"You're really gonna fall for this, Yu?!"
Harpy the hawlucha was deadpan with her words, as she haphazardly snatched the neat cursive letter from her trainer Yu's hands. The trainer scanned around the ice cream shop, locking eyes with her greninja Hyde across the street and white-flowered florges napping in her bag. The florges Isis, opened a single eye, and went back to sleep without a word. Hyde on the other hand completely missed the whole scene, focusing only on devouring his ice cream with his tongue scarf. The white haired girl rolled her eyes at her Pokémon's unhelpful responses.
Yu crinkled her nose, and tensed her shoulders, prepared to launch at the luchador hawk. Harpy sensed it however, and flew to perch at the top of the nearby ice cream building.
Her yellow and black eyes narrowed as she scrutinized the text:
Dear Yu White,
You have been specially selected out of hundreds of advanced trainers to participate in a special challenge located in the mystical region of Erito. You will be competing with only best of the best: the only trainers allowed to participate are trainers who have achieved the rank of Master trainer, or rather, those who have achieved 48 badges and defeated at least three Pokemon League Champions. Of course, finding the region is part of the challenge. I'll give you a couple hints, of course.
First of all, Erito can't be accessed by normal means, oh no. It's a mystical region for a reason. There is a portal that must be opened up somewhere.
Second of all, the portal requires proof. A sort of key, if you will. That would be the Enigma stone.
Third, and finally, I hid the Enigma stone somewhere on the Sevii Islands.
I trust you will be up to the task?
Sincerely,
Headmaster
Harpy promptly rolled the letter up into a ball and tossed it into the trash bin, missing only by a couple centimeters. Yu scoffed, and dove at the letter before the fruity hawk had a chance to stop her.
"Well, I'M somewhat intrigued."
Hyde seemingly appeared out of nowhere, his nasally voice startling Isis out of Yu's bag. Gracefully, she stopped herself from falling on the concrete, slowing her fall with a well-timed float. The tiny fairy pokémon quietly "humped" as she flew back up to her resting place.
"I would disregard this letter, Yu. As much as I loathe to admit it… Harpy may actually be right about it. It sounds somewhat like-"
"A TRAP! Think of all the bloodshed! This could be an evil team's evil plan to evilly kill off the advanced trainers one by one and…"
The rest of the gang ignored Harpy's blabbering. Hyde raised his eyebrows, amused.
"Bloodshed? Hmm…" He smirked the himself, mumbling under his breath. Finally, he spoke up.
"For."
"Against," Harpy and Isis simultaneously said, in a weirdly unplanned synchronization. Yu threw away her ice cream cone, pulling out two pokéballs. She knew what was coming. Harpy and Isis tended to be disobedient when they disagreed with her (particularly Isis, that spoiled princess…).
"This isn't up for discussion. It should be an interesting change of pace. We haven't had a real challenge in ages. Think of it as part of our training regime. Besides, I've never been to the Sevii Islands."
Yu pursed her lips into a tight smile.
Before the two who objected had a chance to argue, Yu threw a well-timed pokéball at the quick-witted yet distracted Harpy. A look of disgust ornamented Isis' face before she too was covered in a red aura, and disappeared. Hyde remained unmoved, his blue scaly arms crossed comfortably.
"Pack your bags, Hyde. We're going on a plane trip."
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
The Lumiose City Airport was buzzing with activity. People and pokémon went about their business, many carrying heavy suitcases. It was spacious, full of energy, large, open, round, and very, very crowded. The stink of processed food filled the air. Yu wrinkled her nose in vague disgust. Hyde nonchalantly walked by her side, carrying the team's bags without so much as a word of protest. They pushed through the human obstacles, at one point rudely cutting through a coffee line. Of course it doesn't count as cutting if you don't actually get in line, Hyde would reassure Yu, but she still had her doubts.
They finally stopped at a large stack of monitors, each displaying lines of green text. The terminals. Yu stared at the monitor, squinting her small black eyes at the mass of letters:
Terminal 1 – Battle Zone Island – 2:30 pm
Terminal 2 – Saffron, Kanto – 3:15 pm
Terminal 3 – Fall City, Fiore – 3:20 pm
Terminal 4 – One Island – 4:00 pm Ah-ha!
She sighed in relief that she didn't have to scrutinize all 40 terminals. Yu was always weird with busywork. She looked down at her watch. 2:23 pm. Looks like we have a couple of hours to burn. She looked over at her loyal greninja, only… he wasn't there. In his place, her suitcase rested on the ground.
"Hyde?"
It was odd. Usually Hyde was disinterested in the goings-on of large crowds, especially if it meant leaving his trainer alone. Biting her lip, she figured since they had time, she would let him do his thing. So, picking up her suitcase, she made her way to the waiting area. Only to be greeted with a mass of people.
And no empty seats. Figures.
She raised her eyebrows in minor annoyance and settled for sitting on one of the giant window sills. She looked out the windows, zoning out into the sky with the planes as they took off. Before she knew it, she sat back into the window, closing her eyes.
"Yu?" Hyde's voice perked her up.
"Hyde? Where did you go? You know it's unwise to wander off by yourself in a crowded terminal. Ah well, just let me know next time."
He cleared his throat. "Well, I figured you'd be hungry, and I wanted you to save poke, so…"
He produced a small box from his tongue scarf, dripping with saliva. Any appetite Yu might have had was quickly obliterated. Seeing his trainer's reaction, he opened the box to reveal a smaller, untarnished box. On its top, it read BENTO in classy cursive.
"Wow, thanks Hyde. That's really nice of you. You remembered that I hate really artificial food and even remembered my favorite brand. Double points. Although… how did you acquire Poké…?" Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. Hyde was unmoved. He merely shrugged and assumed a three-point sit next to her.
"Oh don't tell me… You STOLE it? Arceusdamnit Hyde. How many times do I have to tell you! Things in the human society aren't like the Pokémon society! You have to PAY for your food!"
Hyde barely reacted to her harsh tone. Instead, he chippered up. Yu could've sworn she saw him smile beneath his tongue.
"You humans are gonna drive yourself crazy with all your civilized rule tauroscrap. Gotta help when I can. And…"
Yu face palmed, banging her head against the window, wandering if he was really ever going to get her in trouble one day. Then again, he was a greninja. No pokémon knows stealth like those guys. Still, she had to teach her Pokémon to behave. Their behavior reflected on her ability as a trainer, after all.
"What can I say? I'm an economist."
Yeah, he was definitely going to be the end of her career.
Nonetheless, she was hungry. And her dear starter was only trying to be nice. So, without further thought, she dove into the bento box fork first.
"Don't worry about me, either. I got a few apples on my little shopping spree."
Yu knew that "a few" to Hyde meant at least a dozen. Especially when it concerned apples. However, she didn't think much of it, instead grateful that she got the box all to herself
Hey, just because it was "specially acquired" didn't mean she couldn't enjoy it.
They continued to pass the time with conversation and food when their pleasantries were interrupted by loud yelling. Muffled, over the crowd's voices, but definitely yelling, judging by their body language. Yu looked up to see a blue-suited boy with a red tie and gray, tufted hair arguing with a blaziken with white feathered feet. Other than the white feet, the lady blaziken didn't look much different… save for her strikingly confident eyes. Behind her, a thin young woman with a pale complexion, frameless glasses over olive eyes, a blue beret-like hat and a black coat and pants wryly kept her distance, observing the scene timidly, but with mild interest.
They continued yelling for quite a while, with neither showing signs of backing down. Finally, the blaziken's trainer finally managed to grow a pair (or got tired of the conflict, Yu couldn't tell) and allowed the boy to get ahead of the two, much to her blaziken's frustration.
"Can you believe that? What a pushover. I'm sure you would have held your ground against that guy, Yu."
Yu forced herself to smile and muttered a shy "right" under her breath. Looking up, again, however, she locked eyes with the intimidating boy. And shivered.
She stared straight into his blood-red eyes, unable to look away. The boy didn't look away though, oh no. He held his ground just as strongly as he did in the conflict with the blaziken. And he started walking to her. Oh shi-
Every step he took seemed to shake the earth. Yu silently prayed that a fissure would open under her and suck her into nothingness before this boy had a chance to yell at her. Hyde, on the other hand, was unmoved. He sat with his left leg casually crossed over his right, arms crossed of course, but not defensively.
"You!" His deep, masculine voice echoed. However, a security guard's machoke managed to creep up behind him, locking him in front of the muscled monster. The security guard said something unintelligible and the boy struggled to break free, cursing both of them. The machoke and his trainer would have none of it, however, and carried him off to Arceus knows where.
"Well," Hyde suddenly appeared with an armful of newly stolen goods.
"That was interesting. Pretzel?"
"Oh for Arceus's sake, Hyde! Will you cut it out with the shoplifting!"
It was sure to be an interesting trip indeed.
Long time no see, FF. I'll keep a consistent schedule of updates on this story. It'll be at least once a week, on Monday. You can look forward to that. Yes, I'm very excited for this story and I've been planning it out for a while now.
So yay. Enthusiasm.
-Alta
