You may have read stories of trainers before, seeing them start with the Pokemon labeled "starters", and seeing them work their way up through their leagues. This is a different type of story. This, is a story of a vendetta. A vendetta between the teams, between the leagues, between Pokemon trainers and masters alike. This, is the Legend of the Pokemon.
...
An alarm blared next to my head. I shot up and out of my cot, which was all the orphanage could give us with their meager funds. As I dressed, I thought to myself about what drove me to be here, and strengthening my resolve to continue. Those bastards who murdered my parents and brother, the trainers who had shown up to fight them off, the weird trainer who brought me here, and, most of all, what Pokemon I would pick.
For you see, I am no ordinary person. I have seen the reality of the world, a world full of bloodshed, where you have to work 'till you go numb, then keep working some more. The wad of cash I had earned from all of my work lay on my bed, packed in a cheap, but strong, rubber band, of which I had several. I put it in the pocket of my jeans, letting my belt's item holsters contain unused Pokeballs, potions, antidotes, and my berry pouch.
I sat back down on my bed as I put on my combat-grade boots, guarenteed to have a lifespan of at least twenty years. I ran out of my room, still throwing on my jacket. As a result, I almost ran into Jessie. Her crimson hair was gelled into her usual hair pattern, which resembled a half-melted nail. She had her hands clapsed behind her back, and her Ekans was following her like normal.
"You leaving already?" She said, her slight accent apparant to me, since I'd heard it for ten years now.
"Yeah," I said, slightly nervous. "Why don't you come with me? You could get your license too, you know."
She shook her head slightly, her hair not swaying an inch more than the gel would allow it. "I can't. I accepted a job with Team Rocket. I ship out for Kanto tomorrow."
I forced a smile. At least they weren't murderers. "Well, if you ever see those Aqua bastards, give 'em one for me, a'ight?" I said, making her smile and playfully punch my shoulder. "Have fun, and remember: you may be one of them now, but that doesn't mean it'll stay that way."
"Yeah. Well, bye then," she said, kissing my cheek. I'm pretty sure I was blushing after this, but she didn't say anything if I was.
"Yeah," I said, moving towards the stairs. "Bye."
The walk from the orphanage, though long, was uneventful. I reached my destination after an hour of walking, and the Pokemon Center was ready to receive me.
"If you'll come with me, sir, we have your exam ready for you to take," the local Nurse Joy said, ushering me into a side room lined with desks, though only a few were occupied. The test was fairly easy. Actually, I can remember it clearly, so if you'll hand me that laptop you're writing this down on, I'll put it down.
Here. The things in brackets are what I answered the test with.
1) Name two types of Pokemon that rock-type moves are super-effective on. [Flying and fire.]
2) What is the evolved form of Metagross? [There is none currently recorded.]
3) How many evolutions of Eevee are there? [Seven, if you include the ones recently discovered in Sinnoh.]
4) Which evolutionary stone(s) is(are) Eevee unaffected by? [Moon stone and Leaf stone.]
5) How does Eevee evolve into an Espeon? [Again with the Eevee questions? Fine, it evolves into an Espeon when it develops a strong emotional bond during the day.]
There were only five freaking questions, too. Then again, these tests are supposed to be for ten-year-olds.
Anyways, I walked up to turn in my test after only two minutes. The nurse took the test and looked it over, making sure each answer was correct. She smiled a little at the end, and reached down into the cabinet to pull out a selection of Pokemon in Pokeballs, as well as a Pokedex and an instruction manual for it. (useful that manual was, after all, only two buttons on a 'Dex)
I got to choose one of the Pokemon from that selection of ten. They were a Bulbasaur, Torchic, Taillow, Zubat, Abra, Skitty, Zigzagoon, Poochyena, Treeko, and a Beldum. I chose the Beldum, because I knew that it's species didn't eat food; they ate minerals in the rock and soil. The ultimate treat for a Beldum or its line is actually a chunk of iron.
As I exited the Center, I scanned the Beldum's ball with my Pokedex. I took note of its three attack moves and one defensive move, along with its level, which left much to be desired. First stop was a good gym for some hardcore training. Luckily, I lived in Mossdeep City, so I might even get some tips for teaching psychic types to realize their full potential.
The gym was only a short walk away from the center, and my ferry ticket was for October 9th, while it was only September 20th. The doors were open, and the receptionist friendly enough. He pointed me in the direction of the training room, where I saw three others training. The two preteens were training Kadabra by battling each other, and the older man was training an Abra to use Hidden Power and Shadow Ball.
I picked a more private area in the room, where a few sturdy punching bags made for technique use blocked the others' views. I sent my Beldum out, noticing its slight hesitation. I suddenly remembered that I should've tried to gain its trust before trying to train it. The man training the Abra noticed my Beldum and smiled to himself.
"Abra, take a break before continuing. I know that this is very draining exercise for your species," he said to his Abra, which teleported over to a bench and fell asleep. The man walked over to me. "Need some help? I can tell that your Beldum is new and, from the sheen of its body, somewhat low-level," he explained.
"Sure, I could use all the help I can get," I said. "But who are you?"
He seemed amused by this. "What? Don't you know where my daughters get their talent from?"
My eyes widened in surprise. I knew who he was refering to. "You're the father of Liza and Tate? The youngest gym leaders ever, in the history of the leagues?"
His smile turned into a full-blown grin. "Yup, I'm Jim, former leader and resident expert on Psychic types."
My Beldum floated a little closer to us, nudging me with its "head", what I called the area surrounding its eye. Jim laughed.
"Well, it seems your Beldum is impatient, so let's get started, boy."
Time flew by with him training not just Beldum, but me as well. He managed to help me evolve Beldum into a Metang in just five days, letting it get used to its new body for a couple of days before training it harder than ever. Metang knew eight offensive moves, three defensive moves, and two supplementary moves once he was done training us. He also gave me a jo staff as a gift for managing to complete the training, and gave Metang a large chunk of iron, as well as giving me about a pound of iron filings to give it occasionally.
I had met Tate and Liza over that time as well. The twins were much younger than I thought they would be. I mean, seriously, they were only eleven! They did manage to teach Metang how to speak telepathically, so I could communicate with it easier. Their birthday(s?) was three days after I was supposed to leave, so I gave them their presents when it came time to board the ship. They squealed with glee when they saw the Natu and the Baltoy that I had managed to find and catch.
The ship's travel time was supposed to be three days, taking me to Lilycove City. Unfortunately, trouble struck on the second day. A smaller boat pulled up alongside the ferry. A few grappling lines attached themselves to the railing on the ferry, just as an identical boat came up on the other side of the ship, repeating the process. I cursed to myself as Team Aqau members started crawling up the lines.
"Let's go, Metang!" I shouted, my voice lost in the din as multiple trainers on the ferry released their Pokemon. The Team Aqua bastards threw their Pokemon onto the deck as they were still climbing up. A few Poochyena landed near Metang, easily being dispatched by the steel-type's Brick Break technique. A Machoke landed somewhat further away, being thrown backwards, off the deck, by Metang's Psychic. I saw a stream of flame blow a Mightyena off the ship out of the corner of my eye, and a few Psycho Cuts being fired at the grappling lines.
"Metang! Let's go to the other side!" I shouted up to Metang, who had floated higher to Brick Break a Murkrow and a Skarmory. It floated down to me and let me climb onto its arm before swiftly floating to the other side of the ship, where the trainers were being overwhelmed by Team Aqua. "Flash Cannon, rapid fire!"
Metang flexed its claw-like steel fingers, letting bullets of metallic energy fly out of its palms. The three Poochyena and the Mightyena were dispatched easily, but the two Crawdaunt just shook it off and kept mowing down the weak Pokemon the trainers sent against them. Metang launched a high powered burst of electricity out of each of its palms at them, shocking them and inducing paralysis, letting it hit them with Brick Break. The Crawdaunts shook off the paralysis and the hits pretty fast though.
One of the Crawdaunts tried to hit Metang with a Crabhammer while the other shot a Bubblebeam at it. Hearing my command over our mental link, Metang shot off like a bullet, slamming into the Crawdaunt using Crabhammer, hitting it with a combination of Agility and Take Down. The Crawdaunt was launched off the side of the ship.
The other one was closing in, its closed claw glowing with a Crabhammer. Metang spun around and launched a close-range barrage of Zap Cannons, making the Crawdaunt collapse, unconscious. It was engulfed by a beam of red light, which I followed to see an Aqua Admin. He sent out a Mightyena and a Pelipper to fight Metang. The Pelipper was easily dispatched with a Zap Cannon, but the Mightyena took that opportunity to use Agility. Using the mental link again, I told Metang to use Lock-On, followed by a barrage of Flash Cannons.
The Mightyena tried to dodge as many as it could, and used a Dark Pulse to eliminate some of them, but it was soon worn down by the rest of the shots. The Admin drew a long knife and lunged at me, making me leap off of Metang and pull my jo staff off of my back. Twirling it and spinning to gain some momentum, I smacked down the Admin as he tried to stab me. I kept this up, using the momentum of the staff to keep him down rather than applying any real force. He leapt back to his feet, but he didn't rush me this time; instead, he threw the knife. I was lucky; it just barely grazed my right ear.
I pressed my new advantage; after all, it's hard for an unarmed person to fight a staff-user. He ducked a high shot and tried to tackle me, but didn't expect his nose to impact with my elbow. He reeled back, giving me an opening. I spun, impacting the side of his head with a full force strike. He dropped, unmoving, bleeding from his nose and the new head wound. I checked him for a pulse and sighed in relief; he was still alive, just unconscious.
Suddenly, hidden compartments shot open on the starboard boatand launched dozens of Pokeballs into the sky. The collective burst was bright enough to bathe everything in red light for three seconds. When the light faded, there were dozens of Zubats, Golbats, Wingull, and Pelipper in the sky. With a collective cry, the trainers with flying type Pokemon shot into battle, while the trainers without them shot off long-range attacks from the ship.
Bolts of lightning and streams of water and flame arched from the ship into the mass of flying types. Metang was launching Zap Cannons into the sky, and using Meteor Mash on anything that came too close. The last of the Aqua Pokemon fell into the sea at this point, making every trainer sigh in relief. I realized something though: from what I saw of the boats, they were identical. That meant...
Before I could warn them, another army of flying types rose up from the other side of the ship. I felt myself grow weak as I felt what Metang felt, exhaustion. I was pretty sure most of the other trainers were feeling the same thing. A calm voice suddenly was in my ears.
"Thunderbolt." Twin bolts of lightning arched through the army of flying types knocking a good half of them out of the sky. "Again." The bolts continued to fire off until the army was defeated. The source became apparent as two Dragonairs flew into the air space that was formerly occupied by the army they just demolished. "Return," the voice said again as twin beams of red light engulfed the dragons.
I looked behind me, where the source of the voice came from, and saw Lance, of the Kanto elite four, riding a Dragonite. He was looking downwards, his cloak flowing in the wind, looking like a total badass. "Ice Beam." He spoke calmly, without hesitation or haste. I followed the beam of pale white energy his Dragonite shot from its mouth, making me see another Admin, this one prepping a bazooka and aiming it at the ship's engine. The cold energy encased the bazooka in ice, making it crack and shatter in places.
I looked around, when Metang warned me through our telepathic link that there were three grunts holding some of the crew hostage, with another Admin overseeing their efforts. I hopped on its back, since it could move faster than me, and told it to move out.
We found them in the control room. The crew members were bound with rope, and surrounded by tough-looking water-types, mostly Corphish and Wartortle, though there was a Crawdaunt and a Mightyena there, too. I sent a command to Metang through our link, and it followed it, launching a barrage of Zap Cannons, weaker than its ones from before. The Corphish and Wartortle passed out from the electricity coursing through them, but the Crawdaunt and the Mightyena only tensed up for a few seconds.
I leapt off of Metang as it flew in close to Brick Break the two dark-types. Twirling my staff like a pro, I knocked out the first grunt with my first strike, the second dodging the twin strike I sent at him. The third lunged at me as the second jumped back, so I ducked down, still spinning, my right hand holding my staff against my back, my left helping me keep my balance. The grunt fell as I swept his legs with my staff. I rose up, still spinning, as the second grunt tried to hit me with a piece of pipe he found. My staff hit him in the side, breaking some ribs, and he was knocked off balance, knocked out as he hit the ground hard.
The Admin must have thrown a pokeball, because I felt something round and hard hit me in the head, making me stumble sideways, followed by a flash of bright light and the materialization of a Kingler. The Kingler shot itself at me, but was slammed into the ground by a large metal claw, its whole arm glowing with a Meteor Mash. Metang launched an up-close Zap Cannon to make sure it was out. As I turned back to the Admin, I pulled a shuriken, one of the three Jim gave me during my training with him, out of my pocket and flung it at him, using my momentum to increase the power behind it. It hit him in the knee, making it hard as hell for him to move.
A shadow loomed over the now fallen Admin. He looked up when I did, both of us seeing the Tyranitar crammed into the doorway. Lance was in front of it, throwing a glance my way before going down on one knee, chopping the man in the back of the neck. The Admin was knocked unconscious.
Lance rose up, dusting his hands off. He spoke, his voice still holding the powerful tone it held when he was commanding his Dragonair. "You did well, trainer. You saved me the effort of having to fight in a small area. My Pokemon are not used to that."
He pulled a Pokeball out of his pocket and gave it to me. "That contains a Charmeleon I was trying to raise. It doesn't like me, for some reason. I feel that it would be best in your capable hands. Who knows? You might end up challenging me someday."
With that, he walked out of the room. By the time I was on the deck, he was just a speck in the distance, barely discernable on his Dragonite. I stared at the Pokeball still clenched in my hand, then scanned it with my Pokedex.
I winced as I saw some of its attacks. If it was disobedient, it could do some heavy damage before I could recall it. How the hell had Lance gotten it to learn Blast Burn! I sighed as I saw that it had no defensive or supplementary attacks.
That would have to change.