Nestled at the base of rugged, grey cliffs, Pewter City stood as a quiet but sturdy guardian of Kanto's western edge. Known for its rocky terrain and ancient stone buildings, the city carried a sense of timelessness, where every cobbled path and weathered monument whispered stories of battles fought in the last great war.
At its heart stood the Pewter Gym, a solid structure of iron and stone, home to Flint and the legacy of Rock-type Pokémon. The city also housed a renowned museum, filled with fossils and relics from the prehistoric world of Pokémon.
Despite its rough exterior, Pewter offered a warmth and resilience that left a lasting impression on every trainer who passed through its gates.
It was only a fifteen-minute walk from the Pokémon Centre to the Pewter City Gym, and the gym itself wasn't built: it was carved.
Hewn directly from a single colossal boulder that jutted out of the earth like the fossilized remains of a mountain, the gym stood as a monument to endurance and raw, unshaped power. Its outer surface was rough and uneven, veins of iron and quartz glinting faintly in the sunlight.
Challenging this gym felt less like entering a building and more like stepping into the heart of the mountain itself, ancient, unmoving, and ready to test whether you were strong enough to stand against it.
When Daemon finally reached the gym, he was greeted by a large queue of trainers that stretched all around the block, waiting for their turn to sign up.
"Ra..." The psychic-type groaned, and just as she had predicted, it took the duo an hour to finally get inside the gym.
There was a receptionist in the lobby who helped trainers sign up for a battle, and he sported a brown uniform with a red Pokeball on the left side of the shirt. Above him, there was a screen with all the scheduled matches, and the monitor changed days every so often.
Daemon groaned internally when he realized that Flint had been booked for the next week and a half already, and he'd have to wait that long to challenge him.
The truth was that the situation was a mixed bag.
On one hand, he would have more time to train his starter after her recent growth in strength, but on the other, he would feel the stress build up the entire time. If he had a say, Daemon wanted to be done with it and then focus on getting the dragon-type under his control.
'Or I can use this week and a half to do the same.' Since the battle would be two vs two, Daemon would always prefer to go in with two ready-to-fight Pokémon, even though he had a strategy to take down Flint with just Ralts. 'But I would still prefer a fight now and train Deino later.'
However, he couldn't really blame the way the gym was organized either.
Every match was scheduled to last fifteen minutes at most, and then there'd be a five-minute break in between. That meant that Flint would be battling for the majority of his day, from eight in the morning until the gym finally closed at seven every single night for the foreseeable future.
'I love battling, but there is no amount of money anyone could pay me to do this job.'
"Next!" he heard.
Finally, after an annoying wait, it was his turn, but he walked up to the receptionist with a smile.
"Good afternoon, and welcome to the Pewter gym," the receptionist said. "Are you here to sign up for a gym battle?"
"Yeah," the black-haired boy replied.
"Alright. Trainer ID, please." The receptionist asked, and the boy quickly handed him his ID. "Daemon Aragon…" The former muttered as he typed something on his computer. After ten seconds or so, he handed the young trainer a piece of paper and a pen. "Read through this and answer the questions honestly. Lying on any of these is grounds for disqualification from the circuit."
Daemon understood right away what the questionnaire was for after reading the first question.
Is this your first time participating in the League Circuit? If not, how many times have you done so, and how many badges did you get during your most successful year?
They were gauging their skill level to know what Pokémon to use against them. The questions he found the most interesting were:
Have you joined any of the Circuits in other regions? If so, which ones and how far did you get?
How many Pokémon do you currently own? (Make sure to warn a gym official if you catch another Pokémon while waiting for your match).
Daemon answered all of them honestly and handed back the paper. The receptionist typed away for another minute or so and then placed his form in a drawer full of them.
"Alright, Mr. Aragon. Let me explain how this gym works to you very quickly. In three days at 1:40 pm, you'll have to battle one of our gym trainers. If you win, you move on and get a battle with Flint a week later, but if you lose, you have to wait two weeks to sign up again. This also applies if you miss your battle, by the way. We'll only wait for five minutes until you're counted as missing, so don't be late."
The receptionist clicked his mouse a few times, and the black-haired boy heard a small ~ding~ in his ears from the speakers of the pokedex-glasses. Of course, it was soft enough that only he could hear.
"Your pokedex has been updated with a time ticket. And let me repeat, do not be late. Any questions?"
Daemon thought for a moment and then shook his head.
"Next!" the receptionist yelled immediately.
The black-haired boy and his Ralts walked past the queue of trainers that had only gotten longer than when he had arrived.
'No wonder they need to sort out the capable ones from the incapable to not waste Flint's already tight schedule.'
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Stone and Steam was a cafe run by a local family of Pewter City for generations.
Famous for its coffee and breakfast sandwiches for both humans and Pokémon, it had people lining up for it throughout the day.
Daemon once again entered the line while Ralts had already resigned into her pokeball until the food was available to her. As much as they regretted not eating in the Pokémon Centre, they also knew the line-up for registration would be even worse had the duo delayed any longer than they had.
Since the line for the order was long, Daemon decided to do some research for his future roster.
He looked through all the entries of Pokémon found in the Kanto Region, as well as their known movesets, followed by the route which had a high chance of encounters with such Pokémon.
His carry limit was six, of which two spots were already filled. And since his first two Pokémon were so exceptional, Daemon now had even higher expectations for his future team members.
After all, as much as he wanted to qualify for the Indigo League, any sane trainer knew how hard it was to do so in the first year of their journey.
Even the trainers with the finest of resources could never match up to the years of experience and training the senior trainers had. Just the physical strength of their Pokémon far surpassed the imaginations of young trainers.
Moreover, it took a lot of time to fully evolve a Pokémon. Rare were the cases where a new trainer had qualified for the league, much less with a team of fully evolved Pokémon. Unless it was a team full of bug-types or Pokémon that evolved with evolutionary stones.
And to add on that, his Pokémon were known to evolve very slowly, especially the dragon-type.
Daemon wasn't even sure if Deino would evolve into a Zweilous in any time less than two years. That was how difficult it was to train this dragon-type, or any other pseudo-legendary, for a matter of fact.
'Alice has a good chance of evolving into her final evolution,' he thought to himself.
Ralts was already close to evolving, which meant she had more than enough time to train for her last evolution. However, the duo would prefer to delay the evolutions as much as possible and hiding the nature of her being a shiny Pokémon was not the only reason.
Evolutions... they brought along with them a strength multiplier which was large, the stronger a Pokémon was before its evolution. So, it was not uncommon for trainers to delay their Pokémon's evolution.
Of course, suppressing the evolution for longer periods of time was more detrimental than it was helpful. So, a trainer had to judge for themselves and sometimes, not risk it.
Daemon planned to buy an Everstone and use it to delay the evolution for as long as it was possible. He was not in a hurry for results and was planning for the long term rather than aiming to win the league in the first year as a trainer.
Even the youngest conference winner had taken three years to do so, and she was now among the strongest trainers in the world.
Therefore, he was not in a hurry to catch his third Pokémon when he already had his hands tied with the second. But it was never too late to look into what kind of Pokémon he wanted.
Additionally, he wanted to stick to the plan...
Quality over quantity.
It was true he would not catch a weak Pokémon like Caterpie, Weedle and the likes, but it did not mean he hated or looked down upon them. His love for Pokémon was second only to his love for Pokémon Battles.
However, every spot in his team was sacred, and every Pokémon on his team was a partner he would never let go of. He was building a team that would always stand by each other, regardless of circumstances and treat each other as family.
He had high expectations for himself and his future team, his first two Pokémon already made sure he would not settle for mediocrity.
With one last look, he put away his Pokedex...it was almost his turn to order.
The line inside the café was moving slowly, just enough to be annoying, not enough to complain about. Daemon now stood near the front, arms loosely crossed, his black eyes scanning the menu board, and soon he knew what he wanted.
"Good morning, what can I get for you?"
"Can I get a large protein shake with your 'morning special'? Also, I need a full serving of Pokémon food for a psychic-fairy-type."
Simultaneously, while he was ordering, the glass doors behind him swung open.
Then...she walked in.
Tall, poised, and utterly unbothered by the room she'd just stolen the air from. Her long, golden-blonde hair shimmered under the sunlight that entered through the open windows as it spilled over one shoulder.
While the receptionist was punching in his order, Daemon's eyes fell upon her and blinked once. Then again, slower.
She wore a black dress that hugged her body and a long black coat that reached her knees. Although she seemed to have walked out of a cave, evident from the dirt on her clothes, she wore black heels that accentuated her long legs.
Her face, it was perfection, divinity turned human and yet, as if she was an illusion, her face never seemed to register in one's brain...people might even overlook her presence if they did not look carefully enough...like a certain black-haired boy.
Daemon wasn't the type to stare.
But for a moment, something in his chest shifted quite subtly, like the sudden skip of a beat before the heart catches up. His eyes followed her without meaning to as she made a beeline for the barista working behind the side counter.
"Hi, I need to use the washroom. It's kind of urgent."
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[Author's Note]: Yes, we all know who she is. But the image I will use of her is posted in the paragraph comment. It is not from any anime or games since they are too "unreal," and therefore, I chose something that I thought looked much like her.
This is what she will look like in this fanfic.
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