I've had an idea for a while now of a Pokemon AU for Slay the Princess, and playing Champions has inspired me enough to write it all down. Here's what I've got:
The champion of the region, a powerful Trainer known as "The Princess", is infamous for her crushing battle style; she's an overwhelming force who throws something new at every challenger who steps up to her. Hardly anyone can climb to her level, which means she doesn't have many people she's close with, just her cherished Pokemon - and her self-appointed "manager", who insists upon trying to regulate the way she battles on the grounds that it's "dangerous" to her challengers.
One night, in a bout of frustration, she sneaks out in disguise and wanders the city, eventually finding her way to the entrance of an underground battle club. After the bouncer starts a battle to "prove she belongs here" (and promptly loses), she enters to see a furious double-battle in the central arena, with one of the combatants being an unusual bird-keeper.
"Quiet", as this mysterious Trainer has been dubbed, is a tall gangly man(?) whose feathery black hair is long enough to obscure most of the rest of their body, lugging around a broken birdcage and followed around by WAY too many bird Pokemon (which they can be seen talking with sometimes). Princess sees in them something she's never seen in another person, and she endeavors to visit the club regularly to find out more about them.
As for the teams themselves:
Damsel the Sylveon and Prisoner the Umbreon are a pair of sisters and some of Princess' first Pokemon, caught when they were only Eevees. Damsel is more of a supporter with moves like Charm and Helping Hand, while Prisoner is an extremely patient staller with Toxic, Moonlight, and Reflect - although her Foul Play packs a serious punch.
Adversary, a Machoke who kept the tail she had as a Machop, and Tower, an Alpha Hatterene, are constantly at odds with each other.
Witch, a Weavile with a few missing feathers and a few sharpened icicles tucked away, and Beast, a Pyroar who's slightly skinnier than average
Nightmare, a Banette with a porcelain mask sewn onto her rag-doll body. She's capable of Mega Evolving, which cracks the mask open at the mouth to spray shadowy attacks from its unhinged "jaw".
Spectre, a Froslass trailing white mist, can also Mega Evolve. The way she battles can vary from "teasing and evasive, blinking in and out of visibility" to "gleefully frenzied, harrying opponents under cover of a conjured snowstorm".
Stranger is a Vanilluxe with five heads instead of the usual two, always tipping and wobbling to avoid losing their balance. They don't do a lot of direct battling, often there to summon snow and spray concealing mists to support their Ice-type allies.
Razor is a... very strange Bisharp. Not only can she use Autotomize (a move her species doesn't ordinarily learn) to unfold into an alternate form with flimsy defenses and terrifying speed, but her mouth sits on top of her head instead of on her face, full of iron teeth.
A cracked, clouded Lampent and an ash-stained Frillish, both named "Grey", don't seem like much at first. But their seeming frailty belies a pair of deadly traps, using Fire Spin and Whirlpool to lock foes in place for some of the deadlier Pokemon.
Heather is a Clefable with tired eyes, drooping wings, and a peculiarly jagged shadow that appears to move on its own sometimes. She can be seen staring at it forlornly on the wall, taking its hand in her own, or - once in a blue moon - dancing with it in a slow waltz.
Cage is a Dhelmise with a crab trap instead of an anchor dangling at the end of their chain - containing a sleepy-eyed Tangela with extraordinarily long vines. Their equivalent of Anchor Shot uses those vines instead of a typical Dhelmise's chains, and has the health-draining effect of a Leech Seed.
Thorn is something of a rebel, eschewing the mask and trick-flower typical to any other Meowscarada in favor of a thorny whip - a straightforward and versatile weapon, but not without its tricks. She is still a Dark-type, after all.
Den doesn't see much battle, preferring to stay by Princess' side or in her room. She's a bizarre amalgam of several different beasts, without a defined species or even a definitive type.
Wraith is a Cofagrigus with a fractured shell, its top and bottom halves connected by a shadowy chain that resembles a human spine. Her shadowy hands are skeletal and sharp-fingered, and her manic grin has a few too many teeth.
Princess the Mismagius and Dragon the Honchkrow are a bonded pair, so tightly connected that a discerning eye can see feathers outlined on the hem of Princess' "dress" and black smoke trailing behind Dragon as he flies. They seem to share type affinities as well, with her Dark Pulses and his Shadow Balls packing a little more power.
Wild is a Trevenant, and she's more alive than a typical Ghost-type. Her branches are lush and verdant with flowers growing between her horns (visited by the occasional Bug-type Pokemon), and a sprawling network of roots underneath the Pokemon League's building means that her healing moves - Ingrain, Horn Leech, and Synthesis - are considerably more potent.
Fury is a ferocious Hydreigon with a few abnormalities: stretched skin between her wings and necks, teeth in her hand-mouths, and patches of missing fur or skin.
Needle is an especially powerful Garchomp, looking as though she's halfway to Mega Evolution between her enlarged size, the horns on her head, and the line of sharp spines trailing down her back. All that strength, however, comes at the cost of some of the species' trademark speed.
Clarity doesn't have the jagged grin you'd expect of a Spiritomb, or even a defined face at all - just a swirl of purplish smoke circling the gaping hole in her Keystone.
There's an extra Pokemon that only the Princess herself knows about, too: a glassy orb filled with stars that look suspiciously like eyes, housing a sleeping god waiting for its moment to awaken...
Quiet has an unusual flock of their own, either kept in the Pokeballs at their belt or perched somewhere nearby: a plucky Corvisquire who's a little naive, a graceful Quaxwell that treats every battle like a dance, a scowling Dartrix who tends to get lost in strategizing, a tenacious Combusken constantly charging into battle, an irritable Wattrel who can't seem to stop shocking himself, a swift-footed Archen always on the move, a skittish Natu who seems to see things none of the others do, a playful Chatot who uses his mimicry to play pranks, an Eiscue who treats every fight like it's already been lost but can nonetheless take a lot of hits, a Murkrow who watches from the outside of a group with a detached amusement, and a clever Bombirdier who spends most of his time circling overhead waiting for a moment to strike.
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