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.
THE POKEMON HUNTER
I claimed an early evolution of one of the Lucario for myself. Practically a baby-pokemon with how small it was. That was good though. It meant I'd be spending less time beating stubbornness out of it and more time training it to become a useful member of my team. That wasn't all we came here for though. After the battle in the forest, we'd been hurried off back into the submarine to continue our journey.
We'd caused enough of a ruckus with the Lucario skulk, and if we wasted too much time, whatever government this region had could get off their asses and protect our other targets. Our next target? A habitat for a wide variety of water types. I doubted I'd find anything rare enough to replace a fucking Lapras but I'd still keep an eye out.
I took Draco with me to the medical station on board. It wasn't the largest or most sophisticated, but most of the damage he'd suffered was mostly superficial. Nothing a few potions couldn't fix. He sulked a bit about his defeat to Lucario, and resolved to put more effort into his training, and I couldn't ask for more from him. His new passion was a welcome sight though. I'd noticed that he'd been less interested in training recently, he'd gotten complacent in his power. It was good that the Lucario reminded him that there were always bitter fish. The Lucario also reminded of how far I had to go.
If I was to put him in his place, then I'd have to get stronger much, much stronger. That Lucario would have been nothing in the face of any of his pokemon, and it had been more than a match for the entirety of the teem I had on me right now. Pyro's death was really a huge blow. Cyro had hurt, Electro had stung, but Pyro had been the real kicker. A fully trained Charizard was something of a rarity, and I'd had one approaching the elite level. Easily my second strongest, and enough to keep pushing Draco forward.
XXXXXXX- THE ACE TRAINER
I looked around at the squad around me and clenched my fists. This was only going to be my second mission, and to learn that we'd be going after the same people that had attacked Saffron and were suspected to have masterminded Surge's death was enough to set my nerves alight. I shouldn't be worried at all, especially with the calibre of trainers here with me.
An entire squad of ace trainers, led by Koga himself, and then there's the man who had come in,teleported by a league Alakazam, calming most people with a signature smirk and friendly words. I wasn't deceived though. If there was nothing particularly odd about this mission beyond the target, then one of the Elite four wouldn't be here. Especially not Bruno. The wider world might not know this, but Bruno was, perhaps, the most dangerous of the four. He was the only one called to participate in missions like this, and training had been clear on the matter. If Bruno was coming, then shit would soon hit the fan.
The helicopter seemed to slow down as we arrived above a seemingly empty clearing in the middle of the Ilex forest. We'd already been briefed twice. Once at headquarters, and again on the ride over. We suited up in our parachutes and then Bruno casually jumped out of the plane, screaming in exhilaration. I didn't find it ridiculous, till I noticed that he was still in his signature karate gi. Not a parachute in sight. I gaped at the insanity and almost jumped in to rescue the insane man when one of my fellows grabbed me by the back strap.
"Don't stress, Rookie. Bruno's crazy like that. He'll be fine. Now, get ready to move" There was that nickname again. I couldn't stop the scowl that built on my face. She laughed, a booming big-bellied one, and I resisted the urge to recoil. Her breath smelled overwhelmingly of tobacco. The look on my face set her off again, and she was still laughing as she jumped off the chopper. I looked around in shock, noting that I was the only one still in the copter. The flight controller looked at me with a raised brow and I hurried to make the jump, his laughter ringing in the air behind me. I was starting to hate ACE.
I dove down, relying on the months of training I had in making drops like this one. It was practically routine at this point. What wasn't routine though was the trainers ahead of me disappearing after a certain point. What the actual fuck? I hadn't noticed that from the plane at all. No one around me was sounding the alarm so I figured it had to be the illusion we'd been briefed about. Nothing for it, then. Into the breach, we go. I saw the world change around me as I entered the illusion's boundary. It stole my breath away. Right below me was a massive complex. At least five stories high, and dozens of metres tall. How could something like this be hidden so completely in an illusion? It wasn't possible. It went against everything we knew about pokemon. No psychic, ghost, or dark type had this power. Even dozens of them would never be able to coordinate something like this. It spat in the face of nature. It baffled the mind, and boggled the senses. We hadn't even landed yet, and these Rockets had already managed to throw my mind into total and complete chaos. This is exactly what Koga had warned about. I took a deep breath, and settled my attention on taking out the scum in front of me. I'd leave the theorising to pops. He was much better at it, after all.
Bruno was the first to land, the lack of a parachute allowing him to approach the ground at full speed with no time wasted slowing down. I watched in shock as he did a flip in mid air, and landed feet first, shattering the ground around him, but moving in unscathed. Like falling hundreds of feet was something to scoff at. The rockets swarming around the building converged on his location, and I was treated to one of the most beautiful sights I'd ever seen. He cut a bloody swath through them. Not even bothering to release his pokemon, and diving on the rockets before they could release theirs. His punches broke bones and shattered skulls, killing with the kind of savage ease that I could never imagine from the man that had come in with a kind smile and laugh for every member of the squad. That man seemed to be nothing more than a dream as he pulled a rocket member into an embrace and crushed his spine in a bear hug. I barely even managed to pull on my parachute in time, so focused on the massacre in front of me.
When I finally landed, I noted that I was one of the last to do so. The squad had waited for me though, and we moved in as one. Bruno had already secured our landing sight, and was now heading east, leaving a trail of bodies in front of him. His job was clear, draw the attention of all the Rockets, and have them concentrate their efforts on taking him out. He was one of the elite four, they couldn't afford to just ignore him in favour of focusing on us, after all, even if we were the true threat. Even if we were the ones heading in to put an end to their operations. I realised my Weavile, and set him to task. The blackout field covered the entire complex and some feet beyond. No psychic-type would be teleporting out of here. Jack and Jill, deadly couple that they were, released their Fearows with a scary coordination. Both large birds took to the skies with wicked smirks on their beaks, and letting out loud caws. No one was going to be flying out of here either. We had them trapped.
Koga simply nodded at all of us before sending out his own Crobat and signing at us with his fingers to move in. We followed, covering ground with speed that would have had me gaping in shock only a year ago. ACE training meant this wasn't even the peak of what I was capable of. Not when I was truly pushing it.
We left the grounds behind us and entered the building. When we got to the very first set of stairs, we smoothly separated. Koga leading four others up the stairs, and Frank, our captain leading another five of us down the stairs. The division wasn't equal of course, Koga himself was worth at least five ACE trainers, I knew. I'd seen him school five Squad leaders at once with that team of killers he called Pokemon. He was a monster of a man, and the fact that the Elite Four and the Champion loomed above even him was enough to keep me up at night sometimes. The world I lived in was a terrifying one.
We moved down as a unit. Whatever Rockets unlucky enough to get in our way were dispatched with cold efficiency. Whatever objections I'd have had to such had been consumed in the brutality of ACE training. After killing people I'd thought of as comrades, I had no problem doing the same to the scum of the earth that dared wear the colours of the terrorist organisation.
We met our first true opposition in the form of a giant Machamp. It moved its four hands, in an avalanche of fists and attacks. Frank's Arbok struck at it when it overextended, and Jill's Growlithe drove it in to the floor before ripping out the poisoned pokemon's throat. I ignored the blood pooling at our feet, and continued to run with the rest of the squad.
We covered the ground, searching through floor after floor. It took us getting two floors down before we found the first laboratory. We slowed down, after checking that it was safe, and walked in. The sights inside almost made me wretch, ACE training be damned. Dismembered pokemon were floating in jars around the lab. There was an Alakazam strapped to the table, with its head opened and its brain on full display. It wasn't even the only pokemon here. Dozens of Ralts laid in cages, clearly poisoned. This couldn't be a lab. My dad had a lab. This was a torture center.
We all looked at the morbid sights in shock and awe. It took me sometime to realise we weren't alone in the chamber. I'd logically known from the moment we'd stepped in, but the scientists huddled in the corner hadn't come to my attention, until one of them did the most stupid thing I'd ever seen a man do. He rushed at me with a scalpel in his hands. Even if I hadn't seen him coming from a mile away, his scream would have alerted me. I caught a hold of his hand before he could do anything with the scalpel, and snapped his wrist with a savage movement. I stepped back as he dropped the weapon and fell to his knees, screaming in pain. Frank looked at me in disappointment but I just shrugged. We'd been told to avoid harming the scientists if we found any, but I'd just been unable to help myself.
He nodded at me and I stepped to the back of the line as he began to question the scientists. I couldn't hear much of what was being said. The tiny glow from his pocket told me his cone of silence was active. That was the reality of being an ACE trainer. Secrets within secrets. We were here, on the mission, and we still weren't trusted with all the details and available information.
"We'll be rushing to the lowest floor. Form up" was all Frank said as he left the Scientists shivering on the floor. I saw the barest hints of that Gengar of his rearing up in his shadow. It was terrifying. I took a deep breath and joined the rest of the squad. We followed the captain, and this time, we made our previous pace seem like Child's play. We followed the stairs, practically flying across them, covering feet with jumps and running across the steps whenever we couldn't jump the distance. By the time we got to the lowest floor, I checked my internal clock and wasn't even surprised to find that it'd taken us less than a minute to cover that distance. We moved in, and I could tell that something about this floor was different from the rest. For one, it was cold. So fucking cold. For another, it was dark. Even our flashlights barely penetrated a few feet into the smog around us.
The air was heavy. Breathing had never been so difficult before, not even the peaks of mount Silver had made me feel like this. This was unreal. Suddenly, the darkness disappeared like it never existed, chased away by the rushing light. There were spots in my vision from the sudden change, and when my sight finally cleared, I found myself looking at something strange. A bipedal, humanoid pokemon, with vague feline features. Black skin, and a long purple tail. The most scary thing about it was its eyes. A bright gleaming blue. "Welcome human, you stand in the presence of a superior being. Bow,"It said in a haunting voice. It took me a second to realise that it had no lips, and those words had been projected into my head, through my psychic shields. What the fuck?
XXXXXXX- THE CHAMPION
"Dragon rush" My opponent screamed out and I smiled as her Kindra flew across the air, covered in a light green air before colliding with Dragonite. There was no contest, as my starter no-sold her starter's attack.
Claire was fond of challenging me whenever I visited the city and I never hesitated to take her up on it. Always good to remind my cousin that she was only next in line to rule the clan because I allowed it to be so. I was the strongest of the Blackthorne, after all, and if I ever chose to step down as champion, unlikely as that was, I would take the clan, as was my right.
Dragonite practically ignored her pitiful attack before turning the Water dragon's momentum against it and driving it back into the ground. It was too dazed to get up and Dragonite fired a dragon rage straight at it. The battle tha that had been going on for the past 30 minutes ended there. The Kigdra had put up a valiant effort, but it wasn't enough. It was never enough.
No one's effort was ever enough. I'd become the strongest years ago, and now? Nothing excited me. I never got to put it all on the line because I was always sure that no one would compare. I'd tried to get to battle the other champion level trainers like Oak and Stone, but they never agreed. Scared to lose to me and have the world see them for what they really were. Inferior.
Everyone was inferior at the end of the day.
A/N; Thanks for reading. We just started chapter 42 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. Chose to end the chapter with a small sneak peek into Lance's mind. How's it look?