Pokémon: Starting With An Overpowered Gameboy Advance

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Chris had been making significant progress through Alola's Island Challenge. He'd already:

Defeated the Totem Araquanid in Brooklet Hill, earned the Waterium Z, and learned the Water Z-Move "Hydro Vortex."

Defeated Totem Salazzle in Wela Volcano Park, acquired the Firium Z, and mastered the Fire Z-Move "Inferno Overdrive."

Defeated Totem Lurantis in Lush Jungle, obtained the Grassium Z, and learned the Grass Z-Move "Bloom Doom."

Finally, in the Ruins of Life on Akala Island, he had faced off against the island's kahuna Olivia, earning both the Rockium Z and Steelium Z. This allowed him to learn the Rock-type Z-Move "Continental Crush" and the Steel-type Z-Move "Corkscrew Crash."

Though Alola lacked traditional Gyms and Badges, the Z-Crystals obtained after completing each captain's trial and defeating the Island Kahunas were valuable rewards in their own right.

But, Chris had to admit, the names of these Z-Moves were rather embarrassing.

They reminded him of overly dramatic attack names from certain anime shows, like "Spiral Flash Super Wheel Dance Roaring Three Forms"!

If anyone claimed there wasn't a reference there, Chris simply wouldn't believe it.

After conquering Akala Island, the number of Z-Crystals in Chris's possession had reached eight!

He was steadily approaching the full collection of eighteen Z-Crystals covering all types.

Chris's handheld gaming adventures these days had been quite enriching, offering the fresh excitement that came with starting a new portable game.

Beyond collecting Totem Stickers to redeem Totem Pokémon from Professor Oak, he had discovered another method of obtaining these special creatures.

The alternative approach involved repeatedly battling wild Pokémon in specific areas.

When the number of Pokémon defeated in a particular location reached 1,000 in succession, the system would display a message: "You have defeated too many Pokémon, which has attracted the attention of the local Totem."

Then the Totem Pokémon would appear to challenge him!

Chris first discovered this method while training his Growlithe in Lush Jungle.

The result had been the appearance of a Totem Comfey.

This Pokémon resembled a flower wreath in its normal form, but as a Totem, it was the size of a hula hoop!

After defeating it, Chris discovered it had only a single perfect IV, in Special Attack.

But that didn't matter—the important thing was that Chris now understood how to summon Totem Pokémon.

So he decided to test his theory again.

This time, Chris deliberately kept count of his battles, calculating until he had defeated exactly 1,000 Pokémon.

Still in Lush Jungle, a Totem Trumbeak appeared. After defeating and capturing it, he found it also had only one perfect IV, this time in Speed.

To test whether this rule applied throughout Alola, Chris visited Brooklet Hill, Wela Volcano Park, and even Routes 1, 2, and 3 of Melemele Island, as well as Verdant Cavern.

His theory proved correct without exception.

Chris managed to catch another Gumshoos in Verdant Cavern—one that couldn't be captured during his initial trial—though its Individual Values weren't as impressive as the specimen given to him by Professor Oak.

From these experiments, Chris concluded that throughout the Alola region, defeating more than a thousand Pokémon in succession would summon a Totem Pokémon. The type of Totem would be one of the species native to that location.

And each Totem Pokémon would have at least one perfect IV.

To thoroughly test this rule, Chris had captured about seven Totem Pokémon. Six of them had only one perfect IV, while one had two.

It seemed that collecting Totem Stickers remained the more efficient approach, as the Totem Pokémon given by Professor Oak had at least three perfect IVs. Plus, gathering stickers was significantly faster than defeating a thousand wild Pokémon.

After completing his journey through Akala Island, Chris had accumulated 50 Totem Stickers.

He estimated that exploring the first city on the next island would allow him to collect 60 stickers total, enabling him to exchange them with Professor Oak for a third Totem Pokémon.

Chris wasn't particularly motivated to train the Totem Pokémon with only one or two perfect IVs. The main reason was that he hadn't found any pokemon worth developing, so these less impressive specimens remained in storage.

Though he did wonder who would care for the Pokémon he sent back to the PC storage system while he continued his Alola journey.

Having completed the island trials of Akala Island, Chris arrived at Heahea Beach, intending to travel to the next island, Ula'ula Island. As he approached the shoreline, three masked individuals dressed in black and white appeared on the beach.

Judging from the emblems on their clothing, they belonged to "Team Skull," the troublemaking organization in the Alola region. Wherever they went, NPCs would scatter, though many reactions seemed less fearful and more annoyed.

Chris couldn't help but notice that the caliber of villainous teams in recent Pokémon regions seemed to be declining.

Evil organizations from previous regions had been far more ambitious:

In Kanto and Johto, Team Rocket under Giovanni's leadership sought world domination.

Sinnoh's Team Galactic aimed to create an entirely new universe.

Unova's Team Plasma claimed to seek Pokémon liberation, arguing that Pokémon suffered under human ownership and should be returned to nature. However, many members simply used this ideology as an excuse to steal others' Pokémon. The faction later split, with part of it becoming "Neo Team Plasma."

Kalos Region's Team Flare was perhaps the most extreme. Their leader Lysandre, disillusioned with humanity's constant conflicts, developed a plan to exterminate all life to create a "beautiful world without strife"—and had actively begun implementing it.

Each of these organizations wanted to rule the world, create a new world, destroy the world, or "liberate" it in some fashion.

Even Hoenn's Team Magma and Team Aqua, though somewhat less grandiose, still aimed to dramatically reshape the world by expanding the land or the oceans!

In contrast, look at the more recent regions:

Alola's Team Skull consisted primarily of trainers who had failed to complete their Island Challenges. They typically stole others' Pokémon and disrupted trial sites—essentially functioning as common troublemakers.

In other words... they were little more than a street gang.

Galar's Team Yell was merely a fan club supporting Gym Leader Piers' sister Marnie.

And in the Paldea region, there was just a group of delinquent students skipping classes.

Perhaps this explained why the Pokémon anime seemed to target increasingly younger audiences.

While Chris was lost in these thoughts, the three Team Skull members approached him.

"Yo! There's actually someone here who ain't scared of us?" said the Team Skull grunt called Tupp.

"Hehehe, looks like we found ourselves a mark today!" added Zipp, another Team Skull member.

"Can't I just borrow his Pokémon to play with?" Rapp, the female grunt, chimed in.

In unison, the three Team Skull members demanded: "Boy, hand over your Pokémon!"

Chris raised his eyebrows.

What? They wanted to "borrow" his Pokémon for fun?