Pre-chapter A/N; Since everyone is asking for one of these, here's a breakdown of the character names before we get into things
Broly - Kleavor
Quicksilver - Pidgeot (dead)
Kisame - Milotic
Igneel - Charizard
Kenpachi - Tyranitar
Ino - Gardevoir
Snorlax - Snorlax
Tsunade - Clefable
Gai - Hakomo-o
Magnezone - Magnezone
Hashirama- Trevenant
Special thanks to the folks on pa-atreon for making this possible. Now without further ado let's get into it.
"Sure, their intentions are suspect. You might even be able to win your case. But think of what suing the league could cost you" He gave me a significant look here. At least, the pity had finally disappeared from his face.
"You can't be an employee of the league while suing the league, can you?" He asked rhetorically, and I finally got his drift. Admittedly, in 48 hours, I'd forgotten the position I occupied in Cinnabar. I was the temporary gym leader, after all, and no matter how much power they might occupy in their individual seats, they were still employees of the league. League law was clear. Since all League employees were part of the league, an employee like that suing the league looked too similar to infighting and was thus illegal.
A trainer could sue the league, but not a gym leader. Honestly, that fact almost made me stand down. THe benefits of being a gym leader were numerous. It was the life. A sustainable stipend, unlimited stabling, and the ability to essentially have my own fiefdom were just some of the benefits inherent to the position. However, if Goodshow thought it would work, he was dead wrong. I was Silph- sponsored. Money wasn't an issue. With a capture licence of ten pokemon, it was unlikely that I'd ever need a spot to stable unused pokemon, and if I did, Oak could be reasoned with. Cinnabar was a city on the brink. I had no interest in tying myself to that mess for any long period. Furthermore, even the protection that might have attracted me to the position wasn't as attractive as it once was. THe league had played their hand. If I didn't prosecute this now, it would happen again.
When I was a kid, little more than four, I'd been teased and beaten up by some boys in my classroom, and when I'd run crying to Oak, he'd taught me a simple lesson. The only way to prevent someone from doing something again, was to punish them severely the first time they did it. It was one of the few memories I'd had of him being a good father. He'd taught me to throw a good punch and use my weight. THe next time one of the boys had pushed me in the playground, I'd beaten him so hard, refusing to stop until two teachers had to be involved in dragging me off of him and he'd been forced to spend a month in the hospital. Creepy anecdote aside, there was a point being made here. I couldn't let this slide.
"I resign then. Consider this my formal resignation. That clock over there tells me your forty-eight hours are well and truly over, so I hope to see you in court." The smile on his face was undisturbed as I kicked off my seat in a burst of strength I didn't expect to have and made my way out of the room. I didn't actually know the way out of the ACE headquarters, but I couldn't even blink before an Alakazam appeared next to me, and I found myself on the outskirts of a town I couldn't recognise.
Of course. Leave it to the league to be petty enough to fail to drop me at my home. I swallowed the breath I was holding and walked forward. Nothing for it now.
Mahogany town. That's where the bastards had seen fit to leave me. I was tempted to add this to the case, but there wasn't really any point. I'd asked to be let out of ACE headquarters, and I hadn't given a destination, so they were perfectly justified in dropping me off at a random city in the league's jurisdiction. The fact that it was so far away from my residence that there was no way I was going to be able to leave anytime soon must not have been a consideration at all. A pure accident, I'm sure.
I sat down at a table in the pokecentre's dining hall, enjoying my first warm meal in what had felt like forever. Fuck everyone.
XXXXX
"Your pokemon have been such a joy to have around" Sabrina said as she relaxed on a couch in the office she'd inherited as interim gym-leader of Viridian. She'd teleported to my position while I was eating breakfast at Mahogany. After an hour or two of rest, she'd linked up with her Alakazam and taken me to the Viridian gym. It was a lovely place, much of it remaining the same from Giovanni's time in charge.
Not like I'd ever gotten to see much of the gym in that period. I'd definitely never seen the stables before, and getting to visit my team after so long felt perfect. Now that I wore my belt again , and could feel their presence against me as I moved, I doubted I'd ever abandon this feeling.
Sabrina had also done me the favour of picking up all my things from Cinnabar. It would have been a bit weird visiting there after I'd just resigned from the position of Gym Leader in what was quite likely their greatest hour of need. I couldn't find myself feeling guilty for it though. I would have to give up the position sooner or later, after all. I valued my freedom too much.
Sabrina passed me my laptop with a burst of telekinesis and I took a seat at her desk while she dozed off on the couch. What did I need my laptop for? To prepare my case, of course.
The originating motion to commence proceedings formed in my mind's eye as I checked out a few samples online. It was complete in a few minutes, and I turned my attention to the rest of the proceedings I needed to file in support of the motion. The written address was the hardest. Kanto wasn't as case-law anal as the United Kingdom, so I didn't have to troll through dozens of old cases to find situations similar to mine to cite, but that didn't mean that the address was simpler than it would have been in my first world. In fact, it was a bit harder. I had to explain the logic behind all I wrote multiple times instead of just citing a previous ruling and leaving it at that.
When I finally finished with everything, I saved it all to my pokecloud account for safekeeping and waited for Sabrina to wake, watching her sleep with a fond smile on her face. It had taken Ino basically confirming it for me to realise the feelings she felt for me, and now I could not help but see her in a different light. She was beautiful, I'd always known. But now, she was a bit more than beautiful. Every movement she made accented her form and drew my attention.
XXXXX- Aaron, The Bug Elite
Gerald was gone, and this was coming up now? I could see why it was happening. We needed a champion, but that didn't mean I agreed with him being replaced so quickly. To crown a new champion just days after his murder makes it look like we don't care and were just waiting for him to fall to get a replacement. It felt like we'd lost a pair of shoes and were ordering replacements, instead of mourning a fallen comrade.
Needless to say, I wasn't in support of the call for challengers. But as the first elite, I was the one that would be facing the bulk of them. So far, we'd received seven challengers for the position of champion, and only one of them had been able to force me to use more than three pokemon. This Cynthia Shirona looked to be a favourite for the position, but I was sure she'd find herself on the losing side in our upcoming battle. I'd seen her ascent at the lily of the valley conference a year ago, and while she'd won, she wasn't anything special. Definitely nothing I couldn't handle.
I listened as the commentator announced her and her stats. 1234 wins and 7 losses was impressive, but she'd started her journey with a fully evolved pseudo-legendary. Those numbers made a lot more sense with that context.
I put on my best game face as I walked into my side of the stands. "The challenger shall release first '' The referee said and I waited expectantly for the pokemon everyone knew was coming. Dozens of battles in front of live audiences, and never had she changed her first choice. It was incredibly predictable, and the ultimate fuck you to everyone she was matched up against. Almost like she was saying, 'you know what's coming, but you can't stop it'.
She didn't disappoint as the Garchomp took the field. The massive land shark landed with a terrifying stomp and awe-inspiring roar. I allowed it all to wash over me as I readied my own pokeball. I'd been watching her battles, and there were two ways opponents tended to respond to the pseudo-legendary on the field. Either lead with their own ace and hope to win a direct conflict, or start with a weaker pokemon and hope to weaken it before ending with the ace. The truth was neither of those strategies had worked at stopping her dominance.
In the first case, she'd simply beat the ace and then steamroll the rest of the team. In the second, they'd beat all the pokemon as they came out, gathering momentum, and breaking their opponent's spirit before beating out the ace. I was an Elite though. Such simplistic strategies had no place in my head. I'd break the mould and use a completely separate tactic.
"Let's go, Scolipede" I said as a mainstay of my team took to the field.
"And Aaron starts off strong with his Scolipede. This pokemon has an impressive 37-2 record this season. Only getting beaten twice, and that was after taking out three other pokemon in the opponent's team on each instance. This is going to be a tough one for Cynthia's Garchomp. But I think we all know how this is going to go, don't we Red?..."
I toned out the commentators from there as the referee put down his flag to start the battle. Scolipede blitzed across the arena, augmenting his species' natural speed with agility without me even saying a word, the white glow of Megahorn infusing both his horns. To my shock, the Garchomp chose to stay still and grabbed hold of both horns, taking the bull by the horns, quite literally. It barely moved back two steps and I scowled as I gave my first orders.
"Screech and disengage." A blast of sound made the dragon finally recoil and let go of my pokemon. He scurried away instead of pressing the attack though. I'd taken the measure of the Garchomp's physical endurance for myself, and there wasn't anything we could have done to damage it in the few seconds where it was distracted.
"Toxic spikes" I commanded and watched as spikes laced with poison shot out of my pokemon and embedded themselves all around the battlefield. Ok, that should dissuade the pokemon from pursuing over ground. It was surprisingly speedy on its feet, so I needed to negate that.
If Shirona's previous battles were any indication… "Earthquake" She shouted with a flashy hand gesture, and I smiled as I shouted in response, "Nullify". The Garchomp managed to use its move first, but it didn't matter. Scolipede's low power earthquake was executed quickly enough to negate the effects of Garchomp's own earthquake. I could see my opponent's visible eyes narrow as she realised the implicit threat. If she had her Garchomp submerge like she usually did, an earthquake from Scolipede would end the battle in an instant.
As one of her tactics fell through, she went for a different one. "Sandstorm" She commanded and I watched the field become covered in an ever moving dust cloud. The tactic wasn't new to her so I already had my next move planned. I couldn't possibly give any orders to Scolipede through the roar of the sand so we'd already planned our strategy ahead of time. The sun's intensity doubled above us, and I could see some of the rays begin to penetrate the cloud. That wasn't the entire strategy. He used the power from the sun rays to charge up a solar beam that he sent sweeping across the field. I could see the beam encountering resistance in the form of a protect, and Scolipede could feel it as he focused on that spot. He covered the space between him and the Garchomp in a blur and executed a perfect stomping tantrum. Mission accomplished, I thought with a smile and waited for the referee to declare victory or for the sandstorm to clear up.
It took a few minutes, but the sandstorm eventually cleared, and I was shocked to see that Scolipede was the one knocked out instead of Garchomp. What? I'd planned that perfectly. I'd seen every eventuality, and planned for it all. How did he lose? I could barely hear the referees calls for me to send out my next pokemon.
Volcarona took the field as I tossed him out reflexively. Strategy 'A' hadn't worked. The Garchomp was nearly unscathed and I was already down one of my most tactically sound pokemon. It wasn't irredeemable though. If any of my pokemon had the power to take out this threat, it would be the mythical pokemon that was said to bring the sun with a flap of his wings.
I didn't need to order him to begin with sunny day the moment the referee started the battle, and from there things were on. Floating above the ground meant the land shark had few options to catch up to him, unless he abandoned his advantage and decided to take to the skies himself. The frustration I expected to find on Shirona's face wasn't forthcoming. In fact, she seemed content at how things were going. I guess she didn't recognise the pokemon in front of her. Not unexpected, though. She had pedigree, but one of her age wouldn't be expected to know of the myths and legends that shaped Sinnoh. More satisfied with tales of the first champion or things so recent.
My thoughts flew from me as surely as the Garchomp flew from the ground. It blew apart its own sandstorm with the force of its ascent, but it wasn't fast enough to catch up to my pokemon, literally made for the skies. No, that wasn't it. Garchomp was faster. Much faster than Volcarona if I was being honest, but it lacked manoeuvrability. It stuck to straight lines and tried to catch up to him with strafing runs. It wasn't enough though. Volcarona was made for the skies and showed it in the way he drew the Garchomp in and waited till the last second to dodge its attack. All the while, spreading barely visible sleep powder in the air. He was spreading the powder in such minute amounts that wasn't visible, especially since they flew so high above us. Shirona would never be able to tell and as the land dragon grew sluggish, I could see the plan coming together. Of course, since I could see it, Shirona could too.
I watched her face carefully as she suddenly looked contemplative before her pokemon disengaged without an order from her. Not a verbal one, at least. Psychic interference? No, the barriers should be able to stop that. Some sort of non-verbal cue? Impossible. SHe hadn't made any sounds, and her pokemon wasn't even looking at her when it made the decision to disengage.
Did it act on its own? As unlikely as I thought it was, I had to accept it. After all, once you rule out the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth. It was only logical. The hyper beam it tried to test our defence with was denied with a quick protect, that absorbed the attack and disappeared. Volcarona was powerful, my most powerful, and perhaps it was time to show that to them.
"Shine like the sun" I screamed out to the heavens, and my pokemon didn't bother acknowledging my order. Not verbally, at least, as he began a sequence of attacks we called our coup de grace. As he began to glow with the power of the sun within him, I lent an ear to the commentators. I'd love to see what the idiots made of this.
"Now, Aaron's Volcarona, and let's not get started on what a surprise it was to see him this early, has begun to glow. Remember we saw a move like this at the Elite's first conference over a decade ago. It's starting. Can I even capture this in words, Red? No, I don't think I can. It's insane. There's fire everywhere. Massive balls, no balls isn't the right word. Pillars. They're pillars of bright blue flame. Remember that ELite Aaron's Volcarona is well known for evaporating Galadon's lake in his search for a cabal of pokemon poachers. Is he going to bring that same brilliant power to bear on Cynthia's Garchomp. Seems like Cynthia thinks so at least. She's screaming orders. Garchomp is racing to the ground to submerge. Will it make it in time? No, it doesn't. One of the pillars hits it from the side and sends its careening. It's spiralling, but manages to stabilise. What a beast?
Volcarona takes advantage of the delay and now all the pillars are bearing down on Garchomp. I see the bright blue of protect just before they hit. And what a hit it is. So beautiful. Something about the sheer explosive power and brightness evokes a sense of awe in us all. Apologies to everyone watching this live without shades. It might take your eyes a bit to recover from that display right there. It has to be over. That move has to be worth every bit of hype it gets on the forums. Superb. Exceptional. Exhilarating. I can't think of any more synonyms to describe such a superlative experience. Jaw-dropping, heart-stopping, show-ending excellence. And that's all she wrote folks, Cynthia's Garchomp is well and truly done for"
I smirked at that last night as we all waited for the smoke to clear, and clear it did, aided by a wave of Volcarona's wings. What the fuck?
"Woahhhh. This is unreal. Ladies and Gentlemen, we all saw it, right? We can all see this right? Garchomp floats above the ground, unscathed and unbothered. An attack that managed to outshine the sun for a brief instant just got no-sold by Cynthia's monster of a Garchomp. Once again, we're reminded of how hardy Cynthia's Garchomp really is. Just one of those pillars is estimated to contain enough destructive power to level a building, but Garchomp took a hit from dozens at the same time with nary a scratch. That's it. That's enough. I'm officially starting a petition to remove the 'pseudo' from Garchomp's title. A legendary feat if I've ever seen one. Cynthia is going all the way folks. You heard it here first."
I couldn't even bring myself to disagree with the commentator's words. That was a move even Gerald would have been hard-pressed to overcome. The man in me was awestruck, but the trainer was already thinking, assessing, trying to figure out a way out of this clusterfuck. Now, I leaned on the trainer, and shunted the man to the side.
"Outrage" Shirona proclaimed to the awed silence that had met her Garchomp's survival. Fuck. Volcarona swept back, but this time, Garchomp's speed was beyond anything I'd seen, even from dedicated flying types. They collided with the sound of tearing flesh and Volcarona was back in his ball before I even knew what I'd done. It was the right tactic, but something about the way I hadn't even thought about it rubbed me the wrong way. Weakness like that had to be eliminated.
I waited a few seconds to consider my next option. I had a minute to choose my next pokemon, and I was going to use every second of it. No pokemon could keep a move lime outrage forever. As I heard Cynthia grudgingly tell her pokemon to end the move, I smiled and sent out my next pokemon. Galvantula took the field with an aplomb. Cynthia didn't look shocked at her size, so she'd clearly researched my team somewhat. I'd thought her lack of awe at Volcarona's presence was caused by ignorance, but as the battle went on, I had to accept that she might have actually researched me just as much as I'd researched her. Her facade of the uninterested rich kid might just be a facade in fact, and something about that rubbed me the wrong way. No one should be this good at lying. Every smile, every reaction was perfectly in line with the image I'd built of her in my head. The image I was beginning to suspect that she might have wanted me to build of herself was clear.
Galvantula moved with speed that bellied her size and webbed three of the nearest falls. The arena that we had chosen was a giant dome, and both Cynthia and I were elevated on separate shielded platforms at opposite ends. Galvantula took advantage of that, forming webs spanning from one end of the dome to the other. She was doing her best to hinder Garchomp's flight path, and the pseudo-legendary seemed content to allow us to set up. Even now, she was maintaining that front. It ate at me that she didn't even consider this fight close enough to put all her focus on it. She was busy maintaining a facade to catch future opponents by surprise. When Galvantula had set up the field and began skating from web to web, the Garchomp finally moved. The first few webs were barely a hindrance to its movement but as it moved through them, it began to slow down. Gal swarmed it with even more webs, then right at the moment where it was about to cross into close range, she fired off the move she'd been preparing. "Thunder" I shouted as the bright yellow bolt of electricity made contact with the approaching dragon.
It cooked in the attack, the webs enhancing the power of the electricity with their conductive nature. That wasn't all though.
Another one. And another, and a third. Galvantula spent all her stores of energy in continuous usage of the most powerful electric type move known to pokekind. When the attacks finally ended, the smoke disappeared, and we were met with a singed but angry dragon.
That the attack did damage couldn't be questioned. What could be questioned though was the amount of damage. As the dragon moved at even greater speed to collide with Gal, I had to admit that it wasn't as much damage as I would have wished. Gal electrified her body, but the dragon ignored both paralysis, and pain to deliver its blows. It was savage and even though Gal tried her best to use her bulk to her advantage in their wrestle, it proved to be a fruitless endeavour. I returned her once it became clear that there was no point in holding out hope for a miracle.
My next pokemon took the field instantly. Left to me, I'd have forfeited the battle at this point. Three pokemon down, and I still hadn't even taken down a single one of hers. She had five more pokemon at least at the elite level. I couldn't win this, but I couldn't surrender either. It was my job as the fourth elite to stop all those who tried to climb the submit, and if I failed, to weaken them to the best of my abilities. I wouldn't fail now. Not when Gerald's legacy was at stake.
Heracross took to the field and settled in, racing from end to end. Garchomp tried diving at him, but the dodge was easy for the prodigious fighter. Garchomp was clearly feeling the stress of the battle so far. Three elite level pokemon in a row was impressive but that streak was going to end here. Heracross suddenly ceased his running and turned to the chasing pokemon. I got the pleasure of seeing the dragon's eyes widen comically as the fighting bug jumped straight at it. Trailblaze. The attack barely did any damage, but the effect of increasing the user's speed was enough to make the move one worth using. Focus blast was the next move we used. THe blast of fighting type energy was dodged, but Heracross used the distraction to attack with a horn attack. Contact was made, but we were right back to being the ones on the run. I couldn't deny my annoyance at how the battle was going. Now, I could see the Garchomp's weaknesses as clear as day, but didn't have a single pokemon left, with the sheer power to take advantage of those weaknesses. I doubted even Volcarona would have been able to take advantage if we'd noticed it in time. It galled and pulled at me to be so helpless in what I'd thought would be a walkover. A spoiled heiress to a powerful clan with a single powerful sweeper of a pokemon looked to be child's play for me to deal with. Now, I was beginning to suspect I was going to be the one that ended up being swept aside in her wake.
"Close combat", I whispered to my pokemon and he used the move instantly, pivoting and delivering countless attacks to the dragon in front of him. Garchomp was no longer as overwhelming as it had once been, but I wasn't surprised when it caught one of the punches sent at it and proceeded to snap Heracross' hand in a display of savagery that I'd grown to expect of dragons in my years as a trainer fighting against them. I returned him instantly. He might have been well enough to keep going, but I could already tell he'd have no effect, and it would be the height of irresponsibility for me to allow him to suffer needless damage. Especially when Sinnoh was poised to go to war soon.
Drapion took her teammate's place on the field with no time wasted. I'd already run the odds in my head. I did not have the tools to dispatch Shirona's monster of a pokemon, so it would be a waste of time to attempt delaying tactics. After all, I could already see things I needed to improve in my pokemon so there was no time to waste. Starting things off with a leer, Drapion used the second she bought with that tactic to land a venoshock. Garchomp reeled at the unexpected tactic. I trained bug types, yes, but most of them had poison subtypings so the dragon had been getting poisoned from the beginning of this battle, and it was time for it to feel every drop of poison in its bloodstream double in potency. It screamed in pain, and we kept up the intensity. Night slash Washed over its still form, doing nothing but irritating the land shark that had long ago returned to the ground. Now, we made it suffer for that. Earthquake destabilised its footing and reminded it not to submerge and Drapion covered the distance between them at her top speed. Not as fast as Scolipede, but an agility enhanced bug could haul ass when the situation called for it, and this situation was practically screaming. She collided with the dragon, and the dragon type was the one to rear back from the physical challenge. Drapion put her clawed arms to good use, grabbing hold of the land shark's arms and nearly crushing them with her power.
Its pained cries were ignored as she smashed it back with a headbutt, her powerful shell causing brutal damage, and allowing herself to be overcome with a telling white glow. "Giga Impact'' I shouted in sync with the announcer as Drapion made contact for the second time. Beautiful, I thought to myself. Garchomp fell to the ground, and as Drapion moved to capitalise, it submerged. Before we could make good on our threat, it resurfaced behind her. Its arms wrapped around her form and threw her straight up. The awesome power in its limbs became apparent as it sent Drapion flying at least a couple dozen metres. It had enough time to charge up a hyper beam, but I recalled her before it could cause irreversible damage with a move like that. She'd been practically helpless, too shocked and dazed to use a protect in time.
Vespiqueen buzzed as she appeared in the air. "I'm bored of this. End it, Princess", Shirona spoke up suddenly, and I was shocked to see Garchomp stand up straight from its hunched over form and glare at my pokemon with clear rage. The red aura that built around its body told me all I needed to know. Fucking outrage. I'd almost forgotten about it. It caught up to Vespiqueen before she could even make a move of her own. The pokemon that had been content to let us set up as we willed was suddenly taking the initiative, and that caught me off guard. I was forced to return Vespiqueen not even two minutes after I'd sent her out. Garchomp was just that efficient.
As strong as I was, I'd lost so easily, and the commentator's words were doing nothing for my mood.
"Cynthia Shirona has done it again. A superlative victory befitting a superlative woman. Another trainer swept by the mighty, inevitable Garchomp. This woman is just something else. Something unreal. The future champion, folk. Quote me anywhere. Aaron gave a good fight, but even his best just couldn't cut it against this woman. Superb!"
A/N; Like it? Garchomp is the strongest non-legendary pokemon in this fic. Period. No questions.
Thanks for reading. We just started chapter 50 on the pa-atreon page. Feel free to join me there if you feel like supporting my work. Same username as up here. The link's on my profile.