A/N: Hello! Thanks for checking my fic out. There are just a couple things I'd like to go over before we get started:
(1) This is strictly game-verse so no Ash, no Yellow, etc.
(2) Most chapters are in Pikachu's POV, but everyone will get their own chapters later on down the road.
(3) Although this does focus mainly on RedxHilda, there will be other pairings down the road but I won't list them ;)
(4) All main protagonists are here (although I exempted Crystal and kept Lyra) and while they may not each have a major part in this fic, we will get to see them all at least once.
(5) "This is pokemon speech" -"Human speech" - Red's thoughts as translated by a psychic-type (mostly Espeon)
That's it, I think. Oh, this fic does start rather slow, but they're rather short chapters in the beginning and I promise they pick up the pace very fast. Anyway, as always, happy reading and enjoy!
1
Pikachu
Sometimes a single simple question could lead to several complicated different answers. The most common one that was asked was simply: what is it like being a part of the strongest team in the world?
Well, there are several different reasons why I don't ever want to not be a part of it. One: it's an amazing experience, getting to travel all the time, fighting the bad guys and kicking ass and two: all of my friends were a part of it. So why were we heading up an Arceus-forsaken death mountain in the middle of nowhere? A few people would say that they wanted to overcome weaknesses, to begin to believe that they, too, could prove even further that they simply could just do it. I, and most likely the rest of my team, would say it was to get stronger.
It had always been about getting stronger, being the best we could be and do what no other team has done before. We stayed on that mountain and called it home. We made a little cave off to the side of the peak as our humble abode. Snorlax had made the heavy door to block icy winds and snow from coming in with his immense physical strength. Charizard kept it warm with his strong flames. Venusaur gave it color and life with its different leaves and seeds. Blastoise provided much needed running water and teamed up with Charizard to make a constant warm bath. Espeon would keep the noise level from outside to a minimum, letting harsh blizzards become as loud as simple breezes. As for me? Well obviously, I provided all electrical power to the cavern home.
Our trainer would go out and gather our food and keep it constantly stocked. How he manages to disappear from all of our vision and come back with food was always unexpected of us but he would always come back safe and sound. I would always shock him when he did it, though. I didn't like it when he would wander off alone down the mountain. It was too dangerous for a human to go down there! Those wild pokemon could think of him as fodder and kill him with a simple Ice Beam for Arceus' sake!
Anyway, we have a particular reputation we just had to keep up and it was also the reason why we were up here. Apparently, humans that don't live on the mountain thought that we had disappeared because we were depressed because of our quick rise to success and fame when in all actuality, it was completely different. To get stronger meant getting stronger together, including our trainer. We all worked just as hard as the next pokemon—or human—and by the end of a full day of training, we were all exhausted and ready to eat dinner and crash for the night only to start the simple routine again in the early morning. We would continue to strive to remain the strongest trainer in the world. Arceus be damned if we weren't.
Red and I met in a little place called Pallet Town. I was recently caught, so naturally I wasn't too happy to be given away by a snot-nosed little twerp who was all smiles. His friend even challenged him to a battle in the middle of the lab with a little Eevee, who seemed as if he had been recently caught as well. When I came out victorious, Red's friend, Blue, had declared them to be eternal rivals before leaving his grandfather and the lab. I wasn't sure what to think of my new trainer and being another rookie from a tiny little place, I hardly expected we would go anywhere or do anything awesome.
For some reason, though, something in the back of my mind was telling me that this kid was different. He wasn't like all the other cocky, self-centered bastards who tried to catch me in Viridian Forest. However I ignored that little voice and decided to not like him for the most part of the beginning of our travels.
During that time, Red told me to trust him no matter what would happen. He hadn't said a word when we were in the laboratory, and once we were alone he finally mustered the courage to introduce himself (though already knew his name, Blue and Professor Oak called this human by his name several times). But I frowned at him instead, ears laid back in irritation.
We had wandered off near the gates of Victory Road earlier that week and caught a Mankey, fought Blue again and was promptly kicked out of the entrance of the last road for having zero gym badges. Red had learned quickly, the hard and painful way, that day that electric types didn't fare too well against rock type pokemon that could squish you in a matter of seconds. He was just a human, he was no pokemon. He didn't know what it was like going into battle like we did. I never really understood why he told me that until we met Brock, the rock-type gym leader of Pewter City. It was my first personal loss, Red was just a beginner and he'd never seen a rock pokemon up close, I believe. His eyes had betrayed nervousness and a bit of fear from the immense size of Onix.
As you can tell, I didn't quite understand what kind of trust to give him after that for a few days. He was a rookie trainer, I was a weak pokemon then and neither of us had no clue how the world worked outside of our own homes. Throughout the trip through Mount Moon, even during our first encounter with Team Rocket, I refused to listen to him most times and he was forced to use Mankey for many of the battles. I would fight if I felt like it, but after a horde of Zubat we all decided it best just to start running towards the exit.
Other than that, we went through Mount Moon easy enough and beat Misty soon after, then Red put Mankey into the PC system and that was when Bulbasaur joined us. We decided to do a fair bit of training to get him up to our levels on route 4 before moving on. Bulbasaur didn't like me at first, he called me a spoiled brat most of the time and even asked for me to stop shocking our trainer, but completely ignoring him, I continued to follow them towards the grassy route and that was the only time when I disobeyed Red and ultimately regretted my decision.
We encountered an Ekans, and I'm sure Red thought we could beat it easily enough, but I was a being a little— no pun intended—brat, still pissed off that he'd put me up against a freaking Onix for our very first gym battle! I only took on Misty because I knew I could beat those water pokemon. Bulbasaur was in his pokéball when he looked at me, trying to get me to battle but instead I sat down on the ground, admiring the grass as Red frustratingly tried to get me to use Thundershock. He wanted to fill the pokédex, I understood that, but the little ten-year-old brat needed to learn some damn respect! I think I hold grudges for too long.
Back on topic, he seemed to notice something off and tried to get me to stand up since I refused to be put into my pokéball, and what do you know? I look up and there's an Arbok slithering right behind my trainer looking justly pissed off about Red trying to catch her child. I remember her warning us to get away but she didn't hesitate to attack and I'm quite sure she wanted to kill him, actually. She was too fast for us and nearly hit me with a Poison Sting and did hit Red in the arm with one. Bulbasaur had escaped his pokéball and evolved into Ivysaur to save us, throwing the two off of us with a powerful Vine Whip. With Red on the ground in pain and yanking the stinger out of his upper arm I panicked and I tried to grab an antidote. I thought that if it could work on me, it could work on him. Despite the pain he was suddenly in, Red managed a laugh, shaking his head as he got back up.
Ivysaur and I struggled to get Red back to Cerulean City, he was getting sicker and it was getting dark. I'll bet he would have died if it hadn't been for Misty biking along the road towards Mount Moon. I heard from other pokemon that an Arbok's poison could kill a full grown human. She came to his rescue and took him to the pokemon center to get the poison out of his body. Ivysaur was angry with me, but he told me that I should pay more attention next time. When Red had woken up, I was astonished to hear him speak to me for only the second time since our first meeting. He just told me that he wasn't angry at me and only wanted to know if we were all right, smiling through his weariness. I'm pretty sure I cried for an entire week.
We reached Celadon City a few months after that, we had discovered Team Rocket again. Truthfully, I did not want to go anywhere near that place, I could just smell the unhappiness and dread from below our feet. Red didn't understand what I was so anxious about at first, but after we had battled a suspicious man and discovered a staircase that led to a secret basement, we had to do something about it. We saw several pokéballs in crates, bags and on the walls, many of which I knew weren't theirs and it was revealed to us that Team Rocket sold those pokemon for several thousand dollars, by using the coins from the game corner as payment.
We out found the man by the name of Giovanni was running the entire operation, the same man who ignorantly taunted Red when he didn't say anything. He even offered a position in the team for my trainer and quite angrily, Red threw Wartortle's pokéball, initiating a battle instead. Charmeleon and I protected our rear, stopping other grunts from getting inside with their damn Raticate, Zubat and Ekans they tried to send at us. Ivysaur was used as backup with Wartortle when Giovanni also released a Rhydon alongside his Rhyhorn.
Somehow in the midst of the chaos, we had defeated Team Rocket and Giovanni had gotten away. Red looked irritated that the crime lord had fled but turned to us and we fell into a giant, awkward, relieved and happy hug. I finally understood what he meant by trusting him. If I could trust him, then everything would be all right and we wouldn't have to worry about a thing. Hey, at least he was the brains.
We took down Team Rocket and earned our last badge (quite the shock to find out it was Giovanni, I think Red could have fainted if it weren't for a very steady statue), gratefully going through Victory Road (it was strange seeing the same guard at the first post but thankfully he didn't recognize us) and confronted the Elite Four. They were a challenge, each specializing in a specific type just like the gym leaders, though once we got through them, Red seemed to be more shocked than angry that Blue had gotten there first. When he had sent out a Rhydon, Red frowned; Venusaur and Blastoise were both out but he knew he wouldn't send in Charizard, but Espeon and Snorlax were both at full health, as was I. He had grabbed Snorlax's pokéball but stopped when I leaped forward, looking at him with a loud, "Pika!" He hesitated; I could have cost him a victory but instead, he nodded and put the pokéball back. Blue laughed, saying how stupid it was to send out an electric type pokemon against a ground- and rock-type pokemon.
Trainer and pokemon had to trust each other, and we did just that. In the end, we defeated Blue and gained our champion title only to give it back to Lance to continue our journey to the peak of Mount Silver. A pokemon trainer couldn't stop training, even if it was for some fancy title.
X-X-X
It was lightly snowing one morning and all of us were already up and out of the cave, already having eaten our share of breakfast. Espeon and I usually ate upwards of two to five berries, depending on how hungry we were while the others ate at least ten, or perhaps fifty or sixty in Snorlax's case if he wasn't that hungry (or we would eat whatever Red had made, but I usually foraged at that point. He isn't a very good cook). I felt like it was an odd day to begin with since whenever it snowed, it either was in blizzard white-out conditions or it wasn't snowing at all, not the fluffy snow that barely touched the ground and became powder. The others sensed it as well, but none of us thought of it.
Another sign was that our trainer's frienemy came up to deliver a strange letter with a strange symbol on the back. Blue seemed like to be his usual cocky self, but he himself seemed genuinely excited about whatever was inside of the envelope. "Aw, c'mon, Red, just open it up and read it. It's nothing bad, I promise!" Blue said, causing an eyebrow raise from the other human. The two of them were the same height, maybe Blue was a few inches taller because of that damn hair, but apparently hair didn't count on a human for height.
Red gave a quiet sigh and ripped the letter open solely out of irritation, causing the others to stop out of curiosity. I, being the smallest of the six, sprang over to our trainer and sat on his right shoulder, peering over the side of his head to stare at the strange letters written on the paper. The human used as my chair, however, I felt him go still. At first, I was worried he'd stopped breathing and was having a form of heart attack, and maybe I was right. I heard him give a sharp inhale and look up at Blue, who was still smiling, his face telling us that he knew Red would have the reaction he gave. "I know, right? So, do you wanna go?"
Go? Go where? My ears twitched, turning my head back and forth between them curiously. Red looked back at the paper in his hands and flashed a rare smile, confirming with a nod and their personal fist-bump.
"Yes! You're going down, Red! You aren't the only one who has gotten stronger after all this time! Our championship match was four years ago, that's more than enough time to get even stronger!"
I had no idea what was going on but with all the excitement those two had, I felt it start to rub off on me as I smiled as well. He scratched my ears with his free hand and I felt all of my confusion melt away almost immediately as he pet that one spot I could never get. I felt myself give a small, "Chaaaaa…." I regretted it, I heard the others sicker behind me. Well, damn them too! They all had their spots that, of course, Red knew about. He could make all of us faint by scratching our stomachs sometimes, I am sure of it. What? It feels good!
However, annoying smug kid snapped me out of my thoughts as he annoyingly exclaimed, "Yo, Red! I'll be at Gramp's lab tomorrow, I'll see you there, 'kay?" Nod. "He's got tickets and everything for the way there." Another nod.
Satisfied by the nods, Blue turned around and gave us a backwards wave as he headed back down the mountain on his trusty Pidgeot. I watched with fascination; he wasn't lying, they had gotten more powerful as well. The first time I had seen Blue ride Pidgeot to get to the top of the mountain, she was breathing hard and looked exhausted. Charizard had to give them a ride back down that day. Now she looked slightly breathless, but I could tell she would give us a challenge in whatever battle that was sure to happen.
Red turned towards the others, who watched him with utter curiosity, save for Espeon. She seemed to already know what was going on. I sometimes wish I was psychic just to know what was going on in our silent trainer's head. I tilted my own head as Red took all of our pokéballs in his hands, except for mine and Charizard's.
"Let's get ready for a tournament."
We gave our roars of approval and now I knew why Red and Blue were so excited before. For one, they would get the so-called 'epic' rematch they always wanted and two, we were finally going to have a real battle somewhere off of this freezing mountain. How was he fine with just a light jacket and a t-shirt underneath? How? Even Espeon didn't have an answer for that.
We did have an unfair advantage, though. Our trainer never spoke when we fought, he would always use hand signals. There was nothing against a rule about doing that, so he took advantage of it. I think he was relieved too. I remember the professor handing my pokéball to him for the first time, an unsure, awkward little kid getting handed a responsibility meant for people to lead seemed like something he didn't want to do. Because he never spoke, I grew frustrated with him and he got frustrated with me because I didn't understand. But one day in our first battle, I don't know how or why, but it all just sort of clicked together. Pointing up was Thunder, a fist was Slam and the list went on and on.
The only person who gave us a hard time was Blue, and those two other human kids, Lyra and Ethan. Now that was a wake-up call that we had to get stronger. Where Lyra lacked strength she made up for in defense however Ethan was a whole other story.
The kid was good and dare I say it, he was just as good as us. He'd even made it up to the top of the mountain on his first try and had defeated nearly all of us and it was me against his Typhlosion. It was Thunder versus Eruption. But Typhlosion was the first to fall. I made sure he stayed down before I collapsed myself. The next thing I knew, I was being held by Red, who was smiling at me for a job well done, but for some reason the other kid seemed to be ecstatic as well. He had, after all, nearly beaten the undefeated trainer, and if my assumptions are correct, we could be seeing that same kid in whatever tournament we were participating in.
But a glint in Red's eyes told me something else; that fire in his eyes told me he was about to work harder than ever before to beat this thing. Excitement was beginning to form around all of us as he picked me up and jumped onto Charizard's back to take off. I looked up at him, grinning at him.
The tournament had better watch out—we were back in the battling scene.
X-X-X