Name: Sepher
Species: Froakie
Gender: ♂
Ability: Protean
Battle Experience: 7
Moves: Water Pulse, Lick, Quick Attack, Smokescreen
Extra Notes: Estelle’s starter, chosen by fan vote and received from professor Sycamore.


Name: Demetori
Species: Charmander
Gender: ♂
Ability: Blaze
Battle Experience: 7
Moves: Fire Fang, Dragon Breath, Slash, Smokescreen
Extra Notes: Estelle’s second starter, also chosen by fan vote, also received from professor Sycamore.


Name: Xi-on
Species: Ponyta (Galarian)
Gender: ♀
Ability: Pastel Veil
Battle Experience: 7
Moves: Confusion, Fairy Wind, Tackle, Agility
Extra Notes: Befriended and caught while on tour, ignited Estelle’s recognition of Pokemon training as an art form.

Cora led an active life, born in Hoenn to parents who could never stay in one place for any significant amount of time. As a result, she lived always feeling like she needed to keep up, and struggled to do so. Her father was an enthusiastic Pokemon Trainer who successfully completed Gym Challenges in several regions over a pair of decades, while her mother was a Pokemon Nurse that was more than happy to follow her husband around the world, finding work wherever they went easily enough thanks to her talent.

On top of that, Cora had a brother eight years older than her named Soren. For as long as she's known, Soren had effortlessly been following in their father's footsteps, exploring Sinnoh and Unova alongside his father. Cora sat by with her mother and watched the two from afar, wishing to be able to do the same.

She was too young though. She also was very different from the rest of her family--where they all seemed to ooze confidence and talent at the things they tried, the young Cora had a hard time speaking in front of any unfamiliar face and would flinch when large pokemon came near her. The girl convinced herself early on that she was different and unexceptional, choosing to keep her real desires to herself and simply allow herself to be dragged along with her family--something that helped satiate those desires, as she got to explore a great many different regions.

To help her with her apparent discomfort around pokemon as a child, her father began to catch pokemon with the intention to raise them up and give them to young trustworthy trainers he met along the way. These pokemon were usually at the family's home, with Cora helping care for them. Along with this, her father's pokemon were often around her, trained very well and happy to keep the child company. The exposure therapy of sorts worked, and it was due to this habit of her father's that Cora officially received her first pokemon.

Despite all constant company of pokemon in the house, she had found herself feeling perpetually lonely and sad. Her brother had recently left the family household to travel to Kanto and better himself as a trainer there. What got her out of this rut was her father bringing home a pokemon egg one day.

Having never seen one before, Cora's curiosity was piqued and she found herself caring for the egg every chance she got under the guidance of her mother. Of course, the egg eventually hatched with Cora being lucky enough to have been watching as it happened, revealing a little Snorunt.

It was love at first sight for the girl. For the Snorunt's part, she was more than happy to accept the affections of Cora, and the two quickly grew inseparable as she cared for it like it was her own pokemon. A couple of months later, Cora turned eleven years old, and for the occasion her father let her know that Snorunt was officially hers now.

Somehow, the girl hadn't been expecting that, even though there was no chance their parents could have ever even considered the idea of giving the pokemon away to someone else. She was overjoyed, to say the least, and gave her pokemon the name 'Yuki.'

---

Life continued, with Cora more willing to head out into the different places her family visited with Yuki by her side to help keep her safe. The pair found that the Snorunt rarely ever had to defend her though, as she seemed to have a very easy time befriending pokemon--it also helped that they never ventured anywhere that more aggressive pokemon were known to be. With this apparent talent discovered, Cora enjoyed helping her father gather pokemon to give out to young kids like her, hoping that they'd be as happy to have a companion as she was with Yuki.

As Cora's father aged, he began to slow down, finding himself satisfied enough with his career as a Trainer. The family spent longer and longer periods of time at each new home. Currently living in Damascus Town in the Chromis region--a place they had lived in before when Cora's father and brother had participated in the International League. Evidently, her parents had greatly enjoyed their time there, making quick friends with many of the locals.

Cora found herself wondering about the International League, realizing it would be occurring again within a year's time. Her brother would certainly be coming to the region to participate, though her father told her he himself wasn't planning on taking part this time around.

With the event looming and buzzing in the back of her mind, she found herself exploring the Damascus Mines with Yuki again, though on this day she went a bit deeper than usual, a pounding in her chest pushing her forward.

It was here that she encountered a Mawile that had a poor attitude, to put it one way. The creature immediately acted hostile, leaping towards the pair and snapping at them with its large jaws. Though Yuki went to strike at it immediately to protect Cora, the girl stopped her pokemon, noticing something off.

In the dim light, she could see the Mawile's leg was badly wounded. Cora slowly approached the pokemon, taking a potion out of her knapsack. Despite her efforts, the Mawile was still off-put enough to snap at her again, this time clamping it's jaw down on the girl's arm. Cora bit her tongue hard to avoid yelping, not wanting to aggravate the Mawile further. Yuki rustled, clearly stressed by the situation and seeing her trainer being hurt, but obeyed Cora's gentle order to stay put.

With her attention back to the Mawile that had a grip on her, she reassured the pokemon and slowly applied a spray of the potion to its wound. The Mawile's real face's expression slowly began to shift from the anger it had been showing, confused as to why the human it was attacking wasn't doing anything in retaliation. Its grip on Cora's arm began to loosen.

After the full application of the potion, the Mawile visibly began to relax, finally relenting and fully letting go of Cora's now bloodied arm. The pokemon dropped in exhaustion, having been running on adrenaline for a long while by Cora's guess. It let itself be gently scooped up by the girl, and she hurried back to her mother, who was not the happiest camper at the sight she was met with.

A few days later, the Mawile had made a full recovery. Cora herself was on her way, more than a little sore from the stitched wounds beneath the tight medical bandage that wrapped around her forearm, but happy as could be--especially seeing the Mawile willfully hanging around her. The pokemon always stayed at least a couple feet away in public, but when there was no one else around, she would often gently cling to Cora's clothing with either an arm or her large mouth. 'Ku' was the name Cora gave her.

And Cora realized she had her second pokemon.

---

With the experience of that encounter under her belt, she found the International League once again at the front of her thoughts. Maybe she could be a decent Pokemon Trainer. And if she were to finally try her hand at that dream, what better place to begin than this league. The fact that it was extremely competitive was certainly more than a little nerve-wracking, but with all her effort, there was no better way to learn and improve than to be in the thick of it with Trainers from around the world.

At first, she voiced these thoughts to Yuki and Ku, and she could tell they were on board. With the boost in confidence, she spoke with her parents, and they were more than happy to support her--evidently having been waiting for something of the sort for a few years now.

Cora had picked up on a lot of information second-hand with all the pokemon talk that had happened in her household, but she still felt clueless overall. In the months leading up to the start of the league after the girl's mind had been properly made up, her father began to teach her. There wasn't much time, so it was very much a crash course, but by the end of it her father declared her 'graduated' and a real Trainer, and somehow, this informal celebration was the proudest Cora had ever felt--it helped that her father was seemingly even more excited to see her take the step.

As a last gift and bit of help, Cora was given an egg by her father for the second time, courtesy of a pokemon breeder in the town. Flooded with memories of her time caring for Yuki when the Snorunt was a baby, Cora did much the same for this egg, though this time completely independent from the help of her mother. To Cora's excitement, it soon hatched into a Magby--the baby stage of Magmortar, a pokemon that had been on her father's team for years and that Cora had always thought was the coolest he had ever had.

Like his typing, the young Magby immediately exhibited a fiery and passionate nature, ready to meet all of life's challenges head-on--perhaps the perfect boost to Cora's own attitude. As she began to raise the pokemon she had named 'Boo,' and watched him fight on and dive into things he had never tried before, her own deeply buried passion was slowly being dug up.

And just in time for the International League, her own long-coming challenge. She was as ready as she'd ever be to dive into the world of pokemon battling.

Alaric's life was far from ordinary. He was born in Hoenn to a pair of wealthy fashion designers, obsessed with improving and developing their next products. Whilst they were strange, they were passionate about parenting and cared quite a large amount about their kids happiness and future. He was never discontent with the situation in his youth, as if he wanted something, he most likely received it. He was given a large amount of freedom to pursue whatever he wanted and he found his parents fairly relatable, given as they were a young couple. There was one thing he couldn't quite grasp about them however.

It was their passion. Growing up, Alaric had mostly seen everything as mundane and felt as if he had to go out of his way to enjoy something. He tried copying them, developing his own taste in fashion, listening to music, studying. Nothing worked. He couldn't replicate the excitement and happiness that they held on their face no matter what he did. Needless to say, he was bored, and nothing seemed to amuse him.

He had written off pokemon preemptively. Nothing about caring for pets seemed to interest him. Plus, his parents didn't have pokemon either, so he didn't consider them a possibility that would make him happy. This changed when a friend of their parents, a pokemon co-coordinator gave them an egg as a gift. Neither of them had time to care for it nor were they particularly interested, so they handed it off to their kid. Alaric, although not interested in caring for the pokemon, decided that spiting his parents good will would be unacceptable behaviour and decided to raise it.

It ended up hatching into a Ralts and became his first pokemon. His perception changed slightly, and given as he had raised the egg, he felt quite attached to the newfound pokemon. They formed a strong friendship and he gave him the name Lance, a shortening of a knight of legend, hoping that he'd emulate that same bravery in his life.

With this acquisition, and with his partners restless nature, Alaric felt compelled to at least give battling a go. He did plenty of research on how to battle and how to train, but he didn't exactly know where to start, and this continued for quite a while until his parents took him with them on a business trip to the Galar region. It was his first time out of Hoenn and he had to say that while he felt a little homesick, he liked being elsewhere for a change. They travelled around Galar for a month or so before heading back, but he had a fairly memorable affair in Motostoke city, where he found himself fighting his first battle.

Lachlan was on his way back up to his dad’s apartment after a visit to the pond, when he passed by a store and noticed some new faces around town. Curious, he decided to get a bit closer to see what was going on. He walked through the front door of the store and started browsing shelves nearby to see if he could hear what they were saying.

Inside the store, Alaric was bored. Extremely bored. He had no idea why his parents had coaxed him to come along to this trip, and he’d rather do anything than stand idly by while they negotiated business deals and production quotas for specific articles of clothing. Whilst he had an interest in fashion, he had zero interest in business or economics, which was the topic of the day it seemed, as they’d went to 3 different shops already. He decided he’d sneak out and get some fresh air. His parents were too engrossed in the conversation to notice.

As he was about to walk out, he noticed someone walking in. A kid, around his age with very similar features to his. Light hair, reddish eyes though the difference in clothing was quite stark. He ended up colliding into him, though he’s not sure who was to blame given both were walking rather briskly to where they wanted to go.

Lachlan was so focused on the items in the store and listening to the two people by the counter, he barely noticed the boy who had collided with him until it was too late. Startled, he jumped back and fell on his butt. “Mate! You surprised me, you must really wanna get outta here huh?” he chuckled, “Well, for knockin me on my bottom like that why don’t we have a battle!?” Grinning, Lachlan got to his feet and extended a hand to the boy, “Name’s Lachlan.”

Within seconds of trying to exit, he found himself on the ground, though he’d landed rather well. Alaric was confused how the collision even happened, but alas, he didn’t feel like questioning himself or this unfortunate kid who he bumped into. He stood up first and spoke to Alaric before offering an arm up, which Alaric gladly took.

“You have no idea, I feel like my brain is about to fry from listening to them for so long.” he spoke as he dusted himself off and began to address the rest of what Lachlan had said. A battle. He’d been offered one, and he did have his Pokemon on him. He let out a smug grin. This was his time to shine, and prove himself a worthy trainer.

“A battle, eh? I won’t say no, but I’ll have you know that in my 14 years on this planet, I have never once lost a Pokemon battle.” he declared. Little did his opponent know that he had never once fought in a battle.

“That only means it will show everyone how strong I am when I beat you.” Lachlan said confidently as Zigs poked his head out of Lachlan’s bag and over his shoulder. “My partner Zigs and I are going to be the best one day.” Lachlan patted the Zigzagoon’s head, then turned back to Alaric and gestured for him to follow as he walked out of the store, leading him to a park not far away.

“Heh. A bold statement. Especially considering when I, Alaric, soon to be the greatest trainer from the Hoenn region am here. Me and my partner will show you our power!” he spoke confidently as he let out his Ralts from the pokeball he had at his waist. It seemed as exceedingly confident as his trainer.

“I’ve only have need for one pokemon. I’ll allow you to use as many as you want, as I cannot lose!” he laughed as he looked at Lachlan with his arms folded, ready to battle.

Zigs hopped out of Lachlan’s bag and past his head out in front of him. “It would only be fair for me to use a single pokemon too then.” Lachlan said, his confidence only slightly wavering toward the beginning. He raised one arm out in the air before him and shouted “Lets do this!”

As epic as the two hyped the battle up to be, it fell flat. Both were complete novice trainers who had never fought in a Pokemon battle, and as a result, it was a messy affair. Tackles and psybeams went left and right as both Pokemon tried desperately to bring their trainers home the victory. In the end, Alaric took the victory, but not without much effort. In a way, he felt cheated out of a true victory given as his opponent had only used one of his pokemon.

Lachlan knew he could have won had he used all his pokemon, but none the less he accepted his loss and promised next time they battled it would be a different outcome. Satisfied with the time he had killed Lachlan said farewell to Alaric and returned to his dad’s apartment after giving him his rotom phone number.

After he got back home to Hoenn, he felt invigorated. He knew what he must do and he realised what his parents had been feeling all those years ago. He set out and decided to expand his party in preparation for the upcoming Chromis league and for his rematch against Lachlan, and didn't give himself a day of rest due to the sheer excitement that was flowing through his veins. He caught two new additions to his party in the same mountain, although on different days. He caught both through battle, and the bond they share was built through a mutual respect of strength rather than a slow attempt to befriend them. Regardless, they still came to have a strong friendship.

With the two new additions to his party, a gusto in his heart and a wanderlust to find new strong trainers to battle, he set off for the Chromis league. He was a different beast to when he battled Lachlan a year ago, and he wasn't prepared to lose to anybody.

Name: Lance
Species: Ralts
Gender: Male
Ability: Trace
Battle Experience: 6
Moves:
- Disarming Voice
- Draining Kiss
- Confusion
- Psybeam
Extra Notes: Hatched from an egg, and Alaric's first pokemon. Is absolutely fearless.


Name: Moko
Species: Bagon
Gender: Female
Ability: Rock Head
Battle Experience: 5
Moves:
- Bite
- Headbutt
- Dragon Breath
- Ember
Extra Notes: Alaric's second pokemon, doesn't get along very well with Lance but is best friends with Emil.


Name: Emil
Species: Aron
Gender: Male
Ability: Rock Head
Battle Experience: 6
Moves:
- Headbutt
- Metal Claw
- Rock Tomb
- Protect
Extra Notes: Alaric's third pokemon, doesn't get along well with Lance but is Moko's best friend.

Name: Alpha
Species: Darumaka
Gender: Male
Ability: Hustle
Battle Experience: 3
Moves: Ember, Fire Fang, Flame Wheel, Bite.
Extra Notes: Given to him by Professor Juniper. He has a fiery determination while also being mischievous.

Name: Beta
Species: Galarian Darumaka
Gender: Female
Ability: Inner Focus
Battle Experience: 3
Moves: Powder Snow, Ice Fang, Flame Wheel, Bite.
Extra Notes: Captured while in Galar. A lot calmer than Alpha, but just as playful.

Name: Atlas
Species: Mudbray
Gender: Male
Ability: Stamina
Battle Experience: 5
Moves:
- Bulldoze
- Double Kick
- Iron Defense
- Strength
Extra Notes: Henrietta‘s first Pokémon, given to her as an egg at a young age and raised with extra care and attention. Loyal and stubborn


Name: Fiona
Species: Trapinch
Gender: Female
Ability: Arena Trap
Battle Experience: 3
Moves:
- Sand Attack
- Bite
- Sand Tomb
- Bulldoze
Extra Notes: Likes to burrow herself into the dirt to get comfortable and take naps.


Name: Gregor
Species: Gligar
Gender: Male
Ability: Sand Veil
Battle Experience: 2
Moves:
- Sand Attack
- Poison Sting
- Harden
- Cross Poison
Extra Notes: Recently hatched from an egg, he is Henrietta’s youngest and newest Pokémon. Mischievous; likes to steal food from his trainer or from others.


Name: Roland
Species: Nidoran ♂
Gender: Male
Ability: Hustle
Battle Experience: 5
Moves:
- Poison Sting
- Peck
- Focus Energy
- Double Kick
Extra Notes: Aggressive, and already has a few scars along it's body, it's not afraid to get into a scrap.