A/N: Next chapter. I posted this on my profile, but I'll add a note here too. I'm in need of OCs for the endgame portion of the fic. If you have any ideas/characters/teams in mind, drop me a line and let me know.

Chapter Five: Hilda

"Do you have any idea where he is?" I asked Bianca with my mouth full. We were currently sitting in a small café by the Accumula Town commons. I was devouring a huge mushroom burger. Blitzle lay in the sun beside me dozing after the shopping trip we made. His new travel bags sat next to my own behind the nearby planter.

"I haven't seen him anywhere," Bianca said. She wasn't eating anything, but was sitting across the table from me. She glanced across the main square. "That looks interesting," she told me.

I turned and saw a group of men setting up a small stage on the green. Most of their group wore gray hoodies, though a man in a crisp overcoat directed the set-up.

"But, knowing your brother, he would be-"

"Right behind you," said Hilbert. He snagged one of the wrought iron chairs from a nearby table and spun it over to us. He planted himself firmly in it backwards.

Hilbert reached over and snagged one of the chips out of the basket and popped it into his mouth. "These are pretty good," he said

"Get your own," I retorted. He nodded and snagged the waitress for a basket of his own.

"Ladies, gentlemen and pokemon," boomed out from the square. "May I please have your attention?" The small stage had been set up fully and the man from earlier stood on top. He had discarded the overcoat and wore a deep purple –almost black- suit. His bright blue dress shirt was matched only by an even brighter gold tie. Even the red dot on the tie (either a large tie tack or a microphone, I couldn't tell at this distance) sparkled. His long white-blond hair had been pulled back leaving only a few smaller sections to frame his face.

Bianca started getting up. "I'm going over to watch," she said. Her snivy stretched from where she had been sunning herself and resumed her position as a neckerchief.

"I'll go with you Bianca," Hilbert said. He jumped up and slid the demolished remains of his basket of chips back towards me and headed off with Bianca.

"I'm not paying for your crap," I called after my brother.

I snagged another chip as the man on the stage continued. "My name is Doctor Charles Ghetsis, and I am here today on behalf of Team Plasma.

"I come before this gracious town to speak of a crime being perpetrated by callous trainers."

That got the crowd buzzing. What crime could he possibly be talking about. Accumula was effectually crime free. What could be so heinous that an outside agency had to be involved?

"I speak of slavery," Dr. Ghetsis finished. The crowd seethed.

"Pokemon have become slaves to the selfish whims of children. The so-called trainers use pokemon as nothing but toys." I heard a loud "WHAT!" from the crowd. By the pitch and emotion, that had to be Hilbert.

"Across Unova trainers have forcibly captured, bred and mistreated their partners. Even outside of this region the plague of hatred has spread. In Kanto there have been reports of trainers simply releasing unwanted pokemon into a wild they had no idea how to face. Fully domesticated breeds, even. Starters!"

"Pokemon, these glorious being that contain unknown potential, are quite different from human beings. They require different needs." He held up the remains of a tattered black backpack. I could tell from where I was sitting that it had been nice once.

"They do not need to be stuffed into a backpack with several books and old food like a piece of garbage!" There was the flash of a pokemon being released from its ball. "See how this pokemon fears us! He was recently liberated from a negligent trainer. See the dirty fur and the cowed expression." The crowd shifted and I could see a brown-tinged oshawott through the sea of people. He was hiding behind a loudspeaker.

"Even worse, the abusive trainer held these two precious pokemon eggs hostage." Two of the doctor's assistant held aloft the eggs. They both were pale green and dusky rose spider-webbed with silver floss. "Even before hatching, he tortured them!

"Pokemon deserve our love. They deserve our respect. They should not be made to serve our petty needs. We can be better; we MUST be better!

"To you, people of Accumula Town, I give you this commandment. Release your pokemon! Then and only then, will humanity and pokemon be equals.

"I end my words here today to implore you to consider the relationship between people and pokemon and the correct choice from now on."

A young man, maybe twenty, wearing jeans and a pullover stepped out of the crowd. "He's right! We can't keep doing this to them." He held aloft two pokeballs and displayed them to the crowd. He then released a lillipup and a watchog. "Friends, you have lived in darkness too long," He announced. "I release you. Live in peace." The two pokemon scampered off into the crowd.

Doctor Goodman grinned. "Thank you, kind sir for seeing the light." When a lady in the crowd released a purrloin he bowed to them. "Team Plasma sincerely appreciates all of your attention."

The tide of releases continued as Team Plasma disassembled their stage. They ported it past me and off along Route Two.

Blitzle had woken from his nap and looked at me in an obvious expression of Are you done yet?

"Just a moment." I placed a ten and a five dollar bill on the table and stood up, stretching. The food here was delicious and had been well worth the stop.

I knelt next to Blitzle and checked the straps on his new travel bags to be sure they were secured. Both the frontispiece and the belly band were fine. I smiled and shifted some of my newly purchased supplies into the large cloth panniers. Blitzle was traveling with me, so he would be carrying his own supplies.

In those few minutes, Bianca had returned from the crowd. She saw me checking the new bags. "You're not releasing him?" she asked.

"No. Why would I?"

"It's just… I mean it's- Are we really mistreating pokemon by training them?" She sighed. "I don't know if I should let Snivy go or not."

Blitzle pawed the cobblestone walkway in nervousness and backed away from Bianca and into a blonde kid about my age. A purrloin kitten twirled around his legs. He smiled. "You might want to be a little bit more careful, fella." His look changed to one of amusement, then bewilderment. He turned directly to me. "Your pokemon," he started. "It said-"

"You talk to pokemon?" Bianca scoffed.

The bewildered look grew. "You can't hear them?"

"No," I said.

"Pity." He stood up and wiped his hands across the back of his pants and held it out in greeting. "I'm N"

"N?" I said. "Your parents must have really hated you." That got me a sharp whack in the ribs from Bianca. "Anyway, I'm Hilda and this is Bianca. My brother and our other friend should be around here somewhere."

"I'll be around," N said. He headed out along Route two at a slow pace. I could just barely hear him mutter to himself, "I have never heard a pokemon say such things…"

Weirdo gone, I turned back to Bianca. "We just got our pokemon. I don't think that we are doing anything wrong by training them."

"You- you're probably right, Hilda."