Author's Note: Once upon a time, I decided to do a Nuzlocke run of Pokemon Black and chronicle said run on tumblr. This decision would result in a lot of RP shenanigans and a lot of thinking about Hilbert's journey. I did not think it would result in that, so there isn't much focus on the battling aspect of things (aside from a few select battles towards the end of the game). Nothing notable happened in most of the Gym battles, and I didn't want to take notes on every little thing because I didn't think I would be writing it out in this way.

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon. None of this is owned by me, I've just have had a lot of time to think about this Nuzlocke run and a lot of time on my hands.

Let the Chips Fall

Chapter 1: Lucky So-And-So

Cheren's logic was pretty sound. Since Professor Juniper had the package delivered to Hilbert's house, he should be the one to get first choice among the starters.

Still, Hilbert was not pleased. He was almost certain that Professor Juniper did that on purpose. If it wasn't her, then it had to have been Cheren's idea. He was known to be pretty indecisive, after all. Maybe a bit reckless - maybe she did this to make him stop and think about what he was doing before making his decision. Thinking about what to do next was part of being a trainer, that's what everyone said.

There would come a day where Hilbert would stop and think before making any decisions, but it would not be this day.

Taking a pair of dice out of his pocket (and ignoring Cheren's annoyed groan), Hilbert devised a plan: If I get a one to a four, I'll pick Snivy. Five to eight will land me with Tepig. And if I get a nine to a twelve, I'm getting Oshawott.

With a dramatic flourish, Hilbert rolled the dice. The three teenagers watched as the dice landed on a four...and a five. With a grin, Hilbert went right towards the PokeBall holding Oshawott.

It didn't take long for Hilbert to be happy with how things turned out. Bianca seemed like she was having fun with Tepig, and Cheren seemed to be synchronized with Snivy already.

That wasn't even getting into how he just clicked with the little Oshawott. It could have been the excitement of having their first battles, but Hilbert was almost certain that he wouldn't have any other partner.

As the day went on, Hilbert would discover that his starter Pokemon was actually pretty amazing.

She was definitely eager to fight, and was overall a happy little Oshawott. Playful and energetic, a near perfect fit for a trainer like Hilbert. While her movements were a little clumsy and ungraceful, that could be attributed to her being young. Professor Juniper assured him that she would grow into a (relatively) fast physical sweeper; her jolly nature would indicate as much.

The fact that Oshawott was female didn't escape Hilbert's notice either. Purely because that made her a rarity; female starter Pokemon were much rarer than males. There was about a twelve percent chance for any given 'starter' Pokemon to be female, and he had gotten one with a simple roll of the dice! He'd be lying if he said that didn't give him a lot of satisfaction with his decision.

When asked what they were going to name their Pokemon, Hilbert gave Oshawott the first name that came to mind; Michelle.

As Hilbert would have expected, Cheren wasn't happy. Not with the fact that he ended up with Snivy - the starter he wanted in the first place - or the fact that they had to wait this long for Bianca again.

No, he was dwelling on the fact that Hilbert left his starter decision to luck. Part of the reason Cheren had insisted that Hilbert pick first was to actually try to force him to make a decision for once in his life, and Hilbert undid that with a simple roll of the dice! Where does he even keep those things, anyway?!

Even if the outcome was ideal, Cheren wasn't a fan of how it came about. And Hilbert was going to hear about it.

That moment came as they were waiting for Bianca by the outskirts of town. She was probably getting ready to sneak out of her house - her father was notoriously protective of his only daughter, so Bianca had to be sneaky in order to be able to go on her journey. The perfect opportunity.

"So, Hilbert."

"So, Cheren."

"I need to ask…why did you leave your starter decision to a dice roll?" Right to the point was the best way to handle this kind of thing, and Cheren delighted in how Hilbert groaned as a response. "You realize I insisted on having you pick first for a reason, right?"

Hilbert huffed. "Well, you should have checked my pockets for dice first."

"Hilbert."

"Alright, fine! If you really wanna know, I'll tell you!"

Hilbert hummed, as if taking a few moments to figure out how to best put it.

"I figure…it's all luck, right? The Pokemon you meet, the team you end up creating, whether you're able to make it to the League - hell, even surviving - I think it all boils down to pure chance. Putting it that way, why not leave the starter Pokemon to a roll of the dice? That way, it's about as random as the rest of the journey."

A moment of silence passed between the two of them before Cheren said, "Luck, huh…In that case, why don't we raise the stakes?"

That instantly caught Hilbert's attention. "I'm listening…"

"Why don't we see how far you'll get catching only the first Pokemon you see in a new area?"

"Only the first?" Hilbert repeated, carefully examining Cheren's face. Probably looking for any trace of a lie. "You're kidding."

"I'm serious. If you knock that Pokemon out, then you fail for that area and can't catch anything until you go to the next area," Cheren countered. From how he had been listing these rules, one would assume that Cheren had actually thinking about this for a while now. "Duplicates don't count, and shiny Pokemon are fair game - you're free to catch those no matter what."

"Why don't you do the same?" Hilbert challenged, crossing his arms. "You put this much thought to these rules, so I can't have all the fun."

Cheren sighed. He hated to admit it, but Hilbert had a point. It wouldn't be fair to enforce a set of rules on someone and not go through it yourself. That's just common courtesy.

"…Fine. Whichever one of us makes it the furthest in the Gym Challenge wins - if one of us forfeits then the other wins by default."

With that, Cheren held out his hand. Hilbert stayed quiet for a few moment, before grinning and shaking it. "Alright. You got yourself a bet!"

"Hilbert, I didn't-" But Bianca had arrived, and Cheren couldn't get the last word in before they set off. Should they tell her about the bet they just made?

Then it hit him - he had just made a bet with Hilbert. Yes, he does tend to rely on his luck. The thing is, Hilbert was never the type to rely on something that he didn't have. In other words, Hilbert was one of the most outrageously lucky people that he had ever met. His luck didn't even work in the sense that he could win any cash prize he wanted, but it was more like things just worked out for him. Whatever the most unlikely circumstance happened to be, odds are that it would happen to Hilbert.

The starter Pokemon could be an example of that - Oshawott has a twelve percent chance of being female, and Hilbert got her on the roll of the dice! How did he do that?!

With that in mind, Cheren was going up against him? In what is probably the most random challenge anyone could have ever thought up?

Arceus, help him.

Hilbert had to admit, if that bet meant getting amazing Pokemon like this one, then he was all too happy with it. After all, he had always wanted a Lillipup. Pickup was an Arceus-send of an Ability, after all, and Stoutland was supposed to be a pretty versatile battler. And while it could be argued that Vital Spirit was the better ability for a Lillipup to have, the idea of having random items handed to you appealed to Hilbert very much.

However, Roger had Vital Spirit. You win some, you lose some.

That wasn't to say that Roger was a bad Pokemon! He could definitely hold himself in a battle, and seemed to get along with Michelle pretty well. Hilbert supposed he couldn't afford to be picky about things like abilities. Especially with the bet that he and Cheren made.

Overall? Not bad at all for his first-ever capture.

N knew of Ghetsis' speeches through Unova, but this was his first time actually seeing him work. It was an inspiration, although the crowd's reactions were a little more mixed than he would have liked. Some showed pure skepticism, others seemed to be expressing doubt. Ghetsis had told him not to expect people's mind to change right away, anyway. Change doesn't happen overnight - it happens with time, like a seed bursting into bloom. All he would need to do is wait.

Frankly, N didn't want to wait. A world where Pokemon got hurt - where they could die fighting for their trainers - was a world he didn't want to be a part of. If he could change it so that Pokemon wouldn't have to suffer anymore, he wanted to be able to do that as soon as possible. If only-

(Hey, Osha - Michelle. What do you make of that?)

The slip was what caught N's attention, and he glanced over to see what it was. What he saw were an Oshawott and a Snivy, each of them perched on a human's shoulder. Their trainers, probably. Judging from what 'Michelle' was nearly called, it must be the Snivy that had spoken up. N knew that some trainers liked to give their Pokemon 'nicknames'. He never quite understood why; Pokemon didn't need any other name but their own.

Oshawott pouted. (I think it's silly! That Juniper lady always said that we help each other out, right?)

N frowned at the mention of Professor Juniper. One of the people who stood for everything that he was against. He wanted to say something in response to that, but Ghetsis had told him to lie low for now.

So, he only watched as Oshawott hugged her trainer's head and continued, (Besides! I know we only met today, but I like Hilbert already. He's funny!)

A king must speak eloquently and clearly, so there was no point in learning the common vernacular. That is to say, N never understood why humans said they were 'shocked' when they really meant they were surprised…until that very moment. Hearing Oshawott's words felt like a current running through his system, catching his attention right away. If the shock showed in his face, he didn't care.

He had never heard a Pokemon say that they actually liked their trainer. All of the Pokemon he had met were either used or abandoned by their trainers. This Oshawott was the first he had ever seen that was happy with their trainer. And she said they had only met today?!

Ghetsis had said not to make himself known to anyone, but after hearing that...he just couldn't not say something. He had to know.

"Your Oshawott...just now, she said-"

That caught everyone's attention, particularly Snivy and Oshawott - both Pokemon nearly falling off their trainer's shoulders in shock. He knew that it was rare for a person to understand Pokemon the way he could, so he supposed shock would be understandable.

(Did you just listen in on our conversation?!) Snivy demanded.

(Did you just understand what we were saying?!) Oshawott, while less hostile than Snivy, seemed just as shocked as her friend.

N nodded - there was no sense in lying now.

"Yes, I did…to both your questions. It's interesting-"

(Oooh, that's so COOL!) Where Snivy was stupefied at the revelation, Oshawott seemed to accept it with zeal. She jumped off her Trainer's shoulder and continued, (Could you do me a favor and tell Hilbert - that's my trainer, this guy over here - that I think he's really nice, and funny, and that I want to stay with him? I dunno if he actually is worried about what those weird people said, but it never hurts to let him know, right? And Roger - he's a Lillipup - thinks so too! He's in his PokeBall or he'd say so himself. It's just us right now because we literally started our journey today, but I'm sure we'll be able to make new friends in no time!)

Hearing Oshawott call Team Plasma 'weird' did sting, but that didn't last long. With every word Oshawott said, N grew more and more intrigued. She only met this Hilbert today, and she already held him in such high esteem. Pokemon never tell lies - he knew she meant every word she said.

Shock gave way to curiosity; what kind of trainer was Hilbert?

"Can he really understand them?"

"Well, Michelle seems to think so. Better to let her have her fun. I just hope she's saying good things about me!"

Hearing the two trainers converse brought him back to reality. Where were his manners?

N stood to address the trainers. "So you can't hear their voices...that's a little sad. My name is N."

"I'm Cheren," Snivy's trainer introduced. "And this is-"

"Hilbert. Is that right?"

Ignoring the brunet's shocked exclamation, N took out the PokeBall holding Purrloin. He didn't like the idea of forcing his friends to fight, but he knew of no other way to test Hilbert and his Pokemon. "Now then, Hilbert, I want to hear your Pokemon's voices again!"

Clearly Hilbert hadn't been expecting to be challenged so quickly, as his response was simply, "Oh, shoot - Michelle!"

The battle went by quickly, and while N felt horrible for putting Purrloin through that...he was curious. He never thought he could hear Pokemon say anything good about the trainer that they were with. Hilbert was obviously an exception (if how he cheered on Oshawott, and then Lillipup was anything to go by).

Perhaps he could agree with N's ideals?

He supposed only time would tell.

New Additions

Michelle / Oshawott/ Female / Jolly / Quick-tempered / Torrent / Met in Nuvema Town

Roger / Lillipup / Male / Lax / Scatters things often / Vital Spirit / Met in Route 1