A/N: Well, this is the first chapter, and we're finally introduced to our protagonist… who is a rather normal kid. The start this fanfiction is a little slow, but hopefully it'll speed up soon when Joshua meets his rival/ friend, the kid genius, Affray.

I wonder if anyone can guess who Joshua's and Affray's starters will be. As a hint, it won't be the three regional starters, and instead, a different "element circle" trio. So instead of fire, grass, and water, it might be electric, water, and ground [Ex. Yamper, Silicobra, and Drednaw].

Chapter 1: The Loss of the Century

"Char!" a young boy cried as he pinned his younger sister down. The little girl giggled as she attempted to squirm away, but her brother had a tight grip on her. In an attempt to get him off her, she headbutted him in the chest.

"Greedent!" she called as the boy recoiled in slight pain, letting her wiggle from under him and faced him on all fours. "Gree! Dent! Greedent!"

Giving a mock growl, he flexed his hands as if they were claws and fell on all fours to give a joyous roar. A Dreepy watched with half-open eyes from a bed with sheets covered in images of a Gigamaxed Charizard in various poses. At the edge of each different pose was the signature of Leon. The Dreepy yawned before floating off the bed as the young boy pulled the sheets off.. "Get ready for my Fire Blast attack, you Greedent! No one can survive this!" the young boy yelled as he pulled the blankets off.

"Oh, we can talk now, dent?~ Well, no matter, I've stood up to much worse, dent! I even survived a Gmax move from Centiscorch with ease, gree!" the little girl mocked as she stuck her tongue out and arched her back. With a roar, the boy threw the cover and the girl jumped out the way, only to get tripped up by the sheet catching her leg. She hit the wooden floor and fell flat onto her stomach. "Ow..."

"Ah, Lilac, are you okay?! I didn't mean for that to happen!" the boy asked as he rushed over to see his sister roll herself over to untangle the cover from her foot. She had slight tears in her eyes, but she wasn't sniffling or anything.

"I'm fine. I just hit my face is all, Joshua." she said as she finished undoing the comforter from her foot. Joshua rubbed his sister's head in an apology as she wiped the tears from her eyes and smiled.

"See, all better! Now, let's continue playing to see who'll win the battle!" Lilac said as she stood up. Her bright white hair wrapped around her shoulders, contrasting against her light brown skin color, as she looked at her brother expectantly with bright blue eyes. Like his sister, Joshua had white hair, but instead of bright blue eyes, his were poppy red.

Joshua shook his head at her suggestion, since he didn't want to hurt Lilac again, even by accident.

"Naw, let's go see how well Leon is doing against Eugene. Raihan said it was supposed to be an interesting match, but he says that almost every year. Leon has been winning since he was ten, so there's no way he would lose now!" Joshua said as Dreepy flew next him. "Hey, how's your tail feeling? Better?"

"Dree! Reep, reep, epy!" Dreepy said as he showed Joshua his tail. There was a bandage on it, but other than that, it looked perfectly fine.

"That's good, Dreepy!" Joshua said as he headed out the bedroom, and into the carpeted hallway. Lilac followed after him, as well as Dreepy. He made his way to the living room, where the TV sat adjacent to the couch. The rug had the Dragon Badge marking on it, proudly showing off that this was Raihan's house.

"Hey, Josh and Lilac, are you two down here to watch the battle?" a male voice called from the kitchen. Dreepy gave a slight purr as it moved back and forth in a dance like motion. The scent of freshly baked cookies and sweet Pokéfood wharf through the air. The warm, comforting scent began to make Joshua's mouth water at the prospect of cookies.

"Yeah, we are Sebastian!" Joshua called to his babysitter as he sat in front of the TV. Lilac settled down on the couch, with Dreepy nestling in her lap and beginning to doze off. Joshua turned on the TV, and the first thing to pop up was the Yamper Cup. The Yamper Cup was something that always showed at the same time as the Champion's Cup. Since some people got bored of watching Leon win all the time, or they just didn't care in general, they had the Yamper Cup specifically for them. Newly hatched Yamper would scuttle in a small stadium as they played with a ball. It was just cute fluffiness because the Yamper couldn't learn any rules yet. They were just cute, baby Yamper who wanted to play. Normally, Joshua would watch it because he knew Leon would win, but he decided to watch the match against Eugene.

Turning the channel, Joshua finally came upon the match, and his jaw dropped open. Leon was actually losing! Eugene was up one Pokémon from him, and it seemed as if Leon had been backed into a corner! Eugene had three Pokémon left, while Leon only had two! The challenger had a weird Pokémon that Joshua had never seen before. It had a weird shield-like head that was attached to the tip of a long body that resembled a tail. The body had red flat, fleshy spikes that didn't seem like they would help with defense or offense. And the body was a weird green mixed with red that just looked unnerving. Its head also had some tiny fins, so it couldn't even grab anything if it wanted to. However, despite how eldritch it looked, it was smiling and flapping its little fins around.

Eugene wore a short, blue haircut with a Dark Type sport cap. He had on a black motorcycle jacket and leather trousers, along with some black high socks. Underneath his jacket was a tee shirt was a beautifully painted Arcanine. On his right hand, he wore a single black palm glove and his choice of shoe wear was a pair of white creepers.

Leon's Dragapult was staring down the weird creature with a refine smile as it licked the side of its face with its long tongue. It was hard to see, but the third eyelid that Dragapult shared with Inteleon flicked over its eyes, causing it to reach its long tongue to its eye to lick it clean. The movement always sent a shiver down Joshua's spine when Dragapult did that. The Dreepy they took in after they found it injured in the Wild Area also did that, but Joshua found it a little cuter.

"It looks like Eugene's… ummm… Dracovish will be going toe-to-toe with Dragapult! This is no joke! Dragapult have taken whole teams down without breaking a sweat! But, Dracovish has also taken down some pretty powerful foes as well!" the commentator said as Eugene threw his arm out in a dramatic fashion.

"Dragon Pulse!" he ordered, and his Dracovish threw its head back before wrenching it forward and letting out a purple stream of energy. In a blink of an eye, Dragapult flew below the stream, and shot itself forward. With a cry of surprise, Dracovish tried to re-aim the beam towards Dragapult. The lizard rolled out the way and zipped behind the ancient Pokémon.

"Dragon Breath!" Leon ordered, and Dragapult let out a weaker purple beam of a fiery energy that hit the Dracovish. Joshua let out a sigh of relief as Dragapult gained the upper hand in the fight. He hadn't even noticed that he was so tense, but the battle was even more nerve-wracking knowing Leon could lose. Only Raihan had gotten him to this point, and only in a few battles.

The battle continued with Dragapult dodging all the attacks as Dracovish tried different methods to hit it. In the end, Dracovish feinted its weakness so that Dragapult would let its guard down, and then it bit into it with a Crunch. Weakened from the attack, Leon ended up trying to reduce this to a distance fight, with beams being fired, until Dracovish was finally taken down.

"Yes! Leon took it down! Now it's an even game! Hah, I knew this battle would be a waste of time!" Joshua exclaimed as his heart raced. Just two more Pokémon, and Leon would obviously win this! He had to win this! He was the unbeatable Leon!

The next Pokémon that Eugene sent out was a male Indeedee. It bowed and gave a humble, little chime that was similar to a bell. Dragapult landed on the ground with a smile as it opened its mouth. It gave a dorky and cheerful hiss as its long tongue licked the side of its mouth. Dreepy called out happily as it floated onto Eugene's head and wrapped its little tail around his neck. The little goofball stuck its chunky tongue out as it watched the Dragon-Type on TV get fired up.

The two Pokémon's battle was more elegant than the previous battle. It was almost like a dance, each one moving in step with the other. A Psychic attack was warded off by a Flamethrower, and a Tri Attack blocked a Thunderbolt. Move after move was used as the two creatures stood evenly matched, not taking any more damage.

While this was going on, their babysitter exited the kitchen with a tray full of cookies, and his Sliggoo carried a basket full of Pokéfood. Sebastion was a Gym Trainer who Raihan had trained personally, and today Raihan had asked for him to babysit Joshua and Lilac.

Sebastian had medium length black hair that ended at the bottom of his neck, and he wore thin frame black glasses. On his right hand was a blue and black glove that he always wore, even outside the gym challenges. Instead of his gym leader outfit, he wore a casual tee with a realistic, yet stylized Dragonite on the front and black pants. He had on a pair of plain white, fuzzy slippers.

"Oh, Eugene is still battling Leon? I thought it would be over by now." Sebastian said as he set the food on the mahogany table. Sliggoo nodded as he placed the basket on the table.

"Is Eugene really that good? His Pokémon seem to be able to fight back against Leon really well, but surely he can't win." Joshua observed as he sheepishly took a cookie from the tray. They had already cooled down, so he didn't need to worry about being burned. Dreepy floated over to the Pokéfood as it stretched it tongue out to collect the brown pellets. It gleefully scarfed the food down as it watched the bigger dragon fight.

"Hmmm, well he did defeat my rain team. And his fight against Raihan was truly a sight to behold. So, I would say that Eugene is a cut above the rest." Sebastian said as he sat next to Lilac, who was watching the TV intensely. She didn't even reach for a cookie as the Pokémon continued to trade blows.

"Well, it doesn't matter. Leon is going to win and that's that. He has to! He promised me that once I turned ten, he would wait for me to battle him with my team! As a champion!" Joshua said, his eyes gleaming with excitement. He had always dreamed of battling Leon in the finals of the Champion's Cup, with a powerful Pokémon by his side. He always thought that Duraludon would be a perfect partner for him to challenge Leon with. It would be just like his cousin's Duraludon, but even stronger! Joshua was interrupted from his fantasy by his babysitter's chuckling. "What's so funny?"

"Oh, it's just you remind me of my little cousin, Allen. He's slightly older than you and will be starting his adventure next summer. But, he has the same kind of fire you do. Every family reunion I go to he's always bragging about how he'll tame a Dratini and have it be his partner. After three years of training and finally graduating, he and his sisters are looking forward to taming their first Pokémon." Sebastian said.

"What do you mean when you say tame? Do you mean catch?" Joshua asked as he continued to eat the cookie.

"Oh, it's just a Zetsuboji, where he's from, tradition. Tamers don't capture Pokémon, but they do befriend them, not unlike Rangers. But, they befriend them permanently. Sort of like the old wives' tale about the Ranger who called Legendary Pokémon with signs."

"Why do they even have that tradition? It sounds like a waste of time if you can just capture Pokémon now. Why wait until the age of twelve or thirteen to go through some useless training? It seems counterproductive," Lilac chimed in as she continued to watch the stalemate.

"Well, it's mainly to keep that part of human culture alive. Zetsuboji is supposed to be a sanctuary region, and as such, Pokémon from every region are supposed to trickle in. Tamers actually play an important role in introducing new Pokémon from other regions. They also get to tame Legendary Pokémon." Sebastian said in a matter-of-fact tone of voice.

Joshua's jaw dropped as he turned to look at Sebastian who was petting his Sliggoo. Sliggoo gave a purr like "goo" sound as it followed his hand and nudged it down towards its back. A thin membrane of slime covered Sebastian's hand, but he didn't seem to mind.

"They get to use Legendary Pokémon? Wait, does that mean all Legendary Pokémon exist? They aren't myths like the Easter Buneary? Does this mean that during the Star Festival, Jirachi will actually grant wishes?!" questions flew out of Joshua mouth at this new piece of information. "Oh wow, now I want to be a Tamer just so I can become partners with a Legendary Pokémon!"

"But, if you do become a Tamer you'll have to pass a special test. Unlike being a Trainer, which only requires primary school education and a special afterschool program, being a Tamer requires going through the equivalent of second form in Zetsuboji." Sebastian said.

"If I'm allowed to befriend Legendary Pokémon, it seems worth the wait! When Raihan gets home, I'll ask him if I can go to Zetsuboji to train to be a Tamer!"

"But it's your birthday today! I would assume that Raihan got you a surprise for it. Perhaps he got you a very special Pokémon to journey with? Would you really be willing to delay the start of your journey just to be a Tamer?"

Joshua gave a smile at the thought of getting his first Pokémon, but he tried to hide it by shoving another cookie into his mouth.

"When you put it like that, no. And now, I kind of want my starter to be Charmander, just like Leon's. That way, I can have the best partner ever!" Joshua said as he turned around to watch the match. Both Pokémon were looking worn-out, and each trainer gave out one final order.

"Flamethrower!"

"Tri Attack!"

The combination of flames and the triple orbs of fire, lightning, and ice hit each other dead on and they combined into an explosion. Anticipation filled Joshua as the smoke blew across the open field. The young boy watched with trepidation as the dust began to settle and the battlefield became visible. Through the clearing smoke, Joshua could see that the two Pokémon laid on the field, fainted. With a surprised cry, Joshua bit down on his cookie in shock. The battled was now one on one! Charizard verses the last Pokémon Eugene had.

Who is it? If it's his Rillaboom, he should just give up. There's no way Rillaboom can beat Charizard. Joshua thought to himself as both trainers recalled their Pokémon.

With an arrogant smile, Eugen unhooked a Pokéball from his waist. Leon gave a carefree, yet excited smile as he unhooked his Pokéball. Both competitors threw their balls to the center, and when they hit the ground, a white light exploded from both. One formed into a Charizard, and another formed into a Greedent.

The crowd roared as they cheered on the two powerhouses that appeared on the field. Greedent was a lucky Pokémon for Eugene. He had befriended it on the second route of his journey, and the crowd have been able to watch it take down powerful foes throughout the gyms. Honestly, no one knew if Eugen could have made it this far without Greedent.

"Yeah, meet the queen of my life! She's big, she's bad, and she's ready to beat down any Charizard in her path! Give it up for the titan that rules the world, Squazzil!" Eugene yelled as he pointed forward. Greedent gave a combative squeak as it stared down the Charizard.

"Well, my partner is fired up as well! He is eager to finish this battle in a red-hot fiery show of spirit!" Leon said as he prepared to return his Charizard. With a low, pleased grumble, the dragon raised its wings proudly.

"Squazzil and Charizard, huh…? I guess we predicted that one, but to see it actually happening is something a bit… surreal. Charizard is super powerful, but that Greedent is no joke. I've seen her completely body Gym Leaders." Joshua observed as the two challengers stared each other down.

"Alright Charizard, this is the final curtain call! Let's give this impassioned battle everything we've got!" Leon yelled as he returned his Charizard. "I'll show you what Charizard can really do! It's Gigantamax time!"

In one hand, the Ultra Ball grew to the size of about a beach ball as Leon single handily threw the orb behind him. The ball dissipated and a smaller version of the Gigantamax Charizard appeared. Charizard's wings had turned into a fire and a stream of bright red flames came pouring out of its mouth like thick Whiscash's whiskers. Its belly was glowing a bright white and golden diamonds appeared on the bottom of its belly in a cluster. Its plantigrade stance had now become a digitigrade stance, and its horns had grown larger and began to spout fire. It stood straight up as it stared down at the tiny Greedent, who just gave a look of joyful defiance.

"Tear up the field with your burning-hot G-Max Wildfire!" Leon ordered. His Charizard's whole body began to glow as its fire wings began to flare out of control. Soon, the glowing became concentrated on its wing, and thrusting its wings forward, a fiery tornado erupted from them and hit Greedent dead on. The little Normal-Type put its tiny paws out in front of it and held onto the massive fire! The powerful tornado whipped around Greedent and pieces of its fur singed, but Squazzil would not yield. Soon, the tornado engulfed her and in an explosion of fire, hid the Greedent from view.

Joshua waited to see if Eugene's final Pokémon had survived the battle. Surely, no one could survive such a devastating attack. Especially not a Route 1 Pokémon. But, as the flames petered out, Greedent signature smile could be seen on its face as it panted from the force of the attack. At the bottom of the screen, an HP bar popped up and although the rodent was low on HP, it wasn't at half yet. In fact, it was still in the green, but just barely!

"Play your fancy tunes for the audience, why don'tca?! Belly Drum!" Eugene ordered. With a grin, Squazzil began to hit its belly with tremendous force. The war dance tune echoed through the stadium and the people in the stadium began to clap along. Chants of "Squazzil" echoed throughout the crowd as they stamped their feet and clapped their hands. Eugene was known for his variety, but also for his risky plays. Everyone knew that if he didn't play this carefully, he would lose. But, Eugene has never lost a battle yet.

As a red energy consumed Squazzil, the poor Pokémon appeared to be on the edge of collapse, and the HP bar showed that. It was barely a nub of red. It teetered and swooned, but it had enough energy to bring its tail in front of it and snatch a purple berry with nubs that it had stored earlier. Joshua knew which berry it had picked well and knew that Eugene had given the berry to her earlier. Squazzil gobbled down the Wiki Berry with ferocious speed. The HP bar popped up to being green, with only a little more than a quarter missing.

"Impossible! Eugene went for an extremely risky play! A Pokémon won't eat those kinds of berries unless it's a dire situation! This is because it can cause confusion to Pokémon who dislike the flavor. That alone usually makes Pokémon normally stay far away from it. A research paper that was recently published stated that there was a strong correlation with a Pokémon's health and its willingness to eat the berry. The scientist estimated that at around 25% or lower HP, the Pokémon will eat the berry and recover 33% HP. While this still needs to be peer reviewed, assuming this is a concrete theory, this plan would only work if Squazzil took less than 50% of its health, but more than 35%. That is about a 15% margin of error! A Sitrus Berry could have worked in this situation, and it's much more palatable for Squazzil than a Wiki Berry." the commentator explained.

Left over flames from the tornado singed some more of Greedent's health, but it wasn't enough to matter.

"Ummm, what does peer review mean?" Lilac asked.

"It just means that your peers look over your work and make sure that your work isn't flawed. Think of it like when you grade your classmates work when your teacher decides to have the kids swap their work." Sebastian explained.

"I thought HP was a contentious term in the biology community. Wasn't there dissent from some top professors at Celadon University? You know, Professor Oak did teach there at one point, so it has to be a good university." Joshua piped up.

"Joshua, peace. We'll learn about it when it is all sorted out, but for now, HP is the current accepted idea. Just because someone dissented doesn't mean that they're automatically right. People dissent on the nature of the move Metronome all the time. It doesn't make the current fact of how it works any different." Sebastian said.

While they were talking, Squazzil glared back at Charizard with defiance, and Eugene pointed her Pokéball at her. In her excitement, the cheeky critter squeaked and stuck out her tongue at Charizard. The giant dragon shook its massive head and gave its partner an exasperated look. Joshua snickered at Charizard's lighthearted personality. Even if it had grown to giant proportions, it was still the same Charizard.

Leon just gave Charizard a grin, almost amused at how touchy the giant Pokémon was being, but also, pitying the poor, annoyed creature. Crossing its arms, Charizard grumbled before turning his head towards the sky in an act of petty defiance.

The corners of Eugene's lips twitched as he returned his Greedent, and the Pokéball grew to an enormous size. With one finger, he twirled it like a basketball while holding his cap over his eyes with a cocky smile. Then, he tossed it into the air slightly to catch it with his palm and just casually tossed it over his shoulder.

As soon as Greedent appeared again, it began to grow bigger and bigger until it stared Charizard right in the eyes. The crowd roared and hooted as the two Pokémon finally got to show off. Joshua watched with eager eyes because he knew this would be a challenge for Charizard! But, it was one that Charizard would surely triumph in! Leon had never lost, and he surely wasn't going to lose to some nobody!

"Hmph, it seems like you're able to withstand my strongest attack. Your little Greedent is full of surprises. But, the fact you guessed how well your Pokémon could stand up to us within a 15% margin of error doesn't exactly make me cower in fear. Those flames around you will be your downfall and so will this! Let's go! G-Max Wildfire!" Leon ordered, and Charizard let loose another fiery tornado from its wings.

"Don't get too overconfident. This will be decided with one single blow! No one can stand up to Greedent and live to tell the tale!" Eugene exclaimed as his Greedent caught the tornado of fire again, and this time, it didn't even struggle to take the blow.

"I think I see Eugene's strategy. No matter what, Greedent would have survived. It knows Thunder Fang, so it was never reliant on Belly Drum working. From the very moment he gave Greedent the Wiki Berry, the fight was over when Greedent Dynamaxed." the announcer said.

Joshua gulped as he watched Greedent give a defiant smile, before whipping its tail back and forth. Was there really no way for Leon to win? There had to be a way… Leon could still win this, even if it looked bleak. Please don't let your first real loss be to someone who uses a beginner level Pokémon. Please Leon… Joshua pleaded internally. He wanted Leon to keep his promise. He wanted to battle Leon in the Minor League finals! Not some nobody who just showed up out of nowhere!

"Finish this once and for all! Max Strike!" Eugene ordered, and his Greedent gave a jolly squeal. Locking its forearms into its chest, its whole body began to glow as it raised its foot and stomped into the ground. The floor in the stadium began to crack, and directly beneath Charizard, the earth began to raise as yellow energy started to bubble up. With a panic look, Charizard tried to flap its wings to get away, but a bright white light exploded from below and engulfed it. In no time, the HP bar went from full to empty in a heartbeat.

Joshua sat there, his eyes glued to the telly as Charizard shrunk down to its normal size and fell forward, causing a plume dust to gather around the orange dragon. Joshua's heart began to sink as he watched Charizard fall. Get up! Get up! Please, just get up! Joshua begged and prayed. He wanted Charizard to rise like it usually did and beat that Greedent into a pulp! But, it never rose. Its eyes laid shut as the crowd grew hush. The referee walked over to Charizard, checking for telltale signs that the Pokémon was unable to battle. With a breath, the referee made his judgment.

"Charizard is unable to battle. The winner is the challenger 096, Eugene from Postwick!" the referee announced. Being flooded with all kinds of emotions, Joshua responded how a lot of kids did in stressful, new situations. He began to bawl his eyes out.

Additional tidbit: '96' can be read as 'ku-ro', which means 'black'. Eugene thinks of himself as a dark horse destined to come from behind and win, which is why he chose the number, in universe.