You know, sometimes you have to accept the good with the bad in life.
Ever since my rebirth into the glamorous world of Pokémon, I've been blessed with 19 years of a spectacular life. Of course, the benefits of living out my past life's childhood was amazing, but the life threatening detours and constant world ending events begin to wear on your nerves.
Sort of the like the fact that getting involved with and befriending a couple Legendries was as magical as it was frustrating. Sure, my obvious Ketchum luck just loved to put me in the middle of these catastrophic, once in a lifetime event like the one I was in now, but I have to say that getting involved in the affairs of Legendries was mind-bogglingly exhausting.
I mean, most of them don't even have any sense of personal space or respect for the time of others. Like me for example, I had barely just managed to scrounge up a perfect timetable to get the rest of my Title-Defense Matches, Charity Events, Exhibition Matches, and my last appearance as a host at the Indigo Conference done with.
All of my paperwork was done, and my team was well-rested and prepared for the trip I had planned to go on with Daisy.
She had always wanted for us to visit Kalos together without business or the circuit getting in the way, and I happily agreed with her. Now, I would have sung a different tune had things gone as I hoped, but Ash still wasn't ready this year to make my dream a fruition. It'll frustratingly be a while before he's matured properly.
Mom tells me that he's thinking of going to the Galar region with his two pals for his third circuit after getting blown out of the Ever Grande Conference's Semi-Finals. An odd decision, but I never much cared for the rails of canon and gave him my approval. I made sure to leave Leon a message to keep an eye out for him, and hey, at least our little bros will finally get to be proper rivals like they'd promised years ago.
Lance was to fill in for me as I took my break with the promise that I'll give him a private battle upon my return.
Everything was set for me to drop my mantle and just go back to enjoy being a simple pokémon trainer again with my significant other and my pokémon.
But no.
I couldn't freaking have THAT.
I just HAD to be brought into an argument between Baby Dialga (Celebi) and Baby Palkia (Hoopa). Apparently, they were arguing over who had the better control over their powers between the two and how their domain was better than the other. It went about as well as you'd expect. Hoopa got too into it and demonstrated that he could send an object to different space-time dimension with no effort.
That object was me by the way.
No matter how distraught the Legendary was as Celebi chided them, I vowed to give them just as much hell for spatially displacing me for the third time in the years. P-Please don't ask, I've had a very harrowing seven years that's been having me find god through each experience before realizing how much God either doesn't acknowledge me or is vehemently offput by the fact that I even exist.
Y-Yeah, that's another long story.
So, here I was. A random stranger in a new reality that may have looked the same, but could not have been any more different. My first being sent to a different dimension, I was sent to a parallel Mt. Moon where I had Asch bake Muk while I taught a slimy motherfucker not to mess with my little brother, no matter if he's from a different reality.
The second time, I was transported to Celadon City where I did a lot of shouting at another reckless version of my brother after accidentally blowing up the city's casino and the Team Rocket base below it with Tempest.
This time however, I was a bit put off by how normal the place I dropped in was. It almost seemed like your average run of the mill office with a lot of generators and a whole legion of wind turbines outside. It was almost normal if you discounted the fact that there were grown men and women shamelessly wearing spacesuits and blue wigs done up in short bobs.
And they all had the nerve to look at me as if I was the weird one.
Yeah, no, I may have just popped up into your reality but at least I'm not going around looking like the freaking groupies to a space-themed Beatles concert.
Oh, and there was also a Dusknoir that tried to eat me too. Well "tried" being the operative word because I wasn't in the mood for being eaten, and I've been down this road with the supernatural typing of pokémon (both ghost and psychic alike) before to know how bad an idea it was to mess with my disaster of a soul. I was barely even halfway in it's belly-mouth before it let out an ungodly shriek as an unholy bevy of tortured souls came rushing out of it.
I almost felt bad for the Ghost pokémon as it desperately tried to keep all of those souls trapped in it, almost like a man who's stomach has been cut open and was desperately trying to keep in all of his leaking organs. Then I remembered that he tried to eat my soul, so I rightfully gave him the largest FU by siccing Kidd on him, and boy was my Gengar pissed that another Ghost had tried to lay claim to my abnormal soul.
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
"YOU BASTARD! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY DUSKY YOU-!"
Leaving Kidd to torment the paling and potentially dying Dusknoir, I was suddenly beset upon by a deranged red-haired chick wearing a different yet still stupid looking spacesuit dress. She seemed to have burst out of some meeting room just to round up on me.
Wait, wasn't she…
Oh…oh! I'm dealing Team Galactic this time. To be honest, that's kind of refreshing after having to face Team Rocket over and over again. And considering that this is Mars, who's obviously a bad guy and is concerned for the Dusknoir that currently tried to devour my mortal (?) soul, I was given free reign to respond as I deemed fit.
"I can't believe I used to simp over your ancestor!"
"Kyaaaaaaaaaaargh!"
I made sure not to feel too much hostility when throwing my punch to avoid severely damaging her. Still, I probably should have held back just a little. Didn't mean to punch her through a freaking generator. Also, I might have broken more than just her nose, and since I was brought in to a different reality, the way that me and my pokémon react to the humans and pokémon here could be vastly dangerous.
At best, Joey's punched me like this in the past whenever I felt down and needed a wake-up call. Sure it hurt, but I managed to get right back up afterward as if it were just a simple smack. While Mars' reaction seemed to be the complete opposite since she seemed to already be in critical condition which was not helped by the tons of electricity being released by the generator that her body was indented in.
Ouch…
Sorry not sorry, Mars. Turnabout was fair play, and I'd rate your attempt to nonchalantly kill me a very generous 4/10. Wouldn't recommend it for any trainer that crosses your path. But in all seriousness, why haven't the grunts attacked me yet? I get that watching a Dusknoir spill it's spiritual guts out is a fascinating watch, but-.
"Huh."
I blinked as I turned around to find that all the grunts along with their pokemon in the room were all unconscious. Along with some balding old man…
Wait, isn't he that scientist introduced in Platinum version. Meh, he didn't really matter that much, but it was good to know that he and the Hypno beside him were out of commission too. Saves me less trouble with dealing with any surprise attacks.
The old man and Hypno looked to be exiting some sort of control room and passed out near a group of…scientists, some girl, and crying child. Who were also conked out.
Weird…
Still just who or what did this to th-?
["Ahem."]
Oh, that's right. Of course, he would be powerful enough to use a Hypnosis so potently and accurately while still in his freaking pokéball. "Thanks, Jiren."
["You're welcome and be sure to take the hostage that's in the room ahead of you out to the others. This reality's authorities are currently on route as we speak."]
The was small lilt of amusement in the telepathic voice emanating in my head.
"Something I should know?"
["No, I'm sure you'll enjoy the surprise, Luke."]
Well, that wasn't ominous, once he had cut the telepathic link, I followed Jiren's advice and entered to room to a mortifying sight. There was indeed a hostage back here, who was also not spared Jiren's mass Hypnosis. But what really had me stunned was the deep bleeding wound on the poor girl's cheek and the bloody knife on the ground.
Mars had come out of here, didn't she?
…
"…You know what, I probably shouldn't have restrained myself from using my aura and allowed a bit of my hostility to flow through it." Oh well, Mars obviously wasn't going to be walking much less breathing the same way again, and I had inadvertently saved a girl from torture.
She seemed to be a year older than Ash is, she was definitely more lighter than him, I could tell you that. I took the upmost care in carrying the young lady to the other hostages. I looked over to Kidd who was done pummeling the husk of what was sure to be that damned Dusknoir.
"You done having fun?"
"Gen!" Kidd spat at the barely cognizant ghost type.
"Good. Now come over and help me arrange all of these guys properly." I sighed and glared at Kidd, who seemed to be willing to do anything other than that. "Just do it, Kidd. We have to at least do this and tie up the these assholes here together so the police could wrangle them up by the time we're already go-."
"That's right you fucking losers! How's it feel to have your goons beaten by a single kid alone, huh!? Lets see if any of you assholes want to be another notch on our winning-!" A cap wearing boy followed closely by a Riolu, Charjabug (hold on, what's one of those doing here, this was Sinnoh), and a Houndour kicked down the door. "-streak?"
They all looked like they got the crap beaten out of them.
"Jiren, I thought you knocked everyone in the surrounding vicinity out. What the hell?" I internally groaned.
["This trainer was dealing with the grunts guarding the front of the building and was surprisingly making good headway at that. It didn't seem necessary to intervene."]
That's sort of sweet and the kind of mindset I would approve of as Champion, but this only makes it super hard to run off without gaining attention. The kid was giving me, the only conscious person in the building a weird look.
He looked at the unconscious hostages, the unconscious Galactic grunts and their pokémon, the bloody and broken nosed Mars slammed through a haywire generator, my sinisterly cackly Gengar, and lastly me. Me, who was currently holding the unconscious body of a young girl who's cheek was cut open and still bleeding profusely.
This was NOT a good image…
"Uh…I can explain." I sucked in my lips.
The cap wearing kid's expression started to grow aggressive before the sounds of tapping and ground shaking stomps had him freeze up. Okay, so leaving without detection was basically not going to work now with more people coming with some big pokémon if those loud footsteps were anything to go by.
And also…were those high heels?
Why would any police or League trainers even wear such hazardous footing when going to a crime sce-.
"Oh, an explanation? I'd love to hear it, young man. What say you, Garchomp?" I literally froze in place at the new arrival of the serenely smiling blonde woman in all black and her grunting Garchomp.
O-Oh no…
So that's why he sounded so amused…
["Have fun."] Jiren's voice positively dripped with schadenfreude as my past childhood drama began to surface.
"I freaking hate you, Jiren…" I squeaked.
Well, at least I can say that the girl in my arms wasn't about to be the only one who comes out of this mess traumatized…