After many weeks administrating and giving sermons to The Commune they waved goodbye to me in a massive ceremony when I went off towards the Pokémon League Championships or League Conference.

  It was held in Saffron City, including the best Pokémon trainers aged 17 and under from around the entire world. I saw many big names when I got there.

  However in the weeks prior, I had not been idle to fully prepare a team of six highly trained and ready Pokémon.

  Vigoroth was my main, who, despite my best efforts would not evolve yet into Slaking. Which was a shame because Slakoth and Slaking from around Takujimi like mine didn't have the Truant ability to being invigorated from birth by all the spiritual energy around the mountain.

  Arcanine was second up, a fiery beast who had melted absolutely everything in his path with Extremespeed and Fire Blast combos from out of this world. Having come from Blue's own litter of Growlithe's had certainly given me an advantage in this regard.

  It was tricky but I was able to evolve Ursaring into Ursaluna, my first Pokémon from out of the Johto or Kanto regions but a powerful one nonetheless. On the slower side but still able to dish out some massive damage.

  Then there was Eevee, the wildcard. I wasn't sure what was missing to evolve him into Espeon, but I'm sure it was probably time. He was extremely high performance for his young age, and had yet to disappoint me.

  The last two Pokémon I found and added to my team with help from The Commune.

  A woman who was in charge of maintaining infrastructure throughout the Kanto region who had recently become unemployed found her way into our Commune and saw the forms I had put up requesting help finding rare Pokémon for my Championship team.

  As luck would have it, she had a Munchlax under her care when a pregnant Snorlax was blocking roads and bridges in the Kanto region, and she donated him to the cause.

  I raised it to a Snorlax just in time for the tournament.

  My last Pokémon was a bit trickier, it was a Larvitar we found in the caves of Mount Silver when I had restarted an initiative in The Commune to search for Red.

  He was a fighter, very very very stubborn but equally as tough.

  As for the tournament, after watching the anime, I saw what I was expecting.

  A tournament of massive proportions, exactly what Ash Ketchum faced at the end of the first season of the anime.

  In a way it was a bit comforting to see different biome themed mini arenas spread out around the massive colosseum Saffron city.

  The selection for the opponents and arenas was just the same as the anime, you got registered, and they chose it for you on a screen.

  "Ice. Not bad, huh?" suggested Ino, holding his Bellsprout.

  "Not bad." I agreed.

  I proceeded to beat two kids from the Kalos region to proceed to the next round.

  Quickly, it became apparent to me that as I had secluded myself into patient study and training in the ways of Mew and the Sprout Order, the world around me had fractured into two camps.

  Those who supported me and my vision of the world, and those that didn't.

  And those that didn't mainly rallied behind Lieutenant Surge, who had decided to choose a new protege, often called the best junior trainer ever since Red:

  Dawn, my old rival.

  She had gotten sponsorships, brand deals, the works, while I was off training and building The Commune.

  As the rounds progressed, the competition became tougher and tougher.

  Crystal was the first to lose, not even losing to someone I knew like Barry. Just a guy from Unova, not even an ex champion of any kind.

  Gold lost next, followed by Ash. Who, from what I had seen during the rounds I had off between his as I rested, had improved leaps and bounds with his team from when I met him.

  Gary lost to Dawn in the next round, everyone I knew who had competed in this tournament had lost by the time we had wrapped up the qualifiers to make it to the top 32 and I realized something:

  The whole time they were losing, I had won.

  I had proceeded to make it to one of the final rounds of the tournament.

  The first trainer I faced was named Donovan, an older teen from Hoenn with a fairly unremarkable team besides a tricky Metagross.

  However, when Arcanine was up last in a luck of the draw from how I'd placed the line up, he melted it to pieces.

  "Winner!"

  Half of the arena roared.

  I sighed.

  …

  The first round that actually presented any challenge at all was Lucas from Sinnoh, however he had the most standard team one could assemble from that region. The battle was way too predictable to have placed me in any real danger.

  My Larvitar had actually evolved to Pupitar by this point in the tournament and was an absolute wall, stopping three of his Pokémon right in their tracks.

  I finished off the rest of his Pokémon in under ten minutes, he had a solid team, but he just wasn't ready for a team like mine. I had spent too much time connecting spiritually with my team, and getting them in physically ready condition for competition.

  By that point, I was in the semi finals.

  I already knew I could beat my opponent, he was a loudmouth braggart, electric type focused trainer from Kalos, I silently dubbed him Surge's backup to Dawn. He didn't bother me.

  It was Dawn that worried me.

  Her team was stacked, absolutely honed to perfection.

  She had Infernape, a Weavile that could practically turn invisible somehow, Mamoswine, Buizel, Staraptor, and Electivire. Their stats were monstrous, and their performance throughout the entire tournament had remained equally so, nonstop.

  …

  After I had wrapped up my semi final match, I found myself surrounded by all my friends.

  "So this is it huh? The final." muttered Ash.

  "Yup." I accepted the water bottle passed to me by Ino.

  "Give her your best," said Gary, likely still bitter from his loss to her. "She's tough."

  You think?

  His older brother approached, everyone made way for the reigning world champion.

  "Give us a second will you?"

  "Hey now we just got here, ow-" Crystal dragged Gold off by his ear.

  Blue sat down next to me, asking.

  "So, what's going on in your head right now?"

  "What isn't?"

  Blue chuckled. "Yeah, that's to be expected. I was just four years younger than you when I faced Red in my own Pokémon League challenge."

  "You lost."

  "I did." he admitted. "But you know what I learned? You gotta give the match your all."

  "That's your advice?" I almost felt like laughing at it.

  "No." He closed his eyes a bit and shook his eyes.

  Blue shifted and spoke. "This match will actually be a whole lot closer than you think. But the final two Pokémon will be on their last breaths trading blows, and the deciding factor? You."

  "What about me?"

  "What I saw that day you earned your Growlithe. You have an unspoken connection to your Pokémon that goes beyond the physical. It's spiritual, use that. Use that Nico, and you'll win. I guarantee it."

  "But, I barely know how to control my Aura. I only really know how to use the Silver Wing and Pokémon items aren't allowed in battle."

  "Figure it out. You're a smart kid you'll do it."

  "Thanks Blue."

  He stood up and smiled at me a bit.

  …

  I stepped out of the shadows of the locker room into Saffron City's Coliseum.

  The World Pokémon League Conference's tournament had come to the final. There were thousands of people cheering in the stands.

  The sky was clear, the sun was bright, and I saw Dawn leave her side of the locker room opposite me.

  The judge waved his flags forward to indicate we had to move to our trainer boxes and begin the match.

  "From Twinleaf Town, the reigning Junior World Champion, Dawn!"

  The arena roared, more specifically, the half supporting Lieutenant Surge's camp, I could even see him tucked away quietly in the crowd with the same cohort that had formed that day after Ho-Oh's attack.

  "And from Takujimi Temple, the challenger, Nico!"

  My half of the arena cheered.

  I really wished the two sides could set their differences aside.

  There was a still in the air, the flags in the air with icons, Pokéballs, of the WCPL, waved in the air.

  Dawn was holding her Pokéball behind her back, her jaw slightly clenched, teeth just showing out of her mouth in deep thought and concentration as I stared her down.

  Dawn released her Pokémon first, her Buizel.

  "Go!"

  I released mine.

  "You got this Snorlax!"

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  He gave a big snore when he rolled out, already asleep. This erupted some chuckles, not the best start to a world championship match with two halves of the Pokémon world teetering upon it.

  Even asleep, Snorlax kicked Buizel's ass.

  He really had no answer for Snorlax's Snore attack, and when he finally woke up from all the Water type based counters, he responded with Rollout.

  Dawn chose to recall her Buizel, letting me lead the match 1-0.

  "Nico from Takujimi with the first point!" said the announcer loudly.

  She sent out Electivire next, and boy did Snorlax come close to knocking her out too.

  Electivire had a lot of power both Special and Physical, but Snorlax was a rolling ball of pure mass that was impossible to stop rolling or even hit with meaningful damage.

  "The score is 1-1!" said the judge, waving a flag towards Dawn's trainer box.

  And what did I know, Blue was totally right. The match was a whole lot more even than I thought.

  Arcanine finished off Electivire, and was able to take down Staraptor. Weavile finished off Arcanine despite the type difference, the skill imbalance was there, and then-

  Weavile and Ursaluna went to war. Weavile won out, but lost to Pupitar in the next round decisively, not really dealing much damage in return to him.

  Mamoswine and Pupitar went back and forth for almost seven minutes two massive walls of pure defence and stalling blasting each other until finally Mamoswine went down in pure exhaustion.

  "Mamoswine is unable to battle! The winner of the round goes to Nico of Takujimi!"

  The crowd roared.

  I already knew what was coming out, not just from the scoreboard tallied on the giant screen in the Coliseum, but it was obvious.

  From all the ads I'd seen of Dawn on TV and on the train ride, it was clear her team was trained with the highest rate supplements, using the best equipment and technology, and now she was forced to take out her main.

  "Go Infernape! Go!" Dawn shouted at the top of her lungs, containing her frustration, a lot of credit to her.

  Infernape took down Pupitar in just a few Fighting type attacks. It wasn't even close.

  "Close Combat!"

  He had no real defense to Infernape's power, it was just too quick and strong.

  The crowd seemed to feel bad and almost laugh when I sent out Eevee next.

  His Shadow Balls could've dealt damage…eventually, just not today.

  And then, the rematch I'd truly been waiting for began.

  Vigoroth, at or near Slakoth level, went up against Infernape.

  5-5, after a full back and forth, every Pokémon taking each other down, a real final battle for the ages, and now, it would all be decided.

  Vigoroth got the first real hits in, directly to Infernape's chest and sides.

  Infernape ignited his fists and snuck in a few close shots as well as a strong Flamethrower attack, scalding the entirety of Vigoroth's side.

  He showed that he could move on by fighting through the pain and tackling Infernape directly to the ground, hitting him at point blank range with Scratch after Scratch right to the face.

  "Close Combat! Get out of there Infernape!" shouted Dawn.

  Vigoroth blocked by raising his arms and just moving aside.

  He dodged another Flamethrower blast while running up the sides of the arena embankment.

  Blurring from the speed of the attack he threw an overhand Slash directly into Infernape's flank. It landed flush, met with a hail of fiery fists in return.

  The two went blow for blow.

  Claw to fist, fire to fur.

  They appeared to be too bullet-like blurs slashing each other, sometimes missing, sometimes slicing each other. The fire Infernape had didn't seem to bother Vigoroth in the slightest, even if it hit.

  I was proud of him, he was just that tough. He could take so much damage, and keep fighting like he was fresh. That was there in him from as long ago as when he fought Silver's Bayleef in SlowPoké Well.

  However, it appeared that Infernape was starting to win.

  He had the Evolutionary advantage, his strikes included fire, and he could slip in his jabs quicker.

  Vigoroth was losing ground, and he was starting to get tired. Infernape too, but slightly less.

  The crowd was off their feet with every blow, crashing their plastic noise sticks and roaring with each strike.

  After one particular exchange, they separated, dragging up dust from the arena floor.

  Infernape panted, wiping his chin as he stared down Vigoroth.

  Vigoroth was barely on his feet, I knew that in the next strike, he was finished, and I would have lost the World Championship.

  But then I remembered what Blue told me just before the match.

  "You have an unspoken connection to your Pokémon that goes beyond the physical. It's spiritual, use that. Use that Nico, and you'll win."

  I remembered every experience I had with Vigoroth, from the moment I met him. Staring into his adorable brown eyes as a baby Slakoth.

  I raised him, literally.

  Since he could walk I taught him karate, took him to view Senior World Championships, we battled all over the Johto and Kanto regions together. This Pokémon was a true friend, we were more than Trainer and Pokémon, our souls were connected. He was there with me every step of the way from Takujimi Temple to here.

  We were family.

  Suddenly, I felt a blue tinge of air begin to emit from my arms and body, the same from Vigoroth.

  "What is this folks!?" asked the announcer. "What is happening!?"

  I could feel Vigoroth's pain, his exhaustion from the battle, each blow he took from his opponent. But at the same time, I ensure to pass each bit of hope that he could endure just a bit longer to try to win the match.

  I yelled at the top of my lungs and so did Vigoroth at this transfer of energies, at this link of Auras.

  Vigoroth glowed blue too, as well as having his body glow white as it began to change shape.

  Dawn broke her stunned silence. "Infernape, Flare Blitz!"

  Vigoroth became Slaking, just in time to Counter Infernape's attack.

  Even on fire, it didn't matter, Infernape was slammed at full power right into the ground, it was a simple karate move, step aside when someone's trying to tackle you and trip them.

  De Ashi-Barai.

  …

  The dust settled on a stunned world.

  Slaking was standing, bruised and burned, over a knocked out Infernape.

  Not even the best modernly trained Pokémon in the world could break whatever connection Nico had with his Slaking.

  "T-The winner of the match is Nico, from Takujimi Temple!"

  The crowd roared, one side in too much disbelief to say anything.

  In his sleep that night, Mewtwo visited Nico in a dream.

  "You've shown me something I never thought was possible. A human can bind his soul to a Pokémon's, their connection is that strong. As much as I don't wish to admit it, I am a Pokémon too, whether I desire to be one or not."

  Mewtwo continued to speak to Nico in his dreamscape. "You've shown me something else too. I have the power to shape reality however I see fit, but your reality deserves to fend for itself. I have freed myself from my masters and shown you where they reside. Take care Nico of Takujimi."

  He smiled in his sleep, next to his first place Pokémon League trophy.

  Within a week, Teams Rocket and Galactic were located and brought into custody with the information The Commune provided to the Pokémon League.

  Silver and a few Rocket officers were never found.

  After Koga was laid to rest in a large but respectful funeral service, Janine took over Fuchsia City's Gym, and the town was slowly but surely being reconstructed.

  For the first time in many months, the Pokémon World was peaceful.

  …

  I took a deep breath, having flown to Twinleaf Town on the back of a borrowed Pidgeot from someone in The Commune.

  I stepped forward, after having taken another deep breath, and knocked on someone's door.

  "Hello?" The lady I knew to be Johanna from the anime and games answered the door. "Oh you must be the young man on the news everyone's talking about."

  "Indeed I am."

  "What're you doing here? Do you want to come in? Oh, what am I saying, you must want to speak to my daughter."

  Johanna's smile was a bit patronizing.

  "Suuuree….."

  "Daaawwwn!"

  I heard some chatter in the background as Johanna slightly closed the door. "She'll be down in just a sec."

  Dawn soon appeared, crossing her arms. "What do you want?"

  "Um, just. You know, wanted to know how you've been holding up."

  Dawn peered away slightly, voice shaky. "You know, I've been training since I was five years old, and that was the first time I've ever lost."

  This never made sense to me.

  Why would Dawn choose Chimchar? Why would she be so competitive? She lived in the same place and with the same mother? So why would she be so-

  Right. Simulation battling. The way the League was structured. The same changes I was already used to in this world.

  But anyway, despite how pretty she was anyway, all these changes between her anime and video game self and the hyper competitive and stoic version of Dawn I see here were…

  Attractive.

  "Well?" Dawn put her hands on her hips.

  "Would you wanna get something to eat some time? Or maybe some coffee?"

  Dawn was confused. "Wait. Are you asking me out?"

  "Uh…sorta. Call it what you will."

  She appeared blank for a second.

  Dawn then slammed the door in my face.

  …

  Gary, Gold, Ash, Crystal, Ino, and I were all laying down on a big hill not far to the ever expanding Commune.

  "What were you expecting?" Gary snorted, skipping a rock across the Lake of Rage. "You asked out the one girl in the entire world who would say no to you."

  "Maybe that's the only reason she's interesting to him," mused Gold.

  "Boys," scoffed Crystal. "You always want what you can't have."

  "So you're saying if Nico asked you out, you'd say yes?" Gary looked at her.

  "No! I'm saying boys are-"

  "You're blushing." he deadpanned.

  "I am not!"

  There was some silence, Ash was fishing in silence as Gold was on his Pokégear.

  "So…What now?" Crystal asked, popping her mouth boredly.

  "Travel the world?" suggested Ash.

  "Not bad," I admitted. "But now that I've beaten the best trainers from around the entire planet it's just. Eh."

  Ino chuckled.

  "What?" I asked.

  "You need to use all of your winnings, or at least some of them to invest in some infrastructure. Remember Mikey Richardson's village? They could use some help after all this."

  "We'll help them Ino." I said. "I promise, first thing on my list."

  The sun began to set.

  "Why do I feel like this is the last time we'll all see each other?" I asked.

  "Well I said yes to my uncle." Gold said. "I'm gonna learn about Pokémon breeding and travel to Alola for a bit."

  Crystal sighed. "Yeah competing to be the best in the Pokémon League really isn't suited for me either. I'm taking a long break."

  "I'm moving on to Hoenn," said Ash. "Gary?"

  "Yeah. I'm staying where I'm at too, except I'll keep training."

  "So that's it," I said. "We're all done with each other."

  "I think so." Crystal hugged me.

  And then we got into one big group hug.

  Ino joined in, he deserved it.

  We separated, some tears were shed.

  "Uh guys?" said Ash.

  We turned.

  There was a huge black mass emerging from the sky.

  Suddenly flapping its wings to land, so much so that trees were blown sideways heavily, a great big white bird Pokémon began to land.

  "Is that-" Gary asked standing dumbfounded.

  "Kneel you idiot!" said Gold.

  We hailed Lugia, Master of the Skies and Guardian of the Seas, Stormbringer, landed before us.

  It had to have been, the Silver Wing I always carried in my coat pocket levitated outwards and attached itself firmly to a tiny missing hole in Lugia's wing.

  One of the most powerful and ancient Pokémon to ever exist, the tie, holding our reality and stormy weather together according to ancient scrolls.

  I saw as Lugia turned, its massive body giving enough space for a well sized town beneath it, showing us his back.

  Confused, Ash began to step forward, but Lugia made a firm and strange hissing sound.

  "Uh Nico? I think it wants you to get on its back."

  I stepped forward to no sound.

  The blue plates on Lugia's back let me mount on, and then, Lugia's massive wings began to beat, and we were off.

  I waved to my friends below, and the Legendary Pokémon began to take off.

  We soared through the skies towards the largest cities in Johto and Kanto, Saffron and Goldenrod.

  Instead of attacking, Lugia had tiny silver sparkles float downward. I couldn't see well enough, but from what I could tell, they sprouted beautiful silver flowers in water.

  I got the message it was sending after Ho-Oh's attack:

  Peace, healing where there was pain.

  After all I'd been through it was a mesmerizing and ethereal experience. The message was spread to Fuchsia City as well, all across the Kanto and Johto region.

  Eventually, we reached Lugia's destination:

  Takujimi Temple.

  …

  Elder Toji and the rest of the Sprout Order monks watched as I landed in the forest just beside the temple itself. Luckily Lugia didn't cause any structural damage to the temple itself as it landed.

  The entire Sprout Order knelt at the sight of Lugia.

  It spread its wings, and then took off.

  I watched it fly off, wondering if the Legendaries would ever return now that Mewtwo had decided to likely create his own island.

  I turned and walked to Elder Toji.

  "Sorry for staying out of touch for so long, I-"

  I extended the medal the Pokémon League gave me for being the best Junior Trainer in the entire world, as well as an award for Civic Honors from the Mayor of Blackthorn City for all my work with The Commune.

  He waved these away and hugged me.

  I wiped a tear aside and he spoke. "I am so proud of you my son. You have made us all so proud."

  I remembered seeing my old calligraphy teacher who said I was evil. I wanted to apologize to the man for some reason, even though he was the one who was completely wrong.

  The sun just began to rise.

  "Lugia took me here, what do you think it means?"

  "Well," Toji asked. "What do you think it means?"

  "Um."

  I frowned.

  Time to go home.

  "I heard you had attained an Eevee. Might I see it?"

  I handed him the Pokéball from my pocket.

  He released the Eevee.

  He looked around the temple courtyard blankly for a bit. And then nuzzled the leg of my jeans.

  Eevee began to glow in the early sunlight. A purple set of rays began to fill the courtyard, the monks watching gasped, watching history unfold as-

  The third Espeon in existence appeared.

  I reached forward, as Espeon nuzzled my hand with his ear in a very catlike fashion, his forked tail slipping through the air like a snake.

  "Your spiritual journey is complete Nico. You are free to choose where to go."

  I nodded. "O-Okay."

  …

  I stood at the Torii shrine gate at the very top of Mount Takujimi.

  Elder Toji was standing alone behind me.

  I could hear voices whispering to me on the other end.

  "What is it?" Toji could see my expression.

  "I hear something."

  "What do you hear child?"

  "C…come…."

  I stood a bit closer to the shrine.

  "Come play with me Nico! Come on, join my train and I can take you home!"

  "W-Wait." my eyes widened. "Is that?"

  "Ah." Toji sighed. "Youth is wasted on the young. Yes Nico, you are the only Monk, no, only person alive able to hear Mew's voice."

  It sounded like a child's voice.

  I looked into the shrine, through the gate. I could see Mew's Playground from my dreams. No Mew though.

  "Wait a minute. The only way I'll be able to see Mew is if. Is if I. Is if I leave this world forever?"

  "The Gods don't give us many choices child." said Toji. "I knew this from the moment we met. You and the Spirits have a connection unlike any other. And that has its benefits as well as its, crushing consequences."

  The entire point of my journey, spreading the voice of Mew to eventually find him. And he was hiding behind the same door I came through this whole time.

  Locked forever the moment I entered it.

  "No." I said, shaking my head. "There has to be another way."

  Elder Toji looked silent and, grim.

  "I'm not letting this happen. There has to be another way. There-"

  There was another way. The only person on the planet rumored to have captured or known of Legendary Pokémon.

  The one and only Red. The hardest person to find, well, ever.

  I ran to Elder Toji and hugged him.

  "Can I find him?" I asked through tears.

  I heard him raise his arms kindly and embrace me. "Only you will be able to find that answer child."

  …

  might.