She was taken aback at what she saw, for it wasn't a little Cosmog- maybe it was Gemini, but Gemini resembled an orb of night sky inset in a golden shell with prongs like the sun's rays and a flat plate around him like the moon's visage, a tiny black core inside with what looked like closed orange eyes.

"Not good," Raijin noted flatly. "He's not gonna wake up for a while."

"You've gotta be kidding me," Astrid said faintly, going wide-eyed.

Dylan, though, had other ideas. "Okay, okay," he cut in, holding his hands up disarmingly. "Clearly none of us are where we're supposed to be, and we don't have a clue what's going on."

"Clearly," Ashton remarked, rolling her eyes and crossing her arms.

"You two mentioned wormholes," Raijin piped up, looking at Ashton and Dylan. "You aren't Ultra Space natives- I would know- and you aren't carrying a little nebula, so it begs the question of what exactly you were up to."

"That was a friend," Dylan answered. "She had a Cosmog with her and she was going to take us to visit a world she'd been on and see her friends there. Something went wrong, she's not here, and we're not where we're supposed to be either."

"And you guys sure are acting weird too," Ashton noted of their company, eyeing them. "The heck happened?" she asked, then eyeing Raijin, "And I'm kinda stunned that you talk and act chill considering how the last Xurkitree I saw was acting, to be honest."

Raijin studied her in turn. "Depending on where and when you saw them, I'm stunned you're alive at all, never mind alive, in good health, and talking about it like it was just another day."

Ashton shrugged, not thinking too much of it.

"Well, two of us aren't supposed to be humans," Arashi haplessly explained, motioning at himself and Astrid, who shrank up even more. "She's supposed to be a Decidueye and I'm really a Greninja. We were tackling this tough dungeon, we were about to clear it, one of its guardians got really heated, we had to have our Cosmog, Gemini, warp us out before things got really bad… and now we're here, like this."

"Wait, you guys are Pokémon?" Dylan asked in disbelief.

"Yes!" Arashi easily answered. He got rather spirited and gestured at his company in turn as he kept on. "I'm Arashi, my shy friend is Astrid, the Xurkitree is Raijin, and we carry Gemini around in that pouch Raijin's holding! Together we're Team Starstorm!"

"And Gemini is a Cosmoem now, not a Cosmog," Raijin noted simply, carefully closing up the pouch.

"Well, I'm Dylan and this is my friend Ashton," Dylan noted, motioning at his friend. "We're both natural humans and we've got Pokémon of our own, but without our friend and her Cosmog, we're pretty stuck too. You guys seem to know a thing or two about dimensional travel, so maybe we can help each other out."

"Over there, director! I hear voices over there!" a chipper voice called.

The five of them quickly shut up and whipped their heads towards where the voice was coming from. Just over the hill they could see two figures, one taller than the other and both human, just coming over the crest. Astrid panicked and turned to Raijin. "Crap, we can't let humans see us with an Ultra Beast! They'd totally freak out! Raijin, go… hid behind that tree over there!"

Raijin gave his best imitation of a shrug and stepped behind a nearby tree, holding up his limbs in such a way that the approaching humans wouldn't be able to see him. He hid just in time as well as the first of the two newcomers was sprinting their way down the path. She was a teenager with tan skin and orange eyes, her black hair pulled back in a ponytail with a prominent green bang that hung over her face. Her attire seemed to be that of a school of some sort, a white shirt with an orange tie and matching shorts, black leggings that went down to her red sneakers, which matched the trainer glove on her right arm.

"Buenas! We haven't met yet, have we?" the girl asked, her smile infectious and her inflection brimming with energy.

"…Dear Arceus, she's on the same wavelength as Arashi…" Astrid muttered.

"Nemona, please wait for me!" the other newcomer called. He was an older gentleman with white hair and glasses that framed his grey eyes, his suit consisting of a purple and orange blazer with white pants and loafers.

"Sorry Director Clavell!" Nemona apologized. "I'm just excited to meet the new kids! They did just move into my neighborhood, after all."

"Yes, well, Master Florian and Master Juliana live in the house right over there," Clavell said, pointing to the house right behind the quartet that they hadn't noticed before. "I presume that you four are also students looking to join the Academy?"

Astrid and Arashi shared a look, while Ashton nudged Dylan to say something. "Oh, uh, yep, we sure are!" Dylan lied, giving a smile that might have been a bit too big, but neither Clavell nor Nemona seemed to notice. "We just arrived here and were going to make our way to the school!"

"Sweet! It'll be awesome to have new Trainers to battle- oh, and new friends to make as well," Nemona said. "My name's Nemona."

"I'm Arashi!" Arashi introduced himself with a cheer.

"With a name like that, I bet you're from the Kanto region, aren't you?" Nemona giggled. "I like your enthusiasm, Arashi! I think we're going to get along just fine."

"Astrid, what's Kanto?" Arashi whispered.

"A region from my world- they have an entire ninja dojo there," Astrid replied.

"Awesome!" Arashi whispered in awe.

"And who's your friend, Arashi?" Nemona asked.

"Oh, her name is-" Astrid slapped a hand over Arashi's mouth.

"Umbra! My name is Umbra!" Astrid shouted. She didn't know which world they'd ended up with, but she wasn't about to go giving her real name out to strangers, just in case this was her world they were in. "I'm from Johto, by the way. Arashi and I competed in the Indigo League together."

"Cool! You'll have to tell me all about the battles you guys have had," Nemona said.

"I guess that leaves us to introduce ourselves," Dylan said. He didn't know what a Kanto or a Johto was, so clearly this world had different countries than the Earth he and Ashton were from. "My name's Dylan, and my best friend here is Ashton."

"What's up?" Ashton said, giving a mock salute. "And feel free to call me "Kage" by the way. That's my challenger name!"

"Oh, you guys have Unovan accents. Did you transfer here from Blueberry Academy?" Nemona asked.

"…Yeah, sure. That's where we're from," Ashton nodded. She didn't know what a Unova was, but it must be related to America in some way if their accents gave that away.

"Miss Nemona is president of our student council and a Champion-ranked Trainer in her own right," Clavell said. "As for myself, I'm the director of Guayaba Academy."

"I absolutely love battling! In fact, we should battle right now- me and one of you guys!" Nemona exclaimed.

"You know, I'm actually Champion-ranked myself," Dylan said, pulling out his Trainer ID and holding it up for Neoma to see.

Astrid swore she saw stars in Nemona's eyes at that revelation. "No way! We so have to battle now!"

"Easy now- you two will be in the same class, so you'll have plenty of time to battle later!" Clavell chuckled. "And get to know one another better, of course. On that note… it is customary for students of the Guayaba Academy to receive a Pokémon native to the Paldea region upon first enrolling. And I happen to have a few Starter Pokémon on hand that you may decide between."

Clavell took out four Poké Balls, releasing Pokémon that Arashi and Astrid had never seen but were familiar to both Ashton and Dylan. "Sprigatito, the Grass Cat Pokémon." Sprigatito gave a cute meow. "Fuecoco, the Fire Croc Pokémon." Fuecoco gave a cute sneeze, spitting out a bit of flame from its mouth. "Quaxly the Duckling Pokémon." Quaxly flicked his hair, spraying a bit of water. "And Pawmi, the Mouse Pokémon." Pawmi rubbed its cheeks, making tiny sparks fly out.

"Why is that every place we go seems to have some Pikachu lookalike?" Ashton muttered. "Eh, whatever. I call dib on the duck!" She went over to Quaxly and picked him up, the Duckling Pokémon giving a playful quack. "As for your name, I'm calling you Rio!"

"Quaxly!" Rio cheered.

"Hm… I think I'll pick Sprigatito myself," Dylan said, holding out his hands and letting the Grass Cat Pokémon jump into his arms. "Wow, you smell great, Sprigatito!"

"They are a species known to give off a swell scent to disorient their opponents," Clavell said.

"That leaves us to pick between Fuecoco and Pawmi," Astrid said. She looked over to Arashi and noticed her friend looking concerned. "Arashi?"

"Is it right for us to… own a Pokémon?" he asked her. "You know, considering where we're from and all?"

Astrid pulled her friend over to the side to speak more privately. "This world works differently from our own, Arashi. You're a human now, and humans and Pokémon have a relationship that goes beyond just using Pokémon for battle. The only people that hurt Pokémon are bad guys. Just like our world is built around mystery dungeons, this one is made so that humans and Pokémon can co-exist peacefully… for the most part."

Arashi nodded. "In that case… Fuecoco, I choose you!" he picked up the Fire Croc Pokémon and gave it a high-five. "But you need a name, don't ya, little guy? I think Pyre is the perfect name for you, aha!"

"That leaves Pawmi to be my partner Pokémon," Astrid said, picking up the Mouse Pokémon. "Oh, but what to name you…? I dunno, how about… Mimi? Does that work?" Pawmi gave a cute squeak.

"Great, now we can finally battle!" Nemona said.

"I'll leave you five here to get to know each other. I still need to collect Masters Juliana and Florian," Clavell stated before taking his leave. "And do go easy on them, Nemona. They are new to Paldea, after all."

"Come on, there's a perfect spot down by the beach we can battle at!" Nemona cheered, racing off down the path where a large house was situated.

Dylan shrugged and followed after Nemona, the others not far behind as their new Pokémon chased after them. Passing by the house (a fancy one where presumably where Nemona lived) the group went down a side path to a small patch of beach where a battleground was set up, worn with use as if Nemona trained here a lot.

"So, which one of you is going to fight me first?" Nemona asked.

"I think it'd be better if only one of us fought you for now. We'll have other chances at the academy," Dylan chuckled.

"And Arashi and I will sit this one out. He's still new to being a Trainer and all that," Astrid said.

"Then I'll be the one to battle you, Nemona," Ashton declared, stepping forward with a smirk. "I was the runner-up to be Champion at the same time as Dylan, and I've only gotten stronger since then training at the Battle Frontier."

"That sounds amazing! I'm excited to see how you battle," Nemona smiled. "So, do you want to fight with Quaxly? I do have a new Pokémon on me I can use, but I'm really interested if you'd like me to use my Champion rank team against yours."

"Oh, by all means, bring out one of your usual partners!" Ashton said with a grin, grabbing a ball on her belt that twitched and wiggled. "One of mine is just itching to go- right, Orochi?!"

She didn't even have to send him out herself- a roaring Hydreigon, one that easily could've gulped any of the ones present down for a snack if he'd been so inclined, burst out of the ball she held with all three heads snapping and glowing red eyes looking devious. The others present knew plenty well to get out of the way, and Dylan sighed knowingly at her antics while the Starstorm bunch couldn't help but to be slightly startled by Orochi's wild disposition coupled with his intimidating size. Nemona, however, looked perfectly giddy, grabbing a Poké Ball of her own from which she released a fuzzy and huggable orange creature- a Pawmot, who clapped his sparking hands together eagerly. He made some excited intonations as he hit the ground, eyeing Orochi in turn.

"Wait a second!" Arashi exclaimed in surprise. "Did those two seriously just have a Hydreigon and Pawmot bust out of those tiny balls?! What is that?!"

"I can explain later," Astrid noted softly. "It's… not what you're thinking and not what you're used to."

"Y'know, I think I'm starting to understand how you felt when we first met," Arashi mused haplessly.

Astrid couldn't help but to chuckle at the remark, looking downwards for a moment.

The ones battling weren't going to waste any time, however.

"Orochi, Dragon Rush!"

"Pawmot, Ice Punch!"

Orochi was quick to make a move, rushing his opponent while Pawmot balled up one fist, staying in place and getting a little smirk. The fuzzy critter's hand appeared to be shrouded in mist for a moment before that mist condensed and froze into ice, and though the prospect of a super effective move wasn't that great to face, Orochi wasn't backing down. Pawmot punched at the Hydreigon's main head as he slammed him, but one of the dragon's smaller heads opened its mouth too and tried to swallow Pawmot's fist, nonetheless still wincing at biting down on the cold. It was a hard hit from Orochi even with Pawmot's fluffy fur giving a bit of a buffer, to be sure, but even as Pawmot grunted in discomfort, he was issuing a challenge from his expression.

"Close Combat!" Nemona called.

Ashton's face fell slightly. "Tri-Attack, Orochi! Blast that friend-shaped loaf to the stratosphere!" she hollered, bouncing a bit in place in anticipation.

Orochi intended to do just that, but the moment his smaller head turned loose of Pawmot's hand, the fuzzy orange critter was on the offensive ever-so-slightly faster than he could keep up. A flurry of punches, kicks, and headbutts pounded the Hydreigon while he roared and let his attack well up in his mouths- fire in his main head, ice and electricity in the smaller ones. Maybe Orochi dwarfed the fluffy one, but as many hits as he was getting in along with having the type advantage, no less, it wasn't exactly a pleasant feeling.

"This doesn't look like such a good matchup for Orochi and Ashton," Astrid mused softly.

"It's not," Dylan concurred. "But Ashton's crazy and Orochi is a brute- just you watch."

"Quick Attack, Pawmot! Get out of that thing's path!" Nemona called.

"Strong style!" Ashton hollered, pumping both fists in the air with a glint in her eyes.

And just like that, as Orochi fired, Pawmot turned into a blur and scrambled out of the way of the dragon's attack, the fire, ice, and sparks coalescing together into a mighty beam more befitting of being called a Tri-Cannon as its sender roared. A cliff's rocky side off in the distance got an impromptu makeover, a few trees had their leaves scorched on the beam's edges, and a few Fletchlings flapped their wings to get out of its way too… but Pawmot was totally fine and instead darted at Orochi in a mad dash. Another growl came from Orochi as Pawmot slammed himself into the side of his main head.

"That's like what I did," Arashi noted under his breath. "Quick Attack to dodge and mess with our opponents…"

"And that Hydreigon isn't quite Raijin-tier for special attacking, but he's not far behind either with an attack like that…" Astrid's voice trailed off.

"Crunch, Orochi!" Ashton hollered, bouncing and twitching in place. "Show that little fuzzball who the alpha is!"

The Hydreigon did exactly that, his maw opening wide and Crunching down on Pawmot before the fluffy critter could get ahold of himself again- maybe it wasn't an effective hit, but it was a hit. A squeaking grunt of displeasure came from Pawmot, his eyes and hands both twitching. It was Nemona's turn to look somewhat uncomfortable, for getting stuck in a Hydreigon's maw was inevitably a recipe for disaster.

"Flash Cannon!" Ashton called.

"Alright, guess it's now or never," Nemona said, mostly to herself. "Double Shock, Pawmot! Give it all you got!"

Fairly soon, a flurry of steely sparkles and electric sparks filled the air around the two of them, all of Orochi's mouths welling up with bright particles while Pawmot let loose with any and all electricity he could muster. Orochi roared, both in his usual brutish antics as well as to tell Pawmot off, and Pawmot hissed and growled, both to fuss at Orochi in turn and in determination. Neither one of them was a super effective hit, no, quite the opposite- but that was plenty enough regardless, seeing as Orochi had taken two super effective hits and Pawmot wasn't exactly a pillar of sturdiness in the first place even before taking a Dragon Rush. It was enough to make the ones standing back flinch slightly, but Ashton and Nemona were excited, cheering their respective Pokémon on.

In a few moments, though, Pawmot's sparks gave out and Orochi's steely sparkles faded as his maw stopped biting down so hard, the orange fluffy one hitting the ground while the dragon teetered in the air for a bit before they both dropped. Orochi was a sparking heap and Pawmot was a battered heap, both of them still staring each other down nonetheless as they tried haplessly to one-up the other.

"C'mon, Pawmot!" Nemona cried, her hands tensing up as she too jumped around in place. "Don't you go down yet!"

"You are an alpha, Orochi!" Ashton shouted, doing exactly the same with wild movements. "C'mooon! Get up! Show that fuzzball you're better than he is!"

"Show that dragon that he got beat by a so-called fuzzball!" Nemona called with a smile.

"I will remember you said that!" Ashton hollered across the field, smirking with wild eyes as she shook one fist at her opponent.

Nonetheless, Pawmot's and Orochi's eyes both drifted closed, and both trainers were recalling them to the safe haven of their balls. Nemona couldn't help but to giggle excitedly. "That was awesome!" she called to Ashton. "We should do that again sometime!"

"Oh, me and Orochi will gladly take you up anytime you want to," Ashton replied, still smirking. "Just don't cry when we stomp you into the ground next time!"


Author's Note

TheDragonSaver: With the Adventures Duo and Team StarStorm finally meeting, it's fun to get to write Azakael's characters interacting with my own. You may have noticed that for this story, the main academy in Paldea is called Guayaba Academy. This is because this story is going to combine elements of both Scarlet version and Violet version, so both academies have been combined as well. "Guayaba" is the Spanish word for the guava fruit, in particular the academy is referencing the Strawberry Guava, a fruit that is both scarlet and violet (see what we did there?)

Each of our main characters gets a Starter Pokémon here, with Pawmi added into the mix since it A) is the Pika-clone of Gen 9 and B) has a three-stage evolution that fits in well next to the actual starters. Florian and Juliana are also mentioned, being the default names of the boy and girl protags of Scarlet and Violet. They aren't going to be major characters in this story (since our main four are taking their place in the plot of the game, of course), but you might see them come up in other chapters once we get to the school.

Azakael: You know, quite some time ago I had drawn human versions of the Starstorm crew just to amuse myself, and at the time I never actually thought I'd be using them, hehehe. Nonetheless, I find the idea of a "reverse PMD" type of event rather entertaining as we have with Arashi here- he'll try his best but he's just rather confused. I had great fun writing that intro scene, what with the collective fit-having and freaking out.

I had teetered back and forth whilst writing Orochi's fight scene as well, trying to decide who I wanted to win. Of course, I'm typically of the mind that a giant hungry dragon should beat a friend-shaped rodent, but when I compared Nemona's Pawmot's moveset and the one we gave Orochi, not to mention Pawmot having a favorable type matchup even if Hydreigon is a pseudo-legendary, I had to go with a mutual KO. Ah, fight scenes- I love to write them.