Chapter Text
‘’You do realize that doing this will make you lose your championship over Kalos, right?’’ Professor Sycamore said. The trainer he was speaking to, looked at him and nodded.
‘’You know me, Sycamore. I love travelling and Alola seems like a grand place to travel to.’’ he said. Professor Sycamore sighed.
‘’I know, and you’re probably interested in seeing all the fantastic fire types there, Alex.’’ the professor said.
‘’You bet I am!’’ Alex replied. His Arcanine matched the excitement by wagging her tail.
‘’As expected from you. Now, have you decided who you’ll be taking with you?’’ Sycamore asked. Alex tapped his chin for a moment.
‘’Kinda? I know I’ll take Papie, and Andre. Oh, and Neme!’’ Alex piped up.
‘’Alrighty! You can leave their Poke Balls behind and I’ll transfer them over when you land on Alola.’’ Sycamore said. Alex nodded, and pulled out three Poke Balls from his bag. One of which is the Arcanine, Papie’s, ball. Papie was never a big fan of being inside her ball. But now, she could sense that her trainer wanted her inside the ball for a good reason, so she obliged easily to be called back in. Afterwards, Alex handed the balls to the professor.
‘’You’re nervous about the flight, aren’t you?’’ Sycamore suddenly asked. Alex is a bit taken aback by this but nods, and Sycamore goes to a cabinet. He pulls out a small bottle and hands it over to Alex.
‘’Take two of these an hour before the flight. They’ll ease your nerves.’’ Sycamore said as Alex placed the bottle within his bag.
‘’Thanks! And thank you for taking care of the rest of my team while I’m gone.’’ Alex said.
‘’It’s no problem! Anything for someone who helped us defeat Team Flare.’’ Sycamore said. Alex grins, and chuckles.
‘’Talk to ya soon, Sycamore!’’ Alex cheered as he took a step to exit the laboratory. He pulls on the collar of his coat, fixes his cap and bikes off to the distance.
This trainer, the used to be Champion of Kalos, is Alex Kreetur. He is mainly a fire type trainer, and he’s about to embark on a brand new adventure in Alola.
The plane lands on the lush grounds of Alola, and Alex is excited to exit to the fresh night of the Melemele Island. He grabs his belongings and exits the plane, barely containing himself as he rushes to the building where he can grab the rest of his belongings he brought with him. He waits, and he waits for his bag to come along the bag conveyor. Once it hits his sight, he rushes over, grabs it and rushes off and out to find the nearest Pokemon Center. It takes him a while, but he eventually finds one and beelines for the Pokemon transferring machine. He punches in Sycamore’s laboratory number and very impatiently waits for him to pick up.
‘’Alex! How was the flight?’’ is the first thing Alex hears as Sycamore picks up the phone.
‘’It was okay. The meds you gave really kicked in hard!’’ Alex replied.
‘’Good, good! Now, let me transfer over your team!’’ Sycamore said. Alex can barely contain his excitement. He turns his attention to the machine and slowly sees three Poke Balls appear inside it. He picks them up, places two in his bag and the last one he opens, letting out Papie.
‘’Thanks so much again, Sycamore!’’ Alex said, as Papie begged for attention.
‘’I’ll say it again, no problem! Now go! Become the next Champion of Alola!’’ Sycamore said. Alex chuckled.
‘’Don’t worry, I will! I’ll call you when I am the Champion!’’ Alex said.
‘’Sounds like a plan!’’ Sycamore said. Alex closed the call and finally turned his attention to the Arcanine by his side. He scratches her between the ears.
‘’Alright Papie! Let’s go! We gotta find a place to stay for the night.’’ Alex said, and headed out the Pokemon Center. It took some asking around and a lot of confusion, but eventually Alex found a motel to stay at. Once settled inside his room, he let out his Litleo, Neme, and Charizard, Andre. The three of his Pokemon stand in line in front of him.
‘’Alright guys! Battle plan for tomorrow! Find and catch a new team member, and train!’’ Alex exclaimed. ‘’But until then, we take a well deserved good night’s rest.’’ he added. His team roars in agreement, and each of them settles down somewhere in the room. Papie makes her way next to the bed where Alex sits in his pajamas. He ponders for a moment, before flopping down on the bed and pulling the covers over him.
‘’Good night, ya’ll.’’ he said, as he closed his eyes. He gets a couple murmurs as a response. Before long, the whole team and Alex are fast asleep.
The next morning came way too fast for Alex’s liking. His phone rang it’s alarm at 10 AM, and Alex hit snooze immediately. He was so not ready to get up yet. As much as he was excited to see all of Alola, he was not a morning person. At all. He hit snooze at least four more times before groggily sitting up in his bed. Papie sits up expectantly, waiting for her morning scratches and treats. Alex looks at her, and chuckles. He inches to the edge of the bed, and scratches the Arcanine between her ears once more.
‘’Sorry Papie, we got no treats this morning. But maybe tomorrow. We need to go shopping for some Poke Beans and Puffs.’’ Alex said, before stretching his back. A loud pop sound could be heard from his spine, and he instantly recoils with a semi loud ‘ow, ow, ow’’. After a while he decides to just get up and go on about his first day on Alola. He calls Andre and Neme back to their balls, and exits the motel room with Papie right behind him. He greets the people outside with a wide grin and a wave of a hand, before making his way forward to the local Pokemon treats shop within a walking distance. It was great that Hau’oli City was small.
Alex enters the treats shop and beelines for the Beans and Puffs. He fills his little shopping basket full of them, before heading to the cash register. The cashier greets him with a wide grin, and begins checking the items.
‘’You must be new here.’’ the cashier said.
‘’Yup! Just arrived last night.’’ Alex replied.
‘’Welcome to Alola then, hope you have a great time here.’’ the cashier said, while packing the treats to a small canvas bag, before handing it over to Alex.
‘’Thank you! See you later!’’ Alex cheered as he exited the shop. Instantly upon exiting, he pulls out a Bean and offers it to Papie, who takes it with a glint in her eyes. She gobbles it up in no time, and expects to get a second one.
‘’No Papie, you ain’t getting another one. We need save these for the others too.’’ Alex said, while mindlessly walking forward. He doesn’t realize where he’s going until someone yells ‘stop them!’’. Alex perks up and looks for the source of the sound. He sees two lads in black and white clothing run to his direction, and someone running behind the two. Alex takes a stand and orders Papie to be ready. Said Arcanine lets out a growl, and just as the two thieves are about to reach Alex, Papie is ordered to let out a Flame Wheel. This scares the two thieves, and causes them to drop the Poke Ball in one of their hands. They don’t stay back to retrieve it, and just run off past Alex and Papie with empty hands. Alex lets out a ‘tsk’ sound and makes to retrieve the lone Poke Ball. Just as he straightens up, the person who had yelled reaches him. He pants and takes a big breather, almost toppling over from exhaustion before he even lets out a word.
‘’Thank you.’’ he panted. He swiped his brow, a few sweat drops had made their way onto his forehead. Alex hands the ball to him.
‘’No problem. Thieves make me extremely pissed off, and I’m bummed that they got away so easily.’’ Alex replied. Before he could speak more, another person made their way to the two.
‘’Ilima! Did you get the Pokemon back?’’ he asked. How he was not out of breath from such a run was a wonder in Alex’s head.
‘’Yes! This kind trainer got it back from those Team Skull grunts.’’ this Ilima said, gesturing to Alex. The new person takes a gander at Alex, before letting out a hum.
‘’You’re new around here.’’ he said. Alex nods.
‘’I’m Kukui, Pokemon Professor of the Alola region. And you are?’’ the person inquired. Alex offers his hand to the professor.
‘’I’m Alex, I came here just yesterday from Kalos.’’ Alex said. The professor takes the hand, and gives a firm handshake while Ilima’s interest seems to have been piqued.
‘’Kalos? I used to study there.’’ Ilima said.
‘’Really now?’’ Alex asked. Ilima nodded in excitement. Kukui seemed to be deep in thought.
‘’Your surname wouldn’t happen to be Kreetur?’’ Kukui asked. Alex’s eyes widen a bit. Shit, he’d been figured out. He sheepishly nods, scratching the back of his head.
‘’How’d you guess?’’ Alex asked.
‘’The word about someone who saved the Kalos region, and became the reigning Champion for years, travels easily.’’ Kukui replied.
‘’Champion? You’re a Champion?’’ Ilima asked. His eyes were gleaming.
‘’I used to be. I gave up the title to travel here, and maybe become the next Alolan Champion.’’ Alex confessed. ‘’I have a long line of being the Champion actually.’’ he added.
‘’Well, if you’re planning on becoming the Champion, you need to face the trials and defeat the Trial Captains.’’ Kukui said. He motioned for the two younger trainers to follow him. ‘’Come on, I’ll get you started on your journey.’’ he added. Alex and Ilima followed Kukui for a long while, before they finally made it to the beach where there was a lone house. The three entered the house.
‘’First things first, you’ll need the Island Challenge Amulet and a PokeDex.’’ Kukui said as they made it inside. He made his way to a cabinet, grabbed what was needed and made it back to Alex and Ilima. He handed the amulet to Alex, who pinned it down to his bag.
‘’Now, your new PokeDex needs a lil’ help from a Rotom to work, and lucky for you, we have one wandering about here.’’ Kukui said, before calling out to the Rotom. Not long after a flash of lightning and the Rotom was inside the PokeDex. The screen flashed on, and the Dex flew up in the air, turning to Alex.
‘’Please select the language you’d like.’’ the Dex said.
‘’Uh, English, please.’’ Alex said. He was flabbergasted by the technology.
‘’And what shall I call you?’’ the Dex asked. Alex pondered for a moment.
‘’Alex. Just call me Alex.’’ he replied.
‘’Pleasure to meet you, Alex.’’ the Dex said, flying around Alex.
‘’Pleasure to meet you too, uh, Rotom?’’ Alex said, his voice uncertain of the name of the Dex. Kukui let out a chuckle.
‘’You can call him Rotom.’’ he said.
‘’Awesome. Now, you mentioned trials? You guys don’t have Gyms over here?’’ Alex asked, slightly tapping his chin and pondering out loud. Kukui let out another chuckle.
‘’Nope, no Gyms! You face off Totem Pokemon here.’’ Kukui said, before going on a rampagous explanation on how the trials worked. Alex was left a bit dumbfounded by the end of the explanation, and had to ask multiple questions to make sure he got it all right.
After confirming everything, Alex decided to make his way out and about to train his Litleo, so that she would someday evolve. He fought so many Pokemon, training Neme while also keeping an eye out for a new team member. After literally hours and hours and hundreds and hundreds of Grubbin later, one with different colors popped up and Alex knew he had to catch it. It took a struggle and a half to not cause it to faint since Neme was higher level than the Grubbin, but with patience he succeeded. After the last wiggle of the Poke Ball, Alex rushed over, cheering. He picked the ball up, and tapped his chin, before releasing the Pokemon out and about.
‘’Hey there buddy. What shall we name you?’’ he asked from himself. ‘’Oh I know! Mente! Your name is now Mente.’’ he said, half congratulating himself for being so fast with coming up with a name.
‘’Hey Rotom! Can you tell me something about this Pokemon?’’ Alex asked.
‘’I sure can! Grubbin, the Larva Pokemon. It’s a Bug-type.’’ Rotom explained. Alex half guessed it was a Bug-type, but getting confirmation only made it ten times better. He’d never tell anyone, but he had a soft spot for bugs, but this was the first Bug Pokemon he had caught and was gonna keep in his team, so his secret might get out soon. It was very late in to the night by now, so Alex decided to head back to the motel.
Upon arriving there, he took a quick shower, threw on some fresh pajamas and nuzzled into bed. Papie laid in her spot next to the bed, close enough for Alex to be able to give her a good night’s scratching.
That night, Alex dreamed of pleasant things. Mainly about how he became the Kalos Champion, and a bit of when he first encountered Papie. That memory always brought tears to his eyes, as Papie had become his go to partner in crime. Or well, not in crime. But the two had grown very close. Losing Papie would be the end of the world to Alex. The past 11 years as a trainer, the past championships of Kanto and Kalos, all his struggles. Papie had been there for him, being the comforting fluffball that she was. And she was gonna be there for him for many more years to come.
Alex woke up feeling very emotional at one point during the night, and had to bury his face into Papie’s fur to cry it all out.
In the morning though, Alex was all ready to face the first trial. He and his team made their way to Verdant Cavern, where Ilima was already waiting for them to arrive.
‘’Greetings! Captain Ilima here!’’ Ilima greeted. Alex greeted him back with a wide grin and a wave of a hand.
‘’So, this is where it happens?’’ Alex asked upon reaching Ilima. Ilima nodded.
‘’This is Verdant Cavern, and the Pokemon within are fierce! You will need to battle three Pokemon before taking on the Totem Pokemon. Are you prepared to take on the challenge?’’ Ilima asked. Alex checked his bag, looked at Papie and then at Ilima.
‘’Yes. We’re ready.’’ Alex replied. He had a heck ton of potions just in case something went wrong, but he was sure Papie could easily take down anything that came in front of her.
‘’Then enter the cavern, and remember, you can’t exit until you’ve finished the trial!’’ Ilima piped up. Alex nodded, and took a step inside the cavern. He was amazed by how beautiful it was within.
‘’Now let’s see. Three Pokemon…’’ Alex pondered out loud, before noticing the little holes in the walls. He went over to one of them and sure enough, a wild Yungoos poked its head out and attacked. Papie took it out with one single Bite. The other two Yungoos were also defeated with just a single bite per Yungoos. Alex made his way outside the back of the cave and into the small opening where a pedestal stood. Then he heard it, the odd sound coming from above himself. Then he saw it, a giant Gumshoos standing on a ledge above. It let out a growl, before jumping off the ledge and landing on the ground in front of Alex and Papie. Papie was already about to attack when Alex called her back.
‘’No Papie, this is Neme’s chance to shine.’’ he said, releasing the Litleo from her ball. It took a few Tackles and a Headbutt to defeat the Totem Gumshoos. But eventually it went down, and Alex could pick up the little crystal on the small pedestal.
‘’That’s Normalium-Z. It allows you to use the Normal type Z-Move when you acquire the Z-Ring from the Island Kahuna.’’ Ilima said from behind Alex, spooking the poor trainer to half death.
‘’Arceus frick it Ilima, don’t creep up on me like that!’’ Alex yelled after regaining himself.
‘’Ah, apologies.’’ Ilima said.
‘’It’s fine, just never again.’’ Alex replied.
‘’No worries, I won’t.’’ Ilima replied. ‘’Anyways, your Island Challenge takes you to the Island Kahuna next, and Akala Island afterwards.’’ he added.
‘’How am I gonna get to the next island?’’ Alex asked.
‘’You can fly there with your Charizard.’’ Ilima began, but seeing the horror on Alex’s face made him chuckle. ‘’Or you can take the boat.’’ he added.
‘’I’ll take the boat!’’ Alex said, rushingly.
Upon leaving the Verdant Cavern and arriving back at the motel, Alex decided he’d take on the Kahuna the next day, as he was still in need of training Neme and Mente. So he made his way to Route 2 to train them. He ran into a bunch of Rattata, Meowth and Spearow. Taking down each and every one with the help of Mente, who was gaining strength quickly. Battling a pair of Rattata’s, Alex hoped Mente would evolve soon. He kept pacing around in the tall grass, looking for new opponents left and right. He then got the brilliant idea to chain Rattata’s to keep Mente gaining strength faster. After the 50th Rattata, Mente finally began shining bright and taking on a new form. Alex ran over to the newly evolved Charjabug and picked her up, spinning around with her deep in his embrace.
‘’Mente! Mente! This is great!’’ he half yelled to the bug. Mente replied by crying out her Pokemon name.
‘’Alright! That’s enough training for today, now let’s head back to the motel. We’ll need all the rest we can get before tomorrow’s Grand Trial.’’ Alex said, placing Mente on his shoulder. Alex and his Pokemon arrived to the motel shortly, where Alex took care of his nightly routines and settled into bed.
The next morning Alex and his team headed to Iki Town to meet up with Kukui and to challenge the Island Kahuna. Upon arriving there, they were greeted by Kukui and who Alex assumed to be the Kahuna.
‘’Hey! Alex, great you could make it!’’ Kukui said.
‘’Wouldn’t miss this by any chance.’’ Alex replied.
‘’So you are the old Champion of Kalos?’’ the Kahuna asked.
‘’I sure am!’’ Alex replied.
‘’I’m Hala, the Kahuna of Melemele Island.’’ the Kahuna replied. ‘’Now, are you ready to show me what an old Champion is made of?’’ he added.
‘’You bet I am!’’ Alex said, and in the process managing to hype Papie up. ‘’Noo, Papie, we talked about this! It’s Mente’s turn. You’re our back up plan.’’ Alex had to explain to the Arcanine, who visibly began moping around. Hala and Alex climbed up on the small stage in the center of the clearing and began the Grand Trial of Melemele Island. It went well at first, but Mente ended up fainting from Hala’s Z-Move. So it turned out that Papie was needed on the field, and she obliged to battling easily. Papie defeated the rest of Hala’s team with ease. After being defeated with such ease, Hala erupted into a booming laughter. Alex himself chuckled a bit.
‘’Now that’s what I was expecting from you, young Alex.’’ Hala finally said. He made it over to Alex, and handed him the Fightium-Z.
‘’This is the Fighting type Z-Crystal.’’ Hala said, but he quickly noticed something missing. ‘’Oh, you do not have a Z-Ring yet, do you?’’ he asked. Alex shook his head.
‘’Ilima said I’d receive one from the Kahuna, meaning you.’’ he said. Hala tapped his chin.
‘’Ilima was correct on that one. Come, I shall bestow upon you a Z-Ring.’’ Hala said, making his way to his house. Alex followed suit, excited to receive this Z-Ring everyone was talking about to him about. Upon entering the house, Hala made it to a small room within and fetched the Z-Ring before handing it over to Alex who took it with much gratitude. He slipped it right on to his left wrist.
‘’Thanks! I’m sure it’ll be used a lot when we get the Fire Z-Crystal.’’ Alex said.
‘’You’ll be receiving that one on Akala Island, young one.’’ Hala said. Alex beamed up. Akala Island? Heck yeah! That was his next destination!
‘’Awesome! I’m headed there soon.’’ Alex piped up, practically rushing out of the house and out and about, he ran all the way back to the motel. All exhausted, he calls a familiar number on his phone. After a long while of waiting, the person he was calling picks up.
‘’Heeeeyyy Alex!’’ they half yell to the phone.
‘’Heeeeyyyy, Trevor!’’ Alex replied with as much volume, causing both of them to erupt into a booming fit of laughter. After a while the two regained themselves and began chatting.
‘’So how’s Alola been so far?’’ Trevor asked. ‘’Any cool new Pokemon?’’ he added. Alex could barely contain himself.
‘’Yeah! I caught a Grubbin! And it’s differently colored too! It’s a cool bug type!’’ Alex piped up.
‘’Oh Alex, you need to send a picture when you can! And I knew you’d give in someday! Not all of your team needs to be Fire types.’’ Trevor replied.
‘’I shall once we end the call…’’ Alex said, and went on rambling about how his first few days had gone and what was still up ahead. Trevor was a bit taken aback by the lack of Gyms, and Alex had to confess he was too at first. Alex also explained a lot about the Z-Crystals to Trevor, who seemed to be so fascinated by them that he wanted to come visit Alola instantly to see them. After about an hour of talking, Alex could feel his eyelids heavy and sleep starting to creep up on him.
‘’Hey Trevor, it was nice talking to you, but I’m getting tired and need a nap before I go book a boat ticket for the next island.’’ Alex said. The two bid their farewell and Alex flopped down to take a much needed nap.
Alex was mortified to find he napped way longer than he intended to. It was almost 6 PM by the time he woke up, and it was too late to go book a ticket for the boat for tomorrow and the next one wouldn’t leave until the morning after that. Alex groaned into his pillows, before getting up and taking a refreshing shower. He then headed outside with Papie, to see if there’d be anything interesting to do. Sure enough, he ran into some trouble with the same lads who he had almost stopped the other day. Team Skull, if he recalled the name right. He had to battle the two grunts, and emerged easily victorious with the help of Papie and Andre. Later on he went to the grocery store to get some food for himself as he hadn’t eaten a thing that day yet. He bought a microwavable set of food and headed back to the motel to eat. Alex popped the food into the microwave, and while waiting for it to be done, he decided to pamper Papie with scratches and Poke Beans. He then eventually let his whole team out and pampered the living shits out of them. You see, Alex was a firm believer that love and affection was the key to being a good trainer. You needed to show some love to your Pokemon. If he ever had to talk about how to Pokemon right, he’d always bring up pampering as one of the most important parts of it. He had taught his friends back at Kalos, and even back in Kanto too, that pampering was a necessity. Though most thought that Alex may just a little bit over do the pampering. But his team trusted him, and he trusted them and all of it was thanks to large amounts of compliments, Poke Beans and showing how much they meant to him.
Eventually the microwave let out a sound to indicate the meal was done, and Alex had to struggle out of Papie’s chest to get the food. He plopped down on the bed and began eating his mashed potatoes and sausage. By the time he finished, it was already time for bed. Man, Alex really didn’t get a lot done that day. He made a mental note to be more efficient the next day. He set the alarm at 9 AM for the next morning, because he really needed to get that ticket to Akala Island.
Come morning and Alex finds he has overslept badly. It’s already 11 AM. He springs out of bed, rushes his sneakers on, grabs his stuff and runs to the ticket store. He manages to snatch a ticket and lazily paces back to the motel to pack his stuff for the next day when he’d be leaving Melemele Island. That day Alex went on to train Mente and Neme even more. He spent most of the day doing just that. Eventually he grew hungry, and tired, and had to make his way back to the motel to eat and sleep. He was so sure he’d oversleep again, so he set at least five alarms for the morning. He could NOT miss the boat. Totally not missing the boat. He ended up this time waking up hours before the first alarm. He let out a groan, and decided to call Tierno, who didn’t pick up. Huh. Maybe he’d call back when he had the chance. Alex then made his way out of the bed and into the shower. Afterwards he finished packing his stuff, and finally it was time to leave to Akala Island. He made his way to the boat port and got on to the boat with Papie. The boat ride there was painstakingly slow and Alex tried to call Trevor this time. Then he remembered he had promised a picture of Mente to him. Alex let Mente out and snatched a picture quickly before returning the Charjabug into her ball. He then sent it to Trevor.
After what felt like hours, the boat finally came to Akala Island. Alex grabbed his stuff and exited the boat. Landing the first few steps on the new island, he took a breath of the island’s air and bolted onward. First thing he needed was a place to sleep at. That had to be done this very same day, the instant moment he arrived because he couldn’t tell how many people on the boat were also going to stay on the island for longer. And so, he made his way to the closest motel he could find with the help of Rotom, booked a room and flopped down on the bed. New island, new challenges. Only time would tell how he’d fair against the trials on this island.