The Qualifications of A champion(Short Story)

What Does ot take to be a hero? a champion? is it courage? skill? power? kindness? or some unquantifiable Thing, some Ephemeral otherness, that makes one Qualified to call themselves As such? That, Friends, Is My Job to Decide. Who am I? what Right do I have to decide these things? well... Listen up. I'm only saying this once. seventeen years ago, I was born to the Venom clan As Eri Silva. Our clan had long lived in Exile, Once a part of the Fuschia Ninja Families, Until my grandfather chose a secluded valley near the unova region. Some Renegades of our clan left, Becoming the Shadow Clan that served Team Plazma, but the rest of us Settled in the valley. our home, Simply called the Forlorn Reach, Wasn't exactly Hospitable... The area surrounding the Valley was a deadland, a sprawling Desert... it was hot, Arid, and dry... But the valley was Beautiful. A natural Hot-spring flowed from the mountainside, into A warm Lake was at one end, With multiple pools nearby, And a Cave was found with a Ton of ice, Generated by the pokemon who lived there... well defended on three sides by Wasteland and mountains, The valley entry was Defended by a Vast Swamp... A few Hundred miles Long, Yet only a Few miles wide, The stretch of Marshland Ended At the sea, about five miles from the Southwestern Tip of Unovan Lands. and there, we took up the family business. That secret job often performed by ninja. Assassination. a job that, despite being trained to do so, Had absolutely no place in modern society. And so, I learned How to turn the poisons i was taught to brew into medicines. They didn't exactly sell well. it was when I was 12, On a training journey, that I Got my partner. I Was Given a Luxury ball in Lieu of payment for "my grandfathers Medicine" as I had been marketing it... And I saw a cloud of gas Fleeing A Liepard. It didn't take more than a glance to see that the Gas cloud was a wounded pokemon, so I Threw a Bag of yellow powder at the Liepard... I call it Stinging Dust, And it makes a great deterrent. the Liepard Fled, and I turned to the Wounded Pokémon. I could see it needed more help than I could give... so I used the Luxury ball to catch it, and rushed to the nearest pokemon center. that's how I met Smokescreen, My Gastly. TO BE CONTINUED.

Years pass. seasons change. Smokescreen Improved and evolved, Eventually becoming a Gengar... And I Began Catching other pokemon, As Smokescreen helped me Realize that my Medicines and Poisons could be further refined... I was 14 when it happened. a group of people from Unova began settling Westward. The Region Expansion Project. I received orders from the grandmaster to join the Project, and so I was away from the region for 4 years. during this time, Team Plazma Rose and fell, twice over. During This Journey, I caught MANY poison type pokemon, but the Harsh Trip was stopped by a great Marsh to the Southwest. There were people there, Decended from some Shipwrecked Kalosian Pirates from centuries ago, and The natives of the land. they were surprised to see other people, having believed for the past 500 years or so, that The "light of ruin" had wiped out all other humans. behind technologically, They Accepted us travellers eagerly... and it was here that I earned the nickname "poison Witch doctor", after I helped a man suffering from A bacterial infection Using My Croagunk's Toxins to make an antibacterial cream. and so, I spent around a year getting there, Two Helping Get the area Established, and one getting home... Where I found a strange note. /Miss Silva. we at the pokemon league would like to offer you a position as gym leader, replacing The recently Retired Roxie, who after two years as a gym leader, decided to call it quits to go on tour with her band. if you except, make your way to the Leauge HQ. We hope to see you there. -Alder, Former Champion./ I was shocked... but after discussing it with my family, I decided to accept. so I Loaded up on supplies, Picked out a team of six Strong Pokemon,Pokémon, And headed out... to victory road.

I was greatly disappointed by Victory road... Due to a landslide, it was REPLACED BY A BYPASS... which was itself Replaced less than a year later, after several cave-ins, So now... It's a series of cablecars. upon arriving, The former and current champions, Alder and Iris, Were waiting for me. They told me I had to pass a test. Some Guy named Charles arrived a bit later, Clad in a sleeveless Denim jacket, open front, with no shirt... he looked like he was having a midlife crisis. this was my opponent. he grinned at me, then said "sorry if I break your heart." I laughed. hard. then he sent out his pokemon. first was a Krookodile, Which my Venusaur made short work of. All three were surprised by my use of a kantonian pokemon, but by this point, my Clan had been Around the world, and our Specialists had sent back many different pokemon... much of them poison type. so Charles Threw in A Scolipede, And I countered him easily With a pokemon from a Small series of islands to the Southeast, Salazzle. she made the fight easy. Charles had started to sweat... and impulsively shouted "lets finish this my way! triple battle! then sent out three pokemon, Simisage, Simipour, abd Simisear... I Obliged him, With two pokemon from different regions, and my gengar. From The Galar Region came my Slowbro, a poison type variant. and from the Sinnoh region came my Toxicroak... My pokemon easily dispatched his monkeys... he ran off, crying. alder and iris approached... "Congratulations. you won. You are now, officially, Unovas newest gym leader." that was six months ago. Afterward, I took on the name Toxica, as my official Identifier. But this brings Me back to my question. What Exactly Defines a champion... I looked across the battlefield of my gyms final room, At the Young Man with The Odd Gray hair, And smiled. "Perhaps YOU can give me an answer to my question. Don't hold back, lay it all on the line, and let your soul cry out for victory! Go! Smokescreen!" I Looked at the kid, who confidently sent out his pokemon, Clad in the Uniform of the newly Created Blueberry Academy. "Well kid? Show me what you've got! prove to me you have the Skill, guts, and drive to Face the pokemon leauge! Bring it on! I hope you have some Antidotes!" THE END.