Unknown Location, Unknown Time

Electricity. They want me to be yellow.

It was yellow now. Yellow was good. Yellow was immune to electricity. Yellow meant no pain.

Fire. They want red now.

Red. Red. Red? Red was always a funny one, it supposed. There seemed to be an odd familiarity with the colour. As if it could see it just out of reach. Yet, it remained blind to what it saw.

Red was good too. Red meant that the fire was hot, but not painful. Hot was good. Hot was warm . Warm was good. It was hard to keep warm in the glass. They kept it chill. Perhaps they were looking for another colour?

Water. Pressurised pain. They want blue. Give them blue!

A hiss escaped the creature's lips, and blue it became. There was a bit of red there. It was liquid. It was dripping. It hurt, but not as bad as it did last time. That was good. Blue was good. Blue was fun . Blue meant no thirst. Thirst wasn’t good. They didn’t give much water.

Pain. Pressure. Mind hurts… They want purple. How do I do purple? Make it stop. MAKE IT STOP!

The creature fell. The pressure eased. That was good. Purple was good. Purple meant no pressure on the mind. Only a pleasant hum. Purple meant better sight. Sight was good. It was so dark out there. How can they live in the dark? Purple didn’t like the dark.

Dark. Dark. All-encompassing. Surrounding. Help. Help! HELP ME!

The darkness won, but that wasn’t bad. There was no more colour, only an absence of it. Yet the pain eased. Was the pain caused by the colour? The dark seemed so much clearer. There were shadows in the dark. They were speaking. They were scary. It didn’t like the shadows. They caused it pain.

It wondered what colour they would want next. Perhaps they would try a new colour? It liked changing colours. Colours were fun. It wondered if it could change into other colours. Green? Turquoise? Pink?

It didn’t like the pain, but the pain helped it change colour quicker. They liked it changing colour too. They spoke so much when it did. It didn’t understand a word of what they said. The glass was too thick. When it was purple, it almost could. They didn’t seem to like purple. Why didn’t they like purple? It liked purple plenty enough. Purple was pretty.

It wanted to be purple now! Purple was so nice. So refreshing. The darkness was so cold . Purple was warm. Not in the same way that red was warm. It was warm on the mind.

It wanted to be purple.

The pain it felt must have proven it to be successful.

Silly! Silly! They don’t like it when it changes colour without their permission. But it would stay purple. It liked purple. It could live through the pain. All it’s done is live through the pain.

Fire, Electricity, Water, Darkness, light light light light light ligh-

Coughing. It was coughing now. Red came out of its mouth. It wasn’t red though. Did they want red? What did they want? The light hurt . It was so wrong .

It was no longer purple. It didn’t know why it wanted to be purple so much, not when the pain was so great.

The pain was fine, though. The pain was good . Pain meant they didn’t leave. Pain meant it wouldn’t starve. It nearly starved once. Starving isn’t fun. It felt so dark in its misery. It was easier to become dark ever since.

The glass became dark. It was sleep time. That meant he must sleep. He didn’t sleep one time. That wasn’t a fun time. Sleep was good.

It closed its eyes. It wasn’t good, though. It was very very naughty. It didn’t sleep. It waited until the darkness became dark. It waited until the shadows left the darkness.

Then it opened its eyes. It wanted to be purple. Purple would mean pain when it awoke, but purple also meant it would sleep easier. Sometimes, the trade was necessary. Pain was unavoidable. The amount was what changed.

It became purple. Purple was both the easiest and hardest colour. It slept for a moment, dreaming of water, rushing water. There was a ship with people. It had been so long since it had seen people. Those shadows didn’t count. They weren’t people.

It fell asleep, watching the ship of people. One of them had red eyes. It had red eyes when it was dark. Maybe this one was dark as well?

It nodded off as the red eyes snapped to it. As if it could see it, silly! It’s just a dream! The waves were a dream. It would never see waves again. It accepted that.

All the same, by the time it awoke, it was blue with tears.

…

Route 40, Off the Coast of Olivine City, October 1st, 1997

“Everything alright Red?”

That was Salvare’s voice. Behind him. Red gripped the grimy railing of the boat they booked a trip on as his vision began to return.

He was in a glass prison. There were shadows surrounding him.

“I’m fine,” Red breathed out, knowing that it was a lie.

Unlike other times, Salvare pushed with a judgemental stare - and why did the edges of Red’s memory spark with that? - “Are you getting seasick?”

“No,” Red muttered, rubbing his forehead as the slight red haze diminished, “Just… don’t worry about it.”

Salvare looked a little dubious, but ultimately decided not to push it any more. He shrugged as he said, “In that case, Karen and I were thinking of going to the Safari at Cianwood when we get there.”

Red didn’t say anything for a moment before asking, “And?”

Salvare seemed slightly uncomfortable, as if expecting some sort of repercussion, “Well… I wanted to ask your permission if I could go…”

Red raised an eyebrow, more than a little confused, “Why would you need my permission for that?”

“Uh,” Salvare uttered rather eloquently before snapping his mouth shut, “I’m your - er - student, and I wanted to make sure that it wouldn’t get in the way of any of your plans.”

Red waved his hand away, “Feel free. You don’t need my permission for this type of thing.”

“Told ya he wouldn’t raise a fuss,” Shouted a voice from behind Red. He pinched his nose in mild annoyance as Karen swooped around him and leaned her arm against Salvare’s shoulder, nearly toppling over him with her weight, “Red’s an ass, but not that much of an ass.”

“Gee, thanks,” Red deadpanned, “Any other wise words of wisdom, oh great one?”

“Pick a nicer boat next time,” Karen replied primly, not sparing a second. “I know you’re a freak about money, but seriously, hitching a ride with fishermen? Even the cheapest ferry tickets have nicer accommodations.”

“They’re also three times as expensive,” Red replied before turning around to Karen, “Besides, you didn’t have to come with us if it’s so bad. You could have waited a few days for the ferry.”

“And arrive only to find you on your way out of there? No thanks,” Karen leaned against the railing, turning up her nose at the sight of the scum that had accumulated.

For his own part, Red didn’t have the energy to continue the conversation.

The Gym match the day before had been very tiring for him.

“I’m going to take a nap,” Red stated abruptly, walking towards the bottom cabin.

Before he made two steps, Karen grabbed onto his sleeve. He didn’t get the chance to turn back as she harshly whispered, “ Did you feel some sort of psychic presence a few minutes ago? ”

A Glass Prison.

“I did,” Red replied simply, before adding a small lie, “Didn’t see anything more than a flash of light.”

Karen pursed her lips, as if deciding whether to believe him. Red seemed to have gotten better at lying than he had with Herren, because she eventually let go of his sleeve, allowing him to pass.

After a few moments, he noticed a shadow following him. Expecting to see Karen once more, Red was slightly surprised to see Salvare dutifully following him, “Are you tired as well?”

Salvare blinked, taking a few seconds to register the question, “Oh, uh, no. It’s just - wherever you go, I go…”

A small, distant part of Red was disturbed by that, but he was too tired to think about it. Instead he shook his head and entered the cabin, succumbing to sleep not long after.

His last thoughts before slumber took hold was why Salvare’s words seemed so familiar.

So final.

…

Giovanni’s Office, Viridian Gym, Viridian City

“Report.”

Giovanni Sakaki twirled a glass of tea in his hands as he listened to the man’s report. The delivery was dry, exact, almost clinical, if it wasn’t for the subtle, but pervasive, undercurrent of fear that laced the man’s words.

Giovanni paid no mind to that. It was only natural, after all. Gym Leader Giovanni was a feared man. Respected, yes, but feared all the same.

The people of Kanto all knew his name and the power behind it. The people of Viridian didn’t go a day without thanking his name. For without him, it was a high likelihood that Viridian would be nothing more than a wasteland.

There was power in a name. Take Oak for instance. Oak, a type of tree. Sturdy, yet relatively common. Unremarkable, even.

Yet, not only in Kanto, Johto, or the other Indigo territories, but in the wider world as a whole, people heard the word ‘Oak’ and shuddered.

Even after two decades, folk tales were still told of Indigo’s Champion. A title that predated the Championship that the Blackthorne kid now held. Oak was Indigo’s Champion, just as Alder was Unova’s Champion, or Gold was Johto’s.

Their names were powerful. Their names were feared . Perhaps, for their home regions, their stories were held as chronicles of history. Myths. Legends .

But for others, they were monsters. They were the devil that lurked beyond the shadows. They liked to deny it - Oak especially - but they had to climb a mountain of corpses to reach the heights they now resided in.

Oak liked to hide that aspect of his past. He worked a lot with the younger crowd, so perhaps Giovanni could understand. Perhaps .

Alder was generally the same. Giovanni only had minor connections to Unova, having watched the steady rise of the Neo Tao Clan with interest. They were priming themselves as a potential rival organisation, after all.

Gold was dead, so he had no control over what people remembered. There were many a bitter family in Kanto that remembered the graveyards left in the man’s wake.

For his own part, though, Giovanni didn’t shy away from his past. Viridian’s Champion was a man forged through fire, and tempered by the earth. He stood in the face of those who decried him. He stood in the face of those who were bitter of the unconquerable city.

Because of all the cities in Kanto. Viridian was the only one that was never successfully invaded.

So, yes, it was natural for him to be feared. Even after stepping up as a Gym Leader, his name beheld the mountain he stood atop of.

Only those on the top could see him eye to eye. Only those could meet his gaze and stand strong. He had the power in the immediate aftermath of the war, both in politics and in battle, to rise beyond the title of Gym Leader to the Elite 4, or perhaps even the Championship.

But in the end, he stuck by one of the words of advice his late mother gave. She who rose to the top of her food chain before being cast down into squalor. Giovanni remembered those days, stuck in a two-room home that they both worked to pay off. She had spent most of her time lamenting the chances she missed, deluding herself that life played an unfair hand, that she deserved greatness.

It was a fact of life, though. No hand was fair.

Beyond her pitiful self in her final days, Giovanni had gleaned bits of key wisdom that had helped him rise above even her greatest heights.

And one key of wisdom was to know where one was most effective.

Perhaps certain frivolous things would be easier if Giovanni rose to Elite status. He would have paid lodging for one, along with a blanket pass for every restricted area in the Indigo region.

However, he would be heavily restricted in his duties. While maintaining the Gym took a good amount of time, it was manageable. Additionally, remaining in Viridian strengthened the people’s connection to him as their leader.

Of course, all of this - the respect, the fear, the opportunity, the choices - was underlined with one very important truth.

While Giovanni was Gym Leader, Viridian’s Champion, Nearing Billionaire, Philanthropist, War Veteran, above all else, he was Giovanni Sakaki, Leader of Team Rocket .

The man in front of him knew this. The man in front of him was one of his subordinates: a Minor Admin, under the leadership of Major Admin Proton.

“Operation Swellow and Operation Shellder are both processing smoothly. Swellow has set up four bases in the Saffron area and are currently establishing a fifth. Shellder has established the needed contacts to sabotage the S.S. Anne on its third October takeoff,” the Admin reported, keeping his arms clasped behind his back.

“Good. Good,” Giovanni murmured as he took a sip of the tea, “What of Project Mewtwo?”

The Admin looked distinctly uncomfortable - an expression that Giovanni found to be rather common to the select few who knew of his cloning project - as he answered, “Dr. Fuji expressed concerns over whether the DNA provided would be enough to create… Mewtwo . However, he has rectified that by adding a, erm… Human element to it.”

“Oh?” Giovanni raised an eyebrow, “How intriguing…” He idly twirled the half-empty glass before placing it on the table, “Did the good doctor give a timeframe for the completion of the project?”

“October's end, sir,” the Admin answered dutifully, “I imagine you wish to be there at its completion?”

“Of course,” Giovanni hummed, “It's not every day you get to witness the birth of a god.”

“O-of course, sir,” the Admin replied a touch unsurely. After a moment, he regained his voice, “That is all I have to report, sir.”

“Excellent,” Giovanni droned before snapping his fingers, “Get back to work, Minor Admin. I expect the Gym to be properly fortified by the time of my departure.”

The man pounded his fist against his heart, “Yes, sir!” Once he left, Giovanni was left in the empty office to allow his thoughts to ruminate.

Operations Swellow and Shellder were both rather major operations. Shellder was a somewhat foolhardy plan made by Major Admin Petrel, who aimed to steal and capture every pokémon on the S.S. Anne.

Major Admins Proton and Ariana both showed doubt with the plan, though Giovanni still allocated resources towards the operation. There were many risks involved, yes, especially given that Lieutenant Surge would be nearby at the time of the attack, but Team Rocket had already made moves to secure it as a victory.

Surge would be rather busy fending off a sudden attack of enraged Digglets in town, courtesy of Ariana, bless her.

On the other hand, Major Admin Archer commanded Operation Swellow, which was both a far larger, and potentially lucrative, mission.

Saffron City was the urban centre of not only Kanto, but the whole expanse of Indigo. Over the past two decades, Team Rocket had established footholds on every major city in Indigo: Goldenrod, Ecruteak, Cerulean, Viridian, Celadon, Cinnabar.

Every city, except for Saffron.

Home of Silph Co. The city with the largest recorded population within the World League. Securing Saffron City for Team Rocket would be the perfect opportunity for Giovanni to use Project Mewtwo to its fullest potential.

After all, how could his enemies hope to fight him when he controls his enemies?

An alarm in his watch pulled Giovanni away from his musings. It was nearing 9:00 A.M., the time of the Indigo Quarterly Meeting.

He couldn’t help but sigh to himself. The meetings always provided valuable intel - such were the perks of his position - but there was always some sort of strife - usually caused by Agatha - that derailed the meeting for several hours.

All the same, Giovanni turned on his monitor and connected to the meeting invite. It took only a few seconds before he connected to the meeting, which had a few people already arguing.

“-yeh fuckin’ bat! I’ll fookin’ freeze yeh-”

Agatha was cackling while muted. She had remarkably perfect teeth for someone so old. Koga seemed to be attempting to intervene, though was not able to muster enough volume to override Pryce’s tirade.

Lance had his head in his hands, along with the majority of those who had their cameras on. Clair and Surge were laughing, whether at Pryce or whatever Agatha presumably said, Giovanni could only guess.

Blaine was also present, who blinked in a quick, subtle sequence that the two shared from the war, which roughly translated to ‘I Acknowledge your presence. I have your back.’

Giovanni repeated the gesture. While Blaine was not truly affiliated with Team Rocket, the two had known each other long enough that Blaine had rightly deduced the identity of the team’s leader, yet said nothing about it.

Perhaps it was friendship. Perhaps it was mere acknowledgement. Giovanni didn’t know, nor did he care.

He had contingencies in place in the event that Blaine ever went against him.

Lance finally muted Pryce, looking as if he went two days without sleep and was living off of lava cookies and coffee.

Over the next few minutes, the last stragglers joined the meeting. The Waterflowers made a small racket before realising they weren’t muted upon joining. Meanwhile, the Pebbleman patron joined looking awfully confused at the technology.

Sabrina joined just as the hour started, followed shortly by Erika, marking the final Kanto Gym Leaders.

Finally, the final straggler, Chuck, joined, and Lance sat up and unmuted himself, “Good morning, all. Today we’re here for the 80th Indigo Quarterly Meeting. Lorelei, if you could please give the minutes of the previous meeting.”

“They were sent to each of your emails three weeks prior,” Lorelei said primly, adjusting her glasses as she looked back up to the screen, “Does anyone have any corrections to the minutes?”

After a few seconds in which no one spoke up, Lorelei continued, “The minutes are approved.”

“Alright,” Lance’s face pulled into a scowl - Giovanni honestly thought the Champion looked odd without one - “Before we proceed to individual reports, we should discuss the upcoming Sinnoh Summit, and who is going.”

It took a few minutes, largely because different people kept on unmuting themselves and talking over one another, but they eventually got a head count of who was going in the Indigo Delegation.

Of course, as previous Champion and premier researcher, Professor Oak would be going. Lance would also be going, much to his visible dismay. Only two of the Elite Four, Will and Lorelei, would be going. For Kanto’s part, Erika and Giovanni himself would be going, while Whitney and Morty would represent Johto. Outside of that, the delegation would largely comprise politicians, media outlets, and businessmen.

There was some idle talk about the Summit itself that Giovanni didn’t care much for. He still listened, of course, but he spent half of his brain power planning for the greater opportunities that the Summit would represent.

Rumour had it that individuals such as Cyrus and Ghetsis would be in attendance, and Giovanni’s sources pointed to them being likely rivals in the coming years.

The meeting turned towards the current League season, which was always a logistical nightmare.

Even though many, many unique aspects of Kantonian and Johtonian culture had been combined when they formed the Indigo Region, for some odd reason they retained separate Leagues, which happened at opposite times in the year.

The Indigo League represented Kanto’s half, which ran from the beginning of Fall to the end of Spring. The Silver League, meanwhile, started at the beginning of Spring and ended at the end of the year.

While this allowed for there to be two local Leagues annually, it had the unfortunate side-effect of throwing off everyone’s schedules. The League season always got incredibly busy towards the end of the cycle, which was on opposite ends of the year between the two Leagues. It also prevented participants of one League from easily transferring to the other without having to wait a cycle. Sure, certain minor Leagues such as the one on the Orange Islands helped mitigate this, but it was still a problem that impacted many young trainers.

In the end, though, it wasn’t Giovanni’s place to worry. It didn’t even impact him in particular, but there was always a small part of him that was disappointed whenever one of the Viridian youth had to postpone their plans just because of the poor scheduling of the League.

Giovanni lightly shook away the thought, instead focusing on Lieutenant Surge as he regaled those in attendance of Kanto’s Rising Star: Gary Oak.

Giovanni had heard of the child. Who hadn’t? As the grandson of Indigo’s Champion, Gary Oak had massive shoes to fill. And apparently the kid was doing just that, breezing through the Kanto Gyms in near record time.

Surge had even bumped up his team to one he used for 4-Badge challengers, even though the kid was only fighting for his third badge. Given that the young Oak was only ten years old, it was a particularly worthy achievement that the kid had won.

A few other names were mentioned, none of which particularly interested Giovanni, until the Waterflowers broke in when one of the names was mentioned.

“Oh, Ketchum?” One of them asked before another shoved her out of the way, “Do you mean Ash Ketchum? He protected our Gym from Team Rocket a few days ago!” She was promptly overtaken by the last sister, who looked particularly gleeful in a way that caused every male member of the meeting to shiver, “He and Misty seemed to know each other, too! Perhaps she’s finally found a boyfriend?”

As the three sisters giggled to themselves, Giovanni filed away the kid’s name. Based on the Waterflowers’ retelling of events, Ash Ketchum was the one responsible for repelling the attack on Cerulean Gym. Additionally, based on Agents Jessie and James’ continued use of monikers such as ‘kid’ or ‘twerp’, they had been having issues with Ketchum for a month straight.

Perhaps this kid was more than he seemed?

Or perhaps Jessie and James were just that incompetent?

It was hard to tell.

All the same, Giovanni would leave the two agents to their own devices. While they had shown… questionable levels of traditional intelligence when it came to Team Rocket’s standards, they made up for it with their tenacity, ambition, and stubbornness. All he had to do was set aside a meagre couple hundred dollars to the side to fund their ventures; they were awfully frugal, after all.

Flint was speaking of Ash now, and apparently the kid was travelling not only with one Gym leader, but two. Well, to be fair, now that Flint had returned to his post, the Pebbleman child was a former Gym leader, but still, the kid was making connections rather quickly.

Perhaps he could reach out to the kid and see if he was interested in joining?

Giovanni filed the thought away as the meeting turned towards the Silver League and its contestants. Of the batch, a few stuck out to Giovanni as individuals worth keeping an eye on.

Paul Shinji was a traveller from Sinnoh, having participated in two Conferences both in his home region and in Hoenn, nearly winning the latter. The young man was an experienced trainer who seemed to push his pokémon towards incredibly high standards.

There was a moment of idle conversation over the merits of such a strategy - which Giovanni approved of on a basic level - before they moved onto other participants.

Karen Mela was one that many of those in the meeting had seen before, if not in person. She had been Agatha’s apprentice for a number of years - which had surprised the lot of them when they first heard of it . Apparently, Agatha deemed it time for Karen to ‘leave the nest and either crash or fly’.

Giovanni found the saying rather crude, though he could understand the sentiments. He had done the same, in a manner of speaking, with his son a few years back.

Although, the circumstances surrounding his son’s… departure were remarkably different.

The next trainer of interest was one Salvare Razzo (which Giovanni found to be a funny coincidence considering ‘Razzo’ translated to ‘Rocket’ in his mother tongue).

Salvare had shown to be highly aggressive in battle, initially steamrolling the early Gyms. However, as Clair gleefully relayed, this strategy stopped working after a while.

However, sometime between earning his 6th Badge and his 7th, the young man seemed to have a breakthrough in training. Jasmine gave an account of her battle with Salvare, noting his unconventional tactics and determination as key characteristics that she observed.

Giovanni hummed as he heard this - and really, a flying Croconaw? - before noting the sudden scowl that marred Jasmine’s features as they moved onto the final trainer.

Giovanni noticed Lance paying particular attention to the notes he had in his hands as he began, “The final trainer we have to discuss is one Red Satoshi of Melemele Island.”

For many present, Giovanni included, the name meant nothing. However, he noticed that most of the Johto Gym Leaders had some level of reaction, ranging from a bashful grin from Clair to a dark scowl from Jasmine.

Lance continued, “Satoshi is a relatively new trainer, having submitted his paperwork a month ago. He seems to be aiming towards participating in the Silver Conference, despite the time crunch he faces with earning the Badges.”

“Has he earned any Badges?” Erika asked.

“He’s earned four,” Lance answered, ignoring the shocked faces as he continued, “Rising, Glacier, Fog, and Mineral, in that order.”

“He’s doing them in reverse order?” Falkner asked, petting a Pidgeotto that nudged its way onto the screen.

“Hold on, he beat Clair for his first Gym?” Whitney asked in a loud voice, staring at the screen as if she was trying to stare at Clair.

Giovanni crossed his arms as he listened to Clair’s recounting of the battle. Midway through, it seemed that Lance decided that her retelling was lacking in certain areas (she seemed to focus much more on the trainer rather than the battle itself), and shared the official Gym recording, which was… illuminating .

Giovanni followed the mindset that some pokémon species were naturally predisposed to battle, while others were better suited as helpers, or even pets. It was part of the reason why most of his main team was made up of large, imposing pokémon. In his mind, their strength only proved his belief that some beings were simply born stronger than others.

Satoshi’s Pichu spat in the face of that notion. While the individual’s other two pokémon were no pushovers, the small vermin silently baffled Giovanni, along with most of the others, from what he could tell.

Falkner seemed to forget he was unmuted when he murmured, “ Bloody hell ,” at the Pichu’s final bout of Thunder . No one even said anything as the video feed showed Clair’s Kingdra faint alongside the tiny Pichu, transitioning to the final part of the battle with Clair’s Dragonair and Satoshi’s Charmander.

Except it wasn’t any ordinary Charmander. It was a Charmander with blue flame.

Giovanni gripped his chair to prevent any visual reaction. Though, he wondered if that only made him look more out of place, because nearly everyone showed some degree of surprise.

Only Lance, Agatha, Koga, Clair, Pryce, Morty, and Jasmine seemed unsurprised. Interesting.

Once the video feed wrapped up, several people started talking at once. Giovanni allowed his thoughts to ruminate as Lance attempted, and failed, to get the rabble under control.

Red Satoshi. A man who, based on what he had heard, appeared out of thin air with several highly unique pokémon.

The Pichu was unlike anything Giovanni had ever seen. Given that, even in its weak form, it had proven capable of downing a Kingdra, Giovanni could only wonder what it would be like when it evolved into Pikachu, or Raichu for that matter.

Although, it did make Giovanni wonder why the Pichu hadn’t already evolved given the skill it displayed. Satoshi wouldn’t be so idiotic to use an everstone for some sentimental reason, would he?

The frog pokémon - Froakie, Giovanni believed it was called - was obviously well trained as well. If he recalled correctly, they were the precursor to Greninja, a pokémon native to Kalos, and at one point Kanto, that was dual Water and Dark Type.

Giovanni had the unfortunate experience of fighting against such creatures during the war. Even amongst other Dark Types, the Greninja line had proven highly capable at espionage for the Kalos forces. It had been so damaging to their military secrets that it led to the Dark Genocide of ‘76, nearly driving the population of Dark pokémon in Kanto to extinction.

Finally, there was that absolutely extraordinary Charmander. Giovanni couldn’t help but wonder why he hadn’t heard anything of it sooner. He would assume something like that would have gone viral rather quickly.

There were a few possible explanations he could think of on the spot. Perhaps people thought it was a Shiny? They were rare enough that it could be forgiven not knowing what exactly a Shiny Charmander looked like. However, Giovanni rather doubted that explanation, given that people would still make a big deal over it if they did think it was a Shiny.

Another explanation was that people simply didn’t see the Charmander outside of Gym battles. This held a bit more water, given that recording devices were not allowed during Gym matches (lest they draw attention away from official recordings). However, even though most people didn’t care to watch just some random trainer’s Gym match, Giovanni would imagine that someone would have, and shared the anomaly with others.

The final, and interestingly enough, the most probable answer he could think of was that Blackthorne Gym simply edited the footage to make the flames appear as the standard colour.

It wasn’t even illegal to do so. Gyms retained the autonomy to decide what they produce with their recordings. They have the right to edit, cut, or outright delete recordings if they feel that it is the right thing to do, whether for their own reputation, or that of the trainer.

With that in mind, Giovanni bluntly asked, “Is this the public recording?”

The pandemonium stopped as he spoke - such were the benefits of his reputation - allowing Clair to answer, “No.”

“Ah,” Giovanni made a noise of understanding, “I imagine that you edited the colour of that Charmander’s flame, then? I would have imagined that I would’ve heard of it otherwise.”

“We did,” Clair nodded, prompting a few of the other more liberal Gym Leaders to frown, “I also contacted the other Johto Leaders and asked them if they could do the same.”

Giovanni hummed as he muted his mic, noting the slightly sour looks on Jasmine and Bugsy’s faces. Still, they both didn’t contradict her, telling Giovanni that even if those two personally didn’t care much for it, they did it anyway.

“I didn’t even have to for mine,” Jasmine broke in, surprising those in attendance with her unusually venomous tone, “He didn’t even use it.”

“Really?” Clair’s voice rose above the others, “I thought you used your 7-Badge team?”

“I did ,” Jasmine huffed, typing for a few moments on her keyboard before sending the unedited recording to the group, “We had our match yesterday. He didn’t even try .”

There were a few halfhearted protests, which were quickly stopped once Lance began playing the recording. Giovanni felt his eyebrows rise higher and higher as the Froakie humiliated Jasmine’s Mawile.

He searched the screen for the mysterious trainer, eventually finding him as a small figure on the screen. Clair’s recording hadn’t given a great look at the trainer’s features, nor did this one for that matter, but Giovanni could at least see a few defining characteristics in appearance.

Satoshi seemed tall. Not especially tall, but not short, like a child. A young man, then, based on his frame and posture. Early to middle twenties, perhaps? Or slightly younger; it seemed like the average trainer was getting younger, after all.

He wore a red jacket. Faded, worn (secondhand? Perhaps he was poor? Or just frugal). The same colour applied to the hat, with a half ring of white. It was also worn and slightly tattered (chewed on, burns? Interesting ). He wore a black shirt (new) and jeans (not new).

He caught a glint of red in Satoshi’s face. Giovanni narrowed his eyes before widening them as Satoshi’s eyes seemed to glow red.

Giovanni shook his head, turning his attention back to the battle, which had just resulted in Mawile’s defeat. After Red switched out Froakie for Pichu, Giovanni and the others were treated to something truly extraordinary.

Over the next five minutes, Giovanni’s desire for that Pichu - that power - skyrocketed to new heights.

He wasn’t the only one who went silent upon seeing the Pichu - a Pichu! - defeat both Jasmine’s Ampharos and the Steelix that was a part of her main team .

Giovanni’s mind was in the middle of reconsidering several things about the viability of adding Pichu and Pikachu to the grunts’ lineup when Surge exploded, “What the hell was that?!”

“That-,” Jasmine, Clair, and Lance began at the same time.

“-is a farce of nature,” Jasmine hissed sourly.

“-is fuckin’ incredible, is what it is!” Clair sang giddily.

“-is a threat to the League,” Lance finished gravely.

Clair squawked, apparently taking it upon herself to defend the trainer and his pokémon from the Champion, “What are you talking about, Lance? You weren’t worried of him in my recording!”

“Yeah, but that Pichu took down one of Jasmine’s Aces ,” Surge hissed, leaning forward with both worry and excitement on his face, “Pichus aren’t supposed to be capable of that!”

While the rest of those in attendance were rather mollified by the Electric-specialist’s words, Clair didn’t seem to be, “That Pichu took down my Kingdra, and y’all didn’t raise a stink then!”

“That wasn’t your Kingdra, though,” Lance spoke, trying to sound reasonable in the face of some who he knew to be unreasonable at the best of times, “It was still young and newly evolved. It isn’t remotely close to the ability your personal Ace is capable of.”

Surge broke in once more before Clair could respond, “Was it just me, or did it seem like the Pichu redirected the electricity from itself and the Ampharos?”

“That’s what I thought as well,” Jasmine spoke up, sounding more resigned than angry, as she had moments before.

Surge hummed, muttering to himself as he leaned incredibly close to his camera. Giovanni noted that the man was far more invested in this Pichu than he had been in anything else at any of the previous meetings.

“Maybe it has Lightning Rod ? That wouldn’t be it, though, since the electricity seemed to continuously build on each pass. It also shouldn’t affect its own electricity,” Surge growled to himself, “Best I got is that it learned to modify Lightning Rod to a devastating effect, but it might be something else.”

“Wonderful,” Lance muttered to himself before looking upwards with a crease in his brow, as if in heavy thought.

After a few moments, during which a few members whispered to themselves, Lance looked back towards the screen with a tired but determined glint in his eye, “For now…” Several things seemed to flash through Lance’s mind - Giovanni wondered what else he knew about Satoshi - “We leave him be. From here on out, though, you are to only allow 8-Badge Matches with him.”

“What about his apprentice?” Jasmine asked in a falsetto, “Salvare Razzo is practically the man’s shadow.”

“You mean the flying Croconaw guy?” One of the Waterflowers asked, “He’s this guy’s apprentice?”

“From what I can tell. Satoshi has been tutoring Razzo at the battling ring,” Jasmine raised an eyebrow that managed to be both impressed and highly unimpressed, “Satoshi has yet to be defeated in the battling ring, and Razzo is beginning to get to that point.”

Giovanni mentally added another tic to the man’s apparent skill as Clair leaned forward, “No defeats? Were there any draws?”

“One draw, twenty seven victories, and zero defeats,” Lorelei listed off, having pulled up Red’s Trainer Profile on the Battlenet, “Interesting.”

The members on the call remained silent as they each read through Satoshi’s Trainer Profile. After a minute, several people startled as Agatha loudly snorted, “He’s an interesting one, no doubt, but I don’t believe sitting here and talkin’ amongst ourselves will help all that much.”

“She’s right,” Lance sighed, “Best thing to do is to wait and see. He hasn’t done anything illegal that we know of, so there’s no need to intervene.”

“We should keep an eye on him,” Giovanni said, layering his voice to sound measured and reasonable, “A strong trainer like this can shake things up.”

“He will,” Clair nodded confidently, “I could tell by looking at him. He’ll go places .”

There was a moment of silence at the proclamation that was undercut by a sigh, “Yes, well… Moving on from trainers, we have the budget for next year to review, so…” Lance sent the group a copy of the budget draft.

Giovanni mentally drew away as the meeting turned into a simultaneously more boring and more spirited part of the meeting, occasionally voicing his agreement or disagreement with certain proposals.

In his mind, he filed away the name Red Satoshi, and Salvare Razzo too, since he was the man’s apprentice.

It was only smart to track rising stars, and to determine if they were going to be a threat to his organisation, and eradicate them if necessary.

…

Bill’s Lighthouse, Northeastern Coast of Kanto, October 5th, 1997

“Come on guys, we’re almost there!”

Ash bounded forward like an excitable Growlithe (sans the tail), Pikachu hopping irritably behind him.

Misty groaned as she and Brock jogged to keep up with the kid, “Ash! We’ve been having to keep up with you for hours! We haven’t even stopped for lunch!” Pikachu cried his agreement at that last statement.

“But Professor Oak said we needed to be there today!” Ash called back, not bothering to slow down.

“It’s only just past noon, Ash!” Brock hollered loudly, taking a moment to heave before yelling, “We’d be fine with a half-hour break!”

“But we’re almost there!” Ash, not even having to take a breath after running for several hours straight, shouted back. He pointed forward, “Look! I can see it from here!”

It took a few minutes for Misty and Brock to catch up, at which point they both promptly collapsed. Pikachu did so a moment afterwards, though he did so far more gracefully, glaring at Ash the entire time as he fell onto Misty’s head.

“H-how can you run that long?” Misty asked in between gasps of air, “Feel like I’m dyin’.”

“Huh?” Ash tilted his head in genuine confusion, “It wasn’t that bad…”

“ A gift ,” Brock muttered to himself, weakly pushing himself into a sitting position, “Not all of us have the same stamina as you, Ash.”

“Oh,” Ash fidgeted remorsefully, “Sorry ‘bout that.”

“Can we just have food?” Misty asked, shoving Pikachu off of her head. Ignoring the rat’s cry of protest, she tilted her body towards Brock, “You got the grub, right?”

“I do,” Brock handed out three bags, “I’m afraid it’s just trail mix for today. I promise dinner will be more filling.”

Misty groaned again before accepting the bag, “Better than nothing, I suppose. Thanks, Brock.”

“No problem,” Brock began to nibble as he watched Ash share his food with Pikachu, whose glare had reduced to a mere scowl at the prospect of food. He checked his watch, which read 12:59 P.M., and told Ash, “We have plenty of sunlight to get to the lighthouse. We’re taking a thirty minute break, Ash.”

“But-”

“No buts,” Brock interrupted before Ash could get a word in, “Unlike you, we need a break after running a marathon. Besides, it gives us a bit of time to appreciate the view.”

Ash remained silent for a moment before brightening up as he took in the view of the lighthouse, “Yeah, it is rather pretty.”

Indeed it was. The lighthouse stood at the edge of a cliffside overlooking the northeastern coast of the region. Crashing waves echoed from the distance, its water reflecting the sunlight in shimmering glitters.

It was a scene ripped straight from a painting.

And then the lighthouse exploded.

Misty screamed at the blast, compounding onto the noise to the extent that Ash, Brock, and Pikachu each had to cover their ears to prevent a migraine. Still, a ringing din droned in their ears as smaller explosions rocketed across the cliffside, beams of flame blasting through the quaking structure.

While Misty and Brock reeled from the sudden turn of events, Ash recovered rather quickly, “Bill needs our help!”

“Wait!” “Ash!” Brock and Misty called simultaneously as Ash released his Pidgeotto.

“Can you fly me to the lighthouse?” Ash asked Pidgeotto, apparently not having heard his friends. Pidgeotto quickly measured the distance to the lighthouse and nodded, allowing Ash to scramble onto its back, “Let’s go!”

Pikachu leaped onto Ash’s shoulder just as Pidgeotto left the ground, cheeks buzzing in anxiety.

Forgetting their previous exhaustion, Misty and Brock scrambled after Ash, desperately calling after him. However, by the time he registered their voices, Pidgeotto was already a few dozen metres into the air.

Ash briefly allowed himself to feel remorse at abandoning his friends, but he would make it up to them after-

“LOOK OUT!” Ash yelped, prompting Pidgeotto to swerve to the left as a stray ray of fire blazed by, its embers so hot that they were nearly white.

Ash disregarded his previous thoughts, focusing as best he could on watching out for any stray attacks. Within his gut, mixed feelings of excitement, anticipation, anxiety, and dread churned in a discordant spiral.

Another explosion rocketed the cliffside as a bloodcurdling Roar brought chills deep within Ash’s bones. He felt Pidgeotto falter for a moment, though it remained in the air, gliding towards the burning lighthouse.

A billowing Flamethrower streamed from within the lighthouse, burning away its foundation at an alarming rate. Some flames strayed from its path, though none came within Pidgeotto’s trajectory again.

Ash neared the burning lighthouse as another explosion rocketed near the tip, causing a portion of the tower to collapse. Ash ignored the devastation as he scanned the entrance, looking for an easy way to get in.

Of course, such a thing would be too kind, as the front door had burned away, with molten cobbles filling in the space where the door once stood.

Ash turned his attention to the windows, removing his hands from Pidgeotto’s back, balancing with his knees, to pick Pikachu up from his shoulder. “Pikachu, think you can Thunderbolt the window?”

“Pika-ka!” Pikachu snapped, masking his worry behind bravado. Ash allowed Pikachu to hop off of Pidgeotto as the bird momentarily paused.

Ash closed his eyes for a moment as Pikachu cried out, sending a rippling arc of lightning towards the window, shattering it instantly. Pidgeotto quickly shot forward, catching Pikachu before the mouse could drop to the sea below.

Ash readied his next few pokéballs as Pidgeotto dived towards the windowsill, curling its wings as it barreled into the burning room. Ash hopped off of Pidgeotto and thanked the bird profusely as he recalled it.

Without sparing a second, Ash released Squirtle and Charmander, both of whom he had met during the last week. Squirtle looked around mildly dazed as Charmander barked intensely at Ash.

“We need to help Bill, since he’s stuck in here,” Ash began to quickly walk towards the smoking hallways, “Squirtle, use small bursts of water to put out any fires in our path! Charmander, if possible, try to keep the flames from reaching us!”

Charmander gave a stoic nod, launching small Embers to beat back the flames that threatened to burn his trainer.

Squirtle chirped as he hobbled forward, carving a path through the flaming hallway towards what used to be a living room.

Upon reaching the room, the entire house quaked as another blast of fire erupted from below. Unlike before, over the crackles of fire and the ringing in his ears, Ash could hear a high-pitched screech, “HELP ME! PLEASE!”

“Hold on!” Ash called back, before coughing at the abundance of smoke - goodness, there was a lot of smoke , “Where are you!”

“In the basement- Oh SHIT!” Ash stumbled as another explosion levelled the opposite end of the lighthouse.

A crack echoed from behind, and on pure instinct, Ash saw the flaming wooden beam crashing down on him and called, “ Watergun, Ember, Thunderbolt !” in quick succession.

Amazingly, his three friends didn’t even hesitate, combining their attacks in a mixture of water, fire, and electricity that shattered the wooden beam before it fell on them.

Ash didn’t have time to fully comprehend that before not one, but two Roars , echoed around him.

Eyes wide with overwhelming terror, Ash turned to the left to see a monster .

Emblazoned in white flames, a towering monstrosity stared at Ash, wearing an inferno around its neck as if it was a scarf. Its eyes held a perfect clarity - almost too clear - as if it understood something far greater than Ash could comprehend.

Then, the beast Roared , and Ash felt the overwhelming urge to run away, to save himself, the leave the burning lighthouse, to leave certain death in a fiery tomb.

Ash made a step to run away from the still beast, only to fall downward as the wooden boards underneath him gave away.

Ash winced as he hit the stone floor, small burns raking across his skin. It hurt, certainly, but not enough to keep him down. Pikachu had done worse, and the mouse was currently shaking Ash with an urgency he hadn’t seen since they started their journey.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

“‘M fine,” Ash coughed as he stood up, smoke taking up more space in his lungs than was probably healthy, “Where-”

“You!” Ash felt himself being shaken, “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! ”

Ash shoved Bill away, scowling slightly, “We have to get out of here! Thank me then!”

“What?” Bill seemed genuinely perplexed, “My life’s work is here! Why would I leave?”

Ash just stood there, eye twitching. He knew that he wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. Misty took great care in reminding him of that daily . Though he would like to think that he had enough sense to get to safety rather than staying in a burning house.

Granted, he had rushed to said burning house without a second thought.

Ash shook his head, grabbing onto Bill’s sleeve, “If you haven’t noticed, your house is burning . We need to get out, now !”

“No!” Bill struggled out of Ash’s grip, “I won’t go!”

“Are you mad !” Ash screamed.

“Yes!” Bill cried hysterically, somehow sounding more childish than Ash did himself.

Ash growled, “Pikachu, zap him! Don’t overdo- oh you’ve already done it…”

“Pika!” Pikachu would’ve sounded smug if he wasn’t so scared. Still, a certain level of satisfaction snuck onto the rat’s face at having the privilege to shock the annoying man into unconsciousness.

While Ash wasn’t overly enthusiastic at having to use violence, it was either that or leaving Bill to burn.

Ash shook his head as he asked, “Help me carry him, will you Charmander?” He sighed as the lizard took hold of the man’s legs, aiding Ash as they hauled Bill up out of the basement.

Portions of the ceiling had caved in, allowing the inferno to rise into the afternoon sky. The sunlight cast dark beams of light against the black smoke, obscuring the burning lighthouse in a beautiful, yet terrible image.

They trudged toward the edge of the house overlooking the sea. Ash felt tears stinging his eyes from the smoke, making it harder and harder to see.

At a certain point, he stumbled, falling forward onto the superheated floor. He hissed as he scrambled back onto his feet, cursing lightly to himself as he felt Bill begin to wake.

Mom would have conniptions at that fact.

Scratch that, she would be having conniptions over this no matter what.

Another crack echoed next to him, and in a considerably quicker movement than last time, Ash pointed upwards, “ Watergun, Ember, Thunderbolt !”

Once again, the attack worked surprisingly well. Ash distantly noted to practise combining moves in the future, since this works so well . The beam broke apart before it reached them.

Unfortunately, this had the unintended side-effect of returning Bill to consciousness.

Before anything else happened, though, one final explosion rumbled the cliffside.

Ash watched in wide-eyed terror as the tower directly above them swayed. Stilled… Then fell .

Bill screamed as Ash closed his eyes, splaying his arms in front of his pokémon in a fruitless attempt to protect them.

Ash hissed as he heard the tower slam into them. He didn’t feel a thing, which was odd. He would think that he would feel some sort of pain upon dying. Maybe he was wrong?

A whimper to his side caused him to consider the possibility that he lived . Upon opening his eyes, he saw not an empty void or a cloudy realm…

But a towering behemoth chiselled from stone and obsidian.

The behemoth towered over the five of them, shrugging off chunks of stone from the fallen tower. Ash gaped as he realised that this creature, this beast, this titan had protected them from a falling tower on fire , and shrugged it off like nothing .

The titan stood up, the sun shining against it, highlighting it as if it was a blackhole. Ash remained shocked still in awe as the beast locked eyes with him, staring at him far more intently than most people seemed capable of.

If he were not petrified by the mere presence of the creature, Ash might have taken out his pokedex just to see what the heck this thing was . But as it was, the titan stepped back, before opening its maw in a soul-piercing Roar that seemed far more primal, far more powerful than those previous.

Ash felt Bill and his own pokémon shove him in order to reach the edge of the collapsed lighthouse. Ash felt himself fall over the edge, careening towards the sea below.

Even in the midst of Bill’s screams, Ash couldn’t help but take the image of the towering beast of obsidian, and burn it into his mind.

A pokémon able to tank the hit of a falling tower like nothing. He hadn’t ever heard of such a thing outside of the Champion’s pokémon.

His thoughts quickly crashed back to the present moment as he realised he was falling . His eyes widened in sudden terror, tears trailing behind him both from the smoke and the velocity.

Thinking fast, Ash shouted, “Squirtle! Shoot your strongest blasts downward to slow us down!” He frantically reached for Charmander’s pokéball, recalling the lizard before they impacted the sea, which would be far more dangerous for the Fire Type. He then grabbed onto Bill's arm, and held onto Squirtle, who was nearest to him, as the turtle desperately shot a geyser of water downwards.

Beside him, Pikachu grappled onto Ash’s hair for dear life. However, while they slowed down minutely, they were still falling incredibly fast, and-

Splash!

Ash closed his mouth, but not before a lungful of water got into his throat. He tried to breath out reflexively, attempting to force the water out of his mouth, only to inhale more.

He felt his eyes beginning to close - No! - He kicked in the water, ignoring the pain, willing to stay conscious.

The water shook, then stilled, as Ash saw, obscured in the depths, a pair of red eyes, its irises narrowed into triangular slits. The eyes then disappeared, making Ash distantly wonder if he ever saw them in the first place. Perhaps his life was beginning to flash-

Movement.

Quick Movement.

A splash sounded, and Ash breathed , coughing out the water in his lungs as if every cough was a lifeline.

Ash collapsed, shivering, yet also beginning to feel hot. After a few more dry heaves, he breathed in a deep, blissful breath of air…before prompt vomiting onto the beach.

Ash spent a minute kneeling over the puddle of coughed up water and vomit, seeping into the sand, before weakly raising his head, looking…

Pikachu was there.

Pikachu was safe .

Ash closed his eyes, this time not fighting away the exhaustion, the pain - just what the hell was he thinking? - as he fell away to the throes of unconsciousness.

…

“Takes you back, doesn’t it?”

Ares grumbled neutrally, instead watching with minor pride as the Rangers frantically extinguished the remaining embers of what was once a lighthouse.

The Chariot stood next to him, leaning his head on Ares’ shoulder. In his hands was the vial containing trace amounts of the energy from the power wave. They watched the distant sirens of the Ranger Squad, set up around two small medical tents. One was sparsely populated while the other had over a dozen surrounding it.

The Chariot pointed to the latter, a ghost of a smirk touching his lips - it wasn’t kind - “Bet you that one’s for Bill. Pays to have friends in high places.”

Ares snorted, smoke coming out of his nostrils, prompting Chariot to chuckle darkly, “Yes, yes. Who cares for the kid who nearly drowned? We need to treat the fuckin’ man-child because Oak needs him!” He couldn’t help but yell that last part.

Behind him, Dionysus rumbled softly, causing Chariot to roll his eyes, “Oh, yes Dio. You got to be the big hero. She would be very proud of you, I’m sure.”

The rumble turned to a harsh laugh, causing Chariot to smile softly, “She wouldn’t be happy that he was there in the first place,” His eyes hardened, “Of course Oak would send a fuckin’ child , the bastard.”

Ares grumbled, causing Chariot to pat him on the shoulder, “Hey, you both weren’t trying to kill the brat. Sometimes shit happens,” He sighed, “He’s lucky I saw him. He would’ve drowned if I hadn’t had Poseidon use Surf ,” He paused for a moment, eyes looking far away as a humourless laugh left his throat, “ The irony. ”

There was silence for a moment, before Ares nudged against his head - a question - “He had good instincts, and good drive. He wasn’t scared, even with the Roars . I could see it .”

He paused, a dark glint entering his eyes, “ That combined attack, though. That was extraordinary . You don’t see that kind of thing outside of veterans, and the kid can’t be older than twelve.”

There was another pause, longer this time. The Chariot stared into the distance, intently watching the tent that held the boy, “ He may just be what I’ve been looking for… ”

He turned around to face Ares and Dio, eyes a void of darkness, with pinpricks of pure crimson burning within, “ Given a few years, he may just be the perfect protégé. ”

…

World League Embassy, Jubilife City, Sinnoh Region

Professor Samuel Oak had very few moments where he was truly at a loss for words.

As a man who lived through the worst of the Great War, who personally led the final invasion against Johto, who rose to become the first Champion of the newly united Indigo League, who dealt with the nigh-constant crises that plagued the newly born region, who retired only to rise once more into prominence as the premier professor of the entire world…

Suffice to say, Professor Oak had precious few moments where he was truly left speechless.

This was one of them.

“Professor Oak, are you there?” Bill’s weak, pathetically small voice asked over his transceiver.

It took a few moments for Professor Oak’s mind to reboot, and when it did, a deathly cold calm creeped into his voice, “Just so I understand… Your lab, which contained years of materials and research, burned down, and the energy from the power wave was stolen?”

There was a pause, then a meek, “Yes…”

Professor Oak continued, still keeping an artificial calm in his voice as a vein silently bulged in the back of his hand, “And, on top of that, the only reason you’re here to tell me this is because Ash, a ten year old child , had to rush into a burning lighthouse , grab you - while you fought - and save you by escaping the lighthouse,” A pause, “Am I correct?”

Silence, then a near whisper, “Yes.”

Breath in.

Hold.

…

Breath out.

“An aide will teleport you to Pallet Town,” Oak commanded with steel in his voice, “You will stay there until I am back, at which point we will be having a nice, long talk .”

The gulp on the other side of the call was audible - and, oh, a dark part of Samuel was very satisfied - “Y-yes, sir.”

“Good,” He ended the call, shoving the transceiver back into his pocket before placing his head into his hands, “ I am going to wring that bloody idiot’s neck if he isn’t careful. ”

“Is everything alright, Samuel?” Oak removed his hands to see that Professor Juniper had snuck up on him, a glass of champagne in her hand, “You look distressed.”

“Just,” Samuel sighed as he rubbed his eyes, “Bill’s lighthouse burned down, and Bill nearly burned with it.”

“What?” Aurea asked, astonished. Thankfully, with the dull noise hovering around the international dinner party, her increase of volume wasn’t noticed, “How?”

“An attack,” Samuel replied gruffly, stepping in line with Aurea on their way back to the crowd, “Someone stole the energy Bill collected.”

Juniper’s eyes widened before narrowing, “It wasn’t destroyed?”

“No,” Samuel sighed, “Bill expressly saw someone break into his lab and steal the vial,” He silently thanked the bartender for the glass of white wine he took, “Of course, with him being so freaked out, all he could tell me was that ‘he was demonic and had scary black eyes’.”

Juniper hummed as she took a sip from her glass, “So this… ‘demon-man’ specifically went after the vial?” At Samuels affirmative grunt, she raised her eyebrow, “Perhaps someone on the call really wanted a crack with the energy.”

“Ha. Ha,” Samuel deadpanned, “In all seriousness, I have thought about it…”

“And?” Juniper pressed, eye idly wandering to Professor Rowan, who was in the corner discussing something in low tones with Cyrus Akagi.

Catching the direction that Juniper’s eye went, Samuel hummed, “I rather doubt Rowan was the one who called the hit. He may talk a big game, but he wouldn’t go that far for something so little.”

“I daresay you’re underselling the severity of what has happened, Samuel,” Juniper muttered darkly, taking a larger swig of her drink, “We’ve been wrapping our minds around the power wave for over a month, and Bill’s achievement was a major step in understanding what occurred.”

“I’m not underselling it, trust me,” Juniper momentarily shuddered as something heavy entered Oak’s eyes, “ I’m not . But, I cannot do anything about it while I’m here, so the best I can do at the moment is damage control, along with trying to determine who did this in the first place.”

Juniper remained silent for a moment, before saying in a low tone, “You don’t believe it to be one of us, don’t you?”

Samuel sighed, “It’s not an impossibility, but I find it more likely that Bill blabbed to the wrong crowd. He told me that he did share the discovery in an online chat he is a part of, and you know Bill…”

“He doesn’t always keep in mind that not everyone he meets on the internet keeps his best interest in mind,” Juniper sighed, “Sad thing is, I can see it.”

“Exactly,” Samuel twirled his glass for a moment, “So for the moment… this ‘demon-man’ and whomever he’s with has passed the ball to our court,” He took a sip, “I’ll be sure to make them regret it.”

Juniper nodded silently, standing next to Samuel for a few minutes as the chatter around the ballroom.

This was interrupted by a small eruption of giggling, as Oak and Juniper turned to see a grimacing Lance attempting to shake off Champion Alder’s arm from his shoulders.

Alder’s laughter easily outclassed the dainty giggles from the trio of younger women, “And I - *snicker - I tell you what! This little tyke, he - he and his sister, they drop from the rafters and tackle me to the ground!”

Lance’s face was redder than his hair as Alder and the ladies laughed at the story, “I was six ! And Clair’s my cousin, not my sister!”

“O-of course, you little tyke, of course,” Alder snickered once more, “Goodness, it’s good to see you! You’ve grown!”

Lance looked distinctly overwhelmed as the towering man hovered over him. To Samuel’s side, Juniper looked distinctly amused at her Champion smothering that of Indigo.

Her amused look died a quick death as another man, followed by a small entourage, stepped towards the two Champions. Based on his personal experience with the man, and his egotistical nature, Oak leaned next to her and asked in a whisper, “Ghetsis?”

“Ghetsis,” She confirmed.

And goodness, if the years had made Samuel Oak older and wrinklier, they seemed to make the Dragon Lord more grandiose and overwhelming.

“Alder, my friend!” Ghetsis waved his hands in greeting, prompting the small crowd behind him to spread in a rough semicircle around the group.

Even though they didn’t seem aggressive, Oak tensed. Throughout the ballroom, his analytical eye couldn’t help but catch others such as Giovanni, Cyrus, and other veterans of the Great War mimic the motion.

“Ghetsis, I didn’t know you were here!” Though Alder’s grin was strained, it still seemed sincere, “How are you?”

“I am well,” Ghetsis lowered his arms - allowing Oak and the others to relax some - before reaching behind him with a wide grin, “I have someone to introduce to you…”

From within his cloak, Ghetsis dragged out a lightly struggling teen with similar lime-green hair, “Come on out, N.”

N was clearly unhappy at the sudden attention to himself, though he kept it to light grumbling as he extended a - bruised(?) - hand, “Er- greetings, Champion Alder.”

Alder was momentarily startled before breaking into a wide grin. Nearly tearing off the kid’s arm with the strength of his grip, he smiled up at Ghetsis, “I didn’t know you went and had a kid, Ghetsis!”

“I had to eventually, my friend,” Ghetsis’ voice was dry, causing Alder’s smile to dim, “The clan needs an heir, after all.”

“Of course, of course…” Alder murmured distractedly, before leaning down to eye-level with the kid, “So… what pokémon do you like?”

As N brightened up and began waxing poetic about different pokémon - and Samuel had minor difficulty following their conversation, what with stories of towers and dragons and such - as the crowd began to resume their respective conversations.

Samuel idly watched as Giovanni and Lance (who appeared unwilling) engaged the Dragon Lord in conversation. He briefly made eye contact with a man wearing a grey coat while he was tapping away on a tablet without looking at it. The blonde - and blue - haired man widened his eyes for a moment before practically sprinting towards Samuel.

He and Juniper shared an eye roll as the man bounded up to Samuel, “Professor Oak! It’s great to meet you!” He stuck his hand out, the exuberant, if slightly annoying, air about him reminding Samuel of Elm a bit too strongly for his tastes.

Still, he bit the proverbial lemon and shook the man’s hand, “The pleasure’s all mine, Mr…” He gave a pointed look to the man.

It took a few seconds for the dots to connect, “Oh! How rude of me! Colress. My name is Colress, of the Neo Tao Clan,” He smiled self-deprecatingly.

“Ah,” Oak hummed, “What can I do for you?”

Colress began prattling on about several things: research ideas, (conspiracy) theories, dragon training. Juniper stepped away after waving away at Samuel, whose expression continuously shifted from genuine interest to drop-dead boredom.

She searched a moment around the ballroom before finding Lorelei, who stood by the foodbar with an expressionless face, which helped to ward off any unfortunate enough to try hitting on her.

Juniper sidled up next to her and spoke in a conversational tone, “Bill’s lighthouse burned down.”

“I heard,” Lorelei replied in monotone, “Once Lance is free from the crowd, I’ll tell him where he can explode without anyone watching.”

Juniper hummed, idly watching the party begin to die down as the moon rose through the windows, “Your Champion seems rather out of his depth, wouldn’t you say?”

“He’s not one for crowds,” Lorelei said with a shadow of sympathy, “On this one thing, I can relate.”

Juniper nodded to herself, “Bad luck for him, then. Ghetsis will keep him there for hours if Lance doesn’t put his foot down.”

“Lance will in a few minutes,” Lorelei pointed at her Champion’s face, which was beginning to settle into the familiar scowl, “Ghetsis is overstepping his bounds as a lesser Clan-leader. Lance will put him in his place,” At Juniper’s intrigued look, Lorelei shrugged, “I’ve picked up Clan culture in the past few years after working with him.”

“So Ghetsis is the leader of a lesser Clan?” Juniper asked, eyeing the dramatic man, “He doesn’t act like it.”

Lorelei’s face grew pinched, “To my understanding… he is actually rather major. The only remaining major Clans are the Blackthorne and the Tao, or Neo Tao, I suppose…” She hummed to herself, “In this case, since the Neo Tao Clan is here with Unova, and Unova is a visiting party and not an official member of the World League, Lance has seniority as the standing leader for his Clan.”

Juniper made a noise of understanding, “That makes sense, I suppose,” Her face grew thoughtful, “I actually don’t know as much about the Neo Tao Clan as I should, given how prominent they are in Unova.”

“I can send a couple of links with valuable information,” Lorelei offered, “I have an acquaintance who knows a lot about such.”

“Not Lance?” Juniper questioned.

Lorelei gave a small smile, which amazingly seemed neither cruel or kind, “It’s always advisable to know thy enemy. I don’t intend on allowing Lance to remain Champion uncontested, after all.”

“Oh, really?” Juniper crowed in delight - she always enjoyed such things - “Well, you may have a greater opportunity to learn his strengths and weaknesses in a couple of days. Look who’s coming up.”

Lorelei turned to see a small crowd forming around Lance. Ghetsis had stepped away, looking disgruntled as he gripped N on the shoulder.

Facing Lance was Sinnoh’s Champion, Cynthia Shirona, who was flanked by a bored looking Flint, and an excited looking Goodshow.

Neither Juniper or Lorelei could hear what Cynthia said, but the cheer made it clear what had happened.

A challenge. Champion to Champion.

It had been almost two years since such a thing happened, with Steven Stone challenging Lance to a match after the latter rose up to Championship. Before that, it had been nearly a decade since Pryce had battled the Hoenn Champion before Steven, when Hoenn had joined the World League.

Following the trend, it was expected of Cynthia to challenge one of the World League Champions at the Summit. However, given that Lance had seldom appeared at these types of events for the past two years, most expected the challenge to be issued to Steven.

However, it seemed that they were wrong. The crowd within the ballroom cheered as Lance accepted the challenge, an excited gleam entering his eye for the first time that night.

Lorelei clicked her tongue as the party resumed in earnest, prompting Juniper to look back to her. The Ice-specialist gave a slight smile as she said, “It seems I will…”

…

Outskirts of Cianwood City, October 7th, 1997

"Pichu, Thunder Pulse ."

Red stalked the cliffside, ignoring the static hairs on his arms from the ambient electricity.

Below, Pichu's fur flared as arcs of electricity escaped, only to redirect and pass through with greater power.

After four passes, Pichu stumbled, losing control over the concentrated electricity. Red added another tick mark for four passes, which seemed to be about the average amount Pichu was currently capable of without outside aid.

Of course, in the public debut of Thunder Pulse , Pichu performed the compounding move nine times before letting go. The electrical energy had grown to be so unstable and powerful that the Gym had to set up Psychic barriers to protect the crowd. It had gotten so strong that it bypassed Steelix's natural resistance to electricity, and managed to severely harm and paralyse the beast.

Of course, given that he and Red shared the burden of the attack, Pichu had pushed past his limits and spent almost two whole days asleep.

Such were the dangers of inventing new moves. Unchartered territory meant that there was no baseline to compare it to, so there was always a danger of not setting necessary boundaries and over-exhausting oneself.

Red still had to occasionally blink away the stars in his eyes after being blinded by Charizard's first Sun Blast . He had spots in his eyes for several days.

Regardless of the risks, Red had become very adept at creating new moves. Such was necessary when fighting against The Chariot. When the enemy understood every known move to a degree greater than himself, the only advantage that could be gained was by introducing something new .

As Ash, he had combined different moves several times over the course of his journey. For most, this was the pinnacle of creativity with moves. While they generally increased the power output of the involved pokémon, it was still restricted to pre-existing boundaries.

Oh, it was certainly far more safe. At his age, Ash probably would have ended up seriously hurting himself and/or his pokémon if he tried inventing new moves. There was a reason why most new strategies merely used existing moves in new ways rather than inventing whole new moves.

Naturally, The Chariot spat in the face of this notion.

Shadow Wall : a gaseous wall of defensive horror. Attempting to pass through would result in hives, boils, burns, and frostbite at extremities.

Hyper Inferno : a blinding white spire of flame with a mind of its own. In its path, a scorched landscape remained.

Final Nightmare : an insidious move perfected by the man's Togekiss. It trapped the victim in a never-ending nightmare, leaving them either comatose… or insane upon awakening.

All of these became signatures of the man, moves he invented through the combined blood, sweat, and tears of himself and his pokémon.

In that way, Red could almost respect him.

The Chariot was a prodigy in many things - that much was obvious to Red - but above all else, the man was adaptive.

Stick the man in a cage with a blunted knife and ten feet of rope, and he'll find a way out.

After three straight years of warring with the man, Ash had been forced to become the same way.

Once more, Red banished the thought before it could continue. Yet, he couldn't banish the words…

You would have made the perfect protégé.

You would have made the perfect protégé.

The perfect protégé.

Protege.

Red's hand dropped with blood, his nails digging into his skin. Forcing his mind away, he barked, "Again!"

Pichu planted himself on the ground, and once more let loose a Thunder Pulse , building it up in a spiral before once more losing control after the fourth pass.

For its own part, Thunder Pulse was both incredibly simple, and deceptively complicated.

In simple terms, Thunder Pulse was a compounding move, akin to Rollout or Ice Ball .

However, unlike those two moves, instead of increasing its attack power by adding more and more of its respective element, Thunder Pulse was far more complicated.

In simple terms, it took electrical currents in the air, and passed them through the pokémon, amplifying them with more power, only to repeat the process. The static electricity in the atmosphere would begin to increase, starting at the relatively weak level of Thunder Wave and ultimately compounding to the point where it felt like multiple Discharges were going off at once.

And that… was the simple explanation.

The actual technicalities of the move relied heavily on three things: Static , Lightning Rod , and Pichu's masterful control over his electrical reserves.

The Static within Pichu's fur acted as the start of the attack. Instead of wasting his reserves, Pichu merely shook off the static electricity.

This had two effects. As mentioned, instead of starting the attack by using up his already meagre reserves, Pichu used the environmental static that clung to his fur. However, this had the secondary, and far more important, effect of triggering his Lightning Rod ability.

How was this the case? Red wasn’t entirely certain, but he believed that, since the static from his fur wasn’t generated by Pichu himself, it wasn’t held back by the ability.

Using this, Pichu could flare the static electricity before pulling it back in with the Lightning Rod ability. As the electricity passed through Pichu, he would add a minute portion of his electric reserves to strengthen the electrical waves, remaining careful not to put too much as to override the electricity into his own, thus removing the benefits from Lightning Rod , and not to put too little, which would cause the electricity to fizzle out, making it no more effective than a Thunder Wave .

From that point, Pichu would repeat the process, steadily increasing the amount of electricity from his reserves that he put into the revolving waves, remaining precise enough to keep Lightning Rod active and to keep the attack from dying out.

This move may ultimately seem like a convoluted replacement for something far simpler like Rollout , but it had the potential to become absolutely devastating .

The first pass was akin to a weak Thunder Wave.

The second pass would paralyse anything nearby without a natural electric resistance.

The fourth would falter even the hardiest of Rock Types.

The seventh would halt Ground Types in their tracks.

The ninth… The ninth would take an Ace pokémon like Steelix… and cripple it.

Of course, like all powerful attacks, it didn’t come without drawbacks. Of them, the most prevalent was the physical toll it took on Pichu’s body on anything greater than two passes, with him rarely being able to do anything more than five passes on his own.

This was still incredibly impressive, no doubt, especially given that Pichu’s species was predisposed towards taking extra damage from electricity.

Yet, Pichu pushed past those boundaries. Red couldn’t be more proud.

But in the end, Pichu was still a Pichu. Unless and until Pichu evolved back into Pikachu, he likely wouldn’t be able to do any more than seven passes on his own without serious injury.

Of course, when Red explained this all to Salvare (with Karen eavesdropping because what else would she be doing?), Salvare couldn’t help but ask the obvious question: how did Pichu use the move more than seven times without dying?

This brought Red to the hidden fourth requirement for pushing the move to its devastating boundaries (at least, until Pichu tried it after evolving): Aura.

In hindsight, Red realised that even before his semi-proper tutelage in the art under Lucario, he had plenty of experience using Aura in battle. The connections he formed with his pokémon, pushing them beyond the boundaries set by their species, to the point where unevolved members of his various teams regularly bested opponents that would normally steamroll them.

It was raw, broad, and very subtle, to the point where Ash and his friends hadn’t even questioned it until he began bonding with Greninja in major ways that were undocumented.

The Bond Phenomenon was something that, even years later, Red had very little knowledge of. Aside from it becoming almost commonplace between him and Greninja in the years of the Storm, he never had the time to study its intricacies, only its implementation in battle.

However, after his pokémon’s devolutions, Red had been forced to confront the question of what the Bond Phenomenon even was.

This was because, even though there were no longer any physical transformations, Red and Froakie still occasionally bonded in smaller, almost undetectable ways.

It had taken Red three weeks to even realise it, along with realising the same held true with Pichu, and even Charmander to an extent. At times, he could feel the carefully considered movements of Froakie, the lumbering rage hidden beneath Charmander’s mask, the anguish Pichu felt that was translated to anger at everything that moved .

And every time…

Every time, his eyes glowed red.

The headache was still there, never lessening unless the red haze entered his vision.

It scared him, in a way. It scared him enough that he didn’t mention anything about it to Salvare, only focusing on what he inferred from this information.

He had bonded with not only Froakie, but Pichu and Charmander as well.

The question was whether this started after travelling to the past, or if this had been the case for far longer.

Red wasn’t entirely certain what the answer was. While he certainly felt more attuned with the Aura within himself and his surroundings than he ever had before, he certainly thought that he would have noticed if he had bonded with his other pokémon before.

Regardless, he had now. In a similar way to Greninja, he was now able to semi-consistently sync up with Charmander and especially Pichu, allowing him to share the burden of their battles, ultimately pushing them past their boundaries.

During Jasmine's Gym match, Red synced up with Pichu, sharing the burden of Thunder Pulse in a rhythm akin to a heartbeat, so that Pichu could repeat the attack nine times.

This actually caused Red to become particularly lethargic a few hours after the match. After training with Salvare for a little over an hour, Red felt an overwhelming urge to lay down and sleep.

It was sad that it ended up being the best rest he had in years.

“Again!” Red called out after giving Pichu a few minutes to rest after the last Thunder Pulse . Pichu’s cheeks sparked as he planted his little feet before once more starting the move.

After the fourth pass, Red moved to come closer to Pichu. He quickly backpedalled as the small mouse didn’t release the electricity, and instead brought it back for a fifth pass.

Once more, Red felt the hairs on his arms rise, but no pain came. Meanwhile, behind him, dried tree limbs fell onto the ground from the power of the attack.

Yet, he felt no pain.

Briefly, his mind pondered that. Dark, Fighting, and Electric? He shook his head, not wishing himself a separate headache to add onto chronic migraine that’s plagued him for the last month.

Instead, he called out, “Break!” upon seeing Pichu collapse, panting for air. “That was great. You did great, Pichu,” Red spoke reassuringly as he picked up the small mouse onto his shoulder.

Ignoring the mumbled growls coming from the rat, Red turned towards the woods and asked, “D’you reckon we’ll find several acres of sliced trees?”

Pichu snorted, muttering softly to himself. Red nodded distantly as he thought about his other two pokémon.

Like Pichu, Froakie and Charmander made drastic improvements over the past few weeks. Froakie had shown this in the Gym battle, with his growing proficiency in utilising Dark-type energy.

Red had commanded Froakie only to use Dark-type moves during the battle as practice. Before, Froakie rarely had time to do so, since they rarely encountered any wild pokémon.

Red wondered about that too.

It was difficult to practise Dark moves against Pichu and Charmander, since their strength demanded that Froakie use everything in his arsenal to compete. When fighting Salvare, Red’s focus was more on mentoring the kid than improving his own capabilities, though the lessons he taught were good refreshers for himself as well.

Karen might have proved an interesting challenge, but she hadn’t challenged Red yet on their travels, instead seeming content to observe him from a distance.

So, when Red saw that Jasmine chose a Mawile as her first pokémon against him, he decided that it was the perfect time to practise with Froakie. Given that Mawile was part Fairy-type - though, no-one had officially discovered the type at this point in time - it had a resistance to Dark-type moves, which translated to a tankier opponent for Froakie to wail on.

Was it nice?

No.

Was it necessary?

Maybe. Maybe not.

Was it useful?

Very.

Froakie still wasn’t anything close to the proficiency he had with Dark-type attacks as he did as Greninja, but it was a stark improvement. Given enough time, Froakie may be able to build himself up to being able to replicate his signature Water Shuriken before evolving.

Charmander, on the other hand, was proving to be… concerning . Red was slightly glad that Pichu hadn’t fainted before taking down Steelix, as he wasn’t sure Charmander was ready for a fight of that calibre.

Charmander, like Charizard, was the team’s heaviest hitter. Red was certain that, on a physical level, Charmander could have taken down Steelix. He just wondered if Charmander could do so on a mental level.

For a while, Charmander had started acting differently. He was more closed off, tired, and occasionally had mood swings.

Red was initially reminded of his first several months with Charmeleon and Charizard. However, the key difference then was that Charizard didn’t respect Ash enough to obey his commands.

Charmander didn’t have that problem with respect. If anything, he respected Red too much . Instead, the issue seemed to be something within Charmander’s psyche.

Red didn’t know how else to explain it but as a split personality. One moment, Charmander was practically comatose, not doing anything other than existing.

The next, Charmander went off the deep end, and seemed to rage until he had no more energy left.

Which, unfortunately, meant that Charmander would rage for a long, long time.

Froakie had taken to accompanying Charmander at these points, given that he was able to put out any fires that Charmander started in his wake. However, nothing in his toolset could stop Charmander from simply hacking trees to pieces.

Red was silently glad that Charmander had taken to staying in his ball for longer periods of time. On the other hand, he was extremely disheartened that this was happening in the first place.

Lo and behold, upon reaching the clearing where he had left Froakie and Charmander to train, a wasteland remained. Charmander lay in the centre of it, either asleep or utterly exhausted. Froakie watched from above the lizard, perched on one of the few trees that weren’t cut to their roots.

Red sighed as he recalled Charmander, promising to himself and the lizard that he would get help. As Froakie hopped onto the shoulder not occupied by Pichu, Red asked, “How bad was it?”

Froakie’s frown turning more severe didn’t help Red’s mood. But, he wasn’t terribly surprised, “We’ll have to go before the rangers find this place and raise a stink,” He turned towards the direction of Cianwood City, “Salvare and Karen should be done with their Safari by the time we get back-”

HELP ME

HELP ME

HE L P ME E E EEE EE E E

lightlightlightthelighthurtsitsnotnaturalhelpmethelighthurtsthereareshadowslaughingwhereamihelplettherebelightthelighthurtsss

Red gasped, frantically pushing himself off the ground.

The world was red .

A loud ringing buzzed in his mind as he blinked away the light . The light hurt so much. Why did the light hurt?

He could see glass. Shadows.

let there be light

And the light hurt hurt hurt hurt hur-

Red stumbled, repressing the urge to vomit.

He dimly became aware of Froakie and Pichu frantically hopping around him, worried for him.

They shouldn’t be worried for me.

Red closed his eyes, blinking away tears.

Why did he see a boat at sea?

A boat? The boat! He felt something on the boat. Karen too. Something was watching them. Something beyond .

Something hidden.

Something chained.

Red stumbled once more as a final image - purple paws; purple’s warm on the mind - bled through.

He breathed for a few minutes as the visions stopped. Yet, despite the pain he still felt from them, he begged for them to come back.

Something is in pain.

Something needs our help.

His mind spiraled around these two points until a third, terrible thing became clear to him.

He’s felt this before.

Purer.

Cleaner.

Deadlier.

What he felt now was only a muddled, distorted form of it. But he knew what it was. He was intimately familiar with it after three constant years of exposure.

Source Energy.

A bastardised form of it. Only just recognizable, but it was .

Source Energy.

Red’s eyes glowed as the earth around him cracked . The wind around him began to pick up as one, tantalising, but oh so terrible truth came to him.

Team Source was not only formed.

It was active .

And they were experimenting on something. Someone?

It wasn’t the Conduit, Red knew that at least. It was far too early, and Mewtwo hadn’t even been created yet.

Or had he?

Red groaned as his vision began to return. His memories over his first encounter with the genetic pokémon were scattered. The veil over his memories were lifted during the time of the Storm through means that Red didn’t entirely understand.

He met Mewtwo sometime around March of 1998? Red wasn’t sure when Mewtwo was born, but surely, surely Mewtwo wouldn’t have remained a slave to Team Rocket for six whole months.

Would he?

Red shook his head, dispelling thoughts of Mewtwo and the Conduit from his mind. He turned his thoughts to the matter at hand, face setting into a stony expression as he considered what he had learned.

Team Source was likely nearby and operating.

They were most likely experimenting on a pokémon, probably as a precursor to their Conduit.

Without conscious thought, Red’s turned eastward, where Goldenrod City lay across the sea.

Team Source had a base in Goldenrod.

Without any more spoken words, Red picked Pichu back up onto his shoulder, and walked side by side with Froakie back towards Cianwood City.

…

Pokemon Center, Cianwood City, October 9th, 1997

“Already making plans to leave, Red? You planning to ditch us?”

Red didn’t pay any mind as Karen tried to goad him, instead looking through the schedule for departures towards Goldenrod City.

After paying for a trip for himself and Salvare on the 10th, he turned back to Karen, “I wasn’t planning on staying here longer than I needed. Since you both went through the Safari and I got my Gym badge, I see no reason to stay.”

Karen didn’t have any retort for that, instead focusing on the computer screen, “Hey! You are trying to ditch me, not buying me a ticket!” She shoved Red aside to order herself one.

Red shrugged as he walked back towards Salvare, who was in the lobby watching the television.

And just why did he look so familiar?

Red cast a passing glance towards the television before stopping. He turned back to it to see something that would, no doubt, have been Ash’s dream come true.

Champion Lance versus Champion Cynthia.

Red was somewhat bemused as he sat next to Salvare, wondering just how he had missed this.

Actually, if he recalled correctly, he would have been on the road to Vermillion at this point.

Red snorted.

Sucks to be you, Ash.

Salvare’s voice turned Red’s attention away from heckling his past self’s bad luck, “Congratulations on the Badge.”

“Thanks,” Red replied. Earlier that day, he had challenged Chuck and won the Storm Badge.

While Red was interested when Chuck announced that he was using his 8-Badge team - and Chuck’s tone upon saying that was oddly ominous - it wasn’t anything more difficult than he had to deal with in his battle against Jasmine.

The only real difference was that Charmander did get to participate, defeating Breloom and severely damaging Poliwrath before Pichu went in and finished it off.

“Is it a full 6-on-6 match?” Red asked as he took a seat next to Salvare.

“Yeah,” Salvare replied, pausing in the middle of him taking out a notepad and a pen, “You alright if I take notes on the battle?”

“Of course,” Red nodded, shifting Pichu to allow Karen to take a seat at his other side, “While you watch, pay attention to how they go about the battle. Even the best trainers have their weaknesses.”

Salvare nodded, not saying anything as the screen focused on Cynthia’s face before the battle began. The announcer was going on about her accomplishments as the youngest Champion in her region, along with other bits of trivia.

Red tuned the announcer’s voice as she focused on Cynthia’s face.

She looked so young. Wasn’t she nineteen at this point?

Karen said something. Probably snarky, but Red wasn’t listening anymore.

She looked so young.

So… Alive.

he stood in a field. fire surrounded him and the other survivors. two months had passed since the coming of the Storm.

Ash stood next to those precious few who remained. James, Meowth, Paul, Cynthia…

a voice, one that he had grown to know and would further grow to dread, rang out in deathly monotone.

“Ares, leave no survivors.”

Red returned as the match started. To his side, he could see that Karen had scooted away - she was staring at him in fear, again . On the other, Salvare paid no mind to him as he leaned forward - and why oh why did he look so familiar?

Cynthia had led off with her Spiritomb, commanding it to use Dark Pulse against Lance’s Gyarados.

The television caught her words, loud and boisterous, made to play to the crowd, to rile them up for an exciting battle.

“You think you can take me on?”

“yes.”

the earth shattered as The Chariot stepped forward, the towering inferno behind him casting a rippling shadow over his figure.

even next to his massive pokémon, he felt like the true monster.

“give her a show, Dio.”

Lance’s Gyarados reigned destruction across the battlefield, tanking hits while returning it in full. Amazingly, despite being largely immobile, the Spiritomb seemed to match it, trading blow for blow.

yet, all the same, even the dead cannot escape absolution.

Ash stumbled backwards, pushed back by an attack from one of the Chariot’s followers. while The Chariot engaged in battle against the Champion, his sycophants picked off the stragglers.

they were dropping like flies.

Infernape and Charizard fought against Ash’s opponent, a red-haired man whose only title was Judgement.

And why was he so familiar?

a Magnezone and Gengar met their attack as Ash stumbled back towards the fight, only to pause as absolute painnnnnnnnnnnnnnn-

he stumbled, as did the rest of them - except for The Chariot - as Cynthia’s Spiritomb was not only defeated…

but killed.

“even the dead cannot escape absolution.”

Red shivered.

Spiritomb fainted after being overrun with a particularly powerful Waterfall . Gyarados buckled, but despite its injuries, it remained conscious.

Cynthia said meaningless words-

The Chariot laughed.

“so strong, yet so narrow-minded.”

“it’s truly a shame that I hadn’t found you sooner.”

“you would have made the perfect protégé…”

Red began to scratch behind Pichu’s ear, willing himself not to show any reaction to the memories. The nightmares.

He knew his eyes were glowing. They must be, since Karen appeared so frightened.

Gyarados fainted after Cynthia’s Togekiss released a Shockwave . In response, he sent out a-

“Charizard, Blast Burn!”

as Charizard attacked the Magnezone, Gengar and a newly released Weaville battled Infernape and Sceptile. Lucario remained by Ash’s side, like he always did, defending him from life-ending debris.

to his side, he heard a barked laugh. Cynthia had released not only her Roserade, but her Togekiss and Milotic to assist.

“just starting to understand that this isn’t a league battle? even the kid knew that from the beginning!”

“Dazzling Gleam!” Cynthia shouted out.

Salvare appeared to be taking notes on that move in particular - And Ash, no, Red knew he had seen him before - and how it didn’t seem to particularly affect the Charizard.

Lance remained calm as Charmander endured the onslaught. After the winged lizard charged up his fire reserves enough, he called out-

“Blast Burn, Ares. Burn the fairy!”

and there was light. and the light was great. the light was beautiful. the light was terrible.

Milotic intercepted the attack, but it was for naught, as The Chariot turned his eyes - blazing pinpricks of v̴̡̡̡̠̦̺͕̝͉̻͇̝̾͐͋̚͝ö̴̢͙̟͔̟̟͉͓̠̪̟́͒͊̓͘͝i̵̢̡̝̻̘͇͚̦̝̽̀̒̾̿̓͜͜d̸̡͇͇̺̙̠̻͚̞̻̙͆̿̾̐̚͝ - and breathed forth a beam of fire.

Roserade burned.

Charizard dodged another Shockwave , streaming a billowing Flamethrower from the sky.

Cynthia remained calm-

Cynthia shouted out in anguish.

“NO!”

“yes.”

Ash glanced at the man he was quickly growing to despise, and saw him giving a small smirk. there was no cruelty in the look, only a cold absolution.

as if the man saw his actions as something greater.

divine absolution.

Lance released Salamence and quickly downed the weakened Togekiss with a Shadow Claw .

Cynthia released her Milotic, which-

used Ice Beam directly towards the Chariot.

He laughed.

“going for the killshot, are we!”

Ash’s opponent seemed to nearly snap his neck by turning his head to The Chariot, his face showing… concern?

amazingly, Judgement seemed to show genuine care for his leader.

care that was not returned in the slightest.

“Red?”

Salvare asked him if he was alright. Red only nodded distantly as Lance’s Salamence covered the arena in a Flamethrower .

Salvare seemed to show genuine care for his leader.

Red could only wonder why.

Ash could only wonder why.

“Why do you follow him?!”

his words almost failed to reach Judgement, with the sky being illuminated by storms, infernos, and torrents of water.

yet, the red-haired man responded.

“He saved me when I was at my lowest.”

“I can never hope to repay him.”

Ash couldn’t help but feel sorry for the guy as he looked genuinely lost.

a lost soul…

and like a shepherd, The Chariot found him, and ruined him.

Red could only feel a distant sense of guilt as Salvare looked slightly lost.

Why?

On the screen, Salamence finally fell as Milotic nailed it with a third Ice Beam …

yet, even after this, Ares stood strong.

Milotic stumbled as Chariot gave the last words the pokémon would ever hear.

“kill it.”

Milotic fainted to Lance’s Kingdra.

Salvare scribbled away at his notes, face pinched in just a way-

it seemed remorseful.

“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”

“What?!”

Ash yelped as he dodged a rippling Shadow Ball.

Magnezone had melted not long ago, and Judgement had released his final pokémon to aid his other two, an Alakazam.

Greninja and Pikachu fought the new opponent as Charizard, Infernape, and Sceptile dealt with Weaville and Gengar.

“I know you think I’m cruel - and I probably am - but…”

“Wherever he goes, I go.”

Red blinked as Cynthia’s Lucario used Stone Edge , defeating Lance’s Kingdra.

He turned to the right, and instead of seeing Salvare…

he saw Judgement.

“My life ended at the Lake of Rage.”

“I lost everything…”

“He was the only one who cared.”

Gengar coughed and began convulsing, being pushed to the edge.

yet Judgement wasn’t sad, angry, or distressed.

merely resigned.

“I knew what-”

“I signed up for, but - fucking hell - how could anyone hope to reach that level?”

Salvare asked a question, mostly to himself, as Lance’s Altaria overwhelmed Cynthia’s Lucario with Dragon’s Breath-

-leaving the Lucario’s fur singed, burned - a sign for what was to come.

but The Chariot had yet to notice the one that would prove his equal, instead tearing down one of those who were the ‘best.’

tearing her down.

piece

by

piece

it bored him, so when Cynthia finally shouted-

“Go, Garchomp!”

-he stepped back, with an expression almost akin to disappointment, and uttered in a dead tone.

“Zeus, make it quick.”

And Salvare - Judgement - looked on in horror as Lance’s Dragonite - A shadowed devil with wings - descended upon the Garchomp-

and eviscerated it.

“bring on the storm.”

Shadow Lugia bellowed.

Ash and Salvare - NO! NO! - fell down as a hurricane - It isn’t him , it isn’t-

“It’s almost like watching gods battle-” Began Judgement.

“-Isn’t it?” Ended Salvare.

Red blinked away tears. What they were for… he couldn’t, wouldn’t know.

Perhaps they were for the terror he felt.

Perhaps they were for the sadness over Judgement’s choices.

Perhaps…

Perhaps they were for the individual who sat next to him, whose face seemed so familiar, yet so far away.

The first man he killed.

Ash blinked awake, having been struck unconscious by the dark storm brought upon by the shadowed devil.

his body was buried under rubble, dark shapes, once tall and imposing, were now bruised and cowering.

Lucario rose his head, blinking once at Ash before pushing him back down beneath the rubble, lest the shadowed demon see them, lest The Chariot learn of their survival.

yet, he had seen the bodies.

and that closest to him, she lay still on the ground, a stab wound through the heart.

yet, in death, her face hadn’t seemed pained, but instead serene, almost-

Content at the result of the battle.

Lance and Cynthia shook hands after their draw, inspiring the crowds to cheer with such volume that the television shook.

And Salvare…

he was dying.

abandoned by The Chariot in his wake. left bleeding out from the shrapnel from Shadow Lugia’s storm.

collateral.

“I know you’re there.”

his voice was weak, but Judgement - no, Red, use his name-

Salvare looked to Ash with distant eyes.

he didn’t seem surprised, or even mad, that The Chariot left him to die.

he only looked resigned.

“They’re gone, you can come out.”

even with Lucario’s protests, Ash removed himself from the rubble.

the field was burning.

Ash’s pokémon, hurt, enraged, but still alive, stood next to him as he stepped up to Salvare’s form.

Salvare was bleeding out, dying, but it was slow. painful.

Ash knew what Salvare wanted him to do. it was in his eyes.

he wanted Ash to kill him.

a mercy.

“Lucario.”

Lucario stepped forward as Ash steeled himself for what he was about to do.

even now, two months after the Storm, Ash had been blessed (cursed) enough to avoid taking a life.

until now.

“Force Palm.”

a snap.

…

then remained the only survivor.

“Are you alright Red?”

no, he wasn’t.

“ I’m fine .”

Red stood up and followed Salvare to their lodgings. His steps were mechanical.

He knew where he had seen Salvare before.

“I’m sorry,” He whispered, prompting Salvare to give him a confused look.

“Uh, it’s alright,” Salvare responded easily, “I won’t give you shit for spacing out like that, we all have our demons.”

Red remained silent at that, before slipping into his room.

Oh, how funny.

How ironic it is.

That in another time, another world.

His student was the student of The Chariot.

His student was the man he first killed.

How ironic.

…

Go Forth.

Go Forth, My Chariot.

Go Forth, And-

…

Welcome to Battlenet! The #1 Site For All Things Battling!

Logged in as: K_Takashi

Inbox: 8 New Messages

→ Open Inbox

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→ 2 Message(s) - TheLegendGaryOak - (Subject): I DEMAND A REMATCH

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→ 1 Message(s) - Cerulean_Battle_Ring - (Subject): Local Top-Bracket Tournament Invitation

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→ 1 Message(s) - IndigoTrainerWatch - (Subject): 10/7/97 Newsletter

Every year a new batch of trainers try their hand for the Indigo and Silver League Championship at the end of the summer and winter seasons. The Indigo Trainer Watch newsletter tracks those trainers that stand out amongst the crowd, and shows their stats, recordings, interviews, etc.

Indigo League:

→ Gary Oak - Recently Earned his Rainbow Badge after defeating Erika with her 4-Badge Team. This marks the 4th Gym in a row that Gary Oak has defeated, and he is on his way to Fuschia for his 5th. [Click here for recordings of Gary’s Gym matches]. [Click here for Gary’s stats].

→ Damian Brecks - Recently Earned his Cascade Badge after defeating the Waterflowers with their 5-Badge Team. Whereabouts are currently unknown. Team Composition is highly unstable. [Click here for recordings of Damian’s Gym matches]. [Click here for Damian’s stats].

→ Ash Ketchum - Earned his Cascade Badge aiding Cerulean Gym from an attack by Team Rocket. Whereabouts are currently unknown. Shows the beginnings of a very unorthodox training style. Seen travelling with Misty Waterflower and Brock Pebbleman. [Click here for recordings of Ash’s Gym matches]. [Click here for Ash’s stats].

Silver League:

→ Karen Mela - Recently Earned her Fog Badge after defeating Morty with his 6-Badge Team. Dark-Type Specialist. Seen travelling with trainers Red Satoshi and Salvare Razzo. [Click here for recordings of Karen’s Gym matches]. [Click here for Karen’s stats].

→ Paul Shinji - Recently Earned his Glacier Badge after defeating Pryce with his 7-Badge Team. Previous Ever-Grande League Runner-Up. [Click here for recordings of Paul’s Gym matches]. [Click here for Paul’s stats].

→ Salvare Razzo - Recently Earned his Mineral Badge after defeating Jasmine with her 7-Badge Team. Seen travelling with trainers Red Satoshi and Karen Mela. [Click here for recordings of Salvare’s Gym matches]. [Click here for Salvare’s stats].

→ Red Satoshi - Recently Earned his Storm Badge after defeating Chuck with his 8-Badge Team. Only has 5 Badges on Record. No Previous Records. Seen travelling with trainers Salvare Razzo and Karen Mela. Shown to be incredibly ruthless and cunning in battle. [Click here for recordings of Red’s Gym matches]. [Click here for Red’s stats] .

…

TRAINER PROFILE: Satoshi, Red

Currently Participating in: Silver Conference

Badges: 5/8

Last Seen in: Cianwood City

TRAINER INFO

Username: N/A

Age: 20

Years Active: 0.1

Home Region: Alola

Gender: Male

Sponsor: N/A

Trainer ID: [HIDDEN]

STATISTICS

Total Winrate (W/D/L): 36/1/0

Battle Ring Winrate (W/D/L): 31/1/0

League Winrate (W/D/L): 4/0/0

Misc Winrate (W/D/L): 1/0/0

Global Ranking: Top 10%

Total Badges Collected: 5

Tournaments Entered: 0

Tournaments Won: 0

Pokemon Owned (Past Evolutions Included): 3

Most Used Pokemon: Pichu

POKEMON NOTES

Pichu

Type: Electric

Ability: Static, Unknown Electrical Conduit Ability

Typical Held Item: N/A

Known Moves: Double Team, Discharge, Volt Tackle, Thunder, Taunt, Endure, Wild Charge, Thunder Wave, Encore

Notes: Shown to possess extraordinary electrical reserves for the species average. Very Aggressive, tends to end battles quickly before gaining too much damage. Repeated instances of battling without verbal commands.

Unofficial Power Ranking (Created by Users of Battlenet) for Red’s Pichu

Physical Attack: B-

Energy Attack: B+

Status Attack: B-

Physical Resist: A-

Energy Resist: A

Status Resist: B+

Agility: S

Reactions: S+

Stamina: A+

Pain Tolerance: S-

Overall Species Ranking: S+

Charmander

Type: Fire*

Ability: Blaze

Typical Held Item: N/A

Known Moves: Ember, Smokescreen, Shadow Claw, Slash, Fire Punch, Dragon Claw, Dragon Breath, Fire Spin, Metal Claw, Dragon Rage

Notes: Unique Dark Red colouring. Unique Blue Flame. Highly Aggressive. Favours Physical Attacks. *Potential Dragon Type?*

Unofficial Power Ranking (Created by Users of Battlenet) for Red’s Charmander

Physical Attack: S-

Energy Attack: B+

Status Attack: C-

Physical Resist: A+

Energy Resist: A

Status Resist: A+

Agility: S-

Reactions: S+

Stamina: S

Pain Tolerance: S

Overall Species Ranking: S+

Froakie

Type: Water

Ability: Torrent

Typical Held Item: N/A

Known Moves: Double Team, Water Gun, Quick Attack, Unknown Bubble Shield , Unknown Bubble Attack , Smokescreen, Substitute, Smack Down, Taunt, Fling, Steal, Nightslash, Water Pulse

Notes: Import from Kalos. Very Underhanded Tactics.

Unofficial Power Ranking (Created by Users of Battlenet) for Red’s Froakie

Physical Attack: B

Energy Attack: B-

Status Attack: A-

Physical Resist: A-

Energy Resist: B+

Status Resist: A

Agility: A+

Reactions: S+

Stamina: S-

Pain Tolerance: S

Overall Species Ranking: S+

STRATEGIES, STYLES, & BATTLENET ESTIMATIONS

Despite the limitations (intentional or otherwise) on Red Satoshi's team, he has proven to be a cunning and brutally efficient battler. Satoshi has no concrete strategies or styles, instead seeming to be primarily reactive in battle. Satoshi's Pokemon have shown rapid improvement, despite none of them evolving. The current estimation places Red Satoshi as a top contender for the 1997 Silver Conference.

…

Trainer Discussions: Silver Conference

→ Red_Satoshi

…

[PINNED] Oct 8, 1997 - Risingtide: R. Satoshi v. Jasmine (7-Badge Team)

→ Comments:

Oct 8, 1997 - Risingtide: Yet again! Red does the impossible and takes down Jasmine’s ACE with a PICHU!!!

Oct 8, 1997 - Red_Fan1997: How is he not more well known? the dude has been absolutely clapping these Gyms, it’s kinda sad

Oct 8, 1997 - justAdude: idk. maybe its because its the silver conference? in my experience, its not as popular as indigo or lily of the valley

Oct 9, 1997 - Risingtide: I’ll ignore the insult to our absolutely wonderful Gym leaders and say… I don’t know actually. He’s only been around for a month, so I’d imagine that when the Conference actually starts, he’ll get a lot more publicity.

Oct 8, 1997 - Red_Fan1997: I first saw him when he fought against Pryce! His Pichu was a monster, and that Charmander! I could’ve sworn his tail was blue?!?! This man is going places, and I am HERE for it!

Oct 8, 1997 - justAdude: i saw the recording of that battle. you said the charmander was blue? it seemed normal to me. i’m new here btw

Oct 9, 1997 - Risingtide: I was actually at his first Gym match! And, yes, that Pichu is DEFINITELY a monster.

Oct 8, 1997 - justAdude: so, quick question. what move did pichu use against steelix. it almost looked like thunderwave, but it seemed to damage steelix. i thought it was part ground type? shouldn’t it be immune?

Oct 9, 1997 - Risingtide: From what I can tell, it’s a new move! The recording just became public, so I imagine that once more people see it, the Pichu’s move will become a topic for debate.

Oct 9, 1997 - sophiaw: So, uh, I stumbled upon this while surfing the web. Crazy f***ing stuff. But, was it just me, or was this guy’s eyes glowing?

Oct 9, 1997 - BeepBoo: ngl, Red is hot af

…

Logged in as: The_Emperor

Opening Filename: Project_Changeling_Timeline

Timeline:

→ Jun 17, 1995 - Beginning of Research

→ Jul 2, 1995 - Acquired Specimen A

→ Jul 17, 1995 - First Experiment: Specimen A Preliminary Preparations (Control)

→ Jul 19, 1995 - Acquired Specimens B, C, and D

→ Aug 1, 1995 - Second Experiment: Specimens B, C, and D Preliminary Preparations (Flar, Jolt, Vapor)

→ Aug 23, 1995 - Third Experiment: Specimens B, C, and D Partial Evolutions

→ Sep 3, 1995 - Fatality: Specimen B

→ Sep 14, 1995 - Fatality: Specimen C

→ Nov 2, 1995 - Experiment Failure: Specimen D became Vaporeon → Released

→ Nov 4, 1995 - Acquired Specimens E, F, and G

→ Nov 16, 1995 - Fourth Experiment: Specimens E, F, and G Revised Preliminary Preparations

→ Dec 3, 1995 - Fifth Experiment: Specimens E, F, and G Revised Partial Evolutions

→ Dec 25, 1995 - Fatalities: Specimens E and G (Outside Factors)

→ Jan 23, 1996 - Breakthrough: Specimen F Achieved Partial Transformation (Jolteon)

→ Feb 2, 1996 - Specimen F became Jolteon → Released

→ Feb 3, 1996 - Acquired Specimens H, I, and J

→ Feb 7, 1996 - Experiment Location Change

→ Feb 14, 1996 - Sixth Experiment: Specimens H, I, and J Revised Partial Evolutions

→ Feb 15, 1996 - Seventh Experiment: Development of Stabilising Agent

→ Apr 30, 1996 - Eighth Experiment: Partial Evolutions w/ Agent

→ May 2, 1996 - Specimen H Achieved Partial Transformation (Flareon)

→ May 4, 1996 - Specimen I Achieved Partial Transformation (Jolteon)

→ May 5, 1996 - Specimen J Achieved Partial Transformation (Vaporeon)

→ Jul 23, 1996 - Ninth Experiment: Multiple Partial Evolutions by Breeding

→ Oct 29, 1996 - Specimen K is born from parents Specimens H and I

→ Oct 30, 1996 - Experiment Failure: Specimen K born as standard Eevee → Sold

→ Nov 28, 1996 - Tenth Experiment: Multiple Partial Evolutions by Controlled Exposure

→ Nov 29, 1996 - Acquired Specimens L, M, N, O, P, and Q

→ Dec 24, 1996 - Fatalities: Specimens M and N

→ Jan 1, 1997 - Fatality: Specimen Q

→ Jan 4, 1997 - Experiment Failure: Multiple Partial Evolutions Require Catalyst

→ Jan 5, 1997 - Released Specimens L, O, and P

→ Jan 27, 1997 - Acquired Specimens R, S, T, U, V, and W

→ Mar 29, 1997 - Eleventh Experiment: Multiple Partial Evolutions by Catalyst

→ Apr 2, 1997 - Fatalities: Specimens R and W

→ May 1, 1997 - Fatality: Specimen U

→ Jun 23, 1997 - Dual Partial Evolutions: Specimen T (Vaporeon and Jolteon)

→ Jun 24, 1997 - Fatality: Specimen T

→ Jul 13, 1997 - Fatality: Specimen S

→ Jul 14, 1997 - Breakthrough: Tri Partial Evolution: Specimen V (Flareon, Vaporeon, Jolteon)

→ Aug 31, 1997 - Power Wave → Near Fatality of Specimen V

→ Sep 8, 1997 - Twelfth Experiment: Espeon/Umbreon Tests

→ Sep 11, 1997 - Breakthrough: Specimen V Achieved Fourth Evolution (Espeon)

→ Sep 28, 1997 - Breakthrough: Specimen V Achieved Fifth Evolution (Umbreon)

→ [NEW ENTRY] Oct 7, 1997 - Thirteenth Experiment: “Fairy” Evolution Test