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.
"What're you looking at me for?" My brother asked in a high-pitched voice and I resisted the urge to facepalm. Even nearly half a decade since he left the region, he was still the same person he'd always been. His tells for when he lied remained the same. Senior Vice President of big corporate or not, he was still the terrible liar I'd grown up with.
I could see both Oak and David pick up on the tells the same time as I did. "We know about the other regions, Dontaryon, and I know exactly what Devon is up to," Oak said with a smile on his face.
"What are you talking about?" My brother asked, perhaps not even noticing that he'd begun scratching at his thigh already.
"Devon is exploring the other regions, breaching the treaty signed between Indigo and Hoenn close to a century ago. You don't seem to remember what happened when all the continents were one" Oak said with a scowl on his face and realising that he'd been sussed out, my brother gave up on pretending or keeping up his illusion of ignorance.
"Fine. We've been looking around, but we haven't made contact. Even we aren't so stupid. But think about what would happen if we did. New regions to explore, new pokemon to train, new ideas to interact with" Dontaryon spoke with a hunger in his eyes that I was sure everyone in the room could recognise. No one who carried the Oak name could ever be even vaguely accused of sanity. We were all crazy as fuck and proud of it.
"New markets for your company, you mean" Oak corrected, not willing to be drawn away from his scolding.
"Same thing. Everyone gains when we explore new ground. If we're innovative and competitive, the world gets a boost, would you rather give it a sedative?" He asked with a scowl, not keen on backing down, which was new ground for my brother to explore. He'ds always been the most obedient of us all, never disagreeing with Oak. Not to his face at least.
"I'd rather a sedative than a lethal injection. That's what you risk with this. The last time the regions interacted, the war shifted the very geography of the world. The legendary pokemon themselves had been forced to intervene to prevent us all from killing each other. Since then, we haven't interacted, and even when Hoenn was found a century ago, we all agreed looking for more regions was a stupid thing to do"
"Fear? Is that what controls you father? The great Samuel Oak. Champion of Champions. Most powerful trainer in the world is scared. Just imagine the headlines. I can't even believe this."
"Not fear. Caution. You risk interfering with things best left asleep. You risk war for no good reason."
"No good reason? No, there's a very good reason, Father. You just fail to see it. We're the strongest we've ever been right now. Both Hoenn and Indigo right now have a combined 20 elite-level trainers. There haven't been so many alive at the same time within human history. This is unprecedented, uncharted waters, and it's difficult to tell if this trend will continue or if we'll see a decline. RIght now, we're powerful enough that I give us good odds against the other regions. Now, we can move on our own initiative. We're powerful enough to force a peace. That's how powerful we are now. If we move now, we win." I started to see both the logic and insanity in my brother's ideas.
"Are you insane?" David asked the question the rest of us were thinking in our minds.
"You want to meet them now and start the war now, out of the mistaken belief that we're more powerful than they are?" David asked rhetorically, trying to impress the stupidity of his ideas upon our stubborn brother.
"No. That's not what I'm saying. You're not listening to me. Not at all. The wat is inevitable. The regions have known about each other for at least a few years now. Someone will make first contact. Whoever acts first, wins. I just think we should be the ones to do so now that we're stronger than we've ever been. Think about it, between Hoenn and Indigo, there's four champion level trainers available to us. For the elite level, more trainers at that level are rising by the day. Just look at Donnell. One year as a trainer, and already elite-level. How strong will he be in another year? A decade? We have the power now to make a difference, Devon just wants to make use of this power to secure our futures."
"ANd what if they're stronger?" I asked suddenly, surprising even myself with my words.
"I don't know much about what you guys speak, but from the context of your conversation, I'm guessing there are other regions out there, beyond Kanto, Johto and Hoenn, and you want us to conquer these regions before they conquer us, right?"
"Not exac.."
"But close enough. The problem with this plan is that you don't know exactly how strong they are. What if they have a dozen champions just waiting to be unleashed on our coasts. What if they have monsters on the level of legendary pokemon waiting to set our cities on fire and make us regret ever considering reaching out." I pointed out, interrupting him before he could complete his reply.
He gained a look of triumph like I'd just led the conversation exactly where he wanted. "And that's exactly why we must explore the regions. We need to know what kind of power they have and urgently. We must have this information, for our own security."
"You've taken more than information, haven't you? My sources speak of captured pokemon" Oak added, preventing Dontaryon from gaining ground with his arguments.
"All for study. Don't cast stones like your league is not doing the same thing with Silph. Donnell has a Kommo-o on his team. Should I tell him exactly what region that pokemon was stolen from?" My brother shot back, and I had to reconsider some things. I knew Kommo-o wasn't native to Kanto but I always assumed that he must have made his way here by some accident, but now I was confronted with the truth. Gai was a stolen pokemon, and that probably meant there was a high chance that his parents had been killed in order for Silph to capture him. And this had all been done with the league's consent? Insanity.
XXXXXXX
I sat behind a car, crouched and waiting for our target to pass by. THis time, David and I weren't sent after a base, but a single Rocket member. This one was supposedly dangerous, and had trained with Giovanni for decades. He was at least as strong as the average gym leader and wasn't going to be holding back at all. I felt my heart beat within my chest, unable to ignore the excitement I felt at the battle in front of me. Part of that excitement also came from not being trapped in the same space as my siblings and Oak. They'd been fighting since that first argument, and everytime they shared a room for more than a few minutes, the subject invariably returned to the exploration of foreign regions.
Executive Neutron, as he was called by the rockets, took a turn into a deserted alley in Goldenrod city, and we took the opportunity to swoop down. Ino tried grabbing him in a psychic hold, but his body glowed with a dark light as he slipped through her grip. He rolled on the floor before sending a pokemon out of one of the balls at his belt. The Houndoom was unable to do much but whine as Ino appeared before it and teleported away, overwhelming the dark type's innate resistance with sheer power and force of will. From our bond, I could tell that she'd dropped it right in the middle of a nearby lake. Dead on arrival.
My victim's next pokemon, a Crobat, was crushed in Metagross' own psychic grip. I calmed down, thinking our opponent captured, before he suddenly disappeared in a blur of white light. I turned to David in shock, to see him losing all the complexion on his face. I'd never been so quickly hurried out of a location in my life.
XXXXX
"And you say things between your siblings and father still have not gotten better" Sabrina, my girlfriend (?), confirmed as we sat together in a cafe in Viridian. Life as a gym leader suited her. I'd already heard whispers that the league was going to be turning Viridian into a psychic type gym and confirming Sabrina as its permanent gym leader.
I could see the appeal in the decision. It was a wise choice. Viridian needed a strong hand, and Sabrina had efficiently cracked down on crime, headed the recovery efforts, and successfully led Viridian to be the quickest city to recover from Team Rocket's attacks. She'd achieved incredible things as a gym leader, and was keen to achieve even more.
"Yes. But that's enough about me. How are things over here? Has recruitment gotten any easier?" I asked her in turn, tired of talking about the state of things in the lab.
"The Gym is fine. I have received a letter from the league, expressing an interest in having me stay here permanently"
"Congratulations, Sabrina. I'm so proud of you."
"Do not be. I will be turning the offer down" I looked at her, wondering if she was okay.
"Hasn't it always been your dream to be a gym leader?" I asked in confusion.
"Yes, but not like this. Being a gym leader requires me to settle down here for the foreseeable future. I want to explore the world, visit Hoenn, meet other psychics. You asked me what I wanted months ago. Now, I have an answer to that question. I want to wander and explore" She proclaimed with excitement, and I felt my cheeks redden as I saw how beautiful she became when she spoke of her dreams.
"I love you" I said, without even noticing the words that had left my mind until it was too late. I felt panic overtake me completely.
"No, Donnell. The books clearly say you should wait to say those words until the 15th date" She said, looking at me in confusion.
If I could have sighed in relief without arousing suspicion, then I would have. Who'd have thought that Sabrina's social awkwardness would ever be a good thing. At least I hadn't embarrassed myself as thoroughly as I could have. Wait. Date? She thought these were dates. I'm dating Sabrina? I felt my brain shut down and refuse to reboot.
XXXXXX- THE SINNOH ELITE
"What the fuck is that?" I thought to myself as a shapeless mass of dark gas came out of the stone Shirona had tossed to the field. Two months. That's how long it had taken Shirona to get here, standing on the precipice of being crowned Champion. The shortest championship run in history.
Normally, the challenger would need months in between battles, to heal up their team, and prepare for their next opponent, but Shirona had kept to the minimum two weeks from battle to battle. She'd gone the first two elite four battles without even being forced to switch out her Garchomp. Flint had managed to secure a win over the pseudo-legendary but had to lose three of his pokemon and his mega-evolved Steelix. Mega evolution? Wasn't that a trippy thing to see.
Flint, absolute Legend that he is, whipped out a new form of evolution and finally took out Garchomp with a series of moves so powerful I couldn't even believe my eyes. Of course, it had quickly fallen to Shirona's Octillery, and the last of Flint's pokemon had followed it quickly. In spite of the loss though, Flint had shown us that Shirona was not invulnerable. The Garchomp could be beaten, and we'd spent every second of the last few weeks preparing Lucian for the inevitable clash. ]
And then, she chose not to start with the Garchomp. Lucian's Mr. Mime seemed to be especially astounded as the darkness formed into a cloud with a multitude of eyes formed from the rock she'd unceremoniously tossed on the field. All the data was fucked from the beginning, and the smirk on her face showed she knew what she'd done. Thrown all our models into chaos and left shadows behind. I wondered what I'd have done if it had been me faced with such a departure from the expected actions.
Lucian handled it like a champ and just rolled with the punches. With his assurances, Mr. Mime stood up straight and got to work.
XXXXXX
It was brutal. A clean sweep of the fourth elite was how Shirona took her place as Champion of Sinnoh. There'd never been such an undisputed Champion in league history, and I highly doubt there'd ever be another. She was so far ahead of us when it came to pure battling ability that there wasn't even any doubt in our hearts or on the pokeweb that she was the strongest trainer in Sinnoh. That alone should not have been able to guarantee the throne, but with Sinnoh in the situation it was in, we didn't really have a choice. She was strong enough, and we had good odds against Indigo. We could do it.
"What do you have for us, Agent?" Lucian asked, taking his customary place at the right hand of the champion. Gerald was gone, and we'd replaced him without a second thought. We'd placed someone else where he once stood.
"Indigo as a league is a collection of two different regions. Kanto and Johto. Both regions are joined by land and connected with similar cultures. They have a varying elite structure, with an elite four chosen from across the league, but each individual region having their own independent council of elite trainers." The Agent began, and I made sure to scrawl every word he said on my notes for further analysis. We would be going to war, and not a single thing could go wrong. There was no such thing as an acceptable margin of error.
"The Champion? What do we know of him and his elite four?"
"The Champion is Lance Blackthorn. He is a Dragon master, and commands a team of six dragons, each of them at the elite-level at the minimum. One of his Dragonite is widely accepted as the second strongest member of its species in the world."
"Second strongest?" Bertha asked with a look of confusion on her face. And I understood it. Surely as the champion, he ought to be the strongest.
"Lance Blackthorn is a threat. I've watched playbacks of dozens of his battles and from what I've seen, he wouldn't have difficulty beating anyone in this room with the exception of Champion Cynthia herself. However, he isn't the biggest threat. He isn't the strongest trainer in Indigo by any means. That honour goes to this man over here, Samuel Oak '' He said, turning the display he'd been projecting information on to the picture of an old man. Not like I'd ever seriously describe him as such. He had to, objectively, be in his fifties or sixties, but nothing from his bearing hinted at it. His har had taken on hints of grey, but his frame was so powerful and built that he looked not a year older than forty. The picture he showed us had the man riding on top of a dragonite, moving with a look of focus on his eyes that made it easy to tell that he saw the world like I did. Everything was a statistic to him.
"I find it difficult to believe that this random trainer is stronger than the champion and yet does not hold the position. Did you get any confirmation on it?" Lucian asked with a look of calm assessment. He was taking in and categorising the information, just like I was. Much less efficiently but undoubtedly effectively.
"He was once the champion. Ruled the League for almost forty years, before stepping down and leaving the throne empty for the present Champion to take shortly after. His team remains alive, nad footage from an attack on one of their cities where he participated in the defence shows that they've lost none of the edge that made them a champion's team in the first place" The agent replied, and switched to footage of a Dragonite tossing around fully evolved pokemon like Pidgey. It looked unstoppable, and I watched our own champion, curious as to what she thought about it.
"Of course, from what our top analysts have made from the footage, Champion Cynthia's Garchomp would have the advantage if they faced up, but with Lance's Dragonite getting involved,defeat is all but certain. Our recommendation is to avoid direct combat with Indigo by any means necessary. Two Champions and a whole host of elite level trainers, one of which is Samuel Oak's own son, is bad odds for us to face against." The Agent spoke at last, concluding his analysis.
I understood his point, and with the data he'd given us, I could not come to another conclusion, but something in me didn't quite agree with just letting Indigo get away with their attack on us. With killing our champion in a cowardly assassination.
"You would suggest we just let it be? We let a dead champion lie? We leave Indigo without consequences for their actions? Is that your advice, agent?" Flint asked with a scowl on his face, looking on the verge of standing from his seat and throttling the agent. Gerald had been dear to all of us, but he and Flint had been the closest. Gerald always was partial to the fire type master. After all, the Infernape Flint bore as a starter was the offspring of Gerald's own starter. A pokemon he'd lost in a training accident no one had been able to get to the root of. He'd been mute on the matter. Flint clearly shared that affection.
"I'm sure the dear agent is not suggesting that." Cynthia spoke for the first time, calming Flint with her words and turning her attention to the agent. "We will be attacking Indigo, that is without question. A Champion has fallen, and if we do not retaliate, what stops them from full-scale invasion. Remember what happens the last time the regions found themselves. War is coming, and the only way to survive is to win. He who strikes first, strikes twice, as they say." The weight of her words settled on all of us near instantly. This was more than a war for revenge. A war for survival was what stood before us. We were elites of Sinnoh. Her survival would always be our priority.
"I agree with you, Champion Shirona. But the question still remains. How do we deal with the disadvantage we find ourselves in?" Lucian asked, keeping a level head as he watched everyone with those keen eyes, his Bronzong, floating behind him.
"Oh that's simple. We must just become stronger than our opponents. In our battle, Flint showed the most unique of things. Mega evolution. Teach us of it."She said, directing her attention to the fire elite at her last words.
He coughed as everyone stared at him. We had stopped questioning him after his battle with Cynthia when he'd made it clear he had no intention to share and Lucian had backed him up. Now, with a Champion being the one to ask, he had very little choice about whether he spoke of it or not. A champion's word was law, and to deflect the questioning of one was not so easily done.
"Before I begin, I must mention that Champion Gerald himself ordered me to take the secret to the grave. His orders are the only that might release me from my oath." He said, giving Cynthia a significant look, and she nodded in reply. He was asking if she was giving an order or a mere request. Only a Champion's word can counteract another's.
"Now, Agent. Please excuse us." He spoke, his voice deathly serious. The Agent swept off, and we were left alone in the room. The Champion and all four elites.
"Mega Evolution is the final stage in pokemon evolution, as Gerlad theorised. It's a temporary, but significant evolution. It gives a boost in power, akin to a normal evolution, but a few orders of magnitude more. Gerald would have been best at explaining the theory to you but what I do know is that it needs two things. A mega stone, and a keystone. They're the catalysts that bring out the evolution in the pokemon. The mega stone interfaces with the pokemon, and the keystone does the same with the trainer. Both the trainer and pokemon are needed for this evolution to take place."
"And how was it discovered?" Bertha intruded, a look of curiosity on her face. It's highly unlikely Gerald was just playing around with rocks and evolved one of his pokemon
"I don't know. I didn't bother asking. All I know is that its powerful and dangerous. When a pokemon mega evolves, it reaches new levels of power and all its traits are heightened to new levels. Even aggression. Previously controllable pokemon become something else. There's a reason Steelix is the only pokemon on my team that mega evolves. His steel typing made it easy for me to deal with his improved strength with the rest of my team weighing in. Gerald's Infernape was a victim of its own strength when it mega evolved. It had been unable to listen to reason, and Gerald had been forced to put down his own pokemon to end the threat it posed. The Champion had been forced to put his own pokemon down. Mega evolution is dangerous, guys." Flint said at last, calming down.
"We understand. But we need the power. Between all of us here, I'm sure we can figure it out. Four elites and a Champion? There's no better team for unlocking the secrets of that power and harnessing it." Shirona spoke with a gleam in her eyes. "We can manage it. Trust me."
"Even if I did, not every pokemon can mega-evolve. Gerald theorised that only certain kinds could manage the transformation, and we don't exactly have a comprehensive list of those who can and those who can't. Gerald had found some mega stones and even started a collection, so those pokemon we already have stones for are definitely able to mega evolve. For the rest? Who knows?" FLint finally spoke to reply to the champion with a sigh. His resistance was only a token effort. He wanted this just as much as the rest of us. Indigo had to pay for what they did, and if we didn't have the strength to stop them right now, we just had to acquire it.
XXXXXX- Donnell Oak
"Just like that, Hashirama. Just like that. Keep the trees up, hold it. Hold it. Now, the flowers. Let's go" The buds from the trees came out quite a bit slower than average, but considering this was his seventh attempt today, I could let the drop in efficiency slide. The objective of this training was to make sure he had complete mastery of the moves we'd spent months working on at this point.
"Ok, take a break now. We'll return to this later. Kenpachi, your turn" My pseudo-legendary scowled as he took Hashirama's place at the centre of the mountain we'd colonised for our training. "Tyran Nitar. Tar." He shouted as he started an earthquake, concentrating the energy on his fist before burying that fist in the ground beneath him. The earth beneath him quivered, but we couldn't feel the effects of the earthquake on the ground we stood on. Good. That meant the first part of the move was working well. Now, let's just see if he could direct it better.
The ground finally ruptured as a literal Geyser of Lava came from the ground near Kenpachi. He took control of the lava with his terrakinesis and began directing it around him in circles. Beautiful. I knew having him spend more time with Kisame would be useful for him to get to the right frame of mind for manipulating the sludgy earth. Lava had liquid properties, but it was still all molten rock at the end of the day.
Kenpachi fired off the lava in bullets, ripping through Hashirama's forest with ease. Kisame was on hand to stop any forest fires, so I allowed my pseudo-legendary rock type to burn energy with his attempts. 'Now, for the last part of the move,' I thought to myself as I clapped my hands and waited for him to get the message.
His excitement died a bit as he summoned the lave over him and then wrapped it around his arm up to his claws. He couldn't feel pain from the heat of the magma, but getting it off his armour after he dried tended to be very stressful, so he wasn't too pleased with the training.
Good. The frustration was exactly what I needed. Kenpachi was unstoppable when he put his mind to something, and knowing that he'd have to use the move till he perfected it meant that he was very focused on ensuring mastery of the move. It was cute, I couldn't lie. Ino instantly teleported me a few feet to the left as Gai and Broly barreled through the space we'd once occupied, locked in their combat. Broly had been a genius of a fighter from the first day we started training and Gai was a pseudo-legendary fighting type. There wasn't a pair more made for each other than they were.
I didn't pay any more attention to their battle, than sending a quick warning to them through aura. It wasn;t the first time this had happened, and while it endangered me, I wasn't keen on completely stopping them. It was good training for Ino. She had to pay attention to two fast moving combatants, predict their paths and teleport us out of the wahy before they hit. She was one of my strongest pokemon, and was only getting better by the day.
Speaking of strong pokemon, though. I looked up and saw Igneel still surrounded, completely encased in flames like some sort of spectral armour.
The goal there was simple. Igneel was already a dangerous pokemon to face, but training him to constantly encase himself in fiery armour meant he'd be even more terrifying to face in close range, and more able to shrug aside certain environmental conditions. If he got the flames hot enough, he could practically ignore rain dance. The only problem was how draining the move was. We were trying to work to include the empowering capabilities of sunny day into the move itself, but that was a pipe dream. We were miles away from reverse engineering the move to that extent.
Tsunade shouted in amazement as she watched Snorlax attempt and succeed with his own move. Thunder punch, fire punch and crunch at the same time to make everything he did dangerous at close range. That was our goal for now, to train him to divide his energy efficiently and his concentration along with it, across the different elemental attacks. As a normal type, he had equal affinity with all the elements, and with his high 'special attack' stat, he could be a moving library of moves. Magnezone was off somewhere doing his own thing but I wasn't worried. There was a limit to the amount of trouble the electric type could cause on his own. Of course, that had to be the moment the ground beneath my feet threatened to erupt from an earthquake. I looked at Kenpachi with a scowl, but he looked just as surprised as I was.
Magnezone flying towards us like he had the hounds of hell on his metaphorical heels gave me a very good idea as to what was happening. It took a few more seconds for me to be able to get a good look at the pokemon chasing him. Of course, he managed to piss off a whole group of Onix. A den, if you would. I scowled and sent Kisame out of her ball. She wouldn't have a lot of water to work with, but it was good training all the same. My pokemon needed to learn to work with less than ideal conditions, so I quickly banned her from using rain dance. She had to use whatever water she could generate with her innate water type energy. Maybe this would be good training to improve her stores of water.
The first of the Onix crashed to the floor in front of us, not able to make it across the last few feet since Kisame's hydro pump slammed into its skull. Good. I facepalmed as Igneel dove straight into the second one, abandoning his training for the promise of battle. I wanted to criticise him for his actions, but I held off in favour of just letting everyone jump in on the chaos.
Ino focused her energy through the spoon in her left hand and nearly cleaved through one of the Onix with psycho cut. She was much too powerful for a Gardevoir. Far above than any instance of her species I'd ever met, and the fact that she wasn't even at her prime both scared and excited me. It scared me because I had no idea why she was so much more powerful than any other of her species, but excited me because she was on my team.
'Enough of that, focus on the present,' I thought to myself as Snorlax jumped with his powerful muscles and landed on the skull of one of the attackers. His bounces echoed across the clearing as they nearly shattered the stony skull of his victim. I'd missed this kind of chaos.
A/N; Hey Everyone. I'm sure you've noticed that this chapter is a bit early. There's a reason for that. It's my birthday. I turned 20 today, and decided what better gift could I give you guys who're letting me work towards living my dream than this one? There's probably quite a few things I could have given, but this is what I have, and I give it freely. Also, for the rest of this week (until Sunday), you get a 15% discount if you choose to opt for an annual plan on my pa-atreon page.
Thank you guys so much. You're all legends!