"Young man, we'd like to sponsor your team with our premier bicycles!"
It was a little funnier in the context of them being painted the colors of their partner Pokemon. Except Hilbert's, his was red with blue trim.
See, all they wanted was to head down Cycling Road, and get to Hearthome within the week.
But no, it turned out the owner of the bike shop actually was held hostage in one of the Galactic building's rooms, so felt a strange gratitude towards them.
That was when the advertisers showed up.
Allegedly, the guys over at GAINAX were pissing themselves in excitement after the news of the form of a certain Pokemon reached them. More blue than Gurren, most of the time, but the sentiment remained.
So they'd worked out a deal with the bike manufacturer, and settled on letting him make a bike befitting Team Black with the appropriate designs and both of their brand names on it.
Bike / GAINAX
Believe In The Me That Believes In You. Just Do It.
...Before the boy had ever actually walked in the door.
They didn't even have to pay for the things, they just gave them up and shoved them out the door.
"So uh, that happened too."
How lost they would be without your guidance, Lucas.
Well, at least he'd lost the lame hat. He looked slightly cooler afterward.
A Mid-Sinnoh Night's Dream - VII - Escape From The City?
The wind whipped through his hair as he sped down Cycling Road, whooping. Barry was doing much the same, and though Lucas was certainly quieter, joined in as well. Combee was buzzing alongside Dawn, doing flight tricks as well, practicing like it was a wind tunnel. Cheryl was in between her and the boys, soaking up the views that sped by.
She'd said she became a treasure hunter because of her grandfather, and that was certainly a factor, but the truth was… She wanted to see the world. Not just its glory and its riches, but its quieter beauty that could only be found through travel.
"Hey, you're getting wind in my face!"
"No one said you had to ride in my bag!" He yelled at the Riolu who was leaning over his helmet, catching the intense breeze.
A mile away, bending the light with their aura like an invisible telescope, a scouting troop of Lucario was searching for the one they'd lost.
Multiple weeks ago, a particularly temperamental Riolu ran away. That was common enough for the student of White Claw, and she usually returned within the day, worse for wear from fighting other wild Pokemon, but alright.
But that day, she'd not returned. At first, they assumed that she was simply staying out late. But then that day grew into two, and as it grew into a full week, concerns and anxiety rose. Search parties had been sent out as fast as they could.
The Lucario Kingdom was more like a monk's temple than a true feudal kingdom. There were no lords or kings, only the trust each held in the wiser and more powerful among them.
Among those, White Claw was very well respected, and thus the disappearance of his disciple was certainly a cause for concern.
So, spotting the Riolu in question riding in a trainer's bag, unfortunately looking like it was secured there, it was completely fair for them to assume the trainer in question was responsible.
They jumped from their high vantage point on a cliff of Mt. Coronet, barely halfway up the mountain, and started skidding down the near-vertical rock face.
Lucas saw a glint in the forest, rapidly approaching where they were heading on Cycling Road.
"Hey, do you guys see that?"
Riolu looked over. "Oh, those are aura users! I can see it!"
"...I still can't understand what you're saying!" He yelled forward, still pedaling.
"What? So more Riolu?" Hilbert said, barely glancing to the side in time for him to see a pack of Lucario jumping into the air towards him.
"Oh. Sh-" He was tackled off of his bike, sending it skittering down the road, as he flew off of Cycling Road.
They all cried out in surprise at the same time.
"Hilbert!"
Throwing their own bikes aside, they ran to look over the edge where Hilbert was nowhere to be seen.
All he could see was the rapidly shrinking road and a lot of black and blue wrapped around his torso. The blow took the air right out of his lungs, and the cutting wind refused to let him take it back. Riolu was barely holding onto the bag while potions and spare Pokeballs were flying out.
"What is this?" Riolu cried, terrified as they flew a dozen meters above the ground.
"Young one! We have been searching for you! We will save you from this vile human!"
"Vile? I resent that!" Hilbert cried himself, his mind zeroing in on the first thing he could actually comprehend.
"...Did this human just understand us, pack leader?" Asked one of the Lucario, his grip as iron-strong as the rest.
"Yes! He can do that! Why did you attack him?" Riolu asked, still trying not to be blown away.
"Because he has kidnapped you!"
"What? No! That was Team Galactic- Can you please put me down safely so we can talk about this?" The trees started to look a little bigger, making his concern only grow.
"Hmph. Very well." In the blink of an eye, they dropped down into the canopy, and there was a massive crash. He wasn't injured, aside from the aching ribs, and found himself slowed in the air, floating. He descended into the five-strong group of Lucario and fell unceremoniously on his ass.
There were massive trees pushed aside, showing their roots. He realized he stood in a five-point crater of dirt, plant-life blown away by the impact. Bug Pokemon scattered to the wind in fear, abandoning nests in instants.
Riolu let go of the bag, dizzily walked over to the grass, and started puking.
"So, uh… How can I help you guys?" Hilbert stood up, rubbing his sore back, accepting he was going to have giant bruises by tomorrow.
"I apologize for our hasty actions. We have been searching for the young one for a lunar cycle. A month, in human terms. When did you first make contact?"
Ignoring the retching Pokemon behind him, he answered, in his extreme humility, "See, I have this thing where I can't stop myself from helping the weak? It's a personality flaw of mine." He scratched the back of his head. "What happened was Team Galactic was doing some things… It's a long story, are you aware of them?"
"No, I can't say any of our outside contacts have mentioned such a group…" The lead Lucario, who had metallic war paint under his eyes, put a paw on its chin in thought.
"They steal Pokemon and hurt people. Not something I'm cool with. So, me, Golett, Abra, and Shaymin went to-"
"Excuse me, Shaymin?"
At the prompting, all of Hilbert's Pokemon burst out of their Pokeballs, even if Abra was still asleep.
"Oh, yeah. Can't forget Garchomp or Tyranitar, of course. They did a ton too." Hilbert shrugged, nonchalantly letting the two pseudo-legendaries into the forest.
Four of the Lucario were suddenly put on guard.
Riolu raised her arms and made a calming motion. "These are friends. Don't get too heated, this human's just too much of an idiot to feel threatened by anything."
"Hey!"
"See? No situational awareness."
"You…" The pack leader opened his eyes and raised his head. "You are clearly some sort of aura user, and if the young one trusts you… I believe the Master should be informed of this. First-hand. I insist you travel with us to the Lucario Kingdom, human."
"...Can I bring my teammates?"
"You will all be regarded with caution, but you may be granted temporary entry. If we find you to have endangered the young one, we dole out justice accordingly."
"I don't really like the sound of-" His words drifted off as five spheres of energy gathered in five furry palms.
The two pseudo-legendaries growled, but Hilbert held up his hand.
"No, this is fine." He recalled everyone except Riolu. He should probably get the control issues of his Pokeballs checked out, they got out way too easily. "We should grab them at Cycling Road."
After nearly half an hour of searching the forests near the bike path, Hilbert was nowhere to be seen and Dawn was at her wit's end.
Suddenly, in a gust of air, five Lucario appeared in the close tree line. Its leader held Hilbert in its arms, the fastest mode of transport, while another held Riolu on its shoulders.
"Hilby!" Dawn's cry alerted the others, who were searching out of sight, and they quickly ran up to the group.
The leader of the pack put him down so he could explain it to them.
"We need to head to the Lucario Kingdom so I don't have to kick any ass unnecessarily."
No one felt the need to explain he had that backwards.
"...How do you keep getting yourself into these things?" Dawn asked, sighing in relief, seeing he was still his normal self.
"Turns out, Riolu's a princess up there or something."
"SHE'S WHAT?"
"I'm not!"
Each member of the pack carried a member of Team Black through the forest. Barry had handed him his compacted bike to put back in his bag, and after redistributing their potions and remaining Pokeballs, they went on their way.
In not even an hour, they'd crossed so much of the forest that Cycling Road was barely a gleam behind them in the distance.
Lucario could run fast and that's a thrice-damned understatement.
The Lucario Kingdom was inside a hidden plateau on Mt. Coronet, in between the western bits of Eterna Forest and the route to Snowpoint city. There was a reason people traveled inside the mountain for that journey, as the terrain was incredibly perilous, reaching near ninety-degree angles at times.
Not that that stopped the pack of Lucario, who ran up it without a second thought.
It was about the size of Twinleaf, scattered houses and a variety of berry bushes. Stone roads were paved between those and the large stone temple that was built into the mountain side. It looked like a sort of monastery, and it turned out to be their destination.
They were put down at the steps, and a guard emerged around the six, including Riolu at the front. The guards wore armor, as metallic as their spikes, like that of a knight's.
"Whoa…" Barry actual seemed speechless for once, taking in the village.
Cheryl intended on taking some pictures if Hilbert managed to get everything cleared up.
Lucas wisely chose against asking if they were still wild and could be caught.
Dawn was looking around as much as the rest of them.
Hilbert simply sighed as they were escorted through a giant hall and into what looked like a council room.
Before they could enter, a guardsman- GuardsPokemon? Told them to leave their bags behind.
"Can I at least take the Pokeballs keyed to my partners?"
The escort and the guard looked at each other before nodding. All of their Pokemon were quickly allowed behind them. The two pseudo-legendaries ducked in the building, fitting, but recognizing that intimidation was not the way to go that deep into unknown territory.
Lucas sent out Monferno and Toxicroak, Barry let out Piplup, Starly, and Phantump, Dawn decided her Turtwig and Combee could use some air, and Chansey walked with Cheryl as always.
You can probably guess what Hilbert sent out, that being everyone else he had.
So yes, it got a lot more crowded very suddenly.
They still managed to fit through the massive archway, the doors swinging open to reveal a council of five, much older looking Lucario.
They seemed to have been in the middle of a heated discussion (The word 'argument' was just so uncouth), before their attention was brought to the convoy.
The one who was sitting at the middle seat of the semicircular table stood up. "These are our visitors? Ah, I see, young one, I am pleased to see your return... When did your aura grow such?"
Riolu looked up, confused, then looked back at Hilbert and Golett, who were behind her, the center of the crowd, and back at the council.
She simply stepped to the side and held a hand pointing at the two partners.
Lucario's eyes widened. "I see. How did you come across such a human?"
"I was kidnapped by a strange group of people, known as Team Galactic by the humans. Recently, I was rescued by these humans in their attack against the team. They are called Team Black. The leader, the boy behind me, has strong aura, as does this Golett, but he refuses to explain how he has it."
"We can see, young one."
"Ah… I apologize, I'd grown accustomed to dealing with humans, Master." Riolu bowed.
"Ease yourself. It's an unfamiliar situation to find oneself in. You, human. The discussion of aura can wait. You say that Pokemon are endangered?"
"Team Galactic hurts a lot of people and Pokemon. So, I gotta stop them."
"You say this, yet you've captured Pokemon, and bent them to your will? I find this hypocritical."
Hilbert shook his head. "They're free to go whenever they want. It's a pretty long story, actually… I saved Golett when I was little, he'd beat me up if I told him to leave, I helped Tyranitar and Garchomp a couple months ago and they chose to follow me, Abra could probably mind-control me into letting him leave, Shaymin could-"
"Excuse me, Shaymin?"
"They're Mythical here too?" He blinked. The grassy hedgehog walked out from behind a variety of legs, looking up at the council.
"That's… Certainly something we don't see everyday."
"I've gotten used to it. They came up to me in the forest. Oh, and Riolu caught herself, so-"
He found multiple spikes at his throat in seconds.
"I just said it wasn't me!"
"He's not lying, there was a struggle, and one of his capture-devices fell on me."
"Very well… I trust you'll destroy this capture device?" The Lucario, presumably White Claw, glared at him, clearly directing a single answer.
He responded by tossing the Great Ball on the floor between them. "I won't stop her from destroying it herself."
"An interesting attitude."
"I'm just saying, I don't think I've called any of them anything other than my partners. There's a reason for that. They're my partners first, and my Pokemon second."
There was a consistent growl among the Pokemon in agreement, Shaymin's translated confirmation as well.
"...I see. Back to the topic. This Team Galactic, they are a danger to both humans and Pokemon?"
"That's what I'm sayin'. And there's a lot of them."
"Very well. Council, shall we put the guards on high alert?"
"Aye!" Said the other members.
"Excuse me?"
"The young one was presumably kidnapped within our area. Therefore, protecting ourselves from this Team Galactic is urgent."
"That makes sense."
"We thank you for the return of the young one, and for your delivered information." White Claw nodded. "Should you wish to return, our doors will be open to you. Now, onto the topic of your aura…"
Hilbert, as well as his Pokemon, had been taken into a training yard, before White Claw and Riolu began the lecture.
Thus began the month-long training from hell.
"We get to stay here for a month? Cool!" Barry was undeterred by having to miss a month of gym battles, more excited by the thought of exploring. As did Cheryl. Lucas was slightly disappointed that he would miss out on some training, but he and Monferno realized possibly getting to spar with actual Lucario was worth the risk. Turtwig thought the rocks there felt nice, whatever that meant, so Dawn was happy with simply preparing for the first contest in Hearthome, their planned next stop.
"Wait, if aura is life-energy, how does Golett have it? He's a Ghost-type." Hilbert questioningly pointed at his partner. He'd changed into a strange training garb, and though it fit loose, it worked for the master's purposes.
Riolu shook her head in sync with White Claw. "Just because someone is 'dead', does not mean they are not alive."
"...You're going to have to explain that one to me."
"It's very strange, I must say. You yourself have some aura, but it seems to flow out of Golett."
"He has energy in his body. No one knows what it is." Hilbert shrugged. "I just figured it was his soul or something."
"That isn't too far off- However, aura is the byproduct of a soul, not the soul itself. I am not familiar with his species, is this known?"
"I've never heard anything about it before, so I think he's just special. It would explain the drill."
"The… Drill?"
"Ah, yeah, you guys are pretty isolated. Let me explain-"
The clothes Lucario had were certainly weird, thought Dawn. They were more cloaks and drapery, then something meant to conceal, shall we say. And they were a lot shorter, though the torso sizes were similar enough between them and the Pokemon species.
Lucas and Barry were expressly forbidden from looking at them regardless, Cheryl was terribly embarrassed.
After they'd meditated a full week, Hilbert started seeing hazy blue outlines of aura when he closed his eyes. It gave him a terrible headache, always seeing something, but he quickly learned to ignore it. They moved on to manipulating the aura.
"Wait, wait, wait. I can use a Fighting-type move?" Hilbert asked, flexing his hands.
"By all means, it should be possible. Those that produce abnormal amounts of aura are generally able to produce an Aura Sphere. I recall a Togekiss I met being able to use it, years ago…"
"I still can't use it yet, so we're going to have to learn it together!"
"Why do I get the feeling that's not a good thing?"
"In truth, the two of you will likely spar together, yes."
"Ah… My bones hurt already…"
Using aura to produce weak shields was interesting. He'd said something about AT-fields, which White Claw didn't understand, but gave him leniency to describe it how he wished.
"It's not like psychokinesis, is it?"
"No, psychic powers are different, as I've explained multiple times."
"Ah, sorry."
"Psychic energy comes from the mind, while aura comes from the soul."
"Yeah, yeah, I know, sorry."
Refinement, refinement, refinement. He started being able to see aura through walls, and not just that of Lucario. Far off, he could see packs of Starly flying overhead, and he could swear he saw Lucas's outline a few times, but they quickly blinked out.
At the other side of the temple, in the more open training yards, Monferno stood off to the side, after tossing Lucas his Fire Lance. It was the weirdest thing, Barry had tried to do the same thing, borrowing Lucas's tamer gloves, but all he got was singed when he tried to replicate the effect.
And so, Lucas was practicing his flaming sword skills against a Lucario using Bone Rush.
"...We're not going to talk about how Lucas basically has a lightsaber and Hilby might as well be a Jedi?"
"No, Barry, we're not. Team Black's insane enough as it is."
They hadn't seen the boy for two weeks, as he'd been training in isolation, but from what the other Lucario had told them, aura sounded a lot like the Force.
No midichlorians though, if you've been wondering.
Hilbert's Aura Sight began filling in soon after, into solid blobs rather than flashing outlines.
He was certainly freaked out when he realized that he could understand Tyranitar speaking during one of his few breaks.
"Whoa! Tyranitar, you're not secretly a Psychic-type, are you?" He turned towards Abra. "You're doing something, aren't you?"
"Not me, boss. Dark-types are immune."
"Then… Shaymin!"
"No, it isn't me either, Hilbert."
"...Golett?"
"No."
"Alright then, who else could-"
He froze, slowly turning back to the golem. "...Say that again."
The Ghost-type looked up at him, confused.
"No?"
"AH!" Hilbert jumped back, falling back off the bench.
Riolu hopped up just to look down at him. "Congrats, you can talk to Pokemon now."
He groaned, "This is going to be a headache, isn't it?"
It turned out the translation was focus-based, so he thankfully wouldn't have to hear it all the time. It was only a one-way filter though, so Riolu's jabs still went through, annoyingly.
He got the basic idea of recognizing signatures, though he only got as far as recognizing the species. Before then, he went off his best guess, but now, with the full silhouettes, it was relatively easy.
Barry was bored. Plain and simple. Hilbert was off doing aura training, and Lucas was becoming a knight of some kind.
So, he went off to go find some wild Pokemon, if he could, and see if they wanted to come with him, following Hilbert's example.
That action quickly snowballed quite the series of events that could not be aired in the proper time slots to make any actual sense, so we'll get back to it later.
Hilbert focused an orb of his aura in the palm of his hand, and aimed it at Riolu, who was in a defensive stance a dozen meters away. The blue light grew into the size of a tennis ball, and he released it.
It weakly floated in her direction. A minute later, she poked it, just barely, at it exploded in a gust of wind.
"I'm… Going to have to work on that. Golett, your turn."
The golem faced down Riolu, in much the same way. He raised a hand, and guessing what he was supposed to be doing, focused his energy into a single point in his rocky outstretched palm.
"No, no drills."
Golett sadly clanked, collapsing the foot-long cone back into a sphere the size of a soccer ball.
It shot off, fast, and when Riolu punched it… It didn't break, and instead started spinning and putting on even more pressure becoming a lot pointier.
She had to dodge away from it as it buried itself in the ground.
"I said no drills!"
Golett shrugged. Well, as much as it could with it's 'anatomy'.
Hilbert emerged from his training exhausted, bruised, and in need of a good cheeseburger.
In other words, he'd be completely fine.
It was at that point that Barry suggested a friendly competition. Hilbert noticed an extra ball on his belt, but contrary to what he expected, it wasn't a Pokemon battle.
After all, after all that training and practice, Hilbert and Lucas fighting with their respective elements would be a hoot, and its not like Chansey wouldn't heal them if they got too hurt, right?
Unfortunately for Hilbert, he was correct, so had to fight Lucas with his bare hands while the other boy used a sword made of fire.
"You're kidding me, right? I barely know how to use aura!"
White Claw ignored his protests and pushed him into the arena, where Lucas was being treated the same.
Sighing, he focused on building up the shield around his clothes, so he wouldn't get too burned. It wouldn't completely protect him from blunt force, but he didn't need it to. Barry was already recording the spar, so there wasn't any chance of him backing out.
Smoke started billowing out of Lucas's Fire Lance. He called it a lance, but since it was completely on fire, there wasn't much of a way to define it. The thing wasn't even solid, it couldn't block anything except more fire and maybe a weak water attack.
He whipped it around, sending the cloud of black smog towards him. In response, Hilbert closed his eyes.
It was mostly black, but he could see Lucas's aura through his eyelids. Some of the light seeped through anyway, but he'd learned to ignore it.
The other boy charged forward, and he could see the boy's arms above his head, even if he couldn't see the fire.
He gathered an Aura Sphere in his left hand, turning sideways, and shot it towards the boy. He could see his own outline, as well as the glowing orb he shot the other way. It moved towards Lucas, but he made a slashing motion, and it easily dissipated.
He could feel the smoke start to burn at his nostrils. If the intention was to incapacitate, it would work soon.
So, naturally, he tried to get rid of the wind, jumping back, and gathering even more aura around his arm.
Just as naturally, it started taking on the shape of a drill. He reached out with his other hand, putting a spin on it while charging it double-time.
Lucas slowly approached, himself barely being able to see from the smoke. He may have thought ahead by bringing a mouth and nose cover, but his eyes were still getting stung.
Wind started whipping around the drill, as curves became more and more obvious, and the point became more defined.
As the smoke whirled away, Lucas could finally see what was happening.
A bluish, then smoky drill was formed around Hilbert's arm, pulsating. Black air moved around inside of it, just begging for release.
And he did. The drill shot off with a bang, kicking his arm back, and knocking him over.
It sped towards Lucas, and even though he tried to block it, the drill simply ignored the fire, absorbed it, and hit him, all in the blink of an eye. It hit him in the shoulder, knocking him down, and the drill continued onwards.
Seeing that he'd lost his weapon, he had no choice but to concede.
"Thank you for training me, White Claw. It was an honor." Hilbert stuck out his hand to shake, for the wizened Lucario. They stood on equal ground as they shook hands, even if Hilbert had to look down.
"I was glad to meet someone who could push the young one. She was growing stagnant in her growth. I thank you for giving her that push."
"No problem, really!" He held out a thumbs-up. "Me and Golett got a lot stronger, so no thanks necessary!"
"As if he wasn't strong enough…" Muttered Lucas.
"You did too, I don't know why you're complaining," Hilbert said looking away for a moment.
They got ready to Teleport back to Eterna, waving, before Hilbert noticed something strange.
"Uh… Riolu, why are you still here?" The Fighting-type was behind him, almost out of his field of vision.
She held out the Great Ball she'd caught herself in.
"Take it."
"You should have destroyed that thing." He blinked.
"I'm coming with you now. If I got a lot stronger in the last month, then if I travel with Golett, that means I'll get even more stronger!"
"More strong, you mean."
"Shut up!"
"Keep it up, and I'll nickname you Asuka."
"Don't you friggin' dare!" Lucas shouted, in a rare loss of composure. They were becoming more common, as he hung around Hilbert.
And so, they blinked away, Riolu still arguing with them, and Hilbert having officially obtained his sixth Pokemon.
AN:
It's official, Hilbert has aura. Is it overpowered? It depends. I'm not spoiling anything, but I didn't do that for no reason, I swear. It wasn't just to make him look cool either, there's a point to it. The keyword is "Willpower".
Yes, the interpretation is mostly from Ashes of the Past.
I come up with genders for the Pokemon on the fly, depending on if I think it's funny or not. Riolu had a tomboyish voice in my head, so, yeah.
Here's a chart of Pokemon in the party, because I myself have lost track. Lucas keeps most of his in the PC, as he's the meta gamer type of guy. Sheer efficiency is what he's about. Barry just doesn't catch very many Pokemon.
Hilbert:
-Golett
-Garchomp
-Tyranitar
-Abra
-Shaymin
-Riolu
Lucas:
-Monferno
-Luxio
-Wingull
-Roselia (Off-screen)
Barry:
-Piplup
-Phantump
-Shinx
-Staravia
-Machop
-[Redacted]
Dawn:
-Turtwig
-Combee
Cheryl:
-Chansey
I actually did split up the chapter, see, I'm not incompetent!