Viridian City Beginner Tournament
Steven and his pokemon walked into Viridian City on their 18th day on route 1, which was apparently a record according to Oak. Steven still did not understand how other trainers took so long on this small stretch. He had done everything he could on this route 3 times over and he and team were honestly a little bored atm. When he got to the small city he and his team looked around the small city. The place was much livelier than in the game Steven had played, but steven had to remember that this was no longer a game, this was his reality now. As they got closer to the pokemon center they noticed a sign sitting outside it that said, "Viridian City Beginner Level Tournament, Tomorrow 12pm".
Now this was interesting enough for Steven, maybe he could find a good challenger here even in the beginning, but that would have to wait for tomorrow. This would also let him scope out the competition and see how well his team is learning in their individual specialties. Steven and his team all pretty much had the same thoughts on the matter, this was a chance to get stronger and they shouldn't miss out on this chance. Steven specifically wanted Prince to learn how to use his fairy type moves in the arena with other challengers, this should help him even if it's a little bit. As soon as Steven walked into the pokemon center he almost got knocked over by a young boy around his age, but steven stopped moving forward just in time and smoothly sidestepped the young boy. The young boy almost fell over in astonishment when he saw Steven pull off this flawless dodge with almost no effort, or at least that what it had looked like to him. Steven returned all his pokemon to their pokeballs and took out a small piece of paper, walked up to the counter and handed both the pokeballs to nurse joy as well as the piece of paper.
"Oh?" said the nurse joy attendant when she received the letter, and as she looked over the note she chuckled and said." Not a problem young man! Lets see, your pokemon are currently at 56% health or above, the least being the one labeled 'Prince' in your registry here". The nurse joy took their pokeballs and hooked them up to the machine and turned it on, after it beeped and played a small little jingle the machine indicated that it was done. The nurse joy then took the pokeballs and handed them back to Steven as well as the piece of paper and said," We hope to see you again!" This entire thing was watched on by the young man as well as some of the other people in the pokemon center.
Steven then wrote on the back of another piece of paper "How do I join this tournament?" and handed it to the nurse joy once more.
"Oh my, another one? Hm.. Oh! Your interested in joining the tournament?" The nurse joy asked Steven to which he nodded his head in confirmation. Technically wanted to destroy the competition but him joining it would be the same thing so it was basically the same thing. "Ok! All you have to do is fill in this registry form, a lot like the one you made yourself, just these parts, like species, type, and gender. Steven did as requested, filling out the form in front with little to no emotion on his face, but truthfully he was giddy. This was afterall his first tournament, his first thing in this world that literally was a challenge. Steven knew that after getting first place he would earn some big reward so he was planning to go all out, afterall the more fame he had, the more easily he might be able to snuff out team rocket once and for all. Nothing scarier than to be told your death is literally chasing after you at all times.
Steven then asked her for a room and was told that the center had a room on the left side that could accommodate only humans and small sized pokemon, so anything bigger than miltank was not allowed. This wasn't a problem for steven as all of his pokemon were still small and so he could have all of them out in the center. The team went into the room to rest and have a good meal in the centers cafeteria. Little did steven know that entrance earlier had made quite the impression on the young man and this young man would be the one who starts steven fame, he start everything here, before the tournament even began.
"Nurse joy, what did that paper say on it? Why did he not even talk to you? It seems rather rude to just come in and think you own the place!" The young man boasted off, completely unaware of the situation he was putting himself in,"I mean, just who is this guy?"
Nurse joy simply responded," Yes sir, his note said he is a new trainer on his journey. He has spent 18 days on route 1 doing training and he wanted to know what health his pokemon were currently at. As well it also said that he had a disease that made him mute and he apologize for the inconvenience. Overall he was really nice" the nurse joy said these last words with a little bit of spite in her voice which made the young man shiver, releasing he had been very wrong.
"Wait, nurse joy?" A nearby trainer asked nurse joy," you said that he crossed ALL of route 1 within 18 days? Don't trainers usually take around a month?" the young trainer hesitantly asked, not wanting to get on nurse joys bad side. This was this trainers case as well as it had take 37 days for her to cross route 1, and she really hadn't fought with pokemon as she was just trying to get to viridian city for the tournament. Surely 18 days was impossible!
Nurse Joy looked at her and said,"I am unsure if it true, however he said 18 days on his note, he also said that he wanted to know the health of his pokemon in terms of percentages because he had not used a potion yet". The instant she finished what she said the center was in an uproar, if what he was saying was true it would be the first time in history that someone had done it. This night was the first night that people would learn of the "mute god".
–next day–
Steven and his pokemon all woke up at 8am as they usually do and they spent the morning near the border of route 1 and the city. Steven could've just waited until the tournament started but he felt that a light workout would be the best for him and his pokemon, so they were doing their usual drills now. Light workout might be a bit of an understatement to any other trainer if they witnessed Stevens training but to him and his pokemon it really was just a workout. After a little over 2 hours Steven and his pokemon walked over to the clearing where the tournament was being held and waited for his name to be called. He currently did not have his pokemon out of their pokeballs as he wanted each of his pokemon to be a mystery, every pokemon would infuriate more opponents. Hopefully the finals would be good match for steven and his pokemon, he knew that his pokemon were really starting to crave a true challenge, something that would make them have their back to the walls, and steven thought that maybe they could get it here. Steven waited until the announcer took the stage in front of the 32 tournament challengers and started the tournament by saying,"Welcome to the Viridian City beginners tournament! I am your announcer Goffry!" the announcer said in a loud and very vocal tone. "Today our competition has a special guest, please welcome our sponsor for this tournament, Sir Aaron!"
The instant the announcer stopped talking a man with black hair and wearing black and blue clothes came out from behind a curtain, waving as people cheered. Steven was shocked to say the least, this truly felt like the universe was showing him how to get stronger! Steven knew that Sir Aaron was an Aura Guardian, and that Aura was something similar to sound waves and it could only be harnessed by gifted humans, and the lucario species. How far the general population knows about Sir Aaron was Steven needed to know at this current moment, so he was closely to the people around him as they gossiped about Sir Aaron.
"He defeated that rampant Rhyhorn!"
"He stopped the team rocket invasion of the seafoam islands!"
Steven was listening to all the people in the crowd and realized that Sir Aaron was most likely using his Aura powers to help the kanto and maybe even Johto region with its crime and disasters with pokemon. This was good for Steven as now Sir Aaron was in front of him, maybe he could learn aura from him if he performed well enough in the competition. The announcer continued,"Sir Aaron has sponsored us with the grand prize and the runner up prize as well! For the runner up prize, 1 ultra ball, 10 great balls, 30 pokeballs, and 10 potions!" This made the people in the crowd go crazy as this was like a godsend of equipment for new trainers, however this was not much to steven who basically had unlimited funds from professor oak. "The Grand Prize is the runner up prize as well as all 3 evolutionary stones! 1 fire, 1 water and 1 thunder!" Once again the trainers cheered, this would be a fierce competition for sure.
The announcer then organized the trainers on a board at random and put trainers together in pairs on a giant electronic board that would show the estimated amount of health a pokemon had. Stevens' first opponent was a young girl named chelsey. They then battled in turns, so Steven and his opponent had to wait for the others, while they watched the other battles he got to scout the potential trainers he might go up against in the finals and semifinals. Steven immediately noticed 2 teams, the first person looked to have a poochyena, a marill, and a mareep, so a diverse team that incorporated other regions. The second was zubat, geodude, and an aron, and it seemed like this trainer was using a switch tactic where he would defend with geodude and aron and then confuse and attack with zubat. These two were the only ones that steven saw with enough potential to give him a challenge. Next was his fight against his trainer opponent, and the announcer told them to release their first pokemon.
Steven released Smoker and the opposing trainer released a mankey, so Steven immediately knew that either this was a recent catch from the neighboring route or that this trainer lived in this town. Knowing that most trainers start out at professor oak, he bet that although the mankey might seem stronger in comparison to what you would normally have, relying on a fresh and green pokemon that didn't know the competitiveness of trainer battles was a bad idea. "Begin!"
Smoker jumped forward the instant the words rang out, running literal laps around the mankey. Smoker waited for the mankey to do something but he was too confused and couldn't effectively attack Smoker. Smoker just kept using ember over and over and after about 5 embers the mankey fell. The young girls sent out a caterpie next, and smoker simply hit it twice with the same ember strategy and easily won. The young girl was out of usable pokemon so steven had won his first tournament round. Steven was glad Smoker could do it but he was a little disappointed it lasted only as long as it did, but quickly got over it as he knew there would be more trainers to fight coming up.
–Announcers pov–
"Begin!" he said into the microphone, the instant he said the words out the growlithe on the field instantly shot down the mankey with 4 to 5 embers, which caused the announcer to stop announcing as he was stunned. Normally he was supposed to announce things as they happened in the battle but he was so stunned by instant K.O. that he couldn't say anything. The other trainer sent out a caterpie, which was then instantly K.O.'d after 2 hits with the same exact strategy. He was stunned that such a trainer who should be a beginner was easily mopping up this other trainer with such a simple but effective strategy. "U-umm… Oh! The winner Is Steven from pallet town!" He had lost his cool but he wouldn't lose it again, he had standards as a professional in his field.
~Top 16, Steven round 2~
This time I will announce properly! The announcer thought to himself as he was determined to get it right this time, there would be no more screwups. "Begin! Mary releases an oddish and Steven releases a ralts! Woah and his is a different color than normal! Ralts launches a psychic attack at the oddish! Oddish is confused, ralts has run and used hypnosis on the oddish! Ralts has eliminate the Oddish with another confusion! Mary send out mankey! Ralts repeats the tactic of Stevens growlithe from before and is circling the mankey! Oh! Mankey is down in one shot from confusion from ralts! The opposing trainer didn't even get to to make a move!" The announcer was watching and talking about it as it was happening but even he was amazed at the elite way Stevens pokemon were performing. There was no way that this should be possible, even with better type advantage, to have this much of a skill gape was simply too insane!
–Steven Pov–
Steven was actually starting to get bored again, but now he was in the top 4 and one of his potentials was coming up, the switcher he had seen earlier. Steven had seen him lead off with zubat every single time in his other matches so he would obviously start off with growlithe, he was going to trap it in fire. Steven had not yet revealed his bagon yet and he was starting to worry she wouldn't get to see any action in this tournament, which was worrisome as she was the most excited about this time to fight others. She was a natural born fighter as dragon type, but she took it a step further and was always super happy to train and fight with the others, she really enjoyed fighting.
"Begin!"
Steven sent out Smoker and as expected the zubat was up first, so steven thought to Smoker,'Fire spin three times, make every fire spin a little bit bigger than the one before, jump through the fire at different intervals and use bite whenever you see an opportunity!' Steven commanaded to Smoker in his mind. Smoker actually did something that was new to steven, a debuff tactic, Smoker used leer to start off the battle.
"Growlithe has used Leer!" Said the announcer as growlithe used the move. Smoker, while the zubat was backing in fear of another leer, used Fire spin while running in random direction to not get caught by a confuse ray. "Oh My folks! Growlithe has used Fire spin! Whats next from zubat?!"
The other trainer yelled out."Zuzu! No! Get out of there!" but it was to late by the time he finished his command Smoker had already set up a second fire spin, and was working on a third.
"Growlithe has used a second fire spi- wait no! He's going for a third! What is Steven thinking?! Fire spin does not cause direct damage!" the announcer said as he talked about the match. Smoker got closer to the fire spins he had set up and ran around the edge, then suddenly ran into it and emerged from the other side. He then walked back over to Steven as everyone stood quietly. The fire spin stopped and the zubat appeared on the ground, fainted and out of the battle. "Oh my! Folks, I have never seen such an amazing strategy for a battle quite like the one we just witnessed!"
"I forfeit!" the trainer suddenly shouted
Steven was disappointed, he knew that this strategy was most likely all the boy had thought of for this tournament which was why it never changed. He had nothing else, so why even bother was the mentality of this young trainer. "We have our first Grandfinals contender!" The crowd that was watching the battle ooh'd and ah'd at all the battles but only Stevens battles showed them what a good trainer truly was, what it meant to be at the top.
–Grand Finals–
Steven stood opposite the other trainer on the field and for the first time in the tournament offered his hand as a sign of respect. The crowd went wild as this meant that Steven, who had been totally obliterating his opponents pokemon was going to get serious this time! The Crowd was cheering louder than they had before, pushing on each other to get a better view. Almost half of viridian seemed to be here to witness this, even a band from the local highschool had come as a music for the fight. Nobody knew why, but something seemed to be pulling them in, telling them to come closer, that they had to see this battle, no matter what.
Unlike the rest of the rounds the first pokemon are to be released at the same time and only after 5 seconds does the match begin. Apparently this was to help with people trying to cheat the system and get a free hit before the battle technically begun. "Now, Ladies and gentlemen i present to you a battle of Stevens! In the west side we have a competitor who has not taken a single hit of damage this entire tournament! We have Steven Morgenz!" the announcer said as they crowd only got louder. " And on the east side! We have another Steven contender, hailing from the hoenn region, its Steven Stone!" to this the crowd all burst into screams as steven stone was a dreamy young man that alot of young girls wanted.
Steven was frozen, what did the announcer just say? Steven Stone? As in the champion Steven Stone? The person in front of him was a young man only a year or two older than him, does that mean that chronologically, pokemon generations are a time line? Steven would have to think all of this over later, he had a match to win. He released Queen while the other Steven released his marrill.
After a suspenseful 5 seconds until the announcer shouted into the mic,"Begin!!!". -authors note, steven stone will be called "stone" from now on when these two are in the same scenes–
Stone said."Water Gun!" right off the bat. Queen dodged easily and threw an ember at the marrill, the marrill did not dodge so easily and was hit by the ember but was not seriously hurt. Stone then said,"Marill! Use tackle to get close and use water gun again!" The marrill did as it was told and jumped forward with a tackle as normal energy enveloped it body, but right as it got to Queen, she simply sidestepped the marrill. Marril, who was going a little to fast could stop in time and kept going past Queen, but fortunately Queen reacted quickly and after she dodged the tackle she used bite on the maril who was still trying to stop. Marril cried out in pain but Stone called,"Marill! Nows your chance! Use water gun!!" Marrill used water gun on Queen, which sent her flying. Marril was happy for a moment before Queen leered at her behind the sand she had kicked up upon landing, maril was now really scared and fainted after the ember that had hit her earlier finally kicked in its burn and knocked it out.
Stone called poochyena and said," Quick attack, then bite!" Steven simply told Queen,'I'll leave the battle to you, have fun Queen.' to which Queen smiled and grinned at thought of having new friends to beat up, Queen leaped forward at the Poochyena that was trying to perform a quick attack. Poochyena jumped back in surprise when Queen practically appeared beside in a matter of moments, and Queen used ember which caused the poochyena to squeal but before he used bite on Queen foot which cause her to flinch in pain. But Poochyena was now also out for the count as well. Stone looked at the pokeball in his hand and silently said to it,"I'm counting on you buddy. Go! Mareep!" Stone sent out a mareep, which was an electric type, and even Steven had not seen him use this pokemon yet, so clearly this was his ace at the moment.
"Mareep! Use thundershock!
Queen had never battled an electric type so it was natural that she wound't think to dodge the attack but nonetheless she was hit hard by the thundershock and as she was getting up she was grinning from ear to ear. Queen was a true battle junkie, someone who could be losing and still enjoying the fight was someone you did not want to fight. Queen used dragon dance as the announcer said,"WOAH!! My goodness did all of you see that?!" he said as the crowd screamed "Steven!!". Who they were cheering for was not clear but the energy was becoming more and more energized as the crowd got more into the battle."Morgenz has been lethally stuck by mareep! How will steven- oh my goodness! Morgenz' Bagon has used dragon dance!" the announcer yelled into the microphone.
Even with only one dragon dance set up, queen was now too fast for the poor mareep to track and after a back and forth thundershock and ember battle where neither side got any hits, queen finally secured the victory. The crowd's cheers got infinitely louder when mareep hit the ground with a thud and the announcer yelled out," That's it folks! Steven Morgenz has officially won the viridian city beginners tournament!"
The announcer went up to steven and held up his hand in recognition of his victory but although was happy with the victory nobody here had even really gave him pressure. Steven stone is the only one that gave him a challenge with his mareep and that was mainly because they had never face an electric type before. Steven reached another one of his notes out of his left pocket and then pulled on the sleeve of the announcer. "Give it up f- huh?" the announcer said in confusion then saw the note steven was trying to give him.'
The announcer took the note and started to read and then his face went as he continued reading and he looked back at steven and asked,"This is a joke right?" to which steven shook his head no in confirmation. The announcer after a brief pause held the microphone in his hands and passionately starting speaking," My goodness folks, I have a request from the trainer who was just won the tournament and if everyone agrees we will have a once in a lifetime opportunity to witness greatness!" The announcer was talking and people stopped cheering more and more and started t get confused but the speaker continued anyways,"The challenger has a disease that prevents him from being unable to speak directly to others using his voice and has handed me a note, which i will read word for word for you all now! My name is stevens morgenz and I a really strong, too strong and my pokemon are the same way, I want me and my pokemon to be pushed into a real challenge so i will be giving up my grand prize in 3 separate chunks for every pokemon of mine that is defeated." The crowd was confused but were starting to grow anxious, this couldn't be, could it? Were some thoughts rolling through the crowd. "If I win instead of the prize i received i would like to ask sir aaron to grant one wish of mine!" After his name was mentioned he looked on at the citation a little closer. "I wish to initate a gauntlet with every trainer here! Every trainer release all your pokemon at once! My 3 will take out all of them! Give me a real fight!" Everyone in the crows went beserk. Every trainer on the field released their pokemon, steven released his other two pokemon. The crowd was going crazy on the sidelines and didn't seem to be getting any quieter. The announcer said," well sir aaron, what do you think?" to which sir aaron nodded his head. " Well then, lets begin!" The gauntlet had begun.