Vance brought me out for lunch when it's nearing the agreed time which he originally arranged to have a lunch appointment with Steven. I was brought to a classy restaurant with a nice quiet ambience and the waitress led us to a private room that was booked under Steven's name. Steven had reached before we did and like Vance, he's dressed very casually too. Maybe today was one of the rare days where he does not need to work like a busybee.
"It's been a long while. How've you been?"
"Not the best, but I've managed," I replied honestly, immediately picking up on what Steven was really trying to ask me without being too blunt about it. He's concerned about the sudden emergence of the side effects of my ability, namely how Devouring has affected my life. Zades had already told me that the league had gotten semi involved and the end result was that Zades ended up becoming my instructor. Thus, Steven being aware of what I had been up to ever since I returned home was not surprising at all.
Vance slid the menu over for me to order whatever I fancy. I took one look at the menu and even if there's no price tagged to the dishes I could already tell that this meal would cost a bomb for the average citizen.
To rich people like Steven or Vance though, this is probably small change for them.
Oh wait, I'm one of those rich people too. Silly me.
"Phoebe will make time for you to supervise your ability training with Zades," Steven reassured me, probably misunderstanding that I'm feeling down in the dumps. "She had taken an interest in you ever since she learnt that you are an ability holder and that it's ghost-inclined. There are only a scant few records of people similar to you in the league's records and those people hadn't been around for a very long time."
"Maybe one of those people are our ancestors? Might explain why I possess this ability," I looked at Vance who gave me an equally clueless shrug. We had checked through our family tree as far back as we could but not a single one of our ancestors listed there, no matter how distantly related, was an ability holder.
We soon came to a conclusion after eliminating all the impossibilities. My ability definitely had to be inherited from our mother's side of the family, because that's the only side of our family that we have close to no knowledge of. We don't even know if we have maternal grandparents and I don't even recall mum ever speaking a single word about the family from her side, which was suspicious in retrospect but none of us really dared to broach this topic with her. If she never brought this topic up to us, there must be a good reason as to why it was so.
Maybe one of our grandparents or great grandparents or great-great-grandparents from our mother's side was an ability holder?
The three of us continued to converse while waiting for the food to be served. There was nothing important that was being brought up in our conversation. It's like Vance said, this is just a catch up between friends. The important matters only started to surface after we were almost done with our meals.
It started off when Steven offhandedly mentioned that if we had nothing important to do in Rustboro, it would be best to avoid coming over for the next few weeks. When we asked why, Steven replied that the city is currently on code orange alert for the foreseeable future and it might dial up in magnitude at any time. This was also one reason why he would also be present at Rustboro for this period of time. It's so that he could provide his assistance if an emergency happened.
From best to worst: green, yellow, orange, red, black; these are the universal warning standards that cities all around the world adhere to if a city had to be put on alert. A standardised warning system is necessary when we live alongside creatures like pokemon who could potentially hold the power to obliterate cities when they are in a bad mood. Most cities are usually on green or yellow alert, which is pretty normal as people could just go about with their daily lives with no obstructions.
But for code orange?
For a city to be put on code orange meant that there are signs that led the mayor or gym leader of the town or city to strongly believe that the city might be on the receiving end of a pokemon attack or natural disaster anytime soon. If things go to code red it would already mean that the city would be put on wartime alert and everybody is strongly encouraged to stay indoors and not venture out unless necessary. League combat personnels are to be on standby and be mentally prepared to be called upon at immediate notice.
If things escalated to code black, either it meant that the city would definitely be hit by a catastrophic natural disaster or is already in the midst of experiencing one. Wartime measures would be put in place with immediate effect. For most cities the gym leaders would immediately assume the highest command of authority when it's code black and everybody is to either immediately head to the nearest shelter or if that proved impossible, head indoors and lay low for as long as possible until the incident had passed. All league combat personnel, both on duty and off duty, are to immediately return to their stations until code black has been lifted.
In short, for a city to issue a code orange alert is not good news, especially so when Steven Stone chose to station himself here until the alert has reverted to green or yellow.
I was entirely clueless as to what could possibly warrant a code orange alert, but Vance figured it out very quickly.
"Is it already the mating season for the wild salamences at Meteor Falls?"
The silent nod that Steven gave said everything that needed to be said. I felt a small sense of unease after knowing the answer. Every Hoennian knew that if there's one place that you should absolutely not mess around, it's Meteor Falls, because that's where the bulk of our region's apex predators made their homes. The salamence species are regarded as a pseudo-legendary pokemon for a very good reason and they get very vicious and territorial when it's their mating season. This is why Meteor Falls would be cordoned off by both the Rangers and ACE during this period and nobody could visit the place until the salamence mating season is over.
However, there would always be fools who would ignore the dangers and the illegality of trying to sneak into Meteor Falls. Be it for money or power, the allure of possibly obtaining a baby bagon or egg is a huge temptation that would attract many trespassers to do what the league explicitly forbade. This is why both ACE and the Rangers would work hand in hand to patrol Meteor Falls during this sensitive period, it's to deter any poachers from trying to poach the baby bagons from their nests and ultimately rile up an angry horde of dragons which might choose to raze Rustboro or Fallarbor in their frenzied rage.
This revelation struck a little closer to home for us because dad lost almost his entire team about two decades ago at Meteor Falls when he was still in service in ACE, where he suddenly had to fend off an angry salamence horde from razing down Fallarbor and Rustboro in their rage after a group of poachers snuck into Meteor Falls and attempted to poach their young. The only thing the poachers succeeded in was riling up the angry group of dragons. Dad fortunately made it out alive but he was also forced to retire from ACE shortly after, where he then met mum, settled down and started to take over the family's responsibilities from grandpa, and then had Vance and me.
"Do you need any help from us?" I asked and while Vance did not say anything, I could also tell that he would readily help Steven should he need our aid. Steven would officially assume the position of Hoenn Champion in just two more days and if the worst were to happen and everything ended up in a disaster, his reputation would take a very serious blow. Our families are long standing allies and objectively speaking, having Steven as Hoenn Champion is beneficial for us as well. As such, there is no reason to not offer our assistance if Steven needed it.
"Roxanne and I had done everything we could. Glacia and Sidney are stationed at Fallarbor as we speak, and the Draconids are also keeping a careful watch on the wild salamence population up at Meteor Falls, so no, I don't think your assistance will be needed. That said, in the event that things somehow really get that bad…"
"Just give me a call and I'll be there," Vance promised. Vance has a salamence on his team, he knows very well how to handle one and conversely, the best ways to take out an angry salamence.
"Thank you, but let's hope that things never get to that point. The last time a code red was issued was about twenty years ago, I've never experienced it myself but I heard that things were pretty bad then."
"Yeah, it killed two thirds of dad's team and forced him to retire from ACE," I muttered softly under my breath. I didn't mean for Steven to hear those but I knew that he had heard me nonetheless when I saw the shocked expression on his face. He was not expecting such a response, I could tell that much.
Vance gave an awkward cough. He immediately tried to divert Steven's attention away.
"So, ahem, I heard that the league is going to roll out a nationwide event for local elite trainers really soon?"
"Ah, yes," Steven seemed grateful for the sudden change in topic and took the opportunity when he saw it. His gaze turned to me, the look in his eyes a little more playful than usual and his reaction did make me a little curious about what he's going to reveal.
Pokemon battles are the way of life for pokemon trainers. It's the method in which we communicate and also push ourselves and our pokemon to grow stronger. Currently, in the trainer industry there are a few ways to take part in an official battle.
The most commonly seen ones are the one where two trainers lock eyes and agree to have a battle. The battle will be officially registered by pairing the two pokedexes together and it's also how the wager of the battle will be set, ranging anywhere from tens of pokedollars to hundreds and thousands, depending on the level of the battle or if both trainers agree to the terms of the wager. Then there is the annual pokemon league conference, the highest level of pokemon battling and the highest form of prestige the average pokemon trainer could obtain because this tournament is where powerful trainers from all over the region come to compete. There are also small local mini tournaments hosted by other groups, like rookie tournaments sponsored by corporations trying to make their brand known, or tournaments hosted by passionate enthusiasts who simply wanted a platform to meet and battle against other trainers to hone their skills. Personally, I hadn't participated in any of those before in Hoenn.
What Steven revealed to me, however, is an area of pokemon battling that hadn't been given much importance on the public stage.
"Field combat?"
"Yes, field combat," Steven affirmed. "The current and most traditional form of official pokemon battle is the standard 6 vs 6, which is also the format in which the annual conference is held. But that said, out in the wild, nobody ever adheres to the 6 vs 6 rule. You had experienced it for yourself when you were with the interpol."
"Outside of regulated battles, it's basically anything goes," I agreed. There has been an old saying among pokemon trainers that those who shine in official battles do not necessarily do well in field combat, but those who do well in field combat are definitely skilled trainers to look out for. As you progress further in this industry you would find that not many people place as much emphasis on the usual 6 vs 6 regulated battles. This might be due to the fact that most pokemon trainers would usually join a branch of the league's military force after they finished their conference, where they would have to inevitably be involved with fieldwork and take part in battles where no rules are in place.
Given how highly the pokemon leagues around the world judge a trainer by their field combat performance, it's actually baffling why there's no tournaments or system to rank a trainer's strength by their field combat performance. Perhaps this is one thing that Steven is trying to change with his upcoming appointment as the new Hoenn Champion.
Of course, there are trainers who specialise in official rules-regulated 6 vs 6 battles, but these are often celebrity trainers who represent their sponsors in official events and they are more like a duelist whose role is to provide entertainment to their audiences more than anything else. However, if you really want to climb higher and be better, stronger, and sturdier, you will have to eventually venture into field combat. There's no escaping it.
I had already been sufficiently trained in field combat ever since I joined the interpol. The lessons that I had with Zades were also an aspect of field combat, but the focus in our lessons was on naval battles since that was an area that I was sorely lacking experience in.
"Hoenn is not on friendly terms with some of the other regions now that we had pulled out our support from the PWL in certain areas. The interpol was just one of many, and given the sudden emergence of the Galar and Paldea regions, Wallace and I had many reasons to believe that conflicts between some of the other regions might be inevitable."
"Conflicts? As in…"
"Yes, in the worst case scenario, the military might be mobilised, that kind of conflict," Steven was honest in his admission. "Hence, it then falls on me as champion to hurry and bolster our region's military power and also to raise the average skill level of our trainers. But we don't want to groom trainers who only look good on paper but are no good on the field, like those celebrity trainers that business corporations use to market their products. We want trainers who can bring value down on the ground if conflict with other regions do break out. After much discussion, the league decided that they want to adopt a stronger emphasis of judging a trainer's skill level by their field combat experience instead of just solely on the achievements of the conferences which they participated."
"So the league is trying to promote more and more trainers to start learning and participating in field combat from the get-go? To raise the average skill level of our trainers in the shortest possible time?"
"Yes. If done well and if international conflicts never break out, it will just be a marketing gimmick. If conflicts with the other regions do unfortunately escalate, our trainers, even those at the novice and intermediate levels, will at least be combat ready to be mobilised at a moment's notice. However, we do not want to invest so much resources so early on since we had no idea how successful or bad this would turn out, which is why we will only be rolling out this event for our elite level trainers which will also serve to be a testbed for the league to verify if this idea could really work out for intermediate or advanced trainers."
As Steven soon explained, the event that will be rolled out by the league is a field combat challenge that all active Hoennian elite level trainers are automatically deemed eligible to participate in. A profile would then be generated for every eligible elite level trainer in the Hoenn League's database and an initial score would then be assigned to each trainer based on their existing official achievements recorded by the league.
Based on the given score, the trainers are then divided into four classes based on their win-loss ratio and each class is represented by a different type of pokeball. From lowest to highest, they are the Normal Class, Great Class, Ultra Class, and Master Class. Only those whose rankings remain in the top five percent of the cohort would be considered Master Class, the sixth to twentieth percentile will be Ultra Class, and the twenty first to fiftieth percentile will be the Great Class, and anything lower will be Normal Class.
I could already see that this event will be a huge hit once it's rolled out. Not only is it backed and recognised as an official league sanctioned event, it's also because currently, there are too few events where only the higher spectrum of elite level trainers can participate. Furthermore, the novelty of making field combat an official format of pokemon battling is bound to gather attention from both trainers and spectators alike. More importantly, the prizes that trainers can obtain if they reach Master and Ultra Class are superb. Evolutionary items, rare pokemon, resources to raise your pokemon team; anything and everything you could think of to raise a team of elite level pokemon, you have the chance to grab them all if you climb high enough. The prize rewards are outstandingly generous and most people will not be able to resist the temptation, especially so for trainers who came from humble backgrounds and had very little to rely on to climb up the social ladder.
The way in which this field combat event will be conducted is also relatively simple. The challenger must seek out opposing trainers in nearby areas, and both must agree to battle. The challenger can only issue challenges to any trainers of a higher ranking than the challenger. Once the challenge has been accepted, both trainers can book the time and location of their battles through their pokedex. The battle has to take place in a league-recognised facility, such facilities are usually located near the pokemon centres or gyms and for some cities, there are areas specially demarcated for trainers to conduct battles among themselves. A league official must be present to witness the battle or else the results of the battle will not be recognised. Once the challenger has defeated the trainer which he issued the challenge to, they would be rewarded with ranking points, while the defeated would lose some of their points and drop further down the ranking ladder.
The ranking season would last for three months until it closes and after which, a tournament would be hosted by the Hoenn League to allow those in the Master Class to fight it out among themselves to determine who gets to be number one for the season. The current plan is to hold this tournament in the off season of the annual conference, which will also generate revenue for the league through advertisement slots, and also encouraging more children to become trainers themselves and thereby bolstering our region's military in the long run. A clash between some of our region's strongest trainers bar the Pillars themselves would also be a much anticipated event and I'm sure that there will be many things that every trainer can learn if we could spectate their battles.
There are many things that Steven did not go into detail, like how the prizes in the Master and Ultra Class can be obtainable. Are they rewarded as you go along, or do they have a point system like the Battle Frontier that you can use to redeem anything that took your fancy? And are there enough land and manpower resources to support this event in the ranking season stage? How is it going to be really implemented down on the ground? I'm sure that the league will have it all sorted out eventually but I'm already dying to know when this event is going to be rolled out.
Okay, I will admit, I'm just simply curious what ranking I will be given at the start of the season. I honestly have no idea how I would be graded against the numerous elite level trainers in Hoenn. I'm hoping that I could at least scrape by the bottom percentile of the Ultra Class, although I feel that that might be asking for a little too much. I had a feeling that my starting rank would most likely place me in the mid to upper ends of the Great Class, but I wouldn't know until the league made this event official and rolled it out for real.
"When will the event start?"
"The league will make an official announcement in two days together with my official swearing in. After which, we will be marketing the event for another two weeks to hype it up and generate interest from the public before officially starting the ranking season. If you are interested, you can look forward to participating in the ranking season before the end of the month."
Wacky had already popped his head out halfway into Steven's description of the upcoming tournament, displaying his interest in the tournament clearly for us to see. Macky had joined him as well, having appeared from thin air as the two gengars acted like attentive students trying their best to listen to the lessons given in class. It's quite a weird sight if I have to say so myself.
"What's this ranking event called? There should be an official name to it, am I right?"
"The league decided upon the name "Coronation Series" just last week," Steven answered patiently with a smile on his face. "I think it's a fitting name for a ranking style tournament to decide the strongest trainer of Hoenn excluding the Pillars themselves. We are confident that this event will not only boost our economy, it can also generate strong interest in the trainer industry among the populace and also raise the average skill level of our elite trainers. I'm almost certain that the other regions might emulate what we are doing once they caught wind of it."
"And we will then kickstart a worldwide ranking style tournament event to determine the strongest trainer in the world? Would I then be seeing you being pit against other champions too?" I asked cheekily and Steven laughed.
"I'm not against the idea. In fact, I am quite fired up at the thought of being able to cross swords with other champions from other regions, if they are up for it as I do," Steven replied and his famed metagross who had been silently hovering in midair nearby even voice its agreement with a low and metallic grunt. "In any case, I strongly encourage you and Vance to take part in the Coronation Series. It might be a little strenuous and it will push you to your limits at the upper levels, so the league is mentally prepared that not everyone would enjoy the event, but take my advice and try attempting it at least once. It would be a good experience and since this is the first time we are rolling out such an initiative, the league is going all out with the prizes this year to attract more active participants."
"Some of my pokemon will be very interested," I hummed in thought and Wacky whooped in ecstasy. Even Dolly had shown some interest in the tournament by making her appearance. I don't care about being the strongest but I do have the desire to push ourselves a little further as of late. The Coronation Series might be the dipstick test that we need right now, to see just how far we have come ever since we returned to Hoenn and after going through the hellish lessons under Zades' tutelage.
We have about half a month to prepare. That should be enough time for us and there's something that I had been holding off for a long while already ever since I finished my conference more than a year ago. The moon stone that I was awarded as part of my prize where I received Joy had been left unused for far too long. It's about time I prepare her for the next stage of her evolution. She's ready.
The Coronation Series… I have a feeling that this event will be a big hit and end up becoming a permanent event for Hoenn. Wonder what kind of ranking I will attain at the end of the season?
Character and pokemon list:
Velda Vera, Age: 14, Female, Pokemon Trainer
Pokemon on hand:
1) Rapidash (Flamel), male
2) Swampert (Bigblue), male
3) Banette (Dolly), female
4) Flygon (Snap), male
5) Absol (Kelsa), female
6) Charizard (Toothless), male
7) Cradily (Lily), female
8) Espeon (Rena), female
9) Pachirisu (Fuzzy), male
10) Tyranitar (Kratos), male
11) Clefairy (Joy), female
12) Nidoqueen (Ness), female
13) Pangoro (Hulk), male
14) Porygon-Z (Jarvis), genderless
15) Scizor (Archer), male
16) Lapras (Chill), female
17) Gengar (Wacky), male