The Reasons Why
Torchic squeaked as he was hurled into the air by a final attack from the little, blue dragon-like creature with horns. Tyson rubbed a hand down his face. End of the first day and things were already not going so well. The tiny dragon put his hands on his waist and puffed his chest out in victory as Tyson returned Torchic.
"Great job, Gible," Elena praised, picking up her Pokémon and giving him a cuddle, which he attempted to squirm out of even as he soaked up the compliments. "Been working hard today but don't overdo it, alright?"
Gible rolled his eyes at that as if to say 'like I could overdo it.' Elena returned him to his Pokéball and then looked up at Tyson. "As for you…" she sighed deeply. "Don't quite know where to begin. Your battle technique is the poorest I've seen in a while."
"Don't rub it in," Tyson deadpanned, looking down at his starter's Pokéball.
"Could give you details and strategy tips but those won't be much help at this stage," Elena continued. "From what I could see, you don't seem to actually know much about the Pokémon you have."
"Of course I don't. I haven't been a Pokémon trainer for very long and I've only had Shoomie for less than a week."
"Still… should know a bit more about your Pokémon than you currently do if you're serious about training. And winning, for that matter."
"Well, what if I'm not?" Tyson blurted out rhetorically. "What if this whole Pokémon Gym thing is really just a humungous distraction that isn't getting me where I need to be? My team and I are on a mission, you know!"
"Yes, you told me," Elena replied. "If it's so important why don't you just do it?"
Tyson glared at her for the bluntness of that question but answered: "I'm trying! But my team isn't exactly on board with it. They're acting all chill even though this is literally a dire situation for us."
"Have you considered that maybe it's not as big a deal as you think it is? Or that maybe your friends think other things are more important?"
"Well they shouldn't! There's…" Tyson paused, trying to decide if he should tell someone like Elena about them being from another dimension. "There's… an event. We need to attend it but at this rate we're not going to make it. We've always been in it, whether it's as a team or as rivals, so it's important."
"Have you considered that maybe you've placed some unrealistic expectations on your friends based on an idealistic vision of how you think things were supposed to be?"
Tyson glared at her. One eye twitched. "Honestly, I'm not really anticipating the 'best case scenario' when we finally do get home… if we finally get there."
"Hm… well, have you considered—"
"Don't ask me to consider anything else!" Tyson yelled at her. She blinked wide-eyed at him, taken aback. His grip on Torchic's Pokéball tightened substantially. "You have no idea… how frustrating this is. I don't understand why everyone thinks it's okay; our parents, Ray's village, they're all going to miss us and nobody seems to think there's an imminent problem with that! And these Pokémon are just making it worse! To hell with this!"
Tyson raised Torchic's ball above his head. Elena's eyes widened and she gasped to say something quickly but not in time. Tyson threw the Pokéball down at the ground. It bounced and an audible snap of something in the machinery breaking was like a cue for the deafening silence that followed. Tyson's head was bowed so low that his fringe obscured his face completely.
"Forget this," he mumbled, mostly to himself. "Forget Roxanne and the Gyms and her stupid homework assignment. I'm going to figure out how to get back if it's the only thing I ever do for the rest of my life."
He turned on his heel, marching out of the training arena quickly, ignoring Elena's calls for him to take his Pokémon with him. She frowned angrily but decided that Torchic was a priority. She picked up his Pokéball and released him, glad to find that the mystery break in the machinery hadn't stopped it from working. Torchic shook his head and wing feathers vigorously and looked around confusedly. He barely managed to catch a glimpse of Tyson slamming a door and cheeped in a panic.
"Are you okay, Torchic?" Elena asked, crouching to his level. Torchic ignored her, taking anxious steps in the direction Tyson had gone. Why did it seem like his trainer was abandoning him? "Your trainer got a bit upset back there but that's no way to behave at all! Let's try to catch up with him."
Torchic nodded as Elena returned him, glancing worriedly at the rattle the Pokéball made when she moved it. By the time she'd gotten out the door herself, Tyson was already long gone. She cursed and ran quickly, set on the task of finding him.
To the north, the grassy plains that characterised the landscape around Rustboro City gradually inclined up towards a craggy valley. Above the aggregated, weathered rocks, slabs of stone rose up sharply like they'd exploded and froze that way. Tyson didn't encounter any trainers on his way up this route, still fuming and grumbling under his breath. It was so unfair, why didn't anybody understand his side of the argument? Putting off returning to their loved ones for the sake of trivial pet taming activities seemed like such a ludicrous trade-off. He at least expected someone sensible like Ray to side with him but that was blown out of the water the moment Tyson saw his shiny new badge.
He adjusted his backpack and looked up at the distant valley ahead. The enormity of the task he'd set for himself was beginning to catch up now that he'd blown off a little steam from the walk. Porygon Z was a teleporter and could well be anywhere but in his mind he was doing something that nobody else had the initiative to do: he was making an earnest start.
"The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step," Tyson quoted, putting a foot out in front of him. Then he tore up the hill like he had no time left to lose, which he really didn't.
Daichi groaned tiredly on his walk back to the front of the Gym along the walkways. It was already getting late in the afternoon and the Gyms patrons were thinning out. By now most of the few people there were trainers. His stomach rumbled and he patted it soothingly. That maze had been like hell for him; it took him hours to complete and he missed lunch.
To his surprise, there was someone waiting for him in the entrance hall. Hilary was leaning over the display cases, reading the information plaques and holding a box behind her back. He grinned, lifting his arm to wave and was about to call to her.
"Hey, champ!" Jim Gai interrupted loudly, suddenly appearing in his line of vision. "What a splendid battle! Took my breath away watching your Geodude break boulders on the battlefield!"
"You think so?" Daichi asked, blushing bashfully even though his ego was swelling. "If you think I'm that good on my first badge just wait 'til I'm going for my second."
"First badge? Well, you're really well and truly on your way to the championship! Pokémon League had better watch out!"
"C'mon!" Hilary growled at Jim exasperatedly. "Daichi, he said that to literally every trainer who won. He also said it to me."
"My cheering must have worked," Jim whispered to himself, loud enough that Daichi and Hilary could still hear him. He gave himself a self-satisfied grin, ignoring the glares Hilary and Daichi were shooting him.
"Whatever," Hilary muttered, turning back to Daichi. "But still, you did pretty well up there."
Daichi grinned. As much as he loathed admitting it to her, hearing her praise meant a lot. "Aw, gee, I think it comes natural to me! Thanks for waiting for me all this time. I bet even you'd be as hungry as I am."
"I didn't wait here all day for you, that would be dumb," Hilary retorted crossly. She held out the box she was carrying despite her miffed expression. "I went back to the Pokémon Centre and I got you this. You were gone a long time. This should at least tide you over until dinner."
"Really? You brought me food?" Daichi exclaimed, looking like the happiest boy in the world. His stomach growled like a ravenous beast with its prey just out of reach. "I knew you had a heart."
"What does that mean?!" Hilary yelled. Daichi snatched the box and danced out of the way, as if that would ultimately protect him from her ire.
They fell back into their usual bickering and failed to notice another trainer wandering into the Gym. She looked around; it seemed like she'd lost something and wasn't sure where it could have possibly gone. She waved Jim away – just as irritated by him as everyone else had been – and paused, gawking in recognition at the two trainers in front of her.
"Hey! Met yesterday, didn't we?" she interrupted and Hilary and Daichi both immediately stopped squabbling to turn to her.
"Oh yeah, we did," Hilary said, hitting her palm. "You showed us to the Day School. Elena, isn't that right?"
"Right! And I remember you're Hilary and you are…" she trailed off, trying to place Daichi's face to all of the boys' names. "You're not Ray, are you?"
Daichi glared at Hilary and growled when she burst into loud laughter. "I'm not Ray! My name's Daichi!"
"Oops! Sorry," Elena said, putting her hands up apologetically. "But I'm glad I found you two. Haven't seen Tyson recently, have you?"
"Roxanne sent him back to school," Hilary replied matter-of-factly with a smile on her face that betrayed just how much that amused her.
"Yeah, I know. Roxanne appointed me to be his tutor in the supplementary lessons but for some reason he suddenly got extremely angry and ran off somewhere. Left his Torchic behind!"
"Whhaaat! How could he leave his adorable little Torchic behind?"
"Wait, that's bad!" Daichi interjected. "Without Torchic, Tyson's only Pokémon is Shroomish."
"And Shroomish isn't as well-trained as Torchic," Hilary finished. "Not that Torchic is particularly well-trained, Tyson seems pretty bad at this stuff."
"Point is," Elena added, "is that if he's done what I hope he hasn't and gone out of the city on his own he's needlessly putting himself and his Pokémon in a bad situation."
Hilary groaned. "Why are you boys always doing this?" she asked rhetorically. "Looks like we're going to have to go fetch him. Elena, I'll go back to the Pokémon Centre and get the rest of the team. Don't worry about Tyson, we'll get through to him."
"No, let me come," Elena insisted. Hilary was about to walk around her but the blonde girl stepped in her way. "I feel like it was partially my fault that he exploded like that. Looking back on it, I don't think I handled his feelings about his situation very well." She looked down at her feet guiltily.
Hilary put a hand on her shoulder comfortingly. "I mean it when I say don't worry about it. Tyson has been kind of stupid about finding that Porygon Z ever since we got here. He thinks that we all don't care and we're not trying but we are and it's really just frustrating that he doesn't see it. So don't beat yourself up for thinking you've set him off, he was just winding himself up."
Elena gave her a relieved smile and her shoulders relaxed a bit but the smile fell quickly. "Actually, can I ask you something?" she inquired. Hilary nodded. "What does a Porygon Z have to do with this? Just seemed kind of random. Tyson mentioned something about a team event and being on a mission and some other stuff about your parents – he was pretty vague about everything – but he made it sound like you guys were never going to get home. Where are you from? Sinnoh? Kalos?"
Hilary sighed. It looked like the explanation was going to have to come out. "Would you believe that I have no idea where those places are or even an inkling of what they're like?"
Elena's eyes went wide. "WHAT!? Never heard of Sinnoh? Not even Kalos? But Prism Tower is an icon!"
"Yeah, we don't know anything about that," Daichi piped up with his mouth around a Pokémon Centre sandwich.
"I'll explain it to you on the way to the Pokémon Centre," Hilary promised, taking her by the wrist and leading her out of the Gym, "because right now our priority is getting the rest of the team out searching and stopping Tyson from doing something outrageously stupid."
Tyson huffed as he barely managed to scramble over the ledge he'd just climbed and it had taken him far longer than he wanted to admit. The sunlight was getting harsher and the shadows longer as the day crept onwards to sunset. Now felt like a good time to take a break so he sat down, letting his legs dangle off the edge. He told himself he was doing the right thing and taking charge but right now things seemed to be going slower than ever.
"Tyson!" someone called out to him. His head snapped up and his eyes narrowed. That was a voice he recognised.
"What do you want?" he growled back, folding his arms tightly while he watched Hilary and Elena run up to the bottom of the ledge. They both stopped and Hilary – being less fit – leaned on her knees to catch her breath.
"How did you get up there?" Elena asked, genuinely curious. "That's a really tough climb."
"Sheer willpower, probably," Hilary panted, straightening and taking a deep breath. "He's good at overcoming obstacles with nothing but stubbornness." She looked all the way up to Tyson. "What do you think you're doing, mister? Get down here!"
"Hell no!" Tyson retorted. "I'm looking for the Korygon C. What are you doing?"
"The same thing!"
"Korygon C?" Elena repeated with an amused chuckle. "Did you mean Porygon Z?"
"You're not doing squat!" Tyson shouted back at Hilary. "You and the rest of the guys are so much more interested in catching Pokémon and getting those Gym Badges that you just keep letting the more important things slip from your mind. Trainer School is a waste of time and so is the Pokémon League. And while you let Mari side-track you all of the people back home who are missing you are being left behind. It's like you don't even care!"
Hilary gaze turned down, low enough that Tyson couldn't see her eyes under her fringe.
"That's not true!" Elena jumped to her defence. "I know what your big mission is and believe me, your friends think it's extremely important too."
"How do you know? I thought we were keeping it a secret, Hilary," Tyson jeered.
"It's not a big deal," Elena said. "Strange things can happen when Pokémon are concerned. Training in the Dragon's Den I've heard some of the most fantastic tales of the abilities of Pokémon and this is just another of them. You just assumed that nobody would understand and you kept it a secret. Don't bottle it up, people will understand and we can help but most importantly, don't take your anger and frustration out on other people or Pokémon!" She raised a Pokéball she had been carrying and it rattled with the movement. "How dare you treat your Torchic like that! You were put together as companions, weren't you? Your job as his trainer is to nurture growth and foster a relationship."
"What does it matter? We're ultimately leaving anyway."
Elena was about to argue but she caught Hilary out of the corner of her eye doing something absolutely terrifying. She watched in fascinated horror as the brunette picked up a boulder three times the size of her head and hurled it up the ledge, right at Tyson's head. Tyson barely managed to dodge.
"TYSON, YOU JERK!" Hilary roared, turning to look up at him with fury in her eyes and tears on her face. "Don't ever accuse us of not caring! You think I don't care about my parents? Or about Kenny and all of my friends at school? Do you really think that we've all just stopped caring about our families just because we met some new pets and got offered a 'quest for glory'-type deal? Wake up, you selfish bastard! There's nothing we can do right now! There's nothing we can do but we've been doing our best at what we can do. Don't you know that while you were so busy cheating and getting your ass kicked at the Gym, Mari and the other boys spent hours talking to people and looking for clues to find Porygon Z, at the very least so that we can tag it. Kai even doubled back all the way to the edge of Petalburg Woods by himself and you know how much he hated that place. We all want to go home. It's terrifying to think of all the time that's passing by while we're here; what if I don't make it home before my parents are old? Or if they pass away before I see them again?"
She sniffed and wiped her face on her arm, getting a comforting hand on her shoulder from Elena. "But I don't want to spend the whole time we're here in a depressed, miserable mess. I guess it looks like we're just playing around – and I can't speak for everyone else – but doing this also keeps me invigorated. The more I'm winning, the more I'm trying at something and succeeding then the more I feel like I can succeed at all of the other things; getting stronger with Ralts, Surskit, and Wurmple leads up to me being strong enough to do something if Porygon Z shows up, like being able to stop it from teleporting or defeat it so we can capture it or… or whatever we need to do. But I'm not doing this because I don't care!"
Hilary sobbed, letting the tears fall down her face and drip onto the ground at her feet. The comforting hand left and she raised her arms to hug herself but was suddenly enveloped in a bigger hug by someone else, pressing her face into the red material of his shirt.
"I'm sorry, Hilary," Tyson said in a cracking voice, fighting to keep it steady. "I… I know what you mean and I'm sorry I doubted you. I'm sorry I accused you of not caring. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"
"Tyson…" Hilary whispered, wrapping her arms around him and returning the hug. Her shoulder became warm and wet as tears started to fall off Tyson's face too. He pulled away just enough to look her in the eye and scrubbed at his face but it was still puffy and his eyes were watery.
"I get it… I'm sorry, I was looking at this the wrong way, huh?" he tried to joke and he smiled weakly. "You… all of you guys have somehow managed to keep a level head about this, even Daichi. Man, can you believe that? Daichi – of all people – being level-headed? And here I was, being such a bonehead and trying to make you guys freak out about something that freaking out wouldn't solve, even though you and Ray already told me that."
"You don't have to be sorry—"
"Yes, I do. You and everyone else have been right all along. It's ultimately my fault all that all that terrible stuff happened to us in the forest and leading us all to Devon Corp. just got us all wrapped up with Team Aqua again and if I hadn't been so stupid in school and so cocky at the Gym I wouldn't have set myself back with all these extracurricular lessons, which is especially bad because I even pressured Mari into doing stuff for us too and she got in contact with Professor Oak and everything. That's the real difference between me and everyone else right now, when you guys are doing things you're making sure that it counts while I'm just flailing around in desperation."
"Understandably, your beyblades are important to you," Elena piped up, tilting her head and giving him a sympathetic smile. "Hurts for me to imagine what it would be like being stranded in a world with no Dragon's Den or Pokémon Gyms or even a Silver Conference."
"Beyblading is practically my life. I would get pretty mad if someone came over to my world and starting dissing them all over the place too. Sorry, Elena."
He held out a hand receive Torchic's Pokéball and Elena passed it to him. He released the little chick on the ground. Torchic looked up to his trainer and cried out in relief, running up to Tyson and cuddling his leg.
"Heh, I'm forgiven already? You're the loyalest little buddy ever." Tyson crouched down to pick him up. "I'm sorry, Torchic. If I hurt you I'm sorry for that too."
"You guys are sure to find your way home but until then you're stuck together with your Pokémon to the end," Elena assured him.
"Yeah," Tyson agreed as Torchic nuzzled his chest. "So, whaddya say, Torchic? Are you ready to tackle this Sorygon C with me?"
Torchic cheeped in agreement.
"I'll send Ray and Mari a text to let everyone know we found you okay," Elena said, taking out her Pokégear and typing.
"And we should get back to the Pokémon Centre before dinnertime's over," Hilary added pragmatically, "otherwise we're going to have to go out and pay for dinner."
"Why don't we?" Tyson suggested. "We're loaded right now and from the sounds of it everyone else had a big day too."
Hilary just smiled in response and grabbed Tyson by the sleeve to lead him back to the city.
The group met up in front of the bike racks at the Pokémon Centre and the last to arrive were Kai and Ray, who'd gone the furthest distance to make it to Petalburg Woods and back. There were no spare racks to repurpose as seats so Tyson sat on the edge of the garden bed, not even looking up to get between Max engaging in kittenish conversation with Elena.
"Tyson, what's your problem?" Ray asked crossly. He and Kai were both sweating and a bit flushed in the face from having to travel so far. "We got a text by the time we were done scrounging around the forest that said we had to start looking for you too."
Hilary was the one to relay the entire story, which only served to make Ray's veins twitch out of his temple. "Didn't care?! How could you be so ignorant and selfish! You know how much my village means to me."
"Yeah, I know. Hilary kinda beat it into me," Tyson replied guiltily. He hopped off the garden ledge. "I'm here to say I'm sorry. You guys knew what you were up to better than I knew what I was up to."
"I don't like being the one to say 'I told you so' but I did," Ray pointed out.
"I can't believe you had so little faith in us," Max chipped in, folding his arms and glaring at him. "We all have just as much at stake and we want to get home just as badly as you do. Sure, I care about my Mudkip and Wingull now but that doesn't take away anything from how much I value my friends and family."
"And when you run away you make the entire ordeal harder for the group," Kai added. Togepi trilled in agreement. "What if you'd found Porygon Z? What would you do if it took you back home without us? Would you be prepared to explain what happened and your self-centred decision to all of our loved ones?"
The point left Tyson so humbled that he couldn't even crack a joke about desertion.
"We still think the tournament is important even if we want Gym Badges too," Daichi said. "I'm itching for a good beybattle but if our blades get broken here who's gonna fix them?"
"That is a surprising amount of forethought coming from you," Hilary remarked.
"Hey! I make good decisions sometimes!"
Tyson sighed and his shoulders slumped. "I'm only just seeing it now and I promise I won't doubt you guys again. After all we've been through together I couldn't even be a good enough friend to trust you on this. I'll just stay out of your way now."
Max cut through the grave atmosphere by suddenly smiling and jumping on Tyson for a bro hug. "Hey, c'mon. We're still all in this together."
"You're still showing little faith in us," Ray said with an upwards quirk of his lips. "We wouldn't get rid of you just because you were being an idiot as usual; after all we've been through."
Kai even managed to crack a smile and laugh a little and if that wasn't Kai-speak for 'I forgive you too' then the phrase probably didn't exist in his language.
"We got back just in time for dinner but the Pokémon Centre here is way more crowded than the others," Hilary said. "Since it's been such a big day, Tyson and I were thinking we should all go out for dinner. We did spend all that time at Devon Corp. earning money we didn't even need in the end. We deserve a treat."
"Good idea," Ray agreed, taking out the map. "I'll see if this thing can call up addresses for restaurants here. Or maybe Mari can recommend a place?"
Mari started as if she just realised she was part of the group too, standing off the side of them awkwardly with Elena. "Oh, uh, never eaten out in Rustboro before, actually. So pick wherever."
The bladers and Hilary huddled up to decide where they were going to eat. Elena nudged Mari in the side.
"Aren't you with them?" she asked. "Why don't you join in?"
"Eh, well…" Mari stammered, trying to think up something. "Just guiding them, really. Been around Hoenn before so I figure I'll let them choose all the fun places."
Elena cocked her head to the side and gave her a sceptical look. Mari looked back at the group, not wanting to weather that expression. But she would privately admit that watching Hilary and the bladers from this side of the circle gave her a lonely feeling deep down, which she only realised now was always throbbing there, unacknowledged.
After dinner the group returned to the Pokémon Centre – sans Elena – in higher spirits than any of them had been in the past few days. To the excitement of everyone except Hilary they'd made it back just in time for their new favourite show. The fact that Rustboro's Pokémon Centre was so much busier than the centres the group had previously experienced meant that nobody could monopolise the television at any given time. TV programmes had to be negotiated with total strangers. Sometimes this wasn't a problem, like right now when the enormous cohort of young trainers had used their majority power to tune in to 'Battles on the Frontier'. The minority older trainers or recreational travellers had dispersed either to a computer or to sit down on a lounge to watch news or other shows via the internet.
Trainers crowded around the TV, taking up all of the available space to watch someone seasoned and famous take on a spry new challenger. People were sat on the floor and even took up the armrests and backs of the furniture. The beybladers and Mari were among them; the bladers sat wordlessly in rapt attention while trying to give an ear to some of the running commentary from the trainers, especially Mari. With most people preoccupied in this activity, it was the perfect time for Hilary to take a bath.
"These Pokémon Centre bathrooms are so utilitarian," Hilary thought as she swathed her hair in a towel, wearing one of the centre's bathrobes.
It wasn't that they weren't nice – for public bathrooms they were very well maintained – but they were unisex. The showers were in cubicles at least but Hilary always felt like she had walked into the wrong place whenever she saw the partitioned urinals along the wall. However, if she wanted to soak in the bath there was only one tub and it would be really awkward to do it with boys around.
She started when she heard one of the showers suddenly switch on and turned around. She sighed in relief when she realised nobody else had come in, it was just one of the hand showers in the Pokémon bathing area being handled by her Ralts. She was alternately dousing Wurmple (he seemed to really enjoy it) and wetting the floor for Surskit to skate all over. Hilary huffed.
"Hey! I left you guys out so that you could get dry!" she scolded, startling her Pokémon.
Wurmple waved his stubby feet and clicked and whined at her, trying to make her understand: "but I like the magic rain vine! The water is so warm."
Hilary grumbled, unable to understand Pokémon language and even if she could she wouldn't appreciate Wurmple's remark. She stomped over to switch off the shower and then gathered up all of her Pokémon and carried them to a bench with several blow dryers hung up above it.
"Yes!" Wurmple hissed when Hilary took one down to dry them off. "I also love the magic Gust stick!"
Suddenly the bathroom door banged against the wall and two voices carried in sounding like they belonged in different conversations. One voice was irritated and quarrelsome while the other was calm and conversational. Hilary looked up curiously.
"Knew you probably had some ulterior motive to bring me here! I'm not the kind of barbarian you are; stop treating me like one of your hulking, brainless friends!"
"Just thought you could broaden your horizons. You've never tried it, Rube, so how d—"
"Don't call me 'Rube'!"
Hilary's eye lit up. "Ruby! Emerald! It's good to see you again."
Ruby looked away from the big brother he was berating with his arms akimbo and his cranky expression suddenly softened. "Hilary! Omigosh, didn't think I'd get to see you again so soon. How's that Ralts? Let me see."
Ruby was instantly ignoring Emerald – which made him pout – and hurried over to the counter to get a good look. "Kyaa~! Ralts' skin is so soft and her horns are shiny. Clearly been taking my advice. Surskit's looking in great condition too, even I'd be happy to take a Pokémon like this into a Contest." He gasped dramatically. "You got a new Pokémon too! A Wurmple! Planning to evolve it into a Beautifly? That's a very popular Contest Pokémon."
"Actually I wanted a Dustox," Hilary quickly answered, squeezing her words in edgewise when Ruby paused. "I don't know much about Beautifly but I've seen a Dustox do all sorts of moves with colourful powder from its wings."
"Hm, I see," Ruby chuckled. "Knew you were the type of person well-suited to Contests. A lot of amateurs pick Pokémon that they think hold the most conventional aesthetic but in the hall the only things that count will be the grooming and the quality of your appeal. This means that I'll be seeing you in the Rustboro Contest Hall in a couple of days, no?"
"The contest hall? Oops, I totally forgot! In the excitement of getting my first badge I wasn't thinking about Contests."
"You got a badge?" Ruby whined, looking betrayed while Emerald grinned widely.
"Really? That's great, Hilary," he praised, "especially after starting out with some unconventional Pokémon."
"Surskit helped a lot," Hilary said, jutting her hip out confidently. Surskit squeaked in agreement and did a happy little bobbing dance.
"In a rock-type Gym, sure he did."
"Doesn't matter," Ruby interrupted. "There's still time to sort out your appeal choreography and organise an outfit for you and one for your Pokémon and get your coordinator registration and—"
"Whoa, Rube!"
"Don't call me that!"
"Chill! If she doesn't want to then you can't force her."
"Why don't you take your own advice?"
"I'm not forcing you to do anything, just trying to be persuasive." That smile, Hilary thought, was not appropriately timed.
"Stop being persuasive then," Ruby bristled.
"Actually, now that you've reminded me, I really want to do it," Hilary cut in.
"You do?" Ruby and Emerald said simultaneously, Emerald in surprise and Ruby in elation.
"Yeah. I want to see how different it is." Winning the badge hadn't been the terrifying ordeal she thought it would be but her heart seized up whenever Rock Tomb soared to her side of the field. It all seemed too reckless. "That means I've got heaps of work cut out for me, right? Let's get started, then."
Ruby cheered. "So excited! Which Pokémon do you think you'll use? Got any particular style in mind? How do you want to do your hair?"
While Ruby stunned Hilary with his rapid-fire questions Emerald stripped off his shirt. "Hope it goes well," he said sincerely. "I'll be there to cheer you on but right now a shower would be really nice – battling at the institute is on a level of its own."
"The institute?" Hilary wondered, shuffling to the side a little bit so Ruby obscured less of her vision of Emerald.
"The Battle Institute," Emerald clarified. "If you guys ever decide to come back to Rustboro City let me know and I'll show you. As it stands, you're a bit inexperienced for it."
"Emerald made me follow him around there all day," Ruby griped. "It was awful."
"Sure if you trained your Pokémon up a bit they'd love it."
Hilary scoffed. "Have you even met your brother's Pokémon?"
"Rara would totally be into it," Emerald argued as he made his way towards the shower cubicles.
Perhaps the unisex bathrooms weren't so bad if Hilary got to see Emerald in them more often. However, Ruby was insisting on discussing Contest tactics and by the time she got to steal another peak Emerald was already behind the screen of a shower cubicle.
A/N: His guys! I'm back! And Ruby's back. But mostly, I'm back. It's been two months, I'm so sorry but I had school and exams! And this chapter hasn't really been properly proofread and I feel bad but I wanted to give it to you guys and also get on with writing the next chapter! It probably won't come out next week because I'm also writing in NaNoWriMo but I'll be getting there.
Also, I acknowledge the irony of Kai - the only person who doesn't actually want to go home - being the one to point out Tyson having to explain to their loved ones why they didn't come back with him. This chapter was originally going to be about something else but then I thought it was more important to have a chapter about the other characters reacting to Tyson being a jerk.
Reminding again that write-by-committee is still a thing. Mainly with OCs. Who'd like to submit an OC?
P.S.: Battle Institute wasn't a thing in GenIII and I'm not sure if it's being included in OR/AS or - if it is - where it's located in Hoenn. I'm just saying that it's in Rustboro City... because.