Special thanks to the folks on pa-atreon for making this possible. Now without further ado let's get into it.

Koga's tests were simple things. He didn't ask to battle the Snorlax or anything. He just had me give the Snorlax orders and then wrote things on his clipboard. I was elated when I released the Snorlax and it decided to honour our unspoken deal. It obeyed every order I gave. It was amazing.

After almost half an hour of tests, Koga finally said a sentence longer than a single word, "That will be all, Mr. Oak. From what I've seen, you have passable control of the Snorlax. You will be permitted to keep it." The sigh of relief I let out was so loud, that I was sure he heard it. He said nothing though and turned around to leave.

As he walked away, I noticed something. Snorlax hadn't taken its eyes off the gym leader. I looked at him and noticed something. He had a rice ball poking out of his costume. Snorlax and I moved at the same time. He tried to rush toward the gym leader, but I was in his way in seconds. Fortunately for my continued survival, he stopped when he saw me. "I'll get you food, buddy. Lots of food. Let him go" I whispered while rubbing his stomach and covering as much of his body as I could in a hug.

I turned around to look at Koga again and I found him gone. Fucking ninja bastard. I whispered more assurances to Snorlax before I returned him to his ball. Nurse Joy was waiting for me and had already procured a Snorlax meal for me. The league had created special meals for Snorlax. They were incredibly calorically dense and were surprisingly cheap. The reasoning was that a starved Snorlax was a danger to society, so why shouldn't society (taxes) pay to prevent that?

I released Snorlax into the empty dining room and watched him demolish the three 'rice balls' laid in front of him. Watching him be satisfied after only the third one had me thanking Arceus for weird pokemon world science. No smartphones or self-driving cars yet, but we had access to psychics defying food and equipment.

After his meal, Snorlax had to watch the rest of us eat. Our food took a comparatively longer period to prepare. I finished my meal and started discussing names with him. At least, I tried to. He started snoring after my third suggestion.

Now, I had to focus on my journey. We were back right where we started. Ino could teleport us back to the Snorlax's former clearing but I felt like we could spend some more time resting. Ino pointed out that we'd been doing a lot of resting lately. I agreed with her but I couldn't bring myself to push the team so hard in training when our time together was so limited. I'd lost Quicksilver and I didn't regret not training more. I regretted not spending more time with him simply lazing about.

We spent the rest of the day at the Centre. We just watched tv in the waiting room and ignored all the curious passers-by. Some trainers walked up to me to request to battle but I refused. I'd normally be interested in getting battles when I could but I wasn't feeling up to it.

After a hearty dinner, the team and I went to bed. We were up and at it again the next morning. Today, we'd make more progress on our journey. Ino teleported me back to the clearing after I picked up the rest of Snorlax's meals from Nurse Joy. I released the rest of the team, and we started walking.

"Gai, Lee, Bo Rai Cho?" More shakes of his head. Snorlax had to be the pickiest of my teammates when it came to choosing a nickname. If not for my conviction to give all my pokemon nicknames, I'd have given up on it already. I was fresh out of ideas. I'd even gone so far as to offer names that had no similarities to him.

"Po" It came like a bolt of lightning. He gave me a deadpan look and I slumped in disappointment.

I ignored the looks of amusement the team kept sending me and I started planning a training regimen for Snorlax. I'd leave his nickname for later. According to the Pokedex, he knew 'Tackle, rest, mega punch, hyperbeam, and snore'.

I'd gotten a good look at his battling style the other day, so I knew what I was in for. His move spread wasn't impressive but it wasn't bad. The first order of business was having Ino teach him protect whenever we stopped for the day.

I ended up reconsidering my plans. Instead of going straight to Celadon, we would stop over at Vermillion to challenge Surge. I'd been avoiding challenging him for a while but adding Snorlax to my team meant I now had seven pokemon, so I didn't have to risk Kisame against an electric-type master with a penchant for brutality.

I took a deep breath before walking into the stadium. This would be my fifth badge challenge. Hopefully, I'd be walking out of here with a full team, another badge under my belt, and my head held high.

Surge marched out in a steady, commanding gait. He was just Surge right now. The famed lieutenant title was nowhere to be found, which admittedly gave me shivers. To think that a war might be right around the corner.

The referee began to explain the rules. Surge's fourth badge and up challenges were always different. He liked to create as much chaos as possible by introducing new elements and surprises.

I wasn't surprised that my battle also had a surprise. Double battles. That's what Surge wanted. Three two-on-two battles. Double battles weren't common in Kanto. There was a good reason for that though. They made things exponentially more complicated.

A trainer would have to consider exponentially more factors. My pokemon might end up hitting each other with their moves, my focus would be split in trying to order two pokemon at the same time. I recognised these problems and stopped fighting the smile that had been threatening to build on my face.

If I were any other trainer, this would be devastating. But I wasn't. I felt no fear as our eyes met. My pokemon were trained. Our teamwork was beyond anything else. I wouldn't be giving him the easy time he probably expected.

Surge did me the favour of releasing his pokemon first. His pokeballs opened up and released two balls on the arena. No. Not balls. Voltorbs. Interesting start to the match at least. I sent out Snorlax and Ino.

I had no idea what kind of strategy he was aiming for but Snorlax and Ino could deal with anything. "Formation 1" He barked out. 'Loud' was the only thought that went through my head.

The Voltorbs began to use something I suspected was roll-out to approach my pokemon at breakneck speeds. I had Ino prepare to dodge and Snorlax already stretched out his hands in a clear sign he was about to use protect.

The next thing that happened had me seeing red. The Voltorbs were within feet of my pokemon when I noticed the light that had been building up around them as they approached my pokemon. That's the light of a roll-out, I thought. 'Get out of there' I screamed into their heads.

The light intensified and both of the Voltorbs exploded as one. Explosion. I looked up at Surge's smug smile with a snarl on my face. What the fuck was that? That was sadistic. To sacrifice his own pokemon like that. The dust began to clear and I resisted the urge to burst into laughter.

Surge's plan failed. Ino had been fast enough to teleport next to Snorlax and he'd also been able to use protect to cover the both of them. The green hexagonal shield had loads of cracks on its surface, but it was intact, and my pokemon were safe.

Surge didn't even react to his failed plan. He just returned the unconscious Voltorbs and sent out a Raichu and an Ampharos. No, Not a Raichu. The Raichu. The scars around its tail showed it for what it was. This wasn't just a random Raichu. This was the one he'd completed his journey with. His starter.

The thing moved like lightning and in the next second, its form was buried in Snorlax's midsection. Wisps of green falling to the ground were all that remained of the protect.

I started screaming orders in their minds. Ino teleported away while Snorlax hurled the Raichu away. The rat pokemon just twisted in the air and landed on its tail. Fucking cheat. Ino sent a dazzling gleam to the stationary Ampharos, and Snorlax took a few breaths to steady himself. The Ampharos dodged and the Raichu appeared in front of Snorlax within a blink.

This time, he was ready. The rat's Iron tail clanged off a protect. A protect that it used as a springboard to retreat. Ino's fight with the Ampharos was going slightly better. It dodged all her attacks by the barest of margins but she'd hem it in eventually. I had faith in that.

At least, I had faith until the Raichu changed targets. Ino was barely able to teleport out of the way of its first charge. "Hyper beam" I commanded Snorlax. Let's kick this up a notch. He sent an enormous blast of white that the Ampharos managed to run around. It turned and rushed at Snorlax with the glow of quick attack surrounding him. I turned to Ino's fight and found her barely keeping ahead of the Raichu. She was only keeping ahead of it because of the knowledge I'd passed on. It was a gamble, but this Raichu was also as bad at making sudden turns as the one in the anime.

She couldn't teleport around forever though. She was no Alakazam. The Ampharos collided headfirst with Snorlax's mega punch. My genius normal type had lured it in by pretending to be slower than he was and made the sheep pay for its mistake.

I wasn't surprised to note that it was already unconscious. I turned back to Ino's battle. She was being run ragged. I had her teleport behind Snorlax to rest for a bit. Surge's voice boomed out again, "Thunder".

Fuck. Of course, this pokemon would know that move. I watched it gather energy and then a bolt of lightning that sent spots dancing in my vision flew across the arena. The bolt tore through the protect that Snorlax had set up and hit my pokemon with devastating effect.

The move hit and he was barely able to keep standing. The Raichu sought to rectify that and blinked across the arena with an Iron tail. It proved all for naught when his move hit the ground. Ino had teleported away with Snorlax in tow. 'Snorlax, use rest. Ino distract the Raichu.' I spoke my next orders into their minds.

Ino teleported away from Snorlax and began to fire moves at the Raichu to distract it. It didn't take the bait and continued towards Snorlax unimpeded. Ino teleported to Snorlax and then teleported away with him in tow. Her exhaustion became even more apparent after that last teleport. She'd been teleporting around the arena since the battle began and taking Snorlax along with her was wearing on her even more.

I reconsidered my plans and had Ino teleport from Snorlax again. She tried firing moves to distract the Raichu again and as the Raichu was about to hit Snorlax, he was hit with a hyper beam. Sleep talk. One of the moves that Snorlax had managed to learn in the last month.

Somehow, the Raichu still wasn't knocked out. It used protect at the very last second. It was rattled, but not unconscious. It was knocked back and Ino managed to get it with a psybeam the moment it landed. The rat still managed to power through and rush towards Ino in another blink.

It was too fast for me or Ino to do anything in her state. I grudgingly returned her after the Raichu knocked her out. Snorlax was now helpless in the arena. I honestly had no idea how to wake him up from rest. We never got that far in our training and nothing I'd ever tried even worked.

The good part is that whenever the Raichu approached he'd get warded off by either hyper beam or mega punch. Grabbing that TM was really a wise choice.

Surge's booming voice rang out again. Another gigantic bolt of lightning arced towards Snorlax and I just held my breath and watched. The move hit and woke Snorlax from his nap. He got up from his sitting position and looked like crap. At this point, Raichu didn't have to go anything more. He'd slump into unconsciousness in a minute or less.

The Raichu wasn't leaving it up to chance though. He ran towards Snorlax at a noticeably slower pace. His Iron tail hit Snorlax right on his head but Snorlax somehow managed to counter with a mega punch straight to the Raichu's midsection.

A double knock-out. I returned Snorlax with a smile. He'd performed marvelously. Surge's smile matched mine. "It's been a while since Raichu got a fight like that. He'll be insufferable after this"

His next pokemon were a Magneton and an Electabuzz. I sent out Broly and Igneel. The arena had been ripped apart between the Voltorb's explosion and Snorlax's hyper beams. Plenty of material for a terrakinetic like Broly to dominate a battle with and Igneel was the only flyer on my team so he'd work well with Broly in that. My breath still hitched at that thought. Time had done its job to heal the bleeding wound, but the scars still itched every now and then

The electabuzz started things off by running at Broly over the uneven ground. It covered a grand total of three steps before boulders from across the arena started flying at it. It was stuck trying to dodge them and destroying the ones he couldn't dodge.

The Magneton was flying around trying to avoid Igneel's barrage of fireballs. 'sunny day', I ordered. Let's turn things up even more. Since this was the last battle, I had no need to try to conserve Igneel's power.

After setting up the move, Igneel's fireballs became even larger and started pursuing the Magneton like heat-seeking missiles. Broly and Igneel were a deadly team. The Electabuzz had tried firing some long-range moves at Broly but they were constantly deflected by boulders that rose from the shattered arena.

The battle was more like a massacre. Eventually, it all came to a head when the Electabuzz became too slow to dodge the attacks that kept coming and ended up buried in a pile of boulders. Surge returned his pokemon and his Magneton when he saw it being hemmed in by Igneel's attacks.

The referee announced my victory and my smile could blind the sun. I allowed Broly and Igneel to revel in their victory for a few minutes before I returned them. Surge came up to me as I left the booth. From up close, I was startled by how young he looked. He couldn't be up to ten years older than me.

"That was a good battle. Really got my blood pumping. Your pokemon are monsters. Especially that Snorlax of yours." His voice was only a few decibels quieter than it was when he was screaming across the arena.

"Thank you. Your Raichu was splendid"

"Of course, he was. He's my starter after all. I knew we'd slacked off a bit in our training but to lose against a fifth badge challenger? He'll be insufferable"

My pride smarted a bit at his statement, but he wasn't wrong. Surge's Raichu at its prime would have beaten Snorlax. "Don't look like that. You're doing well for your age. Definitely better than I did. Here's your thunder badge. I also added a TM for thunderbolt. Consider it an incentive to get yourself an electric type of your own" He finished off his statement with a wink and turned around to leave.

I left the gym in high spirits. My first destination was the pokemon centre. I'd drop off Ino and Snorlax to heal and look for people to battle against. Vermillion was filled with trainers and that Giga Impact Tm was calling my name.

Twelve battles. That's how long it took for trainers to stop challenging me. The combination of Kisame, Broly, and Igneel was sufficient to win almost every battle. I only had to change that composition when I sent out Hashirama to deal with a troublesome Hypno.

I went to bed feeling exhausted. I wasn't the one that had done the actual battling but thinking up tactics and giving orders through my aura was tiring in its own way.

I woke up the next morning to find that the league had chosen to reward me with 12,000 pokedollars for my challenge. I guess managing to beat Surge's starter was worth the big bucks. With my finances well in order, I did what any respectable teenager would. I went on a shopping spree.

With over 20,000 pokes in the bank, I was able to grab the TMs for both Giga Impact and Blizzard. After some thinking, I added the TM for Metronome. Maybe when I had some more money, I'd come back for the Blast burn TM at a later date. Kisame had been progressing well with her training and a powerful Ice type move would only make her more powerful.

I finished ringing up my purchases and then I heard a sound I hadn't expected to hear in my journey. The raid siren. It was loud. And the red lights flashing across the city's skyline told me this was the worse kind of emergency. Wild pokemon swarm. If it was only one or two then the light would be yellow.

I opened my Pokedex and wasn't surprised to see a message from the league.

"Trainer, the city you are in is about to be attacked by wild pokemon. Report to the nearest Gym leader or the ranger station to receive your assignment. Be cautioned that failure to do your duty to your country will result in the suspension of your pokemon license, and a permanent mark on your record." I read out loud. A generic message from the league. A second message then came in. This one just said to meet at the west entrance to the city.

I had Ino teleport me to my room in the centre where I dropped off my purchases and then joined the nearest band of trainers heading to the meeting point. We got there and I looked around in amazement. I hadn't ever been to this part of the city before. It was filled with electricity power stations. I'd known that Vermillion was the power-generating center of Kanto, but looking around me allowed that fact to truly sink in.

We got to the muster point and were grouped up according to abilities and specialization. As a trainer with 5 badges and a fully evolved fire-type, I was sent straight to the front line. The need for fire types told me this attack had to involve steel-type pokemon, and the fact that the attack was aimed at the power stations told me exactly what steel type it was.

I introduced myself to the rest of Squad B, that's what my squad on the front line was called. We were right behind Surge and the rangers. My teammates were a girl named Jessica, fire type specialist with six badges, Derrick, a smiling blond with eight badges, and Jon. Jon was the only one I'd heard of before today. He made it to the finals in last year's conference. He was the one in charge of the squad.

"Send out your pokemon" Jon spoke suddenly, interrupting Derrick halfway through one of his latest jokes. I looked around and couldn't see anything, but I sent out Igneel, Broly, and Ino either way. Jessica sent out a Growlithe that made a part of my chest clench. Her other pokemon were a brawly magmar, an enormous typhlosion, a rapidash, and a blaziken. Two starter pokemon? I whistled in appreciation.

Derrick sent out a Rhydon, a Tangrowth, and a Ninetails. That last one had the rest of us looking at him in shock. I'd dismissed him as a trainer when he kept making those horrible jokes. An idiot, I'd thought. That Ninetails had me re-evaluating him. In this world, there was no public information on evolution stones so if he had one then he was either a genius or just very lucky. He might have even caught it in its evolved form which was a scary thought. Wild Ninetails weren't the friendliest of pokemon, and that was putting it nicely.

Jon only sent out a single pokemon. Not to say that the pokemon was any less impressive. The roar the Dragonite let out when it came on the field served as a firm reminder of who its trainer was. A scion of the Blackthorn clan. His lack of other teammates told me why he'd been relegated to this squad. He'd lost most of his team at the conference. A final bout against a bloodthirsty dark-type trainer.

We waited for only a few minutes before we saw them. A swarm of magnemites with a few magnetons scattered about. Surge's Raichu didn't wait for them to approach and appeared in their midst. It put two magnemites down with a fire punch and moved on in a blur. That set things off and the rest of the first line sent out their pokemon to battle. As squad B, we had our pokemon hang back and only went after the members of the swarm that managed to bypass the first line.

The size of the swarm made me decide against using sunny day. We'd be here for hours and having my only fire type exhaust himself in the first hour would be the height of stupidity. The good news was that Igneel finally had his new move ready for battle. The first few pokemon made their way past the line and it was time to move.

"Katon: Gosenka no jutsu" I shouted to the skies above. Igneel let out a roar and sent out gigantic balls of fire that curved around all obstructions to hit their targets. I ignored the looks from the rest of the squad and rubbed my head in embarrassment. That was so cringe. The pokemon kept coming though, so they couldn't focus on me for long and had to give orders to their own pokemon.

I had Ino connect me to Igneel and then started issuing rapid orders. The chaos of the battlefield, for the west entrance, had become nothing less, had me balking. Ino's stabilising presence was the only thing preventing me from getting lost in the sea of events. Everywhere I looked, there was a battle going on. Attacks flying left and right. I saw Jon's Dragonite barrel through a magnemite like its steel body was made of paper. I watched as Derrick's Ninetails crushed approaching Magnetons to pieces with its psychic power. I watched Jessica's Blaziken use fire punches to deadly effect. Where it went, dead Magnemite dropped to the ground.

I turned to focus on my team and saw Broly using his terrakinesis to pick off any attackers that flew too close to the ground. Igneel was in the skies, using white hot fireballs to put down any attackers that flew too high. Their teamwork impressed me once again. As the number of attackers kept increasing, I sent out Snorlax. Ino's connection expanded to include him and I had him use a hyperbeam to weed out some of the approaching swarm.

After that, he waddled into the fray and punched through any of the electric-type attackers that made the mistake of getting too close. An hour in and the pokemon around me started to flag. Jessica had to return her Growlithe when it was swarmed by a group of magnemites. Her Rapidash had also been knocked out. Derrick had replaced his Rhydon with an Ampharos.

Jon's Dragonite was still going strong. Its sky dominance had saved Igneel from a couple of close calls. My dragon's pride was hurt a bit. Watching another pokemon flex on him like that would probably add some fire to his belly.

Broly and Snorlax had found themselves in the chaos and had teamed up. Broly was picking off the magnetic field pokemon from a long distance while Snorlax was taking down the ones that got too close.

My focus on my team was distracted by a loud scream. I looked forward and saw Surge on his knees. A few meters in front of him, I saw something that made my heart go still. Surge's Raichu, an elite-level pokemon lay dead. The three magnezone around his still form gave me a good guess as to what had happened. Fuck. Surge remained on the floor staring at Raichu's body. It felt like the world slowed down as I watched the magnemites close to him begin getting close. He'd strayed away from the rangers with his team and with the centerpiece of that team dead on the floor, we were forced to watch what happened next in slow motion.

A bolt of lightning, pitifully small by most metrics arced up from a Magnemite and hit Surge right in the chest. I didn't need to look any further to know he was dead. I heard the screams of rage from his gym trainers on the second line. Fuck. A gym leader, one of Kanto's pillars, dead. This would have far-reaching consequences. Consequences that didn't matter at this moment.

The ordered line of trainers devolved into chaos as Surge's gym trainers surged forwards with their pokemon to avenge their fallen commander. Their breach of protocol fucked things up even more. I sent out Hashirama to help Broly and Snorlax who were about to be surrounded.

Ino remained beside me for my own protection. She'd had to move once or twice to put down some attackers that got too close for comfort. With the line gone, the magnetic field pokemon got even more frantic in their attacks. I sent out Kenpachi to take down a swarm that was threatening to overwhelm Jessica's Typhlosion.

The battle kept going and I leaned on Ino to spread my attention to all my teammates in varied locations. Igneel had started to flag in the sky and I had him use sunny day to get one last burst of power before I'd eventually send him back to his ball.

His fireballs became even hotter and larger. I watched one of them hit a magnezone and send it straight to the ground. I tossed a Pokeball at that one. I didn't have any electric or steel type pokemon on my team and a fully evolved one was too good to pass up.

I returned Igneel after a few minutes when even the burst of power from the sunny day couldn't keep him up anymore. I returned Broly as well. He wasn't as exhausted as Igneel was but there was no need to risk him making a mistake and losing his life, especially when the attackers were finally being overwhelmed.

It took another hour for the last stragglers to be driven off and the attack to be officially over. I returned my tired teammates and made my way back to the muster point. The Ranger captain thanked us for our service and sent us off. He also said the league would be disbursing rewards for answering the call.

I started the long walk back to the pokemon centre when I felt a hand around my shoulder. I turned in shock to see Derick standing by my side. "Hey Oak. The rest of us are going out for drinks, wanna come with?" I didn't. I honestly didn't. I felt so tired. A look at his expectant face had me agreeing to go with him. Fuck.

A/N; Thanks for reading. We're already halfway through with chapter 31 on the pa-atreon page. Feel free to join me there if you can. Same username as up here. The link's on my profile.

This one wrote itself to be honest. Didn't expect Surge to die but it just seemed right.

Name; Donnell Oak

Age; 15

Hometown; Pallet

Next of Kin; Samuel Oak

Account balance; 5000 Pokedollars

Pokemon.

· Kleavor (Nickname; Broly)- Male. Bug/Rock type

Moves; Signal beam, agility, fury cutter, quick attack, slash, swords dance, protect, stone axe, ancient power, hyper beam, and rock throw.

· Milotic (Nickname; Kisame)- Female. Water type.

Moves; Brine, ice beam, hydro pump, dragon breath, dragon pulse, water gun, protect, recover, hyper beam, iron tail, and bubble beam.

· Charizard (Nickname; Igneel)- Male. Fire-type.

Moves; Ember, dragon breath, scratch, bite, growl, metal claw, flame thrower, protect, sunny day, solar beam, hyper beam, and dragon rush.

· Pupitar (Nickname; Kenpachi)- Male. Rock/Ground type.

Moves; Tackle, rock throw, bite, crunch, leer, hyper beam and protect.

· Gardevoir (Nickname; Ino)- Female. Psychic/Fairy type.

Moves; Teleport, psybeam, psychic, confusion, hypnosis, dazzling gleam, moon blast, and recover.

Trevenant (Nickname; Hashirama)- Male. Ghost/Grass type.

Moves; Sunny day, solar beam, protect, hyper beam, wood hammer, shadow claw, and destiny bond.