Before you all undoubtedly skip this chapter and check to see if you were accepted or not, can I just say how thankful I am for the amount of reviews/favorites/follows/submissions I have received in just 2 chapters? Seriously, you guys don't even know how happy it makes me. It took me a long time of contemplation on whether I should actually start a story like this again, but I'm glad that I did, because I've managed to gain some really amazing characters that I can't wait to write, as well as my enthusiasm and motivation to write again. Thanks a lot, everyone. :)

And for those special two who submitted at literally the last second and gave me aneurisms (you know who you are), YOU GUYS ARE THE REASON I DO DRUGS

just kidding I don't do drugs

don't do drugs

...I love you guys.

Victoria was, in the least, extraordinary.

It took a lot of skill to actually become someone in the Pokémon Industry. With so many wannabe-Pokémon Masters in the Kanto Region — not even counting the other parts of the world — the odds of being recognized for your talents were nearly miniscule. It took a special kind of something to become someone of legend.

Victoria had that something.

Hailing from Pallet Town, she was blessed from the very start. Being chosen by Professor Oak to own a Pokédex, as well as gain herself a nice little Charmander, was only the beginning; she flew past the Gym Leaders, flew past any random challengers, flew past anything and everything that threatened to stand in her way. And Victoria did it all with just her starter Pokémon.

She didn't need any other members to her team. Her confidence was just far too high. Her determination was just far too great. Victoria was going to be the Champion of the Kanto Region, no matter what, and she'd do it all with the help of a single Pokémon.

It was unheard of. Crazy, some might say. Downright idiotic.

All Victoria had to do was flash her eight Kanto gym badges. Nobody could argue against a girl with eight badges.

Smiling to herself, the seventeen-year-old continued walking through Victory Road. The cave was terribly dark, water dripped onto the ground every few seconds, and she could even hear the faint cry of a wild Golbat in the distance. None of that deterred her, however; Victoria continued to walk through the darkness with her head held high and a flashlight gripped in her left hand.

There was nothing to be afraid of, after all. Sure, the cave was getting darker and darker with every step that she took, and there were times when she swore that someone — or something — was watching her . . . but so what?

Her parents had named her Victoria for a reason. She was born to be victorious in anything and everything she put her mind to. There was no way in hell that she was going to lose her nerves in Victory Road, a place practically named after her. Victoria was going to keep going, and absolutely nothing was going to stop her.

And if something tried? Well, a quick little Flamethrower from her Charizard was all it took.

"So just keep steady," Victoria told herself, biting her lip at how cold it was starting to get. It was beginning to become impossibly hard to see, even with the flashlight, but she kept her hand pressed on the wall next to her. If it really came down to it — which it wouldn't — then she could easily just turn around and try again the next day.

Getting lost wasn't even an option.

If there was anything that scared Victoria, it was the thought of being forced to walk through the suffocating darkness forever, no sign of anyone or anything in sight. It'd drive her crazy to be so detached from civilization, so detached from the light, and not know how to get herself out of the situation. There was her phone, yeah, but how long would it take for someone to find her? And the idea of having cellular service in a cave was doubtful.

Stop it. Stop thinking so much, 'Tori. You're going to get out of here, no matter what. Nothing has stopped you before, and nothing will stop you now.

It was always so easy for Victoria to ease herself into a righteous state-of-mind. It was arrogance at its finest degree.

Had she been a little less confident in herself, then maybe she would've had more Pokémon to watch her back. No matter how strong her Charizard was, going through the entire Kanto Region with just one Pokémon was eerily close to suicide. The fact that she made it so far was simply another reason as to why she was such an extraordinary trainer. The fact that she made it so far was simply another fuel to add to her own cockiness.

Had she been a little less confident in herself, then maybe she would've had a few friends to walk with her. Victoria didn't understand the idea of companionship, or camaraderie, or anything of the sort. The two other Pokédex Holders of her year had offered to travel alongside her, but she refused on the basis that she didn't need anyone to slow her down. And on some level, she was correct; while she was stumbling through Victory Road, those two boys were somewhere in Saffron City, struggling to beat Sabrina for their sixth badge. She was leagues above them.

No matter how she looked at it, every decision up to now was correct.

So why, then, did she suddenly feel so lonely?

A loud noise snapped her out of those confusing thoughts. It wasn't exactly loud, per se, but everything seemed to echo in Victory Road, especially considering that the only other sound was coming from her shoes slapping against the ground. Victoria froze, her muscles tensing, her brown eyes widened in a mixture of fear and—

No, not fear. Never fear. Victoria was never afraid. Just . . . cautious. But never, ever scared of anything.

She was the best at lying to herself.

What was that? The Champion-bound female held her breath, her hand pressed against the wall like it was the only thing keeping her alive. She tried to squint her eyes to possibly see through the darkness, but that wasn't working anytime soon. Maybe if she had a Persian, or— No, she didn't need anything other than her prized Charizard. Who really needed to see in the dark? Not her. Eight gym badges and she never had a problem with caves before.

Still, Victoria definitely needed to identify the cause of that sound. It sounded like . . . rocks crumbling, or scratching against each other. Was there someone else in the cave with her? If so, why weren't they saying anything? Why wasn't she?

"Hello?" Victoria called out, pointing her flashlight in every other direction to find the other trainer.

She took a tentative step forward.

And just like that, the road to victory took a frighteningly sharp turn.

Her flashlight finally caught the image of a Golem, it's piercing red eyes aimed directly towards her. That wasn't what scared Victoria, however; the sound of more Golem unraveling from their rocky cocoon, in every direction around her, is what sent a small shiver of fear down her spine. For the first time in her life, Victoria was paralyzed, throat clogged in anxiety.

But then that second passed, and her wits finally caught up to her. Golem didn't scare her. Nothing did. Not even a hoard of them. She was going to get out of this situation, as she always did, and absolutely nothing was going to stop her.

"Fiero, come on out!" Victoria yelled, quickly releasing Charizard from it's Pokéball.

The fire-type Pokémon barely flinched at the darkness; Victoria shone her light at all of the Golem around her, counting twelve, and nodded at her Pokémon. The Charizard nodded back, almost reassuring, and a sharp grin slid into it's red face.

"Dragon Claw!"

Charizard slashed at the Golem closest to it, a mighty roar erupting from the back of it's throat. The rock Pokémon fell on it's back, a painful screech flowing out of it's mouth, it's face marred with claw marks. A second passed. And then, chaos erupted in the darkness, as the Golem all charged at the large dragon. Victoria, however, was not going to let that happen.

"Try to drive them away with a Flamethrower!" she exclaimed, a determined glint in her eyes and a small smirk on her face. This was what Victoria lived for; the rush of battle, the tingling excitement of danger, the growing realization that there was no way in hell she'd actually lose.

When she was in the middle of a Pokémon battle, she truly felt alive. Extraordinarily alive.

Ironic, considering what happened next.

Charizard was too busy blowing fire and slashing at the wild Pokémon to notice. Victoria was too focused on the battle to notice. It was too dark, anyway; the only light source was coming from her small flashlight and Charizard's fiery breaths. There was no way for Victoria to predict what had happened next. There was no way for Victoria to avoid anything tragic from happening.

There was no way to prevent her death.

From a wild Golem's perspective, the brown-haired female was an intruder to their territory. At first, they weren't even about to attack her; they just wanted to scare her away. But then she sent out that humongous Charizard, and it had hit one of them, and nobody got away with harming one of their own. The battle ensued quickly after. Some Golem would use Rollout, and some would use Rock Throw — but none of them could land a hit on the Charizard, not with it spamming Flamethrower and batting them away with that fearsome Dragon Claw.

That's when one Golem formed a plan. Charizard was only the puppet. If they were going to protect their territory with a minimal number of casualties, then they needed to cut off the head, rather than pointlessly stab at the body. They needed to harm the human girl.

Fortunately for that Golem, Victoria didn't see it coming. She never saw anything coming. Her arrogance, her haughty nature . . . It all formed a metaphorical cocoon around the girl's brain, allowing her to keep out any negative thoughts, allowing her to treat everyone else like the dirt under her feet.

Nothing could possibly harm Victoria.

That mindset crumbled apart as soon as Golem's hard body crashed into her.

"Ah—!" Victoria screamed, but it was abruptly cut off by the sound of her arm snapping as her body slammed into the ground. A burst of fiery hot pain traveled through her veins, white spots in her vision — and then the Golem jumped atop her, 600 lbs of pure rock, and Victoria's entire body spasmed in agony.

F-Fiero . . . ! Somebody, h-help me . . !

But nobody would help Victoria, not even her beloved Charizard. The girl had spent her entire life pushing people away, verbally and sometimes even physically assaulting them. She didn't have any friends. She didn't have anyone who really, truly, cared about her.

Victoria had nothing. And as the pain in her smashed body slowly faded away, and the darkness around her morphed into something a lot more darker, a solitary tear slid from her right eye. She was supposed to be the Champion. She was . . . She was supposed to be somebody. Somebody strong, somebody people looked up to, somebody that people actually . . . liked.

Inwardly, that's all Victoria really wanted. To be acknowledged. To be loved.

And yet, the only creature that ever felt a smidgen of love towards her was currently being overpowered by the hoard of Golem, ignorant to its trainer's untimely fate. If Victoria could manage it, she'd apologize. But she couldn't.

With one last crack, the female adventurer felt her rib puncture something very substantial to human-life . . . and then she was gone.

Victoria was extraordinary — but now, she was just another unfortunate Pokémon Trainer.

This was simply the price that adolescents risked when venturing out into the wild, filled with hopes and dreams of fame and fortune. Some succeeded in their goal, sure, but most failed silently and with as much dignity as they could muster.

And then there were some, like Victoria, who succumbed to the unpredictable and often brutal nature of the Pokémon Universe. Those unlucky trainers wouldn't be remembered. Nameless statistics on a computer screen were all that they'd ever amount to.

Victoria Aldaine was extraordinary — and just like that, in the blink of an eye, she was nothing.

Accepted Characters

Luke Church, 16 (DaOneInDaCorner)

Alaya Cressant, 16 (mystic47)

Kristien Frazier, 18 (PoisonBanana)

Tobi Grey, 16 (Devon2016)

Liam Harris, 16 (Me)

Ophelia Lafleur, 17 (TitanMaddix)

Selene Mas, 16 (Uzumaki Kana)

Warren Monger, 24 (W. R. Winters)

Aya Satsuki, 16 (Blackreach)

Mavis Sullivan, 16 (BamItsTyler)

Zion Volt, 16 (ssjzohan)

Shihong Zhang, 16 (fat necrosis)

If you were accepted, I'll be messaging you all shortly. Congratulations!

If you weren't, I just want to apologize. If I could, I'd have accepted everyone. But I specifically wanted 12 characters, and I got more than that, so unfortunately a bit of you had to be rejected. :( I'm really sorry. I understand if you don't want to read anymore. But if you do continue reading, then jump aboard the train, because it's going to be a bumpy ride! Woohoo!

Anyway . . . this is the last of the prologues, everyone! I'm not entirely sure how my format for introducing the characters will be, but just know that they will begin being introduced on the very next chapter. I can't wait to start writing them! If you ALSO can't wait - or even if you can wait - then drop me a review! I read them all, of course, and they each make me smile a lot. So don't be shy!

By the way, I'm not entirely used to writing in 3rd person, so I really don't know how this chapter looks and feels compared to the last one. This was kinda weird to write, but hopefully you all still liked it.

Oh, and if you check my Profile Page, then you can see that I have my Tumblr/Twitter/Wattpad accounts posted. With Tumblr and Twitter, you can see all of the random stuff that I talk about and do when I'm not writing, and I also try to post random stuff about this story. You can even ask me questions on there that I'll be more than happy to answer! (because FF Private Messaging is so 2012 yo) You guys should definitely check them out!

And as for my Wattpad, I kinda love that site, so I just have that posted for you guys who also use Wattpad and want to see what I do on there as well. I also have this story posted on there, too, so go check it out and vote on it! :)

LASTLY (wow this author's note is long af) I MADE A BLOG FOR THIS STORY! It shows each characters name, quote, age, hometown, Pokémon, strengths/weaknesses, and a picture that I feel perfectly portrayed how the character looks in my head. I may have changed a few stuff around, though . . . like adjusting the quote a little, and changing up the strengths/weaknesses a tiny bit. I didn't make this clear (sorry), but I wanted personality-based strengths/weaknesses rather than things like "good battler" or whatever. This is so you all can get a little hint on how the characters are before I actually write them. I hope this doesn't bother you guys, but I doubt it will.

Oh, and for the pictures, a few of your characters had really weird appearances. And by weird, I mean it would've actually been impossible to find a good Faceclaim for that character. So some of you guys' character appearances might be a bit changed. Not ENTIRELY, but I just wanted to tell you guys this right now so that I don't get 10000 hate messages. If your character had a weird hair color, I changed it in a way that the hair color is still unnatural, but it's just not that particular color. And if your character has heterochromia, then I made sure to find faceclaims with two different eye colors, or to find a faceclaim with one eye covered a bit by hair. So overall, the pictures shouldn't upset you all too much. I just need to find some good quality ones, and so a few appearances had to be altered.

I LIKE THE PICTURES OKAY SO PLEASE DONT ASK ME TO CHANGE THEM.

Anyway, the blog link is right here . . .

. . . or you can just look on my profile, where I should post it.

I think that's enough talking for me! Don't forget to review and stuff! (Telling me your favorite characters from the blog would be awesome too xD)

Bai