"Another day, another loooong investigation", a female voice sighs. The voice belongs to a woman around 30, riding on the back of a scarlet Pokémon.
"Agias!" The Pokémon chirps cheerfully, happily trotting along a lightly used dirt path heading up a mountainside.
"Of course you don't mind, you get sandwiches regardless", the woman says with a huff, her blue eyes tired and with bags underneath. She wears a white tracksuit jacket with blue and red shorts and blue leggings, white sneakers, a red, fingerless glove on her right hand, and a pair of black and yellow sunglasses. On her back is a rectangular, red backpack, which clanks every now and again, full of items.
The Pokémon under her resembles a cross between a lizard and a motorcycle, with large folded wings on its head and a spiky dewlap resembling a wheel.
The Pokémon, named Koraidon, chirps happily with each step, while the woman sighs and slumps down slightly.
"I'm all for a good adventure but Geeta's been runnin' me ragged. I like the research part but the constant travel is boring when it's all the same stuff over and over. I've seen every square inch of Paldea at this point, can't I go visit Alola again? Or heck even Kanto?!"
For a second, the woman pauses, then shakes her head with a disdainful look on her face.
"On second thought, I'll pass on Kanto again. Getting hassled by the Rockets was a headache last time", the woman complains.
A buzzing sound catches her attention, and her Rotom phone flies up in front of her face. A familiar, green-haired woman pops up on screen.
"Oh thank Arceus it's just Rika", the woman sighs with relief, tapping the screen with a smile. The green-haired woman on the screen smiles and waves.
"Hey, hey, hey! Rika here, at your service!", the green-haired woman greets, "How goes it Brody?"
The tired brunette, Brody, responds, "Hey, Rika. Everything's going fine on my end. Ya know, as fine as it can be. La Primera is having me investigate another anomaly."
Brody pauses to run a hand through her hair, then continues, "We're pretty sure it's an Ultra Wormhole. I really hope not, if something comes through we're gonna have a real mess on our hands."
Rika looks sympathetic, and says, "Don't worry kiddo, if anyone's got this, it's you." She snaps her fingers and says, "Tell ya what; you get this little assignment done and over with, and I'll take you out to eat tomorrow night."
Brody's eyes light up and she exclaims, "Wait, seriously?! Also really, 'kiddo'? I'm your age last I checked!"
Rika chuckles, hand on her face, "Okay, Okay, talk to you later... kiddo."
With that the phone shuts off, leaving a flustered Brody to stammer. Brody grumbles to herself, muttering to herself about getting back at Rika later. An excited cry from Koraidon catches her attention, her head raising to see what caught the lizard's attention. About 20 yards away, up the side of the mountain, is glowing, pulsing portal, floating in midair. Brody smiles and pats Koraidon's side. The lizard Pokémon launches itself up with powerful hind legs, latching onto the cliff side with sharp claws and gripping pads on its feet. Koraidon easily scales the cliff face, reaching the top in under a minute. Once they reach flat ground, Brody dismounts and walks over to study the wormhole.
Brody pov...
"Well at least it's not open yet", I note, walking over and swiping a hand through the floating mass of mostly harmless energy, "It's still unstable though. I'll have to make a call to the Ultra Recon Squad so they can come and contain this."
I raise a leg and aim a few half-hearted kicks at the energy mass, chuckling to myself. I put my hands on my hips and sigh. I turn back to Koraidon and say, "Looks like we'll get to leave sooner than I expected, bud." Koraidon chirps excitedly as I pull out my Rotom phone to make the call. As the phone starts to ring, however, the earth shakes violently, causing me to stumble over. Koraidon catches me thankfully, and as I pull myself up I turn to see the portal glowing brighter and brighter by the second. Once the ground stops shaking I can finally stand up fully, eyes wide open as I watch the portal open. In a flash of light, the wormhole tears open the fabric of space-time, spiderwebbing out in a mix of light and dark blue energy.
Once fully open, the portal pulses wildly, the sound almost deafening at this close range. Small cracks appear along its edges, threatening to spread with each passing moment. I frantically go to pull a pokeball off my belt in case anything comes through, when a strong pulse of energy creates a powerful gust of wind that sweeps me and Koraidon off our feet. It pulls us into the portal, and my field of view is immediately filled with flashing balls of light energy, glowing, colorful portals, and pulsing fields of dark purple and blue energy. Combined with being thrown around violently, it's too much for me to take, and I black out.
...
When I come to, I can hear the chirping of birds and buzzing of various insects all around me. The area is shaded from what I can tell by the lack of bright light outside of my eyelids, for which I'm thankful. I groan and slowly push myself up, my hands coming into contact with a wooden floor, meaning I'm most likely indoors. I manage to sit up and rub my eyes, my sight slowly returning. I shake my head for a few seconds, fully clearing my vision. Looking around, I see I'm in a small family home, similar to those in Johto's Ecruteak City. Mostly wooden furniture, hand stitching on the cloth parts of the furniture, lots of warm colors, it's peaceful and calming.
"Wait, if I'm in a house, where's the family?", I wonder out loud, "Where even is here anyways. I came through the portal, so I'm not in Paldea anymore."
I look around again then stand up when I realize Koraidon is nowhere to be seen.
"W-wait, where's Koraidon?! Did he end up here too?!", I shout, getting ready to rush out the door to find my partner. I hear shouting outside, prompting me to run out and investigate. Shoving the door open, I'm confused by the scene before me.
To my relief, Koraidon is here as well. But, to my bewilderment, he's surrounded by a family of strange, fox-like creatures. The creatures have dark gold fur and stand upright like humans, with long limbs and faces and muscular torsos. Their limbs end in sharp talons that look capable of tearing a man apart. The creatures aren't Pokémon though, and they don't appear to be hostile. Koraidon stands in the middle of the group of four, clearly excited and wound up. One of the fox creatures takes a step forward, arms up to show it's not a threat. Koraidon turns, sniffs the air, then turns to see me standing on the front porch. He lets out an excited 'Agias' and leaps over the foxes easily, landing right in front of me. He immediately starts licking my face, tail wagging excitedly. I try to block the onslaught of slobbery lizard kisses, but fail miserably.
"Okay, okay! I'm okay, buddy!", I shout, laughing as I'm knocked back on my butt by the barrage of licks.
"Y-You shouldn't be up yet miss!", a raspy voice calls out, distracting me from the kiss attack. I hum and turn to the source of the voice, which, to my surprise, is the fox creatures.
"Oh, you guys can talk?! That's pretty neat! Only a few creatures back home can do that!", I exclaim, already fascinated by where I've ended up. I pat Koraidon on the snout and stand up, walking over the the foxes. This was way less intimidating than talking to actual people. Plus, this was a chance to gather information.
"Sorry about Koraidon, he's not dangerous, I promise. Unless you're a sandwich.", I assure them, holding out a hand in greeting", the name's Brody."
The foxes seem baffled at first, but one of them slowly approaches me and shakes my hand.
"You really shouldn't be up yet, miss. I mean, you fell from the SKY!", the fox exclaims.
"I did? Oh, I guess that makes sense. We did come through an Ultra Wormhole after all.", I admit.
The whole family of fox creatures look even more confused, looking between each other and whispering before shrugging. When the fox stops shaking my hand, I say, "Oh, I guess I should explain. Basically, Ultra Wormholes are tears in the fabric of time and space that lead to a place called Ultra Space, which is like space-time between space-time sorta. It connects other worlds like a super highway, and is full of these crazy strong monsters called Ultra Beasts, which are born in worlds within Ultra Space itself."
I put a hand above my eyes as I look around, and say, "Luckily I don't think any Ultra Beasts came through with us, or we'd all be in trouble."
The foxes all stand in front of me in shock, unsure of how to respond. For a few minutes they huddle together, probably discussing what I just told them. I take the time to take stock of my surroundings. We're on a hill surrounded by dense cedar forest, with a lone cedar tree towering over the house. In the distance I can see a town. It's a nice, quiet place to live on this hill. A butterfly floats by me and I hold a hand out for it to land on. I admire it's beautiful, peacock green wings for a moment before it flies away. I perk my head up when the foxes approach Koraidon and I again.
"So, you're really not from this world?", One of the foxes asks.
"Nope.", I chirp happily, before asking them, "Any chance you could give me the rundown on how this one works?"
"Is there a way for you to get back?", one of the foxes asks.
I put a hand on my chin and hum, "Hmm, technically all I'd have to do is wait for either another wormhole to open, or for the Ultra Recon Squad to find me. But that could take a while."
The foxes look at each other again, before starting to explain their world to me. It's a lot to take in at first, and a lot of it is confusing,
"In the meantime, you should take the Hunter Exams", the lead fox suggests, "It should be a breeze for you and that weird monster."
"Hunter Exams?", I question.
As they explain what hunters are to me, I find myself fascinated. From gourmet hunters that search for rare ingredients, to blacklist hunters who bring down wanted criminals, it's all so fascinating to me. Plus I'm used to a good treasure hunt.
"If you take the exam, there's actually someone we recommend you meet. If possible, speak to a man named Netero, he's the chairman of the Hunter Association", the fox creature, a 'magical beast' known as a Kiriko, explains to me, "He might know more about this whole 'other world' thing. He could probably help if you need it, he's the smartest and wisest guy around."
"Okay, but how do I enter this exam?", I ask, scratching the side of my head.
"Well since you've already impressed us, I should tell you we're Examiners, so you could start right now", the first one explains, "We'll take you to the exam site right now if you'd like."
"Wait, wait, wait, 'impressed you'? How'd I do that?", I ask, even more bewildered.
The second fox holds up a finger and says, "You see, the actual exam is taking place in Zaban City this time around. But, because there's so many people that want to enter the exam each year, the Association hires extra examiners to weed out unfit applicants before they reach the real exam. We trim the fat, so to speak. Not only that, but we get to judge who is worthy and who isn't. In our eyes, you surviving a fall from the sky AND coming from another world makes you pretty worthy."
"I... guess that makes sense", I reply, unsure what to think, "Wait, how do we get to Zaban City exactly?"
The foxes grin amongst themselves and shout, "WE FLY!"
.........
New story, nothing much to say right now, just been wanting to write for Pokémon for a while and finally got motivated. The Monster Hunter Open Ocean Rewrite is being planned out, but will take time as it's a big undertaking. I'm working on a new name for it as well as Open Ocean was initially the beta name. It's tied between New Tides and Cruel Sea.
Anyways, this is just chapter 1, nothing too exciting, just trying to get back into my groove.