A long time ago, a single Meowth became intelligent enough to communicate with humans. Although he used this gift to aid the evils of Team Rocket, he was only the first. Others, seeing what one of their own had accomplished, began learning and soon grew to have intelligence rivaling that of their Trainers. With this greater intelligence, some Pokemon turned to evil and began committing crimes to get by in the world. Another group of Pokemon, seeing the harm that they could do to the human world, decided to form a society to stop those who would see harm come to the humans and called it the Hero Alliance.

The Hero Alliance has been established for a few generations now, with many a great hero passing through the organization. Our story begins in the headquarters of the Alliance, where a legend is about to unfold…

A Meowth walked down the clean white corridors of the Hero Alliance headquarters, angry at the decision that had just been passed down upon him. As he walked toward his destination, other passerbys spoke in hushed tones about what they had heard.

"Hey isn't that the Slash?"

"Yeah, it is! Did you hear? They took away the command of his squad."

"Really, why?"

"Apparently they were unable to stop a rampaging Conkeldurr from destroying the Dreamyard near Straiton City."

Turning around with a menacing look in his eyes, Slash scared off the two newbies who were discussing his predicament. Most of what they had said was correct like the fact that his squad was taken away and that there was a rampage at the Dreamyard his squad had been unable to subdue. However, what had gone unmentioned was the fact that the Conkeldurr was leading an entire armies worth of Gurdurr and Timburr as well. Even though the Dreamyard was only destroyed as collateral damage, he was still being punished.

Turning a corner, Slash finally made it to his destination, the apprentice training studio. After taking away his squad, the higher ups of the Alliance had decided that Slash had to take on another apprentice. Slash had already trained two apprentices, even while commanding his squad, but each one had been a time intensive process, one that he wasn't quite ready to repeat.

"Hello there Sawk."

"Slash sir, I was told you'd be coming! I have all of our finest apprentice candidates here for you to choose from. Any would be overjoyed to become the apprentice of the great Slash."

"Thank you." Slash replied before walking down the line of apprentices. Each one looked finely trained just as Sawk had stated a moment ago and any one could become a great apprentice, but none stood out over the others.

"Have you made your decision?" Sawk asked, eager to see which of his pupils would be going with the Slash.

"Not yet." Slash replied. "Could you have them perform some exercises?"

"Of course! You heard him, perform the kata I taught you all yesterday!"

As the potential apprentices began performing the exercise, Slash walked back through, but still no one stood out until he came to the very end of the line. There stood a Treecko who was clumsily moving through the kata with a look of intense concentration on his face.

"Who's that?" Slash asked, indicating the Treecko.

"Oh, you don't want him." Sawk replied. "That's applicant #1824, Flow. He's ranked at the bottom of the class in every category."

"Let me be the judge of that." Slash said. "Bring him here."

"Number 1824 please step forward!"

Bewildered that his number had been called, Flow, nearly fell flat on his face running up to Sawk and Slash.

"Flow, Applicant #1824 reporting sir!"

"Today might just be your lucky day son." Sawk said. "The Slash here has taken an interest in you."

"Really?!" He asked, turning to Slash.

"Yes I have and I want to test out your abilities for myself." Slash stated. "I want you to spar me and depending on your performance, I will take you as my apprentice. How does that sound?"

"Sounds like a dream come true!"

Making their way to the practice field both Slash and Flow took a side and Sawk stated what was at stake. "This will be a practice match between Slash and Flow for the opportunity to become his apprentice. Are both sides ready? Then begin."

"Bullet Seed!" Flow cried as he tried to put pressure on his opponent.

Quickly dashing to one side, Slash was able to stay one step ahead of the fast moving seeds and began to launch an attack of his own.

"Shadow Ball!" He yelled.

Flow then began to concentrate his fire on the oncoming projectile, eventually causing it to detonate. However the resulting explosion left an opening for Slash to close the distance and launch a direct attack.

"Slash attack!"

The attack landed a direct hit and Flow was sent flying across the field, only coming to a stop by using his tail as leverage.

Slash, looking to press his advantage began to rush in with a Fury Swipes at the ready. Rather than face Slash face on, Flow used a Pound attack on the ground to launch himself into the air, where he resumed his onslaught of Bullet Seeds.

I have to keep the pressure up from far away. Flow thought. He'll beat me if the battle comes down to brute strength, so I can't let that happen!

"Double Team!" Slash yelled and five other Meowths suddenly appeared on the battlefield with Fury Swipes at the ready. Each one then jumped into the air to attack the now immobile Flow.

Not knowing which Meowth to attack, Flow stopped his attack, trying to figure out which image to attack. Unable to decide, he simply attacked the closest one, hoping that he would get lucky. This was not the case as the image disappeared and the real Slash came up from behind and launched a powerful barrage of Swipes into Flow's back.

Crashing to the ground, it took Flow a while to get back to his feet.

"Are you OK to keep going or are you ready to throw in the towel?" Slash asked, wondering what the Treecko's answer would be.

"I'm fine…" Flow replied, breathing heavily. "I'm not the best student in this class and I'll acknowledge that but this may be my only chance to enter into the Alliance as a full fledged member. So bring it on!"

Good to know that his determination won't go away in the face of a little adversity. Slash thought. "OK let's keep going, I'll even give you a free shot."

"Thanks but you'll come to regret that decision. Quick Attack!"

Flow then rushed across the field at a blinding pace and was soon attacking Slash with an unrelenting barrage of punches and kicks.

"Your technique isn't bad but you need to put more power behind your punches like THIS!" Slash yelled as he brought his fist back and threw a powerful punch at his foe.

Flow tried to block the incoming punch but was blown back by the sheer power that was put behind it and was once again sent flying across the battlefield.

As he came to a stop, Flow thought to himself, I can't afford to lose this fight! I only have one move left to use. Hopefully that'll do the trick. "Quick Attack!"

"You're trying the same tactic again? You should realize that if it didn't work out the first time, odds are it won't work this time either." Slash said, getting into a guarded stance.

"It may start out the same as my last move," Flow began. "But I can assure you, this is a completely different move." Grabbing a hold of one of Slash's arms he yelled. "Absorb!"

Energy suddenly began to leave Slash's frame and his stance began to slump. Flow showed a big smirk as his gambit paid dividends with huge gobs of energy entering his body.

Before too much of his energy was taken, Slash launched a Slash attack at his parasitic foe, breaking his grip on his arm and creating an opening for Slash to kick Flow away.

Reenergized by the success of his attack, Flow jumped into the air and began to prepare for his finishing move. "Prepare to be beaten by your own energy Slash! Machine Gun Seeds!"

Flow launched another Bullet Seed only this time, the Seeds were supercharged with the energy stolen from Slash and were traveling at twice their previous speed.`

"That's a pretty neat trick you have their kid." Slash commented. "But you overestimate your own power. Thunderbolt!"

As Slash launched his attack, the powerful bolt of lightning quickly cut through the Machine Gun Seeds coming toward Slash and began to rapidly approach Flow.

"No. NO! NOOO!" Flow yelled as the Thunderbolt dealt its damage. "It can't end like this! I'll never be chosen as an apprentice now!" Having taken to much damage to fight any longer, Flow collapsed to the ground.

"Flow is unable to battle and Slash is the winner!" Sawk declared.

As Slash walked over he heard the young prospect berating himself and punching the ground saying, "Now you've done it Flow. He was the first person to even take note of your existence and you couldn't capitalize on it. Now you'll never enter the Alliance."

"Who said you won't be entering the Alliance?" Slash asked, standing above the young Treecko.

"I lost the match against you and I'm the last in my class." Flow said. "No one else is going to want me as an apprentice."

"Lots of heroes would want you as an apprentice, too bad you aren't on the market anymore."

"What?" Flow replied, confused as to what Slash meant.

"I never said you had to win the match to become my apprentice, I simply wanted to see if you had any potential to back up your determination."

"So that means…"

"Yes. Flow you are welcome to train under me if you wish to do so."

"YES! I mean, yes I would love to become your apprentice!" Flow replied, barely able to contain his excitement.

"Good. I'll submit the paperwork today so get your things together because tomorrow I'll be taking you to my base."

Everyone else could only watch in astonishment as Slash walked out of the room and Flow began jumping up and down in delight.

AN: Hello readers! This is my second fic about Pokemon becoming intelligent and interacting with humans. This fic will take a much lighter tone than my previous one though with more of a superhero atmosphere. Let me know what you think. Until next time, enjoy

(Shameless plug: Check out my other fic Pokemon New Age if you want a darker take on the intelligent Pokemon concept)