Chapter 21 : This is Reality

"Me?" I asked warily.

There was nothing out of the ordinary for a sage to barge into my house and act like they owned the place, but to phrase a request as a "favor" was definitely off putting. It made me wonder if Rood was desperate, not a bad guy despite his Team, or just plain sarcastic.

Rood nodded his head, somewhat annoyed. It was understandable; I am the only other one here.

"What is it?" I asked curiously. 'Alright, this is good. Get on his good side or learn more about Team Plasma. Or both.'

"First, I must ask a question," he claimed. "Tell me... Are you passionate about the liberation of pokemon?"

I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out. 'Oh shoot... I said I wouldn't dodge the truth, but come on! This guy is right in front of me! Um... Maybe I don't have to lie.' I came up with the words, "I do truly care for the fate of pokemon in this strife." I nodded to myself. 'Yeah, that should work nicely.'

Rood seemed to like my answer. "It's good to hear that... Then, will you trust me on this?"

"Trust you?" I echoed. "With what?"

"Unfortunately, I cannot supply you with much information," Rood claimed, sighing to himself.

'Curious... Curious indeed.' I pursed my lips, trying to think of what Rood was trying to hide. That led me to my earlier deduction that he might be desperate. I smirked to myself, deciding to take advantage of the situation. "I'll take your word for it, then. If you asked me such a question about pokemon, then your intentions must be in good intentions, right?" 'Details can be taken at any time... Opportunities, maybe not.'

Rood seemed somewhat surprised at my words, but content at the same time. "Yes... I'll take it that you accept. I must first explain what will happen tomorrow, then."

I narrowed my eyes. 'So something's happening tomorrow... That's a good start.'

"We will move on to Driftveil City," he explained.

I just barely concealed my shock. 'Castelia, Nimbasa, Anville, and Drifteil all conquered in only four days?!' Normally, I'd think Clay could handle it, but from the looks of it, Team Plasma vamped themselves up. I nodded, signaling for Rood to continue.

"I can sense your surprise," he claimed, seemingly uncaring of my reaction. "However, Driftveil City is like a ghost town as of now. Just like Nimbasa City, trainers have fled the city, going northern in an attempt to seek a bastion."

'Ah, I see... So there's not much of a challenge hitting Driftveil.'

"Well, first you have your duty of taking down the gym leader of Driftveil," Rood explained. "Meanwhile, Lord N is going about to be conquering Black City."

I almost scowled. 'Why do I get all of my tasks last minute?' Even if I showed up at Route 1 in the regular spot, I'm pretty sure that no one would be around waiting to tell me of my responsibilities. I only remembered about that just now, actually. 'Wait a second... Did he just say N was going to conquer Black City?! Alone?! Even if he wasn't alone, two major cities in one day?!' I only stayed silent; I wouldn't want Rood to get off topic.

"I am actually leading the liberation in Driftveil City," he explained, but it sounded like he was talking more to himself than me. "I'll dismiss you after your job is done."

"So... This favor of yours is just accompanying you to Driftveil City?" I asked, somewhat disappointed. 'That doesn't sound like much of a favor...'

Rood shook his head. "Your attendance would have been necessary, whether I asked a favor of you or not."

"So this favor of yours..." I brought up, trying to get him back on track.

"Oh, yes." Rood seemed to be thinking to himself for a moment. "Do you know the story of Zekrom and Reshiram?"

I nodded, recapping what N had told me. "Zekrom represents ideals, Reshiram represents truth. They were held by two brothers in a fight, right?"

Rood nodded. "Yes, but that has nothing to do with this in particular," he replied. Rood crossed his arms, preparing himself for an explanation. "As you most likely know, Zekrom and Reshiram must choose heroes who they deem worthy to behold them... Even if a hero has vindicated himself or herself, there is still the process of summoning the legendary beasts."

"So how does one summon Zekrom or Reshiram?"

"Through the dark stone and the light stone." Rood had a serious tone to him the moment I saw him in my house, but now he seemed... Even more serious? For lack of a better term, of course. "Lord N has retrieved the dark stone, which is actually Zekrom in his stationary form. He was able to summon it, but Zekrom is only one of the two halves of a whole. There is still Reshiram, who still resides as the light stone. The light stone however..." Rood's voice trailed off as he paused. "We have no idea about its whereabouts."

A shy smirk tugged at the corner of my lip. 'Interesting... So Reshiram is still out there.' I assumed this before because Reshiram wasn't used as a tool by Team Plasma, but with this summoning thing explained out, it was good to know that Team Plasma still had a weakness. "So... Are you asking me to look for it?"

Rood shook his head. "No, of course not." Rood's mouth twitched a little, indicating that he didn't mean for the phrase to come out as cold as it sounded. "That matter is one that Lord Ghetsis assigned to the sage Ryoku."

"Ah..." I nodded my head, pursing my lips. 'Have I met a 'Ryoku?'' Then it occurred to me that Rood still hasn't told me about this favor of his. "So then why are you telling me this?"

Rood seemed to be snapped out of a stupor. "Of course... Ryoku doesn't like to go alone on trips, however he doesn't like crowds either."

I nodded, getting the gist of what he was about to ask. 'So all Ryoku needs is a bodyguard? He didn't need to take so long to say it.'

"I've been told that you are specifically talented in pokemon battles," started Rood. "So first, the sages have decided that you are the one to be accompanying him on his trip into the Relic Castle."

'Relic Castle... Sounds familiar, but I don't remember anything,' I decided. 'I haven't been to Black City either, but I still know what it looks like.' I nodded to Rood, now somewhat uncaring of what he was going to go on and say. In my perspective, Rood was just spewing out random information, but the "thrill" of him asking me for a favor was gone. In fact, I believe that he truly had a favor earlier but changed his mind about telling the information I was receiving, I was getting rather bored. And hungry...

"And now, that favor I have to ask of you."

My head snapped up. 'Finally! Goodness, Rood, how long did it take for you to get to this?!'

"I've heard that in the Relic Castle, there is a rather uncommon pokemon... Volcarona," Rood begun, speaking slowly. "Ryoku has a tendency to roughhouse with rare species of pokemon."

"... Are you saying that he wants to-?"

"No, no, of course not," Rood cut me off hastily. "He just likes a challenge, you see. He'll battle it, and since it's a wild pokemon, he'll have no obligation to care for the pokemon's wounds." There was a tone of uncertainty in Rood's voice. "You see, he would like to relish in the moment of battling before pokemon are liberated."

I nodded my head. "So what you're saying is I have to stop him from battling Volcaronas?" I asked to clarify. 'What an odd request... Or 'favor' as he phrased it... Made me all excited for no reason.' I pouted.

Rood shook his head. "Not just Volcaronas. Any pokemon that may be lingering in there. And if the pokemon is before his eyes, it's too late." The volume in Rood's voice seemed to drop a little. "If you see or hear any signs of a pokemon, you must lure Ryoku away from it, and do not tell anyone of our conversation."

I blinked. 'He seems pretty avid about this... Is there something more to it that I'm not seeing?' I mindlessly nodded my head.

A content Rood nodded as he walked past me.

I bowed to his leaving figure as he closed the door. I sighed with relief. 'At least he didn't ransack my house and find my pokemon...'

But this was a good thing. I doubt that any of the other sages would've told me what this "mission" was about. I would have probably just been told to bodyguard Ryoku. Now that I knew the goal...

'It would be easy to ambush Ryoku if we're all alone...' I thought with a smirk. 'If the Light Stone is really there, all I've got to find is the hero of truth.'

Finally, I've devised a plan for my little "resistance" to go through with. Find the hero of truth, have him or her take on N, and Team Plasma would be gone. I'm sure that in the process, I'd find my friends.

I turned to my kitchen area. 'But finally! Time to eat! I've been skipping out on meals way too much lately.'

I woke up bright and early, prepared to take down the apparently abandoned Driftveil City.

'Well, I phrased that way too joyously.'

I had my uniform on, I had my Team Plasma team, and that was probably all I needed.

'Alright... Time to wreck a city so that I can get on with my training,' I decided, strutting off of the Driftveil Bridge. I cocked my head and crossed my arms. 'Rood's right... This place truly is a ghost town...'

No one was around. It was like Nimbasa City, except with a different coat of paint. There was one difference though; it wasn't completely quiet. Some distance away, I heard wreckage, perhaps a falling building. It wasn't near me, but it was definitely close enough for me to feel the ground shaking.

'Team Plasma wouldn't be so brash in such a defenseless place,' I decided. 'So if Team Plasma isn't destroying buildings, who is? Construction at a time like this?' My steps became more cautious as I wandered about for quite a time. The sounds got closer and closer, and soon my ears were ringing. 'Maybe I should walk in the other direction...'

My choice seemed to be the right one, as the noise died down. I didn't realize that it died down completely until I heard a voice from behind me.

"There! There's one!"

I whipped around to the source of the voice but saw no one; only a few story high house, blocking the sunlight from the path I was walking on.

"BULLDOZE!"

My eyes widened when I realized what was going to happen, but it was too late.

There was a myriad of pokemon chants and the ground started shaking, making me sway a bit. I could only watch in anxiety as the giant house before me started crumbling down to the ground, a huge cloud of dust taking its place and engulfing both me and the rubble.

I clenched my eyes closed as some of the debris flew into them and coughed, finally deciding to use that mouth handkerchief that I had been ignoring every time I wore this uniform. After I slid it up, I stopped coughing and swatted the air before me, wincing an eye open to see the blinding sun shooting down on me. 'Well, at least it fell straight down and not towards me,' I thought thankfully.

"Is that... A person?"

"Are you alright?!"

I nodded, forgetting that they could probably only see my silhouette. I pulled down the handkerchief from my face as it served its purpose and rubbed my irritated eyes.

The dust cloud finally died down, revealing a pile of rubble and debris that was once a large house. I could barely see the heads of construction workers over it, and could only assume they saw the same of me.

I crossed my arms and looked at the fallen building. 'It reminds me of Burgh's gym... But bigger.'

The construction workers looked astonished and immediately circumvented the large pile of rubble in a sprint. About five encircled me.

"W-Was this your house..?"

"I'm sorry!"

"Sorry! We thought it had been abandoned!"

"Abandoned?" I asked, coughing out after. "Why would it be abandoned?"

"We'll build you a new one!" the construction worker before me offered nervously.

'Why do they keep spewing out apologies?' I wondered, confused. 'This isn't my house...'

The construction workers all looked at each other, nervous and confused. "What should we do?" "I think she's angry!", "We're going to get fired!", "But Clay said...", and "Let's bring her to Clay!", they all said at once. I was surprised that I was even able to hear all of those individually.

"Clay..." I repeated to myself. 'Clay..! Team Plasma isn't here yet, I have the time to warn him!' I cleared my throat to get the construction workers' attentions. If they were speaking about Clay, then they were probably his employees from the gym. "Well, first, this isn't my house, so don't worry about it... But bring me to Clay," I demanded.

The construction workers exchanged confused glances before sighing with relief. Now, they looked more bored rather than nervous. Four of them dispersed from me and walked away to the other side of the rubble, leaving me with the one in front of me.

I narrowed my eyes in mild annoyance and looked at the one before me with expectancy.

"Clay is in his gym," the construction worker explained boringly. "You can find him there. If you're going to see him, would you mind bringing this to him?" Without warning, he shoved a pokemon, which came from who knows where, into my unsuspecting arms.

"Wh-What?" I croaked out, confused by the sudden weight on my hands. "A Sandslash..?" I asked, looking down at a collapsed Sandslash now in my arms.

"Yeah... Clay let us borrow it to help with the demolitions, but he was hit by a mis-aimed bulldoze attack and was knocked out," he explained plainly and seemingly uncaringly. "We didn't have its pokeball, so we had to lug it around... Just give it back to Clay, alright?"

"What?" I asked, baffled. "How long ago did he collapse?! And where did you pull him out from?!"

The construction worker simply gave me a shrug and walked off in the direction of his colleagues.

I glowered at his leaving form before looking back down at the Sandslash with worry.

'No Nurse Joy... No anyone!' I was getting a bit frustrated as I ran past the Pokemon Center and glanced through the glass. 'I guess with everyone out of here, she had no reason to stay... Then I gotta find Clay and hope he has a revive, because I'm all out.' I continued to run in the direction of the gym . 'The gym's right up there, anyway.'

I needed to get there quick; first to get this Sandslash some well needed attention, but also to warn Clay about Team Plasma before it was too late. If Clay and his employees were really the only people left in Driftveil City, they either needed to huddle up or get out.

I skidded to a halt and looked at the gym before me. I was about to go inside when the door opened, causing me to back up.

Clay came out looking rather frustrated, a hand intertwined with his hair and his giant hat askew. He didn't seem to notice me until he was about to walk into me. He looked slightly surprised, but not all too shocked to see me. "Hilda..? Why're ya' here?" He gave me a rather confused look. "And wha's with that getup?"

'Oh shoot, my uniform! Right, gotta explain.' I cleared my throat and started speaking unusually fast, just in case I was to be interrupted. "Well first your Sandlash fainted and some guys knocking down buildings gave him to me to give to you but I'm in Driftveil to warn you about Team Plasma-" I cut myself off to take a deep breath "-because they're coming right now to take over Driftveil City and I'm wearing this because I-!"

Clay looked at a loss by my oddly delivered explanation before frowning. "Calm down, will ya'? I knew they w're comin'!" He raised an eyebrow. "And why yer wearin' those scrubs ain't none a' my business."

I gave Clay an odd look. "You did?" I asked, returning to my normal speed of speech. 'And he isn't questioning me about my joining in Team Plasma?'

"Well 'course I did!" he replied, his hands on his hips. "I ain't no simplet'n! Didya' know that they took over both Anville Town 'n' Nimbasa City yest'rday? 'Course ya' did, how else would ya' get'ere?" He let his arms drop to his side. "I hear that they're workin' on Black City at this ver' moment. 'Twas only a matter of time, but I's expectin' that they be comin' tomorrow, not today," he admitted.

'Well, at least I told Clay what I could...' I thought to myself. "So if you knew that Team Plasma was coming, why are you demolishing the city? Trying to make them win nothing in the end?"

"'Course not!" snapped Clay. He looked somewhat apologetic as if he didn't mean to snap. "I've been busy. But just know that I love this city! There's no way I'd destroy it!"

"But... Those guys are knocking down houses like madmen!"

Clay shook his head. "Ya' don't understand, those're the houses of people who fled. They're scared that Team Plasma's gonna catch'em. Ev'n the folks who don't have a pokemon!" Clay ran his fingers through his hair again, tipping his hat backwards in the process. "They left behind their belongin's an' all that, abandonin' this wonderful city, and they don't plan on comin' back, so I's thinkin', 'Why not recreate Driftveil City to be somethin' better?'"

"A-As admirable as that is, Clay, isn't knocking down all of this private property... Illegal?" I asked, a bit taken back by the lack of permission.

"Well there ain't anyone here to stop me!" Clay retorted jollily, a proud smile splayed on his face. "An' if they're, they best be comin' back and stoppin' me!"

I smiled and shook my head at Clay's notions. 'Jolly old cowboy who thinks he's invincible... I'm kinda envious of him.' "So what are you planning to do to stop Team Plasma?" I asked.

Clay's face turned from humorous to serious as he looked to the side and sighed. "I dunno... Me an' my guys're goin' 'a wing it and fight 'til we're down... All I know's that Driftveil ain't changin', no matter what hits it."

"But aren't you changing it?" I asked, confused by Clay's actions.

"Well I'm not Team Plasma, so I'm changin' it for the better! Haha!" he exclaimed with a heart laugh.

"..." I didn't know what to say to that, so I changed the topic. "About your Sandslash..."

Clay pursed his lips, apparently already forgetting about the pokemon I was "Oh, him? Uh... Just give'im to me," he said in a bored tone.

I raised a suspicious eyebrow. 'Sure, pokemon faint all the time, but he doesn't seem too concerned...' I hesitated before handing him over, but before I could even make the notion, someone's voice interrupted out exchange.

"I see that you've started early... This is good."

Alarmed, both Clay and I turned to the side and saw Rood followed by a handful of grunts.

"Team Plasma..." Clay growled under his breath. "Get ready, girl," he muttered to me.

"Bring the pokemon here," Rood commanded. Clearly his notion was intended for me.

I looked down at the collapsed Sandslash in my arms. 'Oh man... I'm stuck. Can't give him to Clay now... I hope he understands.' I reluctantly walked towards Rood. 'Well, at least Clay knows that I'm not really in Team Plasma.' A grunt came to meet me halfway and I hesitantly put the Sandslash in her hands. 'They probably wouldn't release it while it's fainted, so...' I thought to myself as I joined Rood's side and watched her run away with the fainted Sandslash.

Clay was looking at me, bewildered and enraged as his eyes drifted down to my chest. "Yer a member a' Team Plasma?!"

I raised an eyebrow at him. 'Dude... You saw the badge earlier... Or...' I pursed my lips. 'Was Sandslash covering it?! Did Clay think that this was some sort of weird fashion I was into?! Wait... That's not the point!'

"Not very keen, are we?" asked Rood. "Now, we have one of your pokemon. Hand over the rest of yours and we shall liberate them."

Clay smirked. "Ha! Never!" he exclaimed proudly as he pointed towards behind us.

The handful of us turned around to see around a dozen construction workers, all accompanied by Drilburs, Palpitoads, and Sandiles.

"An' I'm up next!" Clay declared, causing us to whip back around. He stood there proudly as an Excadrill and a Krokrok ran from behind us and jumped in front of Clay, intent on battling. "Yer surrounded! As soon as this city was abandoned, the Nurse Joy left, along with the access to any PC's, but y'all think I'd be dumb enough to leave the City unattended? Even two of my pokemon's enough to take down ya' scum!"

"Even though I've already beaten all of you before?" I asked, glancing back over the construction workers behind us. These were definitely all faces that I've seen from the gym before.

"Well, yer surrounded!" Clay countered back, pointing at the lot of us.

I pursed my lips. 'Let's make this short and sweet... I'd hardly believe that these are the only pokemon that Clay has with them, so if I knock out all of them at once, he'll think twice before releasing the rest, and hopefully... Hide them in the process.' I looked over all of the Team Plasma grunts, who only seemed to be having a stare down with the construction workers. 'And clearly they're not gonna do anything but stand there and look pretty... Pretty stupid. Ha! Haha! Wait, what was I doing?'

"All of you, fight for Team Plasma!" Rood valiantly declared, speaking to the idle grunts. "Liberate these poor souls from their abusers!"

'Low leveled grunts vs low leveled construction workers..? That'll be going against my plan.' I picked out Krookodile's pokeball from my utility belt and held it up for everyone to see. "Lord Rood, allow me... I guarantee you that this fight won't last," I declared with a smirk. 'Earthquake. Yup. While all of these rookies know bulldoze, which you have to aim, earthquake will hit everyone. And I'm also pretty sure that Krookodile has much more experience than all of these people.'

Rood looked reluctant but nodded. "Very well... Stand down! Make room for your superior!" Rood commanded as he and the grunts moved back.

The construction workers started to surround me in a circle with Clay and I inside of it. I was surrounded by various construction workers and pokemon, only Clay and his pokemon sticking out to me.

"Krookodile, come on out!" I called out as I threw a pokeball in the air.

Krookodile materialized after a red light and she boringly crossed her arms. "Krook..." she spat, seemingly uninterested.

I deadpanned at her reaction. "Don't worry, you won't have to do much..." I sighed. "Let's just get this over with then. You clearly don't wanna battle." After all, I had already come up with a plan.

Seeing all of the workers' eager expressions, it was clear that they were probably going to gang up on me with some kind of ground move, which I deducted was bulldoze. I dodge, they hit each other. Then earthquake finishes them off.

Clay looked a bit annoyed at our exchange; he probably thought it was doltish. However, he shook off the feeling and put up his hand. Evidently it was a signal to attack when all of the workers, including himself, yelled out "BULLDOZE!"

I smirked. 'Just as planned...'

Clay seemed to catch on at the last second, along with his pokemon who jumped up in the air but then stopped short.

This was because they saw all of the little Sandiles, Palpitoads, and Drilburs closing in on the same exact spot on Krookodile's head, their arms in front of them turning into drills.

Krookodile glared at them, trying to intimidate them just by her looks. It worked, but not enough to make them stop. She turned to me and glowered as if to ask, "Well? What now?"

'Wait... Wait... And now!' "Dodge!" I commanded as they were all about to hit Krookodile.

Krookodile mundanely sidestepped as she boringly watched all of the pokemon crash into each other. She scoffed and crossed her arms, looking to the side.

'Life of the party...'

There was an uprising sound of gasps by the construction workers as all of the pokemon collided, a blinding white light from the impact illuminating the small range of collision. It resulted in a dust cloud which revealed many exhausted pokemon who were clearly hit and one fainted Sandile.

"And now, I win," I declared to Clay.

"An' d'ya' really think you'll win in one move?" mocked Clay, challenging me with his eyes. "Yer not gettin' past me!"

"And who said I was aiming to faint them?" I asked, contradicting him. Obviously that was my goal, but it wouldn't hurt to jest around a little. "Earthquake!"

Krookodile rolled her eyes but nodded as she stomped on the ground once, resulting in a really loud echo. A few construction workers and grunts went off balance, but Rood, Clay, and I were unaffected. All of the pokemon dropped to the ground like dead flies and fainted upon contact, with the exception of Excadrill and Krokorok. Excadrill and Krokorok were wincing in immense pain, trying to catch their balance, but the ground was still shaking even after Krookodile's attack.

Clay's eyes widened as he looked at the clear ground below him.

I raised an eyebrow and down looked at the ground in an attempt to see what he saw, and I could have sworn I saw the ground shaking.

I looked back up to see the construction workers mirror Clay's horrific facial expression.

A rumbling erupted from below ground as it started to shake even more violently. There was a loud crashing sound from below the earth that kinda sounded like crashing metal, but muffled. It rung in all of our ears, shaking the ground with it.

'What's going on..?' I wondered. 'Does Krookodile have some sort of special earthquake attack?'

"Th-The gym!" one of the workers finally croaked out once the noise was gone.

I froze. My eyes widened. 'Oh my gosh... Clay's gym is underground... Isn't it... Oh my gosh..! Just play it off like you meant it!' I told myself, cursing myself out for the cowardliness I was showing.

Clay turned to me and looked at me with a deep hatred. "So ya' planned this! Slimy little..! My gym! Ya' destroyed it!"

'Play it off, just play it off!' I weakly nodded my head, trying my best to smirk but feeling myself twitch a bit. They didn't seem to notice, though. 'You are an utter moron!' I scolded myself. 'Just play it off, you can't go back now after all of that talk!'

"I knew Team Plasma was scum, but this's just plain dirty!" Clay exclaimed. "My gym! It's destroyed, and it's all yer fault!"

I had the urge to go on my knees and apologize profusely, no matter how out of character that would be. This was the second gym I demolished. This really wasn't a part of my plan, but Team Plasma was here and I was talking about how I knew it would be over all in one turn... I considered outing myself then and there, but rejected the idea. 'Oh my goodness, you moron, just PLAY IT OFF or I'll kill you! I'll kill... Myself? I'M CONFUSED!' I resisted the urge to pull out all of my hair and just continued to stare at Clay with a false sense of pride, waiting for his next move. 'I can't believe I did that!'

Clay seemed to be in a state of shock and ire, a blank stare sent in my direction.

"G-Go check on the gym, boss!"

I turned around and saw the equally horrified workers.

"W-We'll handle it from here!"

"Krokorok, Excadrill, you'll be under our command for now..!"

Clay nodded and seemingly stumbled backwards, bolting through the gym doors.

I looked down at the two pokemon that Clay left behind, and they looked like they were on the verge of fainting. Both were snarling at me as they shakily stood up, preparing to follow the orders of their temporary trainers.

I mindlessly returned Krookodile to her pokeball and followed after Clay, uncaring of the sage and grunts I was leaving behind. I bolted through the gym doors, only to see the elevator missing. I paled.

That meant that either the elevator had fallen due to the earthquake or Clay was checking out the damage done. Obviously, it was the latter, because Clay was no where in sight.

I knew that Clay's gym was made to withstand ground type attacks due to it being underground and all, but it was made to withstand attacks from underground where Clay actually resided. But what if the attack came from above? A powerful attack like earthquake from a highly leveled pokemon...

I felt like I was in a trance, staring at the elevator, waiting for it to come back up. It felt like seconds, but I knew that minutes passed.

The elevator buzzed back to life as it shakily came back up, revealing a devastated and enraged Clay.

"L-Let me explain first!" I tried to convince him. It wasn't that I was scared of Clay or anything, but I really didn't want to take the credit of destroying a gym. Twice.

"Ya' ruined my gym!" Clay repeated, his voice booming through the empty lobby. "It's all ruined! There ain't one beam still standin'!" Clay threw his hands up in agitation. "I don' get it! Why'd someone like ya' be helpin' Team Plasma! That other boy an' ya' riled'em up last time!"

I narrowed my eyes, disappointed in myself. "I didn't mean to destroy your gym, I was only trying to-"

The door opened from behind us, causing me to stop short and turn around. In came Rood, strutting in proudly with his flowing robes and two grunts behind him. "Your work is done here... We were successfully able to subdue the rebels, and we'll handle the rest of the city. I believe you have somewhere else to be, yes?"

I stood there for a few seconds before I finally succumbed and nodded my head, taking a last pitiful glance at Clay before running out.

'Even if I try to reveal the truth, am I successful?'

It took me a while to find the Relic Castle.

I've never been there before, so I pretty much ran around Route 4 until I found the Desert Resort. Then I fought my way through the barren plains of a sandstorm.

'I swear, I've got sand everywhere...' I found it pretty fun to walk into a sandstorm due to the "challenge," but the aftereffects of having sand in my clothes and my hair was not something I was looking forward to.

A person came into my vision, his back to me. He was surrounded by maybe three broken pillars and a couple of blue looking statues. Obviously, he was a sage, but then where was the Relic Castle?

'Dark green robes... No, I haven't met Ryoku before,' I decided as I marched up to his back. It was then that I saw a brick floor covered in sand, stairs descending into stygian.

He turned around before I even say anything. "I take it that you're Hilda... Come. We have important business to attend to." He turned around before I could respond and headed into the Relic Castle.

I cocked my head in confusion. 'Weird...' I looked at the stairs with reluctance before trekking into the darkness.

The environment felt weird, yet soothing. Different was probably the best way to describe it. There were yellow stone brick walls on all sides and the ceiling, clearly aged by its dull and pale color. There were streams of sand running down them and from the ceiling, covering the pure white steps that I went down.

Upon finishing the stairs, I was enchanted by the sight of marvelous white bricks being engulfed by sand. The sight was pretty plain, but it still looked pretty magnificent in my opinion.

I realized that I didn't see Ryoku around so I scurried out of the small entryway and hastily looked around. In front of me was a ledge that I couldn't see above, and to the right, a wall. I hastily looked to my left, only to see a whirlpool of quicksand.

I paled. 'Oh my goodness..! Don't tell me he fell down that! I don't have the Light Stone yet!'

"Hurry and fall through the flowing sands!" his echoing voice scolded.

'A ghost?!' I thought, hastily turning around and defensively putting a hand on my utility belt. 'Or he really did fall through the quicksand and wants to take me down with him...' I hesitantly put a foot into the quicksand, only to be immediately engulfed and pulled down. "What the..!" I cursed as my head was whisked down into the eye of the quicksand. I couldn't breath for a second, but I was soon spat out and found myself thrown onto a cushion of soft sand.

It was like a mini hill, and there was another one to the left of me. When I looked up, I saw sand dripping down. Some went on my face before I spat out the sand in my mouth and blinked, trying to get the sediments out of my eye. I stood up and looked for a way to escape, seeing another ledge and another staircase.

'Staircase it is...' I jogged over to the stairs and went back up, finding myself on a platform that overlooked the first room I was in. I blinked in confusion. 'Alright... Same place where I came from. Made a circle. This is productive.' I jumped off the ledge and jogged back to the first quicksand whirlpool, stopping short right before it.

It was evident that this quicksand didn't kill people, and Ryoku said to "fall through the flowing sands," so where was he?

I saw another quicksand pit beyond this one, but it was what I assumed was that other hill downstairs. I approached it and saw that there was a path to the right, so I carefully circumvented the quicksand pit. There was a case of stairs so I went down them.

I felt a bit lost until I saw Ryoku waiting at the bottom of the stairs, who looked rather discontent.

'Well dude, you said 'fall through the flowing sands' so what did you expect?'

However, he didn't say a word and turned around, signifying for me to follow him. After a few steps, he stopped short and stepped out of the way to reveal a Sandile that wasn't there earlier. "If you will?"

After what seemed like endless hours of battling Relic Castle pokemon and falling through sand, I could have sworn that the top of my head was composed of half hair and half sand, even with this hat on.

All that surrounded us now was a giant hill of sand with a giant white staircase before us, presumably leading back up to the main room. There also was a small entryway in the far end of the room, but I felt like that was completely different from the Relic Castle.

"Well, it looks like the Light Stone wasn't in here," I commented.

Ryoku gave me a funny look. "How did you know we were looking for the Light Stone?"

"U-Uh, I was briefed."

Ryoku nodded, accepting my excuse. Suddenly, his head shot up. "Do you hear that?" he snapped.

I furrowed my brows and pursed my lips, trying to sense this noise he was thinking about.

I did hear something. It was faint, but it sounded like a pokemon. Maybe it was singing? The melody sounded familiar, but I didn't know how. It wasn't really clear enough for me to identify.

Ryoku raised an eyebrow. "It's a pokemon... What kind of pokemon, though?" He looked intrigued. "It may just be a Volcarona."

'No Light Stone means no ditching Team Plasma, so...' I spoke before he could leave. "Perhaps it is, but we came here for the Light Stone... Maybe we should just leave it at that?"

Ryoku reluctantly looked away. "I suppose you are right... I was hoping to catch a Volcarona to present to Lord Ghetsis, but if I came back empty handed he wouldn't favor my attempts."

"... So you wouldn't brutally beat it?"

Ryoku gave me a funny look. "Of course not! If I was for pokemon abuse, do you really think I would have joined Team Plasma?" Ryoku didn't seem offended, more so irritated. "In any case, you are now relieved to do what you please. I have to report my findings to Lord Ghetsis." Ryoku walked ahead of me and ascended the giant staircase, leaving me to myself.

I contemplated checking out this supposed Volcarona. I could go up the wide pearly white stairs leading back to the start or into the blackness of the small and dark entryway leading to the unknown. The small black cavern seemed to be calling me with that faint but familiar melody of some unknown pokemon, but who knows when the next time I'd have free time is? It was time for another training session with my main team.

I chose the stairs.

"Good, doing really good!" I called out to Swanna who was on the far end of the battlefield.

"Swaa!" she called back, holding up a wing.

We were currently in that makeshift battlefield I made in the outskirts of Nuvema Town. My regular team was out, and after a long period of training, everyone perched themselves on a tree branch, watching Swanna's special training. She was able to carry two logs at once now, one in each talon, while doing bravebird.

Swanna started flying over here, ecstatic at her new achievement.

"Ready for some live cargo?" I asked temptingly.

Swanna paled and vigorously shook her head.

"Oh come on, you can handle it!"

Swanna gave me a pleading stare.

"There's no need to be nervous," I assured her. "Simisage weighs a lot less than two trees! Or... At least I think," I claimed, looking down at him. "Yeah... I'm pretty sure that he's a lot lighter than even one tree."

Swanna craned her neck the other way, fully rejecting the idea.

Swimisage jumped on my head. I couldn't see him fully but I saw that he extended a hand and was now pointing at Swanna. Simisage started screeching really loudly; so loud that my ears rung.

Swanna was visibly intimidated as she took a couple of steps back.

"A-Alright Simisage, I think she got the message..." I told him, barely hearing myself over his screeching. "Whatever that message was..." I muttered to myself, carrying him off of my head and onto the tree next to me. "Look, just try it once. If it makes you feel better, wanna use me?" I offered.

Swanna seemed even more horrified at the notion.

I pouted. "Oh, come on! Just once. If it goes wrong, I'll... Uh..." I looked to the side and pursed my lips. "Um... I have nothing to offer, but... I love you?" I gave her my most winning smile and two thumbs up.

Swanna rolled her eyes, and I thought I heard groans from my other pokemon.

I rolled my own eyes in retaliation. "Just once! If something goes wrong, I'll blame myself, not you."

Swanna cocked her head, or neck, to the side, giving me a funny look. Evidently, that statement didn't help at all.

I pursed my lips and gave Swanna a hard stare, hoping to pressure her into submission. "Bird, I will slap you. Get into position!"

Swanna shrunk back and cowered away to the far end of the battlefield. Deep down, she knew I was kidding, so I saw no need to clarify my jocose tone.

I smirked in triumph and walked to the center of the battlefield and faced my resting pokemon, three of which were looking at me with horror with Simisage being the odd one out and looking somewhat proud.

I spread my arms out like a bird. "Alright Swanna, whenever you're ready! Just grab my arms and carry me like a tree!"

"Swaa!" Swanna cawed from some distance away.

Assuming that Swanna begun, I took a deep breath and braced myself for liftoff.

I felt a surge of power go through my veins as my vision turned into a slight blue tint. I smirked from ear to ear, my eyes wide with excitement as I was lifted about an inch or two off of the ground. The wind was speeding through me; it was exhilarating, more so than flying by Zubat's teeth.

'So this is what it's like to use bravebird...' I thought to myself, the wind resistance threatening to tear the skin off of my face. 'I'm pretty jealous,' I admitted.

It only took a mere five seconds to get near to the end of the battlefield, something which should have taken at least a minute.

I realized that Swanna wasn't slowing down like she usually was. "U-Uh, S-Swanna!" I managed to croak, the wind cutting into my throat. "We're almost at the end!"

I heard Swanna peep something, indicating that she didn't realize it. And then she did the worst thing possible.

She stopped short.

I was unintentionally lurched forward and within a nano-second found my face skidding against the somewhat bumpy ground. I hissed as I moved my hands forward to try and stop myself from skidding more, but that only semi-worked. My arms were almost bent the wrong way, so I quickly retaliated them. The sudden stop forced me to flip over as I was flipped, my back slamming against the ground.

To put it short, I fell off and got hurt.

Really hurt.

"Ah..." I hissed as my eyes crashed shut. I looked up at the fading sun with half-lidded eyes. My elbows hurt, a lot, my face hurt, a lot, and my back didn't hurt because I couldn't feel it. I felt like a vegetable. I tried to bring my hands to my face to caress the sore spots, but a wave of immense pain soared through my arms. "Ah... Okay, no more of that..." I muttered as I brought down my arms, wincing. The pain in my back spread like a wildfire. I realized that my voice sounded somewhat muffled. 'Well, I did hit my head... I think...'

I heard a muffled chorus of cries as the sun was blocked from my vision with a blob of color, teasing me by pretending to get into focus, only to blur before I could make a clear picture.

"Is that you guys..?" I moaned. "Pfft..! Hahaha!"

And cue the chorus of confused groans.

"Yeah... Yeah, this hurts a lot, but come on! I probably skidded a few good feet!" I semi-exclaimed, my voice hoarse for whatever reason it was. My vision started to come back to me and I was finally able to see my pokemon in clear examination.

Emboar had that poker face that he always wore. His arms were crossed, but his eyes were fixed on me. Simisage seemed to catch on to my, "look at the bright side!" attitude with a giant smirk on his face, prepared to joke around about my amazing blowout. All I could see of Boldore was the top of her head, as she was standing by my feet. Stoutland too. Swanna was right next to my head, craning her neck so low that half of my vision was her head blocking out the sun. She looked horrified.

"I'm okay," I claimed, giggling to myself. If only I could have seen my fall from a third perspective; that would've been pretty amusing. I tried to sit up with much difficulty, grunting almost inaudibly. I squinted my eyes shut once or twice, but after a few good seconds, I sat myself up, my elbows still sore even after I was done using them as an armature. I sighed with relief and looked up at Emboar. I groped for his elbow asking, "Do you mind?" without waiting for his answer and started pulling myself upwards until I was on my feet. After I finished, I let my arms carelessly dangle to my sides as I slightly slouched, the pain in my back spreading like a wildfire. 'I think I already used that metaphor...'

My pokemon had been silent, only watching me attentively.

"I think I should head back..." I muttered to myself. My vision was dizzy and my head tasted sideways. My tongue was blurry. Yup, this was painful, but I'm sure people have gone through worse. I turned to Emboar. "Thanks for the help... I'll handle it from here."

I heard sounds of surprise from Swanna, Boldore, and Stoutland while Emboar only gave me an objecting shake of his head.

"Don't worry, I got this!" I claimed with a smile, my mouth involuntarily twitching just a little at the corner. "My legs are fine, I can walk on my own. Plus... We've been out here for a while. After this one, I was gonna make us leave anyway."

Emboar looked reluctant but backed away. With a nod, he accepted my request.

I flew to Swanna, who looked immensely guilty. "Hey, don't worry about it! Better now than later, plus, come on, it had to have looked a little funny!"

Swanna only continued to stare at me with those beating eyes of hers.

I pursed my hair, unknowing of how to appease her. I took a few yells back until I was a favorable distance away from my pokemon and blinked up their pokeballs. "You've all done great today. Keep up the good work." I returned them all to their pokeballs, not accepting a word.

I hobbled through the forest for quite a while; it was probably sunset by now, from what I could tell from the sky. I had been stalking away from the sun and towards town.

I didn't lie when I said my legs were fine, but just for the heck of it, I limped, somehow finding amusement in that. However, my slouching and dangling arms were an actual effect of my tasty pain. I didn't dare smell my elbow in the slightest. It didn't hurt that much, but if I could avoid even the tiniest of cuts, why not?

I could see a clearing in the trees just up ahead, so I was a mere few stairs away from Nuke'em Town.

'I really need to sit down,' I thought to myself as I straightened my posture a little and tried to stop my arms from swaying without upsetting my elbows. I faltered a bit at the sudden change in possum. I looked at my surroundings to determine where I was, and once I was sure, walked into the main patch of the town and started navigating my way back on the yellow brick road.

I had accidentally wafted into another passerbyer, who muttered an anthropology.

My eyes hidened for a second as I halted and clenched my teeth, hissing almost inaudibly, before taking a deep breath and continuing my walk.

'Maybe this is worse than I thought...' I bought to myself, biting my eyelashes. I swayed a bit with each strep.

"Are... Are you alright?"

My head snapped up at the familiar voice, causing an ephemeral irritation in my neck. It was a wonder how I was still conscious and functioning after such an impact on my . I turned my head to the source of the voice and saw N standing next to the stone path. It seemed that all I needed was a crack in the neck, as I started to feel a little less lightheaded, but unfortunately, as a result, I felt more pain.

He didn't look worried or even interested, yet that was how he always looked out of battle to me. "What happened?"

'Crud... What happened to me? Oh, right... I fell on my grace. I can't say what really happened!' My eyes darted around for a bit as I thought of an excuse.

Before I could even answer, N walked up to me. He crossed his arms and started leaning in, until his face was not too far from mine.

He was just a little too close for my comfort, and without realizing it, I took a step back and leaned back a little. I looked at him quizzically and somewhat surprised of the sudden notion, but he didn't seem to notice my reaction.

N only leaned in a little more with an unaltered face; he didn't seem to find any awkwardness in his actions whatsoever. We stayed like this staring at each other for a few more seconds before finally retracting himself. "Your face... You've been hurt somehow," he examined, crossing his arms and resting his chin on his upright fist.

'Oh, that's all he was doing,' I realized, any confusion of his actions dismissed. I cleared my throat. "Uh... Haha, funny story. I... Fell off a tree while picking berries," I explained. 'Yeah, that works,' I thought to myself, content. "Fell face-first right into the ground."

N glanced over to my satchel at the side of my waist. "Your bag doesn't seem full," he observed.

I twisted my head to look down at the satchel and cringe at the surge of pain, but quickly ignored it. It didn't take a genius to examine that it looked relatively empty. I almost scowled, but then I thought of another excuse. "Wh-What? Oh, man! I must have dropped them when I fell off of the... Oh man," I muttered to myself, feigning my shock and disappointment. 'As long as he doesn't look in there for himself... Boldore's caught in a dusk ball and Swanna's in a quick ball, and all of my Team Plasma pokemon are in regular pokeballs. Plus, I keep forgetting to take out Fennel's dream mist...'

N didn't look convinced, but he nodded anyway.

"So... What brings you to Nuvema Town?" I asked. I didn't really see much of a reason for him to come all the way over here.

"..." N seemed to be thinking. "This can be discussed on the way to your house... I'm sure that after your injuries would like to sit down." N furrowed his eyes. "You don't seem well."

I blinked. 'Oh, right... I completely forgot about those.'

We started walking in a rhythmic silence. I was waiting for N to speak, but he hesitated for a few seconds.

"You see, as the King of Team Plasma, it's my responsibility to learn of everything that has happened," he explained. "I need to know how the liberation in Driftveil City. Apparently, you and Sage Rood led it, but Sage Rood is no where to be found..." he continued, his voice growing gradually suspicious.

I nodded, wincing slightly when I felt a irritation in my neck. 'Alright, no more of that...'

N paused his speaking for a second. "I must know everything... What was the city like? Were we successful?"

"Alright," I replied. "So the city was pretty much abandoned," I recalled.

"Abandoned you say?"

I was about to nod but remembered the stiffness in my neck. I hummed an "mhm" before continuing my report. "To my knowledge, at least," I added. "There was an exception, though. Clay and some of his gym workers stayed behind."

"Were they expecting us?" he inquired."

"I don't think so... They were demolishing the city," I explained, pursing my lips because I was still confused to as why. 'Sure, people abandoned all of the buildings and houses, but what purpose would Clay have for destroying his city? And did he even have the dang authorization?!' I pursed my lips. "Actually, they were expecting us, but tomorrow, not today."

"Was Sage Rood with you?" he asked somewhat eagerly.

"Well, not in the beginning," I replied. "I showed up a bit early..." I stopped myself short before I said anything I wasn't supposed to. "He showed up when I met up with Clay at his gym."

N muttered something to himself.

I couldn't make it out, and that sorta annoyed me. I couldn't even read his lips either because I refused to turn my head; any small movements killed my neck. "Mind me asking, but is something going on..?"

"..." N looked to the side. "I'm not sure," he finally admitted. "Sage Ghetsis believes that Rood may be conspiring about something, yet there hasn't been proof." From the tone of N's voice, I could tell that he wasn't very fond of the idea of suspicion on one of his high-rankers. But Ghetsis' word did seem to have an influence on him...

"Proof for what..?" I asked, being a little gutsy.

"Even I don't know," N revealed slowly, as if he was trying to think of a straight answer. "It was just a lingering suspicion of his... Continue on, then."

"Right..." I furrowed my brows at the abruptness but didn't push my luck. "So I... defeated... The gym workers and Clay."

"And then you took their pokemon to be liberated, right?"

"I think..."

"... You think?"

"Well, after defeating everyone, he sent me away to guard Lord Ryoku," I explained. I narrowed my eyes, somewhat disappointed in myself. I barely even noticed when I called Ryoku by the title "Lord," something which would've severely irked me not too long ago. I scowled to myself. "In the Relic Castle," I added.

"I see..." N replied. "So that's why..." he muttered almost inaudibly. I don't think that those words were for my ears.

"Is there anything else you'd like to know?" I asked.

From the corner of my eye, I saw N shake his head. "No, but I do have another task to assign you with."

'Why do I get so much Team Plasma work?' I wondered. 'I mean, sure, I'm a member of Team Plasma, but a new one... Isn't there some sort of trust factor?'

N seemed to read my mind. "You are one of the only trainers with a high rank... Naturally, you'd have a lot of responsibilities."

I blinked. "Oh, uh... That makes sense," I replied. I pursed my lips. 'There are only about ten high-rankers, including myself. I think. Give or take.'

That meant that some of the sages don't fight. My assumption was that this included Rood and Ryoku, seeing as I needed to guard them both today, or at least assist in whatever they were doing. And Bronius always walks around with grunts, so he was under my speculation as well.

"I'm assuming I'm going to have to participate in another liberation?"

From the corner of my eye, I saw N nod.

I inwardly sighed. "I hope it's not Mistralton," I murmured to myself under my breath, almost inaudibly. "Where do I need to go tomorrow?"

"..." N stayed silent.

I almost halted walking. 'Did he blank out or something?'

"... Undella Town."

I almost sighed with relief. 'Thank goodness. No more gym leaders. I wouldn't want Skyla to hate me, and knowing myself, I would've messed up somehow.'

"I must be going, then..." N said, coming to a halt. "You've passed your house, by the way..."

I froze and sheepishly turned around, seeing N standing in front of my house. "Thanks..."

I sighed. 'I really should have picked berries while I was out there...'

I was hungry.

How this problem came up so many times, I didn't know. I was too broke to buy anything more than some poffin ingredients, and I had no berries. Well, I had one berry, but that wouldn't last me through dinner. It was between starving and hunting for berries in the night.

Just the thought of falling off of a tree with my already burning shoulders and joints made me cringe. I realized that I ignored the fact that I'd have to be using my arms a lot.

'Well... It's either I hurt myself for food or I starve for the night...' I shrugged as I somewhat painfully pushed myself off of the couch. 'Food.' I went for the door and opened it, my hand twitching just a bit, and walked out, closing it behind me in the process. I was already wearing my satchel, so I was good to go.

The sky was just borderline of gray.

Thankfully, it wasn't completely dark yet. I'd have enough light out to pick enough berries to at least last the night.

I started walking to the usual spot I entered the forest as if I was on autopilot. It was almost as if I was in a mindless trance until someone called out my name.

"Hilda!" The voice was somewhat distant and sounded like it was approaching me.

I turned my neck to the direction of the voice, wincing upon the sudden surge of pain. I saw two slightly silhouetted people running towards me, one taller, one shorter, but the shorter guy's hair made him look the same height. 'Is that... Hilbert and Nate?' I wondered, furrowing my brows. 'Why would they be here out of all places..?' I turned my body around to face them as they ran to me, halting at a favorable distance.

"We finally found you..." Hilbert claimed, slightly panting.

I raised an eyebrow. "What are you two doing here? Shouldn't you be in Nimbasa?"

"Yeah... But we came over here," Nate replied, somewhat confused.

'Oh right... These guys aren't under house arrest.'

"It was pretty tedious work, though," Nate admitted, his voice trailing off into a trill. "At every route, bridge, city, town, you name it; checkups. Checkups everywhere. Long lines to get from place to place, they have to pat us down..." Nate stopped himself and pursed his lips. "It was awkward."

'Did something happen..?' I wondered. "Do you need me?" I asked. 'Or did you just want to visit?'

Hilbert nodded but then looked me over once more. "But before that... What happened to you?"

"You like like you were hit... Hard," Nate commented. His eyes drifted down to my arms. "Both your face and on your elbows."

My eyes darted around to my sides, only to notice some random Team Plasma guards scattered around the area. 'I never noticed them before...' I realized. 'Perhaps their attendance just became that normal?' I thought, frowning a bit. I reverted my attention to the two people in front of me. "I, uh... Fell off of a tree."

Hilbert nor Nate look convinced, but they nodded anyway.

"That being said, there isn't a problem, is there?" I asked somewhat worriedly. 'He did say that they were pat down, right?'

"Yeah, but... Can we go some place else?" Hilbert asked, crossing his arms. "It's sorta drafty out here."

Nate rolled his eyes. "Well, we are outside..."

Hilbert shot him a patronizing look and then turned back to me, his face suddenly a lot more serious.

I sighed. 'Well, this is more important than finding berries... But I was so hungry!' I nodded and turned around. "Follow me, I'll take you home."

"Nice place you got here," commented Hilbert as the two of them welcomed themselves into my home. "It's pretty roomy."

Nate followed behind him and shut the door, the two of them making themselves comfortable on my couch.

"Well, you two adjusted rather quickly," I commented as I took my own seat on the adjacent couch.

"Well, we've been on our feet all day," Nate replied defensively. "There were so many people heading in and out of Castelia City." With that said, he slumped to prove his point. "Standing and walking..."

"The two of us know that you just didn't fall off of a tree... What happened?" asked Hilbert, who was giving me a hard stare that dared me to lie.

"I was doing some special training with my pokemon," I explained. "Something went wrong, and we- Ow." I tried to shrug, but cringed when my elbows started burning. "Well... There was a mishap," I finished, sheepishly putting my arms down.

"Speaking of training, that was our issue," Hilbert replied with an apologetic face. "You wouldn't believe how many grunts are walking around Nimbasa!"

"Really?" I asked. "When I was there this morning, it seemed pretty... Empty."

Hilbert looked to the side. "I don't know... They all marched in some point later in the day. Heck, when I met up with Nate they weren't even here, but when we decided we were going to start to train, they all marched in and patrolled like it was common."

"Some did pour into Gear Station, but they never came out," Nate added. "It would make sense that they went to Anville Town... After all, we witnessed the domination."

"Ha, a countless sea of ginger grunts in Nimbasa," I commented. "Must've been quite a scene."

"Well... Not all of them were gingers," Hilbert corrected me. "Though prior to this day, I thought that it was impossible."

I pursed my lips. "Really?" Now this was interesting. "New recruits perhaps?"

"Well, that's what I'd think," Nate replied. "They all seemed around our age."

"But wherever they were, there were the older ginger grunts commanding them around," Hilbert added, somewhat tiredly. "Though the original gingers were the only ones doing the cross-border pat down stuff."

I nodded. "I see... Well, this is all very interesting, no lie, but I somehow doubt that you came all this way just to brief me on this."

Nate smirked and held up a finger. "Correct."

"You see... We don't have a place to train," Hilbert explained. "We were hoping that you'd give us a place."

"All I got is an Oshowatt," Nate claimed with a nonchalant shrug. "I need this."

"Wait, so you didn't lose your pokemon?" I asked with a thankful tone. "You said you were pat down, so I was thinking..."

"I hid them well," claimed Nate who looked to the side and scratched his head. "You don't want to know how."

I gave an amused chuckle and nodded. "I agree, you do need a place to train," I replied, reverting back to the topic at hand, and I've got the perfect place, but in exchange, do me a favor."

Hilbert and Nate gave me confused looks that urged me to go on.

"Buy me some food."

Nate and Hilbert looked at each other, somewhat dumbfounded.

"I'm broke. My friends had all of the money with them. I'm living off of scraps." I eyed them. "Deal?"

"... Sure?"

I smiled. "Ahh... Thank goodness. Thought I was gonna starve tonight."

"Well... Where do you train?"

"I'd show you now, but it's getting sorta late," I replied. "It's hard to see out during the middle of the night, and while it isn't exactly night yet, it will be night by the time we get there."

Hilbert sighed. "In other words, we'll have to come earlier if we're going to see this clandestine training spot of yours..."

"And tomorrow isn't such a good time either," I said with a shrug. "I gotta go to Undella Town."

"For what?" inquired Nate.

"Team Plasma's advancing," I explained. I frowned when I acknowledged the words that came out of my mouth. 'By now... They own over half of Unova... Wait what?! Oh my gosh, they own half of Unova!' "Guys, guys! I just realized that they own half of Unova."

Hilbert gave me a funny look and nodded.

'When did this happen?! There are, like, only five places that they haven't conquered yet, give or take... Some hero I turned out to be!' I pursed my lips at my furious thoughts. 'I gotta find the light stone..! I gotta find this hero of truth! I gotta run Team Plasma out of Unova! I gotta break out my friends, my mother, the gym leaders, the rebels-'

"Hilda... Are you alright?" asked Nate. "Mentally, I mean."

"Y-Yeah... I guess," I replied awkwardly. I sighed. "I just realized that I've been slacking off on my primary duties."

"I guess we should get going then... I'd like some sleep before the sun rises," Hilbert said with annoyance in his voice. "Hopefully, there're no long lines on the way to Castelia or Nimbasa... That's where all of the lines were... The longest ones anyway."

Nate frowned. "Those checkups take way too long for my comfort.

"Sorry I couldn't be of assistance," I replied, trying to keep myself from giggling. "But I guess the least I can do is see you out."

Hilbert and Nate gave me waves of goodbyes as they headed for the entrance to Route 1 being guarded by some grunts.

After having some light dinner at a cafe and having a few laughs, they had to go with me professedly apologizing for my excessive spending during dinner.

I could somewhat hear the conversation going on between the two and the five grunts at the border, though only one female grunt talked for the whole lot. I realized that there weren't many people on the streets.

"We're leaving town. Pat away," said Nate.

The grunts gave him a sour look. "No one leaves Town at this time. You're not allowed to leave past 9 P.M. without authorization."

'... What? Since when was that a rule?!' I furrowed my brows.

"But we don't live here," retorted Hilbert with a forceful voice. "We have to get back to our homes!"

"That's too bad. You should've left earlier then," replied the apathetic grunt. "No one is allowed to leave anywhere past 9 P.M. without proper authorization," she repeated robotically.

"Where do we stay then?"

The grunt shrugged uncaringly. "Not my problem."

I could only guess that Hilbert and Nate were glaring at the grunts. I heard a defeated sigh from one of them as they turned around defeatedly. They sheepishly scurried up to me with Hilbert giving me a wide smile and Nate giving me two thumbs up. Nate started nudging me while trilling, "Eh? Eh?"

I sighed. "I swear, I should charge people for staying at my house."

This is Normalcy : End

Firstly, I am immensely sorry for the long update. This school year is a lot more work than it was last year, leaving me with little to no free time. Not to mention the fact that my laptop died... But that's really no excuse, right? You guys waited all this time for such a short chapter. So I'm putting this to a vote :
Longer chapters (11k+ words), longer updates(1-4 weeks)? or Shorter chapters(1-5k words), shorter updates(Every few days)?
You can vote in either a review, a PM, or some poll I'm putting up. (That is, if you're even reading this story anymore ._.)

I'd actually put this chapter in some sort of re-writing phase, but it's been way too long since I've updated. (3 weeks ._.) I'm going to assume you guys would prefer a new chapter instead of a rehashed previous one XD (But seriously, this chapter was... Meh. I was trying to finish it quickly, and well... Didn't turn out well.)

Now to comments actually related to the story...

It's just as Hilda suspected, by the way (That Rood really did have a legit favor and changed his mind, and this so called "favor" will be revealed later on).

Those weird scenes with Hilda claiming that her "head tasted sideways" was kinda her mind being delusional due to the blow on her head. Since this is her POV after all, I thought I'd try it.

Also, Nate and Hilbert didn't show up in this chapter for "themselves," if you know what I mean. They were only in this chapter to show just how more oppressive and aggressive Team Plasma is getting.

And... I have nothing more to say about this chapter other than "sorry" for the really bad story boarding ._.

I also realized that It's 21 chapters in and we're still at Driftveil ._. So I'm going to start speeding things up a bit.

KawaiiJoltic :
You always say "thanks"
There's no reason to say so
I want to hurt you
And that's your haiku response of the... Month... (I really don't want to hurt you, please don't leave ._.) And it looks like this update took a little too long... My bad. And I thought Nate was either hit or miss, so thanks.

Coclea : Yeah, I assume that it's only right to respond to people who take the time to review, so the feeling's mutual. And yeah, Nate was kinda the third wheel in this, so it was either him or no one XD And yeah, without Nate, she'd probably feel a bit more down on herself. The "evil" role is both her trying to stay under cover and having fun with it at the same time.
And well, now you know what Rood wanted. (Or do you? =0 Do you think you pieced it together?)
And really? Well, I'm never a fan of my own writing, so maybe it's just me (that doesn't like battles).
Anthea and Concordia will appear sometime later. I'd tell you when, but I don't know if you mind spoilers or not XD (So I'll leave the answer below under all of the repsonses). But you're right, they're the "Ladies" that Hilda hasn't met yet.
And I feel like I do have to thank you XD Speaking your secondary language is probably hard work, and you always leave pretty lengthy reviews, which I'm pretty grateful for.
It's either "too much suspense" or "so much suspense," but there's no need to be nit picky, I got the gist =P
And tbh, N's POV won't be made in that chapter (or at least the parts that you were expecting), but he will in this one.
Thanks for reading and reviewing as always, and sorry for disappointing you with the long update!

Javalorena : Well... This was a much longer wait than anticipated ._. I'm really sorry. I know, right? Just when you think she's doomed to make house calls to the gyms all the time XD And I guess her revelation to Clay was no better, since she actually thought she admitted. Nate was probably the first to see her good intentions. And yeah, that was pretty much Elesa's relevance in the story (so far). To help push Hilda to be the hero of Truth, whether she realized it or not. Again... Sorry for the incredibly long update (._.) and thanks for reading and reviewing!

Miaomii : No problem, I really like to reply =DD And yeah, the double battle wasn't done too well... I don't know if you remember the chapter back in Striaton City, but there was a pretty short double battle there that I wasn't too fond of either. And nah, I'd never punish you with that kind of tedious rant XD (Especially since you've waited so long for an update...) Thanks for the feedback!

PikaScootaloo : Yep, I updated D=
Haha, my thoughts exactly! I wasn't so sure how well I got them together, but all of the feedback on them were ranging from good to great. And I would re-write the chapter, but... . (I don't think you'd want to wait on it, haha). And I was almost positive that I took a miss on that (their before and after reactions), but your response has assured me XD And yeah, I guess the subway battle wasn't important. To be honest, it was there just to show Hilda's creativity in battle, as many trainers would've just ignored Scraggy's "special sand attack." So I'm guessing that I'll be the first to use "Mullethead" then =P. And no, it's not weird that you call her Mei and him Nate at all XD. Almost everyone in the fandom calls Hilda Touko and everyone else by their english names. Thanks for taking the time to read and review.

Salmaawesome : Well, I have my reasons to think poorly (this incredibly long update included), but I bet it's not your favorite story anymore! Haha! And yes, I am planning to put in more characters from BW2, one of which has a particularly strange twist to him/her that I'm pretty excited to write about. But... That moment is so far away D=
Thanks for reading and reviewing!

Minor Spoilers ahead!

I was asked two questions, one being when Anthea and Concordia appear, the other one being if more BW2 characters will appear, so here's the more in depth answers. (Well, not in depth, but meh. "Minor spoilers")

Anthea and Concordia appear at N's Castle, when that moment finally arrives. They even get their own little back story.

More characters form BW2 will appear, specifically Colress, who doesn't appear as he would normally.