Chapter 7: The Sky is Not The Limit
How does one go from chasing Team Plasma to riding a ferris wheel with the weirdest person they had ever known?
Hilbert was living this experience, and had a hard time figuring it out.
As the compartment slowly made its way to the top, Hilbert played through the events in his mind. Not much else to do; N was looking out the window like a child who was riding it the first time and Hilbert didn't dare break the silence.
Okay, chain of events. First, he entered Nimbasa City and immediately saw Team Plasma Grunts harassing an old man who turned out to be the owner of that Daycare in Route 3. He gave Hilbert a bike for driving them off, and that bike played into how Hilbert immediately went after the Grunts.
The assholes were fast, though; they ran into the amusement park. And Hilbert gave chase - because of course he did - and very nearly crashed when N seemed to have come out of nowhere.
Hilbert barely had time to fold the bike before N grabbed his hand and dragged him towards the Ferris wheel, insisting that they might find Team Plasma with a high vantage point. While the trainer had to admit that this logic was sound, he couldn't quite shake the feeling that some 'other shoe' was going to drop.
This was just too weird. Of all the times for Hilbert to bump into N, why now? Why, when Hilbert had been chasing Team Plasma? Why the Ferris wheel?!
...Ah, fuck it. Hilbert didn't want to break the silence, but he had to know. "So, N...Remind me why we're here?"
N glanced over at him, a curious expression on his face. "Did you not hear what I said before? You were looking for Team Plasma. The Ferris wheel gives you an ideal view of the area."
"Well, yeah, but this doesn't really-"
"There is something I wanted to tell you, though," N continued, basically talking over the trainer. Gah, Hilbert really needed to remember how fast this guy talked! "The Ferris wheel seemed like a good place to say it. I've never been on one, you know."
Whatever you had to say to me, you could have done it on the ground! Hilbert thought as N cleared his throat and straightened himself up. What the heck...?
"You should know that...I am the king of Team Plasma."
...
A few moments of silence passed as Hilbert processed the information. That was...quite a bomb to drop onto anyone, let alone a trainer who had been chasing them moments before.
"The king," Hilbert repeated. "As in, the leader. Of Team Plasma?"
The more he thought about it, the more ridiculous it sounded. N spoke about Pokemon like they were his friends, but supported a team that had acted like they were anything but?! Was he not aware of what they had done in the Dreamyard and to that little girl in Route 3?!
Oblivious to Hilbert's internal crisis, N nodded and looked outside the window. As he explained that Ghetsis had asked him to help save the Pokemon, Hilbert only got more and more confused. N wasn't lying. He really was the leader of Team Plasma.
For every question answered, this bombshell created about three more. Other than the whole 'talking to Pokemon' thing, was there anything particular about N that he could accomplish that this Ghetsis guy couldn't? Was that the reason he was this so-called 'king' in the first place?
How does one go from chasing Team Plasma to riding a ferris wheel with the king of Team Plasma?
Hilbert had lived that experience, and he still had no clue.
It didn't take long for Hilbert to realize that Carmen didn't like being in her PokeBall for too long. This was made very clear when she suddenly burst out of her PokeBall before they entered Route 16.
"It was feeling a little cramped, so I wanted to come out!" she explained, stretching her arms out. "There's not a lot of stretching room or sunshine in there! How do you think other Pokemon handle it? Is this one of those things that we get used to with time, or am I a special case?"
Hilbert would argue that the mere fact that she can talk would make her a special case already, but he supposed that what she was saying did make sense. Did the rest of his Pokemon feel that way about PokeBalls, or was it just Carmen?
"I...never actually thought of that," Hilbert admitted, scratching the back of his head. "With how finicky Merlot is, I'd know by now if he was ever uncomfortable in his. So I'm pretty sure he's content. But the others..."
As much as he didn't want to think of N right now, Hilbert had to admit that maybe he had a point. Normally humans couldn't understand what Pokemon were saying, but for some reason...N could. That much was clear from the get-go, now that he looked back on the day they met. Back in Accumula, Hilbert never properly introduced himself, and Cheren hadn't either...but Michelle had been talking a mile a minute. It was possible that N learned Hilbert's name through her, right?
But then...Carmen could do the same thing, couldn't she?
That's when the idea hit Hilbert: "Hey, why don't you ask them?"
"Me?" It was kind of adorable how Carmen pointed to herself and tilted her head, as if the thought hadn't occurred to her before.
Hilbert nodded and explained, "You've already told me a few things about what Jude has said to you, right? You could ask Michelle and the others what they think, and let me know if any of them are uncomfortable. That way, you can help all of us out and have all the leg room and sunshine you want!"
"I can?! I won't have to stay cramped up in there?!" Carmen's eyes seemed to be sparkling at the idea. When Hilbert nodded, she cheered. "Yaaay! I'm gonna be the bestest translator ever, Hill Bird! You can count on me!"
Carmen looked so happy, Hilbert didn't have the heart to correct her again.
It's really something how something could go so very wrong, so very quickly.
It was a simple trainer battle; Gabriel against a trainer's Herdier. Herdier had used Work Up twice, but Hilbert hadn't been too worried about that. Gabriel was a sturdy Pokemon, so he could take whatever that Herdier had in store.
Hilbert was quickly proven wrong when Herdier used Take Down.
Jay and Zero's deaths were unfortunate, but he could chalk each up to stupid luck (right?). This time, however...he made a bad call. He knew that, and that's what made this loss a little tougher to swallow than the others.
Maybe if it hadn't been a critical hit, Gabriel would still be...
...
Nah, it didn't do any good speculating. Gabriel was gone, and this was his fault. At least the Herdier's trainer helped out with laying the Timburr to rest.
It would still nag at him for a while.
Carmen had knocked out the Minccino that he encountered in Route 16.
It was a critical hit, so Hilbert couldn't get mad at her for that. But he could still be a little sour, so he sulked as he entered Lostlorn Forest with his Maractus trailing along.
To her credit, the Maractus seemed concerned. "Hill Bird? Did you wanna be friends with that Minccino?"
Hilbert scratched the back of his head. "Well...yeah. I'm not sure if you know, but I-"
"Y'don't need to tell me, Merlot already did," Carmen responded. "So now you can't catch anything else in that area?"
When Hilbert nodded, the Maractus asked, "Why don't you just find another one to catch? Cherry won't know the difference, would he?"
"Yes he would, because I'm a terrible liar," Hilbert sighed as he turned towards Carmen. "If I tried to pull that, Cheren would find out like right away and I would lose the bet."
"Are you really that bad of a liar?"
"Yeah, I am. Watch," he looked around, eventually spotting a wild Pokemon. And almost instantly, he turned a little pale.
Remember Hilbert's aversion to bugs? His luck would run out in that respect, because the Pokemon he found was a Venipede. She had just crawled out of the grass, as if trying to listen in on the conversation between Hilbert and Carmen.
A moment of silence passed before Hilbert turned to Carmen and said, "Th-That's not my first encounter. This is my, uh...second."
Hilbert was visibly tense; a stark contrast to how relaxed he always seemed. There was also a visible grimace on his face, like he tried to smile and failed miserably. Carmen blinked, and started to laugh. "You really are a terrible liar! We both know that's your first!"
Hilbert groaned as he took out the Ultra Ball. He may as well just get this over with.
Admittedly, the newly dubbed Charlotte didn't seem too bad, as far as Venipedes go. Hilbert would later find out that she was actually quite bashful (if not a little bit of a gossip). A little fighty, but that's nothing that Hilbert hasn't worked with before.
He wasn't sure how to feel about her Ability being Swarm as opposed to Poison Point, though.
As he released the last of his new friends back into the wild, N thought back to the battle in Nimbasa City.
Perhaps it wasn't a smart move to reveal his true identity to Hilbert, much less on the Ferris Wheel. He saw no other way to buy time for the Plasma Knights that Hilbert had been chasing, though. That's part of the reason why he dragged the trainer to the Ferris Wheel; so that it would be private. Nobody else would hear the conversation.
The other part was that he had always been enamored with Ferris Wheels. A whole collection of elegant formulas built into a ride meant for delighting people and Pokemon.
Speaking of Pokemon...Hilbert's had grown stronger since the last time they battled. Oshawott and Lillipup had evolved since he last saw them. Blitzle wasn't there yet, but he was certain he would get there soon. He didn't see Munna this time, which was a bit disappointing.
And Sandile was...an odd case. It was surprising that he wasn't a baby, he was so...well, N hated to use the term frail for any Pokemon, but he knew of no other word that best fit the description. Sandile's size definitely belied his strength, though. Should he be able to reach his full potential as a Krookodile, he could very well be a testament to how truly remarkable Pokemon could be!
He didn't see the sixth member of Hilbert's team in battle, which was even more disappointing than not being able to hear Munna's voice. He did overhear some of the desert Pokemon talk about how that 'loud Maractus' had recently found a trainer, so perhaps that was the mystery sixth member.
Something clicked in his mind. Dewott, Herdier, Munna, Blitzle, Sandile, and possibly a Maractus. Were they all from different locations? N knew that Hilbert had received Dewott from Professor Juniper, and he could only assume that Herdier had been caught not far from where Accumula Town was. Munna could only be found in the Dreamyard, and the same could be said for Blitzle in Route 3. So...were all his Pokemon from completely different locations...?
Wait, no. There was no way to know if Sandile was from Relic Castle, since Maractus would have to be from Desert Resort. And what's more, there was no way to know if Hilbert was the trainer that captured Maractus in the first place. Hilbert could have captured Sandile in the desert, with the Grass-type being a total outlier. Perhaps it was best to not jump to conclusions in regards to Maractus.
That still meant Hilbert's party consisted of at least five Pokemon hailing from five completely different areas.
N drew two conclusions from this: either Hilbert captured every Pokemon he could and only kept the ones he liked best, or he only captured one Pokemon per area. In any other case he would assume the former, but the way Hilbert's Pokemon seemed to genuinely love him gave him pause.
"Could he be different-?"
"My lord, is something troubling you?"
It never failed to startle N when the Shadow Triad approached, but he was good at appearing calm. A king needed to be cool under pressure and to never express vulnerability or surprise, even if it was just a surprise visit from his bodyguards.
Bodyguards that happened to be excellent at tracking people. That gave N an idea. He needed to attend to certain affairs with Team Plasma, but if he were to enlist the Shadow Triad's assistance...
"Not troubling, no...but I do require your assistance. I'd like you to keep an eye on someone for me."
New Captures
Charlotte / Venipede / Female / Bashful / Likes to thrash about / Swarm / Met in Lostlorn Forest
R.I.P
Gabriel the Timburr
lvl 14 - lvl 21