The London League Crisis: Chapter 1.
The arrival.
There are five islands roughly, far off into the ocean and far too remote for any none-ambitious holidaymakers to venture to.
Not that they'd want to, considering the hundreds of species of wild, ferocious animals that might fancy taking a bite out of you as soon as see you.
However, for many centuries the natives of said islands: Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh and Unova, took to capturing and nurturing said creatures in their own, unique fashion; training the animals to fight and building an entire society and way of life structured around the cohabitation with these unusual beings.
It was only within the previous couple of decades, when the importation of these creatures, or "Pokémon" as they are often more commonly known as, into the Capital city of an old and powerful country, did the concepts of Pokémon training and secret, underground warfare become irrevocable
entangled.
However, as very often in these tales, the job of wondering blindly and hazardously uninformed into the deadly environment had been placed onto the shoulders of a young Pokémon trainer.
She isn't a novice trainer, mind… far from it. Marcia Stephens, the "warrior of Unova" and the "Guardian of Johto" had begun her first journey into the world of Pokémon training some 8 years previous. She had already acquired an impressive 43 gym badges and had defeated the Elite Four on no less than 30 occasions. She didn't, however use too much of her experience to her advantage and, in a good, sportswomanly way, every time she was to take on a new line of Gym Leaders she would obtain a new team of Pokes at a suitable level to allow for some amount of challenge.
So, when she decided to travel as far as to the wild, crowded city of London, home to a new, flourishing and unique form of Pokémon League, she did as she normally does. Stashed her old pokes in her computer, randomly bred 50 different members of her most reliable teams, gathered all the eggs and mixed them up, then took one of the unborn Pokémon and caught the nearest and quickest transport (one of the more long haul planes of Mistralton City) and headed straight for Britain.
"Well…" Remarked Skyla after a long hour and a half of tense, nervous silence.
"I don't think I've ever flown this far away from Unova before… actually… I don't think I've ever flown anywhere vaguely outside of Unova… to be honest…"
"Really?" Marcia almost yelped, a little bit more fearful than she'd expected.
"You mean you've never even flown to any other Pokémon inhabited island?" She had been holding the egg of her new Pokémon close to her chest all the way so far, resting her chin on the slightly pointed top of it, but with the shock of knowing Skyla had never travelled this far before, Marcia was now more concerned that she might crush the egg by accident. Frightened that she might drop it is she loosened her grip, she took to partially gripping it with the pads of her fingers.
"So… You are actually allowed to fly this far out… right? This is… you know… included in your license…"
"Oh, of course it is…" The pink haired Gym Leader swatted away this question with an energetic wave of her free hand. "I just wanted you to know that this is very exciting for me, flying out to somewhere as new and different as London!"
"Well, I wouldn't get my hopes up too high, if I were you… London is VERY different from what we're both used to… it's large… for a city… crowded and over-populated… millions of cars milling up and down the place… and apparently… apart from in zoos and in special, secluded "Pokémon parks", it is impossible for any species of Pokémon other than the really hardy, urban Pokémon, to successfully thrive in London's environment… they say the two most common Pokémon in this region are Joltiks and Trubbish."
"Eeeeesh…" Skyla murmured in undisguised disgust.
"To be honest, that sounds like a highly unpleasant place to live…"
"To me, too… but… apparently millions of people have done so and still choose to do so, today… so it can't be all that bad…" Marcia lifted her wrist to check her watch, which she had already set to GMT before setting off.
"Well, it should be somewhere around 10 PM when I reach my hotel, I'm catching a taxi straight from the airport… considering it's only one city, approximately the same size as 5 cities in our region… it's apparently impossible to walk from one place to the other… either you drive, or you take a cab…"
"Double yeeeesh!"
"It's not so bad… gives me something to spend my money on… though it is rather ridiculous… the exchange rate of Poke to Pound… I took 10.000 poke to the centre last week. Only got me £50…"
"…..And you're going to this place, because…?"
"Because, it has been just recently identified as the most challenging and rewarding League in the world… none of the other regions back home compare to it…"
"Oh well, good luck with that… if it's in any way as crowded as you described it, I think I'll head on back home once I've dropped you off… this bird needs some space to spread her wings!" She stretched her arms out before her and flexed her wrists before taking hold of the steering column again.
Once they had landed at Heathrow Marcia hopped out of the plane and waited to see if Skyla would be getting out as well. Realising swiftly that she was instead waiting for the younger trainer to move aside so that she can take off again, Marcia began her march over to the main building, preparing herself for an interesting journey through British customs.
In hindsight, it was a damn good thing that Marcia still carried her old gym badges with her, despite the urge she usually experienced when leaving for a new region, to leave the last set of badges behind in the region where she'd earned them.
She'd always found flashing her box full of well cleaned, sparkling badges more than a little bit tacky and vain, as if the number of badges and the shininess of their front directly corresponded with the size of her ego.
But it was only so far along that she started to notice the signs, at least twenty on her way to customs, all reading the same warning.
Any person/s bringing Pokémon/poke balls/ Pokémon eggs into the country must provide proof of experienced trainership. (i.e. a minimum of 12 gym badges from any Pokémon base region OR a notice signed by at least 5 legal gym leaders.)
Anyone carrying said items/animals who cannot provide said evidence OR do not declare said creatures upon arrival will be immediately deported back to their region of origin with a £50.000 fine for Pokémon smuggling. (Frequent perpetrators may receive a set prison sentence.)
"…Well… that's me told…" Marcia fished her badges case from her suitcase, feeling all the more nervous for not having thought of carrying it in her hand luggage.
"I guess this is definitely not a place for first time trainers…"
After wading through the fluid crowd, flowing in and out of London's valves at the opening of each door. She presented her papers and passport, having made triply sure to write down her declaration of "1 Pokémon egg, 50 ultra-balls, 5 rare candies (to raise her Pokémon up once it hatches) a set of TMs (in case the baby's moveset's a bit limited) and a rather large amount of Pokémon vitamins." (Which are not so much illegal to import, but are difficult to justify in bulk)
On her way, she had seen numerous children and young people with their families, carrying boxes with their Pokémon pets inside, everything from cat baskets containing sleeping Meowth or Purrloins, birdcages housing well groomed Duckletts and Chatots, Growlithes and Houndours in harnesses and muzzles and on the rare occasion, an elderly person talking to his loyal, hardworking "Human-shaped" Pokémon, in this instance, a Hypno, as the Pokémon happily carries it's trainer's cases for them.
Once she had finally finished up in the Airport, she hurried out to the front to try and catch herself a taxi. Thankfully, there were quite a few of them queuing up to pick up travellers in need, so she hopped into the nearest, freest of the black cabs and squeezed into the back eagerly, placing the now rather warm egg into her lap. As the car began to pull away and drive on, she pressed her ear up against the thin shell, hoping to hear some form of movement inside.
They had been travelling for quite some time before she finally realised that she hadn't told the driver where she wanted to go. Feeling like a bit of a fool, she knocked onto the dividing plastic between her and the front of the vehicle.
"Oh, sorry, I forgot to mention, could you take me to the "Royal Arceus" please?"
They had arrived at a set of lights and the cab had come to a slow halt as she mentioned this.
"The Royal Arceus… The Pokémon hotel they opened a few years back…" The man muttered to himself in a slightly course accent.
"So you're a pokémon trainer? Just got here from one of them other regions… that's interestin'… must 'ave a fair few badges on yeh?" He followed on to enquire, Marcia felt mildly embarrassed about being asked such a question, but it probably wouldn't hurt too much to blow her own trumpet just a little.
"…Well… I have… 43 badges, actually…"
The cab had just started moving when the lights turned green, but stalled instantly after.
"…for'y three badges… now that's VERY interestin'…" As he set off again and drove a little further onwards, they reached another turning and he seemed to do an entire 360 and drive back the way he came from.
Marcia tried hard to ignore this fact; true, it would have been just her luck to have picked a cabbie who didn't know his way to the Royal Arceus Hotel, but so long as he got her there in the end, that was all that really mattered to her.
"So… you plannin' to take on the Elite Four?" He asked her after a few more minutes. Marcia smiled appreciatively at this inquiry.
"That's the plan… once I've gathered all the gym badges…"
"Well, good luck with that, the Elite Four here are certainly a force to be reckoned with… not that the Gym Leaders here are push overs either… apparently… out of thousands who challenge the league every year… only 20% of them ever reach it past the last gym…"
"And the percentage of those who manage to defeat the Champion?" Marcia asked the driver, pleased at how well he understood the local league.
"…Yeah… best I leave yeh to find that out for yourself… don't want to put you off now, do I? What with all the badges you already have under your belt…"
They were now just approaching the street where the new Pokémon hotel was built, not that Marcia realised this, she hadn't even managed to memorize what the street name was. As she watched them begin to slow a little, she decided to ask one last question.
"Where you a Pokémon Trainer at one point?"
The man let out a quiet chuckle as he slid his way through the few cars that were out this late.
"I was… and still am… Pokémon, you know… they're the best things to 'ave ever happened to me… sometimes… when life decides to give you hell… your Pokémon suddenly become the only thing you can truly rely on… 'cept yourself, of course…" He leaned forward for a moment, before presenting her with, quite possibly the most cliché Pokémon question known to trainer kind.
"So… you're a well experienced trainer… what would you say you best type is?"
This, however common a question, somewhat stumped Marcia, she had never really stopped to decide which type she was able to train the best.
"…I suppose… I'm more towards the special-based types… ice… water… that sort of thing… fire can be good, too… Can manage fighting and psychic well, too… but if I'm fighting a rock type, I'll think to use water before fighting…"
"Ahh… I see…" He fell silent for a few more moments before adding.
"I find you can always really on a good poison type… I know what you're thinking… they're only good in very specific battles… few strengths and too many weaknesses… that's pretty much what everybody thinks… they think they know what to expect… and I know what they think to expect… that's where I get 'em… Ah… we're here."
To be honest, Marcia was more than happy to have arrived at her location. She couldn't explain why, but the tone of the conversation had become more than a little bit discomforting. Handing the driver her money and climbing out, she turned to the window to ask the man one last question.
"Um… I'll be spending some time here, training in the special garden out the back… best place apparently for preparing for the League… Do you know where the first gym is… or at least the one that's deemed to be the… easiest…" The rather mature looking, watery eyed man scratched his chin for a few seconds before finally answering.
"Well, the common consensus of which classes as the "first gym" is located not too far from here… it's a relatively old, three flat place in central London…"
"…Wait…" Marcia stuttered, now only just adding together what he was saying.
"You mean the first gym is based in someone's house?" She almost exclaimed. This was highly irregular in the other regions… originally, the idea of Roxie basing her Gym in a tiny club, or Elesa turning her gym into a cat walk, seemed a little extreme for Marcia's taste. The idea that the first Gym Leader she will be facing has their Gym based in the same building where they live and sleep seemed almost ridiculous.
"…So… what is the address of this gym, then?"
"Ah yes… the house you'll be after, is 221b Baker Street." The Taxi Driver finally answered, before pulling away and driving on.