Early in the morning, after having breakfast with Jenny and seeing her off to work, Alex immediately started poring over news articles to get a sense of the current times. What he found shocked him.
It had been about twenty years since Red became the Champion of Kanto, and it took a decade before all the other regions finished their storylines. Even though Alex had never closely followed Pokémon after the third generation, he could still recognize events that were most likely part of a game, movie, anime, or manga.
For example, Sinnoh had reported sightings and battles between Arceus, Giratina, Dialga, Palkia, and Darkrai. This was obviously some sort of plot that had gone wild, only to be quelled by the protagonist—who wasn't mentioned in the articles.
Similarly, Team Rocket had mysteriously gone quiet after Red became the Champion of Kanto. Saffron City had reported some commotion regarding Silph Co. during that time, but it was never explicitly stated that they had been hijacked by Team Rocket.
In any case, the Champions of each region had since been replaced multiple times, so even if Alex knew the full story, it wouldn't have mattered.
The reason for the frequent changes coincided with the growing internet presence. Roughly over a decade ago, TMs had stopped being single-use, leading to readily available access to all known moves.
Coupled with growing internet forums, theorycrafting, and personal research, many trainers had discovered move/ability/item combinations with a higher probability of success than others.
For example, the F.E.A.R. strategy allowed Elite-rank Pokémon to defeat Elite-rank pseudo-Legendaries—whereas before, those battles had been significantly in favor of Pokémon with superior stats at the same level.
F.E.A.R. referred to a strategy in which a Pokémon wears a (F)ocus Sash, uses (E)ndeavor, and follows up with Quick (A)ttack—most commonly employed by (R)attata. Somehow, an Elite-level Raticate could take down an Elite-level Dragonite, despite being an entire tier lower in stats.
Who needed powerful Pokémon when a full team of six Raticates could employ this simple, fast, and cost-effective strategy against opponents who could normally one-shot them?
Of course, weak trainers relying solely on these strategies never made it to Champion, but strong trainers certainly could. This shift effectively widened the talent pool of potential Champions simply because they employed well-researched, high-level strategies.
Some of the more popular strategies include Toxic Stall (Toxic, Protect, Substitute), Baton Pass chains (Suicidal stat buildup, Baton Pass), Trick + Choice Item, Hazard Setters, and Belly Drum + Priority, among others.
These strategies, which rely more on team synergy rather than individual Pokémon training, served as a wake-up call for previous Champions—many of whom were overthrown by strategic plays rather than sheer power. While most strategies still required the user to be roughly equal in strength to their opponent, even a clearly weaker trainer now had a real chance of winning by exploiting their opponent's ignorance.
As a result, newly crowned Champions were often dethroned almost immediately by simple counter-strategies.
This chaos persisted until the Pokémon League intervened, implementing a rule stating that a Champion cannot be challenged for at least five years before being required to accept battles. This restriction also applied to the Elite Four, whose challenges took priority over those from regular trainers.
As for the current Champions, in Kanto, it's Lorelei, who rebuilt her main team to focus on the Hail strategy. She was already an Elite-level Ice-type trainer two decades ago. Now, she has become a Champion-level Hail strategy user.
This distinct change from type teams to strategy teams has led the way forward to very specific team structures that have significantly affected the cost of certain Pokémon.
Johto's current Champion is still Lance due to the Dragon Clan's overwhelming support. They managed to get Lance a Salamencite, which allowed him to practically sweep teams using only one Pokémon.
Hoenn's current Champion is still Steven because of Hazard Stack + Phazing Skarmory and Bulky Offense with Setup Sweepers, including Mega Metagross.
Sinnoh's current Champion is still Cynthia because of the Sandstorm strategy with her prized, overgrown Garchomp.
As for the others, Alex has no memory of them at all, so he didn't bother to care.
Another major change is the presence of multiple Legendary Pokémon. Each Champion has at least one. Lorelei has an Articuno and a Regice. Lance has a Zekrom and a Latias. Steven has a Registeel and a Heatran. Even Cynthia has an Arceus.
"How the hell are there so many Legendaries? Are they just handing them out as Champion participation prizes? Even Arceus isn't an exception."
Beyond the Champions, many Elite Four members also had Legendary Pokémon. Even regular top-tier trainers now had access to them.
"This is extremely strange. It's only been two decades, yet Legendaries are everywhere—when no such trend existed before."
That mostly settled information regarding the top of the world that can be easily accessed by civilians. Lower on the totem pole, it can be noticed how people here are not as angelic as in the anime.
There have been constant reports of criminal organizations showing up and getting wiped out. It is almost a constant stream of good bashing down evil. What isn't readily apparent are the League's failures.
Criminal organizations that have succeeded in keeping to the shadows while continuing their activities are obviously not included in these news articles. Nor is their level of strength, which may very well include Legendary Pokémon—as horrifying as that notion is.
The types of crimes these organizations perpetrate also include property loss and damage, Pokémon and human lives taken, kidnapping or trafficking, and hate crimes directed at gyms, the League, or other regions.
These crimes are no joke when compared to the crimes in the anime or games. Loss of life is significantly more apparent compared to the watered-down criminal activities in the games. There is even a report of an entire city being destroyed by a criminal organization that was taken down a month later.
The mere fact that almost every city has slums is a direct indicator that humans care less about each other here compared to the anime.
Apart from criminals, the Pokémon themselves are also an equally great threat to humanity. They are primarily animalistic until they reach Elite level in strength or above. Before that, they are severely territorial and would not hesitate to kill on sight.
They do not primarily exhibit intelligence until they are trained and bonded, unless they gain wisdom from higher levels of power and age. Even when they gain enough wisdom to communicate with humans, they still exhibit territorial tendencies, but at least they can be reasoned with—so long as they are facing a trainer with greater strength. Weaker trainers are simply out of luck.
There are many articles listing cities being devastated because of Pokémon attacks.
The original Alex lost his parents because the Champion-level Steelix that owns the territory northeast of Saffron City fought off an invader trying to take its territory. The resulting clash devastated the mountain, leading to over a hundred thousand Pokémon rioting and crashing against the city's walls.
Alex's parents were accidentally killed by a stray Rock Slide that shoved them off the wall, leading to their deaths. This particular Rock Slide took out more than a hundred trainers on that wall before the Elite-level Golem was subdued. It managed to make the headlines due to the severe loss of life.
Pokémon trainers are essentially counted as unpaid League employees who retain certain benefits in exchange for responsibilities. Anyone can own a Pokémon in this world, but only trainers get the benefits of free Pokémon care, access to the request board, Pokémon-related discounts in shops, and League certifications.
When trainers get strong enough, they get hired by the League on an official payroll depending on their expertise. They could be recruited by the Rangers, who handle and maintain Pokémon territories, gyms where they can start their own or work for certain gyms, the International Police to hunt down criminal organizations, office staff for League businesses, or they can work in the private sector for certain companies.
Not all trainers can make it to the very top of the League like most protagonists, so those that fail are recruited into these many organizations.
'Speaking of training, isn't it about time to train my little friend?' Alex thought as he looked over at Rattata, who was currently enjoying his oversized hamster wheel.
Rattata were once quite popular due to the discovery of the F.E.A.R. strategy but have since fallen out of favor as more stable strategies have been developed.
Alex himself was quite shocked when he first learned about the F.E.A.R. strategy. He wasn't sure if Pokémon on Earth were this advanced, but it showed him a new side of Pokémon battles—one that wasn't just about overtraining for gym challenges.
That said, the first step in any battle is knowing yourself. With that in mind, Alex took out his Pokédex and scanned Rattata to check its basic abilities.
Name: Rattata, Novice
Type: Normal, Male
Ability: Run Away
Moves: [Please demonstrate abilities while scanning]
Description: Rattata, the Mouse Pokemon. It is a fast and nimble Pokémon that constantly gnaws on anything to keep its sharp fangs strong. It can survive in almost any environment and is always on the lookout for food, never letting its guard down.
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