Hello Pokemon fanfic readers!
Before we get started, just a few notes:
1) This is a slash fic, which features gay romance between at least 2 male characters (Pokemon). If you're not into that, then you shouldn't read this. If you are into it, or are open-minded, you're good to go. (This story will also include other LGBTQ+ relations beyond the main pairing.)
2) While it's not required, this story is the third installment of a story series. So, you are able to read this one on its own as it updates. If you want the full story of everything that's going on, however, I recommend reading the other two installments as well.
3) This story is mostly told in the 1st Person perspective, although the 3rd Person viewpoint will also be included for future chapters. To know who you're following with each chapter, the character's name will appear in bold brackets [Like This] somewhere in the chapter. (Mostly that appears in the beginning of a section, but some chapters, including the first one, will have it appear later to create a little flavor.)
There's going to be more information after the chapter, but that covers the main part.
Like the previous stories, the featured pairing will be between: Greninja & Chesnaught. (They do not appear in the first chapter, however.)
Oh, and this is kind of an alternate universe story. It's similar to Mystery Dungeon, where the humans aren't really used (sans the player character), but it's going to be slightly medieval, at least in terms of setting. (Can't do the "ye old wherefore art thou" dialogue...terrible of me, I know.)
Phew! A lot more to go over these days. Ah well, bases covered. Please, read ahead and enjoy!
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Early as it was, we hadn't the time to rest. There was plenty of work to do, after what we had been through.
The castle walls were relatively quiet at this time, as the others were asleep, training, or working. Naturally, though I blazed through the halls, my allies were not quite as quick to keep up. And, of course, we would come across someone that would busy themselves right into the way.
"Wait, sir, or sirs, where are you going?" The butler retainer tried chasing after us, keeping pace with our entourage. "This is highly irregular behavior, even for you!"
"Well, we've been through several layers of hell, and not much time to waste by this point," I snapped. "Complain and protest as you like, Mister Indeedee, but we have much to get to. And you will not be the one to stop us."
"Shall I fetch someone more capable, then?" He dashed in front of me, lifting a hand that pulsed with a spell. "Or are you quite certain that you can handle me?"
"There is but one of you." I folded my arms, still not breaking pace. "After what we've been through, we're far from frightened to fight you."
Hesitating as he backed along the corridor, Indeedee lowered his hand. There wasn't a chance he would have against us, and he knew this. Still, he remained alongside us, refusing to leave our side.
Loyalty keeps him, but I held no such restraints. Not to anyone here, at any rate.
"Just so we're clear and it's understood that you'll be interrupting," Mister Indeedee started up again, "you do realize there is much going on at this time, and that we're all quite busy, yes?"
"Do you think I care?"
"You? No." He glanced over his shoulder. "Them? I'm hoping."
"Unfortunately, we're all just a tad miffed from what's happened."
"Very well." And he offered no more protests.
The doors waited at the end, but I wasn't at all patient like it. Twisting my arms and rotating my hands past one another, a small breeze picked up between them. I forced my palm forward and the wind rushed ahead, blasting the doors open to outside.
Storming out, I glared ahead at the lot before me. The blue dragon with the stony red face had fumbled a few maps around, and he tilted his head at my harsh appearance. His scaly superior centered herself, slamming and shaking her tail with a threatening ring from it. She narrowed her gaze as she lifted her fists, blocking my way to the last, and the one that I was here for.
"That won't be necessary, General Kommo-o."
The taller green lizard behind her merely lifted her arm, still gazing out at the mountains further down and her lands below, as the general only partially lowered her fists. She glanced back to her, still keeping herself between us.
"This intrusion is highly disrespectful and invasive, Your Majesty."
"You're damn right that it is," I fired out.
"Druddigon, I do believe you were going to carry on with the plans that I've arranged?" Of course she wouldn't even be deterred, not by me. "We have plenty to prepare for, and we have invitations to send off, after all." She turned her head to gaze at him. "Everything needs to be ready as well as it can be, before they arrive."
"Yes, Your Majesty." He bowed, clutching his papers. "At once."
Turning back to us, he walked over to Indeedee, who faltered back at his approach. Druddigon tilted his head, and lifted a list.
"She has need of you and the other retainers to carry things out." Druddigon passed the list to him, and shifted his maps around. "I have scenarios to plot out, and others to visit. My fellow knights will need their orders as well."
"Yes, yes, of course!" Mister Indeedee bowed his head. "Forgive my inexcusable failure, Your Majesty."
"Please." She finally turned around entirely, with the sun glowing behind her. A small smile appeared on her face, though the shading gave a dark look to her eyes. "You have other matters to attend to, Mister Indeedee. I shall have this sorted."
"As you wish, My Queen."
Bowing again, he hurried back inside, as Druddigon followed him in. I pivoted back around, as General Kommo-o folded her arms, stepping just barely aside from her monarch.
"Queen Tyranitar, you have a lot of explaining to do," I snapped.
Her smirk faded as she gazed down upon me. "As you do and your allies, Lucario, considering everything that happened with the Empire."
[Lucario]
I glanced to Flygon and Zoroark, their faces paled, and then back to Queen Tyranitar. Perhaps I shouldn't be quite so surprised that she remained collected by our intrusion, but I had hoped to garner a bit stronger of a reaction. After all, we ended up in quite the mess, following her orders. Yet, she merely placed one arm behind her back, and gazed at a violet in her other hand.
"Your mission was to gather intelligence, collect palace artifacts that could be of use regarding the Prophet, and to collect the suspected Prophet as well." She twisted the violet in her hand, spinning it by the stem. "Imagine my surprise as the news coming in that a war broke out in the capital city of the Iceberg Empire, with major damages sustained to both it and its palace, not to mention casualties and the threat on Emperor Empoleon himself."
"The allies that you paired us with caused that," I thundered. "They were leagues more hostile and underhanded than we were supposed to be dealing with."
"Your point?"
"My point?!" The damned nerve…! I bared my teeth for a moment as I lifted my fist. "My blasted point is that we shouldn't have been involved with anything like that! Why were we placed alongside such savages?"
"To my knowledge, they were meant to be hired mercenaries, similar to you under my employ," elucidated Tyranitar, eying me. "If their behaviors changed drastically, I would have thought you capable of handling them."
"With all due respect, Your Grace," piped up Flygon, "they were a lot stronger—"
"So I take it that trusting you for this work was the incorrect choice, which has been proven no matter how any of you might argue this," determined Tyranitar.
"They jeopardized innocent lives!" Aura crackled from my wrists, and her damned general rattled. "They burned the capital like it was a game for them! Burned it!"
Her eyes twitched at that, and Queen Tyranitar finally gave her full attention to me.
"You know what that means to me, don't you?" Tears tried to escape, but I wouldn't let them go, not here, not yet, and not before her. "They would've rained cannonballs and fire across that icy city!"
"…Then why couldn't you, of all warriors, stop them?"
"That." I jerked up. "That's not my point!"
"It is mine," affirmed Tyranitar. "Lucario, I understand that you have familiarity with several soldiers under my employ. I know your history, or the part that matters." She narrowed her eyes, lowering her head as her gaze washed over me. "When I was selecting who to send out, I came to choose you because your friends had faith in you, and I thought your underlying experiences and your rage would guide you appropriately when necessary." She leaned back up, almost looking down on me. "Clearly, that was my miscalculation."
"You can't put this whole thing on me!"
"No, I'm certain that all three of you had an adequate share of failings for the Monarchy, and likely that our name is tarnished across the Iceberg Empire," came Tyranitar's judgment. "Your collective inability to handle or contain unexpected threats have thrown us all into the coming cataclysm of war. And while I welcome battle, it will no longer be fought under the correct pretenses." She shook her head. "I should think of a punishment befitting this, but I have more important matters to deal with."
"If you decide upon anything, I can take the burden of blame for all of us."
Twisting around, Flygon and I stared at Zoroark, who folded his arms and looked away. He gazed out at the sky in the distance as my protest was caught in my throat.
"Flygon and Lucario both had to deal with obstacles based on personal history that impacted their judgment and drove their actions off-course," detailed Zoroark. "I have no such excuse, save I suppose mere exhaustion from my efforts." He faced Queen Tyranitar. "You can direct your blame to me."
"Like hell!" I swept my hand out. "This isn't on us!"
"You least of all," insisted Flygon, but Zoroark held up his hand.
"If the rest of you want to argue the point until the sun sets and the moon rises, I can't stop you, and that is including you, Your Majesty." Zoroark sighed. "The fact is that none of us were prepared for who our enemy turned out to be. Trust was placed in the wrong individuals, information was likely kept from Queen Tyranitar, and we all faced a lot of problems that we weren't expected to handle."
"That's exactly my point!"
"Yet we failed to handle them regardless, which is Queen Tyranitar's," pointed out Zoroark. "She can't assess everyone that she needs to work with. And we needed to handle variables." Zoroark lowered his head. "I've thought about all of this the whole way back, and having it spelled out before me only confirms my thoughts."
"Such response and sacrifice is commendable," decided Tyranitar. "Very well, when I get to it, I'll seek you out, Zoroark."
"Understood."
"What?!"
"Lucario, enough." My glare shot for Tyranitar, but she maintained composure. "You should be thankful from this result, as you were the one given charge over this mission."
"But—"
"There is nothing further to discuss at this time." She twisted back away from me. "The three of you are excused furthermore."
"No—"
"Your Queen has spoken," snapped Kommo-o. "Unless you want to deal with me over your disrespectful behaviors, leave. Now."
Before I could lift my fist, Flygon clamped his hand over my shoulder. I growled at him, but he shook his head, turning to follow Zoroark on the way out. Firing a parting glower to General Kommo-o, and Queen Tyranitar really, I stormed off after the two back inside.
"Why the hell would you do that?!"
"Well, she's pissed at all three of us," defended Zoroark, as he slowly turned back to me. "So, someone had to give her what she wanted."
"Who cares?!"
"Maybe you don't, and though you benefitted, I didn't really stick my neck out for you," clarified Zoroark. He glanced at Flygon, as his wings drooped.
"But I didn't want you to do that for me either."
"Of course you didn't." Zoroark pointed a claw at him. "You're too busy being miserable about everything that's happened, and you wouldn't want anyone paying the price for your mistakes." He then pointed at me. "You're too angry about everything to even consider that we were wrong, in spite of being wronged as well, and you don't want to own up to that."
"We did nothing wrong!"
"Tell that to the Iceberg Empire."
Staggering back, I clenched my teeth, as Zoroark brushed through his mane. He looked at the two of us and shrugged.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd imagine that concludes our mission together." Zoroark turned and walked away from us. "If you're both done yelling and crying, you've got other work to do, I'm sure."
We watched as he made his way through the corridors to leave. I tried to chase after him, but Flygon halted me.
"He needs time." Flygon lowered his head. "Maybe we all do."
"I need better answers than this."
"Fact is that you might not find them." Flygon lifted his head. "And I've got answers that I need to find as well. So…that's it."
"Fine."
As I pulled from him, however, he maintained his grip on me. I twisted back as Flygon frowned to me.
"You know, I may not know your story, but I get that you lost someone important." I froze as Flygon lifted his hand away. "And I don't think you'll get the twisted reveal that I got, but…if you ever need someone that would get what you've gone through, I could listen." My mouth opened, but he turned. "I don't mean now, I'm sure you're far from digging through your past. Just…I don't know." He wandered away from me as well. "See you around, Lucario."
With that, he left, and I remained stuck in the castle hall for a moment. Nothing has been anywhere near my control for the longest time now, and I'm livid that they've continued to spiral away from me. I need to learn more about our former allies, even if Queen Tyranitar won't tell me everything. And I need to learn how to deal with everything else that's falling apart along the way.
Zoroark was right though: there's work to be done, and I'll do whatever I must to see my goals accomplished. Until then…I have others to pester…
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We're just getting started here; plenty more to come!
Veteran readers probably know about the main information, but a slight blurb here for those less up-to-date, since it will come up later on in chapters. This universe has four kingdoms that strive to live in harmony, but struggle to maintain it. These four kingdoms are known as: Grass Fields Kingdom, Iceberg Empire, Mountains Monarchy, and Deserts Domain. Though all four should have some appearance or mention in this story, it will mainly be set in the Kingdom and the Monarchy.
Since it is Pokemon, and since the franchise is ever-expanding, there will be a lot of characters either appearing or mentioned. Technically, these are original characters (OCs), but I'm going to stick with using the species names for now, as it helps avoid confusion. (If not on your part, then on my part.) Hopefully that won't be too terrible.
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...Hm? Oh, did I happen to throw off you veteran readers after all? Yes, unlike the previous story, this one features multiple character perspectives. This will allow insight to other groups from the previous stories, as well as the opportunity to explore familiar faces through a new lens. As mentioned, this story is predominantly Greninja and Chesnaught's overall, but they'll be sharing the spotlight a little more for this one.
Hopefully they'll be able to mix up the flavor a bit. Lucario is part of an effort to explore into Mountains characters a bit more, so that he can give us a little more insight on that roster. (They are mostly newcomers, after all, so it's fair.) He may not be the only one, but, we'll see!
Other characters will be included for viewpoints, but this doesn't mean that they'll have highly elevated roles. Some are just to get a stronger view for certain events that wouldn't otherwise be available to the leads or their immediate allies. Hopefully, this will turn out fun.
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Coming up in the next chapter, we'll visit a familiar kingdom, but this time told from someone else's eyes. He's familiar enough, but his perspective will provide a more unique style to the story. (At least, I sure hope it will!)
Phew! I hope that covers everything. If not and you have some questions, feel free to message me. Hopefully the story will explain it, but I can also fill in gaps where needed. (Things can get a bit complicated.)
Anyway, thank you very much for reading! This story will be updating very slowly, but I hope you'll come visit now and again. Until the next chapter, take care!