PokéMonster Hunter

Prologue: The Irydia Region - The Wilds Lost to Time

A ship finally made dock as groups of people in high fashion parade off, to them it was just another tourist attraction, the world of 'heathens' who live improperly. They didn't understand the way of life of the locals and wouldn't try to either. Any local could see the life drain from eyes of a tourist as their electronics became useless within the first few steps onto the island - in fact, many locally born children would place bets on the number of neophytes that fled back to their ship.

"Hey, what gives? I thought that was a joke..." A young woman ferociously pressed the buttons on the screen of a red device, each press giving off a static buzz. Another young man passing by pressed buttons on multicolored orbs expecting a reaction as a local shook her head in empathy.

Another young lady held up a pamphlet and displayed it her frustrated friend, "It says here that the electromagnetic interference of the Irydite Ore that makes up the island prevents most modern technology from working." A grin rose up on her face in excitement, it was her first time to Irydia - also known as the Wild Lands. She continued, "Apparently the irydian vegatation causes abnormal growth and reproduction in the local p-" A large man accidentally bumped into her and broke her train of thought.

"Hey watch it you!" Her voice shrieks as a man with a massive hammer on his back walks away carrying a log his size on his shoulder.

His gaze turned nonchalantly as he gave a fake apology, "Sorry, didn't see you there." He continued off without looking back.

Just as the woman started to speak up, her friend cut her off and pointed at a clock on a nearby tower - unlike her useless digital watch, this clock rotated using only mechanical power. "We have to go, remember? The guide is supposed to take us to explore the wilds." And so the two went off in search for their guide.

The city was vibrant and busy, colored with the décor of successful hunts and numerous strange people, yet not one was out of place. Each person had a role in their community and the two women learned that even the youngest child worked - contrary to their home's child labor laws. It was all detailed in the pamphlet they had grabbed about Irydia island. One child showed the two to their destination, a shabby looking bar simply referred to as the 'hub'

Inside the boy introduced the ladies to their guide, the same man with the hammer. The boy and the man exchanged looked before the guide groaned, "Are you two lass the ones I'm taking out today?"

The pamphlet wielding girl tapped it with her hand, "Yes, we paid to have you take myself and my assistant out to examine the endemic wildlife of the Wilds so to collect data to better understand this region and possibly gather resources to develop technology that could be used in this area. I am Profe-" The man held up his hand and cut her off.

"Unless you are with close friends or family, we don't give our names here, we earn them. Until you've earned a name, you are just another woman, just as this brat is another kid." He pointed his thumb over his shoulder to the young child who brought the women.

While the woman in charge huffed, the assistant spoke up, "Then what is the name you earned?"

The man scoffed, "The Tour Guide hah, since I'm the only one who bothers doing it." He waved the two to follow him, "Come on, let's make way while it's still early." The man quickly finished off the last remnants of a steak and left his table, with the two young women trailing meekly behind.

~~~~~~~~~~

Deep within a forest in the wild lands, the Tour Guide followed a familiar path, one travelled hundreds of times by the locals, gradually towards the apex of the hill. "So what are you two hunting for yourself?" He eyed markings on a tree intently as he spoke and quickly changed direction. The two women looked close at the markings, it looked like the tree had dissolved slightly. If it was concerning to the Tour Guide, he didn't make it known

"As I said before, we are trying to learn ways to get technology to work in the Irydia so that the locals don't have to butcher the wil-"

"You and every scientist have tried and failed. I've seen the papers, I know what you scientists do. Why do you think it's illegal to transport them off this island?"

The scientist's face ran red, "I only want to protect them! I'm not trying to pit them against the world!"

"Oh? Then what would you do when you try and tame something that can't be tamed? What will you do when it goes crazy and the local turns into this?" The man knelt down and brushed away some overgrowth. Beneath it a skeleton lay bare. Multiple bones had burn marks and were damaged. The man cleared the pile of the most intact bones, storing them as well as he could in his satchel.

"What happened to it? I've never see something like this..." The assistant muttered under her breath. The professor pulled out a measuring tape and started to mark dimensions of the skull for the skeleton, her eyes wide with the estimates she made based on what actually remained.

"This one was eaten by our prey, it's excretions decompose organic matter as it eats and leaves only bone. If left unchecked, it would possibly destroy a whole town in the search for food." As the Tour Guide rose up, something else caught his eye, a set of four massive footprints different from that of the target. "Hmmm, this is fresh. Oh you ladies chose a good day to hunt. We gonna see something exciting." His grin perked up as he grabbed his hammer.

The hammer made of the Irydian Ore, a crimson igneous rock formed after millennia of volcanic activity. Along the edge of the hammer's head, a small set of fangs peaked out, secured in place by the soft dark teal leather of the creature it came from, with a decorative teal yellow fin off the top. Tour Guide was coating the business end with a liquid that he had assured the women was necessary for the hunt to make sure the weapon actually hit it's target, but didn't elaborate further. Once his weapon was prepared, he pulled out some berries in his pocket and quickly downed them, almost swallowing even the stem of one of the berries but catching it with his teeth and chewing on it as though a toothpick. It was a simple act but the scientist instantly noticed red and green follow through his veins as they bulged slightly.

"Steroid perhaps?" She jotted down the effects of the berries briefly. "Those looked like Haban and Babiri..." As she was lost in thought, the assistant pushed her forward and the two eventually caught up to the Tour Guide, crouching at the edge of a cliff. As the women approached, he gave a sign to stay quiet and pointed down.

"No way... Is that a-?"

"That's supposed to be a myth..."

The trio watched in a mixture of amusement, bewilderment and fear as a massive dragon covered in a purple-green slime dodged out of the way of another dragon, a blue beast with silver plating covering its chest, back and head. Dead between them, a yellow-orange fox with multiple tails. These two beasts were fighting over lunch.

"Yup, our prey is the Sulfuric Goodra, but looks like Dialga down there is eyeballin' that Ninetails for dinner."

"Oh my Arceus..." The scientist exclaimed as the assistant fainted.

The Tour Guide flicked his hammer, "The coating I applied basically prevents this hammer from slipping through the acid coating of the Goodra, every good hunt you gotta be prepared for." His face held a smug grin, the berry stem hanging limping from the corner of his mouth. " So you still wanting to capture these guys? I know the experiments with Mega Stones and Dynamaxing other Pokémon, you think you could tame one of these?" 
She muttered quietly, "It could destroy everything." The beasts below her were easily bigger than the largest estimates of their species in the modern world, and worst still, Dialga is supposed to be a god of time, but this one was tearing at the neck of an incredibly acidic Goodra without using anything but brute strength. If it was powered up by modern Pokémon technology, the fate of the world would be at risk. Even still, the idea of the unexplored wilds excited her instincts.

"Yup!" Tour Guide rose up tall and started to stretch, "Anyway, last one down is a Psyduck!" With no delay, he jumped off the cliff into the 100' drop below, hammer glowing bright yellow.