Ryan Huntington's Story

He looked down at the region he once called home. The desecrated remains of what used to be a thralling metropolis made him shudder with sadness. From high above Saffron City in Kanto Ryan could see the destruction caused by ambitious crminals . The memories of the friends, the family, The pokemon he had lost because of this war flooded his mind. He sighed and flipped his silvery hair out of his face. This was the life he lived, The life of a crusader. The life of a soldier.

He ran his hands across the coarse tuft of feathers covering Azazels shoulders. He smiled and shifted his weight back a bit to put less stress on his fearows neck. He could see miles in each direction. To the south, the vast and wild Safari Zone, which was now a center for capturing rare pokemon to use as weapons. To the west, The Pokemon Tower of Lavender town skimmed the sky, as a momument to death that would forever stand. To the north, Beautiful Cape Cerulean. Notably the prettiest spot in Kanto, and previously the home of Poke'maniac Bill. He had been murdered by Omega early on in the war, This was a great loss. To the east, Viridian City, and Victory Road. The once proud, Final test for all trainers was now just a hole in the rock. All of the regions beauty, all of the sights, all redeeming qualities... Destroyed. "Ugh..." He tapped Azazels shoulder, "C'mon girl, weve got a job to do." Azazel cawed in response and zipped down. This was one of the only things left to be joyous about, Flying.

He was told to search old Team Rocket headquarters for any clues as to the whereabouts, or current plans of Omega. Ryan had already scoured the Cerulean Game corner, Mt Moon, and The Pokemon Tower. Nothing. After a quick descent Azazel touched down on the roof of the Silph Co. Building. Ryan slid off of the large raptor and touched his feet on solid ground. He smiled and ran his fingers through the mocha feathers covering his companion. "Take a break girl." He said to her. Azazel cooed in appreciation as she disentegrated and entered the pokeball. Ryan pocketed his ball and drew a second. He threw it into the air. It opened, releasing a brilliant blue light, culminating in the appearance of a small orange and black dog. Ryan smiled at Giles, his growlithe. Giles barked at Ryan with glee and began walking around the roof. Ryan whistled to him and walked into the dor leading to the stair case.

After searching bookshelves and bookshelves, offices and offices, hallways and hallways. Ryan found nothing of use. He rolled his eyes and raised his hand to his face. The blue watch turned on with the sound of his voice. After a few rings on the other hand his call was answered. "Yeah boss, Siplh is empty." He sighed and looked at giles, panting on the ground. "about to head to Viridian Gym." he then hung up the Poke'nav and returned to the roof. "They can't be this invisible..." he thought to himself. Giled barked in agreement.

The sun was beginning its descent on yet another day. This day was no different than any other; there were no leads to the illustrious Team Omega’s hideout. It appeared rather obvious to Rolph that they must be hiding in Kanto, considering a majority of their terrorist activities took place in Kanto. The Celadon Game Corner, Mt. Moon, the Lavender Town Pokémon Tower, none of the locations proved fruitful to their search. The term their obviously is pertaining to The Crusaders.
Rolph sat in his swivel office chair, luckily, it could recline. He was feeling particularly tired today; there wasn’t really anything to be chipper about, aside from a batch of new recruits. New recruits… what exactly was the point to adding to their numbers, Rolph honestly couldn’t figure out the significance to numbers. It wouldn’t matter if The Crusaders had twice the number of trainers as Team Omega; it would all come down to the battles… more like, The Battle. Either way, it was nice to know that kids still believed Pokémon were meant to be free. “I feel bad for these kids Eve…” Rolph shifted his eyes upward to make contact with the fluff ball that sat atop his head. “They don’t get nearly as good of an experience training Pokémon as we did… I mean, you, Kaza and Judo, we spent so much time out there, having fun.” The mood was slowly getting darker, just on queue with the setting sun. Eve’s ears that were so precariously pinned up drooped as Rolph spoke.

“Now look at us, running a group fueled on battling this Team Omega gang… even worse is that we’ve been called The Crusaders.” The Eevee couldn’t help but feel sad; letting down her tail which gently stroked Rolph’s left cheek. “It brings me back to our glory days…” He reclined in the chair, kicking his legs up onto his small desk. Eve had decided to hop onto Rolph’s chest now, curling up almost ready to take a brief cat nap. Rolph reminisced of his own journey as a Pokémon trainer. ~~~During his youth, he was pretty good friends with a girl, Sabrina who took a liking to psychic Pokémon. She even caught him an Abra when she came across two simultaneously. That was her present to him at the time, since his parents were against him going out to catch his own. It wasn’t too long after that the Rolph left home and pursued the 8 Gym Leader of Kanto.

Rolph was successful in his capture of nearly 130 Pokémon and the obtainment of the 8 Kanto Gym Badges. At that point, the Elite Four had requested his challenge. He proved a worthy advisory for three of the four members. His victories over Lorelei, Bruno and Agatha were all hard won, but Lance brought his victory streak to an end. Around this time, the Johto region was really opening its borders. It was attracting many trainers from the Kanto region and with some encouragement from his Pokémon, Rolph set off. It was when he left that Sabrina became the Gym Leader of the Saffron Gym, her and Rolph’s hometown. With such good news, Rolph found new strive to become an even better Pokémon trainer. He traveled across the Johto region, collecting Badges as he usually would. He didn’t bother on capturing too many Pokémon this time around. In fact, he only kept his Alakazam and Machamp on him. Yet again he proved a worthy trainer to the Elite Four, receiving another request of challenge. He knew that he would have to redeem himself against Lance. He set off to challenge them again, with Alakazam and Machamp in tow. His new team again proved worthy of the Elite Four’s praise. He defeated Will, the newly appointed Koga, Bruno (again), and Karen. He was technically viable to become a Champion with Lance, as he had defeated the Elite Four. He refused the offer of becoming a Champion and challenged Lance. Again he was defeated by the very same Dragonite that defeated him once before. That was it. Rolph quit at that point, unable to defeat one trainer after two attempts. He released all of his Pokémon, only to find a few who wouldn’t leave his side. His star duo; Kaza and Judo stood by him.

It was after this that Team Omega finally made their move. The attacks were gruesome and horrible. Rolph was actually glad that Kaza and Judo stood by him; he wouldn’t be able to fight alone. It was during some of the initial attacks on Kanto that Rolph found Eve. She was hiding in some rubble in Celadon City and literally attacked him. He essentially captured her since she refused to leave his side after that. After seeing the destruction that had occurred, Rolph called upon an old pupil (as he would call him) Ryan for assistance. Together they founded a group that stood to oppose Team Omega, they were eventually called, “The Crusaders”.~~~

Rolph was quickly snapped back to reality upon receiving a call from Ryan. "Yeah boss, Siplh is empty. About to head to Viridian Gym." Rolph was dissatisfied with the results of their constant searches. "This is ridiculous... Why must this be so much work..."

The wind whipped at his face as he broke through the clouds above Viridian City. Ryan had been here many times. This was the crossroads, Every trainer in Kanto had reached this point at some time in his journey. Home of the 8th Kanto gym, as well as the entrance to Victory Road. This place used to be the Pokemon trainer Mecca. Now it was just dust and whispers. He sighed and kicked his heels into Azazels sides and they dipped beneath the clouds. After the dissapointing results he gained from Silph he wasn't expecting much from the gym. Azazel touched down on the grass in front of the doors and Ryan slid off of her. He touched the pokeball to Azazel and the Fearow dissapeared. He reached into his bag and drew another pokeball. This gym had a nasty reputation for keeping spare rock types within its walls. Time for Ryan's most faithful companion. He smiled and threw the ball and it opened, releasing a red light. Ryan watched as the light transformed into the large semi gelatenous salamander that had been with Ryan for his whole life. The creature stood and stared blankly at Ryan before shouting a resounding. "Quaaagsire!"

Ryan smiled and the two entered the gym. Quagsire was an invaluable companion. He was always a great teammate. He made quick work of most trainers while the two of them were training for the Johto league. Now that the world was in this condition, he was even more valuable. Not just his powerful slew of attacks, but also his personality. The pokemon was just so carefree and joyful. He made for great company in this semi apocalyptic world.

Once inside the two seperated and spanned the room looking for anything that could be of use. No such luck.

"Dammit, nothing again!" Ryan growled. There were no more former criminal spots in Kanto. He would have to do more guesswork from now on. He was about to call Agamemnon when he heard a loud growl from across the room. "Ag?" He asked. He heard a roar and a crash as the wall next to him exploded. He spun and tried to see through the dust. "What the hell?"

Once the dust cleared he looked in awe at his predicament. A very large, Very angry, Very dangerous Rhydon was staring him down. Ryan didn't have time to think, he just smirked and turned. "Hydro Pump!"

The rhydon attacked, it looked like horn drill. That might have hurt. That is, if a giant laser beam of water hadnt passed over Ryans shoulder and slammed the Rhydon against the far wall. Ryan grinned and sprinted for the door, calling Agamemnon back to his ball on the way. He dug for Azazels ball and threw it as he stormed out the door. Azazel came out, wings spread, ready for flight. Ryan jumped and and the two blasted from the sight, straight into the sky.

Now that Ryan had checked all of the spots, He had completed his mission. He sighed at the failure to find any information and called Rolph again. Once the boss picked up Ryan shrugged. "Nothing" he looked towards Indigo Plateau. "On my way home." He hung up and the two sped into the clouds heading for the sight of the old pokemon league championships.

The sky was still faintly illuminated by the ever setting sun. The (almost) pink color reflected off the clouds while the natural blue sky contrasted. It was approaching night and Ryan was bound to call any minute with follow up on his Viridian Gym investigation. "If only I had enough time to take a quick nap..." Rolph's head tilted down to the resting Eevee curled up on his torso. "We gotta get up Eve; we can't leave Ryan to handling the recruits all by himself... we have like... five or something." Yea, there was something odd about five recruits... five was such a bigger number than usual... the tendency was to gain about one or two recruits in a week, but five in a day was quite rare. "This just may be the time..." Rolph sat up disrupting Eve; she wasn't very pleased and gave him a glare followed by the usual bite on the hand. "Hey, hey!" He quickly drew his hand from his little troublemaker. "No need for that! We have to get something done today." Just as he finished his words Eve hopped up onto his head and took her usual position; sprawled out all over his head.

He took to the door just as Ryan reported in. "Nothing, on my way home." A long expression of disappointment was plastered over Rolph’s face. “Roger, see you soon...” He cut the transmission and lowered his arm. “Damnit!” Rolph walked towards the recruit barracks as he rubbed his forehead in annoyance. “We’ve gotta figure this out!” Rolph was practically befuddled; the entire Kanto region had been searched, on top of that, the Johto region wasn’t experiencing anywhere near this kind of turmoil. ‘If they were stationed in Johto it’d be one hell of a communication line.’ “It’d practically be running right under our noses…”

Rolph walked with frustration across what was the infamous battle arena for the Indigo Plateau. It wasn’t anything near its former glory now. The white arena lines were greatly faded, grass was growing all over and the building itself was half annihilated. The only unscathed piece of the Indigo Plateau was the giant torch where Moltres lit the everlasting flame to signify the start of the competition. Rolph could all but laugh at the irony. “This is stupid… the location I suffered the most humiliating defeat of my life… twice.” He could bare his lose, but the publicity having lost to the same person twice wasn’t great. Rolph lost most of his credibility after that day. “No time to reminisce again, Eve…” Eve appeared excited to hear the story again; she just loved the fire that Rolph had when he was a legitimate trainer. “Eeeevee!” Now all she got was a former professional Pokemon trainer, one who lost his passion and fire a long time ago. After hearing his sharp words, Eve let her head down in disappointment and slight sadness.

Rolph had reached the recruit barracks and took haste to reach the comm room. There he was able to use the intercom system and notify all of the recruits simultaneously, it was a nice little system an old comrade built. He reached the room and flipped the lights. Eve hopped onto to nearby desk as Rolph grabbed the mic. Rolph motioned for her to press the audio button next to her paw, so she did. “Alright, is this thing on? Eh, anyways. Recruits! Please go report directly to the former battle arena, please and thanks.” Rolph didn’t enjoy talking on the intercom system too much, in fact, he couldn't stand it, it was Ryan’s responsibility for a reason. He figured Ryan would swoop in just as everyone had arrived on the field, considering it was the safest place to land.

"PUUUUMMMPP!!!!! CRYSTAAAAALLL!!!!!! WAIT UP!!!"

Tess was trying to catch up to Crystal, her Ralts, and Pump, her squirtle as they ran past the remains of Victory road. Coming from Three island, the entire region of Kanto was fascinating. Even though she knew most of Kanto was destroyed by the Omegas, she couldn't help but find every bit of Kanto fascinating.

Pump and Crystal suddenly stopped. Tess skid next to them before she could bump into them. She looked up at remains of the Indigo Plateau in awe.

"Wow. So this is where Dad got into the hall of fame. I wonder if Mom's been here too. I doubt it though. Ms. Fleetfoot's mission was to destroy the Phobos Battalian, save the pokemon, and bring pride to SOL!!!" Tess said this in her best Professor P voice. Hearing it a million times, Pump found this amusing.

"Ah well. Hey, give that back....." Tess had forgotten that Pump had her blue bandana on his head the whole time.

"I wonder where you enter this place....."
Suddenly, Tess heard the message on the intercom to go to the battle arena.
"Well, here we go, guys."
And with that, Tess was off.

Ryan passed over the mountain containing Victory Road in a rush. Off to his right he spotted Mt Silver. He couldn't help but wonder about the myths surrounding the mountain. It was said that, at the peak stands a lone trainer. The greatest trainer of all time. At age ten this boy defeated team rocket, every gym leader in Kanto, captured every single pokemon in the region, and finally defeated Lance. Only a few had ever beaten lance, and this trainer apparently defeated him on his first try. This guy was supposed to be like pokemon trainer Jesus. Rumor has it, only one person ever defeated him, a young battle genious from Johto, Ryan's home region.

These stories had been told to him by his mother many years ago as bed time stories. He always took them as simple fables, but he wondered now. Could Red be a real person? Sure would be a helpful ally

He shook the thoughts from his head as he nearly passed over the battle arena. He tapped Azazel for her to descend. The two lowered through the clouds and into the view of anyone on the ground. Ryan knew it was time to meet new recruits. When he looked down he noticed there were many more than usual. "Five recruits? thats odd." he voiced. He landed in the middle of the stadium. Azazel beat her wings powerfully and blew dust away from the Landing Zone. Ryan smiled at the awed looks on the recruits faces. Always a crowd pleaser.

Ryan slid off of Azazel and reached into his bag. He drew his other three pokeballs and tossed them into the air. After a few seconds Ryan and Azazel were joined by the Quagsire Agamemnon, The Growlithe- Giles, and the Ampharos- Xerxes. He nodded in acknowedgement of the recruits and he and his pokemon walked towards the referee stage, where he would stand until Rolph told him otherwise.

Tess entered the battle arena with Pump and Crystal at her side. There were 4 other people beside her in the center of the arena: A shy looking girl with fiery red hair, A raven haired girl who looked like she was pleased to be there, ANOTHER girl with curly brown hair who looked to Tess as if she had a sharp personality, and a boy with silver hair and deep red eyes.

Dust blew in Tess's eyes as a Fearow landed onto the battle arena. She had already seen many Fearows before on three island, but something about this trainer's fearow was different. Something about this trainer's fearow was special.

The trainer who slid off the fearow looked tough and almost scary to Tess. As he tossed his other pokeballs in the air, all of which contained an exotic Ampharos, an ambitious looking growlithe, and for once, a mean looking Quagsire, Tess couldn't help but gulp. She wasn't nearly HALF as good as this trainer. What if she had to battle against this guy to have a spot in the crusaders? Tess bit her nails and compared herself to the other trainers. She estimated that she wouldn't last FIVE MINUTES in this arena, maybe even four. Tess realized she was worrying over nothing, and tried to calm herself down. She started to look at the other trainers pokemon and remember what her dad used to tell her about them when suddenly....

"GASP!!!! AN AIPOM!! I LOOOOVE AIPOMS!!! MY MOM USED TO HAVE ONE!!!!"

Losing her sense of dignity, Tess ran up to the cute little aipom and admired it. She looked up at the Raven haired girl who owned it.

"Where did you catch your Aipom? I always looked for them as a kid, but could never find them...."

Night had fallen at this point, the moon illuminating the shattered remains of the Indigo Plateau. The unsettled dust fluttered about the arena, disheveled by Ryan’s Fearow. Azazel wasn’t alone; Ryan had released Agamemnon, Xerxes and Giles in an attempt to show off his rather impressive team. Rolph snickered quietly as he walked up from behind the line of recruits. “Finally decided to catch up on that Spring Cleaning, Ryan?” He felt as though the mood needed to be lightened up abit. For the most part the recruits were awestruck, but he could assume that there was some fear hidden among them. Rolph really wasn’t into flashy entrances, or really flashy anything. His posture wasn’t phenomenal, he was hunching over a little with his hands jammed into his pockets. The only slightly precarious piece of Rolph’s entrance was the adorable little Eevee sitting atop his head.

“Alright, let’s make this quick.” Rolph had finally taken his spot on center stage, with Ryan beside him. Ryan’s Pokémon all relaxed as Rolph pulled out a nice shiny pokeball from his right pocket. “Kaza, it’s been awhile my friend.” He threw the pokeball into the air as a white beam cascaded to the ground gradually constructing the form of an Alakazam. The Pokeball fell back into Rolph’s hand as Kaza stood before him. Rolph gave Kaza a gentle pat on the head as he spoke. “So, we’re going to start your training… right now… Come on! Let your Pokémon have some fresh air.” He waved his hand as he mentioned the word fresh air. Rolph was pretty tired himself, but this was necessary. These recruits were going to start working, now, right this minute. He wasn’t too surprise to see such little Pokémon, in actuality, these trainers were novices at best and they had just caught their first Pokémon or were given appropriate starter Pokémon from Ryan.

“Good, it appears you all have two Pokémon…” Rolph was a little thrown off by the variety of Pokémon. As a team of five, these trainers easily covered a majority of the types. ‘Two Ralts… and a Tyrogue, hmm.’ Rolph wasn’t particularly thrown off by these ‘rare’ Pokémon; it just wasn’t something to be expected. “We’ll start things off easy. Choose a Partner… And I know that there are five of you, don’t worry I have a plan for that unlucky odd man out.” Rolph was a man of many plans. He actually had a habit of creating multiple plans, usually ranging from 3-6. Rolph was surprisingly always prepared for just about anything.

“We’ll start things off easy. Choose a Partner… And I know that there are five of you, don’t worry I have a plan for that unlucky odd man out.”

Grey stood towards the back of the group but apparently Rolph still saw him, it was probably the Grey hair. "Damnit..." Grey said under his breath but loud enough that those close by could easily hear him. He took his other Pokeball off of his belt and he looked at it with confidence, however the ball started to open on it's own and out of the white beam shaped a small Charmander that was grabbing onto Grey's face. "Wha?...OW OW OW YOUR CLAWS ARE SHARP!" Grey pulled the Charmander off of his face and set it down on the ground. He felt his face and on each side he could feel three somewhat deep claw marks. The cute Charmander jumped on Tai's back as Tai grabbed it's small feet and gave it a Milktank-Back Ride. Grey went over Rolph's words again in his head. Reality hit, and it hit hard. Rolph had something special planned for him...No way he was actually going to face his Pokemon right? No that would be a near impossible feat to land a hit.

“We’ll start things off easy. Choose a Partner… And I know that there are five of you, don’t worry I have a plan for that unlucky odd man out.”

Great. Partners. This could go either two ways. Rolph could either be making the new recruits choose a partner, in which case the two partners would battle, OR Rolph could make the partners team up in a double battle between the other partners. Tess was GOING to choose the grey haired boy, but Rolph had plans for him. Tess had to think quickly.....

If the partners teamed up in a double battle, Tess could choose anybody. However if the partners were battling each other, The Red haired girl or the Brown haired girl would both be good choices. HOWEVER, She knew she had a disadvantage with the raven haired girl's pikachu, but ralts could possibly take it out. If Tess didn't challenge her, how else would her pokemon get stronger? What did Tess have to lose? She walked up to the Raven-haired girl again and asked, "Wanna be partners?"

The interior of the stadium was brilliantly illuminated by the sunlight. Empty stands loomed on every side, poignant reminders of a bygone age. The field had been swept clear of debris, and in the centre Jay saw a group of trainers with their Pokemon. He counted seven humans, and his eye was caught by a large Fearow, its wings outspread over the trainers like a guardian angel. This must be a group of Crusaders, relatively high-ranking judging by their evolved Pokemon.

Jay jogged towards the group, trying to make himself look as harmless as possible. As he drew closer, he made out the individual features of each trainer. He spotted two who immediately stood out as authority figures, both men with silver hair - but there the similarity ended. One had a serious look, standing to attention, flanked by an Ampharos and Quagsire. The other was lounging around as though hanging out at a mall, with a small Eevee draped casually over his head. Somehow, though, he radiated a sense of power.

The rest of the trainers were a diverse looking bunch. They didn't look like hardened warriors. Jay immediately guessed that they must have come to the Crusaders for the same reason as he: to make a difference in the fight against Omega. There was a young man with a black bandana tied over silver hair and fresh scratches on his face, accompanied by a guilty-looking Charmander. The others were all young women: a black-haired girl with an Aipom and Pikachu, a redhead with an alert Growlithe, and a couple of brunettes, both with Ralts.

Jay cleared his throat and took a step towards the group, not knowing whom to address.

"Um, hi," he began. "My name is Jay, and I would like to train with you... if it's not too much trouble."