{Author Notes.}
Hey guys, I'm trying something new today, I'm deciding a bit on the next battles and plans and such, but there were some ideas that I wanted to write.
With that in mind, today's Chapter is an Interlude that jumps around from Past and Present.
This chapter is going to have over several parts and skits where either shows reflections of the past, or some of the characters messing around in the present.
Hope you like it.
Interlude 1: Before they were called Bizarre...
[Takezo: A talk under the Cherry Blossom]
"Do you know… how to be strong?"
Is it physical strength?
"Hmm…"
Is it honor or courage?
"Hmm…"
The ability to care for something and protect it?
"Hmm…"
A strong tactical mind that can see through any situation?
"Hmm…"
… Sharp senses?
"Hmm…"
Teacher, I do not understand. Why do you ask me a question, yet not validate whether I am wrong or right?
"That is because…. Even I don't know! Bwahahaha!"
…
"Oh don't give me such a look. If you meet people out there, you will find out that there are many interpretations of how to be strong. Some will claim it something tangible, like physical or mental strength, some will say it is the inner soul where people are courageous and fight valiantly for something they truly believe in."
Then… what makes you strong then Teacher?
"Aww thank you, for thinking I'm actually powerful. No, truth of the matter is that there will always be someone more powerful than you… Yet…"
…?
"Little One, when a young child sits down, what must he do when he is done sitting down?"
He stands up. Or in your case, Teacher, he lies on his back and snores.
"Gack! How sharp your tongue is, Pupil! Now if only you could use your tongue as a blade, then you would be the finest sword and word smith the world hath ever known! Bwahahaha!"
I am still curious at the point you were previously trying to make.
"Ahh yes. Erhm! You are correct, the child must eventually stand up, as do many other living beings do. Now answer this: do we only stand up once and remain sitting down for the rest of our lives?"
No, we stand up after sitting down since it is the only way to move forward.
"Yes, whenever we fall, we must learn to rise up. From what I can gather, it matters not how strong one is, the world will always be stronger, so therefore it is not about being strong, it is about surviving the hardships in life and rising from them."
… But what about this Cherry Blossom Tree in front of us, Teacher? Once the petals fall, they don't fly back up into the tree. Do they not stay in the ground?
"Ahh youth, always so clever. You are partly true on that, Little One. However, I would like to think we should only stay down once we are dead."
So is this your answer then Teacher? Being strong is rising again after falling?
"Well actually… I still don't know. I would like to think what I said is right, but the only part I'm truly certain about what I said was that the world was always stronger. Life is far too unpredictable and bizarre to truly have one overwhelming truth."
I… I am confused, Teacher.
"… One day, you will find your own path and ideals that will make you strong despite all the others. Don't be afraid to pursue them."
Teacher… you could have just said that from the start.
"You got me there, Little One! But if given the choice, I would do all of that again just so you and I can sit here and enjoy the Cherry Blossoms bloom…"
So basically this was all a poor attempt of striking a conversation with me?
"I never was any good with the philosophy part of Samurai Teacher School. I only graduated by Tauros-craping my way towards that class. Got a C- (minus), the finest dang C minus the world had ever known!"
Why do I have the foreboding feeling you'll be teaching me very strange things?
"Oh come now, Little One, have some faith in your teacher. Now, the next lesson, how young teenagers mate!"
[Ohko: One arm, but all heart.]
A very long time ago, before he found himself among allies and friends, he was alone and bullied.
"Man, this poser is all bark and no bite. What's this fool think he's doing, challenging us with only one arm. I bet he can't even block."
Before Ohko became Ohko, he was called many other things, freak, wannabe, loser, one-armed. He didn't know why he was born with only one arm. For as long as he could remember, he only had one right arm, and he was picked on ever since he was young.
Being alone a good chunk of his life, he never really understood things as much as others did.
He did know one thing, he hated how they kept picking up on him, how they kept insulting him.
However, fate and science was kind to this Sawk. His species have always been known to train. Whenever this one armed Sawk was beaten down, he would soon rise up and practice punching and kicking from sunset to sun rise, almost stubbornly to the point of exhaustion. He wasn't social as other Pokémon, but his knowledge went into how to properly punch something, how to kick something, how to kick something hard, how to kick something fast, how to train well without too much effort.
With every insult, ten punches. With every defeat, one hundred punches.
This Sawk trained hard night and day, day and night—or what he called, 'bright thing that hurts to look at' (Day) and 'Many lights that don't hurt to look at' (Night).
As he grew stronger, he started to enjoy fighting. There might have been something biological in fighting types that just pushed their adrenaline more than any other types in the world, but for this Sawk, he may have believed that this feeling was joy which was why he sought more and more fights whenever he was insulted, which is why he took on impossible odds and threw himself at them, wanting to see how far he can go.
He wanted to prove them all wrong. He wasn't weak, he wasn't stupid, or an idiot… whatever those words meant anyway.
It came to a point where he would actually start winning his fights. Despite his enemies' numbers, he found out that they can only dish out, they couldn't take it.
Their jaws were fragile compared to the rocks he always punched his one fist and two legs with. Their hits didn't hurt as much as they used to anymore, they were softer, even though there were many they didn't hurt as much.
They finally stopped making fun of him after he stood on top of a pile of Timburr, Gurdurr, Throh, and other Sawks as well and screamed at the top of his lungs, "NO SERIOUSLY, WHAT DOES AN IDIOT MEAN!?"
The one armed Sawk found out something after he won. He was alone.
The other cruel people who pestered and belittled him, were strangely the only Pokémon that were around him. After he beat them all, they stayed their distance away from him.
Even when winning, he felt like he lost.
But then recently, more Pokémon had been migrating to his area of the forest. There was some kind of powerful Pokémon there that was scaring the rest of the other Pokémon into their territory.
Among the scared Pokémon, he heard something about creatures called humans, but no one ever talked to him about it directly.
So then he once overheard other Pokémon talk about these trainers and how other Pokémon become their partners. When he overheard the wild Pokémon, it was over the fact that two wild Sawks were caring over a third, injured Sawk that was defeated by a trainer's Pokémon.
They were all saying horrible things and how badly the third Sawk was beaten up, but the one armed Sawk grew interested. Yet he found out that the humans were in the direction of where this powerful bully Pokémon was.
Sawk clenched his one good fist in excitment. This was getting better and better.
If there was one thing that Sawk did still enjoy, it was fighting.
He made his way, just picking a direction and going that way even though it wasn't the direction where the refugees came from. Planning was still not his forte.
As he continued on, he sensed something running fast at him, a weird Sawk looking like creature that was pink looking instead of the deep maroon red-ish color Throhs were.
It kind of looked scared of him, but he didn't really think of that. Most people coming up to him always wanted to challenge him, and he wasn't one to back down. He attacked the strange creature and wondered why it didn't throw a punch yet.
When the strange creature tripped, he thought he was going to win easy.
But then he came along, faster than any punches he had seen, a small Patrat tried to hit him with two wooden blades.
The rest is history, and later would be described by the simple minded Sawk-turned-Ohko as, "The Best Crew ever!"
[Wes and N: The Thief and The King]
Wes was really starting to get used to the food in anywhere from Orre. Wasn't that hard really, whatever scraps that were left over and shipped to Orre from other countries were definitely not hard to miss.
Still though, he was really enjoying some coffee ever since Summer and Platinum took him to this coffee shop. But while he enjoy—tolerated their company. He noticed that from time to time that he was stared at from other people, specifically other trainers and guys around his age. He wondered why though? When he first appeared, no one seemed to even make eye contact out of fear, but the punks somehow got the nerve to give him the dirty eye without him looking later on.
Ahh! Of course! It was his company! The girls!
'Those punks must have been giving me the stink eye because I've been hanging out with girls! I bet they think I'm sort of sissy or something!'
He thought so.
And he was dead wrong. Amazingly, despite Wes' smart-aleck mouth, he was actually surprisingly oblivious to the fact that two gorgeous girls were giving him their undivided attention. What? It's not his fault that the only humans around him a huge majority of his childhood were a bunch of rowdy and uneducated guys.
"Um excuse me," Wes turned over and saw a maid looking slightly nervous at him. "Do you mind if you share a table with someone? We are currently full again…"
"… Go for it." Wes answered as he sipped more coffee. It was pretty good, but he wondered why Platinum like this so much since it was really bitter.
The maid nodded and looked behind here. "Is this alright sir?"
"Yes thank you."
Wes looked up to see his tablemate happened to be a pretty boy with green hair and some kind of cube for a necklace.
"Hello."
"Yo."
Wes took another sip of the coffee he was drinking. He was wondering whether or not to start adding some sugar or crème into his coffee, or anything else to lower the bitterness of it all before he put his drink down and stared casually back at the now glaring man in front of him.
"I don't suggest glaring like that. I hear it's bad for your skin."
"You are one of the trainers participating in the glorified Music Festival Tournament, contestant #4 Wes."
"Huh, well I've been called worse things, but how rude of me. You took the liberty of knowing recognizing me, but I don't know who you are." Wes nonchalantly answered back. He didn't really care that this guy was passive aggressively insulting him. Heck he's dealt with even worse people better, but if there was anything that helped him just a little it was humoring these people, either talk to them about it, or casually move the topic away to something more tolerable.
"My name is N, and I will be the one to free Pokémon from their trainers." The Snagger raised his brow since that name sounded very familiar.
Wes automatically said, "Been there done that."
"Excuse me!?"
Wes inwardly noted that he may have accidentally revealed himself to be a Pokémon thief in front of some random trainer.
The scornful face of N grew. "What do you mean you've already freed your Pokémon?! They're still trapped in their Poké Balls!"
While Wes, on the other hand, simply got confused at N's accusation. "What are you talking about? Aren't you talking about stealing Pokémon from other trainers?"
"I'm not stealing!" N yelled out half hysterically, somewhat losing his cool before coughing and calming himself down. "I'm liberating the Pokémon from their cruel trainers!"
"… So stealing. Basically." Wes repeated. He also thought that would be a fun excuse to use if he ever got to use his Snag Machine again.
"It's not stealing! I'm taking all the brainwashed Pokémon from bad trainers and purifying them from the darkness that trainers tainted them within their hearts!" N proclaimed to the Snagger.
"That sounds stupid." Wes thought. But he couldn't help but hear that line sounding very, very familiar. Maybe he was supposed to be doing something else along those lines if he wasn't here? … Nah it sounds too crazy, next you'd tell him he had to be with this red haired girl that followed him around and wasn't all that helpful except for talking to him and reminding him like some nagging mother.
… Which Summer kind of is… huh. Except she isn't a red head. Too bad really; red heads were hot according to Wes.
"Have you no shame treating your Pokémon into your own selfish whims?!" N accused harshly.
"No." Wes replied leisurely while sipping his coffee.
He admits he's a selfish jerk, but his Pokémon put up with him. And he puts up with them. You can just see the tolerance both trainer and Pokémon have for each other.
N was rather shocked at the reply he was given. "W-What!? Don't you care about other people but yourself!?"
Wes pointed his finger up, opened his mouth, but froze as he thought about that more.
"…" The Snagger from Orre placed his hand over his mouth.
Wes then put his mouth down and looked to N with an unreadable face.
"Can I answer that question in a later time?"
"The heck!? A simple 'Yes' or 'No' should be one of the answers to that!" N cried out hysterically at Wes' deadpan expression. What was with all these strange people he was meeting recently?
It was then N automatically remembered the boy he had fought, one with the Patrat and casual smile.
"Oh trust me; simple hasn't fit me in a while." Wes smirked, rather enjoying the annoyed look on the person's face.
Wait, what did Platinum say to him about manners?
Blah, Blah, Blah-don't insult someone every few seconds you dunce! Blah, Blah, something about a scarf and ring… blah blah blah, the Arm Strong Jewel has been passed down the line for generations—no, Wes probably confused something else with that previous part.
"By the way, we are in a coffee café. Aren't you going to order something? I've been told over and over by two naggers that it's always a good idea to have a drink with someone."
N raised his brow. What was with the sudden change in character? Though to be honest; thinking of this jerk and that Anto boy was starting to give him a headache. He could try to argue with him, but he had this feeling at the back of his mind that would be like trying to convince a wall to run a marathon.
Maybe he would at least have some iced tea. A drink does sound like a good idea right about now.
"I'll have the iced tea." N resigned into his seat before calling a waiter.
"So," Wes started after the maid took their order. "Are you this M character I've heard about?"
N stared incredulously and stiffly at Wes after seeing the maid leave with his order. "M?"
Wes drank more of his coffee before continuing. "I mean yeah, how horny were your parents to name you after that? No wonder everyone tells me that you're crazy."
It should be noted that both Platinum and Summer are having trouble getting rid of Wes' lack of tact and bluntness.
It also should be noted that N was starting to feel an aneurism coming up.
"My name is N. Not M," N curled up his fist. "It's short for Natural Harmonia Gropius, my full name." Despite the polite look on his face, one could see several veins on his forehead if he wasn't wearing his hat.
"Pfft!" Wes struggled to not spit his coffee, and N, for the first time ever, contemplated homicide. "You're name is Natural!? Bwahahaha! Oh…! Oh…! You're killing me!"
"I wish I was!" N muttered darkly under his breath.
"Oh ease up, M," N wasn't sure if he was joking on that name or not, but he was very close to just tackling this teenager outright. "It still sounds like a cool, fancy shmancy name."
"I have half a mind to sick my people onto you." N muttered before he recalled something. "Wait a sec, how did you guess my identity?"
'Poorly', which he should have added after he finished saying that.
"Oh, White Cap and Black Cap told me about you." Wes just thought it was somewhat weird how most people from regions seem to have this odd defining cloth that helps them stand out. For the people in Sinnoh it's scarves; for here in Unova it's hats; and from Hoenn, he calls each of them Headgear freaks—to which Anto and Summer tell him to never say that, especially to Ruby.
"White… Cap? Black… Cap?" N repeated unsurely, he did technically know trainers with those names but without the cap. Maybe it was just a coincidence…
"There was also Anto, who just told me you just seemed… stressed."
Anto, he did know that name! It was the name of the telepathic mute!
"Wait, 'stressed'?" N cried out before his mind could process. He was particularly drawn by how that strange boy saw him.
"Well yeah. I mean, I see what he means right now. You take things way too seriously. This is a place where you have fun, meet new people," 'Steal unsuspecting fools' money then get nagged on by Nerd to give them back.' Was only said in Wes' mind. "And here you are trying to force your ideas into others even now. I'm now theology expert, but I don't think there's any harm with sharing beliefs and calmly and maturely discussing different ideals. But hey, I'm not that good of a social person in the first place, so what do I know?"
Again?
N briefly wondered. That was the second time a completely different person told him to simply relax. He wasn't disputing or accepting his belief, but more focused on his own well being. Why did that give him such an unknown feeling he couldn't describe. Was it confusion? Maybe, but he really didn't know.
When the maid came over and put down his iced tea, Wes stood up being done with his drink.
"Thanks, here's a tip." He told her before waving goodbye casually to N.
The green haired boy wondered a bit. He was doing this all for the Pokémon. But was he really OK for this?
"Oh right! Umm sir?" The maid asked, causing the boy to look at her before taking his drink.
"I was told that you were going to be paying for your friend's coffee… and three grams of blue berry bagels."
"What!?"
"Uhhh… you're real name is Natural Harmonia Gropius, isn't it? The tanned boy that just left made it sound like you two were really close, and he said you would pay for his stuff because you were really nice and caring."
N may be preparing to save all the Pokémon in the world, but if there was something selfish he would allow, it would be to hunt down this Wes again and make him suffer.
[Summer, Platinum, White, Sapphire and Aster: Girl Talk]
There was an open air hot spring that recently opened up in Nimbasa City. Thanks to both White's mom and Platinum's uncanny ability to get almost anywhere due to her family fortune, a majority of the girls got together and were now bathing under the new soothing spa bath.
"Wow!" Aster cooed after Sapphire finished, leaning back on a warm rock as she did. "You sound like you went through a lot, Sapphire!"
The blue themed girl smiled. "Well I have to admit, you're not bad yourself Aster. It's nice to see not all girls are into those types of things."
"But it's not bad to sit back and relax your muscles like this after a while huh?" Summer said as she stretched her arms.
"I hear ya. Man there is so much to do! I have other things to organize besides this…" White whined as just thinking about the work outside of this was making her stressed. "I also hope I don't have to deal with strange weather based titan Legendaries later on," White looked to Platinum. "Or even Time, Space, and Alternate Dimension Legendaries."
"I was informed that Sinnoh currently has the most Legendaries in the World," Platinum stated as she curled up her legs. "However, did not Summer have to deal with Legendaries from around the world?"
"Uhh, well they only caused trouble once or twice… But most of the time they really helped us in our journey."
"Hey, Summer," Aster said excitedly. "Could you show me one of these Guardian Signs I've heard about?"
"B-But I think they only work in the Oblivia Isles!" Summer cried out.
"Have you even tried them outside of Oblivia?" Platinum asked her.
"Ooh! I wanna see you summon legendaries!" White excitedly joined in.
Summer blushed at the attention everyone was giving her. "I-I can't do that here!"
"Boo. No fun." Aster pouted.
"Ugh, I don't want to deal with Legendaries, they're nothing but trouble." Sapphire whined. "I mean has anyone ever noticed that every single bad guy organization is always after a legendary?"
Some of the girls all thought about that and grimaced. Saphhire had to deal with three titans of weather in her home region; Aster and Summer both know about Almia's team Dim Sun, but only Summer was there seeing things going horribly awry in the Obliva region when Mewtwo was dragged in; and then there was Platinum where all of Sinnoh's legendaries were brought together and almost ended reality as they knew it.
She was right, legendaries almost existed just to cause them trouble.
Saphhire continued to complain. "Heck, I think these Team Plasma people are after Legendaries of this place too! Think of something original badguys!"
"Really?" White asked in slight annoyance. "I do not want to deal with a legendary if it's anything going to be like all of your stories."
"Well just hope that no one turns into a statue." Sapphire replied in an annoyed manner.
"Statue?" Summer, White, and Platinum asked in union.
"I don't want to talk about it." Sapphire exhaled.
Aster sighed, "Wow this is depressing, can we change the topic?" She then looked around her until her vision locked on to Summer with another smirk.
"W-What's with that look Aster!?" Summer blushed harder in her face. Being with Aster long enough, she started to realize she knew something bad was about to happen and it was going to cause her more grief.
Aster's smirk somehow intensified and she said out loud in a sultry voice so that everyone could hear her, "Why don't we talk about boys?"
At the mention of the opposite gender, everyone but Aster's cheeks rose in heat.
Probably because of being in the spa too long. Probably.
"Why would we be talking about them!?" Summer cried in half hysteria.
Aster put her hand near her mouth and giggled. "I mean, why not? There are a lot of hot guys here, like Ruby and Black for example."
Sapphire and White both tensed at hearing the tune of joy in Aster's voice.
"Then there's Diamond, who's so sleepy and slow—even I find him adorable, and Pearl who looks to have an endless personality."
Now Platinum found herself tensing for some unknown reason.
Then Aster elbowed Summer.
"Then there's little miss Go Getter that has a crush on a super hero back at the Ranger Union."
If it were any possible, Summer's face got redder. "Aster! Why do you keep calling Ben that?!"
"Saving an entire region? Granted they were mostly large isles, but that was still pretty impressive for just a handful of you rangers."
"We were just helping people. It's what we rangers do." The brown haired girl huffed.
"… But then again. I've been seeing you spend time with that Wes guy." The other ranger's eyes snapped open as she continued to listen to her friend. "Really expanding your horizons huh? The sweet, heroic childhood friend, or the tough bad boy with a hidden compassionate side? You are taking advantage of both sides of the coin ey?"
"What are you even saying!?"
The brown spiky haired girl giggled. "I admit, I didn't like the guy when I first saw him but the way you to argued almost sounded like an old, nagging married couple that have some fiery make out sessions!"
Before Summer could even open her mouth to deny such ideas even existing, Platinum coughed rather forcefully. "I-I do believe we should drop this topic."
"Oh come on, I'm really interested though!"
"No!" Summer and the other girls screamed at the other ranger rather vehemently.
"What is this passion I hear?" A rather mature, but flamboyant female voice cried out with a French like accent.
"Fatina?" Platinum asked as somehow, the Sinnoh Gymleader/master coordinator was in the hot spring with them on this lovely night without anyone's notice.
"Love is something that should not be kept in! Ahh, I remember my first love. He had such amazing muscles. A good man, but he had other duties…" She reminisced.
"We were not talking about lovers!" Sapphire adamantly explained.
"Did somebody say lovers?" A new voice belonging to Elesa asked as she too was somehow in the spring with all the other girls. "Oh that makes me nostalgic."
"Nostalgic? Ah believe the term is delusionary." Valarie said from the exact opposite side of the spa.
"Why is everyone here?!" Summer exhaustedly said but no one seemed to hear her.
"May ah remind yah that yah none of the males wanted to do anything with yah when yah accidentally crushed Lemo Irojh's legs?" Valarie teased with a hint of pride in her gray eyes.
Elesa's blue eyes glared over to her former rival and friend across from her, but then a smirk curled up into her lips as she place her hand near her mouth and said, "This coming from the girl who Judo threw a man almost twice her size just for touching your shoulder?"
"Ah was on guard when you brought me to that shameless bar in the middle of the night!" Valarie yelled.
Summer placed a palm on her face. She just wanted to relax, was that too much to ask?
Apparently Valarie and Elesa, despite being friends again, still argued like old rivals since they were still escalating in their current argument about who wooed the most men.
Then Valarie, in passionate rage, got her Sylveon out battle ready and started challenging Elesa to a fight to which the Unovian model seemed to accept.
It was the very last moment that all girls realized as Elesa threw her Poké Ball, she was throwing out an electric Pokémon in a public spa.
If there was one plus side that actually came from the spa, it was that Summer's skin was feeling quite cleansed when she woke up in the hospital.
That was because in the hospital, she was placed recovering with the very women who put her in that state in the first place. It was at this point, while all of the girls started arguing over one another, Summer wondered if Anto's bad luck was actually contagious.
[Secret: A broken Past]
It was supposed to be a normal day.
You wake up, clean yourself up, walk out, and fill your routine life.
Who knew that against such impossible odds, something horrible would happen.
She remembered how the air around her felt suffocating, dark, empty, cold, and over all intimidating.
It all happened so quickly, like a blur. She remembered the screams, the wails, the falling bodies, and the last thing was a familiar purple Pokémon and her screaming pleads for it to be safe.
Then she woke up among the rubble, tried to dust herself off, and saw what exactly she lost in her life.
She searched for any survivor, but to her relief and horror, there were only a few. One of them wasn't going to make it. This same one was a Pokémon that helped her live in the first place.
She couldn't stand losing another. She couldn't take it.
"AZ… you senile old fool, how strange is it that of all the people still alive, it's you and I?"
She looked over to a cloaked figure, staring at the carnage in front of him as if it was normal. Then he turned to her, and the injured Pokémon in front of her.
He pointed a gloved hand towards the harmed Pokémon in her arms.
"I mean no ill will when I say this, but that Pokémon will die."
She held the Pokémon that helped her closer to her chest, refusing to believe that she would lose even this one.
"Yvetal's energy slowly drains a living being's life force and poisons it. Unless you can find Xerneas within a day, there almost no way to save that Pokémon… unless…"
"What?! No please! I don't want him to die!"
"… Girl, the option I'm offering is different from Xerneas."
"I don't care! Please… save him…"
"Hmm… will you accept the price?" He held out his hand towards the desperate girl. She couldn't help but see this just like in all those stories where a great and powerful evil comes to a man at their most weakest point.
Would she sacrifice her soul… for her beloved Pokémon…?
"Deal."
She took his hand.
{Author's Notes}
A short little interlude chapter I wanted to write for fun and due to me planning some things. Don't worry! Next chapter has some major plot updates! And this arc will finally be reaching it's final stage so Anto can finally challenge the 4th gym very soon and get on with this adventure!
I did have some more ideas about more one-shot like interludes in this chapter but I thought I'd save it for later since they were kind of hard to write.
Anywho. Hope you all enjoyed and next chapter for sure is where things start to get dicey?
Maybe?
Thanks for reading.