#but as far as unova and up is concerned he barely even thinks about them

[darkestrellar]

Talk about your relationship with Reshiram :D

Reshiram, the majestic white dragon of truth, one of the legends of Unova. Somehow, a creature that Svern was bonded to.

He remembered with perfect clarity everything surrounding them and their awakening: from the moment that he first held the dormant Light Stone in his hands, and carrying it with him as it lay silent, all the way on the long road, into the castle that had sprung from the ground around the Pokemon League, through into the great throne room within.

He remembered how the Light Stone had stayed silent even then. He remembered his own calm acceptance that he, being the lying thing that he was, being so far from what could be considered an ideal hero, must have been in the wrong to take it after all. How he'd known this all along, and had still taken it and gone there on his own two feet anyway.

He remembered the air heavy with pressure when Zekrom came at N's call, the entire hall shaking with its roar; its blinding, ferocious electricity. Still Svern could only remember feeling that calm acceptance. He'd been ready for this outcome. He'd had a feeling, for a long time, that he was intruding on something, and known that he wasn't suited for this. Whether you believed in fate or not was irrelevant. Anyone could tell.

Then had it been his own heart that skipped a beat when, against all his expectation, the Light Stone had suddenly responded, or had that been a second and more powerful heartbeat resonating with his own?

Maybe it was both.

"It's complicated. Both of us are painfully aware that I'm far from his ideal hero. I'm just the person who happened to be there, because I put myself there, against better judgement. He may have accepted me in the moment, but we've had plenty of friction since then."

Still, it had been years now, and the bond hadn't broken yet.

Svern also remembered watching the Light Stone, rapt, as it drew in vitality from the space around it and expanded into its true form, and the blazing heat that issued forth from Reshiram's awakening, so intense that Andromeda had sprung into action to shield him from the flames.

N's words explaining the sudden intrusion Svern sensed on his dull heart as the white dragon's declaration that they were going to test him.

And, in the face of that great power, and the upcoming battle — how he had laid bare his heart before them. Whether they deemed him worthy and accepted him as an ally, or found him repulsive and he was consumed by their incinerating fire, Svern both acknowledged who he was and the situation he was in and left the rest to their decision.

It was the only thing he could do, and somehow it was enough.

"He knows everything about me, including each and every flaw. There's nothing I can hide from him. I know that there are things I do that pain him, and I do them anyway. He knows why I do them, but it still hurts him. He's trying to help me, you know. He thinks I can be better."

Svern paused, slowly breathing in, slowly breathing out a sigh. Right now, his eyes looked neither falsely bright nor sharp; just... weary.

"...For years now he's been excruciatingly patient with me. For years, I've dug in my heels and kept behaving like I do. I know in my mind how I could better match his image of what I could be, but I don't."

He could feel Reshiram's bewilderment and concern, but it didn't move him enough to do anything about it. Svern made for a good hero of truth the same way a good knife cut through to the core no matter how it looked. Neither it nor the job it did was pretty. There were nicer choices out there, but this one was functional and happened to be the one you had on hand, so it would have to do. Maybe with some care, you could fix up the splintered handle so that it didn't rub your skin raw as you held it.

He did wonder sometimes, if one day they would truly get fed up with him.

[oops-prow-did-it-again]

Pokémon Retold: Hidden Grottos - Whispers in the Dark (1)

Pokémon Retold (series) on AO3

Consider tipping/supporting/commissioning me on Patreon? :3*

*Note that I haven’t updated the tiers yet - I no longer post fanfic work 2 weeks in advance on there, I only post original writing, art, and fanart there 2 weeks in advance! The Patreon is mostly still under construction, but commission info on there is accurate.

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Some conversations between Hil and N.

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Timeline: ~5 years after Black 2

Setting: Unova

Notes: So I had a few ideas that I wanted to write, but none of them really had a plot, it was more just “hey I want these characters to talk about X thing,” so that’s what “Whispers in the Dark” oneshots are gonna be. No real plot, just two characters rambling at each other. This particular one is fluffy again, though there are some mentions of blood/violence (recollections of the past on N’s part). And of course, it’s a little long since I just kinda let myself go and write as much as I wanted lol.

Characters: Hilbert (Hil), N, Noodle and Hil’s other pokémon, N’s Zoroark

Prerequisite Reading: Black, Black 2

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It was only about seven in the evening, and as such, N was finished with all tasks he had piled up for the day. He and Hil were back in Unova for the time being, and would be for quite a while, thanks to turbulent disagreements over some new laws that he and Hil had fought to get into place (regarding the breeding and keeping of shiny pokémon… that entire process had been headache-inducing, and N had gotten angry about it more than his fair share of times, so he didn’t particularly want to think about it anymore that day). All he really could think about was how depressing it was that pokémon rights activism—the kind that simply pushed for better living conditions for pokémon with humans, not to treat pokémon exactly like humans or whatever ideals Team Plasma had shoved down his throat for him to spew back out at the populace—had been so severely damaged by Team Plasma’s name. The public was suspicious of proposals aimed at bettering the lives of pokémon and could be vocally distrustful of their proponents, as if instinctively convinced there had to be more to it than simply wanting to help pokémon.  

He knew he wasn’t innocent in the cause, either; sure, he had never wanted to hurt anyone, and had been raised in a veil of lies to make him see the world in such a light, but he had been the one to raise the castle from the ground around the Pokémon League. There were still entire routes around it that were closed due to rockslides, and the area immediately surrounding the main Pokémon League building was off-limits due to fears over the instability of the ground, despite the country’s efforts to restore its integrity. It hurt to call it what it was, but that had been a terrorist attack on the Pokémon League. The physical and mental scars from his stay in Team Plasma as their ‘King’ were very just that: scars that would always be visible, even if they faded over time.

He jolted upright in the chair he was sinking into when he heard the front door click. Hil had left earlier that day to talk to Gym Leader Drayden, as well as other high-ranking officials in Opelucid City, as it was one of the most vocally displeased with the new laws. He had told N that he had just wanted to see if he could see what exactly the people there had an issue with, or if it was just flat-out paranoia causing the issues. When the door opened, Hil staggered in and then slammed it behind him, leaning back against it and groaning. “Opelucid’s still such a mess,” he whined. “Yeah, Gym Leader Drayden had actual concerns, but I still have no idea what the police chief woman, whatever her name was, was trying to tell me. I had to get her to write it down to see if Church or Nathan or somebody can decipher her language.”

“Mm,” N laughed softly, “it was that bad, was it?” Truthfully, he was elated that Hil was back, and he restrainedly got up out of the chair to go greet him. He really just wanted to dart over and hug him, but he had difficulty allowing himself not to be so mindful and composed of his own movements (even after so much time, proper ‘etiquette for a king’ was still instinctual to him, beaten into his head by the various Sages as he had gotten older. “A King does not run around like a child,” he remembered specifically being chided at one point. At another, after he had excitedly pumped his fist at finally grasping some concept that had been eluding him in a math workbook, “Stop that. People don’t respect someone that so childishly celebrates themselves.”).

At his approach, Hil casually leaned forward and wrapped his arms around him, leaning against his chest, almost. “Yes. I’m ready to be done thinking for the day.” The sight vaguely amused N—Hil was quite a few inches shorter than he was, the top of his head barely coming past his chin—and he stiffly moved his arms to lazily loop around Hil. Before he had a chance to say anything, Hil added resignedly, “Also, Cheren called me about something.”

Frowning, N tilted his head slightly. “About what?”

“Amber’s not doing great,” he sighed, clutching N a little closer. “Apparently, her job in Accumula sent somebody to go knock on her door because she’d missed like four days in a row without calling ahead and wasn’t responding to anything, not even voicemails. Nothing was wrong, really, just she was in her bed and wouldn’t get out of it except to answer the door, and so that person went and told Cheren and…” he trailed off and shook his head against N’s chest. “I don’t like her. At all. I haven’t forgiven her for all she did. But I don’t want anything bad to happen to her… I think I’m gonna head down to Nuvema tomorrow. Cheren said he left one of his Watchog with her, and he said that if anything goes wrong,” Hil laughed halfheartedly, “the whole town’ll know.”

“You will need to head there alone, won’t you?” N asked, though it came out sounding more like a statement. He felt a small pang of guilt for that—it wasn’t like Hil wasn’t allowed to go places without him, after all, and he certainly didn’t wish Hil any heartache over his mother—but he couldn’t help the almost childish desire to want to be by his side no matter what. Not to mention, he hated being stuck at the Pokémon League without him… Rarely did their duties require them to be separated, since the Consul position had been built around the idea of the two leaders operating as a team, but it seemed to N that just meant whenever for some reason they did have to separate, it was that much more difficult.

“Yeah,” Hil answered softly, loosening his grasp on N some and backing up a step. With a goofy smile that he was so good at, he shrugged. “It shouldn’t be too long, though… I’m just gonna try to talk to her and see what’s up and see if I can’t suggest something for her to do.” With that, he gingerly took N by the hand and led him over to the couch in the living room, letting him go only to flop down on the left end. His voice hardening some, Hil remarked, “I’m gonna see what I can do to help her, but if she’s just gonna act the victim and try to guilt me, I’ll leave her there. I’m not her bargaining chip anymore. So, either way, it’s not gonna take long.”

Awkwardly sitting down on the opposite end of the couch, N briefly looked for the remote, only to jump when Zoroark rushed up to him with it in her mouth. At his quizzical raise of an eyebrow, she snorted and dropped it in his hands. You were busy with paperwork and whatever else it is you do most of the day, she reminded him. What did you think I was doing all that time?

Watching TV, apparently, N teased. I don’t know how you watch that thing alone. I hardly understand any of it unless it’s a documentary or I’m watching with Hil. And I’ve tried!

With a shake of the head that was followed by an eye roll, she limped away from him and her attention was drawn to Noodle as Hil released the Serperior from his Poké Ball. Upon spotting Zoroark, Noodle trilled and shook out the leaves over his body, waving the very end of his tail at her tauntingly. She moved like she was going to chase him, and he zipped around the couch and out of sight, far faster than it seemed a ten-foot, legless creature should have been able to move.

Watching them go, Hil snarked, “Y’know, I’d release the others, but I feel like they’d crash the place.”

“Can always ask them not to,” N chuckled. “My other friends are around here somewhere…”

“Around here somewhere, he says,” Hil laughed. “My guess is… Archeops is in the ceiling fan in our room, considering Klinklang hasn’t fought him over it today, Carracosta is outside trying to catch the sun before it goes down, and Vanilluxe has probably abandoned her funny ice enclosure and decided the freezer was more appealing.”

“You say all of that like it’s a bad thing,” N coyly replied, a tiny smirk playing at his lips. Just in case he was incorrect in assuming Hil was joking, though, he not-so-smoothly added, “Also, Vanilluxe’s enclosure might be fine, but it’s only natural she’d want to explore some like the others…”

“I know, I know,” Hil snickered, “I’m just kidding. Though, I am glad you managed to convince her to learn to shut the door after her… That was fun when we had everything melt into the floor that one day… And also am glad that we found out Archeops was doing that before he completely ruined the fan motor by trying to catch it while it was on…” Shaking his head in amusement, Hil tossed the other six free (N had learned a long time ago that the ‘six pokémon at a time’ rule only applied when people were participating in League matches or, in battle, a person was disallowed from using more than six pokémon maximum), including his Musharna, Zebstrika, Liepard, Simipour, Watchog, and Druddigon. Sleepy, Prada, Lucky, Crest, Roadie, and Shay.

N had never given his pokémon nicknames, but through talking to Hil’s, he had found the pokémon didn’t mind, or in some cases, even enjoyed theirs. An interesting discussion with Lucky had revealed that although she hadn’t understood the name at first, she had heard Hil explain multiple times it was because he felt ‘lucky’ to have caught her at all. Over time, she had come to understand most humans didn’t see Purrloin or Liepard as lucky creatures, or even good pokémon at all, and she had come to appreciate the name so much more. Every time he says it, she had purred as she had rubbed against N’s legs, I’m reminded of how glad I am to be with a trainer that appreciates me, even if I am not a powerhouse compared to other pokémon… He’s seen the power of a legendary, and still appreciates me. I think that’s really something special. Following that conversation, N had talked to his pokémon and asked if they had any thoughts about nicknames or wanted any. The consensus from his partners was that while they wouldn’t have minded, they weren’t hurt by the lack of nicknaming. They even appreciated that N had respected them so much that he hadn’t wanted to saddle them with a name that might have meant nothing or even been annoying to them. That all had happened not too long after he and Hil had started staying together at the Pokémon League, and it was one of many eye-opening experiences since then. While he had previously believed nicknames were made by callous trainers that couldn’t have possibly known what their pokémon wanted, he then learned they could be something special, and represent something so much more than a mere label.

“N?” Hil called, in an almost sing-song voice. “You home?”

Jolting out of his thoughts, N blinked at him. “Yes?”

“You’re staring real hard at that remote,” Hil teased. Despite the smirk, his voice dropped to something more tender and he asked, “You okay?”

Setting the TV remote down within Hil’s reach, N nodded. “Oh, yes,” he answered quickly, “sorry…” Pausing, he then shook his head. “I was just thinking about how much I have learned since we started doing… this. Consuls.”

“Yeah?” Hil musingly asked, and although he picked up the remote, he didn’t press any of its buttons and had his eyes squarely trained on N. “What about it?”

“It just amazes me sometimes,” N reluctantly went on. “How much I thought I understood about pokémon and how I spent so much time in that castle learning about them and the world, and yet… I knew practically nothing at all,” he almost laughed, a pained chuckle. “Something as simple as nicknames seemed like such an evil and scary concept back then… I bought so easily into that, where if I had just simply spoken to someone and their pokémon about it sooner, I would have seen how silly that was… Of course, that isn’t the only thing I was led wrong about. It just… is amazing how so many little details I was given to train me against reality.”

Bringing his arms to cross over his chest, N almost hugged himself, even moving so he tucked his legs up on the couch at a slant, his knees pulled partially up to him. Of course, remembering the lies that came with his past was a slippery slope, and the next thought that crossed his mind made him want to cringe and shake. Ghetsis had, at one point, personally brought him a Snivy to his bedroom. The pokémon was wrapped in a white sheet splotched with dark green, and shut the door behind them, signaling to N nobody else would be joining them in that moment. N had immediately dropped the basketball he had been playing with and stiffened his back. Zoroark—a Zorua at the time—had wedged herself between his feet, instinctively cowering in that way she always did whenever Ghetsis was around. N didn’t remember how old he had been exactly, but he was sure he had been somewhere between eight or ten, and Ghetsis had limped over and leaned down, moving the sheet just enough to show N what was wrong with the Snivy in his grasp.

N had recoiled in horror and nearly tripped over Zorua as he backpedaled to his bed, the shock forcing him to take a seat, all of which had made Zorua yelp as she dove under his bed to get away from whatever was going on. Breathing heavily, N had gawked at Ghetsis with round eyes. The Snivy wrapped in the sheet was bleeding profusely and N could only just barely tell that it was alive at all, with the way its eyelids fluttered (though its eyes were rolled into the back of its head). Its tail was in tatters, missing huge chunks, and its lower body had deep, jagged slices cut into it, meaning it had no legs, either, and half of one arm was missing. It had taken a moment for N to finally choke out, “What—what happened to him?” It had never dawned on N until he retroactively looked over the memory that Ghetsis had remained perfectly quiet until N had asked that question. He had kept deliberately quiet because he intended to shock N.

“It was lost by a careless breeder, from one of her prized Serperior’s newest broods, and hit with a lawnmower,” Ghetsis had matter-of-factly explained, then unceremoniously dumped the pokémon in his lap, blood-soaked sheet and all. N was forced to catch it with his shaking hands to keep it from rolling off his lap and into the floor.

“A-and what do I do?” N had asked in a sheer panic. “It’s—it’s going to die, if we can’t get it help!”

“Oh, N,” Ghetsis had almost crooned. “There is no helping a pokémon that injured. You see, that careless breeder didn’t even notice she was missing one of her pokémon, because humans breed pokémon carelessly for profit and for battle. Why bother counting or keeping track when you can always produce more? Moreover, the person that hit this pokémon didn’t even notice, because it could not hear it over the sound of the engine of their lawnmower, and Snivy, as you can see, bleed green. It was the Shadow Triad who brought that poor thing to me. I brought it to you because I want you to see how careless people can be with living creatures, even as defenseless as a two-week-old Snivy.”

“What about the Pokémon Centers?” N had puffed through suddenly very dry lips. His throat had felt coarse and it had been difficult to swallow. Shivering at that point, he had withdrawn his legs and arms to the bed, much like he was currently doing on the couch there with Hil. He had cradled that dying Snivy close, unable to catch his breath, desperate for anything to do to save it or end its suffering, at the very least… The way its eyelid had kept fluttering had made him want to vomit.

“Pokémon Centers are made for healing pokémon after battle,” Ghetsis had nonchalantly informed him. Again, N hadn’t even realized how dissociative Ghetsis had sounded until so many years later… “Pokémon this severely injured are left to die or are euthanized. People see pokémon as easily replaceable. To them, investing time and energy into saving a pokémon this egregiously injured, which may be crippled for the rest of its life even if it did survive, just isn’t a priority, when you could just as easily breed another.”

“N? Hey, you’re scarin’ me a little…”

N blinked and shook his head vigorously, glancing back at Hil. “Hmm…?”

“I tried saying something back to you and you spaced out…” Hil frowned, concern etched all over his face. Brushing a dark, brown curl of hair out of his face, he gently asked, “Did you hear anything I said before I called you just then…?”

N swallowed hard and looked down at his trembling arms, crossed tightly over his chest. “No…”

“You know it isn’t your fault, all those things you didn’t understand or have been relearning…” Hil repeated himself calmly. He didn’t make a move to get any closer or to touch him, and N silently appreciated it. Although Hil loved physical affection whenever his mind spiraled somewhere less than pleasant, N found that he usually didn’t, at least, not when it came to remembering his time in the castle. Usually, once he calmed down some, he would quietly or wordlessly ask for a hug or something, but during, close physical contact had a way of merely stressing him out…

“I know it isn’t… But it still is… unpleasant to think about sometimes,” N mumbled.

“Then, maybe we shouldn’t think about it too much, eh?” Hil looked up thoughtfully for a moment, and then said, “Maybe it’d help to think about when you did start to learn some of that stuff better, huh? I know you still had all of them in your ear while you were traveling Unova and beating the gyms…” As he trailed off, N almost snickered at the way Hil had said ‘them.’ He said it with such animosity, and he seemed intent on never mentioning Ghetsis’ name nowadays if he could help it. Although he didn’t realize it consciously, N did find it cute, how Hil could sound so protective of him when badmouthing Team Plasma and everything they had done. Sure, N had seen firsthand how dangerous Hil could be when he needed to be, but for the most part… Hil was a kind-hearted, anxious, delightful mess, and his threats could come off as childish in idle conversation… Somehow, that just felt even more endearing. “…But when you were fighting the gyms and traveling, you had to have learned some new stuff that made you think… What do you think was the first time anything really seemed to challenge what all they taught you?”

“You should already know that answer,” N laughed, his posture loosening a little at the much more pleasant memory flooding him, instead of that horrific one. He gave Hil an expectant look, still amused when the other’s cheeks dusted red and he nervously smiled.

“Ah… I should?” Hil asked dumbly.

Rolling his eye—N had ultimately decided to get a glass eye to replace his missing one, and the doctors had done such a wonderful job, it was only whenever he did something like this that it was apparent his other eye was false—N mused, “Well… There was this time in a little town named Accumula where I was stocking up on supplies and preparing to go ‘free’ some pokémon from some trainers that had just been given them by a professor in Nuvema. My intention was to set them free and then head to Striaton to challenge one of the triplets. I believe then that I ran into two boys, one with a Snivy and the other with a Tepig, and a girl with an Oshawott.”

Picking up on the game, Hil’s face lit up and he tauntingly pressed, “Are you sure…? I dunno, might’ve been the girl with the Snivy,” he laughed.

N all but groaned. “Anyway,” he pointedly huffed, “that was the first real experience I remember where something… really conflicted with all I had been taught.”

As if on cue, there was the sound of clattering from the kitchen. Hil peaked over the back of the sofa. “They knocked over a chair,” he reported. “No damage, but…” He then tried to articulate in something of a trill, Noodle, careful!

Despite the questionable execution, Noodle hissed back after a brief pause, She did it! She’s using illusions! I didn’t see it there!

And you were using vines, Zoroark chimed in smugly with a chuff. If you use vines, I get to use illusions.

On what planet is that fair? Noodle moodily huffed.

Just… don’t break anything, Hil resignedly called after them in something mixed between a growl and a trill, before shaking his head and slumping back down on the sofa. He rubbed his throat. “Yeah, that still hurts a bit,” he chuckled. “Anyway… as you were saying?”

Seeing Hil try to talk to pokémon like that still was so thrilling for N. Despite years of practice, he could still struggle at times, but that didn’t matter at all. N had been told for so long that his ability was hated by humanity and even Ghetsis had hated it when he said anything about speaking to pokémon around him… It had been beaten into his head to never repeat what a pokémon had said to him, or to even acknowledge his ability unless absolutely necessary (and yet, Ghetsis loved to rub it in the faces of any who would listen that N was King because of his ability to understand pokémon…). Still, smiling like a fool after listening to Hil talk to the pokémon, N continued his story at a faster rate, his words naturally kicking up in speed in his excitement, “You had let Noodle out of his Poké Ball during Team Plasma’s speech, and when you did that, he said something… something about how he really liked you already. And even when I tried talking to him briefly before I approached you, from a distance, um… using my ability, I had told him that I was there to set them free. That I was sure all he, the Oshawott, and the Tepig knew was a room in a lab and the confinement of Poké Balls. And after that, he had said that he liked you, that he was going to see more at your side, and that he was done talking to me… unless I could best him in battle. And that was why I wanted to battle you to—”

“Hear my pokémon’s voice again?” Hil cut him off, grinning practically from ear to ear. “Y’know, I always did wonder why you wanted to battle me that day… For someone that hated pokémon battling and all that, you sure were ready to throw hands that day.”

“Even after beating him, he didn’t talk to me anymore,” N snorted. “Well, he did, but all he said was that he wanted me to go away.” He shook his head. “I had… never in my life, until that point, heard a pokémon claim to like a trainer and resist my company over it… At the time, I told myself that pokémon didn’t know any better, that it was little better than Stockholm syndrome, or that Poké Balls somehow brainwashed some pokémon into believing their captors were good unless the person actively abused them… Then, I kept traveling and kept running into pokémon that claimed to like or even love their trainers… Even if I didn’t change right then, looking back on it does feel good… I always knew there was something wrong, even if I couldn’t place it…”

“See?” Hil cheerfully insisted.

N nodded, then wryly added, “But I also kept running into that boy and his Snivy, or Servine… and oh, how he made me think.” Dramatically making a show of huffing in irritation, he then scanned Hil’s expression to ensure he was understanding his teasing. N thought he was replicating how Hil sometimes sarcastically joked, but he still couldn’t be totally sure, so he was relieved to see Hil cackling at him, flushing darker red as he spoke.

“Oh, thinking!” Hil played along. “The horror!”

“You laugh, but to me at that point? It was,” N chuckled. “Every single time I ran into you, more questions were raised about Ghetsis’ plans and all of that, and I just had to stuff them all down and believe I was correct, because I was the ‘Hero of Ideals.’”

“Now that you mention it,” Hil coyly mused, “I remember running into this green-haired dude all the time that loved to show up and drop bombshells, almost every time. But my favorite thing he ever said to me was, ‘Maybe if the world were simply different, we could have been friends.’”

N blinked. “What, really? That?”

“Well, for one,” Hil snorted, “the main reason I was half-obsessed with you, before I knew how wrapped around his thumb he had you, was because of you saying that. How you decided right away that we couldn’t be friends. I didn’t understand you and, uh, 14-year-old, hormone-riddled brain decided, ‘Oh, we can’t be friends, huh? I’ll show you!’ And now, well…” Hil slyly put his hands behind his head, lazily kicking his feet out to the floor. “Wouldn’t you know it, we are friends, aren’t we?”

Opening and shutting his mouth for a second, N then frowned and cocked his head. “Why yes, we are, aren’t we? I had barely even remembered saying that… You took that that seriously?”

“Maybe,” Hil abruptly pulled his hands from behind him and crossed them tightly. A smirk betrayed his amusement (not to mention the still-raging blush over his cheeks). Teasingly, he raised his chin back at N. “Why, you wishing I hadn’t?”

“What? No, not at all,” N uneasily responded as he had difficulty parsing Hil’s reaction, then scooted closer to him. The discomfort from earlier had waned and he wanted to be closer to the other now. Almost purring as he inched his way nearer, N tried to smoothly comment, “I have no idea why you took that remark so seriously… But I am glad you did…”

“I’m just teasing,” Hil softly whispered as he hooked his right arm around N’s left and gently pulled him a little closer, leaning his head down onto his shoulder. “Honestly, I don’t know why, either.”

“That just seems to be how you are,” N chuckled after he relaxed in Hil’s hold, eventually awkwardly leaning his head over onto Hil’s. “You… are so kind to a fault. I don’t know if anyone else would have been able to fill the role that you have… I’m glad that Reshiram recognized that…” Closing his eyes and sighing contentedly, he then had an evil idea pull his lips into a broad grin. “I certainly can’t imagine sitting here and doing this with Cheren.”

Sputtering, Hil finally incredulously gasped, “Where did that come from?”

“Remember how I was insistent on him being the ‘Hero’ for a while?” N teased, though a small pang of anxiety flared as he wondered if he had gone a little too far with his attempt at humor…

“Oh,” Hil laughed away N’s nerves. He wrapped an arm around N and rubbed his back reassuringly. “Mm, wouldn’t you like that, third wheeling it with him in Nuvema while that wild two-year-old of his tries to eat your hair.”

“What is it with Jessica and my hair?” N complained as he remembered their last few visits to Cheren and Bianca’s. Although their daughter wasn’t old enough to go without supervision that long yet, she could walk, and she had taken a keen interest in N during their visit. Which, despite everyone’s best attempts to keep her away from N, had resulted in her yanking on his lengthy hair more than a few times. Having never interacted with a young child in his entire life, N had already been anxious just by being around her, and that experience certainly hadn’t helped at all. Why did something so cute and small have to be so intimidating…? She seemed fearless, too, for one of the times she yanked on his hair, he hadn’t been expecting it at all and had hissed in surprise, and she had just laughed!

“It’s pretty,” Hil replied simply, stroking some of it for emphasis.

“Well, I’m glad you think so,” N almost purred again as he leaned against Hil’s hand. Having someone he trusted and knew didn’t want to manipulate him in any way showing him such affection just felt so nice…

Thumbing the TV remote at last, Hil flicked his thumb across the button at the top. “You wanna pick something while I figure out something for dinner?” he asked gingerly.

“Like what?” N asked distractedly, still focusing more on the soft strokes of Hil’s hand over his hair. It dawned on him that what Hil had said meant he intended to get up in a moment and he frowned at that thought, but more than that, he genuinely didn’t know what to find to watch… He didn’t really tend to watch much of anything without Hil there, so he didn’t know what he would have ‘found’ for them to watch.

“There’s a new comedy or something that came out the other day. Would you wanna watch that?” Hil suggested, as if sensing his uncertainty.

“That sounds nice,” N agreed blithely. He usually still enjoyed whatever Hil picked, so he was happy with letting him do that.

With a hum that served as all the answer N needed, Hil located whatever the movie was with a few touches to the buttons on the remote, and then left it hovering over the ‘play’ button. “I’ll go make something and make sure Noodle didn’t break the kitchen,” he yawned as he slowly unraveled his arm from around N, eliciting an involuntary whine from him. N immediately scrambled to sit upright and cleared his throat.

“I mean, alright,” he flatly covered up his whine, hoping Hil wouldn’t comment on it. Not that he understood why he felt embarrassed and didn’t want Hil to comment on it…

Hil hopped up and snickered, then rubbed the top of N’s head, messing up his hair some more. “I’ll be right back,” he promised. “I swear.” Loping off into the kitchen, he heard Hil then hiss at Noodle, Will you get off that? That rack is for pots and pans, which you definitely are not!

Giggling to himself, N heard Noodle sulkily growl back, Well, I was playing hide and seek… and now you just gave me away.

And you can play it somewhere that’s not in my kitchen, Hil retorted without skipping a beat.

Don’t mess with him and his kitchen, N thought amusedly to himself. Hil has a thing for his kitchen… (Which, admittedly, was a good thing—N had discovered when Hil had tried to teach him to cook that he not only was gifted with the ability to talk to pokémon, but also with that of somehow burning water, and Hil had subsequently decided that perhaps it was best if he cooked from then on.)

Noodle slithered back out into the living room and Zoroark suddenly materialized with a flash of purple from beside the reclining chair in the corner of the room, lunging at him. They played in the floor for a moment before Noodle complained that he was tired.

For as uncomfortable as it sometimes felt to stay at that house for too long, N had to admit, over time, it became easier and easier to stay there for longer stretches of time as long as Hil was there.

[askmerriauthor]

Pokemon SwSh Thoughts - Post Game

So I’ve finished Pokemon Sword’s primary content.  All that’s left is to finish up the PokeDex and drive myself insane trying to whip up all the variations of Alcremie.  That, and delaying buying an online subscription for as long as possible before I bother with trading to get the other game’s exclusives.  Here’s some thoughts on the game after the fact:

Pokemon SwSh really needed to come out in late 2020, period.  I’ve enjoyed the game so far, but I’ve played it for about a week without putting in too much time/effort grinding and I’ve already done pretty much everything there is to do.  I had my Starter leveled up to 100 before I even left the Wild Area for the very first time.  The pacing and content depth of this game are pretty much non-existent, whereas the majority of the effort has clearly been put toward refining the competitive combat development.  That’s great for those players who really like the battle system, but not so much for those of us who like story and broader gameplay elements.

Pro - Streamlined Gameplay One thing I’ve wanted in Pokemon for ages has been the ability to skip tutorials.  I understand the necessity of having them, as every game that comes out is going to be some player’s first and their presence is for that player.  But at least having the option to skip them for us old hats would be nice.  SwSh does that!  I was delighted to discover that the game allows you to bypass tutorials with a simple yes/no prompt when a new element is introduced.  How to catch Pokemon, type match-ups, how to heal at Pokemon Centers, and so forth - all the stuff previous games led us through by the nose has been made optional this time around.

I’ve seen some people saying that this game holds the player’s hand too much as it leads us from one gameplay element to the next and doesn’t let us progress at our own leisure.  To some degree this is true, but it’s far less egregious than in previous games, such as SuMo.  There’s yet to be a good balance between giving the player free reign and giving them enough guidance to ensure we never feel lost, but this has been an inoffensive example as far as I’m concerned.  The game does end up feeling rather railroaded, but I don’t necessarily consider that a fault of hand-holding. I’ll get to this matter later on.

Pro - The Style Galar is a very pretty region and the game makes good use of the Switch’s higher capacity to produce excellent backdrops for the player to explore.  Many of the Pokemon have charming animations (Falinks is my favorite on this respect).  The towns are all really well-designed in terms of visuals, especially compared to the bare-bones looks of older generations.  I feel like there could have been more, but what we got is still great.

Pro - Implications in Lore Those of you who know me know how much I love lore and world building.  Pokemon, as a franchise, is ripe with opportunity to examine its lore to the most tiny and obscure detail, so any new addition to the franchise is welcome on that front.  Galar has some pretty fascinating nuggets to contribute.

I love that the League in Galar, as well as competitive Pokemon Training in general, is treated like a career sport.  In specific, I love that this view and practice is exclusive to Galar - I wouldn’t like it at all if the entire franchise shifted to this angle, but it works great for a one-off region.  I like that Kabu specifically relocated himself from Hoenn to join the sports league as it doesn’t exist in his home region.  The Champion being a sort of major celebrity/superhero, the way Gym Leaders can recruit proteges or even inheritors of their rank from among contenders, the sort of clique all the Gym Leaders have with one another - it’s a really neat dynamic.  I also like the notion that actually completing the Gym Challenge isn’t something common and most Trainers who try rarely make it even halfway through.  That’s an interesting contrast to other regions where collecting Gym Badges seems almost as a given and the League itself is considered the real challenge, or where the whole endeavor is designed to be finished as a matter of course, like in Alola.

There’s also some really neat additions to the overall lore brought in from the Pokemon Masters mobile game.  While its place in canon is questionable, it does specifically mention Galar in a few places.  The idea that Pokemon who do not appear in the current Dex are banned from Galar by customs (perhaps identified as potentially dangerous/invasive species) is an interesting one.  So is the claim that Iris - the Champion of Unova in BW2 - is a cousin of Leon and Hop.  I love it when there are connections amid titles like that as it really helps build a more unified setting.

-Edit-: Darn, apparently those screenshots were fakes.  Strike that positive from the list, I suppose.

Mixed Pro/Con - The Availability of Pokemon and the Wild Area I’m not talking about Dexit - I have my own thoughts on that explained elsewhere and frankly don’t think it’s going to end up as bad as everyone is fretting over in the long run.  No, in this particular case I’m focused on the availability of Pokemon that are in the game itself.

To put it simply... it’s too easy.  I know that filling out the PokeDex isn’t supposed to be a huge challenge, but I’ve gotten the majority of it done - evolved forms, item-reliant forms, gender/size/color variations included - with pretty much no effort whatsoever.  I like the idea of the Wild Area in principle but what it ends up being in practice is lacking.  It’s too easy to just hoover up Pokemon at a breakneck pace, which leads to other zones and the Wild Area itself becoming pretty much immediately obsolete.  I have no need to return to them once I’ve gotten everything I need and there’s not enough general content to urge me to visit again.

The Wild Area itself is a big open sandbox that you can roam around in, which is nice compared to more linear zones in past games.  Galar has its railroad routes, but they’re brief (aside from the obligatory overlong water route, which even then is still quite a lot smaller than other regions’ have been).  However, it’s just that - a big open sandbox.  You can wander through it very easily and even traipse into the “high level” zones without fear because you can see all the Pokemon coming and give them a wide berth to avoid them.  There aren’t any obstacles or challenges within the Wild Area itself, and the game makes it supremely easy to find Pokemon even under specific weather/time conditions, which I feel is a missed opportunity.  I would have rather the Wild Area been MUCH bigger and more involved, full of places to explore and puzzles to solve.  Similarly, I would rather that Pokemon were more difficult to come by as well - that a greater deal of effort would have been put toward tracking and discovering certain harder-to-find Pokemon, with more in-game detective work to find your prize.

Mixed Pro/Con - The Characters The ensemble cast of new Gym Leaders are great - I enjoy the majority of them and frankly want more interactions, more encounters, just more in general.  That’s sort of the problem though - I want more.  The game itself criminally under-utilizes these characters, especially compared to how much more involved and explored Gym Leaders have been in recent games.  There is precious little content using the Gym Leaders here in Galar as it stands and I constantly found myself wanting them to hang out longer and have the chance to learn more about them.  Their League Cards are a neat little addition full of interesting tidbits about their histories, natures, and relationships with each other, but I would MUCH rather have gotten to see all that play out in the game itself rather than read it as a flavor blurb.

On the con side of this, however, is the fact that all of the characters are extremely one-dimensional.  We’ve been seeing a steady increase in the depth and development of supporting characters in the games since BW onward, with SuMo arguably having the most to date.  The overall characterization in SwSh is incredibly lacking by comparison as we don’t get nearly enough time to be with the cast, nor is the cast given the chance to present more than one note per.  Nobody has any sort of emotional growth or development.  The closest thing to a character arc in the game is Hop’s acceptance of the idea that he’s not going to be the Champion, but it doesn’t have anywhere near as much punch as it could and is over in the blink of an eye compared to how he spends THE ENTIRE GAME repeating the same “I’m gonna be the Champion/Hokage/Pirate King!” spiel every time he’s on screen.

Con - Dynamaxing and Max Raid Battles I’m not really on board with the whole “Mega-Evolution is best! No more gimmicks!” train because that’s just silly to me.  Every game has its gimmick and the way Pokemon gradually picks up tricks and traits from its past versions to consolidate into newer titles is one of its strengths.  That said, Dynamaxing is worthless and a pointless addition to the game, both in presentation and practice.

The visual of a Pokemon going kaiju is a neat concept and one I was initially intrigued by, but in practice it falls flat because it’s as thin as cardboard.  It’s just Mega-Evolution and Z-Moves smooshed together with an additional 3 round time limit tacked on.  All it functionally does is buff your Pokemon’s HP pool and add additional weather/status effects to certain attacks, but in some cases the Dynamax versions of attacks are actually weaker/less useful than their base form.  In Gym Battles all the way through the final League fight with Leon, I didn’t bother with Dynamaxing because my Pokemon were strong enough to not need it.  I could one-shot Dynamaxed Pokemon with ease using a non-Dynamaxed Pokemon and that really shows a flaw in the design if ever there was one.  Dynamaxing doesn’t add or improve anything vital to gameplay - it’s just fluff.

Max Raid Battles as found in the Wild Area are even worse.  For those of you who don’t know, these are instanced battles against a Dynamaxed/Gigantamaxed wild Pokemon where you team up with three other players/NPCs.  If you win, you get a bunch of useful items and have the chance to catch the wild Pokemon as well, which is the only way you can get certain Gigantamax-capable Pokemon reliably.

The issue with these Max Raid Battles is that they’re an absolute slog.  In the early stages of the game they’re all super easy to the point that I could solo them and thus gathered mountains of EXP-boosting candies, which let me overlevel my Pokemon beyond reason.  Since the whole “your Pokemon is too high level and won’t listen to you” thing apparently doesn’t apply to Starters and special Event Pokemon, I was able to max-level and run rampant across all opposition with my Starter and my special “thanks for buying early” Meowth.  HOWEVER.  The difficulty scale of the Max Raid Battles increases with your game progress, so by the time I finished the game and went back into the Wild Area, the Max Raid Battles’ difficulty had ramped up.  That’s an okay compromise on its face, but the manner in which the difficulty has increased is poor game design.  The battles aren’t any harder, they just take longer - the wild Pokemon has more HP,  tosses up a few rounds of shields to soak damage at the start and again halfway through the fight, and purges stat boosts from the player and party throughout the battle.  It just makes the fights a pain in the ass to get through rather than making them more challenging or fun, and it’s gotten to the point that I don’t even bother with them anymore.  They’re just not worth the trouble, not even for the sake of trying to farm EXP candies because, at this point in the game, all Pokemon in the Wild Area scale up to level 60+ and thus are perfectly serviceable as EXP farming fodder themselves.

On a lore side of things, Dynamaxing is really confusing.  There’s the whole visual aspect of the Pokemon growing to giant sizes and sometimes changing their appearances, and there’s these massive arenas built to facilitate the whole thing.  But the game itself goes out of its way to impress the fact that the Pokemon aren’t actually getting bigger.  They just appear to grow in size and haven’t actually physically changed themselves so Dynamaxing is more like a giant hard light holographic projection than anything else?  It’s just a really weird design choice to have made and I don’t understand why it was included.

Con - The Writing So, writing is very important to me.  It’s literally been my job for the past decade with various game studios.  I don’t consider myself any sort of literary snob as I feel there’s a place for schlock right alongside masterpieces - they all serve a specific purpose and fulfill a particular hunger the reader would like satisfied.

That said, SwSh’s writing is abysmal.

Right on the face, there’s not enough of it.  The game is criminally short and light on content, which directly impacts its pacing.  Remember earlier when I mentioned that things felt railroaded?  That’s because there’s not enough story to rest on - it all flies by as fast as can be, forcing the player along a very narrow and brief chain of events that don’t feel consequential at all.  Further, the player has no agency in events whatsoever.  It’s not the player’s story - it’s Hop’s story.  We’re the supporting role to his journey, shallow as that arc may be.  Hop is the one who initiates the events of the game without our input as a character and then we spend the entire game following him around, or being pushed into the next event by other characters who are facilitating Hop.  At no point is the player ever given the chance to express their own characterization, motivation, or even opinions.  Nearly every two-choice dialogue option that appears boils down to “Yes” or “Slightly More/Less Enthusiastic Yes”, which is a huge downgrade from the genuine negative responses and NPC reactions that were present in SuMo.

In terms of overall plot, SwSh has pretty much the same level of depth and complexity as the original Red/Blue titles, and that is as scathing a criticism in this modern age as I can possibly imagine.  The whole story is “run in a circle, collect badges, fight vaguely present villainous threat, fight league.”  We are actively forced from one gym fight to the next with no time to breathe, no story-focused events in between, and not even any chance to appreciate the gym, its leader, or even the towns they take place in.  It’s one and done - once you’ve got the badge there’s no reason to hang around and the story shuffles us along quickly as can be.  I mean that literally in some cases - there are hints of a greater plot at hand with Sonia investigating the history of Galar’s legends and the potential machinations of mega-corporate mogul Chairman Rose.  But each time those are broached in game play, the game pushes the player off-screen and says “Well, that’s not something you need to worry about.  Go get another badge!”  I mean, LITERALLY!  There’s a point where The Plot begins to kick in where Pokemon begin to spontaneously Dynamax and cause havoc, which is the narrative queue for the player to become involved and for the story to reveal a new facet.  But when that happens, Leon LITERALLY says “leave this to the adults, you just focus on your Gym Challenge” and runs off-screen to handle it himself.  It would be a good narrative subversion if it led up to things eventually getting out of hand and the player getting roped into things, or the player having the ability to defy such warnings and interject themselves into danger.  But that doesn’t happen - the game just forces us to focus on the Gym Challenge alone and keeps all the actual plot of the game off-screen away from us.  This is very poor narrative design and game design alike, and it all comes to nothing because we’re forced to clean up everything in the end anyway by battling the villain and legendaries as per usual.

Though I should also point out that there’s no villain in this game.

But what about Team Yell and Chairman Rose, I hear you ask?  They’re not villains, both literally and figuratively respectively.  Team Yell never really does anything other than act as brief gate locking elements throughout the game until you finish the Gym you’re at, then they bounce off to the next part of the route they’re set to block.  They don’t do anything bad and, as it’s later revealed, they’re actually just a bunch of Spikemuth Gym staffers who are posing as hooligans to support Marnie.  They’re literally not villains and, once you beat the Spikemuth Gym, they actually become supporting characters who cheer for the player character and help out against the actual supposed villain of the game.

The actual “villain” of the game is Chairman Rose and his assistant Oleana.  However, they’re only villains because the script says they are.  They don’t actually do anything bad throughout the entire game nor is there any indication that they have some sort of grand master plan.  The most we get is some unusual happenings like small quakes and explosions in the distance, but the game never allows us any chance to investigate - we’re just shoved off toward the next Gym each time.  So when Chairman Rose is finally revealed to be the Big Bad, it comes completely out of left field and seems to happen for no reason whatsoever.  Further, IT IS FOR NO REASON WHATSOEVER.  Chairman Rose’s plan and goal is never explained in depth - all we get is the vague indication that he believes that Galar isn’t sustainable and there will be an inevitable energy crisis in about 1,000 years, and somehow his EVIL SCHEME will fix it.  But, like, even Leon flat-out says “I understand your concern but you’re being hasty, this doesn’t need to be rushed, chill out for five seconds and let’s figure this out reasonably”.  Instead Rose interrupts the Champion match and announces his EVIL SCHEME on global broadcast for literally no good reason.  There was no dire immediacy that required him to do it right then and there, or in that manner, but the plot needed to move us along so that’s how it goes.

It really doesn’t help that, prior to all this, there’s absolutely no indication at all that Rose nor Oleana are bad guys.  They’re just business folk who appear to have nothing but good intentions and support for Leon, with the other adults of the cast all happily trusting them.  There is nothing to make them seem suspicious in practice and they offer no reason to doubt them at all, so them suddenly being the bad guys is just confusing.  Further, how the player is first introduced to the concept of them being antagonists is easily the most ridiculous logic jump and overreaction I’ve seen since the old Adam West Batman television show.  So get this: after a battle, Leon says he’ll meet Player and Hop for dinner to celebrate.  Player and Hop wait for Leon, but he never shows up.  Another NPC explains that Leon was called in for a last-minute meeting by Chairman Rose (who is his boss and has made such requests of Leon’s time throughout the game, as I feel is important to point out) and apologizes for having to miss the dinner plans.  Simple enough sort of situation, right?  The sort of thing that any reasonable person would shrug and say “Well, that sucks but okay, let’s go eat on our own then” to, right?  So what happens here instead?

The Player, Hop, Marnie, and her Gym Leader brother GATHER A SMALL MOB AND STORM CHAIRMAN ROSE’S BUSINESS HQ, FIGHTING THEIR WAY THROUGH SECURITY.

I mean, escalation much?  We all have smartphones - just send Leon a text, for goodness’ sake.  I’m playing through these events constantly going “why the hell are we doing this and why is everyone acting like it’s some sort of dire emergency?”.  And do you know what happens when we finally kick down the doors to Chairman Rose’s office?  We find Chairman Rose and Leon quietly having a peaceful chat, after which Leon apologizes for having to cancel the dinner plans and we all walk out together like nothing happened.  It was just this huge, needless overreaction that has no consequence and that neither Rose nor Leon even bat an eye at.  We, as the players, learn absolutely nothing of importance and are back on the Gym Challenge immediately with no functional changes to the narrative.

Like... what was the point of that?!  How was that the best option to try and put Chairman Rose and his underlings into the role of antagonists for us to oppose?

So what is Chairman Rose’s EVIL SCHEME anyway?  Basically he wants to provide Galar with renewable clean energy which... uh... is bad?  Somehow?  Apparently he plans to use a Legendary Pokemon called Eternatus - apparently the source of Dynamaxing - which is literally never mentioned at any point in the game except precisely when it’s time to fight/capture it, nor does fighting/capturing it have any impact on the story or setting.  You would think that the player being in control of a massive Eldritch horror that has UNLIMITED POWER at its disposal would be something of a sticking point somewhere in the story, but no.  Eternatus and Rose’s plan are never mentioned until precisely the time you need to deal with them, and once that’s done they’re both never mentioned again.  Done and done all in one.  No gradual seeding of information, no hints and clues throughout the game, no development of lore - just wham, bam, thank you ma’am and off we go.

Y’know, call me silly but in a game that has undertones referencing climate change, extinction of animal species, and criticisms against capitalism run amok, is it really a good idea to depict the guy advocating for clean energy to be bad?  That feels like a missed mark to me.

The post-game plot, should one bother to call it that, is just inane.  It basically boils down to a pair of one-shot baddies who show up and say “Ha ha! We’re rich and that means we’re better than everyone! Watch as we cause trouble for vague reasons, get hoist by our own petard, and then fuck off forever! Byeeeee~!”  The post-game is completely pointless and doesn’t add anything of value at all.  Which, again, compare to older games like ORAS’ post-game expansion content and it’s nothing but a damn shame.

SwSh’s writing is shallow and limited at best, with one-dimensional characters, no genuine conflict or resolution, terrible pacing, and repetitive elements that boomerang around over and over and over again to the point of annoyance.  Compared to what we’ve seen Pokemon achieve in earlier titles like BW, ORAS, and SuMo, it makes it all the more obvious that SwSh was not given ANYWHERE near the time and love it needed in development and is a massive downgrade in that respect.

Con - Lots of Style, No Substance To wrap all this up - I enjoyed playing SwSh as much as I did any other early Pokemon game.  I think that, as a first installment on a new system, it’s fine.  That’s all - it’s just fine.  It’s serviceable as a means of establishing the franchise onto the Switch and completing its move off purely-mobile mediums like the Gameboy and 3DS.  It’s pretty to look at and has a superficial level of engagement, but its prettiness and level of content very quickly reveal themselves to be only skin deep.  Once you get past the initial gloss there’s really nothing to this game compared to the content, involvement, and writing quality displayed in past titles on lesser-powered systems.  The towns are all pretty but there’s nothing to do in any of them aside from a Gym battle - there’s no additional fun to be had in each location, making them little more than set pieces.  The characters have initial appeal and potential for more, but the game never explores them at all.  There’s room for a bigger narrative and interesting story with the elements presented, but no opportunity to actually see them fleshed out.  The Wild Area seems big and involved at first, but as soon as you’ve gone around its loop once or twice you suddenly realize how small and compartmentalized it really is, and it lacks any reason to revisit in the end game.  The major game play function - Dynamaxing/Gigantamaxing - is little more than a novelty that is basically irrelevant to gameplay itself and, in an absolutely baffling decision by the folk behind the official competitive scene, is actually somehow banned from being used in competitions?  Like, not even “we’ve disabled the Dynamax button in online” but rather “if the competitive Pokemon you’ve spent so much time perfectly constructing has a Gigantamax form, it will not even be allowed access at all, so you better have an identical non-Gigantamax version on hand if you want to play”.  So, what exactly is the point of even having Gigantamax Pokemon then?

Everything about SwSh seems half-baked.  The ideas are there but they aren’t finished.  It should have been given much more development time and, having been in the position of the creative/dev team under demands from the shareholders, I completely sympathize with Game Freak’s devs in all this.  SwSh is ultimately a weak product but one with a lot of good ideas that weren’t given the chance to really shine.  As such, I’ve got rather high hopes for the next installment to improve on the unfortunately thin foundation SwSh has set.  Game Freak’s team has given us some amazing Pokemon games in the past and, assuming they’re given sufficient time and resources to make a title to their satisfaction, I have every confidence they’ll do so again.

[atrainernamedradish]

Top 5 Favorite Rivals

Least Favorite list: https://atrainernamedradish.tumblr.com/post/190290513502/top-5-least-favorite-rivals

Top 5 Favorite Rivals:

5) Barry [Diamond & Pearl; Platinum]

I think people can agree with me when I say Barry either needs to lay off the sugar and caffeine, or needs some Adderall, because holy fuck he was so damned hyper it was unreal! And before someone gets mad at the joke let me remind you that there is some dialogue where he tries to count to ten, and proclaims he can’t even sit still to do so! Like sweet Lord Barry calm the fuck down lol!

Jokes aside, I thought Barry was a solid rival. He wasn’t mean-spirited about being so or always trying to act better than you about it. Sure, he was cocky, but he eventually learned that he had to put his ego aside to actually learn how to be that much of a better trainer. His teams were pretty solid too. He wasn’t the hardest person to face, but he wasn’t a pushover by any means. Sometimes his hyperness was a bit annoying, but nothing that bugged me for too long. He was a good rival to have when you’re trying to deal with the headache that is the other rival that is your boring opposite gender.

4) Marnie [Sword & Shield]

Marnie is an interesting character. When I first saw her in the reveals for Sword & Shield I thought she was going to be this arrogant punk (I blame the black leather and spikes :P), but when you actually meet her that isn’t the case. She’s actually someone who doesn’t have that much confidence in herself, at first though, but as you progress through the game she builds up to that. In fact, the only thing she was confident in was not taking over her brother’s gym and setting out to do her own thing. Besides believing how confident she was going to be, I was also expecting Marnie to have this annoying personality (but I feel like that was due to Team Yell being there more than anything), but once again she blew my expectations out of the water! Her personality was sweet and likeable and it was refreshing! Her team was actually a pretty powerful one and was actually fit her aesthetic! That’s actually rare for a rival in this series if I’m being honest… From her aesthetic that mixes hard and soft (which yay the girls will be getting her outfit which I adore and can’t wait to have on my alt character!), her sweet shy personality that eventually gets some quiet confidence behind it, and her battle prowess, I enjoyed her as a rival as opposed to the other two who either got shafted by the overdone formula, or the one rival trying to be the OG rival who we’ll never truly get back.

3) Blue (Green) [Pokemon Red & Blue (Green); Yellow (Pikachu Edition); FireRed & LeafGreen; Let’s Go Pikachu & Eevee]

And speaking of the OG, here he is: Blue (or Green if your Japanese). Many Pokemon games after the originals have tried to replicate this character, and haven’t quite made one that is up to snuff. This character is a perfect blend of cocky asshole and a strong trainer. You almost liked how much smack he talked then enjoyed kicking his ass after the fact, and doing so wasn’t always an easy feat, even in the remakes (excluding the Let’s Go series since he isn’t your rival in that). He had almost the perfect team not only against your starter but to also counteract your team members that made up your team for said starter’s weaknesses. That’s why kicking his ass was all that much sweeter because he didn’t just hand it to you. He made you work for that victory. While I’m not necessarily someone who is looking for a rival that has to be an elite trainer or anything, it’s nice to not have a friendly rival who talks a big game but is always going to face defeat, and quite easily and quickly too, by your hands. There have been some other rivals that have been pretty tough to deal with, but not as challenging as Blue will ever be… There’s a reason you will find this asshole on almost every top rival list. He earned that spot. Because despite being that smack talking asshole that you have to work extra hard to beat… he is kind of charming. He’s the rival you love to beat.

2) Bianca [Pokemon Black & White; Black 2 & White 2]

I want to make this clear with about my opinions on characters in Pokemon: they don’t have to be the strongest to be my favorites or even liked for that matter, and Bianca is one of those characters as far as battling prowess is concerned. I like Bianca for her character arc as well as the character herself. I think this character gets a lot of hate for no reason other than her not being a strong trainer, or not automatically being this confident cool character that should be ready to adventure which is honestly sad…

For me, Bianca is a very relatable character who in my honest opinion is a very underrated character. She is a character who wanted to do something with her life, but wasn’t sure how to start or go about doing it. Her first attempt is by doing what all the other characters her age do and that’s to set off on her own Pokemon journey, even if she wasn’t exactly ready. As her story progresses she comes to realize that that isn’t for her, and honestly not every person in that world is going to go out there finding out that this is for them. Not to mention not everyone who sets out on their Pokemon journey is going to find themselves being these super powerful trainers who are always going to confidently beat everything in their path. Bianca getting picked on by Team Plasma was not all that farfetched. She was a brand new trainer experiencing new things making her an easy target for them. Your character could have easily been just as privy to Team Plasma. Generation V showed that anyone was susceptible to them. But anyway, I’m going a little off topic, Bianca did struggle, but her struggles eventually took her to her calling: being a professor’s aid. Which fits her and overall is a good story arc for her. She’s not your typical rival of going around trying to one-up you and getting on your nerves trying to do so. She’s a friend, a main character, and unlike the typical power hungry overused rival archetypes, she grew and I was happy for her.

Not to mention, Bianca is one of the first few characters in the series to actually really… notice that there is this big new world around you and it’s something to explore taking it in as opposed to rushing into filling the Pokedex or doing the Gym Challenge, and honestly that’s refreshing for a character! Because you cannot tell me that if you were to leave your home setting off on a journey traveling to many new places that you’d overlook everything? Probably not. You’d want to explore all the new sites. That’s the whole point of an RPG is to explore. I felt more immersed in Black & White than most Pokemon games because I had a character in my journey to make it feel like it was actual exploration instead of bare bones places with much to be had. Unova, as to other regions, had a lot more sightseeing options and a lot more to explore. Unova just felt big, kind of like Johto and Kanto for GSC/HGSS. Just, thanks Bianca for feeling like a real person, instead of one-dimension rival who either wants to kick my ass or is so boring that I wish they were annoying lol…

1) Wally [Pokemon Ruby & Sapphire; Emerald; Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire]

It’s like I stated with Bianca: a rival for me doesn’t have to have battle prowess to be liked by or be a favorite for me. Not gonna lie, I wish Wally had a better team, but unfortunately Wally falls under the earlier formulas of forcing trainers to use entirely new Pokemon instead only peppering their teams with a few new ones, but whatever… 

Wally has one of my favorite rival arcs. He is a sickly kid who wants so badly to be healthier and have a Pokemon of his own so he could one day to set on his very own Pokemon journey like the other kids who have probably left by now on it. Nicely enough your character is there to guide and watch over him as he finally catches his very own Pokemon, even if later you were there to kick his ass a bit later on… While I do like how ORAS gave more facial expressions for this character to make you more sympathetic to him in the story… I wish they hadn’t had him show up after your battle with your dad to keep that mysteriousness of him actually progressing along side you on your Gym Challenge (yes I know you could read the gym signs to see that he’s doing it, but no one thinks to read those, let’s be honest!) before running into him at the end of Victory Road, but oh well. Honestly I wish they had had him in the Champion spot, kind of like what RBY did with Blue, but instead of knowing your rival was one step ahead of you as always you had the sickly kid you thought you sent home after a crushing defeat there instead who actually overcame it and decided to meet you there to prove he did so.

Overall Wally was an underdog and I like characters like that. You don’t expect him to become much more powerful after Mauville. He takes his defeat and he does his best to make up for it by having it push him. He wants to be stronger to prove to everyone, but more importantly to you, the person who was there to witness his journey from the start, how capable he was. Yeah, you do inevitably beat him, which is the fate of the main player in Pokemon, but when you do it you don’t think “aw man I beat another weak rival” or “hah! I beat your smug ass again!” you think of how it was a fun battle and a great progression in a well developed character’s story. And even then, Wally doesn’t take the defeat as a loss, but more as a way to push himself even further. He sees losing as a way to overcome something as to trying to cover up his frustration or to go packing home, and that is an admirable trait. Plus the final battle with him on Victory Road was pretty epic with that new theme of his as well as made me a bit sad because I had to beat him and all he did was smile and thank me… Made me want to cry lol… But that’s why Wally is my favorite rival. He has a great character arc, personality, and he makes me feel so many emotions that I feel like other rivals or characters couldn’t give me… Good job Wally you will always be the rival. 

[otnesse]

Eh, I wouldn't really say she was THAT neglected during Johto. She actually had a fairly active Pokemon Goal of her own, one that's actually comparable to Ash's in a way. Water Pokemon Master. In fact, it was also in Johto that her goal actually got quite a bit of focus, such as that Whirl Cup thing. I'm even willing to bet that, had the writers actually retained Misty for Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, Kalos, Alola, and Galar, they definitely would have found ways to expand upon her goal. I know I would have in their position. It's really only Brock who actually DID get shafted during Johto (At least Misty actually FOCUSED on her goal, even if few and far between. Brock's breeding goal came up EXACTLY once during Johto, and that was when he ended up returning Suzie's Vulpix to her after that breeder expo). Even IF Misty did get stale in Johto, it's only to the degree of Ash himself (and yes, Ash himself ultimately DID get stale in Johto as well. Even moreso when they failed to actually EXPLAIN his Pokemon Master goal, and if anything, they ditched the whole "win a league" thing with how his Orange Islands win apparently didn't count towards him becoming a master). Besides, having watched most of Johto during the leadup to Diamond and Pearl on Cartoon Network a few years back, I fail to see how she was even remotely neglected. If anything, I actually noticed her doing a whole LOT of stuff in that saga. Might as well also add since the complaints against Togepi in regards to Misty were alluded to in there, I NEVER considered Togepi an instance of ruining her character. Actually, come to think of it, even at her worst during Kanto, pre-Togepi I mean, she NEVER came across as nearly as violent as people make her out to be (a few times from hearing them complain about Togepi, I wonder "are you thinking of Naru Narusegawa instead?"). In fact, Misty having a motherly nature to her was actually hinted at as early as her very first appearance with her expressing concern for Pikachu, which obviously occurred long before Togepi's egg was even discovered, much less hatched. All Togepi did was expand upon it, bring it out to the forefront. Not to mention if anything, I blame those guys and their complaints against Togepi (who wasn't even MEANT to battle in the first place. For goodness sakes, you needed to boost its happiness just to have it evolve into Togetic, with battles barely even factoring into it at all, not to mention even in the games its attacks were support-level at best) for how they really overpowered Ash and even the other leads' Pokemon to basically be almost mary sues and make the Gym Leaders look downright pathetic as a result (which is in fact one of my biggest complaints about Hoenn and how they handled the gym fights there [made even worse when this happened AFTER Misty was infamously forced into the gym by her sisters, which tastelessly implied she was going to be a punching bag as a result].).

As far as the Pokemon Contests goes, the fact that they ended up dropped like a bag of potatoes once Black and White pretty much dropped the concept altogether seemed to hint they were ultimately a one-off in the short term, not to mention the fact that they literally replaced May with Dawn just to have her do essentially the same thing just indicates they really didn't think very far ahead. So, really, if anything, the girls' Contest goals actually had the girls being of less overall importance if you ask me than Misty's goal (even less so when unlike Water Pokemon Master, which theoretically CAN be done in the games by beating the Elite 4 and Champion with a pure Water team, you literally can't unlock the ending by just doing Pokemon Contests in RSE or DPP). At least no one replaced Misty's goal when she left. Probably the closest we've gotten to an actual replacement is probably Lana, and she technically wasn't even a trainer yet due to Sun and Moon revamping the whole narrative style to essentially be a school series.

I definitely agree with you on ONE thing, though: Misty definitely was a massively beloved character, period. She wouldn't have gotten third place on that 20th anniversary poll leading up to the 20th pokemon movie if she wasn't (literally being beaten out by Brock and Serena, and I suspect the latter was more due to her being the then-most recent traveling companion, not counting the Sun & Moon cast.).

I notice a lot of people don't really care for Misty during Johto, claiming she "lost a lot of personality" or "Togepi kept her in the sidelines." How do you feel about that? Granted when Misty does get an ep in Johto centered around her it's usually good, but in a lot of the regular Johto fillers she's pretty inactive while Ash and the Johto filler characters get the focus. Misty/Brock were kinda sidelined just commenting on whatever Ash was doing in the episode. Do you feel she was neglected?

I think that a lot of people compare Misty to the other female companions, which if that's the case, then yes she absolutely feels neglected. But that was a very different era of the anime, where Ash was really the only one actively working towards a goal. Misty and Brock were gym leaders on a break, and their main purpose was to be support for Ash. By the time we made it to AG, contests were introduced, and then performances, so May, Dawn, and Serena all had their own goals. Even in Alola, the girls each had their own little subplots, as did Chloe in Journeys, even if hers was arguably the weakest of the bunch.

Misty was never really meant to get the same kind of attention, unfortunately. I find that a lot of the Misty-centric episodes are some of my favorites, however. She's a really interesting character and, in my opinion, has one of the most interesting backstories of all of Ash's friends. I think that goes to show that even without a specific goal, or receiving as much attention as Ash or the girls who came after her, Misty was loved by the anime staff and they did put care into her as a character.

[astridspokemonfic]

Episode 7: Poaching Pursuit!

Narrator: With their first Pokemon gym battle completed, our heroes have decided to explore Mistdrive City! First stop: The Mistdrive Aquarium!

“I’m so excited for this! I haven’t been to an aquarium in forever!” Astrid was practically skipping to the subway escalators. Her Chikorita let out a happy trill as she followed her trainer. Janine and Kaytlyn had stopped by the Pokemon Center after their battle where the other half of their small group had discovered that Mistdrive had an intricate set of subway systems connecting major landmarks.

“Isn’t that where Officer Jenny said they were rehabilitating the Pokemon those poachers took?”  Kaytlyn asked. Janine nodded.

“What’s the difference between catching a Pokemon and poaching them?” Kayla asked. The other trainers stopped and stared at her for a moment. “I mean sometimes Pokemon don’t want to be caught, and some trainers can be just as cruel as poachers.”

The truth of her statement caused the teens to stop and think for a moment.

“Well... poachers don’t catch Pokemon. They steal them. They have no intention of training those Pokemon or even keeping them.” Janine said slowly.

“Yeah, they were probably going to sell off those Pokemon to really bad people or something.” Astrid chimed in.

“What about bad trainers?” Kayla persisted.

“‘There are good and bad trainers as there are good and bad Pokemon. That is the truth. You cannot change their ideals if you are unwilling to accept that’.” Astrid said cryptically. Kaytlyn gave her a narrow look.

“Which play is that from?”

“Black and White: Heroes of Unova. How’d you know?”

“I had a feeling.”

“Well yeah, they’ve got a point. There are some really bad people out there, but they can be changed if you accept your differences and move on.” Astrid continued. Janine mulled over the girl’s quote and found herself silently agreeing.

“You and your plays…” Kaytlyn shook her head.

“No listen! It’s totally awesome; The Hero of Ideals and The Hero of Truth have to battle to prove whose Truth/Ideal is stronger, and they basically put their heart and soul into it because, like, that’s the only way to figure out whose stronger ー If they both put their ideals on the line! And they basically have the fate of the world on their shoulders- Well, the fate of Unova, but still…!” Astrid continued rambling, completely oblivious to her friends who were only half listening to her rant. The only interested audience was her Chikorita,

“Can we go to Tide Street first? There’s a ton of food stalls we could stop by.” Kayla interrupted, changing the subject as she flipped through a brochure.

“Do you only think about food?” Kaytlyn asked incredulously.

“Yes.”

~*~*~*~*~

The subway ride to Tide Street had been surprisingly pleasant. The train cart wasn’t crowded and each of them managed to snag a seat. The only concerning parts had been when there was a sharp turn and the lights would flicker on and off causing Astrid’s Chikorita and Kayla’s Rowlet to panic every so often.

Now, Janine stood at the sidelines as Kayla ordered some sort of pastry from a street vendor. She could still hear Nathan’s words ringing through her head. She was still loathe to admit that her victory had been dependent on Pollo’s evolution. She was dragged out of her thoughts with a sharp kick to her shin.

“Ow! What-” A pastry was shoved in her open mouth.

“You were staring off into space like an idiot.” Astrid replied, munching on her own dessert. Janine took the pastry and bit into it with vindication. Kayla was almost done with hers while Kaytlyn seemed to have barely eaten hers. The bread was slightly sweeter than she had expected, but she enjoyed it.

“What’s wrong with you?” She asked. She shrugged.

“Is it about what Nathan said?” Kaytlyn guessed with a scowl. When Janine’s chewing slowed for a moment she knew her guess she was right. “Janine, you’re a great trainer. He was just being a jerk!”

“It was a double type disadvantage. You did what you could! It doesn’t cheapen your win; you know that right?” Kayla stated, having finished scarfing down her snack. Janine smiled lightly at her friends.

“I know that, it’s just- It felt like I was gonna lose anyway.” They fell into heavy silence.

“Because you were losing.” Kayla said blankly. Her sister whacked her arm. “Ow, Kaytlyn!”

“Too blunt…” Astrid muttered with a sigh.

“She was! You were there, she was ready to forfeit!” She pushed Kaytlyn away before she could get hit again. “Can I finish?! Arceus! She was losing but did she actually lose? No! Cause she trained her Pokemon and encouraged them to the point that one felt that evolution was necessary. That’s all I was gonna say, gosh!”

“She’s right! If anything, Combusken is proof of how good of a trainer you are!” Astrid interjected. “If you let him out now, he’d feel the same.” Chikorita gave a coo of agreement.

Janine could almost feel the Pokeball at her belt shaking with conviction. She gave her friends a reassuring nod.

“You’re right. Saying I didn’t deserve that win is an insult to my Pokemon. They worked hard for this.” She said, resting one hand on Pollo and Arroz’s Pokeballs. Astrid let out a happy yell.

“And an insult to you too, but y’know. One step at a time.” Kaytlyn said, taking another bite of her pastry.

“You’re still not done with that?” Kayla asked.

“Get your own!” She smacked her twin more playfully this time. Astrid handed Kayla what was left of hers, saying that she was too excited to eat. Janine let her thoughts go to the trainer from the gym as her friends interacted. Arceus, that guy was such a jerk!

“Janine come on! I wanna get there before the ticket line gets too long!” Astrid grabbed Janine’s hand and dragged her down the street.

“Aren’t we gonna take the subway?” She yelled, attempting to pry herself out of the coordinator’s grip.

“The subway line is actually more roundabout; it makes some unnecessary stops. It’s faster to walk.” Kaytlyn said, easily keeping pace. Kayla was more unlucky and was dragging behind due to her weak lungs.

“Astrid, we have asthma!” Janine yelled, finally yanking her hand away. Astrid made a whiny sound, but moved at more manageable pace for her friends, though she still ran ahead every few seconds, her Chikorita hanging from her arms like a ragdoll.

“You’re like a hyperactive child!” Kayla yelled. Janine silently agreed, slightly miffed. Said girl shrugged unapologetically.

The aquarium seemed just as large as the gym if not larger. Even at the entrance, Kaytlyn could see that the front building was only a portion of the aquarium as there was a clear fence that stretched far into the horizon.

“I think this place has acres of land for the exhibits.” Astrid mentioned, staring past the fence. When the entrance came into view, they noticed two figures conversing in front. One of them was Officer Jenny, who was taking down notes. The other was a young woman in clear distress who noticed the trainers first.

“I’m sorry, but the Aquarium at maximum capacity for today.” She said tiredly, returning to the officer in front of her.

“An elevator reaches maximum capacity. That’s not a thing for Aquariums.” Astrid muttered under her breath.

The other teens stared at her in clear confusion until Officer Jenny glanced at the teens.

“Hey! You’re the teens that bargained with me for the shiny Magikarp!” She exclaimed. Janine nodded.

“Officer Jenny, what’s going on?” Kaytlyn asked. The woman gave them a tight frown.

“The poachers from yesterday escaped the precinct, and we’re worried that they’ll try to come after the Pokemon in the Rehabilitation Center. This is Miss Bethany. Her father is the owner.”

“Wait, why would they come back?” Kayla interjected, “Wouldn’t they just run away?”

“Yes, normally they would… But we think there was a security breach a few hours ago.”Jenny sighed. “Some of them may still be on the grounds, but the police can’t investigate unless we want to cause everyone to panic.” Bethany explained. She buried her face in her hands, “If father hears about this I’d be in so much trouble!”

“Can’t you just disguise yourselves?” Astrid asked. Jenny shook her head.

“Our police force is too recognizable… Wait you guys are trainers right?” Jenny asked. When they nodded, she continued, “Do you think that maybe you could help us search? You’d look like regular aquarium visitors. “ Her radio rang. “Ah. Excuse me.”

“Bethany, do you have any idea why they would want to steal those Pokemon again?” Janine asked gently. The girl looked at her shoes in thought.

“They tried to steal one of the Slowpoke in the Rehabilitation Center.” Bethany paused. ““A-and they seemed really interested in the Feebas for some reason…”

“Slowpoke?” Kayla made a face, “Who would want a Slowpoke?”

“People cut off Slowpoke tail for soups.” Astrid said, recalling a magazine. “It’s a delicacy in some regions.” Kayla grimaced, looking a little disturbed.

“Oh my Arceus why-”

Jenny returned to the group in a rush. “Some of the poachers were sighted on Tide Street, so I need to head there right now! Could you keep the Aquarium safe for me?”

“Dude, there are four of us we could just split up.” Kayla deadpanned. Her friends shrugged in agreement. Jenny paused.

“Are you sure you can handle it?” Jenny furrowed her brow in concern. Wordlessly, Janine and Kaytlyn shined their Gym Badges in her direction. “I suppose you’ll be fine then…”

“I’ll go with Officer Jenny for backup!” Astrid volunteered, ignoring Kayla’s mutter of ‘Teacher’s Pet’ as she followed Officer Jenny down to the road she had been not an hour earlier.

“I guess I’ll guard the entrance here with Ms. Bethany.” Kaytlyn sighed and took a seat on the floor. “You two will investigate inside then.”

“I think they may be hiding where there are less adult tourists, or we would’ve gotten more complaints.” Bethany said, “Please be careful!”

~*~*~*~*~

“I can see why Astrid likes these Aquariums so much.” Kayla said, staring at a school of Remoraid swimming by. The duo were currently in an underwater tube, allowing them to walk ‘underwater’ and see the fish from all sides.

“You know we’re supposed to be looking for suspicious persons right?” Janine muttered lowly. Kayla shrugged.

“I don’t really see anyone suspicious right now. Mostly just kids with plush toys.” She watched a group of children run past them to the darker areas to look at glowing Tentacool and algae.

“Let’s check out the glow-in-the-dark display.” Janine nudged her friend towards the darker room, when it turned up empty, they ended up outside, in a sitting area surrounded by building with different categories of oceanic wildlife.

“We could try the Mantine petting.” Kayla suggested. “This place is really big, if anything they’re probably hiding in one of those dark corners. We should split up and cover more ground.”

Janine nodded in agreement.

“Text me if you find them. Do your best to not battle them-” She said.

“Don’t worry mom, I’ll be fine.” Kayla said sarcastically, heading towards the children’s area. The trainer looked at the map she had been provided, resolving to go to the research facility. Unlike the other more colorful buildings, this one was stark white on the outside and had a distinct hospital feeling to it. When she entered, many of the scientists ignored her while most of them just barely giving her passing glances. So clearly this part of the aquarium was open to tourists, but was less visited. (She assumed because no one was very interested in seeing sick/injured Pokemon).

She absentmindedly wandered around the halls of the center, making sure to glance around corners for the poachers. Her mind wandered to her Combusken, who was relaxing in his Pokeball. Her first evolved Pokemon! She felt a rush of pride as her Pokemon

She was so caught up that she bumped into someone on her way out, causing him to drop his clipboard.

“Arceus! Sorry, I didn’t notice you.” She knelt down to pick up the clipboard, noticing his long lab coat.

“No, it’s… fine.” he replied. Janine glanced down at the clipboard for a moment before returning it to the taller male in front of her. Before she could look up the man swiped it from her hands and rushed off leaving her to stare at his retreating back.

Something about him seemed… familiar.

‘Familiar enough to be suspicious’ Janine decided, following the scientist down a shadowed corridor.

~*~*~*~*~

“Excuse me, have you seen anyone suspicious around here lately?” When the man shook his head no Astrid sighed. “Thank you for your time!” She gave him a tight-lipped smile and ran off to the next vendor.

Before she could begin her dialogue, she felt a gloved hand at her shoulder.

“Oh! Officer Jenny! Did you find anything?”

“I think so. Some vendors down that way were complaining about so-called mysterious noises from some of the back alleys here.” She pointed to the thin crevices between large brick buildings.

“Has no one actually checked there yet?” Astrid asked raising an eyebrow.

“Hopefully not. The safety of civilians is a top priority. I shouldn’t even be dragging you into this…” the officer muttered. “You don’t even have a Gym Badge like your friends!”

Astrid scowled unabashedly and cut in front of Jenny to get through the alleyways first, muttering the entire time.

“I’ll have you know that I’m a Coordinator! And I’m a good one at that!” She huffed, side stepping in a murky looking puddle. “I won my first Ribbon three days after I started my journey. And it was a Double Battle too.” She continued, muttering darkly to herself while Jenny watched her in concern.

“Uh, are you alright?”

“Nothing!” Astrid said suddenly, her bright smile ever-present. “It widens out over here, so we should be more careful- Yikes, it’s dark.” Officer Jenny gave her one last unsure glance before stepping in front of the girl with a flashlight from her utility belt.

The alleyway that they had slipped through had plenty of sunlight streaming between buildings, but it seemed that the back alley spaces were almost completely dark. Officer Jenny flashed her light around the corners, illuminating scurrying Rattatas and dripping puddles along with various pieces of garbage. So basically, standard alley things.

Astrid followed Jenny cautiously when a tug at her shirt caught her attention. Chikorita tugged at her with her vines over to a chain-link fence and began pointing at it in excitement. The teen felt her way around the fence and found that one side was clipped, bending open just large enough for an adult to walk through.

“Good job, Chikorita! Officer Jenny, I think we found something!” Astrid stage whispered, waving her over. Officer Jenny looked at it for a bit in suspicion before pulling out a Pokeball.

“Growlithe, help me out!” The orange canine popped out with a howl. “Growlithe, can you use Odor Sleuth and tell me if there are any people down there?” The Pokemon went straight to work, sniffing at the gate with practiced ability. Astrid took out her Pokedex and scanned the new Pokemon.

“Growlithe, The Puppy Pokemon. Its superb sense of smell ensures that this Pokemon won’t forget any scent, no matter what. It uses its sense of smell to detect the emotions of others. Extremely loyal, it will fearlessly bark at any opponent to protect its own Trainer from harm.”

The Growlithe barked at Jenny, apparently indicating that there was a familiar scent lingering in the dark abyss.

“So… Is this the part where we investigate?” Astrid asked, hopefully. Officer Jenny gave the Coordinator a onceover before replying.

“No. This is the part where I investigate. You stay out here. You’re still a civilian.” The woman said with finality, crouching down through the fence. Her Growlithe followed her in, leaving Astrid to rub the tips of her shoes into the gravel beneath her.

“Well… This blows.”

~*~*~*~*~

Janine huffed out another breath as she rounded another corner while following the scientist. Was it just her, or was she this guy beginning to move faster and faster? With every turn she caught another glimpse of his face and he looked more and more familiar.

Janine followed him down corridor after corridor, distantly wondering if this scientist had any idea where he was going. Down this hallway, turn left, and- oh. This time he actually went through a door. The trainer followed slowly, stopping in front of the room labelled “Pokemon Rehabilitation”.

Janine glanced around only then noticing that this hallway was nearly devoid of people. Was this a coincidence? Probably not. The teen steeled herself before slowly turning the knob and poking her head in.

The room itself was unintimidating: there were frankly massive fish tanks lining the shelves around the room, each housing some Pokemon. Standing in the middle was the scientist who she was tailing, his back still turned to her. He was completely relaxed, inspecting at a tank of Luvdisc float around in the water.

“You’re following me.” He stated. Janine blinked in confusion. He sounded… really annoyed?

“Is that a statement or a question?” She said before she could stop herself. She spent too much time around sarcastic people nowadays.

“Why?” He said, his voice was now tinted with malice, like he was trying to intimidate her. She snorted, unimpressed.

“Because you’re suspicious. And familiar.” She added after a short pause.

“I’m familiar to you…?” He asked slowly. He sounded monotone, but you could just barely catch a hopeful lilt at the end of his words. Janine favored to ignore this as her annoyance was nearing its peak.

“Yes, you’re familiar.” She repeated, nearly snapping. The scientist turned his head to look at her, consequently shifting his body enough for Janine to finally catch a view of his face. “You- You’re the guy from the forest! You’re with Team SubZero!”

The stranger seemed to suddenly deflate at this as his gaze returned back to the fish tank in front of him. He held his hand up to the glass and let the Luvdisc follow his finger.

“Ah. You’re right, then.” He murmured. “My name is Lucian. I’m the leading scientist of Team Subzero.”

“What’s Team SubZero have to do with poachers?” Janine questioned angrily. The older teen turned to her and raised an eyebrow.

“Why do you care?” He responded. “Wouldn’t it be easier to just ignore it?” He said cryptically. He stared at her with a critical eye for a moment before looking away from her completely seeming to judge that arguing Janine wasn’t worth his time as he moved to sidestep her. Janine easily slid in front of him forcing him to step back.

“Because it’s the right thing to do.” She answered resolutely. There was a pause. He closed his eyes in contemplation.

“Prove it.” he turned to her, “Battle me.”

“Excuse me?” Janine said, affronted. The other teen scoffed. “Battle me.” He repeated blankly. “Prove you’re right. That’s the only way to settle things in this world.”

Janine furrowed her brows.

“Here?”

“Where else?” He gave her a dark smile. “Prove to me your ideals!”

~*~*~*~*~

Astrid remained silent, waiting next to the gate with her Chikorita.

“Do you think they’re done yet?” The Chikorita let out a low sound. She sighed “I don’t think they’re done either.” Astrid busied herself thinking of new combinations. “You know Officer Jenny’s been in there for a while now…”

Chikorita made a clicking noise and dragged her trainer’s hand down to the ground, away from the fence.

“Aw come on! You know how boring it is just waiting here!” Astrid shrugged her Chikorita off. “It’ll be fun!” She pushed the fence open and crouched through, shifting to pull it open for Chikorita who was clearly hesitant. Chikorita reluctantly stepped through and Astrid scooped her up and walked down the damp alleyway.

“Man this place is gross.” She could practically feel grime sliding down her skin. The alleyway was dark and she could barely see puddles that were dripping with what she hoped was water. “Let’s move faster.” She quickened her pace a bit until she was at an almost jog and was about to turn when she heard Officer Jenny’s voice.

“Growlithe! Use Flamethrower!” Bright light illuminated the darkened alleyway in front of her as Officer Jenny came into view. “Growlithe track them down!”

“What’s going on, Officer Jenny?”

“Didn’t I tell you to wait outside?” She yelled back at the teen. Astrid gave the woman an unimpressed look. “I found their temporary hideout, but they went running off! I need to follow Growlithe before I lose him!”

“I’m coming this time!” Astrid’s voice rang out as she ran off to follow the Puppy Pokemon. She didn’t get very far is Growlithe was pawing at the ground in front of it.

“The manhole…” Jenny pointed at the slightly out of place metal plate.

“Does Mistdrive City have clean sewers?” Astrid’s face had twisted into a grimace. Jenny shrugged.

“Moderately clean.” She responded and dropped herself into the hole, Growlithe following after her. Astrid let out a groan and reluctantly followed.

~*~*~*~*~

“Ideals…?” Janine parroted back. Lucian seemed to be ignoring her as he reached into his lab coat for the first Pokeball. “You want me to prove that my ideals are stronger?”

“That’s what I said isn’t it?” Lucian hissed, growing evermore impatient and annoyed with Janine.

“That’s just… a very... weirdly specific tag-line to challenge me to battle…”Janine mumbled lowly, reaching for Pollo’s Pokeball. “It can’t be helped then. I’ll prove that what you’re doing is wrong!”

Lucian let out a derisive snort and threw out his Pokeball without another word. Janine froze mid-reach, instead pulling out her Pokedex to scan the winged creature.

“Golbat, the Bat Pokemon. Golbat loves to drink the blood of living things. It is particularly active in the pitch black of night. This Pokémon flits around in the night skies, seeking fresh blood.”

Janine gave the Bat a once-over, clearly creeped out by the Pokedex entry. She spotted Lucian turning his face away to hide his oncoming chuckles. The trainer made a last minute switch, hoping that type-effectiveness would help her in the end.

“Arroz! Let’s go!” Janine tossed her Pokeball in the air, releasing the sheep mid-air. The Mareep made a show of crackling the electricity in its fur to intimidate the Golbat. Both Lucian and the Golbat paid it no mind.

“Golbat! Use Confuse Ray!” Golbat’s eyes began to glow a sickly purple as it formed multiple golden orbs around it, throwing them at the Electric-Type.

“Arroz! Use Discharge to block it!” Mareep showed no evidence of being nervous as it shot wild spikes of electricity in the surrounding area, destroying the Confuse Ray and nearly hitting the Golbat, who flapped around in distress. “Great job!”

“Not bad.” Lucian said, seemingly unperturbed by his Pokemon’s panicky demeanor. “Golbat,  Bite.”  He said sharply. The Pokemon seemed dazed for a moment before following the command, swooping down towards Mareep at a high speed.

“Arroz, use Charge!” The Sheep began to shift around, building up static electricity in its’ coat to supercharge its’ next electrical attack. Golbat swooped low, chomping down on Mareep with its fangs. Mareep barely seemed to notice as it continued to gather electricity, glaring at its’ much larger opponent. “Thunder Wave!” Mareep released a weak shockwave of electricity, meaning to paralyze its opponent. Golbat moved away at the last second, very nearly getting caught by Mareep’s status move.

“Hm?” Lucian glanced at the battlefield, “Oh. Swift.” Lucian ordered flippantly. Golbat crossed its wings in an X-Formation sending throwing stars right back into the Mareep’s Thunder Wave, cancelling out the move. The stars continued on and rained down on Mareep who was unable to block.

“Arroz!” Her Pokemon shrugged it off, letting out a shock of electricity to show that she was okay. “Thunder Wave again!”

“Torment.” The Golbat’s eyes began to glow a a faint purple let out a high pitched screech, something Janine found to be indecipherable, but the Sheep Pokemon clearly understood as it began to bleat in annoyance. Arroz herself didn’t continue, finding herself unable to use Thunder Wave for a second time as the effects of the Torment began to kick in.

“What?” Janine went scrambling for her Pokedex to find the effects of the Dark-Type move, only for Lucian to interrupt her.

“When a Pokemon uses Torment, its opponent can’t use the same move twice in a row.” He explained in a condescending tone. Janine looked back at her Arroz who was clearly trying to send out another Thunder Wave to no avail. “You don’t know much about this do you?”

“Oh, shut up!” Janine rolled her eyes. “Arroz, use Take Down!” The Mareep shook its head to clear its focus and took a running start to the Bat Pokemon, making direct contact into its side.

“Bite.” Lucian ordered in an ever-so-calming tone that was really beginning to grate on Janine’s nerves. Golbat twisted itself around and once again clamped its mouth down on Arroz’s wool.

“Alright, now! Use Discharge!” Mareep released its pent up Electricity, shocking Golbat inside out due to its close proximity. The Bat Pokemon flopped to the ground, down for the count. Lucian gave his Golbat a sideways glance before looking away, clearly uninterested. Janine felt herself beginning to get ticked off. He’s the one who challenged her to battle in the first place! The least he could do is pay attention! 

“That bothers you?”

...Did she say that out loud? Janine shot a glance over at the scientist, realizing that she had been muttering just loud enough for him to hear. She cleared her throat.

“Well… you’re the one who basically ordered me to battle you!” She began, “And you’re barely paying attention! It’s like you didn’t even want to battle in the first place!”

“You didn’t want to battle me either.” He pointed out, “Before you talk about hypocrisy, you should first realize that you weren’t exactly excited into battle.”

“Well, I accepted didn’t I?!” Janine yelled back, growing increasingly frustrated. What exactly did he want from her? When Lucian let out a scoff, the trainer felt her patience snap. “If you’re that unimpressed by the battle, it’s because you’re not putting any effort into it! I can’t ‘prove my ideals’ to you if you don’t care!” Janine threw her hands up, placing air quotes on his words. “Unless you put your Ideals on the line too, this battle is meaningless!” She finished. (That line sounded familiar.) Lucian stared at her for a long moment and looked away yet again. Janine opened her mouth to yell at him again, cutting herself off when he let out a line of chuckles that could almost be mistaken as a laugh.

“Ah… It’s been a while…” Lucian’s chuckles stopped abruptly as he recalled his Golbat. Janine followed in suit, calling Arroz back to her ball. “But don’t say I didn’t try to go easy on you.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

“It smells like a Garbodor in here!” Astrid whined. The walkways were sanitary, but it didn’t do much to hide the foul stench coming from the water flowing next to her. “I swear I’m going to gut those poachers!” Astrid walked a fair distance behind Officer Jenny, more focused on her surroundings than anything else.

“Chika!” Chikorita wrapped a vine around her trainer’s ankle, pulling her in the opposite direction.

“Huh…?” Astrid glanced down to where Officer Jenny had run off to (She honestly couldn’t tell where anymore. This entire place made her feel like she was in the sewer scene from Ratatouille) “Are you saying that Officer Jenny’s wrong? But she has a Growlithe with her! Y’know. The Pokemon that is literally bred for police because of its amazing sense of smell?”

Chikorita gave her an annoyed look.

“Alright fine! Lead the way!” Astrid threw her hands up in exasperation. “You’re lucky I trust you.” She muttered under her breath as Chikorita dragged her along. Chikorita led her to one of the darker tunnels pointing down into the dingy darkness.

“You’re absolutely sure about this?” Astrid gave her Pokemon one last unsure look. The Chikorita whacked her shin with a vine in response. “Ow! Arceus okay!” The Coordinator hissed and carefully navigated her way down the tunnel. A dim light illuminated the darkness behind one of the turns. Suspicion slowed the teen down, as she stepped lightly, peeking over the corner.

“I’m tired of waiting here!” A gruff voice yelled.

“Will you shut up?!” Another voice yelled back. The teen squinted through the yellow light and found herself recognizing the men who were yelling at each other as two of the poachers from the other day.

Astrid pulled herself back to behind the corner, pushing herself against the concrete wall to remain upright. She hugged Chikorita a little closer to calm herself before tentatively getting her phone out to text her friends.

No service?! Astrid mentally groaned. Of course there was no service! She was underground! The coordinator shoved her phone back in her bag with a little more force than probably necessary.

“Did you hear something?” One of the voices asked behind her. Astrid froze immediately and slowly backed away, inadvertently tripping over her own feet. She landed onto the concrete with a resounding thump. “The cops found us!”

Astrid pushed herself up to find that the poachers had already turned the corner, looking less intimidating than she had first thought. In fact they looked more frightened than angry.

“Nah it’s just some kid. Scram!” The teen rolled her eyes at his dialogue.

“You sound like a mobster from a 40s movie.” She deadpanned, suddenly feeling a burst of confidence. “Besides, you’re the poachers that escaped the precinct aren’t you?”

The poacher she had insulted had the decency to look at least a little offended, backing up when he realized that she wasn’t intimidated in the least. The duo of poachers in front of her decided to switch tactics, each pulling out a Pokeball.

“We don’t have time for this! Koffing go!” The other followed in suit, releasing a Rattata.

“And you think I have time for this?!” The girl yelled incredulously. She let her Chikorita down and reached to her belt to release Vulpix from his ball. “You’re not getting past me!”

~*~*~*~*~

“So you’re going to actually battle me now?” Janine’s voice had a hint of doubt as the scientist opposite to her was still wearing an infuriating smirk. But something had changed. It didn’t feel condescending at all.

“Yes, of course. That’s what you wanted,” Lucian pulled a different Pokeball from his coat. “Isn’t it?” His grin turned almost predatory for a moment before vanishing as if nothing had happened at all. Janine shrugged off the feeling that she was walking into a trap.

“Yes… I want a proper battle.” She said, pulling out Pollo’s Pokeball, “Anything less is insulting.” She said.

“Hm. I wonder if you’ll be saying that after this is over.” Lucian mused. “Then, Elektrik, it’s your turn.” He leisurely tossed the Pokeball up, releasing his Pokemon. A blue and yellow eel-looking Pokemon popped out, floating above the ground with a blank look in its eye. It didn’t even look angry, which for some reason, was far more disconcerting.

Janine followed in suit, throwing out her Combusken with one hand and reaching for her Pokedex with the other.

“Elektrik, The EleFish Pokemon. They coil around foes and shock them with electricity-generating organs that seem simply to be circular patterns. These Pokémon have a big appetite. When they spot their prey, they attack it and paralyze it with electricity. Then it chomps.”

Disturbing PokeDex entries aside, Janine wasted no time in getting Combusken to attack.

“Pollo, use Flame Burst!” The recently evolved Pokemon wasted no time, easily shooting a bright, yellow-orange fireball at the eel. Elektrik didn’t have the speed to dodge the fireball, instead choosing to coil around the incoming attack. The Flame Burst passed through without touching the eel, though it was still hit by the splash damage.

“Elektrik, use Spark!” Lucian commanded. The yellow circles on its side began to light up as it surrounded itself with yellow electricity and charged at the Fire-Type.

“Dodge it!” Janine yelled. Her Pokemon slid to the side to avoid the attack.

“Combusken’s faster than Elektrik, huh.” The scientist nodded to himself. “Elektrik, use Crunch!” The Electric-Type rushed towards Pollo again, this time contracting its mouth menacingly.

“Dodge again!” Combusken jumped up this time, right above the floating Elefish.

“Now, use Bind!” Elektrik slithered up to the Fire-Type and wrapped itself around it, and squeezed. The Bind did double, managing to keep Combusken in place and hurting him enough to cause some damage. Janine winced in sympathy as Combusken struggled in the other Pokemon’s hold.

“Use Peck, Pollo!” Pollo’s beak glowed a bit as it slammed down onto the Elektrik’s smooth skin. While the move itself didn’t do much damage, it shocked the Elektrik long enough for Pollo to wiggle free from its’ hold.

“Clever.” Lucian commented with a smile of something akin to being impressed. “You saw right through that strategy in seconds.”

Janine furrowed her brow in confusion. The strategy wasn’t necessarily complicated… She wanted to say. But something about his ‘compliment’ made her skin crawl. It felt underhanded.

“You’re planning something.” Janine stated bluntly. She was not going to play this psychological game right now.

“Ah! You’re right again.” Lucian shrugged, chuckling again. “Then… Let’s try this! Elektrik, Use Spark again!” The eel charged again, forcing Pollo to slide away again, to avoid the attack. “Spark!” The scientist commanded for a third time.

“Dodge again, Pollo!” Janine watched Lucian’s face, trying to figure out what he was doing. He continued to have Elektrik use spark and Combusken continued to dodge. After a while, Lucian commanded his Elektrik to stop leaving both Pokemon panting. “What exactly was your plan there?! Both of our Pokemon are exhausted.” After a pause he responded.

“Did you know that 94% of the time, your Combusken slides to the left instinctually to dodge?” Lucian asked. “Interesting data.”

Janine felt her stomach drop. “Wait a minute-”

“Elektrik, use Double Team!” Almost instantly, copies of the Elektrik began to pop up around the room, confusing both Janine and Combusken over which was the real one. “Now, use Spark again!” All of the Elektrik lit up the bright yellow and charged at Combusken, forcing it to slide to the left just as Lucian had predicted.

“Pollo, move!” Combusken shifted to the side a little too late, as another Elektrik shot out, clearly hitting Combusken’s arm. Another Elektrik lit up in front of Combusken. “Attack it head on! Use Ember!” Pollo shot small flames at the eel, only to find that it was a copy when it faded out of existence. Another Elektrik shot out and hit Combusken’s back dead on. “Pollo!” Janine yelled out in concern as her Pokemon cried out.

“I did warn you.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

“Koffing, use Clear Smog!” The (taller) poacher yelled.

“Rattata! Bite!” The other commanded. Astrid raised an eyebrow at their last ditch efforts to turn the tide of the battle.

“Chikorita, use Razor Leaf! Vulpix! Use Extrasensory!” Chikorita shot leaves at both Pokemon, hitting Rattata and knocking it out. The move didn’t do much to the Koffing, but Vulpix’s Extrasensory was super effective, hitting the Koffing and subsequently launching it into it’s trainer.

“You done yet?”Astrid already had an escape rope in her hand as both her Pokemon glared down at the fallen poachers. They both nodded in disappointment and allowed themselves to be apprehended. “Now, are you gonna tell me what’s going on?”

“Well-”

“Shut up!” The other hissed. Astrid groaned.

“You’re going to make this hard for me aren’t you? Just tell me so I don’t kick you lamers into the sewage water!” She yelled, no longer caring if her voice bounced around the walls. The taller poacher seemed reluctant to say anything, but the other whose accent she had insulted earlier seemed to be easily cracking.

“Look, we had orders!”

“Dude!” The other cried out, in an offended tone,

“I can’t swim! Do you want me to die?!”

“Who had orders?” Astrid interrupted them impatiently. When they remained silent for more than a few seconds she began to slowly slide them closer to the murky sewage water with a bored look. “I’m not above just kicking you in and then pulling you back out.”

“That’s like waterboarding! Torture is illegal!”

“So is Pokemon poaching.” The teen shot back. Well that shut them up. She thought.

“Team SubZero.” One of them blurted out. Astrid narrowed her eyes.

“SubZero?”

“They’re these freaks in parkas! They hired us to poach Pokemon-” The other began to blubber, spilling everything despite his friends vehement protests.

“Wait, wait, wait! What was that about the Aquarium?” Astrid stopped his confession midway through. The thug slowed his sniffling for a minute.

“They have an inside-man working in the aquarium? Yeah, he was going to help the others sneak the Pokemon out in a truck or somethin’. Was gonna make it look like they were being sent somewhere else…” He continued talking absentmindedly, while the others head hung low in shame.

“Watch them.” Astrid ordered her Vulpix and Chikorita as she ran off to the closest manhole and held her phone up to it, hoping to catch a signal. “Arceus, this place is worse than the music room at school... There!”

The teen began to frantically shoot texts to her friends, growing more and more frustrated when they wouldn’t go through. She eventually resorted to phone calls, desperately trying to connect to any one of their phones.

Eventually one of them picked up.

“Kayla! Thank Arceus! Sh! Just shut up and listen to me!”

~*~*~*~*~

Pollo can’t handle much more... Janine thought, watching her starter get thrown around by Elektrik. The Combusken would get hit and then stumble straight into another Spark and the cycle had been going on for the past few seconds, Pollo, looking worse for wear with every hit. I need to think!

Janine tried to study Elektrik’s movements as Lucian had before. Elektrik only moves in a linear path… It can coil itself, but it can’t really turn it’s body to attack… How do I use that? Janine paused. Lucian fights like he thinks. Meaning…

“Pollo! Use Double Kick!” The Pokemon forced itself up against the incoming Elektrik, kicking the copy as it faded away.

“Elektrik wait!” But the Pokemon was already heading straight towards Combusken who kicked a second time, throwing the Elektrik away.

...the only way to get through is to be direct!

“Pollo! Get rid of those doubles with Flame Burst!” Combusken gave a powerful kick with its legs, jumping up high into the air and throwing a fire ball down to the ground beneath it. The fire didn’t particularly hit any of the copies, but the splash damage was enough to make them fade away, leaving the original alone.

“You…” Lucian didn’t even seem angry, and seemed more stunned if anything else. He quickly snapped out of whatever trance he had fallen into. “Elektrik, use Bind!”

“Ember!” The Fire Type opened its mouth, and let out an onslaught of flame on the incoming Elektrik. The Elefish paid no mind and continued on its path to entangle the other Pokemon for a second time. “Use Double Kick on the ground!” Combusken followed, inadvertently jumping high into the air before Elektrik could reach it.

“Use Double Team!” The Elektrik began to immediately multiply again.

“Flame Burst!” Pollo shot the Flame Burst down to the ground before he landed, getting rid of the doubles before it could get caught in another situation as it had before. Surprisingly, the hit landed on the Elektrik below as it was thrown back by the force of the fire.

“Elektrik!” The Pokemon weakly forced itself up, lighting up a bit to show its trainer that it was okay.  Lucian glanced up at the weak Combusken, deciding that it wouldn’t be able to dodge another time. “Use Spark!”

“Counter with Double Kick!” The Elektrik began to surround itself with electric energy again, lighting up in a bright yellow while Pollo stood unmoving for a moment. Both Pokemon rushed each other, colliding in an explosion of electricity, kicking up enough dust to block them from view.

“Pollo!”

“Elektrik!”

~*~*~*~*~

Kayla panted heavily. Running was a bad choice. Astrid had quickly explained that there was a truck coming to pick up Pokemon disguised as a delivery truck.

“-Likely somewhere near the docking area in-” Was all she heard before the call was dropped. Wherever she was, there was no doubt that the Coordinator had probably thrown a tantrum over her bad cell service. Kayla had released Rowlet a while ago, telling him to fly up and try to find the docking area Astrid had talked about.

She jogged back to the courtyard outside, checking the map for a docking area, but found that the information wasn’t available to visitors. She let out a sound of frustration and was about ready to slap the next person who looked at her like she was insane. Just as she was heading to the Research building, the door slammed open revealing a familiar face.

“Janine! Astrid called-” She gasped for a moment. “Docking area- The poachers-”

“It’s fine. Are you okay? Where’s your inhaler?!” Janine dug through Kayla’s pockets and handed the inhaler to the girl, patting her back in concern. Kayla shook her head, shoving the inhaler back into her hoodie.

“I know where the poachers are. Follow me.” Janine said, taking the other girls arm to lead her away.

Kayla made a confused sound, but saved her breath as she followed Janine to the Coastal exhibit building. The other teen completely ignored the obvious entrance and moved to the side of the building. She easily pushed on the side gate, allowing it to swing open easily.

“All the aquarium buildings have separate docking stations.” Janine explained, “It would take forever to search them all. You would never be able to tell unless someone told you.”

“So…” Kayla regulated her breathing a bit “Astrid’s call got through?” She looked up at a cooing sound and found that Rowlet had returned. Kayla gestured for him to remain silent before she looked up at Janine’s confused look.

“What? I never got a call from Astrid.” Kayla opened her mouth to reply when they were suddenly joined by a third voice.

“Where is he? We need his access card to get into the Aquarium!”

Janine mouthed ‘Poacher’ to Kayla before pushing her towards the exit.

“We need to get Officer Jenny!” Kayla whisper-yelled.

“There’s no time! You get Officer Jenny or Kaytlyn. I’ll stay here and keep them from doing anything.” Janine made a shooing motion.

“You have a death wish!” The teen whispered back in annoyance.

“I’ll be fine!” Janine reasoned.

“Even with Combusken, you can’t just stay here alone!”

“Uh, about that… I can’t use Combusken right now.” The Trainer admitted.

“What?!” Kayla yelled, completely forgetting that their situation.

“Hey! Who’s over here?!” The voice from earlier called out. “What are you teens doing here?! Raticate, go!”

“What?! Patrat!” A fourth voice responded followed by the familiar pop of a Pokeball.

“Later.” Janine promised her. “Mareep, I choose you!” The trainer sprang into battle with well-practiced vigor.

“Rowlet, you too!” Kayla yelled, practically flinging her bird onto the battlefield. Janine looked at her friend like she was insane. “Two on one isn’t fair!”

~*~*~*~*~

“Janine you’re okay!” Astrid squeezed her friend upon seeing her at the entrance of the Aquarium. “You weren’t answering any of my calls or texts! Even after I got out of the sewer you weren’t replying!”

“What were you doing in the sewer?” Kaytlyn gave the girl an incredulous look.

“...Waterboarding poachers.”

“What?!”

“And Officer Jenny was chasing after the wrong Raticate and- Ugh don’t get me started.” Astrid shuddered. “What happened?”

Janine shrugged. “We took down these poachers and then Officers showed up to take them away.”

“I called them.” Kaytlyn admitted. “One of your texts got through to send cops to the Coastal docking area.”

“Wasn’t the whole point of this stealth mission to make sure people wouldn’t panic?” Kayla asked, a smile playing on her face.

“They played it off as something with the fish tanks I think.” Janine said, furrowing her brow. Kayla nudged her.

“You still need to explain how you knew what was going on.” She gave the other trainer a level look.

“Yeah, none of my texts or calls went through for you.” Astrid waved her phone in Janine’s face.

“And why was Combusken already injured?” Kayla added.

“Well…”

~*~*~*~*~

“Pollo!”

“Elektrik!”

When the smoke cleared, both Combusken and Elektrik were lying in heaps on the floor. Combusken had swirls in his eyes while Elektrik was twitching weakly on the floor. There was no need for either of them to state the obvious. Combusken was down, and Elektrik, though clearly hurt, was the last Pokemon standing.

Janine sighed in disappointment, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to pull answers out of Lucian now. She resigned and ran over to her fallen Pokemon.

“You did fantastic, Pollo.” Janine gave the Pokemon a reassuring smile, digging through her bag to give him an Oran Berry. Pollo weakly reached for the berry and forced itself to eat. “Rest for now.”

She approached the still blank-faced Lucian and offered him a Super Potion for his Pokemon. Before she could say anything however, he fell to his knees.

“Woah! Are you-”

“You won.”

“Wait what?” Janine looked at the man more critically. She wasn’t 100% sure he was right in the head in the first place. This entire thing was only confirming her suspicions.

“You won.” He sat back letting himself lean on the Luvdisc tank behind him.

“No I didn’t?” Janine pointed out, “You’re Pokemon, though clearly unable to do much right now, is still conscious. Mine fainted. That usually means I lose.”

“You won.” He stated again, giving her a soft smile, free of malicious intent or cockiness. He looked better when he was relaxed. “My ideals… were weaker than yours.”

“Our ideals…? You mean-!”

“You proved your ideals were stronger. I lost.” He said, pushing himself up to look at the oblivious heart shaped Pokemon swimming in the tank. He looked up at her suddenly and began to inspect her as he had before he asked her to battle. It was different this time though. He seemed more curious than judgemental. He wasn’t being annoyingly cryptic. He actually looked…almost sincere. He pushed himself up and took the Super Potion she offered him.

Before Janine could retract her hand, Lucian’s arm shot out and he gently gripped her wrist to keep her from moving away. Gingerly, he turned her hand over and placed a small, yellow, diamond-shaped item in the middle of her palm.

“A Revive?” Janine stared at it for a moment. The older teen moved back and recalled his Elektrik and stared at its’ Pokeball for a few moments before turning back to her.

“The poachers are hiding behind in the Coastal aquarium at the docking station. Don’t go to the other aquariums; it would be a complete waste of time. The side-gate should be unlocked.” He said, turning away from her, letting his lab coat flare behind him in a sweeping motion.

“What-”

“There’s only two of them there, the others are hiding in the sewers, though at this point they’ve probably already been spotted. You should hurry before they leave.“ Lucian calmly walked away, his facade back in place.

“Wait- How do you know this?!” Janine followed after him a bit. He stopped abruptly and turned to her with a bitter smile.

“Who do you think let them in?” He asked sardonically. “Go.” He turned away for the last time and was out the door before Janine could ask another question.

~*~*~*~*~

“Wait so he just let you go like that?” Astrid asked, wrinkling her nose up, “That’s…weird… And cryptic.” The coordinator was sitting on a bench next to Kayla while Janine and Kaytlyn stood.

“He’s the one who let them in?!” Kaytlyn hissed. “Are we just going to ignore this crucial fact?”

“Yes,” Kayla replied, “because what’s more confusing and concerning is that he ratted them out.”

“Maybe he did it to bail himself out?” Kaytlyn suggested.

“He said it was because my ideals were stronger than his. I don’t understand, I lost.” Janine explained.

“Well, Battles of Ideals are about proving whose ideals will prevail in the end. You proved something to him I guess.” Astrid suggested.

“Yeah, but then wouldn’t you prove that by winning the battle?” Janine pointed out. Astrid shook her head.

“I’d just like to preface that this evidence comes from a play.” The Coordinator began, “But the reason the Hero of Truth and the Hero of Ideals clashed multiple times because the Hero of Ideals had doubts in his own beliefs. No matter how many times he lost, he would go to the Hero of Truth again and again and they’d battle so he could figure it all out-”

“I’m not particularly interested in some guy’s moral dilemma.” Kaytlyn interjected, “I want to know what Team SubZero wanted with all those Pokemon.”

“That’s another mystery that has yet to be solved.” Kayla muttered. “Let’s go to the Pokemon Center, we need to rest for now.” She said, leading her frustrated sister away. Astrid got up to follow the twins when Janine stopped her.

“Astrid, about the Heroes…”

“Hm?”

“The Hero of Ideals wanted to figure what out, exactly?” Janine asked. Astrid thought for a moment.

“He wanted to prove that what he was doing was right. It wasn’t. The Hero of Truth had to prove it to him again and again.” Astrid said, with a fond smile on her face, “That’s what I was saying, he didn’t win every battle against the Hero of Ideals. But each time he managed to get the other Hero to realize the truth, at least a little bit.”

“You think I showed him the truth?” Janine gave astrid a dubious look. Astrid laughed a bit.

“I think you showed him whatever it was he was looking for. Truth... or maybe something else entirely.” She shrugged. Janine nodded and walked alongside her on the way to the Pokemon Center. It wasn’t until they were halfway there that Janine remembered something.

“Wait, isn’t that play considered a tragedy?” She stopped, “What happened?” Astrid looked at her for a long moment before glancing away.

“It was some meta thing. It was meant to teach the audience that no one escapes judgement.” 

“...What happened?”

“The Hero of Ideals died.”

[hopelessgrunt-a]

Reflection

I’m okay.

Everything is fine.

Where Vincent sat was far from Shady House. He felt as if. He needed to get away from there. He wasn’t quite sure where he was, though. Hell, since he had come home to Alola, he had barely left Po Town at all. It wasn’t rare for him to forget the names of cities and towns if they weren’t on Akala Island; his home island. Maybe it was best to seek comfort there, however.

Vincent had lost. Once again.

No matter how many times he tried to forget, but in his own home, he had embarrassed himself in front of many strangers. It was such a foolish display for a battle. It was the worst he had performed in years. No matter how many times he tried to forget, the image would play in his head. No matter how many times he tried to forget, every time he closed his eyes for a brief moment, whether it be for a sigh or a blink, Vincent saw his pokemon mowed down by Roxie Rotten. One by one.

Everything was fine, though.

Instead of exploding, he congratulated her and walked away. Plumes came to check on him, and he had turned down a drink. He wouldn’t need to drown his bitterness in alcohol, music, or food.

Everything is fine.

He stares out at the crystal waters as he sits on the shore. Out at sea, he could see his Feraligatr splashing about under the night sky. Caeser was having such a good time out there. He had made a mental note to bring him out to the ocean a little more.

Fun, eh?

If only he could just. Close his eyes again. Just for a moment. The weight of the situation had tired him. He was okay. It was normal for battles to tire you out, especially if you’re the one who loses.

...

“I’m gonna be a trial captain someday!”

...

He can see a younger version of himself holding on to Caeser. He remembered this. He was proclaiming loudly to his parents about how strong he would become, now that he had finally found a partner in Caeser. While still a totodile at the time, Vincent was convinced it was all he needed to be strong.

...

“The tapu will recognize me once they see how strong I am!”

...

He couldn’t help but snort.

Strong his ass. He remembered how he had never won a single pokemon battle when he was a kid. Neighbors always had the upper hand on him, whether it be in skill, or in their amount of pokemon.

...

“Hey, sis, train with me!”

“You gotta get strong on your own, Vinny.”

...

He knew that his sister was a liar. She had never enjoyed pokemon battles much. However, she had never lost a single one she was in. Vincent envied her natural talent. It’s because of said talent that he always ended up taking the advice to train alone. He was convinced that one day, he’d be presented with a z crystal as blue as the skies above.

His eyes fluttered open upon the sound of one more splash echoing throughout the night. It looked like Caeser had taken out some wild pokemon that attacked him with ease. There was no need for command. Vincent smiled faintly.

He had come a long way.

...

“I don’t want to battle again, okay?! I know I’m going to win, and you do too! Stop trying, Vincent.”

“Think about how Caeser feels! You think it likes a trainer that keeps losing?”

“Pffft, you? Trial captain? Maybe when Gyarados fly.”

...

It was never good enough, though. 

Until. One day.

...

“I told you I could win! I told you! And I’ll be trial captain next, so bite me!”

...

“I’m sick of your shit, Armstrong! You always say you’re sorry but you never are! You’re out in the middle of the night, Arceus knows where doing Arceus knows what, and you stumble back in drunk early in the morning to yell at my children!”

“OUR CHILDREN, DAMN IT.”

“NO, MY CHILDREN. YOU AIN’T NEVER PUT IN AN ATTEMPT TO RAISE THEM OR BE THERE FOR ‘EM. FAR AS I’M CONCERNED, THEY DON’T HAVE A REAL FATHER.”

...

No matter how hard he tried, there would always be one more wall behind the one he had climbed over. His first victory in a battle was when he was 14 years old. When he came home that day, Vincent returned to find his mother and father fighting. Again. But instead of just storming off like normal, his father filed for a divorce.

His mother fought for custody of both himself and his sister. However, court ruled that Vincent’s father hold custody of at least one child. Vincent was the unlucky one to live with his father.

Down went the dream of becoming a trial captain.

He wasn’t okay.

Caeser slowly rises from the waters and makes his way to the shore. There, he lied beside his trainer and made himself comfortable in the cool sand. Vincent placed a hand atop the feraligatr’s head and stroked it. Caeser slowly closed his eyes and allowed his muscles to relax.

Vincent, however, could not.

The disappointment he felt in himself was crushing. He failed to become a good trainer for Caeser’s sake. He failed to climb walls required to become Trial Captain. He failed to be of use to Master Cyrus when he was needed most all those years ago. He failed to demonstrate growth as a trainer months back in Unova. And once again, he had failed to even make it beyond the first round of another tournament. One on his home turf, no less.

...

“Vinny, for someone’s dream to come true, sometimes someone else’s dream needs to get trampled upon. Not everyone is allowed to have a happy ending.”

“That’s so dumb, though! You’re getting a happy ending, right sis? So why can’t I?”

...

He was running from that realization. That much he knew. He wanted to deny anything bad would happen to him. And if they did, he wanted to be strong enough to stand back up. Everything would be fine in the end.

But everything wasn’t fine.

His sister, no matter how much he hated to say it, was correct. She was always right, after all. Everyone around him was growing beyond his reach, and he was being left behind. His mental state wasn’t the greatest to begin with, but with each instance like this, it felt worse than before.

...

“People like me get obsessive. Blindingly obsessive. Shit eats me like a wild salamence. Ain’t no use in tryin’ to calm myself down.”

...

Right. He remembered that’s what he told Plumeria the night he lost in Unova. How did he think this was going to help? Self destructive behavior was all he knew, and was all he was good at. 

Why try anything other than digging his own grave? Attempting anything else would be futily struggling against his fate. The future was dim for them. That was the reality for most Skulls. Maybe some of them would get better. In fact, he had hoped that the blood of the covenant would be the transfusion that got them walking again.

But for Vincent, he knew it was wishful think. He couldn’t get better. Every beam of light that breaks through the clouds during a storm is eventually covered by another. The sun had set, and the sky had grown darker than it had for Vincent.

There was no changing what he hated seeing so much. He could sleep his life away, but it wouldn’t change a single thing. He could drink till his liver gave in, but it wouldn’t change a thing. He could smoke bowl after bowl, but it would change nothing. He could feast till the numbness in his chest was temporarily melted away, but it was just that; temporary. What he saw in the broken mirror was still his reflection. What he saw in the sea before him was still his reflection.

Take a good look, Vincent, and remember it well.

It was hopeless.

Everything was hopeless.