The dark-haired and tan-skinned eighteen year-old sighed as he stepped off the back of his Dragonite to step down onto the soil of his homeland, hands absently resting on his pokeballs as he looked around.

"Pallet Town…" Noah murmured, "Been a while since I've been in my homeland."

It was true, when he was hand-picked to be the replacement Gym Leader from one of the many academies of battling that dotted the various regions, he had no idea he would be gone for the next six years at the tender age of twelve to become a dragon-specialist Gym Leader. He had done his best to exceed expectations, and had no idea his hard work was going to come back to bite him in the ass. He only just validated his training license for two months before he and his Charmander — which he named Surya — were shipped — literally — to Umbal city of the Araes Region. He supposed it was because he was an orphan and therefore no one would be asking too many questions if one random kid who just passed up and vanished immediately after. Then upon his arrival he was given a Gible by the mayor and basically was left to start making a dragon-specialized gym with little to no instruction.

Not a fire or flying gym.

A dragon gym.

He and Surya had shared a long look before getting to work.

Gible was pleased with the name Astarot.

Getting Astarot to join had been a bit of a hassle as the dragon wanted proof that Noah was good enough to be his trainer. Noah allowed Surya to drill into Astarot that Noah didn't just sit on his hands while throwing his Pokémon around. Two months together had considerable growth on Surya's part under Noah's vigilance as he made sure to put his partner through his paces. Naturally, once Astarot was soundly beaten, he was very agreeable to joining up with the human and his fire-lizard.

Noah — even as a idiot twelve-year old — knew he was not ready if he just charged in so he needed knowledge and a plan if he was going to do this right. So he threw himself in gathering up a family and training them to be as powerful as he could so he could do this right. But his role as a Gym Leader came with restrictions and it was not something he could just gather random pokemon to fill out his team, he was given a dragon and told to make a dragon gym with only two pokemon to be the exception to that type so long as they could use the signature move of 'Dragon Claw'. That took a whole year of time to fill out the six slots on his belt and since dragons were not pushovers thanks to them being goddamn dragons, it was not easy or a quick endeavor. Dragons were pokemon who took time and dedication to grow to be the monsters that the apex of their various species were. 'Baby' dragons were not all that strong and exclusively learned from the school of hard-knocks in the wild once they had deemed ready. It was common for the parents of dragon broods to tolerate the babies for a small amount of time before kicking them out into the world to either live or die.

It would be a time-consuming and frustrating path.

But like any determined fool, Noah was up for walking it.

Thanks to the helpful — and somewhat exasperated — directions from the locals he was directed to a library to get some information on the what was expected of him and what local regional variants of Pokémon he could find. He came across several entries of how Pokémon that appeared in the wilds here ranged from his 'homeland' of Kanto to the rather-isolated land of Galar due to a rather constant trade going from those regions and Araes. Depending on where you went, each cave system were practically their own Pokémon habitats or ecosystem and you could find those types of Pokémon, which made his path forwards a lot easier to manage. He set his sights on two locations that had potential teammates for his roster, a cave known as 'The Dragon Den' and another cave known as 'The Cave of Knowledge'.

A bit on the nose for the first one, but it didn't make a difference.

He started with The Cave of Knowledge as it had the first pokemon he wanted.

An Aron.

He had checked over the pokemon that had inhabited this place, and found that while Aron still had its trademark steel-typing, the Aron of this region also had a dragon-typing as well. That durability added to his draconic power made an Aron an rather appealing teammate he would love to have on his team if he could locate on. Not to mention a steel typing would be able to counter one of Dragon's biggest weakness, that being the Fairy Pokémon that would normally wreck them. The inhabitants of The Cave of Knowledge were not exactly welcoming and while he had to contend with the many other occupants with the cave, Surya and Astaroth were more than happy to scrap with the pokemon trying to give them grief until they came across an Aron being cornered by a pair of Honedge. Naturally in some sappy heroic maneuvering and battling, they managed to beat the pair off and Aron decided he liked them enough to join their family.

And with his third pokeball now occupied, Girac became the fourth member of the merry band of misfits.

With that Noah had half of a team ready, and while the mayor insisted he get started as the remaining Gym trainers were struggling against the stream of challengers, Noah stood firm that if he was going to do this, he would be the best damn Gym Leader they had. It was either that or he would go out of the way to make the Gym worse and just become a regular trainer. The mayor had been annoyed, but thought Noah's conviction would waver over time and with the allure of status as a Gym Leader.

He had never been more wrong about the boy.

Noah then got ready to set off for The Dragon Den, Pokémon primed and ready to find some new additions to his family. Naturally, he didn't just go in with his team without prep, he had to make them stronger so that they could show how following him would only make them better. He didn't much care if they evolved, but he needed them to be strong enough that dragons — a species that gave loyalty to the more powerful — would be willing to bend a knee to him once they saw results. Surya evolved within the first month of battling the local wildlife, occasional trainer, and repeated training spars with Astarot and Girac thanks to him technically not being a dragon. And with a Charmeleon now to throw themselves against, Astarot and Girac evolved two months after and Noah knew he was ready.

No heroic stunts but sheer battling and capturing the new additions into his family.

Drakon the Dratini.

Grimm the Dreepy.

Grunu the Jangmo-o.

Now that he had a full team…

Two years.

Two whole years of training and running themselves ragged to become a force to be reckoned with. He first made sure to give them as good a counter as they could get to their weaknesses, Girac being his general go to with Fairies and Surya being his pick-of-choice in his role as the Ice counter. He didn't back on those two alone and invested a heavy sum in TM's with what money he was given thanks to his 'Gym Leader' status and even though it took time he had each member of his family set with at least one move each to help them mitigate their natural opponents. He did make sporadic visits to his gym to his gym so his paycheck would be valid, but preferred to stay away when he could. People and other trainers came at him with complaints about how he couldn't be playing around when he had duties to attend to or resign if he wasn't going to even try. His team sent them packing back to the mayor with a message saying he would take the mantle when he was sure he could live up to it. He spent time to bond with his new family, readily putting his life in their hands and sparing no expense or restriction for his family when they needed him. His team was not there to be his fist or his status, they were going to be his family till the day he died and they promised that death would have to earn them before being separated.

So at the age of fifteen — after three years of grueling effort — he stepped into the Umbal City Gym and demanded to take his position and if anyone had and issue he would be happy to crush them. The previous Gym Leader had also doubt about Noah's determination if it took him three years to muster the courage to enter the Gym he was suppose to be running.

Noah told him to wait his turn.

And with brutal efficiency, he crushed every single person in the Gym who had tried to to prove that he had taken three years to actually get over his knowledge that he couldn't do it. The Gym Leader himself wanted to see if Noah could beat him and Noah had been happy to pit his family against the Gym Leader. That battle had been fun as even as he was going to retire, the previous gym leader had languished while waiting for Noah to step up.

His Gym, his position, his family earned it and they became and insurmountable obstacle to clear to practically every challenger. The people grew to respect and admire him and even his gym trainers changed their minds once he began whipping them into shape. He wasn't unfair in allowed whichever trainers he decided had the drive and passion to go forward and made sure to be generous on tips to be better when they couldn't beat his employees. Money from the challengers went to city renovations and making Umbal City a place people could be proud to live in. The city's tourism and trade increased and more varied challengers arrived to throw themselves at the Gym and his group.

It was fun, his dragons enjoyed the battling and celebrating their victories, every day was another chance to show the world that it couldn't knock them down.

Weak or strong, every challenger was a way to prove that though they were only one gym in a relatively small region, they were among the best of the best. One trainer with a vicious and powerful tyranitar became one of his favorite challengers and kept his family on their toes. He particularly enjoyed trainers who came back with more power to back them as they showed they could preserve through loss.

Two years of work as the Gym Leader and Noah couldn't help the pride and glee at how well everything seemed to be going. He did think that it was odd that the league hadn't come to check up on him so far despite it being five whole years, but he was sure they wouldn't be disappointed when they did arrive to evaluate him.

Then it all went to hell with a gang named 'The Rogue Riders' suddenly coming out of practically nowhere to try to make trouble in his city and demand he step down if he was smart. Noah and his gym trainers had no problem repelling the gang members who sauntered into the city expecting it to be an easy takeover. For all that he was a strict taskmaster, the gym trainers had definitely benefitted from sparring with their gym leader. It was an absolutely convoluted amount of logic and battles with some of the gang members that turned out to be a few of the trainers he had sent packing because the simply weren't worth the badge and goddamn city officials who had joined up.

He had even gotten kidnapped but apparently the dosage of the drugs they used wasn't accurate and they forgot to take his Pokémon off of his person. It didn't end well for his wardens and any other gang members in the general vicinity when he brought his whole team and explained what had happened.

Finally, Noah and the previous Gym Leader — who decided that the gang activity had gone too far — finally caught the creator of the gang who turned out to be the mayor of all people. His oh-so-logical reason got making the gang and trying to run him out of town was probably the stupidest and most self-created issues Noah ever had the misfortune to hear.

No one wanted to become city officials and more power rested with the Pokémon gym leader than the city.

The old man did this because he was basically jealous.

Okay.

That's it.

Screw this place.

He's done.

Noah first got the contacts for the league and had them send a team of rangers down to transfer the incarcerated mayor and his associates to a more secure prison. He used all of the allotted funds his gym had to make it as up to code as possible, making sure it would stand for years to come before taking the rest for himself.

Reparations for time wasted when he was supposed to fail.

He handed down the leadership of his Gym to his most talented and powerful trainer and told him to bear the responsibility with pride and fair judgment and to prove it to the rangers that they didn't need to find a replacement.

His employee vowed to do his best.

Noah finally gave a public speech that while he didn't regret the time he had spent in Umbal City, he would not want to remain to stain their reputation as the city with the gym leader who was blind to the machinations of a corrupt and bitter mayor who was trying to set him up to fail.

With a fond farewell to his many friends and rivals, he set off for Kanto.

Maybe he should see if there was a way to smooth out the whole 'I was a gym leader and want to go back to being a trainer' issue?

Professor Oak was pretty much the same as Noah heard before had been shipped off from Kanto, a kindly old man who loved research and giving trainers the first member to their family on their journey to be trainers. But while that was an aspect of the man, it did nothing to diminish the legend man who had one of the strongest teams on the the whole planet and became a champion. Even after the years, Oak had not lost that edge and his team could throw down with the Elite Four and not be found wanting. He was the idol of any aspiring trainer and the one who many had tried to emulate if not in attitude, then in power. If anything his age and study of Pokemon had allowed for all the future generations with power and knowledge to surpass all the previous ones. Noah never had the pleasure of a one-on-one meeting with the Pokémon professor before, but he had always admired a life well spent in following your dreams.

And Oak understood Noah's situation quite well, having abandoned the mantle of champion to be a professor.

"I admit, I can understand your reasons for abandoning the city after such a despicable act on the mayors part." The professor said, "Are you sure that your replacement is up to the task of running the gym?"

"I trust my gym trainers, and if they can't handle it, the rangers that are stationed there will scrounge up a bright up-and-coming trainer and set him up to succeed this time. Better chance than I had and I succeeded, so I have no doubt the league will do its due diligence this time." Noah replied firmly, "But I was hoping you could help set my Id back to just a Pokémon trainer? You can have my former status removed if that's easier, but I wanted to have a chance to participate in the conference. I know I'll be in a better position than most, but even so I never got the chance to experience the gym circuit like a normal trainer."

Oak laughed, "I'd better send a notice out that a dragon team that is fully evolved is going to be participating in the circuit this year. I actually have some trainers who are going to be getting their starter this week. It will take some time for me to contact the league and set up your id, and you won't need to worry about losing your previous account, we can just join it to your new account."

Noah smiled, "Thanks, I appreciate it."

Noah woke up and did some general housekeeping around the lab while his team explored the corral and meet the locals. It was good for them to see a bit more of the Pokémon around as they would soon be trekking through all the areas of Kanto. Surya and Drakon hit it off with Oak's friendly Dragonite and they often raced and flew with each other in the nearby mountains for fun. Grimm seemed to be exploring all the dark caves and shadows in the hunt for some ghost that were willing to play with him; he had some success but he had boundless energy and was a dragon to boot. Grunu and Astarot preferred to show off to the locals, and occasionally spar with each other farther out so they didn't rearrange the landscape so close to the town. Girac refused to leave Noah unsupervised ever since that one time he had been kidnapped by 'The Rough Riders'. The steel-dragon-type had not taken the fact that they dare touch or intend any harm to the family which saved him very well.

Oak — to his credit — didn't mind Noah keeping watch over the lab at night and sending his team out to sometime settle the infrequent quarrels that cropped up between Pokémon in the corral.

It was the next morning when the league updated Noah's pokedex with his trainer account and four kids showed up to get a Pokémon.