The crowd roared as a Lucario slammed an aura sphere into the gut of the opposing Hitmonlee. Lucario’s muzzle grinned in victory only for Hitmonlee to lash out with one final kick as it was blown back, his elastic leg allowing the Rolling Kick to slide through Lucario’s guard and slam straight into his face.
Hitmonlee continued flying, tumbling through the air before slamming into the stadium wall so hard he was embedded in his own impact crater. The crowd remained silent as across the stadium Lucario let out a weak groan before slowly sinking to his knees and slumping to the ground.
“PHHHWEEEEE” a loud whistle resounded throughout the stadium and a waiting referee held up a black flag. “Lucario and Hitmonlee are unable to battle! Trainers, please release your final pokemon!”
The crowd roared as Lucario and Hitmonlee disappeared in flashes of light, going back into their pokeballs. Cynthia looked down at the pokeball in her hands, giving it a gentle squeeze, “You did great.”
“Alright Miss Perfect,” Champion Lia confidently began, “you may have been able to sweep through the Gyms and the Elite Four without a single loss, but let’s see if you have the stamina to go all the way!” Lia plucked a Luxury Ball from where it rested on her necklace, enlarging it and confidently tossing it onto the field. “Time for a title defense, Hitty!” In a flash of light a bulky and battlescar covered Hitmonchan was released onto the field. The punching pokemon matched his trainer’s nonchalant grin, slamming his fists together and casually cracking his neck.
Cynthia only smiled confidently in response, grabbing the shrunken Ultra Ball dangling from a necklace. “Let’s finish this Garchomp!” she declared, throwing the Ultra Ball and unleashing the towering dragon pokemon in a flash of light. Standing nearly 7 feet tall, the dragon pokemon cut an intimidating figure with her sharp teeth, large claws, and scythe-like fins. Upon her release, Garchomp unleashed a deafening roar, briefly quieting the audience before their cheers redouble.
The referee blew his whistle again, “Final Match, Full Team 6v6 Battle, Reigning Champion Lia vs Challenger Cynthia, for the title of Champion of the Sinnoh Region … Begin!”
“Get your warm up in, Hitty!” “Show them how a Garchomp dances!” Lia and Cynthia commanded at the same time. Hitmonchan closed his eyes and began shadow boxing in place while bouncing back and forth on the balls of his feet. As he did, a red glow seeped into Hitmonchan’s muscles from the Bulk Up he had just performed, shortly followed by an alabaster glow as Agility increased his speed.
At the same time, Garchomp took several steps toward Hitmonchan, building up momentum before leaping forward and diving straight into the ground of the arena floor like it was made of water. Only her large dorsal fin could be seen sticking out of the ground as she swam through the earth straight toward Hitmonchan before purplish wisps of energy coiled around her fin and her speed greatly increased from the subterranean Dragon Dances she was performing.
“Keep warming up Hitty!” Champion Lia declared as Garchomp’s dorsal fin began rapidly circling around the shadow boxing pokemon while he remained in place and continued to buff himself up. “Float like a Butterfree, sting like a Beedrill! Get ready to do your thing, Hitty!”
Cynthia cast her hand forward, “Start the offensive, Garchomp!” A split second later Garchomp’s circling fin smoothly disappeared beneath the earth and all was quiet on the battlefield for but a moment. The crowd held its breath as several agonizing seconds passed
Without any warning Hitmonchan’s eyes finally snapped open, sparkling with the light blue energy of Detect. Hitmonchan smoothly pivoted his body to the side just in time for Garchomp to come flying out of the ground straight toward where he had just been standing, passing within less than an inch of the punching pokemon.
Hitmonchan’s fist shot out in retaliation straight toward Garchomp’s undefended stomach, coated in the frozen shell of an Ice Punch. But the buffed up dragon was just a hair too fast even with Hitmonchan’s enhanced speed, the Ice Punch barely grazed the tail of Garchomp as she smoothly dived back underneath the ground.
“Hmn,” Champion Lia hummed as the exact same situation played out a second time, with Hitmonchan dodging Garchomp’s subterranean ambush by the barest of margins but being too slow for his counter to connect. “Switch it up Hitty! Mach speed next time!”
The same scenario played out once again but this time Hitmonchan’s cocked back fist shot out incredibly fast, the Mach Punch slamming straight into Garchomp’s gut as she flew by him. Garchomp visibly flinched and was blown slightly off course from the force of the blow, but still slipped beneath the dirt once again without issue.
Cynthia frowned, “We won’t win this endurance match Garchomp, shake things up! Rush into Scythe!” Somewhere beneath the ground Garchomp roared in response. Not even a second later bursting out of the earth like an angry comet, propelled even faster by the violent draconic energy blasting out of the back of the protrusions on either side of her head. Garchomp came out of the ground right in front of Hitmonchan, her right arm raised high to strike. The Dragon-type energy bleeding off from the Dragon Rush swirling into a Dragon Claw instead of just dissipating, causing the rampaging energy enveloping Garchomp’s fin to enlarge so much it looked more like a reaper’s scythe than a dragon’s claw.
Hitmonchan’s eyes still glowed with the gleam of Detect, his body already attempting to dodge the dangerous attack, but it was clear that he was just simply too slow this time. He wouldn’t be able to avoid this strike.
“Hitty, Mach Flurry!” Lia shouted and Hitmonchan’s first Mach Punch immediately rocketed into the draconic scythe, seemingly doing nothing to stop the attack’s descent straight towards him. But then came a second, and fifth, and eighth. A veritable storm of Mach Punches sailed straight into the powered-up Dragon Claw, stalling the momentum of the attack and turning it into a battle of strength between the two pokemon, both of whom refused to back down.
“HIT! HIT! HIT! HIT! HIT! HIT! HIT! HIT! HIT! HIT!!!” Hitmonchan bellowed as countless Mach Punches blurred together into a swarm of fists.
“GAAAAARRRRRR!” Garchomp roared as she struggled to put even more force into the Dragon Claw poised above Hitmonchan like a sword of Damocles set to knock Lia down from her position as Champion.
After several prolonged seconds, it became clear who the winner of this encounter was. Cracks spread throughout the strengthened Dragon Claw before the whole energy construct spectacularly shattered into hundreds of motes of draconic light. Several more Mach Punches slammed into Garchomp as the flurry abated and she was thrown back by the force of the blows.
“CC, Hitty!” Champion Lia shouted with a malicious joy, “Send her flying!” Hitmonchan smoothly stepped into Garchomp’s open guard and unleashed a heavy hitting combo of body blows that were strong enough to create shockwaves. The Close Combat was capped off with a rising uppercut that smashed straight into the dragon’s jaw, the force of the blow actually lifting Garchomp off her feet and sending her sailing straight up high into the air, spinning head over heel.
Cynthia’s gentle smile never faltered even as Garchomp was sent skyhigh. “DM, Garchomp! Direct fire into Breach!”
Lia’s eyes widened and her breath hitched as an orb of Dragon-type energy built up within Garchomp’s throat, the energy shining through her skin. “Full Defensive, Hitty! Get out of there!!”
Hitmonchan’s eyes glowed light blue and he immediately returned his attention to the still airborne Garchomp only to match his trainer’s panicked expression as he saw the Draco Meteor descending straight for him. Hitmonchan threw himself backwards as the Draco Meteor split midair into a dozen meteors of dark blue blazing draconic might.
KRA-KRA-KRA-KRA-KOOOOM!!
It took several moments for the explosive attack’s dust clouds to begin to settle, but when they did it revealed a heavily cracked and fractured spherical Protect weakly shimmering around a panting Hitmonchan. The strain of having to maintain a Protect against such a cataclysmic attack having clearly taken a toll on the punching pokemon.
Before he could even regain his breath Garchomp came surging out of the ground from directly underneath Hitmonchan, draconic energy shooting out of the boosters on either side of her head. Her Dragon Rush boosted speed easily punched straight through the already weakened protective sphere. But Garchomp wasn’t done, grabbing one of Hitmonchan’s legs with a Crunch as she slammed into him and dragging him high up into the air with her.
“Drain Punch!” Lia barked. Hitmonchan’s fist became covered in a green orb of swirling energy which he immediately swung in an upside down right hook straight into Garchomp’s gut. The land shark pokemon visibly recoiled from the blow but responded by whipping Hitmonchan straight into the ground.
Garchomp landed on her feet while Hitmonchan laboriously dragged himself to his feet inside the small crater that his impact had created. The two pokemon stared each other down while breathing heavily, both from their injuries as well as the fatigue that had accumulated throughout the battle.
“It’s time for the climax, Hitty.” Lia declared resolutely, her earlier cheer completely absent. “Focus Punch for the KO!”
Cynthia’s grin widened, “Who are we to deny such an invitation, Garchomp?” Cynthia cast her hand forward, “Giga Impact, Garchomp style!”
Hitmonchan slowly drew back his right fist, gradually coating it in a crimson aura that became more and more dense as the seconds ticked on until it was a solid roiling mass of pure Fighting-type power. Reddish lightning began arcing off the charged blow as Hitmonchan compressed and compressed until the Focus Punch became overcharged beyond belief.
At the same time, Garchomp dived beneath the ground once again, only her fin exposed as a corona of white light quickly built up around her reckless charge forward, becoming brighter and more intense with every inch closer she came to Hitmonchan.
Garchomp lunged out of the earth enveloped in a blazing aura of power. The crowd held their breath as her rush brought her within Hitmonchan’s range, who unleashed the cannon-like punch straight into the oncoming Giga Impact. Both moves screamed through the air as they collided, creating a concussive blast of force that blew up a cloud of dust and smoke.
KA-THOOOM!
The crowd was silent as the dust cloud slowly settled over the course of several seconds. Tension building until the dust gradually cleared and the scene was revealed.
Garchomp stood over an unconscious Hitmonchan. She was not unscathed however, with several of her teeth missing, her right claw completely broken and missing, and her right fin bent at a strange angle. Despite these injuries, Garchomp planted her feet and unleashed a spirited roar that echoed out from the stadium, causing the crowd to erupt into cheers.
The referee blew his whistle, once more drawing the attention of the spectators. “Hitmonchan is unable to battle! Final Match, Full Team Battle, Reigning Champion Lia vs Challenger Cynthia, for the position of Champion of the Sinnoh Region … Winner, your new Champion, Cynthia Shirona!” The crowds went wild as fireworks and confetti began to rain from the night sky, Cynthia herself rushed onto the field giving the still panting Garchomp a hug.
At the same time, in a house near the outskirts of Canalave City in the Sinnoh Region, a family of two sat in front of their TV. Vermilion Okilani, age 6, sat next to his mom on the couch, loudly whooping and cheering for the region's new Champion.
It was a tradition for him and his mom to watch regional Gym Battles and other tournaments together before his bedtime. It had turned into a ritual at this point, the young boy had become fascinated with pokemon battles.
He watched with wide eyes as Cynthia was sworn into the Hall of Fame as the new Champion of the Sinnoh region. “Ma, can I be like Miss Cynthia when I grow up?” he asked.
Cherry Okilani looked over at her son, “You sure you want to be a trainer, kid? Once you start there's no going back, being a professional pokemon trainer is a lifelong commitment. Are you sure you're ready for that? I mean really ready?”
“Definitely!” Vermilion instantly chirped back with an innocent smile on his face, completely failing to notice the seriousness in his mother’s voice.
Cherry mirrored her son’s grin, “Great! We can start your training tomorrow morning. But for now, it's your bedtime.”
“But Ma~a, I wanna watch the post-show analysis.” Vermilion groaned, flopping onto his mothers lap.
“No buts kid, just bedtime.” she said sternly, picking her son up like he was a sack of potatoes carrying him to his room. “A growing trainer needs all the sleep they can get if they want to become a Champion.”
As Vermilion was tucked under his sheets, his mother leaned down and planted a kiss on his forehead. “Sleep tight kid, don’t let the Darkrai bite.”
Vermilion grumbled a good night, turning over and quickly falling asleep.
That night, he dreamed of being a Champion.
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Cherry Okilani slammed open the door to her son’s bedroom, striding into the room and marching straight toward the bed in the corner of the room. As she did 2 pokemon dashed underfoot, an energetic Chespin that vibrated with unspent energy and a Snover that silently trailed behind its more hyperactive friend.
Cherry largely ignored the hyperactive Chespin as it dashed around the room, striding up to the bed and shaking the vaguely human shaped lump under the blankets. “Vermilion! Get up kid, you have to wake up or you’ll be late for your last day of school!”
Instead of any kind of intelligible speech, the only thing she got in response was an unenthused groan from beneath the sheets. Cherry smiled mirthfully, “Give him a wake up call; Acacia, Pine.”
Acacia the Chespin immediately jumped up onto the bed, laughing happily as he began jumping up and down on top of the lump under the covers. Meanwhile Pine the Snover quietly walked over and reached underneath the covers, repeatedly tapping the boy with her snow cold hands.
Immediately Vermilion let out a somehow even less enthusiastic groan, curling into a fetal position and trying to pull the sheets tighter around him.
“None of that now!” Cherry declared, ripping off the sheets from the bed and exposing the caramel skinned boy to the cold morning air. Acacia and a Rowlet hiding under the covers were sent flying alongside the sheets. Acacia cheered the exciting ride while Quill the Rowlet squawked indignantly at her ejection from the warm blankets before immediately diving bombing back into the bedspread as it landed on the floor.
Cherry sighed as her son continued to sleepily flop about on the bed. “Come on kid, at least try to be enthusiastic! It's the last day of school and your 12th birthday afterall! Or do I need to bring Briar in here and make him use Worry Seed?”
Finally, Vermilion’s groanings actually turned into comparable speech for the first time that morning. “I’m awake, I’m awake,” he sleepily mumbled with his face half buried in his pillow and slowly, laboriously, began to drag himself off the bed.
“Alright kid, but if I come back here in 5 minutes and you’re asleep, you’re getting the Worry Seed.” Cherry said from the doorway while shooting him a glare, Acacia and Pine trailing shortly behind their trainer.
Vermilion leisurely got up and stretched, earning a couple satisfying pops as he extended as far as he could. The boy scooped up his discarded blankets off the floor and found Quill already snuggly slumbering inside them once again. Vermilion gently put the Rowlet’s fluffy cocoon down on the bed and made sure she was tucked in before turning to leave the room. As he approached the door, Vermilion took one last look at the comfortably sleeping borb and sighed enviously before blearily stumbling out of his room and down the hall, wiping the sleep crust from his eyes as he did.
“Well, look who’s up after just the first wake up call! I thought I was going to be giving you the Worry Seed for sure! Happy Birthday, kid!” Cherry laughed from the stove as Vermilion plodded into the kitchen. She stood in front of a sizzling frying pan, wearing an apron over her work clothes and holding a spatula, a Worry Seed cigarette smoking in her mouth.
Belladonna, Cherry’s Tsareena, sat at the table, looking over the morning newspaper and dipping her feet in a soil filled planting pot like it was some kind of foot bath. Meanwhile Briar, her Roserade, stood on top of the table in a small pot of soil, taking in some morning sunlight coming from the windows.
Taking a seat at the table Vermilion plonked his head down on the table right next to Briar, soaking up the warmth that the sunlight cast on his face. Briar looked down at Vermilion and giggled, using one of his bouquet-like hands to pat the boy on the head, leaving a smattering of petals entangled in Vermilion’s Starly nest of hair. Belladonna looked up from her paper and snorted at her teammate’s antics before returning to the paper.
Cherry placed a plate down on the table in front of him, “Dig in,” she said with a grin.
Vermilion peeled his face off of the table and grabbed the plate, two sunny side up eggs on top of toast with a couple thick strips of bacon in between them. Vermilion singularly focused on his breakfast, ignoring everything around him as he slowly but steadily ate everything, slowly kicking off the last of his sleepy grogginess as he did. It wasn’t until he had finished breakfast that Vermilion realized his mother had already finished making her own breakfast and sat next to him eating an omelet.
“You ready to catch your first pokemon?” Cherry asked between bites with a warm smile.
“Yeah, I’ve got a good feeling about today.” Vermilion said while laying his head back down in the warm sunlight shining on the table and closing his eyes.
“Well after we get back we’ll do dinner, presents, and cake, alright?” Cherry stood up from the table, “I’ll be in the Greenhouse feeding the rest of the team. You go get dressed before you fall asleep at the table or you’ll make poor Quincy walk to school alone.” Cherry said while glancing at the clock.
“Ach, What!” Vermilion exclaimed, his head shooting off the table and startling Briar. Vermilion gave him an apologetic smile and quickly glanced at the Sprigatito shaped clock on the wall, 7:15.
Vermilion sprang out of his seat and rushed back to his room, tearing off his pajamas to put on some everyday clothes. A plain but comfortable plain red t-shirt, a light gray sweatshirt that was moderately Venomoth bitten and was obviously just slightly too big for the boy, and a pair of baggy brown cargo pants. He didn’t even try to tame his unruly mop of messy red hair that hung long enough to obscure his eyes beneath his bangs, just shaking out all of the Roserade petals that now infested his hair. Vermilion ran out of his room to the front door, grabbing his black and white high tops off of a small shoe rack.
“Not gonna take your backpack?” Cherry asked as Vermilion hopped around on one foot trying to put his shoes on.
“Nah, it's the last day of school, they’re letting out before lunch and Ms. Fairbrook will probably just put on a movie or something.” Vermilion replied as he finally popped his shoes on his feet.
“Alright, have fun with your movies, kid! And get ready for this evening!” Cherry shouted as Vermilion left the house.
“Kay!” Vermilion shouted out behind him in a routine response before closing the door behind him.
“Morning Stump,” Vermilion said and waved to what looked like a dead tree in the middle of the front yard. The dead tree didn’t give any kind of greeting in return, but Vermilion didn’t seem to notice as he rushed out of the front yard and down the well trodden dirt road. He raced down the street at a near running pace, the chilly morning air rushing past his face and pushing his bangs out of the way to temporarily reveal his eyes.
Several minutes of passing by other houses later, Vermilion finally arrived at his destination, a plain single story home with a large tree and white picket fence in the front yard. Vermilion entered the yard without second thoughts and didn’t even stop to knock on the front door before opening it.
“G’morning!” Vermilion cheerily shouted into the empty entrance hall of the house. Immediately after a head popped out from one of the hall’s doorways, “Morning, Mrs. Cerris.” Vermilion greeted.
“Oh, Vermilion, good morning! You’ll have to wait a minute, Quincy is still getting dressed. But nevermind that, you’ve got a big day ahead of you, don’t you? Looking forward to it?”
“Every second is an eternity.” Vermilion replied with a completely deadpan tone.
“That bad, huh?” Mrs. Cerris said with a wry smile on her face. “Well do you have any idea what pokemon you want to catch?”
“Not at all,” Vermilion answered with a self satisfied grin, confidently folding his arms. “I’m going to leave it up to fate!”
“Oh?” Mrs. Cerris intoned, clearly unimpressed, “You sure about that honey?”
“Yeah, if I became overly fixated on what pokemon I wanted to catch, I’d psych myself out. Best to just not think about it at all. Whatever happens, happens.”
“Well, I guess you at least put a little thought into this. But what abou–” Mrs. Cerris was cut off by another one of the doors being slammed open. A boy in suspenders and slacks stumbled into the room while struggling to pull a sweater vest over his head.
“Maman, help! I’m stuck!” Quincy’s muffled and panicked voice came from under the sweater vest.
“Dear, how many times have I told you to take your glasses off before putting on a sweater,” Mrs. Cerris said with a long suffering sigh, grabbing the bottom of the sweater and firmly tugging it over his head with one strong pull. As she smoothed down his matted golden blonde hair a Mareep pushed its way past the boy blocking the doorway. She trotted over to Vermilion and softly headbutted his legs.
Vermilion reached down and began scratching Mareep just under her chin, where he knew she liked it. “Good morning to you too, little lady.” Vermilion said with a smile, getting a few leg thumps in return as he kept scratching the wooly pokemon.
“Geez Maman!” Quincy exclaimed, ducking underneath his mother’s fussing hands, “You’re making Vermilion wait! We’re going to be late at this rate!” Quincy grabbed his large backpack off of a coat rack and opened the front door as he slung it over his shoulders. “Come on Flossy, we need to get going.”
“Maaa~” Flossy bleated in acknowledgement before dashing out of the house and hopping over the picket fence then turning to wait for the boys. Quincy grabbed Vermilion by his sleeve, dragging him out of the house and down the street behind him.
“See ya later Mrs. Cerris!” Vermilion shouted behind him as he was tugged along by Quincy with Flossy keeping pace besides them.
“Happy 12th Birthday,” Quincy finally greeted Vermilion as their pace slowed down, handing him a small cardboard box.
“Thanks Dude,” Vermilion smiled as he took the box, “Happy last day of school!”
Quincy pushed up his large and thick square rim glasses, “Your Mom is taking you into the forest to catch your first pokemon today, right?”
“Yeah, she wants me to make catching my own pokemon as my first act as a real trainer.” Vermilion said, bringing the box up to his ear and gently shaking it back and forth.
Quincy gave him a look, “You know you can just open it right now, right?”
Vermilion grinned, “Quin, you just don’t understand. Trying to figure out what a present is before opening it is part of the fun. You gotta stop and smell the Roselia before you challenge them to a battle, dude.”
“Just open it already, you’re giving me secondhand anxiety.” Quincy irritatedly grumbled.
“Okay, okay,” Vermilion laughed, pulling off the lid of the small box. Inside was a small red ball with a black stripe wrapping around its center. “Woah, Quin, what’s this? I’ve never seen a pokeball like this before!”
“Hmhmm!” Quincy hummed smugly, once again pushing up his large blocky glasses. “It’s called a Cherish Ball! I got it from my uncle back in Kalos who works at the Poké Ball Factory! They only make about 20 of these every year so they’re super rare! Happy Birthday!”
“Thanks so much, dude. I’m totally going to use this to catch my starter!” Vermilion pressed the button in the center of the ball, shrinking it down and carefully putting it in his pocket. “So,” Vermilion segued, “you caught the gym battle last night right?”
Quincy pushed up his glasses, “Who do you think you’re talking to here? Of course I did. I even recorded it and watched it back, twice.”
“Nice nice~e,” Vermilion responded excitedly. “Crasher Wake vs Ralf Still! Gyarados vs Machamp! Your thoughts, Professor?” Vermilion asked, holding up an imaginary microphone to Quincy’s face.
Quincy brought his right hand up to stroke his chin and lowered his head slightly to meet it. As he did, his large blocky glasses slipped down his nose again, obscuring his eyes with the morning sun’s gleam.
“Obviously due to the type matchup, Gyrados was the favorite to win, however, Ralf has been making a name for himself with his preference for grappling tactics and type matchups are the end-all be-all in elite matches, though his Machamp’s matchup against a Gyrados could be considered poor due to it being hard to grapple a pokemon as flexible as Gyrados, however his wearing down of Gyarados with Rock Throws from afar was a good way to ensure avoiding a super effective attack as Wake’s Gyrados is almost entirely a physical attacker, but a Machamp using this tactic was unexpected as it requires specialized training to even learn Rock Throw, which initially made the strategy much more effective, subsequently using Smack Down to ground Gyarados and going in for the KO could be seen as either a calculated move or an impulse decision when Gyrados finally managed to catch Machamp, and then powerbombing Gyarados into the ground with Seismic Toss once it had been grounded as the coup de grace was brilliant though, a tactic that neither Crasher nor Gyrados predicted because Gyarados is usually immune to such throws by being able to fly out of them, however with the temporary grounding from Smack Down Gyrados was unable to fly out of it.”
Quincy stopped his deluge of words, slightly red faced and unable to continue talking without taking a breath of air. Flossy gently headbutted Quincy’s shins and Vermilion patted him on the back, “Easy Quin, deep breaths.” The two boys briefly stopped their conversation, only continuing once Quincy had caught his breath. Their discussion continued on about previously broadcasted gym battles all the way until they reached school. In a new record, Quincy only lost his breath talking about pokemon battle strategy twice.
“Now remember everyone,” Ms. Fairbrook’s flat voice droned on over the classroom, ignoring the idle conversations filled with pre-Journey excitement. “Remember!” she stated louder and more forcefully, drawing more (but not all) of the class’ attention to herself, “While it might be the latest trend to go explore the vast subterranean expanse known as the ‘Grand Underground’ that was discovered earlier this year in order to catch rare pokemon, you should stay far away! Subterranean exploration is dangerous! Why you could blah, blah blah blah…-”
Vermilion only vaguely paid attention to his teacher, instead daydreaming of what he thought the Grand Underground would be like. There was no way he wasn’t going to check it out during his Journey, completely underground biomes filled with rare pokemon sounded too cool not to seek out eventually. But he wasn’t quite at that stage of the journey yet, so Vermilion contented himself with imagining what the Grand Underground was like.
Maybe there was an entire underground forest? Or maybe a lake of lava so big you couldn’t see the other end? Quincy would probably be excited if there was a cave filled with electricity like that one place in Unova he both did and didn’t want to visit.
Vermilion grinned, and surely if there were rare biomes there had to be rare pokemon living in said biomes that he could catch. He had said that he wasn’t going to think about it in order to not psyche himself out, but this was a big day for him and he couldn’t not think about it.
While the pokemon who lived in the forests around Canalave City were fairly diverse, Vermilion had become fairly well acquainted with most of them during the copious amounts of survival ‘training’ his Mom had put him through in order to make him a good trainer.
On the kinder side, there were more than a few colonies of Budew and Roselia, several dozen packs of Buizel that liked to play in the rivers, an old Snorlax that like to take naps by the river, and he swore he had even once caught a glimpse of a wild Turtwig in the Deep Woods. Sometimes during the summer a group of playful Ghost-types led by a Gengar would even parade through the forest at night and let him join in on their romps.
But not every pokemon in the Canalave Woods were nice, or even peaceful really. Vermilion had had several run-ins with a pack of aggressive Poochyena led by a Mightyena, been forced to skirt around multiple territorial Heracross looking for a scrap, and even once got into a fist fight with a stray Tyrogue over a berry bush (which he decisively lost).
Vermilion clutched the shrunken Cherish Ball in his pocket, whatever happened tonight he would find a reliable partner that he could become Champion with.
As the teacher wrapped up her speech and began to wheel out a blocky CRT TV on a cart the class broke up into friend groups. Quincy quickly scooted his desk next to Vermilion. Both boys ignored the old VHS kids movie entitled The Little Rolycoly Who Could as it began to play, instead getting right back to their conversation.
“So you’re sure that you’re not going to type specialize?” Quincy asked, bringing up one of their oldest and longest debated conversations.
Vermilion let out a long suffering sigh. “Quin I’ve told you a thousand times, a generalist team is better suited for every situation.”
“But with a type specialized team you can better prepare for matches with type disadvantage and plan countermeasures that can be used with multiple pokemon,” Quincy argued back. “Additionally, the same is true for types that your team is super effective against. You can plan for any counter strategies that your opponent might prepare, creating counter counter strategies.”
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Type matchups ain’t everything Quin. They just give an advantage, not a guaranteed win or loss.”
“You’re right!” Quincy nodded so hard his glasses began sliding down his nose. “It's also important to take into consideration the abilities, strengths, and weaknesses of individual pokemon! That's why for the past month I’ve been working on this!” Quincy declared, grabbing a yellow notebook and a large book from his backpack and slamming them down on the desk in front of Vermilion. The thick book was titled The Electric-type Encyclopedia: from Ampharos to Zebstrika and on the front of the notebook was the title ‘Team Planning’ written out in marker.
“As you’re well aware, I plan on becoming an Electric-type Master,” Quincy said as he flipped open the notebook.
Vermilion glanced from the thick well-worn encyclopedia to Flossy’s pokeball on Quincy’s belt to the yellow Electric-type themed suspenders his friend was currently wearing. “No, I never would have guessed that you want to be an Electric-type specialist,” Vermilion deadpanned.
Quincy continued on, too excited to notice his friend’s sarcasm. “Based on all of the gym matches I’ve analyzed, a skilled trainer’s team has a good balance of physical attacks, special attacks, defense, and utility! So if I’m going to be specializing in Electric-types, I need to make a team that is balanced in these four categories while also still all being Electric-types, I already have Flossy, and she’ll eventually evolve into an Ampharos which are good special attackers, so I already have attacking mostly covered, which means I need to focus more on finding a good defense and utility oriented Electric-types! After going through the encyclopedia I’ve narrowed each of those roles down to only a couple options!”
Quincy flipped through the Electric-type encyclopedia, stopping on an ear marked page and pointing out an illustration as he continued. “The entire Geodude line in its Alolan form has a minor Electric-typing and has great defense, however it would be very difficult to get one here in Sinnoh. But with some of the biomes of recently discovered caverns in the Grand Underground it is theoretically possible that I could find one in the wild! Magnemite and its evolutions are all very durable due to their metallic bodies and a fully evolved Magnezone can carry a person, plus they’re relatively easy to find! On the utility side of things, Rotom has an electric/ghost typing so they’re really rare, really fast, and re~eally hard to catch even if you do find one! Also with the notorious difficulty it takes to work with a Ghost-type, I don’t know if I could really train a Rotom even if I did catch one. Then there’s the Tynamo line that are mono Electric-typed fish and can float in the air in their final evolution, but they kinda become more intimidating looking the more they evolve!” Quincy paused his frantic flipping through the encyclopedia to show off all the illustrations, finally running out of air and being forced to take a breath.
Vermilion smiled as he waited for Quincy to catch his breath, for the rest of the school day he spent his time discussing hypothetical pokemon team compositions with his best friend.
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Vermilion sat on his bed in his room, reading over this month’s issue of Trainer’s Life. He had already read it of course, but the wait for his mom to come home from work was driving him to do anything to pass the time. A nervous energy filled Vermilion, causing him to repeatedly tap his foot and glance at the digital clock on his dresser. Vermilion finally put down Trainer’s Life and made to go outside, he had to do something with this energy or he felt like he would go crazy.
Vermilion headed out to what counted as his house’s ‘backyard.’ In the center of the area was a giant greenhouse that easily eclipsed the size of the house, the main living and training area for most of Cherry’s team. Under his Mom’s landscaping, the area around the greenhouse had been turned into something resembling a botanical garden. The only thing that demarcated the large outdoors expanse from the forest just beyond its perimeters being a simple white picket fence. It didn’t keep the wild pokemon out, but a full Master rank team living and training in the area had a tendency to dissuade any hostile wild pokemon from getting close.
Vermilion followed a side path around the greenhouse, quickly reaching a wood pile with a spray painted red and white target on it, arranged for his pokeball throwing practice.
Vermilion reached into his pocket to grab the Cherish Ball he knew was in there, then hesitated. Just beyond that short white picket fence not even 15 feet from him stretched the Canalave Woods. Wild, untamed, and veritably brimming with the possibility for adventure. And here he was with a PokeBall in hand, perfect for whatever he wanted to catch today. Wouldn’t his Ma be so proud of him if he managed to catch his very first pokemon all on his own? Provided he got back home before she did that is.
Mind made up (and with no one around to stop him) Vermilion glanced at the opaque glass of the greenhouse to make sure none of his Mom’s team was watching him, then vaulted over the backyard fence and embarked into the wilds beyond.
By this point, after 6 years of running around these woods in the name of the torture his mother passed off as training, Vermilion was extremely familiar with this part of the forest. Too familiar. He personally knew basically every pokemon that lived in this area and wasn’t particularly interested in catching any of them.
That wasn’t to say that pokemon like Buizel, Shellos, Starly, and Shinx weren’t good, but none of them really spoke to Vermilion. Plus, none of them had the right fire that was necessary to reach the heights of a Champion’s pokemon. He also just wanted to catch a pokemon that was distinct and grand. A Champion’s starter pokemon.
And the only place he would find a pokemon like that would be the deep woods, the parts of the forest furthest away from human contact that were much more wild and dangerous. Off route.
But Vermilion was confident in his ability to navigate the wilds, after all, he had survived 6 years of his mother’s tor- training.
Vermilion shivered at the memory of being thrown into the forest in just his skivvies and being told to survive for a week. Thank Arceus he had managed to find a Shinx that was friendly enough to help him start a bonfire by sparking the kindling.
It wasn’t particularly hard for him to reach the deeper sections of the Canalave Woods after just half an hour of hiking, the only real trouble he ran into was a pack of overly playful Buizel who wanted him to stick around. But with his Mom getting off from her part-time job at 5, Vermilion unfortunately didn’t have time to waste.
But once he did reach the beginning of the deep woods, Vermilion faltered. It wasn’t like there was any kind of clear demarcation where the deeper, wilder sections of the forest began, it was just an arbitrary line on a map drawn by humans.
Even during her ‘training,’ his Ma had never let him go this deep into the woods without some kind of supervision. But now, here he was, ignoring her guidance and diving headfirst into danger and adventure.
Vermilion grinned and made one giant leap over the invisible line between the forest he knew like the back of his hand and the unknown. He wouldn’t have had it any other way.
Vermilion’s search for a good pokemon to catch was long and both eventful & uneventful. He certainly saw a lot of pokemon that didn’t hang around in the areas of the forest he knew, but most he either had no interest in catching or would be in a lot of trouble if he did try to catch.
A Teddiursa had caught his interest, but the death glare that Mama Ursaring had shot him while the two gorged on berries quickly killed any notion of catching the teddy bear pokemon.
For a brief moment an Abra teleported directly in front of him, but before Vermilion could even think about throwing his Cherish Ball it had teleported away.
At one point he found a hive of Combee, but Vermilion had no idea how to tell males apart from females and didn’t really feel like catching a pokemon that wouldn’t be able to evolve.
He had even found an Inkay lazily floating through the trees, but Vermilion and Dark-types got along about as well as oil and water. That is to say, not at all. It had taken him years to get even slightly friendly with the two Dark-type pokemon his Mom had on her team. Even if he was going to be a generalist trainer, Vermilion couldn’t imagine a future in which he ever caught a Dark-type pokemon.
Eventually, Vermilion finally found a pokemon that he wanted to catch, a Gligar silently hanging from a tree branch while nibbling on some kind of berry.
Slowly, ever so slowly, Vermilion crept around the tree the flying scorpion pokemon was hanging from the branches of. After a good 5 minutes of slow and steady movement to ensure the pokemon didn’t notice him, the boy managed to position himself in a bush directly behind the Gligar.
As he reached into his pocket to grab the shrunken Cherish Ball, the Gligar suddenly rotated its tail to swing around 180 degrees and stared right at him, eyes going wide in fear. “Gliiii!” it shrieked in fright, immediately detaching from the branch and silently soaring away from Vermilion and his Cherish Ball.
“Huh, I wonder what scared it so-” a low snarling from the shadows behind him cut the boy off, “-oh.”
A familiar growling Mightyena stalked out of the bushes with its hackles raised. Behind him were several Poochyena who seemed equally hostile. The distinctive scar over the bridge of the Mightyena’s nose earned when he had tried attacking Vermilion in the past and been punched in the face by Agave so hard he went flying through several trees. But neither Agave, nor his Mom, nor the rest of her team were here right now.
Vermilion smiled nervously, standing up and beginning to slowly backpedal away from the aggressive pokemon. “H-hey there guys, how long have you been there? I don’t suppose you could wait until I catch-.” In the middle of his sentence, the boy whirled on the spot and took off sprinting away from the Mightyena deeper into the woods.
Mightyena’s snarl turned feral at the sudden flight of his prey, and he raised one of his paws. The late afternoon shadows swirled around the enraged pokemon, flowing up his raised paw and covering it in a Shadow Claw.
The Mightyena lunged and swiped his shadow coated claws as the boy barely dove out of the way, the attack instead leaving three large rents on a nearby tree. Quickly rolling to his feet, Vermilion shot off into a sprint a moment later.
“YYEEEENA!” the Mightyena howled behind Vermilion, furious that his prey had run, rapidly racing after the boy with his pack right behind him. Vermilion dashed past trees, trying to put as many obstacles between himself and the pack of hostile pokemon as possible. The Mightyena and his kin were clearly faster than the boy, but the large number of trees he kept strafing around kept them from properly catching him.
Adrenaline pumped through Vermilion’s veins as he thundered through the forest. Left, right, right, left, thwacked in the face by a branch, avoid stumbling on an errant root. Daring to risk looking back, Vermilion caught a glimpse of Mightyena shrouding his head in the white light of Normal-type energy right behind him.
He leaped to the side, barely avoiding the Headbutt that hit the skinny tree in front of him and pulverized it. The tree groaned and began to fall over as Mightyena paused for a moment to shake off the dizziness that came from using one’s head as an impromptu lumberjacking tool.
Vermilion didn’t waste the opportunity, dashing through the trees and into a tiny clearing with a berry bush in it. The boy smiled as he saw a pokemon laid on the ground eating the berries and changed course, sprinting straight towards it. He bolted forward, leaping over both the pokemon and the low-lying bush like an olympic sprinter and continuing his mad dash through the forest.
The Mightyena and his pack entered the small clearing just as Vermilion left it. “Mi!” the Mightyena barked angrily, readying to give chase once again. It was interrupted as the pokemon laying in front of the berry bush stood up and turned to confront them.
“Heeeeeeeeee!” The Heracross droned belligerently in its insectoid voice, its eyes narrowing in anger. Mightyena and his pack had just intruded on Heracross’ territory in the middle of a meal! Heracross and the Mightyena pack stared each other down, growling and droning back and forth, neither side willing to give an inch.
After several minutes of staring each other down, the Mightyena finally backed down, turning slinking away and leaving the Heracross to its food. The Poocheyena followed their leader back into the gloom, there was prey to hunt.
It was only after a couple more minutes of running for his life that Vermilion decided he had put enough distance between himself and the Mightyena and stopped. Almost all at once, the adrenaline that had been flooding through him cut off and he collapsed onto his butt, panting for air.
This wasn’t exactly what he’d envisioned for himself when he imagined catching his first pokemon, but it was alright. Vermilion could deal with this. He’d find a grand partner by the end of this and get back home before his Mom could find out he went ahead on his own and got angry at him.
Definitely.
As he caught his breath, Vermilion noticed a small cave entrance tucked in between several of the trees, almost completely hidden due to the roots and ivy that draped over its entrance. Surely if he wasn’t having any luck finding a good partner in the forest, the caves below it would have rarer pokemon to catch.
It wasn’t very hard for Vermilion to squeeze between the roots that strangled the entrance of the small cave, but once he entered he was fairly disappointed by what he found. It was simply a small stone chamber lacking any kind of tunnels leading to further progression underground. Based on the half eaten berries scattered around, it was probably also the home to some smaller pokemon like Pachirisu, Aipom, or Buneary, none of which Vermilion was particularly interested in catching.
But as Vermilion turned to leave the cave, a loud cracking noise rang out as a deep spiderweb of cracks spread out from the stone beneath his feet. The boy instantly went stock still, looking down fearfully and the cracks underneath him.
“O-okay! Okay,” Vermilion muttered to himself. “This is fine! Totally! Fine! I’m just gonna..” the boy gently took another step, “slo~owly walk back the way-” Vermilion was cut off as his second step caused the stone directly below him to crack and completely fracture. “Oh, shi-!” the ground fell away underneath him and the boy went plummeting into the darkness below. “-iiIIIIIIITTT!!”
Immediately following the instincts his Mom had beaten into him with her training, curling into a ball, relaxing his muscles, and trying to angle himself to land on his side. Then immediately failing to do so, only falling 15ft before impacting a sloped rock in complete darkness and tumbling head over heels through some kind of tunnel.
Vermilion tumbled head over heel down the heavily sloped tunnel, unable to stop himself and shouting expletives the whole way. Eventually the tunnel gained some illumination and opened up into a much larger chamber with flat ground, making Vermilion tumble forward into a perfectly uncontrolled front flip and skid to a stop in a magnificent faceplant that any judge would have rated 10/10.
When the world finally stopped shifting Vermilion was left in a dizzy and bruised heap on the cave floor. Just as the boy thought that everything had finally stopped spinning, he was assaulted with a heavy bout of nausea, just barely managing to prop himself up before he vomited his lunch all over the floor.
“Aww man,” Vermilion groaned weakly, collapsing onto his back away from the small pool of vomit. “I yakked on my birthday. Birthday yak.”
As he lay there on his back trying to endure the nausea, full body bruising, and the smell of his own vomit, Vermilion’s mind belatedly made the realization that despite having tumbled into a cave deep beneath the earth, the area was relatively bright and he could see. And now that he thought about it, the floor was way too comfortable to be made up of stone. After a few more moments of rest, Vermilion wearily dragged himself up into a sitting position and was blown away by the sight before him.
A completely subterranean desert of dry cracked dirt only broken up by large stone formations stretched out before him, the cavern so spacious that he could barely see the other end of it. In the center of this cave was the source of the light, a hill sized stalactite made up of a bright orange glowing crystal that illuminated the entire area. It didn’t just give off light either, the entire cave was shrouded in an extremely dry heat that was starting to make Vermilion sweat up a storm.
In the distance, he could make out dozens of pokemon that one would normally expect to see in a desert or savannah. Scores of Maractus, Torkoal, Mandibuzz, and many others roamed around the spacious cave with seemingly no care that they lived deep underground.
Vermilion soaked up the scenery and couldn’t help but whistle appreciatively, “They weren’t lying when they named this place, it really is pretty grand.” For his first (entirely accidental) foray into the Grand Underground, it was already living up to the hype that everyone seemed to be giving it.
Vermilion stood up and stretched, removing his sweater before the intense heat made it live up to its name and tying it around his head to keep the heat off it. The boy eyed the roaming pokemon and began heading toward them. It was time to catch himself a grand partner.
Vermilion sighed in annoyance as he laid flat on his stomach atop an uncomfortably warm rock formation, sweating his ass off. As it turns out, most pokemon who had never seen a human before were a bit skittish when one approached them for the first time and simply avoided him. Well, the Torkoal had tried to avoid him but wasn’t exactly fast enough to make that a reality. Regardless, Vermilion wasn’t really interested in a starting pokemon that couldn’t evolve.
So his solution had been to climb up one of the taller rock formations with enough space for him to lie down and hide on top of it, then simply wait for a pokemon to come to him with Cherish Ball in hand. Unfortunately it felt like it was easily 100 degrees in this cave, Vermilion didn’t have any water, and the only shade was cast by an extremely scraggly bush of withered berries on top of the rock that did nothing to hide the boy from the heat.
It was only after 15 straight minutes of slight heat induced delirium and the pondering of life choices that led him into this situation that a pokemon finally approached the rock Vermilion was perched on.
Vermilion tensed up and eyed the small quadrupedal pokemon as it unknowingly approached his hiding spot. It was a fairly small feline, with a short brown coat of fur broken up by more tan segments on it’s feet, face, ears, and tail. On its head a miniature mohawk of bright reddish-orange hair popped out along with it’s similarly colored nose.
But the best part was the look in it’s eyes, confident, defiant, and resolute; the same kind of look most of his Mom’s pokemon had in their eyes. Vermilion smiled, he had never seen this species of pokemon before. It was perfect.
Vermilion slowly readied his Cherish Ball, taking extra care not to drop it with his sweat slicked hands. The little feline pokemon’s confidant and measured stride closer to the rock the boy was hiding on dragged on his nerves, making the seconds drag by like hours.
As the pokemon got within striking distance and Vermilion prepared to throw his Cherish Ball, an annoyingly familiar growl from behind him made him stiffen. “There’s no way…” he softly muttered.
Out from the shadows of the rock he was hiding on top of came a gang of 4 Poochyena, growling up a storm. Had they tracked his scent all the down here after he ditched them with the Heracross?
“How deep of a grudge do they have against me!?” Vermilion hissed quietly to himself.
But there was something definitely wrong with this situation, such subservient pokemon as Poochyena would never enter such a completely foreign habitat unless they were following the orders of their pack’s leader. So where was that aggravatingly persistent Mightyena with the scar across his snout?
An errant paranoid thought had Vermilion quickly turning around to check right behind himself, only to silently sigh in relief when he didn’t see anything. Turning back to the Poochyena, it seemed that the scar-nosed Mightyena’s lackeys hadn’t noticed Vermilion this time, instead focusing on the small feline pokemon.
As the 4 canine pokemon fanned out and stalked toward the lion cub pokemon, Vermilion couldn’t help but think he had made the right choice in which pokemon he wanted to catch. Instead of cowering, backing down, or running away, the little lion stood it’s ground, defiantly staring down its enemies and preparing to fight even while greatly outnumbered.
“Litleo!” the little pokemon cried resolutely, not yielding in the face of the 4 snarling Poochyena who continued to slowly advance toward it.
As Vermilion sat back and observed the impending battle, he couldn’t help but feel guilty about this whole situation. On one hand, sitting back and letting the battle play out while remaining hidden would be an easy way to weaken the Litleo and make it an easy catch.
But… was that really how he wanted to catch his first pokemon?
Litleo wouldn’t even have been forced into this battle if Vermilion hadn’t accidentally lured the Poochyena down here. As Vermilion bit his lip and waffled in indecision he noticed a shadow moving out of the corner of his eye.
The scar-nosed Mightyena slowly slinked around the other side of the rock formation, creeping up on Litleo from behind! While the pack of Poochyena had been drawing Litleo’s attention, their leader had been preparing this sneak attack! Mightyena began lowering itself to pounce and its exposed fangs began swirling in Dark-type energy for a Bite.
Before he could even think, Vermilion was scrambling to his feet and throwing himself off the rock towards the endangered lion cub pokemon.
At the same time, Mightyena launched his surprise attack, snarling and lunging toward Litleo with a mouthful of Dark-type energy.
Litleo barely had time to look back in shock at the surprise attack before Vermilion landed in a forward roll right on top of him, scooping the small pokemon into his arms and attempting to dodge the sneak attack. Attempting.
The tips of Mightyena’s teeth clipped the boy's right leg, the concentrated darkness swirling around them shearing straight through his pants and the flesh underneath it. The glancing blow sent Vermilion’s controlled forward roll into another painful out of control tumble, careening him straight into a small boulder. As quickly as he could Vermilion sat up, turning to face the slowly looming Dark-types and assessing the situation.
While the lion cub pokemon was fine, several long bloody lacerations tore through the side of the boy’s pants and streaked across his thigh. Mightyena’s fangs dripped with blood, his blood, as he zeroed in on Vermilion and began snarling even harder.
“You okay, bud?” Litleo nodded tightly, looking up at Vermilion with wide curious eyes before glancing between the wounds on the boy’s leg and the new threat.
“This might sound a bit ironic coming from the guy who was just spying on you, but you’ve always got to pay attention to your surroundings. Dark-types love to fight dirty.” Vermilion clamped his hand on top of the wound to stem the bleeding, wincing as he did. “You think you can take them all on at the same time? Like I said, they fight dirty, there’s no way they won’t use their numbers against you.”
This time Litleo didn’t look away from his slowly approaching enemies. “Leo!” the lion cub pokemon responded with a resolute nod.
Vermilion wasn’t sure if it was because of the blood loss, but he could feel the temperature begin to ramp up even hotter around them.
“Good, ‘cause I don’t think it’ll be a pretty picture for either of us if you lose.” The little lion cub snorted in derision, raising his head high as he marched out of Vermilion’s lap to face the pack of Dark-types.
As Litleo strode toward his opponents, the Mightyena hung back while the 4 Poochyena continued to advance, slowly circling Litleo, growling and preparing to pounce. To the little lion’s credit he didn’t seem to be perturbed by the encirclement, instead staring down Mightyena while slowly sucking in a deep breath.
Mightyena shot first, howling to signal the start of the attack. “Mightye-!” “LEOOOOOOOO!!” The unexpected roar hit everyone like a wall of sound, causing Vermilion and Mightyena to flinch while the Poochyena who were in the middle of lunging all faltered and stumbled, clumsily falling to the ground.
Litleo didn’t waste the opportunity he had made, twirling on his feet and firing off a staccato volley of fiery embers from his mouth that swept over all 4 Poochyena. Litleo turned back to face the Poochyena between himself and Vermilion and began charging forward until the boy interrupted him.
“Litleo! Poochyena are cowardly by nature without someone to follow! If you take down Mightyena, the rest of them will run away!” Litleo briefly glanced to Vermilion for a split second before nodding and reversing course straight toward Mightyena. As Litleo began sprinting, white Normal-type energy began gathering on his head in preparation for a move.
But before Litleo could break out of the encirclement, the two Poochyena in between Litleo and Mightyena got back up. “P-poochy!” The slightly larger of the two cried, shaking themselves off and preparing to intercept the veritable feline rocket barrelling straight for their leader.
That Poochyena didn’t remain standing for long, Litleo slightly changing course and slamming the Headbutt he had been charging straight into the side of the already weakened Poochyena, sending the little hyena pokemon skidding to the ground. With Litleo’s momentum killed, the other Poochyena saw their chance, lunging forward with a Bite that was much weaker than its leader’s earlier sneak attack. But Litleo was much more agile than Poochyena expected, leaping back out of the way as a trickle of flames began leaking out of his mouth.
“Leoooo!!” Another barrage of Embers blasted straight into Poochyena and sending it to the ground as well before it could even cry out.
“Ye, Yena! Mightyena!” Mightyena barked out loudly with an aggressive growl. As Litleo began to resume his charge, the two Poochyena in between Vermilion and Litleo got back to their feet with their leader’s orders, rushing toward him with what little energy they had left.
“Litleo, behind you!” Warning the lion cub pokemon about the incoming sneak attack was all Vermilion could do to help.
Litleo whirled again, punishing the two hyena pokemon with a veritable stream of Embers that were definitely larger than the ones he had initially used to blast all 4 Poochyena. However the 2 Poochyena didn’t stop moving, despite their barely visible forms being constantly bombarded with embers the size of golf balls. Like they were being pushed along by some unseen force, the Poochenas broke through the torrent and dived toward the surprised Litleo, chomping down on both of his front legs.
However as a result of the Ember bombardment, neither Poochyena had the strength left to use Bite or any other move. They were so out of energy that as soon as they clamped their jaws around Litleo’s legs the 2 passed out. Litleo immediately began struggling to pull himself out of the Poochyena’s unconscious hold, but their jaws were locked around his ankles.
Vermilion’s eyes widened, “GET OUT OF THERE LITLEO!!”
Mightyena stood right behind Litleo, finally ready to attack! His snarling teeth were wreathed in so much shadowy Dark-type energy that they had become pitch black. Now Vermilion knew why Mightyena hadn’t yet joined the battle, he had been charging up this one Bite this entire time!
In the split second before Mightyena attacked Litleo glanced back at the larger hyena pokemon. Litleo made no movements to dodge, but the little lion’s eyes hadn’t lost their defiance and small flames danced around his snout.
“MIGHTY!!” Mightyena supercharged Bite plunged down and bit into Litleo’s back with cruel glee, shearing straight through muscle and flesh.
But Litleo did not fall.
The little lion did not even cry out in pain, instead the fires around his mouth began to blaze even harder. Seeing this, Mightyena tried to release his jaws from Litleo’s back and retreat, but he was too late.
“LEOOOOOOOO!!!” A vortex of flames shot out of Litleo’s mouth, hitting the ground and transforming into a raging pillar of swirling flames, encompassing Mightyena, Litleo, and the Poochyena who were still clamping their jaws around the lion cub pokemon’s leg.
Vermilion could do nothing but sit there in awe as the towering Fire Spin blazed so hard it began partially melting the dirt surrounding it. For a few brief seconds that seemed to stretch out like an eternity, the heat and light produced by the fiery tornado almost made the brilliant orange crystal that illuminated and warmed this cave seem pale in comparison.
As the seconds ticked by, the massive Fire Spin began to slowly lose momentum and cohesion. The flames no longer spinning quite so rapidly nor as high, eventually petering out and disappearing altogether, revealing the forms of two pokemon still standing despite it all.
Both Litleo and Mightyena were covered in numerous burns, missing large patches of fur, and struggling just to remain standing. But neither pokemon was willing to collapse first, the two just staring each other down.
Then, slowly, silently, Mightyena’s eyes rolled into the back of his head and he keeled over, collapsing into a heap on the fire baked earth.
“Holy shit!” Vermilion muttered in stunned disbelief, ignoring his wounds and awkwardly scrambling to his feet and limping toward Litleo as fast as he could. He barely managed to reach the small slightly melted crater that Litleo stood in time to catch the lion cub pokemon as he slumped over from exhaustion. “YOU DID IT! Hahaha, I knew you could do it!”
“Leo.” Litleo returned the boy's beaming smile with a small grin of his own and gave him a nod, then sucked in another deep breath. Despite knowing what was coming this time, Vermilion wasn’t able to shield his ears due to holding Litleo in his arms.
“LI-LI-LITLEOOOOOOOOOO!!” The lion cub pokemon let out one more spirited roar, making Vermilion’s ears ring and teeth rattle in the process.
“Ow.” Vermilion muttered and Litleo had the wherewithal to give the boy an apologetic look.
The Noble Roar lingered for several seconds, echoing off the walls of the cave and fading into the distance. Then there was a response, ““Pyrooooooar!!”” The second roar was quieter and distant, but was clearly the result of multiple voices overlapping each other.
Vermilion grinned, “Letting your family know you won?”
“Leo.” A proud smile decorating the little lion’s snout before a flinch of pain wiped the expression from his face.
“Shoot, don’t have a first-aid kit,” Vermilion frowned, glancing toward his own wounds as well. “Oh wait!” Vermilion limped over to the boulder he had conducted his stakeout on as fast as he could. “Hang tight here for a sec Litleo,” Vermilion said as he gently put the lion cub pokemon on his shoulder, making sure not to aggravate any of his injuries.
The boy awkwardly hobbled his way up the boulder, leaving a trail of blood on the stone as he did. After a few moments Vermilion finally reached the top and layed eyes on his prize. The bush was small, had almost no foliage, and the scant berries that were growing on it were tiny and withered, barely the size of marbles. But oran berries were still oran berries no matter their condition.
Vermilion snagged every berry on the bush, his bounty small enough to still fit in his hands, and sat down on the edge of the boulder’s face with his legs over the ridge. As he settled into a comfortable spot, Litleo awkwardly flopped into Vermilion’s lap, forcing Vermilion to quickly shift his legs so Litleo didn’t go tumbling off the boulder.
“Phew,” Vermilion sighed in relief, “it’d have been bad if you took a tumble with your injuries.”
“L-leo.” Litleo mewed thankfully, slowly taking a few careful steps to walk back into Vermilion’s lap.
Vermilion lowered his cupped hands in order to let Litleo get at the withered oran berries. The lion cub pokemon examined the proffered berries for a few moments with a critical eye before eating up the 3 largest and healthiest looking ones.
“Hmm,” Vermilion mumbled as he popped 2 of the berries into his mouth and began chewing, “taste isn’t as great compared to oran’s on the surface.” Litleo perked up, looking up to Vermilion with eyes full of undisguised interest. “What? Never been to the surface?”
“Le leo.” Litleo replied with a shake of his head, staring at the boy with expectant curiosity.
“Heheh,” Vermilion chuckled at the normally stoic cub’s adorable face. “Well I don’t mind telling you about the surface, but before I do it’d be best if we mashed these orans up into a paste and spread that on some bandages. Hmm, bandages, bandages… Oh~! Bandages!” Vermilion grabbed his old Venemoth bitten sweater from where it had been shading his head. “Aww man, this was my favorite sweater. But Ma always said the present’s more important than the past.”
Without a second thought, the young trainer began tearing his raggedy sweater into large strips of thin gray cloth. Vermilion quickly mashed up the rest of the oran berries into a chunky paste in his hands and coated what would be the inner layer of the bandages with it.
Litleo squirmed in the boy’s lap as he attempted to wrap one of the improvised bandages around the wound on the still bleeding wound on his back.
“Hey, what gives? We need to get you bandaged up to stop that bleeding.”
Litleo placed one of his paws on Vermilion’s leg and began gently whining as he looked at the wound the boy had gotten protecting him.
“Ah, this? Don’t worry about me,” Vermilion said, waving Litleo off as the little lion inspected his wound. “Thanks for thinking about me, but it's not nearly as bad as it looks. Besides, it would’ve left a bad taste in my mouth if I just let you get chomped by that Scar-nose’s sneak attack without doing anything. You’ve got it way worse anyway compared to a small scrape like this.
So we're bandaging you first, capiche?” Vermilion locked eyes with the little lion, his tone brokering no argument.
“Lit Le,” Litleo was the first to break eye contact, lowering his head and allowing Vermilion to begin wrapping his bandages around the little lion’s wound.
“Great job on saving both our butts,” Vermilion said as he carefully bandaged Litleo’s wounds. “And sorry, for accidentally bringing those mutts here to begin with. They were tracking me over a stupid grudge and you got caught up in it by mistake.” The boy paused briefly as he finished tying the impromptu bandage.
“My mistake.” Vermilion bowed his head deeply in apology, “I’m really sorry.”
With his head bowed so low, Vermilion completely missed the awe-struck look on Litleo’s face.
Vermilion raised head and gave Litleo a smile, “But you did a great job out there, you’re definitely going to become a really strong pokemon in the future.” Litleo silently preened at Vermilion’s praise.
“So,” Vermilion continued as he began bandaging his own wound, “you’re interested in the surface?”
“Leo! Leo!” Litleo nodded eagerly in response.
“Well, have you ever considered going up to see it for yourself?” Litleo nodded again, pointing with his paw to the closest wall of the cave. “What, were you already embarking on a journey to the surface?”
“Le Leo!” Litleo responded with an eager nod, maintaining a passionate gaze at the earthly firmament that encompassed his entire world.
“Y’know Litleo, I’m going to be leaving on a journey in a few days myself, a journey exploring the surface of the entire region we live in. And on that journey I’m going to fulfill my dream and become the Champion!” Vermilion paused, awkwardly looking down at the little lion. “..Ya do know what the Champion is, right?”
Litleo shook his head in refusal.
Vermilion sighed, “I guess that tracks, never been to the surface ‘n all. Well the Champion is the strongest pokemon trainer in the region, bar none! In order to become the Champion you have to beat the four strongest trainers in the region below the Champion as well as previous Champion! The current Champion, Miss Cynthia, is super duper strong and has never lost an official match, so no one thinks she is ever going to be beaten! But a dream would be worthless if you didn’t have to struggle to accomplish it!” Vermilion passionately clenched his fist.
“So that's what I’m going to do, go on a journey across all of Sinnoh to become the strongest pokemon trainer in the entire region! … and I want to know if you would be willing to come with me on this journey as my starter pokemon. To seek the strength of a Champion, to become the strongest, to see everything there is, together!
So, what d’ya say?” Vermilion finished with a slightly nervous lopsided grin on his face, presenting the Cherish Ball to Litleo. “Partners?”
Litleo stared for a moment at the thin cloth of the old sweater tied around the boy’s leg as it was rapidly dyed a shade of vermilion with his blood, then back to the hand outstretched to him. After a few moments of hesitation, Litleo silently reached out and tapped his paw on the Cherish Ball’s button and was sucked into it in a beam of red light.
Vermilion stared intently at the Cherish Ball as it weakly shook once, twice, then clicking and releasing a small shower of holographic sparkles, signifying a successful capture.
Vermilion let out a deep breath that he hadn’t realized he had been holding. Maybe it was the realization that he had finally taken his first step on a journey of a thousand miles, but the Cherish Ball felt a lot heavier in his hands than it had a few seconds ago.
The ball shook in Vermilion’s hands, snapping him out of his reverie. “Ach, sorry, let’s get you out of there.” he said as he thumbed the button on the ball and released Litleo back into his lap.
“Ah right, I got so swept up in the moment I never actually introduced myself propper.” The boy extended his hand to Litleo, “I’m Vermilion Okilani, future Champion of the Sinnoh Region.”
“Litleo.” Litleo said as he put his paw in Vermilion’s hand, allowing the boy to eagerly shake his little hand.
“Are you okay with a nickname?” Vermilion asked, “Because you’re not just going to be any old Litleo, you’re my partner.”
Litleo seemed to ruminate on the idea for a few moments as he licked off the berry pulp & juice that had been left on his paw by shaking Vermilion’s hand. Eventually he nodded his head, and turned his gaze to Vermilion with eyes full of anticipation, his tail twitching back and forth.
“Great! Hmmm, how about Grand? It’s the word they use to describe what your home is like; the Grand Underground.”
Litleo turned back taking in the sweeping vista of his homeland, his back straightening slightly as he did. Litleo nodded without turning his head away from the dry landscape dyed a slight orange by the light of a crystal sun.
“Then, it’s a pleasure to meet you Grand.”
The two lingered there for another moment, simply taking what would probably be the last good view both of them had of the spacious cavern that was Grand’s home for a long time.
“Alright, I think we can get to the surface through the Onix tunnel I came here through.” Litleo perked up at the mention of the surface as Vermilion scooped him up into his arms and slowly stood up.
“We’d better get out of here before Scar-nose and the bitey bunch wake up… or my Ma finds out I went into the Deep Woods without her.” Vermilion added as an afterthought.
“Until who finds out what now?” Vermilion went stock still, a chill racing down his back as he haltingly turned around like a rusty machine, hoping that the voice he had heard was just a heat induced hallucination. Unfortunately his prayers went unanswered when he saw his mother sitting right behind him. He almost wished it had been Mightyena this time.
“Well you look like you’ve had quite the adventure,” Cherry said with the barest hint of amusement in her voice. She had clearly just gotten off work from her part-time job as a gardener, still dressed in a dirty pair of drab olive green denim overalls, a white tank top, mud caked rubber boots, and a similarly drab bucket hat that kept her face in the shade.
“H-hehe…” Vermilion chuckled nervously, sweating bullets. “M-Ma! What are you doing here? I-I thought you didn’t get off work until 5.”
“Usually I don’t.” She paused to pull a Worry Seed cigarette out of her pocket and casually strike it with a lighter in her other hand. “But,” she continued with a wry smile, “after Hawthorne came to warn me that my only son had disappeared into the woods without a pokemon with him, I decided to take the day off early. So,” she gestured to Litleo as she blew out a cloud of smoke, “who’s this?”