Alain (Lightsoul)

Alain (Japanese: アラン  Alain) is a major recurring character in the Lightsoul series. He joined Shadow's team in the XYZ series.

Prior to Lightsoul: XYZ
In the past he was Professor Sycamore's assistant, and it was Sycamore who initially inspired him to begin seeking Mega Stones in order to solve the mysteries of Mega Evolution. At this time Alain already owned a Charmander. Sycamore knew there were secrets tied to the Mega Evolution and let Alain go pursue the quest of finding the Mega Stones. One day, Alain found an injured Gible, which Sycamore adopted and took care of, even managing both of them to befriend Gible. Alain and Sycamore watched as Gible evolved into a Gabite and later into a Garchomp.

Some time after leaving Professor Sycamore's laboratory, Charmander evolved. After reporting to Professor Sycamore, he came to a nearby ruin in search of Ampharosite, but discovered that the raw Mega Stone had been taken by Lysandre. Alain battled Lysandre for ownership of the stone, but his Charmeleon was soundly defeated by Lysandre's Pyroar.

Alain was then invited to Lysandre Labs, where Lysandre revealed his intention to harness the energy Pokémon produce when they Mega Evolve for peaceful purposes. He also claimed that if Professor Sycamore were to publish the secrets of Mega Evolution, mankind would find a way to use those secrets to nefarious ends, and said he would not allow the Professor's name to be tarnished. Asking if Alain would assist him, Lysandre revealed a metal attaché case with a Mega Ring and Charizardite X. Believing he could protect the Professor this way, Alain accepted Lysandre's proposal.

Mega Evolution Specials
Sometime prior to Mega Evolution Special I, Charmeleon evolved into a Charizard. Alain battled a Trainer named Astrid, and defeated her Mega Absol. The battle was secretly watched by Mairin, a beginning Trainer who was sent out on a journey by Professor Sycamore. Mairin was so impressed with his strength that she began following him. From Mairin, Alain learned of a Trainer who lept off of Prism Tower to save a Pokémon. Next, Alain received a call on his Holo Caster from a mysterious person (later revealed to be Lysandre), who directed him to a location with ruins to retrieve a Mega Stone. After getting the Mega Stone, Alain was confronted by a Trainer named Remo who was also looking for the Mega Stone. Remo challenged him with a Mega Salamence. Alain won the battle that followed, and kept the Mega Stone.

Afterwards he helped Mairin capture a Flabébé. He then traveled with her to a restaurant where Elite Four member Siebold was working as a chef and challenged him to a battle, seemingly unaware that at the same time his Charizard's energy levels were being monitored by Lysandre. Charizard put up a good fight against Siebold's Blastoise, but when Blastoise Mega Evolved, it overwhelmed Charizard using a Mega Launcher-boosted Dragon Pulse. Accepting his defeat, Alain continued his journey to battle more Mega Evolved Pokémon and complete more assignments from Lysandre, now with Mairin as a traveling partner.

In Mega Evolution Special II, he traveled to Hoenn with Mairin, where he met Steven. Noticing each other's Key Stones, the two Trainers recognized each other as Trainers with Mega Pokémon. Accepting Alain's challenge, Steven and his Shiny Mega Metagross fought a fierce battle with Charizard before the battle was interrupted by Lysandre.

Deciding to cooperate with the Hoenn Champion, Alain and company traveled to their destination, a small temple with two pillars in the center. When Alain and Steven held their Key Stones to the monument, a staircase of light appeared to lead them further within the ancient ruin. There, they discovered a similar mechanism that summoned a glowing megalith from underneath the ruin. After Lysandre and his research team began analyzing the giant stone, a Rayquaza appeared from the sky, Mega Evolved into Mega Rayquaza, and started wreaking havoc on the surrounding area. Alain, Steven, and their Mega Pokémon partners tried to fend off the Legendary Pokémon, but were overwhelmed. As Rayquaza continued to destroy the megalith, its Draco Meteors landed near Mairin, sending her and Chespie flying. Alain dove to save her, but in the process, the two are buried in debris. Mairin is safe, but Alain injures his shoulder. Despite Mairin and Lysandre's concern, Alain insists he's fine, and proceeds to Rustboro City on Lysandre's orders as he believes the megalith can be recovered, secretly he told Alain to keep a watch on Steven Stone, as he possessed great knowledge on Mega Evolution.

In Mega Evolution Special III, after landing at the Devon Corporation headquarters via helicopter with Mairin, he receives confirmation from Steven and Lysandre that Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre are set to battle each other near Rustboro City to claim the megalith's energy, putting the entire world at risk. Alain and Steven volunteer to fly to the point where the super-ancient Pokémon will meet to analyze the situation. Concerned, Mairin asks Alain about his shoulder, but Alain insists he's fine. Mairin says it's too dangerous, and begs Alain to stay, but he refuses, saying he has to keep his promise to Lysandre to become the strongest. Mairin continues to press him, causing Alain to lash out at her, saying she knows nothing about his goals. After calming down, Alain walks away from Mairin, telling her to go back to Kalos.

On Steven's aircraft, Alain and the Champion approach a large energy reading that Devon Corp. staff and Lysandre confirm to be the megalith. Lysandre tells the two to be careful while investigating the situation. Primal Kyogre surfaces, and begins engaging Primal Groudon. After the Primal Pokémon exchange blows, Alain receives private orders from Lysandre. The director wants the megalith protected at all costs until it fully materializes. Alain opens the aircraft's door and sends out Charizard, and triggers its Mega Evolution. Following Alain's lead, Steven and Metagross follow suit, volunteering to attack Kyogre. While Charizard successfully stops Groudon from reaching the megalith, it is hit by Precipice Blades, and falls from the sky to a glacier caused by Kyogre's Ice Beam.

Alain rappels from the aircraft onto the glacier, and rushes to Charizard's side, digging it out from chunks of ice. Noticing its tail flame dying, Alain immediately recalls Charizard to rest. Alain is then blown back from an explosion caused by Groudon and Kyogre's battle. Steven orders the aircraft to descend, allowing Mairin and Chespie, who had stowed away, to exit the aircraft's rear and help Alain. As Groudon's Solar Beam causes debris to fly towards the three, Steven's Metagross dives in front to guard the three with Protect. As Metagross continues to fend off Groudon and Kyogre, Mairin brings an unconscious Alain to shelter. Alain wakes up after Mega Rayquaza returns and single-handedly defeats Groudon and Kyogre. A submarine sent by Lysandre surfaces and steals the megalith by blinding Rayquaza with flash missiles. Lysandre deems the mission a success, and Rayquaza retreats. With the skies cleared, Alain approaches Mairin and thanks her.

However, back at the Devon Corporation headquarters, Mairin is told by Steven that Alain returned to Kalos without her. Alain told Steven that Mairin would be in danger if she continued following him. Alain is shown to be back at Lysandre Labs, where Lysandre thanks Alain for his help. While Lysandre tells Alain he's earned a rest, Alain insists on continuing his training with Charizard, recalling how they were defeated by the super-ancient Pokémon of Hoenn. He is last seen with Charizard, battling a nameless Trainer and his Mega Tyranitar under Lysandre's supervision.

In Mega Evolution Special IV, Alain fought ten Trainers with Mega Evolved Pokémon in a row under the condition that he had to return his Mega Stone and Mega Ring to Lysandre had he lost to one of the Trainers. Despite not being able to rest between battles, Alain was able to defeat the first nine Trainers. During the middle of the challenge, he still refused to let Mairin travel with him as she would've been in danger. Unfortunately, this led to Chespie walking in on an experiment which subsequently overloaded, exposing Chespie to near-fatal levels of the energy produced as part of the experiment and causing it to fall into a coma.

Alain fought Malva as the final Trainer. Alain has known about her before as she was part of the Elite Four and Malva has heard about Alain's loss to Siebold. Alain was not convinced that he was going to lose to Malva. Alain pitted his Charizard against Malva's Houndoom and true to his word, Alain was able to defeat Malva. After battling Malva, he went to see Mairin from behind a corner. Upon discovering this and hearing a broken, sobbing Mairin begging Lysandre to assure her that Chespie would wake up, he started to feel that it was his fault and, believing that the Mega Evolution system would restore Chespie's health, set out to complete it in order to bring back the cheerful Mairin he knew. After leaving, a Trainer with a Mega Banette stopped him and they had a battle.

Personality
Alain is shown to usually be focused on his goals, yet often exhibits aloof behavior and can wander off in thought. He at first seems to push others away from him, but he helped Mairin capture Flabébé with hints on strategy. He does, however, have a close bond with his Charizard, and has become accustomed to Mairin's companionship as shown in Mega Evolution Special II. Alain doggedly pursues his goal of becoming the strongest, often ignoring the concern of others and inadvertently causing distress and further concern among those that care most for him.

Alain has a tendency to push away the people he wants to protect. During his time working at Professor Sycamore's lab, Alain was much more cheerful than he is in the present. While he has distanced himself from Professor Sycamore, it is clear he is still concerned about his safety, something that he fully admitted to his former mentor while at the Kalos League. In Mega Evolution Special III, Alain purposely tried to leave Mairin behind to keep her from his dangerous mission of engaging Primal Groudon and Kyogre. Failing that, he later returned to Kalos alone, leaving her behind.

His character took a darker turn at the end of Mega Evolution Special IV. Blaming himself for Chespie's falling into a comatose state because of his pushing Mairin away, he became disgusted with himself and began obsessively pursuing the completion of Lysandre's Mega Evolution energy system. His goal thus became to gain strength and complete the system in order to heal Chespie and help Mairin smile again. To meet this end, he worked with Mable and Aliana in their mission to capture Z2, succeeding in distracting Z2 long enough for the Team Flare Scientists to weaken it.

Alain is a good sport, and is shown to take his losses well. When he wins battles, he likewise congratulates his opponents on putting up a good fight, which is how he befriends Ash. When he loses, he doesn't let it bother him, instead devoting himself to train even harder. He greatly enjoys a challenge, becoming visibly excited when he and Charizard were pushed into a corner in their second battle with Ash-Greninja. This excitement and desire to once again battle against Ash in a competitive fashion similar to their previous battles would drive him to quickly attain enough badges to compete in the Lumiose Conference, something that he admitted to Korrina following his victory over her at the Shalour Gym.

By the time of the Kalos League, however, Alain's attitude had become more serious and cold, as the only thing he really cared about was proving that he was the strongest trainer. Although showing brief glimpses of amusement in his battle with Trevor, after thoroughly defeating him, he would resume with his cold and serious demeanor. Likewise, when Remo failed to give him a real challenge, Alain just expressed indifference to the battle and, as in his battle with Trevor, left the arena without congratulating or praising his opponents as he would have in the past, further enforcing how obsessed he had become with gaining strength and battling fiercely competitive battles. However, despite this darker persona, Alain still showed signs of his old self when talking with Charizard about he was genuinely looking forward to his battle with Ash in the finals. He would afterwards open up to Professor Sycamore and explained the motivation and reasons for his actions, reaffirming his desire to become stronger in order to protect his loved ones in the process.

During his battle with Ash, Alain admitted to himself that Ash's excited attitude and eagerness to enjoy battles are what made him such a great opponent, and that battling Ash made him truly enjoy the battles themselves, causing him to lose track of time.

When Team Flare attacked Lumiose City and revealed their true motives, Alain felt betrayed by them and began to feel a great sense of guilt in him. After Lysandre proclaimed the dawn of his new world to him, Alain collapsed in frustration and anger. These feelings would lead him to turn against Team Flare and join Ash, whom Alain said helped "open his eyes to the truth."

After Team Flare was defeated, Alain began to feel depressed, since not only did he feel that he was indirectly responsible for what Lysandre was able to do to Kalos, but he did not know what he wanted to do now that everyone was safe. Thanks to Ash, Alain began to cheer up, and accepted Professor Sycamore's offer to resume their research on Mega Evolution.

Badges

 * Seven unknown Badges
 * Rumble Badge

Leagues

 * Lumoise Conference (Winner)

Other achievements

 * Honor of Kalos medal

Voice Actors

 * Kenshō Ono (Japanese)
 * Jonathan Silver (English)

Trivia

 * Alain is the first non-Champion Trainer to defeat an Elite Four member in the anime, defeating Malva during a 1-on-1 match.
 * He is also the first rival in the anime to be associated with a villainous organization.
 * He is also the first primary rival to win a League.
 * He also has two species of Pokémon in common with Shine himself (Charizard and Unfezant), two with other associates of Team Flare (Weavile with Mable and Bisharp with Bryony), and two with Ash's past Rivals (Weavile with Paul and Metagross with Tyson).
 * Alain owns the only two Pseudo-legendary Pokémon that are not Dragon-type.
 * All of Alain's Dark types have a 4× weakness to Fighting-type moves.
 * Alain's outfit seems to be based on his signature Pokémon, Mega Charizard X. His scarf resembles the fire coming out of Mega Charizard X's mouth.