Pokémon Trueno

[Spiteful Murkrow]

Hi, everybody. At the time I posted this preamble, it was the twilight of one generation of Pokémon, with the dawn of a new “7.8/10 - Too Much Water” one just starting to come over the horizon. With everybody set to be moving onto the new windy and wavy hotness in the not-too-distant future it felt like as good of a time as any for me to throw my hat into the “game novelization” ring with a retelling of Pokémon Violet… sort of. As those who follow my other stories have likely gathered, there’s two things that generally apply to me as an author: 1) I usually steer my writing efforts towards stories with offbeat premises since I’m biased to doing “something different” with my free time, 2) I’m kinda busy writing a trio of other serial stories at the moment, which together left me with neither the time, patience, nor desire to attempt a by-the-numbers novelization that would easily crack a six-digit wordcount just getting through one of the four official storylines in the game.

Which was why I decided to square that circle and by turning that Pokémon Violet retelling into a vignette series from the perspective of the player character’s Miraidon… as an extended Initial D reference a songfic set to a (mostly) Eurobeat soundtrack.

Yes, you read that correctly. For those of you who follow me on Thousand Roads, this probably won’t be much of a surprise, since I entered the onsite Magical but Mundane One-Shot Contest in 2024 there with a significantly shortened version of this story built around seven vignettes, and then built out an additional nine in extended rough draft form for this site’s Sixth Anniversary Drabble Bingo, and have been talking about my experiences working on it on-and-off ever since then. Those earlier versions have also been uploaded here with each chapter for those who wish to see how this story has evolved with time, and are hosted on AO3 as Trueno α covering the original contest release (once the main version catches up with it in full) and Trueno β for the initial rewrite for the (not yet published) post-contest Zine and Drabble Bingo versions.

Now, as a songfic, I made some assumptions about the intended reading experience for this story that don’t apply to my usual work. First and foremost, the story’s chapters are meant to be read set to music, with each chapter title containing an active link to the quite literal background music of the chapter. The other big consideration was length, with each chapter being roughly text-synced to the song it’s titled after (some fudge a bit here or there or else run on slightly past a fadeout) assuming a reading pace of 250-260 words per minute and clocking in at between 1000-1500 words each. As such, narratively, that means that there’s less focus in this story on trying to capture each and every moment from the official campaign in favor of more of the ones you might have had “in between” going around Paldea. That said, while there’s a healthy amount of offscreening and skipping ahead involved, there are some major campaign moments depicted, which barring a few minor tweaks to better accommodate the premise or some character beats, play out exactly as one would expect in a Violet playthrough. Due to the nature of the viewpoint character, it should go without saying that there are unmarked spoilers for Pokémon Scarlet / Violet campaign’s narrative from almost the very beginning.

As a story that exists in large part as a mixture of authorial self-challenge and self-indulgence, there’s also Spanish-language dialogue scattered across various chapters of this story, which is how this story renders the human characters’ dialogue as heard by Pokémon from across language barriers. The chapters are written in mind with the readers not needing to understand them any more than the titular viewpoint character does, though translations and commentary are provided at the end notes for your reading pleasure in case you decide you want to know more about what’s going on and some meta behind a chapter after reading through it.

I don’t really have much to say regarding content warnings that isn’t already covered by this story’s tags on AO3 beyond that Eurobeat as a music genre is known for racing beats and often racy lyrics. While I made a point of avoiding pairing any songs with scenarios that I felt made for obviously awkward undertones, there will be some degree of “eye of the beholder” involved on that front. Aside from that, it has everything one would expect from a telling of Pokémon Violet as seen through the game Miraidon’s eyes.

As is the case with every “third wheel” story that I work on, this story operates on the stable and predictable™ updating schedule of “whenever my life and personal motivation allows”. Now, Scarlet and Violet as games weren’t exactly light on content, especially after their DLC started coming out. While I’ll admit I’ve spitballed some scenarios from those much later parts of the narrative in my head, my only promise regarding the final length of this story is that there will be “3 discs with 15 songs each” on the tracklist covering the pre-credits campaign’s events. If all goes well and as planned, at least that much will be done before the release of Pokémon Wind and Waves in late 2027, and ideally with a healthy buffer of time to spare. That’s not to say that things might not wind up running on longer, as those of you who follow some of my other works have seen. In the event that I wind up definitively running out of ideas or interest in ever adding additional content to this story, I will be rounding things out with a very specific song / chapter title on the tracklist. More meta-aware readers will likely get some ideas as to what said song would be as the updates start filling in a bit.

Special thanks goes to the judges of the Magical and Mundane One-Shot Contest from Thousand Roads, and to authors @Venia Silente and @Eric566 from here on TR, who beta read this story at various stages, edited the Spanish-language dialogue in this story, and helped with nailing some of the details of this story’s portrayal of Paldea. I’d also like to extend a shout out to the various artists whose music feature in this story, since without their creativity and devotion to Eurobeat as a music genre, this story quite literally wouldn’t exist.

Though seeing as we’re getting up there into the average length of an average chapter in this story, I suppose that’s as good a sign that that’s enough preambling. So let’s get straight to those good vibrations and start zooming and grooving across Paldea:

---

Trueno

Your old friend used to call you ‘Miraidon’. You used to stay by his side, until that fateful battle which ruined everything and forced you to run away. Wounded, you crashed to earth and met a girl—one who calls you a new, strange-sounding name.

This is the story of the journey you started with her a few days later. And of the music you two shared together along the way.​

---

Tracklist​

Disc 1

1. Space Boy / Dave Rodgers​

 

[Spiteful Murkrow]

---

Space Boy​

---

A strumming then snarling guitar, beating drums, and then electronic thumping underlining it all. You blink and glance rightwards, your feet pattering against the cobbled streets in this square as the guitar wails.

“How’s the music, Juliana? Everything coming through clear?”

You look past the red clip-on headphone and the band holding it in place at your present rider: a brown-haired girl with pigtails, a hat, and the other headphone thumbing up to a Rotom Phone strapped to your body’s natural harness.

Daa-da-da. Da-da-da-da-da-daa.

An electronic beat chimes in with the guitar in your ear. The music’s certainly coming through loud and clear for you. This human you’re currently with is called ‘Juliana’. She’s from a much more crowded lab than yours called ‘Uva Academy’, while the Quaxly seated in front of her is her partner who she keeps calling ‘Loo-kas’ for some reason.

You turn your head back after a male human’s voice begins singing along in a strange language, saying words that the gray-suited teacher from Juliana’s lab—‘Silvio’ or something like that—might use. Something about this song sounds familiar for whatever reason, and it’s surprisingly catchy. Your thoughts turn back to your old territory and if your old friend ever had it playing—

You sigkill that thought. You don’t want to think about Turo or your old lab right now. You already got your hopes up after seeing his face on that screen in the white-haired human’s room… until it spoke and barely reacted to you.

It’s too soon, too hurtful to think about everything that happened. Enough so that a part of you was glad when Turo’s child—a gray-haired boy humans call ‘Arven’, sometimes ‘Damián’ for whatever reason—gave away your Pokéball to Juliana. He stopped liking you years ago, and even if he still did, you don’t know if you could bear him constantly reminding you of your friend.

There’s tension along your natural harness, and you glimpse Juliana tugging at you from your back. Your body’s dewlap and tail are already curled up, so it’s time to get going from this little hole-in-the-wall wedged in one of the southern corners of this public square, though Juliana seems to want to go westward instead of south like you expected.

You clamp onto your rings and begin to make your way forward towards the square’s western entrance in stops and starts amidst crowds of people and Pokémon. There’s a lot of humans and Pokémon in Mesagoza, this ‘Ciudad Meseta’, enough so that even in a wide and open space like this, it feels like it’s boxing you in.

Which is just as well since no matter how you tried, ever since the last of your strength gave out after leaving that beachside cave near that ‘Cabo Poco’ town, it just hasn’t come back.

A few of the passers-by turn and stare at you, and some of the Pokémon amongst them make comments in passing to the effect of how you’re “the strangest Cyclizar they’ve ever seen”. You recall Fito—Arven’s partner Pokémon—said something similar the first time you met.

The comparison is probably not all that inaccurate in your present state. You can’t fly, your Hadron Engine is barely running, and all you can do is just plod or slowly roll along. A bit faster now after making it past the arch since the crowds have thinned a bit.

You enter a circular plaza laid out around a star-shaped planter when a flash of green crosses your path. You hastily step aside, and see it’s a rental Cyclizar ducking out of your way with a startled yelp. She runs off out of your field of vision, faster than you can keep track.

Faster than these legs of yours carried you here up from the lighthouse. Faster than you’re going now on your rings. You hang your head briefly when you notice that electronic refrain from the song you heard back in the square is playing again. It’s just occurred to you that Chispa’s been playing this music the entire time, and you turn your head back towards him with a puzzled frown.

“Wait, what’s the point of playing this song?”

“Why not? Humans like listening to music while they’re traveling since it makes the time fly by,” the Rotom answers. “Juliana has been getting into these songs lately since they’re apparently meant for going fast.”

… So even this song is a reminder of how far you’ve fallen and how pathetic you currently are. Great. Your only consolation is that he isn’t here. Your rival, who chased you off from your old territory back when you were strong.

A brief shudder runs down your scales. You can only imagine what he’d say and do if he met you like this. And now, you couldn’t run away from him again even if your life depended on it.

Juliana tugs rightward at your harness and says something strange before motioning towards the right of the circular plaza. You see that you’ve almost overshot a street. You break your rolling stance, your claws scratching the stones underneath, as you change direction and get back onto your rings. You’re headed down a road running along a wall, which as you follow it, gives you a clear view of a gate.

Have you really gone that far already? Mesagoza looked huge from the stairs in front of that ‘Uva Academy’ lab, so it’s a little hard to believe that you’re so close to leaving it. The road’s a bit clearer now, and you can pick up speed again.

As you roll along, the electronic chiming gives way to guitar snarls in the music through your headphone when the foreign voice joins in again. Maybe you really do have a bit of Cyclizar in you, since just being able to run a bit freer along with this music’s helping to lift your mood a bit.

It seems to be infectious as Juliana sounds happy, too. She says something in human language in a cheery tone and pats at the back of your head. The first part you recognize as a congratulations, but it was followed by something that you didn’t understand. Something she started calling you not long after Arven gave away your Pokéball.

“Wait, what is that word that Juliana keeps calling me?”

“‘Trueno’. You know, ‘thunder’? Like the move?” the Quaxly answers you. “It’s the nickname she wants to call you. Kinda like how mine’s ‘Lucas’.”

‘Thunder’? It’s a bit on-the-nose, but you suppose when you had your strength, it wouldn’t have been that unfitting. Except…

“But my name’s ‘Miraidon’.”

It was the name that Turo gave you. Back in happier times, back before everything went wrong at your last lab…

The electronic ditty kicks up again and snaps you to attention. There’s a sharp buzz as Chispa zips out of the phone and briefly floats alongside your head.

“Don’t worry about it too much, just focus on moving around. Maybe a bit of practice will be just what you need to work your strength u-Ro-to-to-to.”

The chiming of an incoming call from Chispa kicks up and Juliana briefly stops as you see you’re at the gate now. You briefly hear Juliana exchange words with a student—that peppy one who was also from ‘Cabo Poco’ who you’re also struggling to name... ‘Mencía’, maybe?

The conversation ends almost as quickly as it begins, enough so that you barely noticed the interruption in the song as the electronic beat and guitar are back, if now fading. You’re not sure what that was about, but you decide not to question it as Juliana prompts you forward. After slinking past the opened doors, you walk ahead past it, out onto a bridge with water to your left and right and plains going up to bluffs up ahead.

You re-enter your travelling stance and roll off towards them. Maybe Chispa’s right, maybe a bit of exercise will get that energy in you flowing again.

That song did make the trip out of Mesagoza fly by. What would a few more do?

---

Commentary:

Yeah, yeah, a bit on the nose for the song choice, I know. But it just felt right to kick off a very Eurobeat journey with Space Boy. The chapter was written in mind with the Extended Mix that first released in Super Eurobeat Presents Dave Rodgers Special Collection Vol. 1, since it gave more space to jam in words while staying text-synched.

Also, if you found the character names groaners, congratulations, you’re probably a native Spanish speaker. I apologize for exactly nothing regarding them since most of the Pokémon names in this story were deliberately intended to be very “a 12-year old came up with this” in vibe.

Translation Notes:

I’ll generally skip over providing notes for Spanish-language content that is blindly obvious (‘Silvio’, ‘Damián’, and ‘Mencía’ are the Spanish localization names of Salvatore, Arven, and Nemona respectively). Though I decided to throw in a note of a part that should hopefully already be clear from context to give an idea of general format of these sections in this story:

- Ciudad Meseta - Spanish localization name for “Mesagoza”. lit. “Plateau City”

Earlier Versions:

Spoiler: Mundane and Magical Zine Submission

Space Boy​

A strumming guitar and then the sound of drums joined by something more electric. You blink and glance rightwards, your claws scraping pavestones underfoot as the guitar wails.

“How’s the music, Juliana?” a crackling voice asks. “Things sounding clear?”

You look back past the clip-on headphone on your ear and its strap originally intended for Cyclizar towards your present rider—a pigtailed girl wearing the left one, thumbing up to a Rotom-indwelled phone mounted to your body’s natural harness.

Daa-da-da. Da-da-da-da-da-daa.

An electronic beat joins the guitar in your ear as the music certainly sounds clear to you. Your present rider is ‘Juliana’, who’s from a much bigger and brighter lab than yours called ‘Uva Academy’. The Quaxly seated in front is her partner, who she keeps calling ‘Loo-kas’ for some reason.

You turn your head back as a human male’s voice sings along in a strange language, saying words that the teacher in the gray suit from Juliana’s lab—‘Silvio’ or something like that—might say. Something about this song sounds familiar for whatever reason, and it’s surprisingly catchy. Your thoughts turn back to your old territory and if your old friend ever had it playing—

You terminate your thought process right there. You don’t want to think about your old friend or your last lab right now. It’s too soon, too hurtful. Enough so that a part of you was glad when your old friend’s child—‘Arven’, he called him—gave your Pokéball away to Juliana. Arven doesn’t like you anymore, and even if he still did, you don’t know if you’d be able to bear him constantly reminding you of your friend.

The human singer repeats a refrain a couple times when you feel a tug at your natural harness. It’s Juliana tugging at you from your back. Your body’s dewlap and tail are already curled up, and past experience with your friend and Arven to what she wants. It’s time to leave this little hole-in-the-wall wedged in one of the southern corners of this public square, though Juliana curiously seems to want to go westward instead of south like you were expecting.

You clamp onto your rings and begin to roll on them towards the square’s western entrance in stops and starts amid a crowd of humans and Pokémon, so many instances of them all together that even in a wide and open space like this, that it feels like they’re boxing you in.

Which is just as well since no matter how you tried, ever since the last of your strength gave out after climbing out that beachside cave just outside that ‘Cabo Poco’ town, you haven’t been able to get it back.

A few of the passersby turn and stare at you, and some of the Pokémon amongst them make comments in passing to the effect of how you’re “the strangest Cyclizar they’ve ever seen”. You remember Arven’s partner Pokémon said something similar the first time he saw you.

The comparison is probably decently fitting now. You can’t fly, your Hadron Engine is barely running, all you can do is just walk or slowly roll around. A bit faster now after making it past this arch you’re passing since the crowds have thinned a bit.

You enter a circular plaza laid out around a star-shaped planter when a flash of green cuts you off. You hastily step aside, as a rental Cyclizar ducks out of your way with a startled yelp. She runs off out of your field of vision, faster than you can keep track.

Faster than these legs of yours carried you here from that cave. Faster than you’re going now on your rings. You hang your head briefly when you notice that electronic refrain from the song is playing again like it did back in the square. It suddenly occurs to you that Chispa’s been playing this music the entire time, and you turn your head back towards him with a puzzled frown.

“Wait, what’s the point of playing this song?”

“Why not? Humans like listening to music while they travel since it makes the time pass by faster,” the Rotom answers you. “Juliana has been getting into these songs lately since they’re apparently good listening while going fast.”

… You know Chispa didn’t mean to, but his remarks just remind you of how fast and strong you used to be. And how pathetic you are in comparison right now. Your only consolation is that he isn’t here. Your rival, who chased you off from your old territory back when you were strong.

A brief shudder runs down your metallic scales at the thought. You can only imagine what he’d say and do to you if he met you in like this. And in this state, you couldn’t run away from him again even if your life depended on it.

Even if your friend was still there to step in and protect you.

You’re all too thankful for a distraction when Juliana tugs your harness rightward and says something strange before mentioning towards the right of the circular plaza. You see that you almost overshot a street. You break your rolling stance, your claws scratching the pavestones underneath to slow down. Before you fully stop, in a swift motion you turn and correct your direction and get back onto your rings. Now you’re headed down a road running along a wall, which as you follow it, gives a clear view of a gate.

Have you really gone that far from Juliana’s lab already? Mesagoza looked huge from the stairs in front of that ‘Uva Academy’ lab, so it’s a little hard to believe that you’re so close to leaving it already.

The road’s a bit clearer now, and you can pick up speed again. As you roll along, the electronic chiming gives way to guitar snarls in the music through your earphone as the foreign voice joins in again. Maybe you really do have a bit of Cyclizar in you, since just being able to run a bit freer along with this music helps lift your mood a bit.

It seems to be infectious as Juliana sounds happy, too. She says something in a cheery tone and pats at the back of your head. The first part you recognized as a congratulations, but there was something just after it that you didn’t understand. Something she kept calling you after Arven gave away your Pokéball.

“Wait, what on earth is that word that Juliana keeps saying to me?”

“‘Trueno’. You know, ‘thunder’?” the Quaxly pipes up. “It’s the nickname she wanted to call you. Kinda like how mine’s ‘Lucas’.”

‘Thunder’? You suppose when you had your strength, it wouldn’t have been that unfitting, but…

“But my name’s ‘Miraidon’.”

Your old friend already gave you a name. Back in happier times, before everything happened back in your last lab…

The electronic ditty kicks up again and snaps you to attention. There’s a sharp buzz as Chispa zips out of the phone and briefly floats alongside your head.

“Don’t worry about it too much. Just focus on moving around, maybe a bit of practice will be just what you need to work your strength up.”

A chiming Ro-to-to-to comes from the phone and Juliana briefly stops you in front of the gate as Chispa floats in front of her. As she exchanges words through Chispa, you hear that peppy student that’s also from ‘Cabo Poco’ on the other end… ‘Mencía’, was it?

The conversation ends almost as quickly as it begins, enough so that if the music wasn’t beginning to fade out, you’d have barely noticed the interruption in the song. You’re not sure what they were talking about, but you decide not to question it as Juliana prompts you forward. After slinking past the opened doors, you pace ahead out onto a bridge with water to your left and right and plains leading up to bluffs up ahead.

You re-enter your rolling stance and charge off towards them. Maybe Chispa’s right, maybe a bit of exercise will get that energy in you flowing again.

The song did make the trip out of Mesagoza fly by. What would a few more do?

Spoiler: 2024 Mundane and Magical Contest Entry

Space Boy​

Strumming and then sounds you recognize as guitar and drums joined with something more electronic. You blink and glance rightwards, your feet pattering against the cobbled streets in this square as the guitar wails.

“How’s the music, Juliana? Things coming through clear?”

Daa-da-da. Da-da-da-da-da-daa.

You blink after you find yourself humming along as the electronic sounds come back. The music’s certainly come through loud and clear for you. You look back and see your present rider, a girl with pigtails thumbing up to a Rotom indwelling a phone attached to a strap fixed to your body’s natural harness. She’s called ‘Juliana’ and comes from a much bigger and brighter lab than you called ‘Uva Academy’, while the Quaxly in front of her is her partner that she keeps calling ‘Loo-kas’ for some reason.

You turn your head back as a male human’s voice picks up in a strange language, like something the teacher in the gray suit—‘Silvio’ or something like that—would occasionally speak. There past the clip-on headphone on a mount meant for Cyclizar that has been loosened as much as it’ll go, is a slab fixed to a harness.

Something about this song sounds familiar for whatever reason, and it’s surprisingly catchy. Your thoughts turn back to your old territory and if your old friend ever had the song playing—

You cut your thoughts off there. You don’t want to think about your old friend right now, or anything that happened in your old lab. It’s too soon, too hurtful. Enough so that a part of you was glad when your old friend’s child—‘Arven’, you’re pretty sure humans call him—gave away your Pokéball to her for whatever reason. He’s seemed to have grown to dislike you for a while, and even if he didn’t, you don’t don’t know if you’d be able to bear constantly thinking about the past.

You feel a tug at your natural harness and glimpse Juliana tugging at you from your back. It’s time to get going from this little hole-in-the-wall wedged in one of the southern corners of this public square, though Juliana seems to want to go westward instead of south like you were expecting.

You make your way forward towards the square’s western entrance and find yourself stopping and starting amid people and Pokémon. There’s a lot of humans and Pokémon in this Mesagoza, so much so that it honestly feels claustrophobic even in a wide and open space like this. Like it’s boxing you in.

Which is just as well since no matter how you tried, ever since the last of your strength gave out after climbing that beachside cave just outside that ‘Cabo Poco’ town and you haven’t been able to get it back.

A few of the passers-by turn and stare at you, and some of the Pokémon amongst them make comments in passing to the effect of how you’re “the strangest Cyclizar they’ve ever seen”. You recall Arven’s partner Pokémon said something similar about you the first time he saw you.

The comparison is probably not all that inaccurate in your present state. You can’t fly, your Hadron Engine remains cold and inert, all you can do is just plod along. A bit faster now after making it past the arch since the crowds have thinned a bit.

A flash of green crosses your path as you hastily step aside as a Cyclizar ducks out of your way with a startled yelp in a circular plaza laid out around a star-shaped planter. She runs off out of your field of vision, faster than you can keep track.

Faster than these legs of yours carried you here up from that cave. You hang your head briefly when that refrain from the song you noticed back in the square suddenly repeats. It’s just occurred to you that Chispa’s been playing this song the entire time, and you turn your head back towards him with a puzzled frown.

“Wait, what’s the point of playing this song?”

“Why not? Humans like listening to music while they’re traveling since it makes the time pass by faster,” the Rotom answers you. “Juliana has been getting into these songs lately since they’re apparently meant for going fast.”

… So even the song is a reminder of how far you’ve fallen and how pathetic you presently are. Great. Your only consolation is that he isn’t here. Your rival, who chased you off from your old territory back when you were strong.

You can only imagine what he’d say and do if he came across you in this state.

Juliana tugs rightward at your harness and says something strange before mentioning towards the right of the circular plaza. You see that you’ve almost overshot a street. You shift your weight, your claws scratching the stones underneath as you correct your direction and see you’re headed down a road running along a wall, which as you follow it, gives you a clear view of a gate.

Have you really gone that far already? Mesagoza looked huge from the stairs in front of that ‘Uva Academy’ lab, so it’s a little hard to believe that you’re so close to leaving it. The road’s a bit clearer now, and you can pick up speed again.

As you run, the guitar snarls in the music through your earphone and the foreign voice chimes in again. Maybe you really do have a bit of Cyclizar in you, since just being able to run a bit freer along with this music helps lift your mood a bit.

It seems to be infectious as Juliana sounds happy, too. She says something in human language in a cheery tone and pats at the back of your head. The first part you recognize as a congratulations, but it was followed by something that you didn’t understand. Something she kept calling you not long after Arven gave away your Pokéball.

“Wait, what on earth is that word Juliana keeps calling me?”

“‘Trueno’. You know, ‘thunder’?” the Quaxly answers you. “It’s the nickname she wants to call you. Kinda like how mine’s ‘Lucas’.”

‘Thunder’? You suppose when you had your strength, it wouldn’t have been that unfitting, but…

“But my name’s ‘Miraidon’.”

It was the name Arven still calls you even if he’s seemed to have grown to dislike you, and the one your old friend gave you. Before everything happened. Before he hurt you and ruined everything. Before he made you flee as fast as the Hadron Engine inside your body could carry you into the sky. A sharp buzz snaps you to attention as Chispa zips out of the phone and briefly zips alongside your head.

“Don’t worry about it too much, just focus on running a bit, maybe a bit of practice will be just what you need to work your strength up.”

The electronic ditty kicks up again as you see you’re at the gate now. After slinking past the opened doors, you run ahead past it, out onto a bridge with water to your left and right and plains going up to bluffs up ahead.

You lower your head and charge off towards them. Maybe Chispa’s right, maybe a bit of exercise will get that energy in you flowing again.

The song did make the trip out of Mesagoza fly by. What would a few more do?