As the sun began rising once more, into the start of another day, Valencia reminisced on the words spoken to her during her childhood.
‘Battling is putting one’s honor on the line.’ Valencia recited as she straightened her back and placed her arms to her side.
That was what her clan heads always said whenever she wanted to train.
That was what Lance's actions showed when he guided her.
“Battling is the way the world understands who is at the top, who possess the power to control the world, and who are required to bow down before others.” He had shown more than spoken.
Everyone in the world wishes for power, and Pokemon are the closest thing to that wish.
Even now she herself had only received one badge and yet there are many men, women, and children that look towards even her with respect and awe; albeit the praise might have correlation with her mothers status as a powerful trainer and the rarity of some of her own Pokemon.
This was always implemented in teachings of her childhood. A serious affair where one must put their all into the fight, where emotions as such must be thrust aside to allow victory.
‘So why? Why is it so... FUN?’ She thought
The rush, the thrills, instincts and knowledge working in tandem to improve and adapt one's Pokemon.
And yet, the only fun battles she ever had were the ones with her mother, her mentor, and the gym battle with Falkner from a year ago when her Pokemon barely scraped the win.
At least, that was until yesterday.
A boy with black hair and brown eyes, considerably pale in skin and only slightly shorter than her, his jovial expressions and the looks of joy he gave to others around him would not be remiss on a ‘class clown’. Many would call him handsome were it not for the ugly scar that cut from the bridge of his nose to his right eye alongside the fact his right hand seems to have lost the area that held the nail of his middle finger.
Appearance-wise he looked just like an average child who got in an accident.
A pity case if it were any other person.
But then he battled her.
For the first time in her life, she lost against a trainer that was neither her mentor nor her mother nor some trainer that was older than her by years. Someone who was actually her age.
And it was FUN.
For the first time in her life she was overconfident of her abilities and it had led to her losing. A boy who looked as old as her, not like the teenagers her mother forced her to battle that always froze up when witnessing Frigibax use Dragon Rush. Or when Fennekin and her other two would use their attacks. Always, Always, Always they would freak out and start making mistakes, even trainers who were 14 years or older would be startled by such a high powered move being used by rare Pokemon. Even if most of them would snap out of their stupor and proceed to beat her team.
Hell, those rocket thugs were so low level they probably were hired after they failed to obtain their first gym badge. But... hired goons will always be low tier trash that don't possess the talent, skill, and hard work that trainers must have for even their first battle.
“Most people should just accept they will never be worth anything much, especially when those factors combine into one such as herself.” Her cousin had said.
And yet... and yet she suffered her first defeat against another taking the gym circuit. Someone with no badges.
Her musings of new strategies to employ against him are paused as a car parked parallel to the sidewalk that she was standing on. The door of the car that was holding the lady that took her into her new family opened up and out comes a lady as tall as the fabled Lt. Surge and as strong if not stronger than Maylene and Chuck the fighting type specialists, her toned muscles hiding underneath her heavy coat. Her blond hair shaved on one side and only reaching to her ear on the other side.
Slowly the woman walks into the hotel she used to reserve a room for Valencia, likely one of the many she had already planned for the young trainer.
Without a word, Valencia takes the woman onto the uppermost floor into the hotel room that possesses a balcony large enough for a Steelix and promptly shut the door behind the two.
Right after the click of door locking occurred, the strongest lady Valencia knows gives a heavy sigh and takes off her coat before laying down to rest her feet on the couch. She then took out a homemade bento box that Valencia had specially prepared for her and started eating the contents inside with a fork and spoon instead of chopsticks, proceeding to gobble it up in a feral manner similar to how a dragon feasts.
This. This was her mother. One of the greatest trainers of her generation and most knowledgable individual in Paldea.
If none had guessed from her few interviews after beating Falkner at age nine, then I would always inform them this one simple fact. She wanted to be everything like her mother.
Her hair a golden yellow compared to Valencia’s white, therefore she had dyed her hair to look like her mother. The muscles of her body, weight training helped set the initial stages but training with my Pokemon will make the young girl as strong as her inspiration someday. The weight of her very presence within the room, only through setting up a reputation of being as strong as her mother would allow Valencia to achieve this. Blue eyes a lighter shade than her own, initial attempts to get lenses to change her eye color to were refused as her mother would not even humor her request.
Today she comes to check up on how the young girl is on her official journey while also taking a quick nap; traveling to multiple regions in the span of a week is taxing for anyone, especially when she had to give a major speech and keep a facade in front of the cameras each time.
‘I believe the last speech was something about a charity event, so she probably had to rub elbows with the “rich and snobby”.’ Valencia mused.
After setting up some chamomile tea for her mother, the young trainer layed down on top of her foster parent while giving a peck on the cheek. The parent in question’s hands move ever so slowly, as if the person she wishes to touch is made of glass, before she finally uses one to rub Valencia’s hair just the way she likes it. The other hand caressing her cheek allowing her to feel the rough, scarred appendage once more.
She didn’t know who her parents were, no one at her adoption center really does. But what she does know is who her mother is.
Its simple, before she was seven she never really felt love, the workers in the orphanage just couldn't give their attention to all the kids, and now she get to feel it in every message thats sent and every smile she receives.
After a while of this relaxation, she gets up to finish making the tea as the kettle begins whistling. Her mother drinks the hot beverage she made and immediately after decided to nap.
The perfect time to feed her Pokemon.
After forty minutes pass her mother wakes up, stretching and only cracking one spot on her back. Her eyes filled with the love she's always shown the young girl for these past three years but for once in her life its crossed with mirth and curiosity at the same time.
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"A little Starly told me something very interesting that happened recently." She says, her voice deep but hoarse from overusing it in speech after speech.
"Oh... what may it be?" Valencia asked unaware of the next sentence.
"It was about how my darling daughter sent out her strongest Pokemon in a double battle and lost to one of Professor Oak's lab trainers." And as Valencia’s face paled she smirks only the way a Meowth that caught its pray would.
"W-well you see w-what had hap-happen wa-" "BAHAHAHAHAHAHA" She burst into a laugh that wasn't melodious and made her stop after a bit. Still sounded nice to hear.
"Don't worry dear, lab trainers end up being a league of their own," still having light giggles she continues saying "I remember battling that May girl from Hoenn like it was yesterday, despite being so new to being champion she still ended up winning by the skin of her teeth and made me rethink about some of the other trainers such as that group from Kalos or the four from Unova with one who only took a couple months to become a candidate for being a normal type gym leader."
She then stood up and gave Valencia a hug as the young girl was in the middle of processing what she just said, brushing some loose hairs away from the face in front of her. "The most important thing darling is that you make sure that next time he can't win, alright. The second most is that you only lose to gym leaders and trainers who are either around or above your badge level." She then stopped hugging me and bent down onto her knees and looked at her daughter with pride. "Now tell me, how was battling this boy."
It made Valencia shift her left foot a little in slight embarrassment before answering "It was fun. As fun as battling you mother, if not more. I got to realize a couple mistakes in my tactics and I realized that I shouldn't get overconfident just because I seem to be the superior trainer." She stopped to scratch her head a little before continuing in that line of thought. "Well, if I battled him again right now I would have a fifty-fifty shot at winning even if I got serious."
"Because of his Charmander." "He didn't use a Charmander." That seemed to mildly surprise her before she asked her daughter to continue.
"Yesterday after I battled him I looked at the matches he was in and he did two double battles with his Charmander, one with his Pineco, one with his off color Ralts, two with his Eevee, and two with his Weedle that evolved into a Kakuna before the second match. I went and checked his battle record on that day. I faced off against his Eevee and Ralts."
"Oh, how did the battle between you start."
Cringing at the thought of the beginning, she soldiered through nonetheless "I told Fennekin and Frigi to do our usual strategy of using Flame Charge and Dragon Rush to overwhelm the battle from the very start but his Ralts teleported and used Calm Mind while his Eevee used Iron Tail, Trailblaze it was definitely increasing speed, and a normal type move all at the same time which overpowered Frigibax."
Her mother had a thoughtful expression on her face, the one where you don't notice you’re sticking your tongue out, but motioned for the story to continue. Then Valencia told her mother about how the Eevee used two different moves twice at the same time and the Ralts afflicting Frigi with Confusion. She told her about how she hit his team with Heatwave from Fennekin and how shr ordered Frigibax to use Dragon Rush into Aqua Tail despite having a double debuff and how Fennekin used Calm Mind and Howl to boost her overall capabilities.
The strongest trainer she knew’s face went blank when she told her how the Eevee used four moves at the same time to combat Frigibax and how that was what sealed the match, which should have been impossible since no Pokemon has ever been able to use more than three moves at once. The giant woman then looked back at her with an expression showing she was interested and calmer than she would normally be.
"I think you've just found yourself quite the unusual and interesting rival," I must have been really shocked because she then continued with "oh, hush child even I have a few rivals of my own and each of them has caused me to become a stronger trainer than I ever could've been without them." Though the tone at the end was tinged with something like regret, the new trainer couldn’t really decipher it.
She then had a serious expression before asking "How are you feeling about your loss?"
This wasn't that hard to answer for Valencia "I actually feel great, it’s odd really, for the first time there was someone my age who managed to beat me. And it wasn't as one-sided as against you or Lance or any trainers you brought to help me train because I think maybe a day or two of training and some new tactics are all I need to beat the version of him from yesterday, yet because he's around my level he'll probably be hard at work training his team after the rocket incident especially since both of us faced off against some rocket grunts. His Eevee even evolved into a Leafeon which helped him beat up an Arbok."
A pleased smile adorned her Mother as she nodded along except for the very end, when the new trainer said that her smile turned fragile and she proceeded to hug Valencia before excusing herself. Why would sh-
‘STUPID STUPID STUPID’ Valencia thought as she reprimanded herself.
‘Why would I say that I faced off against international terrorists in front of my mother, knowing her she is probably going to bark up the wrong tree and beat up everyone who was remotely related to the incident.’ She thought ‘Shit’
If there was one thing she would ask to change about her mother, it would be the extreme measures her bull headedness takes whenever someone she genuinely cares about gets hurt. Though Valencia was touched by the prospect that her mother cares about her so much it was outweighed by the fear that what happened last time her mother demanded retribution was going to repeat itself.
It was hard seeing the full body cast, that was when her thoughts of her mother as the strongest in the whole world shattered. When her world broke in two.
She sighed, thinking that she better head over to the celebration event taking place tomorrow before leaving Viridian to challenge the traditional route of Pewter for the first badge leaving Viridian for her last, before taking time to train and ready up for the conference.
She opened her rotom phone thinking that she might as well make waves on social media for now and then after a quick training session take a light nap before heading out to challenge the open battle arenas, that would be the most optimal use of time for her.
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She seems to be taking her loss well, good she's far more competent and level-headed than when I was her age.
Today was going to be about an important message, the elders wanted to inform her that marriage talk is happening behind her back and how the damn geezers would only let her into the talks if she manages to give a good showing this year. But seeing her have a rival so early in her journey is good, especially since it's a fucking lab trainer of all things. It takes sheer will not to burst out in laughter at the insanity that some of them and their rivals have shown.
If possible I'd wanna give her the time she needs to foster a relationship but her tendency to copy me is unintentionally stifling her.
The only way to nip the bud right now is to ensure that this lab trainer ends up being such a wall she no doubt has to change and improve herself, adapt herself, to even begin the ascent of what true elites call power.
I hate being like this sometimes, but it's a lesson a parent always have to learn at some point.
That it helps their child grow to sometimes lose... even if it hurts like a bitch seeing them mope and cry. Honestly, I would've just gotten her another dragon type if she did cry.
Again my thoughts roll back to the fuck I was thinking back when I adopted her, the shitty geezers kept on yapping about an heir so instead of telling them to shut up like usual I decided to fuck with 'em and got Valencia.
Those were the best three years of my life and if it weren't for the fact I just can't feel that way with anyone I would of hooked up with someone just to know the hell I was missin. ‘Cept for Lizzie, but its been so long since last I saw her and those feelings have long since disappeared.
In the meantime Charles still wants to do the big inauguration ceremony in Viridian, if he wasn't one of the few people I could trust and call a friend I'd just knock the shit outta him and drag him back to his office. Knowing him he'll probs have some crappy reward for the ones who fought those rocket goons.
Actually that gives me an idea.
'Nine search around for those who faced off against rocket today.'
Only a second passes before the third poke ball on the holster pops out a male golden yellow fox with bits of sunset orange fur on the tip of his tail. Eyes already glowing blue with psychic energy before dissipating.
'Finished, I see the plan and must say that this is both a good and terrible idea at the same time.'
Just like that the psychic fox disappears into his ball. I can't deny that this is a terrible idea but it'll definitely showcase the potential of those kids.
Now, where to steal borrow some eggs.
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A couple Pokemon view the city in the distance. One with white fur, dark blue skin, and a horn similar to a sickle. Another is bipedal lupine with steel tips on its paws and chest.
“Mighty lucky those kids were, eh Lu” the first one spoke
“Not luck. Fate,” said the second “what say you Xatu.”
Behind both and staring at the fading sun is a green bird with a round head and cloak like body. It turned its head 180 degrees to look at the both of them.
“Yes and no. They were lucky that other child appeared when she did, otherwise they would have lost their Pokemon.” The bird took a second to look at the sun once more before continuing. “It seems like the trials of the future are beginning once more. Absol, are your wounds from saving the individual Red healed?”
The white quadruped chuckles for a few seconds “The wounds that girl Lorelei’s Pokemon inflicted are healed, it’s just old old age thats making me feel like shit nowadays.”
“Well we still have a job to do so hurry along, the strings of aura point north and i would rather get there in time instead of being ten minutes too late just because some old geezer wanted to try out poffins.” The lupine barked out.
“Yes we must make haste, moreover the chosen is being guided by my apprentice so we have no reason to stay any longer.”
Slowly they all shambled along to the very edge of the cliff they were standing on before suddenly moving at speeds a human or Pokemon could barely dream of.
The three knew that once a year or two passed all three would pass to the otherworld. But Arceus be damned they will give a hell of a fight saving the world. One. Last. Time.