Prologue
When one thinks of entering the Pokémon League, the last thing on anybody's mind is the Orange League. Nope, it's all about Kanto, or Hoenn, or Unova, or what have you. But not me. No, for me, a tiny girl from Sunburst Island, being a champion of the Orange League has been my childhood dream. I was only five when I witnessed the battle that filled me with awe so intense that sparked my desire to become a trainer myself. To this day, I have never experienced a more captivating battle – and let me tell you, I've had more than my fair share of interesting battles.
I'll never forget that day... Yep, here comes a flashback. Mom had taken me to Pummelo Stadium directly rather than watching the battle on cable as an early gift for my birthday that year (which, much to my dismay one year later, I discovered counted for that birthday as well). The champion and my celebrity crush both then and now, Drake, had previously been undefeated. Most trainers never got passed his Ditto, who he favored as his traditional opener. Those who did often didn't get very far beyond his second or third. It was unusual for anyone to push Drake hard enough to send in a fifth Pokémon, and absolutely exceptional for him to have to send in his final Pokémon, and his strongest: Dragonite.
But that day, Drake just seemed destined to lose from the beginning. His challenger was some boy from Pallet Town in Kanto. The only reason I even remember his name – Ash, as it were – is because he was, and remains to this day, the only person to ever have defeated Drake during his time as Orange League champion. I refused to accept it then, and even now I hate to admit it, but the boy was good. Drake's first two Pokémon, Ditto and Onix, went down hard, albeit not without a fight. His third, Gengar, went down as well, though this time Ash's Pokémon, a Lapras, went down with it. Put simply, I was astounded. Hell, I don't think anyone in the stadium that day wasn't. Not only had Drake lost three Pokémon in a row, he had only taken down one of his opponents'. As far as I know, no one had ever pushed Drake into a corner that early into a match. And it only got worse.
After the intermission, Drake sent in his trusty Venusaur. And, wouldn't you know it, it went down too, this time to Ash's rested Tauros, who failed to defeat Gengar earlier and had been recalled rather than beaten. Drake finally had a stroke of luck with his fifth Pokémon, Electabuzz. It made quick work of Ash's Bulbasaur, only to be knocked out by Ash's powerhouse, a Charizard. At this point, I cried. I cried a lot. And with good reason, too (or so I thought at the time)! Drake was down to one Pokémon, while Ash still had four (granted, none of them were in the best shape, but at five years old, the numbers were all that registered to me).
Dragonite didn't disappoint, though, taking down not only Charizard, but also Ash's Tauros and Squirtle. Finally, the battle was turning back in Drake's favor. I don't exactly remember the details of what happened next, but after some odd incident that involved some people in a giant Meowth-shaped hot air balloon throwing a net over Dragonite, there was only one obstacle in Drake's way… Ash's Pikachu. And what a marvelous battle it was… until Dragonite, exhausted by the strain of fighting four powerful opponents who refused to go down without a fight, collapsed. With that, Ash became the only challenger to defeat Drake. Needless to say, that was probably my worst birthday ever. I wanted nothing to do with Pokémon, if it meant Drake had to lose, though that didn't stop him from being my idol. That mindset didn't last longer than a day. Oh, the mind of a child is such a fascinating thing…
It wasn't until five years later that a ten-year-old little girl named Rhonda (me, by the way) happened to be cleaning out her bedroom in preparation for a move to a new home and discovered an old (and I mean old) video tape of this battle that mother had recorded when it aired on a re-run who knows how long before. Naturally, I completely forgot about trying to clean and pack, and popped in the tape. Seeing that spectacular battle for a second time after all those years revived my desire to become a trainer, though in all honestly I couldn't even remember what had ever dulled that dream to begin with in those years between my first and second viewings of the battle.
Of course, with dad being off in Johto doing I could only imagine what, mom busy with work, and my sister, Chloe, off on her own journey – I think she was in Sinnoh at the time, but I digress – there really wasn't any way I could begin, short of running away from home… which I did try, by the way. Obviously I didn't get very far; Cissy, the gym leader of Mikan Island had seen me alone in a boat in the middle of the ocean, crying my eyes out, during one of her gym battle-slash-surfing contests, collected me, and returned me home. Not only did I get an unpleasant scolding from mom, but even now I feel guilty about causing Cissy to lose that match. That little mishap, however, is virtually the reason I am allowed to go out on my journey now.
Cissy had become something of a family friend after that. Naturally, mom had told her all about my love of Pokémon and my dream to enter the Orange League. Cissy had since allowed me to visit her gym and watch her battles and her training, and I even got to play with her Pokémon! Every weekend she would teach me the basics of being a trainer and would let me pick one of her Pokémon to play with, and we would have mock battles. I beat her more often than you would think… though now that I'm older, I suspect she let me win just about all of those.
Oh, I guess I should mention my own Pokémon, too. At some point during the years I spent playing and learning with Cissy, a lone Kabuto washed up on the shore. Or crawled there willingly, I'll never know. Nor do I know why, but the little thing became almost annoyingly attached to me while I was sunbathing on the beach. Literally. The little bugger clung to my back and refused to let me go. This happened for several days before I finally managed to steal – I mean, borrow, I still plan to pay her back – one of Cissy's empty pokéballs and captured the little brown shellfish. The little guy didn't even really resist. Since then, I just recalled him whenever he got a little too friendly, but by that point I found I wasn't bothered too much, since it was obvious he wasn't trying to suck my blood or steal my soul as I had originally thought.
Of course, mom wasn't happy. At first, she was really surprised to see Kabuto, at first because I had caught a Pokémon while under the legal training age, but more importantly because of the species – Kabuto were supposed to be extinct, with very few exceptions – those being fossils found and revived by legendary researchers like Professor Oak. Once she got over the shock, though, Cissy reminded mom of an incident a few years back that had a huge impact on the whole Orange Archipelago. Basically what it boils down to is a legend on a nearby, unnamed (meaning, deserted) island that was rumored to conceal a cave full of Kabuto fossils. Some investigators went there and disturbed them, thus bringing the legend into passing, reviving the fossilized Kabuto and sinking the island into the sea. Cissy's best guess was that this Kabuto must have been one of the ones revived during that event. I happily gave my new friend to Cissy to look after, as I had no real means to take care of the little guy. We became really close after that, on those weekends when visited Cissy – again, literally. But now that I'm eighteen and able to fend for myself, I've jumped at the opportunity to finally go out on my own and follow my dream, despite my mom's feeble protests. I know deep down she's happy for me. I really think she's just going to miss me is all, which is probably my sister's fault for basically only ever communicating for Christmas or something.
Anyways, my birthday was a week ago. I took the extra time mostly so my mom could get over her shock at me suddenly declare I was leaving ASAP, though I spent most of it planning my adventure. My main goal was to simply wander and see the entire Orange Islands, hopefully collecting all four badges, including Cissy's, and then take on my childhood hero, Drake, myself. And today was the day it all started.
One of the things I loved about the island chain in which I lived, especially the southern islands, was the beach weather. The climate in the Orange Islands was extremely warm (well, in most places). To that end, I selected my clothes accordingly at the beginning of the day. I picked my cutest black bikini from my closet and pulled it on before throwing my favorite light pink tank top over my head, and also slid my favorite navy shorts over the bottom. I followed that up by shoving several similar bikinis, tank tops, and shorts, along with a few other necessities such as my phone, some money, seasickness pills, and several packages of mini Oreos into a small black bag that I could wear at my side, the strap over my opposite shoulder. After slipping on my flip-flops, I pulled my light brown hair back into a cute ponytail and tied it back with a dark green ribbon, given to me by my first boyfriend, Blake, on our one year. I'd never admit it to another living being, but though the excuse I gave for keeping this ribbon was that it matched my eyes, the real reason was that I never did quite get over him (well, okay, that's half true; the ribbon really did make my eyes stand out too and I do love it for that).
I wanted to leave right away, but naturally, mom wouldn't allow that. She spent over an hour crying, which naturally meant that dad and I had to spend that time comforting her. Not that I really mind, I suppose. I mean, I do love my mother. But let's face it, whether I went out to follow my dream or to go to college or simply because I'm eighteen now, I would eventually leave the nest anyway, just like every other teenager. We did eventually get her to calm down, though as I was saying my final good-byes outside, she suddenly had a change of heart and decided to accompany me to Cissy's gym, the first stop on my Grand Adventure, where I would pick up Kabuto and thank Cissy for her help before heading off to Tangelo Island off to the southwest. I grudgingly agreed to let her come, mostly because if she didn't, our boat would be stranded at Mikan Island.
The trip to the island was not long, and eventually mother conceded her defeat, said her final good-bye, and began the sail back home. I vaguely wondered why she changed her mind about coming to the gym with me, but I didn't dwell on the question for too long because I was already too busy missing her. And I'm not going to lie, once her back was turned, it was hard for me to keep from crying myself as I stood there watching her sail away, waving to her back. I whispered one last "I love you" before turning around and finally making my way to Cissy's gym. My head was full of thoughts of Kabuto, and our soon to be Grand Adventure, from then on; that is, until I fell into a rather deep hole in the path, screaming like a banshee all the way to the bottom, where I slammed head-first into the ground and blacked out, knowing in that split second beforehand exactly who to blame… and vowing that before I left, Senta would get what was coming to him.
A/N: As if I didn't have enough stories in-progress that I'm not working on, right? Oh well. I had inspiration for this about 6 hours ago, and the writing just flowed. We'll see how far this goes. I hope it's a long way, the Orange Islands don't get a fraction of the love they deserve.