Good evening my fellow marks, and welcome to Pokémon Takeover: Game Genie! Last time we got a great battle and a little bit of Brendan's backstory! Now let's get into the next battle…(What's that, QUEENSPELLER67? Calem's backstory? Cliffhanger? No idea what you're talking about. *Hears the click of WillyRex's gun in the distance.* *Gulps* Oh yeah…that's right… Well I guess we can get into that if you guys want to; fine, I'll do it. *Dodges two bricks thrown by YuukiXMisturu and Theiampinaylove* That was payback for me saying the sea temple movie was my least favorite; wasn't it?)
Calem took a deep breath and spoke, "All you had to do was ask."
The gang looked towards Calem with curiosity and let him finish; "You wanna know what happened? I'll tell you." Serena put her hand on top of Calem's and spoke, she spoke with sadness and concern in her voice.
"You don't have to tell the story; we promised as kids we wouldn't talk about it unless you wanted to."
Calem closed his eyes and remained silent; he then removed his hat and looked at the sunglasses on top. "It's fine Serena; I can talk."
Chapter 18:
Back in the Day
Flashback starts (12 years ago)
"Calem, you need to get up," a woman yelled from downstairs, "Today's a big day."
A little boy with a jacket and shorts ran down the steps. He smiled gave his mom a hug, "I can't wait to see Dad's race today; can I go meet up with Serena?"
His mother smiled and rubbed his head, "Sure sweetie; we'll meet you at the race track." The boy smiled, "Thanks mom," he ran out the door and headed to his neighbor's house.
"Yeah I know; used to be a really excitable kid." Calem said.
The boy ran outside the house and said hello to everyone in town, "Morning Mr. Stevenson!/"Hi Ms. Tabitha/"Hey Ledyba!" he said lastly to the Ledyba floating above his house. He ran over to the house across the street and knocked on the door. He waited a few moments, and the door opened to reveal a blond haired girl about the boy's age standing in the doorway.
The girl smiled, "Hey Calem, you're here early."
The boy smiled back, "Yeah, I came to get you; let's go!"
"Yeah, Serena and I were really close growing up. Saw each other almost every day." Calem said.
The boy grabbed the girl's hand and began to run off with her behind him. While she was holding his hand, she had a faint blush on her face. Fortunately, the boy was too excited to notice.
At the Race Track
The stadium was packed with fans of all ages; two boys in particular watched the track from the front row. One had a beret and the other was a brunette with a Mudkip on his shoulder.
The brunette spoke, "So you think he knows we're here?"
The boy with the beret shook his head, "Nah, he's too excited to pay attention to us. I'm not even sure if we're allowed to be here."
"Mudkip!" the Mudkip said excitedly. The brunette smiled and rubbed his Mudkip's head.
The girl and the boy found their seats next to their parents; except for the boy's father who was on the race track waving to the fans. The man smiled and posed; the boy could barely hold his excitement.
"My dad would always Rhyhorn race on the weekends. We would always go to them; Serena and I would get there early just to see them warm up. It was a lot of fun; except for today." Calem continued.
The little boy got a hug from his father and mother; the group hug ended and the father returned to the starting line with his shiny Rhyhorn. "Your dad is so awesome, Calem. I can't wait to see him race." the girl said.
The boy's mother smiled and nodded, "He sure is something. I'm so happy for him."
The boy was barely paying attention due to being in awe from excitement. The race began, the guns fired, and the crowd went wild. The race began and all of the Rhyhorn raced around the track.
"Everything was going great; my dad was poised to win the race and add another accomplishment to his resume," Calem said. "But then things took a turn for the worse."
The Rhyhorn continued to race around the track; the boy's father was clearly ahead of the; at the same time, there was a blimp with cameramen inside of it. Unfortunately, the winds were particularly strong that day and the blimp was having a hard time maintaining control.
"Wow, Dad's awesome. This race is so great!" the boy said.
"In hindsight, I wish I hadn't been so optimistic." Calem said.
Suddenly a mysterious hooded figure appeared on the blimp; it had a small hooded figure with it that resembled a Pokémon. The Pokémon poked a hole in the blimp; causing the blimp to spin out of control. The race continued as it did; but the girl looked up and saw what was happening.
"Look out!" she said pointing out the whirling blimp. The racers and the audience looked and saw the blimp; the two figures had vanished. The blimp continued to fall until it crashed onto the track. Fortunately for the other racers; they were able to stop. But unfortunately for the boy's father, he was too far ahead and moving too fast to slow down.
"My dad tried to get out of there and slow down, but it was too late." Calem said.
Rhyhorn began to turn and slide as it was trying to slow down, but it couldn't stop itself from colliding with the gondola. There was a collision. People were in shock, the ambulances were scrambling and could barely do anything. Then, the boy stood in the crowd, tears in his eyes, he drops the sunglasses that were in his hands. He cries out, "Daddy!"
Later that day
The man was in the hospital bed; there were cuts and bruises all over his body. One of his arms was in a sling and he was barely moving. His family along with the girl was by the bedside.
The doctor walked in, "He received multiple injuries from the collision; along with Rhyhorn landing on top of him." The doctor paused before continuing, "I'm sorry, but he's not going to make it." The family gasped and the Rhyhorn walked up to the bed.
"Horn," it sadly said.
The man smiled, "It's okay, Rhyhorn. I don't blame you for what happened. We went into the race as a team, and I'm glad we end as a team." Everyone was sad, but the boy in particular was furious, with tears in his eyes.
"How could you be some calm about this?!" he yelled. "Some random guy comes in, cuts a blimp, and you're lying here, without even a little bit of anger?! Seriously!"
The man turned his attention to the boy, "Calem, it's okay, I-"
The boy interrupted, "IT'S NOT OKAY! YOU PROMISED ME THAT YOU'D WATCH ME BECOME CHAMPION! THAT YOU'D HELP ME BECOME STRONGER! I CAN'T DO THAT STUFF WITHOUT Y-"
The boy felt something be placed on the top of his head; he looked up to see it was a red hat. The man spoke, "I'm sorry that I can't continue to support you; but you have to realize that I'm not the only person in your life. You have your mother, Rhyhorn, and even your friend Serena. You have all of these people by your side; you won't need me." The boy's face had tears running down it.
After a few moments of silence, he spoke, "I promise, I'll get stronger. I promise to keep fighting, no matter what. But most importantly, I promise to find the people who did this, and make them pay!" After saying this, the boy ran out of the room; crying.
The girl turned to try and stop him, "Calem, wait!" The mother put her hands on the girls shoulders, "Serena, don't-" The girl brushed this off and ran after the boy throughout the hallway of the hospital.
End Flashback (Present Time)
"…And that's what happened," Calem said. "After that, I pushed myself to train Pokémon, learn more about them, and try to get over what happened. I pursued tournaments all over the Kalos region. Even with rentals, people still couldn't reach me. But then things turned worse; instead of trying to support me, all most people did was try to follow me; the paparazzi wouldn't leave me alone. Thanks to my dad's fame and the incident, nobody left my family be. And the worst part was, I ran out on my dad without saying goodbye."
Everyone was silent; Lucas and Serena took their hats off.
Ash looked devastated, "Wow um, I'm sorry, I didn't know-"
Calem stood up, "It's fine, I'm going to bed." Calem left and headed to his room. The gang stayed in silence; nobody wanted to acknowledge what happened.
"So um, shall we continue just hanging out? I think Calem could use some alone time." Trevor said kind of awkwardly.
"Y-yeah." everyone said.
Brendan stood up as everyone began to talk, "Lisia, can I talk to you, alone?" Wally and Lisia both gave Brendan a weird look, "Uh yeah, sure," she said.
Lisia got up with Brendan and walked over to the other side if the room.
Lisia huffed, "Look Brendan, if you want to make out with me, the answer is probably no."
Brendan spoke, "Do you uh, have any extra contest outfits?"
Lisia blinked, "What? Why are you asking me?"
Brendan continued, "I wanna do something cool for the tag tournament coming up. Get my championship status back on the map with something cool!"
Lisia tilted her head, "Really? The tournament's the reason for wanting to look cool? Would've thought it was your fashion sense; let's be honest, it could use some work. Let's start with the hat."
Lisia began to grab Brendan's hat, but Brendan quickly grabbed her hand and placed it down, "The hat stays," he said sternly. "Anyways, think you can help me out?"
"Hm," Lisia said while circling Brendan repeatedly to the point of she was making him dizzy. "It'll take some time, but I think I can squeeze you in for this week."
Brendan smiled, "Awesome thanks!"
Lisia nodded, "It's fine, Brendan. I'll just let Wally know and he can tell-"
Brendan covered her mouth, "Actually I was hoping, this could be our little secret. I want to keep the surprise intact."
Lisia removed his hand and smiled, "OOOOOH! Secrecy; got your back!"
Lisia returned to Wally who was busy getting interrogated back May and Dawn about his status with Lisia. Trevor and Tierno had already headed to bed, while Clemont had tucked Bonnie in. But Lucas had other ideas.
With Calem
Calem was lying on top of his bed; staring up at the ceiling. He was in deep thought over everything he revealed. "Maybe I shouldn't have stormed off like that. All they asked was a simple question." he said out loud.
There was a knock at the door. Calem slowly sat up on the bed, he looked at the door and spoke, "Come in." The door opened to reveal Lucas.
Calem's face remained unchanged, "What is it?"
Lucas approached him, "Came to check on you. You okay?"
Calem sighed, "I guess. Even though it happened so long ago, it kind of hurts to still talk about." Lucas sat on the bed next to Calem.
"Yeah I know what you mean. When my Mom left me, my Dad, and Dusk, I thought that we were never going to get over that. Most of the time I was just spent comforting Dusk; she and Mom were so close; but Dad and Mom just couldn't make it work. Seriously, it's hard playing 'Tea Party' with her."
Calem stifled a smile, "Yeah you're a good older brother; I forget about that sometimes."
Lucas smiled, but then his smile faded, "Should probably call them sometime; it's been a minute. Eh, I'll do it tomorrow."
Calem stood up, "Hey thanks pal. Knowing someone else that has almost been through what I have gone through, makes things a little easier."
Lucas smiled, "Yeah, we have each other's backs; no matter what," he said as he left the room.
Calem left the room himself and headed towards the outside of the Pokémon Center.
"C-Calem?" he heard a voice say. Calem turned around to see Shauna looking at him with concern in her eyes. "Is everything okay?"
Calem nodded, "Yeah, everything is fine."
Shauna continued, "Okay, that's good. I was worried for a moment."
Calem gave a slight smile, "Thanks for the concern." After a moment of silence he continued, "I was actually going to go see the shooting stars tonight to take my mind off things. Would you like to join me?"
Shauna smiled, "Sure, I can go get the rest of the gang and we can-"
"Actually, I was hoping it would be just you and me."
Shauna's eyes widened slightly and a small blushed formed on her cheeks, "Um, a-a-are you sure?"
Calem nodded, "I mean if you have a problem then we don't have to do it."
Shauna shook off her blush and had a grin on her face, "Sure, let's go," she said happily while walking out with him.
Meanwhile across from the hall, Serena was watching the situation. She had heard and seen the whole conversation; she smiled, but it was a sad smile. She sighed and the smile disappeared. She spoke aloud to herself, "I couldn't tell her. It would break her heart."
A/N: And there we go! Another chapter complete! One of the mysteries has been solved! As usual, you guys are cooler than the other side of the pillow! Review as usual, but this week check the poll in my Bio; it will have some significance. Also, with the tag tournament coming up soon, I need some new trainers. If you want to, PM me some information for your own character. Info like name, age, two Pokémon, and something quirky about your personality. You'll be interacting with the main cast soon enough! This week's question is-
Brendan: Stop!
BT: What?
Lucas: We said stop.
Wally: With all due respect, our contracts say we do get to decide the questions every now and then.
BT: Ugh! I hate that stupid voice!
The Boys: So do we!
Lucas: Anyways, which one of us do you guys like the most, based off this story? Me right?
Brendan: (Laughs) Yeah right, you're kind of joke man!
Lucas: What? I'm the only one with a girlfriend.
Calem: Yeah, but she can do better. It kind of feels like she's with you for pity.
Lucas: (Hangs his head) I swear that's what everybody says when we're in public.
Wally: Not only that, but who's your favorite legendary?
BT: Mine is Suicune!
The Boys: Nobody cares!
BT: It's my story!
Ethan: So this is what you guys do every week?
Nate: Yeah, how come you guys get all the fun?
BT: No! No! No! May I at least have the quote? It's all I got.
The Boys: Fine…
Big Tasty 3:16 says:
Fuck you Walt Disney, you unimaginative piece of shit! This is THADLAND!
