As standard with all fanfictions, I do not own Pokemon. Nor will I ever own pokemon, nor anything else I reference in this fanfiction.
Now that's out of the way, this fanfiction is rated a high T to a low M due to violence. I will post a warning when a chapter verges more to the M side.
Greyscale
Chapter One
"This will be the day"
"SEID IHR DAS ESSEN?! NEIN, WIR SIND DIE JAGER!"
Touko jerked awake. She glared at the ceiling as Hilbert's ringtone blared. She rolled around and buried her face into her pillow.
"SEID IHR DAS ESSEN?! NEIN, WIR SIND DIE JAGER!"
Touko groaned and buried her head under her pillow. She turned on her side and let her eyes close.
"SEID IHR DAS ESSEN?! NEIN, WIR SIND DIE JAGER!"
Touko jerked upwards, she rolled out of bed and hit the floor.
"I'm going to kill you Hilbert Black," she snarled as she stood up and grabbed her pillow. Her forehead wrinkled as she stomped through her room and into the hall.
The early morning light filter through the window at the end of the hall as Touko reached her cousin's room. She slammed the door open, staring at the scene in front of her. She strode forwards as his phone blared again.
"SEID IHR DAS ESSEN?! NEIN, WIR SIND DIE JAGER!"
Touko narrowed her eyes as she stared down at Hilbert's sleeping form. She brought down the pillow on his head while snatching the blanket with the other hand.
"Wahh!" Hilbert exclaimed as he tumbled off the bed and onto the floor. He rubbed his head and looked up at her. "What was that for Touko?"
"Your phone is ringing," Touko replied. She dropped the pillow onto his head while she reached over him to grab his phone.
"SEID IHR DAS ESSEN?! NEIN, WIR SIND DIE JAGER!"
Touko dropped the phone on Hilbert before grabbing her pillow and spinning on her heel, storming back to her room. Her heavy footsteps echoing in the hall.
She collapsed on her bed and exhaled, letting her thoughts drift. Her eyes began to drift close, snuggling into the soft comforter.
"SEID IHR DAS ESSEN?! NEIN, WIR SIND DIE JAGER!"
Touko screamed into the blanket.
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Hilbert sat up and rubbed his face. He reached for his phone.
Cheren's face stared back at him and Hilbert sighed. He pressed the cancel button and flopped back on the floor.
Hilbert closed his eyes and began to drift back off.
"SEID IHR DAS ESSEN?! NEIN, WIR SIND DIE JAGER!"
"ANSWER THE DAMN PHONE!" Came Touko's yell, accompanied by pounding on the wall.
Hilbert snapped his eyes open. He huffed and grabbed his phone. He stared at the screen for a second before answering.
"Yes Cheren?" he yawned, rubbing his eyes as he stretched out on his bed.
"Arise and shine," came the barked greeting. "We get our pokemon today!"
Hilbert stood up and flopped back onto his bed. He covered his eyes with one arm. "I know. Did you really have to wake me up at unholy hours of the morning?"
Cheren was silent for a moment. "Black, it's barely 6:15. The lab and the league opens in 45 minutes. WHY IN VICTINI'S NAME ARE YOU STILL SLEEPING?!"
Hilbert held the phone away from his ear at Cheren's outburst. "Because sleep is a beautiful thing that should be embraced as long as possible," he said. "And sane people don't get up until ten, at the earliest." He hung up and proceeded to turn off his phone before trying to catch more sleep.
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Bianca Smith ran a brush through her hair. She reached across her sink and pumped some hair gel into her hand. She stared at her reflection as she finished the long process of taming her thick hair.
"Alright Bianca," she murmured, giving her hair a final pat and reached back over to wash her hands. "You can do 's not like you haven't defied your parents before. Well, not at this scale. But you can always pull the school card…" She huffed and tugged on her hat, her index finger resting lightly on her right cheek. "Why Bianca! how could you leave such a wonderful school to run around in the muck like a heathen?" she mimicked in a falsetto.
Bianca rolled her eyes looked over her appearance, she dusted off her skirt as she spoke again in her normal tone. "Maybe you should take a cue from Touko, Bianca. She may be a bitch, but she isn't a coward."
Bianca turned around and walked back into her bedroom. She picked up her satchel from her bed as she swept through her room, kicking aside her abandoned pajamas. The sun's rays filtered through the open hall as she made her way to the staircase, her shoes squeaking with each step.
She stood at the top of the stairwell, her right hand clenching into a fist. She closed her eyes briefly and exhaled, slowly unclenching her hand.
"You can do this Bianca, Mrs. B did invite you to breakfast. There's no need to let them know about your plans just yet," she whispered before exhaling through her nose.
She idly scratched her ear and began to descend.
"Good morning!" she greeted her parents as she jumped the last few steps and bounded through the kitchen.
"Good morning Bianca, I thought you wouldn't be up for another few hours," Professor Jon Smith said, looking up from his papers. He put them down and picked up his mug of coffee.
"Mrs. B invited me to breakfast and to see Cheren and Hilbert off," Bianca shrugged. She sat down on a stool and began to pull her shoes on.
Professor Smith glanced over at her. "I suppose at this point I'd tell you to follow your dreams if I happened to know that you were planning to go on a journey. But I don't know what you're planning to do when you took that sabbatical from school since you never told me anything."
Bianca looked up at her dad, her mouth opening and closing. "Thank you dad," she said, rushing over to give him a hug. "I'll call you everyday!"
Bianca barrelled out of the kitchen and Professor Smith sighed and rested his head against the counter.
"What am I going to tell her mother?"
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Cheren Knight opened the backdoor and entered into a spacious kitchen. "Good morning Mrs. B," he greeted the older women as he passed her and the stove.
"Good morning Cheren," Helen Black smiled as she looked over her shoulder. "Hilbert is upstairs in his room."
Cheren nodded took a few steps before pausing. "Is Touko here?" he asked, still staring towards the living room.
"No, she left an hour or so ago," Mrs. B replied evenly and Cheren exhaled.
"Thanks," he muttered and resumed his journey. He made his way up the steps, his shoes thudding with every step. He knocked on the door and opened it to reveal Hilbert fully clothed but still sound asleep in bed.
Cheren smacked his forehead. "Only you, Hilbert," he muttered. Cheren walked over to the bed and ripped off the blanket, dragging Hilbert off the bed.
"Wahh!" Hilbert yelped as he landed on the floor again. He glared up at Cheren as he rubbed his back. "What was that for Cheren?"
Cheren huffed and crossed his arms. "Get up Black, our journey starts today." He walked over to the window.
Hilbert rose to his feet and walked over to Cheren. "Dude, chill. This isn't that big of a deal that you have to get snippy."
Cheren whirled around to face Hilbert. "We've been waiting for this day for ten years. Today is very big deal, today begins our rite of passage into adulthood."
Hilbert poked Cheren's nose. "Who even calls a pokemon journey a rite of passage anymore?
"I'm here!" came Bianca's greeting before Cheren could retort. He turned to look at her and from the corner of his eye, he saw Hilbert do the same.
"Good morning Bianca, you're late," Cheren told her, a faint blush rose in the blonde's cheeks.
"I came as fast as I could," she admitted, rubbed the back of her head. She looked over her shoulder. "Is that the box Mrs. B mentioned?" She asked Hilbert, who was pulling a box out of his closet.
"Sure is," Hilbert stated, he put the box on his bed. "Mom mentioned that Professor Juniper had a critical project, so she sent them over here."
Cheren moved over to Hilbert and leaned in as he began to remove the box lid. He began to tap his foot as Hilbert read over a note. He put it on the table before revealing three gleaming spheres.
Cheren fought the feeling of butterfrees as he spoke. "Who's going to choose first?"
"I think Hilbert should, he is the eldest of us," Bianca put in. She looked over at Cheren and gave a soft smile.
"Go ahead," Cheren relented and Hilbert picked up the pokeball with the flame sticker.
"You can go next Cheren," Bianca spoke up. Cheren shot her a glance and she shrugged.
"You're far more excited than I am… And you're older," She offered.
Cheren nodded, his cheeks tinted pink as he picked up the pokeball with the waterdrop and Bianca grabbed the pokeball with the leaf.
"On three," Hilbert piped up.
Cheren and Bianca turned to face him, Hilbert stood in a battle stance with his pokeball held out.
Bianca slipped into her own stance and Cheren copied Hilbert's.
"One, two…" Bianca began. She tossed her pokeball up into the air.
"C'MON OUT!" they called.
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Touko kept her eyes on route one, ignoring the scenery around her. She shouldered her messenger bag and glanced up at the sky.
She wrinkled her nose at the stench of Max Repel, but kept walking through the tall grass and disappeared into the treeline, ignoring the Trainer's shouts.
She kept running, ducking under branches and leaping over roots until she reached a clearing. Touko dug into the backpack and pulled out two pokeballs.
"Join me my friends," she said quietly and two lights burst from the pokeballs.
When the light faded, a Garchomp and a Staraptor stood in front of her.
"Don't tell me you're here to offer meaningless apologies," the Garchomp growled/ baring her fangs at Touko. "And don't call me your friend. Friends don't leave friends trapped for months."
"Oh give it a rest Tiamat," the Staraptor snapped. She snapped out her wings and raised them above her head. "If you would stop being such a hard headed jerk and listen, you would know she means her words!"
Touko shuffled her feet. "What do you want me to do? Grovel on my knees?" she looked up at Tiamat and crossed her arms.
Tiamat bared her teeth in a snarl and the Stataptor shot forward, cloaked in crackling blue energy, slamming into Tiamat and pushing the dragon back a few feet. Tiamat snarled and tried to leap at the Staraptor. Kaze pushed herself upwards, lazily dodging the blow.
"Tiamat, Kaze," Touko snapped. "Stop fighting!"
Kaze danced in the air, causally dodging the Dragon Pulses and Tiamat growled deep in her throat. She turned to her trainer.
"I will never forgive you for abandoning us," Tiamat spat. She loomed over Touko and above them, Kaze hovered.
"I will not ask for your forgiveness," Touko told her, she bit her lip and fiddled with the hem of her shirt, twisting it around her fingers. "There is no excuse for what I did to you, or to Kaze… but I cannot change the past, I can only..."
"Save your sappiness," Tiamat interrupted. "One chance. But only because you enabled me to evolve and reach my full potential." She turned around, missing Touko's bow and Kaze's sigh of relief.
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