![[Imaginative]:[Clockwork]](/data/avatars/m/192/192875.jpg?1525616141){kind=avatar}
[Imaginative]:[Clockwork]
X-treme trainer
It's been a little while since I posted a one-shot, but I finally got the motivation to write something new. I just finished White and started White 2 (which I was disappointed to find out is more of a sequel to Black), and I felt like I wanted to write something set in Unova, which I've never done before. This one-shot was written all in one sitting, so I'm sure there's plenty to criticize, but I'm pretty happy with it. I think I could have nailed the tone I was going for a little more, but I think/hope I got the idea down. The sixth generation was so unique in terms of story variation, while at the same time being (in my opinion) a little generic in overall execution, and I wanted to convey that here. Hopefully it's at least readable!
“This is nothing,” Hilbert said, watching his Darmanitan clear away several large stones near the bank of the river cutting through Route 10. “I can’t believe they closed the route off because of a little landslide.” He sat on a rock at the edge of the cleared space, recalling his Pokémon.
“Seriously,” Hilda agreed, putting her hands on her hips and surveying the area. Other than the rocks, it all looked much the same: the grassy cliffs, the swiftly moving river, and the beaten-down path had all been there two years ago. Luckily, this time spring had brought out the flowers, rather than the wintertime ice she had slipped across back then. “If anything, it’s better this way. A hike like this is the perfect way to test trainers.” Noticing how low the sun had set, she took off her sunglasses and sat next to Hilbert. “You’d think they’d want to prove themselves,” she said, shrugging exaggeratedly. “We did.”
“For real. I don’t see any of these kids fulfilling ancient prophecies. They just don’t have it in ‘em nowadays.”
“Well, technically only one of us was the hero,” Hilda said slyly, cocking an eyebrow, “and the stone was in my bag, so…”
Hilbert distinctly remembered the stone being in his bag, but he refrained from getting into the same argument they had had many times before. Either way, the dragon had been released and they had moved on with their post-hero lives.
“Whatever you believe to be true,” he said, getting up and unrolling his sleeping bag, “the point is that this new kid all over the news could never had stopped the Team Plasma we knew. The Plasma revival was just a shadow of the original.”
“Yeah, I mean, good for them, but either one of us could have taken them out in half the time if we hadn’t been out of the country.” She stood up and moved toward the cliff overlooking the river, adjusting her dirty old hat. Her Xtransceiver started ringing, but she quickly rejected the call.
“Who was that?”
“Just Cheren. Mom must have told him we were back in Unova.”
“He’s doing pretty well,” Hilbert said quietly, watching stars gradually appear in the sky. “His gym’s already one of the more popular ones for beginning trainers. He was really happy the last time we talked.”
“Well, he’s allowed to be happy,” she answered, smiling wryly. “He didn’t save the world. It’s all uphill for him.” She kicked some pebbles off the cliff and watched them land in the river with several small plunks.
“This was always my favorite route,” Hilbert said, trying to get their minds off of Cheren. “It’s perfect for camping.”
“It really is,” she answered, gladly taking the bait. She moved toward where he was sitting on his sleeping bag. “I think I slept here a few extra nights the first time around. I was so nervous for the League, and this place really helped calm me down.” She released her Chandelure to help start a fire with the bundle of sticks she had laid out. Soon, it was crackling nicely. “It’s also where I caught Scout,” she said proudly, plucking the Braviary’s Poké Ball off of her belt.
“I wish I would have spent more time out here,” he said slowly, grinning. “I was way too excited, though. I knew N would be waiting for me, so I rushed all the way through here and the Victory Road.” He pulled one of his own Poké Balls out of his backpack. “Luckily, though, I had time to catch Lorna, the far superior bird of Unova.”
Hilda laughed out loud and sauntered toward her friend. “I think anyone would choose a mighty hunter,” she said, waving Scout’s Poké Ball around, “over a scavenger.” She tapped Lorna’s ball. “Just sayin’.”
“I assure you that Mandibuzz are quite popular.” His Xtransceiver suddenly rang, with Cheren’s contact picture smiling above his name. He let it ring several times until his answering machine picked it up. “I don’t know if I’m ready to be reunited just yet,” he said, trying to hide his guilt.
“Same,” she huffed, rolling out her own sleeping bag. “I always have trouble talking to him and Bianca now. It’s like we’re not even on the same wavelength. I guess that’s just how it goes. I was always getting stronger, and they couldn’t really keep up. It was my fault for training all the time.”
“If it makes you feel better, Cheren beat me a couple times, and I still felt like we were on two totally different paths. It just sucks, ‘cause we were all best friends.” The sky was much darker now, and if not for the fire, they wouldn’t have been able to see each other’s faces.
“It’s hard to relate to a hero,” she answered, exhaling with a puff. “I think he and Bianca saw it coming more than I did. They always said I was so strong that by the time Team Plasma ended, it was like there was no other option. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if N had won.”
“See, I’m not sure there is an ‘if.’” He tossed Lorna’s Poké Ball up and down as he spoke. “If you look throughout history, good always beats evil. Even if it takes a hundred tries, the bad side loses in the end. It’s almost… inevitable.”
Hilda could have imagined someone like Professor Juniper giving the exact same speech, using it to inspire her young trainees right before a fateful battle. However, she couldn’t help but notice that it sounded a little hollow when Hilbert said it. Worst of all, she agreed with him, both in the idea and in the sentiment his weary tone implied.
“To be fair, N’s not exactly evil. But still, it’s not like I wanted him to win or anything,” she muttered. “But sometimes I wish it had just been different. The whole thing. The journey, I mean.” Suddenly, she vividly remembered the feeling of walking through Chargestone Cave, and how every hair on her body had stood on end. It had been the worst part of the whole journey, thanks in part to the cave’s deep caverns that she had spent days exploring. It was just another detour, a box she could check off of the Unova Exploration List, but the entire time she had been wishing she could just battle Cheren or roast marshmallows with Bianca. It was the first time she had felt like she was doing something wrong.
“Once,” she said suddenly, looking straight at the fire, “N asked me if I had a dream. I said ‘yes.’ I mean, he had just given this big speech about his and Team Plasma’s dream, so I didn’t want to look like some dreamless idiot. It was a lie, though.” She clasped her hands together. “I didn’t know what I wanted. I was just moving along like I thought I should. I wish I would have told him the truth.”
“He actually asked me the exact same question,” Hilbert said. He lay back, resting on the puffy pillow section of his sleeping bag. “I said ‘no,’ though. My dream was to beat him and Team Plasma, but I thought it might piss him off if he thought the kid who was stopping him all the time was just some aimless doof.” He smiled as he remembered the disappointed look on N’s face, but became straight-faced again when thought about the colorful little playroom in the middle of that enormous, regal castle. “It doesn’t even matter, though. We were always meant to end up right here, sitting on a route that might as well not even exist anymore, a memory for all the new trainers. Everything but the final battle is just details that nobody remembers.” He waved his hand in the air dismissively.
“Maybe,” she said. “Probably. I definitely don’t know what Red’s big speech was right before he finished off Team Rocket. It’d be nice to get a do-over, though. I think I’d do things a lot differently. More time with Cheren and Bianca, for one. Plus, I’d call home more. And then, I think I’d even try to step aside and let Cheren battle N, even if I knew he’d lose. All the battling was just exhausting by that point, and I know he’d like it.”
“All I know is that I wouldn’t’ve looked for all those sages. It was too plain of a job for the champion. If I got a second chance, I’d just disappear, like all great heroes.”
They both laughed, and Hilda agreed, if only because trawling through Chargestone Cave for a second time had come close to matching the misery of the first time.
“You know I love Puck,” she continued, referring to her Samurott, “but I think it’d be cool to train a Snivy. Cheren seemed to like it, and I always thought having a grass type would be really nice in the desert. That was always the biggest flaw in my team.”
“But then you’d be wondering what Oshawott would be like, or if Tepig had been the right choice.” Hilbert sat up and wrapped his arms around his knees. “There’s no winning.”
“That’s why we need infinite do-overs,” she said, giggling. “I want to try it all until I find out exactly what I want.”
She pictured sitting in her room, wearing her freshly bought baseball cap, as she had nearly three years ago. The summer sun was shining through her window, and Cheren was with her, complaining like usual. She could remember everything so clearly.
“I heard from Professor Juniper,” he said. She could even hear his voice, the nasally way it had sounded then, not his strong, gym leader voice. He wasn’t quite grown yet. “We can have a Pokémon?” After commenting on Bianca’s lateness – Hilda had a feeling that in any number of second chances, Cheren’s seriousness would rub harshly against Bianca’s aloofness – she would bust through the door with an apology, and the three of them would pick their Pokémon.
‘Snivy this time,’ she thought, and as soon as she picked up the Poké Ball, it was as if there was no other choice, as if Oshawott and Tepig could only belong to Bianca and Cheren.
“Hey, I know!” Bianca shouted, and Professor Juniper’s assistant faded from memory, leaving only the young lady with so much doubt and so much potential. “Let’s have a Pokémon battle!”
It was the same and unique and nostalgic and hopeful, and they were all friends again, just like it had been. Hilda lost her first battle, one of the many details that would be forgotten in the unstoppable trample of the inevitable. She only hoped that this time around, she wouldn’t want a second try.
A Hundred Tries
“This is nothing,” Hilbert said, watching his Darmanitan clear away several large stones near the bank of the river cutting through Route 10. “I can’t believe they closed the route off because of a little landslide.” He sat on a rock at the edge of the cleared space, recalling his Pokémon.
“Seriously,” Hilda agreed, putting her hands on her hips and surveying the area. Other than the rocks, it all looked much the same: the grassy cliffs, the swiftly moving river, and the beaten-down path had all been there two years ago. Luckily, this time spring had brought out the flowers, rather than the wintertime ice she had slipped across back then. “If anything, it’s better this way. A hike like this is the perfect way to test trainers.” Noticing how low the sun had set, she took off her sunglasses and sat next to Hilbert. “You’d think they’d want to prove themselves,” she said, shrugging exaggeratedly. “We did.”
“For real. I don’t see any of these kids fulfilling ancient prophecies. They just don’t have it in ‘em nowadays.”
“Well, technically only one of us was the hero,” Hilda said slyly, cocking an eyebrow, “and the stone was in my bag, so…”
Hilbert distinctly remembered the stone being in his bag, but he refrained from getting into the same argument they had had many times before. Either way, the dragon had been released and they had moved on with their post-hero lives.
“Whatever you believe to be true,” he said, getting up and unrolling his sleeping bag, “the point is that this new kid all over the news could never had stopped the Team Plasma we knew. The Plasma revival was just a shadow of the original.”
“Yeah, I mean, good for them, but either one of us could have taken them out in half the time if we hadn’t been out of the country.” She stood up and moved toward the cliff overlooking the river, adjusting her dirty old hat. Her Xtransceiver started ringing, but she quickly rejected the call.
“Who was that?”
“Just Cheren. Mom must have told him we were back in Unova.”
“He’s doing pretty well,” Hilbert said quietly, watching stars gradually appear in the sky. “His gym’s already one of the more popular ones for beginning trainers. He was really happy the last time we talked.”
“Well, he’s allowed to be happy,” she answered, smiling wryly. “He didn’t save the world. It’s all uphill for him.” She kicked some pebbles off the cliff and watched them land in the river with several small plunks.
“This was always my favorite route,” Hilbert said, trying to get their minds off of Cheren. “It’s perfect for camping.”
“It really is,” she answered, gladly taking the bait. She moved toward where he was sitting on his sleeping bag. “I think I slept here a few extra nights the first time around. I was so nervous for the League, and this place really helped calm me down.” She released her Chandelure to help start a fire with the bundle of sticks she had laid out. Soon, it was crackling nicely. “It’s also where I caught Scout,” she said proudly, plucking the Braviary’s Poké Ball off of her belt.
“I wish I would have spent more time out here,” he said slowly, grinning. “I was way too excited, though. I knew N would be waiting for me, so I rushed all the way through here and the Victory Road.” He pulled one of his own Poké Balls out of his backpack. “Luckily, though, I had time to catch Lorna, the far superior bird of Unova.”
Hilda laughed out loud and sauntered toward her friend. “I think anyone would choose a mighty hunter,” she said, waving Scout’s Poké Ball around, “over a scavenger.” She tapped Lorna’s ball. “Just sayin’.”
“I assure you that Mandibuzz are quite popular.” His Xtransceiver suddenly rang, with Cheren’s contact picture smiling above his name. He let it ring several times until his answering machine picked it up. “I don’t know if I’m ready to be reunited just yet,” he said, trying to hide his guilt.
“Same,” she huffed, rolling out her own sleeping bag. “I always have trouble talking to him and Bianca now. It’s like we’re not even on the same wavelength. I guess that’s just how it goes. I was always getting stronger, and they couldn’t really keep up. It was my fault for training all the time.”
“If it makes you feel better, Cheren beat me a couple times, and I still felt like we were on two totally different paths. It just sucks, ‘cause we were all best friends.” The sky was much darker now, and if not for the fire, they wouldn’t have been able to see each other’s faces.
“It’s hard to relate to a hero,” she answered, exhaling with a puff. “I think he and Bianca saw it coming more than I did. They always said I was so strong that by the time Team Plasma ended, it was like there was no other option. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if N had won.”
“See, I’m not sure there is an ‘if.’” He tossed Lorna’s Poké Ball up and down as he spoke. “If you look throughout history, good always beats evil. Even if it takes a hundred tries, the bad side loses in the end. It’s almost… inevitable.”
Hilda could have imagined someone like Professor Juniper giving the exact same speech, using it to inspire her young trainees right before a fateful battle. However, she couldn’t help but notice that it sounded a little hollow when Hilbert said it. Worst of all, she agreed with him, both in the idea and in the sentiment his weary tone implied.
“To be fair, N’s not exactly evil. But still, it’s not like I wanted him to win or anything,” she muttered. “But sometimes I wish it had just been different. The whole thing. The journey, I mean.” Suddenly, she vividly remembered the feeling of walking through Chargestone Cave, and how every hair on her body had stood on end. It had been the worst part of the whole journey, thanks in part to the cave’s deep caverns that she had spent days exploring. It was just another detour, a box she could check off of the Unova Exploration List, but the entire time she had been wishing she could just battle Cheren or roast marshmallows with Bianca. It was the first time she had felt like she was doing something wrong.
“Once,” she said suddenly, looking straight at the fire, “N asked me if I had a dream. I said ‘yes.’ I mean, he had just given this big speech about his and Team Plasma’s dream, so I didn’t want to look like some dreamless idiot. It was a lie, though.” She clasped her hands together. “I didn’t know what I wanted. I was just moving along like I thought I should. I wish I would have told him the truth.”
“He actually asked me the exact same question,” Hilbert said. He lay back, resting on the puffy pillow section of his sleeping bag. “I said ‘no,’ though. My dream was to beat him and Team Plasma, but I thought it might piss him off if he thought the kid who was stopping him all the time was just some aimless doof.” He smiled as he remembered the disappointed look on N’s face, but became straight-faced again when thought about the colorful little playroom in the middle of that enormous, regal castle. “It doesn’t even matter, though. We were always meant to end up right here, sitting on a route that might as well not even exist anymore, a memory for all the new trainers. Everything but the final battle is just details that nobody remembers.” He waved his hand in the air dismissively.
“Maybe,” she said. “Probably. I definitely don’t know what Red’s big speech was right before he finished off Team Rocket. It’d be nice to get a do-over, though. I think I’d do things a lot differently. More time with Cheren and Bianca, for one. Plus, I’d call home more. And then, I think I’d even try to step aside and let Cheren battle N, even if I knew he’d lose. All the battling was just exhausting by that point, and I know he’d like it.”
“All I know is that I wouldn’t’ve looked for all those sages. It was too plain of a job for the champion. If I got a second chance, I’d just disappear, like all great heroes.”
They both laughed, and Hilda agreed, if only because trawling through Chargestone Cave for a second time had come close to matching the misery of the first time.
“You know I love Puck,” she continued, referring to her Samurott, “but I think it’d be cool to train a Snivy. Cheren seemed to like it, and I always thought having a grass type would be really nice in the desert. That was always the biggest flaw in my team.”
“But then you’d be wondering what Oshawott would be like, or if Tepig had been the right choice.” Hilbert sat up and wrapped his arms around his knees. “There’s no winning.”
“That’s why we need infinite do-overs,” she said, giggling. “I want to try it all until I find out exactly what I want.”
She pictured sitting in her room, wearing her freshly bought baseball cap, as she had nearly three years ago. The summer sun was shining through her window, and Cheren was with her, complaining like usual. She could remember everything so clearly.
“I heard from Professor Juniper,” he said. She could even hear his voice, the nasally way it had sounded then, not his strong, gym leader voice. He wasn’t quite grown yet. “We can have a Pokémon?” After commenting on Bianca’s lateness – Hilda had a feeling that in any number of second chances, Cheren’s seriousness would rub harshly against Bianca’s aloofness – she would bust through the door with an apology, and the three of them would pick their Pokémon.
‘Snivy this time,’ she thought, and as soon as she picked up the Poké Ball, it was as if there was no other choice, as if Oshawott and Tepig could only belong to Bianca and Cheren.
“Hey, I know!” Bianca shouted, and Professor Juniper’s assistant faded from memory, leaving only the young lady with so much doubt and so much potential. “Let’s have a Pokémon battle!”
It was the same and unique and nostalgic and hopeful, and they were all friends again, just like it had been. Hilda lost her first battle, one of the many details that would be forgotten in the unstoppable trample of the inevitable. She only hoped that this time around, she wouldn’t want a second try.
), but I just thought I'd bring it up since, coupled with my confusion with the ending in general, it didn't really give me a solid sense of closure for the whole thing (not that it didn't give me closure, because it did; I'm just not sure what to make of it and if it's the kind of closure that's best for this kind of premise).