One month ago, in the Wild Area

"Charmeleon, use Fire Fang!" I tell my new Pokémon. Charmelons fangs light up and set on fire, and he runs toward his opponent. I asked Lucario to help me with some training. Lucario leaped out of Charmeleons way and used Aura Sphere, throwing a Charmeleon off his feet.

Charmeleon landed on his back and stood up, looking back at me.

"Now use Ember!" I tell him. Charmeleon shoots an Ember from his tail and hits Lucario straight in the chest. Lucario flies back from the impact and hits the ground. The smoke clouds rise, and Lucario uses it to his advantage. Charmeleon desperately looks around in search of his opponent, but Lucario had the upper hand. He sped up to Charmeleon and used Thunder Punch. Charmeleon flew back from the impact and hit the ground. The sparks flew around him.

"All right, that's enough for now, guys." I tell them, walking over to the duo. Lucario helps Charmeleon up and nods. Then Lucario turns to me.

Charmeleon is improving. I must say, I am intrigued to see what kind of style he has in battle.

"Char!" Charmeleon agrees.

"Lucario, head back to camp. Charmeleon and I will catch up soon. Keep an eye on Cinderace and Boltund, okay?" I ask him. Lucario smiles and nods.

Yes, Isaac. I will not let you down.

Lucario sprints back to camp and Charmeleon hops onto my shoulder.

"Charmeleon!" he says enthusiastically, shooting his claw up in the air.

"Hey, you're getting a little big for that now, aren't you?" I joke. We head to our favorite spot, right in the middle of Axew's Eye, biking over the water. I lean my bike up against the tree and take off my helmet. Charmeleon walks over to the shore and sits down. I follow suit and take a seat onto the sand next to him. Charmeleon observes the Wild Area, his eyes wide.

"It's beautiful, isn't it, buddy?" I ask him. He nods and keeps looking around. "When I first arrived here with Hop on the first day of our adventure, I didn't think I'd come here so often."

"Meleon!" Charmeleon suddenly points toward the sky, where I see a silhouette of some flying Pokémon with someone on top of it. From the looks of it, they were heading to Wyndon.

"I've never seen that Pokémon here before." I say, squinting to get a better look. The color scheme was close to a Charizard, but it definitely wasn't Leon. It's wings looked a wee bit small for its size. It flew overhead and Charmeleon observed. I looked at him and he had a stunned look on his face, then it turned to an enthusiastic stare.

"You wanna fly like that someday?" I ask, pointing a finger up in the air. He nodded in agreement and I heard Lucario call to us through his aura. I looked ahead of me to the shore and saw Lucario, waving us over. I shrug and Charmeleon and I stand up. I grab my bike and turn on water-wheel mode. Charmeleon climbs onto my shoulder and I speed across the water on the bike, making it to the shore and the bike disappears into my Rotom Phone. I can call it out and it materializes in front of me at any time.

The team is hungry. I volunteered to come and grab you and Charmeleon.

Lucario smiles and motions for us to follow him. Charmeleon and I follow Lucario back to camp, where the usual is happening. Cinderace and Boltund are racing, Corviknight is perched up in a tree, and Sylveon is watching the stars. Lucario stopped and held out his arm in a 'look at this' way. He had set up the pot.

"Thanks, Lucario. Now, let's get some food going!" I say. "Charmeleon, can you start a small fire under the pot for me?" I ask Charmeleon. He nods and uses his tail to set the wood on fire and the water starts boiling. I make food for my team and watch them all eat.

Corviknight pecks his food down bit by bit.

Cinderace and Boltund surprisingly eat their food slowly considering they were just running around forever.

Sylveon ate her food in a happy manner.

Lucario was always a bit hesitant, but he eventually ate his food.

And I made a spicy dish for Charmeleon, and he loved it.

"Alright, guys. We should get to Wyndon. See how things are going." I say, getting up and stretching. They all nod and agree, and they help me clean everything up, and i return all my Pokémon except for Corviknight and Charmeleon. I climb onto Corviknight's back and Charmeleon sits in front of me.

"Corviknight, let's head to Wyndon!" I say. Corviknight caws into the night sky and takes off into the air. I wrap my arm around Charmeleon and hold the reins in Corviknight's armor. We zoom through the air and Corviknight dives down like he's using Brave Bird, and lands in Wyndon, right in the plaza. Charmeleon and I climb off and I return Corviknight to his pokeball. Charmeleon observes the city from my shoulder and we take the monorail to the Battle Tower, where I saw Leon and his Charizard waiting. Once he sees me we wave some over.

"Morning, new Champion!" Leon says, putting a hand on my shoulder. "And hello to you as well, Charmeleon." Leon pats Charmeleons head and he jumps off my shoulder and trots over to chat with Charizard.

"So, hows the Battle Tower been?" I ask Leon.

"Well, we've been getting a lot more challengers now that you've reached the Master Ball tier, everyone wants to climb just as high and defeat you and take first place. Hop been behaving at the lab?"

"Sonia tells me he's doing his best and is actually quite helpful." I tell him.

"Hop might not have achieved his dream, but it's always that little push that can send you flying toward your goal." Leon says, looking to the sky. "That reminds me, you have a visitor. Come inside."

Leon leads me inside and once we arrive in the Battle Tower lobby, I see a man with a dark blue cloak on, with thin red stripes vertically shaped on it, and he has a black cape. He has a spiky head of orange hair, and a Dragonite, a Pokémon considered to be a myth, standing next to him.

"Isaac, I'd like you to meet Lance, the Champion of the Indigo League." Leon says. Lance turns around and smiles.

"It's an honor to meet you, Isaac. Leon has told me great things about you." Lance says, taking a bow. Dragonite simply flexes his wings.

"I should be the one welcoming you! It's not every day we get a Champion from another region to visit Galar. Heck, where are my manners? It's an honor to have you, Lance!" I say, holding out my hand. Lance takes it in a firm grip and we shake hands. Once we take our hands back, Leon starts talking again.

"Lance is here to investigate a mystery. Peoples Pokémon have been mysteriously disappearing in the midst of the night." Leon says, turning around and sitting down on the couch. I take a seat next to him and Lance plops down on the couch across from us. He crosses his legs and Dragonite leans over the back of the couch.

"One month ago, we intercepted this." Lance said, taking out a circular device, with a purple button on it. He pressed the button and up came some woman in a small hologram. She had black glasses and short purple hair. She was wearing a black suit.

"We have successfully landed in the Galar region. We will carry out the plan and report back when we have succeeded. Matori out."

The woman did a salute and the hologram dissipated.

"Who was that?" I ask.

"Her name is Matori, and we believe she is from an organization known as Team Rocket, from what Lance says. They are nothing like the oddballs in Team Yell. These weirdos actually steal people's Pokémon and manage to get away with it." Leon says.

"Team Rocket is obsessed over ruling the world, and they plan to capture every powerful Pokémon they see. Dragonite and I once helped out a fellow trainer back in Johto, and infiltrated one of Team Rocket's bases."

"That woman says they've landed here, but where could they be?" I ask, scratching my chin.

"Why don't you see if Hop and Sonia know anything about their whereabouts." Leon said, turning to me

"I'm on it."

I get up from the couch and was about to exit the building when Lance stopped me.

"Isaac, wait." he said, standing up. "Is that a Mega Ring on your wrist?" he asks me, smiling.

"Oh, yeah, it is. Why?" I ask.

"Here, I want you to have this." he said, tossing me a black orb. I caught it midair and admired it. It had a blue double helix on the inside and shone a magnificent silver.

"That's a Charizardite X. Once your Charmeleon evolves, have him hold that and he'll be able to Mega Evolve."

"Wow, thanks so much, Lance! I'll be back!" I say, waving goodbye. They wave back and I exit the building and run to the train station. I board the train and take a seat. I take out my Rotom phone and pull up the news. It's mostly just about how business in Galar has been booming.

I was scrolling for a good ten minutes when a huge crash made me fall out of my seat and onto the floor.

"What the heck?" I ask aloud. I look around and see smoke coming from one of the other train cars.

I get up and run over to the door leading to the other car, and kick it open. The door bounced off its hinges and tumbled through the train. I saw about six people trapped in rubble. This train car was a total wreck.

I help people out of the rubble and get them outside.

I release Lucario.

"Get these people to safety, and get back here once they are, alright?" I ask Lucario.

Lucario nods and motions for the people to follow him. I release Charmeleon and sprint back into the train, helping the people trapped in the further cars.

I finally reach the front, where I find the driver knocked out. I carry him outside and set him on the grass, and I hear sirens in the distance. Ambulances pull up on the grass and i help them load the injured onto stretchers.

Lucario arrived back within a few minutes, sprinting at full speed. I ran up to him, Charmeleon following me.

"Lucario, are the people safe?" I ask him.

The citizens are fine, but i unknowingly brought company!

I turn around and see four people in black suits and hats, all with a massive red R stamped on the front of their shirts.

"Nice Pokémon, kid. Sorry to break it to you, but they belong to Team Rocket now." one says,

"Fat chance, pal!" I yell at him. Lucario charges two Aura Spheres and Charmeleon readies his claws.

The grunts laugh.

"You think those puny Pokémon can stand up to ours?" another grunt says. They all throw out their Pokémon. A Rhypherior, Arcanine, Tentacruel and a Shiftry.

"Rhyperior, Rock Wrecker!"

"Arcanine, Fire Blast!"

"Tentacruel, Hydro Pump!"

"Shiftry, Solar Beam!"

The four attacks were fired at the next second, but I knew what to do.

"Lucario, Hyper Beam!" I yell at my Pokémon, whipping my hand out in a throw motion.

Lucario puts his paws together and a white energy starts shooting out from his paws and he thrusts his arms out in front of him, letting loose a huge white beam, the attack colliding with the four attacks heading right for us. Lucario's Hyper Beam eventually overpowered the other ones and the Hyper Beam went straight for the Pokémon. It knocked them all out in one go, and they all fell down, fainted. The grunts returned their Pokémon.

"That kid is strong! We better get out of here!"

"Charmeleon!" my Pokémon growled. He ran up to the grunts and snarled at him. The grunt whimpered and they all ran away. I burst out in a laugh.

"Nice one, buddy! You too, Lucario. Let's get to Wedgehurst, alright?" I tell my Pokémon. Lucario fell to his knees from the power of that move.

"Hey, buddy, you alright?" I ask him.

I am fine. That Hyper Beam cost me almost all my energy.

"Why don't you take a rest then?" I ask him, returning him to his Poké ball.

"Char!"

I get up and strap the ball to my belt, and turn around and see Charmeleon up on a small hill. I trek up to him and he's pointing down the hill, where Wedgehurst is.

"Nice eye, buddy!" I praise him. He stands proud and grunts. He hops onto my shoulder and we run to the town.

I leap over the fence into the back of Wedgehurst, and suddenly I hear about three doors opening. I look around and see people poking out from the doors.

"Champion? What are you doing here? Get inside!" one whispers to me.

"What are you talking about? Where is everyone?"

"Hey, I thought we said no talking!" said a rather gruff voice. I look behind me and see another Rocket grunt. "Hey, what are you doing out here, kid? You know the rules!"

"What rules would that be, my friend?" I ask firmly. Charmeleon growls.

"Oh really? Let me remind you. Any citizen caught outside after curfew gets their Pokémon taken away and put to better use!"

Suddenly two more grunts come from behind me and grab my arms, and another one grabs Charmeleon.

"Charmeleon!" I yell after my Pokémon. I try to break free but their grip is too strong.

"Well, well, kid. It looks like you have some useful Pokémon on you. We'll put them to good use, promise." the grunt laughs, taking the pokeballs off my belt.

"Hey! Do you know who you are messing with over there?!" says a rather familiar voice. I turn and see Hop with his Rillaboom out.

"Rillaboom, Drum Beating!" Hop yells. Rillaboom drums a beat and then vines come up and restrain all the grunts, making it easier for me to make my escape.

Hop runs up to me and helps me up.

"This is the Champion! If you wanna get him, you go through me!" Hop yells.

The vines deteriorate and the grunts break free.

"We'll take both your Pokémon then! Rhydon, let's go!" one grunt says. He throws out a Rhydon.

"Rillaboom, Frenzy Plant!"

"Charmeleon, Dragon Claw!"

Four massive vines restrain the Rhydon, then Charmeleon sprints up and delivers a swift chop to the Rhydons head. The vines retract and the Rhydon falls backward.

"No way! These kids are way too strong!" the grunt says, returning his Rhydon.

The grunts run off and Hop yells after them.

"Yeah, you better run, you cowards! You mess with Wedgehurst and you're gonna get it!" he calls, putting his hands around his mouth.

"You've certainly improved in your battle styles, Hop." I tell him, brushing off my sleeves.

"Well, I learn from the best." he laughs, turning to me. He then turns to Charmeleon. "Well, hello there! Isaac didn't tell me you'd evolved, Blaze!" he says, scratching Charmeleon's chin.

"You are still stuck on calling him that?" I ask him. I return Charmeleon to his ball.

"Yeah, of course! Come on, let's get to the lab. Sonia has some questions for us." Hop says, motioning for me to follow him. "Oh, wait, hold on, one thing first. Hey!" he calls out into the night. "It's safe to come out now! The Champion came, just like I said he would!"

The people come out of their houses and cheer. I look at Hop and chuckle. We run to the Lab but Hop stops me. He holds up his hand and looks inside the window in the door.

"There's more of those creeps inside there! They're questioning Sonia!" he whispers. "There's a trap door in the roof! Let's climb up there!"

I nod and start scaling the side of the lab. Hop follows me and we get on the roof.

"Jump in front of the grunts and shove 'em, punch 'em, just makes sure they're knocked out." Hop whispers. I nod and he opens the trap door.

"Where's your assistant?" one grunts yells at Sonia.

"I told you, he'll be here soon!" Sonia yells.

Hop counts down on his fingers from three, and when he reaches zero, we drop down from the trap door and land in between Sonia and the grunts. Hop and I punch the grunts in sync, and they fall to the ground, knocked out.

"Aw, man! Dynamic Punch times ten!" Hop says, High fiving me.

"My heroes. I told you they'd be here soon!" Sonia says.

"That was nothing. We came here to help!" I say.

"And you are just in time. Those Team Plane guys wouldn't leave me alone."

"Correction, Team Rocket." Hop chuckles.

"Anyways, I've made a tracker that can locate the poke balls that they have their Pokémon in. There are three grunts stationed in each area from Turfield to Hammerlocke. Hop, take out the grunts from Turfield to Stow-On-Side, and Isaac, take Balloonlea to Hammerlocke." Sonia says, nodding.

"On it! Isaac, let's take Corviknight! I'll drop you off at Balloonlea!" Hop says. I nod and we run outside. Sonia tosses us the trackers. Hop summons his Corviknight and we climb on. I hold onto the side of Corviknight's armor, and we take off into the air.

The breeze glides through the night sky and we arrive in The Glimwood Tangle. I hop off Corviknight and Hop wishes me good luck, and takes off. I crouch down and look over a hedge. The grunts are in front of the gym. I grip Cinderace's pokeball, and two second later, toss the pokeball behind the house to my left. Cinderace comes out and looks around, but then he looks me in the eyes from across the road and kneels down.

"When I give you the signal, kick a Pyro Ball at them, alright?" I whisper. Cinderace smiles and nods. I count down from three.

When I reach zero, Cinderace kicks a pebble into the air and turns it into a blazing ball of flames, and he kicks it at the grunts, making the disperse.

"What was that?!" one yelled.

Once they see Cinderace and I, they throw out their Pokémon. Vileplume, Pinsir, and Scyther.

"Cinderace, Acrobatics!" I tell my Pokémon. Cinderace leaps into the air and nimbly strikes all three Pokémon multiple times, making them faint.

The grunts return their Pokémon and run off, and Cinderace and I run into the gym. Where we find Bede and Opal tied up and gagged. They look at us when the door opens and Bede just rolls his eyes.

I run up to them and undo their bindings and take the gags out of their mouths.

"I had the situation under control, Champion. I did not need your help." Bede says, shoving me aside. I grab Opals umbrella and help her stand up. I give her the umbrella.

"Thank you, Isaac. You truly are a great Champion." Opal smiles.

"The situation was under control. We did not need his help."

"Yeah, because there's a lot you can do when you're tied up and gagged inside of the gym!" I tell him. He glares at me and I head outside. I return Cinderace and take Corviknight out of his ball, and fly to Circhester, Spikemuth, and Hammerlocke and knock out the remaining grunts. The Gym Leaders all thank me this time and I meet Hop at Wyndon Square.

"You were done before me?" I ask him.

"You snooze, you lose." Hop laughs. I dismount Corviknight and return him, and suddenly Charmeleon burst from his ball and growls in the direction of the park. Hop and I look toward the entrance. Suddenly a Hypno emerged from the bushes and uses Hypnosis on us.

All three of us suddenly feel really tired and we all fall to the ground, knocked out.

I wake up with some sort of light in my eyes.

"They're awake." someone says. There's ringing in my ears. My vision clears up and I realize I'm stuck to a pole with a rope tied around me. I look behind me and see Hop on the other side of the pole, slightly awake. I look around and see my pokeballs on a table, but there were only five. I look around for the sixth and see the pokeball broke open, and on another table is Charmeleon. He was still knocked out and restrained to the table.

"Hey! Let Charmeleon go!" I yell, struggling. Hop wakes up and looks at me then Charmeleon.

"So you're the Champion?" says a familiar voice. I see the Matori woman emerge form the shadows. "I was expecting someone a little older."

"Let me go and I'll show you I mean business!" I yell again.

"Your Charmeleon is truly fascinating. Where did you get him?" she asks, observing Charmeleon.

I hold back the urge to surge forward because I knew I would cut off Hop's breathing.

"You lay one finger on Charmeleon and I promise you will regret it!" I yell again.

She ignored me and stroke the side of Charmeleons cheek with her finger.

I growled again and this time Hop cuts in.

"This is a crime, you know? If you want powerful Pokémon, hunt them down yourself! Or are you guys all just lazy cowards?" Hop jokes. Suddenly all the grunts look toward him and glare.

Suddenly one grunt punches Hop in the stomach.

"Agh!" Hop gasps. I can hear his heavy breathing.

"He's right! You are cowards! You need to kidnap other people's Pokémon to feel satisfied! You can't just go into the Wild and catch a Pokémon for yourself!" I laugh. A grunt was about to punch me, but I held up my legs and trapped his hand between my ankles. I then twisted my legs and slipped out of the rope. The grunt tried to grab me but I kicked his legs out from under him and he fell onto his side. I shoved down the grunt next to Hop and he slid out of the rope. I was about to grab Charmeleon but Matori stopped me. She held a needle close to Charmeleons arm.

"One dose of this and your Charmeleon is forever turned. Allow me to get away and we'll keep him the way he is." Matori says. Suddenly a rope ladder comes down from the ceiling and she grabs on.

"I won't let you!" Hop yells. He summons his Corviknight and he get on. He flies to the top of where the ladder was connected to, and I grabbed onto the ladder. Matori had already reached the top. I climb after her and get onto some sort of ship. I see Matori in front of me when suddenly the roof is torn off of the section of the ship I'm on, and Lucario leaps down.

"Good to see you, pal!" I tell Lucario. Lucario nods and we chase after Matori. She climbs to the top of the ship and Lucario and I follow her. The turbines are loud over her voice.

"Get off my ship or your Charmeleon gets thrown off the edge!" she threatens. Suddenly the ship rocks and all four of us tumble off the edge. Lucario grabs onto the fence and I try to grab onto his paw on the way down, but I miss, and I go flying off the edge of the ship.

Isaac!!!

I hear Lucario's aura. I fall through the sky, slicing through the wind. I don't see Matori, but I see Charmeleon above me. I was getting close to the ground, and I thought that was the end, but suddenly, I see a blue glow coming from above me. I look up and see a Charizard. Charmeleon has evolved. He roared and spread his wings, and dove down at light speed to me. He scooped me out of the air and I landed on his back.

"Woah, you evolved!" I happily comment. He grunts and looks back at me. "Fly back up to the ship! Lucario needs our help."

Charizard obeys and flies back up to the ship, where Lucario was barely hanging over the edge. We got there at the last second, and Lucario slipped off but I grabbed him by the arm on the way down.

"Gotcha!" I say. I pull Lucario up onto Charizards back.

Hop has the rest of the team down on the ground.

I nod and Charizard flies to the plaza, where Hop was waiting, along with Lance and Leon.

Charizard lands on the ground and Lucario and I climb off.

"Blaze! You've evolved again!" Hop says. Charizard hugged Hop and he returned it.

"How have you managed to take down this many members of a Team Rocket all on your own?" Lance asked.

"Oh, that was nowhere near all me! Hop and I did an equal share of the work." I say, putting my arm around Hop shoulder. "Okay, well, actually, he did save me back in Wedgehurst, so I guess he did more than half." I say.

"Anyways, congratulations to both of you. Leon was right about you two. You can stand up to any situation." Lance said.

"I wouldn't say that." I heard Matori say. We all turned and saw Matori with about six grunts. "Your Charizard still belongs to us, as well as the rest of your team." she says in a calm demeanor. The grunts throw out their Pokémon, and surprisingly, they are all Bug and Grass types. I look to Charizard and he nods. I hand him the Charizardite X and ready my Mega Stone.

"I call forth the power of Mega Evolution! Charizard, Mega Evolve!" I yell. Charizard roars and transforms. His body is now black instead of the usual orange, and his wings have changed formation and he has a blue trail of fire on each side of his face, coming form his mouth. His eyes were also red as blood.

"Charizard, use Blast Burn!" I scream. Charizard roars and suddenly four pillars of blue flames form around the opposing Pokémon and combine into one, burning them.

The Pokémon faint, and Charizard reverts to normal, his energy burned out.

"Impressive. I don't plan on giving up. Goodbye for now, Galar." Matori says, signaling the grunts. They return their Pokémon and they leave.

"Shouldn't we stop them?" Hop asks.

"They'd break out eventually." Leon shrugged. "Congratulations, Isaac. You as well, Charizard."

Charizard and I nod.

"Lance, thank you for the Mega Stone." I said, turning to the Champion.

"No, thank you, for helping me with my investigation. I'll be sure you, Hop and Leon are first on my contact list when I'm in a pinch."

"Final evolution and now Mega Evolution? You are having all the luck today, partner!" Hop exclaims. Hop and I fly back to Wedgehurst and Sonia greets us.

"Welcome back, boys! Leon has already told me to details! Congratulations to all of you! Your Pokémon included!" Sonia says.

Charmeleon had evolved into Charizard, and I got to keep the Mega Stone. Could this day be any cooler?