Hey, folks, welcome.

This story is a collaborative effort with a good author-buddy of mine, who has decided to stay anonymous because of reasons. It's complicated, but her identity will be revealed soon enough. I think?

this story is set in the fanmade region milady and I created. There are going to be many references in the names of places and events to different forms of mythological water deities. If anyone uncomfortable with this, just don't read. For those of you who LOVE mythology, this is the story for you. Some refernces are very hard to recognize or just unpopular but others are really easy to spot for the common mythology fan.

We have all five gens of pokemon (WATER) in here, but we will have a few... original ones. Yes.

Anyways, I'm (accepting OC's) for this because we really suck with making characters and we like getting fun people from readers. So, if you'd please, please PM us or review and I'll get you the form soon. Please keep in mind that when creating trainers, only Water-type trainers are permitted. For... well, just read.

Enjoy!

If there was someone I despised the most in this world, it would no-hands-down be my older sister, Adria.

That being said, if there was someone I loved most it would most likely be my older sister, Adria.

I swerved around in my chair and knelt down to pick the pencil I had dropped and immediately faced my desk to begin drawing again. I was drawing a surskit. Well, my surskit, Mareen. I bit my tongue in concentration as I diligently added the finishing details to the drawing, and when I decided it at least remotely fit the bill, I stood up to find my markers.

Within a few minutes, I was crouching in a mass heap of clothing, books, pencils, and much more with tears in my eyes. I knew I'd have to fix it before my mother walked into the room, but I had no motivation to clean such a mess. I could already hear my mother's voice… She'd scold me, say something about Adria always keeping her side of the room tidy, and then take away my surfboard until my room was sparkling.

"Stupid Adria…" I muttered loudly, throwing the mess under my bed as quickly as possible. "This is all her fault…"

If it wasn't completely obvious already, I hated my sister. More appropriately, though, I had so much respect for her that I wanted to rip her hair out. She was twenty-four; exactly eleven years, five months, three days, one hour, and fifty-five minutes older than me. She was everything anyone wanted to be: pretty, smart, athletic, and most importantly – at least, in this region – a talented battler. She had left the house at ten, a day I wasn't alive to witness, and even though she was rough around the edges for a while, it only took a few years and the entirety of the town was rooting her on. She was a great trainer, and just last year she had been appointed the position of master in our town's dojo. That in itself was one of the greatest honors that could be appointed to someone as a trainer. She was the third youngest to ever receive such a title. That was a huge deal here. It has always been.

With a sigh, I picked up the colored pencils – my alternate choice – and got to work again. The surskit was leering at me with overly large eyes, something my drawings seemed to always have. I was never the greatest artist. Better than my sister, at least. I paused and looked out of the window at the sound of the wingull. They were soaring over the palm trees ungracefully and a few bumped into the trees with a flourish. A group of tourists passing by laughed. I grinned slightly.

Here in Darya region, water pokémon are everything. We're the oldest of all the regions and the original settlers here moved in only to live with the water pokémon and learn of their ways. This region, due to its location and climate, (we're on a tropical island a long way south of Kanto, just so you know) has a population of solely Water and Bug pokémon. After the region became official and pokémon training became big, the region developed a slightly different League than the others.

There are fourteen main towns and cities in the region, and of those eight have what we here call "dojos." In the dojo, there are two things you must do. Firstly, complete whatever challenge the dojo has set up for you. It usually changes often. And secondly, defeat the dojo's master. If you can do both, you go up in rank – and get a new belt as proof of this. The farther in rank you go, the better you are and the more likely you are to get chosen to go to the annual – and very low-key – championship to challenge the ultimate trainers – the Elite Four, in a sense – and the champion. All of the dojos have Water trainers as the master, but each is different and has different strategies. Not to mention only Water-type trainers are allowed to challenge and reign dojos. My sister's category was defense, and she was big on Water and Ground sub-type pokémon. Obviously, she had a weakness in there, but type-effectiveness doesn't matter when it comes to dojo battles.

Like I said, this region is really serious about their Water pokémon. Only the best Water trainers live here and it is rare for a foreigner to ever even get far here. Of course, it's always hard for citizens to get far, too, but it's easier because we're used to it. This place was meant only for the most serious of trainers, and there honestly aren't many of those here. Usually, only one person is chosen from a family to represent them in dojos, and the rest are stuck at home, tending to the tourists that like to visit year-round. This is what I do know. I hold surfboard lessons with my coach here in Psamathe Village for tourists. I've never been allowed to train since and my only pokémon are my surskit and my mother's old psyduck, Ran. Nevertheless, Adria sometimes let me train with her pupils at the dojo, because I mopped it weekly free of charge. But even still, it was a drag. Nowhere as exciting as actually getting to go out and train.

I didn't mind most of the time, but recently, I've been feeling the need to go out and prove myself to my family. It wasn't fair that my sister got to do what she wanted only because she was born first. I had a right to do what I wanted to, and no one could stand in my way. Not my mother, not my father, not my-

Sister, who was glaring at me from the door.

"Cora, get up," she said with a sigh, "we've got to get to the dojo before everyone else does." She tilted her head towards me and I nodded, standing up and watching her as I approached.

She had lightly tanned skin, lighter than mine, and adorable freckles adorned her nose (which I wanted more than anything. Mine where on my cheeks and hideous.). Her hair was light brown – almost blond – like mine, and she most usually had it tied messily into a wet ponytail or worn down and long. Usually it was the former, but even still she managed to look beautiful – or at least to me. My hair was just as naturally wavy, but it tangled easily and smelled of old seaweed, which my parents always complained about. ("You'll never find a husband like that!" my mother would say.) Her face was always very calm and expressionless, but as of now she had a very mischievous glint in her eye and a small grin on her face. I knew immediately she was hiding something.

"What are you doing?" I asked slowly as she put a hand on my arm and led me through the hallway and towards the front door.

"… Walking you to the dojo?" Adria's voice was calm, but her expression was transparent. Among her relatively small list of things she was terrible at, Adria was a terrible liar. Not just liar, either. She was a terrible actor in general. She look of mock innocence was of no use and I pushed her slightly as she opened up the front door and walked out.

"You know what I mean," I said flatly, shutting the door behind me before my surskit could make his way out of the door with us. "You may as well tell me now so I can decide if your plan is dumb or not."

Adria scowled. Another thing she was terrible at? Planning. "Well, the truth is…" she hesitated before she spoke again. "I'm going to have to step down from my position as dojo master."

My jaw dropped. I was speechless; unsure whether I was horror-stricken or really pleased. "Why… Why?"

She pointed to her stomach. "Notice my 'frequent mood swings' recently? I'm pregnant, bitch."

Another jaw of the drop from moi. "You're…?"

"Enceinte, expectant, parturient, preggers." Adria nodded with a sigh. "Carrying a child? Ring a bell?"

"I…" I was at loss for words. "Wow… congrats?"

Adria laughed so loudly she snorted. "Th-Thank you? You're a funny kid, Cora." She grinned at me for a second before growing serious again. "But yeah, I obviously can't do any training or battling while I'm carrying a baby, and, well… I'll need to stay home to take care of him-or-her whenever that time comes. Besides… well, the more I think about it, the more I just wanna sit down all day in my room and read a book. I feel really lazy lately, ya' know?"

I nodded, and sighed deeply. "Wait 'till Mom hears the news… or, does she know?"

Adria shook her head. "No one but you, Brian and I know. So tell no one. At all. Especially not Mom and Dad."

I nodded slowly, watching as Adria sped ahead of me and went to find the keys to the dojo. Brian, my sister's boyfriend, lived in the next town over (Clermiela Town) and my parents just loved him. Arceus knows how they would react to the fact that he impregnated their daughter – and rendered her unable to battle. The latter would probably hit them in the gut harder.

I skipped over to meet her as she opened up the doors, took of her shoes, and walked inside of the dark building. I followed suit diligently. We walked silently to the office in the back and we immediately settled on the couch as we usually did.

"Forty minutes until the competitors start showing," Adria sighed, "I better let you know of my plan now."

I stared at her silently and said nothing.

"Since I won't be able to battle very soon, I need to give up my job – and fast. So, I'm proposing a challenge to the trainers for immediate placement in my spot. It's a lot to explain, lot's of complications and guidelines, but I'm only opening it up to rookies-"

"WHAT?" I shouted so loudly air got caught in my throat and I began to cough so roughly my ribs were slowly breaking in two. "Rookies? Really?"

"Like I said, I'll explain later," Adria said with a small chuckle. "Anyways, what do you think? Want to try it out?"

I scoffed, my eyes watering. "As if. Forget about it."

Adria chuckled, and shrugged. "I probably won't be able to! Ha ha!"

I leaned backwards into my chair and let out a huge breath. So much news in one day was getting to me. I shrugged it off, however, and rolled my shoulders back. "Who do you think is going to enter here, huh?"

"Probably craploads of tourists, but other than that…" Adria paused to think. "I dunno, maybe Thea. She's a pretty good novice."

I nodded, suddenly feeling a burst of renewed bitterness in my stomach as I looked over at the ;arge desk where my sister worked… The thought of some stranger sitting there was… really messed up. If Adria couldn't have the dojo, why not try to make it my own? Even though I had no idea how I could be able to catch up to my sister's decade's worth of skill and experience, Adria probably had a plan behind all of that, most likely. From the excited look on her face, I could tell she did. And that made me suddenly want to try it out, see if I could complete this challenge.

And maybe, just maybe, I could have a chance.

If I could even go in the first place, of course.