Bloodlines and Heartbeats

Chapter 1: Vision

This is a rough draft, so there are occasional typos and other errors. Wattpad is really awkward to format with, so I'm not going to be updating the chapters on here anymore. The final version is being posted on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/55428235/chapters/140641723


       Ever since I was young, I've had a strange ability. Occasionally, whenever I touched something- like a building or a small object- I would hear or see an event of some kind. Usually, I just heard voices, or I just saw silent, shadowy outlines of people or pokemon doing something. Every now and again, though, they were crystal clear- and those visions were a treat. Sometimes they lasted a few minutes; sometimes they lasted just a few seconds. I hadn't exactly counted, but I've probably had upwards of fifty of these visions throughout my life. Most of the time I got to see things in the past that had already happened, but there were a few times where I saw something that hadn't yet happened- something from the future. And the things I saw or heard from the future always wound up happening.
      Experiencing these weird visions wasn't exactly comfortable, but they were always interesting; they drove me towards a love for history and exploration at a young age. Whenever I went half a year or so without one of my visions, I would travel from place to place until I saw another; they usually pointed me towards interesting stuff. I had started out my journey in Hoenn, and I had hopped from region to region until I was around sixteen. That was when I traveled to Unova in pursuit of an interesting pokemon I saw in one of my rare future-visions. After a few years there, I decided to give its gym challenge a try before I got another dry spell with no visions. But in Sinnoh, I was getting five or six visions a year, which was more than I had gotten anywhere else.  
      By this point, I've been traveling for nearly a decade. I started my pokemon journey later in life, and I've enjoyed traveling so much that I hadn't really ever stopped. Seeing new people and places kept life fresh, and the change in scenery kept me and my pokemon happy.
      I've always traveled light and lived pretty modestly. Usually, I could live off of my battle winnings alone. Now and again I'd pick up a temporary job when money got really tight; after all, raising pokemon wasn't cheap. Especially the larger ones. I haven't even filled out my team to a full six, I hadn't really ever cared to. Most pokemon that actually took battling seriously didn't jive with the slow lifestyle I led, and having fewer pokemon saved me money anyway.
      Just a few months ago, my team and I had made our first attempt at the Sinnoh Pokemon League, and the first member of the Elite Four wiped the floor with us. I thought we would have at least beaten one or two members, but no. We were thrashed by Aaron; we didn't even get through half of his bug-team. My confidence was due to the fact that my team and I had actually gotten thirteen gym badges throughout our travels. The first two were from Hoenn using just my first two pokemon, and then we got three more in Unova about a year later. We'd only gotten five 'extra' badges between the two regions, but still... I thought it meant we were at least a little better than the average challenger.
      After our loss at the Elite Four, I decided to travel and train for a while rather than rechallenge the league again right away. I also decided to fill out my team to six since I was going to give the Elite Four a serious shot. One of the biggest reasons for our loss was the lack of a full team, each of my pokemon were pretty much evenly matched with Aaron's. I wasn't in any hurry though, so I decided to indulge a bit more in my curiosity and explore the corners of Sinnoh while we got stronger. The Champion of Sinnoh was supposedly one of the most formidable Champions anyways, so it was probably for the best that I didn't just dive straight in again.
      Becoming Champion had never really been my goal; even now it wasn't. But having made it this far, I at least wanted to try and make it to the Champion. I wanted to at least defeat the Elite Four, but so long as I could beat Aaron, I'd be satisfied.

      A few months passed since my loss to Aaron. I've been traveling through eastern Sinnoh and not too long ago, I arrived in Solaceon. It was a pretty small town, but there was a whole bunch of interesting ruins here. I also decided to come here because I heard that the forest in the area was pretty.
      It was early springtime. Snow still lingered up against walls and underneath the pine trees. I had been poking around in the nearby ruins for the better part of the day, but I was mostly just enjoying the scenary. What was left of the snow made the mountains look even prettier.
      While looking around, I noticed a small campsite a ways off the main path. It was set up by a mostly intact pillar of the ruins. The site looked pretty minimal; a wide, flat rock had been dragged over to act as a chair. There was also a small pit which contained a set of two sad, half-burnt logs. I nudged one of the logs with my foot, and there were no coals underneath. Whatever fire someone had started, it was completely extinguished. By the chair-rock I noticed a small, black notebook. It was half buried in a patch of snow. Whoever was here, they must have dropped it as they were leaving. It was pretty hard to miss; it stood out like a sore thumb.
      I at least wanted to see if it had a name or something in it. I squatted down to grab it and the second my fingers touched the cover, a sharp screech rang through my head, and everything went black.
      It was another vision!
      The visuals were dark and difficult to make out, but I could just barely make out different shapes. It seemed like there were tall structures around, like trees. Or... pillars. It resembled the ruins quite a bit. The two most prevelent shapes were moving.
       "Obey me, you belligerent beast! Dragon rush, now!" It was a man. His voice was shrill; he sounded frustrated; furious, even. I couldn't pick out the speaker, but I could see two large shadowy blobs moving around. It was too dark and blurry to make out any details, I could only tell them apart by their difference in size.
      The one that was presumably a Salamence was the larger of the two, and it was airborne. Everything was so blurry that I lost track of the shapes if I wasn't focusing on them. Even then, it was hard to tell what was happening. The area also seemed littered with really tall shapes.
      I heard a roar, then the sound of a heavy impact followed by stone breaking. I saw the smaller, flying shadowy mass fall to the ground. It let out a pained cry - definitely a pokemon. Another heavy impact, followed by a crash and more stone crumbling. And then, a woman's voice:
      "You okay, Togekiss?" She sounded concerned. She didn't seem afraid necessarily; but she did sound very serious. This didn't seem like a casual pokemon battle. She also sounded kind of familiar...
      As I came out of my vision, my knees felt weak, and I fell to a sitting position; visions really took it out of me, it was usually worse the longer the vision was.
      Wasn't Togekiss a fairy type?
      I didn't know that particular pokemon too well, but if I was right, a dragon move shouldn't hurt it. More importantly, I needed to find out if that was something that had already happened, or if it was something that was from the future.
      Looking around, the buildings and pillars in these ruins definitely looked reminiscent of the shapes in my vision. Most of the ruins I could see looked dilapidated and worn away by time, not damaged from some kind of struggle.
      Was the person this belonged to nearby? Was it one of the voices?
      I had to know if it was going to happen. If it hadn't happened yet, it sounded like that lady needed help. I took off through the ruins, looking for any sign of battle damage in the ruins, or any hint of the two pokemon I had heard the names of. My visions had helped me prevent people from getting hurt a few times before, but this felt different. Something about it felt... important.
      Thumbing through the notebook as I went, I didn't find a name. The notebook seemed to have information about the ruins. It actually seemed to have a course charted through some of them, along with all sorts of notes about specific buildings and their purposes. There was all kinds of interesting stuff in it. By the look of things, it probably belonged to a professor or an archaeologist, so I had that to go on at least. Before I got too carried away, I decided to stop looking through it and tuck it safely away in my bag. Even if it wasn't exactly a diary, it still felt intrusive to look through someone's personal writing. That, and I didn't want to get distracted since someone might be in danger. I started a jog, looking through the ruins for anything that might resemble the area I had seen.

      After a short while of jogging through the ruins, I rounded a corner and saw a lanky man with long, greasy hair. He stood in a lightly wooded area of the ruins, examining one of the nearby entrances. He was accompanied by a Hydreigon. Not one of the pokemon I was looking for. The man turned as I approached, looking at me out of the corner of his eye. Upon seeing his face, I recognized him. This man was Vallus, a wanted criminal. His picture had been all over the news in the past few months; he had been responsible for a series of robberies from museums as well as a few of the wealthier homes across the world. Most recently, he had been active in Northern Sinnoh. He also left all kinds of property damage in his wake. His reckless use of dragon pokemon had injured many, and one of his pokemon had even been responsible for a few deaths.
      My heart rate skyrocketed. This man was dangerous.
      "Oh, a lost kid? Who might you be?" I felt a knot twist in my stomach as he spoke. His voice was doubtless the one I had heard in my vision. I'd be offended if I wasn't so terrified; I hated being called a kid.
      I glanced around for any sign of the woman or those pokemon. No one was around. There was no damage to the surroundings either - that much was at least a good sign. I may have arrived before the fight.
      Vallus scratched at his half-covered face as he turned to face me fully. "I can assure you that we are quite alone, boy. There should be a rampaging pokemon keeping the people of Solaceon busy at the moment." The man let out a hoarse, short chuckle. "Well, busy may not be quite the right word... perhaps, 'assailing'?" As his laughter trailed off, his expression grew serious. "Hydreigon, get rid of him. We can't let this boy cause any problems for us." Hydreigon let out a grunt before slowly opening its mouths. White energy coalesced within them. It was aiming the energy right at me.
      A Hyper Beam?
      I wasn't sure, but I had no time to second guess. Aggron was my safest bet either way. "Aggs, brace yourself!" I tossed out her pokeball in front of me. She thudded to the ground, with her arms cross-blocking and her head down. A beam of bright energy shot from the Hydreigon and struck her center mass as she defended me. The energy deflected upwards, disappearing into the sky. Definitely a Hyper Beam.
      Vallus frowned. "Ah, you're a pokemon trainer... I don't really want to do battle right now." He scratched at his face through his hair. "Hydreigon, if you find an opening to torch the boy, take it. We don't have time for this. The less recognizable the body is, the better." His pokemon grunted in response while it recovered from its attack, and I felt my mouth grow dry.
      I could see damage on Aggron's formidable armor from the attack despite the very favorable type matchup. There wasn't much damage, but that was still a bad sign."Thanks for the save, Aggs. You good with staying close to me and using ranged attacks?" She replied with a low growl, glaring at the dragon pokemon as she took a step back towards me. "Cool. Let's play this one smart."
      And so began the most stressful pokemon battle of my life.