Her boat arrived at Slateport City, her lungs still full of salty sea air, her sea legs uncertain as she stumbled off the boat and fell to the ground.
She was fourteen years old and as pale as pale could be, but the first thing anyone would notice about her were her massive black death-metal boots with black spikes. She wore a black skirt and a black shirt emblazoned with blue flames, over which she wore a blue jacket emblazoned with black flames and metal-spiked shoulderpads. She had a cheerful face with bright purple eyes while the front of her head bore a short spiked fringe of electric blue hair, the back of her hair had been tied into one massive, thick, and wavy knee-length ponytail bound at the base to keep it in one long tail-like bunch. She dressed like a Rocker and acted like a cheery ditz to hide the keen mind of a Scientist!
But after four long years of battling trainers and travelling around her home region, she realized the place was far too tough for her. Despite all those years spent training and battling from the age of nine onwards, she'd only managed to get three badges in the tiny, hardcore, brutally harsh and technologically advanced region of Zetai.
And so, she had decided to take a break and something new. A self-imposed challenge, a challenge to herself imposed by herself. She needed to see if the problem was her region... Or her.
She would try a fresh start in a new region, and take on as many Gyms as she could in just a single month.
Hoenn. Hoenn was her new area of operations. If she couldn't get four badges in Hoenn by the end of the month...
She would have to give up on being a Pokemon trainer forever!
She wouldn't let that happen. She had to do this, she had to win! She had to prove to herself that she had a future as a Pokemon trainer!
She checked the map on her Poketch, She was in Slateport, and this town didn't have a Gym, just an ocean museum and a big marketplace. She really wanted to check those two things out, but she had to focus on her mission. She knew she had to go north to Mauville and take on Wattson. With the Pokemon she carried right now, he would be the easiest. Once his badge was hers, she had to take a right to Fortree and get the badge that would let her winged Pokemon use Fly in this region, carrying her wherever she wanted to go. After that, she could go anywhere she wanted and take on any gym in any order.
A small boy in shorts and a yellow shirt tripped over her and started to tip over, but he kept himself from faceplanting by waving his arms wildly. "Hey, I've never seen you in town before! Who are you?" He asked.
She slowly got up, and checked that all four of her Pokeballs were still where they should be. An old habit from her time spent home. Each clad in Ball Capsules imported straight from Sinnoh, three Ultra Balls and a Poke Ball rested on her belt. "My name is Lapis Hawkseye." She told him, "And I just got off the boat from Zetai."
"From where?" He asked.
"Zetai, it's a faraway place," Lapis explained. "And not much happens there. It's fine if you've never heard of it."
"If you're from a foreign region, does that mean you have some cool foreign Pokemon?" He asked hopefully.
"Absolutely!" Lapis smiled. She was a smart girl, and she loved how Pokemon could bring people from all sorts of regions together. "Regional Variants like Alola and completely unique Pokemon, we have it all! This is my Starter Pokemon."
She took out her one PokeBall and threw it into the air, where it opened to reveal a truck-sized gold-striped green tiger on all fours with big leafy wings and dragon claws instead of tiger paws. He had dark blue eyes and a spiked brown flail on his tail, and all his tail's green spikes looked like trees. The Pokemon knelt down for her, allowing her to get up onto his back, and he was big enough that letting her on his back didn't get in the way of his flight. "This is Tigrass! He's a Grass and Dragon-type Pokemon. Say hello, Tigrass!"
The Zetai Pokemon growled in his face menacingly, baring his sharklike pure white teeth.
"That means he likes you." She reassured him. "If he hated you, he'd ignore you. Anyway, this is the evolved form of a cute little grass cat named Tykgrass. Some day, he'll evolve into a mammoth-sized monster called Tigrowth. I can't wait!"
"Woah..." The boy gasped. "He sure looks cool... But how good is he in battle?"
"Well, he's the Starter Pokemon I began my journey with. So he's better than a lot of Pokemon, and he's got a lot of battle experience. Can you guess his ability?"
"Starter Pokemon normally have lame abilities like Overgrow and Blaze, right?" He asked.
"That's right." She nodded. "But my Tigrass here has a Hidden Ability, and can you guess what it is? Here's a hint: Fire-type Pokemon hate it."
"Uh... Tinted Lens?" He guessed.
"Nope, they're a Held Item where I'm from and my Tigrass is carrying them! His ability? It's called Flame Choke!" Lapis grinned. "It makes Grass type attacks Super Effective against Fire-type Pokemon. But it doesn't grant any resistances to that type. It just lets you ruin the day of any Fire-type Pokemon slower than you."
"Wow, that's so cool! What else do you have?" He asked.
"A girl needs to keep some secrets, but I suppose I can show you one more Pokemon straight out of Zetai." She smiled, and released one more Ultra Ball from atop her mount.
This Pokemon was familiar to the Hoenn lad, and at the same time, different. It was a hovering Shedinja shell only made from wet sand, and it was completely hollow inside, half its face missing to reveal a core of murky blue-black living water. The Pokemon started to hover above her trainer, slowly turning to scan the area for threats. "This is Zetaian Shedinja, and he's Water and Ground type!" She explained.
"Just like my Whiscash!" The boy realised.
"Oh, he's much stronger than a Whiscash. Thanks to his ability, Wonder Guard, he can only be hurt by attacks that are Super Effective against him. Like Grass attacks, and... Well, that's all." She grinned.
"Woah! That means if your opponent doesn't have any grass-type attacks, he has to switch out to a Pokemon who does! And if he doesn't have any of those, you win!"
"Well, there are a few instances in which the protection granted by Wonder Guard can be bypassed completely. Status Moves like Screech and Toxic can still work, Pokemon with Mold Breaker can attack however they want, and while his Ground typing makes him fine in Sandstorms, Hail would take him out as soon as he was sent out if I didn't give him Safety Goggles to make him immune to powder moves and weather damage."
"Cool! So why are you here, Lapis?" He asked.
"To beat gym leaders! Charge, Tigrass!" She announced, and she bent forward and grabbed the green mane of her Tigrass. Her Pokemon zoomed north, leaving nothing behind but whipping winds, her slowly hovering Zetaian Shedinja following at a bike's pace.
Speaking of bikes, Lapis Hawkseye took one look at the winding path below and the bicycle road above before steering her mount towards the water, so she could bypass all the trainers and use his insane speed to run across the surface of the ocean.
If she stopped, she would sink. Her Tigrass knew Leaf Blade, Dragon Pulse, Fly, and Mirror Coat. He didn't know Surf, but speed was speed. And if she was going to complete her objective, she needed speed.
And when she got to Mauville, she decided to make an entrance, her mighty Tigrass slamming the gym doors open and leaping into the room, roaring to get everyone's attention. Twelve trainers turned to see her and got their Pokemon out, and Lapis Hawkseye hopped down from her mount with a grin.
"Hi, I'm from Zetai and I'm here to see if I can beat four gym leaders in under a month!" She boasted. "Who's up first?"