Alright, back with one more chapter! Barely under the 800-word limit too XP

Poke-ball 30: Enlightenment

Red avoided humans on his aimless travels, but that ultimately determined his destination: Mt. Silver. A fearsome mountain with a mercilessly cold climate and ruthless wild Pokemon, few people could dream of approaching it. Yet Red entered its shadow-ruled caverns without a thought, only an impulse for isolation.

There, Red stayed. The wildlife respected him and his Pokemon. Those that didn't became their meals. It wasn't unusual for a Trainer's Pokemon to hunt for its master occasionally, but for Red's Pokemon it became a profession. Those kills and edible berries collected from the foliage became Red's diet.

With Red's only civilized interaction being a rare trip to the Mt. Silver Pokemon Center, he spoke less and less. He preferred watching and listening to the wonders of nature. The only ones he talked to were his Pokemon, and even those speeches became shorter and softer over time. He and his Pokemon could often communicate by body language alone.

With this silence came peace. Here, all that mattered was survival. Here, all that mattered was him and his Pokemon. Here, all that mattered was witnessing sunrise and sunset at the top of Mt. Silver, huddled together in warm quietude, as their frosty breaths and snowflakes flitted about.

Red carried this quiet enlightenment into his battles. His Pokemon didn't need orders from him to know what to do. Such lack of words unnerved the few other Trainers who stumbled across Red. Some timidly asked if he was the rumored ghost Trainer of Mt. Silver. Red kept his amusement bundled in the silence, breaking it for no one. Not even for the one Trainer who beat him.

For battle did not make his blood boil like it used to. It seemed almost beneath him. For brute force, upon much reflection, had done little for Red in the end. Even his current survival was based more on cleverness than savage strength, for the wild Pokemon were clever too.

Yet when Blue finally came, face red and from cold winds and hot anger, Red couldn't help but laugh. Seeing Blue's new Growlithe, a gift from Blaine, rolling happily in the snow didn't help.

IIIIII

Red still resided in Mt. Silver, but occasionally he left for warmer pastures. Specifically, either to visit his mother, or to join the Pokemon World Tournament in Unova. There he and Blue fought with Gym Leaders, Champions, and, most importantly, each other. Flamethrowers and Hydro Pumps would scorch and drench everything until it was all steam and smoke. No one would know the victor until it cleared, not even Red and Blue. And that was how it was supposed to be.

After Blue won the latest tournament, Red went to see Sabrina's latest movie. Red had never expected her to become a movie star, but what was left of her psychic power made her great at improv. Her abilities had never been the same since the incident on Cinnabar, particularly her visions, but she didn't seem to mind.

Upon leaving the theater, Blue was waiting outside. He lightly smacked a ticket against Red's nose. "For you. We're heading to Alola."

"...What is this, a date?" Red asked with smirk.

Blue rolled his eyes. "Nah, just a vacation. We both could stand something new." His expression grew more serious. "Though it's sorta an investigation too."

"What do you mean?" asked Red.

Blue sighed. "Alola's all shiny on the outside, but...well, they're so caught up in being a tourist trap that they try to hide all their problems. Anyone who can't make it as a Trainer is seen as a failure, and a lot of them end up joining a gang. And then there's all this talk about somebody summoning Pokemon from another dimension..."

Red frowned. It wasn't public news, but Lance had called him about it. Pokemon from another dimension sounded suspiciously like the phantoms of Cinnabar Island. If someone were to recreate the disasters that happened to Kanto...Red didn't like it at all.

"But hey, if there's nothing too bad, then we just scored a sweet holiday," Blue added brightly. "And if there is trouble...well, you'd be the best backup around. We've gotten through some pretty crazy stuff together, right?"

Red chuckled despite the unpleasant memories. "Right."

While heading back to the airport, they stopped by a stand to get Castelia Cones. Red outran Blue to the line, and it turned out Red got the last Castelia Cone of the day. Blue and Red taunted and ranted at each other, until it turned into a full-blown Pokemon match over melting ice cream. Everyone in the busy street was displeased or puzzled about the outlandish argument.

But not Red or Blue, though they looked fierce. After all, they had fought over everything since...ever.

And that does it! It's all done! Once again, thank you to everyone who has stuck through to the end! The nature of this being a collab made the updates especially erratic, since we both needed the ideas, motivation and time to work on our connected stories, but we did it! This is a really fun challenge if you can find a reliable partner who will stick with you until it's done, even with inevitable delays.

For anyone who's also a Digimon fan (yes you can be both a fan of Pokemon and Digimon at once, no shame in that :P) we will continue working on our other set of collab stories, Commencing Overwrite and Concurring Overwrite. Although, because those stories are ten times more complex and insane than this one, we'll need to do some note comparisons and planning before charging forward. That, combined with the fact that Remi will soon be busy again, means it'll still be a little while before the next update on either of them. But now that this story is done, hopefully we'll be able to focus on it more and have slightly more regular updates.

Good luck with all your projects and goals, writing or otherwise!