DID I HEAR SOMEONE ASK FOR A FERRIS WHEEL
Totally forgot to upload a chapter this week, oops... on the bright side, there's now the option to add more main characters to stories, so N is no longer left out! Yay!
Although I have no idea how that works because so far it doesn't seem to change anything...
White quickly shook the sand from her hair once she reached the tunnel to Nimbasa City. There had been a sandstorm raging on Route 4 as usual. Yet White actually hadn't minded the walk here – she'd needed time to herself without anyone worrying over her, whether it was her mother or her friends.
At first, she hadn't understood why that had been annoying her. But now at long last she had realised. To her, it felt like her friends getting hurt was her fault, and then everyone just seemed to be worried about her instead…
Maybe she was just being selfish. Sitting around feeling sorry for herself wouldn't help them defeat Team Plasma. But after how badly she'd done in the fight against that shadow, it didn't feel like there was much she could do to help in the first place…
Once she emerged into the city, everything was so bright she had to hold a hand up to shield her eyes. The sun was almost patronising.
Now I just need to work out how to find where N's got to…
"Hey White!"
"Ah!" she gasped as suddenly N appeared out of nowhere beside her. "Don't creep up on me like that…"
"Oh, sorry," he grinned sheepishly.
Reshiram was nowhere in sight. He's put her inside her Pokéball for once. I'm almost impressed. "Well, we're here and Black won't be meeting us for another hour. Now what?"
"Well, um… a-actually, I… I was wondering…" N nervously glanced away at the ground for a moment as if trying to phrase his sentence. Then he glanced back at her. "Would… I mean, do you want to ride the Ferris wheel?"
"Huh?" White blinked. "That's what you dragged me all the way out here for?"
"Oh… i-it's okay if you don't want to… I just thought…"
"No, no, I do, honestly," White forced herself to smile. She knew that she'd already hurt him once today – and besides, it had been a long time since she'd been on the Ferris wheel, so why not.
"Great! I-I mean, thank you," N beamed.
"It looks like we made it here in time, Braviary!" Black commented as they flew over Castelia City. The bird floated lower as they arrived at one of the piers, slowing to land. Once he was within a safe distance of the ground, Black jumped down from Braviary's back, holding one hand up to shield his eyes from the sun and the gleam of the water.
He walked over to the edge of the pier, Braviary wandering after him and hopping up to stand on the railing as if it were a perch. Black could see the small boat from Virbank City on the horizon. Earlier that day, he'd called Hugh to tell him to get over here as soon as he could. Cheren had told them to bring along anyone who could help them against Team Plasma, and besides, Black still needed to return Hugh's Pokémon to him.
"Think he managed to get on the boat in time? You probably have better eyesight than me," Black laughed.
Braviary had been stood grooming his feathers. He glanced up, looking over at the boat. Then he let out a screech, flapping his wings.
"Guess I'll take that as a yes," Black shrugged, picking up a stray feather than had landed in his hair. He dropped it on the surface of the water below, watching it float on the waves. Giving a sigh, he leant against the railing. "We might be waiting here a while…"
He attempted to pass the time by playing I Spy, but that didn't really work on your own or with an animal that couldn't talk. After ten minutes, Black was nearly falling asleep until he was brought back to his senses by a loud ship horn. Braviary looked quite surprised too; he nearly fell off the railing as the noise echoed around.
"Oh, finally!" Black exclaimed in relief as the ship drifted up to the dock. "Now we just have to find Hugh."
Black returned Braviary to his Pokéball as a dozen passengers left the boat. Where was Hugh? It was hard to single out anyone in the crowd of people…
"Hey! I said, excuse me!"
Black couldn't help but laugh as Hugh barged past a couple of rather surprised-looking passengers who clearly hadn't heard him the first time. Well, found him.
"Sheesh, rude!" Hugh tutted as he walked over. "Hey, Black," he said at last, holding up his hand.
"Hey," Black replied, giving him a high-five. "Anything new in the west?"
"Haven't seen Team Plasma since you left," Hugh shrugged. "So I guess you must have taken all the trouble with you."
"Hah, definitely."
"So, what happened? You said I needed to get out here as soon as possible."
"Well, long story short," Black said casually. "We attempted to fight Team Plasma and failed pretty badly. Oh, and I discovered that having a Seviper's fangs through your shoulder is a whole lot more painful than any time we've ever got into a fistfight."
"Wait, what!?" Hugh exclaimed, looking somewhat shocked.
"Okay, I'll explain what happened. But maybe we should go somewhere else first. We might as well make our way to Nimbasa City since I told White and N to meet us there in an hour. Besides, I don't know if many people in Unova even know that Team Plasma is back, so it's probably best if people don't overhear us."
White could remember a time when she'd have been really excited over a fairground ride. Yet right now, as the Ferris wheel arced slowly into the sky, she found herself staring aimlessly out of the window at the clouds above.
She was still trying to work out what Cheren's plan might be. She hadn't seen him since he vanished yesterday, but knowing Cheren it should at least be something reliable.
Would they even need her help? She couldn't even defeat Black in a Pokémon battle, let alone Team Plasma and their overpowered Pokémon…
Giving a quiet sigh, White realised that it might be better if she just left them to it. She'd probably just be a burden.
"White…? I… I'm sorry…"
"Huh?" White blinked, glancing over at N who was sat on the other side of the Ferris wheel car. "What are you apologising for…?"
"I-I thought that riding the Ferris wheel might cheer you up," N sighed, staring at the floor. "But it hasn't. I'm sorry… I can name every element in the periodic table, but… I have no idea how to make people happy…"
"N…" White murmured. "It's okay. You don't have to worry about me. I'm fine, honestly."
"You aren't, though… yesterday… y-you were crying…"
White blinked in surprise. "Wait, how do you know that? Who told you?" If it was Black, I swear…
"Reshiram," N shrugged.
"Oh… right…" White had completely forgotten that N could talk to Pokémon.
"She told me about Zekrom too…" N said quietly, glancing up at her at last. White hadn't noticed before, but now that the roof of the car provided some shade from the sun, she could see that his eyes were swollen slightly, as if he'd been crying recently. "White, I'm so sorry… I just… I… I don't know what to do… I don't like it when you're upset…"
Being careful not to hit her head on the roof of the car, White moved over to sit next to him instead. "N, you don't need to keep apologising. It's not your fault," she assured, giving a half-hearted smile. "I guess if anyone should apologise then it's me. I've just been sulking for the past few days without thinking about whether it affected anyone else. I'm sorry."
"I-it's okay," N smiled, his blue-grey eyes still clearly showing his distress but he was trying to push it aside. He cast a quick glance out the window. The Ferris wheel had nearly reached the ground by now. "How long until we have to go meet the others?"
"Dunno," White shrugged. She wasn't wearing her Xtransciever and she didn't feel like hunting through her bag to find it. "At least half an hour."
"Oh… well, what d'you want to do now? I'm all out of ideas," N laughed.
"We could go find something to eat?" White suggested. "I dunno about you, but I'm starving."
N blinked in surprise. "Didn't you just have breakfast?"
"Hey, I've barely eaten anything for three days!" White protested with a laugh, nudging his shoulder. "I'm sure there must be someplace to get food in a city this big."
"C'mon, Lucario, just get down from there already. I don't know how you can sense anything in a city this crowded."
Black looked up at the aura Pokémon, who was standing on top of the tunnel back out to Route 4, scanning Nimbasa City. Assumingly he wanted to help them find the others, but there were an awful lot of people and other distractions in the city. At Black's words, he gave a quiet sigh, jumping down and landing lightly on the ground next to them.
"Who exactly are we looking for, anyway?" Hugh asked. Serperior was nearby, the ear-like leaves on his head twitching as he glanced around at the city. He seemed pleased to be back with his trainer, at least.
"White and N," Black shrugged. "They're the people I was fighting Team Plasma with. I said to meet them in the city about now, so they should be around here somewhere."
"Oh, okay," Hugh muttered. "So how do we find them?"
"Well…" Black tried to come up with a description. "White's a Pokémon trainer… N is kinda… different…"
"You're not very good at this, are you," Hugh pointed out, an amused smile on his face.
Black held up his hands in mock defence. "I tried. Eh, let's just look around; I'm sure we'll find them eventually."
They spent five minutes wandering the streets of the city, their search seeming pretty hopeless until suddenly Lucario nudged Black's arm as if he were telling them to stop. He glanced over in the direction of the gym, letting out a quiet grumble.
"That way?" Black asked.
Lucario nodded.
"Well, if you say so…" he shrugged. Usually he'd have a lot of faith in Lucario's sensing abilities, but in a place as busy as the city he wasn't so sure.
As they crossed over the bridge to the small amusement park, Black considered how quiet it was in this corner of the city when Elesa wasn't holding one of her fashion shows. There was hardly anyone here.
"Hey, Black!"
"Hm?" he glanced over to see White waving to him. "Oh, hey guys."
Over on the grass, White and Sigilyph had gathered an armful of berries from one of the trees. All of her Pokémon were out, enjoying the fresh air. Zebstrika was racing around on the grass and Excadrill looked hopefully up at White until the trainer gave her one of the berries. At the edge of the grassy clearing, N was sat with Reshiram – the dragon was trying her best to remain dignified despite the fact that the teen was offering food to her. Eventually she gave in, taking the berry from his hand and chewing it happily.
"We found some berries, so we thought we'd let the Pokémon out while we waited for you to get here," White shrugged. She threw one to him as he walked over. "Here, catch."
Black just about managed to catch the berry. "Thanks. Here ya go, Lucario."
Lucario took the berry from him, casually wiping it on his fur to clean it before taking a bite out of it, his ears twitching contentedly.
White turned to Haxorus, who'd been hanging back slightly. Yet as she held out one of the berries on her hand he walked over to take it from her. She patted his nose.
It looks like White's finally recovering as well, Black mused, though he didn't say anything out loud. She isn't ignoring Haxorus anymore and she's even okay with Reshiram being out here.
"C'mon, you lot, go join 'em," Black called, letting his Pokémon out as well. Instantly Arcanine's attention was on the berries – if there was food around, that dog would make a beeline for it. Zoroark wandered over to join N and Reshiram, whereas Samurott seemed happy enough to just sit and groom his fur. Black cast a glance behind him. "Hey Hugh, come over here!"
"Huh?" the blue-haired boy muttered. He walked over to join them. "Oh, so this is who we were looking for."
"Yeah. Meet White and N," Black shrugged.
"Hi!" White smiled, holding out her free hand whilst also trying to fend off Arcanine who obviously wanted the fruit she was holding.
"Hey. I'm Hugh. Y'know, if you hadn't realised that already." He shook her hand.
"White," she told him.
Hugh looked around as N wandered over to them at last, Zoroark trotting behind him. "So you must be N, right?"
"Um, yeah… hello…" N replied, sounding somewhat nervous as usual.
"Huh. Y'know, your name sounds familiar somehow."
"To be fair, it is in the alphabet," Black pointed out with a laugh. As soon as he'd said that he glanced at N to make sure the comment hadn't offended him, but for once he seemed to have realised it was a joke and gave a half-hearted smile.
"Well, since you guys are here now I guess we're not waiting for anyone else," White commented, giving the last of the berries she was holding to Serperior who'd been eyeing them for a while now. "You two had lunch yet?"
"Yeah, we grabbed some food on the way here," Black shrugged.
"Well, we have two hours until we have to meet Cheren in Castelia, and he'll probably go off on one of his lectures if we're late," White mused. "So what now?"
"Actually, I wouldn't mind heading over to Driftveil City," Hugh spoke up. "I haven't been over here in the main part of Unova for a while."
"Why not," Black shrugged.
White nodded, glancing over at where Arcanine was chasing Zebstrika around the clearing. "Sure, if we can ever catch our Pokémon."