Obligatory statement about how I don't own Pokémon… obviously.

Storm Warning: The Rise of a Champion

Chapter 1: Wishful Thinking

The summer sun was shining down on Stone Rise city as it descended in the west. The temperature wasn't sweltering, but subtle in a warmth that most residents enjoyed and even took for granted in the summer months. July was passing to August like it normally did and even in the busy city, a serene mood was present. The time was 5:30, and many people working the nine to five had already gotten home or were on their way. Many pedestrians were still out, mostly those without employment, or the few who had the day off. The park had many of these citizens who were either out for fresh air, training with their pokémon, or just loitering.

One boy was doing the latter of the three options, chilling under an old willow tree near the edge of the park. He had been sitting there since noon and those who passed would get an idea of how long he had been there, due to the countless empty food wrappings near the trunk of the tree. Those who passed would also hear his music. He was an adequate guitar player for lacking sheet music, playing songs from memory, usually rock, and a bit of country here and there. Some of those who passed by would toss a bit of money his way, which he accepted, despite the fact it wasn't his reason for playing. Street musicians were banned from the park if they were playing for profit. Something about "keeping the peace." But he wasn't causing any problems, so the law looked the other way.

His fingers continued to dance on the strings, producing a slow melody of a new song that he heard on the radio that morning. A few mistakes popped through the sequence since the song was new to him, but it was still recognizable. Suddenly, he remembered what he was waiting for. He pulled out his cell phone to check the time. 5:32.

"Crap, I'm gonna be late," he muttered under his breath. He rushed his guitar back into its case, picking up trash, and slipping on his rollerblades. Hopping to his feet, he began to skate at his top speed out of the park.

He began to think about how hilarious he must have looked. Rollerblading with a huge guitar case fastened to his back must have looked awkward. It wasn't any easier for his skating that Stone Rise city was built on multiple hills. The roads could get so steep that some cars would not be able to drive up them completely without stalling. He himself would normally have to stop when going up some hills, but his adrenaline was kicking in, so powering over the hills was easy. Traffic on the roads wasn't so bad that day. Cyclists would sometimes be ride roads, but even they were absent that evening. Just him, a few cars, and the occasional street trolley.

"Storm! Watcha doin' man? Jump on!"

His concentration refocused on a street trolley heading down the hill on the street he just passed. Another teenager, a handsome boy with short, brown hair was standing in the back portion of the car with two others with him. He knew who they were, but he couldn't see their faces as the trolley disappeared behind a building. He quickly braked on his blades and began to follow. As he turned the corner, a small Tailow swooped in beside him. He knew this Tailow. It always liked to race fast moving pokémon and people. It flew by his side as he chased the trolley down the hill, his guitar bouncing against his back. It beat him to the trolley, perching on his trainer, who stood behind the brown haired boy and a girl with long red wavy hair. He planned to jump on the trolley's back end. That was definitely was illegal, but he didn't really care. Nobody would, as long as nobody got hurt. But just as he extended his hand to grab onto the railing, the trolley stopped. His momentum sent him flying over the rail, landing on the boy with brown hair, sending them both into the ground. But nobody besides the back portion of the car noticed.

"Dear God, Cody, are you okay!" cried Angie, her voice filled with anxiety and excitement.

"Yes, Mom, I'm fine," he said, slowly getting to his feet, holding on to the rail for support. "Looks like Tailow beat me again Paul." Paul was leaning against the railing with Tailow still sitting on his shoulders. He smiled and nodded, but said nothing else, as always.

"That was incredibly stupid, Cody!" Angie scolded him, half-shouting. "I told Laurence not to call you because I knew you were going to do something stu-"

"Hey! You guys forgot me already? Damn, I'm the one who's hurt here! I broke Storm's fall and everything," Laurence said, as Angie and Cody helped him back to his feet. He didn't look hurt, and even if he was, he wouldn't have cared. He had a battle to win. The Sentret who clung to Angie's back was still chattering excitedly from witnessing the crash. Cody extended his hand to pet the little pokémon. It squeaked happily.

"I'm gonna beat him today. Best out of three, and his last win was a fluke," Laurence continued as he shook his arm around to rid himself of stiffness. "You guys won't have to worry about him interrupting your training ever again. Seriously, it's a community training plot. Why should we have to listen to him?"

"What do you mean 'your' training?" Cody asked, slightly annoyed. "My parents won't even let me have a pokémon let alone train one ever since… well, you know. It sucks too. And what do you mean by fluke?" Laurence was his best friend, but he was going to be straight with him. "You told Flex to try and dig to avoid the rocks. Seriously, does the word 'Magnitude' mean anything to-"

"Okay Professor Oak, so it wasn't my smartest idea," Laurence interrupted defensively but chuckling. "But at least I have the smarts to actually raise a pokémon. I mean, your dad may be a trainer, but you've never actually held a pokeball, unlike the rest of us."

"Well maybe I would if I were allow-"

"Okay guys, stop fighting. We're almost there," said Angie. She knew the two of them weren't going to fight, but she didn't want either of them to start getting pissed at the other.

The group of four left the trolley and began to walk a few blocks to reach the community battle plots. As they walked, Cody and Laurence continued to argue about what Flex should have done in battle, while Angie said little on the matter, trying to keep her eye on Sentret as she scurried at their feet. Paul walked along silently, his Tailow making large circles in the sky above their heads. They eventually reached the community battle plots to find multiple younger trainers practicing with friends. Many of them were under age 13. Some of them stopped to look as the older kids walked in. But Cody was the only one to notice that, since Laurence stared down his opponent: a teenage boy of about 16 years with shoulder-length red hair, who stared back.

"You're late Laurence. It's 5:47. I guess you couldn't handle the idea another beating," he mocked.

"Really Gordon? I'm not afraid of you. If I was, would I have even shown up? Besides, I beat you before, and I can beat you again. This is going to decide…"

The two continued to smack talk each other, while the much younger kids looked up at them with admiration. Meanwhile, Angie turned to Cody and whispered, "I don't get what they're feuding about. It's not like Gordon can kick us out of a public place. All he'd be winning is bragging rights. Not to mention that Laurence is leaving in a week."

"Laurence only wants respect," answered Cody, thoughtful in tone. "And beating Gordon is a way of getting that from other trainers of and below his skill level. He just likes to battle, and Gordon brings the fight, so it benefits both of them." He held up a piece of his granola bar and handed it to Angie's Sentret, who hungrily scarfed it down.

Eventually, Laurence and Gordon made their way to the biggest battle plot. The local children stopped battling, and clustered around the rectangle to watch the final fight. Cody, Angie, and Paul sat on a bench, though it was crowded with kids. The trainers on the plot held up their pokeballs, and they glistened in the sunlight. Cody felt envy prodding in his mind.

"Okay Flex, just as we practiced!" Laurence shouted as he tossed his pokeball onto the field. It burst open to reveal a sturdy looking Machop. He was Laurence's only pokemon at the moment, and he had spent over half a year training it. Even as a Machop, he looked pretty ripped. Cody began to wonder how much more ripped it would get upon evolution.

"Okay Graveler, show your stuff!" Gordon yelled as his pokeball opened to reveal the rocky monster within. His Graveler was a craggy, gray-colored hulk, and it looked monstrous, dwarfing its opponent in size. Even though Machop had an elemental advantage, this was obviously not going to be a cakewalk for either party.

"Okay Flex, let's power him out early! Chop him!"

Flex broke into a sprint and leaped before he was within five feet of the Graveler. While in the air, he aimed a punch to hit directly in the rock's hulking frame. However, the Graveler had enough time to see this move coming, and he rolled to the side to avoid this punch. The Machop's fist slammed against the ground, creating a resounding thud.

"Keep rolling! Knock him over!" Gordon shouted to his partner. The Graveler began to roll, hitting Flex right away, since Flex was still stuck in his motion of the punch that he had thrown. He made a wide turn, and charged the stunned Flex again. Without Laurence's words, Flex tried to hit a low kick on the rolling rock. Even though it hit, this only caused Graveler to bounce off the ground for a second before his rolling continued.

"Good try Flex, but that isn't going to work!" Laurence called to his Machop. "You're going to have to power him out!"

Flex seemed to get what Laurence said as he stomped both feet into the soft battle earth. He looked sort of like a little sumo wrestler as he faced down the rolling Graveler.

THUD!

The Machop was bent over backward as he caught the Graveler in mid-roll. His hands had perfectly clamped onto Graveler's as he began to push back. Despite his size, Flex was obviously the stronger of the two pokemon, but Graveler had another advantage. His two other arms on his back extended, and he began punching at Machop, who took heavy blows to the face.

"Throw him!" Laurence commanded, and Flex did just that. He thrust his arms upward, and as the boulder of a pokemon flew skyward, the little fighting pokémon jumped roughly five feet into the air, and gave a straight arm punch to the Graveler's chest. Little fragments of rock were chipped away, but Graveler landed on his feet.

"Okay, enough games! Rock throw!" Gordon cried out. "Graveller stomped his right foot with much force, and about a dozen of large rocks emerged from the ground. Flex looked on. His face was bruised and his nose was bleeding from the punches he took to the face, but he looked eager for more.

"How does he do that?" Angie asked Cody as the battle progressed. Graveler began using all four arms to throw rocks while Flex dodged.

"Do what?" Cody questioned. He was more interested in watching the battle than answering questions.

"How does Gordon's Graveler force underground rocks up to the field for battle?" she asked, with more curiosity than before. Cody put his hand to his temple in an attempt to compile an answer. After a few seconds of thinking, he had somewhat of an answer.

"Well, Graveler is rock and ground type," he explained, still trying to gather ideas in his head. "It has a strong tie to the earth, and when it forces impact on the earth, it can channel energy below the ground to use opposite forces to shoot rocks out of the… look, I'm probably not the best person to answer this, because I'm real shaky on the details. You could probably ask Gordon afterward if you wanted to know."

"I don't want to ask Gordon," she replied, sneering. "He's a jerk. I hate talking to him. He acts like a pig whenever he talks to me and he barely even knows me."

Cody laughed at this. "Oh come on baby, I thought you liked that."

"I didn't mind when you do it Cody," she said giggling. "It's just… I don't know. He's just arrogant."

"Yeah…" Cody groaned as he looked onward at the battle. It brought him back to a memory of one of his father's matches as a young trainer. One that his father had recorded on a video cassette. His Hitmonlee was fighting a Rhydon in that recording, and he eventually won with a swift kick to the face. Cody remembered both him and his older brother, Derrick, telling their father that they wanted to be like him. Derrick took it a step further, saying that he would be even better than their dad. Cody remembered his father laughing it off and told them both that they could have pokémon when they got older, and they too could fight in battles.

Cody sighed. Sentret sensed something from this, and he crawled up his back and onto his shoulders. Angie hadn't heard the sigh, but she could tell by his face that something was wrong. The smile was gone.

"You okay?" she questioned.

"Yeah, I'm okay," he lied. But Angie could read it in his face that he wasn't being truthful.

"You wish it was you out there, don't you?" she whispered sympathetically.

"No," Cody whispered back. "It's just… I really wish my parents… well… mostly my mom would stop being so protective. They told me I could have a pokemon when I turned fourteen, and I'm going to be fifteen in a few months, and just because of what Derrick did..." he trailed off. Angie then noticed a frown deepen on his lips. "That just really pisses me off," he finished, anger dancing in his eyes.

"Calm down," she whispered back to him.

He suppressed his anger and tried to force a smile back on his face, but it looked rather weak.

"Graveler! Bury him!" Gordon shouted at his pokémon in desperation. The hulk tossed two rocks at Flex, who dodged both. They had been playing the game of hit and miss for several minutes at that point. Both of them were losing energy quickly, but as Graveler threw a third rock, Flex caught it in mid-air and tossed it back, smacking Graveler in the face. It didn't look like it hurt him much, but the bigger pokémon was stunned.

"Time to capitalize Flex," Laurence called to his pokemon. "Karate Chop!" Machop jumped several feet above the ground and forced the side of his hand into the Graveler's cranium. The target yelped in pain and tried to roll back, but Flex was one step ahead. He grabbed the Graveler's backside and lifted the boulder over his head.

"You know what to do Flex!" he yelled, trying to drown out Gordon's frantic commands. "Vital Throw!" and the little pokemon jumped in the air, still holding the Graveler, and flipped him forcefully face first into the ground. Graveler struggled to stand for a second and then went limp. He had fainted.

"YES! WE DID IT!" Laurence shouted with much enthusiasm. He ran on to the field and high-fived his pokemon. Flex looked pretty beaten up, but he wore a tired smile on his face. Machop were smart pokémon and Flex could tell that the win was important to his trainer. Many of the younger kids cheered and ran onto the field. They crowded around Flex, and hoisted him in the air. The little fighting-type was only three feet tall, so this wasn't that difficult.

"You were prime out there!" Cody congratulated as he patted his friend on the back.

"I have to say, you really controlled that battle well," said Angie as Sentret chirped happily on her shoulder.

"You kicked his ass!" shouted Paul. Everybody stopped and stared at him. Paul never said much, but when he did, it was usually something like that.

Eventually, Laurence pried his exhausted pokemon away from the kids and walked over to Gordon, who was helping his Graveler get to his feet.

"I gotta say G, that was a fun match, wasn't it Flex?" Flex grunted in what seemed to be an agreement.

Gordon was not amused. "Whatever. Looks like you control the plots now… and don't ever call me 'G' again," he ended with a dark manner.

"Control the plots? You can keep them, G," Laurence laughed. "I mean, as much as you can 'keep' public property.

"What did I just say- Wait… what?" asked Gordon in bewilderment, which showed on his face.

"I'm leaving tomorrow to take on the league, one badge at a time, so you don't have to look at this winner's face for a few years. Cheer up."

Gordon was visibly pissed. "Wait, a second, is this some kind of a joke? Why the hell did you battle me for control of the plots if you were going to leave? Do you know how embarrassing that is?" He was fuming, his face was turning to the color of a Chameleon's skin.

"Oh relax, G," Laurence said coolly. "I just wanted to prove that we could beat you." Gordon looked ready to pop, but he pressed back from doing so. He silently called Graveler back to his ball, and trudged away. Cody walked up behind Laurence.

"Good thing you're leaving," Cody said. "He looked like he was ready to go Michael Myers on your ass."

Laurence chuckled. "Ah Cody, you know he's harmless. He acts like a big shot, and his Graveler is as tough as nails, but he himself is just a wimp. He'll get over it when he finds a new victim."

"Yeah, I guess," muttered Cody in a less than caring voice. The kids were beginning to leave. Paul walked behind him, Tailow on his shoulder. He waved as he walked off.

"Laurence, I'll be there to see you off tomorrow," Angie called as her Sentret scurried about. She waved to both him and Cody before leaving. Cody was about to head out to, but Laurence stopped him.

"Cody, stick around, I got something to show you," he called over his shoulder as he tended to Flex. Cody walked back to see Laurence spraying potions on the Machop's bruises. The solution was brilliant, whatever it was. As it was applied to the injuries, they slowly, but visibly began to heal a little bit. Cody began to wonder why they had not made products like that to heal humans, even though that they weren't a cure-all.

"It's hard to believe they even enjoy fighting if they get that injured," Cody commented as he looked at the wounds healing. The sight was somewhat sickening.

"Well, if he didn't want to, I wouldn't make him," Laurence replied as he reached into a small pouch and pulled out a bright blue oran berry. He put the berry into Flex's hand, who happily gobbled it up. "They like to do this stuff. It's in their nature. And they know we can help them reach their potential." At this, Flex stood up and began stretching out his limbs.

"So… You wanted to show me something?" asked Cody, who knew he had to be getting back home before his mother freaked out.

"Huh? Oh yeah, we're going to the woods. It's in there." He and Machop began to walk towards the west woods as Cody followed, wondering where he was to be lead.

The forest was only a few blocks away, so the walk on urban terrain was only a few minutes long. The road immediately met the woods, where Laurence found a path to lead them to the destination, wherever it was. Flex boldly lead the way with a proud swagger., still feeling high after winning that fight. Laurence and Cody were a few steps back, walking in silence for several minutes before Laurence finally opened his mouth

"So… you and Angie… you two have been hanging out a lot lately... You plan on going out with her again?"

"Huh? No. Definitely not," Cody said defensively. "I don't want to go down that road again."

"You two seemed to have good chemistry. What happened, I mean, you two always got alo-"

"It was my fault," Cody said interrupting him midsentence. "I… you know… look, why are we here? I don't think you brought me down here to talk about my love life."

"Right you are," Laurence said. "We're gonna talk about you becoming a trainer. Your parents gotta let you leave someday, right?"

"Well… my mom… ever since Derrick, you know… left. She hasn't got over that. And she wants me to go to high school. I wouldn't hate that too much. But when we argue, she tells me that I need that education to get a job and what not."

Laurence didn't respond for about a minute, but he finally responded after thinking about Cody's words over. "Well, I can't help you with the Derrick factor. That's family matters there. But about school… look, I was a freshman last year, and I won't deny that it was fun. Made a lot of friends, got to play sports, etcetera, etcetera. But people say that being a trainer can give you your own set of experiences. You get to travel and meet new people all over the country. And if your mom brings up the job thing, tell her that most trainers get G.E.D.s, allowing them to get a real job after college if the training thing doesn't work it. About 70% do so."

Cody gave him a look. "70%? You actually memorized that statistic?"

Laurence chuckled. "I had to convince my parents to let me leave too, you know. I had to have a good argument. Look, try to reason with them. I know you said your dad wants you to go, so use that to your advantage." Suddenly, his eyes lit up. "Oh great, we're here."

Flex had stopped at the end of the brush. Cody slowly snuck over to look through the brush into the clearing. He saw a small stream pouring into a small waterfall into a small pool below.

"What are we looking for?" Cody questioned, but Laurence needed not to respond. From the stream, several creatures swam and fell into the pool below. They were splashing in the water, grunting happily.

"Squirtle," Cody said softly under his breath.

Laurence placed a round object in Cody's hand. It was a pokeball. "Well, why don't you catch one?"

This chapter was edited on 1/1/18. There may still be continuity or grammatical errors. If you notice any, please alert me in a review or a private message.

If you're a new reader, allow me to welcome you to my story. Just a forewarning, this story's interpretation of the pokéverse may be different from what you're used to or what your personal headcanon is. Additionally, there will be character drama in this story, but the pokémon will always have a presence. If you enjoy battles, drama, and pokémon worldbuilding, you'll find all of that here.

I enjoy feedback and I will respond to comments and questions posed in reviews and private messages. Enjoy!