The world of Pokémon is very dangerous, just the sheer amount of different Pokémon and Legendaries in this world guaranteed trouble on a daily basis.

Most of the Leagues in this world used the Threat Level System to signify the threat a Pokémon, Human or situation presented.

The fact they had a threat level system was already messed up, the list itself was even more disturbing and made me want to switch universes; I heard that Animal Crossing is very peaceful.

When Hylla had told me the Sinnoh League upped the Snatchers' threat level from B to A, I decided to see what the entire Threat Level System was about. I had heard about it but it always was spoken of in such a mundane manner, I thought it was something as everyday as the weather.

But holy shit was it scary.

The system started at E, which was the designation assigned to small local threats in deserted areas. For example a swarm of Beedrill making a forest unsafe or an Ursaring that was rampaging around because they were generally violent.

Most problems in this world had an E-level rating and they were so common people didn't really bother with them, most people didn't even bother to report and label those threats.

E level threats were 99% of the time dealt with by traveling Pokémon trainers who had nothing better to do.

D level threats mostly involved a Pokémon or multiple Pokémon putting a small town in danger but at the same time the threat they presented was still weak and manageable.

Tentacruel being annoying? D level threat, a Drowzee kidnapping children by accident? Also a D level threat.

The list of D level threats is kinda big, probably because natural disasters fell into that category too.

Still, most people in this world didn't consider D level threats too bothersome, it was mostly just an annoyance.

C level threats involved small towns too, but this time the threat was considerably more serious, think about Pokémon actually killing people or villainous gangs trying to take over.

Problems that involved casualties, both for Pokémon and for humans.

Still compared to the other threat levels above C it was still laughable.

B level threats involved cities.

If a large city is threatened it means a lot more casualties and collateral damage, for that reason B level threats were very rare, though still present.

As I was scrolling through the list of past threats, I found some events from the anime as well, I found a (solved) threat about a giant Tentacruel in Hutber Port, a tidal wave almost wiping Alto Mare of the map and something about Deoxys in LaRousse City which was later turned into an A level threat when Rayquaza showed up.

B level threats were considered a disaster because of the massive collateral damage they brought forth.

And finally you had A level threats.

Most A level threats had one or more Legendaries involved; though the A level category was not Pokémon exclusive.

According to Pokédex Lady, the rule for an A level threat was that large parts of a region had to be in immediate danger due to an escalating B-level threat that affects multiple cities or has the power to move/spread into other areas.

The big shit you know?

Again, A level threats were much scarcer than the others below it, mostly because Legendary Pokémon dealt with them.

I found a lot of Pokémon movies in the past A level threats;

There were mentions of a girl in Johto manipulating the Unown, Jirachi's awakening and a battle between Rayquaza and Deoxys.

However, most of the A level threats were ones I had never heard of which made sense, not everything in this world revolves around Ash Ketchum after all.

Humans too could be found on the A level threat list.

Team Rocket had been one but right now they were marked as dealt with, it was a small mystery for me because Team Rocket does still exist in the anime but in the games they were stopped and disbanded by Red and Gold.

Hunter J was also marked as an A level threat because of her tendency to mess with Legendaries and her high mobility.

And now the Snatchers joined the list as an "A level threat" as well.

And you might think that A is the highest rating but nope.

S level threats exist too, but they are very rare.

Also, S basically means; We are all fucked.

Whenever an S threat rating is given all regions are considered to be in immediate danger.

I found an S level threat that described the Legendary Birds stirring trouble at the Orange Islands and in the process almost changing the world's climate to the point life would be unsustainable.

Another notorious past S level threat was a short fight between Groudon and Kyogre that threatened every region in the world.

The list of past S level threats was very short but one caught my eyes, one reported threat from two decades ago in the Kalos Region.

Apparently there was someone who had caught ice Pokémon from all over the world and built a machine that could throw the world into a new ice age.

He had built a fort on a mountain and created a big ice storm that prevented everyone from getting close.

According to the report all attempts to stop the guy failed until Suicune showed up and destroyed the entire mountain.

You can still see the remains of the fort, it's a tourist spot in Kalos now.

Right now there is only one active S level threat in the world, something called Celebi's Forest.

It had a mention that it was a passive threat and there was no more information about it except for the fact that the problem was under control.

Seeing how that certain threat had been on the list for over 3 decades suggested that no one found a permanent solution for it yet.

So yeah, this world is very dangerous.

Still, right now everything was going alright. My biggest problem was that I missed Charizard.

Riding on her back was so much better than walking.

Still, I had to suffer through the painful fact of not having a dragon to ride on. Ralts walked beside me while I was holding a city map in my hands, trying to find the address Professor Rowan had given me.

Pokédex Lady was unavailable right now, updating her took quite some time and I was forced to use a map to find my way.

The map however was of the entire city and left out all the smaller avenues and it was basically useless.

I was still trying to burn a hole into the map with my eyes when Fate decided to mess with me and I bumped into someone.

I fell on my butt and Ralts burst out laughing.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

The other people on the street made a wide arc around us, some of them gave me a cheerful smile or apologetic nods but most of them were just annoyed.

"Seriously?" I asked Ralts who was still laughing.

"Ouch," the person who I bumped into muttered as she fell too.

"Piplup!"

In front of me, sitting on the pavement sat someone I hadn't expected to see.

She had long dark blue hair, the same color as her eyes though most of her hair was hidden by a white hat she wore.

The girl wore a dress that went from a black v neck and ended in a short pink skirt. A red scarf was wrapped around her neck but it had to be for fashion sake because she wore no leggings or jeans, instead she had pink boots that almost reached her knees but that was about it for her legs.

I estimated her to be around 16, considering her height.

Next to her was a blue penguin-like creature I had seen before.

Being a very nice person I stood up and offered her my hand to get up.

"Sorry," I offered her an apologetic smile, "Wasn't paying attention to my surroundings."

"Me neither," the girl laughed as she rubbed the back of her head. She took the hand and I pulled her up, Ralts was still laughing like crazy which led to another comedic scene.

Piplup got up as well and shot Ralts a glare.

Ralts ignored him and kept laughing, Piplup got annoyed and began saying something.

"Now Piplup, that's not a way to talk to someone," the girl scolded the penguin.

I felt like Ralts should stop laughing but I would be a hypocrite to tell her not to.

Instead I just watched Ralts mess with Piplup.

"Hey, do I know you?" The girl asked.

She put her hand on her chin and gave me a thoughtful look.

"No…" I replied.

"No, I do recognize you," She muttered, her eyes widened. "I know, you're the person who caught Crimson!"

"Huh, Guess I'm famous already," I said, "Yup, I'm Dust."

"My name is Dawn," She introduced herself, "Nice to meet you."

"Yeah same," I said, "Again, sorry for bumping into you."

It was interesting to see that Dawn wasn't 10 but around my age. Guess it made some sense for Ash to travel with someone around his own age.

"No it's my fault, I wasn't paying attention either." Dawn waved it off.

"Cool, so we agree it's your fault?" I grinned and I picked up Ralts, who stopped laughing.

"Wait! It is your fault first!" Dawn exclaimed.

"Ralts,' Ralts told Dawn, sounding very smug for some reason.

I folded the map I had and tossed it into a nearby trash bin.

"Oww!" Dawn squealed, her eyes practically shining, "You look so cute!"

"RaRalts!" Ralts waved.

She pulled a Pokédex out of a pocket that was apparently hidden inside her dress and scanned Ralts.

Her version of Pokédex rattled off the entire description of Ralts, minus all the moves and personal things.

"Oh wow! I have never seen a Ralts."

"She is very special," I told her and Ralts gave me a big hug.

"Yeah she does look very special." Dawn laughed.

"Hey Dawn you have a Pokédex, could you help me out please?"

She blinked. "Oh sure, what is your problem? Need to make a call?"

"Nah, I am kinda lost and my own navigation is kinda not available, so if you could point me in the right direction?"

"Yeah of course I can." Dawn smiled. "Where do you need to go?"

I told her the address Professor Rowan had given me and she started typing.

She stopped midway and looked up, "Wait, you're going to Professor Seikyo?"

"Yup. You know him?" I asked. surprised.

She nodded. "Yeah I do!"

"How?"

"I've been Professor Rowan's assistant for the past 2 years! Of course I know!" She exclaimed.

Wait, say what?

I assumed she was Ash's traveling companion like she was in the anime, in the games however she could be Professor Rowan's lab assistant if you chose to play as Lucas.

"You don't believe me?" Dawn asked, there was an edge to her voice.

"No, I do," I said, "I just thought you would be a Pokémon trainer."

I pointed at Piplup to explain my reasoning.

Dawn pridefully pointed at herself. "I'm a Pokémon coordinator and this is my partner Piplup!"

"Piplup!" Piplup exclaimed pridefully.

Ralts stuck out her tongue at Piplup.

"But I've helped the Professor the last two years to learn from him before I set out on my journey." Dawn explained.

So she was still Ash's traveling partner?

Seems like this time both anime and games were mixed together.

"Cool," I said dryly. "So you can point me to Seikyo's lab?"

"I'll bring you!" Dawn offered and she took Piplup in her arms.

"You can? I mean, if you have something better to do…"

"No problem at all," Dawn smiled. "Now follow me!"

Dawn led me through the city, taking all kinds of routes that only seemed to make sense to her.

"So you travel alone?" I asked, curious if she was with Ash and Brock or not.

"Nope," Dawn replied, "I travel with 2 friends, one of them is trying to get all the badges even!"

"Let me guess his name is Ash Ketchum?"

She stopped dead in her tracks, "Wait, how do you know?" She frowned and eyed me suspiciously.

"Professor Rowan told me a young girl who was about to start her journey found his Pikachu, which kind of narrows it down." And having knowledge of the anime and games helped as well.

"Well, that's such a coincidence," Dawn mused before continuing to guide me through the city.

I doubted it was a coincidence, most likely just Fate bringing all the pieces together.

"So why are you visiting Professor Seikyo?" Dawn asked, "The paper said you were a Pokémon trainer."

"Professor Rowan asked me to deliver a black box with data to Professor Sicko."

"Seikyo." Dawn corrected me.

Dawn found the building without too much effort.

It was a big brickstone building that looked like an apartment to me but there was one small metal sign that told me it was a laboratorium.

We walked through the sliding doors and I was surprised to see how different the inside was compared to the outside.

A white lobby met our eyes and almost blinded me.

There was a woman who redirected us to the elevator.

On the third floor we left the elevator and found a guy sitting in a white swivel chair, surrounded by floating holographic panels.

The entire floor was filled with data storage containers and big glass containers, the place was lit by a small light bulb that hung from the ceiling which was very weird in my eyes, considering all the techy stuff lying around here.

The Professor was sitting in a swivel chair and spun around to face us.

Seikyo was a young man, not even in his thirties. He wore the classic white lab coat with a t-shirt underneath it.

"Aaah," He clapped his hands together. "Finally the good stuff arrives."

"Hello Adam!" Dawn greeted the professor.

"Sup!" I raised my hand.

Both Ralts and Piplup were occupied with annoying each other so they didn't bother greeting him.

"Good to see you two," He stood up from his chair and walked towards us, taking big strides with each step.

He had black curly hair and a big grin on his face. They gleaned under the scarce light of the lightbulb.

"Oh shit," I muttered and stepped back and successfully escaped a hug.

Dawn wasn't fortunate enough and was squashed alive.

When he was done he stepped back, "Dawn, it's been too long."

"Yes, way too long," Dawn said, sounding sarcastic.

"And you my man!" He said cheerfully. "Everything for science!"

He was looking at me, not at all bothered I escaped his death hug,

"Science?" I wondered.

"You protected the data with your life!" the professor said, "So cool how you took down Crimson after he stole the valuable data!"

"Yeah, totally did that because he stole the data." I lied through my teeth.

"We need more people like you!" He grinned.

Ralts hopped on my back and I opened my backpack to get the black box.

I tossed it at him and he caught it with a smile so big his muscles had to be torn apart.

"AWESOME!" He cried out as he himself tossed it to the middle of the floor.

I expected it to hit the floor but it stopped falling when it flew above a metal table and instead it was just hovering above it, as if kept afloat by magnetic force.

"So what's inside it?" I wondered, "Hopefully something worth my life."

Professor Seikyo opened his arms triumphantly. "My boy, the data inside contains the future of Pokémon battles."

He walked towards the table and pushed a button on one of the holographic tiles.

The cube sunk into the table and started unfolding itself like some kind of reverse origami cube until it formed one big black tile that eventually melted into the table.

The holographic panels began to rearrange themselves and formed one big panel, a loading wheel appeared on the screen.

Dawn and I were both confused, unsure what to expect.

The build up for it was for sure building anxiety and raising my expectations. Seikyo saw it and gave us a wink.

"This kiddos," he turned around and faced the screen. "Might revolutionize Pokémon battles and take them to a new height!”

In red bold letters one thing was written on the holographic screen.

Project Dynamax