Special Adventures Chapter 4: Healthy Competition, a pokémon fanfic

Chapter 4: Healthy Competition

The Dex Holders all gathered near the dinner table where the gifts were placed. There wasn't much, but Red didn't really mind. First up, Yellow sheepishly walked over to Red, holding a rather big gift box behind her.

"Um… here," she said as he handed him her gift.

"Thanks, Yellow," Red said. He opened the box, revealing a complete set of winter clothes.

"It's really cold in Mt. Silver," Yellow said. "And I… I thought you could use them…"

"Wow, thanks," Red said as he examined a jacket. "It's really freezing up there. Thanks a lot."

Next, Green slowly walked towards his friend. "Red, the only thing I can give to you that you'll enjoy is a simple challenge. Not a practice battle, but a full-on battle. Like the one we had in the Pokémon League. You, me, one on one battle later today. How about it?"

Red grinned. "Now that's a hell of a gift! You're on!"

Blue sighed. 'Ah, Red… a battle is the best possible gift…'

"But I'm a little tired today, and I think my Pokémon are too," Red said.

"Rest up, then. There's no sense in beating a weakened opponent," Green said. "Let me know whenever you're ready."

Gold and Crystal approached Red afterwards. Crystal handed him a small box, containing the latest model of the Pokégear.

"Since you don't really have your own, I thought this would be a nice gift," Crystal said.

"It's her idea. I bought it," Gold said from beside. Crystal glared at him. "Alright, I paid for half, and she paid the other half." Crystal still glared at him. "… Okay, she bought it. But I got the box! And that was an expensive box!"

Red examined the Pokégear. It looked quite expensive and sturdy. "Thanks you two." He pulled out his previous Pokégear and looked at it. "Well… I guess I could return this to Erika now. I never really used it anyways…"

Next and last, Blue rose to her feet. She casually walked towards Red and from behind, waved a piece of paper around his face. She leaned against his shoulder as he took the piece of paper.

"Surprise, Red," Blue said cheerfully. "That's the boring invitation card that was supposed to be sent to me."

Red stared at the invitation card, struck speechless. It took a few moments for him to understand what happened.

"So… I did remember to invite you," he said. 'So she snuck into my house and stole this? When did that happen?'

"Of course, silly! But my gift to you isn't that card, Red. It's your pride!"

Red turned to stare at her. "What?"

"Come on, you were acting nervous around me since last week because you thought that you forgot about me. You lost your pride, and now I'm giving it back!"

Red groaned. He put the invitation card back in his pocket and sighed. "Well… thanks, Blue." 'How is returning something she took from me a gift?' He shook his head. "Well then, I guess that's everyone. So what n-"

Platinum timidly raised a hand. "Um… senior? I… I would like to give you a gift…"

"Huh? Uh… okay."

The heiress nervously reached into her bag and with both hands, presented an envelope to her senior. Red took the envelope and opened it.

"Whoa…" he muttered.

"Since I was unaware that today was your birthday, there was insufficient time for me to purchase a suitable gift," Platinum said. "I hope you appreciate the substitute…"

"200 000 PKD…" Red muttered. 'Damn, that's a lot of cash…' "Thanks… … what was your name again?"

"It is Platinum, senior…" the heiress replied. She bowed slightly and returned to her seat.

"Way to go," Gold said. "Now all our gifts look like crap."

Yellow sighed. "Now my present doesn't seem important…"

Platinum saw the not-so-friendly looks she was receiving from some of her seniors and realized her mistake. 'Oh no… what have I done?' "Please excuse me," she said before quickly leaving.

Noticing the awkward atmosphere, Blue led everyone to the living room so that the Dex Holders could play a game. The others also preferred to lighten the mood and all agreed.

…

A few minutes later…

…

Platinum sat on the floor of the room she was hiding in. She leaned against the door and berated herself for her mistake. She reached into her bag (which she still had) and withdrew her Pokégear. She dialed a series of numbers, and hoped that the person she was calling would pick up.

…

Route 201…

…

Diamond looked at his Pokégear.

"Hey Pearl, the Lady's calling."

"Don't answer, Dia. She'll probably ask where you are, and you're a horrible liar. Remember, we're going to surprise her with our visit."

Diamond looked at his Pokégear again before he hesitantly put it away.

…

Pallet Town…

…

Platinum sighed as she put her Pokégear away. She considered calling Pearl, but decided not to. Since Diamond and Pearl were always together, if Diamond was unable to answer the call, Pearl wouldn't be able to either. Also, the heiress only wanted to talk to Diamond, since his words tended to calm her down.

'Oh, I am such a fool…' she thought to herself. She could hear laughter from the outside and sighed again. 'I must apologize to each of my seniors…' After taking a deep shuddering breath, the heiress slowly and quietly left her hiding place.

In the living room, Red was playing a board game with Green while Blue and Crystal engaged in a different board game. The others watched and cheered, and in some cases, distracted the players.

"Choose your move carefully, Crys," Blue said. "One mistake, and you know you can't beat me. And remember, the loser has to do whatever the winner says."

"Yes, I know!" the Johto Dex Holder replied. She picked up her stone and examined the board carefully. 'There! If I place a stone over there, I could trap a huge portion of Blue's stones, and…'

"Hey, Super Serious Gal!" Gold suddenly yelled, just as Crystal was about to put her stone down. The girl jumped in surprise, accidentally dropping the stone in the wrong place.

"No, no, no!" she shrieked.

"I warned you!" Blue said with a laugh. She placed her stone in a crucial spot, preventing Crystal from any further attacks. "Oh, come on, Crys! Don't tell me this is all you got!" she taunted.

Crystal turned to glare at Gold. "Gold! Look what you made me do!" She returned her focus to the game, trying to predict what Blue would do next.

"Um… senior?" came Platinum's voice from behind.

"Not now, Platinum, I'm busy!" Crystal yelled. She placed a stone in a crucial defensive position. "Whew… that's one threat gone…"

Silver examined the board carefully. He could see a flaw in Crystal's layout of her stones…

"Senior Silver?"

Silver leaned towards Blue and whispered into her ear. "Sis, if you place your stones over-"

"Hey, Silver! That's not fair!" Crystal yelled. "I'm already losing!"

Yellow took a glance at the Blue vs. Crystal game and continued to watch Red as he battled Green.

"Red, I know it's been a while since you last played, but…" the Gym Leader started. He moved his vehicle into an attack position. "This is just pathetic! You left your king completely defenseless!"

"Don't belittle me yet, my friend," Red replied. "What you see as a weakness could just be a trap!" He moved his catapult so that if Green's vehicle was to try to attack the king, the catapult would take the vehicle out instead.

"Um… senior Red?" came Platinum's voice from behind.

"Hm?"

Before Red could even turn to face his junior, Green smirked and took out Red's catapult with his elephant. Yellow sighed. She saw that one coming…

"Red, Red, Red… Surely that wasn't your trap?" the Gym Leader taunted. "Come now, that wasn't a trap! It was so blatantly obvious!"

Red stared at the game board. "The battle is far from over!"

…

A few minutes later…

…

"… Okay, this battle is over," Red grumbled. 'Complete annihilation…'

"Ha, you lost, Super Serious Gal!" Gold exclaimed from beside.

The 3 Kanto Dex Holders turned to examine the results of the Blue vs. Crystal game, and noticed that the Johto Dex Holder got thrashed. Crystal glared at Gold, fuming.

"Would it kill you to help me? This was more of a 3 on 1 game! Silver was helping Blue, and you were purposely distracting me! When I said 'distract', I meant distract her, not me!"

"Don't you know that cheating is wrong? You tried to cheat, so I penalized you. You still put up a good fight despite all that," the goggled boy said. He raised his bottle of soda into the air, as if offering Crystal a toast. But he forgot the fact that he had removed the lid a while ago… The moment the bottle reached the peak of its climb, the soda (quite a lot of soda) spilled out of the bottle from the momentum and fell onto Crystal. "Oops… Uh oh…"

"GOLD!" Crystal screamed. The soda spilled onto her hat, soaking her hair. Grumbling, she rose to her feet. "Great. Now I have to wash my hair quickly before the sugar dries!" On her way to the bathroom, she 'accidentally' hit the soda bottle, pouring the drink all over Gold.

"Oh, that was just childish, Super Serious Gal!" Gold yelled. "What I did was an accident!" Unlike Crystal, however, the goggled boy simply took a paper towel to wipe the soda, not caring about the after-effects.

Crystal headed towards the bathroom and tried to open the door. Realizing that it was locked, she knocked. A second later, she could hear the sink turn on and some water splashing. Several seconds later, the door opened and Platinum came out.

"Platinum? What are you doing all alone?" Crystal asked. "Come join the…" she trailed off upon realizing something odd. She could see that her junior's eyes were red, and despite the heiress's best efforts to cover it up, Crystal could see what happened… "Were you crying?"

The heiress didn't reply and kept her head down. Crystal glanced around the corner at the living room. No one seems to have heard. She looked at her junior and pointed at an empty room.

"Hey, why don't you wait there for a little while? I'll be back really soon. I just need to wash something," she said.

The heiress didn't reply again and quietly entered the empty room. A few minutes later, Crystal entered the room, having thoroughly washed her hair clean of the soda. She found Platinum sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall. She beside her junior and tried to sound as nice as possible.

"Platinum, what's wrong?" she asked. "Come on, you can tell me," she said when she received no response. The heiress still didn't reply, but her lips started to quiver. Crystal looked with horror when tears started to fall from her junior's eyes. "Hold on, I'll get you some tissues."

Crystal quickly left the room and ran to get a box of tissues. But before returning to Platinum, she went to the other Dex Holders first.

"Blue, we have a problem here," she whispered, so that only Blue may hear.

"Huh? What do you mean?" the older girl asked.

"Platinum's crying…"

Blue froze. "What? Why?"

"I don't know," Crystal replied. "We need to calm her down…" she said, before hurriedly returning to Platinum.

Blue followed her junior, trying to think of a reason why the heiress would be crying. The moment she saw her sitting in the corner of the room all alone, a thought occurred.

'Oh no… we completely neglected her all this time!'

Blue sat beside Platinum and asked what was wrong. The heiress looked at her once before looking down at the floor again. She didn't reply, but started to sob. Her seniors continuously tried to get her to calm down, but after a minute, the heiress finally burst into tears.

"I – I wish I was home!" Platinum cried out. "I miss my friends, my family, a – and people who care about me!"

"Platinum… we care about you," Crystal said gently.

"I should not have come…" the heiress sobbed out. "I made too many mistakes… and now all of my seniors hate me!"

While Crystal desperately tried to calm her junior, Blue noticed that the heiress had her notepad on the floor beside her and reached for it. Platinum didn't bother to stop her. Blue flipped through the notepad. She noticed that under 'My Own Experience' for every Dex Holder present, the heiress had written 'Not as great as I expected' in big letters.

Blue rose to her feet and left the room. She needed to tell the others about this. But to her surprise, when the door opened, most of the others were waiting outside. They could all hear Platinum crying, and were wondering what was happening. Blue shut the door behind her and with a sigh, started to explain why Platinum was crying. The heiress was so enthusiastic about meeting her seniors, and even started to take notes on them. But since morning, she had been interrupted, glared at, and ignored by her seniors. She had been severely disappointed.

"In short," Blue said. "She thinks she came all this way from Sinnoh just to be hated, and she thinks it's her fault."

Red started to rub the back of his neck. "Oh… damn. That's not good."

"She wants to go home. I have no doubt that she'll head to Vermillion City the moment she leaves this house. We can't let her do that. If she goes back home now, we'll lose her forever."

Suddenly, the door opened from behind and Crystal appeared with Platinum behind her.

"She wants to say something to all of you," Crystal said. She stepped aside and the heiress took a few steps towards her seniors.

"I… I would just like to apologize for everything…" she muttered out quietly. She looked up at Red for a split second. "Senior Red, I am terribly sorry… I did not wish to ruin your birthday."

"Too late for that," Gold muttered. He froze when Platinum burst into tears again. 'I probably shouldn't have said that…'

"Gold! You're not helping!" Crystal yelled. She grabbed Gold by his ear and dragged him away. "What's wrong with you?"

…

Route 201, near Sandgem Town…

…

Diamond felt something odd. Something… didn't seem right. Platinum had tried to call him many times, and as per Pearl's suggestion, he didn't answer. But looking at the 15 missed calls on his Pokégear, Diamond couldn't help but think that Platinum needed him and he was ignoring her… He wished that he could get to her faster, but unfortunately, he didn't have a Pokémon that could be used as aerial transport. Neither did Pearl. ETA to the professor in Kanto was 4 days, and he hoped that Platinum would remain nearby…

…

Pallet Town…

…

The other Dex Holders sat in silence while Platinum was in the bathroom. The heiress had noticed the mood of the birthday party, and in order to lighten the mood, she needed to stop crying. And to help with that, she chose to wash her face with cold water.

Blue sat beside Red with a sigh. "Red, this isn't what I planned for your party," she started.

"I know."

"I'm sorry," Blue said quietly. "The only reason why I tricked you was so that I could plan the party. I… didn't know what to get you for your birthday, so the least I could do was make your birthday enjoyable. I thought it would be a little weird if I just asked you whether I could plan your party, and…"

"It's okay, Blue," Red said. "Besides, it's nothing compared to what you did to me the first time we met."

A few seconds later, Platinum came back out. She wasn't crying anymore, but still sniffled occasionally and looked crestfallen. She sat on the empty seat that was saved for her and took a deep shuddering breath.

"Hey, why don't you tell us about your friends?" Blue suggested. She figured getting Platinum to talk about various things would help lighten the mood.

"… I only have two friends," the heiress said quietly. "Diamond and Pearl. They are Sinnoh Dex Holders."

As the heiress began to describe her two friends, Blue noticed that her expression was getting lighter, to the point where she began to smile. Thinking of her two friends really helped.

"Diamond and Pearl, huh? I'd like to meet them," Blue said. "Can you call them and ask them to come here?"

Platinum's expression darkened. "I have already tried to contact them, but they did not answer."

Red suddenly perked up. "Hey, while we're waiting for those two to make contact, why don't we all have a little battle tournament?"

Blue turned to face him. "What?"

"A battle tournament. Just like the one we had years ago. Gather everybody here, and let's have a friendly tournament. There's nothing wrong with a little healthy competition, now is there?"

Green smiled. "I suppose it would be interesting to see how much stronger everyone has become."

"What do you think, Platinum? You're going to meet the rest of your seniors," Crystal said from beside the heiress.

The heiress looked at her senior and after a moment of thought, slightly nodded. 'All of my seniors? The last thing I want to happen is to disappoint more of my seniors… I must be careful.'

"Crystal, where's Emerald?" Green asked.

"He should be in Slateport City. Knowing him, he probably finished his task yesterday," the girl replied after a moment of thought.

"Good. Get him to return. I'll see if I can get my grandfather to call Professor Birch."

Hmm… it seems that a particular trio of Dex Holders never appeared so far. Not for long. Oh, Special Adventures may seem to go slowly at first, as nothing bad has happened yet. Well, nothing particularly bad. Platinum may have gotten her feelings hurt, but she'll get better. Special Adventures will start nice and slow before sh*t starts to happen… And it's not far off.

What Could Have Been:

Crystal headed towards the bathroom and reached for the door handle when she could hear someone sobbing. Surprised, she looked around and realized that the sound was coming from inside a dark empty room. Crystal looked inside and was surprised to find Platinum sitting alone in the corner, sobbing with her face buried in her arms…

Crystal quickly ran towards the other Dex Holders, 'accidentally' hitting Gold's soda bottle, pouring the drink all over the goggled boy a second time.

"Everyone, listen. Platinum's crying…"