Name: Andrew Townsend
Role: Protagonist
Age: 16 (at start)/19 (after time skip)
Hometown: Sandgem Town, Sinnoh
Relatives: Ulysses Townsend (father); Savannah Townsend (mother)
Appearance: short dusty blonde hair, cadet blue eyes, usually wears a B-3 flight jacket, blue jeans, navy blue BDU cap, brown hiking boots
Bio (a bit lengthy but I feel it is necessary for proper context):
The son of the owners of the Pokeshop in Sandgem Town, Andrew Townsend grew up surrounded by Pokemon. Bright, kind-hearted, and adventurous, Andrew could often be seen running around town, playing with his best friends Lucas "Diamond" Rowan, grand-nephew of the esteemed Professor Rowan and Barry "Pearl" Pearlman, son of Frontier Brain Palmer Pearlman. Shortly before his tenth birthday, Andrew's journey began, sort of. He was gifted an egg by Professor Rowan as thanks for helping him out around the lab, as were Lucas and Barry. Andrew's egg soon hatched into a Turtwig, while Lucas got a Chimchar and Barry got a Piplup. Around a month after the hatching, Andrew and his faithful Turtwig set out on their journey, gaining a few new friends along the way. One day, while navigating the Eterna Forest with Cheryl Momi (the green-haired girl in the Eterna Forest in the DP Games), the two stumble across a camp belonging to everyone's favorite trainer and his Sinnoh party (think of the Mothim episode).

From there, Andrew joins Ash and his gang, with a few detours here and there, and joins the Kanto native in the Sinnoh League, narrowly losing to Paul in a desperate last stand with his Turtwig, now a sturdy and resolute Torterra, while Paul advances only to be knocked out by Ash in the next round. From there, Andrew joins Dawn in her journeys in Hoenn after her modelling with Buneary is over, Andrew spends the time between running around Sinnoh gathering new Pokemon and training his existing crew.

Shortly after reaching Hoenn, they are joined by Max Maple, and the three travel across Hoenn, with Dawn in the contests and Andrew and Max in the Hoenn League, which Andrew loses to a cocky trainer from Littleroot Town named Brendan, someone Andrew butted heads with repeatedly throughout the journey, especially after he began hitting on Dawn. Andrew had similar arguments with the likes of Conway and Harley, realizing that his blue-haired companion was not interested in the former two and was being taunted by the latter, especially after he beat her in the Hoenn Grand Festival. During their journey through Hoenn, shortly before meeting Max, Andrew and Dawn run into Cynthia, who invites them to Unova at her villa there. There, they are reunited with Ash and meet his new companions.

After Hoenn, Andrew went off to compete in the homeland of the trainer he considered his big brother and mentor: Kanto. There, he was reunited with Ash, frsh from his journey in Unova, and met his mother, Delia. During his stay at the Ketchum residence, Ash saw that his blonde-haired friend possessed the gift of Aura, and spent about a week training him, but before he went to Kalos, he showed the younger trainer a series of exercises he could perform to improve his powers. After Ash left Kanto for another journey, Andrew set out as well. He was soon joined by Ash's cousin, Leaf Greene, who Andrew had rescued from a swarm of Beedrill in the Viridian Forest.

A few weeks later, Andrew made another rescue, this time a local student named Giselle Seiyo, who was being pursued by Team Rocket operatives who were after her Marowak, which had evolved into its Alola form. Giselle joined Andrew and Leaf and the three set out through Kanto. To Andrew's surprise, he finished the Kanto gyms fairly quickly, so he, Leaf, and Giselle decided to take a detour to the Orange Islands, after hearing of its toughness. To Andrew's joy, he ended up winning, albeit narrowly; and since it wasn't an official league, there was no champion for him to challenge. Upon return, Andrew registers for the Kanto League, which, to his chagrin, he loses to Blue Oak in the semifinals, a cousin of Gary Oak and Andrew's Kanto rival, who, like Brendan and Conway, would hit on his female companions (A/N: sensing a pattern here?).

After Kanto, Andrew decided to revisit Unova, this time with his best friend Lucas at his side. Shortly after the two make it to Unova, they meet a girl named Rosa Whitley, after Andrew's Mothim is attracted to the honey snacks Rosa is having. To Andrew's surprise and Lucas' amusement, Rosa reveals that she sees Andrew as an idol of sorts, having been inspired to begin her journey after watching Andrew's numerous league appearances. The three set out and are soon joined by another girl, Georgia Langley (Iris' rival), after she witnesses Andrew and Lucas have a battle with their dragon types. The quartet fight their way through the Unova gyms and the two boys enter the Vertress League, with Andrew defeating Lucas to advance to the semifinals, where he once again loses to Trip Shooty, someone Andrew had heard stories about from Ash and considered an arrogant punk.

A bit irritated at his loss, but possessing a "never say die" attitude, Andrew regains his confidence and decides to try his hand at the Johto League. There, he reunites with Johto natives Lyra and Khoury, who he had met in Sinnoh along with Ash and the others, and registers in the Johto League, making it all the way to the finals. This is where the story will begin, with Andrew on the cusp of victory, but having to face an opponent with a substantial arsenal.

(A/N: sorry about the lengthy as hell bio section, I just feel that this is necessary to set up my character; Andrew does meet others like Misty and Brock and does forge friendships with a couple legendaries, but I'll probably be presenting those with flashbacks. Also, this fic draws a fair amount of influence from JTZ29, especially his work "Betrayal Brings Out the Best in Us," so this could be called "My spin on it," but I will be doing my best to make sure it isn't followed word for word and is its own story. I also originally started this on Wattpad, so I have pictures and videos that go along with the story, so head over there if you want the full thing, title is the same as this one.)