Steven went to et with his mom and dad with excited vigor. He had finally made his decision. He saw that his mother and father were still arguing about the previous topic.
"Mom, Dad, I have decided."
His mother turned back and asked, "Decided? What have you decided?"
"I will join the tide battle."
His mother’s face changed instantly. Previously, she had only argued with her husband as it was a routine, but now things had gotten serious.
"Son, please think about this carefully. Participating in a tide battle is not a joke. Do I have to tell you the story about your cousin Jas again?"
Ahh, the age-old story. Jas, his older cousin. Jas was 10 years older than Steven, and it was said that he was better than Steven in every way. He began training his body at the age of 5. Steven only did it when he was 6 years old. Jas also had a tagross, and he was a very successful trainer.
But he wanted to be a soldier and participated in the tide battles and got himself killed in the process.
For years, Steven had been compared to Jas in every way. Jas can do 500 pushups. Why can’t you do it?’. ’Jas slept early and woke up early. Why can’t you do it?’.
He was compared in everything. He was also compared to the bad things that Jas did. Like, ’Did you know that Jas ate too much chocolate and destroyed his teeth? Do you want to do that too?’. Or, ’Did you know that Jas died because he wanted to participate in the tide battles. Do you want to die too?’.
When his dad told him that he would have to go to a tide battle to gain so experience, the story of Jas had co up, and now it was repeating.
"Mom, if cousin Jas died, it doesn’t an that I will die too. Look at Axel. He is a year younger than I, and he now has his rcenary team.", said Steven.
"But your cousin was a better and more powerful trainer than you, and even he died. Doesn’t that an that you will die too?"
’Wait? If Jas did while Axel is progressing, doesn’t she an that I am weaker than Axel, as I was never worse than Jas’, thought Steven.
Steven didn’t know if he should be happy that his mother was worried about him or angry about indirectly saying that he was far weaker than Axel.
If this were said by anyone else, he would have given a strict reply, but he cannot talk back to his mother.
"Mother, you don’t need to worry, Wallace had also said that he would join with . I will be safe."
His mother’s face changed a bit as she said, "Well, if Wallace is with you, then I guess you can be safe."
’What? Wallace is weaker than I am. How can he protect ?’, shouted Steven in his mind with a smiling face.
"Maybe you can join Axel’s team. I heard that he has an excellent team. You will be safe there.", suggested his mother.
"Okay, that’s enough. Since you don’t have a problem with Steven joining the tide battle, let talk to him in private.", said Joseph.
Joseph could see blue veins about to pop from Steven’s face. He knew his son well. How could he join the team of his rival as his subordinates? Besides, Axel was from the Kanto region, and Steven was from the Hoenn region. Steven cannot join Axel’s team in any way.
His mother left the room as Joseph said to call Wallace, too. After Wallace ca, he asked, "Wallace, you said that you want to join Steven in the tide battle. Have you talked with your family?"
"I have, but my family is not ready for to go into the tide battle. I believe that if Steven joins , they will agree.", said Wallace.
Wallace was from one of the prominent families of the Hoenn region, as they were a gym family. Yet, Wallace was a better trainer compared to his generation of gym families. It was predicted that Wallace might even be a champion one day.
"If they agree and you decide to join the tide battle, you will need a team. A reliable and powerful team."
"A team?"
"Yes, a team. Unlike before, you guys will not be joining there as regular soldiers. You will be commanding a team of highly qualified soldiers. Don’t worry, I will make sure that the process runs smoothly.
The royal family also wants to invest in your team. So, if you are going to do this, you better be serious about it because there will be no backing down.", said Joseph.
Steven and Wallace had nothing to say. This was the first ti they had ever done anything like this. So, they didn’t know how prepared they were. Steven took a deep breath and said, "Father, I am ready for it."
Whenever he thought about quitting or giving up on this idea, only one thought ca to his mind. ’If Axel could do it, why can’t he?’
Wallace also agreed to it.
"Okay, if you are so serious, here is the docunt of my planning, but before opening this, I would like you to discuss with yourself and how you want your team to be ford.", said Joseph and left the room.
###
Discussing the new team that they were about to create was quite fun with Wallace. Unlike the mysterious Axel and the dominating Cynthia, Wallace was straightforward to talk to as they had known each other since childhood.
"First of all, we must decide the total number of the team. How many people are we going to recruit?", asked Steven.
"Umm, I don’t know. In the last tide battle I fought, approximately 80,000 soldiers were defending one side of the city. So, I guess 80k is a good number, but how are we going to pay them?", asked Wallace.
"Don’t worry about the money. Dad and the royal family will take care of it. The royal family is concerned that there are no young genius trainers to hold the tide in future battles. So, they will be ready to support us financially. What we need to worry about is our reputation."
"Steven, we don’t have a team yet. So, we cannot have a reputation now."
He must say that Wallace was not as intelligent as Axel and Cynthia. But what he needed now was loyalty, not intellect.
"Wallace, just imagine that we set up a team and did our tide battle, but we lost more than 50% of our soldiers. Won’t we lose our reputation? Our team will have a lot of publicity before we even start our tide battle because of my family and the royal family.
So, don’t worry about not having a reputation. Worry about keeping it safe."
They started to discuss the team, and finally, Wallace asked, "What did Axel do to make his team more efficient? You must know about it since you are close to him now."
Previously, he had never thought about tide battles, so he had never asked, but he had heard Axel talking about different teams within the rcenary group, each with its own functions.
They both started to discuss many topics.
"Let’s keep a deadline of 6 months. In 6 months, we will create the team and then have our first tide battle.", said Steven.
He knew that six months was very little ti for preparation, but since Axel, his rival, had already ford a team and was currently participating in their first tide battle, he felt it necessary to expedite the process.
###
While Steven was discussing the formation of a new team with Wallace, Cynthia was at the hospital, worried about her Garchomp.
Suddenly, the door opened, and the doctor erged. Cynthia stood up and asked, "Doc, how is my Garchomp?"
"We did all the tests. At first, we didn’t find anything. Everything was normal, but after analysis, we found that Garchomp’s cells are delaying the gathering and pumping of energy. The delay is so minuscule that it is almost impossible to notice."
"Oh my god!!! Really? Is it going to be okay?"
"Don’t worry. Cells are sothing that can be repaired and changed over ti. It is a natural process. But you better not tell it to use that move again."
During the last battle between Cynthia and Axel, Cynthia’s Garchomp had won because it had used one of the moves that would improve its power rapidly for a short period of ti.
Axel’s Charizard also had similar and more potent moves, but he didn’t tell it to use them because it was affecting Charizard’s health.
Hearing this, Cynthia went to the famous doctors to find out if Garchomp was okay, and now she knew that it was not OK. If Axel had not pointed it out before, she might have made a terrible mistake.
"Doctor, can you tell the reason why it is happening?"
"Everyone, including Pokemon has capacity, a limit. Think of your body as a vessel. If you put more water than your vessel can hold, what will happen?"
"It will co out."
"Exactly. And what will happen if all the excess water is stored inside the body and cannot co out?"
"It would start to crack?"
"Yes, that is what Garchomp is facing right now. "
Garchomp was following one of the most dangerous directions of the Dragon-type Pokemon. It had been able to create a move regarding it, but now the doctor is saying that Garchomp cannot use that move again. Cynthia didn’t know what to do right now.
###
"Cindy, you were thinking about visiting ancient Pokémon to learn, right? Why don’t you visit the ancient dragon-type Pokemon and get that answer?", asked her grandmother.
"But I don’t know where such a Pokemon lives. I don’t even know if such a Pokemon exists."
"But I do."
"Really? You do?"
"Of course, and it is safe."
Cynthia could not believe that she would get a lead from her grandmother. She found out that there was an ancient dragon-type Pokemon but only Lance’s family knew about it. Lance’s family treated that dragon-type Pokemon as their ancestor.
Cynthia expected Lance’s and Steven’s families to know about these ancient Pokemon. Most of the prominent families have knowledge about ancient Pokemon. That was one of the reasons why they were so powerful and influential.
"But that must be a top secret of Lance’s family. Why will they willingly tell us about the location?"
"Oh, don’t worry about it. Dragon has a lot of favors to repay. He will have to give us the location but eting an ancient Pokemon that is also a dragon type and most probably a pseudo-legendary one is not an easy thing. You will have to be prepared for anything."
"What should I be prepared for?"
"First of all, the gift."
[A/N: Axel’s battle will start from the next Chapter]
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A/N: There are more than 60 advanced Chapters in pa-treon along with two new side stories of the novel. If you are interested in reading more and getting ahead in the story, subscribe to my pa-treon channel.
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