-CHALLENGE-
What happened in the Hoenn region five years ago made news everywhere in the World.
The legendaries Groudon and Kyogre, after being reawakened by two organizations, created havoc all over the region, endangering the lives of thousands of people.
However, thank to a talented kid named Brendan, this story became history, and Hoenn quickly got back to its peaceful days. In fact, nothing really important ever happened in this region beside the "Weather Crisis", as media later renamed it. The only things making the place a bit livelier were the contests and the annual Pokemon League Challenge. Especially the latter, after the crisis started to attract a lot of new challengers.
One of these challengers, Dazz Upol, who spent all of his sixteen years living in Mossdeep city, decided to take on the Pokemon League Challenge exactly five years after Groudon and Kyogre got back to their slumber. Of course, challenging Tate and Liza first.
Dazz was 16, quite tall with aquamarine short hair and green eyes, he was the kind of guy to never give up on an idea once he thought about it. Also, he never seemed to be tired, he always wanted to do something funny or exciting. He actually wasn't interested in pokemon battles till some months ago. At first he just wanted to travel the region, so he started to train Pecha (his Spheal) to show his parents he could travel by himself. He started to enjoy fighting later.
He wasn't going to fight Tate and Liza alone though. He asked his friend Ann that he knew since he was born to help him. Unlike Dazz, she was quite shy and didn't talk much outside his family and close friends.
She was 15, shorter than Dazz and had got long caramel hair and brown chocolate eyes. She was considered a cute girl and sometimes gorgeous. Almost every boy that met her tried to get a date with her. Every time, she used to say she had homework to do or she had to help her parents at work, she was too shy to date with someone. However, Dazz never really cared about "love stuff", as he defined it, and they got along pretty well. She was training as well to help Dazz with the gym challenge, she declared firmly though, that this was her first and last battle.
That morning, both the kids decided to train one last time before going to the gym.
Ann was the first one to wake up. She had a shower, dressed herself and went downstairs where her mother was waiting for her. When she got in the kitchen she looked with awe at the table, there was so much sugar in the breakfast that no one could ever think of eating sweets again.
"This is an exception, got it?" Ann's mother told her pointing at her with a spoon that the girl readily grabbed, and with a quick "Thanks mom!" she literally threw herself on the table.
"You and Dazz are getting along pretty well lately."
Ann stopped eating when she noticed what her mom was trying to do, and with her mouth still half-full she replied
"Mom it's not like you think!" the woman giggled but didn't respond.
Not long after, Ann was heading to her friend's house, she could swear she saw a skarmory flying along the way.
She knocked on the door twice and after some seconds a messy Dazz came out still rubbing his eyes.
"Hey Ann." he said and yawned afterward.
"Y-You just woke up?" Ann asked shocked.
"Uhm, yes. What's wrong with it?" Ann couldn't keep herself any longer and slapped him.
"You made me wake up three hours ago! Did you forget what you planned to do today?!"
"Oh! Ouch... I'm sorry I remember now. Am I forgiven?" another slap followed the first but with more power.
Ten minutes later Dazz was ready outside his house with his spheal happily standing by him.
"I think Steven is back, maybe we can go and ask him for advices?" Ann said to his friend
"Yes, it's been quite sometimes since we've seen him."
So Ann found herself knocking at another door that day. This time the owner of the house was Steven Stone, the former Hoenn champion. He was around his thirties but looked younger.
At the sight of the man, the two teens made a smile of joy.
"Steven! Where have you been all this time?" Dazz said first and the man smiled.
"After I've been defeated I decided to travel a bit to see the world and decide what to do next. And I'm here again!"
"Will you be the champion again?" The girl asked
"No, I think I'll rest a bit. I'll be a researcher for my dad at Devon."
"Oh..."
"So, how are you two doing? Want to come in?"
"We can't." Dazz said. "Actually, we were going to challenge the gym and came to ask for advices."
"Ah, so you want to take the League challenge? Well, I'll give you some tips after I see you both battle."
"Fine, Ann you ready?"
"Whenever you are!" she responded and threw a pokeball in the sky. A marill came out of it. The marill's name was Lucky. On Dazz's side was Pecha the Spheal ready to fight.
"Lucky Play Rough." she ordered.
"Hail!" Dazz commanded from the other side. Pecha rolled on her left side making the attacking Marill trip over and right after, created artificial clouds that started spawning ice blocks.
Ann gritted her teeth.
"Surf!" Marill acted as ordered but the water attack didn't deal much damage.
"Damn, Lucky Body Slam!" this time Lucky hit hard and Pecha panted for the effort made trying to survive.
"Don't worry Pecha we've got this, Blizzard." thanks to Hail it couldn't be missed and hit hard. Another attack would have be the end of the battle for Lucky and Ann.
"Lucky we can do it, come on! Play Rough!"
"Pecha Blizzard again!"
"Lucky stop! Use Protect, after the attack they won't be able to defend from your Play Rough."
The marill stopped mid-track and formed a trasparent glass-like wall that covered him completely from the cold wind. As predicted by Ann, Pecha was gasping for air and was an easy target now.
Lucky started to run toward his enemy but fell before he could reach the spheal.
"Lucky what are you doing! Finish your opponent!" Ann shouted but her pokèmon didn't hear or just ignored her. A sounds of clapping came from behind.
"That was a nice battle, but looks like Dazz won." Steven said, Ann was shocked.
"But, how? Protect is supposed to wall any kind of attack!" Ann stuttered and Dazz grinned. He got closer to Ann and patted her on her shoulder.
"You forgot about Hail, your marill was exposed to it during all the fight, I think it tired him a lot." Dazz proudly explained his strategy. Ann snorted and lightly pushed the hand of his friend away.
"Ahahah Ann you fought well too, there's no need to be angry. After all, you and Dazz are going to fight in the same team against Tate and Liza. Speaking of which, I think Ann doesn't have good accuracy, while Dazz can't defend very well. But since you too are going to fight together your pokémons may be able to compensate what the other lacks." Steven concluded.
"Thanks Steven, we should go now, I want to win and have enough time to have a party!" Small laughs came from both Steven and the two teens, Steven reminded him to never underestimate his opponent but it was more of a joke than an advice. Dazz and Ann then left for the pokémon centre.
"Hey Ann, look at that person." Dazz said pointing at some weird looking man near the pokémon Mart.
It was just a bit higher than him and everything that he was wearing was pitch black: black boots, black gloves, black trousers and a black coat. He even had a black mantle! But the most weird thing was the mask he had on.
It didn't have eyes nor mouth or nose, it was just white covering all of the man face and contrasting with his clothes. It was impossible to see even the smallest part of his body behind those weird looking clothes, he seemed like he was drawn to be the character of some superhero comic.
"Wow that's weird! How do you think he can see through that mask?" The man turned to face them (though it was hard to know where he was looking) and they both shivered, then he left going south.
"Creepy... do you think it was a ghost?" Ann asked her friend. He lost himself in thought for a while.
"Didn't you recognize him? He's the man the TV talked about for days, he looks for little kids and take them in his secret place. No one ever see them again. Sometime he likes to take older girls too..."
"Stop it! I know you're just doing it to scare me! He's just some random cosplayer ok?!" She pushed him and started walking to the gym. She was trying to be brave but actually got scared. Dazz ran to her apologizing, even if he couldn't keep himself from laughing which earned him a loud slap.
They were both facing the entrance of the Mossdeep City gym, both a bit nervous.
"Shall we go?" Dazz asked, not really waiting for an answer.
They entered the gym. There was no one but the two leaders and a couple trainers cleaning around.
"Looks like you're the first ones today, we've just opened." the two leaders said at the same time.
Ann shivered, she would have used the word creepy here but kept herself from talking. However Dazz seemed unaffected.
"Yes! And we won't leave without a badge!" Dazz shouted, swinging his punch to the sky in a dramatic way that caused Ann to chuckle.
"Well, that's what we're here for anyway." Ann commented.
"Oh I'll be the referee this time!" a boy that was cleaning ran to the leaders, Liza grunted and nodded to the boy.
Dazz and Ann on one side and Tate and Liza on the other, they both took place, ready to fight with a pokéball in their hand.
"This is an official Pokémon League match, although with a small difference. This will be a double battle, two on two, no substitutions and no healing items. If you agree with the rules we may start." the challengers nodded and took a fight stance
"THROW YOUR POKEBALL!" and with that the four battlers sent their pokémon: a spheal, a marill, a Lunatone and a Solrock.
"Cosmic Power!" the leaders shouted in unison and their pokémon stored energy shining a white light.
"OK! Pecha, Hail!" Dazz followed right after.
"Lucky we need to defend from hail, Defense Curl is the move you need to use." The spheal created clouds of Hail while the marill curled himself to raise his defense. The psychic duo then decided to attack,
"Psychic!" Lunatone and Solrock attacked respectively marill and spheal that couldn't defend properly and got hurt. They were going to attack again and Ann commanded Lucky to use Protect, Dazz took the chance and used Blizzard, it did some damage but also got hit by another Psychic.
Then they switched and while Pecha defended Lucky used Surf. Lucky too was hit but couldn't handle as well as his partner, another attack and he would have fainted.
"The hail and the fight got Lucky quite hurt, he won't resist much longer Dazz." Ann said
"Ok, I have a plan but you have to trust me. When they're going to use psychic hit the one who's going to attack my pokèmon with the strongest attack you've got. You'll be my defense and I'll be your attack like Steven said!"
"But Lucky's going to faint if he does!"
"Don't worry, what matter is that just one of our pokémon stand at the end. They're going to attack! Please Ann trust me!"
"Ok, Lucky give it all you've got, Body Slam on Lunatone!" and so he did stopping him from attacking the spheal, though the recoil together with the Psychic coming from Solrock made him faint. The referee got to the pokémon and announced that it was unable to battle, so Ann recalled him.
"Now Blizzard!" the attack struck in the two foes knocking down Lunatone that was the most injured. Liza also recalled her pokémon.
"Now you have no energies left! Rock Throw!" Tate declared
"Pecha dodge!" Several rocks were haunting the ice seal around, pushed only by Solrock mind power. The was actually able to dodge several times but she was starting to grow tired.
It kept going for almost a minute with both trainers silently praying for victory, but at the end, the rocks fell on the ground and Solrock followed them right after. Not much later the artificial hail stopped.
"I see we underestimated Hail, while my pokémon was chasing yours I didn't think you could attack. You attacked and defended at the same time, very good." Tate thought out loud.
Dazz and Ann were still exhausted by the fight and were just starting to understand what has happened. Then, Liza stepped in their direction.
"Challenger Dazz, challenger Ann, this is the Mind Badge we award you with. I hope you will keep collecting badges and aim to become the champion." she gave the two challengers their badges and praised their performance one last time before going healing their pokémon with her brother. Meanwhile, they left for the pokémon centre.
"We did it Ann!" Dazz was overjoyed, winning against Tate and Liza meant that his parents would have let him travel the Hoenn region alone. Unlike him, Ann didn't seem very happy.
"Yeah... so you will leave now right?" Ann asked her friend a bit insecure.
Of course he forgot how would she feel. He could make friends with anyone in a second but she was really timid, he was her only true friend on this city.
"H-Hey you knew I was going to leave right? You can't act like this right now, we've already talked about it..."
"No. You're right. I hope to hear news about you being the new champion. Good luck and see you." she started to walk in a random direction pretending she had to go somewhere. She could hear Dazz calling for her but ignored him, instead she forced back some tears and kept walking. After some minutes she found herself again in front of the gym and couldn't help but feel angry at herself for helping his friend leave her forever.
Her trail of thoughts soon stopped because a man with a black mantle and a white mask entered the gym just few meters from her. She was still quite curious about that person so she followed him in the building trying not to be noticed.
She hid behind a rhydon statue near the door and watched the scene.
The man went in the middle of the room, the boy that acted as a referee earlier noticed him.
"Oh, are you a challenger? Tate and Liza went healing their pokémon you'll have to wait a minute..." he told him, but the person ignored him. He took a pokéball from his coat and released a gyarados from it. With a slow but firm gesture, he raised a hand. For the first time Ann, no, anyone, heard his voice.
"Outrage."
It was like time had stopped. Everyone in the gym paused what they were doing to focus on that man, and his voice. It was a robotic voice, without shape nor accent.
Ann's eyes widened in fear and horror at what was going to happen.
"He can,t-"
her thoughts were broken by the sudden power outburst that came from the gyarados.
It was raging, attacking everything in sight, quickly destroying the gym walls and floor. All the gym trainers were running from a wall to another trying to not be killed.
Behind the statue (that didn't fall even with Gyarados' rampage) Ann shivered. She wanted to leave and run but also needed to know what was going to happen next. So, she sent her marill looking for help. And crouched hoping that no one could see her.
At this point Tate and Liza came out followed by their pokémon.
Dazz was heading to Steven's house, he had looked for Ann but couldn't find her.
He couldn't stand seeing Ann sad, he deeply cared for her. But he couldn't cancel his travel, he was waiting for it since he could remember.
He decided that the moment he found her, he would have asked her to go with him. He was sure she would have accepted. With a smile he increased his pace but slowed down soon after.
BOOM!
His smile faded and turned in the direction of the gym from which he had heard a loud thump.
There were several boys that Dazz could recognize as trainers of the gym running away from the building.
His eyes widened seeing that Lucky was running in his direction as well but Ann was nowhere to see.
The marill was trying to say something, that was for sure, but Dazz couldn't understand. The pokèmon then turned and ran again toward the gym, Dazz came to the conclusion that Ann was there and followed her pokémon. He started to grow more and more worried the closer he got to the place.
Gyarados got confused due to fatigue but its trainer threw it a berry and the water dragon recovered in a moment.
"What are you doing? What do you want?!" Liza screamed in rage while her brother gritted his teeth. Even their pokémon were anxiously waiting for a command to attack.
"I came here to take the Green Orb, you'll either give it to me or I'll destroy this place and I'll take it myself."
"What are you talking about? You're in the wrong place! Solrock, Psychic!" Tate shouted.
The man released a Mime Jr.
"Light Screen." the pokèmon created a barrier that covered himself, his trainer and the gyarados, stopping entirely the leader's attack.
"Now scan their mind and look for the green orb." Mime Jr. closed its eyes and shone for a second, then it opened them again and looked at its trainer.
"A mind block, should have expected it. Scan the trainers' minds." The pokémon acted as he did before and again looked at his trainer but with a confident smile.
"Red Orb, Blue Orb, but no Green Orb. Maybe you told the truth, or maybe it's a secret even to your men. I can't ignore this possibility: Gyarados, Dragone Pulse!"
Tate and Liza were ready to fight, but their pokémon weren't fully recovered yet.
Following the order of their trainers, Lunatone and Solrock sticked one to another and coordinated their attack like they were the same pokémon. They used Cosmic Power to face the Dragon Pulse and then attacked with Rock Slide. The Gyarados roared in pain but stood up again and with a Aqua Tail knocked down its opponents.
The two gym leaders were now realizing that there was no one to face that Gyarados now, their trainers weren't strong enough and Lunatone and Solrock were exhausted by the earlier fights.
"Now you'll either give me what I want or I'll destroy this place." His Robotic voice echoed between the walls of the gym.
A marill entered the door running and stopped panting near Ann, Dazz followed him after a moment.
"DAZZ!" Ann exclaimed. Now all the eyes were pointed at Ann and Dazz.
"RUN! CALL SOMEBODY, LOOK FOR HELP!" she didn't care anymore if they noticed her at this point. Dazz was very confused right now and he didn't have enough time to understand and run.
"Don't let him run" The man said and his Mime Jr.'s eyes became bright for a second, then, the doors closed shut thanks to Jr. Psychic energy. Dazz tried to open them with all of his strenght but they didn't move.
"Who are you?!" Dazz shouted at the man.
"I don't have a name, but I suppose you can just call me Nil"
"What should that mean? Are you crazy or something? And what's with all this mess? Someone would like to explain me what's happening?!"
"I came to take something but people here won't cooperate, so I had to be more persuasive."
"D-Dazz I'm scared, I-I just want to gome home. Please do something!" Ann said sobbing in the corner. Dazz now turned to the man. There was rage in his eyes like he felt that emotion for the first time in his life. He couldn't stand it.
"STOP IT NOW! You're hurting people can't you see? What you are doing is WRONG!"
The man turned to face Dazz directly. Even without eyes he knew that he was staring directly at him, piercing his soul. The boy flinched but recovered instantly.
"Wrong? You think you can decide what's right and what's wrong? You think you can act like a god? I'll show you how wrong you are!"
For the first time it looked like his voice changed tone, even if slightly.
Every muscle Dazz had flexed and his hand reached for a pokéball in his pocket.
"PECHA COME OUT! Let's show him what we're made of, Hail!" The trainer commanded
"You think it'll work twice? Rain Dance."
The hail couldn't even start that the rain suppressed it. "Now Aqua Tail."
"Twice?! How can you?" Gyarados hit the spheal that flew against the wall. Tate and Liza, Ann, the gym trainers, were all watching the battle in horror.
"Damn this won't work, Body Slam."
"Bounce." Pecha charged but Gyarados made a jump before she could hit it and before the seal could realize what happened, it fell back hitting her.
Dazz cursed to himself. Suddenly an idea made him calm down.
"Pecha, let them hit first this time, trust me!" She was still panting and trying to regain her breath but nodded without esitation.
"Outrage." Dazz silently prayed that Pecha could resist the attack.
It hit as hard as he could and the spheal fell down.
"Avalanche!" Pecha raised her head and threw a huge amount of snow and ice at the opponent burying it.
"We did it Pecha!" And they really thought so but unfortunately, the pokémon could stand again with some effort and was getting ready to attack once more. Unlike it, Pecha was barely awake and on the verge of fainting.
"Damn... I talked too soon." Dazz tightened his hands in punches wondering what could he do at this point.
"Yours is surely a brave pokémon, and so are you. I didn't think you would try a new strategy but you surprised me. It would have worked but you're still too weak, what a pity."
"Wait, Did you watch our Gym battle?" A loud crash interrupted their conversation.
A skarmory flew through the window and shot a purple sticky matter at gyarados.
"What?!" the man said with his metallic voice.
"That was toxic, but maybe you already know that. Your pokémon is already tired, how long will it last?" Steven said opening the main door glaring at him. Steven's name could be heard multiple times, people were regaining their hope now.
"The former Hoenn champion. I stand no chance right now, especially with only five pokémon." He recalled Gyarados and released a salamence on which he hopped on.
"I guess we'll meet again" he said to the grey haired trainer and then left flying away with his dragon.
Dazz took a deep breath and sat on the ground exhausted. Everyone sighed in relief.
"Steven how could you know what was going on?" Ann asked. She had stopped crying and it looked like she's never been worried to start with.
"A trainer that was able to run away informed me. Plus, it wasn't easy to ignore the noise coming from this place." He told her. Even if they had just won he was quite worried by what had happened.
"I guess whoever he was, will attack again, probably other gyms. It's a bad thing we couldn't see his face nor hear his true voice but I'll be sure to to report this. In a day or two, the best trainers in Hoenn will be looking for him." He assured them and smiled. Tate reached him.
"Thanks Steven, you pulled us out of trouble."
"And also thanks to you Dazz, you could keep him occupied until Steven came. I'm sure you'll become a strong trainer." Liza added
"Now if you excuse us, we're going to tell the city that we're not in danger." With that, both Tate and Liza left. Their trainers soon followed them leaving just Steven, Dazz and Ann in the gym.
"A spheal that fight against a strong gyarados as that isn't something that happen every day, she's a though one! Well, I should go now, I'll see you around." the steel trainer left as well. Ann faced Dazz and smiled.
"You know, Pecha really trusted you back then, that's why she survived the attack. I mean you two've got really a strong bond, I think you may have a chance at becoming a good trainer."
Dazz looked at Pecha and stroked her fur, she was feeling really proud. The boy suddenly remembered something and turned back to Ann.
"Oh hey, i've been thinking, and I wondered if you'd like to travel with me through Hoenn. It can be fun." Dazz asked. Ann couldn't believe it. Travelling Hoenn... plus, she wouldn't have to be alone in that island anymore.
"You really want me to come with you?" He nodded.
"Of course I do! So, what's your answer?" She beamed and hugged him. "Of course I will!"
"Ok! It's all settled, on Monday, we leave!"
They went to their respective house to reassure their parents and also tell their plans. They went to sleep early that night, they both were tired by fights, fear and emotions. Still Dazz, was quite excited. He could finally travel by itself and discover the world. He couldn't even imagine back then, but that day, the most exciting part of his life had just began.
Steven was at home, he had just come back from a journey that lasted five years and there was already a problem to solve. An evil man to stop, a catastrophe to avoid... everything all over again. He wondered if his region will ever be at peace.
He picked up his old pokénav and dialed a number.
"Yes? Steven? How long! How are you?" the owner of the voice on the other side seemed young and quite happy.
"Five year since last time we've seen each other, it's almost time for a reunion! But I called you because I need your help. I know you're always wandering around so you may as well help me look for a person. But I'll tell you everything you need to know when we meet. Is Tuesday okay for you?"
"Tuesday? I don't know I mean, May's contest's that day..."
"Oh don't worry it'll take just 15 minutes."
"Ok fine, Let's meet at Lilycove's Contest Hall then."
"Yes, see you on Tuesday Brendan."