Champion Cynthia - Rise from Hell

Sinnoh's League Champion, Cynthia "Sen" Shirona; known for her compassion, kindness and efforts to end trainer violence. She is coined, the Angel of Sinnoh who ushered the region and its people into a golden age of peace and prosperity. Though she is loved by all, her rise to power was more violent and controversial than ever before. Kidnapped by a trainer from her remote mountain hometown, Shirona reappeared and began her ascension through the Sinnoh League as a human pokémon. Years later, she entered the tournaments as a trainer with powerful pokémon. In a matter of a month, Shirona faced off against and defeated the Elite Four, and faced Rex Luger, Sinnoh's ruling Champion.

"This girl came out of nowhere. No one knew who she was or where she was from. From her first match in the tournament, she became feared by all trainers who were to compete with her. The next thing we knew was she was taking on Luger's Elite Four. Then Luger himself. He had not had to face a challenger in over a decade, and Shirona finished him off."

Each of Shirona's battles grew more violent and bloody than the last. In ultimate irony, the Angel of Sinnoh tore through her opponents like an animal, including Luger.

"I watched it live on TV. She burst out of the fire and smoke right for Luger, and sank her teeth into his neck and before he could react, she chewed his head right off."

Shirona's victory triggered a political storm in Sinnoh, and she narrowly averted a coup attempt during her recovery. This is the tale of her ascension to power. From her small hometown on Mt. Coronet, to Suzuran Island, to Crown City. We reveal the story of Sinnoh's 17th League Champion for the first time.

TO HELL AND BACK

High on Mount Coronet's eastern slopes, near its peak is the small town of Komaki. Home to a permanent population of roughly 400 people, Komaki is hardly noted. Many of its residents descend to Snowpoint and other towns for work and school. Each year, a youth in town is nominated for selection to become one of Snowpoint's trainers. During the winter months, temperatures can plunge as low as -80. In the summer, a hot day will see temperatures of +25.
In this town is a little blue Cossack-style cottage. This house is where Cynthia was born. Her father, Mick, runs a small farm and herds sheep, including mareep for a living. His wife, Sally produces textiles and baked goods. Their income is modest, and they mostly keep to themselves.

In 2075, Cynthia was born here; the youngest of three children. At the time, neither Mick nor Sally predicted their daughter would become the present ruler of Sinnoh. They chose to keep their children out of the League's reach. It was their dream that the kids excel in civilian work of their own choosing. They refused our request for an interview.

Cynthia spent the first five years in Komaki, mostly with her family, then in the winter of 2080, everything changed. Komaki, one of eight small towns surrounding Snowpoint City, was frequently invaded by a horde of wild trainers who occupied a settlement further up the mountain. On the night of July 15, the wild trainers attacked the villagers, and set fire to half the buildings in town. Supplies, animals, even children were taken away. Cynthia was captured with a pokeball by a wild trainer during the attack. She was not seen or heard from again.

Twenty years later, a pokémon trainer by the name of Al Warren, a wild trainer, had been participating League-sanctioned events specific to human pokémon. His human pokemon faced off against others in violent death matches, to the pleasure of the fans. Human pokemon fight in hand-to-hand combat, using teeth, fingernails, and their own bodies as dangerous weapons against one another. Under the regime of then-champion Rex Luger, the regulations limiting how far battles can go were scaled back. These gladiatorial matches often ended with violent and tragic results. Because humans hardly stand a chance against most other Pokémon species, the League authorized events specific to human pokemon.

Children as well as adults, were also trained and forced to fight to the death in these arenas, often, in the bloody mess left from the previous matches. With brutal training, memory implantation, drug and hormone treatments (either physically or digitally), human pokemon are conditioned for the violence.

Cynthia first appeared on the arena floor as early as eight years old, and forced to fight other children. She was then known as Sen. Her trainer, Al Warren, had ordered her to kill her opponents even if rules didn't call for death. By the age of ten, she became known for her savage combat skills and styles, from martial arts to animal-like combat. nearly 7 out of 10 human pokemon her age died at her hands. Cynthia, then remote-controlled by her trainer, was impervious to guilt, leniency and displayed no compassion, guilt or mercy, much to the dismay of other trainers when she took down and decapitated her opponents with her hands and teeth. Her skills in defense were also impressive. Cynthia had incredibly fast reflexes that served her well in battles against larger, older, and more dangerous pokémon.

She experienced more than her fair share of injuries and near-death experiences. In battles with other animal species, Cynthia was gutted, electrocuted, freeze-burned, torched, poisoned, irradiated, and infected. Part of the training Al Warren forced upon her included all of these afflictions and more, and he conditioned her using psychological and technological manipulations. By the time she reached the age of fifteen, Cynthia was mentally immune to the afflictions she endured.

While other trainers despised Al Warren for the losses they incurred, many clamored to ask him for his training methods.

But the torment didn't stop there. Recent rumors about Warren's lifestyle emerged following his death. According to these allegations, Al Warren caught and trained hundreds of human pokemon, either for combat, labor, or morally questionable services. He sold human pokemon for hundreds to thousands of US dollars to fellow trainers, research institutes, even the elite of society in many of the regions, including Sinnoh. However, he kept Sen for himself.

When not competing in tournaments, Warren was seen parading around with his friends. He showed off Cynthia as his ultimate prize. He programmed her to serve as an obedient maid and concubine as well as a killing machine. An insider agreed to an interview provided he remain anonymous.

"I saw Sen fight on the floor, and I puked, I swear. I know pokemon battles are one thing, but Sen was trained, not to fight, but to kill. She was tearing out her opponents' throats, guts, brains, hearts, you name it. She was spewing their blood, and chewing their necks within minutes. Then after winning a county human battle tournament, me and my buddies met up with Al at a pub and we froze in horror when we saw Sen walking around next to him. That was freaky, on account that all it took to set her off was a trigger word, in a nano-second, she'd be ripping people's bowels out. Sen had the strength, speed, agility and force that no human can naturally have. Al said he had modified her. She was his perfect girl, pet, pokemon.

"so there she was, sitting next to him with us in the pub, all dressed up, silently smiling, gazing at him, then at times she gave us a look of death. She was programmed to protect her owner. I remember hearing at one point, from Warren in a comment, that he even went to bed with her. I said to him, 'buddy, you're dancing with death!'

"Al even offered me and Sam to spend a night with her, and we quickly said no to that. Then he held his pokéball out to me and said, "Here, stop being a whiney bitch and take this, it'll keep her in check if you're so scared." He imposed that she automatically trusted anyone Al lent her pokéball to.

"Then a few years later, we heard about Al's death, and I got the hell out of town. I didn't want to be within a thousand miles knowing Sen was on the loose.

In 2098, Warren traveled to Suzuran Island to compete in the Lily of the Valley Tournament, a region-wide competition for the right to challenge the Elite Four.

During the competition, Warren made Sen fight against several species of pokémon, including a venusaur. It was believed to be a futile tactic. A referee who wished to be unnamed recalled officiating Warren's battles.

"I cannot think of any other trainer who would enter a big-ass League tournament with nothing but human pokémon. Human pokémon are ususally weak, squishy, and don't stand a chance against most other species. You could have the best trained human out there, and either a thunderbolt from a pikachu, razor leaves, poison barbs, or a blast of cosmic radiation from a gochi and that human is done like dinner.

"This Warren guy, however didn't come out unprepared. He had trained all six of his human pokemon to constantly move and dodge ranged attacks. The strategy was to wear the big one out, then take it down. The last Warren match I officiated in involved his human, Sen, and the opponent's Venusaur. At first I thought, Sen's a goner. One blast of that solar beam and she'll be fried to a crisp. She kept moving, having been switched in and out of battle with the others by Warren in a fluid motion.

"The venusaur managed to take out one with its vine whip, and even shot a blast of razor leaves at Warren himself. His human pokemon crash tackled him out of the way of the razor leaves. I thought they went bezerk, but they didnt kill him. They kept up with the 5-man tag team game of dodge with the Venusaur. It takes time to shoot razor leaves, or even a solar beam, so the venusaur was just roaring with frustration as it swung its vines wildly at the human pokemon.

"The crowd was in suspense. No natural humans could keep that up for longer than a minute. Those in the know were curious of how Warren altered Sen and her team. And to boot, whenever the venusaur got pissed and took a shot at Warren, his pokemon shoved him away from the line of fire. A trainer to allow such aggressive action from HUMAN pokemon is unprecendented, even just to save his own ass.

"Eventually, the venusaur got weary, and the humans were jumping around, showing no signs of running out of steam. Then they went on the offensive, and three jumped onto the venusaur's back while the others kept it distracted. They instantly began tearing up the flower on its' back, jumping on and off to dodge the vine whips, then they started chewing those off as well.

"The trainer would have withdrawn his venusaur, but it was against regulation to do so under Luger's laws. And, frankly, the other trainer's pokemon, a raticate, a hitmonlee, a muny, a venomoth, and a cyndaquil were all out of action, half of them splattered all over the place.

"Sen took jabs at the venusaur's eyes and blinded it, and it tromped around frantically, flailing its vines around until they were severed, and the humans were just tearing away like animals at its flower, rendering it unable to absorb light. It was a cloudy day anyway.  One human got a full blast of poison powder but he was back on in minutes then he eventually dropped. It took them nearly an hour to tear through the venus saur. it was roaring in agony and this was hard to watch. Eventually, it layed dying and they managed to tear out its' heart. They dug a hole into its body with their hands, legs and teeth until they got to the heart. People were cheering or booing, it was a mix of both. **** me, it wasn't even a battle.  Animal rights activists would have been crying foul over this."

The next day, Warren failed to show up for his match. His body was found dismembered and gutted in his room in the dormitory. Sen and the rest of his pokemon, including their pokeballs, had disappeared. A regionwide hunt was launched, and death warrants and bounties were placed on his human pokemon by the League, but very few pursued them.

RISE TO POWER

In 2104, six years after Sen killed her trainer and vanished, Cynthia re-appeared. She registered as a trainer to compete in the 2105 Lily of the Valley Conference. Because she didn't exist on paper, no one knew who she was, but most spectators suspected her to be the human pokemon, and the name Sen stuck to her.

No one connected this young woman to the child that vanished from little town of Komaki. It was widely presumed that she was a separate individual. Another dead giveaway was apparently averted as well- Shirona should have been identified as a human pokemon, and been hunted down the minute she arrived on Suzuran Island.

"Once a human pokemon, forever a human pokemon. If you point your pokedex at a trainer, it will quickly identify whether that person has been captured and registered in the pokedex system. When a pokedex scanned her, and believe me, there's sensors all over the place and not just trainers' dex's; it showed up as negative, or a glitch, or unidentifiable. It was believed that her DNA triggered a glitch in the pokedex, which does sometimes happen. I think that provided her the perfect cover, whatever she did to block those signals."

Shirona owned a garchomp, a gastrodon, a spiritomb, a milotic, a rayquaza, a roserade, and a gardevoir. Each of these pokemon had a confirmed combat level of 80.

Shirona cleared the screening rounds within the first month, instantly decimating opponents' pokemon. During screening rounds, trainers can declare the match over if they and the officials believe the opponent can no longer fight. it is an ethical choice over killing the trainer and his or her pokemon.

"She made short work of all her opponents' pokemon, left them crippled and unable to fight. Unlike other trainers, she didn't bother going after the trainer. She simply declared victory, with her pokemon standing over her opponents' pokemon, who were all down with broken limbs, or paralysis, etc."

In the preliminary rounds, Shirona quickly gained attention from the crowds and media. In the quarter-finals, enemy trainers sent their pokemon after her, and she responsed, by taking those trainers down.

"This one guy sent this big ugly ass spider after her, while battling her garchomp with a steelix, and just as the spider attacked, Shirona dodged with lightning speed, sprinted accross the floor, right at her opponent. He quickly summoned a gallade, and she took him down with a lightning roundhouse kick, then she was on the trainer in seconds. The spectators were on their feet screaming. Nothing like trainers going at it.

She broke his legs with a swift kick, then wrenched his wrists and then threw him to the ground. His belt broke, and his pokeballs hit the ground in front of them, out of his reach. Shirona's milotic took out the spider and steelix, and she rendered the guy unabled to fight and signalled an end to the fight. Medics came out and took the guy away on a stretcher.

That was when the suspicion and speculation began. This was how Shirona fought. The further she progressed in the competition, the more violent, and savage her opponents became. The more violent and savage Shirona had to become in order to ensure victory. By the time she reached the semifinals, she had joined her pokemon in the battles herself as the trainers turned their pokemon on her, or attacked her themselves.

Shirona's sweeping success had made her the target of increased aggression among trainers. Former contestants who faced Shirona and lived to tell about later admitted they were ordered by the Luger regime to take her down. When she became Champion, these trainers were arrested and imprisoned, and forced to make public apologies.

One trainer, now a paraplegic, tells of his match with Shirona.

"We received a private bulletin on our pokedex's from Luger's brass. They were orders to kill Sen. It didn't matter how we did it, the League wanted her removed, permanently. At the same time, there was alot of talk about her being a human pokemon and human pokemon are banned from living or doing anything as normal human civilians. If that were proven, she'd be arrested or driven off the island.

"The League placed a $100,000 bounty on her head, and only us trainers still in the game were told that the rules against use of weapons like, say, guns, had been secretly lifted. Whoever could kill her would be disqualified from the tournament and arrested, but then secretly released and set up in another region. We all knew these orders came down from Luger himself. I was hurting for money bad. I had debts I needed to repay, bounties to pay off, scores to settle, so I obtained a gun from a dealer in Luger's camp, a machine gun, and walked into the stadium with it under my coat.

"I thought I wouldn't make it past security but when they figured out I had the gun, they simply nodded and let me through. Luger had bought them off.

During the battle between our pokemon, I acted. It was 6 on 6, there's fire shooting, water guns, steam clouds, smoke all that good stuff creating enough chaos. It got ugly fast. Sen's pokemon were killing mine off quickly. Then my spearow chased Sen, just to keep her distracted, till I got close enough, then whipped out my machinegun and squeezed the trigger. I expected her to go down in a hail of bullets, but she leaped into the air and just barrel rolled and flipped around dodging the bullets, then she was on me in seconds, and kicked the gun from my hand. I expected to die right there. We all knew she was Sen...."

Shirona threw him to the ground and crushed his legs in series of violent blows then had her garchomp attack him. His legs had to be amputated. He was imprisoned.

On the last day of the tournament, Shirona fought her way through the finals, and won the tournament, via a direct fight to the death with her opponent. Shirona's victory secured her right to challenge the Luger regime and in the fall, she took on the Elite Four.

In each fight her pokémon nearly all died, and she walked off with multiple injuries and a narrow victory. She was forced to fight savagely, and kill each Elite Four member.

By the time Shirona faced Luger on Suzuran Island, nearly everyone in Sinnoh watched the match live on TV. Shirona had gained much support from millions of fans, and trainers who yearned for an end to Luger's rule. Rex Luger, who had served as Champion for almost two decades, was only required to fight a challenger once since he became Champion.

The stadium was packed with more than 90,000 people. Security was extremely tight, and measures were taken to prevent potential aggressors from striking either trainer. Champion Luger decreed that the match would only end with the death of one trainer and all his or her pokemon; a declaration of his intent to kill Shirona.

The match lasted for over four hours, each pokemon fighting a titanic struggle and killing one another. Luger sent his pokemon after Shirona, and both trainers entered the fray.
Each blow and hit was matched with a dodge or a parry, and for nearly an hour Luger and Shirona fought in a vicious blur of deflected blows and dodged hits.

"They were like two sayans going at it, you know, each warrior so good at fighting that neither of them could land a hit on the other.

Luger and Shirona resorted to short handed and cheapshot tactics in attempt to gain the upperhand in the fight, then Luger took the upperhand.

"Soon as he landed a punch to Shirona's jaw, I thought, that's it, she's done. He'll not giver a chance to recover. He'll beat her into the ground."

Shirona was beaten and pulverized, and still sprang up and fought on. Her conditioning as a human pokemon kicked in, in fact the more injuries she sustained, the more aggressive Shirona fought. As they fought, the two were attacked by their pokemon.

In the final minutes of the match, Luger stood over Shirona, who lay helpless before him. His charizard and her garchomp were in their own death struggle. The garchomp was badly burned and dying; the charizard burning and eating it alive. Luger stood on Shirona's chest with one foot, and waved his arms, proclaiming victory.

"We didn't know what to think. A lot of us were dismayed that Luger was going to kill her and win the fight, and probably another ten years on the throne. She was knocked out. The spectators in the stadium were screaming bloody murder, either for him to kill her already; after all she was an extremely dangerous human pokemon; or those who desperately hoped she'd win were screaming in psychotic denial.

That's when the SHIT HIT THE FAN. The garchomp roared, somehow got back up for one last strike against the charizard, lunged at it, and tried to wrestle it to the ground. He bit the char in the neck and the char was breathing flame and smoke everywhere, and Luger had to dodge to avoid gettin' flamebroiled alive, and then Shirona sprang up in a flash, rolled off INTO the fire, like it was some sort of suicide dive or something. Then she just disappeared.

Luger had instantly lost control of the situation and was shouting in his earpiece, barking commands to the charizard, who was still trying to shake itself free of the garchomp's claws and teeth, and then it happened. The charizard blindly shot a huge fireball Luger's way and soon as that big ball o' flame disappeared, Shirona came out of nowhere and lunged herself at Luger before he could see what the hell was going on.

She latched onto his upper body, instantly bringing him down, and sank her teeth and fingernails into his neck and just started chewing and tearing away. She chewed through his windpipe and major arteries and he spewed blood like a high pressure hose, all over. Luger flailed, trying to get her off but with no luck. She gouged out his eyeballs, and was chewing through his neck like a ravenous raticate, then like a cat, she latched his head with her hands, clamped his upper toso with her feet, and ripped his head right off! There was a blast of blood. People all over Sinnoh had already shat their pants watching this on TV and they screamed and cheered over the death of the tyrant."

The commentator's words of victory echoed from every radio and television set throughout Sinnoh.

"LUGER'S DEAD! WE HAVE A NEW CHAMPION! WE HAVE A NEW CHAMPION! SEN JUST RIPPED LUGER'S HEAD RIGHT OFF! THE MATCH IS OVER! THE MATCH IS OVER! Sen is the 17th Sinnoh League Champion!"

Security personnel immediate jumped into action. The dying garchomp and charizard were both seized with pokéballs. A gardevoir with its powerful psychic abilities was summoned to subdue Shirona so medics could remove her from Luger's corpse and put her into an ambulance. Soon as the rage died, she was consumed with the agony of her injuries. The ambulance immediately raced into the field the minute the alarms went off.

Shirona was immediately rushed to Suzuran Regional General Hospital, which was swamped with heavy security. She was taken in for emergency surgery. Security guards and police surrounded the hospital and refused to let anyone in or out. The new Champion was at her most vulnerable.

That night, people celebrated her victory and the end to Luger's tyrannical rule over the region. The next day would begin a period of great uncertainty.

NEW CHAMPION, TURBULENT BEGINNINGS

Cynthia Shirona remained in hospital for over a month recuperating from her injuries. League investigators determined that she was in fact the human pokemon known as Sen. When this news broke over Sinnoh, the region was in dismay.

"This just in, we've received confirmation from spokesmen of the Sinnoh League and Silph that the woman who defeated Rex Luger is in fact a pokemon, with the Pokedex ID number 000-E3416..."

"...have convened an emergency meeting in the Regional House to address the situation. Many conservatives are outraged that a human pokemon was allowed to compete at all."
"...many people want Shirona to be arrested, tried and executed for the heinous crimes she committed..."

"...protestors have taken to the streets to rally against the proposal to unseat Shirona..."

"...if she is removed as Champion, then an entire new tournament will have to be conducted to determine a new Champion...."

"...others support the idea of simply appointing a new champion, or giving the position to a current champion of one of the other regions..."

"...terrorists attempted to storm the League Office and Champion's Hall. They were all captured and killed..."

During Shirona's absence, political dissidents attempted to sieze power and control, and the media was fueled with speculation of intense economic uncertaninty and false rumors about Shirona.

"Tonight, on the evening news, a new report suggests Champion Shirona's agenda. This agenda allegedly includes freeing all human pokemon, putting the entire public at risk. It is her plot of revenge..."

In the offices of the Sinnoh League, the region's top League officials convened for a series of urgent meetings to decide Shirona's fate and the future of Sinnoh. Karl Hadison, Sinnoh's League chairman, had bowed to pressure and resigned. He agreed to speak with us in his home in Johto.

"The political side of the League is a bloated bureaucracy, of hypocrites and fat suits. They bow to the champion, even the chairman is not immune to the champion's demands. During my ten years with the Sinnoh League, my subordinates and I carried out Luger's dirty paper work.

"Under his command, we pushed his bills through the Region House, which is just another hub of nobodies who just sit pretty and think they are important. Kinda like the US Congress.  Anyone who voted against Luger's bills found himself and his family dead.

"We legalized the capture and use of human pokemon, we legalized the use of them in League tournaments. we lowered the minimum legal age of capture to four years of age. We stopped police and security forces from intervening with pokemon trainers and we de-regulated their activities entirely. It was a very corrupt system. The only honest politicians were those who were bought and stayed bought. Luger obtained a lot of money from the financial system and his regimen of taxes. He used to the money to keep control over everything.

"Then Sen showed up on our stage. She killed her trainer, vanished and came back with a retinue of fearsome monsters. She hacked her own digital data so keep us from noticing she was a registered pokemon. Human pokemon were banned from participating as trainers and simply for breathing, a human pokemon could be put to death.

"I took these concerns with a grain of salt while my colleagues fretted about Sen. We all assumed she was that pokemon, but had no legal grounds to arrest her. I was sick of Luger, and I was sick of doing his dirty work. I ordered my workers to stay calm and leave the problem alone, afterall it could be the solution to itself.

"Luger had us all by the ballsacks. a worker and friend of mine, Jimmy, just got married and had a baby. They could be wiped out at any time. He was frantic to blow the whistle, and I had to talk him out of his anxiety. I said to him, "If you are really worried about your wife and son, use your savings, buy some tickets and get the hell out of Sinnoh."

"It became clear to us that Sen was infact the human pokemon we all worried about. Luger knew as well and called me to his office in Crown City. Rather than threaten us with death if we didnt have her removed, he actually ordered us to let her compete. He said that if she got high enough, he would tear her apart, and prove to the world that human pokemon are just worthless animals, and he was willing to prove it. So with a collective sigh of relief at my offices, we blocked the press from knowing she was a human pokemon.

For Luger, it would be his glorious moment of triumph over human pokemon and the people, for the rest of us, it was hope that she would live long enough to fight him

"Then the moment of truth came. Luger versus Sen. I think you know what happened."

During the heated events following Shirona's victory, Hadison and his officers were investigated and forced to stand before inquiry committes. Many of them had fled Sinnoh, while others were arrested. Hadison stood his ground before enquierers.

Cynthia Shirona recovered quickly and entered the political arena. Her recovery bolstered her support. The political storm resulted in a region-wide referendum that would determine whether or not Cynthia Shirona would remain Champion, or be stripped of her title and jailed.

"And tonight, the votes have all been counted in this referendum. According to the 50.4% majority vote, Cynthia Shirona will remain this region's League Champion."

SINNOH REBORN

During the first months since her inauguration. Cynthia installed her faithful Elite Four, and spent most of the time at the League offices and at the Region House. Shirona drafted countless bills to counter, repeal, and veto much of Luger's legislation, putting an end to the legalized trainer violence, and to the capture and use of human pokemon. In an hour long televised speech, Shirona informed the public of her agenda and intent to clean up Sinnoh.

She ordered all trainers to turn in every human pokemon to a joint branch of the League and Silph assigned to rehabilitating or euthanizing human pokemon. In exchange, all trainers who voluntarily turned in their human pokemon were granted amnesty from prosecution. Security forces were re-organized and given new powers to stifle trainer violence, and the League was forbidden from recruiting more than five trainers from each county across the region.

Pokemon trainers who were forced into the Sinnoh League against their will were given the right to leave the League and return to their families.

Wild trainers became hunted and imprisoned, along with other criminals, including corrupt politicians and League officials. The massive crackdown triggered an exodus to other regions in the Pokemon Nation. Shirona established new forces with the specific role of hunting these criminals down.

Despite her good intentions, Shirona and her regime were required to enforce their agenda with totalitarian-like policies. Much like Luger, and the Champions who ruled before them, Shirona crushed all dissent, and expelled dissidents and potential enemies from the region.

Today, Cynthia Shirona is intensely revered by most of Sinnoh's population, Men, women and children wake up to each day no longer worried about threats to their survival. Pokemon battles are once again civil, and the economy has shifted onto industry rather than the League. Despite the violent rise to power, Cynthia Shirona, champion of the Sinnoh League, had set Sinnoh on a course to peace and prosperity.