Fanfiction Long Way to Fall

Summary: "Be careful when you fight monsters, lest you become one." As Hilbert Warren travels through the Unova region, he will learn the value of these words, as each hardship he endures drives him further down the path into murderous psychopathy... Novelization of Pokémon White. Rated T for language and some content. Cover by Chocolexii on Deviantart.

A/N: EDIT: 7/2/2019: Given how this and the one on FFN are now identical, there was no reason to keep this A/N. Go to this thread here: https://lakevalor.net/threads/i-never-wanted-to-be-the-hero-long-way-to-fall-original-version.24720/ if you want to see the original version (and promptly regret it), as that thread is where it will be archived from now on.

Long Way to Fall

By: Rylek196

Prologue 1: Forced Evolution
​

“Is everything ready?” a man with green hair asked.

“Yes, sir,” a scientist wearing a lab coat and sitting in front of a control panel answered. “The laser is good to go. We can begin any time.”

The other scientist sitting next to him was not so confident. “This is insane,” he muttered fearfully. “Once we do this, that thing's gonna evolve, get loose and kill everything. Everything being us.”

The green-haired man simply pulled a Poké Ball from his belt, and clicked the circular button on its front twice, opening it. In a flash of light, a deadly-looking Pokémon appeared. It was red, humanoid, and just over five feet tall. Its body was clad in armor resembling a samurai mixed with a chess piece, an axe-like blade adorning its head. Wickedly sharp blades were also present on its forearms and stomach.

The Pokémon took a fighting stance as the offending scientist cowered in fear. "Bisharp, as you will," the green-haired man said. "Night Slash."

As the Bisharp's forearm blades extended to twice their usual length, the doomed scientist got up out of his chair and ran for the door. Bisharp, however, moved to block his way, grabbing him and slamming him into the wall hard enough to make the man cry out in pain. With a quick motion of one of its arms, it then cut his throat wide open, letting him slide to the floor with a choking gurgle, his blood pooling on the floor.

The other scientist gave an uninterested grunt as the green-haired man recalled the Bisharp to its Poké Ball. That was Ghetsis for you, the scientist thought. All business, all-committed to his goals, all the time. There was no room for those who were uncertain. And his murder of the scientist demonstrated a fundamental rule of Pokémon: They could not kill each other, but they could very easily kill humans.

"Shall we... bring it in, sir?" he asked, not giving the corpse a second glance.

"Yes," Ghetsis replied. "Get someone down here to replace the incompetent, and... have guards posted outside the room with Fighting-types, just in case."

The scientist nodded, calling someone over the intercom in the lab. Two more workers hurried into the room shortly thereafter, one dragging the body away, while the other sat down behind the control panel, preparing to monitor the energy levels of the Pokémon that was about to be brought into the adjacent room.

Through a large, thick glass window, they could see a scientist wheel a cart on a track into the room behind the control panel. Thoroughly strapped down to the cart, was a black-and-blue coloured, quadrupedal Dark/Dragon-type known as Zweilous. Zweilous was a very unique Pokémon, to say the least. The middle stage of the Deino line, it could evolve into its final form, the deadly pseudo-legendary called Hydreigon, one of two ways. The first way was getting both of Zweilous's dueling dual heads that often competed over food to like each other, accomplished by raising it to level 64. This would trigger a split personality merge, leading to evolution into Hydreigon.

However, this approach come with significant downsides, particularly where time and training were concerned. Raising a Zweilous, which were notoriously difficult to handle at the best of times, took many months, and Ghetsis did not have that much time, not now.

Fortunately, there was another way. This second option was dismissed by experts worldwide as, "insane," "barbaric," and it was something that, "only the most uncaring and utterly inhumane of Trainers would dare do."

Ghetsis gave an evil smirk, recalling that last quote. What he wouldn't have given to see the look on the face of the fool who said it, Professor Rowan, right now... He would have to snap his neck afterwards, of course, though. Still, in hindsight, it was a massive error in judgment to leave such a crucial part of bis plan to the last minute, but now there was no other choice.

Once two guards armed with Fighting-types- one of the Deino line's few reliable weaknesses- were posted outside the room the Zweilous was in, Ghetsis gave the order.

"Fire up the laser. Make sure to keep it steady, and watch for any sign of that thing's energy levels fluctuating."

"Yes, sir," the first scientist replied, pressing a few buttons on the control panel. The other kept a close eye on the monitor in front of him.

Through the glass window, a machine attached to the ceiling whirred to life. Various red lights on it powered up, glowing. Slowly, it began to move along its rail until it was about a foot from the Zweilous. The Pokémon thrashed against its restraints, but they were simply too strong.

"It's energy levels are steady, despite how much it's struggling," the scientist watching the monitor reported.

"Good," Ghetsis said. "Ready?" At the other scientist's nod, he simply said, "Do it."

The man flipped a switch, and the machine began to fire a red-hot laser from its tip, leaving a scorch mark in the floor. It moved closer to one of the unfortunate Zweilous's two necks. There was no blood, gore, or anything of the sort as the Hostile Pokémon had a head cut off, nor had anyone expected there to be. Pokémon were unlike any other beings in the universe, comprised of solid energy, and nothing more. This was why they were unable to kill each other, as the energy of their attacks and energy that made up their bodies canceled each other out, preventing fatal damage. Even the fabled Hoenn deities of the land and sea, Groudon and Kyogre, could not kill a measly Caterpie. In fact, as the decapitated head fell to the floor, it dissolved into a white mist.

"That's all we need to do," Ghetsis said. "Shut it down."

With the turn of a knob, the laser was powered down. Beginning at the stump on the end of its neck, a white glow began to envelop the Zweilous's body. The glow spread, until it had completely covered the Hostile Pokémon. Its form became larger, more fearsome, more deadly. To the horror of the scientists, the restraints holding the evolving Zweilous down began to snap due to its changing body shape.

"Sh-should we be worried, sir?" the second scientist asked. Ghetsis just shot him a dark look that said, 'Say one more word and you share your predecessor's fate.' That got the man to quickly shut up. The scientist had good reason to be worried. He had heard of the destructive power of Hydreigon, but had never witnessed it, and he didn't want to.

He was destined to be disappointed.

The glow around the Zweilous faded. In its place was the three-headed, six-winged terror known as Hydreigon. A freed, and very, very angry Hydreigon. The Pokémon snarled up at the laser emitter, then flew up the several feet it needed to reach it. It quickly ripped the machine to bits, literally tearing it down and rending the metal. It then, seemingly in an insane fit of pain, began to throw its body around, hitting the walls hard enough to dent them.

Nervously, the second scientist called the two guards with the Fighting-types over the intercom. "...We could use some help subduing that thing, please."

Two men entered the cautiously, each throwing out Poke Balls that opened to reveal humanoid Fighting-types: the squat, red-skinned Judo expert called Throh, and the lean, blue-skinned Karate master known as Sawk.

The rampaging Hydreigon whipped its heads towards the intruders. It let out a roar that Ghetsis and the scientists could hear even behind the pane of thick glass. The Sawk's Trainer gave the first command. "Sawk, use Rock Smash!" he called. The blue Pokémon leaped into action, hitting the crazed Dark/Dragon-type with a pressure-point striking punch. The Hydreigon screamed as it was hit with the super-effective attack, flying across the room and hitting the wall hard. It was far from finished, though. It got right back back up, and swooped, not towards the Sawk, but towards its Trainer.

Luckily, the Throh's Trainer was there to provide backup. "Seismic Toss, now!"

Throh intercepted the Hydreigon, grabbing it and tossing it to the floor. Despite being hit with two attacks, the beast was still not down for the count. It got back up yet again, knowing that if it took one more hit, it would faint. When it attacked this time, though, it truly showed its power, unleashing a devastating Dragon Pulse at the Sawk.

At such close range, the blue Pokémon didn't have a hope in hell of dodging the multi-coloured beam. It was struck hard, and due to Sawk being a glass cannon defensively- that was, it could hit hard, but couldn't take a hit- it went down, condensing back into the energy it was as its Trainer recalled it to its Poké Ball.

The Hydreigon then turned its attention to the Throh. It used the scant few seconds of shock that came over its Trainer to viciously attack the Judo Pokémon, biting and attacking with savage bloodlust. "Throh!" the Trainer yelled. "Dammit, get out of there!"

At the sound of the human's voice, the Hydreigon stopped trying to gore the poor Throh, and gathered flames in its maw, launching what looked like a five-pointed star made of fire at him. The man was killed instantly as the Fire Blast made contact, and also turned the sealed room's temperature up several hundred degrees in a second. The Sawk's Trainer shrieked as he was cooked alive. The scientists in the adjoining room were rooted to their seats in fear, but Ghetsis was watching with a perverse sense of awe at what he was witnessing. He smiled to himself. Perfect, he thought.

Then, without warning, the Hydreigon began to gather yellow energy in front of it, congealing it into a sphere. Ghetsis's smile vanished in a heartbeat. "It's charging up a Focus Blast!" one of the scientists yelled. "Everyone, down!"

Despite the glass being made to withstand heavy impacts, it was no match for the Hydreigon's sheer power. The pane shattered instantly as the bolt of kinetic energy hit it, sending deadly shrapnel flying at the three men. Ghetsis dove to the floor, but not quite fast enough. Several stray pieces of glass hit his right arm, tearing the sleeve of his lab coat and drawing blood, while one sliced across his eye, blinding it immediately. Unfortunately for him, adrenaline didn't enter his system right away, so the pain was acute.

The scientist on the left had managed to duck in time and avoid the shards, but the other had not been so lucky. His body was slumped forwards, pierced in dozens of places by razor-sharp glass. The still-living scientist pressed the intercom button on the still functioning control panel and began to yell frantically. "We need backup down here! We need-!" he never finished his sentence, as another Focus Blast turned him into meat juice, sending blood and various bits of guts flying everywhere.

"Gah..." clutching the bleeding side of his face, Ghetsis stood, pulling out Bisharp's Poké Ball and releasing the Sword Blade Pokémon. "Bisharp... nhhgh... X-Scissor!" The only other weakness of Dark-types was Bug, and X-Scissor was a Bug-type move. The Bisharp ran at the Hydreigon, its arm-blades glowing green and crossed in an 'x' shape, ready to slash, but it was cut down in a heartbeat by another Fire Blast from the insane Dragon-type.

Ghetsis looked upon the beast with the same sense of awe as before, despite a growing voice in his head telling him he should run for his life. The monster truly was a perfect killing machine, and would have no trouble accomplishing the task he had in mind for it. He heard footsteps out in the hall, moving closer. Apparently the dead scientist's final message had gotten through. He just needed to hold out a little longer...

The Hydreigon let loose one more Fire Blast right at him. Ghetsis almost dodged the fiery five-pointed star, but it caught him on the arm, setting it ablaze. He screamed in pain, rolling around on the floor, trying to smother the flames. As the monstrous dragon opened its mouth for one final Dragon Pulse, a blue blur came out of nowhere and slammed into the beast. The Hydreigon smashed into the wall on the far side of the room and landed in a heap, at last knocked out. In shock that he was still alive, if wounded and burned, Ghetsis passed out, and everything went black.

 

Long Way to Fall

By: Rylek196

Prologue 2: The Crowning​

Unknown location, 10:00 PM

The torches were lit, illuminating the great throne room hall, casting flickering shadows upon the walls.

The banners that bore the organization's emblem were hung, watchful sentinels over the proceedings. The sages and lesser members were gathered.

All was ready.

Holding a small purple pillow upon which a golden crown sat, Ghetsis walked through the hall towards an ornate throne. He had long changed out of his lab coat, now wearing a fancy cloak more suitable for the ceremony that was about to begin- the crowning of the king of Team Plasma.

"Today!" he announced, "Is a glorious day! After many years, the king is finally ready to bear the honor of the task of Liberation! Liberation of Pokémon from the selfish, disgusting Trainers that abuse and enslave them!" He spat the word 'Trainer' out of his mouth like it was a toxin he had accidentally ingested.

The six sages, and a large gathering of lesser members of the organization, lining the hall, all cheered. Ghetsis let them have their moment, then held up his hands to silence them. "Bring forth the king!"

On cue, a young man, clothed in elegant robes fit for royalty, appeared at the end of the hallway. He had tea-green hair, much like Ghetsis himself, but his was much longer and trailed down his back in a bushy ponytail. He was flanked on either side by two women, Anthea and Concordia. The young man slowly, and almost reverently, walked down the carpeted floor towards the throne. Ghetsis moved aside briefly, letting the young man stand in front of the ornate chair.

Ghetsis held the crown high above his head with both hands, revealing his badly burned right arm. Thankfully, a (less-than-willing) skin donor had prevented the need for amputation, but the wounds were still visible, and permanent.

As the crown was lowered onto his head, the young man closed his eyes, thinking of his early childhood. He remembered being alone, with no one to raise him save for wild Pokémon. He also remembered how Ghetsis- his father- had found him, and taken him home, taught him of the dangers and selfish abuse Trainers gave to their Pokémon, how important it was to separate them and let Pokémon be free, perfect beings. All of it had led to this day...

Then, feeling the weight of the crown upon his head, he opened his eyes again, the reminiscing over.

Cheers of, "Long live the king!" broke out in the hall, while Anthea and Concordia looked on from the sidelines.

The young man raised his left arm to call for silence once more, opening his mouth to speak. "As king of Team Plasma, I, Natural Harmonia Gropius, swear to lead the world into a new and better age! I will embrace this solemn and and sacred duty wholeheartedly, and liberate Pokémon from Trainers that have abused them for far too long! Humans will no longer cruelly oppress Pokémon! This, I promise on my life!"

While all this was being said, Ghetsis was doing some recollections of his own. He had been saved by an Accelgor, a lightning-fast Bug-type, owned by a member of his most loyal servants- the Shadow Triad. The mad Hydreigon had been confined to a special Poké Ball that would only open when the central button was clicked three times in rapid succession. He had been warned to never open it until it was time, and to recall the crazed dragon immediately after its task was done. Surgeons had operated on his injured eye, but there was nothing they could do, and it had to be removed. Ghetsis now wore a red monocle of sorts to cover the scar.

The room in the P2 Laboratory where the Zweilous had forcibly evolved had suffered heavy damage, and as a result, project GENESECT had to be put on hold, at least for two years. Still, these were minor setbacks. Ghetsis allowed to himself to smile. Yes, everything was going as planned...

A/N: Yeah, short chapter, I know. Next one will be longer. Side note here: Can I mention how posting these chapters here is really, really annoying? Copy-pasting the chapters from the LibreOffice docs to the forum post box screws up the formatting, puts too much space between each paragraph and I have to put them back together... Grr... (Oh, and Wings, if you're reading this, is this what you meant when you said this chapter needed more atmosphere? If so, I aim to please.)

 

A/N: Alright, we're in uncharted territory here, folks. This chapter is entirely exclusive to Lake Valor, meaning it is not on FFN (and won't be for literal years), so you guys are the first to see it! You lucky people, you! Sad news, however: This is likely the last post I'll make on this thread until the story is done on FFN, which will take another few years. Basically, if you're wanting an update in this thread to come soon, and you're holding your breath for it... well, don't blame me if you die of asphyxiation before that happens.

Long Way to Fall

By: Rylek196

Chapter 1: Childhood
​

Eight years earlier...

​

"Five...Four...Three...Two...One... Ready or not, here I come!" six-year-old Hilbert Warren said, turning around and opening his eyes. Like he expected, his two friends, Cheren Weiss and Bianca Kinway, were nowhere to be found. Still, the young boy WAS going to find them. That was the point of hide-and-seek, after all. On top of that, there weren't many places to hide in their small town of Nuvema, and if worst came to worst, he could just ask around, and people would happily rat out Bianca and Cheren for him.

Smirking at that last thought, he then began scouring along Nuvema's dirt pathways. The rules of the game the three friends (and their parents) had agreed upon was that the interior of any of their own houses was a viable hiding place.

A tiny hamlet located in the southeastern corner of the Unova region, Nuvema consisted of eight houses, with his, Bianca's, and Cheren's houses in a row of four with one other house facing south, while the other four houses were placed above those in another row facing north. The last building in the town was a combination house and lab for Cedric Juniper and his eighteen-year-old daughter, Aurea, though the pair was rarely around, with Cedric out doing research and Aurea off in college at Castelia City.

For the next five minutes, Hilbert ran through Nuvema Town, checking the sides of and behind houses, his loose blue T-shirt flapping in the wind. His brown hair was covered by a baseball cap with a half-red, half-white design, with a black Poké Ball insignia on the front. In truth, he knew exactly where Bianca was, but wanted to prolong the game because he found it fun.

Sure enough, when he looked on the right side of the northeastern-most house, there she was, her back turned to him, her off-white clothing and blonde hair sticking out against the burgundy-red bricks. He smirked again. He could finish this without even needing to chase her, and then she would be 'it' next game.

With soft footsteps, he crept up behind her, and yelled, "BOO!" in his high-pitched voice. Bianca shrieked and whirled around, but it was too late. Hilbert had already touched her on the shoulder. Now, not only was she 'it' next round, now, she had to help him track down Cheren.

"Hilbert!" Bianca whined, "Don't do that!" And how do you always find me so fast every time?"

"It's 'cause you pick the same hiding spot every time, Bianca!" Hilbert said. "That's why I find you so fast. You're very pre... pre..." he trailed off in his speech, trying to find the right word and failing. "Well, you're easy to guess, is all."

The girl crossed her thin arms, her face falling. "...This means I have to help you find Cheren, right?" She sighed, hating the fact that she was going to have the impossible task of finding Hilbert and Cheren next time. Out of dozens of games, she had never found them without help.

Hilbert's face, on the other hand, brightened, a smile dimpling his cheeks as he nodded. "Mhm-hm! Now c'mon! Cheren's not gonna catch himself!"

For the next twenty minutes, they looked all over Nuvema Town, including thoroughly checking their own houses with help from their respective parents. Hilbert knew that Cheren was rather intelligent, and never gave up a game without effort.

The pair then checked the last place they knew Cheren was allowed to hide as per the rules: His own house. However, even there, they came up empty-handed, and in defeat, they went downstairs to talk to Cheren's parents to get the black-haired boy to give up. Just as they went into the kitchen where the two adults were having lunch, they heard the front door slam. Hilbert and Bianca both exchanged a look, and then raced to the door, throwing it open, catching a glimpse of Cheren running to the left, to the side of the house. Apparently, he planned on switching hiding spots to give them the slip.

"I'll take one side, you take the other!" Hilbert yelled as he ran in the same direction as Cheren. "We'll cut him off!"

"Okay!" Bianca said, taking the opposite direction around the house. Cheren soon found himself cornered, but didn't give up, trying to run ahead of him, but Hilbert caught him before he could, giving him a rough shove- far rougher than it needed to be. Cheren nearly faceplanted into the grass, but just managed to put his arms out in front of him to catch himself.

"Hilbert!" Bianca said in horror, "That was too much!"

"What?" Hilbert replied with total nonchalance. "He's fine." He helped Cheren to his feet, who started laughing.

"I... I can't believe you two missed me!" he said between bouts of laughter. "I was hiding in the closet, and y-you didn't even think to check there! Hahahaha!"

Despite Cheren's joviality, Bianca felt uneasy. There was something about the unnecessary force Hilbert had used (and this wasn't the first time, either), and his total lack of caring about the consequences that bothered her. There was just an air of subtle aggression about him. Nonetheless, she didn't dwell on it, as it was time for the next game.

Things went predictably. Bianca, for the life of her, couldn't find Hilbert or Cheren, as their methods of hiding were far more crafty, and so she enlisted the help of her neighbors, who pointed her in the right direction. After that, having gotten bored of hide-and-seek, the three children just lay in a circle on their backs, watching the clouds go by. Hilbert had taken off his cap and placed it in the center of them all, not wishing to get grass stains on it by wearing it while laying down. The hat meant a lot to him, having been gifted it by his father shortly before the man had left two years ago.

"Hey, that cloud looks like a Swablu!" Bianca cried, pointing upwards.

"Of course it does, Bianca," Cheren sighed. "Swablu have clouds for wings."

"Oh... Well I knew that!" the blonde girl snapped in a meager effort to defend herself. Deciding to change the subject lest she make herself sound even more foolish, she said, "Hey, speaking of Pokémon, what do think we'll do when we're on our adventures after we get ours?"

Both Hilbert and Cheren were silent for a moment at that, then Hilbert said, quietly, "I don't know. But just... think about it. We'll be grown up by then, able to explore on our own... It'll be great!" His voice was steadily growing more enthusiastic. "We'll see the all the places Unova has to offer, meet all kinds of people and Pokémon... I can't wait to experience it! We'll get stronger, beat the Gym Leaders... maybe we'll be lucky enough to battle the Elite Four! Maybe even become Champion!"

Unknown to both Bianca and Hilbert, a ravenous look was growing in Cheren's eyes at Hilbert's words, especially at the 'battle the Elite Four and become Champion' part. The black-haired boy could practically taste the adulation he would receive from that accomplishment. Cheren decided, right there and then, that that was what he wanted to do on his journey when the time came. 'Become the Champion of Unova' would be his ultimate goal.

"Hey," Hilbert then said, rolling over onto his stomach, resting his head in his palms, "When we're on our Pokémon journeys, let's agree to back each other up when we need it." He extended an arm, his pinkie finger outstretched towards Cheren and Bianca, who were now on their stomachs as well. They both nodded, wrapping their own pinkie fingers around Hilbert's.

"Promise!" they all said simultaneously.

That night, before Hilbert was tucked into bed by his mother, Julia, he turned on the small TV in his room, and after a few minutes of flipping through channels, happened upon a live broadcast from the faraway region of Orre, where a Trainer clad in a black trench coat the announcer called Wes was battling an evil-looking man named Evice.

What followed would haunt the young boy's nightmares for days, but also leave him strangely fascinated in a morbid way. The battle on TV was utterly brutal, with both Wes and Evice's Pokémon fighting savagely. It was clear to even the six-year-old that there was something at stake in this battle. Eventually, Wes was able to win by capturing the terror of Evice's team, a Tyranitar, in an Ultra Ball.

When his mother came into the room, she started to scold him for staying up so late, but seeing the shellshocked look in her son's eyes, she comforted him, drawing the young boy into her arms to calm him down.

A few years later, Hilbert would learn the truth behind that battle. Evice was actually the leader of an evil crime syndicate called Cipher, dedicated to the conquest of the world. They preformed unspeakable experiments on Pokémon, turning them into soulless monsters used only to destroy. Wes, by thwarting Cipher, had, in turn, essentially saved the world. Hilbert could only hope his journey never took that path, but a small part of him longed for it, to experience the violence that it would bring. Much as he tried to push that part of himself down, though, he found it never totally went away.

 

A/N: Alright, I lied last time. You all get one more chapter of this before it really does go dormant, mostly because there's exposition and other stuff I really don't want to screw with until the version on FFN is done.

Long Way to Fall

By: Rylek196

Chapter 2: Your First Pokémon!
​

Eight years later...

Time passed as per the will of Dialga from that day, aging and maturing the three children from Nuvema Town. As the sun rose on a mild day in early March, a now-adolescent Hilbert woke from sleep, feeling grumpy because of the nightmare he been visited by the previous night. While there was something cool to be said about being a giant monster, it was significantly less cool when you felt the pain of getting stabbed in the head as said giant monster. Nightmare aside, he did his best to stay positive as he rolled out of bed and walked to shower, a fresh set of clothes in hand. After all, today was a day he had been looking forward to for a long time.

Just over two weeks before, his mother had sent out an email asking for, received, and filled out a government forum that allowed for him to legally become a Pokémon Trainer. Just a few days after she sent the forum off to the government offices located on Unity Island off the coast of Castelia City, a parcel had arrived at his door that contained both his Trainer Card and a blue Unova League Badge Case. The card came pre-loaded with 3000 Pokedollars, and had a small headshot of himself printed on the back. The case, on the other hand, was to hold any and all Gym Badges he won, assuming he won any to begin with.

As Hilbert shampooed his hair, he thought about what he would do on his impending journey. His aim was to maybe win a few Badges to start, and go for them all if it worked out. If he was feeling ambitious after succeeding in that goal, he would definitely try challenging the Elite Four.

Hilbert stepped out of the shower, put on a fresh pair of boxer shorts and a pair of black jeans, and looked at his shirtless form in the mirror. Time had changed him into a handsome, if slimly-built and out-of-shape, young man of fourteen. His hair had grown as he aged, and now spiked up in the back, almost like a crown of horns. His light-brown eyes appraised himself briefly before he decided to weigh himself on the bathroom's scale. The digital display showed 115 pounds as soon as stepped on it. Hilbert wasn't delusional enough to think that excess weight came from muscle.

Well, if there's one thing this journey will definitely do, it's whip me into shape, he thought jokingly, and then put on a black T-shirt and zipped up his two-toned blue jacket. His mother had bought him a similar, if smaller, one for his twelfth birthday, and he had absolutely fallen in love with the design. Since then, jackets of its type had more-or-less become his signature item of clothing, aside from his hat, of course. He kept it hanging off his bedroom doorknob, and as he picked it up, he was hit with an inexplicable feeling of melancholy thinking about the man who gave him the headwear.

Dad... where did you go? he thought. A flash of anger tore through him without warning, and he clenched the hat tightly in his fists. Hayden Warren, his father, left him and his mother ten years ago for reasons unknown, even to his mother. Hilbert had barely gotten to know him before he vanished, seemingly into thin air. He didn't hate the man- he never knew him well enough to form an opinion of him- he just hated the fact that he never got the chance to know him.

The doorbell rang from downstairs, cutting through and dissipating his anger in a heartbeat. He bounded out of his room and down the stairs, but his mother, who was already awake, was faster. She had already opened the door, and was speaking with Professor Juniper, who was standing on the doorstep.

Behind the Pokémon expert, holding a cardboard box and tapping his foot impatiently, was Cheren. The black-haired boy was dressed in a white T-shirt with a red stripe down the middle, black skinny jeans that contrasted against Hilbert's baggier ones. and a blue jacket somewhat similar to Hilbert's, though his had a higher collar that was adorned with faux Mareep wool, and lacked a hood. He also now wore glasses, as his eyesight had begun to fail him starting at age nine. He pushed the eyewear up on his nose, the lenses glinting in the morning sun. Despite his somewhat nerdy appearance, Cheren actually was in better shape, and had a thicker build, than Hilbert.

Meanwhile, Julia Warren was just finishing up her conversation with Professor Juniper, who walked back to her lab, Julia doing the same to the kitchen.

"Finally," Cheren said as he marched into Hilbert's house, closing the door behind him. "I thought they'd never be done talking."

Hilbert just rolled his eyes at Cheren's rude comment, but then his gaze was drawn to the box Cheren held. "I think I know what's in there," he said, his eyes gleaming with anticipation.

"And you would correct in that thinking, my friend," Cheren replied, smirking. "What I have here is our future, because in this box are the three Pokémon that will lead us to our destiny! Let's go upstairs and open it right now!"

Hilbert nodded, following Cheren to the stairs, but was stopped by his mother's voice. "Hang on, you two," she said, having overheard their entire talk. "You haven't had breakfast yet, have you, Hilbert? Come get something to eat. It's scrambled eggs with extra peppers, just the way you like it."

That got Hilbert's attention, and he actually perked up slightly. "You go ahead, Cheren. Get everything ready. I'm not passing up on this."

A change seemed to come over Cheren in a millisecond, his expression darkening. "Fine," he said in a low, quiet voice, almost a growl. "But you better not take too long. I've been waiting for this for a long time, and you better not slow me down."

Hilbert's eyebrows furrowed, his eyes narrowing. "And what do you mean by that?" he said in a challenging tone.

"Just. Don't. Take. Too. Long." Cheren hissed. With that, he walked up the stairs, and was gone.

Hilbert gave a frown, moving back to the kitchen, his nostrils picking up the scent of freshly made scrambled eggs.

"What's gotten into Cheren these days?" his mother asked, turning off the stove.

Hilbert just shrugged, getting a plate out of a cupboard. "Beats me. I think he's got hopes of beating the Pokémon League. At least that's what he told me. He seems to be taking that goal a little too seriously, though, huh?"

"Well, I can't fault him for being ambitious," his mother said. "But this is your big day too, and for that..." She walked over holding the frying pan, scooping scrambled eggs filled with diced red and green peppers onto Hilbert's waiting plate. "I made you an extra-large amount." She kissed him on the cheek. "Congratulations on becoming a Trainer, honey."

"Thanks, Mom."

Hilbert began to dig into his food, but was barely halfway done eating when Cheren's voice yelled from upstairs, "HILBERT, COME ON! I'M GETTING OLD HERE!"

"Fuck," Hilbert hissed under his breath, so low his mother couldn't hear it. "Well, so much for breakfast, I guess," he muttered. "Sorry Mom, it seems someone is a little impatient to open that box."

"Oh, it's fine, sweetheart," his mother said. "Those won't go to waste. I'll just have the rest myself!"

Hilbert chuckled at her comment, but his expression turned sour as soon as he started going up the stairs. The house he lived in was a small, two-story, two-bedroom two-bathroom arrangement. Just like every other house in Nuvema Town, it was ideal for a small family. His mother had gifted him the master bedroom as soon as he turned ten, explaining the presence of its adjoining bathroom. She had done this, Hilbert suspected, to get away from the memories of her long-gone husband, though she never outright told him the reason for her decision.

At the top of the stairs and down a hallway was his room, and he stopped in front of the door. An angry Cheren was not high on the list of things he wanted to deal with today, but it appeared unavoidable. "What the hell was that about?" he demanded as he walked into the room. "Would it have killed you to wait a few more minutes? And did you really have to friggin' yell?"

"Well, yeah, I did. You wouldn't have heard me otherwise. It got you up here, didn't it?" Cheren's face was the definition of smugness.

"Missing. The. Point. Man," Hilbert said, clearly irritated.

"Hilbert, come on," Cheren said, putting his hands up in a gesture of innocence. "You know I didn't mean anything by it. I'm just excited is all, and waiting is... kind of a bother. Weren't you over the moon about being a Trainer when we were kids? What's with the sudden change of heart?"

"There hasn't been one," Hilbert said. "It's just that unlike you, I have some damn patience. We still have to wait for Bianca, anyway, so there was no point in calling me up here!" And by now Mom's probably eaten the rest of my eggs... he mentally added in a disgruntled manner.

"You're right on that," Cheren sighed. He then glanced towards the box now sitting on the nightstand next to Hilbert's futon bed, something Hilbert was not blind to. "Just imagine it, though... Becoming strong and famous, fighting with the best of them- or hell, even being mentioned in the same breath as the Legendary Trainers like Brendan Ruby, Gold Hibiki, or even Red Fire!" A look similar to a crazed animal was growing in Cheren's blue eyes, and Hilbert was disturbed by it.

"Calm down, there, Mr. Ambitious," he said. "You do realize that won't happen overnight, right? And that they all went through a lot of hell to get that recognition? Let's just watch TV for a bit while waiting for Bianca, okay?"

"Alright," Cheren grumbled. Hilbert turned on the big flat-screen TV (which just so happened to have been bought by his father) against the wall opposite his bed, and the two sat down after finding the movie 'The Hero of Time' playing on a particular channel. However, as the minutes dragged by, Hilbert found himself tuning out the film, thinking instead of the various so-called 'Legendary Trainers' Cheren had made reference to: Brendan Ruby of the Hoenn region, Ethan 'Gold' Hibiki of Johto, and Red Fire of Kanto. All three regions were far away from Unova.

Brendan Orlando Ruby had, at age twelve, defeated the two maniacal eco-terrorist organizations of Team Aqua and Team Magma, saving the world from their plans to radically and apocalyptically alter the planet's weather. Not only that, he had also beaten the Hoenn region Champion, Wallace, and now ran a place called the Battle Frontier with his childhood sweetheart whom he had recently married, May Anna Ruby, who was formerly known as May Anna Birch. One of his close friends, a Trainer named Wally, had become one of the Frontier Brains, intensely strong Trainers who ran the Battle Frontier's many battling facilities.

Gold had been a child prodigy. At the tender age of eleven, he had taken down once and for all the infamous criminal syndicate called Team Rocket. He had also trekked across his home region of Johto and the neighboring Kanto, winning all the Badges from the Gym Leaders of both countries (this is where his nickname of 'Gold' came from, as he was known as 'the gold standard of Trainers'), and had faced Red atop the hallowed, freezing peak of Mt. Silver. The lights from their battle were said to be so bright, they turned the night into day for several kilometres around, and could be seen from Indigo Plateau, the site of the Kanto-Johto Pokémon League. (In truth, the former Champion, Lance, actually had).

As for Red- DING-DONG. For the second time that day, Hilbert's train of thought was cut off by the doorbell ringing. "I'll get it!" Hilbert's mother called from downstairs.

"That must be Bianca," Cheren said as Hilbert shut off the television. Sure enough, less than a minute later, Bianca walked into the room, closing the door behind her. Bianca wore an orange vest over a white, puffy-shouldered shirt, a white skirt that went down to her shins, orange leggings under that, and a green hat that looked like an oversized beret was on her head.

"Hi, guys!" she said. "Um, am I late? You two seem like you've been here a while."

"That's because we have been," Cheren answered with a slight edge to his tone, but then he just sighed. "For the love of Arceus, Bianca, I've always known you have no sense of time, but really? Today of all days?"

"Oh, well excuuuuse me!" Bianca shot back. "It's not my fault my alarm clock's batteries died! Or that... that..." she trailed off, looking suddenly downtrodden.

"What? What is it?" Cheren asked.

"I-it's nothing. Nothing at all," the blonde girl said, causing Hilbert and Cheren to both give her questioning looks. Clearly, there was more than met the eye with what Bianca was saying, but they weren't going to pry into her personal business, either.

There was a silence for a few seconds, broken by Hilbert saying, "Anyway... let's open that box, shall we?"

Both Cheren and Bianca agreed, and the three friends turned their attention to the box on the nightstand. "Oh?" Hilbert noticed something taped to the box's lid. "There's a note here..." He took the note off the box and read it aloud. "I've brought three Pokémon, one for you and one for each of your friends. Please settle your choices politely. Enjoy your Pokémon! -Professor Juniper." Hilbert finished reading the note, then peeled off the tape holding the lid in place with his fingernails, and opened the box. Chere and Bianca huddled closer as the lid came off. There, inside a foam inlay, were three red-and-white Poke Balls, polished to a mirror sheen.

Cheren spoke first. "They look so awesome... Finally, I'm going to be a Trainer..."

Sadly, even as his arm reached for one of the spheres of its own free will, Bianca was keen to cut him off.

"Ooh! Ooh! I want first pick!" Bianca cried, pushing Hilbert out of the way, only for Cheren to lightly slap her arm down as she reached for a Poké Ball.

"Geez, you're even more eager than me!" he said. "But I have bad news for ya: I get first pick because I did the most research beforehand!"

From there, Cheren and Bianca began to argue with each other over who got first pick of their starter. All the while, Hilbert's face got steadily more furious, until he exploded. "ENOUGH!" he yelled. "What did Juniper say on the note? 'Please settle your choices politely!' How damn hard is that!? Stop acting like snot-nosed brats!"

Cheren and Bianca stopped what they were doing immediately. Hilbert was quick to anger, and they had both foolishly forgotten this fact. Not letting up his advantage, Hilbert continued. "You don't even know which starter is in which Poké Ball, do you? So tell me, how the hell were either of you gonna get what you wanted?" His nostrils were still flaring as he breathed heavily from anger.

Much as I hate to admit it, he's right, Cheren thought. "W-well, check the underside of the lid or something. Maybe there's information there."

Hilbert snatched up the lid he had discarded onto the floor, looking at the underside. Sure enough, there were pictures of each Pokémon, which ball contained what, and their genders. ..."You're right," he said. "Everything's here. Good call, man." He pointed to the Poké Ball on the left hand side. "That one contains Snivy, the Grass Snake Pokémon. It's a female."

Snivy was a small, green, reptilian creature, with large red eyes, a cream-coloured belly, and a tail that resembled a three-pronged leaf. In the photo that had been taken of it, it looked rather snobby, like it knew everything, and wasn't afraid to tell the world such. Match made in heaven for you, Cheren, Hilbert thought. He then pointed to the Poké Ball on the right. "That one has Tepig, the Fire Pig Pokémon. It and the last starter are both male."

Tepig was a quadrupedal, orange, pig. It had a pink ball on the end of its curly tail, a thick yellow stripe on its snout, and curious-looking eyes. Hilbert actually thought it looked rather cute in its picture. Bianca, who was watching over his shoulder without his knowledge, apparently thought so too.

"Oh, my gosh, that thing is absolutely adorable!" she squealed, giving Hilbert a start. Shooting her a dirty look, he nonetheless ruled out picking Tepig, as she clearly wanted it for herself.

"And last but not least, we have Oshowatt, the Sea Otter Pokémon," he finished, pointing the Poké Ball in the middle.

Oshawott was an otter-like creature. Its body was light blue in colour, while its arms and head were white. Two small, dark blue ears, the same colour as its feet and rudder-like tail, were present on its head. The most notable thing about Oshawott though, was the pale yellow seashell on its belly. In the picture, Oshawott was smiling cutely towards the camera, revealing two pointed teeth in its mouth.

"Well, I guess because the box was delivered to Hilbert's house, he gets first pick, right?" Bianca said.

"And because you two were acting so immature," Hilbert added. "Now I hope neither of you wanted Oshawott, because I'm choosing him!" He picked the ball up out of its spot in the inlay, holding it up to his face, seeing his reflection in the shiny metal. "Looks like you're comin' with me, buddy!"

"Then I get dibs on Tepig!" Bianca cried, picking up the rightmost Poké Ball. She then handed Cheren the last remaining ball. "And that leaves Snivy for you!"

"That's actually perfect. I wanted Snivy from the start anyways. According to my research, it'll have the best defenses and speed out of the three when it evolves. I'm curious, though... what made you guys pick yours?"

"Simple," Hilbert said, smirking. "I think this Oshawott has some serious potential. Plus, look at this thing's picture and then my jacket. We match, see?"

Cheren just sighed in exasperation. You're clueless, Hilbert.

Bianca's reason, on the other hand, was even more shallow. "Um... I just picked it 'cause I thought it looked cute..?"

Cheren face-palmed, the sound making an audible smack from the force. "You should never... ever pick a Pokémon based on its looks alone, Bianca. Stats and type are what matter. That's why I studied beforehand, so I could pick the starter I thought was best for me."

"Sounds like you think I made a bad choice."

"Maybe you did."

"You take that back!" Bianca snapped. "There's only one way to know for sure, and that's to have a battle! I'm challenging you, Cheren. Right here, right now!"

Hilbert's eyebrows shot up into his hairline. "In here!? Are you nuts!? You'll trash the place!"

"Then why don't you join in, try and stop us?" Cheren smirked at Hilbert.

Hilbert growled, his fists clenching, but Bianca overrode him by piping up. "Yeah! It could be an awesome three-way free-for-all! It'll be extra satisfying too, when I win."

"We'll see about that," Cheren said in a friendly yet challenging tone. Bianca just stuck her tongue out at him.

"Okay, fine! I'll join in!" Hilbert snapped. He let out an angry sigh. "I know I'm gonna regret this, and if my room gets trashed..." he left the implied threat hanging.

"Does the info on the lid say what level they all are?" Cheren asked.

Hilbert looked at the lid again. "Uh... 5."

"Perfect!" Cheren said, rubbing his hands together like a mad scientist from an old movie. "Then they all at least know Tackle. We can have our first battle now!" Clicking the button on the Poké Ball's center twice, the capsule opened, and in a flash of bluish-white energy, Snivy appeared, letting out a preening hum.

"Weren't you supposed to throw the ball?" Bianca asked.

"No, that's not strictly necessary," Cheren replied. "The throwing motion opens the ball automatically, true, but the reason people throw them to begin with is to get the Pokémon as far away from them as possible before the battle starts. These things are dangerous when they're fully evolved, and no one wants to get caught in the crossfire of a battle."

"Yeah, that makes me feel soooo much better about doing this in my room," Hilbert muttered, his tone dripping with sarcasm.

"Relax, Hilbert, I said when they're fully evolved," Cheren reassured him. "The ones we have are still weak, so they shouldn't do too much damage."

"Okay, Tepig!" Bianca said, clicking the center button on her starter's Poké Ball, "Come on out!" In another flash of energy, the Fire Pig Pokémon materialized with an excited oinking noise. "Aww!" It's just as cute as it looked in the picture!" Bianca cried in joy.

As Bianca fawned over her Tepig, Hilbert clicked his Poké Ball's central button. "Alright, Oshawott, let's show 'em what you can do." There was a third flash, and the blue Water-type appeared, slapping the floor several times with its tail.

"Okay, Bianca, you stand over there," Cheren said, pointing to the left wall. The only thing there was the door to the bathroom, which Bianca closed to prevent the fight from spilling into there, as well. "HIlbert, take the right. The TV wall is mine."

HIlbert and Cheren took their positions. "Everyone ready?" Cheren asked, to which the other two nodded. "Then let's do this!"

"Alright, Tepig, go straight for Oshawott! Use Tackle!" Bianca cried. Tepig followed his Trainer's command, making a headlong beeline right for Oshawott, who cried out in fear and dove to the side. Tepig then rammed into the wall, narrowly missing Hilbert, punching a hole in the wall and getting its head stuck.

"Holy crap!" Hilbert yelled. He whipped his head towards Cheren. "I thought you said these things wouldn't do any damage!"

"I said they wouldn't do too much damage, Hilbert," Cheren said, shrugging. "Besides, it's not my room, and we need to do this to get some battling practice given how many other Trainers we'll be fighting on our journeys. Speaking of that, Snivy, attack Tepig while it's open, then go for Oshawott!"

"Oh no! Tepig, come on! Get-!" It was too late The Grass Snake Pokémon had already ran up to and slammed Tepig from the side. The Fire Pig Pokémon let out a squeal as it was hit, but the blow had the side-effect of loosening its head, allowing it to rip it free, covered in drywall dust. Tepig shook the powder out of its eyes, dazed.

"I won't let you get away with that, Cheren!" Bianca cried. "Tepig, go after Snivy! Take it out!"

Snivy, however, had already moved on to attack Oshawott. It slammed its body into the Sea Otter Pokémon from a running start, sending it flying onto Hilbert's bed in the corner of the room. Cheren, you son of a bitch, Hilbert thought, finally ordering his Pokémon to do something. "Oshawott, get up! Tackle Snivy!"

Snivy yelled as both Oshawott and Tepig ran for it, eager for a little revenge.

"Do something, Snivy!" Cheren commanded, but could only watch as his starter took a simultaneous Tackle from the other two, sending it sailing into a wall, denting the drywall.

Hilbert winced at the beating his room was taking. The sheets on his bed were disheveled, there were holes in two separate walls, and he had a feeling the battle was far from over. I don't think Mom's gonna be happy...

"Snivy, GET UP!" Cheren growled. His starter got to its feet, shaking its head. "Use Tackle again! Go for Tepig!"

The battle kept going for nearly ten minutes, and it was a complete seesaw, with someone having the upper hand, but then quickly having that position of advantage knocked away from them by someone else. It all ended when Oshawott was cornered with its back to a bookshelf located to the left side of the TV. Tepig and Snivy both ran at the Water-type, expecting an easy knockout, but Oshawott leapfrogged over Tepig, causing it and Snivy to crash headfirst into the shelf. It teetered, shook, and began to tip forward. "Oshawott, get outta there!" Hilbert yelled. Too little, too late. The bookshelf toppled over onto the three Pokémon, knocking them all out with an almighty CRASH.

"Uh oh," Cheren gulped. The three friends were stunned into silence for a second, then they all ran towards the bookshelf, lifting it off their precious starters. All three Pokémon were okay, if battered and unconscious, and would be good as new when healed up with a Potion or any other HP-restoring method.

Cheren gave a low whistle of admiration. "Damn... maybe I underestimated just how much power these things have." He returned his Snivy to her Poké Ball, Hilbert and Bianca doing likewise with their starters.

"Gee, ya think!?" Hilbert screamed, waving his arms at the utterly trashed room. The Wii, however, was unscathed, having come out of the chaos without so much as a scratch on it. "I told you this would happen! My mom's gonna kill me when she sees this!"

"Hilbert, what was that crashing noise?" came Julia Warren's voice from downstairs.

"Speaking of..." Cheren said nervously.

Hilbert gave him a murderous look, jabbing him in the chest. "If she makes me clean this up, so help me..."

"Hilbert, calm down," Bianca said. "Let's just go apologize, and I'm sure she'll forgive us. Right?"

The baseball-capped boy closed his eyes, taking a few deep breaths to calm himself down. "Alright, fine. But you two are going first."

With that, Cheren and Bianca both walked out of the room, heading downstairs. Once they were gone, Hilbert looked around, surveying the damage done. He glanced down at the Poké Ball he held in his hand. He was reminded of the live broadcast he had seen back when he was six, of Evice vs. Wes. The damage done during that battle to the arena it was fought in was nothing short of devastating, and he had just gotten a taste of that now.

Gotta admit, though, that was kinda fun, he thought. He held Oshawott's Poké Ball up to his face. "I think I made a good choice picking you, Oshawott. You were great out there. If we train hard, we might actually have a shot at beating the Gym Leaders or even the League."

Saying this caused his mind to drift back to Cheren's ambitions to equal the Legendary Trainers, but Hilbert was fairly certain his friend was blinded by delusions of grandeur. After all, no one talked about the hardships each one went through: How Brendan Ruby had nearly starved to death, lost inside of Hoenn's brutal and grueling Victory Road, how Red had been gone for years, or how Gold actually had died, frozen to death on Mt. Silver after his battle with Red. All everyone ever talked about was how amazing they were as Trainers.

Well... can't put off facing the music any longer, can I? Chuckling to himself in a gallows-humor sort of way, Hilbert followed Cheren and Bianca downstairs.

 

Long Way to Fall

By: Rylek196

Chapter 3: The Journey Begins​

Hilbert could hear his mother's voice as he came down the stairs. "-Oh, that's fine, Bianca. I'm sure you didn't do too much damage."

Cheren just nervously scratched the back of his head. "Uh... actually, about that..."

"No, not 'about that' Cheren," Hilbert said, walking up to them. "Everything's fine up there, right?"

"Oh! Uh, yeah!" Bianca said. "That loud crashing noise was just a bookshelf being knocked over!"

"You knocked over a bookshelf!?" Julia said, alarmed. "That's what that crashing noise was!? I'm going up there right now!"

"No!" the three friends yelled out simultaneously, but it was too late. Julia was already running up the stairs. Hilbert just shot Bianca a murderous glare for letting the Purrloin out of the bag, to which Bianca only gave her trademark sheepish look back.

There were several moments of agonizing silence. Then, it came, sure as a sunrise. "HILBERT WARREN! GET UP HERE!"

"Thanks, guys," Hilbert hissed through gritted teeth. Then with a despondent sigh, he called, "Coming, Mom!" He followed his mother's footsteps up to his room, expecting the verbal lashing of a lifetime.

"What the hell happened in here!?" Julia yelled as he entered the room.

"W-well, l-like Bianca said, we had a battle with our Pokémon, and knocked a bookshelf over," he stammered nervously, but upon seeing his mother's expression darken, he quickly added, "It wasn't my fault okay!? I told them this would happen, but they didn't listen to me!"

His mother looked around the room. Almost every piece of furniture that could possibly have been dirtied in some way was, there were holes in two separate walls, and the bookshelf was knocked over. Yet, she couldn't bring herself to feel angry anymore. Her son was more than likely telling the truth, and he had just cracked under the peer pressure. She looked up at the ceiling and began to laugh slightly.

"Oh, Hilbert, what I am going to do with you? Come here." She drew her child into a hug. "You're fourteen, you can't let what other people say get to you or affect your choices anymore. Plus, you've got a Pokémon now, that's a big responsibility, especially if you plan on having a team of them."

"Sorry, Mom..." Hilbert said, his voice muffled somewhat from his face being pressed against her chest.

She let him go and held him at arm's length, her hands on his shoulders. Then, something suddenly seemed to come to her. "Oh, before I forget, I have some presents for you! Close your eyes and hold out your hands."

Hilbert did as he was told, closing his eyes. He then felt his mother place two indescribable objects in his hands. One had a fabric texture, while the other was more leathery. He opened his eyes, seeing what the objects were. One was a rather expensive-looking wristwatch with a digital display and a black leather wristband, and the other one was...

"A Cross-Transceiver?" he said, slightly awed. "Thank you!"

"Yep!" Julia replied. "No Trainer in this region would be caught dead without one!"

The Cross-Transceiver, or XTransceiver, was an essential communication tool for Unovan Pokémon Trainers. It was effectively a walkie-talkie with four small, built in screens and a camera, allowing up to four people to have a real-time video chat. The model Hilbert now had was a fairly standard blue, but they came in all kinds of colours.

Hilbert quickly buckled both items around his wrists, and gave his mother another hug in thanks.

"I'm going to miss you, sweetheart," she said tenderly as they broke apart. She pointed to the Cross-Transceiver. "Just remember, if you ever need me, I'm only a call away."

"I'll miss you too," Hilbert said.

"Now go on," Julia said. "I have a feeling your friends are getting impatient."

"What about my room?"

"I'll take care of it... well, as best I can. You just enjoy the adventure."

With one last hug between mother and son, Hilbert went back downstairs.

"About time," Cheren said as he heard Hilbert's footsteps. "I thought you'd never come back down."

"Considering you two are the reason I went up there in the first place, I don't think you have any right to complain, Cheren," Hilbert shot back through gritted teeth. He put on his plain black sneakers, and grabbed his shoulder bag from by the door where he left it after he and his mother packed it last night.

Cheren frowned, but said nothing. He and Bianca put their shoes on as well, and together they all stepped out into the late morning air of Nuvema Town. A flock of small bird-like Pokémon called Pidove that had gathered outside of Hilbert's front door scattered as they did so, flying off to parts unknown. Hilbert took a deep breath, enjoying the familiarity, but feeling somewhat melancholy that he would leave this corner of the region behind.

The landmass that made up the Unova region was actually three massive parallel peninsulas, separated by two rivers that fed into the ocean. To connect the peninsulas, there were, of course, bridges: the Skyarrow Bridge, which connected the right peninsula with the center one and served as a entryway into the massive Castelia City; Driftveil City's 'Charizard' drawbridge, Marvelous Bridge, Tubeline Bridge, and Village Bridge, which was an entire community complete with houses on the structure. Currently, there was nothing in the region's southwestern corner, with it only housing a few remote logging outposts that transported lumber to the industrial section of Castelia City via barges. Developers had expressed interest in wanting to build there, but for now, it remained nothing more than talk and dreams.

The Unova region had been founded by two heroes in the ancient past, though their names were long lost to history, and was nearly torn to pieces by a civil war around 2,500 years ago, the details of which Hilbert knew little about, and cared even less about. History had never been his favorite topic. All he knew was the same vague thing every other Unovan did: when a new hero came to lead the region, a Pokémon of legends would aid them.

"You two go and grab your bags," Hilbert said to his friends. "I'll meet you in front of Professor Juniper's lab."

Cheren nodded without a word, heading off, but there was definitely more quake and unease in Bianca's reply of, "O-okay," before she too went to her house.

Hilbert went the short distance northwest in the town, stopping in front of the Juniper Pokémon Lab, Cheren joining him not two minutes later, a backpack slung over his shoulders.

"Where's Bianca?" Cheren asked.

"She hasn't gotten here yet. I'll give her about five more minutes, then I'll go get her."

Five minutes of thumb-twiddling and watch-checking later, Hilbert made good on his statement, wordlessly going back to Bianca's house. Her house was the southeastern-most building in the town, with Cheren's beside that, and Hilbert's being the next in line.

When he got to her front door, however, he could hear a male voice yelling from inside the house. "No! You're not going! Absolutely not!"

The thought of his friend getting yelled at- even it was by her father- filled Hilbert with rage, and he roughly grabbed the doorknob, twisting it and throwing the door open. The yelling ceased at once as Hilbert walked into the living room. What he saw awoke anger in his soul.

Bianca was sitting on the couch, the unshed tears in her eyes clear for all to see, both of her parents towering over her. Her father's face was flushed with rage, while her mother was almost certainly trying to guilt-trip her going by the look on her face.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Bianca's father, a large and somewhat temperamental man with short blond hair by the name of Patrick, growled at Hilbert. If he was trying to intimidate him, the boy didn't falter.

"With all due respect, Mr. Kinway, what does it look like?" Hilbert said. "I'm here to get Bianca so we can head to Professor Juniper's lab and go on our journeys."

"No you are not!" Patrick cried. "Bianca is not going on some ridiculous journey, and that's final!"

Bianca's mother turned back to her daughter, once more trying the guilt-trip tactic. She was a slim woman with brown hair (Bianca having clearly gotten her hair colour from her father) who looked even smaller in the presence of her husband. "Bianca, please. Think about what you're doing. It's dangerous-"

"It's not just dangerous, it's downright suicidal!" Patrick snapped, cutting his wife off. "Did you give any thought to this!? Did you give any thought about what it would do to us if we found out you got hurt? If you died!?"

Bianca just whimpered, looking at Hilbert, her tearful eyes sending him a desperate, silent plea for help. "Hey!" Hilbert piped up, "Don't you think you're being a bit too harsh-"

"No, we are not," Patrick growled murderously. He then marched up to Hilbert, leaning over him. "And if you say one more word, boy, I will throw you out of this house. Do I make myself clear? You will not butt into things that don't concern you, and this is one of them! If I say Bianca is not going, then she is not."

This time, Hilbert was intimidated. Left with little choice, he nodded. "...Alright," he said slowly, though inside, his blood was boiling in anger.

Seeing her friend being yelled at by her father awakened something in Bianca, a fire she never knew she had. "That's enough, Dad!" she yelled, blinking away her tears. "I'm going, and you can't do anything to stop me! Hilbert, wait right there. I'll go get my bag."

Before anyone could stop her, she ran upstairs to her bedroom, and grabbed her pink purse off her bed. Before she left, however, she gave a nod to the big poster of Samus Aran she had on her wall, striking a heroic pose in her Power Suit. She then ran downstairs, grabbed Hilbert's arm, and pulled the bewildered boy out of her house, leaving her equally-bewildered parents behind.

Bianca then quickly began walking towards Juniper's lab, Hilbert trying to keep up. "Bianca?" Hilbert said. "What was that? What... what was that?"

"You weren't supposed to see that," she answered curtly, not breaking stride or looking back.

"Bianca, wait!" Hilbert said, grabbing her arm and turning her to face him. "Seriously, what was that about?"

"Well... you know how I was kinda late getting to your house today?" Bianca said. "That was why. My parents caught me trying to leave the house, and we ended up getting into an argument- not as big as that one, of course. I had to run to get to your place, and in the heat of the moment, I forgot my bag."

The two started walking again, but this time at a much slower pace. "Okay, but why were your parents acting like that?" Hilbert asked. "I mean, they've always been kinda overprotective of you, but that was downright mean what they were doing back there."

"It's because of my cousin, Barry," Bianca replied. "My dad... well, let's just say that he doesn't approve of the way my uncle, Palmer, raised him."

"Oh yeah, you've told me about this before," Hilbert said. "You're cousins with the best friend of Lucas Diamond, the current Sinnoh League Champion, right?"

Bianca nodded. "My dad and Palmer never saw eye-to-eye growing up, and when he married my mom, he took on her last name to cut ties with him forever. It's so bad I've never even met Barry, and when my dad found out about the adventures he and Lucas went on... I just have a feeling he's been dreading this day as much as I've been looking forward to it. That was five years ago, though."

"Yeah, I remember hearing the stories back then," Hilbert said.

Five years ago, in the snowy region of Sinnoh, a Trainer named Lucas Diamond, and his hyperactive best friend, Barry Cedric, had, by chance, been given Pokémon and went on an adventure. During their travels, they had several run-ins with a criminal organization called Team Galactic. This Team, while posing as a legitimate energy company, had horrifying plans. The goal of its leader, Cyrus, was to destroy the whole universe, and create a new one, one without emotion.

By the skin of their teeth, Lucas and Barry had defeated Cyrus and his personally appointed elite guard atop the sacred peak of Sinnoh's Mt. Coronet. Lucas then went on to defeat Cynthia, taking her title of Sinnoh League Champion.

By now, they had finally gotten back to Juniper's lab. Cheren was impatiently pacing back and forth, checking his watch. "Oh my Arceus, you guys took forever! What kept you?"

"Let's just say Bianca had some... family issues," Hilbert said.

Sympathy dawned on Cheren's face, replacing his prior anger in a heartbeat. He put a hand on her shoulder and sighed. "Bianca, you don't have to go through any hardships you face alone." He held up his other hand, four of his fingers curled into a fist, with his pinkie extended upwards. "Remember the promise we all made when we were six? Back each other up, right?"

"Right," Bianca sniffled, wiping away fresh tears and holding up one of her pinkie fingers. She then put her arms around Cheren and hugged him, which he awkwardly returned.

After a moment of watching this go on, Hilbert cleared his throat. "Well, as adorable as this moment is, I think we'd best go inside, shall we?"

Both Cheren and Bianca broke apart like they had been burned. They both blushed. "Y-yeah, let's," Cheren said.

Rolling his eyes (if he became the dreaded third wheel, so be it), Hilbert opened the door to the lab, and they all went inside. The interior of Juniper's lab was quite neat and tidy, bucking the trend of how messy Pokémon Professor's labs usually got.

There were several machines, likely computer servers, against the back wall, next to which were bookshelves that held textbooks on all subjects related to Pokémon. To the left was another machine with a red, transparent glass dome on top that Hilbert couldn't identify, with Juniper's desk along the opposite wall. On that desk was a locked glass display case containing the rare Master Ball- the most powerful type of Poké Ball ever made. The lab was really only one-third of the building, with the other two partitioned off, Juniper's kitchen and living room in the area off to the right, with the bedrooms upstairs.

Sitting at the desk doing some paperwork, was the woman herself. Juniper looked up as the trio of friends entered. "Oh, hello, you three! I've been waiting."

Professor Aurea Juniper was a pretty young woman of about twenty-six years old. Her hairstyle was that of an unusual bun. She wore a green skirt, a white shirt, and her lab coat looked like something out of a fashion magazine more than anything a scientist would wear.

Juniper was only one of many Pokémon Professors around the world. The others were Professor Samuel Oak, of Kanto, Professor Allen Elm, of Johto, Professor David Birch, of Hoenn (May Ruby's father, and Brendan Ruby's stepfather), and Professor Roland Rowan, of Sinnoh. More than once, Hilbert had wondered why all the Professor's last names were trees or parts of them. The only exception was Orre's Professor Krane.

In the eight years since Hilbert had seen that broadcast, Orre had done much to clean up its act, turning the formerly bandit-filled region into something respectable. However, a mere two months before, in January, Cipher had attempted to make a return, under the leadership of the syndicate's global head, Greevil (Evice having only been the Orre branch head) but were driven back, this time for good, by a Trainer named Micheal.

Hilbert stood between Cheren and Bianca as Juniper continued speaking. "Let's get down to business, shall we? My name is Aurea Juniper."

"We know who you are, Professor," Hilbert said in a condescending tone, rolling his eyes. "We've lived in this town since we were in diapers."

Cheren drove his elbow harshly into Hilbert's side, causing the baseball-capped boy to let out an, "Ooffph!" as the wind was knocked out of him. "What the hell was that for!?" he cried after coughing a few times to get his breath back.

"She's the reason we even have our starters, right?" Cheren said. "So show some damn respect, would you?"

"Thank you, Cheren," Juniper said sweetly. She gave Hilbert a dark look that had 'don't interrupt again' written all over it, to which the boy only gave a slight growl. "Anyway, my name is Professor Aurea Juniper. I'm the Pokémon Professor of the Unova region. I gave you those starter Pokémon for a special purpose, which is to fill in these... the Pokédex!"

From her pocket, Juniper pulled out three rectangular devices, fanning them out like playing cards in her hand. While Cheren and Bianca gasped in awe, Hilbert almost recoiled in horror.

"What are you two gasping about, for the love of Arceus!?" he hissed at them, pulling them aside. "You've both heard the stories, you know what trying to complete that thing did to Red!"

Red... the best, like no one ever was. The greatest Pokémon Trainer the world had ever known, and the first one to complete the Pokédex, or rather... almost. There was one Pokémon, Mew, that had driven him to destruction. While Red was the strongest, he was also terribly naive and uneducated about the world's Pokémon. He did know about the other regions, but simply assumed the Pokémon there were the same as the 151 species from Kanto, when nothing was further from the truth.

He searched Kanto north, south, east, and west for three years, inside every cave and forest, under every rock, even keeping a map he stuck pushpins and string into in his room to keep track of supposed 'Mew sightings'. Even after all this, he came up empty-handed. This was also around the time Gold was collecting the Kanto Gym Badges. According to eyewitness reports, they had come close to meeting several times, but every time one got sidetracked or distracted. Eventually, Red became lost inside Mt. Silver, where he found Pokémon he had never seen before.

The discovery that he had been attempting to fill what was essentially a bucket with a hole in the bottom drove Red to the brink of madness. When Gold found him alone, standing on the peak of the mountain, he attacked in a rage. After he lost, Red disappeared, and hadn't been seen for five years.

It was all this and more that made Hilbert say, "No. I'm not taking one of those. There's no way in hell."

"Hilbert..." Juniper said with more than a hint of irritation in her voice, clearly already tired of his attitude, but this went right over his head.

"No!" Hilbert snapped. "You're nuts if you think I want to end up like Red!"

For a moment, it seemed like Juniper was going to blow a gasket on him, but then she thought better of it. "Fine, so be it," she said, pocketing one of the Pokedexes. "But good luck out there if you don't know what moves your Pokémon will learn and when."

"Wait... what?" Hilbert said, incredulous.

"I'll explain here if you don't mind, Professor Juniper," Cheren said, and she nodded at him, giving him permission to speak. "Those devices are for far more than just keeping a record of the Pokémon you've caught, Hilbert. It also lists the levels and movesets of the Pokémon you currently have in your party, and tells you when they're about to learn a new one. It's also your only way of finding out your Pokémon's Technical Machine compatibility, as well. On top of all that, it tells you the health status of your Pokémon in real-time. Effectively, it's a status screen."

"That's exact;y right, Cheren! I can tell you've done your research!" Juniper said. "I should also add that Pokedexes aren't cheap, and the cost of them is one of the main reasons why some people don't get to go on journeys- their families can't afford it. And I'm offering you one for free. Take it or leave it."

Hilbert grimaced. His options were either (A, take the Pokédex and swallow whatever reluctance he had about doing so, or (B, stumble around in the dark not knowing what his eventual team's movesets were, and get nowhere fast.

He glanced down at the Poké Ball containing his Oshawott clipped to his belt. Damn, she's got me by the balls. Both kinds, too.

Sighing, he gave into the inevitable. "Fine, I'll take it. But don't expect me to catch any more Pokémon than I absolutely have to." His tone was firm, and his mouth was set in a hard line, making it clear there would not be a compromise.

"Fine, I guess. Every little bit helps," Juniper sighed, plucking the Dex out of her pocket and placing it in Hilbert's outstretched hand. "Now that that's taken care of, I think it's high time we got going, didn't we? Follow me onto Route 1, you three."

"Um, Professor?" Bianca said nervously. "W-we can't. Our Pokémon are all knocked out. A bookshelf kinda fell on them when they were having a battle in Hilbert's room..."

"Oh, that's easy to fix," Juniper said. "I'll heal them. Just give me a few seconds."

The three friends handed over their Poke Balls to her, and she took them over to the machine with the red dome on top. She pressed a button on the front, and the dome opened to reveal it was actually on hinges. She placed the Poke Balls in designated concave slots inside the machine. With the press of two more buttons, the dome closed, and the machine whirred for a few seconds, spraying a liquid over the Balls, then a fan was heard, and it let out a jingle.

"There!" Juniper said, taking the Poke Balls out of the machine and handing them back to the trio after grabbing a backpack from behind her desk. "All healed up! Now come with me. The day isn't getting any younger, after all!"

The three then followed Juniper out of the lab, where they were met with a trio of familiar faces: Hilbert's mother, and Cheren's parents, Sadie and Ross. All three had their phones out.

"What's this about?" Hilbert asked.

"Just taking a commemorative photo of you three setting out on your journeys, honey," Julia answered.

Juniper rolled her eyes and moved out of the way, not happy about yet another holdup, but she knew she couldn't interrupt this, either.

"Okay... and... strike a pose!" Julia said.

Hilbert stuck one hand inside the pocket of his jeans, his legs shoulder-width apart, the other hand tipping the bill of his cap down slightly. Cheren opted for a more intellectual and thoughtful style, one of his hands on his hip with the other one rubbing his chin. Bianca gave an ear-to-ear grin, throwing one of her arms up in a sort of wave.

"Got it!" Julia exclaimed. "Okay, we'll leave you alone now. Have fun, you three!"

Bidding their final farewells (though Cheren couldn't help but notice the downtrodden look on Bianca's face due to the fact her parents weren't there) they headed a short distance east to Route 1.

At just under 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) in length, and about 500 meters (1640 feet) wide, Route 1 wasn't the longest path in Unova quite a margin, nor did it have many wild Pokémon species to catch, but at least it made up for those shortcomings in looks. The terrain started out flat, but went up into a gentle hill towards the end, before sloping down into Accumula Town to the north.

The seasonal flowers that grew along the path's edges were not yet in bloom, still trying to wake from the slumber winter's frost had put them in, but come May they would be. The wind blew in an eastward trajectory here, rustling the long grass that grew in abundance on the Route. At roughly the halfway point between Nuvema and Accumula, there was a short, westward path leading down to a small beach.

Just as Hilbert and Cheren were about to take their first steps onto Route 1, Bianca got an idea. "Wait, guys! Why don't we take our first steps onto this Route together?"

"I don't see any reason why not," Cheren said.

Hilbert just shrugged. "Let's do it."

"Okay!" Bianca exclaimed excitedly. She shouldered her way in between the two boys and grabbed their hands. Ignorant of Cheren's blush, she counted up. "One... two... three!"

On three, they stepped out onto Route 1, their feet hitting the dirt path at the same time.

"Oh, this is gonna be so much fun!" Bianca cried. "I wonder what will happen to us on this journey..?"

"I know for sure what'll happen to me!" Cheren said confidently. "By the time I'm done, I'll be the Champion."

"And there ya go again, being Mr. Ambitious..." Hilbert sighed. "Either way, we better go meet Professor Juniper. Come on."

A little ways up the path was Juniper, observing a group of Patrat. However, they scattered at the Nuvema trio's approach.

"Darn it!" Juniper said. She turned to the three teens. "I was going to use those Patrat to show you how to catch a Pokémon, but it's too late now, huh? I assume you already know though, right?"

"Yes, we know, Professor," Cheren said. "We've all seen people catching Pokémon plenty of times on TV."

"Alright then," Juniper said. "I'll leave you to your own devices, but I'll be close by if you need anything. By the way, since I forget to ask in the lab, would any of you like to nickname your Pokémon?"

"I'd love to!" Bianca exclaimed. She took her Tepig's Poké Ball off her belt and let it out. "How would you like to be called Taroko, hmm?" The Fire Pig Pokémon let out an oink of approval at its new name.

Letting out their starters, too, Hilbert christened his Oshawott 'Maru' to which the Sea Otter Pokémon gave a happy chattering of its teeth, and Cheren called his Snivy 'Tara', and the Grass Snake Pokémon uttered another hum of pride at this.

"Okay, you're all done!" Juniper said. "Catch Pokémon, train, or do whatever you like. Let's all meet up in Accumula Town at..." she checked her watch, "I'd say around two-thirty, since it's one o'clock now." She handed out five Poke Balls to each of them from out of her backpack, then left the trio, but still stayed within observable distance for their safety.

After they put the Poke Balls away in their respective bags, Bianca got yet another idea. "Hey, I just thought of something fun! Why don't we have a little competition between us to see who can catch a Pokémon first?"

"You're on," Hilbert said at once.

"Count me out," Cheren said, already walking away. "There's nothing on this Route I want. I'm just gonna train."

"Well, that leaves just you and me, Hilbert!" Bianca said. "May the best Trainer win!"

With that, she scampered off, leaving Hilbert by his lonesome.

I guess it wouldn't be too bad of an idea to do what Cheren's doing in addition to Bianca's little contest, he thought. He took his Pokédex out of his jacket pocket and turned it on, checking Oshawott's current moveset. He only knew Tackle and Tail Whip. Yeah, definitely a good idea.

He walked north for about two minutes when a Patrat ran out twenty feet in front of him. He grinned. Perfect. He ran for it, but after a mere ten feet, he found himself winded. Oh, shit!

Giving up on running the whole way, he just threw his Oshawott's Poké Ball the remaining ten feet, thankful that Poké Ball technology had improved in the last five years.

Poke Balls in Red and Brendan Ruby's time had been large, about the size of a baseball, and heavy for their size, requiring a good arm to throw. However, an innovation from the Sinnoh region meant they were now much lighter and could be shrunk down to the size of a ping-pong ball for easier transport on one's person.

Regardless of how light or heavy the Poké Ball was, it opened in mid-air, releasing Maru right in front of the Patrat, slamming into it with Tackle without Hilbert needing to give it a command.

Patrat was a rodent-like Normal-type that was mostly covered in brown fur. Its belly and the lower half of its face, however, were cream. Its thin tail ended in a scruffy, unkempt ball of white fur, but the most striking feature of Patrat, by far, were its eyes. Giant, hideous, demonic things they were, painted a horrifying shade of fire-engine red by nature, with tiny black pupils and a vertical yellow stripe in each, just for good measure.

The Patrat let out a furious hiss, racing in a zig-zag pattern on all fours for Maru, but the Sea Otter Pokémon remained calm and collected, and when the moment was right, sidestepped the Patrat, ramming into it again with Tackle. The attack was more than enough to knock out the Scout Pokémon, sending it sprawling.

"Alright... way to go... Maru..!" Hilbert wheezed, still not having gotten his breath back. He went up to his starter, bending over and placing his hands on his thighs for support. Man... I'm in serious trouble if I can't run more than ten steps without getting tired, he thought, recalling his starter to its Poké Ball. I mean... I knew I was outta shape, but not this outta shape.

After getting his breath back, which took a full two minutes, he continued on for the next near-hour, fighting a few more Patrat, bringing Maru's level up to 7, where he
automatically learned Water Gun- a useful move to have for a while to come, but Maru took a few hits in the process. However, what Hilbert really wanted was a Lillipup, and he wanted to catch it before Bianca, if just for bragging rights. Unlike Cheren, who had done meticulous research on various Pokémon-related topics, Hilbert had slacked off in that department, only knowing that he wanted a Lillipup and a Drilbur on his team eventually, as Lillipup were reliable all-around Normal-types, and Drilbur evolved into the monstrously powerful Excadrill. Most everything else, he was in the dark about.

"Guys, come quick!" Bianca's voice suddenly called out. Hilbert rolled his eyes, but nonetheless ran to where her voice was coming from, along with Cheren and Juniper.

It turned out that Bianca had found the path down down to the beach. "Isn't the view so pretty?" she said once everyone else had gotten there. "I wish I had a camera, so I could take a picture."

"That's... that's all... you wanted to show us... Bianca?" Hilbert said. Despite his heavy breathing, the anger was clear in his voice.

"Well... yeah, that was it," Bianca said. "But wasn't coming down here worth it for the view?"

The view Bianca was referring to was a rather pretty eastward-facing ocean lookout, with several islands off in the near distance, mostly blocking off Castelia City from view, though the tops of the tallest skyscrapers were still visible.

Hilbert just growled. "Well... I'm going back... Juniper... what time is it?"

Juniper checked her watch. "It's about 2:10," she said. "We better start heading to Accumula Town now."

At that moment, they heard a yipping behind them. "Oh, a Lillipup!" Bianca exclaimed. Before Hilbert could react, she over to it, throwing out her Tepig. The boy watched with despair as she had her starter Tackle the Puppy Pokémon, and with the application of one Poké Ball, the Lillipup was caught. "Yay, I did it! I caught my first Pokémon!" Bianca cried out in jubilation.

She ran over to the Poké Ball and picked it up, checking her Pokédex. The Lillipup was female and level 4. "I don't think there are any Metroid creatures that look anything like puppies..." she muttered to herself, "So I think I'll call you Pepper."

"Well done, Bianca!" Juniper clapped. "That was masterful!"

Hilbert, on the other hand, was not as happy. "Dammit... that could... have been mine..." he seethed through gritted teeth. "If only... I was in... better shape..."

"Alright, I think it's time we got going to Accumula Town," Juniper said.

Cheren nodded. "I've done all the training that I wanted to, so I'm good to go."

Fuck, Hilbert thought, fuming.

They left the beach, then walked north for the next fifteen minutes, Hilbert not seeing a single other wild Pokémon, much to his dismay. Bianca was telling Juniper about their contest and how she had won, further dampening his mood, starting to turn it from disappointment into rage.

However, just as they crested the hill leading to Accumula Town, they heard a loud yapping behind them, followed by the sounds of a scuffle. He whipped around, and ran back down the hill, seeing a Patrat attacking a Lillipup.

Oh, you are not knocking that Lillipup out, you son of a bitch Patrat. I'm catching it. "Go, Maru!" he yelled, throwing out his Oshawott. "Attack the Patrat, quick! Water Gun!"

Maru let loose a powerful stream of water, blasting away the Patrat. The Scout Pokémon hissed, and abandoning its previous target, made straight for Maru. The Lillipup looked at its apparent savior with a curious expression.

"Water Gun again, then Tackle it!" Hilbert commanded. Maru did as he was told, spraying the Patrat with another Water Gun, then running towards the dazed and soaked Scout Pokémon for the knockout blow. He rammed into it with his shoulder, the attack proving to be overkill. The Patrat was unconscious before it even hit the ground fifteen feet away.

Now's my chance! Hilbert thought. He took a Poké Ball out of his bag and threw it at the Puppy Pokémon. Lillipup yipped in fear as it was sucked inside the Ball. The Ball shook three times and clicked, flashing black for a brief second to indicate the capture was successful.

"Yes!" Hilbert cried. He picked up the Poké Ball and checked his Pokédex. The Lillipup was male, and like Bianca's, it was level 4. "I think I'll call you... Logan," he said to his new team member.

Juniper, watching from the top of the hill, was stunned speechless. That... that was incredible, she thought. He has so much potential in him...

Hilbert walked back up the hill, a little winded from the trek. "Now... we can get going..."

Without another word, they all crossed into Accumula Town, the shadows caused by the afternoon sun growing longer behind them.

 

A/N: Oops, forgot to post this here. Let's fix that, shall we?

Long Way to Fall

By: Rylek196

Chapter 4: The Child of Pokémon, N​

It was approaching evening as Professor Juniper and the three teens walked into Accumula Town, the sun beginning its descent. Accumula was a decently large town, dwarfing Nuvema, but it was still nothing compared to a place like Castelia. Consisting mostly of apartment buildings to the north, with two rows of more proper houses to the east, Accumula was rather hilly in terms of terrain in the past, though most of them had been tramped down by construction Conkeldur in recent decades to make room for development. Still, a few remained, most notably a small one beyond even the houses, and a big grassy one on the southwest side that served as a popular park for the town's inhabitants. The top of this hill provided a great view of the mountains to the north, including Reversal Mountain.

In the center of the town, basically serving as its hub, was the Pokémon Center, a crucial building for any place in the world with a population above a certain threshold to have, and this was Juniper's destination. This Pokémon Center, like all others, was a large, multi-story building made of white bricks and glass, with a distinctive red roof. They walked inside, finding the lobby not too busy. Perfect, Juniper thought with a satisfied smile. She turned to her young protégées.

"Alright, welcome to your new home away from home: a Pokémon Center!" she said. "Obviously I can't be there with you every step of the way, so these places will help fill that gap and provide you with the support you'll need on your journeys. Now, I think your Pokémon need healing after all that training you did on Route 1."

She walked along the Pokémon Center's pale orange floor to the counter at the far end of the room, the lady behind it waving her over. Behind the Pokémon Center lady was a machine identical to the one they had seen in Juniper's lab. Above the counter was a large mezzanine, with two stairways leading up to it on either side. The mezzanine had three doors at the top, the one on the left and in the center leading to the halls with rooms where Trainers could stay the night, with the right one leading to the human hospital wing.

To the right, near the entrance to the Center, was a small walk-in store, but what goods it sold, Hilbert couldn't tell just by walking past briefly. Meanwhile, on the opposite side, there was a lounge area with couches and chairs, and a magazine rack. Two people were currently occupying this section, having a conversation, but they paid Juniper and the teens no mind.

"If you ever need your Pokémon healed, just ask this nice lady here, and she'll do it for free," Juniper said, gesturing to the nurse. "Hilbert, you go first."

"What do you need, sweetie?" the lady said to him in a friendly voice.

"Uh, I need my Pokémon healed if you don't mind," Hilbert said, blushing a bit. She's so pretty! he thought.

He took his Poke Balls off his belt and placed them on the counter. The lady then took them and placed them into the machine, the lid closing after she pushed the appropriate button. The same process he had seen in Juniper's lab then repeated itself: a liquid was sprayed onto the Balls, a fan dried them. and the machine jingled to indicate it was done.

Hilbert stepped aside to let Bianca have her turn, then Cheren. Being curious about how the Pokémon healing machine worked, though, so he decided to ask.

"Um, if I may... how does that machine work? Like, what's that liquid it's spraying onto the Poke Balls?"

"Oh, that?" the lady replied. "That liquid is the same stuff found in Full Restore medicine. The central button is where the liquid seeps into, so that's how the Pokémon are healed. Speaking of which..." she trailed off as the machine let out its signature jingle. "Ah, done!" She took the Poké Ball containing Cheren's Snivy out and handed it back to him. "You'll all be pleased to hear that your Pokémon are completely fighting fit!" With a slight bow, she added, "We hope to see you again!"

One of Hilbert's brows shot up into his hairline. Why would she hope that?

Regardless, with the Pokémon healing now taken care of, Juniper was ready to move on. "Alright, now follow me. I need to show you how the PC works." What she was referring to was a big monitor painted white sitting on a chest-high stand near the left mezzanine staircase, under which was its tower plugged into the wall socket.

"This is the Pokémon Center PC," Juniper said. "Like the Pokémon healing services, it's free to use, and it will invaluable when you're hopefully completing the Pokédex," the last bit was said with a glower towards Hilbert, "But you need to create an account to use the storage system."

"I'll go first, Professor!" Cheren exclaimed, pulling a sheet of paper out of his backpack. "I made my password in advance. It's super-secure. I can also explain how the PC's storage system works if you'd like me to do it for you. It was another topic of my research."

"Well, alright then!" Juniper said. "Show us how it's done."

Cheren hit the power button on the keyboard, and with a series of oddly melodic beeps, the monitor came online, and with it, a black screen with a white Poké Ball logo appeared. A second later, a vertical menu in a blocky font and colour faded in. The menu had only three options: Login, Help, and Contact. Cheren used the cumbersome laptop-style trackpad mouse to select Login, and clicked it. Another screen loaded in, this time with two bars, waiting to be filled in with text.

"You can put in a username fort your storage system profile, but I'd recommend just using your real name," Cheren said. "It's not like this is an online forum, privacy doesn't really matter." He quickly typed 'Cheren Weiss' into the first box, but took quite a bit longer to put in his password.

Hilbert was stunned at how long it was- 22 characters at least! "Wha-?" he started to ask.

"It's a passphrase, Hilbert, not a password," Cheren said without turning around, though Hilbert could see him smirk in the reflection caused by the pitch-black login screen. "What? You didn't know those were a thing?"

Hilbert just sighed, only barely managing to hold back the urge to strangle Cheren in front of everyone.

Cheren finished putting in his password, and clicked 'create account'. This brought him to another screen, this one rather unusual. The majority of the space was taken up by a big square, inside which was a pixel-art grassland, with a separate bar at the top that said 'BOX 1'.

"Simple as that," Cheren said. He logged out and moved aside, gesturing for Bianca to make her account next. As Cheren ripped up the paper that had his password written on it, Bianca entered her own name and made-up-on-the-spot password into the bars. Unlike Cheren's, hers was much shorter, at only ten characters, the first seven of which Hilbert could guess with reasonable certainty, despite them only appearing as dots- 'Metroid'.

Bianca was utterly obsessed with the exploration based sci-fi series, he knew, and idolized its protagonist, Samus Aran, even having a big poster of her in her bedroom. However, he also knew this was for a rather sad reason. Due to her strict parents and their helicopter way of raising her, Bianca was timid and submissive most of the time (her outburst towards her father being the exception rather than the rule) and therefore looked up to Samus as a role model of who she wanted to be. She had even gotten Cheren hooked on Super Metroid a few years back via the Virtual Console on the Wii. Hilbert had tried the game as well, but found it not to his taste.

He was snapped out of his musings by Bianca saying, "Okay, I'm done! Your turn, Hilbert!"

Hilbert took his place at the keyboard, typing his name into the appropriate bar, but having no idea for what to use as a password, just used the old 'make-sounds-in-your-head-until-you-come-up-with-something-that-sounds-vaguely-like-a-real-word' technique. He eventually settled on 'troubador' with an ampersand and a number 3 slapped onto the end for good measure. He then moved aside so Cheren could enter his exorbitantly long password again.

"Alright, if you'll indulge me for a second, here's how this works," Cheren said after he logged in. "You see that concave slot on the right? All you do is put a Poké Ball in there, like this."

Taking his Snivy's Poké Ball off his belt, he put it in the slot. and a text box appeared on the PC's screen. 'Poké Ball detected,' it read. 'Would you like to store this Pokémon?' Cheren clicked YES, and to Hilbert and Bianca's amazements, the Poké Ball glowed blue for a second, and then vanished. A moment later, a pixel-art avatar of the Snivy showed up on the grassland in the PC.

"Oh, wow!" Bianca said. "But... what happened, exactly?"

"Well, Pokémon are made up of energy, right?" Cheren answered, turning around to address her. "What that did was turn the energy into data and then uploaded that data to a server. The guy who figured out how to make this work in the first place was someone named Bill. He's from Kanto, and is a real programming wizard. Unova's storage system developer is one of his pupils, a girl named Aminita." Tapping a few keys, his Snivy's Poké Ball returned from the digital world, and he clipped it to his belt.

"Cheren, I am very impressed!" Juniper said. "You really weren't kidding when you said you did your research." Cheren once more beamed at the praise. "But I would be a bit careful with this storage system," she added. "It's a bit unreliable and many glitches are known to occur for some reason, but no one knows why. Either way, it's time to move on. There's one more thing I need to show you."

They followed her over to the walk-in store, going inside, and they could finally see what its shelves were stocked with: Poke Balls of all types, healing items of all types, as well as human-care items like bandages, toothpaste, and even condoms. With most traveling Trainers being either teenagers or young adults, Pokémon Centers wanted to prevent as many unwanted pregnancies as possible. The store was staffed by a man behind yet another counter on the left wall.

"This is the Poke Mart," Juniper said. "They sell whatever you'll need, Pokémon healing items and Poke Balls. as well as a whole host of other things I don't have time to list. If I did that, we'd be here until tomorrow afternoon." She giggled slightly at that thought.

One shelf that caught Hilbert's eye was stocked with brown plastic or thick paper bags with blocky text on them. "Professor, what are those?" he asked.

"Oh, those are food, Hilbert," Juniper said. "They're PTMRE's- Pokémon Trainer Meals Ready to Eat. They have a variety of menus, but I'll leave you to discover them on your own. For a bag your size, I'd recommend you get the Light Meal Trainer, an LMT. Be sure to buy some before you set out to Striaton tomorrow, you three. It's a fair ways, and I don't want you going hungry. Oh, and that reminds me- when you get there, go meet an inventor named Fennel. She's an old friend of mine, and she'll help you on your way.

"Now then, I'm going to head back to Nuvema Town. Are you sure you're ready for this?"

"We'll be fine, Professor," Cheren replied. "Don't worry." He turned towards his friends, and held up his pinkie. "Back each other up, right?"

"Right," Bianca and Hilbert said in unison, holding up their own pinkie fingers.

"Then I guess I'll take my leave. Happy trails, you three!"

Bidding the three friends one final farewell, Juniper walked out of the Pokémon Center.

"Well, now what?" Hilbert asked. He checked his watch. "It's about three now, so I guess we could walk around town, see what there is to see."

"Hilbert, there's not much in Accumula," Cheren said. "Really, that park and a few shops are about it. I'm still going, because there might be a few Trainers, but still. I'm not exactly holding my breath."

"I guess I'll get us checked into the Pokémon Center, then," Bianca said. "You guys go do whatever. I'm just… not in the mood to go exploring."

"You'll have to be eventually, Bianca, especially once we get to Castelia," Cheren replied, then left the Center. Bianca then went back to the counter to talk to the lady about arranging their rooms. Hilbert, seeing no more reason to stay, left as well.

After half an hour of so-called 'sightseeing' Hilbert was thoroughly bored. Cheren was right, he thought. There really is nothing here. Below the two rows of houses to the east was a small grocery store, and tucked between the apartments were a few clothing shops, and that was it. Well… apart from the police station, which he instinctively glowered at when he saw it.

Everyone knew that police, not just in Unova, but all over the world, were completely useless. Being an officer was a last-resort, dead-end job that only the dumbest, untalented, and unskilled of Trainers took on because there were no other options for them. One particular event that really tanked police reputation from 'looked down upon' to 'outright hatred' in the eyes of the public was the Silph Co. Incident, wherein Team Rocket had taken over the main office building of the manufacturing conglomerate, and the cops had refused to do anything, leaving Red to kick out the criminals. In fact, a derogatory moniker was given to police by people after this- 'Grumpigs'.

Suddenly, Hilbert's Cross-Transceiver started ringing. He hit the accept call button, and Cheren's face appeared on the screen. "What is it?"

"Something's going on in the park, like a rally," Cheren answered. "Lots of people have gathered to watch. Get over here."

Before Hilbert could answer, Cheren ended the call. Dammit, Hilbert thought. Luckily, he wasn't too far away from the park, but found it prudent to run, nonetheless. His pathetic stamina didn't even last him to the bottom of the hill, leaving him to trudge up it, panting like an exhausted Stoutland.

At the top of the hill was a flat area with picnic tables and one or two benches placed haphazardly here and there with no sense of purpose. Those weren't what drew his attention, though. Rather, it was the crowd that had gathered to see a group of seven strange-looking people all standing in a row, flags that bore a strange emblem on either side of them. They wore uniforms that like something out of the olden times, consisting of long white tunics over a grey-and-black bodysuit, complete with a grey hood. To complete the outfits, they had grey boots and gloves. On the chest of the tunic was the same emblem as on the flags.

The emblem was a half-black, half-white shield with a blue zigzag over top of it, and a big blue capital letter 'P' cut through the zigzag. "Wha… what the hell?" Hilbert muttered to himself, still out of breath. He saw Cheren waving to him, and he walked over, standing to his left in the crowd just as a massive man with sand-green hair moved out in front of the line of uniformed people.

The man was dressed even more strangely than those of his apparent supporters (though Hilbert could barely believe that was possible), with his clothing being an elaborate set of colourful robes with designs on them that looked like eyes crying blood. One half of the robes was purple with a yellow eye, the other half being the inverse of that, yellow with a purple eye. To top off his absurd outfit, he wore a huge and heavy-looking bronze collar that looked like the battlements of a castle, and he had a red glass eyepatch of sorts covering his right eye. If the man wasn't over six feet tall and obviously of strong build judging from the metal collar he wore, his attire would almost have been funny.

The crowd quieted as the man began to speak, his booming voice not requiring a microphone to be heard. "Good evening, citizens of Accumula Town, and my fellow Unovans," he said. "I am Ghetsis, and I come as a representative of the Plasma Organization, also known as Team Plasma. As for why I am here, it's to inform you of Team Plasma's noble mission: Pokémon liberation."

The crowd murmured among themselves, Hilbert hearing things such as, "Pokémon liberation? What's that?" and, "What is this guy talking about?" as Ghetsis walked a few steps to the right, then turned his head back to them, addressing them once again.

"I can hear those curious mutterings of yours," Ghetsis smirked, the right side of mouth moving, while the left side remained totally still. "Our goal, as stated before, is as simple as it is noble: taking wounded or abused Pokémon from their so-called… 'Trainers'," he spat the word like it was a nasty taste in his mouth, "And take care of them, nurse them back to health. Then, when they are well enough, we release them back into the wild."

The crowd's murmuring became more enthusiastic now, with people saying, "Wow, that's really cool!" among other things, but Hilbert felt uneasy. However, he chose to keep quiet, for now, at least.

Ghetsis, meanwhile, was ecstatic. He had these people eating out of the palms of his hands. The clincher he was saving for the end would surely get them to do whatever he wanted.

"Of course, there is risk involved in what we do," Ghetsis said. "Sometimes, we must take the Pokémon from these horrid Trainers by force-"

"Wait, you're stealing them?" one woman in the crowd said, interrupting him.

"In a sense, yes, but I assure you, it's entirely justified," Ghetsis answered. "I mean, you wouldn't want Trainers that outright hurt their Pokémon to continue to have them, right?"

He took the crowd's continued muttering as a, "No, you wouldn't."

"Anyway, as I was saying, the risk involved in our mission is great. These abusive Trainers more often than not fight back against us, sometimes with the intent to incapacitate or even kill our members- in fact, we lost two this way just the other week." The subordinates standing behind Ghetsis all bowed their heads in unison out of apparent mourning. "Also, even when the abusers are dealt with, the job isn't done even then. The Pokémon we rescue are often feral and violent, dangerous even, due to the trauma they've suffered. It takes time and gentle hands to calm them down and make them trust humans again.

"So I come to you today!" Ghetsis suddenly yelled, thrusting his left arm out of robes for the first time, his fist clenched. Even though it could have been a trick of the light, Hilbert swore he saw the man's right arm as his robes parted when he thrust his left out.

Were those… scars, or was I seeing things? he thought. The sense of unease just grew stronger.

"Aid Team Plasma!" Ghetsis was saying. "Liberate your Pokémon! Set them free! Do not become like the awful Trainers we encounter on a daily basis! Catching and imprisoning Pokémon is amoral! It is abhorrent! It is a practice that must be stopped! And that stopping starts with you. All of you. Think of the good that could be done for Pokémon- for the world!- if only we abolished the training of Pokémon, and let them be free beings."

Hilbert, whose expression was growing angrier and angrier throughout the last part of Ghetsis's speech, snapped. Okay, that does it. "And what if I say you're full of shit!?" he yelled.

Ghetsis heard that, and immediately his eyes narrowed. His gaze zeroed in on the blue-jacketed boy, the one who had spoken up. "What did you say?" he growled, sounding much less like a charismatic rally leader and more like a furious, feral beast ready to rip its prey to shreds.

Hilbert, though, was never one to back down. "Yeah, you heard me. I say you're full of shit."

Cheren was now glancing around desperately, wishing he had a sign he could hold up with an arrow pointing to Hilbert that read, "I'm NOT with him! Honest!" He felt the staring of the crowd, and suddenly a chill went up his spine, like a ghostly presence or a cold air had touched him, the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end. He looked to his right, and saw a green-haired young man giving him the most evil, soulless stare he had ever seen. Cheren could only describe the feeling as being stared at by a living corpse. He shuddered, turning away, tugging on Hilbert's jacket sleeve. "Hilbert, people are staring," he whispered frantically at his friend through clenched teeth.

"Shut up, Cheren," an oblivious Hilbert shot back, brushing him off. He then felt the same cold chill go up his back, and he too looked right, locking eyes with the young man. In that moment, though Hilbert didn't know why, he knew that a gauntlet had been thrown down. He and that young man (Ghetsis's son, going by his hair colour, perhaps?) were going to be enemies. Still, he just scowled at the guy and turned away, continuing to address Ghetsis. "You make this big speech about all the awful Trainers your organization's encountered and all the Pokémon you've saved, but where's your proof of any of it? How do we know you're not just lying?"

"Yeah, you know what? The kid's got a point," the same woman from before said. "Show us what you're doing."

To everyone's surprise, Ghetsis just started laughing. "Is that all you wanted? Proof of what we're doing- the good we're doing?" He nodded to his followers, and they stepped forward. "Show them."

Ghetsis moved back as the Plasma subordinates all removed one Poké Ball each from their belts, and opened them, releasing the Pokémon inside. The crowd gasped in horror. The Pokémon looked haggard, weak and injured; some looked barely able to stand. The Pidove to the far right was missing a ton of feathers on one of its wings, the Timburr next to it had huge chunks taken out of the squared log its species always carried and was leaning on it for support, the Tympole on the far left was wheezing like a broken accordion, and on, and on, and on.

"Now do you all see what I mean?" Ghetsis said. "These Pokémon that you see before you were all liberated just over two weeks ago, but it will take many more than that to nurse them back to proper health. This is why I say you must release your Pokémon, to break this tragic cycle, and abstain from catching any more Pokémon at all." He nodded to the underlings, and they recalled the injured Pokémon back to their Poke Balls. "Everyone, I urge you to consider my words today. We of Team Plasma sincerely thank you for your time."

With those final words, two of the Plasma underlings picked up the flags from where they had been planted carrying them, while the rest gathered around Ghetsis in a sort of defensive formation, and they walked down the hill, the flag-bearers bringing up the rear. The crowd kept up their stunned silence for another few seconds, then one man took a Poké Ball off his belt, and clicked the central button on it four times, activating the self-destruction mechanism for the internal capture matrix, releasing the Pokémon inside and rendering the Ball itself useless.

"Go on," he said to his Pokémon, "You should go. I'm… I'm sorry for everything." The Pokémon, a Petilil, looked up at him with sad eyes, as if saying, "Why?"

"Just go!" the man shouted, tears in his eyes, his voice breaking. The Petilil, seeming heartbroken, nonetheless floated away off into the distance.

This, to Hilbert and Cheren's shock, started a wave of people releasing their Pokémon, with nearly half the crowd doing so. Throughout it all, the green-haired young man remained eerily still, like a statue, a blank expression on his face.

There were many tears shed over the next two minutes as people forced their Pokémon to abandon them, Hilbert and Cheren looking on helplessly. Finally, the crowd began to disperse, going back down the hill, some still crying a little. Only Hilbert, Cheren, and the young man remained now.

Cheren spoke first, breaking the deathly silence. "What was that?" He whirled on Hilbert, grabbing him by his jacket collar. "What the hell did you do!?"

"Wha- me!?" Hilbert cried, pushing Cheren off. "I didn't do anything! It was all that Ghetsis guy!"

"My ass it was!" Cheren yelled. "If you had listened to me and kept your mouth shut, that wouldn't have happened!"

"Oh, sure, blame me! Because I'm the bad guy-" Hilbert shot back, but then stopped, seeing the green-haired guy looking right at him and Cheren. "What do you want, huh?"

"Your Pokémon…just now, it was saying…" green-hair murmured slowly under his breath, so low that neither Hilbert nor Cheren could hear him.

In spite of his weird way of greeting them, the young man actually looked normal enough. He was wearing a white long-sleeved shirt over a black undershirt, beige cargo jeans, and green sports shoes. A black-and-white baseball cap was on his head, and he had asymmetrical bracelets around both wrists, and hanging from his belt by a short chain was what looked like a golden Rubik's Cube with pieces missing. His eyes were also a striking shade of blue-grey.

"What?" Cheren asked. "Speak up, I couldn't hear you."

"I said, your Pokémon… it's talking. I heard it speaking."

"Ummm… okay," Hilbert said slowly, shooting Cheren a look that said, "Can we get away from this freak, please?"

However, Cheren, as revenge on Hilbert for not listening to him during the speech, decided to ignore his friend's silent pleaq. He walked right up to the stranger, putting his hand out in a friendly greeting. "Don't pay any attention to my friend there. His name is Hilbert, and I'm Cheren. Pleased to meet you… um, what did you say your name was?"

The stranger stared at Cheren's outstretched hand for several seconds, as if not understanding what to do, as Hilbert walked up. Finally, he looked down and to the right, seeming to let out a small, quiet exhale of breath. "My name is N," he muttered.

The silence that followed was deafening.

"...Alright," Cheren said, awkwardly retracting his arm.

"What kind of a name is N- oofph!" Hilbert started, but then was cut off as Cheren again drove his elbow harshly into his side, just like he had done in Juniper's lab. "What the hell was that for!?"

"What is wrong with you today, man?" Cheren hissed. "It's like you left your manners at home!" He turned back to N and gave a cheesy 'excuse-my-friend' kind of smile. "Anyway, what was that you were talking about? Our Pokémon speaking to us or something?"

"Oh… you can't hear them, then. How tragic," N said. "They have such interesting things to say…"

Hilbert had had more than enough, thinking it prudent to get away- far away- from the psycho. "Well, I think this has been a nice talk, but it's getting late, and I need to get back to the Pokémon Center. Long day tomorrow, journey to Striaton and all that! See ya!"

He quickly began walking down the hill, but stopped dead in his tracks when he heard N say, "So, you're just going to ignore the words of your Oshawott? Of your Lillipup?"

In shock, Hilbert slowly turned around. "How the hell do you know that? Were you… were you fucking spying on us while we were on Route 1!?"

"No," N said, shaking his head. "I merely listened to the voices of your Pokémon inside those… things called Poke Balls you imprison them in."

"But… you have a Poké Ball, too," Cheren said.

"Yes, but I'm not like most Trainers," N said. "I merely capture Pokémon for protection on Routes, and I always let them go free afterwards, rather than keeping them as my prisoners and tools forever. Poke Balls… they're just instruments of suffering. And the fact that you both have starters tells me you might also have Pokedexes. You're going to confine many, many Pokémon inside Poke Balls for the sake of completing that awful device, aren't you?" N's eyes suddenly turned hard. "That I cannot allow. I think I'll defeat you first, Hilbert, since you've already captured a Pokémon. Purrloin, go!"

Taking the Poké Ball off his belt, N threw out his only Pokémon. Purrloin was a feline-like Dark-type creature with mostly purple fur, though its back, neck, and upper forelimbs were cream. Its eyes were a piercing emerald, with tapered pink markings above them. Its ears were sharply pointed, and there was a sickle-like shape on the tip of its tail.

Well, looks like my intuition was right, Hilbert thought. Me and him really are gonna be enemies. Either way, first Trainer battle. He was tempted to send out his Lillipup, but he had a feeling the Purrloin was at a higher level than what Logan could currently take on and win. Making a mental note to train up on the next Route, he decided on his only other option. "Go, Maru!" He threw out his starter's Poké Ball, and the Sea Otter Pokémon materialized in front of him.

Purrloin opened its mouth and let out a threatening Growl attack, the move seeming to freeze Maru in place. Popping its claws, the Purrloin raced towards the enemy Oshawott in a zigzag pattern, raking its claws across his face with Scratch. Oshawott cried out in pain and staggered back.

"Maru!" Hilbert yelled. "Quick, after it! Tackle!"

Oshawott ran forward, putting its weight into its shoulder, but Purrloin, using its far superior speed, twirled out of the way on one foot like a ballerina, slapping its opponent in the back as Oshawott went past, causing him to stumble and fall on his face. Oshawott rolled onto his back just in time to see Purrloin leaping for him. With a cry of alarm, he unleashed the move he had just learned that day, spraying a Water Gun from his mouth. The high-pressure stream of water slammed right into the Purrloin, sending it flying back a fair ways. The Purrloin hissed angrily as it got up, shaking itself dry.

"Alright, Maru!" Hilbert said. "Nice one!" Well, that seemed to do the trick. I've got a range advantage, he doesn't. Might as well leverage it. "Keep using Water Gun!"

As Maru shot Water Gun after Water Gun at Purrloin, the Devious Pokémon doing its best to dodge the streams while making ground towards Oshawott at the same time, Hilbert looked at N. He had remained ghostly quiet this whole time, but was clearly not happy. Cheren was standing off to the side, entranced by the battle. In his head, though, he was thinking how impressed he was with Purrloin's speed and agility. Truth be told, he wanted a Dark-type as his first team member, and the one he had decided on was Sandile, but… A Purrloin wouldn't be too bad of a choice, it seems. Maybe only as a temporary team member, but it could work.

This lapse in concentration would cost Hilbert, as it meant that Purrloin had exploited a gap in Maru's Water Gun attacks, and was able to land another hit on him. Hilbert was only alerted to this when he heard Oshawott again cry out in pain. This time, Purrloin had pounced on his starter, and was using repeated Scratch attacks to wear him down.

"Maru, no!" Hilbert cried.

Just when it seemed like Oshawott was finished, he caught the Purrloin's paw inches from his face, preventing it from landing the final blow. He then let out another point-blank Water Gun, blasting away his opponent. Purrloin landed hard, both Pokémon getting unsteadily to their feet, both one hit away from being knocked out.

Now Hilbert was angry. "Alright, let's kick this guy's ass," he growled. "Water Gun, one more time!"

Oshawott opened its mouth, and sent another Water Gun straight at Purrloin. The opposing Pokémon was too weak to dodge, and raised its forelimbs in an attempt to protect itself- in vain. The attack slammed into it, sending it tumbling away, rolling end over end, knocked out.

Hilbert's anger then faded, replaced with exhilaration. He grinned, running up to his starter and picking it up in his arms. "We did it, Maru!" he yelled. "We won our first Trainer battle!" Oshawott threw its arms up in the air and cried out in joy.

N, who was recalling his Purrloin to its Poké Ball, gasped. "I… never expected to hear a Pokémon say that…" he muttered under his breath.

"What was that?" Hilbert asked, having not heard him.

"N-nothing," N replied, turning to him. He walked up to Hilbert, pulling out his Trainer Card and tapping it against Hilbert's to transfer a small amount of prize money to him. "Either way, you did win, but don't get too comfortable. We will meet again someday, and that's when I'll teach you that my view is the correct one. I believe in what Ghetsis- what Team Plasma- says. As long as Pokémon are confined in Poke Balls… they can never be happy, perfect beings. Speaking of which…"

N reached into his back pocket and pulled a Potion, a spray-type wound medicine for Pokémon. He pressed the nozzle to the Poké Ball's central button, and emptied the contents of the purple plastic bottle into the Ball, healing his Purrloin. He then clicked said central button four times, releasing the Dark-type.

"Go on, friend," N said in a gentle tone. "Go back to the wild. You're free now, you're no longer a slave."

The Purrloin gave him a brief look of sadness, but in the end sauntered off towards the town.

"Why'd you do that?" Cheren said, but N didn't reply, and just walked off the hill.

"Weird guy," Hilbert said, blinking.

"I hate to say it, but yeah, you're right," Cheren replied.

"Think he's part of Team Plasma? He looks related to that Ghetsis guy… maybe his son or a nephew."

"Hilbert, at this point, I don't know what to think. It's getting late, and I've had more than enough weirdness for one day. Let's just head back to the Pokémon Center and turn in. Bianca's probably long since booked our rooms for the night."

Hilbert nodded, and together, they left the hill.

That night, Hilbert lay awake in his bed, thinking about the day's events. He was unable to get N's words of, "We will meet again someday, and that's when I'll teach you my view is the correct one," out of his head. Much as he tried to tell himself otherwise, he had a feeling N was doing more than making idle threats.

He sighed. Well, then I'm just gonna have to be ready for you, you weirdo. Even though I hope that that 'someday' never comes. He then closed his eyes, somehow managing to fall into a dreamless sleep.

Four days earlier…

Cress sighed as he examined one of the large claw marks in the wall, a huge, jagged tear. And it was only one of many. The Gym's battleground had been completely trashed, with even the glass health bar screen cracked and non-functional. This is all that stupid challenger's fault, he thought, turning away in disgust. The challenger in question, a young man of about nineteen named Dylan, had come to Striaton to collect his eighth and final Gym Badge. With Dylan having chosen Snivy- now a Serperior- as his starter, he had battled Chili, Cress's twin brother, for the Trio Badge.

Unfortunately for Chili, Dylan had not sent out his Serperior at first, but rather, the monstrously powerful Ground/Steel-type called Excadrill. In the end, Chili had won (by the skin of his teeth, though he would never admit it) but the victory had been Pyrrhic. As a result of the battle, the Gym's battle arena needed to undergo extensive repairs, which would take days, and force the Gym to close its doors until such repairs could be completed.

"Chili?" he called for the fifth time that day, "When will the repair crew be here?"

"Oh, about five minutes after ya quit asking me that!" Chili yelled back. "Seriously, Cress, cool your jets, they'll be here as soon as they can." The red-haired Striaton triplet walked into the room, their other brother, Cilan, out on business.

Ironic that a Fire-type user would tell me to cool off, Cress thought, but kept his mouth shut.

"I hate this situation as much as you do, but what's done is done. Although, at times like these, I can't help but envy those Elite Four pricks…"

What Chili was referring to were the specially designed and technologically advanced rooms the Elite Four of Unova conducted their battles in, capable of self-repairing any damage short of a bomb blast in seconds.

"I know what you mean, but you know that Elite Four battles are sacred in this region. Their rooms can't afford to be out of commission-"

"Leaving us Gym Leaders with the table scraps, yep, such is life."

"So, what do we do in the meantime?"

"We be patient, and we pray that no other challengers come knockin'. 'Cause if they do, I'm sure they're gonna be pretty pissed that they need to wait."

A/N: Two fun facts to end this off on. One, the so-called 'PTMRE's' Hilbert looked at in this chapter (and the ones he will predominately be buying throughout the story) are largely based on an 'LMC' or 'Light Meal Combat' in use with the Canadian Armed Forces. It's used by first strike/recon troops in situations where field kitchens aren't set up, or as a supplementary ration to the regular 'IMP' or 'Individual Meal Pack'. Two, yes, the Pokémon Center nurse's canonical name in the games is 'Pokémon Center lady', NOT 'Nurse Joy' contrary to what the anime has always said. Meaning, yep, it's official: The anime can't get anything about its own goddamn source material right. X'D It's funny 'cause it's sad...

 

Long Way to Fall

By: Rylek196

Chapter 5: Route 2​

It was the ringing of Hilbert’s watch that woke him up. He sat up in bed, the covers falling away from his bare chest, stretching and yawning. He got out of bed, walking over to his watch, which he had set on the floor next to his bag and most of his clothing, snuffing the alarm.

90, he thought, looking at the display. Perfect timing. He picked up his shirt and jacket and gave them a quick sniff, finding they didn’t smell too terribly bad, but the same couldn’t be said of his armpits. His nose turned up at the stench given off by his own body. “Ugh, the joys of being a teenager,” he grumbled sarcastically under his breath, “Gonna have to buy some deodorant.”

He got dressed and left the room the Pokémon Center had supplied him with, going out into the hall to try and wake up Cheren and Bianca. The rooms in the Pokémon Center were very spartan in the way of furnishings, featuring a bed, a small adjoining bathroom and little else, being a far cry from the large master bedroom in his home. Then again, Pokémon Centers weren’t meant to be five-star hotels, merely rest stops of sorts for Trainers to buy supplies and stay the night, then move on.

He walked across the hall and knocked on the door to Cheren’s room with his knuckles. “Cheren?” he called. “You up? We gotta get moving! I wanna get to Striaton before at least five!”

He heard a muffled groan from behind the door. Cheren, evidently, was not awake. “Well, I’m up now!” Cheren said. “Go get Bianca! I’ll be out in a minute.”

Rolling his eyes, Hilbert repeated the process with the door to Bianca’s room, and much to his frustration, got exactly the same response. Growling, he went downstairs to buy whatever things he would need for the trek to Striaton, and then wait for his friends.

He purchased an LMT from the selection of PTMRE’s on offer from the store, as well as a stick of deodorant, and had just finished slathering it on in the lounge area when Cheren and Bianca came downstairs, chatting amongst themselves.

“So what’s the plan?” Hilbert said as they came up to him. “‘Cause I think we should take on this Route together, then split up once we hit Striaton. We’ll cover more ground that way.”

“I think that sounds good,” Bianca said.

“Yeah, but we haven’t even gotten food yet, Hilbert,” Cheren said. “Just give us some time to buy what we need, and then we’ll get a move on. But now that you mention splitting up, there’s a school for Trainers in Striaton I want to check out.”

It was then that Hilbert’s Cross-Transceiver began to ring. “What the hell? Who could be calling me this early?” Hilbert wondered aloud.

“It’s probably Professor Juniper,” Bianca said. “Answer it. Maybe we forget something or whatever.”

Hilbert pressed the ‘Accept Call’ button, and an unexpected face appeared on the device’s screen: his mother. She appeared to be jogging, and was breathing a bit heavily. “Mom? What’s going on?”

“Hilbert!” Julia said. “Good to see you! Listen, where are you?”

“Uh, still in the Pokémon Center,” Hilbert said with a confused look. “Why do you need to know?”

“Oh, thank Arceus, I haven’t missed you then yet!” Julia noticeably slowed her pace to a brisk walk. It was hard to tell from just the small Cross-Transceiver screen alone, but it looked like she was just entering Accumula Town. “Listen, come outside! I have something for you!” Before Hilbert could ask what she meant, she ended the call.

Hilbert looked up at Cheren and Bianca as if they knew what was going on. Cheren just gave a small shrug, and Bianca said, “Well, this seems like the perfect opportunity for me and Cheren to buy our stuff. Go see what your mom wants, Hilbert.”

“Alright, I guess I’ll meet you guys outside.”

Hilbert then left through the automatic sliding glass doors of the Pokémon Center into the early morning air. Few people were out and about, with most businesses still not having opened up shop for the day.

“Hilbert!” he heard his mother’s voice call. Looking ahead, he saw that she was about fifty feet away from him, and walking closer. He jogged up to her, and they met in the middle.

“What… what is it… Mom?” Hilbert asked, breathless from even that short run. He noticed that she was carrying a small black box under one arm.

Ignoring his question, Julia just laughed slightly and shook her head. “I see you’re still as out of shape as ever. Honestly, it’s a good thing I got here before you went too far. Arceus knows how you’d get on without what I have here.” She thrust the box into Hilbert’s hands. “Open it!”

Hilbert did as he was told, revealing the contents of the box to be a pair of high-top style sneakers, still in their wrapping paper. It looked like the box had never been opened, yet the lid was oddly dusty, indicating his mother must have bought these shoes years ago. Without needing to be told to do so, he slipped off his old black shoes, and laced up this new pair. They felt fantastic to wear, and their fire-engine red colour complimented his black jeans and blue jacket better than his old shoes ever did. It almost felt like he was meant to wear them.

“Do you like them?” Julia asked.

“They’re great!” Hilbert answered, nodding.

“Now, I want you to do me a favour. Run to the Pokémon Center doors and back to me and see how tired you feel. Make sure to rock back on your heels before taking off.”

“O… kay,” Hilbert said, perplexed by his mother’s strange request, but doing as he was told. He rocked back on his heels, and much to his surprise, almost to the point of falling on his face, was off like a shot, faster than he ever had. He was vaguely aware of a quiet puff, puff, puff noise coming from the back of his heels, but couldn’t focus on that, instead having to focus on stopping before he slammed into the Pokémon Center’s doors. He only just did so, skidding to a halt in a wide-legged stance. Without missing a beat, he turned around, rocked back on his heels, and ran back to his mother, coming to a stop in front of her.

His brain going a million miles a minute, all the questions Hilbert had at that moment trampled each other in their rush to be asked. “Wha… how… just- just… why..?”

“Well?” Julia was smiling ear-to-ear. “Do you like them?”

“Do I… do I like them?” Hilbert stammered. “Hell yes! That was incredible!” He began pacing back and forth, raving breathlessly about the shoes. “I mean, I just went so fast and I’m not sure how but I did and I… don’t… feel… tired.” He stopped, looking at his mother. “Wait… why am I not out of breath right now?”

Julia’s smile didn’t fade. “It’s the shoes, honey! There’s a small air bladder in their heels that fills up when you take a step and gets forced out through little holes, and that propels you forward. If I remember, it was called ‘B-Button technology’ or something like that. Rocking back on your heels is what activates it, gives you that first push. They’re also designed to take the strain off the wearer’s leg muscles, so you can run for miles!”

“These’ll be perfect for my journey! Hell, I might’ve been screwed without these. Thank you!” He gave his mother a tight hug, which she returned.

“Just take care of them, sweetheart. I found those when I was cleaning your room. I think they were supposed to be a gift for… your father, before he, well...” she trailed off sadly.

Hilbert broke out of the embrace, giving her a firm, determined look. “Don’t worry,” he said, that same determination carrying over to his voice. “I will.”

“Hilbert!” Cheren’s voice suddenly called. “We’re done! Let’s get going!” He and Bianca had exited the Pokémon Center, waving at him.

Julia gave her son one last hug. “Well, far be it from me to keep you waiting. Go on.”

Hilbert nodded, and his mother began to walk back to Nuvema Town. She looked over her shoulder at Hilbert for a second with pride. Your little boy is growing up, Julia, she thought. He’s going to be a powerful Trainer. I can feel it.

“So, what was your mom you for and- wow, those are nice shoes!” Bianca said. “Where’d you get them?”

“What do you think my mom was calling me?” Hilbert said. “It was to give me these. Let’s just say my days of having awful stamina are over.”

“Well good for you,” Cheren said flatly. “Now let’s get going.”

Their walk through Accumula Town proved uneventful, Hilbert inevitably taking the lead by a few paces thanks to his new shoes. I love these things already, he thought to himself with a cheeky grin. They went north until the wall of apartment buildings halted their progress, so they took a sharp turn west, towards the town’s entry/exit gate. These gates were present in nearly every region, from Kanto to Kalos, with the only exception being Hoenn, which had none.

The purpose of these gates, at least in other regions, were to serve as safety checkpoints between Routes and cities in case the wild Pokémon got a bit too rowdy, but in Unova they served more as informational stops for tourists, with each one having an electronic bulletin board that scrolled various messages and text advertisements across them in a loop. The message currently being displayed said, Striaton Gym is a restaurant where meals- and battles- are served!

They emerged out of the gate and onto Route 2. Route 2 was actually quite deceptive in its appearance. The short, northwest-leading section of less than half a kilometre (approximately 0.310686 miles) lead to a dead end filled with tall grass if one kept going in that direction, but the path made a sharp turn to the northeast, and that went right to Striaton. This path was just over 7 kilometres (4.3 miles) long, so it was quite a trek. Long grass grew in abundance on this Route, going through it was unavoidable, and where tall grass grew, Trainers went, eager to catch Pokémon and battle them. Of course, the road for cars that ran parallel to the Route avoided all this, but going on them with anything other than an automobile was strictly prohibited by law.

“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m gonna go catch my first Pokémon for my team,” Cheren said, pointing to the dead end filled with tall grass. Already, they could all see the blurry brown outlines of Patrat and Lillipup running around in the natural carpet. “If you wanna go on, be my guest, but I’d train up there first if I were you.”

“Yeah, that reminds me, I need to give Logan here a few levels,” Hilbert said, taking his Lillipup’s Poké Ball off his belt. “Bianca? You coming or not?”

“Actually… now that you mention it, that wouldn’t be too bad of an idea,” Bianca said. “Yeah! Count me in!”

They all went down to the small field, Hilbert throwing out Logan at the nearest Patrat, Bianca doing the same, pitting Pepper against a rival Lillipup. Cheren, meanwhile, fought off whatever came his way while on the lookout for a Purrloin.

“Logan, Tackle that Patrat!” Hilbert yelled, his Puppy Pokémon obeying and ramming into its rodent-like opponent. The Patrat hissed at Logan after it recovered from the blow, running towards him with a Tackle of its own, only to be stopped in its tracks by a Leer on Hilbert’s command. Another Tackle and it was over. Looking over at Bianca, he saw she had finished her battle as well.

It took forty-five minutes, but finally, they had brought brought both their Lillipup up to level 8, where they had learned the Dark-type move Bite, their Pokedexes letting out a microwave-esque ding! sound each time their Pokémon increased in level. With 60 base power, it would come in handy. At level 5, they had also learned the rather useless Odor Sleuth, which both Hilbert and Bianca resolved to get rid of as soon as possible. Cheren managed to catch his Purrloin (nicknamed Interloper), and surprisingly, Hilbert had found a nearly-full Potion bottle laying in the grass, and kept it. He wasn’t one to pick up random trash (even though littering too much on Routes was illegal) but this was basically a free Potion, something he was not about to pass up. On top of all that, Hilbert had managed to bring Maru up to level 8. The same was true of Bianca’s Tepig.

Now done with their training session and ready to move on, they retraced their steps almost back to the gate, and took the northeast path this time. Although longer than Route 1, Route 2 was much less wide, at only about 100 meters, thereby necessitating walking through the tall grass, and they soon came across some. This patch was unavoidably wide and a good 30 meters long, but worse than that, there was someone in the grass, looking around- another Trainer.

Oh no, Hilbert thought as the Trainer, a boy in a white tank top with blue shorts that couldn’t have been more than twelve, ran up to them, having spotted them.

“Hey, you three!” he yelled. “Are any of you Trainers? If so, I wanna battle you!”

Hilbert raised a brow, seeing just a single Poké Ball on the boy’s belt. “You want to take on all of us at once?”

“Not all of you, you idiot!” the boy said. “Just one of you!”

Hilbert visibly grit his teeth, growling lowly under his breath. He was just about to punch the guy in the face when Bianca spoke up. “Well… I guess I’ll take you on. I haven’t fought another Trainer yet, so I need to find out what it’s like.”

“Alright, it’s settled then!” the boy exclaimed. “My name’s Jimmy, by the way.”

“I’m Bianca. Nice to meet you.”

Jimmy backed up to give his Pokémon more room to fight, with Cheren and Hilbert moving off to the side. “Kick his ass,” Hilbert whispered discreetly in Bianca’s ear before he did so. “And try to make this quick.”

“Go, Patrat!” Jimmy yelled, tossing out his sole Poké Ball. Bianca responded by tossing out her Lillipup, Pepper, and the battle began.

Patrat bared its fangs and ran towards Pepper, but Bianca stopped that by shouting, “Pepper, use Leer, then Tackle it!”

The Lillipup’s eyes glowed a furious red for a second, freezing the Patrat in its tracks, She then ran at her opponent, throwing her whole weight into a Tackle, sending the Patrat flying back a ways, where it landed with a THUD.

Just as the Scout Pokémon was getting up, Pepper revealed her own teeth- four surprisingly sharp fangs, with two on the upper jaw and two on the lower jaw- and ran right for the enemy Patrat. It couldn’t recover or dodge in time, and Pepper’s fangs clamped down on its arm, causing it to cry out in pain. Lillipup then ran forward, tripping up the Patrat and causing it to fall on its back. Pepper then chomped down on the Patrat’s face, knocking it out in a heartbeat.

Jimmy was speechless for a second, the emotions on his face going from anger to shock to disappointment in a matter of seconds. However, disappointment was the expression that stuck. “Aw, man…” he grumbled. “I didn’t get to land a single attack…”

Wearing the same despondent expression, he returned his Patrat to its Poké Ball as Bianca did the same to her Lillipup. He then walked up to her, tapping his Trainer Card against hers to transfer the prize money over. “Good fight I guess,” he said, unable to look Bianca in the eye.

“Hey,” Bianca said, placing her hand on the boy’s shoulder. “You tried. Take this from someone who knows: one defeat isn’t a reason to throw in the towel, especially if this was your first Trainer battle.”

Jimmy raised his eyes to meet hers. “Well… fair enough.” They shook hands as Hilbert and Cheren came over and Jimmy went on his way, heading back to Accumula to get his Pokémon healed.

“That was really well done, Bianca! Nice going!” Cheren said.

“And it didn’t take a million years,” Hilbert added. “Well done.”

“Thanks, guys,” Bianca giggled. “Well, shall we go on?”

They kept going on their way, the terrain slanting upward into a gentle hill covered in tall grass. Bianca wished she could catch a glimpse of Striaton’s tall apartment buildings from where they were, just to have something to look at besides the endless green trees that hemmed them in on either side, but alas, the hill was too short, and due to the curvature of the Route, seeing Striaton was impossible from where they were. They were harassed by a few wild Pokémon, and they fought them off, their own Pokémon luckily taking no damage in the process.

The top of the hill was entirely bare of tall grass, and just as they reached the top, Hilbert’s stomach began growling. Checking his watch, he saw that it was nearly eleven o’clock. “I think it’s time for brunch,” he said. “Let’s stop here and eat.”

They sat down on the grass, all taking their LMT’s out of their respective bags and opening them using the tear notches. Having never seen the components of one of these before, with even Cheren being in the dark, they expected nothing more than nutrient paste that the company had tried to make as appetizing as possible. They were dead wrong.

Inside main bag, there were several smaller pouches labeled with what was in them, as well as two clear plastic beverage bags and a fruit bar that could be found in a grocery store. One pouch had trail mix made up of dark chocolate, small dried Razz Berry chunks that were also covered in dark chocolate, and various other berry chunks, like Sitrus and Mago, with a few almonds mixed in. Another pouch held a powder for an electrolyte-rich Sitrus Berry-flavoured sports drink. All one had to do to make it was pour it into one of the beverage bags, add water up to the fill line, and shake.

The last two pouches were saved for a powder for a vanilla MooMoo-milkshake meal replacement, and a small-but-reasonable amount of beef jerky. Meat all around the world was synthetic and lab-grown, but tasted identical to the real thing. All told, it was 1,000 calories worth of food, just what they needed to satisfy their hunger, quench their thirst, and keep them going.

Hilbert dug into the trail mix first after making the shake and sports drink. The chocolate had a slightly waxy texture in his mouth, but he figured that was to keep it from melting. Cheren, on the other hand, went right for the milkshake, taking a swig of it. It was rich, creamy, and tasted incredible. In fact, he couldn’t stop drinking it once he started, and what was meant to be a swig turned into him downing the whole thing in ten seconds!

“Oh, man, you guys gotta try this!” he exclaimed. “It’s awesome!”

Hilbert and Bianca glanced at each other, then grabbed their own milkshakes and drank them just as fast. “Holy crap, you’re right!” Hilbert said. He licked the milk moustache the shake had left off his upper lip, just to get one last taste of the flavour, Bianca doing the same.

Less than ten minutes later, the meals were finished, and with bellies full, they continued on down the hill. The trash from the PTMRE’s was stashed in the main pouch and put away in their bags. About fifteen years ago, due to an outbreak of Pokémon called Trubbish and Garbodor in Castelia City that caused major damage to many buildings, the Unovan government drafted new laws to try and cut down on trash, which attracted Trubbish and Garbodor.

In any case, at the bottom of the hill, they saw another Trainer. This time, it was a girl in a bland beige shirt and skirt with shin-high socks and brown hair. She had her Pokémon, a Purrloin, out battling a Patrat. She defeated it with little effort, then returned her Pokémon back to its Poké Ball just as the Nuvema Town trio came down the hill.

“Hey! Hey, you three!” the girl said, running up to them when she saw them. “Hold up! I wanna battle one of you!”

Hilbert opened his mouth to volunteer, but was cut off by Cheren saying, “My time to shine, I guess,” and stepping forward. “What’s your name? Mine’s Cheren.”

“I’m Mali!” the girl said, jabbing a thumb at herself rather flamboyantly. “Nice to meet’cha!”

While Hilbert seethed at having this chance at some potential experience for his Pokémon snatched away from him, Mali literally jumped for joy. “Alright! My first real Trainer battle! This should be a cinch! My Purrloin’s cuteness can overcome anything!”

She backed up, Cheren having to go back up the hill slightly to give himself enough room, though he quickly realized this was a good thing. No matter what Pokémon I send out, I’ll have the high ground advantage. She’ll have to expend more energy getting to me than I will going to her. He smirked. This battle’s as good as won.

“Go, Purrloin!” Mali yelled, throwing out the the purple feline-like Pokémon. Cheren decided to make this a Purrloin-on-Purrloin fight, so threw out his own Devious Pokémon, Interceptor.

“Purrloin, go for Scratch!” Mali yelled.

“Interceptor, Scratch too!” Cheren commanded.

Cheren’s theory was proven correct, as Interceptor ran down the hill much faster than the enemy Purrloin was able to run up it, and so he got in the first attack, sending Mali’s Pokémon tumbling back about five feet. The enemy Purrloin quickly recovered, and used Growl, freezing Interceptor in place just long enough to get a Scratch in, raking its claws across his face. It wasn’t done yet, though. It got in another Scratch, and another, whittling its opponent down.

“Damn!” Cheren cried. “Interceptor, Growl!”

Interceptor let out a desperate-sounding cry, stopping its opponent from landing the final blow. It then used Scratch again and again without mercy, not giving the other Purrloin any time to hit back. However, this random flailing worked, knocking out Mali’s Purrloin.

Cheren sighed in relief. Okay… that was harder than I thought it would be, he thought.

“No!” Mali cried, clearly distraught and not having expected to lose. “B-but… my Purrloin’s cuteness… it was supposed to beat everything…” She returned her Purrloin to its Poké Ball, then reluctantly tapped Trainer Cards with Cheren. She then began the long walk back to Accumula Town to have her Pokémon healed.

That’a a walk of shame if I ever saw one, Hilbert thought with more than a hint of snark to his mental tone of voice.

“Way to go, Cheren!” Bianca exclaimed. “I thought your Purrloin would go down there for a second, but you turned it around!”

“Thanks,” Cheren said, rubbing the back of his neck. “To tell the truth, I thought he would go down, too. Not even sure how I won, really… And now he needs healing. Hilbert, you picked up that Potion, right? Give it here.”

“What? Hell no!” Hilbert said. “Finders keepers, Cheren, I’m saving this for when I need it.”

“And if you don’t give it here, my Purrloin’s gonna faint if it takes one more attack from even a wild Pokémon.”

Well, maybe you should have thought about that before taking on that girl. I was about to fight her, then you butted in.”

Cheren grit his teeth. “Hilbert…” he said, lowly, dangerously.

Bianca was watching this whole exchange with terrified eyes, not daring to speak, and feeling helpless to do anything.

“Too. Effing. Bad,” Hilbert said firmly. “I found the Potion, and you didn’t. Now drop the subject and let’s get moving. Just use your Snivy to fight any wild battles until we get to Striaton. I don’t see what the big deal is here.”

Cheren, though his blood was still boiling, managed to swallow his pride and let out a obviously-forced, “Fine. Let’s get going.”

Bianca breathed a quiet sigh of relief and gave a small thanks to Arceus that the situation hadn’t escalated.

Thankfully, the rest of the trip proved uneventful, with the most noteworthy thing that happened being a huge flock of Pidove flying overhead, blocking out the sun for a second and creating quite a spectacle. “Oh, cool!” Bianca said. “I wonder where they’re going..?”

“Who cares?” Cheren replied glumly. “Let’s keep moving.”

At long last, after fifty more tedious minutes of walking, Striaton was in sight on the horizon, about a mile away. Unfortunately, much to Hilbert’s chagrin, they ran into one last Trainer. He wore blue jeans and a white T-shirt, with a black baseball cap on his head, worn backwards. He introduced himself as Roland, and Hilbert quickly accepted his challenge.

The fight was brief, with Hilbert using his Oshawott to knock out Roland’s sole Pokémon, a Lillipup. Thanks to Oshawott’s Water Gun, Roland’s Lillipup couldn’t even get close. Cheren and Bianca almost felt sorry for the boy, his attempts to fight back were so pitiful. Hilbert won without his Oshawott taking a single hit.

In disappointment, Roland paid Hilbert his prize money, and went on his way. The Nuvema Town trio then kept going, and were within half a mile of Striaton, when Bianca stopped and spoke up.

“Um… Hilbert, if it’s not too much to ask, can you and I have a battle? I’ve just got this… this craving for another one.”

Hilbert and Cheren, too, stopped in their tracks, and Hilbert let out an exasperated sigh. “Bianca, come on!” he cried. “We’re almost there! Can’t this wait?”

“Actually, no it can’t, Hilbert,” Cheren cut in. “Pokémon League rules state that a challenge to battle from one Trainer to another can’t be declined, unless one of the Trainers has no Pokémon in fighting condition.” He smirked. “And last I checked, yours and Bianca’s teams were both unscathed.”

“Son of a bitch!” Hilbert hissed under his breath through gritted teeth.

“However,” Cheren continued, You should both know that unlike the battle in Hilbert’s room, this will be an official match, and the loser has to give the winner a sum of prize money. Are you both okay with that?”

Both Hilbert and Bianca nodded, though Hilbert’s was notably more reluctant. They both moved back to give their Pokémon space to fight.

“Go, Pepper!” Bianca yelled, throwing out her Lillipup.

“Maru, get out there!” Hilbert said, tossing his starter’s Poké Ball into action.

“Pepper, go for Bite!” Bianca commanded.

Pepper bared her fangs, growling, and raced full-tilt for Maru. Maru immediately responded with a Water Gun, only to watch as Pepper jumped out of the way, and continued on its course, clamping its jaws down on the Oshawott’s nose. Maru let out a high-pitched squeal of pain, shaking its head back and forth, but Pepper refused to let go.

“Maru, use Water Gun! Point blank! Just our battle with N!” Hilbert yelled.

That threw Bianca for a loop. Hilbert battled a letter from the alphabet? How does that work? she thought. Confused, she didn’t notice until it was too late that Maru was opening its mouth for a Water Gun. He blasted Pepper straight in the face, blowing her completely off of him. Maru didn’t let up there, though. Before Pepper could even recover, he hit her with another Water Gun, sending her further backwards.

“Pepper, use Leer and then Tackle! Go!” Bianca yelled. Tackle wasn’t as powerful as Bite, but she was hoping she could combo Tackle into another Bite to hopefully knock Maru out.

Pepper’s eyes glowed bright red for a second, freezing Maru in place. She then ran right for him, trajectory straight as an arrow. Maru couldn’t get free of Leer’s effects in time, and was rammed by Pepper, sending him flying back.

“Bite, now! Finish him off!” Bianca yelled. Pepper once more bared her fangs and raced towards Maru.

Maru, who had landed right next to Hilbert raised his head out of the grass. Having learned from his mistake last time of launching Water Gun too early, he waited until the last possible second, then let loose. Pepper was hit full-on by the high-pressure stream of water, being knocked back. Maru then pushed himself to his feet, and hit Pepper with a Tackle using all the force he could muster. This proved to be the knockout blow to the Lillipup, sending her tumbling away, her eyes shut in pain. Hilbert’s Pokédex dinged to let him know that Maru increased a level

“Oh no! Pepper!” Bianca cried out, quickly recalling her Lillipup to its Ball. She then grabbed her Tepig’s Poké Ball, and threw it out. Oh… this… this isn’t good, she thought, knowing she was at a severe disadvantage. She stood there, unsure of what to do, for so long that Hilbert took the opportunity to attack.

“Maru, Water Gun!” he yelled. Maru shot a high-pressure stream of water at Tepig, who was drenched and squealed in agony.

“It’s super effective!” Cheren yelled. “Bianca, you better do something if you don’t wanna lose this!”

Bianca shook her head, like she was breaking out of a trance, and said, shakily, “T-Taroko, Ember!”

Tepig shot small balls of flame out its nostrils, but they traveled far too slow to hit Maru. He dodged them with no effort just by sidestepping. The fires smouldered in the grass and quickly died.

“Alright, Maru, one more Water Gun! Let’s finish strong!” Hilbert yelled. Maru didn’t need to be told twice, blasting Tepig with one more water stream, knocking Tepig out.

“Oh, no! I lost!” Bianca wailed. “Taroko, come back!” She recalled her starter to its Poké Ball as fast as she could, Hilbert doing the same.

“Well, that was a fine waste of time,” he said, walking up to Bianca and pulling out his Trainer Card. “What were you hoping to gain from that?”

“I-I thought I could win…” Bianca whimpered. She reluctantly pulled out her own Trainer Card and tapped it against Hilbert’s, giving him his prize money.

“But you didn’t, and all you did was delay us all,” Hilbert shot back, pulling out the Potion and using it to heal Maru.

“Hey! I need that to heal my Pokémon!” Bianca cried.

“Oh, for the love of Arceus, we’re less than half a mile away from Striaton. You can heal your Pokémon there,” Hilbert snapped. “Now let’s go. I don’t want any more delays.” Without another word, he rocked back on his heels and ran for the city, becoming a blur in the distance in no time.

Cheren walked up to Bianca. “Seriously, Bianca, what happened there? You just… froze. It’s almost like you threw the battle at the end.”

“I… I don’t know,” Bianca said. “I guess I just wasn’t used to going up against something I was weak to.”

“You’ll have to get used that really fast, I’m afraid,” Cheren replied. According to my research, the Gym Leaders in Striaton are all about type matchups. Now come on. We’ve gotta catch up to Hilbert before he gets too far ahead.”

They then took off, calling for Hilbert to slow down, and yet, he ignored them.

Bianca didn’t know what the hell she was doing, he thought bitterly. The only good thing is that Maru gained a level, but even still, I’ll come back here and train if I have to before taking on the Gym.

And so, he kept running, far outpacing his friends, not stopping until he was at the city limits of Striaton.

 

Long Way to Fall

By: Rylek196

Chapter 6: Beginnings of a Rivalry ​

The first thing Hilbert did when he entered Striaton City was locate the Pokémon Center. This was easier said than done, as he entered the city on its south end, and the Center was on the north end. Even the structure’s red roof was hidden by the tall apartment buildings made of grey brick from where he was. So, he had no choice but to go exploring until he found it.

Striaton City was far more segmented than Accumula Town, he saw as he walked. The main section of the city was basically its shopping and business hub, with clothing stores, restaurants, the ever-pointless police station, a building made of brown brick he couldn’t put a finger on the purpose of, and- “Yes, the Pokémon Center!” he said to himself, making a beeline for it, only to realize he was running a green light and nearly got hit by a car.

“Fuckin’ moron!” the driver yelled at him, and Hilbert’s middle finger shot up at the guy in response.

“Geez… talk about a shitty introduction to this place,” he muttered, shrugging his bag back into its proper position on his shoulder and going inside the Center. He got his Pokémon healed and topped up his water bottle in short order, then went to the store and bought another LMT, but while he was at the checkout, he remembered something. Oh yeah… didn’t Juniper ask me to meet someone in this city? Who was it again… Funnel… Mennel… oh, wait! Fennel! That’s who it was! Asking the cashier if he knew where someone named ‘Fennel’ lived, the man apologized, saying he didn’t. Hilbert thanked him anyway, and left the Pokémon Center.

This time making sure to wait for the proper traffic signal before crossing the road, he set out to search for Fennel’s place of residence. The sidewalks of Striaton were painted an odd blue-grey colour, while the streets were just plain grey. Towards the west, he could make out a small cul-de-sac suburb of fairly well-to-do houses, all of which had at least one hedge statue on the front lawn. Fennel probably doesn’t live over there, he thought. An apartment would be more realistic. Past the big houses was the exit to the city, but that really was too far away to see. So, he headed to the southeast part of the city, where a large block of apartment buildings lay.

He passed many people going about their day, and businesses on his way there, with quite a few of them being restaurants or cafés. One in particular across the road when he was close to the apartment complexes caught his eye, though. It had two grey marble statues out front, the tops of which were carved into the same symbol on the front of his Badge Case, and the emblem of the Unova Pokémon League- a Poké Ball with a scalene triangle making up most of the Ball’s lower half. I’d bet money that’s this city’s Gym. Better make a mental note of that thing’s location.

Shortly after, he entered into the veritable maze of apartment buildings, having no idea how he was going to find out where Fennel lived. As was their design intent, every building looked identical; same grey brick, same green trim along the roofs. Dammit… how the hell am I gonna find the right building? he thought. And I gotta find the right apartment, too. It’s a crapshoot on top of a crapshoot.

He brought his watch up to his face, taking a blind turn to the right, seeing it was nearly 2:45 in the afternoon. Agh! I’m never gonna find her at this rate! I should probably just head to the Gym.

He lowered his arm from in front of his face, and saw he had accidentally walked into a dingy-looking alley between two apartment buildings. “Uh oh,” was all he could say. He took Oshawott’s Ball off his belt just in case, every fibre of his being telling him to run. He had seen too many movies and TV shows where bad things happened to random people in alleyways, and didn’t want to end up dead after being mugged or worse. However, he felt as though his feet were bolted to the ground.

He got the distinct feeling he was being watched, and that feeling was confirmed when a gruff voice from behind him said, “You a Trainer?”

“Ah!” Hilbert yelped, whirling around and taking several stumbling steps back. He clicked the button on Oshawott’s Poké Ball twice with his thumb, releasing his starter. He got a good look at the man who had startled him. He was wearing a blue pair of jeans, a white shirt with a design on it that was partly covered by the leather jacket he wore, and shin-high boots. A pair of sunglasses was hanging off the collar of his shirt, his black hair pulled back into a long ponytail. He was also tall, the top of Hilbert’s head barely reaching his throat.

“W-what’s it to you?” Hilbert stammered, taking a few more cautious steps back and ensuring Oshawott was between him and the stranger. The man then made as though to take a step forward, but Hilbert was having none of it. “You stay right there, buddy!” he yelled with as much commanding gusto as he could muster. “Maru, use Water Gun on this guy if he so much as tries to take another step!”

“Oh, for cryin’ out loud… kids these days…” the man muttered. “Look, I’m not gonna hurt you.”

“And why should I believe that?” Hilbert said. “Scaring people in alleys doesn’t exactly make you seem trustworthy. What are you doing here, anyway? Just waiting for someone like me to stumble in here so you can rob them blind?”

A hurt look flashed in the man’s eyes, like he was recalling bad memories. He looked away, regret clear on his face. “To tell ya the truth, that’s the type of life I wanna get away from,” he muttered.

“What?” Hilbert said. “I didn’t catch that.”

The man leaned against the right wall of the alley and sighed. “I said, that’s the type of life I wanna get away from, although rewind the clock a few months, and robbing you is exactly what I’d do.”

Hilbert remained silent, not quite sure how to respond, the man apparently taking that as permission to elaborate. “I was part of the Black Empoleon gang, a real nasty bunch that often took over Tubeline Bridge, and we chased away or harassed anyone trying to cross. Until… well, we- I mean, they- went too far, and they… killed someone.

“Look, I had nothing to do with it!” the man added in response to Hilbert’s flabbergasted expression. “I even protested against it, but before I could try and do anything, she was dead.”

Holy crap, Hilbert thought. “So… what have you been doing since then?”

“Trying to turn over a new leaf, obviously,” the man replied. “As you can probably see by the way I’m in this alley, though, things… haven’t gone so well. Not gonna give up yet, but… feh, this is none of your business. I’m probably just boring you, anyway. All I’m gonna say is this: stay away from Tubeline Bridge if you don’t wanna end up like that poor woman who got murdered. And here, take this.”

The man reached into his back pocket and pulled out a strange-looking Poké Ball with a green-and-black colour scheme, and handed it to Hilbert.

“My lucky Dusk Ball,” he explained. “I won’t be needing it anymore. Use if it ya want. It helps catch Pokémon at night or in caves more easily.”

“Thanks, I… guess,” Hilbert said, stowing the new Ball away in his bag. “What’s your name, by the way? I never got it.”

“It’s Sebastian,” the man said. “You?”

“Hilbert.”

“Pleased to meet ya.” The two of them shook hands and started to say their farewells, but Hilbert then remembered what his reason was for coming down to this part of the city was in the first place. He asked if Sebastian knew knew where anyone named Fennel lived.

“Fennel?” Sebastian nearly spat, his eyebrows shooting upwards. “I don’t know why the hell you wanna find her, but she lives in this apartment building right here, somewhere on the third floor.” He pointed to the building on the right side of the alley with his thumb. “You can see light coming from her front window at night from all the crazy experiments she’s doing. Honestly, she’s kinda nuts, so be careful.”

“I’ll try,” Hilbert said. “Thanks.”

He walked out of the alley and went right, overhearing a bit of a conversation between two men as they walked by. “So I decided to let my Pokémon go,” one was saying.

“Wait, what?” the other replied. “Why the heck would you do that?”

“Because I think Team Plasma has a point, that’s all. Maybe you should do it as well, seeing as...” Whatever was said next, Hilbert didn’t catch, as they were already out of his earshot.

Team Plasma was around here? he thought. That isn’t good.

With that troubling thought planted firmly in his brain, he went into the building, taking the elevator up to the third floor. He walked along the hall, innocuous doors on either side of him, until he came to one that had a bright pink sign hanging on it with glittery text that read, ‘Fennel’s Dream Lab’.

“She doesn’t exactly make it subtle, does she?” he muttered under his breath, then knocked on the door. He heard the approach of footsteps from behind the door, and a second later, it opened. A woman in a long lab coat with insanely long hair dyed a dark blue appeared in the doorway. “Yes?” she said. “And you are..?”

“I’m assuming you’re Professor Fennel?” Hilbert asked, to which he got a nod in reply. “My name is Hilbert. Professor Juniper sent-“

“Oh!” You’re one of the Trainers Aurea told me were coming!” Fennel cried jubilantly, cutting him off. “Come in, come in!” Not giving him a choice in the matter, she grabbed his arm and yanked him inside her apartment, Hilbert letting out his second yelp that day.

“Aminita!” Fennel called in a sing-song voice, still dragging a bewildered Hilbert along, “We have company! Come say hello!”

“Yes?” a young girl’s voice said, peeking her head out of a nearby bedroom to the left. Her head of brown hair was done up into twin pigtails, and she wore a lab coat with sleeves entirely too long for her. “Who is it?”

That’s Aminita? Hilbert thought. She’s so young!

“It’s one of the Trainers that Professor Juniper told us about!” Fennel exclaimed. “Oh, we simply must show him the lab! Let’s go! This waaay!”

Hilbert was horrified to discover in the next two seconds that he was being dragged into the bedroom Aminita was in. “Uh, I don’t think I want to see your lab..!” he tried to protest, lightly hitting at Fennel’s wrist, but she had already pulled him inside.

The room seemed ordinary, contrary to whatever nightmarish sex dungeon his mind had cooked up, with a bed facing towards the window, and nightstands on either end, but what really stood out was the strange machine at the foot of the bed. It was a bizarre sort of tinted glass cylinder, with a metal base and top that had been painted a garish pinkish-purple colour, with yellow antennas sticking out of the top. It was hooked up to a big blue tower on one side (likely its power supply), and a laptop on the other.

Sebastian was right, Hilbert thought. This lady is nuts!

“As you can see, I study dreams!” Fennel said, finally letting go of Hilbert’s arm. “The brain’s ability to create such vivid images… it’s fascinating! I want to find out the purpose behind all those dreams, and it’s a dream of mine that keeps growing and growing! Isn’t it amazing?”

“Uh… sure,” Hilbert said, making sure his path to the door was clear in case he needed to make a run for it. “What I want to know is… what does this have to do with me?”

“Oh! That’s easy!” Fennel replied. “I want you to do me a favour! There’s an abandoned factory on the east outskirts of Striaton- the Dreamyard. Heard of it?”

“Yeah, that’s the place where they film movies often, right?” Hilbert said. “I’ve always wanted to go there.”

“Correct!” Fennel said. “It’s the natural habitat of a Pokémon that’s deeply connected to my research on dreams, which is Munna! Munna, along with its evolution Musharna, give off a substance called Dream Mist, which is key in making that machine work! However, someone went and put a lock on the Dreamyard’s gates, and my supply of Dream Mist is running low, and with all the prickly bushes around the Dreamyard, I can’t get in.”

Fennel reached into the back pocket of her lab coat and pulled out a jewel case containing a disk, giving it to Hilbert. “I’ll let you have this!”

Hilbert, noticing there was a QR code with text underneath that read, ‘SCAN WITH Pokédex’ on the case, took out the device and did so. “HM01 Cut,” he read. “I assume this is for cutting down those bushes, right?”

“Yep!” Fennel said. “It’s a move that a Pokémon can use even outside of battle. You’ll need this city’s Gym Badge to make it work, though. By the way, did you know there’s a button on every Pokédex that sends out a signal that can stop a Pokémon from evolving in case there’s a move you want it to learn at a later level! Amazing, isn’t it? The technology of today is incredible!”

Rolling his eyes at that last comment, Hilbert nonetheless made a mental note of the Pokédex fact, saying, “Alright, then I’ll just go to the Gym now! That’s what I came to this city for, anyway.”

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you!” Fennel cried. “The Gym’s been closed for repairs for the last four days. I hear they’re almost done fixing it, but it’s not quite finished.”

Dammit, Hilbert thought, gritting his teeth. “So what do you want me to do, then?”

“That’s… kind of up to you,” Fennel said with a sheepish smile. “But my recommendation is the Trainer’s School. You know that brown building close to the Pokémon Center? That’s it. You never know what you’ll learn, and anytime is a good time to expand your brain! Oh, and don’t worry about not being paid for retrieving the Dream Mist. I’ll reward you handsomely for that. How does four thousand Pokedollars sound?”

Hilbert’s jaw nearly hit the floor, and he could swear his pupils had turned into Pokedollar signs. “F-four thousand!?” he stammered. “Count me in! Of course I’ll do it!”

“Awesome!” Fennel said. “Come back here when you’ve got this city’s Gym Badge, and I’ll take you to the Dreamyard!”

“Sounds good!” Hilbert said. “I’ll see ya around.”

He turned to leave, but Aminita, who had been silent up to then, content to just listen, spoke up. “Um… Mr. Hilbert… if I may ask… have you been using my storage system? I, uh, worked really hard on it…”

“Honestly, no I haven’t been, and I don’t really plan to,” Hilbert replied. He looked over his shoulder back at her. “In fact, Professor Juniper told me your system has bugs and is unreliable.”

“Uh, b-bugs?” Aminita stuttered. “I-I don’t know a-anything about any b-bugs in my system, honest!”

Hilbert turned his head back, his eyes narrowed in suspicion, but then he just shrugged. Obviously there was something wrong with Unova’s Pokémon Storage System, but it wasn’t like he was ever going to use it, so it wasn’t his problem. He left Fennel’s apartment, walking out of the building, and made his way to the Trainer’s School, putting his running shoes to good use on occasion, but looking both ways before he crossed the street to avoid any further incidents like the one he had when he first entered Striaton.

He reached the Trainer’s School by about 3:46, and went inside. The Trainer’s School was a big single-room schoolhouse, with enough space for seventy desks, all arranged in neat rows facing the huge blackboard on the right wall, while plentiful bookshelves lined the left wall, and the teacher’s desk was in the back-left corner of the room. The back wall was covered in drawings made by students, and a door leading to a backyard area was smack in the middle of the wall.

Hilbert saw that most of the thirty or so students in the class were taking some sort of test, their heads buried in work with pencils scratching against paper. He then saw Cheren, standing close to the blackboard and reading the topics written on it. The teacher then looked up from his own paperwork and took notice of him, calling out to him. “Ah, another new face! Come over here, young man.”

Seeing no reason not to obey, Hilbert made his way over to the teacher’s desk, a lot of the students not even looking up from their work. Cheren, unfortunately, did, locking eyes with Hilbert. The black-haired boy gave his friend a somewhat sinister look, then turned back to the blackboard. “So, what brings you here, Trainer?” the teacher said once Hilbert got to his desk. “ Looking to enroll? Or just popping in to learn a thing or two you didn’t before?”

“Uh… the latter, actually,” Hilbert said. “To be completely honest, I’m just waiting for the Gym to reopen so I challenge it.”

“In that case, I’d check out what’s written on the blackboard right now if you’re looking to kill a bit of time. And seeing how you want to challenge the Gym, take these.” The teacher opened a drawer in his desk and pulled out three blue objects, each about the size of a marble. “These are Oran Berries,” he continued, dropping them into Hilbert’s waiting palm. “They restore a Pokémon’s health when it drops below a certain point, but not by much. However, that little bit could be a lifesaver, and the difference between victory or defeat. I assume you know how to give these to a Pokémon?”

Hilbert just shook his head no.

The teacher sighed. “Alright, then I’ll show you. Give me one of those Berries and a Poké Ball for a second, if you don’t mind.” Unclipping Logan’s Poké Ball from his belt, Hilbert gave both it and one of the Oran Berries to the teacher.

“This is really quite simple,” the teacher said. “All you do is hold up the Berry to the central button, like so…” A beam of red light shot out of the Ball’s button, and within a second, the Oran Berry had vanished from sight, leaving the teacher holding empty air. “And as they say in Kalos, voilà,” he finished.

“What… what happened there?” Hilbert said, amazed.

“The Berry got turned into energy, of course,” the teacher replied. “Poke Balls are wondrous inventions, aren’t they? There’s a whole host of other Pokémon hold items out there, all with their own effects that can give you an edge in battle, so it’d be a good idea to hunt them down.”

“How will I know what they are, though?” Hilbert asked.

“You just will, in the same way you know what Pokémon is in each of your Poke Balls, without any markings to differentiate them,” the teacher smiled. “Call it… ‘Trainer’s sense’.”

“Teacher, can I have some help?” one of the students called from the front row, raising their hand.

“Yes, just a second,” the teacher replied. “One last thing is how to reverse the process. Just hold the button for three seconds, and the item will be returned like nothing happened. Now, if you’ll excuse me…” he handed Hilbert back Logan’ Poké Ball, then got up to go aid his stuck pupil.

Hilbert made his way over to the blackboard, and began to read it, standing five feet away from Cheren. The topic on the board was actually quite useful, telling him about STAB, an acronym for ‘Same Type Attack Bonus’. If a Pokémon used a move that matched its own type, the power of said move would be boosted by 1.5 times.

No wonder why Maru was able to take so many Scratch attacks from N’s Purrloin, and why Water Gun was doing so much damage, he thought. This also probably means Tackle from Logan will be boosted as well. Not like it matters because Bite is more powerful anyway, but still…

Cheren, who had been giving Hilbert sidelong glances out of annoyance at his presence, finally spoke up. “What are you doing here?” he whispered, a harsh edge to his tone.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” Hilbert answered. “Reading up on things I didn’t know, same as you.”

“Yeah, but why? First you run off in a big hurry, and now you’ve got time to kill? Bit contradictory there, don’t ya think?”

“Why’s it suddenly your business what I do with my time?” Hilbert said grumpily. “Look, just leave me alone, would you?”

“No, I won’t,” Cheren said. “In fact, I want to test out how items work in battle, so I’m challenging you, Hilbert. Right here, right now.”

“Are you serious!?” Hilbert cried, trying and failing to keep his voice low. “Do you remember what happened in my room!? It got fucking destroyed!”

It was then that he noticed the room had gone very quiet, and he looked back. Everyone was staring at him like had two heads, and the teacher looked none-too-pleased. The man cleared his throat to break the silence. “I’m sorry, I didn’t quite catch that. What did you say? Please repeat it. Without the uncalled-for vulgarity, if you don’t mind.”

“Sorry about my friend, sir,” Cheren said, cutting Hilbert off before he could speak. “I was challenging him to a battle in here, and he flew off the handle.”

Hilbert’s expression immediately grew enraged, but the teacher seemed not to notice, his eyes going wide. “In the room? Are you mad? If you wanted to have a Pokémon battle, that area out back is more than suited for it.”

Cheren’s face turned sheepish in a heartbeat. “Oh…” was all he manage.

“Although… now that I think about it… this could be a great opportunity for the class to see Trainers go at it in a real battle!” the teacher said, his eyes brightening as the idea came to him. “Everyone, there’s been a change of plans for today. We’ll finish the test tomorrow. For now, you’ll get your first chance to see a Pokémon battle in person! Let’s go outside, follow me.”

There was a shuffling of chairs as the students all got up, many whispering excitedly amongst themselves. Hilbert gave Cheren a withering look before he followed the mass of students out the back door. The area behind the school was quite spacious and pretty, carpeted in short, well-trimmed grass, with a fountain in the center, its carved decoration being that of the crystal on the forehead of Suicune, one of the legendary Pokémon from Johto.

Cheren took up a position close to the fountain, with his back to it, while Hilbert stood fifteen feet away. The students formed a rough semi-circle around them. The black-haired boy wasted no time. “Go, Interloper!” he yelled, throwing out his Purrloin. Hilbert then tossed Logan into play without a word.

“Ah, a battle of feline and canine!” the teacher commented. “Pay close attention class, and take notes!”

Cheren’s Purrloin hissed at Logan, taking the initiative in attacking, running on all fours for Logan, jumping and popping its claws at the last second, landing a surprise Scratch, and the Lillipup was sent tumbling back with a yip. Logan quickly made it to his feet, and seeing his opponent rushing towards him with a bloodthirsty look, used Leer to freeze the oncoming assault. He then ran to the Purrloin, smashing into it with Tackle, putting everything he had into the move.

Interceptor yowled in pain as he was struck head-on, flying backwards and landing hard. Logan then followed up by running at the Purrloin, his fangs bared. Purrloin, due to its significantly harder landing, didn’t dodge in time, and Logan chomped down with Bite. Yet, to Hilbert’s shock, Purrloin didn’t seem too affected by the move!

“That wasn’t a very effective move, Hilbert,” Cheren said. “I’m not sure what your Lillipup was expecting to accomplish by using a Dark-type move on a Dark-type Pokémon. Interceptor, use Scratch repeatedly!”

Oh shit, Hilbert thought. “Logan, get outta there, now!”

Logan opened his mouth and jumped back just as Purrloin’s claws slashed down at him, so close they actually shaved off a few hairs from his face. Purrloin wasn’t about to let up, though, using Scratch after Scratch as per Cheren’s command, not giving Logan a second’s rest and forcing him to hop back further and further. This couldn’t and didn’t last forever, and soon Logan was hit again, sending him rolling across the grass. However, this gave Logan the opportunity to repeat his tactic from a few minutes earlier, freezing Purrloin in place with Leer, and ramming into him with Tackle.

We’re evenly matched, Cheren thought. I gotta use Interceptor’s other move if I want any chance of winning this. It’s a dice roll… but it’s a risk I have to take. “Interceptor, get in close and use Assist!” he shouted.

Interceptor did as he was told, rushing forward, making Logan brace for an attack that wouldn’t come. Instead, the Devious Pokémon raised one paw above its head, a glowing orb of light enveloping the appendage. Both Hilbert and Logan stared at it, unsure of what to do as Cheren crossed his fingers. Suddenly, Purrloin whipped his paw down, a thin green vine coming out of the light orb striking Logan across the face. The Puppy Pokémon yelped in pain, knocked out.

“What the hell!?” Hilbert yelled. “What was that!?”

“Yes!” Cheren shouted. “I knew that risk would pay off!”

Outstanding use of Assist, young man!” the teacher said. “Well done!”

“Alright, what the hell is Assist!?” Hilbert yelled. “What just happened!?”

“Oh, let me explain,” the teacher said. “Assist randomly selects a move from every move in a given Trainer’s party. Since your opponent undoubtedly has a Grass-type that knows Vine Whip, Assist picked it. Of course, it was a gamble, but in this case it did pay off!”

“Damn!” Hilbert growled. At least that Purrloin is weakened. But I gotta be careful. Everyone knows the basic Grass-Fire-Water triangle.

“You gonna throw out your Oshawott, or do you give up?” Cheren said smugly.

“Hell no,” Hilbert hissed. “Maru, get out there!” He returned his Lillipup and tossed out his starter Pokémon, who appeared in a flash of white light. “Use Water Gun, right now!”

Oshawott released his signature high-pressure water stream from his mouth, hitting the Purrloin dead-on. Just like with N’s Purrloin, the move was more than enough to get the knockout. However, Cheren just grinned, as this meant he could send out his ace in the hole. He returned his Purrloin, and sent out his Snivy. Hilbert visibly gulped. Somehow, the little Grass Snake Pokémon seemed very threatening when the Pokémon he had staring it down was weak to Grass-types.

Cheren, much to his dismay, went right for the jugular. “Tara, Vine Whip!” he called. Snivy quickly grew a thin vine out of its grassy forelimb and snapped it forward, too fast for Oshawott to dodge. There was a sharp CRACK as the move made contact, Oshawott screaming in pain from the super-effective attack.

“Maru, no!” Hilbert yelled. “Come on, use Water Gun again!”

Maru popped to his feet from where he had landed a short distance away, and blasted Snivy with water, but this didn’t seem to do much in terms of damage. Cheren only smirked. “Vine Whip, again!” he commanded.

Knowing that Oshawott getting hit by another Vine Whip would surely knock his starter out and lose him the match, Hilbert yelled, “Maru, catch it!” as Snivy ran towards the Sea Otter Pokémon, bringing the foliage-based whip down. Against all odds, Maru used his stubby forelimbs to catch the end of the whip, then yanked it towards him, unending Snivy and causing her to fall on her face. Maru then ran forward and slammed into Snivy with Tackle, sending her backwards.

Hilbert let out a relieved sigh, thinking he finally had gained a foothold or even the upper hand… but that cut off with a strangled gasp as a glow surrounded Snivy.

“Ah, I see you put one of the Oran Berries I gave you on your Snivy!” the teacher said from the sidelines.

Cheren grinned as Hilbert’s eyes went wide. “Oh shit…” he breathed.

Cheren took advantage of Hilbert’s momentary lapse in concentration to attack. “Tackle, now!” he yelled. Oshawott was hit with the attack, sending him backwards across the battlefield.

Dammit! Hilbert thought angrily with his teeth and fists clenched. He’s got every advantage in this fight! How am I gonna win this!?

Cilan hummed a tune to himself as he walked the last few feet to the Trainer’s School, waving to a few passerby. He went inside, taking a deep breath to make the announcement that the Gym’s repairs were finally done and it was ready to accept challengers again… but the words died in his throat when he saw that no one was in the building.

“Um, where is everyone?” the green-haired Striaton Gym Leader said to no one in particular. “I swear there was a test going on today…”

He then noticed that there was a large gathering of students in the back area through the glass door. “Now what could they be doing back there?” he wondered aloud, walking to the door and going outside. The students had all gathered around two Trainers he didn’t recognize having a battle. He gently pushed his way through the throng, some students saying, “The Gym Leader’s here!” or, “It’s Cilan!” as he made his way forward.

Once he got to the front, he could clearly make out what was going on. One boy with brown hair and an Oshawott was desperately commanding his Pokémon to dodge Vine Whip after Vine Whip from his opponent’s Snivy. The Oshawott panted heavily, and was obviously low on health. Cilan shrugged, deciding to give the baseball-cap boy some help.

“Um, excuse me,” he said, tapping the boy on the shoulder.

The boy’s head snapped back to look at him. “I’m a little busy right now!” he yelled. He then turned his attention back to the battle, just in time to order his Oshawott out of the way of yet another Vine Whip.

“Your Oshawott seems to be low on health, which means that its ability, um, Torrent, is probably active,” Cilan pointed out.

“What good is that!?” Hilbert screamed, desperation clear in his voice.

“It boosts the power of Water-type moves,” Cilan said. “It might just be enough to knock out that Snivy. Have your Oshawott get some distance between it and that Snivy, and then try it.”

Hilbert sighed. Well, what have I got to lose? he thought. “Oshawott, back up and use Water Gun!” he shouted.

Oshawott danced out of range of an oncoming Vine Whip, and let out a powerful stream of water from his mouth, stronger than anything he had ever shot before up to that point in his life. The attack rammed into Snivy, sending her flying back right into Cheren’s upper chest, and with a cry of surprise and alarm, he fell backwards into the fountain with a splash.

It took Hilbert a moment to process what had just happened, but the ding! of his Pokédex from inside his bag brought him back to reality, and by then, a fuming and dripping-wet Cheren had extracted himself from the fountain with the aid of a couple of students, and stomped over to Hilbert to give him his prize money.

“Uh… sorry about that, man…” Hilbert said sheepishly.

“Save it,” Cheren snapped, tapping his Trainer Card against Hilbert’s. “You only won because you had help you didn’t deserve.” He then stormed away in a huff.

There was a short silence after that, broken by Cilan clearing his throat. “Well, I’m sure that was a good match, but at the same time, I’m… kind of sad I didn’t get to see more of it. Now, what was I here for in the first place..? Oh, right. Everyone, I have an announcement to make. The Gym’s repairs are done, and we’re ready for, um, challengers to face it.”

A huge cheer went up from the crowd of students, Cilan waiting for it to quiet. “However, I’d like our first challenger to be you,” he pointed to Hilbert. “Would you take me up on that offer.”

“Hell yes,” Hilbert said. That reward Fennel promised me is as good as mine!

“Excellent!” Cilan said. “I think it’d be best to do it tomorrow, though, because it’s getting a little bit late right now. How does, um… ten o’clock in the morning sound?”

“Sure, I’ll be there.”

“Great. Just be sure to make it on time, because if you don’t, that’s an automatic disqualification.”

“Got it,” Hilbert said.

Little did anyone know, a furious Cheren was listening to all this from the doorway, his fists clenched so tight enough to turn his knuckles white. That should have been me to challenge the Gym first, he fumed, anger bubbling inside him like magma. Next time, I’ll beat you, Hilbert, and there will be a next time. I swear it.