Clemont Gaiden

**Clemont Gaiden**is the fourth Gaiden sidestory in the expanded universe of *Pokémon Reset Bloodlines.*It is also the first sidestory written by Viroro-kun and the fourth sidestory overall.

It stars future Lumiose City Gym Leader Clemont, whose prodigious intelligence as a young inventor has earned him a lot of fame. However, things take a dark turn when a certain individual wants to put Clemont's abilities to use for warfare, and upon being refused, Clemont's father, Meyer, will have to take things up as the **Blaziken Mask** to rescue his son.

## Plot

At age eleven, Clemont is a young prodigy of science capable of making inventions (Clemontic Gear, as he calls it) all on his own. While Meyer is proud of his son, he's worried that he barely goes outdoors and spends more time focused on his studies and work rather than having fun with friends like normal kids of his age. As a result, Meyer decides to give Clemont a Pokémon of his own to raise and have a friend to play, a Shinx, which leaves Clemont delighted about it. Soon enough, Shinx becomes Clemont's best friend, and even assists him occasionally on his science works.

Fast forward two years, right when Meyer has put Bonnie to bed, someone violently knocks on his door. The person introduces himself as Professor Belmondo from Lumiose University, and he has a proposal for Meyer, who feels wary about it given that many times people had come offering him something so they could exploit Clemont's talents to make a profit, but he decides to let him in and listen to what he has to say out of courtesy. Being aware of Clemont's prodigious talents in science, Belmondo wants Clemont to join a think tank that, allegedly, works for the government in a project for the prosperity of Kalos and the rest of the T.A.T.O. nations. Meyer quickly deduces that Belmondo wants Clemont to build anti-Ranger weaponry, so he promptly refuses. Belmondo tries to justify his reasoning about it, and offers him a blank check, telling him he can name his price, but Meyer tears it into pieces, telling Belmondo upfront that he's not going to give his son to make weapons to restart a war that ended forty years ago, no matter his price. Belmondo is shocked, telling Meyer that Clemont's talents could change the world, and Meyer says that indeed he could do so, but only the way he chooses, not how Belmondo wants, and tells him to leave. Belmondo warns Meyer that he's going to regret his decision, but leaves.

Now alone with his Ampharos, Meyer wonders if he made the right call, right when an explosion goes off on the first floor. He quickly rushes to see what happened, but is relieved to see that it was just one of Clemont's failed projects and he's okay, and he leaves him and Shinx to work back on it to fix it, his worries all but gone now.

A few hours later, Clemont and Shinx successfully complete their latest project: the Aipom Arm. However, they both yawn, feeling sleepy, and Clemont feels it's time to call it a day and go to bed, deciding to test the Aipom Arm tomorrow, and recalls Shinx back into the Poké Ball. Before going to sleep, he looks at the wall showing designs for every ongoing project he has, including a design for the power system in the construction of the Prism Tower. After crossing out a few mistakes and adding some corrections, he decides to let the current Gym Leader know of his suggestions, while also pondering about how he's been offered the position to become the next Gym Leader, something he isn't too thrilled about despite feeling flattered. When he turns around to leave, he suddenly bumps into someone wearing black clothes, who grabs him by the mouth and shuts him before he can call for help. Shortly after, Meyer passes by his son's room, only to find it a complete mess, and his son completely gone.

Clemont is taken away and tied up, before being thrown into the back of a van. A man in a lab-coat apologizes for the treatment, as they needed to ensure he'd come with them. Clemont demands to know who he is, and the man introduces himself as Professor Belmondo, explaining that he works for Lumiose University and belongs to a faction of the Kalos government who wants to recruit Clemont to put his talents to use for building weaponry, his choice in the matter being irrelevant. Clemont tries to refuse, but Belmondo continues to insist that he's wasting his talents when the government is interested in creating ways to combat the Rangers. However, the conversation is interrupted by one of Belmondo's men asking if he's done yet. Before leaving, Belmondo decides to leave a sentry robot in the back of to keep Clemont down in case he tries anything funny, before shutting the doors and start the vehicle to make his escape. Unknown to Belmondo, Clemont quickly gets an idea on how to get out of there.

Meanwhile, Meyer, now as the Blaziken Mask, moves forward jumping across the rooftops, followed by his Blaziken partner, as they try to track the men who kidnapped Clemont. He quickly spots the van surrounded by several vehicles and follows them, having already seen how they put Clemont into it and deducing who was behind the kidnapping. Predicting the path they're going to take, he signals to Blaziken as the two jump down ready to strike.

Inside the van, Clemont continues to review his escape plan. Shaking his body around despite being tied, he manages to slip Shinx's Poké Ball out of his pocket and brings him out, asking him to use Bite to cut the ropes. Once free, he orders Shinx to attack the sentry robot with all his might. The robot responds in kind and tries to catch Shinx, but the electricity causes it to short out and be momentarily disabled. Clemont decides to take the chance to open the wiring to try and reprogram it. Suddenly, however, the robot's emergency power switches on and it gets back on its feet, attacking them again. After being tossed to the other end of the van, the robot tries to punch him, leaving a huge dent on the wall and making him realize that Shinx probably disabled its non-lethal protocols, thus now it's attacking them with unrestrained deadly force. The van suddenly brakes violently, and while Clemont and Shinx manage to hold on to the floor, the robot doesn't and crashes against the wall, getting an arm ripped in the process. The severed arm almost falls on top of Clemont, but Shinx tackles it away to shield his master, and prepares to strike again. Clemont orders Shinx to use bite behind the robot, and when that doesn't work, he has him use Spark on the exposed cables from the severed arm. The robot begins moving erratically, and then Clemont has Shinx lure it into attacking the door to punch it open for them, allowing them to escape the van.

Outside, Meyer and Blaziken have taken out almost all of Belmondo's men, with just a few standing up including Belmondo himself. They quickly make short work of them, and when Clemont gets out and spots them, Meyer tells him to get to safety while holding the urge to laugh, and he does. With only Belmondo standing, the scientist tries to make a run for it, only to get slammed face first onto the van's door with an arm twisted behind his back. Meyer warns him to never try and pull a stunt like that, which Belmondo defiantly replies he's a hero of justice and he doesn't have the guts to kill him. In response, Meyer breaks his arm, causing him to scream in pain and tells him to go away. After Belmondo runs away, Blaziken gives Meyer a stern look, who replies that he didn't like doing that, but he had to make sure he wouldn't come back for Clemont again. The two quickly leave, so Meyer can return home before Clemont arrives.

As Clemont gets back home, Meyer does his best to act worried and relieved as he listens to his son telling him what happened, and what Belmondo told him about throwing away his dreams to protect Kalos. Meyer replies some people won't stop at anything to achieve their ends, and Clemont wonders if he'll try to kidnap him again. Meyer, suppressing a grin, assures him that won't happen and he'll make sure he stays safe, and when Clemont starts rambling about making a security system or something to make up for this, Meyer assures him that he's not at fault for what happened and sends him to sleep. Afterwards, Meyer vows to become a better hero to protect his city, and his family.

As he tries to sleep, Clemont ponders about how he actually had fun directing Shinx against the robot, and begins to consider the possibility of becoming a Gym Leader once he turns fifteen. He asks Shinx if he'd like to fight more, which the Electric-type seems to agree. Clemont stares at the Prism Tower outside, deciding that he needs to discuss a few things for the future.

## Continuity

* The first scene of this Gaiden sidestory takes place three years before **"Of Starters and Spearow: The New Reality"**, while the rest of the story takes place two years more after that.
* First appearances of Clemont (in the new timeline), Meyer and Belmondo.