Chapter 1

Akari trudged into her bedroom, her limbs and eyelids heavy with exhaustion. She had spent the day away hard at work alongside Professor Rowan; learning from him the basics of how to be an intrepid researcher. The work was hard, and the hours were long, but even after only a few scant months at his side, she felt like she was a better trainer because of it.

Her eyes drifted to her bedside table, where a lone, empty Pokéball rested against her alarm, causing her to scoff as she caught her mental train of thought.

She wasn't a Pokémon trainer. Yet. She was only a few months away from getting her first Pokémon when she turned 15, as part of the latest cohort of approved trainers of Sandgem town. While currently undecided, she was thinking of picking Piplup as her starter; the Penguin Pokémon just being so cute!

She flopped onto her bed with a sigh, a single, long, drawn out one that seemed to be forcing all the stress from her body. Her eyes were already beginning to sag as her mind drifted away into a blissful sleep, eager to rest and recover for another hard day of work. As her vision turned to black, her gaze briefly fell on her pinboard of drawings she had done during her tenure with Professor Rowan. Sketches of the three starter Pokémon; Turtwig, Chimchar, and Piplup, at play in the laboratory's fields, a Staraptor plucking berries from a tree, and a rotund Bibarel dozing in the midday sun were just a few of the images she managed to catch a glimpse of before dozing off. She couldn't help but feel a bristle of pride at these before unconsciousness finally caught up to her.

But as she slipped into what should have been a blissful sleep, a booming voice seemed to hit her like a wave.

"AKARI… WAKE UP…"

Akari's eyes shot open, her heart thumping wildly in her chest as the sound washed over her. Her hand shot to her chest, only to stop halfway due to the wave of inertia that she felt, causing her stomach to flip. And the cause of that inertia made her face go pale.

She was floating! In an empty void of pure black. It wasn't dark, as she could still see her own arms and legs as they floated around, desperately trying to reorient her centre of gravity. It was just blackness, neither stretching on forever nor bearing in on her senses.

Before she had time to comprehend that inconsistency, a burst of light flashed before her. Three rings of golden light shone brightly, briefly blinding her before she raised her arms in front of her eyes, her brain trying desperately to decipher what was happening.

"Welcome to my realm, located both beyond time and space. It is well that you are here. I am that which humans call Arceus."

The voice that woke her sounded out again, seemingly coming from the centre of the three golden rings, though with some of the overwhelming pressure she was feeling before lessened. It did nothing to ease her nerves, as her breathing began turning frantic.

"Rest easy child, you are not in any danger. You have been chosen. Chosen for a task that will test your abilities and forge yourself into the best version of yourself. Soon you will find yourself in a strange world to you, one where the wonderous creatures known as Pokémon are not viewed as such by the people of the time. Teach them. Show them. Be the positive influence they need."

Akari found herself having a thousand questions streaming through her mind. Some important, others less so. It became a blur, making it difficult to form words as she floated aimlessly, her mouth flapping open and shut while staring at the heavenly light.

But while she failed to communicate with the otherworldly force contacting her, it proceeded to dim, save for a single flattened cuboid. It floated toward her, before landing gracefully in her hand. Golden sparkles sprinkled down from it, before the same intense light from before burst out, illuminating an equine shape above Akari, with a horned halo around its torso and a flowing mane from its head. It seemed to be looking down at her, appraisingly, before the voice returned yet again.

"Seek out all Pokémon, understand them, and you shall find me once more."

And just like that, she was plummeting.

"Are you alright young lady? You seemed to have taken quite the fall."

Akari slowly opened her eyes, groaning as her muscles screamed at her. For what, she didn't know yet, but she decided to push that aside for the moment in favour of pushing herself up from wherever she was lying.

Which made her eyes snap open.

Underneath her hands, shifting with the weight she was putting onto it, was sand. And not just any sand, beach sand! Moist sand that clumped under her fingers and got under her nails. Twisting her head around, she saw she was on a beach, a faint breeze kissing her skin as the smell of salt dominated her nostrils.

Quickly, she pushed herself onto her feet, almost falling back down in her hurry before she found her addressor.

It was a tanned-skin man, looking to be in his forties wearing a black waist coat with a white lab coat on top. He had a knitted cap over his head, and a worried expression on his face, as he looked down on her.

"I'm sorry if I startled you, but I couldn't help but come to check on you when I watched you fall."

Akari couldn't say anything at first, her eyes still darting around the environment. She seemed to be in some secluded alcove, with a small hut not far from the tiny beach they were standing on, and a lake with thick vegetation further inland. It was hard to put into words, but despite the foreignness of the area around her, a faint sense of DeJa'Vu was lingering in her heart.

A few beats later, she finally managed to turn her attention fully to the man in front of her and form a coherent sentence.

"Where am I?"

The man seemed to be perplexed by this, frowning before giving an answer.

"Why, you're at Prelude beach, just south of Jubilife village. This is one of the only populated areas for quite a while, so I'm surprised you don't know that."

Akari did a doubletake at the mention of Jubilife.

"Jubilife? You mean the Jubilife from Sinnoh?"

"Sinnoh? Like, Almighty Sinnoh? No, no. This is the region of Hisui. That fall must have really shaken you to get something like that confused."

"Ok, you keep mentioning a fall. What fall? Where from?" Akari asked while massaging her temples, trying to process what was happening as the man stared at her blankly.

"Why, from the rift." He then proceeded to point up, which Akari followed, leading to her jaw dropping to the floor.

In the sky above her, dominating the skyline was a gigantic tear, with seemed to be pulsing with energy. It was disrupting the clouds around it, silent bolts of lightning striking out around it before dissipating just as quickly, centred around a towering mountain which dominated the landscape. Whatever it was, it certainly didn't look like a natural occurrence, as the angry colours seemed to paint the sky like an artist had a vendetta.

As she stared up at the distortion, eyes wide and mouth agape, the man had his attention stolen by a commotion that was occurring in the distance, a series of shouts and thuds that made him go into a panic.

"No! No! Don't throw a rock at it! They'll only attack back!" He then proceeded to run off in the direction of the commotion, drawing Akari's attention away from the torn sky.

In the distance, where a tall oak tree stood tall near a small pond, around half a dozen young adults wearing an attire that looked akin to navy blue kimonos, if modified for extensive travel with belts and sashes being added to it, running around chasing… Pokémon. And not just any Pokémon, but starters!

Two of the grunts were chasing a rather spirited Cyndaquil, who was zipping and diving into large tufts of grass with ease, before seemingly disappearing in the extensive greenery and leaving the two chasing it to start searching desperately. They would do so for a moment or two before the Cyndaquil ran out again with a burst of speed, repeating the whole process again.

Near the pond, another two were busy trying to get an Oshawott out of the pond – rather unsuccessfully – by throwing rocks of varying sizes at it. None of them were hitting, as the Oshawott was bobbing its head into the water to dodge out of the way of the throws before retaliating in kind, throwing the pale yellow scalchop that it normally kept on its belly at the pair. Once they were aggressively rubbing their head in pain, the Oshawott would laugh manically at them before it had to rapidly duck from the next round of rocks being thrown at it.

Finally, at the tall tree, were the final few grunts. They were trying to gain the attention of a small owl Pokémon that was watching eagerly from one of the higher branches, looking down with derision as they tried to work out how best to get it out. The Pokémon, a Rowlet, sneered at them as they muttered amongst themselves. One tried to give it a nudge with a particularly long stick, before it was snapped cleanly in half by a swing of the Rowlet's wing. Which only prompted more discussions on what to do.

The only one not contributing to this group effort was a young teenager, who couldn't have been any older that Akari herself, who was pleading desperately with a rather pudgy and disinterested looking Pikachu to actually help. To no avail.

In summary, it looked like a complete shamble of an operation.

Which only got worse as the lab coat wearing man joined the fray, desperately pleading the collection of grunts to be careful with the small Pokémon, only to be either ignored or yelled at in response. Akari could only stare in disbelief, before slowly walking up to the man as he tried to orchestrate a solution.

"Is everything alright Mr…?" She started, making the man turn toward her.

"Oh, apologies my dear. Forgot myself there. My name is Professor Laventon, chief researcher for the Galaxy Team. A pleasure to meet you, but unfortunately, I can't give you a proper greeting. I need to get these Pokémon back to our headquarters but as you can see, they're being less than cooperative. And these young corps members, eager as they may be, are far from being helpful. I have no idea what to do."

Akari could only looked on with bewilderment, before she focused on the aforementioned Pokémon. As she watched them continue to terrorise the men and women trying to collect them, she shook her head. Sure, not all Pokémon are easy to deal with, but couldn't they tell that these were just young Pokémon being childish? Messing around and being decidedly non-malicious? They were just young Pokémon who needed to blow off some steam. Couldn't they see that?

The Cyndaquil, who was scampering up a small dirt mound before disappearing into a small burrow, simply needed some stimulation. They clearly weren't trying to escape, as they were running in a large circle, staying within eyesight of the ones chasing it each time it broke out into another run. They probably just needed some more exercise or activities and then they'd be fine.

In the pond, the Oshawott, while being rather cheeky with the teasing laughs when they bonked the grunts with their scalchop, was a classic example of a Pokémon lacking a positive influence and resorting to small outbursts. She had seen it in particularly stubborn Starly in Professor Rowan's lab, and all it took was some firm but fair treatment from its carer or peer and they would stop.

Finally, she could tell the Rowlet simply needed some space. They didn't want to be bothered by these young adults and were unimpressed by the attempts to get it to return – hence the repeated rebukes it showed. Having some clear boundaries set up, a space where they could be by themselves when they needed to, would help prevent such outbursts in the future.

Feeling somewhat bad for the clearly stressed and unprepared Professor, who was getting more panicked by the moment, she did a deep sigh before speaking up.

"Would you like some help?"

Laventon whipped his head around to her, sparkles in his eyes as a small smile peeked through.

"You would offer your assistance? I must appreciate it, but I must warn you, these three are rather troublesome. I'm one of the few people they listen to, and even than it is not wholly consistent. Today they just seem very out of sorts, and I can't pinpoint why."

"Yeah, I'm sure. Do you have any Pokéballs I could use?"

Laventon broke out into a massive grin, before he began rummaging into the deep pockets of his lab coat.

"Why my dear, you are a star! I will repay this act of kindness, I swear it." He then pulled out three small orbs, handing them over enthusiastically. Akari took them, not thinking much of it until she felt the texture. And quickly brought them up to her face.

Now, while she wasn't an official Pokémon trainer yet, she had handled enough Pokéballs to know what they felt like. They had a smooth plastic sheen to them, with a surprising firmness to them that informed you they were actually a metal alloy underneath the material. But these were the complete opposite, the smoothness being replaced entirely by the rough, notable edges of a bark-like texture. It was like she was running her hand down the trunk of a tree instead of grasping a Pokéball.

Looking it over, it was clear that while she was indeed holding the iconic catching device, her sense of touch was not off. The ball looked like it was made of wood! The bottom half, instead of the sleek white was the colour of shaved wood, and the top being wood that was painted the iconic red of what she was familiar with. The only part that wasn't made of this wood-like texture was a small metal band around the centre of the orb, along with the button that triggered the mechanism.

Whatever was going on, this was another mystery to be solve… later. For now, she had some Pokémon to catch.

Putting the wave of questions to the back of her mind, she walked forward, ignoring the quizzical look that Laventon was giving her before she went to the pond that the Oshawott was swimming around in. The Oshawott noticed her and wiggled its eyebrows tauntingly. Clearly it was enjoying the chance to show up the other trainers, something she wasn't going to entertain.

Pulling her arm back as if she was going to throw, she waited and watched as the Oshawott quickly dived back under the water. She waited a breath, knowing that the water type would resurface rather quickly to continue its taunting. Sure enough, barely a moment later, their head popped back up, a grin already plastered on its face. Seeing her chance, she launched the ball as hard as she could, not wanting to give the Sea Otter Pokémon the chance to dodge.

Luckily for her, the gambit worked perfectly. The Oshawott barely had time to react in shock to her ploy before the ball hit it square on, the red light from the ball engulfing it rapidly. The ball, with its captive in tow, returned to Akari's hand which she caught with a practiced ease. She quickly swapped the full ball for an empty one, moving over to where the Cyndaquil was currently making another run.

The fire mouse spotted her rather quickly and went to break left in order dart around her. Playing along, Akari leant her body left as if she was going to try and intercept this, waiting for Cyndaquil to double back and break right. Within a heartbeat, they did exactly that, trying to trip her up in the process. Only for her to twist and throw a curveball that caught the fire type by surprise. Two down.

Finally, she walked up to the tree, running through potential ideas on how to get Rowlet. Using fruit to bait it? No, too obvious. Dummy throws? Might work if they were on the ground, but they were rather high up, which gave them time to react to any trick throw she might try. However, before she could think up a solution, a surprising one presented itself.

Rowlet came down of its own accord. The grass quill Pokémon floated down gracefully, giving a few soft flaps to slow its descent before landing in front of her. It was staring Akari down intensely, but not derisively like it had with the others trying to catch it. It also seemed to be expecting something from her.

Trying not to look a gift Rapidash in the mouth, she threw a ball at the grass type, though not with much power like the other two. Rowlet seemed to accept this gladly, going inside the ball with a pleased chirrup.

Pleased with a job well done, she turned to return to the Professor, only to find all eyes were locked on her, a series of shocked and surprised looks adorning all of their faces. But the one who was the most aghast was Professor Laventon himself, whose jaw could only go lower if it were detached from his skull.

"How did… you just… who are you?"

"Me?" Akari asked rhetorically, "I'm Akari. Aspiring Pokémon researcher and Pokémon Master."

Hey everyone, TWoS here and I'm back… again.

Thank you for checking out this new story I've got. This was one of those ideas that has been lingering in the back of my mind for months now, and I just needed to write it. I'm currently in the process of trying to get my own novel published so I haven't done any writing in a while, so this is a nice return to form. Let me know what you think, as I feel I might be a bit rusty.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed it. I've got a lot of ideas revolving around this concept. I loved this new take on the Pokémon game, and I've got so many ideas revolving around the main concept of this game. The idea of someone from the present day, being more knowledgeable about Pokémon than anyone from this time period, going back and using it to become an expert works on so many levels. I've got a lot of ideas lined up, so I should be able to keep working on this story for quite a while. If any of you have any suggestions you want to throw out, please do. I'd love to hear them, and the interactions are always something I enjoy.

For those who are waiting for me to return to my other works, please be patient. I'm in a tricky spot for those stories, but I do intend to return to them. Eventually.

Anyway, that's all I got for you all this time. Hope you enjoyed this intro to my new story, and I look forward to seeing you all for the next chapter. As always, peace and love – TwoS.