Chapter 1
On top of a mountain, in the shadow of the ruins of Castle "N", a great crowd had gathered. They flocked to the mountain to watch two sisters fight for the title of Pokemon League champion. For years the title had almost exclusively moved back and forth between the two. The younger sister, Ruby, looked determined. In her mind, victory was a certainty. The cheap tricks her sister had devised wouldn't work on her this time. Her sister had taught her Haxorus guillotine, much to Ruby's chagrin. She wouldn't be taken for a ride this time. No, Ruby had a plan. "I won't hold back, Yang! You sure you wanna do this?" She shouted
"Oh? That's funny. I was about to ask you the same thing!" Yang readied a Pokeball and when she threw it the crowd cheered. The feeling in the stadium was like a thunderstorm: hot, humid, and brimming with electricity. As She watched the ball fly, Ruby's mind began to wander. She recalled the first time she and Yang ever battled. It was years ago, when neither of them were no more than ten, when their starter pokemon, Ember Celica and Crescent Rose, first clashed. At the time, Ember Celica was just an Axew; Crescent Rose naught but a Budew. They would spend a considerable amount of time sparring over the years. Ruby remembered those times well, she could recall each battle with razor sharp clarity. She didn't forget even a single moment of it, the growth of Ember Celica, the unprecedented triumphs of Crescent Rose, and all the friends they made along the way. Ruby knew, in that moment, that she was ready. A massive haxorus, at least a foot taller than the average specimen, emerged from Yang's Pokeball. "Come on Out! Ember Celica!" When the crowd heard her declare the monster's name they cheered and shouted. They broke into rhythmic chants,
"Y-A! N-G! Y-A! N-G!" they chanted. Their excitement was to be expected. Yang was the favored champion of the region and her time at the top of the League was savored by her fans and, rest assured, Yang had plenty of fans. The warmth of the crowd swept over Ruby like a wave of slush, she shivered against the chill.
"Go! Crescent Rose! Plant your roots deep and don't give your opponent an inch!" Ruby threw her Pokeball and a Roserade flew out from it in a flash of light. The small rose creature's flowery hands were violet and deep shades of indigo. It moved those petaled appendages in front of its face in a coy motion. It had been dueling with Yang's Haxorus for 7 years and was confident in its ability to win. Roserade looked back and Ruby gave it a thumbs up. Roserade, not having thumbs, raised one of its flowery limbs and extended a thistled vine from its blossoms. Roserade, not having the dexterity to bend the vine into a shape that would resemble a thumbs up, simply decided to raise the thorny vine higher. After it had extended the vine several feet Ruby politely asked it to put its tendrils away.
"Celica! Use Guillotine!" Yang commanded. Haxorus lunged toward Roserade and great, flaming blades grew out from its tusks. The blades clamped down on Roserade, but then disappeared almost instantly. Roserade was unphased and poked Haxorus in the eye with the tip of its pointy foot. The dragon screamed in pain as dirt from Roserade's foot polluted its eye. It looked like Haxorus would begin to cry at any moment. "What? Hey wait a minute! Hold on, that's not fair. You can't just aim for the eyes like that!" Yang complained
"Who decided that?" Ruby replied, commanding roserade to do it again. Rest assured, Roserade did do it again. Leaping several feet into the air, the monstrous plant lunged at Haxorus and poked its right eye yet again, but this time it used one of the thorny tentacles hidden beneath the flowers on its hands rather than its feet. Though, perhaps it wasn't completely accurate to call the flowers on the ends of Roserade's limbs hands. Though the flowers could conceivably manipulate tools through the use of the vines that sprang from them, it wouldn't be accurate to call them hands. Strictly speaking, Roserade had no thumbs, which are the defining characteristic of a hand. It would be like calling Bulbasaur's bulb a hand because of the prehensile vines that protruded from it. That wouldn't make any sense. Though, it should be noted that Roserades differed from Bulbasaurs in a few key details. The First of which being the fact that roserade stood on two legs therefore the joints in the middle of its forelimbs must, by necessity, be referred to as elbows, not knees. If something has elbows then it necessarily must have wrists as well. And what attaches to wrists? Hands! Plain and simple.
"Celica!" Yang called out to her dragon and raised its Pokeball to try and withdraw it.
"Not so fast," Ruby raised her hand, "Crescent Rose… finish it with DOUBLE-EDGE!" Crescent Rose leaped far into the sky, such that it became silhouetted against the sun's light. Then, it came crashing down, kicking Haxorus with both of its legs. The assault didn't stop there. Roserade continued the attack. It kicked, slapped, and scratched. It threw everything it had at Haxorus. Each blow left the dragon stunned and reeling back in pain. Whips, and kicks, and scratches ad infinitum. Yang tried to withdraw it, but each time Crescent Rose crashed into Haxorus it would push it several feet away and make the beam from Yang's pokeball fail to connect.
Though each blow damaged Roserade as well, it fought ferociously. It was over almost as fast as it started. With one final blow, roserade brought down the dragon. Yang recalled Haxorus and took a moment to think about who to send out next. "It's really rare to see you thinking about what to do for so long, Yang," Ruby said, stretching with her Roserade in preparation for whatever Yang had in store for her.
"Believe it or not, I have a brain too, Ruby…" Yang tapped her pointer finger to her forehead to emphasize the brain in question.
"That's not what I meant!"
"I know, It's just… like wow. Double-edge? Really?" Yang pondered, "You're my sister and I love you, but you're taking a very weird approach to this."
"It can't be that bad of an option if Roserade still isn't knocked out," Ruby chided as she wrapped up her stretches.
"That's one way to look at it," Yang threw out another Pokeball, "Let's finish this! Come on out, Blaziken!" It emerged from the Pokeball with its fists raised and ready to fight. The flames around its wrists were a bright and blazing shade of yellow that would occasionally spark with flecks of iridescent white fire. From the creature's neck hung a gold chain and from the chain hung a medallion. Within the medallion was a stone of three colors: gray, red, and black. "Alright, Blaze, it's time to push past our limits. Burn down every boundary that's held you back! Move past the world of logic and start living like a falling star! Mega Evolve!" Yang struck a pose and so did her Blaziken. The stone on Blaziken's medallion and the stone Yang's bracelet began to glow with a golden light. The Battlefield began to feel like a crucible and people in the stadium were sweating. The heat kicked up a wild wind which blew outward from Yang and her Blaziken. Some of the people in the crowd were picked up by this wind and carried off from the arena. Yang's eyes glowed and Blaziken began to change.
"Oh no! I won't let you!" Ruby protested, "Roserade-"
"Too late!" Yang stomped and Blaziken jumped forward. It grabbed Roserade and ignited the flames on its wrists even further. They stretched out for several yards, those wild trails of fire. The trails eventually became like the emissions of a rocket launch. The smoke and ash was oppressive. One could hardly see anything. Though once it cleared only one pokemon was standing, Blaziken. Ruby recalled Roserade and sent out her rotom,
"Take him out, Sparky!" She ordered it to use CHARGE and so it did. Rotom's charge was particularly potent so long arcs of blue lightning began to well up from the air and strike it. It simply absorbed the energy however, "Now! It's time, use DISCHARGE!" Rotom shot out massive bolts of lightning in every direction. Blaziken tried to dodge but the electricity still caught it in the end. Ruby ordered Rotom to repeat the same tactic. It would charge up its power and release another volley of electricity. This worked to keep Yang's Blaziken at bay for a time, but the two soon got wise to Ruby's gimmicks.
"Dodge it and punch him," Yang snapped her fingers and a few sparks flew out from the tips of them. Although Rotom tried to unleash another web of viscous lightning at Blaziken, it somehow managed to dodge the lightning. Yang's Blaziken had always been fast, but this was unheard of. Blaziken struck Rotom with a fist full of fire. The explosion which resulted from the punch was quite large and at its epicenter lay Rotom, unconscious. Ruby recalled it to its Pokeball and sent out her Octillery, "Go, Howitzer!"
"A bad matchup for me. I guess I'll just have to burn down the concept of weaknesses. How does that sound, Blaze?" Yang asked and Blaziken roared in agreement. The crowd was absolutely inconsolable, a wreck of fervor. They were shouting, cheering, crying, and dancing. Pushed forward by the cacophonous fanfare, Yang ordered Blaziken to use FIRE PUNCH.
"Use octazooka, Howitzer! Don't give up!" Ruby pleaded. The inky projectile launched by octazooka was immediately evaporated by the heat of FIRE PUNCH. Blaziken then lunged forward and smacked Octillery with a fist of bright yellow fire. Ruby recalled him with her head held low. She was down to her last pokemon and, in all honesty, she had never expected the fight to be so tough. She barely even made a dent in Yang's team. It was time for Ruby to send out her final pokemon. "Scizor! It's you! You're our last hope." She declared, throwing the ball. Scizor emerged and did not seem surprised to see Blaziken standing in a field of fire surrounded by ash. Ruby's Scizor had been dueling with Yang's Blazike for almost as long as her Roserade had known Ember Celica. It was used to it by now and it knew what was coming. Ruby, likewise, knew how this would all end. Even still, she was determined to try. No one could fault her for trying. Quitting though was another story. Every quitter had an endless list of flaws, chief among them being their aversion to fighting for what they wanted. "Scizor, cleave true…" Ruby raised her hands and a gem on her bracelet began to glow, "Cut them all down! Mega-"
"FIRE PUNCH!" Yang commanded and Blaziken followed. Before Ruby could even call upon the power of mega evolution, Scizor had already fainted. Blaziken was simply too fast. It was able to attack Scizor first, not letting it make even a single move. With that Ruby was out of pokemon and the title of Unova League champion rested firmly in the hands of her sister, Yang Xiao-Long. The sound in the stadium was deafening as the crowd cheered her name. They waved bright yellow banners with her insignia on it, a heart swathed in fire.
Ruby looked around and, to her dismay, no banners flew for her. There were no complaints from disgruntled fans of the younger sister, no one shouting her name, and no admirers to paint themselves red in solidarity with her. Ruby was a lone rose petal burning in an ocean of gold, the anguish of it all was something that only she could deal with. For years, she and Yang had fought over the title of Pokemon League Champion. In the times when Ruby won and reigned as champion, her supporters were few and far between. The general public regarded her as a heel of sorts, seeing her time as Champion as an aberration from the right and proper norm of things. Yang was the golden child with hair plucked from dawn's light. She was strong, and beautiful, and kind, and the people loved her for it. Ruby loved her sister dearly as well. However, it was in times like these, times when found herself wilting and dying in the heat of her sister's light, that she felt true despair. "Hey!" Yang ran across the arena and hugged her, "You did amazing! I didn't think I would have use mega evolution so early in the fight, but you kind of put me in a corner there."
Ruby looked confused, "What do you mean I did good? I barely got past one of your pokemon,"
"That's more than most people could manage," Yang patted her sister on the back and her Blaziken gave Ruby a pat on the head as well. "What do you have planned after this?" She asked
"I don't know… probably more training. If I could get the viscosity of Octazooka up a little higher then maybe it'll be harder to evaporate it with fire attacks. That really blew me away when it happened. I think-" Ruby would have rattled on about that for a while, but Yang, estutely, interrupted her.
"No, no, no you can't spend all day training after a big battle like this one. There's gonna be a fireworks show later tonight to celebrate the conclusion of this year's tournament and you're coming with me,"
"What?" Ruby blinked, confused. Yang clasped her sister's hand in hers and raised both of them in the air. At the sight of that, two machamps in the stands began ringing a massive bell. The match was finally over and the crowd cheered one last time. One thing was for certain, if Ruby absolutely had to have a rival, she was glad that it was her Yang.