Episode 9: A reconsideration

The journey to the Resort Area began relatively smoothly. The group stopped in a small village somewhere in the forest on route 227 the day following their trip to the Battle Factory. There, they stocked up on supplies that they might need for road.

According to JJ and Fay, the trip would take them through a desert, which brought back memories of the last time the group encountered an arid, sand-filled landscape. Back in Hoenn Niko, JJ, Brittany, and Jake got lost wandering through the desert, and it took some time before they all made it back to one another. To avoid that, they searched around for goggles in the village. Conveniently enough, they had a small shop dedicated to desert-related gear.

Niko found himself staring at a poster in one of the shops. It depicted a young trainer fending off what looked to be a legendary pokémon made entirely of rock. He was fascinated by the way the artist created a feeling of suspense on a single canvass, while also giving off an aura of hope.

"Hmm…I never pegged you as an art connoisseur." Lauren said as she walked up from behind Niko, wrapping her arms around his waist. "Watcha looking at?"

"Just this painting. I don't know what about it I find so amazing. Just…it, I guess." Niko said without looking at Lauren. Eventually the blue-haired woman brought herself to Niko's said and they stared at it together for a moment. "How're you feeling?" He finally asked in a somewhat aloof tone.

"I'm fine…you?" Lauren replied, more curious about why Niko asked this particular question than his actual response.

"Fine as well."

"Is that really how you feel?" Lauren continued, trying to pry her boyfriend for answers.

"Yes."

"Then why did you ask me how I was doing?" She demanded to know.

"Because I care about you?" Niko snapped back. "Is that a crime?"

"N-no. No, it's not." Lauren stepped back, feeling a little hurt. "Sorry, I guess I've gotten used seeing double meanings in the things you say or ask me."

"Well, this isn't one of those times. In fact, I'm feeling better now than I have since before the Lily of the Valley Conference." Niko said with a smile. Saved it, he thought to himself. To be fair, he was feeling a lot better—the battle with Thorton helped immensely. But there was still a lingering feeling deep within that he couldn't quite define or explain. But that was the last of his worries, and especially Lauren's, or anyone else's.

"Oh, good then!" Lauren said with a sincere smile. The same smile Niko adored so much. They then found the other three looking at random, oddly-placed trinkets in the shop before heading out.

"So what were you two staring at?" Brittany asked in a teasing tone.

"Uh…um…just a painting." Lauren said honestly.

"Sure…" The brunette said with a wink. "I'm kidding." She added when Lauren began blushing. "What was the painting about?"

"A trainer challenging a massive-looking rock pokémon." Niko explained. "I'm not sure what drew me to it. It just looked fascinating, I guess. What were you all looking at?"

"Well…we saw some cool looking pokéballs. Apparently, they were made decades ago, but no longer work." Brittany said. "The shop owner told us they were the first pokéballs ever created, but I don't believe him."

"Why not?" Niko asked. He had never really learned much about the origins of pokéballs, so he couldn't confirm or deny the statement made by the shop owner.

"Because I read in a book somewhere—probably back in school—that pokéballs originated in the Johto Region using apricots."

"But…couldn't that shop owner have just brought the pokéballs here?" Niko asked.

"Why here, though? A small village on an island in the middle of the ocean?" Fay asked curiously. "That doesn't seem to make much sense."

"No idea. Either way, it doesn't matter." Niko said, effectively ending the conversation. "It's cool that you got to see some cool things, too." Brittany nodded in agreement, still pondering over the origins of the pokéball.

Nightfall came, and the group all set up camp on the edge of the desert. The following morning, they would begin their trek through. Before dinner and heading to bed, Niko and Lauren did some training in preparation for their upcoming challenge at the Battle Castle.

Niko particularly wanted to work with venusaur on frenzy plant, as the seed pokémon still hadn't mastered the move. He also wanted to train with his newly caught magmar. However, the spitfire pokémon wasn't feeling up to training, and instead ran around the area spewing flamethrowers. Sighing, Niko eventually returned magmar to his pokéball, clearly disappointed in his apparent inability to train fire types.

Lauren, meanwhile, was trying to teach slowking psychic. The royal pokémon didn't seem to have any initial problems with learning the move. Rather, the issue rested with slowking's inability to control how much energy he put into the move. On his first attempt, slowking accidentally picked venusaur up and tossed the rather heavy grass type clean across the clearing they were sleeping in. She also worked with glaceon on learning ice shard, a move that they've both seem in action and have wanted to attempt to learn for some time. Glaceon, however, had difficulty with releasing the shards quickly enough to have any real effect. For this, Lauren and glaceon would practice against JJ and his breloom who was fast enough to help train glaceon in learning a priority-type move like ice shard.

This training continued late into the evening with a break for eating. After a while, venusaur, glaceon, and slowking all fell asleep while training, and Niko and Lauren quickly followed suit, laying up against the side of venusaur's body.

The following morning, the group got up early and continued their journey southwards to the Resort Area. Breathing heavily as he looked at the desert, Niko returned venusaur and put on his goggles, turning to watch his friends do the same.

"Ready?" He asked. They all nodded, and began their trek.

The desert wasn't nearly as treacherous as they had imagined. After leaving the Battle Factory Niko, JJ, and Brittany entertained Fay and Lauren with their adventures in the Hoenn Desert: how they got lost, finding one another, and coming across the tomb with the seven dots on it, and Jake catching his trapinch. The story didn't seem to ease Lauren's worries—she'd never been in a desert before, and was hoping to not get lost like her friends had. Fay, on the other hand, didn't seem worried.

Unlike in Hoenn, sandstorms weren't as abundant as they were in Hoenn, so the group managed to luck out in that regard. By the end of the day, they had only made it roughly halfway through the desert, according to the map on JJ's Pokétch. Fortunately, they found a small cave to sit in and rest. Like on route 226 a few days prior, they took turns sending their pokémon out to feed them and let them stretch a little before going to sleep.

That night, Niko had trouble sleeping. Part of it was due to the warmer weather keeping him awake, but he also had a lot on his mind. Thoughts and images swirled around in his head, creating a vortex of emotions that he felt was consuming him. Eventually, he got up and walked out of the cave and looked up at the stars above, wondering what else was out there. It was understandably cold that evening, but Niko hardly felt it.

He felt happy, but there was something else going on. I'm winning matches again, why do I feel so…out of place? Why do I feel like I might not belong here anymore? This was a new thought for him. Niko had never considered that he was purposeless. He never felt like he was lacking in anything. He had a caring family, caring friends, and a caring and wonderful girlfriend. Plus, he had nearly two dozen pokémon that loved him.

He sat down on a nearby rock and pondered this some more, ultimately concluding that it was just the monotony of the desert that was affecting his mood. He heard once that the environment can influence one's thoughts and emotions. Maybe I'll feel better when we get to the Resort Area. That'll be in a couple of days, I think.

The whole time he was thinking under the starry night, Brittany sat there, occasionally watching him before falling back asleep, lost in her own thoughts.

The group finally made it out of the desert late into the afternoon the following day, which gave them some time to train in preparation for the Battle Castle. Niko and Lauren spent a few more hours working with their pokémon. By this time, venusaur nearly mastered frenzy plant, but quickly lost control of the roots he attempted to manipulate. Eventually, Niko fell onto his sleeping bag and sat there, trying to understand why it wasn't working.

Meanwhile, Lauren and glaceon had all but mastered ice shard. The attack was getting more and more accurate, and the fresh snow pokémon was releasing the attack at a quicker pace than before. Eventually, she was able to hit breloom before the mushroom pokémon could land a mach punch.

After having dinner and feeding their pokémon, the group of five went to bed. Fay was the last to fall asleep this time, having spent most of their down time working on a project for Professor Oak on a laptop, using his flaaffy's electrically-charged wool as a way to power the machine.

Niko woke up first that morning to see Fay still working, but hardly looking exhausted. Instead, the researcher was as stoic to the rest of the world as anyone could be. Niko packed up the camp while the others were waking up. According to JJ and Fay, they would make it to the Resort Area by the afternoon of the following day if they walked for most of the time in between.

Route 229 was the opposite of the desert—it was lush and green and filled with dozens of different pokémon species. Part of the route was a wide-open plain that connected to the sea in the middle of the island, and another was a dense forest of palm-like trees. Niko enjoyed walking through the plains, watching flocks of starly and staravia soar above him. He was right—a change in the environment would do him some good. Until…

"Dammit…" JJ said, shaking his head. Niko turned to look in his direction, and saw the one person—the one thing that Niko would have rather not seen.

It was Hunter, presumably training with his toxicroak. Niko immediately looked away, and led Lauren and his friends on a path where his rival wouldn't see them.

"Niko!" Hunter's deep, commanding voice bellowed out. "How's that rampardos of yours doing? Still alive?"

"Don't…Niko…" Lauren said, gripping his hand harder. But it wasn't working. Niko released his hand from Lauren's and turned to the tall man in all-black garb.

"What was that?" Niko yelled back. The distance between the two was roughly 100 yards, but they could see each other clear as day. "He's doing much better, thank you for caring." Niko added sarcastically.

Hunter smirked. "I take it you're challenging the Battle Frontier, then, if you're on this island." Niko nodded as Hunter began pacing towards him. "I take it you don't have many of the prints, right?"

"Two, as a matter of fact. Hall and Factory Prints."

"Ah, the Battle Factory. Makes sense that you won that one. If you'd used your own pokémon, well…"

"And what about the Battle Hall, then?" Lauren snapped back. "Niko's pokémon won on their own merits that time."

"Argenta must've had some trash pokémon. I've beaten her, too. Didn't take much." He shook his head. "And I take it you're still with this loser, too? Sad…you always looked too good for him."

"But at least he cares about people and pokémon, unlike you!" Lauren shouted. By now Hunter was only a few dozen feet away from them.

"Pfft. Caring is irrelevant in battle. Why would I care about a pokémon if all they do is lose, like Niko's rampardos, or his supposedly strong venusaur?"

"Why don't you fight my venusaur, then!?" Niko shouted. "C'mon, Hunter, let's go!" His hands were balled in fists now. He was seething with rage.

"Niko…don't…" Brittany said. "You never come out of these confrontations feeling well."

"Do you think I can't beat him, Brittany?" Niko snapped, turning his head to angrily stare at the brunette, who immediately shied away. "That's what I thought. One-on-one?"

Hunter shrugged. "Fine. If you insist. But I'll have you know, I won the Lily of the Valley Conference and made it to the Champion's League. And you…didn't improve at all." He smirked, pulling out a pokéball. "How many times have you made it to the top 8. Three times now?"

Niko withdrew venusaur's pokéball. He wanted to prove to Hunter the power of him and his first pokémon.

"Weavile, let's go." Hunter said, choosing to not use toxicroak this time, and instead sending out the dark and ice type weasel-like pokémon. "Use ice shard."

"Venusaur, let's go! Razor leaf!" Niko shouted. He knew he was at a type disadvantage, but it didn't matter. If he and venusaur were truly strong partners, and if he wanted to become a pokémon master, then he could beat a weavile.

Venusaur cringed as the frozen shards hit him across the face, sides, and the flower on his back. In retaliation, he shook his body and a torrent of sharp green leaves erupted, all shooting towards weavile. In response, the sharp claws pokémon slashed at each of the leaves with unusually fast reflexes. Hunter then commanded weavile to use night slash, and within seconds the dark type was upon venusaur, slashing at the seed pokémon before using ice shard up close.

Niko grit his teeth. Weavile kept attacking its opponent mercilessly, in typical Hunter fashion. "Use stun spore!"

Yellow dust emitted from venusaur's flower, which also missed weavile, who dodged the spores and slashed at venusaur from behind.

The whole time Fay, JJ, Brittany, and Lauren watched as Niko screamed out commands one after another, each time with rage. It was clear that Hunter, and only Hunter, could rile their friend up like this. Plus, after being defeated by this trainer so recently, in a somewhat traumatic fashion when toxicroak stabbed rampardos.

Eventually, after taking enough of a beating from weavile, Niko had had it. He saw venusaur turn around to look at him, and they both nodded. It was time.

"Venusaur, frenzy plant!" He shouted, knowing fully well that the move would exhaust whatever energy venusaur had left. The seed pokémon, for his part, dug deep into the ground and unleashed a dozen spiked roots from the ground. "NOW!"

Each of the roots shot at weavile, who in response leapt through the air and used night slash to break the roots, and then shot forward and used ice shard up close on venusaur, just as he lost control of the roots and thus lost control of the move entirely. Weavile then emitted a quick dark pulse that hit venusaur directly in the face, knocking the seed pokémon to the ground.

Niko ran over to check on venusaur, just as Hunter returned weavile and smirked along with toxicroak. "Are you alright?" Niko asked. The seed pokémon nodded, albeit with a melancholic expression. "Well, we'll talk later when we get to the Resort Area." He then returned venusaur and stood back up, staring Hunter in the face.

"I see you're trying to learn an ultimate move. Typical that you can't master it." Hunter said, scoffing. "You'll never be a strong pokémon trainer. That's why you can't learn frenzy plant, and that's why you will never beat me." He shrugged. "That's just the truth."

"You're an ass!" Lauren shouted out.

"And your point? I'm stronger than any of you. That's all that matters to me. I will be the strongest trainer in the world."

"Her point is that you show no empathy, or even sympathy, for other people. You can't be a good trainer without having those traits." Fay said. "Niko here cares, and he wants to see the best in his friends and pokémon. You just don't."

"But my methods work. That's that difference. I've actually won something. What's Niko here done? Nothing. He's useless to me, and he proves my point every time we battle."

No one seemed to want to refute that point. Hunter was right. Niko can't seem to defeat him in a battle, formal or informal. Fay, Brittany, and JJ simply turned and left Hunter and toxicroak. Eventually, Lauren grabbed Niko by the arm and tried pulling him away. Her boyfriend eventually gave in, not taking his eyes off of his rival.

"Are you actually okay?" Lauren asked. Niko was silent. He didn't want to believe what Hunter said, but in the back of his mind, Niko felt he might be right.

Author's Note: I do hope you guys enjoyed this one. Trying to incorporate Hunter into this episode was difficult, and then writing the dialogue was hard, because I want to make him as harsh as possible without becoming too edgy or cliche. The plot for this season is supposed to really kick in around this episode, and I hope that I did it justice in future episodes. Enjoy!