Saya Yayoi's Story

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.

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...."

Saya emotionlessly stood among the other recruits, her Growlithe pawing at her coat. "Not now, Blaze" she murmured, patting the puppy pokemon's head. "Someone might say something important, and we don't want to miss it if they do..." Blaze whimpered slightly and rested his head on Saya's foot. She gave the Growlithe a rare smile, causing him to wag his tail before something like a sand storm blew into her eyes. Blaze covered his head with his paws and Saya shielded her eyes ageist the strong wind. When the dust cleared, Saya found herself looking at a Fearow and a trainer. 'I suppose he's our leader...' she thought as Blaze shyly peaked out from beehind her legs.

After night fell, another trainer took center stage. “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.” Saya chuckled at this as Blaze pawed at her coat. Eventully, she picked the Growlithe up. She walked tword the Grey haired boy after a moment, and she took a deep breath. "My name is Saya, and this" she motioned tword the Growlithe, "is Blaze. Would you mind being 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."