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.
"You know her. You love her. The gym leader of gym leaders. She tames dragons for fun. Let's give a bold welcome to Claireeeeeeeeeee"
The announcer spoke up, introducing the woman I'd come here to face. Lance's cousin. A woman so powerful it was said that she was the only one who Lance could spar with on even footing. I didn't give much credence to those rumours, but I couldn't deny the nervousness I felt. This was a gauntlet challenge so I wouldn't even be facing Claire's terrifying eight-badge team. I'd be facing her main team. The team she'd been training for as long as I'd been alive. I took a deep breath in, and another one out.
The coin toss passed in a blur, all I noted was that I'd lost it and I watched her stare at me intently. She looked like a predator, with eyes that seemed to be judging and assessing every move I made. Her blue hair and fantastic curves only added to the appeal. She was a beautiful woman, there was no doubt about that, but that meant little. I was already promised to another, after all. Thinking of Sabrina calmed me down like it always did, and I released Broly on the field with a broad smile on my face. He was my starter. He'd start this. He never asked for much, so when he asked this from me, it wasn't even a choice.
Claire's smile sharpened as she spoke, "That answers my question. You have his name. You might even have his strength, but you lack his brains," She said while readying her pokeball. "Go. Kingdra!" She shouted to the skies as her ace took the field.
What the fuck? She never started with Kingdra. I'd seen almost a hundred of her battles at this point and in not one of them did she ever begin with the powerful water-dragon. Of course she had to change tactics just to fuck with me, and fuck with me, she did. Broly was weak to water types. It came with being a rock type, and I wasn't so confident in his training to overcome the type disadvantage to place him against an elite level water type. I swallowed as I prepared to use my only substitution of the match, but as the red light of the pokeball hit him, Broly remained where he was.
He turned to me with a growl, and I connected with his aura to understand him better. "Kleavor, Kleav. Or" was what the crowd heard him say, but what I heard was 'I've got this. Trust me.' And so I did. I trusted in him like he'd always trusted in me. I nodded at him and he nodded back.
"A pokemon unruly enough to ignore the pokeball's call? Oh how interesting." was all Claire could say before the referee began the battle.
"Hydro pump" She commanded instantly, and Broly blurred away, dodging the attack with ease and changing his position. The field had been modified for this battle. It was flat grassland for the most part, but there was a sizable lake on one corner, and it was in that lake that the Kingdra chose to remain. A wise choice, considering that Broly couldn't necessarily dive into the water to hunt her down, and she'd be much more powerful in there, besides.
"Hyper beam" I said, trying to bait the Kingdra into action, but it only dodged the attack and continued trying to pepper Broly with attacks. This was a bad match-up. Broly had very few moves that could affect the Kingdra at such range, and the closer he got, the more he risked being hit by one of the Kingdra's own moves. That nozzle allowed it to send water type attacks that moved much more quickly than any I'd ever seen before.
"Double team" I said. A new strategy started to form in my mind as close to a dozen copies of Broly appeared around the pond that the Kingdra had claimed. It was surrounded by land so we could easily hem it in. We were blatantly stealing the tactic from Sabrina, but I doubted she'd mind. After all, I needed it right now.
"Use focus blast whenever it slows down and you can get a clean hit. Swap positions with your doubles using extreme speed. Don't get hit" I commanded next, and the Broly I knew to be the original disappeared in a blur and a clone took his place. From there, even I had difficulties figuring out which one was real. Although since Broly never stayed still, it was reasonable to expect that all and none of them were him at the same time. A focus blast sailed at the Kingdra from the left. It dodged and retaliated with a water gun that went through a clone's body. Another blast from the right. Same thing.
By the time the fifth blast came around, the Kingdra didn't even bother dodging, taking the attack on its highly durable crest and retaliating instantly. Too slow though.
"Your pokemon will tire before mine," Claire stated with what I felt was boredom in her voice. "So there's no doubt about who is superior though, Blizzard" The last word was directed at Kingdra, and its effects were instant. The very environment changed around us as the Kingdra got to work. The skies started to rain ice around the battlefield, and the ice was whipped around them in a storm that both hampered visibility and interfered with Broly's double team. With ice flowing straight through the illusions, it was child's play for Kindgra to detect the real one, and the real Broly was being peppered by smaller hits that made it likely that he'd slow down eventually. Death by a thousand cuts, if you would. In one move, she'd made my strategy useless, and put a clear time limit on the battle. Was this the power of a real elite? I clenched my fist, trying to figure out a way out.
"Dig" I commanded, trying to come up with something more permanent. If this were any other pokemon, I'd have Broly outlast it by simply waiting, but that victory wasn't worth it to Broly, and Claire's Kingdra wouldn't be so easily tired. 'Earthquake' IO commanded Broly, and the ground all across the arena shattered. He was underground, so literally every [part of his body was used to channel the waves through the ground. Even the ice that Kingdra floated above was shattered. The pond had frozen through, so there was no more water, and the ice had dispersed into enough pieces that she would have a bit of difficulty collecting them into a usable amount. The Blizzard still didn't die out, so we prepared the next step.
I reached out with my aura and told Broly in no uncertain terms, 'We won't be able to win this, but we can set things up for our next team mate' . I felt his resolve as he agreed with me. Kingdra wasn't the type of pokemon we'd have an easy time overcoming, and with a type disadvantage, we'd had literally no chance against her. The fact that Broly had lasted so long was impressive on its own. Now, all we had to do was set things up for the next few matchups. Claire still had a Salamence, a Dragonair, a Gyrados, Charizard, and a Dragonite on her main team. We'd have to be very strategic with the rest of this battle. Luckily, I had my own team of monsters ready to throw down, and once we took Kingdra out of the way, it would be easy pickings.
'Re-surface and sunny day' I commanded through our aura bond, and he prepared himself for the next stage of the battle.
XXXXX- THE ANNOUNCER
"Claire's Kingdra looks to have young Oak's rock-type on the run. It's easy to see how this happened, isn't it? Kingdra is one of the strongest pokemon in all of Indigo, and with a type advantage, this wasn't a fair matchup at all. I'd have subbed out the pokemon at the beginning if I were him, not doing whatever fumble with the pokeball he had. Oh look, guys. The Kleavor is coming back up. Still gives me chills whenever I see it. Who'd have thought that Scyther had a separate evolution. Really gets you thinking, doesn't it." I took a deep breath before continuing.
"Sunny day. Woah. Really feeling the heat in here, aye. Kleavor seems to be attempting to overcome the strength of Kingdra's blizzard with his own environmental manipulation. The elements fight for dominance for a few seconds, but now Kingdra's blizzard continues unabated. Did you expect anything less? Kleavor doesn't even seem surprised as it rushes at Kingdra to begin a melee. Kingdra starts moving in the opposite direction, and I can't fault it for that. Look at those arms. If you thought Scizor looked mean, Kleavor is a whole different beast. Those arm blades look like they cleave through steel for fun." I smiled at my own joke and waited for the obligatory chuckles from the audience before returning to the job I was barely getting paid for.
"A duck here, a dive there, and Kleavoris within range to do some real damage. His first attack is blocked by Kingdra's crest. Both pokemon are close in size, but Kleavor clearly has the advantage in bulk. They struggle with each other for dominance for a bit before Kingdra finally pulls out her ace in the hole. All the ice liquefies instantly and Kleavor is done for. He doesn;t even get the chance to retreat before he's caught. Oak returns his pokemon in the nick of time, using his only substitution of the match. I don't' think Kleavor will be happy about that. Zoom in on Oak's face, you can see he's considering his options. Claire's Kingdra is a monster of a pokemon, and the fact that he's here with two rock types, and a fire type while leaving his grass and electric types behind definitely shows lack of foresight. A loss here will teach him a lot more than a win would." I gave my two cents, being careful to criticise him but not so harshly that it was obvious that I hated him. The pretence of an objective point of view was one of the reasons I'd been chosen for this job after all. I was the perfect choice to promote Claire's image while being seemingly objective. And they'd said my degree in literature would never prove useful.
"Oak's next choice is a Milotic. For the less informed among you, a milotic is one of the rarest water types out there. Famed for their beauty and calming aura, they're pretty much the direct opposite to Gyrados. Former Champion of Hoenn, Wallace had a milotic as the centrepiece of his team. This milotic isn't going to be as strong as that one, but the species has a lot going for it. Let's see how his water type fares against the gym leaders. The first exchange is a nullity. Kingdra sends a hydropump, but Milotic snatches control of the water before it hits her and sends it back as a row of icicles. They crash against Kingdra's crown, shattering on impact and doing no damage. Milotic controls some of the water in the arena, creating an orb that she floats within, and Oak shouts something in that made-up language he's fond of resorting to. What do you make of that, Drake?" I turned to my taciturn partner
"Well, Twenty-one. It's a bit of a strange thing. Not the best of signs for his mental health, but all the best trainers are a bit crazy aren't they?" I scowled at the last part of the reply, and sought to guide him back on our task.
"Crazy is one thing, but shouting in a made-up language seems to be pure insanity if you ask me." I said while giving him a significant look, silently willing him to get the momo
"Aye. I agree with you there. Although that's not the only bonkers thing he's been doing lately is it?" Finally, I'd begun to wonder if I'd have to end up personally guiding him to say what he needed to.
"Indeed, Drake. Indeed. There's suing the league, getting dropped by Silph, announcing his retirement on the forums, and then doing a complete 180 barely a month later. Even one of these things would be alarming, but all of them together speaks of a bit of mental instability, and not the fun kind" I said, laying down my cards.
"Of course. I see your point. Donnell Oak wouldn't be the first teenager to crack under the weight of his own success. Icarus has flown too close to the sun indeed." Lovely. Now that that's done with, let's move back to the battle.
"And back to the battle folks, Milotic is giving Kingdra a run for his money, snatching every opportunity to be a nuisance.."
XXXXXX- DONNELL OAK
"Ok, now that I have my eight badge, what next?" I asked Oak and my brothers as I reclined on the couch in the lab. An obviously new addition.
"Now, we focus on routing out the actually important targets. I've been feeding the league with information about Giovanni's forces, but by the time they move out, their leaks would have informed Team Rocket so they could remove everything of value." Oak said, and I had to confess confusion.
"So if you know that the league has leaks, why have you been feeding them information in the first place?"
"Because people are scared. Regardless of whatever you have against it, the league is the only hope the common man has in this situation. People need to be able to trust in and rely on the league. The league needs to be seen doing something to stop the rockets, and since their information gathering systems are so terrible, I've taken the duty of ensuring we don't get caught of guard by the rockets and making sure the league had targets on hand to direct their wrath at"
"And now that you have me?"
"Now, we move quickly and quietly. All the targets I've given the league are small-fry. I have an inside scoop on some of the most important bases team rocket manages in Indigo and Hoenn. That's where you come in. Most of these bases are large complexes, near impossible to move with any speed, but the first ones we'll need to go after are their breeding centres. We need to hamper team rocket's ability to produce new pokemon for their army."
I nodded, understanding the goal, but I still couldn't see why they had to wait for me before moving with the mission, so I asked.
"The two largest breeding centres are on opposite ends of the region. The moment we attack one, the other will be evacuated. There's no conceivable way for me to be in both places at once, and only Metagross remains of David's original team. We're trying to build one, but that would take time, the one thing we don't have. That's where you step in. I'll attack one of the complexes on my own, and you'll head for the other one as David's backup. Understood?"
I nodded, and we began planning the moveout.
XXXXXX- THE ACE TRAINER
I clutched my pokeball, the only one on my belt as I crouched next to my little brother. Who would have thought that Donnell would have ended up being the best of us. An elite-level team in his first two years of being a trainer. I was sure he couldn't see it, but Dad already deferred to him in some things. He was dad's successor, and unlike before, where that might have triggered some anger in me, all I felt was acceptance and calm. I'd joined ACE to make dad proud, and I'd gone in over my head on my first real mission. I'd lost my team and proven that I'd never be the champion dad sought to produce to succeed him. In contrast, Donnell had become a superb trainer. Ten pokemon, each strong and diverse. He'd been strong enough to be made an interim gym leader, and then strong enough to beat Claire's entire team without even needing to resort to his last pokemon. My brother was something else, and I was proud.
"How do you want to do this?" He asked from my side on the rooftop we'd chosen to spy on our target from.
"We could try sneaking in, but that comes with a lot of risk. On the other hand, we could just walk in guns blazing" He said, using another weird phrase he'd picked up from one place or another.
Sneaking in came with the risk of being caught unprepared and instantly surrounded. If we went in with the direct approach, we'd be forced to fight from the get-go, but we'd be doing that with the assurance that as we moved forward, we'd only be facing enemies in front of us. That also came with its own risk of them being able to consolidate more defences against us.
"Why not do both?" I asked him with a smile, as I felt a plan crazy enough to be worthy of ACE come to mind.
"I sneak in behind them, while you attack from the front. They gather all their defences to stop you, while I move freely inside to make sure they can't bring all their resources to bear. Do some sabotage, mess around with some stuff. That kind of thing." I continued in explanation and I saw him smile as he came to my way of thinking. He drew all the attention to him while I got to wreak havoc on their defences. I hated how the roles weren't switched, but my pragmatic side had to admit that he was just more suited to that kind of role than I'd ever be. I'd seen his team in action against Claire, and they were the exact opposite of subtle. With that kind of power, I don't think they've ever needed to be. A fucking Gardevoir taking out a Dragonaire with a single move has to be the highlight of the season. THe fact that the same Gardevoir had gone on to defeat a Dragonite and smite a Salamence had me re-evaluating all I'd thought about the species.
When that Gardevoir appeared by his side, I gulped and got to work on my end of the plan. Metagross made both of us invisible, and we floated down towards the Celadon Game Corner as my brother teleported in front of the building and proclaimed in a loud voice.
"This is to all members of team rocket. Lay down your arms and surrender, if you want this to be quick and painless. Don't. If you don't" Iresisted the urge to facepalm as he walked in with his head held high and his Gardevoir trailing after him with her spoons clenched tightly in her hands. Guess I wasn't the only one ill-at-ease with my brother's nonchalance. As much as it worried me though, it pissed off the rockets even more. We'd worried about how to get them to attack or show their true colours because if we just went in, moves flying, we'd look like mad men, but somehow Donnell neatly sidestepped the entire issue.
It might have been annoyance at my brother's tone, or irritation at his audaciousness, or even fear at knowing who exactly they faced, but the Rockets attacked first. One grunt, unadorned in the uniform as he was, sent out a Raticate that Gardevoir beheaded before it could even finish crying out its species' name. I blinked at that. That kind of casual brutality. That was ACE through and through. To kill an opposing pokemon that was no real threat to one's own was the kind of thing I'd expect to see from ACE veterans who'd seen all the world had to offer, not my teenage brother who should be shivering at the thought of fighting for his life.
"Anyone else?" He asked with an arched brow, and the rockets all looked between the dead normal type and my brother's Gardevoir. I could see more than a few of them itching towards the clasp of their pokebelts, but the surrender wasn't forthcoming since one of them chose to grow balls at exactly the wrong moment.
"Fuck you" He cried and released all his pokemon at once. Not a bad move, just a very stupid one, as my brother smiled and sent out the fighting dragon from the ball on the foremost left. "Kommo-o" It shouted and jumped into the fray.
It jumped in and punched the first Zubat to pulp, before ducking under the arbok's charge and wrapping its body around his fist and tearing it to pieces. Violent. If there was one word I'd use in describing my brother's team, that would be it. Some pokemon were more graceful than others, but it seemed like every member of my brother's team was hardwired to fight to the end. The Charizard that had dispatched Claire's Kingdra was the next to take to the field. It turned one Muk into nothing but fumes, evaporating it with a single concentrated flamethrower, and moving on instantly. I prepared myself mentally, and jumped on Metagross's back as he floated down the hallway, past the chaos.
The first thing I noticed upon entering the hidden hallway was how lucky we were. The hallway was narrow but tall, so we could comfortably float above the heads of the rocket members rushing out of the woodwork to deal with my brother's invasion. If it had been just a bit shorter, then our plan would have failed right there and then, and I'd have been surrounded by rockets in a narrow hallway. I trusted Metagross, but there wasn't any pokemon I'd give high odds of surviving that while trying to protect a fragile human. A DISASTER IS WHAT IT WOULD HAVE BEEN.
Luckily, things didn't have to come to that, so we were able to continue like we originally planned. Making our way over the crowd to the first of the breeding labs. This was both a research and a breeding centre according to Oak's intelligence, so there had to be a lot more rooms like this one, considering the size of it. Multiple pokemon were kept in varying states of suspended animation, with the most impressive being a dragonair floating in a vat of strange liquid. I could either just release them or destroy the capsules, but after checking the computers the scientists had left behind in the chambers, I was able to determine that they couldn';t be awakened with anything resembling even the vaguest definitions of speed. There was no need to kill them, because they'd never get the opportunity to be threats in this battle, and after this, they would be entirely the league's problem. Good news, if I ever heard it.
The next breeding room was for Ratata, and I had to unfortunately order Metagross to snap their necks. THere was no real regret on my face as the normal type pokemon perished. THey weren;t the main target of this raid, but the fact that they formed the backbone of team rocket's forces meant the more of them I killed, the more would be off the streets, and not causing casualties in the war brewing across Indigo. The next room was a dressing room that had a few stragglers waiting within. I remained cloaked on Metagross's body as we listened to their conversation to get a hint of what was happening.
"Are you sure we shouldn't be going up, Luc. The boss might not be happy about this" One of them said to the one in the middle. With the way the others deferred to him, I noted him to be the leader.
"Yes. I'm sure. Think about it. The Boss is scary, don't get me wrong, but he isn't here. Donnell Oak is. He's here with that Gardevoir and that Snorlax, that monster of a Charizard and a motherfucking Tyranitar. He's here with the team that took out the strongest gym leader and he isn't showing any mercy. I follow him on the forums, you know? The only thing he hates more than the league is team rocket, so I'm going to keep my distance. If you know what's good for you, you'll be doing the same. The boss can do what he wants when he gets here, but at least we'd still be alive and so would our pokemon". The leader, Luc, said in reply and went back to watching something on his phone. When he put it like that, I could see the logic in his actions.
He was less than trash though. I hated the rockets that fought, but at least, I could respect them. They fought for their beliefs, misplaced as they were. This idiot spat in the face of all that. He wore the colours of team rocket when it suited him, and quickly turned his cloak when he had to face some real opposition. I longed to deal with them right there and then, but Metagross kept me on task. We had more things to do, and more missions to accomplish.
We moved deeper into the complex, preparing to take the rest of the building. Of course, the next room had to be where I found something entertaining.
XXXXX- Donnell Oak
"And so you're saying that you and your brother here just happened to be wandering Celadon City and found out about a rocket hideout inside the Game corner, and then instead of calling the authorities, you decided to tackle the problem by yourself?" The police officer asked, trying to make sense of my deliberately bullshit story, while keeping a wary eye on Broly as he stood at my back. He'd refused to even consider entering his ball once he'd found out that the police were on their way.
Ino floated in a cornet, keeping a wary eye on all the restrained rockets as David gave his statement to a different police officer. Since we hadn't bothered to get our stories straight before the police arrived, I was sure that his excuse would be a bit different from mine.
"No. You seem to be deliberately misunderstanding me, Mr. Jones" I said with a sigh, doing my best to feign tiredness like I wasn't having an ungodly amount of fun with the whole situation.
"Ok, explain it to me again"
"I said I entered on a lark, and asked the rockets to surrender, not expecting there to actually be any rockets. Once the rockets did reveal themselves and started to attack, I had no choice but to defend myself. It was all self-defence, I assure you" I told him with a bright smile on my face as I sold him the most obvious bullshit I;d ever heard. This time, I wasn't going to be submitting to a League arrest. As a lab trainer, I had the authority to do everything he thought I'd done, so even if I was selling him bullshit, there was nothing he could do about it.
"And where does your brother come in?"
"You'll have to ask him that yourself. I'm just as curious as you are. Imagine my surprise when I finished with the rockets and saw him coming up from a secret tunnel."
"And the pokemon?" He asked, changing the subject.
"The foreign pokemon my brother found have already been turned over to the Oak Lab. The League Professor's Act makes it clear that the professor and his lab trainers have the right to seize obviously smuggled or stolen pokemon. I don't think there's any doubt that those pokemon fall into one of those categories" I said, finally giving a serious reply, as he asked about the den of Riolu that David had found. After he claimed one for himself, he'd sent the rest over to the lab for Oak to study and decide what to do with. I knew they were pokemon native to Sinnoh, so seeing them here, in this world, where all the regions were so separated that most didn't even know about the existence of other regions beyond Hoenn and Kanto was a very bad sign.
I couldn't let on that I knew anything about it for obvious reasons so I feigned ignorance when we'd been on the call with Oak. He'd finished his attack in half the time it had taken us, even though he was attacking a much larger base all on his lonesome. The man was OP af.
"I see. So let's go over this story of yours again" The officer said, and I started to feel some of his annoyance now. The first time had been hilarious, the second, amusing, the third, comedic, and now that I was forced to recount the story for the fourth time, it was getting a bit tedious.
XXXXXXXX
"Fascinating. Very fascinating. Steel and fighting type pokemon. How interesting? I'd thought your fighting/dragon combination to be the most interesting, but this one seems to take the cake. They don't share any of the steel armour that one would expect from a steel type, but that's clearly because of their fighting subtyping. Fighters need to be quick and nimble after all." Oak said as he examined one of the Riolu with his tools. Normally, holding a wild pokemon as he did was a bad idea, but with Dontaryon's Hypno keeping a watchful eye, there was no real danger.
"Any idea where it comes from?" My eldest brother asked with a look that I couldn't quite place.
"You know exactly where it comes from, Dontaryon. After all, Hoenn uses Devon in most of their explorations." Oak said in reproach, and I watched my father and David turn to Dontaryon at once, and I figured that this had to be some sort of ambush.
A/N; Thanks for reading. We're entering into the last arc of the story and just finished up with Chapter 52 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. There might be a surprise chapter on Friday, so you should probably turn on your alerts so you don't miss it.
I also started a new story. It's set in the Naruto universe, and I should be able to dedicate more time to it as Oak enters it's last arc (It's a long arc, but still the last one). Feel free to check that out if you're interested. I might end up hosting a poll on the pa-atreon page to determine which of my stories I end up focusing on when we finish Oak, so stay tuned for that.