SL is back to the Gold & Crystal segment for… Kanto storyline stalling reasons.

Keep in mind that all segments of SL are regional. The Gold & Crystal segment will only contain the point-of-views for the Johto Dex Holders. The Ruby & Sapphire segment will only have the point-of-views for the Hoenn Dex Holders (even Emerald, wherever he is). Which means, in the Black & White segment, there will not be any thoughts or secret actions from anyone other than Black and White.

Segment: Gold & Crystal.

Chapter 13: Not Quite as Planned

April 21, Violet City, Johto, 5:30 pm…

Gold stared at the girl sitting across the table from him. She was still yakking about something. He stopped paying any attention around 20 minutes ago, but it seemed that the girl didn't realize it. What was her name again? Ah, it didn't matter. She probably told him at one point, but it must've been as boring as this conversation. But to be fair, he didn't ask for this date. He was kind of… forced. The fan club chased him for weeks and he had to make a deal with them so they'd back off. The deal was that once every week, he had to go on a date with one member of that club until he either found someone he liked in that club, or got a real girlfriend.

'Stupid fan club,' Gold thought to himself. 'Why is it, or rather how is it that the club has absolutely no interesting girls? This has got to be the dullest… lunch and/or dinner I have ever had…'

The Dex Holder looked down at his plate. There was still over half of the 'food' on it. He tried his best to finish, but… it sucked horribly. He took the suggestion of his date and he regretted that decision severely. For someone who supposedly lived in Violet City, the girl had no idea what was good and what wasn't in the city. Crystal probably knew, and Gold regretted not asking her what her suggestions were.

'I wonder how Crys is doing right now? I probably should've asked her to talk about what happened. Maybe I should've stayed-' His thoughts were interrupted by an excited squeal from his 'date'. Hoping that the conversation and thereby the 'date' was over, Gold looked over at her. But much to his dismay, the girl resumed talking. Why did she squeal then? It probably made sense in context, if he was paying attention. 'This is so f*cking boring. I need to find an actual girlfriend fast. Otherwise I'll have to test every single girl of that fan club or risk being stalked and chased every day. But first, I need to end this damn date quickly…'

Gold snapped out of his thoughts when his Pokédex started to resonate. He shut off the resonation system but stared at the Pokédex for a while, wondering why it did that. It had been so long since all the Johto Dex Holders gathered in one place that he completely forgot about the resonation function.

Until recently, he saw Silver daily so that he could watch his freaking robot show in his house. Gold had only seen the show once and… it sucked. He still believed that the show would've been a hell of a lot better if the characters were based on his team and not Red's. But apparently, Silver liked the damn show. He only stopped coming recently because the latest season ended or something. And although Gold saw Crystal on a daily basis, she seemed to have timed her visits so that Silver would be long gone when she arrived in New Bark Town. As a result, the Johto Dex Holders' Pokédex never resonated in years.

"Here we are, Silver!" came Crystal's voice from the entrance of the restaurant.

'Silver? What's he doing here?' Gold thought as he glanced over. 'And that sounded like Crys…'

From the entrance, Crystal quickly scanned the seats for Gold while pretending to look for a good empty spot. Right beside her, Silver set aside his concerns and steeled himself for what needed to be done. If he blew the cover, then Crystal was going to be pissed. And he did not want to get his ass kicked by a girl with so much kicking skills and power that would make the world's strongest soccer player cry out in shame. He sincerely hoped that Gold was not in the restaurant so he wouldn't have to deal with the impending awkward moments. But his Pokédex did resonate, which meant that Gold was here somewhere…

"Hey Silver! Super Serious Gal! Over here!" came the goggled boy's voice from afar.

Silver sighed and Crystal took a nervous breath. They were about to head towards Gold when he suddenly decided to walk over.

"Hi, Gold," Crystal said, feigning surprise. "I didn't know you came here for your date."

"I'm really glad you two are here," Gold said the moment he stopped in front of his friends. "Help me end this date!" he whispered to them after taking a glance at his 'date'.

"You don't like her?" Crystal asked after looking at her 'rival'. "She seems nice."

"She's as boring as Silver here."

Silver's eyes twitched but he didn't react outwardly. If anything, he was glad that he didn't have to pretend to be going out with Crystal. Maybe his luck was finally starting to turn in his crappy, crappy day. But he couldn't be sure. Crystal may still want him to pretend to be going out with her to check Gold.

"That's not a very nice thing to say," Crystal commented. "That implies your date is really boring and has no sense of humor. No offense, Silver."

Silver clenched his teeth but didn't say anything. Maybe he could somehow use this to 'break up' with Crystal? It would make some sense, though admittedly not that much…

"Anyways, what brings you two here?" Gold asked. "Are you two dating or something?" he asked with a wholehearted laugh.

"Of course not," Crystal said quickly. "He just wanted to buy me dinner for what happened earlier today." 'No signs of jealousy… So he doesn't like me yet, but at least he doesn't like that other girl. Okay…'

"Come and join my table," Gold offered. "Make this night interesting for crying out loud."

The three Johto Dex Holders were about to head towards the table when there was a faint vibration sound coming from Silver's pocket. It was his Pokégear vibrating to signal and oncoming message. The message was from Blue, apparently.

"Silver, I… need to talk to you. It's really important. Can you come and meet me at your 7th secret base?"

"Sorry, Gold, Crys," he said as he replied to the message on his Pokégear. "I need to get going. Sis needs me. She said it's an emergency." 'What a relief. Now I can leave these two soon-to-be lovebirds and get the hell out of here!'

"Well… okay then," Crystal said. She gave him a short hug. "Thanks for cheering me up today. I really appreciate it."

'I don't recall doing such a thing,' Silver thought to himself. 'All I remember is I came to try cheering her up and she dragged me into a mess that thankfully resolved itself.' He gave her a horribly-awkward hug in return and walked out of the restaurant as fast as his feet could take him. 'Anyways, now that that's out of the way…'

Once Silver left, Crystal followed Gold to his table and sat down next to him. The moment she did, Gold's 'date' looked rather… troubled and confused.

"I thought this was just going to be a date between you and me," she said to Gold. "Who's this?"

"She's Super Serious Gal," Gold said, and Crystal promptly stomped on his foot. "Ow… I mean, she's Crystal, or Crys for short. She's a close friend of mine, and she was recently involved in some hostage thing so I'm just going to treat her dinner."

Crystal stifled the urge to roll her eyes. Gold and his blatant lies… Instead, she looked down at the food on the table.

"… You ordered that?" she asked Gold. "… Why?"

"Her idea," the goggled boy said with a slight nudge towards his 'date'.

"Out of all the good food, you ordered the one course that's not any good," Crystal said with a smile.

"Got a better suggestion?"

"Of course. If I can see the menu."

"Hey, waiter dude!" Gold yelled abruptly. "Need the menu here!"

Soon, the waiter arrived and Crystal selected her two preferred courses. One for Gold, and the other for herself.

"Excellent choices, miss," the waiter said as he received the menus afterwards.

"Huh. He didn't say that when I made my choice," Gold said once the waiter left.

"What'd he say?"

"He just said "if you so choose" and walked away."

Crystal smiled. "Of course. He knows that the course you chose isn't good. Only a small handful of regulars like it, which is why it's still on the menu. No one else likes it."

There was a brief silence as the two Johto Dex Holders waited for the food to arrive. Taking this chance, Gold's 'date' tried to say something. Gold saw her, however, and quickly turned his focus to Crystal.

"So Crys, what happened at the orphanage?" he asked. "I heard the guy who held you hostage was an attempted murderer or something."

Crystal nodded. "Yes. He tried to hold me hostage with a knife to he could work out a deal with the police," she said as she touched the band-aid over the cut on her cheek. "Since he was… touching me, I think he planned to do something else to me afterwards." She shuddered at the thought and Gold put a hand over hers underneath the table to calm her down. It was really effective and Crystal could feel her cheeks warming significantly. She quickly cleared her throat in an attempt to fight off the blush. "A – Anyways, the four orphans I showed you saved me."

"How did they save you?"

While Crystal explained what happened at the orphanage, the ordered food arrived. The two Johto Dex Holders ate and talked, leaving Gold's 'date' completely alone. She knew she would have to make a bold move to get the date back on track and get the unwanted guest to beat it.

She timed her actions carefully. The moment Gold finished eating and took a drink from his cup of water, she reached over to wipe his mouth with a paper towel and then leaned over and kissed him on the mouth.

Gold jumped in surprise and Crystal froze. Both Dex Holders stared at the 'date', caught off guard by the sudden action. While Gold started to grin, Crystal clenched her teeth. The 'date' was giving her a smug look of victory, and Gold grinning wasn't exactly helping. Did he… like that kiss? He better not have…

It seemed that the war has just begun…

…

Silver's 7th secret base, undisclosed location, 6:30 pm…

…

Silver let go of his Honchkrow and landed on the ground directly in front of his secret base. He could immediately tell that someone else was inside, so he quickly entered. He didn't want to keep Blue waiting, especially if her business was urgent.

Inside the rundown shack of a secret base, he spotted Blue pacing around with her arms crossed behind her back. Upon recognizing his presence, she stopped and turned to face him.

"I'm glad you came," she said after a sigh. "I really need some company right now."

"Is something wrong, sis?" Silver asked.

Blue didn't answer that question. She seemed quite distressed, much to his concern. "Silver… you once told me a few years ago that you felt as if the darkness dragged you back whenever you want to be in the light. Do you remember?"

"Yes, what about it?" Silver asked as he carefully eyed the Kanto Dex Holder. Something was clearly wrong. But come to think of it, she never really talked to him about her problems. He didn't think she talked to anyone about them, really.

"Do you… still feel that way?"

"No. I haven't for quite a long time. But sis, tell me what's wrong."

Blue let out a long sigh. "… Do you know how it feels when… nothing ever works out the way you wanted?"

"Yeah, I know. Today's been like that," Silver said. "Everything that could go wrong did go wrong."

"Everyone has an off-day, Silver. I'm talking about…" Blue trailed off as she looked into his eyes. "… Never mind. I shouldn't bother you like this… especially since you're in the light now."

"Sis, what's wrong? Why are you talking like this?"

"I'm just having one of those off-days, that's all…"

It was a blatant lie, and Silver knew it. But he also knew that Blue wasn't going to explain what exactly was bothering her. All he could do was let her know that he would gladly help out in any way he could.

"If you say so," he said. "Sis, if you ever need anything, let me know and I'll do all I can to help out."

"I know you will," Blue said with a faint smile. "You're the only person I can really depend on."

"And that will never change. You can always depend on me," Silver assured her, choosing to ignore the fact that she claimed him to be the only one who she could depend on. Once again, Blue was probably not going to explain what she meant. "Even today. How would you like to eat dinner with me? It'll be my treat."

Blue gave him a smile that he knew was genuine. "I'd like that, Silver. I'd like that a lot. Thanks."

With that, Blue headed out of the secret base. Silver watched her for a few seconds, wondering what could be bothering her so much. However, as always, he decided that if she didn't want to tell him, then he had no business knowing. He'd just treat her well and hope that she would be able to figure out a solution on her own, as always. He'd help her if she needed him.

But even as he followed her towards the nearest restaurant in the city, he had absolutely no way of knowing how close Blue was to a complete breakdown that would change her permanently…

A short chapter. But I needed something to get the ball rolling for all of S-EARL. Hopefully this nudge was enough. If not, the kick in the form of the next update should suffice…

(Advertisement) For the missing hostage event from SL #009, check out SR #021.

I experienced this thing called 'remorse' for what happened to Crystal in SA #028 (advertisement, so to speak). As such, I didn't have her half-assed plan backfire in SL.