"..."
Lucy and Gohan trundle forwards through the forest in silence. It's snowing – not rare in Sinnoh at all, but it still feels a little off to Gohan. Mount Paozu was almost right on the equator, and, well, it's honestly taking a bit to adjust to his new enviroment's frostiness. At least, he's telling himself that so he doesn't brood over their latest loss.
"Heeeeeeyy, you okay?"
"Mhm. M'fine."
"You don't look fine."
"I'm just bummed out, okay?" he grumbles, finally turning his head. "I thought I'd finally be able to... you know, win. Be the cool guy. With my brain! Not only is that not happening, the reason it isn't happening is because my guys aren't strong enough!"
"... Why are you so insistent on winning with your 'brain' anyways?"
A flex answers her question. Ah. He's probably never really had an intellectual challenge – he's been faced with and overcome great adversity before, true, but it doesn't take an IQ of 200 to pound an alien into pulp. Gohan's muscles have been challenged way more than his tactical mind, and he kind of wants to change that.
"Doooo... uh..." She blanks. Honestly, she's in a pretty crappy mood too. Skipping a badge? Really? Who in the heck does that?! ... To be fair, not many trainers taking on the Pokémon League Challenge have tickets to get on the S.S. Spiral, but still!
Wait, where did he...? Did he collapse?
"I'm fine... just hungry... Really hungry..."
She taps her foot unconvinced. Okay, so he's leaning against a tree. Someone that strong should never have to lean against a tree. Sighing, the lass drops to her bottom and magics a ball of ponigiri from her backpack. "I was saving this for my pokémon, but can eat this, oka—?!" She barely even has time to blink before it's gone.
Gohan sighs, before sitting down too. "Thanks." "Damn! I feel better already... I really haven't been eating enough, have I?" "Think we should stop here for today?"
"Uuh, sure. Did you want to eat the rest of - okay, okay, stop that!" she splutters to his miserable face. Pleading, begging for more food! "You can have it all! But you have to get me more tomorrow!"
...
Gohan sighs in an almost content manner as Lucy looks on in horror. Berries, gummi, crunchies and malasada – all dissapeared into the ravenous cavern that is the saiyan's digestive system.
On the one hand, not as much food as normal. On the other? It was so, so filling compared to normal food! I guess the normal animals they serve back home just didn't have the same oomph as treats made for pokémon. The calories in apricorn juice are off the charts!
"I guess we're camping here for the night, huh?" she asks him between bites of her own small poffin. He nods furiously. They're well off the beaten path, but... well, it isn't anything they can't handle. Abomasnow? Pft! Not outside the tall grass.
The girl smiles tiredly before stretching and letting out a yawn – she leans back, pushing into the trunk of one of the many trees around them. "So... you said you would tell me your guys's story, right?"
"Huh?" He gulps down the last of his malasada and somehow ends up taking a bite of the tree next to him. "Oh, yeah... Can you go first?"
"Uhk." She leans back into her tree, grinning. "Where should I start?"
"I don't know anything about your world. Why would I know where to start telling me stuff? ... I guess I've heard a bit about this 'Red' guy, he sounds like a big deal. Start with him!"
"Okay, so, a looong time ago in Kanto – a region a bit to the southwest of here – oh, like five years ago. Well, you know about Pokédexes, right? Oh, they're like... data-gathering machines. You can connect them to your Trainer ID or something, and they can collect data on pokémon by analyzing them when you catch them! Pretty nifty, huh?"
"Apparently Red loved pokémon - and pokémon battling - from a really young age. There's like a million stories out there about how he almost got killed by wild spearow or something or was crushed between two battling trainers, but he wasn't because he was just that good. Well, one day he finally got his pokémon license... like, he always super LOVED pokémon! It was super late when he earned his license from the local professor – oh, his town was so small they didn't even have a Pokémon Center! It's a good thing their region's lead professor lived only a short ways away. Whatever, so it was super late and he had to go to bed."
"So, like, I actually got to meet Red once! It was amazing! He seems super stoic and tough but I think he has trouble expressing himself. He's really super reckless though; that might not have worked out for him if he didn't have the skill to back it up. It's kinda funny, heh. ANYWAYS since he was so impatient and reckless, the first thing he did when waking up was gun straight for the tall grass outside of Pallet Town - the place he lived. Like, he didn't even have any Poké Balls! He might've just been planning to wrassle a rattata into the ground or something."
"The professor... Oak, caught him just in time! Reminded Red that he was going to be given a pokémon at his lab just a bit later. Huh? Yeah, no, people don't just give out pokémon for free! Red had a job to do for the professor."
"Hey, you mentioned wanting to be a scholar, right? Like, after we do pokémon stuff and you settle down or find a way back home. Yeah, Oak is like the smartest guy in the world! Next to Bill who invented the freaking PC and stuff, Oak is like the Pokémon professor! He invented the Pokédex, and Red was going to fill one of the first editions out for him...! Uh, yeah, there was another guy. I think his name was Blue? Yeah, weird coincidence. He also got a pokémon from the professor at the same time as Red."
"Mhm, it's been slow going... only a few regions have been indexed so far. The National Pokédex is getting bigger, though! I think they're cataloging pokémon in Isshu right now. Anyways, The professor actually gave them a choice of a few pretty rare pokémon... well, rare in the wild, anyways. Red got to choose first, and he chose this little fire lizard called charmander! I met it as a charizard, it was sooo cool! Huh? Yeah, Blue got aaaaaa squirtle. Oh, right, you have one!"
"Anyways, like, the professor gave them their Pokédexes after a bit and uh... Red didn't really use it as intended? He figured out pretty quickly that he could use it as an advantage in battling – you know, as a means to its own end or something. Probably not that helpful for super rare pokémon since you have to catch them to get data, but like, it could help him with clearing away hordes of Bug-types and Normal-types. He sort of meandered northways up to, and through, and past the next city and forest."
"I hope Professor Oak knew what he had unleashed. Like, it hindsight it should have been super obvious! Red was kinda interested in researchy stuff... but that was, like, probably because the smartest guy in the world lived pretty much nextdoor – and Blue, who was probably his rival now that I think about it, also was studying to become a professor when he grew up!"
"Huh? That's a little off topic. Uh, yeah, most people catch and train a few pokémon around our age – you can make some money off of it, and it isn't too expensive a hobby to start out in! It doesn't pay a lot though, so unless you're a pro or a Gym Leader or something most people settle into other jobs once they start getting older."
"The Pokémon Leagues were a new thing around then – and Kanto was only the most recent place to get one at that point! A few regions like... Harodashi, and Alola still don't even have an Elite Four! Yeah, they really are pretty recent – most people's journeys used to be more open-ended than a hunt for badges. Red always knew, knew he wanted to be a battle trainer, the reckless crazy man, and the instant he heard about the Indigo League in Kanto he was hooked. I think he almost immediately abandoned the Pokédex hunt he was 'tasked' with and started training to take down the League!"
"Huh, he reminds you of someone? Yeah, I guess you could describe it as him 'finding' a 'good fight'. Yeah yeah, he did still end up completing the Pokédex, at least if you combine his with Blue's. Oh, wait, dang, I can't believe I forgot that! They really were rivals. Huh? No, you'll get to find out later."
"So he went into the gym in Pewter City. The leader specialized in Rock-types, so you'd think he'd be done for, right? Right? WRONG! Okay, he did lose, but Brock was like 'dang kid, you did really well with that charmander and ten caterpillars!' Something in that fight boosted him or something, cause he spent the next few weeks training. Just... like, really hard. Scouring the forest for new pokémon to catch, thinking up strategies and battle styles, and just GRINDING his pokémon to level up! I think by the end of it he fought Blue, who had actually already gotten that gym's badge and was on his way out. Post-training Red crushed Blue. Like, absolutely thrashed his pokémon without one of his being taken out! It was, uh, the same story when he finally returned to the gym. Red might've secretly been a goof, but he was totally no-nonsense when it came to training and battling."
"He still reminds you of someone? Who...? Your dad?! Wow, now I want to hear your story... wait, no, it's still my turn!"
"Anyways, after beating the Pewter leader he did some research on what this whole 'Pokémon League' thing was. And then... it was a massacre. Most people slowly work their way through gyms, right? Like, we got to the end of Gardenia's in a day, but we kinda cheated. And every gym is different, too! Some can take weeks to figure out how to level a challenge."
"Red hit Kanto's gyms like he was a freaking hitman! Bang! One week, Viridian City's gym is annihilated in a couple of hours! A few months pass... stuff is quiet, he's probably off training and then BAM! Saffron City's gym is shredded like tissue paper in a single evening!"
"What made him so good? Uh, huh. If I knew, wouldn't I be as good?! It might be just his sheer dedication to training... honing both his Pokémon's strength, skills, and his own strategic mind. ... Yeah, we should spend some time training before we hit the next gym we challenge. He also went all over the region looking for new pokémon – even to a neighboring dwarf region called Sevii... It's like, a string of islands a bit south of Kanto? We might pass there on our ocean trip, actually! Plus, he was acquainted with a professor. He might've started applying serious research stuff to battling and properties of pokémon that might help with it."
"Anyways... another one of Red's major things hiding under his stern face was that he was, like, just a super nice guy! He can be a little scary when you first see him, but once you get to know him and talk to... or at least try to talk to him for a bit, it becomes pretty clear that he's just a friendly goof. A goof that's terrifyingly skilled at battles, but still. Like, he stumbled onto Bill the science guy in a real pickle. The guy somehow managed to fuse himself with a clefairy or something. And Red, the saint that he was, took the time to help him out!"
"That, uh, also got him into a lot of trouble. ... What do you mean 'now' we're getting to the good part?!"
...
"Ahem, yes, right. So... do you know about Team Rocket? Well, at one point they were the most feared gang in the WORLD. Yeah, that's right. GANG. They had guns, they had Poison-type pokémon... they were ruthless. There wasn't any official info about them beyond 'rumours' and 'urban legends', and they didn't operate far past Kanto's borders... but yeesh. People were being made to 'disappear'...! What was their 'evil plan'...? Uh... kill people and pokémon and make money doing illegal stuff? They weren't super villains. Just super evil regular villains. I guess they could have gone after world domination or something like that."
"And Red tore them to the ground. Took their plans and plowed through them like a roided-out gyarados before grinding them to dust under his running shoes. He basically ended up fighting and winning a shadow war while barely even knowing it! Probably just thought something like, 'oh, goody me, look at all these TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES' or something insane like that."
"He actually first bumped into them on the way between the first and second gyms he challenged. Yeah, lucky he came out on top, right? Actually it was just a couple of grunts - I don't think they were armed or anything. I think they were trying to smuggle fossils or something? He was passing through this mountain well known for them and just bumped into them. Probably didn't even figure out they were mobsters."
"He kept bumping into them. Red was going pretty much every freaking place he could in search of items and pokémon and stuff, so I guess it's not surprising. There wasn't any master plan – which might have been better. At least then he could have just STOPPED it. No, they had a bunch of little evil plans. Like stealing a TM from a random person or setting up a 'trainer challenge' that's actually a recruitment drive or... breeding and killing cubone to sell their crests. Eugh."
"One of their biggest operations was this thing called the Rocket Game Corner in Celadon City, right? It was basically a big casino – that sold pokémon as prizes. Seriously! Anyways, Red had his eye on a porygon they were selling. Apparently it was one of the first ever artificial pokémon species, and he wanted to see if it would fit into his team. So he started gambling. What? No, why would there be a law against him using the slots?"
"Anyways he saw a Team Rocket grunt guarding a poster all suspicious-like. Turns out behind the poster was a switch, and that switch opened up the basement or something and revealed Team Rocket's secret evil base to him!"
"It, uh... wasn't that for much longer. By the end of the day he had looted the place like it was the Celadon Department store during a sale! Where everything is 100% off! The only real resistance he ran into was the Rocket Boss Giovanni."
"Okay, so like, Giovanni was a really good trainer. Not a prodigy like Red, but he had decades of experience. And was totally ruthless. Red was seriously challenged. But apparently he liked it or something? Yeah, somewhere between getting his butt kicked by the Pewter gym leader and him walking over the mafia he had come to appreciate good fights. Since, at this point, they didn't happen to him very much."
"But he still won. Giovanni was all like 'BWAH, you foolish child! You don't understand what's happening!' or something. And then he ran away."
"What? The police? ... Okay, they probably should have arrested him then... but Rocket was still a pretty big operation! I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the cops were theirs to boss around. ... Yeah, Red definitely should have kept him from leaving."
"Basically the same thing happened a bit later at the Silph Co building, in Saffron City. They're this reeeeally big company filled with tech and Giovanni... I don't know what he wanted specifically, but it must've been an appealing cash-grab!"
"Red was in town."
"He and his pokémon had been training."
"The beat-down he layed on them was so intense that Team Rocket basically crumbled then and there! It was still a big organization, yeah, so you'd think it'd be sturdier than that. But at this point Red was really well known. Nobody could beat him in a battle, and no one could hurt him because of his super-strong pokémon and his quick draw! Team Rocket was still made up of individual people – and all of them were terrified of him! After he drove them out of Saffron, that was pretty much it. Team Rocket was done."
"Until Red showed up to the Viridian Gym for his eighth and final badge. Somehow, Giovanni had the position of the Viridian City gym leader! No clue how. Pokémon League might have just signed off on making it official without doing a super thorough inspection? He was a really tough trainer. It would explain a bit of how they wormed their way into all those positions of power."
"It's just such a dang shame that they were a gym. You know. The things Red has been taking down like hits on a list? Giovanni was like, livid when he saw the same kid a third time, on his home turf!"
"Their final battle was great, I heard. It was the sort of thing you'd see between Champions – he didn't hold back at all like Gym Leaders are supposed to. But Red still won. Like he always did since that first loss. Giovanni just sort of cracked after that. He was like, 'oh, what a good fight, how amazing!' but inside he was ticked off that he got creamed by an eleven year old like, three times. He sullenly gave up his gym's badge, marveled that even now Red didn't seem to care enough to turn him in, and just... tore down the rest of Team Rocket himself. Decommissioned the whole thing."
"Yeah, surviving pieces of Team Rocket still pop up from time to time. Like or Neo Rocket or whatever. But they don't come close to the regional threat that the original was."
"The rest of the story really isn't much. He walked up the Victory Road of his region, creamed everyone in his way. Took a quick stop at the top of the Indigo Plateau to buy some battle items and immediately smashed through the Elite Four."
"But there was a sitting Champ. Guess, guess! ... No, it wasn't the professor! That would've been funny, though – it was Blue! Somehow he had managed to claw his way to the top of the Indigo League before him!"
"That last fight... oooh, boy. Blue fought tooth and nail to keep his recently earned title. But Red had something he didn't. He wasn't just a good fighter – he was a smart fighter. Before the fight even started he had perfected his team. Looked at each of his Pokémon's moves, determined which were useful, which weren't abused the heck out of TMs... it was a close fight, compared to what it could have been. But Blue lost. Shortest Championship reign in history, everyone!"
"Or it would have been if Red didn't immediately forfeit his own Championship and ran off. There's a bunch of stories about what he did next and all of them are way too dramatic. He basically just wanted to keep training, running around and getting stronger and kicking the crap out of anyone who battled him."
Lanthan: the Rare Earth Pokémon
Class: Great Old One
National Pokédex Number: TBA
Ability: Sheer Force
Signature Move:
Egg Group: Unknown
Age: Several million years
Type:Ground/Steel, suspected
Height:2.5 m
Weight: 1400 kg
Legends from the Yotokan-Tandor region say that it helped form the surface of the Earth; along with its 'brothers' Actan and Heatran, it placed metallic ores in the planet's crust. They are said to be the spawn of Groudon. While Lanthan is still unconfirmed to really exist, the Heatran has in fact been captured by Champion Dawn and Groudon has been the subject of a very public event in recent Hoennian history. While the myths have a few obvious embellishments, such as claiming naturally-occurring bronze and relying on classical mythological timescales of only a few millennia, there may be more truth here for the source of metals on Earth than scholars would like to admit.