Resistance: Steven (HQ, Leader)

Born to a wealthy family in the Hoenn region, Steven lived a comfortable life right from the start. His father was the owner of the Devon Corporation in Rustboro City, a giant of an industry that produced a variety of products and new technology for Pokemon Trainers and scientists. As far as childhoods went, Steven's was quite ordinary and modest despite the family's wealth. He went to school, played with his friends, visited the beach... From a young age he loved scouring the shorelines for all sorts of rocks, stones and shells, which he kept in a little box in his bedroom.

His father noticed this, and for his seventh birthday Steven received his very own microscope. He spent hours in his room examining the rocks, looking at geology books and drawing sketches. One day he told his parents that he wanted to visit some of the other beaches in Hoenn so he could increase his collection. Deciding that they deserved a family vacation, they agreed, and spent a wonderful week in Lilycove City. There, Steven made friends with another boy his age, Wallace, who was also vacationing there with his parents. The two of them built sandcastles, explored the rock pools and splashed around in the ocean until sundown nearly every day.

By the time Steven was a teenager, his father decided that it was time he began learning the ropes of the Corporation. Since he would inherit it one day, he reckoned his son needed to know what he was doing from an early age. Steven began to accompany his father to work on certain days to observe the company's day-to-day happenings and to learn how it worked. The boy wasn't too enthralled about the whole thing, but tried his best not to disappoint his father. He spent hours a day filing paperwork, taking phone calls, and sorting the mail. He was starting to feel more like a personal secretary than an heir, but despite being unhappy with his job, by no means did he intend to step down as heir since he knew that would break his father's heart.

He couldn't deny to himself, though, that he wanted more out of life than work, work and more work. One day, when he was sixteen, Steven confessed to his parents that he wanted to be a Pokemon Trainer more than anything else in his life at the moment.

Steven loved his region and its people, culture and history, and longed to learn more about it. Becoming a Trainer would allow him to do just that, and travel Hoenn however he pleased. Noticing the shocked look on his father's face, he quickly convinced him that he was not stepping down as successor to Devon - he was merely taking a trip to discover himself in the meantime.

Accepting this plea readily, Steven's father hugged his son and handed him a Poke Ball, admitting he had thought this day would come and having prepared ahead of time. Overjoyed with his father's easy acceptance of his dream, Steven said goodbye to his mother and friends at Devon and set off into the wilds. Once out of the city, he opened the Poke Ball and a shiny Beldum emerged. Steven was instantly enamored by the little floating steel type and named him Alloy.

With his new partner in hand, he set off across the region, taking on the Gyms as he went. He caught an abundance of Pokemon along the way, but found himself constantly returning to the Steel and Rock types, admiring them for their durability and aggressiveness in battle. He occasionally took detours to go mining in the many caves around the region, and his rock collection grew.

Halfway through his journey, Steven encountered Wallace, the young boy he had met on the beach in Lilycove. The two of them travelled together for some time, helping each other get stronger. Their friendship grew stronger with each day, and soon the two teenagers were nearly inseparable. The relationship had turned into something more... at least on Wallace's end, and Steven felt guilty having to politely refuse his advances. But at that point nothing could have jeopardised their friendship, and they spent months travelling together until finally they decided to go their separate ways; Wallace wanted to take a small break from training and focus on Pokemon Contests, whereas Steven wanted to keep collecting badges. They said goodbye with heavy hearts, promising to meet up again someday.

Surely enough, one day Steven managed to acquire the eighth and final Gym badge and with that in hand he made his way to Victory Road. After a series of battles and harsh challenges he finally found himself at the doors of the Pokemon League, and wasted no time in taking on the Elite Four. It was relentlessly tough on both him and his Pokemon, the battles taking a lot out of all of them. But they made it through, and soon the battle with the Hoenn Champion was nigh. They fought with every fibre of their strength, Steven being well aware of his own and his team's exhaustion but refusing to give up. The battle was intense, but the moment came where the Champion's final Pokemon fell... and it didn't get back up.

What came next was a blur of media attention and overwhelming joy. It took Steven a while to adjust to the fact that he was the Hoenn region's new Champion, the entire concept almost unreal to him. Needless to say his new life began immediately, and despite the suddenness of it all, Steven adapted well to his new lifestyle. It wasn't long until he heard from Wallace, congratulating him for his victory and he himself announcing that he had been appointed as the Gym Leader of Sootopolis City, which did not surprise Steven considering his friend's heritage and skills as a Trainer. They were not boys anymore - they had new duties, new lives...but this did not stop them from occasionally meeting up, battling and socialising, just like before.

Steven purchased a property in Mossdeep City, where he could be in close proximity to both Sootopolis and Ever Grande. He sometimes left the region to travel; even after all that had happened, he still wanted to increase his rock collection. Pickaxe in hand, he brought home specimens from practically every region, taking the liberty of renting a villa for a prolonged stay in Sinnoh during an excavation of Stark Mountain. But it wasn't until Steven visited the Kalos region did things start to get truly interesting. He took a trip to the Tower of Mastery in Shalour City, where he met a man called Gurkinn. Upon recognising Steven, he gave him what he called a Key Stone and a Metagrossite, explaining that they would allow him to wield a mysterious power known as Mega Evolution.

Amazed that he had never heard of this before, Steven took the stones home and examined them for hours. When he Mega Evolved his Metagross for the first time, he knew he had discovered something truly out of this world. He studied Mega Evolution endlessly, but no matter how many books he read none of them could explain its origin. Naturally, Steven took it upon himself to figure this out, and found himself visiting Granite Cave to study the wall murals depicting Groudon and Kyogre in their Primal Forms, hypothesising that Primal Reversion and Mega Evolution were a similar process. But upon close inspection, the appearance of the two legends appeared to differ from Mega Evolution, and so Steven prepared to end his investigation just as a young Trainer called Brendan arrived with a letter from his Steven's father. He awarded Brendan and moved on, making sure to give the boy a few words of encouragement for his journey; looking at him reminded him of himself just a few years ago.

Surely enough, Steven encountered Brendan several times throughout his travels through Hoenn, each time offering the young Trainer some advice and help. There was something about Brendan that piqued his interest; a certain potential and strong spirit. He was intimidating in a strange way, but Steven felt almost obliged to lend him a hand whenever he could. But then the day came where both of their skills were put firmly to the test - Team Magma had reawakened Groudon, and a deadly drought threatened to bring the Hoenn region to its knees. As Champion, the duty of protecting the region rested on Steven's shoulders. He was determined that his reign would not be the one that saw Hoenn into ruin.

Steven met up with Wallace in Sootopolis to discuss what they could do. But to their surprise, Brendan arrived and revealed that he carried the Blue Orb, which Wallace explained had the power to calm Groudon's rage. It was concluded that Brendan be the one to enter the Cave of Origin and confront Groudon with the orb in hand. Steven was against the idea at first, worried that they were sending such a promising young trainer to his death, and nearly volunteered to go in there himself. But as though he had read his mind, Wallace insisted that the Blue Orb would protect the boy and his Pokemon, so with a heavy heart Steven let him go, praying that they hadn't just made a colossal mistake.

It felt like hours before the drought was finally uplifted, the skies of Hoenn raining down stars of emerald light. Brendan emerged from the cave and revealed that he had defeated Groudon. The Hoenn region had been reborn; the energy that had been dormant inside the Cave of Origin for centuries was now glistening down to the land and seas. Steven's heart felt so uplifted he couldn't remember feeling so content...so at peace. Witnessing Brendan celebrating with his friend May and the teams Magma and Aqua promising to amend their ways...Steven's wish for the world to see perfection sprung to life. He couldn't have been happier at that moment; nothing could have ever brought him down. He thanked Brendan for his help and returned to the Pokemon League, awaiting the day that he could face the young Trainer in battle. For the very first time, Steven was beginning to feel that the end of his reign was nigh.

That day never came, and now Steven doubts it ever will. What happened next was the biggest shock; the greatest betrayal to his newfound optimism possible. Nothing...nothing could have prepared him for the hell that arrived just a few months later...It started as just an ordinary day - Steven was at the League carrying out his normal duties when he received a message from Lance, a fellow Champion, calling him and anyone he could bring with him to the Indigo Plateau in Kanto as a matter of extreme urgency. Steven contacted Wallace to ask him to come along and bring the Hoenn Gym Leaders with him, and he himself led the Elite Four to the Kanto region. Once at the Indigo Plateau, the distinct lack of fellow Champions there daunted him, with only himself, Lance, Cynthia and Iris being present. Steven was glad to see that Wallace had made it with most of the Hoenn Gym Leaders at his side...not all, but most.

The news of the epidemic hit everybody very hard; everybody present in that room were in a state of utter shock. Lance proposed that the fortress became a headquarters of sorts, where the highest ranking trainers and professors could work together to preserve humanity and find a cure. At that point, any plan was good enough for them. Steven worked closely with his Elite Four, Wallace and Cynthia to come up with anything that could possibly help them. The Sinnoh Champion's knowledge of Pokemon Mythology proved most useful, and quite quickly the subject of Rayquaza came up in conversation. Rayquaza had been the one to purge the Hoenn region of its evils in the past - if there was something he could do about the epidemic, it was a risk worth taking. A journey to the Sky Pillar seemed inevitable, and Steven was the first to volunteer to go. Both Wallace and Cynthia offered to go with him but he refused - if he was going to face the plague that was destroying the planet head-on, he wanted to do it alone.

The journey went remarkably smoothly with only a few undead attacks to deal with, but once they were outside the Sky Pillar it all started to go wrong. They were attacked again, and Steven sent out Skarmory and Armaldo to deal with the undead, unaware just how hard the situation was about to hit home for him. They dealt with the horde with relative ease, until a massive Tyranitar crashed its way out of the ruins. It overwhelmed them at first, blasting Hyper Beams and Flamethrowers everywhere. Steven ordered Skarmory to strike it with a Steel Wing just as the Tyranitar whirled round and sent Steven flying with a blow from its tail. He heard something shatter nearby before briefly passing out.

When Steven came to, his Armaldo was stood over him, blood streaking down his body as Skarmory whirled around the lumbering giant, dropping Spikes in its path. Wincing in pain, Steven scrambled to his feet and ordered another Steel Wing and a Rock Blast from Armaldo. Surely enough, the beast soon fell, and Steven and his two Pokemon slumped down in exhaustion. Skarmory had gotten out of it with a few burns and grazes, but was otherwise all right. Armaldo hadn't been so lucky...blood soaked his armor and he kept nipping at a wound on his arm. Steven looked closer at it and felt his world come crashing down on him: Armaldo had been bitten. Steven was in pieces, at a complete loss of what to do. His broken Key Stone meant nothing to him; he just held on to his Pokemon and begged whoever could hear him for a solution, for an answer. Armaldo shook as the illness already started to ravage his bloodstream, but he was so calm...As Steven wept, he pointed down to the pistol at his waist.

Steven pulled out the weapon in a daze, still sinking deeper into a black hole. Armaldo wanted to die...his Pokemon nodded gently as his trainer looked at the gun, and then back at his Pokemon. It tore him apart, but after a long time plucking up the nerve he finally pointed the gun at his beloved partner. Armaldo sat quietly, uttering a soft goodbye at his lifelong friend as Steven shook and wept, trying to keep the gun steadily aimed at the head. It seemed like an eternity until his finger closed around the trigger, he closed his eyes...and he fired. He did not expect to hear Armaldo begin screaming in pain. His shaking hand had knocked off his aim, and the bullet had struck Armaldo in the chest, piercing his armor. Steven panicked and fired another shot, this time hitting his Pokemon's shoulder. Armaldo shrieked and cried out in agony as Steven had to physically hold his hand steady and fired the final bullet. This one hit where it was supposed to, and the screams abruptly stopped.

Steven did not continue his mission. He spent the journey back to Kanto on Skarmory's back, staring blankly at the horizon. He arrived back at HQ safely, and was greeted by Wallace and Cynthia. He announced that the mission had been a failure but put on a smile nonetheless and said that he was glad to be back. He retreated to his quarters, where he sat on his bed and stared at the gun in his hands. He was in a very dark, cold place...the state of the world and what he had just done to his own Pokemon was becoming too much; his hope was dying. He sat for nearly an hour, just staring at the weapon...before holding it up to his own head.

At that moment, Wallace entered. His reaction was completely justified. He dashed up to Steven and snatched the gun out of his hand, demanding what was going on. Steven broke down and told him everything, weeping into his friend's shoulder as he held him. But Wallace had a certain knack for picking Steven up, dusting him down and sending him back on his way, and that's exactly what he did.

And so Steven survived, continuing to live and work at the cobbled-together city that was now his home, struggling to cope with the death of his pokemon, the state of the world, and the stress of running what remains of his region and helping his best friend to raise a young relative Wallace hadn't even known existed. Though he came to suspect there was more to his never-ending grief than the death of one of his older friends when a year passed and he was no better, he was too afraid to face that, and chose instead to push the suspicion aside and muddle through his duties. His inability to handle some of those drew the ire of Champion Lance, an old friend, driving a wedge between the two as Lance began to bully him in order to try to get Steven to be stronger, to handle his issues the way Lance had 'handled' his own.

Between his grief and the stress, he is having a hard time fighting to stay together, and four years into the epidemic, he is still slipping; for every few inches he makes in progress, he loses more than he gains. With the mistake he made recently due to a moment of weakness and a particular kind of darkness touching his new home hanging over his head, only time will tell if Steven can rise to the challenge and survive this mess.

It gives him great comfort to know that he has Wallace - he knows full well that he couldn't get rid of that man even if he tried.