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I have to work on episode 2 of Chio Hall, I say a year ago, so in the meantime here's this story I came up with and then immediately came up with a sequel which I'll post after.
Writing in only third person for this and not having anyone named leads to a lot of pronoun usage. No one else is gendered aside from the main perspective.
When he was a child, he was fascinated with the stars. One of his favorite presents was a telescope where he’d just look at the stars and note them down. His favorite Pokemon to study for a while ended up being Minior, but clefairy was the closest he’d get in the Kanto region. The line was said to come from a meteor. His dream was to win the Pokemon league with one.
The one thing he ever won, he noted as he laid flat on the ground, was being born first. There’s a sort of legend based on the unestablished rules of the Pokemon world based on trainers. The first was that there would always be a rival for anyone who went into the league circuit. Doesn’t matter if they weren’t born in the same town, or came from wildly different circumstances. Everyone had a rival, it was basically required for keeping oneself going, to always push and be better. And of course, he picked his rival as his next door neighbor.
It only made sense in his mind when he watched a tournament on TV, probably about the legends from Kanto. And he lived in Kanto too! It only made sense that out of everyone in his small town, he’d pick the person who lived next to him. There wasn’t a choice in the matter. Rivals were meant to encourage each other, after all.
He lost his first battle despite the type disadvantage.
“It was just a fluke, ya know! A rival’s always gotta keep their rival sharp!”
He lost the next one as well. He took a good long look at his badge case, filled with two shining badges, and wondered if it actually meant much when their rival didn’t break a sweat when battling.
By the fourth badge, frustration was starting to set in. He threw aside the training books, his memo for Pokemon training, and started jogging back and forth on the beach for a few weeks. The gym leader had come out at one point.
“You’re making your Pokemon concerned for your well being.” They had told him.
“I don’t know what to do.” And wasn’t that a statement. Was he too fixated on getting a victory that he was neglecting everything else on his life? But he wasn’t even paying attention to his Pokemon. Too busy feeling sorry for his own self when his rival might as well be across the region at this point probably making friends with everyone they ever met while he had no one in his court. The sponsorship was given to them.
The Pokemon in the area were always attracted to them.
Even his parents loved them more than him.
There were rumors that a new team was in the region to pick up the power vacuum left behind when team rocket exploded unceremoniously twice. It barely affected him outside of having to battle a few grunts until his fifth badge where he was dragged off kicking and screaming.
“This is the rival of that kid that’s always getting in our way?”
“Isn’t he kind of a weakling? I heard he’s got nothing but a losing streak.”
“Oh, so they only battle them out of pity.”
He was forced into battle after battle. But they lost anyways. There was nothing he could do as he was brought… he didn’t know where. The leader of the team looked down on him as the grunts laughed.
“Seriously? They said there were two kids that would be able to summon the legend. This obviously isn’t the one.”
He tried raising the last Pokemon he had—his starter didn’t come out for the battle.
“I can’t deal with liabilities. Gengar, hypnosis and then nightmare.”
And after that, nothing.
---------------------
He had a dream while being knocked out. It was pleasant enough at first. It reminded him of one of the games he played as a kid.
“Okay, we’re gonna play Growlithe and Mareep! It’s easy enough. One of us is the Growlithe, the other is a houndour, and the rest are mareep. It’s like tag. I’ll be the Growlithe.”
Everyone’s faces were blurry aside from his rival, who sat next to him. Except, this wasn’t when they were rivals, but just when they were neighbors and children and maybe even friends.
“If you’re the houndour, you have to tag all the mareep. The Growlithe can chase you though.”
One of the dream kids raised their hands. They were the youngest one in the crowd of blurred out figures.
“What does the mareep do?”
“Oh. Uh. Nothing.” It was a kid’s game with rules made up for a kid.
“Okay then, you should be the mareep. You’re kind of useless anyways.” Then the kids started snickering.
“What? No. I’m the Growlithe.”
“No, you’re a mareep, because you’re useless! You can’t win a single battle! No one likes you! Useless! I’ll spell it out for you! U-s-e-l-e-s-s!”
And his ears were ringing with kids laughing, which morphed into adults, which morphed into everyone he had ever met. Even the Pokemon were laughing.
If there’s one thing out of that nightmare, it’s that he never figured out if his rival was a Growlithe or a houndour. Scratch that. A houndoom.
---------------------
The next thing he woke up to was a Pokémon looking over him while grunts were scattered around. The team leader was sweating as his rival stood still with that same blank expression they always wore. The only adult in the room swore and pulled out a seventh pokeball.
Some childish part of his brain (I’m still a child) chimed up with hey, that’s cheating.
“Like hell I’m going back to jail because of some stupid brat and her (their, that same part of his brain said) loser friend! Electrode, explosion!”
Even now, watching it go off in front of my rival, I don’t know why I moved ahead.
“It was a broken arm,” the center told me. “It could’ve been worse, could’ve had burns, but something else took the brunt of the blast.”
“No one else came to visit aside from the trainer that brought you”, they said, and left him in his room.
“Have you ever considered getting hobbies outside of the league?” The nurse asked in a sweet tone. It wasn’t like he had a choice while his arm had to heal.
“I need to send out an email to someone.” If they even checked the phone, then there wouldn’t be a need to have anyone worry. If anyone even cared at this point.
Broke arm. League circuit will be postponed for a few months depending on how it goes.
Simple enough.
The first few weeks had no one respond to his phone. He pet his Pokemon more often and they refused to let him out of their sight. One would always follow, even if it was difficult with the larger ones.
The other patients in the hospital were mostly younger, but a few were older. Some, he learned, had gotten major burnout from the circuits even before they ended up injured in some incident from training or battles. No one had ever been hurt by something like him.
“Did anyone ever visit?” They’d mostly say no.
“My parents were more disappointed that I didn’t make to the elite four. Cut off communication entirely.” His parents only called to ask how his rival was doing.
“The professor asked me to return my starter. I didn’t, so they sent me an investigation. Still have the paperwork before they gave up.” He didn’t have a professor, but if he did, would it end up the same way…?
“It’s a view of cynicism, but maybe if I started earlier and wasn’t pushed into it, I’d have gotten further than four badges.” He stared at his badge case he kept in his pocket and stayed silent.
In the middle of the night, the window was quickly shoved open. He didn’t even have time to scream before his rival had looked over his arm. They did. Something. And his arm started glowing.
He woke up in the morning staring in creeping horror.
“Why, I’ll be!” The nurse said to his now healed arm. “It’s a mew blessed miracle.”
So chalk up literal legend powers to what his rival had.
It’s fixed! Even the photo had him looked baffled.
Good for you. Hey, did you see what your friend did? Someone finally sent back.
---------------------
The seventh badge had him get kidnapped again alongside someone who was a fan of his rival. At that point, this might as well happen, he had thought. The team leader had an eyepatch and generally looked worse for wear, but not enough to not monologue. Pokemon less, their face screamed desperation.
“ Seafoam islands is good enough to get a legendary Pokemon. The last time was a fluke, but this time I swear I’ll get vengeance!” Why did they feel the need to tell him explicitly.
“My rival will be beat if I have the power of legends! I’ll trounce their entire team and take over the region!” Seriously, he thought.
“Get over yourself. You can’t seriously be doing this all to get back at a single person?!”
To which the leader only smirked and responded “Oh, so you’ve given up on your rival too? Last I heard they had all the gym badges. All the leaders praise what they did. You could make a difference by fighting for me instead of always losing to them.”
“What, so I could lose for you instead? No way.” But the first question wasn’t answered.
The fan was the only person who could accurately navigate the seafoam islands on their Lapras, which made for an awkward moment when all of them were on it. The lapras stared at him and nodded its head a few times.
“You’d better not think about tossing me off to drown.” There went that idea.
To the awe of the three trapped on that awkward ride, the person they were all hoping to see was already at the bottom of the islands… Articuno gently bowing into their cupped hands. The team leader screamed.
“You didn’t even know, did you. You didn’t know how much I wanted this!” The fan took advantage of their anger to have them accidentally lose their balance on Lapras.
“Oh no! The team leader.” They started saying. “They fell into the water! What a shame that.” They paused. “No one was here to witness it or save them!”
There was no response back, but articuno snorted anyways.
---------------------
By the eighth badge, something had finally clicked in his brain that he was desperately trying to ignore only for it to be staring him in the face and actively battling him. The world seemed to revolve around his rival. It made no sense, but that was what he figured. Somewhere in that blank staring face was a being with such powerful charisma it inspired Pokemon to follow them and people to love them. It made people motivated to continue their journeys, for abandoned Pokemon to regain vigorously, for even legends to bow down to them and look at them with total adoration.
There were now three things established by this latest fight outside the Pokemon League.
The only solution? Scorched earth. Fleeing the region seemed like overkill, but there was Blue… Green… Teal… maybe… from Pallet Town, the big legend and his rival who did the exact same thing. Gravity worked like a magnetic attraction, and they were the comet who was about to cause a crater on the Earth. Maybe even further. They’d go to the core of the planet and cause an explosion as one last victory. And it wasn’t even out of spite. They only did it because they were supposed to. Rivals were meant to only crush the other.
He didn’t think, and it was more halfhazard delay tactics with his brain speeding towards a crash the longer he stood on this ground. Toxic spikes kept getting blown away? Just do it again, doesn’t matter. Brought out the legendary? Might as well make it one last stand.
None of what he did would stop them. As his head grew dizzy and he would’ve landed on his- weeks healed early- arm, his rival caught him.
“Well, looks like I’ve lost again!” Keep on the script. Do not make them think differently for a second. “I’ll keep training. Good luck at the championships!”
There was a period of dead silence. For some reason, he felt like a Mareep caught in the headlights.
His rival—no, his executioner, stared at him like he’d suddenly become a shiny Pokemon or something. They spoke.
“What did you say?”
He booked it.
Before that disastrous finale, he had ordered a ticket in advance from Vermillion City to a region further from Kanto that still allowed his Pokemon to stay in it. It was a risky gamble either way. Lost the battle? Fine enough, he was leaving anyways. Somehow win? It never came to mind. It was embarrassingly early to go now, so he just stayed at the center for a week and dyed his hair. Black was a good color, right? Average enough. He also changed his attire. Something that was different from his normal clothes that he used for sponsored battles. Basically, it screamed, “rookie trainer”, or maybe youngster. It wouldn’t help. Someone would inevitably recognize him within the week especially since whenever he turned on the TV it was nothing but the victory road getting torn through.
“That kid’s tearing through the circuit like crazy. Wonder what has them pissed off…”
It’s probably me, he thought, and went back to reading his travel brochure. A nice region where he can get into his new hobby, one that’s never been done by anyone in his family, even. Photography. Obviously a downgrade from being a trainer, but everyone’s a trainer. Maybe next time he could go for berry planting or something. He bought a camera and started taking photos of the local Pokemon. He had sent a letter to his parents even though they never answered. That was that, then. Not with a bang, but a whimper.
The boat had arrived just the day after they had become champion. He was quick to pack everything up (he brought very little) and get onto the boat where he noted an. Incredibly large crowd on the deck.
There’s no way, his mind screamed, and went back to his room.
He barely had any time to process that they had ditched the championship before there was a light knock on the door. He barely had it open before they had barreled in.
“The championship. You weren’t there.”
…he didn’t know what to say. Even with this stupid disguise, he was still recognized. What was he supposed to say? Sorry, I had to leave behind my dream because I realized you’ll always be better than me…?
“You’re my rival. Aren’t rivals supposed to keep each other sharp?” So he had said that last part out loud then.
He started laughing in front of the champion, and then crying.
notable things that didn’t make it in:
Writing in only third person for this and not having anyone named leads to a lot of pronoun usage. No one else is gendered aside from the main perspective.
When he was a child, he was fascinated with the stars. One of his favorite presents was a telescope where he’d just look at the stars and note them down. His favorite Pokemon to study for a while ended up being Minior, but clefairy was the closest he’d get in the Kanto region. The line was said to come from a meteor. His dream was to win the Pokemon league with one.
The one thing he ever won, he noted as he laid flat on the ground, was being born first. There’s a sort of legend based on the unestablished rules of the Pokemon world based on trainers. The first was that there would always be a rival for anyone who went into the league circuit. Doesn’t matter if they weren’t born in the same town, or came from wildly different circumstances. Everyone had a rival, it was basically required for keeping oneself going, to always push and be better. And of course, he picked his rival as his next door neighbor.
It only made sense in his mind when he watched a tournament on TV, probably about the legends from Kanto. And he lived in Kanto too! It only made sense that out of everyone in his small town, he’d pick the person who lived next to him. There wasn’t a choice in the matter. Rivals were meant to encourage each other, after all.
He lost his first battle despite the type disadvantage.
“It was just a fluke, ya know! A rival’s always gotta keep their rival sharp!”
He lost the next one as well. He took a good long look at his badge case, filled with two shining badges, and wondered if it actually meant much when their rival didn’t break a sweat when battling.
By the fourth badge, frustration was starting to set in. He threw aside the training books, his memo for Pokemon training, and started jogging back and forth on the beach for a few weeks. The gym leader had come out at one point.
“You’re making your Pokemon concerned for your well being.” They had told him.
“I don’t know what to do.” And wasn’t that a statement. Was he too fixated on getting a victory that he was neglecting everything else on his life? But he wasn’t even paying attention to his Pokemon. Too busy feeling sorry for his own self when his rival might as well be across the region at this point probably making friends with everyone they ever met while he had no one in his court. The sponsorship was given to them.
The Pokemon in the area were always attracted to them.
Even his parents loved them more than him.
There were rumors that a new team was in the region to pick up the power vacuum left behind when team rocket exploded unceremoniously twice. It barely affected him outside of having to battle a few grunts until his fifth badge where he was dragged off kicking and screaming.
“This is the rival of that kid that’s always getting in our way?”
“Isn’t he kind of a weakling? I heard he’s got nothing but a losing streak.”
“Oh, so they only battle them out of pity.”
He was forced into battle after battle. But they lost anyways. There was nothing he could do as he was brought… he didn’t know where. The leader of the team looked down on him as the grunts laughed.
“Seriously? They said there were two kids that would be able to summon the legend. This obviously isn’t the one.”
He tried raising the last Pokemon he had—his starter didn’t come out for the battle.
“I can’t deal with liabilities. Gengar, hypnosis and then nightmare.”
And after that, nothing.
---------------------
He had a dream while being knocked out. It was pleasant enough at first. It reminded him of one of the games he played as a kid.
“Okay, we’re gonna play Growlithe and Mareep! It’s easy enough. One of us is the Growlithe, the other is a houndour, and the rest are mareep. It’s like tag. I’ll be the Growlithe.”
Everyone’s faces were blurry aside from his rival, who sat next to him. Except, this wasn’t when they were rivals, but just when they were neighbors and children and maybe even friends.
“If you’re the houndour, you have to tag all the mareep. The Growlithe can chase you though.”
One of the dream kids raised their hands. They were the youngest one in the crowd of blurred out figures.
“What does the mareep do?”
“Oh. Uh. Nothing.” It was a kid’s game with rules made up for a kid.
“Okay then, you should be the mareep. You’re kind of useless anyways.” Then the kids started snickering.
“What? No. I’m the Growlithe.”
“No, you’re a mareep, because you’re useless! You can’t win a single battle! No one likes you! Useless! I’ll spell it out for you! U-s-e-l-e-s-s!”
And his ears were ringing with kids laughing, which morphed into adults, which morphed into everyone he had ever met. Even the Pokemon were laughing.
If there’s one thing out of that nightmare, it’s that he never figured out if his rival was a Growlithe or a houndour. Scratch that. A houndoom.
---------------------
The next thing he woke up to was a Pokémon looking over him while grunts were scattered around. The team leader was sweating as his rival stood still with that same blank expression they always wore. The only adult in the room swore and pulled out a seventh pokeball.
Some childish part of his brain (I’m still a child) chimed up with hey, that’s cheating.
“Like hell I’m going back to jail because of some stupid brat and her (their, that same part of his brain said) loser friend! Electrode, explosion!”
Even now, watching it go off in front of my rival, I don’t know why I moved ahead.
“It was a broken arm,” the center told me. “It could’ve been worse, could’ve had burns, but something else took the brunt of the blast.”
“No one else came to visit aside from the trainer that brought you”, they said, and left him in his room.
“Have you ever considered getting hobbies outside of the league?” The nurse asked in a sweet tone. It wasn’t like he had a choice while his arm had to heal.
“I need to send out an email to someone.” If they even checked the phone, then there wouldn’t be a need to have anyone worry. If anyone even cared at this point.
Broke arm. League circuit will be postponed for a few months depending on how it goes.
Simple enough.
The first few weeks had no one respond to his phone. He pet his Pokemon more often and they refused to let him out of their sight. One would always follow, even if it was difficult with the larger ones.
The other patients in the hospital were mostly younger, but a few were older. Some, he learned, had gotten major burnout from the circuits even before they ended up injured in some incident from training or battles. No one had ever been hurt by something like him.
“Did anyone ever visit?” They’d mostly say no.
“My parents were more disappointed that I didn’t make to the elite four. Cut off communication entirely.” His parents only called to ask how his rival was doing.
“The professor asked me to return my starter. I didn’t, so they sent me an investigation. Still have the paperwork before they gave up.” He didn’t have a professor, but if he did, would it end up the same way…?
“It’s a view of cynicism, but maybe if I started earlier and wasn’t pushed into it, I’d have gotten further than four badges.” He stared at his badge case he kept in his pocket and stayed silent.
In the middle of the night, the window was quickly shoved open. He didn’t even have time to scream before his rival had looked over his arm. They did. Something. And his arm started glowing.
He woke up in the morning staring in creeping horror.
“Why, I’ll be!” The nurse said to his now healed arm. “It’s a mew blessed miracle.”
So chalk up literal legend powers to what his rival had.
It’s fixed! Even the photo had him looked baffled.
Good for you. Hey, did you see what your friend did? Someone finally sent back.
---------------------
The seventh badge had him get kidnapped again alongside someone who was a fan of his rival. At that point, this might as well happen, he had thought. The team leader had an eyepatch and generally looked worse for wear, but not enough to not monologue. Pokemon less, their face screamed desperation.
“ Seafoam islands is good enough to get a legendary Pokemon. The last time was a fluke, but this time I swear I’ll get vengeance!” Why did they feel the need to tell him explicitly.
“My rival will be beat if I have the power of legends! I’ll trounce their entire team and take over the region!” Seriously, he thought.
“Get over yourself. You can’t seriously be doing this all to get back at a single person?!”
To which the leader only smirked and responded “Oh, so you’ve given up on your rival too? Last I heard they had all the gym badges. All the leaders praise what they did. You could make a difference by fighting for me instead of always losing to them.”
“What, so I could lose for you instead? No way.” But the first question wasn’t answered.
The fan was the only person who could accurately navigate the seafoam islands on their Lapras, which made for an awkward moment when all of them were on it. The lapras stared at him and nodded its head a few times.
“You’d better not think about tossing me off to drown.” There went that idea.
To the awe of the three trapped on that awkward ride, the person they were all hoping to see was already at the bottom of the islands… Articuno gently bowing into their cupped hands. The team leader screamed.
“You didn’t even know, did you. You didn’t know how much I wanted this!” The fan took advantage of their anger to have them accidentally lose their balance on Lapras.
“Oh no! The team leader.” They started saying. “They fell into the water! What a shame that.” They paused. “No one was here to witness it or save them!”
There was no response back, but articuno snorted anyways.
---------------------
By the eighth badge, something had finally clicked in his brain that he was desperately trying to ignore only for it to be staring him in the face and actively battling him. The world seemed to revolve around his rival. It made no sense, but that was what he figured. Somewhere in that blank staring face was a being with such powerful charisma it inspired Pokemon to follow them and people to love them. It made people motivated to continue their journeys, for abandoned Pokemon to regain vigorously, for even legends to bow down to them and look at them with total adoration.
There were now three things established by this latest fight outside the Pokemon League.
- No matter what strategy he’d use he’d still get trounced
- There was absolutely nothing in the way to championship which was going to go fast, like, Red fast.
- If the sweep did happen he’d known as the guy who was the rival who lost every fight to the champion of the region. Just like the one before him, and before him, and before him.
- Why’d they even put up with him for this long was baffling. There was never any reason for them to keep up with them aside from pity. It might as well have been him waving the white flag and giving up his money whenever he even bothered battling. But he couldn’t just quit. They’d know he quit because of them. Like a coward.
The only solution? Scorched earth. Fleeing the region seemed like overkill, but there was Blue… Green… Teal… maybe… from Pallet Town, the big legend and his rival who did the exact same thing. Gravity worked like a magnetic attraction, and they were the comet who was about to cause a crater on the Earth. Maybe even further. They’d go to the core of the planet and cause an explosion as one last victory. And it wasn’t even out of spite. They only did it because they were supposed to. Rivals were meant to only crush the other.
He didn’t think, and it was more halfhazard delay tactics with his brain speeding towards a crash the longer he stood on this ground. Toxic spikes kept getting blown away? Just do it again, doesn’t matter. Brought out the legendary? Might as well make it one last stand.
None of what he did would stop them. As his head grew dizzy and he would’ve landed on his- weeks healed early- arm, his rival caught him.
“Well, looks like I’ve lost again!” Keep on the script. Do not make them think differently for a second. “I’ll keep training. Good luck at the championships!”
There was a period of dead silence. For some reason, he felt like a Mareep caught in the headlights.
His rival—no, his executioner, stared at him like he’d suddenly become a shiny Pokemon or something. They spoke.
“What did you say?”
He booked it.
Before that disastrous finale, he had ordered a ticket in advance from Vermillion City to a region further from Kanto that still allowed his Pokemon to stay in it. It was a risky gamble either way. Lost the battle? Fine enough, he was leaving anyways. Somehow win? It never came to mind. It was embarrassingly early to go now, so he just stayed at the center for a week and dyed his hair. Black was a good color, right? Average enough. He also changed his attire. Something that was different from his normal clothes that he used for sponsored battles. Basically, it screamed, “rookie trainer”, or maybe youngster. It wouldn’t help. Someone would inevitably recognize him within the week especially since whenever he turned on the TV it was nothing but the victory road getting torn through.
“That kid’s tearing through the circuit like crazy. Wonder what has them pissed off…”
It’s probably me, he thought, and went back to reading his travel brochure. A nice region where he can get into his new hobby, one that’s never been done by anyone in his family, even. Photography. Obviously a downgrade from being a trainer, but everyone’s a trainer. Maybe next time he could go for berry planting or something. He bought a camera and started taking photos of the local Pokemon. He had sent a letter to his parents even though they never answered. That was that, then. Not with a bang, but a whimper.
The boat had arrived just the day after they had become champion. He was quick to pack everything up (he brought very little) and get onto the boat where he noted an. Incredibly large crowd on the deck.
There’s no way, his mind screamed, and went back to his room.
He barely had any time to process that they had ditched the championship before there was a light knock on the door. He barely had it open before they had barreled in.
“The championship. You weren’t there.”
…he didn’t know what to say. Even with this stupid disguise, he was still recognized. What was he supposed to say? Sorry, I had to leave behind my dream because I realized you’ll always be better than me…?
“You’re my rival. Aren’t rivals supposed to keep each other sharp?” So he had said that last part out loud then.
He started laughing in front of the champion, and then crying.
notable things that didn’t make it in:
- there’s only two towns in Kanto in the games outside of anime locations, so the two characters in loser’s orbit came from lavender town
- The entire basis of the story is based on rivals from later generations getting more and more frustrated personality wise based on the storylines handing things over to the player character with it coming to a head with Kieran. I just wrote it so that the rival here decides the best way to not lose their head is to get out of the cycle entirely, but it’s too late for them.
- I didn’t give a name to either character nor describe their Pokemon much because this was more about the characters than the Pokemon. I guess rival character might have Clefable but the only other catch is with Articuno and the "protagonist".
- these two being stuck in a region together will either make or break their tug of war friendship.
- Next time I write for Pokemon will likely be with Chio, stay golden, or the one shot I have for reboot where I make them iPad babies
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