Last Time, On Jumpchain...

Jump #1: Pokemon
Location: Johto
Age: 10
Origin: Small Town [950]
Starter: Eevee - Chloe
Perks:
Physical Fitness
Survival Training [850]
Mechanic [700]
Aura [400]

Items:
Bag - Bigger on the inside
Pokegear
Pokedex - Completed
3x Potions
5x Pokeballs
Hat
50k Pokedollars [350]
Motorcycle [250]
Laptop [150]
HM Collection [100]
Rebreather [50]
Medical Kit [0]

[Chloe becomes a Jolteon]

On my birthday, I woke up from a ten year dream. It was strange. I could remember a lot of things as I grew up. I remembered every birthday cake my mother and father gave me, every moment of overjoyed happiness in my life as I lived in everyday Cherrygrove. I remembered my friends, and all the little games we'd play, running around the town and playing make-believe. I remembered when I first got my Eevee, Chloe, and her fuzzy little face when she rubbed against my cheek.

But on my tenth birthday, as I finished receiving some expensive gifts from my parents, I remembered something else. Cities that stretched to the sky and suffocated the air. Screams of hatred and death, mockeries of life told in pixelated images as ideas raced across the corners of our minds while we waited for the end. I remembered an unhappy and broken family, torn apart by equal parts malice and mediocrity. I remembered a world where Pokemon did not exist, and I had taken a deal with the devil to escape it.

I remembered who I was.

But who was ‘I’?

I looked into the mirror. On the surface, I didn't look very different. Still a surprisingly athletic kid wearing his own cap with the Pokeball symbol on it. I even felt the same, upbeat optimism still reverberating in my mind like the soft chime of a bell. But everything felt so much heavier, time so much faster. Once again, my childhood had been taken from me by an early adulthood, except now I had nobody to blame except myself.

“Is this just part of the experience...?” I spoke to nobody, talking in my empty room. Chloe's ears perked up as she slept on my desk, as if wondering if I was calling her. My gaze remained locked on the mirror. That's right. I had asked for this. I filled out the form like it was a tax document, figuring I could deal with the consequences on my own. But now that I was ‘awake’ and aware of the two lives together in my mind...it felt...

I shook my head. No, focus. This is the start of something new. A Pokemon journey. A chance to see the world. A better world. A new world. This was the chance to do something with myself, to BE someone. I couldn't waste that. Not again.

A soft blue formed around my body, and I felt myself smile.

I remember saying goodbye to my friends, and that we all promised to see each other again someday. I remember walking foward on the route, Chloe walking alongside me outside of her Pokeball. Seeing actual Pokemon up close was strange, and frightening...at least, if I hadn't grown up with them all my life. Hadn't I? Or was I just remembering that I did?

I shoved aside those thoughts and carried on. Living on the road is both harder and easier that it sounds. The Routes were well-traveled, and usually had another human being in at least half a day's walk. The trouble was inclement weather, wild Pokemon, and limited supplies. Winter in Johto is something I would chalk up to ‘one of the worst things I would ever hike through’.

But I still remember the snow. The soft fall of snowflakes on me and nature around me. Chloe sneezed once upon trying to catch one with her nose. I had only seen snow twice in my entire life, and I couldn't help but stare and reach out to it...but hadn't I seen snow in Cherrygrove before? I had, I spent a long time making a snowman with my friends stop stop STOP STOP.

...it's useless trying to reconcile this. These aren't just memories. Both of ‘me’ here...are real. And I can feel those memories push and pull every time I try to deny them.

I can't help but wonder. Did the ‘me’ of Pokemon already exist? Did I change history by making that choice? Did I...replace someone?

These aren't things you should think about while eating fried Magikarp.

Years pass, and I feel my body get older all over again. I didn't miss it. The hormones, the mood swings, the VERY inappropriate thoughts towards women who were now much older than I am. I can now perfectly understand why I mentally blocked out my high school years, because it took every ounce of my cynicism and anti-social habits to keep myself from acting like an idiot every time I visit a Pokemon Center.

God damn those adorable Nurse ladies and their insufferably friendly and warm demeanors. And headpats. Ghk.

Being a Pokemon master is definitely harder than what the games say. I manage to put together a half-decent team, but after a few tries, I just find myself losing my competitive drive. I'm more fascinated by the world I'm in and the sights that I see, and the people I meet. I kept in touch with my friends. They seemed to be doing well, and I always chalked it up to the fact I lived in a better world, somewhere brighter.

Sometimes, things didn't seem to go so well for them. My first friend, Lucas, was trying to be a Pokemon breeder and was having what I liked to call ‘farm troubles’. It didn't help he started picking up the ‘bumpkin’ accent of the local farmers, too, something I regularly teased him about. Sasha would be constantly working to be a fashionita in Goldenrod City. I just gave a half-hearted sense of advice and encouragement. I was done dealing with other people's problems. It was my time to escape, to have fun, and adventure. I lived in Pokemon, a world of carefree adventure and only a little danger. What was there to worry about?

The last time I spoke with Sasha, we both talked about our journeys and hopes for the future. I reiterate my promise to her that we'd all meet up, successful and fulfilled, back home at Cherrygrove.

We stopped getting calls back from Sasha.

I didn't think much of it at first. I just kept up my journey. Then a week passed. And another. And I was in the area of Goldenrod when that much time has passed, and I found myself looking for her. Asking around her workplace, or people she had worked for in the past. I worried, internally, if she had somehow been kidnapped by the resurgent Team Rocket and I'd have to stage a rescue. But it would never happen.

Sasha was hit by a car the day after we spoke.

I was such an idiot. I had completely taken all of this...my friends, this world...for granted. They weren't background characters or NPCs in a video game. They were very real people who remembered growing up with me as vividly as I did them. There was no ‘plot armor’ protecting them, no reassurance they'd live to see tomorrow. Death was just as sudden and awful as it was back home. It did not discriminate, and it struck where it pleased. There was no difference.

I had to be the one to break the news to Lucas and her family. It was not any easier. Arguments, accusations, tears...

I wondered and worried, in my old life, if I still have the capacity to physically shed tears. The ‘me’ of this world certainly did.

I blamed myself. Blamed the benefactor. Blamed anything I could point a finger at. But I knew there was nothing I could do. Accepting that? It took much longer. I didn't leave the Pokemon Center for a long time, after that.

Before I knew it, ten years had passed. I hadn't become anything like Red, Gold, or any of the other video game protagonists, and I felt okay with that. I had explored a lot of Johto and some of Kanto, and returned home a grown young man. It took years to finally be back on speaking terms with Lucas, but we patched things up, and he had become a successful Breeder. The reunion back home, with friends and family, had smiles and good memories around all of it.

Sasha...is there some kind of afterlife in this world? I hope you can see us. We never forgot you.

I'm sorry.

Time around me froze. A familiar voice broke the silence.

...go home? Why? Even after...all I've experienced, I wouldn't give this up.

Stay? It's tempting. I won't lie. I feel like I'd be happier here...but...

...more?

I see.

I guess I've got nothing to lose, then.

Let's see where this rail goes.

Jump 2: Full Metal Alchemist
Location: South
Age: 18
Origin: Drop-In
Perks:
Simplified Formulae [900]
Advanced Formulae [800]
Melee Training [650]
Martial Training [350]
Alkahestry [50]

Item:
Mauser C96 [0]
Survival Pack [100]
Alternate Clothing [50]
Throwing Knives [0]

Drawbacks:
Hostile Rival [200]


After my experience in the last world, I am not in any sort of hurry to live the life of someone else and then snap awake like it was just the lead-up to the jump. So my entry into the world is...unceremonious. The world of Pokemon dissolved into static and then ‘flipped’. There I was, in a new outfit, a few years younger than when I left.

There's something new in my pocket, and that crosses my mind before anything else did. I took out a small iron key that looked too big to fit a normal lock. The voice of my benefactor filled my mind, telling me ‘You will need this’. And it wasn't meant to be reassuring.

I had a chance to grasp the Truth, and I turned it down. After the mental purgatory I had put myself through in Pokemon, I felt losing a limb and having to deal with both automail and phantom pains would be too much for me to bear. Besides...I had no Winry to fix whatever I broke. I was alone, just a man and his Pokemon. Aside from that, though? I felt GOOD. I spent more than a few minutes staring at my improved muscle and swift movements before I realized some people nearby were staring at me. I whistled innocently and kept walking.

I quickly realize that having no home or history to my name is a problem when dealing with military checkpoints. My hungry stomach and what little I'm carrying does little to relax me. Especially since the only thing I know about this place is that Rush Valley exists! Somewhere.

I don't think I'm in for a good time. And that fellow with the nerd glasses is looking at me very unhappily.

I managed to luck out and was given lodgings by a couple and their daughter. I used alchemy to fix their things and in return, they let me stay there. It's not what I'd call a healthy relationship since I wasn't sure how ‘legal’ alchemy was in the hands of civilians, but two weeks passed and the State Alchemists never showed up at the door, so I figured I was in the clear.

Their names were Mary, William, and their daughter Helga. William was a stern, no-nonsense sort of guy and made it clear that if I ever slacked off, I'd be back on the streets. Mary, meanwhile, was an ‘I run this ship' sort of housewife, and the only person who ever broke Will's calm. Helga was a tiny and energetic spitfire in comparison to both of her parents. The three of them did get along. It made me miss my parents in Pokemon a little.

Eventually, I was less of a ‘live in labor bot’ and more of a ‘family friend’. I wouldn't describe it as idyllic, it had more to do with the fact we hung around each other all the time and I managed to avoid upsetting the family any. You just become ‘familiar’ after a while, just someone who helps around the house and is available to talk to now and then.

Some time passes and then a tall man with nerd glasses in a state alchemist uniform shows up at their doorstep. They call out a name. My name.

Not feeling much of any other choice, I stepped outside to be staring up at the man who was easily towering above me, even though his build looked absolutely pencil thin, as if he was made of bone and the most paper thin of muscle. But I could feel a weight around him, and a sense of dread. I asked what he wanted.

He then broke out into a smile and introduced himself as Reginald, a local state alchemist. He just said he couldn't help but notice me working to repair things and that it was very kind of me. I almost made the mistake of relaxing before his gaze changed into a sharp glare and he ‘kindly’ reminded me that undocumented alchemy wasn't illegal, but it was -heavily- frowned upon in this town and that I was to cease and desist immediately.

Something about that didn't sound right, like he was I don't know what got into me, but I found myself arguing back. This was how I made rent and I just didn't have anything else. What was I supposed to do? His glare was focused very intently on me, and then threateningly said something along the lines of ‘harassing a State Alchemist is a very serious crime.’

The lanky fuck was actually trying to find an excuse to lock me up. And I had known him for all of a few minutes! This is what I get for thinking a drawback would never run into me.

The tension was broken by Helga, who promptly offered the State Alchemist some cookies on a plate, courtesty of her mother.. At which point his stoic demeanor cracked and then he spoke in an amazingly effeminate voice, saying, “Oooh, cookies! I'd love some!”

I nearly choked on my own tongue.

Although hostilities had been temporary diffused by baked goods, the rest of my time in the town was constantly hounded by Reginald, following me around like a passive-aggressive Javert. He would constantly spread rumors about me and what I was up to, right up to the idea I was having an affair with Will's wife. Luckily, nobody in the house actually believed it. I asked Will if he trusted me.

He said yes, but not for the reasons I hoped. “You're too much of a wimp.”

I wasn't particularly adventurous for the rest of my time in the town, because I felt like anything I did that could be framed as a crime would land me in jail with Reginald tracing my shadow. I wasn't even sure why he was doing this outside of the fact I picked a drawback. But then, I knew all about people acting irrational and stupid over perceived slights by now.

As time went on and the days rolled by, I was beginning to wonder if I was even cut out for any of this. I was just being a menial worker the entire time I had been in this world, and in the last one I just lived a life only to wander aimlessly. I was lacking something. Some kind of drive. Incentive. At least I had alchemy to play with in the spare time...actually knowing a science that doesn't exist in my world is incredibly fascinating.

But I had forgotten, the world would keep on spinning even if I didn't keep up. And when I heard that the Elrich brothers were kicking up a fuss and the tremors began, I got an unpleasant reminder of what was to come. I remembered Sasha. How I didn't do...couldn't do anything. And I couldn't magically teleport to the plot I had neglected to participate in or curtail somehow.

If I was thinking rationally, I knew I could survive on my own and everything would change back to normal. But after the last world, I didn't trust fate or destiny anymore. And if I could do something, isn't that what I should do? I screamed and yelled and directed people to me. The family, neighbors, even Reginald...though I feel like that may have been him slipping through the small crowd I had gathered.

I turned the key at the first door I could find, and welcomed them into the Warehouse. The blue hum of the forcewall protecting us as a scarlet red began to cover the entire city...no, the entire country. The sight of hundreds, dozens of souls sent screaming into a vortex together as their bodies fell down, lifeless and cold. Except for us. Just us.

Questions swarmed, within and outside of my mind. People were wondering what this place was, the strange things contained within it, and how spacious it was. Others were watching in terror at what was unfolding. I wondered if things would go the way I remembered, with everything back to normal. The fear in my stomach was so strong I didn't notice the sound of a gun cocking until Reginald's voice went to me.

His eyes were wide and his voice was pitched, almost rabid. He had a pistol pointed directly at me as I turned to face him, my hands raises defensively as his back faced the doorway. I heard movement and murmuring behind me, and a steadily growing panic. He threw accusations my way. About how I knew all of this, about how he knew I was a rat, how I must have been responsible. One thing stuck out in my mind.

‘Why didn’t you stop this?'

Some of the crowd agreed, particularly those who had friends and family outside who couldn't fit in the Warehouse. Others argued in my defense, but their voices were quiet. Reginald only became more panicked and angry, his voice echoing against the walls. He was going to take the shot. I was going to die. I contemplate dodging, leaping to the side and throwing Chloe his way, or taking out my own gun with the opening.

But my head turned so I could glance behind me. I saw men and women of all ages, neighbors, friends, acquaintances, even the people I had little annoyances with. Families huddled together and looking on at the scene in worry and fear. I could see a grown man sobbing in the corner across from me. I could see Will, Helga, and Mary holding each other close.

No. I wouldn't dodge. If Reginald wanted me, he could have me. I bent my knees with my hands held up. He could tell I was about to move and didn't waste time, firing a shot. I almost leapt to catch it as a numbness quickly spread along my left shoulder. I could see red from the corner of my vision. But as I fell, a blue light focused around my good arm and I opened my palm, firing an Aura blast directly at Reginald.

He had been so focused on ending my life that he didn't have time to react to that surprise. I didn't see what the impact did to him, but a second shot struck the ceiling of the Warehouse right as he tumbled out of the forcewall. It kept things out, but didn't keep things in very well.

I felt myself impact the cold ground as the pain began to kick in. I was vaguely aware of the fact I had been shot, and was bleeding out quickly. I could see faces and hands around me, just as my vision went dark and I felt myself drift off to sleep, expecting and hoping to wake up in my old bed...

I woke up with a headache and an amazingly sore shoulder. And by sore I mean ‘covered in bandages and very hard to move’. I blinked as I recognized the fact I was in the ceiling of the Warehouse. The bedsheets around me were from the Medbay. Will and the people I brought into the Warehouse were still there, but many of them had gone.

Will told me that the red glow had gone and everyone outside had woken up, back to normal. The relief that left me was palpable. I then asked how he knew to use the Medbay. He pointed to the instructions that were taped to it, still resting there in case I had forgot. That's right. It was designed to fix anything with a pulse, and be usable by idiots like me. They must have figured it out.

He doesn't mince words. He saved me because he knew I blocked the bullet that would have likely struck him or someone else. Despite everything suspicious I had said and done, I was trying to protect the others. I want to say something. To explain myself. To tell him what I was thinking. But he stops me.

“If you explain yourself, I feel like I won't be able to understand it...or forgive you. Let's just leave it at that.”

I didn't want to argue, so I agreed. And then I asked about Reginald, and what had happened after the gunshot. Will narrowed his eyes. “You really are naive, aren't you?” And no matter how much he asked, he wouldn't answer. Looking back on it now...I think he was trying to protect me. Because if it sunk in then and there that I had killed someone, even in self-defense, it might have been too much for me to bear.

Though the people I had stayed with excused me, the rest of the town still looked at me with...I don't know. Some people were grateful. Others whispered about how I somehow knew what would happen, and that I was involved. I didn't stick around to find out. I said my goodbyes and rode off on my motorcycle. I felt regret, but I knew I couldn't remain for long after murdering a State Alchemist.

Back to the wilderness...a part of me was starting to think I couldn't stand living like this. And that it was time to go home. I found myself outside of civilization again, sustaining myself on the Warehouse whenever I could find a door and a place to rest.

...ten years. You again, huh? ‘Just entertaining enough?’ I'll take it as a compliment. Is this going to be a trend?

‘Only if I want it to be?’

...

Fine. One more couldn't hurt.

Jump 03: Megaman Classic
Canon: The Protomen
Origin: Wily Number [900]
Apparent Age: 20
Perks:
Pun Power
Civilian Mode [800]
Combat Optimized - Aerial [700]
Elemental Affinity - Ice [500]
Unique Architecture [200]
OST

Items:
Special Weapon - Freeze Gun
Beam Saber [0]
Mega Buster [100]
E-Tank [50]
E-Balance [0]

Companions:
Assistant - Tempo [400]

Not!Companions:
Sniper Joe [300]

Drawbacks:
The Sons of Fate [600]

As if guided by the hand of fate, Wily picked up some old blueprints he had tucked away in a half-forgotten drawer. A concept model he had given some thought to, before abandoning it in favor of the Robot Master system. But now, with his control absolute and his enemies dead or turned to his side, he decided he had time to indulge his own curiousity. That's when I was born.

Unit 09 - The Dead Man.

The ultimate enforcer unit, designed to be a match for Protoman in his prime. Absolutely ruthless, absolutely loyal, a true killing machine and an image of dread to match Wily's iron fist over the City. Normally, Wily would be sure to install something like a self-destruct switch or a security measure should it ever turn against him...but as if supremely confident or simply a lapse in judgment, such measures were not installed. They were not necessary. This machine was all circuitry and cold purpose - no emotions, no ties, nothing to hold them back or make them contemplate betrayal.

Wily also wasn't a fan of subtlety in the latter years of his rule, less there be some practical use for a skull-faced robot I wasn't aware of.

I remember doing everything the good dictator asked of me. Bring in anyone showing even the faintest signs of rebellion, or kill them. Public displays were usually best, according to Wily. ‘Sets an example for the rest of them.’ After a while, it wasn't even necessary anymore - the citizens had lost hope a long time ago, and there was no spark to start a new fire. Yet Wily still ordered me to capture and kill, sometimes blending in as a sympathetic ‘rebel’ who was operating in secret, then putting the knife in their backs at the worst possible moment.

The Dead Man became a symbol of fear and how unstoppable Wily really was. But the moment that all changed was that fateful night.

There was a third professor in the world of robotics. A man by the name of Cossack. I didn't know or care about the details at the time, but it seemed like he lost someone important to him and decided to compensate by making a robot version of them. Wily could tolerate the presence of his former partner, Light, in the City - if only to gloat - but there would never be a third. Not even a man who wished to hold his daughter once again, or never engineered a weapon once his life.

And so, the Dead Man walked.

We had gathered the scientist and any associated with them, dragging them out kicking and screaming until they were lined up against a metallic wall in the open. Lights of both white and red focused down on them from the sky, the screens showing Wily's face as he loudly denounced the men we had laid out in front of us, and the reasons for their execution. I was flanked by two Sniper Joes, with Bomb Man eagerly holding one of his ‘gifts’ for the prisoners in anticipation. I barely acknowledged it. I merely waited for the order to fire, holding my blaster in my hand, finger on the trigger.

I was vaguely aware of a smaller life form holding onto the good doctor's arm closely, tugging at his sleeve. A small girl with golden hair and a red dress, hiding behind Cossack in fear and uncertainty. Likely the robotic double of his daughter. It didn't matter. Orders were orders.

Then it began to rain.

It caught my attention right away, to where my optics drifted away from my targets and to the sky. I could see the raindrops pouring down on the execution grounds, and I could see the wispy phantoms of rain on a cold and foggy night dancing along the lights of white and red...

Red lights. Red lights, dancing along, just like that Promised Day.

I remembered what I was. Who I was. My mind was full of questions, but my computerized brain could process it without fear of being clouded by my emotions, even as error messages began to pop up en masse within my mind.

>"Why didn't you stop this?"

There was nobody to rely on. No backup. Nothing to support me if I turned traitor now. No hero to save the day if I left things alone. It was me. Just me. The smart thing to do would be to swallow my pride and my morals and pull the trigger once the order was given.

But I suppose I was never very smart, was I?

“Ready! Aim!” Wily's voice echoed into the grounds. The scientists continued to beg for mercy as my gaze went back to them, my blaster readied and held in my hand.

“FIRE!”

Three shots rang out. Bomb Man doubled back as a plasma-burnt hole opened up in his wrist, just as he dropped one of his personnel bombs. My feet had kicked back and sent me backwards as the bomb collided with the ground, combusting into a ball of flame and taking its user with it, knocking his body back in a pile of flaming scrap. I could see one of the Joes fall to the ground, a hole in its head from a shot I did not fire.

Everything went dead silent as everyone, Wily especially, processed what happened. I glanced to the side. One Sniper Joe, one who had been in my shadow since my grim tale began, was holding a smoking blaster that was aimed where his double had been standing. His stance relaxed and his gaze turned to me. Expectant. Waiting for orders.

Wily began to shout my serial number, my callsign, perhaps even try to trigger a killswitch using terms and words that sounded like gibberish to the casual learner. He demanded I report in, then demanded an explanation, before screaming for the other Robot Masters to apprehend me. I made my point by shooting all three of Wily's telescreens in view of the area, just as alarms began to blare across the City.

I could feel the emotions of the scientists behind me. Fear, uncertainty, confusion...and yet, hope. So tiny and precious, but oh so real. And I was the one who had ignited it.

Bomb Man, still engulfed in flames, would stand up and enter a battle stance as his eyes locked onto me. I could hear the march of heavy boots approaching, the loud whirring of aerovehicles coming to join the fray in a hurry. Still, the rain fell and drenched my body, the face of death now staring up in anticipation at what was to come. I pointed my blaster at Bomb Man, ready to fight my way out or die trying.

I don't know if this is right. I don't know if I'll survive. But I will never let such tragedy happen on my watch ever again, or trust my life and those around me to the hands of fate. Even as Wily's forces mobilize and prepare to swarm me, I will not give up until every last circuit in this body of mine has burnt out.

And so, there's not much else to call me, but a Dead Man walking.