"I've been bested... A story of love, growth, discovery, and Pokebank shenanigans."

TLDR: I've been playing ORAS with the love of my life, and she absolutely destroyed me, and I love that Pokemon constantly surprises us and brings us closer together in unusual ways!Cut to about two months ago. My fiance tells me she wants to play Pokemon. Reduces stress, something to do during the commute, etc. Okay, I've got a blank copy of Alpha Sapphire and a semi complete copy of Omega Ruby. I get this funny idea, partially inspired by the rival Brendan/May of the ORAS series.The rival constantly checks your privilege."Oh, you just beat so and so? Nice, take a look at my Grovyle!" Proceeds to kick your butt with Leaf Blade, eight miles from the nearest Pokemon Center. They forced you to grind for a bit. They forced you to innovate, to predict what would come next. Then by the end of the campaign, your rival is something of a friend, someone who's watched you grow this entire time, and that struck home for me when I first played it. I decided to be Brendan to my fiance's May.First battle goes about the way you'd expect. I chose Mudkip, she chose Torchic.I brought Poochyena, she brought Lotad. I swept.Keep in mind, I've played these games since I could talk. Since I could poop on my own. Pokemon is a way of life. To her it was stress relief.The next fight is a little tougher, after some coaching, some analysis and hint dropping. Suddenly, Mightyena can't keep up with Combusken. Suddenly Shroomish isn't keeping pace with Lombre. Suddenly Marshtomp is getting clobbered by Kirlia!What do I do? I can't let her get ahead of me!I invest. I move over a level one Larvesta for my fire type. A level one Bagon for my dragon. I catch an Aron. I dump Mightyena in favor of Absol, grinding outside Fortree for one with Megahorn.And I win. Totally blindsided her, winning in a 5-0. Triumphant, filled with pride, I look at her and she just smiles at me."Good job."Oh... I just messed up... I really messed up. I took away the thrill. I jumped myself ahead just to get a win. All this time, after six badges and hard won victories against Norman, Flannery, Archie, she just wanted to keep up with me. And I cheated.I slowed down. I took my time. I gathered items I knew I didn't need. We walked through Shoal Cave together, we fought Groudon/Kyogre together. I knocked Groudon out cold, but she took her time with Kyogre, and I knew it. What did I care, I had Volc and Salamence by then!The final battle approached. I transferred over one more that I knew I would need, at this point realizing that my Mence was too OP.She texted me the next day."I beat him. I beat Steven."I replied with a GIF of Raffiki, "It is time!"Final battle territory, 6v6, Single Battle rules, everyone's set to level 50.Breloom goes out, and Mega Blaziken counters. I switch to Swampert. She slams me with a blaze kick to the face. I can take it. Go Mega Swampert, and Latias comes in. Friggin Latias!!!Of course I failed the predict and used EQ, to which she responds with a Draco Meteor from hell itself, bringing Swamp to 34 HP. Latias Flies, Aggron switches in. Latias runs, and Blaze comes back in. After a cheeky predict, I thought Aggron could take Blaze after an Autotomize.He couldn't.One after another, our Pokemon countered each other, switching in and out, back and forth, until at last, at the end of our ropes, Blaziken came in and wiped my Breloom. All I had left was Swampert, the poor thing. Two Megas, our starters, our longtime friends and companions, duking it out one last time.Blaziken took me down with Sky Uppercut.This all happened minutes ago, so forgive the dripping sap from this post, but I just can't help but feel nostalgic.Throughout the years, we've seen rivals, gym leaders, Totem Pokemon jumping ahead with artificial levels, fake movesets, unearned buffs, crit hax and all sorts of bull.I transferred over the most powerful Pokemon I could think of. And my fiance destroyed me. 3-0. Raikou, Volcarona, Mega Swampert in rain, Super Luck Absol, none of them stood a chance. And maybe after 20-something years of playing this game, I've grown complacent. Maybe after seeing her slow crawl through what I thought was a simple campaign, I thought nothing could stand in my way. I would show her. I could keep being that Pokemon Master.I've never been so glad to be so wrong.Maybe after 20 years of playing this game, keeping it to myself, I've come to think of myself as the expert. Maybe after every defeat, we begin to learn something about ourselves as Trainers. Maybe after 5 years of loving this beautiful woman, I'm awestruck that she brought to bear her willpower and genius that I've envied for so long, and absolutely put me in my place. What I love about this game, and what I think she's come to love about it too, is how often it can surprise us. How often we can be so sure of ourselves, and lose. And how every loss comes with the knowledge that the person before us, the person who looks at you with a big shit eating grin on their face when your Swampert goes down to Mega Blaziken, is someone who gave their all, who devoted their time and energy to their friends. Their team. To this game, probably more than you did, even with the benefit of PokeBank and EV training.Seriously, how the hell did she beat me?At the end of the day, and it's about midnight here, the time you put into your team, the effort you put into training them... It doesn't come close to the love you feel for that person who beat you. You want to know them. You want to know why, and how, and maybe that's scary, but you know that you have a long way to go. And after beating me, she held out her DS and said, "More! Plug in another!""Another, what?""Another game! I want to play another one!"That's probably the best feeling of all. That the adventure isn't over yet.Please congratulate u/thesparkawingdiamond for becoming a true Pokemon Master.Maybe next time I'll bring a Sand Team... via /r/pokemon https://ift.tt/2MzVxjK