Chapter Text
Grand spires of flame danced upon the horizon as Kris watched the horizon burn.
The Ilex Forest was burning, consumed in hungry hellfire. The night sky above the lush forest that covered all of southern Johto was known for being a canvas of stars and constellations. The stars were obscured as night was made day. Ash and soot blew from the breeze and caked the earth. Embers carried on the wind, looking for kindling to start their own fiery hell where they landed. Billowing clouds of black and white smoke strangled the sky.
Johto’s flat grasslands gave Kris an unobstructed view from atop the tallest of Elm’s observation towers. Cherrygrove City was washed in bright oranges and reds. The city was the closest to New Bark Town and a stone’s throw from the Ilex. Cherrygrove stood still, petrified, as the flames on the horizon painted a backdrop that Kris would never forget.
The heat was bleeding from the fires and being carried in the wind. Even in New Bark Town, a heat wave washed through the streets. Kris did not know what the closer cities and towns were suffering, but she could imagine.
The colorful roofs of the houses nearest to the edge of Azalea Town would be dark, colors extinguished under the cinders that accumulated. Townsfolk scattering, panicking, gathering at the Azalea Gym, clinging to whatever water-types they could find, all while inhaling embers that scorched their throats and scarred their lungs.
None of that would be as awful as the sounds. The cries of pidgey and hoothoot on the wind as their nests were made fuel and their eggs abandoned. Dozens of grass and bug-types fleeing away from the forest that once was a haven, seeking shelter and a reprieve from the boiling heat. Azalea was going to get overrun by panicked pokemon if they didn’t control the inferno soon.
Lyra had called her many things, but never an optimist.
Azalea Town was further from the fiery hell than Goldenrod City, though, and much smaller. The League would have placed its initial support in and around the megacenter. Kris picked up nervous chatter from the people around her and tried to map it out in her head.
Bugsy was somewhere in the inferno apparently, using the knowledge he’d gained of the great, green Ilex to try and divert the flames to lesser parts of the forest. Falkner had flown from Violet City and was scouring the Routes to make sure no trainers were trapped and, perhaps more importantly, making sure no trainers tried to interfere with the source. Whitney was putting every trainer to use in Goldenrod. The entire southern section of the city was evacuated. The parts of Route 34 not already engulfed in the blaze were being proactively burnt to stop the spread. Jasmine was there, throwing steel and rock and everything but the city itself to minimize damage.
The Elite Four circled the Ilex, preparing and waiting and watching, but never interfering with the source. Legends forbid they do something useful.
The fire just kept raging. Water-types were smoldering the firestorm, puffing up white smoke to further strangle the sky, but only from a distance. The League had teams on stand-by for any fires that sprung up in the Ilex, but they only mattered when the fire wasn’t this.
Kris watched through the tower’s telescope as the source sprung up towards the sky once more. A Flamethrower spewed from its maw, spiraling towards its target and encompassing a section of the forest. Red’s flying maverick, the charizard that had melted through Lorelei’s team just months ago, roared as the flygon it fought charged through the powerful attack.
The world burned as the two men clashed. The Earthshaker, Giovanni, and the Walk-On Champion, Red himself. Both had enough power to destroy a city, together they were putting Johto on its knees. The two had started near Mt. Silver, flattening everything in their wake as their duel moved west into Johto.
The men fought, battled, dueled, and tried to kill each other as the whole of Johto watched. The Viridian Gym Leader had to be somewhere out there, somewhere at ground zero, for Charizard dove once more and covered the earth with more hellfire tinged blue. Flygon, the mighty ground dragon that Giovanni had been pictured with many times, pursued with Dragon Rush, a Dragon Breath lapping at its insectoid mouth. The earth shook not for the first time. Kris wondered if that was Giovanni’s rhyperior or Red’s snorlax causing that particular tremor.
Kris stood, frozen, as the night played out. The sun eventually broke over the horizon and the night ended as they always did. The inferno was doused by dawn and the battle at its heart with it. Afterwards, Giovanni was missing and Red was on the warpath. The Pallet Prodigy turned Indigo Champion was raging and chasing ghosts, cities across Johto and Kanto were swept over by the shape of the Champion atop his mighty charizard as the duo sought to abolish all Rocket clusters in Indigo.
Red all but boiled the Lake of Rage when he found a high-ranking Rocket Executive there. The Goldenrod Radio Tower was taken over by Rockets soon after Giovanni’s disappearance. Red refused their demands, whatever they had been, and instead had his venusaur crumble the massive structure with the terrorists inside.
They called the night many things. In Kanto, they named it the Earthshaker's Insurgency, the Rocket Uprising, the Night of Scorched Earth.
In Johto they called it something different.
Red’s Rampage.
Kris didn’t care what it was called. She saw it far more simply than most. Two opposing powers clashed over Johto, did as they liked and damn the rest of them.
Red, Giovanni. They were the same in the end. They’d destroyed her region, her home.
She swore she’d never let it happen again.
.—.—.—.
The hoothoot alarm clock screeched a wake up call as the plastic flying-type popped its wings out. Kris shoved its wings down immediately, silencing it. She was already up and ready before her alarm had sounded.
Today was the first step in her journey. She wouldn’t be late, not when her starter awaited her.
Kris trudged downstairs, teal hair thrown into a loose bun rather than her usual double ponytail. It was far too early in the morning for her to care about her appearance. Her headband sat atop her head snuggly, pulling back the frazzled bangs and keeping them from her face. She rubbed her eyes and stifled a yawn. She yelped as she missed the last step. She braced for a hard landing on the wooden floor but was stopped short.
She opened her eyes again. A blue blob looked back at her with a large smile as it all but hugged her to stop her fall. It opened its mouth and did a yelp that was meant to mimic her own. Kris laughed lightly as she carefully removed herself from the pokemon’s embrace. “Thanks for the save, Wax. What would we do without you?”
Her mother’s wobbuffet gave an excited salute. He deflated when the weight was off him and then scurred off towards the kitchen. Kris watched the psychic-type run off to bother whoever was in the kitchen. Another yelp brought a surprised gasp and a plate clattering. Her mother, then.
She joined them in the kitchen. She stepped carefully around the broken plate on the ground, jagged ceramic shards littering the ground from where it had been dropped. Her mother was chastising Wax, telling the pokemon yet again that startling someone while cooking was a definite don’t. Kris grabbed the broom even as she smiled. She dropped the dustpan on the floor and adjusted it with her foot. She made an expectant motion before handing Wax the broom. The wobbuffet grumbled as he swept up his mess.
“Thanks, sweety.” Her mother handed her another plate, unbroken, that held a platter of pancakes with a side of scrambled eggs that looked divine. She felt her mouth water. Crystal Davis was known for her incredible skill in the kitchen. Kris wondered if that was a skill every mother possessed, it sure seemed that way.
Kris all but inhaled the food the second she sat at the dining table. Crystal rolled her eyes with a smile. The teen sipped her glass of juice as she glanced at the clock. “I need to be at Elm’s in half an hour. Is Ethan not here yet?”
Ethan was her best friend, the neighbor she had known since they were kids. They had long decided they would get their starters together and battle each other. They would both challenge the Gym circuit then meet each other in the finals of the Conference, battling for the Silver Cup.
“He was, just before you came downstairs.” Crystal hummed and flipped a pancake on the stove, a small bit of batter splashing on her apron. “He and Lyra said they would meet you at Elm’s. Not patient, that one, but she is such a nice girl.”
Kris knew her face pinched even before she felt it. Lyra, of course it was her. Perfect Lyra that could do no wrong. Nice Lyra who wrapped everyone in New Bark Town around her finger. Polite Lyra that was everything Kris was not. She dropped her fork and swallowed the last bite of her eggs. Her plate was clean but she wasn’t full. She wasn’t hungry anymore, though, and deposited her dishes into the sink. “Thanks for breakfast. I’m going to grab my bag and get to Elm’s.”
Crystal nodded before setting down her spatula. She flipped the strap of the apron over her neck. The top of the cloth covered the stain on her lower half as she all but crushed Kris into a hug. “Oh, you’ve gotten so big so fast. I know you’re going to do great things, sweety. The League won’t know what to do when you blast into the Conference!”
Kris hugged back just as strongly. No, they wouldn’t.
.—.—.—.
Professor Elm was scatterbrained, to say the least. His lab was only kept in check by the assistants that the man ran ragged. Even now, the man’s office was cluttered. Papers were thrown in loose piles on the desk, boxes that had been forgotten about were pushed to the side to make a walking path, books regarding pokemon biology and evolution theory propped up a loose table leg, and the computer screen behind the man displayed a warning to keep debris clear of its ports. A warning that seemed to go unheeded.
The man was certainly no Samuel Oak, despite having been his student many years.
Ethan saw her first, the brim of his black and yellow hat bobbing as he waved her over. He grinned as though he had nothing to be ashamed of. “Yo, Kris! About time you got here.”
Kris frowned, lines etching themselves in her brow. “You could have waited. We agreed to walk here together.”
Ethan shrugged, as though he still had nothing to be ashamed of. “Lyra thought we should get here early. Good thing, too. Elm completely forgot we were coming today. He’s gathering up the stuff now.”
Kris clenched her fist as a white hat puffed out from behind Ethan. Lyra smiled at her and made an ‘oh’ sound, as if just realizing someone else had arrived. “Kris, how are you? It seemed like you were running late, so I wanted to make sure Elm was prepared for all of us.”
By the Beasts, if Kris didn’t pull those pigtails out of the other girl’s head before they left New Bark then it would be a miracle. “Lyra,” she spit out the name like an arbok spit venom. “I wasn’t running late.”
Lyra clicked her tongue and shook her head, as if she was talking to a child. “Oh, it's fine. We’re all here now and Elm will be sure to give all of us our starters.”
Ethan pumped his fist at the words. “Yeah, we’ve been waiting for years to start our journeys! Aren’t you excited, Kris?”
She sighed and decided it wasn’t worth it. Lyra was never going to change. Before the end of the day, she would be on the Routes and challenging the circuit. She didn’t need Lyra in her head. Not today–well, any day but certainly not today.
Today was her first step to fulfilling the vow she had sworn so many years ago.
“Yeah, Ethan. Are you still aiming for that cyndaquil?” Kris asked her friend. The fire mouse had been his target since Red’s Rampage. That night the Ilex burned, Ethan was more inspired than fearful. Once he had seen the destruction fire-types could wield there was never anything that could dissuade him from his ideal starter.
The boy stretched his arms out before tucking them in and crossing them. “The cyndaquil-line is one of the seven or eight fire-type species found in Indigo. Good luck finding a charmander or magby, so really it's like six at best. Compared to the dozens of grass and water-types I can catch, I’ll take my cyndaquil. Typhlosian are powerful, we’ll burn through the circuit.”
Lyra leaned into Ethan and smiled, pigtails practically choking him when he breathed in. “Sure, but chikorita is the best grass-type in Johto! Did you see Leaf’s meganium in her match against Jasmine?”
Kris wrinkled her nose at the display but stayed silent as the office door opened. A lab coat billowed behind that man that entered as he rushed forward. A pair of glasses held together by a piece of tape nearly fell off the man’s face as he scrambled to force them higher. Professor Elm nervously laughed as he waved at them. Behind the man followed a silent boy a few years older than the three of them. Vincent was a trainer-turner-researcher that was all but Elm’s right-hand for everything. In his arms were two bags, large and clunky and clattering together.
Professor Elm cleared his throat as he addressed them. “Hello, you three. Sorry to have kept you waiting so long. Today is the busiest day in Johto with all the new trainers starting! You will all be in good company, I assure you. Maybe even a bit ahead of the curve with your starters.”
Elm offered three traditional starters for trainers in New Bark Town. Most trainers received their starters from their nearest Gym Leader or from one of the many League approved breeders. However, given that the nearest Gym to New Bark was as far away as Violet City (or Blackthorn, if they fudged a few miles), Elm gave rookies the choice of three starters from his lab.
Vincent dug into one of the sacks, clinking a few metal objects together, before withdrawing three unblemished pokeballs. Each one had a sticker correlating to its inhabitant. A small flame for the cyndaquil, a leaf for the chikorita, and a raindrop for the totodile. Kris eyed them with excitement as Vincent set them down on the nearest table.
“I am sure you three already know these pokemon. The fire-type, cyndaquil, is in the pokeball on the left. The water-type, totodile, is in the center. And finally, the grass-type on the end is chikorita.” Ethan’s eyes were focused on the pokeball on the left that housed the cyndaquil. “I usually have to make new trainers wait until they have filled out their registration, but it seems you three already did so. Since that is the case, you all can feel free to choose your starter. Who wants to go first?”
They all wanted to go first, obviously, so Vincent rolled his eyes and spoke up. “Ladies first, Ethan. Lyra and Kris, decided amongst yourselves.”
Lyra smiled and dipped her head towards the pokeballs. “Go ahead, Kris. I can go second.”
The notion of Lyra allowing her to do anything made her scowl. Her skin itched even as she took the offer. It wasn’t like there was going to be a dispute over who received what starter. Maybe Lyra thought she’d pull one over on Ethan, take the cyndaquil and give Lyra more ammo to wedge their friendship apart. Unfortunately for Lyra, Kris wasn’t the snake that she was.
Kris knew which starter she wanted. She’d known since she saw the destruction of the Ilex. Whereas Ethan saw the inferno as the personification of raw power and sought out a fire-type, she did the opposite. Fire was destruction, a glutton that held no intent other than to consume, and water extinguished it. She carefully picked up the pokeball in the middle, the totodile.
Johto would never burn again.
She fell back to her spot as she admired the pokeball of her starter. It was unexpectedly warm for a cold-blooded pokemon. Lyra stepped up immediately after her and swiped the chikorita. Typical. Finally, Ethan swaggered forward, palmed the last pokeball and claimed it as his.
Vincent smiled at that, likely already having guessed which starter would go to whom. It wasn’t terribly hard to guess. Ethan espoused his intentions loudly and often, while Kris’ ambitions were well known through New Bark. Elm similarly perked up. “Very good! I extend my congratulations to each of you. Becoming a licensed trainer is a feat in itself. Seeing that you all have your starters, I’ll leave you in Vincent’s care to get your pokegear and starting supplies sorted.”
The professor once again rushed away, out the door and coat billowing behind him. Vincent sighed. “Good man, Elm, but overworked and underslept. Anyway, I think it is important that each of you meet your starter without it being overwhelmed by the other pokemon. I will ask that each of you release your starters individually, and that the other two please move out of the way. We’ll go in backward order this time, Ethan first.”
Kris shuffled her way to the otherside of the office, Lyra doing so more gracefully, before stopping just beside Vincent. Ethan adjusted his hat and inhaled. The pokeball in his hand clicked. A flash saw the familiar form of a cyndaquil appear, the fire mouse huffing a small puff of smoke from its snout. The red pockets on its back simmered and bled off heat into the room. Lyra covered her mouth and coughed at the temperature change.
The boy crouched down slightly. Cyndaquil stood upwards on two feet instead of four. The fire-type sparked its back and a small line of flames ignited. “Hello, Cyndaquil. I’m Ethan. I leave for my journey today and I want you to be my starter, my first partner. Together we can overtake the League and become Champions. We can take Lance’s mantle by force.“
It was a quick affair. Most starters, especially Elm’s, were already primed for rookies. Cyndaquil emitted another wave of heat as it bobbed its head, flame flicking like a cape over its back. Ethan grinned and promised to release it later before returning the pokemon to its ball. He seemed pleased with the fire-type, Kris thought. Good for him, he needed a pokemon like Cyndaquil if he was aiming for the Champion’s mantle. Ethan never did things by half, he always went for the gold.
Lyra stepped up when Ethan backed away. She smiled brightly as she rubbed a thumb over her chikorita’s pokeball and released it. The smile was meant to be nice. Kris saw it more akin to a houndor’s snarl when it found a meal. Chikorita was a small thing with a leaf that flicked around like an antenna. The grass-type bounced in place as it squealed. Lyra cooed at it as she rubbed a hand down its head and between the buds at the base of its neck. “You are just the cutest! I’m Lyra and you're going to be my first pokemon! Would you like a name?”
Kris rolled her eyes so hard they hurt. It took everything in her not to scoff. There was no question there, no request for it to join her, just a statement. Kris tried to just tune her out but even she couldn’t stop the little smile that came to her face when the grass-type bounced back and forth when it decided on a name.
“Okay! I’m going to return you now, Jade. I’ll release you when I get the chance and we can get to know each other.” Lyra gave the leaf pokemon a last pat on the neck before it vanished in a mass of digital crimson.
Kris swallowed as all eyes turned to her. She fidgeted a bit, swapping the pokeball in her hand to the other, before steeling herself. A step forward and a click was all it took and her pokemon appeared in the room.
Blue scales were split by a yellow v-marking on its chest. A large jaw that could crush metal opened wide in a yawn, showing rows of sharp, white teeth. The crocodile blinked its red eyes up at her before squinting. It seemed unsure as it eyed her, red spines flexing as it shifted its weight. Kris smiled down at it.
“Hey, Totodile.” She forced herself to keep her voice steady. “My name is Kris and I plan on becoming a pokemon trainer today. I want you to be my partner and join me on my journey. I promise that, together, we can grow stronger.”
She was the decision in its eyes, red on her blue. It snapped its jaw as emphasis and thumped its tail on the floor. Kris felt the grin come to her face. “Great. I want us to get started soon, but I need to recall you for now. It won’t be long.”
The water-type nodded and vanished into its pokeball as a red blur. Kris held the device with and grinned to herself.
The first step indeed.
Vincent coughed to regain their attention as he dug through another sack until he pulled out three, smaller bags that were tied tightly shut with brown lace. He handed each of them one before tossing the now two empty bags onto the desk where their starters had previously sat. “Inside these bags you will find your starting set of pokeballs, graciously provided by Professor Elm, as well as your pokegear. All of them are pre-registered to your ID and set up with the standard League contacts and our emergency line for the lab.”
Kris opened her bag and looked inside. Five standard red and white pokeballs laid around a blue phone-like device. Everything looked in order. She removed the pokegear and flipped it open. It greeted her with a spinning pokeball insignia. The shape spun a few times as the device loaded up before it finally switched to a screen that she found more familiar. She read her own profile, saw that it was correct, and switched screens. It now showed her what contacts she had. When she saw that the pokegear had everything it should, she flipped it close.
Ethan pulled down the brim of his hat as he kicked between his feet impatiently. “So, are we good to go?”
Vincent smiled. “You are. Congratulations, you three. I expect to see all of you in the Silver Conference in a year’s time.”
The Silver Conference had just passed them by. The winner, a psychic specialist named Will, would be challenging the Elite Four sometime in the next couple months to try and claim a spot amongst their ranks. He would most likely fail, as most did, but the battles would be spectacular.
Kris tightened the string on her bag and shook it to make sure it was secure. It was time then. Her pokegear would tell her what moves Totodile knew and Ethan was right there. This had been a long time coming.
“Ethan,” Kris grinned. She held up her starter’s pokeball immediately. “I think it's time we put our starters to the test. Ready to lose?”
Instead of the matching grin and boastful words she expected, the boy fidgeted. “I don’t know. I want to get moving, Kris. I’m going to the south shores to catch a water-type that can put out any fires Cynaquil starts by accident. I’ll already be behind so I think I’ll just get going.”
“What, scared Totodile will drown your mouse?” Kris frowned. “Come on, we talked about our first battle for years!”
Ethan hesitated and not-so subtly looked at Lyra. Kris felt her chest ache as it hit her. He didn’t care about getting behind from their battle. Ethan wasn’t one that cared much about things like that. He did things in his own time and everyone else dealt with it. A quick battle that would take five minutes? He’d usually jump at the chance. No, he didn’t mind.
Lyra did. And wasn’t that just the kicker. Her best friend was more worried about what the snake wanted more than what she did. Kris felt her throat contract. Lyra had tried to wedge them apart for months now, so why did this get to her so much?
“Fine, whatever.” It took effort to make her voice not shake. “I’ll see you at the Conference then.”
Kris turned on her heels and left. If Ethan tried to object, he didn’t try hard. She shouldered the door to the office as she marched out, not carrying that it banged against the wall when she did. She clutched her totodile’s pokeball until her fingers turned white.
.—.—.—.
Kris was at the edge of New Bark Town when she calmed down. The carefully trimmed hedges and perfect red roses of the town were steadily replaced by unruly brambles and colorful wildflowers. The archway that separated the town from Route 29 shadowed her as she passed under it. She breathed deeply as floral scents entered her nose. She shrugged her bag off and dug through it until she found the container she was looking for. Pokefood and a few poffins made the clear plastic appear brown. Her mother had let her grab some of Wax’s food until she could buy some proper nutrition rich chow in Cherrygrove.
She clicked her only occupied pokeball and released her starter. Totodile appeared beside her bag, thumping its tail and looking around. When it finally looked away from the town and towards the Route, the thick tail halted. The croc snapped its gaze to her.
“Hey again, Totodile. I wanted us to meet each other properly now.” Kris opened the container with the food in it with a pop of the lid with her thumb. She dumped a generous amount of the pokefood into her hand and stretched it out to her new partner. “I think we should get to know each other before we get going on the Routes. Do you mind if I scan you? It’ll tell me what moves you know and a bunch of other info.”
The water-type tilted its head but nodded. It eyed the food in her hand as it craned its powerful jaw open, clear expecting something. She blinked before giggling and dumping the chow onto the tongue of the totodile. As it slowly snapped its jaw shut and considered the food, Kris took the chance to scan her starter. The pokegear rolled the same pokeball icon as earlier until it chimed and she was able to look at the screen it provided.
Water Gun, Bite, and Scratch.
Three moves wasn’t bad. Elm raised his starters from birth to screen them for any behavior that would disqualify them from being proper pokemon for a rookie trainer to take as their first partner. His starters were thus not experienced in proper trainer battles or in the proper environment to learn new moves. Kris considered that both a positive and a negative. No experience in battles but also no established tactics or fighting style to clash with.
Kris popped a poffin into Totodile mouth when it opened it again. It–he, the pokegear told her–crooned when the poffin was consumed. “Ok, I guess the first thing is introductions. As I said earlier, my name is Kris and I plan on becoming strong. With you at my side, I think we can dominate the competition. I know you agreed earlier, but I need to be sure that you’re up for this. It won’t be easy and we won’t always win, but we will get stronger.” She left the rest of her thoughts in her head rather than voice them. The fact was, she needed to get stronger to follow through on her ambitions. Her path was not for the weak.
Totodile growled at that and shifted his weight. A snap of the jaws that could crush metal was all Kris needed to know she had found her partner. The croc was ready and willing to follow her on her path.
“Good.” Kris smiled. “Good.” She repeated the word with emphasis. It felt good to have someone with her on her journey, willing to grow alongside her. Someone who wouldn’t ignore her ideals and ambitions like seemingly everyone in New Bark had. “Then how about a name? Something to differentiate you from every other totodile in the world.”
Totodile nodded immediately. His eyes flashed a darker crimson. “Do you want something strong? A name you can establish for yourself?”
Another nod and a snap of his jaws.
Kris had names she had prepared for months now. Some were better than others, and most focused on either an aspect of the water-type's physical appearance or water abilities. Chomps was no good, Snapper was terrible, Hydrus and Torrent were closer, Strider wasn’t bad. She hummed as she thought of her next suggestion. “Maelstrom.”
The water croc snapped its jaws and growled happily. His tail thunked the ground as he all but hopped in place. Kris grinned. “I’m glad you came with me, Maelstrom. We are gonna cause an uproar.”
Maelstrom looked back at her, red eyes glazing with consideration. He nodded and marched forward. The water-type looked back at her from under the shadow of the arch leading into Route 29, expectant.
Kris giggled and scrambled to grab her bag and follow.
.—.—.—.
There were tens of thousands of trainers starting their journeys the same day across Kanto and Johto. A majority of them had a common goal in mind–become Champion. Ethan was one of those multitude of trainers that dreamed of reaching the pinnacle of the League. Champion-chasers, they called them. More still had similar goals of becoming a powerful trainer of varying levels–the Elite Four, ACE, Gym Leaders. A majority of these trainers would not reach their goals, but that was to be expected.
It was very few that shared Kris’ ambitions.
Her mind always went back to the hellish night of Red’s Rampage. The standing Champion didn’t stop the destruction of Johto. No, he caused it instead. The Elite Four weren’t down on the ground to defend the people of Indigo. No, they circled the climactic clash and chomped at the bit for glory and prestige that the defeat of Giovanni would give them. The Gym Leaders… they did the true work that night. It was Bugsy and his bug-types that helped divert Red’s inferno when it threatened Azalea Town. It was Whitney and Jasmine with their teams that negated Giovanni’s earthquakes that shook Goldenrod City. Falkner was the one that swept the Routes atop his pidgeot and pulled trainers and pokemon alike from their doom. It was the teleportation of Misty Waterflower from Kanto that finally extinguished the hellfire for good.
The Elites had been power hungry glory seekers, the Champion was worse. The League was different than it had been that night, she admitted. Structures shifted, Elites changed, Champions ascended. Lance was Champion now, Red had abdicated once his fury had died down and retired who knows where. Blaine left the Elite Four and retired to Cinnabar Island to take up the Gym there, and Blue did the same and took up the Viridian Gym in the wake of Giovanni.
Kris was resolute. The ideals of those in power were flawed even now. They didn’t prioritize the well-being of Johto. They didn’t help when homes burned and their citizens cried. No, the League had been infested with corruption. A rot from the inside.
Once rot set in, it required trimming or the rest of the organism died. A limb instead of a life, so to say. The League was corrupt, rotten, and she would dig it out. Whether chopping off a limb or removing it by the root, she would purify it. She would clean the Indigo League of its corruption.
Kris figured the path towards that goal was the same either way. Grow, strengthen, gather, prepare, ascend. She would clean out the rot from the League with her own power. Maelstrom stretched his powerful jaw to its limit in a yawn as they marched down Route 29. Kris smiled.
Johto would never burn again.