The Final Experiment -

Professor runs an experiment to try and increase the size of the time portal, allowing matter through the gate. By doing so they open the gateway to (True) Dialga, who proceeds to wreck the base and kill the team.

Turo [How are the diagnostics?]

Inside the core lab in Area Zero stands two people, looking over the podium which had become a point of obsession for the past decade. Professor Turo, who normally takes great care of his appearance looks driven, almost haunted. A beard growing in, his clothing stained and worn. By comparison Sada is in almost perfect condition, everything precise and impeccable in stark contrast. Turo stands before a control board inspecting one last time the code for any flaws or obvious mistakes, while Sada walks around the base.

Turo [With this I can finally fix things. I can...]

He looks sideways at Sada who is paying little attention to him, instead diligently inspecting the machinery.

Sada [Professor, I can find nothing wrong with the machine. It appears to be ready for the test.]

Turo shakes himself out of idle thoughts of what could have been.

Turo [Thank you. Then let us proceed...]

Turo looks at the podium itself, at what feels like his greatest success become nightmare before sighing and entering one last command into the console and commencing the experiment.

The podium lights up (its reserves of master balls for once not moving) as the space seemingly fractures creating a tiny hole only a few centimeters across. Whereas the hole would normally only last a second or two, instead of disappearing it seems to ripple... and with that ripple, it starts expanding rapidly.

Turo [It's... Working? Thank Arceus its working! Please... just hold stable.]

A shape that while indistinct seems to alter as fast as it appears until it settles into a fractal like pattern centered on a set of glowing red dots.

Turo [What... is that?]

The dots themselves then grow until they take up the majority of the portal, resulting in a design whose shifting nature seems to assault the mind of any living thing that perceives it. A design which fortunately disappears into darkness seemingly devouring the portal from below. This relief however did not last long as something did come through the portal. Just not what was sought...

A powerful roar rippled through the lab, throwing Turo across the room and into the crystal, perforated by remnants of the equipment he used to modify the podium. The portal seems to fluctuate in time with the roar, before dying off. It's unclear whether the portal's closure stopped the roar, or the roars cessation closed the portal... but no living creature was left to ask.

Sada walks from behind the podium where she was monitoring the core equipment and approaches Turo, who lay against the wall bleeding.

Turo [Where... is Sada?]

Sada kneels down and puts her hand on Turo's shoulder, before grabbing the metal shards and carefully pulling them out.

Turo [Must... Find... Sada]

Sada? [Directive accepted. Directives - Maintain Lab. Investigate Portal... Find Sada.]

??? [See you in a few days then, don't get yourself in too much trouble.]

Solus [Will do.]

A heavyset guy stops walking away and sighs [Please dont.]

Snickering, a middle aged man grabs his bag and starts down the street.

Solus [Last day of work for a bit and an expansion to the region. Hell yes.]

He fishes something out of his pocket, a small metal card with a serial number on it, half red and half white on the back.

Solus [Bit fancy for a DLC code though... eh, maybe its a promo or something. definitely something i'll be keeping, it looks badass.]

He finally makes it home, shrugs his backpack onto the couch and washes his face. Looking at himself in the mirror, he sighs.

Solus [Life sucks. Whatever. Focus on the good - Paldea here I come!]

He plops down on the couch and boots up the switch to enter the code into the store.

News at nine - An explosion rips through a residential destroying the building. No bodies have been located and no perpetrator has been identified. However, if you see this person please call...

dun dun dun

[Almost to port Sir! Please get ready to disembark!]

A man sits up quickly, bleary eyed and blinking at the room.

[Port?... What?]

dun dun dun

[Sir? You need to wake up!]

Solus stiffens up as if a bucket of ice water was poured over him.

Solus [I'm up!]

Wide awake now, he slowly looks around at his... yes, now a small metal cabin. A far cry from his small apartment. Especially once he noticed a low rocking motion.

Solus [Oh god. Did I get drunk? Roofied?]

Getting up carefully he looks around. It's a small nondescript room, almost purely made of metal including the furniture. Unlike the rest of the room, there was a couple of familiar objects sitting on the small bedside table.

Scrambling quickly now, Solus picks up his cell phone (88% charge) and unlocks it.

Solus [No signal at all?...]

He opens up the map only for his shoulders to slump as it defaults to the world map with no localization.

Solus [Oh...]

Captain Jim Swallow was a sparse man. Clean cut, with a very austere outfit (white pants, shirt and jacket). Along with a temper only violated by jokes on his name and crew.

Jim hears a door open and glances up in time to see his passenger take the deck, looking about in apparent confusion. A short lad, with silver hair past his shoulders thats obviously unkempt. Wearing a set of clothing that almost looks native, but something just seems off about them. If nothing else then the designs and symbols on them.

[Well. At least he's up and about i suppose]

He sighs.

[Be done with our mystery guest soon enough.]

Jim is a no nonsense kind of guy, so having an "anonymous" fellow take passage rubs him the wrong way, as it smacks of trouble. A distaste which is only salved by the pile of pokeyen offered... and the fact the guy kept to his room the entire time. In fact now that he's thinking on it, this is the first time he's seen the fellow. He had come aboard covered up, only stopping to barter the passage and hand over the money.

[What's done is done. Just have to drop him off and thats the end of it.]

Sighing, Jim walks up to the kid.

Solus [... What]

Solus stares out over the side of the ship, looking towards the port they are rapidly approaching. But the growing city is not what catches his attention, instead its a giant monster. One that caused his brain to just stop functioning for a time.

Captain [Ah. A Gyarados. They do come to the shoreline from time to time, but dont you worry about it, Kip has us covered.]

Solus starts at the voice right next to him and looks to see a very cleanly dressed old man, at odds to the rest of the crew.

Solus [... I hate to ask, but Kip?]

The Captain nods and points to a large black and yellow bird that is sitting on the roof of what looks like the bridge of the ship.

Solus [Ah. That's a... Kilowattrel isn't it?]

Captain [Yep. You know your pokemon. Have you been here before then?]

Solus winces and facepalms. The roofie theory has died a horrible shrieking death. Taking a deep breath and trying to not gibber. This couldn't be true, but its hard to deny it. He's in the world of pokemon. Specifically the newest revealed region - Paldea. He takes a deep breath.

Solus - Ok... maybe it wasnt drugs. Is it a dream? A hallucination?

Solus [No, can't say I have. So do you normally do trips like this? A merchant trader between Paldea and...?]

The captain looks at him carefully before slowly shaking his head.

Captain [Look. I don't know why you wanted this trip. Don't know why you wanted it quiet. But I'll not have you insult my men with the implication that they don't abide their word.]

Solus stiffens up at the harsh glare he is receiving.

Solus [No no, I didn't mean anything like that. I have nothing but respect for you and your crew, or I wouldn't be here. Thank you for your efforts and]

He tries not to wince.

Solus [... Continued silence.]

The Captain looks him over one more time, then nods and walks away, still visibly angry.

Solus (Damn... Well. There goes my only source of information. Unless I want to appear crazy. Assuming I'm not.)

Sighing softly he pulls back out his phone and flips back to the odd texts.

Solus (Okay. Pokemon. Let's assume something didn't go terribly terribly wrong. A three digit code isnt a phone number, but it could be a Dex number. Just shy of 500, so should be 4th gen. Small chance of 5th, but I seriously doubt its anything short of a legendary... so 4th gen should be correct. Which ones though? And what do they want? Those texts weren't exactly clear. If something was strong enough to bring me here you would figure it could communicate better.)

The thought makes him freeze momentarily. Until his train of thought is entirely derailed by a buzzing noise. He looks up to see the Gyarados looking towards him... no, at the Captain's Kilowattrel. The bird's throat starts glowing and expanding, before what can only be described as hocking up a static loogy at the Gyarados. Which locks the Gyarados in place before it falls over into the water. The Kilowattrel circles before coming back to the ship, landing and chirping at the captain.

Solus steps off the ship onto a small concrete dock, where the crew had secured the ship. Task apparently done, the crew and it's captain were steadfastly ignoring him.

Solus [Nothing left here I suppose. Since I'm here I might as well enjoy myself right? If I had to choose between a day to day back home or this... Well, I'm not seeing a choice here so that's a pointless chain of thought.]

He slowly walks into town taking in the sights. A reasonably small town built around trade - specifically an open market with rotating sellers of virtually anything and everything. Fairly uniform houses, but a surprising number of people due to loads of visitors.

Solus [You don't really see the details through a screen. Everything's kind of cracked. Now, who would have the information... AH! The pokemon centers have reps for the league. So where was it in Marinado?]

He looks around for the big pokeball sign that marks every Pokemon Center and spots it. Across Town. At the top of the cliff.

Solus [Son of a landwhale... That's outside the town which means wild pokemon everywhere... What's native round here...? Revaroom? No; Baby form. Varoom is the common one. Which means I need pokemon to get to the Pokemon Center... Because I can only assume it won't be as easy to avoid pokemon as in the game. More like the old ones I bet.]

Wincing he starts wandering around town.

Solus [This is a... Ugh. Hate it when I cant remember the phrases. A condition whose requirements are themselves the result...Whatever. Doesn't matter. Need a pokemon, money...]

[Do you always talk to yourself?]

Solus [Hm... Usually people get starters from the professor, but here it was the dean...]

[Starters?]

Solus [I assume the reality is that you get them from whoever you can, but I can't rely on that...]

[Ok... This is new. And I hate it. Brisa?]

Solus [I could leverage ---]

A Haunter floats in front of Solus mid ramble and grabs him by both shoulders. When he focuses on it his 'reward' is being licked by a massive tongue that sends shivers down his spine. Jumping back he tries to find some dry clothing to wipe his face down... Failing that, he completely removes his shirt making spitting noises before using the dry parts of the shirt to wipe down his face.

Solus [The hell was that for?!]

He glares around until he spots the Haunter floating low and off to the side with a young woman leaning on it.

Woman [Oh... I'm so sorry, he just can't help himself sometimes! My name's Silla. And you... you're new around here.]

Solus' eyes widen slightly as he takes in the young(?) woman. Black pants and a red chain loose over the flare of her hips. Pink shirt peeking out from behind a short black tanktop exposing her stomach. Long blond hair with red streaks in a thick braid to her shoulder blades.

Solus (Damn.)

He stays distracted until he notices her smug grin, as she looks him over in turn now that he's shirtless.

Solus [... Did you want something? Or are you just a pervert or something?]

The woman - Silla - stiffens up, practically radiating indignation.

Silla [You were the one walking through town with your head up your own ass! I was just -]

Solus [- Being a brat. Yea yea, I get it. What does me not paying attention have to do with you though? I'll ask again, do you want something or did you just soak my shirt for no reason?]

Silla looks Solus over again, noticing for the first time that he doesn't seem to have any kind of bag... or much of anything else on him. Just that...

Silla [Is that a pokedex? Or rather, why are you wandering around blindly with nothing? Are you lost or something?]

Solus sighs and rubs the bridge of his nose.

Solus [... Or something. Well then, since you're here anyway... Silla was it?]

Silla makes an affirmative noise as eyes him with continued interest.

Solus [First and foremost, where are we?]

Silla [Porto Marinada of course! So you ARE new here then. Want me t-]

Solus [- Second question then. How would one go about registering... and starting... as a trainer here?]

Silla [grr]

Solus hears a growling noise and looks up to see Silla glaring at him. This brought to mind an angry kitten. Especially as she was shorter than him, albeit not by much.

Silla [What are you smirking at?!]

Solus [?? Sorry, had a funny thought. But about those answers?]

Silla stomps the ground and looks away from him, rage and indignation bleeding from her every action.

Solus [Why are /you/ pissed off? I'm the one who got a surprise tongue bath]

Silla [That's no excuse to treat me like this!]

Solus [... Like what?]

{Silla makes insane angry woman noises}

{Peoples attention turns towards the two}

Solus [Are you... okay?]

Silla continues growling incoherently as she turns around and stomps away. As she does Solus hears snickering as the Haunter watches on, before trailing after his trainer.

Solus [Alright then, that was a thing... well at least I know where the pokemon center is.]