Asher's Team:

Lago - Rhydon
Crust - Golem
Sebastian - Nidoking
Selena - Nidoqueen
Seraph - Clefable
Barret - Dugtrio
Sonic - Sandslash
Death - Marowak
Colossus - Steelix

I stared rather nervously at the thoroughly defeated Charizard that was lying unconscious, it's scales charred and with smoke coming off his skin. That Thunder might have been overkill, whilst it's not impossible for a pokemon to actually die in a battle that basically never never happens in a tournament, and if on the off chance a pokenon really is killed then the trainer can put away for a really long time. So if that dragon is dead then-

The orange dragon's chest puffed up and fell down as a sign that they were indeed alive. The sign of living was enough to make me breathe out a sigh of relief and by the looks of things it was the same for the audience.

Sebastian then turned to me with him looking a bit worn out but otherwise completely fine, still though that Charizard was something else, I was actually worried for a minute there, and it's not like Barry was a slouch either. That Belly Drum, Blaze bullshit was insane, it reminded me of Ash's Infernape from the anime when he went super sayan. Totally crazy. The guy has my respect.

I smiled at my Nidoking and held up his pokeball." You did perfect. Take a break."

I withdrew him in a flash of red light and after looking at his pokeball for a moment I left the battlefield with the cheers of the crowd behind me.

I was oblivious to how Barry hadn't moved an inch to get off of his knees.

"That Thunder was way too powerful! You could have killed that Charizard if it was any stronger!"

I flinched under the wrathful words of My Nurse Joy for a friend. Bethany has a lot of care for pokemon, even if she was never allowed to have a pokemon other than her Chansey, and watching them get hurt was never something that she enjoyed, even in a pokemon battle. So you can only imagine how pissy she is at me for going overboard like that.

But, even as she unleashed a barrage of angry words against me I still held my ground." That Charizard wasn't going down if I went at him any weaker than that. He was a fucking machine. I couldn't take any chances since he was just that strong, I did it out of necessity."

My words did little to appease the pink haired woman's ire at me but she seemed to relent at those words. If only slightly.

In that moment I remembered something important." Oh by the way did the kids watch my battle?" I asked her with intrigue at what they thought of my team.

Hearing my words Nurse Joy's expression softened significantly and she suddenly forgot about how mad she was at me as she spoke." They thought that you were amazing. Adam and Gwen even said you were the best trainer in the universe, you should come by and visit them once you're done with the Conference. I know that they'd love to see you."

Bethany's words made me crack a smile at the knowledge that the children were cheering me on. When I first came to this world I was, obviously, living in an orphanage and it wasn't like I was alone. I was kind of the oldest there so I kind of took on the role of a big brother for them, it was nice to be able to teach them stuff about pokemon and they were overall really awesome kids.

I frowned a little at the memory of the orphanage. Whilst that place wasn't exactly a terrible place to live it wasn't the best either, the caretaker does her best but with the limited funding she receives there's only so much that she can do, the kids only get the bare minimum in both food and clothing, so things like presents are kind of out of the question. Plus that place can get really cold in the winter to the point where the kids will get sick. I plan on changing that in the future.

Viridian City is actually one of the worst cities in Kanto, crime is far more common there than in any other place in Kanto and the police force is under funded so there's only so much that they can do, as a result of this parts of the city have begun to decay and just by walking through that place you can tell that it's not exactly the safest neighbourhood. The Gym Leader of Viridian has been heavily criticised for his inaction to counter this crime wave yet for some unknown reason he's still been the Gym Leader of Viridian City since the end of the Indigo war.

Oh wait it isn't unknown. I know the reason.

Giovanni is a former member of the Elite Four, one of the strongest trainers in Kanto, and a hero for his past actions in the Indigo war. Most notably his defence against the Blackthorn clan's Dragon-type specialists in the failed siege for Viridian. He was known to have been the one leading the defence of that battle and brought those dragon trainers to their knees and forced them to retreat, it could even be said that without him Viridian City wouldn't be standing today. As a result he holds a large amount of respect over the people of Kanto and the other Gym Leaders and Elite Four. He's just riding high on old reputation.

That also seems to be how he can so easily hide his position as the head of Team Rocket, the others simply don't suspect that a 'hero' of Kanto could ever be suspected of such an awful act of terrorism, there's also the matter of how many of the current Gym Leader's and Elite Four are likely old comrades of his, for example Blaine and Koga are both also known for fighting for Kanto in the struggle against Johto, they worked and fought with Giovanni on numerous occasions, I'd even go as far as to say that they could be considered friends. He's earned the trust of Kanto and that's not something that is easily broken.

Giovanni has been given a scary amount of leniency in his acts as a Gym Leader now that I think about it, he only accepts seven badge trainers, which hardly ever show up until the last part of the Gym Circuit, and he's been accused of sadistic ways of battling like high powered volt shocks and yet... he's never had to pay the price.

Is that really how much you can get for having the public on your side? For being a really strong trainer? Are the league that desperate to keep Giovanni as a Gym Leader?

No wonder he managed to hide his real identity with such transparency in the league.

Bethany noticed my expression and cut me out of my inner musings with a few words." Asher, are you alright?"

I suddenly remembered that I was on call and instantly changed my mood to something more cheery." Course I am Beth. Just thinking about who I'll use for the next round, tell the children that they can expect to see Selena next round."

Truth be told my Nidoqueen wasn't quite on the same level as my Nidoking, she just isn't built for raw power like him, she's built to be defensive, to take four hits and slam her opponents back with five, whilst Sebastian is made to dominate the battlefield with high power attacks and not give the opponent any breathing room. She still had the potential to sweep my opponents team though, it'll just take a little longer.

The pink haired nurse smiled at that." I'll make sure to tell them that Asher. Just makes sure to win for them alright."

My smile shrunk but became more genuine at that and I gave a firm and determined nod." Don't worry, I will."

After I spoke those words Bethany hung up on me and the screen I was speaking into went dark.

I pulled my face away from the screen and started to walk out of the Conference's pokemon centre with a lot on my mind.

I really want to fix Viridian City, the place in basically Kanto's shithole if you want to be blunt about it. However, right now I'm just not in a position to do that. I'm a fourteen year old boy, a powerful trainer but really not much else. But as long as Giovanni remains as a Gym Leader then I can't do anything, true Tom will be taking him down soon enough but him leaving won't clean up the mess he created. What could I do to-

A thought suddenly popped into my head and my expression morphed into a smirk that drew a few eyes as I walked by.

How could I not have thought of that before?

In another stadium of the Indigo Conference the crowd cheered wildly as a pokemon battle raged on below them.

Those two trainers were a man and a woman, well woman might have been overselling it, she looked maybe fifteen at most, collecting eight badges at all is an impressive feat for someone so young, but this girl wasn't just fighting to reach the top sixteen of the tournament. She was actually dominating the competition.

The man fighting was around double the girl's age with bulging biceps and dark black hair, but even though he was facing just a teenage girl he was sweating nervously, his feelings on the way the battle was turning was obvious. He was on his last pokemon whilst the girl was only on her second pokemon, and that was only because she made the call to switch out her Gyarados when the man called out his third pokemon.

She held a stoic expression that gave people the idea that she wasn't impressed. Which she wasn't. Her opponents Hitmonlee was badly injured and about to fall unconscious at any moment whilst her Dragonair was completely unharmed because of the lack of attacks she received throughout this battle.

She was obviously bored with her opponent, she didn't see him as worthy of her time since he couldn't even take down just one of her pokemon, how he made it this far in the tournament was baffling to her. Even her previous match was more of a struggle than this, perhaps the trainers in this years Conference were just weaker than usual?

That or she was just that much stronger than all these other trainers? Perhaps both? Yes both.

"Dragonair use Dragon Breath." She spoke with a monotone voice as she commanded her loyal dragon to finish his opponent off and end his run in the Indigo Conference for this year.

Her Dragon-type should have evolved by now, she has three Dragonair and this one has certainly reached a point where his size and strength are adequate to trigger evolution, however for whatever reason he hasn't turned into a Dragonite yet.

And that is what she's really aiming for. Even among the Blackthorn clan it's rare to see a person train one of their Dratini into their third stage of evolution, the only ones who accomplished such a feat were her cousin, Lance, and her grandfather, the head of the Blackthorn's.

The Dratini line are practically mystical in nature, their so obscure that if not for the Blackthorn's then they'd be unknown to the rest of the world. That's just how rare they really are. And their rarity is only matched by their power, just a single Dragonite has enough power to easily take on a legion of trainers on by themselves. In the Indigo war they had more trainers with Dragonite but they all perished in battle alongside their pokemon partners.

She wants so badly to be like her cousin that it drives her a little mad, he has three Dragonite that are strong enough to be on his main Elite Four team. It's utterly insane how much training you need to do to get one of the Blackthorn dragons to that level and he has three of them.

Yet she doesn't even have one.

Her mood is soured by that thought and she drowns out the cheers of the crowd at the sight of a burnt and unconscious Hitmonlee being sent flying to it's trainers feet and she can't even bring herself to feel satisfaction at the sight of her unworthy opponent falling to his knees with an expression of sheer disbelief on his face.

It matters little to her. Victory over a weak opponent is far from an achievement. That's what her clan believes anyway, so that's what she believes. The fact that she even had to face a trainer of that level of skill was an insult. Still though the weak must be weeded out for the finals so that only the strong remain, she just needs to have some patience and she should find a worthy opponent eventually. That's always been her only flaw, she can't seem to wait when she wants something.

"Oh and would you look at that! Clair Blackthorn wins her match with an overwhelming victory and moves on to the top eight of the Indigo Conference with laughable ease! Could we have a potential winner of the tournament here?!"

At the announcers words her frown deepens at the insulting words. Just what did he mean by 'potential winner', of course she's going to win this tournament. She's got the skills, resources and pokemon so of course her victory was assured.

After a moment she takes a pokeball from her belt and points it at her faithful partner and gives the tiniest of smiles to her friend." You did a good job, now return."

The blue serpent nodded as the recall feature of her great ball returned her strongest Dragonair and she made her way out of the stadium at a leisurely pace, not even sparing a second glance to her defeated adversary. If you could even call them that with the ease at which she disposed of them.

She allowed her cape to fall behind her as she took her hand to scratch a stray itch in her silky blue hair. She's been told a few times her pride gets the better of her, but how is it getting the better of her if she's decisively dominating the competition with practical ease? How is she full of herself when she has the strength to back up her words? Why shouldn't she act superior to other trainers when she is superior to these weaklings in every way?

It's the way of the world in the Blackthorn clan, the stronger you are the more your family respects and loves you, if you're weak then you don't really have a place in the family, even if they acknowledge you you won't really be taken seriously. Clair longs to be taken seriously in the Blackthorn clan, she can't be like her mother was.

Just the thought of that woman was enough to cause her face to scowl deeply. All she ever hears when she's in Blackthorn City is something along the lines of 'oh you look just like your mother, lets hope that's all you have in common with her.' Or ' Really? Your Dragonair hasn't evolved yet? Well it's disappointing but not surprising, like mother like daughter I suppose.' And even ' what are you doing here bastard child? I can't believe that the elders tolerate your presence. You should just be banished, you don't belong here.'

That last one happens... a hurtful amount of times in all honesty. She just wants to prove to her family that she isn't like her mother, that she's worthy of their respect, that she's strong and qualified enough to become Blackthorn's Gym Leader when her grandfather eventually throws in the towel.

She isn't just her mother's bastard child. The result of some affair that should have never taken place. She wants to prove that to them so badly.

And to herself as well.

She sighs at the thought. Winning the Conference likely wouldn't be enough to win their approval on it's own, she's only technically been a Blackthorn for four years, and that can mostly be attributed to Lance's support, even as just a thirteen year old he was already highly respected for his power levels in the clan, and the Blackthorn elders weren't the biggest fans of her either, even as just a ten year old she could tell that her initiation into the Blackthorn family inside of the Dragon Hold Land was, at best, forced by the elders and her starter, the Dragonair she used in her previous battle, was practically shoved into her arms in the form of a cute and tiny Dratini.

Still though Lance was always supportive of her and was more than willing to give out tips on how to train the Dratini line, he has her infinite gratitude just for that alone, and just being there to encourage her with the occasional phone call from time to time. He was the only member of her family who actually supported her.

Of course he couldn't always be there for her though. When he became an Elite Four member his schedule became much more busy and so he couldn't show his support for her as frequently. Still though she did her best to train to be like him, the one she admire most.

So she'll win the Indigo Conference. Just like Lance did when he was her age.

"Whoa he just took down that Gyarados like it was nothing!"

Clair's ear was caught by the voice of a group of two men that were watching a pokemon match on one of those strange new devices that were supposedly invented in the Hoenn region, what was it called? A Dexnav?

Normally she'd just shrug off the words of a few bystanders and walk away to her own business yet... she feels like this is important. All of her instincts are telling her to see what they're talking about.

And what's a dragon that doesn't listen to her instincts?

"Excuse me?" She spoke in her usual monotone voice that drew the attention of the two men that were previously watching a pokemon match onto her.

They turned their eyes onto her shorter stature- much to her annoyance she didn't seem to be growing all that much. Hopefully that would change- and seeing who was talking to them their cheeks immediately tinted pink.

Clair had to resist the urge to roll her eyes at their reaction, she isn't unaware of her exceedingly good looks but that isn't exactly what she wishes to be her most defining trait. She wishes to be a powerful trainer that demands the respect of the people around her. It can be rather annoying when she's just seen for her appearance.

Instead of acknowledging them she simply snatched the Dexnav right out of their hands and looked at the strange device that was replaying a newly posted video titled:

'MASSIVE STEELIX DESTROYS GYARADOS IN JUST ONE ATTACK!'

Well that's a rather straightforward answer to her question.

She starts to play the video whilst the two men simply stare at her in flustered states. She rewinds it a bit and sees that this was a match from earlier from this day, when she saw the size of that Steelix she had to keep her jaw from hanging open, she had no idea that species could grow to a height that dwarfed a Gyarados like that! Was this one just abnormally big for it's species?! Even in Johto Steelix are rare pokemon given the price of a Metal Coat and how difficult it is to evolve them via natural means so how a boy her age has one is beyond her.

Watching the video made her nervous- though she'd never admit that- that Gyarados was nothing impressive, her own is far stronger than that, but none of her pokemon had the power necessary to take it out with just a single Hyper Beam like that. If they meet in this tournament then he'd be a powerful opponent.

And that both scared and excited her.

After she was done with the device she tossed it over her shoulders to the frozen buffoons, not even checking if they caught it or not, and walked away from the ordeal with a thoughtful expression on her face.

Perhaps there are some worthy adversaries in this tournament afterall. If that boy's Steelix is representing the average of his team then he could be a massive roadblock for her. As much as she loathes to admit it none of her pokemon can beat such a behemoth one on one, and that though worries her immensely.

But still she needed to resolve herself. She won't settle for anything less than number one, she won't be stopped by some trainer with a few strong pokemon, she is worthy of the Blackthorn name and she needs to prove that.

Still, what was his name again? Asher Blight right?

At least she has someone to keep an eye on.

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