These meetings exhausted me. When I first defeated the elite four in Kanto and became the first unified ruler of both Johto and Kanto, I was overjoyed. I'd made my family, my town, and my country proud. I'd subjugated Kanto and shown the supremacy of Blackthorn and by extension, Johto.
I cared little for that though. I wanted to be the strongest. Being champion of both regions showed that I was the undisputed best in both regions. Number 1. I was the dragon. I ruled over all.
I just never expected that being the ruler came with these meetings. I was fine with the rest of the responsibilities; showboating for the press, hunting down a few rogue elements that caught my eye and having battles here and there against the elite four or the rare challengers. The meetings were the only problem. Each region had two every month. Since I was champion of two regions, I had to deal with four of these every month. One meeting a week.
But it was finally coming to an end though. "Does anyone have any final concerns to raise?" The league president asked in that over enthusiastic voice of his. The meeting was finally over. I was about to stand up and strut out but then my brain caught up to my ears. Agatha said she had something to say. This was odd. No one raised additional concerns. It was a fucking formality. The other elites were also suitably shocked at this grievous faux-pas.
The president recognized her and sat back to allow her speak. "Oak is up to something again" She spoke in her nasally voice that grated on my ears. Of course, it had to do with Oak. The normally rational woman became a conspiracy theorist of the highest order whenever he was involved.
She was always sure he was planning something. She had something against the former champion, and everyone could tell. I had no idea what it was, but league gossip said she'd tried to start a romantic relationship with the man, but he had rebuffed her. That was the most logical theory on the matter though. There were lots of less logical ones.
Bruno chose to reply her. "And what has Oak done this time?" He asked in a soothing baritone. She clearly wasn't pleased at being patronized like Bruno was clearly doing but the fact that she seemingly ignored it to continue speaking about Oak told us how seriously she felt about this.
"He is using his son as some sort of agent. Some intermediary. Perhaps to come after the championship slot again. He might intend to rule over the region once more through his son"
I had to step in now. "What gives you this idea?"
"The boy. Have you seen him? I've watched his profile closely. He has developed too quickly to be without Oak's guiding hand. Firstly, he started his journey and was hospitalized shortly after. He lost his starter, a Growlithe but replaced with a Scyther. He also caught a pidgeotto within the week after leaving the hospital. That pidgeotto that he somehow managed to fully evolve in a week. He also challenged and beat Flint with only a single pokemon-"
"I'll stop you there, Agatha. He isn't the first gifted trainer to challenge the League. Oak's son or not, his development is nothing extraordinary and I shudder to think of how many privacy laws you breached to obtain this information" I had to end this madness.
"It's not just the growth though. Oak has gifted the boy a rare pokemon never seen in Kanto- A milotic. A pokemon he used to complete his second gym challenge on its own. Oak also expanded the boy's carry limit by claiming him as a research assistant. Surely, I'm not the only one that sees the signs?" She seemed to be begging at this point.
Bruno came to the rescue again. "Agatha. Oak might have shown more nepotism than ideal or expected from a man of his stature, but he has done nothing illegal. Surely a father can gift his child with a pokemon? We've all looked through the act that gave Oak his powers. It is well within his rights to appoint someone as a research assistant and to grant them an increased carry limit as well. No laws have been broken. No powers abused. What will you have us do?"
"Bar the boy from competition and expel him from the league" She replied petulantly. Even she could tell how ridiculous that sounded. "I can think of no other way of preventing Oak from the Champion's seat" She justified
What?
What did she just say?
Did she just insult me so?
My blood sang for compensation. My fury grew to great heights. I tempered it though. I had not gotten this far by giving into my instincts at the slightest provocation. I spoke then. I managed to keep my fury from my face but it shone through in my obvious. "Let Oak come. Let the world come. I am champion. No one will claim my seat. I am the strongest. Do not forget yourself and provoke my fury, Agatha"
Her face went pale at that. Good, she had woken the dragon. She was fortunate I did not decide to demand satisfaction for the insult she had paid me. The meeting was over at that. I had enough of this.
I got off my throne and stormed out of the room, my cape billowing behind me.
I got to my office in record time. Everyone in my way was wise enough to not be in my way by the time I got to them. I sat down for a bit and sunk into the meditation my grandfather had taught me to calm myself. I was a dragon. A dragon's rage burned hotter than the sun.
After an hour of meditation, and feeling calmer, I called my secretary to show me the videos of the boy's challenges. Luckily, she was able to understand my roar of 'Show me Oak's boy's battles'. If I had to clarify myself further, I'd have sacked her on the spot.
I watched his gym challenges with interest. It was interesting. That water type of his was sloppy with the dragon type moves it dared to use so carelessly. I sat back and felt anticipation roar in my bones. I wanted the boy to come. Let him come with his pokemon and see what a dragon was.
Speaking of pokemon though, his team was unimpressive. A bug, a common bird, and a unique water type. There'd be no joy in defeating an opponent like this. Oak might be helping him but clearly not enough. The old coot must have lost his touch. And then the perfect idea came to me. To pit my training methods against Oak. I never got to fight the old man before he retired, and he has been audacious enough to deflect my challenges since then.
I'd fight him through his son though. I'd defeat his greatest instrument handily to show my superiority and defeat his training techniques to show Blackthorn's superiority.
"Mercy" I called out. "Send the Charmander we received from the Valley to Donnell Oak. Flag it as a special gift from the champion himself. Tell him I await his challenge, where we shall pit our Charizards against each other".
When I finished with him, none would ever doubt me again.
As always, you can read the next one completely for free on Pa-atreon. Have a good day, folks.
Edit; Somehow forgot to open the next chapter. It's all fixed though
I spent the next day doing some good ol' R & R with my pokemon. We were on a time limit, but we had been making good time so far- 2 badges in a single week. The journey to Saffron would be quite a bit longer than every other flight I'd taken with Quicksilver. Looking at the map did convince me to stop at Lavender though. I needed a ghost type for good coverage, and it would be easier to grab one before then heading to Saffron than heading to Saffron and then doubling back to get one.
Enough future planning though. I needed to be in the here and now. It was bonding time. After that moment I didn't think of work or the future for the rest of the day. I swam, played, and lounged with my pokemon. I had Kisame carry me around the lake. Broly tried his hand at swimming and even Quicksilver got in the water when we pressured him enough. It was fun beyond my wildest expectations.
We went to bed smiling and happy. Their smiles were less apparent than mine, but I could feel their happiness clear as day.
The next morning, we left the center at first light. I got on Quicksilver and directed him towards Lavender town.
We took as straight a route as we could and got to Lavender after three hours. That was by far the longest flight I'd taken on Quicksilver's back. My body hurt. Who would have guessed that sitting down for three hours could qualify as exercise?
I got off the Speedster and returned him to his ball for a rest. After that, I went straight to the tower. There was no need to waste time checking in at the pokemon center. The tower was everything I expected and more. It was tall. Very tall. It was also old and creepy. It gave off horror movie vibes.
That's par for the course with ghost types though. I took a deep breath to calm my nerves and strolled in like I belonged. Oak had always told me, "Donnell, the most stupid thing you can do in the presence of a ghost type is show fear. They feed on fear. Do not make them view you as a meal".
I internalized that and walked in while saying to myself "I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." It's one of the few passages I could quote verbatim from a book, and it served me well.
I ascended past the first floor and turned on a flashlight since the natural light had long quickly disappeared. I pointed the light all around the floor and ascended to the next one.
I was on the fifth floor when I realized something had to be wrong. I purposely hadn't released Broly to ensure the inhabitants of this tower would be more likely to approach me. I still hadn't seen anything yet. It was like every pokemon in the tower had simply chosen to up and leave. I'd still check the rest of the tower though. My curiosity was peaked, and I would not be leaving this tower without either a ghost type or an answer to the question of where they all went.
It was when I got to the seventh floor that I received a hint of the answer to my question. There was a loud racket coming from the floor above me. It was so loud that I should have been able to hear it from outside the building. It was odd and probably had to do with ghost shenanigans.
I chose to release Broly at this moment. The noises upstairs practically guaranteed the presence of a ghast type. That's where I'd get my Gastly. Why a Gastly you ask? They have good type coverage. Being both ghost and poison types. I had neither of those on my team at the moment so this would cover a glaring hole.
I updated Broly on what was going on and had him prepare himself for anything. We made our way to the next floor, and I realized I was mistaken. The noise was actually coming from the floor above. That showed how loud it was.
We went up and were met with unadulterated chaos. It was pure insanity. Pokémon everywhere. It seemed to be some sort of battle royale. Everyone was fighting everyone. As I further into the room I saw even more and gained clarity. It wasn't a battle royale. The pokemon from the tower all attacking a single pokemon. It was a Dusknoir. An incredibly powerful one from what I could tell.
It was slapping around the rest of the pokemon in the tower. Teleporting using strange portals, deflecting attacks to other pokemon in the room. He was a storm within the storm of pokemon.
The only issue was he had clearly been doing this for a while. He was tired. He was flagging. This meant it was my time to intervene. I had Broly supercharge agility, and triple layer his swords dance before moving to engage the dusknoir. The other tower pokemon simply got out of the way and allowed Broly his approach.
The fight was short and brutal. If this pokemon had been at anything close to full strength, Broly wouldn't haven't stood a chance in hell. That didn't matter though. It wasn't at full strength. It was a tough battle, and I could see the small improvements Broly had made by adjusting his form from Bugsy's video. He had a lot to learn but he was getting there.
The dusknoir was skilled at teleporting around with those portals of his but Broly was relentless. Eventually, the dusknoir was knocked out and I captured it in a pokeball without wasting any time. The tower residents turned towards Broly and I the moment the Dusknoir was off the field. I simply raised up my hands to show I meant no harm and banished the little hints of fear that crept up to the edges of my mind.
I told Broly to follow and made a slow retreat while never taking my eyes off the pokemon.
I made it to the entrance of the tower with the feeling of eyes on me. I applauded myself for my expert control and my almost fell to my knees in relief.
I opened my pokedex to check the time since the sun seemed to have gone down a bit and I was horrible at checking the time with celestial bodies.
I was hit by a notification telling me there was an urgent package at the pokemon centre in lavender town wating for me. That was interesting. Who'd send me a package? And how'd they even know where I was. I only got here about six hours ago.
I wouldn't know till I got to the package though, so I hurried to the Centre. I hated surprises and I was incredibly curious.
The centre at lavender was a bit smaller than the ones in the bigger cities which wasn't much of a surprise. The centre was only built because so many trainers got their pokemon hurt while attempting to catch ghosts from the tower.
The hospital could treat some pokemon injuries but not the truly dangerous ones, much the same way the pokemon centre could treat some minor human injuries but not the most serious ones. They had their areas of specialization and stuck pretty close to it.
The Nurse at the desk took my trainer id and delivery passcode before handing over a non-descript box. I went to a corner of the entrance room and opened the box.
It contained a single box and a note. It read,
Oak,
Enclosed within the pokeball is a Charmander. It is a product of my own Dragonite and the strongest female Charizard in the Charific Valley in Johto.
It is yours to raise. I look forward to your challenge. Meet me at the top to match your Dragon against mine.
Signed
Lance
Champion of the Silver Pokemon League
Champion of the Indigo Pokemon League
What the actual fuck?
Lance?
Why the fuck was he sending me a pokemon. An offspring of his own Dragonite at that. What's with the part about looking forward to my challenge? What the fuck is going on?
I put all that out of my head and clipped the pokeball to my belt. I also kept the note. One didn't just throw out notes from the champion himself.
I left the centre just as I came in and got on Quicksilver. We'd be heading straight to Saffron and getting the last of the required three badges. I'd normally wait a bit longer, but the gym wasn't much of a challenge to be honest. I'd been watching the three-badge challenges and they were nothing to be worried about. A machoke, a heracross and a Hitmonlee.
The gym leader's techniques were all pure martial arts. He seemed to despise long range combat. I'd be pitting Broly against that team. Pokemon seemed to learn best by doing so he'd get his ass kicked a couple of fighting types to improve his own martial arts.
On getting to Saffron, I dropped Broly and Quicksilver with the local Nurse Joy and went off the bed. I'd set four alarms to wake up the next day, so it was no surprise to see that I was up by 6am. A full two hours before my challenge.
I took my time with taking a shower. I took two hot ones to be thorough. Bad for my skin but felt so good. I dressed up slowly and took my time with breakfast. I reclaimed my pokeballs from the nurse and head out to the gym. I ended up getting there about twenty minutes early.
After registering my presence and confirming my challenge, I sat down to wait. By exactly 8am, I was ushered into the arena. It shared a lot of similarities with a dojo floor. There were small platforms for the trainers to stand on and the field was bare.
The gym leader came out a minute after I did. Leader Lee was dressed in a white Gi with a black belt. The referee announced the rules and then then the leader released first. He released a Hitmonlee to the field. I simply sent out Broly and instructed him to go close range.
They engaged in a beautiful display of martial arts. With an objective eye, I could tell that Hitmonlee was more skilled by half, but Broly was so much tougher, faster, and stronger. I held off on the reflex to tell him to use swords dance or to get distance and spam signal beam. This was a learning opportunity after all.
Five minutes into the battle and the Hitmonlee couldn't keep up. Broly overwhelmed it and knocked it out in quick succession. The leader simply narrowed his eyes at Broly and released his next pokemon, a Machoke.
Oddly enough, he spent more time staring at my pokemon than his in this bout. Was he spotting some weakness? The pokemon fought for even longer and this machoke gave Broly even more of a challenge. He was getting better though; I could see it in real time. I wasn't a martial artist but where Broly could only land a single hit for every two of the Machoke's at the beginning, they were at parity at this point.
Eventually, tiredness decided the battle. Broly simply had less stamina than the well-trained fighting type. He slipped up and caught a hit from the Machoke. After that, it was a beat down. I let him get knocked out before I returned him though. Even a beat down could be a source of education.
Next, I released Quicksilver. He squawked his dominance and took to the skies instantly. The gym leader didn't say a word and the Machoke settled into a ready stance. This would be an interesting battle.