Chapter 20:
I am the Music Trainer
Location: Nimbasa City
You know, having reached Nimbasa City, it came to my attention as to just how vast Unova is. One minute you're in the rusty Nacrene, then you're in the massive Castelia and now you're in the lit up Nimbasa. It's like flipping through pages of a book, but I wasn't exhausted. I didn't have time to be after the first event of the morning.
I came out of the Pokémon Center to see two Plasma Grunts heckling a man in his 40s, balding and in brown shorts and brown shirt.
"No, don't! I have no one on me to release!"
"Hey!" I shouted. "Listen, I know the promise, but leave that man alone."
The Grunts spun round, with the M Grunt having a tight grip to the man's shirt.
"Oh, look. Someone's trying to be brave despite breaking a promise. How cute."
Something wasn't right. Oh those sons of…
"They told you!" I said. "They told you I saved them! Listen, if I hadn't stepped in you would have been down a few Grunts. You should be thankful that I broke the promise, and hey. We were on equal measures. Now that you've let the secret out, I guess we aren't anymore. You're going down!"
Grunt M snickered. "I'll go first, don't worry. This guy is incapable of sticking to his word, then he'll know what it's like to lie to us!"
Hilbert Vs. Plasma Grunt M
"Watchog, I choose you!" The Grunt shouted as the tall Normal Type was sent out.
"I choose Drilbur!" I yelled. "Use Rock Smash!" Drilbur punched Watchog in the chest, lowering its Defense.
"Watchog, Confuse Ray!" Watchog sent out a ray which hit Drilbur. Drilbur became confused.
"We can still do this. Use Rock Smash again!" Drilbur once again punched Watchog, almost knocking it out.
"Crunch!" Watchog chomped down on Drilbur.
Deciding enough was enough, I switched into Scraggy who took a Crunch. It wasn't effective at all. The next Crunch didn't do much either.
"Scraggy, Faint Attack!" Scraggy appeared from behind Watchog and punched it, knocking it out.
"PLLLLAAAASSSMMMAAA!" the Grunt yelled.
Scraggy jumped up and gave me a hi-five. We had only been together a day, and our bond was already at a high point.
"Oops, we broke your promise!" Grunt F said.
I had had it. "The promise is off. If you can't keep yours, why should I keep mine?"
"Because, you made it to Ghetsis. He will find out and he will crush you. Not if I don't first though!" Grunt F got one of her partners at the ready.
"Not so fast!" From the distance two men appeared. One had a coat and hat that was brown with white strikes. The other wore similar except the white parts were black.
"What is going on here?" the man in white said. "Aha. Team Plasma. Causing chaos is Nimbasa City today, are we?"
The Grunts couldn't talk.
I had read about these guys. The one in white was Ingo and the one in black was Emmet. They are the owners of Nimbasa's Battle Subway and are very strong Trainers indeed. No one dared mess with them in a situation like this.
"So, would you like to battle us next?"
The F Grunt grunted and let go of the man. He fell onto his back hard. I ran over to make sure he was okay.
"There's no point in battling the Subway Masters without getting beat badly" she said. "You win this round Hilbert, but Ghetsis will be informed." They ran off. "PLASMA WILL PREVAIL!"
"Is everything alright?" I asked, helping the man up.
"Thanks to you, yes," he said. "My name's Neil, the owner of the Bike Shop. I was on my way to work when they jumped on me telling me to liberate my Pokémon. Then you showed up."
I sighed, remembering my broken promise. I then told them about my situation.
"Well" said Emmet. "Promise or no promise, all's well that ends well. You don't have to keep it if you prevent stuff like this. You're a strong Trainer lad."
Neil patted me on the back. "Hey, for your efforts, I'll drop by the Pokémon Center tonight and give you a little something."
I smiled, but then told them all I need to clear my head. They all understood.
I sat on the bench outside the Small Court, one of Unova's two sports stadiums (as well as Big Stadium, located right next to Small Court), thinking about what went down. Yes, I saved a guy's butt, but at the expense of breaking a promise I made to the evillest man in the Unova region. I was upset that it could potentially be the end of my journey. Ghetsis will find out and beat me into Gen VI. Everything was piling on top of me, just like a student who leaves him homework till the last minute (I can relate).
"Berty!"
Bianca made her way through the army of people, some of which were children who were holding Pokéball shaped balloons from the nearby theme park. In one instance, a child ran into Bianca's leg and let go of the balloon, leading to a lot of crying.
"Not in the mood" I told her.
"I heard from Professor Juniper about Team Plasma, and I must congratulate you. Listen, you could probably take on Ghetsis if-"
"I BROKE IT AGAIN!" I yelled. Bianca went silent. "I broke the promise again to save a man. I'm glad I saved him, but still."
Bianca sat down beside me and put her arm on my shoulder. "Hey, who knows what would have happened if you hadn't come along."
I then told her about Ingo and Emmet. Bianca gleamed, and we all had a laugh. Nimbasa City is clearly Unova's hub for celebrities.
"Well, there have been a lot of negative equals, so how about we do something positive? You introduced me to Castelia Cone, so I would like to introduce you to… THE POKéMON MUSICAL!"
Bianca took me to a large hall with giant glowing musical notes on top. There were also lots of posters for musicals that took place there, like "Purrloin", "The Lampent of the Opera" and "Mamma Mienfoo!"
Bianca had seen that last one. She said it was better than the movie at least.
Location: Musical Theatre
The Pokémon Musical kind of looked like a Contest Hall. In that, it was very pink. Even more posters of previous shows were all over the walls, but the one currently playing was "Stardom."
"I haven't been here in a long time" Bianca said. "We better book our tickets!"
"Disaster!" shouted a man. He was wearing a tuxedo and hat. He was shouting into his Xtransciever. "No no no, you can't both be sick! How are we supposed to do the show now? Well, thanks a lot! You better get better soon, my reputation is hanging by the String Shot as it is." Angrily, he cut the call off.
"What's wrong?" Bianca asked.
"Show's cancelled!" he said. "Two cast members are sick. I'm doomed. Who will fill the role?"
I had a look at the poster. It had some Pokémon on the poster. A Pansage, Pansear, Panpour and a blue Pokémon with white hair around its neck, a heart shaped nose and big black wings.
"Who's missing?" Bianca asked.
The man pointed to Pansage and Pansear. "I should probably take down the poster…"
"WAIT!" Bianca shouted. "I have an idea!"
She wasn't talking about, was she? She eyed me.
"Oh no no no, I'm not getting up on there with Pansear."
Bianca slapped me across the face. (Ouch). Then, she took me by the collar and pulled me closer.
"Hilbert, the Pokémon Musical is counting on us. We either do it or bust."
"Marvellous!" the man said. "Apologies for this, my name is Lloyd. I'm the playwright for Stardom and other musicals like "Forest Stroll," "A Sweet Soirée" and "Exciting Nimbasa." He looked at his Xtransceiver.. "We should get you guys ready. Meet me behind the stage. Don't worry, you don't need to dress up. After all, your friends are the stars!"
Me and Bianca were let behind the curtains and we sent out Pansear and sage respectively. Back here, we met a woman in a shiny purple dress with the Flying Type on the poster.
Swoobat (ココロモリ)
034
Psychic/Flying Type
Courting Pokémon
2'11" (0.9 m)
23.1 lbs (10.5 kg)
Anyone who comes into contact with the ultrasonic waves emitted by a courting male experiences a positive mood shift.
Woobat -Happiness- Swoobat
"Oh darlings, I heard about your mission to save the Musical. That is most excellent."
There was also a smartly dressed man in a tux with black hair. With him was a Panpour.
"Yeah, thanks. Listen, do NOT upstage me. I'm the main star here."
Disgusted, I asked who that was.
"Oh, don't mind him. That's Colin. He's just a bit snobby. My name's Cloris, I'm a veteran."
Lloyd got out a box of props. "Okay everyone. Stardom is a Musical that is popular among men, so cute ribbons won't do here. The most important thing to do is have fun! Okay, choose your props. The show starts in an hour."
I looked through the prop box. What do men like to see when they go to Musicals? No cute bows, How about, a Pirate Hat? On top of that, a Toy Sword. And finally, a Scarlet Cape. Yes, I now had Pirate Pansear.
The time for the show came. Bianca had dressed up Pansage to look like a Rockstar, with an electric guitar and that was it. Less is more, I guess. Colin's Panpour had dressed it up like a superhero and Cloris's Swoobat's had dressed it up like a Gentleman; not what we were going for let's just say. Nothing like taking weird risks.
The Musical started and everyone was off to a great start. Pansage stole the show by strumming the guitar, but Panpour stole the show by throwing its cape at Pansage.
"Hey!" Bianca said.
"I said don't upstage me!" Colin said, as Panpour hit Pansage with a Water Gun. "No!" he shouted. "Panpour don't!"
Pansear, ignored then, and asked Swoobat to fly it into the air and do a trick. Pansear did a flip, came down and swung its sword. Everyone clapped.
"Darling, your Pansear is marvellous!" Cloris said.
Pansage had recovered and was dancing on the spot. The guitar no longer made noise because the Water Gun short circuited it, but Pansage simply tossed the guitar to one side and asked Swoobat to give it a lift to. Swoobat did, and Pansage flew on the spot before Swoobat let it down, allowing it to do a skid like a Rockstar. Everyone cheered.
"Me now," Colin said, but Swoobat refused.
"Only to people who deserve it" Cloris replied.
With that, the show ended and everyone cheered.
"What's wrong with you?!" Colin yelled at Bianca. "I told you not to upstage me!"
Bianca was speechless, so I spoke for her.
"Pansage was having fun, minding its own business."
"Enough!" Lloyd said. "Sorry about his behaviour, he doesn't like new actors. Hilbert, Bianca, Cloris, I must thank you for today. Someone from the press was there, we should see a review soon. Is there anything we can do for you Hilbert and Bianca?"
We thought about it for a minute.
"We're fine!" I said. "This experience was fun in and of itself!"
Lloyd smiled. "Great to hear. Okay, thank you all for coming!"
Location: Nimbasa City
Me and Bianca came out of the Musical Theatre laughing.
"Let's do that again sometime!" Bianca told me, to which I agreed. That was, surprisingly enjoyable.
However, our happiness was cut short by the sight of a face that Bianca wasn't too happy to see.
Her father.
"Bianca dear," he said.
"Dad?" she answered. "What are you doing here?"
Her father hugged her. "Dear, I'm here to take you home."
"WHAT?!" she shouted, forcing herself out of his grip. "What are you talking about?" She wiped a tear from her eye.
"Mr, you can't," I said. I started to cry, remembering all the great memories I had. I wasn't going to let them all be stripped away.
"Hilbert, I appreciate the help, but this is a family talk. Stay out of this. You've come far Bianca. It's not that I'm not proud of you, but I think this is far enough. The car is parked in Pokéland, we're driving home."
Bianca shook her head violently. "NO!" she wailed.
"Excuse me? I am your father; you do what I say."
"May I help?" Walking up to us was Elesa, in her signature yellow dress with short blonde hair. She had some headphones on, and the front of her dress had some holes in, though that was part of the fashion. It was the Nimbasa City Gym Leader and world-famous fashion designer.
"Elesa?" I asked.
"What's the problem?" she asked.
"Nothing concerning you. Go back to one of your photoshoots for Pogue Magazine or something."
Elesa was as sick of his rudeness as I was. "I lost my father recently, and I tell you what, he let me follow my dream, and look where I am now. Bianca has lots of potential adventures ahead, don't strip that all away from her. She's not a kid anymore, don't restrict that potential at this point in her life."
"Please Dad, one more chance! I'll show you how strong I've become." She pointed to Elesa. "Tomorrow, I challenge you to a Gym battle. If I win the Badge, then I stay on my journey as it shows my progress. But if I lose, then I go home. Dad, does that sound fair?"
He sighed. "Fine, but it's a word I'm sticking by. If you lose, end everything here."
Elesa smiled. "I won't go easy on you, bet or not!" she told Bianca. "Come on, chin up. I'm looking forward to tomorrow."
Location: Nimbasa Pokémon Center
"I promised!" Neil said, greeting me. "Here you go!"
With him was a Bicycle!
"Wow! You don't have to do this!"
I put the Bike in the bag (don't ask how) and thanked him again.
Well, today was surprising. Looks like Bianca has a lot on her hands at the Gym tomorrow. Not just a Badge, but the entire adventure. But she can do it I know. As for me? I think I'll go to the theme park. I need to take my mind off the promise I broke.
