The Eighth Brain
By Egg Emperor
Prologue Part 1: A Rising Star Seeks the Heavens
May 22nd 2007 11:34 AM – Snowpoint City Pokemon Center
As fifteen year old Max Maple looked at himself in the mirror, he analyzed what he saw. Looking over things, studying them till his eyes were tired, was a strong suit of his. Sure his sister May and many of his friends thought it made him obnoxious especially when he shared his conclusions with others.
Personally he thought his Coordinator sister was far more of a brat than he was, with her constant temper tantrums and scary disposition, she could go from sweet as honey to as cuddly as a Cacnea.
A situation which only grew worse as she began to spend time around that hammer wielding water demon, known as Misty Waterflower. He shivered at the thought of her.
Thinking on a particular incident, where an angered Misty had sicked her Gyarados on her cheating boyfriend gave him chills. Just the memory of the event made Max's blood run cold.
"Man that girl really is insane; I wonder what Ash was thinking when he decided to travel with her for three years."
Perhaps Misty had not been as hard on Ash as she was on others, though if the stories Brock told him were to be believed that was far from the case.
The more he thought about it the more he recognized something strange.
"When I first met Misty, the reaction Ash had at her arrival was surreal." Max himself was never one for fawning over girls though he did show interest; Ash he was just plain oblivious them.
That wasn't true for Misty though, he remembered seeing Ash light up at just seeing her.
"Maybe he loved her?" Or perhaps it was just a strong platonic friendship?
Though he mentally added that perhaps Ash suffering brain damage at the hands of Misty's famous hammer was a far simpler solution.
Returning his musing to himself he studied his reflection, in the many years that had passed since he became a trainer he had most certainly changed. He had grown to a rather impressive 5' 11" in height, and as far as he knew, he was still growing. The day he grew taller than May was one of happiest of his life.
He had kept himself fit, and with all the training and all traveling he did, mostly by foot, he had acquired a well-muscled frame.
Long having since replaced his glasses with contacts, his dark gray eyes shown back at him uninhibited. Even with his glasses gone the habit of placing his fingers against the bridge of his nose, attempting to adjust the non-existent eye ware, in response to certain situations hadn't disappeared. His blue black hair was now cut short and no longer framed his ears it now was combed back away from his forehead slicked past the sides, finally spiking up in the back.
He though back to a month or so ago when Dawn dropped by his sister and her met again on the coordinating circuit and became fast friends so it wasn't all that unusual for her to come for a visit.
She had said that Max "…had turned into a real hottie." Much in fact to May's horror and chagrin. Max smiled at the recollection, that statement, if anything sure gave his self-image a boost and his sister's face was beyond priceless.
His grin, however, quickly turned into a frown when he remembered the rest of the conversation. Namely, of course because she just had to add the statement, "… only if you didn't know him."
She went on to say that as long as he kept his mouth shut he might have a chance at getting a girlfriend.
"All and all Max buddy you look pretty good, you certainly don't look bad." Max said, while smiling at his reflection.
A stifled snicker of laughter sounded, breaking Max from his thoughts.
"Complementing yourself? Wow Max and people say that we coordinators have big egos." May said with a smirk on her face.
"Stuff it May, your ego is bigger than your Blastoise and the entire world knows it, although..." Max paused for dramatic effect, a rather malicious grin upon his face.
"…There is one thing bigger, considering all the food you shovel down at every meal, the biggest thing about you is you fat a..." he was cut off before he could finish
"Max, you finish that sentence and, I, will end you!"
The demonic look in May's eyes left no doubt to the truth of her statement; Max for his part, realizing that he was on the verge of a very painful experience decided it was best not to provoke his sister further.
He still had a Frontier challenge to complete and egging his sister into committing fratricide was not going to help him do it.
He finished getting dressed, putting on a red and blue shirt overlaid with a red and white jacket. A pair of simple green sneakers and the gray jeans he already wore finished his outfit.
He now had seven symbols, defeating Pyramid King Brandon and earning the Brave symbol after finally locating the man near Snowpoint city. Thinking back to the battle which occurred only a few days prior, Max acknowledged that it was the toughest one he had ever had. Facing those three golems was a challenge that took all he had and then some. In the end it was Brandon's final pokemon that worried him
So he secretly thanked Arceus when he learned that Regigigas preferred sleeping and oddly enough, tending flowers in its temple's garden over battling.
Watching the massive giant religiously tend to the many plants that grew around the temple after the spring thaw was peculiar sight. Max though it would have been almost endearing were it not for the knowledge that the behemoth could crush his skeleton into powder without any effort.
As Max walked down the hall to the pokemon center's cafeteria he began to think on how the battle might have gone had he had to fight against the titanic pokemon.
As it was the Regi trio was bad enough, but their massive master would have been completely different. If Max was honest with himself he knew his chances of defeating the Colossal Pokemon were very slim. So when the massive golem expressed to Brandon that he did not wish to battle and would rather tend to his roses, Max was very much relieved.
In the end Brandon substituted his Solrock for the Golem King.
A smirk now on his face, Max walked down the hall.
"Which was no match for my Banette, of course the type advantage was obvious and since Banette is a better at launching special attacks and Solrock have much higher defense, then factoring in the added resistance to the Meteorite Pokemon's psychic abilities and Banette's superior speed clinched the battle." Max stated aloud more to himself that anyone around him, as he raised his hand to his face, appearing to adjust an invisible pair of glasses.
Halfway through the motion he caught himself, "Damn it all! I need to kick this habit, it makes me look like a total nerd."
"And that little speech you just made doesn't?" retorted Lisa, one of his traveling companions and one of the other two trainers from Petalburg that started their journey a little over five years ago.
May who was sitting at the table scarfing down breakfast in a manner that would make her Munchlax envious, began to laugh only to choke on her food a moment later and descend into a massive coughing fit.
Seeing his sister's predicament only made Max smile, to him divine justice had been wrought. Evan, Max's other traveling companion and the third of the Petalburg three, came walking to the table with a tray of food just as the commotion reached its climax. Eyeing the coughing coordinator who was by now being ministered to by her boyfriend Drew, a smirking Max and rather bewildered Lisa, he just simply shrugged and sat down to eat his meal.
"So Max are you ready…. to see Scott about finishing the challenge, he said…. that today he would fill you in…. on the final Brain and where their battle facility is." Eric inquired between bites of eggs and pancakes.
"Who would have thought that there was another Frontier Brain after Brandon?" May interjected having finally recovered from her coughing spell.
"Not just that, I hear this new guy beat out Brandon as the Leader of the Frontier, Brandon is now the public face of the Brains while this guy leads them from behind the scenes. Also apparently he's a ridiculously powerful trainer, stronger than Brandon by far, so don't go getting cocky. You barely managed to beat Brandon, and that was mainly because pansy loving Regigigas didn't want to fight..."
"Hey! That's pretty screwed up insulting him because he didn't what to battle…" Max interjected.
"You didn't let me finish! I wasn't being insulting, I meant that he really likes pansies, he was off watering a whole field of them by the temple this morning."
"Oh! Sorry Lise" Max sheepishly responded.
"Now back to what I was saying, you can't get cocky Maxie, or else you going to get your ass handed to you on a plate, you just got by Brandon on a wing and a prayer. If you even want to have a Snorunt's chance in the reverse world, of beating this guy you're going to have to train double time." Lisa stated pointing her fork at Max in an effort to drive her message home.
"I guess the frontier has changed since Ash took the challenge." May said softly.
Max gave his sister a small sad smile.
Ash, the trainer who he thought of as more of a brother than a friend, who mentored both his sister and him on their journey through Hoenn seven long years ago, not a day has gone by without Max thinking about him.
Max was only eight at the time and though their meeting was rocky at best, he came to admire the young trainer and in the end wanted to be just like him. He had hoped to not only see him again but finally battle him. Though at this point he wasn't sure if that battle would ever happen…
Max himself had turned nine when Ash had finished the Frontier Challenge; by the time he had turned ten Ash had made the Top 4 in the Lilly of The Valley Conference in Sinnoh. After proving himself and placing Top 8 in the Evergrande Conference Max felt he was ready. Confident he was now an accomplished trainer, he took a ship to Pallet town in order challenge the Indigo League and to claim the battle that Ash promised him so long ago. Little did he know at the time he debarked from the Cinnabar-Pallet ferry, that what he would reap from this visit was not a memorable challenge, but a hole in his very heart…
Author's Notes:
Ok, I know I'm evil leaving off at a cliff hanger right off the bat, for the very first chapter of my very first story. But you know what I AM EVIL MUHAHAHAH! Returning to reality, in all seriousness I was going to continue from this point for maybe another 500-800 words, but I decided that a perfect chapter break had presented itself and who am I to deny the story its whims.
Now on to a few actual notes:
1) For now this story is rate T (Teen) it may go up to M (Mature) if I decide to either up the violence or the swearing.
2) There will be no romance for the foreseeable future in this story. Reasons why it's an Adventure/Drama/Action Story and plus I'm just not good at romance to begin with.
3) Max's starter was a Treeko , now a Sceptile, as previously stated he has a Banette as well. He also returned for Ralts, which is now fully evolved. I will give you readers a choice between either Gardevoir or Gallade , in a poll. The poll will remain open for a while since the prologue will last at least 2, perhaps even 3 chapters, so that most of Max's pokemon will not appear until chapter 3 perhaps 4 at the earliest.
4) Next to last but not least there is a poll up for my 4 stories, I will finish the 2 or 3 chapters that comprise the prologue of this story, and then will defer to the poll, If this story wins I will continue on with the first real chapters, if another wins then this story will go on hiatus, and I will start on that story. Then I will return to this one. Later after this is complete another poll will be held to determine the order of the last two.
5) Finally I have a question for you all; there is significance to the date this chapter takes place on specifically, May 22nd. If you can figure out the significance PM me the answer; the first person to send me the correct answer, will get a treat, namely a decision to choose from a group of pokemon for a trainer near the story's conclusion.
This is Egg Emperor signing off for now; look forward to the next chapter of this story Prologue Part 2: Ghost Stories, by at the latest this weekend if not perhaps as soon as tomorrow.