Chapter 4

Hilda White, now twelve-and-a-half years old, hasn't gotten much farther in her journey than she had intended. Her journey to collect the gym badges is constantly being delayed when she is being deployed on missions to stop more Team Plasma grunts from destroying the Unova region's cities. Now, Hilda is exiting the Icirrus City Gym with her seventh gym badge in her hands, and it was all thanks to Dream, who had evolved into a Flareon a few months back. Hilda was now heading to the Pokemon Center to cure any possible injuries that her Pokemon had gotten in battle, but just as she arrived at the doors, a familiar person stepped out, none other than...

Hilbert.

"Ah. I see that we meet again." Hilbert smirked, not even bothering to say something such as "Hi", or "Hello", before speaking. He was obviously "too cool" to act as childish as that. Hilbert was already thirteen at this point; a proud teenager while Hilda was still just a child. He was taking his age to his advantage, of course.

"Move over," Hilda scoffed. Throughout her journey of constantly encountering (and beating) Hilbert, she had grown too bitter to him, and lost all genuine feelings towards him. "I need to get in there, dork."

"Not until you battle me!" Hilbert replied, still smirking.

"My Pokemon are sick, you idiot." Hilda refused. "I can't fight when all of my Pokemon are near their fainting points."

"Oh, I'm sorry, are you saying that your Pokemon actually had trouble beating the ice type gym?" Hilbert laughed, snapping his fingers. "Tri and I were able to beat all their Pokemon, and I didn't have a single one of my Pokemon faint! How's that for a future Pokemon Champ?" He bragged.

"You're saying that you only used Tri in that battle?" Hilda asked.

Hilbert nodded triumphantly. "Of course! Who needs to switch out silly Pokemon when you've got one boss Pokemon to take care of all the competition for you?"

"All your other Pokemon must be incredibly weak, then." Hilda concluded, knowing her assumption was a fact.

"Then battle me." Hilbert changed the subject. "Battle me, if you think my Pokemon are so weak! Because I'm right, as always! You're always wrong, because a bitchy girl like you is ALWAYS WRONG! So there!"

"Challenge accepted," Hilda muttered, withdrawing her Pokeballs from her bag. "Let's just get this over with. Be lucky that we're near a Pokemon Center- your party will be visiting the emergency room today."

"I can't *censored word inserted here* believe this!" Hilbert threw his hands in the air, looking down at his fainted Pokemon, Tri, whom he had called out last, before his other five Pokemon were knocked out before. His strongest Pokemon, the Emboar, was defeated, and not only that, but he lost the entire battle- again.

"Cool down the language, Hilbert Black!" Hilda ordered. "You're taking a violent turn in your personality, it seems. You've grown too unfriendly to be liked anymore! How do you survive your journey, knowing that everyone hates you?" She returned her party of Pokemon, all of them still conscious and standing, to her Pokeballs.

"Everyone adores me," Hilbert said back, beginning to pointlessly flex the muscles he didn't have. Hilda just rolled her eyes, and pushed past Hilbert to enter the Pokemon Center, and came out a few minutes later with healthy Pokemon.

"That, first of all, is a lie." Hilda resumed conversation. "I remember when I used to be friends with you, Hilbert! I've known you since I was born, but- things are different now. You've changed too much for me to ever accept you. I hope you already saw this coming, because... it's over, what we have between the two of us. I'm not your friend anymore. I gave you countless chances- literally, so many that I can't count them all- and every one of them were abused. Please, Hilbert. Get a life. Stop following me, stop hitting on me, stop letting out your anger on me because you are being a selfish, jealous little brat." With that being said, she began to storm off.

Hilbert, feeling suddenly hurt, chased after her. "Hilda! Wait! I-I-I'm sorry for what I said, alright? Are you happy now? Huh? I said I'm sorry! Now get your ass back over here! Stop running away! I'm talking to you! Hilda White, stop this moment!" Despite his arrogant pleading, nothing stopped the brunette that was once his childhood friend from leaving. Soon, she was far down the streets of the snow-covered city, and far out of sight.

Hilbert felt a pain, deep down in the pit of his stomach. What was this feeling? Depression? Pity? Guilt? He never dealt with any of those said emotions; he pushed them to the side and constantly pretended to be an emotionless human being. The truth was, he was sensitive, overly emotional, and had no way to express those very feelings. Now, Hilda was gone. What was he going to do about it?

Absolutely nothing.

"I'm done," he muttered. "I'm done dreaming. I'm not ever going to be a Pokemon Champion, and I knew that all along. Heck, I'm not even a good Pokemon trainer." He went inside the Pokemon Center, and walked up to the counter at the back of the room where Nurse Joy stood behind.

"Nurse Joy?" He asked.

"Yes?" The Nurse replied in her constant, cheery mood.

"Take these, and don't give them back to me." Hilbert put his six Pokeballs on the counter. "Give them to a trainer more worthy than me. I'm done." He started to walk away, heading towards the exit.

"You're... done?" Nurse Joy repeated, confused.

Hilbert sadly nodded his head. "Yeah. I'm going home."

"Where is home, exactly?" Nurse Joy asked.

"Nuvema Town," Hilbert muttered. "Why?"

"You've come a long way," the Nurse noted, "so why are you turning back now? Seven badges, I assume? You're only one away from beating the Pokemon League, so what makes you want to give up?"

"I messed up." Was all Hilbert said.

"Everyone makes mistakes," the Nurse reminded, "and just because we make mistakes doesn't mean we give up. It means we fix them. I hope you take that into consideration, Hilbert Black. Come back and get your Pokeballs, if you change your mind."

"That's not likely," Hilbert scoffed. He left the Pokemon Center, and sat down on a bench outside of it. He put his hands in his hands, and guess what? He cried. He began crying all the tears that had been stored inside of him since he first started his Pokemon journey, two and a half years ago. If he had only apologized, way back when he and Hilda were still in Nuvema Town... their friendship could have been saved.

But now, he knew, it was too late for apologies.