Evening light filters in through the curtains in my small room, covering the baby blue walls in dappled light. A few small simple toys lay scattered along the floor, awaiting the return of their playmate. I sit curled into the corner against the wall of my ground-level bunk, my roommate Buck off somewhere else in the building, playing most likely.

My small hands scribble across my notebook in English, recording my results from today's escapade.

'Pokemon - Espeon, Typing - Psychic. Pointed out by Buck during an outing to the park on Thursday, July 31st 1501 P.C. Following now standard trainer-Pokemon interaction protocol, I requested Buck to ask the young lady if he and I could pet her Espeon.'

'Result - Buck succeeded in petting the Espeon, upon him waving me over to come, I found myself walking into what I can only presume to be a psychic barrier of some sort. This marks the 14th of 15 tested types to respond negatively to my presence.'

'Notable - This is the first Pokemon that has actively used a move on me, psychic types may find me especially unpleasant.'

"...How troublesome."

I set down my pencil and massage my forehead to soothe my oncoming headache.

In the four years since that fateful day I woke up in the hospital, I have to say I've found most of the troubles I was expecting were honestly not particularly large deals.

Tolerating the day-to-day life of a baby was somewhat frustrating, but eventually, I just became numb to the whole circumstance.

Reading and speaking actually came surprisingly easily. Despite my general poor foreign language retention in my previous life, it seems as if the combination of full submersion and my developing mind managed to pull it off. I suppose the incentive of gaining access to the surprising wealth of information in books around the house as well as on the library computer served as a strong incentive too.

As far as the children of the orphanage go, I've found myself relieved that generally, the children of the 'West Sunyshore Children's Home' all get along decently. From what I've seen the children prefer to save their squabbles for kids from outside our orphanage when we come across them.

In exchange, I've found that what I thought was just a minor concern back at the hospital has turned out to be a colossal issue.

In short, Pokemon hate me.

To elaborate further, in the opportunities I've found to attempt to interact with, thus far 76 species of Pokemon, I have received a total of 5 reactions that were not seemingly abnormal fear responses.

The various Chansey nurses at the human hospital have generally treated me the same as other patients.

A local trainer's Buneary was slightly nervous but allowed me to pet them when I sat and let them approach on their own. The trainer even noted that their Buneary just tended to be shy towards new people outside of battles.

The Glameow mascot for the salon Amara brings us to treats me with apathy and a hint of disdain, but no fear. I think she just generally dislikes children.

Pidgey that tend to congregate in various spots around the city generally pay me no mind but will take food offered from my hand, something that has not worked for any of the 71 negative responses.

Finally, the Bidoof that laze around the park pond are actually quite cute, and will cheekily take any food I offer and even do silly tricks occasionally. Whenever I'm feeling rather defeated these days from my rather poor interaction attempts I try to get Felicity or Flint to take me to see them.

Each of these interactions have honestly been incredibly special moments that fill me with excitement at the reality of being able to see, talk with, and play with Pokemon. Yet, I can't help but feel they're a bit marred by the continuous failures surrounding them.

At this point, it's looking like I may well end up having to be a Normal-type specialist, which I honestly can't say I'm feeling thrilled about. While I certainly don't hate normal types, there really aren't any normal types that I was ever filled with excitement at when younger. Even with as much fun as I have with the park Bidoof, it's just hard to really imagine beginning my journey with one. It doesn't feel like any of them really like me that much either, just that they find me moderately amusing.

Granted I suppose a Pokemon really looking to start up a journey would be looking for a teenager rather than a three-year-old but still.

Overall I lean strongly towards being a specialist from the start of my journey over building a generalist team.

Originally I had hoped to work towards being a Fire-type Specialist, but based on my experience with little Ritchie's Growlithe down the street showing strong signs of biting if I got anywhere near him, I might be out of luck there.

While there certainly seem to be a decent number of trainers that subscribe to a sort of 'catch first, befriend later' mentality, The Idea of forcibly taking a sentient creature out of its home or away from its family against its will makes me viscerally uncomfortable.

The only types remaining I haven't interacted with at all are Dragon, Ghost, and Dark. Thus far I've been unable to find any trainers with one to interact with.

From what info I've managed to scrounge up, these types are considered to be very volatile to deal with, and are more heavily restricted from simply walking around the city freely without certain permissions.

I am beginning to have a strong hunch that a particular type of Pokemon might be more positively inclined to be around me, but I'm hesitant to get my hopes up.

Despite all that, I find my mood picking up when I think about tomorrow. August 1st will mark my 4th birthday in this life, and after all these years of waiting, I'm finally going to the gym to see my first live Ace-level Pokemon battle in celebration.

[Amara Cain]

"Inhale… Exhale."

I recline back in my chair, satisfied with the state of the accounts of the home's funds and expenses for the month.

Today, like every day since I've taken up the mantle of Matron for this home, will surely be eventful, the children always keep it that way.

And yet I still love it, even as I find the years catching up to me. Honestly some days I think they keep me younger, like if I stopped chasing after them I'd never move again.

Today marks another birthday, I can't give them much each year, but I always try to give them at least a little something.

Tickets to the gym are actually a rather decent price, especially for Ace Challenges, but Staniss's has given out passes for the various city orphanages to redeem tickets throughout the year to allow the children to spectate in person ever since he became leader.

How time flies, I can still almost remember our journey on the Gym Challenge together like it was yesterday, yet now the kids are running about telling us we should be retired.

Today's little birthday boy certainly has been quite different from many of my other children, with a far more quiet and reserved personality than the little balls of energy so many of my other wards are.

Honestly, he often reminds me of Felicity's late father Wiliam when he was a child, it's hard not to feel a bit nostalgic when I spend time with him.

Seeing him stare up at me for the first time I played with him, giving me a look that just somehow screamed to me 'What nonsense are you trying to pull?', for a moment I thought I had stepped back in time, and was holding my little boy again.

A quiet "Ready?" is murmured from behind me.

I turn and see a little boy looking seemingly into the middle distance, probably lost in thought again. His skin tone is a tan complexion, while his eyes are a reddish brown, almost maroon color, half-lidded in a sleepy expression. Mid-length tufts of curly brown hair poke out of the hood of his outfit for the day.

"Flint will be coming by from trainer school to pick up you Felicity and Bucky and take you in a bit Izzy… Are you going to wear that Banette onesie out today?"

A "mmm" and a nod is the only answer I receive.

Goodness, this child…

One of our recent donations included a collection of Pokemon-themed onesies, I ended up allowing Buck and Izzy to pick out several each as they currently are the only 2 children who would fit them decently.

Buck only wears his at night to bed, but Izzy just cycles through his little pile of them each day, wearing almost nothing else now.

It's a bit silly, but what is childhood for if not learning to express yourself and being a bit silly in the end? So I generally don't force the children to dress or style themselves any particular way, whatever might bring them a little more joy.

I do worry a bit for his socialization skills though, as he tends to isolate himself from the other children. If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say he has Rowan Syndrome or something close to it. Raising my son taught me enough about it to be able to feel confident in spotting it.

'I'm glad they changed that name after all this time at least.'

Back when William was growing up they called it 'Slowbro Syndrome' or 'Psyduck Syndrome' depending on some variance, names that were… perhaps well-intended, but poorly chosen.

Well-learned scientists and such apparently knew that both Psyduck and Slowbro are creatures that often possess high intelligence or creativity, but tend to be far more fixated on their inner worlds than anything else in a physical space, Slowbro tending to take a moment to pull themselves away from their thoughts, while Psyduck often finding themselves very distressed by the world around them.

To common folk though, both Pokemon are mostly just seen as idiots, and those labeled were treated as such.

At the very least little Felicity seemed to have decided to treat him as a little brother, Bucky gets along with him fairly well chattering in his ears, and Flint has treated him well since he's his younger brother's little friend.

"Excited for today honey?"

He looks up at me and nods with a little smile on his face, before proceeding to offer me a deluge of pre-battle info about the matchup and Pokemon he's likely to see today. His face begins to light up more and more as he goes more in-depth, excited to share his thoughts on his favorite topic with someone who wants to listen.

I only wish all these children could have had families of their own, there will never truly be enough of me for all of them, and they deserve so much more.

But hopefully, they'll have each other once they grow up, and I'll give them all I can along the way.

[Isaiah Solis]

"Let's get going rookies we got Pokemon to see!" Flint loudly declares to the mostly empty street as we exit the orphanage.

"YEAH TODAY'S GONNA BE GREAT!" Bucky's high-pitched yell manages to put his older brother's declaration to shame, as if this is a competition of who can be the most disruptive to my poor eardrums.

"Mmm." I sedately reply, having long gotten used to this pair of red-haired clowns' antics.

"Listen here little man-" Flint spins around on his heels and begins walking backwards to look at me, his arms crossed and his head held high "This is no good. Where's your fighting spirit?! Your enthusiasm?! Where's your voice?! Your macho energy?!"

"Dunno." I offer a small shrug.

"Here he goes again..." Felicity lets out a small snicker under her breath.

"Haaaaaa… this is no good Izzy" He rakes his hands through his curly hair, "You say you wanna be a Fire Specialist, showing off your much better taste than Bucky in that at least-"

"HEY!" Buck seems to puff up like a Meowth with its tail stepped on.

"-But where's your passion?! What sorta wimpy fire type is gonna want to get along with your sleepy attitude? At this rate, you're really gonna hafta be a Normal Specialist like I heard you mumbling about the other day."

Flint's been a bit grating ever since I met him. At first, I was mostly just tolerating him because I got along with Buck. It wasn't till months after they arrived at the orphanage I realized that this 11-year-old dork is probably one of the future Elite Four members of Sinnoh, which was quite nice in that it let me figure out roughly where in the theoretical timeline I was.

But honestly, the pair's goofiness really grew on me, I can't help but be a bit nostalgic for the simpler days when I was younger, being dragged around each day by my little extraverted best friend who "adopted" me so to speak. Back before everything started falling apart.

"Hey Flint?" A small grin grows across my face, and I widen my eyes a bit from their normal half-lidded resting position.

"Mmhmm mhmm." He nods sagely, like a master looking at a disciple who's finally learning.

"Where's your homework? Are your test scores up? If you don't raise em how will you ever convince Professor Rowan you're good enough for one of his Chimchar? Are you just gonna let that blonde guy beat you?"

"Wh- but- I- you!" Flint begins sputtering before tripping backwards over his feet from his distraction.

"PFFFFT HAHA!" Buck and Felicity double over with laughter, thoroughly amused with Flint's clumsiness.

"HEY WAIT UP!" Buck yells, and I hear his feet begin stomping after me.

Cause I'm already booking it.

"GET BACK HERE YOU LITTLE BRATS!"

"Arceus, idiot boys…"

Alas in the end our valiant escape effort was foiled by my own lack of both direction and stamina. About three blocks down the road I realized I had no clue where I was going and I was tired so I stopped, at which point I was headlocked and noogied into oblivion.

Closing in on the gym, I find myself looking at a massive white flat concrete building with tinted glass windows. It stands what seems to be at least four stories tall, yet despite this the building is so wide it appears to be more stout and flat than anything. A flat slate grey slab overhangs the building, while an engraved Iron plaque reading "SUNNYSHORE GYM" sits stoically above the door.

If I were to describe the gym in a word, I'd say utilitarian. I'm not sure if the gyms are redesigned each time a new leader takes over, or if renovations are more spread out, but I get the sense that whoever designed this gym very much believed in function over form. Not a single decoration, engraving, or color sits upon the gym's outer walls.

The only sort of embellishment to the outside is a pair of lion-dog statues that I'd say vaguely resemble Hisuan Arcanine. The base upon which the statues each sit seems to have a record of names and dates listed. A memorial presumably but for what exactly I'm not sure.

"The first is a record of the past Gym Leaders, while the second is a memorial for gym trainers who've passed in defense of the city. Granma told me each city's gym has a set of them." Felicity's voice cuts through my thinking and offers me the answer to what I was wondering.

"Thanks." I look up at her, somewhat confused but appreciative.

She ruffles my hair "You always zone out when you start wondering about something, I saw you staring at the statue and took a guess."

Moving inside, I can't help but feel a bit overwhelmed by the torrent of people and noise within the entrance hall. "I suppose it's to be expected though, this is basically the biggest source of entertainment for an entire city." The center of the hall has several receptionists assisting people from behind the counter, but Flint leads us to the line of people waiting to have their tickets checked towards the side.

As we stand there waiting I feel the uncomfortable glares of several trainers Pokemon nearby pricking into my skin. I keep my gaze towards the floor, wishing I could simply vanish until we made it to our destination as we move through the Gym halls to the seating.

'So frustrating…'

Flint, Felicity, and Buck's voices wash over me as we move, my mind focused elsewhere. Eventually, I let out a relieved sigh once it seems the various Pokemon have decided to stop paying me any mind.

'I gotta figure out what this is and how to fix it. Even if I can raise Normal Types, going on a journey while immediately irritating any Pokemon around me seems like a recipe for disaster. I feel like it might be some aura nonsense honestly, but I have no idea where to begin with that mess besides maybe meditation which has seemingly done nothing. The only "information" available on the subject I've found thus far is basically just fairytales.

"Hey." I poke Flint as we're making our way towards our seats.

"Sup Izzy?" He glances back towards me.

"Bring me your books and I'll help you study." It's a long shot but maybe I can find more hints in the professional trainer school coursework. At worst I'll be preparing in advance, not like I'll need to spend effort learning whatever they'll be 'teaching' me in kindergarten this year.

"Why would I need a brat your age to do my schoolwork?!" I think he sounds a bit mad? Not quite sure why.

"I'm better at it? Besides I already said it earlier didn't I? I'm sure you'll be fine enough on your own, but Professor Rowan wants better than fine right? Also, I said I'd help you study, not do it."

Flint stands silent for a moment, looking at me.

I just continue to walk along, giving him a small half-lidded glance.

"AUGH! Fine, you're right! You can help if you want." Flint's face contorts as he spits out the words. like he bit into a lemon.

"Fricking four-year-old tutor, so fricken embarrassing, and that look is just like that blonde east side prick's…" I hear him muttering as we sit down, along with Felicity's snickering.

I lean back into my seat and let the other's chatter wash over me as I wait for the match to begin.

I find myself a bit in awe of the massive arena, which has 3 sets of concentric rectangles to denote the area where the match will take place depending on the level of challenge. Leader Stannis's arena is one with a mixture of prairie grass and dirt, with large boulders strewn across the space to potentially be used as cover. A manmade stream crosses the entire field diagonally with a decently sized pond holding water slightly towards the Gym leader's side of the field, all fed by a waterfall beside the Gym Leader's podium for full-scale matches.

Eventually one of the gym trainers steps out to the side of the arena. A pair of Bronzong follow him out and each settles towards opposite corners of the field, while Magnemite carrying cameras hover up above.

"Today, on this Journey's Eve, the Sunyshore Gym has a special match for your enjoyment." The Gym trainer's voice carries out through the arena over the intercom.

"Today's battle will be an Elite Challenge between our beloved Gym Leader Staniss, and Evan a wanderer from out past Kitakami and the Wilds beyond, hailing from Johto!"

A mix of both susurration and cheering carries throughout the hall, loud and irritating to my ears. The crowd's surprise isn't quite unexpected to me however, Sinnoh is quite isolated from the other major regions currently, our only major interregional relationship currently being with Kitakami. Along with that, the announcer has dropped the bombshell today's battle was upgraded from an Ace Challenge to an Elite one.

From the Gym Leader's side, an elderly bear of a man with a beer gut, but arms bigger than my entire torso walks out onto his podium. A white striped sleeveless shirt strains to maintain its shape, while muted grey cargo pants, and leather boots round out his outfit. Pure white hair is closely cropped atop his head, while a thick white bushy beard just slightly obscures his grin.

On the other side, a slim, athletic-looking young man with his black hair held back in a ponytail steps out. He has a casual, relaxed posture, and is wearing an open black haori with a blue wave pattern over a white t-shirt with tan cargo shorts.

"This match will be a full six versus six battle with three switches per side. Killing any Pokemon will result in disqualification from the match and a review on your trainer license. As an Elite Challenge, Leader Staniss will be using a full six Pokemon from his personal team."

"Let's get to it old timer, show me what ya got." Evan runs his hand back through his hair and pulls a Pokeball from his pocket before tossing it up and down in his hand.

"HA, that's the spirit lad! Let's see if you can get this old man's blood pumping!" Leader Staniss's grin morphs into a feral-looking smile as he snatches a Pokeball from his belt.

"THREE! TWO! ONE! BEGIN!"

I do my best to let everything extraneous fade away, not wanting to miss a moment of the match. My companions, the thrum of the crowd, the glare of the overhead lights, in this moment none of it matters, only the coming exchange in the field.

Two Pokeballs arc out into the field, popping open and releasing a torrent of red light before bouncing back to their owners.

On Staniss's side of the field, a violet simian with a smug grin appears with a hop and a twirling flourish before clapping the twin hand-like appendages on its tail.

Meanwhile, Evan's Pokeball reveals a kneeling pale green and white humanoid figure with tonfalike blades running down the lengths of its forearms and a striking crimson crest on its head and chest. It stands and takes some sort of martial arts stance, one arm guarding the head with the other across the lower torso.

"Make an opening Ambipom." "Pressure it Gallade."

Instantly, a flurry of movements takes place. Ambipom slams down with one of its tails flinging itself back while shooting a barrage of swifts out with its smaller real arms. Meanwhile, Gallade instantly closes in on top of it with a teleport, its arm mid-swing. The swift strikes him, but Gallade brushes off the damage and a blinding beam of brilliant gold light covers his forearm as he makes a diagonal slash to strike the airborne Ambipom. 'Sacred Sword? This should be a big hit I beli-'

Ambipom slams his second tail onto Gallade's shoulder and pivots in the air away from the Sacred Sword, as the attack cleaves a furrow through the arena. Gallade follows the attack with a deep channeled breath as all the muscles on his body tense up. 'Weaving in a Bulkup?' Ambipom's eyes glow violet while it speeds away flipping, twisting, and scattering swifts that home towards Gallade all the while. 'I think that was agility.'

"Dodge the Swift and Sacred Combat" Gallade Teleports right before being struck by the projectiles, flanking Ambipom while its body ignites with a crimson aura that flows into two golden light blades on its arms. 'A combo with both Sacred Sword and Close Combat I would guess.'

"Keep 'em honest Ambi." Immediately Ambipom slams its twin tails onto each side of Gallade's head, and the energy following through Gallade's body is disrupted as its body locks up for a moment. "~Amm Aam Ambi Pom.~" Ambipom flips away once again, this time cheekily laughing while slapping its bum. 'Definitely Fakeout, it disrupts the the opponent's body by flooding it with Normal Type Energy to neutralize an attack, but generally is only good for once a fight per target.'

Gallade charges in on foot this time leaving me momentarily confused. 'Switching it up? Or maybe that was Taunt.' Ambipom responds with an impressive flurry of violet orbs that seem to soak in the surrounding light, rotating between both of its arms and tails to maintain continuous bombardment. Gallade dodges and weaves through three of them, before slicing through another two. The fifth however clips him and interrupts his stride just enough for the sixth, seventh, and eighth to land direct hits before Ambipom runs out of steam, overtaxed from the rapid-fire Shadow Balls.

At this point, Gallade is looking quite worse for wear, while overall Ambipom looks tired but healthy. "Go all out Gallade, at least take it down with you." Gallade burst forward the rest of the distance to the panting Ambipom, once again taking on the red and golden glow of before. "Counter it." Ambipom slams one of its tails overflowing with black energy into Gallade's knee right as it comes into range, and begins to attempt to dart away yet again. Gallade powers through the hit however, and begins to overflow even further with the blinding gold energy of Sacred Sword. 'Justified? I have no clue what that ability looks like but this feels right.' Gallade slams Ambipom to the ground with the first strike, just barely fended off by a Protect, before following up with four more slashes of Sacred Sword, devastating the field and leaving Ambipom knocked out.

A moment later, Gallade collapses as well.

"Haha, not bad young 'un, but I'm not washed up yet." Leader Staniss chortles.

Both trainers release their Pokemon simultaneously yet again, revealing a fierce-looking brown and white raptor with a dark crimson crest on Staniss's side and a green insectoid dragon with red eye lenses and diamond-shaped wings on Evan's. 'Oh sick a Flygon, and as far as I understand, their ability isn't actually Levitate but-'

A single flap of Flygon's wings kicks up a blinding sandstorm that obscures much of the field. 'Sand Stream.'

"Pull it out of the sky and savage it Staraptor." "Pester it from range for as long as you can Flygon."

Flygon immediately responds with a brilliant royal blue and red beam blasting through the sandstorm, which Staraptor narrowly dodges by taking off into the air from where it is perched.

For a brief moment, the battle remains idle, Staraptor flying in place at the edge of the sandstorm.

Another Dragon Pulse is fired, and in an instant, a booming shockwave echoes throughout the arena as Staraptor becomes a shining orange and white streak of light chasing the source of the attack faster than the eye can follow. A deafening shockwave bursts from the center of the sandstorm, scattering it away barely a moment later, followed by the sound of glass shattering twice as two psychic barriers are utterly destroyed before Staraptor and the now pinned Flygon are stopped by a third. All this happens within the span of a second, almost utterly incomprehensible.

'What the FUCK.'

Staraptor immediately begins unleashing a torrent of attacks, glowing with the energy from Close Combat as it tears into Flygon with its talons and beak while simultaneously battering it with Dual Wingbeats. Flygon fights back, its wings going rigid before rapidly vibrating and releasing a hideous noise, its claws ripping into Staraptor with draconic energy. Despite Flygon's efforts though, Staraptor does not care, simply tanking through the damage, and more impressively, it's clearly winning the exchange.

"Flygon return." Evan quickly releases his swap in, and a third Bronzong graces the Gym, appearing right next to Staraptor. "Hold it down."

Bronzong levitates above the ground swaying back and forth, at the apex of each swing, a sharp ringing sound echoes through the arena. 'Is that a move? Metal sound?' Even as Bronzong glows with psychic energy to start another attack, the ringing continues.

"Staraptor return." Staniss releases a slim brown bipedal rabbit with tufts of creamy white fur and ears dragging across the floor.

"Bronzong put it down" "Lopunny rush it"

Lopunny dashes towards Bronzong, eyes glowing violet and a white streak trailing behind it, slowly briefly from time to time to pulse black energy through its body whenever Bronzong attempts to halt its progress with Psychic.

"Focus on staving it off Bronzong." Bronzong continues swinging back and forth while floating away, now raising psychic barriers resembling massive violet-tinted glass walls to delay Lopunny's approach rather than attempting to hold it down. As it retreats the silvery sheen of Iron Defense begins to coat it.

Lopunny crouches and leaps over the barriers spinning like a gymnast through the air while its ears fill with Dark Type Energy. A hastily erected barrier Bronzong raises above itself shatters against the windmilling attack before it slams into a Protect, all the while Bronzong keeps swinging. Lopunny fires a flurry of punches, kicks, and ear swings into Bronzong, each releasing an echoing ring from the bell, before suddenly slumping and falling asleep. 'Interesting, a hidden Hypnosis disguised with the use of another move.'

"A tricksy one eh, return Lopunny. Let's see what ye do with this." A massive teal and white creature that looks like a cross between a cat and a bear takes the field, surprisingly crouching like a competitive runner getting ready to take off.

"Giga Impact." "Shit, full defense and let loose Bronzong."

Snorlax takes off with a concerning speed for a creature so large, overflowing with the unmistakable bright orange energy of Giga Impact. Bronzong collapses to the ground, directing the energy utilized towards levitation to fully commit to defense. Five layers of psychic barriers are erected, each angled in an attempt to divert the path of the attack, but Snorlax tramples through each one with contemptuous ease and crashes into a finally condensed green forcefield of Protect which shatters under the power of the impact. Bronzong then erupts with a brilliant violet energy shockwave that causes a reaction through all the psychic barriers while slamming into Snorlax and shoving it back, but not out of range.

"Slam and shake Snorlax" Snorlax immediately begins falling into a Body Slam, pinning Bronzong onto the ground. 'No recovery time, I wonder what it takes to train that...' Snorlax legs tense, and its entire body along with Bronzong in its grip leaves the ground with a hop, before slamming into the ground and unleashing a massive Earthquake, reducing a third of the arena floor to rubble. "SNORLAX!" It belts out, stepping away bruised but victorious, revealing the unconscious Bronzong.

"Jeez old timer you ain't making this easy." Evan makes his next selection, and Flygon returns to the field, once again summoning a blinding sandstorm in its wake.

"Use ice Snorlax." "Keep your distance and strike, make it harder to find you this time Flygon."

This time rather than striking with Dragon Pulse, the distinctive unsettling thrum of Bug Buzz echoes through the arena once again. Snorlax looks visibly pained by the noise and begins firing off pale blue and white Ice Beams into the sandstorm to no avail.

"If that's the way it's gonna be then fine, play it slow Snorlax." Snorlax perks up, joy visible on its face before collapsing over onto its back, leaving a crater in the ground, and beginning to release a loud Snore.

"Tch run wild then, don't let it get away with that." Another deafening blast shakes the arena and disperses the sandstorm. Flygon follows it up by screaming its name at an absurd volume and charging Snorlax while cloaked completely in azure and crimson Dragon Type Energy. Snorlax awakens at the shout, incensed, but Flygon begins to mercilessly pummel it in a reckless all-out attack while it's still struggling to rise from the ground. 'Looks to be some sort of combo of Uproar and Outrage based on how it forced Snorlax awake even through Rest's effects'

"Don't waste time getting up, just swat it Snorlax." The massive creature quickly complies, and immediately slams into Flygon with an Ice Punch, which makes no effort to dodge. The impact sends Flygon skipping across the arena ground and into unconsciousness.

Evan returns his Pokemon and quickly releases his next far from Snorlax on the field. A pitch black hound with an orange maw, bone protrusions resembling shackles, and ram horns appears with a vicious snarl, forebody lowered towards the ground and pointed tail in the air.

"Keep it awake and at a range Houndoom." "Trip it up Snorlax, and stave off the flames."

"Hou Hou H-H-Hound DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!" The Houndoom screams out in a horrific malevolent cackle that reminds me of a hyena's laugh before letting loose a long howl as a sinister black aura pervades its body. 'Nasty Plot and Howl mixed perhaps?' Snorlax jumps even higher than previously unleashing an Earthquake upon landing that shatters and rumbles through an even larger area, Houndoom is prepared to respond however, and a burst of black and crimson flames from the soles of its feet sends it hurtling into a leap to avoid most of the effects of the attack. As the canine lands, it takes off in a sprint, picking up even more speed with each kick-off of its feet being accompanied by bursts of fire. 'It looks a bit like Flame Charge but it's missing the cloak of fire, maybe an optimized version for pure movement?'

As Houndoom circles Snorlax at a sprint it unleashes its recognizable sinister flames in a continuous stream. The water flowing through the cracks in the field from the destruction wrought by multiple Earthquakes suddenly rises with Snorlax's will, forming a massive wave that threatens to crash down on Houndoom and providing itself a barrier from the Flamethrower.

"Put it down, Overheat" Houndoom stops and skids before its fire breath suddenly bursts forth with overwhelming power. The attack overwhelms the wave, evaporating a massive hole straight through the center, and Snorlax raises a Protect and sumo slams for one further Earthquake in an attempt to disrupt the attack. Houndoom holds strong though, and the crimson and black flames of Overheat overwhelm the green forcefield, carving a canyon through the entire arena and melting a hole through four psychic barriers over the course of 3 seconds. Once Houndoom finally lets up the attack, a scattering of smoldering black and red fires and a severely burnt and knocked-out Snorlax are revealed, before the great beast is quickly returned to its Pokeball.

A breath I didn't even realize I was holding finds its way from my lungs, my hands tightly clench the legs of my outfit, and my heart hammers in my chest. 'Truly incredible, such a breathtaking attack to watch, I can only hope one day I can find a partner that can unleash moves just as stunning and powerful.'

"Oh, well now that we're all warmed up hehe. Admiral, let's show them what we've got!

A seven-foot-tall mammal resembling a beaver slams down onto the field. Its eyes gleam with a fierce determination and its fur has changed from brown and tan to a dull tawny bronze and white from age. In spots where its fluffy fur has thinned out, it can clearly be seen that the creature is built with thick powerful muscles. Its powerful paddle-like tail is littered with battle scars built up over its long years.

While many trainers don't nickname all of their Pokemon, it's a long-standing tradition to grant a name to your starting partner upon setting off on your journey.

And on the field stands Gym Leader Staniss's Bibarel starter Admiral.

"Trap and pester it with dark moves." "RUN IT DOWN ADMIRAL!"

Houndoom releases a smaller stream of flames at the Bibarel and tenses its body, the lingering flames on the field coalesce under its control and begin to form a twister of dark fire surrounding Admiral. As the flames begin to obscure it, Admiral performs a sumo pose with its hands on its knees and shouts out its name heartily. The pillar of fire finishes forming and Houndoom takes off sprinting yet again.

"BI BA REL!" Admiral shouts once again and a massive wave, far larger than the one formed by Snorlax, Cleaves a path through the vortex that Admiral rockets out of cloaked in water before hitting the ground and beginning to roll while tucked into a tight ball directly at Houndoom. Houndoom begins to fire black and violet beams of energy while fleeing, but Admiral seems to take on a metal sheen while rolling and continues gaining speed on Houndoom. 'What is that? Bibarel definitely doesn't learn Iron Defense.'

"Return Houndoom." Evan sends out his next Pokemon into the field, a short bipedal humanoid donning a mask and cape of leaves. Its head is adorned with a white rose crown, while each hand is a rose as well, one blue and one red.

In response, Stannis returns his Pokemon as well, Staraptor making another appearance. 'Last swap on the leader's side. Will Evan let this match-up play out or use his last switch as well?'

"Set the field Roserade, fast." "Go out with glory Staraptor."

Roserade immediately moves in a flurry, flicking purple-tipped green spines throughout the arena and bursting with a rainbow-colored cloud of mixed powders that begins to spread through the arena. Staraptor flies upwards towards the top of the arena and goes still for a brief moment, gliding in place.

In an instant Staraptor repeats the scene of its devastation from earlier in the match, slightly slower but still far faster than the eye can see, it descends straight down before leveling out right before hitting the ground. Orange and white streaks across the arena once again in a near instant, blurring through the field of pollens and scattering them further across the battlefield before slamming both itself and Roserade into the psychic barrier and kicking up a massive dust cloud.

When the debris clears, both are revealed to be knocked out and unable to continue.

Leader Stannis releases Lopunny to the field as close to his as possible, it sits sleeping peacefully. Simultaneously, Evan releases a Pokemon into the water, only a pair of spiky red spines visible before that too dips under.

"Pull it under and throttle it with superpower Manach." Evan calls out placidly, Stannis meanwhile yells and shouts at his Lopunny in hopes of getting it to awaken. Unfortunately, Staniss has no luck before a cerulean blue reptile darks out of the water and pulls Lopunny into the water. 'One of the "pseudo-dragon" regional starters then, interesting.' The water foams white as the Feraligatr spins and throttles the Lopunny its jaws hold by the neck. Lopunny awakens from the commotion and slams several Thunder Punches into Manach, before going limp and releasing a bright pink shockwave that covers the field in softly glowing orbs of pink light.

"Admiral let's close this out!" Stannis releases Admiral once again, leaving a decent bit of space between it and Manach. The energy floating through the arena rapidly closes in towards the Bibarel seemingly refreshing him. 'Is that what Healing Wish looks like? How does that work? Can it be stolen?'

"Thunderbolt it until it closes in Admiral." "Go wild Manach."

The Bibarel begins to fire repeated blasts of Thunderbolt, as Manach pulls the water surrounding it into a Surf wave to close in on Admiral. The first thunderbolt strikes Manach dead center before it raises a Protect barrier to block the two follow-ups as the momentum of the wave carries it to its destination.

"Alright Admiral, it's time for pinball" Admiral kicks off and away from Manach just before the wave reaches him, spinning into another Rollout. Manach fires a rapid series of massive Dragon Pulses that the Admiral darts and weaves between, slamming Iron Tail into the ground to quickly pivot and turn while picking up more and more momentum all the while.

"SET SAIL ADMIRAL!" Admiral flicks itself forward with its tail, shining with the brilliant orange and white aura of a Giga Impact, as he rockets forward, all the water within the arena follows him and grows to a veritable tsunami. "HYDRO CANNON!" Evan screams out, and Manach Drops to all fours and unleashes a torrent of water that utterly dwarfs the Overheat seen earlier in an effort to stop Admiral in its tracks.

And yet the Admiral sails forth undeterred, piercing straight through the center of the attack with its arms pointed as if to dive, before slamming into Menach cratering the ground with a massive slam that kicks up a dust cloud. Finally, as if to add insult to injury, the massive wave crashes down onto the two Pokemon before the water begins to recede and settle back down into the cracks of the pock-marked battlefield, revealing a knocked-out Feraligatr and the Admiral catching its breath hunched over with hands on it knees.

'...'

Evan returns his Feraligatr and stands in silence for a moment.

"HA, you're a bit too young to pull one over on me yet lad!" Staniss declares with a jovial laugh.

"You're it Houndoom, let's do our best." The black dog returns to the field and channels what appears to be Nasty Plot and Howl once again, before sprinting off.

"Corner it and let's close out this match Admiral" The Bibarel raises a much more modestly sized Surf, seemingly exhausted from its last maneuver, before rocketing diagonally forward towards Houndoom with Aqua Jet. Houndoom unleashes Flamethrower towards the wave, evaporating a space for it before it crashes down, then leaps forward with its modified Flame Charge, narrowly dodging a second Aqua Jet from Admiral. 'Ah that's probably the match'

As Admiral passes it grips Houndoom's hindleg and slams the canine into the ground, muscles bulging from Superpower. Houndoom blasts the Bibarel with a final Overheat before Admiral slams its fist down onto its chest, snuffing out the attack and leaving the dog unconscious.

"BIBAAAAAAAAAAAREL!" Admiral lets loose a final roar over its opponent, its upper body utterly burnt and seared, before finally flopping over, falling unconscious himself.

I find myself left with two main thoughts. 'That was the coolest shit I've ever seen. I won't settle for mediocrity, my whole life I've gone with the flow, never investing much of myself into anything, and I can't believe I'm thinking it but…'

'I want to be a Pokemon Master.'

[Authors Note]

WOO that one was quite a doozy guys thanks for reading till the end. I have quite a lot of things I want to talk about this release.

I'll open with sorry for the late chapter, life came up and it ballooned in scale until it ended up literally double the size of my first two. Unlikely that we'll see another one this large and as for why it's so long well I'll get into it further down.

We've got a lot of firsts this chapter, first alternate perspective, first spoken dialog, and oh fucking boy first battle scene.

On the alternative perspective, I hope it reads well, I want my characters, especially ones I take into their own perspective, to give a sense of personhood. Often alternate perspectives might bring up the MC, but I don't want characters to come across as flat cutouts that only exist so as to serve X purpose for MC but that actually have lives involving other people and a history. I also tried to give Amara a different "voice" from the MC for lack of a better term in the sense that being in her head doesn't sound the same as when you're in Izzy's head so I hope that came across.

Dialog! I hoped the kids sounded like human children. obviously, Izzy never does but he isn't really a child. One of the big reasons I'm not lingering in childhood and timeskipping is I'm not super confident on writing decently convincing children characters long-term. Also I was really amused by how close Izzy got while I was writing it to speaking nothing but one-word responses for his entire first chapter he's able to speak. I had a ton of fun writing Flint, and while he won't be among the main cast once we reach the journey portion of the fic, he will be a decently major recurring side character most likely.

The reason this chapter is late; AKA the battle. so the getting to the battle part of this chapter was exactly normal chapter size, and the battle basically exactly doubled it, one may posit "Hey why not make the battle its own chapter?". The answer lies in the purpose of the battle. At a core level, the battle itself was not super relevant to the story itself, it had purpose of course, but it didn't feel relevant enough where I felt that it could really stand as its own chapter. The battle had 3 main purposes that were as follows

1. I wanted to establish what high-level battles look like in the setting, generally the two trainers on display here were of the more "straightforward brawler" variety so there weren't any crazy mindgames or trickery going on, but it generally offers a solid Idea of what I envision high-level mons being able to do. It also hints towards some of the differences between this setting and some settings that tend to lean more towards pure game mechanics conversion.

2. Establishes some more character traits and skills for MC while also offering a jump-off point for potential future ideas, aka the only thing that actually matters for the plot rather than the background settings of the story itself.

3. Introduce some potentially future relevant characters that could have easily been introduced in other manners.

Basically, I didn't want to make it a chapter on its own because it's not something that a reader will have stakes in, it doesn't involve characters you already know or care about, nor do the results create an outcome that might alter the course of the story.

Anyway, writing 6v6s is hard and takes a long time, we won't be seeing any fully written battles like this for a decent while though so I hope you enjoyed the taste. In the future, battles of this scale will definitely be their own chapters with lead-in and will honestly probably be longer than this one since I'll have stuff I'm way more excited about and have way more ideas for, but for the near future, we'll mostly be seeing smaller-scale matches of 3v3s at most.

Finally, I just wanted to thank everyone for the Reviews, Favorites and Follows and respond regarding the schedule.

I'm going to tentatively declare my release schedule as Monday and Friday at 1 PM PST, I may release earlier in the day if I think something will prevent me from posting, but if you check then the story should be up unless something's gone wrong.

Thanks again, and again I appreciate any feedback and suggestions you can offer.-