Pre-chapter A/N; Since everyone is asking for one of these, here's a breakdown of the pokemon 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
The Pokemon Poacher's pokemon;
Psycho- Alakazam
Draco- Dragonite
Ecto- Gengar
Cyro- Lapras (dead)
Pyro 1- Charizard (dead)
Pyro 2- Charizard
Electro - Ampharos - Dead
Special thanks to the folks on pa-atreon for making this possible. Now without further ado let's get into it.
XXXXX- THE POKEMON HUNTER
Of course everything went to shit. We'd barely reached the site for our next attack before a man flew in on the back of a fucking cloud. "Cease and Desist, Evildoers, for you stand in the presence of The Gallant Gerald, Champion of Sinnoh and bane of Scoundrels, Rogues, and Scalliwags."
A clown. A fucking clown. I resisted the urge to join the grunts in their chuckles and laughter because as ridiculous as the man sounded, he had introduced himself as the 'Champion' of this region. If he wasn't just blowing hot hair, then he'd at least be an elite-level trainer. As strong as I was, I knew I was nowhere near that level. Ariana, the woman sent to head this mission, was stronger than I was, but not so strong that an Elite would be anything less than a major threat. Between the two of us and the grunts though, this should be doable.
"No. I don't think we'll be stopping. We are the advance guard of Indigo, here to stake our claim on these pokemon''
I was careful to keep a straight face to avoid showing the surprise I felt at her statement. Advance guard of Indigo? I'm no genius, and I can't claim to be the most well-informed about our activities, but I knew, for sure, that we weren't officially involved with Indigo. For fuck's sake, Team Rocket was an official terrorist organisation within the region. I couldn't see what she intended to accomplish with the ruse, but the man across from her seemed to believe them completely. "I see, then" He said, saddened and resolved at her words.
He took out a pokeball, and my heart dropped when the pokemon he sent out covered all of us in its shadow. Blue and large, was all my mind told me about this entry in the battle. I couldn't think before we were all swept up in a wave of water. It came out of nowhere, and I couldn't control my movement as the flow took all of us away from the clutch of baby pokemon the rocket grunts were in the middle of capturing. "Now that we won't be causing any damage to the young ones. Come, let me show you upstarts the power of Sinnoh"
For one of the first times in years, I felt true fear take hold of me. That water type move had been instantaneous and precise. The pokemon above us, not even taking a second to conjure enough water with enough control to send us all packing. That single interaction had told me he was definitely elite level. The good bit was that he wasn't ruthless enough to kill us without letting us defend ourselves. I was yet to see if it was naivete or confidence. I hoped it was the former, but the latter was more likely.
I sent Draco and Ecto out of their balls. Psycho was already by my side. Ariana sent out her Blastoise, still with that confident smirk on her face.
The large flying pokemon took a deep breath, visibly displacing the air around it, and I waited for the result, preparing my pokemon for anything. The preparations were for naught, because what it did next was something my pokemon couldn't have overcome even if we had seen it coming. Another tsunami of water came bearing down on us, but this time it didn't just crash in a formless mass that sent us moving. It crashed on us with enough force to cause cracks in the protect Psycho had covered us with. Absolutely insane. There was nothing I could see around us except the water. When the attack died down, I noticed that Draco looked battered, but Ecto looked like they usually did, unfazed. Ariana and her Blastoise were similarly unscathed. I prepared to say something snarky to trip him up, but I was suddenly blinded by a flash of light. Only Psycho's protect allowed me to survive the blast of lightning that electrified the small lake we were wading in. None of the water had entered into the bubble so we watched in shock as the pokemon around us were savaged by the deadly combination. Draco was barely able to do anything before he was knocked unconscious by the combination. What the actual fuck? Something was off. Something was very off. THat move combo wasn't unpopular. Sure, his variation must have been magnitudes more popular than the regular versions I'd seen, but to knock out a Dragonite so easily?
"I see the confusion on your face. I shall bless you with the gift of knowledge before I grant you the gift of death. The water all around you is salt water. Make of that what you will" He said with that arrogant tone that grated at my very being. Salt water? What does that have to do with anything?
Nevermind that though. It's time for the counterattack. Ecto emerged from the shadows, appearing behind the man on the back of his cloud and moving straight in for the kill. Against someone like this, the unwritten rules would have to take a backseat. After all, it's not like he was observant of them himself. Those attacks had not just been aimed at our pokemon.
Ecto stretched out his claws, aiming to separate head from neck when a balloon appeared from the Champion's shadow and slammed into Ecto with a shriek. Both ghost types, for what else could that dark balloon be, went soaring into the distance, to fight in that strange way ghost types often did. The scowl I'd been holding back came through in full force, deeper and more intense than I'd ever felt on my face. Both Draco and Ecto were gone, and I was left with only Psycho to face off against a champion. Ariana seemed to get how precarious the situation was, since she reached on her belt and took out the one pokeball I'd never seen her use.
"Be honoured Gerald of Sinnoh, for you stand in the presence of a God" sounded out in my mind as the pokemon formed from the red light of the pokeball. I scowled at it, trying to identify it. Bipedal, with Vulpine features, and a distinctive tail. Obviously a psychic type, or a pokemon with strong psychic affinity.
The Champion seemed to realise something off about it, since he suddenly jumped off his cloud, slowing his landing with some trick or the other. "You smell dangerous" He said with a smile so bright that it threatened to blind me. "Show me your power, pokemon" he said next, and as though it was some hidden cue, both the giant and the cloud got to work.
High velocity streams of water came crashing into the psychic's shield, but they had no effect. 'Powerful' I thought with awe running through my chest. The cloud went into motion next, appearing right in front of the shield in a blur of white, and shattering it with a single attack I couldn't perceive. In that second where the psychic was without protection, a fucking Crobat flew out of nowhere and grabbed onto it with poisonous fangs. A Crobat? The official position was that only one of these exists, but since I joined Rocket, this was the third one I was meeting. Ridiculous.
The psychic, no Mewtwo, something in my mind corrected, shattered the grip of the bat and flew in evasive patterns while sending multiple psybeams at his opponents. All three flying pokemon dodged them with ease, the Crobat hounding Mewtwo with its pursuit, and the cloud content to send beams of light at him whenever he stood still for too long. I suppressed the awe I felt at the battle unfolding before me. My description made it seem like the battle was a regular one, but it was nothing even close to that. The giant water type covered the entire area in its massive shadow, the Crobat sent out shockwaves whenever it moved and the cloud's attacks bent space, and caused devastation wherever they landed. This was the strength of a Champion. A small part of me wondered if he was stronger than even Lance. He was clearly doing things I'd never seen from the Champion of Indigo. I was just adapting to the battle when two other pokemon appeared from thin air around Mewtwo. One with red highlights, the other with blue, with the rest of their bodies pure gleaming white. Something in my mind screamed at their appearance. I should be recognising them. I'd seen them somewhere before. Somewhere not here. In Indigo, maybe? Were they native to Kanto? I asked in my head but got no answer as they both shrieked and moved into action.
They flowed around Mewtwo with peerless coordination, sending him flying between them as he tried to avoid their rushes and beams. It wasn't enough to just stay ahead of them though, as there were three other pokemon to consider. What a terrifying team this champion has assembled.
I turned to Ariana, by my side, and asked with my eyes whether she was watching the same battle I was. Mewtwo was strong, but highly liable to lose at this point. She scowled in reply before suddenly shouting to the sky. "Stop holding back. Full power" Holding back? She had to be insane, I thought but I was quickly proven wrong as the subtle psychic presence around the clearing multiplied its strength exponentially. It was getting difficult to breathe already.
The next time the Crobat came flying at him, Mewtow only lifted a single hand and the poison type was enveloped in a telekinetic field. Watching that same field rip out its wings had to be one of the most brutal things I'd ever seen. The Crobat went crashing to the floor, but was digitised in a blur of red before moving even a few feet.
I turned to the Champion and found him watching the battle with narrowed eyes, neither saying or doing anything. Even scanning his face for expressions yielded nothing, no sign that he was communicating with his pokemon by any means.
However, their strategies still changed after the loss of the Crobat. Two hyper beams from the red and blue duo trapped Mewtwo in his shield, and the shadow above us all finally moved. It moved so quickly, that the space occupied by its head was occupied by its tail instead, all within blinks. It swept low, towards the ground, before rising with a white aura around it. The entire thing was so perfectly timed, that the moment the duo's attack broke through Mewtwo's shield, the giant slammed into him. A textbook aerial ace, but the size of the pokemon was anything but textbook. It swept right through Mewtwo's resistance in a second, and a massive shockwave swept through the clearing at the impact, nearly sending me flying off my feet. Mewtwo's progress through the sky was close to impossible to track, as he was sent flying over the horizon. The Champion's smile was savage. What a terrifying man he was. Ariana looked on the verge of despair. Was this the end? Neither of us had a single pokemon that could play around at this level.
My eyes went wide when Mewtwo appeared in front of us in a flash of light. He looked pathetic. Bones crushed, and malformed, and previously white skin turned purple with bruises. Blue blood dripped and pooled around him. All that wasn't enough to put him down though. He healed and mended right before our eyes. Cuts closed, and bruises disappeared at a ridiculous speed.
"Your efforts are noted, but even still you remain inferior to me. Your best did no lasting damage, for I am no mere pokemon. I am God" He said in all our minds. A fine bit of grandstanding, in my opinion. Would have been made more impressive if he wasn't so obviously drained from the strain of healing himself. Round two was approaching.
XXXXX- THE POKEMON PROFESSOR
The world seems to have collectively gone mad. I'd known Giovanni to be a man with very little in the way of sanity, but I seem to have underestimated the depths of both his insanity and his stupidity. Of all the places to attack, everywhere at once was a stupid idea. I wouldn't have believed it if I couldn't see the data all in front of me. The news channels seemed confused as to what exactly to cover. All the major cities in Kanto seemed to be under attack from hordes of wild pokemon, directed by men with the rocket 'R' boldly on their persons. If there was a way to go from nuisance to the top of Indigo's shitlist, this was definitely it. Did he really think his organisation was capable of withstanding the collective might of Indigo. Surely he did not think I would remain neutral in the face of such widespread mayhem. I'd negotiated very good terms of employment for myself as the region's professor, but my duty to defend it was clear and unequivocal. I had a duty to this very region, and whatever affections I held for my old apprentice would not stand in the face of that. I picked up my pokeballs, placing them in my pocket while heading into the ranch to get my team. This time, I would be leaving with all six remaining members of my champion team and the two younglings I'd added recently.
On the bright side, everyone would finally get the chance to stretch their wings and taste true combat for the first time in years, for some of them. Charizard's hunger for that was well known. As I walked out, I felt Alakazam and Gardevoir move around the ranch collecting the team. We'd be heading to Vermillion first, it seemed to be the worst hit except for Cinnabar, but I had no interest in defending Blaine's city when he was content in allowing it to fall apart around him. He worked with Giovanni, after all.
XXXXX- THE ROCK TYPE MASTER
It had been a day as regular as any other. I'd gone to drop off the children at school, with Forrest taking today as his turn to act out. After I finally quelled the inevitable series of tantrums and returned to the gym, I believed myself done for the day. I only had three challenges scheduled for the day, and they were all one-badge challenges so I was guaranteed a day of rest and relaxation. Of course, Arceus would never allow a man to live without adversity.
The attack had been heralded by a series of tremors that swept through the city. Thinking it to be a regular earthquake, not unlike the kind that plagued Pewter once every few years. Risks of living so close to so many powerful rock types. The roars were what told me this wasn't a regular attack of any kind. I left the gym and found my city being torn apart by a trio of Onix. They crashed and destroyed everything in their way, and my face was stuck in a stony mask as I beheld my city being crushed. I walked towards the errant wild pokemon, stepping over bodies that belonged to people I once knew. People I'd shared meals and tea with. The only thing keeping me stable was the fact that I knew the school was all the way on the other side of the city. The kids were safe. I could trust Brock to care for them while I dealt with this nuisance.
I grabbed at my starter's pokeball and prepared myself for the battle in front of us. My Golem appeared in a blur of red, turning to his adversaries without needing any prompting from me. "The one on the left first" I said tonelessly. He growled, a low deep sound that sent vibrations through my body before moving into motion.
XXXXXX- THE GRASS MISTRESS
It was quite fortuitous that I was on the outskirts of the city when the attack began. It had prevented a lot of damage, I suspect. I had no idea what had caused it, but the grass types around Celadon had been set off and were now attacking the city itself. We'd intensified defences after the attack from the cowardly rockets, and now those defences were being put to the test in this sudden attack.
I leaned backwards to dodge out of the way of a Bellosom's flying charge, and cut it in twain with the katana at my side. My family was the only one to stick to the old traditions, where trainers not only directed their pokemon, but fought alongside them. The traits had been passed down across generations, to the extent that some joked that members of the Grain clan shared more traits with the grass types we trained than we did without fellow humans. Poison resistance, enhanced physiques, green thumbs, we had it all. All the gifts that humans could possibly inherit, but it hadn't been enough to stave off nature. We'd broken all laws of nature to acquire those gifts and nature sought its balance. Slowly, and surely, our fertility disappeared. I was now the last of the clan, and completely barren. My father had been mostly sterile, with my birth being a complete miracle. He had said that our gifts were unnatural, and nature was simply correcting itself. 'I'm sure the near constant inbreeding had nothing to do with it' I replied with snark.
Enough thinking of the man, however, I had an ordeal in front of me. Venusaur showed why he was my ace as he swept through the field with unparalleled speed, dispatching his fellow grass types with vine whips strong enough to turn stone to dust. Tangrowth was coordinating our defence from the back, using his vines to trip up opponents, and guide my gym trainers on where to focus their energy, and Roselia was sweeping through the field, using her skill with poisons to neutralise whichever ones the attacking pokemon sought to use.
XXXXX- THE WATER MASTER
Sandor, my father had named me with no rhyme or reason for the name. He said it came to him in a dream. 'Unquestionable Strength' was what the name meant when translated from the old kantoan dialect spoken in Cerulean. He'd died a few days after explaining the name to me, and I'd lived my life trying to live up to the name he gave me. To ensure I did nothing to disappoint him as he watched me from Lugia's halls in the ocean. For the most part, I'd succeeded. I was a gym leader, one of the strongest trainers in Kanto, well known and respected for my strength and skill in pokemon training.
Even though I'd climbed so high it was never enough. Not to me, not to my father's ghost watching me from the halls in the ocean. I never managed to make it to the point where I stopped questioning my own strength and seeking ways to prove it. This attack was nothing more than a means for me to prove that strength. Cerulean and Vermillion were the major coastal cities of Kanto, and it was the gym leaders from both these towns that saw most regular combat. We were in charge of monitoring the ocean around us, after all, and no matter what propaganda the league tried to spread, the Oceans were still as wild and untamed as they'd been at the dawn of time. Lugia would never allow man to encroach too deeply into his territory, after all.
This attack was only out of the ordinary in that it was happening more inland than I had ever seen. However, that mattered little. I was still the Gym leader, and Cerulean was still my city. Nothing would stop me from defending the city while I still took breath. My strength would never be questioned.
XXXXXXX- THE NINJA'S HEIR
The Safari zone was the wildest, most dangerous area of land in all of Kanto. Of course, it fell to the strongest of Kanto's clans to manage it. With father gone on an official assignment, it fell to me to monitor the area and ensure Fuchsia's security. Our regular patrols were vigilant enough to notice the stirring in the zone's inhabitants, so we were able to prepare our defences before they crashed into the city. We had no chance of stopping them before they could reach the city's outskirts, so we'd evacuated the city as best we could and prepared to fight for our home. Fuchsia was the gym with the most trainers, as my father was the most competent leader of them all, so we had a rich workforce to help defend the city. I could only imagine what would happen to a city like Pewter if it had been placed in a similar situation. Flint was famous for not accepting any gym trainers, after all. When the first of the pokemon ran towards us, they were in for a nasty surprise as the ground fell beneath them and they landed in a pit of spikes. Defences were easy to set up when one had a literal army of pokemon at their disposal.
The next wave of pokemon jumped over the chasm we'd dug, but found themselves plagued by nets, poison pins and everything we could throw on the ground to reduce their speed and make them lesser threats. Our tactics proved to be quite effective, as the pokemon were disorientated, confused and poisoned when they finally got to our last line of defence. From there, it was simple to dispatch them with well aimed low power pokemon moves. Venomoth proved his skill by even managing to take out two pokemon with the same psybeam. This was child's play.
A/N; Thanks for reading. We just started chapter 45 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.
Yes, war is breaking out across Kanto. Team Rocket have finally released their trump card and attacked the entire region at once. I'm sure you're curious as to what the fuck is happening with Donnell, but never fear, he'll star in the next chapter, as we pan back to Cinnabar. Quick question though, what do you think about the shifting POVs?