Chapter 17

She had no name. She had never been given one, never been around any parent long enough. All she knew was pain. And the cage. She had spent most of her short life like this, locked away in a warehouse with all the other Pokémon.

Some of them still cried, all alone at night. Begging for their humans to come save them. Others raged, frothing at the mouth, screaming until their vocal cords permanently warped. Still others just lay there, despondent, hopeless.

She didn't even know what hope was.

"Well, you're a new face-"

"Misty, we've known each other for weeks." She huffed at me.

"Can you just…. Ugh. I had this whole spiel and you threw me off!"

"You were about to say something about philosophies. Yours is an all out offensive with water pokemon."

"Well yeah, but I'm still supposed to give my gym leader speech!"

"Ok then, go ahead."

"Ugh, never mind." She growled. "let's just do this! This will be a two on two, no switch outs!"

"Sweet! You're on, Misty!"

"Go, Staryu!"

"Pikachu, I choose you!" I screamed, throwing out an absolutely over-the-top anime pose. My small yellow thundermouse materialized with a crimson flash and a boisterous yell. "Thunderbolt!"

"Pika! Chuuuuuu!" Sparks flew from her cheek pouches, forming into a high voltage bolt of lightning that arched towards the brown sea star. Pikachu's lightning bolt tail stood straight out as she braced on all fours, the heart shaped divot waving back and forth.

"Staryu, reflect into rapid spin!" Misty cried out, and Staryu rushed to comply, dropping onto its central gem. Staryu quickly came up to speed, spinning like a shruiken as a shimmering shield went up.

Pikachus thunderbolt broke through like it wasn't even there, shocking the star badly and halting it in its tracks.

"Shake it off Staryu! Knock it into the water!"

"Pikachu, double team, then agility!" Pikachu looked back at me with a devious grin, then shattered into a dozen or more flash clones, which then sped up into near invisibility. Staryu looked around desperately, trying to figure out which pikachu was the real one. "Now, hit it with another thunderbolt!"

Pikachu roared as electricity flooded out of her and into the hapless starfish. Staryu collapsed onto the deck with a noise that defies transliteration.

"Staryu is unable to battle!" Cried the ref. "Gym leader, send out your second and final Pokémon!"

"Misty calls, starmie! You're up!" The giant purple star took the field and immediately began its offensive. Massive blasts of water shot out from ten points, the massive purple sea star floating on a wave of psychic energy.

I grinned. I couldn't wait to get my hands on one of my own.

"Pikachu, again! Surround it and spam thunderbolts until it drops!"

"Pika!" My little mouse looked back at me and nodded with a feral, almost malicious grin, before once again splitting into a horde of double team flash clones. Each one charged an agility, then ran circles around starmie. Intermittent bolts of lightning struck, but the starfish shook them off like they were nothing. It looked tired though. Maybe if I-

"Starmie, recover!" Ah crap.

"Keep it up pikachu! We have to overwhelm it!"

"Starmie, swift!" Star shaped rays of light spun from the sea star, unerringly finding their way to pikachu's hide. I hated swift, completely undodgeable. The attack struck pikachu with a small explosion, and I knew she was getting tired. I bit my lower lip as the smoke cleared, revealing that she had fallen to all fours, breathing heavily, her sides heaving.

"Pikachu, are you ok?"

"Pikaaaa!" She growled, her cheeks sparking. She stood up again, readying another thunderbolt.

Then collapsed face first onto the floor of the little island she stood on. She had come a long way since we met in Viridian forest, but she was still young. We had a long way to go.

"Sorry about this misty."

"Huh?"

"Parasect! You're up!" Pressed the release, and with a snap-hiss of red light, my giant mushroom bug materialized on the field. Instantly, I saw misty tense up, but I still saw the determination in her eyes. "You know what to do parasect! Just like we practiced!"

"Sect para sect!" From under the mushroom cap, clouds of powders and spores came pouring forth, fogging the air with stun spore, sleep powder and poison powder. In training, we had called this the 'bio-hazard' stratagem. We had trained her stamina with spores and powders almost fanatically, and it had paid off. Starmie was now on a timer.

Parasect could keep this up for nearly half an hour before she had to stop to refill, and by that point the arena would be nearly uninhabitable. The air was thick with it, but I had also discovered that the spores were hydrophobic, they repelled water. Meaning that, instead of mixing into the water of the giant pool arena, they instead formed a thick layer on the surface of the water. Starmie was now trapped. It couldn't hide under water without picking up a status effect, and it couldn't stay above water or eventually the spores would spread to it, and it would also pick up a status effect. It would have to attack.

And attack it did. Misty ordered a rapid spin attack, and the purple star flew through the cloud towards my bug, and I grinned. "Here it comes parasect! Get ready for it!"

Parasect chittered in anticipation, her forelegs glowing a light green color. Starmie flew in range and parasect flew into action. Jumping up into the air, she grabbed the starfish in her claws, inflicting damage with the charging fury cutter still clinging to them. Starmie couldn't move, couldn't escape. "Absorb, parasect! Drain it dry!"

The star screeched as the grass type and bug type energies attacked both halves of its dual type nature, inflicting damage before it broke away. It attempted to fly back, before falling to the deck, twitching. My trap had struck. "Again, parasect! Finish it off!"

My bug leaped onto the fallen star, and within minutes, it was all over.

"Starmie is unable to battle! Victory goes to the challenger from Pallet Town!" I smiled and cheered as parasect gave us a scuttling little dance of victory.

"Good job Scott. I didn't even know you had a parasect." She handed my the cascade badge and the tm for bubblebeam. She was shaking my hand as her sisters came down from the stands.

"Well well well, looks like you nabbed yourself a good one little sister." Misty paled, then went scarlet. "When will you claim the rights?"

"What rights?" I asked.

"You mean you don't know? You beat her. The first man we've ever seen beat her. Now she gets to decide whether or not she keeps you. She gets the right of conception."

"What?!"

Far away, another young man was also dealing with tough issues. Lance Blackthorn was a tough man. A champion. He and his dragons had single-handedly united kanto and johto under the indigo league banner, but keeping the two regions in harmony was a daunting task even for him. Both of his gym circuits were fractious at best, and both sets of elite four were almost always at each others throats.

Kanto had Samuel oak himself, though he had mostly retired, leaving Lance himself to act as the fourth elite four member and champion, Bruno of Pewter City, Agatha of Lavender town, and Lorelei of the Orange Islands. Johto had Karen of Ecruteak, Will of Cherrygrove, and old Rory of Olivine, the steel type master, which again left Lance to fill in as fourth member.

Unfortunately, with Agatha, Rory and Lorelei desiring to retire, Lance was at his wits end trying to fill in the spots. He was overworked, over harried and over stressed. With holding an elite four spot, he often had to let the champion duties fall by the wayside, and as a result, the interregional community smelled weakness.

Galar was breathing down their neck, Unova was in isolation again, Kalos was just aloof. Alola was helpful but so far away, and Hoenn and Sinnoh were both at each others throats again, leaving the island of Nippon in the middle.

Lance needed a successor. Someone to unite, truly unite, johto and kanto. A hero to idolize. A champion apprentice. Someone he could use as an excuse to fuse the two elite four cadres together, freeing him to be an actual champion. Who knows? Maybe even a protege who could bring peace to the whole world.

Scott's Pokédex:

Caught: Squirtle, Caterpie, Metapod, Butterfree, Weedle, Kakuna, Beedrill, Pidgey, Pidgeotto, Rattata, Raticate, Spearow, Fearow, Ekans, Pikachu, Sandshrew, Nidoran(F), Nidorina, Nidoran(M), Nidorino, clefairy, Vulpix, jigglypuff, zubat, paras, Parasect, Mankey, geodude, Pichu, Cleffa, Igglybuff, Ralts