That night I slept terribly. More nightmares continued to haunt me like an unending wave of torment. In my dream, I was in an unfamiliar location, looking at a strange yet familiar man that had blonde hair that stretched wildly behind him in three points, the tips of his hair being white. His eyes were... gray, just like my mom and I. He even had the same bangs that covered his left eye. The striking resemblance that he had to the two of us was honestly unnerving.
He wore a white shirt that hung more loosely on one side. A gold belt wrapped around his torso. On his arms, he had two identical gold wristbands. On both hips, a golden accessory that looked like shuriken were strapped to them. He wore green cargo pants, and his boots were white and—unsurprisingly—gold.
The thing that truly brought chills down my spine was the necklace he wore. It had the same teardrop-shaped ornament that resembled the ornament that my mother bears on her coat. I didn't know who this man was, but I could tell I had some sort of connection with him.
He was standing in something that looked like a temple with cracked pillars strewn around it that resembled spears. The temple itself was made out of some white stone that could have been marble. Even though I'd never been here before, I somehow knew that it was located in the Sinnoh region. The architecture was definitely from Sinnoh.
The blonde man had a fierce grin full of malice and unbridled madness. He pointed at me—or at least, it seemed like he was pointing at me. I figured that he was pointing at someone else.
With a shout of anger, he said, "—strike them down!" I could not make out the first word he said.
A shadow loomed over him, casting the temple with darkness that caused me to shiver with fear. Behind him, a sound reminiscent to shattered glass reverberated through the air, cracks in reality forming, spreading after each heartbeat. Suddenly, a pokemon burst out of the shadowy portal, towering over the man. With a start, I realized that it was the same pokemon that saved me that day. Just like before, I could only make out the silhouette, but I knew for a fact that it was the same one.
But why was it filled with bloodlust? I felt its desire for destruction—the sickening, disturbing feeling was palpable. It was the same pokemon for sure, but why did it seem so... evil? Why did it save me if it was evil? Convoluted conundrums seemed to present themselves each passing day.
Without warning, the shadowy pokemon released a mass of shadows, stretching until the entire dream was completely submerged into the shadows, engulfing me in a chilling embrace that froze my entire being.
Three booming words rang in my head.
"I await you."
I woke up with a start, my neck prickling with cold sweat. I gasped for breath, wincing as the sun's radiance blasted my eyes. Suddenly paranoid I looked around as if the shadows of that mysterious pokemon were about to spawn from nowhere and swallow me whole. To my relief, nothing of the sort happened.
With shaky breaths, I checked my Rotom Phone, seeing that it was morning. Eevee's ears perked slightly as she woke up, her eyes opening slowly. With a cute yawn, she arched her back like a Purrloin, stretching to ease her morning stiffness. Opening her eyes completely, she looked at me and smiled. "Eevee!" she said, and I knew that she was saying Good morning in her language. It was strange that she could understand me perfectly, but I couldn't understand her—I had to guess what she was trying to tell me unless I read her body language or just simply guessed.
Easing my worries, I rubbed her head, "Good morning, girl. Slept well?"
"Vee!" she said as she enjoyed the rubs, nodding her head as she did. That caused me to smile.
A stir of movement next to me caught my attention. I turned my head to look at it and was surprised to see that Ralts was there. She must have come out of the pokeball at night.
She sat up, yawning, and then looked at Eevee and I. "Ralts," she said.
"Good morning, Ralts. Did you get lonely in that ball?" I asked.
"Ral," she said affirmatively.
"Sorry for not taking you out much," I apologized.
"Ralts," she smiled. I chuckled and rubbed her head as well.
"Alright, let's get going. We got to wake Trinity; we need to head to Mount Moon."
I climbed down the stairs of the top bunk, stopping on the penultimate step so that Ralts and Eevee could land on my shoulders. When I fully got down, I looked at Trinity, who was sleeping peacefully on the bottom bunk. Her cherry red hair streamed over her face like a scarlet blanket, her emerald eyes hidden from her closed eyelids. She was curled into a ball, hugging Pikachu as the two slumbered. Her Ralts was on top of her.
With caution, I poked Trinity softly on the forearm. "Come on, Trin, you gotta wake up."
With a groan, she stirred, but kept her eyes closed as if refusing to wake up. I continued to shake her, but her sleep remained steadfast, causing me to grit my teeth. Eevee and Ralts tried to wake her, but to no avail.
Then, with a malicious grin, an idea popped into my head. With my fingers, I tickled Pikachu's cheek pouches, causing him to laugh in his sleep, electrical sparks shooting from them. After a bit more tickling I quickly retracted my hand. An electric shock came out of Pikachu, lightly shocking Trinity and Ralts. With a start, they instantly woke up.
"Hey, Pikachu!" exclaimed Trinity as she fought her urge to yawn. "What was that for?"
"Pika?" Pikachu's eyes opened and he looked around innocently.
"Ralts," her Ralts growled, clearly unhappy that his rest was disturbed.
Trinity sighed, "Nevermind, it's fine." She yawned and stretched, exposing a bit of her flat stomach.
It took them a moment to realized that we were looking at them. They flinched slightly, realizing that they didn't hear me. Ralts, Eevee, and I all stood silence as we watched that scene unfold, struggling not to laugh.
"What?" asked Trinity with a frown, "why do you all have that face?"
"...Nothing," I said, snickering slightly. "Right, guys?"
"...Vee."
"...Ralts."
They were also struggling not to burst out with laughter.
She glared at us and sighed. "Nevermind. Good morning, guys."
"Morning, Trin."
"Eevee."
"Ralts."
They bid good morning to Trinity as well.
"Right, let's get ready," Trinity said, though her faintly flushed cheeks were not lost on me. She was clearly embarrassed about what happened.
"Yeah," I agreed. Then we promptly started to gather our belongings, before leaving the room, our pokemon on our shoulders. When we made it to the main lobby, we heard a familiar voice.
"You can heal pokemon, but you can also heal my heart! Our bliss will pierce the heavens when our love blossoms—" the person was interrupted as a blueish-white flash of light shot from his belt. I realized that it was Brock. He was on his knees, holding Nurse Joy's hand with both of his, hearts in his eyes, flirting with her.
Then suddenly, a pair of glowing purple fingers poked his ass with tremendous force, nailing him with a move that I assumed was Poison Jab, but in my eyes, it was fit to be called...
A THOUSAND YEARS OF DEATH!
Whichever pokemon did that has mastered the secret jutsu for sure.
Doubling over with comedic pain, Brock squealed like a girl and fell down, being dragged away by a pokemon. I finally looked in its direction.
The pokemon in question was dark ultramarine-blue and bipedal. Its eyes were yellow, which were surrounding by black markings. Its cheeks had orange, expandable pouches, and its teeth were wide and flat. A black marking encircled its upper arms and chest, and white bands laced around its chest. It had three fingers and toes, most of which were black. The only digits that weren't black were its center fingers, which were instead orange. Its face was full of methodical disappointment as it dragged its trainer away.
Brock, on the other hand, was comedically crying as he was hauled away. When he noticed us, his tears instantly disappeared. He waved his hands, suddenly cheerful. "Oh, hey Trinity! Vali! How are you guys?"
The two of us looked at him blankly. How did he go from being horribly depressed to being exuberant? It was as if he had two modes: flirty and normal. It was kind of funny.
The pokemon looked at us, and then proceeded to drag Brock toward us.
"Croag," it said in greeting, letting go of Brock.
Our pokemon returned the greeting.
"Eevee!"
"Pika!"
"Ral, Ralts."
"Ralts!"
Brock brushed himself up and stood up, grinning at us. "How are you two?"
"Doing fine," I answered. "Unlike you."
Brock flinched.
"Jeez, you really are a hopeless romantic," Trinity shook her head.
Brock started comedically crying again.
I patted him on the back, "Don't worry, buddy, you'll find someone soon."
His tears disappeared and he grinned again, giving me the Thank you, homie look. "Thanks, bro!"
I chuckled while shaking my head. "So, what are you doing here?"
"I was helping Nurse Joy move some boxes and then I saw for the millionth time how pretty she was, so naturally I confessed my undying love to her—"
His pokemon once again stabbed him in the ass with Poison Jab, making Brock fall on the floor again.
Nervous sweat fell from my head. I took out my Rotom Phone and pointed it at the pokemon.
"Croagunk, the Toxic Mouth Pokémon. Croagunk has poison in its cheeks and can spray poison from its fingertips. It also makes noise by expanding its poison sac."
"Wait, poison?" Trinity said with widened eyes.
"Fuck," I said simply.
As if on cue, Brock's skin turned purple, his skin bubbling as poison pervaded it.
Without any worry, Croagunk reached into his Brock's pouch and pulled out an item that looked like an antidote. He sprayed it on Brock, whose skin went back to its original coloration.
"Not again," he groaned as he stood up.
"There was nothing be worried about, then," I deadpanned.
"This probably happens a lot," Trinity agreed.
Croagunk looked satisfied, as if his work was done, then he touched his pokeball and returned back inside of it.
Brock sighed. "Tenth time this week? I think."
"Tenth time? What the—" I shook my head "—Yeah, I'm just not going to question it."
The TV in the lobby caught my attention. I glanced at it and I inadvertently clenched my fists.
"—World Monarch Ash Ketchum once again claims victory! This is his tenth exhibition match this month and he remains victorious!" the reporter said. "And here is his ever-present Pikachu, his ace in the hole."
The news channel showed Ash Ketchum, the champion of the world, and his partner, Pikachu. Ash was a short guy with spiky black hair tucked under a red hat, brown eyes, a white shirt under an open sleeveless blue jacket, dark blue shorts, and dark blue shoes. He was the best trainer in the world, the number one, the underdog who rose to the top, the very definition of legendary.
And I despised him.
My private nickname for him was Ass Ketchup.
I know it was petty to say, but he was the reason as to why my mother became so neglectful, unintentionally or not. Him winning was the reason why she didn't retire.
Am I saying that he should have lost? Nah, but like I said, it's petty.
Let me talk about his track record. He lost, like, what? Six Pokemon Leagues in a row? SIX! How the hell do you lose six leagues in a row? And most of his league losses were ridiculously stupid. When he participated in the Indigo League, he lost to some dumbass name Ritchie who also had a Pikachu. After that, Ritchie was never seen again.
That wasn't even the worst loss, not by a long shot. When Ash battled in the Sinnoh League, he fought some stupidly powerful guy named Tobias who had pokemon that literally nobody had ever seen. They were so ridiculously overpowered that Tobias pretty much destroyed everyone in the league with one pokemon. The only guy who managed to knock out any of his pokemon was Ash, who would have probably won if Tobias wasn't there. Tobias had bullshit on his side—he had cheats or some crap like that. Mans had action replay on deck. How the hell did he get such overpowered pokemon? Want to know what's worse? He straight up disappeared after the league. He didn't even challenge the Elite Four or my mom—he literally vanished. Nobody knows who he is or what happened to him.
That still wasn't his worse loss. In Unova, Ash lost to some rookie trainer with a Snivy. That one Snivy probably had never seen a battle in its life, and yet, it somehow beat Pikachu—the same pokemon that has participated in many leagues by then and even tied with one of Tobias's pokemon.
In the Unova League, Ash probably had the most egregious loss of his life: he lost to the biggest dumbass I've ever heard of. Ash lost to a trainer named Cameron whose IQ was so low it was probably unmeasurable. Cameron brought five pokemon to matches that were 6v6, registered late to the league, and thought that the Unova League was going to be held in the Hoenn Region. How the hell does someone think that a league of one region is held in region that is almost on the other side of the world?
I'm pretty sure that Ash lost braincells after losing to Tobias because in his Unova run he forgot that evolution existed. Literally half of his Unova team weren't even fully evolved. But even then, Ash is supposed to have more experience than that dumbass trainer Cameron. And yet he still loss.
During the battle, Ash sent out his Oshawott against Cameron's Hydreigon. Who the fuck would use an Oshawott against a goddamn Hydreigon?
What's even worse is that when both competitors were down to their last pokemon, the most cliché thing happened. It was Ash's Snivy versus Cameron's Riolu. Snivy seemed to be beating the crap out of Riolu, but then in the most cliché, most bullshit fashion, Riolu evolved into Lucario and won.
Yeah, the most dumbass trainer of all time, who didn't even have six pokemon, beat an experienced trainer with six pokemon. Makes you wonder how Ass even became the World Monarch.
Ass's Kalos run was probably his best one. He seemed like a veteran trainer who knew how to apply ingenious strategies to his battles. He actually did really good and actually deserved to win the Kalos League.
Yet, he got second place. He got beat by some strong trainer that just appeared out of nowhere named Alain who had a Mega Charizard. When Ass finally deserved to win, he got second place.
After that, in Alola, there was no actual Pokemon League. It was only after he traveled to Alola that the Alola League was established. And guess what? Ass won. Did he deserve it?
No. No he didn't.
He won way too easily. The league was full of stupidly weak trainers who got their asses handed to them by a foreign trainer. He made all the natives look weak as hell. Also, losing to Alain must have made him lose to more braincells because he forgot that evolution exists again. Once again, his team was full of unevolved pokemon. During his Kalos run, his entire team was fully evolved. But in Alola, he went back to being the dumbass he was and still won.
And, finally, when he traveled to Galar, he participated in the World Coronation Series, a competition that pits the greatest trainers in the world against each other. The World Coronation Series had a ranking system that makes it so that if you win, your rank will increase, and vice versa when you lose. You challenge other challengers to gain higher ranks. There were over ten-thousand participants.
The top eight trainers participate in the Master's Eight, a tournament where the top eight trainers in the world battle each other. The one who wins becomes crowned the World Monarch and will be known as the best trainer in the world. Ass beat Leon, the Champion of Galar and the previous World Monarch, and usurped him.
Now he remains king, and one day, I would obliterate him. I didn't know how, but I was determined. In order to truly move on from the past, I had to kick its ass in the future.
I didn't realize I was clenching my fists until Trinity asked me, "What's wrong, Vali? Why are you scowling?"
"Oh, uh, nothing," I lied, fumbling with my words as I snapped out of my reverie.
She didn't look convinced, "Alright..."
"Pikachu!" Pikachu pointed at Ash's Pikachu as the TV screen played a montage of Ash's Pikachu beating the ever-living crap out of every pokemon.
Trinity smiled, "Do you want to be strong like Ash's Pikachu?" she asked him.
"Pika, Pika!" he said excitedly, agreeing.
Trinity giggled slightly.
"You see that, Eevee and Ralts?" I looked at Ash's Pikachu on the screen.
"Vee?" Eevee asked.
"Ralts?" Ralts asked as well.
"One day, we're going to battle him, and we're going to win. Right?" I asked them.
"Ral!" Ralts said with a sudden smile, her eyes burning with a fierce determination to get stronger. Her brother had to protect her for her whole life, but she wanted to get strong—strong enough to beat her brother, male Ralts. I saw all of that in her eyes.
"Eevee!" Eevee excitedly said, her tail wagging in excitement. Her eyes were filled with the desire to become so powerful that she would prove everyone who chose the other Pikachus wrong. She wanted to show them that she too can be strong, even if one of her species wasn't the pokemon of a Champion.
I was raising underdogs, and I had a feeling that my team would be full of underdogs. And that was how I liked it, because I too was san underdog. And we would rise to the top.
"Ash, the most hardheaded kid I've ever met," Brock suddenly said with amusement.
"How was he like?" Trinity wondered.
Brock chuckled, "He never knew when to gave up. He lost to me, then challenged me again and defeated my Onix with an Electric-type attack, then forfeited. I gave him his first badge as pity, but after that, I watched before my very eyes as he went from being a rookie to being an incredible trainer. It's outstanding, really."
"And now he's the World Monarch," Trinity said with awe.
"He lost to Brock?" I snickered. "I won first try, unlike him."
"That's a bit rude," Trinity glared at me.
"It's still funny." I snickered some more.
Brock just sighed.
Becoming bored of watching Ass, I said, "Let's go get breakfast, Trin."
"Sure."
"Right, then I should go," Brock said.
"Why don't you eat with us?" I asked.
"Gotta help with reconstruction in the museum, my pokemon are also helping since we are partly at fault," he explained.
"Oh, alright then." Trinity said, a little bummed out.
"I'll make sure to see you guys off," Brock said and waved, leaving the Pokemon Center.
After that, we ate breakfast, our mood deteriorating as the meal once again took a noticeable chunk of our cash away. Damn Pokemon Centers and their expensive food.
I was currently brushing my teeth, the amount of money spent on breakfast leaving a bad taste in my mouth. As I finished brushing, I sighed at my reflection. Why did I have to look so much like Cynthia?
My light blonde hair was tied back into a ponytail, but I had that same bangs that covered my left eye, just like my mom and that man I saw in my dream. Why couldn't I look more like my dad?
I rinsed my toothbrush and exited the bathroom, muttering, "Why do I look so much like her?"
"Ralts?" Ralts said questioningly, clearly sensing my bitterness. I forgot she could do that.
"Nothing, it's fine," I lied.
"Ralts..." she didn't seem convinced. Damn it, why could everyone read my emotions? How annoying.
When we made it back to the lobby, we found Trinity waiting for us. "Ready?"
"Yeah."
We checked out of the Pokemon Center, then walked out, heading to Pewter City's exit, where Route 3 waited for us.
As we walked we looked at the rocky city one last time. I just realized that so many things had happened since we first set foot in here. It was unreal, really. It felt like we'd been here for a long time, when in reality we'd only been there for less than a week. I was going to miss this place.
As promised, Brock was waiting for us at the gate to see us off.
"Good luck on the journey, you two," Brock said.
"Thanks," I grinned. "Make sure to not get beaten by any more challengers."
"I won't," he smirked.
"Thank you for everything, Brock," Trinity smiled.
"You're welcome," he nodded. "Stay safe, and make sure to grow strong. I see potential in your two; both of you are promising."
"Right," we agreed.
"Oh yeah, one last thing." Brock said and reached into his pouch, pulling out a shiny dark green stone with a symbol that looked like the sun etched into it. It was a little bit bigger than my hand. He handed it to Trinity. "Here, this is for you."
Trinity stared at it in bewilderment. "Whoa, what is it?"
"A Dawn Stone," Brock said vaguely.
"What is it for?"
He chuckled, "You'll know when the time comes."
Trinity smiled gratefully, "Thanks, Brock."
He smiled back, "You're welcome."
"Do I get something?" I asked.
"I don't have anything you would need," he said apologetically.
"Simp," I muttered under my breath.
"We should get going now," Trinity said.
"Alright." Brock grinned at us. "Good luck."
"Thanks," I said and waved at him.
"Ralts!"
"Ralts."
"Evori!"
"Pika, Pika!"
All our pokemon said goodbye to him.
We smiled and waved at Brock one last time, before walking through the gate that led to Route 3, wondering what the future had in store for us.
Please don't let us get caught up in more bullshit.
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I'm back guys. How was your Thanksgiving Break? Mine was pretty good, but I'm glad to be writing again.
Our main character has a strange dream about a man who looked like him. Who is this man, and what connection does he have with Vali? And who is the pokemon that saved him all these years ago?
Vali's hatred for Ash Ketchum is revealed, displaying his determination to dethrone him one day. Can our underdog rise to the top like Ash did? Will he defeat his mother? And will he achieve his goals?
Find out, as the journey continues.