Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Thank you all for coming here today.  This is a momentous breakthrough, and I wouldn't want any of you to miss it!" Golf Ball said, beaming proudly.  

She then walked along the stage towards a large mass, covered by a white sheet.  "As some of you know, back during IDFB I found a Wall Teleporter in the Science Museum.  Since we haven't needed it since then, TB and I were fiddling around with it, trying to figure out how it works so we can improve it.  And we made an amazing discovery."

She turned towards the audience, smirking.  "When supplied with a large enough power source, the Wall Teleporter has near-endless potential.  In fact, with enough power and a few modifications, it can take a person to places outside the universe!  And what better powerhouse than a number?" she continued, gesturing with her foot towards Four, Two, and X, who were lined up next to the covered machine.

"With the power of these three lucky symbols, my new machine can take the user to dimensions unknown to objectkind," she explained as she grabbed the cloth with one foot.  "May I present to you... the Multiversal Travel Machine!"

The machine resembled a giant microscope, with a small stage next to a glossy-screened terminal.  Out of the top of the terminal was a mechanical arm that ended in a head similar to the original Wall Teleporter.

"Any questions before we begin?" Golf Ball asked the audience.  Blocky raised a hand, soliciting a sigh from GB.  "Yes, Blocky?"

"Where are the concessions being sold?  I was promised snacks," he deadpanned.

"Yeah! I want some chips!" Eraser insisted next to him.  Golf Ball smacked her head on her lifted foot in a facepalm. Or rather, facesole.

"Outside the left exit, turn to the right," she droned.  Eraser promptly rushed out to grab some grub for him and his friends.

Golf Ball sighed again.  "Any OTHER questions?"

Donut spoke up. "Yeah, uh, how did you get Four and Two to cooperate? They hate each other, and Four can be pretty stubborn."

"Bribery!" Four happily squealed.  "Golf Ball said that if I do this, she'll give me a whole bunch of funding to fix up the EXIT!"

"I'm gonna get a WHOLE new set of basket weaving supplies!" X cheered.

"I just didn't want to miss out on this," Two calmly added.

"Is that it?" Golf Ball asked the audience. After a silence, she continued.

"Will all BFB contestants please come forward?" she asked.

They all came forward one by one: Flower, Gelatin, Teardrop, Leafy, Firey, Bubble, Lollipop, Woody, Loser, Blocky, Taco, Ruby, Spongy, and Balloony.  

Profily skipped up the steps to the stage as well.  “6th place contestant, coming through!” they sang.  Golf Ball stopped them.

“And who are you meant to be?” she asked with an air of scrutiny.

“Uh, Profily?  One of the oldest and coolest BFDI contestants?” they offered.

“Hmm...” Golf Ball hummed as she eyed the blue icon up and down.  “I don’t remember you at all, but you do seem pretty cool.” Then she perked up. “Alright, you can go ahead!”

Once everyone was on stage, Golf Ball cleared her throat.  "Congratulations, you will be the first objects to venture to a whole new plane of being!" Several of those on stage were taken off guard by this.

“Wh-what?  I didn’t agree to that!” Blocky stammered in anger.

Four tried to explain.  “Sorry folks, another part of my end of the deal is that I had to find some test subjects for GB as well.  Just think of this as a fun little adventure!”

“And why should we go along with this? There isn’t a competition as an excuse to make us do this now, quad-digit,” Lollipop asked.

“If you do it, I’ll put you all on the waiting list for a TPOT, each.  It’ll be a while, but I’m planning on making multiple this time, so there won’t be any need to fight over them.” Four offered.

Two got riled up at this. “Hey!  You can’t just do that!  It’s my show, that’s like, piracy or something!”

Four rolled their eyes at this.  “You’re one to talk.  At least I got the Announcer’s approval for my season in the end.  You’ve been using the BFDI brand as part of TPOT, and you don’t even have the original show creator’s consent!”

Two sputtered at this, then took a deep breath.  “Fine. But it better be a limited run,” they said, crossing their arms.

Balloony was intrigued, but took caution.  “It would be pretty nice to be able to watch all my old friends compete on TPOT, but is this machine even safe?”

“Oh, absolutely!  I actually tested it on bugs before today, and they all came back fine,” Golf Ball assured.

“Then… I guess I’m in!” Balloony said with a shrug.  Everyone else seemed to be willing now too, nodding and mumbling in agreement.

“Great then!  It’ll just be a quick trip, but there’s a few steps to get ready first,” Golf Ball said.

"Now, the first step to prepare is to-- **BANG**

When the reverberating sound of the explosion blew through the air, everyone there had been deafened.

Those who were closest to the machine weren't: instead they were knocked unconscious by the blast. And teleported to a completely different universe.

Chapter Text

--- Pokemon POV ---

‘Thoughts,’

“Pokemon Dialogue,"  (Not understandable by humans)

“Human Dialogue,” (Understood by everyone)

Flower’s head was buzzing, and her body felt heavy, like she had eaten an entire crate of Yoyleberries.

‘Just gotta… sleep in today.  Beauty sleep is important,’ she slowly thought to herself, despite the horrific pain in her carpel.

She laid like this for a while, but eventually she finally stirred.  One eye open, then the other.

The sky was a cloudy blue, no cause for alarm there.  No, what perplexed Flower the moment she opened her eyes is the fact that the grass around her seemed usually tall.

“I don’t remember there being grass this tall around my usual sleeping spot…” Flower muttered to herself.  Her voice seemed more strained than usual, just like every other part of her felt.  

She tried to push herself up off the ground and onto her feet, but paused with a wince when pain shot through one of her legs.  She glanced over at it, and noticed it was twisted at an unnatural angle. “Oh petals!  Did I sleep on my leg wrong?” she whined. After a few tries, she managed to hobble onto her feet, and slowly looked around.

“What is this place? I don’t recognize this field,” she asked herself. 

Then the events of Golf Ball’s presentation shot through her mind, and her eyes widened.  “Wait, did that blast send me to another universe!?  Oh my gardener!” she blurted.  “Wh- where did the others go?” 

She shook her head.  “Okay, I better find somebody else. Anybody else,” she decided.  ‘I just hope that I’m not all alone…’ she thought with dread.

She began limping along, taking care not to strain her twisted and dislocated leg.

After a few minutes, she began to feel exhausted.  She hadn’t even gotten that far, but she was already disoriented and injured, so movement of any kind took its toll on her.  Luckily, she managed to hear voices coming in her direction!

The first was a masculine voice. “Okay, there should be a town this way, and it has a Pokemon Center close to the city limits.  We can make a pitstop there,”

The second was another boyish voice, albeit younger.  “Alright!  One center closer to the next gym!”

“Yeah!” cried a smaller voice in response.

The fourth speaker was a feminine one.  “Don’t forget, the contest in Jubilife comes first!  I can’t wait to use Piplup’s new contest moves on the field!”

“Yep! I’m going to look so cool out there!” agreed another small voice.

Flower had no idea what any of them were talking about, but it didn’t matter right then.  She just needed to get their attention. She cupped her hands up to her mouth in a megaphone gesture.

“Help!  Whoever you are, come this way!” she hoarsely croaked.

“What was that?” asked one of the previous speakers, the younger boy.

“Sounds like Pokemon cries, but I don’t recognize what kind,” replied the older male voice.

“It sounds like it’s hurt…” said the girl’s voice.  Shuffling noises and footsteps could be heard.  “I think it was coming from this way!”

The grass in front of her parted, and Flower wasn’t sure what to think of what she saw.

The girl's voice turned out to belong to a large, towering figure, a little over twice Flower’s size.  She was quite obviously not an object, though her appearance kind of reminded Flower of Dora for some reason.  She was wearing a black and pink dress, with a white and pink hat on top of her head, along with her long blue hair.  A small blue animal sat on her shoulder. Flower had only heard descriptions of birds before, but this creature seemed to match that description. 

The girl began to speak. “I’ve never seen a Pokemon like this before…” she trailed off.  

The three of them, Flower, the girl, and the blue bird, just stared at each other in a dumbfounded manner for a few seconds, before Flower shook off her own shock.  

“I’m hurt and lost, can you help me?” she pleaded.  She gestured to her injured leg as she spoke.

“Oh, you poor thing! That leg definitely looks bent out of shape,” she cooed.

The other two people came over as well.  The younger boy had black hair and a red cap, while the older one had squinted eyes and a green and orange outfit.  The boy also had a strange yellow creature perched on his shoulder.  If the other creature had been hard to identify, this one was a definite enigma.  It had long ears like a rabbit, but a long jagged tail that was definitely not like any bunny Flower had heard of.

“It’s kind of like a Sunflora, but even that’s not close,” said the hatted boy.

Flower felt anger bubble up in her at this.  “Hey! I am not an ‘it’! I’m not a sunflower either, I’m just a flower, thank you very much!” she rasped.

“Hey, calm down!” cautioned the other, older boy. “We can help you.” He pulled out a purple spray bottle.  “We’ll need to take you to a Pokemon Center to get that leg looked at, but for now, let’s take care of the little things.  This potion will sting a bit, but it’s medicine.  Is it okay if I use it on you?”

“Eh, okay.  No pain no gain I guess,” Flower mused.  She slid closer to the boy.

The medicine felt like acid on her skin, and she gritted her teeth with a hiss in response.  But when the sting faded, so did the pain in her leg.  “Huh! It feels just fine now,” she said as she prepared to put a bit of weight onto it.  Unfortunately when she did so, a new bolt of pain was sent through it. “Okay, maybe not just fine.  But it’s better!”

She looked up at the trio of kind people.  “Wow, thanks!  Do you think you could take me to that town you were talking about?” she asked, pointing at herself for effect.  Then she gestured towards the direction the travellers had been heading before. “It’s that way, right?”

“I think it wants to come with us,” the girl said.  Then her eyes lit up with an idea, and she pulled out an odd red and white orb with a button on it. She showed it to Flower.  “You don’t have to, but would you like to be part of my team?  Me and Piplup have been trying to catch a new Pokemon for contests, and you look like the perfect fit!”

Flower blanked. “I don’t know what you’re even talking about,” she hesitated. “What even is this weird ball thing?” she questioned as she curiously reached out to press the button on it.  

As soon as it clicked, a white light filled her vision, and she became incredibly disoriented as it felt like her body was literally being sucked out from the space it stood in.

“AAH- WHAT?! HELP!” she screamed as she could feel her very being get pulled into the ball.

--- Human POV ---

Dawn fidgeted as she waited for the Pokeball to process her new catch.  It only wiggled once before going still for a few seconds.  Then after a pause, the Pokeball let out another click, with a glow of approval.

Dawn lifted the Pokeball into the air triumphantly. “I just caught… my first Pokemon!” she cheered.  She wasn’t quite sure what it was, but it was still a huge milestone.

“Pip-pilup!” Piplup added in excitement.

Chapter Text

--- Meanwhile in Goiky ---

Eraser smacked the door to the auditorium open with the full force of his body, arms full of various junk food he had bought from the concession stand. "Hey guys! I got the chips! And a bunch of other stuff!"

Then he noticed that everyone was too busy staring at the stage in shock. Where there had once been a large machine on it, instead was a large patch of scorched floorboards and smoke.

Eraser shifted uncomfortably at this. "Uh, is this a bad time or...?"

"WHAT THE FLIP JUST HAPPENED?" Pen shouted, pointing at the stage.

"That's what I'd like to know," Eraser deadpanned. He came down and took a seat in the audience next to Pen.

"Golf Ball's machine! It just... blew up!" Pen explained. He was still in a state of shock, much like everyone else in the crowd who had seen the event. "Did it kill them all?"

"I don't think so," a new voice interrupted. It was Tennis Ball, peeking out from the backstage area. He walked over towards Golf Ball's former spot, and looked around to see if anyone else was still on stage.

Pen looked back at him and said, "So... then where are they?"

Tennis Ball sighed. "Probably in another universe. And I don't even know which one! When you're using the MTM, you're supposed to choose some coordinates for a universe you want to go to, but Golf Ball didn't manage to set it before it exploded. They could be in almost any universe!" He paused for a moment in thought. "All I can say for certain is that they're likely all in the same universe. Most of our tests showed that when the machine sends two things at once, they end up in the same world. Let's just hope they're somewhere safe," Tennis Ball muttered.

-- - Human POV -- -

"It's good that Mocha Town has a Pokemon Center even though it's such a small town," Dawn mentioned as they entered the facility. "Well, let's get this mysterious Pokemon taken care of!"

The three trainers approached the front desk. Ash decided to explain their situation to the local Nurse Joy. "Hi! We found a Pokemon with a hurt leg on the side of Route 202. We aren't sure what it is, but we were wondering if you could still help it!"

"Why of course! Did you manage to catch it?" she sweetly replied.

"Yep! It's in this Pokeball, right here!" Dawn chirped as she handed the ball to the nurse.

"I'm going to let it out and take a look at it, is that okay?" Nurse Joy inquired.

Dawn was about to answer when Brock cut her off. "Of course! An incredible woman such as yourself always knows exactly what to do with a situation like this!" he gushed, hearts in his eyes.

"Uh..." the nurse was taken off guard by this outburst, and looked to Dawn and Ash for guidance.

"Yeah, you can take it out," Dawn mumbled, with noticeable exasperation towards Brock's shenanigans.

"Alright! Come on out, little one!" the nurse beckoned as she pressed the button. The usual beam of light came rocketing out, pooling on the desk in front of her.

When the glow cleared, there sat a small flower-like creature, with a yellow head and pink petals. It blinked the light out of it's eyes, and immediately began to panic, looking around frantically at the people in the room.

"Flow! Flo flow flow flow!!" it jabbered in a shrill voice.

--- Pokemon POV ---

‘Thoughts,’

“Pokemon Dialogue,"  (Not understandable by humans)

“Human Dialogue,” (Understood by everyone)

Flower wasn't sure whether to freak out and try to figure out what just happened, or snap at the weird people who had done... that to her. She decided to do a little bit of both.

"What the petal was that?! You don't just use weird devices on people without warning them! I felt like I was being vaporized! I don't know what that was, but it was terrifying!" She focused her glare on the blue haired girl from before. "You! That was super rude of you to suck me up into that thing! I just wanted some help getting to a hospital, not whatever that wa-aaAa..." her thoughts were interrupted by a soothing hand on her petals. Normally she despised people touching them without asking, but whoever was maneuvering their fingers on the foliage knew just how to hit her sweet spots, and she melted on the spot.

An equally soothing voice spoke to her. "It's okay, you're safe here. Now let's take a look at your leg, okay?"

The fingers shifted down to her injured limb. "Seems it's just dislocated. I need to pop it back into place, then the healer will be able to do the rest. Are you ready?"

"Yes!"  Flower replied eagerly. Anyone who could give a proper petal massage seemed trustworthy in her eyes.

With a firm push, the nurse shoved her thigh back into place. It was accompanied with a small pop and a final jab of pain. Flower let out a bit of a squeak at the feeling before it swiftly faded. "There we go!"

"Wow, thanks!" Flower expressed, looking down at her leg and wiggling the foot a bit. "Still a little sore, but it's close to being healed!"

The nurse smiled at her, seeming to appreciate her gratitude. "Now, let's get you back into your Pokeball. You're gonna need a round of healing before you're back to 100 percent!"

Flower widened her eyes at this. "Wait, do I seriously need to go in that thing again?! Isn't there some alternati- AAAA !"

As she felt her body once again being absorbed into the red and white orb, she ended her shout with a groan. 'Not again!'

Chapter Text

Back in Goiky, everyone was at a loss of what to do.

"How do we get them back?! We can't just leave them in another universe!" Pen yelled out.

Tennis Ball racks his brain, trying to think of a solution to this disaster. "We can't recover them even if they die out there, since we still don't have any recovery centers and all the hosts are gone now. Maybe if one of them was still here we could try it, but unfortunately that isn't an option," he says.

Donut speaks up from the crowd. "Actually, wait! I just realized. Remember the whole thing that happened during BFB, where I absorbed Four's factor?" Everyone nods. "Well, after we got Four back, they told me what to do if a situation like that ever happens again," he explains. Then he turns to another object in the crowd. "Marker? You need to play Nine."

--- Human POV ---

After getting Flower healed at the Pokemon Center, it was back on the road for Ash and his friends. They were heading along a road through the forest, when suddenly a Scizor came leaping into their path.

"A Scizor!" Ash exclaimed. Pikachu echoed with a 'pi-ka!'

"Woah, that's a Scizor?" Dawn mumbled to herself as she pulled out her Pokedex.

The device flipped on and began describing the bug. "Scizor: the Pincer Pokemon. It intimidates foes with it's claws imprinted with eyelike patterns."

"How cool!" Dawn remarked.

A voice began calling out for Scizor. Shortly afterward a girl rushed over to the Pokemon. "Can't you slow down? You don't have to be in that big of a rush!"

"Hello!~" Brock swooned, much to the girl's confusion. "As far as I'm concerned the only place you should rush to is by my side!"

"Really?" the girl asked.

Dawn and Ash were awkwardly forced to watch this whole situation. "Not again..." Dawn sighed as she and Ash came over to Brock's side.

"That Scizor is great, is it yours?"

The girl confirmed Dawn's guess. "It sure is! Scizor's my all-time fave."

She leaned forward a bit. "Anyway, I heard there's a gym close by! Do you all know if that's true?"

"A gym?" Ash questioned. He turned to Dawn.

"I think the closest gym around must be the Oreburgh Gym," she said with a hint of thought in her voice.

"She's right, it's past Jubilife City," Ash clarified.

"No, that's not the one I mean. I'm talking about the brand new gym that just opened up. That's what we're out here looking for!"

Everyone was ignoring Brock, who was still frozen on his knees before the girl. His dreamy expression had given way to disappointment.

"A brand new gym?" Ash asked.

"It's called the Powerzone Gym," the girl said.

Ash turned his gaze to Pikachu. "What'd ya say we go find it too?"

"Pika-tu!" Pikachu chirped.

"I'd love to see how a real gym operates!" Dawn agreed.

"Hey, let's all look for it." The girl finally realized she'd never introduced herself. "Oh, Minnie's what they call me."

"Hi, my name's Ash!" Ash introduced, with Pikachu following with his own interjection.

"I'm Dawn! Nice to meet you!" Dawn added as well.

"Nice to meet you! C'mon, let's go!" Minnie said before swiftly taking off down the trail. Everyone except Scizor and Brock tailed her closely.

After a moment, Brock let his head hang in a dejected manner. He mumbled to himself sadly, "The name's Brock, whether you break my heart or not..."

--- ---

As they looked for the gym, Minnie explained that the word being spread is that the Powerzone Gym takes in unskilled trainers and Pokemon and helps them train. Since Minnie is still learning, she figured that they'd be willing to help her.

Everyone soon found the gym. It wasn't hard to miss, the most brightly colored things in the forest. Vines were painted across it's front, and a small tower sprouted from the top of the building.

As they entered, they found a boy using his Sandslash to battle the gym leader's Croagunk.

"Wow hey, look at 'em go!" Ash marveled. Even being a long-time trainer with Pokemon of his own, he still loved seeing others duke it out with their Pokemon.

"Wow, we came at a good time!" Dawn stated.

"Sandslash and Croagunk, lookin' great!" Minnie praised.

Dawn and Ash simultaneously took out their Pokedexes to scan the battling mons. Dawn's Pokedex explained that Sandslash kicks up dust clouds of sand to hide in, while Ash's Pokedex spoke of Croagunk's preferred murky, damp habitats.

That reminded Dawn: after putting the flower Pokemon back into it's Pokeball to get it healed, she had spoken a bit to Nurse Joy about what it could possibly be. The medic had admitted she couldn't identify it, but recommended that Dawn take some time later to scan it with her Pokedex to see if there was some obscure entry about it somewhere in the device's database.

Dawn looked around a bit. The battle was still going strong, though Sandslash seemed to be wearing out a bit. She looked at Ash. "Hey, we better scan our mystery Pokemon before I forget!"

"Sounds good!" Ash said with a small thumbs up.

Dawn shifted her Pokedex to one hand, and grabbed the Pokeball from a pocket in her bag. "Come on out friend!"

When the small lanky plant emerged from a beam of light, even the battling trainers and their Pokemon paused for a moment to stare.

It blinked the light out of it's eyes and gave it's body a stretch. "Flowww!"

--- Pokemon POV —

‘Thoughts,’

“Pokemon Dialogue,"  (Not understandable by humans)

“Human Dialogue,” (Understood by everyone)

Flower stretched her back and arms long and hard, twisting her neck a bit to wring out the odd feeling of rematerializing. "Probably never going to get used to that." she mumbled to herself as she worked her tissues.

Once she was done, she looked back to see several people in the room staring at her. "Uh, what's with all the funny looks? I'm not even the weirdest person in here." At the moment she figured that would either be the big blue frog or the spiny yellow thing.

She looked back and forth across the room as some of the staring people began to mumble to each other. She mainly could only pick up a few words and phrases scattered here and there, due to being across the room from most of them.

A nearby girl with brown hair and pink clothing seemed to be impressed. "Wow, I've never seen a Pokemon like that before! Lucky find!"

A boy with bluish black hair, standing on one side of what appeared to be a sports court of some sort, seemed confused. The main part Flower made out was "Looks like a grass type." ...which made no sense considering anyone with eyes could tell she was a flower. Being a member of the Poaceae family was Grassy's thing.

Lastly, a magenta haired woman with a masquerade-style mask on the other side of the play area had started mumbling to a very short humanoid, who appeared almost catlike in appearance behind his shades. Heck, he even had triangular feline ears on top of his head. A man with periwinkle hair to his shoulders was also trying to quickly and discreetly approach and join in on the conversation.

Flower could pick out even less of their speech. Stuff like "twerps" and "weird Pokemon" and "disguises" were things she was able to hear.

After a few more words and a short moment, the masked lady turned to the blue amphibian on the battlefield, shouting "Brick Break, go!"

Both of the opponents were alerted by this command, but it was too late. The frog creature leapt forward and landed with a karate chop on the sandy yellow mammal across from it, before it had a chance to properly process the attack. It fell to the floor with dazed eyes.

"Sandslash! You okay?" The young boy asked. Of course, it didn't respond, being mostly unconscious.

The taller man in sunglasses had returned to his area of the sidelines, and proceeded to announce the defeat. "Sandslash is unable to battle! Princess Powerzone wins!"

"That's me!" the 'princess' cheered.

The 'Sandslash' had returned to the land of the living, and the boy seemed to be comforting it. "You did great Sandslash..."

"At least I tried my best..." Sandslash replied.

"A valiant effort," Princess Powerzone said, approaching the child. "Still, you and your Sandslash have to keep your eyes on the prize if you want to get a badge!"

"You'll both need to work on your focus. But fear not, we can at least assist your Pokemon in training," The tall man interjected.

"We'll supercharge that Sandslash!" the shorter man said. He was a little closer now, and Flower swore she could see that he had short fur, which made sense considering the ears and what appeared to be a poorly tucked-in tail.

"Wow, thank you so much! Isn't that nice of them?" the boy asked his Sandslash friend.

"It almost feels too good to be true!" it responded.

With that, the boy absorbed Sandslash into a ball just like the one Flower had been sucked into, and handed it over to the trio in front of him. "'Kay, I'll be back later!"

"Much later!" The three said in unison.

Suddenly from behind, Flower heard a robotic voice. "Unable to identify Pokemon. Data not found."

She looked back to see the blue haired girl, the one who had captured her, holding some kind of folding digital device. "Huh, that's weird. Not even the Pokedex knows what you are. I wonder if you're a new species of Pokemon!" she exclaimed. "We'll have to do some more research later. For now, let's see what's up with this gym!"

The younger boy of the group called out to Princess Powerzone and her helpers. "All right! Excuse me! We wanna battle too!"

"Me too, if you don't mind!" the newest girl added.

"O-of course! It would be our pleasure!" the blue haired man stammered.

"Is.. something wrong? You guys seem kinda nervous." the boy asked.

Princess Powerzone cut in front of her helpers and waved her hands. "Oh no no no! Everything couldn't be more right!"

She raised her arm high in the air. "I am your not-so-humble gym leader, Princess Powerzone. So, who will be first?"