The Final Champion
A Story by Radiant Reina
KEY:
"(blah blah)" – Pokémon talking (I figured I'd make it easy on myself)
*Flashback* – a character is recalling a previous memory (written as person recalling their memory)
Italics – Thoughts
This is my first story...so be nice :) Criticism is welcomed
A/N: Yes, this story is set in the Hoenn region but I hope that doesn't trigger any Hoenn hate. Locations are used from the game mostly, I never watched the anime that long to see what travesties they created. I personally love this region and generation of the games/Pokémon and will make some references.
I DO NOT OWN POKEMON OR ANYTHING ASSOCIATED WITH POKEMON OR ANYTHING ELSE YOU TRY TO SUE ME FOR. THESE ARE MY IDEAS AND ARE NOT TO BE USED BY ANYONE ELSE. Thank you :)
Chapter One: Becoming a Champion
*3 weeks ago*
The look in his eyes mirrored mine: deep calculation. The final match in my journey to become pokémon champion had come down to his last pokémon and mine. The cameras panning the private Elite Four arena were tightening their focus on my face and Steven's.
"Apollo is low on health" I thought. "Then again his Metagross has to be as well." It was my move. I had five minutes since my last command before automatically forfeiting the match. Time was running short.
I examined Apollo one last time, who was readily awaiting a command and lightly panting. He was also staring at his opponent. I knew Apollo was fast, agile, and could easily beat Metagross to the punch, but with his weakened condition it was hard to rely on that. I needed a move to match his abilities. The next command I gave would determine my fate.
"Apollo, use Leaf Blade!" I said with all the passion I could muster.
Steven didn't seem surprised and ordered a command in return "Meteor Mash!"
My Sceptile seemed to vanish due to the speed of his attack. Metagross kept a straight path in attempt to land a hit. Apollo sped up his charge even more as he went in for his strongest move. Excitement, fear, anxiety and hope flooded my body all at once in those few seconds as I watched the final collision. Each Pokémon was flung backwards the moment after impact.
"Apollo!" I cried out. After what seemed an eternity he slowly got to his feet, swaying back and forth and stumbling. I turned my gaze to Metagross. He still hadn't gotten up. The feelings began to escalate.
"Meta...gross..." the Pokémon sighed as it fainted. Everything after that moment stopped as all the feelings that were being built up started to seep in.
"Battle complete! Winner is Reina of Littleroot town! Congratulations to the new Hoenn Champion!" the referee declared. The words sounded like distant mumbles that didn't compute with my brain. I felt my legs running to Apollo and my arms wrapping around him. Smiling, he hugged back.
"We did it, Apollo! You were absolutely amazing...I'm so proud of you!" I exclaimed.
"(Well-deserved for my skilled trainer)." Neither of us noticed Steven waiting to talk to us until he cleared his throat.
"Well, you have truly proven your skills a trainer with your mastery of both skill and style, which are difficult to combine together; only skills that a Champion can possess." He said. "I have been here for five years now, waiting for someone worthy to take the title, and you are most definitely that."
"Thank you, Steven." I responded fighting a smile. "You certainly challenged me in ways that I wasn't expecting, you're a phenomenal trainer. Even when I met you back in Rustboro I could tell there was more to you than you let on."
"You flatter too much." He said smiling. "Once I saw how much you improved the next time we met, I had a feeling I would be seeing you here. But enough of that! Come, Reina, the new Champion of Hoenn! It's time to register your winning team and cement your place as an Elite Four Champion!" I called Apollo back to his poke ball and followed him to the registration room. We walked to the back of the arena where Steven put his hand on a barely visible panel and input a code. Hidden doors started to move apart with a slight creak.
We continued on into a room that had crystal clear floors which stretched to almost twice the size of the arena I had just battled in. The walls climbed at least 50 feet high and met together at the ceiling that had fantastic artwork with the region's legendary Pokémon.
Reflection of something on the walls caught my attention as we were walking. On the east wall three huge panels were in place displaying what I assumed the previous champions. Steven and the team I had just defeated were displayed to the far right. Someone was carving something into the bottom of his panel which I could make out to read: "Defeated April 22, 2010 by Reina M. Sorensen." My stomach swelled with excitement and pride. In the middle of the room was a machine with six indents the shape of a poke ball attached to a giant flat screen.
"Reina, Place your team in the machine and watch as you and your friends are inducted in the Hall of Fame." Steven explained. As I placed each poke ball, the computer hooked up to it beeped to life, and flashed in the container to gather information from the poke balls.
The screen lit up and emitted a monotone voice. "Hall of Fame inductee number ten: Reina Marie Sorensen. Date: Saturday April 22, 2010. Time: 3:56pm. Registration number: 6578439. Team members: Sceptile, AKA "Apollo" Male, Grass type; Camerupt, AKA "Aries" Female, Fire/Ground type; Sharpedo, AKA "Poseidon" Male, Water/Dark type; Swellow, AKA "Artemis" Female, Flying/Normal type; Gardevoir, AKA "Athena" Female, Psychic type; Aggron, AKA "Zeus" Male, Steel/Rock type. Welcome, to the Hall of Fame."
The screen displayed the picture I had taken before I started the challenge and my team. Balloons and confetti fell from the ceiling as triumphant music started playing. I took my poke balls back, and let Apollo out. Back to full health, he hugged me harder. After a slight celebration and laughing, Steven spent the next few minutes talking over champion things such as what I needed to do now, explaining my duties as champion, and other miscellaneous things such as training techniques. He also explained his story and utter relief someone beat him. His parents lived far away in Rustboro City, where he would be moving to help take over his father's company, which was becoming even more imperative with his father's increasing age.
Steven led me back through the arenas stopping to announce to each of the Elite Four that I was victorious. They all congratulated me in their own way and followed Steven and I on the way back out. Seeing the crowd that had gathered outside in the League's courtyard, Steven told me he'd wait in the lobby as I went outside to face friends and family. Apollo gave a supportive nudge, indicating he was coming with me. Nodding, I took a deep breath and approached the doors.
Once outside, conversations stopped dead as eager eyes bore into mine waiting for an answer. At the front of the crowd stood my mother and my father, which was a huge surprise with my father being a gym leader and my mother a full time breeder. Behind them were various friends and neighbors, and what seemed the entire town of Littleroot. The fact that they all traveled so far made my eyes swell with tears. Mistaking the display of emotion, my mom approached me.
"Oh honey…"
"Oh no, Mom," I said wiping the tears and smiling. "I'm so shocked how many people travelled out here. I'm the new Champion!"
Excitement broke out all at once. Overlapping congratulations and cheers broke out as I felt my mother and father's arms wrap around me.
"Reina, we're so proud of you!" My mother cooed.
"You're just like your dad." My father laughed.
"Thank you so much for coming...all of you. It means so much." I responded addressing the last part of the sentence louder so everyone could hear.
"And Apollo! He looks so strong!" Praised my father.
"He won the match for me" I beamed. Apollo smirked, and did a battle pose to awe the crowd. I laughed to myself, it was just like him to please a crowd.
"Your daughter is very talented." Steven said appearing at my side. "As is Apollo, and the rest of her team." Whispers started flying around as the fallen champion appeared. "But as the new champion, she must go through one more challenge: addressing the media. Meet in the lobby in a few minutes, Reina."
"Look at my baby! A Champion and TV star all in one day!" gushed mom hugging me again.
"Crushing...lungs..." I managed to get out.
"Oh, sorry baby!"
"Thank you again, everyone, for coming." Then addressing my parents I said, "Steven said I have to move all my stuff up here, where I'll be living now. So I'll be home in a few days to do so." I could see the slight hurt in my mom's eyes that she quickly made vanish. "Don't worry, mom! Artemis can fly me back home whenever I have time. I won't become a total stranger."
It took a few more minutes for my mother to let me go and for everyone to say goodbyes. I promised over and over I'd be home in the next few days. Once everyone had gone, Apollo and I went back into the lobby and met up with Steven. He explained to me what to say and told me that he'd give a brief introduction. I gave my permission to let my five battles be televised. He also instructed that after a few questions from the media, that he'd save me from them. Thanking him in advance I followed him through the side door to a beautiful garden where in the middle stood a small clearing with a podium standing in the middle. Hooked up to the mahogany podium were a multitude of microphones from various news stations from around Hoenn.
"Wait here, and on cue, come on out." He said laughing a little. "Remember, smile!" As soon as he stepped out a deafening crowd of voices sounded.
"Thank you, thank you." Steven started, hushing the crowd with a hand gesture. "I am here to announce the results of today's challenge. Reina Sorensen of Littleroot town challenged the Elite Four earlier today and indeed did make it to challenge me. She got to rest briefly between each match per League regulations. A proper refereed match ensued as Reina and her team took on my own. With her permission, she has allowed the release of her five battles to the media. These battles show her climb to her ultimate victory. Please welcome, the New Hoenn Champion, Reina Sorensen."
I walked out and was barraged by questions before I could even take my place at the podium. Apollo stood slightly behind me and started posing for the cameras on his side of the platform once they paned to him. The amount of cameras and news reporters were astounding and flashing lights of multiple cameras going off at once took a second to get used to before I could process the questions being fired off. Steven pointed to a reporter indicating she had the floor.
"Reina! Reina! Gabby from Lilycove News, How does it feel to be the one to beat a champion of five years?"
My stage confidence kicked in immediately. I never had a problem or fear of crowds. "It still feels like a dream, really. I never would have imagined that I would raise a team that would be able to beat a legendary trainer such as Steven. It was an honor and a privilege to battle him."
"Reina! Reina! Ty from Fortree Circuit, which Pokémon were in your lineup?"
"I have Apollo here," I said turning to him. He walked next to me and posed again, causing either laughs or sounds of awe. "Camerupt, Swellow, Gardevoir, Sharpedo, and Aggron."
Question after question I answered until Steven came back to the podium and concluded the session. Of course the media never gave up easily. Apollo stood between me and the media, giving Steven enough time to get me into the secure League building. He flashed a smirk to the camera before following us in.
Once inside, the sound of slow clapping came from one of the chairs. Steven and I looked towards the noise. I froze dead in my tracks. The clapping belonged to my long-time rival, and Professor Birch's son, Louis. Sensing the immediate tension in the air, Steven quickly said he'd wait for me back in the first arena with the other Elite Four members.
"Well well well, little Reina is now the Champion of all of Hoenn?" he said in a sing song voice. "Hard to believe...it seemed as only yesterday we both received our starters from my father. He sends his apologies that he couldn't be here today. He's visiting a friend in the Johto Region for some radio show." On cue, his Blaziken referred to as "Laziken" came out of his poke ball.
Louis and I had started off as decent friends when our journeys began, but differences in the ways we trained and battled our Pokémon caused a great rift and we parted ways. Ever since we'd run into each other from time to time and battle on sight. Most of the wins were split but I started to win more and more matches as time went on. This angered Louis which turned into resentment for anything related to me. My father called me after his and Louis' match and told me how rude he was and a very sore winner. Once I heard that, Louis was just a poor excuse for a trainer that lost any little remaining respect I still had.
Apollo growled as I responded "Yes, Louis, I'm champion now. After I beat you all those times around Hoenn and just recently in Victory Road, I'm shocked that you'd think I'd lose."
"You never know." He responded slyly. "But both you and I know that those battles were in harsh terrains not suited for all types of Pokémon...nothing like a cozy arena."
"You're blaming our surroundings for your losses? Sounds like excuses to me. I knew you were pathetic, but never did I think you'd blame nature for your team being utterly destroyed by mine."
Louis' eyes flared for a second before regaining his cocky composure. "An arena is always better...and once we're in one together, we'll see whose team gets destroyed."
"Are you suggesting that you're going to try and take my title from me so soon?"
"It's next on my list of things to do."
"I think you're forgetting one very small detail," I said smirking. "Every trainer knows that once a new Champion is crowned, there is a month waiting period before any other challenges can be issued in order for the new Champion to make any necessary changes or alterations to the arena or any other division of the league. But then again you're not every trainer, are you Louis? I mean, who names all their Pokémon with a name starting with 'L?' I think it'd remind you of losing too much."
"I know the regulations, Reina." He spat. "All the time I spent winning the poke contests in Lilycove has paid off in my Pokémon's confidence growing, which in turn sets off a chain reaction in the way they train. Not to mention their confidence and security of performing in an arena. Maybe the scores of ribbons they have drive them to train even harder. As for their names, you may be more original, but once I'm champion their names will become Legendary (he accented the beginning of the word) for the team that dethroned a champion who held the title for a month. Which I believe is the shortest ever...no?"
Apollo growled again, as Laziken laughed in response. "I suggest you get your hopes higher Louis, that way when I crush you, that assuming you can even get past my Elite Four, you won't ever bother me again with your silly threats."
He theatrically winced and grabbed his heart. "Ooh Reina, right in my heart. Your comebacks are as bad as your battling style."
"Well if those are bad, I'd hate to think of how bad yours are if I've beaten you every time you've challenged me."
His face getting red, and Laziken on edge, it could have fooled me that he was going to attack right then and there. "You, Reina, will get what is coming to you! One month from today, you will be dethroned, humiliated, and crushed as my team eliminates yours without a scratch on them!" He stormed out of the lobby to the outside with Laziken following in tow and disappeared on the path that lead into Victory Road.
*End Flashback*
Sitting in her room at the League Headquarters, Reina recalled her climb to glory. With only a week until challengers could come through again, it was something she dwelled on more frequently. She still had trouble comprehending it was all real. Some aspects of being a Champion she adapted to quite nicely. Usually she got free meals at restaurants, not that she minded paying, her own living quarters, a chance to obtain a whole new wardrobe and makeover to fit her style of battle, which she was most excited about, and daily grooming for all her Pokémon. She had chosen to keep her brown hair but to accent it with streaks of orange and red as a tribute to her love of fire Pokémon. She got side swept bangs over her left eye which had the streaks as well. The colors contrasted nicely with her piercing blue eyes. Every champion got a cloak personally tailored to them in a color of their choosing. This became a symbol in Hoenn for a league champion. She had the back of the cloak made so it flowed behind her when she walked, a flare inspired by her childhood love of Dragonmaster Clair's cloak from the Johto region.
A lot had happened in the seemingly short time she resided in Ever Grande. Along with the title of Champion came the option of fixing up the Champion Battle Arena with a style that fit your Pokémon or battle style. Reina took full opportunity to let her creativity go wild. Based upon her team, she designed the field to adapt to each of her Pokémon. She even tested it with each of her Pokémon. The final result was a rock type field with protruding branches from the walls and a wide variety of sized rocks and boulders centered around a medium sized pool of water. The field was wide enough to hold a two-on-two battle style, which Reina had opened the option of. None of the either Elite Four had wanted to change the style, preferring a one-on-one style. The Elite Four she had battled remained as well. The Ghost specialist Helena, Ice expert Rownan, Dark master Georgina, and Dragon Mogul Bregan.
The registration room, she decided, was to remain untouched besides the addition of her Champion panel. When she had the time, Reina went into the room to gaze upon past champions. Stretching back over a course of 40 years. Each champion controlled a certain type of Pokémon, much like the current Elite Four. This made Reina the first to use a wide variety of types. Looking back at the champions, a lot preferred to use Dragon type. Trion, the first champion, had held the title of Champion the longest. For 8 years he and his team consisting of Kanto Pokémon stood undefeated.
"A challenge," Reina thought. "I'll be Champion longer than he was." Smiling to herself, Reina took one last look at the Champions and left the glass room to check on the alterations asked by the Elite Four to their arenas.
"AGAIN LUNA!" Yelled Louis. Training in Victory Road was the best way to get tougher quicker. With Lectectic (Manectric) and Larlah (Tropius) at the Daycare, he could concentrate on his remaining four Pokémon. His Lunatone was perfecting its rock throw move to the point where falling rocks were unavoidable. Tired and clearly worn out, Luna again performed the move again. This time the rocks formed an air tight even circle on the ground.
"Good job, Luna." He said calling it back. "Go Loggron!" Aggron roared as he appeared.
"Loggron, you need to be able to match up against Reina's own Aggron. He has the special ability you don't, which gives her a slight edge. If she uses brute strength as a tactic, then we have to be stronger."
"(I will become stronger)."
"Go find some big boulders and concentrate on strength."
"(You won't be disappointed)."
Laughing to himself, Louis watched as his Aggron found a boulder the size of dining table and began lifting it over and over. He turned behind him where Laziken was kicking even bigger boulders over and over until they shattered. Soon his kick was going to be a one-hit-KO. Lisha (Whiscash) would be fine for training now, his earthquake and surf attacks already made a Pokémon faint in one hit. When a mystic water or soft ground was equipped, he was unstoppable.
"Not only will the Champion fall at the end of this month, but I will prove myself the strongest trainer in all of Hoenn!" thought Louis. "My conquest in taking over Hoenn will be one step closer...and maybe, just maybe...I will offer my rival to be my right hand woman...and eventually my wife. Mind control or not!"
Laughing out loud now, his evil cackles bounced off the walls of the cave and filled the cave with a sense of lurking doom that suddenly empowered his Pokémon to work harder than they had before.
"Impressive. She looks like a legendary trainer in the making." The man took a sip of drink studying his television intensely. "We need to introduce ourselves to her. Not as who we really are, mind you."
"Sir, anyone to beat Steven is automatically legendary" said the voice of a scrawnier man sitting a few seats away.
"I know, imbecile!"
"How will we go about this then, Sir?" he asked with a shaky voice.
"Hmmm…" the first man contemplated for a moment before answering. "What's a girl's one weakness? Her heart." Evil laughter filled the small room, accented by the flashing from the Big screen TV.
"Battle complete! Winner is Reina of Littleroot town! Congratulations to the new Hoenn Champion!"
~End of Chapter One
Comments and Criticism welcome :)
