The “Saffron Ten” is a nickname coined for a selection of ten different individuals, all currently residing in Saffron City, Kanto. All of them have been involved with a vigilante and have gotten into fights against dangerous villains roaming around the city’s streets. They’re considered of great interest for Team Vendetta, and might be key players in the organisation’s downfall.

Damian Kaine/Blankface

Bio:

A trainer who never shone. Like many, he wanted to be the strongest of them all, with everyone talking him down on it, and to his unfortunate luck, he legitimately failed in Pokémon battling. After years of failure, he ended up retiring, lost on what he should do in life, finding most of his actions to have been a waste of time (including the upbringing of his own team).

It wasn’t until he met the Abbeystead siblings, Dani and Ron, that he tried to become a trainer again, but an incident almost killed Dani and caused him to fall off the deep end. Before Damian could end it all, however, he was found by a mysterious individual named Jonathon, who took him under his wing to make him a worthy protector to those he loves.

From then on, he enrolled in Saffron City’s Golden Altaria High to finish his studies during the day, being the go-to photographer and an effective reporter for the school’s newspaper. But at night, he became the infamous Blankface the Dread, a vigilante who takes down the lowest of scum and a constant punishment for Damian’s failures; his biggest nemesis being the organization known as Team Vendetta.

After a while, Damian’s façade as Blankface would start to take a toll on his mental health, with him constantly feeling he was not doing things right. Only with the support of his friends would he snap out of depression, but it came at the cost of “killing” the Blankface persona.

Having successfully recovered through theraphy, Damian hopes to finish high school in tranquillity. Too bad he didn’t actually defeat Team Vendetta.

Skills: Good at hand-to-hand combat. Produces smoke bombs, which he carries whenever he dons the Blankface costume. He is in sync with his own Gardevoir to the point that he can summon her with a mere finger snap. Has access to a unique Sync Move —nicknamed “Storybook Ending”—, where he and Gardevoir create a Black Hole that sucks opponents in and explodes afterwards; however, he hasn’t dominated it yet and using it costs both large amounts of stamina.

Team: Gardevoir, Hydreigon, Scizor, Arcanine, Roserade, Gliscor

Inspiration: Rock Howard (Fatal Fury), K’ (The King of Fighters), Terry McGinnis (Batman), Alex (Street Fighter), Kaine Parker (Scarlet Spider), Dr. Doom

Trivia:

Having suffered depression during his tenure as Blankface, he talked about his problems with his school counsellor, Dr. Franco MacOnn, unaware that he’s the very leader of Team Vendetta.

Barring two exceptions, Damian refused to take on his Blankface persona to deal with bullies. This was because of his own moral dilemma: bullies, evil as they are, are ultimately not considered criminals, while hitting them back would easily frame him as one. Not to mention, he feared that more people would try to become their own vigilantes just to get back at bullies, when that was never the intention behind the persona; he never wanted to be a martyr.

Because he travelled alone during his tenure as a trainer, he became an effective cook. His food is tasty enough that most people wonder why he even cares for Pokémon battles.

Once auditioned to be Blankface in a school play. He somehow got rejected.

Used to be good at languages, with the capability of speaking English, Japanese, French, Spanish, and Korean. Now, his handling of most of those languages is subpar at best.

Ron Johann Abbeystead

Bio:

Son of the Abbeystead household, which owns a popular shipping company in his homeland. He and his sister Dani used to be bullied due to their high-class status, and wouldn’t get along with people from similar families. This led to both becoming incredibly antisocial and rejectionist.

However, when Dani met Damian, Ron feared for the welfare of his sister, so alongside his father, they tried to make him go away with no success. Eventually, he earned the family’s trust, and Ron became good friends with him.

Things weren’t happy for long, as an incident left Dani hospitalised. Ron didn’t blame Damian, but his father did. Since that occurred, he’s tried his best to help his sister become a stronger person so that no incident like it would happen again.

After both siblings got fed up with their last school, they enrolled in Golden Altaria, unaware that Damian was also there.

Skill: Has a fighting style that mixes different martial arts. Resistant to cold weather. Analyses situations at a faster pace than his friends. The more durable of the siblings.

Team: Baxcalibur, Heracross, Gholdengo, Staraptor, Feraligatr, Armarouge (last two are subject to change)

Inspiration: Kain R. Heinlein, Gato (Fatal Fury)

Trivia:

Good at playing the guitar. Does his best to emulate classical music with it.

Used to dream of being a pirate with his own crew. He sometimes still fantasises about that.

He became good at math just to inherit his family’s business, but he isn’t a fan of it.

Once tried gambling and lost two million in cash. He became more careful and later on, analytical, because of that.

Michael “Mike” Gardner

Bio:

Born to a family of “hunters” (people who’d spend time in the wilds, trying to overcome an important challenge as a rite of passage), Mike was Damian’s only friend during childhood. Neither was stellar at achieving their goals, and found each other’s company to be motivational in a way.

Mike would eventually accomplish his challenge, having climbed Mount Lanakila in Alola, while Damian would only continue to fail. Still, that wasn’t enough, for he wanted to pay tribute to his late uncle, who always wanted to soar the skies and fly all the way to Cinnabar Island.

Nowadays, he still works to fulfil his uncle’s goal one day, and studies with Damian at Golden Altaria High while doing so. Being so focused on that has gotten him enamoured with piloting, so he hopes to become a great pilot as well.

Skills: Expert marksman. Capable of crafting traps to deal with enemies. Can work with different types of venom to produce antidotes. Knows the basics of building and piloting a biplane, but hasn’t succeeded on either yet.

To accomplish these new goals, Mike has a team that’s all about flying or floating through different means. Pidgeot and Decidueye are birds, Volcarona a moth, Magnezone can levitate with a magnetic field, Golurk is an enigmatic robot that can turn into a rocket, and Dragalge… he still doesn’t get how that thing can float outside of water.

Team: Decidueye, Pidgeot, Magnezone, Golurk, Volcarona, Dragalge

Inspiration: Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner (Green Lantern), Green Arrow, Zell Dincht (Final Fantasy VIII), Fret (NEO: The World Ends With You)

Trivia:

Has little to no fear of risks. Because of his life experiences, he doesn’t concern himself much with what can kill him.

While he tends to tell unfunny jokes, he hardly ever laughs if someone else tries that.

Tried writing poetry several times, especially for flirting purposes. Most people would say it's “charming, but awkward as hell.”

Followed Emi Dazzle as an idol before she turned out to be evil. Still has a hard time separating art from the artist.

Danielle “Dani” Miranda Abbeystead

Bio:

As a daughter of the Abbeystead household, Dani has always been prone to daydreaming. While she appreciated learning arts, she wasn’t really satisfied with it. She wanted to see the world, but that dream was held back, partially by her parents’ concerns, partially by her distrust of other people. The only solace she ever had was being saved by a trainer when she was 10, which made her hold on to the hope of becoming like him one day.

This trainer would cross paths with Dani years later, turning out to be Damian. Dani found out that he wasn’t doing well, having retired from training and all that, so as a way to return the favour for saving her, she dedicated her time to heal his emotional scars. This would lead to both growing close.

The two had planned to go on a Pokémon journey where Damian would teach Dani all there is to being a trainer. Sadly, days before that could occur, both went to the Battle Tower in Galar, only for Eternatus to break out. Damian did his darndest to protect Dani, but it’d soon start to take a toll on him. Not wishing to see him die, she took a powerful Dynamax Beam that left her comatose for a while.

Still, she somehow survived the encounter, but with no memory of Damian. With Ron’s support, she trained to become stronger as she still wanted to be a trainer despite all. Her father agreed, but only if she’d first finish high school.

Now in Golden Altaria, Dani met Damian again, mystified over why he felt so important to her. He, however, didn’t want to interact with her and avoided the topic, until Team Vendetta tried to hurt her. Afterwards, Damian admitted to Dani and everyone that he sealed her memories of him away. Still, she forgave him because she understood the pain he was feeling.

Skills: Just like her brother, she has a fighting style that mixes different martial arts and resists cold weather. The faster of the siblings.

Team: Frosmoth, Togekiss, Shiny Umbreon, Alolan Raichu, Chandelure, Falinks/Lopunny (haven’t decided yet)

Inspiration: Serena (yes, that one, please don’t shame me), Akiha Tohno (Tsukihime), Hotaru Futaba (Fatal Fury), Rinoa Heartilly (Final Fantasy VIII)

Trivia:

Good at playing the piano. She, however, is not a big fan of most classical music. She’d much rather recreate the tunes of popular anime.

Used to collect jewelled rings until her parents told her they couldn’t keep spending money on them anymore.

Her handwriting is a nigh-unreadable mess.

Too many people tried dating her for money. Ron beat them all up for it.

Laura Blaise

Bio:

Born in the circus industry, Laura was a circus acrobat alongside her parents as “The Flaming Blaises”. Unbeknownst to little Laura, the circus wasn’t in a great position, and ended up making deals with a yakuza group to stay floating. The owners failed to pay them on time, so the yakuza retaliated by killing many of their staff members and releasing their own freak, who’d later go on to become a creature of the night.

Laura’s parents were among the victims, while she narrowly avoided death at the hands of the Crimson Gargoyle. She was later found by Jonathon, who left her in the care of a retired hitman named Renard.

Renard would go on to teach Laura everything so she could defend herself. However, he was also targeted by the same group that murdered The Flaming Blaises, and his protégé would be left alone again.

She’d spend time living on the streets, with no one’s support but her two Pokémon: Houndoom and Ambipom, plus a group of con artists, who’d gladly work together with her to subsist as a group. That was, until Blankface started to haunt them.

Laura would constantly try to escape from the vigilante’s hands, until she couldn’t keep going, and one day, she had Blankface in front of her. Turns out, he never intended to hurt her, rather, he looked for her as a favour to Jonathon. After hearing her story, the vigilante swore to work with her to take down the yakuza.

And sure enough, after seizing Renard’s former house, and taking down the people inside, Laura and Blankface crafted the perfect plan to obtain revenge. With the yakuza out of the way, now she could mourn her loved ones in peace.

Since then, Laura learned of Blankface’s true identity and became acquainted with his friends. Not only that, but she also got a job as a wrestler, working under the masked persona of Inferna Blaise.

Skills: Used to be part of a trapeze act in her childhood. Trained in assassination skills. As agile and flexible as a Hawlucha. Does wrestling for a living under the ring name “Inferna Blaise”.

Team: Houndoom, Victreebel, Tinkaton, Ambipom, Dragapult, Gastrodon

Inspiration: Catwoman, X-23

Trivia:

Most of her Pokémon aren’t her own, technically speaking. They belonged to her mentor and ended up in her ownership after he died.

Has a massive appetite that isn’t matched by anyone in her group.

While she’s never been a Golden Altaria student, she’s still considered a member

Her finishing move as a wrestler is the Shooting Star Press.

Before settling on wrestling, she tried tons of other jobs, including being a janitor.

Charlotte Carroll

Bio:
A history fan with incredible power. Charlotte was the daughter of two Interpol agents who’d often fail to be in her life due to the stakes of the job. She resented both, especially her mother, who always demanded that she deliver school results, but wouldn’t be present when she wanted time with her. This got to the point where the mother would eventually consider quitting her job to be present in her daughter’s life, but during her final mission, she suffered lethal wounds that killed her later. This made Charlotte incredibly resentful towards cops and other kinds of do-gooders.

Beyond that, she tried her best to still live a normal life, still delivering high scores at school. Things got interesting when she met Damian and Mike during classes, noticing how they wouldn’t take nonsense from bullies. Because of Damian’s position as a part of the school’s newspaper club, Charlotte would often find ways to team up with him for assignments, since he could help her by taking pictures of historical places and objects.

As she grew closer to Damian, she’d start seeing more of her unnatural powers. She was able to sense Pokémon in ways that only she can understand, and had a tendency to share dreams with people.

At one point, Charlotte found out that Damian was Blankface the entire time and cut ties with him. She’d come to regret that decision after confronting her father (now chief of Saffron City’s Police Department), who, until recently, refused to arrest him for his vigilantism. After the father played a recording of her mother’s dying words, Charlotte took back her actions and made amends with Damian.

Now, she tries to understand the nature of her powers. There are only two things she knows so far: 1) her mother was aware of them and tried to keep them a secret; 2) she’s pretty certain she read of a similar power somewhere.

Powers: Has access to aura, which allows her to power her Pokémon up, produce her own Aura Spheres and shields, and look at an opponent’s weak points. Can protect herself from mind attacks (most of the time anyway). Sometimes shares dreams and thoughts with people. Uses a pair of eskrima sticks that make her deadlier in combat.

Team: Milotic, Mienshao, Espathra, Skarmory, Absol, Lurantis (latter 3 might end up replaced)

Inspiration: Arcueid Brunestud, Ciel (Tsukihime), Nightwing (Batman)

Trivia:

Loves photography as a hobby.

Because of her father’s job, she tends to spend the afternoons alone.

The only people to have shared dreams with her are her parents and Damian.

Sometimes leaves her own house to go on nightly walks, wearing a huge trench coat.

Has a lot of dark romance books her friends would rather not look at, except Dani, she’s unfazed by them.

Good at fencing.

Mukboy

Real Name: Klaus Moldoff

Bio:

One of the most intelligent students in Golden Altaria. He was a prime target of bullying by a guy obsessed with looks named Paris. Klaus hated being judged by appearance, so he tried to come up with a solution while enduring the bully’s treatment.

What Klaus didn’t account for was that Paris would catch wind of his plan, and eagerly wait for the day when he’d showcase his project: a beauty formula that’d help even the ugliest of individuals. The bully thought of ways of sabotaging the project and eventually decided to sample the DNA of a Muk to further his torture on the poor kid.

On the big day, the bully snuck in the sample while Klaus didn’t look. And so, when he drank the formula, he didn’t turn into a supermodel but rather into a hideous, amorphous beast. Klaus had turned into Mukboy.

Mukboy proceeded to spread chaos across the school, only to be eventually stopped by Blankface with the assistance of Dr. MacOnn. Still, the vigilante pitied him for his situation and lamented that he didn’t go after Paris until he crossed a line. As for that bully, Blankface beat the crime confession out of him, then Klaus disfigured him with a straight punch to the face strengthened by his new powers (not that he was satisfied with that), and finally was turned over to the cops with no way he’d ever make it out of the juvie.

Feeling that he had no more purpose in life, Mukboy left to live in Saffron’s slums. He was found by Earpierce one day, who nearly convinced him to join Team Vendetta, where he wouldn’t be judged. Blankface stopped this by giving Klaus a chance to finalise his revenge towards his bully, and after venting his frustrations, Mukboy came to realise that nothing could be gained from revenge, and turned down Earpierce’s proposal. Angry, the villain attacked both characters, and gave Klaus the chance to be left alone by tricking her into “killing him” (she didn’t bother checking if no remains were left).

After that confrontation, Klaus was convinced by Blankface to use his powers for good. The vigilante would also unmask and tell him that he has been spreading the story to several people in the hopes that someone will help him regain his humanity. Feeling comforted, Klaus left and remained on the side of good.

Currently, he’s lives inside Saffron’s sewer complex, still hoping to reverse the formula that converted him to a monster. He also caught wind that someone used his formula to become a monster of his own, and now has a reason to support Damian and friends against Team Vendetta.

Powers: Has Muk physiology, which means he can shapeshift in many different ways. Can change sizes. Almost impossible to kill unless the opponent either freezes him or cleans all of his dirty body. Has an intellect that allows him to elaborate complex formulas (like the one that turned him into a monster to begin with).

Team: Kadabra

Inspiration: Clayface (The Batman 2004)

Trivia:

Because his notes were burned away after someone else used them to become Yanman, he hasn’t been able to cure himself.

When bored, he likes to shapeshift into objects or other Pokémon.

He sometimes sneaks inside his family’s house, lamenting the fact that he can’t show up to his loved ones in a monstrous shape.

Seth Cunningham

Bio:

The most tyrannical of bullies. Seth, similarly to Damian, would also be a failure of a trainer, but while the latter would turn his feelings into sadness, the former would convert them to anger. Seth would spend several years ruthlessly beating trainers up to get to the top, something that would never happen.

Angry at his situation, Seth had no choice but to settle for a more “normal life”. But this did have a “positive” twist: after enrolling in Golden Altaria High, he used the school’s own battle circuit to impose a reign of terror on his fellow classmates. In a way, it did fulfil his desire to be stronger than others.
Seth would become a feared individual and find joy in bullying those he didn’t like. Among his targets was Damian Kaine, who’d go as far as to stand up against him. This led to a big rivalry between the two, as they faced opponents at the school’s yearly tournament before it all culminated in a battle where Seth would win and break poor Damian emotionally.

He thought that was the end of the story, but Dani (who, by that point, had already enrolled and recovered her memories) challenged him to a fight, which she nearly won. Unfortunately for him, Seth was a dirty coward and used his hooligan of bullies to gang up on her and Ron. Grave mistake. Blankface showed up and proceeded to brutalise all of them with his own hands.

That was a turning point for Seth in life, as his respective beatings at the hands of Dani and Blankface caused the rest of the school to bully him back. He was now seen as weak and pathetic. In revenge, Seth helped Team Vendetta attack Golden Altaria High (he wasn’t aware they went there as an order from their boss). This would again backfire on him, not only because the attack failed, but because all the other students interfered to ruin his reputation and jail him.

Seth would spend time in prison, feeling completely destroyed. With nothing else to win, he went back to being a trainer. He’d go on a journey of self-discovery, trying to understand if imposing himself over others is even a worthy cause. This led him to conclude that he’d rather be respected than feared, and thus allowed him to overcome his inner demons.

While his relationship with former classmates is most likely irreparable, he hopes to at least make amends by being a better person to others.

Skills: Highly durable to the point of tanking the shocks of his own Morpeko. Considered the best Pokémon trainer of his class.

Team: Morpeko, Golduck, Trevenant, Garchomp, Archeops, Lucario

Inspiration: Seifer Almasy (Final Fantasy VIII)

Trivia:

Seth used to admire Blankface, for he saw parallelism between his bullying and the latter’s crimefighting. This would come to bite him once the vigilante decided to punish him.

His team is essentially an “evil” version of Ash’s Journeys team. You have a Pikaclone, a ghost, a pseudo, a fossil, a Lucario, and a bird.

Seth’s fear of hitting girls traces back to childhood, when he once attacked his mother out of anger and his father beat him up for it. Since then, he’s had the belief that if he hurts a girl, he’ll always pay a high price for it, case in point: Blankface slashing his left eye after hurting Dani. Hence why he’s wearing an eyepatch in the sprite.

Design-wise, he’s modelled after AEW wrestler Konosuke Takeshita.

Used to be a great football player (the real one, not that thing Americans call “football”).

Allura Johnson

Bio:

Allura had the most normal of lives, compared to everyone else in the group. She simply got an interest in basketball and wanted to be a great player, constantly training with her Pokémon team to prove her worth in games.

This, however, changed after she enrolled in Golden Altaria. Being so tall and skilled, she became an incredibly popular topic for students. Someone didn’t appreciate it, that one being Seth’s girlfriend, Revy, an egotistical woman who couldn’t accept anyone being more popular or attractive than her.
Revy, being very manipulative, framed an incident to make it look like Allura was an aggressive and unpleasant individual. She got the whole school to see her that way, and thus, the poor girl turned into a pariah.

Allura was so affected by the situation that she couldn’t even play basketball with the other girls anymore. Now alone, she decided to find a way to get her reputation back. After getting familiarised with the school’s battling circuit, she entered the yearly tournament in the hopes of getting back at Revy by humiliating Seth in combat and forcing her to lose it. This, however, would never occur, as she was eliminated early by Damian. Still, Damian offered Allura friendship, which she accepted and allowed her to become well acquainted with his group.

She ended up being a key player in Seth’s ultimate downfall. When he tried to pay Blankface back for the beating he gave him, Allura interfered to not only protect him and her fellow classmates, but also to get her respect back. Putting Seth in jail left Revy alone, and with no one else to protect her, Allura and the other girls paid all of her bullying back.

Nowadays, she’s returned to basketball, proving her worth to her peers. She also likes to hang out with Damian’s group, being the muscle to both the guys’ side (Damian, Ron, and Mike) and the girls’ side (Dani, Laura, and Charlotte). The only bad thing about it is that she has a crush on Ron, which she struggles to hide; the girls love to tease her about that, while Damian and Mike tend to be a lot more respectful of her shyness.

Skills: The MVP of her school’s basketball team. Moves as fast as a Salazzle and jumps as high as a Lokix. Physically strong enough to throw people around like trash.

Team: Passimian, Lokix, Salazzle, Swampert, Eelektross, Delibird (this one might get replaced)

Inspiration: Natsu Ayuhara (Rival Schools), Tomo Aizawa (Tomo-chan is a Girl)

Trivia:

Rivals Elesa and Lucy in height.

She sometimes does endurance runs as a pastime.

Has a bit of a friendly rivalry with Laura, a bit of a lightweight vs. heavyweight deal. It doesn’t get heated, but they have a tendency to call each other “flippy-flapper” and “dead weight” respectively.

While it’s rare to see it, she’s addicted to arcade games. Her favourite genre is shoot-em-ups ala Space Invaders.

Allura is the only student Seth legitimately feared during his tenure at Golden Altaria, since, unlike most girls, she doesn’t take issue with getting into physical confrontations, and Seth’s fear of hurting girls made him take a backseat when his group bullied her.

Because there’s only one real sport-themed Pokémon out there, I picked Allura’s team based on whether they could learn two of the following three moves: Fling, Knock Off, and Bounce. Fling obviously represents throwing balls, Knock Off the capacity to snatch and throw the opposing team’s ball, and Bounce represents the high jumps basketball players have to do in order to pull off a slam dunk.

Yayoi Ogata

Bio:

Yayoi always had a passion for art. Under the (relatively) bad influence of her brother, she learned the way of graffiti and would become passionate about many art styles.

Unlike most of her classmates, she never had an inclination for battling, only knowing the essentials as per the school's demands. That made her an easy target for Seth’s group, as Revy could just blackmail her, and there’d be no way she’d defend herself.

When Yayoi refused to continue doing free artwork for Revy, the latter used her manipulation skills to turn her into a pariah just like she did with Allura. She was specially picked up on because of her mask, which she only wears to avoid inhaling her Grafaiai’s toxic saliva.

While she never engaged with the school’s battling tournament, unlike others, she still became acquainted with Damian and his friends. More specifically, she grew to respect them for standing up to Seth and Revy and not concerning themselves with the consequences.

In the aftermath of the Mukboy incident, Yayoi took over a wrecked area of the school and turned it into a private café. At this place, she hangs out with the other “misfits”, and even after Seth was expelled, the group uses the site to rest after classes, as well as to organise trips to other places.

Skills: Expert at drawing, sculpting, and graffiti. Skilled at roller skating. Has photographic reflexes that allow her to recreate even the most insignificant details in her art, as well as imitate battle strategies from her classmates. Sometimes does 3D modelling for work. Sneaky individual.

Team: Grafaiai, 4 regular Smeargle and a shiny one

Inspiration: Kalos and Paldea Artist Class, Gogo (Final Fantasy VI)

Trivia:

Inhaling Grafaiai saliva had the aftereffect of messing with her emoting capacities. While she can still feel emotions, she can’t emote anymore, so everything she says comes off as bland.

She’s one of the few people to treat Klaus respectfully at school. Aware of this, Damian disclosed his situation to her.

While her battling skills aren’t comparable to those of her peers, she still trains in combat. Her speciality is that, because her Smeargle can mimic most moves through sketch, she makes an effective coach to hone strategies and see through their strengths and weaknesses.

Nobody knows what her real hair colour is like. She dyes her hair every week, so people can only wonder about it.

Charges a pretty penny for commissions.

When younger, she used to play a lot of paintball, but only as an excuse to use people as art canvases.

Her 3D models are desired by streamer agencies. Unfortunately, 90% of her clients have already graduated.