I grew up in Blackthorn City and one day my dad took me for a weekend trip down southeast on Route 45. He and I went for a hike up east towards Mount Silver. As we neared the mountain we stumbled across a nest of Pupitar and Larvitars. At this point in time I was almost old enough to start training my own Pokémon. My dad decided he would let me borrow one of his Pokémon so I could capture my very own Larvitar. My dad handed me one of his Pokémon and whispered, “Pick one."
At first I couldn’t decide, there were so many to pick from, and then I saw her. She was different than the others and seemed to be the head honcho, she stuck out even more in the fact that she had a pinker stomach and her skin was a yellowy tinge. I pointed her out to my dad and the look on his face was one of pure awe. He had never seen a shiny Pokémon up close in his life and I didn’t even know what one was. When he finally wiped the dumbfounded look off his face, he gestured for me to go ahead and start the battle. I stepped out from behind the rock we had been hiding behind during our observation of the nest. As soon as they saw me all the Larvitar froze and stared at me. I walked straight towards my Larvitar swallowing my fear and knowing my dad would step in if things got out of hand. I threw my dad’s Pokeball not knowing which one he had given me. I was very surprised when my dad’s prized Pokémon appeared and gave a loud roar of, “Zaaaarrrd!", and beat its wings furiously. From behind the rock I heard my dad mutter, “Oh shit!"
My Larvitar didn’t look so confident now, but it still was the bravest of all the others, as they were cowering behind rocks and some of them even ran off or dug underground in fear. I gave my dad’s Charizard the command to use Flamethrower on Larvitar and it just looked at me like I was crazy. I looked back at my dad for help and he rolled another Pokeball towards me with an apologetic look on his face. As I bent down to pick up the Pokeball, I felt the ground shake. I staggered to my feet, as I had fallen to the ground when the crash had occurred. My dad jumped out from behind the rock shouting, “Charizard, to me!"
The Charizard was at his side in an instant, ready for battle. I grabbed the Pokeball my dad had rolled to me and whipped around to see a male Tyranitar whose territory we had clearly invaded. It charged at me and I froze in fear at the gigantic Pokémon headed right for me. In the moment before it hit me I felt a rush of air and my dad’s Charizard hit the Tyranitar off course from the side causing it to hit the rock face of the mountain. Regaining its bearings it turned on my dad’s Charizard and gave a mighty bellow. My dad told me to get on with it so we could get the hell out of there. Remembering what had caused this attack by the alpha male of the mountain, I faced the Larvitar which had its confidence back now that she had Tyranitar to save her. Throwing my Pokeball, out came my dad’s old starter, a Pikachu named Pika. If it hadn’t been for the fact that Larvitar was Rock/Ground type, using Pika would have been the most overkill Pokémon I could use on this poor Larvitar.
I called my first command to a Pokémon, a Pokémon I had grown up with. "Pika, use quick attack!" The attack nearly missed as the Larvitar tried to dodge it. It just nicked the Larvitar and the Pokémon was knocked out...if it had been hit full on it might have ended up like my uncles Raticate. I called to my dad asking for an empty Pokeball. I looked over to see the incoming Pokeball and noticed that he had switched to his Blastoise to fend off the attacks of the enraged Tyranitar. (I later found out that he hadn’t knocked it out cause if he had, it would have no longer been alpha male and would have had to find a new mountain to claim.) I threw my empty Pokeball at the fainted Larvitar and it disappeared into the capsule. It wiggled three times and finally stopped. I was so excited! I ran to pick up my new Pokémon and let it out of its Pokeball, getting a Revive from my bag and feeding it to my unconscious Larvitar. When it opened its eyes it gave me what I interpreted to be a weak smile. I whispered to her, “I’ll name you Ourea..."
I was startled back into reality when I heard a mighty crash and felt the ground shake. I returned Ourea to her Pokeball and looked over to see the Tyranitar flat on its face, wrapped in my dad’s Venasaur’s vines and with some residual sleep powder in the air around it. When its eyes were fully closed, my dad recalled his Venasaur and ran over to me congratulating me on my performance while catching my first Pokémon. My dad looked exhausted but he was grinning like he does when he tells me about when he was a young trainer. When I asked him why he was grinning like that he simply looked at the sleeping Tyranitar and said, “He’s grown so much..."
We started our way back to our campsite and later that night when my dad and I were sitting by our campfire, I asked him what he had meant by, “He has grown so much."
Now that he was rested and had some food in him he had the air about him that I was about to get a small glimpse into his life when he was at the top of his game. "I found that Tyranitar starving and alone one day back when it was a Larvitar and I fed it and nursed it back to health when I lived up at the top of the mountain. It came and saw me every day and trained with me after I fed it. I never knew what happened to it after I headed back down the mountain after Gold bested me in battle. It was that day that I met your mother and she was the reason I never returned. Maybe that’s why it was so enraged and came after me...because, in all reality, I abandoned it..."
He stared into the fire for a long while after that, and we just sat in silence till he stood up and stretched stating that we should get to bed because we had to get up early the next day so we could be home for supper.
When we got home I ran to the gym to show Clair my new Pokémon. When I told her the story she was very interested in the parts about my dad owning ass. I think she kind of has a thing for him. Maybe that’s why my mom always gives Clair looks. Mom made a delicious meal and we got out the extra place mat because Uncle Green was coming over for supper to celebrate that I got my first Pokémon. My dad took me out to Route 45 to train Ourea on weekends when he was home. During the week Clair and I went to the Dragons Den, unless she had a challenger in the gym of course. For my tenth birthday my dad took me outside and there was his Charizard, all saddled up. He never let anyone ride his Charizard, not even mom! I got on and we flew over Mount Silver into Kanto and to his home town of Pallet. I was confused because we hadn’t been to Pallet Town since grandma died. Instead of landing in front of grandma’s old house, we landed in front of aunt Daisy's house. We went inside and she wished me happy birthday and good luck, good luck on what I didn’t know. We left her house and I looked up to see Charizard chasing a flock of Pidgey over the trees. My dad had kept walking while I watched the Pidgey, he called my name and I started to follow him in the direction of uncle Greens lab. Comprehension dawning on me I was filled with anticipation, I was going to get my own Pokedex! Pika was at his customary place on my dad’s shoulder, only going into its Pokeball during father/son time. Its cheeks were sparking slightly as we got to the door. I think it was almost excited as I was. Opening the door for me, my dad beamed at me as I walked into the lab for the second time in my life. (The first being when I wandered in when I was five while my parents were with grandma.)
Uncle Green was standing there in his white lab coat, hands clasped behind his back. When we got up to him he looked past him to the door and smirked. I looked at the door to see why he was smirking and in ran his daughter Sahlysse who shared my birthday and was apparently getting a Pokedex of her own. She smiled at me and took her place beside me as the professor started the speech he gave to all new trainers. When he was finished his speech, instead of giving us each a Pokedex, he gestured to the table beside him that had three Pokémon on it. "I used to be a serious trainer back in my day, but these three are all I have left. I want you each to take one...Just kidding! I still have almost all my Pokémon haha!" Sobering up he took a proud and serious tone, “I do really want you guys to each have one though."
Sahlysse and I looked at each other in amazement, we already had our own Pokémon, we weren’t supposed to receive a starter from the professor if we already have Pokémon! (Sahlysse got her Eevee when Uncle Green's Umbreon had a litter.) This was turning out to be the best birthday ever! Sahlysse chose Squirtle and I chose Charmander. I named it Blaze. Sahlysse named her Squirtle Delphi after our best friends Pokedex. After we picked our Pokémon, Professor Oak Jr. gave us each our Pokedexes. Sahlysse and I both got purple models. Mine was programmed as Timothy. I thanked the professor and my dad and I left the lab. Once we were outside, my dad gave three sharp whistles and Charizard landed in front of us with some feathers still in its teeth. My dad shook his head muttering, “couldn’t have waited till we got hone, could ya?", and proceeded to pick all the feathers out of Charizard’s teeth. We got on and instead of flying northwest towards home, he flew us straight west. We landed in New Bark Town and I asked him why we were here. He stated simply, “Your uncle and I have some good connections," and opened the door to old professor Elms lab. Sahlysse was already inside standing nervously beside her father’s Alakazam. My dad shook Elm's hand and asked him how Gold was doing. Elm told my dad that he was doing well and no one had bested him in ten years of being the Pokémon league champ. (Lance retired and join the elders of the dragon clan in the dragons den.) Turning to us Elm told us that since Oak had already given us the shpeal on being a trainer that we could just pick our Pokémon. I picked Totodile and Sahlysse picked the Chickorita. Totodile was the easiest name I ever had to pick. Poseidon is the only way to go for such a beast water Pokémon. After me and Sahlysse had picked our Pokémon it was time to go home. She took Alakazam's hand and disappeared. My dad shook the professor’s hand and thanked him for the favour.
"No problem," beamed the professor looking me in the eye, “maybe Des here could be the new league champ one day."
It was still decently early in the day, so my dad said we could walk home up route 45/46 to train my new Pokémon. By the time we got home Poseidon had already evolved into Croconaw. I showed my mom my new Pokémon and when it was time for me to go to bed I asked her why she was at Mount Silver that day when she had met my dad. She told me that she had been there for the same reason Gold had been, he just beat her to it. "What’s that reason?” I asked.
"To conquer the mountain and find out why it was so formidable," was her simple reply. "I would have never made it to the top of the mountain with as little skill as I had back then."
My dad interjected, “And I would not have come down to meet you if your brother hadn’t beaten me Crystal."
I told them to get out if they were going to get all ooey gooey on me. I asked them a simple question and it was turning into a chick flick.
The following weekend, when my dad got home from the Pokémon league, he asked me if I was ready. "Ready?” I asked.
"Yeah, to start your journey!” my dad exclaimed.
I looked him in the eye and gave him one of his own silent nods. We both started laughing and went outside to get on Charizard. He flew me to Pallet Town and the second I had both feet on the ground (barely) he took off again and was gone. I looked around unsure of what to do. No one was around so I headed off to the north towards Route 1 and Viridian City. As soon as I reached the limits of Pallet Town, I heard someone yell, "Hey Des! Wait up!"
Sahlysse was running towards me as fast as she could with Eevee running along beside her. Stopping to wait, I released Ourea from her Pokeball to run along beside me as well. Sahlysse stopped beside me huffing and gasping for breath. "A bit outta shape Cuz?” I asked. She just gave me the "look".
Once she had caught her breath we set off towards Viridian. We only saw one Pokémon the whole way and it was no match for any of my Pokémon, as they were all in their second forms, so I let Sahlysse battle it. We got to Viridian and stopped at the PokeCenter to rest our Pokémon. After that we headed to the gym and tried the door, it was locked. An automated voice asked us to present the first seven badges of Kanto. Sahlysse and I looked at each other blankly and turned to leave when a red headed guy who looked to be in his mid-twenties wrenched open the door and just looked at me for a moment. Finally he asked me, “You’re Red's boy aren’t you?" I nodded. He looked me up and down and smirked. "I will be expecting to see you soon Desmond."
He turned to leave and Sahlysse asked who that was. "I think we just met Silver...” I muttered.
Sahlysse looked bewildered. "Giovanni's son?” she asked quietly.
"Yes...” I replied blankly. We set off towards the forest and while we were resting I fell asleep for half an hour. I woke up and Sahlysse was playing with a Pikachu. She never told me she had a Pikachu. When I asked her about it she said it had just come up to her and she didn’t even have to battle it first, she just caught it. She named her Sparky and we set off through the forest. When we got through the forest to Pewter, we did the standard routine of going to the Poke Center and checking out the gym.
When I walked in the doors of the gym I stopped dead. Brock was standing exactly as he had in the old pictures my dad had from when he was on his own journey. He was facing away from the doors with his hands clasped behind his back. This shouldn’t have been possible since Brock was running a breeding program in Sinnoh, and he was almost 40.
“Brock?” I called across the gym.
“Billy.” Corrected the second youngest of Brock’s siblings and tuning around he smirked at me.
“What?” I asked skeptically, “Why does everyone give me that look?”
Billy didn’t answer but instead turned to Sahlysse and asked her, “And who might you be?”
She opened her mouth to speak, but I interjected, “Why does everyone seem to know who I am? Her dad is just as famous.”
He glared at me for a second before calming himself and stating that I was a splitting image of my dad while she was harder to place. “Now, I repeat the question, who might you be girl?”
“Sahlysse…” Muttered my cousin.
“Speak up, I can’t hear you.” Called Billy.
I could tell that Billy had picked up hitting on everything with a pulse from his brother. “Cut the crap Billy, let’s just get this over with. We have places to be, people to see.” I snapped.
“Whoa, no need to be hasty, this won’t take long.”
“I challenge you to a battle! Go, Poseidon!”
Quick as a whip Billy had his own Pokeball in his hand. “Go, Aerodactyl! Use Thunder Fang!”
Poseidon tried to dodge it but Billy’s Aerodactyl was too fast and The Pokémon had Poseidon clasped in his jaws as electricity surged through them. It dropped him down to the ground unconscious and I called Poseidon back to his Pokeball. Billy made as if to recall his own Pokémon but I asked him what he was doing in outrage before he could press the button on his Pokeball.
“I won,” he stated, “the battle is over.”
“Like hell it is!” I pulled out my other two Pokémon and showed them to him. “We aren’t done till one of us is out of Pokémon, League rules.”
“Fine,” huffed Billy, “let’s get this over with.” He placed the ball back on his belt and I sent out Blaze.
“Blaze, use Metal Claw!”
Blaze made to slash at the Aerodactyl but the Pokémon dodged the attack.
“Use Sky Drop!” shouted Billy.
The Aerodactyl swooped down and grabbed Blaze in its talons. It flew up to the rafters and the dropped Blaze.
“Follow it and use Giga Impact!”
It went into a dive and followed Blaze to the ground smashing it even harder into the ground. Blaze didn’t even attempt to get up. I called it back to its Pokeball and sent out my last Pokémon.
“Ourea, finish him.”
“Finish him? You haven’t even got a scratch on my Pokémon.” Jeered Billy.
“Ourea, use Dark Pulse!”
A wave of darkness spread out from Ourea and engulfed Aerodactyl. Aerodactyl landed on the ground cringing and flinched when Ourea made any movement.
“Use Hyper Beam!”
“Dodge it!” Yelled Billy. The Aerodactyl only flinched at the sound of his voice. Ourea blasted the Aerodactyl with Hyper Beam and it went flying across the gym and hit the far wall with a loud crash. Billy looked at me with a satisfied grin. “You have earned your first official Kanto Pokémon League Badge.”
He walked up to me and shook my hand and presented me with the Boulderbadge. I pointed to his belt and asked him what he was talking about; he still had two Pokémon left that were fit for battle.
“Did you really think that my Aerodactyl is beatable by any normal challenger? I brought it out just for you. You, like your father, have great potential. By using stronger Pokémon, we give you a greater challenge so you can reach that potential.”
“So you mean to tell me is that you purposefully used an overpowered Pokémon for my first gym challenge, just so you could help bring out my potential? You basically cheated!”
“Ah, but I didn’t cheat, I just tweaked the odds. And despite that, you still won.”
I stormed off towards the doors and stopped when I realised that Sahlysse still had to take the gym challenge. I walked back towards the benches at the side where she was sitting and told her to wait to take her challenge while I went to the PokeCenter to heal my Pokémon. She looked really nervous but I was confident that she would do well, especially since she wouldn’t be facing the Aerodactyl. I approached the doors again and I looked back at my Sahlysse before leaving the gym.
On the way to the PokeCenter I stopped at the Mart and bought some Pokeballs. At the Pokémon Center I had to wait a while while they patched up my Pokémon. After they were healed I was headed back to the Pokémon Gym and a woman that looked familiar ran past me towards the gym. I arrived at the gym and Billy and the woman, who I realised was Sapphire with a pang, were leaving. Sapphire looked distressed and before I could ask what was wrong, they ran off towards Mount Moon. I wanted to follow them, but instead I entered the gym and sat down with Sahlysse to wait for them to get back. After an hour or so we decided to stay the night at the Pokémon Center and come back the next day. They didn’t return over the next three days so Sahlysse had time to train her Pokémon some more and I had time to relax and think about why people expected so much of me. Just cause my dad was the league champion didn’t mean that I was going to take his place one day.
When Billy and Sapphire did return, they were supporting an exhausted looking male figure. He looked to be barely conscious and kept muttering something about Deoxys. We ran to help just as he collapsed and we helped carry him to the hospital. On the way to the hospital I noticed that the man was Ruby, I just hadn’t recognised him without his hat. At the hospital he woke up and started muttering gibberish before he grabbed me by the collar of my shirt and screamed in my face about Deoxys. He let go and handed me a stone shaped like a strand of DNA before he passed out. I didn’t know what he wanted me to do with it, but I had a feeling it had something to do with Mount Moon.
I stood up straight and turned to look at the others in the room who were all staring at me expectantly.
“What?” I asked hesitantly.
“Well…?” Asked Billy.
“What are you going to do?” asked Sapphire.
How did they expect me to know what to do? I had no clue what was going on. I thought I should go up to mount moon but I wasn’t sure if that was the best course of action because I didn’t want to leave Sahlysse; she was my responsibility. Besides, I was barely ten, what did they expect me to do? Ruby suddenly sat up gasping and asked where Emerald was.
“Who?” asked Sapphire.
“My brother…?” inquired Ruby as if we were supposed to know who Emerald was.
“Ruby…you don’t have a brother…” Said Sapphire sadly.
“Yes I do, you saw him while we were at mount moon.”
“I only saw you screaming in pain on the ground as Deoxys stood over you.”
“We have to find him!” shouted Ruby jumping out of bed. He ran for the door and Billy tackled him to the ground and dragged him back to bed.
“You stay here, Des and I will go find him for you.” Said Billy, “you need your rest.”
Billy walked to the door and looked at me expectantly. I started to follow and picked up the DNA Stone off the side table on my way out. We walked out of the hospital in silence and when we got to the exit he turned to me and asked if I was ready for this.
“Ready for what? I don’t even know what the hell is going on here!”
“Ready for whatever this may bring.” He stated simply.
“I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.” I sighed.
“Good” Smirked Billy and he set off to the east side of town in the direction of Mount Moon.
We stopped at the Pokémon Center outside of Mount Moon and rested our Pokémon before setting off into the mountain. Billy knew this mountain like his own gym and we got to the top in a mere hour. We walked out into the bright sunlight that lit up the summit of Mount Moon and There was Deoxys perched on top of the tallest rock in sight. Laying on the ground beneath him was….Ruby?!? But Ruby was back in the Pewter City Hospital. How was he here? There was something different about Ruby though. He was wearing greens and light yellows instead of his usual blacks and reds. It occurred to me that this must be Emerald. Deoxys suddenly gave a harsh cry and teleported in front of Emerald, blocking him from view. Billy called out to Deoxys to step away from Emerald and He fell to his knees clutching at his head.
“Hey!” I called to Deoxys, “Stop that!”
Deoxys stopped looking at Billy so intensely and he stopped screaming in pain. Deoxys glided towards me menacingly but I stood my ground and pulled out a Pokeball. It came to a halt in front of me and hovered there menacingly. I took a step back so I didn’t have to look up so much to see its face and suddenly it burst into ten of them. All ten of the Deoxys’ made a circle around me and every nerve in my body screamed out in pain and I fell to the ground.
I woke up in a bed next to Ruby and I looked on my other side and there was Emerald sitting up answering questions from Billy and Sapphire. Sahlysse was sitting at the foot of my bed looking exhausted.
“How long have I been out?” I asked her.
“Two days…” she whispered, “I’m not supposed to tell you this, but I think you need to know what happened while you were up there.” She glanced at Billy and Sapphire to see if they were paying attention and then looked me in the eye before continuing. “Billy told me that Deoxys attacked you and then split itself into ten to surround you. After that you were obstructed from view and he could only hear you screaming. He attacked the Deoxys with all his Pokémon and his bare hands to save you. I overheard him tell Sapphire that before it teleported away it grabb-“, She was cut off by the arrival of Billy. He told her to go sit outside for a minute while he talked to me.
“What did she tell you?” He asked urgently.
“Nothing more than I knew before. She was about to tell me that Deoxys took something with it when it teleported away.”
“Desmond,” He started, “Deoxys used that stone you took from Ruby to create a copy of your DNA and brought it to life. So in all intents and purposes, you now have a twin.”
“I-ummm…What?” I stuttered. What the hell was going on? So he was telling me I had another one of me running around? I couldn’t believe this.
“We called your parents and told them what happened. Your dad told me he was on his way to help deal with th-“
“No!” I shouted jumping up and gathering my things off the side table. “I don’t need him to come help me! I can fix this on my own!” I ran from the room before Billy could comprehend what I was doing. I ran all the way to Mount Moon and climbed to the top as fast as I could. When I walked out onto the summit it was night and I could barely tell where anything was by the light of the moon. I sent out Blaze and the fire on his tail was just enough to make out the shapes of the rocks and a small crater where I had blacked out. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a sudden movement in the shadows. Whipping around I called out, “Who’s there?” No answer. Somehow I knew Deoxys’ creation’s name. “Cayden?” I called to the darkness. He stepped out from behind the boulder and I was too shocked to speak till he was less than three feet away from me. He looked just like me except for his style of clothing. He had black jeans tucked into combat boots and a studded belt with a black t shirt and a studded wrist band. His sling bad was the same make as mine, just black with red accents. He looked frightened and angry. Deoxys appeared out of nowhere and my mind was suddenly one fire as it gazed blankly at me. Blaze sent a blast of fire at it and distracted it enough for me to get up and throw out the rest of my Pokémon. They fought without me needing to call out commands to them. Deoxys was just dodging and deflecting their attacks while they fought with all their might. I ran to Cayden and asked for help but he just stared at me. I could see him having inner conflictions but he couldn’t make up his mind on what to do. He came out of his thoughts and looked at me. He muttered my name as if comprehending who I was and then he did something unexpected; he stole my bag and dumped its contents on the ground.
I yelled at him, “Hey! What do you think you’re doing?”
He said nothing and rummaged through my things till he found what he must have been looking for. He held up a bright shining rainbow feather that glowed slightly in the darkness. I took it from him and then he stood up and took off his own bag and pulled out a shining silver feather that also had a faint glow to it.
“What the hell is this thing and where did it come from?” I asked him intrigued as to how he had known I had this thing when I didn’t even know about it.
Deoxys blasted my Pokémon out of the way and turned towards the two of us with an angry cry. I stumbled backwards as it approached menacingly fast and Cayden Yelled at it, “Stop!”
It gave a harsh cry and stopped, floating barely ten feet from us. I slowly got to my feet and gathered up my things from the ground and put them back in their respectful pockets.
“Leave! Leave and never return!”
In my mind I heard a faint echo of, “No, you leave…” before I blacked out.
A few second later my vision returned and I was crouched on the ground exactly as I had been at the peak of the mountain and Cayden was standing the same distance from me. The only difference was that we were no longer at the peak. We were on the pavement outside the hospital and the lights coming from the glass doors were blinding. I slowly stood up and looked over at Cayden who was gazing around at the city with a look of awe on his face. I started to say something to get his attention, but just then the doors of the hospital burst open and I was trampled by my dad in his hurry to come save me at Mount Moon. He tripped over me and we fell to the ground in a heap of flailing limbs.
“Desmond!?” Exclaimed my dad.
I just groaned under the weight of my dad and tried to push him off of me. He stood up and brushed himself off before extending his hand to help me up. I grabbed his hand and started to pull myself up, but Cayden chose that moment to speak out. “Dad?”
My dad dropped me back to the ground and turned to face my copy. It was obvious that no one had filled him in to what was going on by the fact that his face drained of blood at the sight of Cayden. He gapped at me on the ground and then looked back to Cayden. He keeled over and I was almost crushed by his weight again if I hadn’t rolled out of the way. I clambered to my feet again just as Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald burst out of the door. Emerald and Ruby froze in their tracks but Sapphire kept walking and tripped over my dad’s limp body. Ruby helped her up before she could realize what she had tripped over. He told her to go get Nurse Joy and then he and Emerald picked up my dad and carried him into the hospital. Sapphire came back with Nurse Joy and a stretcher. The nurse wheeled him to the nearest empty room and checked out his pupils, asked what had happened and told emerald to wait with him. She took me and Cayden to a different room that had lots of screens in it that showed different sets of data. Ruby and Sapphire stopped at the door and wished us luck. The nurse closed the door and told us to each lie down on opposite beds and both of us obliged. She rummaged around in a desk beside one of the screens and turned around holding two syringes. Cayden and I both jumped up off our beds and I let out Ourea as an extra precaution. Nurse Joy looked surprised and put down the needles on the desk and typed something into the computer. The door sealed itself and my brother grabbed a Pokeball off a tray behind him. Releasing it, he discovered that it was an Axew.
The nurse warned him, “Don’t mess with that Pokémon, it doesn’t listen to anyone since it was abandoned by its former trainer.”
“Use Headbutt on the door!”
The Axew proved the nurse wrong by smashing open the door and Cayden bolted through the door with the Axew in tow. I quickly followed and heard the front door slide closed. My dad had woken up in the commotion and Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald burst out of the room with my dad groggily following them. My cousin came running in the front doors, asked where Des was going and saw me standing there. She looked so confused and she burst out in tears. I made to go comfort her, but my dad stopped me and told me that maybe now was not the best time. He went and took her in the direction of the cafeteria to talk. I could hear their muffled voices if I pressed my ear to the doors but I couldn’t make out everything they were saying. The doors of the hospital opened and in walked a girl who looked about my age. She had pale, blue eyes that seemed to see into your very soul and dark, red hair that was just past her shoulders and tied up into a ponytail. She wore an old navy blue hoodie and jeans.
Sapphire called to the girl, “Kyra, you forgot something.”
Kyra stopped and looked around, puzzled; She spotted a Treeko crouched at the door of the hospital. “Oops”, she quickly walked back to the door and opened it to let in the Pokémon. It leaped up to her shoulder with surprising agility.
With a start I realised that I had been staring and looked around the room for something else to pretend to look at before she noticed. In my search I caught Ruby’s eye and he smirked and gave a light chuckle. I opened my mouth to ask why he was looking at me when the door to the cafeteria opened and Sahlysse and my dad came out into the waiting area.
My dad caught sight of the young girl and introduced himself, “Hello, you must be Kyra. My name is Red.”
“How do you know my name?”
“Your father and I go way back. We met at the World League Championships.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s a gathering of all the regional champions and we have a tourney to find out who is the best trainer in the world.”
She turned to Ruby and asked, “Did you win daddy?”
He shook his head. “No, Red won. I only made it to the semi-finals.”
I boasted, “Only one person has ever beat my dad, But he didn’t bother to show up for the tourney because he was up on Mount Silver and none of the messenger birds could survive the conditions to deliver it. Even if he had gone to the tourney, dad would have still won.”
“Who got second?” Kyra asked while she counted off the other possible trainers that would have for sure been at the tourney.
“Me.” Declared Sapphire, stepping forward.
Kyra looked at her mother in awe. “You were a league champion?”
“I beat the Hoenn League before your dad even got there.”
“That’s only because I stopped at the Pokémon center before heading into Victory Road.” Ruby countered.
“Why are we all here?” Kyra asked, getting down to business.
Emerald came out of the washroom and Kyra turned and looked at him. “Hello, you must be my niece, Kyra.” He stretched out his hand to shake hers, but she ran in for a hug instead. He looked surprised at how accepting she was of the fact that he had suddenly come out of nowhere but he hugged her back after his surprise wore off. “I’m your Uncle Emerald.”
“Excuse me, but what are we going to do about Deoxys? It’s still up there and we don’t want any more doppelgangers.”
“Desmond is right, we need to find out what it’s doing and find some way to control it.” Ruby agreed. “What do you suggest, Red?”
“We should capture it and bring it to its own safe haven where it won’t be stumbled upon by travelers and where it will be safe from Team Snagem. If we leave it be, it will get too comfortable with this world and start to venture out to other places. We don’t need the world population doubling with the state the world is in. Do we all agree, or are there any other suggestions?”
“Agreed.” We all chimed.
The next morning Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, My dad and I headed out for the peak. Kyra and Sahlysse stayed behind because Ruby and my dad forbid them. Upon reaching the peak we saw three people already up there: A goon of some criminal team, dressed in a futuristic getup; a man with silver hair, a black trench coat, brown workpants and a white t-shirt underneath his trench coat; he looked to be at least 6 feet tall and at his side stood a black and red Charizard, and….Cayden?
What the hell was Cayden doing here with this man, who appeared to be an admin for the team the goon belonged to? The man stooped down and picked up a pure black Pokeball and noticed the group of us standing at the cave entrance that lead back into the mountain. He straightened up and smoothed his coat before dramatically speaking.
“It appears that we have some guests,” he announced to Cayden and the grunt.
Sapphire stepped forward and called, “Who are you and what are you doing here?”
“My name is Drake, second in command of Team Snagem. I’m here to capture this Pokémon for Wes so he can use it to clone the legendary Pokémon and create the ultimate Shadow Pokémon without risking killing a one of a kind Pokémon. Anything else you would like to know, or can we be on our way?”
“What are you doing with my son?” Demanded my dad.
“This isn’t your son, this is Deoxys’ creation.” Came Drake’s calm reply, “That is your son.” He gestured towards me and I glared at him.
Suddenly an Absol pounced out from behind a rock onto the grunt and sent him flying towards the small company we had brought up to the peak. He stood up looking around stupidly. Drake’s calming voice was suddenly sharp as a whip as he gave his Charizard a command. “Metal Claw!”
The Charizard was a blur as it flew at the Absol. “Block it!” came a self-assured voice. Kyra stepped out from where the Absol had pounced. The Absol blocked the first slash of metalized claws without hesitation, but when the second blow hit its defenses broke and its head was slammed into the ground and it didn’t get up. The Charizard made to continue its savage attack on the poor Pokémon and Kyra screamed an agonising, “No!”
“Ourea, use Rock Slide!” A pile of rocks tumbled from the jagged tip of the mountain to where we all were standing, concentrated on the shiny Charizard. It paused in its attack and all hell broke loose: The grunt regained his bearings and released his Pokémon, my dad, Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald and I sent out our Pokémon as well, Cayden ran to the entrance of the lower levels of the mountain and I ran through the fray towards Kyra. Kyra was making a beeline for her fainted Pokémon and as I ran for her I saw Drake eyeing the Absol with one of his black Pokeballs in hand. Realising what he was planning I changed my course and ran straight for him instead. He caught sight of me and smirked, knowing I knew what he was about to do, he threw the Snagball at her Absol. I ran up Emerald’s Aggron’s back and jumped for the Snagball hoping to catch it midair. For a split second I thought I had aimed for the wrong trajectory and missed it, then it was in my hand and I rolled across the ground, landing the roll on my feet and continuing to run at Drake. The ball was cold to my touch and seemed to feel like it had a dark aura about it. He fingered another Snagball at his belt and I realised that even if my Pokémon weren’t busy fighting their own battles, I was no match for him yet. I stopped and swore that one day I would beat him in battle, one on one, before turning and heading back towards Kyra to help her with Absol. I dropped to my knees beside her and started to go through my bag. Finding what I was looking for, I handed her a Revive. She pulled the Pokémon’s head into her lap and fed it the Revive, waking the Pokémon and healing it just enough for it to function. I stood up to get back into the fray and noticed that the grunt was taken down and Cayden was nowhere in sight; Drake’s Charizard was the only opposing Pokémon still standing and a lot of our own Pokémon were seriously injured.
In his unnervingly calm voice, Drake spoke to us all as a group, “Do you really want to try me? Your forces are weakened and your ordinary Pokémon are no match for my Shadow Pokémon.”
We hesitated and he jumped onto his Charizard’s back and took off into the mountain after Cayden. Silence echoed on the peak before Sapphire wheeled on Kyra and started lecturing her about not listening to what she was told and putting herself in danger. Emerald interrupted Sapphire and asked what we were going to do about Team Snagem.
“Going after them will be pointless,” answered Red, “we need to recuperate and heal our Pokémon before we even think about chasing after Drake. His Pokémon are unnaturally strong. It’s probably because they’re shadow Pokémon and they don’t hold back. I wouldn’t put it past him to have use Rare Candies on they them too.”
My dad had said his farewells at the edge of town before flying off towards the Pokémon League Headquarters; So I was left with Kyra, Sapphire and Emerald while Ruby went to the mart to get more supplies. Sahlysse wasn’t waiting for us at the hospital when we got inside and she wasn’t at the museum either. That left only one place she could be, the Gym.
With my hand on the door I could already hear the battle raging inside. Upon opening the door and wandering in to see how the battle was going, Delphi skidded across the ground at my feet, stopping itself before it flew out the door. Getting up, it blasted a powerful stream of water at the giant rock snake, Onyx. It crashed to the ground in defeat and Billy walked forward to congratulate her on her victory.
“Well done Sahlysse. I thought I almost had you when your Pokémon started to evolve mid-battle. That was one of the quickest evolutions I’ve ever witnessed!” He noticed me and exclaimed, “Ah, Desmond, you came just in time. Sahlysse, I'm proud to present you with this Official Pokémon League Boulderbadge.” He placed the badge in her hand and she closed her hand around it grinning to herself.”
“Thanks Billy.”
He nodded to me before turning back to tend to his Onyx and Sahlysse and I headed back to the Pokémon Center where Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald and Kyra were waiting for me to return with Sahlysse. Walking into the Pokémon Center, I noticed that there were a lot of Pokémon eggs on display by the counter with a take one sign above them. I asked the nurse why there were so many eggs being given away and she had to explain that the power in the Pokémon Center had gone off last night freeing all the Pokémon that were in overnight care. They had all mated and there were eggs everywhere by the time she got things under control. She told me to take two because I only had three Pokémon and she needed to get rid of them as fast as possible before they hatched. Sahlysse took an orange one and I took a yellow, speckled one and a green one with small, red spots.
“How long will do you think these take to hatch?” I asked Sahlysse.
The nurse interrupted, “Well that all depends on how you tend them and what kind of Pokémon is inside.”
“What Pokémon will these hatch into?”
“That m’dear, will be a surprise.”
“But can’t you just go back into your records and see what Pokémon were here during the blackout?”
“Nope, we lost a lot of data in the blackout.”
I rolled my eyes at the very unhelpful nurse. We walked over the Hoenn based trainers and they were having a heated discussion about what they were going to do. Sapphire and Ruby were going to head home, but Kyra was refusing to go cause she wanted to be free of her parents always coming to rescue her if something went wrong. She wanted to take care of herself while she took the Pokémon League challenge. Sapphire wouldn’t have it and Ruby looked like he could care less at that moment. Emerald seemed to be on Kyra’s side cause when Sapphire told Kyra that she would not have her daughter exploring the dangers of the world without someone to help her when needed, she wasn’t going to at all, he suggested that She travel with me and Sahlysse. Realising they had an audience, Sapphire and Kyra wheeled towards us. Kyra’s face lit up when she saw the argument swinging in her favour.
“Yeah, I could go with Des and Sahlysse!” she piped up.
Her mother seemed about to argue when Ruby vetoed her. “She will be fine with them, he has enough skill to take care of them all and Sahlysse is on her way to becoming a great trainer as well. Besides”, he went on calmly, “She has two Pokémon that are pretty strong considering she doesn’t even have a badge from any region yet.”
Accepting her defeat, Sapphire pulled Kyra into a big hug and whispered in her ear, “Be safe, and remember, I love you.”
Kyra hugged her mom. “Love you too.”
“Welcome to the Pewter City Pokémon Gym!” I exclaimed to our new companion. “We have spent a bit of time here over the past few days.”
Billy called out to us as we entered the gym, “What? You miss me already?”
“You know it!” I called back with semi-fake enthusiasm.
When we got up close he noticed that we had Kyra with us. “Ah, you brought a friend to take the gym challenge.” He nodded smugly. “So be it.”
At first I couldn’t decide, there were so many to pick from, and then I saw her. She was different than the others and seemed to be the head honcho, she stuck out even more in the fact that she had a pinker stomach and her skin was a yellowy tinge. I pointed her out to my dad and the look on his face was one of pure awe. He had never seen a shiny Pokémon up close in his life and I didn’t even know what one was. When he finally wiped the dumbfounded look off his face, he gestured for me to go ahead and start the battle. I stepped out from behind the rock we had been hiding behind during our observation of the nest. As soon as they saw me all the Larvitar froze and stared at me. I walked straight towards my Larvitar swallowing my fear and knowing my dad would step in if things got out of hand. I threw my dad’s Pokeball not knowing which one he had given me. I was very surprised when my dad’s prized Pokémon appeared and gave a loud roar of, “Zaaaarrrd!", and beat its wings furiously. From behind the rock I heard my dad mutter, “Oh shit!"
My Larvitar didn’t look so confident now, but it still was the bravest of all the others, as they were cowering behind rocks and some of them even ran off or dug underground in fear. I gave my dad’s Charizard the command to use Flamethrower on Larvitar and it just looked at me like I was crazy. I looked back at my dad for help and he rolled another Pokeball towards me with an apologetic look on his face. As I bent down to pick up the Pokeball, I felt the ground shake. I staggered to my feet, as I had fallen to the ground when the crash had occurred. My dad jumped out from behind the rock shouting, “Charizard, to me!"
The Charizard was at his side in an instant, ready for battle. I grabbed the Pokeball my dad had rolled to me and whipped around to see a male Tyranitar whose territory we had clearly invaded. It charged at me and I froze in fear at the gigantic Pokémon headed right for me. In the moment before it hit me I felt a rush of air and my dad’s Charizard hit the Tyranitar off course from the side causing it to hit the rock face of the mountain. Regaining its bearings it turned on my dad’s Charizard and gave a mighty bellow. My dad told me to get on with it so we could get the hell out of there. Remembering what had caused this attack by the alpha male of the mountain, I faced the Larvitar which had its confidence back now that she had Tyranitar to save her. Throwing my Pokeball, out came my dad’s old starter, a Pikachu named Pika. If it hadn’t been for the fact that Larvitar was Rock/Ground type, using Pika would have been the most overkill Pokémon I could use on this poor Larvitar.
I called my first command to a Pokémon, a Pokémon I had grown up with. "Pika, use quick attack!" The attack nearly missed as the Larvitar tried to dodge it. It just nicked the Larvitar and the Pokémon was knocked out...if it had been hit full on it might have ended up like my uncles Raticate. I called to my dad asking for an empty Pokeball. I looked over to see the incoming Pokeball and noticed that he had switched to his Blastoise to fend off the attacks of the enraged Tyranitar. (I later found out that he hadn’t knocked it out cause if he had, it would have no longer been alpha male and would have had to find a new mountain to claim.) I threw my empty Pokeball at the fainted Larvitar and it disappeared into the capsule. It wiggled three times and finally stopped. I was so excited! I ran to pick up my new Pokémon and let it out of its Pokeball, getting a Revive from my bag and feeding it to my unconscious Larvitar. When it opened its eyes it gave me what I interpreted to be a weak smile. I whispered to her, “I’ll name you Ourea..."
I was startled back into reality when I heard a mighty crash and felt the ground shake. I returned Ourea to her Pokeball and looked over to see the Tyranitar flat on its face, wrapped in my dad’s Venasaur’s vines and with some residual sleep powder in the air around it. When its eyes were fully closed, my dad recalled his Venasaur and ran over to me congratulating me on my performance while catching my first Pokémon. My dad looked exhausted but he was grinning like he does when he tells me about when he was a young trainer. When I asked him why he was grinning like that he simply looked at the sleeping Tyranitar and said, “He’s grown so much..."
We started our way back to our campsite and later that night when my dad and I were sitting by our campfire, I asked him what he had meant by, “He has grown so much."
Now that he was rested and had some food in him he had the air about him that I was about to get a small glimpse into his life when he was at the top of his game. "I found that Tyranitar starving and alone one day back when it was a Larvitar and I fed it and nursed it back to health when I lived up at the top of the mountain. It came and saw me every day and trained with me after I fed it. I never knew what happened to it after I headed back down the mountain after Gold bested me in battle. It was that day that I met your mother and she was the reason I never returned. Maybe that’s why it was so enraged and came after me...because, in all reality, I abandoned it..."
He stared into the fire for a long while after that, and we just sat in silence till he stood up and stretched stating that we should get to bed because we had to get up early the next day so we could be home for supper.
When we got home I ran to the gym to show Clair my new Pokémon. When I told her the story she was very interested in the parts about my dad owning ass. I think she kind of has a thing for him. Maybe that’s why my mom always gives Clair looks. Mom made a delicious meal and we got out the extra place mat because Uncle Green was coming over for supper to celebrate that I got my first Pokémon. My dad took me out to Route 45 to train Ourea on weekends when he was home. During the week Clair and I went to the Dragons Den, unless she had a challenger in the gym of course. For my tenth birthday my dad took me outside and there was his Charizard, all saddled up. He never let anyone ride his Charizard, not even mom! I got on and we flew over Mount Silver into Kanto and to his home town of Pallet. I was confused because we hadn’t been to Pallet Town since grandma died. Instead of landing in front of grandma’s old house, we landed in front of aunt Daisy's house. We went inside and she wished me happy birthday and good luck, good luck on what I didn’t know. We left her house and I looked up to see Charizard chasing a flock of Pidgey over the trees. My dad had kept walking while I watched the Pidgey, he called my name and I started to follow him in the direction of uncle Greens lab. Comprehension dawning on me I was filled with anticipation, I was going to get my own Pokedex! Pika was at his customary place on my dad’s shoulder, only going into its Pokeball during father/son time. Its cheeks were sparking slightly as we got to the door. I think it was almost excited as I was. Opening the door for me, my dad beamed at me as I walked into the lab for the second time in my life. (The first being when I wandered in when I was five while my parents were with grandma.)
Uncle Green was standing there in his white lab coat, hands clasped behind his back. When we got up to him he looked past him to the door and smirked. I looked at the door to see why he was smirking and in ran his daughter Sahlysse who shared my birthday and was apparently getting a Pokedex of her own. She smiled at me and took her place beside me as the professor started the speech he gave to all new trainers. When he was finished his speech, instead of giving us each a Pokedex, he gestured to the table beside him that had three Pokémon on it. "I used to be a serious trainer back in my day, but these three are all I have left. I want you each to take one...Just kidding! I still have almost all my Pokémon haha!" Sobering up he took a proud and serious tone, “I do really want you guys to each have one though."
Sahlysse and I looked at each other in amazement, we already had our own Pokémon, we weren’t supposed to receive a starter from the professor if we already have Pokémon! (Sahlysse got her Eevee when Uncle Green's Umbreon had a litter.) This was turning out to be the best birthday ever! Sahlysse chose Squirtle and I chose Charmander. I named it Blaze. Sahlysse named her Squirtle Delphi after our best friends Pokedex. After we picked our Pokémon, Professor Oak Jr. gave us each our Pokedexes. Sahlysse and I both got purple models. Mine was programmed as Timothy. I thanked the professor and my dad and I left the lab. Once we were outside, my dad gave three sharp whistles and Charizard landed in front of us with some feathers still in its teeth. My dad shook his head muttering, “couldn’t have waited till we got hone, could ya?", and proceeded to pick all the feathers out of Charizard’s teeth. We got on and instead of flying northwest towards home, he flew us straight west. We landed in New Bark Town and I asked him why we were here. He stated simply, “Your uncle and I have some good connections," and opened the door to old professor Elms lab. Sahlysse was already inside standing nervously beside her father’s Alakazam. My dad shook Elm's hand and asked him how Gold was doing. Elm told my dad that he was doing well and no one had bested him in ten years of being the Pokémon league champ. (Lance retired and join the elders of the dragon clan in the dragons den.) Turning to us Elm told us that since Oak had already given us the shpeal on being a trainer that we could just pick our Pokémon. I picked Totodile and Sahlysse picked the Chickorita. Totodile was the easiest name I ever had to pick. Poseidon is the only way to go for such a beast water Pokémon. After me and Sahlysse had picked our Pokémon it was time to go home. She took Alakazam's hand and disappeared. My dad shook the professor’s hand and thanked him for the favour.
"No problem," beamed the professor looking me in the eye, “maybe Des here could be the new league champ one day."
It was still decently early in the day, so my dad said we could walk home up route 45/46 to train my new Pokémon. By the time we got home Poseidon had already evolved into Croconaw. I showed my mom my new Pokémon and when it was time for me to go to bed I asked her why she was at Mount Silver that day when she had met my dad. She told me that she had been there for the same reason Gold had been, he just beat her to it. "What’s that reason?” I asked.
"To conquer the mountain and find out why it was so formidable," was her simple reply. "I would have never made it to the top of the mountain with as little skill as I had back then."
My dad interjected, “And I would not have come down to meet you if your brother hadn’t beaten me Crystal."
I told them to get out if they were going to get all ooey gooey on me. I asked them a simple question and it was turning into a chick flick.
The following weekend, when my dad got home from the Pokémon league, he asked me if I was ready. "Ready?” I asked.
"Yeah, to start your journey!” my dad exclaimed.
I looked him in the eye and gave him one of his own silent nods. We both started laughing and went outside to get on Charizard. He flew me to Pallet Town and the second I had both feet on the ground (barely) he took off again and was gone. I looked around unsure of what to do. No one was around so I headed off to the north towards Route 1 and Viridian City. As soon as I reached the limits of Pallet Town, I heard someone yell, "Hey Des! Wait up!"
Sahlysse was running towards me as fast as she could with Eevee running along beside her. Stopping to wait, I released Ourea from her Pokeball to run along beside me as well. Sahlysse stopped beside me huffing and gasping for breath. "A bit outta shape Cuz?” I asked. She just gave me the "look".
Once she had caught her breath we set off towards Viridian. We only saw one Pokémon the whole way and it was no match for any of my Pokémon, as they were all in their second forms, so I let Sahlysse battle it. We got to Viridian and stopped at the PokeCenter to rest our Pokémon. After that we headed to the gym and tried the door, it was locked. An automated voice asked us to present the first seven badges of Kanto. Sahlysse and I looked at each other blankly and turned to leave when a red headed guy who looked to be in his mid-twenties wrenched open the door and just looked at me for a moment. Finally he asked me, “You’re Red's boy aren’t you?" I nodded. He looked me up and down and smirked. "I will be expecting to see you soon Desmond."
He turned to leave and Sahlysse asked who that was. "I think we just met Silver...” I muttered.
Sahlysse looked bewildered. "Giovanni's son?” she asked quietly.
"Yes...” I replied blankly. We set off towards the forest and while we were resting I fell asleep for half an hour. I woke up and Sahlysse was playing with a Pikachu. She never told me she had a Pikachu. When I asked her about it she said it had just come up to her and she didn’t even have to battle it first, she just caught it. She named her Sparky and we set off through the forest. When we got through the forest to Pewter, we did the standard routine of going to the Poke Center and checking out the gym.
When I walked in the doors of the gym I stopped dead. Brock was standing exactly as he had in the old pictures my dad had from when he was on his own journey. He was facing away from the doors with his hands clasped behind his back. This shouldn’t have been possible since Brock was running a breeding program in Sinnoh, and he was almost 40.
“Brock?” I called across the gym.
“Billy.” Corrected the second youngest of Brock’s siblings and tuning around he smirked at me.
“What?” I asked skeptically, “Why does everyone give me that look?”
Billy didn’t answer but instead turned to Sahlysse and asked her, “And who might you be?”
She opened her mouth to speak, but I interjected, “Why does everyone seem to know who I am? Her dad is just as famous.”
He glared at me for a second before calming himself and stating that I was a splitting image of my dad while she was harder to place. “Now, I repeat the question, who might you be girl?”
“Sahlysse…” Muttered my cousin.
“Speak up, I can’t hear you.” Called Billy.
I could tell that Billy had picked up hitting on everything with a pulse from his brother. “Cut the crap Billy, let’s just get this over with. We have places to be, people to see.” I snapped.
“Whoa, no need to be hasty, this won’t take long.”
“I challenge you to a battle! Go, Poseidon!”
Quick as a whip Billy had his own Pokeball in his hand. “Go, Aerodactyl! Use Thunder Fang!”
Poseidon tried to dodge it but Billy’s Aerodactyl was too fast and The Pokémon had Poseidon clasped in his jaws as electricity surged through them. It dropped him down to the ground unconscious and I called Poseidon back to his Pokeball. Billy made as if to recall his own Pokémon but I asked him what he was doing in outrage before he could press the button on his Pokeball.
“I won,” he stated, “the battle is over.”
“Like hell it is!” I pulled out my other two Pokémon and showed them to him. “We aren’t done till one of us is out of Pokémon, League rules.”
“Fine,” huffed Billy, “let’s get this over with.” He placed the ball back on his belt and I sent out Blaze.
“Blaze, use Metal Claw!”
Blaze made to slash at the Aerodactyl but the Pokémon dodged the attack.
“Use Sky Drop!” shouted Billy.
The Aerodactyl swooped down and grabbed Blaze in its talons. It flew up to the rafters and the dropped Blaze.
“Follow it and use Giga Impact!”
It went into a dive and followed Blaze to the ground smashing it even harder into the ground. Blaze didn’t even attempt to get up. I called it back to its Pokeball and sent out my last Pokémon.
“Ourea, finish him.”
“Finish him? You haven’t even got a scratch on my Pokémon.” Jeered Billy.
“Ourea, use Dark Pulse!”
A wave of darkness spread out from Ourea and engulfed Aerodactyl. Aerodactyl landed on the ground cringing and flinched when Ourea made any movement.
“Use Hyper Beam!”
“Dodge it!” Yelled Billy. The Aerodactyl only flinched at the sound of his voice. Ourea blasted the Aerodactyl with Hyper Beam and it went flying across the gym and hit the far wall with a loud crash. Billy looked at me with a satisfied grin. “You have earned your first official Kanto Pokémon League Badge.”
He walked up to me and shook my hand and presented me with the Boulderbadge. I pointed to his belt and asked him what he was talking about; he still had two Pokémon left that were fit for battle.
“Did you really think that my Aerodactyl is beatable by any normal challenger? I brought it out just for you. You, like your father, have great potential. By using stronger Pokémon, we give you a greater challenge so you can reach that potential.”
“So you mean to tell me is that you purposefully used an overpowered Pokémon for my first gym challenge, just so you could help bring out my potential? You basically cheated!”
“Ah, but I didn’t cheat, I just tweaked the odds. And despite that, you still won.”
I stormed off towards the doors and stopped when I realised that Sahlysse still had to take the gym challenge. I walked back towards the benches at the side where she was sitting and told her to wait to take her challenge while I went to the PokeCenter to heal my Pokémon. She looked really nervous but I was confident that she would do well, especially since she wouldn’t be facing the Aerodactyl. I approached the doors again and I looked back at my Sahlysse before leaving the gym.
On the way to the PokeCenter I stopped at the Mart and bought some Pokeballs. At the Pokémon Center I had to wait a while while they patched up my Pokémon. After they were healed I was headed back to the Pokémon Gym and a woman that looked familiar ran past me towards the gym. I arrived at the gym and Billy and the woman, who I realised was Sapphire with a pang, were leaving. Sapphire looked distressed and before I could ask what was wrong, they ran off towards Mount Moon. I wanted to follow them, but instead I entered the gym and sat down with Sahlysse to wait for them to get back. After an hour or so we decided to stay the night at the Pokémon Center and come back the next day. They didn’t return over the next three days so Sahlysse had time to train her Pokémon some more and I had time to relax and think about why people expected so much of me. Just cause my dad was the league champion didn’t mean that I was going to take his place one day.
When Billy and Sapphire did return, they were supporting an exhausted looking male figure. He looked to be barely conscious and kept muttering something about Deoxys. We ran to help just as he collapsed and we helped carry him to the hospital. On the way to the hospital I noticed that the man was Ruby, I just hadn’t recognised him without his hat. At the hospital he woke up and started muttering gibberish before he grabbed me by the collar of my shirt and screamed in my face about Deoxys. He let go and handed me a stone shaped like a strand of DNA before he passed out. I didn’t know what he wanted me to do with it, but I had a feeling it had something to do with Mount Moon.
I stood up straight and turned to look at the others in the room who were all staring at me expectantly.
“What?” I asked hesitantly.
“Well…?” Asked Billy.
“What are you going to do?” asked Sapphire.
How did they expect me to know what to do? I had no clue what was going on. I thought I should go up to mount moon but I wasn’t sure if that was the best course of action because I didn’t want to leave Sahlysse; she was my responsibility. Besides, I was barely ten, what did they expect me to do? Ruby suddenly sat up gasping and asked where Emerald was.
“Who?” asked Sapphire.
“My brother…?” inquired Ruby as if we were supposed to know who Emerald was.
“Ruby…you don’t have a brother…” Said Sapphire sadly.
“Yes I do, you saw him while we were at mount moon.”
“I only saw you screaming in pain on the ground as Deoxys stood over you.”
“We have to find him!” shouted Ruby jumping out of bed. He ran for the door and Billy tackled him to the ground and dragged him back to bed.
“You stay here, Des and I will go find him for you.” Said Billy, “you need your rest.”
Billy walked to the door and looked at me expectantly. I started to follow and picked up the DNA Stone off the side table on my way out. We walked out of the hospital in silence and when we got to the exit he turned to me and asked if I was ready for this.
“Ready for what? I don’t even know what the hell is going on here!”
“Ready for whatever this may bring.” He stated simply.
“I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.” I sighed.
“Good” Smirked Billy and he set off to the east side of town in the direction of Mount Moon.
We stopped at the Pokémon Center outside of Mount Moon and rested our Pokémon before setting off into the mountain. Billy knew this mountain like his own gym and we got to the top in a mere hour. We walked out into the bright sunlight that lit up the summit of Mount Moon and There was Deoxys perched on top of the tallest rock in sight. Laying on the ground beneath him was….Ruby?!? But Ruby was back in the Pewter City Hospital. How was he here? There was something different about Ruby though. He was wearing greens and light yellows instead of his usual blacks and reds. It occurred to me that this must be Emerald. Deoxys suddenly gave a harsh cry and teleported in front of Emerald, blocking him from view. Billy called out to Deoxys to step away from Emerald and He fell to his knees clutching at his head.
“Hey!” I called to Deoxys, “Stop that!”
Deoxys stopped looking at Billy so intensely and he stopped screaming in pain. Deoxys glided towards me menacingly but I stood my ground and pulled out a Pokeball. It came to a halt in front of me and hovered there menacingly. I took a step back so I didn’t have to look up so much to see its face and suddenly it burst into ten of them. All ten of the Deoxys’ made a circle around me and every nerve in my body screamed out in pain and I fell to the ground.
I woke up in a bed next to Ruby and I looked on my other side and there was Emerald sitting up answering questions from Billy and Sapphire. Sahlysse was sitting at the foot of my bed looking exhausted.
“How long have I been out?” I asked her.
“Two days…” she whispered, “I’m not supposed to tell you this, but I think you need to know what happened while you were up there.” She glanced at Billy and Sapphire to see if they were paying attention and then looked me in the eye before continuing. “Billy told me that Deoxys attacked you and then split itself into ten to surround you. After that you were obstructed from view and he could only hear you screaming. He attacked the Deoxys with all his Pokémon and his bare hands to save you. I overheard him tell Sapphire that before it teleported away it grabb-“, She was cut off by the arrival of Billy. He told her to go sit outside for a minute while he talked to me.
“What did she tell you?” He asked urgently.
“Nothing more than I knew before. She was about to tell me that Deoxys took something with it when it teleported away.”
“Desmond,” He started, “Deoxys used that stone you took from Ruby to create a copy of your DNA and brought it to life. So in all intents and purposes, you now have a twin.”
“I-ummm…What?” I stuttered. What the hell was going on? So he was telling me I had another one of me running around? I couldn’t believe this.
“We called your parents and told them what happened. Your dad told me he was on his way to help deal with th-“
“No!” I shouted jumping up and gathering my things off the side table. “I don’t need him to come help me! I can fix this on my own!” I ran from the room before Billy could comprehend what I was doing. I ran all the way to Mount Moon and climbed to the top as fast as I could. When I walked out onto the summit it was night and I could barely tell where anything was by the light of the moon. I sent out Blaze and the fire on his tail was just enough to make out the shapes of the rocks and a small crater where I had blacked out. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a sudden movement in the shadows. Whipping around I called out, “Who’s there?” No answer. Somehow I knew Deoxys’ creation’s name. “Cayden?” I called to the darkness. He stepped out from behind the boulder and I was too shocked to speak till he was less than three feet away from me. He looked just like me except for his style of clothing. He had black jeans tucked into combat boots and a studded belt with a black t shirt and a studded wrist band. His sling bad was the same make as mine, just black with red accents. He looked frightened and angry. Deoxys appeared out of nowhere and my mind was suddenly one fire as it gazed blankly at me. Blaze sent a blast of fire at it and distracted it enough for me to get up and throw out the rest of my Pokémon. They fought without me needing to call out commands to them. Deoxys was just dodging and deflecting their attacks while they fought with all their might. I ran to Cayden and asked for help but he just stared at me. I could see him having inner conflictions but he couldn’t make up his mind on what to do. He came out of his thoughts and looked at me. He muttered my name as if comprehending who I was and then he did something unexpected; he stole my bag and dumped its contents on the ground.
I yelled at him, “Hey! What do you think you’re doing?”
He said nothing and rummaged through my things till he found what he must have been looking for. He held up a bright shining rainbow feather that glowed slightly in the darkness. I took it from him and then he stood up and took off his own bag and pulled out a shining silver feather that also had a faint glow to it.
“What the hell is this thing and where did it come from?” I asked him intrigued as to how he had known I had this thing when I didn’t even know about it.
Deoxys blasted my Pokémon out of the way and turned towards the two of us with an angry cry. I stumbled backwards as it approached menacingly fast and Cayden Yelled at it, “Stop!”
It gave a harsh cry and stopped, floating barely ten feet from us. I slowly got to my feet and gathered up my things from the ground and put them back in their respectful pockets.
“Leave! Leave and never return!”
In my mind I heard a faint echo of, “No, you leave…” before I blacked out.
A few second later my vision returned and I was crouched on the ground exactly as I had been at the peak of the mountain and Cayden was standing the same distance from me. The only difference was that we were no longer at the peak. We were on the pavement outside the hospital and the lights coming from the glass doors were blinding. I slowly stood up and looked over at Cayden who was gazing around at the city with a look of awe on his face. I started to say something to get his attention, but just then the doors of the hospital burst open and I was trampled by my dad in his hurry to come save me at Mount Moon. He tripped over me and we fell to the ground in a heap of flailing limbs.
“Desmond!?” Exclaimed my dad.
I just groaned under the weight of my dad and tried to push him off of me. He stood up and brushed himself off before extending his hand to help me up. I grabbed his hand and started to pull myself up, but Cayden chose that moment to speak out. “Dad?”
My dad dropped me back to the ground and turned to face my copy. It was obvious that no one had filled him in to what was going on by the fact that his face drained of blood at the sight of Cayden. He gapped at me on the ground and then looked back to Cayden. He keeled over and I was almost crushed by his weight again if I hadn’t rolled out of the way. I clambered to my feet again just as Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald burst out of the door. Emerald and Ruby froze in their tracks but Sapphire kept walking and tripped over my dad’s limp body. Ruby helped her up before she could realize what she had tripped over. He told her to go get Nurse Joy and then he and Emerald picked up my dad and carried him into the hospital. Sapphire came back with Nurse Joy and a stretcher. The nurse wheeled him to the nearest empty room and checked out his pupils, asked what had happened and told emerald to wait with him. She took me and Cayden to a different room that had lots of screens in it that showed different sets of data. Ruby and Sapphire stopped at the door and wished us luck. The nurse closed the door and told us to each lie down on opposite beds and both of us obliged. She rummaged around in a desk beside one of the screens and turned around holding two syringes. Cayden and I both jumped up off our beds and I let out Ourea as an extra precaution. Nurse Joy looked surprised and put down the needles on the desk and typed something into the computer. The door sealed itself and my brother grabbed a Pokeball off a tray behind him. Releasing it, he discovered that it was an Axew.
The nurse warned him, “Don’t mess with that Pokémon, it doesn’t listen to anyone since it was abandoned by its former trainer.”
“Use Headbutt on the door!”
The Axew proved the nurse wrong by smashing open the door and Cayden bolted through the door with the Axew in tow. I quickly followed and heard the front door slide closed. My dad had woken up in the commotion and Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald burst out of the room with my dad groggily following them. My cousin came running in the front doors, asked where Des was going and saw me standing there. She looked so confused and she burst out in tears. I made to go comfort her, but my dad stopped me and told me that maybe now was not the best time. He went and took her in the direction of the cafeteria to talk. I could hear their muffled voices if I pressed my ear to the doors but I couldn’t make out everything they were saying. The doors of the hospital opened and in walked a girl who looked about my age. She had pale, blue eyes that seemed to see into your very soul and dark, red hair that was just past her shoulders and tied up into a ponytail. She wore an old navy blue hoodie and jeans.
Sapphire called to the girl, “Kyra, you forgot something.”
Kyra stopped and looked around, puzzled; She spotted a Treeko crouched at the door of the hospital. “Oops”, she quickly walked back to the door and opened it to let in the Pokémon. It leaped up to her shoulder with surprising agility.
With a start I realised that I had been staring and looked around the room for something else to pretend to look at before she noticed. In my search I caught Ruby’s eye and he smirked and gave a light chuckle. I opened my mouth to ask why he was looking at me when the door to the cafeteria opened and Sahlysse and my dad came out into the waiting area.
My dad caught sight of the young girl and introduced himself, “Hello, you must be Kyra. My name is Red.”
“How do you know my name?”
“Your father and I go way back. We met at the World League Championships.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s a gathering of all the regional champions and we have a tourney to find out who is the best trainer in the world.”
She turned to Ruby and asked, “Did you win daddy?”
He shook his head. “No, Red won. I only made it to the semi-finals.”
I boasted, “Only one person has ever beat my dad, But he didn’t bother to show up for the tourney because he was up on Mount Silver and none of the messenger birds could survive the conditions to deliver it. Even if he had gone to the tourney, dad would have still won.”
“Who got second?” Kyra asked while she counted off the other possible trainers that would have for sure been at the tourney.
“Me.” Declared Sapphire, stepping forward.
Kyra looked at her mother in awe. “You were a league champion?”
“I beat the Hoenn League before your dad even got there.”
“That’s only because I stopped at the Pokémon center before heading into Victory Road.” Ruby countered.
“Why are we all here?” Kyra asked, getting down to business.
Emerald came out of the washroom and Kyra turned and looked at him. “Hello, you must be my niece, Kyra.” He stretched out his hand to shake hers, but she ran in for a hug instead. He looked surprised at how accepting she was of the fact that he had suddenly come out of nowhere but he hugged her back after his surprise wore off. “I’m your Uncle Emerald.”
“Excuse me, but what are we going to do about Deoxys? It’s still up there and we don’t want any more doppelgangers.”
“Desmond is right, we need to find out what it’s doing and find some way to control it.” Ruby agreed. “What do you suggest, Red?”
“We should capture it and bring it to its own safe haven where it won’t be stumbled upon by travelers and where it will be safe from Team Snagem. If we leave it be, it will get too comfortable with this world and start to venture out to other places. We don’t need the world population doubling with the state the world is in. Do we all agree, or are there any other suggestions?”
“Agreed.” We all chimed.
The next morning Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, My dad and I headed out for the peak. Kyra and Sahlysse stayed behind because Ruby and my dad forbid them. Upon reaching the peak we saw three people already up there: A goon of some criminal team, dressed in a futuristic getup; a man with silver hair, a black trench coat, brown workpants and a white t-shirt underneath his trench coat; he looked to be at least 6 feet tall and at his side stood a black and red Charizard, and….Cayden?
What the hell was Cayden doing here with this man, who appeared to be an admin for the team the goon belonged to? The man stooped down and picked up a pure black Pokeball and noticed the group of us standing at the cave entrance that lead back into the mountain. He straightened up and smoothed his coat before dramatically speaking.
“It appears that we have some guests,” he announced to Cayden and the grunt.
Sapphire stepped forward and called, “Who are you and what are you doing here?”
“My name is Drake, second in command of Team Snagem. I’m here to capture this Pokémon for Wes so he can use it to clone the legendary Pokémon and create the ultimate Shadow Pokémon without risking killing a one of a kind Pokémon. Anything else you would like to know, or can we be on our way?”
“What are you doing with my son?” Demanded my dad.
“This isn’t your son, this is Deoxys’ creation.” Came Drake’s calm reply, “That is your son.” He gestured towards me and I glared at him.
Suddenly an Absol pounced out from behind a rock onto the grunt and sent him flying towards the small company we had brought up to the peak. He stood up looking around stupidly. Drake’s calming voice was suddenly sharp as a whip as he gave his Charizard a command. “Metal Claw!”
The Charizard was a blur as it flew at the Absol. “Block it!” came a self-assured voice. Kyra stepped out from where the Absol had pounced. The Absol blocked the first slash of metalized claws without hesitation, but when the second blow hit its defenses broke and its head was slammed into the ground and it didn’t get up. The Charizard made to continue its savage attack on the poor Pokémon and Kyra screamed an agonising, “No!”
“Ourea, use Rock Slide!” A pile of rocks tumbled from the jagged tip of the mountain to where we all were standing, concentrated on the shiny Charizard. It paused in its attack and all hell broke loose: The grunt regained his bearings and released his Pokémon, my dad, Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald and I sent out our Pokémon as well, Cayden ran to the entrance of the lower levels of the mountain and I ran through the fray towards Kyra. Kyra was making a beeline for her fainted Pokémon and as I ran for her I saw Drake eyeing the Absol with one of his black Pokeballs in hand. Realising what he was planning I changed my course and ran straight for him instead. He caught sight of me and smirked, knowing I knew what he was about to do, he threw the Snagball at her Absol. I ran up Emerald’s Aggron’s back and jumped for the Snagball hoping to catch it midair. For a split second I thought I had aimed for the wrong trajectory and missed it, then it was in my hand and I rolled across the ground, landing the roll on my feet and continuing to run at Drake. The ball was cold to my touch and seemed to feel like it had a dark aura about it. He fingered another Snagball at his belt and I realised that even if my Pokémon weren’t busy fighting their own battles, I was no match for him yet. I stopped and swore that one day I would beat him in battle, one on one, before turning and heading back towards Kyra to help her with Absol. I dropped to my knees beside her and started to go through my bag. Finding what I was looking for, I handed her a Revive. She pulled the Pokémon’s head into her lap and fed it the Revive, waking the Pokémon and healing it just enough for it to function. I stood up to get back into the fray and noticed that the grunt was taken down and Cayden was nowhere in sight; Drake’s Charizard was the only opposing Pokémon still standing and a lot of our own Pokémon were seriously injured.
In his unnervingly calm voice, Drake spoke to us all as a group, “Do you really want to try me? Your forces are weakened and your ordinary Pokémon are no match for my Shadow Pokémon.”
We hesitated and he jumped onto his Charizard’s back and took off into the mountain after Cayden. Silence echoed on the peak before Sapphire wheeled on Kyra and started lecturing her about not listening to what she was told and putting herself in danger. Emerald interrupted Sapphire and asked what we were going to do about Team Snagem.
“Going after them will be pointless,” answered Red, “we need to recuperate and heal our Pokémon before we even think about chasing after Drake. His Pokémon are unnaturally strong. It’s probably because they’re shadow Pokémon and they don’t hold back. I wouldn’t put it past him to have use Rare Candies on they them too.”
My dad had said his farewells at the edge of town before flying off towards the Pokémon League Headquarters; So I was left with Kyra, Sapphire and Emerald while Ruby went to the mart to get more supplies. Sahlysse wasn’t waiting for us at the hospital when we got inside and she wasn’t at the museum either. That left only one place she could be, the Gym.
With my hand on the door I could already hear the battle raging inside. Upon opening the door and wandering in to see how the battle was going, Delphi skidded across the ground at my feet, stopping itself before it flew out the door. Getting up, it blasted a powerful stream of water at the giant rock snake, Onyx. It crashed to the ground in defeat and Billy walked forward to congratulate her on her victory.
“Well done Sahlysse. I thought I almost had you when your Pokémon started to evolve mid-battle. That was one of the quickest evolutions I’ve ever witnessed!” He noticed me and exclaimed, “Ah, Desmond, you came just in time. Sahlysse, I'm proud to present you with this Official Pokémon League Boulderbadge.” He placed the badge in her hand and she closed her hand around it grinning to herself.”
“Thanks Billy.”
He nodded to me before turning back to tend to his Onyx and Sahlysse and I headed back to the Pokémon Center where Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald and Kyra were waiting for me to return with Sahlysse. Walking into the Pokémon Center, I noticed that there were a lot of Pokémon eggs on display by the counter with a take one sign above them. I asked the nurse why there were so many eggs being given away and she had to explain that the power in the Pokémon Center had gone off last night freeing all the Pokémon that were in overnight care. They had all mated and there were eggs everywhere by the time she got things under control. She told me to take two because I only had three Pokémon and she needed to get rid of them as fast as possible before they hatched. Sahlysse took an orange one and I took a yellow, speckled one and a green one with small, red spots.
“How long will do you think these take to hatch?” I asked Sahlysse.
The nurse interrupted, “Well that all depends on how you tend them and what kind of Pokémon is inside.”
“What Pokémon will these hatch into?”
“That m’dear, will be a surprise.”
“But can’t you just go back into your records and see what Pokémon were here during the blackout?”
“Nope, we lost a lot of data in the blackout.”
I rolled my eyes at the very unhelpful nurse. We walked over the Hoenn based trainers and they were having a heated discussion about what they were going to do. Sapphire and Ruby were going to head home, but Kyra was refusing to go cause she wanted to be free of her parents always coming to rescue her if something went wrong. She wanted to take care of herself while she took the Pokémon League challenge. Sapphire wouldn’t have it and Ruby looked like he could care less at that moment. Emerald seemed to be on Kyra’s side cause when Sapphire told Kyra that she would not have her daughter exploring the dangers of the world without someone to help her when needed, she wasn’t going to at all, he suggested that She travel with me and Sahlysse. Realising they had an audience, Sapphire and Kyra wheeled towards us. Kyra’s face lit up when she saw the argument swinging in her favour.
“Yeah, I could go with Des and Sahlysse!” she piped up.
Her mother seemed about to argue when Ruby vetoed her. “She will be fine with them, he has enough skill to take care of them all and Sahlysse is on her way to becoming a great trainer as well. Besides”, he went on calmly, “She has two Pokémon that are pretty strong considering she doesn’t even have a badge from any region yet.”
Accepting her defeat, Sapphire pulled Kyra into a big hug and whispered in her ear, “Be safe, and remember, I love you.”
Kyra hugged her mom. “Love you too.”
“Welcome to the Pewter City Pokémon Gym!” I exclaimed to our new companion. “We have spent a bit of time here over the past few days.”
Billy called out to us as we entered the gym, “What? You miss me already?”
“You know it!” I called back with semi-fake enthusiasm.
When we got up close he noticed that we had Kyra with us. “Ah, you brought a friend to take the gym challenge.” He nodded smugly. “So be it.”