Red wandered the streets of the town,a familiar capony of mountains in the distance. Almost none of the residence had never been there before, at least before he had decided to venture up Mount Silver's slope. The buildings and people were alien- They were the one piece of his puzzle that didn't, and probably would never fit. The vicious winds of the mountains he once knew were replaced with quiet streets lit with soft light of coming evening. He walked silently along the walls of the many buildings, feeling uneasy in the unusual environment. Almost in a dreamlike haze, he passed chattering people with their Pokemon and watched a few cars glide by. Red vaguely remembered only a dirt road to the Pokemon Center being at the foot of the mountain before. How could something as unmovable as a mountain swing into such a change so readily?
His crimson eyes caught on every object attentively. Houses and stores and even the first development of a sort of small office building. He carefully placed his hand to one, stopping. The red brick of the building scratched against his hand roughly, the noise of the area quieted in his ears. He no longer belonged here. This place was not the misshapen piece of the puzzle. He realized, watching as snow quietly began to fall on the scene, that he was. The mountain had changed, as impossible as it was.
Lyra, Black, and Silver walked through the streets of Mount Silver's quieting town. It was moving towards evening, and the short days of the snowy area caused it to darken more quickly. They took their time looking down most of the alleyways and streets, knowing he probably wouldn't be inclined to go into any stores.
"It's been a while since we crossed paths, huh?" Silver peered down an intersecting street, glancing back to look at Lyra.
"Yeah, it has been." She followed his gaze. "Nope, not there."
Turning back to face Black, his face twisted into a doubtful glare. "You're not just sending us into a wild goosechase, right? You actually did find him? I don't want to waste time if there's no reason to be here walking around aimlessly."
"We did find him, asshole." Black grumbled, still a bit tired.
Lyra laughed a bit, teasingly. "What, you don't want to spend time with your favorite rival?" She paused to watch his reaction, which was a half hearted glare, before continuing. "We did find him. At the peak. But it's not like you have anything important to do with your time anyway," she scoffed playfully.
"Sure I do," He added defensively. "I could be training my Pokemon instead of this. The mountains are a good place to improve endurance."
"All you do is train," She moaned in response, repeating her previous statement. "You're never any fun!"
He snorted. "Not true. But speaking of Pokémon training, have you guys trained at all since you got here?"
"Nope." Black said nonchalantly. Silver rolled his eyes.
"Uh..." Lyra trailed off, smiling sheepishly. "A bit as soon as I got here, but recently, no... I actually thought about battling Red, but I don't know about that anymore."
"Well, you could always battle me. I've been waiting for a rematch." He stated, and then paused. "Why not battle Red, though? Nobody has gotten the chance for a long time."
"That's the point. I don't think he's interested in battling really." She looked back to the streets. People were starting to move back to their homes, the small sound of gathered friends and family. She looked down an alleyway, slowing a bit.
"Why would he be 'uninterested'? He's the fucking 'Pokémon master', for Arceus' sake." He rolled his eyes a bit, following Lyra as she made her way towards the small alley across the street.
"I don't know, but he only had one Pokémon when he came off the mountain." She said a little quieter, entering the dimmed light of the area between the buildings. A figure sat in the darkness, knees tucked against their chest. The pair of dim, crimson eyes glanced at them for a second before the figure sighed and stood up a bit shakily. Lyra smiled. "Exploring the town? It's pretty big, right?"
He averted his gaze, looking past them to the calm streets before coming to stare at Silver with an intense gaze.
"This is Silver, he's my rival from Jhoto." She explained with a smile.
"I'm not usually this formal with people, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't an honor to meet you." Silver said, crossing his arms and looking away. Red blinked, his only reaction a slight nod. Lyra giggled a bit; Silver looked a slightly embarrassed to admit his admiration.
"Why do you only have a sweatshirt on? It's fuckin' cold out here." Black mumbled tiredly from the back of the party. He was right; Red was wearing a few layers but was lacking a coat. The champion shrugged off the concern dismissively, but Lyra was already shrugging off her own. As she held it out to him, Red shook his head no, leering at her reluctantly.
"You need it more than me," she said simply. He hesitated, finally sighing and giving in. He slipped it on, looking away from the three defensively. Lyra spoke up, seeming a bit happier than before. "We should head back."
By the time they returned, Green and Blue had sorted out their quarrel and were collapsed on the couch watching TV. Green had his feet in a tub of warm water, unsurprisingly. Blue looked pleased with herself. "Hey guys!" She called happily. "Silver, what's up? Nice of you to join us."
"I probably won't be here long," Silver replied simply. "I came here to meet him, actually."
"Where did you guys go anyway? We were surprised when you three weren't here." Green asked, looking from Lyra, Black and Red with suspicion.
"Just a walk!" Lyra replied quickly. "Nothing to be worried about!"
"Besides, which of us decided to recklessly run outside barefoot?" Blue asked, rubbing her chin in mock wonder. Green crossed his arms, slumping further into the cushions with a small 'Shut up.'
Silver ended up deciding to stay for a bit after all, due to some convincing by Lyra and Black. The mountain was a good place to train after all. They decided to discuss the details over a late lunch, as Black had begun to complain tirelessly about being hungry. They pulled one more chair to the table and chatted over bowls of soup.
"Awesome soup, Green!" Blue chirped happily; by the way Black was shoveling spoonfuls into his mouth you could tell he agreed. Green gave her a grudging 'Thanks.' He still didn't seem over the events that had occurred that morning.
"Anyway, back to what we were talking about in the first place." Green said, turning his attention to Silver. "Since we only have two actual bedrooms and the living room is pretty much full, someone has to partner up, probably you and Black."
"That's fine, I suppose." Silver replied cooly.
Across the table Black choked on his food.
He regained his composure long enough to shout with disbelief. "What?! How's that fair?!"
"Well, the reason he even showed up here is sort of your doing. Besides, you're friends, what's to shout about?" Blue crossed her arms, raising an eyebrow at Black. Black still looked exasperated, but slumped in defeat. Silver didn't seemed bothered by the idea, now that he noticed.
"Well... Alright I guess." Black finally agreed.
Red observed the conversation with bored disinterest, moving the soup in his bowl around idly. The talking gradually dissolved back into casual matters, Lyra asking Silver what's Gold been up to and Green talking to Blue about proofreading part of his research paper. There wasn't exactly anything he could contribute, not that he was able to in the first place. He supposed it was just another social aspect of life he didn't particularly excel at. When the topic being discussed transitioned into Pokemon battling however, he was admittedly a bit more interested. Black was talking about the new styles of battle being introduced into the culture of the Unova region, including triple and rotation battles.
"I've heard of rotation battles, but I've never actually participated in one," Silver mused. "It sounds interesting- you must really need to be able to predict your opponent's moves."
Black nodded in agreement. "Yeah, it's all about whether or not you can figure out what you're opponent's going to do. White always beats me in rotation battles though... Honestly I'm not very good." He rubbed the back of his neck bashfully.
"A triple battle sounds fun to me, I've always been pretty good at double battles!" Lyra had a lot of vigor for this idea. Red snorted a bit at this.
"You know, we could all do a triple battle!" Blue suggested, excited. "Three on Three!" Green frowned a bit at this, glancing at Red, who had decided the wall looked very interesting as soon as the words left Blue's lips.
"Speaking of battles," Silver spoke up, looking towards Red with calculating eyes, "I want to challenge Red."
Red's head suddenly snapped up to meet Silver's gaze, his own eyes void of emotion.
"This really isn't a good time." Green replied, his voice sharp with warning.
Silver turned to Green, his expression unchanged. "Why? He's the champion. If he carries that title he should be expected to fulfil the champion's duty." Silver frowned, "Besides. Once the word gets out that he didn't die on that mountain, trainers from all over are going to want to battle him." This effectively silenced him and he looked away. Silver did have a point.
Red looked away again, Silver watching him closely. By this point the whole table had gone silent. "What, you don't want to battle anymore?" The red eyes came to meet his again, more hesitantly this time, but they remained cold. Silver returned an equally cold gaze, his voice low. "Then it's pointless for you to be the champion at all, isn't it?"
At first neither reacted and held their ground equally. One could have heard a pin drop as the two stared each other down. Suddenly Red pushed himself up from the table, his chair being thrown over as he fled towards and then out the door, leaving it swinging on its hinges in the chilling wind. Blue was soon up after him, calling for him to wait, to no avail. For a moment, the room went silent again. All that remained was the door's rhythmic swinging.
I've decided resurrect this story. I wonder if any of the story followers are still here...? Haha.