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StraightOffTheMap

Otherwise Known As: Prologue, Part One

"Is she okay?"

That was a stupid question. She felt absolutely fine. Heck, she felt warm here. The feeling was nowhere near toasty-warm or hot shower-warm, but it still made her comfortable.

She shifted slightly and breathed in.

"Hey, get up!"

She scowled at the urgency in the voice. She recently got a new mattress for her bed after much debate with her family. She should have gotten rid of the old one years ago, especially after being stabbed countless times by murderous loose springs. As one would imagine, the new mattress became the best thing she had fallen asleep. It held her shape adequately and lulled her straight to sleep.

Why did the bed now feel all weird? Something poked around at her bare skin. She knew it couldn't be her cat. The old guy stopped biting people for his breakfast years ago.

A soft breeze, much unlike the blown heat from the fan she kept beside her bed, slipped by her. It carried a strange scent, sulphury in nature, which caused her to make a face. She normally couldn't smell a thing. Her house embodied the concept of poor ventilation. So she ended up with a constantly stuffy nose, though she hadn't forgotten the scent of certain things. Could the aroma on the wind be… The ocean?

Her eyes snapped open. Her brown pupils darted upward.

The Sun beamed right into them. Bad move. A really bad move. She squeezed her eyes shut. Blinding white afterimages clung to her vision as she pushed herself off the hard ground.

"Damn it," she muttered.

She heard rustling when the wind blew around her. She reopened one of her pupils. Tiny blades of green grass rubbed against her lower limbs.

"Are you alright?" There was that voice again, accompanied by some shuffling. The voice possessed a youthful quality, yet cracked in the midst of their speech.

She opened her other eye and followed an imaginary trail down from her torso to a pair of legs that rarely ever saw the sunlight and… Feet.

I'm still a human. A tiny part of her hoped to see her features change as she watched. Maybe her plain old legs would bend in a way to give her an animalistic shape or become all hairy or turn a tint of green like a Treecko's or… Or whatever.

"At least you're awake."

She wasn't a Pokémon. Why did her mind stupidly compare this situation to anything going on in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon? Her thinking that she would be anywhere near a Pokémon could be filed under a terrible pipe dream. Reality didn't allow anything as fantastical as the series' creatures to exist within it.

She shook her head. Her conclusion did nothing to answer the real question. Why was she not on her comfortable bed in her room?

I must be half-asleep, her mind reasoned. That seemed logical. She was merely lying in bed and running this strange scenario through her head. Nothing more and nothing less.

The voice from earlier spoke. "My buddy was worried that you kicked the bucket."

She lifted her head. "I'm fine," she said, a sense of confidence leaking into her words. She might as well indulge in this lucid dream. "I'm confused, I guess…" She met the eyes of the voice and, without meaning to, froze up.

A boy hovered over her. Concern clasped his eyebrows together. The first thing she noted about him was his hair. He kept most of it bundled in a ponytail. This left two strands to frame his taupe brown face.

Considering that, the thing that made her head do a tilt ended up being the hue of his hair. It appeared to be black at first glance. Her sight strained against the sunlight the longer she looked up at him, and she saw glints of dark green instead. He wouldn't be the first person she knew to dye their hair an unnatural color. And... Were those yellow hair clips on either side of his head?

The boy slid his hands into the pockets of his shorts. "'Confused', huh?" he said, grinning. "Me too. I found you lying here."

"Um…" Her confidence slipped away while she continued studying his features. Strangely enough, she found familiarity in them.

Okay, so, the whole Mystery Dungeon thing? It described her situation better than she expected. She just awoke in the wrong universe. Or perhaps she ran into a rogue cosplayer?

The boy brought one of his hands out of his pockets. "Um, here," he said, sticking it out at her, "let me help you up."

Her eyes flickered between his hand and her own. She hesitated. "I… Can get up myself," she said.

The boy dropped his arm. "Okay," he said.

A moment passed. She had advised herself that she got caught up in a dream, but the grass continued scraping at her skin. The wind whipped around her. Her reddish-brown curls wriggled in the air like Medusa's serpents.

She blinked. The next thing she knew, the boy squatted in front of her.

"If you're not getting up, I guess I'm coming down," he said. "Are you sure you're alright?"

The wind blew a chunk of her hair in her eyes. She brushed it behind her ear. "What's the opposite of "alright"?" she asked.

His pupils rolled to the top of his head. "Not… Alright?" he said. "I dunno. Why do you feel "not alright"?"

Her mouth clamped shut. What could she possibly say? 'Wait, I know you?' Sure. That would go down great with someone she just met.

"What's your name?"

She blinked. The answer slipped from her tongue before she could catch it. "Sam," she replied. "It's Sam." Her delivery sounded atrocious in her ears.

The boy lifted both of his hands. He made a motion involving them spreading in opposite directions before dropping his arms. "Alola!" he said. "I'm Hau!"

For a split second, she wanted to revise her previous statement. 'Yes, and I'm Why. Is there a Who, What, When, and Where you'd like to introduce me to?'

"People don't wear heavy pajamas in hot weather, you know," Hau said.

Sam picked at her clothes. She wore a dark blue sweater with a silver crescent moon displayed prominently on its chest. Beneath it, she sported some shorts. Drips of sweat accumulated around her heavily-shielded armpits and rolled down her back and sides.

She scrunched her nose up in disgust. "I know," she said.

"Do you remember how you ended up here?" he asked. He fixed his legs so that he could sit cross-legged.

"I could've sworn I was in bed."

"Maybe you sleepwalked out of your house?"

"I don't sleepwalk."

"I remember one time when I sleepwalked. My gramps found me in the city trying to—"

"I don't sleepwalk," she repeated with more force.

Hau's pupils rolled up again. He put a fist to his chin. "She couldn't have been…" He trailed off.

Sam looked to the side. Her mouth fell open.

"Wh-what…?" she sputtered.

The two of them sat together on a cliff. Some feet below, water smashed against the rocky flanks of land stretching out for some miles to the north. Beyond it, she made out the entrance to a waterlocked cave and the little patch of land next to it.

"The ocean?" she asked.

"Yeah?" he said. "What about it?"

She glanced upwards. A couple of trees with spiky bark were right behind her. Their droopy green leaves dangled high over her head.

"Palm trees," she said. "I've never seen one before."

Hau muttered under his breath. She managed to catch the words, "I wonder what the professor would say about this…"

"Professor?" she echoed. "You don't mean Kukui, do you?"

"Yeah," he said. "Do you know him?"

"I know about him," she said. What did Kukui study again? "He researches… Pokémon moves, right?"

He nodded.

"Why were you mumbling about the professor?" she said.

He scratched the back of his head. "Let's worry about Kukui later," he replied, standing up. "I'll walk you over to Iki Town. Gramps would know how to help you." With that, he stretched a hand out to her.

She chewed on her bottom lip. Her dreams were coming true! Sure, her adventure would start with this kid, of all people. But, hey, she was here in a brand new world.

She inhaled and held the breath in. You can do this, Sam. Everything's okay.

…I think.

She shook her head. No. I know so. Let's do this.

She grabbed Hau's hand. Once she got on her feet, he looked down. His eyebrows went up.

Sam's bare toes dug into the grass. She glanced up at him. The way his eyebrows stayed raised gave her the impression that he could be more confused than her.

Wait, she glanced up at the kid? Then again, she stood at five feet and two inches. It made sense that people much younger than she could be taller than her.

As if reading her mind, he said, "How old are you, Sam?"

"I'm twenty-one," she said.

His pupils widened. "...What?!" She flinched at the crack that slipped into his voice. "You don't look your age. Wouldn't you be more…" He made a vague motion at her.

"'Developed'?" she finished.

"Yeah, that's the word."

Sam gestured at herself. "Are you kidding me? I finished going through puberty years—" She came to a stop. Admittedly, she never was the healthiest person. She rarely passed up the opportunity to eat a snack, so she retained plenty in her… Well.

But here? She possessed nothing of that sort. No thickness accumulated over years of inactivity, no leftover bits of acne… She effectively regressed to herself at a younger age.

"Oh my God," she muttered, grabbing the bottom of her oversized shirt. No wonder why she especially suffered in this weather. "Oh my God!"

I'll go through puberty all over again! And? Could there be anything worse about redoing one's teenage years than that?

Laughter filled the air.

Sam winced.

Hau threw his arms behind his head. "If you're pulling my leg," he said, "you'd want to work on your comedy routine."

"Bu-but…" she sputtered. "I'm not… I don't…" She abandoned trying to say anything. It wouldn't come out.

That was how it was. Somebody reached out to her and her concerns got pushed aside. Hahaha. Funny how she got treated like a joke.

"Okay," she murmured, "fine. Be that way." She reckoned the grass to be a nicer shade of green than his hair anyway.

She kept an eye on his shadow. He stretched his arms and yawned. When his hands came swinging back down, he said, "Let's get a move on. Last I checked, Gramps was at home… He must've run out by now, th—"

"No need. I'll go find him myself."

"Okay, let's… Huh?"

She marched past Hau and on to the dirt path ahead of him. Her bare feet produced a curious pitter-patter on the road.

"Wait!" he called after her.

No.

"Sorry about what I said. It came out wrong."

She kept marching forward. Forget you.

"What I meant was that that's what I would've said if I didn't belie—"

'Who dare enters in the dark of day?

Who's flicker is not led astray?

Who could show that they have the right?

Who could survive a true endless night?'

Sam's eyes narrowed. She spun around. "That music," she said. "Where is it coming from?"

Hau gawked at her.

"Litten!"

A small black cat scurried from out of nowhere. It carried in its mouth a rectangular object.

He bent down in front of the cat. "Spit that out. It's probably her's."

Cats typically would ignore their owners. This one did as he asked, though. The device plopped sunny-side up in his palm.

"'Gateway to Heaven'?" he read off of its screen.

"That's my phone," Sam said. "Could I have it back, please?"

He let her take it from him. He watched over her shoulder as she shut off the music, which had drifted into an instrumental section.

"I've never heard that song before," he said. "What's it about?"

She hugged her phone to her chest. "It'll remind me of my homeworld, I guess," she said.

"Homeworld?"

Sam looked back up. "Hey, a Litten!" she exclaimed, slipping back down on her knees. She held a hand out to the cat. "I can't believe it…"

The Litten stuck its head over her fingers. Its nose and red whiskers twitched. True to its species, it possessed several dark red stripes on its forehead, with one marking running vertically over two horizontal ones. Similar red stripes alternated with patches of black fur leading down to its tiny paws.

She couldn't help smiling. Okay, so now this world caught her attention.

"Are you an alien?" Hau said.

Litten's red and black pupils dwindled in size. It jerked its head away from Sam.

"I smell bad, don't I?" she said.

It replied with a hiss.

"Guess I need a shower." She turned around to address its trainer. Her voice took on an edge. "Define your definition of "alien", kid. We're both biologically human. The only alien here is your fire-breathing cat."

He crouched down next to her. "About the kid thing," he said, rubbing the top of his Litten's head, "when I said you were "pulling my leg", I meant 'If you were pulling my leg.' Sorry."

She blinked. "You… Believe me?"

He grinned. "Don't worry about it. I've got a friend who got teleported across the sea once. I guess that happens with alternate realities too?"

Sam's shoulders slumped. She glanced back up at him but avoided direct eye-contact.

"Um, thanks, I guess," she said.

"You're actually twenty-one?" Hau asked. "That's twice my age, you know. I'm—"

"You're eleven," she finished.

"Me and Litten here—"

"Who you must have gotten from Professor Kukui—"

"Are going on our island challenge—"

"Which starts here on… Melemele? It goes on for three other islands—"

"We're gonna be the very best—"

"Like no one ever was? To catch them is your real test and to train them is your cause?"

He grinned. "Um, yeah?" he said.

"Good for you." She dug through her brain. She recalled how the kid went through the region's trials alongside the protagonist from her time playing Pokémon Moon. Didn't something happen to him by the end of the story? Her mind drew a blank there. It was her fault for not touching that game in a few years.

She could, at least, recall the basic plotline of the games. A girl ran away with a Pokémon. The Pokémon held the power to open portals to other universes. An evil organization or two was after the creature. Perhaps that would be adequate enough information for her.

If Hau's the supposedly-unimportant rival and Lillie… Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's her name…? Who am I if she's the girl? Sam nearly jumped when the idea entered her mind. The hero?

"Hau?" she said. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Yeah, what?" he said.

"Did anyone recently move in around here?"

"There's a house for sale down the road. I don't think it's been bought yet. Why did you wanna know?"

No way. Either it hadn't been three months yet since Lillie first appeared here, or…

Sam shook her head. How could she be the protagonist? Back home, all she was was a college student going into her supposed fourth year. When not on campus, she stayed home while her relatives yelled at each other to do more with their lives.

"Christ, Noelle!" one of her grandparents would scream. "When will you get another job?"

"When you stop eating all of our food?!" her mom would shout back. After their short argument, she would jab a finger at her daughter. "Why don't you get off your ass?"

Out of everything she could do with her life, Sam couldn't imagine being in a position where she would be held accountable for her actions. I'd screw something major up, or get my butt handed to me in a real fight, or… She refused to think about it further.

She jumped to her feet and paced over to the palm trees. She leaned on one of them. Its rough bark scraped against her skin.

"Are you okay?" Hau asked. As cheerful as he sounded, she could imagine the thoughts rolling through his head. 'Really? What's she fussing about now?' Her behavior could be trying his patience. Why should he keep wasting energy on talking to her?

"It's… It's nothing," she said. It's everything. "Let's go meet your grandfather." Let's get this over with.

She went back down to the dirt path. Iki Town, she remembered, would be north of here.

A hand came down on her shoulder. Hau's. "Hey," he said.

This time, she met him in the eye. "What?" she said.

"You're not doing so hot," he said. "I can tell."

She frowned. Not hot? I'm sweating my… Oh. Of course. I'm an idiot. "Why do you care? Aren't you annoyed with me?"

"'Annoyed'?" His eyebrows rose again. "Why would I be annoyed? I wanna understand what's going on."

He what?

"All I understand is that you're from another universe, you have a phone I've never seen before, and you're confused," he said. "Is there anything I can do to help you? I don't want you smacking yourself in confusion."

She reached up to brush his hand off of her. In the brief moment where she felt his skin, a warmth seeped through her fingers.

He roped his arms behind his back. "I tend to eat when I'm upset. Maybe we could run to Hau'oli City before we see my gramps. Have you had a malasada before?

"'Sides, we'll be waiting a while for him. He got called out of the house today to deal with a rowdy Tauros." His voice wavered at the mention of the Tauros. He glanced away. "I don't know how he does it. That Pokémon could bowl into you and you wouldn't realize it until you've swallowed some dirt!"

Sam looked down at her phone. She clicked the power button on its side and its lock screen flashed on. A picture of a gray tabby cat in a faux-painted style appeared beneath an oval reading, '12:45, 100%.'

Her mouth twitched. She clicked the screen off.

"What do you say?" Hau said. "Want a tour of the city?"

Her pointer finger trailed up the phone's side. A piece of metal plugged into the phone got in its way. She followed the wire attached to it down…

She grabbed at the wire's end. It halted midway down the phone's back in a tangle of black and white threads. "My earbuds!" she cried.

Litten wheezed.

Hau glanced over at it. "Litten?" he said. "You didn't…"

It mewled pitifully and staggered to his side.

"You ate them?!" he shouted, snatching up his Pokémon. "What are you doing?! Spit those out!" He angled it so its head hung toward the ground while he patted its back.

Sam sighed. "It's already too late," she said, pulling the dead cord out of her phone. "Thanks."

Litten continued coughing.

"You don't go around eating other people's things," Hau said. "Earbuds aren't even food!"

It whimpered. Tangled-up strings dropped out from between its teeth.

She caught the strings before they hit the ground and cringed. Warm and sticky saliva coated her earbuds.

Litten hung its head.

"Sorry," Hau said, frowning. "I'm still learning how to take care of him."

"That's the third pair that's been ruined this month," she muttered. "I love cats, but come on…"

He chuckled a bit. "Maybe we both gotta learn a lesson here."

She scowled. "Keep Litten away from my stuff," she said. She shoved her phone into one of her shorts' pockets. "Damn it."

He reached into his own pocket. "Alright, change of plans," he said, lifting a round object up. "We're heading straight for Iki Town." The sphere grew in size. It was red and white with a black stripe and white dot along the middle. A poké ball.

"But we have to wait for your grandpa to get back."

"It's fine. Litten was right, you know. You need a shower… And maybe a new shirt."

She crossed her arms. "Where would I get a new shirt from?" she asked.

He held the poké ball out at Litten. "I have some old clothes lying around. We'll see if one of them fits you."

"Your old clothes?" she echoed.

A red light shot out of the ball and hit Litten. It pulled his form into itself. It likewise retracted back into the ball. Hau then put the poké ball back into his pocket. "Yeah?" he said. "What, are you afraid of catching a disease from me?"

"Well…" Sam's voice trailed off. She once again picked at her pajamas.

"I guess that settles it." He walked ahead of her beaming like the Sun. "Let's go!" Then he whirled around a corner down the path and disappeared.

She dropped her shirt. "O… Okie-dokie," she stuttered as she jogged after him. "Let'sa go." I guess.