This idea was born from a simple question I asked in a Something Witty stream, but my mind has been racing ever since. I asked what Izzy and Carrie thought the twins would pick as their starter Pokemon. I don't own Pokemon and don't know the people who play the Solar Shadow game personally. Just a fan of both who likes to write.
Important note: There's going to be a mix of Solar Shadow characters, Pokemon game/anime characters, and a few of my own creations. If you're not familiar with any of the characters featured here, google them with Nat19 or Pokemon along with it, and if nothing shows up, it's probably a creation of mine.
Also, quick side note: As of right now in our story, the twins are 16.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
Isla McCraken groaned as her alarm went off on her nightstand. She reached over half-heartedly, only to push it off the nightstand and onto the floor, unplugging it and silencing the stupid thing. Isla stayed in bed for another few minutes, before enacting the greatest act of willpower ever: Actually getting out of bed in the morning.
After taking a couple minutes to get dressed, Isla dragged herself out of her room. She walked to the kitchen, stopping for a minute in the living room to pet Gae-El's Dusk Form Lycanroc, who was lying down on the floor on the spot where the sun shone through the windows, and to say a quick, "Good morning," to Gae-El himself, who was sitting in the recliner, reading a paper and had his Alolan Vulpix napping in his lap. She also took a moment to pet Stonewalker's Decidueye, who was roosting on a small stand near the window.
As she finally made her way into the kitchen, Isla noticed that Ian was already up, eating a bowl of cereal and paging through a book. She just rolled her eyes and said, "Morning, nerd."
"Hey bitch," Ian said, not looking up from his book as he talked.
Isla began to make herself some breakfast, saying, "Ugh, this week has been dragging so much. Just gotta get through today, then we got the weekend. There's no way school can end soon enough today."
That got Ian to look up and reply, "Isla… do you remember what today is?"
"Friday?"
"It's the first day of the second semester."
"Yippie," Isla replied sarcastically, pouring herself a glass of orange juice and sitting down across from Ian at the dining room table.
Ian just sighed and he pinched the bridge of his nose, causing her to raise an eyebrow at him. "Does the word 'starter,' ring a bell?"
Ian could almost see the gears turning in Isla's still half-asleep mind, until she shot up, like someone had just injected her with caffeine. "That's right, we're FINALLY getting our starters today!" she shouted in excitement.
"Ya got there, good job," Ian commented dryly, only to get a dirty look from his sister.
"Shut up!" she shot back at him, quickly inhaling her breakfast as she began to grab her bag and make sure she had everything she would need today.
"You know we still got plenty of time, right?"
"I don't wanna wait!" Isla shouted back.
"Isla, calm down please," they heard Gae-El say from the living room.
"Sorry," she called back, flipping her brother the bird as he stuck his tongue out at her and pulled down his eyelid.
"It's alright," Gae-El said, more than used to this at this point. He'd known them all their lives, and had lived with them for the last 6 after all. Didn't mean he wanted to hear them shouting at each other all the time though.
Sitting back down at the table, knowing that they did have quite a bit of time left, Isla looked into the kitchen and then back into the living room. "Hey, where's Stonewalker?" she asked her brother.
"Said she had some errands to run this morning. She probably won't be back before we've left," he replied, going back to his book. And now that Isla got a better look at it, it seemed to be a reference book about Pokemon most commonly given to new trainers as starters, so it had Pokemon like Charmander, Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Cyndaquil, etc and how to care for each of them. Figures he would even be studying for something like this.
"Without Decidueye?"
Ian just shrugged and said, "Said it wasn't anything major, just some things that needed doing." Isla just shrugged and propped herself up with her hand and was tapping it vigorously with the other. Now that she knew how important the day was, or was reminded rather, she needed school to start as soon as possible.
It wasn't much longer until it was time for the twins to seriously start moving. Ian rinsed his dishes in the sink and shoved his Starter Handbook in his bag and slinging it over his shoulder before meeting Isla at the doorway, who was waiting rather impatiently by tapping her foot on the floor at the rate of gunfire. The two looked back towards the living room and shouted to Lycanroc and Decidueye, "C'mon guys, we gotta go!" The two Pokemon made their way into the kitchen, until Ian said, "Wait, do we need them to come along? After all, we're getting our starters today." This caused Lycanroc to stop in its tracks and tilt its head to the side in confusion, while Decidueye landed and folded its wings, waiting for them to decide what they wanted them to do.
The twins had been attending Pokemon School for the past three years, this year being their fourth and last year. It was apart of an agreement they made with Gae-El and Stonewalker to be allowed to not only take the Island Challenges in Alola, but also be allowed to explore other regions to find their missing dad. That said, there were things they needed Pokemon partners for and proper starters had been unavailable until now, so Gae-El and Stonewalker had been lending them their Pokemon for the time being. Both Ian and Isla had also tried to catch wild Pokemon, but that was easier said than done. They had both been complaining about not having partners since all the Alolan Starters had been taken before they got the chance, and the Professor hadn't been able to find more. It got to a point where Professor Kukui had to begin asking his colleagues to send some starters his way, but they had run into a similar problem. Finding pokemon considered to be starters were quite rare after all, so it was understandable. So now that their starter Pokemon had arrived, from two different regions no less, would they really need to bring them along anymore?
"You might as well bring them along one last time. I'm sure they'll want to check out the two new additions to the family," Gae-El said, entering the kitchen with Vulpix in his arms.
The twins looked back over at their guardians' Pokemon, as they smirked and motioned for them to come along as they walked out the door. Lycanroc and Decidueye continued following, going along with the routine that had become familiar to them for the past four years. The two matched the twins' stride, Lycanroc walking next to Ian and Decidueye flying slowly next to Isla. Ian and Isla both waved back to Gae-El, who waved to them from the door before closing it behind him.
The twins walked into town with the Pokemon in tow, admiring the view of Melemele Island's beautiful beaches in the morning light. Following the beaches was the fastest route from the twins' home to the Pokemon School, so it was a common sight for them, besides the rare occasions they had bad weather.
It wasn't until the Pokemon School was in sight that they met one of their classmates, as the twins had walked mostly in silence besides greeting people they knew in town. It was Lana, a short girl with blue hair who wore a white sleeveless shirt, blue pants, and sandals. Her school bag was slung over her shoulder as well. Her partner Pokemon, a Popplio, rode on her head, looking as cheerful as ever. She was a lucky one, having not only found a starter Pokemon in the wild, but also befriending it and making it her partner, making the twins slightly jealous, but they had tried not to show it. "Morning Lana," Ian greeted her.
"Alola Lana," Isla also said.
"Morning guys. Today's the day, right?" Lana asked them, scratching Lycanroc behind the ears. Popplio greeted the twins its own way, letting out a "Pop, pop!" and leaping onto Ian's shoulders. It booped him with its nose before leaping over to Isla and doing the same, both the twins patting it affectionately. It leaped back over to Lana as the twins nodded in response to her question from earlier.
"Yep," Ian said, before jabbing a thumb at Isla and mock whispering, making sure Isla could actually hear, "I'm glad that you remembered it, because she certainly didn't."
"Shut up! I was sleepy!" Isla shouted at him, while Lana just laughed at the twins' usual antics. She also noticed that Kiawe, a boy the same age as the twins, was flying in on Charizard from Akala Island, so she waved to him as he flew by, making the twins look up as well and wave to their classmate. The black and red haired boy waved down at them when he noticed as he flew over the Pokemon School, circled once, and then landed in the schoolyard.
It wasn't long until the twins and Lana also walked into school, and they were greeted by the sight of other students and Pokemon in the yard. It was easy to tell who had a Pokemon and who didn't. Those who did had their Pokemon by their side, while those who didn't were trying not to look jealous. However, there weren't many still in the yard, since classes would be starting soon. It was mainly people wrapping up battles and spectators for those battles.
Unfortunately, our small party didn't have time to watch any of them, since they needed to get to the top of the building before the bell. They were taught by Professor Kukui himself, and while he was considered to be the most fun teacher, his classroom could only be reached by walking up a few flights of stairs in the early morning, which was never fun. Decidueye, though, just flew up and landed on the railing of their classroom, looking down at the twins a bit smugly, which neither of the twins could see, but they both knew he was. "Lucky," Isla grumbled, as the twins and Lana walked inside and began to ascend, Lycanroc walking behind them three of them on the narrow stairway.
As the party finally made it to the classroom, they found that most of their classmates were already present. They had seen Kiawe land earlier, so he was obviously present with his partner, Turtonator, but Mallow was also present and her partner Pokemon, a Bounsweet, who sat on the green haired girl's desk, was also present. The only other person there was Lillie, who didn't have a partner Pokemon of her own, since she was scared to even touch the things, but loved to study them. It was an odd situation for sure, but Lillie assured everyone that it wasn't something to worry about and that she was working on overcoming her fear.
However, even with the addition of the twins and Lana, there were two seats that were left open. One belonged to Sophocles, who was rarely ever late to class and hadn't ever missed a single class, so it was strange to be sure. The other was less strange, since it belonged to Lillie's brother, Gladion, who made a habit of showing up when he felt like it. His grades should have been abysmal, but Kukui, being the nice guy he was, let Gladion do make up work. Somehow, it let the boy stay afloat, much to the displeasure of his classmates.
The five classmates traded greetings as the Pokemon gathered and socialized as they normally did, by continuously calling out each of their names. It wasn't long until they heard the school bell ring and the students all took their seats, with both of the twins shifting in their seats as the Professor walked in. "Alola class. Unfortunately, Sophocles is sick today and will not be joining us and I see that Gladion won't be here either. With that out of the way, we're gonna jump right into our lesson today about-"
"YOU GIVE US OUR POKEMON NOW!" Isla shouted, slamming her hands down on the table and making everyone else in the room, besides Ian, jump.
"Well, Isla, I was going to wait until the end of class, so you and your brother could take your Pokemon out in the yard and get to know them," Kukui responded carefully, trying not to enrage her further.
"With all due respect, we've been waiting ACTUAL years for our own Pokemon. We're not waiting another few hours," Ian said, standing up with his sister.
Kukui began laughing, before replying, "Yeah, I figured as much. I knew I wouldn't get far. I didn't actually plan a lesson for today so that we could spend helping you two learn about your new partners." He pulled out two Pokeballs from his lab coat pocket and popped them open onto the ground as the twins immediately walked up to the front of the class to meet the new Pokemon. Lycanroc and Decidueye flanked the twins, eyeing the newcomers curiously.
One of the two starter Pokemon was a small bipedal orange lizard with a small flame burning on the end of its tail. This one, both of the twins knew, was Charmander, the fire starter from Kanto. It looked around the room curiously with a smile on its face and a look of wonder in its eye at this whole knew place. The other, which only Ian knew, was a small blue creatures down on all fours, with a dorsal fin on top of its head and orange cheeks. Isla didn't know it because when she was looking into starter Pokemon, she had only been interested in the fire types, but Ian had looked into all of them in preparation, so he knew that this was Mudkip. Said Pokemon walked up to Lycanroc curiously, tilting its head and letting out a little "Mudkip!" in greeting.
"Lycan," Lycanroc replied, sniffing the amphibian Pokemon curiously as Mudkip just had an innocent smile on its face.
"Alright, now pick carefully you two. After all, it's going to be your first real partner as trainers, so consider-" Kukui was cut off for the second time today.
Isla immediately scooped up Charmander and held him aloft and said, "This one. I pick this one." She grinned as Charmander held out his arms towards her, so he gave him a hug. She also slightly adjusted the position of his tail to keep the flame away from her, but continued to hug him nonetheless.
"That means it's you and me little buddy," Ian said with a smile, holding out his arms to Mudkip, who trotted over to him before leaping into his arms.
"Well, that's that I guess. Let's head out into the yard and see what these two can do, shall we?" Kukui suggested, and the class collectively gave a nod. The twins carried their new starters out, only putting them down when they finally reached the middle of the yard. While the twins were aware that all eyes were on them, they weren't aware of one particular set of eyes that watched the twins and their partners from the forest on one side of the school.
"Alright Charmander, attack," Isla commanded, since she unsure of what her new Pokemon knew. Charmander smirked and opened its mouth and fired a small fireball from its mouth, which detonated as it hit the ground, leaving a small crater.
"That was Ember! And it looked pretty powerful considering he's still young," the Professor commented and Isla grinned at the sound of that.
"You're up Mudkip. Show me what you got!" Ian said with a smile, and the small amphibian let out a stream of bubbles, which impacted the wall of the school, leaving some actual noticeable dents. "That was Bubblebeam!" Ian said, recognizing the move with a grin.
However, before anyone could comment or the twins could continue, they all heard a piercing cry come from the woods.
"Koko!"
Everyone in the yard froze at the cry, but the twins were the only ones who were familiar with this cry. A creature suddenly appeared in front of the twins and their starter Pokemon with its great speed, one the twins had both only seen once before, and the rest had only ever read about. It was Tapu Koko, the legendary island guardian of Melemele Island. The twins hadn't seen this Pokemon in years, but the memories began rushing back to them.
The 10 year-old twins were in the woods without any form of supervision. It had only been a couple days since their dad had disappeared without a trace, leaving them in the care of Gae-El and Stonewalker. Those two were trying to find any lead on Quantavious and had trusted the twins to stay at home like they had been told. However, Isla decided that she wanted to go exploring. She'd been upset ever since her dad went missing, so she just wanted to do something else than sit inside for a change. Ian had gone after her, if only to try and convince her to come back to the house. "Isla, c'mon, we gotta go back. Gae-El and Stonewalker told us to stay inside!" Ian complained.
"No, I don't wanna stay inside! We've done that for the past four days and I'm sick of it!" she shouted back at him, as she continued to push her way through the forest, no clear destination in mind. She just wanted to do something, anything to get her out of this mood. The answer came in the form of a small orange bear Pokemon who noticed them at the same time they noticed it. "Teddi?" the small Teddiursa said curiously.
Isla grinned and began to run towards it, which spooked the Pokemon as it began to run from the female twin, as her counterpart continued to chase after her. "Isla, that's not a good idea!" Ian shouted.
"Shut up nerd!" Isla shouted, before the redheaded twins froze in their tracks as they heard a growl from the brush as Teddiursa disappeared into it. Suddenly, a large brown bear Pokemon rose up from the bushes with a mighty roar. Ursaring roared at the threat to its young, as it swung a large paw at Isla who fell backwards while trying to run from it. She just barely dodged the strike, and Ian suddenly grabbed her arm and dragged her to avoid a strike from another Ursaring, who seemed to be the other parent of the Teddiursa.
The two towering Pokemon approached the twins, as Isla got to her feet and they got ready to run for their lives, when two bolts of electricity suddenly shot down from above the twins, striking the two Ursaring and sending them backwards. The two Pokemon struggled back to their feet, ready to take on whatever decided to challenge them, until their eyes widened in shock and backed off as Tapu Koko descended from the sky in front of the two kids.
As the Ursaring disappeared deeper into the woods, Tapu Koko turned around to regard the twins, as the two kids silently stared at the legendary Pokemon in awe. With an ear piercing, "Koko!" it disappeared by flickering away with its incredible speed.
After that, the twins had gone back home, after swearing to tell no one about this. They didn't want anyone to know they almost died because they didn't listen to their guardians, but also because they were positive people would call them crazy after they claimed to have seen the legendary island guardian.
As the twins finally came back to reality, they saw that a flicker of electricity jumped across Tapu Koko's body as it stared down the twins and their Pokemon. It was clear that the island guardian was looking for a fight, and it was intending to fight them. The twins were unsure if they could do it with their new partners, even though Charmander and Mudkip looked ready to battle. However, when Lycanroc and Decidueye moved up to support the two younger Pokemon, they suddenly felt a lot more confident. "Alright, Decidueye, use Spirit Shackle!" Isla called, as Decidueye plucked a feather tipped arrow from its wing and fired it from a bow at the legendary Pokemon, but it missed as the Pokemon flickered away, appearing with a glowing multicolored aura around it. The island guardian used its Dazzling Gleam attack on Decidueye, slamming into the owl-like Pokemon and sending it backwards.
"Lycanroc, Accelerock!" Ian called as Dazzling Gleam faded. Lycanroc's body glowed, and suddenly it fired forward with its own move enhanced speed. It slammed into Tapu Koko, and while it recoiled back, it was far less than the twins would have liked.
"Charmander use Ember!" Isla called, trying to use the small window of opportunity Lycanroc had made for them. The small fire lizard gave its all by firing a small fireball right into Tapu Koko's face, but it barely flinched from the impact. Tapu Koko swung its left wing, striking Lycanroc and sending it flying away from the guardian. "Decidueye, Razor Leaf!" Isla commanded, as the owl-like Pokemon had snuck behind the island guardian while it had been blinded by the Ember's smoke.
"Mudkip, you use Bubblebeam!" Ian also called, as the stream of bubbles and the razor sharp leaves fired from Decidueye's wings as it gave them a mighty beat. Tapu Koko disappeared with a flicker, before appearing high above them all. A yellow dome suddenly appeared around the twins and their Pokemon.
"That's Tapu Koko's ability, Electric Terrain! It powers up electric type moves!" Kukui shouted to the twins, as they both paled at what that could mean. Tapu Koko gave out a cry before using Discharge. The electricity fired off wildly from the island guardian, striking all of the Pokemon currently in battle with the legendary Pokemon.
It floated down as the twins looked worriedly at where their partners had been, since they were all obscured by smoke from the attack. However, as it cleared, they saw they all, even their new starters, were struggling to their feet. They were all determined to not give up against this legendary Pokemon, even though they were all banged up. Tapu Koko seemed to take a moment to regard each and every one of them, before making a judgement.
Before the twins could make a command, or even tell their Pokemon to back down, Tapu Koko let out one more, "Koko!" before disappearing for the last time. It didn't reappear again, but the twins both felt something pressed into their hands. They both looked down and found matching sparkling stones in their hands, which they could only stare at in awe.
The bystanders came running, and only Kukui and Kiawe recognized the stones in the twins' hands. "Okay, how about we get those four patched up," Kukui said, pressing the Pokeballs of their respective starter Pokemon into their free hands to they could return them. "And then, we can talk about what those mean. Especially coming from Tapu Koko of all things," he finished, as the twins glanced back at the stones before rushing over to their Pokemon.
Alright, that does it for the first chapter of Pokemon Solar Shadow! This was an idea that I've had in the works ever since the A Hat in Time Something Witty stream. It feels amazing to finally get this all written out and uploaded. Feel free to leave any suggestions you may have to improve this.
Constructive criticism is welcome!
Don't be an asshole.