Just in case some of you thought SL was dead… Well, let's just say that I don't abruptly cancel stories. Take SA's cancellation alert, for example. Though the cancellation never happened, the alert was given 2 to 3 chapters before the point in which I considered in cancelling. So… relax. SL will not be cancelled without prior alerts. If there was an alert, it'll appear in my profile page (under Statistics, next to Cancellation Thought) in big bold letters, probably saying something like "IMPENDING CANCELLATION".
Segment: Black & White.
Chapter 17: Escape
April 23, Nimbasa City, Unova, 10 am…
Black and White arrived at the newly created Gym, with their two seniors following. White glanced at the Ferris Wheel, wondering if she should get over her pseudo-phobia of the thing any time soon. With Black beside her, she would be okay, but she couldn't summon enough courage to ask him to help her on this matter.
"Ah, great. We're back at that damn fashion show," came Sapphire's voice from behind, snapping White out of her thoughts.
"Fantastic!" came Ruby's voice. "I can continue getting inspiration for my next Contest!"
White shook her head as she heard a loud "whack" from behind her. Sapphire probably smacked Ruby on the back of the head. The Unova Dex Holder proceeded to open the door, but stopped just before her hand reached the doorknob.
"Miss… er… Rosa, what's wrong?" Black asked. "Nervous about your third Gym Battle?"
"I'm just thinking about what I'm going to say when Elesa recognizes me," White replied. "And how I'm going to win this one."
"You'll do fine," Black assured. "And even if she notices you, she'll keep it a secret."
White took a deep breath. "Alright. Here I go!"
The four Dex Holders entered the Gym and immediately got showered with camera flashes. White put a hand over her eyes to shield them from the flashes and advanced through the fashion walkway, battling the model trainers with her Serperior and Stunfisk.
While Black followed her and cheered her on, Ruby seemingly disappeared inside the group of fashion models, taking pictures and notes for future attires and Contests. Sapphire remained standing near the entrance with her arms crossed. There was a massive screen at the end of the room and she was sure the Gym Battle would be shown there.
Before long, White reached Elesa. The Nimbasa Gym Leader squinted slightly and soon recognized her.
"Are you…" she started.
White quickly put a finger up to her lips. "Ah, don't say it," she mouthed out.
Elesa quickly caught on. "So, you have come to challenge me?"
"You can do it, Rosa!" Black said from behind, with the intention of telling Elesa the pseudonym White was using.
The Nimbasa Gym Leader nodded at him, indicating that she understood everything now. The Gym Battle soon started, and White eventually managed to win. Elesa had no intention of winning the battle, and instead, stuck with simply performing dazzling moves for show.
"Nice clothing style," Elesa said to White after the battle was over. She kept her voice low enough so that only White may hear. "Almost didn't recognize you."
"You're not going to tell anyone, right?" White asked.
"Of course not. I'm no blabbermouth like Skyla."
"Okay, good. I like what you did to your Gym," White said. "Very… unique. Same goes for… whatever you're wearing. Makes you stand out, for sure."
"Care to strike a pose?" Elesa asked.
White blushed. "Um… not really, no. I wouldn't know what to do, anyways."
"Come on, just do what I'm doing."
Elesa did a pose for the cameras as she always did on a regular basis. White hesitated, but she soon mimicked the pose. While Elesa looked natural, White looked… a bit awkward, as it was her first pose. But as Elesa moved on to different poses, White started to gain confidence. Perhaps the applause the audience was giving was more than enough for her to overcome her newly found fear of standing in front of a crowd.
Black watched White performing various poses with Elesa. She was starting to look happier as time passed, and he was really glad for that. It seemed that this Gym Battle challenge was really a good idea.
At the end of the impromptu fashion show, White put on a cute pose that was completely different from what Elesa was doing. Black smiled and applauded his friend. The girl blushed in embarrassment and quickly bowed to the audience so that she could get off the stage faster. Afterwards, she quickly thanked Elesa for the battle and got out of the spotlight.
"You did great, Rosa," Black said with a warm smile.
"Um… thanks," White said embarrassedly, her cheeks still burning red. "Oh, I think I embarrassed myself with that pose…"
"Nah, you looked wonderful!" Black said, only stopping to realize what he said after it was too late. "… Yeah."
White looked even more embarrassed as she quickly dragged Black off of the walkway and back to where Sapphire was waiting.
"Great work, Rosa," the Hoenn Dex Holder said with a smile. "I could see the battle from here."
"Y – You saw the poses too?" White asked.
"Yeah. I don't know why you did what you did, but everyone else seemed to have liked it." Sapphire stretched her arms and headed towards the walkway. "Hang on, I'll go get Ruby."
Once Sapphire dragged Ruby out of the Gym after clubbing him on the head, the two Unova Dex Holders followed their seniors. White stretched her body and took a deep breath.
"Ah, I feel great!" she said with a bright smile.
"That's good," Sapphire said with a smile. "So, where to now?"
"We should go to Driftveil City," Black said. "Miss… Rosa can challenge another Gym there and we can see the famous Driftveil Drawbridge on the way there. And there's also that newly opened Pokémon World Tournament."
White shook her head. "No. Let's avoid the PWT. Way too many people from all over the place. But Driftveil? Why not? Let's go!"
The four Dex Holders headed towards Driftveil City, but slowly so they can enjoy the sights. Normally, White would've just rushed towards the next city to decrease the likelihood of being spotted, but she was becoming more and more confident as her Gym Battle challenge progressed.
The group stopped at Driftveil Drawbridge to watch the massive bridge get raised. Ruby took pictures of it, and insisted that Sapphire be in the photos. The girl didn't like taking pictures, but complied nonetheless for the sake of being tourists.
While White challenged the Driftveil Gym, Ruby forced Black to take him to the PWT, under the belief that he may see Wallace there. Unfortunately, his master was not there. The only notable trainer he saw was a lady with really long blonde hair, using a Garchomp to thrash some poor saps in the tournament.
In the Driftveil Gym, White and Sapphire entered the structure and immediately got their flashlights confiscated. Sapphire didn't have one, but White did for emergency reasons. But still, a flashlight wasn't necessary since Sapphire was leading the "expedition" into the dark dank Gym. Apparently Sapphire's exceptional vision allowed her to see in the dark much better than anyone else.
Eventually, White reached Clay and beat him with her Serperior. On the way out, White and Sapphire were allowed to take the elevator up instead of having to explore the dark Gym relying on nothing but conveyor belts. One little slip-up and both Dex Holders might fall into the near bottomless pit that Clay dug up in order to create his Gym's gimmick.
Black and Ruby returned in time to see the two girls leave the Gym and all four Dex Holders headed up towards Mistralton City.
…
Mistralton City, 4 pm…
…
"Well, here we are at the mancannon Gym, again," Sapphire said as she stared at the Gym that looked awfully like an airport hangar.
White blinked. "Mancannons?"
Black let out a sigh. "Yeah… Mancannons. It's apparently strong enough to send you all the way to Nuvema Town. Skyla threatened me with that."
"Wouldn't that… kill you?"
"Probably. She probably aimed that cannon at a nearby river or lake. Probably. Hopefully."
"Do the mancannons… hurt?" White asked nervously.
"Yeah," Sapphire answered. "The safety mats really need work. My ass is still sore."
White shuddered a little but still entered the Gym. And inside, she spotted… a giant fan?
"Huh, no mancannons," Sapphire muttered. "So that Gym renovation was completed much faster than planned, huh?"
The giant fan activated and created hurricane-force winds that hit all four Dex Holders. Ruby and Black were sent flying out of the Gym while Sapphire and White hit the "safety mats" on the wall. The wind kept the two girls pinned onto the wall until the fan shut off… temporarily.
"Ow, my back!" White groaned as she dropped to her knees.
Sapphire put a hand on her lower back and moved her limbs to make sure they were still working. She then clenched her hand into a fist.
"Alright, bring it on!"
As White got back to her feet, Sapphire recklessly charged forward. The Unova Dex Holder ran towards the nearest wind cover just as the fan started up again. White dropped to her knees and hugged the wind cover as best as she could. Sapphire… was sent back flying once again.
White waited until the wind stopped before carefully advancing towards the nearest wind cover.
"This is crazy!" she muttered as the fan started up again.
"Tell me about it!" Sapphire said as she took cover in the same wind cover. "Damn, my ass is going to be sore for weeks after this!"
"Got any suggestions?" White asked.
"One."
"And that is?"
"CHARGE!"
The moment the wind stopped, Sapphire made a mad dash towards the end. White groaned but followed. The two female Dex Holders blindly charged forward, taking cover in every wind cover available. There were a few risks, but they managed to reach Skyla without any casualties.
"Oh, you're back," the Mistralton Gym Leader said to Sapphire. "So, how do you like the new layout?"
"I'm surprised you haven't killed anyone yet!" Sapphire said as she tried to catch her breath.
"This Gym is supposed to test aerodynamics. Those entering this Gym are agreeing to the risks." She looked over at White. "Ah, a challenger!"
"Yeah…" White muttered as she caught her breath. "Okay… let's do this!"
A few minutes later, White returned her Pokémon after another successful Gym Battle. Skyla applauded her and gave her the Jet Badge.
"Hey, wait… you're White, aren't you?" she asked abruptly.
White jumped in surprise and immediately looked around to see if anyone was nearby. Luckily, no strangers were in sight. "Don't say that name out loud!"
"Sorry. But hey, want to talk for a bit? I want to ask you a few things."
White let out a sigh but nodded. She looked over at Sapphire, who seemed to be lost in thought. "Sapphire, do you mind leaving us alone for a bit?"
"Huh? Sure."
"You could use this time to tour around Mistralton City," White suggested. "It's a beautiful city, really. I'll just meet you at the restaurant near the flight control tower. Black would know where it is."
"Alright. I'll see you there."
Once Sapphire left, White looked at Skyla with a serious expression. "Promise me you won't tell anyone about me."
Skyla nodded. "Of course. I'm not a blabbermouth like Elesa. Have you ever talked to her? No stone gets unturned. I prefer to leave everything as is."
"Yeah…"
…
30 minutes later, Black, Ruby, and Sapphire finished touring around Mistralton using their aerial transport Pokémon and landed near the flight control tower. To keep their promise to White, they headed towards the restaurant to meet her there.
"There, that's Mistralton City for you," Black said as he returned his Braviary. "Pretty quiet and calm. Except near the airport."
"Quiet, huh?" Sapphire muttered. "There was a group of people forming an angry mob over there. This place isn't as quiet after all."
"Mob, huh?" Black muttered. "I wonder what they're gathered for…"
"White, maybe?" Ruby whispered.
"I doubt that… I don't think anyone knows that Miss President is even here." Black glanced around. "Speaking of which, where is Miss President?"
"Huh? She's supposed to be waiting for us here," Ruby said as he looked around as well.
Sapphire suddenly looked serious. "… I can hear her screaming…"
"What?! Where?" Black quickly asked.
Sapphire started to run. And Black followed her as fast as he could, sincerely hoping that White was okay.
A few minutes ago, when White approached the restaurant where she was going to meet the other Dex Holders, she came across a small group of people waiting outside. The girl figured that they wouldn't have anything to do with her, so she ignored them. But unfortunately, one of them recognized her.
"Hey! That's the bitch that owns that bankrupt company! She's here to scam us out of our money again!"
White gasped in shock and tried to run when a glass bottle hit her on the head. She dropped to her knees from the impact, and in that time, the group of people kicked her down to the ground and proceeded to attack her. One stomped on her right leg while the others kicked her in the chest and stomach. White grunted in pain and tried to protect herself. The attacks became stronger and stronger and each hit almost broke her bones. She screamed in pain as the angry mob brutally beat her.
"Agh… please, please stop!" she begged in agony, but no one listened.
The beating continued for a minute before someone intervened. A former employee of the BW Agency came by and saw his former boss being beaten and tried his absolute best to put a stop to it.
White groaned in pain and wrapped her arms wherever the pain was the strongest. She managed to open her eyes and saw one of her former employees fighting the angry mob, doing his best to stall time. White sincerely thanked him and forced her badly beaten body to move. Her body wouldn't move all that quickly, but she still managed to crawl away at a moderate speed.
With the aid of a nearby bench, White managed to push herself up to her feet. She wrapped her arms around her ribs and forced herself forward. She had to find Black or any of her seniors quickly. But she didn't know where they were. So she decided to go to Skyla for help.
As White forced her bruised body towards the Mistralton Gym, more people started to gather to form angry mobs. There were even kids out there, throwing rocks at her. They didn't know who they were throwing the rocks at, but since everyone was attacking her, they'd join too. But at least most of the Mistralton population was neutral towards her. White tried her best to run away from the hailing rocks and the pursuing angry mobs.
When she got near the flight control tower in the center of Mistralton, more kids appeared in front of her, all throwing rocks. White raised her arms to protect her head as the hard rocks started to hit her all over the place. Most of the rocks missed, however, and simply shattered the windows of the flight control tower.
A fist sized rock hit White on the chest, knocking the wind out of her. She staggered backwards and another fist sized rock hit her on the shoulder, knocking her down to the ground and onto the shattered glass from the broken windows. Sharp pieces of glass were cutting into her flesh, but White couldn't pay attention to those. More rocks were being thrown at her, which were doing a lot more damage than the glass. She put her arms around her chest and tried to curl up to present a smaller target for the rocks.
Thankfully, Black, Ruby, and Sapphire arrived to save her from more agony. Sapphire's Aggron scared the kids away, allowing Black to reach White. The two Hoenn Dex Holders sent out their Pokémon in order to defend their juniors from the angry mobs.
"Miss President!" Black called as he crouched beside her.
White looked up at him with pained eyes. Tears started to well in them, partly from the pain, but mostly from the decision she made. "Black," she gasped out. "I – I'm sorry… I can't go on like this…"
"What are you saying?"
White avoided looking at Black and scanned the ground around her. She soon found a big piece of broken glass and picked it up. "Sorry, Black…" she muttered. She clenched her eyes shut and proceeded to stab herself in the heart with the shard of glass.
"Miss President, no!" Black yelled as he quickly sprung to action.
The shard of glass soon stabbed into flesh, causing blood to erupt from the wound created. White kept her eyes closed. She didn't feel the glass stabbing into her. And the pain didn't come either. She slowly opened her eyes and gasped in shock when she realized that the glass shard had stabbed Black's left arm instead of her.
Black had his teeth clenched in anger and pain. White started to tremble as she realized that she had just stabbed her friend.
"B – Black," White stammered out. "I'm so sorry…"
Without warning, Black struck White across the cheek with his good arm, causing her to yelp in pain. "Snap out of it!" he roared right afterwards. The girl kept her eyes on his as she moved her hands over her cheek. "Snap out of it!" Black yelled again as he hit White once more. She yelped once again as the anger-fueled strikes became stronger.
"I – I'm sorry!" the girl cried out.
"Do you have any idea how hard I tried to cheer you up?" Black yelled. "Do you know how much I've been worried about you?"
White physically flinched each time Black raised his voice. "I'm sorry!"
"Have you ever thought about how I'd feel if you killed yourself?" Black yelled angrily. "Why do you think I searched all over Unova for you in the first place?! Why do you think I tried to stay with you as much as possible? I saw you hang yourself in my dream and I was trying to stop that from happening! And here you are, trying to kill yourself again! How selfish are you?!"
White looked down at the ground, afraid to make eye contact with Black. She trembled even more now as she fought the urge to cry. "Please, Black… I'm sorry…"
Black struck her for the third time and was about to yell at her some more, but stopped just before he raised his voice. White had started to cry and he couldn't bring himself to yell at her again. Instead, he pulled the glass shard out of his arm and clutched the wound to stall the bleeding. He glared at White for another second before he closed his eyes and sighed.
"Black, I think it'd be best if we get out of Unova," Sapphire said as she came over.
Black opened his eyes and looked at White. The girl was currently crying with her face buried in her arms. He sighed again and put his blood-free hand on her shoulder. She flinched from the contact and froze, as if she expected him to hit her again.
"Miss President, let's get you out of here," he said relatively warmly. White still didn't move, so he patted her on the shoulder again and rose to his feet. He could see the angry mob steadily dissipating under the threat of Ruby and Sapphire's Pokémon forcing them to get back. "Do you have a suggestion?" he asked Sapphire.
"Johto's the closest region, isn't it? Let's go there," Sapphire said. "I know a really nice senior who lives in Johto. She'll help us for sure."
Black looked down at White, who still kept her face buried into her arms. "Sure, but how do we get Miss President out of here?" He thought for a few seconds but soon came up with an idea. "Wait, Skyla can get us out of here undetected! She makes routine deliveries with her cargo plane. If we can get there without being spotted, she can drop us off into another region safely!"
Sapphire crossed her arms. "But how do we get over to the Gym without being seen?" She suddenly snapped her fingers. "Ah, I got it. Hey, Ruby!"
"What?" the boy yelled back.
"Get that Castform out and hit Sandstorm!"
Ruby put on his glasses (for slight protection against sandstorms) and sent out his Castform. The Weather Pokémon triggered the sandstorm, which forced everyone in the vicinity to cover their noses and mouths and shut their eyes. Being adjusted to abnormal conditions, Sapphire could still see through the sandstorm, although not nearly as well as normal. Ruby returned his Pokémon except for the Castform and Sapphire returned her Pokémon as well. She then grabbed onto Ruby and Black, who both grabbed onto the Castform and White respectively, and the four Dex Holders began to run towards the Mistralton Gym.
Their plan worked and within 30 minutes, the four Dex Holders were in the cargo area of a cargo plane, heading towards the region of Johto. Now that they caught a moment to catch their breath, the Dex Holders began to take care of the injuries sustained.
Sapphire wrapped the bandage around Black's arm after cleaning the wound of the glass shards. While Black's wound was being treated, White simply remained seated by the opposite wall, hugging her knees together as best as she could. She refused to look at him, as the guilt of hurting him was unbearable. And at the same time, she was rather afraid to look at him. His anger frightened her. He seemed to have calmed down significantly, but she couldn't be sure.
Black tried moving his fingers of his injured arm. It hurt a bit, but at least he could move. Sapphire took Ruby's medical kit and moved on to White.
White risked a glance at her senior. Ever since Black hit her three times in a row and yelled at her, which he had never done before, her confidence at everything had been utterly shattered. She feared talking to her seniors or anyone, as she was afraid that they may have some more harsh words. Sapphire seemed to understand, as she had a warm smile on her face. She sat in front of her and offered help with treating her wounds. White slowly shook her head. Sapphire moved to sit beside her and put a hand on her shoulder.
"Hey, I know it hurts, but you have to treat those wounds sooner or later," she said warmly. "Come on, I'll help you."
Without waiting for a response, Sapphire helped White up to her feet and led her towards the end of the cargo hold, where Black and Ruby wouldn't be able to see them. White gave up in trying to voice her opinion and complied with her senior's orders.
Eventually, White and Sapphire returned to where Ruby and Black were waiting. White was now back to wearing her old attire, as her new clothes were torn and had bloodstains all over the place. And because her arms and legs were now bare, Black could see band-aids placed seemingly everywhere to deal with the small wounds caused by the hailing rocks.
White avoided looking in his direction and quietly sat down across the room. She immediately began massaging her right leg, which had been bandaged around the calf.
Ruby and Black looked at Sapphire, asking for an update. The girl put the medical kit away in Ruby's bag before answering.
"She'll be fine," she said. "Give a day or two, and her leg should be fine too."
"And you're basing this on what?" Ruby asked.
"I had worse, remember?" Sapphire asked back. "And I got back up in a day."
Black cast a glance at White before letting out a sigh. "Okay… So once we get to Johto, then what?"
"Well, we should find our Johto seniors," Ruby answered. "And by "seniors", I mean Crystal. The other two won't be of any use."
Sapphire sat beside White again to let her know that she wasn't alone. "Crystal would help out for sure. It's in her nature. Our Kanto seniors would help too! … Except Green, anyways. Red won't be of much help, but… Blue and Yellow would really be helpful." She patted White on the shoulder. "So cheer up. You're not alone. Our seniors will treat you very nicely."
Unfortunately, since the two Hoenn Dex Holders haven't contacted their seniors at all, they had no way of knowing that the Kanto and Johto Dex Holders had their own problems, with the most severe problem being the massive change that occurred within Blue, partially caused by Crystal…
There are a handful of readers who want bad things to happen to White in S-EARLY. As such, she was tortured here in SL. Under normal circumstances, I would have skipped the beating and just show Black finding White already beaten. And if I actually liked White, then I wouldn't have had the beating in there to start with, but I have no strong feelings one way or the other in regards to her, so here you go. Use this to fill your sadistic needs.
And no more pseudonyms for Black and White. It was stupid from the beginning anyways, and is a big part of the conflict created by the introduction of Rakutsu and Faitsu. Or Lack-two and Whi-two if you want to use the stupid names. Unless those official English translators give them better "names", I'm going to keep their Japanese ones of Rakutsu and Faitsu. The hell with their current English "names". One sounds like lactose and the other sounds like one of those cartoony spitting noises.
The ending was rushed so everyone could go to Kanto/Johto as soon as possible. That Platinum vs. Sapphire thing of SL has to officially start someday. So every Dex Holder will have an unwanted gathering at one point, and bam! Platinum vs. Sapphire. Better get the popcorn out. Actually, on second thought, save that popcorn. There'll be another occurrence that's more suitable.
Oh, right. Odd numbered chapter, so… time for you to pick the next segment! … Well, normally, yes. But I'm overriding that this time. No votes for you.
Alternate Lines (for mindless humor attempts!):
"Get that Ice Climber of yours out and hit Sandstorm!" Sapphire yelled.
"What, Nana?" Ruby yelled back.
"No! The other one!"
"Popo?"
"Yeah! But don't say that name out loud! It's darker than the blackest point!"
"… What?"