Vander's Battle Strategy Journal

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The clock on the wall ticked as Vander eagerly waited for the night to end, he turned around the bed as much as he could, wincing as his injured body ached in pain, talking with the bus squad did manage to lift his spirits, and knowing that Soleil was going to offer his home for Vander to rest did ease his worries for a bit. The only exception was that Leonard was still in critical condition, or at least that was the last he knew of him, and that was hours ago.

He gave up, sitting on his bed as he pressed the correct button to fix it for himself and ease his back, resting the head on the end of it as he sighed, dissociating for a second. What was he doing again? Ah right, he was going to turn on the TV once again just to hope that what he saw at the news was just a mistake: the borders are closed, no one in or out… And communications outside of the region were cut, it was blatantly impossible to contact his parents now, they wouldn’t be able to know what happened, how the Academy got taken away, that he did not graduate, how he escaped his former home in Sinnoh, the Academy, with his tail in-between his legs, and how they barely avoided death’s cold grasp.

Once more, Vander got overwhelmed by the rawness of the memories of that night, he almost did not eluded death, his heart had stopped beating for a few minutes and his mind forced him to know how it felt to choke out of lack of oxygen in his lungs. Death brought back a memory he had suppressed from his childhood as well: Peter. Why did he appear in his dying dreams? He was gone, he left years before, and he had barely any memories of him in his head. Then why? Why would he appear so suddenly and for no reason? Was there something he was forgetting? Probably, because he did not remember the promise he made him at all, it was so long ago…

His train of thoughts crashed in the blink of an eye when a nurse entered the room, smiling as she reached her gaze to meet the blonde’s crimson ones. Her cheeks rose up as her lips curled up into a gentle smile, something that caused the lad to flinch in surprise, actually blushing at the brunette that was about to attend him.

“Hello Vander, can’t sleep?” The lady let out a light and quick giggle before approaching him and fixing up his IV line, warming up the room with her petite presence.

“You look tense, can I bring you something?” The nurse asked with a frown on her eyebrows of concern, Vander instinctively shifted his gaze to the side to hide his fluster, something that the nurse had already noticed and admittedly, found cute.

“N-no, I’m good… Thanks…” He wanted to say something else, but something in his throat was piled up, preventing words from coming out. The smart nurse gave a small nod as if she had caught the idea and kissed the boy’s forehead, causing his mind to go kaboom in a mixture of anxiety, stress and teenage hormones.

“You are worried about you brother, aren’t you?” She smiled as she ruffled the already messy and poorly kept hair that the blonde sported. “I knew you would, you are such a good little brother.” She continued, chuckling as he tensed up a bit and looked to the side as he pouted somewhat to avoid giving the wrong impression. “Don’t worry, he is awake now. I’m sure he would love to see you!”

Vander immediately looked back at her, his eyes beaming as his expression slowly began to react into a big surprise, exploding at its climax. “I gotta see him!! nOW!!!” He pushed the nurse aside and tried to get off the bed, from which he almost fell of. The nurse barely managed to catch him and held him together, struggling as she did her best to get him to remain still.

“We will! Don’t worry, I will take you to him!”

Vander stopped his thrashing around, calming down with her words as the impatience ran across his veins. She soon got him a wheelchair and with the upmost care and delicacy, sat him on it and moved as fast as it was allowed inside the hospital walls to the upper floor, where Leonard’s room was.

It was the first time Vander had actually seen the hospital, to his surprise it was just like a regular hospital, much less advanced than Castelia’s for sure, but it still gave him a sense of safety being inside these walls, there were enough Pokemon around to make him smile, which reminded him of his own team, they were still healing as he moved through the hospital, but there was a big chance to see them the next day! The thought raised his hopes up, which soon dwindled when he remembered how he lost interest in battling anymore.

“Alright, here we are!” The nurse opened up the door of the room, delighted with what she had found: a young handsome man was on the bed while reading a book in complete serenity. Vander lifted an eyebrow; he didn’t think his brother would be one of those who read novel books, especially one that seemed to be a romantic mess. The nurse neared the younger blonde nearby his brother and smiled, acknowledging the book he was reading with a nod as if she had read it as well, Leonard just winked at her with a smile, causing her to blush. “W-well! I will leave you two alone, call me if you need me”

“Thank you Veronica.” Said the Champion softly as the girl left them alone, he then directed his entire attention to his speechless brother, who was still bearing through the fact that his older sibling read romantic novels of all things. “Hey there Blue… How are you feeling?” He tilted his head, forming a sad but fulfilling smile, as if tears were about to break down any second from his face.

Vander fixed his throat and shook the weird thoughts off his head, responding to the smile with a nervous demeanor, as if he was embarrassed about something. “Well… Could be better, actually… We both got messed up huh…?”


Leonard chuckled, reaching slowly to his brother’s head and ruffling the hair gently. “Yeah…But we survived, and I heard you tried your absolute best to fight against those people, I’m proud of you.”


Don’t be.

The younger lad winced, feeling guilt and a surge of hesitation; he didn’t feel like he deserved any of that. “But that isn’t true, I didn’t give it my all…”


“Come on Blue, don’t beat yourself too hard for that loss, there was nothing we could do. Heck… If anything, I should be the one who should be punishing himself.” Vander lifted his face when Leonard said that, noticing how his breath got shakey and his eyes poured out gentle tears. “I, Champion of Kanto, couldn’t do a thing to protect my little brother and his friends from a group of terrorists. I was rendered powerless in a second, I turned into dead weight… Almost literally.”


He hesitated to continue, they both almost died in a ruthless and unholy way, and the biggest thing the Champion of Kanto had done was defeat his younger brother and leave him to become the ridicule of the school. Completely unintentional, however, as he only had wished for a beautiful and fun battle experience with the boy who was esteemed as one of the elite by the measurements of the Academy. He made not one, but two damn mistakes, he became a terrible brother and a mess of a person, he even forced his manager to let him stay in the Academy to try and fix his mistake with Vander, but those attempts reached deaf ears and blind eyes as Vander had already shut down from most interactions with people.

“I’m so sorry little Blue… I have caused you so many problems…” He gave in, letting his tears do their job as he struggled to continue, he wasn’t expecting forgiveness, but he couldn’t follow up his job as an older brother without giving Vander a piece of his mind. He suddenly flinched as out of nowhere, he found himself enveloped in the lad’s arms. It took him a couple of seconds to realize it as well, Vander hugged him as bets as he could, struggling to resist the pain on his busted shoulder, both ending up in a soft choir of tears.

“Red… I was such an idiot before… I should be the one apologizing… I tried, I really did… But I even failed to avenge you… I lost my touch; I can’t battle anymore…” He let go of the hug, allowing his brother to see him in such a vulnerable state. Leonard didn’t know what to say, really. How to properly conform his brother… Blood of his blood, the light of his eyes ever since he met him as an infant and the true reason why he started his journey as a trainer: he wanted to be his role model.

The Champion patted, his brother’s head after thinking a bit and smiled, tears still escaping his eyes. “Bouffalantcrap, you are one of the best battlers I know, you just need a little push in the right direction, that’s all… You let your emotions get the best of you and with that, you and your Pokemon get hurt.” He gestured to his hands, noticing the bandages that covered them, still smiling. Vander had let his face down as he got slightly lectured, but nodded in agreement, he needed help but his spirit was utterly shattered.

Leonard cleaned the tears from his face and chuckled, letting out a small laugh. “Come on, cheer up Blue, we will get out of this together.” Vander swallowed a large lump, forcing himself to continue talking it was already hard to admit he indeed messed, but the news of how they were trapped in Sinnoh now were… Overwhelming.

“Red… We… We can’t get out of Sinnoh…”


Leonard’s face suddenly turned serious, his smile slowly fading away from his face. “Huh?”


Vander proceeded to explain the regional situation, how he assumed that the newly revived Team Galactic might have taken the media for themselves and the region turned into a lockdown. Leonard nodded his head, and frowned more when he heard that communications outside of the region were cut off, their parents are probably worried to bits about them, but they surely know the situation already, the news should be worldwide, he hoped.

His brother finished the tale, sobbing as he tried to clean his tears as well, it was exceedingly hard to pull himself together at this point, he had little to no idea on what to do after all. Leonard pulled the boy close to him and held him gently, patting his head before kissing it as he stared in front of him. ”Don’t worry Blue, I got you… I will not leave you alone…”


Vander tugged on his shirt and let out a nod, finally relaxing for the first time in the night. “Well… Soleil offered his farm for us to rest in the meantime…”


Leonard smiled, accepting the idea. “And do some farm work as well?” He let out an eager chuckle. “That sounds perfect”.

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Vander found himself barely able to open his eyes, struggling with fighting sleep as the curtains of light showered bright across his room. His arms felt heavy, rendering almost unable to lift them at all. The silence broke with a loud yawn that gave him the strength to rub his sleepy eyes, a familiar scent of coffee with milk awoke the rest of his senses and prompted him to sit on the bed the clock right beside him and almost spat his coffee: he overslept for three hours, he could already imagine Ms. Krieg screaming her lungs out against him. Right beside the clock was resting a plate with a delicious sandwich with greasy grilled cheese and butter, it still looked warm like his milk coffee which prompted him to raise an eyebrow: who left it there? Ms. Krieg? Sol? Leonard? It could have been Leonard, he had been working very hard to fix their relationship ever since the hospital back in Celestic, he scratched the back of his head and placed the plate on his pillow, noticing that his it leaked some white feathers.

Feathers…

He sighed as he realized it, Rubber’s departure had hurt him more than what he had thought… He remembered crying silently till he slept, finding his breath to be shaky and dried tears on his cheeks. Or perhaps it was the fact that he ended up sleeping at three in the morning after returning home. It had been one blow after the other, was there anything else he could do about it? Mop around and eat his breakfast seemed like the fastest solution, not the most optimal, but it eased his head and stomach.

He cracked out another sigh and passed his hands in his hair as he analyzed everything that had happened so far, Leon had won a Gym Badge already, Dallas probably had gotten one as well. Rubber left the team just the night before and on top of all, the ghost of Peter kept following him wherever he went. Right... Ever since the attack of the Academy, he had been seeing a kid about his age with long hair and green eyes... His first friend ever. But that nightmare just chased him during both day and night, projecting a large and beastly shadow wherever Vander went. He glanced towards the closet, catching a pair of blood red eyes shining inside the dark room, staring at him restless as he froze in time while returning the stare, his breath started to heave, increasing the rate of his breaths, is heart started to beat almost uncontrollably as black claws leaked from the room, helping the monster that chased Vander to push into the light. Suddenly Vander yelled when the alarm clock started to ring again, shocking Vander out of his mind and drifting his sight off the closet, he started to look around frenetically, only to see the closet empty.

After going outside, he drove his wheelchair to the grass and looked at the Tauros settling down nearby, a common sight nowadays for him. He pondered if he should escape again and get another milkshake, or maybe a different kind of snack, the farm was boring him mercilessly; and just now he had found the strength to admit that, perhaps it was the fact that he was entirely stuck in his chair. The only positive about that was that his arm game was turning impressively good, even with the recently healed up shoulder, but even so, he tried his best to not force his body more than what he absolutely needed, even though he broke the number one rule and got himself a sweet and a much needed talk with Dallas Diamond.

But the monotony of the farm, of watching Tauros run around every day with blue skies, birds flying around and the peaceful silence were starting to drive him restess, crazy and exhausted. It started to become stressing, boring even. The Wooloo and Mareep were usually rounded up early in the morning, but Daruk’s impatience let the small Phanpy move them around all day till he got satisfied, which funnily enough, it was almost never. Lloyd decided to sleep inside the house, that small trip to the pond left him exhausted as it had messed around with his sleeping schedule; Vander assumed it was resting with Ro, the shy blue-haired kid that offered his sweet manners and disposition to Ms. Krieg.

He felt a nudge on his side and suddenly hopped on his seat as Lotus; Leonard's Venusaur, stood beside him as she enjoyed the sunlight. It had actually been a while since he last saw her responding and kicking, as he had made sure to avoid his brother and his Pokemon as best he could but it looked like he might have let his watch down there then. The Venusaur just smiled fondly at him and kept nudging him a bit, seeking affection of the blonde, even letting out a croak that caused Vander to flinch, prompting him to finally sigh in defeat and gifting her half a smile.

“Hey girl…” He rubbed just over her forehead as he remembered how much she loved that, smiling a bit more after hearing her croak in response, he started to remember those days they spent together back in Kanto when she was but a little Bulbasaur, he giggled out of nowhere, realizing how odd it must be to try to get used to her again, only to see the Venusaur already taking her leave as she started to walk away, then she looked at him for a bit as if motioning him to follow, much to his displease. Vander was not in the mood to… Whatever Lotus had planned, which was probably lead him to his brother, have a talk and then get some ice cream. Or something like that, he wasn’t that much of a brotherly sibling, or at least that’s what he thought. He followed her a bit with haste, as she had already moved towards her destination; and tried to mentally prepare for what was coming.

He found Leonard was standing nearby a tree on the far end of the farm; it was somewhat big for a clearing as well which let his entire team relax in the shadow; Creed and Justice made sure to be entirely calm as they enjoyed the weather, the Machamp was about to reach optimal condition for battling, which eased his trainer. Justice practiced air moves as she flew around the large tree, while the Champion’s Empoleon and Incineroar tested their mettle against the last member: a Tyranitar. A roar caused the boy to stop his tracks from reaching the tree, making him freeze as he saw the imposing armored Pokemon itself nearby its other two contenders, it looked powerful, dreadful and imposing, for the first time in years he started to show fear towards a Pokemon.

The Tyranitar took a glance at the younger blonde that had just arrived, squinting as dust blew off his nostrils. When the titan noticed him, he struggled to keep his breath steady, instinctively reaching for the headband resting on his forehead. The others looked back, raring from a variety of expression from the sight, Blake the Incineroar let out a large grin, remembering his worthy opponent from the Academy, while Sean the Empoleon bowed in sign of respect. Leonard smiled when he met his eyes and approached with a relaxed demeanor, but no before patting his beast on the side.

“Don’t worry Jagdpanzer, that’s Vander!” He said gently to his companion, who just huffed and relaxed the tension on his armored muscles, barely easing up Vander as he realized that the Tyranitar was not going to continue his approach.

The champion walked in with a chuckle and pat his younger brother’ shoulder, tilting his head. “Odd of you to visit me here while training, Blue. Actually, I don't think I ever showed you where I train”.

Vander jolted and growled in response, puffing his cheeks. “Lotus led me here don’t get your hopes up-!” Prompting a laugh from the crew and therefore making the lad blush from embarrassment, he crossed his arms and rolled his eyes as he sighed in defeat.

Leonard chuckled, shaking his head as he just leaned on the wheelchair, just a little bit. “To be fair, you could have not followed her”. He added, smiling as he lifted an eyebrow. “So, do you need something?”

The younger blonde struggled a bit, feeling a bit pressured from his brother’s question. Admittedly, he had no idea what he was doing there, what was he going to do once he arrived to Leo’s? What does he really want? He shook his head and waved his hand dismissively at his older brother. “Eh, I was wondering, did you leave me a sandwich in my room? Miss Krieg was very upset that I slept in”.

“Well!” The champion chuckled. “I figured you would need it, considering you went to bed very late!”

Vander froze with a quack sfx and remained with a long stare before snapping back. “How… did you know?!” He tensed up in a split second, holding the sides of his chair tightly as he got caught right in the act.

“Did you really think that loud scream of yours went unheard by the entire farm? You woke me up!” Leonard giggled a bit and covered his mouth, just barely, in an attempt to merely tease his little brother. “Although I will admit, you sure know how to make your team listen to you”.

Vander blushed even more at the teasing and decided to rub his temples as he huffed, feeling how his blood pressure stated to give him a headache. “Alright alright Red you got me”. He said a bit in mockery, almost with a pitch of bitterness. “I was… Having a talk with my team, about what to do once I’m all healed up”.

Leonard leaned back, lifting both eyebrows in surprise as he smiled before fixing himself and folding his arms, showing genuine interest. “And?”

Vander swallowed hard, unsure if he should go and lie or admit the truth. But nonetheless, in the little window of nanoseconds he had to ponder he just replied Leonard’s look with his and shrugged, he was the only relative he had available at the time and he knew he was not going to be able to speak with his parents any time soon. And besides that he was his brother, the person he should be trusting the most, the one that had been believing in him from day one. And just like Leonard, he wanted to at least keep a stable relationship with him.

“I will... Be staying in the farm… The life here doesn’t seem so bad, I could grow to learn how to be a farmer myself and… Well my team likes it here so-"

“Ah, so you gave up.”

Vander flinched from the sudden, fiendish interruption of his brother, who sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose before staring him with an expression of pure sadness. “Well? Am I wrong on that? You decided to end your whole career because… Of one loss? Is that it?”

“N-No, it’s because I… I mean, yeah! I lost! But you are just…”

“I’m what, Blue? Stronger? Better? Famous? Likeable? Is that it?”

Vander’s tongue shrunk at Leonard, he wasn’t able to form words of any kinds to reply, lowering his head as it got buried under his shoulders, he had never seen his brother like this, sporting such a disgusted look, a striking tone of disappointment, would his parents think the same? None of his friends know about how he truly feels about it, or at the very least, know about how deep the entire issue is.

Leonard though, did not feel any kind of disgust towards his brother. He curled up his fists as he grew upset, regretting that he had to be as harsh as he was being, but it was for his brother's own good, he kept thinking that. If he wasn't going to tell him, their father would... But their father couldn't be reached right now, so he had to act like if he was being their father right now, even if he hated to be the cause of pain for his most favorite person in the world.

Even if it meant for the light of his eyes to rain down his unsettling and hidden wrath upon him.

Vander was too adamant to show his weaknesses to anyone, if he wanted to become stronger, better and faster then he had to show no sign of fragility, he always pictured that being vulnerable to anybody was a sign of being imperfect and impotent, that he had to work on his own goals by himself and the help of his team, nobody else. But that same way of thinking was the one sinking his ship, as the shadow of Peter was being casted large on him, drifting the young lad's attention towards the large tree near them. The fiendish Peter, dressed in black oozing shadows and devilish claws had tied up a large rope over a branch with, tying a knot with a hole big enough to fit his head and throat. His mouth dried up when he saw the shadow inviting him to climb, it looked easy and painless, his arms tensed up as he tightened up the grip even more on his chair, cold sweat ran like miniature waterfalls on his back, sending eerie chills down his spine. Peter's benevolent green eyes glared at Vander's crimson ones, almost as if he was gently begging him to oblige to his juicy request, the cold breeze that he felt at the beach in his dreams way back when he was about to leave the world started to feel welcoming, warming even, he just wanted to end it, his suffering, everyone's, he was being nothing more than dead weight at this point.

Vander’s silence was more than enough to give Leonard his answer, making him to sigh heavily before fixing his hair. But something wasn't entirely right, his younger brother's attention was drifted and stray, making him stare in the same direction he was stuck on, only to see nothing aside the tree. “Vander... You can’t stand around and give up just because you think you are suck under my shadow. Haven’t you seen it already? You shine bright enough already as who you are, you even managed to get me on my toes in our battle”. With the silence being broken, Vander snapped out of his trance and quickly darted his eyes back to his brother. Leonard raised an eyebrow as he noticed the shift in his younger brother's behavior andfrowned with a hint of worryness as he approached and kneeled towards him.

"Blue? What's wrong, talk to me."

Vander was breathing with short and heavy huffs, shaking with an almost unnoticeable movement across his entire body. He gave his older brother a look with eyes about to break in tears that tensed up the older blonde, alarming him almost in an instant. Vander whispered mumbled words, only able to say one word.

"P-Peter... Peter..."

Leonard's eyes widened as fast as lightning, dropping his jaw to the ground alost in the same instant. He gave a quick and stern look to his mighty Tyranitar and tensed his mouth, letting out a tone of superiority and bravery to his Pokemon. “Jagdpanzer, Lead the others away from here, Vander feels very uncomfortable around you”.

The Tyranitar huffed and clicked his tongue, feeling a bit offended by that, but obeyed nonetheless as he directd with a single movement of his head the rest of his teammates down the hill, much to Lotus' slight displease. Once he made sure Jagdpanzer disappeared from sight, Leonard quickly but gently hugged Vander visibly struggling to not tighten the hug to hurt him. “Why didn't you told me before?” He shook his head and almost started to cry alonggside him, but no, he had to remain strong for his little one.

“Listen... You let your emotions take the best out of you, you know this very well. If losing back then was what started all of this... I'm so sorry... Seeing him must be very hard for you, how many years has it been since that accident? Eight? Nine? How is your forehead, does your scar burn?" Vander seemed to just cry in his shoulder as he talked, gently reaching for his forehead and touching under his trademark headband to feel the large three marks that ran on it's right side and climbed a bit into his head as he remained frozen in Leonard's arms.

"Just... Hear me out, you don't have to do this alone, let me help you. If you want to quit just because you can't control yourself or accomplish whatever you want to prove to me, yourself or everybody around then you might have disappointed a lot of people who believed in you... Including Loretta”.

Vander flinched, suddenly remembering her, that dazzling smile that always warmed him up, her gentle attitude and graceful movements. She slowly beame one of the many reaons why he wanted to become stronger, he wanted to impress her, to have her notice him. If he gave up, would all of that be for nothing? Peter's large shadow seemed to be slowly lightened up by Leonard's own radiace, a light made out of the love he had for him. Vander finally cracked up and hugged his brother, sobbing as he held him as tightly as his own body allowed him. Leonard embraced his younger brother as well, patting his head gently several times before smiling at him.

“Don't forget Soma as well, don’t forget that you are never alone in your journey. Your Pokemon have a say in this... You should find what really makes everything matter to you, why you live for it. If you battle just so you can defeat me then... You don't love it, and you will never become Champion with a goal like that". He ruffled the messy hair of Vander and kissed his cheek, causing the latter to flinch. "But all that will change, I'll help you out, sounds good?"

Vander remained there, blushing as the brother's crimson eyes met up in silence. He hiccuped just before cleaning his eyes and let out one nod with both eyes closed. "Y-Yes! It sounds awesome...!" And right after that, he started to giggle just a little bit as he saw Peter' shadow being entirely eliminated by the light, the light of his brother, Loretta, Leon, Soma, Soleil and all his friends from the Academy. Leonard had no choice but to smile and ruffle Vander's hair once again, chuckling as he cleaned up his tears as well.

"Alright, let's get to work then! I will teach you everything I know!" He lifted up from the ground and started to push the wheelchair towards where his champion team wandered off, smiling as he inhaled a bit of fresh air.

"R-Right but Red... Could you do mea favor first?"

"Sure Blue, what is it?"


"Well two actually... First, tell Jagdpanzer to not stay too close to me... And... Don't tell anybody that you kissed me, that's... gay... bro."

Leonard blurted out a loud laugh as they both kept going forward, snickering in between breaths. "Alright little Blue, it will be our secret~"

"R-RED!!!"

"Can't wait to see how you trained your adorable Farfetch'd!"

"Right... A-About that..."

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