Detective Tom Geten has to admit that if there's one person in his life that never ceases to amaze him it's Asher Blight, when they first met about six months ago in Saffron City he seemed, at a glance, to be a completely ordinary boy but after becoming acquainted with him for as long as he has Tom has learned that he's anything but.

He's both brash and his language is more than a little crude for a fourteen year old, however that hardly means a thing when compared to his skill as a trainer, he managed to acquire all eight of the main Kanto Gym Badges even the Earth Badge from Giovanni and despite his delinquent-like appearance he's actually an extremely intelligent boy.

Intelligent enough to find out several vital pieces of information about Team Rocket, the most notorious criminal organisation in Indigo, one such piece of information was regarding their boss and his identity.

At first he cast aside his words as a teenager joking around, afterall how could a Gym Leader be the boss of a crime sindicate as big as Team Rocket? Giovanni is known as a hero for defending Kanto during the Indigo war, a role model to tens of thousands of Kantonians across the region, the thought of such a man ever stooping so low was on the verge of impossibility.

However... the boy was not without evidence. He provided video footage of Giovanni with several Rocket grunts, he showed physical proof that the Gym Leader of Viridian City was tied to several crimes around Kanto and he showed proof of the financial records of Viridian City that showed some extremely shady dealings and transactions through his account as a Gym Leader.

He is the head of the Team Rocket case, a man who has been on the force for nearly two decades and hasn't found a scrap of evidence that tied anyone to anything that had a link to Team Rocket at all even after nearly a year of this group being discovered and yet this teenager- this boy- not only found out who their leader was, but also gathered evidence to link him to his crimes and got the locations of several key bases of their operations for the police to raid and put the evil group out of commission.

He was outdone by a damn teenager. If he wasn't so impressed he'd focus more on his severely wounded pride.

At any rate all this information was extremely welcome and they were actually making really good progress, they've linked back Giovanni and Team Rocket back several bases where they are planning to comb through them all at once, as to not give them a chance to recover and organise themselves, the operation will actually take place in just a weeks time.

It's a real shame that Asher won't be there to see the fruits of their hard work come togther as the worst criminal organisation in Kantonian history is brought down but Tom understands that the conference is a massive deal to trainers of all ages, plus even with how mature he is at the end of the day he is still just a teenager and maybe it's probably for the best that he won't be there to see what the operation will be like, still Tom has grown to really like the boy, as much as he loves his two daughters he's always wanted a son and the teenager has really grown on him.
Hopefully they'll stay in touch after Rocket is taken care of.

Tom allowed himself to relax in one of the rare moments he had to himself. Well him and his family of course. Whilst he didn't watch Asher's last match apparently it was pretty one sided, maybe this next one would be better.

"Hey dad is that him?" Gwen, his eldest daughter who was about Asher's age, pointed at the brown haired grinning boy on the television who was about to face down against Larry Slade, a man who Tom remembers for coming in second place in the last years conference, he will be a tricky opponent.

"He sure is." Tom confirmed as Gwen's gaze lingered on Asher for a moment and she looked like she was thinking about something but didn't end up saying anything.

Tom... honestly hasn't been the greatest husband and father lately. He's been so absorbed in the Rocket case that he hasn't had enough brain power to spend any quality time with his family, Asher has told him to take a break every once in a while and spend some time with his family so once this who Rocket charade is done maybe he'll talk about spending some more time with his family.
Tom shook his head. He can think about that later, the match is starting now.

I stared down my opponent at the other end of the... ring? I mean it feels like a ring but it's not shaped like one- anyway I was staring down my opponent, he was pretty young and undoubtedly a very impressive trainer but at the same time... his name was Larry so taking him seriously was kinda difficult. It's like fighting the champion of the world only for his name to be Bob or something else stupid.

Whatever, he has a Charizard so he'll be worth battling.

The crowd was as wild as ever with my keen eye spotting a very familiar purple haired girl in the crowd that stared down with her permanently neutral gaze.

Seeing my only travelling companion watching me take stage I grinned at her and waved with a wink to express my acknowledgement of her making it out here all just to witness my battles in the Indigo Conference.

The crowd seemed to take this as me waving to them as they got rowdier at seeing me grin at them with confidence when in reality I was just waving to a single person. In response Sabrina lifted up her hand ever so slightly and waved at me with her expression not changing in the least.

And before you ask yes this is, technically, the same Sabrina from the anime who turned people into dolls for fun, I hate dolls every single one of them is creepy and weird, every heard of Annabelle? Chucky? The fuckin nutcracker?!

Okay maybe not that last one but you get my point. When I met her I was honestly expecting to have to fight for my life and crawl out of that place with my sanity only mostly intact, instead I just met... a girl. She was only twelve years old and her face was like a painting she seemed annoyed just by looking at me, as though I was a sore sight for her.

I was genuinely surprised at how normal the Gym looked, wasn't she meant to be dollifying people? I suppose that might have been an exaggeration of the anime given that most special powers here don't involves dolls at all, much to my relief; however you can never be too sure that a random girl won't suddenly turn you into a doll so I kept her at arms length. Later I'd learn that she took my weariness as me hearing that she was a psychic and reacted with prejudice. Personally I have no problem with people different to me, hell I think Sabrina's pretty badass with her wacky teleportation shit and stuff, but at the time Sabrina was just plain old pissed off at me since apparently she got that shit all the time back then and on top of that she didn't have any friends and her parents had left her when her powers first appeared.

When she first heard my reason for being so wary of her that's when I learned that she apparently doesn't turn people into dolls and that's how I made one of my very few friends.

To make a long story short we ended up travelling together for a while, no idea how that ended up happening, at the time I just found it cool that I had a psychic buddy who would grow up to be a super badass badass but... many I should have been less accepting about it.

Meh, it turned out alright in the end.

After waving to Sabrina I set my sights on the court where we'd be battling and continued my walk to stand opposite my opponent with a pokeball in my palm.

Once we were both in position with a dozen bright spotlights shining on us both the announcer spoke into his microphone." Ladies and gentlemen tonight we are watching the battle which will determine who joins the top 8 competitors of the Indigo Conference, this match will be held between Asher Blight of Viridian City and Barry Slice from Azalea Town!"

Barry seemed to regard me coldly with the blonde seeming not to like me for whatever reason. I wonder what I did to him?

I just grinned back at him with excitement for the coming battle and in response he just scoffed as he expanded a great ball in his palm and stared me down.

Alright what could he choose? I know that he has a Jolteon, a Tentacruel and a Charizard. None of those are amazing options against me given that rock and ground type moves are super effective against all of them, so if I was going up against a ground specialist then I'd probably choose a new pokemon. I can't exactly predict what he's going to choose so every option that I have has an equal chance of success. That's fine.

I expanded the pokeball in my palm and held it out as a challenge. I'll just have to play.

The announcer yelled out from just outside the middle of the arena." Trainers release your pokemon!"

My grin seemed to expand as Barry regarded me coldly and we both threw our pokeballs.

"Go Death!"

"Go Jynx!"

We both yelled at once as our pokemon emerged in two flashes of light. Death stood valiantly on my side of the field like a knight who wielded two bones on both of his hands instead of the traditional one which Marowak are known for holding.

Meanwhile on Barry's side of the field a... well I don't wanna say hooker but... I really don't know what else to say to describe a Jynx. I'm not gonna say that out loud though.

I couldn't help but cringe as the purple skinned ice-psychic pokemon sent a kiss my way. I just got some new nightmare fuel.

Seeing Death the announcer yelled." Is that Marowak holding two bones?!"

My dual wielding Marowak glared at Jynx with enough hatred to make pupp- Eevee's cry whilst the dopey eyes psychic blew another kiss his way in the hopes of drawing his attention. It wasn't very effective.

The reason Death has two clubs is because... well the second one belongs to his mother. She was killed by Team Rocket and he carried her club around with hin everywhere and he just never really parted with it. So when he evolved I just decided that he'd develop a fighting style that revolved around dual wielding blades. Death originally went with me because I told him that I'd raise him to become strong enough to take his revenge and since I wanted him on my team our symbiotic relationship just kind of... works.

Our bond is one of mutual trust and respect, even if we don't look it I'd go as far as saying that he's the pokemon I'm closest to in some respects.

Our eyes met and he nodded before turning to our opponent. It's show time.

The referee finally spoke up." Fight!"

I immediately whistled once he gave the order that we could begin and Death started to rush across the grassy battlefield with speeds that you wouldn't expect from a Marowak.

Barry is mildly caught off guard by the sudden move but collected himself immediately and yelled." Jynx use Icy Wind."

Ice type energy seemed to gather around Jynx's mouth and it responded by glowing pale blue and a gust of glacial frost was unleashed directly in Death's path.

I grinned as I ordered Death to counter." Use Dig."

Hearing the command my Marowak immediately dove downwards and in mere moments later a hole was left in the grass land which wasn't dissimilar to a hill left by a mole.

The Icy Wind missed it's mark and left a trail of thin ice over the hole which Death created and seeing this made Barry grit his teeth as be thought up a response to-

A hole immediately appeared in the ground and my Marowak burst out with great vigor and attempted to use Bone Club on the opponents face. Key word being attempted.

With surprising speed and grace the Jynx managed to narrowly avoid strike that would have undoubtedly done serious damage should Death's club have met their face and Barry quickly capitalised on the missed blow by yelling out his next order.

"Use Psychic quickly Jynx"

His pokemon's eyes seemed to glow an ominous blue for a moment and I knew from experience how difficult Psychic can be to deal with so it's best that we avoid. He's already committed to that Psychic so-

"Death use Flamethrower!"

Barry seemed to realise his blunder but by then it was too late.

In a split second an orb of fire appeared in deaths mouth which pulsed with red and orange flames that burst into a stream of fire in a moments notice.

This is another thing that's a bit different from the games, technically STAB boost is still a thing, given that a pokemon using the same type of move as itself will always be stronger than if they weren't, but you can train a pokemon to be more proficient in using a certain type of move. I generally try not to give my team members too many moves to train so they usually only train two other types to their original types or so.

For Death I chose Fire.

His training showed fruit, Jynx cried out in pain as the super effective attack inflicted a large amount of damage on the ice type and broke their focus enough for the Psychic to fizzle out.

Barry gritted his teeth in frustration at his pokemon already being hurt from his poor judgement and quickly spoke." Jynx use Wish."

A thin veil of normal type aura shined over my opponents pokemon and I decided to do something similar. Wish is a move that gives benefits in advanced, it's a powerful healing move but only gives rewards later on and acts faster if the user has a high mastery over this move.

"Death use Swords Dance."

Death kneeled down a little and let out a war cry as phantom blades seemed to form a circle above his head and a few moments later a red aura surrounded him which symbolised his power boost.

Barry didn't seem to like that if his frown was any indication but merely shook his head and ordered his pokemon to make the first move." Future Sight."

My grin faltered a little at the knowledge that Death won't be able to block that attack, given that Future Sight can't really be dodged, but I didn't let that stop me moving.

"Use Rock Tomb."

Death held his two bone clubs in the air and several medium sized boulders seemed to form out of nothing and when he pointed them at Jynx the attack shot forward at high speeds.

One thing that I've noted about Swords Dance is that it seems to boost the damage an attack can do in several ways, for example the speed of the rocks a pokemon creates with Rock Tomb will go twice as fast as normal, pretty fast.

Well fast enough to catch Barry off guard anyway.

"Jynx dod-"

Several rocks impact the psychics skin and seem to shatter on impact as fragments of rock fly everywhere and a high shriek of pain leaves their mouth in response to the unexpected attack, all they can do to defend themselves is hide behind their arms like they're being picked on by a school bully.

Once the relentless assault is finished Jynx looks worst for ware, their species isn't exactly known for being able to take a bit and after that set of blows they-

Suddenly a glow of white enveloped Jynx's body and their some of their injuries seemed to fade away as new energy seemed to coarse through them.

Oh right Wish.

Barry seemed to lighten up at that a little but even I could tell that he was nervous. Oh well, it's time to get in close.

"Rush them down Death!"

At my command Death nodded and once again started to run at them with light brown aura seeming to shroud his weapons as he prepared to unleash a Bone Rush.

My opponent gritted his teeth and shouted." Stop them with Blizzard!"

The air around Jynx seemed to cool to low temperatures and with a mighty scream a massive wave of frosty wind seemed to blow in Death's way.

I was annoyed by the move but in response yelled." Fire Blast!"

Not halting in the slightest Death showed immense skill as he used both Fire Blast and Bone Rush at the same time with a ball of white hot fire appearing in front of his maw which he let loose a moment later. The attack seemed to expand into it's iconic cross as the grass beneath it was scorched from the move.

When ice and fire met they cancelled each other out with a huge cloud of steam seeming to burst into life from the collision and hide our two pokemon.

Barry seemed to come to a similiar conclusion. Neither of us could command our pokemon now that they were hidden. It was up to them.

Jynx looked around inside the mist of steam that the two pokemon had made in their battle aggressively for the opponent.

Neither pokemon could see more than a few meters ahead of the other and sooner or later the finishing blow would be decided. Their senses were both kicking into overdrive, the final act is at hand and they both know it.

"Maroowak!" Jynx turned around instantly upon hearing their opponent's battle cry to see them charging at her with their bones drawn.

In order to counter this Jynx allowed ice type energy to surround and envelop their fist as they lashed out and struck the ground type... only for them to instantly vanish upon contact.

"Marowak!" Death appeared behind the ice-psychic type looking slightly winded from the use of Substitute but far from done and allowed dark type energy to run through his blade. He had a chance to finish the match, a chance to win, and he would not fail.

Jynx whipped their head in the opposite direction at the sound of their opponent- the real one- coming to take them down in a single strike but by that point it's be too late.

Death brought his clubs down... only to immediately feel pain wash over them in the form of psychic type energy that caused them to halt their attack.

Jynx, seeing the pleasant surprise that the earlier Future Sight had brought them felt a smirk cross their lips as they pivoted and changed the course of their attack and slammed their blow onto the Marowak's face, scoring a devastating Ice Punch.

Death felt a large amount of pain from the attack and even dropped their right club. He couldn't help but feel a deep sense of pain on the inside at the knowledge that he'd been caught off guard, how could he avenge his mother if he couldn't even beat a simple Jynx?

He tightened the grip on his left club- on his mother's club- before mustering his strength and with a huge scream found the focus to continue his attack.

Jynx wasn't expecting such gumption from their opponent and could do nothing but watch and think as Death weaved with extreme power and grace as a powerful Brutal Swing cut across their stomach in a wide arc that sent them off the ground.

Death landed on one knee with his left arm clenching his club tightly whilst Jynx landed behind him battered and unconscious. He'd done it, he'd won.

The mist faded and seeing the sight of Death standing above Jynx like a true samurai was enough to make the crowd roar as Barry had a look of disappointment on his face whilst I had a look of glee.

His first pokemon is down. Just two more to go.

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