Hello, everyone! I've decided to start a side story to one Pokemon story that I'm telling now, Trump Card. This, however, is a different story and canon to Trump Card as well. I hope it will be enjoyable and seek also to shape the region I'm telling in both of these stories.
Chapter 1: Prologue
The classroom stared quietly at the teacher as she announced the daily activities for the class and went over basic teachings of the knights. A boy's eyes began to drift elsewhere, he looked out of the window; trying to imagine soaring through the sky above the clouds. The castle they were in wasn't so close to the ground, it loomed over the town and blanketed it in a shadow; the castle was indeed high, up into the skies, nearing the clouds.
He examined his reflection in the window. He had dark hair and a light complexion, with cerulean blue eyes. He had tuned out the class discussion completely as he used the window as a mirror.
"Got your head in the clouds, Ventus?" someone from behind him had said.
"Those who wander aren't always lost," Ventus said.
"Oh, but you certainly are. Have you been paying attention to the class?" he whispered.
Ventus twisted around to see his friend and laid his hand on the desk. Everyone had given him a nickname because he had excelled in pokemon battles, he was called 'Arch Knight', Arch for short. He had wood brown spiky hair that covered one of his eyes.
"Look, Arch. I don't need to pay attention because-" Ventus had suddenly heard footsteps in his direction and he turned around to see the teacher glaring at him.
"Mr. Skywind, I would prefer if my class wasn't disrupted by you and your shenanigans," she said.
"Sorry, folks," Ventus said and let loose a smile, hoping to ease the tension off of him. The classroom stared at Ventus before looking back at the teacher to continue the daily announcements.
"Nice one, hot shot," A girl sitting next to Ventus had sarcastically said. It was Elizabeth, another one of the high class students. She excelled just as much as Arch, some say even better. She had long blonde hair and always portrayed the look of confidence.
"Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit," Ventus whispered.
She, and everyone else, had turned to the teacher. "Today, each of you will be getting a pokemon, courtesy of Team Gale. You all, as trainees, must train your pokemon up to the standard that has been set by the Pokemon Knights. I wish you all well, now you may chat but please keep it quiet," she said as she went to her desk and started reading one of her books.
"So, how has your team been developing, Ventus?" Arch asked.
"We haven't been going on a lot of missions or patrol, we've only been hanging out. Improving our bond," Ventus said.
"Utter nonsense!" Elizabeth said as she turned to Ventus. "You should be training twenty-four seven. If you aren't, then you're just ruining your pokemon. Their skills will dull and you won't be able to lead them effectively!" she said.
"Thanks, but I don't think my pokemon's skills have dulled. They're as great as they always were," Ventus said.
"Are they? Let me see your detail cards," she said. Ventus reached into his pocket and gave her the detail cards.
"Pokemon: Lucario. Sword. Best suited for Attack. Caliber Seven," she said and moved on to the next card. "Pokemon: Pikachu. Sword. Best suited for Special Attack. Caliber Four," she read.
"And, just in case I didn't know what that meant, would you--"
"I'll explain it to you." Elizabeth said. "Pokemon are put into three basic categories: Sword, for offense. Shield, for defense. Dagger, for hasty offense. Caliber is a scale from one to ten of how viable your pokemon is in combat." she explained.
"Well, I guess I know what move I should teach my pokemon now," Ventus said.
"What move?" Arch asked.
"Swords Dance! Haha!" Ventus chuckled at his pun.
"You aren't taking this very seriously, are you?" Elizabeth sighed.
"I'm okay with the categories. But caliber just seems like a joke. Who are they to define how good a pokemon is in combat? It all depends on who's behind the sword, shield, or whatever!" Ventus said.
"Who are they to set a limit for how well in combat my pokemon can perform? My pokemon only have the skies to answer to as their limit!" Ventus said brimming with confidence.
"That's fine faith in your pokemon. But, I think you are pushing it a bit too far. Each pokemon has a limit, a limit you apparently haven't even gotten close to because you haven't been training; you've only been 'bonding'," she said.
"I get that you should train, but you shouldn't spend more time training them than you do bonding with them. They're not just swords and shields!" Ventus said vehemently. "And you're right that my pokemon aren't near their limit, because they have none," he said a matter of factly.
"You are out of your mind. Pokemon get better through Discipline and practice. Do you even know what discipline means?" Elizabeth asked.
"Discipline is discipline," Ventus said.
"...If you looked up Discipline in a dictionary and found 'Discipline is discipline', would you be happy?" Elizabeth asked.
"Well-" Ventus began.
"Okay, enough bickering; you two haven't proved anything. Why don't you two have a pokemon battle? Then we'll see who's right," Arch said.
"Me? I'm a B-class Knight. While my friend over here is a D-class for all his talk," she said.
"Ranks don't mean anything, and I'll prove that!" Ventus said right as the bell rung.
All three of them had met in the courtyard. Ventus threw one of his pokeballs and in a flash Lucario emerged from the ball. Elizabeth seemed to be as confident as ever and showed it with a smirk while she threw out her pokeball. The pokeball fell to the ground and snapped open releasing a Blaziken.
The two pokemon stared at each other, Blaziken's fiery glare met Lucario's steely stare. "Swords Dance!" Elizabeth yelled as her Blaziken's claws glowed purple and grew longer.
"Lucario, Stop the Dance with ExtremeSpeed!" Ventus yelled and Lucario had became encased with a white aura and seemed to be a blur. In a second, he had reached Blaziken and threw it back with a punch. A Direct Hit. Blaziken got back up and glared at its opponent again, waiting for its commands.
"Blaziken, use Flare Blitz!" Elizabeth commanded and Blaziken was cloaked in fire and charged at the opponent.
"Lucario, Use ExtremeSpeed again!" Ventus said with a confident smile as Lucario charged at Blaziken with unfailing speed once more. Lucario extended his arms and pushed Blaziken back with all its force and stopped the Flare Blitz. Lucario and Blaziken were both damaged.
"Risky move there, Ventus." Elizabeth commented. "Now, lets try that again Blaziken!" Elizabeth smiled and rallied Blaziken up as it began wrapping itself in fire yet again.
"Lucario, use Me First!" Ventus yelled and Lucario wrapped itself in flames and shot through the air like a missile toward Blaziken. Blaziken and Lucario met in a clash of fire that exploded and left the two both knocked out.
"Reckless," Elizabeth said as she returned Blaziken to its pokeball.
"Reckless? That should've been an easy win for you, but your pokemon ended up getting wrecked," Ventus chuckled at his pun as he put Lucario back in his pokeball.
Elizabeth sighed and threw out her Gardevoir as Ventus threw out his Pikachu.
"Okay, Pikachu. We got this in the bag," Ventus said.
"No, you don't. Your reckless strategy may have gotten you a tie, but it won't get you a win. Not today!" Elizabeth said.
"Pikachu, use Thunder!" Ventus commanded and Pikachu was surrounded by lightning and an electric bolt came out of the sky and hit six inches away from Gardevoir. Ventus was shocked to see his attack had missed.
"Pikachu, use thunder till it hits!" Ventus commanded yet again. Elizabeth had yawned as Pikachu used Thunder nine times and each time had missed.
"My Gardevoir is simply ecstatic that you had tried so hard to shock her. Now, she wants to return the favor." Elizabeth said.
"Normally, I'd enjoy that pun, but Pikachu! You have to strike Gardevoir quick with Thunderbolt!" Ventus yelled.
Gardevoir had already used Psychic on Pikachu and a light blue aura had surrounded him. Pikachu was lifted up and thrown to the wall of the courtyard and fell to the ground. "And that should be the end, folks," Elizabeth said happily.
Ventus stared at his Pikachu as it started to twitch its ears. "Pikachu! You have to get up. We can win this." Ventus encouraged. Pikachu slowly got up and static began to emerge from its cheek pouches.
"You don't know when to call it quits," Elizabeth said.
Pikachu started to charge up an enormous amount of electricity and enveloped itself in it. It started to run faster and faster toward Gardevoir.
"Gardevoir, Use Psychic!" Elizabeth commanded.
Gardevoir's eyes glowed blue and Pikachu was temporarily stopped by Psychic, but it kept running still, fighting against the force that attempted to control its body. "Now, Pikachu! Use Volt Tackle!" Ventus commanded.
Pikachu slammed into Gardevoir with volt tackle and fainted it before fainting itself from the recoil. "Gardevoir fainted first, so the battle goes to Ventus." Arch said raising a flag toward Ventus' direction.
Ventus returned his hurt Pikachu to its pokeball. "Well, there you have it. My pokemon won and I didn't have some fancy ranking." he said.
"I do admit, that pikachu of yours surprised me. I thought it would had fainted given its defenses, but you must have had some sort of endurance training with it." Elizabeth said as she offered her hand to shake.
"We did train, but that power that he just showed you, that was all friendship. He was able to do it because of our bond." Ventus said as he shook her hand.
Arch pondered to himself; he didn't know which side he was on. "Could friendship really determine the winner of a battle?" he murmured to himself.
The bell had rung once again and they all went back inside of the castle.
Everyone had reported to the main entrance to the castle. On the right and left sides were new tables, and in the front was a podium that the Knight Leader was behind. He took up his microphone and started talking.
"Today is selection day, ladies and gentleman. You will have one more pokemon added to your team for protection. Team Gale has liberated and trained these pokemon to best fit the Pokemon Knights. These pokemon have three battle styles: Sword, Shield, or Dagger. We will be giving out these pokemon by raffle; in the black envelopes you choose will be the detail cards for your pokemon," the leader stated.
"This is exciting! A new pokemon to be friends with. I wonder which one I'll get," Ventus said happily.
"Just use a safe battle style with this one, will ya? I don't want to hear about you getting hurt because of your reckless battling," Elizabeth said.
"Tsk tsk. That reckless battling won me the game against a B-class Knight, now didn't it?" Ventus said with a slight chuckle.
"But you can't rely on it!" she said.
The crowd had all stepped up to the table and began grabbing the envelopes from the giant pile. Soon it was Ventus and Elizabeth's turn. "I wish you the best," Ventus said as he let her go first.
Elizabeth seemed to only be interested in the very top of the pile, her hand went right hovering over one envelope, but then moved left and got the envelope beside it. Ventus picked the envelope she was originally going to get.
"I wonder what this is," Ventus said as he opened the envelope to find a charcoal black dragon with red wings pictured on the card. He stared at it for a while until Elizabeth and Arch approached him.
"What pokemon did you guys get?" Ventus asked.
"Steelix. Shield. Best suited for defensive strategies. Caliber five." Arch read off his card.
"Impressive, what about you Elizabeth?" Ventus asked.
"Cloyster. Shield. Best suited for defensive strategies. Caliber seven." she read off her card.
"What about you? Did you finally get a defense pokemon?" Arch asked.
"I doubt it. Ventus literally has adopted only Swords into his party. If he got a defensive pokemon I think he'd be in protest." Elizabeth said.
Ventus took his card and read it off to them. "Charizard. Sword. Best suited for Special Attack. Caliber six." Ventus said. "So, I get another attack pokemon," he said.
"Really, you should go see the advisor and ask to trade it in with a defensive pokemon. It just seems a shame for you to not have a shield in your group." Elizabeth said.
"Don't you get it? Ventus bases his team off the wind. Being swift and strong. The wind is never defensive. I bet Ventus here thinks offensive strategy is the best defensive strategy. Am I right?" Arch asked.
"I actually was hoping for a defensive pokemon this time. But I don't know, I haven't even battled with this pokemon. I should at least try it out, I'll wait until the pokemon are delivered and I see it first hand."
The leader had began to speak into the microphone once again. "Now, Ladies and Gentleman, write your name on the card and turn it in. We'll be giving your pokemon to you sometime during the week."
Ventus went to the signing table and wrote his name on the card, put it back in the envelope and handed it in. Elizabeth and Arch had followed behind him and wrote their names on their detail cards as well and turned it in.
"I think I'll be retiring for the day. I really need some sleep." he said.
"Okay, have a nice night, Ventus." Arch said.
"Truly. Sleep well so you can train tomorrow. I want you to be as powerful as you can be for our rematch. It'll be all the more satisfying to beat you at your best." Elizabeth said confidently, Ventus had always admired her confidence and now looked forward to their rematch.
Ventus, Arch, and Elizabeth said their goodbyes as they returned to their rooms in the castle. A third pokemon added to the team could heavily change how they would battle, and they all felt uneasy about it; Ventus, the most because he had began to question his entire battle style. They all would have to wait and see what fate has in store.
As the journey continues...
Knighted♦
Chapter 1: Prologue
The classroom stared quietly at the teacher as she announced the daily activities for the class and went over basic teachings of the knights. A boy's eyes began to drift elsewhere, he looked out of the window; trying to imagine soaring through the sky above the clouds. The castle they were in wasn't so close to the ground, it loomed over the town and blanketed it in a shadow; the castle was indeed high, up into the skies, nearing the clouds.
He examined his reflection in the window. He had dark hair and a light complexion, with cerulean blue eyes. He had tuned out the class discussion completely as he used the window as a mirror.
"Got your head in the clouds, Ventus?" someone from behind him had said.
"Those who wander aren't always lost," Ventus said.
"Oh, but you certainly are. Have you been paying attention to the class?" he whispered.
Ventus twisted around to see his friend and laid his hand on the desk. Everyone had given him a nickname because he had excelled in pokemon battles, he was called 'Arch Knight', Arch for short. He had wood brown spiky hair that covered one of his eyes.
"Look, Arch. I don't need to pay attention because-" Ventus had suddenly heard footsteps in his direction and he turned around to see the teacher glaring at him.
"Mr. Skywind, I would prefer if my class wasn't disrupted by you and your shenanigans," she said.
"Sorry, folks," Ventus said and let loose a smile, hoping to ease the tension off of him. The classroom stared at Ventus before looking back at the teacher to continue the daily announcements.
"Nice one, hot shot," A girl sitting next to Ventus had sarcastically said. It was Elizabeth, another one of the high class students. She excelled just as much as Arch, some say even better. She had long blonde hair and always portrayed the look of confidence.
"Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit," Ventus whispered.
She, and everyone else, had turned to the teacher. "Today, each of you will be getting a pokemon, courtesy of Team Gale. You all, as trainees, must train your pokemon up to the standard that has been set by the Pokemon Knights. I wish you all well, now you may chat but please keep it quiet," she said as she went to her desk and started reading one of her books.
"So, how has your team been developing, Ventus?" Arch asked.
"We haven't been going on a lot of missions or patrol, we've only been hanging out. Improving our bond," Ventus said.
"Utter nonsense!" Elizabeth said as she turned to Ventus. "You should be training twenty-four seven. If you aren't, then you're just ruining your pokemon. Their skills will dull and you won't be able to lead them effectively!" she said.
"Thanks, but I don't think my pokemon's skills have dulled. They're as great as they always were," Ventus said.
"Are they? Let me see your detail cards," she said. Ventus reached into his pocket and gave her the detail cards.
"Pokemon: Lucario. Sword. Best suited for Attack. Caliber Seven," she said and moved on to the next card. "Pokemon: Pikachu. Sword. Best suited for Special Attack. Caliber Four," she read.
"And, just in case I didn't know what that meant, would you--"
"I'll explain it to you." Elizabeth said. "Pokemon are put into three basic categories: Sword, for offense. Shield, for defense. Dagger, for hasty offense. Caliber is a scale from one to ten of how viable your pokemon is in combat." she explained.
"Well, I guess I know what move I should teach my pokemon now," Ventus said.
"What move?" Arch asked.
"Swords Dance! Haha!" Ventus chuckled at his pun.
"You aren't taking this very seriously, are you?" Elizabeth sighed.
"I'm okay with the categories. But caliber just seems like a joke. Who are they to define how good a pokemon is in combat? It all depends on who's behind the sword, shield, or whatever!" Ventus said.
"Who are they to set a limit for how well in combat my pokemon can perform? My pokemon only have the skies to answer to as their limit!" Ventus said brimming with confidence.
"That's fine faith in your pokemon. But, I think you are pushing it a bit too far. Each pokemon has a limit, a limit you apparently haven't even gotten close to because you haven't been training; you've only been 'bonding'," she said.
"I get that you should train, but you shouldn't spend more time training them than you do bonding with them. They're not just swords and shields!" Ventus said vehemently. "And you're right that my pokemon aren't near their limit, because they have none," he said a matter of factly.
"You are out of your mind. Pokemon get better through Discipline and practice. Do you even know what discipline means?" Elizabeth asked.
"Discipline is discipline," Ventus said.
"...If you looked up Discipline in a dictionary and found 'Discipline is discipline', would you be happy?" Elizabeth asked.
"Well-" Ventus began.
"Okay, enough bickering; you two haven't proved anything. Why don't you two have a pokemon battle? Then we'll see who's right," Arch said.
"Me? I'm a B-class Knight. While my friend over here is a D-class for all his talk," she said.
"Ranks don't mean anything, and I'll prove that!" Ventus said right as the bell rung.
♦
All three of them had met in the courtyard. Ventus threw one of his pokeballs and in a flash Lucario emerged from the ball. Elizabeth seemed to be as confident as ever and showed it with a smirk while she threw out her pokeball. The pokeball fell to the ground and snapped open releasing a Blaziken.
The two pokemon stared at each other, Blaziken's fiery glare met Lucario's steely stare. "Swords Dance!" Elizabeth yelled as her Blaziken's claws glowed purple and grew longer.
"Lucario, Stop the Dance with ExtremeSpeed!" Ventus yelled and Lucario had became encased with a white aura and seemed to be a blur. In a second, he had reached Blaziken and threw it back with a punch. A Direct Hit. Blaziken got back up and glared at its opponent again, waiting for its commands.
"Blaziken, use Flare Blitz!" Elizabeth commanded and Blaziken was cloaked in fire and charged at the opponent.
"Lucario, Use ExtremeSpeed again!" Ventus said with a confident smile as Lucario charged at Blaziken with unfailing speed once more. Lucario extended his arms and pushed Blaziken back with all its force and stopped the Flare Blitz. Lucario and Blaziken were both damaged.
"Risky move there, Ventus." Elizabeth commented. "Now, lets try that again Blaziken!" Elizabeth smiled and rallied Blaziken up as it began wrapping itself in fire yet again.
"Lucario, use Me First!" Ventus yelled and Lucario wrapped itself in flames and shot through the air like a missile toward Blaziken. Blaziken and Lucario met in a clash of fire that exploded and left the two both knocked out.
"Reckless," Elizabeth said as she returned Blaziken to its pokeball.
"Reckless? That should've been an easy win for you, but your pokemon ended up getting wrecked," Ventus chuckled at his pun as he put Lucario back in his pokeball.
Elizabeth sighed and threw out her Gardevoir as Ventus threw out his Pikachu.
"Okay, Pikachu. We got this in the bag," Ventus said.
"No, you don't. Your reckless strategy may have gotten you a tie, but it won't get you a win. Not today!" Elizabeth said.
"Pikachu, use Thunder!" Ventus commanded and Pikachu was surrounded by lightning and an electric bolt came out of the sky and hit six inches away from Gardevoir. Ventus was shocked to see his attack had missed.
"Pikachu, use thunder till it hits!" Ventus commanded yet again. Elizabeth had yawned as Pikachu used Thunder nine times and each time had missed.
"My Gardevoir is simply ecstatic that you had tried so hard to shock her. Now, she wants to return the favor." Elizabeth said.
"Normally, I'd enjoy that pun, but Pikachu! You have to strike Gardevoir quick with Thunderbolt!" Ventus yelled.
Gardevoir had already used Psychic on Pikachu and a light blue aura had surrounded him. Pikachu was lifted up and thrown to the wall of the courtyard and fell to the ground. "And that should be the end, folks," Elizabeth said happily.
Ventus stared at his Pikachu as it started to twitch its ears. "Pikachu! You have to get up. We can win this." Ventus encouraged. Pikachu slowly got up and static began to emerge from its cheek pouches.
"You don't know when to call it quits," Elizabeth said.
Pikachu started to charge up an enormous amount of electricity and enveloped itself in it. It started to run faster and faster toward Gardevoir.
"Gardevoir, Use Psychic!" Elizabeth commanded.
Gardevoir's eyes glowed blue and Pikachu was temporarily stopped by Psychic, but it kept running still, fighting against the force that attempted to control its body. "Now, Pikachu! Use Volt Tackle!" Ventus commanded.
Pikachu slammed into Gardevoir with volt tackle and fainted it before fainting itself from the recoil. "Gardevoir fainted first, so the battle goes to Ventus." Arch said raising a flag toward Ventus' direction.
Ventus returned his hurt Pikachu to its pokeball. "Well, there you have it. My pokemon won and I didn't have some fancy ranking." he said.
"I do admit, that pikachu of yours surprised me. I thought it would had fainted given its defenses, but you must have had some sort of endurance training with it." Elizabeth said as she offered her hand to shake.
"We did train, but that power that he just showed you, that was all friendship. He was able to do it because of our bond." Ventus said as he shook her hand.
Arch pondered to himself; he didn't know which side he was on. "Could friendship really determine the winner of a battle?" he murmured to himself.
The bell had rung once again and they all went back inside of the castle.
♦
Everyone had reported to the main entrance to the castle. On the right and left sides were new tables, and in the front was a podium that the Knight Leader was behind. He took up his microphone and started talking.
"Today is selection day, ladies and gentleman. You will have one more pokemon added to your team for protection. Team Gale has liberated and trained these pokemon to best fit the Pokemon Knights. These pokemon have three battle styles: Sword, Shield, or Dagger. We will be giving out these pokemon by raffle; in the black envelopes you choose will be the detail cards for your pokemon," the leader stated.
"This is exciting! A new pokemon to be friends with. I wonder which one I'll get," Ventus said happily.
"Just use a safe battle style with this one, will ya? I don't want to hear about you getting hurt because of your reckless battling," Elizabeth said.
"Tsk tsk. That reckless battling won me the game against a B-class Knight, now didn't it?" Ventus said with a slight chuckle.
"But you can't rely on it!" she said.
The crowd had all stepped up to the table and began grabbing the envelopes from the giant pile. Soon it was Ventus and Elizabeth's turn. "I wish you the best," Ventus said as he let her go first.
Elizabeth seemed to only be interested in the very top of the pile, her hand went right hovering over one envelope, but then moved left and got the envelope beside it. Ventus picked the envelope she was originally going to get.
"I wonder what this is," Ventus said as he opened the envelope to find a charcoal black dragon with red wings pictured on the card. He stared at it for a while until Elizabeth and Arch approached him.
"What pokemon did you guys get?" Ventus asked.
"Steelix. Shield. Best suited for defensive strategies. Caliber five." Arch read off his card.
"Impressive, what about you Elizabeth?" Ventus asked.
"Cloyster. Shield. Best suited for defensive strategies. Caliber seven." she read off her card.
"What about you? Did you finally get a defense pokemon?" Arch asked.
"I doubt it. Ventus literally has adopted only Swords into his party. If he got a defensive pokemon I think he'd be in protest." Elizabeth said.
Ventus took his card and read it off to them. "Charizard. Sword. Best suited for Special Attack. Caliber six." Ventus said. "So, I get another attack pokemon," he said.
"Really, you should go see the advisor and ask to trade it in with a defensive pokemon. It just seems a shame for you to not have a shield in your group." Elizabeth said.
"Don't you get it? Ventus bases his team off the wind. Being swift and strong. The wind is never defensive. I bet Ventus here thinks offensive strategy is the best defensive strategy. Am I right?" Arch asked.
"I actually was hoping for a defensive pokemon this time. But I don't know, I haven't even battled with this pokemon. I should at least try it out, I'll wait until the pokemon are delivered and I see it first hand."
The leader had began to speak into the microphone once again. "Now, Ladies and Gentleman, write your name on the card and turn it in. We'll be giving your pokemon to you sometime during the week."
Ventus went to the signing table and wrote his name on the card, put it back in the envelope and handed it in. Elizabeth and Arch had followed behind him and wrote their names on their detail cards as well and turned it in.
"I think I'll be retiring for the day. I really need some sleep." he said.
"Okay, have a nice night, Ventus." Arch said.
"Truly. Sleep well so you can train tomorrow. I want you to be as powerful as you can be for our rematch. It'll be all the more satisfying to beat you at your best." Elizabeth said confidently, Ventus had always admired her confidence and now looked forward to their rematch.
Ventus, Arch, and Elizabeth said their goodbyes as they returned to their rooms in the castle. A third pokemon added to the team could heavily change how they would battle, and they all felt uneasy about it; Ventus, the most because he had began to question his entire battle style. They all would have to wait and see what fate has in store.
As the journey continues...
