A boy whose hair appeared white waved to his family as him and his girlfriend boarded the plane. They were headed somewhere out of the way, and she'd made him promise to not get into any trouble.

That was the idea of a vacation, after all. Getting out of the public eye as a champion could be annoying.

A Mid-Sinnoh Night's Dream - X - The Obligatory Beach Episode

The trip down route 214 was easygoing. It was through the forests, sure, but it was decently accessible, having fences and ramps, so it was more of a hiking trail than anything else.

They wanted to stop by Lake Valour, but the only entrance was completely blocked by news crews, and apparently, they had it blocked off to the public.

Where the media got the permission to do that, he had no clue.

But, regardless, they had to head further south. They couldn't go to Sunnyshore, because they had a power outage or something.

There was a massive collection of villas as they approached the coast.

"People actually vacation here?" He couldn't help but ask.

"Hey, Sinnoh is nice too." Dawn said, probably still irritated by the argument they'd had a few days ago.

"It is summer, after all." Barry shrugged. "A lot of people don't live by the coast. Y'know, unlike you."

"What exactly is that supposed to mean?" Dawn replied, giving him the side-eye.

"Just sayin'."

"You only live an hour away…"

"Details, who needs 'em?"

A girl in black overlooked them further up the mountain, recognizing the team from TV.

She really liked Shaymin, and wanted to see it. So, she tracked them down.

Hilbert's ears were suddenly ringing from a tumultuous rockfall, and the next moment his vision was filled with orange fur.

He fell, unceremoniously, flat on his ass in surprise.

It was an Arcanine, he realized. Its rider was dressed like a doll, with black leggings, long gloves, and a white bow in her equally black hair.

"Hello. I'm... Marley." She said simply, crossing her arms while still on her Pokemon. Her voice was quiet, like she was afraid she might make someone blow over in the wind if she spoke too loud.

"Hi, Marley, I'm dad." He said sarcastically, wiping off his pants.

"...Did Hilbert just make a dad joke?" Barry asked Lucas, leaning over to whisper.

"You think I would know?"

"Ah, yeah, forgot, sorry…" Their attention turned back to the new girl.

She shook her head. "No, you're not 'dad', your name is Black... I know, because I saw it on TV." She pointed a finger at him. "And... I saw your Shaymin. Could I see it?"

Hilbert casually took off his backpack, letting Shaymin run out of it.

"Greetings."

Marley's eyes widened. "I see... It really can talk to people." Her gaze focused back on Hilbert. "I believe you should… Release them. Noble Pokemon like Shaymin need to be free… To perform their duties."

Hilbert shrugged. "I'm helping them out. Looking for the Gracidea flower is tough, especially since they forgot where it was."

Shaymin nodded. "Hilbert is doing me a great favor, and hopefully I am returning that."

"I see… A symbiotic relationship… If that's the case, it seems you are traveling… May I keep watch over Shaymin? I am… Quite fond of their kind."

Hilbert noticed a tiny pin on her bow, almost like a miniature flower.

"Well, if my team doesn't have any issues…"

"You're the leader, it's your call, dude." Barry reminded him.

"Oh. Right." He looked back at her. "Well, as long as you're okay with kicking Team Galactic's ass in the future, it's fine by me."

She inclined her head towards them. "...Thank you for this kindness…"

Hotel Lake Grand was not, as you might expect, closer to the lake than it was the ocean. It was a big resort though, so it was hard to tell.

Resort might be a stretch, even with the sheer amount of villas and swimming pools. It was just because it was Sinnoh, really not your first choice for a summer vacation.

It was going to be expensive to stay there for the next few days, but with all the money Abra earned, they could live with it.

But, as they were so close to the ocean, Barry once again had an ingenious idea.

After all, it was the Ides of May! What could possibly go wrong with just a little swimming?

Later that day, it turned out that quite a lot could go wrong.

Barry was ecstatic he actually got to test out his dark-blue water gear, and Prinplup was just as pumped.

Lucas seemed oddly hesitant of the ocean, as did Monferno, but for completely different reasons. He had on red swim trunks, like a lifeguard's.

"Can- Can you not swim, Lucas?" Hilbert watched him repeatedly dip his toes in and out of the shallow waves. Fitting his nickname, his shorts were the same color.

"I can! I just… Prefer not to, yeah," he said, with blatantly false resolve.

Hilbert looked over at Barry, knowing what they both had to do.

"Well, co-leader, if you have a fear of the ocean, it's our duty to remove it!" Hilbert ran up to him, kicking up blasts of sand, and picked him up before he could blink.

"Hey! Put me down!" Lucas was limbs-up, like an overturned crab, and couldn't roll himself out of Hilbert's grasp.

Monferno looked like he was about to step in, until Hilbert walked into the water.

Well, onto it, would be more accurate.

He didn't actually notice, only running through the waves to find a deep enough place to dump the boy.

"Yo! Hilby, you're uh- You're walking on water, man."

Hilbert's smile quickly turned to a look of confusion, leading to a series of events in which he: Looked down, saw his feet with only a small film of wetness, looked back at the shore that was a dozen meters away, looked back down again, and fell through.

Then Lucas fell on top of him.

Managing to get back to shore and ignore his headache, he was just in time for the girls to arrive, and hoo boy, was he ready to appreciate it.

...We here at the studio would like to issue a formal apology to all watching that do not possess the priorities or eyes of a teenage boy. For better or for worse, we tell it how it is. Or, at least, how our boy Hilby sees it.

Luckily for you though, we don't go far enough down that rabbit hole to use cup sizes as descriptions of a character's personality!

They were all wearing two-pieces of varying colors and with differing accessories.

...What, you wanted more than that? Fine.

Dawn's was white with pink trim (It really was red or white for that girl), and had those floaty frills you see on some swimsuits.

Cheryl's was a lighter green with a longish leaf-green swim skirt.

The new-comer, Marley, was dressed in, you guessed it, black. Her skin was incredibly pale too, and you'll never guess why.

HIlbert shook his head out, sending a bit of salt water everywhere, and then held out a static thumbs up, his face glazing over.

"...I think that means good?"

Hilbert didn't answer, and instead ran to go throw Barry into the water as well. It wouldn't be as funny, sure, but a little goes a long way.

And now, we cut away from our regularly scheduled broadcasts to bring you- Golett! And his amaaaaaazing friends!

The team's Pokemon had their own, much larger towel and umbrella, separated from the five- No, six humans of the group.

While everyone else grilled Growlithe for all of the fun details about his trainer, Golett was trying to decide how he would build his sandcastle.
What he saw was an opportunity. Whenever he'd gone with Hilbert and his friends to the beach in Unova, the sand was just a place for stuff to sit on, always crowded and impossible to move through. You weren't even allowed to dig holes, because Unovans were just that stupid!

In fact, Sand Attack was a banned move there- Sand Attack, for Arceus's sake!

So, when he saw that Sinnoh's beach was much more open, and much less crowded, he took that as a divine mandate to construct his kingdom.

Barry and Hilbert sat down with a couple of (non-alcoholic) Cokeleons and took a breather. Ruthlessly hazing (I mean, improving the stamina of-) Lucas took a lot out of them.

"...Hey, dude, what's Golett doing?"

The golem was currently using Stone Edge repeatedly on a desolated part of the beach, then using his drill to cut bits of the rocks off.

"You know what, I'll get back to you on that." Hilbert took another swig of his drink.

Lucas groaned, buried up to his shoulders in sand, a few meters away. "When are you guys gonna let me out? Monferno? Please?"

Hilbert tossed the Fire-type a drink too, stopping it from pulling out its trainer.

He stared at the can in his hands for a moment, before opening it easily with its opposable thumbs.

Remember, 'Mon' doesn't come from 'monster' for him, it comes from 'monkey'.

They did eventually pull Lucas out.

Before dumping him in the ocean again.

Repeated exposure therapy, something like that. Sink or swim training? Yeah, let's go with that. It was all cool, really, just some friendly horseplay. Prinplup was trying to learn Dive with a few of Lucas's Pokemon, so he wasn't in any actual danger of drowning.

The girls came back from wherever they'd gone, lugging a large Lapras float. Renting an actual Pokemon would have been a bit much for just the day.

And volleyball equipment.

Yup, it's one of those beach episodes, where as part of the alleged 'training arc', they have to practice sports or something. Totally. That was the reason.

Yeah, no, volleyball is just a fun game to play with your friends at the beach.

It was a three-on-three game, in which the boys were explicitly forbidden to mention anything affected by gravity.

We're sure you know what they are, but because of studio censors, we can't actually tell you.

But we can spell it out for you through clever use of dialogue-entrapped innuendo.

"Boy, they sure are playing a tough game." Hilbert was already panting, having dived multiple times to keep a spike from landing. He was expressly forbidden from using his aura to keep it fair, surprising their gothic newcomer, who hadn't heard about his recently developed abilities yet.

"Oh, really? If you think that was tough…" He heard Dawn say, before a ball made an unmistakable slapping noise.

"Oh, Arceus-save-me." He looked up just in time to be hit head-on. The ball drove his nose (and the rest of his head) into the sand in a slight splatter of blood.

"...Bang…" Marley said, laughing quietly to herself.

No one moved, watching the ball roll away.

"...So, who's going to get the first aid kit?"

Meanwhile, in a separate, and also less bloody corner of the beach.

Golett had managed to carve out the basic outline of his stone plateau. It was half-his height, sure, and thirty feet diagonal to diagonal, but that's a small price to pay for art.

Riolu walked up, confused about what he was doing. "You know that's all going to be gone by tomorrow, right?"

Golett clanked. What this means, because Hilbert wasn't around, will not be translated, as it's a part of his body language, and not part of any attempt to actually speak on his part.

Also, there would have been a lot of ranting otherwise.

Barry stood up, spotting a far off clump of dark-gray clouds on the horizon. "Whoa. That doesn't look good."

Kyogre, Legend of the Sea, was beneath the waves, not noticing Rayquaza's unsubtle warnings in the atmosphere. It was too busy trying to find its trainer. Using echolocation, it spotted its trainer's mate, clicked happily, and started speeding ahead.

The girls were sitting on their part of the towel, watching the boys have their water fight. It looked completely unfair that Hilbert could spin water into his Aura Spheres, until Riolu joined it just to hit him back.

It started looking very much like a certain ripple battle from a certain TV show, with the two aura users posing repeatedly at each other.

"Oh? You're approaching me?" Hilbert asked, putting his hands out and standing against the waves. "Instead of running away, you're coming right towards me?"

Riolu growled, taking a careful step towards him. "I can't beat the stuffing out of you without coming closer."

Hilbert blinked. "I think you messed up that line."

"Kid's show."

"What? Not mentioning that's never stopped you before, what are you even-" He was interrupted by a massive wave crashing over him, flipping him over mid-step.

"Whababdhbbibiffaba-" He stood up, neck deep, spitting saltwater out of his mouth. Riolu had hopped over the wave, still balancing.

"You thought you would be able to walk on water, but no! It was I-" Riolu was interrupted by another wave, twice as tall as the last, crashing over them.

Hilbert took a gasp of air, treading water. The storm they'd been cautious of was suddenly overhead, and the sea turned violent. Everyone got out of the water as quick as they could.

"The hell?" He ran over to Golett's sandcastle, ignoring the intricate details, and stepped on it to get a better view.

There was an odd fish in the ocean, not quite the size of a Waillord, but it had some red markings. Above it, Hilbert saw some flashes of green behind the clouds.

"Hey, Dawn?"

"Yeah?" She was looking out at the sea, shielding her eyes with a hand.

"Does Kyogre usually come this far north?"

She looked over at him in disbelief, before jumping on his back to see as well.

Ignoring a pressure on the back of his neck, he carefully grabbed under her knees so she could look better without falling.

The thought of her just standing on the sandcastle next to him didn't occur to either of them; Intentionally or not.

"What the- That's really Kyogre! And- Is that Rayquaza?"

A roar echoed down from the clouds, as there was another flash of green.

"Oh, not again!" Yelled someone down the beach, who looked like he had white hair, running towards the surf. A girl in a red bandana and matching swimsuit ran after him.

"I said no Legendaries! For one trip!"

"I told them to stay, it's not my fault! Why do you think I picked Sinnoh?"

Hilbert looked up to Dawn, who was somehow meeting his eyes, then looked back at the couple wading through the waves.

"...I should probably go check that out. Shaymin, Abra, Golett, you're on deck." He jumped off the sandcastle and let Dawn down, before moving towards the water, quickly cradling Shaymin. Golett floated along behind him, while carrying Abra on his shoulders.

He walked up to the other boy, who'd put on a rebreather and gotten onto a Wailmer.

The white-haired- Actually, was that a hat? At the beach? Seriously? Well, whatever. They blinked at his casually walking through the waves.

"Hello?"

"Yo. I'm Black." He looked back at the giant fish that was swimming towards them. "So, what's Kyogre doing up in Sinnoh?"

The girl holding onto the other boy sighed. "Brendan caught it back in Hoenn a while ago. Whenever we go on trips-"

"I said I was sorry! It was better than just knocking it out!"

"We haven't had a good vacation for years! It just follows us everywhere!"

Hilbert looked awkwardly back to the still-approaching Legendary. "So… That's a Water-type?"

"If you want to try knocking it out, go ahead, but your electric attacks are going to get sucked up by Rayquaza's storm."

"Have you caught it?"

"Er… Yeah…"

"You just couldn't stop, could you? Just had to catch both-"

"I said I was sorry, May!"

"Hmph. I'm not accepting that until you say you love me."

"I've said it a thousand times!"

Hilbert mimed throwing up with his spare hand, before walking closer to the approaching Legendary.

"I was planning on Surfing close enough to return them with Wailmer, are you sure you want to try that?"

Hilbert gave him a sideways glance, smirking. "Who the hell do you think I am? Abra, get ready to Teleport!"

"I don't like the sound of this," Shaymin said, as Hilbert let them float in front of the Legendary, who was… Clicking happily? Its eyes were locked on its 'trainer', much to his (girlfriend's?) chagrin.

"Shaymin! Tell me, what is a drill?"

"It's… A tool? A weapon, in your case,"

"Close, but not quite. Your drill is your willpower! It's your soul, your meaning. So what do you use it for?"

"To achieve my goals?"

"Yes! And what do you use it for when a wall, like, say, a giant Legendary whale, stands in your way?"

"We…" A Leaf Blade sprung out of Shaymin's front right paw. "Smash it down. I see!"

"So, what is your drill?"

The Leaf Blade extended out, taking on more of a cone shape.

"My drill is my soul!"

"That's right! And when there's a wall in your way?"

"Then I have something right here, in my soul, that'll pierce a hole in it every time!" Faux-Gracideas began growing in a spiral around the drill, even against the rapid whipping winds.

"And what is that?"

"That thing… Is my drill!" It began spinning, spitting air and seawater out of its way.

"Giga…" The drill solidified itself in brilliant columns of natural light, a bright sheen of the forests.

"Drill…" It burst forwards, leaving behind nothing but air.

"BREAAAAAAAK!"

And then, it was raining.

Not because of the storm Rayquaza made, oh no, that one had dissipated as soon as Shaymin knocked out Kyogre.

Yeah, sending a whale flying and then letting it crash back down into the water is a recipe for one hell of a splash.

So, it was raining.

He'd managed to catch Shaymin while they were falling out of the air, and Abra used Teleport to get all of them back to shore before they'd get crushed by the Legendary Water-type.

The couple on the Wailmer looked at him, while they returned the Water-type from where it was beached on the sand.

"Huh," said Brendan. "Neat."

Hilbert shrugged, putting the fainted Shaymin back into its Pokeball. "Yeah." He looked back at the ocean, where Rayquaza had swooped down and grabbed Kyogre with its tiny arms and started pulling it back to where it came from. "I don't know why I'm not more freaked out over this, honestly-"

"Pokemon Rangers, at the scene!" A variety of people with red jackets and weird hand radios jumped over the dunes, only to see... Nothing.

"You're a bit late, sorry." Brendan shook his head in tandem with Hilbert, like kindred souls used to ending up in awkward situations.

The leader of the squad, a blond, scratched his head. "...We got a report about Kyogre, but…"

"Yeah, it's dealt with." Brandon waved him off.

May grabbed at his forearm. "Can we get back to our vacation now?"

"Yeah, yeah," he said, turning to Hilbert again, pointing a finger gun at him, "Hey, I like how you do things, see you around, Black!" His (girlfriend?) kept dragging him down the beach.

Hilbert just stood there, blankly, looking between Golett, Abra, and the rapidly retreating Pokemon Rangers.

"Huh."

Barry was looking out at the ocean when he got back. "...Did you really just knock out a Legendary Pokemon?"

Hilbert laid down on the towel, crossed his arms behind his head, and sighed. "I think we ought to get used to it."

The girls were off talking on their own, making their own, girls-only sandcastle, because it was 2009 and that kind of thing was still socially acceptable- Wait, what?

"...Did he just..."

"Yeah," Dawn sighed, "He did."

"...I see… It makes sense that Shaymin would be fond of him, then…" Marley wondered to herself, out loud.

"From what I can tell, that's just something he does," Cheryl added. "He talks himself up, but I don't think he does that for his own benefit."

"...I don't quite understand…"

"I'm sure he has fun doing it, as much as Lucas does with his Fire Lance, but… I'm not sure if that's all. He does it for a reason, clearly."

Dawn nodded. "He told me that he wanted to protect people, stop them from feeling fear. I guess that's how he manages it all."

"...That's very… Noble, yes…"

Hilbert was acting anything but, at the time, as in celebration, he threw Lucas in the water again.

"It's even funnier the second time!"

"...You mean the twentieth?" Lucas sat up, spitting out salt water.

"Wanna make that twenty-first?"

"Oh for Arceus's sake-"

Golett, after getting Abra to use Protect on his sandcastle, finally finished his masterpiece.

A miniaturized scale model of the Ransei region. You know, from like, the board game, Risk? That's what they made it up for, after all.

They made a TV show out of that too, which is how Golett knew what it was, through contact with Hilby, of course.

It even had tiny models of the warlords, and only slightly-inaccurate models of their Pokemon.

Unfortunately, Riolu, seeing a large sandcastle, felt the childish urge to kick it over.

Barry looked up into the now-cloudless (from a dozen Sunny Day's) skies, watching Riolu fly off in a sparkle of light.

"Hilby, Golett just punted your sparring partner."

"Eh?" The boy didn't bother sitting up. "Whatever, she probably deserved it."

Their fun, though only partially relaxed, day at the beach ended, and they all trudged back to the hotel, suitably exhausted.

There was a flier stuck on every door, so they had no choice but to look at it.

Hilbert tore it off its tape and looked at it, his bag slung over his shoulder.

"...Seaside trainer's tournament?"

Barry excitedly poked his head over his shoulder. "Seaside trainer's tournament?"

Lucas held a hand next to his mouth, while pointing at them, and whispered, "...Seaside trainer's tournament."

"Are you going to move or not?" Riolu looked up at them, wiping her head with a towel. "I need to get the salt out of my fur."

He looked down, then at the other two boys. "...Yeah, no, you're going to the girl's room."

Hilbert stared up at the ceiling, trying to remember something.

A realization slowly came to him.

"Abra, Teleport Shaymin into the girl's room."

"Right away, boss."

The Psychic-type tapped the Mythical Pokemon, then blinked away.

A shriek echoed from the room next door.

"Oh, why did I tell him to do that!" Hilbert half-cried, half-laughed.

Abra appeared back in the room, a pair of underwear draped over his head. "Got you a souvenir while I was at it."

"PUT THAT BACK WHERE IT CAME FROM OR SO HELP ME!"

He disappeared again, for a brief second, before quickly returning.

"Would you like me to show you the mental images?"

Hilbert groaned and put up his mental shield, also covering his ears with two pillows, before rolling sideways to sleep.

There really was, as you might guess, a seaside trainer's tournament the next day.

You'll never guess where it was being held.

A decent crowd of trainers were gathered around a lifeguard's chair, which was more like a podium, the way it was being used.

"This isn't a League event, so don't take it too seriously! Draw your name in the bracket in the sand!" Yelled the blonde lifeguard with a megaphone, which he could've sworn he'd seen before.

They put their names in. A single-battle event, one Pokemon each round.

Hilbert got his match-up for the first round. A little girl, which he would feel bad about beating outright, so he used Abra.

She sent out a Honchkrow, smiling. "My cousin said I could borrow her Pokemon while I was visiting!"

Abra looked up at the Dark-type, before using his Scatter Teleport.

"You know, I do owe you for that Game Corner trip. Thunder Punch!"

Abra appeared behind Honchkrow's head, floating.

"Omae wa mou… Shinderu-"

Its eyes widened. "Nani?"

"That's not how Pokemon talk…" Hilbert was legitimately confused, as it was knocked unconscious by a direct hit.

"Aw…"

Next round was against a boy his own age with purple hair, who looked like he didn't know how to have fun.

He sent out an Electivire.

"Dang, you're not messing around, are you?" Hilbert asked, reaching for Golett.

"I'm here to make my Pokemon stronger. This isn't a game."

"Sure, sure, whatever you say," Hilbert shrugged, throwing out the Ground-type.

His opponent, Paula or something, looked like he was trying to analyze Golett.

"Electivire, try Thunder Punch."

The massive Electric-type's attack landed, knocking him back, but not having an effect otherwise.

"That's what I thought. Ground-type. Use Low Kick."

Electivire surged out, and its leg phased right through. Funny how that works.

"Ghost-type too? How annoying." The boy sneered. "Ice Punch, then."

That was when Golett finally exploded into action.

"Stomping Tantrum!"

Sand shot up from under the Electric-type, making them sink into the shore, and interrupting their attack.

"Use Dig!"

It disappeared under the sand, rumbling.

Golett was catapulted into the air by the force of the attack, but managed to keep an eye on it.

"Ice Punch!"

Electivire jumped towards him, fist frosting over.

"Phantom Force, then Mud-Slap!"

Golett disappeared from vision, only to reappear to punch Electvire in the face, mud trailing along its arms in the air.

It landed heavily, rearing back, trying to wipe away the blockage of its eyes.

"Don't let that stop you! Keep using Ice Punch!"

"Mud-Slap!" Golett threw another glob of wet clay into his opponent's eyes.

"A real trainer wouldn't need to use such weak tactics!"

"You're the guy using an Electivire at the beach, seriously man, relax. Now, Stone Edge!"

Golett crashed into the ground, sending heavy rocks at him from beneath the sand. It lifted Electivire's arms against each other, forcing him to spread-eagle. It stumbled for a moment, before its legs were caught by rocks as well, and truly stuck. It still squirmed, but it couldn't move against the attack.

"This feels so cliched," he muttered, before shouting, "Now, Golett! "

The golem started turning red, its glow pulsating blue.

"Giga…"

It steadied one arm, as the drill grew outwards.

"The hell are you-" Paul was taken aback.

"Drill…"

The lifeguard, who'd met Hilbert before in much different clothes, put a finger on her chin. So that was where she should've known him from.

"BREAAAAAAAK!"

Golett shot forward, kicking up a five-meter wave of sand, and broke Electivire out of the Stone Edge, rocketing them both through the beach.

When the wind stopped blowing sand in everyone's face, they found an unconscious Electric-type and a triumphant Golett.

AN:

Last chapter for maybe a week at most.

Some of the prose for this chapter is wonky, probably just because I'm shit at writing, who knows.

I'm getting a little tired of using the drill break, so suggest any other moves you'd like to see them try. They can be a stolen as you want, Hilbert's probably into it.

Next up, Safari Zone, some new Pokemon, Crasher Wake. Probably.